2009... 2010

This is the time whereby I blog about 2009 and the fact that 2010 aka the New Year is coming. How we should forget the old and welcome the new. Hmm. We'll see...

To be honest, this year has been awesome! So many things, good and/or bad has happened and the best part was, I've never imagined the year would turn out the way it already had. With less than 3 hours left of 2009, it can't be possible to count my blessings and thank God for all the wonderful things He had done for me. He IS the Big Daddy and He knows what's best for me. Here comes Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Activity was low in the months of January and February except when Chinese New Year drew closer and finally came. I pretty much spent those two months hibernating at home, close to rotting in my room.

Then came March and National Service (NS). I dreaded it in the first place, like most or half of the people who got randomly selected to participate in this program. I'm glad to be able to be a part of it. Kem Putra Sentosa (KPS) K2 S6/2009. Charlie Company... CHAMPIONS babeh! One of the highlights and proud moments of my life. Not only did I make new friends, shared ups and downs of semi-military camp life, beared dramatic situations, learned new things and hung out with people from different backgrounds, NS has also introduced me to a new way of life that I would never have experienced if not for NS itself. After many many weeks of living together in a 20-bed dorm with other girls (for me), sharing a common bathroom area with 40 other girls in which we'd have to tolerate with one another so not to take long showers and so on, waking up (very early) in the morning and making sure our bed kits, shoes, bags are neat and properly placed. They've got their own standards there and there are specific ways to do things. *marching boots in the middle, then class shoes on the sides, and then sport shoes. Footwear from home goes behind, left. Blankets should be folded THIS way. Pillow cover should face your locker. etc.* I'm grateful to have met the teachers and friends at NS and to share the experience. Although it felt like a Malaysian version of a summer camp... KHIDMAT NEGARA!

Returned home from NS in early June. Went to Palmerston North on 3rd July 2009 to further my studies. A whole new way of life as a student. The teachers have their techniques and so on. It was fun. A Chinese international, an Egyptian girl and myself were the 'good' students. We always attend class :) Made new friends, bonded with bro, learned more about God. Okay, so yeah I didn't get the scholarship but God has given me so much for the months that I've been in New Zealand it's almost like a dream. Again, a new way of life. Culturally different, from food to road rules (and road courtesy!) and of course, slang.

God has taken me to many places in 2009 and if I could relived the year, I would. I am here because of Him. Thank You :) Hug? *hug* YAY :)

Happy New Year!


xoxovon
Thankful and blessed :)

Be Right Back

xoxovon
I'm coming home!

Less

The World of Less & Less
Today?.
Our communication - Wireless
Our phones - Cordless
Our cooking - Flameless
Our food - Fatless
Our desserts - Sugarless
Our labor - Effortless
Our relations - Fruitless
Our attitude - Careless
Our feelings - Heartless
Our politicians - Shameless
Our government - Useless
Our education - Worthless
Our mistakes - Countless
Our arguments - Baseless
Our youth - Jobless
Our ladies - Topless
Our boss - Brainless
Our jobs - Thankless
Our needs - Endless
Our situation - Hopeless
Our salaries - Less and less

From an email. Interesting.

xoxovon

The end is nigh.

Last day of November. I often remind myself how TIME FLIES.

30 days till I leave for home. I've got a lot of learning to do.

I wanna pick flowers :)




xoxovon
It's not crazy being optimistic.

from nowhere to now here.

I got sick of Bejewelled after playing it for .. quite sometime tonight. I moved up my scoreboard from 11th to 4th but the difference between my score and #3 is like 200K? haha.




Ahhh, click to enlarge.

Played badminton today. I'm happy :)


xoxovon
Sigh.

Satmyday

I'm quite tired today. It could be because I only had about 5 hours of sleep. I didn't sleep well, my feet were cold so I got up just to put on my socks (the NS socks for spike boots!). Then, woke up at 8 something because I was going to go do some grocery shopping with a friend. Now, that's EARLY for me since I've been sleeping in and waking up really late the whole week. I feel so bad for waking up so late, I wasted daytime :( Lets hope that'll change for this coming week. Hehe.

Grocery shopping was fun. I haven't been out for that much or that long for the whole week! Yvonne is happy, yay. Went for badminton this afternoon as well, but all of what was burned has gone to waste because of dinner! Man, it's always like that. Exercise, burn and then eat eat eat the carbs back. Haha. Had a potluck (extended edition of OCF) dinner. Yummy food! Yummm. I cooked a vege dish and it looked good *ngaiti, self-praise*. Somehow I feel like I should cook for the family when I get back. But my menu hasn't expanded. Hehe.

