Like all the years before, when the Formula One "circus" comes to town, I will be working with them for a few days. (Please read about my experience with them here : Working with Formula One to understand what I am talking about)

This would be my Diary for Formula One 2013.

Day One - 21.03.2013

As usual, there was nothing much activity in Day One. I was trying to familiarize with the system again. Thank God there was not much changes.

A few obligatory documents were published but since no "racing" activities were on, it was just a day of catching up with some old friends and some of those FIA people. And as usual people watching was one of the best activities during the whole week.

The weather was hot and humid in the morning and noon. But out of nowhere, the rain decided to come early and pay a visit. It was fun watching from a nice cool room when some of those F1 drivers were scurrying for cover when the sky opened up when they were just getting prepared for some photo shoots.

The highlight of my day maybe when I was walking along the Paddock at the end of the day, I found out I was walking behind Sebastian Vettel. LOL.

Hope to share some more interesting stories for the few days ahead.

It has been a while since I write anything. Reading my friends' blogs made me wonder how do people keeps on having an idea what to write. Simple thing such an adventure in the kitchen (Mickey's Adventure in the Kitchen) and old tree (Mickey's Sentimental Old Tree) can be turned into interesting blogs. An orange (Viviana's Orange in the Brain - short poem)and an ice cream (Adlet's Ice Cream Tragedy) can be turned into poems. I like writing my travelling experiences. It was easier, putting my experiences into words.

In 2011, my friends and I decided to travel to Europe. We had been planning and planning and planning for this travel, but time and money were not on our sides. We decided to travel semi-back pack. It was a big decision. Three single ladies trying to semi-back pack. What do I meant by semi-back pack? Well, we did not intent to go to places without confirmed accommodations, that was one thing, and another one was that it was just for 10 days.  But we intended to travel to a few cities, Dublin, London and Paris. We know where we wanted to go, but we did not sure how to reach between these cities.

Our first stop was Dublin, Ireland. We chose it because we had a friend staying there for a long time and it had been years since we saw her. Dublin was small for a city. It still oozed a country charms.

While in Dublin, we decided to take a day-tour to Belfast, North Ireland. We bought our tour ticket and were so excited to visit the Giant Causeway Coast. It was a unique rock formation of which seemed to be interlocking with each other.

From the Giant Causeway Coast we went to the City of Belfast. When we entered the City Centre, the city was very quiet. Most of offices and businesses were closed. We were very surprised and felt something was amiss. Then we were told by the Tour Guide that due to unforeseen circumstances, we had to leave the City Centre a bit early. It seemed that was the day of the end of Marching Season. He was afraid that our bus would be caught in the middle of the conflict. Even though we left the City of Belfast earlier than expected, we still enjoyed our tour to the Northern Ireland.

To go to London, we decided to take a ferry from Dublin and then take a train from Hollyhead in Wales to London. Even though the journey took us nearly half a day and cost us more than a flight ticket, we enjoyed the journey and scenery. The country sides of Wales and England were beautiful.

In London, we went to nearly all the famous places, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Oxford Street, The London Bridge (even though in reality it is not a London Bridge), Eye of London and other places. Too many to name them in here. But we were disappointed not to be able to watch the Changing of Guards at the Buckingham Palace. The infamous rain of England decided to open up on that day. We were quite surprised when we were in Oxford Street that it seemed English was the second language spoken among the people in there.

From London we took the train to Paris. The journey was smooth and we did not even realised that we had been through the English Tunnel.  In Paris, we went shopping crazy. We went to the famous Champs-Élysées and went from one famous boutiques to another, though truthfully it was more of window shopping rather than shopping itself. Most of items there were too expensive and beyond our limited budget.

A funny thing happened when we were there. I was looking for a Longchamp Boutique, but after walking back and forth and from one boutique to another, we still cannot find it. Finally we decided to ask one sales personal in of the boutique the location of the Longchamp Boutique. With our limited French words, well, we only know how to say "s'il vous plaît" and "merci", and his limited English, we managed to get the location of "The Longchamp". 

It seemed it will be a long walk from Champs-Élysées, but since the weather was nice, we decided to walk and enjoy Paris. During our walk, I had to use the Public Toilet. OHMY. I was being confronted with an awkward situation. I saw men and women were in the same queue to use the toilet. It seemed in Paris, the "equality" concept also meant that men and women had to use the same public toilets even in the shopping complexes. No segregation. All of us were debating whether we were comfortable with the situation. But nature won. Though, I never felt so in a rush to finish my business before in my whole life.

