13th November - The Love Story

13th November 2010 is just around the corner. This date is really special and meaningful to us because this is our 10^th Anniversary being together. Times fly…

When I knew him, we were in our 16. At that time, we don’t really know each other. I don’t even know his name. The only reason I saw him before was when he came to my class to look for another girl.

However, during our final exam, he used to come to my class to chat with his close friend who is my classmate too. One fine day he overheard my conversation with his friend about the transport to our practical training in UPM. To my surprise, he gave me his mobile number and say, “If you really don’t have transport, call me.” I just took his number but never thought of asking him for help.

You know what happened a day before my actual day of training? I received a call from my dad saying that he can’t fetch me to the training centre as he will only be home the next day evening. I started to think of a way….but ended up with no choice but to call him for help and he agreed without any hesitation. I was happy at the same time nervous.

The next day morning, there we go riding on his motorcycle. We went for breakfast and he asked me how am I going back later and how am I going the next day. I told him that my friend’s mum will send me home but for the next day, I still don’t know yet. He then offered to fetch me home and to the training centre every day. From that day onwards, he will come and fetch me for breakfast, then training centre, lunch and home. The first weekend, we went to visit my grandmother and his orphanage. The outing was really fun.

One week later, on a Monday we went to ‘Pasar Malam’ after my training. Then we went to a park nearby and we chatted for quite some time there. I can’t recall what we were talking about at that moment where I suddenly say “Sometimes, there are certain things we don’t have to say it out”. When I finished my sentence, he became silent for a very long time. He never says anything but fetch me home. I was shock and curious as I thought that I might have said the wrong things. I don’t know what to do and I can’t sleep well that night. I tried to call him but he still chooses to be silent. I thought he might be angry and won’t come and fetch me the next morning.

The next morning, he came and fetched me but still remain silent. I was so curious and asked him what’s wrong. Finally we reached a nearby park and there he asked me what I meant by “Sometimes, there are certain things we don’t have to say it out”. He says he did ask around about what it meant. I then told him that I actually had a good feeling for him. His face looks a bit relief. He then says that he had good feeling towards me too. At that moment, we remain silent for a little while…Deep down in my heart, I feel shy and nervous. My heart beat very fast for the first time.

In the evening, he brought me to a playground and we chatted again till the rain came, he held my hand and we ran to his motorcycle to rush home. While on his motorcycle, I hug him from the back. He was so happy and there we go as a couple….

From that moment, I always look forward for the next day. Being with him I have no worries. He always fills my day full with laughter.

Melissa Tay

Purpose of Life

When I first started working, my goal was to find a greener pasture and succeed in life i.e. getting married, having a family and living comfortably. I chose the legal field thinking that it would help me to achive all these. 8 years has since passed. Somehow, I lost myself along the way. Although I have achieved some of the goals I set for myself, I don't have the stamina and spirit to pursue further. I cannot figure out the reason for me to lose the stamina and spirit that I first had when I started pursuing my goals. The only thing I can say for sure is that I don't feel appreciated. Hence, the apprehensible solution would be to look for another field of work which can bring back my stamina and spirit. I don't think I have the guts to leave the way of life I'm leading now. I supposed the reason for taking such defeating stand is largely due to my commitments and the worry that my skills and knowledge are not good enough to compete with others. How many people can actually do what they like in their entire life? or How many people actually know what they like doing most in their life? Whatever it is, the reality remains i.e. I will continue to have this terrible feeling until I have the guts to change the way of my life right now, be it the field of work or personal. Sigh!!!

