1.44pm
to all the muslims around the world, wishing you a very happy eid al-fitr. in malaysia and singapore, we usually say - selamat hari raya (or wishing you a happy eid al-fitr). in a nutshell, eid al-fitr is an important religious holiday celebrated by muslims worldwide that marks the end of rahmadan (muslims have to fast from dusk till dawn), the islamic holy month of fasting.
now in malaysia, since the majority of the population are muslims, 2 days public holiday are given to the nation as most would take this opportunity to go back to their hometowns for this big celebration. not only do the muslims take long leave at this time, other races too would grab this opportunity to take a couple of extra days off to go for holidays abroad or just go out of town for a break. however, for singapore only one day public holiday given because its population is predominantly chinese.
when i was back in malaysia for a short break during the rahmadan period, there were lots of hawker stalls set up by the malays selling all sorts of delicious cooked food, snacks and drinks. let me show you some shots i took whilst walking around and checking what was being sold.
there's grilled chicken, stacks of it. marinated with lots of herbs and spices.
the ever popular satay. satay is actually skewered chicken/beef (generally) that's grilled over charcoal fire. marinated with turmeric and the condiments that usually accompany this dish would be cut cucumbers, onions and ketupat (rice cakes). the sauce/dipping would be the spicy peanut gravy. trust me, its delicious!
then there's murtabak, some sort of a panfried pancake/bread which is sold mostly at Indian Muslim restaurants or stalls and on the inside of the pancake/bread, some minced mutton/chicken/beef will be added along with some garlic, onions and eggs and then it is eaten with spicy curry gravy and pickled onions.
local fruits also being sold at these hawker stalls. in the picture above, its mangoesteen that you see. this fruit is generally grown in asia, is sweet and tangy, juicy, somewhat fibrous, with fluid-filled vesicles with an inedible, deep reddish-purple colored rind when ripe. not really my favorite fruit though.
ah, lovely and decadent local "kuih" (bite sized snacks/desserts which can be sweet or savoury). these kuihs that you see in the photo can be steamed, deep fried or at times, baked. they sell pretty cheaply too! i was spoilt for choices, really!
different varieties of cookies and biscuits are also sold here. cheap cheap! very cheap! hahahaha
last but not least, is a popular snack known as "putu piring", which is made of ground rice flour. a layer of rice flour will be steamed first then comes a spoonful of palm sugar which is placed in the centre of it and then only it will be covered with a second layer of rice flour. once its cooked, it is removed and placed on top of small cut banana leaf. they are topped with slightly grated fresh coconut. The lump of palm sugar will melt during the steaming process and when you take your first bite oh my god, its heavenly, as the sugar just oozes out from the rice cake! so sinful yet so yummy.
well ive come to the end of my food blog for raya! hope you guys had a good celebration and wherever you go, stay safe! lastly please spare a thought and prayer to those families who have lost their loved ones in the horrible air crashes thats happened over the last couple of weeks. and not forgetting those living in war torn countries like israel, palestine, afghanistan etc. very sad times especially in this 20th century! its time to stop being greedy for money and power. innocent lives lost in these conflicts which is no laughing matter! may god give all of us strength and let us push on but for the right reasons.
ttfn
3.11pm
10.57am
well gooooooood morning world!! its another brand new day and im so thankful to be alive and i hope you are too!
today's blog is going to be a bit different. why different you ask. well im trying out for the mtv world stage insider job and hopefully i will be the chosen one for 2014.
these past few days i've been blogging mostly about the tragic crash of the malaysia airlines plane mh17 and i think for a change of "scenery" in here, i decided to try out for this gig, just to lift/brighten up my spirits and also to my fellow readers/followers.
the world has gone crazy i gotta admit. and with all the wars and political conflicts going on, i think music is one of the ways that can actually bring people closer together as a united front. makes them "forget" about the bad stuff that has been happening around them even if its just temporarily, it doesnt matter. dont you think so? music bridges people from all walks of life.
i've been tuning in to mtv for many years now. i've seen it grown and look what it has become today! wow, kudos to all of you at mtv. and now, one of your latest addition is the mtv world stage insider. the selected will be the eyes and ears for the masses. thats so cool! coz usually it would only be the vjs that can get close to all of the going ons and now someone lucky is going to get the same opportunity! Bravo, bravo! (psstt..pick me pick me ok!) (*subliminal message coming though*)
anywho, its time for me to share with you some true stories. i've been to a few concerts here in singapore and the last one was for the F1 Singapore Grand Prix 2013. i went for the BigBang concert and let me tell you, it was a blast! unfortunately i went alone so i couldnt really share this experience with anyone. well it doesnt really matter because i got to see one of my favourite korean boy groups perform live on stage and of course i had a good time there at the padang, (you can refer to my previous blogs regarding the F1 concert) although it would have been way better if i had some company. oh lonesome me!
