Happy New Year!

It’s the time again to bid farewell to another year. Goodbye 2017!

2017 has been a smooth year for me filled with travels, studies and love from my family. I have spent most of the entire year in Australia for my study, and it was the same for the year 2016 as well. How about 2018? Where will I be spending most of my time in? Back in Malaysia or stays in Australia? I’m still undecided and I will let the fate decides for me (it means I will settle at whatever the place that I get a good and promising job). I will leave it open for multiple possibilities and hence I foresee 2018 to be a year that I will step on new territories, face new challenges, and work in the professional practice to my best effort.

Welcome 2018! I’m ready for this brand new year! But I’m here without any new year resolutions…why? Because I find them pointless and would not work. The most important is that you have your own goals in your mind and live your life to the fullest.

Have you enjoyed this period of festive season? Countdown parties, lovely gatherings, fun outings, amazing fireworks, and well wishes filled everywhere as we celebrate the New Year! This is the time again for me to check out amazing new year fireworks display from various parts of the world, particularly from Taipei, Hong Kong, London, Sydney, Dubai and of course my city, Kuala Lumpur (but my city’s fireworks is the worst of them).

So, this post is technically my first blog’s post of the year! On the other hand, 2018 will be quite a special year to my blog here as it will celebrates its iconic 10th anniversary later this year, and is also expected to reach the milestone of having 2000 blog posts early this year.

Anyway, Happy New Year to you and may you have an awesome year ahead!

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri to all Muslims, particularly to my Malay friends and blog readers here! A month of fasting finally came to an end and may you have a wonderful and festive Raya celebration with your family, relatives and friends! If you are returning to hometown, have a safe trip and don’t be stress out by the traffic congestion (it is inevitable). For those who are not celebrating, happy holiday as well! This is a slightly longer weekend, thanks to the Hari Raya holiday that falls on Friday this year. Hence, I wouldn’t miss this opportunity to return home to spend a bit longer time in KL.

I’m already expecting a huge crowd tomorrow at the two border checkpoints between Malaysia and Singapore after working hours. A lot of Malaysians working in Singapore (like me, and especially the Malays) will go back to Malaysia for this celebration or simply enjoying the holiday. Usually it would take an hour or two to get through the checkpoints, but for tomorrow, I’m expecting about 3 hours. That is craziness that will only happen a few times in a year (only during festive period). A bus ride from Singapore to KL will usually take 6 hours, but for tomorrow, I’m thinking 8 hours or even more. My bus ride will start at 9pm and I think it will be almost morning when I reached KL.

The crowd at the checkpoints is my first concern. The second one is the traffic congestion along the route. Authorities in both Singapore and Malaysia should really look into making the exiting and entering procedures more efficient and less time consuming. My suggestion is to combine the two checkpoints into one, making it much easier and convenient for everyone. For bus passengers like us, we do not need to get down the bus twice if this approach is implemented and the buses do not need to queue again and again. People would ask me, why not just take a flight? Well, affordability is still my priority.

There isn’t much Raya mood going on here in Singapore, mainly because Malays comprises only a very small portion of the population here. It’s considered just a minor celebration here as opposed to being one of the main festive seasons in Malaysia. I recalled the time when I was working in a small office where all the other employees are Malays. They would turn up the radio with all the repeating festive Raya songs, share the Raya snacks and biscuits, and organize break fasting session and I would join in the fun. When my former colleagues were taking additional leave on the Raya week, I am the only one left working in the office. That was some cool experience though.

Anyway, I would like to take this opportunity to wish to all the Muslims Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri again! Have a great one! I’m looking forward to this weekend too in KL!

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! Since there isn’t any four seasons here in Southeast Asia, we usually called the festival as Mooncake Festival. Well, the festival isn’t complete without the mooncakes. I love to eat them, especially the original flavor (lotus paste with yolk). However for this year, I didn’t get to eat snow skin or jelly mooncake which are my other favorites besides the original flavor. They are pretty expensive and taste very sweet nowadays; well, it’s alright since we only got to eat them once a year.

