30 Days Writing Challenge 2023 Day 8 - The Power of Music

Music is not really my field. If you ask me the difference between each notes, or if you give me a note and ask me to guess which one it is, I might as well admit I'm tone deaf. 

And if you proceed to teach me about the said notes, my eyes would glaze over in no time after my mind has struggled to try to understand your kind teachings.. Sorry 😅

But I DO love listening to music, more specifically worded songs. I don't think I have ever met anyone who hates songs. Hate certain songs? Yes.. Hate certain genres? Also yes.. But to not even have a love for music tu mcm tkde langsung kot. 

To me the power of music is how they tie to one's emotions and/or how they may influence it. I'm sure you've heard about how a simple smell can trigger a memory? Well, a simple tune from a well loved song could do that too kan

A soft lullaby could lull a baby to sleep and when you've sang it to your baby brother/sister enough times, you'll find the lullaby could soothe you too during times you are anxious.. Regardless of how horrifying the meaning of the lyrics turn out to be haha.. (read: Rock-a-bye Baby) 

I've struggled with insomnia ever since I was a child. One night, as I was tossing and turning trying to sleep, I was suddenly running happily into the cave with Red while the Fraggle Rock theme song was heard all around me. I fell into a deep sleep once I met the Fraggles. How do I know it was a deep sleep by then? Because I blacked out terus 😝 Don't remember anything after that. 

Funnily till now, when I'm sometimes having trouble falling asleep, I remember that dream every now and then. Half the time, I fall asleep right when I meet the Fraggles. I'm 43 now, that incident happened when I was 5? 6? Still works wpun only half the time.. Or maybe that was just a sign that my body and mind has decided to rest. 

There are songs that remind me of my heartbreak. 20 years ago I got my heart broken by my bestfriend and I was a mess. I felt like I was constantly holding back tears and forcing a smile with everyone, even to those who knew I was shattered. I was trying to pretend I was okay and failing miserably. Even his mum got worried and she kept calling my fellow RO, dear kak Ana, to ask about me. It didn't help that this song resonated deeply with me that I kept listening to it continuously. 

Also didn't help when a few years later after I received his invitation card, my heart shattered into a million pieces all over again and, you guessed it, this song was once again my anthem.

Till this day, I sometimes (not always, but most of the time) avoid 'How Could An Angel Break My Heart' because there are times when I'm minding my own business then this song comes up and I'd suddenly burst into tears. NOT because of what happened, I've been over it for years now. But because of the emotion that surges everytime I hear this song. It's as if I'm experiencing my heartbreak all over again. 

There are also happy songs. One time I got smitten with this unlikely song (Yup! You read that right 😂 I got a crush on a song 😂) that I'd always play first thing I come into the postgrad room every morning. Abg Fadzil calls If That's Okay With You as Lagu Cikebum Ayu 😂

Then dulu during my cousin, Elin's wedding as we were helping Wan Chor in the kitchen sbb lauk habis, my sister laughed at me when Sedetik Lebih was played by the DJ sbb dlm penat² tu, my face instantly brightened when we heard the intro of the song and continued radiating right until the end 😂

Sbb tu la kot I chose that song for our kenduri 😝

When I had to move from the old rumah sewa, I was really penat. I had only a 1-month notice sbb tuan rumah urgent nk jual rumah so it was quite a rush to pack EVERYTHiNG, I noticed I packed quicker to Shakira's La La La (Brazil 2014) song 😂 Aci? 

Later I added Better When I'm Dancin' sbb I'm a Snoopy fan and masa tu baru lepas tgk Peanuts movie tu 😂 Lagu lain tk jalan, dua lagu ni je 😂😂😂

But the most memorable one happened a few years into my first degree. I actually just shared this story in my Twitter the other day.

Me and my siblings were never close to my father. He demanded perfection, something that wasn't easy for us so we never turned to him much for anything since we were scared of the disapproval and criticism. I always thought he didn't know much about our personality, about our likes and dislikes. 

One day, they were at Sunshine (what I first thought aritu when I shared in Twitter ) or Popular KOMTAR (what my memory seems convinced it is now) looking for stationeries. Suddenly they played If I Let You Go in store. This was when Westlife was everywhere and I, like so many others, was crazy about their songs. 

Adi was still choosing what he wanted when Abah tapped his shoulder and asked, "Ni lagu yg kak Yong suke tu kan?" much to my brother's suprise. 

