Railway Bridge

"I took this photo in 1982 and the river has totally changed since then..." South Coast KZN. Taken by Paul

A Catalan Sunset

"can you imagine looking at a sunset this beautiful..

I was caught in the moment, by every meaning of the phrase. Just standing on the top of the Montjuïc castle watching the sun fade behind the amazing scene of the hazy mountains..." Taken by socceraholic

Cirripathes spiralis, spiral wire coral

"Cirripathes spiralis, spiral wire coral. Found: horseshoe: Okinawa Japan". Taken by Okinawa Nature

Happy Thanksgiving

"Ed enjoying a restful holiday with my nephew's golden, Spencer". Taken by Marcia Bilyk

...and now for something completely different

"hot dragon lady taking break with some grass in Bangkok.......". Taken by Adrian

Memory Lane

Its about 3 more papers before I finish my SPM and I can't help but think that I'm gonna lose so many people in my life. I mean, I won't be in high school any longer. I may never see my teachers and perhaps some of my classmates again.

Looking back at the happy times I had in high school, I feel rather sad that I won't be in this school any longer. I won't be able to see my teachers, my classmates, tuition, all of it! Its just such a huge change to me.
I had a great time with all my school mates. Especially my classmates from 5 Jujur. We certainly shared lots of memories together for the past 2 years together.

As lame as it sounds, I honestly feel that I'm gonna miss waking up in the morning, put on my uniform and go to school. Studying together in a classroom, using the smelly toilets, forgetting to do your homework, and so much more which I have taken for granted.

I'm gonna miss spending time with my friends everyday. Making prank calls from the public phone, skipping class, camwhoring in the school and playing pranks on my friends will only be but a fond memory of mine now.

I'm also gonna miss taking part in school activities such as cross country. Though I'm not exactly the athletic type, I'm rather disappointed that I didn't make my goal of winning a medal because I fell and sprained my ankle this year :(

Although I didn't take part in the running competition for sports day, at least I took part in the tug-of-war. Which we won!

My first and last medal from this school. Actually, I used to win a lot of medals before. Its just that in this school, not everyone can participate. So things are a little different here.

And how could I forget about the time the teachers brought us out for the Bon Odori event? We had such a great time then...

Finally, our graduation day. I really felt so emotional then because this is my final year of high school and I'm not sure if I'm ready to lose the people I know and love from this school.

That's me and my class teacher, Pn. Rozitah. She's been our Physics teacher for 2 years. 

I'm gonna miss her too...

I really hope we could keep in touch as much as possible. Who knows? Maybe someday our kids could be the best of friends someday.

Of course, I'll be missing my teachers. No question. I mean, they've been helping me all these years, sacrificing their time just to help their students.

I still remember my Standard 6 BM teacher, Pn. Noraidah. How could I? Even though it was against the school rules for teachers to give private tuition to their students, she helped me out anyway. Despite the risk of losing her job. She really helped improve my BM skills a lot and I really appreciate that.

Then there's my P. Moral teacher, Pn. Norlida. She really helped me out with my essays because I was pretty lousy at it. She gave me loads of tips because I was the only one who actually gave a damn about the essay. I really want to score for my SPM!

I also appreciate the help of my current BM teacher, Pn. Afizan. Despite her strict attitude, she's actually very kind. She didn't mind whenever I ask her to check my essays and she actually marked it and gave me tips. So I'm really grateful for her help.

My English teacher Pn. Habibah is also one those special teachers I won't forget either. She's the one who helped me achieve the opportunity of being selected for the student exchange programme. Because she's one of the few teachers who could write good English, she went through all the trouble of writing the recommendation letter, talking to the principle, getting info's about my academic progress, etc, etc.... I'll send her a postcard once I'm in Italy. If it wasn't for her, I'd probably wouldn't be able to go.

But in general, I'm pretty much gonna miss all of my teachers. Especially one whom I wouldn't mention because I once had a mini crush on him  he helped me a lot.

So yeah, school life holds a great deal of bitter and happy times there. I'll definitely miss it tremendously and sometimes I wish I was Form 1 again.

But, I gotta move on in life. I'm gonna finish my SPM, go for the student exchange programme, get an internship at The Star newspaper, then go to college. So far, that's my plan until then. Maybe next year I'll organize a gathering to see all my school mates, teachers and friends once I'm back from Italy.

Wish me luck!

Khayelitsha

"His job is emptying public toilets...". South Africa. Taken by Igor

Uluru Panorama

"Northern Territory, Australia". Taken by absolutwade

Eclipse

"High on Coke - Moscow girls at a Coca Cola anniversary promotion in the GUM mall". Russia. Taken by maistora

G Y M. Varanasi

"A man doing some morning exercises in an Akhara of Varanasi". Taken by Claude Renault

It's Time For Christmas Shopping!!!!!

