A Cursed Gift?

Is it a gift or a curse?

A friend gave the URL for News of the World regarding a Maths genius who used to make headlines before (note: some people may find the photos a bit offensive). Sufiah Yusof, who won a place at Oxford University at the age of 13, is now a £130-an-hour HOOKER.

At first I thought it was just one of the e-mail junks that people spread around. How could a brilliant girl, I mean really BRILLIANT girl ended up like that? But then since the news about her is all over the newspapers, I guess it must be true.

This is a reminder to us all. Don't push the children over their limit. They might rebel and do something beyond our imagination. Touch wood.

I still feel so sad for her. I imagine what it would be like to be in her shoes. She must have felt so suffocated that anything is better than being under the watchful eyes of her too domineering father.

PRU12

I did not cast my vote last Saturday as I was not sure who to vote for in PRU12. As much as I wanted to show my support to the government by choosing the BN's candidate, a major part of me decided not to. So, at the end, I felt contented by just accompanying my husband to cast his vote in Subang Jaya.

Along the way to the polling station, we talked about the candidate that he was going to choose. To be honest, we didn't know who the candidates were. All we know was, we wanted some changes.

Little that we know, that was the sentiments of so many other Malaysians too.

Around 2-3am, Sunday, my husband woke me up to tell me that Datuk Seri Shahrizat Jalil and Dato' Seri Samy Vellu lost their seats. I quickly switched on the TV inside the room and for the next 2 hours or so, my eyes were glued on the TV.

Sunday Star sums the results of PRU12 as Political Tsunami.

The results of the recent election shows that the Rakyat are not very happy with the government. The Rakyat have spoken... very clearly. It's a wake up call to the leaders. It's up to them now to remedy the situation.

When I went to the office on Monday, I was informed by our Corporate Communication dept that the company had to stop the full page Congratulations Message to BN which was supposed to be out in major newspapers. Hmmm.. there goes RM58K... what a waste.

Love Is In The Air!

Come February the 14th, flowers, chocolates, gifts and words of love are exchanged between the loved ones all over the world in celebration of Valentine's day.

When I was in my teens, I really looked forward to this day as that is the time when I can send love poems to those whom I held dear to my heart and also those whom I secretly admired... and not forgetting the thrills of getting them too.

However, as I get older, I have somehow outgrown my infatuation towards St. Valentine and I feel that we don't need a person or a day to remind us to be nice to our loved ones. Love is something very precious and it should be celebrated everyday. Why wait for February 14th to show your love?

I once told my husband not to buy me roses on Valentine's day as I realize that the price charged is so unreasonable. How very unromantic of me.. considering that my star sign is Pisces. :)

Anyway, as I said before, we don't need February the 14th to show our love. Make it a point to say "I love you" to those people who mean so much to us as often as we can. Let them know that we care about them and we love them before it's too late. I learned my lesson well when my father passed away. I just hope that deep inside he knew how much I loved him even though I very seldom said it.


"I love you" , said on any day will always sound sweet.

A dazzling diamond bracelet, regardless whether given on Valentine's day, Mother's day or Birthday, is still a dazzling diamond bracelet and will always make a woman's heart melt. :)

As Mother Teresa said "Love: A fruit always in season."

Down The Memory Lane

I was on Yahoo Messenger with a friend this morning and chatting with her brings back a lot of memories.

This friend of mine is currently doing her PhD at West Virginia University, Morgantown, USA. Not many people know about Morgantown as it is just a small university town in the east coast. But those who follow The US college football will note of its existence as West Virginia University is in the top three of the national ranking (Go Mountaineers!!)

There is this song, sung by John Denver "Almost heaven, West Virginia - Blue ridge mountains Shenandoah river - Life is old there, older than the trees - Younger than the mountains growing like a breeze".

Couldn't agree more. I spent three great years there and trust me when I say that the scenery is so beautiful and splendid especially during fall/autumn... when the leaves change colors...gold and crimson. It's so picturesque. I remember spending hours at the Arboretum near the coliseum ... sometimes taking a walk down the paths, sometimes reading book while having my daily dose of mountain dew and snickers (hahaha.. my main diet at that time), or sometimes just lazing around, doing nothing.

I learned a lot there. Formally, I got my degree. but informally, I learned a lot about life and living. That is something that I will always treasure.

I remember falling in love for the first time there and I also remember having my heart broken for the first time there too. Even though it happened so long ago, but it is still very clear in my mind. I can still picture myself crying my heart out in my room while listening to Whitney Houston's All At Once.. over and over and over.

I also remember partying at the discos after the semesters ended. Our favorite was the one at the Holiday Inn. Can't remember the name though. The first time I went to the disco, I had to borrow somebody else's ID as those below 21 are considered as under aged. I remember the guy who checked my ID looked at me up and down a few times before letting me go in. Then only I realized that the height stated in the ID was 5 feet while I'm much taller than that. No wonder he was skeptical.

