Precious 50 hours in Kuching

11/11/11 was a special day, which will only occur in another thousand year. I chose to be in two lands on this day, half of it in Singapore and the other half in my loveable hometown, Kuching!

From the moment I landed on Borneo, I only have 50 hours to spend (including sleeps) before I step my feet back to reality a.k.a work life!

After putting down my oh-so-light baggage, I quickly took charge of my car, and went out for lunch with my mum. I was so happy to be back on my wheels, at least for a while.

We drove all the way to town, hoping to eat one of my favourite dish, Belacan BeeHoon near Song Kheng Hai Hawker Centre. Unfortunately it's closed. So we went back to a place near my house for our long-awaited glorious lunch.

We had Sotong Kangkong, Belacan BeeHoon, Rojak, Prawn Crackers. In addition to that, we had Ais Kachang and carrot juice with milk! Imagine, me and my mum finished them ALL! We could hardly walk properly as if someone bumped towards our stomach, things would spilled out. Nyeh!

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12 years ago, on 9th September 1999 (9-9-99), I was still in Primary Six, and we all think it was a special day with all the nines. Us and our form teacher Mdm Chua decided on a reunion on 11th November 2011 (11-11-11). When time comes, we still remember, at least some of us. My cousin, who used to be my classmates for six years, organised this reunion. I flew back on this day and was really looking forward to meet friends whom I've not met for 12 years!!

The boys!


The girls!

And we presented a gift to our form teacher, Mdm Chua, by our ex-class monitor who is also my cousin, Calvin.


All of us on the Reunion Night! We started of with a little bit of shyness, people just talk to people next to them, sticking to their own seats. Girls talked to the girls, and guys to the guys. I must admit, as some of the people came in, I have to quietly ask the person next to me, 'what's his name, again? I remember his face but I couldn't remember his name.', in return I also get 'Erm, I don't know, too!'. Sooner, I heard people calling his name and all the flasback returns! After dinner, people walked about, and keep chatting and chatting, trying to catch up what's missing in the past 12 years. It was filled with laughter that none of us even bother to sing Karaoke as we thought catching up with one another is a lot more important!

If you notice, there's actually a baby boy in the picture. He's son of two of our classmates who fate to tie their knot in the end! Lovely!

The most classic thing I heard thoughout the night was the guy who used to sat next to me in class, Jeremiah (he's the one standing next to me in the above photo), said that I'm now shorter than him, and it sounded pretty unbelieveable to him. FYI, me and a few girls in primary school used to be tallest in class, beating all the guys. He kept mention that how can I be possibly shorter than him, all night! Anyway, I accept the fact that I've not grow any taller since secondary school, but guys are meant to me taller right?

Our form teacher, Mdm Chua, also brought along 'The Book' where we wrote our wishes to her before graduate from primary school. She remembered mine clearly as I put a photo for her, haha, super 'kiasu'! I never remember I did it until I saw it. Xoxo


More photos before we left. On far right, she's Adeline and is my BFF since primary school. And the girl next to her, in electric blue shirt, she, Siaw Yun used to be my best friend in primary class, too! Now we're reunited and we have to keep in touch!


Since 11-11-11 is a special day, I'd take a picture with my long time BFF, Adeline!! Woohoo!! Xox

The night ended with lots of joys and some of them asked me to go for a drink thereafter but too bad I had a wedding to attend to the next morning.

We all should keep in touch, making some effort to get along, and say, we meet up again during Chinese New Year?

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12th November 2011 (Saturday)

Mum dragged me out of bed as early as 5.30am. Yes, it's 5.30am!!! So early that the last time I woke up this early was the time I was still in Glasgow ready to depart for Malaysia. (T.T).

It was all for my cousin, Fiona's wedding. She was looking all pretty, and it's my pleasure to be there to see her tied her knot with her now-husband, Christopher.

FYI, my dad was one of the photographer for the wedding. :D

The lovely bride and groom!

We joy a holy matrimony of Fiona and Christopher in a Methodist church in Kuching. So happy for her and let her marriage long-lived!

