Weird habit

I proudly declare my love for drinking hot chocolate out from a bowl with a spoon.

Just like how people drink soup, but I drink hot chocolate.

For some reason, hot chocolate just taste better out of a bowl to me.

Oddball.

Why some men will always stay single.

Hello readers, this cracked me up in the midst of mundane exam studying, so I hope it brings some laughter to your day too!

Please read decription below before listening:

(Taken from this website, I did not write any of it)

The story is this: a girl was out with friends having drinks on King St (in Toronto ). This guy approaches her and won't leave her alone -saying how cute she is. She finally gives in and hands the guy her business card to get rid of him.
The attached is an MP3 file of not one, but TWO voicemails this guy left. This goes down in the history books - especially the second voice mail.
After hearing them you can clearly see why she didn't call him back - instead she called in to the Z103.5 morning show & had them play this on the air.






So, why do some men stay single? Well, honestly, I don't know. But in this particular case, it is pretty obvious.

This serves as a warning to all the girls out there, men like these exist!! Remember the voice. HAHA.

Spot on

(Credits to http://www.demotivation.us/).

Break a leg

A very good friend is having his string quartet composition performed live for the first time today!

Best of luck.

Happy hour

Slurping a caramel frappucino from Starbucks. With cream of course.

The best part is, its half priced! I love Starbucks happy hour.



Found a song with the most amusing name ever, its called 'Eat shit and die' by Electric President. Surprisingly, the song wasn't bad at all.

Exams starts in two days. Ready for war!


Related links:
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=3213714

The ruling of the wealthy

Good morning from London! Started the morning with some news reading on the BBC website and found something that made me fueling with anger.

Extra England university places for wealthy considered

England is turning into a disgusting monster of elitism. First an increase of tuition fees of up to three folds and now this!?

Of course, I can regard this as good news to me, as it dramatically cuts down local competition for highly skilled jobs, but this is fundamentally unjust to working class youths that cannot afford a tertiary education!!!

I myself have been through the whole disheartening (but luckily successful) hunt for financial sponsorship for university, and I can imagine how most average high school students would feel dejected by these extra hurdles. And many would falter and give up.

How can the wealthy be permitted to buy their way into a university???

Why should they be given unfair advantage over the other students? Solely because their parents are richer than others?

Where is the academic integrity that education institutions pride themselves upon?

Also, students from outside EU would no longer be eligible for any grants and loans, so to this in particular,

GO TO HELL!

Related articles

• Fees 'putting off students' (lv.com)

Parental guidence advised: Do not read if you are under 18

TOLD YOU SO.

Double standards that we embrace

First, read this:

Rules for Killing Rogues - By Victor David Handson


This was what exactly what went through my mind with I first heard of Osama's death.

So it is morally justificable and rejoiceable to assassinate your opponents when Obama does it? The success of this operation was seen as Obama's greatest achievement of his presidency to date and welcomed with utter jubilation by most of the world.

The right thing to do, would be to capture bin Laden alive and put him on trial. Although this means more debates and conflict on the legislation front, that could go on for years. I guess the Democrats would prefer to finish this bin Laden filecase that has been sitting on their tables for 10 years, and focus on winning the upcoming elections.


Hypocrisy right in our faces! This further proves that there are no real moral standards in this world, people just hear what they want to hear.

Do not stand at my grave and weep

Great poem by Mary Elizabeth Frye about death, or rather, immortality. Enjoy!

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.

AHHHH! Here comes the fart!

11th January in history

The legendary Bing Crosby records one of his first hits – “Ol’ Man River” – with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra.

This was the beginning of Amelia Earhart’s solo flight trip across the Pacific. She was the first person to ever have flown across these waters by herself.

China and the United States signed a treaty that ended extraterritorial rights in China.

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bla
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bla
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and loads of other stuff
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but only one thing that happened on 11th January that really made an impact in my life.








The Legend was born, a.k.a. Choo Geng Qian!








Thanks for being such an amazing friend + expedition mate. I really wouldn't know how to cope with ** without you!!

