when it rains, it pours

10.52pm

so the saying goes - when it rains, it pours! well its true. especially what im about to tell you. its been what, almost 40 days coming soon since we the world, last heard about the missing malaysia airline plane MH370. how sad this news is. im still glued to the news be it online or on the telly or the papers and from the looks of it, the australian government is narrowing its search areas down, which is a bit of a good news instead of scouring the entire indian ocean! my god! its so vast that it goes beyond anybody's imagination, with "nothingness" all around except for the big blue and the big blue skies.  then some netcitizens/keyboard warriors too have been speculating that the plane could have landed in afghanistan. *scoffs* what next! alien abduction?? come on, get real !

ok, nevermind about this missing plane, but seems like there have been a couple more aviation mishaps besides MH. on march 26, an indonesian airline Malindo Air bound for kuala terengganu, malaysia, had to turn back to the subang airport in malaysia, after one of its engines caught fire! imagine that! and that occured when the aircraft climbed to about 7,000 feet (2,334 meters) soon after it took off in the morning. fortunately, no one was hurt and the plane landed safely on ground. best part was the entire terengganu football team were among the passangers on board this flight. apparently one of the passengers had a fright of their life when they heard an explosion when airborne, and saw that one of the plane propellers catching fire!

another mishap is from yet again, malaysia airlines mh066 bound for seoul which happened on 24th march. the plane had to make an emergency landing in hong kong, after a generator supplying normal electrical power to the aircraft failed. luckily, the plane's auxiliary power unit was able to supply the aircraft. it was an airbus a330-300. dont worry, all 271 passengers on board were fine. 

this last incident happened on 29th march when a cathay pacific plane, boeing 777 from jfk to hong kong had to divert its flight path from hong kong to zhuhai, china. this wasnt because of any malfunction to the aircraft but due to severe weather (lighting and hail storm). not only the plane was diverted to zhuhai, all the passengers on board werent allowed to disembark. from a 16 hour flight, turned into a 34 hour ordeal. all crew on board were required to rest by law. so then cx had to call in replacement crew from hong kong to zhuhai and they too ran into some obstacles whilst making their way there. my goodness. never ends does it?? 

well if you guys want to read more just google it. its all there. im just giving you the gist of it. i really dont know what is going on in this world of ours. cranky? god knows. so my dear friends, if you have to travel, i wish you the best and safe journey to wherever you are heading to. dont forget to tell your loved ones goodbye and that you love them, coz honestly, you just dont know when your time is up. hmm...its a bit like final destination, the movie dont you think so?  hahaha... and please remember,there's only 2 things in this world that we cant avoid, ever, and thats taxes and death! 

god bless and stay safe!

ttfn

11.29pm

flight MH370 missing

11.28am


its been 50 over hours now since flight mh370 has mysteriously disappeared. mh370 was to take off from the capital of malaysia, kuala lumpur to beijing, china. at this point in time(as im typing this blog), im also watching the news on telly and they are reporting that the different authorities are still gathering information from the suspected crash site (which is most likely out in the open sea , south china sea to be precise).  theres so much chaos especially in kl, where i think its the "hub" where all the news are flowing in to. thats why im not surprised if/when theres a big miscommunication in the process.

when i first heard this news on saturday morning, my heart just dropped and i still feel very uneasy over this incident as we speak. i have this strange weird feeling in the pits of my stomach. honestly, i've never really felt this way before over any other air crashes around the world (although with due respect, it was all very sad and tragic), except for one more other crash that gutted me back in 1995(will blog about that later). and my guess is the reason that im feeling this way is probably because its "closer to home" and lets not forget that i was once a cabin crew with malaysia airlines. 

i can relate to how families and friends of all the folks on board flight mh370 are probably feeling right now. so many questions left unanswered and nobody can really help them. no doubt volunteers were sent to assist them in any possible way in this trying time but lets face it, these volunteers are not in these people's shoes. sometimes i do wonder, here the volunteers are trying to "talk" and destress these poor people, but would it help much? even if they let it out and "talk" so what? right now isnt really the right time to "talk" to them as they are numb, lost, angry, in denial etc. however no one knows if this would further aggravate the situation at hand or vice versa. 

