Back from KL....

Ah...another weekend hath passed....phew...the last weekend was a BLAST!!! Spent it all in KL, among good and close friends, and had an amazingly, uforgettable time. This 27th birthday on the 27th was one of the best birthdays I've ever had... and making it well known really helped it a lot. This is the first year I really made it a point that ppl know when my birthday is... and it is well worth it. Wll, being 27 on the 27th only happens once.. so I don't plan to be modest about that.

Birthday celebrations actually started way before Thursday (the 27th).. it started on Tuesday (the 25th). One fine rainy evening, and so no training that can be done. Msg-ed my housemate, Yun Yun... and off we went on a birthday shopping trip at Orchard (amazingly, it was only raining at Holland Village). Yun Yun was very onz about getting me birthday prezzies.. and so she got me this wonderfully amazing pearl pendant with a mathching necklace... bellshaped, it had a Mikimoto pearly hanging in it making it one of the most cutest pendant I have ever seen. After that, she bought me a purple halter bikini too from newurbanmale. Sexy sexy, the male salesguy hopped over to see me in the bikini when I changed into it.. heheh.... it was about closing time... and the guy was still being very very nice.. quite a cute guy too... Thanks YY !!!

Then, it was the birth-day itself. It all started great. As usual, 5-minutes packing... and realised I forgot my toothbrush and comb in KL later on. ACLS was fun, met up with Maureen, Abey-kun and Choon Chiat after loooong time no seeing... (haha...still like CC a lot... really nice guy, gave me a ride to Novena Square after that) Amazingly, I passed the theory test.. which I thought I would have failed miserably. Yakked and yakked and yakked... then test, then finished.. the ACLS cert is valid for only 2 yrs, but hey, I passed, so now, no need to go through the first aid course the hospital is running for the docs without ACLS...bwahahahah.

Okay, the trip to KL was fairly un-happening. Reached KL about 730pm, in Bangsar.. called Ivy, who picked me up.. and ta-da...met Jon for the first time. He was really shocked that I was super talkative... hey, can't ever stop a girl from talking, after all. Changed into a simple dress I bought at Novena sq in the car, and headed off to Chilli's at Bangsar Shopping Complex. There, Callie, Fipink and Ah Pooi were already waiting and hungry. Had a fantastic meal there, followed by Mango Lolo at SS/2. Was suppose to have Choc fondue at Haagen Daaz, but the one in BSC was not there anymore... so... oh well... sorry Jon, mebbe next time.

First night in KL was relaxing... havent had a long break (ohkaaay, more like less than a week ago was diving off Pulau Dayang) where I could sleep without stress..... The next day was filled with shopping... haha..only girls involved , so no guys tortured until the end when Ivy and Jon appeared. It was at the Pavillion. The initial plan was for the fish spa... scrapped that and went bikini shopping instead. Ended up with the girls (me, YP, FP, and Ivy) with a bikini each. hehe..planning for a beach party soon.. :)..Had my first J. Co donuts there as well... yummy... deli-cious... mmm..... the dough was good, which was what I thought had made them famous as compared to other donut shops. Must have them summore the next time I'm in KL... (which is in another 2 weeks, btw, before flying to Mulu). Then, went to collect the Race Entry Pack at Wisma OCM at Jln Hang Jebat. Other than the slow collection process, the collection area was in a fairly airconless hall - stuffy stuffy stuffy. Anyways, bought some PowerBars there at the super cheap price of RM5.50 ea. Pooi and I headed off to Midvalley next to pass sth to her sis, in which we bumped into an old friend of hers from Uni. Had Jap food (the sashimi was great!!) for dinner at ?Sakura?. Wanted Choc Fondue again for dessert... but no nearby Haagen Daaz...haha... sorry again, Jon...

Saturday morning was filled with hanging around Bangsar Village. Saw some amazing strapless dresses but Ah Pooi managed to dissuade me to buy (thx Pooi!) and had lunch at the super high class hawker food restaurant "Mdm Kwan's".. not as good as real hawker food though. BK arrived in the afternoon, and Pooi dropped us of at Swiss Inn Hotel to chk in.

BK was hungry already (as usu, hehe) and had pasta again at Dome. We met up with Ah Beh later on at the Pavillion, and he had pasta again at TGIF.. super ultra carbo loading..., anyways, the margarita at TGIF was quite good... At night, was at Jln Alor with Ow, EeSoon and Henry eating ikan bakar, sotong kangkong and tiram telor (i think that's how u call it). mmmm......missing it now.