Getaway to Perhentian

After the headache schedule of working and studying, me and Melissa decided to go on a short vacation to a local island back in July 2009. When talk about islands, the choices will be those located in the east coast of Malaysia such as Perhentian, Lang Tengah or Redang. Since I was very indecisive as to which island to go, Melissa, being the no-nonsense gorgeous lady, has taken a leading role in ending my flicker mind and booked the air ticket to Kota Bharu, Kelantan which is the airport for those heading to Perhentian Islands. With the destination of our vacation fixed, the next thing came to our attention was which of the 2 Perhentian Islands are we staying. After doing some research and getting comments from friends, we picked the small island to be our base as oppose to the big island since the former has less resorts and people, thus clearer water and calmer beach. The options for accomodation on the small island are limited and mostly located at the long beach fronting the big island. As there is no full day electricity supply for most of the budget accomodation and knowing how hot it will be on a beach, we opted for the only resort on the long beach, the BuBu Resort which provides full day electricity with air-conditioner. BuBu offer packages which cover accomodation, meals (whole day), snorkelling, jungle trekking and airport transfers. After running through the packages offered, we decided to only take their accomodation, airport transfers and a special snorkelling trip, where the snorkelling activities is done on the nearby islands known as baby islands, as oppose to the normal snorkelling package which only provides for snorkelling activities on the big island. A few days after settling with the accomodation and activities to be done on the island, the newspaper published an article commenting on the cleanliness of Perhentian Islands and I nearly fell of the chair after reading it. The article commented on the way the rubbish was dumped on the floating carriages and being left unattended, thus polluting the environment of the sea. To much of our dismay, I quickly call up BuBu's office in KL to clarify on the matter and thinking that if the situation is really as bad as what the article said, I will have to cancel the trip and head to Redang or Lang Tengah instead. After listening to the explanation given by an officer of BuBu that the article published actually relates to the condition on the big island and not the small one and also at the same time discovered that it is not viable to opt for Redang or Lang Tengah because of the distance, we cross our fingers to hope for the best. We arrived at the Kota Bharu airport in the morning and it took for about an hour to reach the ferry terminal located at Kuala Besut. BuBu has its own ferry and we need not wait too long for others before the ferry could depart from the terminal. It took us about 45 minutes from the ferry terminal to the small island and luckily for us, the water was crystal clear and our worries ended at the moment we saw the water condition and the beauty of the long beach. We arrived on the island at about noon and since booster and me are buddies, the first thing came to my mind was to have a chilled beer and it cost RM10 each. Given the fact that all the food and drinks are transported to the island, prices of foods and drinks are quite reasonable. Generally, a meal at the local food stalls will cost about RM10 for one person. However, we are of the view that the food on the beach generally no good and the stall keepers need to improvise. Anyway, the point of explaining the prices is that it will cost an alcoholic about RM20 per meal (so, moral of the story is to stay good and not touch alcohol) and since beer and food come hand in hand when I'm on vacation :), I'm in the category (sad right? haha....). After checking into the resort and lunch with two friends we came to know on the beach (Fendy and wife), we took the opportunity on the hot afternoon to zzzz.......... We woke up in the evening, relaxed on the beach, swum in the crystal clear water and snorkeled near the beach. At the same time of relaxing, my buddy (i.e. the beer) was with me all the time and it introduces me to another friend, known as Victor. Time flies and the next thing we know, it was dinner time. Our dinner was quite simple. I had nasi goreng and Melissa took tomyam noodle. After dinner, we walk along the dark beach (it's really dark, without any light) and headed back to the resort to rest after a short while because our snorkelling trip is on the next morning. On the second day, we woke up at about 7.30 a.m. and pampered ourselves with the buffet breakfast the resort serve. Thereafter, we got ourselves ready for the special snorkelling trip. The boatman, Encik Ismail was quite helpful and friendly. He took us to two smaller islands located about 45 minutes boat ride from the resort. The water quality and marine life on these two smaller islands really impressed us. One set back for the snorkelling trip is that the resort does not allow fins to be used. Hence, unless the fins are self-brought, no fins will be provided and we were afraid that we may accidentally touched the sea corals with our bare foot. Luckily, Encik Ismail is a good customer service officer. He volunteered to take us across the sea corals garden in the sea (because he has his own fins, he can swim faster). Because of Encik Ismail's expertise and sincerity, we had the opportunity of seeing baby sharks and other beautiful marine life. After the snorkelling trip, we felt that the special package we signed up for really worth while as we found out from our friends that the snorkelling trip they went was not really as exciting as our's and the water wasn't that clear (because they went snorkelling near the big island). We went back to our resort in the afternoon and we zzz........ again because of the hot weather. In the evening on the second day as there was not much choice, we went for the same routine dinner (nasi goreng and noodle!) with our friends. However, our activity on the second night was fun. After dinner with our friends, we headed to a drinking join where there were no chairs and all the patrons are required to sit on the floor (with matt of course). Our malay friends were very sporting and we had a good time. Thereafter, we went back to our resort to rest and on the third day, we left the island at about noon. Overall, we opine that it was a good trip and getaway from all the problems we face everyday in the city. Some information about the trip are as follows:-

Accomodation

Bubu Long Beach Resort

http://www.buburesort.com.my/

Boatman

Encik Ismail (H/P No. 0148362968)

(He says he charge RM50.00 per person for snorkelling trip to baby islands, which is cheaper than the resort's charges).

Purpose of this blog?

Before writing this post, I kept asking myself the purpose of creating this blog, since this idea was never in my mind previously. Since I was young, I have not thought of a day where I would spend time in front of the computer creating a platform and the best is, without a specific reason. After reading many blogspots and discussion with my lovely wife Melissa, it gives me a better idea as to the purpose of creating this blogspot, although to be honest I think it is also partly due to the trend of blogging these days ;-). Me and Melissa have decided that the primary objective of this blogspot will be to write about the journey of our lives, lives of people who are very close to us and how we sustain our relationship thus far. Further, we will also be writing about our working live. By doing so, we hope that it can provide some useful information to people who are interested to know us. Hence, this blogspot is not meant to be a platform for us to boast about our life style (especially when our life style is not beyond average or extraodinary different from others) or to attract attention. Rather, it is a practical way to share our happiness with those who are concerned, interested to know or happen to come across this blog. Therefore, please note that the information in this blog does not in anyway meant to educate or provide advice.