Palmy's been good, I'm currently in 'must-save-money-and-try-to-spend-less-especially-on-unnecessary-comfort-food' mode. Sighs. I hope that I can work back about half a thousand dollars. Well, that is from my calculation, from my knowledge of what the average wage per hour is. Hmmm. A little less conversation, a little more action please. :)

1st NOV is Belle's birthday... so if you see this, HAPPY BIRTHDAY :) *throws confetti*

Gotta get some sleep. It's Sunday.



xoxovon
Faith grows.

I miss waiting for the bus early in the morning in the cold. That is, when I've had enough sleep :)

Career choice

I had a moment just now, just thinking of what degree to take up once I finish my Foundation Studies.

I kinda narrowed things down to Biotech, Food Tech and Med Lab Science. All of that, here at Massey, Palmy. But I was reminded that I'm not limited to doing my tertiary studies in this 'Student City' as I can venture elsewhere and study at other universities as well. When that thought crossed my mind, a rush of feelings went through me. Honestly, I'll be really sad to leave this place, if I had to. NS has shown me that (approx.) 3 months is good enough for me to get to know people and build relationships. I think the same thing has sort of occurred to me here in Palmy.

I cannot imagine having to leave this place at this moment of time. I should surrender myself and my worries about my future to God. He knows and has a plan for me, which as human, I'm constantly searching for.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Jeremiah 29:11

I love this verse.

Random picture: My bible study group ♥. Ooh, I look good in there. Haha.

Anyway, back to career choice. At times I think to myself, "I should have just applied for medicine for JPA." But as some of you may have known, I applied for Pharmacy and I didn't get the scholarship. I'm not saying I'd get the scholarship if I applied for Medicine in the first place. Just a question. What was stopping me then? It was just me, me, me. I didn't want to spend years and years studying. That's why I scrapped out medicine from my list, because it takes a long time and probably the whole of my 20s!

I have at least 6 months to think about this issue: What degree?
It's a pretty difficult and critical decision to make. Hmm. I should be grateful to have time to think about it. Hmm hmm.

At the end of the day, the thing that makes my heart smile (Yes, my heart smiles) even though my day hasn't been going as well as I've wanted it to be, is to know that my Father is the room and He's there for me. I've always tried to picture myself giving Him a really big hug and taking a walk with Him, hand-in-hand. Oh, so nice :) *my heart is smiling*

Sidenote: 26th October is Labour Day. I think it's every 4th Monday of October. That makes 2 Labour Days for me in 2009. It's said that ALL stores will be closed.

'till next time. Cheers :)


xoxovon
I'm looking for a part-time job.

Some things I did here in NZ

... but not when I'm back home in Malaysia. These are all quite recent, or maybe not so but still...
Anyway, all of them happened here in NZ.

Are you ready? Seriously, are you? ... Enjoy :)

Threw a 'steamboat' surprise birthday dinner for a dear friend of mine. We had so so much food that night, was seriously bloated. Over-bloated, if there's such a thing! Yummy *slurp*

"Come on, cow. Stand still, don't move away so I can take your picture." That's exactly what I said to the cow and it didn't move away! Yeah, I talked to a cow. :) I think cows look very blur. Haha. This photo is my current cellphone wallpaper.

I also took some really pretty pictures with my cellphone, like this one. The sky, at about 730pm, spring time from the backyard. Ah, the beauty of nature, God's creation.

This one too. Blossomed cherry blossoms (Sakura) at Massey University. This photo was my cellphone wallpaper, and will be again somewhere in the near future.. hehe.

Say 'Hello' to Kai, the mouse. He's my brother's pet. Yeah, it's a 'he'. Kai Kai's so cute. He's not like any other ordinary (yucky) mouse. He's special, that's why I talk to him too ;)
Don't worry, we don't just let him run around loose. He has his own 'space ship'-like house.

Went snowboarding for the first time with a great bunch of people, got an ADULT ticket when I could have gotten a YOUTH one. Mistake, mistake. Also, fell on my bum a billion times and had a sore bum for days. It was an awesome experience though. Now, I can cross 'snowboarding' off my list and wait for bungee-jumping. :)

Celebrated my 18th birthday early in the morning (The day after snowboarding)! I was just brushing my teeth when they brought the cake+candles out, hence the look on my face. Thanks so much to you people! :)

Lied (and posed) on the road where I believe cars have gone over and cattle too. Only in New Zealand.

Went to a friend's house close to midnight to give him a birthday surprise (in my pajamas). And I didn't have a seat belt on that night. How risky. Yikes.