In case you didn’t know or didn’t realize, Mid-Autumn Festival is actually the second largest celebration for the Chinese. Falling on the 15th day of the 8th month in Chinese lunar calendar, Mid-Autumn Festival is a public holiday in China, Hong Kong, and also Taiwan. Since Chinese forms the major population in Singapore, I think Mid-Autumn Festival should be made a public holiday too since it is a rather important and meaningful festival. Singapore has too few public holiday annually.

I went back to KL last weekend and had a nice dinner with my family to compensate for the supposingly family reunion dinner this evening in conjunction with the festival. Well, the festival falls on Monday and is not a holiday, so it’s not possible to be at KL with family for the day. I have to save my annual leave for my Chinese New Year’s trip to Europe early next year.

Monday blues today and it get worst as I was feeling unwell; stomachache and headache. They both came at once, giving me fatigue and a huge discomfort. Fortunately, there isn’t much work today. I should have just taken a medical leave today but I didn’t, and I don’t know why. Weird. Guess I’m saving on my medical leave too (pointless). I’m going to get a good rest tonight and hopefully will return to a healthy being tomorrow hopefully. Still have to go through the remaining long week ahead.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

This famous painting of the nun from the ‘Conjuring’ film series would be the perfect Halloween gift for your friends! Give it as a surprise Halloween present for your playful friends! Haha. By the way, the painting seriously looks damn creepy. It would be terrifying if you really have this painting in your bedroom, right on the wall across from your bed. And when you turn off the light, the painting is slightly illuminated to reveal yet another sight of horror. I believe no one will dare to hang that up.

The movie ‘The Nun’ which was just released last month has been doing very well at the box office (it has grossed over US$360 million so far  and is already the highest grossing film in the ‘Conjuring’ film series). It does not perform well to the critics though; earning less than 30% at Rotten Tomatoes. Have you watched the movie? It is a must watch if you are a fan of the ‘Conjuring’ film series. James Wan, a Malaysian born Australian film director is the man behind this. A very talented man (he designed this nun’s appearance as well as the creepy Annabelle doll too).

Anyway, Happy Halloween! Until these days, I’m still confused and curious on why do the Western people (or Christians) ‘happily celebrate’ and ‘enjoy with fun’ a festival that remembers the dead and puts ghosts and scary stuff to the spotlight. It is a norm for them to play trick-or-treat, pranks or other games, watch horror movies, attend costume parties, share horror stories, visit haunted attractions, and just enjoy the fun. Try imagine us, the Chinese celebrating Qing Ming Festival or Hungry Ghost Month Festival with games and laughter like Halloween. We would be grilled by the elders due to being very disrespectful. That’s such a different (totally opposite) practice by different culture. We said ‘Happy Halloween!’, but we will never say ‘Happy Qing Ming!’.

Halloween comes and it means this long month of October is finally coming to an end. I’m looking forward to the next two months (last two months of the year) where many holiday is coming such as Deepavali (next week!), Christmas and New Year celebration.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Happy Deepavali to all my Indian friends and to the others who are celebrating this wonderful festival! May this Festival of Lights be a festival of joy, peace and prosperity!

This year’s Deepavali falls on a Tuesday (tomorrow) and many people including me are taking leave today (Monday). That means we got to enjoy a four-days long break after counting in the past weekend. I was definitely not missing out this opportunity to return to KL for a long holiday, desired entertainment, deserving rest and to reunite with my family.

Surprisingly, the bus trip back to KL from Singapore on last Friday’s evening was not as bad as I expected. There were massive congestion of cars but my trip was not affected as we are on the bus lane that was less crowded. I was still to reach home at around 3 to 4am as usual (I was reminded back then when I only got to arrive at home by 6am when I cam back to KL during the Raya holiday).

