Appreciate

I'm now officially 25.

As much as I agree that "age is just a number" in some occasions, there are certain things that we gain only once we get older. One of them is being able to see things more clearly in a wider perspective.

So, this year, instead of being celebratorial, I intend to honour the day I was born by being appreciative.
Before that, have you checked out my birthday message that I prepared out of the blue?
Here you go!


I'm grateful to many people and for many things in my life. However, these are the top things I'm grateful for in particular from the period of my 24th birthday to my 25th.

1) The chance to complete my tertiary education



A special shout-out to my former professors, lecturers, tutors, and faculty staff members for their guidance and support~ I won't forget you all.

2) Getting to kick start my career



I've been learning valuable and interesting things day by day. I hope to keep improving.

3) Having meals and drinks everyday



Most days, I eat moderately so that I'll benefit from it financially and health-wise. However, there are days when I indulge in more 'glorious' food than usual.

4) The ability to move about



I'm telling you, walking and making use of public transportation are advantageous. It may feel a little tiring when you're not used to it yet, but in time, you'll benefit from it in several different ways. Hot weather? Sunblock, cap, sunglasses.. Rain? Umbrella, raincoat.. Haze? Mask, plain water.. Muscle soreness? Warm up, comfy footwear.. Might be late? Get ready early, plan your journey.. Security? Prepare a potential defence 'weapon', stay alert.. What more excuses do you have?

5) Technological devices



In this millennium, a lot of us can't live without our devices. I'm not helplessly dependent on technology, but I appreciate the convenience and possibilities that it offers.

6) The things I gain



Money isn't everything, but it's still very important. It represents materialistic value of things. To balance that, why not add holistic value to it by, perhaps, paying it forward and helping out those in need every now and then?

7) Being me



Most of all, I appreciate every opportunity I get to do things my way and try to be amazing at it. I may stumble along the way, but that's no big deal.

Best wishes to me!
Best wishes to you!
Best wishes to all!
God bless..

posted from Bloggeroid

Forever Young

~ .. ~ .. ~ .. ~

"Let no one despise you for your youth,
but set the believers an example
in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity." 

(1 Timothy 4:12)

~ .. ~ .. ~ .. ~

A few weeks ago, I turned another year older.

You know how friends or family members sometimes playfully tease you on your birthday, just to highlight the fact that you're getting OLDer?  That's normal and there's no harm intended in the teasing.  ^^

I face this too.  In addition to that, I also face something almost in contrary to this matter.  *Ironic, ironic*  Those who aren't aware of my actual age, as well as those who already know me well, mostly do not believe me when I 'declare' how old I currently am.  From my past experiences so far, a lot of them usually guessed that I should be about 3, 4, or 5 years younger than my real age.  *Hey, they said so, okay. :3*

It's probably because of the combination of my petite figure, erm...babyface(?) look, and sometimes child-like personality.  LOL~  I don't  know...that's just my wild guess.

Anyway...
My point is, regardless of how we appear to look like, be it younger than our age or more matured than our age, it's sometimes out of our control.  Make-up, hairstyle, and fashion style can change that but they are all temporary.  You are who you are.  Remember that what's more important is what you have to offer, coming from within you - hardwork, sincerity, kindness, passion, etc.

So, be grateful of however you may look like (as long as it's presentable enough for specific occasions).  Focus more on your inner values.  Chewah~

Back in November

Catch Up Post #3

Back in November 2012

BTOB as Guest Group for 2012 Asia Super Showcase in Malaysia

Which Melody [Note: Melody is the official name of BTOB's fans.] wouldn't get excited over this?  Malaysian Melody, I mean, considering that it's a showcase in Malaysia.  First, the fact that BTOB would be in my own country was intriguing itself.  Second, that would be BTOB's first visit to Malaysia.  Third, BTOB is just awesome~~!!!  I had not decided whether or not I was going to go to the showcase at first.  As time went by, I made up my mind that I was going.  So, I bought a V.I.P. Zone ticket, priced at RM600.  The showcase ticket wasn't the only thing that I had to think of.  Since I live in East Malaysia, I needed to travel to West Malaysia by plane.  Therefore, I had to get flight tickets and book a hotel too.  I didn't get it all figured out at first, so I just told my mom about my intention to go to the showcase and I was going to pay for the showcase ticket on my own (and I did!).  We already had a confirmed plan of visiting KL in November as a family trip and all out tickets and accommodation were booked.  Lucky me...'cos mom gave a green light for me to have another (short) trip to KL in December for the showcase.  And guess what?  My other family members were going to KL too!  Are they crazy or what?  The same thing happened last time when I was going to DiGi Live K-pop Party where BEAST, 4Minute, and G.NA performed.  Thus, it was no surprise to me.

