Cindy

Long time ago, in a village, there lived a poor little girl, named Cindy. She lived with her family in a small but warm cottage. Although they were poor, they live happily together under the roof of their cottage.

Unfortunately, the plague invaded the village she was staying, a lot of the villagers were dead. Cindy was in a great grief. She was forced to find and rely on a rich landlord, who was her only relative because her family members were dead in a plague too; she was the sole survival of the whole family.

The landlord has 2 daughters. One is the prettier, Ally. She has long blond hair and slender figure. Another one is Betty who is not quite good looking and overweight. Betty’s stomach seemed like cannot be filled with food because she kept on eating. Both of them were just about Cindy’s age. When the sisters first saw her, plain and socially awkward, they were bitterly envious of the beautiful and charming Cindy.

The landlord was always away from home for some trading businesses, for weeks or even months. The family treated her nicely in front of the landlord. When he was away, Cindy was doomed. They abused and mistreated Cindy badly. They gave her a mountain of household chores to work on such as cooking, washing clothes and dishes, scratching the floor, cleaning the room, mowing the grass under the hot sun and etc. Every night, they made her working late until midnight and did not provide her with proper meals; she was treated like a maid rather than a relative of them. 

Cindy was very upset. She cried for every day in her room, praying that miracles will happen to her so that she can escape from this family and find a better life. She had several attempts to escape from the house but always being caught by her aunt and the sisters.

‘Oh God, please help me to get through with this, I can’t bear it anymore…‘, tears dripping down from her cheeks.

One day, she was walking under a durian tree which was full of ripe durian. Suddenly a durian was falling down, right on top of her head, nearly crashed on her head. She looked upward, swinging her arm. Something strange happened, the durian was freeze in the middle of the air. She tried to point the hanging durian and swing her arms to the side, the durian magically being thrown to the side. Only then she discovered she has magic to control anything she wants by just thinking of it.

‘That’s awesome! God had listened to my prayers. I must utilize this magical power very well. I am invincible! The first thing I need to do --- to punish uncle’s family who treated me like a slave.’

Since then, she started to rebel the family, punishing them by turning the house into a mess. She set up the traps, making bad things happen to them just like accidents. She overhang three of them on the trees, making them screamed terribly, set their bedrooms on fire, chasing them around with dogs and wake them up in the middle of the night. Cindy made them do the mountains of domestic chores just like they did to her. She wanted to take revenge, letting them undergo what she has suffered.  Three of them were mentally and physically exhausted and even fell sick, but she did not care, she wanted them treat her like princess. They have to obey her no matter how because they will get punished by Cindy if they disobeyed her.

'Please... Cindy, stop torturing us... we beg you....', her aunt cried.

‘Three of you deserved to have these punishments! Haha.. This is what we called karma! I’ll make sure you all to suffer twice as what I’ve been through.’

One day, her magic did not work out anymore, she has lost her magical power. Cindy was extremely sad and depressed for the reason that she will be abused by the uncle’s family again if they found out she has lost her magical power. She finally learned that things should be done moderately, she must not overuse her power to do things that are not really contributing. She also learned that one should always forgive people’s mistakes because human cannot be flawless. She apologized to her aunt and cousins.

 On the same day, the landlord came back and announced to them that he will spend more time with his family and Cindy. He will not leave them too often to do trading business.  He promised Cindy that he will to look after her, treating her just like his own daughter and will not let anything or anyone to harm her. The mother and daughters were not daring to abuse and harm her after they what they have been through. They have turn over a new leaf and promised to Cindy, as they will not treat her badly anymore and treat her like one of the family members. 

Finally, Cindy was living happily with her uncle’s and his family. She was so glad that good things will come to a person if she can face it toughly and well behaved. According to the rumours, Prince Charming has deeply fell in love with Cindy because of her good looking and personalities had attracted him. They met each other in a ball which is organized by the king in order to get his son married soon. Soon after that ball, they were getting married. In the end, they live happily ever after.

Mid autumn festival in my 2nd year of uni life...

Ii am carrying an orange lantern.  I used to play the plastic lantern, paper lantern is the second time I play since last year.

i'm the middle one with a lantern above my head

15th August of the Chinese calendar is the mid autumn festival. This festival is always related to the reunion of family, because the moon is often looks round, like a family gather round together.

