I Am An Award Winning Blogger!

I got a pleasant surprise yesterday morning when I found out my lovely blogger friend Vix has passed on the Versatile Blogger Award to me! I’m so excited and happy to get an award, my very first blogger award, yayy…!!

My first blogger award!

Thank you so much for the honour, Vix!! Vix blogs at Little Miss Everything and has never failed to make me smile with her awesome posts. Go on, go check her out

I proudly proclaim that I accept the award

Hereby, as the recipient of the Versatile Blogger Award *ahem*, I shall adhere to the following rules:

• Thank the person who awarded you and link to his/her blog
• Tell 7 random facts about yourself
• Pass the award to 15 new found bloggers
• Contact each blogger you want to pass the award on to, and let them know you’ve done so, and let the giver of your award know you accept it…or not.

Alright, let’s get to business. Seven random facts about myself:

1. I have a very sweet tooth. I can eat cakes, chocolates and ice creams everyday for life if not for diabetes and obesity.
2. I have never been to a concert in my whole life even though I am an absolute music lover. I hope to change this very soon.
3. I love hot and spicy food very much. I can eat raw chillies dipped in soy sauce with almost anything. Sometimes I don’t feel totally satisfied with my eating experience until I feel that heat on my tongue!
4. I have never held a baby in my life. I like looking at them because they are so cute, but I always think I might break them or make them cry if I get closer! Let’s just say I have a way with small animals but not small humans.
5. I am a die-hard fan of Indiana Jones. I can watch Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade over and over and over again. Harrison Ford rocks!
6. My all time dream holiday destination is Greece. I fell in love with the place ever since watching Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants 2 and Mamma Mia. Such a beautiful place!
7. My favourite activities in the whole wide world, like my REAL favourites, are eating and sleeping *blush*!

Now, I would like to pass on the Versatile Blogger Award to 15 12 of my favourite bloggers whom I follow very closely. Sorry I can’t come up with 15 because I am still new remember? Vix is also one of my favourites, but she is the one who passed me the award, and I know my other favourite, Nicole has also received one. So lucky 12 it is. They are all awesome, do check them out yourselves!

And…..The Versatile Blogger Award goes to (in no particular order):

1. Shinloo at The Geographically Blind
2. Genn at Cadencies
3. Danielle at A Happy Peach
4. Mindy at Finding Silver Linings
5. Nadia at The Expats
6. Pervisha at As’salamo Alaikum
7. Kimberly at Narcicissm is Necessary
8. Suanie at As Suanie Sees It
9. Margie at A Lighter Shade Of Gray
10. Jaclyn at Jaclyn Rae’s Blog
11. Diane at Simply Diane
12. Debbie at 24atHeart

Congratulations everyone!

What is Your Purpose in Life?

The other day, I had an interesting conversation with a wise friend which revolved around the big question: “What is your purpose in life?”

If asked this question a few years ago, I would have quickly related the answer to be somewhat religious. And being a non-religious person, I was under the impression that I could never be able to give a satisfactory answer. True enough, I did not know the answer. I was so eager to give the right answer that my mind went blank thinking of one. I was intimidated by the question.

When faced with the same question once again a few days ago, I gave it a little thought and suddenly had a eureka moment. Right then and there. I came to the realisation that this question has no right answer, it’s really a question of opinion. I said smiling, “I know it’s a little vague, but my purpose in life is to be happy.”

My friend assured me that my answer was not vague at all. In fact she thought it was very specific. We discussed further and I arrived at some interesting conclusions about myself. Now that I know what my purpose in life is, I started to think about ways in which I could live my life, driven by that specific purpose.

We both acknowledged that the state of being happy is highly subjective to every individual, life situation and most importantly – timing. In my opinion, I will truly be happy when I have contentment in life. In order to be contented, I need to pursue all my “wants” to come to the stage where I could finally say “I am happy now.” Of course I cannot deny the complication of not knowing what I want. I might think I want something, but I wouldn’t really know until I got it. Agree?

Instead of pondering on my doubts, I decided to put things in action now. Well because life is short and I am not there yet! At the present moment, I think I will be happy if I can graduate by year 2012 and start living a life that I enjoy. Well, what kind of life would I enjoy? That’s another story for another post

For now, I should focus to make this work. When come 2012, I will decide again if I am truly happy or….plan something else. I shall keep doing this until I find contentment in life. This may take me a few years or a lifetime (let’s hope it’s not the latter…). Then, I can be happy.

So tell me, what is your purpose in life…?

How To Make A Couch Potato Happy

Everyday when I come home, I cook, eat, wash, shower and *plop*….I’m on the bed, remote control in hand flicking on the TV. Back in Malaysia I had cable TV at home so everything was bliss. Here in my current rented double room which I share with Terry, all we had was an old 20-inch box type and used TV and a table top indoor antenna. Which I was quite happy with since we started off with no TV at all at our very first room we rented 2 years ago. Then we moved to our second place and bought a small 14 inch $1 used TV which pretty much showed stars and flickers. Then we moved again, this time the landlord has a 30 something inch flat screen and cable TV…..how nice…..

Then we ended up at this current room with no TV. During our first few months here, I felt sleepy and went to bed at about 9.00pm (plus minus) every night….well because I had nothing else better to do! It was pretty depressing, being a couch potato and all…..without a TV you’re just a lazy pig who sleeps at 9.00pm!

Watching your partner turning into a pig was no fun and as such, Terry bought the above mentioned $5 20-inch used box TV off Trade Me, a local online auction website. Sort of like the Malaysian equivalent of Lelong.com. And it came with a remote. And so I started to stay awake watching TV every night until it was 11.00pm. The couch potato was back and she was quite happy.

Anyhow, since the TV was in our own room, with no external antenna, we had to settle with a table top indoor antenna. $5 dollar bunny ears antenna didn’t work so we bought a good $30 one so that we could boost the signal reception. The pictures were not sharp because of the weak reception, but still watchable. And we could only get to receive a few channels. However, everytime I changed the channel, I had to readjust the antenna. Pretty sad….but hey at least I can watch TV.

Then Terry decided that we should get a digital decoder so that we get crystal clear pictures even though if the signal is weak. Off we went to hunt on Trade Me again and we got this 4 year old 32-in flat screen TV plus decoder at a fair price. And so he installed the huge-ass TV, connected it to the decoder and the good old indoor antenna as receiver. Voila! Crystal clear pictures! Terry’s so smart! Still not receiving all channels although with repititive tuning attemps but the couch potato was happy!

And so I get to have my TV time every night, with slight disturbances where I need to readjust the antenna position occassionally….I think its affected by weather. One day, I came home and had a pleasant surprise. TV time as usual but as I flicked the remote, I noticed there were additional channels.

“Terry, did you tune the TV again, we are getting all channels now! Even chinese channel!”

“Oh yes, there’s a new antenna”

“New antenna?”

I was pretty puzzled because I can still clearly see the table top antenna and its red light on.

Terry pointed to the side of the TV table and then I saw it.

Terry built his own TV antenna!

Who knew that an antenna made from scrap works so much better than a $30 one. Terry is so smart, my very own at-home handyman…..