a touching comic strip of china's 5.12 earthquake stories.

i've received a forwarded email from my friend, which reads:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello. This is Coco Wang.

As you know the breaking news of 5.12 Earthquake in China, almost all the TV channels in China are broadcasting 24 hours non-stop of every development and stories of all the rescue operations in all damaged locations.

I don't know how much information the BBC or any UK media received from us, I imagine the UK audiences were presented with the major developments of the incident, but you are probably unaware of many important and inside details which are only known to people inside China.

The amount of incredibly moving stories of victims, rescuers, and volunteers is simply shocking at the moment. I have been collecting newspapers of all the stories, and telling them in the form of comic strips. I hope these stories could show the UK readers the love, warmth and courage of the Chinese people, also the sad and cruel reality of the horrible 5.12 Earthquake.

I am back home in Beijing now. Thousands of heart-breaking stories are happening 24 hours non-stop everyday, some are so sad that you can hardly bear, some are incredibly moving that you just can't stop crying... I wanted to go to the front to help with all those people, some of my friends have already gone there, but I heard that the traffic needed to be kept totally clear for rescue transportation at the moment, people like me without knowledge of first-aid and experience of rescue operations going there now would cause choas and trouble... but I can't just sit at home and do nothing, I have been crying my eyes out in the past three days, I have never felt more proud of my country and people... their love, courage and kindness rock me to my core! I have decided to tell these touching stories by drawing comics. I am going to send you comic strips almost everyday from now on, I hope you could know something about the earthquake in China, although you don't have to do anything, but I hope you could feel our love and hope.

Thank you all so much.





















-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

to frankly tell the truth i didn't responded alot to the sichuan province earthquake news. i just knew that it was a very big earthquake and many lives are taken. this comic strip, (luckily it's a comic strip as real pictures would be too horrible to see) really open up my eyes.

regardless on how authenticated these stories are, nevertheless it's all a touching stories, and a living example and showcase of human courage and spirit under dire disastrous conditions. damn at one point as read, i do feel my eyeballs getting wet.

a very thanks to the author of the strips who compilled and drew this strip and a very thanks to my friend who sended me this forwarded email. haha, frankly this forwarded email touched my heart and that i feel that i should post it up at my blog to share with others.

there's also one or two comic strips that is humorous, at least to lighten up the mood of the readers abit as most stories are sad one.

as a malaysian, we are truly blessed to live in a place whereby there's not much natural disaster. of course, there's the yearly haze and floods, but compare to other countries that have earthquakes, volcanos, typhoon, tsunami..etc.. we should really be glad that we live in such paradise.

before we forget, let us give a tribute to all the brave people of the rescue teams and the survivors, and the heroes that perish in order to save others.

My typical work day~

My typical work day begins as I woke up at 7.15am from my reminder in my handphone. Usually I would go back to sleep again to wait for the second reminder or third reminder before I get off from bed:P

Then I would quickly fold the blanket, (yes mum, I still maintain the good habit of folding my blanker in the morning), brush my teeth and go boil the water for my favorite daily dosage of Nescafe 3-In-1 regular. Since the price of petrol has risen to RM2.70 per litre, I’ve decided to eat bread and coffee at home for breakfast to save money. Haha, it’s a bit kolien, (pitiful) but hey, saving money is not bad as well…it means that I’ve got more money to spend on other things haha!

For a while in my life (I think during my late secondary school days or university days), I dislike eating bread because I used to eat it everyday. Haha, but some how, as I’m living outside, I don’t think that I would have the luxury to remain picky. Not at least for the moment, haha. But who knows after some while I’ll have something new for breakfast? Hmm…but whatever it is, I think it’s hard to take away my daily coffee dosage from the breakfast menu:P

I’m quite lucky that my workplace is just 10 minutes drive away and it’s the traffic is not very congested. Haha, usually it’s the other side of the road that is congested. Rudy and JJ is my companion everyday on my journey to work.

One bad thing is that I’ve still need to pay for my parking fees in my workplace. For the monthly rate, it would cost me RM98, but at least that parking sticker can be used for the whole area under MPPJ parking jurisdiction. Else, if you don’t pay for the monthly sticker, you’ll need to find RM5 worth of coin daily to be inserted into the parking machine.

Haha, as someone from East Malaysia whereby we practice using paper parking coupons instead of coin machine, I need to ask my colleague on how to use the parking coin machine. Haha, I really feel like a Kampung Boy as I slowly insert the coins into the machine during the first time.

Compare to my previous work as Administrative Assistant. I’m glad that my job does not require me to run up and down the office, into the sun, doing crazy multitask jobs. I’m glad that I’m now using more of my brain power instead, else I would think that my years in University would be wasted. But I do feel that the learning curve is much higher, but then, the reward is higher as well, so I’ve got to set up a new mind set. As my friend said, you get paid more for using your brain compare to using your muscle!

Lunch time is also quite a convenience for me as they are many eating places within walking distance from my office. From the cheap to the expensive, it’s sort of hard for me and my colleagues to decide where to eat for lunch.

