How Christmas is celebrated around the world

These pictures were taken from Huffington Post (blog)

India

Malaysia

France

These pictures were taken from BBC News.

Guatemala

Indonesia

From ABC News:

Australia

England

Beautiful pictures, aren't they??? :) How was your Christmas? Anything special? Or extraordinary? Whatever it was, I hope you had loads of fun! I know I did!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Pic taken from here

Wishing my wonderful readers and everyone else a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Wanna win a straightening/curling iron?

The Princess from Park-Avenue Princess is giving away The Barbar 1900 Tourmaline Cordless Combo worth $145 courtesy of Barbar, which sells eco friendly hair products. Doesn't it look pretty?

To participate, you need to become a follower of her blog. And if you knew about this contest through my blog, do let her know that I sent you. We'll both get an extra 25 points! :)

Tempted yet? The contest is open worldwide and it ends on Jan 15, 2010. Good luck!

More books to win!

Princess Bookie is giving away two sets of cool books and a mystery ARC. You must be a follower of her blog to be eligible. Open worldwide. Ends Dec 31, 2009.

Jessica from Book Bound is giving 3 winners the books of their choice. Open worldwide. Contest ends Dec 18, 2009.

Dar from Peeking Between the Pages is giving away two copies of Dragon House by John Shors. Open worldwide. Contest ends Dec 19, 2009.

Steph Su from Steph Su Reads is giving away a copy of Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers. Open worldwide. Ends Dec 25, 2009.

Miss Eliza from strange and random happenstance is giving away a signed copy of Thumb Flagging by Jerome Peterson. Open worldwide. Ends Dec 20, 2009.

Reading with Tequila is giving away a cool set of books! And the more followers she gets, the more winners there'll be. Open worldwide. Ends Dec 27, 2009.

Teddyree from The Eclectic Reader is giving away two winners the book of their choice. Open worldwide. Ends January 31, 2010.

Robby from Running for Fiction is giving away some YA books. Open worldwide. Ends Jan 31, 2010.

Win a Chocolate Chip Mint Cake!

Are you already salivating at the thought of a scrumptious chocolate chip mint cake? What if you had the chance to win one for yourself? If you, like me, love chocolate, chocolate cakes, brownies and everything else chocolate, what are you waiting for? Go and put your name in!

To enter, head on over to Park-Avenue Princess where you stand the chance to win a delicious cake for you and your friends and family to enjoy together!

Open to followers of her blog only. So, make sure you have Google Friend Connect, follow the Princess' blog and you're on your way there.

Psst...if you knew about the cake giveaway through this blog, please let the Princess know that I sent you. We'll both earn a cool extra 25 points! :)

Her contest ends Jan 12, 2010.

Santa sent my gift early

For the Book Blogger Holiday Swap, I got my gift from my Secret Santa, Veens of Giving Reading a Chance, last week. The book she gave me was The Host by Stephenie Meyer. It's fantastic. I keep seeing this book in the bookstore but didn't buy it because there are way too many unread books at home. But since it's a gift...then it's okay to have it. :D

Thanks Veens! I love my Christmas present and I can't wait to dig into it.

I'm also embarrassed to say that I've only sent out my gift to my Santee yesterday. But the guy at the post office said it should reach her country in 10 days' so there's still time for her to receive it before Christmas.

Happy Holidays everybody!!!

I won a CD (!!!) and who's Jenna Fox?

It's been a while since I listened to the radio so I stayed in my room and tuned in to Red FM 107.60. The deejay was inviting listeners to send in an SMS for a chance to win Taylor Swift's special edition album, Fearless (Platinum Edition, CD & DVD) which contains the songs Love Story and You Belong With Me. And since my phone was next to me, I thought what the heck and sent in my SMS. (Kinda cheesy songs but I like the lyrics and the beat).

Guess what? My phone rang a few minutes later and the radio deejay told me I'd won the exclusive album! Well, he didn't announce it right away. He asked if I had won anything from the radio station in the past 30 days and I said no. Then he asked for my details, said something like congratulations and I heard my voice on radio some 15 minutes later.

Now I can't wait for the CD to arrive so that I can listen to the rest of Taylor Swift's songs. I have two of her songs on my phone too.

