Goodbye January 2012...

So fast... and January will be ending in another 2 minutes time. By the time I post this up, it will be 1st of February 2012. Time really flies... I'm not sure what I have been doing for the past 31 days. No matter what, I'm grateful for everything that took place in these 31 days. Let's see what I can remember... Classes are in full swing. Just that the modern generation is so different from the previous batch of youngsters. Every year they deteriorate further. The number of A's has no value. I look at the questions and I laugh out loud. Lame... so how smart are they really are? I don't know...Chinese New Year... love the way things went by for the 5-days of holidays. 24 hours a day was kinda short. Woke up quite early every morning, somewhere around 8am, laze around for awhile then we were shuffling our feet around the 1st Avenue, watched a movie every day for 3 days in a row, went up to Penang Hill to snap the night view of Pearl of the Orient, attended a heart-wrenching beautiful wedding dinner. I have stamina for 8-course dinner but no longer have the stamina to have marathon buffet. Stomach can't digest fast enough. It was my birthday last Friday. Felt like a few weeks ago but it was just 5 days ago, barely even a week. I had three cakes, love every cake that I've had this year. Delicious Italian chocolate cake from Maxim, the yummy-licious double choc cake from Ritz and my hubby's brilliant idea of the boxing chicken dried meat proudly decorated with M&M's chocolate buttons. Spent quality time with my precious, snapping Instax. Had a marvellous time with my girlfriends but I was so steamingly furious with that French sour puss but I think I forgive him now because he must have never experience being joyful. My heart felt sympathy for such an alive yet dead zombie living on this Earth. Just don't go to La France in Irrawaddy Street unless you wanna pay a visit to the sour puss. Oh, I have a private dinner as well just the three of us. Looking at the sunset while enjoying my seafood dinner. I almost fainted after I checked the price of each crab. I have to remind myself to buy crabs from the wet market and do it myself next time. But it's my birthday. I refuse to do anything. I even refuse to drive and I have chauffeurs driving around town for me. I have wonderful friends and I know I can count on them and they can count on me, too. Love everybody in my life. Thank you Lord for a wonderful head start in year 2012. I know you have much more in store for me. The eyes are drooping. I need my beauty sleep now. Has been working for 9 long hours. I left the house sheltering myself from the hot sun and I came back home with only the inky black sky without stars welcoming me. Good nite~!

Exactly One More Month...

Yes~! I'm counting down again. Before I get to chew on my carrot, I'll have to work really hard and torture everyone else in between. Hard work before all the fun comes along. I still haven't figure out the full plan but I know I'm going to have so much fun that working hard and squeezing every single ounce of my energy is not a big deal. It's not a big deal working from morning till night. I can survive but I'm going to sacrifice this blog for a bit. Maybe an update here and there once a week but will not be so much as I still need time to rest a bit. I'm already loving 2012... January is coming to an end but I'm looking forward for the next 11 months. I have my holiday marked out right until the end of the year... Thank you Lord for such a wonderful life. Without You, Lord... my life will be meaningless. Amen~!

In My Wildest Dream.. :D

Dreams do turn into reality. In my wildest dream, Gracie was playing her ukelele while Judith and Judith were both singing for Judith. As La France was such a lousy place, singing in that place would rather aggreviate the constipated Frenchman, so we left as soon as possible. I guess the Frenchman and sour puss wife were elated that we were leaving. We were happier not to spend another second in such horrid atmosphere no doubt the building was actually very beautiful. We went to the Esplanade, right smack in the open air under a shady tree. And yes, Gracie was strumming her ukelele, singing away and they were giving me a live performance in the open. Wow~! Thank you so much. I wish there were more people dancing along but no one will want to be caught in the scorching afternoon sunlight. I'm very happy.... so happy that no words can describe.

Oh, my... oh my... you three have set such high standards for birthday celebration. I'll have to crack my head for all of your birthday celebrations. I better get started with it...

