Bangkok Highlights

OK I know we're so over this. I came back from the Bangkok family trip with my in-laws since the Raya holidays, which was about a month ago.

A lot of things happening around me, like the launch of the iPhone 4S, Steve Jobs passed away ... and yah, my laziness.

Anyway, here's what I love about the Bangkok trip!

1) 2 babies on board who quickly made friends, exchanging their baby food. :)

2) Safari in Bangkok where we get to drive in and have wild animals just outside our car!

3) Of course, Calypso, the Ladies Show. But not the best. I've watched Tiffany's and it is 100x times better.

4) Floating Market of Bangkok. My first experience after returning to visit Bangkok for the 4th time. I have aunts and uncles living in Bangkok. So, mom used to bring us here to visit them since we were very young :) Memories. I wish I speak Thai so I could communicate better with my cousins.

The floating market is one of a kind. Very modernized already with the huts in cements and all. But the beauty of it is still there, nonetheless.

Thats the hubs smiling to the camera and my sister-in-law + her baby + mother-in-law at the back :)

We couldn't resist mangoes in Bangkok. It's just so sweet, a bit sour ... very affordable! :)

and I told Darling that I MUST have this when I am in Bangkok. It's like one of the best Thai dessert ever.

I think Darling and I drank almost half a garden worth of coconut when we were in Bangkok.

5) Last but not least, Elephant Ride! I remember doing this with LeeLi and Mommy when we were in ChiangMai, if I remember correctly. I was so terrified as it felt like I was swaying hard from left to right so high up!

But this time, it was a very pleasant experience. Especially when the little one was laughing away full of excitement!

I asked the our elephant guide how old was our elephant, and it was only 8 years old. Imagine, elephants can live up to 100 years old!

I told Darling that I saw, touched and smelled an elephant's poo when I went for a journalist camp with The Star many years ago. He gave me the :O expression.

Believe me or not, elephants' poo is not as smelly because they're herbivores lah! Btw, the poo felt very grassy, not smooth but a little gooey.

Just to rub it in. :P

Here ends my Bangkok post. Darling said we won't be going back to Bangkok in the next 5 years. He had a bad experience shopping with us. :/

Oh well. There's always many other places to shop. Doesn't matter at all. ;)

XOXO,

theRascal

Baby Sister to Paris

Dear baby,

Take care and enjoy your days in France. It is such a joy to see you grow up into a beautiful brave young woman. I couldn't believe it when you told me that you would be just fine flying alone to Paris for this Program. Your assurance was a surprise, but it kept me happy.

Mommy and Daddy (especially Daddy) miss you so much. They will frequently talk about you. Asking what you're up to. I told them that the gist of the Program is to let you go explore and not be too in touch with us. It is so difficult for us to do so. But I guess we will let you go slowly.


Your brother-in-law didn't mention this, but he is also worried. I was feeling just fine until you were about to board. Many questions popped into my head.

What if you loose your passport?
Do you know that it is a boarding pass?
Will you be lost in transit?



So, then we realised that it was so lucky of us to be able to send you off right outside the boarding gate.

This whole year without you (physically) with us will be different. But I assure you that time will just fly pass and you will miss this moment.

Make good friends in France. Take in every single detail. Absorb the culture. Because this will be the time of your life and it will be so different. Sometimes when you miss us, it'll be so difficult. But it is alright to cry a little. Don't cry too long. Suck it up, and you'll find that tomorrow is a better day and you're growing up much faster, seeing and experiencing many different things when you're abroad alone.

You will find that your family in France will last a lifetime. Just like mine, leeli's and leemei's.
You will find that you have friends from all over the world and suddenly the world is so small to you.
You will find that it is not easy to live with somebody "not family"
You will then appreciate us more
You will discover that when people put a fist, and you'll stay calm because you have experienced and seen so much throughout this 1 year.
You will mature and grow in a different way and learn so many things that text book or even your family could not teach you.

