Back to blogging...after 7 months (!)

Ok I know I should have been better at blogging but the past 7 months flew by with so much happening (more like work+work+work -__-). Life's been great, though. To sum it up I've spent possibly about a month in Egypt since my previous entry and about 1.5 months in Istanbul working. In between I've managed to make an unforgetable trip to New York (Ref: nicocism.blogspot.com for pictures and story :P) and numerous concerts. Amazing how eventful this year has been so far! Oops, actually am due for dimsum lunch in half an hour so I better get my b** moving. Will blog more in near future (or so I hope)

A taste of one of my (many!) obsession's in the recent months as the below..

Listening to We danced together by The Rakes

Back in London...

Finally back in London after 3 eventful weeks in KL. So many unfortunate incidents occured and thankfully things are looking better now :-) Went to see the ophthalmologist yesterday (which btw costed me a big big BOMB) but was told my cornea ulcer is completely healed.
Yippee!! I guess I'll stick to spectacles for the time being.....until I'm brave enough to wear contacts again. Sob sob. Sigh, I HATEEEEEEEEE wearing spectacles. But shit happens. Oh well...
Other than being bogged up with work for the past week or so, I've been reading Death Note! It's such a fantastic manga (up to chapter 58, after which it becomes a LOT less interesting because ... I won't spoil it for those of you who have not read it yet muahahahaha *evil laugh*). I was reading them religiously for the past week and reached the finale chapter (108 FYI) on Tuesday. The ending was a bit...ermm...dissappointing though. Although one would easily predict the ending, the execution of the ending made the main character (i.e. Yagami Light = oh-so-evil-but-ultra-smart-and-cool guy) quite...ermm...lame. (Yeah, I was rooting for him right from the beginning :P) However, the manga is still worth a read and this explains my temporary Death Note withdrawal syndrome up until today. Am waiting for episode 13 of the anime to be subbed in English and actively searching for another manga to read. Anyone with any good suggestions?

In the mean time, I'll be needing some distractions (which will definitely come handy in the near future)....for the next few months ;-)

*Listening to Broken Hearted by Eighteen Visions*

Foggy Blue Mountains and then some..

Yippee, I finally made it back to Sydney on Tuesday! :D On the flight here, I have to admit that I was more than a little worried that the Australian immigration officers would chase me back to KL for attempting to spread an infectious eye disease as an act of terrorism or something to that effect -_-". My eye has gone better....not clear vision yet, but according to my doctor bro (and of course, the opthalmologist back in KL :P), it should take a few days for the ulcer to recover. So in the mean time, I have to make do with looking like this => o_O, and trying my best not to bump into something on the road.
Back about Sydney, I came to Sydney previously back in 3rd year of uni. Nothing much has changed, really. It's just as exciting and interesting as I've remembered the city to be. I probably enjoy it more now since I have a *local* guide (yeah, that's my bro and his gf, Kim), who can bring us around when they aren't working. One thing I really love about Sydney is the view of the Royal Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge. It's a bewitching sight...ahhh....
We went to Blue Mountains yesterday (about 1.5 hours from Sydney - famous for 3 prominent rocks called the 3 sisters). Unfortunately the weather was...ermm..foggy. Took quite some skills and patience for our 2 *local* guides to drive us there and back. My poor dad never got to see the awesome view :( - me and mom have been here during our previous trip. I'll post some pics when I've uploaded them soon.
Oops, just got bugged by my dad to get out of the house. I'll sign off now and babble more later :P

*Listening to Famous Last Words by My Chemical Romance*

Can't believe all these are happening to me...

Trust me, I am not the sort of person who likes complaining BUT the past few days has been a total nightmare to me (and yes, the nightmare is taking place in KL, not any other place -_-")
First it started last Tuesday when a good friend of mine reversed my car onto a cleaning vehicle in a shopping complex.
Outcome: Big dent at the back of my dear old proton....sob sob. If that wasn't enough, I caught chills on that day itself and am still coughing up until today.

