Let Your Feet Wet, Get Your Toes Sandy

Have a getaway with my besties to Pangkor (again!) last week. Yes, I know it hasn’t been a year since I last went to Pangkor, but going with family and friends bring a different kind of fun! Plus, I need a break so badly~

The trip went well, despite just the three of us. It really was a santai one with no specific activities in plan because urm, this is really a last minute decision. But I think I’ve heard this somewhere, that the best plan is actually not having a plan at all! (okay, maybe I make that up :DD) So we went, gambling our way to Pangkor island in hoping to have the best getaway a girl like me could possibly have~

Riding the famous pink taxi-van!

We had lunch, play UNO on tablet, sightseeing, took pictures, watching the sunset, window shopping, had a perfect dinner, counting the stars, mandi at at our private beach in the morning, lunch, check out at noon and off to tanah besar (as what Jue-a likes to put it)~  And above all that, we practically having girl talk that I've been missing so much all the time~

A Hornbill! They were everywhere!

I always wonder how great it would be to have a private beach, so we could shamelessly act like a retarded kid at this age would feel comfortable to play in the water. Aaanddd, guess what? Wish granted! We took a boat ride to go sightseeing and feeding the fish at snorkeling area and then the beach boy leave us at the small island nearby and promised to comeback for us after 30 minutes. And we were the only people there and it does feel like we own the island for 30 minutes! And a private beach!  

Playing with Mia's camera~ So cool! Can go inside water one!

We dropped by Kellie’s castle at Batu Gajah on the way back. It was an unfinished and ruined mansion built by William Kellie Smith, a Scottish planter in 1915. He was the owner of Kinta Kellas Estate and the Kinta Kellas Tin Dredging Company. He brought his wife, Agnes over to Malaysia in 1903. The couple was blessed with a daughter whom they named Helen but he wants a son to take over his empire.  One of his workers from Madras told him that by praying to Amman (a Hindu Goddess), his wish will come true. So Smith prayed and after a few years, Agnes delivered a baby boy names Anthony. As a token of appreciation, Smith built a Hindu Temple for the Goddess. He went back to Britain for a short trip with his daughter to visit his wife and son, but unfortunately never made it back to Malaya. Smith was caught with pneumonia and passed away in Lisbon in December 1926. His wife then sold her interest in the Kellas Estate and Smith's distraught family never returned to Malaya.

Remind me so much of a Taj Mahal as this castle was built as a symbol of love. Saya sayu di situ. And we went to Helen’s room and it was written there that a couple of visitors saw Helen’s ghost walking along the corridor. Oh spooky!  Do they really have to state it there like that? You could admire the building for RM4 per person. I just wished they would replaced the faded history-tale (which they placed on the first floor) with a bigger font because it was really hard to read off the wall. 

Mesti ade gambar gedik satu~

And that's how my weekend end. How was yours?

p/s: Jue-a point out that this is the AZ trip cause our names all starts with AZ – Azrina, Azurah and Azmilia. Cool fact huh? :DDD

A Moment Like This

She has gone back to that place.

Another 365 days of waiting.

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Wait patiently.

Family Day

When I first heard about the Family Day plan, I thought it was gonna be a long weekend for me. You know, spending your precious weekend in an agro farm resort with the elders, in a dormitory with double decker bed and one bathroom, away from internet and laptop, try to get to know your second cousins better – that sort of stuff. But what I thought would be a not-so-great weekend turned out to be a really great one. And I was so proud to tell you guys that we had a Family Day last week!!!

This precious event was held at Syamille Agro Farm Resort, Perak, which is an awesome place for gathering.  The place is surrounded by fruit trees, and there was a big rustic villa in the center, Japanese bridges to cross to the goats’ farm with shallow streams running through, mini zoo where they keep mouse deer and porcupines under one roof - it was like I was stepping into a real Farm Ville ready to harvest everything!

We had activities like telematches, BBQ session, birthday celebration, tahlil and solat hajat, tazkirah subuh, heart-to-heart session (where everyone got teary~), visiting the farm, mandi sungai, bla bla bla~

Borak-borak session

Morning exercise~

Petai team

Pick up guli with chopsticks

Guli counting~

The referees; Tok Chor and Nadia

Mum with her amazing drawing.
Anyone can guess what it is?

