Hi there!

So sorry for the lack of updates, I've been procrastinating a lot. (as usual, *cough cough) Ahhh, the NS list is out and I GOT CHOSEN FOR NS. Thought I wouldn't get chosen cause my sister got chosen already. Guess I was wrong! Can't say I'm very excited cause I'll be missing my family and my friends a lot. 3 months is a very long time, you know! My mom said it's like prefect camp for 3 months. Le sigh, gonna be so tan by then :'( Some of my other friends got chosen as well. How I wish we'll get to go to the same camp site, but the probability of that happening is 0.000001 %. And I hope I'll get the first batch cause there'll be CNY holidays and I get to go home :) Ugh, I should stop thinking too much and focus on my trial exam!

My Childhood Fears

I’ve never really watched any horror movies when I was younger, but I recall having nightmares after watching this scary one with clowns in it. Not just any ordinary clowns, but clowns who are possessed by spirits. Imagine scary-looking clowns going around murdering people with their sadistic laughs and not to mention the usual thick make-ups plus the creepy smile of theirs! What a perfect combo to ruin a child's perfect memory of clowns eh? D: And I guess that's one of the main reasons why I never really liked those 'normal looking' clowns we usually see in the carnivals. Maybe I was too traumatized by the scarier ones? Lol.

And here comes the main one, this funny little phobia of mine called the Ailurophobia, which is also known as the fear of CATS. Yes, you heard me; I have a fear of cats. I know it sounds ridiculous. Not that I’ve encountered any scary-looking cats during my childhood days. It’s just that I don’t like it when they “manja” around my legs! They think that they’re cute but they’re not, not at all! All I see are scary monsters crawling around my legs; Scary monsters that will scratch me with their sharp claws if I don’t give them food. And that was when all the nightmares started; Nightmares of me seeing different kinds of cats appearing in my house. I once dreamed of myself overcoming this phobia of mine, just because all the cats in the world look exactly like my dog, Belle!

Maybe one day I will learn to overcome my childhood fear. Well, actually they can’t be considered as childhood fears because I have yet to overcome them! Sometimes I feel ashamed of myself, 17 years old and still afraid of so many things. Ugh, I need to grow up!

Discrimination lives within everyone

Discrimination, it is an act of making a distinction against people who are different from us, different in terms of the colour of our skin, our sex and even our age. I believe that discrimination lies within everyone. We tend to discriminate even though we are clearly aware that it's not right to do so. Why can't we just be a bit more open-minded and just accept everyone for who they are? I mean, we all live under the same sun and walk under the same moon. Why can't we all live as one? Some people discriminate because they have this mentality of being prejudiced against people who are different, but some people discriminate simply because they find satisfaction in doing so.

One of the discriminations that I should point out is racial discrimination. Racial discrimination involves treating someone unfavourably because he or she is of a certain race or has a different skin colour. In America, the Native Americans are often labelled as the ‘Blacks’ whereas the European Americans are labelled as the ‘Whites’. The ‘Whites’ are more privileged by law in matters of voting rights and also citizenship. This is just wrong! Everyone should be treated fairly, and not be prejudiced due to the colour of their skin. Moreover, we, Malaysians also have the habit of discriminating others. As we all know, Malaysia is a multiracial country, and problems like these are inevitable. For an example, the Malays and the Indians give people 'bad impressions' in a sense that we always think they are the ones who commit the crimes.  Here are some examples: 'Someone snatched your handbag? Must be an Indian!" or "The person driving in front drives like a snail! It must be a Malay woman with a tudung!” Furthermore, the Chinese are also known the “frauds”. The Chinese are the ones who con people's money. Everyone seems to have that way of thinking and I think we should stop it because honestly, it's just shallow to even think like that.

Besides that, people are also prejudiced based on their age. For an example, a 50 year-old woman gets retrenched at work because she was told that she’s not young enough. Old people might not the qualities that young people possess but at least they have more experience. Yes, old people have the experience that young people do not have. That doesn’t mean that old people are incapable of performing their task well because they’re useless. However, young people get discriminated too.  Apparently, the young ones are too inexperienced and their mind-set is too immature. We should not think like that because some young children are geniuses and they happen to be the smartest people in the world. For instance, Mozart started playing when he was at the age of three, and he had his first symphony at the age of eight. Young people might not have the experience but they’re capable of achieving something great at a young age. This shows that we should not discriminate others based on their age. Everyone is competent to accomplish something, be it at the age of 5 or the age of 80.

