This is one of the hardest blogs that I've ever written. It seemed to take forever for me to write and finish it. Due to certain circumstances, I seemed can't find my way to finish it. But when I took the time to re-write and continue with it, it seemed in a way to purge some of the sadness away. Now, I can look back to my holiday with fond memories and I don't feel so guilty for enjoying my holidays.

Day One

Recently I took a week long holiday and went to the Northern parts of Malaysia. I went to several places, from the famous Langkawi Island, to off beaten track sleepy fishing village and to a shanty town in Thailand. I took the holiday with my brother, sister-in-law and my young nephew. Then we were joined by my sister's friends.

Our first destination was Langkawi Island. Langkawi is famous for its beaches, islands and also its myths. One of the most famous myths is the Legend of Mahsuri. Our flight was at noon and it was just a short flight, only about 45 minutes. When we reached the airport, my sister's friend were waiting for us, but we had to loiter around the airport because one of their friends' flight was delayed. 

After spending about one more hour in the airport, it's not easy when you have a toddler who just found his feet, my sister's friend arrived with her young daughter. Our group were now consist of seven adults and two young toddlers. Hmm...

After checking in in our motel rooms and refreshed, we went to Tanjung Malai to confirm our reservation for tomorrow's island hopping. Then we went to the Chennang beach, a popular beach in Langkawi. At the beach we celebrated my sister-in-law's birthday with a cake. We spent the remaining afternoon eating cake at the beach and watching people doing some wind gliding. 