Kuliah Subuh

Cutie goatie!

Visiting the goats' farm~

The resort room, RM250 per nite?
(but we're staying at the dorm, too bad!)

Ah, I think I want to make a confession :DDD For game, we were divided into groups and I was in Petai team. And during ice breaking, we played lukisan karat (which you had to stay in line and they give you a clue for you need to draw, and the next person have to draw what he/she saw and continue on, and the last person have to guess what the clue was). See, we have Irfan age 5, the youngest participant of all in our group.  Irfan can’t really draw, so we had to put him as the last person to guess our drawing and I was the one who was responsible to make sure that Irfan can guess it right (pressure!!)

I didn’t mean to cheat but it happened so fast. We were standing in line and I turned around just to see what was going on and accidentally look at Amirul, who was the very first person to draw and he already got the clue. He suddenly mouth me what the clue was when no one was looking, which I didn’t really get it at first. I was like, ‘Did he just give me the clue? What was it? Arab?’ and since we knew the theme was animal, I thought to myself, ‘Are we going to draw a camel?’ But they asked me to turn around and I waited nervously (seems like having a clue makes me even more nervous. Or was it because we’re cheating? Kekekekek.) When Syuhada show me her drawing, I swear it looks like a mouse with elephant ears more than a camel. It got me thinking if the clue was really Arab. Then it clicked, ‘Oh, Arnab!’ (see, I don't mean to cheat but it was really hard to not to, okay?) and because we were given only 10 seconds to draw, I was panicked,so  I drew exactly like Syuhada's but make the ears longer. And when I showed my drawing to Irfan, he made a face (what the hell is this?) but then he said, ‘Arnab?’ And we were the only team that got it right. Hooray!

(Of course they asked us to show our drawings and questioning how on earth did my animal have a rabbit ears when Syuhada’s clearly had an elephant's, kekekek. But they were more interested at how genius Irfan was, so we survived.)

But we lose the second round though (yeah, yeah, what goes around comes around). We were asked to draw a pineapple but somehow it turned into a banana in the end. I have to share this with you guys because it was too funny~

Although it was only for a short period of time,  I think I did get closer to some of my second cousins. I experienced moments of bliss especially during the telematch, watching my mum and my dad playing the games carelessly like they were 10. It's something that I can't buy anywhere else. So I am really grateful to this event and most of all, I am thankful to be part of this family.  And I hope that we are able to continuously make more beautiful memories together~

In The Night Sky: Woodstock Fashion

Ever since I watch After School’s In the Night Sky music video, I’ve been into these Woodstock era clothes. They really have cool fashion and good tunes back then, though their life style is freaking me out - taking heavy amounts of drugs, getting half naked, and jamming to some of the most amazing music all day long. Now, I never intent to adopt the hippie lifestyle, but I did appreciate the hippie inspired fashions.

They always have on tie-dye t-shirt, frayed jeans, fringed leather vest, feathered or bead hair accessory. Today, this style is back with some modern hippiefied touch. What I like about it is how it looks ‘unkempt’ yet so stylish.

Last year runaway collection~

Emilio Pucci 2011 Collection

Roberto Cavalli 2011 Collection

Some celebrity with Woodstock inspired style.

I should get this fringed top first eh? Or leather fringed bag?

Or this biker-chic vest?

Or some tied-dye shirt~

And need to buy lotsa accessories too~

Ah, I really thought this style suit me at the moment, cause now that I've put on weight, loose fitting clothes are my only solution~ kekekekek. Lagipun, bagus untuk muslimah, bukan? :DDD Now, the question is, can I pull this kind of look? How do I adopt it into my wardrobe without making a  fashion disaster? I hope our hijabies fashionista will try this look soon so I can have some inspiration~

p/s: Hey, anyone care to tell me the difference between boho, hippies and gypsy? I'm kind of confused~ :DD

Fly Me to the Moon

Okay, I've been listening to this soulful cover of an old song, Fly Me To The Moon by Olivia Ong. Now, I don't listen to bossa nova genre a lot, but once in a while when I'm in 'that mood', I'm going for more peaceful  tunes. So I was obviously in 'that mood' lately when I got it re-peat-peat-peat-peat on my itunes for  a week now. The song is so sweet and Olivia's voice is oh-so-dream like - the combination is too perfect!