On top of that, there is also another form of discrimination where men are often favoured by other people because they are the more capable ones, compared to the women.  Back in the days, women have no rights and status or whatsoever.  Women get discriminated all the time because they are “weak” and just “amateurs”.  What’s worse is women themselves kill girl babies because they prefer boy babies. How shallow is that? Moreover, women can only stay at home and take care of their family while men go out and earn a living. Now, in the 21^st century, women are stronger than before. For an example, America’s no.1 talk show host, Oprah Winfrey was voted as one of the most influential woman in the world. Despite experiencing hardship during her childhood, she continues to be determined to inspire other women in the world. I believe that women are as competent as men and if they were given the opportunity to work instead of staying at home, they could even accomplish much more than men. They can even “shine” brighter than men.

And yes, “discrimination lives within everyone”, but that doesn’t mean we cannot change this mind-set of ours. We should grow up and think like a mature adult. Everyone might be different in their own way but that’s what makes us special. We can’t discriminate others for being special. Everyone should be treated equally and not be prejudiced based on our skin colour, age or our sex. Lastly, living in a multiracial country teaches me to be more open-minded and not be a racist at times. We should not hold grudges and find faults with friends of another race. Instead, we should find out what’s wrong and just try our best to correct it. Even a simple “sorry” can change everything. 

Here comes the sun doo doo doo doo

Hello there! Got back most of my results this week, not very satisfying but I can't complain much cause I  didn't do my best for this term. Oh well, just gonna buck up. No point feeling sad and disappointed! I should live my life to the fullest and enjoy every single moment of it :) 

Speaking of enjoying life, I stayed back after school for lunch with Christina, Joy, Sean, Pn Ng and Lion Chris on Thursday. We had Dim Sum and it was sooo yummy :D Christina and I 'sapu'-ed most of the food because we were too hungry! *cough cough. I'm looking forward to our next lunch outing already, can't wait to have some GAY CRABS :P And le sigh, I'm gonna miss all of this so much after stepping down. I know I always complain about my workload and not being able to find time to study, but I'm proud to say that I've never regretted joining Leo. Leo gave me a wonderful experience and I treasure these memorable moments a lot :') Words cannot describe the bond that I have with my Leo family and if you would give me another chance to live my life all over again, I'd still choose to be in Leo hehe.

Moving on, I had a lot of fun hanging out with the tuition buddies on Friday! :D Sze Yuin, Ji Xian, Zhi Hao and I went to Jojo's Little Kitchen for the infamous Chilly Pan Mee before tuition. YUMS FOR OUR TUMS :)

Mmmm, doesn't it look yummy? 

After that, we went to Starbucks cause there was this Happy Hour promotion where all frappucinos are half-price. So thankful for that and I finally satisfied my Green tea frap craving, after so long! 

Definitely the best green tea drink ever, beats Chatime's green tea latte anytime :)

Oh and it's Father's Day today! Wished my daddy first thing in the morning and headed off to Paradigm mall for a Father's Day lunch. Had Japanese buffet in a restaurant called Sukiya, I think. It was quite good :))) and that also explains why I can't go for Cheer 2012. I wanted to go so badly after watching their dance routine in school. Both teams were great! That "kan cheong" moment when I'm refreshing my tweets at home to check on the results updates. And congrats to Dynamitez for getting 2nd! WE ARE PROUD OF YOU, SAY WE ARE PROUD OF YOU. Wished I was there to support them though :/ Oh well, daddy's more important and I still get to catch their performances on Youtube heh (Y)

That's all for this week! Stay tuned, peeps :)

Letter

Dear Editor,

I have come to realize the inappropriate behaviours of us, Malaysians that are slowly putting our country to shame. We tend to do all kinds of things that are said to be 'what Malaysians normally do' and don't we feel embarrassed at all? For an example, if we could just take a look at the cleanliness of our country and make comparisons with the cleanliness of our neighbour, Singapore. If you would notice, Malaysians like to litter and the litter bins provided are not fully utilized at all. What nonsense is this? The litter bins are there for a reason and why can't we be more civilized and just throw our rubbish in the rubbish bin? Besides that, let's not forget about the inconsiderate smokers in our country. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against people who smoke, but smoking in non-smoking zones? These smokers have to grow up and think of the consequences of what they're doing. When they light up a cigarette, thousands of poisonous chemicals are released and it's very harmful to the people surrounding them. Many innocent people were diagnosed with lung cancer due to passive smoking. Can't they be a little more considerate? Moreover, I would also like to point out the rudeness of Malaysians. Some people are just so rude, they don't even apologize for their wrongdoing. Furthermore, I've once encountered an incident when an old lady tried jumping the queue by cutting in front of my sister and I. She was so rude! At least try to understand how we exhausted we feel queuing up for so long and not just cut in and pretend like nothing happened. Lastly, I really hope that you'll publish more articles regarding the inappropriate behaviours of Malaysians so that we can at least have some self-reflection and change for the better.