We managed to enjoy the view of Louvre Museum, though we did not enter it. After quiet sometimes and tiring walk, we finally found "The Longchamp". We were surprised and speechless. "The Longchamp" that we thought as "The Longchamp Boutique" was in fact "The Longchamp Cafe". At that time we were too tired to appreciate the irony and funny side of the whole situation. But nowadays, when we got together and talked about our European trip, we were always laughing about that incident.

On our second day in Paris, we took the boat excursion of River Siene. It was raining, but we ignored the rain and enjoyed the boat ride. The view from the Siene River was really awesome with. I was looking left and right and trying so hard to catch all the historical buildings. Then, for the final visit, we visited the most famous steel structure in the world, the Eiffel Tower. I was not too sure why it was so famous before, but once I was on that tower, WOW, the 360 degree view was breathtaking. 

When it was time to leave Paris and meant the end of our vacations, I wish I can extend it longer. I promised myself that in the near future I will visit these cities again.

This blog is written based on Tara Benwell "unfinished sentence" challenge http://my.englishclub.com/profiles/blogs/finish-my-story

Suddenly at 3:00 am, as suddenly as she started, the crying stopped. We looked at each other. Relief was clearly written on our faces. Gently I put the baby back on her sleeping cot. She looked so peaceful. We took a few more minutes and just trying to savour the moment.

After a while, we tip toed from her cot. I decided to leave the sleeping lamp on and left the door ajar. Just in case. We tried to sleep back, but I guess the event left us with some hard realities. We kept on tossing and sleep left us.

We decided to just wake up and went to kitchen. I put the kettle on. All these while, we remained silent. I think it dawned to us the magnitude of what just had happened. For you to understand, let me tell you the events which had happened four days before. 

We had been married for more than five years. Both of us love children. When we did not immediately get pregnant, we were okay. Second year, we still did not get pregnant. Families and friends started asking us when are going to have a little one. I always said we just want to enjoy being a husband and wife first. But deep down, I started to feel a bit sad. Especially looking at our friends' kids. Third year came. Still no kid.

We went to see a doctor and was relieved when we were told that there was nothing wrong with us. It just a fluke. So I told myself, maybe God just wanted us to enjoy our extended honeymoon. Same questions being thrown to us by families and friends. The questions started to get to my nerve. I know my husband also started to get irritated with the questions.

On the fourth year, we decided to see a fertility specialist. After a few treatments, more heartaches  and some big chunks of money, we were still childless. 

We started to talk about adopting some unfortunate child. It was a hard fact to accept for both of us. We came from a big family and not to be blessed with our own children was a hard pill to swallow. But after making the decision to adopt, we felt relieved. We did not tell our friends and families. We thought we just tell them when we were ready.

So we went to an adoption agency and registering our interest to adopt a child. We never thought it would be a hard process. Well, maybe we were blinded by all these celebrities stories of adopting kids all over the world. We had to go through many interview processes and answered intrusive questions. 

After all the processes and also some counselling sessions, we really believed that we were ready to be a good parents. The waiting game then started. Then, one day, I received a phone call from the adoption agency. It was a good news. A pregnant teenager had chosen us as the potential parents for her unborn child. We were asked to go to the agency and fill in the necessary forms.

We were so happy. Finally, our dream to have a kid is becoming a reality. We went to the agency and fill in the necessary forms and was told that we were going to have our daughter in three months. We did not stop smiling at each other. We were just like a kid in a candy store. Immediately after, we went shopping crazy. We bought a baby cot, baby clothes, baby stroller and everything what we think a baby needs. We renovated a room and turned it into baby's room. 

Then, we decided to throw a dinner party to our families. We told them the good news. We were a bit apprehensive at first what would their reactions be. None of our families ever adopted. Surprisingly, they received the news warmly. Both our moms started to throw all kinds of advise. 

Five days ago, finally we managed to hold our baby. She was the most beautiful baby girl in the world. I know I was biased. But I think all moms think their babies were the most beautiful babies. She was perfect. She would sleep and sleep and sleep. We were in a bliss, until just now.

