The Noughties

Today is the last day of the first decade of the Noughties and it only feels appropriate to conclude the year (or rather the decade) in a post to be remembered in the future. Yesterday I was reading the StarTwo section that captured the dourly important events that had happened throughout the decade. I feel that they were quite right in saying ‘what a thorny stalk of rose the decade has been’.

A rose, however, despite it’s thorns, have always been a symbol of love. It comes to show that there are always two sides to a story, and it is up to you, which want you want to look at. Personally, the past decade has been the most transformative years of my life. From being an 11-year old who wants to be a scientist (ha ha.. yes, laugh my friends) to someone who refuses to accept the imperfections of our world just as it is. The hardship, the success, the people, the schools, the laughters and the tears that I’ve experienced have shaped who I am today. The scars from the challenges faced have made me stronger, aware of reality while the success and laughter has provided me with a healthy dosage of optimism. 

Earlier this year, my grandmother had a heart attack and I cannot remember a time where I am more worried in my life. My grandmother has fully recovered but that experience made me rediscover the importance of family. I personally feel like a bond have been re-established with my wonderfully silly cousins, my adorably cute little cousins, my aunts and uncles, my sisters & brothers & parents who drive me up to the wall at times but whom I can never stay mad at for a long time. These roses are thorn-less. :)Try to view the world with an open mind as you are bound to meet people who don’t share the same values with you. There are always two sides to a story. 

It is appropriate I suppose to conclude the year by pointing out the things (other than my family) that stood out the most. First and foremost, fellow bandmates & classmates of 3A whom I felt at home with first.  Those 5 years and your friendship will be treasured forever. Not forgetting the lit people, the teacher who gave a lot of guidance & encouragement & put up with our naughtiness, and especially the ‘Thursday Gang’ who made A-Levels not as dull & uptight as it really was. Many of our REALLY widely-ranged-talks that were usually accompanied by ironically appropriate background music. All those talks eventually led to where I am today, doing a degree in International Relations. Funny enough, my current course-mates remind me a lot of PL5. I think most of them listen to the music that we avoid (:P), but they are just as perky and optimistic! Even the lecturers remind me of the enthusiasm and passion that Ms Anne had when she taught us. I am blessed to have consistently come across a wonderful bunch of people wherever I go.

2010 in general have been about dealing with really important real-life challenges. But I have no complaints, no regrets of the decisions I made; but self-annoyance over some of the opportunities I didn’t exploit. Lesson learned, take things as it goes. As I write this, there is only 4 hours and 45 minutes left of 2010, lets all hope that 2011 will be even more prosperous and peaceful. Have a little bit more faith in humanity. Don't take life too seriously, have a little laugh. :)

 Let's hope he doesn't find out I put this up :P

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

6 Utarid

In the midst of my somewhat hectic university days, I had the chance to step back and look at the past. Today, I went to my old primary school for my brother's awards ceremony. A place I haven't roamed around for about 8 years. Stepping into the familiar small hall of the school, the same place I was 8 years ago for my own awards brings back the fond memories I had there; particularly, with some teachers who have been inspiring to me. It was nice to see some of the old familiar faces again. Cikgu Muzamin's ridiculously loud mic reminded me of the days when he stood in front of us Standard 6 pupils, giving announcement, or the fond sight of him scolding us ;). I saw a teacher who's mother was my grandma's best friend, I saw a teacher who called me from inside her classroom randomly one day to ask a question when I beat her son at a competition, I saw the old KH teacher who likes to sing and make jokes. I did not get the chance to talk with the one teacher I wanted to, but the familiar sight of her is enough for now. I will always remember the people who first believed in me. I hope I will get the chance to chat with them one day. It would be mind-blowingly fascinating to look back and talk about how we perceive ourselves in the past and compare it to reality.

A ridiculously big badge (come to think of it) that they made us wear throughout my standard 6 year. I still have it. haha!

On another note, I finally got over the awkwardness of bumping into one particular teacher every now and then. A simple smile always works. =)

The Orange Building

"...and finally the elite group! IR students,meet me at room EA30. Dont linger around; leave that to the scienctists", Dean of Arts & Social Sciences.

