For me, the whole bridal photos taking thing is more of the curiosity for this once-in-a-lifetime-experience, rather than looking forward to the nice photos. Finally, we’ve gone through the process of smiling-the-whole-day-until-your-mouth-hurt. I’m not going to be a thriller spoiler by telling you the rest of the process; you have to experience it yourself. :p

WARNING: Please lower your expectation before you view the photos, especially for those who knew that the photos are used for sample/promotional album in Aspial, to avoid major disappointment.

Dress 1- White empire cut which I adored the most. In fact, this is the only one that I really like!!! I like the simple hair-do, I like the simple dress. It’s ME. :)



Dress 2- Christmas tree dress recommend by Yan, our wedding consultant as she said the texture will looks interesting in photos. The hair-do is too elaborate. It’s not me. The reason I didn’t objected it on the spot was because I thought this might as well be the only time I get to don in the flamboyant hair-do. Unless of course, should MH become be a big shot one day; that I get to grace classy parties, gliding gracefully through the ballroom while flashing the one million dollar smile in a designer’s dress and not-a-stain-of-hair-out-of-the-place hair-do.



Dress 3- Lacy, see through white gown which I love enough to forfeit the traditional gown. My wishful thought was that maybe one day I’ll get to take the kimono shot with the real Mount Fuji as the backdrop or cheongsam shot on the real Shanghai Bund. *snap,snap* Ok, back to the reality. Back to the photo shoot, I asked for a romantic wave but I got a poodle type of curl. Is this me?



Dress 4- Saturated green dress recommended by the expert, Yan, as the color will stand out in the photos. I doubt it’s me in the photo.



Dress 5- Purple dress, another see through gown chosen by me. **grin,grin** As for the hair-do; see for yourself! Oh ya, the pose below may look easy but it was actually so difficult that I almost break my backbone.



Dress 6- Over flowery white wedding gown proposed by Yan for outdoor shoot. I totally can not verify if it’s me in those photos and I really don’t like those photos as well.



Enough said. I’ve to admit that it could be worse. So, I’m okay with the overall photos although it could be much better had I insisted on the hair-do that I want. For the rest of this girl and her husband’s photos, you can view it at http://picasaweb.google.com/MingHanHuiHui/BridalPhoto


Oh ya... for those people who would like to have a hardcopy of the photo(s), do tell us which photo(s) you would like us to develop for you. So, by default we won’t send out the hardcopy of the photo as what some of the other couple might do.

Volunteered at Children's Christmas Party @ Holy Spirit Cathedral last weekend. It was a blast, one of the most well organized party ever for whooping 280 kids alone. I enjoyed it more than the kids. :p It was super fun, with lots of absolutely adorable cute little kids running around; lots of finger food, games, sweets, ballons, christmas carol, ice-cream & present from Santa Claus (not for me, of course).

To all my family and friends, have a Blessed Christmas!

Wisdom
by Phil Cerasoli
May 99

Life's simply an adventure ...nothing less and nothing more
And it's Destiny that starts you that first day.
But though your path's been scripted, it's your choices that decide
How well you've played the game along the way.

And when the journey's over and it's time to mark your score
That chronicles the progress that you've gained.
It's not the final tally of the wealth that you've amassed
Nor all the knowledge that you have attained.

It all comes down to wisdom and what you've learned of life
And how you've used that wisdom to unlock
The doors that hold the answers to the universe and more
And let you see the truths that others mock.

And not an ounce of wisdom's gained from all the games you've won,
Nor from those times you've finished far ahead.
It's only gained from lessons learned from all the times you've lost
And all those painful moments when you bled.

Oh, I know self pity's easy when your life has been besieged
And it's easy wishing that there was a way
To rise above the turmoil and live a life of ease
And have your troubles simply melt away.

But should that wish be granted, the danger that exists
Is that your search for wisdom falls apart.
Then when your trip is over you might come to realize
You're no better off than you were at the start.

So it's not that I'm a guru or a sage of brilliant mind,
But of this life I've taken quite a slice.
I've lost enough and bled enough to make me kind of feel
I'm qualified to offer this advice:

Play the hand that's dealt you; play the cards as best you can
And rejoice in all the time Life lets you win.
And then, for all the other times when Life has cut you deep
Sit back and feel the wisdom soaking in.

