Malaysian getting Taiwanese Driving License

Getting your driving license in Taiwan is simple, just as long as you had verified all the necessary documents.

It is always good to email Malaysian Friendship and Trade Center to ensure the documents required. They will send you a template on how to translate your driving license (yes, you may do it yourself).

Document to prepare before heading to Malaysian Friendship and Trade Center:

1. Malaysian driving license (original) and 2 copies (front and back on the same page)

2. Translation to English (2 copies)

3. Taiwan ARC (original)

4. Malaysian Passport (original)

5. Malaysian IC (original)

It takes 2 working days to complete. If you do not live in Taipei, you may prepare and envelope with sufficient paid postal (recommend registered mail) and they will mail the documents back to you. 

It is advised that you should visit Malaysian Friendship and Trade Center to submit the application as they will want to view the original ARC, passport, IC and driving license, it is not advisable to do it via mail, unless you have a third party whom you trust to assist you with the procedures.

Once you have the stamped document from Malaysian Friendship and Trade Center, you would need to have a Driving Test Body Checkup at a REGCONIZED hospital by Taiwan 監理所 (similar to JPJ). You may visit their website to see which hospital is near your area for you. The test is simple, colour blind check, visual test, audio test, so no worries and it cost around NTD150.

Next, with your stamped Translated Malaysian driving license and Driving Test Body Checkup, you may head to the nearest 監理所's 國際駕照辦事處 with:

1. Malaysian Passport (original) and photocopy a copy of the detail page of the passport and the page of you recent arrival stamp to Taiwan

2. Taiwan ARC (original) and a copy of both side on the same page

3. Three (3) passport size photograph (blue or white background, it does not matter)

4. Malaysian Driving License (original) and the translated copy from Malaysian Friendship and Trade Center

5. Driving Test Body Checkup (passed)

6. NTD200 for the application

You can collect it on that day itself. I had it done on a Saturday (please check which Saturdays does the 監理所 is opened and whether 國際駕照辦事處 is operating), hence it only took me less than half an hour, there was no one.

Working in Taiwan - My First Job in TW

After getting married to Taiwan and settled down, looking into future career would seem to be the next step.

There are numerous websites for job seeking, like 104.com.tw etc. With English as my only advantage here, I took it to the max in exploring career options. It seems that companies (small or medium) often have vacancies. It could be due to the turnover rate or people leaving for better opportunities in Taipei or even China, who knows.

Looking for a job here in Taiwan, especially when you are not living in or near Taipei could be tricky, not in terms of getting the job, that is the simple part, it is adapting and accepting the Taiwanese working culture that is tricky and difficult at some times.

Introduction to my first job

My first job was working as an English secretary for a medium sized, Taiwanese owned private company. It was a good introduction to the local work culture and practice. Don't be fooled by the job title, it was not a secretarial job, nothing close to it. After accepting the job offer, with a salary I find to be lower than what I expected (okay, I accepted the job because I was totally new to Subrogation or Maritime Law, I will explain later), I find that I actually do more than I was expecting to do. 

To begin with, it appears that I was not working for the company which the office sign states to be. There was a smaller company formed to cover the main company's subrogation portion and a law firm which covers Maritime law. Confusing? I was lost the first month I was there. I was actually working for three (3) companies, sometimes four (4), including some assignment task from the main company. The three companies that I mainly work for, one is a subrogation company, one is a local law firm, handling maritime cases, and another is a law firm registered overseas. (Wow! That's a mouth full, glad that is done.)

Employee benefits

Since it is my first job, it is also the first time I have to learn about National Health Insurance, Labour Insurance, Income Tax as a Foreigner, Local Labour Law and Bank Accounts.