The day ended after we went to Langkawi's biggest town, Pekan Kuah for our dinner. We end our day a bit early due to early schedule for tomorrow as well as because both toddlers were started to fidgeting. 

~~~~~~~ To be continued on Day Two ~~~~~~~

As far as I can remember, I never visited my birth place. It's just a name, Batu Pahat which literally can be translated as Rock Chisel. It's a name where I put as my birth place in any document. It's written in my identification card and all official documents, but that's all. Am I curious where I was born? Of course, but I never have the inclination to visit it since I don't know anyone there, nor my close relatives are living in the area anymore. 

I grew up in many places. My parents had to move to various places and states looking for a better future. My earlier memories were a small and remote village in the middle of jungle, rubber plantations and rice fields in the middle of Pahang. Our house was so isolated from other houses that my father had to raise two guard dogs. I used to play with my bothers and sister at some rice field and some creeks. We used to catch frogs and fish.

Then we moved to a next village. Over here, our neighbours were nearer. Though our house was near the rice field, it was also near the main road. We were no longer isolated, but the houses were far and in between. The hardship was lesser, but as far as I am concerned, I knew no other life. It seemed perfect. I can still catch frogs, fished in the rice field, and climbed the trees.

Then my parents moved to a new place under the Felda's scheme. They had to leave my siblings and I with our grandparents for a while because the new place has no school and was prone to be attacked by wild elephants. After a few years, and after being transferred to a new place, finally, my parents settled down. My siblings and I moved to this new place and life seemed to be better.

After living my whole life more or less in isolation and far from other people, the new place was really an eye opener for me. The houses were built next to each other. For the first time, we had rows of neighbours. For the first time, we had friends to play with besides each other. Life was hard, but most of my childhood memories were about this place and our own home. At last I can call this new place my hometown.

When I was twelve years old, I was selected by the state Government to study in the city centre, Kuantan. It was a boarding school. I only came back to my parents' house during the school breaks, and that were about three times in a year. I only saw my parents and siblings during that various school breaks. Due to distance and hardship, my parents never visited me. 

I spent my formative teenage years away from what I was familiar, my family and my new found hometown. I grew up being independent from early on. In a sense, I never put any real roots in one place. After school days, I went to work in Kuala Lumpur. Again, I moved from one rental house to another. Never really had the time to gather personal mementos before staying in a new house.

Finally, about six years ago, I decided to buy a house. It's in the outskirts of town. The residential area is small enough to suit me. Though it had been six years, the house is still as bare as when I bought it. Maybe it's hard for me to put my personal touch to the house. I am really a nomad at heart, I guess.

So, comes the question, "Can I move to another country?". I always thought I would not hesitate to say, "Yes! I want to live in another country". But after staying in South Korea for three months, I beg to differ. Though South Korea was one of the most peaceful and cleanest country, I longed for the mess, the noise, the whining, the rain and the humidity which made Malaysia unique. I longed for the food. I longed to being stuck in a jam and cursing everyone and everything on Earth.

Thus, you may ask, "What's so great about Kuala Lumpur then if you have to face all those jams, rain and humidity?". I think it's easy to explain and yet hard for other people to understand. For a capital city, Kuala Lumpur is really small in term of its population. Some says it only has about 2 millions people, though sometimes when I was stuck in a jam, I think it has about 5 millions people. It's relatively a new and modern city though it was built from a mining town. 

It still retained its old charm of a small township, thus, the people still friendly. Its normal still to be addressed as "Kak Long" (Elder Sister), "Kakak" (Sister), "Abang" (Brother), "Pak Cik" (Uncle) or "Mak Cik" (Auntie), or any other family terms by complete strangers.

It's never complete to talk about Kuala Lumpur if I don't talk about food. You can get all kinds of food from all states of Malaysia as well as from all over the world. From fine dining experiences to just a simple hawker stall at the roadside, Kuala Lumpur has it all. Even when you were hungry at the wee hour of 3.00 am, you can still find many restaurants and food stalls that are open and full of people. People won't think you are weird if you order a full meal even at that ungodly hour. I can't even find a food stall that opened at 5.00 pm when I was in Perth!

Did I mention about shopping? Hmm ... shopping is another favourite past time of Malaysians. Sometimes I think Kuala Lumpur has too many shopping complexes. Most of these shopping complexes open from 10.00 am to 9.00 pm, though sometimes longer hours during festive seasons. And the best part is that they open for 235 days. 

People always say the grass is always greener on the other side, but after travelling to many countries, I would say, "Yes! Even though the grass is always greener on the other side, I would not change it for the world". I guess finally I decided to put some root in a place, and nothing going to make me move my big foot from this place. Now I have a hometown, and my motherland is not that bad at all. What more can girl can ask for, right?

This is supposed to be my travel blog. A few weeks back, I went to the Northern parts of Malaysia. I was writing about it for a while now. Then, a few tragic moments happened. The lost of innocent lives in Gaza and the downing of MH17. I lost interest in writing. Everything seems to be trivial and yet every trivial things seems to magnify.

It's like all the things I should have done differently. I should lived to the fullest all day long. I should try avoiding the self escapism and self pity. I should fill my days with happiness and love. It seems I should not wasted any minutes, days because I never knew what things to come.

Am I depressed? I may sound like a depressed person, but I am not. There are so many wonderful things that I know ahead of me. It's just that, I am dragging my feet nowadays. I prefer to stop and just stare at nothingness, sometimes marvel at small things. Like I said, it's like every trivial things has magnify itself. It's hard for me to frame the elusive and jumbling thoughts into words. 

I need something or someone to knock my head and kick my melancholy mood or the very least kick my big behind. Thank God it was Eid a few days ago. I went back to my hometown and celebrated it with my family. Being surrounded by family members after not being with them for quite some times was really refreshing. We seldom meet with each others because we are living in different parts of the country.

Just to be able to catch up with each other and preparing dishes for Eid seemed to chases away my melancholy mood. The fresh air surrounding my village also seemed to energize my tired mind. Or maybe all those delicious Eid food triggered my sleep-overdosed brain and woke it up, just a little bit. 

Whatever the reasons, I am glad that I am able to feel alive and refresh. 

The office is in a somber mood today. Nobody seems to be in the mood to talk. We just stare at our computers. The radio is just playing slow songs. Everyone is in shock, again! We Malaysians are facing another sad tragedy. Our Malaysian flight is believed to be shot down by some party who is in conflict with each other and crashed in Ukraine. All 298 passengers and crews perished in the tragedy.

I just came back from an Iftar with my friends at roughly about 11.30 pm last night when I received various Wassup messages from office about the tragedy. I don't know what to say! I was shocked. I never thought after the tragedy of MH370 that we would be facing another sad tragedy in our aviation industry so soon. The wound of MH370 is still too fresh, too sad for us to endure.

People said life must goes on! I hope we Malaysians will stay strong and remain positive even though it is hard in this another tiring and trying time. May we know the answer soon. May the conflict to end soon so that there won't be another casualties in the bloodshed. No more tears should be shed by fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, friends and love ones. There should be no more senseless killings. 

May all victims be rest in peace. May Allah bless them all. May Allah grant Malaysians the strength to face this tragedy and remain united.

It's been a while since I post a blog under the 'Did You Know?' series. So here it comes for the first 'Did You Know?' series in 2014. It's all about the colour red.

1. Caught Red Handed

The meaning of caught red handed is to be caught in the act of committing a misdemeanour with the evidence. The origin of the phrase can be traced back to the Scotland in the 15th century. It was believed to refer to people who had been caught with blood for murders or poaching.

The phrase 'red hand' was first mentioned in Scottish Act of Parliament of James I written in 1462. After that it appeared in many Scottish legal proceedings. It became widely used after it's being used in Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe in 1819.

Example of a sentence using 'caught red handed' is "WMW was caught red handed trying to pass a take out dinner as her own cooking when Sima found the take out boxes in the trash can"

2. As Red As Carpaccio

Carpaccio is an Italian word as well as an Italian dish of raw meat such as beef, veal or venison; or fish such as salmon or tuna, and mainly served as appetizer. The dish was named after an Italian painter Vitorre Carpaccio who loved the colour red and white in his paintings. 

3. Red Herring

Red herring is an idiom which referring to something that misleads or distracting from the relevant information or issues. There are various theories on the origins of this idiom. One of the theories was that in 1800s, fugitives would a herring across their trail, which diverted the attention of bloodhounds that were pursuing them.

Another similar theory was from the practice of using the oily and smelly herrings to lay false trails for hunting dogs. 