And I found this! A Fly Me to the Moon cover by Jason Mraz, the version I would listen to when I'm not in 'that mood'. How I wish he would make an official record for this song :DD

Sing along everyone?

Fly me to the moon

Let me play among the stars

Let me see what spring is like

On jupiter and mars

In other words, hold my hand

In other words, darling kiss me

Fill my heart with songs

Let me sing forever more

You are all I long for

All I worship and adore

In other words, please be true

In other words, I love you

Sweet huh? And Olivia Ong will be coming to Kuala Lumpur this coming February. Anyone want to take me there? :DDDD

New Year's Intentions

Hello 2012!

So it’s been a year now since I started this blog. How has my blog affected my life so far? I’m not sure, but it keeps me motivated enough to accomplish something every week. I did trying to do something exciting or go somewhere interesting every weekend - though only a few managed to get onto this blog. I just want to share with others the things I see or feel at certain point of my life. And make connection with people with the same passion. A place where I seek for solutions and inspirations and nothing else.

I won’t call this as New Year resolution because if I put it that way, it will never work. This is my… err New Year Intention, yeah. So this year I hope that I can  want to:

1. Grad! This! I really really hope that I can finish my thesis writing soon and grad this year! Then hopefully get a better job! Amin~

2. Make more saving (read: stop shopping unnecessary thing).

3. Drink less coffee - You know how they say coffee have a good effect on your health like help reduce the chance to get cancer/Alzheimer/stroke, prevent depression and energy boast? The later is why I think I need my daily coffee. I drank coffee at least once a day before going to sleep (okay, I need some energy boaster just in case I get a nightmare, so I got some spare energy to fight whatever it was in my dream, kekekek). Normally, I had coffee in between my work, before and after lunch. Now, just how much caffeine have I consumes this past one year? I’m not saying that I’m gonna stop drinking coffee (I don’t think I’m ready for that, yet :D) but I need to reduce it a bit. Say, one cup a day?

4. Start exercise - Thin doesn’t mean that you don’t need to exercise! Exercise is very important for everyone to keep ones in a good health. I know this fact but still, I never exercise (only during a time when I get so motivated to have a flat stomach that I start do sit up for, err…. two weeks? :PPP). Okay, dancing to your favorite songs in front of the mirror doesn’t count as exercising. So many excuses I’ve created to avoid exercising: balik lambat from work lah, hari nampak cam nak hujanlah, takde kawan nak jogging sama-samalah, bla bla bla. So now that I think I should start to live a healthy life, what is more convenience for a lazy buzy girl like me than to start running on a treadmill? I actually can easily do this every day. Getting off late from work? The treadmill isn’t going anywhere! Hari nak hujan? No problem, you can still run thousand miles even if it was raining heavily outside! No one to accompany? Ei, hello, mana ada orang lari on treadmill beramai-ramai. Okay? No more excuses! Now I need a pair of good running shoes. And a good sport outfit. Looks like there is some shopping to do, hooray!

5. Cure my sinusitis - Because I keep ignoring my sinus, now I think it’s getting worst. Normal flu medicines (Clarinase, Clarityne, Loratadine) are ineffective to me. I’ve tried the smoke treatment before but it makes me suffocated. Anyone knows other great way to treat sinus? I don’t care if it is internal and external cure, as long as it work and easy for me to do the treatment by myself. Came across this article and maybe it worth a try? And there is a lot of pills/supplement like Ezibreathe.  Anyone has tried it before? Does it work?

6. Make as many posts to this blog as possible :D And from that, I hope to make new friends with the same passion and interest. And of course build beautiful memories with the existing one~

So that’s all I can think for now.  I hope this year will be a great one for me and for you too. Be good people!

p/s: those cartoons are only meant for jokes. I don't hate New Year's Resolution that much~