Books~

After about one and a half month reading Harry Potter over and over again, I finally put it down. I am guessing my dvd player has spoilt because I watched Harry POtter too many times. hahaha...

Went to Kinokuniya and got myself a couple of new books to stop myself from reading Harry Potter again. Well, I will STILL re-read Harry Potter again for sure, but now I should read some other stuffs.

There are soooo many books about the state of our planet, conservation, how to do our own bits to save the planet, lots and lots of them. Not that I don't care about that I just don't think it'll be interesting reading.

In the end, I chose "A Wild Life", it's about an "accidental conservationist" in Africa. It is very interesting, I am now into the first couple of chapters. And I love it. I imagined how the view and animals would be like from the description of the author. And I hope I could just fly to Africa now.

The second book, "The Shackled Continent", it's about Africa too. Talks about why is Africa so poor, and how a few countries, for eg, Botswana has advanced and not in the typical poverty state like the rest.
Then today my brother and I went to Harris in JB. And we bought "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea" and "The Swiss Family Robinson". My bro has read these before. I know these are famous classics but I haven't read them, believe it or not. So I thought I should read it.
There are different publishers for these classics, some are very cheap. I wanted these two cos their covers look very pretty. hahaha... I am a big sucker for nice packaging...
It feels so good to buy and read book. I prefer buying books than borrowing books from the library. Cos I like feeling of owning the books.

By the way, anybody has any idea about getting rid of some unwanted books? They are new ones. Some are fictions, etc that I think not worth to keep the book. Yet I can't possibly throw these readable, new books into the dustbin, such a waste! I hope I can pass to people who wants it and after they read it they can either give it to other people or keep it. My bro said just drop them in the library's "book drop". But I feel like it's not right...

Recently I read about Book Cross in the paper. Maybe I can donate the books to them.

Negaraku=Mamula Moon!!!

OH.MY.GOD. What a shock!!!!! Our national anthem was from a Hawaiian song!!!!!!!!

Check this out : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negaraku
Read it. You really should. But bear in mind that Wiki's article might not be 100% correct.

In short, what happened in the history is this (I extract from Wiki) : At the time of independance, the officials wanted a national anthem. They held a competition for it, there were over 500 entries, all of which were rejected. Then they invited famous international composers to compose the songs. All were turned down too. In the end, they chose the state anthem of Perak.

But the thing is, how this state anthem of Perak came about. The then Sultan of Perak was living in exile in Seychelles. There he heard this song "Mamula Moon" that was very popular at the time. Then, when a member of Perak royal family was invited to a reception and was asked what the state anthem was. There wasn't really a state anthem then, but to avoid embarrassment, he then hummed the Mamula Moon. So it became the state anthem of Perak...

SO! That means our national anthem is a Hawaiian song!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who could have imagined that???!!!

Oh by the way, listen to the Mamula Moon here .

From Wiki : "In 2005, an antique disc collector found an old song (whose music is identical to the Negaraku) from his collection.[2] It later become a news headline for local newspaper. The song was a Hawaiian Song call 'Mamula Moon' believed the record dated back to the 1940s."

I didn't know this news.....
I tried the link from Wiki http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/8/30/nation/11901369&sec=nation But......... "Access Denied".

Another article about this : http://cmorbutt.multiply.com/journal/item/32.

Why couldn't they just pick any of the entries fromt he competition or any of the anthem which those composers had made???? At least it is original... Geez....

Funny kitty

Look at this funny kitty.......

I can see her almost every morning at the same place. Most of the time she will spread her legs and sunbathing like this. She just look sooooooo comfortable in that posture, soooo relaxing. Sometimes she'll lay against the wall like this, sometimes she'll sit on one particular taxi. It's always that taxi. One day I saw the taxi driver gave her cat food. So no wonder. I wake up later and later each day to work... so nowadays by the time I was around that place, the taxi driver uncle already out to work. So I couldn't catch her laying on his cab but most of the time is on the floor.

This kitty has a disproportionate head compare to her tummy... Her head is small but her body is fat. It just look so funny lah I tell you.

I wanted to take a closer photo but she was alarmed by me and wanted to move away. I thought that was very bad of me to disturb her so I moved away quickly and she continued to sunbath.

When I came back from work, I can see her sitting in the middle of the road (HDB open carpark). Cats always like that. It's so funny.

