The beautiful game + people

The pictures and video says it all. It was a good game. Liverpool played well but unfortunately they lost 1-2!

The Liverpool FC boys pre-match (Naveen, Nigel and Kar Teck)

It's been a year since! Like you said, glad to have you as a friend despite the obvious differences!! Another one for the north-south ties!!

Ooh, Naveen... don't be too upset!

Just remember that:

When you walk through a storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm
Is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark
Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Tho' your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on
With hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone

Cheer me up

Since I'm not in the best of mood (as a result of a combination of many things - working late due to colleagues going on holidays and leaving me with their messy work is one of the many reasons!)

Something to cheer myself up!

Get this widget Share Track details

Have you wondered how it feels when it's all over
Wondered how it feels when you just have to start anew
Never knowing where you're going
When you face a brand new day
It used to be that way
Now I just close my eyes and say

*I just want to breathe again
Learn to face the joy and pain
Discover how to laugh a little , cry a little
Live a little more
I just wanna face the day
Forget about the woes of yesterday
Maybe if I hope a little
Try a little more
I'll breathe again

Starting out again is never easy
Disappointments come and go but life still moves on
With a bit of luck
It's a brand new start
That might just work my way
No need to walk away
Don't want to live on life replay

Repeat *
Things will work out fine
If you can find the courage to look past the night
To see the break of dawn

Repeat *

A new chapter...

The new chapter has already begun...

So I should not look back...

I'll live with it and try to make the most out of it...

Nevertheless, I'll miss you!

Oozing with Malaysian vibes

Was at a 2-day professionalism / business awareness course as part of the Institute of Actuaries qualification requirements.

Don't worry, I'm not going to talk about what the professional conduct standards are, the legal implications of not fulfilling my fiduciary duties or my responsibilities to serve the public interest... not going to bore anyone of you with it!!

What I want to mention here is that... even after many years studying and working out of Malaysia... I have not lost my roots...

PROOF:

Countless other people who were attending the same course asked me whether I am a Malaysian within 3 exchange of sentences.

And following that, they will exclaim that I sound EXACTLY like the Malaysian colleague/friend/actuary/tourist that they have/met.

I guess it's because of my Manglish...

It may not be a big deal to others but I'm proud to say that I'm oozing with Malaysian vibes even it may not be for the best reasons!! :)

Yuni's visit

Lil' sis came over to visit me last weekend! Haven't seen her for quite some time, so it was really good to see her! (Miss you leh, Yuni Miyake!! :P)

I was really excited before she arrived and even came up with an itenary for her 4-day visit... BUT in the end, I guess I was quite a poor host... (sorry eh.. Yuni)

The first item on my itenary was to bring her to Cambridge since she haven't been out of London yet and I've not been there myself... however, my good intentions were useless... I made the mistake of thinking we could take the train from London Bridge (it's Liverpool Street instead!!), we did not arrive at Cambridge early enough, the weather was gloomy and raining everytime we stepped outdoors and many of the colleges were closed as it's the exams period! Sigh...

I guess everyone else concluded that it was not the best time to visit Cambridge except ME! So we ended up having the whole train to ourselves...

Nevertheless, I have to admit that this old little English town does have it charms... it's really picturesque!

The famous punting in Cambridge!

Us on the river cruise tour... hehe... was too lazy to punt myself! And I didn't think Yuni could do it.. hehe... :P

SIGH... It's the bridge of sigh... I need one outside my house!!

This is the castle where they filmed Harry Porter! It's the Hogwarts grounds in the movie...

Canary Wharf views from my flat! I'll miss this view...

The rain and gloom stayed on for the rest of Yuni's stay and to make matter worse, we always woke up so late that we couldn't accomplish much for the rest of the day! (Sorry again, Yuni...) but at least, we managed to squeeze in good food like Penang Prawn Mee, Nasi Lemak, Sushi and Dim Sum... not to mention shopping, karaoke and souvenirs for her friends... AND briefly covered some famous London landmarks...

Tower Bridge along River Thames... most tourists assume that it's THE famous London Bridge but sadly... London Bridge is merely an ugly grey bridge... hehehe..

Ooh... this is the first time they open up Tower Bridge to let ships to pass WHILE I'm on the bridge!!

My sis was a quite frustrated with this guy whom we asked to take a picture for us. Reasons?