9 photos so far...








... and I'm not even close to getting done yet!! Bet you didn't see THAT coming.

Jumped many many times for photos like this at the Wind Farm. Coolness. Credits to couz Kelvin for the photo :)

Never been so happy to eat chiffon/pandan cake. Back in Kuching, you can get it at Mita cake house anytime but sadly, not here :/ Glad to have couz Kel over that weekend. This cake experience was during a Merdeka Day potluck dinner. I even 'ta pao-ed' some of the chiffon cake.

This was taken when I took a short class trip to Japan. NOT. haha.
I got to see pretty flowers blooming, like this Cherry Blossom tree at the Victoria Esplanade. Reminds me of some Asian drama or something.

PPA overload!! This is only ONE evidence of a PPA overload, okay. That's me doing the 'baby unicorn' and Olivia doing the ... scissors pose. =P

If you were wondering why I was dressed as such in the photo before, how about this one! This is Quiz Night@Grace City Church (the church I go to) and the theme was 'Time And Time Again'. We had to dress up as a group from any 20th century decade and somehow my group came as 'school boys & girls' with high socks, shorts and collar-T under sweater. I looked like a soccer player though. Haha. Those in leather jackets and shades are from the '80s I suppose.
It was a great night! I really enjoyed it. It was a competitive night, filled with loads of laughter and some really random (but hard) questions!
"How many squares are there on a roll of (brand name) toilet paper?" LOL

I made dessert! I was never really confident about my cooking/baking but this time it came out all good! There's my apple crumble, bottom right corner of photo (with a white spoon in it). Umm yummy. I have to make some when I get home because I told my mom I would :)

Done! ... Almost.

Put together some white and black clothes to look like a panda for OCF's AGM. My group dressed up as pandas 0.0 and we were all very the cute! Haha. The theme was 'Animals'. Other groups were pigs, wolves and there was a bee too! I actually bought that white shirt for $3.50 at the Salvation Army. It was an interesting story, how I got that shirt. Again, what a night! :)

Last but not least, Yvonne and alpacas! Ah, they're so cute. This was at the Sakura Festival@IPC. They remind me of The Emperor's New Groove. The llama. haha.

Okay. That was the last one, no joke.

WAHHHHH this post is overloaded with photos X.x Someone must be happy.
That's a sneak peak of some things I did here in NZ. I'm in Palmerston North. I know, when NZ pops out, you think kiwi bird and Auckland.

Gotta catch the bus to church tomorrow so I'd better get ready for bed. Cheers and have a goodnight.



xoxovon
The Lord has promised good to me
His words my hope secures
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures

Micro update

Just popping by here to give a little update so that my blog doesn't look so dead or lifeless. Plus, there will be photo(s) this time! :D

The week has gone by fast. Blink, blink; sleep, wake up, eat, shower, class, eat, sleep; rinse and repeat; it's already Thursday and tomorrow's Friday. I have two tests tomorrow which I'm kinda excited about because one is vocabulary and the other is a lecture test. The kiasu that I'm sort of, I'm gonna do my best and obtain top marks if possible.

Besides that, tomorrow is gonna be a historical day as OCF moves in to the new chaplaincy building! Now it's called 'the Centre' aka Waiora. The place is super fine as, bro. It's got much more room than the old one, obviously. Excited :) It's gonna be my... 3rd home? hehe.

Here's how it looks like. The picture is taken from the main bus stop at uni, while I was waiting for my ride.





The following photo is taken at 7.32pm from where I'm staying. Spring is not getting any warmer than winter at all. It's been cold and it even snowed. In spring! Twice! Not in Palmy though but in other parts of North Island. Enjoy the view. :)




A picture says a thousand words.


xoxovon
Goodnight.

Air Mail

I have yet to dedicate a post to the slimmest and trimmest Hippo in the whole wide world. She's none other than Ms Eunice Lau Hee Poh. Haha. Don't worry, that's not her full name.

Anyway, this post is uber late. I just transferred these photos from my (awesome) phone.

I had my 18th birthday away from home and I celebrated with people whom I've known not for long. I've only known them since I came here. Everyone except my own biological brother, of course. However, they made it feel like home away from home. :)

A few weeks after my birthday, I came back from class and I saw a package with Malaysian stamps and my name on it. I wondered from whom that could be? Hmm.



