Basic Life

Talk of Tea, House Paint and Nasi Lemak

2011-03-09T12:33:00.004+08:00

Lau Pans and Lau Pan Nians of Tea Cars

I dunno about other countries, perhaps they have their movable ice cream trucks, their hawker stands on motorbikes but here in KB, we have what is normally referred to as ‘Tea Car’. Now it’s not what you think. It’s not the kind of car you step up to get your chai latte on.

Usually it’s a long wagon vehicle (mostly Toyota corolla from the 1970’s) with the back seat put down and the back would be loaded with trays filled with all sorts of breakfast-able yummies. It varies from car to car but usually you would find kolo mee, kuey teow, nasi lemak, kuih of all sorts, coffee, tea, soft drinks and cold water.

When I was a kid this was like some kind of ‘special’ car, a travelling kopi tiam, and my first encounter with them is when I was brought to my dad’s work place – construction sites.

Construction of a Kid’s Memory

Dad paints houses and more often than not, he would pick me up after school and I would end up amusing myself in construction sites. Now you’d think it’s dangerous but not really, cuz see by the time the painters, like dad, comes in to paint the house, all the big and dangerous stuff are done, like brick layering and cementing.

Most of the projects dad worked on was those grand houses ordered by rich people. So you can imagine what fun a 10 yr old had imagining herself as a damsel in distress on a particular romantic balcony, or holding a impromptu production of Ali Ba Ba and the forty thieves along dark hallways with multiple rooms.

But what most amused me were the designs of the houses and materials used. Some were very lavish and grand while others were simple and chic. The tiles and glass used were often very pretty and unusual.

It was fun to imagine the kind of people that were going to inhabit these houses. I use to wonder how they could live with so much space and so many rooms. There was even one house with a water fountain inside with a small pond for fish. Sometimes I would play ‘dollhouse’ where I would picture mommy and daddy room is where and how they would decorate it, and same goes for all the other areas of the house. I even have their gardens planned out! Lol.

Dad would usually let me alone roaming about the house as long as I don’t wander too far off. All the other uncles working at the house are dad’s friends so sometimes they would give me little chores to do like sorting out tiles (wait, was that a chore or just something to get me out of their way? Hmmm).

Just One More Piece of Yummy

It was during these lazy afternoons that the tea cars would roll over around 3-ish and sold their goodies.

I remember where was one uncle whose car was literally filled to the brim with food. He had siu mai, chu chang fen, kolo mee, kuey teow, lo pak kuih, wu tou kuih, chai kuih, really, almost everything you can possibly imagine. His coffee and tea are already made in large water dispensers and if you want one, he would rip off a plastic bag, fill it up with either tea or coffee (your choice) and stick a straw into it before handing it to you.

All his stuff was delicious! Even now I can still recall how almost everything was my ‘favourite’, hahaha, kind of a pressure for a 10 yr old to pick just ONE with the single dollar she got from her dad. The uncle was very kind though and always gave me an extra piece of siew mai or chai kuih. I wonder if his family is still doing the same business today. I heard from my colleague when she was working in KB a couple of years ago, the old uncle was still there making the usual rounds. Bless him.

Present Day Tea Masters and Mistresses

Today the tea car in my work place just recently changed from a Chinese aunty (I miss her kolo mee) to a Malay uncle. I really didn’t know there are malays out there making tea car rounds. Not that I’m racist or anything but I’ve always thought the tea car business being a ‘Chinese’ thing, you know, like kolo mee and lion dance.

But now dawns a new era I guess (or maybe there were malay tea car but I just didn’t know until now) and the uncle now catering to our area offers stuff that his wife personally makes, like nasi lemak, mee or mee hoon goreng, curry puff, cucur pisang and other malay kuih of all sorts. To me this is equally yummy and came to a point where I have to watch what I eat cuz it’s all very tempting! Even the vehicle updated, his car is a Toyota Avanza.

Even though I miss the days of long ago, the quaintness of it all, the practice is still very much alive today and although it’s not the same as those of yesteryear, but still, time moves on and when one door closes, another opens.

Besides, uncle’s nasi lemak is pretty good especially with a dash of limau with the sambal ~ delish! ^_^

Weekly Program

2011-02-24T12:21:00.002+08:00

Lately been so busy at work that I haven’t had time for anything else, much less updating my blog. You wanna know my weekly schedule?

Monday – work and Bible Study (which I haven’t been able to attend due to functions, food poisoning, sprained ankle, etc)

Tuesday – work and free time. Usually a movie / surfing the net / reading.

Wednesday – work and Vicarate of Young Adult Faith Formation

Thursday – work and free time. Usually a movie / surfing the net / reading.

Friday – work and perhaps dropping by my Godmother’s house to review the
Sunday School lesson and activities. Otherwise it’s reviewing the coming Monday Bible study’s lesson.

Saturday – sometimes work, sometimes free time, sometimes errands, it’s varies depending on what my family wants me to do. Sometimes I accompany mum to shop at the open air market. It’s real interesting to see the many types of produce the local farmers sell here. Mom greets many of the vendors and haggle like a true pro in all her housewifery glory. Sometimes I spend the evening at Pat’s kitchen with Shikin for a chat fest. It's fun when their boys are around cuz they are just adorable! XD

Sunday – church, Sunday school and afternoon off. This is the only true relaxing afternoon of which I treat myself to a movie/anime/series session on the couch. Evening I sometimes spend with Pat and Shiking but more likely I’ll be at home, getting ready to start another week.

Other than that I also try to make time to read the daily gospel everyday and recite rosary at least once a week (which is usually taken care of every Wednesday with the VYA faith formation). Once Father Dominic advised to keep a spiritual journal of sorts and I’m trying to do as well. Plus I got a couple of books (okay, I admit, more than just a couple…) I want to finish off when I got the time.

There is an interesting one that Aunty J lent me to read titled, ‘The Purpose Driven Life’ which has a 40 days plan, so thinking about reading that through Lent.

I’m not saying I’m getting all of this done. Sometimes I miss out on a few. However, it’s comforting to me when I get some done and I feel better in a way that I cannot explain. A spiritual fulfillment? Perhaps. I’m not too sure about it myself. But I do know this, I have become happier every passing day. I fret less and forgive more. My stress level continues to fluctuate but it no longer bothers me as much as it use to. So I guess, things are getting better everyday and I have Him to thank for it. ^_^

YEAR 2011

2011-01-09T14:58:00.009+08:00

I won’t talk about why I’ve been MIA from the blog sphere for so long (laziness) or what I’ve been doing all this time (gaming/work) but important thing is now I’m updating (Ya!). So let’s talk about my plans for 2011.

Religion

Ooo…I’m getting back to my religious roots. Yes, I’m relearning, reviving and recognizing my faith again. What is my religious vocation? I have no idea and I’ve learned even though it’s important for me to realize what’s my calling but it’s also alright to take it one step at a time. If I try too hard and too fast, it’s most likely I’d trip or fumble and lost hold of something dear which has had happened before, so I’m not going to make the same mistake twice.

I’m a roman catholic. I’ve been out of touch for so long, a few people were surprised when they found out. (=.=) But that doesn’t matter really. What is important is that now I’m enjoying what I’m doing and I hope what I’m doing is according to the Lord’s plan (most probably it is whether I know it or not. Lol)

My goals religiously this year?

- Attend Vicarate of Young Adults regularly and learn
- Teach Sunday School for Year 6 with my Godmother
- Help with the youth program at St John’s Church
- Participate in World Youth Day 2011 in Madrid Spain
- Hope to help out in the next CHOICE
- Join in more Taize

This year the Festival of Praise will be held in SJC which would mean a lot of busy going on. I have so many fond memories of Fest of Praise ’99 so I am willing to do anything I can to help out the committee this year.

Work

To do better despite of whatever negativity I might encounter this year! Gambatte!

Also just on a side note, I’m prepped to do some English tuition this year to earn a bit more for my World Youth Day 2011 fund. I need 4k to go. GAMBATTE!

Health

Doc actually said my BP is borderline. Ouch. You know, over 6 years at my other job, my health was alright, even though I am overweight but it was still alright. Now with this new job (baru 2 years kalia) suddenly doc says my BP is teetering on the edge of high? Huh, figures.

It’s okay, cuz I want to lose weight anyway. I need to get fit for World Youth Day cuz there will be a lot of walking, a – lot – lot – lot of walking. So yeah, better be prepared.

Now I’m trying out a new diet thing called ‘The Right Approach’ or ‘TRA’ from Pharmanex (with NuSkin). Basically I eat a regular breakfast (cereal or bread), then good balanced lunch (rice, meat, veg and fruit) and night time I can only have fruits or veg. Through out the day I take about 29 pills of supplements and night time I drink a cup of their protein shake formula. I also apply a kind of slimming/body shaping cream on every morning and night.

I haven’t lost one pound at all.

BUT, my measurements went down. I have more energy to do stuff now (don’t feel so blah.) My memory improved (true). I also don’t feel so bloated anymore.

Oh pls don’t get me wrong. I’m not promoting ‘TRA’ or anything. I’m just saying I’m doing whatever I can to get into better shape. The next step is to actually do some exercise. Yeah, my measurements went down despite I didn’t do any exercise at all.

Of course, once in a while I treat myself to some good eating, like sushi and cake. I ain’t doing this to cut myself off and thus making myself miserable. Moderation is the key word here. Like today I had a good lunch at Wy Wy cuz my aunt wanted to treat us but I have a function at Cottage tonite, so what I do is I eat a lot of veg, soup, fruit and little fish maybe. Nothing fried or crab loaded.

So that's what I'm up to for this year. I pray I get 2/3 of this list done at least. Hahaha! HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! ^_^

There's a Calm Before a Storm

2010-05-23T00:26:00.003+08:00

Last night I was chatting with someone whose opinion I respect. He has a blunt frankness about him which is refreshing, and it is thanks to his awakening insight that has made me come to realization with myself at some level.

