My Travel Express

Well hey people, I am finally admitted to NUS! Yeah right, in my dreams! So far no news yet so just wait & wait & wait.
Welcome aboard My Travel Express a new concept in My Life, My Expression blog. I am your tour guide for the duration of your stay in this Travel Express & hope you will enjoy your stay here. Kindly offer some tip$ comments before you leave. I will bring you on a trip to Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand,  Taiwan, & not forgetting Brunei. Its departing right about now!
1st station of the Travel Express will be Taiwan. A brief intro on Taiwan:

• Capital - Taipei
• Also known as Republic of China
• Currency - New Taiwan Dollar (NTD) Approx B$1=NTD$25
• Famous for Taipei 101, bullet train, xiao chieh (snacks) & bubble tea
• People mostly speaks Mandarin or Minnan/Hokkien but English could be understood in cities & commercial areas

Some interesting facts on Taiwan

• When 'lori sampah' comes there is a music, not like our Bandaran 'lori sampah'
• There are more than 10,000 convenience stores across Taiwan, 7,000 of them are 7-11 & the rest are smaller brands like Family Mart, OK, Hi-Life

From Taiwan, we travel back to Brunei a Kingdom of Expected Treasures where the Royal Birthday celebratory mood is still on till August. Some of the very interesting events that had been anticipated by citizens, residents & tourists are the 'bersama rakyat' session in all the 4 districts in Brunei as well as the 'night market' or locally known as 'Perayaan'.

Before I end this posting, I leave you with pictures from Taiwan as well as Brunei. Our jouney shall continues in the next blog posting of My Travel Express where we will explore Taipei.

HM The Sultan of Brunei in one of the 'bersama rakyat' session (google images)

Kaya aku kalau ada duit sebanyak ini stacks of NTD$1000 (google images)

Taiwan famous bullet orange train (google images)

Sotong tutuk $1 Pakcik LOL! Suasana di gerai perayaan (google images)

Since, this is my 1st time posting a travel blogpost I do apologise should this posting may annoy any of you directly or indirectly. In addition, I do welcome any suggestions & criticisms on my new concept thru my Cbox on the right hand side of this blog.

Till, next time Happy Travelling & Thank You For Boarding My Travel Express

Is it Clementi or Bandar Sunway?

As I had said in my last posting, this blog will be changing its approach NOW. However, due to unforeseen circumstances (masalah teknikal), it would have to be delayed to the next posting. No worries though, I am going to give you some idea of what the 'new approach' is.
As I writes this post, those of you applying to ITB will be biting your nails, waiting anxiously as its understood that the list of those successfully entered ITB will be released before lunchtime (or had been released). There will be sad faces & happy faces seen, so to those who got in CONGRATS YOUR HARDWORK HAD PAID OFF & to those who didnt get in TRY AGAIN MAYBE ITS NOT YOUR LUCK THIS TIME. While in other places, students are starting their university orientations so HAVE FUN & ENJOY UNI LIFE!
Last Saturday, I received my 'conditional offer' letter from Monash University Sunway. On the other hand, NUS hasnt given me any news regarding my appeal as its appeal only closes on July 22th. Excitingly, I went online to search for more info on Monash & I found a few 'shocking' points that could make me think twice of my decision, that I wasnt anticipate to find. There had been conflicting info on the hostel. YIKES OH OH! . However, these seems to be baseless claims!
Should I go to Monash in the end, there maybe chance to experience Aussie lifestyle as I could transfer to Monash's Australia campus (subject to financial capabilitilies of course). Since the Sunway campus is said to be having a lot of Indon-Chinese, the tone of this blog may change to include Bahasa Indon like 'kantor', 'polisi', etc.
Should I get into NUS in the end, there will be chance to see whether NUS lives up to its nickname of 'National University of Stress'! And this blog will change its tone to include Singlish words like 'sotong', '404', 'suaku', etc
At the moment it seems Monash Bandar Sunway have more chance than NUS Clementi as I still try to make up my mind!
Regarding this blog 'new approach', its going to be more travel-oriented where I will share my stories & tips on travelling to places that I have travelled to. As well as MORE PICTURES! Some people say that since my travel brochures on places are so extensive, why dont I open a travel agent. So, hence this brings the idea for 'new approach'!
Till, next time dont get into trouble with 'polisi' & dont be a 'suaku' or '404' LOL!
P.S. There seems to be a movie titled LOL, why there isnt a movie named LMAO or ROTFL!