Example of a sentence using 'red herring' is "Sir Arthur Conan Doyle loved to throw a few red herring in his novels to keep readers guessing".

Click here for more examples of usage of red herring in different circumstances.

You may add other idioms/phrases/sayings which contain the colour red, and I will add it in this blog.

Additional idioms/phrases which had been added by EC Members:-

1. Roll out the red carpet (Luzzi) - to give someone some treatment befitting royalty or it also means to give someone, most of the time someone important, a special treatment.

2. Red-letter day (Anele) - means a significant or an important day

3. Red card (Barbare) - means that being sent off from a field/game

4. Red-faced (Expector Smith) - means flushed with embarrassment or anger

5. Red-blooded (Mr. Bob) - means strong and highly spirited. It also can connote vigorous or virile.

6. Paint the town red (Galina) - means to go out (party) and enjoy oneself enormously or flamboyantly.

7. Red tape (BalaSheila) - means excessive of bureaucracy or adherence to official rules and formalities.

8. Red as cherry (Galina) - means bright red

9. Go beet red/Go as red as beet (Galina) - means to become very red in the face, usually because you're embarrassed. 

10. Thin red line (Libor Kocian) - means line drawed on map/line of touch with enemy - military operational level

My other Did You Know? series:-

1. Did You Know?;  2. Continuation;  3. Another Continuation;  4. Not Another Continuation!; 5. Gosh! Will It Never Ends?;  6. Oh No! Not Another One!;  7. Here Comes Another One;  8. Another One?;  9. One, Two, Eighty Six?; 10. Punishment? OMG!; 11. Is This A Swan Song?;  12 John Has It All?; 13. It's All In The Myth;  14. This Is Random;  15. It's A Dog's World;  16.  It's Also A Cat's World;  17. Is It A Mouse World Too?;  18. Dutch Flavour;  19. It's The Greek Flavour;  20. It's All Greek;  21. All That Gold; 22. It's A Horsey Year

100 is always has a nice ring to it. It's like a magical number. It's like when you reach 100, everything is complete. It's like when you achieved 100% in your exams. Every effort that you have had put into your work is worth all the heartaches and headaches, or maybe even some little stomachache. 

So when I reached the 'magical 100' of my blog posts, I felt relieved. It's like I had achieved another milestones in my fledgling attempt in writing blogs. It's like, if I don't write a single blog after this, everything would be okay. 

I thought I would celebrate my second milestones (my first milestone was when I reached the number 50 blogs), when I celebrate my one year of attempt of writing blogs which should be the 14th February 2014. Alas, my Boss was a slave driver at that time, and I had less time to write.

Then, I thought, after all my hectic schedule, I can easily came back to my old routine, and write and write and write. Again, I didn't understand my mind quite enough, it seemed. It's hard to write a single sentence after such prolong absent. Rusty minds really produce rusty ideas. Thank God for Writing Challenges. They kicked start my rusty brain, well at least I can write coherent sentences again. 

At least now, I hope I can write quite easily. Though I know I would never be a really prolific writer, I can at least take a deep breath and may look forward to my next milestones number.

Cheers!

I am not a good cook, so to concoct a dinner event is something of a daunting task. So, I think instead of a normal dinner, I would turn this into a barbecue dinner. But first, who would I invite to this barbecue dinner? 

Well, I would like to invite a few of EC members who I always chat in the main room or just being friends. They are of different characters, different cultures, different countries and most importantly different views on nearly everything. They are; a very polished Pole - Rysperski, my good friend Grape Hyacinth from Vietnam, a wingless Yeti - I Am Vietnamese,WMR - the lady from various dimensions, Sima from Iran if she can get away from her two Bosses, LaaLaa - my Indonesian singer/friend, Tony Hawk - my reluctant English teacher, Tim New - who never tired in correcting my English, Mr. Bob- a distinguished English teacher who always encourage new comers to write blogs, Snjura aka Ana - my chat friends from ESL room until now, and finally Karen - one of two EC friends that I've met face to face.

Like I said, I am not a good cook. Furthermore, with myriad of characters, I don't think a simple dinner menu would satisfy the different palate of tastes. However, one food that I would serve is satay. Satay is a skewered meat grill on open fire and serve with peanut sauce. As a complement of satay, I also would serve 'ketupat'; rice cook in coconut leaves. I don't want my guests to go hungry with just serving two dishes. So I would add a few more dishes such as salad, it goes well with satay, a few seafood such as squids and prawns to be grilled, and of course some beef steak. 

I don't drink any alcoholic drinks, so I hope my guests would forgive me if I don't serve any alcoholic drinks. Thus, I would just serve some non-alcoholic grape juice, sparkling water and 'teh tarik', a local hot drink which is just a tea with milk. 

I am not too sure if any of my guests has sweet tooth, but I would love to serve some local cakes/sweets such as 'kuih buah melaka', glutinous flour filled with brown sugar and sprinkled with coconut shred, and 'goreng pisang' a simple banana fritters. 

Since Tim New always said that I am a Durian ambassador, I would like for my guests to taste the durian, though I am not too sure whether they would survive from the experience. I don't want to be known as torturer by just serving durian, so I would definitely serve other sweet local fruits such as rambutan, mangosteen and mango. 

With all these guests, I don't think I would run out of topic for conversations. Rysperski, I would think definitely be the centre of most of conversations. He seems to know every languages in this world and had been living in a few countries so it would be interesting to listen to his story. Grape would share the story of her children, and definitely share with me her recipes since she is a good cook.

I Am Vietnamese and LaaLaa would definitely trying to outdo each other in singing, though I am not too sure whether my ears and the other guests would survive the ordeal. LOL. While these conversations revolving around, Sima would definitely try not to answer the phone calls from her two Bosses, while WMR and Tony Hawk would try to bet with each other their non-existence trucks.

In this chaotic conversations, I would try to catch up with Ana and Karen, my two chat friends from Chat Room 1997. We had so many things to catch up on, and would definitely need the whole night to be able to just scratch the surface.

I think the only sane and logical conversations would be held between Tim New and Mr. Bob, if they would not be too busy trying to correct our English. LOL

So, there you go, my barbecue dinner with some of my EC friends and teachers. I know I've left a few names, but I don't think I could fit all of my friends in here. My front yard is not big enough, nor do I want to be deported from my neighbourhood for inviting too many chattering friends. LOL.

This is the third part of my blog series "The Wonderful World Of Backyard Critters". This blog is dedicated to a very polished Pole gentleman, Rysperski. "Rys, I know sometimes I breathed too much of those pit fumes, but it made me more appreciative of these critters. LOL"

The Wonderful World Of Backyard Critters - Part I

The Wonderful World Of Backyard Critters - Part II

1. Slimey snail

I don't like snail. It destroys my flowers, and my withering garden. But I guess, every creature have their own use in this world, I just don't know what it is for this snail. Aha! I know! I just had a brilliant idea. I can put the blame on these snails if I failed to grow any flowers or vegetables. So, now I know their uses. LOL. Oh! And another thing is, this snail is not as slow as the snail/slug character in the Monsters University. 

And to the fun part of this blog, I want to share with you two backyard creatures which we may never thought them as such. 

2. Perching and Chirping Chicks

I had to admit, my brother purposely put these two chicks on the tree branch. These chicks are orphan, and my brother more or less hand-reared them. When neither one of them are together, they can't stop chirping and calling to each other.

3. The rascal kitten

As far as I can remember, my house was always full of cats, though I am allergic to them. Some of them were feral cats and some of them, like these kittens are the second generation of a feral Tabby cat. And they just had a four younger siblings. 

LOL. Gotcha! I know those chicks and kittens are not really backyard creatures, but, they are always playing and chasing each other at the backyard.

I guess if we look hard enough, our own backyard can show us the wonder of mother nature. I recommend you to try it once in a while. I will leave you with these wonderful photos taken by my brother.

The second part of The Wonderful World Of Backyard Critters is dedicated to my friend Grape Hyacinths who said that my previous blog reminds her of her childhood.

As I said in my previous blog (The Wonderful World Of Backyard Critters - Part I), the backyard critters/creatures are truly amazing. They taught me to appreciate little things. These critters really amazed me, and I hope you too will find them wonderful. 

1. I am a Transformer

When I saw this critter, immediately it reminds me of a Transformer. Don't ask me why. LOL. But I think it really embodies the look and feel of a Transformer with its triangle and sharp pointed head, and crab-like pair of feet. Well, if you can't see it the way I do, I guess I am really having too much imagination. LOL

2. Orange is the colour

Colourful insects. Though they are not that big, but the colour attracts my attention. Though they looked similar, upon closer look, they are two completely different insects. One looks like it has a screaming mask on, thus it reminds me of the famous "The Scream" painting by Edvard Munch. The other has fiery red legs and tentacles. 

3. Sometimes white is the perfect colour

Trying to take a photo of a butterfly was one of the hardest task. It never stopped flipping its wings, nor stopped for a few seconds. I don't have a powerful camera, thus it's hard to try to focus on moving animal. However, I was lucky when this white butterfly decided to take a few seconds break and granted me to take this photo. By the way, it looks like a cockle. 

What can I say more? I think the photos speak louder than any words.

This blog is dedicated to my friend, I Am Vietnamese who loves all critters and creatures, especially caterpillars.