Thank you so much, Neece. You're so pretty! I mean, NICE. :)

There's one sticker which says "SECURITY CHECKED" and that shocked me. Then, I checked the date, it was dated 2007. -.-"

I haven't seen my 'Will' for a while now. No wonder I'm gaining weight. Haha. Oh. By the way, I've been wearing 'em slippers aka flip-flops. But we call 'em jandals here. Sounds so much cooler than Se-lee-per. haha.



After I opened the package that afternoon, a lightbulb appeared above my head and it gave me an idea. Why not have Maggi for lunch? :D

And TADAAH! My first Maggi ever since I came to NZ. KARI yoh!! There's Maggi here, it's just that I didn't bother buying them. Hehe. Imported leh. Neh, Neece can be my importer. Haha.

What's Maggi without an egg? :)

I've saved the other two instant noodles for a rainy day. The 'Banana Peel' jandals aren't slippery at all. (Lame joke attempt).

Thanks to you who wished me by means of technology too, e.g. text message, Facebook...

I've decided to go to bed early tonight and not linger in cyberspace until the wee hours of Sunday morning. Besides, some research shows that getting fat is related to sleeping late. Yikes.


xoxovon
MUMSA Raya open house is tomorrow. I've been picturing Rendang in my head. *drools*

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM :)
I'll bake what I baked when I get home. <3

Questionable thought(s)

I tend to say silly things in which I don't think before I say something. In other words, we call it 'talking outta yer ass, bro'. Haha. And I regret it. I remind myself not to talk too much because whatever I say may be nonsensical and at times my words might hurt others' feelings without realizing it myself. Sounds foolish, aye?

Anyway, it's October already! Man, does time fly or what. 3rd October is the Mid-Autumn Festival aka Mooncake aka Lantern Festival. However, it's sort of 'Mid-Spring' Festival in the hemisphere I am in. Haha. It's also my dear Mommy's birthday. :) I hope lil' bro and dad are doing something for her. I like to think that I have more of her genes because I have pretty good teeth :D and her hair doesn't go grey/white yet! There are some though.

I have a few questions to ponder on as this week comes to an end and a new week awaits next week :)

1. What do I need?

2. What am I doing with my life?

I just watched Fireproof and it's actually a pretty good movie. Even better, if you're married. Well, even if you're not married, you can still enjoy it and pick up lessons from the movie. One particular line in the movie struck me like BAM, that's it. It goes something like this: "How can I show love for somebody over and over again when he/she constantly rejects me?" If I was the one rejected in such a way, I'd feel tremendously awful. Extremely terrible. It'd be as if someone stuck their hand into my chest, breaking the ribs and making their way through the intercostal muscles, grabbed my heart and ripping it out of its place. Then, slammed it against the wall and letting it drop to the ground. After that, stomping on it with their feet, shattering the heart to pieces subsequently making the organ that symbolises love, unrecognizable to the human eye. Sounds like a bad exaggeration attempt. Ngaiti lor. How do you think He would feel? And after all the bad things that we've done, He still loves us for who we are. God hates the sin, loves everyone. Although He hates the sin but still loves us, it doesn't mean that we should/can go on doing things that please us and are against Him.

That's just a thought. Sighs, I need sleep now. NZ is currently 5 hours ahead of Malaysia, making it harder for me to catch friends online at the right time.

Remember to be thankful for every day that you get to live and see your family and friends. Do keep in mind those who are having troubled times. Try to be there for them, I know it's not easy. It's always easier said than done. Pray for them if you can. (eg. those affected by the earthquakes).


xoxovon
I thank God for surrounding me with awesome people. :)

Daylight Saving

From 27th September 2009 onwards, New Zealand will be 5 hours ahead of Malaysia. Which means we, here, are going to set our clocks one hour forward. That's one hour less of sleep for us and one hour less to get ready for church. Haha.

According to sources, it starts at 2am on the 4th Sunday of September. I don't know why 2am, I haven't researched on that.

Although it's 12am now, I would like to think that it's already 1am. It's the same anyway, I don't have to wait till 2am to set my clock. I mean, I'll have to wake up an hour earlier than what I used to wake up but it's still the 'same time'. If I usually wake up at 8am on Sundays, then I'll have to wake up at 7am, last week's time, but it's going to be 8am.

:D

I'm having a cold now. At one point I was sure that I was going to have blisters or the skin under my nose peeled due to over-blowing. Fortunately, that has not happened yet. Toilet paper was my best friend today (Sorry, people). It is not fun at all especially when mucous builds up in my nasal cavity. Although the mucous is meant to protect me, it can get annoying as my respiratory passage way gets blocked and I'd have to breathe through my mouth. Hence, my mouth would be open all the time which sort of makes me look like a retard. Ooh, harsh.

