on not being a 'morning person'

hello everybody, how's the week been?

I endured a whole week of drama & it's been very draining but i'm glad everything is moving to normality already. last night, i did what i thought i would never be able to do. With just a drop of discipline (that means resisting the urge to meet the boy for dinner) & a whole day of tolerating a sleep-deprived headache as well as coughing spells, i hibernated. I slept from 7.30pm (i kid you not) all the way through this morning. I feel so good now!

This will be yet another confession but is there any of you who identifies yourself as 'not-a-morning-person'? & somewhat know that has created a barrier in your life for many years? Well, i am that person, at least not shamelessly. I was thinking long and hard about this all morning & i reflected upon days when i feel great at work & everything just work towards how i want it to, then it finally seeped into my thick skull that i've been in denial all along. All i needed, ALL ALONG, was early nights & good sleep!

Ahh, if you're anything like me, you know that you've dished out all possible excuses to not come to terms with this FACT. So discipline, for the most part of it, is what i'm lacking! Which i sadly & with shame admit that i have a long way to go with that.

And then, that again boils down to what your resolutions are right? While it is highly debatable that New Year resolutions are any help at all, i say that it doesn't hurt a damn bit to take a stab at it. I mean, there's nothing to lose except to risk gaining something healthy for you & your life. So one of my new year's resolution from last year was to think, with a conscious effort, how i can be better everyday. I'll tell you as it is, it doesn't escalate daily. Some days, you back down a bit & shed the black of your stripes. Or even, without realising, you've started a brand new department of a problem while addressing & successfully zapping the others. It's daily, it's constant & it's all part of being human.

On top of struggling to be a better person by thinking about how i can achieve that, i also feed myself with materials that i know is food for my soul. Overall, i think it's done me a world of good. Most importantly, it can never and should never stop.

So my current priority is to get enough sleep. Do you have your shortcomings from not being a morning person?

Happy Eid al-Adha!

Happy Monday! I know i'm many days late but if you'll excuse me, i'd still like to wish Happy Eid al-Adha! I had a fantastic time with my paternal side of the family. All the food, the catch-ups, the mischief (i can't believe we still have it in us) & all the merry stuff put together under one roof. Urgh, so heartwarming.

You know, i vehemently love traditional malay festive food but we both have quite a strange history, as if we were never meant to be. So as with every year, i fell ill the day after. I mean really ill & ill through the next 4 days. I find this so perplexing because i don't even consume all the good stuff as much as i hope to! I'm vexed! Is there anyone out there experiencing this phenomena?
Another thing that i so habitually do, is take a few moment every Eid to reminisce Cirebon, Indonesia. A life changing place & a trip i so strongly value. In the muslim calendar, there are two perfect seasons for charity & in my humble opinion, there's just no better way to celebrate it than to make the less fortunate people really happy!

Hint: if any of you guys think you have the resources & contacts for a chance to do charity work in another part of the world next Eid, please contact me!

P.s if you haven't already, read the Cirebon experience here.

to live & love: a very special post for a very special person

I'm going to introduce the most special person to me today. This is Lizzy and i received a message from her this morning that made me cry a little (yes, in the office).

I first met Lizzy in the winter of 2008 while i was on a holiday in Perth, Australia. For the first time, my brother & i were going on a vacation independently so it was what we considered a 'big trip'. I won't lie to you, being two really young asians, we were really intimidated by Australia. But Australia, however it was intimidating at that time, showed us to a friendship with its most wonderful citizen.

Liz was backpacking around Australia at that time & had already been staying at the backpackers we checked into for a couple of months. Knowing we were really shy & possibly a little a scared, she made us feel really warm & at home. We were also introduced to Dean & Scott from Ireland who were so wonderfully nice too.

We hung out all night sharing stories about our homeland, their travels, travel tips within Perth & everything. Simply, we were no longer freaking out because we now had these amazing new friends who'd look out for us, who showed us some places, gave us their sleeping bags because it was way too cold at night, woke us up for breakfast & even cooked us dinner before we left home.
The friendship didn't finish from the time we boarded the flight home. In fact, many times in the last year or so, Lizzie would send me messages to see how i was doing & even offered me her shoulder to cry on when i was going through a very difficult episode in my life. Note that she lives miles away from me & constantly travels.

Tell me now, is this person not an angel to you?

It's these little acts of kindness that will live in us forever. She's a true inspiration. I've learnt that you'll never know the impact of your good deed, no matter how little or large, on someone.