National Health Insurance and Labour Insurance

From what I understand so far, the National Health Insurance and Labour Insurance is paid partially by your employer and partially will be deducted from your monthly salary. It is advised that employees are to monitor closely on the amount deducted every month by your employer and also to cross check using your Postal Bank Account (yes, Taiwan postal is also a bank). It is important to ensure that these payments are made accordingly, else you would have to pay for health insurance on your own. It is "rumoured" that employers (especially small and medium companies) will report  to the relevant department that you are receiving minimal wage (revised annually by the government), so that they would only pay the minimal amount for your insurance. Some employees prefer that, as that also means a minimal deduction in your monthly salary. However (yes, of course there is a bad side to this), when it come to make a claim to the insurance company, the employee would only receive the minimal as well. For example, pregnant employees will have maternity leave for 3 months, and for this three month, the insurance pay you a compensation for your leaves. Since a minimal salary was reported, a minimal compensation will be received.

Income Tax as a Foreigner

It should not be a shocker to pay income tax, this is practised globally. Well, income tax as a foreigner is slightly different. "Foreigners working with an ARC in Taiwan will have their wages taxed at a rate of 18% until they have stayed more than 183 days during a tax year. After 183 days, the government reduces your rate from 18% back to 5%. As for the 183 days that you paid 18%, which is 13% more than the normal rate, you will get this difference back when you file your taxes. Please note that the 183 days being from January 1 of each year."

So as you can see, for foreigner, it depends on how long have you resided in the country to indicate the tax rate of you income. So, do make an effort to stay in the country for more than 183 days a year if you are working.

Local Labour Law

The labour law, how can I put this in a good way? Most small and medium companies follows the laobour law strictly, you may think that it is something to celebrate for. But sadly no, as Taiwan Labour law, to my humble opinion, does not protects employees much. For instance, during the first year on the job, you are not entitled to any annual leaves. Only after the first year, you are entitled for 7 days of annual leaves. 

Pregnant employee are eligible for three months maternity. It was "rumoured" that there are employers who would let go of employees who are pregnant, as after the three month maternity leave, employees could apply for another 6 months of no salary leave to take care of your child.

These are some of the legal law of the country. It is common that companies or even government departments would require you to sign an employment "contract" with regulations that are just absurd. For example, 

(1) If you are one minute late from work, it would be recorded, and if you are late for 3 days for the month, you are requested to come back to work on a Saturday. If you do not comply, one day salary would be deducted. (There was even one from another company that states if you are late for one minute to work, it would be considered that you took the day off, you might as well go home.)

(2) You are not allowed to leave the company within one year, as it costs the company money to train you. (There are no training provided, they will throw you in deep sea and you better start swimming.)

(3) Overtime could only be claimed after 6pm. For every full half an hour, you are entitled to NTD40. No excuse to one minute less, or even if you are called back during the weekend to work. (Oh, they do not inform you that you need to fill in a form for this, else, too bad, no overtime payment.)

(4) You have to do cleaning as arranged in the duty roaster everyday, including sweeping, wiping, vacuuming. (Just like in school.)

(5) If you did anything wrong in your work, you are required to filled up a correction form which clearly states what you did wrong, how you should do it better and how you plan to improve it. This will be put up on a notice board for all to see.

Doesn't working in Taiwan sounds awesome? 

Bank Accounts

Banks have an image of being safe and secure, it is a place where you can trust to put your money in. Since I am working, I would need to have an account for my salary, so the usual, I went to the bank to open my bank account. Here, they do not recognize "signature", usually when you see "signature" here, it literally means, "Please WRITE your mandarin name clearly so that I can read." Not just that, they would require that you get a traditional square stamp of your mandarin name, as this is actually another important identification tool. Well, I personally don't mind the protocol in getting an account opened. But what was surprising is that, someone else with my account passbook, my ID and my stamp is actually allowed to withdraw money from my account. (Note to self, do not keep three items together.)

My Experience

Well, as for my first job, I won't say it exceed my expectation in a good way, but it seriously was an eye opener on the working environment and culture here. It was a stressful and tough job with a boss who is a business person, and no where near a human person. In her view, she paid you your salary, so you are to work as she told and instructed, getting to most out of you with minimal salary.

