This Thing We Call Love

Nothing to Lose

2010-10-02T20:17:00.000+08:00

On this day of your life, we believe God wants you to know that the great advantage of having nothing is that everything becomes a gain.

Losing everything is at the same time the scariest, as well as the most liberating experience you can have. When you have something, - anything, you've got to protect it from disappearing. And so worry becomes a resident in your heart. When you've got nothing, your heart overflows with gratitude for every offering you receive.

Don't you think this is very true? I love these quotes I get from Facebook very much. Most of the time, it speaks to my heart, at a very right timing!

When you own something or somebody, you constantly fear that it will slip away one day. Instead of smelling the roses and dancing through the meadows, your mind is preoccupied with endless worries and thus failed to enjoy the moment.

It is when you have nothing in your hands that you begin to appreciate every single thing, big or small, that comes your way. You become thankful, you become grateful. And you stop taking things for granted.

But just how many people sees this?

Is It That Long Already?

2010-09-13T00:21:00.001+08:00

Gosh, is it really THAT long already? My last post was CNY this year, and if my basic mathematics does not fail me, it has been a good 7 months since I last blogged!

I swear I've been wanting to write. Cross my heart, and hope to die ~~hey there's a song that sounds like this right~~ In fact, it crossed my mind every now and then. But work has practically sucked the life out of me and I'll be laughing if I even have sufficient sleep!

Is it time to pick this up again? Not pick your nose lar, pick up blogging again! Any readers left after a 7 months hiatus? I think all also balik kampung already lar!

CNY IV

2010-03-14T17:54:00.001+08:00

On the 5th day of CNY, FL came to my house and we were exchanging books to read while savouring some keropok. Isssshhhh, just can't stop eating them! Then we went out for dinner. Didn't want to go for our usual satay celup dinner so I brought her to Da Jia Le for porridge based steamboat. 2 pax + 1 paddy frog, and 2 drinks, the bill came to about RM 38. Kinda reasonable considering that it's CNY season.

On the 6th day of CNY, I went up to KL for our annual CNY gathering with my housemates. It was a 2D1N affair so are you ready for lots of pics? Hehehehehehe...

WT, K and I drove up to KL to meet the rest of our housemates. FF couldn't make it in the last minute coz her blood pressure shot up and her doctor advised her to rest for the next 3 days. WT herself wasn't feeling well but she still managed to drive all the way up!

The 3 of us stayed at Park Royal Kuala Lumpur. Considered quite a good quality hotel around KL and the location is strategic, at the heart of the golden triangle. The other hotels' rate were all very high due to CNY so this is the best deal we could get. No complaints though :)

Let's take a tour of this hotel... In case you don't know, we need to flash our keycard in the lift before we could go up to our floor, I supposed it's good from the security point of view... but a little troublesome if a group of people were put on different floors, like in our case, K's room was on a higher floor and he couldn't come down to our room without our keycard.

Anyway, see for yourself this reputable hotel's room layout. First thing on your right is the bathroom :-

I'm standing beside the full length mirror and this is the view of the room from outside looking in.

This deluxe room comes with 2 double beds, which are comfy :)

And this is the view from the bed. We have a television and the long desk, which was later filled with bottles and bottles of drinks and junk food!

These are the things laid on top of the mini bar but we did not touch any of them. We couldn't even finish what we've brought!

I kinda like the simple lamp they have in the room. This is the table lamp. I like the long, side lamp as well but did not snap its picture :P

When everyone arrived at our hotel, it was time for our reunion lunch, as some of them had to go back for dinner. CO booked a table for us at a Taiwanese restaurant just behind our hotel - Jalan Imbi - so we walked there although the sun almost killed me!!! Let's see... there were 2 Taiwanese restaurants on the same row and we went to the one beside Oversea Restaurant. It's called Fong Lye Taiwan Restaurant.

And it has cute cutlery :)

While waiting for the rest to arrive from Seremban/Tangkak, we took some photos and had fun matchmaking "certain people" Hahahahahahahaahhaa... Okay, actually some of us including yours truly were very, very, very hungry coz I did not even take my breakfast and it was past 1pm already. To divert my attention from the drumming effect of the tummy, I had to crack jokes and take pictures, ermmmm... it worked for a while, then it's back to "I'm hungryyyyyyyyyyy"

May I present you our Couple #1 - CY and CN (trying hard to get a baby Tiger)

Couple #2 - KS & SK (Yikesssss, put their initials together and you'll get symmetry, didn't realise this until now! Okay, they're gonna get a house soon, then get married)

Couple #3 - KC + wife + son (His wife is a Vietnamese. They met when he was working in Vietnam. He's back for good since January 2010). Look at how his son tilted his head in synchrony with his!!!

Supposedly Couple #4 but I got dragged in, aisey man! This has been our "project" for the past few years, but we have yet to see it "blossom" Hahahahahahhaha... K, WT & I. Trust me, K is a good man *ahem*

We have the guys - CO, YL, KS and CY

Then K insisted on being one of the guys, hahahaha, okay okay, insider joke!

Highlight of the afternoon : Conversation between K and YL

"Eh YL, so how many kids do you have now?"

Everyone was stunned for a good 5 seconds or so. Reason being - YL is not even married yet! Upon realising his blunder, K said,

"Eh eh, sorry, coz NL told me you were married, aiyoh~"

To which YL counter attacked K very, very innocently,

"I heard you and WT are a pair now right"

Boyyyyyyyy, I couldn't help myself, I burst out laughing so hard that my jaw ached afterwards! You see, YL is the serious, and very sensible/proper kind of person. Very straight and honest... and the way he replied as a matter of fact was really superb!!! Unbeatable! You gotta be there to know what I mean!!!

In his heart, K was cursing NL like hell for giving him false information. The funny thing was.... when NL arrived later, K confronted him and NL denied flatly, hahaahaha.. these guys are really masters of Tai Chi!

Now the lovely girls :) CN, WT, me & SK standing

And how can I resist from taking one picture with our "director" aka best buddy of mine, WT

Okay now feast your eyes with the food pics. We ordered about 7 dishes including yee sang that afternoon. the bill came up to about RM480.00 for 12 people. Not very expensive I would say!

This is the appetizer. I don't know what it's called, but it's really appetizing, hahahahhaa

Then we have this 4-flavour Cold Dish. All I know is that there were taiwanese sausages, scallops with some kind of nuts, pork ribs and "siput" - which I did not eat at all :P This dish itself cost RM120, not very worth it right!

Next we had the dual flavour prawns - salad/mayonaise prawn and deep fried prawnballs. This is yummy :)

We had two types of vegetables. The first is this. I don't really know what kind of vegetable this is, but in the menu it's called "Flies' Eyes" - Mata Lalat, what a name!!!

And the second type is this beans. It looks like long beans but it is not. Nicer than long beans. I forgot its name :P

And everyone's favourite- Ma Poh Tofu. Not that spicy, so I still can take it :)

Lastly, we have this 3 Cup Chicken. A must have in Taiwanese restaurants. However, we sort of kena con by the lady boss. She kept insisting that there won't be enough for all of us, so she suggested that we order the big one. We gave in. Alas, it turned out that the chicken pieces were BIG and there was certainly enough for everyone, in fact, we had to force some people to finish it up!!!

Then we were given this little cup of drink at the end of our lunch course. It's something like chilled lime juice. Very, very nice that I thought of stealing CO's coz he sat beside me and he was still busy finishing up the 3 cups chicken, hahahahahhaa~

After that, our table was cleared to make way for the lou sang. We ordered a small one which costs us about RM36 if I am not mistaken.

Topped with fresh salmon slices

This is how it looked like before they made a havoc out of it (-__-")

And this is how ganas my lovely housemates can be!!! Boyyyy~~ we were so so so noisy when we lou sang, and everyone just simply cucuk their chopsticks and korek the poor yee sang... look at how it was scattered all over the table! tsk tsk tsk~ Bikin malu saje, hahahahahahaha~

After a very fulfilling lunch, we went to 7-Eleven across the street to get some mineral water, 100+ and snacks before going back to the hotel. We called off the bowling outing, I suppose we're all getting old, we would rather sit and relax in the room than to bend down and throw some 10kg ball which will eventually land into the longkang at the sides :)

Really relax and talk only ke? Of course not! How can we not gamble? Hahahahaha, this is our routine every single year. It used to be at K's house, and this time eventhough we're in a hotel, we still can do it! All of us sat on the floor and played Blackjack, or 21. I think we're really kaki judi in the making coz we gambled for 2 hours++ non stop, hahahahaahaha! ishhhhh~

Then they had to leave and K went swimming. That guy, didn't even tell us to bring our swimsuits. He said it's such a waste to be paying RM200++ for a night's stay if you don't fully utilise their facilities!!! So while he went swimming, CO rested in his room, and WT & I tried to sleep. WT was drowsy from her medication where as I could not sleep at all!

At night, we went to have dinner at Pavilion. We almost ended up in some sushi restaurant but changed our mind in the very last minute. So we chose this place since director loves the egg yolk buns.

Yeah, it's Dragon-i. And look at these... nah, not the two guys. I actually wanted to take the snapshot of the decoration behind them :P

We wanted to have something light and not so oily since we had a scrumptious lunch that afternoon..... this is their appetizer, boiled peanuts which are really soft and nice.

Chicken with cashew nuts and capsicum

Sliced fish with long beans and potato strips

Steamed tofu with mushroom

Stir fry spinach

And of course the mouth watering egg yolk bun, our dear WT's favourite

So yummy that she had to tapao 2 sets to bring back to Malacca!!!

After dinner, KS and SK headed back home while K, WT and I managed to persuade CO to spend a night with K since he's staying alone. Urghhh~~ it sounds so wrong here huh, hahahahha... "spend a night with K" *gasp*

We went up to K's room, then just to see look see look. It's smaller than ours ~~imagine how K and CO could have a romp in this cosy, tiny room~~ imagine if we had to fit in almost 10 people in here to gamble! No way!

Then WT and I went back to our room and I asked her to take her bath first since she wasn't feeling well. While waiting, I put the sparkling juice into the fridge and I can't resist this...

Oily face.. so oily that you could fry an egg on it, wahahahahahahaha.... well, coz we've been out the whole day, all the way from Malacca, what do you expect? Perfectly clean face? Impossible!

Then K and CO came down to our room to chit chat while sitting beside the window. My favourite spot of the room. I love sitting there, sipping the sparkling juice and munching Mister Potato while looking at the night lights down the street. KL is a lively place. Exciting night life. But I still don't like the lifestyle here although I've spent some 4 years here previously. I'm a kampung girl who values life's simplicity :)

Next morning, I was woken up by K's phone call. I thought it was still early as the room appeared to be dark after we have drawn the curtain the night before. Turned out it was already 9am. CO had to leave to meet up with his friend, so K went to swim (again!) while I bathed and got ready while waiting for WT to wake up. I think she was really knocked out by the strong medication!

From our room, this is what I can see. Familiar? I told you it is strategic, didn't I!!! Berjaya Times Square, Sungei Wang and even KL Tower!

And I managed to capture this monorail moving just below me. I remember few years back when my family and I stayed over at KL Plaza, we brought lil Min to experience the monorail and she felt so cheated coz we sat from Sg Wang to Berjaya Times Square, which was only one stop away. She complained to my dad that "haven't sit down, have to get down already" Hahahahhaa!

After that the 3 of us, K, WT and I walked over to Pavilion to have our breakfast. Breakfast of the day? My favourite Subway <3 It's weird I always have this stupid habit. Whenever I have to chance to eat or do something, I wouldn't eat or do it. But once it is out of reach, I yearn for it. One of the things I regretted not eating often enough when I was still in KL is Subway. Now, each time I go up to KL, I make a mental note to find Subway restaurant and EAT it! heheheeheheehehe!

Breakfast that day was on K :) I had sandwich number 12, my all time favourite, Turkey Breat and Turkey Ham coupled with hot milo. I opted for Parmesan bread with all toppings except for pickles and olives. Dressing? Mayo and mustard :) Wah liau eh, I tell you, it's so damn satisfying, I could go for seconds :)

K wanted to sit at the high table, to get the "feel" of it. Like how ang mohs dine, hahahahaha.. We chatted about life, our career, our housemates. And I did what I love to do - people watching! It's interesting, trust me!

K was saying that this trip is pretty relaxing and hard to come by. A break from our daily routine whereby we're always rushing for something. He even told his mum that they should sometimes take a day or two off, check into a hotel and just R E L A X and you know what his mum said? "Xiao ar! Waste money to stay in hotel when you have a house in Malacca!" Hahahahaha!

Before going back to the hotel, we spotted Chic Cupcakes and wanted to try. I don't think K would love sweet things like this, so both WT and I chose one cupcake each and when I handed my money to the cashier, K fought to pay for us. Alas, the cashier took his money. My money is smelly is it? Hahahahha, anyway, thanks a lot K :)

We brought it back to the hotel room to eat. On the way back, WT stopped at Hagen Daaz. Both K and I stared at her. Oh hullo, you are sick, and down with flu, you're not supposed to be eating ice cream! This is what she sad to defend herself, I can faint I tell you!

"Doctor said I cannot drink cold water mar, he didn't say I cannot eat ice cream"

(-___-")

Anyway, this was what I had. Not that nice. A bit too sweet for my liking. I would prefer SO's cupcakes, anytime!

After that, we went back to Malacca. I drove back as WT was still kind of sick. We talked all the way back and so the journey seemed to be shorter and faster. K came to my house to pick up his car, while WT and I headed downtown to get a body massage, hehehehehehe.... while waiting, we hopped over to McDee at Dataran Pahlawan to grab our late lunch. The massage was so-so only, shit, I still miss the Indonesian one in Taipan. So far, I've been to a few massage places and all of them can't measure up to the one in Taipan, in terms of service and price. See? This is also one of the things I've regretted not doing often enough back then! *sigh*

Okay no more going out like crazy after this. Going back to work the very next day, shucks~

CNY III

2010-03-13T18:43:00.000+08:00

CNY Part III is here. I said I went out every single day that I was on leave right? Hehehehehe... so on the 4th day of CNY, PK called up to visit her at her house. WT and I went over after work - WT's working, not me :P PK's girl is so clingy to her that we had to wait till she went to sleep then only we sneaked out.

Wanted to go for roti john but it's a bit too far since we had to send PK back early. So we opted for Malim's Old Town Kopitiam. It was my first time there as we've always avoided that place - it's fully packed all the time!

We were laughing our heads off over some issues not to mention here. And PK was speaking so loud and making stupid remarks that we had to hush her. Told her that she's like a "si nai" we urged her to come back at least once a month to come out with us, or else she'll become more and more "si nai"！！！

5th day of CNY was spent outside almost the whole day too. Met up with WT, YL and BY for karaoke at Go Go KTV at the jetty there at 2pm. Had to wait for WT coz she worked 1/2 day. Anyway, we didn't know that they don't serve food until after 5pm and we had not had our lunch yet. So we had to ask BY to seludup some finger food in for us as she was meeting us an hour later :)

Guess what songs we sang? Of late, I've been singing Chinese songs only coz the people that I go to karaoke with all sing Chinese songs. But this time with YL around, we sang some English and Malay songs too! And it's my first time trying to sing one of A Mei's songs >>> 如果你也听说 So difficult to sing coz it's very high pitched. Really salute her for her stamina too!

And guess what YL wanted to sing? Let me get this straight. She's English-educated like us, but she could hardly speak in Mandarin okay. I think she picked up some mandarin after graduating, not bad lar... Anyway, she was asking me to find this F4's song for her, from Meteor Garden. At once, all of us thought of 流星雨 but she said no, it's not. She said the MTV shows all 4 of them jumping into the air, boyyyyyy... she can even remember what the MTV looks like... seriously, I have no inkling which song she was talking about so I went to F4's page and scroll down for her. Then we found it. It's this song >>> 第一时间！！！

And the screenshot of them JUMPING *faint*

Then we decided that we need to sing happier songs. So we chose some Chinese fast-beat songs, and THIS song...... can you guess which song is this?

Familiar? Still can't get it?

See this lengchai, still cannot get mer? The clue is already there also lar....

Yup yup, it's Uptown Girl... not the version by Billy Joel but Westlife :)

After karaoke, we fetched YL back coz she had dinner appointment with her family, while WT and I went over to the new Jusco to makan and jalan-jalan. Ended up in Little Taiwan, kinda disappointed coz it's not as good as I expected it to be. The milktea was kinda dilute too. Kena banned by WT already!

Then we walked around and finally went into Popular bookstore. Spent quite some time there as I've been itching to get some books but always put on hold coz I really don't have much time to read nowadays!

Alas, I can't resist the temptation when all the good books are shouting at me, waving idiotically, asking me to pick them up! Hehehehehe... okay okay, it's my hallucination. Anyway, I picked up my monthly Cleo mag and 2 other books. The Gift by Cecelia Ahern and also Starting Over by Tony Parsons. I saw another book, The Lovely Bones and the synopsis attracted me but I was thinking, hrmphhhh let me finish those two books first :)

New Love in My Life

2010-03-13T17:50:00.000+08:00

Hahahahaha, suspense right! You thought I've found a new love interest? Wahahahahaha.. not so soon, babe! But, this is the new love of my life, it's true. Ladies and gentlemen, please meet my nephew, *jeng jeng jeng*

He was born on 9 March 2010, Tuesday. I was very excited to see him in the hospital that day. My niece was equally excited. Being 7 years old, she's all grown up and does not even display any trace of jealousy. Instead, she's all love for her little brother.

2 faces almost pressed onto the nursery window pane, both of us were looking intently at the fast asleep little bundle of joy lined up in a row. There were 4 babies brought into the world that day and my little nephew is the biggest and has the most and blackest hair.