*** *** ***

I'm also currently immersed in The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson. It's kind of an easy and quick read - I'm on page 72 now. It's about a 17-year-old girl, Jenna Fox who was supposedly in a coma for one and a half years. She woke up not remembering anything about her life before the deep sleep. Her mom is weird and her grandma is even weirder. Jenna strongly feels that they are hiding a very important secret from her.

Um, I'm guessing that the story is kind of futuristic? Correct me if I'm wrong.

The story is written from Jenna's point of view so as a reader, we are in the dark along with Jenna who's trying to figure out who she really is. It's a story of discovering one's identity.

I like this paragraph from page 49:

I am out the door in seconds. I am going to school. Tomorrow. I hurry down the walkway. Will Mother change her mind? I glance over my shoulder to make sure she is not following me. Freedom. It feels as crisp and breezy as the open sky. But then I remember her pale face. Her tentative decision. My pace quickens. Distance is my savior. I flee from my closed world into one I haven't met yet.

The last sentence is my favourite.

Anyway, notice the short sentences? There are lots of them in the book so it makes reading kind of choppy. But so far so good. I'd love to find out what skeletons Jenna's parents and grandma are hiding in their closets, so I'm gonna continue reading it now.

Holiday mood and Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City Hall or Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee. I took this picture with my mobile phone's 0.3 megapixel camera.

Lots of things to be done during the holiday season and before classes begin. If only my break was two whole months instead of a month and a quarter. My last exam paper was on Nov 20 and it's back to school on Dec 28.

I got back home yesterday (Sunday) from a very cool Vietnam trip. Went to Ho Chi Minh City or Saigon, its old name, for a five-day stay. I did some research on the Internet and found out that there are around four million motorbikes in the city. There were some pictures found via Google search but they did no justice to the real thing.

Yup. The number of bikes on the road is almost uncountable. I also noticed that the only cars on the road were those huge ones, like those Pajero and Avanza-like cars. No Kancils or Mini cars on the road. I'm thinking that only the rich can afford cars and very good cars too. We even passed a car that had a touch screen in it. My sister and her friends oohed, aahed and waahed over almost everything they saw.

Even though there are millions of bikes on the road, it's not difficult to cross to the other side. Believe it or not, I think you can even cross the road with your eyes closed and you'll still be able to get to the other side unscathed. The motorists know how to swerve around and avoid you. Really, they are the most considerate drivers ever.

I was really excited to be going there actually. I didn't know that Ho Chi Minh City is Saigon City's new name. Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh city in 1976 after the Communist leader, Ho Chi Minh.

When I took up Cinema Studies, I did a paper on the movie Apocalypse Now directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Martin Sheen and Marlon Brando. The setting of the movie was in Saigon during the Vietnam War. So the city's totally historical and I couldn't wait to immerse myself in its rich history.

It was a treat to have the opportunity to visit the Củ Chi Tunnels which were the Viet Cong's (National Liberation Front) base of operations during the war. I haven't heard of these tunnels before and I'm glad to know about them now. Will share some photos and write more on my trip after this! But here's a summary of where we went:

Day 1: Arrived in Ho Chi Minh City at around 7.15 pm Malaysian time (6.15 pm Vietnam time). Had dinner at Phở 24 (pronounced like fur). Phở is a type of Vietnamese beef and noodle soup. Walked around Bui Vien Street for some sight-seeing.

Day 2: Went to Ben Thanh Market for some shopping. Lunch at Lotteria. Dessert at Yogurt Space. Had dinner at Lemongrass near the Opera House.


Lemongrass restaurant
Day 3: Went to the Central Post Office, Independence Palace, Cathedral Notre Dame. Had lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant (Quan An Ngon) - dessert = che suong sa hot luu. Went to Ben Thanh Market for more shopping. Dinner at a cruise ship called Mei Linh. Entertainment included.

Day 4: Went to Chinatown, Binh Tay Market. Then went to Giac Lam temple. After that, went to the Cu Chi tunnels! Lunch at a boat restaurant in the area. Dinner at a French restaurant called La Fourchette. Walked around.

Day 5: Breakfast at Sozo. Back to hotel to catch a cab to the airport!