Travelling

I am sure that everyone out there, well maybe not  loves travelling. When you travel, you experience different the culture and lifestyle, food, scenery and all of the people speaking with weird accents. It opens up your mind, your soul, nourishes your life not to mention giving you the moment of a lifetime. Some may say travelling is tiring and a waste of money but what is better than the sense of fulfilment that you will gain and the eye-opening experience that you will never forget?? 

I had always wanted to pack my things and travel around the globe. To see cheery blossoms during spring, feel the saltiness of the vast ocean during summer, witness the barren trees during autumn and go skiing and build snowman's during winter. All of these are what we Malaysians do not have a chance to experience. I would like to mingle among different people, find my way through historical and ancient buildings, try out different kinds of food, hunt for the next destination and stare in awe at breathtaking sceneries. Not to mention shop till I drop. SHHHH!!!

I created a bucket-list of places I would definitely love to leave my footprints on and hopefully those places will gift me with unforgettable memories.

1. KOREA

If you ask me which part of Korea attracts me the most, I will definitely tell you KPOP!! So mainstream, LOL!! Just a typical KPOP fan. So apart from loving their fashion and music!! OMG!!! You should really check out how they dress, fashionable to the max!! I got to know about STELENANDA which is a Korean based brand and it's freaking popular. But the downside is the sizes may run small cos you know, Korean idols and models are stick thin. Somebody feed them please!!! Not to mention their amazing range of cosmetics, from The Face Shop to Nature Republic, Tony Moly, Etude House, Laneige, 3ce.... The list goes on and on..... KPOP is really popular now worlwide so who doesn't wanna stop by, in hope that you will spot your favourite idol oppas and unnis or maybe attending their concerts. LOL. Super junior, Girl's Generation and EXO, I love them to the max. For your info, Super Junior members do own cafes or eateries, SQUEALS in excitement!! Yeah, and from blogs I saw there are many shopping places too, you got it right, shopping heaven!! Be ready to shop with your might! And there are some places such as Namsam Tower, Trick Eye Musuem which caught my attention. 

Kona Beans Cafe - Super Junior

This place may only be of interest to fans of Super Junior. It is a coffee shop managed by the mothers of three Super Junior members: Leeteuk, Sungmin and Kyuhyun. Being close to the SM Building, the sons sometimes drop by and help helm the cash register. Other members and other SM Entertainment's artists are also known to come and visit the mothers. The cafe is decorated with Super Junior decorations and always has fans of Super Junior enjoying their coffees and snacks. Come and make new friends and if you are lucky you may get a Super Junior member taking your orders ;)

Lotte World

Lotte World is a family theme park located inside of Seoul in the district of Songpa-gu. This is the theme park that was featured extensively in the Korean drama "Stairway to Heaven". Fans of variety show "Running Man" may also recognize the park as the filming location of episode 9. Considered as world's largest indoor theme park, visitors to the park can enjoy themselves without worrying of bad weather affecting their visit. In addition to rides, the park also have frequent parades and festivals with actors wearing colourful costumes and clothes greeting visitors in the park.

Cheongdamdong Fashion Street

Cheongdamdong Fashion Street is a very high scale shopping district. Luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Gucci, Giorgio Armani and many others all have their flagship stores in this district. There is also the Galleria Department Store that is directly connected with the Apgujeongrodeo Station. This street is dubbed the luxury mecca of Seoul. And for K-Pop fans, it might interest you to know that SM Entertainment building (OMG!!! ALL OF MY FAVOURITE ARTISTS ARE FROM SM) is also on the same street, and you might stumble into your favourite artists here. 

So here are some places of interest that I happen to stubble upon credits of http://www.muslimbackpackerseoul.com. Do check them out, they have great tips on places to go in Seoul!!! They also do provide travel services!! 

For me I would like to try on hanbok, experience their culture, shop at Myeongdong, Hongdae those places, try their food and hopefully meet my idols. Don't judge!!!  Hope that my ultimate wish will come true. Money come to mama please!!! Hopefully I will make it there one day either during winter or spring, cherry blossoms please!!

Ok so stay tuned to the second place on my list. Till then

ZARA Skorts

So here is a post about fashion. Well not exactly but sort off. This was my first online shopping experience.Yeah, don't judge! I frequently go online to have a look at what online boutiques to see what they offer. I was so thrilled to find out that lots of those blogshops sell exquisite and special pieces that I cannot wait to own. The prices are very reasonable and affordable too if compared to the current market.