Its Celebration Month Or Maybe Not

Its time for ‘sotong tutuk’, Perayaan, ‘tanglung’, etc again. What time is it? Its July 15 the birthday of our beloved caring monarch aka in Brunei we call it start of Perayaan. It’s also time of the year that had been awaited by the citizens & residents in Brunei as well as tourists from abroad who find this culture unique.


*change to BM* Selaku salah seorang dari berpuluh ribu Pendatang Asing Dengan Izin (PADI) di Brunei, hamba Kebawah Duli Tuan Patik ingin berterima kasih & merakamkan penghargaan kepada Kebawah Duli Paduka Sultan kerana patik dapat tinggal disini sejak 1997 (atas ihsan Imigresen kerana memberi permit masuk), menikmati kemudahan-kemudahan yang disediakan untuk rakyat & penduduk Brunei seperti subsidi barangan harian: minyak & beras, pendidikan pada kos yang rendah untuk pendatang asing (2 tahun Sekolah Kerajaan peringkat Pra-U), serta khidmat kesihatan pada kadar yang rendah & subsidi elektrik, air & gas. Manakala rakyat mendapat perumahan, pencen tua & sebagainya. Di kala negara-negara lain-lain di ambang ‘masalah kewangan’, ‘pemotongan subsidi’, Kerajaan Kebawah Duli masih lagi mengekalkan pelbagai subsidi & bantuan kepada rakyat & penduduk Brunei walaupun ‘menekan poket’ Kerajaan kerana ingin melihat orang-orang disini juga dapat menikmati hasil khazanah ‘emas hitam’ dengan hidup selesa. Saya amat tertarik apabila ada kenaikkan harga minyak di negara asal saya, Malaysia, orang sering mempersoalkan kenapa Brunei dapat mengekalkan harga rendah tetapi Malaysia gagal walaupun kedua-duanya pengeluar minyak. Pastinya orang-orang Brunei dapat merasa ‘tekanan poket’ harga minyak tinggi di Malaysia bila mereka perlu mengisi minyak di Malaysia, bayangkan sebegitu jauh bezanya.

*change to BI* I remembered 1 of the Nov 09 AS General Paper P1 question is about how your country government spend its tax revenue. I made a ‘calculated bet’ by choosing this question & wrote extensively on Brunei government’s spending in education & development, SPN21. The result that I get was within my expectation a B. I also remembered last December when my cousin’s uncle family asked about Brunei, they were impressed with the bilingual education system here & the meritocracy in awarding of scholarship rather than race-based.

Let us all be a part of nation-building partner to contribute towards realising His Majesty’s Vision 2035 for Brunei

Lastly, a bit of my life update even though it’s the Royal Birthday mood. So far, I am still in ‘situasi 50:50’ regarding whether I will be going to NUS or Monash KL to further my studies as everything the status is: STILL PROCESSING. So I can only hope for the best & prepare for the worst case scenario! To make the matter worst my astrological sign prediction for the month of July isnt good either.

DAULAT KEBAWAH DULI TUAN PATIK SELAMAT HARI KEPUTERAAN KE-64 KEPADA RAJA BRUNEI YANG MESRA RAKYAT SEMOGA KEKAL KARAR MEMERINTAH DIATAS TAKHTA KERAJAAN BRUNEI

This blogger thinks that ‘sotong tutuk’ at gerai Perayaan will not be very laku as they may want to refrain from eating squids as a respect to ‘Paul The Octopus’ The real Winner of World Cup.


This blogger also thinks that ‘If you are in China do like the Chinese’, it means pandai-pandailah menyesuaikan diri dengan tempat yang anda berada


P.S. Next week/next post starting it will be a new approach to this blog. Wait For IT!

The Reality (update July 14th)

NOTE:This posting do not reflect the views of this blogger, as it is just a collection of quoted infos from the cyberspace & TV show

Korean wave (Hallyu) is storming Asia & the world these few years. Names such as Rain, Super Junior, 2PM, SS501, Girls Generation, just to mention a few are fast becoming household names. However, these few years the Korean entertainment industry Hallyu wave have been hit by another wave: Suicide. The latest was the June 30 suicide of Park Yong Ha, a 33 years old actor-singer who starred in the drama Winter Sonata. We shall divulge into the reality!


