Three Lines of Happiness

mirror by ~YimWingTsun on deviantART

Sometimes in our pursuit for happiness, we are ultimately forced to endure or face many of our unpleasant and forgotten fears – particularly the ones stuffed in a hatched, buried six feet deep below our emotional surfaces. As this process persists, it continues with the salvaging of ugly truths and discomforts that we, long ago, sought to lodge in the back of our minds. A treasure trove of memories… and the relentless wave of emotions start pouring in.


I find it quite strange how little words of reassurance can have a big impact on the way you feel about yourself and consequently how it comes to play with your social interactions. You wake up, take a good shower, wash your face and stare at yourself in mirror: the dark spheres dilate and contract as your mind tries to adjust itself to what it sees. It’s as though you’re watching a familiar yet unrecognizable face glare back at you, trying to decipher what they were thinking – what could possibly be running in their minds.

Eyes closed.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Open.
Again you find yourself staring at the stranger in front of you.
As strange as it sounds, you’re only staring at yourself.

You breath in again and say to yourself:
I am strong.
I can do this.
I will do this.

.The end of Oasis.

Some sad news I came across today: my favourite britband the Oasis may appear to have drawn their final curtain to their shows - it seems like they've split for good since their lead singer and main songwriter Noel Gallager has quit.

Photo taken from here.

Awww... I think it's a pity as personally I find them to be a good band that have consistently produced the same type of good music for years, which I think is something that is really hard to do nowadays!

Not sure if you would share the same p.o.v as myself, but lately I seem to see that "artists" remarket themselves by adopting the typical and standard song genres to easily generate money. Case in point: Britney Spears (from pop music, her songs now have a techno-feel to it and let's face it techno-songs don't really require people to be vocally amazing).

Sungkai at Yallambie

Feeling a little knackered at the moment due to the lack of Zzzzzz! Seriously, I should be catching up on some major beauty sleep tonight but... after a quick glance at the clock, I can't say that I'm actually going to get it... hahahaha...

Had gone to bed at 4 in the morning last night for god knows what... I can't really remember for some reason - Actually... I think it was because we were doing last minute clean-ups after arriving home at 2 in the morning (late night coffee with the boys and Nz at Lincontrro). Tt wntd us out of the apartment by 12 so we had to ensure the house was clean and ready for the property agent who was hosting an open house inspection later on that day.

Between 12pm and 4pm, it was all hustle and bustle as I try to manage window shopping, baking and getting ready for tonight's dinner event at the same time. Oh well, it's safe to say I managed through it all, darting from Southern Cross to Coles to Yallambie in a span of 4-5 hours.

Tonight's event was co-hosted by two families living in Yallambie. Both husbands are here to study music with the Australian Armed Forces Band and have bought along their family to live with them here in Melbourne.

Top: The two families hosting the one of many Sungkai for Ramadan dinners.
Bottom: A few of the lovely ladies present for the event

The event was certainly a good one: lots of good food, lots of good friends, tons of laughter and tons more photos! (oh yeah!) I was fortunate enough to have Mn lend me his flash gun for the night and I got to try it out for fun - which was certainly a good thing as recently I had just purchased my very own flash unit from ebay. So tonight was a good crash course to flash photography!

Some of the desserts from tonight's dinner

Tons of food (of different types) were to be found that night. Not surprisingly the dessert section was almost cleaned out, but that doesn't mean to say that the main course wasn't good. Dear god, I have to say it has been SUCH a long time since I've had food cooked Brunei-style. Now I really can't wait to go home and spend time in Brunei for Eid celebrations!

After the break of fast, words of prayer were said to bless the holy month

It was certainly a good get together with plenty of laughter, which is one of the things I always look forward to when I know I have dinner with my Bruneian friends and I'm very appreciative of the support they provide to you when you're in need of one. The close-supportive family-oriented units are very helpful to you, particularly if you are alone and away from home.

Some more of the faces from tonight's events.
I was quite pleased that I had ended up with 300+ photos.
To view more, check them out here: 08.29.09 - Yallambie Sungkai

Sunset Walk

I returned to Docklands the other day. In truth, I was feeling quite lonely and depressed so I wanted some time alone to get my perspectives back into view. So I headed over to the other side of town and found myself walking around discovering other parts of Dockland that I've never set foot before. It was freshening.

This photo was taken as the sun was starting to set over Docklands. I love shooting the sunset scene there because the colours come out so vibrant - was even lucky enough to have a pedestrian walk across my frame of shot as I was clicking the camera. It turned out to be once nice shot.

Melbourne Cake Lollies

I made these batch a while back. Got bored on a cold Melbourne afternoon and was suddenly struck by the sudden urge to bake - maybe it was just an excuse to stand in front of the hot oven to keep myself warm? Hahahaha... Nonetheless, it was good. By the end of it, I had discovered one of the few pleasant delights in my life: Cake Lollies. Nice warm home-baked cake lollies.

The idea dawned on me when I came across my mother's foodblog, or as I like to call it: flog hahaha - now that I've said it out loud.. it sounds ugly. Hahaha.. anyhow back to my mother. My mom is so cute!! I just adore her. Over the summer, I taught my mother this new idea of making cake lollies, or as she likes to call them cake balls and ever since I left for Melbourne, I had completely forgotten about them up until I came across my mom's.... flog. hahaha

So yeah, there I was walking about in the kitchen, pondering on what I could make when I saw... the pack of lolly sticks in the inventory drawer and the mountains upon mountains of chocolate in the cupboard....

Ten minutes later, voila!

.Regreso.

Yup folks, I'm back - for how long? I can't really say. lol. You may have notice some subtle changes I've made towards the layout of my blog. Well actually no, I've made a dramatic change... hahaha... I've changed EVERYTHING on it. Solely based on reasons of boredom and plus, previously I was simply following crappy advices and feedbacks from only one person. I never realised how crappy and confusing the previous layout was. So now, i'm opting for simple. He he. Will it be better this time? I don't know, time can only tell.

So what have I been up to as of late?

Tons and tons of things. I think it's a pity though, that in the past two months, I've only blogged twice when so much has happened. Hopefully within these next few days/weeks/months, I may be able to show off what I've missed blogging. Hehehe... So start off...

Perhaps I'll just start with the first day of Fasting month: more specifically the opening of fast. For those not familiar with this fasting season. Every year in the Muslim calender, there is a holy month whereby muslims will not eat or drink from sunrise to sunset. It is also important during this holy month for muslims to practice good behaviour or at least attempt to be morally good. I suppose you can see it as a character-building experience: you reflect upon yourself and discover a few things about yourself that you never really knew until then.



This was taken on the first night of ramadan. A few close friends had planned this dinner weeks ahead to celebrate the start of ramadan with good friend and good company. We had steamboat that night, or in some places, they call it hot pot. With a huge array of seafoods (shellfish, shrimps/prawn, fish cakes, veggies, mushrooms, etc) cooked in one of two soup broths: spicy tom yum or chicken. Dinner was finished off with another huge selection of desserts: banana-toffee crumble thingy (lol sorry i forgot the name), chocolate rice crispies, hot molten brownies and lots more... lol

We were spoilt for choices. Dinner didn't end until 2 in the morning as we each took our time to eat and enjoy the food. Dear god, that being said... it was safe to say none of us felt the hunger pangs the next day during our fast!!

Don't worry... I'll be back soon