happy happy

2 weddings and a trip to mauritius in the past 10 days!

jasmine lau tied the knot with fm last sat at grand park hotel

and last night, our dearest rachel hoong got married. ooh she looks all grown up now....haha...

happy happy for them
to have found the love of their lives.

makes me come to the next question,
who amongst us will be next?

i've been working so hard for the past 3 days, close to midnight on mon and wed, and until 1.30am on tues.

i'm so tired today.

there are always things cropping up to keep my head occupied. there has been a rather huge inflow of information these days, and i know i should take some to digest and analyse, so that i wont forget these lessons learnt, but am just too tired to do so.

anyways it's off to mauritius next week for a short biz trip. looking forward!

of death and existence

someone reminded me tonight, that love in today's world is so complicated.

he commented that women are acting like men.


women sleeping with married men.
women sleeping with about-to-be married men.


on top of that, there are teachers who sleep with students

women sleeping with women
men sleeping with men


in this crazy world, let's all try to maintain that bit of sanity.

***

yesterday, i told someone that i was fearful of death, because in death, we dont exist. and the knowledge of non-existence, scares the hell out of me.

he then posed this question back to me: do you believe in soul?

do you believe that after death, your soul goes up to heaven?

i said, i dont know, do you?

he then replied, yes, because i'm a christian.

he then went on to explain, how do we know that the soul that is rising to heaven, is really you? there are 2 ways to verify, ym is ym because ym looks like ym, and because ym has memories of what ym did a second ago. hence, point no. 1, if ym's soul looks like ym physically, then ym's soul is ym. however ym's soul takes on no form, and therefore we cannot use this point for verification.

point no. 2, ym's soul must have the same memories as ym for ym's soul to be ym. but memories fade with age. how do we verify if ym's soul is ym even though ym's soul does not have the same memories as ym? at the age of 60, we probably lose some of our memories too. does that mean that ym at 60 is not ym at 21?

conclusion is, we dont know whether ym's soul is ym.

similarly, in startrek, how do you know that the spock on the planet is the same spock that appeared in the spaceship a second later?

like the truman show and the matrix, how do we know that the world we are living in is the real world? maybe everything doesnt exist.

how did the big bang occur and how was the universe formed? was it a mere coincidence?

how did life come about? how did i come about?

indeed, there are TOO MANY questions with NO answers.

which is why scientists believe there must be a greater force out there.

which is why we have religion.

to answer my very first question, how do we know that after death, our souls go to heaven?

the answer is, faith.

faith dispels fear.

report card

i received my score card today. although i havent received my results, i roughly have an idea how i'm going to fare already...considering there are only about 2 months left to go.

sigh, if only i've gotten it earlier. it would have given me a better idea of what i was supposed to achieve. i would have put in that extra bit of effort, i think.

but then again, these responsibilities didnt fall into place until much later.

i'm generally an efficient person, but not very accurate.

i'm a big picture person, but i mess up my details.

i can actually be very lazy too, unless i'm super passionate about something. though occasionally, i tend to experience short bursts of enthusiasm that surprise even myself.


today, i find myself asking this: am i a good worker?

and my answer is: only when i'm passionable about something lor....duh.

excuses excuses...

right, my aim is to do my work well, even when it's something i'm not interested in.

me and the 2 interns in my office, on their last day of work

midnight movies

gold class + midnight movie = zzzzz, regardless of how much action-packed the movie is.

watched transformers and i fell asleep 1 hr into the movie. i woke up periodically after that to see the ex-cia agent, the battle at the pyramids and megan fox telling sam she loves him.

and so, i swore i wont fall asleep again last night, when we caught harry potter.

i fared slightly better this time. i think i only went to lala-land 1hr45min after the show started, meaning i kind of missed all the fighting scenes.

