Operations Research Journey

A proud international singer from Borneo

2011-08-23T18:17:00.006+10:00

Happen to read from newspaper today about a young and talented singer (also songwriter & guitarist) called Zee Avi (季小薇). She introduces herself proudly to the world that she is a Borneo girl.
Her talent was discovered on youtube when she posted on her first performance's video at KL to a friend that missed the show. Soon, she received a very good feedback (>1,000,000 hits) and spotted by a music company owned by JACK JOHNSON!! Yes, you are right!! JACK JOHNSON is her boss now!!

You might have heard her very famous song "Bitter heart" on radio or.... but i never realise this amazing voice is from a Sarawakian

Not only that, she also sings some malay or even sarawakian song. So, all the mat sallehSS are listening at Sarawakian song!! Cool huh??

Another song which called "mee kolok sigek" from her! sigek = one, in our Sarawak local language.
~mee kolok~

Enjoy!!

10 parallel lines needed?

2011-08-19T09:00:00.002+10:00

It's the time to break the news! a greatest joy of the year. Nana has a bump and the bump is almost 5 months now :)

BUT, why is the title is named 10 parallel lines??? The story went like this.

I had a positive pregnancy test on 15th March, Saturday morning. I was home alone while tom was working. So, tom wasn't aware of it. The tester looked about this:

** this tester wasn't the 1st tester, it is the 2nd, but they looked the same**

The 2nd line is very blur and light. Now come the confusing part. Is that because post-phd syndrome? everything has to be fact proven!

*got it from google*

Normally, the instruction from the pregnancy tester will look like the diagram above. 2 parallel lines, SAME tone of colour exist, right, right right???? SAME TONE!!

So, I wasn't very sure if it was a positive, but the 2nd line exist!! At that moment, I could feel my heart bumping so quickily and loudly. Excited but but but....??? Then, I called up my mum. My mum stopped me from telling tom, worried that it was just a false alarm and wanted me to go to the nearest clinic to CONFIRM! I grabbed my car key and rush to a clinic with the tester.

The doctor seemed hard to draw a conclusion too as me when he looked at the tester. So he suggested me to have a ultra-scan, which he thought that would be the most accurate way, if he could detech a sac then it is confirmed pregnant! We proceeded to have it. Sadly to say, he couldn't detect any! However, he said my lining of uterus was pretty thick, which mean either i was going to have my period soon or pregnant! After all this and that, i had my 2nd pregnancy test at his clinic. The result was exactly the same as the 1st tester. The 2nd line exist but BLUR! GRrrrrr.... apa nie??? How come to hard to have a firm answer??? was the pregnant hormon to little to reveal the result??? I guess the doctor also could not stand me anymore. Then, he adviced me to just treat myself as pregnant lady, rest more and come back to him after 2 weeks!! I brought back the 2nd tester as i wanted to show it to tom.

This couldn't stop my eagerness of knowing the result right at that point of time. I called up a friend, Tiing, who was already pregnant for few months. She said the line suppose to be very significant. Gosh.... So I hang up the call disappointedly. I felt so sad and yet wondering if I should tell tom about it. but still, i could google to check how the +ve pregnancy result look like :P

Until late noon, tom back home. He was so tired and planned to take a nap. When he closed the curtain and lay down, I couldn't keep the secret anymore. I took out the tester and showed him sadly with my pouring tears. He took the tester over and switch on the light quickily. Without listening to me, he was already jumping for joy in the room. Big smile hanging over both side of his ears. I calmed him down and told him my concern. Then he said,

"Yahoh, how come so light and blur hoh? how come???" T___________T

I kept on crying and he kept studying/staring the tester T___________T

Since we were so Kiasu, we decided to take more pregnancy tests: 1 at evening and 1 at night before sleep (on the saturday); 1 more on next day morning! Tom even set his phone alarm to woke me up early to me pee :S Both waited excitedly in the toilet for the result with sleepy eyes and smelly breathe. Funny stupid couples!!

So, there we had our 10 parallel lines.

We kept all of them to compare the tone of colour. After the 4th (if not mistaken) we were still not sure about it as the 2nd red line was still so much lighter than the 1st line. UNTIL..... my friend, Tiing asked me to send her the photo of the latest tester result. After viewing the photo, Tiing and her hubby called up tom immediately to sing him "GONG XI GONG XI nie!!" (gong xi means congrats). Then, we both felt relief

"ahhhhhhhhhhh... we are INDEED going to be parents SOON!"

1st experience of +ve pregancy test! Please don't laugh at us!!

The lesson learnt ---> the parallel lines are not necessary have to be same TONE of colour!!

Update

2011-08-18T16:07:00.006+10:00

I know I'm not a good blogger. Seldom update since I back from study, or i should say i have totally forgetten the existance of this blog :P Anyway, my mood to write is back. Check back my camera and get some photos.

1) Herbaline
These are the photo took at Herbaline. Had fish reflexology with mum.
Mum complained the fish are too little. not enough to remove her dead skin :P

2) Thermomix - smallest kitchen in the world?
Bought a most expensive kitchen in my life - thermomix! and see what i can make now...

What I have done so far with this so called mighty machine --> man tou, kaya, lemonade drink, soy milk, a green colour kuih (forgot the name), hot dog bun, yam dessert.

One day notice

2011-08-18T15:24:00.000+10:00

我：老公，可以帮忙换床单吗?

子汉：不可以。我需要 one day notice.

我：为什么?

子汉：今天我很累，也不想做这件事情. One day notice, 明天我会做的!

我：Ok! 那么要是我说我现在肚子痛，要生孩子. 也须要 one day notice吗?

子汉：不用，因为你会给我八个月通知的呀！

我：也对！**无语** =.='''

Waiting & waiting

2011-08-02T12:52:00.001+10:00

Waited 2 months 2 weeks and 2 days
I got the result from examiners

Then, I waited 1 month for confirmation letter
Still it doesn't come to my inbox

=.=''' why oh why??

1st facial @ Herbaline

2011-05-18T15:55:00.001+10:00

I can't really remember where did I read a few reviews regarding this facial centre, Herbaline some time ago. They didn't mention much on how good the facial, but the service was impressive. Not only that, there is no hard selling on product or package. This is good enough to catch my attention.

Once I got back to Kuching, I saw a Herbaline banner, a new branch since end of 2010 if not mistaken. 1st facial trial costs only RM38!! Immediately, I made an appoinment for 2 on Mother's day ^-^

Guess! what is included in that mighty RM38? So worthy and enjoyable!

My mum and I were warmly welcomed and served a red dates tea. Of course, we need to fill up some details.

Then, we proceed to foot bath like this:

We soaked out foot in warm water, added sea salt for 5 minutes to sterilise our foot. There is also a brush beside the sink. em... to brush dead skin or to remove bacteria? em... anyway, that is self service, noone will brush your dry and smelly feet for you!

~someone brush unwillingly and yet happily~

Next, we were brought to a corner to have aroma therapy. Sound complicated but actually very simple, just take 3 deep breath in front of a hot pot cooking a mixture of herbs.

After that is our facial time!! On the way to the facial room, we passed by this relax sofa corner. That is how the atmosphere at herbaline, dim lighting and Bali style decoration.

the bed and shower cap:
Em, to me, i think the facial skill is kind of so-so. I could only feel the fingers very sofyly touching my face. Maybe that was the reason I fall asleep as soon as she applied the cleanser on me. Also, I didn't wake up during black head remove, which normally I would scream as a abused child. I wonder if I snore :P

******sorry that this post was left unfinished like this nearly 2 months ago, so i just post it as I dunno how to continue it as I has throw away the brochure :)

真爱呀!

2011-04-19T11:39:00.003+10:00

我:老公，请你把你的脏衣服放在洗衣桶, 可以吗？

他: 老婆，请你帮我把我的衣服放到水桶里，可以吗？

我: 不可以.

他: 为什么?

我: 因为牧师说这就是所谓的溺爱.

他: 你的老公说，这才是真爱呀!

我: ...... (差点把嘴里果汁噴去他的脸)

Borneo Kebaya

2011-04-13T11:53:00.015+10:00

I'm a big fan of Kebaya, as well as my sister in-law (Daisy) and my mother. We grab every opportunity to wear kebaya, like attending a formal event or wedding. My first kebaya was tailor-made when I was Form 3. Wow! Without realising it, this love has been growing in us for so many years.

This fondness for Kebaya motivates Daisy to start her own online Kebaya business called "Borneo Kebaya" on Facebook early this month. Eventhough it is Daisy's, my mum and I get more excited about it than her as if we were the owners :P

Borneo Kebaya offers various types of Kebaya, mainly Kebaya Sulam from Indonesia at reasonable price, as low as RM70 for a set of Kebaya cloth. Not only that, free postage is provided within Malaysia!

~chiffon in blue~

~ silk material~

BUT, why Kebaya cloth instead of ready made kebaya? Kebaya is always recommended to be tailoring as it needs to be well fit to your body. Besides, by refering the purple kebaya on top, you can choose to have a knee-length kebaya blouse or shorter-length, and the sarung batik is either side cut or fan-folding at the back. It's all up to your preference! For me, I would choose to make a waist-length Kebaya so that I could match the blouse with jeans/slacks too for casual smart function or working. Oh, and also the 3/4 length sleeves (^.^)v

Of course, we do offer the ready-made (as requested by most of our friends) and having the introductory promotion on it right now, for example this: ~ only RM165 ~

OK, you think thats all we have as a beginner? No~~ no~~ no~~We have baju kurung too :) fancy type or soft silk material type...

~fancy baju kurung with beads on~

~soft silk material of baju kurung~

It is so simple to shop for your favourite kebaya now. Just drop by at Borneo Kebaya while you check on your friend status on FB!! Also, the most exciting thing is~~~~~ don't forget to tell Daisy you are my blog's reader!! This entitles you to have 10% discount on normal price items. Again, no hassle on postage. She will make sure you kebaya will reach at your doorstep :)

Lastly, let me attach a photo of our models wearing our Kebayas :)

Happy shopping everyone :)

Lesson Learnt

2011-04-08T22:37:00.015+10:00

I love to travel and traveled quite a lot in these few years. Due to limited budget, most of my trips were planned at minimal accommodation expenses to gain maximum duration of stay. However, I did over estimated myself. Some accommodations arrangement were too dangerous(at least to me), especially to a lonely female traveller. Thanks God, I was well protected and blessed all the way. Those experience were indeed valuable and "OPEN" my eyes wide enough, but definitely NO second time!

(1) My 1st backpacker experience

It was at Piccadilly Backpacker, located at perfect convenient location. The price is cheap comparatively to other accommodations. What to complain right? Share toilet? I don't actually mind as long as it is cheap and not mixed gender shared-bathroom. I was pretty cool with all these. But, here comes the story. I had a companion (guy friend) who will only arrive a day after me. Therefore, our reservation was seperately into two different bookings, eventhough we both booked same type of room (4 persons share room).

night grafitti = nice packaging

When I arrived, I was given a spaceless room with 2 double decker beds. There was no one using the room and I was happy. After a quick shower, I immediately took a nap. Then, I would actually feel the bed was pretty small and yet making a lot of metal sound. Never mind, I could sleep very still, motionless. The horrible part was that, there were 3 topless white guys standing in front of me when I opened my eyes during mid night!!!!!! Holy crap! I was terrified and not even dare to scream and shout. Immediately, I rushed to reciption counter to ask for a room change. Of course, they turned me down. Backpacker mah!! Then, I back to my room (no other place to go as it was midnight!). I smiled and talked politely to those three topless guys, as I was thinking I ought to know their identity. If I were really killed/raped by them, I would at least know who did it, right? Luckily they were just high school boys from Germany, very polite and quite good looking (bonus). They just like to be topless! An unpeaceful night just passed like that.

The next day, my friend arrived. When I looked at him, I saw a angel ring on top of his head with 2 wings at his back. I was so happy and felt secured. Then, another crap thing happen. He was given a shared-room with 3 girls and welcomed by many fancy bras and colourful hair accessories scatted every part of the room. To me, it was funny to look his face at that time as he was speechlessily shaking his head and cramping his eyesbrows. He suggested we should swap room. I agreed to swap it before sleep. Guess what? We ended up staying in our original rooms for the following few days. I slept with three white guys and he slept with three white girls. The reason was one of the girls was TOPLESS (in middle of changing her clothes) when he entered the room after dinner!!! hahahahaha

The story might sounds very funny but it was dangerous actually especially a lady stay-in alone at backpacker. What if those guys are bad and drunkers???

(2) Language barrier

This happened at Lisbon. We (again with my guy friend) arrived Lisbon at night (again, due to cheap flight time). We were staying at Residencial Estoril. It is a accommodation located above the shoplots (forgot which floor already). Or, I should say it was part of an old building, where there is no lobby entrance at the ground floor.

It was totally dark and I was clueless how to enter the building, needless to say to get in the hotel. There is a small signboard of the hotel but we didn't know what the hell it is written. No one on the street. Thanks God, I had my friend with me at that time. He pressed every button/bell available there, try and error. 30 minutes passed. At last, we grabbed a passby stranger to interpret the sign for us!! What if I was alone? NGAITI @_@

That was not the end of the story. When we finally managed to enter the building, I felt that I was at the haunted building, likes the door at your back will closed very slowly by itself. It was totally dark inside. Crap!! Again, my friend had to figure out himself while I took care of all our luggages. Guess, how should we suppose to accesse to the lobby? By using a very old school lift! Seriously. There is just a sliding grill of it, meaning that you could actually see each floor when you are going up. Of course there was light in the life, but imagine the building was dark and you could see each floor's scary dark corridor. What if a ghost put in its hand and grab me? or just show me the scary bloody faces? That is already enough to make me faint on the spot i guess. So, the clever me decided look at the floor instead of the door of lift. Even worse!! See the photo yourself la!!!

I could see through the lower floor! Ngaiti!!

Besides all these scary dark conditions, the room was pretty clean and comfortable.

洗脸

2011-03-30T13:00:00.001+11:00

我: 周子汉!!!! 我只给你两个选择!
(1) 当你洗脸时, 不要太大动作, 水都喷到镜子了.
(2) 当你洗完脸，使用那布抹镜子.

子汉: OK :P

我: 告诉我, 你会选择哪个?

子汉: 我会选择不洗脸！哈哈!

我: =.='''

Recap my 2010

2011-03-20T21:10:00.000+11:00

Researcher vs teacher

2011-03-17T15:55:00.002+11:00

I used to love teaching since I was as young as primary 6. By the time, I helped up my brother in a small-scale junior tuition class. I enjoyed explaining something that I knew in a simple way, especially in mathematics. It's a great achievement when the little pupils nodded their head. That is how my passion for teaching developed. I couldn't deny that my dad's occupation as educator did contribute a little in shaping this ambition of mine.