You think that your idol/fav artists are very rich, well I tell you they aren’t as rich as you thought even they are very popular. The TV show, Chan & Liang On Time offers an outlook into the reality of the Korean entertainment industry which is described as a ‘scary hell’! 4 main things are discussed in the show: strict, perfection, manager & antifans group.

Antifans group/sentiments in Korea influence the artists there a lot. They do not only post up negative comments (unconstructive) on artists in blogs/forums (cyberspace), but also did a lot of scary actions in real life. Once, a Super Junior member was sent supposedly a ‘gift’ from fans but inside the box was a blood-stained puppet. Scary isn’t it?

Korean artists are under extreme pressure as we the fans expect a lot from them. Hence, behind all the perfect dance steps & singing that we see on TV, hours & hours of rigorous training are put by these artists! It was reported that Rain had only 2 hours of sleep a day just because he wanted to practice his dance moves. In addition, it was also reported that Super Junior members had only hamburgers for their meals in order to have more time to train their singing & dancing.

Korean artists’ management companies are said to be strict to their artists. It was said that artists have to show their best form/look to the fans. Hence if they did anything wrong & it was discovered by paparazzi which eventually will make its way to the papers/magazines, they will be punished harshly. 1 such example is if a band member of a group was found drunk, he/she maybe expelled from the group. On the other hand, if artists make mistake in their trainings they were said to be beaten (didn’t know how true this is though as it was disclosed in the show by an oversea Korean who ever enters Korean entertainment industry but was ‘spooked’ by it, thus eventually exits it). In the cyberspace, it was said that ‘strict management’ was 1 of the reason that Jaebom leaves 2PM (sorry 2PM fans in case this is wrong, I stand to be corrected). Eventually, from an article that I have read, there are other reasons why Jaebom leaves 2PM. Too much conflicting infos from different sources make my head spin on which is right & which is wrong, so I leave it for you guys out there to judge it!
Did you know that group artists members would live together in a quarters? According to an oversea Korean who was about to make the lineup for Super Junior but eventually didn’t because he was already too old, in the early days Super Junior lives in a quarters that was very basic. As time passes & their popularity grew, they still lives in a quarters in the form of an apartment but very luxurious. Whatever they wanted was fulfilled by their management. Even though these group lives in quarters but they are free to go out anytime they like.

Last but not least, the ‘scary’ managers. It was said that TVXQ broke up due to unfair contract terms & recently SS501 also ended their contract with their current management believed to be caused by the same reason as that of TVXQ. In the show, it was revealed that the revenue sharing ratio between artists & management is as low as 1:9 for new artists or some well known ones can get only either 2:8 or 3:7. To put it simply for every $10 of revenue they get the most the artists can get is only $1/2/3 while the management gets as much as $9/8/7. After so much hard work that’s all the artists get? The managers are really reaping a lot of fruits from their managed artists hard labour

In conclusion, its really hoped that the ‘harsh’ punishments can be relaxed as this kind of things cant be tolerated anymore while that of the sharing ratios can be further improved.

KOREAN ARTISTS FIGHTING!!!!!!! WE ARE SUPPORTING YOU & BEHIND YOUR BACKS

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND & LISTEN TO KPOP MUSIC

This blogger is addicted to the song Love by CN Blue that he makes it his alarm tone

