The End of 2009

At first I wanted to share some photos taken on Christmas Day itself but realized that my baby left his camera back in London (which has all the Christmas dinner photos on it). -.- Fail.

And then I wanted to post some photos of Paris but realised that we were too lazy to take any yesterday. Lagi fail~

But today we are going to take some. For sure. Waiting to check into a 200 euro a night superior room in this boutique hotel at 2pm (it's 1pm now) to spend a nice romantic New Year's Eve night for two.

Though I wouldn't call Paris quiet at this time of the year, every where we go it's fully booked and packed. It's as if people from all over the world are swamped in this little city just tonight. It's insane. And prices of everything just shot up overnight.

Not sure if this is the worst time or the best time to be in Paris. Ermm... You be the judge.

I'm supposed to do a recap on all the things I did back in the year 2009.

But then I think I'll not do that this time.


A year is a year.

There were good and bad times in the year 2009, some I can't forget and some I rather not recall.

This is the year I realised I have met someone whom I am going to share the longest relationship with. The year I realised the past isn't important and our future is always bright and undetermined.

It's another year I spent a considerable amount of time travelling too. A month in Australia + New Zealand. Several months diving in various islands in Indonesia and East Malaysia, went around Thailand twice, Bali once, Hong Kong once, and East Malaysia twice. Spent the remaining of the year in Europe hopping between countries before settling down in England for Christmas and finally New Year's eve in Paris.

Maybe that's why the year flew by so fast for me.

There were some job prospects came up but for most of them I turned them down. Probably I have not realised that I'd like to do just yet, and despite being the end of my 25, I'm not sure if I should be worried. Afterall, this was also the year I graduated from my Master degree in Australia.

I have plans to pursue a PHD in Europe or the states but the idea was immediately brushed off each time it came up because I don't think I can manage another LDR, not anytime soon anyway.

I have intention to do a diamond course in Belgium or London though, for a span of six months. Am still playing with that thought.

Wanted to get a house but I don't think I'm ready for that kind of commitment yet. Or maybe the right house just hasn't turn up. Everything decent and nice in my eyes is at least up in million(s). :S


I like the present. The present is just nice. Yes the past is good to reflect upon to learn about our mistakes, and the future a good measure of what we should do now in order to achieve that. But like I said, in 2009, I learnt that sometimes the best thing and best way to live a life, is living it in the present.

Who cares about the future when you don't even know who you're going to meet then, where you're going to be, or what you're going to do. And the past is just the past because those people in the past can never harm you any longer, and those things in the past are just bittersweet memories that's meant to be, well, bitter, and hopefully sweet.

I'm not going to share any photo in this post. And I am not going to reflect on any past. Well, I kinda did in the earlier paragraph but what the hell.

May 2010 be better than 2009 and may life be as ever-changing and ever-enticing.

May I keep the friends I have and meet many more.
To have a better life, better job prospect and better hope.


Ok, maybe just one random photo.

Here you go.

Eating portugese eggtart in Portugal. You can't get more authentic than that.




To all of you out there, to new lovers and old ones, to people with family and to people who just lost theirs, to the hopeful and the discouraged, to new friends and to long lasting friends, even to enemies and people I don't talk to that often anymore,

Have a Great 2010 ahead. :)

Funny Mug

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Haha..

Happy New Year Everyone from the romance city of Paris!

Ne-Yo is Coming To Town

wow I haven't been online for quite a while haven't I?

Sorry been busy going in and out of shops for the past three days on Oxford Street.

It has been SO LONG since I last shopped like this!!!


ARGH!!! *Roar*

Anyway, it's almost a week left so mark your date on the 7th January 2010.
(Note: Sunway Lagoon Surf Beach at 8pm)

Cause as soon as you're done with your New Year's celebration. Ne-yo is coming to town!


Your last chance to get the ticket here.

Xpax uses, reload and obtain your discounted tickets now.

For others, purchase it at this rate.

Zone RM140, Phlow Zone RM170, Phuture Zone RM260

Since I'm still in Christmas mood, here's a song by Ne-Yo to all of your out there.




