Sibu...(1) Borneo Cultural Festival

as a patriotic Sibu-ian, i think it will be nice if i show some nice things from Sibu... lately i've been to the annual Borneo Cultural Festival held in Sibu Town Square, which i believe is the largest town square in Sarawak, in front of the so-called tallest building of Sarawak, Wisma Sanyan...

it is nice to experience the unique cultural contributions of the various ethnic groups from around the region, as they converge in Sibu for a weeklong celebration of song and dance at the Sibu Town Square.

Besides the local overwhelming response, this festival also attracted tourists mainly from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, as well as other nearby countries.

In the last few years, several foreign cultural bodies from countries like China and Indonesia also performed cultural shows to further promote the festival. There was also participation from the neighbouring state of Sabah.

i wanted to go to this tatoo convention but i somehow miss it... i found out tat the tatoos on those ppl who came and participate in this convention were so cool eh... but i cannot find any pics anywhere... try to google it and see their amazing tatoos... some even got tatoos on their face...

The 2nd International Borneo Tattoo Convention
29 June-01 July
Venue : Bukit Aup Jubilee Park.
The 2nd Borneo International Tattoo Convention 2007, organized by the Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) and the Borneo Headhunters Tattoo, will feature the many advances in tattoos in the region. Sarawak, once famous for its tattooed people, plays hosts to this unique convention. Sibu has been chosen as the venue because of its strategic position for visitors who have plans to visit other parts of the state mainly located by the mighty Rajang river, where those who wish to travel to the upper Rajang to the Baleh Kapit rapids where visitors can see and experience the ibans, their longhouses and as one travels further up the river you get to see where the Kayan, Kenyah and Berawans dwell, or even take the tributaries to Punan and Kejaman territories. And yes, you can get a tattoo from tribal artists, just make sure you don’t lose your head about it.

Sibu aka Swan City...

a kebab stall by the Melanau-malay stall...

tanglung display

Traditional chinese wedding ceremonial place...

The newly weds bedroom...

The shy bride... haha

yeah!! foochow rocks!!

Tarian ngajat... the warrior dance of the ibans

The symbol of bravery

mahai... rm227... not even pure gold...

Ostrich eggs... they say can eat one woh... i don believe...

Some stalls at the trade and expo centre...

viva... mini awanza if u ask me..

Even the army got one booth...

Singing competition going on there...

Naive kids waiting to be scared...

haha... the ghost ride... bet u'll laugh ur head off after going in... the 'ghost' are hilarious...

food stalls... same old food everywhere...

bump-bump car... translate it to chinese

Children cheating game stalls...

Money cheating stall... haha

Eye of Sibu... kononnya lah...

Below are some interesting stalls i found there as well...

haha...

hope u enjoy it... do come to sibu to visit once in a while...

So bangga weh~~~

I had the worse holiday back in Sibu ever... since i came back, the whole neighbourhood start to renovate their house one house by one house... first it was my next door house on my left, then my next next door neighbour on my right decide they too, want to renovate their house... and the consequence is "sleepless mornings" for me... every morning i will be waken up by the thumping and hammering and pounding and banging and clonking and watever sounds tat ppl made when houses r being renovated... arghhhhh!!!!!!!! i'm at the edge of insaneness now...

anyway, i spend nearly half of my time here surfing the net and the other half, as u all noe, driving around tuition centres n driving academy in sibu... i think i'm good at stalking other ppl's blog this holiday... i succeeded in tracking down some ppl's blog... actually only ben's nia lah... haha... some other blogs are provided by our very own kedekut... reading blogs hav been one of my way of killing time coz i sort of get use to life without tv while staying in akasia... i haven been watching any tv lately coz there hasn't been any of my fav show on air... i rather watch some funny show on youtube... i'm slowly revolving into orang semenanjung now... help me!!!!

reading william's blog regarding his ex really inspires me... i keep nodding my head in agree when reading his post...

William wrote :
I started to understand actually what love is and what the feelings being in love are. I am just not ready for relationship now.

heck, tat's exactly wat i feel!!! and suddenly this song tat i juz sing during sunday youth service rang in my ears (i was the backup singer for the very first time in my life, if the first time singing wif lawson din count) haha... so bangga weh!!! we're singing "Blessed be Your name" and it goes like this...

Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be your name

Blessed Be Your name
When I'm found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed Be Your name

Every blessing you pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me
When the world's 'all as it should be'
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

Every blessing you pour out
I'll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord Blessed be Your name

i use to sing this song juz for the sake of singing it, but then suddenly it hits me... y m i singing blessed be the name of the Lord, instead of blessed be sth else, like my studies, my family, my friends etc... and then i start to think, wow!!! my God is a great God, and stil i can bless my God... and then i am so proud of my God weh... God always blesses us no matter who we are, what we do, where we go and i never tot of returning anything coz who am i to bless the supreme God but then our God is different, we can bless our God juz like how He has bless us... He gives blessings and take away our blessings to him... ("You give and take away")

same goes in a relationship, we bless each others as well...

so bangga weh~~~~

Mari Kelakar Sarawak!!!