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For lunch, I caught up with my Aunts for lunch. I've not seen one of my aunt for more than a year now and she's now back in Kuching for good. It's always good to catch up with them!

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Wedding dinner reception @ Hilton Kuching!

And that's me and my pretty cousin, Fiona, and her husband, Christopher.
And I looked so big when taking picture with them. Errr, maybe it's time for me to,.... control my too-good-weird-digestive appetite!

And, of course, this whole trip being back home is to be with my beloved family- my mum and dad!! The trip was short but I'm sure for time to come we would have more time to spend together! Love you, mum and dad!! XOXO

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13th November 2011 (Sunday)

I went for my usual church service in St Thomas Cathedral, Kuching. There I get to catch up with some friends and church members. Even my Revd was shocked to see me back, thought that I'm not used to Singapore and decided to go back to Kuching for good.

At 3-ish pm, I was sent to the airport, and it ended my short trip back to my exquisite-irreplaceable Kuching. It's a place I called home.

Treat or trick?

I drew this on the train to Dover this morning, thinking it's Halloween tomorrow and what's everyone going to do? I had two Halloween party last year and this year.... Home alone in Singapore!.

Halloween is a good excuse for your hang out with your friends!

By the way, anyone of you following the American drama series called 'The Big Bang Theory'? Their Halloween episode is a must watch! So funny!!

Hope you're enjoying your 'Trick or Treat!".

From 4-Season to the tropics

Weather adaptation is always a tough thing for me. It's easier for me to adapt to the cold, than to the heat. There's always a concept that when it's too cold, you can layer up; but when it's too hot, what can you do?

This was me just before I depart from a four-season country, UK - Glasgow. What's lovely about being in a seasonal country is that you can update your wardrobe by season, not annually. It's pretty amazing to look through the process, as you layer up during colder months, and you layer down when the weather gets warmer. It's a good thing for ladies as you can do more shopping! :P

And here I am, working in a temperate country, with summer all year round. Well, to be exact, it's not summer after all as it's constantly hot and humid. In four-season country, summer will be moody as there are days when it rains and it gets chilly. Also, you will experience different sunrise and sunset time in summer than in winter months.

Still, I'm not used to the hot and humid weather in Singapore even though I'm born and raised in Malaysia with the same weather. Glasgow has obviously changed my perspective of weather.

Motivated!

Read my real-life story to know why am I so motivated!

Today, a patient came in complaining of 'overlapping vision'. This is the first time I heard of someone describing vision as this. I was sure this patient will be interesting when he said he got it one day when he woke up. I was anticipated to check his eyes in detail.

Initially I thought what he means by 'overlapping vision' could be a case of serious astigmatism (散光). I came across a lot of people saying they see double but actually it is just blurred.

I carried on with my investigation and found out that he has lateral rectus palsy. Lateral Rectus is one of the muscle inside the eye causing one of his eye unable to look to one side, causing his double vision.

As it is a sudden onset and he is in his 40's so I referred him to the hospital for further evaluation of the nervous system. I reassured him of the treatment options and if there's nothing they can do at hospital level, I will need to prescribe him with prism glasses.

For your information, each of our eyeball is surrounded by six muscles, and each has different function. Trust me, this topic is one of the toughest in uni. All six muscles are differently controlled by third, fourth and sixth cranial nerve, connected to the brain. Commonly lateral rectus palsy is caused by birth trauma as it is controlled by the sixth nerve, located near the side of our head. It's palsy causes esotropia, in-turned of the eye. Eye muscles of both eyes must be balanced in order to see 3-D vision, no double vision, and good depth perception. If you need more information about muscles of the eye, drop me an email. If you have real life story, share with me!

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In routine optometric practice, the most problems and symptoms are easily solved by giving a pair of glasses. When there's challenging cases like my patient today, it really boost my passion and anticipation. Solving a complicated eye condition is just the same as the joy of solving a difficult mathematics question!

