Stop N Shoot...Point N Shoot...

Now, who's that crazy to stop and snap a photo? I am... I have to admit I have been doing that since the first digital camera was introduced in the market. When I was in primary school, I was holding a camera with the rolling films, seeing the negatives washed and turned into colourful photos just made me happy. I have all the clear shots and with a digital camera in hand, I snapped more photos than I used to. 

The one above wasn't that clear because when I stopped the car, the rainbow was diminishing real fast. I really admire those who snapped the sunrise and the sunset. I don't have a DSLR not because I can't afford that but I just don't want to carry anything that's so heavy. The first thing that will go missing is the tripod stand, I'm gonna leave it somewhere standing by the beach, look at it from far and thinking to myself,"Who the heck leave a tripod there?" That would be mine. The next thing that would go missing and I will only realize it after a few days or weeks will be the whole camera bag with all sorts of lens. And finally I might leave the camera hanging behind the door of a public toilet. There... there... that's the fear the whole house has if they get me a DSLR.

So I survive on the little compact camera. If it goes missing I will cry for a few days or weeks with all the missing photos then I will crawl to the shop and get another new one. 

You know the photos look perfect in your camera screen then when it's uploaded into the computer, it looks a tad different, like pixels have been stretched, that sort of thing. I've just changed mine to the highest resolution I can get from the camera, 14.2 M with more compact pixels and guess what, it's awesome in the camera screen until it appeared in the social network site. I think it has been reduced to 2 M. Last time with 10M it couldn't be uploaded at all. Now the only problem was imageshack couldn't support such heavy and compact photo thus, I wasn't able to upload any of the photos with 14 Megapixels and transfer them to the blog. I used up the space in Picasa so I needed another site to whole my photos. Actually I could edit the photos straight from the camera into 3M or 1M but that would be so tedious and I just don't have the patience to do such a thing. The easier way would be to choose the photos that I wanted in my blog from Facebook, download it back into the computer and then let imageshack hold it for me.

All in all... I can't find any patience in doing all these... so the blog posts will be... slow with updates. I'm going to practice patience... will start fishing with the hubby starting this Sunday BUT I might be busy with the camera instead of the fishing rod.

Thank You, Lord...

for the food...

I think we've said that many of times and then we went complaining about the food as we eat. No one's cooking today since I'm on a strike leave from cooking. Hubby went out to buy food and I was happy to see all the different and colourful dishes on the table. Then, as I eat, I started crying. Now I understand why my precious cried whenever I cooked something not delicious. The first bite was really good but when it comes to the second and the third, it was getting more sourish and they were all very salty. Why can't they cook something which tasted JUST NICE. The taste of ginger from one of the meats were so strong. So much for torturing myself... I'll survive on half boiled eggs from now... and I'll go catch my own fish. 

Cupcakes - Zebra Cakes - Cupcakes - More Cupcakes...

It's just another afternoon with nothing much to do. The whole house needs the air-conditioning system to work 24/7 or else, we would melt in the house. It's so hot. And guess what? My girls contributed more heat to the house.... weren't they great? The kitchen started producing cupcakes at 5 p.m. 

The kitchen has ample supply of self-raising flour and caster sugar. The only supply that keeps running out was butter. We had very limited supply because I don't plan to bake or do anything that has to do with pastry for a long long time. But thank God, the girls have more than enough butter to make three different types of cupcakes. They're very productive and creative. The difference was, when I was baking cupcakes, I had to make them in so many batches because it was never enough to go round but this time round, the kids made only one round of everything to try out. 

So, they started with the marble cupcakes.. .I think... I have no idea what they were up to. I wasn't that interested or else they would ask me to help out, which was a no no. By now I've hammered into their heads the basic of making cupcakes. The rest, they can read the instructions, printed clearly in the books with colourful illustrations.

Mi mama was in a baking frenzy, too. Mi mama made a zebra cake... mmm.... the zebra stripes decided to mix together in between. Nice taste... now I'm becoming the guinea pig? I'm on a diet la... but I swallowed how many cupcakes already... *sigh*

At first the girls thought there wasn't enough butter but being the queen slave of the house, I managed to dig out some extra butter, hidden in the fridge. Not hidden actually, more like they were too lazy to look for butter in the quite empty refrigerator. The next thing I knew, they were dividing the butter into two different portions. Hhhmmm... teenagers... with all the energy... they even have the energy to decorate those cupcakes after leaving the cupcakes to cool down right in front of the air-cond.