So here is what I got from a shop called Phat Culture. http://phatculture.com They are a Malaysian based online boutique. The reason why I chose this shop was because all of their stuffs are ready stock unless it runs out of stock. They also provide free shipping by Poslaju nationwide. I wanted to try them out so I purchased this black skort, which is Zara inspired. I stumbled upon this skort in many online shops and fashion pages or blogs. It is one of the trendiest must-have item in your wardrobe as it is versatile and give off a chic and edgy look. Hence, here I am getting my hands on one of the hottest item of the year. LOL.

How to style skorts (Pictures from PhatCulture's web)

How to style skorts????

1. Pair with a denim jacket or vest. Denim and skorts is a great combination. Gives off a feminine yet chic look. Casual but stylish at the same time.

2. Plaids are back in trend. Just put on a plaid top and tuck them in. Works well with loose boyfriend top too!

3. YES!! Tanks tops!!! Just put on a simple tank top if it's a hot and lazy day. Striking combination.

4. Don't doubt!! They work perfectly for office look too. Put on a nice blouse and throw a blazer over it. The skorts blend in perfectly with smart looks!! 

5. T-shrits or sweater goes equally well with skorts too for a casual look. The best part about it might be that it's interesting enough that you can toss a plain white t-shirt on top and still feel done. A lazy day saviour.

 

6. If you want to show off your midriff or toned abs, you may try on a crop top. 

MY OOTD

I decided to pair up my skorts with an Adidas tee for a running errands kind of afternoon. Just nice for the scorching hot weather recently. OMG can't stand!! Sorry for the low quality of camera. I snapped it using my hp and the photographer was unskilled. LOL Next time, I will use dslr and find a better photographer.

So cheers to my first post about fashion. 

Food post

Holla!! Recently, I have been cafe hopping and food hunting so here's a food post. These are basically what I had covered in a short time span. OMG! Feeling fat. Negative thoughts shoo!! *Sob. I wanted to share a few places that serves amazing food. Join me on my food adventure!! Food is a temptation no one can resist. 

1. ANSON

Mixed grill. Consists of beef, chicken and mutton. RM12.90. 

Personally felt that the black pepper sauce is not spicy enough.

Hawaian pizza RM15.90. 

Tastes quite like pizza hut's pizza. LOL

 Chicken Mushroom Mozarella , RM8.80 

Love the cheese on top which complements the chicken.

Review: Reasonable price and good food. Always crowded with people and quite hard to find a seat especially during weekends. 

2. Tom's Too

Club Panini, RM16.90. 

Ham, cheese and chicken inside. Looks like waffle but do not taste like it, more like sandwich. Nice dish for afternoon tea.

Chocolate milkshake and strawberry milkshake. RM8.90 EACH. 

I totally love the drink. The mixture is not too thick. Just right.

Review: Interior is nicely decorated, cozy amibience. Nice place for high tea. Various cakes are available too. Food are on the pricey side. Oh yeah and the APPLE CRUMBLE is nice!!

3. Blackball

Waffles, RM3.90 and Passion Fruit Green Tea, RM6.50. There's this jelly bits and pearl inside the drink. This drink is way up my favourite list. Very refreshing on a hot sunny day.

You can also opt for waffles with 2 scoops of ice-cream. This costs RM5++. The waffles come in 3 flavours: original, banana and cranberry. For me, I prefer banana flavour the most. Waffles are recommended.

Blackball signature, RM7.90. I still remembered the first time I tried desserts like this in Taiwan(赖啊婆芋圆 )it was love at first taste.  But sadly I couldn't find anything like this in Sibu until Easy Drink, Blackball and ZenQ opened. OMG!! Like finally I could have them anytime. <3 

Review: Their waffles are very good, desserts not bad but their pearl milk tea taste a bit bland. But I love their passion fruit green tea.  I used to always come for the blackball signature but recently it's the waffles that is more attractive to me. :)

4. Noodle House

Matcha float, RM5.90. This is so satisfying!!! Although no where near Starbuck's green tea latte. 

The taste of green tea is strong enough.

Chocolate Crepe, RM8.90. I strongly recommend their crepe. They have vanilla, matcha, tiramisu etc. flavours and all of them are worth a try!!

Chocolate and Banana toast, RM4.90.  Nothing special actually Haha the bread is a bit dry. Do not worry, edible though.

I forgot the name of this!! ARGH but it's chicken with egg with noodles. Another great dish. Came out sizzling hot and has a dazzling taste. Forgot the price! Sorry!! Around 10++

Milo Dinosaur, RM4.90. I don't know why I am obsessed with Milo Dinosaur recently so I tend to order milo dino everywhere I go. Nevertheless, just tasted normal LOL.

Review: This is probably one of my favourite food hunting place. HAHA. This is due to the wide variety of their menu and there's lots of things to choose from. Always made me spoilt for choice. Most of the food I tried before taste good. Can go and have a try!!!

