HONG GIL DONG

One of the best KDramas in 2008 and the one that got me hooked on Kang Ji Hwan. I love the goofiness of the first few episodes but the funnies were steadily tapering down to zero towards the last episodes. Honestly, I seriously enjoyed the show till episode 18 and then just continued watching for Ji Hwan. Ji Hwan oppa!! Fighting!!

[Note: Below is a simple summary I did of the drama so SPOILER alert!! Plus, I didn't really impress upon the love triangle (or square) and mainly focused on GilNok]

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Left:Gildong with Yinok

Right:Chang Hui

Kwaedo Hong Gildong is about the life of Hong Gildong, the illegitimate son of Minister Hong, the Internal Affairs Minister of Joseon. In earlier episodes, Gildong is shown as a good-for-nothing man with his one goal in life: to have fun. As he is an illegitimate son, he cannot study to become an official to help his country. His father also disallows him to learn anything and asks him to just do nothing and lay low. Fortunately, a monk saw in him the makings of a hero and took Gildong under his wing. Through a series of events, Gildong was framed by his own brother and was abandoned by his father leading to his "death" when he was shot with an arrow by soldiers at the tip of a cliff. In reality, Gildong was saved by a group of thieves he had previously befriended and continued to live in hiding.

With Gildong's guidance, the group robbed the corrupt officials and gives most of their loot to the suffering people of Joseon. The king of Joseon, Kwang Hui was preoccupied with fighting his own demons which was the result of him having killed of his brother, Chang Hui in order to attain the throne. Haunted by the ghosts of Chang Hui he spends his days and nights in the arms of gisaengs (Korean form of geishas, I think). Similar to Gildong, Chang Hui was actually not dead. He was saved by one of his mother's attendants and was whisked away to China. It so happened that Chang Hui was just returning to the land of Joseon where our hero's story is just starting.

And to complete the love triangle, we have the adorable, bumbling Yinok. A carefree girl with no regards to social decorum. She dresses like a man and eats like there's no tomorrow. Before Gildong's "death" him and Yinok has developed a special relationship, even being "engaged" at one point in the drama. Their relationship matters to Gildong as Yinok is the only one who believes in him and his innocence when he was framed. Yinok is actually the daughter of Minister Heo who is killed by none other than (drum roll please...) Minister Hong, Gildong's father. Yinok is also kind of Chang Hui's engaged since that union was already being discussed by both families when they were little.

Gildong let Yinok think that he was dead because it would be easier for her not to be tangled up in the "Robin Hood"esque thing that he is involved in. But when he saw how deeply Yinok was affected by his "death" he just couldn't break her heart anymore. While at first Yinok was happy to learn that Gildong is alive, she (not very quickly) learnt that he is involved in theft and is currently living in a very dangerous world. One where he could be caught and killed at any moment. However, Yinok's only desire is to be with Gildong, no matter how dangerous. She is quickly accepted as one of the gang when she helped them retrieve the Sa Yin sword, the sword that proves the legitimacy of Chang Hui as the next king.

With the Sa Yin sword and Gildong's help, Chang Hui managed to overtake the throne from his brother. At this time, Yinok's true identity was revealed, whereby she is now the fiancee of the king. Being a noble lady separated Yinok from Gildong moreover upon learning that Gildong's father killed her parents. Gildong focused on changing the nation's king to forget the pain of the separation. Gildong's true intentions of helping Chang Hui is so that Chang Hui would create a better place than the one that they are living in now. Where there would be no difference in ranks, no nobles and slaves and everybody lives in harmony with equal opportunities. But that is not to be since Chang Hui kept almost all of the corrupt ministers in the government. The sudden change of Chang Hui's heart is brought on by the discovery that the Sa Yin sword is actually a fake planted by his mother to ensure Chang Hui's ascension to the throne.

In the end, Gildong and Chang Hui went to war with each other. Upon hearing the news, Yinok quickly went to tha mountain hideout to be with Gildong (her ultimate desire remember?). They got married and shared a few quite moments together before the royal soldiers came down on them.

The hideout was showered with flaming arrows suggesting that the whole gang died (which initially I refuse to believe). The story ended with a Gildong lookalike standing on top a buliding in today's time kind of portraying that there will always be a Gildong who will stand up for the weak and oppressed.

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The end. There were a lot of scenes I didn't mention for lack of patience and memory. For a more detailed synopsis feel free to check out Dramabeans'.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AYED!!

Zaid celebrated his 17h birthday on the 23rd of January. Since that was Friday, the celebration was postponed to the next night. After I got my car at the Perodua Service Center (Zaim sent me, thank you!!) I made a quick stop at the Jaya Jusco Wangsa Maju to buy his birthday card and cake. I bought a smallish blueberry cake and a card from Memory Lane. Turned out he received one big raspberry cheese cake from his "friend" (ahem ahem)...

All of us got ready and made our way to Cozy House at the Great Eastern Mall (GEM) at Jalan Ampang. It was quite crowded by the time we got there so we had to wait a while for our table. Since we didn't bring the cakes with us, the celebration was somewhat simple. We had ordered our food before our table was set, so it didn't take too long for the yummies to be served.

A picture with the birthday boy while waiting to be seated...

Where's the food?

Strangely, me, Zaim and Zaid had a slight tummy problem but after a quick trip to the toilet, everything was A-OK... We had planned to continue the celebration to a karaoke place. But Abah wasn't feeling too good, so that had to be postponed...

Race to the toilet?

MC

I've made a conscious decision not to include any work related posts but this is an exception since it's not really WORK... However, details such as names and specific events will not be mentioned.