Staring at PC for too long is not good for the eyes, but luckily I found something that is good for the eyes, no…not my female colleagues……. Haha. Since my office is on the 8th floor, so we have quite a nice view. I would take a few minutes in the pantry and eat some biscuits while looking at faraway greeneries.

The first week I was very free…haha, after that as works starts to pile in, I find that it’s it’s no longer a privilege for me to have a typical work day like what I mentioned above.
No more on time go home. Sometimes if I went to client site, may reach home very late and it’s quite tiring.

My typical day dinner would consist of the RM3.30 economy fast food nearby my place. The stores are specially catered for the University Malaya and UTAR students living nearby. For 2 vege and 2 meats selection, it’s cheaper than any economy fast food in Kuching. I’m quite surprise at first also.

Sometimes, if I feel like it, I’ll go to the gym or hit the swimming pool with my housemate. Haha, quite lucky that my apartment got pool^_^

The typical work day ends by me washing my own clothes…haha no choice, no washing machine here, or playing games, chatting, online, blah blah…then need to sleep to recharge for 2molo. Weekdays don’t have much time for activities, usually that would need to wait until weekends.

haha, that's all for now:)

adventure to Kuantan~

Hoho, I actually didn’t expect I would be traveling to another state in just one week plus arriving in KL. Me and three friends set off to Pahang in a Kelissa for a two day one night trip.

The journey to Kuantan took around 3 hours, luckily it was a good sunny day to drive. Haha my other three friends take turn to drive. I didn’t get the chance to drive but I’m ok with that as this mean that I can sleep more;P haha, but I also feel pai seh also like I’m not contributing.

It’s really quite an adventure as most of us don’t really know the place and we need to stop by frequently to ask people on the road for directions, which is quite fun. Haha, it’s also a good thing to know that they are still many helpful and friendly Malaysians around.

Kuantan the capital of Pahang I can say is bigger than Kuching. One easy thing to prove this is by the size of the building of the supermarket. But of course, we didn’t travel all the way here to do shopping where we can do it in KL. The first destination we went to is Gua Cheras, a cavern in Panching whereby there’s a sleeping Buddha inside there.



There are a lot of cows along the roadside. I suddenly remember the story that my friend told me, a Kancil hit a cow, the Kancil front part got smash and the water cooler got spoiled, the cow got knocked down on the road but few minutes later it just woke up and continue like nothing happen. Haha, I wonder what would the scenario be like if it’s our Kelissa vs the cow:P



The staircase to the cavern is actually not so high, but then due to lack of exercise, I think it took quite some toll on me, but I’m still ok. Which serves as a good reminder that I haven’t been doing much exercise since coming to KL>_<



At the evening, we went to Teluk Cempedak. One special about this beach, is that is situated just right beside the city. And there’s a bazaar along the beach, it somehow reminded me of riverside Kuching, just that this is beachside version. There’s a lot of activies going on there, and many youngster hanging out there. I quite like it because I love to smell the feel the cool sea breeze and hear the sound of ocean waves. It seems that it take away all my stress. Haha, it would be quite nice to be able to stay in a city that is so near to the beach.



Haha, at first we thought of hoping to catch the sunset. But then, we suddenly realize that we’re at the east coast of Malaysia, whereby we only can get to see sunrise:P

At night we went to stay at house lounge in Sungai Lembing whereby next day early morning 5am we would wake up and climb Mount Lembing and to catch the sunrise. We went to bed at around 2 something so it was quite a toll on me, to wake up at 5am, 3 hours sleep is really not enough for a pig like me.

As we are at the foothill, I was very surprise to see so many people already there, queuing up to climb the mountain. Haha, I tell you, this is my first time I encounter human traffic jam while I’m climbing a mountain. One good thing though, there’s a lot of youngster and also pretty girls as well…hahaha that is the more important issue and motivation.



But I only knew that after we reach the top and when the sun rises whereby I can see other people’s face. It was quite sad that we couldn’t catch the first dawn of light as they’re too many clouds. Sign…I believe most people would feel some disappointment as well. The view from up there is nevertheless breathtaking as there’s a lot of clouds in the mountain, which creates some sort of cooling and mysterious feel. The beauty of nature is best seen with your own eyes and we really should cherish it for the future generations.



After the climb, at first we plan to go to a waterfall, but then I was too tired already. I’ve already dried up my backup batteries to climb the mountain already. So, as we got back, I just collapse down and went to dreamland. Then in the afternoon after we woke up, we went to visit a few places, like the Sungai Lembing Museum, a suspension bride and to Teluk Cempedak again.We arrive back at KL on the evening tired, but satisfied.



oh saw this thing in front of the museum, i thought it was a canon, but guess what. it's a old fire extinguisher!



i saw a couple of guys take turn to take photo of them together with the fire extinguisher. they deliberately pose by standing behind the "cannon" so that it would look like they have big cannon. this scene suddenly reminded me of an old friend who took the same pose in Sarawak Museum.



That’s about it from what I can recall of those interesting moments during the trip. A big thank you to my friends who bought me along^_^. Haha, looking forward to my next trip. Thanks ah yuen for the pics:)