The Fault In Our Stars

I am sure that a lot of people out there had read this book. 

The Fault In Our Stars is the first John Green book I had read because of everyone's recommendation and of course its explosive popularity.

A very touching love story.

Very different from the usual sweet, romantic and life is a bed of roses love story.

It is quite tragic and traumatic in a way to me.

Hazel and Gus met each other, fell in love but can only love within the numbered days.

"There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set. I want more numbers than I'm likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got. But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful." -Hazel Grace

One of my favourite quotes from the book.

SPOILER ALERT!!!

They met each other at a support group for cancer kids. It was love at first sight. Maybe? LOL. Hazel was a bit reluctant to let Augustus love her as she thought that she was a grenade, a side effect of the universe. But there's a twist of story at the end, Gus was the ill one. An honourable mention would be the book AN IMPERIAL AFFLICTION, which both of them read and later thought that it was a masterpiece. They used Gus' one and only cancer wish to meet the author of AIA, Peter Van Hountan at Amsterdam. Both Hazel and Gus wanted to know about the ending of AIA from Peter himself. Things did not went that smoothly as Peter Van Hountan hurt them with malicious comments and they failed to get to know the ending. Hazel and Gus decided to cherish their moment at Amsterdam and made the wish well spent. It was at Amsterdam Hazel got to know off Gus' terminal illness. Not long after battling with cancer, Gus lost. He was gone forever. It was sweet that in the end he asked Peter Van Hountan to write an eulogy for Hazel. Loved till the last moment.

Some parts of the story was very unexpected especially towards the end. Never did I expect that AIA was Peter Van Hountan's personal story, that Anna was her daughter.

OMG!!! So much feels!!!

“I’ll fight it. I’ll fight it for you. Don’t you worry about me, Hazel Grace. I’m okay. I’ll find a way to hang around and annoy you for a long time.”- Gus 

*Cries!!!

Full of sad and touching scene. How can people who are going to die love like that??

The movie is going to come out soon. As in June. And it will probably take ages to hit theatres in Malaysia. 

Read till the end!!! The ending came in like a wrecking ball!!!

My next book review will be about LOOKING FOR ALASKA also by John Green. Ok, I'm so hooked to his books right now! Till then.

My Basketball Life

"WHAT???!!! YOU PLAY BALL??"

This was the reaction I got from most people when I told them that I am a basketball player. Was it that unbelievable?? 

A lot of people do wonder how a person like me ended up being an athlete or a basketball player as I do not look the tiny winy bit athletic. Sometimes, even I always doubt myself. So here is how basketball became one of the most important activity throughout my five years of high school.

So, why basketball when there is netball, a sport more suitable for girls??? 

Way back in 2008, that was when I was a primary six student, I randomly took part in an inter-school basketball competition. After that I just lost contact with the basketball world. My secondary school basketball coach, Mr Toh, who is the greatest coach ever, recruited me into his team when I entered form 1 based on my that 1 time experience. OMG!! Nobody would believe this!! But unfortunately, this is TRUE!! At first I was quite reluctant to be involved in a sport because it requires high dedication and commitment but later on my mum managed to talk me into giving basketball a try. My awesome journey took off to a great start there. I attended training sessions to prepare for the inter-school competition that was to be held during March. I was surprised to be chosen for the final team to represent my school as there were many other strong and experienced players. YEAH, I was eligible for competition!!!! Although as a newbie I wasn't able to play much, our school emerged champion. 

I only took part in 2 competitions for my first year(2009).

In 2010, I was  involved in 3 competitions namely the under18, under16 and under15 inter-school. 

                            

Things kept getting better for me and my team. We started our school's domination in the basketball world this very year. Champion was  ours!! Our glory and honour did not come that easily, we put in lots of effort and hard work like training during school holidays to achieve this. Everyone of the team did not slack even for a little bit. Of course we also had our weekly trainings.

The third year of my basketball career (2011) was a turning point for me. I was the main player for both the under 15 and under 16 team. I had more chance to showcase my talent and abilities. I made good use of both of these competitions not only to prove myself but also to help the school capture the championship title. In the end, we emerged as champions in both competitions.