It was a good trip; finally I get to see HK in real, not through the 6pm drama series. This is indeed a unique city; a city of contrasts where East meets West. I enjoyed most catching the intriguing glimpses of daily life in Hong Kong with a stroll through the city. It’s a world of wonder where the hustle and bustle of this modern city mingles with the colorful age-old traditions of yesterday. The upscale shopping mall and the quaint street markets interweave each others in this dynamic city; which could be attributed to the scant land available.

I was the only color among the masses that don in dark power suite. I couldn’t help but asking myself if black is in again? Did I miss out the color of the season? While the people are depressing, the buildings are certainly not. It’s almost a signboard war with each trying to outdo the other. Food and shopping are plentiful; little wonder that HK is associated with food and shopping haven. However, abundance doesn’t imply the excellence. They certainly do not live up to my expectation for being the best, some, not even good enough! Malaysia is still the best; food and shopping. Well, at least until my salary scale rise up to the level where I can shop at the upscale shopping mall and dine at the awards winning restaurant. Till then, I’m happy with Gurney Plaza and cheap yummy Penang hawker food and not forgetting mouthwatering pasar malam fare as well. :)

Ngong Ping Skyrail (cable car). Ngong Ping 360 Village. Giant Buddha. Po Lin Monastery.

Shun Tak Centre. TurboJet ferry. Ruins of St. Paul's. St. Dominic's Church. Monte Fort. The Cathedral. Senado Square. Sai Van Bridge. Macau Fisherman's Wharf. Casinos. Portuguese egg tart. Portuguese baked rice.

Western Market. Sheung Wan Fong. Des Voeux Road West. Antiques Street. Mid levels Escalator. Former Central Police Station. SoHo. Gage street, Stanley street. Pottinger Street. Li Yuen Streets. Yee Wo street, Causeway Bay. Jardine’s Bazaar. SOGO. Time square. Lee Gardens. Lee theatre Plaza. Santa’s Town. Hong Kong WinterFest. Snowy Chapel. Avenue of the star. Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade. Yung Kee restaurant ( check up the awards & the price at http://www.yungkee.com.hk/menu/menu_awardset-e.html )

Maxim dim sum. Repulse bay. Stanley market. Murray House. Causeway bay. Times Square. Yau Ma Tei. Mong Kok. Kowloon. Flower market. Goldfish market. Ladies’ market. Fa Yuen street. Jade market. Shanghai street. Temple street night market. Sweet Dynasty.

jw marriot.the peak.peak tram.victoria harbour.star ferry.clock tower.causeway bay.tsim sha tsui.symphony of lights.wanton mee.lan kwai fong.SoHo.

karen, jackie, czhia yheaw,
where to find good bargain for clothes/dress/fashion? seems to me HK is more of electronics haven. :(
which shopping complex is a must go? haven't been to any of them yet...simply too much choices.

If you think engineering is for the nerd and the geek, think again! Ever since the dawn of the century, engineering news has been as entertaining and amusing as watching a circus. Below are a few highlights from EETimes (one of the zillion technology website found in the websphere) just this week alone.

1) No iPods for North Korea
To punish Kim Jong Il for testing nuclear missiles, the Bush administration wants to keep iPods out of the hands of the North Korean leader and his supporters.
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196600556

2) Emerging technology sees through clothing
Security in airports and other sensitive areas may get a huge boost, thanks to a technology under development that is straight out of science fiction, said to be capable of looking through clothing to detect weapons and other dangerous items. But privacy advocates—and shy people—may have cause for alarm.
http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=
KXTMA4OJ2KNVSQSNDLOSKHSCJUNN2JVN;?articleID=196500051

3) Sony wants to send sounds through your body
Sony has found a way to transmit radio signals through a wearer's body to earphones that convert the signals back to sound. The system would use the body as a capacitor. The body system could carry 48 kilobytes of data per second.
http://eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=
CF1ALLA2BXZPMQSNDLSCKHA?articleID=196513863

4) Xerox invents self-erasing, re-usable paper
Because many e-mails and documents are printed out for brief viewing and then soon discarded or recycled, Xerox invented printing technology that creates images that last only a day.
http://www.pldesignline.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196513873

Never did I know the “Seminar Kesedaran Bahaya Dadah” can be so interesting. It was certainly eye opening, mind blowing, best ever ... ok, ok, I'm exaggerating. But, it was good, really.

