Steps To Happiness

Just a quick post before I head to bed!
I was searching through my blog just now for a photo or some details of my Jazz dance certificate but I can't seem to find it... I clearly remember that I took a photo of the cert but I'm not sure if I posted it in a blog post. I just need to know whether I got an Honours or whatever the grade was.
Anyway, so when I was clicking through those old memories, I came by this post that I wrote on the 5th of August 2011.... Can't believe that was more than 3 years ago now.
So I posted this poem of some sort ages ago... and when I read through it again just now, I felt like I probably can relate to it and understand it a lot more than my 17 year old self did.
I think I got this from a book I bought in one of those book fairs held in school. I love that book; it's a very inspirational book and I wish I had it with me now.

After reading it and being filled with emotions, I decided to re-post it just as a reminder (for me and for you).
Actually, I am in the midst of applying for an internship and the process is just so effing long and annoying and it asks you questions about your achievements in life and all your skills and motivations and I always have the urge to give up half-way through the application (because I always feel like I am not good enough for the role or that I actually don't give a fuck about the role I'm applying for) but I think this poem gave me that little bit of inspiration and motivation to continue on.

I hope this short and meaningful poem can help you in some way or another as well.
If it does, you're welcome. :)



Steps To Happiness

Everybody Knows:
You can't be all things to all people.
You can't do all things at once.
You can't do all things equally well.
You can't do all things better then everyone else.
Your humanity is showing just like everyone else's.

So:
You have to find out who you are, and be that.
You have to decide what comes first, and do that.
You have to discover your strengths, and use them.
You have to learn not to compete with others,
Because no one else is in the contest of "being you".

Then:
You will have to learn to accept you own uniqueness.
You will have to learn to set priorities and make decisions.
You will have to learn to live with your limitations.
You will have to learn to give yourself the respect that is due.
And you'll be a most vital mortal.

Dare To Believe:
That you are a wonderful, unique person.
That you are a once-in-all-history event.
That it's more than a right, it's your duty, to be who you are.
That life is not a problem, but a gift to cherish.
And you'll be able to stay one up on what used to get you down.

x

Edit @ 2:22am: I managed to find the photo of my cert! kekeke

Sunset in London

Oh my gosh I can't believe I actually forgot to blog about my trip to St. Paul's Cathedral! I was writing about how I went to St. Paul's before I bought my new camera in my last post and then I started wondering whether I uploaded those beautiful photos of the sunset I took from the top of the dome! When I looked through my previous posts then I realised I didn't upload them!
How silly of me.... Okay, so here they are. A whole post dedicated to my trip to St. Paul's Cathedral....

I remember visiting St. Paul's when I came to London when I was 9 years old with my uncle. I remember the Whispering Gallery and counting the number of steps up to the dome.... So when I revisited it on the 29th of December, all the memories of that trip 10 years ago came flashing back to my mind.
I've always wanted to visit St. Paul's again since I came to London for uni. When I passed by it for the first time during the Malaysian Society London tour, I knew I had to come back and actually go into the cathedral (as we only took photos outside). And since I didn't have much to do during my winter break, I decided to go~ It cost £13.50 for an entrance fee (for concession/student ticket) which allows access to the cathedral floor, the dome and the crypt. You also get one of those audio guides! Which I always want when I go to museums/galleries but they always need you to pay an extra fee and I'm always too stingy to spend that money LOL.

Anyway, I really enjoyed my visit there. My initial plan was to go in the morning (9.30am), so that I can take my own sweet time to walk around without needing to worry that the galleries would close. But you know me, I can't possibly wake up that early LOL. I ended up going there around 1.30pm and walked around until they were about to close (around 4.30pm). Without really planning, I managed to go up to the dome right when the sun was setting and I could enjoy the beautiful view of London's skyline with the sun setting on the horizon. But it was slightly too cold to stay up there for long and they don't allow people to stay up there for too long either to prevent overcrowding.

Okay, let's proceed to the photos~

First and foremost, of course, selfies. LOL 

I just really enjoy taking my own sweet time to get ready while simultaneously watching a few Youtube videos and having some food and then followed by a small selfie session before I actually head out. XD

My hair required a lot of dry shampoo that day. kekeke Btw I need to get a new dry shampoo.... I don't like the scent of my current one and the thing with it is that the scent never fades from my hair, it just stays there all day and I keep smelling it and it annoys me so much. 

And I love this dress of mine so much (it's from H&M) but I rarely get the chance to wear it out!

I was also wearing that gradient lip colour again~ I love it but it's not a suitable colour to wear to work so I rarely wear it as well.

Here we are!

I could've gotten a much better shot of the cathedral but I was just lazy to cross the road to get a full shot of it.

