Dear Mummy...

Dear Mummy,

It's one day early, but nemermai. Terengganu's Saturdays are more or less equivalent to other places' Sundays right? So... Happy Mother's Day!

Thank you for...... EVERYTHING! Thank you for being the best mother in the world, and koko, niko and I are so so so blessed to be able to call you mummy! Thanks for all the love you've always poured out upon us so willingly, and thank you for always always always being there for us!

I don't tell you this enough, but you really are my superhero. Every time I have any problem, you are the first person I want to talk to because I know that even if you cannot provide me with an immediate solution, you would be there to offer me a listening ear and a whole lot of love. Thanks for being my best friend, for being the one who knows me best, and for being the one I know I can always turn to.

I don't know how it is that you know everything. You can cook, you can bake, you can mend clothes (we seem to be able to make holes everywhere in our clothes), you know exactly how long each type food or fruit can last with and without refrigeration (very important - and useful - for this daughter of yours here xD), you know when I'm feeling upset or sad even when I don't say it,....... basically, you know everything!

Thanks for being such a great role model to me. You have taught me so much, from the many things you've made the time to sit down and teach me, to the things you have taught me just by the way you live your life. I am who I am today because of you, and I can't tell you how much I admire and respect and look up to you. If I can ever be just a fraction of the woman you are, I know I'd be okay! "When I grow up I want to be just like my mummy" has always been true for me, it was true when I was just a little girl, and it's still true now!

One of my favourite things about you is that you make loving God, loving our family, and loving others seem so natural and so easy! If someone were to ask me who I think of the moment I hear the word "loving", I would say, you!

You are amazing, and so beautiful, mummy, in every single way, and I love you so much!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

P.S.: I initially typed this as "Happy Mothers' Day", with the apostrophe after the S, but then I realised I'm celebrating my own mother's day, so I changed the apostrophe to before S! :)

April Babies!

A photo with three of my favourite people in the world!

This is about a week late, but better late than never, no?

Somehow I forgot to take a nice photo of our family with Ah Chiah on the night we celebrated her 80th birthday (HAPPY 80TH AH CHIAHHHH!), but my brothers and I did remember to take a selfie with her! She isn't really showing off her usually dazzling smile in this picture, but I love this picture nonetheless!

We also got to celebrate my 2nd brother's birthday this year, all 5 of us together, in person, for the first time in many many years, so that was awesome! (HAPPY BIRTHDAY NIKOOOO!)

I just love it when the family is together! Those are the best times! :D

Happy Birthday, Mummy!

A very happy birthday to the kindest, most multi-talented, most encouraging, most loving and most awesome-in-every-single-way mother in the whole, wide world! I don't know who or where I'd be without you! I love you so much!

Throwback to a time when all three of us could still sit on mummy's lap, and a time when brothers number 1 and number 2 were still so cute XD Look! Even as a baby I couldn't keep my eyes off how radiantly beautiful mummy is inside and out! :DDD

A Dream Come True (and how a football match taught me the true Malaysian spirit!)

Last night was the JDT-Terengganu Malaysia Super League 2016 football match here in Terengganu, and I realised one of my dreams when I could go and watch it!

Although the whole night was just an amazing experience, a literal dream come true, my favourite moment of the night had to be when we had won, and all the Johor supporters were on their feet, and everyone just started singing the Johor State Anthem. There was no accompanying music, nobody telling us we had to sing the state song. We were just so proud of the win, so proud of our team, and so proud of our state, that we all just stood there, raising our voices, belting out the Johor State Anthem with pride. I stood there, among fellow Johorians, singing the state anthem as loudly as I could, projecting my pride into every word that came out of my mouth. As the voices singing the state anthem rose up from the fellow Johorians all around me, these individual voices came together perfectly, making beautiful music that seemed to fall perfectly like a warm embrace all around.

As I told a friend of mine, if I could have bottled up the atmosphere at that moment in time, I would've done it. That, to me, is what an ideal state should look like - its people proudly standing together, nobody looking at what colour your skin is, nobody caring what you're wearing or doing, what social status or social background you're from, but everybody just joined together as one, proudly standing up and daring to raise their voices for something they believe in, something they love and together want to improve to make it the best that it can be. This, to me, is the true spirit of Johor, the true Malaysian spirit. I am so proud to be a Johorean, and so grateful be able to call Johor my home. If only I could have bottled up that atmosphere, create more of it and carry them around, spreading that unity and love all over Malaysia!

