One click a day makes a big difference

Semester 2 has just started 2 weeks ago.It is going to be as usual busy and stressful, so I have to pump in more effort and confidence in myself, feed my satisfaction and achieve my goals. There's an efficient motivation keep pushing my back, which is going back to a place where family and friends belong in a few months time.

A lot has happened for the past few months. Although it often makes me wonder why and how to resolve it, there's a need for me to keep up with my optimism and make more effort to change it. There's always a possibility that goodness pervades reality and I'm believing it. For those problems which are beyond my control, I let it flow on its own naturally,creating its own cycle.Perhaps certain things turn out to be the best when remain silent.

Meanwhile, my sister has participated in the 'kick-start' competition and successfully becomes one of the 100 contestants. =D So, this is the time I need your help, your one click to view her page as much as possible to earn the highest traffic.It is the red box under nuffnang advertisements on the right of my blog, I suppose it is appealing enough to catch your first sight when entering my blog ya ya !.

Your generosity will be appreciated gratefully.Arigatou Gozaimasu !

The picture of the day:



Strawberries are just awesome here. Humongous, sweet and cheap.

When life gives you a lemon,learn to make lemonade

The lemons of life are not meant to drag you away from the door of success.

When you fail to do something , don't think that you're such a retard. Think of the following opportunities you have to make a greater improvement. When you aren't happy with your life, think of the ways you could do to satisfy yourself instead of keeping your vision blurred by the clouds and clouds of discontentment and unhappiness.

Lemon can be turned into lemonade if you knew how to make good use of the lemon.

I realised that a few of my close friends are slightly carried away by their current happenings and feel that life is dimmed and miserable. My past experiences have taught me about things which third-party has no way to intervene but to remain silent and listen to all these problems.

I know some of you are having lemons of life and trying hard to get over it. I wish I could rob your depression and clear up the mess for you, unfortunately I'm not the one.Yes, I'm not the one. You don't need me to clear things up for you when you acknowledge the happiness you had once been through with certain people and certain things.They were once good and precious to you.

Really, you don't need me because you yourself are powerful enough to master your mind.

When life gives you lemons, learn to make lemonade. Learn to make the juicy lemonade that can quench your thirst and enables you to enhance your creativity to make something good out of it. Lemons are sour initially, but if you were willing to squeeze the juice, add sugar or even blend it with some other juices, it will taste good.

So does your life. Your life doesn't need to be sorrow all the time,a lemon is just a stepping stone for you to pause and look back on negligible things which could be so important to you.

If he leaves you, just let him go. Your life continues...

If you failed your course, work harder and harder until you score it because that's not the end of the story. Your life continues....

If you're currently broke, learn to save money so that you'll be left with at least a penny the next time. Your life continues...

Life continues no matter how much you rant about it. That's why you and I are here, going through different lives everyday. That's why there are so many people living at every corner of the world, working hard to make their lives better. That's why we live a short life, a life that can be shortly exuberant with the right attitude to live it.

Good things may not knock the door and approach to all patient people, only when they're willing to make a step forward and give in to make good things. Most importantly,good things can be created by your own hands.

I just hope that my friends are all happy. We may not meet as often as before,
but I still hope that each of you are content and happy, treat yourself better, be grateful of what you've been put onto. When I notice how much troubles you're going through, I have the urge to fly back and stand in front of your house door and give you a warm hug. No joke for that, but I understand my difficulty, so I remain silent and make the greatest use of internet and postal to reach out to you guys. I hope you know that there's someone who's more than willing to listen to you, hear your cry, say ' jia you jia you jia you' to you everyday. I know I'm not your him/her, but I hope you know you top my heart undoubtedly.I hope.. that it at least brightens you by a little, and you're courageous to walk away to somewhere better. I just wish that you are happy, everyone of you. It's all on you, you make the choice for your life, to stay miserable or to stimulate happiness.

2009 will be a good start if you're willing to walk ,talk, work and keep yourself busy.

This Christmas, I'm Spending It Alone

I just read Kenny Sia's latest post and the blog title matches my feeling precisely.

It's my first Christmas without celebration with my crazy peeps , no exchanging presents with each other, no party. I channel these activities into something else like sightseeing and skiing.

