Hi Tze if you are reading this, thanks for letting me know that someone actually appreciates my blogposts. Well, if you still stuck around from my blogspot/blogdrive/xanga days, all the way to this very blogpost, thank you for watching me grow all these years and reading about my life in my point of view. Although, I admit, I have been documenting down way way lesser here for the sake of my privacy and for the fear of being judged.
It's the month of December again. The year is ending yet again.
Instead of pulling myself down and drowning myself in self pity, let me tell you about what are the things I have achieved in 2016.
I ran my first half marathon in my life.
Impromptu-ly decided to sign up for a half marathon. At first I signed up for it alone, then my colleague, Diana decided to join me. I took about 3.5 hours, so much more to improve and I hope to participate in another half marathon next year. By the end of next year, I wish I am able to complete a full marathon.
I went to Korea in September with a bunch of my colleagues. Well it is my first visit to Korea and definitely there will be a next time. Of course, there were many eye candy, cosmetics and clothes shopping, beautiful scenery, good food, but what captivated me is the people.
Wish to pen it down here so I won't forget but we met a really nice guy on the subway in Seoul.
It was getting late and we were lost on one of the 6 subway lines. We didn't know how to get back to our hotel at all. So what my friend did was to ask some random dude who was dressed to the nines in his coat and tie on the directions on how to get back to our hotel. He did not speak a word of English at all.
So we were like duck and chicken, us communicating with English and him in Korean. He took out his phone to allow us to type in where our hotel was and called the hotel to talk to the receptionist. Then he led us up the subway station and flagged two cabs for the 5 of us. We then realized its probably because he knew that the subway was about to close and the best possible way to get us back safely is through cab.
He told the cab driver that he would foot the bill for both cabs and followed us all the way to our hotel although it was not on the way for him to go home. Mind you, it was a weekday and it was quite late already, around 11pm. We insisted on paying the cab fare but he didn't allow us to pay him any sort of money at all. This guy even gave us some chestnuts and mandarin tangerines and told us to enjoy beautiful Korea.
Unfortunately, I can't help but to think if the same situation were to happen to any tourists who happen to come to Malaysia, the situation will be completely different.
Our shopping modus operandi in Korea, to maximize our opportunity of getting the best deals, we will combine our purchases and someone will pay for it first. At the end of the day, we will sit down in our hotel rooms and settle the bills one by one. On one of those nights, we realized we wasn't able to settle one of those bills because the sales girl at an innisfree store overcharged us.
I was freaking out because it was about RM50 extra?
The next day we went back to the store with all our stuff and the receipt and the store got it sorted out without much hesitation. We were all so thankful and impressed!
Even when my colleague left her phone in a public toilet at the subway station and realized it about a station later, when we went back to the subway station, the phone was still there in the toilet.
I went to Singapore to visit my 2nd sister. As usual, I took First Coach to Singapore. My journey there was alright and I had a great time exploring new parts of Singapore and new cafes.
When the trip came to an end, I boarded the bus as usual. My routine would be grabbing some popcorn chicken at the KFC in Novena then board the bus. Bunny passed me a very important present to be passed to my mom.
When we reached the Singaporean customs it was packed! All the times I have sat bus to Singapore, although there may be a queue, we got pass the queue pretty much quickly, except this very day.
When I came down from the bus, all the Singaporeans on our bus definitely went to the Singaporean lane and I had to queue at the foreigners lane. I thought it would be safer to follow this guy who was also on the same bus to queue together. To our horror, we were sandwiched in between Chinese tourists, front and back, and they were really very uncivilized. Cutting queue as they like, talking to each other by shouting to each other at the top of their lungs.
I was getting very annoyed and impatient so I told those Chinese tourist off and called the customs officer over. He said there was nothing much they could do because the tourists were stubborn as fuck.
He screamed at them in Mandarin," Do you all know how to queue up? Do you all know how to behave? I know you understand what I'm saying. By acting this way, do you feel like you are a disgrace?"
But to no avail.
The nice guy from my bus who was queuing with me let me go in front of him so that he can block other Chinese tourists from cutting queue. We were in the queue for about 1.5 hours when he turned to me and said, "What if we miss the bus?"
"Won't lah, my cousin was stuck here for 2 hours before and the bus waited for her."
So when we finally reached the front of the Customs counter after two hours of queuing, the guy from my bus told me to go ahead first. When I got passed the Customs, I walked out and true enough, there were green First Coach buses, but not the same bus that picked us up wtf. All my belongings, except my handbag, were in the bus, including the paper bag containing the expensive present that was in the paper bag hanging in the bus.
I stood there in the middle of the walkway, stunned. Then the other guy who was from the same bus as I am came beside me and said, "We missed the bus, didn't we?"
Note that the bus has a responsibility towards the passengers that they are ferrying at the customs terminal. On a common practice, they have to ensure that every single passenger they picked up from the start of the journey is on the bus before they depart to where ever they are heading.
I was dumbfounded, but thankfully the other guy on the bus, lets give him a name, "Lost Bus Dude" (I saved his name as that on my phone LOL), he was more calm than I was. We walked towards the other First Coach buses around. 1 just drove off like that, but the other driver was kind enough to make effort to try and contact the driver on the other bus that we were originally on and told him to keep our baggage safe.
The bus driver told us that he was going to Bangsar, but he only had one more seat on his bus. The Lost Bus Dude was a gentleman. He told he to take that sit while he sat on the staircase where you board the bus for the whole journey back to KL wtf. In my defense, I actually told him that we could take turns but he insisted that I sat comfortably at the seat. I could only lend him my power bank for him to charge his phone wtf.
I probably just slept my whole journey home because I was damn tired! And I didn't even read my messages or picked up any calls because I was that dead.