My mum said that when my brother was born, he was exactly like that. Like my nephew. Or rather, my nephew like my brother. Dark, black hair. A lot of them in fact. And it has a "wet look", but it's actually dry, really! And I can't help but to notice that he has very sharp chin, just like me :)

This nephew of mine doesn't resemble me, unlike my niece. I think he takes after my brother who looks like my mum. However an aunt said that he looks a lil' like my dad, who has broad/round/big face (and I had to inherit that too, hrmphhhhh~)

I lost count of how many times I went into the confinement lady's room to take a look at my beloved nephew. It has been almost 7 years since we last had a baby in the house, and it sure perked us all up! Everyone was so joyful and excited, but I must admit that my niece and I are the most "pyschotic" ones, hanging around my nephew at every chance we got, no matter he's asleep or awake!

Nowadays, I come down from work, put down my bag and straight away take the cushion off the sofa to place it on the floor, next to his bouncing net. Then I'll lie on my tummy and talk to him, even if he's asleep :) So far I've only carried him once, which was today. He could recognise my voice. I think babies can't see clearly at this stage, but they are very alert to sounds around them.

There, another photo of him on his 1st day on Earth :)

Reflection - February 2010

2010-03-07T23:26:00.001+08:00

Mannnnnn~ I've forgotten about my February's reflection post. I think it's because February only has 28 days, so short, therefore, my shortmindedness.. hahahahahha.. lame right?

Honestly, I don't have much to say about February's reflection because I've been so busy with work, the days just flew by. I'm not complaining about my work, instead I think it's a blessing that I'm kept occupied and that I am happy doing things that I think I m beginning to love now.

Happiness means a great deal to me now. Money is essential, I will not deny that, but ultimately, nothing means more to me than happiness, joy, and my family and of course my close friends. I'm going back to the basics. Just like the brief description about me on the right sidebar of my blog.

"A bubbly down-to-earth girl who values happiness in life's simplest things"

A simple life with people dear to me is all that matters to me now. Some may laugh at the shallowness of my aspiration, but do you know that aiming to be happy sounds so simple yet it's so hard to attain at times?

So for last month, these are the few things that I am pleased I have achieved, or at least half way to achieving them :-

I know I am on the right track regarding my work this time. I've used a different approach this time and I really hope that it'll make a difference coz I really wanna go that extra mile, instead of just delivering the necessities
I've taken up a few extra responsibilities at work, although minor, but it shows that I'm progressing :)
I got my bonus, wee-heeeeeeeeee.... although it's kinda shitty coz I've worked here less than a year, so it was less than what everyone else was getting. And as though that was not bad enough, I had to use up ALL of it on my medical bill and car repair, wth~ But okay lar, I should be thankful I have a job right!
I've survived gym sessions once a week for more than a month now, yayyyyyy~ But sadly, we had to give up ping pong for the time being due to our tight schedule!
I think the happiest thing for me in February is still the fact that I'm more relaxed around people already. I've joked and talked and laughed like how I used to. Not like the CNY before where I went everywhere with a heavy heart. Bravo!

To end this post, I would like to share with all of you this message from God that I've got from facebook :-

On this day, God wants you to know that there is no need to obsess over a decision. God has more in store for us than we can ever predict, and what we fear are bad choices frequently turn out for the best, because our hidden aspirations know better where we are going than our rational minds.

CNY II

2010-03-07T22:49:00.000+08:00

2nd day of CNY was spent in Seremban. This year, I made a significant change. I decided to visit my grandmother in Seremban during CNY. I've not seen her since 2008 if I am not mistaken. However, lately, she has been unwell and it actually worries me that she has been going in and out of hospital, it is almost like her second home now.

I told myself to visit her before it is too late, if you know what I mean. She knows my predicament already alas, and made no attempt to question me on it, what a relief, coz I would really want to rest the case and not mention about it anymore, ever. Back to my grandma. Although I have never really been close to her due to the distance between us, but it pains my heart secretly, to be seeing how much she has aged over the last few years. Her hearing has worsens, and she needs aid when walking. She is no longer the strict grandma who could not tolerate the slightest noise around her, as what I remember her as back from the 80s and 90s.

Another change that comes along would be my open interaction with my relatives. Certain relatives. I've allowed them into my world again. I've spoke to them like how I used to again. I've convinced myself that it is time to let it go, although I still have some reservations about letting down my guard.

Anyway, my 2nd day of CNY was basically spent with relatives. 3rd day onwards, it was all friends, friends, and more friends :))) We met at CF's house for visiting and a lil bit of gambling coz YL is very adamant on winning KH this year, so as to earn some "satay celup money" for afterwards! Hahahahahahaha.. I think I have to repeat every year about this same old story. The story about how 3-4 of us will gamble at CF and KH's house, and how we also lost to KH no matter how good we are at showing poker face to him, and how YL grumbled that she has lost *all* her money and she has none left to eat satay celup for the secondary school friends reunion after that! Hahahahahhahaa...

But you know what? I think this might be the last time I'm repeating the story coz *jeng jeng jeng* this year, YL FINALLY won some money for a change! Not much though, enough for 10 sticks of satay celups perhaps!!!

So later that evening, we drove down to McQuek for our secondary school friends reunion and we have another member joining us this time round. A person who dislikes people calling her by her chinese given name and insisted that we should call her by her english name coz she, herself has forgotten about the name her parents given to her 33 years ago! Hahahahaha, okay, I'm a meanie, sorry! But we had good times laughing over a pot of hot, steaming satay kuah and more than 100 sticks of satay celups.

We had to leave coz there were other people waiting to be seated, so we some of us who could stay on, adjourned to the Thong Shui House nearby. The four of us had fun digging up funny incidents about our secondary school life and that somehow ignited the naughtiness in us, which drove us to do something unexpected. We went to "investigate" somebody's house in the neighbourhood nearby just to admire the grandness of it. Or to prove the authencity? Hahahahahahaha...

Okay before I end this post, I just have to say this. Look at this cute little boy down here?

It is CF's son number 2. Very smiley and cheerful that I instantly fell in love with him! But no, this is not the thing that I wanna say here. It's his name. So what's wrong with his name, you might ask me. Well, his name in chinese contains the chinese character "je" or is it "zhe", sorry, my hanyu pinyin sucks and I'm lazy to start up my NJ Star. Basically, he is sort of named after her (or rather our) favourite singer during schooling time - Jeff Chang Sin Je! We were so crazy over him at one point, that I started buying ALL his cassettes. Ya lar, at that time, cassettes are the "in" thing. Only the rich owns CDs okay! CF, if you're reading this, tsk tsk tsk~~~ Hahahahahahaha.. kidding kidding!

CNY I

2010-03-07T19:28:00.004+08:00

Ho ho ho~ Aikks, it's not even Christmas yet so why on earth am I ho-ho-ho-ing?!!!

Okay, cut the crap out. I know I've been lying to everyone lately. More grossly, I lied to myself. I said I'll buckle up and pick up blogging again very soon. That "very soon" was not forthcoming and I only had two miserable posts last month. Reason being, I was too busy going out, celebrating Chinese New Year with people dear to me, that I have no time to sit down and blog (-__-")

So, 15 days of CNY had passed. How did it go for you? I was on work leave for 10 whole days (inclusive of the weekends) and I went out every S-I-N-G-L-E day. If last year's CNY was a low profile one for me, this year's was certainly an up-and-going one. I was hardly at home and I only spent 2 days out of that 10 with my family, gulp... *guilty guilty*

So CNY eve was as usual, busy helping mummy dearest in the kitchen for prayer preparation in the afternoon. Then it's all those last minute thingy like putting up new curtains, stapling ang pao packets into threes and hanging them at the window, ~~sleeping like a piggy in between~~ and preparing for the reunion dinner, and later, ushering in the new year at the strike of 12 in the midnight.

I still chose to skip the gathering in the morning. Still reluctant. Period. But I made my way to YL's house in the afternoon to meet WT and YC. YL came back from UK and it's a tradition to meet up at her house on the 1st day of CNY, just like how it was tradition to meet up with KC for dinner on the 1st day of CNY!

Poor WT had to work on the very first day of CNY and we all joked about her only taking 1/2 day leave for CNY! Man, that girl is like married to her job! I wouldn't even dream of working on the 1st day of CNY. Never! Not even if you paid me a thousand dollars. Eh wait... did you say a THOUSAND dollars? Okay, maybe I would consider, keh keh keh~

After YL's house, I made my way to KC's house and almost melted under the hot, burning sun. I would have collapsed onto her sofa, seriously sunburnt and dehydrated if not for her yummylicious laksa and pai tee, courteous of her super mum. I was like a humpty-dumpty at the end of the evening, too full and bloated to walk straight. Sorry lar KC, I really tak larat wanna try all your cookies lar :)

Back at home, I intended to take a 1.5 hours of nap before meeting her for dinner but you know what I ended up doing? Boy, you'll never believe this! I was hooked to the malay novel she loaned me, can someone please tell me, when was the last time I ever held a malay novel????? Honestly I can't quite remember. Was it 18 years ago? Or 15? Definitely more than 15 coz remembered reading Ali Setan, borrowed from the school library, on SE's recommendation. This book I read, Yang Sebenarnya, is a bit corny, I mean the storyline, but I chuckled every now and then coz it has really been a long time since I last read something so "Malay"... hahahhahahaha... and I've forgotten some words!!!

So, I didn't even manage to get forty winks. Rushed out to meet KC for dinner at our old faithful, Pizza Hut. This is what we had. Pretty much the same things, except for this time, we tried new drinks and it was not bad. Other than that, everything else seemed pretty normal. Errrmmmm, service was quite bad that night due to the overwhelming customers.

Passion Frizzy Drink

Happy Chinese New Year~

2010-02-16T13:43:00.000+08:00

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR~

My oh my, it's already the 3rd day of CNY that I have time to blog, pardon me!

So how was everyone's CNY so far? Any major celebration? Or a quiet family affair? Mine was a mixture of both, so far. I am still a bit of an anti-social. Well, to phrase it correctly, I should say that I am only anti-social to a selected bunch of people, hahahahahaha~

What should I say? This CNY is nothing but fun, fun, fun! A week or so before that, I was lamenting to my friends and colleagues that I haven't got the CNY feel yet. I don't have the mood to buy clothes yet when most of my friends are done with their clothes shopping!

Then, it all began on a Saturday.

I woke up with the urge of visiting this boutique I have never stepped into before. I quickly bathed and dragged my mum along. Ended up buying 2 tops and 1 denim shorts. There and then, the feel came :)

The following Friday, WT and I made plans to shop at another place that I've never liked to go... or rather, always avoided due to the crowd - Dataran Pahlawan. All in all, we spent about 6 hours there. In between, we had our late lunch at Wong Kok Char Chan Teng and also another 1.5 hours spent karaoke-ing :))) Too bad my voice cracked due to the terrible cough. Loot of the day? A nice looking (and cheap too!) belt. 3 blouses. 2 working shirts. Ishhhhh~ syokkkkkkkkk!

Then we went to our favourite cafe for dinner. Shuckkkkssss.. the cool guy wasn't around. I made a wild guess - he has resigned?!!! Waaaaaaaaaaaa~ the atmosphere was definitely different without him there! sob! sob!

My last round of shopping was on Friday - 2 days before CNY. This was the peak of all. 11 hours spent with KC. 11 ~~freaking~~ hours, can you believe it?!!! Best of the best! We went to the new Jusco at 10am. Shopped for some baking stuffs then headed straight to the ladies' department where we searched for and tried on countless clothes, be it blouses, singlets, pants or skirts (for KC).

We must have spent nearly 3 hours or so there. Loot of the day? Wah, a lot lor! 5 singlets, 3 blouses and 4 pants, some happy coloured undies, panty hose, etc. Did I miss out any? I seriously can't remember all coz our basket was full to the brink. All that I know is, we were a few hundred ringgits poorer, and we had to keep on chanting "No more looking at clothes, no more looking at clothes, no more looking at clothes!!!"

Then we had our lunch at Kenny Rogers, mannnnn, it has been a while, and I must admit that I had a satifying meal! Especially my all time favourite Seasons Iced Lemon Tea. Then we went to Brands Outlet and Padini. There were so many clothes that caught our eyes, and we had to keep on chanting our mantra for the day to resist the temptation! Both of us fell in love with a skirt and made a pact to buy them the next time KC is back since it's buy 1 free 1 :)

Next : Shoes hunting. Me, for my mummy dearest, and KC for herself. We were like jakuns going oooooohhhhhhh~ and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh~ when we discovered shops after shops selling shoes! And that was when she exclaimed, wah, no need to go to to KL already like this!!!

At nearly 5pm, we had to leave for our facial appointment. If not for it, I am positive we would shop on till the cows come home! I did lip waxing and also, *ahem* eyelash perm upon recommendation by Em. First timer, so ok lar, not much comments :) but Em was terrific~

Then it was dinner at Uncle John Kopitiam. Had the Thai sauce chicken chop rice. Not bad. The geragau was a bit oily and does not have much ingredients. Not going to order this anymore though. 2 glasses of iced honey lemon to quench my thirst. Boyyyyyy, why is it so hot in Malacca nowadays?

Oh yes, there was a bunch of very noisy people sitting across us and when I said they were noisy, I really mean it. Loud and noisy. So much so that even the 2 ladies sitting beside us beh tahan and shifted outside coz it was practically quite impossible to talk. Their laughters (every minute or so) would drown our meek voices! And how can I forget the girl who looks okay, but cringed her nose each time she laughed? And the over exaggerated expression, ishhhhhhh~

CNY eve was pretty busy cooking for prayer in the afternoon. Offerings to our ancestors. Putting up curtains, changing new bedsheet, and yes, I've decided to use the new silk comforter set I've bought 3 years ago. We must live in the present. What for keep for the future, when I don't even know if I'll still be here tomorrow right? That's my motto now. Live in the Present :)

Reunion dinner was among our immediate family and when night falls, we got ready for the midnight prayer to usher in the new year. Lots of ear-deafening firecrackers over here.... even pretty fireworks and I am so surprised that my dear Ben boy (or Ni-ni) loves the fireworks so much that he went all the way out to the main gate and gazed at the sky! Usually he's afraid of loud things, especially when there's thunder. He would bark as if scolding the thunder for scaring him, serious!

I slept at about 3am. CNY is finally here. Another year had passed. A new year signifies a new beginning. Put whatever unhappy things behind and look forward to the new horizon in front of you. Throw away the negative things and keep the happy memories. We only live once. That is why, I'm really grateful that I am still alive today.

Gong Xi Fatt Chai everyone~

Reflection - January 2010

2010-02-07T22:38:00.003+08:00

I remember having this kind of reflection post the first few months of 2009. Then I stopped altogether after I've landed myself into a new job which took up most of my time.

Maybe I should be doing this again, to see what I have achieved (or not achieved) for the past whole month. It's good to be able to take a few minutes off to reflect on what we have done (or not done) and what areas we can improve on.

So, albeit being a week late, here's my reflection for January 2010 :-

1. I am just thankful that I am still alive, after going thru hell the past few years

2. I am sincerely thankful and blessed to be surrounded by loving family and friends, and now, not-so-new colleagues

3. My medical check up showed a clean bill, and it meant the world to me, although I may not show it on the face

4. I've gone back to my old routine, going out at least once a week to catch up with my buddy/buddies and unwind after a long, tiring week

5. I drove all the way up to KL alone to stay with a friend and had a fantubulous time just bumming around and eating non-stop.. and oh yes, our (or rather, her) must-go place now IKEA :)

6. Bonded more closely with my gang at work

7. Learnt to say "No" at certain things, especially when I'm being taken advantage of

8. Survived the job I'm doing now, which used to be out of the league. In fact, I'm loving it although the stress and workload could be killing :P

9. Cleared the clusters in my room and got rid of a lot of old stuffs that I refused to throw out in the past

10. Told someone of my past. Briefly. But it took a lot of courage to do so. I don't know if I would regret, but so far, I'm still breathing and fine.

Looking forward to a smooth sailing February. A week had passed and I have been busy preparing for work and recently, for Chinese New Year which is just a week away now.

Hope to pick up blogging again soon. I actually have a lot to say about, but just don't have the time to sit comfortably to blog. Especially to insert pictures. No more time to carefully crop and watermark pictures. Even transferring the pictures from the camera to the laptop seems like a huge task, let alone editing and uploading them here. So from now onwards, please expect pictureless blog posts. Boring, text-only posts.

Over and out.

I Wanna Go to Singapore's MRT Station

2010-01-26T21:31:00.004+08:00

Today after working out at the gym, LY and I was cooling down outside when we saw a colleague coming our way. Once upon a time, this colleague had been her coursemates' laughing stock (I shall NOT elaborate here!). Now, even as a colleague, there are still other things to laugh about her. Okay, let's just say that she is kinda weird. Period.

So she walked past us, followed by a guy. As soon as they were out of earshot, LY told me that the guy is her boyfriend. She also said that the guy is a Singaporean. At this point, my eyes grew bigger, and thought, eh, what is he doing here on a weekday? Don't have to work ar?

Just before we left to go home, LY managed to ask me..

"You know how they met ar?"

"Huh? You asked like this, sure got some bizarre story one lar! Internet ar?"

"No ler, at Singapore MRT station"

"What the........ MRT station? Like that also can ar?"

"Ya lor, they said that she didn't have small change so she approached this guy and that is how they know each other"

"Wah LY, I also want to go to Singapore MRT stationnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn"

Mind you, not KL Komuter Station okay. I want Singapore MRT station. The exchange rate is 2.5, damn it!!!

Greediness Is Common?

2010-01-24T17:40:00.001+08:00

Friday night I was out for dinner with WT at her current favourite Japanese restaurant, Wa Zen. She missed her grilled cuttlefish so much, I can sense that :P After dinner we adjourned to our favourite hang out place in Melaka Raya.