Besides the horrible boss encounter, colleagues were friendly and helpful, especially when you are a foreigner in a new country, you would depend on that. It was a tiring and demanding job, but I did learnt a lot and gained a whole new perspective of a new field (or, fields, since I do work for several companies).

I left the company as I do not think I could see myself in there for a long time, with lack of growth, acknowledgement and professionalism respect. You would have to let go and move on. 

So I did, with no regrets.

Life as a Foreigner in Disguise

I am in a a country where I am a foreigner, but I don't look like one.

Living in Taiwan is nice, it takes time to adapt, different variety of food, the language, the culture and the people.

Food

Food wise, it is not very hard to adapt to Taiwanese food, just that coming from a country rich with different cultures and vast selection of cuisines, it would be hard not to miss home. Your taste buds will start to feel so bland that somehow you are not interested with the local food no more. So to resolve this we have to start cooking.

Cooking for two is never easy, it is hard to get the right portion of ingredients and you will tend to over cook for two. Not just the portion, there are still ingredients that you would not be able to find in the market or supermarket. For example, it is difficult to find a whole garlic at the market, they usually sell them after they are pealed. Nevertheless, you may try looking harder into different supermarket for the ingredients you want, they may be slightly overpriced.

I remember that last summer, I was craving for chocolate ice cream, so much so that I went to all ice cream shops to get them, but non of them were similar to Baskin Robins or Ben & Jerry's. The painful part of this is, living through the unfulfilled craving.

Language

I won't say I have serious difficulties in the language, as I know the language, Mandarin. However, Mandarin was not my mother tongue, it is English, or Malaysian language (meaning a mixture of all languages). So there are moments that I have the word in English or Malay or Cantonese, but just somehow can't get the Mandarin word of it. Besides that, there are terms used in Taiwanese that were different from the ones used in Malaysia, for example, the straw(水草->吸管) and plaster (膠布->ok棒). There are moments that I can't understand Taiwanese's accent, especially when they Taiwan-lise English words. You would think that it is another term that you didn't know, but it is actually an English word pronounced with a Taiwanese accent. It is rude to correct them, so you would have to bear with it and just used to it.

Another language is Taiwanese (台語). I am not a Hokkien, hence I can't make up one word of Taiwanese. It is said that Hokkien and Taiwanese share some similarities. My grandmother in law only speaks Taiwanese, so there are times that we can't really communicate as there is this language barrier.

Culture

There are cultures in Taiwan that I love. The people here are more responsible in keeping their surrounding clean, and are more polite to a certain sense. They are proud of their nationality, I mean very proud, as they dislike it when I say I am Malaysian, as to them, I am married to a Taiwanese, hence I have to be Taiwanese. Sorry to disappoint you, but does not necessary work that way.

In terms of traditional culture, there are similarities and difference between Malaysian Chinese and Taiwanese Chinese. For example, lanterns are for the Mid-Autumn festival in Malaysia but in Taiwan, it is for the 15th Day of Chinese New Year.

People

The people here felt more down to earth and have less stress in their life. They appreciate knowledge and art, as there are bookstores everywhere and art galleries are always packed. I especially loved how they hope to preserve the Hakka culture by setting up museums and parks explaining the Hakka culture.


I think I can live here for some time. Till we found another place to settle down, Taiwan will do for now.

Registering your Marriage in Malaysia

My husband (Taiwanese) and I had registered our marriage in Taiwan and it is more like a re-registration in Malaysia (required to apply for Taiwan residence visa).

We planned to register in Taiwan first then re-register our marriage in Malaysia, as at the time registering in Malaysia requires my husband to reside in Malaysia for a period of time excluding the period of time required for the notice of our marriage. Hence, for convenience sake, we completed registration in Taiwan and return back to Malaysia.