I just searched on paracetamol and mucous. I'm going to read on those sometime soon because they sound interesting. It's Biology (and Chemistry)! I love human biology, learning about the human body, how it works and the functions of this and that. There are many long and hard names though, I have to admit. Sacrum and coccyx, who can ever forget those two.

I now have one hour less to sleep.


xoxovon
I sat by the piano and figure out Beautiful Saviour in under 30 minutes or so.
Joy :)

Gratitude

What position am I in to complain when compared to those who are less fortunate than I am?

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately, mainly thoughts about life. I start telling myself to complain less and as humans, we tend to complain about things (a lot of things). Even the smallest of the smallest issue such as the (stupid) machine that does not want to work when you want it to work (because you cannot operate it). What an analogy, I know. Anyway, you get my point.

I've been facing quite a number of problems lately, most of them are related to my studies. I think it's safe to say that ALL of them are related to my education. I planned to do Summer School so that I could start 1st Year in Feb 2010 but it doesn't seem likely now. So I have to opt for the Feb-July Foundation Semester and this will allow me to start 1st Year in July 2010 instead. However, more problems emerged as time goes by. Whether it's the paper not being offered, the entrance requirements, the time or just me worrying too much. This is where I let out a big sigh.

Today, someone told me that it might take me more than a year to do 1st Year. I almost cried. Seriously. In my head, I went "WHAT?!". I've told myself (and some other people) that I didn't want to grow old studying, that I want to finish university quickly. Then, at a friend's birthday dinner: "No matter how old you are, you'll still be learning...". That's so true. And some say that when the time comes, you won't even realise it. 3 years will go by just like that. For instance, my brother is already doing his final year. I've been in NZ for almost 3 months and it sure doesn't feel like it although I miss things back home.

Then comes the big question: Shouldn't I be grateful that I am able to have education, from kindergarten all the way to where I am now? Yes, I am thankful for that. Hallelujah. :) Hence, I shall not complain, rather, I should find ways to overcome my current problems. So what if it takes me longer? (Actually, I do care because time is precious and more years means more money spent) I've got the opportunity to attend Uni. I'm blessed. :)

I believe that every time we're faced with challenges, those trials somewhat prepare us for something much bigger in the time to come.

It has been raining all day long and the winds aren't of any help at all. A combination of those two makes the day wet, cold and depressing. Thus, you can tell how my mood has been today. Despite all that, I do try to cheer myself up. Positive thinking helps :) There's always hope and God is hope for the hopeless! Father to the fatherless, Love to the loveless!

Here's a picture of the Sun's ray shining through the Earth's atmosphere, reaching the ground and me. Lighting up the wide and open sky, warming up a cold day of September Spring in Palmerston North. How I long for another day like that after a rainy week. :)

I feel happy when the Sun shines.
Warmth... :)

I'll continue about Gratitude another time. It's getting late.
Just keep in mind to be thankful for every second, minute, hour, day and year of life.
It's life, shit happens. Get up, wipe that dust off and move on. :) And.. things are of course easier said than done. Hehe.
Have a goodnight.

Feeling better and blessed.

xoxovon
Looking forward to OCF AGM. Although I haven't fully recovered from my sickness, I'm not gonna let that stop me from having fun with my brothers and sisters. =D

Spring Raya

I haven't blogged in 2 weeks. That's just intolerable! haha. This goes to show just how 'busy' I've been. By the way, it's SPRING! Winter's over! It's still cold though. Ahh, NZ.

Oh well. As usual, many things or events had occurred during my time here in The Land of the Long White Clouds, New Zealand. Last Saturday, I went to my friend's trial class for Body Combat. It was fun, man! Great workout. 10 tracks, more than an hour of jabbing, punching, elbows, knees, kicks, etc. Moreover, it was free :D I'm not a gym member yet so I can't go to the classes and use the gym anytime I want to. I can only use the courts for badminton and so on..

Raya's coming very very soon aye? I kid you not, I miss Raya cakes and cookies :/ ...but I've already put on weight so I can just forget about them. haha. Otherwise I'll have to purchase to seats on the plane when I fly back :P Last year's Raya is still fresh in my mind. I miss home.