The reality was hard. Both of us were sipping warm tea and looked at each other. My husband looked haggard and I am sure I looked the same. Then it dawned on me, how am I going to explain to him that probably he would be facing the same thing twice now. This morning, I went to see my doctor to get confirmation that had been bugging me lately. After so many treatments and heartaches, it seems now I am pregnant. In another eight months, there would be another addition of little kid in the house.

After a long silence, I took a deep breath and ....

(I hope some of you may finish the story above)

I love to travel. I was fortunate to be able to travel to a few countries due to business and also leisure. I have been to the United Kingdom, Ireland, Holland, Germany, France, Belgium, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore to name a few. Most these countries are "familiar" to me. I've read about them and more or less prepared.

However, in 2010, I was asked to follow a team from my Company to go to Kathmandu, Nepal and study some business potentials over there. It was a last minute decision and I do not know much about Nepal or its people. So, I went with the team with much trepidation. I felt so ignorant. I do not know what to expect and was so nervous even though I went together with a team of six people.

Kathmandu and it's people really opened my eyes to another world. We went there in February, during the winter season. I thought being in a valley of Himalaya, it must be freezing cold. But surprisingly, it was not. The weather was very nice.

Because it was winter, the Government of Nepal had imposed some restriction on water and electricity usage. The city was divided into a few grids of which the electricity will be cut off at certain hours everyday. So can you imagine a bunch of us arriving in the city in the evening and trying to go and shop and was encountered with a city with no street lights or even a traffic lights? The shops either lighted a few candles, yes candles, or had one light bulb which apparently came from their own generator. 

It was a total shock since I think I always took for a granted that electricity will be easily available anywhere. How totally IGNORANT I was.

But, with even with the hardship, the people of Kathmandu are very dignified. They greeted you and always smile at you. They were always willing to assist you. I was really humbled with their generousity and kindness.

On our first day in Kathmandu, our team was very lucky to witness a traditional wedding ceremony being conducted in the hotel garden. We do not want to intrude the ceremony, but the groom and his family were so nice and allowed us to be part of the celebration.

The traditional wedding ceremony. The dais used in the ceremony.

On the second night, we were invited to a business dinner by a business association. And once again, I was lucky to be entertained by some of Nepali's traditional songs and dances. The traditional Nepali foods were delicious.

One of the traditional dance. The character was played by a man

When I was there, I also had the opportunity to take a Mountain Ride - an hour plane ride excursion looking over the Himalaya and the Everest. On the first day that we were supposed to take the plane ride, the weather was foggy and windy. Therefore, the excursion was canceled. It was too dangerous for a small plane to take off and ride on top on the Himalaya. My team and I were disappointed, but hoping that the next day the weather would be nice and we would be able to take the plane excursion.

I think the Himalaya God took pity on our team because the next day the weather was nice and sunny.  The plane ride was awesome. The view of the Himalaya and Everest really breathtaking and humbling at the same time. The best part was when everyone was given the chance to go to the cockpit of the plane and looked at the marvel. One hour seemed too short for such wonderful excursion. You really feel you were on top of the World.

The Everest from the plane. The view was blue due to the blue glass of the plane.

Due to business matter, I did not have had the luxury to explore more of the beauty of Kathmandu. However, I was lucky that my colleague and I were given an extra day to stay behind when the other team members had to go back to Malaysia. 

We went to Bakhtapur, an ancient Temple City about an hour drive from Kathmandu. It has seven ancient temples of which one of the temples depicting "Kamasutra" at all its totems poles/pillars. (I would not explain what "Kamasutra" means in here, otherwise I will be banned for life). 

The Ancient Temple City. 

On our way back from the Temple City, we stopped at a few places. At one place we stopped and and had some tea while watching the sun set over the Himalaya. It was really breathtakingly beautiful and magical (For someone looking for some romantic idea, this is heavenly).

Sunset over looking the Himalaya

My Nepali friend said that not many people realised that Kathmandu offers more than a transit point for people who wants to trek the Everest. I have to admit he was right. Kathmandu is still for me the Hidden Valley of Himalaya. If given the chance to visit it again, I will not hesitate to go and feel the warmth and hospitality of its people. And I hope I will appreciate its beauty and its people more. 

Forgive me if this blog seems too long. (Well I know it is a bit long, I can't help it).