Documents to prepare:
1. MyKad
2. Original Malaysian Passport and Foreign Passport of your spouse, and a copy of the page with your details of each and the page with the arrival date to Malaysia.
3. Passport size photo of each
4. Foreign Marriage certificate (Please have it (1) translated to English, (2) notarized and (3) authenticated by Taiwanese Foreign Affairs Department, you maybe do it in Malaysia if it is convenient to you)
5. 戶籍謄本 (prove of Nationality - translated, notarized and authenticated)

With all the documents required, you may just head to JPN in Putrajaya, and have some documents signed. It is advised that a confirmation of all the documents required are checked, translated, notarised or authenticated, as for us, we did not had our 戶籍謄本 done, and it was a nightmare.

Application for the Certificate of Good Conduct

As I am about to get married to my future Taiwanese husband, I am hoping to stay there in Taiwan with my husband. I am planning to get the Joining Family Residence Visa (JFRV) for me to stay and work in Taiwan. This visa requires me to be married with a Taiwanese, which I will be soon. There is one document which they require, the Certificate of Good Conduct.

I had applied mine via online through the department's website. http://www.kln.gov.my/web/guest/online. It requires a password which you have to register for it. After registering, you may login and click on Application of Certificate of Good Conduct. Read through the article and after understanding, you may start to fill in the form. One thing that you will need to prepare, they requires you to attach along a passport photo, so just make sure you have a digital copy.

After filling in everything and submitting the form, you will be able to check on the status of your application. Although they state that they will require 1-2 months to complete the application, mine was ready to be collected within one week, very impressive. But then, do note that, they will not notify you, well, I was not notified in any way. I only got to know mine was ready because I was anxious, so it's better that you check the status of your application from time to time.

To collect the certificate, you have to go to Ministry of Foreign Affair in Putrajaya. The collection is quite straight forward, get a number, wait for your turn and pay RM20 for it, and it's done. Nice and simple.

Application of Single Status Certificate

I'm about to get married January next year in Taiwan, yes, my future husband is a Taiwanese, and yes, I will be living there, will save that for the next blog.

So, one of the document required for my registration of marriage in Taiwan is the Single Status Certificate from Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara (JPN), Malaysia. For this, I went to JPN in Putrajaya.

Things to prepare for the application of the Single Status Certificate.

1. If you are doing this personally at Putrajaya (which is what I did), all you need to prepare is your IC, detail information of your spouse, which includes his/her name and passport number, and you will be good to go.

2. However, if you are planning to pass this over to someone else to help you prepare this, you may need to refer to their website for more information. http://www.jpn.gov.my/en/servicesmarriageordivorce
and click on the Single Status tab.

First, I walked in to the counter requesting for the form. From the website, it states that we are required to prepare a letter stating the purpose of this application, and also a Statutory Declaration. Don't worry, there are templates of these document prepared by the department which comes along with the form.

The letter is a simple letter where you will have to fill in your name and details, stating that you are applying this certificate for marriage oversea. As for the Statutory Declaration, after filling up the template, you will have to go to a Commissioner of Oath, which they have one in the building. Just go to the office and get the commissioner to sign this paper and you will be good to go. This cost me RM4, and it took less than 5 minutes to process.

Then with this letter stating your purpose of application, the Statutory Declaration and the form all filled up, all there is to be done is submit them and pay up RM5. The certificate will be ready within 10 minutes. As mentioned earlier that you will need some details of your future foreign spouse, like name and ID/passport number. They will state in the certificate that this certificate is applied to be used for the marriage with your spouse from which country, with the ID/passport number as given, so make sure you have the correct details.

I am indeed impressed with how fast this whole process can be, although there are some waiting and some running up and down, all in all, it's all pretty good.

The Procrastinator

I had been a procrastinator at work ever since I resigned. I am sure of that cause I had not been doing anything productive here. And after reading this article in http://www.waitbutwhy.com I confirmed myself to be a procrastinator.

pro-cras-ti-na-tion |prəˌkrastəˈnāSHən, prō-|

the action of delaying or postponing something: your first tip is to avoid procrastination.