I signed up as a volunteer from Lighthouse ( http://www.pohd.org/pages/ministries/ministry-with-ruralurban-poor/lighthouse.php ). Had been volunteering there on weekly basis for some time, well, long enough to get this invitation. :)




Nonetheless, I didn't get to attend that because MH's family was in town last weekend. Had to skip Fr Fabian's session on Parish Human Development at Holy Spirit Cathedral on Sunday evening as well. Anyhow, more stories on Lighthouse some other time.

Back to the seminar, it was given by truly hands-on people like Mr Gideon Khoo, the principle of the Hiding Place (https://www.unodc.org/ngo/showSingleDetailed.do?req_org_uid=1918 ), staff nurse Jubaidah, the winner of Dr. Siti Hasmah Award 2006 ( http://malaysianaidsfoundation.org.my/redgala/2006/dsha.htm ) and Chief Inspector Tan (he didn't show up though).


Do you know?
- Not all drugs are additive. Ganja (Marijuana) and Ecstasy are not. You won't experience withdrawal symptom once you stop using them.
- How do people get addicted to ganja then? It's because of the greedy drug dealer aka “tai ko” spraying the pure ganja pill with highly additive morphine.
- Ecstasy addiction is more psychological rather than physical - the "syok" or high feeling that ppl keep going back for.
- Ecstasy is dry and dehydrating. So it's seldom taken with alcohol. Now you know why a jug of Pepsi or water is equally as expensive as beer at night joints.
- Ecstasy tablet is often mixed with glass powder by the manufacturer; to cut the bloodstream, for a faster kick!
- Highest HIV/AIDS cases found in the holiest state of Malaysia -> Kelantan.
- ~70% of HIV infections contracted was through heterosexual activity and ~30% through injection drug use. (All the while I thought it's the other way round)
- Same statistic applies to Kelantan. ~70% thro' heterosexual relationship. (Kelantan is near to Sungai Golok)
- Most FAQ: can a mosquito transmit HIV virus?
- Most funny question: My grandfather smoked opium last time. Can I inherit HIV from him?
- Due to the long inactive/dormant state of HIV, some of the patients will eventually recalled and confessed that they visited Thailand 10 years ago.
- 70% of the patients are totally not aware of HIV/AIDS. (I thought we have high literacy rate)
- A few years back when there is no test to screen the ecstasy user, the inspector will put the suspects in a room with blasting music. Those who shake their head will get a tongue lasher.
- Glue sniffing is not chargeable in the court.

**Disclaimer : I do not guarantee the accuracy of the here above statements.





Belle joked that drug addicts on the street will start running away from us if we wear that given t-shirt with the AGENSI ANTIDADAH KEBANGSAAN logos. Most of them are just too familiar with it since they've been in and out of the Pusat Serenti.

Got locked out from my linux workstation early morning. Browsed thro’ EETimes, Malaysiakini, thestar; checked my hotmail, yahoo & friendster (with my laptop) and at 7am I was done with those. So, to kill some time while waiting for the IT guy to report to work, I “wu liao”-ly clicked at the pop-up link that brought me to complete a set of 130+ tickle questions. At the wee hour of the morning, I scored 131.

Congratulations, Hui!Your IQ score is 131
This number is based on a scientific formula that compares how many questions you answered correctly on the Classic IQ Test relative to others. Your Intellectual Type is Visual Mathematician. This means you are gifted at spotting patterns — both in pictures and in numbers. These talents combined with your overall high intelligence make you good at understanding the big picture, which is why people trust your instincts and turn to you for direction — especially in the workplace. And that's just some of what we know about you from your test results.


Curious to know what 131 means, I asked the person who knows best -> the omniscience Mr. Google. Look what I've found at the first return of the search.

http://www.audiblox.com/iq_scores.htm

Half of the population have IQ’s of between 90 and 110, while 25% have higher IQ’s and 25% have lower IQ’s:
Descriptive Classifications of Intelligence Quotients

IQ Description % of Population
130+ Very superior 2.2%
120-129 Superior 6.7%
110-119 High average 16.1%
90-109 Average 50%
80-89 Low average 16.1%
70-79 Borderline 6.7%
Below 70 Extremely low 2.2%

Apparently, the IQ gives a good indication of the occupational group that a person will end up in, though not of course the specific occupation. In their book, Know Your Child’s IQ, Glen Wilson and Diana Grylls outline occupations typical of various IQ levels:

