Glee! Glee! Oh yes indeed!

New Year is around the corner and it's that time of year that you would reflect on what you've done or achieved in the past year, and look forward for things to come in the coming year up ahead. And let me get straight to the point here that I will not be making up new year's resolution and you shall not be expecting me to write a blog entry titled '2010 Resolution(s)'. Why? For the simple reason that I don't believe in making resolutions once every year. For me, I personally feel that resolutions need to be done when and where needed and when clarity of mind is at its brightest. Plus, it's kinda pointless to make resolutions when you're planning to break it on the 2nd day.

But I must say that I have a lot of things to look forward to in 2010! It'll be massive. Life-altering. And you know what? I can't wait to get the new year rolling (except for that massive heap of workload. Do you see it? Oh... you don't? It's right there on top of that pile of ssss.... *ehem*).

One of the things I'll be most looking forward to is THIS. And I've already set the balls in motion, taking full-advantage of some new schemes introduced by HR. (Glee! Glee! Oh yes indeed!) I just need to get some paperwork done, one very (very) important signature and I'll be free to start making travel arrangements!

(Glee! Glee! Oh yes indeed!)

And I've been doing some thinking... pondering... questioning the meaning of life(??)... and it led me to ask myself: What motivates me to do this? And I was surprised that it's not a matter of discovering the world, exploring new cultures and making connections with other people. But it's simply because I want to do something that I've never done before. Because... really, that's where all the excitement are.

So, this led me to another question: What are the things that I have never done before but had dreamt of doing? And it became easy for me to recollect all those fantastical dreams I had when I was much younger, and the sort of things that I was very hard-pressed on doing. One of those was performing volunteering work under Raleigh International. Let's name this a call of fancy, which occured to me when I was in secondary school and dreamt of going to Africa and doing humanitarian work. And it was something that I held tightly close to my chest right till I was in university, and now I can't remember what made me gave up so easily. Oh wait... I know... it was because I needed to raise at least GBP2,000 to go on a 4-weeks expedition to Africa. That was a lot of money that I don't have.

And I'm not saying that I have that amount of money now, but I realize that I have been presented with yet another opportunity here, before it's too late (FACT: RI expedition programmes is intended for those aged 17-24. Guess where I'm at?). And even if I can't make it for Raleigh, there are tons of other charity organizations out there that will always need a helping hand. And here I was thinking... Hey! Why don't we just kill 2 birds with 1 stone?

So now I'm considering this: Open Mind Projects - a non-profit organization that helps communities across Thailand-Cambodia-Laos-Burma borders. I'm sure someone out there will be thinking,"Why not do something closer to home?" But hey! 2 birds? 1 stone? Plus... the value of community works transcends currency exchange.

And I want to help a cause that I'm passionate about - a topic that needs a lot of self-reflection - and an organization that is legit and can contribute the most value to a community. So further research is required.

PS: If I do decide to go ahead with this and wants to hold a charity drive, will you help out and contribute? Just curious...

A Break

I'm contributing to the nation's current standing statistic that a Malaysian reads an average 2 books per year. So, last Sunday, in the hopes of escaping textbooks and mock exam papers, I went to Kinokuniya and splurged on a few books:

I'm not a romantic but I'm such a huge fan of Jane Austen. Besides Pride & Prejudice, Persuasion is my next favourite and I just found out that there's a re-telling of the story from the male protagonist's point-of-view written by Amanda Grange. So I googled and found Captain Wentworth's Diary, and my luck... Kinokuniya has stock! At this point in time, I've already finished reading the book and it's such a refreshing time spent reading it from the hero's POV. Of course, nothing can beat Jane Austen... so I'm planning to re-read Persuasion again after this.

And you know... if I can't convince myself that I need to go to the gym tonight, I'm thinking of having a Jane Austen movie marathon. *sigh* I love english period movies...