Ari ni, mari kitai sama sama kelakar Sarawak... Sigit, duak igit, tiga igit... Kinektok

for translations, plz click here

or ask eunice to translate for u...

Random stuff bout me... (1)

Music genre tat i listen to...

I m basically a neutral person... i listen to whatever which is pleasing to my ears... i grew up in a family whereby my dad is a super classic fan... so i got use to listening to those sleeping-pill effect classical music... however, some of the chinese oldies are really good and relaxing...

Teresa Teng, one of my all-time favourite... too bad she died young

Chai qing, my dad played her songs so hard that i can remembered the lyrics of nearly all her songs...

Abba, The Carpenters, The beatles and some other singer which i forgot their names...

oh so ever boring classical music... (sorry grace)

as i grew up... i start to listen to my own songs... during my time, boy bands are really selling good, for example, westlife, nsync, backstreet boys, 98 degrees, S-club 7, a-teens etc... so, like any other jiggly-giggly-sniggery teenage girls, i do listen to them, some are nice and some are just because of their cute members...My favourite boy band of all times... Westlife rocks!!!

during my secondary school, i started listening to chinese pop song, like Jay Chou, Jolin Tsai, David Tao, Angela Zhang, Tanya Chua and many uncountable taiwanese artists...

























at times i do listen to some rock music, either light or heavy i listen to all of them... if my fren say that some rock band are nice, then i go listen to it... most of the time i watch mtv or channel [v] to know the latest news on music...











From left : Artic monkeys, Fall Out Boy, John Mayer and The strokes









i don really like metal or even listen to them until when i reach college and met some funny frens... haha... (yes amir, i m referring to u) amir half-forced me to listen to some of his metal music (which he insists is GOOD music) and to my surprise, some of the metal songs are quite nice, if u ignore the part when u don actually noe what they are singing (shud i say mumbling and growling...) btw, germany very own metal band rammstein are quite nice...

Check out their music videos at youtube, but be careful, most of them are quite disturbing...

lately i m very into girl vocals... their songs are nice bcoz the singers have such strong vocal expression... ppl like joss stone, kelly clarkson, natasha bedingfield, katherine mcphee etc are really making the girls proud... some mtv-s of Natasha Bedingfield are very colourful and very interesting too... they always never fail to put a smile on my face...





Joss Stone












jazz is one of my favourite too... i first started to listen to jazz because norah jones juz won many awards at the grammys... and my dad at tat time was so into jazz (resulting in i can memorize more than half of the songs by norah...) then when spiderman came out, michael buble was a real hotty... i mean the songs... lately, after i watch mtv movie awards, i accidentally heard the song 'rehab' by Amy Winehouse and i was hooked up by it... the song was sooo cool, and i think she finally bring some sexy sense back into this world... go amy!!!

Amy's song currently tops my window media player playlist...

Norah Jones and Michael Buble

When will i start dating and my reason for breaking up...

this is juz a quiz tat i took for fun... i hope it won't turn out to be true...

You date like you are 31 years old. You are a very serious dater and are looking to settle down. You are probably already in a serious relationship, or are on the lookout for something very serious. Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

Patricia Ting's lame-ass excuse to break up: "There is an assassin in my bell tower" 'What is your lame-ass excuse to break up?' at QuizGalaxy.com

this is so funny...

thanz to eujeen... now i hav sth to laugh about...

Patricia Ting -- [noun]: A person who laughs at anything (even this entry) 'How will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Take this quiz at QuizGalaxy.com

'What will your obituary say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Local University

A VERY BIG CONGRATZ TO ROY, LAWSON, JONATHAN, JING TIEN and those who finally manage to get into the massive-competitive local uni... hope to see u guys really soon in semenanjung...

Rumah Selebang...

i love u Jesus
deep down in my heart
x3

oohh... deep deep down down
deep down in my heart
x2

This song keep ringing in my ears since i came back from a trip to a longhouse - Rumah Selebang... which is located somewhere in Sibu district... despite 3 hours of long, bumpy and car-sickening ride, it was very super extremely worth it... there were about 20 youths tat sign up for this trip, i was in shah alam when my fren ask me whether i wanted to join... without second thoughts, i immediately sign up for it coz there have been a lot of things going on for the past few weeks or months, i din get chosen for anything that i thought i will glorify God... but God wanted me to come back to my own roots and do sth tat will glorify him instead of going for mission's trip or become facilitator of the incoming juniors... sometimes man plan their own way but in the end, God is the ultimate decision-maker, He noes wat's best for u or me and He will implement it according to His ways... the longhouse trip was a life-changing trip... i was soooo encouraged after going and i never regretted having signing up for it... though tat super lazy joanne regain her laziness and chicken out even though her dad is part of the longhouse ministry...

We board on this nearly-30-years-old-bus from the look at it to the longhouses...

Youths who joined the trip to different longhouses... (most of them are quite old already... including me) haha...
From left : Grace, me, Lawson and Roy

The longhouse kids are super duper cute... i really learn a lot from them, esp the red-shirt kid, i think his name is Boniface. I remember when the advisors ask for a volunteer to read out some bible scriptures, some older kid were chosen coz they noe how to read... Boniface, although din noe how to read, he memorize some words when the older kid was reading and the second time he went out and only manage to blurt out some words he remembered... though at last he was booed down, i see the smile at his face, knowing tat he had did his best already... I was thinking to myself, these kids are so passionate about serving, they raise up their hand everytime the advisors asked for help... i look at myself and our youths, we were quiet, in fact too quiet at times when the church needs help... we really do need a child-like heart...