I'll be attending my housemate's family X'mas celebration on 27th Dec, and most of my friends are either travelling or busy partying with their local friends, it actually means that I'm really really free on Christmas Eve and Christmas. Since it's my first white christmas in Canada, I decided to start celebrating from the point of origin, which is my current living city-Vancouver.

However, it also means that I've more time to do photo hunting in Vancouver. Despite being here for almost 4 months, I daresay I haven fully discovered the entire Vancouver, there are much more attractions out there than those I've already set foot on. What I'm doing this holiday is to find some nice places to chill out and take more pictures ( of the scenery and also myself, I promise). It's only when I'm with myself that I can scrutinize the surrounding and myself.

I've been sick for a few days, therefore not really in the best condition to travel far.Also because of this,I'm keeping my schedule to 1-to-2-day trip within Vancouver and the rest based on my condition on that particular day, I must ensure that the sickness does not worsen.

To be honest, I never think that spending christmas alone must be lonely and only a thing lonely souls would do. Hmm, not when I'm in a foreign country which has so many attractions and activities to offer, I can just hop on and off the bus and randomly stopby some nice streets or simply spend a day out to enhance my cultural and historical knowledge of the country.

I realised I've done a lot of self-travelling this year, especially in Japan and Canada, I'm glad that I accomplished something new in my life, and discovered another form of satisfaction and gain through travelling individually, forcing myself to go beyond limits when needed. I believe I'm mentally braver and becoming a better decision-maker this year, keep confronting hurdles on my own.I used to be very indecisive and I really dislike that part of me. Knowing that it's difficult to varnish its existence, I'm just trying to improve on it. Of course, it doesn't mean that I'm super challenging myself and keep forcing myself to go over undesired characteristics, but I believe if I could change to become a better self and it's within my capability of doing it, why not improve myself ? I wouldn't go for the idea of tolerating all my good,moderate or evil traits forever,comforting myself that it's ok to repeat mistakes which can be prevented, but a slight change as maturity increases gradually would be preferred.

I went to Downtown yesterday to take a peak at the Christmas decorations. Walked past 7-8 streets I suppose, but the weather was comfortable for a long walk, a little freezing and snowing but it was all good. Most of the stores were on sale, unfortunately I was not in a shopping mood that day, so I spent most of my time walking and looking for nice views to capture them down. It started snowing on my way back to the bus stop, I was overjoyed for my first white christmas in life finally came true.


(More pictures uploaded on Facebook)

It's my second Christmas without him.I'm still alright, standing here though, with a calmer mind and steady heart. I hope that he is enjoying his christmas and new year.=)

*El, do what that makes you happy,as your rain storm ends earlier with a happier life.Win and I are always where we are, supporting you in a different way. Cheer up!*

If you were wondering that I only speak to myself during holidays, you can diminish your worries on me,friends.I've also planned a few outings with my Canadian friends during regular days,that makes my holiday not lonely at all to be honest. =) I might be going out for countdown with friends since they're free at that time.

Have a warm Christmas everyone !

Skiing

I went skiing at Grouse Mountain with my friends 2 days ago.I had been far longing for this day to come,being my first skiing experience in life.



Although I'm a totally beginner to kick-off in this sport, I can assure myself that it would be so much fun despite the lack of skiing skills because I've always enjoyed snow. I went to rent a ski pants the day before since I expected myself to fall at least 10 times for a new sport like this.

I was right.



Skiing was difficult to a first timer like me. It was nothing like ice-skating, where you could still hold on to the wall at the side for balancing, I had to make good use of the poles to balance myself. Another exhausting thing about skiing was that I needed to carry the ski all the way up and put them on before sliding down again.It only took me 5 seconds to slide down and fall, but 5 minutes to climb up the hill, which could be really tiring after a few attempts.

On the other hand, my friends tried snowboarding. It seemed to be easier, but I might underestimate the underlying challenge of snowboarding as well, since I have not gotten my hands on them yet. I only concentrated on skiing for the first time.



After a few rounds of warm-ups and practises, we decided to challenge ourselves to move to a steeper hill, where we could get a peak of the Vancouver night view. Considering my skiing skills, I wasn't tempted at the idea initially. However, I failed to stick to my thought and followed the majority who were all so excited about the night view.

Well, just fall all the way down while enjoying the spectacular scene. Perhaps it could be a joy sitting on the snow watching the view , I thought.

" It's a long long journey......."