My receipt of the showcase ticket purchase 

As one of the projects to celebrate BTOB's first visit to Malaysia, BTOB's Malaysian fanclub, MYBTOB, collaborated with MY-CUBEFAMILY and CUBICBEATZ to create a photobook for BTOB.  I contacted the organiser of the showcase, under MYBTOB's name, to inform them about it and the organiser confirmed that they would pass the photobook to BTOB on our behalf.  The photobook project was called Project WOW.  'Wow' is the title track of BTOB's second mini album.  There's an official pose for 'Wow'.  It can be written as "W'o'W" and there's a meaning to it.  The two W's at the sides represent three fingers at both sides.  The small letter " o " represents an opened mouth.  The inverted commas represent eyes.  So, we had to do the W'o'W pose and submit the photo along with our messages to BTOB.  I got my sisters to participate too.  ^^

My W'o'W pose 

Camy's W'o'W pose 

Carina's W'o'W pose

Family Trip to Kuala Lumpur (KL)

So, my family and I went on our trip to KL.  My grandma, uncle, and cousins went along.  We booked one hotel room and all nine of us fit ourselves in it.  Somehow, my sister, Priscamy, and I always got the best, most complete bed.  Yea, I feel bad for that but since the others are okay with it, I'm okay too.  ^o^  During this trip, I polished my map-reading and public transport-riding skills.  I didn't even know that it wasn't hard to read maps (actual paper maps, not digital ones like the Google Maps or the navigation apps in the phone).  In fact, it can be fun, especially when you're able to find the places that you want to go to and the best routes to get there.

At Kuching International Airport, on the way to KL 

I blurred the faces of a couple of those in the picture because they're total strangers to me and I need to practise internet ethic by not making their clearly shown faces go public without permission.  *Good girl* 

Our dinner on our first night in KL was at a food court in Sogo KL.  We walked on foot to the mall because it was not far from our hotel.

 

We walked inside Sogo KL after dinner to shop (or window shop).

 One of the days, we went to my mom's cousin's house.

Guess what?  Since there were nine of us, my mom's cousin, who insisted on having us over, sent three cars to our hotel area to pick us up.  It was kind of mind-blowing in a funny way. ^^

We took pictures with Dwayne, the young son of my mom's cousin.

Then, we were sent back to our hotel. 

We also went to Genting Highland theme park.  I missed the chilly atmosphere and the rides there after not going there for several years.  It wasn't so cold on the day that we went there, though.

 We went on a number of different rides and I even bought a watermelon shaped lollipop for my younger cousin.  I actually bought another candy and a couple of DVDs there too.

 We spent our last couple of days walking here and there to shopping malls.  With the existence of light rail transit (LRT) and monorail as intergrated public transports around KL, it was easy to commute without spending too much on transportation.

 With sisters and cousins in one of the malls 

Oh, we bumped into some relatives at the mall.  What a pleasant coincidence!

We also stepped our feet on Pavilion's ground. 

The morning after our flight back home from KL, I had to attend a conference about entrepreneurship/ business corporations.  My friends and I promised each other to wear baju kurung, just because we wanted to.

Here are some of my closest friends.

Starcall Superfan Contest

For those who didn't know, Starcall is a smart phone application that allows fans to receive real-time (or close) video calls from K-pop idols.  When I got my smart phone, Starcall was among the first applications that I installed.  SK Planet, the developer of this application, held a contest called Starcall Superfan Contest to reward fans who have been supporting the idols and the application.  The co-organiser of the contest contacted MYBTOB to invite us to become the representative of BTOB's fans in Malaysia.  I took part in the contest but I definitely didn't expect anything like winning at all.  I just wanted to be supportive by participating.  One of the challenges that we needed to do was Photo Challenge, where we had to pose our most likely reaction when we receive a Starcall video call from our favourite idol(s).  Another challenge was Super Challenge, where we were supposed to do a one-minute dance cover of our favourite idol(s).  The Photo Challenge wasn't so hard for me.  I only needed to be me, you know.  For the Super Challenge, I wasn't sure if I wanted to do the challenge because I haven't been practising my dances since....my freshman year in university.  But I did the challenge anyway just out of the spirit of being supportive.

My Photo Challenge submission 

This was taken just for fun.  Hehe...

My crappy Super Challenge submission
Don't watch if you judge people so easily!  Haha...

Twilight Finale - Breaking Dawn Part II Premier

I was never a real fan of Twilight.  My sister is, and it so happened that her school's brass band was doing a fund-raising event by selling movie tickets to the premier of Twilight - Breaking Dawn Part II.  Since it was for a fund-raising, I bought one ticket for myself.  I told my friends about the event and they bought four tickets.  I looked forward to watching the premier with my friends.  Even my family members were going.  And about the movie.....I loved it!

Our movie tickets

 Before the movie

Dad's Birthday

As a family tradition (or it seems so to me), we went to a seafood place for a dinner in commemoration of dad's birthday.

Dad and my youngest sister 

Mom and my younger sister

BTOB Eun Kwang and Min Hyuk's Birthdays

It's thrilling to me to know that Eun Kwang's birthday is just one day after my dad's!  Is that a sign, God?  *Wink wink*  It is common for fans to do a trending on Twitter to let the world know about their stars' special days.  Min Hyuk's birthday is only five days after Eun Kwang's.  Cool!  I took an extra effort to take a proof picture of Eun Kwang's birthday trending and not Min Hyuk's because I'm biasedly in love more excited about Eun Kwang.  Min Hyuk, I love and support you too.  Please know that.