So this was what i received from sweet Lizzy this morning,

"hey maria, i have a day off so i thought i'd spend it in the library and fall into my own little world for a while....for some reason i had an impulse to click on your blogspot while i'm on facebook quickly, because you'd posted something for your lovely brother's birthday.

i feel like we are so alike it's not funny, and i suppose we never really had the oppurtunity to get to know each other well enough to realize that - we did only briefly meet each other for 2 or 3 days. i always thought your were lovely and i have met many many people on my travels who are beautiful people, but the way you talk about your love affair with life, with friends, family, art, books, activism - this constant flowing raw energy for a more fulfilled and happier you - i hold it so close to me, recognise it, understand it and i think it's a very special gift when you happen to stumble upon someone else who shares such fundamental values.

i wish that we were better friends. you seem to have so much light spilling out of you. your gift must be that you radiate this light upon other people.

that's all i had to say, i hope you have a beautiful day darling. you have made my day! xo"

It's so heartwarming, i couldn't help but cry. I don't think Liz understands how special she is or how thankful i am to have met her.

Well, I did mention that i have never wished for massive readership or 10000 blog hits a day but i've always meant for this space to be where i would meet like-minded people like you & lizzy, who are similarly passionate about love & life.

I hope someday, we can all come together, maybe even through this blog, to build friendships, share thoughts, & create waves of magical, positive, infectious energy for each other. I pray many seasons of good karma for Lizzy, for you & for everyone.

It's fantastic to be alive & in love.

Happy Birthday to my brother!

It's my brother's birthday today so Happy Birthday soldier! We love you!

Last weekend, some of our close friends and my family threw a really messy surprise party for him. T'was far out! At this point, i've given up on the thought that a boys' party can ever be a tidy affair so we just sorta roughed it up & had a hell of a time albeit the rain.

Massive thank you to all our friends who came to the small celebration. We were so close to reducing him to tears. So close. Also, a big hug to my forever awesome parents, who're always supportive of these crazy celebrations that i tend to churn out & tirelessly helping me with it all the time.

So, i'm just going to take a moment to introduce a very sweet cousin of mine who got these cupcakes done for the party on a VERY short notice. Note that a friend of ours did not request for anything more than just cupcakes but she took the time & effort to inject a fraction my brother's personality & her remarkable creativity into it. So, introducing the 'Sergeant's Cupcakes' by Gl3cafe! Thank you so much from the depths of our hearts!
My brother has a blog, do visit.

Guess we're all grown up now, brother. xx

Grassdoe

Don't you ever wish you could live in a place where you can just marvel at nature everyday? I love being surrounded by nature & my paternal family's traditional kampung (or kampong) in Malaysia is one of my favourite places to visit.

Fundamentally, I relish the idea of not having to consume processed food & mass produced unhealthy poultry, while getting unlimited access to fresh, crisp & clean air. Oh, how divine?

This blog by photographer Jonathan Levitt has given me every sound reason to want this so much more! It documents the wonderful, healthy & natural lifestyle that comes with living on a farm blanketed by nature. Walking through the woods, swimming in the sea, spending all your time with the people you love, having a BBQ.. What i wouldn't do for a life like this.
And whoever said you can't do all that without looking cool?

where is lucy-fur?

The sweetest cat in the world went missing last night. I've been an emotional wreck since! It's not like her to roam far away from the house as she can be quite timid. She follows me around the house everyday, so i knew something was fishy when she didn't last night. We've searched everywhere and are so worried. It rained all night and i recall how my aunt first found her before we adopted our little baby- hiding between the wheel of a car, shivering, wet & afraid.

I'm going to start printing out posters and have them up all around the neighbourhood. So devastated..

sfgirlbybay

Sfgirlbybay is one of my favourite blogs & i won't hesitate to label it 'immensely inspirational' for the lot of us who are nuts about interior design. Here's sharing with you some of my favourite finds. Will let the pictures do the talking or else i risk sounding too gushy about my mad love for this blog!

If you guessed it right, i'm a coward when it comes to colours & this gravely upsets me. Don't get me wrong, i do love colours (who doesn't?) but when we get into the topic of the bold, the bright & the gaudy, i typically freak out. To add hurt to the injury, i awfully adore white. So i tend towards the soft & the pastel.

I'm not worrying too much now. Of late, i've been on a mission to educate myself about colours & i can already feel myself coming out of my shell bit by bit everyday. With the help of my favourite blogs of course.

meet Elfe!

Happy first day of a new month and week guys! Just wanted to share the beautiful artworks of my talented friend, who doubles as my activist soulmate tackling issues like gender discrimination and animal cruelty, please meet the very charming, Elfe.

I’ve told Elfe countless times that I will adorn my own apartment (when that comes) with a variety of her paintings. Oh and I’ll throw in a bonus- she’s fantastic to work with!

You can commission Elfe to paint and know she’ll have it done beautifully (for a budding artist, she’s shipped her work all the way to Australia and fast going beyond).

Show her some love over at her blog or contact her to see more of her work and don’t forget to show young local artists some love along the way.