Thoughts and Thinking in Reality

食得是福

2012-01-10T01:54:00.000+08:00

Lo and behold, my first post for 2012! The past month had been eventful... and nope, I have not fully settled down, for I am moving, yet again, to the capital city of Malaysia to embark on yet another new journey of life this Friday. Lots of settling down to do, eh?

Nevertheless, it's one rare peaceful night, so I thought I'd sit down and start clearing the "blogging debts" piled under my Saved Drafts. Can you believe that these photos were supposed to be blogged when I'm still doing my industrial attachment almost a quarter of a year ago? My blogging debts are gonna be in the same league as my sleep debts soon. Tsk tsk.

And what could be better than having a food post to kickoff 2012 in my blog, as a sign of fullness and prosperity in this new year! As the title of this post has it - to eat is a kind of blessing/fortune. :D

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My friends and I were fans of Japanese cuisine, so we tend to have it once in a ~~blue moon~~ a while.

Dinner with my ex-housemate Justin; I especially liked that sauteed mushrooms dish.

Heavy lunch with YN.

I vaguely remember we were so full from the dishes above that this maki roll had to be brought home for dinner. LOL.

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Sometimes, when I ran out of ideas on what to eat, I pack my own lunch to office.

Healthy and nice. :D

Or, I cook noodles for dinner when I reach home after work.

Yeah, the noodles were not really visible because I tend to add lots of my favourite ingredients into the soup. Haha.

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Long ago, I read this post by foongpc and knew that I had to try it. Since I didn't know the way and dared not drive into the city centre of KL, I invited Justin (who'd jump at any chance to try out new/good food) to try out this place together.

We were there even before the shop opened (that explains the many unoccupied seats, which were taken up half an hour after this picture was shot). Yeah, we were their very first customers of the day!

Justin had the Hainanese chicken chop whilst I tried the famous roti babi and half-boiled eggs. We both had a good ol' cup of Hainanese kopi-O. *burps*

Sinfully nice with Worcestershire sauce.

And guess what? We returned the next day after 10.30am for their roast pork which would only be served then. Haha. And it was so packed that we had to queue to share a table with other patrons! As I didn't have the camera (yeah, my Yut Kee photos were taken using Justin's camera), I can't show any photos.

One memorable incident did happen though. Due to the very limited parking bays around the old school shop, many patrons parked illegally at the road side. Traffic police, being hardworking on a Sunday, suddenly came to issue summons to those cars. The son of the boss who was manning the cashier counter began shouting "Mata chao pai!!" (Cantonese: police issuing summons) on top of his lungs. And coherently, all the foreign (Myanmar, if not mistaken) workers chanted the same thing while still gracefully delivering plates of food to their rightful tables. In the blink of an eye, the shop became half empty! There were almost two drivers on each table who all went to shift their cars away. It was really a damn funny sight. Hahahaha~

And that makes up part of my culinary adventures during my short stint in KL last year. Hehe. I shall end this post entitled 食得是福 with yet another wish for the new year - 丰衣足食 (Chinese: sufficient clothes and food). =)

Thoughts and Thinking in Reality's Seventh Anniversary!

2011-12-24T01:10:00.003+08:00

Just a quick one here - don't have much time, sorry! =(

I know I've not been updating lately. I'm sorry bloggie, but hey, I still remember your birthday! It has been seven years, babe, seven whole years... OMG! I know that my post count this year has hit an all-time low (less than 100!) - blame that on the lack of time as a final year student. :P

Even my December wasn't spared - I finalized and submitted my thesis, went on an overseas trip and am currently busy with packing. My dad got relocated to another place and the whole family follows. So yeah. Lots more stories to come, next year. :D

2012 would mark many new beginnings for me - family shifting to a new place, officially becoming jobless, blah blah blah - a whole new life, well... almost! I have so much to talk about and yet so less time to spare. So I'll leave the ~~grandmother~~ stories when I am all settled down.

Anyway, allow me to take this opportunity to use a photo from the overseas trip to wish everyone...

And a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy "bloggiversary" again, my dearest Thoughts and Thinking in Reality. I'll be back soon, I hope. See ya (and you, if you're reading) next year! ;-)

p/s: Okay, at least I have a post for the month of December and to end the year. Haha.

Triple Eleven™

2011-11-11T23:11:00.005+08:00

It has been a month since my last update. October flew past with most of my time occupied by my FYP. And a little bit of cooking and housekeeping, maybe. :P

Anyway, it's 11-11-11 today and you only get such a beautiful date once in a century, so I thought I'd have to at least update my blog ~~even though I couldn't achieve my 1111st post on this special date~~, just for the sake of remembrance ~~and proving that I'm still alive and kicking~~.

I've been doing quite a lot of cooking at home recently, cooking what I feel like eating. Tried some new stuffs that I've never done, like sambal fried rice (the bottom two in the above pic) and curry chicken (bottom left, pic below).

I tend to alternate between rice and pasta (or even sometimes, noodles) because too much of the same thing over a period of time is boring.

Pasta is simple but there are many ways to do it, like tomyam, tomato-based or just some soup. I'm craving for aglio olio but sadly it's not time to buy olive oil yet. And there's Chatime in Ipoh! I'd like to reward myself with a cup or two on days that I've toiled too much on my FYP. Haha.

At 11:11:11am on 11/11/11, I was still in dreamland, attending a meeting with Mr Chou a.k.a. 周公, so I am posting this at 11:11:11pm on purpose. Haha. The rest of the month would still be a busy one; hopefully everything will come to an end by this time next month.

Back to Ipoh

2011-10-10T16:32:00.001+08:00

So, we have entered the final quarter of the year. Time flies, and I've just realized that I have spent one third of the year working. But my wonderful extended internship came to an end on 30 September and I have since moved back to Ipoh to complete my FYP and ~~wait to become jobless~~ await graduation.

Anyway, before I left PJ, I met up with two online gaming friends and had lunch at My Elephant, Section 17 PJ.

I suggested a few nearby places for makan and they chose the Thai restaurant. It was until we finished placing the orders from the very disappointingly limited lunch menu that I remembered they just came back from Bangkok. LOL! How clever of me to even suggest Thai food. :D

The (above picture, clockwise from top left) stir-fried vegetables, green curry chicken, some sourish glass noodles and seafood tom yam were so-so only, compared to my previous dinner experience, but the company was great. We had so much to talk even though it was my first time meeting them.

On October 1, I piled my car with all my belongings and drove back to Ipoh with YY tailing my car all the way. Her bf, his sister and a friend tagged along for a makan trip to Ipoh.

As we had a late heavy breakfast at Departure Lounge, Damansara Uptown, we only had tea at Sin Yoon Loong coffeeshop in Ipoh old town to save space for dinner.

Dinner was tanghoon crab. I didn't bring out my camera because I thought it was a bit of a hassle to take care of it while dirty my hands eating crabs. Moreover, I've posted about it, so if you wanna have a look at what we ate, you could always refer to here or here. :D

No prizes for guessing correctly that breakfast on Sunday was dim sum, so I was lazy to snap photos because I've posted about Ipoh dim sum long ago (here) and it's kinda boring to snap the same thing over and over again. :P

Things - my personal matter, in fact - got a bit haywire after that but I won't go into it. And by nightfall, I was already ~~hijacking YN's room~~ at Seri Kembangan, putting up a night at the twin's room to await my journey the next morning.

So on Monday morning, I boarded the Nice executive coach and arrived in Kuantan at 2pm.

Comfortable bus with excellent service - they even had a ~~air~~ ~~land~~ steward on board to serve you! The bread, served during lunch time, was warm and soft. The ticket was a bit expensive but it was worth paying for the comfort ride.

And why was I in Kuantan? My dad had to be there for work purposes and I thought I'd drop by to visit.

It was a pity that he was busy with work and couldn't find time to take me around.

But I really enjoyed waking up to the cool sea breeze and sounds of the waves lapping the shores every morning. So peaceful and serene.

I think it's quite cool to live in a one-room apartment with sea view. Awesomeness. It'd be perfect for single working adults, like me in the near future... apart from its price. =X

The skies weren't always so beautiful there. It's usually hazy or gray, so it was quite hard to differentiate the skies and the sea, but I was lucky to catch a few glimpses of the sky in its good mood and whipped my camera out to take a few shots.

One thing about Kuantan though - the food sucks. Okay, "sucks" is a bit heavy but it can't beat Ipoh in terms of variety, quality and most importantly, price. Food in Kuantan is so freaking expensive!! Almost of KL standard, I would say.

And on the day before I had to come back to Ipoh, my dad took me to Telok Chempedak early in the morning before he had to rush to work. The beach was surprisingly clean. Wish I had more time to spend there. I really really really love the beach!

Well, never mind, there will be a next time. But before that, I should settle my FYP. That'd clear lots of hurdles in front of me. Hehe.

2 weekends in 1 post

2011-09-25T23:55:00.001+08:00

Another month is coming to an end within a blink of the eye... and it's time for ~~wake me up when~~ another update before September ends. As the title suggests, I'm cramming the activities of this and last weekend into this post. Hehe.

Malaysia Day long weekend

One thing you really have to appreciate about Malaysia is its abundance of public holidays. Woohoo! So, on the eve of Malaysia Day, my housemate and I got ourselves tickets to catch the much anticipated local production at Tropicana City. It was chaotic when we arrived at 11.10pm to collect our 11.20pm tickets as there was a power failure which caused ticketing to come to a total halt. There were also patrons queuing up to get their refund as the movie they were watching was interrupted by the power failure. Imagine watching a movie and it suddenly blacked out - how potong steam is that?! I won't just settle for a refund lor... ~.~

Anyway, thankfully our plate of Nasi Lemak 2.0 wasn't interrupted. It was surprisingly a very entertaining movie with values and messages successfully conveyed. I was a bit skeptical at first, due to its director being the infamous controversial Namewee who was always into a bit of trouble with the Malaysian government. Heck, I was even surprised when the movie made it to the screens but yeah, it was helluva funny, infused with such a strong local flavour that had the cinema, fully seated with the three major races in Malaysia, erupting with laughter until the credits rolled.

Well done, Namewee! You totally deserve the credits. Bad press and profanities aside, you're actually a very talented guy. Drop the vulgarities and you're good to go!

On Friday, YN came by and we went to SS2 for lunch. I particularly wanted to try out the wan tan mee after reading this review. YN, who had already been there a few times, couldn't stop praising the roasted meat so I knew I had to try it at least once. And off we went to Chan Meng Kee.

It was way past 1pm when we arrived and hence the sold out siu yoke. However, we grabbed the fast-selling crispy roasted chicken, which was REALLY GOOD!

Unhappy that I couldn't try the siu yoke, I ordered one serving of char siew to share. It was well marinated and grilled, but the portions we got were kinda fatty and hence, it was a bit greasy. *shrugs* The early birds got all the worms. Oh well~

After lunch, there was nowhere to go. Not wanting to tire ourselves out with shopping, YN suggested that we go for a cuppa at Starbucks and I happily obliged.

Ordered a Java Chip Frappuccino for myself and a Caramel Frappuccino for her and the subsequent few hours were spent staring into the blank, mind wandering into nowhere or chatting and laughing about some everyday matters. It was one of the best chillax moments!

After we were done with the chilling, I waited for about an hour for YN to be done with her haircut before heading to Cold Storage to grab a can of Campbell chicken soup.

And guess what I found? The three cute bottles as shown above - Minute Maid drinks imported from Singapore! So cute and only 10 or 20 cents more expensive than the Minute Maid Pulpy series originating from Malaysia. I bought all the three flavours available but have yet to try them. Hehe.

Dinner was at Chef Low Organic Kitchen; I was attracted to give it a try after reading foongpc's writeup and upon showing their website to YN, she expressed her interest too.

That's what that was written on the first page of its menu. Hmm... cheem.

As Justin declined to join us, stating that vegetarian food is not for the carnivorous him, there were only two of us, which was a bit sad because we couldn't order many things to try out. We only managed (with great effort *lol*) to try (clockwise, starting from bottom left) the Pine Nuts Lotus Root (YN's fave), Crystal Jade Roll (appetizing sauce!), healthy brown rice, Chinese Mahogany Beancurd (so-so only, nothing memorable), a jug of fruit tea and mango pudding (too milky for my liking).

The jug of fruit tea had to be the killer of the night - I love it so so much! I believe they used passion fruit, orange, apple, lemon and mangoes for the awesomely addictive warm drink.

It was so good that I couldn't resist ordering it again when YY and her bf came to find me for dinner the next day. Yes, I was there two days in a row. LOL. Why not? It's healthy organic food! Haha.

Okay, actually the story was that YY was unable to join YN and I the day before (due to work commitments) but she wanted to try Chef Low too. I knew it's a place worth returning after my first try, hence I obliged.

Apart from the Pine Nuts Lotus Root (which was YY's fave as well), we opted to try the Curry Fish Head (pic above) and Yam Ring Basket (pic below). The surprisingly fragrant curry went well with the rice but the fish... it's vegetarian, what d'ya expect? Haha.

We chatted for a bit and made impromptu plans for movie on Sunday. Finding myself with suddenly thickened skin, I actually joined the couple for not one but two movies!

Johnny ~~Bean~~ English Reborn was the first watch of the day. Super funny and hilarious!! Although Rowan Atkinson wasn't playing Mr Bean in this movie, I must say that he really had that Mr Bean mould over himself that even Johnny English was like a Mr Bean who talks more. LOL. Good watch nevertheless, I laughed till I coughed.

Half time was spent at Snowflake Taiwanese Dessert Secrets, where we shared a cold Bestseller (pic above) and a Taroball Series with sweet potato + barley + pearls topping (pic below).

We didn't had much time for desserts as our next movie was waiting. The timing was just nice, actually.

Mayday 3DNA concert movie in 3D! My second 3D movie this year and third in my entire lifetime. LOL. I have always enjoyed Mayday's songs and I have never been to any concert (because I am not convinced to buy cheap tickets with faraway seats and I am not rich enough to buy front seats yet) so I could only say that the movie is really good if you cannot make it to the concert. What could possibly beat the real, live concert anyway?!

We wanted to go to Pu Yuan @ Old Klang Road for dinner but due to time constraint, we could only settle for Kim Gary.

My fave Borsch soup.

Iced yuin yong a.k.a. coffee + tea.
And me love this shot! ;-)

My Korean stone bowl rice with curry pork chop.

I forgot to snap photos of their Shin Ramen, just in case you noticed. Hehe.

And I sank into my Monday blues after they sent me home.

This weekend

My dad had to be in KL this weekend for a company dinner and he tagged my mum and youngest sister along. He had the privilege to put up a night in Sunway Resort & Spa and I drove myself there to meet up with them yesterday.

We had a late lunch in Kim Gary, Sunway Pyramid and did some shopping. When my dad had to prepare for his function, the rest of us went strolling around the swimming pool of the hotel.

I totally forgot to check my camera battery and when I took it out to do some shooting, the battery icon was flashing red already. -_-" Not wanting the risk it, I couldn't fiddle with the settings and hastily took only a few photos. =(

Spent a great time catching up with my mum. Face-to-face conversation beats telephone anytime! And when we were preparing to go out for dinner, the hotel staff sent a complimentary fruit platter as wells as two strawberry tartlets!

Anyway, dinner was at Fong Lye Taiwan Restaurant in Sunway Pyramid. As we weren't too hungry, we only ordered two items to share: the Sesame Chicken Mee Sua set and Fried Rice with Rice Wine. And oh, I love the Oolong Passion fruit Tea! Okay, I love almost anything with passion fruit. HAHAHA!!

Stopped by and bought two on-sale Baleno polo tees on the way back to the hotel. It's always like that eh? You end up buying many things you like when you didn't intend to go shopping at all and end up with nothing when you bersemangat wanna go shopping. Does that happen to you?

We parted ways again after lunch today. The twins arrived from Ipoh just in time for dinner. I wanted to introduce them to J Tean Kitchen in SStwo Mall, where I've been but have yet to blog about it. Haha.

Our beautiful traffic light-coloured drinks (from left): citron tea, soursop guava juice and sour plum juice. Refreshing indeed.

As we weren't too hungry, we only ordered two main courses to be shared: the Curry Pork Ribs Spaghetti (top left) and J-Porky Bun (bottom right), both of which were oh-so good. The top right photo was actually bak kut teh soup covered with puff pastry; it was a wrong order (I ordered pumpkin soup) so I had it sent back and as we were full already, I cancelled the pumpkin soup. The stewed chicken feet, tofu and egg (bottom left) lacked certain ingredients which I couldn't name and hence, it doesn't have that "kick".

The weekend flew past so quickly and now, Monday blues mode is ON again. Haha.

Faber-Castell 250th Anniversary

2011-09-17T02:04:00.000+08:00

When I was working the other day, I had the chance to tour around the Faber-Castell 250th anniversary exhibition after it was launched in Pavilion KL. With my camera in my bag, it's only natural to take it out to snap a few shots of the grand event. Hehe.

An overall picture.

That's the founder of the company, greeting you as you make your way down to the concourse.

That's the main stage.

Yes, it's a real harp player! Cool eh? I've never seen people playing the harp, live.

Now, let's have a look at some of the things being showcased there.

A colourful display greeting you as you enter the premises of the exhibition.

Walk further in and you'll find...

Worth a freaking €10,000!!

A rather unsuccessful attempt at zooming in on the three diamonds studded on the cap of the world's most expensive pencil.

From the 17th century!

Measured at 17.5mm ~~long~~ short.

On another side...

There's a timeline depicting the milestones of the company.

And also showcases with the more-commonly seen and used stationery.

There were also some more higher end or limited edition writing instruments for sale/display.

Since Faber-Castell is well associated with pens, pencils, erasers, colour pencils, etc for kids, there's also a kid's corner with colourful displays and a place for some kid activities.

It's an anniversary celebration after all - how could some exciting activities be missing?

There's a guess-the-number-of-something contest.

You can also get someone to draw a caricature of you, using Faber-Castell stationery, of course. Haha.

Last but not least, what's an exhibition for if there's nothing for sale at the end?

The exhibition will be there until Sunday before touring the rest of the country, so be sure to catch it if you can!

p/s: This is not a sponsored post, by the way. It's a good change of topic from the usual food and outings. Hehe.

Mid-Autumn update

2011-09-12T10:43:00.000+08:00

It's the Mid-Autumn Festival today. Although my immediate family members are now scattered all around Peninsular Malaysia with myself being in PJ, I still want to wish everyone a Happy Mooncake Festival, 中秋节快了!

~~A photo to make this post relevant to its topic. :P~~ A gift from YY.

Yes! I'm back in the Klang Valley. I drove back alone last Tuesday. It was quite a hectic day as I travelled to Kampar from Ipoh in the morning for my presentation and back to Ipoh again to run some errands. In the afternoon, I made my way to Kampar once again to meet my FYP supervisor and left Kampar for PJ at 6pm.

It rained quite heavily at Slim River and the road looked quite slippery, hence I kept my speed to 60-80 km/h compared to 90-105 km/h on the normal condition highway. It was about 8pm when I had just passed Batang Kali. I was tired, hungry and getting restless. I actually called my dad to ask, "Why drive so long like forever won't reach one??", to which he answered, upon knowing my location, "Wah, how slow you drive?!". Dad, I thought you told me not to speed? Haha.

Anyway, I arrived at my PJ residence safe, sound and in one piece (thankfully) at around 8.30pm and felt so damn tired. Driving long-distance alone is seriously no joke, and especially for a first-timer like me. Wonder how my dad did it all these years. *salute*

And since I was in Klang Valley and had to get a new pair of flats as my current pair looked as though they'd spoil anytime and the following weeks would be busy, I got YY to go to MidValley with me on Saturday. We patronized the shop where we bought two pairs of shoes for RM99 (so we only had to pay RM49.50 each instead of RM69) last time and bought two pairs (one for each of us) for RM99 again this time. Haha.

I also got my baby a lens filter before going to Goku Raku Ramen for an early dinner.

Mine. The soup was rich, thick and delicious; the ingredients complimented the al-dente ramen well. The only drawback was that I personally thought that the char siew from Marutama Ramen in Fahrenheit 88 fared better. Other than that, everything was oh-so good.

Hers.

