We were supposed to go Ipoh, but I had a photoshoot session back then. Hence, we postponed it to this week and we changed the destination to Malacca. :)
It has been 6 years since I last toured Malacca. Came here with Andrew and some other friends. Now to set feet on this historical heritage soil again, nothing much has changed. Only now that I am married and I am travelling with my girlfriends, not Andrew.
Most of the people in Malacca are friendly. Especially those in Jonker Street. We went to try the chicken rice balls in Jonker Street, it taste awful. The chicken meat was tasteless and the rice was cold. The cendol was delicious though. Then we went on to the Eye On Malaysia which is now in Malacca. A bit disappointed with the view when we were up there. Nothing much to see except the Straits of Malacca.
We didn't have an exact itinerary of where we would be visiting. Just roaming around in the car, stopped wherever we felt like to. A fun trip actually. Just pity Phoebe that she had to drive all day.
We will definitely go Malacca again. It is an interesting place.
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Friday night, Andrew off at 8pm. I didn't want to stay in the office, so I decided to go KLCC. Told him would like to watch a movie and I'd buy the tickets first. Geez... The traffic was terrible and horrible. The streets were packed with vehicles!!! I was at the crossroad outside of KLCC. I couldn't cross the street even when the pedestrian light was green! The cars and buses and motorbikes just coming from everywhere, ignoring the red lights!!! What in the world has gone wrong? The cars weren't moving and that supposed to be easy to cross. I was wrong! Shocked and didn't want to risk my life, I took the longer way. Walked to the Avenue K and used the tunnel to KLCC. Pretty exhausted when I reached. Didn't buy the movie tickets, seeing the mad traffic I was afraid Andrew couldn't make it to KLCC on time.
Anyway, there he was in KLCC around 8.30pm. With no idea of what Whiteout was all about, we were sitting in the smallest cinema in TGV KLCC, with only like 4 rows of audiences. LOL!
Kate Beckinsale looks stunning as usual. Love her hair. Don't think I'd look as chic as her with that hair style. Tried that few months back, looked weird and old-fashioned. Hahaha.
The movie was OK. Not great, but watchable. The story-line was a bit messy though. At times it kind of annoyed me what it was trying to tell. Actually that was the suspense! I must say that the director/producer is pretty good at keeping the audiences suspended for such a long time! At the end of the movie, it only revealed what everything was all about. It would definitely put the "ahhh... ohhh..." on your mouth. :) Imagine you have no idea what it was from the very beginning until the very end. Half way through the movie, Andrew asked me, "what is this movie all about? Aliens or monsters?" LOL! I told him to "watch the movie and that is the reason why we are here".
认识他的女同事们，就只有我们。我们的老板根本就不知道他是谁！
在星空里航行，多棒啊。
看！可爱吧？！
照片是用手机拍的，素质不好。请见谅。
I am supposed to stay home for the day to finish the photo-editing. But it is so hard to refrain myself from going out to have some fun during the weekend! Especially when one of my many commitments is to spend more time with my BFF. :)
Few days ago Phoebe asked me to go to her friend's house to have steamboat dinner. This morning they changed their mind, we went for a movie instead. Pandorum? What movie is that? Checked it out on the web, didn't really understand the synopsis and the trailer. It looked so confusing to me. Guess we just had to watch it to understand it. LOL! All we know is that it is a sci-fi horror movie. Oh ya, starring Dennis Quaid. :) The only actor in the movie that I am familiar with.
So, there we were, going for a movie that we did not know what to expect. That was kind of exciting though, if you get what I mean. The Pandorum in the movie wasn't referring to the mutated creatures, but it was a kind of psychological syndrome. Everything happened on a space ship where people were trapped inside together with some unknown creatures. Not knowing what was on the outside, people were struggling to survive on the ship. I am not going to tell you how those people ended up on a space ship without knowing where they were. You'll just have to find out on your own, IF you're interested. :)
After all, it's not a bad movie. All the actions and suspense won't leave you feeling bored. However, it's a pity that the movie just couldn't send the message across. You'll be leaving the cinema thinking of the actions and creatures, but not the mother Earth. And it kind of sent the wrong message at the end, that we will have the second chance, second home to live in when our mother Earth couldn't support us anymore. All we have to do is look harder for other planet to migrate to. We human should be responsible for what we've done to this planet, protect it and save it from destruction. Not seeking other planet to substitute it and continue our abusive act on other planets!