didnt particularly like this harry potter. found it too dark. the first and last time i read the book should be 4 yrs ago when it first came out. i admit i cant remember too much from it, but there was one scene from that book that left a strong impression on me - at the funeral, harry potter broke up with ginny because he didnt want to bring harm to her. AIYO. dont understand why they can leave such an emo scene out from the movie! and there were simply too many non-essential snogging scenes. this isnt 90210!

anyway there are many more details i couldnt remember, like why snape was the half blood prince. maybe i'll go buy it and re-read it again!

lala. blading today was good. we should do it more often! :)

tying the knot

i have had a good weekend.

met up with the nus people whom i went cambodia with. it felt sooo good reminiscing about the times we spent in cambodia - staying in tents and bathing under the stars, eating happy pizza and all the girls getting freaked out when liangguo seemed a little zonked out, how freaky the rooms we were staying at were and the scratching sound qiming heard in the middle of the night, me, debbie and fengyi lying on the deck chairs at this very cosy and quiet pub by the beach, looking up into the night sky and just talking...

ummm....

at the blink of an eye, 3 yrs have passed.

everyone is working now. we have teachers, architects, doctors, pharmacists...

the most shocking news was: qiming and fengyi are getting married (not to each other)!!

the last time i met them, both were still unattached.

now, when you put the two of them together, all they talk about is where to do their wedding shots, get wedding gowns, make diamond rings and wedding bands, what kind of taps and tiles to get for their bathroom floors, loans to take to repay apartments they've purchased...

shucks, i felt young.

it must be a sign. everyone around me is getting married. alan got married last sat. jas lau in aug. sean in oct. fengyi in nov.

but no no, it's not time yet. yes, married/to-be-married people will tell me: there's never a best time. there will always be something that will hold you back, be it career wise, financially, mentally unprepared...

but i guess when it's meant to happen, it'll just happen, and you wont have to think.

goodness, fengyi only met her fiance less than 2 yrs ago, and they're getting married now. some will say it's too soon, but when you hear her talk about him, and the things he has done for her, you know she has chosen right. and i'm happy for her. Envious in fact. they make you believe that: love really can be so simple...

unfortunately my concept of love has never been simple, disillusioned by the numerous relationships i have been in and out. it was one of those times i wish i could erase my past, and start off on a blank sheet.

but it's ok. i'm not so bad now.

have you ever been in situations where you're forced to do something you hate to do, yet you know would be beneficial to you?

like drinking that bitter tasting solution that supposedly would cure all ailments
like pulling out a rotting tooth
like running that full 20 min even though you're exhausted

sigh.

endure.

you know it would be beneficial.

i'm soooo tired.

get it back

was busy preparing the flyer for the upcoming nus matric fair today.

i remembered when i was a freshie, and was choosing a notebook to buy, i didnt even consider the specs. i was like,"oh this looks pretty nice," and i bought it.

and of course, another reason why i chose the notebook was cos jas bought the same one too. haha.

5 yrs later, i cant even switch it on now.

i wonder if students these days are as ignorant as i was then.

probably not. i've come to realise i'm not the typical customer of IT products and gadgets.

oh how times have changed. 5 yrs ago, $2.5k was considered the norm for a notebook. now, you can easily get a decent notebook for $1.2k or less.

yes, times have changed, for i realised i no longer know how to think like a student.

on another note, i'm feeling incompetent.

what's my excuse?

inexperience? laziness? lack of passion? lack of interest? lack of involvement?

or just to be extremely crude and honest: a lack of flair!

sigh. hopefully it's not the last conclusion.

true enough, i havent been put to the test.

let's just hope i'll live up to expectations when the test finally comes.

lately, i've been feeling restless. i feel a lack of fulfillment in life.

got to go out and get it all back!

give me a little time to sulk

at my own incompetence

with no intention to be pessimistic, it seems that asia is falling apart.

protests in xinjiang, china
north korea firing missiles
vietnam flooding
bombings in philippines
myanmar imprisoning auug san suu kyi
not to mention h1n1 everywhere...

aiyo.