Bad News Came Early

I suppose I shouldn't be too surprise when the one news that I've been trying to avoid has eluded me yet again. Everyone is moving on except for me. And as much as I had tried to convinced myself that I choose to be where I am now, it still pains me to not receive the news. I'm not bitter, but I'm just feeling horribly dissappointed and crushed. But I deserve this... right?

(yeah... yeah... yeah... I'm being totally cryptic today. But if you happens to be working in the same building as I am, then you'd know what I'm talking about.)

So... now what? My only option here is to look forward and move on. There is really no point for me to just sit here and sulk.  I've other things going on for me right now and I need to focus on that. Perhaps it is just simply my luck that career objectives are not top in my priority. I'm pretty much a hippie in the sense that above all else, I strive for personal achievements and satisfactions - be it getting myself tied down to only one man for the rest of my life or travelling the world solo. I want to make these happen to prove a point to myself. So... climbing the corporate ladder is not my thing. The more reasons for me to go out there and find my thing... something that I can be passionate about, instead of mulling over the various possibilities on how to avoid work.  

What does 2010 have in store?

New year is a long way away and my plate is currently full with THREE main agendas needing my immediate attention, but obviously my mind is not rooted to the 'Now' but rather thinking far-off to the 'Future'. Well... let's just say 7 months into the future.

And I'm aware that by saying what I'm about to say out loud - here, in a public space - I'll be stacking up people's expectations for what I've planned up ahead. And it's a toss-up between it being a good thing or a bad thing. On one hand, it'll be more difficult for me to back-out of this plan when so many people are pushing and supporting me on it. On the flipside, the high expectations may lead to a 'stage fright' and a horrible (horrible!) untimely death of my plans.

But I'm just going to throw this out there anyways. I've built a momentum for myself this 2009 and I am planning to keep it going while I still can.

So dear friends and readers... I'm planning for another backpacking excursion this 2010!! The dates will be split between May (a short break before the exams) and July (the main event!), and I've roughly have the routes mapped out in my head but it's all still up in the air, depending on how much budget I have for airplane travel.

Will this be a solo excursion? Mmm.... that... actually depends on what my future hubby have to say about it. He's not entirely happy that I want to go backpacking on my own but I can be quite stubborn and very insisting. Plus, since my trip to Vietnam, I've been receiving quite a few requests from friends who wants to join in along. So....

I present to you....

Curious where all the green balloons are? Well, let me show you:

Getting my scuba license at Pulau Perhentian...

Scaling the heights of majestic Mt Kinabalu...

Visiting the Golden Triangle of Chiang Mai - Chiang Rai - Mae Sai

Discovering Vientiane...

Tubing down river with the beautiful backdrop of Vang Vieng...

Falling in love with tranquil Luang Prabang...

Cycling through the rice terrace of Ubud, Bali...

And soaking up the view of breath taking Lombok.

Let me emphasis yet again, that this is all in my head for now. I'm not even sure if I can save up enough money to go to all these places but... I really really do want this to happen. And if only I could squeeze in the Phillipines into my schedule, I'd be able to realize my dreams of travelling the entire SEA countries before I shift my eyes on Europe and USA. Crossing fingers!

Breakfast of Champions

Wish I could share with you all a picture of my breakfast this morning, because it is made of total awesome-ness that I deserve a nobel prize for coming up with such a combination. In fact, it is so good that it now comes in 3rd in my list of 'All-Time Favourite Breakfast of Champions'. Yes. There is such a list. Somewhere. (And you get a cookie if you could correctly guess the first 2)

I may not have a camera or a phone camera to share this exact moment, but I'll make do with whatever stock photos I've got.

A tall skinny double-shot latte, nice and warm in my tumbler.

(In all honesty, I only drink coffee in the morning when I'm desperate.

Only had 3-hrs worth of winks last night.)

+

Oreo cakester!!!

Two of these badboys are crammed with 250cal and 23g of sugar.

If I can't get my sugar fix with these, I don't know what will!

Is it worth all the hours I need to compensate at the gym? Definitely!