Eventhough you farted in my face, I still love you. Haha!

Eh, a skype gossip session is in order! Tell me when you free you busy woman. Tried to call you the other day but you weren't picking up :(


And sorry for the late post XD



Lastly,


HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!


祝你

心想事成
买马票，中头奖
青春美丽
天天都开心
白头偕老
不要太想我


还是想我好一点

Marvelous words

Hi readers, what are you doing this Tuesday evening?

I want to share with you something I came across today. Some exceptional writings/poems by Siegfried Sassoon. It got me reading it a few times over. I hope you will like it as much as I do.

'I keep such music in my brain
No din this side of death can quell
Glory exulting over pain
And beauty, garlanded in hell'


' He was a consolation which grew to a spontaneous existance in my thoughts, and remained with me unfalteringly until gradually merged in the human presences which superceded him.'
- Extracted from 'Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting man'.

Have a good day.

Of peddlers, ceilings and tea

We wanted something different, somewhere to get away from the cold, where we won't see another similar looking cathedral. (I don't care if it is claimed to be the biggest, grandest or whatever-est cathedral, they all look the same. Except La Sagrada Familia of course, which looks like a melted wax candle).

So us four girls decided to step foot onto AFRICA. Yeah babeh, we spent 10 days in the Kingdom of Morocco.

First stop was Fez. We arrived late evening and took a taxi straight to our riad. (Riad = Hostel/hotel).

This riad is seriously the most luxurious 'hostel' that I have slept in. All my student travels have been spent in 6 bed dorms. But this is exclusive, only the four of us.


A four poster queen sized bed. Slightly too romantic in our opinion, but never the less, very nice.




Check out the ceiling of our room! This is outrageous.




After we dumped our bags, oogled at our beautiful ceilings, and snapped some photos, we went out to hunt for food.




Staple food for Moroccans - Cous cous. With chicken and vegetables. This is yum.




Pastilla. A savory filling of shredded chicken, nuts, and loads of other ingredients, all wrapped in a crispy pastry sprinkled with cinnamon and icing sugar. It was rather bizarre tasting dish. Didn't finish it.




Lovely kebab with their awesome homemade chips! Moroccan restaurants all sell chips that taste like how mums would make them at home. Lovely.




Washed it all down with a glass of mint tea, another Moroccan tradition.



Quickly walked around the old medina, and headed back to the riad for a good night's rest.



Next morning, had breakfast at the riad.




And headed out to get lost in the huge maze of narrow streets and specialty shops, called the old medina.




The most hazardrous transport in the old medina. Better watch out.




The array of things they sell are too much to handle, carpets, paintings, leather bags, blankets, spices.





The peddlers are often very loud and will try very hard to get you to look at their goods. It was quite a daunting experience.

Morocco is famous for leather goods. This is a tannery, where they clean the skins.






Some finished products for display.




Stopping for tea after walking




The main entrance of the old medina




Voted as photo of the day!

It a new year.... once again

If there is one word to describe my expectations for year 2011, it is
UNCERTAINTY.

In fact, so uncertain that I cannot have any expectations for it at all.

First of all, I would be graduating next year in July. That at least I hope would be a fact that I can say for sure.

But what after?


A job? but what, where and when?

What job would I want to commit myself to at least for the next 2 years? One thing is for sure, I want it to be something that I enjoy, but again, what do I enjoy!?!

Malaysia or England? or perhaps Singapore? This doesn't really matter, each place has its pros and cons. Though England would be most less likely of all, considering circumstances.

Gap year? no gap year? Mum definitely says noooooo. Perhaps a compromise gap *half year* would do!


Post graduate? Still in consideration, the biggest question is Masters in what! Definitely not risk, and statistics related. Perhaps Philosophy, Sociology or Psychology. No, I am just kidding myself, I'd never be able to produce a 10,000 word dissertation. But then again, if I don't try, how would I ever know?


Starting from July 2011, I would be diving into the unknown. What is in store for me????


Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining and not at all negative about it.