Balik tu, he rushed to call me to tell me all about it. Like I said in Twitter, dia tanak nganga sorg² 😂 But yes, we were really suprised. 

So smpi skrg if I hear that song, this would always come to mind 🥰

So there's my take on the power of music and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one feeling this way 😁

P/S Please refrain from commenting about betapa lagho nyaaaaa laa dok dengar lagu² ni.. Klau terdetik dlm hati, shushhhh.. Gi main jauh²

#30dayswritingchallenge

30 Days Writing Challenge 2023 Day 7 - Favourite Movie

This is a tough one 😅

I'm not really sure if I have an actual favourite sbb I like A LOT of movies and love even more. Dh few hours dh ni wracking my brain trying to pinpoint which movie is my favourite but my mind keeps jumping from this movie, to that movie, to the other movie over there and to this movie right beside the one I thought of first 😅

As a child, my favorites were Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music up to the point I could sing each and every song in both movies, just like almost everyone around my age lah, of course. Then as I entered primary school, aside from the various Disney movies I loved, there were also P Ramlee movies with dialogues we would repeat, much to my parents horror. Sbb ye laaahh, dialog yg bahasa kurang sedap tu la pun yg nk diulang 😂

In secondary school I cooled down a bit about movies not only sbb dh masuk hostel, but also because Abah forbid the tv in the house dh masa ni and blum reti gi tgk movie kt cinema lagi. But once I entered Uni, movies were my staple again 😁

Still, I'm really not sure which exact movie is my favourite. I'm mostly okay² laaa with book adaptations wpun I also whine constantly with the annoying complaint that, "..it's not the same as the book" Typical bookworm, I know 😝

But LOTR is different. I really do love the trilogy. Why? Sbb I tak sanggup habiskan the book 🙈🙈🙈

A small number of movies just pass me by mcm tu je because they don't leave a lasting impression but most do so, again, this makes it hard to choose an actual favourite. 

But if you ask me what movie would I never, ever watch, I can tell you that in a heartbeat 😂

I had just finished my first degree and was working as an RO at my alma mater whilst delaying the registration of the MSc I didn't really wanna do. For this project, we had 4 rooms assigned to us. 3 for the ROs and 1 for the admin staff (kak Sue & kak Bibah). Each room had is own TV, NOT for entertainment purposes but rather for the data collection from traffic recordings. Of course la once the job is done, the TVs can be used for anything we wanted 😝

That day, kak Sue had already planned on watching Ju-on on the screen with anyone who was free (they had completed all their daily tasks right after the lunch break). It was a serious affair since they actually closed the blinds and turned of the light. Even light snacks was prepared. 

I couldn't join in as I still had a lot to do but that didn't stop me from being cheeky 🤭 So after half an hour or so, I quietly creeped to the door and opened it quickly trying to scare them. It worked 😈

I did it 2 more times, I think. Each time managing to scare them and each time glancing kjap² at the tv screen. I didn't get to see much pun sbb just kejap² masa scaring them je pun. 

Malam tu I had my usual class at Bagan Serai. On the way home, I had to go through a stretch of road yg wpun main road, tetap gelap skit. I don't know why but I had a sudden image of the boy ghost in JuOn sitting at my feet under my steering wheel 👻

Gilaaaa panic.. And I was uncharacteristically scared 😅

Langsung tk berani pandang kt bwh steering saaaaampai slmt tiba kt rumah 😅

That night, for the first time in my life, I slept with the night light on 😅 And this continued for the next 2-3 weeks 😂

Not only that, if I woke up at in the middle of the night wanting to pee kaa, or even bila dh bgn utk Subuh kaaa, I wouldn't dangle my feet from the bed. Instead I sort of leaped from the bed to the floor farther away from the bed in order to avoid having something pull my feet from under the bed 😂😂😂

It was that bad! 🙈

I don't consider myself a coward much but for the next few weeks, I surely was. Everytime class kt Bgn Serai, I tried my best NOT to look down while driving.. Aci? 😅

Bear in mind, I didn't watch the whole movie pun. Not even half of it. All in all, I think tk sampai 3 minute puuunnn tgk tp the effect of it was.. Unpleasantly suprising 😅

Sampai skrg I have never watched any JuOn movies at all. I tried once, to face it once and for all tp baru few minutes, terus off 😅 I don't think I could go through the same 3 weeks again 😅

So there it is. I might not be able to answer what my favourite movie is, but whenever people ask me want movies scares/suprises me the most, THIS is my favourite answer 😅

30 Days Writing Challenge 2023 Day 6 - Single and Happy

I got married when I was 40 years, 8 months and 2 days old.

