Category Archives: Jazzmint

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428 – Postal Voting in HK

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Last year on this very date, we went for Bersih 3.0. Walked from Causeway Bay to Malaysia Embassy and hand in our petition for a clean and fair election.

Now 1 year down the line, here I am, casting my vote. This is in fact my 3rd time casting vote for General Election and 1st time as Postal Voter. Historical moment for our Nation.

Since I’m staying pretty far from Malaysia Embassy, I plan to leave early and get the voting done as my project is implementing an important change today as well. Didn’t want to get too busy with work then later forget to go for voting.

When I arrive at the embassy at about 10:30, there was a huge crowd of 20 people, volunteers wearing yellow clothing. I thought they were lining up to vote, but actually they were there to educate us how to vote since this is the 1st time Malaysia have Postal Voting.

So they asked where I’m staying, cause some place only has parliament seats, no state seats. They showed me a flow chart of the content of the Postal Voting Package. Each voter will get the following:

  • A brown envelope (Sampul Keutamaan)
  • Inside the Sampul Keutamaan, there’s Envelope B (If you are staying in non KL, you will have 2 things inside this Envelope B)
  • Inside the Envelope B, there’s 2 forms (Borang), 2 ballot paper (Kertas Undi), 2 envelope A (each of this is marked whether it’s for Parliament or State)
  1. Next they told me that once you get the brown envelope, you are supposed to open it in front of the saksi, then check the Serial No. on the ballot paper, the Envelope A & the form. Make sure the Serial No. matches.
  2. Then sign on the forms and pass to the saksi to sign the forms. After that proceed to the voting booth and cast your vote.
  3. Once it’s done, put the ballot paper into the respective Envelope A.
  4. Then place the Envelope A & the respective Form back into the respective Envelope B.
  5. Then put the Envelope B into the Voting Pouch (Kotak Undi).

Whoa…almost fainted after going thru the flowchart LOL. I’m glad that I only need to vote for Parliament seat and not State, so it’s less hassle. I can imagine how messy it is having so many papers and putting in different envelopes. I’m also not sure if the Serial No. for Parliament and State ballots are different or same? Any idea?

What about indelible ink? Oh..postal voters no ink ink business, that’s what they told me. Only applicable for those back home. Wouldn’t this be subjected to fraud? And I thought I recall seeing some photos on FB that police officers/armies voting from postal votes had indeliable ink!! Confused.

Then with full confidence, I went into the Malaysia Embassy and was greeted by their staff. Please have your IC/Passport ready as they will request for it. The staff will check your name, and give you a temporary visitor pass and a sticker tagged to you. I’m not sure if this is standard procedure or not cause the Embassy is located in a 26 floors building.

They reminded that no photos or videos are allowed at Level 26. So I quickly snap a few photos when I was in the lift LOL.

When I arrive at 26 floor, there were a 3 rows of people seated there, and surrounded by 3 vote casting booths. Furthest was the saksi, then followed by the High Comm guy and his pembantu, then a row of observers/SPR workers (I suspect they are SPR cause they were wearing SPR lanyard).

There were no clear instruction where to go until the High Comm’s pembantu wave at me and ask me go there. Then handed over my IC, and I got my brown envelope (Sampul Keutamaan).

Then I was asked to proceed to the row of observers/SPR workers, where I need to open the envelope in front of them, do the mix and match of the ballot paper, the form and the Envelope A. After checking, I signed on the borang and the observer counter signed. They told me, either the saksi or them can sign it.

Next I proceed to the vote casting booth, did my pangkah…oh, BTW, my parliament seat this year got 3 contestant. Hmm…I didn’t know it’s so heavily contested LOL.

Then I put my ballot paper into the Envelope A. Then put the borang & Envelope A into the Envelope B. Note that you MUST SEAL your envelope B with the glue provided at the booth. NOBODY told me this, but I figured that myself. If not what’s the glue for eh :) .

Then I drop my Envelope B into this Voting Bag (similar to the Voting Box you usually see when you vote, just that this is a bag).

And I’m done!!

This whole process took me like 8-10mins, from the time I got my Sampul Keutamaan to the time I drop the Envelope B into the bag. For those that would be voting for State Seats, you might take slightly longer.