and also in 2013, not only did i attend the F1 but i also went for G-Dragon's One Of A Kind concert held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. it was awesome! sadly yet again, i went alone. now i wouldnt call these "wild" stories per se but to me it was certainly different, attending a concert all by myself (not only it wasnt in english but korean! getouttahere!) i get that not everybody is into kpop. however, i cant just sit around and wait for people to accompany me, gotta do it myself. if i did sit around for people, then i wouldnt have gone for these concerts and enjoyed myself right??
and so for that, it was kinda "wild" in my books. when i told my mates back in malaysia, they thought i was crazy! "kpop? omg you're so old liao..practically auntie...!" my mates couldnt believe that im into kpop! you know what, to each his own (oh fyi im in my early 40s which to me, is the new 20s!). ooh even my own brother asked me "why are you so crazy over kpop these days? arent you a bit too old for it?" to that i replied "why not? is there an age limit as to how old/young a person should be in order to like/enjoy kpop? hey look,if it floats my boat, let me be ok, as long as im happy". by the way, my husband has washed his hands off me with regards to my "love" for kpop and kdramas! but you know what, i somehow managed to get him to like korean food which he now enjoys.
how im going to bring my what? "cray-cray" onto the world stage you ask? well, um..by just being myself i guess, there's no other way round it. look, i've never been on anybody's videos nor have i ever faced a large audience, and give a speech, in my entire life. (the only time that i had to face a small crowd which was when i was a flight attendant with malaysia airlines and i had to do the safety demo on the B737, but that was nothing, easy peasy. its not like im facing hundreds or thousands of people at once!) so yes, im just going to go out there,be myself and try to "wing it" along the way and fingers crossed, the crowd will like me and wont throw rocks and stones or rotten food at me! eeks!
look, see! im such a fan of mtv that i've even kept this old old tshirt for years now, (although i did cut off the sleeves because its hot in singapore!!) hey, is there a special "jam" made by mtv? hehe kidding,just kidding.... but its not a bad idea right? getting the vjs to "create" their own, oh i dont know, "jam"?
well i really hope (and pray!) that mtv world stage would give me a chance to be the insider for 2014, so that i can get myself stuck into the thick of things, the going ons, the happenings..ooh i cant bloody wait... i'll even glue myself to the producer/s if i have to!! i will eat sleep and only think about mtv world stage, how does that grab ya?
well alritey then, i'll be off now. hopefully one of you judges will like my erm...presentation via blog style? (just so you know, i thought about the 2 minute video presentation thingy, had to scrap that idea off because i cant bring myself to do it plus i rather pen things down!).
ok you guys at mtv have a great day and waiting anxiously to hearing from you! woopiee doo!
ttfn
12.15pm
1.46pm
let me start off by saying that its dark days for #malaysiaairlines. been hearing alot of reports in the news about the tragedy of flight mh17 enroute from amsterdam to kuala lumpur. i cant even begin to imagine being blown up in midair and to fall from the sky at 30,000 over feet! images people have been putting up on facebook is really nauseating and im totally sick to my stomach just by looking at those horrible horrible photos!
how on earth can a missile shoot down a civilian plane i do not know. why does it have to happen in the first place? the issue here is the so called war between ukraine and russia, where some people are just too blinded by power and greed, never satisfied with what they already have and counting their blessings. so well here you are, this is the outcome! an international tragedy with lots of innocent lives lost. was it worth it i ask you.
i have not much to say as im just as speechless as you all are. so many questions left unanswered. i really hope and pray to god that this full on investigation into the downing of mh17 will be solved as soon as possible. (with not much thanks to all the looting and hurdles that the authorities have been facing each day).
i want to share with you today, these photos which has been circulating all around the globe via facebook, twitter or instagram and this is my rough timeline on what had happened these past few days.
on thursday night as i was happily chatting away with some of my batchmates, my husband called out to tell me that a malaysia airline plane was blown up (as he was watching the news on tv). then i quickly told my friends about it which they thought i was joking. i never joke about things like this! and soon all of my friends were also tuned in to their tvs. and thats how this nightmare began to unfold. my heart just plummeted to the ground and i felt sick to my stomach. i logged on facebook and messaged some of my batchmates who were still flying, if any of them were operating on that particular flight and thankfully none were scheduled to fly on that leg.