1. His friend wanted to be in the picture for reasons only known to himself

2. She wanted the whole church.. and the result... you can see for yourself... what church?

3. You can even see his thumb on the top left hand corner!

County Hall and the partially hidden London Eye! Tried to get a shot by placing the camera on the sidewalk... which failed miserably...

And finally, the famous Royal China Lobster Noodle!

It was really a pleasure to have lil sis around... It's something that I can never put a price tag on so I hope she DID have some fun in the end...

Tagged

Okay, I'm never into any sort of chain-emails - I delete them straight away without even reading it and the warnings that they put at the end of the emails don't affect me the slightest!

So I found it extremely funny for someone to tag me with this blog game!

And I did not even notice that I've been tagged until a month later - sorry carrots!

Anyway... for those who are curious, the rules and regulation of the game is as follow:


"Each player of this game starts out by giving 6 weird things about themselves. People who get tagged need to write in a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state the rules clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. After you do that, leave them each a comment letting them know you tagged them and to read your blog!"

Like I said, I'm never a big fan of such chain mediums (regardless of whether it comes in the form of an email or blog posts!)

SO:

I'll not tag anyone here.

BUT:

Since I'm a super wierd person, it doesn't take much to list 6 wierd things about myself... I'm sure people who know me have more than that in their mind!! So here goes...

1. I'm a super neat and clean freak - my housemates over the years will vouch for this on how I patronise them to clean the house. I clear my table every night before I go to bed even if I know that I'll need the things the first thing in the morning. I clean the dirty dishes that my housemates leave in the sink even when I'm late for work.

2. I'm a night owl - I study and work better at the wee hours of the morning. I would work throughout the night and sleep during the day. And I'm usually more alert and have higher concentration levels after 12am. I'm positively convinced that I'll do better in an exam if they let me take it in the middle of the night.

3. I can hibernate and not step out of my house for extended periods - that's my crazy routine whenever I have exams. I stock up groceries and freeze them up as if war is looming. Then I stay at home and not step a foot out for more than a week in the period leading up to my exams. I will decline any invitation to meet up and I study day and night without fail like a robot on a routine.

4. My mum told me that when I was young, I used to hug a book instead of soft toys to go to bed. I guess I'm a 100% NERD! It's inherent in my genes.

5. I read out aloud to myself - to most people, it seems that I'm talking to myself. I suppose I AM talking to myself... hehe... I used to read out aloud the whole history textbook when I was studying at home and sometimes at work, I read out aloud the thoughts that are going through my mind as I try to solve the problem at hand. Which makes my colleagues think I'm the crazy woman talking to myself in front of the computer!

6. I dislike chocolates. Okay, I hear exclamations from you: "HOW ON EARTH CAN YOU NOT LIKE CHOCOLATE?? EVERYONE LOVES CHOCOLATE!!" But sorry, I really don't like them... I guess I don't fall into the "EVERYONE" category!!

If I were to list everything, this post will go on forever! So to spare you, I'll stop at 6 just as the rules say so.

But do let me know if you want to be tagged.

You know it's addiction when...

Playing poker or mahjong becomes a weekly affair

Sometimes, you even play twice a week

And over the long bank holidays weekend, you play on Friday, Saturday, Sunday AND Monday

You go through the trouble of buying and lugging a proper mahjong table all the way from Chinatown

When you go to Argos, you look at poker cloth and when it's out of stock, you want to go home and check which other stores have it in stock

You say that you don't want to spend money but if it's playing poker or mahjong it's alright

You discuss and analyse your game even when you're not playing

You stay late to play even if it means that you have to walk home in the freezing cold

You learn how to play mahjong even when you don't know how to read Chinese

You think of bringing the poker chips and mahjong set with you when you go for a road trip

The 50th post

My 50th post!! Never thought I'll keep the blog up when I first started... After all, I'm neither a good writer nor an enthusiastic one!!

But over the months, I've come to enjoy blogging and publishing my thoughts... sometimes, it serves as a way for me to vent out my frustrations, sometimes it reminds me of the values and desires that I have in life, sometimes it's becomes a way for me keep in touch with friends, sometimes it helps me to think through things by actually writing it down and at other times, it's simply a diary of my life.

Thanks for reading and leaving me your thoughts! :)

Amsterdam

Went to Amsterdam the weekend after my exams since I missed the Easter weekend. Though it was only a short 2-day weekend trip, it was really fun and it has been a very very very long time since I went travelling with Sook Leen and Grace. As for Christine, I hope that this first time will not be the last time! (Sorry that you were stuck with us!)