And a platter of bamboo shoots, char siew and nitamago (we're both egg lovers and YY's ramen didn't have the egg :D) to share.

Her green tea and my honey lemon.

We paid the bill and headed to Carrefour to pick up some daily necessities before going to Snowflake to dabao dessert.

Taroballs series with sweet potato + barley + pearls topping; the ice had already melted when I got home but it still tasted good nevertheless. :D

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Before I came back to PJ, there were still a few days when I cooked my meals. Actually, this was supposed to be a continuation from here. Haha.

For Thursday, it was rice-with-dishes business as usual, since I had quite a few otak-otak left and I had to finish it before I leave.

Stir-fried cabbage a bit overdone. Haha.

Mushrooms stir-fried with eggs. I had actually seen it here and liked it so much and thought I'd try cooking it since it looked relatively easy. It was, and tasted wonderful too (I used fresh shiitake mushrooms though)! Me likey. :D

Soup with fishballs and enoki. *slurps*

As for Friday...

Braised potatoes with minced meat. Sorry about the colour though, I added too much dark soy sauce by accident. Haha.

Stir-fried xiu bak choy.

No more soup. Haha.

Since I've always liked aglio olio pasta, I thought of trying to cook some on Saturday, especially since I had fresh shimeiji mushrooms. I didn't have olive oil at home so I dared not use a lot of cooking oil. I added some green capsicums but I guessed it kinda spoilt the taste a little due to its strong smell. I wouldn't say that it was a failure because it tasted okay, but I would need to spice it up a little in my next attempt. :D

I did not cook for the rest of the days as I was busy finishing off whatever leftovers I had in the fridge. Muahaha~

Merdeka update

2011-08-31T23:01:00.000+08:00

I. Must. Update. Once. Before. August. Ends.

It's the last day of August already!! LOL.

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The end of August meant the end of my internship. Personal matters went slightly out of control during my last week at work and I was rather emotional then. But thanks to the people who love me so much - parents, especially - I managed to overcome my ~~midlife~~ minor crisis and the outcome of my decisions were: i) extend the deadline of my FYP to end of the year and graduate then; ii) continue working in the company where I did my internship for one more month; and iii) we'll see how it takes off from there.

Well, that's the plan, for now.

It was a very hard decision to make. But having set my mind and goal, the only way is to take the plunge and hope for the best.

“出发啦　不要问那路在哪　迎风向前　是唯一的方法”

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Due to my family's increasing needs of using my the camera and not wanting to be a bad girl who keeps hogging the compact camera, I've finally added another baby to the family. And now, I can safely say that it is my camera. ♥

Took me about 2 weeks to finally come up with the decision and the new baby was brought home on the historical date of 20 August 2011. It could have been earlier, if I wasn't down with food poisoning. LOL.

The very first shot.

Panasonic should serious thank my dad for turning me into a loyal Lumix user. It was thanks to his purchase of the compact DMC-FS15 that had me so impressed with the features it offered.

Just a random test shot.

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I'm currently back in Ipoh for the Raya break; will be back to work after my presentation in Kampar next week. My boss was so kind to excuse me for three days so that I don't have to travel back and forth (but I have to replace the off days - gladly - of course).

On Monday, I went for 5 hours straight of karaoke with Yeang - one of my Ipoh karaoke buddies apart from the twins whom I've never karaoke-d with for a long, long time. Before that, we went for lunch at the quite-newly opened Wok Sifu in Jusco.

Her cheese-baked rice.

My Korean-stone pot rice. Mah mah dei only.

I wonder when we'd have the chance to ~~shout~~ sing to our lungs content again...

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Since all the nice makan places in Ipoh will be packed and jammed like hell (thanks to the surge of homecoming Ipohans), I thought I'd be better off cooking my own meals at home.

Braised yee mee with egg for dinner on Monday.

I cooked rice with dishes for Tuesday. Lazy people like me normally cook for both meals ~~to save gas, water, electricity and energy~~ to make my life easier. Haha.

Stir-fried choy sum.

Fried egg with onions and a bit of leftover minced meat.

Pile it up on some rice together with some leftover meat cooked by mum.

I cooked more rice yesterday so that I can make fried rice today! Woohoo!

Garlic fried rice. I should put more garlic. LOL!
And I personally love this shot very much. ;-)

Mushroom soup to go with the fried rice.
I boiled turnips with chicken bones overnight to make the soup.
The mushrooms were added this morning, resulting in a soup so sweet (清甜)!

And to spice up my dinner, my aunt had actually sent some otak-otak over. Muahahaha my fave!

*burps*

And that's all for today. Wonder when's the next update. O.o *lol*

p/s: Although the post is titled "Merdeka update", the absence of anything related to the independence day of Malaysia is purely intentional. =)

p/p/s: Needless to say, all the photos in this post were taken using my Panasonic Lumix DMC-GF3. Hehe.

More friends = more food

2011-08-14T15:20:00.001+08:00

Have friend = have food is a nice equation. However, after last week, the equation has been successfully expanded to the title of my post today. Hahaha!!

The week before last, 11 and Dark met my bro at my grandmother's place from Singapore before coming to KL together and put up a few nights at Miao's. The two Singapore-dollar earners were here for a short jalan-jalan cari makan holiday and tagged my bro along. So you don't have to be a genius to guess correctly that I managed to ~~get a good dose of free food~~ be part of their gastronomic adventure too. Haha.

On the first night of their arrival, which was a Wednesday, Miao wanted to bring them to Pu Yuan at Old Klang Road. Remembering our last experience, I called to check if they were opened and thankfully I did, because they weren't.

So we brought forward our Thursday night plan to Wednesday. They put me in-charged to get a table at TAO, Sunway Giza. I called on Wednesday morning to find that it was full house already but my name was put on the waiting list, in case anyone cancel their reservations; the receptionist told me that they will call me back before 1.00pm to let me know of the confirmed situation.

I called Miao, asking for a back up plan because I thought that there wouldn't be a table for the 8 of us. He was told the same thing when he called TAO but by 1.00pm, they had already informed him that there would be no tables left and so he made a reservation for Thursday. Come 2pm... 3pm... I was a little infuriated because they didn't call me back although I called earlier than Miao. Thinking that I could perhaps demand something from them for the poor service, I called and asked about my reservation politely. The receptionist apologized for not calling me back and said she would get back to me in 15 minutes. Sure enough, 10 minutes later, she called back saying, "Yes miss, I've got a table for 8 for you, confirmed." HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! ~~Miao, you face problem lah~ :P~~ 注定了这餐我们吃硬了。

So I drove myself there after work. Even though I got permission to leave earlier at 5.30pm, the infamous Klang Valley traffic had me arriving at 7pm after I detoured to my house to drop my laptop. Nevertheless, I still arrived earlier than the guys who came from Sunway. Haha.

We were brought to our tables and the ordering began. Although it was an all-you-can-eat buffet, TAO kinda differs from Jogoya and Tenji because the food wasn't served in a wide buffet spread but instead, you order from a menu (as many times as you want!) and food will be served to your table.

One of them took sushi which I didn't touch. What a waste of stomach space!

Food, glorious food!

Seafood, seafood and more seafood! Free flow grilled salmon FTW!!

Grilled lamb chop.

The above were just the tip of the iceberg we ate; I couldn't keep up with the rate of plates coming and leaving the table as I was pretty busy eating also. Haha.

I wouldn't say that everything was very good but overall, it was a pretty delightful experience with most of the dishes turning out to be quite well done (there are bound to be a few black sheep eh? :P). The range of drinks and desserts were a bit of a letdown though - not much choices and nothing memorable. But for the price of RM62++ compared to those of Jogoya's or Tenji's, what do you expect? Haha.

We ate until the time for last orders and left with such a bloated stomach. And the damage? Nil to me but RM503.45 to Ah Dark, whom 11 and Miao happily chopped. But hey, we already had mercy on him - due to an ongoing promotion, we only had to pay for 7 although there were 8 of us. And I suggested TAO even though Miao wanted Tenji initially. Okay, the main reason I chose TAO wasn't because of the price but of the fact that I've already tried Tenji. Hahahaha.

On Thursday night, dinner was at Pu Yuan, Old Klang Road. I drove myself there again. Food arrived right after me but I was busy copying my supply of dramas from their external harddisks and half the portion disappeared as soon as the dish appeared on the table hence I did not manage to take any photos. 11 paid the bill and we left for Jaya One as I wanted to grab something from Cold Storage. After that, we settled down at Old Town White Coffee for a drink, chatting while waiting for Miao to rejoin us after he sent his wife and baby home. Again, as we were too engrossed in our conversation, I totally forgot about taking photos of our drinks (paid by Miao) until I arrived home at midnight. Haha.

That two nights were really fun although I reached home late. Enjoyed the gathering a lot; thanks 11 and Dark for expected-but-unexpected trip. Expected because I keep brainwashing 11 to come to KL whilst I'm still here for internship but unexpected because I never thought they'd really come. Haha.

Have friend = have food

2011-07-31T02:33:00.005+08:00

Having a friend staying over normally means better food since two is always better than one when it comes to food-hunting - you get to try more things. And I'm always lazy to go out on my own to try out new food. In fact, I seldom dine out when I'm alone because it felt kinda sad (just a personal stance - no offense to people who always eat out by themselves) so I normally da bao (takeaway).

Anyway, two weeks ago, YN had to attend training nearby my place so ~~I rented half my room to her~~ she put up with me for one whole week.

1) I don't always eat expensive stuff; I just don't post the usual stuff I eat everyday - that wouldn't make the "better" stuffs I eat stand out, right? Haha. So in case there are still people who think that I spend a bomb on food every month, here's a picture of my cheap, once-a-week diet. It doesn't contain so many sides every time though. :P

2) Met up with Sue for dinner about three weeks ago to catch up on a full dose of the latest gossip. Haha.

I had a set dinner of mushroom sauce spaghetti with onsen tamago, mushroom soup and salad whilst she had pasta spirals in ABC soup.

3) The haze was pretty bad the week before - the below photo was taken when I was out with my colleagues for a venue recce.

*coughs* Can you see the Twin Towers?

4) YN came two Saturdays ago and we kicked off our food-hunting journey at Tasty Pot in Sunway Mentari with Justin.

The above picture is just the tip of the iceberg. Haha. The chicken wings were good and I liked the mint ice-cream so so much. And I finally got my grilled lamb chop (bottom left) after a long, long wait. Hehe.

We started the buffet steamboat at 6pm and left the place at 10pm to go home to rest for a while and take a bath before going off to GSC Tropicana Mall for our 11.55pm movie.

I realized I've grown out of Harry Potter; I used to be such a fan last time - able to remember the plot from the book from back to front and hence I didn't like the first few movies (because I thought they digressed so much from the book). But now, I watched the movie for the entertainment factor and to see how the effects from the movie differ with my imagination. But like the last movie, I couldn't really remember the contents of the book... so everything seemed pretty okay to me; I kinda enjoyed the movie and although I was pretty tired from the day that started early for me, I didn't fall asleep. :P

5) Read about this and had wanted to try it for a long, long time. Went once with Miao and was able to find that secluded place quite easily (with parking and all) to find it closed - what a bummer. And it was a few weeks later that I finally got to try it with YN and Justin.

Surprisingly, the fried sweet potato flour (top left) wasn't as "Q" as I expect them to be. Is the texture supposed to be a bit firm or were they experiencing a bad day then? I don't know how it's supposed to taste like until I get a comparison from other places, I guess. But, it was still nicely fried - a dish well done. I've had better spring rolls (top right) elsewhere but the signature fried seafood tofu (bottom left) was excellent.

6) In the middle of the week, YN and I wanted something better and Japanese came into our minds. So off we went.

I love the Yasai Miso soup (top left) with lots of veggies and mushroom so so much - so sweet (清甜)!! I also love the chicken katsu curry rice (bottom left). YN had the spicy fried rice with crab and we thought we'd share the soft shell crab maki (top right).

There was an Asian Fair at the ground floor of Tropicana City Mall and we dropped by to browse through the stuffs there. We saw a couple at the cashier checking out 3 baskets full of stuffs that totalled up to RM700. O_O

7) And on Friday, both of us decided to try out the place that serves Thai food near my area. We arrived at around 7.40pm and the place was full!!

We ordered tom yam soup with seafood, Thai fish cake and green curry chicken to go with the bottomless brown rice. The tom yam, with a tinge of sweetness, wasn't too spicy while the fish cake tasted pretty good with or without the chilli sauce. The best dish of the night had to be the rich and creamy green curry which I heaved spoonful after spoonful of the sinful gravy to go with my rice. Needless to say, I ate more rice than I should that night. Haha.

8) Since YN didn't come back on Friday night, I went to the market on Saturday to buy some stuffs and also breakfast (top left: char koay kak + popiah + wanton).

And on Sunday, she wanted to sleep in so I cooked tom yum-flavoured instant noodles (top right) for lunch and added some ingredients like lettuce, tomatoes, sausages and egg. At night, we went to Snowflake Kota Damansara for dinner - I had the cold Bestseller (bottom left) while she had the Sea Amber Jelly (bottom right; if I hadn't remember the name wrongly :P).

With that, she ~~checked out of my hotel~~ moved back to her own place as her training ended and she had to get back to work.

As for me, my food-hunting had to come to a halt as even my housemate wasn't around. But then, the culinary experience hit an all time high the following week! Will blog about it when I have the photos all arranged nicely. Heh.

I am fortunate. But they...?

2011-07-19T20:50:00.001+08:00

I actually had something else to post about my last weekend but first, allow me to write something serious for once, since it's been such a long time since I last did a serious post.

Due to work commitments, I happened to be at a home for abused/abandoned children on Saturday. Let's skip some details due to non-disclosure policies, but we were there to bring something for the kids and spend some time with them.

Upon the arrival of my colleague and I, these kids ran out and greeted us with their cutest and widest smiles and tried so enthusiastically to pull the things we were holding to help bring them in. The young ones (3-5 years old) clung onto our legs and my colleague couldn't help but to exclaim, "Oh my god, so cute!!!". We talked to them for a bit and proceeded to set up the place before the rest of the volunteers arrived.

Some of the older primary school kids, without being ordered, ran up to help us. Some others came out to help upon instructions from their "mummy". I merely asked for a rag to wipe the chairs, one of them immediately produced one and started wiping. He even refused to hand me the rag! Most of them were so well-behaved that we were really touched. Touched that at such young age, they, the unfortunate children who have nothing much, know how to think, behave properly and be helpful. Compared to spoilt brats who have everything, these kids were far more lovable.

The fact that these super cute and well-behaved children are in fact, abused or abandoned by their parents is very, very heartbreaking. The youngest of the bunch is just 10 days old; how could his parents throw him away? If you don't want the baby, don't make him. If you made him accidentally, be responsible! If you brought him to the world, love and care for him, not freaking abuse him! I just don't understand how parents can abuse their children, especially when they are so cute, innocent and obedient. Are those people mad??

It angered me, my colleague and the rest of the volunteers there (some of whom are already parents) that the heartless parents could actually abuse the children whom we came across there. Although I advocate neither, I think that abusing is far worse than abandoning the kids. For whatever reasons, if you throw them at the doorsteps of a home or orphanage or something, you suck although there is still a tiny tinge of humanity in you, considering the fact that you still left them to someone to be taken care of. If you throw them at some rubbish dump or unseemly places, you really suck. And if you abuse then dump them (at a home or other unseemly place), you deserve a place in hell. Sorry to be so harsh, but I just couldn't accept such doings from parents.

I suppose spoilt brats (rich or otherwise) should spend a stint in such homes to knock some sense into them. I guess that's why some of their volunteers brought their children along. The rich kids should know "you're so lucky that you have everything you want" and the not-so-rich ones, "although you might not have all the things your rich counterpart has, you should still count your blessings because you have a lot more than the children in these homes". Why do those fortunate spoilt brats act as though the world is indebted to them but the less fortunate ones can be so sensible and positive? Although it's not right, shouldn't they - abused and abandoned by their so-called loved ones - have more rights to demand something from the world?

I could go on and on giving my two cents about how fucked up those heartless parents are or how screwed spoilt kids these days are, but there's no point because I believe what I've written above is enough to express what I wanted to say. When it was time to leave, a 4-year old girl who became a bit attached to me after my morning there ran out and held my hand. I looked her in the eyes and they seemed to say "please don't go". I nearly cried. In a cheerful voice, I bade her goodbye but when I walked to my car, my heart felt a tinge of sourness. I really hope that these kids grow up happy and healthy, and if they learn about their past, I hope that they will not give up on themselves.

The visit to the home opened up a new perspective to me about how these kids need our help for a better future. I used to have a fear to go near to these less fortunate people (NOT because I discriminate them but because I am scared that whatever I do might hurt their feelings) and although I still have that fear now, I will take a more eager approach to interact with them, especially knowing that they are so ecstatic at the extra attention. I think that there's a lot that we can do for them, directly or indirectly.

A food-ful week!

2011-07-10T18:05:00.001+08:00

~~The first thing to do after getting the camera on hand would probably be food hunting and snap lots of food pictures.~~ I've got the camera with me, and it just so happened that the past week turned out to be another mini (food wise) try-new-stuffs week. So, I finally have nice pictures to show as you won't get a prize for guessing correctly that the camera follows me to work everyday. :P

1) One of my bosses was in Japan and brought back some souvenirs and we got a green tea Kit Kat each. Cool!

2) I've always liked anything 姜葱 (ginger & onion) - chicken, fish, etc and there's a shop near my place selling pretty good 姜葱鱼片河 (kuey teow with fish fillet in ginger & onion sauce).

3) My colleagues brought me to Sunway Giza for lunch the other day. Didn't quite know what to have for lunch (as Sunway Giza wasn't our main destination) and ended up at a place called My Cookbook.

Pretty decent interior.

Cute decor. Haha

They had chilled lemongrass juice. The ice bars were actually made of the juice itself so that it won't dilute the drink when it melts. How thoughtful.

My sour plum juice.

Appetizers - black eyed pea cake which tasted quite okay to me but my colleagues didn't like it.

My colleague's chicken broth which came with her set of chicken rice.

Food is served - (clockwise from top left) King Prawn n Noodles in Butter and Milk Cream Sauce, chicken rice (rice rolled up in a cylinder, cute eh!?), or-chien (oyster omelette) and my curry laksa (the moon-faced wanton with fresh prawns were good!).

One thing I noticed about this restaurant was its presentation of food, which was pretty stylish. The food was generally good albeit a little pricey and I must thank my colleague for the treat.

4) As mentioned, our main intention of going all the way to Sunway Giza was not for lunch but more for the following thing which I had wanted to try for such a long time but haven't had the chance to, and my colleagues, appalled at the fact that I have yet to taste it, immediately agreed to let me have a try at it.

And what could it be?

Beeping UFO. ~~Beep~~ Ring any bells?

Yeah, Snowflake's Bestseller dessert with extra TaroBalls! Again, treat from colleague - thank you very much! And I enjoyed every bit of it... love it so so much, especially the TaroBalls! :D

5) Went out for dinner at Lorong Seratus Tahun at SS2 with Justin yesterday. I always have this problem with wanting to order so much food but can't finish them in the end. Took me a lot of energy to refrain myself from ordering almost everything from the menu. HAHA.

(clockwise from top left) Sago in gula melaka, fried tang hoon, deep-fried special tofu, otak-otak, chee cheong fun and chendol.

The Penang food affair was surprisingly good for a shop which boasts of its Penang cuisine, the otak-otak especially. You know lah, food from stalls outside Penang bearing the same name normally don't taste as good as it is supposed to be and this Lorong Seratus Tahun had me looking at them differently, although the chendol still lacks the kick it should have.

6) As though we weren't full enough from the Penang food feast, we went all the way to Kota Damansara for dessert. The street was crowded but we were so damn lucky to get a parking space and hence we dined in.