These ... I assure you.




We will look forward to the day in September 2012 when you return. I promise to buy you a pretty helium balloon. And I can imagine you growing up so fast in a year, all mature and not blur. In the meantime, enjoy your days in France. It will be once in a lifetime that no husband can buy.







p/s: remember my Louise Vuitton. Bye.





XOXO,
theRascal

Hello! loves us :)

If you have me on your Facebook, you would have known by now that Hello! Magazine Malaysia published one photo from our wedding :)

It was certainly a beautiful moment just by looking at the pictures. Just close friends and us.

Thank you, Natasha for submitting this.

XOXO,

theRascal

Something quick

Just came back from a friend gathering at Alexis (!!!), Midvalley. One of my favorite place to have dinner/tea and catch up with friends.

Of course, not forgetting the amazing cakes that the sell! It makes my heart glee and my pants would drop. *pun intended*

Darling told me that the cakes at Alexis is also available in Serai at Empire Gallery. Yay to cake lovers :)

OK that's all. I did tell you that it's quick right? haha

Anyway, it'll be quite a day tomorrow. With support from the School, I booked the whole cinema hall at Premier Class at Signature GSC The Gardens for the students. Lawrence Wong will be there too! I hope everything goes as planned *amitabha*

Good night!

XOXO,

theRascal

The Many Yes's

Many times in our lives, we say "yes" to many different things.

On this day, exactly a year ago, I said "yes" to one of the most important things in life.



Thank you, Darling. You always make things very beautiful and easy for me. I look forward to living our lives, as husband and wife ... may we still hold hands like lovers do even after we celebrate many wedding anniversaries together; go through the many challenges in life ... and thank you for accepting me for who I am.

I love you. :)


XOXO,
theRascal

Don't go to University for the sake of it!

I like what Kenny Sia has written here and I'm in total support for a gap year, which all my sisters are doing. More on his blog: http://kennysia.com/

__________________________________________________________

Wanted to write about this topic for a while, but then I got carried away with work.

Recently I had to interview a round of job applicants for some positions I was hiring.

I was looking for sales consultants and an administrative assistant to join my fitness centre. These are entry-level positions good for fresh graduates, and I was looking forward to resumes from - maybe - business or hospitality grads in my inbox.

Ultimately, I didn't end up hiring any of the fresh graduates, but that's another story altogether. *remind self to blog about the atrocity of fresh grads*

But what surprised me was that in amongst the 20 over resumes that I received, a few who applied were actually Bachelor degree holders.

Not only that, they were degree holders in... Engineering.

An engineering graduate applying to a become a sales consultant at a fitness centre. Are you kidding me?

Is he gonna make a robot greeting customers at the front desk?

It sounds almost as ridiculous as a blogger opening a fitness centre.

Not that I have anything against engineering degree holders. In fact, I am one of them. Lim peh right here holds a Bachelors Degree in Electronic & Communication Engineering, with Honours.

Which is really just a fancy way of saying "Hey look, I am holding a piece of paper that I spent 5 years in university working on, but acherly I donch really know what it was all about!" :D

I got a theory with regards to students, in particular MALAYSIAN students, who study engineering at universities.

Kenny Sia's Theorem On Malaysian Engineering Students: "99% of Malaysian students who do engineering at university do it because their friends/parents/government ask them to, not because they really want to."

I'm serious. If I could have a dollar every time I see an engineering graduate getting a job in something COMPLETELY unrelated to what he studies, I'd be so rich I could buy a fake $5-billion dollar boat made of gold and dinosaur bone.

I know it's true. I am one of them.

My parents spent hundreds and thousands of dollars sending me to an overseas university, and I end up writing a blog and running a gym.

What a waste of time. What a waste of money.

I'm surprised my parents hadn't disowned me after I wasted so much of their money on my university education.

