Cosmopolitan Magazine, October 2014

Err..but my boss is a lady!

When I saw the caption, I had a good laugh.

 I mentioned in my earlier post (Photo-shoot for Cosmopolitan Magazine.) that I was told roughly that the photo-shoot was for an eyebrow make-up for office wear, but I never imagined THAT would be the caption, oh well.

And yes, now I know I have "Kening Berkuasa"!

IJM Land Run 2014 @ Seremban

It was the IJMLand Run Day!

We reached the venue after Subuh and 

were greeted to the sound of the band by these lovely kids. 

We had not had our family run for quite a while, well for me to be exact, because my dad and brothers had joined quite a few runs without me previously.  

 Light green boys and orange girls waiting to be flagged-off!

Waiting for our turn. 

My little brother, Amir, missed the registration but still, he wanted to run.

 So he was one of those participants running without the light green tshirt.

 Flagged-off..so.. we ran..

 Abah arriving after his 12 km run with a smile and peace!

My little brother arriving with style..ha ha

(This photo is not mine: extracted from bestofrunning FB)

I had a good run after quite a long break from running and boot-camps. 

And most probably will be missing more runs in the future due to some unavoidable reasons.

Sigh! 

Photoshoot for Cosmopolitan Magazine

Yesterday was another photo-shoot session. 

This time it was for Cosmopolitan Magazine. I was roughly briefed on the phone that this photo session is for a step-by-step make-over with special focus on the eyebrow makeup for office wear.   

My eyebrows are already quite thick so there is not much make-up needed. 

But my eyebrow is a bit messy, however as always, I prefer to leave it as it is, no alteration! 

Since this is a make-over,  the BEFORE make-up photo was taken. The make-up artist applied some whitish cream on my face to make it look pale for the BEFORE MAKE OVER look. 

The focus for the photo-shoot was on the eyebrow so even my hair was left undone. They only tied a simple pony tail and that's about it. Even my fringe was pulled back to show my eyebrow! 

 I've seen some of the photos and I was told how it would appear in the magazine, 

but I still have no idea which photo will be used and how it will look in the magazine

 until the magazine reaches the shelf  in October!

All the photos were taken without any lipstick on me to ensure the eyebrow as the major focus of the shoot except for the final photo (see.. no lipstick).  

And thank you CosmopolitanMagazine for this gift, 

These are super perfect!

Short and Sweet Aidil Fitri :)

As usual, we had to tour the peninsular to celebrate raya:

Shah Alam - Alor Star, 

Alor Star - Kota Bharu  

Kota Bharu - Shah Alam.

It was tiring especially with the massive Raya traffic, 

but when I get to celebrate Raya and spent time with all the important people in my life, 

the journey is worth it. 

But, I miss my Mak Tok so much, second time celebrating Raya without her around.

My younger brother, Aiman is not here too: celebrating raya in Auckland.

I had to work right after Raya, so I cannnot take a long leave for the festive season.

It was a short stay but definitely a Sweet Raya.

And this Raya, 

kali pertama bagi duit raya.

Dah kerja kena lah bagi duit raya, terasa dah tua! 

(Just for the record, I am only 23, okay?)

Malacca River Run 2014

I registered for the Brooks Kuantan Run earlier but could not make it there since my convocation day happened to fall on the same day as the event. Anyway, still glad that I have the chance to join the Malacca River Run recently.

We thought we could collect the race kit on the morning of the event day, and planned to make a day trip but were told that we had to do so the day before. So we left for Malacca without a definite place to spend the night since we didn't book any hotel earlier. It was right in the middle of the school holiday so we had to make do with whatever that's left, 2 clean small rooms, just a walking distance away from the event venue.



Rise and Shine..subuh in beautiful, Melaka

This time we did not have to rush since our event started quite late compared to our previous runs, the full marathon category was flagged off much earlier around 4am. We walked to the venue and arrived before 7am, it was still a bit dark.



There was no warm-up/aerobic session and I heard a lot of complain after the run. Especially the lack of water station for those full and half marathon runners. It was sorta a bit unorganized here and there. But for us, it was okay. Whenever we joined the run, it was for the fun exercise and spending family time together so we have no complain.

And oh, I love the fact that we got to see some historical and beautiful places in Malacca during our run, Awesome choice of routes!


Starting line.

The usual: a red cap, phone and earphone!

Peace! Go...abah, 10km!

 

Finally at the finish line

 

Hiking @ Penang National Park (Taman Negara Pulau Pinang)

Taman Negara Pulau Pinang: The entrance

This is one of the natural wonders of Penang,

 there are two main hiking tracks, one heading to Muka Head Light House and another one to Kerachut Beach. 

We were thinking of heading to the Light House initially but did not like the idea of being greeted by the monkeys at Monkey Beach. So off to Kerachut Beach!

The trail was pretty easy at first and we stopped to take some photos and enjoyed the scenery.

But as we went further into the jungle the trail became a bit trickier. The tracks were steep and slippery  with lots of roots and tree trunks. And most of the journey, we had to climb up hills, passed through some small streams. Quite tiring and we were sweating like crazy and after a while no one wants to snap any photo anymore. At one point we thought we were lost since it was so quite, dark because it was about to rain and we did not see any one else in the jungle.