In the loving memory of Kiwi_John, the late ESL Admin. To all previous ESL Admins; Cobra, Teabag and Chuck and to all my former chatter friends in ESL Room (now known as 1997 Chat Room); Snjura, Shrek, Tito, Shu_Man, Maria_fer, Bajo, Tiffita, Lolly, Aurora, Little Ngoh, Tristan, Maru and the rest (forgive me for I am unable to remember all your nicks).

People always asked me how do I came to know about this site and for how long have I joined the EC Chat Room. (Another thing that people always asked was the meaning of my nick. I am not going to write about that in here, because it will take another blog to explain. LOL). I did not purposely joined this site in order to learn English though only God knows my English especially my grammar needs a lot of scrubbing and polishing. In fact, I do not even know such free site existed. (Forgive me if I sound so uninformed and ignorant, but I am). I do not chat. I only surfed the net to read English articles and news. (which by the way a good way of learning English too).

However, it was all changed in 2006. I went to the South Korea for three months as part an Employee Exchange Programme between my Company and a Korean company. There was nothing much I can do during the programme besides observing their work practices. Communication with my Korean colleagues were a bit hard because most of them can only speak a little bit of English, though they tried very hard to help me and unfortunately, I know next to nothing any Korean words (again, I was being ignorant).

One thing about Korean people (maybe this only happened in the office that I was attached), you need to make an appointment to talk about work with them. This maybe due to the fact that they were very busy. And just to let you know, they do not chat aimlessly too. So by the second week in that Company, I was bored witless. I had endless schedules of appointments and nothing much to do in between. 

So, I decided to find an English chat room, just to kill the time in between appointments. In other words, I stumbled into EC (at that time I believed it was called ESL Chat Room). I was pleasantly surprised. To tell you the truth, I do not know what to expect.

I met some interesting chatters. Sometimes I thought I was chatting to different chatters, but in fact I was chatting to the same chatter just with different nick. We chatted about everything and nothing. We embellished. We squabbled. We fight with each other especially when issues about religion came into the picture. Can you try to imagine, a bunch of chatters with just a little bit of English comprehension were trying to up-hold their views and beliefs? Misunderstandings; a lot of them, bound to happen. As usual, the Admins will try to keep peace in the room, but a lot of us just too big headed sometimes to adhere. 

However, between embellishing,  squabbling and joking, I realised that we forged a friendship, albeit a virtual friendship. I will looked forward to meet my friends in the chat room and shares stories or just being foolish. Suddenly my three months stay in Korea meant my three months stay with ESL. 

When I went back to Malaysia, work took over. Suddenly, unintentionally, I left ESL. Sometimes I do wonder about my friends but left it at that. I left ESL (for the first time) for about six months, though I am not too sure exactly.

Then, I was not too sure why, the urge for me to log in to ESL was too strong. Thus, I re-logged in to ESL. The warmth and friendship were still there. They greeted me like a prodigal daughter coming back to the home. Though some of them kept on using different nicks, I do not feel like a stranger at all. I felt I was at home.

We still squabble. We still up-holding our views. And we still misunderstood each other. Nothing changed yet everything changes. Ad mist all of these, I met two of my virtual friends face to face. One was from the same city and another one was from Vietnam. It was strange yet exciting to finally able to chat face to face.

A few of them became good virtual friends. We gossips. We shared work headache. We shared tears over some silly matters. And sometimes I became an Aunt Agony to some of the younger chatters.

Then, we received a shocking news. Our Admin, Kiwi_John died. ESL went quiet for a few days, then weeks, then months. We still squabble, mind you. But the room seemed strange. We fight more often. Little things became bigger. We became less tolerable towards each other. Suddenly, I found myself came in less and less into the chat room. I drifted apart. Maybe, the same goal that made everyone came into ESL which was to learn English made us drifted from each other too. Maybe, some of us realised that besides learning English, we had nothing much in common. Our world was too world apart. We had drained our topics of discussions.

Unconsciously and unintentionally, I left ESL. I tried to maintain the friendship through other messengers and Skype, but it was hard. A void was left in my heart. I missed my friends, but different time zones and commitments made it harder to keep in touch.

Time flies. I never realised that it was already four years since I left ESL. Suddenly, out of the blue, some old chatter from ESL made the effort to re-connect with everyone and made an ESL group in a Facebook. We met again, but it was totally different. We left messages in each others' walls but it was not the same. The instant and spontaneous come back was not there.  