HAHAHA YES! Snowflake again. Justin, YN and I were supposed to get this the last time we had dinner at Marutama Ramen but the kiosk at Pavillion was sold out. And after the treat from my colleague, I know I should get Justin to try it. Too bad YN wasn't here. But it's okay, because it means that there will be a next time! *evil laughter*

Since I've tried the cold one, I thought I'd try the hot version of their Bestseller and boy, didn't I regret it!! The hot version had peanuts (which the cold version lacks) and somehow the peanut-y taste didn't blend well into the grass jelly and made my stomach a lil uncomfortable. Nope, nothing's wrong with the dessert; it's me who couldn't get used to the taste. I'll just stick to the cold one from now on. Haha.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The internship is still progressing on well and the things to learn are still rolling in - more new exposure and experience! I got roped into handling a new project for a new client as boss wanted to let me have a hand at managing a project right from scratch. Things will indeed get busier in the coming weeks as there are many events and projects waiting to be launched and wrapped up before the fasting month starts.

I suddenly wish that the internship wouldn't end so soon coz I'm lovin' every bit of it.

A quick update

2011-07-02T23:41:00.002+08:00

Working still has me as tired as ever although everything's fine. Weekdays simply fly past when working and weekends, they fly even faster. I've learnt to appreciate my weekend way more than I did. Not that I didn't last time, but the no-fixed-timing and ~~frequent~~ occasional skip-class-to-go-home-sleep schooling days gave me more flexibility in my time management, sleep wise, especially. But now, not anymore. And that's why I now feel that weekends are too short!!

Anyway, I planned to write a post last weekend but the inability to transfer a few photos from my phone to my laptop via Bluetooth delayed my intention till today, where I'm blogging from the comfort of my Ipoh home. Yup, it's the time of the month to balik kampung. Hehe.

1) Molly was in Genting during the 18 June weekend for a wedding dinner with her bf, hence YY, YN and I went up to meet her for a gathering-cum-chill out session. And where could be a better spot to literally and figuratively chill than the resort up at the mountains? :D

(photo taken by Molly using her iPhone 4)

2) Went for a recce all the way to Sepang with two of my colleagues. It was more like a sightseeing trip. And it was at times of such that you'd wish you really really have a decent camera phone when the camera is tucked comfortably in a corner in your hometown. =(

At the jetty near the river mouth. It actually looked a whole lot nicer in reality with mangrove trees growing in thick bushes at the riverbanks... but what to do, the max resolution of my phone's camera is only a pathetic 2MP. Sigh. The highlight of this "half day (working) trip" was probably the speedboat ride we took all the way to the sea and back during sunset. Ahhh... bliss. I was so damn tired when I arrived home at 10.15pm but it was so worth it. :D

3) Went shopping with YN at Midvalley last Saturday as I needed to get a good pair of heels which is comfortable and more importantly, safe and stable enough so that the prone-to-twisted-ankles me can minimize the risk. Haha.

(photo taken with my phone's camera)

My loot. Had to thank the Hush Puppies outlet for running out of stock, else I wouldn't have gotten this pair with a JCard member 15% discount. Muahaha.

4) After shopping, YN returned to my home with me and Justin drove us to Fahrenheit 88 for dinner. As YN and I were still quite full from our heavy late lunch at Kim Gary, we just shared a bowl of ramen with seaweed, char siew and egg (picture below; top right; RM28) while Justin had the spicy ramen with six types of nuts (picture below; top left; RM26). The soup (rich chicken stock) was awesome and so was the egg (no decent camera = no close up *pouts*)!

(top 2 pictures taken using YN's phone; bottom 2 pictures with mine)

5) Last Sunday, Justin and I went to have a simple lunch at Fish & Noodle House in Damansara Kim (SS20). I love fish (head) noodles and it was pretty good (picture above; bottom left; RM7.50), not to mention the pan-fried salmon (picture above; bottom right; RM15.90).

6) Thanks to my company (unable to reveal full story :P), I actually spent RM0 to watch Transformers: Dark of the Moon in 3D on the first day of screening without having to go through the pain of getting tickets (KL people are very scary, you know? Haha.) nor the hassle of kiasu-ly buying tickets waaaaay before the movie premiered. And the best part? I got one of the best seats - twin seat a.k.a. the first row from behind! Woohoo! Thanks colleagues! ♥

And the irony? It was only during lunch time that day when I was talking about only attempting to get tickets for this movie at least a fortnight later when the hype dies down a little and I would only go for the 2D version because 3D for action movies as such is a big no-no for me, since the 3D specs make me kinda dizzy from past experience. Haha.

And surprisingly, for someone who is usually so damn tired after work plus more than 2 hours donning that 3D specs, I felt perfectly fine right from the start till the end, apart from finding it a bit difficult to balance myself for a while when walking out of the theatre after the movie. Haha. It's kinda hard to believe that I actually watched such a grand and anticipated production on its first day of screening - even YY, YN and my bro found it hard to believe (they know me so well *lol*) - even more so in 3D. Haha.

I understand that the tickets for this weekend have long been sold out in cinemas around Klang Valley, so I don't want this to be a spoiler ~~(well, it was actually because I'm not good at writing reviews :P)~~. But you should really, really go watch it - 3D if possible. It's just awesome, much better than its prequel (Revenge of the Fallen). Seriously.

7) Before we left for Ipoh this morning, the three of us went to Departure Lounge at Damansara Jaya for breakfast. All of us ordered the Do It My Way breakfast set, which was scrumptious and fulfilling. I had mine (bottom left; RM11.90) with the espresso (RM5) while YN had her 3-items (top right; RM8.90) with hot milk. The one with the sunny side-up was YY's (top left; RM11.90).

(photo taken with YY's phone)

One more makan place ticked off the list! :D

I NEED MY THE (well, since it's technically not mine although I'm the one who used it the most, haha) CAMERA BACK!! Eating sessions had been a pain ~~in the ass~~ without decent cameras (though the one I'm using is not a dSLR but it sure gave better photos than phones). T_T

The Lumix will follow me back to PJ tomorrow! So if there are anymore eat-out sessions before my next post which date of publication remains unknown, you would be able to see better quality photos. Hehe.

My intern life thus far

2011-06-11T14:19:00.001+08:00

Time flies when you're working, eh? Especially for newbies like me who found it hard to juggle between work and personal time. It's like... spending almost the whole day at office and come home to eat, bath, do a bit of stuffs for awhile and it's time for bed. Weekends... they fly away too fast - gone in a blink of the eye. Hmm, I still need time to get used to it.

For the uninitiated, yours truly here is currently exploring a brand new chapter of life; I am an intern in a PR firm in PJ and will be here for three months. It's the end of my second week here and I'm still enjoying every bit of it. It's a fresh and whole new experience that would certainly be of high value to me, especially when I enter the job market in the near future.

Everything's good so far. The company isn't a big one and hence the unquestionable bond between all staff. They are a bunch of nice people who are crazy when they joke but damn professional when it comes to work. The best part? Their willingness to teach had me learning lots of things every single day; my direct supervisor especially - the way he imparts his knowledge is not tell-and-do but asking back questions that make you think and once you get it, you'll know what went wrong or what's the right/better thing to do.

The organization culture is a pleasant one. Even as an intern, I do not feel insignificant. My bosses and colleagues have allowed me to do real, hands-on things (instead of stuffs normally done by the cleaner, office lady or admin people) related to my field of study. My supervisor has told all my colleagues to involve me is as many meetings/events/functions/whatsoever as they could to maximize my exposure throughout my attachment. How nice is that!

On my first day itself, I was brought to an ad agency for a brainstorming meeting with the top guns for a pitch we're collaborating. I had a precious lesson of writing real press releases (not those designed for exam purposes one) on my second day. And I ended my first week of internship by driving all the way to an unknown place, depending solely on my GPS device for directions, for a pitch presentation, experiencing my first traffic jam in the Klang Valley on the way back.

As for this week, the highlight was the event I attended as a "PR person" yesterday. Had the chance to be in touch with people from the media industry. But since I was new, my role was more subtle, like a helper to my colleagues who were there. While being busy doing the necessary, they still did not forget to explain to me what they are doing or must do and the rationale behind everything besides introducing me to the people they know.

I began working on not one but several projects since my first day (how wow is that? :P). All that, excluding some mandatory daily jobs like media monitoring and others. And oh, being the only Chinese-literate person in the office, I had to read almost all the Chinese dailies in West Malaysia. I never read and have never liked reading Chinese papers my whole life but this is what I do everyday now. LOL.

My bosses, supervisor and colleagues are a fun bunch to play with. My supervisor kept asking me to go home after 6pm (our office hours are 9am to 6pm). He told me to enjoy life and not spoil the market by asking for work to do at 6.20pm. He said that I won't be going home so late (I normally leave at 7-7.30pm to avoid the traffic jam) if I had a boyfriend and told me to get one. LOL. And oh, he said that I'm stuck in Kampar for too long; on my first day there, he told me to take a photo of myself and another one three months later to see my "transformation" *lol*.

Working life made me a healthy person with regular sleeping hours and meal times. I was so so tired after work on the first two days that I couldn't even eat much for dinner. But now I'm starting to get used to the pace that I have at least an hour or two to myself before I hit the sack every night.

And that's about all for my life thus far. It has been an eye-opener and a meaningful stint and I'm positive that it will stay that way for the remaining 11 weeks. =)

p/s: The camera is with dad so I suppose the record of my journey as an intern will be less pictorial... =/

It's the end!

2011-05-27T05:19:00.001+08:00

The anticipated moment finally came yesterday - the release of possibly my last final exam results. One glance at it and I was broken into two: should I cry at the poor grades which pulled my already-very-low CGPA further down, or rejoice at the fact that I DO NOT HAVE TO RETURN TO KAMPAR ANYMORE?

Yes! I didn't flunk any subjects with the worrisome UAMG 3004 turning out to be a passing D and the remaining two, B's. Well, my dream didn't really come true right, as I dreamt of a pass but in reality, it's only a passing grade. But heck cares, the word "passing" contains the word "pass" and although it contributed so so much to the plunge in my CGPA, it drew a beautiful full stop to my on-campus life (of assignments, midterms, lectures and tutorials).

YEP. Ladies and gentlemen, I am officially done with all academic units of my undergraduate life. No repeat papers, no extended semester, no delayed graduation! A whole new path awaits. Now, I only have to put on a good show for my industrial training which starts next week and lasts for three months in PJ, complete my FYP in time and wait to ~~become jobless~~ graduate earlier than my current coursemates. And that'd be really the end of it. Woohoo!

I think I'm more on the happier side than the sad, although the low CGPA kinda saddens me whenever I think of it. I'd probably write a more emotional post when I finally received my conferment of degree hopefully by mid-October this year. Haha.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

On another matter, we celebrated my paternal grandmother's birthday in the middle of the month. Like last year, we invited the granduncles and grandaunties besides the customary presence of immediate relatives (uncles, aunties and cousins). I had actually snapped photos of each and every dish for blogging purposes but when I was transferring the photos to my hard drive, the memory card crashed and became corrupted. As my dad needed the camera for his overseas trip in a few hours' time, I gave up recovering the photos after a few attempts with different downloaded free-to-recover-but-pay-to-save-your-photos software.

You didn't miss much though, because as nice as the photos look, the tastes were rather disappointing except the super expensive fish which turned out to be the only super nice dish that night. Fortunately, I had transferred the group photos to my bro right after the dinner or else I'd really really be left with nothing at all. =X

As for the blog, I'm left with only the above photo of the two birthday cakes (left: blueberry yoghurt cheese; right: durian mousse) and durian cream puffs brought all the way down from KL by my 二姑. The durian cream puffs and cake were AWESOME!

My greatest success for this birthday dinner had to be the candles my bro and I bought for the cakes. With only both of us and later, another camera-holding cousin fully aware of the entire plot, we couldn't help but to laugh out so so loud when my uncle and aunts were trying so frantically the put out the candles which reignited automatically (for a few times! *lol*) after my grandmother blew them. They kept blowing and the candles kept relighting and I had a hard time balancing myself on the chair, on which I stood for photos-taking, laughing my ass off. The guests (those elderly relatives) were absolutely delighted and were chattering excitedly among themselves in Hokkien that "the candle can't be extinguished one!!!".

HAHAHAHAHAHA EPIC! ^^v

And I accidentally stumbled on something which we could probably attempt next year:

COOL, eh? Wonder what kind of reactions it'd generate. :D

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I'm leaving Ipoh for my residence in PJ tomorrow. Kinda heavy-hearted. But whatever must come, will come. It's time to gear up for another phase of life. Wish me luck - I'd need tons of them, especially when I'm about to experience another bout of "first times" of my life. =)

Maybe it's still not the end.

2011-05-18T23:58:00.001+08:00

Wow! It has been almost a month since I last updated. *sweeps dust off blog*

I attribute the lack of updates to final exams before it ended on May 7 and to the end of final exams thereafter. I was busy studying for the exams and when it came to an end, my busyness transited to activities such as watching drama, gaming, lazing around and of course, unpacking my stuff (brought back from Kampar - I officially bade that place goodbye by returning my room and shifted back to Ipoh on the historical date of May 7) and packing the stuff that I'll be bringing to my new place when I start my internship at the end of this month.

Internship? Let's leave it for another day. I want to draw a semi-colon to my university life in Kampar. ^^ Why semi-colon and not a full-stop? Read on and you'll know. :D

I sat for three papers this semester. I hoped that it will be the last three papers of my undergraduate life. The UAMG 3064 paper went pretty well with me remembering most of the things I memorized (I forewent the case laws though; it was too tough on my ailing memory power and I seriously salute law students who got their degrees with flying colours. Their brains must be made of some super substance. Haha.) and the paper being an almost-exact replica of past-year questions with changes made only to the names in the cases. It instantly became my least worried paper as I think a pass is quite possible.

So I proceeded to study for UAMG 3004. In contrast with the first subject which notes alone took me more than 2 days, the notes for this subject were short, simple and easily comprehensible. I was done with it within a day; I totally understood what I was reading, coupled with my frequent presence during lectures, I thought this subject wouldn't be a problem until I saw the past-year questions. It was tough and I studied even more, from not knowing how to answer the past-year papers till I can at least get 60% of 'em right. And guess what? Our paper was a total revamp and the so-called compulsory question for which we were prepared right from the beginning of the semester did not come out! Most, if not all, of us looked at the paper and had the WTF look on our faces - how to answer?!?! -_- I totally didn't know how to do the paper and I totally didn't know what on earth I was writing. It was so vague that you can't confirm a correct answer, unlike the first paper where you'd know you got it wrong if you excluded this-or-that points. Of all the semesters, why am I only pranked now?!

All mood evaporated after the second paper that I only did last minute study for UAMP 3034 before group studying with Belinda. Focused on only tips this time round, our attitudes had reached the couldn't-care-less level. But thankfully we did the study group because most of what we studied together came up and I think a pass shouldn't be too far away.

This should be my last exams for my undergraduate life but somehow UAMG 3004 left me rather worried. If I flunk that paper, all my plans will come to a halt. I would need to repeat a semester and delay graduation. That'd seriously be WTF but it's not like I have a choice. It reminds me of a video I saw sometime ago.

It's not that I did not study. Whatever I've studied totally didn't link with the questions! It was like... you studied everything you possibly could but the questions were too general to be classified as derived from what you've learnt and studied. Totally FML. Zero confidence of passing.

"You throw your paper in the air sometimes, saying AAAYO, sure get ZERO~"

To make things worse, I dreamt I passed my UAMG 3004 paper last night. And it's interesting to note that dreams are the contrary to reality. Mine especially. Hmm.

Anyway, nothing can be done now except to pray, pray and pray harder. We shall see where I'll be taken to when the results come out. I'm currently on a 3-weeks break before starting a new journey of my life. In the meantime, I shall just enjoy myself and get my blogging momentum back. =P

Almost the end

2011-04-23T22:31:00.000+08:00

I'm so proud of myself. I kept getting Molly to call me at the beginning of this semester, crying to her that I seriously didn't know how to pass this hellish semester, credited especially to the Campaign we were supposed to run. However, I persevered, gritted my teeth through all the shit thrown to me and drew a beautiful full stop to it on Wednesday.

Whatever negative thoughts, emotions and experiences would be kept away; let bygones be bygones. I need not be reminded by it; I just have to know I've survived it and that made me stronger.

Surprisingly and miraculously, we managed to get a score way beyond my expectations. I nearly smashed my laptop onto the floor when I saw the score while running back to join my group members. They saw it and screamed. I ran upwards, flashing the marks to all the other members, who also rejoiced by screaming or giving high-fives to each other. It didn't take long for us to fall into each other's embraces; I nearly cried tears of joy. It was indeed a very touching moment, considering the fact that our group was considered the most looked down upon one.

Our joyous moment paved way for a celebration dinner at Tanjung Tualang. A convoy of six cars drove all the way there for the seafood dinner. The atmosphere was very high as everyone was on cloud nine. I bet the other tables found us a nuisance due to the noise we made; we just acted like there's no tomorrow, so oblivious and ignorant of our surroundings, enjoying every food, joke or camwhoring moment.

As if the dinner wasn't enough, our Director suggested dessert at Tong Sui Gai, Ipoh. After a round of discussion, the convoy headed to Ipoh, just like that!

I was unable to finish my first mango sai mai lou (pic above) because a group member who only arrived after I started on my dessert spotted a red, swollen face and hands which started to itch and swell. She got the whole group of people startled; I tried to calm everyone down and three of us brought the girl to a clinic to get a jab and some medication. As my mango sai mai lou had become a small puddle of yellow water when we returned, I settled for the below sea coconut sai mai lou (picture taken using Adam's Canon 550D).

Can you see the "cave" I dug? XD

Apart from the little scare the group member who had some sensitive reactions towards the seafood, it was a memorable day. No politics, pure unity, fun and appreciation - my first and last time with such a big gang of coursemates.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Last week, I attended the last lecture of my undergraduate life. This week, I did the last presentation of the semester and attended the last tutorial of my undergraduate life. Yes, all under the condition that I do not fail this semester. So I should use that as the motivation to study for possibly the last exam of my undergraduate life.

Yep, study leave has officially started without the customary karaoke session because neither of my kakis were around. To make it the last study leave of my undergraduate life... I. Must. Study. ~~Hard~~ Smart.

Study mood, faster come!!! It wasn't easy to have come this far and since I have made it, I should hold on a lil longer. 14 days, babe, the countdown is on!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

An attempt to clear my stock of rations :D

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Since my customary pre-study leave karaoke session was lacking this time, I jumped at a movie opportunity with Let and her bf who happened to be in Ipoh just now.

倩女幽魂, or A Chinese Fairy Tale starring Louis Koo and Liu Yifei. Don't ask me why I watched this movie, because I just agreed on any movie they chose... so yeah. But then, it wasn't a bad watch. And it wasn't a horror movie. In fact, there were quite a few funny parts that had the whole cinema guffawing. Let commented that the original version featuring the late Leslie Cheung was better though.

We went shopping a while before leaving Jusco to have dinner.

No prizes for guessing where we went. A hearty and satisfying dinner (though the sausages and bacon were a tad too salty today) which left the three of us no space for dessert. =(

But still, we decided to try our luck at Tong Sui Gai, hoping that the sai mai lou stall would be opened. Sadly, the stall owners had just arrived when we did and were setting up the stall, which would be serving the dessert in half an hour's time.

Not wanting to wait, we settled for something else.

Yummylicious rojak sauce! I love the prawn crackers! :D

Mine. But not nice one. Too diluted.

They sent me home before heading back, and that wraps up the fun I should have before studying. Slept enough, ate enough and played enough... it's time to study. Go go go! Add oil!! ^^

The end is nearing~

2011-04-11T03:54:00.001+08:00

Actually, when I wrote my last post, I intended to include the following but considering the length of that post, I copied and pasted it on a new post but only had time to pick up from where I left off now.

Anyway, on a brighter note, when the first quarter of the year ended abruptly on the 31st of March, the same goes to assignments and presentations of my undergraduate life (unless of course, I flunk any units this semester; that'd be a totally different story altogether :P). I have officially completed all written assignments and presentations for all academic units. All these, of course, do not include the final report for UAMP 3044, bi-weekly and final reports for industrial attachment at the end of next semester, my FYP, presentation after the completion of industrial training and the viva of my FYP.

I really really really hope that I won't fail any subject this semester. =/

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

And at the point of writing this post, the month-long campaign which we've been running on campus has finally came to an end and that leaves me with the final report to compile and presentation before we wrap up with the coursework of the semester. Study leave is in two weeks' time... oh no! Again, as always (and possibly for the last time of my life), nothing went into my head and yet, I have to sit for exams already!