i was sent a montage of the 12 crew on board(including the captain and co pilot) and i think that i may have flown with one of the cabin crew. (wont be naming names). im surprised as to how so fast news can spread like wildfire and then the first thing im getting (from my ex batchmates) is the crew name list for that flight. then much later im sent the photos of the crew! wow! 

i have my own thoughts on this whole situation but i shall reserve my comments and see what the outcome is. at the end of the day, what we need is hard proof of the whole incident. i just hope and pray that mh370 is "safe" wherever they may be. i just remembered one of the comment made by one of the spokesperson from malaysia airlines, he said something like "....that after more than 30 hours there's a slim chance that anyone couldve survived". but lets just hope for a miracle here!!

so im dedicating this blog today to all on board of mh370. may god be with them as well as their families. please say a prayer to them for strength. on behalf of the malaysian citizens, a big thank you to those countries who are lending a helping hand and god bless everyone.

ttfn

12.31pm

another day gone by

12.42pm

hey hey whats up people! my apologies for not writing. well, i've done nothing much but scouring the net for some part time jobs, watching american horror story and not to mention my favourite kdrama series. 

and speaking of which, i highly recommend that you to watch these kdramas, if you havent already watched them or worst case, if you're bored to death on a weekend with nowhere to go and nothing better to do, then by all means feel free to just check out the first episodes of these series that i've just mentioned and tell me what you think. we can have a chat about it. hehe

well so far i've watched playful kiss, the heirs, school 2013 and boys over flowers. pretty good shows(all are mostly up to 16 episodes only). mind you, it can bring tears to your eyes too at times(like it did mine).( aigoo what to do, im  a softie at heart and a hopeless romantic). these shows are based mostly about high school kids and their lives, their ups and downs of being an adolescent- juggling family, school and part time jobs. 

somehow, you know after watching these shows, it made me reminisce back when i was in high school(in an all girls school by the way), that i've never actually faced situations like those shown in the dramas. maybe perhaps because being brought up in malaysia those days(circa 1970) was better compared to now. and also could be that life in korea is different. during my time, i never heard of bullys or pushovers. only over achievers. hahahaha but sadly i aint one of them :P

now, as for american horror story, im  watching season 3. i tell you its pretty good. will keep you glued to your seat! each season has a different theme/storyline. i say two thumbs up for this series! highly recommended. 

ah yes, we're going on another short vacation, back to our hometown. yay! i cant wait. i dont know if you heard but here in singapore or in malaysia, the weather is so bloody hot!! but thankfully, here in singapore, its slightly better because of the strong wind thats blowing throughout the day. whereas in malaysia, from what my folks have been telling me, the dams there are drying up at a rapid pace. and in some cities, there's already no water! this is serious shit people. i really hope the government there is taking drastic measures to do something like say cloud seeding. having said that, i know that they cant do much as this is to do with mother nature (never muck around with her). and on top of that, indonesia has already warned us all that the haze will be approaching soon as there's already some burning going on as we speak, over in areas of sumatera/kalimantan or god knows where! 

so i guess thats sums up my blog for today. nothing exceptionally exciting has been going on with yours truly. just the usual shit. how about you? same shit different day i guess huh?? you know you could always take a break and go for a short holiday. remember that all work and no play makes YOU a dull person! and not to mention, if you drop dead (touch wood), there's like 10,000 people eyeing your job! you are REPLACEABLE!! for realz!

ttfn


1.36pm


p/s oooh i gotta share this with you! on twitter, i have korean air following me hahahaha how awesome is that! daebak! oh by the way, here's my twitter if you wanna follow me -
@bevng1971

when push comes to shove

12.07pm

you know the meaning of - when push comes to shove? simply put, if/when faced in a difficult situation, you will take action, somehow someway. most of us as we know it, live in our own little bubble. we have our families and friends around, our secured jobs etc. but what happens when you are suddenly removed from that equation? what happens then? will you fall apart? what will you do?