After a few months of hectic schedule, finally I managed to get a long week break. I decided to go back to my hometown and visit my Mom and my brother. It was about 4-hours drive, though I hate driving, I enjoyed it this time. Maybe because the drive was smooth, and it's been a while since I go back. 

It's really relaxing to be able to enjoy the village, after all the hustle and bustle of city life. I began to appreciate more of the subdue life of my brother and his family. Don't get me wrong, I will go crazy nut if I have to stay more than a week. LOL

I managed to indulge my long time hobby of taking photo of nature. I learnt to appreciate the beauty of some ugly critters. Before this, I prefer to take photo of the obvious beauty, like flowers and scenery, but this time I was looking for the ugly, the awkward creatures/critters and found the beauty hidden inside.

Thus, this blog will be a photo blog and I want to share some of the beautiful critters. 

1. Beautiful caterpillar

I have to admit that caterpillar always gives me the creep. Previously, I will always try to avoid it. But, this caterpillar changed my mind, though I still won't touch it or come close enough. I am sure it will change into a beautiful butterfly.

2. Black is beautiful

People always say, black is beautiful. This caterpillar doesn't seem to be that. LOL. But, hey, beauty is in the eye of beholder, right? However, the small black brown insect seemed to have the colour blocking to the T. LOL

3. Hopper the grasshopper

I always love the hopping grasshopper. It seems to be a very happy critter, always hopping from one tree to another. This one stopped for a while and gave me the time to take some photo of it.

4. Life imitates nature

Nature is really wonderful. I stumbled upon this leaf-like critter while picking some chilies. At first, I didn't pay much attention to it because I thought it was just a leaf. But, lo and behold! It moved. 

These are just some of the wonderful critters that I've had privileged to take their photos. I don't know some of their common names, so if any of you know what it was, please share it with me.

This blog is a bit different from what you may expect from a blog dedicating to father. This is blog not only about my father, but also about the late Tun Razak Hussein, the second Prime Minister of Malaysia. Why I chose both of them for my Writing Challenge, I hope I will answer that by the end of my blog.

Tun Razak Hussein was born in March 1922 to a wealthy family. When he was the Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, he realised that the distribution of wealth among the people was not balanced. Most Malaysians especially the Malay were living under the poverty line. Most of them were illiterate and did not own even a piece of land or just smallholders farms. Most farmlands or estates belonging to the foreigners especially the British. 

His dream was that there would be “land for the landless” and “jobs for the jobless”. Thus, he implemented a new scheme under FELDA or Federal Land Development Authority. The main objective of the scheme at that time was to resettle poor smallholders farm owners or poor rural people to a new establishment which was especially developed for these people. They called these people "settlers".

My father was one of those settlers. We were living in a small house in a village before all these. My father didn't own the rubber plantation of which he was working, nor did he owned the house. Then he applied to be the settler. He and my Mom left us, they were five of us at that time, with our maternal grandparents and moved to a new settlement. It was because the new settlement has no school yet at time. 

After about two years, they had to be transferred to another settlement because in the current settlement, most of the rubber trees were destroyed by wild elephants. So you can imagine how wild the area was.

When my parents moved to the new settlement, it was already a productive settlement. There was a school, clinic, and the high school was not too far away. They decided to bring all of us to the new settlement. My father was given a house with about half an acre surrounding it and about 10 acres of rubber plantation. He has to work on the plantation and sell the product directly to the organisation and where a certain portion of the revenue will be deducted to pay-off for the house and plantation.

Life was hard at that time, but my father worked hard on his plantation. At least now he owns the house and plantation. After about thirteen years of hard work, finally he paid-off all his debts to the government and owned the land, fair and square.

There were many more people like my father, who came from all over the country looking for better future especially for their kids. Nowadays, Felda is known to be the biggest estate in the world. It owns and develops various areas all over the country and giving the chance for the people to work and own their own plantations. Most children from Felda also became successful in their studies, though it became a bit unfortunate when they moved to the cities and did not work on the plantations.

Even though some people don't like most politicians, but I think I became what I am today, and many more children from Felda, because of one visionary politician. He was like a father who wanted his children to succeed in this world by giving them the platform to do so. He gave them a direction as well as the means to succeed. He did not give them freely, but he made sure all his children worked hard to achieve it.

But at the same time, vision of a person will never be successfully achieved if not being executed properly. My father knew that the only way to change his fortune was to accept the challenge. So this blog dedicated to two wonderful fathers; Tun Razak Hussein and my father. May Allah bless them and accept their kindness. 

I want to share with you a joke which was sent to me by a friend. It was in my own language, so I had to translate it as it deemed fit. Thus, I am sorry if my translation is a bit weird. And I am sorry if this joke belongs to somebody. I don't mean to plagiarize!

One day, there was a bank robbery somewhere in the Capital City. The robbers shouted "Everyone! Lie down on the floor!. The money belongs to the bank but your life belongs to you!" Everyone did as instructed without much ado.

This is what we called 'think outside the box' - think beyond what others normally think or do.

When there was a lady who lain on the table and acted sexy, one of the robbers shouted "Please behave! This is a robbery and not an attempt to rape"

This is what we called as 'professionalism' - focus on the matters on hand and what we had been taught to do.

Once the robbers successfully robbed the bank, they returned to their house. One of the robbers, an MBA graduate said to his partner, a wise old man with barely a high school certificate, "Boss, lets us count how much money that we had made from the robbery". The old robber rolled his eyes and said, "You're an idiot! There are a lot of money in there, and how long do you think we can count them all? Just watch tonight's news, I am sure we will know the exact amount by that time"

This is what we called as 'experience'. Sometimes, nowadays, experience is more important than a piece of qualification.

Meanwhile in the bank, after the robbers had left, the Bank Manager asked his subordinate to contact the police as soon as possible. However, the subordinate told him, "Wait! Let us take another $10 millions from the bank for ourselves, in addition to the amount of $70 millions that we had embezzled".

This is what we called as 'innovative' - to turn unprofitable situation to profitable situation.

The Bank Manager said, "Alas! It's much better if there's a robbery every month. We can embezzle the money as much as we want"

This is what we called 'looking into the future' - to plan for future one step ahead from the rest.

The next day, all the news were reporting that the bank had suffered a loss of $100 millions in the robbery. The robbers were not satisfied with the reported amount, count and re-count their loot. However, they can only come up with an amount of $20 millions. "What the heck! We put our lives in danger but only get $20 millions, but the Bank Manager with just a click of his fingers, had gotten away with $80 millions. It seems it is much better to be a smart man than a robber"

This is what we called 'knowledge'. Knowledge is the key to successful life.

The Bank Manager was so happy. His loss in the share market is now being recovered with the money from the robbery.

This is what we called 'opportunist'. To take any opportunity given to us and to turn it into another opportunity.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The End ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I didn't write this but absolutely love what this woman wrote. I just wish I knew who the original author was, so that the appropriate credit can goes to her.

It was shared in my Facebook wall, and I thought it depicted the absolute truth faced by women nowadays. To confine to what the media portrayed as an ideal woman. We, women, constantly need to uphold to certain image, which in reality ridiculous to achieve. I have to admit, sometimes I do longed for certain things when looking at those images, especially those models and actresses. I wish I were taller, thinner, lighter skin, flawless skin, whiter teeth, brilliant smiles and etc, etc.

Alas! Reality really sucks. LOL. I do feel grateful, don't get me wrong. But after being bombarded with what media perceived as 'a perfect woman', sometimes even an ordinary woman like me felt a slight undermined and unappreciated. So to read this kind of article it helps to boost my self image and my self worthy. That's why I decided to share it with you guys in here.

The story goes like this:-

A while back, at the entrance of a gym, there was a picture of a very thin and beautiful woman. The caption was "This summer, do you want to be a mermaid or a whale?"

A woman (of clothing size unknown) answered the following way: "Dear people, whales are always surrounded by friends (dolphins, seals, curious humans), they are sexually active and raise their children with great tenderness. They entertain like crazy with dolphins and eat lots of prawns. They swim all day and travel to fantastic places like Patagonia, the Barents Sea or the coral reefs of Polynesia. They sing incredibly well and sometimes even are on cds. They are impressive and dearly loved animals, which everyone defend and admires.