To summarize my entire experience on Postal Voting, I feel that it’s pretty messy. There were people standing by the side, don’t know what they doing there, but there’s no help given as in go where and where once you are in that Voting Room. There is also no labelling and the setup is quite poor. It should be setup like follow anti clockwise so that when you go in, you just walk from 1st stop, 2nd stop, 3rd stop easily. I felt like I was walking in a maze LOL. Well that’s how it was being setup in HK.

So I’ve done my duty as Malaysia citizens. The voting day for those back home is on 5th May. With so much of things to do during the voting, I urge that you all should practice at home how it’s done with mock up so that it can be smoother when the actual day comes. If not, maybe a lot of voters would be disappointed as there isn’t enough time to cater for everyone!!

May the force be with you Malaysia…and we are all watching you from HK. Change for a better nation!!

Reminiscence of 80KG

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I was cleaning up my external HDD and found this photo that I have to share with you. This is me, 80KG!! Photo was taken when I was pregnant with Faythe at 8.5 months.

I seriously can’t believe I was that huge. I recall that I was wearing Mr. Hon’s boxer shorts (*.*) at one time because I could barely fit into any of my pregnancy clothes. Total disastrous weight gain LOL. Face also bulat, nose also bulat LOL. Legs like elephant. Even after I giving birth, I had about 20KG to loose *sob sob*.

Thank god that I’ve shed most of them and all that’s left now is the spare tyre and flabby thighs.

Bangkok in 1 day

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3 weeks ago, I went for a short break at Bangkok. The last time I went Bangkok was when Faythe was 9 months old, she’s already 7.5 now. That’s how long ago!! Why such a short trip? Cause I followed hubby’s flight there as he had a nightstop over at Bangkok. What was supposed to be a nice experience turned horrow when the flight was delayed for close to 4 hours :( . But I had to go early and check in since it’s a staff travel ticket. Hence I waited for 4 hours at airport.

When I finally arrived and check-in at Novotel, Suvarnabumi, it was already close to 5am :| . Luckily I manage to catch some sleep in the plane.

This means I only have roughly 12 hours to complete whatever I need to do, which includes: shopping, dining & massage.

First, we stopped at Platinum Mall. I bought some accessories at a steal of price. Next was clothes shopping, only managed to get some ruffled tops for both myself and Faythe.

Then we went to book our massage session at one of this huge massage parlour. Next was more shopping, but this round it’s at Terminal 21. This is a rather new mall, with a chic concept. It’s built like an airport concept, where each of the floor represent a city/country, e.g. London, Dubai, New York, etc. And boy I love their toilet, it’s designed based on each country as well!! Creative :) .

Then we head back to the massage parlour to get our massage treat. 2 hours of heavenly massage, just what I needed after a long day.

Of course in between we had food and more food to satisfy our craving for spicy food. We arrive in HK on Sunday noon greeted by heavy rain. Took some photos of clouds and the scene was beautiful. Even managed to catch a glimpse of Tsing Ma Bridge. T’was a short 1 day trip to Bangkok.

If only…

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If only there are 30 hours a day, not just 24 hours, then I might possibly have more time to:

1. sleep
2. eat
3. update my blog
4. do the things I wanna do
5. spend less time at work, and more time with kids

Unfortunately, that’s not the reality. For the past 1 week, I simply can’t imagine what I’ve gone thru at work. And it still continues this week. In between all these crazy schedules I just found out that there are errands I need to run which are urgent too. And how I wish immigration departments open at night..yes I definitely need that kinda service!!

Work took the toll on me last week hence I didn’t have time to even look at anything apart from work O.o. Then I went for a short breakaway in Bangkok, to make the other 1/2 happy (I was happy too, but dead tired). And now I’m back at work slaving thru this week. This is gonna be the toughest week and lets all hope it pulls thru easily.

I’m going on a blog hiatus for now and I really wish that life could be much simpler at times. Here’s wishing everyone a wonderful week ahead and hope mine would be smooth sailing too.

Busy Designing, Printing & Cutting…

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… stuff for Vyktore’s Birthday Party.