bit by bit more information slowly trickled in to facebook and other social media outlets as time went on. the photo above shows you the crew that had been operating on mh17. i have the crew name list but out of respect i wont paste it in here. sorry.
subsequently a couple of days after this tragedy, some of the malaysia airlines #cabincrew came up with this - #justiceformh17 - which i think is very appropriate. the world leaders should be involved in bringing down whoever did this unspeakable thing to innocent people on board.
on behalf of my batch, i decided to do a tribute to #mh17 . what made me chose this particular photo was because i took it on the 16th july 2014 at klia, on my way back from a holiday. the registration of the plane that was 9M-MRD which was the plane that went down and if im not mistaken, it was the plane that operated from kuala lumpur to amsterdam and back. its purely by coincidence that i happen to take that picture as my aircraft was being pushed back. before that, whilst at the boarding area, i was just looking at the plane,while it was being loaded (you can see from the photo) with cargo or passenger meals, wondering where it was heading to, who were the crew operating... i reckon i was one of the last few people who actually took a photo of that plane. in some ways, i feel that i have some kind of "connection" with it. dont really know how to put it down into words.
then there's this person on facebook - a fly guy's cabin crew lounge - and on his page, he made an album for cabin crew or airlines from around the world, to send in their dedication or tribute to #mh17. the album is entitled "letters of love to malaysia airlines". (which you can also see my tribute which i'd sent over).
i've also added some of the heartfelt messages sent by #cabincrew and airlines from around the world (thanks to a fly guy's cabin crew lounge) #iberia #qantas #singaporeairlines #aeromexico
and finally i decided to create a ribbon in memories of mh17, whereby i just put in 3 colors - red, white and blue - which is the color of malaysia airlines. (white for body of the aircraft and red and blue represents the logo). if you like, you can go to picbadges.com and search for mh17 and add it onto your profile pix etc. in there you will find the one i've created and a few more different badges/ribbons done up by others.
being an ex cabin crew with malaysia airlines, i still feel that bond that links us together. somehow that will never change i guess (who knows maybe in due time). you know, when mh370 disappeared i felt helpless and sick to my stomach when i'd heard the news. upon closer inspection of the cabin crew's faces (from #mh370 and mh17), only then i realise that i did fly with a couple of them once upon a time. so thats why its so upsetting and gut wrenching, not only for me but for my batchmates as well.
before i go, let me remind you that if you have to travel for work/leisure, do remember to say your goodbyes to your loved ones, coz you just never know when "incidents" like these can happen (knock on wood). it is a wake up call to everybody, not only for all passengers but for the crew as well.
and lastly, please help support #malaysiaairlines in any way you can. they really need your help especially at times like this. thank you in advance and god bless you all!
my personal message before i end -
RIP
MH17
a quote - "death leaves a heartache no one can heal, but love leaves a memory that no one can steal".
ttfn
3.45pm
12.20pm
oh no no no..not again. as it is, the first huge mysterious case of the missing mh370 plane has not been solved, here comes this horrific news of mh17 that went down in the eastern part of ukraine. all on board perished which was 295 that includes 15 tech crew as well as cabin crew. it is a tragedy that has affected the entire world, yet again! the finger pointing has begun on whose fault it was (on who shot it down) - ukraine and russia. it was a missile that most likely brought mh17 down.
my mind now wanders back to the day i was departing from kuala lumpur international airport in sepang, on 16 july. i was taking jetstar back to singapore after being in kuala lumpur, for about a week. at the boarding area, i could see through the glass windows, one of the malaysia airlines plane parked nearby and it was the B777. i just sat and stared at it for a few minutes and didnt think much of it, just normal stuff like where the plane was heading to, how awesome travelling is..etc
so then it was time for me to board my flight. i settled in nicely to my allocated seat and whipped out my ipad mini because i wanted to try and take some photos. (if you didnt already know, i just love snapping photos of people, food, things, buildings, planes etc). upon pushback of the aircraft, i was happily snapping away using the ipad.
i took this when my plane was taxing on the runway. spotted A330 parked at one of the bays.
along the way, i also managed to take kuala lumpur international airport 2, which is a budget terminal that houses the airline airasia. a very new airport which opened not too long ago.
and then we were up in the air. such a beautiful day with blue skies and white fluffy clouds.
then just last night, my batchmates and i were happily chatting on whatsapp when my husband called out to me to tell me of this breaking news. i quickly informed my friends who immediately left to go and listen to the news on tv. i only managed to get some shut eye in the wee hours of the morning as i was tossing and turning and couldnt really sleep. i feel numb yet again and questions running through my head like why and how.