I'm also trying to learn more about God. Slowly, taking small steps everytime and each step that I take will push me forward, into the right direction of course, hopefully. Today's study was about Wisdom and we discussed how wisdom and knowledge are two different things which at often times, we assume it's somehow similar to each other; that both touch on learning. Well, knowledge is basically something that we can obtain by reading, it's simply 'head knowledge'. We can memorise it, use it to answer questions but not know how to apply it in life whereas wisdom is acquired from an external source, e.g. God, experience. Wisdom is seen as something much greater than knowledge, to me. Ahh, I still need time to disect and digest this topic and with wisdom, I shall be able to understand it better :)

Neece sent me something. So sweeeeeeeeeet she caused my diabetes and obesity. Don't know to be happy or sad here. haha. I love my Will. Ngaiti, that totally 'washed my eyes clean clean clear clear' man. LMAO ah. I'm wearing the jandals now (yeah, in the house on carpeted floor), trying to make them stretch, flexible and bigger. :D Thank you so much *hearts*

I'm not posting up any pictures now due to inconvenience of Bluetooth-ing 'em photos from my lovely phone (and laziness). I've got new photos up on my Facebook though. Go check them out. Patience, good stuff takes time to be produced. My camera battery is being charged now because there's Sakura Festival on Saturday and I hope I can snap photos to share with you guys and because I feel like giving my phone a break from taking photos.

Till next time, cheers :)


xoxovon
Emmanuel's gonna fly next week. Jia you!

Mid-sem break

I just talked to my mom for almost an hour. It was fun. Mother-daughter conversation session, I haven't had that in a while.

My mid-sem break is almost over. I'll have to go back to class on Monday. It's a =( for everyone for sure. But I should feel grateful and I thank God for everything that has happened, for that I am alive to experience new things in my life, for the awesome people around me, for that I'm able to be 18 and for just about everything. Our God is an awesome God :)

I had 2 weeks of break and now there's only 2 days left. Time flies when you're having fun.. so they say. I went snowboarding during the first week and that was something I really looked forward to although I was a bit scared, I have to admit, after hearing news about skiers dying on the mountains due to avalanches and so on. I went with 15 other people, including my brother. A convoy of 4 cars making their way to Mt Ruapehu and I was riding shotgun.

It was August 25th, the weather looked fine in the morning but it started to look more cloudy once we reached higher altitudes. Then, it drizzled. =( You won't have fun if you limit your budget so tightly, so I put $200 in my card for this trip. Haha. It was that darn adult ticket that cost me extra when I could have bought the youth ticket. Maybe I was just too excited. The snowboarding lesson went on for more than an hour I think, so it was worth it. We snowboarded the whole afternoon.

Yvonne sitting on her bum...after she fell.

Falling on ice is not that bad compared to falling on cement ground.

We stayed overnight at someone's house and the next day was my 18th birthday. I didn't expect a big celebration but my friends surprised me that morning. How did you guys hide the cakes? haha. Thanks, people! When I woke up, I checked my phone and there were a few text messages. Thank you :) Someone sent twice, wah. <3.>

Aviator shades are not for me :/
Beatrice & I in shades that don't belong to us. We're both 18 now, at least until October comes.

On the way back, we stopped by at the Raukawa Falls lookout to look at what else if not the waterfall itself. It's a small one though. Ah, nature is pretty :)

Raukawa Falls

No one warned us about the upcoming road block. It was out of the blue!

A herd of sheep!! My bro said they were moving to another paddock, which was just across the road. So that was a free sheep show for us all. haha.

Sheep ass. Run, sheep, run!!!

Sheep on the run!

My housemate made me kuih salat in a shape of a cake.

With housemates. Thank you :)

After dinner, I went to my friend's place to hang out. Their place is pretty :) I can't really recall what I did for the next few days except... potluck, church, eat-out and Amy's birthday on Merdeka day. We went to Himatangi beach.. in the middle of the night, kinda. It was fun though. I don't know when I'll ever get to do that again. Only in NZ! haha.

Made a trip up to Hamilton on Wednesday, came back last night. NZ is such a great place to have a road trip. There's always somewhere to go or some place to stop, just to look around and take pictures. It took us 7 hours (according to my timer) to get from Palmy to Hamilton and this includes toilet breaks, stops and other random stuff. Oh ya, stopped by Puzzlng World after Taupo.

The weather was amazing and beautiful that day! The sky was clear and sunny.. indescribable! God's wonder. I just wanted to stand under the sky and do nothing..but I was in sitting in the car.

Place your fingers on the screen, you can almost touch the snowy mountain.
The view of Mt Ruapehu from the car. So clear and beautiful! What a good day to go snowboarding but unfortunately, we couldn't fit it into our schedule :(

Stopped by McDonald's in Taupo for toilet break and had $2 Deluxe Cheeseburger.

Does the next picture look familiar? hmmm.