This long break allows me to have a good bonding time with my family. I also got to play rummy game with my family on last Saturday’s evening after dinner (didn’t play it for quite a long time already). Then, we spent the whole Sunday at Genting Highlands. Although most of us lost some money up there (me included, but I’m glad I only lost a bit), but we were still enjoying the trip with some awesome time especially when riding the Awana Skyway cable car from the Premium Outlet to the mountain resort at the top (my second ride). It’s really hard to win money from Genting (if not, Genting won’t be as grand, big and wealthy as it is today).

This time around, most parts of the new indoor mall called Sky Avenue at Genting Highlands have opened up to the public including cool outdoor dining area, cinema, etc. However, the indoor theme park inside the mall isn’t opened yet (it will open most probably on January 2019). The very much delayed outdoor theme park (20th Century Fox World) is still under-construction but all the shapes and main structures were built already. After years of delay, I’m expecting it to finally open end of next year. By the way, it looks very small and compact. The new Sky Avenue mall has taken up a huge chunk of the land, hence reducing the area of the outdoor theme park unfortunately.

(Image source: http://www.themeparx.com/20th-century-fox-world-malaysia)

Time flies. I’m returning to Singapore tomorrow’s afternoon and my ordinary working life resumes after that. Anyway, I’m still cherishing the break I have back at home. The next long holiday that I have got to enjoy would be the Christmas break end of this year.

I would like to take this opportunity on the day of the Christmas eve itself to wish everyone a wonderful and joyful Merry Christmas!

There’s not much of Xmas atmosphere outdoor here in Malaysia (as it is super hot and humid outside) and that’s why people are flocking to air-conditioned malls for shopping and to take hundreds of pictures of beautiful and extravagant Xmas decorations in them.

To get to a cooler place to immerse myself into a more Xmas feel this time of the year, I went up to Genting Highlands yesterday for a day trip. A good decision because it’s the best place to feel a little cooler (temperature around 20 degree or less which is good enough to experience ‘winter’ in Malaysia) up on a hill. On the other hand, it is also a bad decision as the crowd is super massive over there during the weekend (heavy traffic congestion on both ways) and I lost money at the casino (always losing money at Genting).

What should be done in Christmas is to forget those bad stuff and just live our life with positive mind! I am enjoying my slightly longer holiday weekend break now (putting aside my stress and my work stuff for a moment), and then work for three days and then another long weekend break (coming New Year holiday) comes. Hurray!

Last but not least, I would like to wish to you a Merry Christmas once again! Enjoy!

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Happy New Year!

Year 2018 has ended with some great memories, huge challenges and major turning points for me and it’s time now for us to embark on more awesome adventures ahead in year 2019. Goodbye 2018!

Time flies. I think I have written that couple of times in the past but that’s so true that I wish to stress it all over again and again. It is as though my graduation and my Chinese New Year trip to China (took place on the past February) had just occurred three months ago. I felt like it was just yesterday when I moved to Singapore with huge anxiety for my career over there (and that was actually 8 months ago).

I’m glad I’m still in one piece, doing fine, staying healthy and going tough and strong in this past year. Any new year resolution for me? No, because I find that new year resolution doesn’t work. I prefer to set goals with my own timeline so that it can be more flexible to follow my pace without much pressure while still be on course to achieve the goals.

So, that’s it for my first blog post of the year. I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely wish everyone who is reading this a wonderful Happy New Year!

I’m ending the post with a brilliant quote from Sarah Ban Breathnach that we all should take note from:

” Take a leap of faith and begin this wondrous new year by BELIEVING “

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

First month of 2019 is over and now we welcomes not only the arrival of the second month of the year but also the wonderful Chinese New Year celebration! This lunar new year festival doesn’t comes until next Tuesday, 5th February but everyone is already in the celebration and holiday mood by now. Time to fill the month with plenty of red colour (deemed as auspicious colour for the Chinese) starting with this post!

I will be taking my flight to Europe several hours later to kickstart my 10 days trip during this long holiday. I am very excited to visit all the amazing places in Eastern Europe soon (but not excited for the two long-hour flights to reach Europe which would definitely caused me huge discomfort). Hence, my next blog post will be somewhere on mid February when I returned from the trip to note down all the wonderful experience I had from it and share some amazing photographs I have taken.

