Joanne's Blog Spot!

Les Miserables

2012-01-22T16:55:00.002+08:00

I think one of the most amazing gift a person could give me is a ticket to a Les Miserables musical.

Which of course will not happen anytime soon because I doubt it'll be held in Malaysia in the near future. Haha. Or anytime in the future future.

But still, it's AMAZING. :-) :-) :-) Ask me to watch it a 100 times over and I will!

Anyway, am currently in Malacca, taking a break from my hectic, mad life I led the past few months.

Had the most stressful exams ever since STPM. Can't quite pinpoint the reason why it was so stressful, but it was. Exhausted, slept about 2-4 hours per night. By my final paper my brain was so fuzzy I couldn't see straight. I slept 12-14 hours the next few days after it.

Nevertheless, it marked the end of my Sem 1, Year 2. I'm actually a REAL year 2 uni student!! Time flies. Like the wind. (Nevermind the fact that I'm graduating later than most of my friends who didn't do form 6/entered private unis.) But I'm happy to be in UM!

Oh, and I never wrote a birthday/end year/new year note this year. Time just flew, was so caught up with exams and life. Oh well, there goes some ancient tradition!

I wanna join a gym! Haha. Suddenly feel the need to work out and to lead a healthier life. No more exercise-less, sedentary lifestyle for me. I used to use the lame excuse of climbing up many flights of stairs in uni but that's hardly exercise la.

Joash is back in KL entertaining his parents now.. and being my housekeeper/plant waterer. Lol!

Still debating whether to take 18 or 21 credit hours next sem.

Am worried 21 credit hours is too heavy for me, on top of my tuition classes (I give tuition 4-5 times a week).

But 18 credit hours means I'm limiting my uni experience and stifling the education I should be getting. Haha. Knowledge is power. Really, it is. Call me a geek if you will but I've picked up so very many skills in uni I won't trade it for anything else in the world.

But how.

I'll decide later.

Oh, I actually performed on a fantastic stage last week together with my sayang, his bro - both guitarists, Elaine - dancer and Tien Mie - pianist! Hahaha. 'Twas awesome. For my Muzik Dalam Teater uni course. Tell me as a kid that I'll actually have the courage to do it and I'll tell you to eat your own shoes up. Hahaha. But turned out it was no big deal, I wasn't even nervous! Me, speaking over the mic in a huge theatre. ALONE. The rest were performers. :-) Truly a remarkable experience for each of us although we had a very small audience to watch us.

Oh, I brought fireworks to Joash's workshop on Friday night and watched the grown men play with it! LOL. That was funny, all these big burly men running in fear after they lit their fireworks. =P Too innocent though, the ones I brought. Haven't played in so many years that I realised what seemed dangerous as kids are now just little things exploding. It was fun though. I did buy one that the man warned me would be "very3 loud" and actually didn't want me to buy it (me being me stubbornly bought it, telling the man that "men, not boys" would be playing it), even Joash's guys took one look at it and claimed it would "bergempar" so they didn't play it. And because I trust their opinion on this I'm rather reluctant about lighting this particular "bomb" in Malacca. How bad is bad??

Anyway, I'm on an extremely tight budget now. Haha. No budget, actually. Somehow finished up all my money/put away some in long-term savings and next thing I know, my purse is empty. :-( But I went shopping with bro earlier today and he paid for my CNY clothings! :-D Haha, good thing my bro's one of the very rare guys who shops willingly. =) If he hadn't gone with me and patiently waited for me to choose them I wouldn't have bought any new clothes!

Waiting for next JPA/next pay soon... won't be earning too much next month, didn't write articles and gave less tuition due to exams...

Haha I sound pathetic! Nah I'm ok!

Anyway, Happy Chinese New Year!!! Gong Xi Fa Chai! (Erm, I think that means Happy New Year. I think.)

Fireworks tonight! ;-)

Ok, enough rambling.

God bless!
Jo

I can vote! =D

2012-01-13T02:45:00.003+08:00

Haha, had a wonderful 21st birthday today, after the toughest exam paper of my life. :-)

Had lunch with Yan and Elaine, 'twas a good catching up session. :)

Had a wonderful romantic candle-light dinner in a fine dining restaurant with Joash! =D

And we talked about marriage. =P

No la, not proposing. Just talking!

Then Joel Low brought a cake when we reached home. :-)

Had a good, close-knit celebration. No big big ado for me, thank you very much! :-) Although I think that's happening tomorrow... *paces around worriedly*

Received a lovely pendant from bro and... an anklet with my keys to freedom from mom! Haha! Pretty rare to receive birthday presents from my family, so I'm pleasantly surprised. :-)

Received a birthday card by Pos Express from the Low parents! Haha, such sweet characters, they are. :-) No wonder they got such a wonderful son! (Ooh, Andrea I'm sorry. Too sappy! :D)

The ayang has gotten such a complicated gift it can only be given this weekend. haha!

Anyhow, the gifts aren't important, it was the thought and effort and time and love put into all these that I really appreciate. :-)

Next thing: Register as voter! CP wanted to do it with me this afternoon but I was exhausted and had to rush somewhere with mom in the afternoon.

=D

Sleep first, been sleep-deprived the past few days due to tough papers + diarrhoea.

Have a great day!

God bless,
Jo

"You used to get much higher than this."

2012-01-10T22:30:00.002+08:00

Shucks.

Went to see my lecturer today about feedback for my assignment.

I'll need near perfect marks for my 3 essays tomorrow if I want to dream of an A.

And this is for the EASIER paper. Thursday is my tougher one.

:(

Sungha Jung

2012-01-10T04:10:00.005+08:00

Been following this brilliant fingerstyle guitarist ever since his first few early videos when he was a tiny lil' kid.

Guns N' Roses - Sweet Child O'Mine - Check out the brilliant guitar slapping at 2:10 onwards!

Yiruma - River Flows in You

Haha, I can only dream of playing like that.

I used to comfort myself by saying that he was an ACOUSTIC fingerstylist, and as a classical guitarist I'm different.

...

Until I mustered the courage to google up Sungha Jung - Classical Guitar. -___-

Cavatina (My grade 8 exam piece!)

Antonio Banderas - Cancion Del Mariachi

Hahaha.

Where does talent like that come from??

A better question would be:

Why am I online at 4.24am, and why am I watching Youtube when I've got killer papers on this week??

Hehe. Destress jap la! =P

I'm gonna start giving BM tuition soon! *Frantically scrambles to dig into her BM lexical thingamajig* Per..-an, memperdalamkan, memperdalam, tambahan pula - tidak sama dengan selain itu, hal ini demikian kerana BETUL.. hal ini SALAH... shucks. I daresay all these complicated rules will return to me quickly enough because of my linguistic classes now. I hope! Used to have wonderfully excellent BM teachers who gave me As and A1s in BM papers although I had COMPLETELY NO EXPOSURE to BM apart from them. Heck, I even considered taking STPM BM. But decided on History instead. Haha. My Malay friends had worse BM than me and some spoke & wrote better English than me! And many of my Malay teachers spoke English. Hmm. Welcome to Little Britain.

Tingkatan 3 je.. ape susah sgt? *cross fingers* This parent practically pleaded with me to rescue her child from the very depths of I-dunno-what so I couldn't very well say no.. besides, how hard can PMR be? Colouring contest, right? RIGHT??? That's what CP says all the time! I sincerely hope so..

4.41am. Adios!

Random...

2012-01-10T01:06:00.003+08:00

I remember when it was time to select our IPTA's and courses we wanted..

I filled it in and left it alone, waiting for the deadline to see if I changed my mind. We were allowed to change our choices 3 times...

Hahahaha. Wai Yan and I filled ours in and then abandoned till the deadline.

Or should I say 'deadline'?

Cause when we accessed it on the 'deadline'.. we discovered we had gotten our deadline wrong, and it was in actual fact PAST the deadline! =O Haha, I forgot what the deadline was, but it was something like we thought it was the 31stm, and it was actually on the 30th.

I think a big risk when I filled mine in. I knew I only wanted English Literature in UM. The only other place I would have considered English Literature was in USM (matter of fact, only 2 unis I would have considered for anything - UM & USM) but when it boils down to language, UM is better known for its language courses. Anyhow, at that point of time my mind was focused on staying around home, rather short-term thinking but I did what my heart told me to. :-) Seeing USM had a different application process altogether, I didn't even bother applying for it because the rumour says that if we get USM and reject it, we'll be thrown around any other unis. Rumours that my seniors apparently claimed to be true cause they rejected USM 'for fun' as they knew they were already headed to NUS/overseas/private.

Anyway, when I filled in my courses, I didn't put courses that would require interviews - Law, TESL, & English Linguistics. Although technically, these were my 2nd, 3rd, and 4th choices. Haha. But as they say, if they call you for the interview and you pass, it'll automatically over-ride your top choice.

I filled in courses I don't even remember.. haha... erm... Bahasa Melayu?? Anthropology?? Something like that la. WEIRD choices that if I had gotten I would have straight away rejected and entered private straightaway.

But anyhow, I got the course I wanted (with 5 A's they had better give it to me, after my hellish STPM experience!) and I'm happy where I am now (as you faithful blog followers-whoever you may be-know). :-)

And I'm happy with Joash!

Haha, so random. But hey, it's a random post that I decided upon after I saw some Facebook statuses about IPTA applications. =D

God is good.

Have a wonderful day ahead of you!

*Still in disbelief that I'm having a horrible paper on my 21st birthday*

Oh well.

God bless!
Jo

:-)

2012-01-05T00:43:00.003+08:00

Started English class with 2 young kids today, was astounded with their sharp minds in grasping the lesson so quickly!

I think that's the true joy in educating: Giving people wings to soar, not crutches to handicap them.

Of course, the extra income helps A LOT because my guitar fees just went up by a lot.. started grade 8! Hopefully can finish it by the time I graduate.. haha. I adore my classical guitar :-) Although I still have horrible timing (which is why I attempted to take up drums, it did help me a bit though, I can actually feel some rhythm now)..

My guitar teacher thinks I can teach guitar someday. Lol! That will be fun but not in the near future la. Still a lot to learn.

The whole idea of passing on knowledge fascinates me aplenty. To pass on skills to someone else.. the satisfaction gained.. Even last time when I did some small-time coaching in badminton, just passing on simple footwork to beginners..

Yeah, I think I'm destined to be an educator. Haha.

Teach WHAT, though?

Hmm..

Back to the books!

God bless,
Jo

....

2011-12-31T02:40:00.002+08:00

Had class until 1 am last night.

Yes, 1 am.

-___-

Needless to say, lecturer considered it compulsory that we attended this class (watching a full-dress rehearsal), and oh boy was it complete torture. Ok, it was fun, at first. But by 11.30pm when it was only 50% through with its rehearsal...

Anyway, had a wonderful, much needed break in Kuantan, and I really enjoyed the bonding with the other Lows, both parents and brother. Not to mention a couple of really fun church members. Haha!

Did some PKV work last couple of days, simple handing in stuff. Did a lot of smiling and soft-talking to make my life in HEP easier over the next year. Zzz.

Went to Joash's workshop few hours ago to see him... and to solicit his bro's help for my project. It worked :-) Thank God for generous gifted musicians!

Attempted to learn drums from the expert but he proved to be a fantastic drummer with too little patience for noobs like me..! Guess my (lack of) drum skills shall remain that way for life unless some church people agree to teach me.. haha...

Got two new cute students for tuition! Well I assume they are cute because they're young. =P

Exhausted, think it's off to bed for me now.

God bless ya,
Jo

Home Away From Home!

2011-12-25T18:46:00.001+08:00

Haha, having a nice relaxing holiday in Kuantan now!

And for once you'll see photos... Trying to blog from my iPhone so may as well attach photos. But I don't know how to arrange them... Hmm, you guess what I'm talking about for each pic k :P

Muh lovely cosy little room, courtesy of the Lows! Woke up this morning to my presents from the Low parents... Cute backpack, lovely notebook and pretty pencil holder :-)) peeked into the men's bedroom and saw Joash sleeping with a present next to him!!! Hahaha, talk about cute parents.

Attended service, Sayang got to play his beloved drums for worship! Haha :) as papa Low says, he hasn't lost his touch :) joined them for lunch, the church booked 2 tables and we had sooo much food, 9 course lunch, see the pig trotter??

Oh, and that's my man!

Had a humongous dinner last night, turkey! Western dinner but eastern method of eating... We all used hands LOL. Fusion, I call it. 6 of us but still sooo much left over; really really big turkey.

Hmm, what else? Having a good break, after 14 hectic weeks I need it. And so does Joash! We'll be shopping and beaching soon :)

Ok, that's all, have a very wunnerful Christmas, ho ho ho!!!

God bless,
Jo

Elllo! :-)

2011-12-21T04:22:00.001+08:00

My sleep pattern has been extremely messed up!

What's new, right? Haha. Week 14, crunch time!

Actually, the assignments I'm rushing are only due next week, but I wanna spend a nice happy holiday in Kuantan worry-free, so now gotta rush!

Only left with English assignments, Asia Tenggara ones handed in last week... Done with one, but am rather stuck with the other.. Just feel totally uninspired. Sigh.

I finally got my iPhone 4S!!! :-)

Had a late class that night, ended 10pm, so reached Bangsar Shopping Centre only at 12am...

Queued up until...

5am.

Yes, 5 freaking hours.

By the 2nd hour I felt like giving up, but only persevered on because I already wasted my 2 hours waiting.

But anyway, after a long horrendous wait, I got it!!!

And for that I gotta thank my *ahem* Mr. Joash Low! ;-) For his perseverance and sacrifice and waiting with me although he was visibly exhausted and had so much work to do and... WITHOUT COMPLAINING! =) Now that's true husband material. Haha! I belanja-ed him a hearty meal in Kenny Roger's and a good movie on Sunday for his wonderfulness. =P

Ok la, I'm not that shallow. haha. Our relationship is beyond just seeing what we do for each other, that was just a grateful post. =D Anyway...

Things have been good, good good good :-)

Despite my busy life, his busy life, things have been wonderful. :-) At this time of the year last year I was in Australia... calling him everyday. Hehe. Things were already very stable back then, it's even stabler now! =)

And it'll be even stabler in the future :-)

As compared to back then, we now see each other once a week.. sometimes twice. Partly the distance (he used to stay fairly nearby) and also his business (and my business). Lol! But if anything the infrequentness of our dates have only served to strengthen our relationship.

Ok, Andrea's gonna say my blog's all lovey dovey so I shall stop it here. =P

Looking forward to Christmas in Kuantan! With the lovely Low family! ;-)

LOOK AT THE TIME!!

God bless,
Jo

Exhaustion

2011-12-11T01:30:00.002+08:00

Had an exhaustive but rather satisfying week. My team won the silver medal in SUKMUM, and I won all my games throughout the week. Was exhausting to keep playing but hey, it was just one game a day and long-needed exercise. I've stopped exercising for so long now... gotta get back on track for my health's sake.

Been busy busy busy with assignments, I've been abusing my body to the extent of waking up with a stomachache most mornings... but I believe that badminton helped me to stay awake longer, I found that I could stay awake for much longer each night after a game. Well, doesn't research prove that exercising helps you to avoid exhaustion? Haha.

Rushing an assignment now, today had a dayful of social commitments and listening to a couple of friends' problems...

It's been a good day. :-)

God bless,

Memory Failure

2011-12-02T22:06:00.004+08:00

Grade 6 classical guitar exam was today...

I was hoping to get a merit/distinction...

Didn't count on a memory failure. (I memorised all my pieces.) 2nd piece I just plain DIED, and didn't think of looking at the book until my 6th and final attempt (examiner was kind enough to let me try 6 times!). According to my teacher I got 5/20 for that piece... which is more than I deserve I suppose, once I started playing it went as well as any disastrous attempt could, but it was too late, I'd already had 5 failed attempts at starting. Just couldn't get past my 2nd bar! :'-(

Anyway, I think I passed, I THINK I passed, my teacher isn't telling me, but I really hope I did... All that hard work and it's just boiling down to a mere pass/fail. SIGH. Really disappointed myself and my teacher... he was counting on me to do well, told me he'd jump off the building if I failed. hahahahaha. Guess he didn't know I would have a memory lapse.

Hopefully my other sections pulled me up la... hopefully... scales did quite well... 13/15.

Hahaha. Anyway, just releasing some disappointment, am feeling much better already... thanks to my sayang and my mum... :-)

Never knew music, of all things! would become so important to me, I never gave 2 hoots about piano exams before this. Zzz. Haha. Guess that's because I was never so well-prepared and ready for an exam before this...

Maybe because I now pay for the monthly fees with my own money and paid the freaking expensive guitar exam fees on my own.

Or maybe because I fell in love with the classical guitar and feel disappointed with my dismal performance...

Whatever it is, a near-death incident occurred right over my exam, and that was an extremely shocking reminder to me that in whatever situations we think we're stuck in, there are worse situations that COULD happen. Suffice to say, I nearly fell a one whole storey down onto concrete........ *still in complete, utter disbelief*

Anyway, Joash had a rough day too, A LOT rougher than mine, gotta be strong for each other... =)

Have a better day than us!

Twilight 2011

2011-11-30T11:01:00.004+08:00

Vegetarian vampires, love-struck lovers, cheesy love lines, wolves vs. vampires...

Went to watch this show with Joash because he wante-... erm, I mean, because he thinks I wanted to watch it. =P

Haha, I'm not an avid fan of Twilight really, as bro puts it, "It is an inherently female show". LOL. Not that I'm not a female or anything like that, but I just never fell head-over-heels in love with those "cute" vampires.

Ok la, I much prefer Taylor Lautner, he didn't release the not-so-good vibes that I felt Robin Pattinson constantly gave out with his sleepy eyes. But Joash called Lautner a non-PC term so I won't type it here . =P

Anyway, it wasn't all that horrible a movie, a movie is still a movie after all, it made it to the big screen!

Ok I shall quit writing reviews... been writing so many articles for a magazine my mind's kinda set on reviews di. Hahaha.

Final 4 weeks of semester, if there ever had been a time to push, it's NOW! =) Been surviving on 5-6 hours of sleep per day, tests and assignments, not to mention guitar exam. =) *Itchified and can't wait to start grade 8*

MMmm. And I finally agreed to be the secretary of PKV despite my stubborn decision from few months ago not to remain in the committee. Hahaha. Up to last week I confidently told my committee I would not be remaining in it. But oh well, things happened and I just did what I had to do. Hopefully this saying: "Be faithful to Me and I will be faithful to you" rings true over the next year...

I'll be spending Christmas in Kuantan! =D Now that's something to look forward too. Uncle George said he'll be glad to pass on "wild boar technology" to me LOL.

A few days ago the radio said "It's never too late to start caring about your health." I wholehearted DISAGREE. Choices we make today affect our tomorrows. People with unhealthy eating habits end up with heart diseases, diabetes, cancer, high cholesterol, high blood pressure... and all these require treatment for life (which you may not have much time left anyway). I have seen so many people lose their father, husband, brother, son to these diseases... yeah, it's usually the men who go first, most care nothing at all for their health. Haha. I honestly wouldn't care too if I didn't have loved ones around me, but I do, and I don't want to break their hearts by forcing them to take care of me if these diseases ever struck me. No guarantees that they won't, but I guess all I can do is prevent them for as long as I can.

Ok, random few paragraphs, guess you can call it a verbal diarrhoea. =P

Have a good day,

Joanne

New Student!!

2011-11-23T23:15:00.004+08:00

Am getting a new student to tutor this Friday! =)

Maybe I should just enter the tuition line la. It's so enjoyable... and it gives me pocket money to enjoy!

But I enjoy writing too... my article got published in a magazine this month! =P

And I'm still trying to get 4.00 -__- in the midst of all my hectic life. Fat chance la Joanne.

Haha.

Maybe that's exactly what lecturing in the future will allow me to do - to teach and to publish. :-) Am learning how to be a "Yesman" from Joash! =P

Oh well, one step at a time.

For now, life is about:

#1. Loving God.

#2. Loving Joash and my family. =)

#3. Grade 6 guitar exam Dec 2!!!

#4. Assignments

#5. Giving tuition

Mmmm.

Oh. And I'm back on the UM badminton team. Hahaha. Can't seem to run far from them, they keep lacking players. Have a tournament on Dec 3rd... why did I join the team ahh?? Cause I wanted exercise... the commitment isn't much, I go for training only when I can (precisely why I've not attended a single training this semester LOL) and I'll need it for scholarship purposes in the future... representing a top uni in Msia would sound good, no? No idea la. But I think it'll help.

Ok, am off now!

*High on work*

God bless,

Amazing Grace

2011-11-18T18:15:00.001+08:00

First heard this song when I was a mere 7 year old kid, during my eldest brother's funeral. (The previous funerals I attended were Buddhist/Taoist relatives so to suddenly attend a Christian service left such a deep impact on me even as a young kid. And of course, the fact that this time I had not lost a grandparent/uncle/cousin, but my very own brother. 'Twas also the first time ever I saw my dad cry... no young kid should ever see their parents cry... mmm in my personal opinion. 'Tis horrible, to know your strong pillars in life aren't as solidly strong and all powerful as young kids need them to be.)

This song touched my heart back then, and later on as I grew up I learned that this was a "funeral" song. Each time I hear it however, my memories drift back to koko Jeremy's funeral...

This video was shared by a friend on my FB wall, I wanted to share it here. If you wanna skip all the talk (if you have the time, listen to him though) and listen to this powerful rendition of this amazing song, skip straightaway to 5:00.

I've been having hectic days/weeks lately, very early mornings, lasting till late evenings, coming home and catching up on even more work, sleeping the moment my head touches the pillow each night and detesting the sound of the alarm each morning. My only highlight of the day is probably the phone call to Joash before I kong out for the day. Hehe. :-) We're both working for our future me guess... oh, I'm now writing features for a magazine, firstly because it's good money, and secondly because I want the experience. Haha. My learning curve is STEEP! By my 3rd time writing for them, the editor expects me to "know the style by now". Hahaha. Talk about pressure. But it's good, really good. Extra pressure, but I don't wanna quit now, I'll regret it.

Between handling assignments, classes (I've had perfect attendance thus far!! =D It's a record!! Because my classes are so much tougher now, don't know what's going on in 3 classes :( ), tuition and writing articles, I've got my hands full. Haha. But I don't wanna quit tuition and articles because both give me experiences I can't gain elsewhere, and best be learned when I'm still young! And of course, the extra money means I can spend more (I bought a superchun MP3 for my sayang! And also bought him and bro external iPhone battery cases, them lucky people. =D) and save more! I actually have savings now, last time I lived on JPA alone so it wasn't fun. :( Haha.