Me, Amy: 2nd Sept.


YY & Sabrina: June/July

haha. Nooo! Wrong timing=different shadows. And also slight difference of standing position =P

In the plane, having our burgers.

Hamilton!!

Lake Rotoroa, Hamilton at sunset

Then we went to Hamilton Gardens. It was cool bro. I wished we could have spent more time in Hamilton.

Celebrating my bro's 21st. Dinner was good, yummy food! :)

On the way back, we witnessed snowfall! It was snowing along Desert Road! I put my hand out of the window to feel and play with the snow. I even stuck my tongue out of the window a bit. haha.

Snowy Desert Road.

Happy 21st Birthday, bro. :)

I hope I can use the remaining non-schooling days wisely. It's gonna be a long 6 weeks till semester comes to an end. WWJD?


xoxovon
I need to work out.

I am alive

It's been a really long while since my last post and many things had happened since then. I just didn't bother to find time to blog. Oopsie =P Lets see.. I'm having my 2 weeks of sem break now and there's one more week left (Nooooo), I haven't touched my school work =(

In the last couple of weeks...

-stayed up till 3am to finish up presentation slides and obtained 16/20 for the presentation. That was close..
-stayed up till late to finish up essay plan and managed to hand it in on time (did printing in comp lab in the morning before deadline)
-baked muffins and brownies (I only started baking in NZ, cool as. haha)
-went snowboarding a day before I turned 18! Oh, I turned 18. Sweet as =P

Went to Whakapapa ski field at Mt Ruapehu on Tuesday and snowboarded the whole afternoon. It was drizzling, not snowing :( It was awesome although I fell countless times. I put my phone and wallet in the so-called waterproof jacket but they got wet. Well, the pants and jacket ARE waterproof, it's just that I fell so many times maybe ice got into my clothes and made them all wet. Anyway, my phone was alright. I was all wet after snowboarding and ended up with sore arms, thighs and bum. But it was so much fun! I wanna do it again.. and I'll get the YOUTH ticket next time! What a waste of money, bought the adult one the other day. Tsk.

Played Cranium that night. Club Cranium was interesting. Haha. The next morning, friends celebrated my birthday. How sweet of them :) The candles were funny because they rekindled for a few times even after I blew them out. Imagine blowing out 18 candles over and over again. Haha..

A few weeks before that, I went to Camp Chica aka Girls' Camp. I had a great time and yeah, 2 days, 1 night is definitely not enough but we had to settle with that cos' we're all busy students :)

So far, I've been away thrice.
Wellington- with OCF for Cultural Marketplace
Woodville- OCF+MUCF Camp Chica!
Whakapapa, Mt Ruapehu+Raetihi- snowboarding (Imagine accomodating 16 uni students in a 2-bedroom, one-storey house. The wonder of sleeping bags..just crash anywhere and snooze)

Wind turbine@wind farm

Yeah, life is pretty good here :) Would be better if I won the Lotto jackpot prize. Haha.. Nah, money is only temporary happiness, not eternal. Having a relationship with God is so much better. I've learned more about Him since I got here. I can say it's because of the people who are surrounding me, they're such good companions, my brothers and sisters. I also have the desire to learn and know more. It's like this thirst I have.. haha.

No OCF during mid-sem break, kinda missing it now :/ Tomorrow's Sunday, meaning church and after-church lunch I suppose, like the usual. And then Monday, and then... I'll try to get more pictures up on the blog. There are pictures on Facebook :)

Neece, come online. We have YET to webcam.

Till next time, cheers.

xoxovon
Grace is God at work :)

Webcam-ing afternooon

NS experience ...

TKL & Cikgu John showing me the food tray, making me nostalgic ... and smile like crazy.

... priceless. =)


xoxovon
More to come :)

Happy Birthday Eunice

It's..... Eunice's birthday!! :D Hah, I bet the title gave it away already.



No, not this Eunice. She's too young and cute to be 18..



It's this Eunice! The shopaholic! The one stuck at Kuching. haha.. *I just wanted to be in a picture with Neece :)*

Hey, girl or should I say young lady. HAPPY 18th BIRTHDAY! Don't be sad because most of us couldn't be physically present to celebrate your big one-eight with you. Nevertheless, you will be in our hearts and minds (my heart, my mind!) haha. Don't go wild and all that just because you turned 18 and have the label 'Legal' above your head. Hehe.

Umm.. I still owe you a post ay? I have to go somewhere and will be back on Sunday so .. I kinda need to get some sleep now. God bless you, and me.. :) Take care, alrite?

p/s: I'll be waiting for your call. It's my turn now.. haha. kidding.