For now, I would like to take this opportunity to wish to my family, relative, Chinese friends and colleagues a wonderful and prosperous lunar new year! Gong Xi Fa Cai! May this new lunar year of pig brings you abundance of great health, wealth and happiness! Yeah, it’s the year of the pig. The last animal zodiac sign in the 12-year cycle.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Happy Labour Day everyone! It’s time to catch a little break in the middle of the week. It would be much better if May 1st falls on Friday so we can have a long weekend. Or it can even be on tomorrow (Thursday) so that we can take one day leave on Friday to enjoy a 4-day weekend break.

One third of the year is gone and it’s the month of May now. Tomorrow marks the 1st anniversary of me working here in Singapore. Time flies. By now, I have mostly adapted to the environment here and have known more places in this island for shopping, movies, exploring and sightseeing.

I have learned a lot in this past one year and there’s so much more for me to learn from my career as a junior architect. On reflecting this past one year and to set myself ready for the following years, I have to be like a skyscraper; rising from the ground to the top as sky is not the limit. You will notice this quote up on my blog’s header for this month too. When you are on the city street, try look up to the buildings above you and you will gain a new perspective in life (besides straining your neck to look up..haha).

What am I going to do today? Nothing much. It’s just one day and it’s on the middle of the week and hence there’s nothing exciting or interesting that can be planned. I will just stay at home, watching stuff (Youtube, my Hong Kong drama and a downloaded movie perhaps), go for grocery shopping, rest and updating my blog here (that’s what I’m doing now).

Without labour, nothing prospers. Happy Labour Day once again! We, who worked hard and contributed so much, do deserves this holiday. Now, I’m already eyeing on the next public holiday which is also around the corner; Wesak Day on the middle of the month.

This is a nice long weekend as the Deepavali festival falls on Sunday and that makes Monday a public holiday. Many of my colleagues yesterday automatically wished me to have a safe journey home back to KL but I told them I’m not going back this weekend, and they are surprised (since it’s great time to go home on a longer weekend). My parents will be going to Genting Highlands this weekend and hence there’s no point for me returning to home with no one around. Furthermore, the traffic congestion at the checkpoints will be much crazier last evening and I don’t want to be part of it.

I’m just going to spend this long weekend here in Singapore. No hassle and no travel time. I’m going to be hanging out with my friend, watching a movie or two, play badminton, shopping, sightseeing, etc. It’s also in right timing to do all these as my monthly salary just came in. Haha…

Here I would like to take this opportunity to wish to all my Indian friends a Happy Deepavali! May this Festival of Light brings joy, happiness and prosperity to you and your family!

We have now around two more months left before the year ends. Can’t wait for the long holiday end of the year (forced to take leave due to office closure) but didn’t plan any vacation during that time at the moment. Also can’t wait for my year end bonus. This is my first year completing a full year at work and so it’s normal to wish for better bonus. But I can’t dream much as my office is now on serious cost-cutting measure now.

Happy New Year 2020 !

May this new year brings a lot of joy and cheer to all of us!

How did you spend your New Year’s Eve yesterday? I was still on leave and so I have a whole day free (lazy most of the time at home…going to treasure the laziness since I can’t be doing that anymore when work begins right after the new year holiday). I joined my friend in the evening at the city to witness the extravagant new year fireworks at Marina Bay.

The crowd was insane. It felt like every single person in Singapore has gathered around the waterfront in the city to countdown for the new year. Nevertheless, it was a fun and memorable experience and this was actually my first time seeing new year fireworks in Singapore.

It’s now not only the beginning of a new year but also of a new decade. ‘2020’ is a very cool number. By the way, my country, Malaysia is now still very far behind from ‘Wawasan 2020’ first envisioned in 1991 that pledges to see the country achieving a self-sufficient highly industrialized nation by the year 2020. Basically, we look forward to see our nation to become a developed country by this year. But nah…we still couldn’t achieve that obviously. Too bad.

