Saturday, March 31, 2012

Baishizhou...

On the second day of my life in Shenzhen, China, Pinky and her mom took me to Baishizhou, a place just outside of OCT so that I get to see the authentic China where it is dirty and smelly. I wanted to see the the village area actually but it is too far away, so this will do. We took a bus there, just a few stops away but kinda far to walk. The moment we left OCT area and entered into Baishizhou, I only have one word in mind,"YUCK~!" There were two things that I find extremely irritating and annoying in China. The first was the honking culture. They beep and honk at every corner and whenever they see someone on the road. If it was just a short honk then I was okay with that but when it was a fast-tempo endless honking, that irked me the most. I was honked at countless of times for reasons I do not know. According to Pinky, they honked so that the pedestrians will know that there is a car or a bike behind. So it's like a warning not to cross the road or walk in the middle of the road. If you study the photo above, you will see that the pedestrians horde the road, walking in the middle like it's their grandfather's road. There seems to be no road laws in this country. You do as you wish, turn as you like, make a wrong turn then make a three-point turn in the middle of nowhere. I risk my life crossing roads so thank God I'm still alive and well. Chinese are resilient people. See the heavy load that they carry? Some of they carry a much heavier load. The whole place was dirtier and stinkier than Komtar back home. Thank God it's winter, if it's summer I wouldn't want to walk around with the heat. I realize that most of the Chinese are afraid of the cold, but I'm not~! I'm a Malaysian, from a hot country, I prefer the cold weather. It's so so cooling. Oh, we stopped by and bought some fruits. There were a few fruits unknown to me, bought and ate it, don't like it. Hey~! Is that Malaysia's mangosteens? Copy cat version or real one? The numerous old-looking flats in Baishizhou were scary looking. They were really run down and you can even share a bottle of ketchup with you neighbour staying in the next block. Just open the window and pass it over. That's how near it is. You don't even need a telephone, just open the window and start talking. The walls of the buildings are not decorated with loan shark's stickers like ours back home, theirs were decorated with telephone numbers of houses for rent. Again, thank God Pinky is not staying in this kinda area, so I don't have to stay here, too. We went walking around the town and took a short cut back home. This old place and the modern OCT was separated by just a gate. That's how cruel life is. A separation between the rich and the poor by just a gate.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Splendid China and Windows of the World...


I'm still writing about my second day in China. Actually, it was like my first day there because I arrived in China at night where I had only an hour and a half left till the next day. After taking the Happy Line ride just outside Pinky's house, we went home for lunch. Grandma cooked a storm with the stone fish and fresh baby abalones that I bought. Just nice for the whole family. We lazed around after lunch before continuing our next destination which needed a lot of walking. Both of us got free tickets to Splendid China. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the donkey, right there waiting. I snapped the donkey from the left, front and right. Every angle of the donkey. Pinky thought that I was utterly crazy with donkeys... and I was thinking about the famous professor Donk Donk. Such a big man in society but I have diminished him into just being a donkey. *grinning from ear to ear* We had a lot of walking to do, seriously a lot and we missed two shows in between which I didn't mind at all. Splendid China is a place where you go and have a good look of everything that is in China. It's like Sarawak Cultural Village where you are shown the live size longhouses so Splendid China shows you everything in miniature size just like the Forbidden City in Beijing. I was dreaming of going to Beijing but it was so far away. I consoled myself by snapping more and more photos. There were even exact size buildings but we couldn't even finish walking around the miniature-like buildings. I was in a snapping frenzy and thinking to myself why hasn't anyone create an extremely wide-angle camera lens. No, I don't want the panoramic photo which will reduce the size of my photo until I can't see anything clearly. I don't remember the houses for the different ethnic groups of the Chinese people. Again, I thank God that I'm not a Chinese national and have to study the history of China. Learning about the various ethnic groups of Sarawak and Sabah drove me up the walls and China has more than 56 ethnic groups. Splendid China is beautifully done and I think we did finish walking around. We walked until no one was left in the place. Ah.. I spent a long time in this little corner taking photos. I have a few more photos of different costumes which I haven't upload yet. Pinky snapped this using my camera until the people in charge asked her to sit quietly and not move at all. They must have thought that I would not buy the photos after Pinky helped me snap them, which was quite true. I was thinking about that as I have paid for the costumes so I need not pay for the photos. I prefer photos stored in memory cards than photos being printed out. They have all the 12 animals cutely done by professionally cutting the bushes. I can't help it buy take a pic with the piggie since I'm one big piggie. Wanna see more photos? Nah... can't upload all of them here. They're already up in my Facebook account. You should go and see it for yourself. It's in Shenzhen. The cultural performance with the title phoenix and what what what... I can't remember... that was one mesmerizing performance. After watching the Aladdin musical in Sunway Lagoon last year and thinking that it was the best performance I've ever seen, wait till you watch the cultural performance in Splendid China and it was way better than the Aladdin musical. They were all fantastic performers. It was exactly an hour. Perfect~!

