Atlantis_My world: July 2011

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Relay for Life 2011

I participated in Relay for Life 2011 last Saturday night. It was a happening weekend, my dear kp friends were enjoying themselves in the Bon Odori Festival in Shah Alam, but most of the crowd went to watch the Liverpool-Malaysia Tiger team football match at Stadium Bukit Jalil i guess.

I was loud in my previous post about not being a patriotic person, and i'm going to be equally loud in this post- i'm NOT a charitable person neither. Attending 1 charity event in a year does not qualified myself being a charity activist. I have to admit that when my company announced that they are sponsoring their employees to attend the event as part of fulfilling social responsibility, i was skeptical about it. Well, there are many similar events such as pink ribbons, terry fox runs etc. conducted throughout the year to raise the awareness towards cancer, and having 16 hours continuous relay sounds pretty much the same.

Boy, how wrong was I. I enjoyed the ambience, the message, the fun and the companionship of my colleagues throughout the whole night, and i even felt guilty for not able to stay till the end of the 16 hours. The event started off with run /jog from the cancer survivors, even for those who are on wheel chair. It was then followed by all the sponsors from private sectors, everyone carrying big banners representing there companies (starbucks, KPJ, Columbia Asia etc.), except us. We came totally unprepared, but everyone in such good spirit that it really doesnt matter even if the initial purpose of coming is all about marketing and brand awareness.

My colleagues and I in yellow T shirt (NOT Bersih k)

Then we have lots of lots activities like games, singing and dancing throughout the night, however one of the most memorable events was the Luminaria ceremony. The Luminaria Ceremony is targeted toward “Remember.” During this time, participants are asked to gather and remember those who have fallen victim to cancer. Luminaria bags are distributed and often decorated by participants, honoring a loved one who has passed or is fighting the disease. Then these bags are placed around the track and candles inside the bags are lit before all the lights went off. Following the Luminaria Ceremony, participants walk a lap around the track in silence to give respect to those who have fallen ill with cancer or to those whose lives were lost.

Campsite for those who want to stay overnight

And i walked around the track, looking at the luminated bags decorated with the pictures of the lost, words of remembrance such as "We missed you","You will be always in our mind", "never give up" really brought tears to my eyes.

I had never lost my love ones due to cancer illness before. However that night, when i'm walking in the dark beside many strangers who may have fought, or still fighting, or had lost their loves ones due to the deadly illness, i felt a great sense of togetherness. Doesnt matter where we all came from, what we have went through, today we are all here, to remember those who had lost the battle, to celebrate those who had won and to fight for the same course.

Anyway, my company luminted bag were so dull and boring, it made me nearly puke blood when i saw it.

Anyone joining me next year? :)

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Popo

如果大家有机会走进体育场，婆婆就不会被淋湿了。

Direct translation: If we have a chance to walk into the stadium, the granny will not be wet because of the rain.

Saw this picture (labelled as "Popo") from http://jinjing1943.blogspot.com/2011/07/blog-post_10.html. I cant help but agreed with what the writer wrote in the end of the blog.

"我也期盼没有催泪弹的集会，我可以带爸爸妈妈跟妹妹，甚至以后我的小孩一起去参与、去喊出我们要的未来。"

Monday, July 11, 2011

The observer's account of the B Demonstration

I have to admit that I'm not a patriotic person.

When i first heard there will be the B-demonstration going on this Saturday. My first response is "Shit, road blocks will be everywhere". And indeed, there were road blocks causing endless traffic jam since early last week, during peak rush hours, causing half of the people in my office came late for work. It really makes me questioned the intelligence of our law enforcers of making such a decision, unless they are trying to make a point that they can make our lives difficult any time they want because they have the badge.

So come back to the B-demonstration. Well, i didnt took the walk with the rest of the ten thousands of demonstrators the last Saturday. And I wont sugar coat by saying my mom didn't allow me to go (which she really did by calling me at 7 o' clock on Saturday morning), or it will never make a change, its useless, blah blah blah....