Next came my major wisdom tooth operation on Thursday. Was only supposed to remove the lower bottom right tooth but the doctor said
"Why not remove both? The additional pain is only about 10-15% and you have to pay another RM500 for the anaesthetics if you come to remove the left side next year"
Hence, extremely cheapskate yours truly said "Yeah, okay. Why not?" (Totally forgetting a warning from my previous dentist who told me that I would be knocked for about a week if I were to remove both at the same time)
Outcome: Round-face yi fei has temporarily become square-face due to the swelling on both lower right and left of the jaw. Only compensation is that at least my face is still symmetrical...hmpph... Besides that, I've been surviving on WAYYY too many buns and ice-cream. I really want real food...sob sob

To round off an already horrible week, I may have to do without contact lens from now on. Yup, I got a really BAD infection on Friday late night, which led me to seeing 3 doctors and actually spending Sunday night at an eye hospital. I have cornea ulcer due to a cut in my cornea (due to contact lens) and it's really taking time to recover. As I am typing this, I can only see through my left eye. Right eye is still on the road to recovery and I really pray that it heals...sigh. It really doesn't help that I am supposed to fly off to visit my brother tomorrow. I sure hope I don't get kicked out of Australia for spreading contagious eye disease. Gulp.....

Such a triple-whammy week. On the brighter side of things, I believe that things can't possibly get any worse (or if it does, I guess I'd be immune to it by now :P). Have to thank my mom and dad for being there for me all the time (putting up with all my childish whims, fancies, bad mood etc) and my friends who have shown so much concern for me the whole week. Really really appreciate it... :)

Okay, I'd better stop blogging now and try to rest my right eye. Really don't like to be big-eyed, small-eyed => o_O

*Listening to Keep Holding On by Avril Lavigne* <=Not like I have a choice, do I??

I'm back in KL!! :D

Let's see, so much happened since I got back on Satuday:

Saturday
3pm Arrival at KLIA
6pm Sleep
8pm Mel's wedding
11pm Zeta bar
4am mamak
5am sleeeppp....

Sunday
12pm Wake up
1pm KLCC
7pm 1-Utama
3am sleeppp...

Monday
730am Wake up
930am pull wisdom tooth
1230pm Lunch (and agony over the pulling of wisdom tooth. sob sob...)

Extremely annoyed that my dial-up at home doesn't work AND i can't check work e-mail's at my dad's office. Grrr......

looks like I'll be spending lotsa time in starbucks.... :P

Off to lunch now! Damn, it'll be congee for the next 2 days...

*Listening to Pain by 3 Days Grace*

KL, here I come!

Counting down the hours now.....10 hours more until I get on the plane and escape the crappy weather here!!! AND I am not even packed yet.....(not like it's gona be a problem :P)

Will arrive on Saturday 2pm tentatively (Msian time, of course), Mel's wedding is at 830pm, then comes party time in KL!

Can't wait..... :D

*Listening to Last Train Home by Lostprophets* <= Hmmm, probably last flight home should be more appropriate hehe :P

Home is where the heart is...or is it?

I don't entirely agree though, strangely enough. In uni, I used to get terribly homesick about once a year (yeah, and this usually happens few weeks before Tripos :P ). BUT as soon as one enters the working world, one's priority in life totally changes, which isn't such a bad thing, really. I guess there's so much responsibility and things to do in your everyday life that you don't have the time to get *homesick* at all! To say my heart belongs to home right now isn't quite correct. Being young(or not so anymore...sigh... -_-"), adventurous(that's what I like to think) and ambitious(yes, I can hear you smirking now), I want to venture out into the world before returning home...or not. Who know's what the world holds for us anyway ;-) It will be a long time before I would need to decide on that *fingers crossed* so in the mean time, I should just enjoy working in the *exciting* places I get sent for work. :D

Hmmm..now i know why Asian parents are so afraid of letting their children study overseas => they never come back!

Speaking of home, I'll be flying back to KL in less than 36 hours! Gosh, how time flies....the last trip back was in March. Anyway, am absolutely looking forward to seeing my parents, friends, visiting bro in Sydney, loads of shopping+food+fun! :D In fact, I am quite sure I'll be partying all night this Saturday already! It will be a good 3 week break before coming back on NY's eve. Gives me time to shop on NY's Day! *evil laugh muahahaha*

Argh, I really should be asleep by now since it's already 2am. Oh well, I'll just blame it on my over-excitement of going home and the fact that I have a LONG LONG flight awaiting me on Friday...Last day of work tomorrow (erm..today I mean)...hope it won't be a long one ;-)

*Listening to Home Improvement by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus* <=Don't think my home need's it but anyway...

Back from hiatus!

I haven't updated my blog in eons due to my overly busy life in the past 2 months (Yeah, right. It should actually read: I haven't updated my blog because I am a one-minute hot and extremely lazy git). HOWEVER, I still have a little pride in my little and highly unimportant blog to write some things that I do feel like sharing (although they're pretty trivial to everyone else except me anyway :P).
I guess I could start by writing about what I have been up to for the past 2 months....
In September, I made my final trip to Turkey and did some travelling in between my 3 weeks there.
I had my first overnight train experience from Istanbul to Denizli, which was REALLY fun, to visit Pamukkale. Pamukkale (or Cotton Castle) was amazing. Really worth the journey there...