A new beginning. Don't know if he'll still call us that after spending more time with us! I am just relieved that induction was not as awkward as the one I had in Taylor's. :P Will spend a lot of time in the orange building I guess. Class should be interesting,what with expected arguing in the classroom and such.. Bring on the sarcasm! ;)

Again, as with how I approach other new beginnings - I don't quite know what to expect nor do I expect it to be easy, but I do hope that it'll be an excitingly brain-stimulating experience. I wouldn't mind so much having my 'working Sundays' back again.

60 sen

Funny how such a small amount of money could take you a long way. In this case, it took me to Jelatek.

I was in a hurry to get to Jelatek from Ampang Park lrt station, the lines for the ticket machines were long, even longer was the manual counter's line. I saw a guy in front of me having trouble getting the ticket, and I was ready to give him a crisp RM1 note, not knowing that I would need help myself later. The guy eventually left and soon it was my turn and I immediately discovered his problem; "Exact fare only".  I checked my bag, hoping to find 60 cents but found none. Thinking fast, I looked around, at least a dozen people behind me, and did the only option I had - asked randomly to the people immediately behind me if they have change for RM1. The two Chinese guys behind me helpfully checked their pockets but they like me, had none spared. The first guy politely went on to buy the ticket (the other later faced the same problem and I stared helplessly at him), while I stood there already reluctantly realised I had to go on to the long manual line. Suddenly, the same guy who just bought the ticket called me out and gave me 60 cents. I hastily thanked him in my surprise.

Simple act of kindness that should be copied. :) So, thank YOU again for saving me from having to line up at the long line!

Merdeka Malaysia! (Part 2)

The next morning, we almost didn’t go to the Merdeka celebration at Bukit Jalil. We got up, sahur, once again being indecisive but took our shower anyway, and fell asleep. It was not until we dropped off Anna who had to go to church that Aneez suggested we could still go check out Bukit Jalil.

Once again, we were surprised at the empty roads. We had a clear traffic all the way to the Bukit Jalil car park. We had to part a bit further away from the stadium where military trucks were parked. So, from there we were already excited. We walked past A LOT of men in uniform on our way inside; including members of the 21 Skuadron Istiadat Berkuda, looking very macho in their red uniform. Unfortunately we were still warming up our brains from the sleep. So we walked through a door where there was a reasonably  big crowd gathered at the corridor. We thought the level above would have more space but we couldn’t be more wrong! Every other door we walked through was jam-packed with people and there were even more people watching the ceremony on the projector screens and big TVs along the corridors of the stadium. So we spent 10 mins just walking around the stadium to end up where we were in the first place. Aneez and I managed to get a good view of things. We stood there Ooo-ing and aahh-ing at the lights, colours, and couldn’t help but glanced up every few seconds at the row of the royal guards sitting macho-ly , looking down at the show while others (even the army) were waving our flags like baboon, singing along to patriotic songs proudly. SO macho! Aneez snapped a lot of pictures of the event,taking pictures of the colours, those macho army men, the marching band, which was fortunate since I didn’t bring my own camera.

 will put up my own pics soon. this is a bit too dry without photos :)

The real hype of the event however was, for the lack of better word, the “after-party”.  As the event this year was held indoors, the participants stayed at where they were and so did a large number of audience. We continued to sing songs, waving our flags (with a much better view) after the Agong and VIPs left their seats. And we took this opportunity to take a lot more pictures of ourselves at the historic event. =) We stayed there long enough until the organiser came back to talk to the participants. By this  time, we were sitting at the top level of the stadium where it was quite steep (and where the men in red were sitting ;D)I clung on to the chairs for deal life to get to a seat. The organisers were announcing the additional day offs for various bodies involved in the celebration. The big screen in the middle of the stadium, instead of showing patriotic song lyrics or pictures relating to merdeka, it was showing comments at the announcements. Words such as “hahahahahahaha” “xyah cuti” “:(” were seen on the screen. We left the stadium after a while and made our way slowly to the car, just enjoying the view of a sea of men in their respective uniforms. We wanted to take pictures with them but unfortunately, our phones died on us & we had no other camera so we had to make do with our eyes and hope that our memory won’t fail us. *sigh* To make matters worst, we couldn’t find any of the royal guards anymore but things took a better turn when we found the 10 PARA gathering at a parking lot nearby where out car was parked. We stood there, looking at them as if there were performing anything, thinking somewhat bitterly about the phone that died on us. We sat on top of the hill, looking down at them until they made their way up and we hastily made our way to the car. And was still looking at the whole bunch of them walking as we drove our way out on to the still mysteriously empty roads