take my situation for example. i have lived with my parents like forever, until i got a job as a cabin crew with our national carrier and had to move to cross country so to speak. now, the thought of being away from my parents and friends really scared me. and at that time, i was already engaged to my husband. leaving all of them behind and moving to some god forsaken place drove me nuts. how was i to cope?

thats when the saying comes in - when push comes to shove. i had no choice but to pack up and go. that was the first time being away from home. the bright side of it was that at least i would get to see my parents and hubby-to-be, a couple of times a month when we get our night stops back home. long story short, i endured it and pushed on until we were all sent back to homebase within a year, thankfully.

nevermind that, the second time was when i had to move away was when my husband got relocated to jakarta, indonesia for a couple of years. at least this round i had my husband with me but i really missed my folks. and a decade later(wow!) im here in singapore. during all this time spent away from my real home, i have learnt to do things that i never imagined that i would be doing. 

well back home, my mom usually does all the cooking and she would plan the meals or ask us what we like to eat and she'll whip it up. living on my own, i have learnt how to cook, clean, bake, handle the household and to top it off, we got a dog! mind you, i've never liked dogs before and they can sense that i dont like them either. everytime i go by a house that has dogs, they would come charging towards the gate and start barking at me. i swear the hairs on my arms would stand and i get goosebumps all over. dont ask me why. but when i had my own lil furkid, i grew to like dogs. from not knowing a single thing about them like how to take care of them, what are their likes/dislikes etc, i had to learn from scratch and  learning thru trial and error. so, this is when the meaning push comes to shove applies.

let me share with you another story. a close friend of mine has 4 kids. her husband works out of town and only comes home every fridays to sundays.  now how do you think she is coping? she has to juggle the kids ie ferrying them up and down to/fro from school, thinking of their meals, doing some household chores, making sure the house runs smoothly etc. and all this mind you, is done without the help of the husband or a maid. a million things runs thru her head daily (i can imagine) but yet somehow, everytime when we do meet up, she's always in that cheerful mood. i've asked her before, how does she do it? her reply was "bev, what do you want me to do? sit and cry?" and for that, i do salute her! so you see, somehow when push comes to shove, things will get done for sure. whether you've given it 100% or 50%, you've have do it. nobody can do it for you. most of us arent born with a silver spoon in the mouth. there's no time for us to get sick (rarely) as we cant really afford to fall ill. otherwise how? 

both my parents worked for the government(until they retired) and their salary wasnt much to shout about back then. we've had our struggles and hardships but with my mom leading us, we somehow miraculously managed to pull through and well here we are today, thanks to her. and thats why i did mention in my older blogs that she is one of the people whom i admire most in my life. 

well i hope you guys have learnt something today. think about how many times you have faced with a difficult situation and you managed to come out of it? its you who did it!(with or without any help) this only makes you a stronger person and that you believed in yourself, and therefore you can do it if you set your mind to it. there are many people, im afraid who are still living in their own safe haven, haven't  come face to face with a tough situation. (hopefully they wont). but they will never "grow" and never knowing their capabilities. sometimes staying inside your "security blanket" is not always good thing. its too comfortable and should anything go wrong, the question is what will you do then? how will you survive it? 

ok peeps, ttfn


1.01pm 

year of the horse 2014

1.35pm

wow i was just looking thru my older posts and i remembered writing about the lunar new year and explaining to you guys what it was all about and now another year has come. so how did you guys celebrate it? (for those who do celebrate it)

for me, every year i celebrate it in kuala lumpur, malaysia and up north, penang where my husband is from. my mom would do a pre-reunion dinner for us together with my family members and then after a few days spent back home, we fly off to penang island to have the real celebration there. 