This will do. lol

They didn't allow any photography in the cathedral and of course, I respected that, unlike some other disrespectful tourists. But I bought a postcard which is a photo of the interior of the church which is just breathtaking. People put so much effort into making cathedrals look glorious and majestic and it's really worth going to check it out.

I especially loved the black and white checkered floors. And it was obvious how the designs of this cathedral (which is an Anglican church) differs from the Roman Catholic churches like all the ones I saw in Italy. All the mosaic wall-art was so beautiful. 

After walking and lingering around the cathedral floor for a while (there was a lot to absorb in there), I headed to the stairway that led to the Whispering Gallery and then up towards the dome!

The Whispering Gallery isn't fun if you go alone lol. There's no one to listen to you when you whisper into the walls. lol

Anyway, I then got up to see the amazing view of London from above the cathedral!

There was two viewing points, so this was from the first one.

All the little ant-like people down there!

I took so many photos of the view and thus, made it a very difficult process of choosing the best out of the bunch to upload.

ugh so pretty

The bells and clock towers.

This was from the very top (second viewing point) of the dome already! I didn't get the chance to take a lot of photos up there coz they wanted people to keep on moving in order to maintain the flow of the queue. Plus, it was freeeeezing up there. 

This shopping centre/offices is One New Change. I need to go to their roof terrace one day!

Some people love the Shard, some people hate it. What do you think about it?

It doesn't really fit it does it? 

But I still think it looks really nice. 

If I don't remember wrongly, this was the last photo I took before walking down to the first viewing point.

The sun looked extra red and pretty and this was the only photo I took of it before I was being rushed to walked down but this photo doesn't do the view I witness any justice.

So this was back at the first viewing point again~

After I got down from the dome, back to the cathedral floor, I headed to the crypt which had lots of memorials and some more history about the cathedral.

By the time I got out of the cathedral after buying my postcards, it was dark already.

I then took the bus back to my place which was a huge mistake.... should've just taken the tube instead. I had to wait almost half an hour for one stupid bus in the cold!!!

This has no relation to St. Paul's but Veronica gave me this a few weeks ago when I saw her and I was so excited to start eating it!

I should've done a comparison of some sort to show you guys how big this piece of Reese's was. but omg it was huge but I still managed to finish it (not in one go though). I love Reese's but it's soooo unhealthy. It tastes so much sweeter than other chocolates and the peanut butter is plain sinful. 

Anyway, that's all for this post. It's 4am now and once again, I'm not tired at all and don't feel like sleeping. But I have so much to do and prepare for my classes next week so I better get some sleep and get some brain juice back in my brain before I start on all the readings I need to do.

Good night/morning! XD

x

Photos: 2014 Leading Into 2015

Hey guys.

I've been procrastinating again.

The excuse this time around is because I've been watching a really nice k-drama called Discovery Of Romance. I recommend everyone to watch it! In the last episode, there was a line that stated, "Romance is reality, not drama". And I was like, YESSS! This is why I love this series!
It's similar to It's Okay, It's Love, where every thing is more realistic than your typical k-dramas. No revenge, no one back-stabbing anyone, just nothing too over-dramatic. Also, the age range of the characters is similar to It's Okay It's Love where they are all in their 30s and therefore more mature. And I think people who have been in relationships would be able to relate to various situations in the story because it touched on many issues that couples go through in real life, like how it takes a lot of effort and sacrifices to maintain a good relationship together.
I grew to love each and every character in the drama, which is really rare for a k-drama where there's always bound to be a bad guy that everyone hates.
Plus, they wrapped up the story very well in the last episode, which a lot of k-dramas fail to do.

Basically, the story is about one girl needing to choose between two guys. And although you kinda know which guy she would choose in the end, the writers keep making you feel uncertain about it as the story goes along. And you will pity both guys at some point and then you'll pity the girl as well for having to make this decision, because she's a nice person who doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. But she knows where her heart lies in the end, or maybe she knew from the beginning.

Anyways, that's what I've been spending my time doing last week and therefore never got this post up until now. I just came back from my Team Up session and also made a trip to Sainsbury's for my groceries, and I can't have dinner until I finish this post!
I keep feeling like I need to have a wordy post up because, I just have some stuff I want to get out of my brain but that all depends on whether I can take out some time to get it done. For now, here's some photos from Christmas, the last few days of 2014 and some nice photos from the first two week of Jan 2015!

I think I mentioned before that I went over to my aunt's place for Christmas, this is a sneaky little photo I took of her on Christmas morning. keke I was texting Nigel at that time and I wanted to show him a photo of my aunt. 

