Shhh! Secret Life of a Princess

Random, provoking thoughts from a self-confessed princess :: with focus on motivational learnings from the media. I hope to inspire everyone to be the best they can be

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Yipee! I Have a Child!


Yipee! I have a child of my own! I now know how it feels to have a child, kinda. I feel the same happiness and contentment to see the picture of my child as how any mother would feel, without the burden though. Isn't she pretty? I have just sponsored a child through the child sponsorship program organised by WorldVision, a Christian relief organisation dedicated to working with families and children to overcome poverty and injustice (the kind of things I fight for).

My child's name is Fangsai, Jintana, 6 years old with 2 sisters. She hails from Prai Burng, a district in Sri Saket Province in the Northeastern Thailand. Prai Burng district comprises 6 sub districts with 80 villages and the population is 37,231. The villagers are mostly farmers and the average annual income per person is 13,612 baht (RM1,400 i.e. about RM116/month) . The major problems in this area are unemployment, low income and poor quality of life which indirectly creates a high migration rate as the villagers travel to other states to source for other income.

By contributing to this little girl, I help her family to be more self-sufficient and to provide the right education to the girl. I would hate to see the girl being illiterate just because she had to help her parents with their farming job for survival. Besides, this will go a long way towards helping them to pay for their medical expenses when she is sick and to have better food for her nutrition. I know it is not much but as least I will know that my contribution could help eleviate her burden no matter how little.

What I like about this program is that their objective of sponsoring these kids is not only to give a better life to the children but also to empower the community to build better health care systems, water reservoir for family consumption, to provide traning for personal development and to establish activity groups like housewife group and educational fund group. Once the community becomes self-sufficient, the program stops and they will move on to the next community.

Well, let's just say a litle kindness goes a long way. And what better way to do it than to have a kid to call my own! :) So go ahead and get a child of your own. 355 out of 5000 more waiting! Start changing a child's life today.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Inspirations from Celebrities

Bravo Beyonce for her thoughtfulness of visiting two fans of hers who got hospitalised due to some pyrotechnics that got spilled out to the front row of her concert. She did not want to publicise this action until the media got hold of it. No escape from paparazzi again.

Quotable quotes:
Wisdom from Carina Lau, a HK actress: When you are 30, you want to add as much elements into your life to make it more exciting and colourful. When you turn 40, you want to subtract as much elements in your life to make it more fulfilling and meaningful.

-Hmmmm...why do I feel like I am turning 40 so soon?

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

A Day in A Chemical Ship


Being in a country that is covered by water, it is inevitable that I would be surrounded with things that float on water. I progressed from just looking at yatchs and ships with its beautiful interiors and equipments to sitting on one to head to an island in the vicinity of Singapore called Sarringit island and now I have gotten the opportunity to climb onto a cargo/chemical ship in the docks of Tuas and even chat with the captain of the ship. Feeling like an ant going into the city with tall skyscrapers, I was enthralled by the monstrosity of it all.

In order to get into the ship, I has to climb what felt like 5 flights of stairs up and another 5 down as there was no direct staircase up to the ship. What happened was I had to go underground through the platforms that connects land to the ship thus why the stairs go up and down. I felt like I was a character in movies like Alien in which Sigourney Weaver runs through dark alleys up and down fleet of stairs in a very undrrground tormented place. There are no signboards telling me where to go and it is illogical to use logical thinking to navigate myself through the never ending staircases. Sights of sunlight peeking through the holes after climbing so many stairs (see picture!) gave me a sense of relief knowing that I am finally near the entrance of the ship. entering the ship was a pleasnt experience as it felt like familiar grounds with bedrooms, a dining room and offices in the captain's cabin. I was also brought to the top of the ship where I get to see the navigational compass, periscopes, GPS equipments, mapping devices and satellite communications tools. It was amazing to see how the devices caught a distress signal from something nearby giving the coordinates (latitudes and longitudes) where the signal came from.

Chatting with the people on the ship gave me a sense of their livelihood, how they had to wor continuously on a ship for 4 months and get back on land to rest for another 4 months. For those who think that wow! That is a long time to take leave, just think u could not see your family or lead a normal life for 4 whole mths, thus making the time of 4 mthsof being normal actually pretty short. Some choose to work longer than the 4 mths on ship resulting in them turning slightly crazy for not being able to be 'normal'.

I got down the ship as the sun bid farewell to the world, illuminating a silhoutte of pink lights onto the ships. The night skyline looked amazing from the top of the ships as now the views of the lights from the ship against the dark navy blue skies is far closer than ever before. I was breathless so much so I wanted to take more photos but it is not allowed on the ship.

Nevertheless, I was glad I got down and dirty going into the ship. If there is a life I can swap for a week, whose life would it be? Now I have the answer. Maybe next, I would swap a weekend with an astronaut or oil digger. ;)

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