Mermaids do not exist. But if they existed, they would line up to see a psychologist because of a problem of split personality: woman or fish? They would have no sex life and could not bear children. Yes, they would be lovely, but lonely and sad. And, who wants a girl that smells like fish by his side? Without a doubt, I'd rather be a whale. At a time when the media tells us that only thin is beautiful, I prefer to eat ice cream with my kids, to have dinner with my husband, to eat and drink and have fun with my friends.

We women, we gain weight because we accumulate so much wisdom and knowledge that there isn't enough space in our heads, and it spreads all over our bodies. We are not fat, we are greatly cultivated. Every time I see my curves in the mirror, I tell myself: "How amazing am I ?!

I like what this woman wrote. Sometimes we less appreciative of ourselves. We need others to point it out to us. So to all my friends, especially the ladies, just remember this, "We are not fat, we are greatly cultivated". 

Cheers!

Most of my life hacks came from my Mom which sometimes can be viewed as 'old wives tales'. However, later on, I gathered more reasonable life hacks through articles and friends. In here, I want to share both life hacks; the 'old wives tales' kinds and the reasonable ones.

1. Use Unmatched/Unusable Socks As Wiper

Most of us are always facing with large collections of unmatched/unusable socks. We always ended up throwing away those socks. I learnt those socks are the best wiper ever. Just use those socks like glove. For an example, use them when you want to wipe the rail of your staircase, washing your windows and such.

2. Seal A Plastic Bag With The Top Of A Plastic Bottle

When you are left with some uneaten crackers or cookies in a plastic bag/cracker bag, sometimes you have to throw them away because you have no jar to keep the leftover. A very simple solution to keep the plastic bag/cracker bag under tight wrap is using a top of a plastic bottle. Before you put the plastic bottle in the recycle bin, cut off about three centimeters from its neck. Then slide the end of the plastic bag into the neck of the plastic bottle. Then, tighten the cap of the bottle. Viola! No need any jar anymore.

3. Dry Your Clothes Inside Out When Drying Under The Sun

Drying your clothes under the hot piercing sun can make the colour of your clothes fade away. Though it is inevitable, but you can slow the process a little bit by making sure that when you dry your clothes they are inside out. 

4. Sharpen Your Knives Or Scissors Using A Glass Bottle

We often face with dull edge of a knife and have no sharpening tools handy. The easiest sharpening tool around is a glass bottle. Just sharpen the knife against the neck of the bottle. Be careful though. Do not put too much pressure on the bottle. The same can applies to scissors. Just glide the scissors through the neck of the glass bottle for a few times.

Here comes the 'old wives tales' version of my life hacks.

5. Waste Not Your Food

When I was growing up, whenever I or even my siblings started to acting up and picking on our food, my Mom always reminded us not to waste our food, other wise; either the rice will cry because we did not eat them, the beautiful chicks that we adored will die, or we will not meet our kind hearted husband/wife in future because the last food was the one that will decide our future. 

I don't know how we always ended up eating all our food considering that the reasons were always changing.

6. Do Not Gobble Your Fruits

Another 'life hacks' that always been reminded to me when I was growing up was always to be careful when eating our local fruits like rambutan, dragon eye (longan), and other fruits with seeds. I think Mom always knew that we won't listen to her advice without putting some 'scary' factor into it. Thus, we always been reminded to eat slowly, do not gobble our fruits otherwise we will accidentally swallow those seeds. And those seeds will ended up growing up inside our stomach. OHMY! Because I was so afraid of becoming a fruit tree (LOL), I always ended up eating those fruits with care. Hmm.. looking back, why on earth I never think that those seeds will end up being dispersed in other ways, only God knows. 

Bonus: Use Drinking Straw To Store Your Jewelries

I heard this life hack through the radio. I never try it before because I don't have too many jewelries. When we put our necklaces or bracelets, they will ended up tangled within each other. To avoid such occurrence, try to slide those necklaces or bracelets into an individual drinking straw. Then just clip it at the end of the straw. To make it more colourful, try to use colourful straws. I don't know how effective it is, but I guess there's no harm in trying it.

Thank you for reading my life hacks. The blog is supposed to be written using the base form (imperative) of a verb. Even though I've read through the example of base form (imperative) of a verb, I am not sure I use it correctly. 

I woke up on Saturday March 8 like any other day. Moaning and groaning. Dragging my feet to do the screaming laundry. Even the happy chirps from all those birds can't brighten my mood. I did not listen to the television nor do I log into my Facebook. I was in a bliss trying to do some sorts of housework. After I felt human enough and pacified those screaming laundry, I log into my Facebook. I was shock when most of status were about the disappearance of MH370, a Malaysian flight bound to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur.

From there on, I was glued to the television, scouring the internet for little bits of news. I thought, whatever happened, we Malaysians will know soon enough. The flight was equipped with the latest technology. The sky is full of peering satellites. How hard can it be to trace one big plane? Various countries started to offer their help, assets and expertise in trying to trace the missing plane.

Most Malaysians unite and pray for the safety of the passengers and crew of the flight. Days dragged on. Nothing. Nothing concrete. Speculations started to appear. Theories being brought forward, left and right. The eyes of the world started to focus on Malaysia. Questions started being asked about the integrity of safety of MAS flights, the security of Malaysian's airports and even the 'integrity' of the people handling the crisis. 

Some even said to me in the main room that Malaysian Government is hiding information. How could we hide things when the world was watching and various international Governments were helping too? As a Malaysian, it hurts me to read such statement from so-called friend in here. I can understand reading from various 'reputed and credible' news agencies because sensation news sell. But I guess it's a free world after all. Anyone can make assumptions, anyone can say anything. I learnt through this hard experience that it is easy to be a keyboard warrior, keyboard expert, and even keyboard psycho-analyst.

It's harder still when I was even questioned not even telling the truth when I said I am a Malaysian. I guess MyEC is full of liars that even things like that people will never believed. Alas! 

Last night, at about 9.45 pm, the local news channel announced that the Malaysian Prime Minister had called for a Press Conference at 10.00 pm. I knew deep down that the news will be bad. Like any other Malaysians I was waiting for the live telecast. When he announced that the MH370 had ended its journey at the Southern part of Indian Ocean, I can't help from shedding my tears.

It broke my heart to listen to the news. Though it had been 17 days the plane had vanished, but like most Malaysians, I was expecting some miracle. But looking at the grim and sad faces of the Prime Minister and others, I know nothing can be done. Only heartfelt condolences I can express to all the family and friends of passengers and crew of MH370.

Though there are many more questions remain unanswered, at least I hope with this announcement, some kind of closure can be felt by those family members and friends. I know how hard and sad I felt with this news, it must be harder and sadder for them.

May they rest in peace. Amin.

Due to my hectic work schedule, I found myself having less time to write. My mind can't come up with anything. The dreaded thing is happening to me. I'm hitting the bricks wall. No matter how much I want to write about something, anything, nothing is the answer. Everything remains blank.

I guess my brain is taking a silent vow and refusing to come up with anything. It's like it is reaffirming what WMW always said about me. That I was always hibernating. I can't let it slides. I need to prove that my brain is just taking a snooze rather than hibernating. Thus, I have to come up with something. I have to write, even just a nonsensical rambling. I need to kick-start my sleepy brain. LOL.

While reading a few blogs, I was struck with something. Call it a hammer knocking on my thick head, or just a simple observation. I can't stop thinking about it. Why are we HERE? Here as not in MyEC, but here as in the blog section. Why are we blogging? Are we masochists? Is the punishment of work place not enough for us, that we need to crack our head to write something in unfamiliar language? Is it simply a new form of 'selfie'? Why am I feel anxiety when I can't write anything for a few weeks? 

I wish I knew the answers to all those questions so that I can put them in the 'solved' compartment, lock it and throw away the key. I tried to answer some of the questions in my blog Write 2 Connect, but I think it's bigger than that. Gosh!

I guess for the next few weeks, I will tear a few hair out from my head. Until my work schedule is back to normal and my Boss decided not to smirk too much, I guess I have to ramble on and on and on.

P/S:

This blog is dedicated to AH_TK who keeps on pushing me to write a blog. AH_TK, I hope you won't regret it. LOL

There are many good blogs that had been written by members of MyEC. Some of them attracted my attention because of their titles, which for me spoke volume. 

These are the few selective blogs that really caught my attention. 

1. Where Have They Gone? We Still Love Them! by Mr. Bob

I came across this blog when I was feeling a bit sad. One of my friends in MyEC decided to 'temporarily left' EC after getting so much harassment in the main chat room. Even though this blog was published in 2012, I thought this blog was the voice and feelings that I felt at that time. 

When I decided to take a sabbatical leave from MyEC, the paragraph of this blog made me not hastily delete my account. Mr. Bob wrote, "Deleting your account causes hurt to your friends. They miss you and grieve over your loss as if a friend has died. If you are angry at one person you shouldn’t hurt the ones who care about you. Just get your life together again and return." 

2. "Prodigal Sons and Daughters" of MyEC by duece666