Wonderful

Well, I said in previous post that I hope I'd have great dreams. And I did!

Many people appeared in my dream the night before, Andy Lau, Jackie Chan, 曾志伟. AND on the same night, Voldermort and his death eaters!! Ohhohohoho.... so fun~! And yesterday, I dreamt of Snape!!!! ha!!!! but why haven't I dream of Harry Potter or Ron Weasley or Hermione...

If I can transform dreams into real life... wah......

Vladimir Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin made headlines across the globe lately for his bare-chested photos. He was having a vacation in the Siberian mountains with Prince Albert of Monaco. He is 54 years old, a 54 years old with 6packs ab~~ Cool.... and by the way, he is a keen judo practitioner and holds a 6th-dan black belt in the Japanese martial art.


I've always like his strong, manliness look, albeit a bit on the serious side. But hey, he was with the KGB you know.. He was a spy in Germany.. And as the result of watching too many "beautified" spy movies, I'd really like to have such a boyfriend. hahahaha.. just kidding.

But he looks really good, doesn't he?

Oh the mountains are really really pretty~~ We can only imagine such places.. Even if we get to have a holiday there, it's a different thing altogether. Living there, going fishing, walking in the streams... Gosh...
Oh but I had just had a dream in my nap this afternoon ~ The other day I dreamt that my house was built on the sea. And today I dreamt that my house was built against mountains! whoaho~ how cool is that? And those were some magnificent mountains with alpine trees, not very much different from the background in Putin's photos~! hahaha... Ok, now I am going to hit the sack and hopefully I'll have great dreams in great places~!

Remembering Steve Irwin

It's been almost a year. Steve Irwin died on 4/9/06. I miss him.

Extraordinary peaks

I was reading about Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain (5,895 metres) in Africa and I came across this link: Kilimanjaro climb 2004 . It is someone's climb report. It's very interesting. I have a friend, a girl, who climbed Kilimanjaro before. Extraordinary, she's a very tough girl. I've yet to see her photos though.

These photos were from the link above. See this, a toilet above the cloud. An extraordinary sight, I feel.

And having meals above the cloud, with marvellous view. HOw many people in the world can experience this. I am really envious of them. The only possible mountain for me to climb is maybe just Mount Kinabalu.

Some other breathtaking photos :



I searched Wiki for our very own Mount Kinabalu (4,095 metres). It turns out, Mount KK (Kinabalu) is the 3rd tallest in Southeast Asia, not the 1st. Did you know that? I didn't. The first being the Hkakabo Razi (5,881 metres)of Myanmar and second, Puncak Jaya (4,884 metres) of Indonesia.

Strange, these other 2 mountains are hardly known..? I have never heard of them until I read in Wiki. According to Wiki, Hkakabo Razi is rarely climbed. Go read about it in Wiki, it's really interesting. I searched the photos of Hkakabo Razi and saw this link http://www.stephenbrookes.com/features-index/2006/11/20/first-ascent-ozaki-summits-burmas-highest-peak.html. It's about the first person to reach the summit, Takashi Ozaki. The journeys were extremely hard and it's an interesting read.

This is how Hkakabo Razi looks like.

And this is Puncak Jaya.

Yet another family member!

Not long after my post about Welcome A New Family Member, I have added yet another new member to the family~!

She is the mini of Pinkie~! How can I resist?? It was actually something that was sold over Christmas. And there left only 2, half price. It comes with a small pink blanket, very tiny one, not enough to cover my body. They have slightly different material. I prefer Pinkie's one however I still could not resist buying PinkieMini. Cos I can then bring PinkieMini to holiday with me~! The size is just right! But of course I still like my Pooh baby, as well as other members of the family of course~ I bring Pooh baby along in my coming diving trip. Then it'll be PinkieMini's turn next time. Isn't it exciting~? So many family members~ hahahaha~~

Grandfather

Life's so boring. Feel down lately. Don't feel like doing anything at all. Anything, except Harry Potter books and movies. It's nice to immerse in fairy tales, fantasies, but not good to "forget to live".

Since Harry POtter 7's been out on 21st July, I think I've re-read the book 5 times. And while nothing interesting is on tv, I play Harry Potter movie. I must have watched Harry Potter movie 1 and 2 for over 50 times. hahahahaha.............