Happy #LeaderKwangDay

Back in October

Catch Up Post #2

Back in October 2012

BTOB Il Hoon's Birthday Gift from MYBTOB Fanclub

Il Hoon's an October baby, just like me.  ^^  Nana, one of the staff members of MYBTOB, went to buy a plushie for Il Hoon.  She then posted the plushie to me for further actions.  I sewed Il Hoon's name on it and packed it before sending it over to Cube Entertainment in South Korea through mail.  Express Mail Service (EMS) to Seoul is expensive, especially when the parcel is larger that the standard size, but we could manage with the help of some fans and staff members who donated for the project.  We're forever thankful for fans' generosity.

Oh my!  Even I want this for myself. 

Il Hoon is the main rapper in BTOB.  He's charismatic when he performs but very adorable at casual times.

It took a few days for the parcel to reach South Korea.

My 23rd Birthday
So, I turned 23 on October 13th, 2012.  I reflected upon it for a quick moment and thought that time goes by without stopping and there's nothing we can do to pause it, rewind it, fast forward it, or slow it down.  It just keeps going.  We can learn something from this thing called "time".  Keep going no matter what the circumstances are.  Learn from the past, embrace the present, anticipate the future.  I celebrated my 23rd birthday with my family members in a simple manner.  I blew the birthday candles and we had some appetizers at home, then we went out to have dinner at a seafood place.

So, my birthday wish was.....(?)

If you notice in the picture, we had some KFC food too.  Those were our appetizers.  Birthdays are good excuses to indulge in not-so-healthy food.  Yippie~~ 

Isn't the cake cute?  The little sheep is adorable! 

Birthday card from my family, which came with pop-up stickers 

Some of the food we had for our dinner outside 

Funny story!  On our way back from our dinner place, we stopped by at the airport.....to pee.  The airport was not far from the road that we took at that time.  After going to the washroom, we headed home.

Surprises from My Dearest Friends
I'm so blessed and delighted to have such thoughtful friends around me.  I received a number of surprises from my closest friends for my birthday.

First, it was from VC and Cal, my good friends from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. A week before my birthday, I received a mail.  I could tell it was a greeting card from the size of the envelope.  At that time, it didn't cross my mind at all that it could be a birthday card.  I mean, there was still a week to go.  So, I was surprised to see a birthday card in  it!  I felt grateful and was in joy because the ones who sent it over were very much busy with their lives as undergraduate medical students.  How I miss my friends.

Thanks again, VC and Cal!

Then, a day after my birthday, I went to class as usual.  After getting to my seat near my friends, Tina called me over.  I obediently went to her and she started to count "Satu...dua..." [In English: "One...two..."] and she and Vic pulled out pink plushies from their bags!  Those were for me for my birthday.

Cute, right? ^o^

The next day, I got another surprise gift from Marcy and Mijot.  Marcy gave it to me in class as well.  It was nicely wrapped.  I opened it as soon as I got back home.  I was very much delighted to see BEAST table calendar and a sticker!  BEAST, I'm telling you!  My non-K-pop friends gave me K-pop items for my birthday!  :')

Aren't they b2utiful??

About a couple of weeks after that, I got yet another surprise.  I made my way to campus to meet my supervisor for my final year project.  I was supposed to meet Marcy first because we're both under the same supervisor.  So, I met Marcy at my faculty, the Faculty of Economics and Business.  We both walked to the entrance-exit area of the faculty's lobby and I saw a number of my friends standing there.  They just finished their class for the day.  The next thing I knew, Marcy took out a box from the fridge at the kiosk of the faculty and everyone who was there gathered closer.  Marcy said that she wanted to make an announcement.  I had no idea what it was going to be about, so I just listened.  She opened the box and together with a few other friends who were there, she started to sing a birthday song.  I was a little dumbfounded and played along at first while trying to figure out whose birthday it might be.  *I started to feel bad when I thought that I might have forgotten a friend's birthday. ><*  Another friend of mine, Rachel, looked as clueless as I was.  Her birth month is the same as mine but it had already passed on that day.  Then, I saw the content of the box that Marcy was holding.  There were cupcakes inside!  Chel's name as well as my name were on a couple of the cupcakes.  So, it hit me that they were celebrating our birthdays (or belated birthdays, rather)!

The birthday girls (Chel and I) are at the far right and left in the picture. 

Cupcake with my name on it!

Relatives' Double Birthday Bash

My aunt and her nephew (NOT my first cousin since it's the aunt's husband who is my mom's sibling, not the aunt herself *Why am I even explaining this??*) had a double birthday bash at a hotel's ballroom.  How cool was that?  It was a nice hotel-style dinner with family and friends.  So, my whole family went to the dinner and we got to meet some relatives there, which was cool.

At our dinner table 

Waiting for other family members to head home 

They were still doing the 'Gangnam Style' dance inside the ballroom as the closing of the dinner. -.-