Next, we went to Ephesus. An awful lot of Roman Ruins left and managed to visit whatever that's left of one of the 7 Ancient Wonders of the World i.e. the Temple of Artemis.
Pic taken in Ephesus...
...and the Great Temple of Artemis!

Hahahaha I bet most people were expecting something really amazing but hey, you can't really expect much from a temple built in 550BC AND having survived a fire just about 200 years after it was built! (Not much of a sight, but at least I can say that I've been there :P)

Ironically, I managed to catch my 2nd ancient Wonder of the World shortly after the first. Yes, the Great Pyramids of Giza.

Definitely a country for me to re-visit in future (possibility in January - evil laugh hehe..). Cairo really reminds me of a mish-mash of Turkey + Abu Dhabi + India. I can identify many similarities between the food and culture of Egypt with Turkey and easily associate the sandiness of Cairo with Abu Dhabi. The noisiness+haphazardness of the city definitely rivals that of Delhi. Other than the fact that you have to go out with the mindset that everyone is out there to con/cheat/ take advantage of you because you are a foreigner, Egypt is a wonderful and exciting place to be!

In between work and travel, I also finally met up with my MIA housemate, whom I haven't seen for the past 5 months (Glad to have you back, Fred! :D), attending Goo Goo Dolls in concert for the 2nd time this year (It was better than the first, I have to say :D :D) AND receiving 2 wedding invitations from my friends (ARGHHHH WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO!?!?! -_-"). On the last point, I am, of course, extremely happy for the happy couples and am really looking forward to meeting them in Kuala Lumpur soon ;-). Congrats to Mel & Jays and Gareth & Elaine!

Johny Rzeznik in action at Shepherd's Bush...

Other exciting things that took place recently involved bugging people around me to attend MORE rock concerts, which led to my crazy concert-ticket buying stints last week that probably contributed to yi fei's recent declaration of bankruptcy. Sob sob :'( ...(Okay, I have to admit that this isn't entirely true but oh well....). Although the concerts won't be happening until April 2007, I am nonetheless still looking forward to them...

Incubus + Lostprophets = One crazily happy gal! :D

Besides that, I have also been obsessed over so many new bands recently that I sort of lost count *sheepish grin*. Anyway, my most recent obsession is 30 seconds to mars....of which I NEVER knew JARED LETO was the lead singer of! :O (Oh yeah, he's my fav *american rocker dude* at the moment :P)

Nearly5am now. Time for a snooze....listening to 30stm, of course ;-)....

*Listening to From Yesterday by 30 seconds to mars*

Its hard to survive without broadband :S ...

I've just moved to my new place and the Homechoice dudes are supposed to install our box on the 20th. Really counting down the days. Okay okay, it's not all THAT bad since I have a datacard but it sure does limit the amount of things you can surf online. The lack of broadband connection explains my sudden dissappearance from blog-world. Of course, I was stuck in Turkey for about 3 weeks in September AND I was too preoccupied with other things in life after I came back. Hahahaha... I'll post more Turkey pics when I get my connection at home. Visited Pamukkale and Ephesus before I left Turkey for good :P No prizes for guessing where my next destination is:

Sphinx + Pyramids + Camels = Go figure!

During my hiatus from blog-world, I finished reading the Dark Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan. It's fantastic! Haven't read such addictive fantasy books in a while (mostly due to my stubborn loyalty to Dragonlance books). Yups, have decided to diversify and am looking to buy some new books soon ;-)
I've also recently developed a sudden addiction for several songs but at the moment I have this severe obsession with the album below. Btw, they're American but sound kinda Brit. Weird, eh?

For anyone who likes their song AND piano, click to this link! It's so good....http://youtube.com/watch?v=mqU1fEMo8l0

*Listening to When You Were Young by The Killers

How you remind me Vs Someday?!?!

Can bands nowadays get any more *original* than this?
For those familar with songs from the Canadian band Nickelback, click the link below:

http://www.thewebshite.net/nickelback.htm
You'd be amazed by how similar the 2 songs sound!

Same melody.
Same rhythm.
Same length of song.
Even the chorus starts at the same time!?!??!