It was such a giggly girls night out. Just the both of us, but enough to warm the heart and make me feel at ease. She's my stress antidote I would say :)

The waiter knew what we wanted. As always, I'd order Iced Passionfruit Lemon Tea. It used to be Oreo Chocolate Vanilla Shake but eversince I discovered passionfruit lemon tea, there's no turning back!

WT mentioned that I said "Thank You" in such a cutesy voice when the waiter served our drinks. I defended myself and said, I say thank you to everyone, even the waitress in Wa Zen earlier on. Nope, she said. The tone is different, according to her. Oh okay, perhaps a little high pitched. I just wanna see him smile.

That was enough to send WT into a fit of laughters. And when she didn't stop after 5 seconds, I joined in. Wow, I truly can't remember when was the last time I laughed so wholeheartedly at something so trivial, which, perhaps does not even warrant a laugh in the first place.

I really owe it to the waiter then? To have awaken this part of me which has been buried deep, deep, deep down in the corner of my wounded heart. But come on... it's really rare to see him smiling. He has this very cool expression everytime we went there, which is quite often I would say. There was only on a rare ocassion or two that he actually smiled at me, or string up a sentence of more than 5 words!

As the night passed, we continued chattering about hundred and one stuffs in our life. Then all of a sudden, it struck me that the 3 of us (including FF) had bought a few lottery tickets some time ago. We bought and shared those tickets because FF could not bear to see the old man going from table to table asking random strangers to buy his tickets but to no avail. So,I suppose the results should be out by now. Did FF remember to check the result?

I asked WT, "Eh you think FF still keeps the tix or not? Don't know whether she got check or not"

"Aiyah, burn already lar. Coz normally they will announce the winner is from which state... never heard of it in Malacca so far"

(-___-")

"OMG you greedy pig! That kind of announcement is for the 1st prize winner lar! I'm not eyeing for that only okay.. even a few thousands is better than nothing, you greedy PIG!"

Hahahahahahahaaha.... so is greediness so common in us nowadays? Or this is what we call as "Looking at the bigger picture"???!!!

Thank You God

2010-01-04T11:10:00.000+08:00

Lately, I saw a couple of my friends using this "God wants you to know..." application. Given normal circumstances, I wouldn't even subscribe to doing the same.

However, yesterday out of curiosity, I went in to look and this is what God wants me to know...

"that it is time to finally forgive yourself. You've carried the guilt, the shame for long enough. You've kept your wounds open for long enough. The time has come to let go, to heal. Keep the lessons and let the pain heal. Yes, you know what we are talking about it"

So timely, isn't it? Thank you God for understanding. I've been wanting to put down this baggage for a long time now. The pain still throbs. The scars can never be erased. The happenings can never be reversed. But life has to go on.

Happy New Year 2010

2010-01-04T10:25:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year, folks!

Time really flies and may the year 2010 bring us more joy than 2009. May we be blessed with abundant happiness and good health, not to mention good wealth too. I really need that :)

I'm trying to kickstart my blogging engine again but looks like it's moving on very slowly. Gimme some time. I'm positive I'll bounce back soon!

HAPPY NEW YEAR~

The Other Side of Me

2009-12-27T22:40:00.002+08:00

I was watching a Taiwanese drama late yesterday night. The first few episodes were a little draggy and slow but I did not give it a pass simply because it is the first Taiwanese detective kind of story I've come across in the sea of romantic dramas.

I remember not liking Vic Zhou when he acted in Meteor Garden ten years ago. Too stiff. No character. However in 痞子英雄 I was really surprised to see a drastic change in his acting. And this time, I gave my nod of approval albeit still not liking him in that way you fancy an idol :P

There was one episode where he lost the love of his life - the only girl, apart from his mum, who gave him the meaning of life, the meaning of humankind. He launched into a self-destructive mode. Staring into blank space. Oblivious to his surrounding. Everyone and everything was non-existent to him.

He gave up on his life the day the girl died in the bomb blast. He thought that there was nothing left in his empty life if even the only person who cared for him is gone.

He wandered aimlessly in the streets. He drank bottle after bottle of alcohol. In his mind, there was only one thing alive. The brief memories of their time together. Happy times, they were. The flashback was replayed over and over again and tears streamed down his cheeks profusely. No one could ever understand the pain he felt. No one could ever understand how much the girl meant to him.

There was this particular scene which touches me deeply. He was trying so hard to shut off the memories of her, the memories of them, but in vain. The more he tried to forget, the more vivid it became. The pain was too much to bear that he had to cover his hand over his mouth to silence the cry. Yet, there were uncontrollable cries that escaped through his trembling hand.

I wonder if he had gone through moments like this in real life to have mastered this so well. The exact actions, the exact emotions, the exact sounds. Because in him, I saw myself from the not-so-far-away past.

Surprise Lunchie

2009-12-11T21:30:00.000+08:00

This year's birthday is a little special because I have wonderful colleagues celebrating it with me. It's an advance celebration actually since my birthday falls on Saturday. Although I've been working in this new place for approximately 7.5 months and I've made fast friends with this bunch of people, never have I thought that they would actually take the trouble to plan for my surprise birthday celebration. And they have planned it so carefully that I didn't know about it at all! And LY was so afraid that she'll accidentally talk about it in front of me!!! It really bring warmth to the heart <3

Every Friday we have long lunch due to the prayer time. Yesterday LY told me that they planned to go to Pizza Hut for lunch the next day. It's an exception as we've always opted nearer places to eat, unless during trimester break then we'll venture further into the town. And why didn't I suspect something is fishy when even FZ is following us? This girl, eversince I joined this new workplace, she has been saying that when she's less busy a.k.a. semester break, she'll have lunches with me. 7 months on, we've only had lunch together for less than 5 times (-__-")

So come lunch time, LY, FZ and I went in one car where as UV, NSH, GCL and SR went in another. However, after we've arrived, they were still nowhere to be seen. Impossible! They left before us! This is when LY prove that her acting skill is getting better! She said so innocently that perhaps UV has gone to pump petrol and I actually believed it!

Then when they came in with the birthday cake, I didn't see it too coz LY asked me to help to pour the drinks, so I was fairly distracted. Clever huh! So we were happily eating 1 large pizzas and 3 personal pan pizzas - for 7 of us. GCL was eating so much, it's a wonder why she's stick thin!!! How I wish that it was me instead then I'll eat all the pizzas in the world! But poor her. I was teasing her so much today, hope she wasn't angry!

After we've walloped all the food, they started making eye signals and then UV went to get the cake right behind me, and I wasn't aware of it all along! Naughty naughty!! I was so touched, but thank goodness I did not shed tears or else.. oh no... shy~~~ It was a lovely cappucino cake. Very spongy and yummy.

Oh yes, I must say this. Today we've officially formed our gang, F3. Or gagak hitam, after our president's name :P We were laughing so much over it. Pure fun! Now, whoever dares to bully any of our members, beware! Kakakakakakakakakakakaka.... Hidup Gagak Hitam!!! The Crows!

Okay ciao. Feeling kinda sleepy and tired. Will upload the pics next week as I've left my card reader in the office!

One Year Ago

2009-12-08T23:06:00.000+08:00

Can't believe that a year had passed since I made that life-changing decision, packed my bags and headed home.

8 December 2008. Events that took place prior to this date changed my whole life. But it was on this precise date that I pluck up the courage to finally do something about it.

One year on, I'm still feeling the pain.

One year on, I'm moving on positively.

One year on, I'm gradually getting in tune with my old self.
One year on, I'm just glad that I'm still alive and kicking.

Busy Weekend

2009-05-10T16:49:00.002+08:00

Friday night I went back early and rushed like crazy to go downtown for the Wesak Day procession. This year Min is sitting on the lorry for one of the floats for the very first time so mummy and I were there to accompany her. She's following her Dhamma School friends. We walked from Gajah Berang to Bachang, made a U-turn and walked till Fajar. From there we took the Bailey Bridge and walked on to the road where Ramada and Bayview Hotel are situated. Then we stopped at the foodcourt there coz PY didn't have her dinner beforehand. It's pretty amazing that even after stopping for PY's dinner and packing some fishballs and sausage skewers for Min, we still managed to catch up with the procession before The Stadhuys :)

It was a good walk, I can't remember when was the last time I joined the procession, probably 6-8 years ago? Min clearly didn't need our company as she was doing fine on the lorry waving the Buddhist flag. She's also very shy to see us. In front of her, I don't call it shy, instead I said that she's "action" to act cool and ignore us! Hahahahaha... Like when I waved to her and asked if she wants to drink water, she'll make that kind of shy face, and doesn't really wanna answer... exactly like when we went to her kindy the other day, she suddenly toned down upon seeing her!

Yesterday we went to two Buddhist temple for prayers. Min had fun going round the Bodhi tree and putting in coins at the tins allocated for each zodiac. We went 3 rounds and she couldn't get enough of dropping the coins into the tins! At the other temple, she was eager to "bathe" the Buddha, something we've been doing for the past few years.

It's Mothers' Day today. Mummy wanted a simple celebration only. In fact if possible, she doesn't want any celebration! So as usual, we went out for lunch. This time it's Bak Kut Teh at Taman Merdeka. Teo Chew BKT. Not too bad I must say. I remember not liking BKT when I was young coz I don't really eat the stuffs in it. No internal organs for me, definitely! So I only get to eat button mushroom, meatballs and some lean pork. Now, it's still the same but I seem to like it better now despite still insisting on not eating the yucky internal organs :P

So that's it. My first week at work and the happenings. It's not convenient to write down what events took place or what really happened over here coz I don't wish for people to google it and then stumble upon my blog... so it's gonna be very vague description from now onwards until further notice, hahahahahahaha! Goshhhhh~ I'm still very tired and I look forward to sleeping in during weekends nowadays!

A New Journey in Life

2009-05-08T23:02:00.003+08:00

I've finally started on my new journey. I must say that it is something very challenging, having to quickly adapt to the new environment and pick up the jargons, beside dealing with emotional meltdown every now and then. On top of that, I have to open my golden mouth and start making small talks to everyone I meet coz it is essential in the line I'm in now. I can't be the old me who remains low profile and stays in the background observing people quietly. I've to come out of my "tortoise" shell and start building up rapport and whatever networking that I have to. It's good in a way coz I'm forced to do something which I've always hated doing - socialising and making small talks with people I barely know.

One thing for sure, I'm dead tired by the end of the day. Probably my body has yet to readjust, afterall, I've been working from home (lazying around) for the past 3 years! I always complain of suffering from insomnia. I've always slept late in the past few years. Miraculously, I was already dozing off on the sofa slightly after 9.00pm while watching television on most days! But I still managed to drag my heavy butt out of the house on Wednesday to meet WT and FF for dinner at Bay Leaves... not that bad, afterall I reckon!

My office is on the 3rd floor and I've been using the stairs a couple of times each day, now I'm worried if I'll gain more leg muscles on my already thick calves! I also walked around a lot here. Seriously a lot! Good. Can scrape the idea of going to the gym and save lots of money! Been attending a few briefings, trainings and some functions, meeting people everywhere and all. A new horizon. Not a bad thing, I would say!

Honestly, on the first day, I was so confused and lost, I started questioning myself, is this what I really want? Coz it seems a lot tougher than how I perceived it to be. I was thinking of giving up and do something I'm more familiar with, but I stopped mid way and told myself by hook or by crook, I gotta try this out. I'm giving myself at least 3 months to get used to everything here. And by then I hope to have settled down and see some positive progress. Wish me luck, will you?

Happy Birthday Min!

2009-05-02T23:37:00.002+08:00

Happy Birthday to the bestest little kiddo I've ever had in my life - Min. I tell you this girl can really light up my life, lift up my spirit and make me laugh at her endless antics. She's a good antidote on those low spirit days, just when you thought you're gonna plunge into another emo period, she'll be there to cheer you up and keep on talking or dancing or make funny facial expression to make you laugh. And the beauty of it is..... she does it so naturally, no extra effort, and she doesn't even know you're really in need of some laughters. The gem of my life :)

So this little girl is 6 today. How time flies. I remembered vividly the day she was born and we went to the hospital to see her that evening. Upon seeing me, the nurse quickly asked Ko who am I coz the baby looks exactly like me! I honestly think it was because she used to have a round face like me, and I inherited it from papa! Now that she has grown into a skinny, tall girl, her face isn't so round anymore but she still shares a lot of similarities with me. Like our love (or fight) for button mushrooms and ribena :) Or how we can't sleep without our bantal busuk. Or how we love to mimic those funny yet ugly expressions. The list goes on and on...

Today, Ku Ku cooked up a storm for her adorable niece. Something I've never tried before. And it's good that I'm gradually coming out of my "no-baking-no-cooking" phase. So let's see what I did today. And real sorry for the lousy pics. Everyone was so hungry by then, they just can't wait to attack the food. So no rearranging, no proper presentation, in fact they look so awful and not appetising!

First in line - chicken pie :) I saw this recipe some time back and have wanted to try it but never did. So today, I thought I could make some chicken pie for lunch or tea time.. it's my first time, and I really had no idea at all how to go about it, or how it was supposed to turn out like. But I guess it's pretty all right, except that the crust wasn't really thick enough to hold the ingredients... or was it that the ingredients were too much thus too heavy for the crust to hold them in? Or that it wasn't sticky enough to hold the chicken cubes and button mushrooms together? Anyway, I love it a lot, but not mummy who doesn't really know how to enjoy western food :)

Then I made some mashed potato, which was sapu-ed kilat-kilat soon after everyone digged into the food. The sauce was a bit yucky, in the sense that it didn't turn out the way I wanted them to. I remember I mastered them well when I cooked it last year, so what went wrong this time? And yes, this pic is also lousy. I meant to scoop it up nicely and pour the gravy over them but well, you know, those hungry homo sapiens were already looking at the food so eagerly, I feel bad denying them the right to eat!

Next comes the main course - grilled chicken leg for each of us. Simple marination with oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, light soy sause, sugar, pepper, salt, sesame oil and I also sprinkled some mixed herbs on it. Not much though coz I'm not sure if they would like the smell of it, especially thymes. The chicken doesn't look presentable here too because of the skin. Well I was trying to get rid of as much fats as possible and then I was also scrapping the fats out vigorously until the skin went out of shape... gomen nasai~

As for dessert, I made some milo-santan jelly again. I don't know if I put too much Milo coz the taste came out a bit weird for some of them. Ko and I find it okay though. At first mummy thought it was the santan which emits one kind of smell... but we later came to a conclusion that it was the Milo, after we tasted each layer individually. Errrrrrr... mummy said it smelt like cockroach, ewwwwww~

So that was our lunch. Very, very, very kenyang! And I was dead tired. Oh no, wait... I left out something very important coz it's the best dish of the day! It's homemade mushroom soup! Why there's no pic of it huh? My oh my... but I assure you, it's so yummy that even mummy loves it best! It's a bit troublesome coz after cooking it for about 20-25 minutes, you need to blend them to get the right texture, but the outcome is heavenly :) My first attempt at homemade mushroom soup... I'll definitely do it again, no doubt!

This year, I got Min a special birthday cake. (Apart from her birthday present - this is a must!). A friend from school has recently started her cupcake business online and I thought it would be good to show support and at the same time give a surprise to Min coz this is something different from the conventional birthday cake. A customised birthday cupcake. What kind of theme? The first thought that came to my mind initially was Winnie the Pooh.. but she doesn't want that. Moreover, she had Winnie the Pooh cake for her kindy party already. So I asked her and know what's her answer? "I want princess" -___-"

So I told SO to customize a princess theme for this little girl and I gave her the authority to come up with her very own ideas.... go free with the flow, no problem for me. So it was really a pleasant surprise when the cake came this afternoon. Very nice packaging and all. Very professionally done. And I am very satisfied with it overall :) Wanna take a peep?

Nicely packed, 12 beautiful cuppies

Arranged to form the number 6

That's the princess and oh how I love the castle :)

Top view, you also have necklace, magic wand and crown :)

The shy girl with her birthday cake

Enchanted!

Wish away and blow the candles

A birthday is never complete without a family photo

For dinner, we went for our favourite porridge base steamboat at Da Jia Le in Melaka Raya... wah, no wonder I've put on weight lately. There have been so many birthdays and makan celebrations non stop since the first week of April :)

It Could Have Been

2009-05-02T09:20:00.002+08:00

5 years ago, they took their wedding vows witnessed by both sets of parents and all their siblings. Such an important event that everyone made themselves free on that fateful day.

Both of them were overjoyed at this new journey of their life together, thinking that they would grow old together and still hold hands when their hair have all turn grey. Little did they know that God had something else in His plans for them.

That fateful night, he kept on looking at the blue marriage certificate, smiling endlessly. Then he pointed out to her the word "Berkahwin". She playfully protested, saying that they weren't husband and wife until the wedding ceremony is held. In return, he kept on saying no and insisted that they were already husband and wife in the eyes of the law then.

He was very proud that she has finally became his. He couldn't wait to introduce her as his wife to everyone he meets. All the pride and enthusiasm, the genuine love and happiness, can be felt instantly.

Now she wonders if he remembers what brought them together in the first place. What was it about her that attracted him initially. And just how very deep his love for her was once upon a time.

It could have been their happy 5th marriage anniversary.

Party At Kindy

2009-04-30T21:32:00.002+08:00

Min's birthday falls on 2 May each year. Since it's her last year in kindergarten, she decided to celebrate her birthday there this time. Ko, WW and I went to her kindy this morning coz 2nd is a Saturday (non schooling day) and tomorrow is Labour Day which is a non schooling day as well.

She was very excited about it since a few days before the real event! She kept on saying, ahhhhh?? So fast ar???? And I was asking her, why so panicky, not like she has to perform something or what! That girl is very active and talkative but she's one very shy girl deep down inside! So you can imagine when she saw us arriving at her kindy, she was so shy and didn't dare to run to us, she just stuck with her friends. Even when we sang the birthday song, she was so shy, she crossed her hands and looked down, alamak!!!

