The 'in a nutshell' entry

I've always wanted to write this entry but it just didn't happen because I am not the type to pour out things on my blog. But I really need to seek closure and I guess writing might help?

During a couple of catch up sesion with friends, I was asked the same question over and over again. "What did you do at Langkawi that you had to sleep so late and skip meals?"

I can go on and on to tell them about the car I rode, the hotel I stayed at, how hot Langkawi was, how cheap the chocolates were but I just can't seem to recall anything about what I did and what happened in the media centre. What state of mind I was at?

I know that the event is over and there's no point recollecting it but the fact that fragments are missing is really bothering me. There are days where I really want to go to bed early but I ended up sleeping really late because I was trying to think of the unthinkable.

I swear that I was never a victim of my own mind! Even when I was taught philosophy on existence, I don't over think it. Why am I so vulnerable this time?

A couple of years ago, I always dream of this primary school friend. It was really disturbing because we were not close friends, never kept in touch, does not even know dead or alive. Do I owe him money or something?

One morning, I woke up and told myself, stop psychoanalyzing yourself. Whatever it is, it doesn't matter anymore. You can think about it a million times, and still won't be able to come up with an answer. And after that, no more old friend dreams!

Hopefully, tomorrow when I wake up I'll be able to get over the gaps and worry about some other things like my post grad application!

Till then, I'm just gonna crush whatever that comes in my way.

Who wanna go swing some bat and hit some balls?

Killing me softly

A random conversation I had with an elderly man at the soy bean milk stall while waiting for the cobbler to fix my heels.

Elderly man = E
Soy bean man = S
Rene= R

E: Drink soyabean, it's good for your health.

R: Ya ya, one without sugar please.

E: I cannot take sugar. I am diabetic.

R: Do you eat rice?

E: Not really. I have to control my intake.

S: So you can't eat durian?

E: No way man! I'll die!!(goes on and tell about his friend who passed away after consuming durian)

S: I see.

E: You know sometimes children will buy durian for their parents, thinking that its an act of love, sayang their parents...

R: Uh huh.

E: It's actually an act of murder!

Guess what I had for dins last night? Hahah

Sky before storm

A random tip that my mum told me and I didn't believe until I've tried it.

If you have to drive under the (very heavy) rain, put on your sunglasses. It will help you see the roads better.

All Eyes on Sao Paulo

Today marks the final race of the 2012 Formula One season.  I have to say this year has been quite an intense year. We have six current and former World Driver's Champions to begin with and not forgetting eight different drivers winning the races throughout the season. Whew.

Today is also the last day Hamilton wil be racing as a driver for team McLaren. Although I am a bigger fan of the the other half of team GBR,  I will definitely miss the rivalry between Lewis and Jenson (as seen on Tooned)

I always thought that they make a really good combo. Lewis can be quite a hot head and aggressive while Jenson is more calm and cool. They are like yin and yang! 

Nevertheless, I look forward to the new blood of team McLaren! Perez is really young and I don't see him breaking Vettle's youngest world champ record but there's a lot to look forward to. It's a big shoe to fill and I hope he is good at voice acting cause Lewis did an awesome job for Tooned!

As for Lewis and Rosberg... I'm not too sure about that and somehow can imagine them not talking to each other haha but we'll see. Something unexpected might form from this new team and I hope that Lewis will get a great car and not murder his skills for the moolah.

On another hand, today is also SchuMi's final race and I have a feeling its going to be an emotional one. Probably not sob fest material but just imagine the thoughts going through his head when he sees a fellow countryman walking away with the title or a driver who raced for his former team that earned him a God like status.

It's no doubt that he's comeback wasn't as good as expected. Or maybe he didn't get a good enough car for him to do his thang. Whatever reason it is, I am sure he is an inspiration to many and with his experience, he would be a great mentor to the younger drivers.

Anyway I am all in for Fab Seb for the champion title. Come on Vettle! Do some magic and pull a hat trick. I'll be all happy happy if I see a huge picture of Vettle at the back page of tomorrow's paper!

Why I am car-less?

Now that I have started working, many people are asking me these questions and below are my answer to them.

Q: When are you going to get a car?

A: I don't know, haven't been planning for that.

Q: How do you travel?

A:  I walk, take the bus and the train.

Q: OMG! You walk and you take public transport?

A: Yes. I walk and public transport are one of the many ways I travel.

Q: Gosh! Malaysia's public transport sucks! How can you withstand that?

A: They are not that bad. They taught me to be patient!

Q: How long does it take you to travel to work?

A: Well, it takes me about 1 hour and sometimes 1 and a half hour to get to work and also to get home.

Q: Why not take the car, it will be faster.