Of course, the extra work also means I have less time to shop... so I earn more, save more. Hahaha. Right.

Oh, not forgetting my upcoming grade 6 classical guitar exam. My teacher is already talking about grade 8. -__- He told me if I manage my time well, I could very well complete grade 8 in 2 years time, or at least before I graduate. Hehe. Guess what that means??

Another hectic couple of years ahead of me!

SUKMUM/Inter-college badminton competition also coming up, I'm representing 11th college! Hahaha. As a "pemain import".

Enough blabbering, me off to work, enjoy the video!

God bless,

=D

2011-11-08T01:41:00.002+08:00

Played badminton with my man today! =D

Hahaha, unbelievable, eh? We've known each other for eons now but I've never once played badminton with him! ;-) He's good for a rugby SUKMA player... hehehe...

On a one week break now...

I'll be spending Christmas in Kuantan! =D Now that's something to look forward to. :-) :-) :-)

On a one week 'break' now, time to try to utilise all the remaining time I have left to finish up assignments!

Another 6 weeks of classes... *takes a deep breath*

Have a wonderful week ahead of you!

God bless,

Dear Dad,

2011-11-06T00:49:00.002+08:00

Happy birthday! You're 56 this year.. =)

Hope you're happy where you are, gotta be better than here, right?? Pleaseee tell me I'm right, it had better be better!

I've been busy busy busy, last week I went home late evening everyday, even 10.45pm on Thursday night! Not dating la, had late classes. It's a wonder I'm surviving, eh?? Friday was supposed to be my 'free-er' day but my alarm failed me and I ended up rushing and driving like I owned Sepang F1 on that day. Oh well. Assignments are piling up (in your time you had no assignments!!), but I'm pulling through, somehow. I've got a week's 'break' to catch up on all my work... I'll survive, I will, I will. :-) *fingers crossed*

Again, happy birthday my dear daddy! We're all coping well here, Joash is my strong man. ;-)

My guitar exam date is finally nearly confirmed... I found one of your Carcassi's classical guitar study books... wish I had the interest in classical guitar when you were around, you would have been a wonderful wealth of knowledge to dig through.

Oh, do look out for grandma now, k? She's alone now... I wish I could help her out more but my hands have more than enough to handle here, one of the things about staying home when in uni is that I've got to juggle family issues, household issues, and uni issues all together. Matter of fact, I think our internet and phone line could get cut anytime soon, I've been too busy to even think about paying them. My phone line got cut that day :-( and mum's line too, it just slipped my mind to pay up.

Wish I could write you a better birthday note but my mind's all muddled up now, so you just have a good birthday, k?? We all still miss you very very very much, but we'll survive.

Take care,

Your dearest daughter

Christi...

2011-10-25T21:59:00.002+08:00

Last week I was catching up with an old friend (Vic, one of my friends in lower secondary days whom I think I blogged plenty about in those days) and a couple of new friends.

Out of curiosity I brought up the idea of Christianity, because I remember this particular friend had so very many questions about God in our younger days. (And leaving us young 'uns to answer to such deep concepts wasn't exactly the wisest thing to do.)

Of course, 'twas hardly a surprise to me when she proudly proclaimed to be an agnostic (in other words, a more intelligent version of her younger days of wondering if there was a god). Haha. We talked about various types of beliefs for a bit (no, I'm not one to shove doctrine down your throat, I've learnt the hard way that it FAILS, big time.) and it was a pretty enlightening chat. What struck a chord in me was her friend. She laughingly gestured to her friend and said, "He was actually in the CF committee last time!!!" to which he quickly shut her up and covered up for the piece of rather embarrassing info with vulgarities. And we talked about others who 'used to' be active in various CFs... mostly past tense, however.

What was the most disturbing (for me) was a guy they brought up. He seemed like a character I wouldn't want to know (because he was a bully, and brought bullying into university level. Obviously he never outgrew his sick desire to make others feel pathetic.)... but according to his friends, this particular guy was actually a FOUNDER of a school CF in his secondary school days.

Which was pretty surprising to me. I've served in CFs so long, I know how tiring and horrible an experience it must be to go against all the rules, regulations and authorities in order to start up a school CF. It takes faith SO STRONG I myself can't imagine it. But that was history, for that guy. Now that triumphant victory for the KOG would be another piece of 'embarrassing info' for him.

And that's just so discouraging and saddening to hear about.

Still, that's life. I keep looking back at stories like these... and wonder if my turn will arrive... To be so passionate for Christ at one point of life, and to lose faith in it all later on..

I've had my dry spells I admit, but thank God for closer Christian friends who are sharp enough to spot it and to keep me going. :-) It's at times like these that I remember why God created a COMMUNITY for us. He knows we can't survive alone. But anyway, it's something we should all ponder upon, eh?

(And I'm ok, no need to bombard me with "Are you ok!!!" questions. =P Just giving a voice to my thoughts.)

Yesterday I had an awesome birthday dinner with my wonderful coursemates. Hehe. 'Twas good to just sit back and relax with them, haven't done that in such a long time! To another fantastic 2.5 years with you peeps! =)

After that I met up with my PKVians in Desa Park City, and that was awesome too. Hehe. Putting aside all worries and thoughts about life, responsibilities etc, just hanging out with them. Haha. After making each person giddy on the funny equipments, we sat down and had a singing session! The songs ranged from love songs to Christmas carols to I don't know what other songs.

And today I spent my afternoon with my dear man, who works so hard I think he needs a break from life. Followed him to MMU! Hehehe. Ate Arab food with him... *deciding if that was lunch or dinner* Was good food, and he thanked me profusely for belanja-ing him! =P Left him later in the evening so he could continue working.. <3

And that's about all, have a good day k!

God bless,

(Eh, if I become like one of those people I mentioned I'll stop typing 'God bless'! -__-)

Updates Updates

2011-10-21T00:38:00.004+08:00

Hey hey, I've neglected my blog for a pretty long time..

Poor fella.

Anyway, what's been going on...

I've been meaning to, but just never got around it.

RIP Grandpa.

Dad's dad. He passed away on the 23rd of September, around 2pm. Mum and bro went back to Malacca first, and I went back with Joash after his exam paper the next day.

For those of you who didn't know, I'd been going back to Malacca more frequently before he passed away because he was very weak (which accounted for my exhausting first few weeks of lectures, weekends spent in Malacca), and I decided that making amends with that side of the family was a must. Enough of cold shoulders and silence between us, life's short enough that we can't keep doing that. People seemed rather apologetic on that side, though nothing can alleviate what they threw onto us, a family who'd just lost a husband and a father.

I'm blogging in a rather cryptic manner, aren't I. Oh well.

Anyway, granddad passed away peacefully, and the few weeks prior to his passing he'd been gradually getting weaker, and his state so much reminded me of dad in HIS last days it was quite, quite painful to endure. At least grandpa left in a much less painful manner... And I had a good chat with him the last time I visited him. (I did think of visiting him the week before he passed away but I never did, I should have... but. Oh well. I didn't, and that's that.)

Grandma, poor ol' grandma... I could only put my arm around her tiny frame as she sobbed her eyes out.. death, such a painful thing... death... life... death....

I remember what someone told me. And I've probably blogged it before. But just gotta repeat it. "We're not afraid of dying because we know where we're heading. But we live healthily because we care and love those who will be left behind, how they will hurt and suffer if we die." (This lady gestured to her young daughter as she said it.) Well, maybe it wasn't said in those exact words, but that's the gist of it. And each time I reflect back on those words, I wish everyone had the same unselfish love for others as this woman had. So many people today live for themselves... I suppose I've seen so so many people wail, despair and sob their eyes out (and I myself having endured all sorts of terrible pain) when their loved ones die... I simply don't understand how people can still be selfish.

During a poem discussion in class sometime ago, my lecturer asked if any of us had seen a grown man cry. She called it an "unnatural" and some other words along that line. I bitterly smiled as I had flashbacks of how many grown men I've seen cry. From young, working men to old, white-haired retired Datuks. And no, I don't think any less of men who cry. Life's a huge ball of sorrow at times, and only a stone-heart would keep tears in check.

Was supposed to blog more, but after typing all these my mind's gone all confuddled so I'm afraid I can't go on.. haha.

Anyway, really, life's good, just busy busy busy. And I've decided to make a comeback to badminton... haha... been away far too long, it's been tingling my nerves. The UM badminton captain asked me to train with the team... after declining for 2 whole semesters, I've decided to shove all cowardice aside, and join them. Hahaha. *Prepared to be the weakest player on the team* There are national back-up players on the team! -__-

Which is why I'm forcing CP to play badminton with me this weekend, I need to get a feel of the racquet after centuries of not playing! If I'm gonna embarrass myself on court alongside national players, I'm gonna do it in style! =P

Anyway, tired now,

God bless,

Sexaaay

2011-09-30T23:08:00.007+08:00

SX Acoustic Guitar Traveller TG1

My dearest man bought this for me on the 28th of September 2011! =D (It comes with the gig bag tailored to its size!)

Haha I gave the date because we celebrated our one year of dating! Yep, it's been that fast, time flies. Ok la, not exactly 28 Sep, I don't remember the exact date of the first date... and I doubt Joash remembers either. LOL. Guess we didn't bother remembering because we both didn't want to get our hopes to high for fear of hurting our hearts.

But one year down the road, and we're doing well. :-) Extremely well, really. =)

Say hello to... *no name yet* Hmm... Sexy, perhaps?

Haha! It's the cutest nicest guitar I've ever had and held! =D It's super cute, 580mm =D Next to jumbo-sized guitars this is like a baby.

Yeah, I'm a sucker for cute things.

All thanks to Mr. Joash Low who took time off from work, drove all the way to PJ Old Town and found this shop which looked like a store room.. but contained a gem inside. ;-)

Bro (who doesn't give 2 hoots about music) took a look at this guitar and asked, "What in the world is that!" :-) It's THAT cute. =P

Now if I only I can learn to strum properly...

That's why I'm learning Elementary Guitar as my co-curricular subject!

Hehe. It's been pretty useful thus far, I hope I have half-decent strumming by the end of this sem.

People say as a classical guitar player I should be able to strum since it's easier. Er... I dunno why la, cannot.. my guitar teacher taught me the 'universal strumming pattern' long ago but that's about the only strum I know, I seem retarded when it comes to improvising. :(

But ANYWAY, that's beside the point. The point is, I have the world's cutest guitar thanks to my love!

It's been a wonderful one year, I've learnt a lot about loving in this one year... =) And many more years to come, eh? ;-)

Till the next inspiring post,

Pengsan

2011-09-22T23:07:00.003+08:00

And this week has ended....

And I'm still alive!!!!

Barely. LOL.

I have walked and climbed so many many many flights of stairs the past few days that I think I've lost some weight!

Been sleeping 4-5 hours each night since Saturday night! And NO TIME for any afternoon naps. Monday-Thursday been waking up at 7.30am (I overslept on Tuesday though LOL most important day, 8.15am) and staying in campus till 8pm.. yesterday 11.30pm! Cause of our PKV's MSK (Malam Suai Kenal).

By this morning, when I dragged this wretched body up, it was so so so exhausted, but it felt like a broken-in horse. There was no more fight within to sleep, it just wearily KNEW that it HAD to get up and get on with life, no arguments, no compromises. Hahaha.

Only thing that kept me going was the fact that it would end soon! =D

A few nights ago I was so so so discouraged and tired and weary and stressed-out I felt like the world should have just ended. (Not to mention that Joash's line got cut due to Celcom's big blunder so there wasn't much he could do from where he was.) Thank God for a God-sent friend, Grace! She attempted to alleviate all my suicidal thoughts.. I wanted to resign from life that night. LOL. (My family didn't help much either, they added to my stress by nagging. Zzz.) Later on I attributed it to PMS because I finally thought I should WRITE down all the things which were stressing me out... and found the paper blank. Hahaha. -__-

I was in charge of PKV booth the past few days, it's about promoting PKV to campus students. And I had to be there to set things up each morning, and then pack things up. And to ensure that the booth had attendants there all the time, 9am-5pm. And today I had to find people to send to some nonsensical ceramah, all societies had to send people. I couldn't make it, but I managed to find some willing victims =D

Anyway, what really lifted my rather discouraged self was the number of first years who attended last night's MSK. I looked at the crowd and marveled at the fact that we didn't even have enough chairs! It just reminded me that all my work of going back and forth to HEP (Hal Ehwal Pelajar) in UM during the holidays and after the holidays to get paperwork settled was worth it. :-) It was a satisfactory feeling, and I'm very very glad to have met so many juniors (who were so so lost and were attempting to find people who could help them get their bearings right in UM).

And of course, church. So many of them were looking for churches to attend, having left their home churches back in their respective hometowns. Nothing more encouraging than to see young people these days eagerly looking for churches to attend...

So I think, despite everything that ever discouraged me, despite people around me who have discouraged and perhaps even affected my faith with their cynical point of views...

Lately I've been finding my old self again, the days before I hardened my heart. And it has been a gentle reminder of who I need to become again. Last Sunday I was realized the need to love others unceasingly, to love even if it hurts/inconveniences me. Because that's exactly the kind of love Christ had for us. No more selfish love, giving as much as I receive.

The past few days has been a fresh boost of encouragement + energy and reminds me that everything I do does not equal to nothing, and that I am still running the race, albeit in an exhausted manner due to circumstances. Running the race is mostly a very lonely journey, usually with discouragement/sneers/scorn instead of cheers from people around me. (I'm a 'good girl' and 'goody-two-shoes' and whatever other goody goody term you can find for me.) But despite having considered dropping out of the race many many times, His Grace has been sufficient for me to keep me going. And for that I'm grateful. :-) All we need to keep going at times is encouragement and support, to know that our work and sacrifice is worthwhile for other lives. :-)

Anyway, just a song that I hope I can live up to someday.

Have a very good, blessed weekend. I'm too brain-dead to continue.

God bless!

2nd day of sem!

2011-09-14T01:05:00.002+08:00

Ok, since I just reread my last post, grandpa is doing fine, weak but still strong enough to talk about plenty of nonsense. I had to counsel him -__- ! Haha, long story. But so far, still ok. Grandma's love for him is amazing. Each time I look at him in his current frail condition, I'm reminded of dad in his final stage of life... but anyway, not gonna delve into that!

Sem started yesterday, and as usual my nicely planned out schedule had to be rudely disrupted by this and that... 2 of my Asia Tenggara courses may be 'shut down' because... there was only 1 student who showed up for it. Guess who? ME lah. I mean, I like small classes and all, but really, ONE on ONE is really NOT my cup of tea. Anyway, UM won't allow a class of 1. They are both about politics... the lecturer, an Indonesian was telling me about how students in Indonesia fight for places in courses dealing with politics, but in UM practically NOBODY wants to study it. Zzz.

Anyway, managed to find some friends who were planning to take one of the courses but they had to rearrange the timing... so I will most likely drop 1, and maintain the class they wanna take.

Slept over at Yan's hostel yesterday after meeting some juniors.. PKV's annual 'junior visitation' (JV). Since she had early morning class (8am..!) this morning, I dragged my weary body up too.. but it was a very good thing!

Because while I sleepily waited around campus for the office to open (had to settle PKV stuff. Welcome to the secretary's ass' world. I've been running around so much for ONE event - ironically I'm not even a committee member of this event!), I decided, out of sheer randomness.. to check what empty slots were left for co-curricular courses. I've been targeting Elementary Guitar (because I want something non-stressful and they apparently teach you strumming, something I'm quite a failure in. I can play Bach/Carcassi/Tarrega/blablabla but I can't strum properly. -__-) since I first found out about it but the 40 places were snapped in the the first 45 minutes our seniors were allowed to register. (Seniors get priority.....) So obviously no hope to get one la.

BUT.

Lo and behold, when I looked at the empty slots this morning, I saw '1' for Elementary Guitar!!! I was in complete disbelief, some kind fella had dropped that precious, coveted spot (for me!). So without further ado, I dropped my Asia Tenggara course (which I can always add back if I ever want to because obviously NO ONE is rushing for it) and signed up for guitar.

Hehe.

Then I went to settle HEP (Hal Ehwal Pelajar) stuff, spent 2-3 hours of my morning on my feet, walking up and down flights and flights of stairs, walking in the sun... with a heavy bag because I had my stuff from my sleepover at Yan's room. Zzz. Tried to look for the guitar class place, couldn't find it, walked all over, was sent on a wild goose chase by a music student. -__- Finally called up the music department only to be redirected to another department. After some waiting, they told me it was located in the Engineering faculty.

ENGINEERING faculty.

'Twas on the tip of my tongue to ask WHY in the FREAKING WORLD would a guitar class be held among future engineers, but I just thanked the lady politely and hung up. Had no car today because Joash so kindly sent me by superbike to campus yesterday evening, peak of jam hour. So I did something I've never done in my whole entire life. I took a taxi home alone. Normally I don't trust taxis and I much prefer LRTs and buses although they usually involved a lot more walking. But today, I was just too hot and tired and sticky and sweaty to think of any other solution. All I knew was that by 11.15am, I just wanted/needed a good bath and to stop walking. Had no class on apart from the guitar class which I'd just signed up for, and that was in the evening.

So I did just that. :-) Rested, my man dropped by a short while because he was around the area dealing with some customers. Went back to uni by 5.30pm, went to engineering fac, and couldn't find the place. Haha, thank God for awesome engineering friends who guided my way! (Since I don't think they read my blog no need to put names la.) Learnt nothing, as usual, first class. Then went to fetch some friends and juniors for JV (diff colleges from yesterday).

Had a very, very, very good getting to know session with them, and was glad to offer whatever help they needed with regards to UM. I know the feeling of being totally, completely lost in this whole new world, so I was glad to offer help to them. Last year my college was somehow missed out from JV, so I never got the answers to my queries at that time.

And I got approached by a cult today. So that just gave me all the more new 'semangat' to ensure the first years settle into decent churches and had a strong body of Christ to belong to in campus. :-)

Too tired, God bless,

CCU

2011-09-10T15:32:00.003+08:00

Grandpa's in CCU, gotta make a last min trip to Melaka today... had to cancel all my appointments on for today (today was supposed to be a full day).

I'll be driving the family back, hope the rain stops soon!

Till the next post,

God bless.

=D

2011-09-07T21:36:00.004+08:00

Happy Mappy!

Hahaha =P

Anyway, forgot to blog about my Kuantan trip. It was really good, good break for the whole family, Joash included. :-) (Although he spent so much time sleeping!) We just stayed around the hotel, used the facilities, gym, swimming pool, arcade, and buffet of course. =D And since our hotel was at the beach, we beached too!

Went to Teluk Cempedak, felt so happy at the beach. Didn't care two hoots about the scorching sun, just played water. =) I want to own a resort by the beach! Ok la, house also can. Must be east coast side cause west coast is just too dirty and polluted and small waved.

The in-laws gave us a dinner, and it was a good dinner + a good time of fellowship. Muh family returned to PJ after 3 days, I spent an extra day over in the hubby's home. Twas good fellowship, hmm.. learnt a lot about fishes. Haha! Uncle George (dad-in-law) showed me the birth cert of... an AROWANA fish. -__- Would you believe that?? I told Joash that it was nicer than HIS birth cert. Lol.

His cute parents brought us out for a sumptuous dinner at... T&L, something like that. We had everything-ikan bakar, char kuey teow, curry wild boar, rojak, coconut, sugarcane.. felt so pressured to eat. PRESSURED TO EAT. Cause everything was so much and the men were eating so fast! Poor mum-in-law had to survive with 4 men chomping food around her all these years...

Spent most of my time in the house, apart from that dinner. Went for a walk around the neighbourhood, the atmosphere is so different from PJ's. :-) Partly because in PJ crime rate is so high I just don't feel safe walking around for fun. The ayang went rollicking with his friends while I slept! It's so good for him to have some stress-free lepak time =)

Aunty Kate as usual talked to me about serious issues.. =P Dad talking to me about fish and dogs and jungles, mum talking to me about health and relationship and family stuff. Good balance! Haha!

Anyway, it was a good trip to Kuantan, perhaps a wee bit too short.. *hint for a longer holiday in Kuantan syg ahem ahem*

That's all, nothing much really, just enjoyed my holiday. :-)

Will be starting 2nd year in a few days time, am excited to see what uni has to offer me this sem!

This afternoon I had a phone call from my PKV/CF president. It went like this:

TH: Mojojo, guess who!

Me: Er, Dawn??

TH: Huh! Who else calls you that name??

Me: A LOT of people.

blablabla *short talk aside*

TH: Eh Jo, remember ah, about our CGL (Cell Group Leaders) meeting next week?

Me: What? What? What meeting??

TH: You also forgot ah! ...

Me: Oh, kk, so it's next week ah? (At the back of my mind I'm furiously computing my involvement in this, I think all committee members have to attend it)

TH: Yes, it's the day before our mini CPR (Committee Planning Retreat)..

Me: HUH? What? What ah?? Mini CPR?? Next week??

TH: You forgot that too!

Me: Hahaha.... yeah....

(She obviously expected me to remember it all because I took down the minutes some months back.. *speechless*)

Just a stark reminder that uni life will be back in full swing very very soon!

Ok, light-hearted post today, have a blessed day ahead of you!

God bless,

2nd Year

2011-09-06T20:35:00.004+08:00

I'll be starting my 2nd year of university next week...

Time flies, eh?

I still remember entering UM as a freshie last year, wondering what this new phase of life would bring me..

Feelings experienced at that time? Probably a bit of anxiety, I was venturing into a whole new area of life ALONE. I remember worrying about leaving mum alone at that time... during orientation week. We were still getting over dad's passing on, so naturally I worried about her and called home as frequently as orientation week would allow it.

Orientation was pretty ok, survivable, about the same level as IPDA's one. I think. Haha. Looking back la, but I'll never want to go through it again. Just not my cup of tea to be treated like a cow, herded and shouted at all the time.

How did my first year go?

Let's see.

I entered uni determined NOT to be involved in UM's CF/PKV (Persaudaraan Kristian Varsiti) because I wanted a break from it, after serving so many years in school CF. Haha.

Next thing I know, I'm secretary of PKV's annual camp. -_-

And yeah, I kinda got Wai Yan involved (who coincidentally was just as determined not to be active LOL).

Still, it was a good experience, good time of bonding, laughing. :-) Workload was a lot heavier... unlike schooling days, where I could hold a post and yet do nothing, only to find my work magically done for me. =P

Got involved in badminton, squash, debate... badminton and squash no big deal for me. Debate and emceeing, now those 2 were entirely new experiences for me, and good experiences they were too!

