I've been busy dealing with several publishing house today. Well I didn't want to get textbooks for my Chinese classes the last minute, so I searched for several other alternatives to the ones that I used last year and also asked around for some suggestions.
It's weekend again. I'll try to get my thoughts focused after a sequel of hectic days.
My day was quite a day I tell you! What I hold dear today was meeting a good acquaintance from Indonesia and all that honda jazz...ehek!
DL day. Yes, driver's license day. I didn't know what to expect and expected the unexpected. Basically I went to the Road & Traffic department and was there for half a day. Quite contrary from what I've expected. Now ladies and gentlemen, the driving test they make you sit for here is not a piece of cake at all. I've sat for M'sia's driver's license test, nothing like it. The test is divided into 4 different parts. You have to pass all of it. If you fail to make it in one part, you'll resit for that part and the next part only.
1. The four vision test. This part is to test your whether you're color blind, can estimate depth, distance, alertness, etc! So I passed all the test. I was the only one yelling "blue, green, red, yellow.." while 99% were on "daeng, kiaw, leang, fa.." Imagine being in the 1%. Do expect all EYES!!
2. An almost 2 hours of seminar talk. I tell you this is the part where you can literally rest your eyes but not your ears BUT please do rest your ears! Everything is in Thai and no one told me that some of the writing questions will be from this session! I was given the same handbook that my mentor gave. This book lists all the signs and rules there is out there. Well, the ones that the officer at the Seminar room gave me had lots of swear words on it. I bet I know why. Darn session...I was so restless, sleepy and secretly dozed off at a corner. They were showing this DVD in Thai about rules and some problems you might encounter while driving in Thailand and yes, some rules I suspect. Everyone was taking darn notes and I was about to jot down some nasty words on the book too! ;) I had very little idea with the DVD session. Well, I remembered my mentor mentioning that the test will ONLY be from the flickening book! Then I thought it was all over after an hour and a half, but this guy who yelled at me when I got in (because I signed my name on the Taxi license book instead of the normal drivers license book--Thai script bad!!) came up again and spoke a few yards of words which made me more pee-pee! When he walked away, another young gentleman came..I didn't mind simply because he was 'young'!
3. Then came the third part--The computerized rules test. It's multiple choice but we are required to take it in a special seat with a special kind of screen. Sort of like a computer but it looked more like my childhood's English talking set! Well, the instruction was all conducted in Thai and when the invigilator asked if there's any question, suddenly I noticed one shaky hand raise and needless to say..it was the 1%. Her question was "Can you run through the procedure with me??" The man was dumb-founded for a sec. Long story cut short, I did all the 30 questions there is and boooohooo...I failed. Yes, the questions were in English, but I only scored 19. All the wrong ones were questions from the *&^% seminar talk.
4. The authentic driving test. Parallel parking, side parking, the slope and the drive. Well, I stopped in number 3, so why put this 1% in number 4???
Retest for no. 3 anytime anyday I want! Woooooohoo!
I love all the songs and particularly like the lyrics of "Finally".
Finally
Ever since I was a baby girl I had a dream Cinderella theme Crazy as it seems Always knew that deep inside that there would come that day That I would have to wait Make so many mistakes I couldn't comprehend As I watched it unfold This classic story told I left it in the cold Walking through an open door that led me back to you Each one unlocking more of the truth
I finally stopped tripping on my youth I finally got lost inside of you I finally know I needed to grow And finally my mate has met my soul
[chorus] Finally Now my destiny can begin Though we will have our differences Something strange and new is happening Finally Now my life doesn't seem so bad It's the best that I've ever had Give my love to him finally
mmmmmmmm
I remember the beginning you already knew I acted like a fool Just trying to be cool Frontin' like it didn't matter I just ran away Put on another face Was lost in my own space Found what it's like to hurt selfishly I was scared to give of me Afraid to just believe I was in a jealous, insecure, pathetic place Stumbled through the mess that I had made
I finally got out of my own way I've finally started living for today I finally know I needed to grow And finally my mate has met my soul
[chorus] Finally Now my destiny can begin Though we will have our differences Something strange and new is happening Finally Now my life doesn't seem so bad It's the best that I've ever had Give my love to him finally
hmmmmmmm
Finally, Finally
Finally Now my destiny can begin Though we will have our differences Something beautiful is happening, is happening Finally Now my life doesn't seem so bad It's the best that I've ever had Give my love to him finally
While I am on a beautiful sunny study leave, someone else needs to wake up early to school. Thus this someone needs to go to bed early each night. However, this someone has to endure all the interruptions throughout his sleep. List it down, he has to put up with Aims'half-dimmed lights, knocks on keypads, clicks on the mouse, hums to some wacky tunes, and a non-stop pounding butt on the other edge of the bed! Poor guy!