I was pretty clear I would end up as a teacher in future, even though i did write I want to be a fire-woman once in essay during primary school. So, I studied and studied and keep on study for 23 years because I need to equip myself as much knowledge as I can in order to be a TEACHER.

Lucky me, I found a teaching position before I went off for PhD. I loved the job very much, where I could interact with more students in a more mature way *no discipline issue need to be handled* the entire working environment/ambient is young, energetic, healthy and less politics is involved. This determined me further to pursue my PhD.

3.5 years of PhD, I put my head down to complete a research in a very tiny room. I quite myself to think, to read and to write. Read..... Think..... Write..... and READ again.... This was the routine. It was a independent work, not much talking required. Slowly, it takes up my out-going and talkative personality.

Now, I have returned to my teaching workplace. I have a strange feeling to even think of going in front of the class and non-stop talking for 2-3 hours. I feel more comfortable to hide myself in a room and do my own research.

EM.... HOW now?

Hopefully I would be OK after some time.

2 months

2011-03-15T13:52:00.004+11:00

Time flies.
Last blog was 2 months ago.

I have returned to Kuching for good.
I have submitted my thesis for examination.

Its good to be home eventhough I miss Sydney at the same time.
I started my work at UNIMAS, but my office is at Level 2 (challenging staircases climbing!)
Also, I started shouting at Tom everyday to make sure he put his clothes in laundry bin.

I feel more settle down now :)
Enjoying my life very much!

March is coming

2011-01-15T13:43:00.002+11:00

I will be leaving Sydney for good soon, exactly in 1.5 months time. The time will come real soon with busy corrections going on now and Chinese New Year celebration early Feb. I am eager to finish my study as soon as possible and "glue" myself to Tom forever and ever, no separation again! It has been my wish/dream/target from the moment I first reached Sydney back in August 2007.

But, i have different feeling now. By March, I will be back to UNIMAS. A place for me to serve my country, my nation. It means i'm no longer a student. No more casual T-shirt, slippers and mini skirt. No more flexible time to wake up and off work. The most important thing, cannot ask more stupid questions to my supervisors! I'm gonna miss those days.

I will miss the awesome weather here
I will miss all the Phd warriors here
I will miss the place that make me healthier (walk a lot!!)
I will miss all the beautiful faces here

I will miss Commonwealth Bank's Netbank system here
I will miss the "cash out" service at cashier

I will miss the multigrains bread here
I will miss the fresh salmon here
I will miss the beautiful beaches here

A blessed wedding I

2011-01-13T00:48:00.000+11:00

Last month was my brother's wedding. He is married to a very sweet Indian lady. Lot of people said it was a 1-Malaysia wedding. My family would say it is a blessed wedding.

One would be interested to know how was their wedding. They had a church wedding so there is nothing much different than normal (church wedding matrimony + wedding banquet at both bride and groom sides) but it indeeds LOOK a bit different!

on 28.11.2010, Puchong

~~the bride and the father~~

one of the ceremony, putting "tali" (rope) on her neck. is that mean to tie her up for the rest of her life???

See? how many ladies not wearing indian sari?

best man and bridesmaid

p/s: to be continue...

Update

2011-01-03T00:31:00.004+11:00

Happy New Year 2011 :)

finished all draft chapters...
more corrections are awaiting...
more $$ to pay for language editing/proof reading...
should i feel happy or frustrated?
now i feel nothing...
numb already??

looking forward the day...
the day to end my T.H.E.S.I.S!!

Guess: Romantic outing

2010-12-22T19:46:00.004+11:00

Updated:
yer yer yer~~ less people read my blog now :(
Anyhow, the answer is the guest room of our house!!
why no one want to read my blog now?? why why??
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A good friend of mine just celebrated her birthday. Her hubby booked a room at Damai Puri (a pretty good resort at Kuching) to spend a day of quality time with her, besides flower and a gift that she loved!

When she was back, we chatted on MSN. I was so jealous that her hubby was so thoughtful and planed a series of event to have their "1st time" (don't be dirty), such as 1st time swim together and so on. On the other side, tom and I are no longer excited over our own birthday after we got married, we know they are suppose to be important, but no practical action taken! How come huh??

Ok, back to the topic!
When my friend mentioned about Damai Puri, I told her that Tom and I "HAD" the same thought too. Spend a night at resort, stay away from city, have a romantic dinner & maybe a luxury spa. However, after we calculated the cost of it, Tom said "not worth it~~ not worth it".

Then, he suggested a different place to stay overnight without a single cent cost and we could experience the different ambient of room too!

Guess now?? Where is it??
Seriously, we went to that place together!!

A speech for my brother

2010-12-20T11:34:00.008+11:00

This is my speech on my brother's wedding banquet.
*****

Good evening, its great to have everyone of you here tonight. Im Susana, the sister of bridegroom. Is he super duper handsome today? Ok, Im going to share with you the story of this very important man of mine.

His full name: Sze Kah Yit, nickname: Ah Beng (emphasize is "Ah Beng!" not "Ah Beng~~"), a secondary schoold teacher at Bintulu, the 3rd child in family. He couldn't sing and dance well. Favourite sport: Ping pong & jogging. Favourite game: Chinese Chess. Extremely enjoy watching movie at Cineplex & "screaming" at Karaoke.

Ok, Im done with formal introduction. We proceed the interesting part regarding my Ah Beng koko.

He lost his school bag on his first day of Form 6! During his three years university life, he lost 2 computers on campus, dropped 2 hand phones and 2 expensive watches! Not only that, he also lost a set of auto gate remote control and house key EVERY TIME he was on his school holiday from Bintulu! Now, we will try our very best to reduce the chances of letting him to hold our house remote control. We also pray very hard that he won’t lose his child at shopping mall in future. Addrienne (my sister in law), please take precaution on that! Because if it happens, he will only realize after 2 days. Trust me!!

Ok, ok. I know Uncle John started to worry already. Don’t worries too much, my brother is also a very good man!! *throw a question to the floor* Ok, friends and relatives, if you agree that my brother is a good, loving and handsome man, please put up your both hands PLEASE???

wah, uncountable hands!! see, ko, I told you already it is worth to give me an big ang pao today!!” Ok, how good, loving & handsome he is actually? According to mum, he was a kind-hearted kid when he was young because he would cry over his dead pet, ANT!! To me, he is the best joker in family. He can start laughing even before he started his joke. I remember once, my parents found the house gate was widely open, house door was unlocked, light and ceiling fan were all on when they got back from outside at night time. My mum was so mad and wanted to scold him badly! while I was waiting for a good show, when he was back, he explained smartly that: “I leave the gate open so that you no need to find your remote control from you big handbag! I unlocked the house door because I know it is hard for your eyes to put in the key into the key hole! I didn’t off the fan because the weather is hot and you must be sweating!! I didn’t off the light because I don’t want you to fall down! Mom, I really Love you!” End up; my mum went out to buy supper for him!

Whenever he is with us, the laughter of our family could be heard from 10 blocks away. He is also the only one among the siblings that willing to wake up early to jog with parents, to bring parents for movie and to buy parents concert ticket and company them all the way until the concert end. Even though he only realized he lost the ticket before the concert started, we still think he is lovely because the thought does matter!

So, I’m pretty sure that my brother will also start his new chapter of life with Addrienne in his cheerful and loving way, of course with God’s grace. Our family understands that addrienne might need to adjust herself in our Chinese family: different culture, different food, difficult mandarin and Hakka, but on behalf of my family, we promise uncle John, not only my brother, everyone of us will love her wholeheartedly.

To the two happiest people on earth, Mr and Mrs Sze Kah yit. I want to wish you God's Blessing on Your Wedding Day and may He always be the heart of your marriage, the light of your home. Congratulations!

I pray that you both could still call each other “honey” or “sweetheart”, kiss and hug each other even when you are 88 years old.

Thank you.

Do you still remember me?

2010-12-15T17:08:00.002+11:00

I missed November.
Nearly miss December.
Not looking forward January.
I love February.

Hi, I just got back from a conference trip @ HK. Many happy happening events happened in last few weeks. Hopefully i can come back and update all of them soon.

After packings and unpackings, I need to gain back all my focus for my THESIS!!

Thesis oh thesis, I love you and hate you so much at the time...

Last

2010-10-14T16:11:00.002+11:00

Today, I had my LAST annual progress interview at my discipline.

Today, I submitted my LAST annual progress report to KPT.

Today, I submitted my LAST semester progress report to UNIMAS.

Fuyoo~~~ LAST + LAST + LAST make my day!! A remarkable day 14.11.2010 :)

Put your record on

2010-10-07T15:09:00.004+11:00

The best song of the week to get my Chapter 1 and 2 done :)

Three little birds, sat on my window.
And they told me I don't need to worry.
Summer came like cinnamon
So sweet,
Little girls double-dutch on the concrete.

Maybe sometimes, we've got it wrong, but it's alright
The more things seem to change, the more they stay the same
Oh, don't you hesitate.

Girl, put your records on, tell me your favourite song
You go ahead, let your hair down
Sapphire and faded jeans, I hope you get your dreams,
Just go ahead, let your hair down.

You're gonna find yourself somewhere, somehow.

Blue as the sky, sunburnt and lonely,
Sipping tea in the bar by the roadside,
(just relax, just relax)
Don't you let those other boys fool you,
Got to love that afro hair do.

Maybe sometimes, we feel afraid, but it's alright
The more you stay the same, the more they seem to change.
Don't you think it's strange?

Girl, put your records on, tell me your favourite song
You go ahead, let your hair down
Sapphire and faded jeans, I hope you get your dreams,
Just go ahead, let your hair down.

You're gonna find yourself somewhere, somehow.

'Twas more than I could take, pity for pity's sake
Some nights kept me awake, I thought that I was stronger
When you gonna realise, that you don't even have to try any longer?
Do what you want to.

Girl, put your records on, tell me your favourite song
You go ahead, let your hair down
Sapphire and faded jeans, I hope you get your dreams,
Just go ahead, let your hair down.

Girl, put your records on, tell me your favourite song
You go ahead, let your hair down
Sapphire and faded jeans, I hope you get your dreams,
Just go ahead, let your hair down.

Oh, you're gonna find yourself somewhere, somehow

~Corinne Bailey Rae~

Thesis = publications?

2010-10-02T12:46:00.005+10:00

In 2007, I overheard an academic in my department saying that he actually submitted his 3 journal papers as thesis! First time ever I heard about it! It seems easy and good when come to writing thesis, right? It also encourages us to publish more during study.

However, it is not easy to get even 1 paper publishes in journal. Needless to mention the waiting time for reviewing paper! it could be 2 years. Lets calculate the time required to publish 3 journal papers by end of 3 years. It seems impossible to get 3 papers done simultaneously. so we do it one by one.

3rd paper by end of 3rd year -->
waiting time for reviewers 1 year + writing paper 2 months (that's fast!) + 6 months (implementation & generating result, fast also!!) = 20 months

2nd paper by end of 2.5nd year --> another 20 months (provided u work like a robot!!)

1st paper by end of 2nd year --> another 20 months (might not have time to take shower too!!)

Conclusion?? U need to be SUPER DUPER clear on you're going to do at the 4th month of your PhD. No ambiguous, no doubt on problem statement, methodologies and so on! Are you up to that stage during your 4th month? I was definitely not la T_____T

So, I gave up the ambition of submitting 3 journal papers as thesis at the very beginning.

This year, another friend of mine going to submit his conference proceedings as the thesis body content, without much amendment on those conference proceedings. Of course, few chapters are needed at the front and back to wrap it up nicely la. I was quite surprise and wonder if conference proceedings are acceptable. Then, I was assured by PhD's coordinator. Yes, we can include published work in our thesis! **Started singing "I fell good"**

In Malaysia, I have never known about this =.=
Is there any university in Malaysia implementing this?

6 months challenge

2010-09-28T10:09:00.002+10:00

I was very depress after a chat with my supervisor
First time ever, I felt like run away from Sydney
so weak so hopeless so dark

After a good c.r.y. (again?)
The rational me is back!!
Am i going to give up at this final stage?
NO WAY!!

U say 6 months??
I say less than 6 months!!
U watch me!!

Where am I now?
Chapter 1

Dear friend, are you going to fight this battle with me??
ARE U??

Writing up

2010-09-27T13:25:00.003+10:00

My boss said I might need to be a robot in order to complete my thesis in 6 months time.

Routine for 6 months
1. wake up
2. breakfast
3. WRITE
4. Lunch
5. WRITE
6. Dinner
7. WRITE
8. Sleep

Rules
1. no social activity
2. no facebook
3. no rest

Outdoor photo shooting

2010-09-24T18:35:00.022+10:00

I had a very enjoyable photo shooting with my parents at Melbourne. We hardly have chance to take proper nice photo (1) my mum doesn't like to take photo as she claims herself not photogenic (2) limited time together.

Thanks to KL and Janice, I have heaps of nice photos with parents :) I really love it and appreciate of your willingness to become our photographer.

These are some of them :)

~somewhere around city~

~with dad on the green green carpet~

~nice one?~

@ St.Kilda beach

I'm a bit disappointed with this beach. My friends kept promoting me the beach, turn out the beach is dirty and very smelly.

still~~ we enjoyed our shooting there

~Great that they enjoyed the shooting too ;) ~

~chit-chatting~

~two happy lalat~

@ somewhere near Government House

This is Janice!

A very nice Melbourne trip <3

I love you

2010-09-02T17:13:00.002+10:00

Dear Tom,

I couldn't tell how much I miss you here.
I couldn't tell how much I need you in my life.

I thank God that bringing you into my life.
I thank God that gave us a marriage and promised a blessed one.

To me, there is none like you.
To me, you are the best.

I love you honey.

p/s: Please keep our house clean, tq!

Your wife :D

Still alive

2010-08-26T16:08:00.007+10:00

I'm still alive & fat :) Just that, schedule is too busy and body is too weak to blog. I went to see doctor twice in this month T____T flu, cough, fever, sore throat, legs cramp all came as a package!! thanks tom to stay up whole night to make sure fever temperature didn't go up. I guess Phd is enough to damage my brain, so "fever" go away!!

My journal paper is rejected T___T

Yes I was a little down and refused to even read reviews' comments. Maybe it is because I did put lot of effort in it, so I was expecting at least "accepted with major correction". I was wrong.

The next day, I forwarded all the comments to both my supervisors with hope that they would handle the rest for me *day dreaming* their replies were SUPER encouraging *are they trained to do so??* After being moody for days *i'm a woman ok??* I read back all the comments. AGREED! The paper presentation is a major problem. haih haih haih~~~ it means more work need to be done!! My boss already told me which journal to resend the paper and when should I send T______T

When can I have time to focus on my thesis?? when when when??? ish ish ish!!