It's My Birthday~! #3

This is a private dinner. Hubby is so creative and you can never imagine having bak kwa as birthday cake decorated with M&M's. There's the pork slice, chicken slick and lobster slice. After having a superb Italian chocolate cake and a lip-smacking double chocolate from Ritz, this is from Kiew Brothers, boxing chicken dried meat. Love you hubby for your creativeness and thoughts. I love this special birthday cake very much, thank you. Love you very much for tango-ing with me with all my events. I enjoyed this dinner very much, directly by the beach. Thank you mama for being here and there and everywhere. Prawns, clams, birthday noodles and especially the crabs. They're all my favourite and not to forget that sting ray curry. The saddest part was my whole pocket of instax films turned out black so we couldn't take any instant photos. Two more packs to try out since the expiry date was two years ago. Remember the sunset that I've been chasing after? We didn't have to chase the sunset this time round. It was perfectly there and I just needed to turn my head and enjoy the sunset. The sun is always setting behind the hills so I guess the Chinese saying that describes sunset is true. I'm the happiest person and the most blessed person on Earth :D There are children playing fireworks as well. Chinese New Year without fireworks will never be the same... thank you mi mama and mi hubby... love you both!!!

Dedicated to the Asshole in La France...

Let me be clear with this. I'm not running down anyone's business but when you offended me deeply on my birthday, you asked for it yourself. First of all, it was a surprise birthday lunch for me so I had no idea where were we. Having been to many cafes and restaurants, the usual greetings will be a joyful shout of 'Welcome' and if there's anyone celebrating birthday, there will be a loud birthday cheer. Sad to say, the moment I removed my blindfold, I was greeted with a sour faced Chinese lady, the wife of this Frenchman who spoiled all our happy and cheerie mood on my birthday.We're loud. We share our contagious laughter and we have our musical giggles. We can laugh down the whole building and laughter is the best medicine not that we need medicine but that Frenchman who served us and happened to own this little cafe La France, needed a big dosage of laughter as his medicine. Have you ever heard of service with a smile? If you seriously have such constipated face and you hate serving customers, please change your job. Shut down the cafe and go live in the cave. We have lots of caves in Malaysia especially in Ipoh. Just take the next bus and leave. How has he offended us you may ask. As he knows that we're celebrating birthday, so it will be a joyous occasion which come with high noise level. It's not noise. It's happiness... the joy of the Lord... joyous... but this man came and asked us NOT TO SHOUT... WE'RE TOO LOUD... WE HAVE TO KEEP QUIET~! Keep quiet on such wonderful occasion? Dear sir, have you ever celebrated your own birthday before? If you have been going through some hard times don't be such an asshole to those who are paying you so that your cafe will keep flourishing. If you have a quarrel with your wife, as both of you have such constipated faces, please bring it to the bedroom and screamed it out loud, but please smile to your customers even with your gritted teeth. And if you do not want anyone to celebrate birthday at your depressed cafe, shouldn't you have let my friend know when she went to reserve a place for a birthday lunch? You want our money but you treated us like we're useless shit... the reason why none of us gave you a piece of our mind is because, especially I, think you have such depressed live that you have to share your bitterness even with your customers.

We know contagious laughter, but I think you have a bitter viral infection. Your bitterness caused us to feel so unhappy and reluctant to introduce your place to any of our friends, we have lovely friends who are always laughing, but since your place do not allow laughter, please state so at your entrance BE SILENT! NO LAUGHTER~! Do you think you are operating a library or a cafe, a place to enjoy good food and good company? WHo are we disturbing when there's no one there? Even if people from outside can hear us, do you think we're brainless? The street is EMPTY~! Por favor~!! The last time I called someone an asshole, he's Dr. J Lo... yesterday, on my birthday, I met the biggest asshole in the whole entire universe.

Do you not know how to oblige to your customer when I asked you nicely whether you can snap a group photo for us? What did that depressed man answer? In such a rude way. NO I'M VERY BUSY. Please, if you have no talent in serving others, please do go and visit Fullhouse in Times Square or just stop by at Nandos. The manager at Fullhouse, Times Square, walked out with the cake in hand and two waitresses singing birthday song to my mother. If we expect you to bring out the cake in a lovely platter you would have tell us over our dead bodies. How did you bring my cake out? In such a hurry that you make it seem like you wanted us to cut the cake and fled the place. My friend didn't even ask for the cake to be taken out yet. You spoil my second surprise, ASSHOLE~!!! Go to Fullhouse or Nandos to learn something good. They will show you how to welcome a customer. Shame on you~!

To the wife I asked, can we sing birthday song? Her reply... YES BUT NOT TOO LOUDLY. JUST NOW ALL OF YOU WERE TOO LOUD UNTIL YOU CAN BE HEARD FROM THE OUTSIDE. Oh, please... shut down your cafe and go live high up in the mountain with the baboons and monkeys where there's no noise. Such bitter couple. Do you need to attend marriage counseling? You can come to our churches. The pastors will be able to help you. And if you're having problems in serving, you can hire those Bangladeshi workers who can serve BETTER than any of you. IF you're so busy and you need a hand, go hire more helpers. My mama always says that you can't earn every single cent yourself. You should go and visit Swensen's. Their managers are all Bangladeshi who are so polite, you can't even find them anywhere. Even those working at construction sites know politeness.

