Which Disney Princess are you?

You are Pocahontas. You defy convention and sometimes do what is considered taboo. Unfortunately, others do not always appreciate your differences, so it's good that you are so strong-willed. You are loyal and you believe in fate. Your true love will find you one day.

I DO believe in fate :~)

Try the test.

It's Time...

Thoughts are swirling through her mind and she says "It's time to break free, It' time to move on, It's time to make a change. Now is the moment".

All that it takes is that first step, reach out your hand.

Break out of your old shell and become a new butterfly...

Does Love really change you? Or is it meant to...

Does love or being with another person really change you?

I've always love the saying that "You not only love the person that you're with, but you love who you are being with that person". So true, you want someone that brings out the best in you.

If you've always projected the image of someone strong, knows what he/she wants, career minded, do people tend to assume that you're probably the dominant one in the relationship? Comments like "I can't see you being happy to be a domesticated person, cooking and everything".

To a lot of people, you would still be maintaining a lot of the main characteristics of your personality. Hence, if you're the softer personality kind, you are more of a person who just wants someone to take care of you and make most of the decisions?

If that is the case, what about those who always project someone tough and driven at work? This is especially so for the females. I would think that if you always have to be tough and strong at work just to advance in your career, a lot of us would just want to be able to relax and let someone else take care of things.

I have a friend who is the cheery, a little loud and full of energy type. She always projects an image of someone who knows what she wants and knows where she is and need to be. Strong but not dominant personality, she can't imagine herself not working nor being the domesticated kind where the only things stimulating your mind is the household chores and taking care of the kids. You would imagine that when she is in love, she would stay the same. However, that particular someone who appeared in her life seems to have changed her. She is still the same person who knows what she wants and where she needs to be but her demeanor has changed. She has become softer, talks in a gentle tone instead of the animated one that we're used to. She can see herself being with this person and being really happy being a domesticated person. It wasn't a conscious change either, she said that it just came naturally.

Has love really change her? or has it just allowed that side of her to come out? Things with that person did not last and after a few months, she was back to what we know. She says that she has never felt like that about any other person before, and to date, has yet to find someone else who makes her feel that way.

Perhaps it's rare, to meet that special someone who you find changing some of your beliefs. Emotions that deep is probably like finding a rare diamond or only what you see in the movies.

I believe that it can happen, and what she had, the feelings so deep, the experience so rare, would not happen to everyone.

The same questions still lingers...

Is love meant to change you? Is it perhaps wrong to be with someone who changes your personality (perhaps to be more accurate, it should be said that it is more of a change in perception)? Many would argue that you should still be who you are, and that you're probably hiding a part of your personality being with that person and that is not right. Shouldn't we be looking for someone with similar perceptions to us? or how can it last if we are so different?

Is that really so? can't it be that you perhaps have never been able or never even knew that you had that side in you?

Love seems to bring out many different facets of us and in different ways. In the end, it is still a mystery...

What do you do when there are too many!

I've always felt that Malaysians are a fortunate bunch! We grow up immerse in a variety of languages that we pick up when we are young (always easier when your brain is not stuffed with too many things!).

When you were young, it was all about cartoons and comics (well, let me throw in books and novels in the bunch!). As you age with time, I find myself slowly becoming a permanent member of the "Couch Potato" club.

Now that wouldn't have been so bad if not for the fact that you can understand several languages. Suddenly, you are hit with firstly TVB series since you understand Cantonese, and then you have series from Taiwan and China due to your understanding of Mandarin, add huge splashes of western series such as "Lost", "Desperate Housewives", "Prison Break" etc....

How are you suppose to keep up to date with all these shows when you only have that many hours in a day! Not to mention that life can't be just about TV shows. So now you have to be able to squeeze in TV shows in 4 languages while having a rocking social life and being dedicated to work.

My oh my! Life is full of funny twists and puzzles aren't they?

Khalil Fong...HK's version of Jay Chou?

I came across an article recently that caught my interest. It says that there is a singer who is HK's version of Jay Chou. Now that seems to be a rather big call as Jay Chou is not only a singer, he is also a composer, director etc...

Khalil Fong (方大同） was born in Hawaii but grew up in Shanghai. He has been in the HK music industry for over 10 years and insists on only singing mandarin songs. He is known as a lyricist, composer, producer, arranger and performer. His songs have an R&B feel to it, hence the comparison to Jay Chou. He has also composed for many well known singers such as Jacky Cheung.