The full title of this blog is #Where Have They Gone? We Still Love Them!... "Prodigal Sons and Daughters" of MyEC. Though the title of this blog is a bit long, but I still believed it's a good title. Basically it's a blog in response to Mr. Bob's blog "Where Have They Gone? We Still Love Them!". It's a funny blog which uses simile in portraying various 'proditors' of MyEC. It tried to give reasons of why some members of MyEC apparently decided to abandon MyEC ship. 

3. Commenting is also an ART by Bala from India

This blog really caught my eyes, not just because it was written by a good member, but because of its catchy title. I never thought that commenting is an art before, but after reading this blog, I really appreciate the impact of commenting on anyone's blogs. 

4. Pond hardly ever noticed by anyone ... :) by Charos

Well, this is not really a blog, but rather a photo posted by a member. The title of the photo caught my eyes, instead of the photo itself. It was really an intriguing title. It made me want to know why anyone hardly ever noticed the pond? What's the secret behind it? Is there a mystery behind its existence?

Because the title really intrigued me, and because Charos posted a few photos of the ancient City of Bukhara, I had written a simple story based from those photos. So, I would like to think a title/caption of a photo also important in catching the attention of members.

Due to my current hectic work schedule, I have less time to write a blog. I barely managed to finish off my series on My Perth Diary, let alone writing a blog. However, I hope I can manage to write a few blogs this year.

1. The first one is a promise to my friend in My EC that I will try to re-write his short story. Currently, it has been languishing in my draft like forever. It still has no title, but it will be a short story.

2. Another one is my second attempt in trying a short story. The plot and characters had been permanent residences in the draft section. It still has no title, because normally, I will only come up with the title after the story is written at least half way through.

Normally I will write blogs based on things that caught my fancy, so I never plan a title or the subject. 

My blog that I wish I would have done better in terms of title is "Did You Know?". When I wrote this blog, I never envisaged that it would grow and grow and grow and became a series. Maybe I should re-write the title as "Did You Know? - It's All Accidental" because basically the blog told the history of certain inventions and expressions which were accidental rather than planned.

This final entry of My Perth Diary is especially dedicated to Little Tree who said she nodded off while trying to read my previous blog. "Little Tree, I assure you, this is the shortest one, maybe" LOL. To Sono, "Remember, Rome wasn't built in a day"

Day One : 29th Dec 2013

Day Two : 30th Dec 2013

Day Three : 31st Dec 2013

Day Four : 1st Jan 2014

Day Five : 2nd Jan 2014

Day Six and Day Seven : 3rd Jan 2014 and 4th Jan 2014

Technically today would be the last day of my stay in Perth. As compared to yesterday, we know what to do and where to go. First thing, we will go to Freemantle Market. It is a famous market which sells fresh local produce, souvenirs and other local products. I had to admit, I was looking forward to finally seeing the Freemantle Market. It's the only place that I had been looking forward to visiting since I since I decided to go to Perth. 

Due to the fact that this was our last day in the hotel, we had to check out early. Thank God that our friends were going back on Sunday, so even though we had checked out from our room, we only had to put our bags in our friends' room.

Since we had extended the rent of our car, we decided to drive to Freemantle. Freemantle is only about 22 km from Perth, and in no time at all we reached the Freemantle Market. It has variety of fresh produce, foods, local products and souvenirs. As usual, my nose and stomach dictated the first shop that I had to stop. LOL. After buying some kind of fried whole potato from an Indian shop as my breakfast, we walked through the market.

I had to admit I had gone a bit crazy when I found a small shop specialising in honey. There were all kinds of pure wild honey, and I wish I can buy each and everyone of them. I just bought honey had been bottled in small plastic bottles. Honey that was bottled in glass bottle had to be ignored because my fear that the bottles will break while in my luggage. I also had to refrain myself from buying too much fresh fruits because I only have a few more hours in Perth. I can't buy fresh produce or fruits and packed them in my luggage just in case they will be confiscated and destroyed when entering Malaysia.

After spending some time in the market, we decided to go to another famous market specialising in souvenir, the E-Shed. It's just a few minutes drive from the Freemantle Market. In here, my alter ego, The Crazy Shopaholic emerged. LOL. Well, I put the blame on my extended family members. I had to buy some kind of souvenirs to nearly each and everyone of them. Well, not everyone, but still, it was a big number. 

After that big effort in refraining myself from going bankrupt, we decided to visit the same seafood restaurant that we had visited a few days earlier for our lunch. While enjoying our lunch, we were toying a few ideas on how to spend the rest of the day before returning our car for good.

Basically, we had ticked all the places that we wanted to visit while in Perth, so we decided to return to Kings Park since we did not manage to walk through the glass bridge yesterday. Before driving back to Kings Park, one more stop that we had to do. And, yes, it was because of food. We drove back to Perth City Centre and stopped at its High Street. After walking round and round, we managed to find our next food destination. It was a quaint little cafe specialising in cakes and pastries. Each of us bought one box of apple strudel. My friend's friend swore that it was the best apple strudel in the whole wide world.

After all the excitement, my room mate asked to be dropped off at the hotel. Apparently she had a blinding headache so she won't be joining us back to Kings Park. After dropping off my room mate, we proceed to Kings Park. Even though it was still an early afternoon, there were already a big number of people walking or just sitting around the park. 

We managed to walk through the glass bridge. Though I was a bit scared to walk through the tree tops, but the view was worth the few acceleration of my heart beats. The three of us just decided to enjoy the walk and sit on the grass. After that we drove to the other sides of the park. Over here, there were a few people who were doing Australian favourite past time, barbecuing. 

After taking our fill with the view and atmosphere, we had to drive back to our hotel and send back the car to the car rental company. After taking a short break and trying to pack my things in my luggage, the three of us were on another mission, to hunt some food in the Twilight Hawkers Market at Northbridge, at the City Centre. My room mate was still not feeling too good, so the hunt was only done by the three of us, again. 

The Twilight Hawkers Market was alive with people and music when we arrived. There were a lot of food kiosk selling all kinds of international food. There was Malaysian food kiosk, Spanish, Moroccan, Turkish, Singaporean, Korean, Japanese, to name a few. The smell of various foods really made my mouth water and my stomach rumbled. 

After making a few round of those food kiosks, I decided to taste some Moroccan food, don't ask me what was the name of the food, I can't remember it. Hmm ... then I decided to taste the Spanish seafood paella. Gosh! I know I ate too much, but I just can't help it. They really begged me to eat them up. We managed to secure a table and chairs and gobbled our food. Did I say gobbled? LOL. No, we managed to eat our food in a very polite manner.

Shortly after, we took the Perth CAT back to our hotel. While waiting for the time to go to the airport, I managed to finish my packing. It was roughly about 8.30 pm. My room mate and I decided to go to the airport at about 10.00 pm, because we were not sure at what time we can check in, though our flight was supposed to be at 2.30 am of 4th January 2014.

We managed to flag a taxi in front of the hotel at our first attempt. When we reached the airport, the check in counter was yet to open, and we were told that our flight had been delayed. Now it was rescheduled at 3.30 am. OHMY! I never imagine that I would spend another day in Perth practically sleeping at the airport. 

Let me tell you, sleeping on hard airport seats was really pain in the neck, and body, and everything else. Roughly about 1.00 am, finally the check in counters were opened. After that we decided to have some coffee at one of the cafe that still opened. Finally, we decided to just enter the Departure Lounge and get over with the Security and Border Control matters as soon as possible. 

At the entrance of the Departure Lounge, we were stopped by an officer who was asking whether we have some forms of liquid, aerosol or gel products with us. After giving us a resealable plastic bag each, we went over to a counter to fill in details of our departure. Suddenly, my friend asked me whether honey was allowed to be in a hand carry. OHMY! I told her, no honey was not allowed to be hand carried and must be packed in a luggage.

Apparently she just realised that all her honey was in her handbag, and she did not want them to be confiscated. After reaffirming the situation with the officer at the front of the Departure Lounge, we decided to take our chances and go back to the check in counter and try to check in the bottles of honey in one of our bags. We were lucky that the check in lady was still at the counter. Unfortunately we cannot retrieve our bags, so I decided to check in my knapsack, and my friends put all the bottles of honey into my knapsack. Phew! Disaster averted.

Back to the Departure Lounge. The immigration clearance was as smooth as it can be. Next the security clearance. I did not face any difficulty and was asked to go through the normal screening machine, however, my friend had to go through the full body scanner. While we were waiting for our flight, I remarked the different treatment being enforced to both of us even though we were just next to each other. She said it was because she was wearing a hijab that was why the different treatment.

I don't want my beautiful memories of Perth to be tainted with that small matter, but I do wonder whether it was the truth. But whatever the reason, I still can look back to my little holiday in Perth with satisfaction and overall, Australia and Australians are beautiful.

