The Second Last Day of 2011

Hard to believe that tomorrow would be the last day of 2011. Frankly? I'm not very excited about it. I feel like there's this huge invisible rock pressing down my heart whenever I think about it. And I'm still trying to figure out why.

2011 has been the most interesting year of my life, I would say. Loved and blessed by so many lovely people in the world. If I can, I'd hug each of them with all my heart to show how much I appreciate their existence in my life. But, well... not likely. I really hope you can feel how grateful I am. am grateful for all the good food, good songs, good people, good times, good gifts, good hugs, good talks, good compliments, good days, good laughs, the list goes on and on.

This year, I met some really interesting people, people that I could only have dreamed of knowing. Things that I could only dream of having actually happened to me. Although not everything turns out the way I want them to be, I choose to believe that whatever happens now is the best for this moment. Everything happens for a reason, a good reason, to be precise, you just have to look for it. I still feel extremely loved. I'm breathing perfectly, having food in the fridge, so many different clothes in my wardrobe, able to choose the path I wanna go in my life, lying on a huge comfortable bed, able to read and speak different languages, having the chances to travel to so many other countries and exploring at this age, having time to blog about what's in my mind, having people who love and really care about me, really, what can I ask more? What do you want to complain about? Your mum doesn't want to buy you a new hand phone? Sounds silly as compared to those people who can't even afford a nice meal isn't it. There are so many people out there dream of having life like yours, darling. Humans seem to only remember all the bad and unhappy times they have, too often we forget about the countless beautiful things we have in our life when one thing doesn't go right.

"Never let the things you want make you forget the things you have." I said to myself during my 18th birthday. I still constantly remind myself about it. Life's good, really.

I think I've changed, in a good way, into a better individual, or at least I'm trying to. That's honestly one of the only things that I always want myself to do - be a happier and better person. This year, I'm more inspired than ever, by the people around me, the random acts of kindness and love, even songs and movies. There are so many good songs this year, no?

The last day of 2011, it's still just another day isn't it? Nothing will have changed just because it's the last day of the year. Anyway I hope it'd be a wonderful day, a wonderful ending, and a wonderful beginning.

Christmas Eve Dinner

During Christmas eve, dad mum and I went to Kensington for dinner. Originally we were planning to visit i-City because there are some really nice lights and decorations. Too bad it started raining in the afternoon so we canceled the plan. Wanted to meet my eldest brother and my sister-in-law at KL but dad was very tired cuz he didn't sleep well the previous night so he took a nap in the afternoon, I was waiting until he woke at about 6.30pm! It's too late to set off to KL anyway, so yes, we just went to a western restaurant to have a nice christmas eve dinner together and strolled around in the shopping mall until it closed.

My love.

When I was on the way there I was a little grumpy cuz I wanted to meet my brother for dinner, but dad overslept :( But food never fails to brighten up my mood eh. hahah. I became so bubbly and happy when we were ordering all the food.

So grateful for all the nice food.
After the dinner and a little shopping, I joined my juniors' count down party. Too bad I didn't prepare any gift to join their gift-exchanging game. We had a lot of fun anyway!

New top from Topshop, wanted to save it for CNY originally but it's Christmas! 

I wanna wear something new. heheh.

Oh and say hi to my study desk. haha.

Another few days to say goodbye to 2011 :(

Christmas Photo Diary

Can't believe Christmas 2011 has come and gone. Time passes really fast these days.

Another 1 week and 2011 would come to an end. I'd really love to blog about 2011 before 2012.

This year, I love, experience and learn more than any other year in my life.

I'd say it's the most interesting year among these 18 years.

I miss the homely English atmosphere during Christmas in New Zealand so much.

You must really experience it in order to understand.

Can't believe it's been a year since I last saw Anne & Pete - my New Zealand host parents.

I promise one day later I'd surprise them by standing in front of their home, give them a call and say 

"Hi would you mind opening the front door for me please?"

They really treat me like one of their daughters. They now make the room I was sleeping in my room, by hanging one of my photos on the wall. Pete loves teasing me. Missing his jokes. He's a really good cook. Loving his food.

