A letter to 16 year old me

*saw this topic in several blogger sites and decided to blog too*

Dear 16 year old me,

I know you are studying in the best science stream class, thanks to your excellent results in PMR examination. Somehow, you won't feel happy and you will feel stressed during these two years. You will miss your friends in other classes and you will find yourself stopping by their classes more during recess time. Not to worry though because you will be reunited with them again in the same class when you enter sixth form. Yes, you will continue to study in the same school until Form 6. You make the wise decision to stay back for Form 6 as you want to stay closer to your family and you do not want to burden them with the private college high fees.

Despite the rumours that studying Form 6 is tough, you will manage to go through it with your close friends. You will be selected as a prefect and you will have more fun in the school. You will feel very happy as you have been class monitor and assistant monitor since Form 1, 3 and Form 4. You will also chosen as the prom queen (maybe you are lucky as your prom king is your partner for the night). Your school life will be very interesting at this stage so enjoy it.

Oh ya, you already met your first boyfriend when you were 15. Still remember the first CNY card that he sent to your class to get to know you? That time, you were quite surprised that a Form 5 boy sent you the festive card. But as time goes by, your relationship will turn bad when you were 17. You choose to stop the relationship as you are tired of the long distance relationship and you want to focus more on the coming SPM exam. He will be heartbroken as he thought you have met someone else. Although you will have several admirers but you only treat them as your friends.

As if everything is fated, you and your first love will meet again unexpectedly in St Mary's church one evening when you are 18 and you realize that you still have feelings for him. You will text him using your cousin's identity (too shy to admit that you still miss him). He decides to meet you and talk about it. On the 18th January 2003, you patch up with him (yes, that is the exact date). Please be good with this guy as he is really a great guy and he is the best that you can get. He puts you first in everything that he did. Try your best to love him and understand him more. Tell you one important thing, this great guy will be your future husband.

Academically wise, you will be accepted to study Cognitive Science degree in Unimas. You will have a great bunch of coursemates and you will know each of them well. You will have a good roommate named Ping Ping and the two of you will be bonded like sisters. You will also learn cooking skills from your great course partner named Kok Chen. Both of you will cook meals together, gossip together and endure the stress of studying the hardcore course together. You and Kok Chen will be the best pair in your course. You will love the lecturers in Unimas a lot as they treat you all like their own children. You will enjoy every moment studying there.

 

Upon finishing your degree, you will tag along with your childhood bestie to teach temporarily in a secondary school in your hometown. When the school principal asks you to choose between teaching History or P. Moral, you will reluctantly choose History as your bestie already told you beforehand that she doesn't want to teach History. You know you hate dislike History but you choose to give the best to her.

You will face many naughty kids during the 4 months of teaching there. You will try to create a fierce look by wearing your spectacles and smile less. You will be in charge of teaching History subject to all the Form 1 classes (Form 1A-1F), Form 2B, and Form 4A1. You will be asked to prepare exam question for those classes too. You will also become the class teacher to Form 4A1, meaning that you will have to prepare their report cards and meet their parents to discuss their results. Don't be scared because you can handle the task quite well.  

When you are 23, your high school sweetheart will pop the big question and both of you will get engaged on 010608. He will start working as a pharmacist while you are still doing your practical training in Sarawak Health Department. You will stay together with him in his rented house in Kuching and you will experience ups and downs in your relationship.

When you are 24, you will get registered with him on 070809 (yes, on your birthday). In September, your fiance will further his PhD studies in Glasgow and he will ask you to go with him. Both of you will compromise and you will promise to go there to accompany him once you finish your Master studies. You will experience the long distance relationship once again. This time, both of you will have mutual trust and communication.

Regarding the Master studies, your Mother advises you to go for it. She asks you to choose the same university with your younger brother and you agree. You will opt to choose between Educational Psychology and Counselling. After much consideration and seeking senior's advices, you will choose the former one. In the university, you will meet Jenau, Hawa, Fara and the four of you will be very close and always form a group together (only when the 4 of you register for the same subjects as all of you are doing different Masters). You will also have a good partner named Eyu Li and the two of you will have a great time studying together as full time students. You will find yourself enjoy studying with the teachers and listening to teachers' complaints about students and school.