STRESS le. how?

Bom dia?

2010-07-28T08:56:00.001+10:00

Lisbon has very minimal English signboard. I tried to understand the sign most of the time but end up knowing nothing!! Except this one - Bom dia!! Can understand fully, finally~~

Garang nyer~~

mau lagi dia jalan sana sini suruh orang "Bom dia!!"

EURO 2010 conference

2010-07-25T16:04:00.002+10:00

This is the biggest conference scale that I attended so far in term of number of participants, 2680!! 4 days for 2351 presentations, very pack!! If you want to listen to all the presentations (one at a time), you need to skip lunch, running here and there (too many parallel sessions) from 9am to 7pm!

I like this type of big conference after IFORS (South Africa, 2008) because I got to know many information such as research trend, publication, activities, workshop and also useful software. Maybe it was my first conference meeting with nearly thousand of researchers. therefore, I was pretty excited.

However, I have different thought this time.

the opening session - simple and yet informative

The conference was held at Faculty of Science, Universidade de Lisboa. Perfect time to make sure of the empty & quite campus, due to summer holiday for students. Is this the reason why the registration fee is cheap? On the other hand, it also means all the conference talks and parallel presentations would be scattered around the campus, including the cafeteria for lunch. Parallel sessions mainly at the tutorial blocks while plenary sessions were assigned at bigger hall. There is a walking distance bewteen blocks or hall (and cafeteria), which would discourage participants to actually go to the other venue for other talks. Most of them prefer to remain at the same tutorial room or block throughout the day, except lunch (of course!!). Furthermore, the schedule was too pack that we actually missed out lot of presentations (due to parrallel) that we were interested at. At the end, I would only choose the stream that almost 95% close to my research but no way for 94% and below!

Welcoming drink

It is hard to organise such an event with this big amount of participants. I think the organiser had done an excellent job. Congratulations!! I like the free wifi/internet during conference and those students (helper) are so handsome, pretty, friendly and helpful =)

To me, it was a bit hard to build network among the researcher"S". Most of them came as a group, so they would stick to themselves during the conference too. Or, there were so many people to talk with, the conversation won't go to depth for research. I talked to some of the researchers from Portugal, Japan, Brazil, China, Malaysia, Germany and so on. Right after a short chat on research (~2-5 minutes), all end up talking where to go at Lisbon T____T Then, turning their head talking to other.

wah they got white peacock walking freely at the campus leh!!!

what a lousy ending of a post =.='''

Anak Malaysia

2010-07-22T08:45:00.002+10:00

When I was at Sydney, a foreign friend chatted with me right after her trip from Malaysia.

Friend: Wao!! Malaysian food is amazing & Twin Towers is awesome!! *2 thumbs up*
Me: OF COURSE!! *feeling proud*
Friend: The night view of Twin Towers, sparkling like diamonds!! Gosh, I LOVE it!!
Me: yeah~~
Friend: Do you like it too? I mean the Twin Towers at night!!
Me: em.... of course~~ *started feeling guilty already*
Friend: Don't you tell me, you haven't..... *shaking her head already* (=.=)'''
Me: yeah~~ T________________T

nice boh?? (from google)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Once my paper got accepted at a conference held @ Kuala Lumpur. I kind of announced to the whole world:

"I Want To See PETRONAS TWIN TOWERS at NIGHT!!! Big BIG One!!"

I told my brother who works at Kuala Lumpur! Also, I asked for Sooli's help to look for the perfect cafe to have the PERFECT view of Twin Towers at night. Expensive? Never mind!

Then my brother, Jonathan brought me to Bukit Ampang. Can you spot Twin Towers? This is how small when I saw it too from Bukit Ampang! :(

Now you found them??
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The pretty Sooli did her research by asking around and suggested me Sky Bar @ Traders Hotel. She even made a reservation for us to hangout on ladies' night :)

Sky Bar at Traders Hotel (from google), nice o not?????????????????????????
Glass windows, pool side cafe, romantic ambient, what to ask more??

We both went to Sky Bar before day got dark... Witness the light switching on part by part... nice!!

couldn't stop taking photo, towers on our head!!

a happy Nana, sitting beside a swimming pool while enjoying nice view of BIG Twin Towers!

night view + pizza + good friend

wider view of Twin Towers

happy with free drink for ladies on the night :)

Now, I'm proud to tell everyone, "Nana anak Malaysia" because I have seen the diamond Twin Towers!! ;)

A bit about Petronas Twin Towers (Menara Berkembar Petronas):
The Petronas Twin Towers were world tallest building before Taipei 101 on 2004. These two towers are used as administrative office. Tower 1 is fully used by Petronas (oil and gas campany) and some of their subsidiaries. Meanwhile, tower 2 is sublet to other companies.

One of a special feature of the building is the sky bridge between towers on 41st and 42nd floor, in order to prevent the towers breaking from high wind. This bridge is acknowledge as world highest 2-storey bridge.

My way

2010-07-19T17:30:00.006+10:00

I wonder how people think about a PhD life. I just read a friend's blog, saying that she cut down her frequency to blog, because she doesn't want people to have misunderstanding on her PhD life, where she blogs mainly about her traveling and leisure activities.

I travel a lot when i started my PhD. Since then, friends and relatives around me might says:
"so rich ah? fly back so frequent?"
"PhD seems easy huh?"
"Very enjoy hoh you!!"

Recently, I travel even more. The craziest schedule was fly few times in a week, in and out airports, pack and unpack. Then, more critiques come to my ears (or poor tom) about my frequent traveling.

At the very beginning, I might be able to explain patiently the reason why I fly so frequent. Now, I will just let them say whatever they want as long as they are happy. I bet they don't have the gut to take up the PhD even though they think it is easy or relax from me!

Everyone has different motivation that drive one moves forward! So, it is very objective on what method I opted to achieve my dream right? As long as I don't hurt anyone.

Keep on writing is a must in PhD. Before you can write, you need to get your model well defined(take months), develop methodology(require you to read until you vomit!), implement proposed solution (more hair loss) & test it (need Panadol and thicker spectacles)! Not only that, you need to read lot of journals (provided you can understand fully), book (you might want to shoot those professors to dead!), internet article and so on. Ok! After you got everything ready, it's time to write. Then, you need to sort all the data/information and get the structure of your paper. Said is easier than done!

Can you sit still, facing a pile of journals or facing your laptop from 8am-5pm? or 8am-10pm? everyday including weekend? I guess this is what outsiders expect a "normal" PhD's life, right?

I have a friend, complained to me that he was so so tired, all day rushing in and out office, customers were fussy, weather was hot and traffic was bad! According to him, I have the best job ever, stay indoor, simply read some papers then surf net/FB for hours. I kept silent then I offered him to swap our job maybe for a day. I will take up his work for a day but he need to read 2 journals for me in a day and write a report on that. He refused to. Then, I reduced his workload to just a journal reading. He refused again! why? WHY??

I work base on deadline. Yes, a soft deadline for PhD is 3 years. 3 years is too far away for me. So, I look for quality conferences and encourage myself to produce result and paper by conference deadlines. Furthermore, attending conference is a perfect "excuse" to accommodate dedicated supervisors and comfort myself by take a break with "free" air ticket. So, is there anything wrong with it?

Family is also an important factor for me. I purposely transit all my conferences or whatever traveling trip at Malaysia to pay a visit to my husband (you can only understand the feeling if you are in Long-Distance-Relationship too) and family. It will be the quality time for us. At the same time, I can refresh myself. It is no easy to be alone aboard. Again, anything wrong with that?

It is not as easy (or as fun) as how you look at us, PhD candidates. It involves lot of independence work, critical thinking and effort to gain the so called "free trips" back home.

Away

2010-07-12T22:22:00.008+10:00

Away for conference...

6th-16th July 2010

2680 participants!!

met friends @ london

london = malaysia

very hot

got freak out @ lisbon

sign board here very powerful

read it more than 30 mins

but nothing that i could understand

T_____T

~Please pray for me that I won't miss my comnnecting flight at Heathrow~

Tulis-menulis

2010-07-02T03:38:00.002+10:00

1 minggu = 8 muka surat
esok hari ketujuh
baru muka surat ke-6
kura-kura betul

otak tak jalan
mata tak tutup

muka termenung
jam detik 1.35am
nak salahkan kopi
atau salahkan tarikh akhir?

ish ish ish ish
apa puisi nie?
ish ish ish ish
boss, tolong!!

EASIAM 2010 Conference

2010-06-30T11:06:00.000+10:00

Attended another conference with a very long title:

"Applied Mathematics
International Conference 2010 (AMIC 2010)
&
The 6th East Asia Siam Conference 2010 (EASIAM)"

Long o not?? This is the 1st conference organised at Malaysia that I attended during my PhD. I was looking forward for this conference to build network with local research. As I expected, I met some interesting people who have same niche research area as me :)

backdrop photo with Sashi & Betty
surprisingly, Sashi was my junior at UTM!! Hi junior!!

She did a very good presentation that I barely understand. How do I know that it was a good one? because lot of people came to approach her right after her presentation and also the following day, like this~

This 3 days conference has 66 contributed talks, mainly focus on 5 major scopes:

Applied Mathematics
Engineering Mathematics
Operations Research & Optimization
Numerical Analysis
Linear Algebra & applications

Some participants didn't turn up, including invited speaker without giving any advance notice, which is very bad! For example my session was schedule on morning with total 5 presenters and I was the 4th at 945am. On the day, I dropped off one train station earlier than it supposed to be because I was not familiar with the location (orang Kuching mah!!). So, I need to walked about 20 minutes and reached the conference venue about 900am. While I was still panting (very tired hoh as I put on weight and half run half walk with my high heels) looking for water, the chairperson approached me saying that, I would be the next presenter as 1st and 3rd presenter didn't turn up!!! Waseh!! When I looked up at the slide, the current slide was showing me "CONCLUSION"!! Wa wa seh!! Just one sip of mineral water, then I rush to get the hard-disc and paper ready~~~ =.=''' no even have time to check if my hair was messy! Luckily I reached 45 minutes earlier.

Overall this conference was well organised. Each participant got a easier platform to know each other and exchange research idea and contact. Also, I like the buffet lunches :P

Enjoyed! Maybe I should aim another mathematics conference at Malaysia!

Transiting @ Singapore

2010-06-28T18:35:00.012+10:00

I made a transit at Singapore to catch up with some friends when I was on my way back to KL for a conference. Short trip, good rest, nice food & the most important one --> great people over there! Thanks pals.

On my way "flying" back with Jetstar, there was a medical condition from a passenger just sat 3 rows in front of me. Then another passenger, acted as a medical doctor (not sure) came to assist/treat/diagnose that ill passenger. All the crews were busy because of that. They took out first aid kit, bandage, hand gloves, scissors, needle and so on. Wow, I could say they are well-trained to handle it, calm & professional! Whatever the passenger (doctor?) needed or requested, they could provide it. *thumb up* The steward (in the photo) came to check on that passenger from time to time with a big smile =)

Ok, change it back to Singapore mode :)

Leong Choo and her family brought me to a place of Singapore, Marina Barrage to play kite. According to her, not even basic skill needed to fly a kite over there, which is so true! Crowded with people with all range of ages on land and crowded with colourful kites with all range of sizes in that blue blue sky!

"people mountain people sea"

nice view + nice weather + nice place

great family time + friends gathering

macam-macam ada~~

Parents were trying to fly the kite meanwhile kids were busy eating their snack. Kids asked repeatedly, "mummy, where is my kite???" by looking up and searching, without realizing his dad was fixing the kite. hahahaha. This care free childhood is always the best gift for our kids.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next event was catching up with Peishi, Adam and Peytee (a friend that motivate and pray a lot for me for my study!).

Adam | Peytee | me | Peishi

She does her PhD with stress then she gets slimmer. How come I stress with so many extra fat one?? Ini yang tak best nie!!

Peytee: Glad that you are progressing and enjoy your research very much. I will keep you in my prayer too ;) Keep it up and lets us reach the ending point together!!

New quote

2010-06-26T20:00:00.003+10:00

Whatever you being disgraceful today, PLZ remember your children will do the same to you BACK. Be respectful to your parents and elderly. You are just as childish as you are when you act impulsively like ONLY YOU are right. TIME will prove it! ~Nana

This new quote was written last week. Sooli told me that her friends love this quote when I posted it on Facebook. They paste it on their Facebook too as they think it is a good quote.

So I share it here with all my friends and family.

Postgraduate symposium at ITLS

2010-06-25T17:26:00.008+10:00

After almost 1.5 years from my last conference presentation, I started to attend a series of conferences. Another conference trip that allows me to stay over at Kuching. I like it :P

1st postgraduate symposium at ITLS was also my 1st research presentation at University of Sydney. Emmm, I also feel weird how come I haven't done any presentation at any seminar @ my discipline and so on for almost 3 years of PhD study.

This symposium was a small scale event, only MPhil & PhD students did the presentation, to share what kind of research they are doing, their progress and also the obstacles they facing. Surprisingly, all the academics from ITLS gave full support by participating it actively. They interacted with students, gave good comments and suggestions.

I was the only student not from ITLS, but I appreciated it. This symposium did open my eyes with all sort of transportation research that they are doing. The bus fare system, the routes design or even the location of a small train station need lot of research to be done so that it brings long term benefit to both government and nations.

I like the idea of postgraduate symposium. It provides a chance for students to restructure what they have done so far and gives a clear picture of what they miss out! All these will be revealed when the student does the power point slides! Student will only take a serious action when there is a "serious" event, likes symposium! Correct? :P

Update + Parents' day

2010-06-21T12:16:00.011+10:00

Sorry that I was totally neglect my blog as long as two weeks eventhough I have plenty to write about. Busy being fly-woman, attend conferences and meeting with supervisors. Gosh, conference preparation is time consuming like no ending....

Yesterday we had a great supper with my parents for father's day celebration. I found an interesting restaurant + home stay that really bring out the unique of Sarawak culture. I talked to the owner and he welcome me to take photo of it anytime. He also shared with me the concept of his business. Interesting! Probably will arrange a time after my conference at KL.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yes, something happen to my family last week. Thank you for the emails, sms and calls. We are fine :) It was actually a small issue but it did give a very big impact to our family. By this incident, I felt the greatest love from my parents, especially my mom. She is willing to do anything just to protect her family and want her children to be happy. That ANYTHING means a lot to four of us. Furthermore, it strengthens our family bonding.