I find this writer very interesting as he is able to describe out things that we know we are so well that after reading you will understand the state that you are in.

http://www.waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/why-procrastinators-procrastinate.html

I like the part where he describe that our Rational Decision-Maker owns a Instant Gratification Monkey who tends to take control of our minds, bringing us around wonderland before we actually start doing any work. Last time it used to be the fridge exercise, where we tend to open the fridge to check it out over and over again for what so ever reason. But nowadays we have Facebook, YouTube and Instagram to replace it. 

I can imagine the Dark Playground that the writer mentioned, I have the exact same playground in my mind, and it's actually not fun, as what he shared. We always thought that by doing so, we are actually enjoying ourselves, but once it's over, we are not much more happier than we expect we will be. Instead, sometimes we get disappointed as we failed to complete some tasks that we expected ourselves to complete within a time frame. More of the times, we will feel guilty for 'playing' around the Dark Playground, as said to be unearned leisure.

And when I read about the Panic Monster and how the Instant Gratification Monkey is afraid of it, oooo... I can so relate to that. Reading that part reminds me on all the memories I had on rushing assignments on the last hour, studying for examination on the night before, rushing through the past year paper early in the morning before the examination. Gosh.. Brings back memories. 

There is another article by the writer on how to beat procrastination. 

pro-cras-ti-na-tion |prəˌkrastəˈnāSHən, prō-|

noun

the action of ruining your own life for no apparent reason

http://www.waitbutwhy.com/2013/11/how-to-beat-procrastination.html

The procrastinator is in the bad habit, bordering on addiction, of letting the monkey win. He continues to have the intention to control the monkey, but he puts forth a hapless effort, using the same proven-not-to-work methods he's used for years, and deep down, he knows the monkey will win. He vows to change, but the patterns just stay the same. So why would an otherwise capable person put forth such a lame and futile effort again and again? 

The answer is that he has incredibly low confidence when it comes to this part of his life, allowing himself to become enslaved by a self-defeating, self-fulfilling prophecy.

A part which I liked on how the writer describes why a procrastinator's mind works the way it does.

How to beat procrastination:

1. Effective planning

This involves serious planning, and breaking you ideas into details, and start will steps. The writer pictured it in a way that procrastinators are visionaries who fantasize in building a house. However, for one to start building a house they will need to start will piling up the bricks one by one, day by day, without giving up, till the whole house is completed. This means that the objective of the plan may sound far more exciting compared to the actual procedure to start executing the steps to move towards achieving it. And the core of this plan is the bricks used to build the house. Hence, to start executing a plan, one should always start from the bricks, scheduling the tasks, draw down till the details of the each steps.

2. Doing

For me, I like planning, I can plan things out to the fine details, but when the start "doing" part hits, yes, my monkey will start to come out to play. The most important part here is "Get Started". This part is one of the hardest part as when we are about to start something hard, there are so many distractions around us, so many "fun" things to do. After getting started, we will come to the part where we have to continue on with the project to work till it is completed. This part is where distractions starts to look so tempting, especially when you encounter a problem and you need to Google the solution out, and hey, Facebook is just a click away. This is the part which I always end up getting stuck in. And the writer shares that, we have to be strong, and 

making progress in the task will help us stay focus on the task that we are involved in as it raises our self-esteem. At the point that you are about to complete your task, you will feel a positive drive in you which motivates you in completing your task. There are times when you reach a point, feeling that your task is actually more fun and interesting compared to the leisure activities that you were involved in. However, once you reach this stage, it is not permanent, you will fall back to procrastinating if one do not have persistence.

I need to show myself that I can do it.

I like what the writer had shared, it's personal and easy to be related to myself. Like what he said, 

Because defeating procrastination is the same thing as gaining control over your own life. So much of what makes people happy or unhappy—their level of fulfillment and satisfaction, their self-esteem, the regrets they carry with them, the amount of free time they have to dedicate to their relationships—is severely affected by procrastination. So it's worthy of being taken dead seriously, and the time to start improving is now.

