My first sign of freedom

I have officially passed my Viva which means if I do all the necessary editing, I will be graduating with my Master's Degree in April!!!!

Of all people, the boyfriend should know best how hard these whole thing was for me. I have not imagined that it will be this hard but it was a bumpy ride all along. It doesn't help that I procrastinate a lot and my attention span is almost non-existence when I was doing my thesis.

I was literally working on my work from morning till the next morning and then take a few hours sleep and wake up to continue for about 2 weeks straight before I finally submitted my work (which also resulted in super late lunch for both boyfriend and I). The weeks after that was filled with baking, resting, cleaning and selling fruits before CNY. Then CNY was filled with going out, eating and doing nothing. Then I came back to prepare for my Viva and it's officially over!

I praise Lord for everything He has done for me. Without Him, this degree is not even possible. I have always been the last person to get any scholarship and this time around, I was only late by one semester. Praise the Lord that I do not have to fork out a lot. Then I smoothly passed all my papers despite being clueless in some of it. When I registered for my dissertation, I was among the few who found a topic last minute yet had to change my supervisor and find a new topic all over again within a week as my initial supervisor had enough in her plate.

I was going one room to another to look for lecturers to adopt me and my current supervisor kindly adopted me. She took up my first topic and guided me and walked with my closely till I submit my work. I am forever grateful for her as I didn't want to be under her initially cause she seems scary. But she is a real angel at heart and if this is not God's will, I don't know what is. I mean I had my own plans but God brought me to the one He has prepared for me.

Then during my Viva, I was among the few who had it the easiest and came out the quickest. I went in and briefly (and I mean briefly) explained my dissertation. My examiner was on sabbatical so I had another very kind-hearted lecturer who sat in and read out the comments. There was no questions asked and the dean and deputy dean had no questions for me too. So I was out within like 7-8minutes? And then 2 minutes later I was called back in and the dean actually said that it was the quickest deliberation they had and gave me a PASSED!

This is truly His plan and His mighty work. With my human effort, and my human nature, I cannot have made any of those happened. All Glory to Him.

Now I'm just working on my editing to get it submitted to my lecturer by Monday. Then we can discuss if there's anything else to edit before we send it for printing and get it ready to be submitted by 12th March! Last lap!!! Got to finish it strong!

This lengthy post is to remind me of how faithful God has been in my life, throughout my Uni days. =D And No, Master's is NO JOKE.

Half day trip to Ipoh

Bare in mind this happened the week BEFORE CNY, so it's really very backdated. What? Don't judge me, I just got my dropbox. =P Finally got pictures to blog with. I've been bugging the boyfriend for not bringing me anywhere after I submit my dissertation. So he planned a last minute trip to Ipoh. Thus we did not ask anyone nor meet up with anyone there.

 

Early in the morning, leaving Penang.

Love the clouds and the orange sky

 The weather was clear, there wasn't much car on the road and we were cruising down the highway.

 God's really amazing. Can anyone create anything more magnificent and magical than Him? Look at how beautiful the sky was. And the sun, peeking through it.

 Woooo...scary mist ahead. Suddenly, that part of the road was so misty. But gorgeous!!

No car in sight. We were practically driving on our own at one point with no cars around us.

 Misty again!! But mad gorgeous!

Our first stop was Nam Heong Coffee Shop. The boyfriend cleverly left his itinerary 300km away from where we were. T_T So he was at the back googling for his itinerary again. Well, to cut the long story short, we missed a few places he said was good.

 Ipoh White Coffee. Not that I'm a coffee person and it was so early in the morning. I was with an empty stomach so I took a few sip. The boyfriend enjoyed it though.

 We also had toast. And the Kai Si Hor Fun (Chicken with Koay Teow) =P Awesome much but morning isn't my best time to eat. After eating, we had.....some problem and went to the nearest mall (Ipoh Parade). Their parking is EPIC I tell you. Normal underground parking right? With RM1.50 per entrance fee which you have to pay at the entrance. Now comes the epic part. You pay to a machine which only accepts COINS! We were fumbling for coins cause we didn't see that coming. Thank God we had just enough to pay. The boyfriend had RM1.40 and I contribute my one and only 10cent coin! My 10cent coin saved the day. =P

After settling our 'business', we went walking around the mall.

 The bench was cleverly placed right in front of senQ facing the huge television. So we can sit and watch some shows. At about 12something to 1, we decided to proceed to the famous Dai Shu Kiok (Big Tree Foot =P) to have our 'yong tau fu' lunch.

