I miss my girl friends.

Today i'm feeling quite sentimental. I miss hanging out with my GGs. I miss having our bonding sessions which consist of unadulterated fun, heart-to-hearts, goss-section..adedeh,macam Cleo Mag pula kan. I think girl friends sessions are like good mags..entertaining and relaxing with a brutal punchline. :-P

Lazy Sunday

I think it has been a while since I had a Do Nothing Day. Well, what I mean by Do Nothing Day is not doing anything related to work. I spent Saturday multitasking with cleaning up my house, my room, reorganising my closet and Facebook. For once, I feel at ease...must be the chi finally circulating around my room after mercilessly throwing unwanted things from my room. I also realised I still have many tissue stocks (I bought one more recently) and I found several tops and dresses that I thought was missing. Damn...clutter can be very costly!

So, what am I planning to do today?

1. Play Market Street and Poupee-Boutique the whole day.
2. Plan on that new blog I'm planning to do.
3. Watch Maid Sama on Animax.
4. Chillax...and maybe nap some more...

Ahhhh...one lazy Sunday at last..might as well enjoy it while it lasts.

Have a nice Sunday everyone!!

Lies.

I was browsing through FB early morning today to play Market Street but something caught my eye. On the main Wall, there was a link entitled "...baru sy tahu maksud sebenar BYE". Pique by my curiousity, I clicked the link...

The content of the post was quite appalling.

 According to the post, the word BYE in Bahasa Melayu means "Di Bawah Naungan Pope (Paderi)".

Okay...so, which dictionary says this? I can't imagine me bidding "Di Bawah Naungan Pope, you all! Take care!" to my non-Christian friends when we say goodBYE to each other. Astaga...was the only word I could say.

Then, inside the same post the writer wrote about the holy water. According to him/her, the holy water was "diperbuat dari Rome". Another ASTAGA was uttered. For my friends and readers who didn't know, or just need a refresher, the holy water is "made" by the prayers recited by the priests especially during Easter Vigil. It was never shipped in boxes or crates or bottled from Rome. That was only part of the post.

Later, in the evening, I logged in again to play Market Street. Another link was posted on the main Wall. This time it said "Paderi Melayu yang baru tiba dari Singapura berada di sini sekarang". And to my surprise, the picture used to represent the post was none other than two very own Sabahan Catholic priests!! So, I clicked the link to read the post. The post read that 1900 "Malay" priests from Singapore have arrived and are active in Seremban, selling cheaply or distributing for free mineral waters mixed with holy water. Non-Christian readers were told to be "careful" with this priests and not to take the "water" from them.

ASTAGA!!!!!!!!!

Imagine my horror reading the comments for the post. One reader wrote a very murderous note, saying that the "paderi" should be "killed". God, forgive them, they don't know what they do.

I wonder why...

It's so quick for us to believe the lies told rather than the truth itself. Sometimes, because of ignorance, people tend to be so gullible.

I feel so sad and sorry for the people who are writing and forwarding these lies. So, my dear friends and readers, never be so gullible to quickly believe whatever emails or links received about other religions. It wouldn't hurt to ask and learn from one another...it's better to be humbled for asking questions rather than being humiliated by spreading lies.

Let's Learn...Love...Live.

Happy Weekend everyone.

BreakFast

I purposely did not take my lunch this afternoon. Reason? I want to save space for the Ramadhan Buffet at Hotel Juta...wooohoooottttt....FOOOOOODDDD!!!

Yes, my enthusiasm is more than my Muslim friends who are fasting...when it comes to food, I'm ON IT!!!

But, sadly, come 6.55p.m, I was so full I couldn't even go around another two counters. DAMN!!!WHY??? I think I only ate a mere RM8 worth of meal. Adedehhhhhh....

Nonetheless, nothing beats the combination of the three Fs - Food, Friends and Fellowship. I had fun despite the fact that I didn't win any lucky draw (cheh..go away number 16!!), although the food was not to my "Buffet Standard" (cheh..being a snob are we Cynta?), the laughter and lawaks shared with friends made up for the food's imperfections. Loved the Japanese taufu though...

So here's some pictures from tonight's Majlis Berbuka Puasa...

Me and Baby Charice...cute kan she?

 Some of my colleagues : Nir, Shane and Suzanah

Me and them :-)

Hilda and Lainah...and our unfinished food...

 My Unlucky Draw...:-(

Anyway, despite my lack of luck...I got one exciting news....

I AM CURRENTLY FEATURED AT BORNEOCOLOURS.COM

I am the Featured Buddy!! WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!

WOOOTT WOOOOTTT!!!

Tunahhhh...separuh sia punya interview...you can click the link below to read it ^___^

 

http://www.borneocolours.com/component/content/article/68-featured-bc-community/1979-featured-bcbuddy-cyntasez

My drawing for the interview, hehehe..

Thanks Borneocolours.com and to my BC Buddies!!! Tomorrow's Friday...yeay!!!

One of those days where things go wrong

I woke up this morning with a big smile on my face, ignoring the bleak weather ahead of me. I guess that was the sign that I deliberately ignored. 

Today, things did not go well...at least, like I planned or wanted it to be.

I just feel like a slave.