The campaign had me so so so so tired; about 10 days before our outreach activities on the 9th, I only had like 2-3 hours of sleep per day. My shoulder became so tensed that it ached so badly till I nearly cried. So can you imagine my relief when I came home at 6pm on Saturday? I gulped a can of cold 100Plus, took a shower, waited for my hair to dry and plopped on my bed until the hunger woke me up at 11pm. My bed must have missed me so so much... :P

Almost the whole of yesterday was spent sleeping. That was how tired I was (and still am) and how much sleep debt I've incurred. I don't think I'll be able to repay all the sleep debts I owe. Haha. But it's okay. Everything is coming to an end. Let's get done with the report and I'll soon be bidding Kampar goodbye (I hope).

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

My post count last month reached an all-time low of three posts only! Another proof of my lack of time. I wonder if working life is like that, or worse. =/

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

On the 24th of March, I joined my UAMP 3034 group members (who are also my seniors) on a breakfast trip to Ipoh as a celebration for completing our presentation and assignment smoothly. We went in two cars as a few of their friends joined us. Since Ming Court wasn't open much to our disappointment, we could only settle for Foh San.

We met up at 7am and headed to Ipoh. Madness, you might say, but how about the 5.30am one with 梅 ages ago? :P

Just part of what we had that day. I totally forgot to snap pictures as food began piling up and we started walloping like ~~hungry ghosts~~ fugitives deprived of food for a few days. Haha. Camwhored puas-puas before going back to Kampar, sleep and then attend class. LOL.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Due to my utterly busy schedule, I hadn't been back to Ipoh since the accident weekend. As I was lazy to drive out to buy food on days I don't have classes, I went to Tesco and bought some stuff to make brunch for myself during the weekends.

One of the dinners: Campbell tomato soup + diced ham slices + diced yellow capsicums + macaroni. It was too much to finish (thanks to stress, my appetite wasn't good that few days - a rare sight, I tell you, because I'd normally binge on food when I'm stressed) hence I reheated the leftovers for supper. Haha.

And this was yesterday's - egg toast (made from the bread which I hadn't had time to eat until it expired and I had to put it into the fridge as so not to waste it), sausages, pearl oyster mushroom (too much soy sauce =X) and tomatoes.

If you're wondering why I include tomatoes in most of my breakfasts, this is because it's a good fibre and vitamin source which requires minimal soaking and washing (read: vegetables). Haha.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The end is nearing. Countdown: 26 days. Please please please please don't let me fail. T_T

Cheng Beng and... BANG! Bang! BANG!!!

2011-04-02T02:11:00.000+08:00

Dear tai gong, tai ma, ah gong & cousin,

It seemed miraculous that I was telling gor the night before that I hoped you all will bopi (保佑, Hokkien for "bless") me so that I can go back for cheng beng to pray to all of you and the event that deterred my return got postponed the following day. I know, you've all heard my prayers and I thank you for that. It was one of the rare chances that I felt my prayers were instantly heard and answered. Thank you for giving me a chance to pray to you before your graves.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

On Sunday, my bro and I were mad enough to sleep at 3am after chatting and playing games at the same time and wake up at 5.30am to go all the way to McDonald's to buy 4 cups of their premium roasted coffee for a total of RM12.50 and bring 'em back with 4 sets of Big Breakfast to cure our stomachs before making way to the graveyard. Muahahaha~

The photostat shop I used to patronize in Kampar has cleverly reprinted the coupons on a piece of A4 paper and had generously gave me one, free-of-charge. Just the cut-out part; 6 coupons on a piece of paper. How clever of them. Haha. And so, I brought 2 coupons back to use. :P

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Cheng Beng was as usual except the cock-up thanks to a distant elderly relative (it seems like I have so much against them this year :P) which left everyone except my godlike-patient grandmother fuming like hell. It's because of that distant elderly relative that everyone had to get an extra hour of the painful sunlight besides causing the innocently under-exercised youngsters - me, my bro and my two other cousins - to make a few supposedly-redundant trips up and down the hill carrying heavy stuffs and tire the hell outta us. Inconsiderate people!!! Pfft.

小心太公晚上来鸟你！Blah.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Something bad happened when my dad, 大姑, cousin and I were on the way back, heading to KL. The North-South highway around the Seremban area had three lanes and my dad was driving on the right lane, a.k.a. the fast lane. There was this motorbike (not a police bike) zoomed past our left with sirens blasting. I guess the idiot suddenly swerved into our lane or asked one of the cars in front of us to stop or what, causing the car to brake out of the sudden.

Behind the car was a new Honda Civic (let's just call it Civic 1). He braked hard and was able to stop in time, hence sparing the car in front from any mishaps. Behind Civic 1 was yet another new Honda Civic (hereinafter known as Civic 2) which also managed to brake in time to avoid banging into Civic 1. Behind Civic 2 was my dad's also-a-Honda car. Seeing the emergency braking of Civic 2 had my dad stomping on the brakes hard enough to bring the car to a complete stop just inches behind Civic 2. Just as I thought that we were lucky that we didn't hit Civic 2, a loud crash was heard behind and we jerked forward. Before we could even react, a second bang was heard, followed by a louder third bang and we jerked forward again.

If you were able to imagine the above scenario, you would have guessed that my dad's car banged into Civic 2, and Civic 2 banged into Civic 1. I sort of expected more bangs to be heard but thankfully it stopped there. I was still calm enough to exclaim "Oh f*ck!" before pulling out my phone to call 小姑 and then my mum while my dad and cousin went down the car to assess the damages.

When my mum picked up the phone I was still cool enough to tell her, "Ma, I got something to tell you but you don't freak out ah... we just got banged on the highway...". It was only after I hung up when the fact that we got involved in a car accident sunk in and that was when I started to feel the panic and anxiety. My heart was beating non-stop. I slipped into a daze.

The PLUS people came soon enough, directed the traffic so that all the cars involved in the accident could move left onto the emergency lane. That was only when I came down from the car and stood way inside of the road shoulder where no cars should be able to hit us. Traffic was slow. When I saw the car that hit us from behind, I cringed. It was a Proton Wira, badly damaged at the front and rear due to the strong impact. Compared to the three Hondas in front of it and the Honda Civic (old model) that banged it from behind, it was a wreck and I saw it leaking.

The thought that I would be driving a Proton Wira back to Kampar the following me disturbed me so much that I began to weep uncontrollably. What if the car I'm driving got hit from behind too? Would I die? I know I'm driving one and I shouldn't be complaining, but it dawned on me that the quality of our local cars are really like what they call "Milo tins" - so really fragile. And the braking system... the fact that the three Hondas managed to brake in time but not the Wira said it all. As for the old Civic, its front bumper was still intact apart from a slightly dented upwards bonnet and dents on the front.

The adults did whatever they were supposed to do while I walked up and down, taking photos (I don't want to upload them because I don't want to traumatize myself again when I read back this post) of the cars and jotting down car number plates. The Wira's front and rear were so wrecked that I could only get its car registration number from its road tax. The old Civic driver hopped onto someone's car and took off to goodness-knows-where after the verbal "settlement", but the drivers of Civic 1 and Civic 2 as well as my dad declined the offers of some tow truck companies or workshop staff to repair the cars or whatsoever. Instead, since all the front three cars could still start and be driven, we all drove to the police headquarters in Seremban. Except for the Wira driver who came later because his car had to be towed away.

Thankfully though, there were no injuries nor death. In other words, only money flew away. Thank Buddha.

The process of police report-making took more than 2 hours, which also displayed to me how efficient our police force is. During the wait which I was still trembling in fear, I made phone calls to my friends and cried my lungs out. I was so scared and helpless. I didn't want to trouble my dad or 大姑 because they were troubled enough already, that's why I called my friends.

As my dad's insurance company told him to bring the car back to Ipoh for damage assessment before sending it to a local authorized workshop and the fact that the car can still be driven albeit not so fast anymore (because we didn't know if it's damaged inside or not) for safety reasons, we decided to proceed with the original plan of dropping my aunt and cousin in KL and head back to Ipoh. We took the wrong exit at the Seremban toll and headed south instead. Exited at the next toll and took the southbound exit again before finally getting it right at the third exit.

We dropped my aunt and cousin at my 四姑's place, where her husband - an engineering expert in cars and stuff - helped us check the car which boot couldn't close back after opening to unload some stuff. He cleverly fastened the bonnet and boot with metal wires so that the dents wouldn't cause either one to suddenly flap up because if it did, visual would be totally blocked and I don't want to imagine the rest.

We started journey from my paternal grandmother's house at 3+pm. The accident really took a lot of time but my dad and I managed to reach Ipoh at 1.30am, safe and sound.

On hindsight though, perhaps it was the ancestors whom we prayed to in the morning who were looking after us from above. Really have to thank them for their blessings that I'm only mentally and not physically traumatized. And I'm really thankful that my cousin and I put on our rear seatbelts. When the law on rear seatbelt was enforced, I only put on rear seatbelts for the sake of not getting summonses. But that day, it saved us from being flung forward and a possible injury or even death. Therefore from that day onwards, I will advocate the fastening of rear seatbelts not because of wanting to save that RM300, but it really does save lives.

Even though it has been a few days, the thought/mention of this incident still makes me tear, tremble or palpitate. It's so hard to get over it, especially the two or three days after the incident, where those scenes will flash by if my mind is blank. When I drove back to Kampar alone on Monday, I was pretty scared but I declined my parents' suggestion of accompanying me back because it would tire my dad even more, especially after the ordeal. Thankfully, Molly called and talked to me (I was on handsfree) throughout the slow drive back. The phone call sure calmed me a lot.

For the time being, I cannot take anymore scares/shocks. Even when someone threw me a paper aeroplane when I was concentrating on jotting my minutes in the meeting the other day, I sprang up and could only muster a fierce stare while trying so hard inside to ease my suffocating heart.

It was tough on me, especially at the time when the stress of uni stuff is peaking. =(

It was my first time being involved in a car accident. And it was my dad's first time too, after his experience on the road for more than 30 years. I think it will haunt me from time to time because we always exert so much care and caution while driving but we still end up getting banged. But, like what everyone said, 人没事就好 (the most important thing is that everyone is fine).

And oh, this incident fortified my principle of buying an imported car when I'm rich. But before I reach that level, my dad will never never never ever let me buy a Perodua Viva anymore. He was already very against my idea of getting a Viva when I go out to work (because it's the cheapest car to pay) before anything happened because he disliked it for its small and unstable size. He prefers more sturdy cars like the Myvi ($_$) or car with boots like the Proton Saga so that if *touch wood* anything happens, at least the boot can absorb part of the impact first before reaching the rear passengers. And the accident gave him all the more reasons to ~~have me pay higher monthly installments~~ ban my Viva. =|

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

To all the insignificant beings up/down there, please bless me with more strength to continue my current journey which will end soon. I will try to hang on as much as I could. Thank you.

Haiz.

2011-03-20T04:08:00.001+08:00

If you ask me to describe my life for the past week in one word, it would be the title of this post.

I don't wanna tell the story, but the summary is that I got scolded badly for things which weren't my responsibilities in the first place (I was just being kind to help) and the conclusion, she's a b*tch who maxed my tolerance towards her. And I'm not the only one. Three years, b*tch, who the eff do you think you are?

For the sake of the group and my grades, I shall not make a fuss over it. And I quote my Facebook status:

受到委屈后该怎样？咕一声吞下去，继续操作。
明明可以拍桌子展颜色，不过想了想，还是大事化小算了。
沉默者待欺。人生就是这样。唉。

Motto of the week: mai chap! (Hokkien: don't care/don't bother)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It's my responsibility as his assistant to point things out to him but if he wants to get worked up over it, I have nothing to say; my conscience is clear.

Imagine this. You see a problem which others don't and you bring it up. The others felt unhappy because they think that you crossed the line. So, do you tell or do you not? If you tell, they bo song. If you don't, the ignored problem might brew into a crisis later on. Then who's to be blamed? You (for not telling earlier when you detected the problem) or them?

People with common sense would know that unattended small problems will lead to crisis (a good example: BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico). What's more PR majors who have passed a subject called Crisis Management in Public Relations? What a shame.

And oh, he made me feel like an idiot, too. I'm supposed to be the third person after him and his deputy who should know the entire thing top to bottom, left to right, upside down, inside out. But I don't. Whenever there are any problems, people just go to him and the outcome/decision will not be known to me. I only pick up things when I go down to the field to observe or chat with our members. Otherwise, I'm as good as living in the dark unless someone decides to be kind enough to inform me of any changes or whatsoever, but there generally isn't such a person. Imagine how it made me felt when people - group members especially - asked me things and all I could do was to muster, "Erm... I dunno o...".

It's sad to note that I'm not the only person facing the above problem. So I don't think the major fault lies with me. You can't expect me to go after everyone everyday and ask, "Hey, how's the thing going on? Any problems you faced?", right? -_- To sum it up, the exclusion disturbed me, a lot.

I'm trying very hard to learn to be a good leader. I think I learn most from people's ~~failures~~ mistakes.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I went for a meeting on Friday before heading straight for Ipoh. When the meeting ended, it was raining so heavily and it didn't seem that the rain would stop anytime. We borrowed umbrellas and ran to get our cars. There was a lot of water on the roads leading to the parking area and my shoes got wet thoroughly, inside out.

Guess what? I drove barefooted. It was a bit difficult because I used only the big toe for the brakes. It's so different driving with shoes on because shoes have broader bases which made switching between the accelerator so much easier. A slight movement and the pedals can be comfortably pressed. But without shoes, it's a few toes and the small part below the toes versus the relatively big pedals.

When I reached Ipoh, my feet were freezing and I was at risk of a right big toe cramp. Haha.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It's the time of the year again. And it got me feeling a bit melancholic. Again, it could have been mine too. Even that gang of friends have already graduated. And where am I now? Still struggling with things that are now their histories.

Does that imply that I'm a failure? Sighz.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

On a lighter note, I'm kinda craving for 卤味 lately; I've eaten it twice this week! Hehe.

I'm not sure what it's called in English, but it's basically braised stuffs in slightly sweetish soy sauce. And what are those "stuffs"? Chicken, pork, pork intestines, eggs, tofu, etc. :D

There's this shop in Kampar selling rather delectable 卤味.

Aromatic 油饭 (Chinese, literally: oiled rice).

My 卤味: chicken, pork intestines, hard boiled egg and tofu (the last two items are a must! :P). All for RM5.10. Yum yum~ :D

I wanna bring my mum to try out that shop recommended by Motormouth. When only can ah? Hmm.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

在我疑惑自己能力的时候，是你给了我肯定。
而你的肯定，是我撑下去的强心针。
而你的强心针，自然而然成了我的信心。
有你真好。“谢谢”这两个字早已不足以形容我对你的感激。
那条线。2011年10月。期待。=)

小人去死!

2011-03-12T01:29:00.004+08:00

昨日发现真的被小人缠着。
那天虎爷开口没去打小人真是浪费掉~
不要紧，我在这边打！！！

打你个小人头，打到你有气冇顶透，日日去撼头。
打你个小人面，打到你全家中非典，成世都犯贱。
打你个小人眼，打到你成世都撞版，日日被人斩。
打你个小人耳，打到你日日疴烂屎，敏屎用手指。
~~打你个小人嘴，打到你老母变老举，日日被人队。~~
（你老母係无辜嘅，我唔咒佢！）
打你个小人颈，打到你周身都性病，花柳兼淋病。
打你个小人胸，打到你非典兼中风，后门被人通。
打你个小人手，打到你有钱唔识收，有楼变喳兜。
打你个小人脚，打到你日日敷中药，有鞋冇脚著。
打你个小人肚，打到你好心冇好报，日日被人告。
打你个小阳具，打到你成世都不举，有女冇得队。

去死啦你！*&%$#@!
亏我之前还觉得那些咒语很毒。
但是听了你在我背后的所作所为，现在觉得那些咒语还便宜了你！

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

真的很抱歉，今年为你添了那么多麻烦。
谢谢你这几年来给予的支持与鼓励。
也非常感激你不求回报地为我做了那么多。
好期待我俩之间那条线消失的一天。
指日可待，一起倒数吧！
爱你哦。:D

Final Travelogue of 2010: Movie Day

2011-03-05T00:36:00.000+08:00

Note 1: If you are seeing this, it probably means that I'm so tied up with my busy life that I do not have time to update.

Note 2: With the reasons from Note 1 and the fact that this is a feeble attempt to keep my blog alive, this post is most probably written in a two-or-three-lines-every-night-before-sleeping manner and scheduled for today.

Note 3: I insist on writing a few lines or a paragraph at least once per week because internship interviews taught me the importance of being able to write smoothly anytime, anywhere - and blogging is a good practice. ^^

I thought that it was time to pick up from where I left off and put an end to the final travelogue of 2010 before the first quarter of 2011 is over. At the rate I'm going, I doubt I can make it if I adhere to the original plans of splitting the remaining 3 days in the Klang Valley into 3 different posts. So I shall just lump them into one.

After coming back from Singapore the day before, YN and I woke up late at her place and kick-started our day with lunch nearby. Went to this shop famous for its sai dou fishballs and fishcakes called Jin Man Noodle House at Seri Kembangan:

Has what a good fishball should have. =)

This was particularly memorable with a very crispy outer layer with juicy, succulent and bouncy texture beneath.

After a satisfying lunch, we headed to Tropicana City Mall and was nearly late for our first movie of the day due to the traffic.

Two-movie day, yep. YN picked up her bf thereafter and off we went for dinner in a place which I couldn't recall the location.

The next day, we woke up without the interferences of alarm clocks as we didn't have any specific plans which require timekeeping. Went to IKEA for lunch and to check out my lingonberry juice. :P

Lunch for 2. I know, but we were so so so famished. :P
The bottom left picture is my salmon set in conjunction with Christmas & New Year, I think. :D

After the lunch which took me more than half hour at the queue alone, we went window shopping at the furniture area before moving to the Swedish Specialty Cafe downstairs.

I found the pear cider (which tasted quite good when chilled) and concentrated lingonberry juice syrup. The small packets found in Singapore cost a freaking RM7.50 for 3!!

We also brought curry puffs back for dinner.

On the way home, YN dropped by her bf's place to pass him some stuffs and since we were at Section 17, I asked her to check out Food Foundry as I was particularly interested with the mille crepe they serve.

And I got myself a slice for RM9... more expensive than cheesecakes which I don't eat. @_@

The rest of the day was spent with dramas and chats and dinner was the IKEA curry puffs and the mille crepe. Pretty relaxing.

The following day was the day when we were supposed to head back Ipoh. So we drove to Kelana Jaya and picked YY up and headed to Section 17, PJ for lunch in one of the kopitiams at the area where YN and I used to stay. Nostalgia, LOL.

We ate chicken rice:

Mixed platter of roasted chicken, char siew and siu yoke.

I also ordered this dish which I think is called chai buey in Hokkien, if not mistaken. Nice.

After lunch, we shot straight to Ipoh, abandoning the initial plan of stopping by Bidor for its famous Pun Chun Duck Noodles because we were still full.

And that pretty much draws a full stop to my final travelogue of 2010. Thanks for reading. Hehe.

My Christmas 2010 Eat Drink Play Joy series:

2 KL trips in 1 week

2011-02-27T01:53:00.000+08:00

Alas, my busy life can only facilitate once-per-week updates these days, only if I insist on giving myself some breather space over the weekend.

I don't wanna talk about academic stuffs because they are way too complicated and long-winded and it defeats the purpose of me writing a blog post which serves to destress myself.

So yeah, I've made not one but two trips to KL in the past week, and boy, wasn't it tiring! I got called for an interview on Tuesday quite last minutely and hence, I arranged all the other interviews on the same day so that I do not have to make so many trips to the capital city of Malaysia. I had to trouble my dad to be my driver for the day as the last minute fiasco made it relatively hard for other arrangements to be made.

I think it's safe to say that my interviews (for internship application) went pretty well and I was back in Kampar that night. Days flew past due to busyness and it was soon that I found myself in Ipoh again on Thursday night because I left my formal clothes at home and I needed it for yet another interview on Friday.