I worked on the Christmas eve and it was a very hectic day at John Lewis. Customers doing their very last-minute shopping and the staff had to make multiple announcements asking people to leave the store because we were close. And all the staff had to make preparations for the clearance sales before the store closes for Christmas and Boxing Day. So I was practically stuck in the stock room pricing children's shoes for 2 hours. And I don't even work in the shoe section! 

Anyway, we all managed to get a lot done that day and after work, I headed over to my aunt's place. Thankfully, the trains weren't that busy. I decided to take the tube instead of the fast train, so it took me almost two hours to get to Watford.

When I got to the station, my aunt came and picked me up and it was so cold that night!

I ate a very simple dinner and then chatted to my aunt for a bit while watching The Holiday (one of my fav Christmas movies~) before going for midnight mass.

The weather on Christmas morning was beautiful. We saw a lot of families going out for a stroll.

Around 2pm, we headed to Uncle Peter and Auntie Chung's for a scrumptious Christmas meal. We had a nice leek and potato soup that my aunt made as starters and as for mains, we had steak! Uncle Peter personally cooked them for us~ And lots of yummy roasted vege that Auntie Chung prepared. I love roasted vege; I can eat a big bowl of them and I actually roasted some myself a week ago.  Roasted parsnips and sweet potatoes are my favourite out of all!
I had a nice time that day, after a very heavy meal, we all just chilled in front of the TV watching stuff that I wasn't interested in but I had to choice. Then it came time for dessert! My aunt made a steamed Christmas pudding which tasted so good! I really want to try and make it myself but I don't have a mixer and a big enough pot to steam it in. :(
Anyway, after a few hours of watching TV and eating more stuff and drinking more tea, we left before Downton Abbey's Christmas special started because my aunt wasn't feeling well.
My aunt ended up being ill for the rest of the week. :(
I ended up watching Downton Abbey alone at my aunt's place.
On Boxing Day, my aunt cooked another traditional Christmas meal and asked two friends over to join us. It was a lovely meal but the conversation was boring for me.....
It wasn't particularly an interesting day but I managed to finish listening to a podcast called Serial in my (old) room before going to sleep. If you're into podcasts, I'm sure you've heard of Serial. It was really interesting but I can't say that I enjoyed how she wrapped things up though. But I guess they (the producers of the series) did their best. Serial is about a real-life murder case that happened 14 years ago in the US. And this journalist decided to re-investigate the case to find out what happened back then. So she goes through all the available evidences and talks to as many people involved in the case as she could to find out whether the court locked the wrong guy up for life-imprisonment.
Definitely go check it out if you're interested in taking part in solving this very complicated murder case!

On the 27th, I had to go to work so I left my aunt's (with some leftovers kekeke) and headed back to London. The trains weren't working due to engineering works so I had to take the Overground which made me almost late for work.

Then on the 30th of Dec, I met up with an old friend, Amanda at Old Street station and we went to The Breakfast Club for lunch!

Amanda came to London in mid-Dec and is here for a month visiting her boyfriend since she finished uni. And she's been travelling a lot since she's been here which makes me so jealous because I want to travel too but it's so hard to find the time and people to travel with!

When I told her that, she was like, "Go find a bf la!" XD Easier said than done, Amanda.

When I met her at the tube station, the first thing she said was, "Wah you got an accent already!" 

I'm actually really worried that people back home will judge me that I have an accent.... You know how those Youtubers that make videos of Msians that go overseas and come home with a fake accent and how everyone finds that very annoying. But the thing with me is, I left Msia with an accent already! I never had a heavy Msian-english accent to start with!

Anyway, who cares right?

And lol at this sign outside The Breakfast Club.

Tbh, I didn't understand it at first. When I understood it, I didn't even find it funny.

I ordered a breakfast burrito~ I just wanted some guac tbh lol

It wasn't as I expected it to be but still very yummy~ And I ordered a flat white again as well.

I had a nice time catching up with Amanda over a lovely lunch~ So glad for her for doing so good in life right now~ She's already got a job in KL waiting for her to start in Feb~!

After lunch, we walked around Shoreditch a bit towards Brick Lane just to show Amanda around this side of London. 

Whenever I go to Brick Lane, I want to try one of the (apparently) best bagels in London but everytime I'm there, I've already eaten! And do not have an excuse to buy more food...

We then walked towards another tube station so that Amanda could go back while I walked back to my flat.

Lo and behold......

The Olympus Pen EPL-5!

You know how I've been saying I wanted a new camera? I got one now! 

I got it on the same day I met Amanda. I saw her compact system camera and told her how I wanted to get one too and she was like, "Just get one la!"

And I was like, it's not that easy for me to just spend my money like that you know?