I declare that I have never regret to start on this route as an optometrist. Once I started university in Glasgow, I have never look back since. Call me an eye freak! Haha!

The health of your eyes is my main concern.


Till then! xoxo

Update (30/9/2011): The hospital informed us that my patient has now being referred to another department for further test, as now it's not his eye problem. I hope he is okay will get treatment as soon as possible.

Exclusive: Enrique Iglesias Live in Glasgow June 2011!!!

11th June 2011.

#1
Sarah and I was there to enjoy the hot and fun concert of Enrique Iglesias!!!!!

#2
Enrique it is!! Opening song was Tonight (I'm Lovin' You), bringing the mood up to the max that evening. Everyone was up on their feet, moving with music!! It was just like a huge club with live band!

#3

#4
Enrique invited a pair of Scottish couple on stage.

Enrique: "... what's your name?"
Girl: "Jeanette" (pronounced gee-nett)
Enrique: "Gee-nett? Like Jeneatte?" (pronuonced Janet)
Girl: "Jeanette" (pronounced gee-nett)
Enrique: "Gee-nett? How do you spell it?"
Girl: "Jai-e-a-n-e-t-t-e" (in Scottish, 'J' pronounced as 'jai')
Enrique: "Oh Jeanette!" (he pronounced it as Janet, as it's how the American pronounced)
"Are you Scottish?"

It was such a cute conversation between him and Scottish! It was how I felt when I first went to Glasgow trying to understand the locals.

#5

#6
Let the picture speaks for itself! I had a good time!

#7
Put your hands up! Put your hands up!!! Let's move it, move it!

#8
"Bailamos,..."

#9

#10
"I'm not in love,.... Don't go running away"

# 11
"I can be your hero baby,
I can kiss away the pain,
I will stand by you forever,
you can take my breath away.."

#12
"...but you can't escape my love"

#13
"Baby, I like it!!"

#14

#15
And the concert ends with another round of 'Tonight (I'm Lovin' You)'. It was such an AMAZING and FUN-FILLED night with all the hip and dance! We want more of his songs but too bad time has come to an end. I would not hesitate to go to his other concert!

I heart Enrique Iglesias!!!!

p/s: I was supposed to upload a video from the concert but it takes too long to load. Will try some other time. Hope you enjoyed this post!

New location

After I've returned to Asia for one and a half month, I moved to Singapore. Some said I am a frequent traveller, and I'm always everywhere. Now, here I am in a new location working hard as an optometrist. I would not move around as much as I did during university life. I'm going to miss travelling very dearly. Nonetheless, I have plans ahead for me to achieve so that life would not be too boring!

Stay tuned for more updates! Will try to update once a week! I have lots of long overdue blog!

Now then I know, haha!

As you get older, you know a lot more people. At the same time, you lost some friend. Friendship is a thing that you need to put effort, not just one side but both parties.

Anyway, it's such a small world that I'm in Miri, working as an intern to promote my university in Glasgow, and the colleague here turned out to be a girl who went to the same college as me when I did my A-levels. I answered questions by students, also by colleagues. I think I'm doing a pretty good job telling people about Glasgow. I'm just sharing the truth and I really like Glasgow as a place to live in.

With this internship opportunity, I do not just share about Glasgow but also about making friends. Glad that my classmates in Glasgow are uber nice that we still keep I'm touch!

The colleague here in Miri, told me about what other courses (students from our college) think about my A-Levels gangs back I'm 2005 to 2006. They thought we were a bunch of clever kids (not really for me) who do not need to study yet having good results. They often see us walking around campus happily, always cheering in a big gang. We always know how to have fun! I thought we were just a bunch of crazy college students, who dont care about anything else except that we treasure friendship. Other school/class students do know about our existence. I'm surprised!

I was flipping through my old school certificates folder, I realized that I was such an active super girl who joined lots of competitions and activities that I couldn't really recall. Now that I have turned older, energy level reduced, that I'm not as active as I used to.

Hey, how old am I? I should get my energy pumped up and live a healthier happier life!