*Bangkok dangerous*

When I returned to my apartment last night, I found that something was not right. Why was my bedroom door locked?! OMG! The apartment owner did not give me any key for that room!! I must be accidentally locked it in the morning! All my clothes and stuffs were locked in that room!! *(O_o)*

I was desperately wanted to open the door!! I need to get into the room!! T was there trying to unlock the door with various methods. We tried to slip business cards, post cards and brochures in between the door gap and hoped for the door to be unlocked. He even tried to poke the lock with wire and hair pin! However, all those were not working at all!! The door remain as locked.

These are some of the methods we tried to unlock the door (proven not working/ or we just didn't have the skills)

I called my Thai colleague for help, but her phone reception was so bad! We can hardly hear each other. Then, I called ST, another colleague a.k.a. neighbour for help. However, he was like in the mood of partially drunk. I wasn't sure if he heard me and understood my shit hit the fan situation at that time. Haha!

In the end, T and I approached our apartment security guard for assistance. We communicated with him with the simplest English. "Door locked. No key." (added with some sign language) Thank god! He understood and immediately informed a maintenance officer to help me.

The maintenance officer followed us to the apartment unit. I pointed at my door knob. He looked at it and walked into the living hall instead. Guess what? He climbed out from the living hall window and slowly walked towards my room!! Then, he climbed into my room through the room window! Oh my gosh! It was a 12th floor and the sky was so dark! I can't imagine what would happen if he accidentally slipped and fall down. Touch wood!!

Luckily the window in my room was not locked (This picture was snapped from the living hall window)

When I looked down from my 12th floor window, its pretty dangerous!

Within a few minutes, he managed to unlock my room and came out in one piece! *Phew!!* "krap khoon kaaa!!" I thanked him loudly in Thai. He saved my night! =) Now, I will always making sure that I don't repeat the same stupid mistake. I do not want another "Bangkok Dangerous" incident here. LOL!

*Cheers*

A 'cold' & 'wild' birthday treat

My birthday had past for more than 3 months and I have yet to post up my wonderful birthday treat in Indonesia. I finally managed to squeeze some time out of my busy working schedule for some updates.

On my birthday afternoon, Mdm W drove me and another 2 colleagues to a nice Dutch restaurant in Puncak, Bogor. I ordered a dutch style cheese pancake and it was so exceptionally delicious!! On top of that, I ate a plate of spaghetti cabonara too. It was a plate of dry cabonara, which was not the creamy cabonara that we usually have in KL.  Although that was something new to me, I still prefer the normal creamy type :)

After lunch, we walked around the surrounding area of the restaurant. We enjoyed the cooling weather as well as the nice scenery.

I am not sure what plant is this, but it looks special to me. The yellow flowers were looking down at the ground instead of the sky

We snapped a picture under this funny looking tree

The scenery behind was just great!

After that, we entered into the Safari Zoo!! Let me tell you how different is this zoo compared to our normal national zoo! Guess what, we can drive our cars into the zoo! Yes, Mdm W actually drove her 3 Series into this zoo!! First of all, we were greeted by a friendly zebra.

It came so near and it was licking on our car window!! Probably it was hungry and was hoping for some food donation. Hahaha!

Then, we saw animals were free to walk anywhere in the safari zoo!

And wooosh!! Even the lions!!

... and tigers too!!

Before we leaved the zoo, our car was nearly knock down by a hungry elephant. It was walking side-way towards our car when it saw a visitor had a yummy carrot in her hand. But we were lucky enough to move the car away in time. *Phew!!*

Lastly, we shopped for Puncak's famous yogurt drinks before heading home. *Slurp* The yogurt drinks were fresh from the factory!

Overall, I had 3 wonderful experiences of birthday celebrations last year, including my pre-birthday and post-birthday celebrations. =)

*Cheers*

Why It’s Smart To Be Optimistic

I found a useful article from Reader's Digest. After reading this article, I know what is the importance of being an optimistic person. =)

Expecting good things can make you healthier and might even lengthen your life, says researcher Suzanne Segerstrom, PhD, author of Breaking Murphy’s Law. Segerstrom is coauthor of a recent review of studies on the benefits of a positive attitude—and has experienced them herself. We asked her about optimism’s principles and payoffs.

1) Feeling well helps when you’re not well
“When researchers look at people who have similar medical conditions, they can predict who’s likely to live longer: the one who feels his health is better. There’s something about that feeling of wellness that’s important, even—maybe especially—if you’re ill. Optimism also seems to help buffer you against stress. I’ve been studying first-year law students for 16 years. That’s a very stressed group, but in my most recent study, each time a student’s optimism increased one point on a five-point scale, his immune response to an injected virus or yeast improved by 20 percent.”

2) Optimism is something you do
“Anxiety and other negative emotions are known to be detri-mental to the body, especially to your cardiovascular and immune systems, and having an optimistic nature seems to protect against those effects.

In addition, research shows that people who are optimistic about their future behave differently. They exercise more, are less likely to smoke, and follow a better diet. And if they get sick, they’re more apt to actively participate in their treatment. I’ve seen that myself—I have back pain from arthritis, but I think my willingness to do whatever it takes has helped a lot.”

3) Not happy? Don’t worry
“Happiness is a feeling; optimism is a belief that aspects of your future will turn out well. Happiness can fluctuate a lot, but an optimistic disposition is usually pretty stable. If you’re not optimistic, you can try creating a ‘positive events’ log. Good things happen to everyone, but pessimists often don’t take notice; spending a few minutes every day writing about at least three positive things may help you expect them more often. Or instead of trying to be optimistic, do what optimists do: Work hard to reach your goals. Each accomplishment should make it easier to be hopeful about the next one.”

Depending on which study you read, optimists …

…are 9 percent less likely to develop heart disease.

…are only 77 percent as likely to be rehospitalized after some types of major surgery.

…have blood pressure that’s five points lower, on average.

…live an average of 9.5 years longer.

So, start from now, let's be optimistic!!

*Cheers*