After all,
What is life without some excitement of the unknown?


May everyone have a great and exciting year ahead!!! Happy new year.




Love,
Chee Huan.

Preview: My Moroccan adventure!

I just returned from Morocco two days ago!
It was one adventure filled with sand, colours and Moroccan people.
Will blog about it later :)

A little taster nevertheless.

Review: Jonsi's gig at Hammersmith Apollo

*New post on my expedition is below the post 'How to build a kindergarten'*

With all the bombardment of the blog with my expedition stories, I thought it would be good to share a little of what I have been up to lately.

The truth is, my life have been pretty much a routine ever since I got back to London. Right now, I am busy with my part time job and studies, so thats the two things that I spend most time on. Of course not to mention all the mindless internet surfing and facebooking in between!

So last Friday after work, I went to hammersmith apollo to see Jonsi perform live. Jonsi was the guitarist and vocalist for the Icelandic post rock band, Sigur Ros. He has a solo career now and released an amazing album called 'GO' last year.


Check out his use of cello bow on the guitar! Awesome.



Jonsi isn't typically the kind of music I listen to, but after Andy introduced his songs to me 2 months ago, I was hooked to his falsetto voice and very intense emotion of his music.

Here's a little taster of his live act.

'go live' preview from Jónsi on Vimeo.

The concert started off with the opening act of some band from Canada. It was pretty disasterous in my opinion. The music wasn't too bad, as it bear some resemblence to the experimental genre, but the male vocal was not up to par and worst of all, is extremely Elvis Presley inspired.

An hour after the opening act, Jonsi finally made an appearance with an unreleased song. Unfortunately, I do not know the name of the song, but I do know that I loved it. The main instrument was the acoustic guitar and Jonsi's soothing voice was a perfect start to the evening. Updated. The song was 'Stars in still water'.

He went on the perform several more unreleased numbers and those from his album 'Go', each one better than the previous. I was particularly looking forward to my favorite song from the album, 'kolniður', however, I was slightly disappointed as somehow, as it didn't come across as powerful as I expected it to be.

But he made a come back with 'Around us' and blew us all away with the last number 'Grow till tall'. A combination of the images projected in the background, flashing lights, and increasingly thumping beat of the last part in 'Grow till tall' made everything so intense to take in. It was definitely mind blowing for me, and I believe, many others in the concert hall would agree with that. All along the concert, I could see several heads bobbing to the music and I found myself tapping my foot to the beat too.

The performance left me with goosebumps all over and a big smile on my face. I will definately look forward to another Jonsi live performance in the near future.

He will be performing in Japan, Seoul, and finally his home country Iceland next. So for those who are in the cities, do attend as it would be well worth every penny.

Here's an incredibly powerful and beautiful song, Kolniður:



Have you experienced the power of Jonsi's or Sigur Ros's live performances? Do share them with me in the comment box!

How to build a Kindergarten

*New post underneath this post!

Here is what we did for all 3 phrases in Raleigh expedition.

Photos were taken by my project manager. She took the photos everyday from the same angle at different times of the day (18minutes later each day), so it has the effect of a kindergarten building up in the span of one day.

Yes, I am proud to say, we made a difference.

Music composed by a fellow venturer, Andy C, while in Borneo.

My Raleigh story in Photos (Part III)

Hello dearies! I feel a sudden urge to upload some more photos of my expedition on this lovely Sunday afternoon. The weather is rapidly getting colder day by day, its already snowing loads up north, so I just pray that it doesn't reach London! When people get older, they no longer do snow fights, thus the only thing left with snowing is the horrid slippery roads when the ice melts.

A big sorry to my expedition mates, especially GQ, for the long delay for phrase 2 and 3 photos. By the way, I am debuting my Phrase 2 photos right here, so that means the blog readers get to see my photos first hand! Yippee :) Some exclusivity huh?

Here goes:

Phrase 2 - Environmental project at Sepilok

Our job - Complete the boardwalk for the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Center.