(this photo belongs to me. pls do not copy)
now before i end this blog, this is the picture that i took of that aircraft i had mentioned earlier in this blog, the B777 (where i was staring at, at the boarding area), its registration was 9M-MRD and it is the aircraft that was operating on this flight mh17. im not sure how many people have taken pictures of this particular aircraft but im guessing i was probably one of the last few who did. thats why i want to share it with you guys. i had an odd feeling that i could've taken a shot of this plane and so i checked my photo album on my ipad and lo and behold it is the same aircraft!! holy shit! i cant believe it either! what do you call it? co-incidence??
http://aviationweek.com/MH17-1 (please cut and paste)
well thats it from me. for those of you who are travelling, do take care and say a prayer. speak to your loved ones, say your peace before your travels. life is short. and if you have lost a loved one on any crash(or on this), im so sorry for your loss and god be with you always! RIP mh17!
before i end, im just enclosing a couple more photos that i took on my trip back from kuala lumpur to singapore.
i took this when we were flying over the city of johor bahru, which was almost landing time. such a wonderful birds eye view of the city down below isnt it?
and then we have a photo when we were about to touchdown into singapore changi airport.
so while we were taxing, there was an A330 taxing as well and behind it, the A380, which was parked at one of the bays. i just love it!
last but not least, several different planes from around the world, parked out in the open space/tarmac. pretty "maids" all in a row
right then, thats really it!
ttfn
2.51pm
2.44pm
what a slow sunday it is. im even surprised that i decided to stop here and drop you a blog. today's topic...im not quite sure what to put as my header. nevermind, i will think of something along the way.
what i would like to share with my "fans" (however small or little that i have) today are some photos that i took on my flight from singapore to kuala lumpur. im not quite sure if i ever mentioned this before, but i do love airplanes. ever since i became a flight attendant/cabin crew, everytime i see an airplane especially those huge mothers parked at the tarmac or when its taking off/landing, it never fails to take my breath away. i dont know about you guys but this is how i feel. even before i became a crew, i was always fascinated by airports and airplanes and wonder about it. well eventually i found out of course! here, let me post these few pix that i have. bear with me.
right so what we have here is changi international airport singapore. you can see lufthansa's A380 airplane parked nearby. i gotta admit, its a wonderful aircraft. but unfortunately im yet to fly on this spectacular plane. ive heard alot about it but i wonder if its just as great as my all time favorite airplane which is the Boeing 747, which shall forever be the queen of the skies to me. the B747 is a huge and "gentle" plane...well thats how i see it and also because i've worked on it for a couple of years.
singapore airlines fleet of B777 yet another amazing aircraft. i've never had a chance to operate on this particular plane because i had just resigned from the airlines when MAS (malaysia airline system) had ordered this range. just as well, i flew on it a few times as a passenger hehe
ah, fireflyz, a subsidiary of malaysian airlines which was launched early of 2007 that uses turboprops ATR aircrafts which can fly up to 2.5 hours maximum and no its not a budget airline. relatively stable with just some minor "bumps" enroute. (yes, my husband and i decided to give this propeller plane a try hahahaha)
and finally upon take off, i managed to snap a photo of singapore city. look at the concrete jungle down below! amazing, dont you think? ok folks thats about it.
before i end my blog, the fasting month of "rahmadan" is at its half way point so to all of you out there celebrating it, have a good one and i wish you well and stay safe wherever you are. may you be lead the right way and to the right path to being good human beings.
ttfn
3.42pm
9.56pm
howdy folks. hows it going? i trust everyone is well. right, so im back in kuala lumpur, my hometown, for yet another short break. this time round, i decided to became a tourist and took a couple of snapshots around the city centre today. yup, fresh from the oven.
can you see KL Tower (the building that looks like a needle) peeking just behind the trees?well it was completed in 1995 and It is used for communication purposes and features an antenna that reaches 421 metres (1,381 feet). The roof of the pod is at 335 metres (1,099 feet). maybank tower (maybank headquarters) which is the other tall building beside the kl tower was completed back in the late 1980s which stands around 244 meters and has 50 floors.
the central market was built in 1888! and its a historical building. long ago it was known to be an open air market and today its part of kuala lumpur's proud heritage. thank god the authorities decided not to pull this beautiful structure down like they did to the other old buildings around, like the shoplots that is within the vicinity.
so this is how the inside of central market looks like. this is only one part that i took. there's 2 floors and its fully air conditioned. there's lots of handicrafts, art pieces, jewelleries, all kinds of cloths, food stuff.. etc thats being sold and lots of tourists love to come here to explore. beats going out in the hot sun and getting all sweaty right?!
for more details you can click here or cut and paste whichever.