~~~~~~ The End ~~~~~~

P/S: Thank you to each and everyone of you who had spent your precious time to read this diary. I really appreciate it.

This is my fifth entry of My Perth Diary. This blog is dedicated to my EC friend, Eric; "This 'beach hopping' blog reminds me of you. "The epitome of a California guy", lounging at his lazy seat while sipping some cold Bloody Mary or some kind Tropical concoction drinks.". LOL

Day One : 29th Dec 2013

Day Two : 30th Dec 2013

Day Three : 31st Dec 2013

Day Four : 1st Jan 2014

Day Five : 2nd Jan 2014

We started to think that we made the wrong calculation of how long our Perth holiday should be. By the fifth day we were thinking very hard what to do, where to go. Hmm. But, first thing first. The order of the day was breakfast.

Since we agreed to take it easy today, my room mate and I decided to finally have a proper 'Perth' breakfast. Well, I don't know what the real Perth or Australian breakfast was, but this was the first time that we were going to a cafe to have a breakfast. Normally, we had to skip breakfast or ate something while in the car.

We went to a well known coffee shop, "The Coffee Club", which was a walking distance from our hotel. Surprisingly, there's no other well known coffee shops such as The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf or Starbucks in the whole Perth. Speaking of that, there was no 7-eleven grocery shop either. I like that. It seemed that Perth was still not being bombarded with all those global brands.

For the first time, Perth seemed to be a bit alive. Mind you, it was still very quiet for a big city, but we can see a few groups of 'office workers' came into the cafe and bought some breakfast, coffee or enjoying their breakfasts in the cafe itself. What was my typical Perth breakfast, you may ask? Well, I had coffee macchiato and omelet with tomato and mushroom, while my friend had espresso and a stack of pancakes. Were that typical? I don't know, but I know they were very delicious. LOL

When we came back to the hotel, my other friends were waiting in the lobby. Another decision to make. Maybe we should just picked the shortest draw or something. No such thing fortunately, or unfortunately. Finally, we decided just to be beach bums for the day. Furthermore, we need to return our car to the car rental company in the afternoon.

So, first destination, Rockingham Beach. It was about 55 km from Perth. After taking the freeway, we decided to take the beach road. First stop was the Kwinana Beach. 'Kwinana' means "Pretty Maiden" in aborigine language. Kwinana Town seemed to be industrial hub of Western Australia. It also well known for its ship-wreck SS Kwinana, of which the blown on to the beach and was made into some kind of jetty. 

Then a short drive from Kwinana Beach, we reached the City of Rockingham. Seemed everyone was still in holiday mood. The parks were filled will families. As any other beach in this part of the world, it's really pristine. We decided to have our lunch at the city. We decided we had enough of fish and chips, so another Turkish cafe. 

After enjoying our lunch, we decided to drive back to Perth because we need to return our car. However, we still managed to stop at another magnificent beach, Cottlesloe. While in Cottlesloe, we decided to continue renting our car to next day. We tried our best to contact the car rental company, but apparently, it was closed at 4.30 pm. Hmm...

We had no choice but to drive back to Perth City and try to sort it out. When we reached the car rental company, in no time at all it was agreed that we will return the car tomorrow. Gosh! How I wished it was sorted out through a phone call.