And a message from Ne-Yo to Barrack Obama for Christmas.




For ticketing info, call 03-7725 1177/03-7725 1166 or check out tickethotline.com.my

Merry Christmas from London!!

Christmas tree 1.




My fifth aunt's place. With her lovely daughter, my cousin, Elaine.




And son, James.




And a whole bunch of my distant cousins.

And me.




Two days ago our Christmas celebration started. With a lovely homecook meal of pre-Christmas dinner with my aunties and uncle and cousins, etc. Sorry, Jo (my other cousin), didn't have your photo here.


That's my cousin's fiance wife Sarah. Hi Sarah! You're up!


Dinner was superb, forgot to take photo of my fifth aunt since she's slaving away in the kitchen at that time. Sorry auntie.

Hehe, forgot to take photo of my fourth aunt and uncle during dinner either. Dinner was too good!




She made raspberry pavlova for dessert, which was uber yummy.




Today, back at my 4th aunt's place.

Christmas Tree 2.




under the tree, all our pressies await *rubs hands*



And we're just about to start a whole day of eating extravaganza!

Period of meal: 1pm -> 9pm.




Round 2 begins.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

And may you be fat this day.

Bangkok Night Scene Wallpapers

Before I forget. Here are some really nice shots of Bangkok night scenes.

I took these before, but with a mediocre camera, so when I went back to Sirocco cafe (where these night shots were taken) mid this year which then I had a better camera with me,







I took the opportunities to re-capture Bangkok beauty behind lens.


So here they are: two shots of Bangkok night.


Bangkok Night.


Click here to download wide angle size wallpaper.



Click here to download 1600x1200 size.



Click here to download 1280x800 size.


Chao Praya River, Bangkok


Click here for wide angle size wallpaper.



Click here for 1600x1200 size.



Click here for 1280x800 size.


These were taken with RAW file. It was quite a pain because then I have to download a new plug-in just to read the file. Manage to install it and churn out two wallpapers in the end.

Hope you like them. :)


~*~*~*~*~*~*~


If you have not sign up for Celcom on their Twitter promo here, then you better get starting.

There's no better way to tweet than from your handy cell phones, with so many phone cameras around, you can tweet with photos and upload them anytime!

The first time I took photo, tweet and update from phone was this -> http://tweetphoto.com/3492003. Displaying my awesome new bb skin. And I took the photo in the car!


ps// Normal sms updates only RM1 per week.

Snow In London

I am back in London!!!

After three weeks spent in Europe travelling: Spain, Portugal, & Southern France, I have once again returned to London, got my entry stamped at the custom for the second time in two months and now I am back in COLD SNOWY London.

Brr....


Well, Christmas is in two days time and I am going to be hanging around till then, spend some quality time with my relatives over here whom I have not seen for ages! And my baby is gonna fly in in 14 hours time to join me! Yay~ *hugs hugs warm warm*

In fact I think he's about to board the flight soon. ^^


I heard that snow would be stopping tomorrow onwards so that's a boo-hoo. Then again I guess it's good in a way since it won't cause any airport or Eurostar to cease operation due to snow.

I'm heading to Paris for New Year!!

So I assume by tomorrow all the snow would be really dirty since no new ones are forming anytime soon.

No photo opportunity. :(


But here are the few photos taken by my uncle Sonny these past few days.


I present: Snow in London.












































Dashing through the snow, On a one-horse open sleigh, Over the fields we go, Laughing all the way...

Tralalalala~~~~


Merry Christmas Everyone!

I Pinked My Guest Room!

Recently Nippon Paint engaged me in a make-over. Seeking the opportunity, I decided it was time for my guest room to have a fresh look.




Now the thing with my old guest room was that the wall was pearl, pearly white.
In fact, my whole house is of pearly white.

It was the staple color choice of my dad for everything of everyday use, or in this case, view.
Frankly, it was boring. Stale. And utterly not creative.