I’ve been pretty busy since last week preparing stuff for Vyktore’s Birthday Party. Planning the menu (what to serve for both adults & kids), the games we gonna play, some decos to spice up the party venue, booking of venue, etc…Not forgetting pinning some ideas over at Pinterest. Gotta love that website tonnes!!

Now I wish I could be a party planner LOL. Much more fun that my existing job haha..Anyone wanna join me?

Well, I’ve been cutting up alot of printed stuff which I’ve designed with photoshop, from food toppers, to food labels, and even banners and invitation card. I’ll share some of the steps with you once all these partying is done and over. Good thing is that some of the cutting the kids can help up. I actually prefer them not to get involved if not they won’t be surprised on that day, but heck I’m short of time and any help would be great at the moment.

We’re not gonna cook up a storm as the kitchen is limited and time is limited as well. Hence making some simple food (popiah) and ordering some pizzas, that’s about it.

Will be on blog hiatus for the mean time. Hope will be back next week. And my office project is due on 11th June!! OMG…I hate to plan parties when I gotta deal with other deadlines in office. Sigh, what a life.

Here’s a snapshot from Instagram of the food labels I’ve prepared.

I’m getting pretty excited now. Nyek Nyek Nyek…

Her Suggestion

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Recently I started going to gym as I’ve put on some weight over the cold winter and I could feel my pants as if it’s gonna burst any sooner O.o.

The good thing about here is whenever I go to gym, I can bring both my kids along and let them play at the playground in the Clubhouse, which is just next to the gym. Hence I don’t need to leave them at home alone (No No) or hire a caretaker to take care of them for that short 30mins workout. And they love to go there anyway. It’s a place where they might bump into their schoolmate.

While taking the escalator to the gym, this was our conversation and suggestion from Faythe:

Mommy: We need to go gym more often, you see I’m fat already. *Pointing my finger to the spare tyre*
Faythe: It’s OK Mommy. If you wanna be thin, just follow what I do. Eat what I eat. Don’t eat what I don’t eat. Then you will be thin like me.

If I do as she says, I think I’ll be constipated and dried up in no time OR I’ll be double of my size cause her diet mainly consist of pasta/spaghetti with cheese (fatttening), pizzas (oo, also fattening), less fruits & veg (that’s where the constipation comes) and all the chocolates that she can ever eat (sure deadmeat if I indulge in this).

Seems like I don’t have much choice but to go gym more often. Lets hope I can shed off those extra kgs easily.

My Concert Life with Jacky Cheung

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Throughout my life, I’ve only watch Concert for 3 times. And out of these 3 times, all 3 are Jacky Cheung’s concert. Not that I don’t want to watch other singers’ concert, but the timing was not right. When Audrey and Huey Fong came to HK to visit us last year, we found out that Jacky Cheung was having a concert in Venetian, Macau. All the tickets were already sold out when we learned about this, but later we found out that he added 2 more days and tickets were on sale!! We quickly grab 3 tickets and off we went to Macau on 29th Dec.

This is in fact my 2nd time watching JC concert with Audrey. The last time we went together was during our 20s!! And obviously JC never fails to amaze us. Although he’s 1/2 a century old (that’s also the title of his concert), but he’s even more energetic and charming than previously. Like he say, the older he is, the more good looking he is LOL. All his moves and dances left us in awe. He also paid tribute to his late godmother, Sum Tin Ha. His love notes are forever so touching and he sang them beautifully. He is no doubt a great singer.

There’s a heavy usage of graphics in this latest concert and I read that he choreographed the entire concert himself. Excellent job!! The stage moves from up to down, turn horizontally, split vertically. Then he came with a helicopter while singing and ending the concert with fireworks. Whoa, we were left amazed. He even did a short clip of himself in cartoon from young to old accompanied by his notes.

Come next weekend, I’ll be going for the same concert again, but this time in Hong Kong itself. It will be his final league after performing the same concert for over a year since 2011. I’m really looking forward to next week and this time round I hope I get a better view.

Here are some photos taken during his 100th 1/2 Century Concert in Macau. Oh BTW, if I’m not mistaken, the videoclip of him and Shu Qi was filmed in Macau as well, so watching the concert at Macau itself was indeed mesmerising.

