Care Free~!

I'm as free as the wind. Floating around, circling in the air, hopping here and there, bouncing around, diving into flower beds but not a bed of roses. Why would anyone be on a bed of roses with thorns piercing through the skin? I would rather be with the big teddy... I'm not going to let matters not concerning me weigh me down. If it has nothing to do with me, then let it be :o) If it happens to come my way, then I will go the other way. Life is such that I do not want it to go wasted and have more wrinkles and more burden to put on my shoulders. Aahh... my Donkey knows me better... I miss Donk Donk...

Yes, I'm Pissed Off~!!

Let's see. Inconsiderate lot of people... yeah... I can name one to your anytime. Think of others before you think of yourself. YES, I've done it million of times and now I'm very pissed of with this putting others before myself. And who's putting me before them? No one~! No one in particular. It's all about other people. Hey, this is my blog~! I have my rights to rant it over here since nobody wants to listen to me. If you don't like what you read then scram away~! Teenagers are one whole evil bunch of people. Inconsiderate to the maximum. Why am I planning things to make them happy? From today onwards, I no longer function as a person who will cheer them up. I am responsible solely to myself only. It's time to enjoy myself. My hard earn money is for me to spend... only me... no one else. My house, I choose who to enter my house. No more birthday bash after this last one since before it even take place, someone already assumed it will be a boring one. I didn't realize that being with me will be boring. Hah~! Think before you speak. I've think it through for many years... so I'm making my decision now. Your problem is not mine, take it with you don't bring it to me. Inconsiderate lot of people... now get lost~! There's a limit to everything. Nothing said can change my mind after yesterday's incident. By the way, let me get things straight... I LIKE TO TRAVEL ALONE OR WITH MY BEST FRIENDS. I HATE TRAVELLING IN A LARGE GROUP WITH EXCESS BAGGAGE. I DISLIKE WAITING FOR 10 MINUTES JUST TO GET OUT OF THE CAR AND YELLING AT EVERYONE TO START MOVING... START MOVING... START MOVING... EITHER YOU MOVE AS FAST AS I DO WHEN YOU'RE WITH ME OR DON'T EVEN BOTHER TO TAG ALONG...

The Nail... My Nail...

Whoa~! First, I have tofu feet where the skin came off after a couple of hours of playing around. Secondly, no matter how thick the socks are or how expensive and good the footwear claim to be, I ended up with blisters as large as the United States of America. Now, this. Well, this isn't the first time. And it's always on the same toe on the same foot and the same thing happens every time. How am I gonna move around with that jutting out? The best and the only solution is to remove the whole nail. Anyway, I have half of the new nail underneath. Yay~! Removed after cutting off the skin that was attached to the corner of the nail. Ouch~! Part of the flesh was not protected. Gotta do something about this. Wrap it with Piglet. Hmph~! I should have use the Donkey one so I can have Donkey smelling my foot.

A Wedding Worth Crashing Into...