I shall not divulge in specifics as it was at the time 2.30 in the morning and I must admit details are a little fuzzy right now. When I woke at the sound of rain beating against my roof and window, I find the interesting coincidence I am in as I’ve always been partial to rainy weather. Its like nature’s way to wash the grit and grime of yesterday. It possesses the astonishing ability to refresh the living. Introducing new sounds and smells around me. The chill, the coziness it brings, enhances the warmth and protection I feel within my home.

It was with such awareness that has taken root deep in my mind and began to grow, even though it is a barren wasteland, perhaps from years of neglect and abuse of my part. So many things I could enrich myself with and yet haven’t done so. I haven’t studied as I want to study. I mean to begin afresh. Like rain, my friend’s curt and perhaps bruising honesty washed the dust and watered the ground.

We have discussed at length the differences between belief and faith. What romanticisms we have in life, general or otherwise. Along those lines came the discussion of trust. A moral value I’ve long lost in the opposite sex. It is with my negativity and distrust that has caused me to lose something precious to me before. Although I hope it is not forever lost but I have monsters of my own to tame before I can re-establish anything.

First thing first is to have faith and belief in myself before anything else. More or not, I would like to have faith in myself again as belief can be fleeting whereas faith is lasting. Perhaps with belief and faith in myself again, I can come to love myself. For how can a person give love and deserve love in return if she doesn’t love herself in the first place?

Bread - Its Sticks, Just Got Sticker - Part II

2010-05-09T23:12:00.005+08:00

Okay, so I found another bread recipe online for dinner rolls. Who doesn’t love dinner rolls? You can have them with almost anything, right?

But wait… this dough called for 3.3/4 cups of all purpose flour.

Now we all know what all purpose flour is for. It’s for everything from baking cakes to making sauce, so how come it’s being used for bread rolls? All purpose flour has very little, if at all, protein and gluten formation possibilities. Every time the tiny bacteria eats the protein and churns out CO2, it ain’t gonna get trapped in the dough.

I don’t want that to happen, and yet this recipe states it so. Hmmm…so going with my gut instinct, I reduced 1.3/4 cup of the all purpose and added the same amount of bread flour into it.

And when to work beating the hell out of the dough.

This is really messy work so forgive me if I didn’t take an pics of the dough and all that. I really need a solid kitchen table to work the dough. The one I have in the kitchen is unacceptable work surface, with all the paint flaking and cracks, nuh uh. The counters which are solid however, are all occupied to the max with my mother’s collection of kitchen appliances and quaint ‘might needs’. Like the 3 blenders, or the 2 juicers, and for the love of Martha Stewart, throw that broken scale already. She has a new one from last Christmas and yet the old one is still there, occupying space.

I know, perhaps one day, God willing, I would own a place of my own and perhaps clutter my own kitchen the same way. By that time I will give permission to whoever resides with me to question and in certain extreme cases, take action when necessary (like calling my mother for instance).

*Ahem* But I digress, back to the dough.

To my pleasant surprise it raised rather nicely. Although a bit smaller than I liked. The loaf earlier on was only 1 cup of flour and yet rose twice the size this one is, but then size doesn’t matter, its how you handle it. It ended up even smaller once I punched it lightly for the 2nd rising.

After the 2nd rising, gently took it out, shaped it, cut it into small mounds and rolled it into a semblance of a ball and placed them in greased trays. I also painted some egg yolk over each just for the colour and shine.

Into the oven.

Okay, this recipe had butter and sugar, so it bakes rather fast…which I forgot when I went into my room for a break and was lost in the internet reading on more bread science.

By the time I remembered, the 1st batch’s bottom was burnt. Awww crap. In goes the 2nd and 3rd batch.

Now the 3rd batch, I ran out of baking trays (the 1st one still cooling) so I used a muffin tray and put in smaller balls of dough in there. The 2nd and 3rd batch came out rather well.

The rolls went kind of flat during the baking process and when I cracked one open, there’s no sense of gluten in it at all.

See when you break bread, you have the gluten stretching against the pull. You can feel it, especially when you bite into it and with all the pockets the gluten makes, the bread is soft and fluffy.

Mine was not.

Yet… it kinda was.

Kind of hard to describe, it had a strange consistency between a muffin and a dinner roll. This I blame on the all purpose flour. Think about it, the recipe that uses all purpose flour, butter, eggs and sugar, can be made into muffins, cakes or pancakes, but if you add yeast to it, it makes dinner rolls? Doesn’t add up.

So I learned my lesson to trust my gut instinct more and to use more bread flour the next round.

Glad to say though that this time, despite the confusing texture, the taste was good. The 3rd batch of the mini bread bits in shape of the muffin tray was gone by the time I remembered to take pictures.

^_^

This time, even mom liked the taste. Heh.

PS: I would've uploaded 2 more pics but for some reason I keep getting an error whenever I try. Could be my crappy connection. It's been acting up these past 3 days.

Bread - It Sticks (Part 1)

2010-03-29T20:42:00.006+08:00

For the past two weeks I’ve been diligently applying myself in the study of the art of bread making. I mean, how hard can it be? Flour, yeast, salt and water, mix mix mix, leave it to ‘grow’ then bake. Right?

At least that’s what I thought before I found out I don’t even have the right type of flour in the house. Not to mention the yeast is at least 3 yrs old and probably all the little buggers have retired and died.

Never mind, just means a quick stop at supa save. Lets see, bread flour. I must get good bread flour high in protein so the little critters in the yeast would have plenty to eat and burp carbon dioxide to form the little pockets that makes the bread light, big and poofy. High protein also meant it’s easier for gluten to form during the kneading process.

I never kneaded anything in my life before. Can’t be all that bad.

Turns out there’s more to do before I can actually make the bread. See, there’s this stage where you make the ‘sponge’ or ‘spool’ or is it ‘spooge’? Whatever, it’s a pre mix of yeast, flour and water you mix, knead and let it rise in the fridge (yes fridge) over night. This helps make a better bread because the more you let a dough sit, the better the flavour. However can’t let the bread sit for too long or else it would have a beer like kind of taste. Therefore a ‘sponge’ is recommended.

Now for the actual bread making. Flour, water, yeast, salt, ‘spooge’ (or is it ‘sponge’?) = one yucky goopey mess. I don’t know what I did wrong but should it be that sticky and goop like? I thought I was making bread, not Slimer. Maybe the gluten hasn’t formed enough, I kept kneading but the dough refused to cooperate. 20 mins later my arms ached, my table was covered in flour and the dough which I have fondly named ‘damn blob’ sat there like a smug overstuffed fat kid on Halloween.

Flour, yes, perhaps it needs more flour. So I kept adding, until it started looking like a more manageable dough. Cut it into 3 parts, and put them into the pan for one final rise before popping into the oven.

One hour and a half later, the lovely smell of baked bread wafted through my mother’s kitchen. It had this wholesome bread smell, like toast, only better.

I took it out and poked it. Actually, poking is an understatement, the crust was so hard, when I wanted to let it cool on the side, it actually fell out of the pan and went ‘KLUNK!’ on the table.

The crust was [this-thick] and slicing it was like sawing a log. Inside was brown and spongy and a little undercooked. Well, so much for ‘mastering the art of baking’ and dreams of making little mouth watering buns.

The final blow was from my own mother. “Smells nice, doesn’t taste so great though. I make better bread than this.”

Okay, I admit, my first loaf of bread isn’t that impressive but still, ouch!

So I swore to keep on trying until my mother admits that I too can make good bread, or at least in par with hers.

- To be continued -

Travelling The Emerald Green Road

2009-11-23T21:55:00.017+08:00

Honestly speaking ... there's not much to do around in the old Belait town. Okay, well there probably is but nothing that sparks my interests much.

However, I was keen on getting reaquainted with the abundant nature that is dominantly the most available form of distraction the district has to offer. (Despite the fact I haven't stepped on a hiking trail since my mom dragged my sorry arse through hill and hell at Shah Bandar.)

I went to Sungai Liang with my family for my dad's 60th brithday.

It was a picnic celebration and I know my dad hasn't done much hiking eventhough he loves nature. I think it's because he rather have some company while he hikes. I remember well enough he use to bring me to the Sungai Liang forest reserve all the thime when I was kid. My brother as well but I don't know if he still remembers though. After every hike, my father would end the trip with a break at a kopi shop where he, my brother and I would always order roti.

I remember often enough there were often birds singing to one another in the forests. I once brought out my recorder just for kicks to see if I can get any reaction and I DID get one! It was amazing for me, a 15yr old, to be playing a recorder in the middle of the rainforest and have a bird replying back! Dad was impressed which was saying something cuz he can also make birds reply by picking up a leaf and making all sorts of whistles out of it.

Last trip we went, he picked up a different kind of leaf and make monkey shrieks. I tot it was for real! Cuz dad was ahead of us and I didn't see what he was doing. I tot there were real monkeys ahead! Dad thought it was a real hoot and continued making the noise all the way until we saw a real monkey, sitting on top of a rotting trunk some 10 meters away from us. I was scared it would try to attack us for food.

Some tourists and hikers leave food for the monkeys and think its' a real hoot but I consider this as a bad habit cuz then wild monkeys would associate humans with food and one day might become more aggrassive in search of it. Once at shah bandar I saw this 5 yr old tossing bits of food at the monkeys and having fun until one of the bigger monkeys dashed up to her and snatched the whole bag out of her hands. Totally shocked her. I just thank God the others didn't follow suit and search the kid for more food. So, remember, don't feed any wild animals.

Moving on...

I forgot how beautiful our rainforests are. It's like being in an entirely different world. Granted the Sungai Liang forest reserve is pretty tame compared to some of the bigger forests reserves in Labi and Temburong but at least they leave most of the wild alone.

Tall majestic trees surrounds the path which is concrete but because it's ben there so long, it's turned into a pretty emerald colour which suits the surrounds (however kind of dangerous if wet). The canopy overhead gave us a pretty good shelter from the fierce sun and felt like we were travelling through a kingdom of unfathomable complexity because there is something of interest in almost every 5 meters or so.

I dunno why but I was delighted to find the many wild fruits growing there such as durian, rambutan, jackfruit and bread fruit.

Hiking there is relatively easy, so easy that even I can go for one round and still be able to enjoy my surroundings without suffering too much. Haha. I managed to take some pretty nice pics too. Was so glad I decided to take my Lumix with me.