Taman Negara Pulau Pinang, Penang National Park, Kerachut Beach, Penang Turtle Sanctuary, Monkey Beach.

Near The Entrance: Penang National Park (Taman Negara Pulau Pinang)

Can't recall the name of this place but it is located at the beginning of the trail of Taman Negara Pulau Pinang.

We were told that this structure is what's left after the big Tsunami

The canopy walk was closed for maintenance due to a falling tree when we were there.

Penang National Park (Taman Negara Pulau Pinang)

I think this is the last photo taken before we went deeper into the jungle.

After walking and climbing for almost two hours we reached the suspension bridge near Kerachut Beach. This is where the meromictic lake is, a special lake where the fresh water and sea water do not mix. But unfortunately, when we were there, the lake was dry. It is a seasonal lake!

And just then, it started raining heavily, with thunderstorm and lightning. We were soaking wet when we finally reached the beach. No one expected the rain since it normally rains in the evening not at noon. We had to wait for more than one hour at a small hut before continuing another short walk to the Penang Turtle Sanctuary. It was already lunch time, the persons in-charge were out and we did not get a chance to hold the little cute baby turtles, sigh!

 Cute little baby turtles, comel! 

The scenery at Kerachut beach is so breathtaking, beautiful and serene. We could have enjoyed it better if it wasn't for the rain, thunder and lightning! It was windy, a bit foggy and we were soaking wet, so cold can't even feel our fingers. Who would have thought that it could be so cold even in a tropical country (and at noon!).

Pantai Kerachut, Penang National Park (Taman Negara Pulau Pinang)

 The beautiful and foggy Pantai Kerachut

The jetty at Pantai Kerachut, Taman Negara Pulau Pinang

The jetty at Kerachut beach.

Abah is very excited about this hiking trip.

He is planning to hike again here, next time his destination is the Light House!

Hopefully there will be no rain, thunder and lightning!

P/S: To the foreign tourist who shared the same boat with us on the way back to the mainland, 
THANK YOU for lending your jacket to my youngest brother who was shivering due to the cold wind and rain!  

What to do in Penang, Penang National Park Blog, Hiking in Penang, places to visit in Pulau Pinang, meromictic lake, hiking in Penang National Park, visit Malaysia,

Photoshoot For EH! Magazine.

When they saw my fringe, they had to change their original plan for my hair style.
Somehow my fringe got in the way.

I guess not many people like to have fringe. Even during the last photo-shoot that I had in a group, I was the only one with a fringe among the six girls.

And they had to scrap the idea of me wearing that beautiful purple designer dress because I could not fit into the XS size (and I never will!). The makeup artist painted my face with some fierce style makeup, very strong with all the dark colors possible, colors that I will never ever imagine having them on my face. For the first time ever,
I had purple lipstick on my lips!

*extracted from EH! Magazine (I do not own this photo)

Tropical Spice Garden, Penang

Tropical Spice Garden, Pulau Pinang

A place full with flora and fauna, an enchanted place for those who love greeneries like us.

This garden is located close to the hotel where we were staying at Teluk Bahang so we thought we should hop in and have a look.

Before entering the three trails, the Spice Trail, Ornamental Trail and Jungle Trail, we were asked to apply some insects repellent and given a garden audio tool each.

We were greeted by a small pond once we entered the garden:

And this is my favorite spot of all.
Spent quite some time here.
Really love that small stream flowing under that small wooden bridge:

Tropical Spice Garden, Penang Pulau Pinang 

And oh,
I love this big wooden swing.
Rasa macam main buai kat kampung!

Tropical Spice Garden Penang Blog, Taman Rempah-ratus Pulau Pinang, Visit Malaysia, What to do in Penang, 

Tropical Spice Garden Pulau Pinang 

This place is so green and with Malaysia weather, it is of course, hot and humid.
Maybe that's why they have a small herbal drink kiosk in the middle of the garden.
All of us love the free flow herbal drink, very refreshing tea.

Herbal Drink Kiosk

We were supposed to listen to the audio provided as our guide in the garden but after listening to it for a while, we just wandered aimlessly in the garden, mostly going to the places that attracted our attention the most.
And one of them is these trees with red barks.

And we bumped into the slides and ladders in the middle of the garden. 

My brothers and I had so much fun sliding down the tubes on the candy colored platform only to realize later that they were meant for children between the age of 4 to 14 years old and none of us fall into that category, oh well! 

Tropical Spice garden Penang

A nice and serene garden. A beautiful and relaxing place.

But only if you don't mind the sweat.

But being in a tropical country, that is normal, isn't it? 

What to do in Penang, Places to visit in Penang, Things to do in Penang, Visit Malaysia, Attraaction in Penang, Melawat Pulau Pinang, Tempat Menarik di Pulau Pinang, TROPICAL SPICE GARDE PENANG

What to do in Penang, Places to visit in Penang, Things to do in Penang,Visit Malaysia, Atraaction in Penang

10 km Run @ Hospital Sg Long!

My second run and already the forth run for Abah.

This time it was Sg. Long Charity Run and there was a finisher medal for those who met the qualifying time.

Lagi semangat nak lari.

Like our previous run, we left home early and stop for Subuh at a nearby surau. This run is a bit more challenging than the previous one since we had to go up hill at certain point. But still, we managed to complete the 10km run. It is worth getting up early in the morning for something as fun as this!