I have to say that he is not one of the best looking out there. Out of curiosity as to why I've not heard of him before, I got hold of his latest album "This Love" to have a listen to. He has 2 albums so far, 1st is "Soul Boy" and 2nd "This Love".

I didn't really like it on the first hearing. However, his music grows on you the more you listen to it. It definitely has a lot of R&B influence and the music arrangement is definitely not too mainstream. To add another notch, most of the songs in his album are composed by him. Some songs that I like are 春風吹之吹吹風, 歌手已模特儿 and 诗人的情人. His album is definitely worth listening if you want to try something different.

He has his own blog for those whom are interested.

Airport Rewards

I learnt something new after my travel to HK and Japan. "Always bring all your cards with you!"

I'm not much of a high flyer and know even less about airport lounges. However, you would be surprised at what sort of airport rewards you can get with your cards.

While waiting to board the plane at the HK airport to Japan, my sis's card allows her entry to a member's lounge where you get free shower, internet, lounges, snacks. Not to mention an exclusive salon where you can opt for either a 15 minute massage or free wash/blow dry! I happily trotted along to see if any of my cards will allow me a free wash/blow dry. Haha...which female would not want that when you have nothing else to do.

Of all cards that they accept, the only one out of all my cards that they accept is Diners which was the ONLY ONE which I chose not to bring with me as I didn't think that I would be using it being a Corporate card! Arrgh....so poor me was just waiting around the airport while my sis went in. Ha!

I couldn't believe that of all cards, it was my corporate one that had extra rewards.

Instant mental note : Bring all cards in the future.

Quote of the day

Got this in my email from a friend today and I thought that it was really meaningful...

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Dr. Seuss

Tea Ceremony

According to a website that I read about Japanese Tea ceremony, The Japanese tea ceremony (cha-no-yu, chado, or sado) is a traditional ritual influenced by Zen Buddhism in which powdered green tea, or matcha (抹茶), is ceremonially prepared by a skilled practitioner and served to a small group of guests in a tranquil setting.

While I was on Kyoto, my sis and I got a chance to experience one of these tea ceremony where we will be taught the ritual. If you are in Kyoto, go to the Gion Corner if you want to experience one of these classes.

We started out with all the utensils being placed like this.

After certain steps such as cleaning the bowl and utensils, we got to this stage where hot water was poured into the bowl with the green tea powder in it.

It is time to whisk away with the whisk and believe me, I was whisking away like crazy but somehow couldn't seem to whisk it the right way. Most of us in the class had to have the Japanese Lady whisking for us instead. After successfully whisking, the picture above shows how the texture is meant to be like.

After that, you can take one of the sweets on the right corner of the picture and eat it after which you drink the tea. That way, the bitterness of the tea is slightly sweetened. Why would the tea be bitter? That is because of the amount of water that was placed into the bowl is quite little, thus the green tea is highly concentrated!

Nice!

The weird thing was, the Japanese lady asked us after the class where we were all from and every single person on my table was from Australia. Freaky!

Just My Luck!

Was happily leaving work for home early for once today but somehow I missed my bus home by a mere 20 seconds. Had to wait another 15 minutes for the next one which was fine.

When the next bus arrive, I happily trotted on board. However, while the bus was going along the highway, the engine started to make weird noises and the bus just suddenly couldn't seem to take the weight and was really slow.

The bus ended up starting and stalling, starting and stalling in the middle of the highway while I can see cars zooming past us.

We must have been a funny sight to the other cars but it was so not amusing to the rest of us who are actually in the bus. Especially when everyone is trying to get home for dinner!

There was a collective sigh from the passengers when the bus finally heave its last breath and stopped!

The bus driver managed to revive some life back with some CPR and I finally managed to reach my stop to get off, but that wasn't before a later bus went past us though!

Sigh..I ended up getting home later than usual even though I left earlier.

Pumpkin Land??

It was a typical working day and I went out to grab some lunch in Chatswood when I saw this...


If you look at the destination sign on the bus, it says "Pumpkin bus"!
I wonder how Pumpkin Land looks like....
For anyone who is interested, please board Bus No. 130....any takers?