There were a lot of people there as well, some swimming (yuck!) in the pool filled with the natural water, bbq-ing on the side and hiking about. I didn't realise there would be so many people into the park these days. I guess it's because Bruneians are becoming more health conscious now and are taking full advantage of their natural surroundings.

Still, I rather enjoy a slow pace and lovely scenery than trying to work my butt off climbing a steep thing only to be passed by an ah pek hiking up the trail like some shirvelled up mountain goat on speed. Jialat.

Anyhoo...I've really enjoyed taking pictures while hiking and got some really nice pics! Hope you like them as much I do. ^_^ I think some are just fantastic!

Just In Time

2009-11-22T00:21:00.008+08:00

I must admit that lately I've been neglecting many things.

*not because I was all the time fishing*

Even stuff that I'm most fond of. Reading, drawing, gaming, Chou Sing Tze movies...

Admittedly everything isn't peaches and cream but eventually it will be. I'll let you know why.

Beacause I'm on a break now. A lovely, relaxing, 10 days of blissful NOTHING.

*This is how I look napping, with no make up, on a fishing trip with my family, deal with it.* ***Takes mental note to kill sister who took this picture while I was asleep.***

That's right, since I don't have the time (mostly) to do what I want, then I take the time to devote myself solely in the spoiling of, yes you guessed it, MYSELF.

Although I must say, what time I did have during the weekends are well spent with my family and the occasionally weekend work demands but the rewards are far greater with grateful work colleagues and even more importantly, my relationship with my family.

Sad to say the 6 years I spent living on my own in Bandar made me rather blind to the changes that has happened in my family. Or perhaps it is I that have changed. Perhaps I have matured enough to see.

Whatever the case maybe, I felt it was a good move for me to live back and relate again with my family despite whatever moanings and groanings you might have heard from me. My itchy scratchy relationship with my mother is as static as ever however, we've grown accustomed to it and has even evolved to a sort of comfortable, abliet slightly bitter, banter between mother and daughter.

My father is more or less the same fella, although now he's growing more like those old men you see in the movies who likes to sit around, day dream a bit with a cig in hand and a cold beer on the table. He is now doing more gradening, a new hobby he's picked up over the last couple of years which I'm happy to see. Granted fishing is fun but I feel more secure to know he's at home instead of out in some cold wet spot, exposed to bugs and snakes and God knows what else. Not that he can't take care of himself, dad is a regular trooper when it comes to the outdoors, but he's not getting any younger and I rather he be close by.

My brother has grown more annoying than I could possibly imagine. I believe it's my mother's way of compensating for the amount of intelligence I have when she gave birth to me. Somewhere in her, tiny motherly cells were telling her to hold off on the IQ department when she was suffering from the smart mouth of her 4yr old first born. Therefore she has made her next born, my brother, more brawny than brainy. Although, she does have the tendacy to over do things a little bit. (Like too much grapefruit in the cheesecake she was making the other day.) I swear to you, my brother is an entirely new species of fruit altogether. Still, he is good at heart and his morals are straight eventhough not all the lights are on upstairs. He doesn't do drugs, steal or cheat, gamble or drink excessively. That much I am thankful for.

My adorable baby sisters are now young teens before I can say 'whoopsie daisy'.

The older one is in the midst of getting ready for her graduation night which is something of a high school musical (there will be a performance which she is part of) and a prom.

For the past two weeks or so, she has been talking about the 'graduation night', wondering what to wear, how to wear it and where to get it. Why just last saturday I took the girls out to the capital and we did nothing but shop for her shoes, shawl (for when it gets cold), bag and accessories. Her shoes alone took us one whole day! It's too high, too low, too expensive, too cheap, too ugly, too stylish, too colourful, too plain, yada yada yada. We shopped from Gadong, to Bandar and finally to Tutong where we eventually found the perfect pair. By that time I was thoroughly exhausted, sitting there like a melting blob, munching on waffles from the nearby Hua Ho.

The younger one is turning out to be an airhead wannabe. She's got a brain under that hood of hers but is just too lazy to use it. She loves the material and superficial things most teens her age loves. Absolutely addicted to facebook and her mobile, of course. Really a little delicate picky princess, from doing her own hair every morning before school to picking out her own choice of clothes. Ok, perhaps I'm expecting too much from her. She's got the right to do her own thing. But you know the best thing about her? She's absolutely lovable.

And I think that's important, especially to my mother cuz I must admit, mom doesn't get a lot of love from her other kids. Oh, we love her, of course we do but we just have a difficult time showing it. I don't know why. Nature perhaps.

Aaaaanyway, to wrap this up, I'm gonna say I don't regret moving back at all. Yes, it's a small town. Yes, I do get tired of all the uncles and aunties saying, "Aiyah! Ah Fah! Your eldest ka? Wah big girl now oh? Where she is working now? Ah? There ah? Oh, I know, I know. That's good right? My girl? Oh she is now with her husband in KANADA liao lor! Ya lo!...."

*sigh*

Where was I? Oh yeah, about how happy I am that I'm back in KB. Ya me.

lol. Seriously though. I am. Although I admit I miss my friends and the life I had in the capital, but time moves on, and I feel that now I'm in the right place on exactly the right time.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS7

2009-04-27T20:49:00.012+08:00

Most of you know I've been combing the market for a digital camera for a while now.

After reading the 37th online review and 19th comparison reviews, I've settled for either a Canon or Panasonic.

Now a few years ago I wouldn't even consider Panasonic. I'd scoff at it even.

But when I read more reviews and actually used a couple of them, I realised, hey, they are not so bad after all.

Actually the Panasonic Lumix cameras have really come up into the world of digital photography in terms of making durable yet quality point-and-shoot cameras. With the power of the internet, people now know more, expect more and honestly realised they deserve more.

With the economy being as bad as it is today, the big brands are producing smaller, more user friendly and more multi functional cameras faster than you can say, "CHEESE!" So not so surprisingly, all the sudden the prices started dropping and I don't mean a small 'plop' drop. I mean like waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay drop.

Five years ago, these babies at 6 mega pixels would cost you a whooping $800 easy. Today you can get 10 megapixels for as cheap as $200 plus. Even more pleasantly, they start giving better stuff with each sale. Camera bag, memory card, extra battery....competition is that fierce these days.

So, I've settled on either a Canon or a Panasonic. Actually I also pondered about Sony but then again, Sony is like a status symbol more than anything. Plus their touch screen feature is not so appealing. It's fun but a hassle to use and Lord only knows how long that will last in my family's hands.

I'm not looking for the Ferrari of cameras, I'm looking for the Toyota of cameras.

In the end, I bought the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS7.

In blue.

I'm no pro in taking pictures. I just want to take what I see.

Sometimes it's frustrating when I see something beautiful but when I take a picture of it, the end result is always something stupid. When I moaned and groaned about this to Effy, she suggested I get a semi-pro cam. It's tempting, real tempting, but honestly, I don't think I should... yet, cuz after all I want a family oriented cam where it's easy and durable for everyone to use.

So here's the results of my first day of taking pics with it.

Normal

Natural

Sepia

Vivid

Cool

These a the few of my favourites I took that day.

So now I got a camera now, expect me to be a more active blogger. ^_^ Cheers!

Unwanted Vegetarian

2009-03-23T22:48:00.006+08:00

I don’t ask for much out of life. I’m not an ambitious woman who wants to rule the world with an army made out of mechanical lego. I’m neither picky nor fussy. I just take things as they come along and accept what I got.

Then I get less than what I normally got…

And less…

And less…

Until there’s nothing.

I’m talking about food! Especially the meaty kind. My carnivorous self is gonna start chewing on the phone if I dun do something about this soon…

See, it all started like this. My mother (yes, her again) decided that now I’m back within her realm of control, she will do the nicest thing in the world for me. She wakes up in the wee hours of the morning and packs me lunch to take to work.

Awwww….

Now really, I appreciate her like no other. No one in the world does that for me and seriously, people, if your significant other or your siblings even, gets up early in the morning just to make sure you have sustenance later, you would have showered the person with love and stars.

And I do.

Except when her clever side over comes her loving motherly side. See she’s been trying to get me on a diet for years now. I figured, “Meh, slow and steady. I’m already eating healthy at home. Significantly less calories than I use to consume because back in BSB it was daily cup noodles, nasi kator or roti telur.”

Mom decided by herself, “If I can’t get her to diet my way, then I’ll get her to diet the sly way.”

For the past two weeks or so my lunches has become from nicey nicey boxed lunches full of home goodness to so so lunches and now has degraded to ‘I must eat this or I will starve’ lunches. I still remember the 1st lunch she made was fried rice with ‘char siew’ and mixed veggies. Today’s lunch is 3 slices of bread, 2 slices of cheese, a small tomato and a bunch of salad greens.

I like greens. I love salad greens, esp when there’s lots of them and the sound of a million crunches when you bite into a sandwich stuffed with lettuce.
But I love meat more.
Now I’m not asking much. I’m not asking for steak or burger or whatever, you know? Just a bit of tuna (no mayo is fine) or a slice of ham, maybe a fried egg once in a while. (btw, mom has banned eggs from the house, unless they are used for reasons like baking or sushi. She says the family eats too many eggs which I agree.)

It wouldn’t hurt me that much, right?

I’m not asking for KF freaking C. Just a little bit of tuna flakes…

… and maybe a mini gherkin or two.

But it looks like it’s just not meant to be.

What did I do? Did I adapt like a normal human being suppose to do or did I rebel with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s finest?

I did neither. Instead I spoke to her and asked her nicely if she could not make my lunches vegetarian anymore because last I checked, I didn’t sign up to become a nun at a temple somewhere in the remote regions of China.

I tot we understood each other.

Until Monday rolled in and I peeked into the lunch bag, 3 slices of bread, a medium sliced up tomato, a bunch of lettuce and ONE slice of cheese.

One of these days I’m gonna have a truck load of cold cuts delivered to the house. Maybe she’ll get the hint then.

I Heart Bamboo Fun

2009-02-12T17:21:00.016+08:00

Recently I became the proud owner of a brand new Wacom Bamboo Fun.