Hahaha. Emceeing for a 100 people function was fun, for a first-timer with absolutely no training whatsoever... 100 was a big enough crowd. =P

Debate was less fun, but learnt a lot. *Not that I want to debate again.*

Was asked to join UM's badminton team alongside them national players, but got too busy to join their training... so I backed off after a while. Hmm. We'll see how this sem goes.

I did represent my faculty and college in tournaments though, and that was fun. :-) I've made friends with the staff in several departments due to my representing them in tournaments (they even snuck me in as a 'staff' for a staff tournament once LOL), they've got friendly smiles each time I've got stuff to deal with them.

What else?

Music-wise, I've yet to see how their music department is like. By 2nd sem I had already shifted out of hostel so I never got an opportunity to see where my classical guitar playing stands amongst the rest. I'll find a way though. :-)

Academic wise? After my first week in uni, I told brother that I'd found my place in life. Haha, blogged about this before, but since this is the main gist of my 1st year, allow me to repeat it again. I felt like a fish in water right after I started uni. Kinda like how I pick up my badminton racquet and play a game after a long while... the "I am finally home" feeling is very very strong. :-)

I struggled with the concept of assignments for the first few months because I simply could not get into the habit of constantly studying/researching. I hated, detested that part. All my schooling years I've relied on last-minute studying to pull me through, and usually did poorly/was absent for monthly tests. So to suddenly have EVERY single piece of work I did week after week to be counted in my CGPA was darn stressful on my part.

I got used to it by 2nd semester, and griped less about it. I learnt to fret less over assignments, and began to enjoy them more. :-)

The most awesome thing about uni?

You can play all the time! Apart from dedicating some time for assignments, I was enjoying the rest of my time. Hahaha. Mum kept wondering how I could afford so much time just enjoying life, even in the midst of our 'study breaks'. And yet maintain my CGPA. It dropped from 4.00 to 3.97 from 1st sem to 2nd sem, but still pretty good considering the amount of time I spent on other activities (uni, badminton, church, guitar, lepaking, dating... the list goes on).

Hehe.

I packed this coming sem though, will have the heaviest combination of subjects ever, but I do want to do as many subjects as I can so that my final year is free.

*Takes a deep breath, readies meself to take on more subjects, spend more time on research!* The thing about my degree is that so so so much reading and researching and writing is required as compared to many other courses. Not that I'm complaining. :-)

So anyway, it's been a good first year. Joash has been an incredible companion throughout, and we're both grown and matured so much in the short time we've been dating.

Why, I was just telling Joash I could trace his 'growth'! Hahaha. When we first started out, he was a middleman for some biking shop. Then he started selling 2nd hand tyres. Then he started selling his personal belongings to buy machinery. As he used to tell me, "For the greater good." Then he started doing small-scale bike fixing stuff. After a while he decided to go big and set up his own workshop. :-) And it doesn't stop there, he's now expanding and offering more services.

It's incredible, the rate he just progresses. :-) I'm proud of all he has achieved, and still find it amazing that he has the strength and determination to persevere on even when HUGE obstacles come in the way! Huge and dangerous at times, eh my dear man? ;-)

Anyway, I'm going off-tangent. Haha. I'll begin next semester continuing my 2nd term as assistant secretary of PKV (no running away from secretarial work since young la, my face just screams "SECRETARY!!!" I think. :(), in charge of some PKV booth (which I still have no idea what to do...) and playing the keyboard for PKV's MSK (Malam Suai Kenal)... oh my, I need plenty of prayer..! Especially for the keyboard part. Haha I dislike being plugged in.. skill not enough. :( I'll sorely miss PKV's annual camp this sem though.. was supposed to be in charge of it but due to some probs it's off. Sigh. That was one thing I was looking forward to. Oh well, maybe it's about time I be sociable and join some FES camps. I will...

So that's pretty much it, here's a toast to a good 2nd year!! *Toasts* =P

God bless YOU, my dear reader!

...

2011-09-06T13:48:00.002+08:00

And yet another ex-classmate gave birth and got married.

-_-

Oh well, that's life.

Am discovering all these through Facebook.

Cute babies though...

1 Utama!

2011-08-27T23:50:00.005+08:00

1 Utama's Jusco has re-opened after its months of renovation! And there are new shops popping up. And old shops revamping and renovating. And Uniqlo is opening there too!

Hahaha.

I sound like a shopaholic. I'm not one la, I just enjoy walking in 1 U. Hehe. Especially when I'm alone and have nothing to do. =) Usually end up buying nothing anyway, I just enjoy window shopping.

Guess 1U is something I grew up with, and my (extremely) poor sense of direction means that I'm not very adventurous. So I basically only know my way to the shopping malls closer to home.

I have been exploring Sunway Pyramid more frequently though, but still get lost there. Anyhow at the rate 1 U is expanding I really don't need Pyramid anymore. =)

And Tropicana (TCM) is so tiny, the first time I brought Joash there we rounded it 3 times and Joash had the whole place memorized by then. -_-

Sunway + TCM both have Ninja Joe's though... all 1 U needs now is a Ninja Joe's... *pork burger* Who knows, it may just open! =P

Had a good time in CG today =)

And I have a whole new load of books now!! Rachael was generous enough to give them away... =D *Happy happy* Thanks Rachael!

Random random. Holidays ain't doing my brain good.

Am glad I didn't sign up for ThePlan11 though, would have missed out on a good family holiday otherwise. And of course, precious time with Joash. ;-) Since his place will be on holiday next week! =D It's been some good extremely busy months for his business, so I think it's a very good break for him, and definitely a well-deserved one.

It's also been about a year since things 'happened' between us, twas around Raya last year that my posts began being filled with winks and 'someones'. It's been good so far, I've learnt so much about relationships and trying to be a good girlfriend. Haha. Trying...

Ok, this was a super random post.

:-) Have a blessed new week ahead of you, and happy raya-ing! =)

God bless,

Kuantan trip!

2011-08-22T23:46:00.002+08:00

Mum wanted to return to 'those days' of living in Kuantan... hmm, I was a tiny kid back then but I do have some distant memories of those days...

Beach... House... Cycling... Church...

Church! Hahaha we were supposedly in the same church as Joash and family. -__-

Small small world, when I went out with Anna I found out she was staying with the pastor (in KL) of that church (at that time)! Mmmm. I like connections. :-) He's a good man, visited my dad, kept our faith going. One of the many who blessed my family at that time. =)

But naw, I really don't remember anything much. Even my memories I possess could have been fabricated from the photos I see. And I most definitely DO NOT remember Joash nor anyone from that church. Lol! I was a kid with Elective Mutism la, only friend I had back then was my brother.

Anyhow, Kuantan trip next week, just one to relax... really bad timing for me me thinks, with my guitar exam so so so darn close but that's about the only holiday my family will have... so... okay lor.

Looking forward to it, all of us are! Even the in-laws are smsing mum and asking for exact dates. Hehe. And I got a cute sms from mum-in-law talking about the trip today. =)

I'm glad we're in a relationship where there were prior ties, no awkwardness within families. Hehe. The only 'new' thing was getting to know each other as closer friends, and me thinks that was exciting. =P

Have I ever answered the question of 'how it all began' on this blog? I don't think so...

Well, keep wondering. =)

God bless,

Tostadas

2011-08-17T23:16:00.003+08:00

Just read this.

The most innocent thing about this article:

During her interview, police said the girl was concerned that she was unable to bring the tostadas home because she had left them in the van.

Hahaha. When I was 7 and my house was broken into, I was ok about everything, the mess, the cut grill, etc. I only broke down when...

When I realised that the robbers had taken MY SCHOOL BAG. Can you imagine that?? I immediately worried about ALL my school books and how I'll have to find a way to replace them!!

I recovered in a split second when I spotted the pile of books left on a sofa. The robbers had thankfully emptied my Minnie Mouse bag to store whatever little money and jewellery they could find.

Talk about the importance of books at 7. =P

Well, books are still important to me, but I doubt I'll go crying over any stolen books now. Far more important things to worry about.

Tuition has been going fine, I've been sourcing for materials from bookshops and websites to best teach my student, and she's progressing pretty quick. :-) While searching for some word games today, I suddenly remembered what my form 3 Science teacher told us, to search for websites that can generate crossword puzzles. And I did! =) It's awesome, I can use it for practically any subject I want.

I really enjoy the academic world, and this tuition class just reinforces that fact. =) I've given tuition to people on and off since lower secondary school days, but never on a long term/fixed pay basis as I never wanted the commitment plus I've always felt too inadequate in terms of knowledge. But now the level ain't too high, and among all the subjects I'm teaching, I really enjoy teaching English. Although I daresay it's about the most complicated to teach... simply because it's ENGLISH. But it forces me to really know my stuff, and really read up on grammar rules... how to explain when to use -s, -es, or changing the form of a singular noun to plural..

Something I took for granted since young, knowing how to use these words as I've been an avid reader since my kindergarten days.. I was reading Sweet Valley Kids at 6. I remember this because I used to be a year younger than those 7 year old twins. Haha.

Even as I taught Malay today, I realised that I had to really, really backtrack and teach the very basics of the language. I barely even remember how I learnt my Malay! Lol. The primary 1 book her employer bought for her is way too hard... I realised that today after I tried to teach her from it. I'll have to source for suku kata books.

Or maybe I'll just type out my own stuff. So much more flexible, things I want to teach aren't found in one specific book, but spread out in other books.

And that, is the joy of being an educator. =) Moulding the lesson to your student's needs, having the power to teach what you want. Ah, I feel Miss Jean Brodie's power.

LOL.

;-)

The bf has been so so so busy, I haven't seen him since last Friday! Poor guy. :-( Money ain't an easy thing to make... but I've got faith that he can pull through it all. He's a very strong man. :-)

Gasing with the pilot tomolo! =D

*Feels guilty that I'm leading a Tai-Tai life while my hubby is working so hard... mmm... err, at least I bring in a little income now with my tuition, eh syg? =P Er, forget the fact that my work, not to mention income is minute as compared to yours.* I'll do the studying for the two of us k! (And the sleeping too!)

Muh sayang just called, me off to bed, have a good night! =)

God bless,
Jo

P.S. Random topics today, ain't focused!

2011-08-15T00:03:00.000+08:00

Attended Calvary today...

Boys in Pink, Girls in Blue

2011-08-13T01:58:00.004+08:00

Was just watching some interesting Youtube videos.. do search for 'Princess Boy' and read this article: Gender Specific Clothing for Children.

I dressed exactly like a boy last time, come to think of it. Apart from school uniforms, I never owned a skirt/dress. And if I had to act in some play and wear a skirt, I would borrow it from my trusted friend, Chow Ping. =P

I climbed trees, played sports, hated the piano, ran everywhere, walked everywhere in the scorching sun refusing to use umbrellas, never engaged in wooing and wowing over cute guy actors/singers/whatever. It felt good to be beating real men on the badminton court, felt good when they didn't treat me as 'just a girl' on court, but as a true, equally-as-strong opponent.

I wore big baggy t-shirts, loved collared-t-shirts, wore sports shorts everywhere and never owned a baby-T/tight-fitting t-shirts. Probably the only thing remotely 'feminine' about me was my long hair.

Which, come to think of it, is how my lesbian, masculine coaches dress all the time. Malls, courts, pasar malams, all the same clothing.

Hahaha.

But suffice to say, I'm surprised my parents weren't worried about me. I guess there's always been a softer side in me that you just don't see in butches, and I guess they never once even thought they may have a lesbian kid in the making.

Anyway, that's all I wanted to blog about after the videos and articles I read. :-)

I'm not lesbian although I did all that when I was younger.

I've got a real, authentic man for a boyfriend laaah. :-P

(Although so many people said he made me waaaaay more feminine than before! It's a change I'm comfortable and happy with, although I think it happened subconsciously.)

Haha! Have a blessed weekend,
Jo

Tuition!

2011-08-11T20:55:00.002+08:00

Turns out I heard my pay for tuition wrongly. I mixed up a '-ty' for a '-teen' per hour. -__-

So now that I'm earning so much more than what I originally agreed to, I'm determined to really give it more than my best.

And honestly, it's quite fun. :-)

Just completed 4 sessions (and got paid at the end of it, which was how I realised my error in hearing the payment!) and things are progressing well. My student is a fast learner and a hard worker. :-) Now we're considering putting her through an exam in a few years time, so that she has some paper qualification.

Which also means I really need to push her. At first I thought it was just UPSR. But we (her employer and I) decided UPSR would be useless if brought back to Cambodia. So now maybe she'll take one of the UK exams. Have to find the best way to teach now, it's not play-play now that it's no longer UPSR! =P

Haha but it's fun, having a goal to achieve. :-)

And of course, the extra incentive - cash. ;-)

Take care,
Jo

P.S. Was about to go for 20s but checked my email and found out 20s is tomorrow, they're watching Captain America. Mmm..

The Apple...

2011-08-09T00:56:00.004+08:00

Sent bro off to work, Kiara-ed, accompanied ayang to buy an iPhone, savoured lunch with him, rushed off to tuition, went to Ikano to buy some things...

Backtracking on what I said..

THE HUBBY BOUGHT AN IPHONE!!!!! HAHAHAHA! I'm still in utter disbelief. Despite my constant pestering him to buy an iPhone all this while due to the better package offered and cheap cheap rates as compared to his current plan, I never once believed that he would actually buy one.. Even if he did, I thought he just sell it off when the need arises. However, he assures me that he will not.. lol! We'll see :-D Since he wanted to embrace Celcom wholeheartedly and take a new number, he gave me the privilege of picking his number.. And it's pretty awesome a number :-P

Up to the point where we inquired about everything in the shop.. I still could not believe it. Haha!

But it's reality now, my dear man now has a phone 10x more canggih than mine, need no longer visit CCs just to check some emails, can make my bank account richer just by pressing his phone =D and oh so many uses!

Haha! I'm sounding sampat but I can't help it, tis amazing! And I think I'm more excited about it than he is, although he is pretty excited =P

On my part, I gotta change to Celcom soon ;-)

That's all for now,
Jo

P.S. I forgot to add in my last post, I also went for Jess' 21st birthday party! And it was the bomb! Lol good catching up session with old old friends... My history with Jess goes waaaaay back, click here, search for 5th April. Hahaha. That's about the fondest memory I have of her, slipping down the stairs. There was not even a need to give her a "I told you so" back then! Oh well, that made up for all the bullying I suffered at her hands... *Eh Jess, if you read this. ;-)* She used to do weird things to me and hoped I would blog about it. Ah, the good ol' 13 year old days...

P.P.S. And I also met up with my CF FES worker, my friend as she'd like to call herself. =P Was a good time of talking, good catching up. :)

P.P.P.S. Global economy is in uproar, Najib has to call for elections really really soon while there is still hope. I'd vote for our gov. this round if I could because allowing the opposition to take over now would cause utter chaos in our country and restarting every economic plan from scratch would chase away all investors, and we'll be living on drain water and drain fish while griping about the lousy job the gov. is doing. Oh, and those useful rich citizens who probably cast their vote for opposition would have run far and wide, away from our beloved country. It's my blog, my opinion. ;-)

P.P.P.P.S. I need to rush off to the bank now. Everything's a mess. Cya!

Hello Bello

2011-08-07T23:36:00.006+08:00

What have I been up to during the hols?

Let's see.

Social-wise, it's been good meet-up sessions with some friends here and there. :-) One of the earliest with the Singaporean Andrea who can't seem to rid herself of guys chasing her, then the Kuantanian British Anna who's about my one and only friend from IPDA with whom I keep in touch with whenever she comes to KL... then... hmm hmm... Dawn, independent tough gal with plenty of thought-provoking discussions I thoroughly enjoy... Chow Ping (Gasing and Kiara kaki!), my pilot bestfriend who has lost her birthname ever since she became a pilot, she is now known as "Pilot" to most.. hmm... who else? Just had a catch-up session with some sec school CFers, Kin Ming, Aku, and Wai Yan (whom I don't really need to catch up with since I see her all the time =P).. Good dinner with bro-in-law and besan.

Who else? Hehe, the parent-in-laws, they came to KL for a short trip, had dinner with them and the other bro-in-law last Friday... Before leaving, Uncle George said, "Lemme give you a hug." HAHA! So cute! =P Loving parents, came to visit my mum before dinner. Couples like them remind me that love doesn't fade, instead it grows and matures with time if we nourish and nurture it properly. =) Something many many young people have to learn! <3

Yesterday had dinner + supper with old friends, been too long since we last met up.

Oh! And I watched "Pluck's Musical Arson" with some church friends recently. Music + comedy = my cup of tea. :-D

What else? Home church has been a very comfortable experience thus far, I've gotten to know the adults, young adults and even cute kids so so so much better. :-)

Dating-wise, I don't think we've dated properly since the last time I blogged about it.. lol! BF has been busy busy busy, but we do meet up every few days for a couple of hours whenever possible. :-) Tough life now, easy life later, eh sayang? :-) Kinda like how I used to eat the bread off sausage buns first, and save the tasty sausage for the last when I was a kid. =P

Exercise wise, been exercising more now, although I'm still rounder than last sem :-( because of the long long break. The exercise is doing me good though, I feel way more refreshed after 7/8 hours of sleep each day instead of feeling sluggish even after 12 hours of sleep before this.

Music wise, my guitar teacher has decided that I need special aural classes under a different teacher because as he says, "your aural is HORRIBLE." And "Seriously for grade 8 no more Bach for you," because I'm having so much trouble with Bourree, Bach's piece although exam is about a month away. -__- Haha, probably also because I hardly practiced last sem... *time to up practice time* Good thing is my guitar teacher has the confidence that I'll make it to grade 8... LOL.

So yeah... oh, I'm giving tuition (Math, Science, BM and English) to a Cambodian maid now! And getting paid for it. Hehehe. :-) Extra pocket money never hurt my pocket, and it's non-stressful because of level. :-)

Wow. Not too bad a list, if I may say so myself. About all I've done during the hols.

Now I'm busy deciding my subjects for next sem. :-) I really do love uni life, I feel as if I'm finally in a place where I belong. The intellectual environment, the flexibility of choosing subjects I enjoy, no more stupid school rules... it's as if I've found my calling. LOL. But seriously, after my first few weeks in uni I told bro, "This is where I belong." And after a whole year in uni, I still feel the same. No dread about going for classes, unlike school days. Despite its busyness, I still prefer uni more, although my coursemates looked at me in shock when I said I loved uni life, way more than school. Hahaha! I really do, I do I do! I have NEVER looked at young kids and wished I was back in those days. =P In fact, I pity 6+ year old kids who are about to begin their terrible journey into schooling life. Ah, uni is where I belong. :-) School has always been such a stifling, rigid and strict environment for me.

People still ask me to 'truly experience' uni life by staying away from home... I can't, my circumstances are different from most uni students. My responsibilities are completely different from most students, and living away from home now would be an absolutely selfish thing to do.. something only Joash will understand because we share the same type of heart.. and love for those around us. :-)

To the rest of the world however, let's just say I refuse to live in UM's hostel because I cannot practice my guitar there. To bring my beloved classical guitar to any hostel would be pure foolishness on my part. In my first sem I used to rush home to practice my guitar every few days, and return to hostel that very night after my practice was done. Unnecessary pressure, me thinks.

And of course, saving money! Hostel rate may be cheap but I don't want to waste my precious JPA money on it. Guitar lessons already eat up a big portion of my allowance. I don't want to live on my mum/bro's money, I wanna live on mine. Which is partly why I agreed to giving tuition on a long term basis, a lil' extra money won't hurt. :-) My family has done a big big part in bringing me up throughout my secondary school days, I do enjoy this bit of financial independence now. That being said, I still get bro to pay for my stuff most times whenever we go out though =P Hahaha! Abang maaaa... I pay for mum on and off though, when she lets me and if my purse allows it.

My sayang just called! *My day is complete.* Off to bed now, have a blessed week ahead of you!

God bless,
Jo

14th July flew by

2011-07-31T22:21:00.004+08:00

Well, this day flew by. I was too busy with starting of uni life last year to post on the 14th of July, and somehow was too caught up with things to post this year too. Since this post...

Anyhow, life's pretty much changed since that post. That post was written when I was 18... I still wish I had the chance to fully explore the meaning of being 18, really. It's as if I skipped a phase of life every teenager is supposed to experience. Now it's too late to relive an 18 year old's life, life just will not permit it.

But anyway, well ko, life's pretty much... life these days. The up days, the down days, the joyful days, the painful days.

I do think of you many times though... you'd be 28 this year! Heck, that's OLD. =P

Anyway, looking at the current world situation these days, I just may meet you again very soon... end of the world is coming, dude! European countries are collapsing, currencies are collapsing, debts are increasing, people are working harder and harder to earn money that feeds so much less than before, earthquake after earthquake, storms that kill people...

Sometimes I look at life and just wonder.....

That aside, I visited our grandparents yesterday.. and my heart broke for them. Life's tough but my hands are tied. :-( Grandma cried again... again, I look at them, and wonder about life. Do the joyful days outweigh the painful days and memories??? Nonetheless, grandma's face lit up with joy when she saw us, and it's joy like that that perhaps convinces me that there is hope, after all.

There are times when I'm full of hopes and dreams for this life... and times when I wonder, what's the point of it all? Why bother?

However, like always, too much depends on me to ever think about giving up. Life's a race, and tiring as it may be, I've learnt resilience along the way.

Hmm, hope I've not been too depressing, ko! Life's really kinda good now, it is...

You'd like Joash, I'm sure! :-)

That's all for now, have a good time up there! :-)

Your adorable sister. ;-)

Spiritual Matters

2011-07-28T15:54:00.003+08:00

Like every human being, I struggle with spiritual issues... based on what I see around me, what I think, how people around me act...

I see Christians lying and cheating their way through life to achieve their goals.

I see Christians who spew out vulgarities and expletives as if these were the first words they learnt.

I see Christians misusing God's name to explain their choices in life.

I see Christians flying into rages and fits of anger when circumstances make them upset.

I see Christians sneering at the happiness of others, and rejoicing at the misfortune of others.

I see Christians loving less-fortunate strangers more than their own families and friends.

I see Christians harbouring jealousy at the success of others and envying the riches of others.

I see Christians breaking nearly/all the 10 commandments without a tinge of guilt.

I see Christians lying to their loved ones without a hint of remorse.

I see Christians giving their word and promises without any intention of fulfilling them.

I see Christians going through life without a care for those hurting around them.