I regret that I was 10 minutes too late to reach home so that your faces wouldn't turn as pale as a blank A4 white paper.
I regret that I didn't insist to do the make up for you so that your hand and legs wouldn't be as cool as ice-cream in my fridge.
I regret that I didn't get home earlier to choose your clothes ready for dinner so that your chest wouldn't be pain and nearly out of breath.
I regret that I didn't pick you up after work so that your stomach wouldn't feel that unbearable pain, until you asked dad to send you to hospital nearby.
I regret that I didn't pay more attention so that you wouldn't be that weak until you couldn't get down from bed.
I regret. I regret. we regret. Truly regret.

And yet you insisted you would be fine by not telling us anything but just wanted us to attend the wedding reception happily.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mom, we will remember what you had done for us. We will repay it. I promise that four of us will.

Mom, we love you as much as you love us.

Happy parent's day to all parents out there!!

Rush hour

2010-06-07T15:57:00.003+10:00

Three conferences in a row
Within five weeks time
At three different places

Tomorrow is the 1st symposium
At Institute of Transportation & Logistics Studies
Excited and yet scared/stress
Excited for the comment
Scared of bad critique
Supervisor will be there some more

(what if they say my work is crap?)
How would I react to them?
Yer~~~ want meh?? want meh??
I want to start my writing up leh~~~

Oh, I know.
I will close my supervisor's ears & ask them to talk softly!!

Scared scared~~~
How??

I won RM192K

2010-05-25T19:38:00.010+10:00

I hope I won't be robbed by putting this title =.= Please, I have only RM20 (less than aud7) in my purse!

I guess most of us read from newspaper, net, blogs (at least a famous post from Kenny Sia) or friends, regarding phone scam on lucky draw. Indeed --> "LUCKY" draw. It happened on me too recently!

Last 2 weeks, I received a phone call from a china lady (can tell from her accent) telling me that she was doing some sort of marketing survey at Malaysia. I knew that was a scam! I told her directly I was not interested, very annoying to receive such call while frustrating writing paper. BUT she refused to put it down, kept asking "JUST 1 minutes"!! Fine. I gave her a fake identity (Chou Zhi Zhi, student, 25 yrs old). I nearly burst into laughter when mentioned the name of "Chou Zhi Zhi", it is so fuuny as I named myself as Purple-Purple Chiew (meaning in chinese).

Before the end of the conversation, she told me that I was given 20% discount(or 10%, can't remember) at their company by just telling them my phone number. HELLO, no such GOOD DEAL with only 1 min of survey to get that 20%. Of course, THAT COMPANY is world widely well-known: hotels, resorts, golf everywhere ----> EMPORER Group (HK company). Then, she put me in one of the "lucky draw" event of their company.

I just "ok" "ok" all the way. Finally, BYE.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After a week, she called me up saying that there was a grand event of their company at HONG KONG, live on show. Asked me to watch TV if I would win any prize. Again, I said OK OK!

The funny part was she called my new name: Chou Zhi Zhi. I nearly passed out, then rolling on the floor. Very hard to control not to laugh it out hoh, stomachache after that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After another 2 days, she called me again!! She told me I won the fifth prize: HK$ 480,000, equivalent to RM192,000. Again, I was seriously working on my paper. I gave no excitement feedback at all while she bla bla bla at the other end for around 10 mins.

After she congratulated me further, she asked for my bank account number to transfer the $. I pretended that I was at school, not convenient to get the details. She offered to call me back next day to collect the bank details, as if she couldn't wait to send over the money for me T_________T

I showed a bit of grumpy and started to asked her company's detail: like phone number, company website and so on. She paused a while then another call rang at her side. She put me on hold to answer that call, but i could hear what she was talking to that caller clearly. Her motive was manifested.

Cheater lady:
Hello, this is Wu Si Han, may I know who am I speaking to??
Oh, My Ngu! How are you?
Do you mean your 6th prize? 1 karat of diamond? Any problem?
Good, you've received it! Congratulation again~~
Oh no, our company will bear all the shipping cost. no worries about that.
You're welcome.
Congratulation again~~
Bye.

Even 3 years old little girl can understand what was she trying to tell right? I insisted to have the company website when she got back on me. At first, she was a bit reluctant and gave me only company number.

00852-30779989

According to her, the website URL is very long, I might get it wrong! I got my paper and pen ready. She got no choice to gave me the URL.

www.emperorleisuregroup.com

Indeed a bit long for her to spell it one by one for me. The way she spell it, CONFIRM she is a BIGGEST CHEATER!!! Her english ability betrayed her trick, like this...

3 w u~~~~
"e-ish" for engrish~~~
"m~lu" the 2 doors~~~
.
.
.
"l--lo-fu" for i low u

WHAT????????????? Then i realised she was trying to say "I love you"!!!!!!!!!!!!!! @-@ She is working for a 30 yrs old multinational company leh! A very well-known company that has hotel at every part of the world leh! please la~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the URL part, she kindly remind me to keep low profile. AGAIN, according to her, Malaysia is a very unsafe country with lots of robbery T__________T Asked me to keep this piece of GOOD news to myself, only share with family members T___T

End of the conversation between me that staying at unsafe country and a super kind lady.

Immediately, i clicked on the website. The front page is grand and perfectly fine. When I surf more detailly, the "l-lo-fu" disclose!!!

golf?? glof?? golf??
T_______________T

banner overlaps the text content!!!

Investigate a bit further~~~

This domain just created 6 months ago??? by a random guy called lui fei from China, not Hong Kong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She called me twice the next day but I didn't pick up. Run out of idea to fool around with her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another 3 calls the following day! Did not pick up. Tom answered the 3rd one. She refused to leave message and quickly hang up.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

No more call so far.

Our Mom's leg

2010-05-20T12:58:00.007+10:00

May is a beautiful month for me to show gratitude to my mom. I know everyday is suppose to be mother's day, not restricted to only the 2nd Sunday of May. However, she will only receive our present more willingly on that day because she doesn't want us to spend "unnecessary expenses"-based on her definition.

This year, i realised my mom or i should say all mothers around me are getting older dramatically. Look at the 4 little stories below! I'm not a medical doctor so I might not be able to explain it clearly about their condition.

(1) My sis in law's mom (early last year)
Got problem at her spine that cause she couldn't walk much. If she tries to sit or stand straight, she would yell in pain. The pain at her both legs and tights make her couldn't sleep at night. She had an operation at her back but it doesn't seem improve.

(2) Tom's sis in law's mom (mid last year)
She experiences the pain on her legs quite some years already. Her legs actually from '| |' transformed to "( )". Do you get what i mean? It makes her couldn't stand/walk a lot, no bending at her legs.

(3) My mom in law (last month)
She had sleeping problem for years, 3-4 hours in a day is the max that she could make it. Yet, that wasn't deep sleep. She went to doctors, western and chinese, all she had just a pile of painkiller. Until early this year, the pain was continuous and unbearable, all the way from her back to her legs. She went to x-ray/MRI. The result shows that her spine actually pressed on her nerves that link to her legs. There were 4 of them which 2 were pretty serious. So, she had the surgery to fix it with a 10cm scar at her back. Up to now, she yet to recover and still rely on painkiller. The sleeping and pain of legs are solved, but she couldn't sit on soft sofa, stand too long or carry heavy stuff (not even a newborn baby).

(4) My mom :( last week
She complains about her left calf, sore more than pain from time to time. Her knee is perfectly fine. We went to doctors but they can't actually tell us the cause, just saying that she maybe walk or stand too much during her work that cause her muscle tense, which is not true as she sits a lot actually! Not only that, she will has leg cramp at night, not often though. Again, the pain incresed last week but she insisted to go to work. When she tried to stand on something to lookup a stock. She heard a sound "pop" from her left knee!! (She didn't fall down). Then, she couldn't move at all. Pain to dead!! She took a rest at home for a week, jumped in and out toilet and slept at living room. We worried that her "soft bone" at her knee is broken, but we can't trace anything through X-ray or MRI :(

All these mothers have the similar problem at thier legs. Why so? They were full time housewives back then, where they need to cope with all sort of housework: delivered babies (thats you and me!), cooking, gardening, cleaning, including moving HEAVY stuffs here and there. EVERYTHING with no kakak! I was shocked when I heard my mom actually shifted a 29'' TV from living room to upstairs by HERSELF!!!! It is not a flat screen/plasma TV, but a heavy boxed TV!!! Please don't ask why she need to do it by herself, not asking any help from husband or children. How willing are we to help when we were kids/teenagers back then??

I feel sad when I see my mum couldn't walk well as before. She is no longer the strong mom that I used to have. She is getting older who need my care and attention more. She need me to be around to bring her to toilet, get her a glass of water when her leg is in pain or weak to walk.

how much time left we can spend on our parents? I love you, mummy. I really do.

Kitak-Kamek

2010-05-07T10:59:00.004+10:00

Tom sent me this photo yesterday. This is localised Sarawak Malay language, or called as "Bahasa Sarawak". It is a surprise that one of the supermarkets in Kuching put up a sign with this localised language, but I love it!

This reminds me of boarding school life at 10 years back where I need to pick up this language to "survive". I was the only Chinese at high school. No one actually use proper Malay to communicate with me, except teachers. Not to say Bahasa Sarawak, proper school-kind Malay was also a problem for me (didn't has the practice enviroment). Very hard to express myself!!

Slowly, I started to learn Bahasa Sarawak. At the begining, I was totally confused with "Kamek-Kitak".

Kamek = saya (Malay) = I (English)
Kitak = Kamu (Malay) = you (English) <---> confused as "kita" means "us" in Malay! They look and sound very familiar right? right? right? (no objection!!)

Lot of stupid incidents happened due to my confusion. One of it was I rushed to school principal's room with my teary eyes because I thought principal was looking for me. I was freak out as principal normally only look for that particular student if he/she had done something very wrong. However, principal was looking at me like, "what are you doing in my room?". T______T Then, I knew I misunderstand AGAIN. That friend was actually told me that the principal wanted to see her after class!!!! Gosh, that was how the principal could remember me until today!! T___________T

This is the language that helps me make lot of good buddies. Fun and caring non-chinese friends. I learn and understand their culture, even until today. By understanding each other well, we can break the wall in between to get along and show respect to each other.

Maybe this is one of the steps for us move toward "1 Malaysia".

Hey, kamek dah lamak sik kelakar Bahasa Sarawak oi!! Siapa gik mau kelakar ngan kamek??

A bad start of May

2010-05-04T12:57:00.004+10:00

Received an extended abstract reject notification
I know I deserve it
Take time for me to accept the fact

I accept those comments now
I will remember those advices

how much input = how much output
simple mathematics
easy to be understand
but hard to apply

The story of Pizza Hut Online Promotion

2010-04-26T13:17:00.013+10:00

Updated: ** Tom just received call (around 4pm-ish, 26th April) from both manager KL and area manager Tabuan Height Kuching of Pizza Hut, after waiting for 1 day 1 night. They just called to apologise. So, no need ask me if there is any compensate. There is none.**

**Below is a complain written by Tom last night to Pizza Hut management. Lets us see when we will receive reply from the company. I added some photos along his letter for illustration purposes or to show our evidence.**

"With recent online purchase promotion, I order my pizza through internet around 4.30pm and the pickup time I set supposed to be around 6.20pm.

To my disappointment, when my spouse reached the selected Pizza Hut Outlet (Tabuan Height), the outlet yet received my order which I paid online already.

In this situation, I expected the staffs over there can assists her on checking what happen to our order. Yet, they only response that no order received and they can't do much even though my spouse present my online Order Invoice , leaving her no choice have to call 1300882525 by herself.

To my worse disappointment, when she call in, the way the customer service personnel attend her case is real harsh and rude manner. She is very angry with the attitude and I surprise how can they attend their customer like that. Below is part of their conversation. The selection is for English conversation when call in. See what happen.

Sannah: Good evening, My name is Sannah and I would like to check my order and my authorisation code is 02641.

Customer Service: APA YANG U NAK TANYA NIE?

Sannah: Saya order online tapi mereka tidak ada received order saya.

Customer Service: Tanyalah dekat store sana....

After my spouse convey this to me, I really very very angry and sad to hear that kind of services provided by PIZZA HUT NATIONWIDE NUMBER!!! Is that called Good Customer Service? At the end of the conversation, the solution she gave was saying she already pass the message to officer and the officer will call her back. But, the "OFFICER" until now even when I am writing this complaint, still haven't call her yet. Now time is 11:44PM. When your OFFICER will call??? Another sad and lousy service. What the hell of this kind of service.

And, next, when she is about to leave the restaurant without her ordered pizza as she is fade up, the staff at the outlet only then informed her that the online order just received which so claimed as """HOT POUCH & OVEN Fresh !!! Guranteed!!! (I QUOTE this from Pizza Hut Receipt) What the Fxxx!!!!

My order supposed to be pick up at 6.20PM and the order only received at around 7pm. What kind of system? Hey, if your online system not really ready for this kind of service, PLEASE NEXT TIME DON'T USE ON-TIME GUARANTEED OK???? Now I really feel want to curse Pizza Hut when I write this feedback. Yet, sorry for my harsh write in.

I think I would like to stop here. But, NO WAY. There is more to complain here. Is the MANAGER at the TABUAN HEIGHT well trained? Mr Kambia (the name he told me through phone) the one who I asked my spouse to pass the phone line to him which I can complain and get some good explanation. He is DAMN irresponsible and not helpful at all and do not know how to take care of his customers. How can he did not make any apologize even this kind of incidents which our online order only received at 7pm and he is not comforting or giving apologize even very obvious this is Pizza Hut fault. Is that how your Manager react to customer feedback??????????? I only can says he is so SHIT as he don't even dare to sign receipt which my spouse asked him to sign to proof that our pizza only ready at 7.20pm. At the end, his staff Martin helping to sign the receipt. I am glad he did that which at least he dare to sign it.

Before I end this feedback, my complain here might not escalate to the right PARTY who really can handle this feedback. But, plzzzz....for the person who read this, I really hope you can pass to correct channel so that Pizza Hut can improve their unstable and slowness online system and look into their front liner customer support attitude and not forget the harsh and unhelpful telephonist.

That's my complaint. Thank you. :( "

Written by Tom to Pizza Hut Management on 25th April 2010, 1130pm

Random

2010-04-23T17:51:00.006+10:00

I can foresee that this table will be continue to be a mess or messier to max level!

I received nice hand-made cute stuff from Ying (remember her? neh, the very sweet girl from China). She made it herself!!! I have no such talent/patience to do such thing T___T I hang this little red crab at my laptop to motivate myself keep on fighting for PhD.

Today I read from Mike about the most fashion way(I would say) or quick way to definite O.R.! Interesting!