I was one of the few ones who were far left behind, but it didn't bother me much. I wouldn't give up until I reach the end.

"So I went down a slope after a slope, a slope after a slope, a slope after a slope, a slope after a slope...."

How many times have I mentioned the slope? I even lost count myself because I couldn't see the end after passing so many slopes, this was certainly no joke. I started to get tired as I spent half the time skiing and another half walking with the skis and poles clutched on my arms. There was no turning back, because it meant to be a tougher path to climb up than going downhill.



It was far exceeded the 1.5 km I was told for sure, and the steepness was nothing I could handle as a new skier.There were times where I just sat down and rested while enjoying the snowy atmosphere.I smiled to myself, for the courage in me to take on this challenge, since I was the only girl among the group of us who went skiing/snowboarding. The rests of my partners used up their energy as well.What made matters worse was the freezing air that deteriorated our determination.So we supported and encouraged each other throughout the entire journey.

One thing that kept me going on was the attractive night view, with all lights brightened up the city. It was really tranquilizing.



I believe every city has its side of beauty, which is differently defined by all of us.To me, the beauty of Vancouver is its tranquilizing effect and stress-free environment. I need not to hold my handbag tight 24/7 while I'm in the crowd; I receive smiley faces from people everyday. I enjoy living in this friendly community where I can fully relax myself outside school. Yea, I'm actually glad I'm in Vancouver, despite some rate it as a dull and boring city.

Finally after an hour plus, I reached the end and took the cable car up to the mountain where our point of origin was.I was urged to yell out loud as I just unleashed my mind power subconsciously to achieve something which seemed to be unattainable to me.

I just realised the guy side of me, which could be so strong and determined. I dislike being treated like I'm a fussy girl in which everyone has to tolerate and take special care of me due to my gender,and I always believe in equal sharing and support.



19.12.08 was such a special day, I just coloured my personal experiences with something new and adventurous.

My friend asked me if I were to try on skiing the next time.

Definitely. There are 3 more Winters for me to improve on it!!

To fart or not to fart?

I'm in the midst of finals, just finished my 2nd paper so far, and I have 3 more papers to go. Anyway, that's not the point of it. As I was revising for my Biology final exam, one of the question asked about humans farting and cow's farting. To find out the answer, I started clicking around and browsing through websites to look for additional information, which then drenched me into a few new fun facts about farting.

Incidents about how people fart in lift annoys you is a dull-enough story to be told. It doesn't matter where farting takes place, as long as it's in a small crowded space, I'm sure all of us will be well informed about the presence of this "nonverbal" message quick enough. Strange enough, I usually burst into laughter when I find out the person who just farted.Depending on my strength with his/her relationship, I only poke it out when the person is my closest, because then only we'll be clickable enough to react on it in our usual humorous ways.

So,here was the result of my tiny research:

• On average, a fart is composed of about 59 percent nitrogen, 21 percent hydrogen, 9 percent carbon dioxide, 7 percent methane and 4 percent oxygen. Less than 1 percent of their makeup is what makes farts stink.
• The temperature of a fart at time of creation is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Farts have been clocked at a speed of 10 feet per second.
• A person produces about half a liter of farts a day.
• Women fart as much as men.
• The gas that makes your farts stink is hydrogen sulfide. The more sulfur rich your diet, the more your farts will stink. Some foods that cause really smelly farts include: beans, cabbage, cheese, soda and eggs.
• Most people pass gas about 14 times a day.

14 TIMES?? 14 TIMES?? 14 TIMES??

Despite global warming is also caused by farting cows and sheeps, it never really comes across my mind that this little poo-poo in our daily lives will have the power to contribute to greenhouse gasses. So what should we do then?Should we fart it and waste it, or burp it and taste it?

In New Zealand, there are actually researches to investigate methane-free sheep. That's poor thing though, maybe sheeps and cows shouldn't be made to fart out methane gas, to save all the troubles after all.

WHY IS THERE 13 TO 20 SECOND DELAY BETWEEN FARTING AND THE TIME IT STARTS TO SMELL?

Actually, the fart stinks immediately upon emergency, but it takes several seconds for the odor to travel to the farther's nostrils.If farts could travel at the speed of sound,we would smell them instantly, at the same time we hear them.

This fact entertains me even more, in a way it means that I've to listen to farts instead of smelling them to begin my escapism, since I have less than half a minute to react on it.