Deciding it was still early, we went to the e-Curve to catch a disturbing movie that drove my memory away from merdeka for awhile. Repo Men. We only found out that it was STILL early when we got to the car. We tried to think of things to do in KL, came up with a few but only know where one of them was at. So we finally settled on Muzium Negara where there was surely an exhibition on Merdeka;before heading home and we were feeling fairly patriotic. I couldn’t help but think, How appropriate it is to end our Merdeka Day, at the very beginning.

We sang "Kita satu bangsa, satu negara" loudly dan dengang penuh rasa bangga semalam. I hope we won't forget that today or the days after that. I believe that Malaysians are patriotic, u just have to press at the right button for people to show it. I love Malaysia!

Merdeka Melaysia! (Part 1)

Admittedly, I almost forgot about Merdeka this year. What with the raya preparations going on and all. I was only reminded of it a few days before when I heard a raya song & merdeka song played back-to-back at Tesco. I had a very fulfilling Merdeka celebration that I want to remember forever. So I’m jotting it down here for me to read again in the future and for others who would like to read it. It is simply a narration of my Merdeka Day no in-depth thoughts from me this time. Will add pictures soon. =)

I had 2 very Malaysian days on the eve of and the Merdeka day itself. Started with going around Jln TAR with Aneez, (joined later by Nawal) looking for baju kebaya. Though we got side-tracked quite a few times, we managed to find one in the end. While being trapped in Semua House in the rain, we bought a few the P.Ramlee movies at one of the shops there. After buka puasa and picking up Anna, we watched P Ramlee movies, trying to gather energy and get some rest before going out again for the Merdeka countdown. As we couldn’t figure out where the fireworks would be, we headed out to Dataran Merdeka where, without fail, people would gather at with or without fireworks (expecting the non-existent foreworks). By the time we decided on a place, it was already 11.45 but we were surprised at how empty the roads are. For once, we were asking for the merdeka-jam and we got our wish as we got nearer to Dataran. The road was barely moving that we even had time to chat with the uncle (who later actually got out of the car) next to our car. As we were still stuck in the jam by midnight, we were looking for radio stations for merdeka songs. Surprisingly, hardly any of the stations were playing them at midnight! Mix, Hitz, Fly, habuk pun takda. What happened?? I know the government intended to  celebrate merdeka moderately but isn’t it too much if the radio stations are not even going to acknowledge the arrival of our 53^rd Merdeka Day?? I am disappointed with the local radio stations. We eventually found a radio station playing patriotic songs 10 mins later, but it wasn’t any of the popular radio stations. Anyhow, getting back on my merdeka eve, we were wondering what to do since we were stuck in the car when one of my friends suddenly took out 2 packets of bunga api for us to light up. DOL! Epic! So we lit up those bunga api while in a stand-still jam, screaming, “Merdeka!” and honking our horn and the amused people around us responded and waved at us.