There will be a number of major international events scheduled to take place in 2020; UEFA Euro 2020 from June to July, Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games from July to August, Dubai 2020 World Expo from October 2020 to April 2021, etc.

I just noticed that my blog has reached exactly over 3.6 million views before year 2019 ends. Nice! Alright…I am ending this post (my first blog post of the year) with a nice poem by Joanna Fuchs:

Happy, Happy New Year,

We wish you all the best,

Great work to reach your fondest goals,

And when you’re done, sweet rest.

We hope for your fulfillment, 

Contentment, peace and more,

A brighter, better new year than,

You’ve ever had before!

Happy Chinese New Year! Gong Xi Fa Cai!

May this lunar new year brings to you great health, good luck and abundance of happiness and may you enjoy success in all areas!

It’s time to get back with the family together and celebrate the biggest and most important Chinese festival. Have an awesome reunion dinner by putting aside your mobile phone and have some quality chats with your family members. Greet the elders and everyone else. Wear bright coloured shirt and embark on trips to visit relatives whom we most probably have not seen for a long time.

Spread joy by giving or receiving angpows (you are single, you receive…you are married, you give). Have fun by lighting up firecrackers or fireworks outside, or gather around for a light gambling in the house to check out how good is luck this year. Eat variety of delicious CNY cookies and biscuits and only worry about losing the fats after the festival. Be entertained by watching some light-hearted lunar new year movies.

In general, have fun and enjoy the festival with your loved ones! As per my family’s tradition, we will be usually heading out to oversea for a vacation during every Chinese New Year holiday. I’m now in Egypt for the trip along with my parents and I will be posting the highlights of the trip once I return on 30th January 2020.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

It was the Mid-Autumn Festival on last Thursday. The festival, which is one of the largest and most important festivals in Chinese community, falls on the first day of October this year. Everyone was busy sharing and forwarding similar images of the festival’s greeting to their families and friends on that day through Whatsapp. I received several such greeting pictures too on that morning.

Although I’m late for two days, but I would like to extend a belated Mid-Autumn Festival greeting to everyone too. If you are unsure of what this festival is about; it is actually a traditional Chinese festival (also celebrated by other Asian communities) with a history dating back 3000 years of which people worshipped the moon for bountiful harvests. The festival is held every year on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month in Chinese calendar.

The festival is commonly associated with eating mooncakes, playing lanterns, family reunion and observing the moon. I myself have been eating quite a number of mooncakes in this period as I love mooncakes (especially the original flavour one – lotus paste with yolk, and the snow skin durian mooncakes). It is very expensive purchasing them though. One box (4 mooncakes) of original flavour easily costs over SGD$40 while one box of durian mooncakes costs over SGD$70 even after promotion.

In conjunction with the festival, I paid a visit to the Gardens by the Bay on last weekend to check out some cool festival installations/ decorations scattered around with my friend. Even Singapore’s Prime Minister shared pictures of his visit to see these installations few days earlier on his Facebook page. Here are some shots that I took:

Nice right? I was expecting a bit more decorations though since the Gardens by the Bay is so huge and is a perfect setting for such decorations.

We have now entered into the last quarter of the year…Covid-19 is still around; number of cases got so much lower now in Singapore but increased a lot over in Malaysia. Even the President of the United States, Donald Trump was also reported recently to have been infected with the virus. Things are becoming uncertain, and we can only now hope that the worldwide mass vaccination will be available very soon and that we continue to practice good hygiene, mask-wearing and social distancing for some time being. May the last quarter of year 2020 will be better to all of us!

First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to wish Happy Deepavali to my Indian friends and to everyone else who are celebrating this occasion too. Let the colours of this holy night decorate your life with peace, prosperity and success! By the way, it’s a bit sad that we don’t see much of Deepavali decorations set up on public places, streets or in malls. Instead, most places already have their Christmas decorations ready although it is still more than a month away.