Have to start now..!

Serving the Notice

It's has been a long two months, one more month to go.

Yes, I am serving a three month notice with my current employer after resigning, and these two months were the slowest and longest two months ever. Why? Because everyday I have to come into office, looking at my boss' annoying face, (annoying is not even close to describe that face) and hoping that it will be 5.30pm soon. Ever since I had resigned, my boss had been horrible. He started to show his true colour which not anywhere near beautiful. He had been harassing me on work, giving me unnecessary stress, threathening me, and most important of all, demotivating me. I had not been working for a long time, but he is indeed someone I truly hope that I will not meet any other in my life, especially as my superior. He was seriously a big pain in the ass.

Well, enough with the angry news, during my notice period, I got to know more about my colleagues, weird right? You only start to get close with your colleagues when you are leaving.

And yes, we are moving in the next month, meaning I will be serving my last month's notice in the new building, which is pretty good as I will have a brand new cubical and environment. Just too bad that it does not mean I will have a new boss. Hmm...

Oh ya, just got to know that there will be two bosses leaving the organisation, I have to be honest here, I don't have any emotions inside, but looking at other colleagues tearing when they heard the news just makes me wonder, am I a cold-blooded b*tch? Gosh.. I am sorry that they are leaving, but I seriously don't share the same feelings. All the feeling that I have inside is, I am happy for them, new chapter in life is really something exciting.

So, one more month to go..

A Big Decision to Make

Had been working for CIMB Bank for like three years plus now, almost four. I had been going through whether to stay or leave the organisation as I did not LOVE my job so so much. I hanged on as the people here are nice and knowledgeable and most importantly, they are willing to teach and help you along the way, making sure that you know that you are not alone in this.

But then, the department went through a restructuring, and I volunteered to be placed in another team, thinking that it would be nice to have a different exposure. Well, I was not wrong, I indeed had my different exposure, along with it came different colleagues with different personality, not to mention different boss. All in all, I did not really like the new exposure as much. So, I think it would be a great time to make some important decisions.

To top that up, my dad wanted me to go back to help him out at work. He had been asking for quite some time now, so I figured, now may be a good time to decide to go back to help out whatever I could, before I actually get married. This way, I get to spend more time with my parents and I get to help them out.

After this decision is made, there will be a lot of changes to come. One thing for sure is that, I won't be able to attend my club's meeting as often, or better worded, ever, since it's on a weekday. But I sure hope to stay on and help out at projects during the weekends.

So... It's time for the decision to be made..

Saying Goodbye

I have a colleague whose doggie is sick and can't walk anymore as there was a back injury. She shared with us that her doggie seemed so sad as he can't walk and he can't pee properly anymore, causing him to have urine burns.

It was hard hearted for her to say, but the family had decided to put him to sleep and release him from the current pain he is going through. I have a dog myself whom I love and cherish a lot, I know how hard is it for an owner to make this decision.

And I read this from some where, thinking of sharing this as it is so touching.

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor; those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent; His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together....

Informing The Parents

I was proposed to by my boy friend when I was visiting him early August, where he proposed to me at a casual lunch out with friends. I was a great surprised, and was touched as he did so much preparation for my birthday video and organizing everything to ensure it was a huge surprise.

So after the proposal, when I got home, (finally had wifi) my phone was blasting with congratulatory notes from friends and family. My mum had the most epic message for me, "Why didn't you inform me of thing?" I was like, I was surprised myself? My sister on the other hand, was thrilled, as this is her bright and honorary moment to become the bride's maid. I know my parents were just concern as they don't really know my fiance that well. But, I really do not know how to answer that very simple question.

The moment of truth, heading back home to face my parents. Well, to be frank, it was not that bad, especially my dad. He said he will not object, just that he would like to know more about things, things about Ice and his family, his career, his future plans, more like getting to know him. As for my mum, she is still mad about her not being the first on earth to know. (Gosh..!) But she is still all good with it. ^^

So, let's see how the planning of the wedding will go then. Looking through processes and documentations for ROM (not a simple task) and making sure the facts we gathered are accurate.