Now... now... when you're with me, most of the time we will do the unthinkable. Sometimes I don't do it, but encourage others to do it. Most of the times I will be the one setting an example. Good or bad, you will have to judge it for yourself. But who are you to judge me or judge us? These two innocent people. They did the unthinkable. They crashed into some one's wedding. Someone whom they have no idea exist in this world. Wasn't that a wonderful crash? After crashing through the main gate, both of them went crashing on people's table. Then we were asked to find another table as that table cannot be crashed no matter what. Thus, from the front table next to the bride and bridegroom's table, we were led to a table at the back but that proved to be the table with the best view. This is the best view that I meant. We were not in the direction of the bride and bridegroom but we were definitely looking at what we came here for. Food~ Glorious food~! This was a better view compared to the earlier table. Thank goodness for being kicked away from the earlier table. That's the first dish. In every typical Chinese wedding dinner, guests would be served with an 8-course dinner. By the time you're hitting the 6th course, you would be filled to the brim. The first course was known as the four seasons dish. No, I can't elaborate on it. I was too busy eating to remember what was on the platter. But I'm very sure the middle part was deep-fried yam with vegetables. The second dish that never fail to make it's appearance. The authentic shark fin's soup. Shark killer you're accusing me? No, I'm not. They're meant to be eaten even though they were killed in a cruel way. Is there a kinder way to kill an animal? All animals are slaughtered in one cruel way or another. There's no gentle way of killing an animal. Now... now... let's go back to the delicious soup. Pour some vinegar into it. Mix it well and viola~! The best soup ever especially with the sweet crab meat. The third dish.... half of a roasted duck and half of a steamed chicken. Both are my favourite. Seriously very delicious. I have very limited vocabulary in describing food. MMmMMmmMMmm... I was busy chewing on the succulent meat. When it's delicious, you will find no words to describe how delicious they were exactly. The fourth dish was an assortment of mushrooms. From the Chinese mushrooms, to button mushrooms to straw mushrooms and the best part was the authentic strips of abalone. Love it very much~! I'm 100% sure they're authentic abalone strips and not abalone mushroom. I cook abalone mushroom all the time now. The fifth dish... khao yok. That's in Cantonese but I'm not sure whether I spell the correctly or not. It's pork belly with yam pieces in between cooked with dark soy sauce and soy sauce. The sixth dish was steamed fish.... a grouper or a snapper? I just know the Malay name for the fish... ikan siakap. Love this to the max. The best part came when have a whole table to ourselves. Most table with 10 people can't finish their food but the four of us on one table cleaned the whole fish including the bones. We licked everything clean. The seventh dish was prawns and more prawns with prawn crackers on it. There's deep-fried prawns and salad prawns and I finished up most of the prawns. The eighth dish, a cold one, love it~! Honey dew sago. Slurp~! Slurp~! You see, the wedding dinner was not held in the usual environment with air-conditioner. This was held by the beach with zinc roofs and fans. We prayed for good weather and good weather we got. The sea was so calm there wasn't even any breeze blowing by. The fan above our head was not functioning. We were hot like roasted pigs sweating like we've just run a mile. Butts were sweating as well and almost slid off the plastic chair. My legs were dripping with sweat. I don't know how to tell you how hot it was but if it's not for the food, we would have left earlier. That's the honest truth I'm telling you...

The Young KL Singers...

In conjunction to the opening of the Performing Arts Centre of Penang, there will be some events such as dramas, choir ensemble and lots more being staged for free. So, we grabbed this opportunity to experience it first hand. Instead of going to the cinema we went for a live choral music by the young KL singers. Introducing to you Dato' Faridah Merican, known as the First Lady of Malaysian Theatre. She co-founded the Actors Studio with her husband, that studio must be pretty awesome with lots of talented young adults practising away. The only stage play that I have attended was the one held by the First Assemblies of God during the Christmas week. There was another play about Laksamana Cheng Ho but I couldn't remember much. I do enjoy such drama as the people playing their roles were so talented and passionate about what they're doing. Presenting to you, the Music Director, Susanna Saw, a Penang lass residing in Kuala Lumpur. Congratulations~! You've done a really great job. I'm very impress with the choral music entitled Together as One. I've no idea until I got hold of the book that printed out today's event. It was seriously quite disturbing to learn that I would be hearing chants of different religion. Oh, that was the stage where they performed. It started with the call of azan like what we usually hear through the loudspeakers attached to the minarets of mosques. I'm okay with that because I've been listening to the azan calls since I could recognize sounds and differentiate them. It was followed by the chanting of *ohm ohm ohm* which was truly disturbing. I switched on my brain filter and concentrated on their voices. The singers have lovely voices and the arrangement was in such that everything was done perfectly. Seriously, I was very impressed... but again, I still do not agree with the song arrangement where the whole choir sing the songs of other religion. It's not healthy to the soul. Spiritually unhealthy. When it came to the Christian part, not even the whole choir was invovle. Only the four musketeers from the Caipifruta Vocal Quartet were performing. They were singing melodiously to only one word "Hallelujah" but the rest of the rendition of nasyid was done in such a group that it made me think that... *I'll cut off my thought for this one*

CHEERS~!

