memories

A sentimental email from my one and only brother makes me reminiscent of our childhood and youth time before CNY.
When I try to recall the memories, I could conjure up images of my family gathered in the living room watching TV program on the night of new year eve. We chatted happily while chewing the crispy prawn crackers, one of our favourite snacks which will only be served during CNY, and drank soft drinks as much as we can.

It was so ordinary, just like another normal family celebrating CNY.
But now I realise that this kind of ordinary life and family reunion have been so far away from me.
My tears drop when I read the last two lines of the email.
I have saved my tears for so many years avoiding to think of those things which may makes me feel sorr.

I hope I could make it soon in the future...

Flight ticket booked!

I've booked my flight ticket back to M'sia yesterday, hooray!
It has been one and a half year since my last visit to Malaysia and thus, I have decided to stay more than 3 weeks there.

Called home this morning just to tell my mum that I've confirmed my date flying back.
Seems like she was in a very good mood and we talked for 45 minutes.
I start thinking about what souviniers and presents should I bring back to M'sia.
Mum told me that dad is very fond of the little crystal ball that they bought in Germany last year.
Mum hanged one of the crystal ball in the living hall and it looks impressively pretty when the sunlight is reflected through the crystal on the wall.
So, I decided to buy another set of crystal balls for dad, maybe he can also give it away to other friends or relatives.

I have already got my cousine a cool Mini Cooper wireless mouse and my sister a pair of cute lil rabbit headset.
Honest speaking, nothing is cheap in Germany, especially those unique gifts.
Well, we do have to pay for creativity and esthetic creation, but I dont mind paying it as long as I am afford to do so and the receivers are happy with them.

There is nothing much to do at work and it worries me a little.
However, there is nothing better than counting down the date of reunion with my love ones!

Old memories

Woke up at 8:30 am and picked up my parcel at post office after breakfast.
I've ordered a red mini-cooper wireless mouse for my cousin as his birthday present.
It costs me about 50 EUR, but I don't care because precious moments are pricessless.
(However, the product slightly dissapoint me because it doesn't really meet my expectation. It just looks nice on the ad, but in fact the quality isn't as good as it seems... )
I really enjoy seeing the scene when  joy written all over the faces of those who I love.
That's the reason why I am willing to spend more money for buying presents instead of purchasing something for myself.
Giving out gifts brings me lots of joy and the happiness doubled.

At 10 am I started to vacumm the cellar, ground floor and first floor.
I didn't do any further cleaning up jobs but the vacumm alone took up one and a half hour!
Somehow some old memories before CNY conjure up...
As kids, we used to help our mother CNY preparation.
We wrote greeting cards, decorated our house with red packages and any CNY-related articles, wiped the dusts, cleaned our rooms etc. etc.
I can still remember how the task of changing cushion covers revulsed me...
But now I miss those days and I really hope that I can offer my mum a helping hand now!

Mum seemed to be under stress whenever CNY is approaching.
We couldn't help her preparing the plentiful complicated NY eve dinner, so we always tend to behave ourselves so that mum wouldnt have a chance to erupt. XD
The weather is usually incredibly hot during CNY.
On the first day of CNY, we would visit our dearest aunt who just lives 2 blocks away from us.
In the afternoon, we would drive back to our grandma's house and there we met the whole bunch of relatives (which consist of 10 uncles and aunts, uncountable cousins!)

I tried to avoid friends gathering whenever I could.
It is not that I dont like my fellows, but they visited from house to house doing nothing but gambling...:(
I dont like gambling and we have nothing much to talk about except their jabberwockies...
I prefer to stay at home watching TV, enjoying NY delicacies with my family.

It is sad to think about that....I couldnt even have a CNY eve dinner with them, my heart aches.
Hubby would say it is up to me whether to fly back to CNY, but since I have my own job here, I cant be that wayward and simply proceed on what I like to do. I am no longer a little girl, I have various roles to play in my life.

Deep in my heart, I have make a wish.
If I have my own child in the future, I would like to bring my child back to Malaysia during CNY until he or she admit school....

Friday Night but No Fever

Thanks God, it's Friday!
But my weekend makes no different for me since hubby is away for his scout activity from Friday to Sunday night.
Actually we stay at home most of the time during weekend especially in winter, (maybe just for a brisk walk to the nearest backery to savour a piece of cheese cake) but I feel comfotable with his companion, even though we are doing our own chores.