Heard of Calvin Nowell? Well, he's one of the profound background singer for Michael W. Smith, Cece Winans, Nicole C. Mullen and other profound Christian artists. Well, you can read all about him in his official website but I personally want to recommend you to listen to his unique messages uttered through his songs. After reading his biography, I just couldn't stop wowing on how God has led him throughout life's challenges, from changing his physical weight to changing his spiritual weight in life.
Some words on how Calvin Nowell get to where he is now:
"Pursuing purpose and destiny has been the path Calvin Nowell has taken for most of his life. Nowell has taken for most of his life. Knowing it was there but not understanding how to manifest it was the question he asked for years. Eventually, he decided to start somewhere."
"Start with what's necessary, then what's possible, and suddenly you're doing the impossible." Start Somewhere and change the weigh you are!" -- Calvin Nowell
I personally recommend Calvin Nowell to be in my/your roll-model list. His physical will and spiritual walk with God is so inspiring that he makes you want to START SOMEWHERE!
Pr. R. Williams was finally on the pulpit again. Good to listen to him after a month of guest speakers on the list. My Sabbath was spent well. I was thinking of the sermon, focused on the word "forgiveness"...at the same time, I was also thinking of what the Pastor said. Which category are you when you say "I forgive?" There were 3 choices. It's not that hard to figure out what are the 3 categories. As I looked through it, found out that I fall into all these three, so which? Time will tell...let me figure it out...
The truth is, I didn't really enjoyed my driving today (Sunday) as there's an extra nates at the back that keeps talking with this guy who's monitoring me and both thought that I don't understand a mushy thing about what they were talking about! Bummer! Shoot that reverse side parking!!! And...the motorcycle who gave me this BIG robocop look, I hate!!
So we went to this far away land Emerald Hotel that welcomed us with a parking lot security guard rolled-boxed with a Somtam guy right on the slope entering the parking lot! Excuse me...it's Emerald Hotel is it? How did they ever discipline their lousy guards? Mind me not to take away my visitation purpose -- the 'duracell' light balls!! They said if I don't pick up the stuff, they'll throw it away. Yeah right!!! As if they will not take it to their abode. Yeah...the decoration lights were there since December 27, 2006. I don't know, but that was the date attached to the bag. I finally got it Sum..
Ever tried eating at this Muslim open air restaurant at Rama 9 Road?? You'll get soaked up in sweat and steam but never could that beat the tasty chicken briyani rice, sup ekor lembu and the chicken/beef satay! We love this place and can testify this to you because others love to come here too!
I'm blogging from Starbucks, Emporium. So sleepy, such a bummer to kill time here. Wish I was home where if desired, I could roll around the bed from one corner to another. I think this place has just upset my tummy thumb-thumb after making me consume several new flavors from the free tasting they had today. I'm supposed to say how lucky...
They started this new flavor tasting the minute I stepped in. So imagine I was pushed with several cups of who knows what, one of it that I actually liked was red beans frappuccino...all with floating whip-cream...mixed with my ordered hot chocolate...woah my tummy groan-groan actually howled...feels like it's dancing a go-go now! Goodness Roy... end your school fast...you don't want to see my pout!
This morning, I went for an early drive. Whew...sunshine was brightly hot, roads were busy, and I...tried to squeeze in between the already crowded lane. Ah...can't get enough of the roads...Want to do it more...:)
Ok...have to stop...battery is running low...and eyes around are watching...maybe admiring me or me lappy?? Who knows, don't care!!
*****
I'm home! Husbany enjoyed the ride! Say...I'm detrimental in reverse parking, don't take my ride girls and boys IF you have a weak heart!
This is a story of a 16 year old boy from New Hampshire who won the World's shortest essay competition.
He was awarded a scholarship at the University of Harvard for his imagination and humour ....Here's an example of absolute brilliance....Shortest Essay:
An English university creative writing class was asked to write a concise essay containing the following elements:
1) Religion 2) Royalty 3) Sex 4) Mystery
The prize-winner wrote:
"My God," said the Queen, "I'm pregnant. I wonder who the father is."
