Till now, I still can’t sleep. Supposedly this post will be publish right before I go to airport on this evening. Since, I can’t sleep now, I just finish up this post. Am I too excited? I guess partly. Am I not tired? No, I am tired. Mainly I was thinking about what should say in the farewell speech, which I haven’t do it yet. And I don’t think I am going to have it. I will express my feeling here.

I am not a person very good in express my feeling in words. What I do now is recalling lots of memories. What we did together? What place we went? What game we played? What jokes we share? There are many more. The more I think, the more I am going to miss you guys. I felt I am the luckiest person. I proud to have you guys appearing in my life. I appreciate our friendship and the time we spend together. It is priceless. You guys are true good friends. Thank you for being next with me whenever I need and being supportive whenever I am felt down. On the other hand, I also felt the older I get, the easier I’m loosing my temper. Here, I want to take this chance to apologize for loosing temper to you without any reason, hurting your feeling for being too straight forward, does not able to understand what you really what from me, and not being truly honest to you.

After watching ‘Alice in Wonderland’ on last Monday, I felt that I am The Alice. Wonderland is the place I always dream of. Awesome place and nice friends. But there are questions without answers out there. I want to discover them one by one. Leaving Wonderland is the hard decision. I will back one day.

Thanks you for all the good luck wishes and gifts: one is a precious and beautiful calligraphy; one is a hard work of finest video clip; one is a thoughtful warm sweater; one is a sincere greeting card; one is a karma bracelet from Tibet; and lots more. Because of you guys, I already got one percent of luck. Now I just need ninety-nine percent of hard work to achieve my dream. Although I can’t predict the future, I believe, no matter where I go, we will meet one day.

I must get some sleep now.

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Last week, I finished reading “The Journeys of Two Lao Students”, a gift from John. First time as a book reviewer, I will try my best to give a brief comment on what I think about this book. I learned by reading other book reviewer in Amazon.com. I also tried not to mention much of the book contents. I recommended for people like to know more about Lao.
The book quality is good. It used very good quality of paper. That’s make the book a bit more heavy comparing to other books that have the same size. The book fulls of photos of John’s adventure in Lao. He used very simple, clear and big font in the book, making the users easy to read. John used simple English through out the book to cater wider audience.
It is a biography of a person sponsored two Lao students for higher education. Beginning on how the author knowing about this sponsorship. Then the event of meeting the students. And also the life of the two students before, during and after the sponsorships. The hard work of the author and determination of the student to achieve their dreams. Now both of them had a successful career and contribute to the Laos society.
This book inspired me to hard work to achieve my dream by facing lots of challenging obstacle just like the two students.

Related Posts

• 5 Questions with J.R. Robertson – Author of “The Journeys of Two Lao Students”

Yesterday night we decided to have our dinner at an Indian vegetarian restaurant in Georgetown. I have been there for few time. The food is lovely and delicious. The place was packed last night till the guests were asking the available of the empty chairs at our table at least five times. But we have to say no as two of our friends were late. We were hungry and ordered some snacks while waiting for them. The mango lassi is delicious. We were talking about John’s coming second book. He will be presenting a speech at one of the Penang Heritage Trust events that will be held on April 3rd 2010, 3pm at E & O hotel. I am going to miss his speech. Here, wish him all the best of his speech since I could not make it personally.

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References

• Woodlands Vegetarian Restaurant

Yesterday was a potluck night with all my badminton buddies. Believe it or not, beside sports, they are also very talented in cooking. That night, I did not cook anything. I was just help out if they need extra hand. That night the foods were very delicious. I believe I am going to miss the taste of the Malaysian food. There are more that I am going to miss, which is badminton match. Here I want to thank for you guys’ guidance on badminton skill. Hope to see you guys again and had a great sweaty match.

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This morning, I was adventurous stepped into wet market near my home. I need to get the ingredients for tonight thai food. No, I am not the chef tonight. My thai friend is. I was just helping him to get all the ingredients since he was busy for something else. Most of the ingredients were new to me. I need to search about it, specially galangal. In Hokkien, we called it ‘longkuai’. The main ingredients for this dish are chicken breast and abalone mushroom. This morning, there is not enough supply for abalone mushroom, the sale lady said that it can replaced with eryngii mushroom. So I got some of both. Next, I am going to get fresh coconut milk. I asked the sale lady, ‘How much was that?’ She said, ‘RM1.’ On my mind, I doubt whether it is enough for not. My mind told me to get more instead of less. I told the sale lady, ‘Give me RM2.’ In Malay, we called it ‘Santan’. Next, I will get other spices for the Thai dish: lemon grass, coriander, chili, lime and lime leaves. The last thing that I am going to buy was chicken breast. I did not know there are two different places of selling chicken. One is Malay area and another one is Chinese area. I searched around the whole market. I only saw the Malay stall. I told the sale man that I need two chicken breast. He said that he only sell either half chicken or whole chicken. End up, I gave up and asked my sister. Later, I released that there are Chinese stalls at the other end of the market. It was an interesting adventure in Malaysia’s wet market.

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Today is my last day in the company. Everything is the same as previous days. The only different is I need to return all the company property to the HR and my manager. Before that, I also snapped some photo with other co workers. Too bad, my camera’s battery is flat, can’t take much photo though. Sorry if I didn’t catch up with you guys just now. I will miss you guys. All the best and good luck to everyone including me.