In the second year of my university life, I expect I will spend this day in my room, with one of my roommate, just like what I did in last year. I can still remember during last year mid autumn festival, I was still very homesick and I wept silently in the room because I truly miss my home as I have never be left alone for this day. I was alone in my room because my roommates had gone out to celebrate. Every year, for the same day, my family will be gathered around to eat mooncake, pomelo, water chestnut and yam. I truly miss that moment now!

Yesterday, when my friend and I were walking on our way back to hostel, we saw a group of people were gathering at Desasiswa Nurani. Ok… Finally, I at least can see the atmosphere of mid autumn festival inside USMKK. At a distance from us, there were people lighting something on the road side. From far, you may think that they were burning the paper money, especially when it happened on the last month. Ha-ha….

We took a closer look, oh… they are my friends from Nurani, trying to light the candles of the lanterns. I have a lantern in my room, did not bring it along with me. So I join them to play too.

One of them came out an idea to have a lantern walk around the golf course. At first, we were scared as there is dark and no one will be hanging around at there at that moment. In the end, we walk in there. That area was not really dark because the road somehow like reflected the moonlight. In the dark, our lanterns looked nicer as it glowed brighter. The moon is totally round and the lunar halo is very big. After we came out from the golf course, we were sitting in the middle of the road and playing with the candles. They made up a ‘21’ on the road, indicating this is our 21st year of celebrating mid autumn festival. We lighted up the candles and put it off with 2 fingers and do it repeatedly. It was fun for me too. We played bubbles, candles, and lantern, eating Chacho’s under the bright, round and big moon.

this word is made by candles, nice, isn't it? haha..

This is an awesome mid autumn festival that I had in USMKK, a place far away from Penang Island (6 hours journey, I consider far), my home and my family. Thanks to all my friends who let me to join them! They accompanied me to celebrate mid autumn festival without me being alone. I truly feel better then last year except I still cannot have a reunion with my family.

A broken friendship

‘I am done with you. We will stop here.’ these are the last few words she left on my MSN chat box.

I met her when I was temporarily working as a runner in a hospital after SPM, the first time I have ever worked. Upon recalling,  the first time when I saw her, she has fair skin but looking quite pale. She did not smile when she see me, like a fierce tiger.  Her eyes are big, when she looked at me, as if she is scanning me thoroughly from inside out.  My first impression for her was that she may not easily to be friend with.

As time goes by, we turn out to be friend. We are getting closer and closer and I see her as my best friend. She is a kind person, who treats her friends very nice. For those she hates, she will show them that she really hates them, verbally or non-verbally. She will not conceal her feelings but I think she is better than the hypocrite who acts friendly to someone for other purposes.

We start to be closer after her boyfriend broke up with her. Before that she always complains that how bad his boyfriend treats her. I feel sorry for her too. I think she looks happier since they broke up. The day they broke up, she weeps uncontrollably on my shoulder and I try to comfort her, making her feel better. As a friend, I let her to lean on whenever she is broken down. Since then, we have our lunch together at 1pm as previously she is having lunch with her boyfriend. She will drive me to other places to have lunch whenever she has the car. We try to avoid the officer who wants to split up our lunch time together. We will ‘disappear’, off the sight of the officer when it is near 12pm after we notice that she might ask either one of us to go for lunch at that time.

She is an extremely funny person. For everyday, we make fun of the others, crack loads of jokes, laughing a lot till our stomachs cramp until the officer ask us to stop making noise. Sometimes we will ‘punish’ a particular person who deserves to be punished because that person is not responsible for her duty. One day when that person is late to come back from her lunch, she is so daring to page her to back to our department immediately. We are very dedicated to our job. I have to stress that we are very responsible in doing our job although we look like just playing around. The job is quite tiring as there are no chairs for us to be seated. We have to stand and walk around for the whole day. Saturday is the most tiring day as there are a lot of patients. We work for half day on Saturday, after that we will be ready, waiting until the clock strike 1pm, we will rush downstairs to the bakery to buy half priced buns and cakes as they give staff 50% discount for that day.
 