This is one of the new restaurants in Penang Island. They serve beers from Germany, Australia and more. I have no idea neither do I have any interest on beers. If I'm not mistaken, the chef is imported from Berlin. We were there to try out the food. It was once in a blue moon where I go out with my besties. Thronging around town looking for a place to dine in. Great ambiance. We were having an early dinner so there weren't many patrons except us. We were upstairs at the non-smoking zone, served by youngsters whom I guessed just finished their secondary schooling. Chinese educated, written all over their faces and they spoke really bad English. One of the waiters had a great sense of humour. Gracie and Judz added to the humour with their complete blurness especially Gracie who is forever blur. Underneath that Scallopi chicken was a scoop of mashed potatoes. The colour of the mashed potatoes were slightly purple in colour. A mouthful of it was better than anything. It tasted so delicious that Gracie went ahead to praise the tastiness of the mashed potatoes and continued on by asking what was mixed into the tasty mashed potatoes. I know I seem very mean to insert the snippet of conversation at our table but I couldn't help it. We found it so hilarious that if we were seriously ruthless, we would have laughed so loud, with a hand banging on the table, dropped to the floor and then laughed until the sides ached and our jaws locked.

Gracie: What is this mashed potatoes mixed with? The texture is different.
Waiter: Scwhit... scwhit... scwhit potato...
Gracie: What is it?
Waiter: Schwit potato... schwit potato ok?
Gracie: Oh... sheep potato... sheep potato...
Waiter: No.. no... it's schwit potato...
Judz: Shit potato aa? Shit potato?
Me: He's saying sweet potato la.... *See, I'm so smart*

The waiter's friends and colleagues were laughing so loud and imitating his way of saying 'sweet potato'. Such a pitiful sight. Pure embarrassment. If it's for me, I would have run into the toilet and never come out or better still, resign from the job without prior notice. The same waiter came to our table again when he saw their our plates were licked clean.

Waiter: Are you dones?
Me and Judz: Yes, we're done...
*Gracie swallowing her laughter*
Judz to Gracie: You better stop that...
Gracie: Can't help it. Did you hear that?

We were laughing away in the car until we have tears in our eyes. Shit potato. Schwit potato. Dones (dance). We should have asked the waiter to dance for us as pure entertainment. Muahahhaaha... If ever I come in contact with a waiter who speak that way, my my... I'm going to play along like a dumb ass and turn the whole place upside down, laughing away without any cares of the world.

21st YMCA-CCA Bible Quiz 2011...

Surprise~! Surprise~! Every Friday, I hold a simple luncheon at my palace. You'll have to sign up a lifetime membership in order to be in our group. The only requirement is you must NOT be serious. Serious people who can't even tell a joke will not be accepted into the group. Serious people are not welcome into my house. There is another requirement. You must be able to eat in large quantity. During the luncheon, even snacks for teatime and dessert for dinner will be included. Thou' shalt not turn down any food offer. Three weeks back we had a newcomer. That's the mightily crazy Fiona. Yeah, crazy enough that I automatically signed my three children up for a Bible Quiz which I know they were not ready for. They were given two weeks to prepare. There they were, at the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) yesterday afternoon. There were nine groups mainly from Penang Christian Centre and there was another group from the Salvation Army and one more from Trinity Methodist Church. Even Penang Free's School's Christian Fellowship sent a group representative. My children represented Full Gospel Assembly of Penang. There were four different sections in the quiz. It started with a 30-minute objective questions where the audiences were asked to leave the hall. We waited outside while the quizzers answered the questions. The second event on the list was Draw Sword. Those who have attended church camps or youth camps would have been familiar with Draw Sword. Bibles up~! The questioner would read the book, chapter and verse and GO~! Oh, my~! Oh, my~! I've never seen such ruthless generation. They were so fast and the flip flip flip sound was so loud I thought they were gonna tear the Good News Bible into pieces. Tear the page out and read it out loud into the microphone. My kids were too gentle with the book. They took after me where I'm very particular with book care. No dog ears. No marks on the page. No evidence of the book being opened as well no doubt the whole book has been read from cover to cover. Thus, they found the verses a second slower than the others. If I'm going to put them in the Bible Quiz again, I will have to train them how to be ruthless. The third event was the reciting of memory verses. There were given a list of 30 lengthy verses taken from the book of Genesis, Psalms and Proverbs. Again, because of the ruthlessness of others, my kids were left behind. Before the questioner could even finish up the chapter and the verse, some quizzers have already jumped out of their chairs, hurried to the microphone and recite the particular verse. But my eldest did me proud by taking after their ruthlessness. She jumped at two verses. The last one was the jumping questions. There... there... some quizzers really were mind-readers. They were so hasty in answering, they blabbed out the answer in great length because they did not hear the rest of the question. All in all, I'm very proud of the three of them who took up the courage... err... I forced them in actually. They had no choice because whatever I said in the house is law. But I did not train them personally or else they would be so stressed up, my eldest would have vomited from the beginning till the end and my precious and youngest would be sitting in the toilets having diarrhoea. There~! I gave them ample of room to prepare themselves all on their own. If I decide to put them in for the next year, no more leniency. I will drill them day and night until they can tell me the answers in their sleep.