Operations research is the art and science of obtaining bad answers to questions to which otherwise worse answers would be given.
by David Woods

bad is so much better than worse, right???
=)

However, it just sound crap when I say,
"I'm going to write a thesis which produce bad solution to airline company."
=(

My sister Lulu

2010-04-21T08:00:00.001+10:00

We have been friends for more than 10 years, back in year 1994! Furthermore we were ->
Classmates : 3 years
Roommates: 3 years (I slept with her for 3 years, wonder how i made it! Bravo, nana!!)

From the very beginning I hate (maybe not that bad but definitely found her very annoying) her. U know the type of girl that skipped her transition year came to my class (a year senior) and make lot of noise! She claimed she could represent our class for essay competition for almost ALL languages! So, all of us being acknowledged that she was talented in this and that by herself!! Of course, you will feel this girl very annoying, right? (no objection please!) Not only that, she wasn' pretty at that time (kids are superficial, ok?). Round face, big outdated glasses, long hair + nerdy look! I wonder if she knew what "humbe" or "low profile" are as a person!

After sometimes, the feeling towards her transformed from "hate" to "dislike". It is because we hardly hang out together! Did we?? I don't think so! As I was in "fun" group of people while she was in those quiet and "hardworking" student group. There won't be any clique between us EVER!

3 years passed, I transferred to another school. To me, she was still a kiasu and boring type of student/friend! And I even heard that she cried when she found out that she scored an A2 for her Mandarin subject in SPM. Gosh, I felt like slap her instantly! what a show-off girl she was!! A2 is an blessing already!!

Surprisingly, we entered the SAME university and doing the SAME program (Thanks God, different majoring!) The story of this is never hate/dislike a person!! After a year staying on campus, we both and some other hometown friends decided to rent a house. Due to whatever reasons (couldn't remember), we both became roommates!! I was so doubt that how well could I get along with this arrogant girl for 3 years.

She has a very loud voice! For example, you could hear her shouting at you even she was outside the house and you were at the farthest corner in the house, maybe toilet or backyard. This makes me very uncomfortable at the beginning! Some more she was very calculative in term of money and other things. Cannot put thing here! cannot sit on her bed and so on!! Those weren't my style too!

However, I found the other side of her after staying together for a while. Just because of her loud voice, our house was very lively, more laughter and we love shouting back at her!! Because of her calculative attitude, we stayed at a cleaner house and learn to show respect to others.

There was one time. She bought a small bunch of grape. Grape wasn't cheap at that time and remember she was very calculative! She cleaned the grape and kept nicely in the fridge so that she could eat it slowly. The rest of naughty boys in the house were very excited with existence of the grape. Even they knew those was belong to Lulu (means you would get trouble if you steal it!), they couldn't resist it. Each of the boy ate about 2-3 grapes and kept silent! They were 3 of them! When she back from campus and opened the fridge door happily! immediately, we could feel the house was shaking because of her screaming!!! Where were those boys? Hiding and laughing in their room. Screaming and laughing loud at the same time. No one can forget this story until today. She indeed created lot of special moment for us =)

She is my "encyclopedia" of all time, due to her eagerness of learning. Whenever I seek for some related information, she never refuse to share. The best part is the way of her conveying the message is very interesting! Not only that, she is my tv-program show time provider too! Any tv-program show time, from Korean series, to cartoon or documentary, ask her!!

3 years of sleeping together is actually a very cherish moment! 2 little girls shared their stories, their ambition, gossips almost every night before sleep. We encourage and take care of each other. Now, I know the true lulu. She is a simple girl with a beautiful heart, that loves to read.

What to ask more as friends, as Lulu and me? when I know she will protect me when I'm hurt and lent me ear when I need it. There also the time that she can understand me fully even I just keep silent.

Once, she asked me where was her mr right? I said you will meet him one day.

Today! on 10.04.2010. My sister lulu tied a knot with her Mr Right! Maybe many of us was in tears of joy on her wedding, but not me. I was truly happy for her, smile and laugh at all time as if my own sister got married. I truly believe that she will be happy ever after with this man.

Lulu, I will keep you in my prayer.

I love you, sis =)

Rock Paper Scissors

2010-04-17T08:30:00.003+10:00

Tom and I always use "Rock Paper Scissors" hand game to decide who should do the thing that we both refuse to do, such as take a drink, wash the dishes or switch off laptop.

He is so good at this. Normally who win RPS 3 times will be the winner. Most of the time, he gets 3 while i get 0! T_____T Who ever lose the game has no say but just do it. Just because he is so good at this, I feel very reluctant to play with him. So, he changed the rule to Tom- 3 times, Nana --> only 1 time, meaning that I need to win 1 time ONLY to get the game over, but he still need to win 3 times as usual. See, this is his favourite game!!

It is fun actually. Normally the winner will laugh and show the arrogant face to the other one, while the loser will plead for 2nd game. Each game ends with laughter.

We use this game the most to decide who to switch off the light in our room at night. Both of us are so lazy to get out from bed after having the best post ready for sleep. One day, he lost the game! Then he said he must get a solution for this one day. I totally ignored him :P

Today, he got someone to sort out this "switch off light" issue! They pull 3 cables to 3 light switches in our master room. Then, install a receiver above the ceiling/in the roof. Now,we can control those 3 lights (at our bed, dressing table and wardrobe) with a remote control!

I was shock at this solution as I can't believe we could be such a lazy couples! Yet tom said this is a smart-happy solution T_____T

He asked me if I could feel the happiness today! I said yes. Then he repeated the same question for few times, just want to make sure that I feel happy with the "lighting remote control" T_____T Needless to tell how satisfy he is today.

Tom: after today, no more "Rock Paper Scissors" for lighting. hahahahahaha!
*confirm he is very proud of himself!!*
Nana: yes but we will have a new one.
Tom: what what?
Nana: To find the misplace remote control la!!
Tom: &^%$#$#

Giving Birth

2010-04-15T18:41:00.005+10:00

No worries, I'm not going to mention about me giving birth of a human baby =)

Today... FINALLY I submitted my 1st manuscript!! Phew~~~~ The whole process is not easy. Anyway, I did it with approval of both my supervisors.

Since last year, both my supervisors encourage me to submit a paper for journal publication, not to aim for conference proceedings all the time. I was doubt with my ability (doubt with research quality and my poor writing), but still I said OK! This is because my thesis will look good when there is journal publication by the time it is sent out for examination. So, die-die must have a journal publication! However, my target was just a low ranking journal. Who care right? as long as it is a journal publication.

Early this year, Dr Ada acted more seriously on my journal paper preparation. So, I did it accordingly. It was a pain. Literature review is tough! To get the "skeleton" of the paper is even worse! Still, i did it. The entire process took me roughly 4 months. Passing the paper back and forth many times between me and them. We comment, reviewed, polished up, elaborated and added-in useful figures and so on through email, F2F meeting and YM. The review process was so intense up to the extend I was going to vomit and wanted to throw it out from window whenever I saw that paper!! but what to do? both my supervisor are so patient to work on it with me.

When the first draft is out, Dr Ada asked me which were those journals that I interested to submit. I gave her a list of 4 or 5. When she saw the list, she kept shaking her head (her head nearly fall down). Too disappointed with her pessimistic student T____T None of the journal in the list is a good journal (not even mention a top journal). After a series of counseling (seriously) by both of them, I decided to send my paper to one of the top logistic & scheduling journal.

According to them, as an academic we need to have faith, aim higher and do you best! Even the paper is rejected, I still be able to gain good comments to improve it!! Thanks to Dr Ada and Dr Daniel for they guidance and being so patient. I do grow through this learning process.

I'm ready that this manuscript might be rejected but still with a hope that it will be accepted!
*fingers crossed tight tight*

Can you pray for me? =)

Good maid

2010-04-12T16:28:00.005+10:00

~front look~

Photo taken at Lulu's wedding reception, a nice gathering with school mates =)

~side~

But can't really see because of my black dress T______T

Free Sample for Me & She

2010-04-07T22:06:00.005+10:00

I have a friend, Felicia just started her blog. Her blog is very interesting, full of free sample information, from skin care, to pad and baby's stuff. She does her research to gather all the free samples available through internet, magazines, newspaper and so on. So sweet of her~~

I love her blog immediately!! Who doesn't like free sample?? who who who???

Must share good stuff with you!! However, please refer to her blog for coming free sample. I will summary some here which is I'm interested in =)

(1) Shu uemura Cleasing Oil

Just print the picture above and collect it. Get the link, here.
Location: Kuala Lumpur

(2) Clinique Moisture Surge

Get it through this link.
Location: Malaysia

(3) Poise Liners
Malaysian, get the link here.
Singaporean, get the link here.

(4) Kotex Ultra Thin
Get the free sample at this link.
Location: Malaysia

If you like her blog as I do.
Sign up and be her follower =)

Perth Part 2-Penguin Island

2010-04-07T14:07:00.026+10:00

Part 2 is especially for Penguin Island. An awesome place to have a hot and beautiful summer =)

nah, Penguin Island Conservation Park!
So, I would be able to see Zillion of penguins here!!!
*I was very excited*

~breathtaking view~
blue sky + pretty ang mo kids = truly holiday @ oversea

I guess not enough to illustrate how awesome the beach is. ANOTHER 1!!

TUDIA~~~ so clean and clear!!

We signed up the tour package which consists of boat ride to island and cruise tour to other islands. However, there were some people~~~~~~~~~~~

WALKed across the SEA
wah seh!!!

these were walking back to main land, even kid could do it!!

Managed to catch up the feeding time. I feel so grateful that I went to this "penguin discovery centre", otherwise not dare to tell I been to PENGUIN ISLAND!!!

busy Q-ing up to get the ticket to see PENGUIN!!

some bones (dinosaur??) & shell display outside the penguin learning centre.

A serious WARNING if you happen to go there!!!
NEVER TOUCH those things!!

I saw kids put those bones/shell in their mouths then put it back T____T
Maybe they were too hungry T____T

Time to go in! The lady brief the people ONE by ONE that we shouldn't talk loud and no flash for camera because we will scared off those penguins. Then, i was thinking I better don't talk for this entire trip as that is Penguin Island. Penguin is everywhere! Tom praised me a good girl T___T

first photo taken with real (motion-able) penguins!
But can you see how many are they?

In total 10 penguins

The ONLY 10 PRECIOUS PENGUINS that I saw on PENGUIN ISLAND!! You are right!!
PENGUIN ISLAND = 10 penguins

As I mentioned earlier, luckily I went to this learning centre, otherwise I wont even be able to see 1 penguin.
AGAIN! on PENGUIN ISLAND!!!

T_____________________T

Isn't that suppose got zillion of penguins hold and wave the red flag to welcome me meh at PENGUIN ISLAND????

plus another 2 penguins on our hands

the penguin species here is relative smaller size compared to other types of penguin. According to the lady, there are few thousands of penguins left in that island but they are very hard to be spotted (how true is that?)

*picnic area*
green green grass & clear sky & blue sea

~nice view~

my cousin kelvin who made us very nice carbonara =)

Can you spot 3 seals lying there having their sun bath?

In real, those lazy seals @ Seal Island (more worthy to claim as Seal Island. At least I can see those seal living naturally, not as those penguins) are huge and smelly (bad one).

Why are they so lazy and BIG?
That is because that is their way to attract their partner!

~END~

My BoB

2010-04-05T18:29:00.007+10:00

Finally, I cut off my long hair after keeping it for yearsSss.

The hairdresser suggested me to have a new hair style, by taking the advantage of my previous long curly hair, called "BoB". According to her, this BoB is volume at the back, medium length between ears to shoulder. So, she would cut exactly at the end of my 1st curl so that my hair will nicely curl inward. After she explained so much, I only got the idea of my old-school hair style, "square mushroom" hair.

my square mushroom hair + joker's mouth, when I was 8!

Then she quickily said,"no no not the same la~~", that was flat likes curtain T_____T The unique of the "inverted bob" is longer at the sides, begins from behind my ears, which will fall forward. So, I will have 2 longer sideburn???

Anyway, I just wanted to get it cut. So, I have a BoB hair now!

When I returned home, I look at myself, felt familiar look but just couldn't tell what's that. After few days, I finally knew what is that familiar look!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ALAMAK

To get the verification, I checked with Tom. He spoke out the same thing T_____________T
Want to know what's that???

Does this cartoon logo look familiar to you too?
No?? Take another photo!!

Good maid has BoB as mine!
Good maid also has the longer sides that fall forward leh~~~
Nana has a chubby face as her T____T
So, I think I could be Good maid's spokesperson liau =)

A selfless love

2010-04-03T15:53:00.000+11:00

A mother just had a serious surgery...
sleeping in ward...
her face was pale...
her hair is grey...

When she opened her eyes...
daughter was beside her...
mother lifted her hand...
daughter quickly hold her hand...
and gave her a smile...
her hand was freezing cold...

The word pouted from her pale lips~~
"Have you had your meal?"

My heart melted with her selfless love~~
I nodded and smile...
Then, she fall asleep with a smile too.

~daughter in law~

Perth Part 1

2010-04-01T15:00:00.001+11:00

To worth the money (nana is the stingy one), we decided to have a trip to Perth to celebrate

Chinese New Year
Valentine
Honeymoon

This trip was a great and relaxing holiday. We both had a very good rest from work and research, no alarm to wake us up in the morning. We even stayed at house for 2 days *no dirty thought please~~*

Perth City

The 1st photo of us at Perth city. I hope that you guys can still recognize me by that round and cute nose =.= and please blame tom's shooting skill.

interesting sign -> cheap students should stand yah!!
Sydney got a lot of expensive students, which look very poor!

University of Western Australia

UWA is a castle and old looking university but very well maintained.

My friend asked me why I would go visit university during honey-moon trip. Em... I dunno. I feel home when i visit any universities, like it is part of my life already... gosh, going to be nerd girl soon.

Swan Valley

wine tasting everywhere

nice Sandalford open air dining area

close up the grape above tom

cheese tasting too

grape grape grape

Fremantle Port

a must visit place at Perth

a must photo taking spot, need to Q 1 hoh
*am getting bored to think of creative caption*

wake up

2010-03-27T15:44:00.001+11:00

I have a long to-do list...
yet I can surf net day and night.

I have lot of deadlines...
yet I can still take my nap everyday.

can someone come and slap me?
To wake me up!!

T____________T

Fried rice

2010-03-19T16:32:00.003+11:00

Fried rice = fried the cooked rice + fried again + fried again

I'm writing a conference paper. I have a feeling that I keep on "fried" the "rice" again, again and over again~~~ feel a bit tired and bored.
How?

The problem statement is actually the same but keep rephrasing it. Even though the methodologies used are different but i can feel the similarity among the papers. Although the scenarios described could be different, but just a slight.
How?