Finally it is the time to enroll into form 6. Before my last day of working, she gives me total 3 presents as my off-going gifts and treats me lunch. She says must give 3 presents to someone, because ‘3’ represents something good in Chinese beliefs. I reciprocate her by sending her 3 gifts too. Feeling sad to leave, as I think we may not have so many opportunities to meet up and have fun again. I am very sad to leave that working place, because I really enjoy every single moment working at there as some of the staffs treat me very well and she always brings laughter to me. I am glad to have friends who are very kind and caring.

Then, I have to concentrate on my form 6 studies and she is busy with her university studies, we lose contact gradually but sometimes we will chat on MSN. Until about a week ago, I saw her again in a hypermarket. I was excited to see her and want to talk to her but I was on the escalator which is heading downstairs. Few days later, she asked me to do her a favour.

Honestly, I think that is not a proper thing for me to help because if anything happens, I will be indirectly bringing troubles to another person. I cannot bear the consequences as the last thing I would like to do is to bring troubles to others. I rejected her, she said I am being  selfish and such a coward, there will be karma for rejecting her. Gosh, how could she say such a thing? That is an outrageous remark! Maybe I have pissed her off by the words I used to reject her. She is still able to figure out an alternative way to get what she wants, even though I rejected her. She ended our friendship, deleted my facebook account from her friend list and posted a sarcastic message all in capital letters on my facebook wall.  I was furious plus sad. Furious, due to every single harsh and rude word she used against me; sad, due to the pathetic way of our friendship ended. Honestly, she is all about my sweet memories of working at hospital, how could I just forget how nice she treats me so easily? Maybe it is due to some undesirable misunderstandings between us. I really have no idea why her reaction is so big when I refuse to help her. I am confused.

Someone told me that we must always remember how well our friends treat us and forget how badly they hurt us. For me, if I just think of how well she treats me, I will be very sad because I lost her as my friend, if I think it on the other way round, I will think that she does not deserve to have me as her friend. I think I better not to think about it anymore. Perhaps years later, all the misunderstandings have fallen apart, we will be friend once again, as the Chinese saying goes ‘There is no such thing as forever friend and forever enemy in this world’. But I think this saying may not be applied on the true friendship. True friendship will not end easily.

Being a waitress

 

After finishing the depressing STPM (it really depressed me as I even studied until I cried), I went for several job interviews, looking up for a part time job in order to fully utilize my time before the STPM result is released. I went to interview as runner, sales and waitress. Finally I ended up as a waitress, working at a café, few steps away from my house.

On the first day of my work, I was extremely exhausted. There were a lot of customers during lunch time because the pricing of the food in the café is not expensive for the set lunch. I was assigned to serve coffee, tea and dessert. Besides that, I have to clear the empty plates and bowls whenever the customers have done with their food, clean up the tables and do the settings. It was a whole day of walking and standing. When I return to my home, I barely can walk as my calves and feet were too sore, every movement of the muscles made me feel pain.

It was the café’s 5th year anniversary, at few days after I started to work. To celebrate the event, the owner of the café treated all her employees with mcD and bowling. This is the first time I play bowling and it is free. My bowling balls kept rolling into the ‘drains’ which are on the both sides of the bowling alleys. Finally, because of my teammates kept scoring, we managed to walk out with a bronze medal. There was an activity of exchanging Christmas gifts among the employees, I did not prepare any gift because I was only got informed that we were going to have an anniversary celebration in that afternoon after the café is closed. They exchanged the gifts by drawing the numbers and matching them with the numbers pasted on the gifts. Someone just ask me to draw and I got a gift too. That was a lucky day, or I shall say I am very lucky to be started working around that period of time, right before the anniversary.

I love working at the café as I was entitled to order the food except for drinks at the staff price. I have the chance to taste the food in order to know how the food tasted, so that I can explain to customers. This is the benefit of working as a waitress. Haha.

Working as a waitress has trained my way of communicating with people and controlling emotions. I have to be patient to customers' demands, be polite, keep my face smiling, bare with the customers’ behaviour until some extend and etc. Some customers are easy to please and some are very finicky. All I can do is to fulfil their demands as I do not want to be accused of delivering bad services. It trained me to speak more English as I have to communicate with customers, manager and the chef with English. My Hokkien dialect is improved too because there are two staffs where are English educated, could not understand mandarin.

After 6 months of working at the café, I resigned to continue my studies in USMKK, Kelantan, where it marks the beginning of my life staying independently.