I watched almost all my siblings get married. I watched almost all my cousins, even the ones 15 years younger than me get married and have kids. I watched the majority of my friends get hitched and start a new wonderful life with their significant others. 

Was I sad? Was I angry? 

No way!! 😁

And this, I speak for all my single friends who are still single and who married late, just like me 😁

People (particularly those who are unhappy, I assume) love to say that us late bloomers are resentful, are jealous, are so many things that we aren't. I only get angry at these types of people, never to those who are in wedded bliss.

Of course there were times we felt the need for companionship, but c'mon, that's normal!

Sometimes we do get scared watching married people be more unhappy than they were when they were single but we take the lesson and keep it close to us then try not to let it scare us much. 

Most of the time, we actually enjoy our time with ourselves 🥰

I learnt that even though I'm an introvert, I actually love going out.. Alone! 😝

I have no problem eating out alone. I can order whatever I want and enjoy my meal just like that. It's times like these that I am more adventurous as I can take my own sweet time to choose whatever is on the menu and to savor it accordingly. 

I have no problem shopping alone. I used to love buying blouses at the now closed Parksons at Prangin even while I lived in Nibong Tebal. Since I prefer less crowds, I'd drive there in the morning dari NT so I'll arrive early. Ala² tolong bukak kedai 😂 Then I can choose without worrying about making people wait for me. 

I loved doing movie marathons alone too. Especially dulu² masa Tuesdays was Student Discount days (this was when I was a postgrad student), Wednesdays was half-priced days or Thursday was Ladies Discount day. During summer kn bnyk movie baru keluar so pilih minggu where there were 3 movies I wanted to watched then marathon la sampai mlm 🤭

Do I even need to talk about book buying alone? 😝 I could spend hours (and of course la I actually did 😂) without annoying anyone. But just to clarify, the Exboyfriend doesn't get annoyed when I spend too much time at bookstores.. At least I don't think he does 🙊

Us (then) single ladies could also enjoy socializing with our own special circle whenever we liked AND we got the best of both worlds sbb we enjoy time with single and married friends without worrying about a husband or kids. I'd say it was our pleasure to help married friends enjoy their limited me time to the fullest 😁

We organized picnics at the beach, hanging out at malls, briskwalking together in the parks even joined runs together without much worry. We even offhandedly daydreamed of finding old folks home together so we can enjoy the friendship till the very end. 

Do I love married life? With it's ups and downs, it's an exciting lifetime adventure.. Yes, of course! 

But do I also love my once upon a time ago single life? Definitely 😁 We're a happy bunch of people, content with our lives and enjoy celebrating our married friends milestones together.

So no, don't you ever dare call those who are single envious nor resentful. You might actually learn a thing or two about true happiness. 😉

Gardens By The Bay Pt 2 ~ Flower Dome

Since Anuar is currently having an online meeting (11:30pm local time 😒), decided to continue with another entry. This time about the Flower Dome, the second place we went to at the Gardens By The Bay.

This was the entrance..

Currently they are having this Mexican theme so I guess this was the reason for this decoration. If I didn't know, I would've thought it was for Deepavali since the colours are vibrant enough to pass for it. Eye catching sight, indeed.

Of course I'll need to share this too.. 

Us.. Again! 😝

The Flower Dome was divided into a few themed gardens. I'm sorry to say that I don't remember them all but it was a really great effort in trying to show gardens from all over the world here.

One of the first paths we chose

Anuar trying to take a pic of his Giraffe Man and the giraffes at the back there

The whole garden is, as it's name, under a dome which I assume functions as a sort of greenhouse for all these plant. I didn't take a pic from outside when we were on our way here or I could share how the whole thing looks like (including the dome for the Cloud Forest) but I have a pic of the edge of the dome from inside..

Since they were having this Mexican theme, we managed to capture a few photos for the decoration for it.

They named it the Mexican hanging garden thought we're still not sure hanging tang mana?!?! 😅 All those pics are from 4 different angles of the said hanging garden.