My fav was the kid on the right... His name is Apiz... he is 3 years old and did not went to sch... so he don't noe any other languages except Iban... and the whole night he is speaking to me using this alien language... but nevertheless, i say 'bagus' and 'ya' and 'pandai' the whole night... he is juz so cute!!!!!!!

Some low quality shots using my fon's camera... the light was not tat strong coz there is only one fluorescent light in a very big room... (this is a longhouse we are talking about, not your house where u got different kinds of lighting system) they are actually performing some songs for the mission's month in july... you can see tat they are actually in their best clothes every sunday school...

During praise and worship... again the lighting was not tat good... for your information they can only on the lights at 7.30pm every night because electricity is only provided at 7.30pm every night... but praise the Lord when we arrive at 6.45pm, which was so dark tat we can hardly see each other, the lights were suddenly on...

Joanne's dad in the milky shirt... joanne did not go due to some complications... duh

The place where they store rain water...

The corridor where the kids play street fighter in real life...

Forgot to post this up since last month... hehe

The most destructive habit....... ......... ......Worry
The greatest Joy......... ......... ......... ....Giving
The greatest loss........ ........Loss of self-respect
The most satisfying work........ .......Helping others
The ugliest personality trait....... ......Selfishness
The most endangered species..... ....Dedicated leaders
Our greatest natural resource.... ......... ..Our youth
The greatest "shot in the arm"........ ..Encouragement
The greatest problem to overcome.... ......... ....Fear
The most effective sleeping pill........ Peace of mind
The most crippling failure disease..... .......Excuses
The most powerful force in life........ ......... .Love
The most dangerous pariah...... ......... ...A gossiper
The world's most incredible computer.... ....The brain
The worst thing to be without..... ......... ..... Hope
The deadliest weapon...... ......... ........The tongue
The two most power filled words....... ........"I Can"
The greatest asset....... ......... ......... .....Faith
The most worthless emotion..... ......... ....Self- pity
The most beautiful attire...... ......... .......SMILE!
The most prized possession.. ......... .....Integrity
The most powerful channel of communication. ....Prayer
The most contagious spirit...... ......... ..Enthusiasm
The most important thing in life........ ......... .Almighty GOD

KAJANG

muahahaha... hey ALG ppl... don jeles me lah... now i m having the time of my life at my cousin's place... one word to describe kajang - sibu... i felt a very strong sibu-ness here in kajang, the building, the kopi-tiam all seems so familiar... oh ya, not to forget the Sugarbun here too... finally i find sth from sarawak here in semenanjung... so ppl, if u haven taste anything from sarawak yet (other than sarawak pepper) plz go and check it out lah...

Let me giv u a brief intro bout my cousins, my cousins are all from sarawak from a small town of Sarikei (the pekan nanas in Sarawak)... they r all working now and it seems like yesterday tat they were back at my hometown, telling me bout their childhood and now they are all graduated and start working already... things change and they change fast... now i felt like i can't actually connect to their conversation... don misunderstand me... its not like i felt neglected... its bcoz now all they are talking bout is whose and whose wedding, who is working at where, who is having her/his first baby... i began to reflect on my own self... i started to ask ques to myself, wud i be like them someday when i came back to malaysia and start working... wud i get wedding invitations from my frens for example erin and joash's wedding... wud i get invited to the 'full-moon-dinner' of eunice's first born baby... all of these seems so far and beyond my understanding... it emphsizes the greatness of God's plan to each and everyone of us... perhaps God has install the best plan He can had for me and all i hav to do is to obey and i shall receive the best of God's favor...

p/s: hard to imagine wat wud eunice's baby look like... haha... any0ne plz share ur thoughts or imagination...

CAMPS

after chatting wif roy last night about the LIFE game, and after i saw my sister's blog about how much fun she had during the YMCA camp...i felt ******** (not the 'toot' word lah, just cannot finda any word to describe my feeling now) LIFE IS JUST so unfair lah!!! even tat i-don-care-bout-anything-coz-i'm-lazy JOANNE TIONG JIA WEN go for tat camp leh!!!!! ciz de... all i learn here was programming, CAD, technical drawing, metrology and stuff related to engineering, not to say its not fun at all but compared to studies, its the most interesting things i've learned so far in my A-levels... but all of this cannot be compared to going for church CAMPS!!! how i miss church camps, how i miss the time when we all individual protons and neutrons become nucleons in Christ during camps... we learned a lot during camps, we learn to gain electrostatic force (which is a strong force in physics) and later binded tightly by the force to become nucleon... even my bodoh sister pauline had so much fun during tat camp... for more information click here

however, i'm glad tat today i hav a day off from my ever so hectic schedule... i'll be heading to my cousin's place later so chow ppl...

p/s: i will update more bout gmi later... this is juz a random post