The cute 2kg Winnie the Pooh cake

WW prepared a party pack for each kid while I prepared some snacks for them. Ma said not to prepare so much coz the kids would eat the cake and play around. Ya lar, normally kids won't eat a lot lar as long as they get to play and also eat those sweet sweet stuffs. Even the principal was telling us that normally, the kids would only attack the birthday cake. But how wrong we were that day! Turned out that they sapu kilat-kilat my 1kg fries and 1kg nuggets. I should have bought 2 packets each instead! I think it's very rare that you get to eat nuggets and fries in school lar, no wonder they were all snapped up so fast and most of them kept on asking for refill!

Looks so little here, esp the nuggets, coz I arranged them very compact

The kids were really happy. In fact I think I'm the happiest of them all! Hahahahaha... it's really joyful to be looking at these innocent and carefree kids running around, laughing and playing without any worries in the world. I wish I could be like that :P I enjoyed taking their pics too, esp those who makan until the cream kena their whole face.. it's really funny and cute lar.. and some were so shy when they realised their pictures were taken! Others purposely posed for me pulak! Too bad my battery konked out towards the end or else I would have taken the pics of their classroom too... coz they were laughing so much when Ko went there to snap the pictures of them sitting obediently!

Curious kids wondering what kind of cake it would be

The whole class minus the monitor who was absent that day

Yayyyyy~ Candles lighted!

Ladies one side, gentlemen one side... and of course ladies first!

This guy is so cute, I think he's gonna grow up into a handsome guy :)

Azizul sure enjoys his food very much. The rest of the kids were laughing at him!

I kinda like this girl, Carol, she's so fair and cute!

Yuki seemed to love her food as well!

I love this boy so much, Chong Ming.. he's so comical and when he laughs, he got mata sepet!

See that malay girl behind Min? I forgot her name but I think she has very nice face features... very ayu and lemah-lembut kind you know!

All in all, it was a very pleasant day for all of us. Little Min got to watch Wolverine in the cinema with her parents while I went back home, too lazy to go out in such hot weather! Oh yes, I must include this... when the three of us went back, one of Min's friends commented about us.

"Why your ku ku so fat?"

"Why your mummy so old?"

"Why your papa's voice so weird?"

-______________________-"

Torturous Yoga?

2009-04-29T22:58:00.005+08:00

I went for a trial yoga session at 8.00pm tonight. I thought I could have died there and then!

ST and I have decided not to continue our yoga lessons with the previous instructor. So we're trying out this instructor whom many people highly recommended. I must say that the place is 10 times more impressive than the one we went to, and the instructor seemed more composed and knowledgeable. Finally, some proper yoga lesson!

Of course the fee is more expensive but each lesson calls for 1.5 hour instead of 1 hour. And with that kind of expertise and good studio condition, it sort of compensates the higher fee factor. Oh wait. We're both really lucky to have gone for the trial session today coz she's having a Mother's Day promotion right now and each lesson is only RM5 (for 30 lessons all together) - that's really a steal, right!

However, I've developed some sort of fear after the trial lesson today. It's kinda torturous for me. I can't really stand it and had breathing difficulty. Perhaps, she assumed that we have learnt yoga before, so the pace and poses were more difficult. So much so that I felt really "exhausted", sweat a lot and my heart sometimes beat very fast all of a sudden almost like palpitation.. sigh... I wonder if I can keep up with the pace of the lessons in future.

Then again, dun want to sign up also cannot already coz I've bought the yoga mat there. Baby blue. Nice yeah? Okay lar, I think I'll just attend one yoga lesson a week and see if I can tahan or not. Anyway, I'm still very new at my job, and I can't possibly go back on the dot so many days a week. Let's just say.. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully I can survive the yoga lessons at this new centre coz I know this is a good one. I, for one, sweat a lot!

Pizzamania

2009-04-27T16:32:00.005+08:00

Papa has been wanting to eat some western food lately. Bacon with bread that kind of stuff. So I decided to buy some bacon, ham and sausages for him. In addition to that, I baked 3 different pizzas yesterday, something I've never done before coz previously I always baked the same type of pizza!

Some of the ingredients used

My signature pizza is none other than the sausage-button mushroom pizza. I don't have any special name for it but basically, it contains sausage, button mushroom, onions, capsicums and tomatoes.

My all time favourite

Next, I tried to imitate Island Supreme. The picture I've taken doesn't look nice, but honestly it tasted good. Like Island Supreme lar, tak tipu punya!!! Basically, I bought Ayam Brand's tuna in olive oil, some canned pineapple and added crabsticks to it. Very simple, right!

Island Supreme

The 3rd pizza failed lar :( I tried to do stuffed crust bacon and ham pizza but as you can see from the picture, the crust is way too thick. And needless to say, it's the least favourite for my family!

Stuffed crust bacon and ham pizza

This afternoon I damn semangat, went to do some jelly for the family. Okay, I'm going to let you on a secret of mine, please don't faint okay. All my 30 years of life, I've never, I repeat NEVER done any jelly at all! Hahahahahaha.. I'm not a big fan of jelly and mum's the one who will do it for us in the past.

So, my first attempt turned out not bad I can say. But I forgot to take picture of it. I made chocolate-santan jelly. For the upper layer, I actually used Milo. As for the santan, the smell is a bit too strong, I'm wondering if I should have used the instant santan water instead of the powder. Anyway, it's niceeeeeee and great for hot days!

Repetitive Cycle

2009-04-25T16:11:00.002+08:00

Yesterday I put my phone on silence mode and took an hour of nap. Then I got over 30 missed calls from him. What now? *sigh* Anyway, I answered his call finally and he talked like everything was perfectly all right. Almost as if I was back in Malacca for a long holiday. Anyway, that is not what I wanna say today. He called regarding the car, needless to say. I mean, that is IMPORTANT to him, right? Only things important to him and him alone could interest him this way.

He started telling me again how his health has deteriorated so badly, and how meaningless his life is now, etc. Since he pretended as if nothing ever happened between us, I also talked to him in a very normal manner. Hey come to think of it, I've not spoken to him since 4 January. It's a wonder how he could really treat as if nothing really happened!

And the amazing thing is.... I think I heard him saying something like he does not need to send down some documents to me coz I'll be going back there soon.. or he'll be coming back soon. I'm perplexed. Totally awed. Is it his naivety or he simply chose to ignore, coz that's what he is best at? Anyway, it's real crappy.

Why did I say crappy? Coz while I was feeling perfectly all right when talking to him, the aftermath left me feeling really lousy all over again. How crappy is it that even after so many months, it still has such a huge impact on me? I thought that it should be subsiding by now? And what a mulut celupar I have. I was just telling myself that I haven't cried for a long time now, so I should be okay already. See what people mean when they say never speak too soon?

So yesterday night saw me feeling really gloomy and depressed. It carried on till the next day and by early noon, I couldn't take it anymore and tears started streaming down my cheeks. I cried for a while, and I must admit that I felt a lot better after that. This crying has a whole different meaning to me. It's not so much of the sadness/hurt/bitterness, but more like having to let it all out. Just to let the awful feeling outta my chest and everything's all right again. Weird how human behaves, huh!

He Sent My Blood Boiling

2009-04-23T23:55:00.005+08:00

It all started yesterday when he called me. I didn't pick up his call as I was in that hateful clinic, remember? Told him to use text instead as it wasn't quite convenient to talk then. The actual truth is, I didn't want to talk to him over the phone unless really necessary. So he told me that he's trading in his Waja and he needed me to sign the release letter, etc.

We went on to exchange heaps of smses and the last one from him mentioned that the runner would be coming down to Malacca the next day (which is today) to settle the stuffs and I was to meet that fellow to sign the documents. I quickly replied asking him NOT to send the runner down first unless all documents are ready coz the car was registered under the company's name therefore you would need a resolution to dispose the car and also other forms from the company secretary. I told him to find out the complete procedure and to get the necessary forms/documents ready before sending the runner down. I explained step by step what he should do first.. all in 3 smses, that was very long and detailed right? And the fact that he did not reply made me assume that he understood.

Boy, how wrong I was coz today, at slightly after 2.00pm, I received a phone call from an unrecognised number talking to me in Cantonese. Usually, I don't pick up calls from unfamiliar numbers or private numbers.. why the shit did I pick this one up?!!! And how I hate it when the guy said in Cantonese

"Miss, I'm about to reach in 5 minutes' time, come and sign the documents okay"

First thing that came to my mind was.. who the hell are you? Then it struck me that this could be the runner, yea, it was him lar. What happened next is not something I'm proud of, honestly. I blew my top and went into a crazy tirade, bombarding the poor guy left and right. I know it's not his mistake coz he was instructed to come down, but I just couldn't contain my anger and lashed out at him.

Who asked you to come down? I told him to ask you NOT to come down until all documents are complete.

Are you aware that the car is registered under the company? You can't just dispose it off like that. You need a resolution, form 9, 24 and 49.

(In my heart) What the hell you people are doing? Sell or buy without finding out first? Coz that guy thought the car is owned by an individual.

After I hang up, I texted him. At this point, I was really, really, really mad. Yea, I'm like a mad woman scolding him like nobody's business. All those harsh words came out, I'm really sorry.. I think what ticked me off so much wasn't the matter of having to drive down town at such a short notice, but more of the respect issue. Or whatever issues that I have to deal with him since last time.

You see, he always thinks his stuffs are the most important things in the whole world, damn urgent somemore.. and everyone has to drop what they're doing to accommodate him. But MY things.. are always NOT important and can be put aside forever. And why can't he take instructions on things that he doesn't have an inkling about? Since he sucks at paperwork and stuffs, I've already told him what steps to take and what to do beforehand. Did he listen? No, he acted like a smart aleck, ignored my advice and went on with his plan. After all, it was ME who has to deal with all the shits, and not him right... see... still as selfish as ever!

I got angrier when he kept asking me the same question more than 3 times in 5 minutes. Can't he understand simple English? How do you expect me to expedite the preparation of the documents when you didn't even provide the info needed for the resolution? Moreover, you think your father opened the company secretary firm is it.. want now means NOW. You know...I really wanted to teach him a lesson, if not for the fact that the poor runner came all the way down from KL. If he's from Malacca, I would have chosen NOT to go to the car dealer. Really. I think it's high time that someone teaches him a lesson to not take things for granted.

Anyway, I went lar. And I was all good with the runner. I felt sorry he had to endure the lashing earlier on.. hahahahahaha.. and on the way back, I just couldn't tahan anymore so I called EK and ranted to her all the way home and it continued until 1 hour later!!! Boy, I felt so good after letting it all out. Really! I was fuming like mad earlier on and at least now, I can laugh at silly jokes again.

At night, I went for yum char with WT and FF. He texted me a lot again. Apologised and lots of explanation, bla bla bla. And then fishing for sympathy by telling me that his health has deteriorated so much, etc. I don't know why but I just didn't want to bother so much anymore, if you understand what I mean. What's the point, you tell me? Everything's too late now, just like how he recently told me he missed me a lot and that the pen I gave him for his birthday a few years ago is his favourite now and that it follows him everywhere he goes now. What's the point???

I haven't been this angry for a long, long time now. Don't know whether to thank him for bringing back the fire in me or what! And it left me thinking... do I have zero EQ or what? I'm like an idiot volcano, erupting like crazy but after letting it all out, I'm back to normal. Is this what people call as quick tempered? Or plain crazy???

2.5 Frigging Hours!

2009-04-22T21:59:00.004+08:00

Honestly, I'm truly a person with very limited patience, except for a someone in the past. So, today, I am one very unhappy person having to wait 2.5 hours just for a stupid medical checkup required by my employer to-be. There's a reason to why I hated this particular clinic. Previously I've brought my mum and niece before and we had to wait for a relatively long time as well. Waiting to register. Waiting to be called. Waiting for medicine. This is the only general practitioner clinic with the longest waiting time I've ever come across. Don't talk about specialist, coz that's expected. But just simple consultation for casual fever or cough? That's unacceptable!

Anyway, I reached the place slightly after 10.30am and was told that there were 4 persons doing their medical checkup as well. Fine, I said. So how long should I wait? Half to an hour, I was told. So I went around that area, bought newspapers from 7 Eleven and went a few kilometres to pump petrol. I purposely drove at a very slow speed to kill time. Oh yes, I drank a lot of water at home at the advise of the nurse since I'm required to do the urine test. Then I bought another bottle of water at the petrol kiosk.

I got back to the clinic about 45 minutes later and the clinic was still filled with people. I started observing the surroundings. Mmmmm... each patient who went in took ages to come out. I'm perplexed. I mean, looking at them, I swear they don't suffer from any serious illness. Perhaps some cold or cough or fever. Nothing that requires tedious examination or injection for that matter. So why the hell such a long wait? Outside also wait, inside also wait. Take medicine also have to wait. Tsk! Tsk! Tsk!

I was actually sitting outside, still waiting at 12.00 noon. There was another last patient left by now. What the heck. From a room full of patients, now there was only me and the guy. I started to agitate. Mainly because my level of patience had plunged drastically. Second reason being desperate to answer nature's call. What do you expect? I gulped down a lot of water at home before 10.00am, drank another 500ml of water at the clinic and now, 2 hours later, I still have not gone to the toilet.

Now, the drama began. I walked up to the registration counter where there were 2 or 3 nurses.

"Excuse me, do you have the urine test bottle? My checkup requires the urine test"

"Huh? What? Bottle? Errr... at behind lar"

"Behind? Where behind?"

Another nurse interrupted..

"Eh, no lar, don't simply give. That one is used ones lar"

"Huh? ...................."

.................................................

Why the dots? Coz the conversation stopped just like that and I was left standing there. Okay fine. Wait somemore. After a few minutes I went up to ask again, if my turn is coming soon. And I was told to wait "inside" coz the medical officer would call me when it's my turn. What? I've waited 1.5 hours outside and it's only now that you tell me people coming for medical checkups were supposed to wait inside? Duh~~~

More waiting. Damn, the aircond is a lot stronger here and it's so darn cold, the urge to answer nature's call grew stronger. After pacing up and down for a good 20 minutes or so, I went out to the counter again, asking if I could get the urine bottle now coz I'm really desperate to go to the toilet already. And only at this time, the nurse decided to break the news to me that they don't know anything about urine bottles coz they don't handle medical checkups... I should ask the bottle from the medical officer inside. &$%#$*!#*&!! Why can't she tell me that right from the beginning?????

Thank goodness, my turn came soon after that. And you could have guessed, the first thing I asked for was the urine bottle. To my utter horror, the middle aged malay man mumbled to me "No urine bottle"... what the heck? I saw new empty ones at the corner of the room and this man is telling me there is none? Nyanyuk already is it? Goshhhhh~~~ Okay lar, can't blame him for his slow motion movement.. coz a few seconds after that, he reached out to a container on his desk to pass me the urine strip. Fine. Just anything okay, as long as I can pee lar!

Thereafter, everything was done hastily.. I think it's really a waste of time doing this stupid medical checkup which serves no purpose at all. The normal weight and height thingy, eye test, colour blindness test and x-ray. I'm so glad everything moved faster. However my happiness was shortlived... coz there I was again, waiting outside the medical officer's room, waiting to be called into the doctor's clinic. Do you know that it took the medical officer more than 15 freaking minutes just to bring the x-ray film and some yellow paper into the doctor's room? 15 freaking minutes just to carry a light particle and walk about 10 steps!

The nightmare continued in the doctor's clinic. Busy watching the television and reading his email. Oh, plus talking to me. Yea, simultaneously. Clever, right! Hell, no! Coz when he took my blood pressure, he paused so damn long, then pump pump pump somemore.. coz he was busy looking at the tv set on top. And then he got the cheek to tell me I got high blood pressure. (Update : I measured the next day at home with my digital pressure machine.. my BP is perfectly normal okay!!!).

Then, out of nowhere he scolded me for not filling up my particulars in the form. By then, I was just damn too pissed off and "lazy" to fight with him anymore so I just let it pass. Let him mumble and nag as much as he wants. Or else I could bloody retort back that it was his nurse who told me that I don't have to fill up the particulars first. Go sack your nurse lar, bodoh!

He went on to nag me on my urine test result. Why got glucose in your urine? You got diabetes ar? You'd better be careful. Come back for another test a month later. But it's up to you okay, it's your own body, yada yada yada... All my life, in all my blood test and urine test, I've never failed my urine test. Never! Why suddenly scare me with diabetes lar.. hahahahaha.. okay I gotta confess this. It only crossed my mind when I reached home okay. You see, back in the toilet, I actually dropped the urine strip on the floor but since the floor was dry, I thought it was okay. Maybe the urine strip picked up some other stuffs from the floor and therefore affected my urine test result?!!!

Getting back my form from the registration counter was another 15 minutes wait. Aiyah, need so long just to pass me back the form mer? Really inefficient I tell you! I swear, I won't come to this clinic anymore, unless it's damn necessary. A total waste of time and crappy people as well. Sighhhhhhhhhhhhhh~

Another Relief :)

2009-04-20T23:37:00.004+08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KO~

We had another simple dinner celebration on this actual day, without papa around, of course since it's a Monday. There's a new steamboat restaurant in Taman Kota Laksamana, same row as BeiZhan and we went to try it out. I didn't snap any pictures coz I didn't bring any bag out, hence no camera. How to stuff my big, fat wallet, mobile phone, tissue pack and comb into two tiny pockets lar, you tell me!

Before we left, Min was telling us that Ku Ma (auntie aka babysitter) asked her to text them to tell them where we were heading off for dinner. Mind you, auntie here means the real aunt as in relatives okay.. not the casual auntie we greet at the pasar. They just wanted to make fun of her lar and we did not text. Well, the story is like this. Ko wanted to pick her up from Ku Ma's house but she said she wanna follow them out for dinner. Since it's Ko's birthday today, of course, we wanna have dinner with her lar. So Ku Ma just syok-syok tell her, never mind lar, you sms me where you're going then we meet there lar okay...