Don't be such a pain in the ass. You really hurt my feelings and I'm still fuming right until now and it's already in the middle of the night. You don't even know how to thank your customers. Thank God your wife knows how to help us take our photos or else we would have blasted you two to Timbuktu. Please, do yourself a favour, shut it down, the food is good but your services is so lousy even in the nasi kandar resttaurants with migrant Indian workers, they served customers better, with their smiles. Have you heard of service with a smile. A smile doesn't cost you a single cent. Don't be so stingy with your smile. If you don't like to serve Chinese, your wife is a Chinese. If you don't like happy people as your customers, please go and conduct funerals where people cry... and they cry loudly. I wonder whether you will ask them to keep quiet, cry softly.

You spoil my birthday... you owe me an apology. But such stuck up people like you will never apologize. We regretted going to your place no doubt the food is nice. Bitterness is worse than cancer. It goes deep and you will rot from the inside out and the stench will contaminate the entire area. If you don't like Malaysia, please go back to your country. Since you're here in Malaysia for so long, have you not learn anything from our Malaysian background where we strive in friendliness? Learn your manners, please. Learn how to greet customers with "WELCOME", "PLEASE" and "THANK YOU". NO MANNERS AT ALL... If you want quiet customers, please state it clearly with black and white notice on the wall... WE ONLY ALLOW CUSTOMERS WHO CAN'T LAUGH, WHO DON'T LAUGH, UNHAPPY ONES AND NON-TALKING CUSTOMERS. ALL THOSE WHO TALK LOUDLY, LAUGH HEARTILY AND NEED HELP IN SNAPPING GROUP PHOTOS, PLEASE DO NOT ENTER'. Doesn't that sound better? At least it's clear so people like us will not even go a kilometre near such unfriendly cafe. If you think you need more training in serving customers, please go get some experience by working in McDonald's. If you need anti-depressant, we have a doctor in our midst. If you need to learn how to smile, get to know Jesus~! The grace of God will set you free... you're so tied up... and I'll remember La France for all my life, the one and only place who spoil my birthday when we were so happy and excited. The true reason why I didn't want to scream at your constipated face was because I do not want to look silly talking to a social pariah... Yes, you're a social pariah to me. I've never categorised anyone but you hurt me so deeply with all your rude ways of handling customers, I can't help it but call you a pariah.

It's My Birthday~! #2

Blindfolded~! Where are we going? This is really scary... and in excitement, I forget to figure out how many turnings Gracie has made thus, my sense of direction was totally lost. She made quite a lot of turns, then she stopped in the middle of somewhere or maybe in the middle of nowhere. Then, she went turning here and there, reversing, being honked at, then continue, stopped, moved and then stopped. Where were we? Do you know how scary it was to walk blindfolded? I salute to those with vision impairment who has to walk the dangerous street every day with just the white stick. I would have freeze in my own footsteps. Yeehaw~! The four musketeers~! Judith, Judith, Judith and Gracie~!! I have a great time and I love the surprises~! You really surprise me and with that prank... oh... I really bought that prank about the squashed home made sugee birthday cake by someone who couldn't even cook and she baked a cake for me. I totally bought that prank. This is one delicious double choc cake. Lovely candles to decorate the cake. Well, when you have such wonderful friends celebrating your birthday with you, what more will you want? It's too bad that our laughter was mustered and we can't spread our contagious laughter and giggles. I'll tell you more about it in another post as I don't think it's wise to mix a wonderful story with a sour one. Thank you for the lovely cake. Teddy~!! I've always wanted a new teddy~! Do you know that I've been waiting for all these? Dreaming about them in fact. Thanks for being able to read my mind. Love the cute little piggy as well. And now I'm so rich, I can even wipe my mouth with money. Juju, how do you know I'm been wanting to change a new wallet? That Paul Smith... ahhh... shoes~!! Since our joyous mood has been stifled by some sour puss, we went off somewhere else to have a better time. In my wildest dream... in my wildest dream... and it turned into reality. Gracie with her ukelele by the roadside, will share the video in the next post. Lovely~!! Thanks to the Samaritan, a kind Malay guy from Kuala Lumpur, who became our instant photographer for my instant camera. This is the best birthday ever~!! Love you all with all my heart... my life would have been dull and boring without any of you~!!!

