A Recap of the Year's Events

It's New Year's Eve!
And as I'm writing this, 2008 is just a mere 3 hours away.
Well, 2007 has been quite the year for me. Joy, fun, disappointment, worry - all emotions tied up together in a big package, and also a sense of achievement on my part on certain matters, has made it a very memorable year for me.

I'd like to say a big "THANK YOU" to all you guys and gals out there who have been with me for better or for worse, and also given me the support I needed in whatever it was that I was doing.

And to cap the year off, I'd like to present a little "picture show" of what have been going on in my life for 2007. Whether or not your face appears in any of the pictures below, it doesn't really matter. As long as you'd proudly say that you knew, and still know me, then I can assure you that you've touched my life in some way. =D

So then, let's go!

January
-King's 21st birthday celebration with the Kick A$$ gang.


-Yamaha's Annual Concert 2007

-And not to forget the sudden lunch at Kim Gary's as a farewell for Jo.

February
-Sue-Anne's photobook crew, slaving to finish the last minute photobook idea in Yuan Dong's house.

-A last get together before Sue-Anne left for Melbourne.


-Chinese New Year in Ipoh.


March
-Most Interesting Act, ICLS Karaoke Competition 2007


April-May
Nothing significant. Just lots and lots and lots of progress tests. =.=


June
-Genting and non-stop crazy space shot rides with the college bapakz.

-Redang and bad sunburns for all with the gurls.

-Ipoh Food Excursion with the Teddies.


July
-Realising that I actually love baking, and have so far improved (ruined?) the lives of many by giving them the added cholesterol they may or may not have needed.


August
-A new hairstyle and an additional RM100~

-And chicken pox as a "be-early birthday present".

-Malaysia celebrates her 50th birthday! (Picture taken by Jun Sheng. For more awesome photographs, please visit here. Dude if you would like this picture taken off my blog, please tell me)


September

-The month where 3 teddies departed to the UK.

-CAT Graduation Sept 2007. I finally hold a diploma!


October
-Happy Birthday Foo and Boss, with a discount at Miyako, Sheraton Hotel Subang.


-Ramadhan Bazaar~ Good food that causes bad stomach conditions as a side effect.


November

-Got to watch Roger Federer and Pete Sampras face off in the Clash of the Times, exhibition match in Malawati Stadium, Shah Alam.


December

-Christmas caroling, a fun experience in which I still don't have any pictures of.


-Inter-club competition in International Youth Centre, Cheras. Long live Lake View Club!

-Christmas came and went~


******
And that all makes up the year 2007!
I'm looking forward to 2008!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is finally here!
Merry Christmas, everybody!

I would like to wish all my readers, and also everyone out there, if you do happen
across this page of my blog on this very jolly day of the year, a very Merry Christmas and may God's blessings find you and your loved ones wherever you are!

Ah, Christmas, my favourite season and holiday of the whole calendar year, and in fact, I do believe that I'm not the only one who looks forward to the coming of Christmas every year. Is it because of all the gift giving, the hearty meals with turkey and all those awesome goodies, the beautiful deco all around town, the fact that it is a public holiday, the hot Santarinas in their santa suits, the jolly Christmas carols, and also the joyous festivity that makes it one heck of a popular and wonderful holiday? Well, I guess to many, it would probably be one or a few of these many reasons, and even others which I haven't listed down, that makes up Christmas for most people on earth.

Well, to me, I do agree that those are the reasons (except for the hot Santarinas of course =.=) that makes up Christmas for me. However, in all the 19 years of my somewhat long yet short life, I've also come to realise that many people celebrating Christmas don't actually know the true meaning of Christmas, and that is kind of disappointing seeing that Christmas is celebrated widely over the world.

For those of you who don't really understand what I'm trying to say, well let me just put it simply for you. Christmas isn't about gift giving, Christmas isn't about Santa Claus and his reindeer, Christmas isn't about all the carols, and Christmas also isn't about all the beautiful Christmas decorations and meals with turkey. In truth, we celebrate Christmas because this is the day that our saviour, Jesus son of God was born. And we Christians celebrate this day not just to remember the birth of Christ but also all that he has done for us during his years as a person on earth. In fact, we give gifts during this season to remember how God gave us Jesus as a gift and to be our saviour.

Of how all the other traditions of Christmas came to being, I don't really know all about it, but hey, now when someone asks you if you understand the true meaning of Christmas, well you can proudly say that you do. ;)

Alright now, enough of what I think. Now lets move on to the "presents" part of Christmas, the more exciting of food and all those other stuff. I do have to say, that whatever I received this year was more interesting than last year. LOL. Okay, so what do I have with me after opening all those presents that my good friends, which is you guys, have so thoughtfully gotten for me.