Dumbledore reminds me of "grandfather", his white hair. I really like to have a grandfather you know. My paternal grandfather died when my dad was still a kid. My maternal grandfather died when I was 5 or so. I remember him vividly. I loved visiting my grandpa when I was little. sigh... I have always longed to have a grandpa, or should I say, long to still have a grandpa.

I saw an old man at my block, he has very white hair and his eyebrows... man I tell you, his eyebrows are exactly like those 武侠电影's "shifu"... very bushy, very long, completely white eyebrows. Really grow and extend out from the face type leh... wah... and he has long beard too. If only I have a grandpa like that.................. sigh... day dreaming again.....

Speaking of dream, I dreamt that my Spore house (er, I don't exactly own any house anywhere) is built on the sea! and its opposite is the Intergrated Resort~! hahahaha... it felt amazing looking out from my door.. man................. if only it's real.....

What a coincidence!

The other day I was having dinner at a food court. There was one family in front of me. I kept looking at them because ehm, I thought, the guy's lips were rather, ehm, unflattering. His sister has the exact same lips. I kept looking and looking.

Then the next day, I watched a programme on Channel U. It was a show telling true story about how people turning a new leaf. And guess what, that man I saw, that man I kept looking at his lips, was the actor in that show! How amazing is that? What are the chances of such thing happening?? I was sure he was the actor cos, I had looked at him for a long time....

Simply amazing. This is just like you are having a holiday across the other half of the globe and running into one of your friends~ It does happen! It's just unbelievable how these things happen..

Magic~

Guess what, I've been immersed myself in Harry Potter books, Harry Potter movies, Harry Potter books, Harry Potter movies recently. Hoping to dream about Harry Potter related things, or have magical dreams.

All I did over the weekends in JB was watching Harry POtter movies again and again, read the books again and again. I brought in one of the books and DVD back to Sg, when there was no interesting programme on tv, I'll just play HP movie. The last Sunday, all SG tv channels were broadcasting Lee Sian Long's the national rally. For so long! So many hours! So I played HP movie instead, when the first movie finished, Lee Sian Long was still talking. So I played another movie, and then I just let it played from the beginning when it fnished until right before I tucked in.

I had watched these movie countless times, so then I read HP 6th book while the tv plays HP movie. I just want everything to be Harry Potter. haha! You will think I am crazy. And... I AM crazy.

And guess what, I had a magical dream on Sunday night! It was Harry Potter related. I knew I could make myself to dream of this~~ I still remember the dream when I was half awoke half asleep in the morning. I was soooo happy. But when I woke up, I can't remember the dream anymore. What a pity....

I am still immersing myself in everything HP. I hope I will have magical dreams again. hahaaaa~~

Ghost month

It's lunar 7th month, the Ghost Month again.

Don't you just love the Ghost Month? It's like Halloween, only that it is one month long instead of one day.

I am quite fond of Ghost Month. I love the smell emits from the burning of incense papers, hell money, as described in Wikipedia. I think it smells really nice. And the smell of it brings back old time memories. Every year I helped my mother arranging all the paper cloths(for the ghost to make clothes), ready made paper clothes, hell money and all sort of other things. We burnt and arranged incense sticks around the house, arranged the paper stuffs on the floor, in front of the house, then burn.

It's been a few years I haven't help me mum. Cos I am now working in Spore and the days that we are supposed to burn the incense papers are always on weekdays...

In this month, almost every where we go we can smell the burning of incense papers. The smell of it only reminds me of two things, Ghost MOnth and CHinese New Year. And forgive me for saying one more time, I love that smell.

I used to be very scared of going back home after dark during this month. That was when I was in sec school. Now Ghost Month to me is just like any other month, only that it, "smells different". One thing I don't like is my mother forbids me to go diving in this month. But lots of my diving kakis are also the same. So it doesn't matter a lot.

This morning the radio was talking about reducing the burning of incense paper for conservation. A suggestion in Taiwan calls people to donate money online instead and send the receipt to monks and let them do the ceremony at one go. A caller said we cannot reduce it. It's our tradition and if we don't burn the hell money, how are the dead going to receive it? And one suggested that we burn cheque instead. We can write many zeros.. as many as we like, hehe.. and we then only need to burn one paper, won't pollute the air. ha! That's a good one :p