IS IT TRUE THAT PEOPLE NEVER FART?

No, not if they're alive. People even fart shortly after death.

Bwahahahahahahaha. Perhaps when one dies, nothing should be left with her. What entertains me more is the thought that the last thing we actually leave on the earth is fart, out of all the things, this is quite an unexpected answer for me to welcome it.

DO MEN'S FART SMELL WORSE THAN WOMEN?

Scientific studies of farts show that women's farts have higher concentration of odor-causing gases than men's fart, but men's fart have a larger volume.The two factors equalize out, so the odor is about the same.

There are much more interesting underlying facts about farts (http://www.heptune.com/farts.html), something I would barely be aware yet it is so close to my life.Well, it's no harm knowing the gas my body is excreting after all.

Mugging time !

My life as a full time book mugger officially begins as I'm off for a study week since last Friday.I'm just glad that I've completed all the lectures and am able to keep myself to most of the lectures so far. Having said that, I will need to focus intensively on Calculus since it's my weakest subject for now. I just can't help but to keep traumatizing myself of how I'll end up staying for a summer course in Vancouver next year if I fail it. So, this is the time I prove to myself that it must not happen.

Dear friends, I really appreciate your trust and the confidence you guys injected to me, when I have uncertainty on my ability to excel. I never really worry working on things individually, keep trying it out until I level up my satisfaction if more time were given to me. It's just saddening when reality clashes with my ideal learning way, I start to qualm. You guys are just being extremely nice to believe on my ability.

Please please, work harder PM!!

On the other hand, I went on my first movie outing in Canada last Friday, for the recently-most-discussed film " Twilight". I'll withhold comments on this movie, but I can sense the fever is heating up here, when I was accompanying my friend to get the books, there were about 3 people getting the full book collection at the same time, I mean, 3 sets of books were sold off within my 15-minute- stay at Chapters.

Alright, I'm going to take a break and resume studying later.=) Take care everyone !

A letter back home

I posted my first letter home this Monday to update everyone at home about my recent condition, especially to my dad because I haven been seeing him for months and I usually talk on the phone with my mom, so I have not seen nor talked to him since he left Vancouver 2 1/2 months ago.To me, nothing beats the sincerity to post letters/cards to someone, because writing letters are time-consuming, but that's how I figure out who will spend their time for me undoubtedly and reveal their problems to me despite their buseee-sy lifestyle.

I bought a booklet of 6 stamps for further postal purpose. The stamps are stickers, which are quite common in westernised countries, perhaps they slowly eliminate and narrow down the usage of glue in their lifestyles. I still prefer adhering stamp to the envelope with glue because that enables me to separate the stamp from envelope when I want to collect that particular stamp. But sticker is annoyingly clung to the envelope and that makes it difficult to insert into the stamp album with its increased thickness.

They actually divided the stamps for international and domestic use here, and it is sold in booklet of 6 stamps. International regular mail costs $1.60.Another thing in Canada is that there are English and French on most of the products, because French is one of the main languages here, but somehow I don't hear much of the natives speak French in Vancouver. My housemate told me that French is more frequently used in some other provinces like Montreal. However, that's still an advantage for me to learn some French words without knowing the pronunciation through the foods and beverages I buy.

Take a look at the Christmas (noël in French) designed stamps!



Finals is near ! Wish me luck friends, while enjoying your holidays.=P

An eventful weekend

I'm officially done with all midterms and lab experiments+quizzes.Finals will be in 3 week's time and look what am I doing now? I'm still relaxed and overjoyed at the thought of completion of so many assignments,tests and quizzes.Of course, this won't happen for long as I need to have early preparation for finals considering the limited brain capacity I have to cramp in 3 months of lecture notes for 5 subjects, I decided to start dating with my books this weekend.

Meanwhile, last weekend was quite eventful as I finally had some time for shopping. It wasn't about the clothes that I bought but I was contented with the free time I could have after exams.I had my first ice-skating at Thunderbird Winter Sports Centre at UBC on last Sunday with some Malaysian friends of mine.It was approximately 15 minutes of walking( or 3-5 minutes of bus ride) from my dormitory.The Winter Sports Centre consists of four rinks, two for hockey and two for public skating, but I’ve only seen 2 of them during my visit.It is also used for hockey tounaments and concerts throughout the year.



