Thank you for reading! 

Love, 

Sheryn

Hello! Haven't written anything here in a long time and I must say I missed writing... Hah! As my entry title writes "my first time", I'd share a few of the things I've experienced these 3 months- for the first time here!

1. External Training: 

I attended a training on digital marketing (mostly about SEO & SEM - Search Engine) in KL. I traveled ALONE and stayed in KL ALONE, for the FIRST time. I am very thankful for my company for sending me there and I went via flight (which the organiser was impressed, so I guess I'm blessed?) and I also got to stay at the hotel where the training was held for 3 nights. I also had 1 free day in total to do my own stuff so I decided to try.... 

2. UBER: 

If you didn't already know, Uber is an American international transportation network company and has started in Malaysia say a year or two ago? Not very sure. The service is so super convenient. I only needed to download the app on my mobile and then sign up and I'm all set. They charge RM1 as registration fee. I tried using Uber for the first time and I'd say I loved it. The fare is amazingly cheap, who needs taxis? I only need to request and Uber driver nearby will accept my request and will reach in latest, 15 minutes. Another plus point about this service is that it's cashless. The fare will be charged to your card and the receipt will be emailed to you. Very perfect ok! 

1 week after the training, I went on a family trip. To KL again and as usual, I was the planner. From accommodation to transport to places to visit to food. For accommodation, I decided to try...

3. AIRBNB

Airbnb is a website for people to list, find, and rent lodging. It has over 1,500,000 listings in 34,000 cities and 190 countries (Wikipedia). And so I signed up on Airbnb and started my search. I wanted an apartment so that we don't live with other people. It's convenient because I can actually highlight that on the website. I found a place at Mont Kiara (oohlala.. atas place) and it was a beautiful upmarket condo. It has the best security, the best facilities and the best house! The moment we entered the place we were all in awe. So how Airbnb works is that I need to request to book and the owner will then review my profile (Facebook) and then only decide to approve or not. However, I had difficulty booking because the site does not accept Debit cards. I tried 109304382 times still cannot, so I asked the owner. He was really patient with me. Explained all that he could and I finally managed to make payment (with a Credit card). Overall, my family and I enjoyed the place coz it was really comfy and nice. We could use the kitchen, the living area, the dining area, practically the whole house. Such a nice environment, it has become my benchmark! Oh! I forgot to mention, the price is super affordable too! I booked the condo for 5 persons for 3 nights. Only cost RM729. You tell me, where to find? 

I'd love to share photos but I don't have nice ones of the house... Sorry! 

Thank you for reading! 

Love, 

Sheryn

Yup, I'm talking about the "To-do" list... It never seems to end, well at least for me. It's 6 minutes to 1am now and my mind is filled with thoughts and ideas! Unlike most of my colleagues, besides work & family, I have tons of "activities" after working hours. Having that said, 100% of these activities are from my church. I always want to be the person handling this and that for events. Coz I cannot stand seeing floppy events. But the saddest part is that I DON'T HAVE THE TIME to do the million things that I want to.

Coming back from a meeting with my senior pastor got me pumped up to do more. I came up with the idea of giving back to the community this Christmas as a church and I gave a special name to this little project, which I think I shall reveal after Christmas :D I've just finished draftting my ideas and plans for this project and I am so so so excited!! I got everything planned out and just a little bit of touch up to the plans and we're good to go. Then, I looked at the calendar to set datelines and I suddenly feel so doomed. I'm involved in so many events and I think I just double booked myself. I hate it when this happens. It kills every excitement there is. :(

I had new ideas to sell our album before the Christmas season and it requires $$ and much 00:00. Everyone is so busy I dare not ask for help. Not sure if I am creating trouble for myself but all I want is to have pretty packaging and a pretty Christmas at church. I also suddenly thought of the church Christmas deco... Last year, Sean, myself and another friend did the church deco by ourselves and we were the ones who suggested to make our church look more Chrismassy. Sometimes I think to myself, why do I care so much? Why do I bother? I might even be commented as being "kaypo" (busybody) but hey, I love Jesus, I love my church. Let me do! Haha! I hope that I will learn how to pass "this" down to the people around me.

I pray for more people to take ownership of the church.