After 3 hours of sleep, had to force myself up for the run, race starting at 430am...wake up wake up... cant have coffee cos don't wanna pee too much later on... put on my running shoes, tag on the runners bib..and off we (BK and I) went. sob sob sob...the run was not up to my expectations as my left runners knee resurfaced around KM 25.. Don't wanna sacrifice my knee too soon before the Mulu trip, so decided to rest more and walk along the way after I started limping at KM 30... so long as I finish... that's more important for now. :)... finally FINISHED!!!!! ...haha... at a horrendous time of 4:40... need to improve next time. It was a nice run though, managed to hit all the big spots in KL, well...except the KL UMNO building.. hehe

After the race, headed straight back to the hotel, and had a relaxing shower... slept another 1 hr..before chking out and meeting up with Henry, Ow and EeSoon at KLCC. Had KFC for lunch and Starbucks for coffee.... hehe...then yakked yakked yakked till it was time to go :(... took a cab to Pudu and boarded the bus.... left KL with a heavy heart but painful legs.. I'm gonna miss everyone I'm leaving in Malaysia.. :(

Like I said earlier on, this year's Birthday celebration is one of the best I ever. With so much fun and love from everyone, I felt like the luckiest person on earth. It felt like an amazing start to being 27... and it really is... Will meet up with everyone again soon.... but going to Mulu first in 2 weeks time to finish up what I didn't finish the last time... Thanks guys... and here's to the future.. work smart, not hard but always remember to play hard...

Trudge on.....

Scuba diving Part III

Okay...long post about diving... this will be the last of it..

Well.. I could never have imagined that the underwater world was so interesting. Things there come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.. and better yet, amazing neon colors that strikes you from far far away. Some creatures on the other hand choose to be more camouflaging and take on the appearance of the surrounding background. These are even harder to find.. and more elusive as the only way to track them down is to watch for any sudden and slight movements. All in all.. the first dive ended well with a good introduction to diving. Up we went on the boat around 43 mins later.. and there we headed back to the resort. Lunch was up, and a short nap. Then off to the next dive, which lasted about 43 mins as well. Now, underwater control was slightly better and we practised removing and replacing the regulator.. this was easy, just have to remember to blow out before taking the first breath in when regulator is back in place. Finally, our last dive was after a teabreak. Here, we practiced mask clearance, removal and replacement. On all the dives, hovering and fin pivoting were key skills that we practiced. This I realised was not the easiest to master. I thought I would have panicked at the mask removal bit, but it went along fine. At the end of day one.... I was pooped... Had a short dinner and debriefing where Rory went through the diving log with us. Easy enough, we filled in the details of everything we learned and all the animals we saw.

Day two and three were about the same, but came all too quickly.. I managed to control buoyancy much much better on day 2 when we had the CESA practice.. I think it was Rory's pep talk about how not to follow PADI's slow and deep breathing all the time advice. Just have to remember to breath out when ascending.. the rest is really relative to what you wanna do. I was happy when he was beaming with pride when all of us managed to control out buoyancy for the 3 min safety stop very well. yay!!! scored!!

Day three came and off we went. Monica's grp saw a HUGE manta ray about 5m width..but we missed it.. anyway, she took pics of it which I'll grab from her later.. The sad thing about Pulau Dayang and diving is that diving is one of the contributors to the death of the corals and the dearth of sea life. But it is the divers that will help to fight for future marine life conservation as well. :)

Day three ended tiringly as we made our way back to Singapore.. another 9hrs trip back. Reached home and started to dream again about the next dive, I did... and to reflect back on how beautiful the world is. Here's hoping that everyone will have a chance to "fly" through the waters and have a short peek at whats underneath the vast blue ocean. Sometimes, life is all about taking half a step back then leaping waaaaay forward to do extraordinary stuff... :)

so trudge on, my friends, and find whatever it is that is remarkable in the world that will make you all feel happy about living...

Scuba Diving Part II

Diving is so blooody fun... I really wished last weekend would not end.. missing the beautiful white sandy beaches and clear blue waters now. But most of all, I missed the peacefulness of the underwater world.. where everything is just slow and serene.

It all started on Thursday, after work, where we (the divers) gathered at Gilldivers at Tanjong Pagar. There I met our instructor, Rory and the rest of the diving team. Monica went along with us as the guide for the leisure divers (Jenny, Dennis, Alan) while Rory guided us open water divers (Mun Siong, Duncan, Shab, Panos and I. Masdi, another diver for the advanced course went with us but followed another grp for the dives. From Gills', off we went to Woodlands and finally hit Johor.

The bus ride to Mersing took 5-6 hrs. We arrived at Mersing around 3 am in the morning. Tired and groggy from my sleep, I went to collect some equipment bags to load it onto the ferry. We joined a few other groups at the ferry... all equally excited as well. A few teams were using the 3day weekend to extend the dives too... so Pulau Dayang is going to be well populated. I was hoping then that The dive sites wont be over-dived though..