When we got to Dataran, we were greeted by the sight of a sea of people standing in the streets, causing a major traffic jam as the cars couldn’t go through. Rempits lined up the roads, sending up smoke into the air as some of them drove off in big groups. What we first thought was a riot was actually just a bunch of people standing in the roads who seem to be focusing on something. We followed the crowd, walked along the streets as if the roads were closed, walked between the cars, wondering what we’ll see when we would finally get to the point where everyone was looking at. Most of the people there though, were like us, looking around, wondering and expecting something to happen to commemorate the arrival of our 53rd Merdeka Day. It was actually a group of boys running on the streets bearing the Jalur Gemilang. Funnily enough, there weren’t any cops in sight. The only mark they left were their cones, put on one of the road dividers.It was quite exciting, but there was a scary moment when some idiot threw a mercun on the empty road which had A LOT of people standing by it. I even felt bits of it hit the back of my leg. Luckily no one was injured. And at the frustration of the absence of fireworks (I think) someone lit up one of those smaller scaled KLCC-like mercun. Ironically, the mercun was lit up from a place where Bukit Aman was clearly in sight at the back! We later made our way to to meet up with some friends to lepak to end the day in a very Malaysian style.

Blue Skies

Amidst the growing number of trials & tribulations around the world, it is helpful to take a step back and notice all the wonderful "mundane" things that we take for granted so much. So instead of finishing some of the drafts concerning the predicaments of the world, I am going to share a bit of the many silver linings amongst the clouds that we often miss.

Walked my sister to the LRT station early in the morning as my mum was out of town. I was only so brave to walk back alone in the semi-darknessbecause I knew people would be walking around the mosque especially during Ramadhan. In fact, I was looking forward to my lone short walk home, absorbing the peaceful silence and the fresh air and relishing the absence of the cars. I was presented with this blissful sight on my walk home passing the mosque as the sun rises with a breathtaking beauty. Instantly diminishing any sombre thoughts or worries.

Not the best of quality as I snapped this with a camera phone but you get the idea =)

Stumbled upon this while I was flipping though the channels - it is Iran seen from a different angle. Just about every scene defies the general perception painted by the world media. In this show, you'll the people of Iran rapping (with a Mullah watching the performance), dunking, reciting the Quran, women working freely, synagogues operating peacefully.. (despite the fact that their President wanting to destroy Israel). In other words, you'll see a relaxed Iran. Most of you would be pleasantly surprised by what you'll see; but that just shows how the media has successfully tainted our minds (not just on this issue). I strongly recommend you to watch the full episode (on this link http://bit.ly/dsfqry) and follow this show - Don't Tell My Mother. Its nice when this kind of refreshing perspective just drops into your lap unexpectedly.

One of the many fascinating scenes. This Mullah, for instance, has a son who is a rapper.

On top of that, reading Harry Potter books has always been a great escapism for me. Just finished reading Deathly Hallows again. Trailer's awesome. Cannot wait for the movie to come up! =)

BRILLIANT poster

There is no need to focus so much on the negative side of things, it is pointless and it will only eat you.

Blissfully Familiar

After an admittedly LONG hiatus from the mosque, I went to Terawih tonight the for the first time since a long time. I haven't set foot on this particular mosque since I was.. 12, I think, even though its near my house. So coming back to it, is a little bit like facing the headmaster (just that u cant see the "headmaster"). I was anxious, looking around quietly at the vaguely familiar place, noticing some familiar faces that I rarely see. It was both intimidating and exciting. But all anxiety was forgotten when I heard the familiar echo of "Aaaaaminnnn"; something that never fails to amaze me. And from then onwards I was  just absorbing and living the moment.

Blissful Ramadhan =)

World Cup Euphoria

The World Cup holds a magnificent power. Its impact and influence is something that not even Michael Jackson can compete with. Every four years, for a whole month, the world comes to a stop. The world’s conflicts and crises are forgotten for a while. Everyone from everywhere got together wherever they are to just enjoy a whole month of the electrifying football fever that sweeps the world.

For a whole month, whenever you walk down the street, or at home, or even at work, you can feel the festive atmosphere that the world cup brings; even if you are half-way across the world from South Africa. For me, the World Cup has been about just spending time with the people you love. I stayed up with my sister and cousin, watching the REALLY early morning games, enjoyed the festive atmosphere at Dataran Merdeka for the Argentina-Germany game, the conversation over meals were about last night’s game; everyday was about football. Heck, even my Opah (grandmother) was into it! The day after Netherlands lost, she came into my room and exclaimed the Dutch’s loss to Spain to my sister (a Dutch fan), excitedly. It gave everyone in the house something to be excited about, even if the whole house doesn’t really follow football. And this is only on a small scale.