A: Can you guarantee that it will be faster? What if when there are jams?

Q: How long does it take for you to walk from home to the train station?

A: Half an hour.

Q: Oh-Mai-God! *rolls eyes* 

A: *Smiles*

Q: You will need a car to go other places sometimes. Why don't get a car which is more convenient?

A: I know to some places, I need to use the car. However, how often do I go out to places that I can't reach without car?

Q: What if you go out at night?

A: Well, it is a good thing that I don't have a car. That means I'll be home early.

There are many more questions to asking me why do I want to be in this state - car-less state. Thing is, I can't seem to be able to convince myself to get a car though I know that it is somewhat safer than me walking to the bus stop in the morning. I get to enjoy myself not waking up early to go to work. I get to enjoy the freedom of being able to go out when I want and come back anytime.

Bottom-line is, I get a lot of perks for having a car.

At the same time, I also see a lot of cons.

The reason why am I car-less is because

1. I don't mind waking up early to go to work. (though sometimes I do have that lazy side of me)

2. I don't see the point of having to pay a huge amount of money to the parking vendor and also using up petrol and also time just to get from one place to another when I can save the money and environment when moving around.

3. I don't see why I want to have this commitment when I know that car won't be of much use here? (Drive my car, park at the KTM or nearest LRT station and take the train to work and taking the bus and then the train to work isn't much of a different)

4. Yes, I do spend a lot of my time travelling, but during that period of time, I do get a little time to myself doing nothing or sometimes do some reading. I don't see my time as going to waste.

5. Car-less makes me go to bed early, wakes up early and also I get to do some exercises from walking and sweating which all leads to healthier lifestyle.

Well, I can give you many more reasons but till I can find a good reason to convince myself to get a car. I don't see why I should spend money on things that I don't really need when I can save it for a rainy day (or for a vacation!)

If only people understand my point of view and stop asking me questions of why I am being car-less.

You like wheels, I love my walking under the hot sun, sweating like a waterfall and getting wet under the rain. They are all not a burden, but a part of my life that I do not mind to have and enjoy. A part of my life that I don't really see a need to change, yet.

P.s. I did not say that I do not want a car, I will get a car (or maybe not) when the time comes. For now, there are better and meaningful things to do than to get a car.

Rene's adventure when she was younger

Yesterday, my sister gave me this really old school 'triple 5  or more commonly known as 'buku tiga lima' note book. It was so nostalgic and i thought hey, why not take a stroll down memory lane.

I was born in the year 1990 and my childhood in a nutshell....

-Watching cartoons such as Captain Planet, Popeye the Sailor Man, The Adams Family, Tom & Jerry (and always feel bad for Tom)

-Thinking that the moon was following me and actually felt scared hahaha

- I always make sure that all soft toys are nicely placed on the bed so none of them will feel offended for not being able to sleep on my bed.

- Was forced to read story books especially books by Enid Blyton! Never liked her books but never understood why everyone gave me her books as birthday presents

- Archie comics and books by Roald Dahl are acceptable though

- Appeared in one of the 'Love our river' billboard ad and it was also printed into bookmarks and posters

Not in the centre but the very side

- Owns a pink ranger toy figurine and never missed an episode of Power Rangers and later moved on to Pokemon

- Ostrasized by my sister and cousins!! and today, none of them remembers anything about this except for me

- Was forced to attend Sunday school and church

- I was quite cheeky, always doing silly things to my sister hahahah maybe that's why my cousins and sister didn't want to play with me

 

- I would cheat all the time when I play the run with a ping pong ball on a spoon' game

- Boy band boom and I'm on team backstreet's back, alright!

- Was forced to attend piano lessons which lasted for four years and not even Grade 1.

- A Sony Walkman used to be so cool and a disc man is even cooler

-Home Alone was my favourite movie. Always wanted to try some of the tricks.

- Used to think that the movie 'Child's Play' is for kids and still very much traumatized by it today

- Used to think that the 'get set' from ready get set go, is actually 'cassette' and always wondered what song are they going to play

- SchuMi used to be world no.1 and I'll refer to him as the shoe maker

- Family vacation is always at Port Dickson or Frasers Hill

- The song 'Lemon Tree' was really popular (think Gangnam style)

-Bang my head against the floor when playing badminton.

- Had a running competition with my sister and when I finally finally finally overtook her, I fell down. The scars are still on my knee today!

 Ah the good old days. Looks like there's quite a bit of repression going on when I was younger. Hahaha

No frills added

Looking at the layout of this blog, you can probably tell that I really like minimalistic design. When my friend Irene ask me to reconceptualize and design an icon for her Football blog, I gave her something really simple and maybe lazy, which fortunately received some positive feedback. (Hopefully the 'product placement' here will encourage her to update her blog!)