Besides, there were patches everywhere on the wall from the previous color cracks (this was like at least 10 years ago).

So I sat down one day with both of my mom and dad, and persuaded them (more like just my dad with my mom as my ally) to actually get the guest room (getting the master-bedroom for a make-over was stepping over the line) re-painted.

I gave him a list of colors from Nippon Paint for him to choose, thinking that he would opt for the pale green or something of the more neutral color, other than white.

You know there are times no matter how much you think you know a person, that person will someday make a decision that completely throw you off the hooks.

This was one of those times. The next day, my dad got back to me with two choice colors:

ROSE SHADE 5235P & PINK LADY 468




Yep. He went for pink. Of all colors I could have imagined him selecting.

My dad chose pink for his guest room!


Painter painting on Rose Shade 5135P


I was of course more than happy with his decision. (after all, pink was my priority color)

So the painters came to my house and, expertly, shadowed my walls with shades of pink and lighter pink.
We decided it was best to have two-tone for a four-wall bedroom.


Pink Lady 468 went onto the other two walls.


I was completely awe-struck, not only by the efficiency of the painters, but also by Nippon Paint’s odorless-paints.

It was, well, completely odorless!! I smelt nothing, nothing at all!! Zit, nil, null, kosong, just ODORLESS!

Nippon Odorless paint is the best!! No chemical fumes to make my house smell of shit for days on.




By the end of the day, we have complete pink walls and by god, it was the most beautiful color I’ve ever seen on a wall!!







On top of that, we also had the ceiling repainted, since if all was going to look new.




This time, I was happy with white.

Then we had the frames of the ceiling painted with a different sort of white paint (not odorless *sulk*).




And had the door frames painted white too.




I decided that we were to go all the way and have a decorative wall.

I said we, because I am going to do the design, choose the colors and create an art out of my guest room wall.

Yep, I was going to DIY my guest room!

I drew a rough 5 foot square cubes design on a piece of paper that going on the wall.


Masking tapes on small squares indicated whitish color


That night, my mom and I measured the painted room up and started masking taping one of the walls.




We even drew square paper for good measurement purpose.


Straigggght line


We decided to do a thicker separation between rows and a thinner one between columns.

After two hours, this was it turned out.










With this design, I chose three different colors:
Daphne Red 7173D (like purple),
Trailing Pink 7164T (darker shade of pink)
and Snowbush Rose OW40 1P (white with a hint of pink)




(All in all, we were using 8 types of paints on my guest room)




The painters came in the morning and got to work on my little project. Hehe.

Who said I was going to do the painting? All master-minds are creators, not painters. :p



The painter stuck my blueprint on the wall, so cute.





First, it’s purple…ehh.. I mean Daphne Red 7173D.




Then white…er… Snowbush Rose OW40 1P.




Then a whole lot of mess due to the many colors put on the wall.




In the end, I think the painters decided it was easier to mark the colors of the cube instead of kept referring back to the blueprint.

I went to my brother’s room to play computer game with my mom after that.

When I got back, it was done. Yay~!


Looks like something out of a 2D animation.


We waited for it to dry for an hour (it was fast-dry), we peeled off the masking tape to reveal the master-piece.


Slowly… one by one, inch by inch.








Be careful when you’re doing this, because fresh paint CAN break or get peeled off. So do it gently. And touch up wherever necessary.




DONE!!




Chio or not?! My masterpiece!





When it was time to furnish back the place, my maid went to put up the old curtains of the old guest room in.




God, it was ugly.

We quickly removed the curtains and replaced it with something more matching.


Got my double bed which I bought years ago in, lined the bed with Egyptian cotton and we’re ready for photos!


That’s my pink teddy carpet on the floor. Hehe


The photo was taken with my kit lens 18-55mm zoomed all the way out.

It was roughly this time I obtained my new sponsored wide angle lens 10-22mm.

So I decided it was time for the lens to be put to its first good use.





Ta da!!!

(This is what wide angle can do *smug*)


It’s pretty empty now, but I am so proud of my new creation!

*tears of pride*