I like to bake... sometimes... geez... I don't even know what I really like. I seem to like a lot of stuff and then suddenly, I change... shucks... the photos from the camera were too big to be loaded up into the blog... haih...

Trust Me...

I'm a quarter way blogging, then I encounter writer's block because I have so many things in mind. It's always like this... trust me. Every year, in and out, I thought I will be very free during the year end school holidays. But it happens that I have so many things that I want to do, rather than sitting in front of the computer writing about stuff. And I have so many unwritten or unfinished posts. I want to write so that I won't forget when all those things happen. I don't seem to know what have I been doing with my life in year 2012, like the whole year just vanished in my head. 

I think some things never change in me after all these years. Why can't I just sit and do nothing in the house. Just stare at the television and do the few things like eat, sleep and shit. *sigh* November is coming to an end. I have a few things lined up for the month of December and I have filled up parts of year 2014 with things to do. Time seems to fly... and I don't seem to have enough time in end even though I have chop off the time in kitchen completely. Do I really have time management problem? I don't think so leh... so what seems to be the biggest problem? And by the way... I hate the humid and extremely hot weather... *sigh*

I'm not going to abandon this like earlier... but it seems so hard to keep to something for long... 

Catching Fire.. Tick! Tock! Tick! Tock!

Brilliant movie. The producers. The crew. Those who work really hard to make the movie as much as like what has been written in the book. Bravo! A really great job. Not much has been cut from the book thus, the 146 minutes long movie. Most of the important parts are not left out that makes the movie worth watching over and over again.

I wonder where did Suzanne Collins get the idea to write this kinda trilogy. Not that bad after all, different from others but still crooked in one way or another. The sick ways of human entertainment. I would suggest that one reads the books first before watching the movie for better understanding. 

MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOR....

Sip 'N' Chew...

Nothing to sip...

.Nothing to chew..

Nothing to chew...

What went wrong? Nothing? The place just served nothing special. Hubby says once we know how to cook, it would be very difficult to dine outside. We will be making comparisons to everything. The price was not on par with the food as well. I wanted to try the Mille Crepe Cake but it was out of stock... haih... never replenish stock meh... how to do business like that? So, never mind lor... can I have the Happy Potted Plant ice-cream? But the waiter was so direct and straight to the point that I lose my appetite. It's not homemade ice-cream, he said, but ice-cream bought from Walls. So we would be served with two scoops of ice-cream only at the cost of RM9.90. Haih... waiter boy aa... don't be so transparently honest can or not? Walls ice-cream I have in the freezer and I eat straight from the tub. Haih.... 

But we snap a few pics here and there. The place was kinda quiet... I wonder why these cafes along the tourist belt, wouldn't serve anything more special?

Woody Grill...

I don't mean to tarnish any of the cafe's name but once you've been served with such horrible food, the mouth couldn't shut. I was quite fascinated with the handburger, must be handmade, and then there were beef burger, mutton burger, fish burger and chicken burger. 

We ordered all four different burgers that took forever to be ready. We were okay with that. The burgers looked like... burgers. Once you bite it, our world collapsed before us. The mutton and beef burger, the meat was so soggy and yucky and who in the right frame of mind uses only one gravy to cover for all burgers? Is that the Woody's special sauce? Black pepper.... and please do us a favour, print it out clearly that it's black pepper... I don't eat black pepper and the there's seriously something not right with the texture of the meat. The fish was okay though but not the beef and mutton.

So, we left the half-eaten burgers on the table. We didn't mean to be rude but my friends have been pampered with McJu so we know what's tasty and what's not. We do have expensive taste and very high expectations. Anything good must be better than mine. Gosh... it makes me feel like upgrading my burgers with special gravies like I did last time. 

Can we go somewhere to eat? I'm hungry.... :0(

We did something horrible though. We stole food from the next table after that person left. It's like a leftover but it's not in the sense that after talking to that guy, he walked away with half the chicken chop untouched... and the table was within reach... so why not? No harm done right... Okay, maybe this will be the first and the last time... hahahhaha... But I'm not the one doing it... I was just suggesting it... 