I seriously feel and think that we will be having our end-of-the-world soon. I may not live to see the day to come. But I believe our next generation, or perhaps next next generation... will be having the "honour" to witness it. Unless we/they are capable enough to save the world.
It was Friday, I have a bunch of photos waiting for me to sprinkle some magic. Yet I went for a movie. LOL! Wanted to go on Wednesday, but Andrew was working late.
We were indecisive of which movie to watch. Andrew asked me what I wanted to watch actually. My one-million answer, "I want to see Bruce Willis." Hahahahahaha...... Surrogates it was!
The movie was a good one. Didn't really expect the story would be going in such an interesting way. The core of it may seem to be a little of old-fashioned, but it managed to send a clear message across to the audience. We human, have to live our own lives, in our own way. Face it, live it.
Bruce Willis looked so young in that robot body!!! I wonder how they did it! Make up? Computer effect? But he looks so handsome, both young and old! Gosh, I can imagine the girls all went ga-ga for him!!! Hahahahaha. My jaw dropped open and I couldn't close it for like 5 seconds when he first appeared on the screen! The charm, the look, the body...... Geez...... Bruce Willis did it again, with his charm. :p
Enjoy the movie. It is definitely worth to watch!
地点：Uncle Jerry肉骨茶，2-60 Pesiaran Mergastua, Taman Kepong Baru, 52100 Kuala Lumpur. （甲洞以前有个交通圈，几年前改成了交通灯十字路口，旁边有间教堂，就在教堂的斜对面那条路。你会看见街道两旁都有好多榴莲档口。再走前一点就是了。和Oriental跌打同排。）
Stephen Gately, most of us would have known him by the name "Stephen from Boyzone", or "that cute guy from Boyzone", or at a later stage "that cute gay from Boyzone".
Boyzone is one of my favorite boy bands since school. My younger sister and I actually like Stephen more than Ronan Keating who seems to be the most popular in the group. We noticed that Stephen was the only one that would always look straight into the camera whenever it came to his face. When he sang, the song was written all over his face, he never failed to express. When he went solo, it was then everybody realised he got a beautiful voice too.
It's just so sad that we've lost another great talented artist. He was only 33, at the top of his career. So sad...... A heart wrenching tragedy indeed.
Perhaps it's not the end. It's a New Beginning for him.
Goodbye Stephen. You will be missed, forever.
It is so often that I tell myself, don't look back, always look forward since you can't change the past. Today during my lunch time, I did not have my lunch. I worked and then took some time off to read my old blog posts.
I was reading those that I wrote using Friendster blog. I was surprised and disappointed with myself. Surprised that I wrote in such beautiful words and not seemed to be faking it. Disappointed that I write differently now.
I could sense that I had a clearer mind back then. I wrote to narrate my life, but now I am merely blabbering what has happened and what is going on.
Has my ego gotten a better hold of me to the extent that I write to please? Or am I wanting to blog so much until I blog without content? Perhaps I so want to keep my readers and that unawarely make me wanting to write a few new posts that contain no specific content?
Guess blogging too frequent is finally taking its toll on my once beautiful writing hands. Sometimes mass production just doesn't work. I shall not blog so frequent then, stop creating so much of cluster to the blogosphere as well.
I shall write less. Less is more. :)
P.S. : I love this birthday post of mine, last year. As compared to what I have written this year April, it was totally nonsense! My old Ashley, be kind, please come back to me!!! I need you......
Today, marks the first day of my journey of, The "7 Habits". (Ooohhh... It sounds so spiritual. Love it! Hahaha.)
Our trainer/teacher, Roger Bugh, is the nicest and most responsible teacher I've ever met. His commitment to teaching is never lesser than any one of us. I've been to some NLP course before, but I have never felt such overwhelming (Note: the course that I attended by Roger, is not NLP). One week after the NLP course, I've put all the things behind and forgot about them totally. Once in a while I do receive emails from the NLP trainer's secretary, but not the trainer himself. This morning I saw one name in my email inbox which got me pretty excited and nervous. It was an email from Roger, personally. Well, it could be an email which he sent to all of his participants/students, but I appreciate his effort of sending it personally instead of asking his assistant/secretary to do it.