Yours sincerely,
Pei Ming

Home is wherever I'm with you

Hi again! My 2 weeks of holidays were quite eventful! I've headed to the prefect's camp 1 day after coming back from Langkawi. I was so exhausted by the time I reached home and I still had to pack for another camp and reach school at 7.30 the next morning. We reached the Genting View Resort after a 45 minutes drive. The place was better than expected and the weather was perfect (Y)

We did tons of extreme activities like abseiling, rock climbing and flying fox (one of my favourite!). Besides that, there were also other team building activities like human bridge, the giant finger, spider web and funny activities carried out in the training room. This year's jungle trekking was very challenging for me because, first, it was drizzling, the ground eventually turned wet and all of our shoes were stuck in the mud :( I almost slipped a few times because the ground was too slippery and the sole of my shoes didn't have enough grip. Had to hold  Jia Yin and Jia Qi's hands while walking. Yeap, it was thaaat slippery!

Some of us stopping for a group photo in the middle of the jungle :)

 Group picture - Zhao Wei, Su Wei, Me, Jia Yin, Sher Wu, Yi Ling, Chia Ray, Hoong Yoong and Christopher

 Chicken goggles on!

Group name - Heart Attack! We attack each other with love ;)

 

Overall it was quite fun! I guess things turn out better when you have lower expectations to it :) And it was my first time staying in an apartment with 10 other girls! We were all so crazy haha 

Moving on, Sze Yuin and I had an advanced birthday celebration with Jia Yin :) We went to Pavilion and I ate my first 'Spanish creme brulee' and it was like foodgasmmm :P We also watched this interesting movie called 'What to expect when you're expecting'. It was really good comedy! Hilarious and it has its heartfelt moments :') It was an 8/10 for me hehe.

Other than that, I think I've spent half of my day with Miss Christina Choo hehe. Also had a pre-birthday celebration with Hui Qing, Edalene, Jia Hui and Chai Lee in the morning and another Leo dinner in the evening. Went to her house and played Wii before that, she totally crashed me in Mario Kart, ahhh so embarrassing :(

Ohh well, I guess that's all for the holidays! Time to go back to school and ahhh face more disappointments with a capital D :(

Leo Forum 2012

Hey hey ho ho, I'm gonna talk bout this Leo event I've attended during the hols! It was held in Langkawi, most of us decided to go by plane because it's way comfortable than going by bus. Well, a night bus, to be precise. Although the air fare is more expensive, I still think it's more worth it :) Anyways, I've reached LCCT at 6 ish on Saturday, to meet up with my fellow friends, Christina, Clarisse, Yu Hun, Joey, Xiao Yan, Yue Teng, Alison and Jia Yuin. Everyone looked so sleepy because it was the first day of hols and not to mention 6 something in the morning! We boarded the plane at 7 something and I'm glad that I got the window seat :D

A blur picture I took with my phone. Sorry for the bad quality! 

I love it when the plane speeds when it is about to take off,  it feels amazing! As if we were on a high speed roller coaster hehe. It took us less than an hour to reach Langkawi airport. We waited for the Forum committee to send us to the "resort". 

 Langkawi airport.

Us fooling around in the van hehehe

Soon after we've reached the "resort", we checked in and put all our luggage in one of the rooms. And off we went on a trip to the GEOPARK <3 Unfortunately those who took the night bus couldn't board the ferry in time and they couldn't make it for the trip. Ahh one of the reasons why I didn't regret flying there :) It took us around an hour to reach the place, with the Teacher Advisor of Assunta's Leo Club playing the role of a tour guide, introducing the history of Langkawi, which led to the legend of Mahsuri and also the history of our beautiful country. 

We had to get on cable cars of different levels to reach the best part of the place - the top of the mountain <3

Me, Christina and Clarisse in the cable car.

The scenery was breathtakingly beautiful! We could almost see the whole Langkawi island, well, almost! One of our friends, Sean got excited and started standing up to snap photos of the scenery heheh

 Group picture!

Me and Xiao Yan. The view is amazing, isn't it? :D

We even saw a group of Indonesian Leos and took a group photo with them. They were so friendly and nice! To me, that was the main highlight of the event. Love the beautiful scenery!  

Besides that, we had Fellowship Night and Banquet Night as well! Both nights were fun for me as I managed to bond with most of my friends. And the best part for me was the footloose! Most of us danced like there was no tomorrow haha. I hope no one saw me dancing the other day, must be really embarrassing! And I finally found my 'clubbing' partners, we even promised to meet up in Zouk KL next year. Ahhh it was so fun! 

Besides having fun, our school's Leo Club managed to get quite a number of awards this year. Extremely proud of our club! All our hard work has paid off :')

And that concludes my grandmother story for this post. I'll let the pictures do the talking for me :)

Till then!