Have fun, be merry, leave your worries :) xoxo


Plus, here's a little treat for all and an extra gift for the August babies.
Thanks Belle for introducing the song to me.
Cheers.

All I need now is someone to help me play the right hand/top part and there we have it, a duet! :P

xoxovon
It's been a long week and I foresee the same thing for the upcoming weeks.
Wish me luck ;)

Quick update

I just read the news online that KPP is closed for the moment because they've got 4 trainees tested positive for H1N1. (KPP means Kem Puncak Permai, Bau) Wow. People of Kuching/Malaysia, be more hygenic =P and take good care.

I remembered back when I was at NS, I didn't know much of what was going on outside of camp. Seriously. I hardly read the newspapers and when I do read them, it's only like once in 2 weeks or whenever I can find time to. One day, my friend came up to me and asked, "Eh, you know got swine flu now?" I had no clue what that was. It was after that that I started searching for the articles on the newspapers. I'm so thankful that there wasn't any terrible incident going on during my batch. :)

Anyway, I just had my first test last Friday. It's 5% of my English paper. I was a happy girl yesterday when I got back my paper and saw 25/25 on it :) That means I have 5% already and I need another 45% to pass this paper. However, I'll have to pass the other paper as well to move on into the 2nd semester.

I have to get on with my assignments now..
Cheers.

xoxovon
Wedges, my guilty pleasure..

August is THE month :)

Today is the 3rd of August. It marks exactly one month since I left home for here, NZ. However, that is not my point.

It's someone's birthday today. =D

I love my phone :). If it wasn't for it, I couldn't take or upload any pics (since my xD card is still not satisfied being stuck in the card reader). The picture was taken at KIA during my NS semester break (I wasn't the end product of NS yet, still chubby you see.. haha). And he still has his NS haircut.

I've known you for not too long, but it doesn't feel that way :) I'd prefer not go on elaborating here because I'd rather say things to you directly. This feels so weird. Haha. Nolah. Actually, I'm sleepy and I'm going to bed soon.. =P I haven't been able to catch you online for a while now though. It's understandable, considering the current circumstances.

I just think that people should feel special on their birthdays. Do you? There are many more birthdays to come this August and one of them is *coughminecough*.

Happy Birthday, Yan Le!

Another year means you're getting older
but..
Older is wiser :)

now i'm speechless.. because I'm thinking about tomorrow. sighs.

xoxovon
I should be sleeping but ...

4 weeks

Wow, it's already August!! And I've been away from home for 4 weeks now. Time flies ey.

I haven't forgotten my roots, don't worry. Although I may pick up a tiny bit of different accents while I'm here. Haha. I've got a Scottish and a Kiwi as my teachers. 3 Middle-Easterners, one Chinese, 2 Thais, a few others and a couple of Kiwis as classmates. I just realised something as well. I can't introduce myself as, "I'm Yvonne from Kuching" or "... from Sarawak". It has to be Malaysia :P Don't get me wrong, I'm proud to be a Malaysian (for all the right reasons of course). One of the saddest thing that has occured is that some people don't know where Malaysia is. They know we exist but they don't know our location. Like WTH right? My Chinese friend asked me this once: Is it cold, like this, in Malaysia during winter time? Major -.-" ey? Haha.

This one isn't going to be long because it's late and I need to get some sleep. I slept at 3am and today has been a long day. A bunch of us OCF members went down to Wellington to show some support at the Cultural Marketplace event. It's a fund raiser. Loads of international food there and other stuff as well.

Henna

My throat didn't feel so well after lunch today. We went to 'yam cha'. Had dim sum. That's my 3rd time in NZ and all in different cities. Auckland, Palmy and Wellington. The pattern tells me that my next dim sum will be south of all those cities I've mentioned. =P Ah, so yummy! But I need to control my food consumption, for real. It is winter but so what.

I had a Listening Test on Friday from 9-940. Class was 1030-1130. One hour, awesome ey? Many of them went straight home after the test and skipped class. PFTT.

Small lecture theatre, where the test was held.

Before I end this post, here's another picture (to make you salivate and drool all over your keyboard, not). The wedges at Uni's cafeteria are Oh-so-nice. They keep calling my name whenever I'm at the main campus. Haha.

Ignore the heading on the newspaper & my friend's phone.
Btw, that isn't polystyrene. It's like a paper box.

See, Eunice. I do have pictures on my blog :)

xoxovon
I made pancakes for breakfast.
*brushes imaginary maple syrup on imaginary pancake*