Finally arrived at Pulau Dayang at 645 am in the morning.. arr. The first thing that struck me was how beautiful the place was. I fell in love with it immediately. Dennis then told me to take off my sandals and keep it nicely, I wont be needing it for the next 3 days.. and he was right. There was never a need to wear sandals as the whole place was filled with soft white sand..even up to the resort.. sigh..wish i could play in the sand right now. Jenny went to sleep..and so did everyone else except Dennis, Alan, Duncan and I. I guess we were just all too soaked into the atmosphere to sleep then. Sunrise was not really magnificent as it was hidden behind another hill on another island.. but to feel the peacefullness there... I was just too happy.

Next, I made a good cup of 3-in-1 coffee and sit on the bench to relax while awaiting the dive to start. Breakfast was a simple continental buffet style - great fried eggs. One by one, all woke up (Jenny gave the morning dive a miss) and joined us for breakfast. Finally, at 930am Monica woke up... AHHH I'm late!!... haha... she was shouting on her way to the table. haha... anyways, we quickly finished up and off the the boat we went.

I was all jittery before the first dive. As I set up the equipments (including salivating on the mask to prevent it from fogging up), Rory gave us all a short briefing of what we were going to do. We were going to do some hovering skills as well as to get used to being underwater. Another group from Orpheus Dive was on the same boat as us, and they were doing their open water dive as well. Set up regulator on the tank... Put on the BCD jacket... (the wetsuit felt snugly tight) and off I went and jumped into the sea...

The first jump was exhilarating!!! With the BCD inflated with air... I floated on the surface of the water. The regulator tight in my mouth, I kept reminding myself to breathe through the mouth.. the nose is stuck under the mask, anyways. Once everybody is in... Rory signalled for us to go down... with one hand pressing on the BCD descend button... glup glup glup..down I went.

All at once, everything started to move slowly. The water at the dive site had great visibility... almost up to 15m. slowly slowly I reached the ocean bed... filled with dead corals. We did our hovering practice there... it was hard..I kept bouncing up and down... need to control breathing as well ...darn..still can't get it right. Oh well, short practice, and off we went, slowly fin-ning our way through the sea... looking at the ocean creatures along the way.

to be continued.....

Scuba diving..

Haiz... one thing that I've always wanted to learn... and I finally found the time to do it - Scuba Diving. Mum was always against it, cos 1. It involves underwater action. 2. Had a close friend who passed away from a snorkelling incident. 3. Fortune teller said that I had no luck with water, so I may be tempting something more than I can bargain for. Nevertheless.... I managed to pluck up the courage to start on a scuba diving course.

It started with a theory lesson last Tuesday where we went through the important things about diving. 4 hrs of watching videos, listening to diving theory, doing quizzes...zzz... but managed to pass the test in the end :). Next was the pool session, which was yesterday.. brr.. even in a wetsuit, it was freezing cold till I had teeth chattering. But the practical session was so much more fun. Had a great time trying to control my buoyancy; I'd either float or sink too much rather than be in the water at status quo position. Breathing through the mouth into the regulator also took some time to get use to, especially when its breath through the mouth, and blow through the nose (to clear the goggles of the water seeping in it). All these skills are a necessity though, if I ever wanna be a good diver. Most important of all is to - RELAX!!! STAY CALM!!! DON"T PANIC!!! hmm..will be hard though with my ever type-A personality coming in during times of stress. Need to focus and meditate for the next few days.

Okies, next and finally on the schedule would be the dive itself. I'll be going on the 21-23 March weekend (Good Friday weekend) to Pulau Dayang. I'm really excited about it that I'm already planning my travelling gears (to those who don't know me well, packing is a 5 minute job right before leaving for anywhere - more or less already have a standard chklist in my palm). I hope everything goes well cos the next week I have the Marathon.. that reminds me, need to bunk in with someone (Dun worry Ivy, we'll get it sorted out).. Don't really know much about Pulau Dayang, other than the fact that it is smaller than Pulau Aur, which is right next to it. But this trip is to get used to diving, so seeing the underwater life there would come in second in importance. Oooo... I'm still dreaming of diving in Sipadan in August, before the Climbathon... Any other divers out there keen to dive there as well? then we can climb Gunung Kinabalu (not on the climbathon day itself, wanna try the Via Ferrata new route).

Alright, enough for now about diving. Will bring more updates later on. Till the next post then...

trudge on, all..

Voting... a true exercise of freedom?hmm...

Politics has not always been my favourite topics. Starting from the ancient Roman times, the right to vote for your leader has always been treated as a basic human rights in the eyes of the democratic countries. It' interesting, to trace all the way back, from the start of the civilised human society that we have never been satisfied with any forms of leadership, as it tends to get corrupted after a long while, which then open the oppurtunity for some sweet talking person to rush in, kill the democratically chosen rulers, and elect him/herself (can't be a sexist now, can I) king/emperor. After which a few hundred years of monarch-type ruling will prevail, only to get more and more corrupted as time goes on. Finally, another sweet talking person will come along, with some great ideas of choosing your own ruler, your own government, and finally, take down the ruling monarch, and establishing, yet again another few hundred years of democracy. Time and time again, history tested, mother and grandmother approved, this is how we, sociologically, have come so far since the ages of dinosaurs.