This is something that is beyond my imaginings because I've always thought a tablet is too hardcore for me. That it's something people use to actually make a living out of their art.

Haslin convinced me otherwise. She volunteered her brother's Wacom Graphire4 tablet for me to try out. At first I was really skeptical about the outcome. Sure it helps an artist to lineart and especially colour their stuff but does it really help since I'm mostly doing pencil art?

Yes it does help, people. It helps ALOT.

Think of this. For years you've been cutting grass by HAND using the traditional sickle. Then one day your friend decided to lend you his lawn mower.

BAM! Now you know you've only been fooling yourself.

This is how good it is. Work is cleaner smoother and done faster. No more fiddling with the scanner's settings or wasting loads of paper to practice on. No more buying pencils, pens, markers and copics. No more end of the world when you make a whoopsie on a piece of art.

I had to get one of my own.

For a while I've looked for one and the only ones I can find are small sized ones OR the medium but really expensive ones. Singapore was the only place that has medium sized Wacom Bamboo Fun which is the one I wanted. It has the right size and price range. I had the means but not the location. XD

It's all thanks to Haslin who volunteered to get me one when she went visiting Singapore during the chinese new year. EEEeeeee! Joy of joys!

She even got me a discount and a tablet carrier bag. (I heart you so much girl!)

What are the resulting stuff I've been able to create from the Bamboo Fun? Check it out! ^_^

Monkey Zodiac for the Year of the OX 2009

2009-01-16T18:49:00.003+08:00

Monkey people didn't have any significant performance in 2008, the Year of the Rat. They felt that someone or something blocked their luck all the time.

In the year of 2009, there are many Lucky Stars coming to Monkey people. So they have complete new luck and they can expect good news from career, money, reputation, love or happiness area. However, some tiny Unlucky Stars hiding beside the Lucky Stars in 2009. That means Monkey people shouldn't show too complacent and too conceited, because their enemies are still around. If Monkey people make any mistake, then they might lose their reputation, power or wealth.

Career: There are three major Lucky Career Stars appearing in 2009. Those signs indicate you will have an extraordinary and outstanding achievement in your job performance or business development. It's time that you show people about your talent, wisdom, skill. Many people will accept your idea and proposal. Your plan or project will show significant progress and impressive results. You have good chance to gain more responsibilities, own higher power and even win a job promotion. When you have better performance or hold a higher position, then many people become jealous to you. Someone might try to look for your shortcoming or mistake in order to impede your working progress and to damage your reputation. Fortunately, since your keen perception and quick response, you are able to a plan to protect yourself. Also, your supporters will help your to remove the hamper.

Money: There is a Lucky Money Star showing in this year. Since you have a good career luck, your salary fixed income will be satisfactory. If you work for someone, you might earn an extra bonus. If you own your business, then the company sales will have a significant growth. However, the Money Star is not a Windfall Star. The money won't come from gambling, heritage, gift or lottery. It's required your hardworking and time to earn all your income. Another sign show that you have a chance to lose your personal property and no way to recover it. Or an unexpected accident causes your money loss. Therefore, it's safer that do show off your wealth in 2009.

Love: One very Auspicious Star and a Happy Star are gathering in love area. That is the sign of success, happiness, joyfulness, smooth or marriage. If you are single, then you have opportunity to find your dream companion and enjoy the happy love life. If you are already in love, the relationship with your lover will become much closer. If both of you are ready, then you can consider the marriage. If you are married, you and your spouse have a endless love. A new born baby might come into your family. However, if you are a male Monkey guy, you have the chance to meet opposite sex outside. If you don't give in to temptation, you will get lots of argument with your spouse.

Health: Although you have many Lucky Stars coming in your astrological cycle. There also are some Unlucky Stars around you this year. This brings up the health issue. The career will make you busy in 2009. You will feel tired very often. If you have too much nightlife and too less exercise, then you will get sick easily. As long as understanding the health might become the problem, then you should limit unnecessary social life, keep healthy eating habit, maintain good sleeping quality and exercise routinely, then you will have a healthy life in the year of Cow.

Fortune: Monkey people have excellent career luck in 2009. They will work very skillfully and proficiently on their daily job. Their wealth will increase because of good job performance. However, there still is a potential unlucky event coming. Monkey people still need to pay attention on words and deeds. If you can spend more time in helping others, then you will win the good reputation, which could bring you more money in. The feeling of wealth, power, happiness and satisfaction will all come to you.

I really got to read this over and over again. It's soooo good.

Brand New Year ~ Brand New Change! POSITIVE THINKING IS POWAH!

2009-01-15T18:13:00.005+08:00

Many of you know that I've been working at my current job for a long time now. Really long time. Like 6 years long time.

So when I got word from my brother of a job offer based in Anduki, I gave him my CV and think nothing of it afterwards. After a couple of weeks only my brother told me his boss wanted to interview me.

I was happy.

Well, I was kinda panicking cuz you know, I haven't gone for an interview for so many donkey years now, would I make an ass of myself?

Then the positive persona in me said, "NO! You have done a lot for your current company and you've accomplished many goals in your job. Implemented many ideas and marketing strategies. Supervised and trained a staff for an international franchise of high quality repute. HAVE CONFIDENCE IN YOURSELF!"

And it's true. I brought out my positive person and walked into the interview, sure with tiny butterflies in my stomach, but I did very well and I thought the interview was smashing. In the end, she offered the job for me on the spot and I accepted.

WOOT!

Positive start to a positively faboo looking new year! Wonderful right?

Today when I was driving back to Bandar, I was istening to the DJ on the radio and she said, 70% of negative comments and crits actually comes from your love ones, your family. Which is very true and over the years I've slowly trained myself to turn a deaf ear to all that negativity. But I'm not perfect. Not fool proof.

It's one thing to get negativity from my elders, you know, parents, older siblings, cousins, etc, because they are older, they lived longer, they are more experienced and mature. Right? That's because I respect them at that level.

However to have one's YOUNGER siblings to start lecturing and going all negative on one is too much for one to stand for.

Seriously, I need to put up a professional front to work with my sibling in close proximity in the same company. Heck, as if we don't see enough of each other already at home.

I'm seriously considering renting my own place.

OK! Enough with the down and negative thoughts! OUT! OUT! SHOO!

Positive note again! I'm also seriously considering getting a family car for the family's use. Such as the ~

Toyota Vios! Manual of course cuz I can't stand auto. I dunno why though. I mean in jams auto is the easiet but I really like to feel in control of my own vehicle, so there ya go.

That's the colour I'm thinking of picking as well. So what do you all think?

XD

I'm so excited!

Happy New Year! 2009! WTF!

2009-01-03T18:54:00.003+08:00

Okay, I thought that perhaps heralding in the new year means a fresh start. A beginning in the beginning. New year resolution and what not.

But noooo...

what happened to my new year?

Er, let's see, I didn't get celebrate in the 'traditional' sense because I'm sick. Yes, down and out with flu, runny nose, cough, sore throat, the whole package deal.

Then one my way home after a visit to the doctor my car broke down in the middle of the small roundabout near the petrol station in Beribi. What la!

Okay, don't panic cuz nothing good can come from panicking. I put on the emergency signals, tried to start my car again and again... it would run and then die again after a few meters... so there ya go, I basically 'crawled' my way to the new building of Baiduri Finance's parking lot and called in the tow truck.

After that I learned how to get recharge from the ATM (woah, it was freaking easy, I should do this more often, it's cool! -sakai-) and called in my parents, my friends, basically everyone who I thought would need to know that my car broke down or could send me back home.

In the end it was Del who came to the rescue. Ah, Del, man I really owe him one.

Ok!

No more bad thoughts and karma from this moment forth! Think GOOD THOUGHTS! Count thy BLESSINGS!

It's great that my family had my car fixed so fast. I hope to pick up my car soon. *sigh* You know, evertime some shit happens to my car I would thinkg, "Maybe I should get a new car." Every time. I mean it's just too temptimg sometimes yo. But then again, I would think, the insurance, the tires, the monthly payment for the next 7 years... *sigh*

Gak! NO! Good thoughts! Good THOUGHTS!

*ahem*

Well, positive side is that I get to meet Alex!!! Man, it's been so long I haven't seen the bloody fella. Alex! We gotta meet up proper next time yo! Seriously, I dunno anyone who can take things in like Alex and give you the outright no bullshit in your face opinion. Maybe Effy and I should arrange a trip to Temburong. Hee. What do you think Effy? *hint hint*

Alright, I'm off. HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

How I Wish...

2008-12-12T17:18:00.005+08:00

After a day of extra 'special' people I encounter at work, I got rather frustrated. I really wish I can print this out and display it.

Clown & Beach sketch

2008-10-14T00:14:00.002+08:00

Just a quick update on my latest sketches.

The Clown (Pencil)

The Beach (Inked)

Back To Basics

2008-10-10T13:11:00.003+08:00

As you know I haven't updated since God knows when. I know, I know, I was keep up on my updating for a while and after that I just seem to disappear.

A lot has been happening at work and it just keeps on coming. If not the cycle of staff quitting and staff hiring and staff training and staff quitting again, then it's something to do with the big renovation of the shop. I'm actually happy with this because I've been frustrated with the junk that's been accumulating in the shop. I dunno about the other girls, but seriously, do you think it's worth saving every cute looking paper clip and almost used up roll of string?

I even volunteered to clear the junk out a few times and yet, I was told "oh, just sabar (be patient), wait till the renovation."

That was 6 months ago.

Ok, I admit that I'm something of a pack rat as well, saving everything from old receipts to broken door knobs. But hey, at least it's my junk in my room. Not my junk in someone's way. Seriously, the new girls leave their junk everywhere and my exec and I are getting increasingly frustrated with them. (Not that her Execness doesn't have her bits of junk here and there as well.)

These new girls. *bleh* There was this one time, she used my exec slippers at work while cleaning, then when she's done and changed back to her heels, she just toss the slippers into the counter. I was shocked! Immediately I asked her, "Eh...dang, bisai jua you throw ppl's barang, ah. Next time I use your barang I also throw throw here and there, suka hati ku, ok?"