I see Christians fooling around with life as if there is no God.

I see Christians leaving the faith they have been brought up in simply because they see other Christians doing the above.

I see non-Christians having no qualms about joining the Christian faith because they can lead the secular life they've led all their lives, but this new life includes a ticket to heaven.

I see non-Christians having absolutely no interest in the Christian faith because their Christian friends are no different from the world.

Are YOU in any of the above?

(I've been in several of those categories many times)

I've always believed that a Christian must bear GOOD fruits (not rotten fruits like the above..) if they are truly following their faith. Whether it's fruits of the spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control) or fruits of gaining new believers (who would have joined because they see something special in you).

If you've noticed I've included lying twice.. haha, can't help it.. if it's one thing I absolutely detest, it's blatant lying. Covering up, avoiding, I'm still not so annoyed... but blatant, outright lying I CANNOT stand. Guess that's one of the traits I inherited from good ol' dad. Hehe.

Christians who constantly use God's name in explaining decisions also irritate me. I feel that you're demeaning our heavenly Father each time you use His name, especially in petty issues. Oh, and if that decision later on proves to be wrong and you yet again fumble to come up with another 'Godly' explanation to explain your newest decision to 'cover up' your previous mistake... hmmm, I know many Christians who use God's name when they wish to break-up with their partners. Guess it's a convenient reason/excuse to use so your partner cannot give you too much hell... how can God be wrong, after all? (Although if your partner isn't that strong a Christian to see right through your reasoning her/his faith may very well be deeply shaken. So please, be warned, DO NOT use this explanation unless it's mutual, and your partner can tell you the same.)

Anyway, I had a good long talk with a friend over lunch recently, and I brought up certain spiritual issues which I've been harbouring within myself for a long time. While it was a relief to finally voice it out to someone whom I could trust, I didn't receive the exact answers I was hoping for. Still, I felt good after talking to her about it. :-)

My perspectives of things have been changing, but whether to a better direction or not, I'm not sure.

Anyhow, what a speaker recently said which struck me was this: Do not look at all the faults and flaws of your leader. Because if we look at them purely through human eyes, they will NEVER measure up to our idea of a 'perfect leader'. Instead, look at them from this perspective: How can God use him/her?

Pretty true, too often I have found myself judging leaders and disrespecting their decisions because I see their human flaws and deem them incapable of leading. It's a rather tough perspective to change, but I am trying to, day by day.

Just some food for thought. =) I've been busy with some paperwork, helping translate stuff for my guitar teacher, keying in data for mum, practising guitar... Kiara!

Been going to Kiara 2/3 times a week... mum asked me, "Why you keep going??" Me: It's addictive. Once I've built up my stamina I don't want it to drop. The bf in total contrast asked, "Why not go everyday?? Why alternate days only?" Me: If I go everyday I'll start to hate it.

Hehe. I need another sport lah. Kiara is so darn boring. Although I can now jog nearly the whole 40 minutes. =D When I first started I couldn't even walk without resting. *Looking for my badminton kakis*

Have a blessed week!

God bless,

I find it...

2011-07-25T20:46:00.004+08:00

... disgusting when I see photos or read about how children, some even toddlers, are brought to political rallies by their parents/family.

Not only do you expose a young innocent life to the (possible) dangers of a chaotic, uncontrollable situation, but you're brainwashing your kid before he/she has had a chance to decide on his/her own stands in life.

Then again, all parents brainwash their kids for something or other. haha. So that's a pretty lame argument.

Well, I still find it disgusting anyway. =P

Had a good night out with the other half yesterday, been a long time (months! Since... I really don't know when. Before my hectic gilar semester???) since we've had the chance to date like that. :-) Had dinner with the bro-in-law and besan! Hehe, good dinner, good time of fellowship.. then the both of us did some walking around, saw a movie (Hanna, the brilliant assassin!). Oh oh, and he bought me earrings! =D Round smileys! Like: =) on round shaped earrings! hehehe. Sooo cute.

Was talking to the boyfriend a few days ago... and hmm hmm guess there are things that we cannot expect our closest friends to understand about our individual lives. Because we all go through different challenges... and many a time, we're alone when in pain, when everyone around us think that our worlds are perfect and problem-free.

Especially when you're not the type to wail about your life problems to others.

*Yet another vague, confusing post by yours truly*

Last Sunday the Powerkids had a birthday celebration! And I blew 24 balloons! (Too big, they kept popping and people kept jumping during service. -_-) Haha. Oh, the simple joys of life. We had an overabundance of food for lunch as a result, so most people got to pack home plenty of food for their dinner. Hehe. I like house church plenty, the fellowship is so warm and close-knitted.. people stay to talk till 2pm+ at times! (Service ends about 11.45am... that's a good 2+ hours of fellowship!) I do miss the friends who are spread out all over in the other 3 house churches though.. feels as if I hardly see them anymore.

Have a blessed week ahead of you! =)

God bless,

Loooove

2011-07-14T00:20:00.004+08:00

Well well hello hello, why not touch on the topic of... LOOOOVE today? ;-)

Ok, my take on love, rather. Like individual personalities, every relationship is different.

What's there to say, really?

I was never one to have an ideal idea about love. Heck, I was a skeptic on relationships ever since young. I've always told others, better to be happy single than unhappy married to someone you cannot live with. (And this is something I still believe in. Don't simply marry the next guy proposing to you!)

When Joash first started chasing... I didn't run. Well, not very hard, anyway. =P But I DID wait for him to lose interest in me. Like I mentioned, I was a skeptic on love.

2 months - Eh, he's still interested. Hmmm. (And so am I!)

3 months - Hey, this guy IS serious after all. (Maybe I can actually hope for a future with him..!)

And yeah, blablabla, well, suffice to say, I'm no longer that much a skeptic on love. As I've learnt, relationships need working on to constantly move forward, and although it may be challenging at times, (when you're all stressed out or facing some serious attack of PMS... Females, BE WARNED.. In fact, I've a theory that most guys are probably dumped at the height of their gfs' PMS. LOL!) a healthy, happy relationship makes everything worth it. :-)

Ideals for the perfect guy/gal... I hear it all the time... no such thing. Guys and girls are wired very, very, very differently, so to expect someone of the opposite gender to live up to YOUR 'perfect' standards is basically rubbish. Sure, standard characteristics like gentlemanly, polite, responsible etc etc are good standards to uphold. But every responsible gentleman has his flaw, just as every female has PMS. (Oh my, what a comparison.)

You ask me honestly what every relationship MUST have to survive, I think the answer is straightforward and simple.

LOVE.

Don't ever settle for someone who doesn't love you. And don't ever settle for someone you do not love. It'll be unfair to yourselves, your future children, and all those who will be affected by your turbulent/stagnant relationship.

In a relationship where there is true love, both parties will work hard to please each other and resolve conflicts. Both parties will try to change for the better if they truly love each other. Most importantly, two people who truly love each other will thrive to bring out the best in their relationship so that each other is happy. And it's easier to love more when you're happy! =D

And no, love isn't instant. Starts with interest, getting to know each other, liking each other.. and deepening the relationship if both parties are willing to risk their hearts for one another. Couples I admire are couples who have been through all the obstacles that life can provide and still emerge victorious, together.

A teacher whom I respect very much once told me never to go after a guy who is currently in a relationship. If he dumps his current GF because of you, what makes you think he won't do the same to YOU? Something I agree wholeheartedly with. I've got little respect for guys/gals who dump their partners for someone 'better'. Barring that the relationship was already undergoing massive troubles which can't seem to be sorted out. But dumping someone for someone else 'better' is just plain disgusting in my eyes. If you disagree, hey it's MY blog. ;-) You may stop reading right here.

Another thing I'm against is going back to the person who dumped you. Heck ya this may be a touch idealistic. But I am. If the person who dumped who 'fell out of love' with you once, why won't he/she do it again? Why grovel your way back to their hearts? For how long? Once a trust like that is broken, it's hard to mend it back properly. It's something I told Joash quite early on... I told him that if either one of us dumps each other, obviously one party isn't worth the other no matter how much it hurts (your guess: dumper or dumpee ;-)).

Don't get excited, no one is dumping anyone here. Haha. Just examples. :-)

One thing I'm grateful for is that I've never been heartbroken. I cannot imagine the pain and anguish heartbreak brings, and trust me I'm in no hurry to experience it. ;-) Up till Joash, I've guarded my heart so very carefully, even paranoidly, I've never had to experience heartbreak.

Final parting words... don't be in a rush to find someone. But at the same time, don't be afraid to explore. ;-) While you're single, go out with whoever and whomever you wish, you never know whose hidden gem (within) your once-blinded eyes will be opened to.

Final finally... don't ever play with someone's heart. When you're talking about relationship, you're talking about a person's heart. Someone who has entrusted you wholeheartedly with their heart, and if you decide to crush that heart there'll always be a permanent scar on that heart. Don't give away your heart too quickly, hold back with caution until you're pretty darn sure the person you're about to give it away to can be trusted to love and treasure your heart for life. No guarantees in life, but being cautious is always safer. :-)

With all that being said, don't listen to me, really. Hahaha. Maybe in 30 years time I'll look back at this post and laugh at the sheer idealistic and ludicrous ideas I had. ;-)

However, being the young, innocent and hopeful 20 year old I am right now, as of today, I've absolutely no qualms about declaring that I'm very much in love with a man (who incidentally just smsed me accusing me of 'kutuking' him in this post! HAHA!) who spends his days working very hard towards OUR future. :-)

A man who strives to do well in studies, to build a successful business, a man who loves God, his family and mine, who lacks sleep nearly all the time because of work & studies, and who loves me for who I am. What more can I ask for? :-)

Actually, I'm asking for a lot of things. To teach me to ride a motorbike. For him to get more sleep. For a nice long honeymoon to some beautiful island. For the flexibility of being able to work at my own leisure next time. hahaha! Aiyo, so demanding la..

Naw I'm not that demanding.

Love keeps us both more than happy. =)

Haha, it's late and I'm exhausted. Have a blessed day!

God bless,

Looking for better phone plans

2011-07-12T23:46:00.004+08:00

Been browsing for phone plans with better value-for-money... the best one I've found is Digi's iPhone plan.

But the iPhone itself is so freaking expensive. -_- Not to mention its lack of Flash capabilities thanks to its creator's ego.

How?

The hubby needs a better plan too in order to keep up with his rapidly-expanding business. His current using of the RM80 Samsung phone can't offer him anything much.

*Keeps looking*

Haha just randomly blogging. Have a wonderful week!

Food for thought

2011-07-09T21:33:00.002+08:00

"...aku juz nk tanah melayu bertuankan melayu..."

Was reading some FB updates, saw this comment.

Hmmm...

A Call to Anguish - David Wilkerson

2011-07-02T18:17:00.002+08:00

This video was shown in church some months back, and Wai Yan recently reposted it again on Facebook, reminding me about it.

Anguish - Have you ever felt it? The complete absolute destruction of your heart? Everything within you has been obliterated, destroyed, broken?

3:35 - Does it matter about the Jerusalem that is in our own hearts? The sign of ruin that is slowly draining spiritual power and passion. Blind to lukewarmness, blind to the mixture that is creeping in. That's all the devil wants to do. Is to GET THE FIGHT OUT OF YOU. And KILL IT. So you won't labour in prayer anymore. So you won't weep before God anymore.

5:40 - There is going to be no renewal, no revival, no awakening, until we are once again willing to let him break us.

6:16 - I've wanted it easy. I just wanted to be happy.

I've felt anguish. I've felt pain. Brokenness, despair, sorrow, you name it.

But it's always been for myself, about myself. Anguish for someone else? Hmm. Concerned, yes. Pity, yes. But anguish?? WHY would I want to feel it again? I think I've successfully numbed myself to plenty of things. Plug in the holes and the pain stops. Yeah, easy as that.

And yet David Wilkerson's powerful and (charismatic) message can -almost- strike me to my heart's core.

It's been far too long. I've abandoned important things for far too long in my quest to avoid pain..

Have a blessed day!
Jo

P.S. Btw, David Wilkerson died in a car crash on April 27, 2011. Gruesome but quick way to leave earth, me thinks.

Bersih 2.0

2011-06-27T17:51:00.004+08:00

Since Facebook seems to be having so many people who include the Bersih badge on their photo..

Why not blog about it?

I've always found it ironic that so many people are all powered-up and charged to support causes for the 'bigger-picture'/'macro' stuff when their own personal lives are out of order and disorganized. Some people fight for causes of other human rights and blablabla but if you check back their own family lives, they don't give two hoots about who dies, who's sick, who needs help, who's hurting. I suppose there's more glamour in helping the bigger picture? (After all, who sees if you put your family first..)

I've been in and out of several NGO's since secondary school days, and most times I leave with a dissatisfied feeling after working with a few others. Back then I ignored it. Now I think I've pinpointed out why.. it disturbed me that some people seemed to care more for strangers than for their own family. And many times, I was one of them.

When I was a young man, I wanted to change the world. I found it was difficult to change the world, so I tried to change my nation. When I found I couldn't change the nation, I began to focus on my town. I couldn't change the town and as an older man, I tried to change my family. Now, as an old man, I realize the only thing I can change is myself, and suddenly I realize that if long ago I had changed myself, I could have made an impact on my family. My family and I could have made an impact on our town. Their impact could have changed the nation and I could indeed have changed the world." -Unknown Monk, 1100 A.D.-

Just some food for thought.

God bless,

P.S. I'm falling sick and the other half is recovering from a powerful cold that knocked him out last week!

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-20T22:28:00.010+08:00

The video says it all.

(This song is one of my favourite emo songs when I think of dad.. haha but I'm not emo-ing now lah, just thought I'll share it on this blog. Enjoy!)

Artist: Shawanda Crystal
Song: You Can Let Go (Emphasis of final chorus mine)

Wind blowin’ on my face
Sidewalk flyin’ beneath my bike
A five year-old’s first taste
Of what freedom’s really like
He was runnin’ right beside me
His hand holdin’ on the seat
I took a deep breath and hollered
As I headed for the street

You can let go now, Daddy
You can let go
Oh, I think I’m ready
To do this on my own
It’s still a little bit scary
But I want you to know
I’ll be ok now, Daddy
You can let go

I was standin’ at the altar
Between the two loves of my life
To one I’ve been a daughter
To one I soon would be a wife
When the preacher asked,
‘Who gives this woman?’
Daddy’s eyes filled up with tears
He kept holdin’ tightly to my arm
‘Till I whispered in his ear

You can let go now, Daddy
You can let go
Oh, I think I’m ready
To do this on my own
It still feels a little bit scary
But I want you to know
I’ll be ok now, Daddy
You can let go

It was killin’ me to see
The strongest man I ever knew
Wastin’ away to nothin’
In that hospital room
‘You know he’s only hangin’ on for you’
That’s what the night nurse said
My voice and heart were breakin’
As I crawled up in his bed, and said

You can let go now, Daddy
You can let go
Your little girl is ready
To do this on my own
It’s gonna be a little bit scary
But I want you to know
I’ll be ok now, Daddy
You can let go
You can let go

If people ask me what I've done so far for my holidays... my answer is simple: Growing up. There are still so many things to learn, to do, ever since I've told dad to let go. Running a household is far from easy, but I'm learning and managing somehow. Trying to ensure the cars have petrol and air (tires), ensuring phones and touch n' go cards are topped up, ensuring bills are paid, buying essential items, obliging the whims and fancies of family whenever I can... doesn't sound like much but I can't even keep up with these few things. :-(

The cars are long overdue for servicing but I've not managed to send them for servicing. Creaking and making funny noises. If any one of these cars break down one of these days on the road it'll be my fault (and this blog post will just be proof that I didn't do anything to prevent it). The internet is highly unstable and laggy because I think I've failed to keep viruses out of it and bro is just too darn busy with work to maintain the internet well. My biggest worry is the internet because a compromised connection means all our important data is at risk. But I can't do anything about it..

The things I've mentioned are the things dad used to do without complaint. Especially combating viruses whenever I did some stupid things like clicking on virus links or opening virus-filled emails/attachments etc. I find it highly ironical that I've now got to sort of 'take over' his role although I'm obviously the completely wrong person to do it. -_- Needless to say I'm a complete failure and our constantly trying to ward off viruses isn't working because I'm just not IT savvy enough (if at all).. *sigh*

Anyway, just a relatively short post to wish you... HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! Hope you had a great one with your dads! =) Appreciate your dad no matter how much he frustrates you, typical Asian dads tend to do that to us more 'westernized' kids. Hehehe.

God bless,

I detest...

2011-06-14T12:01:00.003+08:00

Consumerism.

It's rare that consumerism consumes me. Usually I can just say no to things that my heart begins to want and walk away, the evil desire to spend unnecessarily will fade away fairly quickly.

But when it does consume me, it's usually for some ridiculously expensive thing. Which makes up for my lack of shopping non-stop like some girls are wont to do.

This time it's bad. -_- I've been wanting an Ipod Nano 6th Gen (the mightily CUUUTEEEE one!) for months now. And it's not going away although I rarely even entertain the idea of THINKING about it, much less walking into Apple stores and playing with it.

But it's at a ridiculous price of RM549 (for the 8gb version)! :(

Which is a complete turn off. At least, I wish it were a complete turn off. But it's not. :( Cause I still desire it, no matter how hard I'm fighting against it.

What makes it even more ridiculous is that my bro has told me I can use his Ipod Nano 4th Generation. Which means I have a very good music player in hand already.

So dramatic hor? But how?

I don't want it I don't want it I don't want it I don't want it I don't want it

:( I still want it.

Haha. I'll be fine, I will. :-)

Just thinking aloud. The power of consumerism. Dang, Steve Jobs is the cause of this!

Have a good day & God bless!

Essentially...

2011-06-09T10:27:00.002+08:00

... It's your own, personal journey which no one can walk along with you.

I'm talking about the pilgrimage, the journey of faith we make. (To non-Christian readers, this may appear shallow and nonsensical but hey, it's my blog ;-) )

I've come to realise that it's each individual's journey which we can't expect to be accompanied with.

To 1st generation Christians who are accustomed to persecution and going to church alone, you would be used to it.

But for people like me, who grew up in church, for whom Sunday church used to be a family affair in which we all went to church together, it's a hard realisation. But hey, better learn now than never, right?

So many Sundays as I head to church alone I contemplate over the great change in my life that I still find hard to grasp sometimes.

At some points, I even ask myself questions which if spoken aloud, people would send me for counselling of the highest order.

*Which is why I'll never ask these questions aloud ;-)*

Like they say, it's more cruel to give someone everything only to take it all away, than to leave a person with nothing from the very start. Simply because the former has tasted all the riches and comfort of life, only to lose it all. The latter? He never knew a better life, nothing to miss.

Am off now,

Dang

2011-05-26T00:53:00.002+08:00

I missed my 4.0!

Hahaha.

Got 6 As, 1 A-. A- for Business zzzzzzz after ALL my hardwork last sem on that stupid subject! Still, could have been worse. Really thank the boyfriend for all his work in transporting me around KL finding stuff! =) =)

And of course, thank God for my results considering the horribly busy and lack of sleep semester I had. 3-4 hours of sleep per night throughout the 10 weeks of lecture and classes without a single break was NO JOKE.

Final GPA for this sem... 3.957... is that 3.96? Or 3.95?

Well, I'm happy enough with my results, good ending for first year. =)

Some unis have A+! And that's a 4.33 pointer which is AWESOME hahaha cause it means you always have a chance of targetting 4.0. (But then again, won't we all be aiming for 4.33 then??)

Anyway, that's all, have a good day!

God bless,

La Guitarra

2011-05-22T23:03:00.003+08:00

As I was polishing my precious Raimundo a couple of days ago, my mum looked at me intently concentrating on my task and commented, "You very free hor."

My answer?

"Of course I am!" =P

Suffice to say, my Raimundo has been getting the proper attention and love it needs (and lacked throughout my last sem) the past few days. =) Playing on it, polishing it, more playing on it... I have yet to fully utilize and unleash its maximum wonderful power that my teacher can do so easily, but hey, I'm getting there slowly. =D It's been a steep learning curve ever since I first picked up the guitar in 2008, but the havoc of starting university has stunted the progress I was making on it. Will have a few months to catch up and polish up and most hopefully ace my grade 6 exam in August, but it's been a good few years with the classical guitar. 3 years? Considering my constant breaks in playing and lessons due to Kedah/STPM/Uni, I think it's going okay =)

Recently picked up acoustic guitar playing, it's a different world altogether from classical playing but I'm really enjoying the journey of learning. Although steel strings hurt BIG TIME when I lay off playing acoustic for a while. What can I say? I've been spoilt by my wonderful classical soft-string guitar... and also because I'm not willing to invest in a really good acoustic guitar which will hurt my fingers less I think. Not for now, I'm pretty much a noob on acoustic playing.

What I REALLY want to learn is fingerstyle after classical playing, but that's a long way more to go. Cause I wanna 'finish' my classical guitar education (in terms of exams, I know learning is a lifelong process) first. Haha! Few years time I hope..

My apologies if this post is mumbo-jumbo to you, just decided to give my blog a lil' bit of life. =D

God bless,

Hello Alphapha!

2011-05-15T23:02:00.003+08:00

How's life been for you?

I've been attending 20s (ok, I tried to but Elaine asked me to teach her Econs in church instead =P), youth, teaching pre-teens, and helping the church clean up as they prepare for the renovation. =)

Past few months I've been so much more involved in Powerkids (Our canggih-manggih name for Sunday School) that the young people claim I've disappeared from church. I haven't, I'm just right above you. =)

My 4 month break started! =D

I'm tired, yet to catch up on my sleep!

I played badminton for my faculty against the Malaysian military something something college the day before my Thai exam. The staff lacked a women player so they conveniently sought me out and I went right after my Engrish paper. I played against our Malaysian women soldiers... and boy, are they HUGE. Not fat huge, but big-sized women..! Oh well, better people their size defending Malaysia than people MY Winnie the Pooh size.. haha!

Yes, I'm happy as you can see based on the number of exclamation !!! marks. =)

Joash is fine, busy with business and studies, *cracks head on how to make life easier for him* I bought him a new shiny ring because his old one died. =) He's working so so so hard but I don't know how to slow him down, I'll just make life easier for him... hehehe.

Today I went shopping with mum and bro, something I have not done in MONTHS! Haha I actually bought things too.. =) (While Joash slaved away at work, talk about guilt trip for me..!)

