Life's little things...

Guess who came for a visit?

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Yo! Yo! Here's lil' Lady Bug from Da House!

Hear me sing, yeh....!

Stop surfing....!

Shake your bon bon...shake ur bon bon..

;P

New job,new colleagues

Just thought of posting up some pics of my colleagues that I lunch together with each day...

Here's mummy newbie, Shue and myself

Here's WS the super efficient admin and BK my new partner in crime!

Have a good day! :)

Cholestrol level out of spec

On our annual medical checkup, I was shocked to find that my cholestrol level has gone up yet again to 5.7. As for BS,' his was even worse at 6.6! The limit is only 5.2! Both of our LDL levels are too high as well, way off the limit..gosh, what went wrong?


Alarm! Alarm! Time to do something....


One of the lifestyle changes for myself is to try to cook and eat at home more rather than eating out all the time. Perhaps the food outside is too oily..I'm not sure, but nothing beats a home cooked meal right? So for now, I'll try to learn as many simple dish as possible so that I could be home after work and whip out some edible meals! Tiring yes, but for health sake, some sacrifice would have to be made. Also more exercise!! I have not give up my yoga session, but apart from that, I should hit the gym perhaps? My yoga instructor has just opened a yoga and dance center nearby to where I stayed and I am really tempted to sign up for the Belly dancing class. It should be able to help to tone up my abs! :P

Anyway, just some sharing here on my home cooked meals.

Here's just one of the many dishes I cooked for the past few weeks, very healthy one indeed.

On the left was steamed lettuce with oyster sauce and on the right was steamed fish with sour plum sauce(the fish was all covered up by the gaarnishing of spring onions and tomatoes). Looked delicious eh? :)

Hiking up to Pantai Kerachut-Alas!!!!!!!-- Outdated Post

I have always wanted to hike up to Pantai Kerachut. However most of the time, my friends would organize it early in the morning on a weekend! A real pig myself, I know it will be hard for me to wake up early in the morning (about 6am to 7am) thus I've got to give this opportunity a miss. Yes, I'm a sleeping beauty, somehow, forgoing my beaty sleep on a weekend is something I could not let go! :(.


This time however, Ivan invited me for a hike at 10am .Fantastic. That's just my time! Seriously, we don't really have to get up too early for the hike since the trail was basically shaded all the way by the canopies!


Be forewarned, loads of pictures ahead!

At the starting point, before the hike started ..

Myself posing at the jetty ..

On the way up with KH ..

Midway through the hike, according to KH and Ivan, this is a good spot to take a picture. Unfortunately, the photographer have lousy skills, thus this is how the photo turned out to be :(. Sorry guys!

We arrived at Pantai Kerachut. Here's a bridge linking the hill to the beach.

Pantai Kerachut..Serene beach.

After we got here, we had our packed lunch we bought from Kayu. Somehow, after a tiring hike, the Nasi Kandar tasted heavenly! After our lunch, we moved on to check on the Turtle Sanctuary.

Turtle Crossing...beware beware..

Cute litte turtle dudes...

After the turtle watching, KH and Ivan has got nothing better to do, so they try to climb a tree instead! :P

After taking a short stroll along the beach, it was time to go home. Going back, we decided to go by boat.

TY and myself enjoying the seabreeze. Look how green the sea was.

Enjoying the boat ride!

Although the waters looked green, but it was infested with jelly fish!!

Loads of 'em!!!

The boatmen caught one to show us! According to him, jelly fish love places with clear waters but filled with rubbish. Yes, I guess Penang waters fit the bill, thus they're thriving here!

After we arrived back at the jetty, we head on to Penang Road to sample the famous chendol, rojak, u name it...

As for myself, how can I missed my favourite laksa! Yummy!

KL trips

Ever since I started my new job in late July, I have work trips to KL for 3 times already.
First was for my orientation, just imagine, pn the first day of your new job you were supposed to be in KL alone. And I don't know anyone! yikes!
Luckily, most of my new colleagues are very friendly and always willing to lend a hand!

This is what happen when you're alone...Camwhoring with a mirror in the hotel room :P
Another two weeks later, there was a company team building held at The Mines Hotel, KL.
So there I went again to KL, this time hitching a ride with a colleague.

On our way we stopped by Kampar to sample the famous Curry Chicken wrapped in a bun!

This dish was simply too delicious!! Two thumbs up!!

My colleagues, BK and WS...cheerful mates :)

The teambuilding was a full day event at Mines Resort Hotel.

The Mines Resort, pretty eh?

With some of my colleagues from KL :)

The gang from Penang (Myself, WS,BI,David,CS and BK)

After the teambuilding event, guess what? I would have to head to KL yet again the next week to be part of the company audit. This time however, we flew.

As a safety precaution against H1N1 :P

My colleague in KL ,Tung who joined the same day as myself was kind enough to bring us to sample his favourite "Har Mee" - Prawn Noodle at Salak South.

Apart from that, I also managed to meet up with some of my close friends while in KL. We had dinner at a restaurant at Kuchai Lama famous for its fish head beehon.

This is the first time I tasted fish ball beehoon soup cooked with milk & rice wine! Unique and tasted pretty good.

My bestie, lingo and pretty MS

Lilian & YL, my good buddies since young.

So, when will I have to be in KL again?

Gosh, I needed a break!!

UTP trip - Outdated post

Wow, i almost missed my deadline for this month blogging! I have tonnes to write and tonnes to share that I don't know where to start. Ok one by one...I'll start with my post about my alma matter, UTP first.

