Books from Mitch Albom

Recently just finished reading Time Keeper by Mitch Albom, finish reading it on the day the Mayans predicted the world to end, 21 December 2012. The surrounding settings fit the book well as it is about to be Christmas and doomsday is nearing. I had always enjoyed Mitch's writing, there are all very inspiring in their own ways.

The Time Keeper, a story about father time, how he started counting time and his exploration around earth to know more about time. Father time shared his insight with two humans who are about to die, one wanting more time, one wanting less, and forgetting the ones who loved us the most around us, living the moment. It was a great read, I could barely take my hands off them till I finished the book.

There are other books by Mitch that I had read.

The first book I read was Five People You Meet in Heaven. It's a story about a guy called Eddie. Eddie is someone who is like anyone of us, with regrets in life, with all the what if's in mind., with dreams we wish to achieve yet things just swift to a different path. Working as maintenance in an amusement park for most of his life, he past away due to an accident in the park. In heaven, he met five people whom he knew and did not knew when he was alive. But everyone of them was there to explain about why did things in his life turned out the way it is. It's a moment where finally everything starts to make sense. Eddie starts to understand, starts to let go, starts to forgive. Mitch made heaven to be a place where you look back into your life and join the puzzles up.

The next book I read was For One More Day. A story of a former baseball player who had so much problems in his life, failure in marriage, his career, his financials and his family. He came to a decision to take his own life, and in his attempt he seemed to had failed, and he saw his mother, who had past away for some time. This baseball player gets another day with his mother, went back to his old family home. He got to learn about the reasons of why he had a troubled childhood and through this, his mother assists him in resolving his issues and getting his life back on track.

Tuesdays with Morrie is about Mitch meeting back his professor from university, who is dying from a fatal disease. Morrie knows he is dying and he is running out of time, but he choose to be happy even though he is suffering through this disease. Morrie shared his views and knowledge with Mitch, including family, love and things about how he view our society.

Have a Little Faith, a book I find very spiritual and very close to the heart. This book gives a small exposure on Jew traditions and believes. Mitch talks about a favor his rabbi, Albert Lewis asked of him, to do his eulogy. He decides to get to know more about his rabbi so that he could perform it properly. He shares about the insight of his rabbi, and he questions for the opinion of his rabbi about the religion, about life and about death. On the other hand, Mitch also writes about Christian along with the story of his rabbi. He writes about the life of Pastor Henry, and how he helped the people. A great book on faith, a touching one, teared while reading the eulogy he did for his rabbi.

Hope to have more books from Mitch, he is really a writer of the soul. ^^

New Members to the Apple Family

Trying to recall, the very first apple product that I had. I can't really remember whether was it the iPod Touch or the MacBook, but I am certain that it was bought during my degree final year, which is like 2009.

Well, regardless, the members of the Apple family just grew by more, in fact, two more.

1) iPad

I had been struggling on whether should I get it, I mean, it's not cheap and I was trying to reason things out with myself on why do I not need it. It all started when the New iPad was launched, and people around me are having this thing going on where it seem to be a contagious virus. So throughout the year I held my horses by saying that I am using an iPhone and I can perform most of the task through my phone, right? This was all changed after my trip to Tasmania.

This friend of mine, Ian, who had been using his iPad for like ever. Throughout the trip, he brought his iPad along and showed me how convenient is it. So, this is where is all started, it hooked. So once I got back to Malaysia, and this colleague of mine, Jun, who told me take she got her very own iPad, I am like hell, let's get an iPad.

So there comes the new member of the Apple family. But, hey, there's more.

2) iPhone 5

So, as I did mention, I am an iPhone user. To back track, my very first iPhone was a 3GS, a nice white one with those curvy edge. Then it was the iPhone 4S, which was with me for 1 year.