I sometimes feel pretty dissappointed with popular bands (that are deemed *talented* , no less) unabashly reshuffling their OWN songs to produce similar catchy songs and making tons of money out of it :S. But regardless of how similar the songs are, people still listen to these recycled tunes and fans continue to show undying love for these bands no less...
(This is something I can relate to since I am a die-hard Goo Goo Dolls fan *wink*)
Conclusion: There's ALWAYS market for generic songs ;-) Afterall, isn't imitation the sincerest form of flattery? Hahaha..

Honestly, I have nothing against Nickelback in general. In fact, I have just become a Nickelback convert recently thanks to the one song that I can listen to whole day long...

*Listening to Far Away by Nickelback* <= Now, THIS is what I call music :-)

Getting older...

Sometimes it scares me on how quickly time flies...I am officially 24 now *ouch*. Can't believe I am hitting mid-20s soon. Gulp...shall not think about it until next year. Hahaha (am in denial mode, as usual :P)
Anyway I had a great time with my friends yesterday and I think I have never consumed so much alcohol in one night in my life. Yeah, I think I am gonna avoid drinking for the time being because I don't like the idea of not being in control ;-) But I had a great and fun time so it was all worthwhile. Thanks to everybody who came for dinner and drinks => Annie, JJ, Car, Siu Mun, Karen, El, Fwu Ching, Dot, CH => you guys are the best! :D
On a silly subject, I really wanted to strangle JJ just now. How could he say that the person on the left below (who is my *current* obsession) looks like the weirdo Zach from Desperate Housewives!??!?!???!?!?!!?? Can ANYONE spot any similarities!?!?!?!? *extremely annoyed*

*Listening to Call Me When You're Sober by Evanescence*

Nightmare is over :-)...

Its 2.41am and I've finally finished moving my stuff to the new place. Thankfully the process was less painful than I thought thanks to all my good friends who helped out. You all are the best => Car, Annie, JJ!!!!!
HOWEVER, being the internet freak that I am, I am still living in my old place (praying for the new internet to be set up before I move :P)...feels a bit empty though. Ah well....it did hold some nice memories i.e. Christmas party, late night drinking sessions, *seng ji* and bridge sessions... :D
Alright, I need to shower and sleep now...will ramble more soon ;-)

*Listening to Sleep Well Tonight by Fightstar* <= Hell, yeah!

Mission for the next 16 hours: Operasi Pindah Rumah

Isn't this the best way to start the weekend?
Btw for those who don't know Malay, the song title below will be a BIG hint ;-)

*Listening to Dare you to move by Switchfoot*

OMG I feel like pulling my hair out now!?!??!?!??!?!!?

WHY ON EARTH IS THE FIGHTSTAR CONCERT ON THE SAME DAY AS MY GOO GOO DOLLS CONCERT?!?!?!?!? ARGHHHHH.....
*Severely depressed*

Brand new obsession!!

Have discovered another UK band: Fightstar!
Also completely obsessed with the guy in the glasses (nope, not the blond dude :P)

*Listening to: Paint your target by Fightstar*

Sunday Bloody Sunday (ermm not really)

After 2 late nights (Thurs and Fri), I've decided to be good and stay home this weekend. (Of course, this is mainly fueled by this awful gumache I am having right now => I think my wisdom tooth is acting up now :S ) Just staying in, going to bookstores, catching up on sleep and basically bumming at home. I'll probably do more things next weekend (hopefully the aching would have stopped by then) since I reckon I'll be off to Turkey pretty soon (again).

Other than that, I've been thinking of when I can take my next holidays. My initial plan of going back at year end might not work out at this point of time given that:
1) Air ticket prices to KL OR Australia will be triple of what I pay usually (OK I know I might be exagerrating here but seriously the hike in price is enough to put a LARGE dent in my bank account)
2) Doubt I'll get to meet my brother since he's not planning on a trip home and I think he'll probably be MIA most of the time (Go figure, Kop, if you are reading this :P )
On the other hand, I do want to go back to:
1) See my friends since I've not seen them in ages and I did promise I'd be back at year end...
2) Weather here sucks and I want to escape from it -_-
3) Need to stock up my supply of Ipoh White Coffee :D
4) Possibly to get my wisdom tooth problem sorted as well :S
Darned, I really want to go back...we'll see...