This year’s Deepavali falls on a Saturday and I spent most of the day resting at home, binge watching my Hong Kong drama (quick review below) and strolling around Jewel, Changi Airport in the evening. The indoor waterfall accompanied with great lighting and ambience never fails to impress me each time I visit the place. While the terminal areas of the airport appear to be very quiet (very less flights nowadays due to the current global pandemic), it is totally the opposite atmosphere at the Jewel (it is so crowded!).

This year’s Deepavali falls on a Saturday and I spent most of the day resting at home, binge watching my Hong Kong drama (quick review below) and strolling around Jewel, Changi Airport in the evening. The indoor waterfall accompanied with great lighting and ambience never fails to impress me each time I visit the place. While the terminal areas of the airport appear to be very quiet (very less flights nowadays due to the current global pandemic), it is totally the opposite atmosphere at the Jewel (it is so crowded!).

Let’s move on to my quick review of yet another TVB drama that I have finished watching. The series is called ‘Legal Mavericks 2020’ and it is a direct sequel to the 2017’s ‘Legal Mavericks’. The plot continues with the blind barrister who strives for justice for the disadvantaged, using his other heightened senses and legally controversial methods to seek truths behind his court cases. Standing alongside him is his very close buddies; a female legal executive, a private investigator, and a newly made female barrister friend. The 28-episode series starred Vincent Wong, Sisley Choi, Kelly Cheung, Owen Cheung, Paul Chun, etc.

I enjoyed the series just as much as its predecessor. Each court cases are unique in its own (never feels repetitive) and are interesting to watch. However, I was slightly disappointed by the very last court case in this drama that felt a little too simple and poorly written. The final case should usually be the most intense or complex one but it didn’t really turn out that way. I also wasn’t too happy with its ending; Sisley not waking up, and Vincent still not revealing his true feeling to her. They deserve a happy ending there but we ended up getting another cliffhanger (typical of TVB series nowadays).

Vincent Wong continues to deliver stellar performance as the blind barrister (he won Best Actor from the first series three years ago) and so does Sisley Choi (who won Most Popular TV Female Character from the same role too). Kelly Cheung came in to replace Ali Lee in this second series. I can see huge improvement from Kelly but the way the script wrote her character that resembles a lot like Ali in the first series causes her performance to lose originality. It’s also good to see Paul Chun, an award-winning veteran actor starring in this series too. It’s weird but it’s fun to watch his character. Out of 10 points, I rate ‘Legal Mavericks 2020’ a total of 7.8. A solid drama that lives up to its expectation and is almost as good as its predecessor.

(Images in this post are from various online sources except for the shots of the Jewel)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Although Christmas events or gatherings have to be scaled down this year, do not let them be an excuse to ruin this festive season. We can still celebrate in a more humble manner, in whichever way we may find as long as we continue to stay safe.

This year may be hard for us but may this Christmas season will still fill your home with joy, your heart with love, and your life with laughter. And may the New Year be full of adventure!

May the Christmas season end the present year on a cheerful note and make way for a fresh and bright New Year. Season’s Greetings to you all!

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Happy Chinese New Year! Gong Xi Fa Cai!

May this new year of ox brings to you and your family abundance of wealth, luck, harmony, stability, success and above all, good health!

Due to the current pandemic and its severity over in Malaysia, this is the first time ever I’m celebrating CNY away from family and home. Of course there would be a little sadness in me (along with many other Malaysians stuck here in Singapore too), but I will try to make the most out of the current situation and stay positive and joyful all the time. Although far away from family, but I would still be having a simple reunion dinner with my housemates later this evening.

As for the coming long CNY weekend, I would be spending most the time to rest and recharge myself at home. Besides that, there are plans to head out with friends for meal, shopping and outing. I would also be visiting the ‘River Hongbao’ event at Gardens by the Bay next Monday. More details of that event in my next post after my visit. I will keep in touch with my family and will check how they are doing back in Malaysia soon. Staying connected despite being in a long distance apart is crucial. Family matters the most.