It's My Birthday~! #1

Happy birthday to me~! Thanks to my precious for remembering. That's my first birthday cake for this year. We ate up the cake for lunch and left a little for mi mama. Too hungry and we had no idea what to eat for lunch yesterday. We went to Maxim's in Pulau Tikus and were wow-wing away looking at all those beautiful cakes. I got myself an Italian Chocolate cake. That's my precious. So many years... I still remember when she was little. Quiet and always quiet and then she grew up with my trademark everywhere. Talkative, saying out loud, impatient, creative... everything good and bad that I have I think I give it to her. She doesn't have my blood but she definitely has my style plus her own style and we both love PINK~! I have a new toy to play with. It's an old toy actually. The Fujifilm instant camera has been sleeping in the drawer since 2009. I cleared my wardrobe and thought that I should put the camera into good use.

That's all for now... going off for a bigger birthday celebration~!!! WOooOHHOOoooO~~!!!

Jonathan and Joel's Wedding Dinner...

Joel I know. Jonathan I don't, but now I do. Joel is sister's best buddy during her teens. She always come to our house to stay over eventhough our house is as small as hers. Joel is a lovely and beautiful lady, with photogenic looks. Snap her in whatever way, she looks perfect. Thank you Lord for giving her such a wonderful husband who knows you and acknowledges You for who You are. The wedding was set on the 26th of January 2011 in Maple Palace. Met sister's old school pals as well. They came together and Joel asked them whether they came in a van or something that can contain so many passengers.

A Chinese wedding is perfectly completed with an eight course dinner where those invite will have a joyous time chewing and munching while the king and queen of the day will be busy walking around toasting from one table to another, toasted up on the stage, popped the champagne and let the champagne flow from glasses to glasses arranged in a pyramid. We did justice to the food even though there were only seven people on our table instead of the usual perfect 10. It's not good to waste food and it's definitely an insult to the chefs if you have leftovers. More so, you shouldn't let the bride and bridegroom spent so much on a wedding dinner while you just leave the food untouched. A toast to the lovely couple. Of all the weddings that I've attended, Jonathan and Joel's wedding was one of its kind. They have their own movies prior to this occasion. Lovely... with Pachelbel's Canon in D playing the whole nite long. For a moment, I just wished I could understand more complex Chinese Language because I couldn't even understand even a word of what the emcee said or what was said in the short movie clip. I salute to the olden days Chinese ladies who had to dress in qipao. I almost strangled myself wearing this. Bought this 5 years ago in Langkawi, it's one unique batik cheongsam.

Pink Wednesday...

I didn't know that there's such an event created by Baskin Robbins. Pink Wednesday where there's discounts for double scoop junior and that banana with ice-creams and brownie. We got all 3 of them because I happened to wear pink and I happened to be in Baskin Robbins trying to get my hands on the waffle but didn't get it in the end coz' they ran out of stock. I'm not such a fan of Baskin Robbins as I prefer Haagen and even New Zealand ice-cream. Mi mama had a caramel cappucino at Coffee Beans. I don't drink coffee so I just snap photos while mi mama was having a great time slurping that bitter cuppa. I cannot understand how they can drink such bitter stuff.

The Pearl of the Orient...

It's my second time going on the monorail-fast train up to the Penang Hill. First time for mi mama and mi love. I was thinking of snapping the night view of my lovely Penang Island. We headed straight to Penang Hill after catching a movie, All's Well End's Well 2012. I'm smarter, prepared dinner and put them in containers so we could have dinner up in the hill while enjoying the night view. I didn't realize that Penang has so few attractions that most people, Malay, Chinese and India were all up in the hill. Anyway, that queue was waiting for the train to bring them down to the bottom of the hill while we just arrived. Bye bye to the crowd~!!! They must be rushing down to have dinner. Whoa~! That's the bright shining island with the Penang Bridge linking the islanders with those staying in the Prai area. Isn't that beautiful? Wow~! I was in a snapping frenzy but it's just the same view. That's more towards the island. We have one large hill in nicely seated in the middle of the island. Gambier Hill, Bukit Jambul and whatever hills that's there. The housing estates are all at the foot of the hill. We have very dense jungle so I really no developers will try to remove that hill away. Penang has very limited empty space so buying a house here is very scary. Anyway, I really really like my t-shirt or is that a blouse? Love it so much...