Feels good to be living on my own money (scholarship) rather than relying on mum, really it does. I remember wanting to give tuition to earn my own money last time and mum of course discouraged me, she just attempting to quell that stubborn independent streak I have in me I guess. But anyway, I got JPA so such hardworking thoughts all flew out of my head, I just need to worry about getting the best score I can get now so that I can ... (dreams not meant to be shared with the whole world). =)

Anyway, that's all, just light stuff, a good 4 month break for me to just sit back, relax, take better care of the hubby, concentrate on guitar.. =)

The best part? It's JUST starting. =)

I'm done with first year!!! *pheeeew!* Time really really really flies, the special someone started 'disturbing me' (and I gladly disturbed him back HAHA) during my first sem, and now I'm done with 1st year! It's been one trying sem, so many things out of focus, but I've learnt a lot about what to do, what not to do, what to commit to, what to step back from.

Aye, I'm just glad it's over. =)

God bless,

I know I've been busy when...

2011-05-10T17:13:00.002+08:00

1. My phone credit reaches 44 cents. Since I got my hp years ago I've not allowed my credit to drop so low. (Then again, could be because now thanks to Easy Prepaid I can call and sms 3 vital numbers for free. =P Guess who those 3 lucky people are!)

2. My purse reaches an all time low and I actually borrow money from my bro/mum.

3. Car petrol at final bar.

4. Energy level below final bar.

=P Haha, actually all the problems above settled di, just wanted to blog about it.

Left 2 more papers! Relatively light papers!

According the the 'markah tak rasmi', I got an A- for my Business. :( Sigh. Buhbye hopes of 4.0... After all my hardwork the ENTIRE sem and I get an A- on APK! Sheesh. Don't know where I went wrong, exam was pretty easy... mmm. But still, no regrets, I gave it my all, so I don't feel the "I should have tried harder" feeling.

One of my faculty's staff called me up and asked me to partner her in a badminton competition tomorrow, against some military people! Haha Thursday only left Thai paper, that one no need to study one la so I agreed to partner her. =) Bring it on, tentera!

Hubby's business is up and running! I'm gonna paint the shoplot after my exams! Hahaha *itchified*

Ok, gonna sleep a while. *Smells May 12th, 1.30pm drawing closer*

God bless,

Nocturnal

2011-05-06T03:12:00.005+08:00

Messed up my sleep cycle some days ago, been keeping awake all night, sleeping at 9am and waking up at about 2, 3, even 4pm these days.

Hmm... can't wait for exams to be over!

Kenari tire decided to puncture a few hours ago, happened to Nat (hubby's BFF), so good thing these 2 guys knew what to do. If it had happened to ME in the middle of the night (won't happen to bro and mum because only I go out at odd hours =P)... I would have just called the hubby so no problem la actually. Hahaha! =P Needed a tool that Yan's house had, thank God!

Why am I blabbing??

(Cause I'm avoiding work)

Asia Tenggara next week, 4 papers next week, so so tiring! But but I can do it, another four papers and I'm DONE with first year! Soo soo freaking fast! Then only another 2.5 years of studies! (Yeah right. Hahaha.) I love this academic world... don't think I'll leave it lah. =)

Mum said we've (Joash and I) have 'been good' because we've not been on a real date in mooonths! Usually just a quick meal and back to our busy busy lives. Haha, we've been 'good'! For not dating. -_- *throws hands up in the air in disbelief* Soon, soon! ;-)

The brother got a job! So now I've got to take over the bills agaaiiin. -_- Get ready for all the phone calls and letters demanding late payment again! *Must learn to be more responsible* Haha, poor guy, he has to work so hard, mmm *enjoys studying for now*

Ok, verbal diarrhea over, back to Southeast Asia's ekonomik demokratik politik blablabla

God bless,

Edit (4.28am): Oh oh oh! Was watching some Youtube videos, I know my next experiment during my 4 month break! I want to play around with videos and music! =) *Lol, sorry that's all my mind can focus on... 4 month break!*

Nooo -_-

2011-04-30T14:51:00.003+08:00

Elaine deleted her Facebook, just when I was about to release stress on her wall!

Yan did the sameee thing! Eh Yan I wanna meet you in library laah, I sleep too much at home. -_- Haha!

Life is sad when you gotta start blogging TO people because there's no other mode of communication!

Ok, fine, I can sms, but my phone is shooo far away...

Miss those days of having fun in church, right right??

Haha, just a stress-releasing post, am gonna be DONE with 1st year on May 12th! After that... hehehe! Last day Thai paper.. last sem I walked out of the whole a full hour earlier and my Thai lecturer wasn't too happy with me... so tempted to do that again this sem... mmm not as if I'm taking Thai next sem onwards anyway, don't need to keep in anyone's good books.. hmm... Thai paper is like that, either you know or you don't know, no extra time will help you. Except if you're fervently hoping for a lightbulb moment, sit as long as you want in that case!

Bingbingbongbong =) Gonna be dooone!

Haha, still have another 4 papers to go before I'm done though.

Pointless post, really.

God bless,
Jo

Yo yo!

2011-04-30T03:18:00.004+08:00

Updates updates updates.

I've been sleeping like a pig the past few days. -_- Really, like wake up 2pm every day. Zzz.

Haha kononnya long break between exam papers so I'm supposed to study. =(

Anyway, Easter Powerkids done! And thank God it went well, from worship to games to food to shadow play to the message shared! =) Truth be told, I don't mind becoming in charge of such an event again, the people whom I assigned responsibilities to did awesome jobs! AWESOME. =) Everyone got right into the spirit of things and gave their all. Hehe.

Besides that, I got my first A for a course that was sooo freaking hard I thought my A would be gone. Scraped by with an 84%. =)

Don't know if I can maintain my 4.0 CGPA this sem, will try, but hmm haha uni life is just getting tougher, and my zest to get 4.0 is not so strong anymore. *will try will try*

Talked to a few old friends yesterday, friends I made when I was much younger.. and well well, the problems we face now, the issues we talk about now.. so much more 'grown-up' than our younger days. Still, it was a good catching up session, and I'm very glad that all of them are making headway in life! =)

*Eh future Singaporean English Literature teacher, you rock! ;-)*

Today Pos Laju-ed a birthday present to dad-in-law, hahaha I hope it makes it to Kuantan without breaking! 2 mugs with Harley Davidson-looking bikes on them. =) Padded with a towel! Tried to find a Harley miniature model but didn't manage... hmm, very hard to find these kinda models lah, been looking everywhere! Father and son both into bikes, haha gifts are rather easy eh ;-) If only it were easier to find bike models... *keeps looking*

The hubby has been busy with business and studies, *I'll always be here to support you k my dear =)*

And I've been busy with... sleeping and studies. -_- *Feels guilty* And playing the guitar and piano and onlining. Ok la, I don't online so much these days... Catching up on AN ENTIRE sem's sleep I guess, this sem has been one crazy, sleep-deprived one. Sleep-deprived means I slept even less than my hubby, and THAT means I hardly slept. Cause HE hardly sleeps!

Inspite of all that, give me uni any time as compared to my schooling days. =) The 'intellectual atmosphere' in uni is so so sooo comforting, I feel happy! Knowledge doesn't actually mean eating up textbooks for exam here (Apart from stupid university courses like Hubungan Etnik and TITAS and APK), it goes far beyond textbooks. In fact, in all my English and Southeast Asian Studies courses there are no textbooks, and we're expected to research on our own online and in the library. =) It's tough at times I admit, having been brought up all my life in a rigid, text-book based system (apart from English Lit), but it's something I enjoy lah. =) Yep, Imma 'nerd' at heart. Hahaha! (Though I could go into a debate with you about the definition of a 'nerd'... but most Malaysians can't tell the difference so why bother?)

Heart wants to rejoin UM's SUKMUM badminton team.. :( See how lah...

Ok, 3.56am... I'll stop here, have a blessed day!

God bless,
Jo

Ding Ding Dong Dong

2011-04-13T22:26:00.004+08:00

Church people say they've not seen me in ages.

PKV people say the same.

Truth is, I'm frantically running back and forth between these 2, maybe that's why both don't see me that much. (On top of uni work lah.)

I've got to decide on one lah. I'm nearly on duty for something or other in church every week, it's the rare occasion when I have TWO weeks in a row of being duty-less. As for PKV, I admit I don't spend as much time with them since I've moved out of hostel..

Like Ps. Ong told me when I told him about how I realised I'll have to pick one.. He said I'll eventually have to prune and decide which area and place I'll be able to serve the best in. He said, "You mean PKV can SURVIVE without you on the committee??" Haha! Yes, they can. Very very well, in fact. I'm not a useful member.

Not to mention that I'll like to have more time to spend with my awesome pawesome coursemates =)

Just thinking incoherently now, am exhausted. But have to study for a test. zzz!

Just got a sweet sms from a church member wondering if I had 'sesated' because I seem to have disappeared from church. =) (Which I haven't, but just no time to hang out with them because I'm either on duty for something or gotta run off after service. Which of course defeats the whole purpose of church-FELLOWSHIP.) Haha, I've never once stayed at home on a Sunday morning ever since I joined PPBC, if I've missed church it's because I'm away at camp/Malacca/some event/something lah. That is, until about 3 weeks ago. To cut a long story short, I didn't have a car, and Elaine kindly offered to fetch me when I informed her at 10am, but I was already back in bed (was during my gilar hectic few weeks so I lacked sleep) so I declined her offer. Haha. That afternoon Joash and I went for lunch.. and talk about KANTOI. -_- Bumped into ALL the young people in church who were celebrating Yan's birthday. Sigh. The FIRST time I ever simply skipped church (in PPBC la) I've got to meet all of them. Zzz.

Hahahaha. My my. Anyway, if you think I'm too busy dating and don't have enough time for other things... lemme assure you that my poor BF has not gone on a proper date with me in the longest of times. I can't even remember our last real date...?? We went for a movie about a month plus ago but that was it, just a movie before we both had our own things to do again. Haha. We do plenty of late night study dates though, we're busy busy busy students! (Especially him, can you imagine being busier than me?? He is!)

Last Sunday made a last-minute day trip to Kuantan because he had something urgent to collect, we attended service there. Very comfortable atmosphere, the church there. :-) Had a very good trip, the hubby was worried I couldn't spare the time cause I had a test the next day and a few tests this week, but I felt like I needed the break. And it brought me an awesome break, albeit a short one. After service we had EIGHT people's share of kai fan between the 4 of us (parents in law brought us =D) and then the father-in-law brought us on a 'car tour' to show this PJ gal the true meaning of Kuantan. Haha! They pointed out places I would have played when I was a mere toddler in Kuantan, and surprisingly I think I actually have SOME form of memory about some of those places! They even pointed out where I used to stay.. hahahaha that one I really don't know. =P

Was a very good, relaxing trip, mum-in-law had a good chat with me hehe, cute aunty with excellent advice! Dad-in-law was a typical dad and enlightened me on LYNAS. Haha! Glad to have made that trip to Kuantan, too short but nevermindla, sneak preview to our next one, eh sayang? ;-)

The in-laws knew me as a kid and vice versa, how often do we get this kinda privileged background before meeting your future hubby?? =D Looking forward to the next trip when I've got less things on my mind, no tests the next day, and more time to enjoy Kuantan!

Ok, I should study now, test tomorrow!

God bless,

Growing Up's Tough.. but Fun

2011-04-09T02:29:00.002+08:00

It's rather pressurizing when entire events lie on your shoulder. If you don't work on them, nothing will be done. -_-

Am in charge of the entire Easter for Powerkids/Sunday School! Eg. Worship, Games, Play, Food... etc. And the aunties/teachers are turning to ME when they have questions! -_- *so scary and odd*

Hmm. Things will work out...

They will! =)

God bless,

=D

2011-04-08T16:22:00.004+08:00

Handed in my final 2 heavy assignments today! =D

Hehe. Week 13, Friday is finally here!

Final week next week before exams, having a few tests and a presentation =) But happy mappy! =D Nearly over!

Haha.

Heading to Kuantan this Sunday for a day trip, hubby has something urgent there so we're going... I'll get to see his new castle! =D Mum-in-law smsed a rather lengthy sms and said she's looking forward to seeing us there.. so am I! =) Haha, cute family = cute son!

Yesterday's bro's fish required mouth surgery, was comical to see him and Joash both attempting to repair its mouth -_- The small tiny yellow thing outsmarted 2 grown men by jumping everywhere, but eventually gave up the fight. I'm surprised the fish is still alive today, albeit its mouth is now 'cracked' and retarded-looking. (Yeah it was a completely FAILED surgery, poor fish.)

Ok, I'm not making much sense today, but just wanted to post a relatively happier post =D Heading to bed now!

God bless,

Btw, it's been about 7 months now since I started seeing Joash.. time flies eh? Longer than 7 months if you count the 'sms stage'. I've realised that relationships CAN last, after all. =) Thanks to Joash I've learnt that.. <3 you my dear!

I have been...

2011-04-03T19:01:00.003+08:00

... sleeping 3 - 4 hours everyday the past few weeks, except for last Saturday morning (7 hours! =D)

... so busy I feel as if I have no time to breathe properly

... so tired I no longer feel tired, merely accepting and numb to the fact that work has to be done

... longing to have catch-up sessions with friends, friends who sms and call me just to talk, but we're too busy to meet face to face :-(

... in dire need of a real holiday (where I don't need to wake up to an alarm clock, do any thinking about work)

... in dire need of a real date (=P study date not counted!)

... exhausted with life

... wasting precious minutes with this blog post

Okay, back to assignments! It'll all be over soon!

God bless,

Hectic Gilar

2011-03-29T02:47:00.002+08:00

Was in campus from 10am to 10.30pm today. -_- Without a hostel to run back too! (Ok, fine I could have easily bunked in any friend's hostel bed but I wanted to feel fruitful so I spent my free time in the library before heading off for emcee rehearsal at 8pm).

Business Project, Emcee, Assignments, Exams, Quizzes, Presentations, EVERYTHING in the next few days, weeks.

Awfully tiring. -_- Supposed to goto McD at 4am today but I really, really, tak larat, tried to stay up for it, but cannot la. Sorry Yan, hope you read this AFTER your 'birthday surprise'. Haha.

Apart from spending 2 hours in an English class, I spoke Malay the whole entire day today, and by 10.30pm I was feeling a desperate need for English!

Feels odd that I'll be emceeing in English during my Asia Tenggara dinner although none of my AT coursemates have ever heard me speak English to them. -_- It's an odd, odd world. Let's hope they understand me, eh?

Bed bed bed,

=)

2011-03-21T02:10:00.001+08:00

*Contentment*

Had a good day today.

You know why. =)

Hehe.

Although in terms of work and finishing assignments, nothing was done, but it's been a very good day. =)

Dear blog..

2011-03-19T11:39:00.005+08:00

I survived this week. /hæ̀ləlújə préz ðə lɔ́rd/!

hahahaha. =) /ájm ɪn lə́v/!

Ok, enough funny funny words.

I've had a rather brutal week, me thinks, with 4 hours of sleep per night.

As I contemplated over this semester, I realised that the source of stress is from my *insert vulgar language here* APK project. It's some business project in which I was dumped in a random group of 20 people, and I'm not getting the cooperation I need for a non-stressful project. And it gets more frustrating when you see your fellow English coursemates (our original plan was to form out own group before UM decided for us -_-) all struggling in THEIR respective *insert vulgar word here* groups because of the same problems.

So, technically ya, this sem has gone awesomely well, if not for that /ǽshòl ə́v ə prɑ́dʒɛkt/. The worry about it is constantly playing on the back of my mind ever since I became group leader of this group. So that's about, 10 weeks of worrying so far? No wonder lah I'm sooo tired!

But it'll end soon. And I've got a loving hubby who's more than willing to show me how to do a business plan. (Trust my lecturer to leave us hanging and not knowing how to even do a business plan. -_- ) And willing to bring me to the heart of KL with prostitutes and pimps and gangsters to source for my business things. θǽŋks dɪ́r!

Life's tiring, but good! =) Gonna rough it out these few weeks, then after that it's a blissful 4 months of ~~taking care of hubby, making sure he doesn't rempit so much~~ holidays and going back to Down Syndrome kids. =)

Going off now!

God bless

2011-03-11T22:26:00.002+08:00

Stress.

Stress + Assignment = Arrgh.

Stress + Assignment + Other non-assignment-related-work = ARRRRGGGGHHH.

Extreme stress + AssignmentS + Other non-assignment-related-but-important-work = Death Sentence.

Somehow last semester was so much easier although I was involved in so many things - badminton, squash, piano, guitar, debate, Chinese class.

Should I go for...

2011-03-11T15:05:00.003+08:00

EARC?

ThePlan11?

Sweep's out, cause I think 2 weeks is a bit too much of a commitment, what with my guitar exam coming soon.

EARC's good, but it's RM518.. hmmm... it'll be good exposure though. On the other hand, the purpose of EARC itself isn't exactly on my heart.

ThePlan11... missionary! I went for ThePlan09, like a month before my STPM trials at that time.. it was good, awesome exposure. Unfortunately our plans to follow-up on each other(within my group) faded away after a while. Haha. It's RM300 if I register early...

Truth be told, Sweep's the thing that's really on my heart. Social work. Hmmm. But.. it's 2 weeks! If I don't attend Sweep, I can attend church camp instead. =D

Or maybe I won't go for any. Haha. Just stick to my working with awesomely cute down syndrome kids in Kiwanis lah, right? =) That's the real thing anyway, not 'exposure'. I miss them kids... getting back my zest for life slowly now... =)

Work? 4 months break? (But no job will pay me as good money as JPA does now..) Haha! The only thing I can do that'll more money than some RM4.00 per hour job is giving personal tuition (few hours and I'm a hundred bucks richer!), but that requires commitment beyond 4 months. Cause I'm serious about my teaching and don't believe in leaving my students in the lurch. Anyway I'm not targetting to buy anything at the moment, so won't really be in desperate need of money. Just live on JPA lah. I did my part di as a student, now can shake leg a bit since got scholarship...

Should I go... to... Kuantan? haha! This one confirm di laaar, since the in-laws emailed me the photos of their new castle! (Rusa, bila?) It's a direct hint to visit them instead of them asyik visiting my PJ! Lol. Cute people =)

I'll be going to Bali! =)

And if possible I wanna bawak the bf around Melaka =)

*So many plans*

hahaha.

Liddat no need to attend EARC/ThePlan11/Sweep di lah.

Forgive my Manglish post, excited di thinking of me horridays!

Stwess!

2011-03-11T01:54:00.004+08:00

Character Analysis Assignment

Pembentangan Asia Tenggara

Rancangan Perniagaan

Easter Powerkids

PKV's Easter

Short Essay

Hari APK

Theory test

Novel assignment

Pronunciation test

Thai class oral test

Asia Tenggara Assignment

(Just completed) Hubungan Etnik assignment

And probably a few more that I missed out...

My my, and all except one is on/due next week.

-_-

Zzz.

Not to mention my preparation for grade 6 classical guitar exam.

'Tis ok, I'm fine. =) Will just have to take a few deep breaths, and get everything done by this weekend.

Good thing I've got Nescafe in me now.

Thank God for a mom and bro who are willing to pack my meals back home for me. =)

Thank God for a hubby who delivers breakfast at 6am in the morning. Haha! Eh, on his own accord one, I never once asked for such pwincessy treatment! (Poor fella, I'll take care of you better k during my 4 month break. =) Good thing you're such an understanding hubby!)

*Off to do more reading*

We'll survive! We will!

God bless,

UMUMUMUM

2011-03-10T09:31:00.003+08:00

Sitting in UM waiting for my next class...

Am exhausted!! Siiigh.

I predicted this would be a long, tiring sem because it's a freaking 10 consecutive weeks of lecture without a single break. Even the 2 public holidays were on my lightest of days. :( My foreshadowing of an exhausting semester is most unfortunately proving to be right.

For the most part, I would be fine if I weren't stuck in a group project with people I don't know and don't want to do work. A 20 people group project and I'm practically running a one man show!!! Not by choice, mind you.

Zzzzzzzzz.

On the plus side, I've got awesome coursemates. If only I could concentrate fully on my major I would be plenty happy.

So tired!

Just being grumpy cause I had a replacement 8am class today and I detest early classes.

Zzzzzz have a good day!

God bless,
Jo

And hello again =)

2011-03-07T01:36:00.001+08:00

Just felt like blogging today.

Hmmm...

What about?

*thinking thinking*

Okay, I'll answer the question so many people seem to ask me.

How did I meet Joash?

He picked me up from the bus stop. To rescue me from taking the cramp, crowded, sure-to-get molested bus. =P Using his Ducati with only a single seat so I had to squeeze real tight and hug him. The very first time I met him.

So romantic, hor??

Please laaah I value myself more than that, hahaha where got simply hug hug guys one! Guys simply touch me di I get angry!

Okay. Hmm. We met online. Eh don't play play k! Cyber love! Hahahahaha!

Chatted and chatted... *love bloomed*

Yeah right lah. 'Tis so easy to fall in love online these days I'm a skeptic on cyber love.

Truth is, I met him in Kuantan when I stayed there.

Oh, did I mention that I used to live in Kuantan when I was 2, 3 years old? Haha don't be illogical lah, I barely remember anything from those days, what more meeting a cute 4 year old boy!

Okay, none of the above is true. Haha.

You're not getting the truth here.

Would you believe things just happened between the two of us one random day?

Yeah, something like that. :-) That's about as close to the truth as we can get.

We've known each other for a while di lah... wasn't some random guy falling for a random gal and vice versa. =)

I let him do all the chasing though =P Now that was the fun part!

I know I'm totally evading the how we met question. ;-) That's for us to know!

God bless,
Jo

It's been exactly a year...

2011-03-04T20:35:00.004+08:00

'Twas a Thursday last year, at 7.10pm that you breathed your last...

You spent your last few hours gasping for breath... Moaning in pain at some points...

My complete absolute helplessness...

I remember chatting to ko on MSN while he was rushing back from Australia...

My sudden realisation as I chatted that I could no longer hear you laboring over each breath...

My rushing over to your bed to check...

My calling out to mom in a numb, shocked, calm manner...

She rushing over...

Me telling ko that you've left us for a better place... He was but some hours away from seeing you...

The instant support people provided when they heard the news...

(Haha, Andrea came and brought me Kit Kat and hugged me that very night! My mum still remembers you as the girl who walked in and hugged her without any qualms of seeing dad on the bed! Thanks Andrea =P)

And the rest, memories of everything I had to do the next few days, the numbness...

Later I was told that so many worried for me cause I showed no emotion.

Guess I've just got a stupid belief that showing emotions are for the weak.

Can't say what my stand is anymore regarding that belief, so much has happened...