It's quite sad to think that the best thing I did in uni was joining the university gym. If I only knew which career path I'd take, I would never have picked electronic engineering. I would do something more related to what I am doing right now - like a commerce or hospitality degree. Why the hell did I choose to study engineering in the first place?

I blame it all on society pressures.

What to do? I was fresh out of high school when I was forced to make a decision on what course to do at university.

I was 17. How the hell do I know what I want to do for the rest of my life? I never had the chance to see the world nor explore my interests. Yet at 17 I was put in front of a university brochure and forced to make a AUD$100,000 decision.

My parents being parents are more than happy to comply. In Malaysia, there's no such thing as a "gap year" like in Western countries, where kids after high school take a year off to do travel or volunteer work as a means to discover their interests, before continuing on their university education.

In Malaysia, kids must go STRAIGHT to college or university after they finish high school. Never mind the fact that most universities/colleges are privatised money-guzzling business entities now. In Malaysia, if kids don't go STRAIGHT to university, they must be delinquents and therefore failure in life.

So what do I do?

I chose the so-called "safest" career option - engineering.

Why? Because back in the 1990s, Mahathir encouraged everybody to study technology.

Why? Because we got MULTIMEDIA SUPER CORRIDOR. And CYBERJAYA. And MULTIMEDIA SUPER TUALAMPA. And apparently everyone who study engineering will make a lot of money.

Bullshit.

Tell me which one of Malaysia's richest men have an electronic engineering degree?

When you think about it, it is so sad. University is so expensive, so important as a pathway in a person's career development. Yet so many of us rush into deciding on what course to pick when we really have no idea what we want to do straight after we finish high school.

In the end, all we're really doing is going to university for the sake of going to university.

By the time we find out how much we hate the course we're doing, it's too late.

Next time when I have kids, I'm gonna force them to take a gap year travelling or volunteering to find out where their true passion lies before they enrol into University. After all, if they are gonna be spending my money on their university education, they may as well do it right.

Don't want them to end up like me - studying so hard for a piece of paper that I never ended up using.

Parents, please don't rush your kids to go university for the sake of going to university. If they decide wrong course at University, die lah.

Might as well go Uneverstudy.

Bangkok - Shopping with challenges ahead!

We had a fun time exercising our bargaining skills in Bangkok.

It certainly feels like we found the greatest shopping haven. Or some say, literally heaven for shopaholics like ME.

I think my shopaholic dream came true. :X

The best thing that triggered AND encouraged our shopping was the very strategic location of Baiyoke Sky Hotel. Right at the door step, we had the Pratunam morning market that sells clothing in bulks to all local boutique retailers. And it was a very challenging trip because they only open from 4am - 9am, Mondays - Saturday. =.=

Yes, 4am - 9am. =.=!!!

So at 4am, Leong Big Sis took her baby to our room, we went downstairs to start our shopping adventure. So it was the little baby + Darling sleeping in the room, while us shopping away downstairs. Heaven or not?!?! It is for you to judge.

Anyway, if you don't favor the challenges set ahead for the morning market, you can always opt for the weekend market at Jatujak market.

In my opinion, the challenge would be the humidity and heat you'll feel like you're in a permanent makeshift huge steam room the whole time. wtf.

But, they sell almost everything and anything in the world! As long as you have good bargaining skills, you're up got good quality + best price ever. :)

Well, of course, when we talk about quality, it'll be up to you to judge.

Down the road from our hotel is the famous Platinum Fashion Mall. I spent 3 days going back to the same mall but could only cover 2 floors out of the 6 floors of the Mall. And the worst thing was, I could still find so many beautiful clothing with many different designs!

No picture to illustrate Platinum Mall because we were very good shoppers :/

In conclusion, after spending a week in Bangkok, our (Leong Big Sis, Leong Mama, Lee Baby and Me) have about 150++ clothing in total all not costing more than 250bhat each!

What the heck?

So how was your holiday?

XOXO,

theRascal