在树上唱歌
by 郭静

想要光着脚丫在树上唱歌
你说的每个笑话 我都笑了
是你变幽默 还是我变快乐

好久不见你说 我大不相同
偷偷告诉你 我的心去整型了
不想对每件事情都 那么严格
弄得全世界好像 只剩挫折
爱一朵花不猜 它能开多久

放宽了心情 把什么都变美了
好多事物全被缩小了
心里不想放的 就去了 算了
让太阳把脸庞给晒得红彤彤

when you have to be tough, you have to be tough.

cant always have people walking over you.

i dont know which one is hurting more now, my health or my pocket.

whatever, let things be.

let's meet up

friends who were once inseparable now become hi and bye acquaintances.

it's not that he doesnt care for you; it's just that you've simply stopped having things in common.

the older you are, the more unreceptive you are to meeting new people.

i share the same sentiments. i'm no longer interested in getting to know people, and having to strike up conversation for courtesy/duty sake.

today was an exception. i lived up to others' expectations of myself. i had to.

the older you are, the less friends you have.

but..but...there are some who do stay, and those that do, are the true blue friends.

so to those people whom i keep saying we should meet up soon, LET'S MEET UP SOON!

langkawi part 3

island hopping

being attacked by monkeys

look how adorable they are! but they are naughty creatures, watch out for your things when they're around, they just might snatch it away in a split second

by the lagoon side

monkeys clinging on to my leg

eagles feeding

the whole sky was filled with eagles, i have never seen one before, let alone so many

blue blue waters!

underwater world

the penguins all seemed to be looking at the same direction

baby penguin jenson

cable car

langkawi part 2: the hotel

our hotel room

the view from the balcony in the morning, if only i could wake up to this every morning! we only had a partial sea view, costs a bit more to upgrade to a full sea view.

the shuttle bus we have to take to our hotel room. the whole resort is made up of chalets (1 chalet = 1 hotel room). the shuttle is really fast so it wasnt that inconvenient.

this is how our chalet looks like from the front, where the entrance is. the back faces the sea.

the more expensive suites, where you literally stay on the water. sort of reminds me of the movie: the lake house

perhaps one day when we are richer, we will get one of these suites, and stay here for a week, away from the rest of the world!

Langkawi

just returned from a lovely trip to langkawi last sunday. back to work on monday and it has been a HECTIC week so far. the late nights have taken a toll on me and i'm exhausted now.

uploaded some of the photos below and wanted to pen down my thoughts and rearrange the pics but am too tired to do so now. my eyes are closing.....

so i shall sign off here..

to be continued. *updated*

resort's swimming pool, with a beautiful backdrop of mountains behind. we stayed at this hotel called berjaya spa and resort, which had wonderful comments when we checked it out over the net. it didnt disappoint us; an ideal place for a retreat. it's located far from the main town centre and the more happening beaches, but that didnt affect us too much. anyway there isnt really much to do at langkawi beside the beach and the sand. the resort concept is wonderful: each room is a chalet/house by itself. plenty of privacy and quiet, and we even had a sea view.

at the hotel's private beach

bf had to jump many times before i could capture the next shot

the beach is all peace and quiet...

night market (opens at 5.30 and ends at 8) - one of the worst pasar malams i've been to. absolutely nothing that interest me to spend my money.

on the way to seven wells waterfall - walking up the flights of stairs was sooo tirrrrrrrrrrinngg..

but it was worth the effort

'Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming 'WOO HOO, What a Ride'

...and the hole in the pocket continues to grow bigger...

with all the impossibly attractive sales that the boutiques are holding, how can anyone resist the bargains...

and GSS hasnt even began officially!

oo well. never mind, the acc is going to be replenished soon.

it's off to langkawi this thurs. hurrray!

oooh yes, before the day finishes, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my TFF - ZX!!!