I feel bit of demotivated to write now, feel very sick. My supervisors might feel the same to read my paper.
How?

I haven't started to write my thesis leh~
How?

T________________T

Grey hair

2010-03-18T16:09:00.004+11:00

This morning...
while i dragging my lazy body to toilet...
look at myself into mirror...
started to scream & totally awake in a second!

a grey hair at my fringe!!!
Oh My God...

I asked myself to calm down...
want to pluck it or not???

too obvious, must pluck!!
right on top of my forehead!!
even/t it is short one,
but it looks contrast with my black hair T__T

cannot pluck!
mum said "pluck one, grow three!!"

how?? T________T

I asked myself to calm down again...
then i decided!

Keep it to show to my supervisor in coming meeting!
Reason: to show how hardworking i am

Pluck it before i go back home to meet Tom!
Reason: not allow him to realise he just married an old lady

Housewife

2010-03-11T13:31:00.003+11:00

Tengok mama macam senang,
Masa sangat senang dan fleksible
Gaji bapa = gaji mama

Paduhal sudah nak jadi housewife =.='''
Cuci baju ...
Jemur baju ...
Simpan baju ...
Lipat baju ...
Kerja pahal baju sudah cukup pening~~~

Ada lagi~~

Biskut habis, kena beli
Telur habis, curi dari rumah mama
Epal habis, curi lagi...
Air mineral habis, kena order...

Sini kotor, kena lap
Sana kotor, kena cuci
Sini berselerak, kena susun
Sana berselerak, kena atur
kotor + berselerak, housewife pulak mengamuk!

Suami tak tolong, housewife mengadu...
kalau dia tolong, housewife cakap "tak bersih, tak betul!"

Sekarang punya housewife...
Peti sejuk nak besar...
Mesin basuh mau cantik...
Ini nak itu mau

Walau pun housewife kini susah mau layan
Tapi, dia la "kakak" percuma =.='''

Wahai suami sekalian,
sayang-sayang la "kakak" percuma ini =)

~Housewife darjah 5~

Learning Style

2010-03-10T15:01:00.003+11:00

After I attended Post-graduate Diploma in Education, I understand that there are many different style of learning . So, we as educators should vary our teaching style to adapt students' different learning habits. For example, self-learning (let student be the presenter) might benefit them more than just lecturer talks non-stop at the front.

Another example, I like to present something by using diagram, such as process A -> process B -> process C. I need the whole picture before i go into details. However, a scholar from Open University told me that, he couldn't cope with diagram, easy to get him confused, he need to build up his understanding bit by bit to get the concept. Same but yet different.

This course helps to understand myself better. I used to think that I was a very lazy bum (em... it is still true!) compared to the rest of my coursemates, who can sits still to study for hours, morning to night! If I were them, SUPERglue is needed to glue my butts on the chair. I kept thinking what was the problem with me, why I can't be one of them. Now I understand that learning style doesn't suit me. There is nothing wrong with me. I learn better from explaining to others. So, I will "teach" (assume they don't know anything) my friends (those good result students la). Then, check with them if my understanding correct and if i miss some important points in it.

As time goes along, the more weird learning habit/style I have, especially for "Phd". I need "sound" to get myself focus. It could be online radio, taiwan series, HK series, entertainment show or US series. I might not actually listen/watch it, but I need them. Of course, I do watch them sometimes la. By this, I can be sit still for hours. At least I can sit still, not leaving my learning territory area, ok?? It can't be just music or song because I will fall asleep. Must be my favourite show/movie. Once, the last episode of a HK series repeated for more than 10 times while I was doing my programming. The productivity was extremely good (once in a while only). I'm just a lonely phobia freak =.='''

So, can I have more expensive internet plan, Mr Chiew?

Bad experience of flying

2010-03-01T12:59:00.005+11:00

I took a flight from Perth -> Singapore (by Tiger Airways) then Singapore -> Kuching (by Airasia). Both are budget airline because I'm such a poor student that dying to go back for Chap Goh Mei.

~From Perth~
Nowadays, airlines companies implement a new rule that the maximum capacity of passengers' cabin luggage is 7kg. Each passenger is allow to carry 2 cabin bags on board. I knew this rule some time before but not so sure how strict they are. Tom and I had in totally 3 bags. 2 of them were overweight. Then, we came across a Tiger Airways attendant which was really RUDE. She didn't even look at us when we were at her check-in counter, and ordered us to scale our bags. No "PLEASE", no greeting and not even a smile on her face! All the Australia polite greeting were gone at Perth! Then she said, "No way, remove your stuff or pay aud25!". She then gave me a rude glance! That was the only second that she looked at us, but it was just a glance with her black charcoal face as if I owned her money personally and yet forced to serve me as a customer. I understand that we can't expect much from budget airline, but a SMILE and being polite is still important, which is costless!! Please learn from Airasia, a Malaysia budget airline company!! They are so much polite and humble. RUDE TIGER being Rude on Tiger Year!

As an OR student, may I suggest to rude Tiger, to improve their queuing system at check-in counters. Please study the average service time for each passenger at the counter, then estimate how many counters should be provided to such amount of customers/passengers, to reach passenger's maximum tolerance waiting time. I was there 2.5 hours before the flight, but still need to ran all the way to boarding gate due to their lousy queuing system.
LOUSY & RUDE Tiger!

~At Singapore~
We touched down at Changi airport, budget terminal at 3am. The next flight was around 11am at Terminal 1. 8 hours gap. Then, we took a free shuttle bus to Terminal 2. We suppose to take sky train to Terminal 1 from Terminal 2 with a hope that we can check in to their transit hotel to take a good rest. However the sky train starts to operate from 5am onward :(

There are transit hotels at each terminal 1, 2 & 3, except budget terminal. When we mention transit hotel, it means we have to be pyhsically check in with a valid boarding pass to access the transit hotel.

We emailed Ambassador Transit Hotel regarding our reservation before but they rejected us. The reason was Airasis only open their check-in counter 2 hours before. Without a boarding pass, we can't access their departure transit area.

We tried all the alternatives to get ourselve check-in early. Die-die want to stay at Ambassador. Teng teng teng~~~ We found a solution called "web check in" on Airasia home page. We check-in-ed ourselves nearly 24 hours before the flight while we were still at Perth. Boarding passes were printed and broght all the way from Perth with us. We were happy and confidently thought "hahaha, you (Ambassador) don't want me to stay? I die-die want!!".

Unfortunately, the web check-in's boarding pass is actually invalid. We still need to Q at Airasia's counter to get their stamp to verify the document, where the counter only opens 2 hours before the flight. So, can someone explain to me??

what is the purpose of Web Check-in?
Why there is no other way to check the validity of our boarding pass?
~where I still need to queue as those conventionally check-in at the counter.
~where I could not certify it at Airasia information/ticketing counter.
~where no priority is given in queuing.

End up, Tom and I were overnight at Changi Airport!!! We were so tired and managed to feel how to be a homeless people. Hopefully, our loud snoring didn't scared off any kids around airport at that time :(
&^%#@@%^&*(*^%$#@$^&%#@@$&*(*&%##@%#@@@%%%%%%%

P.E.R.T.H

2010-02-14T08:34:00.002+11:00

Happy Tiger Year + Happy Valentine + Happy honeymoon
= Excited Tom & Nana

~~@ Perth with love~~

This is the first CNY of US...
US means US, no more you or me being alone...
Tiger year is a year that we both away from parents...
Feel a bit weird but we are contented because of "US"...

I love you, honey...

Noodle @ Kuching

2010-02-12T10:50:00.000+11:00

If you are hungry, maybe you can skip this post =)

(1) Kolo Mee

If Kolo Mee ranks as 2nd top food at Kuching, you wouldn't be able to find any other food to be on top of it! It is the big boss! The noodle is Q and red (a bit sweet due to "cha shao" oil). According to Tom's mum, he used to has 2 bowls of kolo mee everyday day when he was 10 years old... Yes, EVERYDAY!! until his neck was disappeared :P

(2) Laksa
Laksa is Susan's heart pain!! She couldn't manage to eat Laksa on her last Kuching trip, all sold out from her breakfast until supper! No choice, she just bought a few packs of Laksa paste back by then. Poor Susan. This story explains everything about Laksa =)

Where to get? Lots of people prefer Madam Tang's but I love the Golden Arch at 3rd Mile =)

(3) Kueh Chap

This is non-halal food. Flat noodle with all sort of pork internal organs... Kuching's Kueh Chap is darker colour and more herb taste compared to others'. This is my love la~~~

Where to get? Petanak offers the best =)

(4) Tomato Noodle

It comes as either noodle (deep fried type) or kueh teow (long thin flat noodle). Then cooks by using lot of tomato sauce... I like noodle type because the crispiness is perfect with the sweet tomato sauce...

(5) Belacan Bihun

Bihun is vermicelli in Malay (or chinese??) . What's inside? Cucumber + octopus + taugeh + bihun + belacan = can't stop eating!!

Where to get? Song Kheng Hai Hawker Centre =)

Yummy drink @ Kuching

2010-02-10T17:22:00.011+11:00

Going to summaries some of the best drink/food that Kuching can offer, based on my zu friends' comments/feedback during their trip for my wedding.

Thanks to Vincent, the photographer =)

(1) 3 layer Teh C

The great combination of red tea, evaporated milk and brown sugar (some use Gula Melaka, if i'm not mistaken). Trust me, you will definitely fall in love after your first sip!!! You will notice every table of any food court/hawker stall will definitely has it. No kidding la!! **selling hard**

Where to get? basically everywhere at Kuching but the famous one at 7th miles!

(2) Ais Kacang

Compared to ais kacang at Semenanjung, I prefer the ais kacang at Kuching for 2 main reasons. First, I think it is healthier, less colouring, like pink/blue/bring orange. Second, it is very refreshing after having it due of the perfectly match taste between chinese style dessert and malay's ais kacang.

Where to get? Song Kheng Hai Hawker centre (day time) & Hui Shin (night time).

(3) Sugar cane + Coconut

This is Susan's favourite! It is be even better to go with is a slice of lemon. High demand at a hot and sexy country like Malaysia :)

Where to get? Everywhere I guess ;)

Wedding Journal 9

2010-02-09T13:30:00.001+11:00

I promise this is the last entry for wedding... hahahahahah...

*why Rebecca looked so sien???*
T______________T

I was there outside the wedding hall when all the guests had arrived. There were only Peishi, Rebecca and I. freaking stress!! Can see a microphone in my hand???

When i heard tom started to sing inside the hall, my heart stopped bumping!! My hands started to shake. However, I burst into laughter when Tom sang out of pitch!!! Poor thing. Never mind, I would be the next one laugh by others too. So, he got me kept him company T____T

yes, that was my deep V evening gown, the sexiest dress that I have ever wore T___T chose by mum NOT me, never expect her to be that open-minded T___T

The entire wedding hall was totally dark... like this...

yes!!! i sang on my wedding night T_________T
all the way from the entrance to stage T_________T
Where was the courage come from? T________T

and sang chorus on the stage together with Tom.
felt much better with him...
so that i could lower my volume :P

summary for 1st part

~~we pray~~

then waited for the food excitedly...

cannot eat first~~ photographer said take photo... SMILE =)

Ok, I'm a bit tired now... photo blog now!!!

~~first dish and the only dish that we ate~~

The performers of the night. Thank U =)
kids around us all the night~~~~

summary of obligatory stuff

i love this part the most

thank you for coming and share our JOY =)

Lulu, thank you for being such a professional mc on our BIG day...
love u ;)

Publish with a heart

2010-01-28T12:17:00.007+11:00

I came across a very interesting article, titled "Integrity Under Attack: The State of Scholarly Publishing" from SIAM news.

I just started to learn the proper way to write a journal article. It is torturing and painful, even thought it is just a few pages. The review process might take me two years to get it publish at a good journal. There must be a team of old & bad people (but experience & expert) trying hard to reject my paper and laugh at me (because of my childish work/writing) while sipping their coffee *very good imagination* That is why I need to take this seriously. It is reasonable to take such a long time to get a good paper publish when the significant contribution to new knowledge comes before anything else.

I have a plan. If my paper got published at one of the top journal, I will buy a champagne to celebrate and maybe frame the paper and hang it on the wall of my bedroom~~~ ok, i'm exaggerating over here T__T

After reading that article, I was SHOCKED, like "how could this happen??", and kind of *salute* to those manipulate the right as editor of the journal. Read this!

Rumors of editor and journal misconduct have dominated the highly publicized case of the applied math journal Chaos, Solitons and Fractals (CSF), published by Elsevier. As reported in a 2008 article in Nature, ^2 "Five of the 36 papers in the December issue of Chaos, Solitons and Fractals alone were written by its editor-in-chief, Mohamed El Naschie. And the year to date has seen nearly 60 papers written by him appear in the journal." In fact, of the 400 papers by El Naschie indexed in Web of Science, 307 were published in CSF while he was editor-in-chief. This extremely high rate of self-publication by the editor-in-chief led to charges that normal standards of peer review were not upheld at CSF; it has also had a large effect on the journal's impact factor. (Thomson Reuters calculates the impact factor of a journal in a given year as C/A, where A is the number of articles published in the journal in the preceding two years, and C is the number of citations to those articles from articles indexed in the Thomson Reuters database and published in the given year.) El Naschie's papers in CSF make 4992 citations, about 2000 of which are to papers published in CSF, largely his own. In 2007, of the 65 journals in the Thomson Reuters category "Mathematics, Interdisciplinary Applications," CSF was ranked number 2.

I will claim him as SUPERMAN!! must be very tired of "copy and paste" all the time.

Another hilarious article about plagiarism and co-author's name was used without his knowledge.

Yes, I totally agree serious action need to be taken to stop this crazy thing to happen again. At least I would cry until Sydney is flood if I saw someone steal my work!! Dun play-play with me, ok??

Wedding journal 8

2010-01-24T15:40:00.001+11:00

Finally blog about the reception, but this is the 1st part of the banquet.
The welcoming guests part.

entrance

~our parents and Tom~

The theme of the night was actually "70's" but it failed, even though most of ladies were wearing Cheongsam.

the happy parents of us

Peizu, got cha!! U were not doing your work!!!

Is that me?

2010-01-22T15:59:00.003+11:00

More than 10 people told me that this girl looks like me

She, 杜華瑾 is joining singing competition at Taiwan now, 超級星光大道-Season 6. Surprisingly, she is from USYD too, 2nd year law student.

She must be very sad that people claim she looks like me, but I'm pretty happy. hahahaha

what do you think? Full youtube link.