So here come the whole story. It was my convocation for my master, and I shared this joy which both of my loving parents. As usual, graduates will all be happy, with their bouquet of flowers, walking around catching up with friend and taking photos. There was too much stuff in my hands, hence I asked my dad to help me out for a bit with some of the stuff. And this is when it all happens. My beloved iPhone 4S fell, real hard on the concrete tar road and landed on the steal cap of the drain, thank god it did not fell through. As I picked my phone up, there was no crack on the screen, however there was a dent on the edges. This was not the worst thing. My phone seemed to be dead. OMG.. No matter which button I was to press, the phone just refuse to react, the screen was not lite up. Instantly, my heart cracked. Of course, later on the phone did went back online after the forced reboot.

So how did the iPhone 5 come about? After that incident, my dad made this promise that he will get me a new phone to replace this one, so tadaa~~ I have my iPhone 5 now.

I am happy with the two Apple products that I am using on a daily basis. Hoping in future, Apple will come out with more innovative and creative products as this Apple fan will always be there to support them.

Instagram

I am having fun uploading pictures on Instagram. And the new update makes it so much more fun. ^^

I'm actually trying out the badge function.. Hehehe.. Don't you love these small little surprises which comes knocking at you door from time to time..?


 

A Note to the Heart

A note, from a time long ago..

我们的开始叫人意外

从未想过你对我有爱

你的坦白令我开怀

但她却早已存在

想要毫无保留的去爱

但却不能无情的离开

内疚对你的伤害

想要公平的对待

所以选择放开 

你我无法释怀这份爱

心里还有你

但却不能告诉你

心里还爱你

却没资格留住你

想再次用力地爱

属于我的心早已不在

只希望你不再受伤害

等到属于你的爱

"完美的时机让爱凝聚，错误的决定让爱散去"

Rise of the Guardian

Rise of the guardian, love this cartoon movie so much. It's filled with Christmas-ish feeling and the storyline is great. Indeed, it's a fantastic kick start for the season.

Jack Frost, who is the main lead in the cartoon, is a character who is carefree and he's all the time jolly. He was chosen by the Man in the Moon to be one of the Guardians who will defend the children of the world. The story goes on with how Frost interact with Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and the Sandman and how they defend against the Bogeyman.

The cartoon has so much of humour and it very enjoyable as Christmas approach closer each day. Santa's elves are so adorable. Not forgetting Baby Tooth, one of the fairies of the Tooth Fairy. ^^

 Christmas is nearing.. I can't wait.. Love the season so much..

An Annual Review of 2012

Wow..! Look how time flies. It's already the last week of November and December is coming soon.If the Mayans are correct, the end of the world is coming in less than a month's time. Gosh..~

Was reading back on my post which I wrote in the beginning of the year. Some goals I had there. Hahahaha..

To make a quick review or a summary of things I would like to remember on what I did this year.

Let's start with something which I love the very most, traveling.
1. Traveled to Bangkok, again, three years in a row now, for APRRC Bangkok 2012.
2. Traveled to Melbourne and Tasmania, and gosh.. I really loved the place. This was an awesome trip and the hike in the snow made it simply memorable.
3. Traveled to Hong Kong and Macau, I would say I was a good catch up session there, meeting friends from Hong Kong and Macau.
4. Trip to Cameron and staying at Hard Rock Penang. AWESOME...!!

Besides traveling, I was visited by friends too. And also going to be visited by friends.
5. RAC Manila visiting Malaysia, how much I miss Candy and Jarl.
6. Friend from Taiwan visiting Malaysia during New Year's Eve. Yay..~ (Ok, I do see a trend here where I always have foreign friends visiting the country over New Year's eve.)

What else had I done? There are some random things which was done.
7. Big Trill and Extreme Skytrex are completed, for the record. Yes!
8. Marathon. So far I had completed Standard Charted Run, BSN Night Run, and Terry Fox Run each 5km. And I will be going for HSBC Charity Run too. Not too bad. Hmm...
9. Singing live on stage. This one is definitely something to remember, singing Thousand Year with Aaron live on stage during my club's installation, man.. it was a fantastic feeling..!
10. Zookeeper. Yea.. Something which I don't think I would ever forget.
11. Rotaract projects.There are tonnes of them, from StART concerts to Royal Selangor visits, Medical Camps, I Choose to Reuse, Random Act of Kindness, Rotary Wish Tree. Wow.. Just let the list grow.
12. Picking up badminton. I don't really know the sport, but at least I had got the chance to play and improve on it.
13. Stand Up Comedy. It was so much fun listening to Harith Iskandar and Douglas Lim. I remembered watching Iskandar in one of the Rotary events way way back.
14. Watched Russell Peter in Bangkok. This guy is just hilarious. There is not one moment that you are not laughing when he is on stage.
15. Did a presentation on Traveling Tips. My favorite topic, it was impromptu and it was so much fun sharing the things I know and the one thing I love doing.
16. Learn to play a guitar. Yup, and I am still learning. I know, noob, but hey, at least I'm trying right?
17. Making new friends. This is definitely something to look forward for, friends.
18. Got my very own iPad.. Woohoo..~~