140 Top Civil Servants; Professors and Research Scientists.
130 Physicians and Surgeons; Lawyers; Engineers (Civil and Mechanical)
120 School Teachers; Pharmacists; Accountants; Nurses; Stenographers; Managers.
110 Foremen; Clerks; Telephone Operators; Salesmen; Policemen; Electricians.
100+ Machine Operators; Shopkeepers; Butchers; Welders; Sheet Metal Workers.
100- Warehousemen; Carpenters; Cooks and Bakers; Small Farmers; Truck and Van Drivers.
90 Laborers; Gardeners; Upholsterers; Farmhands; Miners; Factory Packers and Sorters


WOOWWW….. Mr Glen Wilson & Miss Diana Grylls certainly do think very highly of the Engineers.


**The tickle questions were very similar to my favoriate paper in UPSR. An extra paper we had to sit for in 1991....which was called Ujian Perolehan?!?! Argggh... I can't recall. Anyone can help? What was that extra IQ paper called?

Looking at my brother and I, you can never guess how many seasons we spent under the sun; scaling the hills and bushes, rolling in the field, playing hide and seek at the chalk factory nearby, catching creatures (fish, tadpole and worms to feed the fish) in the drain, making kite with glass-tinted-strings, gambling marbles & collectible cards, making "lastic", etc, etc while our parents were busy working their fingers to the bone for survival. I wish we had a camera to capture those sweet childhood memories, but we don't. These two are the rare photos that I found.





My parents were so cool huh, given the fact that they can even supply us with "strainer" to add to our fun? I couldn't remember if it was only after much begging and crying or was it because my mum was under confinement (deduced from the cloth diapers hanging to dry there) thus we were free to sneak around. :p

If I'm not too slack, perhaps one day I shall blog more on how to make a prefect kite that can fly the highest and furthest, how to make the strongest sandball that can withstand other sandball's knock, the marbles and collectible cards that we won and lose (after all, these "properties" determine your ranking in the neighborhood), the countless childhood games that we played, the leaves and flowers that we cooked, the ducks that my grandma reared, the BMX that we cycled, my childhood life and my childhood dreams.

This is part of the lyrics from Westlife's Season In The Sun, dedicated to all my childhood neighbors.

Goodbye to you my trusted friend
We've known each other since we were nine or ten
Together we've climbed hills and trees
Learned of love and ABC's
Skinned our hearts and skinned our knees
Goodbye my friend it's hard to die
When all the birds are singing in the sky
Now that spring is in the air
Pretty girls are everywhere
Think of me and I'll be there

We had joy, we had fun
we had seasons in the sun
But the hills that we climbed
Were just seasons out of time

We had joy, we had fun
We had seasons in the sun
But the wine and the song
Like the seasons have all gone

Yup, you'll never know what you're gonna get. -- Forrest Gump.

1) A couple of days ago, LiLi told me she saw our wedding album as a promotional/sample album at Aspial Rock Queen bridal show last weekend (http://aspialwedding.com/main_anni.htm ) and the funny thing is, we haven't even saw them ourselves! We are supposed to review the album design next month and can only get the actual album by January, 2007. I wonder how many people will get to see them before us. I wonder if they show them the before-and-after photos :p. I wonder ... Ok, ok, stop wondering. I don't care. I don't really like the photos at the first place. Anyway, I guess this would be the closest thing of being a "model" in my entire life. Pathetic huh?

2) Many many moons ago, during one of the lepak-ing trip at Gurney Plaza, we come across a giant wishing lantern. It was a donation drive to build an old folks home. I like the idea. For a small sum, I can post a wish like "I hope Hui Hui will be smarter and prettier" so I elbowed MH. He sat down to fill in the card. While I was fascinating myself reading other people's wishes posted on the gaint lantern, MH had wrote down his own wish. He wished for "the good health of the old folks there" and pledged a RM50. However, the person in charge told us that we were also supposed to fill in our own wish as for the lucky few Gurney Plaza would make our wish come true. That explained why everyone wrote "I want a RM1500 voucher" which I was so puzzled with earlier. So, MH also wants RM1488 worth of voucher too.

He just picked up his voucher from Gurney this afternoon!!! One of the lucky five. :)




It was vouchers for Dome, Add On and Redbox karaoke, which interest me little. :( How I wish it was RM1500 worth of voucher for Vincci or Esprit or even MPH.



