Back from holiday!

It was a refreshing holiday!! And also the most eventful wedding I've ever been to... My cousin had 2 wedding ceremonies - 1 held at her house and one at the groom's house. Everything went quite smoothly at our side, but lots of things went wrong in Negri Sembilan, where the groom's hometown is. We stayed at a 2-storey terraced house (15 adults and 3 children) for just one night thankfully. 2 queen size beds were not enough for 7 ladies and 1 little boy, so we pulled 2 mattresses and put them on the floor. Now somebody has to sleep on the hard wooden planks that was below the mattresses (luckily not me). I think it was around 10pm after we finished the bed arrangements, then the bride told us she felt feverish... 1 day before the wedding! That wasn't the worse. We all went to bed after midnight, and at around 2am one of the cousin's phone kept ringing, which kept everyone awake the whole time. At around 4am there was a loud buzzing sound outside the window that wouldn't stop, and it felt a little warm. I thought someone switched the air-con off, and I heard people walking, people tossing in their sleep in my own daze. And then I heard voices saying there's a power cut! That buzz came from the repair lorry! In my daze I thought to myself: power cut at a time like this! Just before the bride has to put on her makeup! Luckily the water still flows, and the bride applied her makeup in candlelight. So we go to the tea ceremony, come back to the house at about 11am, had some sleep, and proceeded to the wedding lunch at 2pm. The restaurant was quite small, I think there were 20 tables in there all squeezed quite closely together. The sound system there was also appalling, we could only hear the host talk, and when he started singing everything became incomprehensible. My mum went up to sing 2 times, and both times i took videos. When I played the videos all we heard was noise! Even my aunt said it was the worse restaurant she has been to for a wedding. So that ends our stay in Negri Sembilan.
The next stop for us was Genting Highlands, where I spent most of my time with 2 younger cousins, both of them girls, 1 of them extremely irritating sometimes. We went out to the theme park, I tried the superman ride for the first time, it was great! The cousins were too scared and too young for it. The rest of the time I was in the casinos, playing jackpots and roulette with a computer. The one thing I don't like about casinos is the smoke. It's like one hot room baking everyone with cigarette smoke. If you stay there for 2 hours or more, your clothes and hair get the stink. I lost some money, but that's ok, I know well what gambling can do to one if one gets too deep...
So we got home at 8pm last night, just in time to celebrate new year at home. Well we didn't really have any celebration, just watched some TV. I went to bed 20 minutes before midnight, totally exhausted. But the fireworks nearby woke me up 20 minutes later, (happy new year!) and then back to sleep.

Sick

Today is the day I had fever! I remember the last time was in PITC, which was more serious, because I vomitted in the middle of the night, and then more followed in the afternoon, some really gross black stuff that came out from my stomach! Oh I still remember the sight, even though I washed it away immediately. At least I could do some work today, I must have appeared weak in PITC!
Speaking about PITC, I'm reminded of the times in Pasoh. I feel very heartened that we're still in contact with each other, no matter how distant. I'm looking at the photo in front of me now, of the girls in the porch of our house, taken the day we left Pasoh, sometimes it brings tears to my eyes. It doesn't mean I've forgotten the guys, these memories are hard to erase, and I never would.

Life

I just read in the news this morning that 1 Singaporean was killed in the Mumbai terrorist killings. It really saddened me, although that girl wasn't related to me. She was a lawyer, just married for 1 year, and seemed to have a bright future ahead of her. She was in India for work, and then this happens... You never know when you'll be dead, by the work of terrorists or people who are too stressed.
To me, it's a lesson... Life is too short to have regrets, to complain... I will live life to the fullest, so that even if I die suddenly, I have no regrets. I saw a quote once - "Regret for the things that you did can be healed by time, but regret for things that you didn't do is unforgivable." The moment I saw this quote, I made it my life's mission. I think that's what life is about - to go forward and look back only to smile at the memories, not to regret.

Another surprise

I was at Jurong Point today to have dinner and buy some stationery. The surprise is, I bumped into a friend whom I haven't seen for 6 years. Well actually I first bumped into a friend whom I've seen in more recent years in the toilet, and she told me that the other friend was in the toilet as well. So we had a short chat and update, and it turns out that the friend whom I've met in recent years is going to be a teacher, but she hasn't gone for training yet. She is actually teaching now, but this is also part of training. So, I will see her around in NIE next year. NIE is really a good place for meeting friends, it's funny how many of them want to be teachers... Although I respect my teachers and I think it's a very important job, it's one of the last jobs on my list if I ever go jobless...

A surprise

I got a surprise from my father this evening.. He bought a 10 megapixel Fujifilm camera and let me use it! So he took my Casio one... It is an upgrade in terms of resolution, but this new one doesn't have a manual mode!! I don't know if it'll be better or worse than my Casio (this new one cost about half of Casio, but i bought that a few years ago). So the only way to find out is to use it!
I guess my SLR will have to wait... haha I have no cash now anyway.

Southern Thailand

I'm back from a very very refreshing trip in Thailand, the land of smiles!!

It was really great to see Dia again, and to meet new friends and learn a new language!! Dia is still the same, with her old habits... I won't mention them here. It was quite a learnin experience to meet Steve Elliot, her supervisor, who is one of the funniest person I've ever met. He is always very sarcarstic about the way things are going with his project in the South, so many obstacles he met with and how different government agencies are inhibiting his work there. Now I know I'm lucky to have my project going rather smoothly compared to Dia's. The organisation there is not very neat, like in Singapore there is only 1 government body issuing permits to do research, whereas over there there're a few, and they keep telling Steve to go in circles among these places.

It's frustrating, but I told Dia if they don't allow her to do her work just do it anyway, I don't believe they'll send people there to watch the plots 24 hours a day. I believe science cannot be impeded by stupid systems imposed by humans.

Ok anyway, I was shown around Krabi and the field site there, met a few good people who have been very supportive of Dia's work. I tried my best to be very polite with my limited Thai, perhaps I should visit them again. As for Dia's university Walailak, it's the biggest in South-east Asia, I think if I remember correctly it's more than 1000 ha. There's many cows grazing on grass all day long, and dogs and cats too, although they usually wait for people to feed them. It's a nice campus, I love the big open environment there. Transport is usually by motorbike, or by Dia's cute little 4-wheel drive.

Ok I shall end here for now, I'll write more about the trip when I feel like it. :)

Steve and I in the "e-tan", which Steve calls the 'limousine'. The roads to the plot were the worst I've ever experienced, even worse than PITC, but according to Steve they are more worse in Indonesia...

The weekend and today

Ok I have to update my life here... Last Saturday was a Volunteer Appreciation Day at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve. It was a fun day, my group partner and I went walking around the mangrove reserve playing a treasure hunt with about 50 other people. We even made a tailor bird nest with a Dillenia suffruticosa leaf and some dry wood and cotton. One other partner stayed at the visitor centre to paint a trashbin. I must say it's a good idea to get volunteers to decorate the trashbins, now they look even more attractive than some exhibits!
Sunday was a stay-home day, rather uneventful, watching anime all day... hahaha..
Today I went to collect my new lens! And bought myself a FBT sleeveless shirt! I'm gonna wear it in Thailand... :D