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At a recent work function, I was asked (more like directed) to be the MC for the 4 days 3 nights event. Luckily, there will be two of us MCing, me and another colleague. Not only were we notified a bit late, we only joined the last final touch meeting, a mere week before the actual event. We were told to take charge of the groups assigned to us and basically just convey whatever the secretariat wanted to relay to the participants. For both of us, this was our second MCing job for any function so, being the "professionals" that we are, we came up with a script and divided our tasks evenly for the big event. Needless to say, I was a bit reserved at first, being a little uncomfortable being in the "spotlight". But I soon found my comfortable place in front of the crowd and everything was a little bit alright.

The first few snaps of me being an MC.

Clearly the secretariat (and the MC's included) underestimated the affinity our colleagues had for the mike. By the first day we had to pospone two talks and by the second day we had to postpone one whole session. In the end, a total of three presentations had to be cancelled due to lack of time.

We had an outdoor activity. Me posing cute with some of my best colleagues.

The 20th of January was definitely a good day for me. It started off with me giving a great presentation (I managed to answer all questions satisfactorily, I think and delivered the speech in just over the 15 minutes allocated). My group won the Sudoku challenge in the evening activity and I even won in one of the lucky draws at the dinner that night.

Me giving the presentation and with my fellow unit-mates.

The MC's are thinking up a pantun for the dinner.

The culminating event for the event was the BBQ Dinner, where we were also asked to MC. The dinner was to be in an informal setting, completely different from the rest of the programme where we would have a series of presentations from sun up till the wee hours of the night. I would wake at 5 in the morning only to collapse on my bed at about 12.30am. Anyway, back to the dinner. Originally we planned to have a rehearsal but couldn't find the time. We tried to cram a few minutes before the dinner started but were called on not long after we started. However, as time went by, I started to loosen up and had fun being the MC. Not to say I didn't mess up. There were a few times where I was completely stumped for words but somehow I managed to fumble through.

In the end, I definitely feel that this was a learning experience and one that made me realize that I can do anything I set my mind to. It made me feel more confident in public and not as conscious. It may even possibly made me realize the potential in me for being a public speaker. I just hope that I won't be stereotyped after this and not have a huge MC sign on my forehead. Let's give others a chance in the spotlight too, OK. I would like to express my thanks to the committee members who had complete faith in me and therefore apologize if in my initial dabble of hosting resulted in a few sore feelings. I'm still learning.. We all are...

ENGLISH

Lately, some people have remarked on my English and actually asked how I got to be good at it. Almost always I would actually stop, think and didn't have a ready answer, because I actually learnt English the hard way. People seem to assume that I studied abroad or came from a renowned school when in fact, I just studied in an ordinary quite rural SMK school. No boarding school for me, thank you. I'm not being big headed but I don't exactly have a turning point in my life where I was suddenly good in English. I worked really hard to be good in it. I think this is largely due to the early exposure to English (I did stay in Sheffield the first two years of my life) so I guess for me English was not as foreign as most of my peers would perceive. However, those were truly the early years of my life, hardly enough time for me to gain anything in the mere two year stay. Plus, some would say that instead of a British accent, my English leaned more towards America.

I became encouraged to learn English from Mama. She would constantly talk to us in English, though I later learnt that there were protests and jeering from some family members. She would buy us english story books and watched english programmes with us. Growing up, we saw a lot of Sesame Street, Sound of Music and also Disney movies. I remember going to the cinema to watch Pocahontas, Lion King and Little Mermaid. In fact, Mama bought me my first Sweet Valley Book which turned out to be a huge obsession as I would scour the bookshops for new Sweet Valley books and then sit and read with a blank book and dictionary near. Why a blank book? It was actually my vocabulary book. I would first highlight the words that I don't know. Copy it in the book and look the definition up. And that is how I built up my vocabulary.

I also started to listen to English music in my early teens. Through the lyrics I kind of get the rhythm of a sentence and be more familiar with the color and usage of the language. I would watch English shows like Family Ties, Saved By The Bell, The Nanny and Full House (the American sitcom, not the Korean drama). I remember me and my family would all cuddle up and watch X-Files and the Murphy show together.

Then, I entered IIUM. The primary language here is English as it is an INTERNATIONAL university. When I was in school, I was only good in written English but now, I'm forced to speak in English. I had lots of practice both in and out of the classroom since we had to interact not only with foreign lecturers but also foreign students. It was a good thing that Ama and Zin were not afraid to use English in their daily conversation, so in a way they kinda encouraged me to talk in English though they would turn to me when a particularly strange word cropped up in our textbooks and I would try so hard to explain to them. I've been a walking dictionary since my schooldays. But sometimes I do find it hard to express certain words as I usually associate with atype of feel rather than the correct interpretation.

I actually made this into a public speech during my induction course. Thankfully, the instructor was a bit jolly that day, so I think I got reasonably good marks. Being good in English is definitely a Big PLUS Point for me. There were some opportunities that wouldn't even came by if not for my English. Because of English, I got to meet Ama, Zin and consequently, Illi. Because of English, I had no trouble understanding my lessons in IIUM, although memorizing is another different thing. Which in hindsight gave me an edge compared to my peers. It definitely made things a lot easier for me.

I've always admired people who made the effort to speak in English but couldn't help but cringe when they make a simple glaring mistake. For a milisecond I would actually feel a bit disappointed when they mispronounce or messed up the grammar. If it's someone I know who wouldn't mind, I would correct their mistake.

In the end my fluency (??) in English comes from my family, friends and also from hard work. It helped in giving me a HUGE boost in confidence level as I feel that I'm able to communicate with most of the world population. And because of English, I don't have any problems in learning other languages as I can kinda see the benefits of speaking in another tongue than your native.

Think I've said enough. Till next post..
Thank you. Kamsahamnida. Terima kasih. Arigatou gozaimasu. Shukriya. Shie Shie. Shukran jazilan. Merci. Danke. Grazie. Gracias.