Since the day was still sunny and bright, we decided to go to Kings Park, a botanic garden and park atop Mount Eliza. There were a lot of people walking or jogging around the park, or just having a simple picnic or laying on the grass. Unfortunately for us, the glass bridge through the tree top was closed at 5.30 pm. 

So we just spent the rest of the day lying on the grass and enjoying the view over looking Perth and Swan River. We were getting worried when we saw dark cloud looming over, but most of the people took no notice of it. Suddenly we felt a drops of rain. WOW! I thought, finally rain in Perth. But I spoke too soon. It was just a tiny drop and then it stopped. LOL. That was what they called rain in Perth.

We decided to go to Subiaco after refreshing ourselves, thus back to the hotel. It was said that in Thursday evening, there would be an open market in Subiaco and various stalls selling delicious foods. We were so looking forward for that.

Subiaco was just next to Perth City, but the atmosphere was a bit different. The buildings' architecture was like a mixture of Oriental and European. When we reached Subiaco, the first thing we tried to find was the open market. Alas, maybe it was the day after new year, and everyone was still not in the mood, it seemed the market was not opened. We were very disappointed. 

However, maybe because it was well known for its shopping, some of its shops were still open even at the late hour (late hour over here was about 7.00 pm). In order not to make our visit totally a waste of time, we decided to buy a few things in its Supermarket. I decided to buy some peaches and tangerines.

My friends decided to stop and have another churros, again. Because it's a totally chocolate based cafe, I had to order a some sort chocolate drink. I started to love churros, but to have it again in within a few days was really a torture for me. LOL. I really wonder how could people love chocolate. Gosh!

Our fifth day in Perth ended with a little bit of disappointment, though when looking at the mirror and seeing my sunburn face, I don't think it was that bad day, at all.

To be continued in My Perth Diary : Day 6th 3rd Jan 2014

This is another continuation of My Perth Diary.

Day One : 29th Dec 2013

Day Two : 30th Dec 2013

Day Three : 31st Dec 2013

Day Four : 1st Jan 2014

Happy new year, everyone. After a late night celebrating the new year in Mandurah, we decided to take it easy today. Everyone woke up late. We had not decide where to go, what to do. We will just go with the flow.

We agreed to meet up at the hotel lobby at about 9.30 am. After contemplating a few places and browsing through the map, we decided to go to the North of Perth, since Mandurah was the South side of Perth. Thank God for one of my friends who loved to do all the research well before hand. She suggested we go to Scarborough, because the beach was beautiful.

Scarborough Beach was roughly about a 14 km drive from Perth City. As always, the drive was smooth. We did not talk much, maybe because everyone was a bit tired. In no time at all, we reached Scarborough Beach. Reaching the beautiful beach made our eyes wide opened. It's really beautiful; clear blue sky, turquoise water, white sandy beach, and wind blowing, really made the tired eyes sooth. How I wish I were a poet and have all those romantic words to describe the beach.

After basking with the warmth of the beach, well, I had to admit, we did not strip down to our bikinis or what, if you guys wondering, our empty stomachs were calling us for lunch. Unfortunately, it's only late morning, and some of the cafes were closed. Maybe because of it's the new year. We just decided to buy something in the Coles Supermarket, and have our lunch somewhere else.

Next destination was Hillarys Boat Horbour. It was just about 12 km from Scarborough Beach. It was another famous attraction, less for the beach but more because of its educational attractions such as AQWA and Naturaliste Marine Discovery Centre. We did not visit any of these places, but rather its famous cafes over looking the ocean. 

We reached Hillarys Boat Harbour right when people were having their lunches. Restaurants and cafes were fulled to the brim. OHMY! My poor stomach was singing out of tune opera by that time. Though I had eaten some nectarine and peaches while in the car, but my poor stomach still insisted to sing. 

After walking from one end of the jetty to another, we decided it's hopeless to have a proper lunch. So, instead of lunch, we had Spanish churros; a stick doughnut, dipped in various chocolates' flavours. I don't like chocolate, never do, and never will. But maybe because I was hungry, I was enjoying the churros. And I never thought that there would be various chocolate flavours. Chocolate is chocolate, right? No two way about it.

While enjoying our churros, we discussed our next destination. After debating a few choices, we decided to go further up North and depending on the time, if we can, we will go as far as the dessert, or if not, just up to Lancelin. 

Lancelin was about 128 km further from Perth City, or about 111 km from Hillarys Boat Harbour. It was famous for its sand dunes. Before we continue our drive, I managed to buy two boxes of fish and chips. Well, I can't survived on chocolate dipped churros, now, can I? LOL

Driving to Lancelin exposed me to various Australian plants habitats. They were quite vary. I think it was somewhat the Australian outback. There was some Australian bush land, and I can see some of them were charred by bushfire sometimes way back. There were some big farms, though for the life of me, I don't know what kind of farms they were. I can't see any wheat plants, the sheep were too few, and no cow! I thought Australian was famous for it's beef, but no cow. Hmm.

After a few kilometers of driving, I noticed my friend was getting tired. She had been the designated driver from day one because her name was in the rental car, and my other friend was the second driver. But she was sleeping, and I was the only one who was wide awake. Thus, I offered to drive. At first, she was reluctant to switch places with me because my name was not in the document. However, after a few minutes more, reluctantly she asked me to take over the wheel. 

I drove in silent. All my friends were taking a nap. Residential areas were very few and far between. The drive was a very long. It took us about one hour and a half to reach Lancelin. It was really a very small town. Most of the houses seemed to be empty. We parked next to the beach, but there was no sand dunes in sight. Well, they were only the normal beach sand dunes. 

We decided to refuel before proceeding. At the petrol station, my friend asked the direction to the sand dunes. Apparently we had missed the turn to the sand dunes a few kilometers away. Well, at least we had the opportunity to see the Lancelin township. 

After a few minutes re-tracking our drive, we found the turn to the sand dunes. We chose a spot to park our car since the area was accessible only either by walking, 4-wheel drive or RTV. From afar the sand dunes looked like snow-capped mountains. 

I was out of breath by the time when I reached the sand dunes mountains. When we reached there, a few people doing some sand boarding from one of the sand mountains. We can hear them screaming and laughing. Some of the guys were seen tumbling from the board. We don't have any sand board, but that did not stop us from trying to climb to the top and try to do some 'clumsy stunts' actions. LOL

Did I say climb to the top? Hmm .. that's just a wish. LOL. We only managed to climb about two third of the sand mountain. Though it was not that high, but sand climbing was very exhausting. After a few failed attempt to sand boarding using a card box, I just sit on the sand mountain and enjoying the sunset. 

Reluctantly we had to walk back to our car when the day was getting darker. Everyone was silence during the drive back to Perth. Our fourth day in Perth ended with an exhausting 'good night' to everyone. 

To be continued in My Perth Dairy : Day Five 2nd Jan 2014