******
Smart eh???
Me? Still catching up with Prison Break and on the road. Drove around Rama 9, went through RCA and several housing areas, along to the 6pm peak hours of Ekamai and Sukhumvit road...rrrrrrrrrrrhhhh...scary but...I made it. Pretty much got rid of my driving phobia, not just yet. Give me several more laps, then I'll be fine. I guess. As for now, let's just call my Bangkok driving experience -- an evening joyride. I'm loving it! *_*
How many of you have watched the whole season of Prison Break? Well, if you did then good for you. Call me out-dated, but I've just started the first episode today. I've heard friends commenting about how they can't get over Wentworth Miller, it's so addictive, can't wait for the next season, so on and so on...me? I totally have no idea of tis all but guess the story line from the title itself. Pathetic eh? Never too late though. I have a month and a half break...could finish the whole season, no bet! Those of you who are still wondering what's the movie all about, go to these websites.
Wow..going in and out of the small soi today really made me dizzy. Until this moment, I'm still a lil bit confused on things. Driving in Bangkok is quite a challenge, but the soi that I ventured through today was quite interesting. Lots of small corners, small junctions, small intersections...My right leg is all aching from pressing and releasing breaks in between. Nonetheless, driving is fun...not until someone overdoes it with too much instructions on an automatic newbie!
Went jalan-jalan with the GGs at Siam Paragon yesterday. Suddenly amidst us window shopping, one of the junior Gs wanted to poo! Man did it stirred us up. The lesson learned is that never bring small children to expensive shopping malls! Hahahha...well..it depends really...
On our way back, we got lost a hundred times and only managed to get to the Gs place after making one big turn of Bkk's roundabout. Fun indeed!
From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea Creation's revealing Your majesty From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring Every creature unique in the song that it sings All exclaiming
Indescribable, uncontainable, You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name. You are amazing God All powerful, untameable, Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim You are amazing God
Who has told every lightning bolt where it should go Or seen heavenly storehouses laden with snow Who imagined the sun and gives source to its light Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night None can fathom
Indescribable, uncontainable, You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name You are amazing God All powerful, untameable, Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim You are amazing God You are amazing God
Indescribable, uncontainable, You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name. You are amazing God All powerful, untameable, Awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim You are amazing God Indescribable, uncontainable, You placed the stars in the sky and You know them by name. You are amazing God Incomparable, unchangeable You see the depths of my heart and You love me the same You are amazing God You are amazing God
Indeed this song got stuck in my head the whole day today. An uplifting song by Chris Tomlin, I've never really noticed the lyrics while enjoying his entire album until I got the accompaniment track along with other tracks. I was deeply impressed with the lyric and what more combined with Tomlin's voice...Whew! Watched the video clip of this song too and guess what? I was totally blown away!
******
On our first visit to Seri Center (One of the mall close to the King's Park) today, my eyes caught attention of a sparkling red skirt! Yes, R-E-D. Awwww...I was telling husbany of my 'love-at-first-sight' affection and turned back towards the kiosk to ask the price.
Since I was paying so much attention on the skirt, trying to see whether it fits on me, the material, the jahitan, etc, I forgot to ask the price of it first but instead asked
"mi sai lek thi sud mai?" (do you have a smaller size?)
and she said
"mi kha" (have bah)
and started to call her whatsoever associate to get the small size for me. Husbany said
"Why didn't you ask how much??"
Then I asked "thao rai kha?" (how much oh?)
"bet roi ha sib kha." (It's 850B)
Errrr...what????? In my mind I wished the whosoever associate she called will call the tauke (shop owner) to say
"mai mi sai" (no size lah)
but then amoy (whosoever associate) came up to her and handed her the S-sized red skirt! In husbany's head
"matilah kau, this time you have to buy it oredi..."
In my head went
"I'll just pretend to try it on and just say oh...it doesn't look good on me (what da..it looked damn goooooood!!!) and cabut!"
Oh yes, I tried it on, looked at the mirror, made a nasty face, handed the skirt back to the lady and said
"pheng mak" (too expensive).
Guess what? She lowered the price to 750B. Again I told her still expensive. So this time she went to kurik something from a plastic bag and said
"mi flee belt doei" (comes with a free belt).