Feel like going out for a coffee? I don't want to disturb friend's family day. Furthermore, except Connie I don't feel like contacting any other friends in Munich.
Feel like going out for shopping? I'm sure the tour will end up in vain because I am too indecisive, and the main reason is, I am ALONE.
Feel like going out for a walk? Gee...my body automatically recoil from the piercing cold weather.

So, I decided to do some winter cleaning at home just to kill my time.
It is again another week, time flies like an arrow and sometimes I think that I am wasting so much time by being simply uproductive...

register for postal vote

It surprised me when I came across an article posted by somebody in FB, knewing that I am actually allowed to apply as postal voter for the coming general election.
I have to admit that I am quite ignorance when it comes to politic, not even sure whether this is the first time our government agreed to "grant" us, those oversea Malaysians, the right to vote by post.

First of all, I have to fulfill three conditions which I think they are reasonable.
1. I must be a Malaysian (which means I am holding Malaysia passport)
2. Already a registered voter. (To be honest, I just voted for once, but the matter helps me to fulfill this particular condition)
3. I had been in Malaysia for not less than 30 days within 5 years. (why 5 years, because the last election was held 5 years ago)

However, it seems like today is not my day.
After filling up the form, I tried to fax it, but it doesnt work.
Then I tried to scanned it and decided to email it, but the scanned pages turned out to be blank.
Argg..!!! When it comes to technology, seems that I dont have much chance on it.

Sunday jaunt - Geocaching

It was a fun family outing despite the chilling minus 4 Celcius weather!
Hubby gave Papa a not-too-cheap GPS device as birthday and Christmas present 2 years ago hoping that Papa will have some fun with it.
Unfortunately Papa hasn't have the chance to operate it and of course, he hasn't explore the fun of using it.
So, hubby decided to organise a 'Geocaching' day out with him by using GPS system.

Geocaching becomes one of the famous outdoor activities here in Germany.
It is kind of treasure-hunt like activity which doesn't cost you anything, yet brings lots of excitement and joy for the participants.
According to Wikipedia, Geocaching is first played in May 2000.
To start your mini venture, you need to register yourself at the website (which is free of charge) and look for the places where the 'treasure' is located.
There are different levels and we choose the easiest one in the vicinity of our house.
The more difficult levels require participant to solve some questions.
The easiest one functions like following:

After we have choosen the location, we got a coordination code which shows the exact location of the treasure.
We simply need to go there and look for the treasure.
For beginners, you can also look it up in Google Maps before you go and hunt for it without GPS device.
It wasnt as easy as we though, but since it was the easiest level, we were still able to find it out within half an hour.

The so called treasure is actually a little Tupperware box which contain a lot of other small things which left by the former participants who found it.
There is also a small notebook where all the participants who successfully completed their task write down their name and date as memory.

I was the one who found the box. :)
It was hidden in a hole between 2 big trees covered with leaves and snow.
We are glad that both Papa and Mama were content with the game and family outing....

Upset

Today morning I offered hubby a helping hand translating a few short german passages into english.
It was a scout meeting protocol drafted by Julia and it wasn't difficult at all to understand it even in the original language.
However, the translation has upset me when I realised that I couldn't produce a proper text in english!
Even the infamous Google Translate seems to offer better suggestions than what I thought.

I was so demotivated since language is my only skill I possess. (Feel ashame as typing this line though...)
Everybody consoles me. saying that it is totally normal because I am living in a foreign country which dont require any use of english.
I dont feel any better, even tough I know it is simply a "normal" phenomen.

Oh je, Saturday morning, and I realise my english is retrograding...

Listen!

The video of domineering Miss Listen and brave Uni student Miss Bawani goes viral in internet unexpectedly and now becomes the hittest topic in the town.
The arrogant and aggresive attitude of the female speaker Miss Listen exasperates lots of Malaysian and they demanded Miss Listen to apologise to Miss Bawani (which I think on no account will she yield to the pressure from outside).

The lecture was held by one of the student domitories in UUM discussing some political outbreaks and the role of Uni student in political field.
Bawani, a second year law Indian student, was irritated starting from the beginning of the lecture since the speaker considered Bersih Rally as illegal and despised the supporters of Bersih.