Sometimes, I just think...is it worth it to be nice and kind to other people?

I believe in karma, but I loathe it when some people tend to take advantage of me...

Oh well...

I guess today the rain is falling on my parade.

Kota Kinabalu International Film Festival June 2010

THIS IS TOTALLY GOING IN MY BLOG!

Yup. I said those words approximately a month ago.

Anyway, it's my blog so...

Last June, a day before leaving for Singapore, GG Imelda, her sister Imelda and yours truly drove to 1Borneo GSC to treat ourselves to a couple of international movies. There were six movies all in all, but Mel and I decided on Karaoke by Sabah's own Chris Chong and a Japanese anime movie entitled "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time" directed by Mamoru Hosoda.

So, what do I think about the movies? I'll start with Karaoke...

(warning : This is what I see from the movie...not some copied and pasted synopsis from other webbies. So, it may be half-half accurate)

Karaoke is about a young man named Betik who came back to his hometown and find that things were not the same like it used to be. So X-files, kan?heheh nolah...Betik's mum is the manager for the karaoke shop, she decided to move to the big city with his uncle and quit the karaoke business. Meanwhile, Betik falls in love with a local girl, Ani and works hard to woe her. Eventually, Betik's mum moves to the big city, Ani goes to UiTM and Betik, well he works as a karaoke video actor.

I guess I am just not ready to sink in this new genre of presenting films. Though the music is good and meaningful, I still find the movie quite "dry". It lacks the magic that the late Yasmin Ahmad has, but who am I to judge? No director should be the same. I bet the movie is best appreciated if I have some knowledge of cinematography. But, I'm just saying...

I love the concept in Block B though. Prior to the screening of Karaoke, we were shown a short film called Block B. I like to search the characters' location at the setting...it's something refreshing to have a still setting compared to typical films where the settings are always dynamic.

 

There's Chris! 

 

Cinema 8, all the films were screened here.

The second movie, or anime, is my favourite. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time made me laughed and cry. The characters are relatable and the soundtrack is nice as well. So, what is it about? Below are the synopsis I copied from http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/review/the-girl-who-leapt-through-time

"When 17-year-old Makoto Konno gains the ability to, quite literally, "leap" backwards through time, she immediately sets about improving her grades and preventing personal mishaps. However, she soon realises that changing the past isn't as simple as it seems, and eventually, will have to rely on her new powers to shape the future of her and her friends".

But I think I'm rather biased when comparing these two movies. I'm a major anime fan especially from Ghibli. I'm going to next year's KK International Film Fest :-)

A toast to all good movies!!

Masuk Kampung Again!!

One of the things that I love about my new school is the outreach programme. Two weeks ago, our school left the confines of the classroom and reach out to the students who resides at Kg. Kawakahan, Maatol, Kabuan, Mantani, Sasagahan and Mototou.

 Our first outreach programme was held at Kampung Binakaan, you can see my post on that here. For this second outreach programme, we gathered at Kg.Maatol's Mini Dewan where to my pleasant surprise, we were greeted and welcomed like VIPs by the students and parents from the six villages.

 Macam VIPs kan kami kena sambut. Awal pagi lagi ni dorang berbaris di tepi jalan.

Upon arriving at Kg. Maatol, I went camera-crazy. Click here, click there...the village is so picturesque. Although the road is bumpy and red (mind you, it's all red soil along the way), most of us forget about the bumpy ride as we see the smiling and warm faces of the people there. We see that the villagers had made a lot of effort just to have us there.

 The villagers greeted us with smiles, handshakes and gong-beating. I feel like we're going to a wedding or a keramaian instead of an outreach programme. hehe..

The uncle teaching some of the male teachers (by the way, they're all from West Malaysia and this is their first time holding a gong). Here's my colleague, Mouk.

The uncle is a good gong teacher ;-) Look at them, at first clueless, now they're beating to the beat of their own gong! haha..

I also took the opportunity to play the gong. Not bad kan, uncle? Thanks for teaching me and my friends. By the way, the uncle who taught us to play is also the Ketua Kampung of one of the village (I just can't point out which village).

 The kind villagers also served us food that day. Simple food like sup tarap and ayam kicap :-) Food become extra delicious when shared.

For your information, Kg. Maatol has no telephone reception and no electricity. Our humble programme was powered by a generator. But Kg. Maatol has a precious treasure, according to my student Andy Collaree. He said, their kampung has the cleanest water in the area.

I love the flower. This is Kiambang...I'm not sure about the English word though. I have never seen this flower except in the textbook. 

A close up of Kiambang.

The place looks good for a photo shoot too, right?

My camera ran out of battery a couple of hours later. That's why there are not a lot of pictures for this post. One of my students told me that they are happy we came to their kampung. Reminiscing how we were seen as heroes to the people of this six villages, to me, they are the real heroes. Despite poverty and lack of infrastructures that I always take for granted, the parents gave everything they got to give their children an education. 

I look forward to the next outreach programme!!

Just Another Thursday.

I'm sitting at my work table, staring aimlessly at the stack of students' exercise books. I feel so hollow. I think I'm just bored with the bland slate in front of me. *sigh* another stack to correct. I just hope my sanity remains intact til 1.00pm. I'll be the first out..if i could :-S