So, Christmas aside, it's already the end of the year and that means plans for next year have to be made soon. See what I mean by the never ending list? It just keeps getting more and more. I'm afraid I've jeopardised my time with my precious mommy & daddy and even my por por. :/ I need more that 24 hours a day, more than 7 days a week! I used wonder why I take these stuff so seriously. I mean come on, this isn't my job. Nothing will happen if I don't do it. I won't get sacked. Bla bla bla.. then I realised, in the midst of those questions, that I'm really doing this because I love my God whom I serve. I love the people whom I serve. I would give up my job if I could. I'm that serious about church.

If you've read thus far, pray with me! I need really good time management, more creative juice and a little more push to get things moving! Can't wait till Christmas!

Thank you for reading!

Love,
Sheryn

Hello! I just came home from Life Group and what I've gotten out from the meet is that people inspire people. It's common when a young person gets inspired by an elder person but not this time. Our LG now consists of young people (younger than me) and week after week God's been opening my heart and my eyes to see that they have so so so much to offer! They are a precious bunch! Sometimes their behaviour can be a bit out of place, and may sometimes tend to be rude but I think the 'older' people should look pass that. Not just place our focus on what they are not doing right. 

I was out for almost 12 hours today and when I came home, I walked to what looks like confetti but it's actually fire cracker paper.Well it's Deepavali today and I don't mean anything rude. I noticed that people started playing fire crackers during this season only few years back. Back then when I was younger, people only play with fire crackers during Chinese New Year.
Really confused now. 

I am so fumed up seeing only my corridor this dirty coz obviously my "neighbour" upstairs helped us "decorate". They were having a party and I was sooooo tempted to go up and let them know it's not cool to do that but I was stopped by Sean. I took a broom and I swept the floor and shoe cabinet and I made sure their guests saw me and would feel bad. I was so angry! I stormed into my house after that and I just had to calm myself down. Didn't know it would take so long to cool down. 

Being angry for 30 mins got me thinking about the place I am staying at. I live in a relatively high densed flat unlike many of my friends for about 22 years now. I have neighbours who are immigrants. For example, the people staying upstairs. I face quite a lot nonsense here... I face problems like not enough car park space, once in a while I hear people fighting. The most recent case was just a few nights back when I heard shouting and crying from upstairs. I can hear the "kotai" a few times in a year and as I'm typing now, I have some Chinese song as background music which I rather not having. I have to go through the suffering sounds of fire crackers during CNY, Deepavali and other festive seasons. The struggle is real. There are so many more stuff that I can list but I'm a bit too lazy now. 

So yeah, I am not very happy with the condition here now. I wish I can move with my family to a more peaceful place. I wish money wasn't an issue. I wish this place would remain peaceful just like 10 years ago. i wish I had more car park space, I wish I don't have to suffer noise anymore. I WANT TO MOVE OUT! 

Take me away... *sobs*

I'm sorry I know it's supposed to be a "today I choose joy". I have failed. But I did try to find something to be thankful about. While I'm writing this, I have a bed. I have a roof over my head, I have electricity. I choose to be contented, although I really don't mind moving out. :D 

Thank you for reading!

Love,

Sheryn 

Yesterday I finally got the chance to try out the food at 43 Cafe, Penang. I've been eyeing on their food for the longest time. And since my Life Group venue was around that area, we decided to have a try. Thank God I remember about the cafe!

We're not very good with directions (yes, even in a small island) so we depended on Waze.
To our surprise, the cafe is operated in the porch of a home. 

One thing that was different in this cafe is that you walk in as a customer, you leave as a friend. I guess this was the owner's intention; to befriend with his customers. He was super warm to us. He introduced and guided us when we were deciding to order our dinner. That little cafe serves about 6 types of food, which includes pasta, pork satay, pork steak, burger and homemade "ice scream". 

You need to know why I said authenticity goes a long way. I can safely say that this is the first place that I've ever been that serves food made from scratch, WITHOUT anyone having to shout about it. It wasn't written on anywhere. For example, there's writings on Miam Miam in Gurney Paragon's wall "Our food is made from scratch daily" 

No. At 43 Cafe, you can taste the "made from scratch" yourself. No one has to tell us. 

So after being guided on what to order, I ordered Spaghetti Carbonara
(you can choose your main ingredient: Mushroom or Pork Sausage) I chose mushroom.
Upon ordering, I made sure what I ordered has the egg yolk on top as I've seen in Instagram photos posted about this place. Just wanna make sure I don't get disappointed when my food arrives.
And when it was served to me, the owner said "here's your egg yolk" haha! *shy*

Besides our mains, we've ordered the pork satay. One word. LEGENDARY! Every part of the pork was properly marinated with their special sauce. You can NEVER find this taste ever in Penang. It was simply amazing. When we both had our first bite, we looked at each other with enlarged eyes and a wide smile. We knew this was from heaven! 