During Q and A section, Bawani raised some questions and the speaker Sharifah tried to stop her from speaking by demanding her to "listen", which Sharifah repeated for not less than 10 times according to the video.
Bawani refused to bow to Sharifah and keep continuing asking her question.
Her act has obviously annoyed Sharifah who has very low EQ and even under the watchful eyes of all audiences Sharifah snatched the microphone from Bawani.

I wonder how could people (bitch) like Sharifah who respect a foreign word for her is qualified to be a lecturer or speaker on this kind of events.
Feel ashamed of those rude and aggresive reactions from Sharifah!

KL112 Rally

Heard that the People's Uprising Rally KL112 ended in peace and without violence.
Downtown KL is swamped by about 100 thousand participants which consists of people from all walks of life without taking ages, races, religions, cultures, backgrounds and etc in to account.

I'm greatly touched and impressed by those photos uploaded by the participants in FB.
Although I am not able to present myself there physically, but I am always with those who strive after a cleaner and fairer government, both mentally and spiritually.


The unprecedented success of Rally KL112 shows that our people (including myself) have finally awaken to the corrupted and errant government.
Thanks to advanced technologies and uncensored net, we are no longer blindfolded by main streamed media and government. That's why the rally is named as "People's Uprising".

We love our country and we long for a healthier living environment not only for ourselves but most significantly for the younger generation.
We love our country, we can't bear to see our country goes south. Therefore we want a change.

These are the 10 declarations and objectives of KL112 Rally

10-point declaration

The #KL112 rally, also called the Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat or the People's Awakening Rally, has 10 major objectives.  They are:

1. A call for clean, fair and transparent elections with a free and independent press

2. A call for the prestige, image and reputation of FELDA to be saved by guaranteeing its agricultural role in the economy and the land ownership of the settlers.

3. Fair treatment and allocations to Sabah and Sarawak vis-a-vis Peninsular Malaysia

4. 20% of oil royalty to be returned to the producing states

5. To raise professionalism, assure welfare and protect the future of civil servants including teachers and the armed forces

6. A call for a green environment that is clean and wholesome

7. A call for the national language to be supported, vernacular language to be preserved and standards of English to be raised in the education system, with free education for all Malaysian citizens.

8. A call to free all political detainees who have been unfairly imprisoned

9. A call for all traditional villages and places of heritage to be preserved, protected and defended

10. A call for a better lifestyle for women as promised in the Agenda Wanita Malaysia (The Malaysian Women's Agenda)

Looking back and moving forward

I seem to have a very selective recall of past events in 2012.
But one thing I can be sure of is,  the older I am, the more oblivious I have become.

Looking back on the past year, I am very grateful for what I have been given and what I have achieved, even though they are not worth mentioning.

Parents in the town!

The biggest acheivement of the year of 2012 was that my parents were here in Germany!

The word "gratitude" cant even describe how I feel towards my dearest sister for her financial, mental and physical support. She is such a darling although we were not that close during our childhood and teenage time. Since I am married and have settled down in Germany, we are getting closer thanks to modern technologies.
I always feel a twinge of guilt whenever I thought about my sist because it seems like I've never stand up for her when we were young and I didn't carry out my duty well enough as an elder sister.
However, I know she will understand and we love each other.

Last but not least, I'm particularly grateful to my hubby for his patience and support.

About Health 

I was healthy throughout the year despite some small harmless illness.
I visited my gynaecologist accompanied by Con for the very first time in my life.  Everything is OK.
In August, I finally bought a digital scale with body fat measurement which I've longed for for a long time. (and I "sucessfully" maintain my weight at about 55kg + -)

Work, work, work

Did 7 intercultural trainings in 2012. Actually I am getting used to it and I love the task, just that sometimes I can't express myself exactly by using German. Luckily most of the participants are friendly and nice to me.

Zhong Wen Guan remains more or less the same.
This year I have another problematic student Oliver who still owes me 220 Euro for over half a year.
Since I have taken lesson from 2011 (I was so angry about that brazen bastard that time), this time I react calmly and peacefully. Well, this is just some money (material) that I can earn back in the future, why should I fret away my life with those kind of trivial thing?

Rooms for improvement

~ Bestow less time to unpredicatable and uncertain future.
~ Laziness has made my english and german lag behind! Of course english is the worse case since I hardly use it and need it in my daily life. I've decided to join some german courses if I am able to get a suitable one. I hope I am able to write at least once a month an english blog like this, just to brush up my english...
~ I should do more exercises and live a healthier life. More water, vege and fruits!