Since I had time to plan this round, I made the necessary arrangements with the relevant people and took the 11.15am ETS from Ipoh to KL Sentral on Friday. YY came to met me and after a quick lunch in Burger King, we cabbed to my interview venue, where I went up alone while she went to have a drink.

As it was raining after the interview which went pretty smoothly and quickly, we were pretty much stuck there until the rain stopped. Took the bus to Bangsar LRT and cabbed from there to Midvalley Megamall.

We tried shopping for 梅's present but nothing seemed to catch our attention. And that's when I noticed something - the sole of my right shoe came off!! FML. Thankfully it only came off then and that we were in a shopping mall. Hence, we shopped for shoes, bags and working clothes instead and were only lucky in getting a pair of ballerina pumps each. Haha.

We actually did a lot of sitting down because I was quite tired. At 7.30pm, we went for dinner and my cravings took us to Pasta Zanmai.

(clockwise from top left) Green tea and miso soup with vegetables and mushroom for us, spicy pasta with squid and prawn for her and spicy pasta with grilled unagi for me. =)

We continued switching between sitting and shopping thereafter, until it was time for the movie which we watched because we had to wait for YN to end her dinner appointment before coming to pick us up to her house.

I Love ~~Malaysia~~ Hong Kong!

Funny comedy which we both enjoyed; it was YY's second time watching because she was a good friend. Haha. Ipoh didn't screen this movie during the CNY break... !@#$%^&*

YN arrived when the credits rolled. It was past midnight when we reached her house; quickly bathed and called it a night. I think I fell asleep, face down, before my hair dried thoroughly - that's how tired I was.

We had to wake up early on Saturday because of the even more last minute interview scheduled barely 18 hours beforehand. Thankfully, my friends were a sporting bunch who didn't mind sending me there and waited for me till I was done before we headed back to Ipoh.

Had dim sum breakfast in a restaurant in Seri Kembangan which I totally couldn't recall its name. Haha. Missing from the picture were our pot of pu-erh tea and chee cheong fun. =D

The interview lasted until about 11am and we made our way back to our respective homes in Ipoh for lunch with our own families. We then slept until it was time for dinner. I picked them up and met up with another secondary school classmate for dinner at 7.30pm. It was a great catching-up session.

And I shall end my post here and continue to be busy about the lotsa stuffs waiting for me; I wonder when can I just continue and finish up the my final travelogue of last year. -_-"

A lil' break off the busy life

2011-02-19T20:22:00.000+08:00

I'm still as busy as ever but it's the weekend (despite me having replacement classes today) and it's always good to have some "me and only me" time, I'll just write a brief post about the week that just passed somewhat in a daze.

Wednesday was the proposal presentation day for UAMP 3044; I started rushing the proposal since last Friday but the many cock-ups had me waking up at 10am on Tuesday and staying awake right till 4pm on Wednesday, after a late lunch when the class ended.

I told our Campaign Director that if we sailed through the presentation, we should probably treat ourselves to a good meal, considering the amount of time we sacrificed for it. So we were hoping damn hard that the dinner would materialize, even though we were like zombies by Wednesday morning.

My group was the last to present; the first two groups had it pretty terribly from the lecturer. We always had the idea that the first group is by far the best, and if they kena gao gao like that, what would be left of us? Anyway, long story cut short, if what they had gotten were metal bullets, we only had rubber bullets (was it due to the lack of time? =/).

Despite our highest-in-class marks of 5/10, my Director and I were so so relieved at the end of the presentation that we thought that the promised dinner was justifiable. Hence, we met in front of his house at 8pm and a total of 10 people headed to Restoran Nam Hing Loong in Temoh.

Adam brought his dSLR and I took it for a test shot. :P

As I had called in beforehand to pre-order our food (because we were worried that we'd drive for 20 minutes to a sold-out restaurant), it didn't take long for us to be served.

(clockwise from top left) Deep-fried squid, 干煎虾 (dry-fried prawns? *lol*), stir-fried choy dum (we actually ordered a second helping!), 椒盐排骨 (pork ribs with salt and pepper) and 姜葱鱼片 (fish fillet with onions, spring onions and ginger). FANTASTICO! *slurps*

And the main reason of me suggesting this restaurant: the 醉酒鱼汤 (drunken fish soup)! It. Was. Simply. Delectable! Have it piping hot and be mesmerized by the wonderful combination of deep fried fish skin and bones, generous amount of wolfberries and red dates, ginger and wine. It'll never go wrong...

Lots of jokes passed around the table and we deliberately kept anything pertaining to the Campaign off the table. Any mention about it and I'd go, "Can don't touch this topic when eating or not?" or "Can you let me eat in peace first?". Hehe.

Bersih disapu. Clean.

And the best part? The bill amounted to RM166 for 10 persons... which means one had to pay RM16.60 for the feast which had everyone so bloated. Freaking cheap!! I mean, come on, where can you get such a big plate of fish in KL or even Ipoh for only RM40/45? :P

We camwhored for a while before realizing that it's past 10pm and drove back to Kampar. As the weather was fairly pleasant, we dropped by Westlake. It has been quite a long time since I was there.

Adam dropped us and his dSLR there while he went for a short discussion. dSLR without owner... guess what it meant...??

PHOTO SHOOT! :D

I love the reflection of lights on the lake. The ripples are so beautiful.

I made the rest of the people there my models and shot more than a hundred photos. Some turned out very pretty. Too bad though, I'm not posting them due to privacy reasons.

I attempted to snap pictures of the moon with my bare hands (because the tripod was in Adam's car -_-") and quickly gave up because it strained my neck damn badly. Moreover, it didn't give the outcome I wanted. It was only after I passed the camera to Jerome for his turn at playing that I realized the camera was in black and white mode. No wonder the lack of colours~ ._.

As I was very tired and it was such a rare night that we were so free, we headed home at midnight to get some rest.

It was indeed very comforting that there was still a night when we can just relax and enjoy. It is essential to keep us sane, I suppose.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

We went to the Tronoh Mines New Village on Thursday for works related to our Campaign. The dSLR was left with Jerome since I was busy with other stuffs. When the meeting with the village committee ended, we took a stroll around the new village and I captured the following shots using my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS15.

I did take the same shots using the dSLR but the photos weren't pass to me yet. But I'd still like to share the scenery with you so I posted those from my camera first. Not that bad lah, eh? Give some face leh... :P

My First Apple!

2011-02-13T00:08:00.000+08:00

I had always wanted an Apple, but an iPhone is way out of budget in Malaysia (I told my dad triumphantly one of the days during CNY when a few of my cousins were spotted tapping away on their iPhone 4, "Don't worry, if I work in Singapore, the first thing I will do is to get myself an iPhone!" *lol* :P).

I did think of getting an iPod touch because I liked the fact that touchscreens allow you to play a lot of games and an iTouch is more or less like an iPhone without the telephony properties. But the cheapest one still costs RM800+.

Since I already have an MP3 player which is still serving me well (apart from its shortening battery life), I thought that my intentions of owning an Apple can be put on hold, since I do not have a need for an iPod classic, iPod nano or even iPod shuffle.

However, for my birthday this year, my friends who know that I'm an Apple fan decided to surprise me with one.

I received this from the twins a day before CNY eve when we went out for dinner and yum cha.

Can you imagine the shock?!

The first thing I did after I got home was to retrieve the cute little box from the Machines plastic bag.

*beaming*

Sleek and pretty. ♥

Actually it's so small and cute to the extend that I didn't feel like using it for fear of spoiling/scratching it, or worse, losing it due to its minuscule size. LOL.

It was totally unexpected because I didn't know they'd get me an iPod! Our friendship had reached the extend where we normally just ask the birthday girl what she'd want for her birthday and the rest of us would get it for her. I mean, this way you can really ensure that the receiver gets something she really wants/needs and it all the more brings out the meaning of the gift, right? :D

Way back in last year, I actually requested for a vacuum cleaner because I hated sweeping the floor and Molly had already done enough research till they're only a step away from purchasing. I pulled the handbrake end of last year due to my untimely planning of leaving Kampar after this semester. Since we still do not know where I'd be settling down after my internship, I told them to hold the vacuum cleaner and instead, make it my "housewarming gift" when I settle down at the place where I would be working. Haha.

So they asked what do I want after the vacuum cleaner plan came to a halt. I told them that I seriously do not know; it's like I currently have almost everything I need and things I want are way too expensive to be made a gift (unless, of course, one of them strikes the lottery :P). I even told them that "when I think of something I need only you all buy for me lah!" so I thought I wouldn't be receiving any presents from them this year.

The iPod shuffle really drew a very, very pretty fullstop to the unhappy birthday saga. YY, YN, Molly and 梅, you gals are the best! Thanks for making me a proud owner of an Apple. ♥

I've yet to download iTunes nor sync any songs into my new baby; I was and still am too busy. And seeing how badly my resting hours is going to be screwed, could this gift be a timely one, as the old adage goes, an apple a day keeps the doctor away? LOL. Okay, lame, I know. :P

p/s: I've actually written this post first but I didn't want to combine such a special occasion with the last post, so I separated it into a new post so that my new baby can have a post to itself. :D

Busy busy busy busy

2011-02-12T22:50:00.000+08:00

Alas, my busy life had started right after Chinese New Year. Eh no! CNY hasn't even ended, technically speaking. Oh well...

Email. Proposal. Email. Proposal. Email. Proposal.

Basically, my life these few days can be summarized into the above few words. I'm constantly typing away on emails (looking for internship placements; sending notices/documents to my group members on various matters) and proposals (for the PR campaign we're organizing this semester, assignments as well as my FYP) whenever I'm not in class or meetings.

Speaking of meetings, I've tons of meetings to attend! Campaign-related meetings, assignment group discussions (different ones for different subjects) and FYP discussions... you name it. So yeah, my life in Kampar revolves around going to classes, attending meetings and discussions, drafting documents and emails and writing proposals. Gosh, I'm starting to become sick of the word "proposal". LOL.

Freaking, freaking busy. Busy till the extend that I am starting to lack sleep. Sighz.

School and work have taken up so much of my time. There's so much to do and yet so little time. I'm constantly worried that I might forget this or forget that - it tends to happen, you know, when you're doing M now and someone approaches you about N; when you're halfway through or done with N, O, P, Q, R, S, T pop up and M is mostly likely left aside until you suddenly recall its existence.

So yeah, in order to maintain or boost my productivity, my laptop is full with Sticky Notes and so is the polystyrene notice board in my Kampar room. I also printed A4-sized monthly calendar in which I can jot down the happenings of the day or stuffs due on that date; omitted the diary due to its bulkiness.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Inhale. Exhale. Calm down. Don't think too much.

Whenever such situations happen, something needs to be sacrificed. For me, it'd be my sleep and blogging time. So I suppose that my blog will go into a semi-sleep mode; I think I'll only update during weekends if time permits... or when I've had enough and needed a channel to vent.

Wish me luck, people, I need loads!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A serene spot in a new village called Mambang Diawan. So happened to be there on a site visit with my Campaign group members. So beautiful that I wished I could just go there and lie down some day. It'd take some of the stress away.

A different CNY

2011-02-06T00:05:00.001+08:00

This Chinese New Year is a bit different; it involved many uncertainties and worries. My paternal grandmother's house is located in one of the towns worst hit by the floods. No worries about all of us here though, for my dad always told us that if popo's house were to be flooded, the whole town would literally be the sea already. LOL.

But the problem was, certain stretches of roads leading to my grandmother's house were badly flooded and inaccessible to traffic, although the floods in the town itself had subsided. It was very difficult for us to decide whether to go back or not. Even on the early morning of CNY eve, dad was constantly on the line with his brother and sister, receiving news about flooded roads and planning which alternative route to take.

We still pushed off, nevertheless, praying deep down that it wouldn't start raining again. For once in my life, I was actually hoping for the sun to shine as brightly as it could, because it would downright minimize the possibilities of rising water levels and subsequently, clear the roads. The journey took longer than usual because of the detour to bypass the flood-hit areas; we witnessed many soaked areas: plantations along the highways looked like rivers or lakes and only roofs could be seen while waters were still knee- or waist-high in certain areas along the trunk roads. Railway tracks were damaged as flood waters washed the pebbles underneath the railings away. Scenes of yellow, muddy aftermaths of flood greeted our eyes when we entered the town of destination; people were busy throwing things damaged beyond repair and cleaning their properties. It was a sad sight.

Even though we arrived at my grandma's place safe and sound, sightings of rainclouds or strong gusts of it's-gonna-rain wind made us pretty worried, me especially, because I didn't want us to be stranded here! If it rains again, the flood could return, soak the main bridge of the town and that's it, we're as good as living on an island. And there are lotsa things waiting for me starting Monday!! I don't wanna delay my graduation~~~~~ T.T

So yeah. The welcoming of the Rabbit Year was a bit... "nontraditional" this time. No train station nasi lemak, no McDonald's Prosperity Burger, no KFC, no Ramly burger... Haha. Luckily though, there were still a few Malay stalls opened some distance away from my grandma's house, towards the direction opposite of where we normally go. :P

Despite the gloominess, there are still some positive elements in life. It became clearer during this CNY to me that it can also be pure joy when I...

watch movies together with people who share the same kind of appreciation for humour.
talk nonsense with people who respond to those craps with more jokes.
have people who ask about the drama in which I'm one of the casts and listen to my stories without judging.
laugh my ass off over things which keep my mind off the tension.
go out for yumcha and talk about almost anything under the skies.
chat until 5-6 o'clock in the morning ~~until we hear cocks crowing and the mosque's first azan (prayers) of the day~~ before going to sleep. ^^v

And as much as I enjoy the above times with my gor and/or 小姑, the following people pissed the hell outta me and made me felt like cursing them on the auspicious days of CNY:

distant elderly relatives who ask ~~stupid~~ questions about things that they don't bother. E.g. "What course are you taking?", "When are you graduating?". I mean, so what if you know? Does it matter?
again, distant elderly relatives who go, "Wah! You so big already!! Last time you only so small *palm facing downward, knee-height area*... taller than papa mama liao loh!!" Excuse me, like I don't know? Were you expecting me to stop growing after I was able to stand on my feet? -_-"
distant relatives making remarks that it's almost time for me to get married. Eh come on lah, what's the hurry, man? Why must they aim at every person in their twenties, thirties or even forties who are still single? So what if I am or am not getting married? S'not like I'm gonna invite you to my wedding dinner or give your kids angpau anyway.
distant elderly relatives who compared me to another pretty-looking cousins sister and said, "Yaloh, she so pretty also still not married yet, what's more not so pretty one?" WTF! Hello? Being fat and ugly is not a sin, okay? *dulan*
distant elderly relatives who, after telling them that I'm studying PR, still ask, "So what are you going to do after you graduate? Is it doctor, lawyer, engineer, or...?". Hey, what's with the stereotype? Only doctors, lawyers and engineers make it? Are all your sons, daughters, grandsons and granddaughters in these professional fields? I'm a PR major and I'm proud to be one, thank you very much!

So much so for a Chinese New Year filled with so much emotions and thoughts. Hmm.

And we're going home tomorrow. Hope that there's no rain, no flood and no traffic jam. *pray pray pray*

Final Travelogue of 2010: Back to Malaysia

2011-02-03T20:18:00.002+08:00

Note 1: This is a scheduled post.

Note 2: Happy Chinese New Year, peeps! Gong xi fa cai (and 红包拿来? :P)!!

Note 3: If you are seeing this, it most probably means that I'm spending my CNY at my grandmother's, as always.

Note 4: I reckon that I should continue posting about my trip last year although it's supposed to be the Chinese New Year break, so that I can clear 'em off... most importantly before I get too busy till there's no time to even sleep. So yeah. :D

On the morning of our fifth day in Singapore, we woke up with a rather heavy heart for it was the day when we would return to the land where RM was the legal tender. After a heavy late breakfast (for we would not be taking lunch), we left Molly's house and made way to the Larkin bus terminal in Johor Bahru with me texting 11 frantically to finish using my free SMS credit on my Singtel number. Hahaha.

Tickets to KL of bus companies which we wanted to patronize (i.e. Sri Maju or Nice) were sold out so we ended up with KKKL's 2pm. We left Molly to find her mum (who happened to go to Singapore that day) when it was almost boarding time. And we slept almost throughout the journey and before we reached the Bukit Jalil bus terminal, I was feeling pretty hungry already.

We took the LRT to Bandar Tasik Selatan, where YY's bf came to pick us up. He sent us to Midvalley for YN to collect her car from her bf. Since YY forgot to bring her house keys (-_-") and had to stay at her bf's throughout our stay in KL, we parted ways in Midvalley - YY and her bf to I-dunno-where, while YN and I went to collect her car keys and dumped our heavy stuffs in the car before walking to The Gardens for dinner.

And where did we go?

Yeah! Hahaha. It has been a long time and I missed the food there. Hehe.

Take a look at our orders... :P

Mine. The taste was quite different... didn't know how to describe. I had mine less sweet, so it was okay. Haha.

YN's.

Couldn't resist ordering this to share. It was good!

Both of us ordered a set meal each that came with:

1)

2)

3)

(I dunno what's this called *lol*)

4)

5)

The only difference was the main dish...

... mine.

... and hers.

And a plate of greens to balance the diet. :P

Here's how our table looked like. Ordering time was bliss but when everything was served, we went kinda O.o because it seemed too much for two stomachs to handle. LOL.

Before you start commenting that we were big eaters (although we were so hungry that night that we could eat a whale :P), we were lucky that we met a friend there and she helped sapu some of the food. And we were still freaking bloated even though we had external help. LOL.

After the dinner, we went to Carrefour to buy some daily necessities (because I didn't bring much, since we flew to Singapore with only hand-carries) and went home straight to bath and sleep.

So much so for being in a foreign country in the morning and another country by night. Haha.

My Christmas 2010 Eat Drink Play Joy series:

Final Travelogue of 2010: Orchard Road~

2011-01-31T00:37:00.001+08:00

Since this is still a Christmas post, I better get done with it before ~~we burn firecrackers for~~ Chinese New Year! Hahaha~

After the food affair which came to an end in Geylang on our fourth day in Singapore, we proceeded to one of the Christmas must-sees in the Lion City. I wasn't really excited about it because I've already witnessed the famous Orchard Road Christmas lighting during my last trip there, but since it was the twins' first time to Singapore, we still had to bring them there ~~so that their trip to Singapore would be somehow or rather "complete"~~. Hehe.

Apart from the crowd despite it being two days after Christmas, nothing much could be said through words. :P

Tiffany & Co.'s Christmas tree.

Entrance of ION Orchard.

One thing I noticed though - on the same side of the street, at least two Louis Vuitton shops could be seen. And branded and designer stuffs are all over. Talk about high class, eh? LOL.

The Christmas tree outside ION Orchard which you can actually enter to a "hollow" inside.

Inside the Christmas tree...

Nutmeg & mace - a symbol of trade prosperity according to the information there. It is also said that the unique intertwining of seed and mace carries special resonance for the joint venture between Singapore's CapitaLand and Hong Kong's Sun Hung Kai Properties. Hmm.

Then, we crossed over to the opposite side to start walking back to the MRT station.

I actually thought that they were damn smart to place the Christmas decorations in front of branded shops so that when you take photos, you're indirectly advertising for them. Haha.

By Visa (the credit card).

And last but not least, a Ferrero Rocher Christmas tree! The Rochers were fake, though. :P

The end of our Orchard tour actually marked the unofficial end of our trip to Singapore. I actually thought that the Sweet Christmas theme in 2008 was prettier than 2010's. Just my two cents though. Hehe.

My Christmas 2010 Eat Drink Play Joy series:

So tired...

2011-01-28T18:02:00.001+08:00

It's only the end of the second week of the semester but I'm feeling so freaking tired.

So many things have been going on. And because of that, my brains have been working non-stop, thinking about the stuffs all around.

I can fall asleep easily every night, no problem, because I'd be so tired by then.

And I'm lucky enough to still be able to sleep some 6-7 hours per day.

But the thing is, I fall asleep few seconds after my head touches my pillow. When the alarm rings, the feeling is like "Wah so fast have to wake up already? It's like I've just slept!".