Chuck, the former ESL Admin, left a message and asked me to re-join. I just ignored the message. Four years seems too long to enter and re-connect. I did not know what made me decided to re-connect with EC again. Maybe it was fate. 

EC was different. It changed. I changed. I became a stranger once again. But I guess what attracted people to EC still there. The warmth, the spontaneity, the jokes, the sharing are still exist. It still feels like a cosy home. Ahhh.. well..  the fights and the misunderstandings are part and parcel of EC. It was like a sore thumb. But I came to learn to ignore that small little part.

I befriended some of EC chatters and sometimes feels like a Granny in a school full of kids. I may wrote this blog in the memory of my previous friendship with the old chatters, but for all my new EC friends, thank you for your warmth and friendship. Let us see where this journey ends. 

It seems that I cannot stop writing at the moment. I guess I was bitten by the writing bug. I just want to keep on writing and so afraid that one of these days the so called "writer's block" will hit my head hard, and I cannot even write a simple sentence.

However, I am not good in what people call "creative writing". There are a few ideas running through my mind, but I cannot seem be able to put a few coherent sentences. So, I decided for the moment, I will write my experiences such as my working and travel experiences (a blog about this is currently being written). 

Then, what if I have written all those? What should I write next? Can I write creatively? I envy those people that can write creatively and fluently. I envy those people who can transform a simple thing such as a "dot" in a white canvass and make it like a Van Gogh's painting. 

But I guess, I just have to face it (the bricks on my head) when it comes, and just savour the moment.

I have been blessed with a long working career and able to experience various jobs. One of the most interesting job that I have had the chance was in organising various Motorsports Events especially the Formula One Championship. 

Though I am no longer working with the Company, I still take every opportunity to get involved in the Formula One in various capacity. For the past few years, I have been assisting the FIA Secretariat (Federation Internationale de l'Automobile) when ever the Formula One "circus" comes over to Malaysia. FIA is the governing body of for motorsports.

Even though the duration was only a week every year, working with FIA was really an eye-opening and life-changing experience. "Precision" and "details" are some of nouns best describing the organisation. 

During the whole week, the circuit was buzzed with activities and everyone can felt the anticipation before the big race. The adrenalin will kept everyone awake and refresh even at late evening. 

This year, once again, with the God's will, come this end of March, I will once again work as Assistant of the FIA Stewards. In the meantime, I want to share some of the pictures of previous Formula One Championships.

This is the main entrance to Paddock the Circuit where all the drivers, crews and everyone entered. However, when I took this picture, it was too early and the drivers and crews were yet to arrive at the Circuit

One of the main attractions before the race was the fly-over by the Royal Air Force's Planes

All were geared up with final preparations before the flag off

The Marshall were ready with the grid numbers

The Fire Marshals were ready

This was the FIA Secretariat Office. I was assisting these gentlemen. I was operating the laptop which was connected to the Formula One system

One of the perks working this time was being able to capture the photos of various drivers closely. This is Alonso.

I have been meaning to write something in here, but too many words and too many topics been flitting through my minds that I do not know where to start. Someone said to me to focus and start something. So here goes my first real attempt in writing. This blog is dedicated to my EC friends that aspired me to take this step.

Durian- the King of Fruits

Durian – either you hate it or you love it. There is no two ways about it. Durian is commonly found in South East Asian countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and even Vietnam. It is regarded as the King of Fruits for most people. It has thorny husk whereas the flesh (edible part) is soft and yellow in colour or sometimes golden or even reddish.

 The flesh of durian can varies in colour

During the fruit season, durian can easily be bought at the roadsides. People can either eat them straight away eat on the roadsides or bring them back home. Due to its thorny husk, opening a durian requires some skills otherwise accidents will happen.

Durian is very notorious and famous for being infamous among all fruits due to its distinct smell. There is no other fruit other than durian that revokes so many adjectives when trying to describe the smell. Some people said that the smell is very fragrant; some said it is just like a rotten cheese and some even said it smells like bad socks. And the worst part of all these, the smell will linger for weeks. Due to this reason, most of Asian countries had banned people from carrying durian in public transports and hotels.

 Either you love it, or you hate it

Durian maybe the only fruit that is notorious for being disallowed into premises

And just for fun, check out this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQj-hFfmYkQ