The Zestful IcedNyior

I was cleaning some of the boxes at the bottom of my cupboard the other day. There are two boxes which most probably haven’t opened since moving from Miri way back in 2004 so its mostly stuff, presents, knickknacks which I accumulated when I was in Curtin. Surprisingly, I found a huge envelop full of greeting cards - mostly Christmas and birthday cards given to me by my friends.

Nowadays people just send online greeting cards which are common and boring. But I saw this site in which you can order Photo Greeting Cards. All you have to do is choose a type of card then upload your photo and tell them how many orders you want. The card shown below is an example really adorable Christmas card of a baby.

We should start reviving the practice of sending cards through snail mail because nothing beats receiving a real card with a personalized handwritten message inside.

I found that 2007 was great. I enjoyed myself most of the time. It wasn’t like the previous years which was rather crappy with extreme highs and lows - its the low points that really wear me out. However this year was different.

Here’s a recap of the past 12 months :

• January : I was still using my old domain (midnightdances.com). The new year was good with loads of new stuff
• February : Had my first open house since I came to KL. Its actually an invite-only makan2 for Chinese New Year.
• March : Had marvelous steamboat - too much food for too little people, as usual Oh and also got my first laptop.
• April : Took my first outstation trip to Seremban using the ktm. Got into my first (and worst) accident. Picked up a girl left at the side of the highway - there’s this interesting story about how she got there.
• May : Changed domain names. Started submitting those meager attempts i like to call ‘photography’ - still a huge work in progress.
• June : Had a craze for papercrafts. Celebrated my grandfather’s 101th Birthday in Kuching. Went all the way to Mines for bowling.
• July : Went bowling again - my first jwg gath. Went for another gathering but this time with bloggers. Started my foray into blogging for money. Oh,Mag came down from KK for a visit with her fiancee. Started my final year.
• August : Got 2 hamsters (but now one died because the other kept attacking it. RIP ) One of the biggest event in the Malay bloggers blogosphere happened - met lots of new friends. 50th Independence for Malaysia.
• September : The 1st iban advert shown in TV. Heroes Season 2 starts. I turned 22.
• October : Got addicted to Catan. Got my very own Car. Gegar Raya 2007.
• November : Spoke my mind and disappointed a lot of people in the process. Had the most fantastic time in Pangkor. My first political-based post. Got into my second accident of the year.
• December : Relaunching of Zestful Eats. Had a slight panic attack about uni related stuff. Apa nama kambing? Read about it here. Joined the Msian Youth Dotcom Search. You can vote for me on the top right.

Its been a great year - I’m very happy with my life and where I am at this moment. Lets hope this positive streak stays till next year.

Have a Happy New Year folks!

Happy birthday to me Im officially 21 today, legally able to hv consenting sex, vote, drink alcohol, enter clubs (even tho i’ve been doin that for the past 5 yrs) but honestly, to everyone else, its just another normal day.

But for me, its a day that I smile to myself because Continue reading » »

[Time] sometime after 3-4 am
[Date] a Saturday early 2004
[Venue] Miri, Sarawak

Now that I recall, it was a really dark night, no moon and not a star in the sky. My friends and I were about to go back after a night of fun, clubbing, dancing and drinking. The club was the heart of town about 30 mins from our campus.

There was 5 of us in the car. K (the extremely cute driver) from brunei, C (an exchange student from Aussie) in the front passenger seat, B (also from brunei) sitting in the middle of the back seat with L (my best fren) on his right and myself on his left.

A note on B, he’s what some people call gifted, special or can sense. He said its passed down from his ancestors. He can sense and sometimes even see and here things. And ‘things’ have a tendency to disturb him, switching his house lights on and off, staying in his toilet - but they never cause him hurt, just a little inconvenience

There was two ways to go back to our campus from town. One is through the main road which goes through 2 roundabout and another is the back way which passes though some shoplots. We were deciding which road to take when someone - i forgot who - said “lets go through the other way.” L & I looked at each other - we (even tho we are Sarawakians) have never dared go through this road after dark.

This other way passes through 2 cemeteries - which are on both sides of the road. First a Malay one, with a rusty looking iron fence surrounding it with a few trees of bunga kemboja - those white flowers with a yellow center - and lots of batu nesan scattered, some wrapped with white cloth. Next a Chinese one, with elaborate tombstones, big and small. Imagine a dark still night, with hardly any light, except for dim roadlights and the car’s headlights.

We were just having small talk while going through that road. C was drunk in the front, K was quietly driving when suddenly B said “K, drive faster“, “alar, why are you so scared?” K replied. B snapped back in a calm yet insistent way “Cepat skit K, ada benda ikut. Cepat.” Even before he said that I had already had this eerie feeling and I think L did to. K stepped on the gas and I grabbed B’s arm and closed my eyes, silently praying in my heart.

We didn’t dare speak until we were way out of town and K asked “ada lagi?“, and B bit his lip and nodded his head “uhuh” in a rather worried and scared way. We got to B’s house (he rented a house offcampus) and I could still see the scared look on his face. “Wash ur hands and your feet the moment u get inside” he said, in a monotone. He went in and switched on a CD of some quran reading (i think). And only then he relaxed. And we never talked about it again.

Thats my closest experience about things in the “other side”.

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Phew, my first story. Its a true story, also publish in the Night Crossings blog (http://nightcrossings.blogspot.com)
I’d better mention it before anyone screams “repost!!”.

Enjoy!