Yep, I feel I've not rested at all even though I've slept for 6-7 hours. My brains, especially. They are still functioning when my body is sleeping no matter how hard I tried to stop myself from thinking anything.

I don't think I've had any deep slumber or good sleep because I would wake up almost once every hour to look at the clock and then continue sleeping. Even though on days when I can afford to wake up later and I set my alarm at 11am, I'd be awake to the extend that I could no longer fall back asleep by 10.30am - which is so unlike the normal me who can easily sleep past noon.

I think the two weeks had taken its toil on me. I feel tensed. And more so, I think I'm on the verge of mental fatigue soon.

Gosh, there's still 12 weeks to go. How ah? =X

Unhappy Birthday.

2011-01-24T17:43:00.001+08:00

I turned a year older two days ago and it wasn't any happy occasion at all.

The day actually started off pretty well with me waking up slightly earlier than usual to go out with my parents to choose my birthday present; I had pestered them to get me a new watch since they haven't been giving me birthday presents for quite a few years (instead, they gave me an angpow every year - not that I'm complaining though) and my watch of almost 7 years has gone through enough wear and tear to be replaced.

My new U2 ladies watch ♥
With stones replacing the numbers and flowers engraved on the strap.
Simple, stylish and feminine.
Muahaha.

I was still quite ecstatic after the purchase and the happiness lasted throughout lunch right up till the moment I was rudely awaken from my afternoon nap by my two noisy sisters. That was still okay, but everything was ruined by a visiting relative.

Long story cut short, I was being kind by putting all my work on hold just to bring them around to get the things they needed as they were new in town. Traditional stuffs needed for Chinese prayers, to be precise. Being a Generation-Y who knows nothing about customs and traditions (read: we just do what the adults ask us to - they ask us to kneel, we kneel; they ask us to light joss sticks, we light lah - no questions or whatsoever), it's actually a wonder that I know the whereabouts of shops selling Chinese prayer stuffs. So, I brought them there.

She was actually helping another party to buy those stuffs based on a scribbled shopping list and she couldn't reach that party to ask clarify the ambiguities. Then she started complaining about how the shop lacked of variety... blah blah blah. Okay fine, I brought her to yet another shop (wow, I actually know two of these shops! *sarcastic*) which had everything she wanted. But it took her so much time lamenting how tedious her task was and talking rubbish with the shopkeepers before they finally gathered all the items to learn that there were insufficient stock for certain items. So the lady boss had to go to the warehouse to retrieve more stock whilst we just waited aimlessly there.

I tried to make things work more efficiently by volunteering to go buy the apples, pears and oranges somewhere nearby as we were afraid that the fruit vendors might be leaving anytime soon. And guess what was her response? Utter distrust. Period. And oh, did I mention that the lamenting did not stop?

After all the hassle during which I was just left helplessly waiting, she finally paid and it was time to go to the fruit vendor's. Since it was the stall my dad always patronized, naturally I brought her there, as the prices were rather reasonable too. Due to the freaking hot sun and the frequent change of temperature between the car's air-conditioning and the hot air outside, I was already in a headache and my mood was turning foul. And our dear here could actually still complain that the fruit vendor sold fruits by baskets of 5/9/10 pieces each (as per their style all along) and why didn't I bring her to some other places where she could handpick her fruits one by one. I told her she could just switch unsatisfactory fruits with the other baskets and not care about the bitchy (yeah, I hate her) lady boss. But she just wouldn't listen. And I let her be.

We went back to my house thereafter and after seating them and offering drinks, I went back into the study to continue replying Facebook messages while reading up documents on my IA and FYP. Then my mum came to ask me where would I like to have dinner but my mood and appetite had long disappeared.

I tried very hard not to snap at my mum because she wasn't the one at fault. I expressed that I simply would not dine with relatives that night (for fear of really bursting out) but was instead ~~pleaded~~ told to chill and not make things difficult or look ugly. My parents persisted but I stood firm, using the reason that I wasn't feeling well.

For once, I am thankful for the intolerable scorching hot sun because I could blame it for making me sick and subsequently, be excused from anything against my free will.

To add more spice to the drama, that particular relative even came up to ask me to let her give me a treat on my birthday. HAHAHAHA. As if I could swallow the food without gas choking up my esophagus. Thanks, but no thanks. She said I didn't give her face; HELLO? If I didn't give her face, would I just waste the entire afternoon running around like an idiot under such unpleasant weather, get nagged for something which wasn't my fault and end up feeling sick ON MY BIRTHDAY?! Who's not giving who face now?! *spits*

After they all left and the house was empty, I ran up to my room, buried my face into my pillow and cried. It didn't take long for the crying to transform into screaming and howling my lungs out to the extend that I got scared by my reaction. Why did the crying reach such "level"? O_O

I fell asleep after everything was let out. When I woke up, my mum asked me what made me so pissed and in the midst of telling her how unjust I felt, the fire reignited and I accidentally raised my voice a little. Tears followed almost immediately (because I was trying so very hard not to vent any anger/frustration on the innocents) and I ran upstairs to begin howling (much more softly because I didn't want to scare my mum) again.

I couldn't take it anymore; I called Molly and asked her to call me back. I spent almost an hour crying my heart out to her. She cleverly pointed out that no normal person would want their normal day to become like that by any chances and what's more it's my birthday. She supposed that I'd feel much happier even if the day just passed peacefully without any cock-ups even though there weren't any huge/grand celebrations and I just sat in front my laptop doing what I wanna do. It'd be much better and more consoling to the soul that way. And I couldn't help but to agree more.

It sux. I hated it. Thanks giving me puffy, swollen and painful eyes on my birthday. Thanks for making me lose so much water on my birthday. Thanks for causing the bottleneck to burst. And lastly, thanks for ruining my birthday. =)

But on the other hand, thank you very much (this is heartfelt and sincere! :P) for the email, texts and 80+ Facebook wall posts. Those were the only thing to be happy about, new watch aside. =/

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The place where I'm supposed to escape from actually became the place where I seek refuge from inconsiderate and demanding relatives.

I was actually okay when I woke up yesterday morning but the first thing I heard when I opened my room door was actually her voice and my mood instantly evaporated. And for once, I actually felt sleeping and waking up late was actually good for me because I was fortunately spared from bringing them out again - my sister should be hating me for it. *bleh* I only had to plaster a smile, act like a good host, help mum serve them lunch and praying frantically deep down inside that they'll be gone soon.

And thank you for UAMP 3044 meetings which gave me no choice but to return to Kampar early ~~to avoid myself from being irritated by self-centred relatives again~~.

Actually, it's just her alone. I'm fine with the appreciative rest.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Okay, it might not have been entirely her fault for causing the outburst. It's like... I have been suppressing a lot of negative emotions. The accumulated "oil" was at the brink of overflowing and then came the "spark" which ignited the "fire". Yeah, I think that's the case. =|

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

People should probably stop testing my patience this semester. I seriously dunno how much further I can go.

Final Travelogue of 2010: Jalan-jalan Cari Makan

2011-01-21T03:16:00.001+08:00

Since all the crowd and walking during the previous two days at Sentosa Island and USS pretty much left us rather tired and exhausted, we decided that we should spend our fourth day in Singapore in a more relaxed manner.

So we woke up a little later than usual and after parting ways with 梅 who had to go for a job interview in another part of the island, we commuted to Queenstown Mall for lunch.

Missed it so much since my last time there.

We had a bowl of the laksa each, shared two pieces of ~~brain-brain~~ otak-otak as well as a plate of chicken cutlet rice which I forgot to take pictures of.

And ~~being hungry ghosts we were~~ as though we weren't full enough, we crossed over to IKEA, walked around trying out furniture for a while before heading to its cafeteria for a second round of lunch.

But before that, I found this cute packet drink at the Swedish Specialty Shop and immediately bought a pack of three for S$3 to try. I think it's safe to conclude that I love stuffs related to berries. :P

And it was good - not too sweet! Molly and YN claimed that it had laxative properties which until today I can't find any solid proof. Maybe it was just coincidental that they managed to go to toilet not long after drinking. Haha.

It was Christmas time hence they had this limited edition turkey set (top left) with baby carrots, turkey breast, turkey ham, potatoes and bread. It was good but the mustard kinda sucked. LOL.

And guess what? They have PORK meatballs there!! Woohoo!! And coffee was only S$0.50 compared to our RM2...

After IKEA, we found our way to Holland Village based on the map.

I didn't know what kind of a place was Holland V although I've heard about it. In my imagination, it was something like a garden with beautiful tulips (because of the word "Holland"? *lol*) or something along that line. Molly said it was like Hong Kong's Lan Kwai Fong but sadly though I had never been there, so I really couldn't imagine...

And when we finally reached there, I kinda got a shock because it was totally different from what I thought it'd be. Hahaha. Cool place to chillax with friends, I suppose. But we didn't patronize any shops due to our heavy lunch and upcoming appointment with a friend whom we hadn't seen for a few years.

Hailed a cab from Holland V to the nearest MRT station because we were too lazy to walk and met up with 雯姐 at the Alljunied station.

Dinner was at the famous 田鸡粥 (frog porridge) at Geylang Lorong 9!

We side-ordered a plate of veggies and la-la (not very nice because we couldn't taste the freshness) as well.

Being a porridge-hater (yeah I think I qualify for that :P), I thought that the porridge went really well with the kong bou frog! I will go back for more ~~frogs than porridge~~! :D

We didn't manage to catch anything interesting at Geylang *ahem ahem you know what I mean lah* although YY was quite determined to see some initially. Haha. And we settled down at another famous shop to continue our jalan-jalan cari makan (literally: walk around finding food) quest.

永和豆浆油条大王. Literally, Yong He You Tiao Soya Bean King. LOL.

Our orders: 油条 you tiao, 4 cold soya bean drinks, 1 hot soya bean (to go with the you tiao), YY's herbal egg and a bowl of Taiwanese mee suah (centre).

YN last minute-ly decided to try this... It's not that it wasn't tasty or what; perhaps I'm not used to the dish itself. Haha.

It was a great catch-up session with 雯姐; all 5 of us (雯姐, YY, YN, Molly and me; but YY, YN and I were high school classmates before we furthered our studies) met, got to know each other and became good friends in the hostel where we stayed during our first year of studies in PJ. Talk about 缘分... fate brought us together and after a good four years, we're still in touch with each other!

We were so bloated after the soya bean affair and it was time to part. 雯姐 had work the next day so we parted ways at the City Hall interchange, where she continued her journey home and us, all the way to Orchard to see the annual Christmas lightings. Pictures in another post! :D

My Christmas 2010 Eat Drink Play Joy series:

Final Travelogue of 2010: Singapore Flyer

2011-01-19T17:01:00.001+08:00

Right, it's time to continue with my travel jottings of last year before I enter the busiest phase of this semester. *pouts*

We dropped by the Hershey's Chocolate World when we exited Universal Studios.

Saw this super cute Hershey's Kisses there! :D

There were loads and loads of chocolates but I didn't find any to my liking. I think I've tried all the dark chocolates that are available there and I couldn't find my Hershey's Extra Dark Chocolate thins with mint, so... too bad. =/

Just the tip of the iceberg...

I bought a S$1 piece of "our only dark chocolate with mint here" to find that it was actually ~~toothpaste~~ peppermint paste coated with dark chocolate. And the worst thing was, the peppermint was awfully sweet and it took the hell outta me trying to finish it. Thankfully my friends were friends enough to help me reduce a chunk of the pain in the ass.

Bye bye USS! We'll be back, I promise. :D

After that, we made way to the Singapore Flyer. It was helluva long way to walk and it was worth a mention that my legs were at the verge of breaking already. Molly, having worked in Singapore for a few months, had developed a fast walking speed but she was too fast for me and naturally, some tempers flew. But we still managed to reach in time for the ride as the last ride was extended due to the holiday season.

She didn't want to go up with us although we insisted, thus spoiling my original plan of celebrating her birthday (earlier) for her.

When we were quarter way around the circle, I finally understand why she didn't want to pay S$25 to take the ride.

There was basically nothing much to see except the limited night sky views of Singapore, the Marina Bay Sands building, Marina Bay and... no more.

Pay for my second ride and I'll tell you "no thanks". But Molly had been up there for like, more than 5 times? Hats off to her. And... NO WONDER! Haha.

Since we were really too exhausted to walk all the way back to the Marina Bay MRT Station, we just boarded a direct bus to Woodlands Interchange, switched to another bus, alighted somewhere near Molly's house, walked a short distance and reached home after 1+ hours.

My Christmas 2010 Eat Drink Play Joy series:

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Long weekend! Will head back to Ipoh after going to the pasar malam later. Hehe.

Senior year?!

2011-01-17T23:38:00.001+08:00

o.O

Classes are officially starting tomorrow and... I just realized that I've stepped into the third and final year of my undergraduate studies, which makes me a... senior? OMG!

It will not be an easy semester. 16 credit hours on the transcript but 22 in actual, with the outstanding six coming from my FYP. And 22 is by the far most number of credit hours I've attempted in my studies all along.

o.O

Year 3... Year 3!! Can't believe that I've finally reached this stage. I don't know how to describe the feeling. It's like... it took that much from me to come this far and what am I left with now? I don't know. Thankful yes, but the feelings are somehow mixed and confusing. LOL.

Five months... I'll just have to persevere for five more months, pray that everything goes smoothly, pass all my units and then... I'll move on to another journey of my life.

o.O

It'll be a three-days week, four if the UAMP 3044 lecturer decides to hold tutorial classes. Only three days but trust me, it'll be hellish.

Pray for my sanity and smooth-sailing days ahead, will ya? ;-)

*still a bit in disbelief*

我离家出走的时候...

2011-01-13T18:05:00.007+08:00

When I ran away from home for a few days, I...

took the train alone.
stayed at my aunt's and at YY's.
met up with an old friend of more than 10 years (wow!) - Jasmine for lunch at Sushi Tei, Midvalley and then dessert at Jonker Sweet, The Gardens.

Love the good food and company!

received my first birthday present although my birthday is still a few days away. :D

Love it so much although I'm too fat to fit. :P

What could be more suitable than this?!

Thanks, Jas! ♥

went to Shihlin for snacks with YY.

watched The Tourist with YY; got the student price for her because I told the cashier that my friend hasn't arrived when I flashed my still-valid student ID. Muahaha :D

I enjoyed the movie. I don't understand why she fell asleep.
My first time watching ~~kyh's sweetheart~~ Angelina Jolie, actually.

tried Pasta Zanmai for the first time.

Both the soup (Yasai Miso & Potato) were good.
I didn't like the strong milky taste of the Kinoko Onsen Cream Spaghetti.
So I switched with YY's Chicken Teriyaki Spicy Spaghetti.
It was good and very filling.

bought some colourful stuffs in Carrefour, Midvalley.

These Taiwanese Konniyaku jelly freaking cost us RM22.50!!!
Freaking regret man.
And a few of the flavours ~~tasted like cough syrup~~ sucked.
Thankfully the others were good.

bought a random t-shirt for myself.

It shall be my new clothes for Chinese New Year! :D

bought my first can of nga ku chips for this year and finished it within 2-3 hours with YY.

Muahahaha!

met up with _butt jie for dinner at Food Foundry, Section 17 PJ.

Her Vongole and my Aglio Olio Prawns were good.
The tomato soup we shared was hearty.
The vanilla mille crepe we shared was satisfying.

Really got one thousand layers meh? :P

The dessert showcase.

felt much better after doing what I like in a carefree manner without the watchful eyes of parents, after I got nagged by dad about my plummeting academic results.

I came home ~~after I finished spending my money~~ with my aunt and uncle this morning. It was good to be away for a few days.

I know my results will never be what I've always envisioned them to be. It's too late. But please be rest assured that I know what I am doing.

Just let me pass this semester smoothly and make it my last, preferably with my CGPA staying at where they are now. If it drops again, I'll be left with nothing, seriously.

Final Travelogue of 2010: Universal Studios!!!

2011-01-09T18:00:00.001+08:00

After the exhilarating day, we were set to be kids once again, just for that day. Woke up quite but not early enough to beat the crowd, we had a simple breakfast at the cafeteria near Molly's house before commuting all the way to VivoCity again.

Yeah, YN and I were part of it again since we were still using the NETS FlashPay cards; 梅's was EZ-Link. =/

It wasn't long before we passed the Lake of Dreams at Resort World Sentosa and left the twins to wait there whilst Molly and I took 梅 to the casino ~~to loot more of the cute water bottles~~ since she hadn't been there before.

We left after a hasty tour to make way to...

... the Universal Studios Singapore!! *jumps around happily --> that's what kids do, right? :P*

And guess what? When I asked Molly to purchase the tickets way back on 3 December 2010, tickets for the 24th, 25th, 27th and 28th were already sold out!! That left us with the 26th, which we hastily grabbed. Scary indeed. And we were told that tickets were all sold out right up till January. O_O

Once again, it's people everywhere so it's hard to have a "clean" scenery photo.

That's the first thing that greeted our eyes upon entering the park.

Walk to the end of the road...

... and there was a Christmas tree there.

Left turn: Madagascar.

Right turn: Hollywood.

Kids will always be kids. So we took the left turn, of course. :P

Still under construction. *pouts*

We proceeded to our first ride of the day - King Julien's Beach Party-Go-Round!

Yeah lah it's just plain merry-go-round but with characters from the animation, Madagascar.

The personnel in-charged for the merry-go-round was happily swaying to the music and seemed so indulged in all the fun... for every batch of riders. She even sounded so cheerful when reading the safety instructions before the ride, blah blah blah. I wonder how she'd manage to keep the atmosphere so high all day round. @.@ I admire the passion she has for the job, man, seriously.

The most chi-kek ride of the entire theme park, I supposed, but it was closed for further tests and inspections.

After looking around for a while and taking lotsa photos, we turned back to see special character appearances from the Madagascar cast. They were dancing to the song - I Like To Move It.

After the dance was photography session. One thing I really liked about USS is that you get to take photos with these cartoon characters for free! And they have helpers around who would hold your camera and take a photo of you with the cartoon characters... for free also! Unlike some other places where photography are allowed for a "small" fee and you have to use their cameras and buy the photos from them.

Needless to say, we queued up to take photos with every character - the penguins (I can't tell which was which :P), Gloria the hippo, Alex the lion and King Julien - he was the most fun, telling a few of us to sit on his lap ~~like Santa Claus~~ for photo and to others, he even taught some of them how to pose! *lol*

~~加起来百几岁既细佬~~ Oh we were sooooo excited to have our photos taken with those cartoon characters! Seriously like kids. :D

Then it was time to go to the castle...

... far far away.

First, we boarded the Enchanted Airways, a junior roller-coaster ride. The queue was pretty long but thankfully not the waiting time.

We passed by a glass cabinet and saw...

The super cute gingerbread man from the Shrek series.

Aww... he was so lovably drunk! ♥

The junior roller-coaster ride was really for juniors because it failed to make me scream. Molly, on the other hand, started screaming when the train, pulled upwards, was about to plunge. We couldn't really see what was in front before the plunge because we were seated right in front. 梅 and I couldn't help but to laugh and laugh and laugh (at Molly's screaming) until the end of the ride. LOL.

After the ride, we went to queue for the Shrek 4-D Adventure. I didn't take any photos because I was too mesmerized by everything around me, right from the start till the end of the film. When we were seated in the theatre, I was asking if there would be water, since it was 4-D. Past experiences from Genting Highland's Motion Master had the others telling me "impossible lah, where will have water one???" but shortly after the movie started, there was a scene where Donkey sneezed... AND WATER SQUIRTED AT US! Screams were heard everywhere. LOL.

We left the theatre and bypassed the Magic Potion Spin (Ferris wheel for real kids :P) to Fairy Godmother's Potion Shop, where lots of Shrek merchandises were sold.

And we found this! :D
Only YY bought it; I felt it wasn't worth the price (S$20!).

Then we proceeded to Donkey LIVE, an interactive live show which left us in awe. The emcee's charisma was so attractive that he managed to have the crowded shouting and screaming after him prior to the show. And dear Donkey was just so funny. After some introduction and interaction with the crowd, he chose a Singaporean girl from the audience...