Chai Diam Ma...

I felt like I was a VIP with a chauffeur driving me around town. But my driver was a lazy one. She was reading the newspapers while waiting by the road side. She should be standing outside to hold the door for me and other passengers. Should I fire her? I think not because she did it for free. Anything that's free, I should accept it with no grumblings.... muahahaha...~! Love ya' Gracie~! Judz posted a link to a new cafe known as Chai Diam Ma. Chai diam ma is the Hokkien dialect which carries the meaning the Chinese olden days grocery store without any air-conditioning system, a little bit dark inside with lots and lots of stuff in the store set up in pre-war houses. The place was at 15, Queen Street, right in the heart of town which all of us did not enjoy going to.

1. Firstly, it was hot like we were being barbecued alive under the scorching afternoon sun.


2. Secondly, there was not enough parking spaces but we got one right opposite the place. God is good, praise Him for saving us a parking lot.


3. Thirdly, the heart of town is where the business people whack the tourists properly, not literally, it's more like sucking their money out.


4. Fourthly, people like us, the general public, the local people, do like to pay so much for something which is not on par with the pricing.


5. Lastly, out of 5 of us, two us can cook really well, I should say and we have meticulous and highly sensitive taste buds.

The place was not too bad for a photography session. Oh, did you realize that we have another newcomer in our group? She's Suzie, a very good cook and we just added her into the group outings so she wouldn't be so bored staying at home. There were so many ragged dolls for sale. We were busy playing with the dolls. We couldn't be bothered with the price tags. The food was slow because there was only one preparing and cooking away. We should have helped her so that it wouldn't take such a long time. The place was low maintenance. There was seriously no air-conditioning system. Only two stand fans and one wall fan were switched on and three bulbs were lighted up at the kitchen section. The whole place was lit up by the natural sunlight and aired by the blowing wind. I became a feast to the mosquitoes. Truth be told, the macaroni was not tasty enough. There was Parmesan cheese in the baked cheese macaroni but it lacked of cheddar so that made the macaroni completely tasteless. It was RM14 per bowl or per plate. Even a plate of fried rice cost RM14. That was cut-throat expensive. With the same amount I would have fry rice for so many people. Even Suzie could do that. Each glass of drink was RM5, also expensive. Chai Diam Ma should have consider giving us locals a discount. You can only earn once from us since the food was so lousy. Toodles~! Not going there anymore. Not running down the cafe but it was just an honest truth. The decorations were beautiful but seriously, do something about the food and give better rates to the locals.

5-Star Public Toilet...

