Korean Fever!

I've been downloading a lot of korean dramas recently. Last night, i've finished watching "Marry Me, Mary", also known as "Mary Stayed Out All Night". And like Santana from Glee said,

SO FREAKING CHARMING!

The things about korean drama that make me addicted to it are, because of the story plot is simple and i had a good time laughing watching from the beginning to the end. It's stress free drama. This is the kind of drama that i would recommend to young adults. I watch this with my 10 years old niece, and we had a good time laughing together. The only awkward moments were during the 5 secs smooches (top!), which make my niece blush. Well at least it's not like those passionate kisses from the Notebook movie.

Give it a peek, will you?

To watch visit here.

0.21 sec mind break

Mr. Bos is outstation, so i had a good fair amount of time to waste today. Found this video on the internet, check it out.



I thought those days are over?

Marriage?

So, this morning my colleague told me that one of our friend had registered to get married. The information was then of course, followed by a radioactive sensitive question, "when will you want to get married?". For this kind of questions, i have readily set a few conversation to distract the questioner, such as, "what?", "what do you mean?", "oh, really? did she...?", "no wonder she...", while i design a more appropriate answer to the question.

As much as i hate getting asked by that question, i seldom lie with my answer. Why didn't i get married? It's easy. It's because, i just don't want to. Maybe not yet, maybe not ever. Who know? For all i know, at the time being, i just don't feel like getting married. Is it very difficult to understand that?

The society view things differently. Their thinking is just as my mother's. A female's goal in life should be grow up to be a proper woman, get married, bear children (as many as possible), put kids to school and talk who got the smartest child, compare whose kid got the best job/ pay, whose kid marry a millionaire, whose the first to get grandchildren, and so on. It's a cycle.

So, unmarried at middle age, is basically a failure. I'm turning 30 this year. Alarms ringing everywhere. Even my 10 years old niece had asked me if i ever gonna get married. Can you see the tension i have to face everyday? Usually, when people asked me that 1 million dollar question, my answer would be one of the following;

1) I haven't found the One

(this is what i usually tell people that i don't often see)

2) I don't have enough money to get married

(this is what i tell friends, colleagues and relatives)

3) I just don't want to

(what i tell my family)

Sometimes i think that i maybe getting on life slower than some people do. I had my first crush when i'm 20 and first boyfriend when i'm 22. And you don't even wanna know when did i lose my ahem *clear throat* ..maidenhood. Which i come to regret until now. I should have save myself for marriage. Maybe that will give me reason to anticipate marriage more.

Another theory that i can think of why i'm late or behind in marriage business, is because i am on top of the education/ career hierarchy among my peers. Don't get me wrong, i'm not trying to boast. I just want to come out with explanations so my mother will be quiet. You see, 98% of my high school friends and 5% of my college friends were married. The rest are unmarried. So, when i'm went to my high school reunion i felt like a loser. But when i went to the college reunion i felt perfectly normal.

I'm not allergic to marriage, you know. And i'm not one of those people who have phobia towards commitment. I would love to get married someday. But not today, not tomorrow. Marriage is not something you can just throw your dice on. I believe it's something that you have to plan and work on. I have a lot of things on my plate before i can put marriage up for discussion. For instance, i haven't even see Paris. I haven't see the Machu Picchu. I haven't see sakura bloom.

So, when will i get married? Honestly, i don't know. But when the time comes, i will know. Just like Vera Wang answer when asked how a bride choose their wedding dress, she said,

"a woman just know"

Happy Valentine Day

Happy Valentine Day everyone. Here's a song for you to get into the mood.

It's by Beth Rowley, soundtrack from An Education movie.

I'm not celebrating Valentine this year. Mr. Boyfriend said that it's a waste of time. Plus, he claimed to be very busy nowadays. So, not gonna 'force' him to celebrate either. But i told him that he still need to give me present. I even give him guidelines on how to buy me a present. Something shinning or even better, sparkling. It should be wearable. And no, i don't want clothing. I owned a clothing boutique for God's sake.

