My colleagues...my friends

Most of my friends claimed that they are unable to be friend with their colleagues. They said"They are just my colleagues...not friends...and it's impossible to be friends." Some of them claimed that they need to "wear mask" in their working place, they can't be their true self.
What has happen to this society? With the advance technologies surrounded us, the human relationship is not getting stronger but in fact...it is worsen. Too lazy? too shy? scared of being cheated?
I feel lucky that I can be myself in my working place. I met very great colleagues here and they are now all in my friends list. We share common interest, we care for each other, we are fun loving, we are honest...we try to work hard (not yet?), play hard (really :p).
We make fun of each other in work place, and we never get angry because of that. Our office always full with laughter (mine one especially) and this keep me move on although sometimes I am stressed with my jobs.
I look for real friendship and I make some very good friendship here.
Friends, cherish to our friendship and I LOVE YOU GUYS.

White Water Rafting ~ 26 & 27 Jul 2008

Me and a group of friends went for white water rafting at Sungai Sedim, Kulim on 26th Jul 08. It was the fisrt ever water rafting for me.
If you were to ask me to describe the trip, I would say only 3 words: IT WAS FUN!
We departed from Penang Island at around 7 something in Jul 26 morning after breakfast. Reached there at about 10. We started the rafting at 10:30 after some water confidence testing.
The white water rafting has five level. Level 5 is the toughest one and they call it Xtreme. We started with the level 5 on the first day. We were 5 in a boat - they call it raft. As the ideal number of people in a raft is 4, we ended up with one person sitting in the middle of the raft and became the backup rafter. We stucked for quite a number of times because the skipper said our raft is too heavy as too many people. But we managed to go through the hurdles after some bumping, forward, backward, etc. Our raft capsized for two times. The first time when it was capsized, my spec out of my eyes a bit but luckily managed to adjust it back. But I was not that lucky for the second time. My spec broke into two pieces after a big hit. I was almost drowning when the raft capsized, I told myself I must rescue myself as I still have my parents, my family, my friends,....and there are lots of things I haven't done and experience. I told myself to calm down, practice yoga breathing and managed to do that finally. Thanks god. :) Everyone are fine. :) I was almost blind after the second capsized as my power is 500 something and I cannot see thing clearly if I didn't wear spec. We took about 4 and a half hours to finish the hardest level.
Everyone were thinking not to continue to raft the second day, i.e. level 1 to level 4. Luckily the skipper managed to build the confidence level of everyone after some conversation. To me, the confidence came back after the conversation. But it lost again the next day due to 2 major reasons:
1. I can't see clearly without my spec
2. my period came the second day
So at last, I decided not to raft the second day. But then luckily the skippers there allow us (who are not raft) to follow the landrover along the journey so that we can see how our friends raft and can take their pictures.
Things to remember:
1. never panic
2. stay calm
3. ALWAYS rescue yourself (but don't worry, the skippers are always there to rescus you. But you, yourself have to rescue your own. Meaning trust yourself you can rescue yourself and others can rescue you)
4. listen to the skipper's instruction
5. have good teamwork among the rafters
6. last but not least, HAVE FUN.

Being a traveller, not just visitor

I love travelling, and I'm sure there are many people out there love travelling as well.

Nowsdays, young people prefer backpacking rather than just follow the tour. By backpacking, you can feel the journey much better.

I had my first backpacking last year, my destination is Taiwan. Taiwan is easier to me as the national language there is mandarin and the taiwanese are very friendly and helpful. It was a memorable travel experience for me. Although we need to plan everything ourselves and sometimes we were lost, but definitely everything is worth.

My personal thought is that you can feel the place better if you being a traveller, not just the visitor. What's the difference? To me, being a traveller is to establish a communication channel between you and the people there. With this, we the travellers are closer with the country and can see their culture better. Being a visitor, like follow a tour, sometimes I feel that you just follow the destination chosen and you can't really select which place that you want to go. You just visit the places that have been chosen under the package and most of the time, we just spend time in shopping (which we can do in Malaysia obviously) and spend a little time in other activities.