The thing is, not even 30 minutes after we sat down at the table, who would have guessed it was the bunch of them who stepped in next!!! 3 adults with 3 kids in tow. Errr.. can't squeeze into one table lar so they sat next to us. After dinner, we mingled around and mummy was chatting with Min's both Ku Mas, so much so until the boys buat bising, wanna go back already! Hahahahahaha.. tak boleh tengok orang senang sikit ke?????

The food? It's okay, really. Just that I feel the set is a lil' expensive. RM13.00 for set. We called for 3 sets and some ala carte fishballs. When the dish came we got a shock of our life coz it's really little. 3 miserable prawns (1 set = 1 medium sized prawn, 1 quail egg, 1 fish ball, etc..) you get the drift, don't you? So kedekutnya... Then we did the calculation. Next time it'll be better if we only order 1 set, then add on ala cartes, which would be a lot cheaper and worthwhile!

Oh and yes, I went to see the gynae this morning, hence the title of this post today. I was due for my follow up pap smear and scan. Ermmmm, next time, please remind me to AVOID going on Mondays at all cost. Had to wait for so long, nothing like those previous visits when it was super fast! Anyway, it was almost lunch time when my turn came. The pleasant nurse took my weight and thank goodness I lost 1kg or the doctor would start nagging me again!

So I was put on another cycle of the pills as it works for me... boy, ain't I scared of the terrible menses which left me so immobile like what happened 2 months ago? Mmmmm.. since it's working for me, I was asked to go on another cycle, whereby he said it would normally take 5-6 cycles to correct the problem. Dang~

Then he did the thin prep pap smear for me. Okay, now, how many of you actually know that Pap Smear is actually the short name for Papanicolaou test? Papa what again? Hahahaha.. what a mouthful! Anyway Thin Prep is more accurate than the usual pap smear we do annually. It's about 90%+ accuracy as compared to 60-70%+ accuracy for the normal pap smear. Therefore, the price of the test is more expensive as well.

Next, he did the colposcopy for me. Colposcopy is a medical diagnostic procedure to examine an illuminated, magnified view of the cervix and the tissues of the vagina and vulva. Many premalignant lesions and malignant lesions in these areas have discernible characteristics which can be detected through the examination. It is done using a colposcope, which provides an enlarged view of the areas, allowing the colposcopist to visually distinguish normal from abnormal appearing tissue and take directed biopsies for further pathological examination. The main goal of colposcopy is to prevent cervical cancer by detecting precancerous lesions early and treating them. The procedure was developed in 1925 by the German physician Hans Hinselmann.

A colposcope is used to identify visible clues suggestive of abnormal tissue. It functions as a lighted binocular microscope to magnify the view of the cervix, vagina, and vulvar surface. Various light filters are available to highlight different aspects of the surface of the cervix. Acetic acid solution and iodine solution (Lugol's or Schiller's) are applied to the surface to improve visualization of abnormal areas. Three percent acetic acid is applied to the cervix using cotton swabs. The transformation zone is a critical area on the cervix where many precancerous and cancerous lesions most often arise. Areas of the cervix which turn white after the application of acetic acid or have an abnormal vascular pattern are often considered for biopsy. If no lesions are visible, an iodine solution may be applied to the cervix to help highlight areas of abnormality.

Cool yeah? Cool your foot lar.. it felt so uncomfortable lar. Who would like having both legs raised so high up and opening up to be scrutinised by a male doctor, you tell me! Not only scrutinised, but a lot of poking or knocking or whatever you call it!! Hahahaha.. but I'm relieved lar coz he told me everything looked perfectly fine "in there"... anyway, I'm not so well versed in those technical terms lar, I got it from wikipidea :)

Oh yes, the nurses there are very friendly with me already... ya what, show my face there once a month until they see also jelak already mar! But there's one who still shows the grumpy face. Mmmmmm.. I think cannot blame her lar, maybe she's born with that kind of face ler! :)))

Another Birthday

2009-04-19T22:37:00.002+08:00

It's Ko's birthday tomorrow (A lot of April babies!!!) and we had the traditional cake cutting "ceremony" this afternoon. Mummy bought the chocolate cake which actually looks yummy :) Sing song, cut cake, snap family pictures... the norm on each member's birthday. I wonder if there are still people out there who does this for each and every one of their family member?

We had lunch outside yesterday in conjunction with Ko's birthday. It has been quite some time since I last went to our favourite dining place, BeiZhan. They've shifted to Taman Kota Laksamana, just before the bridge to Melaka Raya. And yesterday was their opening ceremony at the new location. So that made us one of the first customers, being served the first meal (lunch) on the very first day of their operation. Cool, isn't it?

Hey the next time you're there, be sure to check out their washroom even if you don't have any "business" to do. It's very the cantik lar.. and unique too. Okay, it's certified, I'm B O R E D.

Toodles~

He Has Grown!

2009-04-17T20:47:00.001+08:00

The title is misleading, huh!

I'm talking about my "idol" in One in A Million Star (Xing Guang Da Dao) - 3rd Batch. Remember in my post last year, I mentioned that I felt like a teenager all over again, googling for this guy's stuffs? Hahahahahaha... I've actually stopped keeping up with his updates. Not that I don't like him anymore, perhaps I was overwhelmed with bigger stuffs in my life then.

He is none other than Singaporean HUANG JING LUN, who has a voice akin my idol singer Jeff Chang when I was still in school aeons ago! Last month I googled a little on the suicide of his team mate, Li Chu Ning, and came across a lot of his news. Gosh, I didn't know that he has released an album last October/November. That's barely 3 months after the competition. Did he has sufficient time preparing for such a big thing in his life? And I'm proud to say that he's the first from his batch to cut an album, way to go, Jinglun :)

He had a haircut too. Looks better and not so "blur blur" anymore! I keep on thinking he resembles someone but until today, I still couldn't figure out who. Anyway, he's getting BIGGER in Taiwan now. Besides cutting an album, he also landed himself a commercial for C C Lemon with one of the most famous Taiwan female singer/actress - Rainee Yang Zhenling. I've also seen his MV for a few songs, whereby he had to act a bit lar.. and also to work with female artists... ermmm.. this is a surprise coz you know him lar.. so balak and blur blur/selamba, it's a wonder he did quite well in the MV - for his acting, and also at least he did not turn into a lobster blushing like a tomato when he had to be this close to female artists :) Not bad, not bad...

Now, feast your eyes on this a little "girlish" guy, and two of his MVs. Well, honestly, I think he's the kind of guy whom you'll either like or hate. Not many people can accept his kind of voice, like Jeff Chang's :)

Why he likes to have his mulut ternganga like this huh?

Phewiiitttt~~~ Dark, thick eyebrows ler, my favourite :)

From his MV. He looks so innocent here!

Wonder how many takes he kena shoot for this part!

Another MV, he macam very keras/kaku here!

Mulut ternganga again! But I think this hairstyle suits him better!

Clowning around during another MV shoot

So lucky get to shoot with so many leng luis :)

Commercial shoot for C C Lemon, with Rainee Yang

I think he's doing great in Taiwan, that he won't return for his studies in Singapore anytime soon. So far, he was invited as a special guest in one of his idols' concert - 林志炫 (one part of the former Ukelelee) and he had to opportunity to sing duet with his all time idol Jeff Chang in Xing Guang Da Dao. He also performed alongside big shots like Jolin, Alex To, Gigi Leung and many more. I think he's going to get bigger in no time!

Here's two of his MVs I wanna share here. He dedicated the first one (黃靖倫-缺席) to his closest female team mate in Xing Guang Da Dao, Li Chu Ning who passed away on 12 November 2008. The song is very touching and I personally like it a lot. The second MV is 黃靖倫 - 月光.

Haircut Again!

2009-04-16T22:29:00.003+08:00

It was a public holiday in Malacca yesterday, being the Historical Day. I was supposed to wake up early to fetch mummy dearest to the market but she didn't wake me up and being the occasional tidur balak person, I slept through the early morning especially with the heavy rain and cool weather. By the time I woke up, it was already 10.00am!

After washing up, I chauffered Mi to the market, Econsave and the organic shop to get our supply of 5 grain non-dairy milk powder and black sesame powder - they're really good, maybe I should blog about it one day. I was also supposed to experiment with the chicken pie so I bought some chicken fillet but got too lazy to do it in the end -______-

At night, WT and I met up with CF for dinner. We've been raving to her about Bay Leaves and she was so keen to give it a try, but alas, memang takde jodohlah, it was closed. I don't know why they close on public holiday, coz I remember the first time we were there was on a Wednesday as well.

So we ended up in Bamboo Hut Bistro, next to Aldy Hotel, or the old HSBC building. I seldom go there coz it's expensive lar, I'm just a penganggur, where got money to go there kan :P Anyway, the food was good but I forgot to snap any pics lar.. ceh, sayang sekali.. maybe bcoz I was so chatty pasal so long never see this girl already!

I had alfredo pasta, it was nice. CF's marinara pasta was so so, I don't know why it's kinda spicy though. WT had fried rice which comes with a fried egg, 3 sticks of chicken satay and some keropok. Then we ordered a veggie pizza and it was yummylicious - thin crust. WT and I opted for more healthy fruit juice which costs RM15.00 per small jug. The word "jug" is so misleading actually. Errrr.. let's just say that it's about 1.5 glass okay. I went for a combination of 2 orange + 1 mango + 1 apple juice. CF said the orange dominated the taste, but I was still burping mango smell a few hours later!!!

Today was a fruitful day to me. Managed to accomplish quite a number of things in a few hours. First of all, I drove to the municipal hall to pay off my parking summons. Have to lar, or else it'll be RM50 after two weeks! It was still early so I didn't have to wait at all. Went to the info counter to get the "discount" (RM15) then proceed to the payment counter to pay it off. That's it, a breeze :)

Next on the agenda - my facial appointment in JJ, just beside the municipal building. As usual, a lot of tiny breakouts on my forehead, thanks to the menses. This time, the facial ended a lot earlier, maybe because she skipped the eye and neck treatment. Also because we were talking ALL the time, except when she sprayed toner on my face, or applied mask.

Texted FF if she'd like to meet me for lunch at JJ. Today is the last day of the Sushi King's RM2 promotion. There was quite a long queue outside but still bearable lar... kesian FF... had to rush over, makan puas-puas, then rush back to work. Entah-entah suffer from indigestion or not!!! Overall, I think it's so-so only coz the choice is quite limited. But since it's only RM2 per plate, still worth it! Jangan complain!

Browsed through the clothes racks after lunch. Didn't find anything I fancy except for a cheap top and a belt and oh yes, 2 Giordano t-shirts. Nothing much besides those, and also I was too lazy to ransack the racks anymore. There, I told you what... I'm not a shopping person!!! So I bolted out of JJ and drove back.

Since it was still early, I decided to go for a haircut as it has grown a little like semak-samun since my last haircut in late January. It was really short then and I was kinda desperate to let it grow back. Okay. I have this hairstyle in mind. The sharp, edgy one. But my hair is not that long yet, so I told the stylist to just trim the back and give it a slight shape first.

Honestly, I think the hairdresser has problem with dia punya simetri lar. The last I checked, she's not cock-eyed mar! You know or not, the last time I went there, she cut until both sides are not of the same length. Thank goodness not very noticeable lar. This time, my right side looks nice but the left side.. aduhai... there's not much of a slope/slant and it doesn't look nice actually. But I'm just plain lazy to go back there again to get it fixed. sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh~ Maybe wait for another month for it to grow longer, then I'll go to another hair salon to get it fixed and also highlighted.

You cannot really see the difference from the front view I think... adoiiiiiiii~

Yipppeeeeee~

2009-04-14T23:24:00.002+08:00

Yipppppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~

Or should it be SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT??????

Remember I went for an interview on the last day of March? And that I said I think I didn't do so well? Ermmmmm.. I actually got the job :) I've been trying to contain my happiness since 2 weeks ago. You see, I was told 3 days after the interview that I was successful but I didn't tell anyone about it until much later. I was afraid it's an April Fool joke, so I decided to wait for their offer letter to arrive before I announce it to my friends.

And guess what? I finally got it today! Again, I actually already knew of the offer letter a week ago when the HQ called me up but there was some time delay in the transition from KL to Malacca so I only got hold of it today. Nevertheless, it was a huge relief :)

Now, should I shout YIPPEEEE or SHIT? I know I should be happy and thankful to still be able to secure a job in this kind of shitty economic downturn. Trust me, the job market is so dry in Malacca, I almost thought I had to go back to KL to get a job (cringing at the mere thought of it)... So I'm really glad I've landed myself a full time job now (bye bye to working from home - for the past 4 years or so) and that I'll be financially independent again soon (at least I won't feel like a miserable loser anymore) :)

On the other hand... I'm so scared. Yes. S C A R E D. Due to the horrible past, I've not been working outside for so long, I'm considered as an obsolete. And of course my confidence level took a plunge. Deep, deep trouble. I am not sure if I can perform because this is really something new to me. Something I've never ventured into at all in the past. I don't want to disclose too much for now... let curiosity kill the cat, buahahahwhahahahahahahahaha~

Another question to be considered. Should I close down this blog? Or make it private? Coz I really don't want any colleagues or whoever it is in the organisation to be reading everything about my personal life. This is a very serious issue... I'm really contemplating closing it down... coz I'm scared to take the risk... What should I do?

3 Continuous Days

2009-04-12T21:49:00.003+08:00

I've been going out for 3 continuous days, since Friday. I was feeling kinda down and needed to get out of the house and be surrounded by happy people. I had to avoid the numerous family gatherings over the weekend. I had to block those unhappy memories from flooding my mind. I had to fight back the urge to cry. I just had to get out and not be alone! So there I was... having dinner and yum char session on Friday, shopping spree on Saturday and karaoke session today :)

Oh yes, I forgot to say this in my last post. I got a bloody parking summon on Friday! I went to Malim Jaya to pack vegetarian food and on my way back, I thought I ought to drop by Econsave to stock up on my sanitary pads. I parked at the parking lot behind (which my mum thought is Econsave's parking lot), and went in to grab the pads. I was in for only 10 minutes and it was all it takes to find a summon under my wiper on the windscreen! 10 freaking minutes okay!!! Okay lar I admit it's my mistake. I'm still not used to this coupon thingy here in Malacca... and moreover, I seldom go out in the daytime nowadays, hence the non-habitual parking coupon scratching. *sigh* This sanitary pad is really very expensive! Must use longer so that more berbaloi.. hahahahahahahha~

I was getting a little desperate being home alone yesterday morning.. coz the whole family was out for breakfast and another separate lunch family gathering. I, of course, opted out of them. Still hate being questioned. Still hate being stared at. Still hate the awkwardness... Damn~ why did I get myself into this shit?

By late morning, I was all fidgety and depressed but still did not want to pick up the phone to call any friend and whine coz it'll just spoil their weekend mood lar... so I texted WT to ask if she's free, I just needed to go out, anywhere! She suggested that we go to JJ to scout for new clothes, etc, to prepare for my upcoming job. I'm not exactly in the mood for shopping, but, whatever lar, as long as I'm not stuck at home alone fighting back the tears.

The overall damage? Quite huge, for a person who doesn't splurge on shopping spree! I got myself a pair of slacks (should have gotten another 2 pairs coz I didn't realise it's that cheap until I paid for it), 4 tops, 1 document bag and 1 wallet. Me, being the unadventurous one, ended up buying a WHITE bag. That's so unlike me. I would normally go for black or dark brown... nevermind, change is good :)

Nice or not? It's 70% off, from RM229 to RM68 :) And I stumbled upon the matching wallet/purse, which is on 50% discount. I've never had a long purse before coz previously I wasn't allowed to carry bag (think snatch thief in KL) so I had to stuff my wallet and mobile phone in my pockets. Now that the restriction is off, I thought it would be nice to finally have one.. especially when I have so many stupid cards in my existing wallet that makes it look so bloated just like si gemuk!

After our shopping spree, we somehow talked about karaoke. Why all of a sudden ar? Oh yeah, I think I had the urge after listening to those nice Power Station songs in Bay Leaves on Friday night. We actually called Go Go Karaoke but it's fully booked. So, WT then suggested that we go to Dreambox the following day, which is today lar. I felt a bit guilty for going out 3 days in a row (as if treating my house as hotel) but I was still feeling blue about the whole episode.. so what the heck, just go for it lar!

WT and I sang and sang from 11am till 2pm.. until beh tahan, in between we just listened to some songs instead of singing! But hey, it's damn cheap okay. On Sundays, 11am-2pm slot, you only pay RM11.50 nett for 3 hours of singing + 1 set lunch + 1 drink. Where to get such a good deal, you tell me! And of course, your friend here who's still mabuk with A Mei although her concert was nearly a month ago, I sang a lot of her songs until my throat finally cannot take it anymore.. coz damn, her songs memang very difficult to sing lar.. need a lot of strength and stamina, damn ~~powderful~~ powerful one!

After puas nyanyi, we went to Big Apple to ta pao some donuts back. I know papa loves this, so I ta pao-ed 6 pieces home.. or yes, I forgot to mention too that somewhere last week, I did the chocolate ice cream again and it's a hit with my family. They didn't have a chance to try it last time coz I did it in KL...

Okay lar.. so much money spent and so much time spent outside, I think I'll be good for once and stay home for the rest of next week... okay that's a lie.. coz I'm supposed to meet up with CF before she "bomb"... beranak lar :))) Last but not least, I hope that all these blues and stupid, irritating depression will leave me alone... over and out----------------------------

Escape Route

2009-04-11T11:03:00.007+08:00

I preplanned my escape route yesterday. You see, I'm still at the stage whereby I avoid family gatherings/reunions - yesterday my uncle and his family came down from Singapore and another cousin came back from Australia - therefore, I quickly arranged to meet up with WT and FF for dinner so that I don't have to attend the gathering and I also didn't want to stay home and mop around, not on THIS day.