Wedding journal 7

2010-01-16T15:19:00.033+11:00

Hahaha... Some friends started to ask me, when is this wedding post going to end? How many episodes to go???... Em... I guess 2 more at least... Don't be like this la~~ Once in a life time mah! of course need to write more right? ;)

Ok, finally back from church then rush to his house for giving "bow" to his elders. Wow, there were fire cracker just prior of our arrival =)

red umbrella again T__T

~bow Bow BOW~

Then, we proceed with returning to our new house...
Do you guys find that two round plants cute?? I like them very much =)

There were some more chinese rituals need to be done at our room, which we were actually not really clear which one comes first and whats next. Firstly, all my stuff had to be placed nicely on our bed. Then, my aunt asked, "who born in dragon year?". Both of us laughed and pointed to Tim. This is because in Chinese culture, boys are invited to jump on bridal bed, eat dates and pee in the red potty. So, it would be funny if Tim (as old as a father to two kids!) to do that for us :P

Out of our surprise, my aunt said "Tim! Do it then!!" Everyone was shocked!

Then, he started to bargain for bigger ang pao to do so. Of course, he just broke the red wrapping paper of potty only, then ran away!

Again, my brother had to get something back with the basket. We totally have no idea what to do, followed blindly what those aunties say.

Sky (my brother) and Tim (his brother)

tom was taking off my veil

Photo session started

sister gang and brother gang. Thank u

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Without any rest, we quickily changed our 2nd outfit, headed to my parents house. I like this outfit the most, proudly showing that I'm chinese =)

swallowing tang yuen again without any bites

tea ceremony

After the tea ceremony for elders, then we took our seats. Finally, I could sit down again, but we have to pay for it T___T

giving out angpao for youngers. Tom prepared those angpao and my duty were just delivered them. How nice?? wuahahaha

Summary of the wedding journal 7. Yes, 7!!!

Lets go back for a nap, honey~~

messy table

2010-01-11T17:36:00.003+11:00

I guess I need a break...
I feel like vomit looking at my article...

Wedding journal 6

2010-01-06T18:42:00.003+11:00

Sungai Maong Moethodist Church
Great that we had a church wedding =) Married in God's eyes~

red umbrella again

dad took a nap? I was really nervous by this time, scared I might step on my own gown and fall in front of a church of people, and maybe my gown might drop or something T___T So, I kept telling my dad, "walk slowly ok??? my gown is long. walk SLOWLY~~~ no rush no rush."

Anyhow, I'm camera sensitive :P still manage to smile even though my heart nearly pumping out

flower girl, Elena's daugheter Amber Ann =) very calm

my nephew, Max, walked like robot, exactly 45 degree of legs' gap.

Rebecca. I guess she might want to marry Tom if she was an adult. My mum bought her the white dress. When she tried it on at my house, she ran out of the room to Tom, hugged him and gave him a kiss as if she was the bride. Now, she always want cling to Tom whenever she sees him. Don't why. Luckily she is a kid, otherwise she is my rival T___T

See, my dad very stress.... hahahahahaha me too T____T

another page in my album

wedding matrimony started with Praise and Worship, leaded by Moses.

only Moses, his mum and us were actually sing and dance T____T I'm the princess of the day!! the rest stand still as they had glue their feet on the floor~~

after some time, everyone seems comfortable with praising God =)

and started to dance too =)

we pray

~sermon~
This photo is to prove that both of us stand for the entire sermon... I was thinking to wear sport shoes (pro: gown is long enough to cover it) once i got to know that I need to stand for that long! When I told tom about this, he said i might fall when walking the aisle (con: gown is long enough for me to fall). Haih, life is complicated loh~~

So, I actually lean slightly to Tom so that my feet won't be that painful and sore.
Tom: Are you ok?
Nana: going to cramp.

Tom: Are you ok? Just a little while.
Nana: going to cramp! very soon..

Tom: Is finishing...
Nana: nearly cramp!! is painful~~~~

These conversations kept repeating over and over again~~

another photo to show that we indeed stand for the service... but i like this photo =)

~~reading vow~~
Do i look like forcing tom to marry me??

my turn =)
rings exchange

Truly, i was asking tom "how? cannot fit in???" The ring stuck at the middle. Tom smiled awkwardly and said "push harder!!!" Never thought the photographer managed to capture this moment.

ahem ahem *cough cough*

quite happy by then because finally i can sit down after this!!
F.I.N.A.L.L.Y

~Photo session~

My family photo. It is hard to gather everyone to have this photo. Tom is now the tallest in my family T___T Max is very cute in this photo, the tiny one =)

Top: church members

Bottom: Our friends.

Yes, I have Muslim friends that attended our wedding. Thanks for coming.

friends from JB | Tom's staff | my friends from SMSK, long lost friends

~lunch buffet~

both of us had no appetite at all. Tom busied with transport arrangement and guess where I was? Of course busy taking photo la, otherwise what else I would do :P Luckily Elena took some food to me and wanted me to eat at least a bite. by then, I realised I had haven't eaten anything since woke up for make-up. She is such a sweet friend!

end this post with my photo with crazy friends~

2010 is a good one

2010-01-02T15:48:00.003+11:00

Had dinner with some PhD friends on 31st December 2009. Everyone seemed a bit down because we are still stuck with PhD, like never ending story. Guys worry when is the time for them to buy a house; girls worry where is their Mr right~~ so, 2010 is a just number, nothing special for us.

After watching the firework on TV, one of us shouted,"HEY!! 2010 is a good year! is a year we finish PhD!!!" Everyone smiled heartedly. Yes, we can be happier and more confident when we think optimistically!

So, our new year resolution is "I will graduate in year 2010!!"

For my friends:
If you aim for the sky, you may fall on the treetop.
If you aim for the treetop, you fall on the floor!!!!
So, dare to dream!!

Recap 2009

2009-12-30T21:45:00.012+11:00

Before & After

2009-12-28T18:16:00.008+11:00

~before~

We both lost some weight (about 10%) for wedding. Thanks to Susan, Sungyoung and Stephanie (how come all the names start with S?) that kept on encourage me stick to the diet plan. Tom lost weight because of the wedding preparation's stress. The photo was taken 2 days before the wedding day at our bedroom (can see my gold cheongsam in the wardrobe?? I look like a waitress of a oriental restaurant with it T__T). Oh, I miss my straight hair very much T__T eventhrough my hair looks too thick here... I still miss it :(((((

~After~

We both not only gained back the 10% that lost but extra 10% in less than 2 months T____T and bad timing to have the curly hair T____T chubby + lion king = me!!! my fringe is a bit longer here compared to newly hair cut, so it is so much better, otherwise the formula changes to "chubby + lion king + nerd = FAT nana"

So, we would move to the back of each other to look thinner (comfort ourselves! it works!!) for photo shooting... If both act together, the comparison of ratio is the same.

What to do????
~
~
~
~
~

I will hide myself behind him. HAhahahaha... dirty trick of mine!!!

p/s: Honey, I miss you!

wedding Journal 5

2009-12-23T14:39:00.002+11:00

finally tom could get access to upstairs to get his fair lady. erh... maybe his dark lady :P

then i approved =)

look closely at his wife

wearing corsage for him

done!... sorry tom, you closed your eyes for all of this pose... do you notice I was actually holding a red feather hand fans? Again, is a MUST yet don't understand the purpose of it T__T but i think it looks great in the photo.. kekeke

Ok, time to get ready to depart from parents' house to church. The very important persons to lead the group were my brother and cousin, one was holding a Chinese wedding traditional basket and a pair of rooster and hen.

In chinese traditional wedding custom, brother would escort sister to groom's house with a wedding basket, filled with toiletries, perfumed oils, make-up, etc for his sister. This symbolises that he misses his sister and wants her to go back with him for a visit. The bridal car will fetch the brother to the groom’s home. The groom will welcome the younger brother by opening the car door for him and gave him a BIG red packet as a respect. Meanwhile, the pair of living rooster and hen (luckily nowsday upgrade to fake rooster and hen, otherwise I will scream chasing by them in the house!), will lead the way back home for bride to her parents' house.

sister gang helped in carrying all my stuff to our new house =) thank you

Tom and I was last person to come out from the room.

Never forget to take memorable photo at every corner of the house! SMILE =)

Then, mum prepared a bowl of rice (plain rice) and some money notes for us, the siblings to share. According to her, it means we share every bit of our life. Represent the siblings spirit/strong bonding of siblings? Anyway, why no spoon for me huh??? Back in time, did a princess eat with hands????? T__T

then, my brothers and I took some of the notes and coins~~

proof... that is the 1 ringgit note.

tea ceremony: thanks parents for raising me up, mum started to cry from that...

After that, parents fed tom and I some tang yuan. Guess what my mum told us??? She asked us to swallow them, not allow to chew and break into smaller bite pieces. But the tangyuan was big in size T____T I tried and nearly choking myself on own wedding day.... Look at my expression when I tried hard to swallow it!!! T___T some more, I was avoiding to look at my mum, otherwise I would cry together with her....

Took a photo with my love ones before leaving my home sweet home. Do I look like mum??

5th aunt became the fortune lady to hold the red umbrella for me...

Tom must be wondering what is that umbrella used for at own car porch... hahahaha

on the way to church~~

~~~honey, i will treat you good good one~~~

Very bad 3 internet service

2009-12-21T15:29:00.002+11:00

These few days, my internet line drops 18728621 times in a day!!!!! If i'm not on the contract, I will change it immediately!!!!!!!

When I almost done with my download, it lost its connection!
When Tom nearly finished his sweet talk, "I lov.....", connection lost again!!!
Erggghhhhh~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lousy 3!!!!!!

Jet Lag

2009-12-16T14:13:00.000+11:00

Returned Sydney over a month
I still have jet lag
Couldn't sleep before 3am
Couldn't wake up before 10am
3 hours difference time zone

I must sleep early
And wake up early
Sydney is hot
at 12 noon, I couldn't tell where I am
Malaysia or Sydney??

I want my Sydney routine life!!!

Understand O.R. conference

2009-12-12T16:44:00.001+11:00

Take a break from blogging wedding for the sake of my reader. *cough cough* Janice, just because of you :P

Eventhough I was an academic before I started my PhD, but I attended more conferences after PhD. As a master degree holder, I lack of confident to present my work at international conference, always thought my work is crap. Now still not so confident, i'm learning =) Regardless what, I would still force myself to attend any if there was a chance.

While time passess, I learn how to choose good conference, yet to be an expert, still learning. Really appreacite that my univerisity super generous on supporting student to attend conference OVERSEA.

Before this, I would choose only ASEAN countries organiser's conference in Mathematics/Applied Maths. Must submit full paper. Assummed that there is only conference proceeding as publication. I was truly wrong.

There is conference that

accept only abstract submission, as minimum as 20-50 words (Unimas doesn't allow such conference T__T)
collaborate with journal publisher to have a post-conference volumn (review process might be shorter than usual submission)
student subsistence (very thoughtful, right?)
specially for post-graduate students (brilliant idea la! very STREE to present early work in front of professors loh @.@)

Choosing a good conference indeed helps a lot in research =)

Here are some interestiong forthcoming O.R. conferences:

2nd Student conference on Operational Research, 9-11th April 2010
12th International Workshop on Management and Scheduling, 26-28th April 2010
8th International Conference on the Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling, 10-13th August 2010
International Conference of Applied Operational Research, 25-27th August 2010

How I wish I can attend all of them~~~ Maybe I can if I have 1000 of Susana's brain T__T

Wedding Journal 4

2009-12-08T14:45:00.003+11:00

Out from Tom's house. They horned all the way to my house.

Keeping on horning for few minutes in front of my parents' house.

Okok... the whole world knew that Tom had arrived!!

Tim tried to be naughty

Lulu was even fiercer than him!!

Tim: wei, wrong tactic la~~~

hahahahahahahahhahahaha!! poor Tim!!

Then? What's next???
.
.
.

Philip took out a spoon from a pail of ice cubesSSS! Luckily him, got a spoon instead of tooth brush from it. What was that spoon for????

Use spoon to eat watermelon!

Easy!! eat cepat-cepat loh~~

NEXT!!

Girl: "Give us 2 men!"
"Each of you, choose either 'LONG' or 'SHORT'?"

Stanley: SHORT
Tim: I want LONG!! as I'm tall!!

O... Oh~~

honey wax!!! Sorry guys~~

The purpose of this is to educate guy the pain being a lady!

Ate wasabi bread

Drank bitter gourd juice =) Good for you Tom!

em.... I know this is gross =.=

~bird's egg, to roll from one side of pant to another side~

Li-peng suggested this game. She got the idea from her friend's wedding. There was a guy had to roll an egg in his pant, but it was stuck at *ehem* part, maybe because of his tight jeans. He got nervous and shouted, "I'm not sure if that is bird egg o my egg~~ how???". OMG, hilarous!!!! After this story, i approved on this game =)

Agreed??? Tom didn't has other option anyway. I sure win =)

They passed the tests =)

Wedding Journal 3

2009-12-04T17:09:00.008+11:00

Early in the morning... woke up... while my sisters were still sleeping. My eyes were puffy because chit-chatting with Susan till late night, so much to talk so little time~~

make-up & hairdo for nearly 2 hours

meanwhile downstairs busy eating

peishi's note for tom and the gang, not forgetting name me as "zu" T___T even though she was busy T___T what a true friend~~

thing were well prepared by sisters... thank you =)

we had our meeting too... dun play-play ah!!

our strategy to stop them from accessing upstairs

not only empty chairs ok???

~wearing high heels~

~white gown from back~ 知道什么是“虎背熊腰”？

~parents putting veil on me~

~sister gang in pink~ thanks for coming everyone =)

We looooove camera but we don't like to hold camera!

Lipeng| Ester| Max| Vincent

老公，等你哟~~

Wedding Journal 2

2009-12-01T14:32:00.001+11:00

on 2.1~0.9~2.0.0.9

serious meeting on strategy~~

gain energy for mission later =)

Typical foochow food "mi sua", an obligatory food on any big or small festival/event

final touch up!!

1.2.3~ Ready!!

Let's go!!!

"Here I come"

Here we come, scared or not???

~~~Supermen~~~

PhD's grade

2009-11-30T22:17:00.003+11:00

If each PhD student is given a grade from ranges A, B, C and D upon completion. which one will you choose?

Grade A = Research 6 years + no youtube & facebook + work till late night + no holidays + no sunday & saturday

Grade B = Research 5 years + no youtube & facebook+ work till late night

Grade C = Research 4 years + work till late night

Grade D = Research 3 years

I have no BACKBONE!!! I definitely choose D!!!
Just give me the certificate please~~

Wedding day

2009-11-28T11:46:00.003+11:00

This is designed by Shaleen, the photographer.
Love the song =)
Thanks

I watched it once when I was packing stuff back to Sydney. My tears fall unnoticed. Just got married then have to be separated again for 6650 kilometres. That is hard. I know it is not easy for him too but we truly believe we can make it with God's mercy.