By the way, nope, I didn’t bath with pamelo leaves and UJ, I didn’t manage to scrub pamelo skin to my head either. :p

Have been suffering from a patch of bad luck lately. First, my cell-phone broke down after being drenched with water that leaked from my water bottle during the routine Penang Hill 84 hike last weekend. Luckily it only cost me RM45, a few days out of coverage, trip to Bukit Jambul and trip to post laju office to pick up MH’s old hp that his mum sent all the way from KL.

Then, my laptop went ga-ga from weird signals to blue screen and then completely failed to start. I suspected that the culprit is the user interface, namely the keyboard. Being true engineers, we started to debug with help from Dell’s diagnostic test and service manual.

And true enough, it’s the problem with the keyboard. So we proceed to fix it, taking out the innards one after another and then blah, blah, blah and then blah, blah, blah and bravo, my baby is back alive! Smart engineers! :p







Well, I’ve to confess that I shouldn’t take any credit in the success of this operation. I was preoccupied with a tougher task. I was figuring out stuff like:
- When using first inversion of the tonic triad (Ib), subdominant triad (IVb) and dominant triad (Vb) you should avoid doubling the bass note, but you can double either the root or the 5th.
- It’s better that the space between A to S and T to A is not over an octave although B to T may exceed an octave.
- Use a falling seventh progression in two different keys and a cadential six-four chord.
- et cetera, et cetera, et cetera …

Catch any ball? Me either.

Yup, by the title you should have guessed how the taman negara trip went. It was way below my expectation and I didn't even expected much at the first place.... maybe just to develop some new skill - leeches removal skill or see someone pee in their pants after hearing tiger roaring from afar? But, nope... nyamuk pun takda.

Ironically, the most exciting part of the whole trip was the first few hours. The boat that carried us from Kuala Tembeling to Kuala Tahan (access point to Taman Negara) was so faulty that it couldn't move for more than 5 minutes without dying off. Mid of the journey the boat totally refused to start, prompting the boat navigator to take off his shirt (yeah...he has a good body), jumped into the river to pull the boat to the riverside and tied it to a tree so that we won't be drifted back to Kuala Tembeling. Due to the extended journey (~4 hours of boat ride), we had to brave both the afternoon sun and evening rain.

From there on, everything was an anti- climax. The night walk was nothing but a 30 minutes scroll in the well-pathed jungle observing not the wildlife, but insects and flora & fauna (that's a better word for trees). It certainly did not amuse a village girl like me. (i'm referring to Sibu, the village with the longest river in m'sia). The next day didn't get any better either. The canopy walk, supposedly the longest in the world, was a merely 300m walk for us, thanks to the on-going renovation. Shooting the rapids, which I thought was water rafting (many thanks to the countless misleading brochures out there) was nothing but another short boat ride, a bumpier one. The three meekly activities are supposed to be all for the trip! Fortunately I negotiated with the guide to bring us to visit the aboriginal settlement. That was the other highlight after the malfunctioning boat ride. Never did I know such primitive people still exist in our beloved country that shouts development as the bone fide agenda. Anyway, some fact/myth we've been told about them by our guide:
- they don't really go to school.
- their ‘house’ is really just a roof over their head.
- they left their dying relative in a small hut up on the tree.
- after the dying relative die, they just left them there eaten by the birds.
- they can earn up to RM5000 per day during the peak time* (by demonstrating how to start fire & letting their photos to be taken by curios people like me).
- they spent the entire RM5000 on the night itself (don't ask me how).
- the male can marry 2 female at the same time, at the same ceremony & they will stay together under the some roof.
- there is no specific age for the orang asli to get married, a marriageable male is when they know how to make the roof and a marriageable female is when they know how to search for food in the jungle.
- yes, the female is the breadwinner. they need to find sweet potatoes and other edible in the jungle.
- what's the male work/responsibility?!? RE-LAX-lar....**
*I seriously suspect that the spot was just their acting stage and when the night fall, they will retreat to their bungalow.
**MH is planning to curl his hair and get further tanned before packing a few pants and move to somewhere 4, 48' N 102, 21' E.

To sum up, we saw buffaloes, otters, insects, reflective mushroom, orang asli, one pathetic leech & seas of homo sapiens. (easily outnumbers the buffaloes by 1000x). We burnt RM600+ each. We brought back almost unused baygon, insect repellent, waterless wash cream, unused salt, reminding sun block, MH's torn adidas sandal, MH's torn nike shoes & sun tanned skin!!! :(((