2yr of thots,craps & irregular life diary

After 150+ of blogposts over the time period of 2 yr 1 month, this blog, My Life, My Expression can be seen as an insight into the life of this boring blogger & what is playing in his mind. Of course there are 'secrets that cant be disclosed' to the public domain as I believe that everyone have their own secrets right? 
Happy 25th monthsary to my blog (borrow some1 words kejap, claim your copyrights later LOL!). This blog will not be as it is today if not for the contributors who have contributed indirectly to this blog, aside from the blogger, 'Yours Truly' himself.
Thank you DST Go! broadband for providing the internet access, k2modify.blogspot.com for allowing me to use to use the blog layout & other provider of blog layouts, the commercial providers of this blog: Nuffnang,EasyAds,Google Adsense, thank you clock provider:Uniqlo Uniqlock,thank you chatbox Cbox & most importantly THANK YOU KAMSAMNIDA TERIMA KASIH XIE XIE NIE to ALL THE BLOG READERS especially Angie & Mizi who had been so rajin to visit this blog. Special thanks also I forwarded to my friend in UK, Dark who had made time finally to visit my blog despite high internet costs there!
Moving forward, this blog will continue to give more insight into the life of me & as well as more thots rather than crap on issues. These few days I have been blog-hopping to look at blog of other people, to give me inspiration on what to write for future postings & how to make this blog more appealing to readers. I admit that sometimes the postings are so long that you will fall asleep reading it & most of the times without pictures. In the near future, I will try to limit my words & try to put more pictures to attract more people! As well as more interesting stories as I am planning to go to KL to further my studies should my appeal to Singapore universities didnt succeed.

Enough of 25monthsary rambling, right moving on Ball Talk as I had promised last week. It had been almost 3 wks since the most beautiful game in the world that comes only once in 4 years, FIFA World Cup 2010 South Africa had started. Currently the Group of 16 matches is going on & very very soon we shall knows who will have the honour of winning the gold-plated trophy or maybe not since everything had became so unpredictable & shocking. I am putting my money on Asian & Europe teams that will go thru into the next stage (Um I am not betting by the way). So many interesting things/stories have occured other than people are late for work/school & have panda-eyes in these few week, some of it include the very noisy vuvuzela as noisy as a plane yikes!, the burning of buildings by angry fans due to blackout, a very understanding company that understand its workers love for football, broadcast rights (thank god we in Brunei dont have that problem), the banning of watching World Cup in certain countries, live telecast cutoff in certain countries, the risk of punishment in the form of 'mining work' if they lose & many more! Wait 1 more octopus that can predict which team wins. As the game progresses into the next stage, it is remain to be seen if any 'headbutt' incident will occur this time around. World Cup is not ONLY about makan bola, minum bola, cakap bola, tidur bola but an entertainment fiesta with so many things going around!

Lets party Give Me Fire Give Me Freedom Give Me Time This Is Africa

This blogger seems to have been infected with temporary 'demam bola' with all this obsessions of 24 people running around chasing a much-complainted Jabulani ball that bounces tak tentu pasal.

Ulzzang

After weeks of blogging about musical extravaganza & talk of cheating real weight, the much hyped topics; ulzzang is going to be my main blogging focus of this week. Sorry football fans, I got no 'bola talk' maybe next week!



Ulzzang is the Korean word for pretty faces. Otherwise another ‘not so proper’ way to describe is usually people who use Photoshop to ‘renovate’ their appearance & post it online. I guess 1 of the blogs that I stalked its blogger is an ulzzang but a real good looking one.

Ulzzang had been the ‘talk of the town’ since Animax aired a Korean variety programme, Pretty Boys & Girls, the show that verifies the real ulzzang. *buat pose macam 1 of the participants*

Meet the beautiful boys of Pretty Boys & Girls Ho Joon Yun & Park Sang Il (photos from spamulzzangs.tumblr.com)

In my opinion, these participants are really good looking without even Photoshop assistance. However some do confess that they had ‘external mechanical help’ before they get the look that they have now.

So after watching the show, I goggled ulzzang & found a forum that discusses about the show in English (forget what is the forum website). Since I read or understand no hanggul/hangguk an English site is really a great help. As most Korean entertainment/artists sites are in their own language that brings us to another issue. If you have ever visited websites of Super Junior, 2PM, etc you would have noticed 1 thing, it’s in Korean. All because of a reason! You like Korean bands, artists, actors fine you must appreciate its culture too especially its language.

Meet the joker of Pretty Boys & Girls (kesian dia selalu kena kacau host)

Back to ulzzang, some1 could actually use Photoshop to ‘ulzzanized’ their look to look like a perfect person. But is it ‘morally correct’ when the real person is walking in the streets somewhere in this world isn’t too good looking, but when in cyberspace looks so perfect?

To close story, yes you are most welcome to be part of the ulzzang family. Think of the popularity in the net, thousands of people visiting your website. But don’t overdo!

P.S. This blogger wants to be ulzzanized, but he knows nothing about Photoshop thinking its ‘kedai gambar’ LOL! Getting hooked onto Kpop acts like CN Blue & 2PM!