 Ordered this RM3.50 mix fruit juice which is the famous drink there. Really, it's just a glass of drink with lots of fruits like papaya, watermelon, longan, dragon fruit, mango and such.

All the yong tau fu are fried stuff so I took a little to share with the boyfriend and I got to eat my bee tai bak (called Lo Shu Fun there). Not my favourite food there although everyone has been talking about it. I would like to try their normal hor fun with chicken and dimsum the next time. This one may not be my choice again since I love my yong tau fu to be a mixture of fried stuff and non-fried stuff.

We also went to tapao some kaya kok, pohpiah and satay (all of which can be found in Penang). Will visit Ipoh again cause I believe I have not seen Ipoh enough this time around.

On our way back, we witnessed something only seen on TV. A couple in the car in front of us were fighting and the lady controlling the steering was going left right with one hand at the steering and another hitting her husband/boyfriend/another guy (not sure of his status). After swaying for some time...finally, at a fast moving road, the guy opened the car door to jump off the car. Damn drama. He did not jump off but she drove to the side and they continued fighting at the side of the road I think. We left Ipoh already as the road was heading to highway. I've never seen live drama like this. So that marks the end of our trip to Ipoh and we head back to Penang. The next day we started selling fruits in Lip Sin market which will be in the next post.

Job Searching Woes

You see, I don't do what I'm usually supposed to do. When I'm supposed to relax, I'll find 1001 things to do. Now that I'm supposed to read up my dissertation and try to justify whatever I wrote, I'm looking for jobs (something that I will not do when I'm free).

Now that I may get my Masters degree soon, I decided to check out some websites for job. Guess what I found? Admin clerks get better pay than say tuition teacher! You know how tough it is to be a tuition teacher? Seriously, it's not all happy and dandy. There's lesson plans, exam to plan for, students to control. There's a lot of hidden work that you don't see teachers doing in class. And to know that admin clerks get paid better is really NOT FUN! Anyways, not like I'm going to work for others as a tuition teacher anymore. Sick of getting peanuts when I have to do so much work. Tuition teachers (in tuition centres) are seriously underappreciated and underpaid, except for selected few.

The ones with good pays are those doing sales! And you know I can't sell anything which needs persuading. My persuasion skill is really working on the boyfriend only. Continues for job hunting because I don't like this feeling of being broke!!!

I just got my DropBox so I hope more blogposts after this with pictures from phone easily accessed.

Chinese New Year woes

Although it's fun to get all the ang pow, eat all the CNY kuih and steamboat, it's also sien when people ask me if I've gotten a job. STRESSED-OUT MAX!!!!

Pantang

Who created the pantang that we cannot wash our hair on the first day??? *pulls hair*

All of the sudden my scalp itch like mad okay????

*scratch scratch*

Hiatus

It's funny how when I was rushing for my dissertation, I would blog like 2-3 times a day and right after I submit, I stopped blogging. I know I have promised to show the clothes I bought but I cleverly packed everything and brought home before I could snap any pictures. So will wear them during CNY and dolled up and then ask my sisters to snap for me.

Right after I submit my dissertation, I went home to clean my room. Reorganize everything since we had little renovation going on and changed some furniture. Then I went to SP to the boyfriend's place and 'nua' around for few days.

When we got back, we rushed to launch D'Sparkles collections and baking frenzy began. Baked German cookies and pineapple tarts. On top of that, I basically did nothing much. I did not go shopping cause my bank account was drying up. This entire week was dedicated to selling fruits in the market. 2nd year helping Daniel's aunt to sell fruits. Chinese New Year's crowd is MAD. There's so many people asking for prices, passing you their basket of fruits to weigh, pack and calculate. Some will just ask how much, or if it's good, and then complain this and that and want discounts.

Then there's sorting out the rotten fruits from the good ones and repacking them to sell and sweeping the floor. And lots of calculating. My mathematics has been put to rest for YEARS so it was really a challenge for me. Every day when we got back, we would be lying on the bed, dead exhausted. And we will take like 2 hour nap (we got up at 6.30am or latest 7am every day. Except on Thursday we overslept till 7.45am. By the time we are up it'll already be like 4pm or 5pm and soon we'll have dinner and then slack the night away or hang out with friends.

So this week has been crazy!!! I've not much going on for CNY (for now) so I expect lots of resting and checking on D'Sparkles stocks before I come back next week to prepare for my viva. Will claim this rest first before I even think about my viva.