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

All Is Good~!!

My computer is back safely in my room. Nothing happened to the computer so I don't know why it refused to work since last week. Now, it's as good as before. I can never explain how happy I am to sit on the edge of my bed and start typing away on my faded keyboard. It's better than using the large screen computer in the other room sitting on the chair until my ass hurt. Will continue uploading photos and updating blog before I forget all about my blessed trip.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

A Good Head Start... Just For Today...

Obviously it is good because I woke up on my own. I have a good slumber, no wake up calls, nobody to startle me as my mobile phones are 24 hours switch on. I woke up really fresh and it's 10 a.m. sharp. I did not crawl straight to my computer because my computer is still in the hospital, getting patched up for committing suicide. I did not murder my computer. It decided to terminate itself after looking at too many of my photos. So, I am trying to revive it back.
I just need to drive out and get some things done. I have been wanting to do something for the car... to wash the car... but you can't expect me to arm myself with a bucket and sponge and soap water and sponge and scrub the whole car. I will never do that and I have never done that. I'll just need to drive-thru and get it done for only RM3. Cheap... and to think about it... the car has not been washed for more than a year and the drive-thru car wash is just a turn from my junction. Today, I decided to turn in and get it done. The Bangladeshi
workers asked me to wind down my window and said to me, "Your car is very dirty. You keep all the money and RM3 also don't want to use to wash car." Haih... not keep all the money la... but I can't seem to find the time to drive-thru it.

I went to Tesco to get my grocery shopping done because there was nothing left in the freezer or refrigerator. I'm procrastinating again... looking at the ticking clock. I'm about to rush again... see my time is always so limited. I did not prepare a shopping list today because again, the computer died and my printer is stuck to that computer, not this one. So I just simply buy...
Now that I'm online, I did not plan to update this blog. I just wanted to check my e-mail and I'm waiting for a very important reply which fails to reach at this point of time and my patience is running very low. Actually, if you know me very well, you will know that my patience is zero at any time. But I'm going to learn to grow some patience in me... *keeping fingers cross* I want back my computer, can't wait for my computer to come back then I can continue to upload my beautiful China photos and write about my fantastic trip. Each of the trips that I've made is uniquely designed by God Himself... so each trip is differently yet equally fantastic.
Time to head to the kitchen or else I'll be rushing again. Errm... I've never shed a tear while chopping onions.. but I like the picture... there's a chicken on the kitchen top. I can live as long as chicken... hehehhee... gonna continue to be hardworking for the rest of today. Tomorrow will be another issue :D

Monday, March 26, 2012

60% Done...

Kudos to my kids. I have wonderful teenagers who can clean up the whole house and make it spark like how I want it to be. The new house is 60% done. After days of cleaning up after debris, debris from the drilled walls to put up the air-conditioning system. The whole place is like sauna but that is the house that I've always wanted. The design of the interior of the house is just how I have envisioned it to be. A large master-bedroom, a family area where I can style it up at my own pace and the rooms for my mama and my kids. My eldest and youngest are two happiest people on earth because they have a perfect room while my pineapple and my precious stay in the same house right in the heart of town, nearer to their school.

HHhmmm... so far, we have managed to put up all the window curtains except for the ones in my own room. I still can't find the curtain that suits my uniquely designed window. The study area that will take up the whole of downstairs and also the room for piano class has been set up except that I haven't grab hold of the person who can transport the two pianos. Pff... no time... no time... I've vacuumed, swept and mopped the floor for the umpteenth time. Gonna have to go through all the cleaning process a few more times.