At first glance, the city centre looked very much like what you would expect of an European city... but I think this charming little city has a lot more to offer!

Hehe... we were trying to pose with the amsterdam word but there were throngs of people waiting to take their photos with it... we practically had to fight with little kids to pose next to the letters... so in the end, we settled for just the "a" and "m" letters.

That's the full word that we were trying to take a picture of... now, we can really say that we've been to Amsterdam!

The Rembrandt museum. Since we only had the time to visit one museum, we decided to skip the Rembrandt museum. I guess a picture in front of it would be sufficient!

The Van Gogh museum. I think this is an absolutely fantastic museum. It houses the world's largest collection of works by Vincent van Gogh including the famous Sunflowers and the Wheatfield with Crows. It's such a pity that he died young and shot himself to death... hmmm... I guess it's tough to be a genius!

One of the many bridges that connect the canals around Amsterdam. These canals really do make the city very laid back and fun at the same time. As it was a sunny day, many locals were out on their boats, having parties and cruising along the canals... now that's what I call enjoyment in life!!

Time for an energizing break! Yummy and delicious smoothies!

We also visited the Anne Frank House. I remember reading the Anne Frank Diary when I was much younger. She was one of the many victims of the Jewish prosecution during the World War II and Anne Frank kept a diary whiles she was in hiding. She wrote about their everyday life in the annex, the isolation and the constant fear of being discovered. It was really an enjoyable book but I must admit that I was a bit disappointed with the museum as it was practically nothing but an empty house! And to think that we queued up for more than 30mins in a sleep-deprived state. Tsk tsk tsk....

After taking our much needed beauty cum afternoon nap, we set off for dinner at this nice cosy little restaurant that Christine had made reservation for us. Dinner was really good. I had chicken broth for starters, steamed monkfish for mains and finally we shared two sinfully delicious desserts.

Aaah... the "dessert" of the night... heheh... yup, we visited the red light district after dinner. It was definitely an eye opener for me as I find it quite amusing for the girls to parade themselves in front of window panes... it's like window shopping!! But sorry guys, no pictures allowed!!

The next day, it was off to Keukenhof!! Yippeee... I've heard so much about the tulips in Holland. However, while Grace was working hard to find out how to get us there....

I was fooling around, taking pictures with Christine... hehehe... sorry Grace, I know we were being naughty and lazy! But thanks a million for checking out the guide, reading the map and guiding all of us around! You were the best guide!! Really... :)

Finally, we arrived at Keunkenhof!!! Being the greedy pig I am... food was on the priority list. I'm not too sure, but I reckon it's one of the food that Holland is famous for... the Dutch croquette is a parcel of minced meat or vegetables, shaped into a cylinder or circle, encased in breadcrumbs and deep fried. I really like it... hehe... yum yum yum...

They were not lying when they claimed that it's one of the most beautiful park in the world during spring. I cannot disagree. It's really beautiful and being the flower crazy me, I had a field day... I took so many pictures of the flowers that everyone kept on saying that I will kill the plants in the process of trying to take pictures with them!!

Aaawww... how can one resist these beautiful tulips? My soft spot. I've only posted 3 pictures as I realised that not everyone is as flower crazy as me!! Just to make sure that you keep reading the post... hehe...

The sisters act - so cute!

Er... I think they are trying to imitate the statue... without much success??? :P

Since we did not have the time to visit the windmills, we'll have to make do with a miniature one in Keukenhof!

The actual tulips field. It's really amazing to see how colourful the flowers are!! Seeing this made me have the crazy idea to try and bring back some bulbs back to London to plant them. (against everyone's advice or maybe Grace's advice, I actually bought some bulbs back... but that is another story... will blog about what happened to them in another post...)

We also went cycling around the park and by the tulip fields. Haven't been cycling for a very long time but it was really fun! Think I should organise a cycling trip especially now that the weather is really getting warmer!

And to end our trip, we went for pancakes as I was desperately trying to find something that the Dutch are famous for. (Okay, maybe they are not famous for pancakes, but I was desperate at that time... so I made the conclusion that Dutch are famous for pancakes and we're going to have them anyway... hahahaha.... :P)

From savoury to sweet pancakes, you name them they have them.

And from large pancakes to mini pancakes!! Yummy yummy....

I really did have a good time, thanks girls for making it such a memorable trip! :)