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. :)