LDR! U make our relationship harder but more valuable.

why like dat loh?

2009-11-27T12:34:00.003+11:00

I hate being away from you =(

I hate Australia when you can have public holiday at Malaysia
BUT I can't =(
Australia has 10 days public holiday
Malaysia has 14 days public holiday
Malaysia BOLEH!!

My mum just called me to tell how fun she has now at Pantu,
how great was her yesterday night =(

And I'm sitting here doing power point slide for conference =(

Happy Holiday everyone @ Malaysia, enjoy for me too~~

Coffee time~~

2009-11-26T15:17:00.002+11:00

Finally I can have my coffee today... feel good!
There were so many things need to be done once I back Sydney.

My accommodation
-> messy, dirty, unpack, pack, clean, find bed sheet, toothbrush, Colgate

Annual progress report
-> have totally forgotten about it, ran after supervisor to ask for signature, arrange for interview

Field trip Claim
-> lost some of the receipts T_T

Catch up with housemates
-> back for good, move to new apartment

Catch up with supervisor
-> data collection, research update, future research, funding

Catch up with Phd gang
-> update gossipsSss

Catch up with cousin
-> update family gossip

Busy busy busy... no time to cry now!
Next week, maybe i will be free a bit to cry.
Tom, be ready yah ;)

Wedding journal 1

2009-11-08T08:24:00.002+11:00

These are the actual day photos, taken from album designed by Shaleen. Dunno when can I finish blogging on my wedding T__T

Early in the morning, got myself ready to be a superstar of the day =)

Tom got a gang of macho guys to help him to win his bride meanwhile my sister gang (leaded by Peishi) had a series of plan to "torture" them. First, they were stopped to come in my house. They were asked to Q up, stand straight with holding a balloon and sang "Negaraku" loudly. (Neagaraku is Malaysia national athem!) Everyone seemed enjoy this opening very much. All my neighbours came out to witness it. Some of them even shouted "1 Malaysia" loudly, very patriotic =)

My house was pack of people. Tom brought a village of his relatives together with him. On that morning, my house full of laughter. All the sisters were wearing white or pink, everything turned very lively and colourful.

Instead of giving chance to tom and the gang to rush into my room brutally, we had 2 elderly sat at the entrance to access 2nd floor. So, those guys weren't dare to being rude but follow exactly as instructed. Good boys =)

After the singing part, the other highlight was "forcing" tom to agree with our "super-duper lady's protection" of "unchangeable love conditions"whole-life contract WILLINGLY. Of course, we wanted him to read it loud in front of a village of people to make sure that he understands all the conditions. Some conditions are actually quite funny, such as:

"I will put my dirty clothes in laundry bin."
"My money is your money. Your money is your money."
"I'm the baby sitter during mid-night."

He agreed. I approved. Both went to get married happily.

When I came out of my room, I need to went through underneath of my brother's new pants. Chinese culture - 2 elder brothers not yet married mah.... After tea ceremony (only me) to parents to gave thanks of raising me up, we went off to church~~~

Any enquiries regarding the photo package, please contact:
Shaleen Tay
http://shaleentay.blogspot.com/
082-413724 or shaleentay@yahoo.com

I personally like their service very much. Professional and yet reasonable price =)

Back home to FIT

2009-11-06T12:34:00.003+11:00

hello november :) was busy and not in the mood to blog recently...

The main reason was busy preparing the presentation at FIT, Unimas last wednesday. Thanks to this arrangement, I had the opportunity to seek for more opinions/comments from my bosses and colleagues, and the most important fact is my own research reflection. Just like how we have clearer picture of progress when you start writing. That's why it took me so much time to prepare for it.

I felt great of returning to share my research and fieldwork experience. The feeling is just like a married woman back to her own parents' house, very comfortable and excited.

After my presentation, I saw many confused faces. Then, I knew I need to polish my presentation skill =.= Lots of questions being raised. Some were negative feedback on my research value or contribution meanwhile some were encouraging. I appreciate both side of comments as I need to have stronger justification of my contribution in writing, indeed different view has different argument.

Sorry that still very limited people know what OR is, so I claim myself doing phd in maths or applied maths T__T As a mathematics/applied mathematics/OR researcher, people expect lots of bombastic equations in my work. As long as those equation appears to be very complicated, not necessary very hard, then your presentation your work is very successful. If there is some very unfamiliar symbols, it will be even better. That is why "mathematics = boring" for most of the time! which is very wrong!

Next time, I will try to make my colleagues fall in love in OR as I do =)

what do you think?

2009-10-26T13:47:00.005+11:00

Do you know this company? Three!

Is a telecommunication company available at Australia and HongKong, maybe Europe too.
(Have to upload bigger sign in case you overlook it)

I'm three's loyal customer (at least for 2 years up to now) since I started my study at Sydney. From a 24 months contract of a mobile phone and postpaid, then a mobile broadband plan, to a new mobile phone (INQ) and even my mobile phone online services, I opted for this company because of their reasonable package offered and good service.

Unfortunately, I'm now very disappointed with their service, customer service and system. Loop holes everywhere!

I signed up a 24 months mobile broadband early this year, initial plan is AUD15 for 1GB/month, but allow to upgrade to more expensive plan (eg: AUD29 for 3GB/month) or downgrade to at most your original signed up plan. I was perfectly fine with this. On the 2nd month, I upgraded it to AUD29 plan (for 3GB usage), everything was still fine.

Then~~~~~~~~~~~ came the 1st ridiculous case, i was charged for AUD448.10 after I downgrade the broadband plan to my original one (from AUD29 plan to AUD15) on few month back. When I called to find out the reason, the customer service lady told me, that was the penalty to breach the contract due to downgrading.

wah!! upgrade = no problem, go ahead!!
downgrade = $$ money $$ come~~~

I was shocked then rushed back to read back the document I signed. Called again, explained to them, amount successfully inverse back! Case 1 closed. So, what is this? customer has to tell them the company's offer and term & conditions? I was still fine, 1st time mah~~~ forgive them!!

The funny part was the customer service operator kept on asking me, "are u sure?? are u sure ur original package is ur current 1?? are u sure?? are u sure?"

"I'm sure!! sure sure sure!! Sure SORE SORE!!"
kept repeating the same word until i couldn't pronouce it properly anymore T___T

Next post: 2nd stupid case

Thank u~ (wedding)

2009-10-22T14:31:00.013+11:00

Today is our 1st month anniversary!! Tom, happy having me legally for 1 month. Congratulation!!! wuahaha~~

Finally, wedding is over and we both can back to normal + new life.

Normal life = back to work (tom) + back to research (nana)

New life = staying at our new house (i'm the cleaning maid T___T) + adapting new status --> daughter in law

okok, back to topic!!

Through this wedding, I feel that i'm the blessed person with all the great friends, relatives and family around me. From Sydney, all sort of blessing + presents + "hen's night" gathering were sent/organised specially for me =) Sydney is no longer a cool lonely place for me even it is winter. thanks, I love my pink pyjamas.

trying hard to be silly to pretend young & naive T___T obviously, my mission fail again as phd people not interested to act silly like me T___T we were at karaoke, but the song we sang were all old songs during high school era... so outdated!!! T____T Li En tried to impress us with the latest song that he knew, end up that song was actually older than me I guess T___T see, how boring is our phd life~~~~ and, I miss my straight hair ;((

look at this!! wishes written in maths modeling format!!! adui~~

sweet housemates~~ Thanks for everything!! great to have u girls!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once I touched down @ Kuching, there were presents awaiting for me!

Thank you, ying <3 tiong =")" janice =")">see~~ busy busy uncle Lim and aunt Lim to redden my stuff

everyone was busy preparing for me while I were sitting aside didn't know what to help... until~~

Friend A: get me a scissor!!
Me: Ok!! (quickily go get it)

Friend B: go iron this clumsy shirt!!!! go go go!!!
Me: oOooH~~~ (feeling guilty)

Friend C: get me more double-sided tape!
Me: oH! (answered loudly to act that was actually busy as them)

Friend D: Could you please tidy up your stupid suit case????
Me: sure sure.... @_@

to be continued~~~~~

sien la

2009-10-21T14:47:00.003+11:00

I just got back to Kuching for my 3rd week data collection at Kuching hub. It is great that I can back to hometown while doing something meaningful (to comfort myself).

However, I got few bad news that make me feel so down to blog whatever i planned.

three mobile broadband charges me aud499.90 instead of 29. I don't know why.
commonwealth bank charges me aud22 for finance charges. I don't know why.
i haven't receive any notification of acceptance for conference. I also don't know why.

How can i have the mood to blog about my wedding leh??????

When I look at those data that need to be translated into softcopy one by one, I lagi no mood T___T

Fieldwork experience 1

2009-10-16T17:51:00.003+11:00

I'm now collecting data at Malaysia Airlines, under Maintenance Operations Department for two weeks. Thanks for this opportunity, it is an eye opener. During my first visit to apron, my mouth opened widely. When my mouth was tired, it would close then my eyes widely opened as I don't want to miss anything.

During the 1st day, I was welcomed by 2 HR managers and 2 executive engineers. They did a presentation for me. What a grand opening for my fieldtrip to their department, right?? I pretended to be very polite and knowledgeable academia, sat straight and still (very tired to pretend another person yah… but what to do??) Then I was busy digging my glasses from handbag (want to look even more professional la, what else…) but I forgot to bring! End up; I could only use my limited vision (by smaller my eyes lids, tend to focus) to look at the power point slides. Of course, I couldn’t understand all of the content. Hopefully, I managed to pretend myself fully understood and looked professional.

Somehow, they knew my trick also la T__T They advised me not to wear high heels from the next day because lot of walking, especially KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport). When I passed through hangar, my high heels made lot of noise, technicians and engineers looked at me weirdly. I was actually an alien there. Hardly see lady working there. Some more I was wearing short skirt, putting down my super curly “auntie” hair. T____T They must be thinking a stupid lady wearing high heels at hangar, make sound pollution! To be polite, I still gave BIG smile plus 2 SHORT eyes lines to everyone!!

On the 1st day, I was brought to tour at Subang maintenance site. Mainly heavy maintenance/checks are conducted there, such as, painting, aircraft overhaul, and interior maintenance (carpet, seats, toilet etc). The sofa seats for each aircraft get change more frequent than you change sofa at your own home!! This is the 1st time I saw almost naked aircrafts in front of me. Not 1 yah, few, from narrow body to wide body, from MAS, Airasia to other customer airlines.

I took some photos at hangar but not sure which is fine to publish on blog. So, limited photo… To be continued for my fieldwork experience…

Tell me, which one you want me to blog more? And why?
(1) wedding
(2) fieldwork at MAS

Us

2009-10-14T19:00:00.000+11:00

The story about both of us...

How we went through 9 years before decided to tie up the knot...

Me

2009-10-12T19:05:00.002+11:00

This is the video about me~~~

tom did it purposely for our wedding so that people could know who the bride is.

I cried when I was first time watching it...

I'm back!!

2009-10-01T11:13:00.004+10:00

After my BIG day on 21st September...
After my friends from Perlis left...
After I returned all the wedding gown...
After I cleaned my house...
After I permed my very "auntie" hair style...
After I chose all the event photos...
After I tasted tom...

I'm back!!!

But my fieldwork is going to start new week...

Busy busy month

2009-09-19T12:32:00.005+10:00

Everything has to be RED... Super and ULTRA RED!!!
I don't understand why we need to prepare all these...

Bride and groom not suppose to meet each other a day before wedding. Can anyone explain to me the reason behind it?

Research Funding

2009-09-08T19:15:00.003+10:00

One of the major differences pursuing postgraduate research oversea and Malaysia is definitely the funding allocation. Of course I appreciate that I can have the sponsorship by Malaysia government, but the research funding here mean the funding for students' exposure to outside world, especially attending good conferences oversea.

Sydney university has very generous funding support to postgraduate students, from attending conferences oversea, workshops, supporting fieldwork funding to purchase software licenses, book and laptop.

Today, I received an email from research unit saying that I have been awarded AUD166 for publishing 1 conference proceeding last year. Publishing conference proceeding also got money for student, isn't that amazing?? When can we have that policy at Malaysia??

Rocket

2009-09-02T15:21:00.003+10:00

I very de scared T____T
Please freeze the time now!!

Pre-wedding Photo Shoot II

2009-08-30T11:42:00.002+10:00

These 3 photos show how relax and easy was the photo shooting right? You're totally wrong! Eric (photographer of the day) does the shooting if only the sky is bright, clear and blue (= hot!!). He explained it will give the 3D effect instead of flat dull photo.

The hardest part of outdoor is "be yourself". Easier said than done. Every movement has to be elegant, gorgeous and stylish, even how you walk on the staircase~ Adui~~ We don't normally dress up like this, the gown as long that I nearly fall for every 2 steps walking with heels + under hot sun + have to smile every second. If this is a research topic in combinatorial optimisation problem, then it must be NP-complete hard problem (which mean super hard la).

The 1st spot was an old building at SRB Chung Hua No.1. Eric started the shooting from us walking up to the building. Before that, he briefly explained those thing we could do:

(1) walk hand in hand
(2) walk gracefully
(3) talk to each other happily
(4) swing our hands
(5) pluck small flower/grass at the side
(6) throw away the flower/grass that we got
(7) kick my gown from time to time (for me)
(8) look at the tree/sky/lamp post

Immediate, Tom looked at me helplessly. I felt the same but pretended to be calm and steady. Then, I told tom I would start some stupid jokes/topics and all he need to do was respond to me! Maybe we were too tense, my stupid idea didn't work. The response from tom, "How come your joke not funny?" T____T We repeated walking the stairs for N times. Both of us were sweating all over the body~~~

After walked up to the building, Tom decided to lead the acting. Guy indeed the practical person. He wanted me to do as he instructed. Ok, deal.

(1) "honey, ready?" em...
(2) "honey, smile~~~" em...
(3) "dear, swing swing swing~~~ smile... show teeth!!" oOooooh
(3) "honey, kick your gown!" hehehe... (started laughing)
(4) "honey, look at the tree and smile" hehehehe...haha
(5) "Honey, 2nd kick to your gown, smile smile smile" hahahahaha (I couldn't stand anymore...)

I couldn't stop laughing WHILE Tom was still busy saying "stand up la, 2nd kick 2nd kick and smile~~~" This photo is to remind us the tactic we used, but look at the bride to be T__T but that is real me la.

The same tactic we used for the rest of the shooting! Tom is expert to make me be natural in front of the camera now. Thanks dear.