We both ended our meal with their homemade "ice scream". I told Sean no matter how full I was I will not leave until I finish off our meal with this. My colleague raved so much about this. The owner highly recommended "Black Dog" which is a combination of Guinness Stout and dark chocolate. But we were heading to Life Group after dinner so we opted for another one, with a lighter (but still alcoholic) flavour. I wasn't so sure what exactly was in our ice scream but it had a little alcohol taste in it. We were strongly advised to eat it with sprinkles of salt to bring out the alcohol taste, which we both did. We even tried with chili flakes as recommended, to get the cold and hot effect.
But I still prefer having it with salt. 

We will definitely be back to try the rest of the food on the menu because 43 Cafe has earned our "Favourite Dining Spot".  

Thank you for reading and sorry if I made you drool! And sorry if you're not from Penang, Malaysia... I feel your pain! HAHA. 

But it's okay, if you happen to visit Penang in the future, here's what you need:

Address | 43, Jalan Sungai Dua, 11700 Penang (Housing Area)
Operating Hours | 5.30pm - 10.00pm
Facebook: 43 Cafe 

Love, 

Sheryn

Just came back from music practice in church... Right after we were done running through songs for Sunday, Sean started strumming to One Way by Hillsong and we all continued jamming. We had so much fun. For me, I just cannot help it but to reminisce about my youth days. We used to have a lot of fun together musically. We'd jam from songs to songs and wouldn't want to leave church. We love each other's company very much... Then after One Way was done, Sean again, started strumming to Here In My Life by Hillsong. I remember that I love worshiping God with his song and immediately sang into the mic. while halfway through, I heard a small voice asking me, "do you remember?" Yes, I answered to that voice.

So what led me here was a comment someone gave me earlier today at work that made me realise something quite important. 

Weeks ago, due to the haze, my skin reacted to it and had rashes and was super itchy, my face was red. So I went to the Spa to look for aloe vera to help soothe the itch. And one of the therapist (a very helpful Bangladeshi man) helped me apply the freshly cut aloe vera on my forehead. He met me today and asked about my skin condition and I said it is gone. then he went on to comment that i had many spots on my face. pimples. And I was a bit sad coz I had nicer complexion before this. He said "dulu cantik, sekarang banyak bintik" (you used to be pretty but now there are so many pimples) and asked me to go for facial. Well, if you know me, I don't do facials. So I said "takpe, biarkan saja" (Nevermind, leave it as it is) He then say, "nanti boyfriend tak mau you" (your bf wouldn't want you anymore). The moment he said that, I just laughed and I was so sure that if i had 100 more pimples, I am sure that my boyfriend still wants me. 

Now now now, I think this is something. This is something that I believe is very important, to know that your boyfriend loves you not only because you look good. I mean I really believe that Sean loves me for who I am, even if I have pimples or I am plump. I believe with all my heart that this relationship is not centered on the outward appearance, although I cannot take it for granted. I need to do my best to look presentable too but I am certain that I don't have to look a certain way, dress a certain way or have a certain skin to be loved by him. I simply need to be myself, love God and love him. SIMPLE. 

This short conversation with my Bangladeshi friend has just made me realised how secured and confident I am with Sean. Thank you, Lord for bringing us together.

Random but this is how I roll... I can be really crazy.

Like really crazy...

Sometimes, not the funny kinda crazy but more to hurting kinda crazy...

But despite that, we're still together.. Yikes. Too cheeesy! (But but but I love cheese... :D)

Thank you for reading!

Love, 

Sheryn

I guess this is the time of the month where I'd pick on anything to fight about. Pick on anything to feel offended about. Pick on anything to feel emotional about. It really sucks. Now that I notice, I can still write about it. But when I don't things get so out of control... This could be by far one of the most negative post I'll be writing... I'll show you that life isn't always a bed of roses, but it still goes on.

I finished work and left at 7.10pm-ish. Was supposed to meet him for dinner and spend some time together before I leave for 4 days. He fell sick yesterday so we decided to have a quick dinner. After a really quick dinner he sent me home..