With his reminder, I am very sure I could put what I've learnt in the past 3 days into good use. Then, I would become a better person.
I miss the time that I spent with the other participants. When people share with an open mind and open heart, the things that you'll learn from them are doubled or even tripled. No one was shy to share, everyone was so committed during that 3 days. Respect is all you could find in that room. I guess I am the most junior among them, but they have never asked what my job ranking is. They are all wonderful people.
When my boss asked me to replace him last Thursday, I was sulking. I've got work to finish and yet he wanted me to relieve him from some course and it was for 3 days! I even had to sacrifice my Saturday. I cancelled all my appointments with friends on Friday and Saturday. I told myself since I've chosen to come, I've got to commit to it and put in my effort to learn. 3 hours into the course, I started to see it in a different way. Hey, I've learned something new! Every one of us got some little homework to do at the end of the day. It was fun.
On the second day, I kind of looked forward to it in the morning. I was the earliest because Andrew worked morning shift and it was so kind of him to send me all the way to Subang. I am grateful to this day. I had so much fun on the second day. We've got more homework to do. Andrew was pretty surprised that I was doing homework. Hahaha.
How I wish this is an on-going thing which will never have to stop. All things must come to an end. There we were, saying goodbye to each other. Well, not really goodbye, we will be seeing each other again on 12/12/2009.
I must really thank my boss for asking me to replace him. Given me a golden opportunity to learn something which I guess I could never learn from any where else. All the sacrifices that I've made, they weren't sacrifices. I chose to. :)
Now, I must act and think proactively. Be a drop of water, send the ripples as far off as possible. :)
One of the homework we had to do, our very own personal mission statement. The 7 petals, signifying the 7 roles I have. The centre part would be myself. To strike a balance in all the roles that I'm playing, to work hard and play hard.
说完了美食，可以说点别的了。有洁癖或是不太能接受餐馆不太干净的朋友们，可千千万万别挑战自己了。餐馆就在路旁，卫生方面不是很好。记得我第一次去的时候，就坐在餐馆外边。坐着坐着，眼角好像看见了什么东西在动。不看还好，一转头！原来是老鼠！就在餐馆外面的渠口窜出窜进的。没有胆量的人，肯定早就翻桌子跑了。哈哈哈！虽然是肮脏了点，但是还是有顾客的。大概是在这附近工作的上班族吧。
在这泊车也是一个问题。只能把车泊在路边，违规泊车！哈哈哈。。。所以呢，来这吃肉骨茶需要很大的胆量和勇气的哦。你有吗？嘎嘎嘎嘎。。。:P
地点：良记肉骨茶，302，Jalan Raja Laut, Chow Kit, 50350 Kuala Lumpur.
Been trying very hard not to care, not to bother. But sometimes the harder you try, the harder it gets to do just that.
I am not sure if I am being sensitive and petty now. My mind is in a mess for this moment, I just can't seem to untie all the knots that I've tied up. Did I bring this upon myself? Perhaps.
People usually told me "Ashley, don't bother so much". Well, things do not happen to them. It is always easier to tell others what to do than telling ourselves. Am I not right?
I've been blaming myself for not being careful again, also been scolding myself for repeating the same mistake. Geez, there are just certain things that we would never learn the lessons. Would we? We would fall for the same thing, same reason, making the same mistake, over and over again, years after years.
Where did all the negative thoughts come from?! Now I am surprised. I have been surrounding myself with all the negativity. This is not the usual me. I feel like I am back to the "ME" 4 years ago. I can't keep all this with me. I gotta find ways to shake them off. How do I clear my mind now? I cared too much and now I can't let go. :( I held it so tight in my hands and now I can't let it go......
I wish I could cry it all out...... Guess no one would understand why such a small matter would make me feeling so emotional...... Yeah, weeping is the first step.
I simply just, care too much...... A weakness that I could never overcome. I could only blame myself, not others.
Sebagai seorang anak Malaysia, manalah boleh saya lupa bahasa kita yang seindah-indah ni? Hahahahaha......