For one month, the world came to a halt. Crises not forgotten but put aside for a while. People from the Americas, Middle East to Asia, everyone got the world cup fever. For once, the whole world seems to be on the same side of the page, even when they were supporting opposing teams. Less depressive news were making the headlines, it was just a month of festivities. An event made even more joyous by the fact that the nation is SO musical. I could provide you with endless videos of the Bafana Bafana singing and dancing. Even in training! (for people like Deepa, the blue coloured words are links so click it! :])So, a BIG thank you to South Africa for providing the world with a FANTASTIC World Cup. Your unique culture and joyous people has been epic! I wish to pay a visit to your country in the (hopefully) not so distant future.

Now that the World Cup is over, the world goes back to reality, to all the woes and crises that it had put aside for a month.I wish the blissful month could last. Or at least the effect of it – where everyone was fighting in good spirits. No dirty plays. May the unity the World Cup brought last longer this time.

 

This is why I love the Bafana Bafana

Little Details

Too many times, I have seen people so focused and content in achieving their goals that they easily forget the little but very important details of life. Little details that can easily be done with a simple phone call. No feelings would get hurt. I guess what I'm saying is, it is very important to remember and acknowledge these little details that people tend to forget. Its sad how a lot of people lose sight of this.

Holistic learning

Came across this while I was browsing facebook.

"the best teachers don't give the answers, they just point the way and let you make ur choices..ur own mistakes..that way u got all the glory and u deserve it...."

Very true. This is also why I think Malaysia's education system needs a reevaluation. Not to say that Malaysia doesn't have any good teachers, I've come across some great teachers; but I'm highlighting the fact that the heavily exam-based nature of our current education system also influences the way the teachers conduct their classes. Resulting in a rigid and incomprehensive learning.

Of Peace and Tolerance (26/04/09)

A year on, and new conflicts are still emerging regularly. The most recent being the flotilla attack. Shall write about that soon.


 Today (about a month ago) during my Islamic studies class, we were discussing about jihad. We discussed the relevance of suicide bombing, and "honour killing" by the extremists that has killed many innocent people. Not only that, they also give Islam a bad name and image. Naturally, the discussion then gradually progress to the current situation in Palestine. Where people there are fighting for their survival.

The problem with Palestine is, they want to fight for their rights but they themselves can't solve their differences between each other. People from around the world are willing to help them. Especially their fellow Muslim countries. A lot of aids are sent to them subsequent to the war. The core problem, from my point of view, is Hamas and Fatah's incredible amount of self-pride. These two parties can't even get along with each other and none of them are willing to tolerate; let alone work together. The word Islam itself literally means PEACE. Now, my question is this, why can't Hamas and Fatah, two parties of the same religion and ethnicity, tolerate each other? It is not impossible as it has been done before, even more impressively, by a small country of people with different races who originated from different countries, with different cultures and religions. A country called Malaysia, which I am proud to say, my home. If such diverse group of people can work together here in Malaysia (even though I do admit that we do have our occasional hiccups), why can't they do the same thing there? We had even more differences than Hamas and Fatah has with each other. We had learn to tolerate with each other, and we had managed to achieve independence without going to war. Instead, choosing to hold a peaceful talk with our coloniser.



Why is it so difficult for Hamas and Fatah to TOLERATE? A simple act of humbleness and tolerance should make matters much easier. It's frustrating to think that they can't even help themselves. If they don't, then it would make it much harder for others to help them. Until they resolve their differences, it is very difficult to settle on a two-state solution, let alone claim back their land from Israel.