(a rough recall)
Donkey: What's Singapore famous for?
Girl: Uhh... the Merlion?
Donkey: Oh! Can you imitate how the Merlion sounds?
Girl: *looking confused* Umm... grrrrr!
Donkey: Oh, so it's "grrrrr!".
Girl: *nods*
Donkey: I got to know that the Merlion spits water, right?
Girl: Yeah..!
Donkey: I thought you're not allowed to spit in Singapore! But why is the icon of your country doing something illegal in public?!
Girl: *stunned for a while then recovers* The government will come after you, Donkey!

ROTFLMAO! The last two sentences were classic!!

After the show, we left Far Far Away to the Lost World zone. The Jurassic Park rides had long waiting times so we thought we'd leave it for later. It suddenly drizzled and our feet took us to WaterWorld.

The crowd was even bigger there but we just kinda stupidly follow, not knowing what was in store.

We were then "released" into the arena. Oh, it was a live stunt/action show!

梅 and I were exceptionally hiong (courageous) that day. We wanted to sit at Soak Zone. The hydrophobic twins and Molly didn't want to get wet but wanted a little bit of excitement so they sat at the first row of the Splash Zone. As we were geared to be soaked, 梅 and I left our bags with them so that our belongings - cameras, especially - could escape the fate.

Before the start of the show, few of the actors used water guns (which worked like injection needles minus the fine tip) and pails to drench the crowd seated at Soak Zones in the middle and cooked up the atmosphere. People who were wearing raincoats or holding umbrellas became easy targets. I guess it's always that way - the more prepared or scared you appear to be, the more fun it seemed to get the hell outta you.

Molly came down to join the still-dry 梅 and I shortly after the show started. The stunts and effects were spectacular right from beginning till the end. I especially admired the jetski rider of his ability to bring his jetski and himself under the water surface and suddenly spring out like flying fish. His jetski manouevering skills were commendable as well - he always sprayed the crowd with generous amount of water from the back of the jetski before scooting off.

And guess what? After the show ended, 梅 and I were still as dry as dust. *disappointed but secretly a tad relieved because we didn't bring extra clothing* I think the reason lies with the pillar you see in the above picture. We were seated behind it and there were electrical wires or points or whatever you call it so I guess they couldn't afford to make that area wet. *sighs*

It was raining after the show so I kept my camera, causing a huge chunk of memories to be missing from our adventure that day. We continued to the Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure - a ride that will make you wet and possibly soaked - after almost a two-hour wait. With no Safe Zones this time round, we bought a raincoat for S$2 each and hid our bags beneath it.

We rode the raft with four other Malay chaps. After being briefed by the attendants - "seatbelts fastened and hands on the bar at all times, no standing up, scream all you like *O.o* and enjoy the ride!" - the raft sloped down to the stream. It was quite an adventure and all nine of us screamed our hearts out at the slightest jerk, acceleration or spraying of mist/water/air. LOL.

At the end of the ride, 梅 and I were still as dry as can be whilst the twins got drenched, especially their heads because the raincoat hood came off. Wakakakakakaka!! So much so for 梅 and I for wanting to get wet twice but failed. -_-"

Rain poured on and off thereafter. We ran towards the Canopy Flyer for shelter when it suddenly poured again but announcements regarding the continuation of rides operation were relieving to hear. The rain stopped when it was almost our turn. The Canopy Flyer is something like a hanging chair where two persons sit side by side and back to back with another pair. 梅 and I faced outside while the twins' had their backs to ours (Molly couldn't come back in time from the toilet). When our Flyer went out into the open air, IT STARTED RAINING! Without any protective gears, 梅 and I were wet in no time!! Thankfully though, our bags were left at the cabinets. The twins were luckily spared because they didn't face the rain directly. In other words, 梅 and I blocked the rain for them. WET, FINALLY! LOL.

We walked about in our raincoats and umbrellas. Since it was relatively difficult to retrieve my camera from my safely-and-dryly-hidden bag, no photos were taken when we ventured into Ancient Egypt and Sci-Fi City. =(

The Return of the Mummy ride sounded scary (alone, in total darkness) so we forewent it. Hahaha cowards. And the Battlestar Galatica duelling roller coasters weren't operating yet; but I seriously wondered if I dared to take the ride if it were available. Hahaha yes, I've yet to take any 360-degrees overturning roller coasters in my entire life. :P

And then... we landed in New York.

The rain stopped; I kept the raincoat and brought my camera out ~~to sun~~ again. :D

New York is a beautiful place!

And happening, too!

There were a few scary-looking characters (whom I dunno) who came out to take photos with visitors. But I shall not post them up because the photos contain our faces. :P

See, I told ya, we were in New York!! :P

And then... we saw ~~something~~ someone and immediately ran to queue for photos!

Oh, the lovable pair! Princess Fiona was so friendly; she even chatted with each group of people who went up to take photos with them.

We went for the Lights! Camera! Action! Hosted by Steven Spielberg and were blown away by the special effects used in action-packed movies we always see in cinemas. So blown away that my camera remained tucked in my bag throughout the whole show. Muahahaha.

As seen in some American movies? :D

We then ventured into Hollywood(!!!) for the Pantages Hollywood Theater, a rock-n-roll musical by Universal Monster. The singing, dance and effects (aiyah just literally the whole show lah! :P) left us clapping so freaking hard. One of the songs was the English version of Wonder Girl's Nobody. Talk about glocalization eh? Hahaha.

After the spectacular performance, we were kinda hungry and stopped by a stall to buy some prata. Suddenly, I spotted something the road and grabbed 梅 with me.

OMG!

But too bad, the attendants put a halt to the growing queue, saying that it was time that the adorable character had to leave already. No matter how hard we begged, he just wouldn't let us join the queue. RAWR!

But dear Puss could sense our disappointment. So after the last group of people had their photos with him taken, he purposely stayed a while longer for us to take photos of him ~~and Photoshop ourselves inside~~ and left his crew helplessly saying "okay okay, just take photos of him, solo, just him only!". Love you, Puss! ^.^

And that's why he was looking directly into my camera!! :D

We ran back to our prata stall, collected our food and sat down somewhere to rest and heal our stomachs.

After that, we walked about for a while more while grabbing every photography opportunities with any ~~Tom, Dick and Harry~~ characters who came out. There was this particular Winnie Woodpecker who kept running away when we tried to ask for photos and she went around disturbing dining patrons along the street or taking photos with kids. OI! YOU DISCRIMINATE YOUNG ADULTS IS IT! LOL. But we finally had a picture taken with her after ~~chasing her across nine streets~~ 梅 tugged at her and loudly proclaimed of our wish for a photo. LOL.

And then, our adventure had to come to an end because USS closes at 7.30pm. All the crew and characters were lined up at the exit waving goodbyes - a sign that USS is closing although they didn't really chase you away.

I must say, I really enjoyed the day in Universal Studios Singapore. It's all so wonderful, magical and worth every single dollar we paid (S$72 for a non-express 1-day pass!). Given another opportunity, I would DEFINITELY return, especially a few new rides would be opening this year or next.

We still went elsewhere after USS but that would be up in coming posts, since this post is way too long already. :D

My Christmas 2010 Eat Drink Play Joy series:

p/s: Took me so long to finish writing this post. Haha.

Final Travelogue of 2010: Christmas Day Part B

2011-01-05T23:40:00.001+08:00

After leaving the casino, we somehow or rather made our way to one of the hilltops of Sentosa Island for one of its attractions...

... which was the luge; the Skyride comes in a package but it wasn't exactly what we wanted. We only needed it to get back to the hilltop for our second adrenaline rush. Hehe.

No accelerators, no brakes; pure gravity and physics.

Here's the luge, waiting to be transported uphill by hooking on the bottom of the Skyride. Smart mechanism.

The queue was long (as usual lah, holiday mah) but there was a staff who came approaching the crowd, gang by gang to take down their orders on a piece of paper to ease and speed up the cashier's job. When it was our turn, she asked if we came as family or friends, to which we were the latter. Then she asked, "Oh, how old is the youngest one?". There was a moment of silence as we didn't really expect such questions. I was about to point to the twins but held back for a while before pointing back to myself. The girl gave a O.o look and said, "You sure?!"

!@#$%^&*#@$%!^&*

So much so for the twins giving us (Molly and I) the impression since we knew each other. Bahhh!! The impression got stuck and is hard to come off. RAWR!

Anyway, we chose the combo package which entitled us to 2 luge rides + 2 Skyrides for S$17, only $5 more expensive than 1 luge ride + 1 Skyride.

Why twice? Because...

Once is never enough! As told by past experience. :P

Since we started at the hilltop, meaning we had to luge downhill first, we only rode the Skyride once because we couldn't be bothered to take the Skyride uphill and then walk downhill again after the second luge ride. ~~Need to conserve leg energy mah.~~ Muahaha.

Some sceneries along the Skyride...

The view behind us...

You can't deny that the saying of "the grass is greener on the other side" is true. :P

They have two different tracks now as compared to my previous visit. One with "more trees" while the other one, "more road". As told by the girl who took down our orders. LOL.

We "landed" at the Siloso beach after the second luge ride.

We took a quick stroll and left because 梅 was arriving soon. Yeah, she only joined us on the evening of Christmas Day.

The initial plan was to go to somewhere from the Outram Park MRT Station for dinner first before I left the gang for a few hours to meet my other friends. But due to time constraint (we left Sentosa too late), I couldn't make it with the girls and hence, they alighted at Outram Park while I commuted alone to the Dhoby Ghaut interchange and proceeded to Orchard to meet 11 and gang for dinner.

The four of them had already arrived when I tapped out to one of the entrances of ION Orchard. It was actually my first time meeting my three gaming friends (11 - my bro's buddy cum university coursemate, Kok and ES); the other guy who followed them was their mutual friend whom neither me nor my bro knows. Haha.

Almost every place where they wanted to dine in were packed. From ION Orchard to Takashimaya whilst it was pouring cats and dogs outside (causing the crowd to overflow in every building), we finally settled for Crystal Jade Palace Restaurant. Initially we were told that it would be a 1-hour wait but it remains a mystery what their friend said to the waitress which had us seated comfortably inside almost immediately. O_o *lol*

The restaurant seemed kinda high class and the service was good. Food was good too; particularly memorable were the soup boiled for so long that its richness wasn't derived from any additives a.k.a. ajinomoto and the white rice - every morsel smelled so good and tasted so firm.

I didn't even touch the menu nor the bill so yeah... pictures without description. The top middle picture is the leftovers from the soup.

Thanks 11 for the meal and it was really fun meeting you guys after knowing each other in-game and online for about three years. :D

And thanks for taking S$79 instead of your intended RM150 for the external hard disk which caused your brand new white Nike shoes to be stepped on by so many ahnehs when you went to buy it for me. LOL. (photo captured by his iPhone 4)

And if you are wondering why on earth would I go through so much hassle to get myself another external hard disk, RM190 (S$79) is so much cheaper compared to Low Yat's RM220-230 and more importantly, I have tons of dramas to take from 11 so it's plain killing two (or more) birds with one stone. Hehe.

Come of think of it though... the earnings of a fresh graduate in Malaysia and Singapore are almost the same in terms of amount (like 2000-2500?) but different in currency. A S$-earner only has to fork out 4% of his salary to buy an external hard disk which costs a RM-earner 11% of his salary. And it's for the exact same thing!!

Whilst I was with the gang at Orchard, the other all-girls gang had the above delicacies somewhere near Outram Park. (photos from 梅; I just posted it ~~to make you drool~~ for fun :P)

Anyway, after dinner, we strolled around ION Orchard and was joined by YH who just returned from his hometown in Johor. The guys looked around for CNY clothes as we joked and chatted around.

Christmas decorations around the mall were quite pretty...

Super tall Christmas tree.

Kok and I even called Timothy, another gaming friend whom we all know but haven't seen before. Thought of arranging an impromptu yumcha session but 11 was kinda tired and my girls were almost arriving in Orchard from Chinatown. So we cancelled the yumcha session and the guys went home after ensuring that I've rejoined my girls.

The original plan was to take a stroll down Orchard Road but the persisting rain made it somewhat impossible. Plus, a whole day of walking already had our legs aching so we headed home, bathed and called it a day.

A more exciting day followed... guess where we went? :D

My Christmas 2010 Eat Drink Play Joy series:

Final Travelogue of 2010: Christmas Day Part A

2011-01-03T16:06:00.000+08:00

After arriving in Singapore late but unscathed, we woke up the next morning, refreshed and excited. I woke up automatically at 8am although the alarm was set at 10am, hence Molly and I went to the cafeteria downstairs to have a little something to eat while waiting for the twins to wake up. When everyone was done, our first stop was to fill our stomachs with a proper meal before embarking on a long journey.

First meal in Singapore: Dian Xiao Er at Causeway Point, Woodlands. Finally... after ~~dreaming~~ craving for it ever since my first time having it two years ago.

It was still early that they weren't ready to serve customers yet, so we sat waiting for awhile.

At 11.30am, the shop was officially opened for business and we were seated in no time.

I love this shot. Muahaha.

The menu looking like some ancient kung fu techniques book. "Bei kap" (Cantonese for 秘笈, as written on the cover)... some secret inside eh? :P

Since we were the first customers (and boy, wasn't the rate of customers walking in scary!), we didn't have to wait long for our feast:-

White rice nicer than Malaysia's. Okay I'm biased. :P

Awesome! Even the twins who didn't like duck praised it...

Uhh... I'm not a big fan of this because of the oily fats, so it's hard to make comparisons.

*thumbs up* Wished they could be a bit more generous on the lotus roots though. =/

This was good!!

After the lunch which came up to S$80 for the four of us, we commuted all the way to the HarbourFront MRT station, switching lines in between, and arrived at VivoCity.

I think it rained when we were safely hidden inside the MRT. Haha.

Since it was Christmas Day + (school) holidays, needless to say, it was damn crowded. People mountain people sea literally everywhere!

All queuing to get their S$3 pass to Sentosa Island.

You think that's a lot of people? There were actually more at the crowd on the left side of the photo - more as in many zigzag lines which my camera couldn't capture. I kid you not. YN and I were unfortunate enough to have to join the queue as our NETS FlashPay cards couldn't be used while Molly and YY were granted access after tapping their EZ-Link cards. Being a typical Malaysian awed by the efficiency of how Singaporeans work, I would say it didn't take us long (less than half an hour) to get our tickets despite the super long queue. Try that in GSC MidValley - I was crazy enough to be stuck in the queue for 2 hours with all counters opened. And oh, did I mention that only two vending machines (the other two ran out of tickets I supposed, because they were working when I joined the queue *lol*) and a manned counter were functioning? *yeahsuemeforbeingbiased nehnehnehnehneh*

It's time to go! Wheeee~

See I told you, it was literally impossible to get clear, people-less shots anywhere!

We stopped by the Waterfront Station first.

Why? Because the casino was there! Hehe.

Since we were passport-holding foreigners, we were granted free entrance to the casino developed by Resorts World, a.k.a. our dear Genting. My first time visiting a casino... woo~ *sowhatifIhaven'tbeentotheGentingone* And dear YN got her passport scanned for the second time because she looked too young to enter I guess, although she is older than me. *dunno to be happy or sad*

Greeting us after the security checkpoints was a...

Mine!! In my dreams, that is. :P

Photography isn't allowed in the casino, but somehow I managed to capture the following decoration before shoving my camera back into my backpack for fear of it being confiscated. Hahaha.

The casino was grand, clean and chilly enough. YY said it was better than the one at Genting because you'd have to pass through the smoking area before getting to the non-smoking one whereas in Singapore, even the sensitive-nosed me couldn't smell a whiff of smoke.

Too bad, no photos. =(

There was even a Lady's Club, a cordoned area just for lady gamblers. There were many gambling tables with lots of people trying their luck. We stood at a few tables to watch them and were lucky enough to witness a Blackjack dealer busting for three times in a row! Poor girl, I suppose she would get it from the management soon. LOL. Pity I didn't plan to gamble or else if the dealer continued busting like that, I could have been few tens bucks richer muahaha. But then, I suppose it's always the sad case when it's really your turn, the luck would have "switched". Hmm.

There were free flow of coffee, Chinese tea and Milo wheeled around in carts for you to enjoy. There were also other carts serving biscuits too. All yours to take, no need to pay. Service at the Lady's Club was even better! The taitais all drank their tea from classy-looking Chinese mugs which were seen to contain ginseng tea in TVB costume dramas. LOL. And they didn't have to get their drinks/snacks from the carts; it would be brought up to them. How nice.

And oh, bottled drinking water was all yours to take, free-of-charge. The 250-ml bottle was kinda cute ~~that I thought of bringing it back for my sister and said that I bought it for her as a souvenir from Singapore LOL~~ and convenient, especially for travellers like us. Haha.

Guess what? We even went back into the casino again, before leaving Sentosa Island in the evening, just to get more of these bottled water. No need money mah, sure take 够本 lah! :P

Since we didn't lose a cent to the casino (as we didn't gamble), in one way or another, we actually "earned" a few cents, thanks to the bottles of water and biscuits we looted inside. Cheapskate, yeah I know. :P

Another scene that kinda touched our hearts. There was this wheelchair-ridden old lady who looked so weak, pale and sick. She was at the slots machines with a drip hanging from the wheelchair and a nurse or something. OMG. Sick until like that still wanna gamble, auntie you okay or not? ~.~

After leaving the casino, we went on to see the prestigious hotels around.

The beautifully-decorated ~~stair~~escalator-way with music and panels which change colours and images from time to time.

The hotels looked too glamourous to be affordable for us. LOL.

Super fat. LOL.

After that, it was time to get to the Imbiah Station to continue the tour of the real Sentosa Island. Haha.

Greeted by the fake Merlion which didn't had any water to spit. LOL.

Since the day would be too long to cover in one post, I had split it into two parts and the other activities we did on Sentosa Island would be in Part B. Stay tuned! :P

My Christmas 2010 Eat Drink Play Joy series:

Dec 24 - leaving on a jetplane

Kickstarting 2011 with the final travelogue of 2010

2011-01-01T03:19:00.002+08:00

Hey peeps! Happy 2011~!! How did you spend the last few minutes of 2010? Countdown? Clubbing/partying? As for me, I slumped my tired body in front of my laptop and did the Must-Do activities after a week-long of missing in action online: check email, catch up with news on Facebook and Google Reader and most importantly, IMPORT PHOTOS! Yeah~ because...

I'm back to the land where RM is the legal tender and I no longer have to multiply any amount of money with 2.4..! Hahahaha. Anyone wondered where I've been? Can you guess by now?

If not, let the photo below give you another hint... (please click on it for a bigger view)

Yeah, the kiasi me was so worried that I couldn't find the network map at the airport or MRT stations so I thought I better snap it off the screen of my laptop... just in case, you know. :P

So now you know where I went? Hehe.

As our day of departure fell on Christmas eve, we wanted to bypass the possible (or maybe even compulsory) human and traffic jam at the immigration checkpoints, hence we opted a flight of an hour over a bus ride of 6 hours excluding the unknown amount of time wasted on traffic congestion on the roads and immigration. Plus, the fare difference only came up to about RM50+ so we thought that it was an amount worth paying to skip all the pain and hassle.

We travelled on AirAsia - it was my first time taking an international flight with friends; YY and I took the StarShuttle bus which took us directly to the LCCT, KL from Ipoh.

RM42/person of the comfortable 3+ hours ride.

We arrived shortly after 6pm and met up with YN who came directly after work. Since our flight was scheduled at 8.10pm, we decided to grab a bite before checking in.

Settled down at Taste of Asia cafe after seeing the bursting crowd at Old Town White Coffee. LOL.

The twins had ~~coconut rice (as heard from the waiters ~.~)~~ nasi lemak which they claimed "not very nice".

My chicken rice which was just slightly acceptable. Sigh, what should we expect from cafes as such anyway? Haha.

After dinner, we check ourselves in at the self-check in kiosks at the airport. Since we only had a hand-carry each, it was pretty much hassle-free. It was time for boarding shortly after. When we queued at the departure gate, we heard announcements saying that the flight will be delayed due to operational errors (wtf is that?!). So I went to the washroom but upon entering, YN called to say that boarding was resumed. -_-"

We hurried past the departure gate into the aircraft, found our seats and buckled up. It wasn't long before the plane was moving a little. Then came another cock-up. The captain announced that the flight would be delayed due to runway congestion and that we would be able to take off at least half an hour later when the runway cleared. So typical of AirAsia for delays, eh? So many people ~~running off~~ leaving the country on Christmas eve, eh? LOL.