During my visit to Ipoh early July this year for a friend's wedding, the morning church reception was held at Batu Gajah, Perak. That was like half an hour drive to my x-university, UTP at Tronoh. As BS has never been to my university and it has been more that 5 years since I last step foot to my uni, I thought why not just pay a visit to the place.
After the church reception, we had a couple of hours to kill before the night reception at Ipoh town. So off we went towards Tronoh where UTP is located. Armed with our trusty borrowed GPS, we could reach UTP without getting lost...what a wonderful invention eh?

After 5 years, I was amazed at how development has changed the roads leading to my uni.
Called the Ipoh-Lumut expressway, this road was a two-way expressway with no divider in between. The worst thing is that there were alot of huge trucks and lorries that love to ply this road as the barren land where the expressway cut across were mostly x-mining land, and this is a great place for construction companies to buy sand for construction. Whenever there's a lorry hogging the road, most cars would have to make dangerous overtaking manouvoer. But as of today, I noticed there's some improvement. The roads were been widened and there were dividers on the road and certain stretch, and some were two to three -lanes now. Also on dangerous junctions, traffic lights were installed too especially at the junction into UTP main entrance! Alrite, I'll let the pictures do the talking now...

A drivethrough down memory lane.......

This was a temporary building built to house our tutorial rooms and labs when our new campus was still under construction. Now, it was solely used for Co-curricular activities. This was where I used to attend my tutorials and labs!

The old USM DK (Dewan Kuliah) is still around!

The pinkish temporary building is still around too!
The picture shows the x-main building of UTP where the old hall used to be.

This is the new campus. Behind me is the Chancellor Hall, the place where my graduation ceremony was held! We're the first batch of students to use the hall!

I spent a lot of time here during my final year mostly attending tutorials, finishing up projects and consulting my lecturers on the topmost floor.

Village 3- Block D, the place I stayed from 3rd year onwards...ahh...great memories! :)

Here's where the new lecture halls were located.

Another building were I spent a lot of time finishing up my Final Year Projects (FYP). I literally set up the lab myself as I was the first to use it!

The place I lived in my first two years of my uni life, yes it's still standing today and still in use! Gasp! Who cares about it collapsing?

Crazy me posing, the building behind me if you noticed, on the 2nd floor, there's where I spent alot of time completing my FYP!

Things has indeed changed alot! There's a few new cafeterias now, a sprawling new floating mosque and also a new "village" a.k.a student hostel blocks! Also there were a few petrol stations along the main road leading to UTP now as opposed to the tiny petrol station within the campus which served the entire UTP community. That tiny petrol station was no longer there now.

....Time really flies........!

Life Altering Moment

Have you ever experienced a moment when adreline-rush overwhelmed you, and things that happened around you moved in slow motion? I've been told that during critical moments, the adrenaline rush would catalyse your mind to work faster sometimes beyond human capability to deal with a situation. Hence, you'll realise that the happenings around you move slower as your mind is moving faster that lightning speed.


That was what happened to me.


Last Thursday night, my colleagues and I were on our way to KL for our company teambuilding on Friday. We started our journey at about 4pm. On our way we even stopped by Kampar to sample the famous chicken curry wrapped in a bun! After the sumptious meal, we continued on our journey South.

Along the way it started to rain. Raining cats and dogs it was. There were 4 of us in the car including the driver, and we're chatting, giggling happily, oblivious to the rain.
As we're approaching Slim River, suddenly the driver turned to me and said he couldn't control the vehicle. I noticed the car seemed to be out-of-control when the steering wheel is not responding to how it was steered. I was on the front passenger seat.

At that moment, a weird sensation overwhelmed me. It was like a dream. I knew the car spunned about 360 degrees (I don't know how many rounds) and hit the road divider on its rear. The impact was pretty strong, I could feel my body jerked forward. If not for the seat belt, any of us would have flung forward. I was bracing myself for the worst the next moment, perhaps preparing for a head-on collision with the divider or another vehicle from behind. In my mind, I actually thought the end is nigh, that was it. Mind you, the rain wasn't subsiding, it was pouring its heart out.

The next thing we knew, the car then gradually stopped. My eyes was distracted. When we gained our composure, I realised our car was in the middle of the highway! The oncoming cars would be coming straight to me where I was seated hence the car headlights were shining on me!! I could see cars approaching directly to us!.

As the driver was still in a state of shock, we cajoled him to try to manoeuvour the car to the side of the road. We were lucky as the area was well lighted since we're near to an exit. We're very lucky as the cars behind us were driving slowly and could avoid hiting us. We're lucky because the car did not get hit anywhere apart from the rear which was damaged. We're lucky because non of us were injured.

I guess things happen for a reason. We were given a second chance. To me, divine intervention definitely helps! I shall not forget my faith...We ought to be thankful of what we got...And this serves as a stern reminder. To cherish our life, and not to take life for granted. Imagine being in a situation as helpless as this, and all you could do is just to hope and pray for the best.
I always remember the song by Tim McGraw, "Live like you were dying".
Life is short, cherish it, live to the fullest!

This experience definitely changed my life perspective.
I hope it does serve as a reminder to everyone here too, sometimes we're too busy chasing our dreams that we forget our roots, our family our loved ones. Do spare a moment each day to hug your love one, or call them if you're away from them. Also, when you're driving, never ever neglect on checking your car condition. Tyres are the utmost importance in a car, make sure it is in good condition. Seat belts are there to protect your life, so wear it!Just imagine the outcome if any of us were not wearing seatbelts! Safety should always be your utmost priority.

Take good care everyone and God Bless! :)