Opah =)

On the 20th March 2010, I had the biggest scare of my life. My Opah (grandmother) had a heart attack. I was dumbstruck & worried sick, and spent everyday in the hospital with my sister & cousin while she was warded. Today, marks a meaningful & significant day; as after almost 3 months since the incident, she celebrates her 75th birthday. =)))

Taken while still at the hospital - Opah's three nurses aka Missy haha

I Dreamed A Dream (15/4/09)

One of the best auditions ever! Its amazing how far she has come since that day. and I got my wish.I was part of the Glee flashmob in the Gardens in April 2010. KL is officially COOL. =)

Just watched the most mind-blowing video! Was watching another video when I saw the Susan Boyle video. I was curious why the video is a hit so I clicked on it. The video definitely sends out the message to NOT judge a book by its cover! She came on stage, Simon was rolling his eyes and everyone was being cynical towards her, but all of them were blown away when she started singing! WOW! The reaction and complete turn-around of perception on her was incredible! and this, in turn, touched people's heart as they are filled with guilt for laughing at her a moment earlier, for judging her by her appearance, for sneering at her when she dared to dream big to be like Elaine Paige, for writing her off even before she started singing. To me, the time kind of stopped when I heard her sing. Amazing how people can surprise you...It's from the show Britain's Got Talent. So, take a look at it, you wont regret it!! Susan Boyle ladies and gentlemen! GO CHECK IT OUT! the blue coloured words are the link! So don't tell me you can't find it on youtube! I can't post it up here because the "embed" feature has been disabled due to a request (im guessing by the show's management or something).
I think what the video signifies the most is that it's never to late to achieve your dreams. So don't give up and keep on chasing your dream people!! This reminds me a lot of Randy Pausch's wise belief on the importance of having a dream.

Here's another cool video. Now, why can't Malaysia have cool stuff like that?? I want to join!






p/s: new template...don't think I'll change it anytime soon because I like the colour :D and Andrew Llyod Webber is a musical genius! Love his songs!

Today In History (01/03/09)

At an aunt's wedding. Might have edited some mushy parts. But I regard this as one of the best advice given to me so far =) Since then, I've decided what I want to do.

So! I don't normally blog about weddings but, Aunty Yana's wedding was just simple but very sweet and memorable.

Had a short conversation with Uncle Wiz afterwards. He asked me "hows school?" and then he looked a bit confused and realised that I've finished school (the power of looking younger than you really are) haha. So he asked a bit about college and my plans (a lot of people have been asking me the same question today when I was at my school's sports day). But I think he was the first one to point it out straight in my face, "make sure you do something you like". I think that's a pretty darn good advise! haha..SO, shall take more time to think on it. Still have about a year to think.

Music (09/02/09)

Grammy Awards 2009

Music has been part of my life since I was small. Until today, I dare say the thing I enjoy doing the most is performing. I can say right here right now, Im not a very good actress (i can mimick people very well tho haha)..BUT...whenever it comes to anything musical, I find myself easily expressing myself.

Grammy Awards was awesome!! Performances were awesomeee...especially stevie wonder +JB and radiohead!! So glad I watched it. Now I feel very musical and all pumped up and excited by it hahaha...here are the some of the performances for u guys to enjoy the musical experience!! haha

Radiohead

Awesome right?? :D

A Reflection (4/01/09)

A post triggered by the (then)current Israeli 3 week-attack on Gaza. 

I just came back from watching "The Day the Earth Stood Still". I don't usually write about movies at all but, here's my interpretation of the movie.




To me, it reflects the current situation of the world. It shows how the "big guns" of the world refuses to listen to anyone else. Exactly the thing that America and Israel are doing. Israel are acting as if they are ABOVE THE LAW just because they have USA as their ally. They had ignored UN's and the rest of the world's call to ceasefire. Is this their way of plotting their revenge towards Hitler?? A re-enactment of the holocaust?? It wasn't even a Muslim who did that to them. USA too had apparently turned a blind eye towards the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Instead of intervening (which I'm sure they can), they support Israel's ruthless attacks.

Well, in the movie, the aliens came to rescue planet Earth by planning to wipe out the human population, and the human race was helpless against it. It reminds us that THERE IS a greater power in the world. One that no one can fight against. The movie also demonstrates how the human race is selfish. How they damaged the world and only at the brink of a disaster that they realised their mistake and try to change. I think it's a good movie as it reminds us that no matter how big you think you are, there is always something that is bigger than us and beyond our control. I just hope that people (mainly Israelis and whoever's in a war) will quickly realise that war is NOT a way to settle things.