Husbany was walking further and further...and I kept looking at him and talked nonsense as to making the lady have
"oh..the husband is not letting her get it.."
kind of a thought. So I was ready to lari when again she said I'll give you 700B each if you get another piece. What??? That's 1400B!!! Then yeah I said
"mai pen rai" (nevermind)
and I was about to step out and she agreed to bargain from 850B to 700B. Fikir...fikir...fikir...I ditched it and said sorry.
Result? Sungguh INDESCRIBABLE!!! Her face looked like the picture below with all the scoldings in Thai!! What a rowdy-rude-rody-wody-pipe r attitude!!!!
An almost similar designed skirt (except that one has a cream colored leafy design) that I was brooding about!
My good friend Cindy is leaving this month. How fast time flies. We haven't even got the chance to do lots of things together and she's already leaving. Anyway, I promised to visit when her church bell rings. Oh boy..I will miss her tons...Hope to see the beautiful sun of Barbados! *_*
Here are some pics for keeps.
A pinky bear chain from Cindy.
A sweet note came with the bear...
She likes braiding hairs. She always fixes her own hair with creative hair-do. She's darn good at it.
Enjoying my time at home. I get to sleep in, do laundry, wash dishes, throw garbage (my first time to the Garbage Room), hang laundry, sort clothes, move things, and eat cereal!! My honey must'v e been so proud of me, his lethargic queen!
I was contemplating upon a certain issue that I've been struggling with for quite sometime now. Well, I thought I was over with this since my mind didn't come across this argument for quite sometime. Regardless, it came across my thoughts this morning.
So I got so frustrated, crossed and blamed God for giving me a fly-by-night moments of happiness instead of throwing this matter into the ocean. In the midst of it all, I persuaded the Lord to speak to me since my view to this all was clamorous.
I picked up the WORD, followed my demanded instinct and turned to page 65. Nothing. No answer.
Then maybe a random pick would lead me to His answer.
Psalm.
Bypass several chapters.
None. Nothing.
Okay, might settle on a random chapter for He won't speak.
So did I read Psalm 136.
I read, eyes moving with lines, pause, move...
"Love Never Fails." -- Psalm 136.
Three repeated words "Love Never Fails."
Eyes halted on verses' correspondence which read:
There may be times in your life when it seems that things don't go exactly as you'd like. You may even feel that God has failed you. Often, when we have some time and distance from those situations, we see that God knew what we did not and that his love didn't fail us after all. God's word is true and we can be certain that he does not fail.
BAMBOOZLED!!
What did You say?
We see that God knew what we did not...
We see that God knew what we did not...
He spoke. I...speechless!
...
...
What a God...
Whose love never fails!!!
Yes, God did answer to this fretful mind. A relief to know that He was listening and will listen to this aloofness.
Be it good or bad, how past affects future, let He prod this soul, until it understands the reason behind this all.
you were male in your last earthly incarnation.You were born somewhere in the territory of modern Germany around the year 1275. Your profession was that of a jeweler or watch-maker.
Aims: If this is true, I assumed I would have died rich! *_*
My psychological profile in the past:
Inquisitive, inventive, you liked to get to the very bottom of things and to rummage in books. Talent for drama, natural born actor.
Aims: My hunch is that I was a famous celebrity!!! Weww...*_*
The lesson that your last past life brought to your present incarnation:
The world is full of ill and lonely people. You should help those, who are less fortunate than you are.
Aims: Where are my jewels and watches?? I want 'em back!!!
Ask how my day was? Well, I rather not ramble about it. Basically I've been super busy in school. Was all about grading. We have problem with our GradeQuick system, so basically most of the grades or rather the previous grades were screwed up! Speaking about technology, it makes your work 10x easier, but also the opposite! Thank God, the IT managed to fix the problem for us. I was darn worried that I have to re-do the whole thing...
Finally watched POC 3 at Seacon Square. Duh...This will be our first and last to be sitting in SS's EGV cinema...not recommended at all. Too crowded, long queu, no free magnets, deaf ticketing lady and lousy seats. About the movie, I like the images, settings, colors, etc! I haven't changed my mind towards Bloom, neither towards Depp. I know many girls drool over Bloom's half buttoned shirt, but I drool over his hair (when he had curls)...hahaha! Since I was a lil kid I like guys with curls, I don't know why... To the point that I even admired my own cousin, who really looked damn good-looking with curls!! How he looks now, I wonder... haven't met him for quite a long time, but mom said his hair never changed. Okay, back to POC, I particularly enjoyed a part during the titanic battle, several scenes and ....okay...won't spoil it here ...go watch, tis a fun ride nonetheless! Oh, the action sequences are entertaining, but sometimes too heavy on the screen that it makes it too cheesy! To Dee, thanks for acquainting me with this movie! It's definitely a popcorn movie...the run time is about 168 minutes, so don't forget to wear or bring something warm to the theatre, just in case the A/C irritates your bones!