Note: Welcome back to the warzone (school) students & teachers. The biggest war (public exams,end of year exams) is just around the corner, so reload your bullets (knowledge) otherwise bersedia ‘kibarkan bendera putih’(handing blank answer scripts) . Sometimes ‘kibar bendera putih’ pun tak guna so be a spy (predict what will come out), LOL!

Charity Gala Nite A Musical Extravaganza

Sorry for the delay in posting up this blogpost as I am still trying to swallow the bitter ‘pill of reality’ of me being rejected by all 3 Singapore unis that I had applied to.

As I had said earlier, this posting would be about the Charity Gala Nite which was held on Saturday, 12th June at the magnificent Indra Samudra Grand Hall, Empire. The guest of honour was HRH Princess Hajah Masna.

Apparently, the event was a sold-out with more than 1700 people (my own calculation) attending which exceeds the organizers expectations. Some spectators had to stand for a while as the organisers had to take out more chairs to be arranged. According to the Sunday Bulletin, about 2000 people attended the event which was sold out two weeks before the event, however The Sunday Times put the numbers at more than 1500 as quoted from the opening speech of Peter Chin, MD PJC Virtuoso Music School (organiser). From my observation, there are a lot of international school students attending the event, perhaps to support their performing friends. The emcees for the nite were Kartini Knox & David Chin.

Before the arrival of the VIPs, the audiences were shown the video of Pusat Ehsan Al-Ameerah Al-Hajjah Maryam. It is a non-profit NGO committed to provide quality education & rehab services for physically & intellectually challenged individuals. Its monthly expenditure comes up to an amount of about $40,000 which is financed by donations, fundraising drive like this event & grants from the government. I remembered once my Biology teacher, Miss Maria told us the story when she had a trip to Pusat Ehsan.

Then, we were shown another video of ‘Mission Impossible’, [M] bracket media EDS L&A Powers Co (supporter of the event). This company had provided a viewing pleasure in the form of 3 large screens in the hall & as well as recording the event on DVD which is to be sold on that nite at promo price of $15 & at other times $20.

After the VIPs arrived, the event commences with the singing of the National Anthem by PJC musical choir. Then a speech by Mr Peter Chin. In his speech he states that the performers had started training in March. PJC Virtuoso started 3 years ago & this event is a way for its students to give back to the society. After that, Dato Paduka Alimin Haji Abd Wahab, Acting Chairperson of Trustee Board Pusat Ehsan gave his opening remarks. He called donations & contributions as the ‘life-blood’ of the centre as without these funding the centre would not be able to carry on with its activities. This was followed by presentation of cheques totaling $22,000 from the profit of the nite event as well as contribution from 3 companies namely PJC Virtuoso $10,000, AFC Bhd $10,000 & Charles & Keith Brunei $2000. Lastly, a token of appreciation was presented to HRH Princess Masna.

The performance started soon after that. Audiences were mesmerized over 2 hours by 17 performances comprising of various genres performed by 205 performers consisting of vocalists, musicians & dancers as well as a 70-member PJC children choir. One of the performer at that nite was Maria Grace Koh one of Brunei’s national swimmer who belted out the song On My Own on that nite with a powerful voice. The headmaster of PJC, Ysmael Felipe also contributed his voice in a rock song Black Betty to the cheers of the audiences. Cindai was a special performance by one of Pusat Ehsan member, Nor Lila bte Hj Jamaluddin who is a disabled person. In another performance, the sounds of Taylor Swift meet Coldplay in a medley of Love Story & Viva La Vida. The last performance of the nite was performed by the winners of the previous years Pilihan AKIRA Talentime & Kristal Kids Idol. Terlalu Istimewa which is a perfect ending song to a perfect nite was sung by Bridget Ang, Tarusha Naidoo, Andre Joyce Santos & Elaine M Valencia.

In my opinion, it was a $10 well spend with 100% of it goes to charity with added-value of more than 2 hr of musical extravaganza performed by local Bruneian as well as foreigners.

(The left hand side picture is the ending performance 'Terlalu Istimewa' with the appearance of Pusat Ehsan members)

Picture below shows HRH Princess Masna shaking hands with the performers at the end of the show

P.S. Sharing is caring, reach our hands out to people who are in need of our help.