Real Johoreans mixed with "honourary Johoreans", friends who supported JDT with us for the night!

Proud Johor girls!

The team, after the win, coming over to acknowledge the supporters (and to cover the coach with flour on his birthday) XD

Yes, I'm from Johor. Yes, I'm proud of it. Yes, I love my state. Yes, I keep up with what goes on with my state's football club. Yes, I can get really annoying sometimes because I tend to shove how awesome my state is in others' faces. Yes, I love my country. Yes, Malaysia will always be my favourite country in the world. Yes, I am one of those patriotic ones. A proud one.

Also, GOOOOOOO JDT! LUASKAN KUASAMUUUUU!

Football Match. Much Excites!

You have no idea how excited I am to be going to watch the football match between JDT and the Terengganu team this Saturday! I have been dreaming of watching a JDT match here in KT since I got here, and although the upcoming match won't be in the stadium I wanted it to be in, the one I always pass by (and think to myself "one day I'll watch JDT play a match here"), but still, I'm so excitedddddd!

A friend helped me buy tickets, and a few other friends are going to be there to watch the game as well! I'll have my fellow-Johorians-studying-in-Terengganu friends by my side and it is going to be awesomeeeee I AM SO EXCITED AHHHHHHHHH!

#LuaskanKuasamu

CNY 2016!

Myself with some of my favourite people in the world! :D

This Chinese New Year break was a really busy holiday, but I finally got to meet up with Shin Lei, after such a long time! It was so nice to see her again and to finally get the chance to catch up face-to-face!

As usual, the Chong Clan CNY celebration was in BP, so it was fun having the whole clan (minus the 3 J's, all of whom couldn't make it back this year) around! It was the usual business for us Chongs, eating meal after meal after meal after meal after meal... you get the point. The three J cousins were sorely missed, I can't remember the last time we had the whole clan together for our reunion dinner!

We remembered to take family photos this year the night of our reunion dinner, when we were all dressed up (so that it'll be easier for us to check what we wore this year when we're choosing clothes to wear to the reunion dinner next year)! My favourite photo of the night was the one taken of everyone monkeying around, embracing this year of the monkey!

"It's a Chong thing!" - we are seriously thinking of making a clan t-shirt that says just that!

After the celebration in BP with daddy's side of the family, we headed to JB to celebrate CNY with mummy's side of the family! The drive down to JB was especially interesting because the car boot was already full just with all our bags and other stuff (we had bags packed for the rest of our holidays, as well as bags to go back to Singapore, KB and KT for koko, niko and myself respectively), so we had to put bags and bags of new year goodies and other food and other stuff that mummy packed for the relatives and friends in the car on the floor and on our laps!

You can't really tell how squished we were, but let me just say that you can't see my arms/hands in this photo because my arms were buried under the bags such that only my fingers were sticking out somewhere, so much so that koko started pressing on the tips of my fingers every few minutes or so to check that I still had blood going to them XD AND MY LEGS! My legs were extended straight and resting on the centre console between daddy and mummy who were sitting in front! This might sound comfortable, but trust me, after a while, it really really isn't.

That didn't stop us from stopping at Ayer Hitam to get putu bambu though heyyyy! ;DDD

When we reached my uncle's place in JB, we had to wait for the everyone to come and help get the things off us because there was no way we could move until or unless at least some things were taken off our laps XD After that, the three of us just came tumbling out of the car and I don't know about my brothers, but my hands and legs were soft. I must have looked drunk then, I couldn't even walk straight! That was a fun experience hahaha!

We didn't take a proper family family photo with mummy's side of the family, I only realised after my CNY break :( Anyways, it was fun to be around the extended family again! We then spent a few days in Singapore because mummy's ex-church friends from Muar organised a reunion there!

My one-week break went by much too quickly for my liking, but I'm really thankful because I'm blessed with so many amazing people in my life that make me feel like I always want to spend more time with them! :D

Matching Baju Day!

Reddish mini kotak, red small kotak, big red kotak, red (mixed with white) medium kotak!

It's almost CNY, which means...... I'M GOING HOME SOON! (And also that it's time for jom-let's-all-wear-red-shirts days!) Icantwaiticantwaiticantwaittogohomeeeeeeeee! :D