When we reached Bangsar, the Lost Bus Dude woke me up and told me to get down from the bus because the bus wasn't going to drop us at the depot. He was like, " I saw you asleep so soundly so I didn't wake you up. Didn't you read your messages?"
Clearly no bro. So I had to call my parents and told them about the change in plans from the originally planned arrival at the bus depot. They gave me shit for not informing them earlier. To make matters worst, my sister whatsapped me to check on where am I and she wasn't really concerned that I arrived safely in KL, she was more concerned about the gift wtf.
So it was 12am and dark at the Bangsar LRT station area. I got to know the Lost Bus Dude better. He was a Malaysian who was looking for a place to stay in Singapore. He told me not to worry so much about the gift and comforted me that my family was probably just worried about me and did not mean what they said.
When his mom reached to pick him up, he actually waited for my parents to reach the LRT station first before leaving.
I was supposed to collect my luggage in the morning but I was so tired I couldn't wake up.
When I woke up, there was a text on my phone. It was the Lost Bus Dude saying that he have already collected his luggage and he saw my luggage and that the gift paperbag was still there. When I went to collect my things, I realized that there was a note in my bag.
We got to know why the bus left us. I hope the woman on the bus gets her karma.
It's good to know that there are still nice people around in this world. :')
Won't take the bus to Singapore in a while now LOL.
All First Coach did was just apologize and nonchalantly told me that I should have queued at the most right lane at the Customs because it is faster. Bitch please, if you have seen the situation of swarming China tourists that day, any lane was equally slow. There was no reimbursement or an apology that they should have waited for us at the Customs.
Was telling my father about the Lost Bus Dude and his Singapore room seeking quest and he went like, "Didn't you say Wun (my sister) is looking for a tenant for her empty room in Singapore?"
So I gave the Lost Bus Dude her number. Not sure whether he did rent the room or not.
Experiencing both the good and the bad side of travelling, is what makes it memorable. Hoping to cross off more of my places to visit in the near future.
In the current year, also went and got my diving license, something which I have been wanting to do for a while.
I am a certified Open Water Diver!
My first advice to you is pick an instructor that you are very very comfortable with, and also, an overseas dive experience doesn't always mean that it is better.
We went and got our license in Phuket, Thailand and our instructor was a Hagrid look a like with a bad temper. Got scolded and felt nervous during some parts of the dive, that part of it wasn't very enjoyable. At one point I made an emergency ascent because I panicked. Spoke to many other fellow divers about this and they said that, picking a good instructor who makes you feel comfortable at sea, is a very important aspect.
The bad things aside, diving underwater, is really a whole new world. There is so much to see underwater. Colourful fishes, corals, stuff that people throw underwater.
I can't wait to get my advanced license next, definitely want to see more beautiful sea creatures and explore shipwrecks.
I am still working in the same place, and I am entering the 3rd year of working here soon.
My unimates who have became senior along with me. There are just too many blood, sweat and tears to step on this milestone, and even more blood, sweat and tears to be shed to step on to the next milestone!
I feel that I am still getting something out of this job. As in I am still learning something new every day and not doing the same old boring stuff. There is still a lot to improve on my end. I do though, hope to build a team that made working here as enjoyable and as fulfilling as the rest of the teams I have been in. I mean, its better to be able to look forward to going to work despite the long hours, because of a fun team, and yet work is all done. Rather than just a dull day of work work work and work.
From this job, am also glad to have met colleagues that motivate me, and also each other to the finish line, no matter how tough the job is. Am able to survive in my current job because of such colleagues where we complain together, learn together, fall together and party together. Oh ya, this year there is another milestone, not something to be proud of, but I can say I never had so much alcohol and partying like that in my life LOLOL. During my college/uni days, I was the restricted child. Actually am still am now but I guess you could say I found ways to bypass it.
I also picked up going to the gym this year. After so much comtemplation on spending RM140 a month, I finally did it! I started going to the gym in February and have never ever looked back ever since. I have been to yoga, core classes, TRX, Zumba, Combat and Body Pump classes. I also learnt how to use the machines and simple weight exercises through Youtube and tried it out myself in the gym wtf. (Who needs to spend dollar bills on personal trainers LOLOL ok just kidding)
Anyway, my current favourite is Body Combat! A mixed martial art class with a lot of punching and kicking. Kinda makes me wanna go learn kick boxing which I always wanted to as well.
My old and forgetful brain kinda forbids me to write on more reflections but to summarize it, I'll just write a few short paragraphs below. :P
They say learning never stops just at graduation, but learning occurs in the span of your whole life.
It's true. There is a reason for everything that happens in your life. The good things that happen, and the bad things that happen. Sometimes, you have to fall first because that is where you learn and improve on what you did wrong, or you tread carefully the next time you come across a similar situation.
My sister told me that, each and every person is growing, at a different pace. Some people move on faster in life, some people want to take their time, and it is not necessary that everyone is doing life at the same pace that you are at. Like how some people may not understand why you are acting this way today, but in the future, when they go through the same situation, they may then understand later on. Likewise on why you don't get why the others are acting that way.
Because of the above, I also learnt that sometimes, you just couldn't care too much about certain things that are out of your control. I used to care alot. About what people think if I do this. What people think if I say this. What people think if I dress like this. And now here I am being like "no fucks given" or "fucks can be given to things which have more importance" or maybe just "owh well. these sort of things just happens".
Regardless of whatever that has happened during the year, I am thankful for being able to get through another year safely and alive.
I did many new things this year, some of it I might be too forgetful to list it down above, but I truly did enjoy the year.
2016, you have been great.
2017, looking forward to smiling a little wider this year, to crying harder, to newer adventures and experiences out there.
Until the next update.
xx
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