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, I came across this minimalistic writing App called 'Plain Text' and immediately I knew that this is it!

" For editing text on your iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch. PlainText is a simple text editor with an uncomplicated, paper-like user interface. Unlike the default Notes app, PlainText allows you to create and organize your documents in folders and sync everything with Dropbox.com." 

source: iTunes 

I like how you can have organizing folders and at the same time no fancy frills that will distract you from writing. It is also one of the "8 Apps Every Writer and Blogger Should Know" on Mashable. And the best part of all is.. it's free!

If you're the type who usually take notes using your gadget or someone who always have your Eureka! moment at the most random time and needs to jot down your million dollar idea, you might want to consider Plain Text.

My Cup of Tea

People who have worked with me will probably know that tea is my beer. There's always a cup or a flask of tea on my desk Then, I'll always let out this ahhh of satisfaction whenever I take a sip.

Inspired by George Orwell's 'A Nice Cup of Tea', I decided to write how I like my cuppa tea.

1. Add sugar to coffee, not tea
The golden rule that should never ever be broken! Just as Orwell said, "Tea is meant to be bitter, just as beer is meant to be bitter". It would be unreasonable to add salt or pepper so why is sugar acceptable?

I have came across people gave me weird looks when they found out that I don't drink tea with sugar. They look at me as if it's out of the world. I would rather eat the tea leaves then drink tea syrup!!

2. Milk tea, not a fan of it
I love milk and I love tea. But milk tea, I'll pass. The taste is alright but it's just not how I like my tea to be served. Maybe it's because I have yet to come across a really good cup of milk tea. And perhaps it's because I grew up drinking Chinese tea and no one adds milk into Chinese tea.

3. Three minute rule
I usually dip the tea bag for two to three minutes. If I want a stronger flavour, I will use two tea bags. Maximum maximum four minute. Nothing should stay inside longer than that unless you want to kill the tea's flavor and fragrance.

4. Lukewarm tea, somewhat tolerable
If can, use only freshly boiled hot water. But I understand that sometimes it's too hot and you'll leave your cup on the table and let it cool down a little before enjoying it. Sometimes you tend to forget about it and the next thing you know is the tea is now lukewarm.

Lukewarm tea is still somewhat borderline-ly acceptable to me. But I can write you the horror story of the year if it's Chamomile tea. I was having lunch and the tea was burning hot so I thought that I'll have it after I finish my food. Finally I'm done, took a sip and my facial muscle and throat voluntarily flexed.  The next millisecond, I can feel my lunch fighting against gravity and travelling up to my esophagus. *shivers*

That's about it I guess! I'll write another one on my favorite teas next time. Till then, let me know what is not your cup of tea!

Half a lime

I was never a fan of the fantasy genre. Harry Potter? I don't know. Disney? Not really a fan of it. But watching Ghibli films just makes me wanna drop everything and live in a different world. 

Miyazaki Hayao is a genius, a true auteur indeed.  If his intention is to make his audience's imagination run free,  mine has definitely reached another dimension  at Bolt's speed.

I don't know how to explain but there's a tsunami of emotions in me after watching his films. It's not my first time watching these film but argh..I'm in awe right now (just watched 'Howl's Moving Castle')

I guess when I was younger, everything seems to be so idealistic. My biggest problem was probably missing an episode of Pokemon or doing badly for spelling test. 

The first time I watch 'Spirited Away' was when I was 12 years old which is exactly ten years ago. I loved it. It has a great storyline, it's so colourful,pretty animations, it was a nice film.

I still love it very much today but the sense of appreciation is different. As I grow older, I've learnt more about the world, life and went beyond bad spelling. Instead of the visuals, I became more emotionally attached to it.

I am so tongue tied or maybe brain tied right now that I can't even write a coherent blog entry. I can't even put my feet on the ground as I'm floating on overwhelming emotions. What an adventure I just went on.

Thank goodness I work from home! If I have to go through all that dreadful traffic to get to work, reality will probably strike me like a lightning and I will suffer from the most severe withdrawal symptoms.

Anyway, have a great week ahead and if you need some sort of escapism,  try watching something from Studio Ghibli!       

Graduation

Yesterday, I officially graduated. No pictures of me tossing the mortarboard because I did not attend the ceremony. I can't recall since when I've told myself that I will not attend my degree's graduation. Anyway, this entry is not about why I chose to graduate in absentia but some thoughts I had last night before going to bed.

Monash, although I've complained so much about the tuition fee, parking wars and overly flavoured cafeteria food, thank you so much for the amazing 3.5 years. I wouldn't be who I am or do what I am doing today if it's not because of you. So....we're pretty much even hah.