Going home

YAY!!!!!!! The last blog i have posted is a poem named 'Home'. Finally, I am back to my home, after being 2 months away from her. According to my mum, I have lost some weight, which I do not think so, but I do wish that it is true. :)



The journey back to Penang Island is not as smooth as previous times. Firstly, the bus delayed due to some problems with it and it was sent to be fixed at around 8.30am. According to the schedule, the bus should be departed at 9.30am. I knew very well that the bus would not only take 1 hour to be fixed, ohhhhhhhhhh, which means I have to waste my precious time at the terminal bus station. In the end, the bus finally came at around 10.45am. I get on the bus, feeling excited to go home.


I have travel sickness, so I took a pill to prevent myself getting nausea and vomit, hoping to sleep all the way back to Penang. When the bus reached the rest station, I noticed the stalls at there were closed. I only brought a packet of biscuit along with me as I thought I could buy a burger as my lunch at the rest station. Sigh… Luckily my friend has some spare food, I was very thankful that she gave it to me or else I have to starve all the way home.


The bus moved on and it stopped at roadside after a while. The driver asked all the passengers to get down from the bus as it has broken down again. There came a bus from Nice company. I ascended the bus and the journey continued. I am so grateful that the bus came to pick us up is a nicer bus, from Nice company. It looks nicer than the former and it is a double-decker bus which is the first time I sit on it.


By the time I reached Penang Island is about 5.45pm, about an hour later than the usual time. I was exhausted yet feeling joyful at the fact that I finally can go home. I do not care about the obstructions and interruptions along the journey, what I concern the most is --- I can be back to my home safe and sound.


HAPPY HOLIDAY TO EVERYONE!!!! ^^

Home

It is an irresistible thought,
Keep occupying my mind,
A thought of going back to home,
A place where love and affection is overflowing.

I wish I was home,
The place where I belong,
The place where
Treachery, hatred and jealousy are not seen.

I wish I was home,
It cleanses me with raindrops, be nurtured,
Washing all the negative qualities built up within me
By this insanely decadent modern world;
It cleanses me with wind, be humble,
Making me bend into leaning,
Like it does to the tall grass.

I wish I was home,
I am not running away from home,
Just that I have
Goals to pursue in my life,
An opportunity to learn to grow up independently.

I wish I was home,
I am engaged in the middle of crossroad,
Between hope and despair,
All I need is a direction,
A direction where the home can guide me to,
A direction of going home.

I wish I was home,
The miles are getting longer it seems,
The closer I get to my home;
The shorter the distance heading to my home,
The higher the joys hopping in my heart.

Personal Experience- Drrrrrrrum

Our opening pose

Our ending pose

‘Pom… Pom… Pom…Pom…’ is the thunderous sound that we can often hear at the time from 5pm to 7pm, almost for everyday when the annual Chinese New Year Night is looming around the corner. Some people may find this sound is irritating or even see it as a kind of sound pollution. But for me, it is a very rhythmic sound that invigorates me after attending the class for whole day.

I am a 24 seasons drum team member who is passionate about playing drum. Initially, I went to play drum was merely for the sake of fun. After the practice, I was physically exhausted, my limbs like almost being torn apart. So, I have decided to not going ever since.

Few months later, after the audition for CNY night performers, someone has dropped the bomb shell to me, informing me that I was chosen to be in the drum team. I was miserable that I got chosen and thought of quitting it as I know that this is not an easy performance. It is a very time and energy consuming practice.  I went to the first practice.  After that, I felt that it was quite fun playing drum. I had watched the amazing drum performances before in my secondary school, played by my school drum team girls (as my secondary school is a girl school with zero boy students), I enjoy watching it and I wish I could be one of them too.  In the end, I have decided to give myself an opportunity to try this new thing in my life. I believe in myself that I am able to play the drum well although it seemed like a mission impossible for me. After all I still got the chance to perform on the stage without being alone. 

Until now, I have no regret of joining drum team as I really find that there is loads of fun in playing drum. I thought i could not play well because I feel like my body and limbs are really not able to coordinate very well and some of the steps are really hard to be memorized. The saying ‘practice makes perfect’ is very apt. I did practice very hard even in my room. Finally I was able to play the whole sequence with the minimal mistakes during the performance. It was extremely tiring and I have spent a lot of precious time on practicing it, yet my final result for that semester is better than the previous semester. :) I think that those sacrifice is worthy because I do enjoyed every moment when all the drum team members gathered around, together we cracked jokes, crapped a lot and laughed like a lunatic after the exhausting practises. The whole practice is full of bruises, injuries, wounds, depresses, laughter, joys and happiness which make it very unforgettable.

me and my drum

my drum

Listen, the sea is breathing….