This is the time when there are a lot of flashback of good memories I had during CNY festival in the past years when I was a child. I do miss being called by my mom on the early morning of the first day of CNY to wear the one and only gold necklace with my family surname crafted on it (it’s a family inherited item passed down for generations). I do miss visiting my grandma’s house for vegetarian lunch on first day of CNY. I do miss going to my mom’s huge gathering of relatives on the second day of CNY at my eldest aunt’s large house where I can meet most if not all of my cousins in one go for catching up, games, fun gambling, etc. I miss seeing humorous classic CNY shows and movies from Hong Kong in front of the TV. That were all memories from nearly 2 decades ago…time flies. There’s a sweet smile on my face now thinking back of all those joyous moments.

Although Chinese New Year festival will be celebrated very differently this year with less fanfare and people around, but let’s not make that a hindrance to the true spirit and meaning of this celebration; togetherness as one especially throughout this difficult time. May the Covid-19 pandemic will be over very soon and that we can all celebrate CNY normally next year onward.

新年快乐，万事如意 ! (Happy New Year and may all go well with you!)

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

First of all, I would like to wish to all my Malay friends and to all Muslims across the world; Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri! Although it will be not as festive as in the past years before 2020 due to the pandemic, I do sincerely wish that you will still have a joyful and warm celebration among your family members. This is already the second year of the festival that saw a lot of restrictions from the nationwide lockdown in Malaysia (it’s currently MCO 3.0) and I do felt the frustration.

However, we can’t do much as our safety and health remain the top priority. Few thousand Covid-19 cases a day isn’t a joke and the government’s frequent u-turn in decisions and illogical SOPs are making things no better. The current MCO, EMCO, CMCO or whatever it is in Malaysia for the past few months aren’t working at all due to many unnecessary relaxation of SOPs and many rules-flouting citizens including high-profile people and even ministers. The country should really just move forward to a complete full nationwide lockdown (entirely) for 2 weeks to drastically bring down the numbers rather than all these half-baked MCO, CMCO, etc.

We have about few to 10+ daily community cases here in Singapore recently and the country immediately moves back to Phase 2 of its reopening to quickly curb the spread of the virus. States in Australia imposes few days of lockdown respectively once there is only one or two confirmed cases reported. Malaysia have to take quick and firm actions on this. Few thousand daily cases in a small country like Malaysia is very concerning. I’m also distressed from seeing the Covid-19 situation in India recently that puts the country in grave danger and of course I do not wish to see Malaysia heading into that direction as well.

Let’s not talk about Covid-19 anymore for now. It’s been in everyone’s topic since last year most of the time. I’m already in a holiday mood now because I’m taking a leave on this Friday and the Hari Raya Aidilfitri is tomorrow (Thursday) and hence I will have a long 4-day weekend break. In holiday mood but can’t go anywhere beyond the island…and hence I opt for a staycation for one night in a hotel at the city. Just an affordable and a quick escape away from my home in this long break to rest and relax.

That’s all for my post today. And again, for those who are celebrating; Salam Aidilfitri…Maaf Zahir dan Batin. Hopefully the pandemic will be very much under control by end of this year so that we all can celebrate our respective festivals in a much more normal and festive way next year onward.

Merdeka! Merdeka! Happy 64th Independence Day, Malaysia! 31st August remains a very significant day to Malaysia as the country first gained independence on this day in 1957. How many of us can still remember all the patriotic-themed songs we have to memorize and sing it out in our childhood years at school during this month? ‘Tanggal 31…bulan lapan, lima puluh tujuh….’, ‘Keranamu kami mendakap tua, keranamu kami bangsa berjaya…’ or ‘Jalur Gemilang, di bawah naunganmu…Jalur Gemilang, kami semua bersatu…’.

Although we cannot remember most of the lyrics now already, but I’m certain that the spirit of patriotism is still strong in each of us no matter who we are and where we are now. We are Malaysians…who wish only the best for the country…who wish that the country can overcome this pandemic very soon…who wish that Malaysia remains strong, stable and harmonious. I may be living in overseas now but I’m still proud to call myself a Malaysian!