We somehow ended up in Bay Leaves (again!) but I don't mind a bit coz it has became my favourite hangout place too :) This time, they had Power Station's (Tong Li Huo Che) music playing in the background and I simply love it! Made me wanna go dig out my PS CDs which I've abandoned in the CD rack since ages ago! And yes, the lady boss spoke to us in Mandarin this time, so it's confirmed that she's a Chinese converted to Islam - not that it matters, though :)

WT and I both had the Grilled Chicken in Herbs Sauce, which is yummy, and FF tried something new today - BBQ Hot Sauce Chicken, served with butter rice. It's delicious but I know I won't order this coz I can't take spicy food. It's not that spicy, really, but yours truly's level of tolerance for anything spicy is really low!!! On top of our main course, we ordered a bowl of french fries to munch on while we yak yak yak away after dinner... and FF kept on hearing "a BOAT of french fries"!!!

After dinner, we made a move slightly before 10.00pm before they closed shop. Horror of horrors, WT forgot to switch off her car's headlights and hence, the car refused to start up.. and the alarm had fun blaring at full blast, almost embarrasing us each time a passerby stares mercilessly at us. So we ditched the car and hopped into FF's to go yum char at a cafe nearby.

I wanted to try somewhere new, so FF recommended Tribe House at the Plaza Mahkota, which is exactly opposite Wok n Pan. It's more like a drinking place, kinda dim and cosy with lots of white, soft pillows. Tribe House is located on the first floor of a 3 storey building. I think the ground floor is some tattoo or body art shop (they were closed when we were there).

The entrance of Tribe House. Theme colour : White

It actually looks like this, dim and cosy with many pillows. The rest of the pics were taken with flash

You actually have to sit on the floor and there's a huge TV on top with Asian Food Channel showing

Paintings of koi fish on the wall

They serve liquor (it's a drinking place what!)... but we opted for non acoholic drinks. I ordered Root Beer float but they ran out of root beer so I settled for Coke Float instead. Wahhhhhhhhhhhhh... it has been a long, long time since I indulged in Coke Float. I remember once upon a time when we used to hang out in Sit Tea House, I used to order Coke Float and got scolded by Grace for always ordering that. She said I have to be more adventurous and get out of my comfort zone! Hehehehe.. Thereafter, I tried a few cocktails (most of them taste like cough syrup!) and eventually ended up with Honeydew Bubble Milk Tea as my favourite.

Oh yes, I bought extra virgin olive oil and actually experimented this dish - oglio shrimp pasta, whatever you call it lar. I didn't fail miserably but it didn't turn out nice either. I think I put too much of the olive oil, and I sprinkled thymes coz I didn't have basil or parsley herbs with me :) Considered still okay lar, for a first timer :)

Okay, I'm going out to JJ with WT in a while.. will update if I managed to get anything from there.. tata :)

Happy Birthday

2009-04-10T13:06:00.002+08:00

I dreamt of you early this morning.

I woke up from the dream with another anxiety attack again.

I tried to brush it off and go back to sleep as it was only 8.00am.

Then out of the blue, you texted me saying that you really miss me.

.......

.........

...........

.............

...............

Happy Birthday to you. The you who once made my life whole.

May you be well and happy always. Sincerely from the bottom of my heart.

It Really Pisses Me Off

2009-04-09T23:16:00.002+08:00

.. when people don't pick up their frigging phone!

.. and when they don't return your call or sms until much later when it doesn't even matter anymore!

Okay, I have to admit that I sometimes don't pick up calls either. But that's either I'm away from my mobile phone (in the kitchen or toilet), or I purposely avoid certain calls or person for some reasons not to be mentioned here.

However, it really pisses me off when it's friends, especially close ones, who don't pick up calls or return calls. And at times when you really need a quick answer. I missed my yoga lesson today because of this. ST and I wanted to try out at this new centre and we were not very sure of the location. I called and texted a friend who joins the yoga there to ask for the exact location 2 hours before the lesson. No answer. So when the time came, we just ronda-ronda around the place, and we failed to find it. Stopped by the roadside to call that friend again. And again, it went unanswered. Called the instructor, also went unanswered.

ST and I finally gave up as it's past 8.00pm and even if we found that place, it would be rude to interrupt a class which has started. What's more, it should be our first time there. So we ended up having a drink at Uncle John Kopitiam nearby -_____-" I really kesian ST who came all the way to fetch me, then ended up with nothing.. hrmpphhhh~~~

Another classic case of a friend who always doesn't pick up calls. And she always gives ~~bloody~~ lame excuses...

Handphone "sot sot" already
Handphone no battery liow
Don't know where's the charger

Like how she FFK-ed us for a gathering and she can't be reached at all. But she called me about 2 weeks after that and when I asked her this..

"Wah liau eh, why always never pick up phone one ar?"
"Oh, something's wrong with my phone lar, now only see the missed call"
"Wah, now only see, means you didn't use your phone for 2 whole weeks ar???"

Damn lame, right? *shakes head in disgust*

Happy Birthday Mummy :)

2009-04-05T23:33:00.003+08:00

It's mummy dearest birthday yesterday. We only managed to cut cake at night - not much celebration - coz it's also the day where we had to cook a lot and pray at home for Cheng Beng (All Soul's Day). You know, I always think it's so weird that my mum's birthday always falls on Cheng Beng. It's like.. eeeeeeee~ so inauspicious right? Hahahahaha, okay lar, please don't be so superstitious and everything will be all right! And I have no choice but to admit that I'm getting old and useless already. I felt so tired of all the standing, chopping, washing and cooking. I really felt the tiredness this time. I've been helping mum in the kitchen on special occasions like this since I was a kid and I've never felt this exhausted until yesterday! Sob! Sob!

The birthday cake ee ee got for mummy, it's coffee flavoured and it's nice :)

It has been a tradition in my family to celebrate its member's birthday this way - cake cutting and a yummylicious meal outside. This year for mummy's birthday, we cut cake sang the birthday song at night and only managed to go out for a decent meal the day after her birthday. Ko Ko wanted to try out the high tea in Holiday Inn coz they have not been there before. I went there last month for WT's birthday and it's nothing to shout about, really, but since they've not tried the high tea there, let them experience it :)

The happy family

So this afternoon, we got ready for our first high tea together this year :) It's at Essence Kitchen in Holiday Inn, located on Level 2. RM36.80 nett for adult and children below 12 years old can eat for free. On top of that, if you have DBS, UOB or CIMB credit card, you get 20% off. A very good deal, isn't it? So all of us, 5 adults and 1 child got to eat to our hearts' content and only had to pay for 4 adults after the 20% off :)))

High tea at Essence Kitchen in Holiday Inn, Melaka

Okay I have to say this. Today's buffet spread is B E T T E R than last month's!!! At the same price, how come??? Could it be that we went on a Saturday for WT's birthday and today is a Sunday so the spread has more varieties? Unfair!!! I know one thing's for sure, there's no soup last time. No rice either. No flower crabs. No cendol. No salmon salad. No egg station. No croissant or bread station. Seeeeeeee... so much difference! I must tell WT and Chow about it! Hrmphhhhhh~~~

Why everyone knows a picture is taken, except for me?

We were there from 1.30pm till 3.00pm. I didn't get to sample everything coz I was kinda full already. The spicy beehoon goreng is not bad. Mummy cannot stand the smell of parmesan cheese in the omelette but I love it :) And wow, Shar Min actually ate 3 rounds of Koko Krunch!!! And ko ko was saying.. hrmphhh~~ at home got Koko Krunch also don't want to eat, come here, eat so much! Hahahahahahaha... And she simple loves the apple juice!

Yours truly

My favourite person :)

So that pretty much wraps up mummy's birthday this year. Just a simple celebration for a simple happy family. No words can describe the gratitude and love I feel for my mummy dearest, for all the things she has done for me all these years... I love you, mi <3

Bay Leaves

2009-04-02T23:45:00.005+08:00

Yesterday was April Fool's Day. Anyone kena tricked or not? I did not. In fact, I was telling my friends that as we grow older, April Fool's Day has lost its significance. Nobody kuasa to play pranks on friends anymore! Perhaps, if I were to do something silly to my friend now, they'll look me up and down and think that I have a loose screw up there!

I didn't sleep enough on Tuesday night. Actually I was very tired but at around midnight, I suddenly chanced upon a piece of news about some singer committing suicide. I got the shock of my life coz I've seen this girl competing in Xing Guang Da Dao last year and I really, really, really love that program. I can't believe that she has chosen to die. I'll blog about it soon okay.

As I was saying, I didn't have enough sleep coz I was googling on more news about her death. The next day I was feeling very lethargic and thought I could use a nap in the afternoon. Who knows HP called me and she wanted to meet up. I wasn't really keen in the beginning coz I was really tired and needed a nap. In the end, I gave in coz we've been planning to meet up since a month ago but always get canceled in the last minute. We went to the nearest KFC and chatted for nearly 3 hours. Okay lar, no regrets for meeting up :)

SC and I were supposed to try a yoga lesson at another centre yesterday at 8.00pm. However, she canceled on me at 6.00pm coz it's that time of the month for her :P Ironically, at the same timing, WT texted me to ask if I've any plans for the night coz she felt like having dinner and chit chat with FF and I. Wah, what a right timing. If SC has not canceled on me, I would not have the chance to go out with WT and FF. And if I've not gone out with them, I would not have discovered this new place to eat :)

You see, I always complain that we're not adventurous enough. Balik-balik eat and yum char at the same places that we like. Sometimes when friends ask, I also don't really know where to recommend them for food coz I only know that few -_______-" Anyway, it is also fate that we stumbled upon this restaurant/cafe. We were supposed to go to Wok n Pan but WT missed the turning so we ended up at the Melaka Raya main road. Then FF recommended one organic restaurant so we parked opposite the road, only to find that the organic restaurant was closed!!! But right across the street is this restaurant called Bay Leaves, beside Keng-Dom Restaurant. I was having doubts coz it's empty and you know what it means if a restaurant have no patrons :) But WT wanted to give it a try, so okay lar, just go with the flow.

I tell you, totally no regrets. The cafe was cosy. And yes, we were the only patrons there the whole night, except for a girl who had a drink while surfing the net. It's as if we've booked the whole place :) I think the redirection of roads in Melaka Raya caused the quietness. I suppose a lot of business owners complained that their business took a dip after the redirection. Anyway, this cafe serves homemade stuffs. It is owned by a Malay lady if I am not mistaken. She is very fair and looks like a Chinese but she wears headscarf, so I assume she's either a convert or of mixed parentage :) There was another Malay guy helping her out, I think it's her son. Both of them are very friendly and nice.

The decoration is very simple but nice

Bay Leaves, the name of this cafe

On the left wall. It's actually water in the background

View from the entrance

FF wasn't talking to herself lar.. You can't really see the shorter WT here :P

We opted for the set meal which costs us RM14.90 per set. They have oriental food and western food. All of us felt like having western yesterday. We ordered one set each and shared them. On top of our own main course, they also ordered Macau Fried Rice which I didn't eat coz it was too spicy for me. I got snap the pic lar, but don't know why it's not in the memory card :( Anyway, it's like normal fried rice but the taste.. mmmm it's pedas like sambal belacan. I saw it was written on the menu, chili shrimp paste. Then there's three big fried prawns on top of 3 smaller prawns without the shell.

So what does the set meal covers? For RM14.90 (which I think is a steal!!!), you get homemade mushroom soup with garlic bread, main course and a fruit juice. Let's take a look at the food we had.

Homemade mushroom soup with garlic bread. Thumbs up for the thick mushroom soup, my favourite, The toasted garlic bread is equally yummy :)

Organic Starfruit which I love instantly although I seldom drink starfruit juice

FF's grilled chicken with herbs sauce. The herbs sauce went well with the grilled chicken

WT's chicken lasagna. I'm not a fan of very creamy lasagna coz geli lar.. but this is drier and surprisingly nice ler... it might not look tasty here but trust me, it's good

Mine which came last - Basil Pesto Pasta with herbs sauce and apa.. macadamia nuts? It is less creamy compared to carbonara. It looks kinda pale right, but our verdict - this is the BEST that night :)))

The conclusion is... we'll definitely go back to this cafe :)

Hello You

2009-04-01T11:47:00.002+08:00

Hello you, the one who came here in the wee hours today and practically went through my whole archive from 2006 till up-to-date, I preassume. Do we actually know each other? Whatever it is, a warm welcome to my low profile blog.

Okay shit. I gotta admit this. I'm paranoid. I mean, it sends chill down my spine knowing that there's a 60 hits from a single person a day. Nah, 2-3 hours actually. Well, if you've followed my blog right from the beginning, you would have known that I started this blog as a private one. Blogging about mundane things in my life, and my innermost feelings. Things that I wouldn't want the whole world to know.

Somewhere in May or June 2008, I decided to make it a semi-private blog. Semi-private in the sense that I share them with online strangers (people whose blog I read) but keep it away from my real life friends, except for a handful of them, errr... maybe less than 5 people. Even my closest friends whom I always hang out with every week here does not know of the existance of my blog.

I honestly don't know why I get so anxious and paranoid whenever I find out there's someone who reads my entire blog right from the very 1st post... I would have this odd feeling that it could be someone I know in real life who stumbled upon my blog by chance. I feel kinda uneasy. I would rather that if any of my friends ever come across my blog accidentally, please come forward and tell me about it okay :)

On the other hand, as I'm typing this, it suddenly crossed my mind that.... could this be someone I've emailed recently? Judging from the time (12 midnight - 3am Malaysian time) it could have been someone from US. Hey if you happen to be that "someone" whose name is quite similar to mine, come and say hello to me okay :)))

Reflection

2009-03-31T23:25:00.002+08:00

Another month has passed. March is quite a happening month for me. More ups than downs I would say. So it's time for reflection again and let's see what I've done or achieved this month.

One meltdown early of the month :( But it's a progress coz it's only once right? :P
Stick to my yoga lessons for the second month already :)
Ate healthy salad (I don't really like salad!)
Nice catching up session with two old friends over high tea at a new place (more adventurous mar got try new place)
Went for the "3 steps, 1 kneel" event for the very first time
Finally groomed my dog after having really kusut-masai and untidy hair for the longest time!
Made bak kut teh dinner and yam cake with mummy
The ultimate soul soothing A*Mei concert was the best thing I've done this month!!!
Met up with my two lovely housemates in Pavilion (it's sooooo difficult to see them nowadays, everyone's so busy with their own life)
Scan at the doctor's showed positive outcome
Had my first dose of Gardasil - cervical cancer vaccination
Bought new shoes :) And two t-shirts :))) I hate shopping but this is essential :P
Found a new vegetarian restaurant in Malim Jaya
Went for my first interview, and I don't think I did well. Kinda intimidating :(

Not too bad lar kan. I know my life is boring lar... but at least I'm still in one piece kan. And not fall into deeper depression or do crazy things :) All right, see you peeps in April (",)

Hush Puppies

2009-03-26T23:18:00.003+08:00

I bought a Hush Puppies today... nah, not the dog, but the shoes :)

Ran a lot of errands today. At least I got some things done and it makes me sweat less thinking of things that I've been procrastinating lately. First stop : The photo shop. Nah, not the virtual Adobe Photoshop, but the real photo shop. I needed a recent passport photo to be submitted along with my application for a job here and guess what the lady boss asked me?

"You finished your studies already lar"

"Errrr.. yes..."

I swear I aged a lot over the past 4-5 years, I don't have the baby look I used to have anymore. So how could the lady boss asked as if I've just completed my degree? Mmmmm... maybe she needs a spectacles :) Odd enough, this statement did not make me gloat this time. I feel it's really out of place coz each day when I look at the mirror, I see an old lady staring back at me. Okay, not really that old lady as in 70 or 80 years old lar, but at least you can see I'm 30 already and not in my early or mid 20s like how people always guessed.

Next stop : Celcom centre in Melaka Raya. You know I have this love-hate relationship with Celcom. This Celcom Broadband has been giving me loads of shitty problems since I came back here. Just last week, the USB modem refused to work no matter how many times I restart my laptop or remove and reinsert the SIM card into the slot. Then I called the customer service and they were supposed to contact me in 3 days' time. I waited a whole week and got really impatient so I called them back instead. I was told they tried to contact me but I didn't answer the phone. So? Hello, there's this thing called "leave a message" lar!

Anyway, I was then told that the technician checked and that the area around my place is working fine, so most probably the SIM card is faulty and needs to be changed. Thank goodness I got a parking space without much fuss, coz you know how hard it is to get one that area near Maybank. Practically can die a few rounds I tell you! And the service was quite fast, kudos to that. I got a new SIM card on the spot and overall, it's way faster than what I expected.

Stop #3 : Mahkota Parade. I have to search for a working shoes, preferably court shoes. After going in and out of several shoe shops and not seeing anything I like, I thought I should just stick to brands like Clarks or Carlo Rino which caters more formal working shoes. Or cross the street to Dataran Pahlawan and look for Hush Puppies. Then I was on the second floor and hey I spotted Hush Puppies shoe shop there. See, I don't know exactly how long ago I last stepped into Mahkota Parade. To think that I used to know it inside out 10 years ago :) Anyway, I was torn between a simple, black high heels or a dark brown one inch shoes. The black one looks more feminine and the heel is finer but I like dark brown... and that dark brown is more expensive.. grrrrrrr~ Anyway, I ended up buying the dark brown one and thank goodness they have a 10% discount, on top of the 10% for Citibank card members, what a steal :)

Next Stop : Home Sweet Home. My car's air conditioner is still faulty and I can't stand going out in the afternoon unless I have no choice. When the car is ongoing, it's okay. But once I slow down or have to stop like caught in a jam or waiting for the traffic light to turn green, gosh~~~ the air that comes out is so hot, I think it's even cooler if I wind down the window!