And of course some expected events.
19. Graduating for my masters.
20. Being the Secretary of my club and also the IS Director for the District. (That's a mouth full)
21. Committee of my company's teambuilding, again. (I can start complaining?)

And also some events which I thought would happen but no.
22. Did not manage to get my own place
23. Did not manage to go to Camp 5 for wall climbing, ish...~

Hmm.. Can't recall anymore events that I would like to remember, but then I am sure there's definitely more. Seems to be a great year, might not be perfect but it was great.

Looking forward for December, another busy month before the year ends. Registering for FRM, going for the last marathon of the year, attending weddings and also hosting my Taiwanese friends. I would not had imagined a better way to end the year.

I guess I am ready for 2013, hope things will work out as planned. (*fingers crossed*)

My Presentation on Traveling Tips

Just came back from two trips in Tasmania and Hong Kong, ending the years trip by giving a Professional Development Talk on Traveling Tips seems to be perfect.

I remembered having no hard time preparing the contents for my presentation as this is actually something I enjoy doing and hopefully will continue doing it in future. I read the book Escape Plan by Mark Manson, which was about his own personal experience in being a writer, an entrepreneur and a frequent traveler across the globe.

The presentation took place after the 9th Club Meeting with RAC Subang, where everything was chaotic, projectors not working, and my presentation was done through my iPad and Jamie's slim Dell lappie.

My presentation is broke down as follow:
1. Planning
2. Important Tips
3. Before Your Trip

1. Planning

In planning, I started with doing research on the country that you are visiting. To start with, one have to state out clearly your own priority on which country you would love to visit, what kind of experience are you looking for, how long do you have for this trip and how much of budget are we talking about here. All these will effect the result of your trip.

Then I shared about flight tickets. Personally, I am a person who loves planning ahead, I have 2013 fully planned during 2012 with flights purchased. There are advantages where you will be able to get flights at cheaper price and you have time to plan ahead for this upcoming trip. A few budget airlines like AirAsia, Jeju Air, Peach Aviation, JetStar, EasyJet were shared with the club for reference, where all these information are always available on the websites. Besides that, one can also plan for countries which you would like to stop by, through transit, or for cheaper flights option. There are countries which have a few airport for landing to choose from. Landing in different airport would result in different prices in the flight tickets.

I shared one of my experience on my trip to Portugal in 2011. I took AirAsia to London, landing at Luton airport. London has a lot of airports surrounding it, there is Heathrow airport, Gatwick airport, Stansted airport, and of course Luton. This was not a transit, and arriving in the morning, I have a whole day ahead for me to explore the city as my flight to Lisbon will only take off at night. This was my stop by country for this trip. The same was done at my departure heading home. I got two days to spare walking around London, enjoying my tea at one of the cafes.

I also shared with the club some websites which I used in purchasing my flights, for example, Expedia and SkyScanner. The reason I like using these websites is because they will cover almost all the airlines available, and it will give you search results which covers all range of prices with different departure time on different airlines.

Apart from your flights, the next item in planning would be your accommodation. This does varies by individuals. Some would prefer staying in a comfortable hotel room, with all your own personal space which will cost a bit more, some with prefer to stay in hostels where you would be able to meet new people and save a whole lot of money. Similar like flights, for accommodations, there are websites that groups all the accommodations available together, for example, booking.com, agoda.com, airbnb.com, hostelworld.com, couchsurfing.org. These few websites covers from hotels to hostels, to couch surfing.