On Wednesday, the daily papers wrote a short article about the municipal council's 5-star public toilets. The next day, we went looking for the toilets. It's gated in a small compound with operating hours. Out of the operating hours, the gate will be locked. So, if you find that you need a loo badly in the wee hours of the morning, you will have to dig your own toilet. *why will you want to roam the market area in the wee hours of the morning?* It was really easy to look for the hidden toilet, hidden and stow away behind the market, away from the main road. We followed the signboard and then after that we followed the stench of ammonia wafting through the humid morning air. How do the municipal council rate the public toilets? The smell was so bad it would wake the dead from the grave. There's so much ammonia in the air you wouldn't need ammonia salt to make an unconscious person regain consciousness. Just put that fella near the toilet, the person who rise from it's unconsciousness and run like a person being chased by a swarm of bees, a crazy brown bear and a naked mad man. I would have given 0-star to that public toilet.

What's On My Mind?

When it was 1 a.m., I was trying to keep myself awake. I stopped stitching just in case I made errors that will need me to unpick the stitches. Hubby was busy doing something so I entertained myself by switching on the computer. Boy... was I ever awake when I login into my Facebook. Then, I was thinking about food no doubt I wasn't hungry. I was thinking about the Sunday dinner with hubby. The delicious deep fried mantis prawn, curry chicken with bread but I don't know what happened to the curry, it was too salty like someone overturned a whole bag of salt into the pot of curry, oh, not to forget my favourite seafood popiah and belachan fried chicken. If you think those were to food a table of 5, I have to tell you that, those were for just enough for 2. Suddenly I was thinking of going on diet. ON DIET~! Cabbage soup diet~!!! I'm just kidding, right? Yeah... yeah... I'm starting to feel really heavy and I refuse to drive to the gym. The legs just wouldn't cooperate. Talking about going on a strict diet, I was thinking about ways to make macarons. I have never tried baking before but I think I need to start somewhere. Oh, I'm thinking about going to bed now as I wonder how am I going to wake up early when I'm still wide awake... sleep sleep... Nitez~!

TNB No Money...

That's one of my electric bill. It's known that if your bill is below RM20 then it will be subsidised... means no need to pay. So I find it quite surprising to see a 20 cents 'Tunggakan'. Weird. If the previous bill was already RM0.00 then where did the RM0.20 come from? Come on TNB... you're seriously asking for 20 cents. If you can waive a RM20 bill what is RM0.20? Why not hunt those who owe TNB thousands and thousands of ringgit instead of 20 cents? Absurd~! Parking at TNB Anson Road is RM3, if park illegally might get summon of RM100, go into the building and take queue number, wait around 2 minutes, go to the counter pay 20 cents, drive home. Petrol will cost more than the electric bill. Stupiak~!

China Should Emulate Us...

The recent hoo-ha about Yue Yue's accident was one horrible accident with heartless people walking passed her without acknowledging her wrecked body on the road. Now, the Chinese in China should learn a little from us, a multi-racial and multi-religion country. Emulate us. Imitate us. China is successful in producing imitation goods so I guess it shouldn't be a problem imitating our good behaviour. That was a minor road mishap that involved two motorcyclists. Such a minor one but in a split of a second, there were other motorcyclists stopping by, pedestrians hurrying to help those who couldn't get up in the middle of the road. The multitude of people, or you should say the busybody crowd who had nothing better to do but giving themselves a topic to discuss later on, they were actually making a human barricade so that other vehicles will not knock the victim lying in the middle of the road. Get it? Such a vast difference compared to those in China who hurried passed the little girl and exposed her to more danger with vehicles speeding on the road. In less than 5 minutes, the crowd dispersed. Why so? It's because a few of them have carried the victim to the roadside while waiting for an ambulance. An ambulance will be called immediately once accident happen. Who called? Many... those with mobile phones. Almost every one owns a mobile phone? Don't people in China own a mobile phone? Can't even make a simple call without touching the victim? If it's a major accident, of course the crowd will not touch the victim in case they put him in more harm instead of helping the victim. That's ambulance which appeared after 10 minutes. I don't have to ask you to spot the difference between what happened in this case and what happened to little Yue Yue who died after that in the hospital. There might be 18 people in this scene but none walked away. It was a crowd but a crowd that protected the victim from being hit another round or driven over a vehicle. 18 people who waited until the ambulance arrived. 18 people among which would have tried to contact the victim's family members, called the ambulance and chatted with the victim to keep him or her conscious. 18 people who made sure that the victim was not robbed while lying on the road. The political parties in this country may have differences in their views and propaganda but the commoners have only one wish, that is to keep this country peaceful.

