I Spent My New Year's Eve With 80,000 Strangers

I had to work on New Year's Eve. But it wasn't so bad since I get to cover Genting!

(covered KLCC last year - definitely hate the crowd)

Each press member gets to have our own rooms at First World Hotel. Basic room with basic facilities, enough to get you through the night.

Not too bad ;)

Genting's NYE celebration is done in a grandiose way - as usual. While waiting for the fireworks to start at the strike of midnight we were brought to witness the launch of Glow In The Dark Bowling.

That's me bowling for the first time ever!

Even your shoes glow in the dark.

It's also amazing to note that a lunar eclipse happened last night. Read about the amazing phenomenon here.

Heavy fog veiled the skyline, hence clouding the fireworks. All you could see was random colours projected on the sky without much sparks that a firework usually has accompanied with the thunderous sound.

The moon, on the other hand, was just perfectly unaffected by the fog. It was shining so bright, it permeated the night.

Just as the 10-min firework made its finale, like a REALLY LOUD sound and supposedly REALLY BRIGHT fireworks, the fog finally lifted its veil over the sky.

No kidding man. I think it was a waste of thousands of ringgit for the blurry performance. Ah well, can't control Mother Nature, can we?





I've a lot that I want to achieve for 2010. Slowly making a list so that I won't forget. I realised it's important to visualise your goals in life, more often than not, it WILL materialise. For instance, I visualised a laptop and I got it (i.e. I wanted a Dell XPS but I got Toshiba Portege M800 instead).

Like they say, shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you'll be among the stars.

Paulo Coelho said, "When you want something, all the Universe conspires to help you." Coelho isn't the only one I know that says that. Deepak Chopra says the same mantra too.

So Happy 2010 everyone! May we all be well, healthy and happy this new year.

Don't forget to keep your resolutions, if you made any ;)

There Is Nothing Little About This Book

(currently watching I'm a Celebrity - Get Me Out of Here! on Starworld.)

I finished reading The Little Book.




And what a pleasant read it was!

The language is just wonderful. At first, it was a bit long-winded for me but once the landscape of Vienna 1897 unfolded before my eyes (eerrr, in the book la), I was hooked. The twist and turns of the tale of time travel engages me to stay on the book. I stole time by reading it during my train and bus rides and during court recesses (the coroner at Teoh Beng Hock inquest is ALWAYS late).

Recently purchased four new books under the company's yearly book allowance. Here's the catch getting books from the allowance scheme.

I can't buy:
1. dictionaries
2. books on journalism
3. encyclopedias
and the worst part of all..

4. FICTION (!!!)

O.o

Here's the haul.




I got P/S: I Love You as a birthday present. I heard the story is good but I've never read it or seen the movie. It's always better to read the book before watching the movie so I'm going to do just that.

The Pearl Of The Orient - PENANG!

I went on a much deserved holiday in Penang with high-school girlfriends. Prior to the trip, I covered the 59th Umno general assembly.

It was my first time being in the team to covering the annual assembly. It was an eye-opener and made my understand more about the political party as the Government of the country.

It was also very tiring, to say the rest. I guess being the youngest with the least experience, I was determined to prove my worth as a journalist but at the same time I kept second-guessing myself during the assignment.

The cumulation of stress and exhaustion made me fell sick.

Thank heavens for the Penang trip! Just what I needed to recuperate :D

This is the first time my girlfriends and I trying the very popular fish spa. It was ticklish but fun! I would definitely 'feed' my dead skin cells to the fishes again ;)

Taking a breather while pretending not to see the camera.

The bird let out a very lovely chirping sound.

This is Julia, my friend who is currently doing her masters degree in USM. Go girl!

The very long night market at Batu Feringghi. I couldn't decide on what to buy!

Glorious Penang food. I gained 2.5kg over two days. Not kidding. You can see me pinching into my meal already at the back :P

Going home :(

It was my first trip outside KL without my family. I had a great time with them. And it did help me forget about stress. Wish we had more time to explore the island and eat more food.

I will be back, Penang!

I Know Tonight Will Be A Lonely Night For Me...

... as throngs of his fans will be at the concert and I'm stuck doing night shift covering a Tourism Ministry event at Jalan Bukit Bintang.



I am listening to I'm Yours, like, non-stop. I'm not even a big fan actually. But I like his music. I like I'm Yours and You and I Both.

:(

If only my friend had said 'yes' when I asked to go to the concert. Just because he couldn't make it to Mogwai, he straightaway wants to 'boycott' all concerts this year! Ugh.

I hope it rains tonight.

I hope the concert is lame.

I am actually jealous of other people who get to go. Ceh.

Your fault for not coming to my show, missy!

The Guy Who Went To Space And Back

My colleague was initially assigned to interview a certain chef who co-owns a restaurant with an astronaut. She was dumbfounded because why on earth would you want to publish an interview with a chef for the main paper (unless he did something really historic!) and she didn't know what to ask him.

So I volunteered to follow because I like cooking and food and I thought maybe I could throw in one or two questions. It turned out that it wasn't the chef that she was supposed to interview. It was the other owner - THE ANGKASAWAN!

I've seen him before at functions and events but not as up, close and personal as this.

Teh tarik sedap!

I just observed the interview and threw in a few questions along the way but I wasn't busy jotting down notes because it wasn't my story to begin with.

Someone from our online Malay portal, who also took part in the interview, asked the astronaut a very simple question..

'When is your next birthday?'

'July... 27th... *nods his head rythmically* I'm a Leo.. grrr *winks*'

He winked. At me!!

I lost my balance on the seat at that time but I manage to act ladylike about it.

In the car, when I ask my colleagues, both said they did not see him winking.

'Oi woman, I was busy jotting down notes from the interview where got time to see him wink or not!'

Well, he did make that GRRR sound (because Leo is lion mah!) and he did wink! ;)

That really made my day!

Happy New Year!

(photo sourced from the Internet)

Here it is, 2009...

For the first time, I celebrated the New Year's Eve last night with thousands revellers in KLCC.

And I was alone - because I was separated from the photographer XD

I have never been out on New Year's Eve, simply because it is the worst time to be in the city with Mat Rempits going out to play and the congestion but this time I was there to cover the countdown.

Anyways...

I don't know how far I can go with resolutions but hey! better to have goals than none right?

My resolutions this year would be:

1. To save, save, save and save for a house and a car.

2. Be a better person.

3. Be more organised.

4. Lose 5kgs.

5. Visit the orthodontist.

6. Have a healthier lifestyle - must start jogging again, eat healthy food.

7. Read more books.

What's YOUR new year's resolution? ;)