Baru dia terasa.

I mean come on la, just because you're raised with your mother and amah picking up after you doesn't give you the right to treat your work place like your home.

Then there's the issue of one of them having transport problems, so she wants to live with me in the hostel for the next 3 weeks. Yikes. I should get my room ready as soon as possible. (Translation: Clean my shit up!)

Did you know that out of 4 lights, 3 of them konked out? I should get them replaced as soon as possible. I'm tired of romantic candle light. XD

Recently without a camera or photoshop, I have no digital outlet for my artistic self, sooooo, Back to Basics! I'm back using pencil and paper again. Not that I've stopped using them, just that for a long long time I've been using Photoshop to edit my sketches to make them look finished. I really miss photoshop, all the stuff I can do, all the brushes I had downloaded. *sigh* It just doesn't seem to work right anymore on my laptop.

Good thing about going back to basics is that I've started hunting up art supplies again which is always fun. I found this shop with great inking pens ranging from 0.1 to 0.8 and they are really good, quick dry, no smudge when erasing, pens. I'm planning on getting more.

Of course, as another artistic outlet, I've been scanning and posting my art stuff online for crit and comments in a forum called Manga Tutorial Forums. There's this thread where they present a theme each week and you are challenged to make an original character according to the theme.

Pirates

Angel

Steampunk

Musician

Atlantian

At the moment I'm working on last week's theme (I suggested it and it was taken! Woot! Fun!) which was 'clowns' and this week's theme which is 'Beach'. I'm wondering what I should do for beach though, cuz everyone just submits beach babes in bikini. I want to do something else.

Oh well, I'm sure something will come up.

Its Chinese Proverbize Time!

2008-08-21T18:48:00.006+08:00

'Have a mouth as sharp as a dagger but a heart as soft as tofu.'

Meaning, 'Extremely difficult and dangerous situation.'

You know who popped in my mind when I read this?

Someone who's mouth is as sharp as a dagger but a heart as soft as tofu, and almost always put me in an extremely difficult and dangerous situation.

My mom! XD

GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out): Part II

2008-08-18T23:34:00.000+08:00

I just finished watching Mama’s Boy last nite. Ok…you know, sometimes when you watch a movie and you go, “OMG, that totally reminds me of so and so!” Yeah, I got that moment as I watched Mama’s Boy. I won’t mention his name but I enjoy the movie more just because how much it resembles this guy I know. Shikin knows what I mean. She and I were just wandering around the Mall and we decided to catch a movie called Grandma’s Boy. God, one of the characters reminded both of us of my ex bf so much, we just laughed all through the movie.

That’s one major way of how a person can enjoy a movie I think cuz it’s just how this is a movie that the audience can relate to, maybe its because of something they have done or they have been through or just resembling someone they know.

Another thing I’ve watched is Bambino. Bambino is a short series about this eager japanese guy who wants to be an italian chef. So he goes all out in learning the tricks of the trade or training under chef. So he thinks. Instead he just runs into one wall or another. It’s interesting and makes me hungry for pasta.

Another reason why I watched Bambino cuz it’s Matsumoto Jun’s first series he acted in and if you’ve read my previous posts, you know he’s also acted in Meteor Garden Jap ver and Gokousen. I don’t think he’s a really good actor but he’s just so damn cute when he acts all eager. Sorry to say so but when he acts angry, especially as Domyoji in Meteor Garden, I just feel like going “awwww! Cute!” Rofl! I mean its like a 6yr old kid fuming that you bumped into him and made him drop his ice cream cone. I just think he’s still too young so his acting isn’t all that mature as all the other actors and actresses in Japan.

Speaking of series, there’s this weird Stephen King written series called Kingdom Hospital I just finished watching the last episode last nite as well (I slept at 3am) and I just like to say, it’s very easy to digest. It’s not complicated. Feels like a really long movie instead of a series. Entertaining and funny at times.

Serena says it’s scary but when I watch it with Stephen King in mind, it’s not that scary. Its creepy, with all these dark atmosphere and the spiritual characters walking about but being that it’s so well written, I find myself paying more attention to what they say or how they say it. They are times when they apply a scrub like moments like bursting into song while in ER but otherwise it just emphasize the weird factor of the series which is what I think they are aiming for. There’s no stuff jumping out in mid movie, or girls scrawling out of MRI scanners or lone pale little boys staring at you via security camera. Heck, the headless man running around looking for his head was funnier than anything else. I find that Paul, the evil teen, is hawt…kinda like younger Jonny Depp as Sweeny Todd. Or Edward Scissor hands but evil.

Cool quote from that series, “I do you a solid, you do me a solid.”

GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out)

2008-08-08T16:15:00.004+08:00

Today is a lucky day.

It’s the 8th of august 2008.

08.08.08.

Yeah… just wait for 08.08.8008 or how about 08.08.8888. Shit, imagine that. I’m sure that by then, if the world is not ruled by (quote Austin Powers) ‘damn dirty apes’, it’s sure to be ruled by some human like kind of species that’s part chinese… or quarter chinese.

Or maybe it wouldn’t be chinese, but a totally new genre, like maybe Chinafrican or Indinanese, but still with chinese blood somewhere in them, and they would also hold the date 08.08.8888 sacred and hosting parties online where they could have actual tequila shots (think Matrix), then up having virtual one night stands and waking up to an empty msn chatbox.

Shit, by then ppl would have virus protection against STD online. You know, herpes.exe or aids.dll and you’d have some protection program like ‘Doc Durex’, protection 97% against virtual STD.

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

You know lately I feel laggish. A lot of times I feel like I’m on top of the world, you know, able to be on the dot with work but at times I just feel like crap and kept dropping the ball at work. Which is not good.

Dropping the ball at work is never good. But what is good is to able to admit that I have dropped the ball and that I have apologized for dropping the ball and now I’m willing to pick up the ball and try again. Right?

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

I’ve been playing this brain game on facebook which I totally suck at it but I keep playing it. Don’t you just hate that? It just pisses me off, but then after I logged off, 10 minutes later I’m loggin on again in the pretense to ‘check my other apps’ but before I know it, I’m cursing at the game under my breath again.

In the middle of playing these games, I’m downloading these podcasts from Halfpixel. Halfpixel are made up of a group of webcomic artists, talking about cons, their work, sharing their stories and tips and it’s just fun listening to them.

Especially if you, like me, have been a fan of reading one of their comics, in my case, I’ve been reading PvP Online (there's a link to his webcomic on the sidebar of this blog) for years now without complaint. Scot Kurtz and those other guys he work with at Halfpixel are absolutely entertaining to listen to. But then again, you’d have to be interested in the stuff they do and know at least the webcomics they create. Hey, or you’re just a fan like me who gets a kick just listening to them ramble.

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

I’ve got this thing against talking about work but I can’t resist against talking about the characters that come into the shop sometimes. My mind kind of gets annoyed sometimes at some people who walk into the shop in the middle of the morning, something like 10-ish, in full office gear, you know, shirt plus tie plus dark pants and spanky shoes. Makes you wonder, do these people not work???

And this happens on Monday mornings even. It’s weird. You know it when kids are cutting school when they walk in in the mornings still in their school uniforms but its like these kids grew up, graduated from arcade shops of yore, don on their dad’s office clothes. It’s not cool to walk around like you can skimp off work cuz people know you’re skimping off work.

Then there are those people who just keep staring at the price tag and then read a bit about the products, asks a question or two, then stare a bit more at the price tag. I mean, it’s not like the numbers presenting the price of the item is gonna magically morph into something else (I assume a smaller figure) under your awesome psyhic powers. I dunno, maybe the person gets a kick out of it. He must be thinking, *Change dammit, change! I dun get it, it works when I use my amazing mind powers at the traffic light! I mean, it turns green whenever I willed it.*

Like this ‘_’ to this O_O to this o_O then to this O_o then back to O_O then finally ended with ‘_’???

Yeah, you can almost see the question marks popping up above their noggins.

Of course then you have those people who never bother to look at the price tag at all. I dunno about others but when I go shopping and I want to know the price about something, I just turn the damn thing over and *viola!* the price tag is right there. Be it panty liner, shoes, clothes or bags, 99% chance there’s likely a price tag attached on the item.

But noooooo, these customers apparently shop at those high end, high class, high fashion, 10th avenue, avant grande places cuz only those places have no price tags cuz normally people who shop there don’t bother asking for how much the item is worth, they just pick. Right?

Yeah, apparently, these people shopped there all their lives cuz every damn time they enter the shop, they would point at an item and ask me how much is that item. Not that I mind answering them but how lazy are you to not just pick it up and turn the item around kan? Seriously? Just flip it around and look, its right there. I spend a considerable amount of my time tagging each and every one of those items, so at least have the courtesy to actually turn-the-damn-thing-around.

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

Last off day I was hanging out with Rozi at her studio, something I haven’t done in a long time. She was suppose to finish off her latest rose painting but instead, we went out a got some of those air drying clay, cuz she wanted to repair this accesory stand which was wonky at the base. I ended up making a poring (creature from Ragnarok) and poring’s cloud. I know porings don’t float on clouds but this poring is now in poring heaven. I mean with the number of porings a character kills in Ragnarok, there’s got to be gazillions of them and since they aren’t aggro, they deserve heaven.

Rozi also taught me how to make ketupats out of ribbons and now I’m thinking of getting a bunch of ribbons and making a bunch to put into gift baskets or bags for Raya friends. Last year I got a case of drinks for Pat and Shikin and the year before that I got them cake. I am not exactly sure what to get them this year though, I mean, I would like to bake them something but mom’s oven is out of service.

I’m hoping my brother get his job so we can both share and buy her a new one. I didn’t even know that a gas oven could break down but apparently they can!

Okay, that’s enough rambling from me. Just a bunch of garbage dump from me, you know, garbage in, garbage out. Expect more of such posts from me because at the moment there is just so many mini things going on in my mind. Its like too mini to devote a whole post to and these multiple mini things do not relate to each other at all but then again too many to just ignore.

Oh Dear God, Why?

2008-08-01T16:37:00.005+08:00

Sorry for not posting lately, just been so busy and everytime I sit down in front of Josey to blog, my mind just goes blank.

