A lot has happened in the past 2 months since I last posted anything on my blog. I missed blogging. I missed those days when I had time to actually sit down and write a decent blog post. Now I’m down to just posting pictures on Facebook, which isn’t really my thing, LOL.

So what have I been doing lately? Apart from work-related stuff, not much, LOL.

I celebrated World Turtle Day in Kg. Mangkok, Setiu by releasing some 60 head-started river terrapins into the Setiu River with the local kids. You should have seen those smiles on their faces! Priceless, I tell you! Then, sometime in mid-June, I started promoting “Little Turtle Messenger”, a children’s story book which is written by my project partner.

“Little Turtle Messenger” tells of how a little girl was brought to a Turtle Village in her dream. In the Turtle Village, she saw only very few old turtles and she immediately realizes why — the people in her village had been eating turtle eggs for as long as she knew. She promised to help bring back a happy Turtle Village. The next day, she shared her story with her friends, and she was also invited to tell her story in other schools. She became very famous and known as the “Little Turtle Messenger”.

The story book has a very strong message on turtle conservation and it has really pretty illustrations. It will make a very brilliant gift for children between 7 and 12 years old. Each copy costs only RM 12.90 and proceeds from the sale of the books will be used to support turtle conservation projects that my project partner and I carry out. If you’re interested to know more about the “Little Turtle Messenger” or to buy one or a few copies of the book, please leave me a comment or send me an email at turtlecentre@gmail.com :D

At the end of June, we launched the Mini Turtle Museum in Kg. Mangkok, Setiu. We have spent close to 6 months setting up a mini turtle museum in the old community hall that we rented in the village. Now our Mini Turtle museum has a wide variety of displays — sea turtle shells, terrapins shells, sea turtle Siamese twins that didn’t make it, hatched turtle egg shells as well as a series of posters with a brief description of our research and conservation work in the Setiu River.

After the launch, we conducted 5 Turtle Camps in primary schools that are located near the Setiu River. We went to the schools one day after another and it was very tiring, but very meaningful too :D And then I brought my Mum to Brisbane to visit my sister who is currently studying at the University of Queensland. We spent 8 days in cold Brissie weather and came home to a hot and humid Malaysia, much to my annoyance, LOL. And now, we are running more Turtle Camps in Kemaman and Dungun as well as conducting river surveys in 7 rivers in Terengganu.

I know, I’m sooo behind time I have yet to finish talking about my trip to India (which was in April/May!!) and I really should get to it. Apologies to those who have been waiting for those posts, sorry yeah, Ah Hong :D

Last night, my sister asked me what it felt like knowing I would turn 29 in a few hours. Now that I’m there, I think I feel great :D

For some reasons, I don’t have this fear of approaching the big 3-0 or whatever other fancy names you’d give it. But of course, now that I’m spending a significant amount of time in Kampung Mangkok in Setiu, I frequently get that “When are you going to get married?” question. But outside of Kampung Mangkok, nobody else asks me that question. Maybe I look fierce enough to deter anybody with the intention to actually go ahead and ask me that question.

But for the most part, I’d like to think that I don’t look 29 :D

You know, I miss those days when I could blog about anything I wanted to.

I wanted to write about my frustration with certain politicians for saying certain things and with certain groups of people for doing whatever they are doing that disrupts racial harmony in the country. In MY country. But then, who are we kidding, politics isn’t exactly my cup of tea.

I wanted to write about the mounting excitement in the current project that I am working on (yes, it’s related to terrapins), and the kind of project-related activities that I am really looking forward to, but I guess all that is more appropriate in the Terrapin Conservation Centre website. Plus, I don’t want to jump the gun. So I guess I will be writing more about that stuff there later.

I wanted to write about my frustration with certain people in a certain administration because they are making things unnecessarily difficult for me. But I thought, what’s the point? Ranting about it will not solve the problem, but actively and tirelessly pursuing it will. And I am known to have tonnes of patience, so let’s see to that.

I wanted to write about how I am looking forward to the overseas trips that I will be making this year but I do not want to come out as being arrogant. I have learned that 2D communications, without the facial expressions, can be misconstrued and read the wrong way.

Did you ever feel this way? That there’s so much you wanted to write about but can’t because, you know, somewhere around the corner, somebody might be waiting to pounce on you? I can’t wait for this phase to be over so that I can be myself again, here on my blog.