After dinner, I met up with WT and FF at the mamak in Malim Jaya (again!). They were talking a lot about FF's workplace politics and honestly I was getting a little bored and out of place coz I don't have any workplace stories to share. Hahahahahaha.. anyway, we had to shift inside when it started to rain. And we came back pretty early tonight coz we were sitting too near to the place where the mamak cooks. I bet our hair and t-shirt smells like mee goreng :P

Oh yes. That WT only went for our yoga lesson once. She can't make it lar.. work so far away and always work until so late... so we asked the lady at the yoga centre if we can transfer her remaining 7 times to us.. and the answer is NO, boooooooooooo~

A Little Progress

2009-03-24T22:53:00.002+08:00

Yesterday I went for my follow up check up. Thank goodness after all the sufferings I've gone through, everything is back to normal now. However, the gynae wanted me to go on another cycle of medication. *gulp* Die lar, does it mean that I'm going to go through the whole "immobile" phase again? Jialat!

In addition, I've decided to go for the cervical cancer vaccination. I chose Gardasil over Cervarix for a few reasons

Gardasil protects against HPV 16 & 18 (which causes 70% of cervical cancer) AND HPV 6 & 11 (which causes 90% of genital warts)
Cervarix only protects against HPV 16 & 18

Well, maybe most people would opt for Cervarix since it's cheaper. As in terms of wide usage over the world, Gardasil is still leading, from what I gathered from the internet. Many countries are choosing Gardasil over Cervarix. In fact Gardasil has won the best new biotech product and it is also said that it may protect against cancers of the vagina and vulva.

Bear in mind that, both Gardasil and Cervarix can fight against the most deadly HPV which causes 70% of the cervical cancer (HPV 16 & 18) - so I can say that they're at par for this. However, Gardasil can also fight against HPV 6 & 11 which causes 90% of genital warts - which Cervarix loses out hugely on this. Imagine how easily one can get genital warts by just having SKIN CONTACT during oral, genital or anal sex with the infected person. You don't even have to engage in the sexual intercourse yet to get infected! And the money and headaches of having to treat it later is another burden. You might experience either acute itching or burning sensation, among others, when you're infected with genital warts.

To further explain my concern on protection against genital warts, please read this article here http://news.stv.TV/UK/35868-doctor-chooses-gardasil-over-cervarix/

Even though the government chose Cervarix for their cervical cancer vaccine program, many British DOCTORS themselves chose Gardasil for their own daughters coz it further protects their daughters from genital warts!!! Doctors should know what's the best and if they chose Gardasil for their own daughters, it does say something here, doesn't it? In fact the government opted for Cervarix not because it's the best, but because it's cheaper, hence the cheaper subsidise they have to pay for the immunisation programme in their country!

Okay, I know not everyone would agree with me on this. It's okay. This is my own take. You are free to choose whatever type of vaccination that you think is best, or you might even choose to be ignorant and not get yourself vaccinated. It's your own choice :)

p/s : click on the hyperlink "gardasil", "cervarix" and "genital warts" in the second paragraph for further information

Support Earth Hour

2009-03-22T19:17:00.002+08:00

I hope this entry did not come too late. I've been aware of this Earth Hour thingy since quite some time ago and have pledged to support it but did not manage to blog about it until now. I think this is a very good practice and all of us should take part.

Yet I know there are some very skeptical people who would question. What can *I alone* do to make an impact? Well, it does make a difference, trust me. Let's say if everyone else have this kind of mentality where they think one single individual would not make a difference, then everyone would not take the effort to make it happen. On the other hand, if I could do it, and I pass the word around to 20 other friends who pledge to do the same, this thing keeps on going and at the end of the day, imagine how many thousands or millions of people all over the world take part. Tell me then, if it's gonna make a difference?!!!

Just one hour. A year. I don't think that's too much to ask from each of you. So let's put our hands together to make this happen on 28 March 2009. Switch off the lights in your house from 8.30pm till 9.30pm. In fact, it'll be better if you can switch off other electrical appliances as well but not the fridge lar okay. Don't want to have rotten meat mess to clear up after that :P

As for me, I'll definitely be switching off all the lights at home and also my desktop and laptop. Same goes to the air conditioner. Errrrr... can leave the fan on arrr?? Don't wanna feed the mosquitoes lar! Hahahahahahahaha....

P/S : Pictures taken from some forwarded email

My Soul Theraphy

2009-03-22T12:51:00.016+08:00

I'm back from my 2D1N trip to KL. I will blog about the awesome A*Mei concert later coz I'm still waiting for WT to send me the pics. You know what happened? Silly me thought that they would be very strict with the no camera rule. So I left mine in the hotel. I mean, come on, if I brought it along and the security guard stops me and says no I can't bring it in, then how? Throw it? I wouldn't want to take the risk with my Lumix baby so I decided to leave it safely in the hotel room, only to find later in the night, to my utter dismay, that there were tonnes of people who brought in their cameras -___________-"

WT came to pick me up on Friday at about 12 noon, an hour later than planned. And due to her taking the wrong exit at the SMART tunnel, we only checked in the hotel at nearly 3.00pm. She booked this hotel without my knowledge. I reckon she knows for sure that I'll protest if I have known in advance, coz I've been reminding her to get someplace cheaper coz I'm totally broke now. But that girl who loves total comfort, chose to book Piccolo Hotel located at Bukit Bintang, in between KL Plaza and Lot 10. If I'm not mistaken, it's relatively new, started operation somewhere a year ago, in March 2008. It's an Italian inspired boutique hotel and very accessible. Oh they do have fish spa and traditional spa at very reasonable price too. If you would like to know about this hotel, just click on the link above.

We got a room on the 5th floor, right at the end of the floor. The hotel smells nice :) And the setting/decoration is pleasant to the eyes. The moment we stepped into our room, I began clicking away. It's kinda small I gotta admit, but it's really cosy. Although not so spacious but trust me, you don't get that kind of suffocated feeling. Let's explore the room okay...

This is how it looks like the moment you step into the room

I have a passion for soft, cosy beds... looking at me makes me wanna jump onto the bed again!

The huge Samsung flat screen television

The desk. Mmm, you can't really see it here but the telephone is so much better than the other hotels'

Still got space for a small cushion and round side table

View from the other side of the room. There are a few full length mirrors in the room

First time having the sink outside the bathroom, not including First World's hotel coz the room is really small and narrow! Oooo and I like the shape of the water bottle :)

That's the toilet on the left, and bathroom on the right with the cupboard right in front of the bathroom, complete with full length mirrors again

The bidet is slightly different and yes, you can take a dump in peace while your partner showers in the next cubicle. Saves time too :P

Nice, big shower head but I still prefer the powerful one in Taipei!

I love this handheld shower. It's not round like the usual ones.. looks like a hair brush here, eh!

After putting our stuffs down, we went to Isetan. First to find food to nurse our growling stomach, and then to get some snacks. We ended up having our lunch at Mr Teppanyaki. WT had cuttlefish teppanyaki and me.. one of the bentos. I don't know why I just love bento :) My very first bento was Sushi King's Kodomo Bento which WT remarked that it is meant for K.I.D.S :) Then we went to buy a bun each, I got a pack of my favourite Cheezels and that girl went to buy a bottle of red wine. See, I told you, this girl memang pandai to enjoy one~ After that, we walked only a few steps and hey presto, we're back in our hotel room already. Kan very convenient! I tried to nap a while before the concert but I just can't lar. A few people texted me to and fro... so I just lie down to rest only lar.

Okay, remember I was praying so hard for it not to rain on Friday or it'll ruin the concert? God must be away from his desk when I was praying coz it rained at about 3.00pm :((( I was telling WT, oh no, it's raining now.. the very thing I've been praying of not happening! Then I prayed again. Please let it rain till 6.00pm then stop completely. I wanna see my concert!!! God must have loved me in some ways I suppose coz the rain really stopped in late evening. It was drizzling slightly, almost subsiding.

We went out at about 7.20pm, took the monorail from Bukit Bintang to Hang Tuah. And from Hang Tuah we took LRT to Bukit Jalil. We could guess several of the commuters were going to the same place as us, and we were right about it :) By the time we reach Bukit Jalil, it was 8.15pm and packed with people. We had to wrestle our way to the gate. After trying to find the right entrance for several minutes, we finally got it. And boy, wasn't I excited about it :) Overall, I would say that this concert is really awesome. Fantastic :) I'll go into details in another post okay. And the most wonderful thing is.... God works wonders. He heard our prayers. He let the rain stop at 6.00pm. Of course we understand that we can't go against nature, so He let the rain resume at 12 midnight sharp when the concert is nearing its end :)

WT and I did not use our disposable raincoats. Instead we shared an umbrella and made our way to the LRT station. Too bad, when we reached Hang Tuah, the monorail to Bukit Bintang had stopped operation. There were a lot of people waiting for cab so both of us decided to walk all the way back to Bukit Bintang... which was surprisingly not very far away or an impossible task despite it being a wet day. We reached the hotel in one piece, not really tired but my jeans were soaked at the bottom and I had to wash my Crocs in the bathroom!

I took a long bath and settled down comfortably on the bed, both of us eating our McDee take away coz we didn't have dinner prior to the concert. I was so thirsty that Coke tasted like the best drink on Earth! Then WT opened the red wine which I only managed to drink a glass... She? I think she had two and then plop~~ she fell onto the bed and slept away. Old age :) I am still an night owl though, so I read the newspapers before hitting the sack at 3.00am.

I couldn't really sleep after 8.00am coz WT woke up early to go shopping. So I was merely lying on the bed but not asleep. I told her I'd skip the shopping coz I really needed the rest and well, you know, shopping is just not my hobby lar! I finally dragged my lazy bum to the bathroom at 11.00am and started packing up. Then WT came back empty handed, wow, that was a real surprise! And CO reached Pavilion an hour earlier so he came over to our room to kepoh-kepoh :)

At Pavilion, we had to wait for the big boss, KS. At the first sight of him, both WT and I went "Wow..... you're very sihat already harrrr~" Hahahahahahahaha... he put on a lot of weight until his face like kembang ler! I think the last time I saw him was January 2008 coz he always FFK our gatherings -__________-" Anyway, we decided to have our lunch at Dragon-i. Not too bad I would say.... Let's take a look at what we ordered that day...

Ma Po Tofu - nice although I can't really take spicy food

Spring beans - looks like long beans but this is way yummier :)

Braised Pork Belly with Beancurd Skin - so so to me coz I don't really take fatty pork

The super soft man tou that goes with the braised pork belly

I forgot what's the name.. it's egg yolk something.. Didn't really like the look of it coz something tells me it's damn sweet

But look, it's really delicious!

And of course the famous, must have Shanghainese Xiao Long Bao (Meat Dumplings)

The patrons : Si Kembang KS and Si Kurus CO

Yours truly and WT

I'm HYPER

2009-03-20T10:54:00.002+08:00

Okay, I'm waiting for WT to pick me up anytime now. We'll be heading to KL to watch A*Mei's concert tonight. And I'm so looking forward to going really kreaziiiiiiiiii with all those nice songs she's gonna belt out. I reckon it's gonna be a soul theraphy for me as well.

Let out all the hurt

Let out all the pain

Let out all the anger

Let out all the injustice

Let out all the bitterness

Let out all the frustrations

Let out all the WTF feeling

Then feel R E F R E S H E D and H A P P Y :)

[keeping fingers crossed]

Please don't rain tonight.

Please don't rain tonight..

Please don't rain tonight...

Please don't rain tonight....

Please don't rain tonight.....

Please don't rain tonight......

Please don't rain tonight.......

Please don't rain tonight........

What A Relief

2009-03-19T22:28:00.002+08:00

I know this is super gross, but I almost died from excessive blood loss last week. Yeah, it's that time of the month again but this time I had it a lot worse than usual. It's due to the medication my gynaecologist put me on for 3 weeks. Boy, I've never had it this bad. Chronic lower back pain, stomach cramps that I've never experience before in my entire 30 years of life, and the very fact that I'm kind of immobile. Like it's either I sit down for a very long time, or once I stand up, I won't sit again soon. Coz with every standing up motion, I feel it shooting out and I had to rush to the toilet. Not the normal flow, mind you. It's the clots. Ewwww.. gross I know. Oh, I couldn't sit for very long too in fact. Due to the lower back pain. So my best friend the whole of last week was my mum's ol' faithful Siang Pure Oil - the one from Thailand with the old man's face on it.

Since I couldn't walk much, I am like this pathetic person lying on the bed most of the time. And did I mention that I almost fainted on the first day? I felt dizzy. So I had to skip all my yoga classes that week. Things only got slightly better Saturday onwards. I could finally sit down properly and cut Jessey's hair. She's a real darling now, compared to those unruly hair here and there, covering her beautiful eyes, a real mess I must say! And my family decided to have a Bak Kut Teh dinner at home. I was enthusiastic.. only for it to die down right before dinner when I received text messages that put a frown on my face. Thank goodness I'm meeting WT and FF after dinner or else I'll be mopping around like a poor puppy -_____-" Mmmm... I suppose, I'm not *that* strong after all. Things still affects me badly. Oh yes, the next day mum and I did yam cake coz dad bought extra yam for the bak kut teh yam rice for the day before.

This Wednesday I went for my facial again. The extraction is very painful this time. My eyes were wet I swear!!! And after that, I rushed off to meet WT at our favourite Pizza Hut outlet for lunch. It was almost 2.00pm when I reached there and we were like two hungry little kittens craving for hot food :) Hey, the RM7.95+ meal is available everyday, any time of the day now with 4 new flavours. I think it's really worth it. Be sure to try it the next time you're at Pizza Hut okay.

This afternoon, my sis-in-law was warded for a minor surgery the next day. Mum and I visited her in the evening. She was very calm and collected. Probably because it's her 2nd time. The first time she had this cyst removal minor surgery was in December 2007. Well, on the other hand, if it's me, I think I'll be freaking out already! Hehehehehehe...

Tomorrow is Friday. Time really flies. I'm so excited. Why? My A*Mei concert of course! I'm kinda worried about the expenses actually... but what the heck, this is something I've been wanting to do for sooooooooooooooo long already.... just go with the flow okay?!!! To all A*Mei's fans out there.... enjoy the concert tomorrow.. and for those who can't go, don't worry, I'll enjoy on your behalf, hahahahahhahahahaha~~

You've Got Mail!

2009-03-11T15:20:00.002+08:00

Guess what I got in the mail today? Something I've been anticipating for quite some time now and I couldn't believe it that I actually went ahead with it :)

Ta-dahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh~~~~~

So what is in the courier envelope? What could it be that made me so happy and contented for the last few days? Look on....

Two tickets.... to where???

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

I'm going to A Mei's concert next Friday with WT :)))))))))

Zhang Hui Mei, famously known as A Mei. I didn't know I was such a big fan of hers, kakakakakakaka... I remember liking her songs when she released her first album in 1996 - Jie Mei (Sisters). Then came a string of her fast songs. But the thing that made me fall in love with her songs are not the fast numbers. Instead it was her love ballads that made me fall head over heels for her :))) Trust me, her ballads are so touching, and knowing that I'm such a sucker for lyrics, damn~ Those lyrics are so so so meaningful and many of them speaks right to my heart!

I'm so looking forward to her concert next Friday in Bukit Jalil. I think I'll go berserk screaming.. hehehehe.. no lar, I'm too old for that. But I'll definitely sing along and maybe go a little crazy coz her concert is supposed to be very hyper one mar :)))

A Mei, you're really superb! Your fast songs give me the energy and motivation especially when I need to mop the floor :P And your love ballads are so touching and meaningful, you got me going so emo everytime I listen to them. And yes, I've been singing her songs in the bathroom every single day each time I bathe since 2 weeks ago :P

Anticipation is a Bliss?

2009-03-10T21:23:00.002+08:00

I'm anticipating something to arrive in mail tomorrow. Onnzai gave me a call this afternoon to give me the tracking code. I'm so excited, I really can't believe this is happening.

One thing's for sure, I know I'm gonna love it. Really, really love it.

And it's something I've been wanting to do for the longest time now. Previously I was still battling with myself, should I go for it? Especially at time like this. Then, I decided to go ahead. I've been putting my life on hold for the past 4 years or so. It's high time that I start doing things for MYSELF :)

Happy Women Day

2009-03-08T23:57:00.002+08:00

It's 8 March today. International Women Day. I'm awed. Really. I mean, there is actually a special day to honour women all around the world. But why is it that women are still being mistreated everywhere? Subjected to sexual harrassment at work? What about domestic violence? Non-equal treatment compared to the male counterpart?

On another completely different note, I did something I've never done before in my life. The experience was refreshing but let me tell you this. It's not for the faint hearted :) This is yet another achievement to me in terms of religion practice. And I'm really glad I took up the challenge.

It is organised by the Humanism Buddhism Organisation (I hope I get the English term correct). It's called "Ren Sheng Fo Xue". The night before, I couldn't sleep. Not anxious, mind you, just that I still have not adjusted my body clock to sleep early and rise early :P So I woke up at 4.00am this morning with only 3 hours of sleep. Couldn't swallow anything for breakfast so I drank a cup of hot-hot Milo coz it was freezing cold :)

Mummy and I reached the temple at 5.00am, there were a lot of people there already lined up outside the temple getting ready for the ritual. FF and Mike came at about 5.30am, just when the thing was about to begin. You see, it's this thing they call "San pu, yi kui" or "3 steps walking, 1 time kneel". In another words, we have to take 3 small steps while chanting, then kneel and "kow tow" one time. Then repeat. Walk 3 steps, kneel and kow tow once. It's very challenging I tell you, especially on tar road. It's more difficult than I thought it would be!

