Night Safari

The last time I could remember last visit to Night Safari was 10 over years. During that time, I was a bit upset by the place because all I could remember was to sit in the tram and I could see nothing else except the darkness and hidden night animals.

When my friend asked me if I'm interested to go to Night Safari, I decided to give this place a second chance, after all it has been 10 over years. We took bus 138 and it was a super crowded weekend, probably its a holiday season. We queue almost 15 mins and the buying ticket queue has not been moving at all.

Luckily, I went to a special counter to get the map and it sells the tickets as well. That shortened the waiting time. I overheard an auntie was complaining that her kids that they had to wait almost an hour just to get the tickets.

Anyway, as we entered the entrance, we still have to queue to go in. It took us another 20 mins. The silliest thing they did was they only allow one person at a time. People just refused to wait by then and tried to start pushing and cut queue. By the time we went in, it was already 8.20pm.

There were 3 main trails, compared to the past experience, at least this time round I get to walk around the trails and see much more night animals such as the eagle owl, bats, flying squirrel, hippo, pucupins, hyena, civet, leopard cats but most of the animals are resting. Fortunately, we saw the malayan tiger walking towards us and it was as close as 30cm away from us.

I wanted to snap some photos of the animals but my camera is obviously not good enough and no flash photography is allowed. I just let myself immersed with the nature and the walk. Although the website claimed that they had total number of 1040 animals in the safari, but we never get to see so many animals there, probably it was too dark.

The night show was quite entertaining and look at those cute little animals performing, thrilled me.

The ticket seller insisted that we must buy the tram tickets and we bought. However, by the time, we walked finished the trail walks and finished the night show, it was already 11.15pm lor... We hurried back to the bus stop to catch the night bus.

What a night! Probably I will visit again 20 years later lol...

Courage to LOVE

A friend shared with me about her dating issues and asked me for advice. After analysing her problem, I realise that she doesn't have the courage to express her love.

I just told my friend that we should have the courage to love. Not many people can do that... Most of them just give up without trying... Love may not be boy-girl relationships, it could be family and even friends.

In the past, I told myself I do not need many friends and I lock myself up. Keep everything to myself and suffer in silence. I can't blame anyone else because I choose it to be in this way.

I have learnt my lesson: the Courage to LOVE. Because when we have love in our heart. We need to love ourselves and others. We tend to care for the people around us. We tend to be more sensitive towards other people. We tend to recieve help from others when we need one.

Through this learning, my relationships in family and friends have improved tremendously. If you haven't start to love, start loving now. I want to share this message on the Christmas Day:

It's a gift to love.

Be like water

"Be like water making its way through cracks. Do not be assertive, but adjust to the object, and you shall find a way round or through it. If nothing within you stays rigid, outward things will disclose themselves. Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be like water my friend." - Bruce Lee

This is useful not just in combat, but in life. If those who represent themselves as your enemy become your teachers -- teachers on how to be patient, on how to deflect, how to confront in a way that peaceably resolves the conflict -- then you learn the skill of being like water.

I used to blame myself and other people, why my life so unsmooth? Why all the bad things come to me. A friend told me we need to learn lessons in this life and that's why we are here.

Another friend gives me an insightful experience about his life. He told me we have to keep learning something until we have learnt. This statement has an impact on me and I totally agreed with what he said. I have never realised it until he said that to me.

I look at myself and the people around me. We all make the same mistakes over and over again until it comes to a time that we learnt our precious lessons these negative cycle will never appear again... Sometimes when I look back, it is us who always trap ourselves into these cycles and we choose to do that. Without learning the painful lessons, we can never able to appreciate the people and the things around us.

He told me not too think too much but I think I have learnt something from this statement. If we chose to be an unhappy person, we will always be an unhappy person. Even someone tries to be nice to you, you will choose to believe he has a bad intention. However, if we always chose to be a happy person, even when things are bad, we will use a positive attitude to turn the situation around.

Well, interesting insight to me at least. Life is not so bad afterall, if we choose to become water! Rite? :)

My little friends

I remembered my childhood dream was to become a teacher. I was inspired by my caring teachers in my primary school days. Most of them were caring, helpful and patient and best of all, I will be able to use the red pen to mark the students' work. Ah-ha :)

When I grew up, I know that I can't be a teacher because I have no patience with kids and I know that I will end up either being bullied by them or stressed up myself. I decided to give up this idea of being a teacher.

I was looking for a part-time job as I needed money for my melbourne trip. A golden opportunity came, knocking onto my door 5 weeks ago. CDAC is an learning environment and offer meaningful programmes to help students cope with their studies and social lives.