Then there was this..

It was like a two-headed serpent with some info in between about the different tribes and such. I DID take a video but as you can guess, didn't transfer it to this laptop yet 😅

Gardens By The Bay Pt 1 ~ Cloud Forest

I'm waiting for housekeeping to come so I have some time on my hands (once he comes, I'm gonna do our laundry in the laundromat downstairs before I continue with my Supernatural marathon 😝) Might be able to squeeze one entry so here we go..

Our first weekend here and we weren't sure of where to go. The place most people asked about, Universal Studios, felt a bit too pricey since we still had 2 and a half weeks here so I didn't want to suggest that but we found a lot of other places to go to and Anuar come across Gardens By The Bay.

Now, in Penang itself we have so much greenery but among the first things that amazed me when we arrived was how green Singapore was. I always thought they were more like KL, you know. More metropolitan buildings that are quite pleasing to the eyes because of the esthetic designs but boy, was I wrong.. In the best way possible! 💕

Of course I wanted to see Singapore as close to nature as possible so Anuar bought the tickets. We initially planned to go out early, to beat the crowd but when we got to know of the dancing light, we decided to go in the afternoon so we might catch the lights when nightfall comes.

We booked a Grab right after Zohor and the trip only took around 20 minutes from the hotel. THIS was what greeted us..

Giant man-made 'trees'! I thought this was where the dancing light would be held but I was wrong. This was just a replica of what was to come 😁

Close up of decorations on one of the 'trees'

So the first place we went was the Cloud Forest. I don't remember how much the tickets cost because Anuar made the purchase.. Sorry!

There were few entrances to the paid part of the garden and we were glad the lines weren't that long, still wishfully thinking we had beat the crowd haha..

And this was the sight that greeted us once we entered the Cloud Forest..

Majestic, right? 😍

The entrance was such a cool place.. And I mean it both ways! Love how it felt so soothing and people were taking turns taking picture. Saw most ladies wore sundresses just for this, I think, because the breeze blew at the dresses making them swirl so gracefully. I might have taken a picture too if I was that type of a person but since I mostly shy away from cameras, we just went our way. Tp nampak daaakkk, even someone who hates cameras like me pun would love to take a picture with this sight in the background 😁

Among the first places we stopped at was the orchid section. So many favorite flowers of mine in one spot 😍

Vibrant colours, kan?

Orchid Arch

..and of course, my fav person with my fav flowers 💕

More pretty orchids 

..and US!💕

I would've spent more time near the orchids if it wasn't because more orchid lovers were around us too so we moved on, reluctantly 😅 I actually have a video of the whole experience under the orchid dome there but I can't find it in this laptop yet. Must've not transferred it along with the photos the other day.

The walk was filled with some interesting, what shall I call it? Art?

Near the orchid dome

Mother monkey cari kutu ke tu? 

Family of monkeys

Of course la not real 😝

Then there was this..

My picture taking skills need to improved because this place looked ethereal 💕

Then we managed to get up to the platform first seen in the entrance I posted earlier. Couldn't take a decent photo since there were too many people but believe me, it was beautiful!

Harus la selit my fav person kt situ 😂

This reminded me of Sedim..

..but with a more breathtaking view (Disclaimer: Maybe I thought 'more' sbb kt Sedim dh pegi bnyk kali sgt kot 😝)

Don't remember the name of this flower tp Anuar siap ckp, "Boleh la buat mcm ni kt Bukit Panchor" 😂😂😂 Amboiiiii, dia punyaaaaa perli tuuuuu.. Mentang² la rumah tu slalu kene tinggal so mmg bnyk laaaa pook melingkar² kt pagar cenni 😂😂😂

Orchid Dome view from above

View from lower point of the sky bridge

The Tree Top Walk ni had a sky bridge 7 floors high. We had to get on the elevator to the 7th floor then jalan kaki turun to enjoy the view and surroundings.

Again, I took some videos tp lupa nk transfer in this laptop 😅

It was an enjoyable walk back to the lower grounds with so many flowers and greenery. World smallest orchids pun ada. Ade quite a few species that you can only see detailed through the magnifying glass provided kt the glass screens.

Here's a few more orchids on the way down..

Macam orchid hantaran 😍

Very small one tp world's smallest laa..

All in all, this one was amazing! Kalau dapat peluang, I wanna come here again 😁