The truth is this was never my call. I dreamt of doing alot of things but to be at the forefront to make a difference to the country was never my call. I do believe one day if our country go further downhill, everyone including myself will have to bear the consequences of it. However, i also feel that all of us have our part to play, whether to march on the street, or to vote for the right party, or to continue to serve our country in our own professionalism... In fact, my colleague went to help with St John's first aid and was stationed at the Dataran Merdeka last Saturday, kudos to him!

I guess there is time and place for everyone. And when my time comes, even my mom's call will not be able to hold me back. But for this time, i am the observer. I have read some blogs and international news on this, and i would like to share just a few with you.

http://kyspeaks.com/2011/07/10/my-account-on-bersih-2-0/

http://quaintly.net/2011/07/what-we-must/

http://timthinksthat.net/2011/07/i-took-a-walk-in-the-city-bersihstories/

http://xes.cx/?p=5590

I was quite surprised with the spirit of the demonstration, especially their great effort of trying to make it a peaceful rally. After reading the participant's account, I was curious to know what was our government response after the incident, hence i followed through diligently Saturday and Sunday's news from TV3 and NTV7. And this is what i saw.

http://quaintly.net/2011/07/dear-malaysia/

http://malaysiansmustknowthetruth.blogspot.com/2011/07/najib-clinker-umno-youths-illegal-rally.html

http://www.pribumiperkasa.com/?p=6033

I think you can judge yourself. I was greatly bewildered and baffled.

Let me repeat, i am not a patriotic person. Sometimes when I have a yum-char session at mamak stall with my friends, whether its intended or subconsciously, the topic will somehow come back to how sucky the situation in our country now. And yes, apart from Nasi Lemak, we Malaysian don't boost around telling how good our country is all the time. We curse, we criticise, sometimes we even hate the corrupted system we had in our country to the gut. But nevertheless, we still felt that there is no place like home. Malaysia is my home.

ps: There is no Nasi Lemak better than Malaysian's.

Friday, July 08, 2011

Prelude to wedding photographs

I am probably our wedding photographer's best customer as i do my own the framing and compilation for the prelude. Do check out our photographer works at www.lovehappensphoto.com, they are a newly wed couple who took up wedding photography as their part-time job. I admired the courage they have in transforming their love and passion for photography into something real and fruitful despite the fact that it requires more time and effort for full time workers.

Anyway, this is just a teaser, i need to wait for another 2 weeks for all the other photos and montage. Do stay tuned.

Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Back to normal life

I need a haircut.

And that's the first sign of going back to my normal life. Shorter hair= boring hairstyle= but hair wont fall or entangle so easily = easy to manage = normal me and normal life

My makeup artist forbid me from going for haircut for months as i have thin volume of hair. So i had this long fringes infront of my face which i need to use some flowery pin to clip it to the side which makes me look a tad too girly.

I'm gonna miss the flowery pin.

Anyway, wedding was good, a BIG turning point in my life. It kept my mind occupied for the past 1 year. A year before, I thought the day will never come as there were so much waiting and contemplating along the process. It almost felt like silly to plan for something one year ahead. But then it happened, really happened. And it was done and over.

wow. Am now officially back to my normal life, except now with a title of "married".

My colleague asked me a silly question the other day when she saw me at the bistro having breakfast.

"Eh, not cooking breakfast for yourself and your husband meh" She said.

-___-

I told her she is kolot (old fashion in another word). if husbands of this age still expect their wife to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner for them everyday without fail, then they should pay their wife, Cuz you pay money to maid to do this kinda of thing for you. In fact, my husband was sleeping soundly like a pig when i left for work every morning (he works at home most of the time). Its kinda amusing that we still harbour the stereotypic belief on the definition of wife / husband whereby you are a wife/ husband, because you cook & clean / working hard & is the bread winner.

Sometimes, we also have certain perception on how the marriage life should be, we expect a BIG transformation of no-more-2-person-but-together-as-1 sort of life. But trust me, when you really are in it, it felt actually kinda same. Its almost felt like NORMAL.