Water - Plain and Salty...

I have the desire to swim in the morning but the body refused to get up. Then, when I was at the edge of the swimming pool, I have the desire to jump into the pool, but I needed to be prim and proper so I walked slowly into the pool, the hippopotamus style of walking. The moment my bare skin touched the water... bbbbrrrrr... it's so cold I wanted to tell the hubby, why not go home and continue to sleep. But I inched into the icy cold water with strong wind blowing all over, and there, I started swimming like a big dolphin. An hour should be enough or I would swim until the skin were all wrinkled up. 

Then, there's the gym. I wanted to prove that one does not need a gym to build muscles but maybe I was wrong. I built my muscles in gym many many moons back so now I'm back at the gym. I feels really good to sweat it out and to see my sweat dripping to the floor and forming a puddle. I think I'm elated with that sight, silly me... 

Chest press? Is this the chest press? It's so no good. To slim down, the first think you know it, your boobs become smaller, which is so not good. So, for this, use your hand to form a barricade so that the chest will be protected... hahahahah... I still have the energy to the weights, especially for my legs. I have strong leg muscles...

Hi... Strangers... Seriously?

I was going through my Facebook inbox... doing some spring cleaning here and there and I stumbled upon a few messages since early this year which escaped my path of vision. I don't know whether to laugh or to be angry with a few of the messages sent by strangers. But I think I'm just being neutral, totally numb towards all these stuff... not like I've never received one before. You've probably received more than I do. Let's see what the international strangers have to say and my replies... the sort of reply that I wished to send but I just ignore them completely...

The first one...
Hello, nice to meet you here. I will like to have a mutual relationship with you, there is something crucial i will like to share with you take care and lots of love, God Has a purpose of bring us closer through this means , it is not accident. please don´t mind the distance and color it has nothing to do with love, I am ready for a serious relationship and I really look forward to starting that with the right person. I am an honest,loyal, passionate, generous, giving, affectionate, sexual, supportive, sensitive, and a good listener who is easy to get along with. I hope you don't mind us being close
Can I say something here? Something crucial to share? Seriously? God has a purpose? Do you think I do not know my God? Distance and color? You're white and I'm what... black? I'm brown~! I'm definitely NOT the right person... I'm also honest, but loyal... that depends, passionate... with sports yes... generous... giving... give me my Mazda 6 in Red Soul colour and send me 5 return flight tickets to your country... but I won't be visiting you... Thank you... that's being totally honest... 

The second one...
Nice photo you have here.I am XXXX by name, i like your photo here and i would like to know you if you don't mind.I live and work here in Manchester England and you ?Do take good care of yourself as i wait your reply.
My itchy fingers would really love to reply... you like my photo? Photos can be very deceiving. Maybe you just want to make friends with my photo... just click on my photo, print it out and start getting to know my photo better. I'm taking really good care of myself and hope you wait till the cow comes home before I reply...

The third one...

Hi !

Compliments of the day.I am XXX by name,I stumbled on your profile while searching for an old friend of mine.I admire your photo here,So i decided to let you know by writing this short message to you.It will be nice to know you if you don't mind.Do take good care of yourself and keep in touch.

Thank you for complimenting. Thank you for stumbling on my profile. I didn't know I appear as your old friend. Never realize that I'm from England. Thank you for admiring my photo. If you have the time in the world, I don't mind you staring at my profile photo which changes once too often. Thank you again. I'm taking real good care of myself.

The fourth one...

Hi hope your day is fine? sorry for unexpected mail from a total stranger just want to Admire a beauty that why i stop to say hi and i hope you won't mind us communicating , hope to hear from you soon

Am I seriously that beautiful? If I am I wouldn't feel as fat as a pig right now. Thank you for stopping by... but I guess you won't hear from me... unless I decided against it since your message doesn't sound so intimidating.

The rest of the messages...

This message is no longer available because it was identified as abusive or marked as spam.

Facebook deleted most of the messages before I could even read them. Should I say thank you or what? Maybe... thank you... but sometimes to humour myself, I would really want to read them first before you go through my messages without by consent. 

Yen's Kitchen: Orange Love... Cheesy and Chocolate y Love...

It's another kitchen crew's birthday. Cheesecake has been requested. No... me not baking... told ya' kitchen's close until next year. Ask the new baker to do it... not the chef~! My precious did it at such ease it looked like she has been baking for her whole life. I think I'm really good in barking out orders, in full details. 

Orange love... 

I was thinking maybe the usual cheesecake, the really simple one but frankly speaking, I wouldn't want to make something I've done before. Not knowing that my precious has the same thought. She pointed it out then since we have eaten that before then no point doing it again. Totally agree~! So we X-ed out even the chocolate cheesecake coz' I've done it last year... twice and my eldest has been baking cheesecakes a few months back, so we're not that keen to swallow another normal cheesecake. We opted for the marble cheesecake. Looks easy. It is really easy, okay...

Happy birthday sweetie... my signature style of gripping a knife...

Same thing, I'm in charge of decorating the cake. I already have a rough idea of how it should be thanks to Zoe who has a craving for jelly on the cheesecake, which I did last year. So killing two birds with one stone, I smartly topped the marble cheesecake with orange jelly. Orange jelly is my favourite. Now I'm smart... anything that I don't like to eat, I will not make. I like orange jelly... so that should be it. 

The cake ain't hard... we just like everything BIG...

There were heart-shaped chocolate pieces in between the jelly layer. I wouldn't make something as plain as boring. So, you see, there are some things that money can't buy. This is done with lots of love. Eh, you want to do it yourself? Go ahead... I don't mind... not that I'm sharing recipes... you don't need one... just go on and Google for the recipes.

The awesome marble cheesecake... with orange jelly... 

Happy birthday sweetie... and they had a good game of carrom men. Seems like the house can be turned into a gym and also a games house. By the way,.the cake was really awesome and the combination of orange jelly with the cheesecake... beyond words... indescribable~!

Food Glorious Food~!!!

I have been on a diet or should I say fast... for one week and cycled until the legs were running on auto. While others can reduce their weight fast... I think the weighing machine has something against me. The weighing machine is jealous so it increased my weight by 1 kg. I hate that weighing machine. Maybe should just throw it away and get a new one. So on the 8th day of my self-torture regime, we were treated to a fantastic full table seafood dinner. Forget about that no rice plan... will resume that after the dinner. Bring me the rice~! And I have a second helping...

I'm happy... as long as there's food... glorious food...

Don't ask me where we were. I just remembered that we passed by a graveyard where the cousin couldn't remember whether her grandma was buried there or over at the island. So I called the hubby to get the right answer. We were in Tambun? Nibong Tebal? Jawi? I don't know... we were somewhere by the side of the road.

I have had the best dinner ever with so much to eat. It's like I have been hungry for a week. The shells were done a little sourish, then we have the baby stingray steamed in Teochew style... also sour, there's Ribena chicken but given a chance I would have swallow the whole plate of chicken but I have table manners... cannot take all... must let others take also.... then that kangkung also I got eat... good choice... and my favourite of all... prawns... 

Fresh oyster... I kinda like it raw... 

Thank you Ah May for the treat... and I have had a wonderful overseas trip... for a short while... 

P.U.S.H.

Yesterday, the Awesome Foursome squeezed behind the new KIA Cilantro that belonged to another friend but driven by yet another friend. We were crossing the bridge towards the mainland to visit the friend's dad who was made sick by the devil disguised as cancer. The liver has been hardened by cancer and he has lost so much weight. If I was all alone with him, I would be weeping and begging the Lord to take him home so that he does not have to suffer.

When grandma was diagnosed with lung cancer, I was weeping my eyes out but at that point of time, it never occur to me to either pray for healing or to pray at all. I was living in denial thinking that the rich family can buy anything in this world, they would be able to buy the best medicine to cure grandma. 

Last year, I made a wish. I think it's very dangerous for me to make wishes and passing statements. God seems to grant me almost everything that I wish for. I have to be very mindful of what I wish now. I wished to see someone I know get healed of cancer because I have never seen it with my own eyes. You and I most probably read about it, about someone's testimony which we don't even know the person for real. Maybe seen the person once but don't know them in private. So I wished for someone whom I might know of so that my faith can be strengthen. Selfish wish? 

So now I'm put to test... to pray for that someone. I did just that with tears at first. I was devastated in fact and started blaming myself for making such wish or even thinking about it. I prayed because I was driven by guilt. As time goes by, I started praying earnestly but when there's no news of progress, I almost give up. I have no words to pray with... I am like a broken old record praying the same thing over and over again.

Where did I go wrong? I'm fasting now and praying at the same time. You can never imagine me, a food lover, fasting for another soul. That's totally unheard of. But I'm doing it now not because I'm driven by guilt but I felt that I'm currently in a spiritual warfare for the person. And everything was timely. It's time to shut the kitchen down or I would be in the kitchen round the clock, having no time to even read God's Words. Out of the blue, this friend of mine challenged me to look better and go on a diet. I need just that to push me to do something totally different. I find it rather difficult but I'm doing it still. I thank God for sending people who really has been very helpful and encouraging for me to press on. 

Now, I have time for other activities and I am about done with half a sword... if you understand what that means. I have a Bible mentor with me all the way from across the ocean in another continent. He has been very helpful, too. Very knowledgeable and always giving me sound advice. 

Sometimes courage is the willingness to sacrifice for others; sometimes it involves giving up something precious for a need bigger than we are. Sometimes bravery means suffering through every day because people depend on you; smiling through the fear so others feel safe.These describe you, don't they? According to God, they also describe strength, sacrifice, courage. You're worthy - own it. - by Lee Goff, the author of the Thunder Trilogy

I'm asked to continue to pray... press on... it's about me God is interested in, not others. This will be a test of faith. Whether the man lives or dies, I am not in the position to question God's sovereignty. I didn't know what to think of from yesterday's short experience. Was it for me to expect the worst in future or was it an eye-opener for me to PUSH forward to see healing actually taking place. 

I have been blessed until I couldn't keep count anymore... this is one that I want to really see happen.

Each tragedy was a wall; the sleepless nights were hammer and nail; prayers that seemed to go unanswered were heard, signalling a host of angels to form a protective roof over you. The clock of today started ticking the day you were born, every moment playing its purposeful role. The mistakes have worth; the tragedies have worth; every memory you regret has its worth. You were made perfect in your imperfections, each one building more of your own worth. God bless you. - by Lee Goff, the author of the Thunder Trilogy...

Don't give up... I'm still PUSH-ing...

Yen's Kitchen: Checkered Love...

Today is one of the kitchen crew's birthday. But since I've already shut down my kitchen, I instructed my precious and my youngest to prepare the birthday cake. After barking out all the instructions in one breath, I climbed upstairs to have a rest in my love nest. I just hope that they won't burn down the whole kitchen or worse still, burn down the whole house. They are big enough to cook, in another couple of years, they are going to leave the nest then probably I'm going to cook all those super expensive fine dining style eat-and-never-be-full kinda food just for us oldies left at home.

Ahh.... what to do with the four stacks of fats....

After 3 hours... completo~!

The checkered cake... 

The cakes were done two days before. I'm so smart now, I make sure the cakes are baked two days before then I will have one full day to decorate the cake at tortoise pace and on the day itself I will not be stressed that the cake would not be ready for consumption. I used to cake one day before and then I will be sleep-deprived as I slept at around 4am and had to wake up at 7++ am the next day. So for exactly 3 hours on Sunday nite, I slowly very tediously started decorating the cake.

The kitchen crew's style to include anyone  who's missing in an event...

Sad to say, the birthday girl was down with German measles and she called early in the morning to inform. We're also professionals in handling this kinda cases. We only need the person's photo and then we can snap as many photographs as we like with that person in another phone in another photo gallery and then we would wallop the whole cake and party till our hearts' contend. Such is our loyalty to those who are a part of us. 

Failed attempt to surprise the birthday girl... 

But this kitchen crew of ours proved that she has more pulling force than any of them ever possessed. After an hour of celebrating, we couldn't stand it that she wasn't here with us. So, the next thing we knew, I was packing up the cake that was left in half and her birthday presents, called her mum and then we were on the way to her house, whether she has German measles or not, whether it is contagious or not, we couldn't care less. 

Finally... with the birthday girl... in person

They were happy to see her, I was happy to see her and then we were fellowship-ing in her house for an hour or so before we started growing roots and wouldn't be able to move our butts from the sofa. She has quite a zoo in her house. A big pot of peacock fish, two cages of rabbits, a basin of star tortoises which would outlive every single one of us and a family of marsupulami suger gliders which scream obscenities whenever you blow into their faces. 

Me with the sugar glider gliding fearfully... 

There... there... the girl who contracted German measles from the air would not be with us for a week. So, it should be my 8th day of self-torture so do you think I ate that cake? Of course I did~! I will tell you why in a short while...

My whole lot of kitchen crew...

Daleth... Your Dwelling Place...

This is a dry subject which Ps. HC shared on Saturday. Ps. HC has the ability to share dry topics that's so solid if you do not grasp the meaning fast enough, you might end up choking mentally and spiritually lost in transaction.

Psalm 119:25-27 --> Life in Your Word

25 I lie in the dust. I’m about to die.
    Keep me alive as you have promised.
26 I told you how I’ve lived, and you gave me your answer.
    Teach me your orders.
27 Help me understand what your rules can teach me.
    Then I’ll spend time thinking about the miracles you have done.

It was understood that the Psalmist was down in the dumps. He must have faced some rubbish in life that he found no way out. The only thing he could think of was death itself. But at the same time, the heart was crying out to the Creator, to be kept alive. The Psalmist wanted to learn God's orders. You know God's orders? Those are the two greatest commandments.

Both sounded really easy to keep. To love Him with all your heart is equivalent to give your life away for if need be. Most will not be willing to do so. The phrase 'I Love You' is not a lip service but it's an act of love which must be carried out with all your mind and all your strength. I think I fall short of that as I'm distracted with the worldly things... such as the smartphone. I can be very busy attending to the phone and forget about God, at times. You did that as well... don't point a finger at me, you're having three of your fingers pointing back at you. It's like a pot calling a kettle black. 

Love your neighbour as yourself. Can you really do that? Of course you can love your own friends but most of the time, your real neighbours are not even your friends. So, strive to make these two commandments as something of utmost importance in your life. Don't forget, your neighbour might not love you back. Your neighbour might find you irritating when you always go around asking them,"Hey, how are you?" That might be because they don't even know how to answer your question. The most courteous and insincere answer to stop you from prying into their private life.... the answer you've learn in kindergarten in order to answer that question.... is no other than.... I'M FINE, THANK YOU.

Psalm 119:28-30 --> Strengthen by Your Word
28 My sadness has worn me out.
    Give me strength as you have promised.
29 Keep me from cheating and telling lies.
    Be kind and teach me your law.
30 I have chosen to be faithful to you.
    I put my trust in your laws.

Sadness can worn a person out. You will have to personally experience that to know how it felt like. You will be crying without tears because even the well of tears is dried up. But cling on to His strength as He has promised. You know, if you put your trust in men, they will only bring you more sadness. Men are quick with their words and then they forget their promises, and you will be left with empty promises, like the resounding gong. Such bitterness destroys relationship and friendship. Thus, it is better to trust in the Lord for God has no mood swings and will not choose to forget the promises He has given out. Live freely for a person who lives with unforgiveness will cringe in despair. Unforgiveness is poison to the body and soul.

Psalm 119: 31-32 --> Run into Your Word
31 Lord, I’m careful to obey your covenant laws.
    Don’t let me be put to shame.
32 I am quick to follow your commands,
    because you have set my heart free.

Over here, the Psalmist was pleading to the Lord not to put him in shame. To be ashamed is just like losing one's dignity. You can't lift you head up high for you have no guts to face the world. 

I write according to what I understand. I find it really difficult to read Psalm but at the same time I'm like the Psalmist as well. Torn between two worlds. The flesh wanted to give up but the heart is hanging on to something dear. It's like living at the edge of the mountain with both hands hanging on but the strong wind is trying to blow you into the valley where you see no land from the top but only a hole with total darkness.

Balanced.... Fingers...

I'm putting in some effort instead of merely sight-reading. To laugh or to cry? I'm emotionless. The most I can do is to play like the professionals to impress the four walls of my piano room. I have the urge to shift the volume to the max to torture the neighbours for six hours straight. It's a really quiet neighbourhood so nothing wrong to bring it alive. 

You can click on the videos to listen. You just need to pause what's playing on the bottom part of my site. Or just listen to them from YouTube straight. I need someone to play for me before I start playing but looks like I need the YouTube to play for me now... *sigh* It's 19 pages long but kinda nice. I realized that I sort of love classical music rather than jazz. I have no feel for jazz and definitely no love for those soap opera songs where you need to tear your heart out and play until those who listen will shed a tear or two. I'm not the emotional type. Sitting on the piano can be very addictive. I can play for the whole day and forget about the entire world. 

So I tried to balance my life a bit just for today. I still have to work until 10p.m. so instead of sitting in front of the piano and the computer screen for the whole day, I woke up and released the bicycle from the huge chain then went cycling. Instead of just 20 rounds, I went for 25 rounds. It was grueling and felt good both at the same time. I was really happy whenever I see my own house because that's where the number of rounds increase. I might want to cycle again tonight but I need to attend to the piano to perfect that sonata. I wish I have the talent of Mozart so I need not put in any effort.

I met the usual joggers around the field. So instead of jogging now I'm cycling and we still get to say hi whenever we see each other. Looks like quite a number of people know me but I don't know them lor. I saw a lady wearing a thick jacket while jogging at 9 a.m. Lady, are you mad or what? It's freaking hot I'm wearing as little as possible. If I have really good body shape I would be cycling with just my bra and panties on. It's so freaking hot out there I was cycling faster and faster just to have the feel of wind from the opposite direction of movement. Hey, two houses along the stretch actually have pianos. But they play boring songs... too slow. I like fast songs then I can have my fingers flying along the keys. 

The weekend is peeping through at the corner. I still haven't decide what to do for tomorrow. Gosh... I wish I'm not such a last minute person but looks like I'll always be one. I have no plans for the coming trips. No plans for the holidays except that I know I'll be having a great time... I won't be hanging around in the house.. that's for sure. I love the outdoors.

The View - The Satisfaction - The Pubic Hair...

Good morning Mr. Sun.... you're burning hot...

It's Thursday. I have sacrificed two of my Thursdays.... one for swimming in the kitchen and another for searing my hand on the 200-degree Celsius tray. Our last minute plan was made the night before. I had to wake up at such ungodly hours, at 6:30a.m. to beat the traffic. Traffic starts to grow the size of a python or longer when the clock strikes 8a.m. You'll have to drive up and down like me to know which road to use and not to use at what time. The Jelutong Expressway started to crawl like a snail at 8:15a.m. so lazy me managed to speed through by 8a.m. 

The modern see-saw.... I prefer the old one which was higher...

Our morning walk from the old places like Air Itam dam, Botanic Garden, the Metropolitan Park and the Bukit Dumbar dam have changed over a year. Today we had a walk along the Straits Quay. Of course we didn't start straight with a walk We have to warm up first, remember... like what you were taught in school. We were on the see-saw... I like the see-saw and who says we're too old to play? It's not written there for children only. It's just a playground for us to play. And who says we're too old to play? Never too old for anything :D If you think you are old then too bad for you.

Why can we never have cool wind blowing?

And then there's my favourite swing. Higher and higher. It's so wonderful. And then there were the dogs. Should have brought the four Schnauzers then all of us can walk a dog each. There were two Schnauzers at the park. One of the Schnauzers, Mojo, was sexually attracted to Gracie's leg thus, he went over and started humping Gracie's leg. What a pervert and rude little doggie~!!

The little dog that raped Gracie's leg... poor leg... poor dog...

I want this... one day... 

I did our short morning walk. It was kinda hot but I have my camera to fidget around with. Whenever I have my camera with me, there wasn't much exercise to do. My index finger did more than any part of the body. I love snapping photos and I can snap a thousand photos a day. Then, I saw tiny ripples coming in huge circles in the sea. I've seen those along the Gurney Drive see and I knew there were fishes. Then, I called mi mama to take a look and lo' and behold the fishes started skipping on the water. Must be mudskippers? I didn't snap those because I was busy staring at those skipping fishes and then they just stopped and I was searching for the next ripples. It was all along the coastal line. Very interesting. I can stare into the water for hours if I have the time. 

Sparkling diamonds in the water... from Mr. Sun...

It was too early to have lunch so we went over to Island Plaza. Not my territory and we were at Coffee Journey. Me no like coffee at all so I had my iced dark chocolate which tasted like fake Milo.. you'll know what kinda taste that was if you have had the chance to try out fake Milo or you've never heard about fake Milo? But we had a good time... snapping photos... again.... we're really good cam-whorers.

Time to relax...

A Christmas tree of books...

Now, it's time for lunch so we drove back to Straits Quay... walking around aimlessly as Bella Marino had some kitchen trouble... all the Christmasy decorations were already up. I was kinda attracted to the Christmas tree where books were stacked up to form the look of Christmas tree. Bella Marino opened at 12pm and it felt like they took forever to prepare our lunch.

From Bella Marino...

Frankly speaking, the food was so-so only... nothing to shout about. Not worth going I would say but Judz wanted to treat me to Tiramisu. Heard that the Tiramisu was really nice but I'm still not a coffee lover.

The Tiramisu with pubic hair... 

The Tiramisu tasted not bad until I started digging into the bottom layer with bitter coffee. Gracie was suppose to wallop the bottom part while I savour the top layer covered with cocoa powder. I was busy digging into the really melt-in-the-mouth cake until I saw something wriggled out. It was a strand of hair... a strand of pubic hair? Don't tell me you don't know how does a pubic hair look like when you see one. It was totally disgusting and I forget to take a photo of that but instead I was calling the waiter over. Both our Tiramisu were on the house but the first experience of having Tiramisu has been tarnished by that one strand of pubic hair...

My eldest, a chef-in-training, got back from work and I was asking her how did pubic hair or armpit hair entered into the bottom layer of a cake. We were brainstorming about this issue and we came out with a couple of weird but might happen scenarios:

• The chef must have lots of armpit hair and it so happened that the particular strand chose to fall out of the sleeve and went straight into the cake while making the layers... possible? I don't know... 
• The chef had a sudden itch in his crotch and accidentally pull out a strand and shook it off from his hand without realizing it and it just happened to fall into the cake? Utterly disgusting... hey you never know what happen in the kitchen.
• We totally have no idea.... ignorance is bliss.... don't bother to think about this or else you might be digging into your Tiramisu when eating ... I just know what I won't be able to enjoy Tiramisu anymore without thinking about pubic hair... I might want to dig into every millimeters of a cake to be sure that there's no hair inside.

I had a really great time with the Awesome Foursome gang minus the crazy doc who was busy treating patients at the hospital while we were busy walking, talking, snapping photos, drinking... sounds so wrong here... and eating...

Anyway, I don't know what happen to my diet plan today. I ordered saffron-infused rice with prawns and clams from Bella Marino. Trust me... that's the only thing worth ordering on the menu. The rest were just too over-priced and too mainstream. I would want something different... something which I totally have no idea how to do it. But the pubic hair was kinda worth it as the Tiramisu was paid for... hahhahahaa....Hey, don't get the idea that we purposely plant the hair there, I wouldn't be that crazy to pull out a strand from down below in a restaurant and stuff it inside... and my armpit has been shaven clean... it's hairless... muahahhaha....

Oh, I did 20 rounds of cycling in 45 minutes around the field... if only you have seen the size of the field. The only thing that stops me from continuing was the pain in the ass. It was totally numb and then it started to drizzle... must be God saying enough for today's self-torture. And we had Dominos pizza for dinner coz one of the boys got 1st in class and in the whole form and it was a reward to him and a cheat to me.

After looking at all those over-priced food, I have the urge to reopen my kitchen and upgrade our daily menu to several notches higher. I think I'm able to do it if I'm not that lazy with those garnishing. Why need to decorate the food on the platter when they're all going into the mouth? I realize that food decoration gives one a really good first impression. Taste-wise... hahhahaha.... there might be a trick to it... your face either light up like a Christmas tree or your face crumpled like the paper waiting to be tossed into the rubbish bin. I'll decide whether to reopen the kitchen or not... it's not in my tradition to cook during the school holidays.