This morning my friend mentioned that it started snowing a couple of weeks back and last week the snow was about one feet high. That reminds me of a time when I was stucked in the snow while climbing up a hill to the PRT station (something like LRT). Instead of taking the stairs, I took the shortcut.. ignoring the fact that it snowed quite heavily the night before. Luckily there were 2 guys who were kind enough to pull me out (at that time I was not as heavy as I am now... hehehehe).

Then there was this incident, also happened during winter. I was on my way to class, around 8am and the road was icy and slippery. Instead of my wearing my normal winter boots, I wore my high heels and my suit that morning as I had presentation to do. I think you can guess what happened. Yup, I slipped and fell. It was so embarrassing. Luckily it was still early in the morning and nobody was around except for one lady. She asked me if I was alright and instead of answering her, I asked whether my hair looked okay. Duh, how vain I was...hahahaha.

Well, those were the days...when life was a lot less complicated than now. All I had to worry was how to look good, academically and physically.

Sometimes I miss morgantown and WVU. I just wish that one day I am able to go there again. It would really be nice to be able to visit those places that always have a special place in my heart.

Reunion Dinner

AWESOME!!!!! That is what I can say about the much awaited, recently held reunion dinner for MRSM Kuantan Alumni, best known as KUATAGH, last Saturday (5th Jan 2008).

Once again, our batch recorded the largest number of participants who turned up for the event. There were supposed to be 102 confirmed participants from our batch but on that night a few didn't manage to come and at the end the last count was 94. Not bad at all! 94 out of 600 are from our batch.

I arrived at Sime Darby Convention Centre around 6.30pm with my BFF (gosh! have not used this term for a long long time. Thanks for reminding me, Nini). Good for us as those who came late had to park outside the building.

Eventhough we have left MRSM for quite a while.. it has been yearsssssss ago (more like.. once upon a time...), one thing that never change is once we are among friends, we sort of like transported back to the old days. Screams of excitements can be heard from all corners of the ballroom, particularly ours. There were also a lot of huggings and kissings.

No words can describe the joy of seeing some of the old friends whom I have not met for over 20 years. Some remain more or less like before (much to my envy), some have changed physically (including me), and some look even better than what they used to be (hmmm... I definitely envy them the most!!!).

It was great to get together with friends again. We had fun talking and reminiscing about the old days. Had fun teasing each other about old flames. We even had fun catching some of us in action... :)

Those are the people whom I grew up with. Had been with them during my adolescence years.. we used to share not just foodstuffs and things.. but it goes beyond that. We shared our laughs, our sorrows and our dreams together.

The reunion did not stop there. Around 30 of us proceeded to a mamak restaurant in Taman Tun after that for teh tarik and roti canai... and of course for more laughters and catching ups, which lasted until 3am. It's amazing to see that as we mature, we appreciate friends, especially old friends, even more.

To all my friends.. you guys are GREAT! AWESOME!

Goodbye 2007 and Welcome 2008

2007 came and 2007 went, well almost... in about a few hours.

As 2007 draws to a close, and 2008 is knocking, at first I thought of writing about all the plans that I failed to achieve in 2007 in this final blog for the year. But then on second thought, I decided not to. What's the use of pondering over something negative when I have another year coming for me to do what have yet to be done.

Anyway, as for resolutions, I guess mine still remain basically the same. I'm still hoping against all odds that;

- I will be able to lose at least 10kg.
- I will discover a fountain of youth that makes me look younger each day.

Hahahaha...wishful thinking, NaNa.


Well, on a serious note, I would like to take this opportunity to wish everybody happy holidays and hope you have a great and prosperous new year. I wish that 2008 will be a better year for us all. May our blessings be too many to count and our worries too few to matter.

See you again in 2008. I'm off to Chorus Hotel for New Year's Eve Dinner and Dance. Ellix told us that she wants to go dancing (kids nowadays... she's not even 7 but behaves like she's 17). After calling around, we find that the Hotel caters for families and hopefully we are going to have lots of fun!

Is Ignorance Really a Bliss?

I am the type of person who is always curious to know more. Maybe it's my 'kaypoh' nature or just pure instict... but I always seem to find out about things. Sometimes I wish that I do not know certain things for I often heard people say that ignorance is bliss; what you don't know can't hurt you.

There is also a saying that goes something like this .. "the stupidest mistake in life is thinking the one who hurt you the most, won't hurt you again."

So, what am i getting at here?

Well, I have been feeling quite down these past couple of weeks... *sigh*.. (I know it's not good to sigh but still sometimes I just can't help it). I don't know whose fault it is and I don't want to play the blaming game because at the end I always believe that if you point a finger at somebody else, the other four will be pointing at you. So, it's better if I don't.

This time instead of dealing with the problem the way I used to, I decided to just ignore it. Hopefully it will go away...... that's what I keep telling myself.

Some people may say that I'm trying to avoid facing reality. Well.. maybe.. but at this point of time, I think that is what I can and able to handle.