The journey? From Ren Sheng Fo Xue on Tranquerah Road, all the way to Cheng Hoon Teng Temple on Jalan Tokong. It's not really far by car actually, but when on foot, especially the 3 tiny steps and kneeling plus kow tow-ing thingy, well... it needs a lot of stamina too! Such a short journey yet it took us 1.5 hours to reach our final destination. There were twice when I felt overwhelmed. I felt like crying for no apparent reason. I don't know why, really. Once was a few metres away from the starting point. And the second time when we reached Cheng Hoon Teng temple.

You know I wore really thick jeans. But both my knees were scraped and it bled a little. Worse of all, both knees were really swollen. It looks like I have elephant legs -________-" FF who wore track bottom didn't had it that bad. No swollen knees either. Mmmmmm... mummy was saying that I must have very heavy bad karma!!! Never mind, let it all flow out of my body now, then I'll be free :)))

When we reached home, the first thing I did was to bathe coz I was soaked from head to toe. Hehehehe.. no lar... Only my hair was totally drenched and my t-shirt too. Like I just came back from a marathon! Then I ate a vegetarian pau provided by the temple plus another cup of hot milo before collapsing on the bed. Ouchhhhhhhhh~~~ can't turn and toss. The knees hurt like hell... ya lar, skin also peeled what! And later on, it was almost impoosible to walk fast or even walk STRAIGHT!!! Jialat, really old already :)

At night, FF and I still went out to the mamak in Malim Jaya to meet Ah Kei. We were laughing at the awkward way we were walking, and also at our knees. It'll surely turn blue black tomorrow :) Anyway, it's really nice to meet Ah Kei again. This guy is the most sensible and reliable one amongst so many of my male friends :)

Wanna see the damage done to my knees? There... have a look but don't puke okay. This picture was taken a few days later when the swelling has subsided.

Happy Birthday WT

2009-03-07T21:05:00.002+08:00

It was WT's birthday on 5 March. She skipped her guitar class to makan-makan at Pak Putra mamak with FF and I, the mini celebration. Boy, we had too much food that day that I felt so bloated I could hardly breathe when I got home -__________-"

Let's see... this girl, ermmmm... I've known her since we were 13 years old. And we've been fast friends since then. We sort of drifted apart in Form 4 and 5 when I went to Science stream and she Arts Stream. We were still on talking terms and all, just that we seldom hang out together. 2 years later, I finally know the reason why the rest of the Chinese gang seldom ask me out and it has got nothing to do with me okay -____-"

Thank goodness we got close again in Form 6 although we went to different school for Sixth Form. The best time of the week was our ice kacang lepak time at ACS after Maths tuition. That was when both of us would update each other of the happenings in our respective school. Don't get me going at the crazy things we did in Form 6 during tuition okay. So malu mannnnn... but we always had a good laugh recalling the incidents now whenever we bring up the topic during our yum char session!

WT is a very level headed person. I don't know if I've talked about her before but she's really very rational, moderate and realistic. She may come off as too strong for many people, especially guys, but it is her level headedness that kept me grounded all these years. She was my room mate in uni. She always says that if I were to follow her in uni, sure die one, no need to study coz that's exactly what she did (or did not do!) - you won't see her studying except when the exam is 1-2 days away. That also, she'll study on the bed and ended up falling asleep :)

What I wanna say is, I'm so blessed to have her as my buddy. She gave me a push when I've stopped. Gave me encouragement and words of wisdom when I'm lost. Gave me reason to look at the brighter side and not give up on life. And all this, she did without being overly forceful. During my trial times especially the past few years, she was always there for me and supporting me no matter how bad the situation is. And I'm forever grateful to her for all that she has done for me.

This afternoon, we went for high tea in Holiday Inn with CF. Why didn't I say "together with CF"? Coz that girl, she nearly kena some bashing from me, hahahahaha.. WT and I were there at 1.00pm and she said she'll meet us at 1.30pm. She only turned up at nearly 3.00pm!!! Forever late, and many excuses... but this is R E A L L Y late okay! Anyway takpe lar, coz while waiting for her, WT and I stuffed our face full with all those yummylicious food. The buffet spread is okay lar... not much seafood actually except for the fish slices and some prawn salad. EQ's high tea is way better but of course the price is way more "cantik" also lar :P And we got a surprise when we proceeded to the cashier. We don't know why we got a 25% discount off the total bill (that's a lot) but who cares, we're 3 happy souls at the end of the day :)))

Oh yes, yesterday I don't know what hantu came over me. I got up at 6.45am after sleeping for less than 5 hours, and offered to fetch my niece to kindergarten and my mum to work. Then I went to the market to get some vegetable and I did some pasta salad. Tuna pasta salad to be precise. I'm never a big fan of salad honestly, but I just feel like eating healthy for once. Errrr.. not exactly healthy too, coz I put way too many things in it :)))

Tuna in olive oil
Lettuce
Tomato
Capsicum
Onion
Hard boiled egg
Spiralli pasta

I didn't put any dressing since the tuna is soaked in olive oil. It's yummy~ I had it for breakfast and lunch, also some more before my yoga in the late evening :)))

Bottom of the Wheel

2009-03-04T23:14:00.000+08:00

It's that time again. The emotional rollercoaster ride, remember? I thought I said goodbye to you? Why did you have to say hello to me again?

I cried. Yes, the floodgate opened. My tears flowed endlessly for two days. I didn't plan for it. I wasn't ready for it. It just came over me unexpectedly.

Perhaps it was the text messages that went on for weeks. Desperate pleas turned anguish pleas. More frustration and anger. Yes, anger. I was indeed very angry at the selfishness and cowardness.

Harsh character was met with another harsh character. And that one single word was enough to rip my heart apart and make me burst into tears. It was only when I've calmed down and toned down, the whole situation improved. Why did I forget the soft approach? Why did I put myself in such a vulnerable state?

I understand this is not going to end so soon in the near future. It's like a vicious cycle, going round and round in circles. One moment, I'm at the top of the wheel and I'm perfectly all right. The next moment, I'm at the bottom of the wheel and I felt like shit all over.

I must be at the bottom of the wheel now. When is the next ride up again?

Reflection

2009-03-01T22:57:00.000+08:00

It's time for reflection again. Another month has passed. So what have I done or achieved in February? What was I proud of? What changes did I manage to make?

1. Met up with a close friend whom I have cut off contact with for the past 2-3 year

2. Got a clean report back from the clinic

3. Visited a dear friend who was on maternity leave

4. Had my first yoga lesson

5. Met up with YL once again before she left for UK

6. Went up to Genting for a short breakaway

7. Met up with a secondary school friend whom I haven't seen for at least 3 years+

8. Settled the mobile phone problem

9. Plucked the courage to meet the auditors regarding matters on the company

10. Volunteered in the longevitology adjustment centre

11. Successfully become a vegetarian every 1st and 15th of the lunar calendar

12. Had a relaxing facial at no cost

13. Meeting up with a bunch of good friends over a wedding dinner

14. Had a feel-good make over

15. Managed to meet KC and chatted to our heart's content

Wow.. 15 items. That's a lot, although many were non crucial stuffs. Nevertheless, thiese are the things that bring joy to my life :) Am looking forward to a better month in March :)

My Best Friend's Wedding

2009-02-28T23:56:00.008+08:00

It's EK's wedding today, hence the title of this blog post.. ya lar, copied from the movie :) Anyway, this is one of the bestest friends I've ever had in my life. I do have a lot of friends in my 30 years of life, but only a handful really left footprints in my life. And she is one of them. I've known her when we were only 13. Actually, I was sitting with her best friend in class and so, the three of us became close. When my desk partner left for Singapore the following year, EK and I became even closer, especially when we were very active in guiding. Weird though, that close we may seem to be, but we only sat together in class for a year - Form 4 - and that was floating class. But we sat side by side in all 3 labs for 2 years :) People used to say that whenever you see me, you'll see EK and vice versa. We were that close and inseparable :)

After SPM, there were periodic intervals where we drifted apart and got back together off and on. When I went up to KL 4 years ago, we made it a point to meet up and usually when we finally get to doing it, we'll chat until 5 hours or more in one sitting :) We were there for each other during those anguish and frustrating moments. We were there for each other whenever we need to rant about people who ruined our life. We were there for each other whenever we laugh our heads off recounting those "evillish" things we did -____-" And I really thank her for being there for me during my most difficult phase a few months ago. The countless phone calls and text messages just to check I was all right, dragging me out of the house when I've turned like a zombie who hasn't seen the daylight for 7 whole days, many comforting words, or even silences that signifies her understanding of my predicament, the encouragement, strength and support she gave relentlessly to see me through this rough patch.... all in all, I really thank God above for bestowing a friend like her to me. Cross my heart, hope to die :P

So it's her wedding today. I honestly feel very happy for her. She has finally found her true happiness in this man, in this union. I was asked to be one of her chi muis. Well, I don't know any other chi muis, but it's okay.. just for her :) So anyway, we were asked to wear red or red and white. I almost went berserk trying to search for that colour combination coz you know me lar, where got wear chili red clothes one!!! Nasib baik I remembered this blouse. Don't really like it but what the heck, it fits the colour requirement mar!

We gathered at her house in the morning for the door teaser games and tea ceremony. The guys were really so selamba, man! Reached only, pakai hantam the nasi lemak and nyonya kuih outside. And they took their own sweet time, hahahahahahahaha.. At last when they were full and ready, we the chi muis asked them to exercise a bit and form a pyramid formation. Easy peasy for them. I didn't capture very good pictures coz there were a few photographers that day, so the angle I got wasn't good. Yalar, can't get the good spot mar!

Then they were given 10 disposable panties with a letter written on each. They had to scramble the panties to form a word (SWEETHEART). Not only that. They had to wear it with the letter at the back and then wiggle their buttocks :) The highlight of the day - this chubby guy you see in the picture? He was screaming like shit coz the panties got stuck around his thigh, ya lar, can't go further up already. And one naughty heng dai went to pull it up with force until the panties tore apart, as you can see in the picture, his is londeh :) Eh this very same guy hor.. ganas lar. At the last barrier (the bride's room), he almost made me "go piak" (terlekat at the wall) when he forcefully open the door and I was behind it -____-"

Door teaser games won't be complete without the food challenge, usually 4 types of food which signifies the "suan, ku, tien, lak" (Masam, Pahit, Manis, Pedas). So we had lime juice, bittergourd, Toblerone chocolate dipped in condensed milk and wasabi biscuits. ewwwwww~~

At the last barrier, the groom was asked to sing a song. Easy peasy too :) Then we went downstairs for the tea ceremony and photography session before helping ourselves to the catered food. We left after lunch and I managed to catch an hour of beauty sleep since I had less than 5 hours of sleep the night before :)

At 4.00pm, I started to get ready for the night program. WT and I went to Brush Up to get our make up and hair done. The make up was so-so to me, but KC was teasing me about the smoky eyes.. hahahahaha... but I really, really, really <3>

The dinner was fabulous. Not only the food, but I managed to meet up with several secondary school friends, some which I've not seen for quite some time. And yes, I got to meet Surya, whom I've not seen for.. like.. 10-11 years? Oh, she still looks the same :))) Boyyyy, I really appreciate opportunities like this, to meet up with friends who once shared the same craziness as me!

After the dinner, KC and I went home to change, then we hopped into the car once again and headed to Uncle John Kopitiam :) We had so much fun chatting that we didn't realise it's past midnight already. And once we're home, we continued chatting on the phone until she nearly dozed off :)

What a wonderful day (",)

Fun Filled Week

2009-02-27T23:42:00.000+08:00

It has been a busy week, therefore insufficient time to update this poor blog. Last week I blogged about my (ex) dream house in Putra Avenue. It was a long overdue post, back in September 2008. I went to dig the pictures out when I saw in The Star the other day that the new Elite - Putra Heights interchange has officially opened. Giant has opened too. Once upon a time, all these were important factors to me, a future home investor in that area. Now, everything seems so vague and far away. Goodbye my dream house. May you find a better owner in future...

I dropped by Peng's house on Monday. She was supposed to go back to Johore this week and resume work when her maternity leave ends. I've only managed to visit her twice and both times, she was laughing her head off coz I was there not to visit her, but to be her "part time maid" - helping her to fetch this and that lar, dodoi the baby lar, play with the elder daughter lar.. hahahaha... honestly, I don't mind even a bit! In fact, we had our share of fun when I brought her letters to read. What letters? Those letters and short notes she left me when we were in university almost 10 years ago! This girl ar.. so weird one. She has a habit of writing on TOILET PAPER okay!!! And to think that I still keep those junks dearly over the years :))) Oh yes, in one of her notes, she wished me all the best in my exam that day. Then she asked me to "Dun gei-gei (don't pretend), if don't know how to do, then tiru lar" hahahahaha... She knows that all my life, I've never cheated in any tests or exams before. Even if I want to, I just can't lar. My eyesight is so bad, even if you leave your answer sheet openly in front of me also I can't see a single word! Hahahahahaha..

On Wednesday, WT and I went to try out at this salon I've never gone to before - Sophy. This sweet girl bought me the mini package for my birthday last December and so we were there to try out their diamond peel facial. Wow, I must admit that I'm impressed. First they ask you to soak your feet in the tub with don't know what salt, hahahaha.. also your hands. Then you're led to the room whereby they'll let you smell a pot of aromatherapy oil to relax. Then the facial begins. Very thorough, using both human hands and machines. The massage not only includes the head and shoulder, but also your hands and legs! It was so comfortable I almost fell asleep, I tell you! Then after all is done, they'll let you smell from another pot of aromatheraphy oil - something stronger to make you feel refreshed or energised. I'll definitely go back there! Anyway, I still have another spa and massage coupon to utilise.

Thursday was spent accompanying EK for her trial make up. She's getting married tomorrow and I'll be helping around. Mmmm.. we were talking and talking while the make up artist worked on her face, then I did mention something about UKM, which caught the artist's attention. We later discovered that she was from UKM too, but we've graduated when she was there. Ermmm.. she guessed we are about 26-28 years old... too polite already lar I think!!! After that, we ronda-ronda Melaka Raya area to find a cafe for yum char. Still not 5.00pm yet so a lot of cafe still not open. We ended up in Old Taste Kopitiam alas and yak yak yak until the cows come home. Hahahahahaha.. Then I had this stupid period scare. Which I later on, got a good scolding from the ~~stupid~~ garang nurse (God pardon me!) coz I skipped the medication -___-"

I skippped yoga today coz Sharon didn't feel like going. Good. I could meet up with KC for dinner then :) As usual, we ended up in Pizza Hut and we had hot coffee again. Oh no, do I see another trend coming up? Hot coffee after a hearty meal at Pizza Hut? Hehehehehehe... Eiiiikkkkkkk~ I tell you, there's this small Malay girl who sat beside me... she kept on coming sooooooo near to me, at one time, I could nearly feel her breath on my neck, is she attempting to kiss me? With her oily mouth? Hahahahahahahahaha... I don't know what drew her to me. Must be that pretty girl sitting in front of me who captivated her heart :P After Pizza Hut, we adjourned to my house but too bad Shar Min was not back yet. Or else KC and her can play UNO together. As the malam berlarutan, KC had to go back so I offered to walk her back. She said it's okay.. if not, nanti she has to walk me back too... then I kena walk her back again.. and again.. and again... get the picture? Hahaha.. no lar.. I really walked her back, and walked home alone. Ya lar, if I weren't home yet, how to blog about it now kan kan kan~~~

My (Ex) Dream House

2009-02-24T11:05:00.002+08:00

Today, I'm going to introduce you to my dream house. This is Amber, in Putra Avenue, Subang Jaya. I was scouting for houses around Subang for quite some time and sad to say most of the houses there were really old already. So this new development caught my eyes and I instantly fell in love with Amber. Not really. I prefer the first phase, but it was all sold out. So, Amber was the better choice among the other designs in the second phase development.

I went to the show house which was finally ready in September 2008 and was further besotted with it. Damn~ so nice and all :) And yes, I know this post is long overdue. I guess I was trying to NOT accept the fact that Amber was never meant to be mine. For one thing, it's way too expensive for a normal 24x75 double storey (beyond my means at the moment), not to mention that I'm really glad we put the purchase on hold. Yes, we almost bought it last year. Now, I'm superbly relieved we actually called it off or else I'll have a bigger headache now!

Since, it's not meant to be mine already now, well, I won't go into much details about the house. So let's just take a look at the pictures I managed to curi-curi snap 6 months ago :-

1. The living room - very spacious

2. The dining room - in front of the staircase, beside the dry kitchen

3. The dry kitchen - they installed a kitchen bar or island, what you call it!!!, and placed the fridge and oven here

4. The kitchen - a little small for me, honestly. If you're gonna put the double stove there, where got space for that microwave or the shelves up there?!!!

5. Backyard - can cover up if you plan to fully extend your kitchen

6. Utility room/Maid's room - beside the kitchen

7. Guest room - Downstairs in front of the dining area/dry kitchen

8. Bathroom downstairs - accessible through dry kitchen/dining area or through guest room

9. Staircase - a little narrow I feel!

10. Family area upstairs - very spacious. You can actually make it your work station with the television and a couch there also :) And notice how high the ceiling is in the last picture. Gorgeous!!!

11. Master bedroom - Need I say more? It's pretty! And I love spacious master bedroom :) 5th picture - no balcony, but that's the car porch roof top. Cool? 6th picture - ooohhh I love the shower head, whatever you call it. Reminds me of the powerful German one in Taipei!

12. Bedroom 2 - This room is a little smaller compared to the other one. Suitable for your kids, either with a single bed or a double decker

13. Bedroom 3 - Normal size of the usual room fit for double bed. And yes, all rooms come with bathroom

This is the Type A design. 24x75. Approximately 2,300 square feet if I am not mistaken. 4 rooms + 1 utility room and 4 bathrooms. Approximately RM478,000.00. Go figure :)))