Still a long way to go, but I am glad I have you with me all the way. ^^

The Proposal

It was a trip to Kaohsiung over Hari Raya, where we will have a long weekend of 4 days. 

At my arrival, after going through immigration and luggage pick up, Ice is still no where to be found. He was late from work. So I waited at the waiting area.

Suddenly, someone tapped on my shoulder.. Ice.. carrying a huge bag with a plastic bag sticking out. So the normal reaction would be, what do you have there? Then he started complaining why did I spoil the surprise? Err.. It's obvious..!!

He got me flowers, very sweet of him. ^^

And that's why he was late.

On Saturday, Ice informed me that we will be having lunch with some friends. I was like ok. Then all of a sudden, Ice said he want to bring out his PC to play a video, it was a video he compiled for my birthday with all the wishes he collected from friends. ^^

Then he continued the video with some pictures of both of us. After the video is completed, his friend started to record, asking him to share his feelings. Ice shared that he is happy and thankful that I am with him in a long distance relationship. He kneel down, with a box in his hand, and a bouquet of flowers came from behind. He proposed to me. I did not expected this, I was stunned. I said yes, of course. ^^

So, besides the proposal, we celebrated my birthday as well. For the first time, I have candles which states your age clearly.

Thank you darling for everything, for arranging everything and planning everything.

We went to the bookstore on the day before I depart back to Malaysia, and we saw this comic which is s cute and adorable. It's a comic about this guy going through planning the proposal, preparation for the wedding, and also things to take care for during the wedding ceremony. And of course, the honeymoon. It is an enjoyable comic and informative too. 

Love you darling. Will always love you.

Slide Share

Today my colleague introduce to me to Slide Share and I loved it, it was love at first sight.

I shared one slide which I personally find it interesting.

 

Well, This IS Interesting: Content & the Science of Interest from Melissa Rach

Don't be rich, Live rich - One year on the road - The good and the bad from nomadznu

Alien Hive

Whee... Recently I had been quite occupied with this game called Alien Hive. It's an addictive and brain draining game. One wrong move, and your whole strategy will go kaputt..

What is even more exciting is that, this is a game developed locally, Appxplore Sdn Bhd, impressive. Love the graphics, great background music.

One of my highest score, three aliens formed in a game. Working hard to get more. ^^

An Improvement in Our Future Relationship

Had this mind tickling talk about relationships with a friend of mine over dinner, mostly on how a female tends to revolve their world around their boyfriends.

Some scenarios as the girl played out:

1. Dinner. It's a regular weekday, and a girl friend calls you out for dinner. And, I as the girl, who had nothing much to do after work today would probably say yes. Then, when I am about to finish work and preparing myself for the dinner, my boyfriend texted me, asking whether would I like to have dinner with him.

So, what am I suppose to do?

Option A:

Being a loving girl friend, I would surely tell my boyfriend ya, we can have dinner tonight. And then I would call my friend saying that my boyfriend asked me out for dinner and it's been a week since I last saw him, so maybe we can have dinner some other time?

Option B:

I would ask my boyfriend what time would he be free for dinner. And if the time is late and I would be able to attend both dinner, I would have two dinners for the night. However, for this, during the dinner with my girl friend, I would be rushing and all, not wanting to be late.

Option C:

I would call off my boyfriend, telling him that I have a dinner date with my girlfriend.


It's pretty obvious that most of us have a higher tendency of picking Option A and B, Option C would be at the back of our heads.

However, if we swap the scenario, ie. your boyfriend is going to have dinner with his friends, and you called him up for dinner, what kind of response will you get? Most probably is that he would tell you up front that he is going out with the guys and it will be late. The second possibility would be he would tell you that he is going out with the guys, and I could join them if I want to. And the least possible one, he would call off the dinner with his friend and join you for dinner.