Dreaming of living in a big house is different than having it in reality. At least I have a lot of helpers or else I would be standing in the empty house wishing that everything will go into place according to my index finger. I give commands, can never follow one myself. Love the house no matter how hot the whole house is. Just need to air-condition the whole place up then it will be okay until I have the next shock of looking at the electricity bill...

Friday, March 23, 2012

Due To Unforeseen Circumstances...

... my computer kaput-ed a couple of days back. All my 7000++ photos of China are inside the computer. I do still have the photos kept in my 3 memory cards but I don't have the time to upload all of them into this computer. I decide to wait until my computer has recuperate from its heart attack. Due to unforeseen circumstances, again my blog will be having a major hiccup because I'll be very busy moving into my lovely new double-storey house. A house that I've dreaming for. Satisfyingly good for now :D until I dream again for something bigger. Dare to dream :D Thus, I have been busy running around buying new stuff. I want everything to be new in the house.


Reality is about to kick in. The number of keys for locks almost make my head spin. The nightmare of standing in Tesco and buying detergents for floors... for the tiles to shine, the parquet to keep its lustre, to clean the glass sliding door and the floors to mop. I see stars after being undecided on what type of curtains I want for each room. I will have to decorate the house slowly as I have many ideas coming all at once. I might want a Japanese theme bedroom with a tinge of English background plus a little bit of Chinese touch. It's easy to have the Chinese touch. I just need to touch everything with my fingers... *lame joke*

I'm going to be a hardworking cleaner to the big house... there is a garden outside... and I don't have green fingers but I want sunflowers in my garden and some herbs and I want vegetables...

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Western Market in OCT...

After we were done walking around the Ecology Park, we met grandma who was going to the wet market to get some fresh fish and vegetables for lunch. Grandma goes to the market every morning. So, we tagged along and I was amazed to see aquariums with fishes swimming like those that can only be seen in expensive seafood restaurants back at home. Grandma said they will only buy healthy and alive and swimming fish. Everything there was very very much alive unless for a few that couldn't survive the many days of not being chosen to end up in the wok. The floor was wet but there was no fishy smell in the clean market. I saw a stone fish. Stone fish~!! I've never seen one in my whole life and definitely have never tried eating it. I asked for the price and grandma has never seen it herself, too. Neither has Pinky seen one. I decided to buy the fish so that grandma can cook it for lunch for the whole family. I did some mental calculation for conversion rate from Malaysian Ringgit to Chinese yuan. Malaysian Ringgit doubled the value of Chinese yuan so I wouldn't mind the price. That fish cost only 49 yuan. I captured the process of skinning the fish in video, uploaded in YouTube, uploaded in my Facebook but too lazy to put it here. Baby abalone~!! I want~! I want~!! I bought a few of that, too. It was only 5 yuan for one baby abalone which was equivalent to RM2.50 or USD$0.75 which was dirt cheap. I regretted not buying all because the next day we went to the market, there was no more baby abalone. We went to another market which sells only fresh seafood but the baby abalone doubled the price of this one. This was the section selling pork. I have no interest in eating or buying pork so we went ahead. Chicken, duck and goose were all still alive and flapping their wings. If you want to get a whole chicken, you will have to wait for the person in charge to kill it, undress it and I don't know what else they do. Vegetables. Nothing much to say about vegetables... just vegetables. Nothing special. They live to eat vegetables while I survive on meat and thrive on seafood. *ROAR*

Monday, March 19, 2012

China's Morning Lifestyle...