Been watching some random animes lately but nothing new that has truly caught my attention. The one series that I look forward to every week is a really comical anime called "Ouran High School Host Club". Its fluff but definitely enough to make one laugh ;) (although I would not recommend to guys coz I think its pretty girlish haha..). The manga is good as well so I do recommend this series for anyone out there looking for fluff. LOL

Just purchased some books from Amazon and looking forward to receiving them next week. One about Chairman Mao by Jung Chang and a trilogy of books (Sci-fi fantasy, of course) by Trudi Canavan, an Australian writer. It's my first time reading her books and I am just hoping she'll be as good as Margaret Weis (although I seriously doubt it) so you can look forward to either a major trashing of the series on my blog soon or putting her on my list of "must-read" authors ;). Personally I hope for the latter because Margaret Weis takes TOO long to publish a book. (For those who have no clue what I am on about, Margaret Weis is the author of the highly acclaimed Dragonlance sagas)

Okie dokie, enough fluff for today. Think my parents will be calling soon...

*Listening to: Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2*

8-year obsession??

Of course my natural obsession is this ==========>
(Sorry dudes, don't mean to post so many random pics but I was just testing out on how to post pics. I DID warn you I was a blog-idiot. Gomen nasai....)

Random pic from Cappadocia trip...

This is a pic taken during my trip to Cappadocia (one of the side trips I made when I was stuck for 3 months in Ankara). Really beautiful place and highly recommended for anyone making a trip to Turkey ;-)

Monday blues?

I usually don't hate Mondays all that much. Under normal circumstances, I look forward to Mondays since it's a start of a new project/work. However, it has been getting pretty dull lately. I guess it's the summer months where everything in England slows down and honestly, the weather right now is down-right depressing. Gloomy and cold :S there goes my summer...

The weekend was really fun. Met and caught up with two of my A-level classmates. I guess you could call it a major gossip session since there were 3 girls there :P. Sometimes I am amazed how time flies but I am very glad that no matter how long we've not seen or spoken to each other, there has never been a moment of awkwardness between us. We sure do understand each other well...:D

Important news about my brother: He passed his first part of his specialist exams! Woohoo! Congrats Kop! :D Am super happy for you BUT I knew you could do it anyway. You see, my bro's the smart-a** in the house i.e. minimal work; maximum results whilst I've been the slogger. Always complained to my mom about how unfair it was but that's life isn't it? However, I have to admit that having an over-achieving sibling is a positive influence though. At least I was more motivated to work hard with him being my *target* ;-). Anyhow, Omedeto Gozaimasu, Onii-san! :D

Okie dokie, enough for now. Have to LLB now :P no choice. Sigh....

*Listening to: Be my Escape by Relient K*

Ramblings ramblings

Had an early start when I woke up to say good-bye to my good friend this morning. She's on her way to NYC right now (of this I'm sure, otherwise she would have been banging at my front door at 9am :P) With so much going on about airport security and bomb attacks, it just makes life so difficult for the normal civilian like us. Man, no more bringing laptops, ipods or books on flights :S ...that's really annoying. But I guess these precautions have to be taken no matter what. The question is whether are these measures short-term or long-term? IMHO, it's always a lost cause:
1) If its short term, the REAL bombers are definitely smart enough to avoid causing much ruckus seeing that the security is so tight right now
2) On the other hand, I don't know how long the tight security can be implemented before people start complaining about wasting time and resources. When that happens => Security slacks => Bombers attack again
It's tough, isn't it? You know you have to do something and yet, it probably won't mean much at the end of the day...
Conclusion: Since life is so unpredictable and inevitably short, just live everyday as it comes ;-)

On a less serious note, I don't know why I've started listening to non-American rock music lately! Woohoo, I call that an achievement! I mean, I've gone thru the whole brit-pop-rock era like 10 years ago (Yups, I used to be crazy over oasis, blur, suede, kula shaker etc etc) and after a while, I stopped listening to that sort of music and shifted towards American rock. Hahahah that was when my Goo Goo Dolls obsession started btw. Anyway, I've recently discovered some UK based bands that DO sound pretty American to me!! :D (Hahaha, to be specific, they're Welsh bands) I mean, before, Bush was probably the only other Brit band that I liked, but now there are Bullet for my Valentine and Lostprophets to feast the ears...

I was at the bookstore yesterday and saw one of the Dragonlance books I wanted! Its called "Dragons of the Dwarven Depths" BUT why did it have to be out on hardcover only!??! Sigh, its so frustrating that
1) I can't find new/much Dragonlance books in UK
2) when I DO find one, it has be to hardcover, which means I have to wait for a year before the paperback version is published. Darned...
On a happier note, another Dragonlance book that I've been waiting for will be out in November (on paperback, mind you :P) so I'll just have to wait for that in the mean time..

Think this should be enough ramblings for the day. In the mean time, let me improve my blogging skills...

*Listening to Animal I have become by 3 Days Grace*