2. Important Tips

For any trip that we are going for, our passports play a very very crucial part in the whole thing. Next comes the visa to enter the country if any. A reminder on the 6 months from expiry date of our passports, the holder can only travel is the period is more than 6 months. So if you plan to go on a long trip, do remember to take note of this, if the date is getting to close to 6 months, renewing your passport would be a safer option. Besides that, the last three pages of your passport are not meant for stamping, so don't go all jolly toward immigration when your passport is almost full with stamps. During the trip, always always guard your passport with your life.

The next tip, insurance. I know there are many insurance out there, even the airlines themselves are selling them to you during your purchase of flight tickets. My personal opinion on this, it is important for us to get travel insurance, we will never know what might happen, flight delay, your luggage got sent to some where half way across the globe, you fell and hurt your feet, well, all this will cost you a lot of money. Knowing that you are covered by your travel insurance, things would work out better despite your misfortune. My recommendation is to get travel insurance from travel company, and so far, MSIG is doing pretty good for myself, I am having an annual travel insurance with them, which means I don't have to purchase a policy from them each time I travel and it's cheaper this way if you travel frequently.

My handphone is an essential tool during my trips. I can go on a trip without my iPad, or my camera with me if I have my iPhone with me. And when you are overseas, remember to switch off your data if you plan to keep your local phone line. I personally would like to get a local number with data plan, reason being that I could go online, update my Facebook status and tweet, and Whatsapp people back home, NOT! Why having a local line with data plan is important is that whenever you are on the go, you might get lost and your smartphone with GPS will help you get your way, or you might need to do a web check in for your flights, or booking for your upcoming stay in a hotel. 

3. Before Your Trip

Packing would be something everyone will do before their trips, and this golden rule of packing worded really well by Mark Manson, "Whatever you think you need to pack, bring half. Whatever money you think you need, bring double", which is something I'm practicing for all my trips. Some things which I find it handy to bring along during trips, iPad, iPhone, camera, chargers, and most importantly, universal converter with a multi-plug extension.

After packing, there is your banking accounts and your credit card company to look into. I would suggest to call your credit card company, informing them on your upcoming trips, just so that they won't decline transactions you made when you are overseas. There are banks which have branches overseas, and you may want to activate your account's international withdrawal. It's always better to be safe than sorry.

Yup, that will be my two cents in my presentation. I personally did enjoy giving this presentation, sharing my experience, sharing views on the topic with my club. It was really fun and I hope the members do gain something out of it.

Traveling Around the World - Hong Kong and Macau

Hahaha.. I'm just lazy to rewrite the blog entry, so I am posting the entry that I wrote for my club's newsletter. ^^

On September 22 till 30, 2012, Sook Mei and I went to Hong Kong together, visiting rotaractors from RAC Kowloon Golden Mile(KGM) and RAC Victoria. Rotaractor Jennie hosted us for the 9 days in the comfort of her home. During this trip, both of us got to experience how people in Hong Kong lived in the hustle and bustle and actually understand what does high density actually meant. President Jimmy was able to join us from time to time as he was here for his training with his company.

Throughout the trip, we got to hang out with rotaractors whom we had met during the hosting of KGM’s International Service in Malaysia last year. Besides meeting old friends, we also got to make new ones by meeting other club members of RAC KGM. We had visited many places around Hong Kong, including Hai-O, Dai Yu San, Cheung Chau, the Peak, Avenue of Stars and so much more. Food is something not to be missed in Hong Kong. Both of us were being pampered with all the mouth watering food around Hong Kong.

Besides visiting around Hong Kong, both of us visited Macau and met up with rotaractors there. Macau is a city filled with entertainment, the hotels and casinos there are beautifully structured.

During the trip, we attended the wedding of rotaractor Simon and Pinky. We got to attend the whole ceremony from the morning session, up to the registration of marriage in the afternoon, till the wedding dinner at night. There are differences in the ceremony but there are so many similarities. It was a fun and exciting experience.

We are looking forward in having them visiting us again in Malaysia.