Splendidly Quiet...

Ahh... you just don't know how much I love peace and quietness. Love it so much. We had a simple day. I love wearing casual wear, just a beautiful printed t-shirt and shorts. Watched Ah Beng the movie at 1st Avenue. It was quite a big crowd at the cinema. I guess there wasn't much to do for other people as well. The cinema has been one of the many places to spend quality time with love ones. How do you spend quality time with your love ones while watching a movie, you ask? Well, if you're sitting at home, you won't have much to talk about also. Moreover if you sit for too long staring at each other, you'll be very tempted to start a gossip because you can't think of anything to talk about. If for me, I'll start cracking jokes or maybe I'll talk about the past. But then, it's not always that you will feel like talking. Sometimes you just sit there on the couch and hope that no one will start a conversation with you so that you don't have to get yourself involve in any conversations. After the movie, the stomach was screaming to be filled. We went to Kenny Roger's Roaster and had some time to camwhore here and there. HHHmmm... so this is actually how I look like if you ever see me by the roadside. I'm always with spectacles because the left eye is lazy. I don't know how the left eye became so lazy that it shuts down automatically. The right eye is very hardworking though. I will survive with or without spectacles just that the right eye has to work doubly hard. I love my new spectacles... I lost count of the number of specs that I have. I just remembered one Elle specs missing at the Crocodile Farm in Langkawi Island. I stepped on another one as I left it on the floor. Kenny Rogers... can I place a comment here since every time I visited Kenny Roger's I have to state what's on my mind clearly. Please scrape away the nonsense that says every customer can't ask for thigh meat for each table. I'm paying for it so why should I pay for the chicken wings part which I hate chewing at? It's like eating bones only. It's as simple as three people, one person on each table, and you still have to serve us with thigh meat. When it's served, we can sit back together again. Understand how silly it is? Oh, by the way, thank you for kow-towing to my request. I'm not the only one who says the service is lousy, the customer behind me said it out loud because one of the waiters made a silly mistake.

Simple Yet Wonderful Reunion Dinner...

It's my choice to celebrate Chinese New Year in a very quiet way. For the first time in my life, I'm right here in Penang, in my own house. I prepared the food and served my little nucleus family. I didn't cook a storm neither did I buy back the whole market. Just bought a little of this and that. Simply dumped this and that into the soup. And you know what, my stamina to eat has diminished into thin air. None of us could finish up the small bowl of soup. Half way eating I had to run to the loo to purge my system. There seems to be not enough space for food intake inside. Anyway, I bought shark's fin and made shark's fin soup. Aahh... disgusted face? Don't do that... it's not that I'm not saying NO to Shark's Fin but I'm also doing some justice to the shark as the fin was already frozen and packed and it would be doing injustice to the shark who has to involuntarily sacrificed its own life to end up in someone's boiling pot and swam around with the chicken pieces, egg drop, mushrooms and crab meat. I'm not gonna have any more prawns or meatball this year. No pork as well. We had a huge chunk of salmon tail grilled to perfection. We even have scallops with my special creamy cheese sauce. I can cook, remember? So it's not a big deal eating at home. After an hour sitting at the dining table, we were having trouble swallowing everything. We ended up with lots of untouched food so back into the refrigerator they went. Mi mama has a big surprise with a big ang pow. I'm not stingy... I'm thrifty. I'm still in great shock that I have to pack a lot of red packets to so many relatives that I'm not even close with that by the time I'm done, I will have to sacrifice my whole month's salary and give it away reluctantly. Since I'm so reluctant to give, might as well I don't go. Giving in reluctance will leave me a very bitter person at the end of the day. I don't expect anyone to understand how a person like me can break every tradition that has existed since before I was born but don't get me wrong, I do not like to be bound by any tradition. I walk free... and freedom is in my hand.

My Birthday Wish List...

My birthday is coming... another 5 more days... yippee~! All I want for my birthday is a Kodak Easyshare M341. Please please... anyone... just get me Kodak's camera as Kodak is already filing for bankruptcy. Or Kodak, can you send me one as a birthday present for being a loyal customer? You can't just leave me like that. I can't live without Kodak. Ermm... if you can't get me a Kodak can you just shower me with lots and lots of cash? The purple will be really good. Just gimme a whole stack of those purple notes... *whee* I love surprises~! I can't wait for a lovely cake :D