2015 in a wrap.

First and foremost, I failed to blog back-to-back. I was half asleep upon finishing the post yesterday.

Day 365. 2015 has been a great year so far.

I strongly believe counting blessings is a great way to bid a year goodbye, and to usher in brand new year. Positive vibes eh?

When I look back now at 2015, I am thankful for:

1. TRAVEL

So lucky and blessed to have traveled a lot this year. 

Don't think I'll be able to break this record in a long time.

I am thankful, but at the same time looking forward to more destinations in the years to come.

so many places to see, so many cultures to experience, so much food to try.

2. NEW PHONE

more like parents' unconditional love. They're still using laggy Samsung phones with limited space.

I am not actually a person who changes phone to follow the trend, praying this will last me a good many years. Thankful for much better quality photos, matters a lot to someone like me who takes photos on a daily basis. And I am secretly wishing I'll be able to upgrade phones for the family once I start working.

3. COMPLETED MY DEGREE

master gave Dobby a mortar board, Dobby is a free elf!!!

Hahah, I am aware how easy it is to gain a degree nowadays, but still, it is a milestone. *pats self on back for going through 4 years of university* I am quite done with formal education, thanks to the lecturers and lovely coursemates I have met along the way. Do you believe every time you meet a new person, you leave a different person? Words cannot express how thankful I am for this entire journey and the University itself? I am a proud UM graduate!

4. FRIENDS

the fixed ones, a few of them whom I can trust my life with.

and many others whom I didn't get to take photos with. One of my regrets is never staying behind long enough to take group photos with my coursemates. I hope all these bonds will last forever. I don't even know how to begin thanking each and everyone of these awesome people. They have truly painted my life with vibrant colours.

and also these 3 since secondary school. thanks for always being there.

Being all over the world, our circles are no doubt getting bigger and moving apart. We get caught up in our individual drama(not much drama actually, we are peaceful[boring] people) and life, but I know support is always just a Whatsapp/WeChat message away. **And I think we have all grown into (quite) beautiful ladies as compared to the above photo. haha

4. THIS GUY

yeah, this guy.

For almost 4 years by now, I have been loved. Sounds cheesy, but I know it is true. I look forward to many more years, many more cheesy confessions and many more stupid fights with this dark brown , human-sized happy pill. hahahaha.

5. FAMILY

nuff said right?

steadfast love and support. Growing up in a happy family, I always thought broken families only exist in sample essays, storybooks, TV, and Moral textbooks. Of course, reality dawned upon me as I grew up. So lucky of me to be born into my family, they mean the world to me.

How did you spend your New Year's Eve?

mine was pretty well spent with my best friend over comfort food and a jug of beautiful tea.

What do I wish to achieve in 2016?

A job.

Charity.

Change in lifestyle.

I'll add more onto the list later on.

Have yourself a happy new year's eve and a blessed new year ahead!

#63: Hiking Dates

63rd post of the year, at least I am doing a bit better than last year, but how on Earth did I manage up to nearly 200 posts per year previously. I know It's year end and I should probably be drafting my usual year end post (or did I miss it last year?), so I'll do it right after this post; blogging back to back sounds cool and I might have always been doing this during my active blogging days. What a long rant, sign of aging or what.

Anyway, like I had mentioned in the previous post, I wanna blog about our hikes to To'kun Hill in Bukit Mertajam because it is quite a good date idea (free somemore!) plus a pretty good hike, and mainly because while dragging my heavy self breathlessly onto the hill, I remembered what a previous hiker said about the hike uphill, in her blog she said it was only around 3.6km! False hope ALWAYS make things harder, we checked on our way up that we were nearing 3.6km, but NOWHERE near the peak. 

so this was where we ended up during hike number 1. the scenery was breathtaking, I was exhausted, and breathless. literally took my breath away. lol lol. plus, I had a flight to catch that afternoon.

good thing is that the track is well-shaded by trees so the Sun isn't a big problem.

JUST LOOK AT THE BLUE SKY OOOH. Almost worth the terrible muscle pain that lasted up to 3 days hahaha. Should probably take leg day seriously. 

I was joking, I don't do leg day. hahaha.

and then, about two weeks later, we went again. this time, with no time restriction because my interview was canceled T.T, leaving us with a whole day to waste. 

slowly we made our way up, wayyyy past our stopping point during hike #1. mind you, the climb was QUITE STEEP. It looks real innocent, but you feel the elevation, grr I have to build up my stamina or my breathing or whatever. so when we finally reached the top and checked, it is actually a 5km hike uphill! and we made it, we made it! 

6950 steps. I think it took us an hour plus, less than 2 to reach the peak.

just to see these. *roll eyes*

trying hard to convince myself they're close replicas of the Eiffel and Tokyo towers HAHAHA.

guess the first stopping point was a better choice. but at least we reached the peak, yayy! =D

and look at the number of floors we covered! isn't it spectacular.

going down took another 1 hour

this round, I only had VERY VERY minor muscle pain which came and went in a day's time.

So I guess it is safe to say that the Tokun Hill is quite a nice hiking choice for a too-much-free-time-need-to-do-things period.

Ignoring the very big ants and monkeys that make their way around, of course.

"Where are you going?"

"The road not taken, said the boyfriend."

"..." *roll eyes*

and then it was lunch time at the BM pasar: lohmee with hot chocolate. weird huh, cool kids eat all the different things.

any entry is an entry.

I really want to write something but I have no idea what.

Life has been boring recently, being unemployed. 

And it doesn't really help having everything long distance: my good friends, my sister, the boyfriend. 

So within this period of time, I have actually been to two job interviews. I turned down the first because I don't know, I don't think I am ready for a lifetime of teaching, that's ... I don't know, not very ideal for me I guess. As for the second job, I have flown to Penang twice, but somehow, I am now left hanging. Let's not get into the details. I think I will love this job, but then again, that's just what I think. 

Pretty boring huh. The mundane life is slowly killing my creativity. I can feel it in my thoughts, the photos I take, the captions I write, the way I see things. Thank God there are still books to read. Kinda wanna go back to church, kinda wanna celebrate Christmas in church. IT'S ALMOST CHRISTMAS, YAY. I am meeting my high school best friend later, YAY.

Current activities: 

1. the gym
2. singing on a Karaoke app 
3. reading random books
4. baking
5. ... and that's about it. 

Well at least I feel myself slimming down, which is good news.

Erm, here's a pretentious photo showing that I am leading a healthy and active lifestyle lol.

(I was just very happy because the gym bought a new yoga mat)

** Reminder to self: blog on my previous hikes okay at least there's something to do the next time I turn on the laptop.

Off to the gym, BYE!

Chicken soup for a chocolate lover's soul

Mum once asked me what epic meant. After much effort on my part trying to explain to her, she just couldn't seem to get me. 

Just half an hour ago, I was baking. 

Who doesn't love brownies right?

Mum was also busy in the kitchen. She helped me get the chocolate chips from the fridge, but the cake batter wasn't ready for immigrants yet. So she continued doing her stuff. 

Suddenly, she gave a slight cry. Mdm Jessie added the whole container of chocolate chips into the chicken soup. Chicken soup for a chocolate lover's soul. Hahaha omg I find myself very humourous.

"Mum, what you just did, that was epic,"

Finally she gets me.