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Yesterday was my last birthday gathering with my co workers. It was fun and hot. In conjunction with my farewell lunch, we had a January till March birthday lunch at Sticks Fire Bistro. Due to it is located outside Queensbay Mall under the hot sun, the place was rather hot compare to any restaurant in Queensbay Mall. Beside that, everything is nice. The food is nice and unique. The decoration is also nice. Services are good. People are friendly. Since outside food is not allow there, they gift us free birthday cake with orange favour. I also took this golden opportunity to snap some memorable moment with all my co workers.

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References

• Sticks Fire Bistro

This evening will be a special meeting for me. I will be presenting my last speech in Vista Penang toastmasters club. We got one guest, Kwek, on today meeting. I was surprise to see Ea San was there too. Although the crowd was small and the air corn was not working, I really had great time during the meeting. After the meeting, they organized a small farewell at Old Town near by. You see, where can you find such club in your area. I share here with you my last speech of competent communication manual.
- Start -
Dear my fellow toastmasters,

Thank you for all your support and guidance through the journey of learning till today. Today is my last speech before I depart to Australia. It is also my last speech of my competent communication manual.

I am the only one that is separating between you and the tea break. So I will make the speech as short as possible. Today I love to share with you my toastmasters journey briefly.

Through public speaking trainer, I knew about toastmasters. I want to know more. Then I search about toastmasters on Internet. From toastmasters official website, I send an email saying that I am interested to join one of the toastmasters meeting near my area. Less then a week, I got a response from Clement. He intro me to this club, Vista toastmasters club. I remember I supposed to attend my first toastmasters meeting on 21 Oct 2008. I really want to go as that time it was Halloween theme meeting. Due to the extreme heavy rain, I could not make it. My first meeting was at Nov 4, 2008. Although the heavy rain stopped me on going on the first meeting, but not the subsequence one. Determination was what I had.

All the speakers were good and the meeting environment is so friendly. I signed up as the member on the next meeting. After this, they assigned me a mentor, Peng Yew. One of the most experience mentor in this Club. I remember on the first few speeches, he will call me asking me how am I doing? How was the preparation? Just yesterday, we was chatting in Facebook. He guided me how the inspired speech is. How to organize it? Beside that, Ea San, our ex madam president lend me her favorite book, Effective Presentation, to me in order preparing this speech. These are just few examples that I can think off now. In short. Encouragement was what I received from this friendiest club.

The friendship that I have it here is priceless. You will know one of the best people in Penang. After I join toastmaster, I knew Hock Chye and Usha. They are from the same company as mine. I never knew them before that. They are friendly and helpful. I also knew many from difference company but same field, such as Ea San and Peng Yew. My social network getting weirder. They are not limited to this club only. I also visited other clubs, such as Sungai Ara Toastmasters, Dell Toastmasters and also Farlim Toastmasters. From there, I knew Jessica, Muthu, Chia Harng and to name a few. Not just this country, this club also have people all the way from Vietnam. He is not other then Dang Huy. Who knows we might have some from UK on the next meeting. Network or friend was what I can find in this club.

Of course, we must not forgot the main purpose we are here. Learning public speaking. There are total of ten project on competent communication manual. Each project we learn new things. The first speech was just to introduce yourself in four to six minutes. Then we learn how to organize our speech. Later we learn what body gestures and also vocal variety. We also learn how to make our speech interesting by doing researching and using visual aids. On my previous speech, I learn how to use persuasive power to love ourselves. Beside learning, we are also helping each other. We also pinpoint each others mistake and learn others strength. There is no other club that have such privileges.

Lastly, my toastmasters journey does not end here with this speech. I would said it is the beginning of my next journey. I will continue it with more challenging advance manual in Toastmasters in the near future. I will never forget the last sentence mentioned by Peng Yew yesterday. Actually, it is not really last sentence. But a sentence before bye. He said, “Ivan, you can do it.” If I can, then you all also can.

Yours sincerely,
Ivan.
- End -

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References

• Vista Penang Toastmasters Club
• Vista Penang Toastmasters Club – Fan Page

Yesterday I had my dinner with friends at Hainanese Delights Restaurant. It was a farewell gathering. First of all, the foods there were delicious. I did not expect to see braised lamb, macaroni pie and chicken pie in Hainanese restaurant. Almost everyone like the braised lamb with ladies fingers. For this dish, we need to pre order at least a day before during the booking. After the dinner, we played Monopoly Deal Card Game. Since we have eight people in total, we played with two decks. It was fun game. After gathering, I know our friendship does not just end there. It will continue to where I go. I am very sure we will met again in the near future. May our friendship last forever.

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References

• Hainanese Delights Restaurant
• Monopoly Deal Card Game

I am touched by the farewell lunch organized by my team members on 25 Feb 2010. We had it in Korea Palace at Krystal Point. Right choice. The set lunch is worth and delicious. I am not good in expressing my feeling. I want to thank them for their support and courage. We had gone through very hard time and challenging moment on maintaining the legacy software. We able to survive through. It is a hard decision that I made. I really enjoy working in this project. Everyday I learn new things from the software and I am still learning now. I felt it is the time for me to start a new chapter in my life. I am ready to face even more challenging tasks not just my career and also my new life in Australia. Here I wish all my team members good success in the future. Believe ourselves that we can do it.

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References

• Korea Palace