I really want to bring my family to meet them one day later. and hopefully I will.

Sadly the Christmas here in Asia isn't quite the same. 

It's just another holiday, another day for us to go out and have fun, or to rest - for non-Christians.

I wanted to prepare a nice Christmas breakfast so much, I want yogurt and blueberries, or crispy bacon, sliced bananas with maple syrup like what we had in New Zealand. In the end I did neither of them because my dad wanted nothing but sandwich and bread roll, lol. I really like the thought of preparing breakfast for my loved ones. I want to do it more. I will do it more.

It's also one of my childhood friends' birthday! On Christmas! So we brought a cake over to his home and stayed there a little to chit-chat with all my childhood friends (:

Since we all had no program at night, we decided to go to Erika's home. We didn't even know or plan what to do at night, we just didn't want to spend our Christmas at home alone. Haha. Glad that my parents allowed me to drive there. (cuz I haven't been driving since I went to Singapore!) fetched 2 of my friends and we went to buy some food for everyone else. We just sat there eating, talking and laughing, until Christmas ended, literally. We all had been in the same school for 10 years, and now everyone's studying at different places, everyone has so many things to share. 

Look at the refrigerator in Erika's home! They're all from different countries. How cool right.

Christmas tree in Erika's home.

OH. Now I think about my christmas gift from mum. If you are following my facebook updates you'd have read my post about how amazing my mum is! Last week when I was home, mum said she bought me a christmas gift! (The other day she bought a new bag for my sister and I jokingly said "why does jiejie have a christmas gift but I don't have!" I honestly didn't mean it lol) When I touched it from the package I went "Omg is it a watch!" I have been looking for a nice watch these days but haven't got one. When I was taking it out I was thinking "Oh please let it be something I'd like!", more like praying or hoping, actually. because you know sometimes people buy you gifts but it turned out that you don't love it so much, weather it's the design or the colors or the whole thing. But this, when I saw it I was completely taken aback because it's so close to what I want! I wanted a white ceramic watch and see what I've got! My mum rocks. Or maybe it's that my taste is as old fashioned as a lady in her fifties. Haha. Mum said I've got a pair of red+green Christmas earrings last year from Anne, so this year she bought me a red+green christmas watch!

I'm so tanned that white watch actually doesn't look so nice on me but whatever, I love it (:

I'm so grateful for everything - family, friends, food, love, life. Learning to appreciate all the small things in life.

Seriously, what can I ask more?

tumblr

I'm now very in love with tumblr, again. 

I used to tumblr a lot. I started it a few years back and have never really stopped it

until my school started a few months ago.

Not only I had no time but also I didn't find it so addictive and interesting anymore,

and I just found out it's mainly because of the tumblr I follow.

The other day I was bored so I started looking for some nice tumblr,

it isn't easy to find a tumblr that you really adore, you know, 

a tumblr that you'd scroll on and on and on and on, 

and you just wanna keep on reading and viewing and will never really get bored of it. 

Some people spam their tumblr with fashion photos, some spam about certain celebrities, 

some give advice about love and relationships, some only post quotes - good and bad ones.

I like quotes, there're a lot of tumblr post quotes, but there're some kinds that you just can't relate to,

you don't feel connected, if you get what I mean.

I like photographs, but there are thousands types of photography, I'm not into every of them,

not every of them would make me stop scrolling, really look into it and think "wow, it's beautiful."

See, it's not easy. 

But in the end I found a few tumblr that I really really love reading,

their posts seem to speak the words I fail to express in words myself,

you know how it feels? it just feels right when you read them, 

you can totally relate to, you completely agree, you feel connected,

and you can't help but to reblog them,
secretly hoping people you know would read them, and understand you a little better. 

Sometimes I'm a little sad that no one would really be bothered to read my tumblr, because if you do, 

perhaps you will discover a part of me that I fail to show in my life,

or what's really in my mind, and deep inside my heart.
Some people don't give their tumblr away cuz it's a place for them to rant and complain
and they never want people to know and care, they want to be free, to talk about everything.
My tumblr doesn't function that way, I would say.
Of course not every post has something hidden beneath it but still, some of them do.