What do we see from this? The priority is a total inverse of one another. Girls do tend to give their boyfriends full priority.


2. Gym. Assuming that I am a gym kind of person, I like going to the gym on, and especially love going to the gym on Saturday morning. However, my boyfriend likes hanging out on Friday nights, having dinners with friends, catching up and chilling at a bar till late. He said you to join him on Friday nights, as that's what he loves doing. He would say that I can go for gym on the weekdays or some other days.

So?

Option A:

I will go out with him, hang out with him till late, enjoy the night and have fun, his way. I mean, in a way, I get to be with him. In the next morning, I won't be able to get up early for my favorite pass time, gym, ie. giving up things that I like doing.

Option B:

I will hang out with him and still wake up in the morning with the hang over and all to make my way to the gym.

Option C:

I will tell him no, as I feel like going to the gym on Saturday morning and I don't want to miss it.

Ok, this one is pretty obvious, written in priority order, the last one being most unlikely. However, let's say we turn the coin around, I'm the one who like Friday nights, and he is the one who likes Saturday mornings. I am pretty sure the priority order will be the other way round.

We did talked about many more other scenarios, like the one where he did not reply to your texts and you got all thinking what is he doing, why is he not replying to my texts, is he angry with me. But the other way round, guys don't think that way.

We look back to the time when this relationship had not even exist, as a girl, you would have a life that you enjoyed, hanging out with your girl friends, going shopping, karaoke, movies. But once you are in a relationship, do you notice that you don't really do all these as often anymore, some even non. Why? Our mentality will revolve around the guy, when friends ask you out, you will start making excuses to refuse them just because you want to make time for your boyfriend, or in case he has time for you. One of the most absurd reason, I am scare my boyfriend will be angry of me, or he won't be happy if I were to go out so often.

For a guy, once they got in a relationship, life just goes on like business as usual. He will still go out watching football with his pals, hanging out, chilling with friends and all. And their best move, the moment that they actually starts spending time with you, they make it sound like they made so much sacrifices and all just to be with you, but in actual fact he was just so happen free and his friends were occupied, or there's this movie his buddies had watched.

I might be wrong in the statements made above, or you may even say I am bias, well, I'm sorry, I'm a girl. But most of them are true, for me. There is this imbalance in priority in our relationships, and my personal opinion is that this may cause the failure of a relationship.

Imagine this, before the relationship, you as a girl, had a life, you are cheerful, had friends around, you did crazy things and all. You had a life and you are an interesting and fun person to be with. But once you walked into a relationship, things changed, you don't hang out with friends that often, you don't do as much things as you usually do. You only have your close friends, your family, your work and your boyfriend. This is when things will start to get crucial. You are not the same person as you were before the relationship anymore, the person the guy fell for. And right now, I won't blame him.

So, as stated in FRM Part I: Foundation of Risk Management, the problem had been identified and assessed. The next step would be to treat the risk, which would be another dinner on another night. But for a guide, we have to make moderate decisions, indifferent from how we treat our close friends, well, maybe a little different, but just not too much.

We must be able to be ourselves, live our lives, just the way we did before we jumped into this relationship, future relationship.

The Year 2013

Finally I have the time to write, slightly have the time I would say.

The year 2013, an exciting year for me. As after 2013 end, there might just be a huge change awaiting me in 2014.

Back to 2013, a year fully planned. Some things I would like to achieve this year, and praying hard for all the blessings to make it work out.

1. Complete my FRM Part I and II
2. Apply for Korea University PhD and hopefully gets it
3. Travel to Japan, Bali, Taiwan
4. Give more to Rotaract, to the community
5. Continue on running, hopefully attend an international run
6. Perform in my work
7. Change in environment, lifestyle towards the end of the year

And to start 2014, hopefully I could spend one month traveling around New Zealand, before heading to Korea. (*fingers crossed*)

So, it's nothing too fancy, just some things I would really like to achieve in my life, and this seems to be the stage to make them happen. ^^

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"