Everything is quiet at the seashore, except the endless silvery waves lapping hungrily at the sand, and then receding like an ever-swinging pendulum, perpetually.  The sea is indistinguishable from the sky at the horizon, except the sea is slightly creased as if a silky cloth has wrinkles on it. The palm trees sway gracefully following the soft rhythm of the breeze, enjoying deeply and mesmerized by the lullaby sung by the sea. The air is filled with the tangy taste of brine and the tropical heat is bathed with the soothing coolness of the breeze. The general atmosphere is one of tranquility.

The sea is my safe house. I feel at peace whenever I look at the sea. The breeze is like my mother’s arms, gently cuddling me with warmth, comforting me whenever I am upset, depressed and hurt by anything around me. As I listen, the breeze whispers to me, encouraging me to be tougher, armed me with strength and force to fight against any tiny, or even gigantic obstacles in my life. As I walk along the shore, my bare feet sink softly into the sand and within a few seconds, the footprints are soon effaced by the waves. It is like the waves have carried and effaced all the worries, anxieties and grieves that had once etched my mind.
It melts the sorrows and fears that haunted me. The birds are chirping away on the trees nearby. One bird chirps high up, another chirps lower down. The joyful melody of the birds is slowly draining away the irritating thoughts and grieves from my mind. Looking and listening to the sea is certainly refreshes and invigorates a person. It gives me renewed energy to face life and its enormous challenges! 

Shhhhh… Listen quietly…..

A Vacation To Remember

The trip to Redang Island was memorable and unforgettable. We decided to have a break right after the final exam on this island.

It was a 3 day 2 night trip. I was totally attracted by the breathtaking scenery on this island. The sea is crystal clear and it comes in tones.

This was the first time I experienced snorkeling, taking a peek of the marine lives. It is so amazing that there is another different world on the earth other than the land. I have always been afraid of getting into deep water. When the wave hit me, my body was floating with the face facing upward. I was terrified, screaming “Help! Help!” as if I were drowning. My friends laughed at me for that. 

My 21st birthday fell on the second day of our trip. This island witnessed me officially turning into an adult. This was the first time I celebrated my birthday away from my hometown in Penang Island. I celebrated it on another island instead. My friends gave me a surprise by preparing a pile of Apollo layered cakes with a candle to replace birthday cake. It was a simple yet creative ‘birthday’ cake. Initially, they pretended not knowing about my birthday. They sing birthday song to me at the sea shore, under the bright moonlight, with the sea breeze caressing our face. Such moment must be cherished and treasured.

For the first time, I went for jungle trekking with slippers. I noticed there are many torn slippers were abandoned along the track. I worried that my slippers would have torn too, I should have wear sport shoes at first. Luckily, everything went on smoothly throughout the journey. There is another view of the sea at the end if the trek.

Before leaving the island, I bought some souvenirs for myself and friends. Since there are a lot of my first-time happening on this island, the sweet memories will always being kept in my heart.

The first hello

Hello… this is my first blog and today is my first day of writing blog. ^^ Honestly, I’ll never think of blogging, this thought has never strike my mind even for a second. I’d never think of doing so because I am no expert of English, each sentence is full of grammatical errors, not very able to use sophisticated words, get all those tenses mixed up and etc. I'll try my best to make it better. But I do believe that my writing is better my speaking, that is why I chose to be in the creative writing class.

Two days ago, I have created this blog. Yesterday, I was trying to upload my essay to the blog. Somehow my post cannot be saved and it said ‘post was not saved due to form errors’. I don’t even know there is a ‘correct’ form to post a blog. I’ve tried many times still cannot succeed, really frustrated with it. Finally, I gave up. There are so many complications in the world of computer, which is why I only love using computer to play computer games and watch dramas.

To be honest, I create this blog is because of our English teacher ask us to do so. But I might take this blog as a platform to sharpen my English language skills; perhaps it might be a chance for me to cultivate my creativity too. Let’s go creative!!