Anyway dad, I'm happy with my current station of life,

If things hadn't turned out the way it did on September 16, 2008, I would be on a completely different path now.

Don't know where I would be, don't know if I would be contented...

(Doubt Joash and I would ever have crossed paths ;-) )

And one of my principles is to never say 'if' and look back with regret.

To look back and wonder, maybe. To wallow in regret, never. I'm completely powerless in changing my past.

But I am empowered to decide my future.

It's been a tough healing process dad...

But as compared to the pain you went through on earth, I daresay you're happier now. =)

I was named as the Arts & Social Science faculty's top student for last semester, the only 4.0 student to exist in my fac apparently.

Hope you're proud of that!

With plenty of love,
Your precious daughter

Hey hey

2011-02-18T20:48:00.006+08:00

Harlo bloggy! =)

I've not blogged in a long long while... There were a couple of attempts to blog before this but I usually ended up saving them as drafts because.. Don't know why really, but haha the last draft was because I felt it was too poorly written to make it public. =P Let's hope this one ends up published, eh? =D

So... What has happened during my hiatus from this blog?

Hmm.. Plenty, I've been so busy...! I lack plenty of sleep and usually catch up during the weekends. During my schooling days I ran on so little sleep, I can't seem to do that these days, I suspect it's largely due to the fact that I actually use my brain during lectures and tutorials now, as compared to school days in which stoning was an everyday affair. Not to mention the fact that studies was so much easier then. Oh, and the fact that every small freaking thing is counted towards my final grade/CGPA! Arrgh. Back in those days I only had to really study during my final few months of a public exam... PMR, SPM... STPM not counted, that was God given. It takes more effort to do well here now... I'm struggling to be consistent in my studies now, if I push everything till the very last minute I've not much hope of doing well.. That only works as far as your first sem during your first year. =(

Will have to be an emcee for my Asia Tenggara dinner soon, people who speak decent English here are such a tiny minority, my Asia Tenggara people practically begged me to be the English speaking emcee because there is no one else who speaks English in that course of mine!

I have Malay speaking days now. Hahaha! I've never spoken so so much Malay in my whole life, until I stepped into no, not UM, but my Asia Tenggara course. My PJ Malay friends were English speaking and most basically sucked in Malay. Most UM people on the other hand find it amazing that I speak English all the time. But my Malay is ok la, I understand them and they understand me, except for the few Kelantanese who sometimes speak with their super strong accent. By the end of my 3.5 years here I'm guessing my Malay will have shot sky high!

I'm trying to find back my 'mojo' and zest for doing things, now most things are done half-heartedly... Hmmm... It'll come back, I hope. Passion's a mighty strong motivator in doing things.

I've still got mixed feelings about my varsity badminton team... The heart says go sometimes, the head tells me to prioritize. Zzz. I'll listen to my head this time I think..

My relationship's doing well, very well. =) Been learning a lot from it, mainly how to adapt and think of my other half before I bulldoze my way into things! =P I now understand all the poems on love that I learn about, how sweet or bitter love can make one. Haha, before this I could never 'connect' with these poems, because I never truly experienced love between man and woman.

I feel this post is a rather 'monotonous' post... So I better post it before I decide it looks better in the draft section. =P hahaha, looks like I gotta find my 'mojo' for blogging too!

God bless,
Jo

Phewww

2011-01-29T21:01:00.000+08:00

Finally have some time to catch a breather. I had a busier day today as compared to normal uni days!

Got up 12.45pm, practiced guitar cause I had class at 2pm, and not been too consistent in practice lately, so practiced lor. Then went off for youth 3-5.. stayed on in church for worship practice.. till... 8pm. Got back home, showered, and here I am, blogging.

No time to eat today! :-( And my fridge is quite, quite empty! Nevermind, better lose weight first before CNY/feasting begins... ;-)

Anyway, that's all for now, I'm on my only holiday during this semester, after this it's 10 weeks straight of everything. *Takes a deep deep DEEEP breath*

Gonna rest now!

God bless,
Jo

Playing with HTML

2011-01-15T01:47:00.002+08:00

Today played around a lot with blog templates.. and the HTML format cause I helped my other half with his design... I more than just changed the design, eh dear. =P! Looking at my blog, I remember designing it soooo many years ago, at that time I played around with so much HTML I could adjust so so many things. Now I barely know anything :( And lazy to start again unless the need arises.

haha, but looking at my blog design, it's relatively 'holy', eh??? I think I added those verses in form 2.. the height of my dabbling with some online churchy stuff that made me hmm ok let's not be blasphemous.

Anyway, I won't bother to change the design, you just don't disturb history. I started blogging when I was in my first year of teenhood, and I'm done with teenhood now! That'll be a good... 7 years?? SEVEN years??? Wow!

Ok, just a short one, I'm off, too much computer today, eyes funny liao. Muh other half reached Kuantan safely! =)

God bless,
Jo

Elloz =)

2011-01-14T22:25:00.002+08:00

Ok, I've been a really bad bad blogger. Bad bad Joanne! :(

haha, I've got so so many half-written posts in my drafts, that's why. I suddenly get uninspired so I just end up saving my posts.. half-meaning to complete them later. =P

I just turned 20 on the 12th of Jan! =)

At 12+ midnight on the 12th, Joash came by to see me.. haha, his plan to set off fireworks with his friends in front of my house at 12 midnight failed! Poor him.. but it was good enough to see him! =)

Next day, started out on a rather dreary note.. classes... but after an English class conducted by the most sarcastic instructor I've ever had thus far, my coursemates surprised me! With 5 candles on 5 colourful cupcakes and a chocolate rose and pudding and coconut chocolates! You guys and gals are so so sweet, I really wasn't expecting anything. :-) I mean, we've known each other only a few months.. and you guys actually did that! Was so so touched =)

After class, went home, went out with mum and brother for food...

Night time, the hubby took me out to dinner.. wow we really ate! He claims I didn't eat much but I ate A LOT. And he served me the whole night.. haha, I'm becoming spoilt and un-independent laaah with him around! And he kept apologising for the lack of a cake... -_- (As if I was even expecting one!)

After dinner, on the way home........

To cut the long story short, my sweet hubby actually got my dear friends to surprise me at home with a cake! Hahaha, was so so so shocked! People rarely manage to surprise me. But after what my coursemates did, and to suddenly walk into MY OWN HOME with friends singing the birthday song.. I was completely, absolutely dumbfounded. Never been caught so so so offguard by anything before! But it was a pleasant night =)

After everyone went off.. the couple took a walk in the park.. and.. he did the sweetest thing ever. I think I had so many surprises that by the time he gave me the biggest surprise I was struck speechless, and really couldn't think of anything to say. Haha. (No, I'm not divulging what he did.. some sweet events and memories aren't meant to be posted for the whole world to read.) But really, I was just completely taken aback by the day's events, I couldn't speak. Really, really couldn't speak. (And I've never been struck dumb like that before either!) Everytime I look at the ring on my finger with our names engraved inside, I still marvel at that sweet, sweet, night... =) =) =)

Anyway, we changed our relationship status on Facebook, and surprisingly I've not been bombarded with comments. haha! I think cause most are too busy replying to my comments on their birthday wishes. :-) And I'm quite, quite happy to keep it that way!

So anyway, yeah just a post to say that we're 'officially' a couple! ;-) It's been an amazing journey thus far, I've changed my skeptical view on relationships and I now believe that some relationships can actually work out. :-) Good thing I've got such a patient boyfriend who will never push me beyond my comfort zone!

And if you're hoping to read my blog for any fights between us, you're not getting any. Hahaha, I know some people would love to read such details but really, such details aren't meant to be shared with the world. Suffice to say, we've been good and steady so far, and we both knew the question was ripe and ready to be asked. =P haha, I'll really try to avoid fights but hmm I'm a wee bit stubborn at times! Don't woggly dear, I'll try not to make you angry. *sweet smile* LOL!

Ok ok, I know this post has been sooo un-Joanne with some lovey-dovey words here and there, but hey, being in a relationship has changed me in some aspects. Am trying to be a better girlfriend, haha eh not easy sometimes k when you're so used to living independently.. especially for someone who's walked home alone and stayed home alone since standard 1! That's practically 12 years of surviving on my own, worrying about my needs alone. Now I think of my other half before I take any action.. it's really different in that sense, but less chance of ending up raped/kidnapped/killed I guess. Haha!

Ok, signing off, have a blessed day!
Jo

Have a blessed new year! =)

2011-01-01T15:13:00.002+08:00

Was intending to post yesterday, the last day of 2010. But.. forgot about it. Or rather was too lazy to post about it.

Anyway, 2010 has been a year of life-changes. If you follow my blog that's what it would have appeared to be, anyway.

1. I did superbly well for STPM.
2. I lost the man of my life.
3. I'm actually a varsity student. WOW.
4. I got another man of my life.. in a different sense. ;-)
5. I got the brother home! Whee that's fun =D
6. My faith has increased so abundantly in God, despite my misgivings and doubts about so many issues.. ultimately I go back to the basis of it all.

I've been broken over and over again in 2008, 2009 and 2010, it reached a climax in which I was merely numb to the world. Numb to everything around me. Appearing hard-hearted to close friends. Pretending to care when in fact, I was merely putting on a front because the inside of me was so so hardened I couldn't care less for the hurts of others. I was tired of being faithful, I was sick of being broken, I was just plain exhausted with life. And yet I trudged on, because somewhere deep inside me I knew to give up on life would have been ultimately selfish to my loved ones, to people who still depended on me. Just reread my last posts of 2008 and 2009, and looking back, I have no idea how I survived those tumultuous days. Numbing myself to everything around me.. a survival trait I suppose. At least I didn't go mad. Or maybe I did... hmmm..

But through it all, I kept running back to God, when man failed me over and over again. And in His own silent, gentle way, He comforted me. :-)

So I sincerely hope that 2011 will be a better year. If the final few months of 2010 was an indication of anything, 2011 looks to be quite, quite optimistic. I won't deny that challenges are bound to arise, but let's hope that they are manageable, ok? With so many changes in life I'm sure problems will crop up. But for now, life's pretty much ok...

Have a blessed new year! :-)

Ho ho ho...

2010-12-24T19:06:00.000+08:00

Christmas is tomorrow. Thanks to the interesting church I was brought up in, I don't celebrate Christmas. Hahaha. No biggie to me, at least I no longer condemn christmas, and hey that's a humungous step from where I came from. ;-) I'm just 'feelingless' over it, no sense of festivity or whatsoever. Not that I'm complaining. =P

Bro and I did do something last year, cause we wanted to cheer the house up when dad came home from the hospital. We bought a small Christmas tree, probably as a sign that we're rebels against some people.

Was looking at dad's facebook profile earlier, and it hit me hard... I still can't believe cancer took dad away. It's impossible, really. But I learnt early on in life that fairytales aren't true, so this is reality I guess. Sigh. I'm not even working yet!

Anyway, enough nostalgia. Life is life, and life goes on. I am who I am today because of what life put me through..o

Someone asked me if I know what hardship is. The truth? Physical hardship, not enough food and material goods, no. But emotional and spiritual hardship, I would say most most definitely yes, I understood that from a very young age.

Haha, ok ok I'll stop here. Last night in Australia, and we're all just focused on going home. I lub Malaysia, despite all its flaws and policies and injustice and whatsoever negative connotations. :) got a driver to go home tomorrow ;-) the hubby! HAHA!

Have a very blessed Christmas! Hehehe!
Jo

Elloo from Aus

2010-12-23T22:09:00.002+08:00

Decided to blog from Melbourne before I go back to Malaysia. Actually really lazy but decided my blog deserves it. Currently blogging from my iPad which my brother bought for me. Haha, an iPad! I'm not techy enough to actually ever buy one for myself, so it's a pretty pleasant surprise.

Hmm. Australia has been pretty fun, but my heart is with Malaysia. I dunno la, guess I'm a true Malaysian at heart. Haha! It's been the longest holiday ever I've taken, and it does feel somewhat uncomfortable to just abandon everything at home to come here. But at the same time, its been so relaxing, since my maxis line doesn't work here since I don't have roaming on my postpaid. So... No smses nor calls that may disrupt my holidays. Only call a certain person ;-)

Nothing much to blog la, can't wait to return home, that's all! Hahaha. Gotta work dog hard on my guitar, exam coming! Can't wait to reach grade 8 haha so excited.

Hmm. Nothing much la, I'll stop here. Have a pleasant day :) this iPad corrects my engrish so if I dun notice sometimes it changes my manglish to weiiiirrrd stuff. I called someone a harlot today! Just cause I typed 'harlo'. HAHAHAHA!!!

That's all, God bless!
Jo

Wow

2010-12-08T13:13:00.005+08:00

I'm officially DONE WITH Sem 1 of university! Haha, my Thai coursemates are still in the hall answering their paper. I left after an hour. :-)

Anyway, quick updates, gotta rush off to pack some things for Aus.

1. I'm leaving tonight, gonna travel some 6000km? Alone! Haha. Such an adventure that I'm looking forward to. My bro is worried my handphone won't work in Aus, cause that's what happened to my relatives yesterday, 1 out of 6 hps worked. So he says if mine doesn't work, I'm a gonecase. Haha. Ok la, he didn't put it so crudely/brutally. But hmm, if it doesn't work I'll have an exciting time. ;-)

2. I got out of my hostel. :-) My hostel has been.. well, an interesting place. Much as I like my roommates, I had responsibilities at home that simply didn't allow me to stay on and on in my hostel for days/weeks/months on end. My friends used it as a refuge/run-away place from home. I never had that privilege, because running away from home is simply too selfish an option for me. Haha, how many times have I longed to run away? I still look back on my Kedah days with fondness, despite my short stint there, being away from home was awesome.. some other aspects weren't pleasant, but staying away from home? ;-) But back then I didn't have responsibilities at home.. I only had to worry about me, myself, and I. I think of the universities I could have applied for with my STP results. But sometimes, running isn't an option. Despite how much your heart yearns for it. And it's safe to say that God has been gracious to me, especially when you put others ahead of your own selfish desires. :-)

3. Bro's convocation tomorrow.. I remember how my dad so proudly insisted that he would attend his convocation last year, from his hospital bed. I remember the fleeting doubt I had when he said that. And when he continued to fight for his life early this year, we always thought he was fighting on to make it to Aus, for tomorrow's event. (To say he'll make it for mine was a far-cry, but ko's convo still seemed slightly, slightly possible last year.)

Anyway, before I get all emo-ey, despite all that's happened, ko's gonna graduate! And I'm so darn proud of him. Don't play-play man, ANU Actuarial Science! Hahaha. It's been a horribly struggle for him the past 3 years, and this past year has been especially hard on him. Still, he made it, and became the man of the family when he had to eventually step up in that role. :-) How many sons would actually become man when horribly painful trials come? He didn't whine, that's for sure. At least, not to us. And for that, we're grateful.

4. Learning to be not-so-independent has been a strangely weird task for me lately. Since I got Joash in my life, I've realised that sometimes, we don't have to go through life alone. :-) He's been taking care of me in ways I've hardly experienced before.. always been independent since young I guess, it's a pleasant change! :-) Hehe.

Ok, I'm off to pack stuff.

God bless,

Now that Lit's over...

2010-11-29T16:28:00.003+08:00

DANG I wish I went for National Conference (NC). An event that occurs ONCE every FIVE years and I actually decided NOT to go??? -_-

I better be doing my Masters man. But I'll be OLD by the next NC. :-( The people around me will be little kids!

Oh well.

I didn't go because.. I'm flying off to Aus next week, and I'll be back Christmas day, then I'll be off to youth camp 27th to 30th Dec. Next sem starts 3rd January. So I thought I don't wanna rush everywhere like that.. become old faster! And of course got other reasons also lah. Lol!

I asked to move out of college last week. Today they called me up to tell me my 'alasan tak munasabah'. Grrrr. I asked them about my friends who stay farther away from UM and managed to get out. They were ah whatever lah. They asked me see my Pengetua. I'll do that lah, if they can fit me in an appointment this week. Or I may have to do what I have to do to get out lah... -_- Not that I want to but sometimes I have to.

On another random note, I bought new jeans! Hahaha. Because my old jeans simply just slipped off me, it was becoming ludicrous. I held on wearing to them for so long, because I bought them Levi's (LEVI'S!!) at a warehouse sale this year. :-( But the past month or so finally gave up on them lah. So I finally have fitting jeans again! My attire to campus and church izzz complete. =D I bought a pair today that I've been looking out for but they didn't have my size earlier, got it at 50% off.. which means it cost less than RM30..! Ok lah, with this kinda price it beats my Levi's from warehouse sales. =D And one of my jeans has a Bible verse on the back pocket. Lol! So cute lah.

Mum's birthday today! Gonna makan at a kawan's house for her birthday. Ah, I love fwens. :-) They make sure your family's well-taken care of!

OH. Another thing. My maid (Nao Tha) RAN AWAY! -_- We got her a few months ago, and she ran off yesterday. I'm still puzzled over the 'WHY'. We gave her more than what most maids can dream off. We did up the toilet for her, we cleared out our store room and gave her a nice bed, big cupboard, fan, did curtain railings for her room, made her fat... attempted to teach her English but she refused to learn, she took so many of my personal items without permission but I merely bit back my tongue and took back only what I wanted/needed to use.

She ran off yesterday, probably planned lah, the only time Mom and I ever leave the house together is on a Sunday morning (even that is very rare. I usually leave earlier). Other times we're way too random for her to plan anything. According to a neighbour, she went out through the backgate, got into a taxi with a couple (guy + girl). I'm kinda worried for her safety but she's such a smart girl... she's one brave, lion-hearted adventurous maid. Stick me in a foreign land with no knowledge of the foreign language and I'll be one cowardly kitten hiding in the house. Of course, if I were abused, running away is a survival option. But since she enjoyed life so much, it definitely wasn't such an option for her. Anyway, she didn't steal ANYTHING.. to our knowledge lah. So we're glad about that. But why? That's the big question mark. Normally people who wanna run off will steal whatever they can get their hands on. And there were so many things she could have taken. But she didn't.

And that's it.. plenty of random facts today. :-)

God bless,

Har-rroooowwww

2010-11-25T15:16:00.006+08:00

My classical guitar playing is improving again! Haha. Was stagnant for a while, I was beginning to get worried. -_- Then my teacher got me to memorise the pieces.. and voila! Instant improvement overnight! :-) Guess I'm not completely 'one' with my guitar yet, can't automatically feel the frets with my eyes closed. Have to keep eyes on my left hand. Lol. Still, I compare my playing now as compared to when I first started learning it 2+ years back, I was a complete NOOB back then. Like, absolute complete noob, don't know a thing about guitar, dunno how to hold/strum/pluck/anything. And now my teacher is talking about grade 8.. although grade 6 also not yet sit. Haha.

I sat for my first uni exam on Tuesday/23rd Nov. :-) The thought of a uni exam appeared intimidating, and really, the hall was HUGE, so it was kinda intimidating. But the paper was ok.. TITAS, and my 2nd paper yesterday was ok too. So yeah, guess I'm now a full-fledged uni student. So unbelievable, hor? I still find it hard to believe. I can still remember my kindergarten days! And the brother is gonna graduate end of this year.. he's gonna WORK. And I can still remember all the small kid games we used to play.. hmmm.

But growing up is/was fun. Painful at times, but every experience, whether bitter, sad, exhilarating, or surprising only served to mould me into who I am today. I look back and think, what would I have changed about the things I did? And I think, nothing, really. I could have worked harder on History and Econs and gotten As instead of A-s for them in STPM, but Econs and History were already my strongest subjects in form 6, so saying that would be plain overdoing it.

I could have... I could have trained badminton to a higher level instead of quitting so early. I remember my coach calling me up multiple times imploring me back to training, talking something about talent and whatsoever. But I.. honestly I was tired of the dog-eat-dog world and felt that badminton was consuming my life. I wanted to play it as a social game, not a stressful one. And my parents were not supportive of me playing so competitively, and weren't willing to fetch me around for training as more supportive parents did. So really, there wasn't much of a choice giving up competitive badminton there. There are times I look back and wonder how far I could have gone.. my kaki training have reached levels I can only dream of now. But regret? Maybe just a sense of wondering where I could be if I had taken that path. But no, no regrets. Nostalgia and memories of those good ol' days, yes. :-)

Eh sorry, don't know why my post suddenly started talking about the past. Probably just looking back now that I'm feeling like a uni student. =P

Hehehe. Another 3 papers to go! Then I'm off to Aus.. then youth camp.. then... next sem starts again. -_- But it's ok, next sem's a rather short one, and we've got few months of hols to look forward to after that! Since MOHE decided the sem should start in September instead of July next year. :-D Ok, I'm not making sense. It's just that I really do love counting down towards holidays.

And yes, the Jo's are doing quite, quite well together. More than quite well, actually. Lol! Just because I don't blog for sometime doesn't mean our relationship is going down the drain. ;-) I'm discovering just how many people read my blog when they congratulate me, and mmm it's scary. AFAIK, I used to be the only consistent reader of my blog.

God bless,

Edit: After thinking over my post, I think I've no regrets about my past simply because I'm not the kinda girl who looks back at her past with regret. What's done is done, and nothing I can do but learn lessons from the past and move on. I'll probably whine over it for a while but basically history is history. Of course, this is also probably due to the fact that I've never done anything profoundly stupid (yet) that'll have permanent negative effects on me. Lol! ;-)

Edit #2: Looking at some Facebook photos, I suddenly realise I do have 1 regret! That I did not make more permanent good friends from school. But I guess I've always been slightly different from muh friends and entering Arts stream didn't aid matters much. So yeah, that's one regret! Hahaha.

Harlo Bloggy!

2010-11-16T01:07:00.005+08:00

After a not-so-long hiatus, I'm back!

Because I wanted the last post to be special and to remain up there for quite a while. 10 days is enough, no?

Today I feel like blogging about the blessings in my life! :-) In no particular order...