Without Hope, You Are Nothing (16/12/08)

I just want to share this. its a video of the song I mentioned earlier with quotes related to dreams.

http://ferrarazam.blogspot.com/2008/12/without-hope-u-are-nothing.html

Once Upon a Time...

New blog, fresh start.

OK, didn't manage to finish any new articles today but I will be posting my "work" that I feel significant and important enough to be re-told from my old blog =) Starting with my very first post - a rather highly "animated" me talking about F1 & Obama's Presidential Electial Win. (As you can see, my style of writing has evolved ever since this day ;))

5/11/08 : I had had a very contradicting week. My week started off badly..i was totally dejected when Massa lost the driver's championship by a SINGLE BLOODY CORNER!!! urrrghhhh! i still have a grudge against TIMO GLOCK who's german. GERMANY man...my favourite driver, Schumi's home town!!!!!
i still think lewis got it by LUCK. he cracked under pressure, ran wide and was VERY lucky to get back up one more place after timo glock "CONVENIENTLY" slowed down! urgghhh..whatever it is..Massa, i still believe in u. There is always next season and we've seen him grown tremendously throughout this season! I was so frust with lewis' win, i couldnt get myself to look or read anything tht has anything to do with hamilton. Dear Massa, im looking forward to next year's season where u will surely be even more stronger!

I had decided to wear only black or red throughout the week to show me 'mourning' over Massa's lost. Even my friends who dont even know about f1 know about the last race because i told the the story about a gazillion time hahaha

THEN, when i was still frust and sad over the title lost, i found out that Senator BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA has won the U.S Presidential Election!!!! Hearing tht news, i wanted to shout n jump with joy!! BUT, i was at Asia Cafe, not gonna embarass myself there
Aneez called her friend in NY to confirm the news and after the confirmation, i actually hugged her weii because i was so happy hahaha and we talked about Obama for quite a while during lunch. And we were basically telling the whole world about the result. Pretending to ask for the U.S presidential result haha..and the guy behind us was just smiling and in the end he actually said, "so are u happy that Obama won?" we, of course, said YESSSSSSSSs and he just smiled wider and actually clapped his hands while crossing the road. I think he's a lecturer at INTI haha. and during econs, we shouted the result to MR Gobi haha..Aneez actually high 5-ed Mr Gobi for THREE times..which is a bit too much hahahhaa...2 is tolerable aneez, but 3 is just too much hehe.

p/s: i wonder what randy pausch would say today if he's still here

http://ferrarazam.blogspot.com/2008/11/obamas-man.html

A Missed Opportunity

About 6 months ago, I stumbled upon the volunteering page of the 2010 South Africa FIFA World Cup. The application was still open. I stared at it, considered it, and moved on... Wrong move.

The opportunity was literally presented in front of me, and I just let it pass without so much as a second thought. I will now regret that decision forever. Especially knowing the fact that I will be free for the next coming months (still am). Somehow, I forgot that this year's world cup with be THAT much special simply because it is held in South Africa. I forgot that it will be held in a nation called home to some really great people like Nelson Mandela & Desmond Tutu. For all I know, I could have been there, actually meeting these great people and experiencing the rich African culture I've always loved. It is a lesson I should have learnt years ago to never let an opportunity slipped through your fingers. This one will be that much bitter to swallow because of the uniqueness of this particular event. But to those who are there, either volunteering,organising or in the audience, I cannot stress any much more for them to treasure every minute of the South Africa 2010 World Cup as I am sure there it would be quite some time until the world will see such a unique event come along again. =)

The great man, Nelson Mandela

Desmond Tutu during his kick-off concert speech, " It's unbelievable. I'm dreaming, man... Wake me up. What a lovely dream... We are the world."

I will definitely root for Bafana Bafana during the inaugural game and throughout the 2010 World Cup. I mean, how can you NOT? Just look at these two great people!