You will enjoy staying in a hostel environment surrounded by international students (Indonesian, Iranian, China Chinese). You will meet wonderful roommates (Yi Hui, Yin Hsia) and you will have different rooms for every semesters, lucky you. You will have the urge of staying back for PhD but you remember that you have promised your hubby. Maybe, someday, somewhere you will get the opportunity to further it.

As soon as you finish your Master studies, you will prepare for your big day. You will be 25 that time. You will get married on the 9th June 2010. You will fly to Glasgow with your hubby and you will realize that you are the luckiest girl in the world. You will experience the four seasons there, walking among the 'angmohs', wearing scarfs, boots, trench coats, and experience the first drop of snow and walking in the muddy pool of melting snow. You will also learn to cook more and start to learn baking. You will also join the online UK survey which is quite rewarding. The most important, you will find yourself walking to the church for 15 minutes to foster a close relationship with God as you know He is with you wherever you go.

In short, your life will go on smoothly. You must always remember to count your blessings and stop comparing. I know you will feel dissatisfied at times but your life is very good already and many girls would love to have your life. You are one blessed girl.

Love,
25 going on 26 year old me

 

Sushi in Glasgow

We bought Sushi made by 'angmoh' at reduced price last few nights. It is a bargain as they normally reduced the price to half of the original price if the food is due on that day or the next day. If in Msia, they rather throw it away.

Includes wasabi, pickled ginger, chopsticks and soy sauce

The soy sauce comes in a mini fish size bottle

The fish bottle is so cute

BUT the sushi is just so-so only. The rice is too hard, not like the soft sushi in Msia. I miss the sushi in Jusco (my student life in JB). Miss roti canai, satay, ikan bakar, fried sotong, beef noodles ... *slurp*

Queens Park, Glasgow

*Sorry for the long absence. I'm lazy to blog these days as I'm too preoccupied doing UK online surveys. 

(Rewards = vouchers = shopping spree)*

Went to Queens Park with hubby on the 24th April (last month, obviously). Cost us £1.70 for the return tickets per person. I purposely chose that day to go to see Easter pets. Wondering how special Easter pets could be. This park also has horses, reptiles, flowers, ducks, pigeons and noisy seagulls. 

*excited me*

Nice effect by the tree

A large group (from Children's home, I guess) having a picnic.
 

We overheard a cute conversation between two children.
Boy1 asked, "How come only the adults in our groups are wearing blue scarfs?"
Boy2 replied, "Because they are the oldest among us all". Haha

Went inside this glasshouse to see the reptiles and Easter pets

Want to scare the children?

Fishy fishy come come

Family day out with baby

"Mek mek" haha. Baby talk lol

Chickens and bunnies

The popular Easter bunny of the day

Trying to capture the dandelion picture using camera phone

After that, blow it as hard as I could until it is 'naked' ^^"

Sakura feel

The ducks, pigeons and seagulls in the large pond

(If they are in Msia, I guess they will be gone within seconds or minutes)

Follow the route to see the horses

So many people waiting for the free ride. 

Hubby pitied the horses cos they have to pull a heavy carriage (many overweight people).

Our front seat view (the big butts). Haha

Happy faces

-Back to Glasgow station after a day out-

=ciao until next update ^^ =

Conversation vs Communication

My parish priest shares about this topic the other day and I really listen to his homily attentively. Some of the priests only put me to dozing mode with their boring homily. Sorry!

This priest talks about the difference between conversation and communication. All this while, I thought that those verbs - talk, chat, communicate, converse - all give the same meaning. He really enlightens me with the REAL communication. He said many marriages fail because the spouses fail to communicate. Their topics mainly revolve around their jobs and children. They forgot to include their own feelings and cares for each other.

Conversation = talk about any topics. It can takes place while watching tv, reading newspaper, magazines, books, eating, browsing websites, or playing games. We don't really look at each other while talking (hint* online chatting) and we don't really listen. As if our ears are listening or our eyes are reading the chat box messages but our minds are focusing elsewhere.

*click on the image to read larger fonts*

Communication = heart-to-heart talk, listen attentively to the other person. Involves eye contact, body language and tone. Personally, I think this kind of communication takes place during early courtship. But we still can communicate well with each other, provided that our hearts are still with each other.

That is why we normally heard that mutual communication is important in a relationship. But how many of us are really practising it? *reflect*

Always ask ourselves, "do we put in enough effort or we just take everything for granted?"

One more thing, always remember that God is utmost important in our lives. Remember to pray for His blessings and guidance to go on in a relationship.