While in the car, I don't remember how but I brought up the topic on how he is so super fussy about doing things that bothers me and stresses me out. For instance, yesterday's dinner at his house, I took the fork&spoon and distributed them out. I knew he'd want me to pair them (according to their type/shape) so I really did put effort into pairing them. When I was done, he said "why is this not paired" the moment he said that, I almost broke into tears but I remained calm. And I let out a sigh.

Bringing this up just now might not be the best thing to do, given my yoyo emotions but it just came out. After a long argument, there was no conclusion. I seek for one. I asked if he could just let me do things my way instead of following his. The answer... only he knows. I didn't know how to stop the anger and frustration I just hugged him and said sorry. But I know the deep inside me still yearns for a conclusion... something like, "babe, as long as you're happy doing things, just do it your way..."  Sobs.

Now that I'm writing this I want to reflect on myself too. Is it too much to ask if I could do things my way? Is it too much to ask him to stop forcing me to do things his ways? Idk. God, speak to me. Speak to him too.. Guide us, I pray.

See, being in a relationship really isn't happy moments all the way. It is these moments that stretch you and test you and see if you really love that someone and if you would sacrifice certain things to make it work. If my relationship with him was merely "I like you, you like me, we should be together" kinda thing, I really don't think it'll last. I almost gave up several times. But he was persistent and he knew exactly why we got together in the first place, that is why we're still together.

I somehow find that each day I learn new things about each other. I learn that we have more differences than I thought we'd have. But in the differences, we love each other still. I'm so thankful suddenly. Now I need to learn to accept about what I complained just now. And I pray that he will choose to accept me too.

--------

While writing this, I just received a text. A text of apology from him.. Wow! GOD, you're amazing. Look, when we learn to stop and reflect on ourselves and surrender to God, He's gonna take care of it. I'm not like "Yayyy so much win" but I am completely humbled by what just happened. He took the effort to apologise and I should too.

Thank you for reading! I gotta go say my sorry now!

Love,
Sheryn

So, travelling alone this time is different because I'll be flyinggg alone. I am a dependent person and I practically need someone beside me wherever I go. I am afraid that I'll get lost or something or get conned... -.- haha! Call me paranoid. Whateverrr. Oh. wait something just slipped my mind while writing this. Mehh... 

Never mind. Guess I'm gonna learn a lot from this trip. CAN'T WAIT! 

Let me continue, I'll be going to KL. Don't think I should disclose any further info about my trip haha coz I am paranoid. :D I'll be there from Wed - Sat... I have Wed all to myself... Where should I go? I just Googled the nearest mall so at least I can kill some time there... and maybe shop a little *giggles* HOHOHO, Sunway Pyramid, here I come!! UBER, please do not fail me.

OK now, I'm gonna have to start packing my bag and do some more research. 

Thank you for reading!

Love,
Sheryn

The one on the right is the person who made this possible! :) Thanks, Angie!

You can't buy happiness but you can buy food.
And that's about the same thing. 

Have a look at some of the food shots taken by yours truly,
while completely enjoying herself nomming on them! 

Thank you for reading (looking I mean)!

Love,
Sheryn

I'm bringing you on a trip down memory lane, back in 2005. Just about 20 minutes ago, my friend tagged me in a photo. Not just any photo but with my discipline teacher in it. Exactly 10 years ago, Puan Jennifer was our 'Kemahiran Hidup' teacher and also the head of discipline in Methodist Girls' School Penang. She had the aura of (let me think of the fiercest thing alive) a lion? Idk, but man was she scary. We all fear her. Because of her, I told my sister not to become a teacher coz I thought teachers will turn into mad women eventually. So what brought me here was something we (I think I) did that led to a severe punishment then which we all remember till now. 

She was so strict and came up with crazy rules like you can't wear earrings to school if it is besides silver or gold in colour. And you know lah, us being teenagers at 15, being and looking cool is the utmost important thing in our life. So, LY (LeeYip) wore a black round earring to school that day (see I really can remember). She was spotted by hawk eye teacher and then asked to remove the earrings. She was definitely very upset about it but held it in. I think if she was like one of the kids these days, she would've screwed Pn Jenn up. But no, she just went back to her seat and sat there quietly. 