But then I don't know why what she said just stuck to me and when I went home that day, I checked on Curry's website to see the price of the camera. I've been frequently checking Amazon and Curry's to see whether the price has gone down since October.... And when I saw that this camera was on sale for the Boxing Day sale, I thought to myself, this is your opportunity now! 

So I walked out again to Curry's. Thankfully there's a megastore just 5 minutes away from where I live, and I bought it! 

Obviously, I've done a lot of research on it, and I've given it a lot of thought before buying it (since it is a lot of money spent!). I even went into Curry's around November to look at the camera and ask for the sales assistant's advice. Coz I was torn between getting the EPL-5 and the EPL-7 which is the latest version in the Pen Lite series, which also cost more. 

But the guy said the EPL-7 is not worth getting since both cameras are almost the same. Therefore, I went for the EPL-5! And I'm loving it~ 

I'm so annoyed with myself for going to St. Paul's Cathedral the week before I bought this camera.... I could've taken much nicer photos of the sunset if I had this camera....

How long has it been since I uploaded a photo of me without glasses? LOL

I just took photos of everything when I first got the camera lol

I still need a lot of learning and practicing though.

First thing in the morning (or afternoon) when I woke up, took a selfie~ XD

And before going to work, yet another selfie. lol

This was on the 31st. New Year's Eve. My initial plan was to go to work and just go back to my room and chill and watch movies for the night but on my way to work, I thought to myself, Do you really want to just stay in your room on New Year's Eve?

So I quickly thought of where I could possibly go to see the fireworks since the South Bank was closed to only ppl who had tickets for the fireworks show. 

So I thought of Primrose Hill and started googling whether it was open till late. And when I went to work, I asked two colleagues of mine if they were interested in joining me since I had no one to go with and they said they had no plans either so they were more than happy to go with me!

And after work, I texted Amanda and asked her whether she had plans for that night and invited her to join us as well~ 

So in the end, when we met at Chalkfarm Station (near Primrose Hill) at 10.30pm, there were 8 of us altogether! Good last minute planning~ LOL

I really didn't like the thought of standing in the cold for long so that's why we met at 10.30pm. Amanda's bf's housemates came along as well and one of my colleagues brought along a friend as well. So we all then walked over to the park. Which was more packed than I expected it to be but thankfully it wasn't too packed. The ground was really really muddy though so all of our shoes were looking very disgusting when we got to the station after midnight.

I kept playing around with my camera while we were there, but sadly, this was the only good photo I got. Jsyk, that was my first day having the camera so I have an excuse to suck at it.

The fireworks were really amazing though. We were quite far away but at least we could see everything~ So glad that I decided to go there instead to staying in.

Next time, I might try to get tickets and join the crowd at the South Bank!

After the fireworks then came the time of everyone fighting to get into the tube station at the same time. ugh it was a nightmare. but thankfully we all got home safely~

Since then, I've still been playing around with my camera now and then. 

This is a candle holder my aunt got me for Christmas that has my name on it! How cool is that?

More selfies~ This time, I tried out the flash on the camera. This was probably before I went to work one day. It was so busy at work during the first week of the sales. You cannot imagine how annoyed I was with the mess customers make when they're shopping. They just leave things everywhere and on the floor! And I have to pick them! It was so tiring..... Thankfully now everyone is back to work and back to school and it has quiet down a lot.

Another selfie with the same expression lol 

And this is another flannel shirt I bought from Uniqlo in the sale~ And I'm actually wearing it right now kekeke I love it. 

This was before going out with my friend Keziah to go see Matilda The Musical~

We managed to buy discounted tickets for a Tuesday night performance. We wanted the cheapest tickets but they were all sold out so we got the more expensive ones but with a better view!

The huge billboards at Picadilly Circus. 

We wanted to go for dinner together before the show but we were a bit late so we worried we won't be able to make it in time so we just had some sushi from Wasabi before walking to China Town to hunt for some asian snacks to bring into the theater~

Look at how nice the set of the musical was!

The show was amazing and hilarious~ I truly enjoyed it and worth every penny spent!

Outside the theater.

We thought of grabbing a coffee together after the show but most of the shops around that area was closed by then so we just headed home.

Okay. That's all for now.

I would love to stay and blog more about how I have started the new year and some thoughts of starting the new year with new goals but I'm very very hungry. All I've eaten all day was a bowl of oatmeal and half a cup of a smoothie. 

So goodbye, I need go eat the sushi I made yesterday and the BBQ chicken wings I bought just now~!!! And watch a movie my Advertising lecturer asked us to watch, The Greatest Movie Ever Sold while I enjoy my dinner! 

x