Appreciation
Travelling is one of my lifetime passions, and I intend to do a lot of it when I am rich enough to do so (note: when, not if ;)). Someone mentioned a good quote to me yesterday - something along the lines of "The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page". Personally I think that the world is more like an enormous library than one book, because otherwise it would have to be a very very thick book, but point taken nonetheless. Anyway, where was I...oh yes, my point was that a lot of people want to travel, but sometimes - too often, I think - we take for granted the inherent appeal of the place in which we live. I certainly haven't seen all of Malaysia, and yet I'm planning to go to Italy and Spain and all the other "exotic" places. Similarly, people travel to Malaysia from all over the world, because to the West, Malaysia is "exotic" and Asian. "Exotic" is relative, I suppose. And the grass is always greener on the other side. Human nature...you can have it.
I hate when I use smiling emoticons inside parantheses (like this :)), because in case it has slipped your observation, the "smiling" part of the smileyface is actually a closed parantheses!! Thus, there is a Very Real Danger that this will severely confuse the less-than-aware reader...and besides, it just looks silly. In the end I usually end up either doing (this :D) or (this :P), and then people think I am an emoticon freak, when really I am just trying to preserve their sanity. Woe is me, and how I am constantly misunderstood.