The Mid Autumn festival post

1. Prepare some Chinese tea or tea of your choice
2. Find a nice and cool place to sit comfortably
3. Please play this video at  a low volume to set the ambience

All set and ready to go. Story time!

In the cool darkness of the night, I sat on the terrace facing the garden. The sound of the stream flowing and the wind blowing gently through the wind chimes was soothing. Sad and lonely even. 

Sitting on the terrace on a full moon night always brought back memories of her.

She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, yet she seemed unattainable. I was a simple archer and she was a palace maid.  Nevertheless, the opportunity arose for me to win her hand in marriage and with my simple archery skills I had her, but all too soon she slipped through my fingers.

If only I did not let the fame and popularity get to my head, then she would not have to experience the fear and anxiety of the pill falling into the wrong hands. It's too late now. She's gone and it was my own folly that brought it about.

On full moon nights like this I wonder is she thinks of me or even remembers me. Will lighting up these lanterns help her so see me down here?

Chang'e I miss you.

Hey everyone! I know this story is a little bit sad and solemn but it's my interpretation of what a sequel of the story of the moon lady would be. This is the original story (The story of Chang'e and Hou Yi) which I'm referring too (original story) This is a story about the mid autumn moon festival

Happy Mid Autumn Festival everyone!

Eat lots of moon cake with Chinese tea and light up some lanterns!

I don't pray to the moon lady (Chang'e) it's just a folklore which accompanies the festival for me

Enjoy!

Here's a picture of a pretty mooncake from Chorus Hotel~

Asia Colion

Random Ramblings -The not so secret confessions of a graduate

So a while ago I said something about a graduation post and here it is!

Like I mentioned an earlier post (click here) I've finally graduated with a degree at last!

I am no longer a dishonor to my family! :')

The Not so Secret Confession Time:

1. I hate having photos taken of me

• I should be awarded a Masters of looking awkward in almost every picture

Exhibit A: Dat. Awkward. Grin.

• However, there will be those RARE candid shots which actually look normal and not awkward, I could almost dare say, nice! 

Exhibit B: Granny Shot, Captured by Andrew Mah

2.  Before my graduation, I used to get nightmares that the administrator in charge of the Results Portal made a mistake. We get our results earlier than our graduation, online, so I knew what my “grade” was.

• I got nightmares that I did worse than stated on the Results Portal quite frequently (Kiasu much? I think so! haha)

• Fortunately, I did unbelievably well (HALLELUJAH!) by God’s grace because it could not have been my own efforts (I mean, I’ve been a dunce from the time I started kindergarten, real honest. My parents can attest to the validity of my statement. (Sad but true)

3. I bought my graduation dress the day before my graduations (Because I’m fab like that~)

• I was going to wear something simple and plain, but my flighty friend, Sienna Newton Ho, was like: NO! YOU HAVE TO WEAR A NICE DRESS!! (She just wants me to look good in the photographs, God bless her soul, but I think I’m a lost cause)

• No dress, no matter how nice will save me from my awkward photo sickness :’)

Here are some pictures from my graduation that are not awkward

Not awkward...

  

...because I'm...

...not in it!

On a more serious note (get your tissue ready):

• I thank God for always helping me through my whole life and especially during the tough times in uni (all those tears and sleepless nights!)
• I would like to thank my parents for allowing and even encouraging me to enter University despite knowing what a dunce I really am and how expensive it is to send a child to university. Your support did not go unnoticed.
• I thank my whole family (sister, uncle, aunty, cousin, etc) for supporting my choice of degree despite how unpopular and unrecognized my degree is (I studies Education in Special Needs) in Malaysia.
• My classmates and friends, I love you guys! Uni life would not be the same without you! 
• All those surprise meal deliveries
• Late night support helpline
• Forcibly making me take a break because you know I'm gonna have a breakdown if I don't
• Heart to heart sessions about our struggles and then encouraging each other
• Crazy mamak/ makan session
• Taking me to the clinic when necessary
• Random joyrides-turn-shopping-trips to relieve stress

Of pearly whites and awkward grins

Class of 2014! I ♡ you guys 

The extended Uni family!  I ♡ you guys too!

My not so sexy back, boo yeah!

You know who you are and I thank God for you constantly! ♡ 

Asia Colion

The epic tale of the battle of necessary evils

Hey! 

So, it's been a while since I last posted and... I would just like to say I'm really sorry for always being so inconsistant, but I SWEAR I ONLY DID IT FOR A GOOD CAUSE!!

So, "what is this good cause?" you ask me. The title says it all! Short story time!

       Once upon a time in a far away land where the people lived in trees with wifi and cable tv, lived a young woman by the name of Asia Colion. She once valiantly vowed to update her blog as frequent as 3 days a week and kept her promise for a few months. She posted about food, fun, crafty shenanigans and a sprinkling of her daily life, but as time went by, she enrolled into a university to further improve her shallow and tiny mind.

       As time went by, the number of her postings decreased and stopped altogether and she broke her promise. You must be thinking what an awful person she is to break a promise she had made, but the reasons on why she broke her promise was not known to the world. She was engaged in a battle, a battle too horrific to recount! A battle of mind and body with the darkest enemies of humankind!

Procrastination!

       Alas! That was but  only one major enemy! She battled against Priorities, Time Management, Stress, Academic Text, Unreasonable Assignments, The Nasty Lecturer (This one was a real tough one!), Insomnia and many others which were just as devastatingly evil. The constant assault of the evils wore her thin till she could no longer find inspiration to blog.  The battle lasted for 3 years with no cease to the attacks, but at last she emerged from the battle victorious!