Instead I started watching stuff on youtube! Then I stumbled onto this!

One quote from Scott Kurtz of PvPonline comes into mind as I sat there in horror watching them...

'Oh dear God, why?'

Disclaimer : However this does not mean I disrespect cosplayers or anything that cosplayers do. Quite opposite, I admire and respect all the time and effort cosplayers put into making their costumes and perfecting their skits. I just can't appreaciate a cosplay performance such as the one demonstrated above.

However, if it is meant to make me laugh, then yes it was sucessful. I just didn't expect to be laughing and cringing at the same time, goosebumps and all.

Manga Review: Hana Yori Dango

2008-06-20T19:31:00.006+08:00

Here I am sitting in a café trying to log into the internet but somehow I can’t, so I ended up staring at my laptop for an hour.

Today is such a rainy, easy breezy day, you know? Relaxing and quiet. I like rainy days. On rainy days, it’s cool and quiet. I like quiet.

Recently I’ve been reading a lot of manga thanks to my friends who download them and pass them on to me.

Hana Yori Dango

This manga first appeared in the weekly chinese comic magazine and of course since it was in chinese I didn’t particularly pay much attention to it back then. I stumbled upon the translated title ‘Boys Over Flowers’ which is probably wrong but I checked it out and was immediately hooked.

Unlike the usual manga about romance and love, this is about a ordinary girl, Tsukushi Makino, who goes to an elite school. There she met with F4 (I’ll explain this in a bit), a group of gorgeous boys, sons of extremely rich and powerful families. F4 stands for ‘Flower Four’ because the boys were so handsome, they were like flowers.

Ok, gag on that part, I know I did. The art work is alright and a bit outdated, so I’m guessing it was published around early 90’s.

Tsukusi was a down to earth and practical girl with a strong sense of justice and morality. When the F4 started to bully her friend, she couldn’t take it and openly challenged them, especially their leader, Domyoji. In the end, he fell in love with her instead but due to his weird twisted character and sense of pride (considering he’s one of the richest and most sought out guys), all his actions turn into screw ups.

Not only those two can’t seem to stop fighting, but they are constantly butting heads due to their pride. *sigh* But that’s why it makes for a really entertaining manga to read, instead of the usual girl likes boy, boy likes girl, they go out, then another boy like girl, try to break them up, in the end boy turns out to be the half brother of the other boy, or the long time ago childhood sweetheart. You know, the usual. XD

This manga can be sappy at times and makes me roll my eyes at out outrageous these boys are but then again their ridiculous and screwed up stories makes me laugh more than I ever had from a romance manga.

It was so popular in Japan and Taiwan, that by year 2000, Taiwan decided to make a series based on this manga. Only the series was called ‘Meteor Garden’ instead of ‘Boys Over Garden’. Hence, F4, the Taiwanese boy band, was born. The series was a hit and not long Japan had one made too.

I only watched the Japan ver but from what I read online a lot of people prefer the Japanese version because it stuck more to the storyline than the Taiwanese ver. But what I find most *ahem* appealing bit of the series was that they casted hunkster Matsumoto Jun as Domyoji. He also starred in another manga based series called, ‘Gokusen’ as ‘Shin’.

Ratings :

Comedy - 8.5
Romance - 8
Art - 5.5
Storyline - 7.5
Creativity - 6.5

Overall score - 7.2

ARGH! Alright!! Whatever! BRING IT ON!

2008-06-13T14:05:00.004+08:00

Hey, remember last month I talked about how I had that car accident and how I dropped my laptop?

And the month before that they froze my bank account because they had doubts about my fluctuating salary?

Then before that I lost my Supa Save card?

Just two weeks ago I lost my atm card.

Now I got a new shiny one so that's not too bad...

What was it I was saying?

Oh yeah.

Remember my N80?

The pretty nice mobile I liked alot for its multiple functions and clear camera?

Last week it won't turn on and it won't charge... so I sent it to mobility care centre to check.

I called the centre up today and found out they dunno if they can fix my phone cuz they opened it up but found nothing wrong with it. They suspect that a part is KOed but even if they replace it, the guy said it's 50 - 50 chance it might work.

*sigh*

What did I do to deserve all this crap? Seriously? For fuck sakes la, what did I fucking do?!? Raped some diseased kid's cripple grandfather in my past life issit?

Fuck.

Aja! Gambatte! Jia Yew! Courage, woman, COURAGE!

2008-05-21T12:40:00.007+08:00

Things haven't been going well for me lately.

As most of you probably know by now that I had an accident about a month ago. Don't worry, no one was hurt eventhough I rammed into another car rather badly and that car bumped into the car before it.

*depressing cloud hangs overhead*

Many thanks to Serena and her family. Because of them I've been doing well eventhough I don't have a car.

It's something in this month's air that seems to have drained most of us financially.

Mom was nagging at me about the car repairs. It's about $1400 in total, plus the previous repairs on the engine 3 months ago at about $900. So grand total is $2300.

* faints *

I already paid my parents $1000 and now it's left $1300.

*sigh* To think I just had my bank account and supa save card problems sorted out, now pops out another financial calamity.

It's been hard on my mother as well. My brother quit his job roughly the same time I had my accident and he's done nothing since. According to mom that all he does is sleep late, eat, hang around the house - annoying her endlessly - and play games till God knows what time. Rinse and repeat. He's stopped buying the house groceries and helping out with the bills.

It's all up to my mom and dad now. But these days it's difficult for my dad to find jobs. Mom works harder than ever and it's something I'm in awe about. She's really is the best something and really don't deserve such troubles.

I don't know what I can do to help other than to send in more money. Hopefully in my appraisal this coming June would improve matters somewhat. I don't expect much but every bit helps.

Sometimes listening to my mother I can't help feeling how trivial my problems are. I dropped Josey (BenQ laptop) a couple of weeks ago and now she's got a lovely crack on the left side of her. Thank God she still works the next day cuz the night before I was tears, she just wouldn't turn on that nite. Dark hours in my life.

Even before I dropped Josey though, funny things been happening to her. The left side of her screen has three vertical lines in green or sometimes they change into two green stripes and one yellow. I felt it's perhaps Josey's way of communicating me in visual morse code.

Then one day my Photoshop CS2 started to act funny. It was extremely slow and sometimes even freezes. I'm thinking now I have to re-install the program cuz my creative soul can't live without it.

*sigh* Gambatte, ne?

Bruneian Limmericks

2008-03-20T14:08:00.006+08:00

Don't you just love limmericks sometimes? There's some innocent ones like...

'There was a man named Fisher,

Who loved fishing off a fissure,

One day a fish with a grin,

Pulled the fellow in,

And now they're fishing the fissure for Fisher!'

But then there are some not so innocent ones like that goes...

'There was a woman from Illin,

who had a perculiar feeling,

she laid on her back,

and opened her crack,

and peed all over the ceiling!'

I stole a bit from that one and with the help of some (*coughcoughserenacoughcough*) came up with a Bruneian version...

'There was a woman from Temburong,

who loved wearing baju kurong,

but she laid on her back,

and opened her crack,

and you can see her burung!'

I like that one, it was better than some others we came up with such as...

'There was a Jew from Peru,

who use to live in a zoo,

one day he was feeling funny,

and wanted a honey,

so he made out with the kangaroo!'

'There was a woman from Shanghai,

who had a pair of super strong thighs,

and every man who screw her,

never again will do her,

cuz she snapped them in half like a fly!'

If you can come up with more original limmericks, I would like to hear about them, especially if you can make up Bruneian malay ones. What a hoot that would be! ^_^

7 reasons why single women can’t meet decent guys

2008-03-08T16:45:00.006+08:00

Courtesy of the script writers of the korean drama ‘My Lovely Samsoon’. I highly recommend this bloody funny romance comedy (think Bridget Jones).

Good decent men are butt ugly.

Good looking decent men have lousy personalities.

Good looking decent men with great character are married.

Good looking decent single men with good character are damn poor.

Good looking decent single rich men with good character won’t be interested in women like us.

Good looking decent single rich men with good character who are interested in us…those men are players.

Good looking, decent, single and rich men with good character who are interested in us and are not players…. are gay!

Haha! True or not dat?

Can turn to stone before meeting the man of your dreams if like that.

ROFL!

Knock, Knock, Sawadee Kha Bangkok!

2008-02-22T20:21:00.016+08:00

It’s my first time to Bangkok, and truth be told, I expected the worst. Hey, as they say, if you expect the worst, then you will never be disappointed.

True, true, when I came to the First House Hotel, the staff were pleasant enough, and the room was alright. It was way better compared to the nightmare I had of a room back when Shikin and I stayed in KL. (Ugh, the horror of budget hotels in KL.) Although the closet was small and the bathroom tub is stained from age but the whole place was clean and cozy. There was no smell (esp from the toilet) and the beds were hard but still within the limits of comfort. Every morning there is breakfast (although it gets a little tired after seeing the same breakfast menu for the 3rd morning, blek.)

I loved Bangkok.

People keep telling me stories of either horror or happiness.

“I love the food!”
“The pick pockets there are terrible!”
“Riding tut tut is a blast!”
“Careful of what you eat, dun want to get food poisoning on your 1st day.”
“It’s a shopping haven!”
“Don’t get cheated!”

In truth the Thai people are generally friendly and very polite when it comes to handling others. Our tour guide kept saying 'excuse me' before he pointed out some interesting fact of the places we visit. They are proud for who they are and loves to joke about and laugh, generally have a good time.

My hotel is located near the Platinum Mall and the Indonesian Embassy. It’s far from any rowdy bars or sleazy clubs so at around 10pm it’s relatively quiet.

Good timing for us was that we were visiting when it was their King’s birthday. For all their political hum drum, the Thais were pretty united and respectful when it comes to the royal family. On the evening of HM’s birthday, small groups of people burned yellow candles and incense, offered flowers and candies in the streets, around temples and shopping areas where his portrait was displayed, all in prayer and respect for His Majesty. It was awesome.

First day, we arrived at the airport at 6 in the morning. So it was reasonable we crashed the afternoon, slept all the way till evening. Woke up hungry and ready to hunt around the area.