If to draw a graph of my years at uni, it would look really extreme. For one semester, I did so well that I received the Deans Recognition Award. And the next semester, I failed a literature subject and flushed my GPA down to the river of Kayu Ara, which explains the .5 year.

Fortunately, there were more good things than bad that happened throughout the years at Monash. Made some really amazing friends and thanks for still keeping in touch with me and being so patient especially when it comes to my ranting session.

Also, Sports Journalism was definitely one of the biggest highlight of uni life. I had so much fun, went through some silly moments, met a bunch of bonafide media representative, and to be able to write/read about things that you like feels really nice. But the best best best part is I was able to earn the best working experience ever thanks to Sports Journalism!

And not forgetting, I ate fire! 

Monash, if you don't mind having me back on campus again, I'll be back!

My Must-Have from Coach's Legacy Holiday 2012

The season of giving is just around the corner! I've got my Xmas cards ready but guess what? There's something better (and someone more generous) in town! What do you get when you put Bag Addicts Anonymous and Coach together?

G-I-V-E-A-W-A-Y!

Yes, it's the Bag Addicts Anonymous x Coach Giveaway! And if you think a Coach Legacy Leather Medium Skinny worth RM 300 is tempting, they are also giving away an exclusive leather-bound notebook that is not for sale in any Coach store in the world. So what are you waiting for? Head over to Bag Addicts Anonymous for more info!

Anyway, here's my take on "My Must-Have from Coach's Legacy Holiday 2012" Collection.

Legacy Color Block Leather Large Clutch

Not so much of a clutch fan because I prefer my hands to be free but I like the zip on the clutch because that would be so useful for me. I always have this 3-minute panic moment because I can't find my parking ticket or my thumb drive. Besides that, then color block makes the clutch looks more casual and who said that clutches are for dinner only?

Legacy Leather Canteen Bag

What I like the most about this bag is the shape! Definitely not the bag to bring to camping or hiking but I can imagine myself carrying this bag with the sundress I bought just a couple of days ago. The tassel detail has definitely add some aesthetic touch to the bag.

Present picture frame key fob

I have something for cute miniature key fobs! When I saw this, I knew that it would make a great present for my car keys. The bottle opener key fob is pretty cool too. For more of the Coach Legacy collection, feel free to check out the link below!


All photo credit goes to Coach and bagaddictanonymous.com

It's the talk of those who sees it

The weather at the Langkawi Island is like a temperamental woman. It rains and shine without any warning. The bottom line is its humid, hot, rain and all that other characteristics of a tropical island.

So when I came across a penguin fridge magnet that says 'Langkawi', I thought it was really hilarious. Hello? Langkawi is the house for a variety of wildlife and why are the penguins immortalized?

Being that person who would buy things to laugh at, I put one of it in my shopping basket. I felt really satisfied as I thought it would make a good story for one of those catch up sessions.

I did journalism back then in uni and I guess that part of me came back as I felt the need to find out the relation between pengs and Langkawi.

Googled and damn!! They do have penguins at Langkawi's underwater world! I can feel the bubble burst and I bet the penguin is secretly laughing at me!

I ranted about it to my boss (who laughed and bought the fridge magnet too) but unlike me, he defended for the fridge magnet like a proud owner. And he told me 'it is the talk of those who sees it'.

Not too sure what he sees in that fridge magnet but that sure strike a chord on me. Maybe instead of "damn, I laughed for nothing", life would be more enjoyable if I look at it as "my fridge would look so good with this".

The solution to Monday blues

Very simple! Just work seven days a week. You won't even realize its Monday.

Go fix yourself a nice warm cup of tea and melt those blues!

Anyway, Happy Monday everyone! Have a great week ahead while I suffer from some work withdrawal symptoms.

First world problem

During my last day at Langkawi, I finally had the chance to do some tourist-ey activity with my boss and a fellow team member of the event.

We started our adventure with a cuppa from Starbucks and head to a mall in town to get some souvenirs.

Langkawi is tax free so chocolates, liquor and cars are known to be pretty reasonably priced there. However, Langkawi is also famed for cheap plates and pans or anything you would use in your kitchen.

So after stocking up on chocs, we head to our next destination to get stuff that will make our mums happy.

I've always wanted a complete tea set but my mum aka the kitchen cabinet's dictator would say that it's impractical, there's no room for that bla bla bla.

But being the stubborn daughter, I was like screw it, I'm getting one!

Then comes the first world problem. Every set that they have there is so elaborated. It comes with like hundreds of cups and at home, I am the only one who appreciates tea!

But I still bought one anyway! Didn't really like the design of it but its the smallest set! (See pic)

So, what's your recent first world problem?