Guess who gave me this? XD It was Joshua of course. How in the world did he know I was hoping so much for a recipe book for desserts and such I do not know (must be the psychic powers of his long hair, as Qi Hong puts it), but dude I want to say thank you so, so much for this wonderful gift. Better make sure I see you on the 30th in Sue-Anne's house, I'll cook up something from this book for you to try. XD

Moving on, I also have...
A Rose fragrance body mist from Sue-Anne. Smells real good. But though are you trying to hint to me that I stink or something? HAHA! Just joking. Thanks gurl, I was starting to get sick of my pear scented body gel. LOL. This will do just fine for a change. XD

Next...

An aromatic candle set from Huey Fern. Which, is also rose scented. Hey wait now, is everybody trying to imply that I stink or something??? LOL. Thanks Fern, hope you're having a great time over in Japan, and hope it's a white Christmas for you!

And the last few...
A pink Hippo soft toy, a cute octopus with only 5 tentacles and a candy cane is a few of the remaining gifts I got from my friends at church. Thanks Justin and Anthea!!!

You know somehow, pink seems to be the colour of Yong-sama for this year's Christmas.
Why? Because the majority of the gifts I received seems to be pink in colour. Yay, pink for the season!!!

Ah yes, and not to forget all the goodies Mum got my brother and I this year. Cham, and I was hoping to lose some weight during this holiday. =.=. Oh well, eat first, worry later. Muahahaha.
And for those of you who have been wondering what in the world I was doing all this time during my holidays. Well, your Christmas present clearly explains it all then. XD.
The messiness of my workplace. Oh believe me, it was worse than this before. Now I only have another 2 more to go and I can finally wrap up all this junk, relax and enjoy the rest of my holidays.

Oh right, and in case you've been wondering why I asked you to choose your presents when all the wrappings looked the same, is because the gifts weren't exactly the same. Among the designs I did for the candle holders were...
A Christmas tree themed painting with presents in the background.


Santa on his sleigh with his reindeer. I forgot to paint the first reindeer's nose red, so sorry y'all! And I think Wui Li got the painting with the extremely fat reindeer. LOL. Sorry, that was the first one I did of the reindeer, so yea, guess the artwork was kind of sloppy.

And the last would be a painting of a family of snowmen. The Dad, Mum and the kid. I don't have a picture of this yet. Will upload it in a few days time. Or you could just ask around to see which lucky person got the snowmen picture.

That's all for now people. I hope you liked your gift. Although I do have to admit, that I'm not really good at buying gifts and I often get you people a lot of obsolete stuff which you would just stuff up somewhere in your shelf and drawer never to use it again. Ah well... XD. Oh by the way, if you need more candles, do feel free to ask me for some more. I have loads of them. And yes, they are all strawberry scented. =p

Once again, Merry Christmas! And just a little something I'd like to add, Christmas isn't Christmas, till it happens in your heart!

Just a "Brief" Update

Oh wow, it's been such a long time since I posted any updates on this almost dead blog of mine. Well, it wasn't as if I had many updates anyway... I kinda feel lost now, *LOL* don't really know how to start and how to type...

*Looks at the big b button on the menu* "Oooh! What does this button do?"
Well , okay, okay, I'm not all that lost. But it does feel nice to be back on and typing my fingers off again. XD

Life hasn't been as hectic as I thought it would be after my exams ended, I guess you could say that I (like some people can be at times) was quite lost as to what to do after my exams were over. It felt as if my purpose of studying just disappeared like how a candle's flame would just diminish if not watched over by. Well, it's not like I'm complaining about it.

So anyways, the days leading up to the weekend were quite relaxing. I was home most of the time nursing a bad cough, which is almost gone by now (thankfully!). We gave Qi Hong a kinda lame birthday surprise on Thursday night... (for more details please visit da man's blog here)
And on Friday morning I had a great breakfast with the girls to give Fern a "send-off" to Japan.

However, the main highlights of the week happened during the weekend. Get ready for quite a long and boring read if you're interested. I don't have any pictures (yet anyways). I forgot my camera for both the occasions =.=


Saturday - Caroling at Rumah Petros and Rumah Kepercayaan
I have to admit that this was quite an eye-opener for me. For those of you who are wondering, these two homes are half-way homes for people who have already finished their drug rehab, and are wholly supported by Malaysian Care, a non-profit Christian organisation committed to serving the poor and needy in the society.