Now, me being the mischievous one, wrote LY a letter... The letter says something like "... eh, let's go to CPT (Convent Pulau Tikus) since here so strict..." That was a very obvious joke that I made coz I think we didn't like CPT very much. So it WAS A JOKE! After I've written that 'letter', I passed to another girl to pass to LY. So she took the paper and while handing over to LY, Mrs Hawk Eye  saw and shouted, "what is that?!" oh mannnn nobody knows what went through my mind. My heart almost came out from my mouth! The 'messenger' then said it's a letter to be passed to LY. Mrs Hawk Eye then asked LY to take it and open it up and read it to the entire class. And so.... my 'joke' was read aloud to everyone. I could see how hesitant LY was when she was asked to read. She was actually giggling while reading. 

So long story short, teacher got mad (and maybe pms or what I'm not sure) went to the school office for some time, came back and made us stand at the basketball court, under the hot sun. We were placed 1 at one end the other at the other end, just so that we won't chit chat. OMGsh, imagine how LY would have felt. Like hello? She was innocent, did nothing wrong but got punished as well. 

That incident there happened 10 years ago and we all remember it up until now. Mrs Hawk Eye will always be remembered as a scary teacher. I think when I bump into her now it will still send chills down my spine. Idk. I mean she's really scary. She threw books and stuff. Who wouldn't be afraid? 

Thoughts about highschool always leave a very nice feeling in my heart... Those are truly the best years of my life! I've never laughed that much anymore and I doubt I will in the future. I miss my buddies. There's 8 of us altogether, but we're totally harmless.. We were really chatty and noisy but we never did anything to hurt anyone. Guess teachers then didn't know how to appreciate innocent hearts like that. Kids nowadays are different, according to a teacher-friend. Not as harmless as we used to be. And I also found out that Mrs Hawk Eye is still working at the same school, however she has calmed down a lot more. I want to clarify that I do not have anything against her now, I've let go. 

I LOVE HIGH SCHOOL AND I CANNOT LIE!!! 

Here's the photo that led me here: 

Our fear & trembling student-teacher relationship did not end badly. Coz when I turned 16, I cleaned up my act. Eh no wait. My act memang clean... Erm, I shall put it this way, I toned down. Not as noisy/mischievous anymore. And I remember something nice she said about me when I was 17... She said "I didn't know you can sing so well, good job!" after my performance during the English Week. So yeah, that compliment was actually my last conversation with her.

Thanks for the memories, Puan Jennifer and thank YOU for reading. :)

Love,
Sheryn 

I remember waking up very early in the morning (probably 5/6 am), walking to the TV console, pulling out my favourite movies in VCR tape form and then picked what to watch for that day. Well, at that time I only had about 7 movie choices but I NEVER got bored of watching them!

Please do not ever forget how vcr tapes look like and how they function! It's such a beautiful memory.. These are my favourite movies and I'd still watch them over and over again. I can't imagine growing up without these movies! 

Not sure if you were from the same generation but if you haven't watched any of these movies, YOU HAVE TO!!

OK, please allow me to side track a little. Saw this video earlier and thought it's like Sister Act in reality! Enjoy...

Thank you for reading!

Love, 

Sheryn 

Came back from work last night feeling so privileged and blessed. I have reasons to be upset at how certain things are going in my life right now but I have MORE reasons to be thankful.

Working for a renowned brand for almost 2.5 years has made me realise how blessed and favoured I am. Growing up reading fashion and lifestyle magazines had made me desire to work for a magazine. I remember clearly that there is this section in Cleo Magazine where they show snap shots of "behind the scenes" in the office and that made me dream of working there. The products that they get to try on, the little product samples they receive, putting together a fashion piece, dressing up someone, reviewing products and so on, definitely attracted my interests.

I started off as an admin. A sales admin. So I was taking event leads, answering phone calls, doing filing and so on. I often looked at the Marcom dept and thought how nice if I were to do what they were doing... Taking photos, managing social media, editing photos, do copy writing for prints etc. So much wantsssss!!

Little did I know, people were planning to leave. And the door opened for me. I have been in Marcom for about 1.5 years now! And I have to say I'm lovin' it! Everything I do now I do with passion. I've had many opportunities to experience things not everyone get to experience. For example, I get to be a part of organizing huge events, go to places like the Star Cruise and so many more I can't remember.

So come to think of it, I really have 10,000 reasons to be happy! And thankful! What led me to write this post was the visit I made to Star Cruise Gemini.. And especially with my lovely lovely colleagues which you'll see in the photos below:

Thank you for reading! 

Love, 

Sheryn