        Full of remorse for breaking her promise, she has returned to blogging fearing that all is lost and that nobody would ever want to read her blog ever again and this time she will be facing even more devastating evils, Evils which she has never faced before: Work Life. She begs for forgiveness and hopes that everyone will understand the inconsistencies of her posts. She also invites everyone to follow her battles in the coming near future if they can bear with the inconsistencies.

So yeah, story of my life in a nutshell. I've graduated but I'll reserve that for another post!
To be honest, I really had a lot of fun writing this and I do hope you had fun reading it!

Cheers!

Asia Colion

Funtastic Fridays - Of culture and tradition!

If you've noticed, yesterday, Google's logo changed because it was mid autumn festival! Being a Malaysian Chinese, I feel that I have probably lost huge chunks of my Chinese culture.

In fact, I always tell my mother that I'm very Westernized from my speech (mah Chinese is so broken ya can't fix it back together! Yo mama jokes) to my dressing.

Mainly for practicality, Malaysian Chinese don't wear cheongsam's and samfoo's. It's too hot here.
Also, My lecturer insists that it was the Manchurian's who wore them. But aren't they a Chinese tribe too!?!?

Not to mention, I originate from a big-ish city (Petaling Jaya) where you don't greet your neighbors because the uncles and aunties just stare at you grumpily in response when you do, talk about extinguishing a behavior! Let's just say, our community life is rather non-existent.

However, during the mid-autumn festival, we do send mooncakes to our relatives and friends. I'm so un-Chinese, I don't know why we do it but we do...I think its kind of like an Chinese thanksgiving where we give it to people to say thanks for being around! or something...feel free to correct me if I'm wrong because I most probably am. Haha!

Mooncake.

Just in case you get the feeling that I'm completely smug about the fact that I don't know much about my culture. I am not! In fact I'm super embarrassed about it and I'm working on it! I promise!

Anyway, enough chatter about me and on to the exciting(or at least I thought it was exciting)  part!

I went out with two lovely girls for dinner/supper last night at a shop in a small town called Broga and people of Broga town just congregated at this community hall and were celebrating mid-autumn festival with flair!

It was seriously amazing!I mean the whole town, everyone chatting together and having fun...its just blows my puny little big city person mind (I'm not contradicting myself, read that again if you must :P) 

Here are some not so good quality pictures that I somehow managed to catch with my phone. I'm apologize about that but they were walking on the streets together and I was just too amazed and surprised.

Dragon dance walking down the streets!

Followed by lion dancers complete with percussion!

Practically the whole town with their grandparents and kids walking with lanterns after the dragon and lions

There was this awesome feeling of community which I probably never or hardly experienced before and it just makes me feel all warm, fuzzy, and happy inside. I really hope that, one day, I too will be able to find and live in such a harmonious community.

Over and out!

Asia Colion

An Insomniacnight's dream - Party rock, Granny!

Yes, even insomniacs have dreams. It's kind of like daydreaming only at night and the dream is so captivating that it keeps me awake.

I used to try to write stories using 10 random words but I've never succeeded. So this time I chanced upon a writing prompt generator which seems to be primary school level.

Here it is!-->http://www.jc-schools.net/write/create.htm

I guess my writing level permanently stuck there. Oh, the nostalgia! You're probably thinking: Good Lord! No! She's going to write one. And right you are!

My prompt was:

"You awake from a nap only to discover you are 80 years old.  Describe what happens next."

   Upon waking, everything felt stiff. Immediately, I had a sense of certain doom, something obviously wasn't right. Swinging my legs off the bed like usual was something I would regret, for from that single action an orchestra of "cracks" and "pops" ensued. I could feel my panic(and pain) rising as I hurried, or tried to hurry, to my mirror. 

   The mirror had become my enemy during my short nap for what I saw within was a grandmother who was wearing my clothes. Try imagining granny in really short shorts and a tank top. On second thought, don't. It took me almost a minute to come to realization that the dazed looking granny in the mirror was me.

   Horrified at this outcome, I ran/hobbled as quickly as a could to my parents room to find my mother serenely painting her nails.She looked up at me and said: 

"My goodness! I told you to sleep early and take proper care of your skin. You should used all those face products I bought for you ."

"Mother, I am quite sure what you're see-ing is much more than just a skin deep issue." I retorted. Stunned with my mother's comment and half impressed with my own ability to respond coherently to her statement.

"Anyway, there is some supper in the kitchen if you're hungry and remember to take your supplements." My mother replied.

Still reeling from my mother's response, I shuffled to the kitchen(e-e-everyday I'm shufflin')  with my eyes to the ground. I spotted a trail of supplement pills leading to the back door, looking out into the back yard I found an 'x' mark at the end of the trail. Mother obviously wanted me to find this, it was really suspicious. Over come by my curiousity, I poked the 'x' mark with my toes and the next thing I knew, I was fell through a dug pit landed on a waterbed.

   At the botttom of the pit I found a bottle labeled "youthfulness". Finally, something to end this nightmare! I downed it without a second thought and suddenly all the aches and pains were gone, I could move like I used to when I was 17! I must be healed! Suddenly my mother pop-ed her head over the pit and pulled me out. She took a glance at me and sighed. "Well, at least only your outside appearance looks like an 80 year old. I guess my eternal youth potion failed again." She said.

   And the it all came rushing back to me. My mother accidentally turned me into an 80 year old woman in her quest for a potion of eternal youth and has been trying to undo the effect of the potion ever since. The only consistant effect of her potions was to make people forget after they remembered what happened or maybe my self defence was to erase the traumatizing memory. I spent the rest of my days shufflin' (cue party rock song)

I'm not on drugs, just lack of sleep. Sorry for party rockin'~

Asia Colion