WordPress 3.3.2 Review

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Some friends asked me what are the difference within WordPress 3.3.2 and the previous version. So I thought I’d share some of my personal review with readers  before you decide if you want to switch to the latest version.

I did an upgrade from a very old version, V2.1, so it was a major upgrade and I had to do it manually as auto upgrade is only available for version 2.5 above (if I’m not mistaken). I also prefer to do manually so that I can go thru the steps and know what I’m doing. I’ve read that some automated update had problems. Hence I definitely prefer a manual update, at least I don’t need to spend so much time troubleshooting if it screws up.

Pros:
There’s a word count while you are drafting your post, which works perfectly for those that write paid post. You no longer need to copy the post to MS Word and do a word count. Brilliant!!

The functions & options are split out on the left side and can be easily accessible e.g. Appearance, Plugins, Tools, etc. And each of them comes with a further level of breakdown. Makes it alot easier to find your WP functions.

While you are drafting your post, you also have the option to select what to display on the screen via Screen Option. With this your screen looks less cluttered and you only need to display what you need/want to see. Awesome, I love the clean sleek look.

Plugins update are a breeze. On the page where plugins are shown, you can easily choose to update those by just a click of the mouse. You no longer need to go and search for the latest version and then upload it via FTP.

Themes are definitely more advance now and there’s a lot of customization that can be done. Customization can be done in WordPress itself, that’s the most beautiful part. Simply love this :) .

Cons:
Insert photos is a chore now. My usual way of inserting photos (load via FTP, then copy the URL and add into the post) now takes longer for each photo because WP will attempt to verify the existence of the photo before allowing you to upload it. I think each pic easily took about 10sec more. So if you are uploading alot of pics for that post, it’s gonna take you ages.

I also notice that once you upload a pic, if you did not press ENTER previously to have additional lines below, you will not be able to do so after inserting a pic. Not sure if this is a bug. And if you try to insert another pic without looking at where your cursor is, chances are the whole post can be wiped out and only the new pic that you have just inserted is showing on the screen!!

You can’t turn off comments for your post. Maybe I haven’t figure it out, but so far there’s no option where I can turn off the comment. Thumbs down cause I do not want people to comment on paid post. *** UPDATE: this can be done, but only in Quick Edit Mode. How weird..maybe it’s a bug :P

New:
Under Appearance, there’s this thing called Menu. This is totally new to me and I have not figured out what’s this for.

I’ll be adding more to this list once I get use to the new version and discover more. So do come back and check if there’s further update :) .

Bersih 3.0 HK Edition

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I woke up on 28th April with a hope to bring change to my country, Malaysia. It was a rainy morning in Hong Kong. But as the organiser has said it loud and clear, the show must go on. It will only be called off if there’s Typhoon, Signal 8.

Days before the event took place, I found myself wrestling with my thoughts. I finally succumbed to the fact that I must be part of this historic event. And not just sit at home to watch the post Bersih 3.0 footages while I quietly regret in my heart that I have not done my part for our future, my children’s future and the future of all Malaysian. I was trying to convince my other half to join as well, but he procrastinated and in the end I tasked him to take care of the kids at home while I walk the talk.

Bersih 3.0 HK Edition meeting place as at Causway Bay, SOGO. I met up with Peggy (that so happened came to HK for holiday) earlier to have a quick lunch. Then we walked towards SOGO entrance and it was only 1:45pm, but the crowd was noticeable from far. Everyone were clad in yellow, the Bersih official colour.

The organiser expected about 100 people turn up at the event. But the final count apparently, there were 400 people!! Amazing!!

Everyone look very excited. Some travelled as far as from Southern China to participate in this memorable event. They couldn’t get their permit on time, but nevertheless made the effort to come all the way to HK. Someone was seen selling the Bersih T-shirt and they were quickly snapped up by rally’s participants. Obviously some were busy snapping photos for each other. People from all walks of life was there. It was as though we are going for a carnival instead of a rally.