The streets and alleys were crowded with hawkers, food stalls, knick knack stalls, selling everything you can imagine. Although I was careful what I ate. I don’t want to end up eating kitten meat or something equally appalling and gross.

Food court is a good choice cuz they have the menu in both thai and english. You can buy a food court card (kinds like electronic card), order whatever you want, then hand over the card for them to swipe. I like this system cuz not only it’s faster but it’s also hygenic in a sense that those who prepare the food dun handle icky germ infested cash.

Ah, what I would do for some sticky rice and mango right about now...

Because it was the king’s birthday, all the tours were cut down 50%. So we went on two tours, one around the city visiting the palace, the sleeping Buddha and the golden Buddha, a thai massage (@#%^&$*#! Thai massage bloody hurts!), and finally ending with Calypso Cabaret show. Then the other one to the floating market, an elephant show, a crocodile show and wrapped up with a cultural show.

We saw some interesting stuff really. I mean it’s Bangkok for crying out loud. There were ang mohs with their arms around their ‘friends’ who would prolly give them happy endings after a full body thai massage. Lets see... there are thai guys who are hotter than most women.

Some are so natural looking that I can’t really tell them apart. There was one who worked at the food court. I asked how much was the duck rice and the pretty petite thing answered in his deep manly voice, “Three hundrad and fity baht.” It really shocked me for a second there.

Shopping was of course great but I hate to see those Buddha heads or hands or what ever parts of his displayed for purchase. They looked like antiques, which makes me wonder how many of them are legit. I hate to think they were robbed from temples or scared historial sites. Which is why I didn’t get any eventhough I love antiques.
If you can imagine this one. Or this spectacular one.
Being sold like this at the floating market! Unforgivable! If you knew they were taken from temples or historical sites, would you buy them?

Or many I have been watching too many indian jones movies. -_-" (But it's true! Historical sites are robbed regularly to be smuggled out and sold!)
In the Temple of the Golden Buddha, weighing at five and a half tons of solid gold. Made around the 1400s-1550s. The brochure wrote that the statue originally was covered with a thick layer of concrete to protect it from thieves. It was lost for a while (it's secret protected too well I guess) and was re-discovered in 1950's when they were doing some renovation work for a building belonging to the East India Company. Today it sits cozy in a small temple and gazes serenely at all that visits for 20 baht per entry.

One thing is for sure, got to bring my own camera next time I go Bangkok! XD

Racoons!

2008-01-27T20:15:00.000+08:00

Half the time when I’m there, I couldn’t believe that I’m actually there, you know? The weather was balmy and breezy, kinda like mild version of the Bruneian weather. The sky was so blue, you wouldn’t believe and the sand was so soft. To think I was actually there seems kind of surreal now.

People there were really nice to me and eventhough we were advised not to roam around, we couldn’t help ourselves. We wanted to try exploring some near by strip malls. Well…they seemed more like run down shop building to me but hey, sometimes you dunno what gems you might find in all that dirt.

Victoria Secret. Where I got a bag, a blusher, a lipstick, a couple of card tags... and underwear. Hee. Very secshee. Sorry, cannot see. I'm shy.

Plus my blog insurance doesn't cover mental trauma caused by images.

So we strolled down one lane looking for dinner. Didn’t know what we would find, nor did we have the faintest idea what dinner we wanted. It was a fresh sense of adventure exploring the unknown in a foreign country. It was funny to think of me now looking at a laundramat and all the time feeling like I wanted to try it out, you know, washing the laundry at a laundramat. Hehe.

There was a family of racoons living in the bushes near the hotel. So we fed them some pizza. One wanted to sneak up to me to steal my tiny tub of Hagen Daaz chocolate ice cream!

Lets see…we ended up at a pizza place called ‘New York Pizza Place’. It was a tiny place tucked away at a corner and I felt kind cozy there, waiting for my order, watching people come in and out. They would place an order for a single slice and coke. Then gobble the whole thing up while standing. There was a middle aged couple, a tiny woman and a large man, both chatting over the counter with the staff. Dangerous? Well, maybe, I mean our neighbourhood was in the industrial area but it seems pretty alright with me.

I went to Aruba Restaurant where they serve really nice bread and yummy nachos. It was close to the beach and so we strolled around, taking pictures, testing out the water with the tips of our fingers. (I didn’t know we were gonna be going to the beach or else I would be wearing something else.) The girls and guys sun bathing there were hawt and I mean HAWT. *phew*

When we were leaving the place, we saw a plane flying the banner behind it with the words, ‘COLLEEN WILL YOU MARRY ME?’ which was the most romantic thing I’ve ever saw.

Then my sense of humour had to spoil it.

It kept thinking things such as

*What if Colleen didn’t see it?*

*What if Colleen was in the loo?*

*Or Colleen was in the middle of dumping the guy?*

*What if Colleen was in the middle of screwing with another guy and she thought the OTHER GUY was proposing?*

My God, my mind was falling down into a dark dank well at a funny farm.

Food For Thought

2008-01-09T12:20:00.000+08:00

Ft. Lauderdale is more of an industrial/business area so all the tourist parts are a bit far off. Taxis there are bloody expensive mind you. A trip half an hour would easily cost you $45 - $50. Oh but the food was amazing. Whatever I had, I loved it. Well, except for rice. Their rice was terrible.

What did I have? Omg, my mouth is just watering already thinking about it. I had turkey (they just finished with the thanksgiving hols) with mashed potatoes along with a serving of mac and cheese. Heh, mac and cheese, how American can one get?

I had roast beef with sweet potatoes (that’s an interesting side dish, I mean I seldom see mashed sweet potatoes served with meat.) Their sandwhiches put ours to shame. Just rolls and rolls of beef/ham/chicken slices between burger buns, wholewheat bread or wrapped in tortia bread.

Of course got to try some of their pasta as well, oh god, the portions were just huge!

Even when I’m in the habit of polishing off whatever was put in front of me, but this time I just couldn’t finish everything, there were just too much! I was so full that I didn’t even savour their dessert selection no matter how tempting it looked.

Pizza! Spagetti and meatballs! We had them for dinner one night and the slices are just huge. So huge in fact that we saw several customers come in just to order a slice or two and eat them standing up right then and there.

There’s nothing like visiting an actual diner to have apple pie, a glass of milk and a hot fudge sundae! Felt like Archie and the gang were gonna walk in any minute! XD A shop full of candy! Sweet tooth heaven and a promising future for cavities!

Then there were the typical American novelties that I had to try, like candy apple (there were chocolate apples too! I didn’t try them but they looked delish!), gummy bears, jelly beans, gum balls and beef jerky. I got my brother some beef steak jerky, he was estatic. Ding dongs and pop tarts were really sweet and I think ppl just make too much of a fuss out of them.

Nothing like having a fun night out in Miami’s South Beach, however a meal there for 3 people were USD$180! I nearly fainted. All we had were some pasta for 3 ppl, alligator meat appetizer and two pina coladas. The service charge alone was around USD$30. Outrageous. Well I guess that’s Miami for ya.

I stole some Miami sand in retaliation and will distribute them amongst my friends when I can find those tiny glass bottles. Yes! You hear that Uncle Sam? I stole some of your precious American soil! Take that! Ha! See la! That’s what you get when you drop a bill with seriously overcharge service tips on the lap of a Chinese woman. Want a tip? Here’s a tip, next time give us tourist a warning when you’re gonna rip us off under the pretense of ‘service charge’, alright? Bloody real time robbery.

Oh but I had some nachos with cheese at Aruba restaurant at Ft.Lauderdale beach and they had salsa dip too. I would kill someone for those nachos right now. Mmmm, nachos…

Finally the final meal was juicy steak from Outback. Seriously the best steak I ever had. I’m a meat lover. I just sleep better when I had my meat for dinner. Sad but true. Oh, but that hunk of bovine was absolutely divine. *sigh~* I was smitten.

Oh, but the most disappointing was Taco Bell. I mean, having heard so much about it, I thought there would be a reason why it’s so popular. I can basically sum it up in two words, tasteless messes. That’s that.

OK! OK! Enough about the food! I’m hungry right now as it is. Gonna go dig up something to eat. *sigh* I had to blog about food, eh?

To be continued~!

And I'm Leaving In An Airbus ~ ~ ~

2008-01-04T09:53:00.000+08:00

The trip started out ominously enough for me. I stayed up until 4 in the morning packing and doing last minute check ups on everything. So no surprise that I ended up feeling like a zombie the next day at the airport.

My brother sent me to the airport and stayed there with me until it was time for me to board. It was actually nice having my brother around once in a while, especially when he’s not being extra dumb.

New airport rules now states that we cannot carry any liquids in our hand carry. All liquid-ish stuff has to be under 10ml and in a zip lock sandwhich sized plastic bag. This means no bottled water or other kinds of beverages can be hand carried into the plane which sucks for me cuz I need my water. *sigh*

Travelling from Brunei to Bangkok took roughly 3hrs of travel and we had only 1hr to switch planes. Luckily we managed to catch our flight to LA.

The 14hr flight was not kind to me, I tell you, cuz it was cramped, dark, and cold. For some reason my ear piece wasn’t working properly. It was the most miserable 14hrs of my life. I tried to sleep and couldn’t because there was a baby sitting in the row before mine who kept on crying every few hours.

I tried to read but the lone light glaring at my book while the rest of the plane was dark just made my eyes sore. So I tried watching movies but with my ear piece not working properly, I couldn’t make out what ½ the stuff Catherine Zeta Jones was saying. I’ve even requested new ear phones and they turned out the same. It must have been something wrong with the socket or something. All in all, I was glad that we finally landed safely in LA.

Rush, Rush, RUSH. Go, Go, GO!

I swear we rushed from one terminal to the next. The place is huge and kind of confusing. Thank gawd we didn’t get lost.

Still we missed our connecting flight to Ft.Lauderdale. Argh! The nice lady at the check in counter put us in the next flight out of LA to Miami, which is about an hr from Ft.Lauderdale. Beggars can’t be choosers.

When we reach there after 5 hrs, it was good that our driver managed to find us.