FYI, the Sun Bear is an endangered species found primarily in Southeast Asia. They are the smallest species in the bear family and can be identified through the distinct white patch on their chest. Like every human has unique finger prints, no two white patches are the same.


These bears face threats of extinction mainly due to deforestation and illegal poachers. The Sun bear conservation center (SBCC) takes in baby sun bears (most of their mothers have been killed by poachers), rehabilitate them, and set them free into the wild when the bears are ready to feed themselves.

As part of their awareness raising campaign (and fund raising), they are opening a visitor center somewhere in year 2011. Thus, my team was there for 3 weeks to help build a boardwalk leading to the visitor center.

Our home (Jungle Camp as we call it) is a 45minutes walk + trek to the worksite. So lots of walking involved everyday!




This is our worksite when we found it. The frame was made by teams from the last expedition.



We started by finding used wood that is usable, and started debolting them. Debolting is the most tedious part of the project! I can still rmb wrestling with the spanners to get them out of the extremely rusty bolts. Not fun.

Then it went on to drilling. Not an easy job, but friendships bonded along the way (lets say lots of girl chat was involved in the process)




We had unexpected visitors in Jungle camp one day.



Thats just one of them by the way. There were 3 orang utans that swung by that day! They were rehabilitated by the nearby orang utan center and released into the wild after that. So, technically, these were wild orang utans we were seeing!

Some days later, one alpha male orang utan actually CAME IN to our dining area and started trashing about the place, in the presence of GQ, J-Mo, Nabo and Tomnus (No, these are not their real names, just nicknames)! Argh, why wasn't I there too!!??

We also decided to organise a fancy dress party to spice up our time in Sepilok! I have never been involved in any kind of costume party before, so here goes my debut costume.



Hmm, you'd probably not be able to guess what it is, so I will just tell you. I intended to be a Malay warrior! Well, I do look vaguely like one, you have to at least give me credit for the glamorous head gear, sarung, and ultra tanned skin, no?

Loved Mica's 3 leaves idea, and Nils 3 bowls costume that reminds me of Mr.whatshisname in one of Enid Blyton's books! FYI, he is a character with saucepans of different sizes and colours hung around his body, and he never remembers his name, so people just call him whatshisname!

On the last day, we held an opening ceremony for our bridge, complete with red ribbon cutting (in our case, AWAS tape cutting) and our very own awards ceremony!



I was awarded the 'BEST CHEENIUS'. Justified, I would say :)

My Raleigh story in Photos (Part II)

Hello readers! Sorry for the stagnant state of my blog, but I have been extremely busy since coming back to London. Have been bogged down by settling in my new flat, getting internet connection, finding a part time job, and of course, studying (To be fair, I haven't been doing much of it since term started XD).

Finally, I got the camera cable from my brother (since I left mine back in Malaysia), so here are some selected photos of phrase 1! Its only a selected few, for more photos, please check out my facebook. For phrase 2 and 3, I am debuting my photos here, so stay tuned!

Phrase 1 : Kindergarten project at Kampung Maliau Layung

This village is located at Pitas district in Sabah. Sabah is the poorest state in Malaysia, and Pitas is the poorest district in Sabah, so you can imagine la.

This is the first time Raleigh is working in the village. Thus, our team has the mission to complete the foundations of the kindergarten and break the ice between the villagers and Raleigh venturers.

This is the kampung.

And this is our work site. I took this photo after a few days of work, so you can see that most of the main poles are already up. We started with completely flat land with some tree stumps.

One week later, joices went in.

While we take a break.

By the third and last week, the floorboards went on and we took our breaks lying on the wooden platform.



Of course, its not all just construction work!

We also tried to teach some english to the kids.




Made giant dominoes game set with some extra help.




Some had a mudfight in the middle of heavy rain, which later became apparent that it wasn't a very wise choice at all because villagers pee and poo everywhere ;)




At the end of 3 weeks, the villagers organised a farewell party for us! Out comes the traditional gongs.




The traditional dance.




Before we left, we made sure to leave our mark.




Good bye Kampung Maliau Layung! I will be back soon :)