... according to me :o) I've had breakfast at home, a bowl of grandma's secret recipe dumplings. Pinky and I went for a morning walk downstairs at the Ecology Park. It was just an ordinary park but to me, it was one extraordinary park found in a housing area. Around 7 a.m. there must be a tai chi group slicing through the cold morning because grandma joined the group every morning. I was too lazy to get up so early to join the air-slicing team. But I do enjoy the winter morning sitting on the bench and staring at people. I don't enjoy sitting on the bench back at home in Penang because I might suffer from heat stroke. That winter breeze with temperature around 16-degree Celsius was like having the air-conditioner switched wherever I went without the off button. If you are from a four-season country and you're afraid of cold, then you will understand how I felt. I'm one from a hot, hotter and hottest country thus, I'm afraid of walking around in a terrible hot way. I prefer cold, chilly and cool. There... there... wasn't that interesting? It was like looking at a group of Malay men playing sepak takraw. I used to watch the guys played sepak takraw in front of my house when I was small. Now, that was kicking with something made up scraped metal and decorated with colourful man made feathers. I bought 3 of that home so that we could kick it around when we have nothing better to do. People in China really know how to use their time, doing things that they enjoy most. There were a few different groups singing the Chinese oldies. Sad to say, I couldn't enjoy the free public performance as I have very limited vocabulary in my Chinese brain. I just knew that they truly enjoyed themselves, entertaining themselves and others who wanted to be entertained. Anything wrong with the one-child-one-family policy in the land of my forefathers? There were too many people in the golden age era. Just too many of them and so many strollers = too many babies. The old has to take care of the young as the middle-age people were out earning money to feed so many mouths at home. Cost of living in China is not low, it was pretty high. If I were to live there, I will have to earn at least 1 million yuan in order to survive and live like how I am living my life. Right now, I have to thank God for bringing my grandparents to Malaysia. Thank God for their courage to flee from their homeland to embark in a journey in a foreign land which has become my home. Look at the amount of people~! I was thinking to myself that they must be on holiday like me but Pinky reminded me that they were old people and babies and toddlers, getting out of the house for a breath of fresh air. My camera lens was not wide enough to capture everything. I will need a very wide lens to get the snapshot that depicts the situation in China. Everything there was humongous... as in triple and quadruple XXXXXXL... You'll need a lot of L's to describe it. Hey, there was even a glass bridge to cross over the still water. I wished we have this in Botanical Garden. Since I was staying in Overseas Chinese Town, a township developed by the Singaporeans, so you should see that I was staying in a very clean and healthy environment, unlike what we were shown about China through the media, but there were a few setbacks even in a modern housing estate... there were pet dogs taking a leak wherever they felt like marking their territories. There were dogs of all sizes and dogs without leash. We can't do that back home in fear that the dog might attack a passer-by and living in an Islamic country, I am more than happy to follow the Malaysian law, not to have dogs running loose all over the place... not only that the four-legged furry friends were spraying yellow tea all over the place, the little boys were given the leeway to remove release their little birdies and spray more tea all over. At least they did it in the garden instead of the five-foot way, which can be seen all over the city and the outskirt. If you are in China and you see a puddle of water on the five-foot way, please don't think that it's just water spilt by the milkman or the rain has created a puddle suddenly, please heed my advice, either you jump over the puddle or walk far away from it. Oh, look at the fugly looking pooch. What was it doing at the running track? Move away you little pooch...

Happy Valley in Shenzhen

Happy Valley is one large theme park in Overseas Chinese Town (OCT), Shenzhen. If I'm not mistaken the entrance fee is 140yuan but during the celebration of Women's Day, the price was halved. I have walked passed the place a few times but did not enter. I have my reasons for not going there. Firstly, I have the pleasure of viewing the whole entire theme park from the balcony. That itself spoils all the surprises that would be in store. And how about waking up in the morning to shrieks and screams of the merry-makers? The first time I heard loud music blaring I thought it was some lunatic in the apartment cranking the volume of either the television or the radio at the top notch. Then I started hearing people screaming at the top of their voices. I walked out of the room and stood staring at these people, strapped tightly in their seats, screaming their heads off. I found that rather amusing and stood for almost an hour just staring into the misty morning view of the theme park. Thus, I decided not to waste my time going there.

Another reason of me not going would be Pinky is afraid of height, terribly afraid of height and if I were to play alone, it wouldn't be fun. I would just take a roller coaster ride as if I was enjoying the cool breeze with the background sound of people shrieking. No fun in that at all...