Thankfully though, the air-conditioning on board was kinda chilly or else we could all be killed by stuffiness. And thanks to Christmas eve, we get free (but cheap) sweets distributed by the air stewardesses. All in all, the flights was delayed for about an hour before we were cleared for takeoff and guess what? The supposedly-one hour flight made it to Changi Airport in merely half an hour! OMG, they sped up the flight whenever there are delays huh? Anyway, we should probably be counting our blessings because we arrived safe and sound. :P

And my photo of the SMRT network map was totally useless because 1) we found a comprehensive map of Singapore, complete with MRT stations and interchanges, at the airport; and 2) Sally, a very nice and sweet friend, insisted to go all the way to Changi to drive us to Molly's place in Woodlands, all because of her inability to accompany me or bring me out during my stay in Singapore as she was flying to Japan for a 2-week holiday the next day. *touched*

It was past 11pm when we arrived at Molly's. I changed my SIM card to a Singtel one, texted my parents to inform them of my arrival, bathed and called it a day to recharge my batteries for the start of our Christmas adventure! :D

So now you know where I went! Do follow my travel jottings this time round as I spread them over the coming month(s). I have lots of photos to share! :P

p/s: No 2010 flashbacks because those running through my memory are mostly painful and no 2011 resolutions because... they don't usually work for me. Haha. But still, I pray and wish and hope for a better year ahead. Gone with the suei!!!

A secret meeting in a secret garden...

2010-12-28T01:20:00.002+08:00

Since I'm away for almost a week, it's time to clear off some outstanding posts by writing a scheduled one. Hehe.

At lunch on one of the days during the semester, I was talking to Let when a piece of salmon I recently had crossed my mind. Haha. Naturally, I told her about it, since we were both hardcore fans of salmon - me, cooked and her, both cooked and sashimi. 择日不如撞日(Chinese, meaning "instead of picking a date, why not just today?"), she exclaimed, "Jom let's go have it tomorrow!" and me being me, I happily obliged. Hehe.

So after class on the following day, we visited some ongoing campaigns in the campus together before heading to Ipoh. And oh, the place where I had the first taste of the abovementioned salmon was none other than Secret Garden Living, Wine and Dine, a stylish restaurant in the day and a bistro by night.

Photos of the interior sucked (:P), so why don't we just look at the outside? :D

Some parts of the compound were still undergoing landscaping. But if it weren't a scorching hot day, it'd be quite a nice garden to hang out. Haha.

Like hungry ghosts, it didn't took us long to place our orders and be served. Both of us ordered set lunches which cost RM24.90 each.

Rich and thick pumpkin soup in which the sweetness of the pumpkin could be tasted so clearly. Awesome.

Garlic toasts to go with the soup or eaten on its own. Just normal.

Pan fried salmon served on a bed of potato wedges, carrots and broccoli. Nicely grilled but I was a bit disappointed because it was served on a bed of mashed potatoes with cream of broccoli gravy on the first time I had it, and it complemented the salmon way better than potato wedges did.

I forgot the name of this chicken, but it was juicy, tender chicken breast wrapped around some minced meat, ham, mushrooms and some other forgotten ingredients, breaded and deep fried. Nicely done, especially the chicken part, though the meat itself could do with some extra seasoning.

A small piece of brownie (or was it chocolate cake?) each for dessert.

After slowly enjoying our lunch, we went to Jusco to shop for a while before leaving the car there and hopped across the street into De Garden. No prizes for guessing correctly where we went though. :P

Does this ring any bell?

PappaRich? No~

Surely you can guess by now?

HAHAHA YES! Strawberry Moments ♥~

We shared a cup of strawberry white coffee and a slice of their famed strudel.

Let's favourite strawberry milkshake which I didn't like due to its strong milky taste. It was supposed to be good, but the lactose-intolerant me thought otherwise. :P

It was an enjoyable "high tea"; we sat, flipped through magazines, chatted... blissful moments. We went back to Kampar thereafter, bloated and satisfied.

And that's about all, I guess. I'll be back in a few days, I think. Till then, take care! =)

Thoughts and Thinking in Reality's Sixth Anniversary!

2010-12-24T01:10:00.005+08:00

Another 365 days had past since this post. Yes, it's once again the "bloggiversary" of my little space... and unlike the past two years, I'm punctual this time! Wahahaha~

Thoughts and Thinking in Reality has been around for six whole years. OMG. A bit unbelievable. And since ~~birthdays~~ blog anniversaries are almost the same every year - meaning the state of mind and feelings should almost be the same :P - I'll save you from the customary ~~sob stories~~ Thank Yous and stuffs. You know that I'm still thankful for your support all these while, right? Hehe.

So... before I leave on a jetplane (:D :D) some 18 hours later, I would like to wish my blog...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

~~6 years old... can attend kindergarten lo!! Hehe.~~

as well as my dearest friends and readers...

MERRY CHRISTMAS & HAPPY 2011!!!

Enjoy the holidays, have lots of fun, take care, stay safe and see you next year. ;-)

Japanese dinner @ Mokuren

2010-12-21T01:13:00.000+08:00

My voice is a bit hoarse now, thanks to the five hours of karaoke with Yeang just now. Muahaha. We *heart* karaoke. :P

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Picking up from where I left off a month ago (omg!)... after karaoke with Let. Yeah, haha. Both of us weren't too hungry but we didn't want to wait till we reached Kampar for food. Hence, we went to a Japanese restaurant where we have never been to.

Mokuren - that's where we went.

They have Japanese-style seats!

The shop had a nice and comfortable interior design. Even their cutlery looked pretty too!

Nice right? Hehe.

As both of us weren't very hungry, we just ordered the following to share:-

This one was best! The accompanying sourish sauce was sooooo wonderfully appetizing and the fried mini anchovies sprinkled on top accompanied the cold tofu cubes, tomatoes and greens sooooo well. We finished every drop of the sauce! Muahaha~

A thick slab of well-grilled salmon. *burps*

This was just so-so. The rice lacked the texture sushi rice should have and the mayo tasted a bit weird for me. But it was edible though.

Total damage? RM50. Kinda pricey huh. But the salad made it so worthwhile. I think we'll go back someday for it. :D

After the satisfying dinner, we went back to Kampar and called it a day.

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I'm bringing my sister for a movie tomorrow. O_o

End of short semester.

2010-12-18T20:19:00.001+08:00

Indeed, the semester was a really short one. Although I was ~~alone~~ minding my own business most of the time, 7 weeks flew past. I lived more of a solitary life this semester and found the peacefulness somewhat a bliss. Hehe.

The semester officially came to an end for me yesterday, right after we were instructed to stop writing and put down our pens. I sat for two papers this semester, and let's just do a very short recap:-

Tuesday's UAMP 3064 was the toughest paper for this semester because I had many inches (yes, I measured it in inches) of handouts finely-printed on double-page A4 paper to read, excluding four chapters (with an average of 30 pages per chapter) from the textbook. The paper wasn't too tough, but it wasn't a piece of cake either. I wrote and wrote and wrote, but for some questions, I didn't even know what I was writing. It was like, writing for the sake of not handing in blank sheets of paper. Haha. I couldn't think of so many points for a few sub-questions, so I just beat around the bush, elaborating ~~until Holland~~ in such a way that there seemed like three points when actually, I felt it was the same point. LOL. Oh well, it's now history. With my coursework mark of 30/40, I hope I won't fail this paper. =X

Yesterday's UAMA 2013 was a subject which didn't require studying. An advertising paper which required us to come up with ads and campaigns for two different companies in two hours. My handwriting looked ghostly. LOL. And you could say that I didn't manage to finish in time as the last part was scribbled without anything passing through my thoughts. Many people didn't have enough time anyway, as evilly foretold by the lecturer herself. -_- My coursework marks stood at 39/50, meaning I need only to gain 22% from the paper to pass. *fingers crossed*

And oh, yesterday's paper marked the end of advertising subjects in our remaining course structure. Two years fiddling with it, but too bad, I still couldn't bring myself to like it at all. Haha. So yeah, good riddance to bad rubbish... bye bye Advertising! *uncorks champagne and sprays around*

One more thing - just a little note before I end my post. If... just only IF everything goes smoothly according to my plans, this could very well be my final short semester until the end of my undergraduate studies. As whether this "if" would come true or not, let's just pray and hope and keep our fingers crossed first. *wink wink*

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I know, this is somehow too random, but I really wanna clear the photos in my folders which have been left to collect dust for like, more than a year? LOL.

Just some biscuits I used to fancy very much during those times. Not that I grew out of it now, it's simply because my dad doesn't buy them back anymore these days. Haha.

I'm not sure if they're common or not, but my dad buys them from Taiping. And I don't find them in Ipoh. Nope, not at the places I go to, anyway. Haha.

A must-try for sesame seed lovers because its surface is packed with sesame seeds! Daddy says sesame seeds are good for ~~children~~ us. :P

Fragrantly crispy, best when fresh. Perfect on its own or with coffee. By the way, I love this shot. Haha.

Study leave ramblings

2010-12-09T22:35:00.003+08:00

选择了目前的艰辛不理会他人的眼光孤军作战
务求可以早几个月离开那人少鬼多的是非地
我... 还能支持多久呢？真的做到吗？
何时才能给我一个肯定，是值得的？

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Yes, I'm bored of munching on notes sprinkled with sleeping powder. And I suspect that the invisible elf deliberately sprinkles an extra bag on every page every time it rains.

I'm getting older. Lots of non-fictional, small font-sized words on a single page make me grow restless very quickly. In case you're wondering, I've moved on from lecture handouts to full text excerpts from highly recommended "scholarly books", not to mention there is still a stack of journals and a few textbook chapters waiting for me. OMG.

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I went out with the twins on Tuesday to buy our Ipoh-LCCT bus tickets. We wanted to go to Pasta House for lunch but it was closed. Then, YN wanted to go to Purple Cane Tea House. So yeah, there I was, again.

(top) Pu-erh tea and spicy tea egg a.k.a. 辣味茶叶蛋.
(bottom) Lotus tea soup a.k.a. 莲藕茶汤.

(clockwise from top left) Black tea curry chicken (红茶咖喱鸡), oolong bak kut teh with rice vermicelli (乌龙肉骨茶米粉), some fried chicken with green tea mayo (铁公鸡附绿茶酱), longjing tea rice (龙井茶饭) and grainy steamed buns to go with the extra curry sauce (五谷包).

Uhh... I forgot to take photos of my own lei cha fried noodles (擂茶炒手工面). But you can view it from an older post. Hehe.

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It's time to get back to more textbook excerpts. Kthxbai.

Study leave...

2010-12-05T23:23:00.000+08:00

Hurrr... wasn't in the mood for updating all of a sudden. I was a bit busy with the last assignment of the semester which deadline fell on Friday. Classes for the semester came to an end after the presentation of the assignment and I went back to Ipoh for the commencement of my study leave.

The twins were back for emergency reasons and asked me out to yumcha. After countless times of failed arrangements with Let and Belinda, I finally turned the twins' invitation to yumcha to a movie date; and YY was excited about it even though they have long watched it in KL. O_o

I shall not go into details but overall it was okay lah. Certainly lived up to its expectations, probably because I totally couldn't recall the plot from the book (except the ending *lol*), so comparisons couldn't be made. The effect was okay, the plot made sense and the humour was enjoyed. Now, when is the finale coming out?! :D

It was out of my expectations that I could actually perform the pre-study leave "ritual" this time. But yeah, I'm contented and I have to start mugging soon. Till then, I suppose I won't be updating unless I got too bored of studying. Haha. Wish me luck! ;-)

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I went out on Thursday noon to a cyber cafe to get some stuffs done for our assignment. When I was on my way back home, I drove through McDonald's to buy myself the limited edition McChicken Supreme. The staff first passed me my Sprite and shortly later, the other package of burger. He said "thank you" and I drove off to realize they left out my French fries shortly after! As fries were filling and I was pretty hungry at that time, I turned back to McDonald's, where the Drive-Through window staff sheepishly apologized and asked me to wait for him to send my fries. Less than 10 minutes later, a staff sent me my French fries whilst I was waiting in the car. When I took off, guess what I saw? An extra packet of French fries! LOL. A way to say sorry eh?

That's why I ended up having too much French fries which I couldn't finish and had to keep it for dinner. Heated it up using the wok before making my eggy toasts, but still, it was soft already.

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When I was at my 四姑's last time, she gave me a few boxes of Rocky. Nope, not the ordinary chocolate- or strawberry-coated biscuit sticks, but rather...

... one coated with chocolate and crushed almonds!

Fuahhh~ something I've never seen before! I shared a box with my bro when I was at my grandma's, and IT WAS N-TIMES NICER THAN THE CONVENTIONAL ROCKY! Thinking that it must be something imported (because we always get fingerlicious, not-found-in-Malaysia delicacies from 四姑 whose husband is a Taiwanese :D), I got the ultimate shock when strolling along the Japanese section of the Jusco supermarket after my Harry Potter movie.

Why? It bloody costs RM4.90 per box for only a few sticks (lesser than the normal chocolate/strawberry-coated ones which cost RM1.50-RM1.90 each). O M F G !

Okay I told gor we shall just wait for 四姑 to supply us with more in the future instead of digging it out and buy it ourselves. LOL.

Tiring weekend

2010-11-29T18:11:00.000+08:00

Many things - assignments, grouping problems for next year, etc - happened last week and it left me feeling very exhausted - mentally, that was. Wanting to get away from all the 是是非非 (crap, bullshit and whatnot), I volunteered to be my dad's co-driver on his journey for the weekend, since my mum and sisters wouldn't be following him.

As I didn't really have enough sleep for almost the whole week, I was rather tired on Friday morning. I was half an hour late for class, after an hour's talk with my HOD, but I learnt that the tutor just entered class like, 5-10 minutes before me? So yeah, I didn't miss out much. :P

Class ended early so I rushed to Gopeng to look for my sister, collecting her dirty laundry to bring home besides packing lunch for her. When I was on the highway to Ipoh, I was caught in a 10-minutes traffic jam due to the bottleneck caused by road repairing works. Thank goodness the engine temperature didn't raise too much, or else... *don't dare to think of the consequences*. My car is old. Haha.

Arrived in front of my house at the same time with my dad and off we went for lunch. I came home and went online to begin my download spree. In the meantime, I chatted with my mum and it was before long that I became a dead log on the sofa. Woke up for an early dinner and then, it was time to head to KL.

I wanted to meet the twins but YN was busy so I called off the yumcha session. Instead, I followed my dad, 四姑 and younger cousin brother to a ceremonious ritual thingy for people who have died for a certain number of days. They call it 公德 in Chinese; I'm not really sure about the whole thing, so I just followed to have a look, since I've not attend such ceremonies before.

The deceased was the mother-in-law of my 二姑. As the family was really well-off, the event was done in a freaking huge scale on their own vast piece of land. I regret for not tagging my camera along to capture pictures of the grand, three-storey "house" they were going to burn for the deceased. Besides the well-lit and well-decorated mansion, there were also two rows of shophouses so that the deceased can "collect rent to earn more money down there". It's like, the family of my 二姑丈 owns many businesses and properties can be considered as the main one, so now even if their mother has passed away, she has to continue what they do for a living down there? So "wow" eh? Haha.

Few tens of tables (that can seat 10 pax) were set under canopies with powerful fans for guests to sit down when the ritual involving family members only were going on. Once you are seated around a table, helpers would appear suddenly from nowhere, placing four big plates - fried chicken wings, choy sum, pork ribs with black fungus, fried noodles - and a big bowl of soup with fish maw and fishballs on the table. The servings were frighteningly big and all the food were of standard. Tasted damn good but too bad we already had our dinner before going, so we just finished the plate of veggies and only managed a bit of everything else. I felt so bad when they cleared our tables because the leftovers were just poured into a plate together to be thrown away or fed to stray dogs and cats, maybe? 四姑 said, "人家在那边做公德，你们就在这边失德。做么你没有带 Tupperware?". LOL. No choice, we didn't know such "heavy" food would be served and the waiters didn't bother to take it away when we said we didn't want 'em. ~_~

While waiting for the prayers and chantings to end so that we can talk to my 二姑, the rest of us just sat around the table with my 大伯 and his wife who were already there, talking about a variety of stuffs on high volume and laughing on an even higher volume. By the time we returned to my 四姑's house, bathed and got ready to sleep, it was already 1am.

Woke up at 6.30am the next morning (Saturday) and left after washing up. My dad and I went to PJ to pick up my 大姑 and her youngest son. Had breakfast at her place before heading to Melaka; my 小姑 underwent an operation in one of the hospitals there and would be discharged that morning, so we went to visit her and send her back to my grandmother's house in Johor. The checkout progress was quite slow because it involved insurance-claiming, so we went to a nearby stall for its good curry laksa while waiting and even took away the famous curry puffs for my grandmother. Haha.

It was way past 2.30pm when we reached my grandmother's house. After a late lunch, my dad was too tired to even move. 大姑 wanted to go out but due to several reasons (she dare not drive as she hasn't been driving for a few years; her son couldn't drive 小姑's manual car; my dad didn't mind lending them his car but I think he preferred that I be the driver because I'm more familiar with the car), I had to drive them out. It was actually my first time driving in my dad's hometown where I normally have the privilege to be a passenger. The scary part was... it wasn't my car which I'm most familiar with. Haha.

大姑 seemed insecured to have me as the driver but she didn't have other choices. Like it or not, their lives were at my stake. Haha. I hated the fact that she treated me like a rookie, pointing out this and that, as though I didn't know how to drive. Hello auntie, the three-year CDL of your niece here is expiring next May and she has been driving consistently for more than two years (almost two years on highways and trunk roads). She's way more experienced than your son who has just started to drive a few months ago although he obtained his license earlier than your niece... why you so kiasi?!

I had no problem ~~because I treated as though my aunt was singing ~.~~~ and drove them to many places that it was almost dinner time shortly after we arrived home. After dinner, we sat in the living room to watch TV. When the adults went into 小姑's room to talk, my bro, my cousin and me went into my bro's room to copy and transfer dramas besides watching a few Youtube clips. It was until midnight when we went out for yumcha at the railway station. Gor said the nasi lemak was good so I wanted to have a try. Sat there for three hours until the stall had to close, first with me bitching about the dramas in which I was part of the cast and then us, chatting about random stuffs. Damn wonderful feeling that was, to be able to pour all out to non-judgmental listeners, with whom I can be my 100% original self.

When we went home, my cousin fell flat on the bed when my bro and I took turns to bath. Since my hair was wet, we sat in the living room and chatted while waiting for my hair to dry. It turned out that we chatted from the living room way to the kitchen, until we could hear the cocks crowing (indicating it's dawn) and our grandmother woke up. OMG LOL. Hahaha~

So we went to bed and I was awaken at 10.30am, where I had a quarter of a bao and after all the holdups and dilly-dallies, we finally made our way back, dropping 大姑 and her son back to PJ before shooting way back to Ipoh, arriving just in time to see my mum cooking dinner.

When I finally sat down in front of my laptop to type this post, a software download of mine turned out to be the ThinkPoint virus, so I spent hours Googling for healing remedies and the execution of it. By the time I was done, I was kinda tired so I went to bath and slept.

It was indeed a tiring weekend, because I was supposed to wake up at 8.30am today to register for my subjects next semester but after snoozing my alarm, it never rang and it was past 11am when I regained my consciousness... T_T But thankfully though, although I didn't manage to get the time slots I wanted for two subjects, my timetable is still a satisfactory one, despite I'd like it even more if it's a three-days week instead of the current four-days. Haha. On the brighter side though, I learnt that quite a number of people who woke up in time for the registration didn't manage to get their desired time too, so I guess I didn't lose out much. Haha.

I will drive back to Kampar after having my home-cooked dinner later, for the last week of classes before study leave. I foresee that it will be a busy week... so wish me luck!

p/s: I wished I've brought my camera so that this post wouldn't be no pictures, talk only. =(