In my defense, i see Valentine as a replacement for our Anniversary. We don't celebrate our Anniversary because we don't remember when we started going out. But i'm pretty sure that it is somewhere in 2006. It started out just a simple date done out of boredom. I just want to have fun and in my world, the word serious and relationship don't co-exist. But who knows what the future hold? Turned out that i'm still sticking with him until now.

Anyway, his arguments were, now we already had Birthdays, Chinese New Year, Christmas, and New Year to celebrate, next there'll be more to come when there's Mother's Day, Father's Day, Kids' Birthdays (who know?), Halloween and etc to celebrate.

Fair enough.

But then, there are 365 days in a year. Isn't life a bit tasteless if we were to anticipate only 5 personal celebrations in a year? Even the government gave us 16 days of public holidays a year. So, when the WHOLE world celebrating Valentine, should i turn on to my Robotic Mode instead? Ridiculous right? It's like you went to funeral wearing white when everybody else dressed in black. What are you trying to be? An angel or something? It's preposterous, right?

So, to all the Mr. out there, just go with the flow. There's no use to fight it. And Happy Valentine by the way.

Home sweet home

I miss home. I never knew what homesick feels like before, and now i'm on the boat. I have been hopping from hotel to another hotel for about 1 week now. 3 hotels, exactly. I like the 3rd hotel, called D'Northstar Hotel, which i've extended my booking for 2 more days. It's a new hotel, reasonable room rates, nice interior, plus, the television in the room is bigger than any hotel's television i ever encountered. So, any of you might want to visit Sandakan, please do yourself a favour, at least try check this hotel out. And yes, this hotel is located at Mile 4, so everything you need such as food, bank, karaoke, bar and etc is just within a walking distance. But then again, Sandakanians rarely walk, they'll still drive even if the destination is just 10 minutes of walking. The footpath along the roads are just for decoration. The only homo sapiens i ever saw walking on Sandakan's footpath are the tourists. Which is a wonder to Sandakanians.

Anyway, i have stayed at 2 hotels before i found this gem. And i would like to advise that it's best to avoid them. The 1st hotel is called Tyng Garden Hotel. As grand as the name can be, or how majestic the building can be, this is the time to tell you that, don't judge the book by it's cover. I only stay here 1 night. The hotel interior looks old and gloomy. It's actually a new hotel opened few years ago (4-5 years). I've stayed in this hotel 3 years ago and that time the hotel condition was still acceptable. I guess it turned to be like this because no proper maintenance. When i checked in there was only one receptionist at the counter. I tried to ask for queen bed but told only twin bed available. Later, i found out that the hotel's window leaking. No wonder the carpet smells funny. And did i tell you that this so called 3 stars hotel don't have any WIFI?

The 2nd hotel i chose was a new hotel called 1 Libaran Hotel. The room is spacious, pretty much all the basic stuff you need in a hotel is there. Not so much thoughts were put on decorating the interior. So for me, in terms of presentations and services, it is more like a hostel who charging you for a hotel price. And they don't even have workers to clean your room. I'm quite impress because they have installed a wall mounted LCD television in the room, but the channel selection very poor. For Godsake they have subscribed to Astro, why don't just put some HBO, or Cinemax, or Star Movies channel on? I checked out after 2 days staying here. I chose this hotel at first because it is the closest to home. And i wont even tell you how to reach this hotel, because it's not worth of your money. Seriously, let it go.

It's not like i would gain anything by recommending the D'Northstar Hotel to you. I don't even know the hotel owner. I just thought that it's a nice hotel and i want to share my experience. I'm sure there are more nicer hotel in the town area. Anyone who are fond of the sea should try the hotels at town. But i must warn you in advance, that you might find lots of rats along the coastline. Anyway, should you interested to check out the D'Northstar Hotel, here are ways on how to reach them. Telephone : +6089229977. Or emails nstar11@streamyx.com.