God bless Japan

Evil befall Japan in 2011.
9.0 magnitude Earthquake, followed by Tsunami which caused a 10-M high waves, claiming thousands of lifes. Now people are dread facing the radioactive substances as a result of the explosive nuclear power plant in Fukushima.

Since the radiation is invisible to the naked eyes, people do not really realise how harmful it can be.
Europeans, especially those from the East, are levelheaded in this case, because they know exactly what is happening, since they experienced the deadliest nuclear leak in Chernobly in 1986.

God bless Japan.
Hopefully those victims will rest in peace, and the survivors will be soon free from the suffer and leave the inferno.
Disaster bereaves us of our loves one, but can never carry away our hope and our unflinching will to live on....

Chinese New Year 2011

The night before CNY, as my family members were sitting around the table having great time over the reunion dinner; I sat demurely in my office,patiently waiting for the next student to ring on my door bell.

For some instance, I do regret for not being able to join them.
(Na, the older you are, the more you are burdened with those so-called "responsibilities"!)
However, the presents and messages that I recieved from my family and friends have consoled me and warmed my heart.
Even though I am physically and geographically apart from them, but they never ever forget my existaece.
It is a mercy to be remembered and to be blessed with all of the good words which sent from the bottom of their hearts.

If I am allowed to make a wish during this special occasion, I sincerely wish all of my family members and friends stay healthy and be positive.
Without health, we are just like birds without wings, no matter how beautiful and amazing the world and the preople are, we wouldn't happen to experience them, to learn them, to know them.

My (chinese)new year resolution, hehe:
~ live a happy and healthy life;
~ work hard (and earn more money of course);
~ to be more optimistic and take problems easily;
~ improve and brush up my german and english!

Kandlerwirt in Oberbiberg

It is a lovely sunday as the sky is as blue as sapphire and the atmosphere is so clear that we can even see the mountains from far away.
It is somehow amazing to see blue sky without any cloud. So pristine!
Actually it has stop snowing since Christmas. Sometimes it snowed, but just for less than an hour and the snow melted away immediately.
I never feel comfortable stepping on muddy roads and puddles, (guess nobody will like it)I rather stay at home having a cup of coffee even I don't have to work sometimes.
I somehow feel relief to be able to dodge the chilling winter, however I miss the beautiful crystalised snow flakes at the same time.
Yes, I know my feelings contadict each other, but this is what I really feel.



We met Olli and his wife, Jule, also their 2 kids David (3 and a half yrs old)and Jonas (1 and a half) at Kandlerwirt at 13:15pm.
We were a bit late and the Casper family was already there when we arrived.
I like the Caspers very much, they are both friendly and keep laughing and smiling all the time.
Olli is hubby's old pal who spent most of their youthhood in boy scout's activities together.
They travelled through some European countries when they were 17 or 18.
Olli owns a computer company and isn't active anymore in boy scout group.

The food was palatable but I was too shy to snap them.
Oh yeah, thumbs up for the choices as well.
The restaurant is not a normal restaurant which provides certain kind of standard meals.
Since they rear their own livestock, you can get meals cooked with beef, veal, mutton, porks and etc.
I had 2 big pieces of tender juicy veal cutlets,while hubby voted for grilled mutton which looked really tempting. I was totally content with my food.
Olli went for grilled veal and Jule ordered Roulade.
Each of the meal came with a plate of fresh salad and a big portion of vege dumpling.
In Europe, seems like salad makes an excellent complement to any dish.
After a satisfying lunch, Jule was craving for dessert.
Hubby and I opted out since we were totally stuffed with our lunch.
Instead of cake, we ordered coffee.

For me, it was a luxurious weekend.
We dined out twice this week and cost us almost 70 Euro for 2 meals.
But since hubby never complaint about that, I will of course pretend to be alright with it. Haha!



After lunch, we took a walk around the small village.
The village is small, yet serene and peaceful.
I am sure those village kids will have a wonderful unforgettable childhood living here.
Sometimes I do think of living at the countryside and go for a very simply life.
But I dare not say that I will be satisfy with this kind of life.
No more dining out? (ok, not to exaggerate, maybe once or twice a month)I couldn't imagine.
I would like to keep my job, but I will definitely refuse to drive an hour car just to get to work.



It was a wonderful day, but I feel somehow down because my weekend is going to end now...
Monday Blue, argh..hate it!