Saturday, March 17, 2012

29th of February 2012

That was the day I left for a trip. Waited for Judz to pick me up, tried to sleep for awhile but ended up caressing my little doggie. He asked to go out so I opened the door for him. He tried to pass motion but nothing came out. His legs were too weak to support his little self. I took him back in and called mama to take him to the vet. Smother him with kisses and more kisses. Judz came and I was surprised to see hubby came also. We had a hearty breakfast in Jalan Tengah with my favourite roti telur and wan than noodles plus a plate of siew mai.Waited for my flight to Kuala Lumpur. Every passenger was aboard and the pilot planned to take off earlier. See how good AirAsia is? It has never been late whenever I was aboard. A problem occurred. The censor for the luggage compartment was still on which meant the luggage compartment was not locked at all. The technician drove his cute little buggy over to check out the problem. Problem settled. The plane continued to taxi away from the main building. Same problem occurred and this time round we had to taxi back to the main building for further checks by the technicians. This couldn't be happening right? I took my pda out of my bag, switched it on and started sending out short messages to my mama, hubby and Judz to knock heaven's door for a better technician. I asked God to send His angels to repair whatever technical problems the plane was facing. After hearing the opening and closing of the luggage compartment at the belly of the plane, it was good to take off. Praise God for that or else everyone would be complaining about AirAsia and it's delayed flight again. Next time you encounter any problem, start praying instead of putting the blame on AirAsia.Arrived safely at LCC terminal and I had a lonely lunch at McDonald's with my favourite Spicy Chicken McDeluxe ala carte and a big cup of ice smoothie. That was seriously a very lonely lunch no doubt there was a sea of people floating by. I have checked in my less than 20kg of luggage before getting my meal. I was amazed to see the Indian nationals buying so many LCD televisions. One of them told me that it was cheaper than what they can get in India itself. A difference of roughly around RM1 000. Hhhmmm... they must be richer than I am to come all the way to Malaysia just to be a television. I don't even have one at home, anyway I don't watch television so it doesn't hurt me. I was neutral to that.There were a few things that I find myself doing during a flight. I looked out of the small rectangular window and stared at the clouds. Clouds appear in different shapes and sizes. Some looked fluffy, some looked dirty, some looked like it was gonna disappear anytime soon. After staring into the clouds for a long time, I would wonder to myself how did God do all that? Then, I stared at people sitting beside me. Sleeping... boring... but I prefer not to speak to strangers.The best part of having the window seat was I can pull the shades down or pull it up whenever I like it and as I wish it. I don't have to crane my neck to look out of the small window. And I love looking at the sunset. It was just so beautiful.I finished reading Postcard Killers by James Patterson on the flight to Shenzhen. Four hours flat with half an hour delayed. Delayed due to heavy air traffic in Kuala Lumpur. Again, nothing to do with AirAsia. Looks like I'm singing praises to AirAsia in hope to get a free return ticket to... to... anywhere that I want to go. *sigh* I'm dreaming again. Anyway, while the plane was approaching Shenzhen I was hoping to see the whole place lighted up like when the plane was reaching Melbourne. I only saw total darkness. The lady beside me kept asking me to see whether we were about to land or not. I only saw too unblinking stars... they weren't star, were they? There was a half moon and total darkness. I was staring into the inky blackness of the surrounding until suddenly I heard the tyres of the planes hitting the airport runway. You gotta be kidding right? Such a gigantic country yet I felt that the plane has plunged into total darkness except for the red, blue and green lights on the airport runway. Oh, okay. I've finally arrived. I captured the snapshot of the half moon.Another surprise~! We didn't have to walk to the building instead we were taken by the shuttle bus. Immigration was kinda scary, coolly unfriendly but I thanked God for the few English words displayed. You do not know how my face turned completely green looking at everything Chinese with no translations of English or Malay Language.Reached Pinky's house after 17 stops of the MTR from Airport East to OCT (Overseas Chinese Town) which was really like living in Singapore. The vast difference that I noticed was the whole China was mostly plunged in total darkness with hardly any street lights or just a few dimly lit street lights, so I was thinking to myself they can't be saving electricity for the whole country, right? It proved that the whole city was really saving electricity. I will remind myself to bring a torchlight next time. When the clock struck 12 in the morning, there was a power cut and I was about to take a shower. *sigh* I was again thinking to myself,"Why is there a power cut in the middle of the night when it is a developed country that I'm in?" The explanation that I received was it has something to do with the substation or the main station, whichever that was, it has something to do with the rotation of of... oh, forget it... I don't even know how to explain it.