If 2011 was an amazing year, then 2012 would be spectacular and breath-taking. LOL sorry for exaggerating. 2012 was the most fruitful year as a basketball player for me. I took part in 6 competitions alone in a single year and even represented Sibu. So the first time I got chosen was during the Under 16 competition held in Sungai Antu. The inter-division competition was held in Miri. Prior to the tournament, we had an intensive training for about 2 weeks. First times were always nerve-wrecking! We travelled there by bus and stayed at Park Hotel. Teams like Kuching, Miri and Sarikei were our competitors. That was definitely a great first time as we beat out other strong contenders to become the CHAMPION!!!!

 under 16 interschool

 Celebrating coach's birthday

 Basketball buddy

 Another buddy I got associated with through basketball

Sibu team emerged champion in under 16

Hotel Lobby

This was the second time in the same year going to Miri, this time around it was for the inter-divisional under 18 tournament. This was also unforgettable as I got to know friends from different places that shared the same interest and passion. Even though we could only manage 2nd position, but it was indeed a great exposure and experience.This was already my 4th tournament of the year. It was quite tough to train for inter-divisional competitions as we had to train during exam periods and travel to the destination right after exam to compete during school holidays. Hectic yeah?  I was thankful to be able to go through it of course with some difficulties, but survived it. Get what I mean?? If you see me during those period, I will be like studying my notes, tying my shoelaces, then zooming off to training and packing my luggage for the trip all at the same time. CRAZY I know!! 

These pictures are the Women's Open I took part. The interdivisional one was held in Bintulu. Our teams mostly consisted of teenagers and we had to compete against adults from other divisions. Our result was first runner up. That marks the end of my second last year of high school basketball career. This was a year that was hard to handle for me, having to juggle between the suddenly-become-tough form 4 syllables and this tiring sport but praise the Lord I was able to make it through and live the best of both worlds. 

2013- The year that my career was coming to an end. It was a bit hard to let go of this churning feeling inside of me and it made me nostalgic about many things. I always had this feeling that all wonderful things are going to come to an end so it made me cherish and treasure my last moments even more. To try and fight harder so that I can leave this game with no regrets.

 Sign of victory at Kota Samarahan.

By this year, our school(SMK Methodist) has been raiding championships for a few consecutive years. This made me proud to be a part of Methodist's basketball team. People would just assume you are a great player and a force to be reckoned with when they heard that you are a Methodist basketballer , even though you're not. LOL. At good times like these, basketball also forced me to make the most difficult decision of my life. The big news hit me and I was not able to handle all of that for quite a while. I had to choose to stay back in school to sit for my first term exam or represent Sibu to the interdivision competition in Kota Samarahan. I was torn between which one to choose as both are my priorities. So to go or not go?? Luckily, my coach talked to the principal and worked out a way for me to compete and take the test. The Lord always give me guidance and assurance during my most difficult times. As a result, I did join the tournament and Sibu team emerged champion.

             

The best thing about basketball is the people you meet. <3

The divisional level Women's Open competition in June was my last competition of they year, and also the last for my whole career. Although we only got third, but it was nevertheless a great experience. Oh, and I would also want to mention that this tournament was the first one I had trained and was leaded under a different coach. I learned to accustom to a different strategy of a different coach.

As a conclusion, my basketball years may seem short yet long, depends on how one view it. To me, every moment was very precious and I will always keep them at the bottom of my heart. Typing all these things made me so nostalgic. 

Basketball may just seem like a sport to everyone, but to me it is not. Basketball is all about teamwork. Our teamwork was that good until we communicate through eye contact on court. No words needed. We always manage to work hand in hand by not being selfish to become the top-scorer, but to score to ensure a win for the team. Basketball is about a big family, a family of twelve. We shed sweat and tears together. Regardless of our having lots of differences, we come together as one through basketball. I still remembered how my teammates surprised me with a cake on my birthday once. Basketball is about fighting hard every second. On court, we only have 40 minutes to seal the deal. Every ticking second is priceless. We fought with all our might and that was the time to give all of what you have. Basketball is about joy. Doing what we like together and winning every possible tournament makes us all happy. The best of all is you have lots of people to share your joy with. When feeling down, teammates will help you out of your misery by cracking a few lame jokes. Basketball is about compromising. Learning how to forgive others' mistakes and use them to improve oneself is never easy, but this was what basketball taught me. Compromise with your teammates as everyone makes mistakes, when they miss a shot, go grab a rebound. Basketball is about perseverance. Even on the verge of losing, do not lose hope or sight. We still fight like a fighter filled with spirit and determination ! This is the spirit that every basketballer have. Before the game is over, quit talking about losing.

Therefore, basketball is a great sport. It shapes you into a great person. Of course one of the main advantage is you can keep fit and stay healthy. Trust me, your stamina and sporting ability will no doubt increase by leaps and bounds too. A lot of students nowadays cited lack of time as an excuse to be exempted from sports. Of course it will be tough to juggle academic and sports, but see I had survived the whole ordeal. *Feeling proud!!! It ain't that torturing. After all you only go through high school once and making some wonderful memories in a short span of five years is definitely worth the trouble. Get yourself engaged in sports and never stay in your shell. 

XOXO