- http://centralmarket.com.my/index.php
next we have Dayabumi complex which was completed in 1984 and it was one of the earliest skyscrappers around. i remember heading there after school to grab macdonalds which was in the food court area or basement (cant really recall now). hahahaha.. this place definately brings back some fond memories of my high school days!
last but not least, the iconic sultan abdul samad building located in front of independence square which was completed in 1897 with moorish architecture. inside you will find the ministry of communication, culture and information. those days it formerly housed the superior courts of the country: the federal court of malaysia, the court of appeals and the high court of malaya.
by the way as you can probably see, it was raining when i captured this photo and the car was moving. therefore i couldnt take the entire building, but just part of it, sorry!
ok folks, thats the end of my history session. stay tuned for my next blog! hope you enjoyed this short trip down memory lane with me. until next time....
ttfn
10.55pm
12.02pm
let me start off my blog by apologizing to you guys for not writing in a while. i was back in my hometown, kuala lumpur, for my brother's wedding reception and i had a blast! nothing like catching up as well as bonding with old friends and relatives whom i've not seen in ages (they live all around the world). therefore, i was super busy.
talking about weddings. i dont know if this has ever happened to you(to those of you who are married), but there's some "funny" stuff that goes on. when i say "funny" i dont mean by haha funny but just find it rather odd or strange even. and you wont find out about it until its all over when you think back about what had happened on your big day.
well let me share with you one incident. when i got married and had my reception and usually in asia especially for us chinese folks, we will get a "red packet" (hong pao which means some kind of blessing or well wishes) with money inside from the invitees. and more often than not, those invited would pay according to how lavish the venue is. like for example, if say your friend is having it at a 5 star hotel, you would have to roughly guess how much per table is and you "pay" for yourself. but if you want to give more, thats really up to you (and how close you are to the couple). but generally speaking nobody gives little bit or under "pay" when they attend these kind of functions. long story short, you gotta pay just about the right amount or you give a little extra so as not to embarrass yourself when the couple opens the "hong pao" and sees how "much/little" you've given! im sure you dont want that to happen. everyone has to write down their names at the back of the "hong pao" so that the couple would know who has given how much. and sometimes, couples would want to send these people thank you cards.
so anyways, i clearly remember receiving 100 baht (thats thai money ok) and that roughly converts to just under S$4.00!! omfg! who on earth gives a newly married couple $4.00 and then have an 8 course chinese meal at a restaurant? well, there you go, there's a first time for everything. and this is how an adult behaves. i cant begin to imagine what that person gives when he/she attends other weddings. i cant believe it either ok. ooh so shy! and very hard to believe! so dear friends, when you attend any chinese wedding, please for gods sake, google the venue maybe even ring the venue up if number is given and find out so that you roughly know how much to put into the red packet so you wont look so stupid or being branded a cheapskate!
another very unpleasant thing that happened(also during my wedding), was that i had invited a group of my colleagues from work and i'd given them a table where they can have a good view of the whole ballroom and watch me make my grand entrance (hahaha). but guess what? the entire table decided to boycott my wedding dinner. i call it boycott, dont ask.none of them bothered to ring and to tell me that they were not coming or weren't able to attend. just no show. it was a sight for sore eyes having to make my grand entrance and to see that the table reserved for them was empty! and the icing on the cake that really pissed me off were 2 things - first was that we had to pay for the entire no show table and the other was when i went back to work the following week, none of these people even bothered to apologize to me, they just acted like nothing had happened. just another weekend for them. can you beat that? naturally, i stayed away from them and cut them out of my life. i dont need these kind of so called "friends".
and just so you know, before i took off for my wedding leave, i went around the office double checking with them (which was 3 days before my dinner) to remind them about it (my wedding invites were already given out) and it was a GO. and you see what happened on my big day? bitches! (not sorry for my language here!)
well, all that happened back in 1998. yup, it was a long time ago but still remains embedded inside my head. how to ever forget such things? would you? could you? oh and you know what else, there' were some who attended but never gave a red packet! yes, you should expect all these nonsense coming from adults or your so called friends/relatives. finally, there are also those that bring their entire family and pay the minimum.
so guys, if you are a chinese(and living in asia), about to tie the knot, please take note of all that im sharing in here. expect the unexpected like i did. its shocking and it would leave your mouth hanging open but thats how some folks can behave, surprisingly. good luck!
ttfn
1.00pm