Before the movie, my companion and I dined at Skylark -- a Korean-Japanese Restaurant that serves Korean & Japanese food with very reasonable prices. We ordered 2 Jap sets with chicken and fish respectively. A set includes a bowl of rice (ordinary rice), bento soup, egg tart, kim chi, salad + the main dish. Like I said, the rice is ordinary...didn't really compliment the dishes. The soup was sodiumnized a bit and the salad dressing wasn't adequate. Overall I rate it 5/10. Expect it, a set cost only 85B, so nothing to loose! Haven't tried other stuff that's on the menu yet...oh...the juices were good! Enough said, will surely give this place a try again since sushi and other stuff looked good!
It's been a wonderful Sabbath afternoon with pouring rain to close the day. How nice to be able to stay home and just enjoy the comfort of your cozy bed with some soothing music mesmerizing you to nap.
After church today, Roy and I decided to dine at our favorite Kopitiam. As usual we ordered a set lunch which includes nasi lemak rendang, gado-gado and ice kacang. The serving is quite big for our not-so-hungry tummy, so we ordered just a set with an extra nasi lemak. While sitted, I spotted far on the opposite was our group picture taken on our first visit. Hehe...! Managed to talk to the lovely owner...asked about why the security suddenly got so fussy with questions and tickets, then she mentioned that the place got robbed a few weeks ago. Nothing big stolen though, just some unimportant stuff. Driving out from the place, we thought of going to kill time somewhere until sunset so we could watch Pirates OC 3 but time was still too far away to sunset, we decided to turn back and head for home.
Yesterday was the last school day for my school. So we had the Kindergarten graduation held in the morning. Despite catching up with my grades, I managed to spend the whole morning in the auditorium with the graduating bunch! Their supportive parents were amazing! Almost all came to give their full support and cheer. The chinese songs that we had been practicing went well too. Some were showing off to their parents giving the attitude "See...I can speak Chinese!!" Haha! Still a longggggggggggg way to go dude! Seeing their bubbly wild attitude just made me laugh! Some of these kids made me pull off my hair throughout classes but occassion such as this, their graduation, just gave me teary eyes and melted my heart. Kids, the energy they have within them is just so amazing! Sometimes I scratch my silly head and asked "God, why don't you give me the same portion of energy that the kids have so that I can handle them well??"
Thank goodness I am done with my grading!
To sort of forget school matters, Roy and I decided to chill in Emporium. He asked me to pick a place, spontaneously I said HERE - Piri-Piri Flaming Chicken. Well known for its Mediterranien featur ed style cuisine, this restaurant's name was taken after a pungent hot sauce made from oil-soaked chilli that is featured among the grilled chicken entrees which ranged from 150B - 380B. Prices are reasonable as you can see from the menu below.
At first I was tempted to order among the selections of pasta but changed my mind when I spotted salads! So I had Greek Salad with feta cheese & black olives, while my other half ordered Lemon & Herb Chicken. Although the dressing of the plate-full salad was way bit too sour for me, I managed to goble up everything since there's feta cheese (anything with cheese babeh...my favorite)! Roy complimented on the tenderness of the meat. He gave it a thumbs up!
There's also Bombay curried chicken, a warm chicken salad and honey mustard chicken. I guess I'll go for the Bombay curried chicken the next time we visit since the menu quoted "all the way from Bombay!" Ayoyo! How far can food travel?? An integral part of the cuisine is pasta and the herbed chicken pasta, provided with juicy pieces of chicken breast coated with a thick creamy sauce which costs around 150B.
If you're a steak lover, Piri-Piri serves local fillet beef together with your choice of mushroom, garlic, blue cheese or pepper sauces. This costs about 180B-300B. Not bad eh?
There's also a selection of cakes, pancakes and ice-cream. So, if you stop by Emporium, take a peep into this woody-looking restaurant.