If someone wants to know more about me, I'd ask them to really read my tumblr posts. 

I know when you post too much in tumblr, the meaning of your posts don't seem to be so 

significant anymore cuz it seems like you post things for the sake of posting something, like anything will do.

Well I don't do that.

I like how tumblr looks like a bunch of random quotes and photos to the others,

but you actually give your deepest secrets away beneath the posts.

- my tumblr -

Genting Highland

I hadn't been to Genting for quite a while and I was literally craving to be there for the cold weather and

getting into the Christmas spirit. Yes I'm always longing for vacation. I mentioned about it the other day

 when I was at my friend's home, surprisingly Nancy said her parents were going there the next few days 

and asked if I wanna go along with her. 

Of course I said yes! And there we go.

Funny looking us in the slightly distorted mirror.

I didn't bring any long pants there because it wouldn't be so cold indoor, but it turned out that I could 

hardly fall asleep that night because i was freezing :( The best thing about this short trip is 

the visit to "Ripley's believe it or not" museum, I can't believe I didn't know there's such a wonderful

 museum there although I have been to Genting for soooo many times. I'll blog about it soon, real soon.

I think my classmates in Sg would love that museum (:

Old Friends

Everytime I come back, Sara, Nancy and I would go to K-box together. Choir and singing were pretty much our everything when we were back in school. Two of them are like the only 2 friends that I never stop being in contact with after we graduated. We meet constantly, hang out together always, even now when I'm studying oversea, we facebook-message nearly every few days to talk about our life. We've already got used to telling each other or sharing our happiness/unhappiness since years ago, and never stop doing it even when we're parted (:

Pretty Sara & me with my ugly nail polish. too lazy to remove them 

though some of them came off already. Yeah I'm lazy that way.

And then we went to meet this old friend who has been my classmate since we were 7, to 17. 10 years of friendship. When we were in school if you asked me who's my best guy friend he'd mostly probably be the one. haha. I remember when we were standard 1 and 2 we'd always compete to get the first place in class. But being a lazy bum since I was small, after a few years I couldn't compete with him anymore. sigh. haha. And now I realize it's only the 2nd time I met him this year! omg the longest period of time. For the past 10 years we only wouldn't meet each other for 1-2months during the year-end school hols.

Clever boy, he is. Will be going to Ireland after A-level :( I swear we'd travel there together 

with them before he & Meiyan come back from Ireland! 

1. Red wine chicken chop 2. Fried salad chicken chop

3. Chicken Maryland 4. Black pepper chicken chop

My childhood. haha. 

I didn't even cry during our graduation last year, that moment I thought we wouldn't really be separated cuz we have facebook. But the truth is when you're physically parted for so long, and everyone's busy with their school works and tests and new friends, it really takes some effort to keep in touch with people. I miss those days when we were in school, everyone's so close to each other and we literally had nothing to be afraid of (at least for me) because we're all together. We see each other growing, and we grow together, we see each other changing, and we change together, from small little boys/girls who only know how to play and laugh to someone who's trying to understand life and learn to live life. Now no matter how close you could get to your new friends, in my opinion it still wouldn't be the same. I promise I will always keep in touch with these friends. I will i will i will.

Before I came home

One week before I came home, my sister already said we should be having a farewell dinner the day before I left S'pore, and of course we did. We went to Lao Beijing @ Orchard Central. I think dad and mum would like the food here (:

As usual we ordered too much food. We actually didn't order a lot but we only have 2 person so...

 After the dinner, the moment we stepped out of the shopping mall we saw this group people came, stood there, and started singing. Hmm I always like how people make streets less boring and more lively (:

I think I look funny here but whatever, the bokeh behind is pretty. yum so bokehlicious.

Saw this huge wing standing in the middle of the street and we thought it looks quite cool, doesn't it?

After my sis took the photo of me, I was ready to go and suddenly this guy was beside me, he put his arm around my shoulder and said "Merry Christmas!". I was totally shocked because they were singing somewhere behind me before that. hehehe.

and when sis n i wanted to leave the guy in middle looked at my sister n said 'come! what are you doing there? come!'

These strangers sorta made my day (: