Unique & Original

Exactly One More Month...

2012-01-29T23:56:00.002+08:00

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

2012-01-28T18:17:00.002+08:00

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

2012-01-28T00:43:00.004+08:00

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...

2012-01-28T00:39:00.002+08:00

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

2012-01-27T23:14:00.004+08:00

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

2012-01-27T10:56:00.002+08:00

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...

2012-01-27T10:12:00.006+08:00

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...

2012-01-25T22:09:00.003+08:00

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...

2012-01-25T21:52:00.003+08:00

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...

2012-01-25T21:44:00.003+08:00

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...

2012-01-22T22:34:00.003+08:00

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...

2012-01-22T17:02:00.005+08:00

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

Cheated Breakfast...

2012-01-22T16:33:00.002+08:00

Gracie recommended a well-known place for nasi lemak as our stomaches were growling for food. Gracie has read about other food bloggers singing praises for this little stall at Pulau Tikus selling nasi lemak. It seemed like the nasi lemak is number one with so many people queueing up to buy nasi lemak and a customer even placed order through the phone. Some customers even added prawns. Each prawn was RM1 and I thought we were gonna get a large prawn. My mouth was wide opened and my eyes almost bounced out when the plate of nasi lemak arrived. My first thought was, "Where the heck was my chillied anchovy gravy? Where's the gravy? How can you call this a perfect plate of nasi lemak without the gravy?" The moment I saw that small piece of fish which cost less than 50 cents for one fish, I was telling myself, "I'M NOT A CAT and I don't eat such small fish~!!" And what's with the mini-sized prawns? Can't you get a large prawns? It's just a few cents and that's mini-sized prawns cost less than 40 cents for one. Are you trying to murder me with such inedible hot sambal? And the amount of rice, it's it's small that I had to eat slowly to trick my mind that it was worth eating.

This is not the first time food bloggers have reported wrongly about food. It makes me wonder whether the food bloggers know the meaning of having delicious food or either that the food bloggers can't cook perfectly that's why anything that's edible, they blogged about or else there will be nothing to blog about. I can cook a better nasi lemak than this cut-throat expensive RM3.80 nasi lemak... *ptooi* And what's with the fake watery Milo? I grew up drinking Milo day and night until today. I can even drink Milo for the whole day and know which one is fake and which one is genuine. Cekik darah~!

I'm Mild Mannered...

2012-01-22T15:40:00.003+08:00

I was hungry. I have had the sizzling noodles in my mind for a few hours. The best place would be to have it at Tesco so that I could continue doing my grocery shopping after having my lunch. Someone spoiled my lunch mood completely. The youngster mending the sizzling noodles stall in Tesco Gelugor had a serious attitude problem, a rather serious that if I were to meet such a person 10 years ago, I would go into a horrible fight with him, dagger and everything. The problem started when I took a mouthful of noodles, slurped them in and removed it out again like a cow eating grass. I saw that the noddles were charred at the intervals of 2cm. At first I thought that it was just a few strands of noodles so I wouldn't mind taking them out and eating the rest of it after I'm done selecting the rejected noodles. To my horror, even the chicken egg was badly burnt. I was actually rushing for time as I still have a class to attend to. I did some mental calculation, if I were to choose out the noodles, it would be after a few hours and it seemed like every strand of noodle was charred so the best way was to dump the whole plate of noodles into the nearest rubbish bin. Hubby stood up and asked the young chap what's wrong with the charred noodles. To our surprise, I was very very surprise with the rude shout. He said there was nothing wrong with the noodles. Excuse me, if you're talking to someone who has never seen a charred noodle before, you can pass it as an idiot's remark to a darkened noodle but when you're talking to a customer who can cook better than you, you should start apologizing. We only asked that young chap to apologize, didn't even ask him to replace the noodles. My hunger left the moment I was busy selecting noodles to throw away. The young chap starting hurling abuses at us at the food court. He was asking us to go home if we didn't want to eat. Even screamed at us to ask us to go and complain. Hahahhaha... I'm so civilized I didn't utter a single word. I don't know where has my anger gone to. Since he suggested that we file a complain, I stood up and took the whole tray of charred noodles and demanded to see Tesco's general manager... and the general manager was rushed to the information counter in less than 10 minutes. Such efficiency can only be praised at. Good job Mr. Selva and thank you for the refunds.

Now, let the smart woman give some tips to foreigners who worked in our land of milk and honey. If you realized that Penang Island is an island flowing with milk and honey, you should learn how to respect the locals. Secondly, if you have no intereste in serving customers, then please go and work at the construction site where you do not have to face other customers except for other alien workers and your own supervisor. Further more, if you can't cook all the more you shouldn't be working at a food court, the person who hired you ought to be shot dead for being so stupid. I've never looked down on alien workers or migrant workers but once you've shown that you think you're high and mighty in my country, please pack your bags and go back to where you come from, you don't deserve to be in a country where soft spoken people live. You acted badly just like the uneducated without manners third world country people, go back until you've decide to learn manners and not act like a hooligan. Lastly, if you think by shouting in bahasa Malaysia then I wouldn't understand, think twice.

Dijeritnya minta kami pulang jika tidak mahu makan, kau ni kalau aku macam dahulu aku minta kau berambus dari pulau ini. Akan aku hambat kau dengan penyapu di tangan kiri dan parang di tangan kanan. Kurang asam punya lelaki. Dahlah muka macam dilanggar kerbau lagi nak mengada-ngada. Tak malukah kau maki-hamun pelanggan di arena makan? Ingat engkau ada kat tepi jalan atau bertinggung di sebelah longkang busuk? Kalau tak ada kerajaan kat sini, sudah lama engkau mati aku pijak. Memang kurang ajar. Datang negara orang nak buat hal pula, nak tunjuk lagak, buat samseng. Berambuslah kau ke negara sendiri~!!! Lain kali aku jumpa kau, nahas kau, aku belasah kau betul-betul sampai ibu engkau sendiri tak dapat cam muka engkau. Asal manusia bangsat... tak beragama... macam inilah hidupnya kalau tak beragama, tak diajar sopan-santun...

The Chinese New Year Madness...

2012-01-22T15:06:00.002+08:00

As the Chinese New Year is just tomorrow, prior to getting prepared, as in stocking up the kitchen cabinet and refrigerator and storeroom, if you have any, the Chinese can spend a lot of time and money just for the Chinese New Year celebration. The hypermarkets will be slashing off prices and due to that, you will see a snakingly long queue trying to get to the goods on sale. In this example, everyone was getting to the 100Plus as it was at a dirt cheap price with free 100Plus some more. If you see the way they buy you might think they're gonna donate to a large team of runners in a marathon. You're wrong then, they're just gonna drink it during the Chinese New Year while putting their money on cards, trying their stroke of luck to win something back after giving away so much money in the red packets. Each customer was limit to 6 cartons only and there were 4 of us coming in 2 different cars. That's mama's friend and seriously, she owned a coffee shop and she's an engineer as well. You've not seen the scene in the wet market. You wouldn't want to step into the war zone where aunties were buying stuff like they're gonna cook for an army load of soldiers. Well, that's just for reunion dinner. How much can you eat during reunion dinner especially in a steamboat? Oh, wow~! Reminds me of my breakfast, lunch and dinner of having meatballs, prawns, more meatballs and more prawns for 5 days in a row. I vow to my Chinese New Year celebration a different one this year. I break all traditions again and I'm very happy with myself. Don't tell me what to do :D Wow~! All the 100Plus stacked up outside mi mama's house. I'm not one who will pile up the freezer but once you see my freezer you will understand why I do not need to pile it up. My freezer is as big as folding an adult and a child into it... it's as large as that, I'm just giving you an example, not saying that I've ever fold somebody into my freezer.

The Unusual Usual Walk...

2012-01-22T14:18:00.002+08:00

As a start of year 2012, we resumed our morning walk on Thursday by heading towards Air Itam dam. It was something different as there were swiflets hovering all over the dam. I wonder where the swiftlets were residing. Any caves near there or holes for them to build their nests? Anyway, we needed a motivator to keep us moving. There was a doggie at the parking lot. We asked the doggie to tag along as it looked kinda lonely. Loyal and faithful was the dog for it followed us, then he led us through the path while marking its territory all over, waited for us when we slowed down. We stopped and sat for awhile to take its photos. It got bored waiting for us and yawned away to show its boredom. We had to continue walking to entertain the dog. The four legs proved to be a very fast walking machine. The dog was so smart once in every corner it would turn its head to see whether we were following or not. If it couldn't see us, it would stop and wait for us to arrive. Another week after that we saw something that made my imagination turned really really wild. Who hooked the black brassiere up on a tree with a wedding invitation attached to it? *eerie spooky*.... EEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWW~! Who held a wedding in the jungle? Who was getting married or the wedding invitation was already over? AAAAAAAAHhhhhhHHH~! If I was all alone in the woods, I would have sprinted away faster than a jaguar. Why not just hook a red bra? It would attract more attention...

Living A Wonderful Life...

2012-01-22T01:16:00.002+08:00

I have another 3 hours of work tomorrow then I'll have 5 days of holidays. I cut short my holidays. Instead of taking 7 days, I took 5 days only. I'm such a hardworking person, ain't I? Well, first and foremost, I would like to thank the Lord for blessing my life with so many wonderful events, people and things. There's nothing that can make me deny that God is alive~! Amen? Looking through all my photos, it's only the beginning of the year yet I already so many things to share about that there seems to be not enough time to share much. Even though next week is a holiday, but I know I'll be very busy going out and enjoying myself once again. It's the year of the dragon but it's not nice to put a dragon to defile my clean page. Well, it's just a Chinese belief that I don't believe in. I found this quote by Albert Einstein. Whether he really say it himself or he has been misquoted by some people, well I just wanna say that, "I do know~! I do care, always have and everything little thing makes a huge difference~!"

Mi Mama's Surprise Birthday...

2012-01-22T00:18:00.003+08:00

Mi mama's birthday surprise... the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Mi mama has changed so many mobile phones, from one model to another that I've lost count of the number of phones that she has used. Since mi mama loves electronic gadgets so much, thus I guessed that a Galaxy Tab as a birthday pressie should be one great surprise. A surprise indeed it was~! The place to celebrate mi mama's birthday wasn't a surprise though. Mi mama is one sporting person and a very updated lady that before I could even utter the word 'Fullhouse' as the new restaurant in town with the lovely white theme, mi mama went there with her colleagues already... *blink blink blink* We were at Penang Times Square, us walking into Fullhouse for the first time, second time for mi mama. As this is not a food blog, I would choose not to say much about the food as the food was just okay but I like the place very much as every corner of the perfectly decorated English style white colonial restaurant cum boutique was a perfect spot as a photo background. If you wanna know more about food, I would like to suggest that you go over to Gracie's food blog. Shortly after we placed our food order, we took off, leaving our table empty. We went to have a photography session. The manager was so kind, he even became our butler, carrying our bags while we were busy posting without our bags as accesories. Ahhh... all the lovely people in a great shot. The boutique upstairs was even a better place to play dress up. My precious and I were very very busy trying out on the headgear, lengthy and large necklaces which will get you entangle and choke up to death if you're not too careful, there are scarves which I know I will never spend my money on and shades that I have no interest in but for playing dress up, I don't mind putting on all those. The manager came up after looking for us downstairs. He was waiting for instruction for the next surprise for mi mama. Since he saw what we were doing, which wasn't allowed actually in a boutique, I asked him to pretend that he didn't see us and what we were doing. He was very kind to ignore us completely while we continued with our nonsense. The next surprise came with the manager carrying the cake to the table, singing the birthday song accompanied by a few other waitresses, singing a cappella style. Mi mama had the most wonderful birthday surprise last year... and I'm almost a month late in updating this blog. Love you mama, muacks~!

Clearing the Wardrobe...

2012-01-22T00:04:00.003+08:00

That was just one side of the wardrobe. If spring cleaning a house proved to be a huge challenge to me, clearing my wardrobe and tidying up the clothes was one tedious job that I gave up within 10 minutes. But in this case, I persevered through as I have to figure out where to keep my new clothes as the clothes barely have any breathing space. If I wrongly pulled out one of the clothes, I'll have a very hard time pushing it back in again. I started digging through the drawers below and I found quite a lot of new clothes, the one that I bought 4 or 5 years back, thank God I still can wear them. I did remove some of my clothes that I've overgrown them. Gave them to my kids as they still look quite new. How am I gonna throw the old ones when they look so new? I keep them all but for once... ONCE... I started folding some of my t-shirts for gym purposes. I rearranged my soft animals residing in the corner of the wardrobe. I even found a stack of RM1 notes stashed in one little corner. The amazing thing about cleaning my house is you can find money everywhere. When we cleaned up the house which we last cleaned 10 years ago, we found quite a fortune. Found so much coins the total amount of coins would have left you dumb-founded. I gave up counting the coins but just put them in one large container. The best part of cleaning my wardrobe was looking at my donkey~! My donkey flew back from Singapore's Universal Studio with its head hanging out of my backpack while walking through Changi Airport and Penang International Airport. What an adventurous donkey that I have. In actualy fact, the real life Donkey that I know of travelled even more. Oh, I just wanna wish my Donk Donk Happy Chinese New Year~! Hhmmm... I gave up clearing the wardrobe after an hour. At least I tried... so the other side was left untouch.

Christmas 2011

2012-01-21T23:30:00.003+08:00

A different type of Christmas. Last year we ordered Domino's and some of the chicken wings and then we played some games. This year, we did it in totally different style. After cooking all those good food, I find that the restaurants are seriously charging at cut-throat expensive prices. Thus, I decided to transport my whole kitchen to Judz's balcony. We had a jolly good time cooking on the balcony with the cool nite breeze in the quiet neighbourhood. That's the host~! She's lazy to cook and I'm lazy to cook as well. Tired after marinading all the raw stuff. We had Mandy as our chef. My kids cooked their own meal. I don't know what's with the cooking and the eating straight from the grill but you'll find yourself burping and full to the brink after just a few pieces of everything added up together. No wonder restaurants for 'eat-all-you-can' are mushrooming around town. They know most people can't eat that much after staring at the food on the pan waiting for it to cook. Whoa~! This was the best part. My kids love Judz's freezer. There's an assortment of ice-creams from the traditional aiskrim potong to Neopolitan bar to all the delicious, creamy and rich chocolate King's ice-cream. Rummaging through her freezer is always considered as part of an activity. You'll have to figure out which ice-cream you wanna eat so that you don't overeat. Then you have a second of food therapy mental discussion where you tell yourself it's just once a year or once in a blue moon. In the end, we were busy licking at ice-creams of different flavours one after another. You might have to swallow your whole stick of ice-cream just in case the more favoured ice-creams were grabbed by the others. We did have our own photography session. We have the very serious photoshoot. Why so serious har? Like taking the old family photo. Should capture this in black and white or sepia. We did have our crazy moments but those photos were not meant for the public eyes. It might scare the wits out of you. Well, we went for our second rounds of eating session. Every celebration is about eating, nothing but the food. Fellowship without food feels rather empty. The missing part was Gracie wasn't around because she was dining like a queen with her family. When she came over late at night, we forced her to eat some more. That's the way to treat your bestie~! Thanks for the beautiful sandals, the lovely blouse and the comfortable bedsheet. You can never find a friend who will give you bedsheet as Christmas pressie~! I received my second set of the king size bedsheet... yippee~!!

Introducing Jalan Alor...

2012-01-18T23:51:00.002+08:00

This is the best street ever to stay in. I stayed once in Federal Hotel but that was a long time ago when I wasn't the exploring freak. I didn't even leave the hotel that time because I didn't enjoy night life or even walking around aimlessly. But now, I do enjoy walking around, going from one place to another. The whole of Jalan Alor is a street food haven. There was a whole row of coffee shops with various stalls selling all sorts of hawker food. We tried almost every shop but went back to the one we love most. Food was not cheap. One simple plate of Sin Chew Bee Hoon cost RM7 when you can buy more than 3 packets of vermicelli at the price of RM7. Imagine just having a plate of fried vermicelli at that price, double the price of what I can get in Penang. The funny thing was I wasn't complaining about the price, I was actually enjoying the food and I don't mind going back there again. Food, glorious food~! The street on my right consists of Chinese food while on my left, you can find Malay hawker stalls and Thai cuisine. I love Chinese food. It's to die for. Hohoho~! Stay at Seasons View Hotel. Don't bother about all the negative comments given by those who do not know how to place a proper comment to such a good budget hotel. I did read the bad comments but we prayed about it and we get the best service :D I'll share with you about the best service soon. Not now... kinda tired.

Unesco United Buddy Bears...

2012-01-18T23:18:00.003+08:00

The best part of Pavilion is not the building itself. Well, it's just another high end shopping mall for the rich and the richer who has no other place to dump their money at. I was jumping up and down like a kid, overexcited when I reached Pavilion. No... not because of more shopping but I love the bears. The huge bears. Bears of different colours. Bears which signify each country around the world. The bears are so cute. If I snap each bear individually, it would have taken me the whole evening to do so. My legs were killing me but I was looking for our Malaysian bear. But before I found our Malaysian big teddy, I came across this cute white bear with an 'X' as the navel and a love to cover its nothingness. There's nothing there. It's just a man-made bear. What's with the eye? Compromised? Did someone punch that bear? And what's with the red eye? Oh, well. I don't know where to search for the answers... but here it is... our Malaysian bear. Yellow coloured bear, symbolises Bersin 2.0? Geez, don't get me wrong. I'm not into politics and never will. There's Malay, Chinese, Indian and Sikh. What a multi-racial country Malaysia is. Then there's the Rafflesia, the one and only in the world, the largest flower which smells like a dead body yet everyone will be exhilarated if you ever chance upon a blooming Rafflesia. I, on the other hand, have never seen one in real life... ahhh... the opportunity will come... soon.... pretty soon I hope. Hhmmm... where's our national flower, the hibiscus? And there's a hornbill to represent Sarawak and Sabah. Hehe... Israel... for God's love is upon His people, the Israelites but the Israelites whom God rescued from Egypt were stiff-necked people so God decided not to go with them one day until Moses pleaded with Him. That's what the boy's would wear during bar mitzvah. Haih... too many bears. I think this is the best way to capture as many bears. Stand in the middle and capture all those bears on both sides. How beautiful the place was.

i-City...

2012-01-16T00:19:00.002+08:00

Inky black sky. That was what I had been waiting for. I waited patiently for the sun to go to sleep. I waited until it was pitch darkness out there left with only the LED lights lighting up the whole area. Wasn't that beautiful? There was even a double decker carousel, the one and only in Malaysia if I'm not mistaken and such a pity, I have no desire to even take a ride. I was only thinking about how late were we gonna be because we have spent too much time and we were ten commuter stations away from KL Sentral and we still had to call the very kind cab driver to fetch us to the station and we had to make sure that we didn't make such mistake of missing the train and the monorail and my stomach was really screaming for good food along Jalan Alor, I was even thinking about drunken chicken and Singapore bee hoon at the same time but yet I couldn't let go of my fingers from snapping more and more photos. I wished I could capture everything, keep them in a box and pack them home. Such wonderful memories that will only remain as memories and eventually forgotten until I looked back at my photos. Such beauty the place was, how wonderfully decorated and smartly thought of. I only wish that I own a bungalow with acres and acres of garden, a lake with all sorts of ducks and migratory birds, an orchard of my own and a whole building of filled with sports equipment and games' rooms and a swimming pool to replace the living room. Such wild dreams that I dare to have. Then, all of sudden, I was thinking about how much the electric bill will be with so many LED lights lighting the whole park. It would be a nightmare paying electric bill every month unless I can find a way to generate my own electricity and produce it with a click of my fingers. Do you know how much I love colours? My life is so colourful that all those colours reflect very well on me. The only two colours that I have disliking to are black and dark green. Anyway, I can't share too many photos in my blog post because I didn't get to have the new format even though I'm using Google Chrome. I'm still using the old format where I'm only allow to upload 5 photos at one go, which test my patience when it took too long to upload. i-City will be a town on its own, a new township altogether with its own monorail services, a hub for everything. And no... I don't wish to live in a big city no doubt I like it at times. I still prefer being where I am. My roots are way too deep to be dug out. I love my country, Malaysia and I LOVE PENANG ISLAND~!!

Snowalk...

2012-01-15T20:42:00.004+08:00

Snowalk. Walking in snow. Walking in man-made snow. Walking around dry ice blown by the gigantic fans. Walking in chilly cold. Walking until my feet went numb. Walking until I can't feel my own fingers. Walking in such frosty cold, it made me think whether I should go to other countries during winter time. Walking around until finally I had to rush out before I die in the -5 degree Celsius coldness. The coldest I have felt was 6 degree Celsius when I was sitting like a numb skull waiting for the penguins to wobble home at Phillip Island. The coldest at home that I can switch my air-conditioning system was only 16 degree Celsius. It was quite a small place actually. We were then for 7 freaking hours after the morning tour at the High5 Bread Town Museum in Shah Alam. i-City is also situated in Shah Alam and you don't expect me to travel back to the hotel then head to Shah Alam again. So the only thing we could do was spent all our time at Snowalk. There were signs with camera not allowed pasted on the entrance into the gigantic freezer. No camera allowed? My foot~! If I pay for it, then I can snap as many photos a as I want~! Anyway, nobody said anything about cameras and everybody else was in a snapping frenzy. Again, monkey see, monkey do :D In a more serious note, the door was exactly like the door to the freezer. It was like keeping humans inside and making the whole place looked like a park. A park with dry ice everywhere, slippery as the surface was melting away. I was quite disappointed that there wasn't any snow blowing from the ceiling. That would be marvellous as I've seen it done at the Snow House in Singapore. Ahh... look at those beautifully lit up dry ice blocks that were turned into igloo. Even the tables and chairs were slippery. Whenever I was stepping on slipper surfaces, I always have a cartoon imagination where I slipped and fell in such style that all bones will break. It creates a sense of phobia in me towards treading on slippery surfaces. Aaahh.... looking at something which has nothing to do with Snowalk... I like my own face... muahahahha... purely narcissistic... If ever I go anywhere during the winter, this is what I will want to do second... not first. Firstly, I would like to feel the snow, touch it without wearing any gloves, feel how flaky the snow is. Then, that's what I will do next. That was quite nice actually with the thick jacket so that I would not wet my own clothes. The third thing I would like to do is licking an ice-cream while it is snowing... double chill? Exciting~! Then I would like to toboggan, skiing and holler out loud until I create an avalanche... nah, just kidding. Do you think we really spent 7 freaking hours in Snowalk? That was what we did for hours and hours on end. It was our sixth day and we never found a day to recharge our inner batteries properly. Wherever we were, the moment we landed out butts on something solid, off we went to dreamland and it was one dreamless sleep, nothing could shake us awake. Among all five of them, I was the heaviest sleeper but I was the one with the least sleep. And I have such skill that I was able to sleep while standing and sleep with my eyes open, not responding to anything because I was sleeping but it seemed like I was wide awake. Ahhh... such skill... profound :D We woke up and went back in to make full use of the RM20 entrance fee. Sliding on tubes, not bad at all just that the distance was too short. I have a need for speed and great excitement. And the part that I hated most was to carry the tube back to the place where we started. Lazy... Gosh... remind me of lunch. I would rather fast than eat that. That was what we've been eating for lunch for five days in a row. Bread and more bread and tuna and tuna, spicy tuna, mild spicy tuna, mayonnaise tuna... and I stopped buying tuna since we got back. I just started eating bread again just now for dinner. I have phobia looking tuna together with bread. Such combination give me the creeps. There was no decent food around and I don't wanna spend money having a meal in Old Town. Whee~!! That ride was one noisy ride. It sounded like an ice block being crushed into smaller pieces in the ice-breaker machine at coffee shops. So loud and it was one bumpy ride, banging against the sides, clinking and clonking along. Again, if the distance was longer, I would love it except for the butt ache after that. Ice sculpture with imported artists from China~! I think such expertise couldn't be found in a country without ice. Yeah... yeah.. he's from China because of his trademark slang. I wonder why do they have such heavy accent that hurts the tongue while twisting away all the words. All in all, a place is just a place, how much fun you want the place to be depends on you.

Blogging with Samsung Galaxy Tab..

2012-01-14T13:03:00.003+08:00

It's almost the same as using the desktop. The obvious difference is the size. The tab is only 7inch plus while my desktop screen is 15 inch if I'm not mistaken. Instead of using coloured fonts, I've actually chosen the colour by somehow or other it came out with this black normal colour. Furthermore i'm using two finger to type instead of all ten fingers. Anyway it's better than using iPhone. In conclusion I still prefer the mammoth size desktop computer and I still don't fancy all the electronic gadgets I live in the dinosaur age. I still haven't fall on love with all the smart phones available in the market. Sorry for all the typos the fimgers are too fat and kept pressing at the wrong letters. Finallyo can say that I've tried using all the new gadgets for texting n nlogging but I still prefer the old gadgets. I don't even like playing and fidgeting with phones. What's wrong with me? I can't imagine flippng the story book pages on a screen. I prefer the printed papers... forget about saving the earth and going green printing one book less will not help this world. Okay I guess that's all for now.

Who Rob Me of My Time?

2012-01-12T13:56:00.002+08:00

It's already Thursday. The weekend is just around the corner. The only thing that I've been doing is waking up, having a class, head to the gym to have a quickie work out, rush back to cook lunch, rush to chop and blend and stir and fry, rush to school to pick my kids from school, rush back for more classes, drive like a mad person in order not to be late and by the time I'm done with everything, I reach home around 11p.m. and there's nothing that I want to do except to sleep so that I can have my 8 hours of sleep. Anything less than 8 hours, I'll be walking like a zombie by 2 p.m. the next day. I can't even find time to do anything properly. See... I only have 5 minutes to blog, uploading the picture took me 2 minutes as I have to search for the picture. Left with no time already... toodles~!!

High5 Bread Town Museum...

2012-01-10T00:18:00.002+08:00

Prior to the KL trip, I had been browsing for places to visit for almost two weeks. I was adamant not to waste even a single minute and tried covering as many places as I could. I don't know how to take a relaxing trip. I prefer moving about and I'll go crazy if I'm asked to rest in the hotel for the whole day. Sitting around and doing nothing drive me mad. So, I happen to stumble upon a tiny URL with the word High5 Bread Town which was located in Shah Alam. Getting to the train station wasn't a big deal but from the train station to Silver Bird factory was a big problem as the station there was so 'dead' with only a few taxis to pick passengers up. All the taxis wouldn't want to take so mainly because of our number. The maximum number of passengers per cab was only 4 and there were 5 of us. There wasn't any other alternatives, not even a public bus to be seen. The only weapon we have was prayer. We started praying out loud by the road side, praying for God to send us a big cab that could take all of us and lo' and behold, we couldn't believe our own eyes... we were just half way praying and the big blue cab turned into the train station. Unfinished prayer... AMEN~! And I ran to the entrance, waited until the cab made a big turn and stopped right in front of me. The cab was on the way to the airport, which was so far away and he just made a turn into the station for no reason at all. Well, he has a reason actually... that was to pick us up~!! See how great the Lord is... He knows before we even managed to finish our prayer... He just wanted us to include Him in everything that we do. There... there... finally in the air-conditioned building instead of standing outside and being charred by the fierce burning sun. There was a large number of people in the tour. A group of children, a family of four from Singapore, a whole big group of UiTM students and lecturers. The tour was so fast and we were reminded numerous times not to snap any photos. I was seriously very disappointed to hear that. Why can't we take any photos? If there's gonna be other brand copying then they can easily send spies to join the tour and take in as much as what their eyes can see. The tour moved so fast, I couldn't even catch a glimpse of everything and I left a big gap in between. I totally have no skills to follow a tour group and such a large one at that. In the end I became the last person and I was in a photo snapping frenzy behind. I didn't start it. Monkey see, monkey do. The UiTM students were snapping away and I heard the whirring sound of the camera, turned around and saw them snapping. Before long, I was snapping away as well. Sorry, no photos in the blog... exclusive viewing for those in my Fb list. Bread and buns and Silver Bird cakes were manufactured in this factory and then sent out throughout the whole Peninsular Malaysia. Each of us was given a goodie bag filled with a loaf of bread and all sorts of buns and muffins... bearing in mind I have had a large loaf of Massimo for lunch and I just bought it before we left for this place. If only I've known I wouldn't have bought the loaf of Massimo. By the way, I'm sorry to tell you this High5, I'm still a loyal customer to Gardenia mainly because I grew up chewing on the soft bread and I have bad memories with High5's first batches of solid hard bread. You see, I survive on bread and can go without rice or noodles and I'm very particular with the softness of bread and of course, the taste. Massimo is next in my list... PS. Gardenia, thank you for sending so many burger buns to Tesco Penang. Now I can happily make burgers without worrying whether I can get enough supply of burger buns or not...

No Time...

2012-01-07T00:18:00.003+08:00

Funnily, I envy those who can shout out loud, "Thank God It's Friday". Looking forward to Saturdays and Sundays. I don't know what to say for myself. I'm working on both Saturdays and Sundays. I have no days where I don't work. I crave for holidays more than anything else. I wish money will rain down from heaven... just a wild wish. Wishing against wish like hoping against hope. I wanted to sit back and relax. Can't even finish a movie coz I would doze off within 15 minutes the movie started. Can't read a book as I would be reading non-stop. Can't do any cross-stitch as that would be unstoppable as well. Can't write lengthy blog post, not enough time. Can't upload photos in Facebook... shutting down now... Yes, growing like the rapid stream Donk~! PS. I'm not lazy but neither am I as hardworking as I used to be. Life is not just about working round the clock. There's more to it than working. I'm a paranoid checking and flipping through the calendars as if it's gonna make the time move any faster. Doing countdowns for all sorts of public holidays and school holidays. It's just one week into the year and I don't know how am I gonna survive the whole year through.

Petronas Twin Towers..

2012-01-05T12:47:00.003+08:00

This is the main reason why I was at KLCC. I wanted so much to get a nice shot of the Twin Towers. As we were spending the whole day at KLCC, visiting the Petrosains and Aquaria, we walked back towards Suria KLCC, did some shopping. I really like shopping in Isetan. Should have spend more time there. Then we went all the way up to Kinokuniya. I have a craze for bookstores too but at that point of time, we only wanted to sit down to rest our tired legs and I got a full wide view of the splashing water at the Symphony Lake. I was thinking that there would be colourful lights shining out from the pond as well so we waited until the water pump was switched on and waited until the sun finally went to sleep. Darkness fall but the lake was just as dark except for the rhythmic splashes of fountains. I was truly satisfied, with the good weather, the inky black sky as the backdrop and a dream fulfilled.

Aquaria..

2012-01-05T00:26:00.003+08:00

Woohoo~! I love aquatic animals... those with shells and uncountable legs, those that can be eaten, those with claws, those four-legged furry unfriendly mammals, those with fins and scales and not touchable fish, those weird looking prawns, those with horrible jagged teeth that can slice through your flesh in less than a minute and and and and... I don't know how to say it... but I can stay around Aquaria for hours and hours. Piranha~! Remember that movie? There were so many piranha in Aquaria. I thought we were gonna missed the feeding time but God is so good that the time to feed the piranha would only start at 4 p.m. We were there an hour earlier. The whole tank was filled with the ferocious carnivorous fresh water fish. They dropped two large fish as food and in less than 2 minutes the bones were even missing. It's said that they could only feed the fish twice a day as not to turn it into a really fierce fish. Aww... he looks so cuddly. Pity him.. he was scratching all over the whole time I was looking at him. I wanted to cuddle him like a teddy bear but I think he's not the type to be cuddled what not with the long and sharp fingernails. How long have they not bathe him? He must be infested with ticks? That looked like a plastic shark but it's actually real. I don't tend to jump into the pool to find out how ferocious it can get. It was really nice walking in the tunnel with the large turtle hovering around and the majestic stingray with the full flaps flapping away like it was flying but it was actually swimming. And it has a grinning face. I found this most entertaining. The ghost shark with soft bones for its head. I was hoping to snap its photos if it would just stay still. Lo' and behold, it stopped swimming completely right above my head. We had the chance to take turn snapping away with that ghost shark as our background, our main attraction actually. We became the foreground of the photos. That looked pretty cute.

Petrosains...

2012-01-04T23:40:00.003+08:00

Petroleum Science? Nah... I think it's Petronas' Science Discovery Centre. Proud of Malaysia, aren't you? We have our own local petroleum... and that's Petronas~! The last time I went to Petrosains, I was only 16. I couldn't remember whether the place has changed or it just remained the same. I remain neutral throughout the whole expedition as I've said before, Science to me is something that makes me feel like a walking zombie. There were some parts that were quite attractive. For example, the section with mirrors and lots of mirrors. Mirrors that can play tricks as the mirrors were placed in such angles that I have no idea how they did it. I just realized that I have no sense of direction when I stood in front of the mirror thus, I don't look into a mirror when I'm back at home. Aahhh... nice~! I took quite a lot of pics and as long as my camera can keep me well entertained, it was not such a bad place to visit after all. Moreover, the entrance fee was quite cheap. There was a part when we went through the simulation of being in an aircraft. The screen showed us the simulation of being in a roller coaster which was EXACTLY the same as what we watched at the XD-Theatre in KL Tower. The only difference was the background in the screen. Instead of depicting the Canyon ride, it was showing the outer space animated scene. Thus, I did not find it exhilarating. I was quite bored with the whole place after less than an hour. Then, I entertained myself again by playing with my own shadow. Trying to gather as much coloured pebbles dripping from above. I think I stood there for 30 minutes in different poses. Other children looking must have thought I was out of my mind. The ultraviolet walkway was one that I've never seen before. Hohoho~! This is to show that you can never fake our identification card. Just need to run it through the ultraviolet ray then you will know whether you're holding a fake one or the genuine one with the ghost image.

And please think twice before you start making counterfeit MYR to scam others. Very beautifully and uniquely done. Stop looking down at Malaysia. We do have our own flaws but we also have our authentic trademark and it's really really immoral and wrong to tarnish the good image of Malaysia.

Closing A Chapter, Opening A New One...

2012-01-01T08:32:00.003+08:00

As we usher in the new year, 2012 will be a year of great harvest. All in all, I would like to thank God for giving me good health, a perfect family and really good friends. To wrap year 2011 in a bundle, it's gonna be such a huge bundle that no words can describe how good it has been. Of course there were some bad times, but nowadays I tend to put those bad stuff behind and move forward. For the first two days of 2012, I was busy cleaning my wardrobe removing some clothes, folding the t-shirts up so that it won't take up too much space but I still have a problem keeping the new clothes. Looks like I'm not gonna shop for new clothes for some time... Oh, well... I said that once too often. I vacuumed the room for the first time. And as for my New Year Resolution, I still keep to my previous one, that is not to make a resolution at all. I know I can't keep it and having one will become a burden, makes me feel guilty about not keeping up to my own tempo so forget about it. This post is kinda short and it has been kept in the draft for two days. I need my beauty sleep but I still have lots of things to do with so little time.

So Much To Do...

2011-12-29T23:26:00.002+08:00

2011 is coming to an end in two days time. I have plenty to do for example cleaning up the whole house so it doesn't look like a tornado has just gone through the whole house. I need to clean up my room so that it doesn't look dirtier than the pig sty. I have so much dusting to do that if only I can turn dust into gold, I will be the richest person who ever live on this earth. I actually plan to finish my masterpiece by the end of this year but looks like it's more possible that I finish it by the end of next year. I have so much paperwork to prepare that looking at all of them, I don't even know where to start as the paper is empty and I have to start writing something on it before I get the ball rolling. I still have so many photos to upload and things to blog about but I don't seem to have enough time to do everything. I want to catch a movie with my hubby but the time is always not right. I'm really sad that the holiday is coming to an end but of course there's a future holiday which I have already planned out as well. I do like Year 2011 for what reason, I do not know. Alas... nitez folks...

Ice-Skating... Boring~!!

2011-12-29T16:47:00.003+08:00

On the third day, that was Tuesday, our battery level was running at dangerously low. But the kids were excited when I told them I was gonna take them ice-skating. It was their first time trying on ice-skating whereas I was already bored with going in circles. I preferred walking around Sunway Pyramid with my love. We used the same kind of transportation, cheap yet efficient, monorail, commuter and bus. Each person had to pay RM23 per entry for the ice-skating. I was quite worried whether the 3 would be able to ice-skate or not. They have in-line skating skills but ice-skating would be slightly different. In the end, I paid and went to see how there were doing. They were doing great but my feet hurt so much as the skates were seriously very uncomfortable and I started to have blisters everywhere. I couldn't afford to have blisters on the third day of my holiday. Seriously can't live with that. I skated for a few rounds then that's it, I was out after our picnic lunch at the waiting area while waiting for them to polish up the skating rink. Frankly speaking, I found no joy skating in Sunway Pyramid. It was congested with people and the most you could do was practice your skill against colliding with anyone or skating across someone's fingers. A little boy fell in front of me and I almost went over him and with my weight and size, I could easily turned him into a pancake. Thus, I made my way to the exit. Money wasted... After an hour, all my kids can't wait to get out of the place. They feet hurt as well and my precious had a cut on one of her feet. Our battery level by then was about to be negative, we could hardly walk about and there wasn't much to see at Sunway Pyramid. We decided to take a bus and went to get our train back. I was actually thinking of going back to the hotel at 4 p.m. and have a proper sleep until the next day. *sigh* Crossing the road was difficult as well. Flyover. I've never used any flyover as the stairs were just too much but in large cities, without flyovers, you would end up in pieces with one limb on the other side and another under the moving vehicle and contribute to a massive traffic. We actually saw a bus coming our way and we went flying down the stairs and jumped over the railing to get to the bus. No bus stop across the road but the bus still stopped there. What a way to run after a public bus. Thank God I'm still agile enough to jump over railings... It started to rain heavily after that. Dear Jesus, right timing again. If we dragged our time in Sunway, we would be drenched. We were safely and securely sheltered in the bus. The traffic was building up and with the rain, it made matter worse. We were caught in a jam for almost an hour and for the whole hour, the four of them were snoring away in the bus like pigs. I wanted so much to shut my eyes but I had to keep watch so I stayed awake the whole journey. And when we reached KL Sentral to take the monorail back, I told them my suggestion to go back to the hotel to have proper rest and continue the next day, my precious was so horrified with my idea that she objected and wouldn't mind starting an argument with me in the middle of the road. All four of them were wide awake, fresh and my precious and youngest were so eager to go shopping. Gosh... and I dragged my feet and moved forward...

My One Week of City Life...

2011-12-29T16:07:00.006+08:00

At two in the morning, the city was still very lively. Love and I went out at two in the morning in search of drinking water. We were so thirsty and the electric jug in the hotel room couldn't serve us well. We wanted cold water not boiling hot water. We went to the nearest mart opened round the clock. The first thing we looked for was the 5-litre mineral water which we found the moment we stepped into the mart. Looks like we were not the only people searching for drinking water that's why all the drinking were placed right at the entrance. We were kinda surprised to see the hawkers still clinking and clanking away, frying noodles and rice and coming up with piping hot dishes for the hungry patrons. I wonder what kinda meal were they having... early morning breakfast or late nite supper. Oh, well we took our dinner around midnite every day due to unforeseen circumstances. Since there were so many things sold at the mart, we went back and woke the kids up. They were on their way to dreamland until I told them we could go and buy ice-creams. They jumped out of bed immediately. There was another that I bought for our lunch. Sad right? Everyday we had only bread with tuna for lunch. We couldn't afford to eat anything fanciful until we got back to Jalan Alor for the hawker food. We save and cringed because we prefer shopping than fancy dining. We even cancelled our plan to ride on the roller coasted in Berjaya Times Square. We would rather spend the money on clothes and more clothes. And my tofu skin gave me trouble on the first day itself. I should have gone there barefooted or wrapped my feet with plastic bags. Nothing I wear can give comfort to my skin. *sigh* Do you know that if you stay in Seasons View Hotel in Jalan Alor, Bukit Bintang, your daily breakfast would be dining at the next door Old Town? *jealous* We had to hunt for breakfast along the street and mostly would be opened for dinner only. We made do with whatever that was available.

Brightly Lit Sunway...

2011-12-29T08:36:00.003+08:00

After watching Aladdin, we walked out of Sunway Lagoon and I think I walked too fast, I missed the turning, I went straight ahead going up one escalator after the other and ended up in this beautifully lit walkway. It's the walkway towards the entrance of Sunway Hotel. We were completely mesmerized by the beauty of the creative designs and then plus the LED lights, it looked like a fairytale land.
The decorations were definitely for Christmas with the towering Christmas tree and the fake plastic snowman. That can do because if I were to wait for Malaysia to snow, I mean real snow from the sky, something must be happening up in the air that would be a serious concern for the meteorologists. As we walked down the street, the street became more and more beautiful but of course without the decorations, it would just be any normal tarred road with cars on both sides of the road, parked haphazardly by those who were waiting to pick up friends.
Since we have to take the train back to Bukit Bintang, we cut across walking through Sunway Pyramid. Prayed hard for a bus since it was coming close to 11 p.m. I miscalculated the time as I thought the train service would shut down at 12 a.m. but lo and behold, the kind Rapid bus driver told me that he would be able to make it in time for me to catch the last train out from Kelana Jaya which would be 11:15p.m. You should see my ashen face when I heard that. I have no plan B at all. Then, before I could even mutter a quick prayer under my breath, there was a taxi next to the bus.
The taxi driver was so kind, he took us all in and sent us back to Bukit Bintang. He didn't overcharge us but instead we felt sorry for him. Sorry that he had to travel back and pay two tolls and it was so far away. God knew that we had no more energy to trot along the streets late at night, so He sent us a kind taxi driver to take us all the way back. PS. I'm seriously very slow in uploading photos and updating my blog. I'm just into the second day in Kuala Lumpur. I still have so many more to write in this digital journal of mine and it's going to be 2012 in a couple of days time and I'm preparing for my next trip already... *sigh*

Bungee Jump...

2011-12-28T01:11:00.001+08:00

My main priority of things to do in Sunway Lagoon was doing the bungee jump. The jump was not included in the parks main entrance, it was under the pay per ride same as the G-Force. I didn't upload the video of G-Force because after uploading this bungee jumping video, I almost whacked the whole computer into smithereens. It took such a long time to upload to Facebook and Youtube. It took forever to upload straight into Blogger.

One jump cost RM75... I don't remember anything that I learnt in Physics. For two bloody years in secondary school, I couldn't remember a single thing. The length of the rope which makes up the distance of the jump was way too short to do anything funny while jumping away. There wasn't any other people jumping except for the 3 of us. I went first, hyped up until I was make to sit and they slowly tied my legs. The slowness cost me to start shaking like a leaf. I'm not afraid of height but I've never tried jumping off a cliff or the side of the hanging bridge. What was in my head? I was thinking a number of things on how to jump. I actually had the idea that I was gonna run and leap into the air but now my legs were bound and I could only shift about like a penguin. I could barely move but I made it to the ledge after shuffling about.

It's not that I didn't want to go head down first. I was thinking if I tried those style where people jumped off a building to commit suicide, then maybe a few seconds later, I could try turning my head around. Air pressure... wind speed and *pfff* I couldn't even turned around until the rope ended and I was swaying like a bait at the end of the fish hook. Anyway, I did it and I don't mind jumping the second time in a different style.

Asia's Best Attraction... My Ass...

2011-12-26T23:54:00.006+08:00

The earlier posts where I was roaming around Kuala Lumpur, hopping around at the National Monument, monkey-ing all over the Perdana Botanical Garden, experienced my first lying down theatre at the National Planetarium, gawking at the nite view of Kuala Lumpur from the KL Tower, chugging along the way in a double decker bus, sweating like a pig at Petaling Street, strolling under the drizzle along BintangWalk and finally having our dinner at Jalan Alor. We did that in one day starting from 8 a.m. and ending the day at midnite. A whole long day of walking just on the first day. Like me to be your tour guide? It will be worth your every single cent if I'm to be your tour guide. Travel cheap and fast without any hiccups. The second day was different. We went to one single place only. You must think I'm crazy if I were to tell you that I left the hotel at night, sleeping the whole day through. Nah... just not my style to spend my holiday sleeping away in any hotels no matter how posh the place is. Ain't that beautiful? Asia's best attraction... looks like a lit up palace, don't ya think so? The happiest moment of my whole journey sounded a little bit silly. My happiest moment didn't come when I was shopping around, grabbing at those clothes like they're free neither was it my happiest moment when I could finally crossed away all the places that I've planned to visit. The happiest moment came in the morning of the second day. We were heading towards Kelana Jaya, taking the blue line, stopping at the last stop. I was leading as usual, but of course Jesus led the whole way through. He seriously knew when I wanted my moment. I stepped into the commuter and the door slammed shut. Looking at my kids faces were priceless. I should have taken a snapshot of those frozen 'O' of their mouth. Completely shocked. Dumb-founded. Speechless. The train zoomed off and it finally dawned upon me that I have my wish... that's to travel alone with nobody bugging me or asking where we were, when were we gonna stop and so on and so forth. Peace... and I started cam-whoring in the almost empty train. I did take my mobile out and told them to hop onto the next train and get down at the last stop. Those few minutes of being alone was so refreshing. Oh, yeah... Asia's Best Attraction... we spent slightly above RM800 at Sunway Lagoon. Asia's Best Attraction... my ass~! My foot~!! Oh, puhleez... I salute to the team who did the costing. Brilliant~! Very brilliant~! Let me tell you something... the whole place was totally so NOT worth it. The queue just to purchase the tickets ate up 1.5 hours and the package for the entrance, I hate it so~!! Amusement Park, Water Park and what's the other one? Addition of Extreme Park which comes together with Wildlife Park... I don't need Wildlife Park... I would rather kiss a tiger than walk around looking at parrots and other small animals. The lions looked like they were bored of being display caged animals. The queue for flying fox was 2 solid hours and I missed riding on the ATV due to shortage of time and the Bangladeshi in charge refused to let us ride because there was another group waiting and it was before closing hours. Smart of Sunway Lagoon not to extend their closing hours. Even Universal Studios in Singapore extended their closing hours to make the holidaymakers happy. I seriously hate Sunway Lagoon and compared to 13 years ago, the rides and the splashed were way much better than those around now. All those splashes were so lame. No photos... we were all doing marathon trying to get from one point to another, queueing up and lugging our rubber tubes up the horrible staircase just for a few seconds of satisfaction. Cameras were kept in the freaking expensive lockers, RM5 once you open the lockers... Sunway Lagoon is seriously one gold mine where at every corner they earn money. They started earning money the moment you stepped up to the ticketing counter. I didn't really wanna go there but the kids have never been there before... see I'm not so bad after all, right? Give me a few minutes of pleasure of being alone, I give you the whole day of happiness. The only thing worth going to was watching the West End Production, Aladdin. God is good, really good, awesomely good to us. My precious' old schoolmate called up one day before we left for KL, she said that she had 4 tickets to Aladdin. She sold it to us at RM20 for one when the blue zone ticket actually cost RM200 per person. We were short of one ticket so we purchased another at half price. If the drama team in this Northern region can produce a stage play as good as this in PenangPAC, then I don't mind paying. PenangPAC lacks of everything. The free dramas that I've been watching were giving us negative impacts. But look at this... cool... way too cool... no regrets watching this at only 10% of the normal price. God knows how to end my day in the most awesome way. Sorry, one photo only.. I do have a few more but you'll have to go watch it yourself only then you can capture the magic of Aladdin. The genie was really cool and the drama was a contemporary one, not the original Aladdin.

Bintang Walk...

2011-12-24T00:52:00.003+08:00

You see, I've been squeezing my mind and figuring out when we could make it for the Bintang Walk, walking along the row of shophouses on both sides, that means finishing on one side, crossed the road jammed with non-moving vehicles then walked all the way up again back to our place in Jalan Alor. Indeed, God planned far ahead than what I had in mind. From Petaling Street, I planned to take either the red line or blue line and then cut across to the monorail station back to Bukit Bintang. Instead of heading up the stairs to get the train tickets, I went to Rapid bus counter and asked about the bus heading towards Bukit Bintang. It was U48 and right smacked in front of us, the bus was waiting for us. It cost us only RM1 per person compared to the train ticket which would have been double the bus fare. The bus driver dropped us at the end of the Bintang Walk. So, we actually had the chance to walk along the shops. There were so many shops and we walked passed Federal Hotel, the hotel which I used to stay. No regrets for not going back to Federal Hotel. I don't see why I should stay in expensive hotels when I'll only be in the hotel room for a few hours of sleep. Other than that, I wouldn't be around. I can't understand people who hide in the hotel rooms when they've spent so much for the holiday. Well, in my opinion, if you don't intend to go anywhere, then you shouldn't be visiting a city centre, insted you should choose to be in an isolated island with nowhere to go to and nothing to do except sipping your fruit cocktail while soaking in the warmth of the sunshine. There were too many reflexology centres which made me think whether they were genuinely doing their business or whether they were doing something else. Oh, please... I don't need foot reflexology, trust me... you touch my foot, I'll send you flying 10 blocks away from where you're seating. You'll fly through the walls. I think that's the very reason why I can't go for spas. I have a 'DO NOT TOUCH' sign written all over. Out of so many shops, we were only attracted to one, that's the Tiny Toon's shop and I was also attracted to the shop next to it. I saw a luggage that I really wanted. Got the price slashed to half but I only made the purchase 5 days later. We were fascinated by a simple stall selling keychains curled from aluminium wires. This is the one I mentioned earlier in the Sri Petaling post. Of course, no photography allowed but for the first time, I was courteous enough to ask for permission to snap a photo. She agreed because I ordered a lot of keychains. She allowed only 1 photo, so this is the only one that I have. If you ever go to Bukit Bintang, look for her. Her name is Lim... same surname as my Donkey's and mine... muahahaha... and eventhough you'll be seeing other stalls selling the same thing and making names, she has a neater way of doing things. I like hers... and when I say she's good, she's really really good. Hers is slightly more expensive but it's handicraft, one shouldn't bargain for a lower price when you're able to see how hard it is to do. Shame on those who bargain with a handicap person, dependant on their hands for a bowl of rice. They don't go around begging so what is RM10 to you? I was waiting for her to finish doing all of our names. I waited for an hour or so while others started gathering in front of her stall to see what was going on. A lady with 3 children bargained and complained about the designs from the moment I sat there waiting until I walked away... an hour later... she purchased only 1 or 2 small items. What an example to show to 3 young children on humanity.

Merry Christmas Everyone~!

2011-12-23T01:59:00.002+08:00

Merry Christmas people~! Remember that Christmas isn't just about presents and more presents. It's all about Jesus~! Gonna have an awesome Christmas Eve's dinner with people I love... the year 2011 is coming to an end... time flies...

Petaling Street...

2011-12-23T00:17:00.006+08:00

That's Chinatown... I've been to Singapore's Chinatown but never to Melbourne's Chinatown as my brother wouldn't allow me to walk there on my own. Now.. now.. Petaling Street wasn't really along our way, it was actually too far out and we had to change from monorail to commuter to get there. We were dreading the walk from the KL Tower back to the Bukit Nanas Monorail station. That was one horrible walk that we wished we didn't have to do. We walked back to the place where the shuttle van would take us to the guard house. Instead, a double-decker bus came. I thought the bus came for us but not so, the bus came to fetch the four Westerners as they have bought the hop-on-hop-off city tour for the whole day and I had no idea such tour existed. I'm very sure God softened the bus driver's heart. He agreed to drop us at Chinatown at just RM2 per head. Petaling Street was such a busy place selling counterfeit goods. Counterfeit or rejected goods? Counterfeit sounds rather harsh. They sell imitation goods.... how does that sound? Better? They can't be selling original branded clothes and bags at such dirt cheap price. The place was too crowded and I never like crowded area. I bargained down a Starbucks Coffee t-shirt for my precious. I'm a pro in bargaining down prices. We walked for awhile more. I found something rather interesting. But not allowed to snap a photo. But I did get a photo after that... :D with permission of course... but I'll show it in another post coz I got it in somewhere else. There were so many stalls but we were hunting for a drinks stall to quench our thirst. We could gulp the whole barrel of ice water. Thank God for the slight drizzle. We walked away from the crowded place in search for food next. We were there for about less than half an hour I think. Got to look around but I'm seriously not a fan of this kinda place. Oi, uncle~! How to sit like this? Chair also under the table. Table so near to next two tables. But it's ok lah... can shift about but can I have my food now? As in NOW?

KL Tower...

2011-12-20T13:52:00.005+08:00

Let me share with you a true even so true only God is able to make it happen. We had to walk from the National Planetarium to KL Sentral to run after the next monorail to Bukit Nanas. That's the stop that will bring us to the Kuala Lumpur Tower. I was leading the other four musketeers but I came to a dead end. We went crossed the National Museum but from then forth I was completely lost as I didn't see any overhead bridge to cross the road and jaywalking in the big city is an offense. Suddenly, two Indonesian ladies appeared out of nowhere, crossed the road and started walking slowly towards the direction that I know KL Sentral was situated. I followed after them. I was following rather closely to recognize their tone of conversation as Indonesians. See how great God is. He was able to pluck people out of nowhere to show us the way so that we would not get lost. The ladies brought us right into KL Sentral. From the Bukit Nanas monorail stop to the tower was one horrible walk. Walk straight and straight took forever to reach the second junction on the right. Thank God there was a shuttle to bring us up or else we would be doing Spiderman crawls on the tar road. We were so delighted to see the shuttle van that when he stopped in front of us, we opened the door in glee and thanked him profusely for coming on time before we collapsed at the guard house. We reached an hour before sunset as my ultimate goal was to capture the sunset from the tower. Sad to say, it did not happen as I've planned. The clouds were covering the sun and I had no intention to take on other activities held at the tower. I bought the RM35 Combo-XD that covered only two items. One was the observation deck and the other was the XD-Theatre, watching a 6D stimulation for only 5 minutes costing RM18 per person. So that made the observation deck fee at RM17. The 6D stimulation was good. We had the Canyon Coaster stimulation. You'll have to be sitting in it to experience the effect of sitting in the roller coaster knowing that you're safe and you won't be hurt in the event if the roller coaster went off-course. I went around taking photos of the view of Kuala Lumpur city before night fall. It was all about skyscrapers and more skyscrapers. Kuala Lumpur is always building and forever building. That's why Malaysia is called a developing nation. We're always trying to develop something new. Try to build something more gigantic. After snapping a picture of myself, I was shocked to see that I've got sunburned all over. I guess I'm a candle princess *puteri lilin* Looks like my skin can't stand too much sunlight no doubt I do love the outdoors but I always get sunburned while others were just normally fine. We were resting at the seats at the observation deck while waiting for the sun to set. Since there's no sunset then I changed to plan B, that's taking in the night view of the busy city. There was a radio set where you get to listen about the development of Malaysia, the introduction to all the tourist destination, that listening aid can be switched to multiple languages. I couldn't understand a word of the Chinese translation. There goes trying to understand something in Chinese properly. I wasn't even paying attention to the English explanation. Looks like I seriously don't enjoy this kinda talking tour. Usually I don't listen at all, I'm just interested with what I see, I prefer reading the small print rather than listening to someone blabbing away in a monotone. The sun finally set around 7:30pm and I was in a snapping frenzy with the night view. It wasn't as bright as Melbourne but it was alright. I was happy with what I captured. I got the Petronas Twin Towers as well. The photos were clear, so I was a happy person that night. We snapped around for a few more minutes, made sure our legs were good to do more walking then headed down. I truly enjoy the night view compared to the broad daylight view. No regrets walking all the way here but definitely there won't be a next time. I don't know why some people like some places and will always go there again and again. I prefer going to one place once only then put my feet in some new places that I haven't explore.

The National Planetarium...

2011-12-20T13:02:00.003+08:00

After walking endlessly with all the stairs, we had to walk further before we reach the Planetarium. Finally, we were there. And looking at the steps before we reached the main building, we were about to strangle the person who suggested and insisted to come to this place. Arrgghhh~!!! More steps. Our legs were coming out with signals 'LOW BATTERY' or even worse 'NO BATTERY'. We took a few pic, took a deep breath and then ran up the stairs. We couldn't walk up as it would be too torturous, so we decided to make a sprint up the horrible blue stairs. As I've mentioned before, I have no interest in Science, thus I didn't snap that many photos. There was nothing that could stir up my interest except for things that I can turned into interesting photography sessions. I touched at almost everything touchable, clickable and pressing buttons for the fun of it. The entrance fee was only RM1 and if you wanted to watch the movie, it would be only RM3 inclusive of entrance. We opted for two movies so we paid RM6 each. I like the movie theatre as you would have to lie down, in a half sit and half sleep position and the movie would be screened above your head. The canvas sheet was on the ceiling. The first movie was nice but the second one was such a bore we feel asleep in the comfortable seats. Good rest, we went up to the observation tower next. Oh, that's my next destination. Let's go~! Move move move~! Start walking... complain complain... no more excess baggage tagging along next time :D

Perdana Botanical Garden.

2011-12-19T15:40:00.005+08:00

Our next stop would be the National Planetarium. I wasn't that keen to be there as I have no interest in Science what more when everything was about planets. My youngest wanted to go so as a very fair person *ahem ahem* I agreed to that. I even put it as the first day's places to go to. The taxi driver who dropped us at the National Monument insisted that we would not be able to walk to the National Planetarium as it was too far away. He suggested that we take another taxi and he said it would be very easy to thumb down a taxi from there. Oh, boy~! He was such a liar~!! We counted until 60 that meant we waited for the a taxi for 1 long minute. But when I looked at the map, it was just down south of the Perdana Botanical Garden. If I can walked Melbourne from morning to nite, it shouldn't be a problem walking around the garden. I think I lost my bearing and started heading the other way round, which was a longer route that would have taken forever to reach. In less than 10 steps, by the main road, another taxi saw us and stopped, asked us where we were going and then refused to fetch us. The Malay taxi driver told us that the National Planetarium was just across the road, to cut short the distance. God is good. He sent a stranger to tell us in which direction we should walk so that it wouldn't be a waste of time walking one large round of the garden. I thought I was just going to cut across the park and made a beeline to the planetarium but to my amazement, the Perdana Botanical Garden was such a beauty I couldn't help myself snapping away. It's not like I will want to go there again. There was even a waterfall in the garden, a big piece of green lung in the city and quite a clean place. There were lots of people. There was a group of Indonesians having a Christmas party at the park. A large hut was used for picnic in the afternoon, shaded from the scorching sun. We took a slow stroll, in such a beautiful place, the place was not meant for brisk walking or running to get away from. There was even a Deer Park and the entrance was free. So many of them in the enclosure. Everyone was plucking leaves to feed those deer. By that time, our legs were screaming bloody murder. We took every opportunity to sit whenever we stopped by a bench. That's the huge Perdana Lake. I didn't even think of going around the garden in the first place. I was thinking of just going to a few places. We actually waited for the tram to take us so that we wouldn't have to walk. We saw one going passed us but I was still very busy with my photos so I let that go. We started asking about the next tram and to our horror, we had to wait for another couple of hours before those trams started moving. The person in charge told us to continue walking. One man said we would have to go through the main road, the other said we could cut across to the Planetarium. I followed the latter's advice. You gotta be kidding me~! Just walked up the stairs and you reach... Those were killer flight of steps. Can I have an escalator inserted into the place? I'm not gonna take another flight of steps when I go home. My precious and I went up first while the rest of them took a rest down there before revving their engines up the stairs. I'm definitely not going back there again... It was only 3 p.m. and whoever stood beside us would have fainted as we reeked of uric acid.

The National Monument...

2011-12-19T13:54:00.003+08:00

When we arrived at KL Sentral, we had to lug all our baggage to the next building, passing by the construction site which I have no idea whether they're expanding the KL Sentral or it's just another new mall, but we walked for about 10 minutes, crossing the road and getting our one way monorail tickets to Bukit Bintang. That's where we stayed for the 7 days and 6 nights. Since we arrived around 7:50a.m. nothing dashed my initial plan. The plan was still the same. Drop our luggage at Seasons View Hotel situated in Jalan Alor and then had our breakfast at one of the many coffee shops. Then, we went back to KL Sentral and got ourselves a taxi to the National Monument. The monorail ticket from Bukit Bintang to KL Sentral was RM2.10 each and then we took two taxis as we were travelling in 5 and the taxi's maximum capacity was 4 passengers in one taxi. I like this kinda tour, walking around, looking at places of interest. It might be interesting to me but not to you. The idea of for the construction of the National Monument was mooted by the then YTM Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra al-Haj in 1963 to commemorate the warriors who died defending the sovereignty of the country. If you're not familiar with who was Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra al-Haj and you're a Malaysian, I suggest that you go bang your head against the wall nearest to you. If there's no wall then go jump down from the window. Tunku Abdul Rahman was Malaysia's first Prime Minister, a wise man who brought independence to our country on the 31st of August 1957. Study the Malaysian history, it will do you a lot of good to know about your own country. The monument complex encompasses five main components, the National Monument, fountains, pavilion, a war memorial and the surrounding gardens.

The monument embodying seven bronze statues also represents the triumphof the forces of democracy over the forces of evil. The monument was designed by an American sculptor, Felix De Weldon and was completed in the early 1966. It was unveiled on the 8th of February of the same year and from then on a ceremony to commemorate the passing of the warriors is held there annually. The warriors fought during the Japanese Occupation. Those captured were tortured cruelly by the Japanese. After the Japanese Occupation ended with two atomic bombs dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, our country was terrorised by the jungle cats or better known as the communists. In the olden days, the jungle cats only came out during the night and they were always in hiding. The rest of the stories you will have to ask the older generation, I have not existed during those years. I only get to listen to stories told by my grandmothers and neighbours.

And I Bounced Away...

2011-12-18T23:06:00.005+08:00

It was the night when the lunar eclipse occurred that I dragged my luggage on the uneven concrete floor of the jetty. Judz and Gracie had just dropped us off and sent us away with a prayer. A journey without Jesus would be an unfruitful one. In all my travels, God showed me how He is able to answer prayers in a split second and how before I even finished my sentence, He already knew what I wanted but at times He just wanted to hear our voice, talking to him, not begging him. He wanted to know that we needed Him no matter where we are or how much fun we are having. He wanted to be a part of us, He's interested in everything that we do from the moment we open our eyes from deep slumber. This was my first trip where I planned everything to the dot. I even printed out the information on how to go to those places so I would not have to waste my time looking around like a lost deer in a concrete jungle. I'll always thank Pinky for teaching me how to take the train, which coloured line to go to, which platform to wait at and how to cut across to a different train to save cost. I'm forever grateful to her for teaching me all these. In this trip, we have no trouble at all. I chose the longest way to travel to Kuala Lumpur. It was just a 45-minute flight or merely 4 to 5 hours of drift racing on the highway but I'm not one who does things like everybody else. I wanted a relaxing way of travelling. No driving please. I dislike driving. Most importantly, I have my excess baggage...*ahem ahem* I mean my kids were travelling with me so I wanted them to experience the different mode of transportation that we were all fortunate to have in this developing country of ours. They're growing up fast and will be leaving the nest before long, so I just want to make sure that they can survive no matter where they are. We took the ferry across to the mainland. From there onwards, we started wailing looking at the long distance that we had to cover on foot. See how dark it was. That was the route to the train station that we had to take. It was so dark I felt that it was rather dangerous if one were to walk alone. Scream all you want, if anything happens to you, nobody will come forward to help you. There was practically no one there and since we had a couple of hours ahead of us before the train arrived, we seemed to own the whole road. We were taking photos in the middle of the road. We lined our luggage in parallel so if there was any soul who wanted to walk up the flyover, that person would have to shift our luggage away. The flight of stairs were endless. The flight of stairs heading downwards was killing us. We haven't even reach Kuala Lumpur and we were already sweating like pigs. I'm not one who will sit still and this time round, I decided not to bring any books with me. I just want to do nothing but it looked like I fail to sit quietly and stare into nothingness. I was busy fiddling with my camera and making my excess baggage my models. We were having a great a few minutes monkeying around on the track when the officer seated in the air-conditioned office decided to yell at us from his window. Good yelling~! We walked into the cool waiting area and tried sitting down and stared into the dark lonely sky, the moon has been covered by the clouds. My precious was smart enough to bring her Nintendo to kill her boredom. I was playing with Cooking Mama but got bored with it after making some pizza, muffin and cooking around according to the screen instruction. I was clicking away with my camera once again. Before I even entered the train, I had more than 200 photos in the memory card. Cam-whoring again in the upper bunk. I was in the first class coach without realizing that it wasn't what I paid for. I paid for the Premier Deluxe Coach which de-railed a few months back. The first train conductor who punched our tickets never mentioned anything about us being in a lower class coach but God is good, He sent another officer to inform us about the compensation that we could collect for being in a lower class coach. It's like getting paid for being on a train. This wasn't my first time travelling by train. My third time to be exact. I went over to check on my kids who were at the sleeping second class bunk while I needed the first class one to put all the luggage in. We started boarding the train at 10:15 p.m. but the train only started to chug along the old railway track at 11p.m. sharp... no delay... We were supposed to reach KL Sentral at 6:40 a.m. The two previous trips when I boarded the train, it reached exactly at 6:40a.m. I even asked the kids to set their phone alarm at 6 a.m. so they could walk over to our coach and clean themselves up for we would not be checking into the hotel until late at night. 6:40 a.m. came and went away we hadn't even reach Rawang. All 5 of us ended up sitting in a lazy position while looking out of the window. We saw the oil palm plantation which would be visible from an airplane, we saw the attap houses along the tracks, we saw the dirty parts of Selangor, hidden from the eyes of tourists unless they board the train and stared out of the window when the sun just started to greet you. Finally, we arrived in one piece, but we were sleepy. It was a disturbed sleep so it was not a pleasant one. The moment I felt like I was floating into dreamland, I was jerked awake again by the sudden pull of the train. Then at some parts it was shaking from left to right, then it was chugging away. For a deep sleeper like I am, usually nothing can wake me up but this was different. It was like a continuous aftershocks. We were 80 minutes late which was God's timing as well because if we were to reach at 6:40 a.m. you would see me loitering around the empty street of Kuala Lumpur with 4 people behind me, following after my footsteps.

I'm Home~! I'm Home~!!!

2011-12-18T00:00:00.002+08:00

It feels really good to be home. Home sweet home~! There's nothing better than putting the sole of your feet on the ground where you know you belong. It has been a great week in the heart of Malaysia. We were in Kuala Lumpur and I couldn't express my gratitude to Pinky, my friend from China whom I met in Melbourne for teaching me how to travel in a city. Am I glad to say that it was surely a good thing to start travelling in a large city and then went to smaller ones. The best part was in every step, Jesus was travelling with us. Jesus was leading and following us wherever we were. I would really love to share this fantastic journey with everyone. We started the day with prayers, prayed along some places and ended the day with prayers as well. You just have to follow after my travel journals... it won't be long but before that I will have to sort out my 3 000++ photos first and I have to replace whatever amount of hours that I have owed to my sleep bank. I like Facebook's new Timeline... it's so cool~! The first thing that I did when I got back was to have Penang food. Penang hawker food is extremely cheap after what I've been eating for the whole week in Kuala Lumpur. I didn't sit at home and shake legs, the moment I reached home, in less than 15 minutes I was out again for a drama by AOG. They were better than what I've watched at PenangPAC, the Hokkien drama which made no sense, head and tail. I don't really miss my computer. Whenever I'm on a holiday, I will never want to be online. I just want to be out and get back to the hotel to sleep and clean myself up. A holiday, in my opinion, solely my opinion, one should not be locked behind the hotel room's door. One should be out whether it rains or shines.

A Stitched Luggage :D

2011-12-10T01:07:00.002+08:00

WooHoo~! I finally decorated my cabin luggage and I decorated it with my stitch masterpiece. It's one of those Precious Moments' collection with an airplane and the phrase "I KNOW WHERE I'M GOING". It was a tedious work stitching through the thick material. Ugh~! I haven't pack my bag... it shall be done at the last hour... adios amigo~!

Christmas Is Here..

2011-12-09T01:12:00.002+08:00

Let it snow... let is snow... let is snow...Hohoho~! A lighted Christmas tree. And everyone invited actually stood around the tree to witness the lighting up of a tree... just by a click of the switch and yet we were stupifyingly excited and in a snapping frenzy. Vistana Hotel took the initiative to create the atmosphere of Christmas where snow fall from the sky... no... not from the sky, but from one of the 4th floor room... am I spoiling the Christmas mood? Ooopppsss... sorry... Gracie received an invitation by Vistana Hotel, Penang to attend the hotel's Christmas Celebration. Then, Gracie extended the invitation to us. Then, we were happily weaving among other visitors, grabbing food from the waitors and waitresses who walked around with two heavy plates on both palms. The food was superb. We were not even given a chair to sit on. We had to stand on both of our feet from the beginning till the end. It started at 6:30p.m. and ended at 8:30p.m. *phew* Just two hours of standing. There was a band of carollers... is there such a collective noun? A group of carollers? Yeah, I think that's better. They were singing a few carols and then all of us were asked to join in with the singing. Sad to say, nobody participated. Now, I have a feeling Malaysians are passive people. So NOT cool~!! Oh, Santa~! Where's the sleigh? Where's Rudolph? And where's the large belly? None at all... so I tried to rob Santa but his green bag wasn't filled with presents. They were just candies... *boo hoo hoo* Anyway, I love the food prepared by the chefs at Vistana. Thank you for such delicious food... *finger lickin' good*

A 'Rojak' Cartoon..

2011-12-08T07:01:00.003+08:00

Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,

Humpty Dumpty had a great fall,

All the King's horses, and all the King's men,

Couldn't put Humpty together again~!

That's the original text for the nursery rhyme for Humpty Dumpty. Many children are no longer familiar with nursery rhymes. I wonder what they learn in kindergarten and nursery schools. I heard that some of the kindergartens teach the children additional Maths, trying to create little geniuses?

Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water

Jack fell down and broke his crown

And Jill came tumbling after.

Up got Jack, and home did trot

As fast as he could caper

He went to bed and bound his head

With vinegar and brown paper.

In this movie, Jack and Jill were two ugly giants. They had with them 3 seeds from Jack and the Beanstalk.

Now, are you familiar with the story of Jack and the Beanstalk? He actually exchanged his one and only family cow with some beans. The magic beans grew right into the sky and there was a giant's castle up in the sky. Jack stole the giant's money, came back down and chopped off the beanstalk. That was the summary of the whole story.

In this case, Jack was in prison. He was an old man and he was imprisoned together with Humpty because Humpty was caught while trying to get away after robbing the local bank.

The goose with the golden egg. In this case, the goose was staying up in the sky in the castle where the giant's used to stay. The giants were not around, they were dead long time ago. The gosling in this cartoon looked like a chick and it was protected by its mother, the royal large goose who flew down from the castle in the air to hunt for its young chick, kidnapped by Humpty and his meow friends.

The word 'rojak', a Malay word, means a mixture of everything. If you have no idea what kinda food is that, go Google it. It's the Google generation. Anything that you're not sure of, go Google to get your answer. You'll never figure that Dreamwork can actually mix up all the nursery rhymes and children's fairy tales and turned them into one piece of cartoon. That's the cartoon. The meow in boots. I've never seen this kinda mixture of everything. In conclusion, I don't really like it except for the meow.

I TOTALLY AGREE WITH THIS~!

2011-12-07T00:17:00.002+08:00

Let me be completely honest. I've been growing sideways until I can't fit into all my favourite clothes. Which means time to change the whole wardrobe. I'm not eating excessively. I'm eating normally. So I totally agree with Garfield... the only cat I like until maybe I like the 'meow' in boots...

Jehovah Rapha: Lord Our Healer...

2011-12-06T13:53:00.002+08:00

If you've been following my blogposts, you will know that I'm suffering from the Carpal Tunnel Syndrome due to excessive reading. Reading books as thick as 700++ pages, holding the book without letting it go for more than 5 hours, hardly moving at all, that's how I read when I'm into a book, I can't come out of it. I'm totally 'IN' the book. But after having deadly electrifying pain in both wrists, I'm in real trouble. I can't even hold a book and keep it open, can't even hold a pan properly, I actually spilt a whole big pan of boiling oil all over the kitchen. Thank God I didn't pour the boiling oil on myself. Then, I can't write but I still have to write but after that I'll have to endure the excruciating pain for hours on end. In conclusion, I can't live without my hands. I think everyone understands that.

Last Sunday, Pastor Kevin who is with the YWAM of Penang currently, came to preach for the second time in FGA during the Saturday nite service. At the end of the service, I went forward to have him pray for healing over my wrists. Amen and giving the highest praise to Jesus the healer, there's no more pain in both my wrists. I can twist and turn and start reading again :D This is my first time experiencing healing on the spot. But it's definitely not my first time experiencing miracles.

Chasing After The Sunset...

2011-12-05T12:24:00.006+08:00

The second trip driving to Gertak Sanggul. My first time to Gertak Sanggul was to attend the dinner which my besties crashed into. Then, we decided to come again to experience the sunset view since it's a nice place, by the beach. I was driving as fast as I could, chasing after the sunset as the sun was threatening to go down before we even reach the place. I had no recollection of the place where we stopped for the wedding. I think we stopped at the place before, but heck, I saw fishing boats, sea water and the sun, so I made an immediate stop and simply parked the car. I never realized that the sea water was churning murky black water. Stay away from me~! I thought I wanted to dip my legs in the sea, took a slow stroll along the beach but after looking at the black inky water, I wouldn't go near the water at all. Now... now... we were there already, with our cameras. I think we had four cameras with us but the hill blocked the perfect sunset. If I have more time, I would have driven right to the very end of the place, where if you check the map, it would be the end of the island, a curve at the end. I'm the professional jumper~! There's not much to do, standing there waiting for the sun to go down, wishing that the place would be more beautiful. The weather was good actually. Whee~! All of us can jump~! There were a few dogs sleeping on the beach. Not bothered with what we were doing. Ahh~! A hammock by the beach. There were a few hammocks probably used by the local village fishermen to take a short nap after a long and tiring day at sea. *sigh* The view wasn't perfect. A hammock at one of the islands in Maldives would be perfect. I wouldn't mind sleeping under the stars. A picnic by the beach. My favourite egg sandwiches. Only my mama knows how to make the most perfect egg sandwich. We had a huge packet of prawn crackers as well and some cut fruits. What a nice picnic... but a short one as we were rushing off for our badminton session at 7 p.m. Well... well... isn't that beautiful? If the water is clear, the sand is finer then everything would be perfect. I would build a glass house by the beach. Splendid~! God is the best artist :D We rushed back when it was starting to get dark. We were there for about an hour or so only. Blimey~! The storm started when we were heading back. God is good, all the time...

What A Beautiful Sight...

2011-12-04T23:40:00.003+08:00

Oh, yes~! What a beautiful sight~! All four of them are doing cross-stitch. Something which I've always wanted them to learn. My precious learn it up first, now doing her third masterpiece while my pineapple just started her first one. My youngest and my eldest are following after them. Started them with a small piece just in case they puncture halfway and find no strength to continue stitching right till the end. I can't wait to see the day they stitch a large masterpiece like what I'm stitching. Don't you agree that this is better than spending the whole day clicking on nonsense in the Internet, watching videos that don't make sense at all or sleeping the whole day away. This is definitely better than doing other things. They do watch movies and I'm not going to stop them from watching movies as I'm one movie addict myself. The only thing that I can't get them to do is reading. I don't know what's in their head but they refuse to read story books.

My Pineapple's 14th Birthday...

2011-12-04T11:41:00.002+08:00

The last birthday party that I'm going to hold. Of course I'll still buy the birthday cakes until I learn how to make one... muahahahah... Wrong choice of venue. I thought it would be fun but the choices were so limited. A few slices of this and that. Can't even fill up half of our stomach. And look at that girl with the smartphone. This is the social problem of having smartphones. You can't sit down and mingle around with other people on the same table because you're busy trying to update your Twitter or Facebook status. Since the place is rigged with Wifi, then you can find people busy uploading photos into their Facebook account or Instagram or whatever nonsense. Keep that phone please... muahahaha... that's Gracie... I don't mind her updating her Facebook because her Facebook is so dead~! I don't even mind her blogging on the dining table... but if it's my kids, they should know better to put away the phones and ALL sorts of electronic gadgets from the dining table or else it will be smashed into smithereens. The plates were humongous but the main dish... too little... not enough not enough... I ordered quite a lot... almost all of their main courses... seafood set, family deluxe set and chicken set but ... but.. why still not enough? Should have gone to Seoul Garden, eat all you can, but I've been there too many times. Cook... cook... *stomach growling* Hungry... cook faster la... Cook... cook~! Cook already? I dunno... turned colour means cook already la :D Next year I'll do major cookouts for anybody's birthday. That way, we can eat as much as we like... unless I can find other worth going places... we ended up at the hawker centre after eating at Bar-B-Q Plaza.

Robbed of RM10

2011-12-04T09:25:00.002+08:00

My precious and my pineapple have been pestering me to bring them to Crepe Cottage. I have no idea where the place is. It's along Gurney Drive but with the word 'cottage' I was hoping to see some English or Victorian cottage but I could find none until my precious posted a blog entry by one of the food bloggers on my Facebook wall. Ahh... that's not hard to find in fact, I've driven passed the place numerous times. The 'cottage' isn't any kind of cottage that I can think of. It's a Malay-style kampung house. Why not just name is Crepe Hut or Crepe Village? Anyway, I made a trip there to try it out first. I was surprised to hear that the place has existed since 10 years ago. I bet I'm one ignorant person who doesn't keep herself updated enough. The place was quite small and hubby and I had a hard time deciding on what to try out. There were just crepe and pancakes with different fillings and toppings. We ended up with this one. A thin crepe with two small scoops of vanilla ice-cream when I precisely said I wanted chocolate ice-cream, slices of banana, some nuts, chocolate sauce, a little bit of whip cream and that's it RM10... that's freaking expensive. I can buy a whole comb of banana and a box of ice-cream and get more stuff with the same amount. I guess when you know how to cook you just don't find the pricing out the amusing. It's cut-throat expensive for dessert.

I'm Indescribable...

2011-12-03T16:33:00.002+08:00

First of all, I would like to apologize for the slow update. It happens that way especially during the school holidays. As there's only 24 hours a day and I spend 8 hours in dreamland, there isn't much time after spending most of my waking hours out of the house. I do have a lot of things to do. I feel like updating this blog as frequently as possible but I'm not a tech savvy person. I do not own an iPad neither do I have an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy Tab or Samsung Galaxy SII or Note to keep me online all the time. I have a dinosaur age Atom Mini PDA. Yeah... yeah... I'm very outdated. I'm one of those people who prefer paper and mechanical pencil than using electronic gadget to get things written. 7 days a week prove to be too short a time to do anything. Currently busy with stitching as well. I'm quite a boring person actually... but I'm a good event planner. I'm just indescribable... and impossible...

Care Free~!

2011-11-30T11:12:00.003+08:00

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

Yes, I'm Pissed Off~!!

2011-11-27T10:56:00.002+08:00

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

The Nail... My Nail...

2011-11-21T09:18:00.005+08:00

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

A Wedding Worth Crashing Into...

2011-11-20T23:21:00.006+08:00

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

The Young KL Singers...

2011-11-20T15:33:00.005+08:00

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

CHEERS~!

2011-11-20T14:51:00.002+08:00

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

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

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

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

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

21st YMCA-CCA Bible Quiz 2011...

2011-11-20T14:12:00.004+08:00

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

Chai Diam Ma...

2011-11-20T13:39:00.003+08:00

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5-Star Public Toilet...

2011-11-19T01:15:00.003+08:00

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

What's On My Mind?

2011-11-17T01:56:00.005+08:00

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

TNB No Money...

2011-11-15T23:42:00.002+08:00

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

China Should Emulate Us...

2011-11-15T10:17:00.003+08:00

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

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

2011-11-14T23:42:00.004+08:00

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

Hippo in Pool~!

2011-11-11T08:33:00.003+08:00

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

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

A Rushed Wednesday (Revised)

2011-11-08T15:41:00.007+08:00

This is a revised version of what I wrote earlier. There seemed to be a problem with the post. It was perfect until after two days when I checked out my own blog, the post has been reduced to pictures left only. The wordings disappeared to Timbuktu. And I have no idea what I wrote earlier. Thus, I feel like writing this again, for the fun of it. I am a perfectionist and I hate it when things go wrong or went missing. The missing post is like missing a page of my personal journal. Here goes... our biggest group hike up to the Air Itam Dam. I thought we were gonna take a couple or more hours to reach the top but since my oldest best pal was leading, it took us only 50 minutes to reach. It didn't feel like a real hike thought cause it was just walking on a steep tar road. I prefer the jungle trail but since it was raining everyday and most of us have been to Pantai Kerachut, I can't think of anywhere best to go. We reached so soon that the golden group of mistresses could not even reach even after more than hour. We had so much time to kill before moving forward, walking around the whole large dam. I have my toy with me... mi camera. We snapped more than hundred of pics just for that. Some of them were dead tired though before they had to wake up extremely early on a school and public holiday, me included. 6 a.m. ... *gosh* If I've known that we were gonna be so fast, I would started the walk up at 9 a.m. or later. There's a time for everything. Praising God under the sun. Praise Him for everything. Praise Him for bringing each and everyone of them together as friends. Thanking Him for the good weather. A time to spend together. Perfect timing. Everything was really good on that day. It went perfectly well. Introducing the amateur jumpers. Not synchronized. Out of tempo. Thus, they had to jump so many time until the one holding the camera got frustrated. Hahhahaha.... but it was a good one, rite? I like Qian's legs... airborne~! I'm the professional... with two bodyguards on each of my side. It was a great day and I had no idea who walked up and down the whole place. Oblivious to whatever's happening on that day. We got tired waiting in one place, so the youngsters decided to race their way to the playground. Annie and I had a slow walk to the playground, stopping here and there for more photos. The sun was shining brightly, with not even a hint of rain. Of course I would start raining again in the evening, a couple of weeks back, the rain was so predictable. It would be bright and sunny in the morning and afternoon, by the time it was around 4 p.m. it would be pouring cats and dogs. Swings~! I have sweet memories with swings. I started playing on a swing when I was in Melbourne, together with Pinky. It was such a bliss being there. I can't wait to go to Australia again, love the view, love the weather over there. Me and my bestie took the opportunity for some photo taking session. I realized that we didn't have many photos together. That's because she left for a greener pasture when she was 16. Left me all alone, well she went alone, too. We were two lone rangers taking over the world from two different angles. This is some finger art that I suggested and they perfected. It took quite awhile to get the perfect adjustment. Very nicely done, good teamwork~! Finally, the golden group arrived after more than an hour. The golden group consists of those who are young at heart, forever young... as young as 15 only. We stopped aging there... we're better than the 'In Time' movie where they stopped aging at 25 years old. The second row consists of the oldies. We continued walking for another hour more. We achieved quite a lot just for one morning. It was a healthy activity instead of sleeping away the whole morning. Then, lunch and some rest at my place before we started smashing at the badminton court. We booked all 3 courts but the place was with very poor ventilation. Almost died of suffocation and the heat was unbearable. Felt like being roasted alive but we survived. We are survivors. We will survive in any condition and in any situation. It was more rushed after badminton. 5 minutes to shower and change and look nice and beautiful. Swallowed dinner in less than 15 minutes. Got caught in an ugly traffic on the way to the cinema. Thank God the house is near the cinema... but still for those watching the romantic and touching movie, they missed 10 minutes of the starting. The rest of all took our time hunting for parking spot in the multi-level car park in Queensbay. It was a parking frenzy like you were lost in a maze of cars. The movie was awesome thought. Made up for whatever stress of the day. I do like Noisy Boy but it surprised me that it turned into a heap of scrap metal in no time at all due to human error. Atom proved to be something else. I don't like Zeus... but I'm still a fan of robots. Grow up playing Transformers and little green toy soldiers. It's really good that I have no liking for Barbie dolls. Dolls give me nightmares especially after watching Chucky.

Generasi Muda yang Diperjudikan...

2011-11-06T12:15:00.007+08:00

Pendidikan di negara Malaysia sering berubah bagaikan negara yang berempat musim. Sekejap luruh, sekejap bersalji, kembalinya matahari yang terik memancar, senyuman orang ramai terukir tatkala melihat bunga-bunga yang kembang mekar. Walau bagaimanapun, apabila ada sahaja orang kenamaan yang menaiki takhta empuk di kabinet, musimnya berubah entah menjadi tengkujuh atau kemarau mengikut musim khatulistiwa. Begitulah tidak stabilnya keadaan. Dalam masa yang singkat, pelbagai program diperkenalkan untuk kebaikan dan kemajuan generasi muda. Tampaknya, generasi muda ini bagaikan tikus putih di dalam makmal yang terpaksa akur terhadap segala perubahan. Protes yang dijalankan oleh golongan yang tahu akan kesan negatif sesuatu perubahan mendadak menjadi suara yang sayup-sayup kedengaran dan dinyahkan sama sekali. Suara rakyat menjadi tidak penting lagi. Setiap yang dilakukan oleh manusia yang berkepala besar bagaikan makhluk asing menjadi arahan yang perlu diikuti. Sememangnya dua matapelajaran yang begitu penting patut diteruskan dalam bahasa antarabangsa. Apakah yang menjadi kayu pengukur bagi sesebuah masyarakat yang maju? Tentunya generasi muda yang dapat bersaing di persada dunia.

Sungguhpun saya mempelajari kesemua matapelajaran dalam bahasa kebangsaan, tetapi apabila perubahan positif dilakukan, iaitu dengan mengajar matapelajaran Sains dan Matematik dalam Bahasa Inggeris, saya pasti ramai yang mengalu-alukan perubahan positif tersebut. Mereka yang meneruskan pelajaran di menara gading tidak perlu menggaru-garu kepala apabila melihat nota-nota dan buku-buku ilmiah yang disediakan dalam bahasa Inggeris. Semuanya berjalan dengan lancar. Kini, apabila pihak yang memegang kayu sakti dan membuat keputusan muktamad untuk berundur dan mengembalikan sebuah generasi katak di bawah tempurung, apa tidaknya golongan yang bangkit untuk memprotes.

Pengemudi bahtera negara sering meminta golongan yang bijak pandai agar pulang ke tanah air untuk menyumbangkan kebijaksanaan terhadap negara sendiri, tetapi dengan perubahan sedemikian, mahukah mereka membawa anak-anak kecil mereka untuk mengikuti pendidikan yang mundur ini? Penduduk di negeri Johor lebih beruntung kerana dapat menghantar anak-anak ke Singapura untuk belajar. Mengapakah pendidikan yang dianggap begitu penting perlu berlandaskan politik? Kenapa tidak mahu dipertimbangkan semula keputusan yang begitu penting? Dengan mempelajari kedua-dua Sains dan Matematik tidak bermaksud bahasa Malaysia akan dilupakan. Mengapa tidak mahu melahirkan generasi yang lebih kompetitif?

Setelah meninggalkan bangku sekolah sedekad, saya masih dapat menulis dalam bahasa Malaysia. Bahasa Malaysia tidak akan dilupakan, bahasa Inggeris merupakan bahasa antarabangsa yang amat diperlukan untuk bersaing di dunia ini yang semakin merimaskan. PPSMI harus diteruskan. PPSMI merupakan salah satu sumbangan Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad yang terbesar kepada rakyat sebelum berundur daripada takhta beliau. Masalah sebenar dalam kesemua hal ini bukan disebabkan oleh generasi muda tidak dapat mengikuti pelajaran dalam bahasa Inggeris tetapi masalahnya terletak pada tenaga pengajar. Majoriti tenaga pengajar yang perlu menggunakan bahasa Inggeris di dalam kelas menjadi bahan gelak tawa anak-anak muda. Sungguh memalukan... dengan ejaan Inggeris yang salah, bacaan yang tidak tepat, dan penggunaan ayat yang menimbulkan tanda soal kepada anak-anak muda. Tenaga pengajar masa kini tidak mampu menguasai bahasa Inggeris kerana kesilapan pengemudi negara pada masa dahulu yang terlalu mengagung-agungkan bahasa kebangsaan sehingga sistem pendidikan diubah kepada bahasa Malaysia dalam segala jua matapelajaran dan seterusnya mengabaikan bahasa Inggeris selama sekurang-kurangnya 15 tahun. Ini telah mengakibatkan kemerosotan yang begitu ketara dan tenaga pengajar pada masa kini adalah produk kesalahan mengubah sistem pendidikan yang berasaskan bahasa kebangsaan. Tidak nampakkah kalian dengan kesilapan yang begitu ketara? Nampaknya manusia tidak mendapat iktibar daripada kesilapan yang lalu. Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohammad sedar akan masalah yang menjadi kanser masyarakat dan beliau mengambil langkah besar untuk membaiki keadaan tersebut, namun pemegang kayu sakti kini telah membuat keputusan muktamad untuk mengorak langkah ke belakang semula. Majulah Malaysia... majunya di mana, tidak tahu pula sahaya.

Bowl Out~!

2011-11-03T14:13:00.004+08:00

After watching the sunrise, my hubby and I went dating at the market to get some stuff to cook for lunch. We walked around for a few minutes as the Anson market was so small. I can run at for less than 5 minutes to finish the whole round. The market was near to home that's why I chose to go there. Waking up at 6 a.m. caused my brain to shutdown by 10 a.m. but I revived my brain by getting myself online and spent a couple of hours in Facebook uploading photos. That kept me awake but I've already planned the whole week. If given a choice, I would prefer sitting in front of the computer and clicking away for hours and hours on end. But then again, that will be very meaningless. Spending time with people in spirit and flesh is far better than spending time virtually. I do still have my online problem where I can spend hours doing nothing but clicking around like walking aimlessly on a congested road. Well, our plan was to walk around in Queensbay. I wanted to do some shopping but I prefer shopping with my hubby alone. More comfortable. I don't like to make people wait for me while I take my own sweet time doing my own gala fashion show in the fitting room. Anyway, the ultimate plan was to get my kids their swimming costumes. There wasn't much choice in Queensbay so I let them monkey around like they have just been released from cages in a mini zoo. While we were walking around until the legs almost boycott from doing more walking, the two boys ran away to the cinema earlier. Smart of them to leave us or else they would have turned green and purple. They ran off to watch Real Steel, two boys hand in hand... how romantic... We went to Sunshine Square next for the girls' swimming costumes. A really good decision to go there. More discounts. Better choices. Again, the boys left us the moment we reached. They went bowling... again two boys, hand-in-hand... muahahaha... Well, we joined them after that. I have one major problem with my painful wrist, I thought the bowling ball will roll away together with my wrist. Got 1 spare only the rest either went washing the drain or just a few pins got dropped away. My fingernail on my thumb was chipped off at the edge. Always happening~!!! *argh* We were all half dead after such a long day and the next day we had an even longer day...

As The Sun Rises...

2011-10-31T23:55:00.004+08:00

Someone actually said that my sun rises from the west. That is because I've never seen a sunrise before, waking up when the sun is already moving way ahead. Last Tuesday, I made it a point to wake up at 6 a.m. and went to Gurney Drive with my pyjamas on. I caught the sunrise just a few minutes after settling down on the comfortable tiled sidewalk. Patience... I have none. I tried my best to keep myself entertained. I'm not the type who sits quietly in one corner. Once I'm awake, I'll be doing something. But there... there... I had to sit quietly, stopping myself from jumping into the quiet and calm sea. No joke~! Sitting down quietly requires a large amount of discipline. After 30 minutes, I can see myself climbing up and down and over the edge. I was all over the place. The two big clouds didn't give me a clear shot of the sun. That's the most perfect shot I could get. Since I was already there, I snapped more photos to my heart's content. I played with the functions, the light exposure and all sorts of nonsense. I'm not a professional photographer neither do I carry a camera with the lens the length of a sniper gun. I think there's enough proof to show that I really did take the sunrise shots. I was starting to get really impatient and agitated, thus I walked along the shoreline. Suddenly, I saw a man in the sea. He was walking towards and into the sea. Was he gonna kill himself? Then, all of a sudden, he threw out his fishing net. That was really professional of him. I would have covered myself in the net and wouldn't know from which end to escape from. He's not a local here. He's a Bangladeshi with his another fellow friend, waiting faithfully by the seaside with a black plastic bag. Not even a proper pail to fill up the day's catch. He was really blessed with all the fish. Everytime he threw the net into the sea, he cast out so much that I would have kept the fish in the freezer and finished them up in a few days' time. I wonder when my friends and I will be going for a fishing trip that way... one walking into the sea, the others waiting with plastic bags.

This Is My Life... ♥ ♥ ♥ It~!

2011-10-31T01:10:00.002+08:00

It has been a great week. I wasn't suppose to take a week-long holiday for Deepavali as its has always been just one day of rest. Well, I'm not the one behind the scene. Almost everyone's exam came to an end the previous week so I'm just playing along with everyone. I did really have a good week that's why I have not been updating anything. I haven't even upload any photos into Facebook. There are just too many things to do.

I think over the 5 days that all of us spent most of our waking hours together, it has created a bond among everyone. True friends are hard to come by. I hope all of you will grow up to be friends, really good friends, friends who can be trusted, friends who can just hangout together when there's not much to do, eager to keep each other updated.

I stand to testify that the person whom you have met since you were in primary school might not end up to be your best friend for the rest of your life. The person whom you spent most of your time chatting away with might not even want to know what's going on in your life. The person who knew all your secrets when you were young may never be your friend in 10 years' time. Treasure the friendship...

I do have lots of things to write about. This is a public blog, also my open journal where I write everything that excites me. I write because I love to write. Life is so wonderful... I'm looking forward to December...

Twisted Body & A Birthday Bash...

2011-10-25T10:21:00.002+08:00

I'm going to admit that I seriously do things differently. At my own pace, my own style and all of us are happy with that. Monday 24th October 2011, all of us celebrated Pork's birthday. That's not his real name just a name that I'm used to call and everyone followed suit. Actually there wasn't a birthday party. It was just that the birthday piggy said that he wanted to treat us to pizza on his birthday and I decided to cook birthday noodles since he doesn't like to eat a

birthday cake. I bought that cake because I was salivating all over to sink my teeth into cakes. Love the Belgian chocolate. Love the design especially the yellow polka dots.

Judz introduced me to cupcakes. I've never like cupcakes because most of them tasted like eating a clump of clay mixed with water and your whole mouth will be glued. And sometimes it was so dry you felt like you might choke and die on a mouthful of cupcake. Well, I have to say out loud that Judz knows my taste buds and she has great taste for really good food. Those cupcakes above were simply awesome. The Angry Birds printed on the sugar paper was really beautiful. I bought 20 for the fun of it. Mama fried some prawn crackers and made jelly. I did some fish fingers as well. Viola~! Suddenly there was a party with 16 people cramped into the house.

All of us who were playing games then cramped into the small room. I am not the party-ing type so my mind went blank if I were suppose to plan for party games. My kids will have to decide on games. They packed some Uno Stacko, Twisted and the Monkey game but in the end we were playing some ice breakers where we were asked to dance for a little if we were caught doing the wrong act. The Twisted was the best game for the nite. Even the boys were enjoying it.

Let me share with you the naked truth of the Twister game. Whoever invented this game is a genius, a brilliant genius. Whenever you play a game of Twister, you will be in a position where you're not in control of your position. You can shove your ass into someone's face but no one will be angry with you unless you farted into that person's face. Every player will compromise with each other so that they get into the position that they need to. You can have your whole body going under another person's body and that will never be considered as an obscene position. You see the good example above. Two girls with a guy sandwiched in between. That is not considered an indecent position because it was just a game. If it's not a game I would have given all 3 of them the lecture about indecent positions. *laughing away like a hyena* You can even put a hand below someone's ass. This is the coolest game and I've never regretted buying it.

Lastly, since it was a spontaneous birthday party, there were birthday presents bought at the very last minute as well. That's only the beginning. That happened on Monday, today is already Thursday. I know... I know... I'm very slow in updating but the thing is I don't really have the time to sit in front of the computer since I'm always out of the house since early in the morning.

Crank Up The Volume~!!!

2011-10-23T08:38:00.002+08:00

What I know is usually not one but many will turn off the volume once you reach my blog. Either you jumped up in shock with the lead guitarist scaring your wits out or you have a mighty fright when you hear the songs and in a panic clicked 'X' to shut the whole thing off. Now, the songs are more soothing. Not head-banging loud anymore. And you can sing-a-long. Cheers~!

Caught By the Holiday Bugs...

2011-10-22T01:24:00.002+08:00

Angry Birds~! We're two happy birds actually. Tweeting away from the nest. We were looking at stuff in the newly opened Mr. D.I.Y. But I don't see anything that I need to do it myself. This was taken in China. Everything is made in China, that you have to believe me. After going to China, we decided to come back via the long way. We had to cross our neighbouring country. We were in Thailand, sitting in the tuk tuk. It was a pleasant ride. As part of the country is under water now, we were relieved to find ourselves in dry land. We toot toot toot all the way back to Malaya. Meet these two gigantic workers. Other than ordering for the slave to carry the cement bullion, the supervisor had to carry my Betty Boop handbag. Well, he did enjoy himself. He got all the attention from us, a bevy of beautiful ladies. After stopping by the old Malaya, we decided to fly in to Barbados to have ice-creams. We were at Swensens and according to my coffee-drinking friends, the latte sux big time. Too diluted, taste horrible. Oh Swensen, can you do something about that? This time round we didn't travel on our own, I had my excess baggage tagging along with me. I brought my kids along. They're done with the end term exam so rightfully I shouldn't cage them and forced them to study for next year. I'm not such a ridiculous person. Oh, by the way, we were at Penang Times Square, 5 minutes away from my house. It's an action at the spur of the moment. Every Friday will be luncheon at my house. Thank God that I decided to clean the house after 10 years so at least now my friends got places to land their butts.

Ladies' Day Out...

2011-10-22T00:44:00.002+08:00

You must be wondering which country we went to. We were in Ireland but we stopped by for a few minutes only to snap some photos as proof that we did go to the place. It is a good thing that I know how to set the timer in my camera. Or else we wouldn't have such wonderful photos with everyone in the photo but with no one holding onto the camera. After spending some time in Ireland, we went to India. We performed a number of Bollywood dances, appearing from behind the palm tree, disappeared into thin air, reappeared among the bushes then we gathered around and danced in circles, twirling about and moving at the tempo of the wind. By the way there wasn't any wind blowing at that time. So it's more like dancing with elephant legs, stomping around. But we are one lot of extremely talented people. We are able to come out with anything in a split second. We felt that we've spent much time in India, so we teleported ourselves to England. Since we have spent so much on transportation, travelling by air, we had no choice but to share a rather small but creamily cheesy red velvet cupcake. I wished we could have more but our stomach were so bloated with air, we just have enough space to have a few spoonful of cupcake. I seriously had a great time in England. I love this photo of mine out of so many photos. Firstly, I really love my long, wavy black hair. At times I would have bad hair day where it twirled and curled at ridiculous angle, but I'm still loving my black and brown hair. I love my face as well. Most importantly, I fall in love with my own legs. After working out for hours, I really love those legs of mine. I'm obsessed with my own legs. I'm gonna kiss my leg before I go to bed. My legs took me to a lot of places. All of a sudden, we felt that we have spent too much time in England. Judz and Rosalind needed their coffee break. We went to Brazil for the best coffee beans and also for the best chocolate drink. I don't know why but coffee is my greatest enemy. It's not that I dislike coffee but I feel that the coffee dislikes me. It's always so very bitter in my mouth. It's okay. I survive on chocolate. If you would have realized, Gracie was not with us. She walked away from us and decided to be with Beethoven and dissolved herself in the presence of Armadeus Wolfgang Mozart. In the end, we dropped her in Vienna where she found Johann Strauss. We travelled very fast because I need to work next. I'm always enjoying myself but I still have a job to go back to. Isn't that nice? We came back to Malaysia after hopping around the globe. Do you seriously believe in everything that I just wrote? I'm just kidding... chill~! You can't be doing serious writing all the while. I'm not a journalist. I'm a story teller.

Museum of Glass...

2011-10-21T23:13:00.002+08:00

The one and only kind of museum in this small little island called Penang Island in Malaysia. I've driven passed iBox many times. I remember this place for it has existed for quite a few years. Previously it was just a normal glass shop that only those who need glass work done to their houses will need to enter into this kinda place. Other people has no concern for this kinda place. I will have to admit that this is one brilliant idea to boost up one's business. By turning this place into a museum, it will attract locals and tourists of sorts. The moment I entered the place, I realized that everything was for sale. So, definitely this is a good idea to widen the prospective of sales and marketing. At least we found another place to visit when we have exhausted every single venue in this small little island. If iBox can show the steps of creating the masterpieces, it will attract more people. I remembered visiting a factory producing blow glass in Langkawi Island. That was one eye-opening experience. iBox has a wide range of glass. It would be really interesting to be able to see people at work. We have had a blast monkeying around. One minute we were standing in front of coloured and patterned glass panels. The next moment we were all behind the glasses with our head jutting out. We seriously hope that we didn't hear the sound 'PIANG'. That would be the sound of shattered glass. Thank God nothing of such happened when we were there. Each of us got ourselves a piece of decorative glass. I wrote my yellow piece of glass myself but in the end I asked Margaret, the lady in charge to decorate it for me. Gracie left us while we were busy with our art and craft work. Hmph~! Quickly take your piano exam and get it done with~!! Anyway, Museum of Glass is worth a visit. Go plan for the type of glass you want in your house. Redecorate your house. I will want a RM10 note in every small block of glass used to cover my wall.... just saying.

Trot Trot...

2011-10-21T21:59:00.002+08:00

Last Thursday, we had a great time walking around Pulau Tikus market, a marketplace for the rich. The price difference compared to other markets down south is as wide as the difference between the earth and the sky....nah... I'm just exaggerating. Gracie, what on earth are you doing? Why are you snapping photos when we stay here, right in the heart of town? People might think that you're insane. Hehehee... a pot calling a kettle black. I was doing what she did only 10 times worse. If I wasn't busy clicking on my camera I wouldn't have snapped this priceless snapshot :D I don't really like the humid weather in our country and walking around the market place with such hot weather, it's really uncomfortable. My clothes were glued to my body. I met Gracie's mom for the first time. She is one very cool and modern lady. AAAHHHHHHHHHHHH~~!!!!! Frogs~!!!! They're jumping~!!!! AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH~!!!! *huff puff huff puff* The only time I've seen live frogs was when I was in Singapore. All the time I only see dead and skinned frogs ready for my favourite gong bo fried frogs. But that was different. And the live frogs were so expensive and so small in size. We zoomed away at the speed of lightning after hearing the price. 3 mini frogs for RM50 how to eat? After cooking the frogs, the flesh will shrink then it won't be enough for even myself what more when we need to share... each one sucking on one frog's bony leg? Ridiculous... I think we should learn how to catch frogs so that can be our next activity... frog-catching outing. We went to Subway in Queensbay for some quite bite using the buy 1 free 1 coupon that came together on the front page of the Star newspaper. Subway must have been short of staff. The place was not even cleaned up. Disgusting. At least provide a large rubbish bin and write SELF-SERVICE signboard requesting patrons to bring their own trash to the rubbish bin and providing table cloth, I would have happily help them to wipe the tables. I guess I don't know how to enjoy chewing on sandwich so huge that one bite sent everything flying out from the rear end of the sandwich. We were two messy cats eating our sandwiches but we had a great time together :D

Applying Maths in Daily Life...

2011-10-21T20:17:00.002+08:00

Circumference = 2πr or are you using area of circle=πr^2... hhmmm... or just simply use a ruler to measure the radius? I think it's pretty obvious with what that very nice person was doing. That very nice person was trying to divide the mooncake equally to everyone. In order to be precise with her calculation, she needed a scientific calculator and a ruler to measure the length. I think no one has ever cut a mooncake using a plastic knife and a ruler. But in the end, everything turned out to be unequal... eh... my mom cut better...

Where Is Thy Compassion?

2011-10-21T01:08:00.002+08:00

Sign up with YouTube. You'll have to be 18 years old and above to watch this. It's not a movie. It's not just a show to make you feel angry and hate those who did this. It's an eye-opener to how cold the heart of society in China is today. Is it because they were taught to behave in such a way? Or were they just ignorant because they only care for themselves? Read the full length of the news by clickin this... --> NEWS

Seriously, to those who walked passed by her, WHERE ARE YOUR COMPASSION? Eaten by rabid dogs? To the lorry driver who had all the wheels went rolling on her body, have you a heart of stone? Your heart has been eaten by the vultures? To the second lorry driver, were you in such a hurry that you didn't see anything on the road? How cruel can this be? If that happens to your child, do you expect everyone to do this as well? What have your religions taught you? Nothing? Then, what with all the praying to all sorts of gods, burning incense by the roadsides, seeking for wealth, seeking for good health but you forget to ask for a human heart? How cold-blooded were these people? How cold-blooded is the nation of China? Definitely not everyone is heartless, but when you have this kinda video circulating around the world, it just tainted the whole nation. Heartless people... completely heartless... I bet if my dog can use a phone and call for an ambulance, even my dog will go to the street to help.

No one should be treated in such a way let alont a 2 years old toddler. Even if a totally grown adult is hit and ran over by a truck, the pain would be so terrible that instead of succumbing to the injuries, you would have died of a heart attack. You don't have to touch the injured child to prevent yourself from being blamed for causing more injuries, just get your mobile phone out or go to the nearest phone booth or flag down anyone and ask to borrow a phone. Call that damn ambulance, is that so hard? You can call for an ambulance while walking away. Or those in the video are completely brainless people? They were not taught how to use the phone to make a simple emergency phone call? Heart of stones...

Too Tired...

2011-10-16T23:24:00.003+08:00

After all the marathon reading, I think I have hurt my wrists pretty badly. I can't even lift up a 50-page book without feeling the pain. All the books are at least 300 pages and above so there's no way I can hold the book open. I thought if I use the computer, clicking on the mouse for too long then I will suffer from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Never know that holding a book for too long without moving can cause that, too. I don't know what to do now. I can't sit around not doing anything, that will be a waste of time. I don't enjoy flipping through the newpapers, reading a whole load of nonsense, not knowing how much truth is in a piece of news. Therefore, I choose to go back to lying on the bed, watching DVDs until I fall asleep, with the movie still running then I watch it again the next day... nah... It won't be to that extent. Worse come to worse, I will finish a movie in one week after stopping it every 30 minutes. And my fingers itch to stitch again. *yawn* Can't type for long, too... but will find some time to update this slow moving blog of mine... adios~!

No Reason For NOT Doing Well...

2011-10-16T09:37:00.005+08:00

Let's look at what the Bible says regarding laziness. In Proverbs 21:25, in a simpler explanation, it means that a lazy person hates to work.

As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed.

[Proverbs 26:14]

Aaahhh... I think everyone relates to this perfectly. Sleeping for hours and hours. Sleep away the whole morning. Wake up for a few hours, login to Facebook for a couple more hours. Take a long nap in the afternoon. Wake up for dinner. Online again for a few more hours. Then sleep again until the next day. I caught this picture well. Whenever the exam is here, I would operate in a super nagging way. Study~! StuDY~! STUDY LA~!! Then, I feel like bashing them with their books. They're not even studying. I don't know what's wrong with teenagers nowadays. In less than 30 minutes, she fall asleep with the notes in her hand, covering the face. Do you really think the brain will absorb all the information? If I were to ask them to study, sitting on a chair with the book on the table, it wouldn't be fair because all my life, I study in my bed as well. But the thing is I don't fall asleep while studying. I cannot understand why are they so afraid to study, to memorize and to work harder. This is pure laziness. A sloth....
A sluggard says, “There’s a lion in the road, a fierce lion roaming the streets!”

[Proverbs 26:13]

That verse is not talking about a real roaring lion on the streets. It's about people giving excuses all the time to escape from doing something. Let's go through with a few of the excuses actively used:

I'm tired... wanna rest for awhile. Yes, you may rest for awhile, but nap took up the whole afternoon and you wasted the whole afternoon doing nothing. I cannot stand a person who sits down without doing anything for the rest of the afternoon.

I cannot understand what's written in the book. If that's the case, ask for wisdom. Ask the Holy Spirit to be your teacher, to guide you, to bring understanding to you. But no, you would rather close the book and never touch it again.

I hate that subject. Hating a subject is definitely not an excuse to fail that particular subject.

I don't have enough time to study. Hohoho~! But you definitely have enough time to do all sorts of nonsense. Complaining about not having enough time is a rather lame excuse.

I can't write an essay. Of course you can't write because you have never wanted to practise writing. You don't even want to read to improve yourself.

Being different. All of you want to be different, in that case why live a life that's so like every other people. You have no reason to fail the Malay Language paper. There are so many Malay books, story books for you to read. Just pick up a book and start reading. English books are everywhere. If you can't speak English perfectly, then start speaking. You can start off with a conversation with me. History is just information on what happen centuries and decades before you even existed. Treat it like an interesting events that happened long ago. Since you think it's boring then it will be boring. Additional Maths, I gave you lots of paper to do but you refuse to do anything about it.

I'm writing this for the last time. Yes, I'm upset with how all of you behave. None of you listen to me. None of you follow anything that I've taught you. The best excuse that any of you can give is, "I forget." *pfft* There's seriously no reason why you're not doing well and looking at the 'G' in the result list... that's unacceptable. In conclusion, if you want more books to study, tell me. I will supply you with so many books you can't even see yourself. I think I don't have to care so much regarding this, it's your life and your future, not mine. If you really choose to be different, then do something about yourself. Fight against your laziness. As I've always said, "No effort put in, no gain." If you see everything as a burden, checking the dictionary is a burden, flipping through the pages is a burden, everything seems to be a burden, you will never succeed in life. Your laziness will kill you one day.

One who is slack in his work is brother to one who destroys. [Proverbs 18:9]

A direct translation for that verse: A lazy person wastes time and energy.

Mollusks Fever...

2011-10-13T08:16:00.003+08:00

I've never really like cockles until recently. I do eat them from time to time but not to the point that I miss eating it and salivating all over thinking about the soft yet slightly crunchy feel in the mouth when I have my teeth all over the small body made of iron. Last Sunday, I've had a small basket shared among the important people in my lives around a round table. Then, the cravings started building up. By the way, that small basket cost RM4 and I thought it was really worth it because if I were to get them from the hypermarkets, the cockles were too small to enjoy. Yesterday, I went to the Anson Road Market to get some bean curds. A man was selling various types of mollusks at the entrance of the market, by the road side. I looked at the price of the cockles. It cost only RM3 for a kilo. That's really really cheap. So I bought RM5 of cockles and went back home happily with a plastic bag full of cockles. I bought something extra as well. I recognized them as the 'helicopters' which I've tasted before in seafood restaurants. It was RM10 per kilo and the uncle was so nice, he gave me around 1.3kg without charging extra. My pineapple will be really excite to see all these but then sad to say, my pineapple couldn't make it as her cousin just passed away so she has to attend the funeral. I just need to blanch the cockle in hot water then it's ready to be eaten while for the helicopters, I need to leave them in boiling water for 2 - 3 minutes. Some will puke looking at this. Some will be able to imagine how nice they tasted, dipped with Thai chilli sauce. A really good idea of choice food for tea time.

Itching to Fly...

2011-10-13T00:23:00.002+08:00

The view. The sky. Even the clouds seem to be different. The beautiful gardens. Oh, how nice it is to feel the cool breeze, the fresh air in the gardens especially in Fitzroy. The joy of walking all around the city without sweat and walking all alone in the busy yet quiet city. There were many people walking along the five-foot way, crossing the road, waiting for the trams but I felt so much at home like I've stayed there for a long time. Look at the clouds~! Everything seems to be so lovely and beautiful in Melbourne. It's so different back home but of course I wouldn't want to live there forever. I just enjoy being a tourist, with no cares of the world. I can just stroll to somewhere, with a map in hand, walk around, never rushing. Don't even bother to check the news. Just waltzing around and hopping all over the place. Geelong... I wouldn't mind going there again. The last time we went there, we were happy for a few moments only. The next thing we knew, Pinky's brand new iPhone dropped in the Eastern sea. No doubt the water was shallow but it was freezing cold. I can never understand those who were dipping in the water. I would have turned into an ice-stick. Eastern beach was the third beach I was walking along after St. Kilda and the Great Ocean Road. I walked for hours and hours until I came back with blisters. My soles are not meant for walking. They're much too delicate like tofu. Puffy Billy in Dandenong... viola~! Jumped into the carriage, removed the shoes and next, pulled the socks off the feet. Sat by the edge dangling in the air. Aahhhh... incomprehensible. No words can describe how much fun I've had. That included chasing after Puffing Billy which threatened to puff off without us. Whatever it is, I'm itching to fly off. Really really itch to get away... Sydney, Gold Coast... and then back to Melbourne... I can't wait for the days when I crossed the calendar to mark the days I won't be around...

Kelenga BanSan...

2011-10-08T00:23:00.009+08:00

Thursday. One week surely flew faster than the Concorde. Living in a small little island makes our heads reel whenever we have to think about the places that we would like to go for a morning walk. After last week's short trip to the morning bazaar in Air Itam, a few days back we went to another morning bazaar behind Chowrasta market. Although I stay in town, but I've never really walk around the heart of the town mainly because I neither like walking under the scorching sun nor driving around the lanes searching for an empty slot to leave my car in. I have my comfortable walking rubber shoes on, if you think they are ugly then it's not my problem. I'm only responsible for what I write. I'm one who do not care about what others' think. After zig-zagging a few lanes, we found an empty spot. It was in one of the narrow lanes. Then, to my horror I saw that it was actually a bicycle lane but motorbikes and cars were zooming passed without slowing down. If I'm to cycle on that lane I think I will end up underneath some vehicles or being dragged along the tar road.

It was my first time going to Kelenga BanSan. I have no idea what kinda English word they used for that morning bazaar. Kelenga means Indian in the Hokkien dialect. BanSan stands more market. Indian market? Anyway, all the stalls were lined along a narrow road, on both sides of the road so no cars will be able to drive through the place unless you're on motorbikes or bicycles. I was quite shocked to see so many people on a weekday. There are many people at the Botanical Garden, even more people at the Youth Park, more and more at Bukit Dumbar, jogging and doing their morning walks, lots of cyclists around the Air Itam Dam. It makes me wonder whether Penang people work or not. There were all kinds of stores there. In your first step, you may find a store selling all sorts of breads and buns and the next store will be selling fresh chicken meat with the man holding a big sharp knife hacking away on the poor chicken's thigh. Then, next to it will be a stall selling t-shirts and blouses, the stall opposite belongs to a fishmonger. There was a stall selling... nonsense. A type of cream to massage a woman's asset and then it will be enlarged. Pure nonsense. If I were to finish the whole bottle of ointment in 30 seconds, will my asset 'grow' from cup A to cup H? Most of the things are from Made in China so the quality of the things are questionable. I dare say that the things in a bazaar are no longer as cheap as yesteryear. I'm one who is very used to hanging out in air-conditioned complexes such as Queensbay Mall, Gurney Plaza or even going on a shopping frenzy for grocery items in Tesco. Raw food stuff in the market is cut throat expensive. What shocked me most was looking at the man lying down on floor on his stomach to beg for money. I seriously don't think he was borned that way. Is there a syndicate doing this kinda thing, forcing people to go begging for food after chopping away their limbs? I shall not discuss about this. I'm in no liberty to discuss such an issue. Right until now, I dare to conclude that the highlight of our morning walks is food. Nothing but food.

That's the famous curry noodles, it tasted normal to me. Lam mee wasn't that nice. Chee cheong fun... I'll still opt for the one in Genting Coffee Shop in Island Glades. That's the best of the best chee cheong fun. There were so many people standing around to look for an empty table in the small coffee shop. I can't promote the coffee shop as the name was written in Chinese. And I'm a half-baked banana, can speak but can neither read nor write. In the end, I have my motor mouth working and we shared a table with an uncle. Then we were chatting away with the uncle like he's our long lost friend when in actual fact we don't know him at all. There goes the advice of "NEVER SPEAK TO STRANGERS". According to the uncle whose table has been terrorized by three ladies, he said that the koay teow th'ng appeared in the cable television programme so it must be the best in town. Sad to say, I think the koay teow th'ng was so-so only. The best koay teow th'ng still comes from my own kitchen, prepared by my hubby, perfected by yours truly. After walking around and seeing our money grew wings and flew out of our wallets, I was attracted to a shop with the name Pots, selling kitchenware. I was mesmerized by the wide range of kitchenware that they carry in the shop. The magnetic force of the pink porcelain set of plates and large bowls pulled me straight to it. I was doing some mental calculation and I think I landed on the figure RM500 to upgrade my kitchen. All in all, it's not that cheap walking around and spending at the market. Here's a summary of where my money went on just a short trip, walking up and down the lane:

I was short of 3 chicken drumsticks so I bought 2 whole legs and it cost me a bomb. 2 whole legs cost RM8, that was freaking expensive compared to 6 drumsticks for RM6.80 from Tesco. No matter how fresh the chicken is, it won't be fresh when it enters my house. I will still dump everything in the huge freezer as I'm not one who shops a few hours before I slog in the kitchen. This was what I meant by cut throat expensive.

Next, I tapao-ed home a packet of curry noodles for my hubby since it's suppose to be the most delicious one in town. Cheap... RM3 only.

I saw a pair of shoes that looked like the Croc design. I use to wear the original Croc but I guess no matter how original it is, it will become unwearable due to wear-and-tear. That pair of pink synthetic rubber shoes cost me RM15. It was priced at RM18 but I think by now, you should know that since I have a motor mouth, I'm very good in price-haggling. Of course there are prices that can't be haggled. Have to let them earn. It's their hard earn money.

I bought a t-shirt because it was pink in colour. I'm always attracted to anything pink even from afar. There goes my red note... RM10

I tapao-ed some sort of jelly dessert home. RM2 for one, so my RM6 had been liquidised and turned into jelly.

Not to forget about food, my RM50 note vaporised into thin air and transformed into food stuff and accessories for my body. I think I will just bring a RM10 whenever I go out next time. It's really weird that until now I still feel that I've spent too much when it was just RM50 but if I'm spending a few hundred ringgits in a shopping mall, I don't feel even a pinch. In my mind I still expect the 3 t-shirts to cost RM10. That would be some 20 years ago. I just feel like there's no value in our money. Well, I still have to thank God that we don't have to push a trolley of money just to buy a watermelon.

Come Back to Me...

2011-10-06T07:52:00.002+08:00

He's so young. He's only 5 years old but he left a month ago. I don't know what happen to him. Was he kidnapped? Was he dead or alive? I have no news about him at all. Oh, how I miss him so~! The last time I saw him, he's still in my grasp. I should have paid more attention to him then he would still be around. He has been with me for so many years, sticking with me through thick and thin. Although he's young, but he's brilliant in Maths. He helped me with addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and he could even managed to solve problems concerning squares, square roots, cubes and cube roots. He's perfect in logarithms as well. He even took part in my accounts and cheered silently when he saw the accounts being balanced perfectly. He is so innocent. Either he has died a premature death or someone must have wanted him badly to take him away from me. I'm so broken hearted. I can't make a police report. No one will hear me out. Bring him back to me if you find him. I haven't name him properly as well. And come to think about it, I only have one photo of him. His actual name is fx-991ms. How dreadful is that to have a few alphabets and numbers to your name. What are you thinking? Of course I'm talking about my mysteriously missing scientific calculator. It's like missing a limb without it.

Facebook Button?

2011-10-06T07:40:00.002+08:00

This is my second time getting a request to place a Facebook button in my blog.

I don't know how to put a Facebook button in my blog.

I thought there are a few buttons below every post and you can share it just with a click on "F"

I think I'll need to consult Gracie regarding this matter as I'm a computer noob.

I just saw lots of dust on my computer keyboard as the sun shines in through the side window.

I think #4 is an irrelevent issue regarding this matter.

Are you talking about Facebook badge?

I don't know what to do...

I'm going offline... toodles~!

A Perfect Gift...

2011-10-05T10:08:00.002+08:00

Done by my precious. I think that's how she sees me. A person who cooks for her. And cooking her favourite dish. If there's nothing fanciful on the table, she can survive by eating scrambled egg, half-boiled egg, hard-boiled egg and steamed egg. Anything to do with eggs except for raw eggs. She has seen me stitch so I'm really glad that she learns how to do it as well. It's like passing on a legacy. Nah... nothing of such. I can teach them anything except for cooking. I can cook but I don't have the patience to teach a person how to cook. I prefer being alone in the kitchen with no kitchen helpers. More hands in the kitchen create a bigger mess. If you have been following my blog, you will realize I've not been stitching for almost a year. I've started one large masterpiece but I can't find time in my 24 hours a day to stitch even a box. I will have to wait until the end-year holiday to start stitching again but then I'm afraid I have too many things lined-up for the year end. There goes another year...

A Smashing Good Time...

2011-10-05T08:55:00.002+08:00

It is in this court itself that I get to know two of the most wonderful people in my life. Judz has been in my Facebook list more than a year and I have no idea who she is and now... look it this... we were wearing the t-shirts we bought from the morning market in Air Itam last Thursday. Gracie with her guitarist Domo, me with my red Angry Bird and Judz with her Happy Birds. Now we have a string of activities every week. Our Thursday morning walk, Friday luncheon at my place and a smashing good time on Sunday evenings. Such healthy programmes that we have. Exercise, food and sports... special outings on public holidays when Gracie and I and the rest of the people are not working and not schooling. Love you both... muacks~!

Spiritual Formation Course 2011

2011-10-05T08:22:00.002+08:00

Now, I hardly flip the church bulletin and most of the time I don't bother to even grab one from the counter. That's because I do not want to waste the bulletin. I know that I will take one, glance through the news of what's taking place in the coming week or around the corner, bring it home and leave it on the table. Usually if there's any important news, the emcee will announce it before the sermon starts, after praise and worship. I was attracted to the Bible Study held before church service on Saturday. There's another Bible Study on Sunday morning which I will never be able to attend. So, I'm overjoy to see myself in the Saturday class. It's a 5-week lesson. This coming Saturday will be the last lesson. But again, I'm overjoy to see that there are two more courses that will last until the first week of January 2012. I would like to share a little about this World Christian Equip School programme. This is the first time I'm attending Bible Study. Usually I'll be the one sitting in front and teaching. Now, I'm studying. A 45-minute glimpse into the life of being a student again. This is the Inductive Bible Study conducted by Aafke Deviss, from Holland if I'm not mistaken. Now...now... we're reading the book of Philippians. And being a procrastinator, I can't bring myself to prepare ahead of the lesson. The most I can do is reading a chapter while having my dinner. That's only 10 - 15 minutes at tops. The worst will be asking either my eldest or my precious to read the chapter out loud while I drive all of us to the church, weaving through the evening traffic in an area where the traffic is always heavy. Thank God by the time we're in the class I'm still able to contribute answers to questions and coming out with the summary for the whole chapter. But then, I realised that I have very poor concentration in a class. In that 45 minutes, my mind will wander elsewhere and when I 'came' back, I found that I've missed a chunk of information that I need to fill into the booklet. Thus, the empty blanks. I have the urge to copy the answer from the next person or the person behind me. There's no one in front of me as I'm sitting in front. I have always enjoyed sitting in front of the class since my schooling years. If I'm at the back, I'll definitely drift to Timbuktu the moment I placed my butt comfortably on the plastic chair. To my surprise, I find that most people do not have answers in their books as well. So I'm far better than anyone else. *giving meself a pat on the back* I really do enjoy the class and there are two more courses which will be conducted by Peter Tan, followed by Ps Heok Cheow. Both are very knowledgeable and I know I can benefit from them. I feel like sucking the information straight from their brains...