its usually really fun gathering around with my husband's family members and relatives. they are indeed a bunch of jokers, from the old to the younger ones. then, friends from afar are all back too, to be with their loved ones as well. what usually happens is that most of us will have our own family dinners and then later go out we'd all go and hang out with our friends to have coffee or to a pub for a drink or two, to catch up with each other. or sometimes, we'd go to a friend's house and gamble. 

sadly, this year there wasnt any gambling at all. im not a gambler but once a year especially during the chinese new year, alot of people would be gambling in their own homes with friends or family. even though its all for fun, but we use money to play. hahaha this is an incentive to play your best coz you want to win the "pot". 

the weather up in kl was hot hot hot! even in penang! having said that, although it was hot but oddly enough, i never sweat. and since coming back to singapore, it has been pretty cooling. like from late last year, the weather here has been pretty good. even though we've got the sun shinning,  i dont have to switch on the ceiling fan (which i normally do) at all thruout the day. i read online that this is probably because of the cold winds blowing from southern china or something. well i hope it keeps on blowing and who knows one fine day, we'd get some snow even! but you know come to think of it, some part of indonesia(not up in the mountains) had some light snowfall sometime in late august 2013. strange but true! 

anyways, all the holidays are over and im so dreading it, having to look for a part time job. i may just ring my ex boss lady and see if she needs me otherwise i have to go look for something to do until end of may. oh yes, im very pleased to announce that my brother has gotten married(late last year) and will be having his wedding dinner in june, therefore yours truly has to go back for this occasion. one thats not to be missed! and i dont know if i have mentioned this to you lot, this ex boss lady is getting married in november this year and she has already given me a heads up and expects me to be at her dinner. hehehe... perhaps this year, 2014 or as the chinese folks call it, year of the horse, is a good year to get hitched. 

so to those who are indeed tying the knot in 2014, i wish you nothing but the best for your upcoming marriage and congratulations! as for the rest of the world, gong xi fa cai, kong hei fatt choy, happy lunar new year to all of you, may this gallopping year bring you much joy, fun, good health, tons of wealth and happiness! 

god bless. ttfn


2.01pm

p/s ive only had 2 "yee sangs" so far and im dying for another one!  i am hoping to buy the ready made ones sold at cold storage with fresh norwegian salmon! yummy!! fingers crossed that there's still some stock left!! selling like hot cakes ok!

teddy's twosome+ cafe in hongdae, seoul

11.48am


this is the continuation of my adventures to hongdae area. in my blog before this, i was telling you guys about haha's restaurant over in hongdae. so after that, i trekked all the way to teddy's twosome cafe. you cant really miss it unless you are that bad with directions. hehehe well here, let me show you.

now if you head towards the hongik university( you definately cant miss it!), which is the huge glass building and was pretty amazing if you asked me (as shown above), just in front of the entrance of this building, look for the 7/11 shop, which is at the street corner. sorry you cant see it from this angle.( i was coming from the opposite direction). when you have found the 7/11, a couple of shops down is teddy's twosome cafe. its facade is black in color with bright red wordings that read - twosome+ coffee. 

i took this from across the street. that's how it looks like.

and inside, you will see a staircase leading to the upper floors of the cafe and on the first level, there's this signage (as above).  pretty cool huh. unfortunately though patrons arent allowed on the 4th floor. i saw a staircase leading down to the basement and there was a sign that read "private area" as well. hmmmm...

a popular korean designer mina kwon, friends of teddy's and big bang, promoting (or selling) some of her art illustration pieces. im not sure though if its really sold or not coz i never bothered to ask. could be expensive. there were some  of her pieces up on the wall, on the upper floor but there were people sitting around so i couldnt take any photos.

an area of the cafe that is selling teddy's merchandise. its just near to the entrance of the cafe, which is on your left hand side from the moment you enter. some of the stuff sold are not cheap. but it all depends on your budget. sadly though, there wasnt any big bang items sold there. which you know, i think they should since they help teddy to promote this place.

thats the counter and cashier area. and as you can also see more merchandise being sold here.