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Portrait

"Per and Birgitta. Stockholm 1972". Taken by Lars Lejring

The New Place

The new place sucks! I cannot ever get away from NOISE it seems. It does not matter how carefully, or even how carelessly I try and find a place. NOISE plagues me wherever I go. And, this new place is no exception. This time it's a rooming house, and an illegal one at that from what I can tell; too many tiny small rooms in too small a space and without proper fire escape routes etc. As far as I can tell, the place is four separate apartments converted into sixteen to twenty small rooms, some with private bath and most without. Mine has a private bath. That was the only draw for me at the time

Anyways, there is no sound insulation in the walls such that I hear everything. People also have such a large footprint that they have no idea how to live within such a small confined space. BANG, BANG, CRASH, CRASH, TALK, TALK, like it was right in the same room. And, late into the night when most "normal" people sleep, too. Arghhhh! I need to get out of here!

Carrot Top

USA. Taken by Renee

Traditional Outfits

Many people would've known by now that I have been selected to participate in a student exchange programme to ITALY for about 2-3 months.

I've been applying for this student exchange programme since the beginning of this year and I didn't dare announce my trip to Italy because I didn't want to jinx it. 

BUT since its been confirmed that I'm selected, I've got my host family and I know when's my departure date to Rome, I guess its time I'd let my readers know that I may or may not blog while I'm there because I don't know if there's gonna be wi-fi over in Italy.

According to the letter I received, it says that I have to prepare some info, pictures, our Malaysian flag and I have to bring a traditional outfit there.

I don't normally wear any traditional outfit of any sorts and I'd like to wear an outfit that wouldn't make me freeze to death in Italy because I've gotta feeling that its gonna be cold there. You see my problem?

I think a Baju Kebaya (traditional Malay outfit) looks nice, but I don't know if its gonna be warm enough for me over there...

I've worn a Punjabi outfit (traditional Indian clothes) too....

I've heard that the Sari (another traditiona Indian outfit) is pretty hot, but...

The middle may be a little exposed and my tummy easily gets cold. Besides, what if I liked Italian food so much, I got fat and look super ugly in a sari???

And then I thought about my own traditional costume which is a cheongsam, because I'm a chinese. The problem is that nobody wears a Cheongsam and hardly anyone sells it either.

Another problem is that to wear a Cheongsam, you should have a good figure to wear it because its such a shapely outfit and its probably one of the most sexiest traditional outfits ever! How the heck can I pull it off?

If I wanna wear a traditional outfit which keeps me warm, hide my figure, and keep me close to my Chinese roots, I might as well wear this outfit:

Woohoo! An outfit from the Tang Dynasty. Hat included. Now THAT's a traditional outfit!

Unfortunately, nobody from this century even sells or wear it because its ridiculous to wear something like that in a scorching hot weather like ours.

I need help. 

What kind of traditional costume should I wear to Italy???

Leave a comment with your opinion.

Come to think of it, why is it that in a multi- racial country like Malaysia, only the Chinese NEVER wear their own traditional costumes unlike the Indians and Malays?

Hmmm.... you can also leave a comment about that too if you like. I think its because its too sexy to wear in public.

Oh yeah, my first week of SPM wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Except last Thursday, which was Math. Usually, I thought Maths was a piece of cake. I mean, it always has been before....

Until I realized that 5 minutes before time was up, I realized that I shaded 10 questions wrong because I skipped 3 questions by mistake! Total chaos!

I barely had time to shade the answer sheet correctly and answer the 3 questions correctly before the examiner collected our papers. By the time I got to the last question, the examiner told us to put down our pencils because time's up.

Nevertheless, I ignored her and finally thought of the correct answer and shaded it properly just seconds before she took away my paper. Thank God I got everything right just in time.

Of all things to happen, I can't believe I panicked during maths, the easiest subject ever! And I think I know why. Its because I didn't wear pink underwear that day unlike the rest of the week because I ran out of them. 

On the bright side, Math paper 2 was definitely easy to answer. I had no problem there.

Btw, Pink is my lucky color according to my horoscope. Yes, believe it or not, I actually believe this shit. Don't judge me.

Wish me luck for my next few papers!

P.S. I can't believe I'm sharing the color of my underwear to the world. Must be the stress that's causing me to think irrationally. Oh well.

Skater

Germany. Taken by shokokoart

Lagoon and sea scenery

"Oualidia, Morocco. 2011". Taken by Alexandre Foulon

Osprey

"Osprey, Ambergris Caye, Belize". Taken by AJ Baxter

Grandpa's Cider Mill

"Skokie Farmers Market, Skokie IL". Taken by Renee

Volcanic View

"...from airplane window flying from Yogyakarta to Jakarta, Indonesia". Taken by Dewi

Lisbon

Lisbon. Taken by Mag May

Buttawa Sunrise

Buttawa,Yala National Park, Sri Lanka. Taken by Sara-D