In other news, Malaysia did fairly well at the on-going Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games! So far, our country has already won 1 gold medal and 1 silver medal at the games which is scheduled to end this Sunday. Huge congratulations to the winning athletes and you have made us proud!

It’s 31st August today and so it’s the last day of the month! I have had a great and fulfilling month…I took a short break and went for a cruise to nowhere, played luge for the first time, watched Singapore’s National Day fireworks, closely followed the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games and all the intense political dramas of the country, completed a major design stage/milestone in my work and completed my Covid-19 vaccination (I’m fully vaccinated!). I really had an amazing and unforgettable time in this month alone! Awesome!

Here’s an video from YouTube by Aereon Wong that I have watched recently that I would like to share to my readers here. It’s a spectacular aerial video showing beautiful places in Malaysia in conjunction with the Independence Day celebration for you to enjoy. Those views are breathtaking, especially the one at 2.41 showing the Merdeka PNB118 Tower in the center view framed by the two spires of the iconic Petronas Twin Towers. That is truly a money shot.

‘Selamat Hari Kemerdekaan ke-64, Malaysia!’

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to all who are celebrating it! The festival falls on the coming Tuesday this year. Similarly to last year, this will be yet another Mid-Autumn Festival for me away from home as we are still currently in the pandemic and I could not return to enjoy the celebration together with my family back at home in Malaysia. No family reunion again…

Mid-Autumn Festival is considered as one of the most important Chinese festivals (probably the second most important after the Lunar New Year). It is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month in Chinese calendar with a full moon at night. On this day, the Chinese believe that the moon is at its brightest and fullest size, coinciding with harvest time in the middle of Autumn season. Feasting on mooncakes and playing lanterns are closely associated to this festival.

I have always been wondering that since it is the second most important Chinese festivals, it should be granted a public holiday at least over here in Singapore where majority of the population is Chinese. But no! Why? Because Singapore is too hardworking. That is why the country is always ranked among the top 3 most stressful or overworked city/country every year.

What’s my favourite thing to do in this festival? Eating mooncakes of course. I love mooncakes, especially the traditional lotus seed with egg yolk ones. What’s your favourite mooncake flavours? (there are a lot of varieties available now from various brands). I also love durian mooncakes (actually anything as long as it is associated with durian). I even bought not one, but three boxes of Mao Shan Wang snowskin mooncakes to treat myself this year. I can slowly enjoy it for at least two months without the feeling of anxiety of finishing them too soon. Yes…buying mooncakes are super expensive nowadays but it’s just once a year, so that’s fine.

I also joined a special religious event in a church with Mid-Autumn Festival theme yesterday at the invitation of my friend who will be performing in the event itself. I’m not a Christian but I don’t mind attending to join in the fun and to watch my friend performed. The event features some games, a sketch, a talk by pastor, and some singing (all done with safe Covid-19 measures in place). It was quite a fresh and nice experience.

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival once again!

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

This is a nice long weekend as the Deepavali festival falls on Sunday and that makes Monday a public holiday. Many of my colleagues yesterday automatically wished me to have a safe journey home back to KL but I told them I’m not going back this weekend, and they are surprised (since it’s great time to go home on a longer weekend). My parents will be going to Genting Highlands this weekend and hence there’s no point for me returning to home with no one around. Furthermore, the traffic congestion at the checkpoints will be much crazier last evening and I don’t want to be part of it.

I’m just going to spend this long weekend here in Singapore. No hassle and no travel time. I’m going to be hanging out with my friend, watching a movie or two, play badminton, shopping, sightseeing, etc. It’s also in right timing to do all these as my monthly salary just came in. Haha…

Here I would like to take this opportunity to wish to all my Indian friends a Happy Deepavali! May this Festival of Light brings joy, happiness and prosperity to you and your family!

We have now around two more months left before the year ends. Can’t wait for the long holiday end of the year (forced to take leave due to office closure) but didn’t plan any vacation during that time at the moment. Also can’t wait for my year end bonus. This is my first year completing a full year at work and so it’s normal to wish for better bonus. But I can’t dream much as my office is now on serious cost-cutting measure now.