i decided to grab my brunch there. nothing like a freshly baked scone( that comes with jam and some cream cheese) and a cup of hot chocolate with a dollop of whipped cream. yummy not to mention delish! go try it. there's other yummy stuff sold there too but i wasnt superbly hungry so i opted for this instead.

the scenery from where i was sitting in the cafe on the 2nd floor. you can see starbucks just across the street. what a lovely day that was. bright and sunny yet oh so cold!! brrrrrr

ok for those of you who dont know who teddy is let me just give you a brief run down from what i know. (much thanks to the internet). so i'll just save you the work of googling. well basically, teddy park was in a group called 1TYM back in the day (circa late 1990) and currently he's one of the main producers of YG entertainment. (home to big bang, 2ne1, psy etc). you see, twosome+ cafe is a franchise and its not owned by teddy. you could say that he just collaborated with them on just this one cafe in hongdae. apparently, he did the deco of the place. and that is that.

it was really fun going around on my own, getting a bit lost finding my way but its an experience in itself. i mean it would have been even better if my husband was with me but i cant always rely on people tagging along with me all the time. if i waited, i wouldnt have done so much. and frankly, sometimes the things you want to do, others may not like or enjoy it and so the saying goes - one man's meat is another man's poison. 

so my dear readers, the next time you want to do something, just go do it. dont wait for others to join you. if they do, then its a bonus but otherwise, go and explore on your own in a foreign country, get lost its ok. you'll learn from experience. but more importantly, google and check first before venturing out. some places could be dangerous. 

ttfn


12.40pm

my trip to haha's restaurant(a member of running man) in mapo-gu district, seoul

11.55pm

let me start off by asking you this - have you guys seen any episode of the korean variety show call running man? well if you havent, please please i beg you to just go and watch a couple of the episodes and you tell me if its bloody hilarious(or not).

how i started liking this program was by pure co-incidence, or perhaps written in the stars that i'd be sucked into this so called korean phenomena thingy, um..not that i mind! i remember i was at a friend's place one chinese new year( i think which was more than a couple of years back) and so happened my friend's kids were watching this show on tv. so i joined them to see whats it all about and omg it was just so funny. from that day onwards, i  started following the program and even managed to get my mom hooked on it too!

anyways, since i was heading to seoul, i found out that one of the cast members named ha dong hoon (@ haha or haroro) had opened a restaurant over in hongdae. its called paljamakchang. it serves korean bbq if im not mistaken. this was another objective of mine on my to do list when in korea. and so off i went on my adventure on my own (hubby had to work). 

i set off to the subway and headed towards hongdae university station and i got a bit lost. thank god i found the information kiosk and asked them. and then i set off again in the right direction, hopefully! so after walking for like almost half hour, i found the restaurant. unfortunately it doesnt open in the afternoons. only after 5pm till late. ho hum. oh well at least i found it, thats what matters and so i snapped a couple of shots there. 

i cant believe i was actually standing in front of the restaurant, where haha frequents(as well as some of the other members of running man) and helps out, serving people, taking orders or cashiering. for what its worth, i think its great that he does that, very humbling. 

so anyways, after snapping some photos i proceeded on to hongik university area where teddy's twosome cafe was located at. that shall be my next blog. so kindly stay tuned ok??

haha's restaurant just at the corner, you cant miss it. but you gotta know your way to get there.

see, the restaurant is closed. only opens after 5pm! boo hoo hoo... no chance to try the bbq!

front entrance of the restaurant. check out that cute cartoon character of haha as the signage

guessing that that must be the telephone number of the restaurant. i dont know, i cant read what is written in korean. if you know, please tell me lol

along the way, heading towards the restaurant, i quickly took this shot. which means i was on the right track. tee hee

well ok folks, this is it for me. i bid you adieu until my next blog which is about teddy's twosome+ cafe. oh and by the way, im reminding you to GO WATCH RUNNING MAN. start off with episode one. you can always google it ok. dont be lazy! and i really hope you enjoy watching it!!

ttfn


12.33pm