Both homes are located in Old Klang Road. First we stopped by Rumah Petros, had dinner with those living in the home, and a little chat with them afterwards. Not all of them could speak English, but that didn't hamper our keenness in having a conversation with them. At around 8pm, our group of about 20+ carolers gathered outside the home and started our caroling as we had been practicing for weeks before. Among the songs we sang were Joy to the World, Joyful! Joyful!, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Gloria, Christmas isn't Christmas, Peace of the Lord, O Holy Night and Feliz Navidad.

Two of the guys from the home stood out to give their testimonies after we were finished with our carols. Mr. KC was the first to speak, and while he was giving his testimony he also highlighted how society treated them, former drug addicts who had turned over a new leaf and accepted a belief in their hearts. I didn't realize how much my own perception of former drug addicts were like the majority of our society, until he asked us that one question: "If I didn't know you, and you didn't know me, just seeing me in the streets, would you still have spoken to me had you known I was a former drug addict?"

If I had to answer that question truthfully, my answer would have been a "No." I felt quite ashamed once I realized that my perception didn't differ much from common society. If God could forgive them and accept them back like His lost sheep, why couldn't I do so as well? I guess that is one question that I can't really answer until I come to fully understand my own heart.

Well anyway, after the testimonies, we moved on two houses up slope (the place was really hilly, good for burning away our quite heavy dinner at Rumah Petros before this) to the girls home. We sang two songs less this time, for time was a little tight for both us carolers and them, presented them with gifts after the caroling, and also stayed back a little while longer to watch a short dance in which they gladly performed in return for our enthusiastic caroling.

Just for your information, not many people actually take time to visit homes like these. So if you're feeling that you could be doing some charity work instead of sitting home and watching tv the whole day, why not just gather some friends and head on down to any of these homes for a visit. Sometimes, a small gesture of the heart to show that people actually do care about them is more than enough to light up their day and bring warmth to their hearts.

And now, on to more interesting kick-ass action, lets move on to...

Sunday - Inter-club Taekwondo competition in IYC
Ah yes, Taekwondo, the Korean kick-ass sport that I have loved and enjoyed since I was 5. And the inter-club competition is one of the few competitions in which my fellow taekwondo buddies and I look forward to every year. Why is that you might wonder? Just to put it simply, we are extremely kiasu and love beating the socks (should be belts here) off the team from Sunway Club.

As a simple introduction, the inter-club competition usually comprises of a team fitness event (comprising skipping, sit-ups, push-ups, kicking and trunk bending), a team pattern event, and finally the individual sparring event. We had it a little different this year, the organisers decided to scrap the team pattern event and replaced it with the individual pattern event instead, and to add a little extra spice to the competition, they also included an overall fitness competition where only one individual would reign supreme over the rest in terms of fitness and endurance.

Firstly, I would like to voice out that I wasn't the one to reign supreme over the rest in the overall champion fitness event. I am, as most of you would know, simply just not fit and do not have enough stamina to endure doing push-ups, skipping and kicking all in one go in a short span of 5 minutes (I only managed a measly 13 push-ups in one minute after doing 150 skips before that, how pathetic is that, don't you agree?). However I did join in with the others for a little extra bit of fun.

Although I'm not all that fit, I'm proud to say that I won a total of two gold medals from this competition. Our team took home the gold medal for the open category team fitness (all thanks to Charmaine for her amazing 180++ skips in one minute, Hadi and Charmaine again for their superb 58 sit-ups and of course Han King with his almost 90 kicks). And the other gold medal you'd ask? Yep, I won the individual pattern competition for the girls category. I seriously ddin't expect to take home the gold, maybe the silver, but never the gold. Looks like all the hard work I put in trying to perfect my so-called "suspended" kick paid off.

Sadly, in the end, our efforts to beat Sunway flat didn't quite work out, they still beat us in the overall medal haul by just a few medals difference (no big surprise there, they sent in more competitors than we did). All in all it was a fun day, and I'm glad this event actually took place (not like last year...=.=), giving us all a chance to bond even closer.


Okay, that's about it. Phew, took me quite a few days to write all of this. Okay, I admit it, I was being lazy and procrastinating, somehow making myself feel that having to update my blog has become a somewhat obligation for me. I know I shouldn't be thinking that, it takes the fun out of blogging. Will try to add in some pictures IF I ever get my hands on any. *grumbles... this Afiq... grumble grumble*

Freedom!

Yup, my exams are finally over! XD

Okay, okay I'm sorry for not updating my blog for such a long time. Will post updates as soon as possible. So sorry people, I've become extremely lazy XD.

Wheeeeee~~~~~~