The conditions to become a backpacker are:
1. you must have a good preparation on the place that have been chosen, like the accomodation availability, transportation, culture, etc
2. you must not have language barrier for the place that have been chosen
3. the people that will travel with you, at least there is someone who has good sense of direction and if possible all share common interest

I will think the people who is going to travel with you plays the most important role. It is not the place that is the most important, but the people who will have the biggest impact. Imagine if you travel to a place twice, the feeling will be different eveytime you travel with different people.

Try to be more adventurous, being a travellers, not just a visitors.

My laptop

My laptop crashed after I installed a program that is mandatory for my company. I heard from the IT guys that a lot of computers and laptops crashed after they installed that program.

Haiz....finally my laptop being sent to ICU - Intensive Care Unit.

I hope this case won't happen again to me, anyone in the same company.

Beatrice Hsu Wei Lun

Time flies, Wei Lun has passed away for more than a year.

Wei Lun is one of my favourite artist. I like the way she treat people and her talent in music and acting.

Wei Lun treat people with heart and make friends around. She has a cheerful and wonderful laughter that make people around her very happy. I like the way she smile.

Wei Lun is very talented. She learn music since her childhood. She know how to play piano, harp, guitar, drums, and erhu.

One of Wei Lun's dream is to get married before she reach 30 years old. So, I attached a picture of her in wedding gaun. She looks awesome in this picture.

Wei Lun, rest in peace and you will be the angel in your fans heart.

Starbucks

I'm not a coffee lover, but I certainly visited this shop for a number of times.

There is a shocking news recently about Starbucks. They have decided to close down 600 over branches due to economic down turn in US. Imagine a branch have 10 workers, then approximately 6,000 workers have became unemployed. :(

There are tones of people out there complaining that they need to work in order to earn a living...that's includes me. (honestly) I think with this news, we should start to appreciate what we have. Although working life is not enjoyable, but most importantly we are EMPLOYED. Even though we didn't make any big contribution to the society, but we are still contributing....and we will definitely get recognised. With this, we know the existence of ourselves and feel good.

Few months back, my manager told us that she was thinking to get the franchise from Starbucks last time...the time before Starbucks have its first shop in Malaysia. But at that time, people tease her that there is no one in this world that going to consume a cup of coffee at this price which is more than RM 10. With limited capital, she didn't proceed with the franchise.

Now, today, with lots of Starbucks in Malaysia, I think those people who ever think of franchise and didn't do that will be very regret. The moral of this story is that we need to grab the opportunity at the right time. When there is no opportunity for you, you will need to think of creating one if there is any chances. When there is any opportunity for you, please do not let go. There is no way for you to go back to the past...as past is past. Remember: Yesterday was a history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift.

Also, do not spend your time on regret.

Tiger

Tiger, this animal out of sudden appeared very often in my life recently.

The word tiger itself can be a name of a person, a guy definitely;

there are a lot of products with the word tiger with them, like tiger balm, tiger beer...tiger tea. Ever heard of tiger tea?

This type of tea can be found in Cameron. There is no where in Malaysia that we can find this tea as it is only for export purpose. I knew the existence of it through my sister-in-law. She is tea and coffee lover. She told me tiger tea has stripes on its seeds. So, this is why the name came from. The tea is very lovely.

Not to forget our Tiger Woods;

What's more, tiger is one of the 12 chinese horoscopes...

Can it be more? Hm...hehe...

To me, tiger is the signature of brave and style.

Farewell

One of my closest colleague has decided to quit her job and will start her new job in Singapore. She is very sad to leave her current company, which describe by her as the heaven; sad to leave her collegues, which she said is very hard to find in other places (I agreed); and most importantly her family in Penang.

There are many people that we see everyday, but we never talk to each other, and worst still never smile to each other.
But there are certainly some people that we do not have the chance to see each other everyday, but we keep him/her close at our heart and will pray for them.

I see her as the friend whom I will keep her close at my heart, wish and pray for her.

Friend, don't cry again...although you are doubts on your future but is a good thing for you to have a try at your age. Be positive, be energetic (always) and do keep hope.

Cherish to our friendship and hope to hear some good news from you. You know what good news is it huh?

Good Luck!!