At 2:00pm, we moved forward to a cordoned area that the police has prepared for us where we stood there and sang our National anthem with pride. I’ve never felt so proud singing this song together with our fellow countrymen. Then the leader came and gave a speech about today’s rally. Why we are doing this? It is not about politics. It’s about a clean and fair election. It’s about the people’s voice to be heard. And though we are many miles away from Malaysia, it doesn’t mean that we would not be bothered about what is happening back home.

One of the things he talked about that touched me was when he mentioned that alot of people whom has migrated overseas challenged why they need to care about Malaysia and what is happening since they are not there. But that is so wrong. Doesn’t mean we are not there we will not be affected. Don’t forget our parents are there. Our siblings are there. We still need to pay tax for our house in Malaysia although we don’t pay our income tax there. So we do need to care!! And someday, we will return home, when the time comes. But for now, let us continue to fight for the rights of our brothers and sisters at home.

It was a very long talk. He finished his speech in English, then someone shouted, Bahasa please. So he started repeating his speech in Bahasa. Then someone requested for Mandarin version, and he quickly obliged. And of course, we must have the Cantonese version since we are all in HK. And finally, someone requested for Hokkien version, and he did!! Everyone laughed when he spoke in Hokkien. We are truly a multilingual country. But no matter what language we speak, our voice must be heard that day. That a fair and clean election is what we demand for.

At 3:00pm, we lined up to form a long line and started marching. Together with us was a team of police officers, deployed to ensure our safety and assist the rally itself. They led us all the way from Causeway Bay right up to the Malaysia Embassy at Gloucester Road at Wan Chai. They stopped the cars and let us pass by the roads leaading to Wan Chai. From time to time we were reminded to walk inside so that we won’t be hit by cars. We chanted “Ah Shuir Hou Yeh” to the policemen for being so supportive, unlike the ones back home that layed barbed wires and refuse to let our countrymen to sit in at Dataran Merdeka.

As we walk, we sang our Negaraku. We sang Setia. We chanted “Hidup Bersih”. We chanted “Hidup Rakyat”. We chanted “Bersih, Bersih”. We chanted “Malaysia Boleh!!”. It was these moments that remind us that no matter where we are, how old we are and who we are at the end of the day we are all united as 1, 1Malaysia. And together we will rally for a better tomorrow.

One of the man was the leader that guide us with the chanting. At one point of a time, he ran out of his voice and we all laughed. But quickly someone took over and it continued. That was how strong the spirit was.

We finally reached the Malaysia Embassy after walking for 45mins and the guards were standing there, refuse to let us in. The police requested us to spread the crowd within the left and right of the embassy and ensure that we were not blocking the road. Again we sang Negaraku. Then the leader read out the memorandum that they want to pass to the Consulate. Some of us wrote our name on the memorandum as well.

At first the guard refused to open the door for us to pass the memorandum and spike off some concern among the group. Then we started chanting “Buka Pintu” to request them to open the door and finally they did. The Consulate quickly grab the memorandum and the guard closed the door. They were so afraid that we would start a riot. But seriously, we are there for peace, not for riot. If we wanted to start a riot, we would have done it along the way. And at that very moment as well, someone announced that they started shooting tear gas and water cannon in KL and we all jeered as loud as we could, condemning the act of our police and FRU units back home. Why has it gotta end with such an ugly sight despite a peaceful rally.

The rally ended at 4:00pm and we all thanked the police for being there with us. They’ve done a great job to ensure our safety. And someday we hope that police back home would do the same as the police in HK. Those would be the days where we will not live in fear of racial riots and rally. Those would be the days where police and citizens would rally together for a good cause. Those would be the days of a true democratic country. I would live to tell my children that I was part of the historical event that lead us to a true democratic country. And let us all hope that, that day would come soon.

Here are some photos taken on that day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More photos are uploaded on my Facebook.

A new home finally

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I’ve been contemplating to upgrade my blog to the latest version of WordPress, fearing that I might loose some post, etc. But after much procrastination, I’ve finally made it today. I’m now on version 3.3.2 and trying to get used to the new look.

I’ve also downloaded a bunch of themes to play with over the last week since I’ve decided to upgrade to 3.3.2. Looks like I’ll be busy for the new couple of weeks trying to figure out what theme I should use for my blog.

Till then, Happy Labour Day everyone!!