- I thank God for dad! He taught me so much, not through lectures and sermons and preachings as some parents are wont to do, but through his actions and attitude. Never once have I doubted my dad to be a hypocrite, whatever he shared, whether from the pulpit, among friends or family, was exactly what he practiced. He taught me the meaning of integrity, and though I must admit I'm not as perfect as he was in this sense.. still a bit crooked la, never pay samans, clever to twist my words to get out of unpleasant situations, get friends to sign attendance sheet for me... but I'm still learning, dad, still learning. :-)

- I thank God for mom! She taught me, again not through words, but through deeds and actions. Particularly, how to serve others. I inherited her servant heart la. It's a joy for me to help others in need, and I won't hesitate to help a friend if I am able to help them. I think I inherited her strength to go through life too. :-)

- I thank God for my brother! I think he's my real best friend! Cause I tell him everything. Hahaha. Nearly everything... Which brother will get up at 6am to cook maggi for his sis who's gonna sit for STPM that day... when our parents were in hospital.. became my driver during STPM... Any guy who treats his sis like a princess will treat his gf/wife as precious gold! Whoever she is, she's one blessed person. :-)

- I thank God for my beloved friends! Whom I can rely on to tell my deepest sorrows and greatest joys and trust they'll be along my side all the time! I thank God for each friend who has been wonderful to me, and just being plain.. lovely. We're like rocks flowing down a river, rubbing/geserring each other into smooth stones! Right right? :-)

- I thank God for my rusa! Who constantly says that he isn't perfect... Dear, only Jesus was perfect. And I'm not perfect. So really, it would be odd for me to demand for a perfect guy.

-_- Thanks for teaching me how to trust.. something I find very very hard to do. I used to/still think relationships are DARN complicated at times but it's been a good journey.. so far.. considering we've barely began, eh? ;-) I don't know what lies in the future for us, but we've both agreed that God is the head of our relationship, so we'll trust in Him, right? :-)

- I thank God for PPBC! Although I've barely been 2 years in this church, it almost feels like the church I grew up in. I thank God for friends whom I can rely on, friends to talk to, friends to hang out with. I've grown so much spiritually and mentally through PPBC, and really I don't know where I'll be without these bunch of fun-loving, God-loving people. Probably out there sesating in the world because 2 years ago, the 3 most important foundations of my life - family, church, and studies were shaken, badly horribly terribly shaken. I'm now missing an earthly dad, ostracised by the paternal side of my family. I'm in a local U, on a government scholarship. I'm not in some far away prestigious university on some prestigious scholarship as my teachers, family and I myself dreamt back then. But PPBC has been the biggest blessing ever! God is a faithful God. :-)

And lastly... I thank God for being God! :-) How many times have I cried out to You till peace and joy washes over my heart.. :-) I've not been very good lately, and yet You're still faithful to me. From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU, GOD. =D

God bless,

Blessed 55th Birthday Dad!

2010-11-06T00:00:00.005+08:00

~Remember remember the 5th of November...~

Then it struck me that you were born on the 6th of Nov! :-)

So I'm gonna make this post special by adding more pictures than usual. Ok, fine, I don't usually post pictures, period. So by posting more than 1 picture in this post means it's a special post! Right dad? :-)

You were always doing odd things like this!

Ever-smiling, even before the operation. You rock, dad!

Strawberry.. from Camerons :-) You were balding slightly by then but your spirit was up up up!

I know you're happy there, and we're getting on with life here too. The house has changed so so so much, it's like a brand-new home.

What have you missed since I last held your hand?

My STPM results (ok, you didn't miss this, it was a week before you left, but you were exceptionally physically weak by then so I'm posting this):

In shock =)

Teachers were as happy as I was! Some of them knew about the battle I was facing.

Me calling home only to find out that Hospice was around and the fact that I had to collect STPM results on that day was forgotten as my news was hurriedly brushed aside to make way for more morphine injections.

I went jalan-jalaning with my friends on that day, with Yee, Wai Yan and Yew Leung.. just to celebrate. We ate in Carls Junior! Freaking expensive burgers, but hey, indulging occasionally is fine. =) I remember Joash calling me while I was walking in 1 Utama to congratulate me.. (Kinda random to bring Joash up here but you'll find out why soon...)

What else?

Being named Taman Sea’s top STPM student:

Going into a round round ball and being spinned around in a giant washing machine!

Ended up with a horrid bruise after torturing myself:

Got meself in University Malaya, with a bunch of awesome Engrish people! =)

My hostel room that I'm gonna abandon real soon. Haha. Actually I've already abandoned it...

My Engrish people.. a couple of them missing. Awesome peeps!

Went for Fast Wait and Pray (FWP) in Kluang. I DROVE your car to Kluang! Amazing Perdana!

Helped to organise UM's CF camp and UM's debate competition.

Ushered in a wedding.

Got the JPA scholarship. =)

Am using your super-chun N97 Nokia phone!

Played in my first squash competition ever in UM's inter-college sports competition (SUKMUM) =)

Played badminton in SUKMUM.

Was asked to join MASUM's badminton team.. training alongside national players! hahaha.

Yep, I've been having a busy busy sem, probably to fill in the void left in me since you left.

But.. God is good. :-) I saved the best for the last...

I got meself a ~~boy~~ real man! HAHAHA =D You know him.. my rempit aka Joash! ;-) Mum loves him, I'm sure you love him too! Hahaha =D

Rempit

Occasional bapok

(Occasionally nerdy too, but for the sake of his pride I shall not post up the nerdier side of him.. =D)

So really, we're doing fine here. :-) Going off for ko's convocation in Aus end of this year, pity you have to miss it. But who knows, maybe you can see all things from where you are.

So here I am, not as round as before, as you can compare in the pictures. Not as smiley as before, people tell me to smile more now. Can you believe that??

The bird I bought from Kedah to remind you of me when I thought I'll be sticking on to my scholarship! :-) But you got the real deal home.. ME! =)

The more gangster side of me.. =D

I'm matching red and black! hahaha =)

And that's me! Playing a red guitar hehehe. Pity you can't teach me the finer art of playing acoustic guitar.. 'tis ok, I've got others to teach me! My beast.. ;-)

Beauty & the Beast!

As you can see from my photos, I'm surrounded by awesome people. And a special someone, of course.

So all in all, I'm coping quite, quite well, dad. Some questions will never be answered and some wounds will never completely heal, but we've got our heavenly Dad, Amen? :-)

Once again, have a BLESSED BIRTHDAY DAAAD! =)

Guard your heart...

2010-10-28T04:19:00.003+08:00

How often have girls been told to guard their hearts?

Ok, I don't know. Haha. I hear it occasionally, that's all.

It's one principle I've never thought of, but subconsciously it's something I do zealously. The only person whom I've ever given up my heart to is God.

But how long can you guard you heart? What if.. your heart says... the time is right to open the lock?

I've always been the type of person to trust my heart. I think. Haha. Take Arts stream although all your friends are going into Science.. choose TESL over Law... leave IPDA for home... anyone with HALF a brain would say I made stupid decisions.

But I've always trusted my heart (or more likely my Dad up there is pushing me along) to do the right thing.. and in retrospect, I have no regrets.

But those decisions have never.. affected my HEART itself.

I'm following my heart this time... the biggest risk my heart is taking, considering I've never even risked it before... Beauty & the Beast! ;-)

<3 I will trust you...

Have a blessed day,
Jo

Week 14

2010-10-25T03:03:00.000+08:00

FINAL week! =)

No more morning classes, only left with 2 hours of classes per day this week! Except for Thursday. But holiday mood di! :-)

NO MORE CLASSES TILL NEXT YEAR!

I decided to quit Chinese and piano classes. Chinese cause I felt.. hmm. Like I was getting nowhere. Ni hao ma? And piano.. about the same story lah. I think I'll stick to my one true love.. guitar! =) I thought of completing at least until grade 8 for piano then I can teach next time.. but.. although I had a very good teacher with freaking expensive fees, the love and enjoyment just isn't there.. as compared to the guitar. I do enjoy ting ting tong tong on the piano and I will continue to do so, but I think.. not exam-wise lah. I think. We'll see. Piano just no hope la.. -_- learn so many thousand years and still stuck at grade 6, classical guitar learn 2 years and caught up to piano di! Hmm.

So looks like I may never end up teaching piano. Oh well. We'll see. I may pick it up sometime in the future.. maybe...

Good news is, with those 2 out of the way, my JPA money will be a lot! more extra. Hehe. Before this I counted in chinese, guitar and piano, and realised I'll be exceptionally tight. But now.. =D

Ok, bedtime!

God bless,
Jo

2010-10-23T00:35:00.002+08:00

Elloz bloggy! :-)

I'm procrastinating. That's why I'm blogging. Haha. 3 major assignments due next week! :-(

But.. FINAL WEEK before holidays! =D Matter of fact, most of my classes finished di, just some wrapping up to do in most lectures. Hehehe.

Research Methodology, done. No more presentations for this year! =)

Thai, done. My ajan happily doing her Haj.

TITAS, DONE. Smsed, dreamed and skipped my weeks away during this horrifyingly boring class.

Computer, done. This Monday will be my last Facebooking class during my entire career in UM! If I even attend it. ;-)

Writing skills, Asia Tenggara and Lit left.. assignments. :-)

Can you believe I made it through my first sem so successfully? As in, joyfully, with no tsunamis in life?

Haha I know I type as if there are no exams.. =P Long time more lah exams.

While I still dislike assignments, I'm learning to tolerate them. If you can't lick 'em, join 'em, right?

Of course there's the one aspect that made the 2nd half of this sem enjoyable and sweet.. ;-)

I drove to Shah Alam yesterday! =D Confession: I've never driven there before. HAHAHA. Only remember Shah Alam as this foreign land where I used to go to for the occasional badminton tournament. Hehe.

Anyway, final week, I'm in a celebratory mood!

God bless ya,
Jo

Squashyyyyy

2010-10-16T22:57:00.003+08:00

First competition ever! In squash lah. Don't even know the rules but want to play competition.. -_-

Oh man I've never done so miserably in a competition before. LOL. I lost ALL my games but 1.. Hahahahaha.

But because we(team event) won ONE game, we got 4th place. Hahaha!

Speaks truckloads for the squash standard in Malaysia.

Ran into the wall multiple times, hit my racquet against the wall soo many times, was taught to push people out of the way ROUGHLY by a Sukma squash player..

Gee, just gimme badminton any day lah. No walls to run into, no PUSHING people to get a point.. my body can't take all that abuse.. haha. The walls are hard.

I played like a plain lembu today lah. Haha! Footwork semua takde, only thing I had was my forehand drive.. because I once trained squash for a few months and I guess that's what every beginner is taught. And even that only if I had a wide angle to swing my racquet.

My stamina is GONE. GONE.

Must train it up again.. so unhealthy la :-(

Ish talk talk talk that's all I know.

Tomorrow I'll get to watch the debate competition in college. Can't wait to see those doctors and lawyers and whatsoever clever talkers debate! As long as I'm not in, I'll gladly watch.

I'm happy. ;-)

God bless ya,
Jo

Six killed as car crashes into trees

2010-10-14T18:19:00.000+08:00

Six killed as car crashes into trees (Updated)

Each time I read news like this I'll caution myself to slow down, not to speed so much. I admit I've got a slight penchant for speeding, whether it's with my lil' Kenari or the big Perdana.

Guess I just feel too at home in the car and feel a need to speed when the roads are empty.

Just a reminder.. a sad reminder. Could easily have been my friends and I in that 2am accident!

2 weeks left. ;-)

God bless,
Jo

One of those days...

2010-10-12T19:54:00.002+08:00

It's been one of those days again.. been sporadic and hits on and off, albeit getting less and less frequent.

My printer officially died (because the computer man came and said so), my modem is retarded (com man can't solve it too). What's a student gonna do without a printer, with major assignments starting to be due as its end of sem? Go to UM earlier everyday and print stuff out la.. what else?? Lol!

Hmm but I have to try and solve it lah, it's only a few months old.

I did manage to come home a few hours today. Wanted to attend Bible study (God and I know how much I need that) tonight but I've got a meeting at 9pm tonight.

On a happier note, I started using my dad's N97 and it's the best phone I've ever used! I feel happy with it. :-) Didn't use it earlier due to various reasons.

And I've been getting rather good feedback for my assignments, so guess some of my efforts paid off despite my grumbling and rumbling about assignments. :-)

Ok normally today would have been a ranting post but I told all of it to someone di.. so no urge to ramble on about life. Haha.

Had a good long talk with my heavenly Dad today :-) Love Him so much! Maybe He purposely gave me 'one of those days' because He knows that's when I run back to Him. Hmm. Trust me, I ran back to Him as fast as these short legs could carry me. ;-)

Have a blessed day!
Jo

Why?

2010-10-12T08:38:00.005+08:00

Why by Nicole Nordeman

We rode into town the other day
Just me and my daddy
He said I'd finally reached that age
And I could ride next to him on a horse
That of course was not quite as wide

We heard a crowd of people shouting
And so we stopped to find out why
And there was that man that my dad said he loved
But today there was fear in his eyes

So I said daddy why are they screaming
Why are the faces of some of them beaming?
Why is he dressed in that bright purple robe?
I'll bet that crown hurts him more then he shows
Daddy please can't you do something?
He looks as though he's gonna cry
You said he was stronger then all of those guys
Daddy please tell me why?
Why does everyone want him to die?

Later that day the sky grew cloudy
And daddy said I should go inside
Somehow he knew things would get stormy
Boy was he right
But I could not keep from wondering
If there was something he had to hide
So after he left I had to find out
I was not afraid of getting lost
So I followed the crowds
To a hill where I knew men had been killed
And I heard a voice come from the cross

And it said Father why are they screaming?
Why are the faces of some of them beaming?
Why are they casting their lots for my clothes?
This crown of thorns hurts me more then it shows
Father please can't you do something?
I know that you must hear my cry's
I thought I could handle a cross of this size
Father remind me why?
Why does everyone want me to die?
When will I understand why?

My precious son
I hear them screaming
I'm watching the face of the enemy beaming
But soon I will clothe you in robes of my own
Jesus this hurts me much more then you know
But this dark hour
I must do nothing
Though I've heard your unbearable cries
The power in your blood
Destroys all of the lies
Soon you'll see past their unmerciful lies
Look there below
See the child
Trembling by her father's side
Now I can tell you why
She is why you must die

I woke up this morning with this powerful song playing in my head. I don't know why, that hardly ever happens, I normally wake up to nothing. Despite my extremely exhausted body dreading a wretchedly full day today, this song kept playing and playing in my mind.. over and over again.

It's things like these that just make me want to fall to my knees and pray like I've never prayed before. I've been a lackadaisical child, done so many things I oughtn't have done.. and yet He still welcomes me into His arms.

Thank you Lord for your mercy.. change me to be more and more like You.

Just realised dad's birthday is coming.. first birthday eversince he's left us for a better place.

Horribly tiring day ahead.. will probably reach home 11pm+. With the few hours of sleep I had, don't know how I'll get along. Hmm.. next sem no more, no more! At least I made this mistake in my first sem.. still can relax and fool around a bit.

Anyway, I'm off, class at 9am.

Have a less tiring day than mine,
Jo

Experiment..

2010-10-09T21:08:00.004+08:00

About 2 years.. (or more) ago, I decided I was fed-up with earrings because they irritated me too much when I slept. And I was too lazy to take them off before I slept. So I thought I'll stop wearing earrings and see if the holes would close...

My hypothesis: It would close. Our body can heal itself, can't it?? What's a lil' hole? I only pierced them when I was 8.. after all.. hahaha

Others' hypothesis: Impossible. I was given so many examples of people whose earlobe holes never closed despite years of not wearing earrings, especially since I pierced them years ago.

Being the stubborn pig I was/am, I decided to forge ahead with my experiment. Removed my earrings, and never once disturbed those holes since then. Actually, I'd pretty much forgotten the fact that I had once pierced my ears.

Until today, that is. I decided it'd be time to prove my hypothesis. ;-) So... I attempted to stick an earring into the hole... tried.. and tried... changed ear hole.. Dang, my hypothesis was right...!

For a few seconds there I dreaded the idea of allowing a needle to go through me again. Being more cowardly now as compared to my 8 year old days, I probably would have just thrown the whole idea of needles away and lived without earrings for the rest of my life.

Then it went through! Hahaha. So I quickly attempted the other ear hole. Lo and behold! Both sides still had open holes!

Result: Experiment FAIL.

Thankfully, I'm glad it failed. Hahaha. The things I thought of 2 years ago!

3 weeks of sem left. I'm supposed to start on my assignments. I said that many hours ago. :(

Discipline, Jo, discipline! Procrastination is the key to success!

Erm. I mean, procrastination is the road to failure!

LOL.

Have a blessed day!
Jo

Ramblings

2010-10-06T00:58:00.001+08:00

Snoozed my alarm unconsciously, jumped up at 7.30am, got ready for uni in SEVEN mins, think I can beat guys! with this kinda timing. Cause I needed to reach UM by 8am to pass an assignment to my deaaar friend. At other times 10 mins is sufficient to reach UM, but at 7.40am... jam! Sheesh. Nevertheless I reached 8.05am. :-)

And THEN... Lecture was supposed to be at 9am.. -_- Guessed what happened?? It was CANCELLED. I could have slept till 1pm! Wow talk about frustrated. Haha. But hey, Yan needed her assignment.. =)

But still. I reached UM at 8am for the first time in my whole sem and I waited till 1pm for a lecture! haiz. Ok, I could have gone home but those poor souls without such a privilege of a nearby home convinced me to stay. haha. So I did. =)

We talked about blogs.. mmm.. they asked me if I had one.. I evaded the question.. haha. But they guessed (rightly) that I have a blog. If I'm not wrong, one of my coursemates may already know my blog address, because it's in my Yahoo! mail signature, and I forgot to delete it before I sent out an email. Hmm.

I don't want them to read my blog lah.. my school friends sure, they know I have a pretty interesting history. But my coursemates.. -_- Haha, ok, I know I can't pretend that my history doesn't exist, but my coursemates don't know it.. I can always make my blog private but it's pointless. Hmm.

Well, I guess sooner or later they'll discover bits and pieces of my life.. they're supposed to be my best friends for these 3 years anyway! Bunch of awesome people. :-)

4 weeks more of lecture... that was AWFULLY quick, wasn't it?? I've got a couple of major assignments due end of sem.. that's about it. :-) *Holiday mood di*

Everyday I look back at my life and marvel at the miracles I see in it. Seriously, I do. I'm pretty much contented with how things are working out now, our God's an awesome God! I mean, 1 year ago at this same time I was battling with so many worries and tsunamis, and this year I'm so relaxed and happy. Tell me last year that things would get better and I would have spat in your face. Really. Does the word 'coincidence' exist in God's vocab?

Of course, there are wounds that are still healing, and perchance may never heal completely. But each wound moulds me into who I am today, and simply teaches me to rely more and more on our Almighty God. I may need to do some reconciliation with certain people in time to come, but it'll be fine.. I hope.

You ask me whether I'll prefer a perfect life with no pain, versus all I've been through, and I'll honestly pick my current life, with all the battle scars and injuries. Each experience, painful or not, has simply moulded my perspectives and made me who I am today. 3 years ago I was this arrogant kid who thought the world cowtowed to her. Now? Haha. I've still got a long way to go, but I think the changes I've made along the way have been for the better.

As for physical changes? I've got a bit of a wisdom tooth! :-) And I'm losing weight like mad. I really don't know why. I'm eating as usual, skip the occasional lunch due to lectures but I'll always make up for it later on in the day. Had to shop for new pants few days ago because some of my long pants were just too ridiculously big! -_- And I'm not exercising.. unless you count walking in UM. But walking in UM is nothing compared to an intense 2 hour badminton session, or a lighter 1 hour walk through Bukit Gasing/Kiara. Where's the weight going?? My mom has a theory that I 'got her genes' cause she lost all her weight around my age too long ago. I don't know what kinda scientific fact that is, but hey, I'm happy. Can eat, no need exercise like mad dog, can lose weight, why complain???

For the sake of my own body I'm really gonna start exercising again soon though. Too unhealthy, this sedentary lifestyle.

Ok, enough rambling. Maybe I'm turning bimbo. Hmm..

God bless,
Jo

Something keeps disturbing me.. my mind.

2010-10-01T21:14:00.002+08:00

Ever since last Tuesday's Bible study, what was shared struck something in my heart. Which is fairly normal.. but this time I can't shake it off.....

Too many times we plan our whole lives, have dreams and ambitions.. millionaire by 30, own this, own that, do this, do that.. and we live for these dreams...

Maybe unconsciously I know that I live for such ideals? That's why this thought is so disturbing and provoking. I keep saying I will go wherever God sends me.. but will I really??

God isn't concerned with ensuring we lead extremely blessed, prosperous lives.. He is concerned with making us more and more like Him. The Bible proves that, that's for sure.

The more I learn about our God, the more I want to know Him more... There's just so much to know..! I think I would have covered the Bible several times over if I'd spent more time studying His word instead of numerous revision books over the span of my lifetime.. especially form 6 books!

Contemplating.. hence this blog post. :-)

Change me to be more and more like You everyday, Lord.

God bless,
Jo

Howdy peeps!

2010-09-28T12:36:00.002+08:00

:-) Am in UM now blogging.. sometimes I still find it unbelievable that I made it this far.. to uni! I can still remember my first day of standard 1... form 1...

Of course, there are many things I still find unbelievable. Like no longer having an earthly dad.. I've still got so many things I would have loved to learn from him.. I recently found a classical guitar book of his that's ancient! I never knew he played the classical guitar.. I knew he played the guitar lah, but not classical-playing.. But we'll never find all the answers to life, will we?

Having walked home since standard 1 till form 5, I look back and marvel at the fact that I was never kidnapped nor raped.. worst thing that happened was seeing a flasher, and that taught me to vary my going-home routes. I'm amazed at the leniency of my parents who never questioned nor stopped me from coming home at odd times throughout my schooling years, especially since I could not be contacted by handphone. For not scolding when I sometimes left school a bit earlier than I should have.. for not checking on the kind of friends I hung out with.. for allowing me to play so much badminton and other sports, for never scolding me when I came home with less than satisfactory marks..

Really, if I look back at my life I don't know how I'll ever give my kids(if I ever have any =P) that much leeway. Hmm...

God has been good in everything I've been through, and I see His blessings around me all the time. :-)

kk, time for class. Story time finish! Haha. Was bored. =D

God bless,
Jo

Alive and Kicking ;-)

2010-09-26T22:22:00.003+08:00

After a wonderful weekend of sleeping and sleeping and sleeping, I'm nearly completely well. Nearly.. hey, it's a dramatic improvement from my half-dead-dog status on Friday anyway. :-)

Yesterday my piano teacher asked me about exams.. whether I should take it.. then he asked me what grade I wanted to take. -_- I was thinking, "hey, you're the teacher!" But I could understand his confusion.. he said he's never really sure what grade I'm at. I suppose cause some lessons I can barely play lower level pieces well, and sometimes I can sight-read higher levels easily. Hmmm... I'm confused too.