I'm Busy... We're Really Busy...

Year end... holidays coming... and lots of other programmes. The three stoogers in my house will be going for Bible Quiz this Saturday. I signed them up and gave them such a surprise that their jaws almost dropped onto the ground. This kept their brain working over time after the exam. They were currently busy with 30 memory verses and practicing their sword drills and on top of that, they have to know half the book of Genesis... bless them all... and I'm breathing down their necks and woke them up extremely early on a Saturday morning so that they would not sleep away half of the morning. My precious stitching her third masterpiece. The first one was for me depicting a fat and short lady with a pan of fried egg. Like it very much and I'm really happy that she can follow after what I like doing. I hardly teach her how to stitch. She has to learn it from looking at how I do it. Just taught her how to start and end a stitch. The rest was her own effort. I'm very happy with her overall result in school as well. Well, she's busier than I am. She has her Junior Youth Retreat and the Annual Youth Camp coming plus our trip. Haha... my pineapple starts doing cross-stitch at well. Her first piece ever. I don't even know whether she can finish this one piece. She might ditch it aside after a few weeks so she is not allowed to do anything big. I'm busy with my masterpiece and working and having fun at the same time. I'm in quite a holiday mood actually. Got myself a new cabin luggage. The old one got a backache so I had to get a new one. I like this one and I have another bigger luggage so now I can happily drag my luggage across the tarmac of the airport runway. I think I'll just drag it wherever I want to. I'm busy with watching movies now... hehehehe....

Hippo in Pool~!

I know how my cute mini crocodile surf board went into the pool but I did not know how Goofy ended up in the pool as well. Surf board? I would rather call that a splash board. It's really nice when you put it on your belly and tried to keep it down. It's not like I can't float on water but it was just something really nice to play with. The MaxLiquidator was overpowered by other hippos in the water. The larger splash board with turtles drawn on it was also taken away by another hippo. Aahh... I was surrounded by a bevy of beautiful hippos. We have been soaking for more than 3 hours when the last batch of hippos invade the pool. I really like swimming but there seem to be not enough public pool. Either it was too far away, closed down due to some wall cracks or the membership was so expensive I could buy a swimming pool and own it with the hefty sum to pay monthly and anually. Put both boards on your arms and float away. I had a great time there. Not much words to describe the feel of immersing yourself in chlorinated water until you have wrinkled skin all over. We actually did a group jump in a line until someone who can never pay attention and follow instruction spoil the group jump. Dislike such person. The worst was the cameraman instead of concentrating on the who line of ripple went zooming in on the last jumper who spoil the whole group effort. We can't make a second jump because the security guard came screaming bloody murder to all of us for jumping into the pool. He must be rather jealous that he could not join in the fun. When I came back and watch the video, I was screaming bloody murder to the cameraman and it makes me dislike the person who spoilt the jump even more. Cross her out of my list... DISLIKE HER TO THE MAX~!!!! She can never follow anything to the dot, even the slightest and easiest task... if you spoil my December holiday, I'll be very very nasty.

Here's something which has nothing to do with this post. I just feel like ranting it out loud as it's eating me from the inside out. I'm really looking forward to the December holiday as plan but I seriously regretted bringing so many excess baggage along into the trip. I love and I seriously enjoy going on holiday on my own. Alone or maximum 1 person in tow, but to have so many especially two who can't even listen to simple instructions, you will be very surprise when I scream at the top of my lungs in the hotel room... or I will just walk away and leave all the excess baggage in the room. Hhmmm... I think I'll choose the latter. In conclusion, this will be the first time and the last time I'm going with so many people for a holiday. I shall never repeat the same mistake. It's my biggest mistake of making such invitation, I felt like taking all my words back but I couldn't. By the way, it's my blog so I have my rights to write anything I want and you're free to choose whether you want to read it or not or how you feel about after reading it.