Sebenarnya Bahasa Malaysia saya ni tak lah baik sangat. Boleh tulis, boleh bertutur, boleh baca, tapi tak fasih. Kadang-kala rakan sekerja saya ketawa juga.
Apa yang buat saya blog dalam Bahasa Malaysia ni? Fikir nak tulis ni, tapi dah terlupa berbulan-bulan. Sekarang teringat lagi, cepat-cepatlah tulis. Kalau tidak, nanti otak saya yang tak baik ni lupa lagi.
Apa yang hendak saya tulis sekarang??? Errr...... Kosong je, entah lah...... Tadi baru semangat nak tulis dalam BM, sekarang dah nak berputus-asa. Mestilah semua orang ketawa. Hahahahaha......
Minta maaf ya...... Lain kali ya, semasa saya ada sesuatu nak ceritakan, saya tulis dalam BM lagi ya. Hahahaha...... Sorry. :p
Friends, are gems that we collect along the journey of life. We pick up the new shiny ones, we tend to toss the old ones away from the drawer close to our heart to make room for the new ones. There are some we can't bring ourselves to part with, those we still hold dear to our heart.
A lot of time, the gems got dusty. We take them out to have a look and realise they are no longer shiny. It seems pity to toss them away. Hence we make some effort to polish it, trying very hard to bring the brilliance back into life. When it shines again, we cheer and dance. When it doesn't, we feel disappointed and sad.
I have a lot of gems with me. Along the way, I could usually pick up one or two new friends. Sometimes I picked up a handful! Out of this handful, some of them are precious stones that could take your breath away for a while.
I am not afraid to admit that I've let go some used-to-be precious stones. Let go is probably not appropriate in describing it, kept away would be just right. Polishing them just doesn't seem to work anymore, to toss them away would be a waste. Just keep them in a nice place, remembering how brilliant they used to shine and how they lit up my life.
We have all been hurt before. However, we have never thought that the reason of us getting hurt is probably caused by the different expectations we have for each other. It is so often that we've heard friends telling us "my good friend betrayed me". But have we ourselves never betrayed our friends? I believe we have, just that we are not aware of it. We do things that we think are reasonable. But to our friends, they may not think the same.
My BFF has recently said something which took me off guard. "I know you are a friend who would not abandon friends when you found a boyfriend or got married", she wrote in MSN. She missed out the "NOT" at first, after clarified with her and she said she meant "would NOT". LOL! I appreciate that she appreciates my efforts. That's all that matters. I do not need a gift from a friend to confirm and appreciate the friendship. The simplest way of expressing is, say or write your appreciation to me would do all the work just fine.
I have had friends who lost in touch with me after they have found their important other half. That is why I told myself I shall not do that to my friends and I hold tight to that silent promise. I truly believe that what others do unto you, please do not do unto others if it is not a good thing. Many a time I would hope for some revenge or payback. But my rationality got the better hold of me, why spend my time and effort in seeking revenge when I could use them wisely in other area? Anyway, what goes around comes around.
I am blessed with enough of true friends who really show that they do care about me. I am also blessed with enough of acquaintances who taught me how to behave and defense myself better. And I have to thank those who have hurt me given me the opportunity to learn to stand strong again and survive.
I should be grateful.
P.S.: I am no better than others. I do gossip too. Who doesn't? I have even had a very few friends who gossiped around and everything got back to my ears. Yes, when we gossip, please keep in mind that there is a big possibility that the person you're talking about may in the end know about it. No point in getting angry and seeking revenge, just keep those blunt stones away since they are no longer in the friend list.
30th September 2009. 6.17 P.M. Cloudy. 14th floor, Megan Avenue II, Jalan Yap Kwan Seng.
I had a date with my BFF, Phoebe. She was still on the bus express on her way back to KL city. She told me she would probably arrive around 6.3opm and by the time she gets to KLCC, it would be 7pm. I decided to wait in the office and leave by 6.30pm.
I was on MSN with Wan Yi, Nicole and Melissa, happily talking about our trip to Taipei next year. Out of nowhere, I felt dizzy and my chair was swaying left and right. Gosh, I had the dizziness just few hours ago, did it decide to make a come back now with much violence? I even saw the blinds curtain in the empty room opposite me swaying a little. Me hallucinating? Was I really that sick?