This brings me to my topic of this post. A few of fellow friends have commented on the upcoming "erection" in Malaysia tomorrow. I'm really impressed by their patriotiscm to vote and to try to change the country, hopefully for the better to face the upcoming economic changes that is already taking place in the rest of the world. Malaysia, unfortunately still lag behind in many areas, mainly due to the race-related political scene that messes up everything every now and then. Till now, I do not understand why the NEP is still in place, why are people still cussing over small race related issues till it fills up the front page of all the major newspapers ie the keris thing, why some people do not want to look to the future and keep insisting on stable non-globalised past ie a certain state in the country, and why the people always want the government (which comprises of IQ and EQ- challenged corrupted politicians) to do more for them ie...oil subsidies, control all the price, give out ridiculously loads of scholarship to mentally challenged students... let's face it, was it not the one of the greatest presidential quote ever made in history " ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for her" (i think those are the exact words)... Funny, how some people always ask for government intervention in almost everything in their life. It's like they expect everything on a silver platter without even lifting a little finger. It's so bloody prevalent in a certain race in the country that you'd have to be a blind, deaf and a dumb monkey to not know anything. Not all are like that, and I applaud those who stray from them to try to find their own niche. Hasn't 50 yrs of independence taught these ppl some independance at all??!! sigh sigh sigh...

I don't wanna name the race involved (starts with the letter M, ends with y...5 letter word...come on, you can get it) but, I do feel sad that my country, rich with resources, have decided to to deplete those resources without a proper economic plan to grow. Many things could have been done to help the really poor people, and give more scholarships to the really smart and deserving kids, rather than to send a space tourist up there to make teh tarik. I want to vote, but like I just told my friend, I will exercise my right of NOT to vote when I do not see a suitable candidate around. None of the parties' ideology (and personal attacks which are I think are just cheap jabs) interests me so far. How come I do not hear of any tax reforms, budgeting ideas, healthcare issues management, or even about road safety rulings in their current speeches. So far, I've heard rubbish like how the NEP should stay and how malay rights should be protected... this coming from even the mouth of th C*****e faction of the government. If you're going to play racial politics, please play it right then... sigh sigh...my country...

Till a politician can come out and openly declare the abolishment of NEP on the front pages of the NST and the STAR, I shall remain rooted, standing behind my right of not to vote. Things have to change, and since the elections only come once every 5 yrs, or in this case before Anwar is eligible to run again, Malaysians can only pray that the next ruling nepotistic ppl actually care enough to help to develop the country. ... sadly, this may not be the case... so to all out there... choose wisely, and this time, do something for your country...

till the next time...
trudge on...

Phew...

The laziness to update my blog is creeping up on me already. Need to keep up with my resolution to update this blog once a week, at least... :).. ok, on to things then..
Life has been good to me... these past few weeks have been great and going at a more comfortable rate, well, more due to the cancellations of some plans (ie skydiving and rafting) and that I'm getting more comfortable at where I'm at. Also, I've spoken to the big boss about my next MOPEX posting and he has given me favourable replies.. yay!!!.. one hurdle down. Now is the time to read up more on Medical informatics before I start my training proper in April and the posting itself in May. Had to stop running training for the past 2 days though, my left runner's knee really working up nowadays. Just changed shoes today, so hopefully the run tonight won't be painful. Hmm..stumped by a busted knee..

Well, couldn't get the skydiving permit in time.. so no skydiving in February, might postpone it to April or May cos wanna focus on the KL marathon in March. That reminds me, Rebecca is heading on to Japan to do grad studies... hehe got another kaki there to get me stuff from then on. The rafting was plan also postponed...elections coming along, and not all are free... so that relieved me from this weekend's trip. phew..get to rest... but all that said, i still managed to squeeze in a scuba diving trip this March. Will take up the theory course next week and finally go for the dive on the 21-23 weekend. The marathon is on the next week, but will be heading on KL on the 27th to celeb bdae there.. got my leaves approved already!! So KL, here I come..

March is gonna be really exciting for me, with bdae coming along and all the other funny stuff I plan to do. Decided to sign up on a dating agency to get myself out of the house more... we'll see how that turns out, will keep that bit updated later on. For now, I gotta keep my new running shoes on to keep my knee safe while walking around the house (no joking...the pain is soooo bad i almost twisted my calf trying to stabilise my knee). So till the next update ....
trudge on....