CDAC was looking for some part-time teachers, I went for interview and I got in. They just need teachers to teach maths and science for Pri 1-6, preparing them for the next year. Being pretty good in maths, I was assigned to teach maths for Pri2, Pri4 and Pri5 except there is one week, i have to teach science.

Having no experienced in teaching, I was so worried that I can't cope with it. However, I did spend time going through all the maths and science syllabus before the class. Of course goes without saying, for the first week, I wasn't that confident in teaching and I have to use the "math language" terms used by the schools, so that the kids are able to understand. After 2 weeks, I was able to teach the kids proficiently.

I almost wanted to give up when some kids were like monsters. However, some kids were like angels, that encouraged me to become a better teacher. Some were smart and fast, some were lazy and slow. No matter what, I have to gain their respect even if they were kids. When they realise you truly cares for them, even little monsters will be tamed by you slowly.

Although I was pretty under paid but overall, it was a very meaningful and fulfilling experience. With 88 students under my care, I did really enjoy myself with these 5 weeks of teaching.

First of all, I have learnt that these kids are pure at heart without any ill-intentions, they are just being playful or mischievious. Secondly, every kids are special in their own way, to be a capable teacher, I have to customise my teaching style so that they are able to absorb the knowledge better. Most importantly, I have learnt to be firm with my words and not to be influence by others.
Yes, I have fulfilled my dream of becoming a teacher and I have made quite a number of little friends. They did teach me something back in return when I have imparted my knowledge with them and I will cherish these memories.

Thank you, my little friends :)

点一把火炬

I always hear people saying, "letting go" when u experienced the negativity in life. It always said easier than done. I finally able let go of my sadness about a bad experience which i have been suppressing for all these years. Letting go and cried all my heart out is a good healing therapy. Now I feel light, carefree and happy again because I'm able to release my burden which i have been carrying all these years.

I have learnt not to supress my negative feelings. Yeah, it a wonderful experience of releasing my sadness. I want to thank my rubberband time friend for helping me to release the pain within me.

I want to share this song because I like the meaningful lyrics in this song."脆弱的世界, 人变得坚强因为有梦想" This is so true :)

点一把火炬
Artist: 林俊杰
Composer: 许环良与邢增华

天上的星星有多少数不清
承诺和许愿又多少能兑现
雨后的彩虹是真实还是梦
悲伤和快乐可以自己选择

忙忙碌碌转啊转盲盲目目从早到晚
喧喧闹闹是与非伤痕累累学会谦卑
听过自己哭泣才会懂得珍惜

点一把火炬 让爱和生命延续
用心用呼吸感应在黑暗中照亮风雨
脆弱的世界人变得坚强因为有梦想
让爱翻越所有围墙点燃每一个心房
照亮我们共同的家
照亮你我的家

Beauty of Life

Ger read about this "The Reality of Life"
Promises are meant to be broken
Secrets are meant to be shared
Friends are meant to be make use of

Not to pin point on what she wrote but I just can't agreed with it. Here are my own interpretation about these words.

My own interpretation
Promises are meant to be broken
- This shows that this person cannot be trusted

Secrets are meant to be shared
- This shows that this person is a gossiper

Friends are meant to be make use of
- This shows that this person is a devil under the angel face

If that is the case, why should I continue to be with this person? I can tell you that person will not have any true friends. Everyone will start to see that person true colors and will leave that person eventually. That person can fool everyone many times but can't fool everyone all the time.

This will ties in very well with my new xmas theme on relationships - The best of the most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must felt with the heart.

If you are sincerely true to your family and your friends, they will feel it. True hearts will meet together eventually.

Great Ideas

Most often when we see great ideas from others, we will start wondering why we didn't think of that? It can be a single, practical solution that solved the problem we have faced.

After attended a creative workshop called "Creative thinking makes easy" today, I realised that it is not about how much time we spend on the work but rather that how much work we spend on the time. As a human being, all of us are creative. We should constantly see things with an open mind and making changes to improve our lives. Even a silliest idea can be practical one if we just tweak and change into something relevant and useful.

Nothing is evolved with nothing. There must be some old ideas that trigger it, to make them into even better ideas. The speaker, John Teo told us that if we shot down our initial ideas from the start, it will be quite unlikely we are able to make a breakthrough. Creativity comes from constantly practising with an open mind and rearranging the old into new.

I really enjoyed his workshop and wished it didn't end so early. At the end of his workshop, he shared with us his life experience of becoming a successful magician. Of course, he did some small little magic performance for us.

This is just to prove ONE point -
IT IS ALL ABOUT BEING CREATIVE IN OUR MIND.

Loved it!