Anyway, the thing that i miss the most would be my cat. Luckily all the other cats i have send them home to my mother. Now i only have my bengal cat here with me. Now i only went home to see him twice a day, that of course that if he is home at that time.

I actually never give a name to my bengal cat. That's right, he doesn't have a name. The reason i don't gave him one because i never found a name that would suit him. So, if want to call him to come to me i just "meow". And do you know that bengal cat don't meow? Really. I just know that after watching Cats 101 on Animal Planet. At first, i thought my bengal is mute. He only make a strange sound, a "bark" according to the Animal Planet, when he see a prey. But after living with me for a year and mixing with other species of cats, he finally meowing. Yes, i now have a bengal who meow. But his meow was another issue, the sound of his meow is very strange, it's like out of tune for normal cat. It's just like that he copy my meow version. He rarely meow outside, he only does that when he is with me, or hungry.

I should be able to sleep at my apartment tonight. Mr. Boyfriend mentioned that he spotted few people looking at the fried distribution board this morning. Well, lets hope so.

My Series of Unfortunate Events

I had a series of bad luck at the end of last month and beginning of this month. Nothing major. Or shall i call it mini series of unfortunate events?

The first bad luck i encountered happened last week. It was raining non-stop for 3 days and some roads were flooded. And you think flood means stay home? No, hell no. In the company where i work, even when the tsunami hit our office i still have to come to work. So, going to work means i have to cross over 5 flood spot on the road. Good thing my car is a 4-wheel drive. But being able to drive though the flood doesn't mean my car's tyres is proof to puncture. The punc were 2 times, and each time 2 tyres involved. To sum up, last week i've had 4 punc repairs!

The second was having caught an ailment. Well, it's nothing serious. I would say it is just a mild illness. It's a cough, actually. You may see that coughing is rather a nasty habit than an illness, but the type of cough i have is so irritating that i just want to stay at home and be done with it. I seldom cough, but when the cough resurface it will be so difficult to get rid off. And did i mentioned that i attend a lot of meetings? Meeting + cough = Airplane + cough = Annoying. Still coughing at the moment.

Third, was seeing my nephew Arthur admitted to ICU for having a high fever and seizure at the same time. He is just 1 year old and have yet learn to walk. It just break my heart to see those little hands and legs were pierced by needles. The night i arrived home, he still laughing and playing. Then the next morning he was on the trolley, no shirt on, tubes all over his body, with his half closed eyes, and you know he's in pain. It's just a cruel sight. Not fair. Babies should not suffer like that. Maybe it was God's way of punishing the parents. Don't tell me there's a silver lining in this. God is just mean.

Lastly, which i hope it to be, last night i come back from my Chinese New Year holiday, returned to my rented apartment, only to find out that the electricity distribution board flamed up. The whole block has no power. In fact, my neighbour informed me that it has been like that for 3 days and neither the developer nor the power provider want to bear responsibilities and take action. My fridge smells like dead animal. My room feels like oven. So, what i do next was pick up my stuff and went to the nearest hotel. But i don't like staying in hotel even if it was presidential suite when my apartment is just 10 minutes away. I miss my bed, my tv, my computer, the piles of book besides my bed. In my apartment everything i need is just an arm away. Now in the hotel everything i need is 10 minutes away. Huge different. I feel like a stranger in Sandakan.

Does it get worser than this? Thinking of getting my self lime leaves this evening. Chinese beliefs that if you take bath in water soaked with lime leaves will wash away the bad luck. Whether it's true or not, i don't know. But it will not hurt to try this out.

Poem to soothe loss

Do not stand at my grave and weep,
I am not there, I do not sleep.
I am in a thousand winds that blow,
I am the softly falling snow.
I am the gentle showers of rain,
I am the fields of ripening grain.
I am in the morning hush,
I am in the graceful rush
Of beautiful birds in circling flight,
I am the starshine of the night.
I am in the flowers that bloom,
I am in a quiet room.
I am in the birds that sing,
I am in each lovely thing.
Do not stand at my grave bereft
I am not there. I have not left.

Mary Elizabeth Frye