Anyway, I thought life would be pretty hectic, but turns out its not. Because no one has called me up for inter-college badminton, and the debate competition committee has gone completely silent on me (or maybe it was the other way around =P). So I'm only busy with CF camp stuff, and that is pretty light stuff.. and I'm told inter-college squash is coming up.. but no details yet.

So.. life's been pretty relaxing.

Ok, maybe I'm supposed to start on my major assignments.. like the 15 page one due end of sem..

Hmmm. Yeah. I think that's it. =D

Ok, starting on another assignment. -_-

As the semester drags on, I find myself handing in crappier and crappier assignments.. can't be bothered to make each one as perfect as I'd like them to be..

Oh, for the love of exams...!

:( Just started on a long ago assignment, and I find myself spewing out explicits (for my own ears alone) as I realise that I'm missing important documents that I used to have when we were first given the assignment. *sigh* How vulgar can you get, Jo... -__-

Anyway, zzz. Assignment time. I take back my long ago words. Exam is no longer a 4 letter word. Well, technically it is, but it isn't any longer in that sense..

Take care!
Jo

cough cough

2010-09-25T20:48:00.004+08:00

I had the worst day ever yesterday! Lol. Because I woke up with a fever, slight flu and slight cough. But I still had to attend lecture because I had to sign some group project stuff and hand up an assignment.. Of course I could have left lecture early but there were some group presentations going on.. I wanted to see how they did it. Because I may be forced to present it next week -_- in front of 100 people. Zzz. The fluent Malay-speaking people in my group claim that their "suara bergetar-getar" when they speak in public.. So that just leaves me.. a person whose translation mechanism tends to break down when the brain is tired.. or some less-fluent speakers. Hmm. Hope I don't have to do it lah.. don't feel up to it.

Anyway, sick sick sick yesterday, came home 1+.. driving with a painful head is no easy task man! Thank God I reached home safely :-) And then slept my whole day away. Haha. So fruitless lah. Watch tv, sleep, wake up, reply sms ;-), sleep, wake up, watch tv, sleep, wake up.. eat... sleep..

Woke up this morning, felt better.. went for Chinese class.. then piano class.. guess what? I think my slight fever 'broke' during piano class.. I think that was it la, cause class was air-con but I perspired profusely throughout! Lol. Didn't feel like I had fever, but.. after that my eye-balls weren't painful anymore. =D

Having felt so much better, I actually made it to youth ON TIME. :-) Awesome, enlightening session.

Then it was back home.. right into bed. =P Till dinner time. Haha!

And ta dangg! I'm here blogging. :-) Off to do some work now.

God bless,
Jo

Wedding Bells

2010-09-18T23:28:00.003+08:00

Wedding!!! =D

Went for Adrian and Sara's wedding today =) Hehe, so much joy in the reunion. The groom was smiling like I've never seen him smile before. Just smiling and smiling and smiling! Enraptured by love.. ;-)

Ushered at lunch.. in high-heels -_- Sooo painful after a while. Haha. But all the pain went away when our job was done and we could sit down the enjoy the wonderful food. With good company, of course! Hehe.

All in all, a fantastic wedding. Not so much because of all the events that were done, but because everyone was just so happy with this reunion. It wasn't too elaborate a wedding, with the shortest aisle I've ever seen for the bride to walk down.. 10 feet? Haha! Simple and awesome :)The atmosphere was the most important. Both sides were at peace with the reunion and all friends were sharing their joy. :) (Some PPBCians started acting as if it was their own wedding, at the rate they had fun!) I enjoyed the part where all the young couples in the church whether married or unmarried performed on stage as couples (for some reason they are all musical??). It seemed to be speaking a blessing onto their relationship, especially for the yet-to-be-married couples. (However most couples denied that it's their turn next.. hmmm)

Today's wedding just reminded me about how precious the sanctity of marriage is, especially in this world. So many people of my generation and slightly older have deliberately abandoned the idea of marriage in place of cohabitation. No strings attached, but you get the best out of your relationship. I have so many friends who have already decided that the idea of marriage is not for them, too constraining. Sure I may be an old fuddy-duddy.. but... ;-)

'Someone' said I blog long looong posts... =P Hahaha, sorry la, that's my style. My blog is my place to rant and tell stories when I feel like it.. although I don't really name names and give exact details of stuff... I look back at my previous posts and sometimes I've no idea what all that emo stuff was about!

Aye, I had a good day today. Good wedding, good dinner, good time. ;-)

God bless,
Jo

PEEEJAY :)

2010-09-17T22:23:00.005+08:00

Am back in familiar territory! =D

(Though I daresay I didn't get lost in Kluang at all! but I get lost in PJ/KL every other day. :-( )

Kluang is a quaint little town, honestly. :) It just felt more.. 'united' than here.. particularly because the term 'daerah Kluang' is up everywhere, and nearly everything there is named after Kluang.

FWP was.. erm.. well honestly I fell sick right after I reached Kluang.. parked car, and started sneezing. By night my whole brain felt fuzzy and my nose was blocked. So.. it went pretty ok.. considering the circumstances. :) I'm sorry to say I spent plenty of time trying to recover because I had to drive back today, with 3 other precious cargo/daughters! It was a desperate attempt to recover because I knew I needed to drive these people back. After loads of prayer, water, and as much sleep as I could get, I woke up feeling surprisingly better today! :-)

I reached home in a surprisingly not-so-long time =D The good ol' perdana is awesome.. :) Thanks dad! Reached home in about 3 hours.. considering we got a bit lost in Puchong (I felt adventurous and turned off at Puchong instead of my usual place farther up..), it was a pretty decent timing. Hehe.

I still don't know WHAT possessed me to suggest I would drive to Kluang! I still remember myself just blurting out that I'll drive there. -_- I didn't even bother checking the place out properly, just printed out the map of Kluang that I was emailed. All I knew was I was to get on the North-South highway, head to Johor Bahru. Haha. After that I drove till I realised I had no idea which exit to turn off! After that I realised I had no idea how to find the place. Haha. As if I was riding a bicycle/on foot and can simply walk until I find the place. Neway, since I was headed to FWP.. naturally we didn't get lost =P Thanks to Him! Haha. (Though honestly, if the parents of those other 3 had known how completely clueless I was about reaching Kluang they would have been deathly worried. =D)

Still, it was a good journey. Good company, relatively good music.. so far no saman in my postbox.. :)

Neway..

So many things going on.. dreading these coming 6 weeks! :( Too cram too many things to do.. I feel like quitting something.. hmm... squash?

God is my strength :-) And of course next sem onwards I'll not be involved in so many activities. Haha. I want time to sit back, kick back, and relax! (Cause the badminton people in UM don't seem particularly friendly so I feel like returning to my good ol' long lost badminton groups. I wonder if they are still playing..?)

Am off.. assignment time... zzzzzz...

Have a great weekend! :-)

God bless,
Jo

Kluang Kluang Kluang

2010-09-15T11:47:00.002+08:00

Sounds onomatopoetic after a while.. Kluang kluang kluang kluaaaang..

Neway, headed there this afternoon till this Friday. Will be cut off from the civilised world till then.. ;-)

My hp gonna be contactable only to my mom =P Cause I'm her lifeline.. no one else has that excuse. Hahaha.

(Wai Yan's staring at me type sooo... entertain her a bit lah hor)

She's only contactable through me through my mom through HER mom through UM through UL.. aiyah you want to contact her just call her lah! Haha. Now she says sms can.. don't call.

Oki, am off to Jonker street and kicking Elaine out of bed (it's the other way around I think). :)

God bless!
Jo

Do not ever...

2010-09-12T16:35:00.006+08:00

Drink 2 big cups of chinese tea late at night. I felt sleepy but couldn't sleep until about 5.30am! And I promised to fetch 2 friends to church too, so I couldn't very well wake up late..! Because of that all my plans for today tergendala (what's a suitable english word for this??)..

Was supposed to attend yet another funeral today.. a guy whom I barely knew, his dad passed away. But since I do know him a bit I felt I should go.. but just couldn't wake up.. went home to sleep right after church and was a dead log 4+pm. Woke up with a growling stomach.

I'm supposed to go to climb Gasing hill at 5.30pm today.. but body just doesn't feel up to it, am afraid my heart stops beating halfway due to lack of sleep. =P (Well technically I caught up on my sleep, slept 3+ hours, but.. excuses. hehe.)

At least 4 people in church asked me how my trip back to Malacca was.. because I didn't show up for all the weekday events in church the whole of last week, maybe? And I also mentioned about wanting to go back to Malacca before.. haha. To set the record straight, I've not been back to Malacca, wanted to but this this and that that popped up.. so.. I've been in my beloved PJ all this while. :)

FWP is next week, will stop by Malacca for a day before heading down to Kluang though. :) I have no idea how I'll find my way to Kluang and around Kluang.. with 3 passengers who will be equally as lost as I am.. but we'll cover that journey with prayer! :)

After all the excessively rich and unhealthy food the past week, I've got to start cutting down.. starting today. And I've got to start exercising.. thought I'll get to play more badminton in UM, but sessions there have been few and far between.

Did I mention that I managed to get the JPA scholarship? Guess they forgot that I had so rudely turned them down without so much as a letter after SPM. Hehehe. Wanna buy... a new acoustic guitar with plug in! =P Actually wanted to buy a new phone too, but I'll have to compromise the quality/price of my guitar then.. so I'll prioritise my guitar over a phone that'll spoil soon enough anyway. My current phone was bought by my parents after SPM results.. they were high after their dearest daughter-who-played-badminton-non-stop-even-during-SPM managed to do so well. ;-) I'll keep it for now la.. giving some problems but only occasionally..

Anyway, this Raya hols is way too packed.. my next hols I'm gonna just relax.. go somewhere relaxing.. next hols no more assignments, we're given THREE freakin weeks to study -_- so.. hahaha. Who needs 3 weeks to study for so few papers in your first sem?? Will holiday a bit lor. =D I feel like going somewhere... islandy. Enough of shopping malls and shopping and mmm just plain man-made stuff. I need a break..! Reminiscing the awesome Pangkor trip I had with my coach and some locals + Australians for a badminton training camp.. I love beaches! =) Clean ones.. and rivers! Clean ones.. island trip, anyone? Yan yan.. if you still read my blog... let's go! =D

(Can't believe I'm already planning for my next holidays! This hol also not yet finish..)

Have a blessed day :-)
Jo

By the way, I have realised that a great deal of Manglish has lately crept into my blog posts. I'm not entirely sure why, but I suspect it could be due to the fact that I have to use proper Engrish in all my assignments and when speaking to lecturers, so this blog is a rant for the Manglish side. Makes sense, no? :-)

2010-09-12T00:55:00.004+08:00

Exactly 1 week more of holidays... -_-

Only done 1 assignment so far! :-(

Had an aweesooome time with old church friends today. At least, us young people did. The older ones had a therapeutic session discussing the wounds that were/still are being inflicted unto them. Hearing some things made that same old frustration in me well up again.. but what can we as men do? Oh well..

They came over for lunch at about 12+/1+, and talked and talked and talked till.. 11+pm! Gila? Originally planned to have a lunch.. then ended up dinner together too. Haha.

But really, it was good. Especially for my mom. :-) Kinda lonely for her these days I think.. me being so busy. *sigh*

Anyway, good fellowship, good food = good day! =)

My cousin just sent me this song.. I'll post the lyrics here:

Framing Hanley - You Stupid Girl

Feels like the walls are closing in on me
I'm suffocating, I can barely breathe
And you've got me right where you want me

This is the side of you I've never seen
You're not the girl that you used to be
And you've got me right where you want me

You always know, how to bring me down
Let's just face it now, I'm never changin'

You are my world, my everything
You stupid girl, you're gonna be the death of me
So let me go, just let me be
You stupid girl, I love the way you're killing me
(killing me)
You stupid girl

You're like an angel but with broken wings
A heart so cold can never show mercy
And you've got me right where you want me

You are my world, my everything
You stupid girl, you're gonna be the death of me
So let me go, just let me be
You stupid girl, I love the way you're killing me
(killing me)
You stupid girl (killing me)
You stupid girl

I know I'm a bastard, I'm not a coward
Why can't you see what you're doin' to me?
I'm falling faster, more every hour
Why can't you see what you're doin' to me?

Open your eyes, open your eyes

This is killing me

You are my world, my everything
You stupid girl, you're gonna be the death of me
So let me go, just let me be
You stupid girl, I love the way you're killing me
(killing me)
You stupid girl (killing me)
You stupid girl

Interesting song? He sent me another song that's just too vulgar for this innocent blog of mine.. Songs that are written these days... I could blog a whole blog about them.

But considering how uninspired and tired I feel right now, I'll not bother.

Oh Oh Oh! I had a ride on Joash's super motorbike today! Lol. It was exhilarating like a roller coaster ride in Genting.. because I knew if I had let go there were no safety harnesses to hold me in place. =P

God bless,
Jo

Happy Raya! (Got such thing??)

2010-09-10T19:58:00.003+08:00

Haha. :-) I spent most of today sleeping... slept at 4am, woke up 10am to go for a funeral (yeah.. another funeral... mom's friend's mother.. tis the season for death me thinks), came back home, slept till Ikea man kacau.. cause I bought a new bookshelf! For my many many books =D

If I'm a millionaire next time.. I'll have a whole huge room turned into a library! =)

Haha. Since I'm pretty sure I won't become a millionaire (I've no idea how I'll even earn a decent living) I'll stick to turning a small room into a library.. starting with my bedroom. :-) Recently gave away a lot of my small kid books, books that I grew up with.. mostly all bought from Pay Less books (one of the few places where you can get decent and cheap books).. but kept some of my favourite books. :-) These books I read and reread throughout the years.. in fact, I felt as if it was only yesterday that I had read some of them.. till I saw a label on one of the books.. Joanne Lim 1 K.. lol. Form 1... 7 years ago! I was but a fat and short kid back then.. Now slightly less-fat and maybe 1 or 2 cm taller. Hehe.

I keep turning around to admire the books even as I type this post.. Because I had given away about 1/4 of my books, some of the shelves are empty.. since they look so bare and empty I've no choice but to fill them up again. Right? =P Unfortunately I've pretty much stopped buying a few books at one go because Pay Less books in Atria, then 1 Utama closed down.. Buying 1 book in MPH/Borders would equal to 5-6 good books from Pay Less! Having (unfortunately) learnt Economics as a subject in school, I always decide the price won't fulfill enough utility. Haha. So I end up with way fewer books.. and also because I've hardly spent time the past year reading.. due to this and that, blabla.. But my bare shelves will inspire me! =) I hope.

My yahoo email has been causing problems.. I discovered that it's been sending out spam to others.. well, I used to think it was to myself, but today I checked my spam and saw that so many messages have been bouncing back.. from my own email! I've been sending out spam to everyone on my list... and considering that yahoo was one of my first emails ever, that's a massive lot of people.

Which.. isn't too bad.. until... I realised that even my LECTURERS have been receiving the spam..! :-( Both my IPDA and UM lecturers... oh no. A student has been sending out good deals on Viagra and such to them... there goes my marks....

Any idea how to solve that problem?? Please help...

God bless,
Jo

2010-09-09T16:30:00.001+08:00

Arrrgh I feel so dang horribly bad :( I promised to visit an aunty today but totally completely forgot about it. Too many things cluttering my mind. *sigh* Itulah my mind too focused on my stomach! Only remembered about the 20s dinner tonight. Cannot believe I forgot about the visit. I could have forgotten about the dinner but remembered the visit… instead I forgot the visit and remembered the dinner! 5 A student kononnya…

Haih feel so bad :( How do you make it up to an aunty for forgetting an important thing liddat??

Better start writing down all my appointments and plans.. I thought I could trust my brain to remember everything. I think I’ve got something on tomorrow… but can’t recall what. Or maybe I’m just paranoid now. Zzz.

Woke up to the sound of drilling and no electricity. My house has been under renovation for the longest time now because these contractors are so unreliable and show up randomly to do some work. This time they disappeared about 2 weeks and this morning suddenly came back. Cousin’s car got stolen.. good thing we’ve got an extra car, lent it to her. Her brother’s car just got stolen few months back. My family’s car has been stolen before. My Kenari has been broken in before. In fact, most Malaysians would have had some kinda experience with these car thieves. So much for Malaysia’s crime rate going down.

I’m just babbling. Still not happy with my forgetting.

Think I’ll just go and sleep.

Raya Hols!

2010-09-06T02:50:00.003+08:00

But it's already PACKED. Before I even BEGAN to enjoy my holidays. Haiyoyo. I feel so utterly stressed. I'm getting even less sleep than during the sem!

Sigh. How lah.

People's favourite question when they see me is, "So.. got bf from UM or not?? *wink wink*"

My answer.. Takde lah. Even if a guy ever wanted me at the rate I'm going I'll have absolutely no time for him. Unless he doesn't mind late night dates.. really late night dates. Like, how I went out for a drink with friends tonight at 12.30am and got back at 2.40am. And how I'll be doing that tomorrow night too. Because I don't have other times. :-(

Mmm, anyway..

I'm dreading the end of these 2 weeks holidays. It'll be a COMPLETE mad rush then. 4 major assignments to complete, not even including the minor assignments yet. I'm representing my college in squash and badminton. I'm in the committee for the debate competition. And I somehow or other got involved as the secretary of the upcoming CF camp.

Nooooooooooooo. :(

Uni is teaching me some very very painful lessons... how to be consistent, and not last minute. I enjoy classes, I just detest the assignments. Haiz. Gone were the days when I played until the final 2 weeks before exams. :(

Off to bed! I'm fine, just tired. :)

God bless,
Jo

Yet another funeral...

2010-08-31T21:57:00.002+08:00

How many funerals have I attended this year?? 10? 11? Around there.

Death...

mmm. Decided to skip my lectures yesterday and took the LRT, interchanged to Star LRT, walked to Bukit Jalil bus station, took bus down to Malacca in the morning for my uncle's funeral. I was planning to go after my lectures, but decided, what the heck, just skip lectures and take the morning bus back. Pretty uneventful journey, other than getting harassed by all the ticketing pimps/gangsters/agents, watching a guy being dragged by his collar, blatant corruption in front of everyone, and changing bus halfway at the Ayer Keroh toll (the driver suddenly ordered all those stopping at Malacca to get down and board another bus which he stopped at the toll).. ok, maybe it wasn't such an uneventful trip after all.

At the funeral... politics, as usual. What's new, eh? I'm beginning to think every death results in politics, whether rich or poor, young or old.

Anyway, came back home, logged on my com, and *gasped* all my work. -_- I'm beginning to HATE the internet. If there were no communication no one would be able to pass me work when they don't see me. :(

Off to work.

God bless,
Jo

Living for today

2010-08-29T01:47:00.005+08:00

Just a few days ago I realised that I practically live each day for another day (does that make sense?). From Mondays to Thursdays, I look forward to Fridays. On Fridays, I look forward to the start of my weekend. On Sundays, I attempt to step on my emergency brakes to prevent Monday from starting all over again.

The only time I thoroughly live for the present would be weekends. Which practically constitutes only about 30% of the whole week! That means I spend 70% of my week waiting for another day!!

Thing is, I don't have to live like that. I do not dread uni, in fact, I actually LIKE uni. Unlike school days where I just 'existed' in classes, I now LEARN new things in classes and lectures. Classes are really enlightening.

I think it's just a bad habit. Which I have to get rid of. I can't keep living like these for the rest of my life.. that would mean I only really live 30% of my whole life.. ok, a bit more if you wanna include holidays. And that is a scary thought.

I'm off to begin in life with a new perspective! (And yes, your life does change with a change of perspectives.)

Had a disastrous piano lesson today. Haha. I'm debating whether I'm just plain retarded in the piano, or I need to put in more effort. Undoubtedly I put in way more effort on my classical guitar.. but that's because the classical guitar can be played anywhere, anytime. As for the piano..

Must make more effort...

Live for today. ;-)

God bless
Jo

2010-08-28T19:49:00.003+08:00

Still trying to find a balance between work and play... I refuse to let work take over my life. These are my final few years as a student!

Have to drive down to Malacca this Monday, uncle passed away. :( I'm already thinking. Lecture finishes at 3, go down to Malacca, come back up Tuesday night. I could have gone back on Friday, but I wanted to spend my weekend working on my assignments. I'm still puzzled as to why they want to have the funeral over a span of so many days, none of us are travelling from too far. Max 4 hours away? As a result most of us can only be at the funeral parlour 3 days or so. Most of the rest will miss the funeral (burial) this Tuesday. I decided I'm going for the burial. Sitting around a few days with a coffin is tiresome and brings back too many memories of the distant and not-so-distant past.

Wednesday I've got an assignment due. So I've got to finish the assignment by tomorrow, because realistically speaking, you can't do work during a funeral. Other than handling morbid funeral logistics.

Hmm. Thinking aloud.

God bless,
Jo

Joanne's Blog Spot!

Les Miserables

I can vote! =D

"You used to get much higher than this."

Sungha Jung

Random...

:-)

....

Home Away From Home!

Elllo! :-)

Exhaustion

Memory Failure

Twilight 2011

New Student!!

Amazing Grace

=D

Dear Dad,

Christi...

Updates Updates

Sexaaay

SX Acoustic Guitar Traveller TG1

*Pengsan*

2nd day of sem!

CCU

=D

2nd Year

...

1 Utama!

Kuantan trip!

Tostadas

Boys in Pink, Girls in Blue

Tuition!

The Apple...

Hello Bello

14th July flew by

Spiritual Matters

I find it...

Loooove

Looking for better phone plans

Food for thought

A Call to Anguish - David Wilkerson

Bersih 2.0

Happy Father's Day!

Artist: Shawanda CrystalSong: You Can Let Go (Emphasis of final chorus mine)

I detest...

Essentially...

Dang

La Guitarra

Hello Alphapha!

I know I've been busy when...

Nocturnal

Nooo -_-

Yo yo!

Ding Ding Dong Dong

Growing Up's Tough.. but Fun

=D

I have been...

Hectic Gilar

=)

Dear blog..

Should I go for...

Stwess!

UMUMUMUM

And hello again =)

It's been exactly a year...

Hey hey

Phewww

Playing with HTML

Elloz =)

Have a blessed new year! =)

Ho ho ho...

Elloo from Aus

Wow

Now that Lit's over...

Har-rroooowwww

Harlo Bloggy!

Blessed 55th Birthday Dad!

Guard your heart...

Week 14

Squashyyyyy

Pengsan

Artist: Shawanda Crystal
Song: You Can Let Go (Emphasis of final chorus mine)

cough cough

Wedding Bells