Within that 2 seconds, I knew something was wrong. It was more than my dizziness. I typed something in MSN, something about "it's shaking". I couldn't remember. I stopped everything immediately. Hands on my desk, sitting, wanted to make sure. A second later, I felt it again. It was more this time. With my two feet on the ground, both hands on the desk and butt in my chair, I was swaying left and right. I felt it. It was more violent. The blinds opposite me was swaying, the walls beside my MD's room was creaking!
I called out my colleague's name who was in another room. He didn't hear me. I opened my drawer immediately, grabbed my handbag and my handphone, wanted to make a run. When I stood up, I could feel it again. Gosh! I called out to my colleague a few more times, louder. He came out of his room and asked me what happened. Geez, he didn't feel it! He was just in the room opposite me beside the empty room and he couldn't feel it. When he came out, the shaking was gone. I told him to look at the curtain! The curtain was still swaying but it was settling down.
I typed to my friends on MSN "I felt the shaking... it is shaking... earthquake... I'm leaving... I'm going..." Packed my things, off my computer, I went to the other side of the office. 4 other colleagues were there, but only 2 of them felt it. They quickly packed and I waited for them to leave together. I couldn't believe we took the lift down and not the stairs. It was later only I realised how dangerous it is if the tremors would have to happen again and serious enough to cause anything to collapse.
I was scared of course. In fact this wasn't the first time I experienced earthquake tremors. First time was few years ago when I was on my bed about to sleep, second time was 2 years ago when I lunched with my colleagues in AMBank beside our office. Every time I experienced it, the first thing that came to my mind was I wasn't feeling well. When I know it was the tremors afterwards, it was then only I got scared.
But this time, it was more. I got so scared. Was it lucky or bad that I didn't run down in the first place? I should have done that, right? I almost did that, I grabbed my handbag and wanted to. But my colleagues were there. They didn't act quick enough, I couldn't just run without them, could I? Ironically, after came out from my office, I walked to KLCC, another high rise building. LOL! Surprisingly, I didn't see any evacuation or people gathering beneath the KLCC towers. They didn't feel it?
I checked the news on my phone, it was the earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, in Sumatra. The tremors I experienced yesterday, twice, 5 to 6 seconds? Or longer? I do not know. It seemed short but it definitely felt long. Well, trust me, it was like forever when it happened. At that point of time, I was praying inside my heart for the people in where the earthquake happened. If I could feel such a strong tremors, the earthquake must have been a bad one.
Not everyone in every building felt the tremors. Andrew was at work, 7th floor, at Jalan Tun Razak, all of his colleagues and him didn't feel anything at all. He later told me and joked, "well, that is one of the advantages working in a call centre, whatever happens, our building is the safest, and we will remain there to answer/solve your problems." LOL!!!
Some people commented that they've missed the tremors and to feel the tremors is some hard-to-get experience. Why in the world would people want to feel how disaster is like? I do not understand. To them, it was probably something new and fun. To me, it wasn't fun at all. The fear, the panic, the do-not-know-what-to-do feelings, I do not want to experience that at all. They said Malaysia is a country free of massive natural disasters. 2004, we had the Tsunami. Every now and then we experience tremors. Are we now still free from all those disasters? Would we have earthquake too sooner or later seeing the tremors going stronger and stronger each time?
To think back now, of what happened yesterday, there's one little details I laughed when I told Andrew (he was the first person I SMSed when I came out from the building) the whole situation last night. The second time I felt the tremors in office, I opened my drawer to take my handbag and grabbed my iPhone from my desk! Hahaha. I didn't know what made me did that. The panic attacked? People would just run without thinking. But my first instinct was "grab the bag and handphone and run". LOL!!! Andrew said from that, we could see that I am a person who hold dear to my important belongings. Hahahaha......
P.S.: How fragile and vulnerable life is. We should really cherish every minute we live today. What will happen the next minute, we do not know. Like yesterday, I was so happy at that very minute and if something tragic happened, if the building doesn't hold, I would not be sitting here sharing the experiences. Leave no regrets, and live with no regrets. Friends, I do love you all.