Ice-skating was enjoyable, although the skate blade was smoother and slightly more slippery that the ones in Sunway Pyramid, I still enjoyed myself there and I think my skating skills have slightly improved ,hahaha! At least I need not to hold on the wall all the time. Furthermore,ice-skating in Vancouver allows me to reminiscent on those good old times I had with fellow Ausmatians last year.

Jia Huey had her second birthday celebration on 8th Nov, her papa and mama organized a birthday party for her and invited some of her classmates to attend the party. They even bought her a cute life jacket which she started posing after wearing it and reluctant to take it off.



On the other hand, I’ve recently seen some photos of my nephews, the Kenn’s brothers. Eu Kenn has his frindge cut by his mom, and Jia Kenn nowadays smiles a lot and has better response to the camera.I really miss them so badly especially seeing those recent photos of them.



They make me proud of my another identity- Sai Yiyi (direct translation-small aunt which means the youngest Aunt in the family). I don't mind to be old with their presence afterall, seeing their growth is a bliss in life.

Halloween !

Last Saturday was my first Halloween celebration in Vancouver. Despite this occasion doesn't really mean much to me, I decided to hang out and look for some interesting things to capture.Firstly, I went to the Halloween party organized by my faculty at 8 p.m. It was a small celebration with a bar corner on the left, bull ride competition and with whole chunk of people who took the effort to dress up themselves. It's one of the annual biggest things to them. I thought the bull ride was interesting.



After 30 minutes of wandering and seeing a few rounds of bull riding, I headed to the next destination ,which was Downtown. This was the time my camera kept flashing at others once in every few minutes. People were generally friendly and they were more than willing to pose in front of you, that was reason they dressed up so well right. One of them even took my camera and started taking photos with random passersby, then pulled me into his overexcited act. Luckily he wasn't some robber.




I personally find it interesting to walk in between them. I mean, how rare can I walk with a Joker on my right, seeing the Spiderman and Robin queueing up for pizza on my left ,while chuckling at the Borat in front who was desperate enough to get himself a better outfit.



Robin and Spiderman were not saving lives that day, they were looking for pizza to save them.



Of course, some people go for the cuter costumes to win people's attention, the one who really caught my eye was Mr.Pooh. I was so excited that I took a photo with him. The crowd was humongous, that I felt myself unusual mingling with them.



People actually walked up to me and wanted to take photos. I wouldn't mind if I put on some special Halloween costumes, but I find it weird to take pictures with strangers.Fortunately they spoke Korean and Japanese language, so I had a reason to pretend not understanding anything, smiled and waved back to them before I walked off. Despite this incident, it didn't haunt me and ruin my mood of that day at all. It was an unforgettable Halloween.As a matter of fact,never in my life have I done something like this. I'm looking forward for next year's Halloween.

Cooking time!

I've been cooking a lot since I came to Vancouver, self-creating some recipes during free time.

I'm glad to have met some awesome housemates who cook quite frequent as well, so we sometimes cook together while chit-chatting.I build better friendship with them through cooking, mainly because our meals are usually quite different. They can have salad whereas I have fried rice for dinner. This difference allows us to create more topics for conversation.

Cooking can be quite fun at times, from the process of choosing menu and ingredients till the cooking part finally arrives, I don't feel it's time-consuming to have spent 1-1.5 hour for cooking per day, since I will usually cook for my dinner only.
However, I've only tried on a few simple dishes so far, haven really attempted on those difficult ones. Of course, those are meant to be reserved,at least after I enhance my cooking skills.*I miss Mom's cooking*


Here are some of the pictures.

Tom Yum Potato Fried Rice

Sausage+Egg Fried Rice

Tom Yum Noodles

My all time favourite-Potatoes+Chicken

Fried Potatoes with Omelette


I prefer cooking at uni residence than my previous place because I have much more flexibility here. Previously,I often skipped cooking meals to not interrupt the family dinner time of my house owner. It's either I cook extremely early or skip it.
However, this no longer happens anymore.=)

There was one day when I was cooking instant noodle, and 1 female housemate of mine with 2 other guys from the next door came to cook at the same time. Then we started chit-chatting about the instant noodles since they have never seen Maggi Asam Laksa flavour before. Then we expanded our conversation to casual things like Asians, countries and Westerners etcetera.

See, cooking makes people talk more !

Coming Up Next: Halloween Party