It was already eight in the morning. We had like an hour to change, shower, and freshen up before our first day of training. One problem though, our luggage somehow ended up flying to Chicago of all places. WTF?

It will only arrive later that day around noon... *swt*

So Monday training, our American colleagues greeted us in our mucky, icky, grubby selves wearing the same clothes as we did 22 hrs ago. Nice.

By the end of the day, I just showered and KOed in the hotel room. I didn't even bother with dinner. Gawd bless the Westin, their beds are SOOOoooOOO comfy.

More to come ~! To be continued ~!

Day Before Tomorrow

2007-11-24T17:54:00.000+08:00

Hey everyone. I'm kinda nervous and excited at the same time. I mean, I can't just seem to sit still anymore...much less concentrate on work.

Imagine by this time tomorrow I would be in Bangkok...to switch planes and off to LA. I don't know what to think...I don't know what to expect...I don't know what to do. I feel as if there is a million things to do and I've done them all but I have this naggy feeling that I'm forgetting something.

Don't you just hate that feeling?

Things are changing at work and I can't wait to see what the changes are and how it's gonna affect us all. I mean, I've stayed with this company for 5yrs now and day in, day out, I see the same thing over and over again. The only thing that break the monotony are the customers.

5 years...

Wow, that's a long time but I nvr realised it. I wonder where I would be in another 5 years time? I will surely be with the same group of friends I have now. Imagine. Iaman would be 6yrs old then and a holy terror. XD Danish would be 5yrs old and follow after Iaman. Both of them up to gawd knows what.

Rozi just got back from a trip to Berlin. She get to see the left overs of the Berlin wall and a life sized giraffe. She even got to meet Jim Lee!!! The guy who did Wild C.A.T (oh, I loved that cartoon so much that I drew fan art of it), worked on Uncanny X-Men and X-Men, Fantastic Four, Batman and Superman. ARGH! JIM freaking LEE!

Alright! I googled up the events that are gonna be in Florida while I'm there. Out pops, Anime SUPERcon. Aha! Supercon again. I scanned the guests who are gonna be there and guess what? They are starring STEVE CARDENAS! STAR OF MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS as ROCKY "THE RED RANGER" (1994-1996)

*spew blood and faints*

Aw, come on! *sighs*

Seriously though, they got some pretty impressive ppl there as well. Such as Tiffany Grant, voice actress. She starred in anime memorables such as Neo Genesis Evangelion, Chorono Crusage and Fullmetal Alchemist. Another big name in the con is April Stewart, also voice actress. She starred in South Park, and did the voices of Liane Cartman, Sharon Marsh, Mrs.McCormick, The Mayor, etc, etc, etc. There is also Chris Ayres, voice actor of Gantz. (I love Gantz, the comic ver.)

Not sure if I would have the time to go to the con but I'll try to make it. I mean it's my first con, it would really be a great experience.

So people, wish me luck in my training and hope that I will ace the whole thing without screwing up (well, at least not too badly.)

~KYAH!~ Over and out!

Guess What?

2007-11-13T10:48:00.000+08:00

You know… I never would have thought that I would be picked for such a thing.

What thing?

The training thing.

What training thing?

The training in Fort Lauderdale, FLORIDA, USA.

Oh-my-gawd!

Yeah that’s what first popped up in my mind too.

Yeah, the company is sending me to the states for training. I would have never thought something like this would happen. I mean yeah, I have been bitching for years now about how outdated our training material was and how we desperately need some retraining. I guess all that bitching paid off, eh?

Okay, here are the details.

I leave Brunei on the Nov 25th and then transit through Thailand and California. (Argh! Hollywood! I hope I can see the sign when I pass through.)

It’s not all fun and games of course. We will be arriving at our destination around 5AM Monday morning, on THE SAME DAY when our training starts at 9AM. OMG! >_< That means we’re gonna try catching as much snooze as possible in the 14hr flight from Thai to Cali. Plus this is an absolute one-in-a-life-time chance and I for one am not gonna screw it up. The ppl at the office makes sure of that as well, as they arranged meetings with me based on budget and business planning.

Ah, accounting is like the 7th level of hell. Thank gawd I took POA in Form 5 and Business Computing in Focus.

We’re staying at the Westin Hotel. I don’t know much about it except that it’s a very health conscious hotel catered towards business men/women. The place looks nifty. It’s only 15 mins away from the local Borders. (Argh! Books! Must control, only get what I usually can’t get in Brunei and Malaysia.)

The training will last 7 days and it’s a shame that we leave immediately after. *sigh* I mean there’s the Miami beach, Seaworld and Disneyland! (Although I am more inclined towards visiting Seaworld than Disneyland, dunno why.) Well, at least we get the nights off. Good enough to let us go roaming around, try out the night life. Oh, I just can’t wait. It’s just too bad they can’t extend our stay in Florida a bit longer. It turns out that if they change the flight schedule it would cost an extra thousand dollars. Woah…

The weather in the states shouldn’t be too bad though. I wiki-ed it and turns out its only cold during night time at 19°C. Mom is being a bit paranoid though. She wants me to take my cousin’s winter jacket, something she bought while she was studying in Englang. Wah lau le. =.=

Good news is that they allowed us to extend our stay in Bangkok when we switch on the way back. Provided we pay for our own accomodations of course.

Ah, four whole days in beautiful Bangkok.

I know everyone thinks of one thing when they think about Bankok.

Shopping!!!

(Okay, guys, stop snickering. I know there’s also SOMETHING ELSE everyone thinks about as well. Don’t think I don’t know what’s going on in that lopsided brain of yours.)

Anyway, there will be no shopping spree for me. Why? Well, several reasons really. You see, I have a trip to KL that I’ve been planning to go since July. So I’m saving up for that. It’s no fun to be broke during a trip, everyone knows that.

Another reason is that I know I’m gonna be exhausted both physically and mentally by then. I’ll need all the R&R I can get out of my little break in Bangkok. I’m talking about enjoying eateries, witnessing the sights and sounds, really relax to the max and just totally chill. (Ah…sounds like a panda or more like a sloth? Maybe more like a doped up monkey. Haha!)

Although, I’m definitely shopping the Christmas presents for my family in both USA and Thailand.

I’ll be staying most probably in the Diamond City Hotel. I’ve read some reviews and it sounds like a pretty good place. I don’t care much about the service or how many stars it’s got. I’m just concerned about security. I don’t want to come back and find some things MIA. *Choi! Choi!*

If anyone got any tips about travelling, pls let me know. I’m sure when it comes to long flights and foreign countries I’m the most sakai of the Sakains from Sakai Island.

Selamat Hari Raya!

2007-10-21T19:46:00.000+08:00

Dunno why I like joining in their festivities so much. I guess it’s because somehow it reminded me of my childhood years. You see, during the Chinese New Year, it would always be a big fuss. My aunts would make cakes and biscuits with my grandmother (Father’s side).

There would be endless shopping for decorations, new clothes and foods. Eveythough everybody was busy to the max but everyone enjoyed them. Then on the first day of Chinese New Year, all the relatives could come to my grandmother’s house and we would hang out there the whole day and play fire crackers at night.

That’s what I miss the most.

Ever since my grandmother died, relatives have less and less reason to drop by the house to say hello. Who could blame them? Especially when my dad disappears to go fishing and mom goes off to Merudi for the first few days of CNY. Which is why last year I went to Miri with my mom, it’s more festive there but I still miss visiting all my cousins.

I promised my other grandmother (Mother’s side) that I would be in Merudi for the next coming CNY. That is, if my mother and siblings are going too, she can’t expect me to go alone, does she? The boat ride alone from Miri to Merudi is tiring as it is and noisy as hell too.

I didn’t realise I would be so occupied during the Raya season this year. I was confident that I would only be visiting Shikin’s house on the first day of raya and that’s it. Cuz my work place only close for the first day of Raya. I wasn’t planning on doing anymore than that.

Since Effy came back from KL I thought I would just drop by sometime and chit chat, spend time with Shikin also, since darling Danish keeps her house bound 24/7. And it was fun hanging out at their house helping out whatever.

Haha, instead of a normal chit chat, we surfed, traded guitar lessons, put up the new curtains, arranged the furniture. Macam macam ada.

The next day I visited, they were so busy that I ended up cutting cake and putting them in trays. Effy was also tired out, until she lost her temper on a modern broom. Haha! Poor girl was so tired (she only slept at 4am in the living room the previous night.) out that she threw the broom in frustration. Lol! First time I see someone frustrated over a broom. If can, I’ll buy for her a Harry Potter broom stick instead. But remember Effy, Sean Biggerstaff is mine. He’s Andrew’s father you know.

But it was all fun throughout the Raya week. Until mom asked where I’ve been cuz she hardly sees me at home. Haha, even Shikin’s dad joked to his relatives, “There’s the chinese daugther I adopted.” Ai, uncle, from where did you pick me up then? Aku ni dari sampah mana kan? (omg, come to think of it, there’s a huge dumpster around that area too!)

At least uncle’s joke is better than his own daughter. Shikin lagi tah, called me “Amah Shanghai.” Boleh. At first she called me ‘Amah Guang Zao’.
Then I dunno why I replied, “Eh, my ancestors not from Guang Zao ah, they are from Shanghai le.”
Ok, why not? She immediately changed my title to ‘Amah Shanghai’. Not much improvement there. *sigh*

Dammit, for all this I go through, she better freaking give a generous, big fat green packet of ‘duit raya’ to Andrew.

I think it was also partly because Shikin’s grandmother was telling me a little about the past. That back in Shell’s glory days, all the ang moh employees had shiny cars, lived in the bungalows or the Canadian houses and all of them had employed Cantonese maids in white uniforms and long braids. Dun play play, these Cantonese maids could speak good enligsh yo. Haha.

Man, I love talking to old people.They have such interesting stories to tell.

Whatever May Be, May Be ~

2007-10-06T22:27:00.000+08:00

I’ve been transferred to the Seria branch for two months now and I can tell you so far, it’s been real peaceful and quiet. I enjoy the time I get to spend with my family. The stupid arguments I have once a week at least with my brother.

Mom and I somehow have come to a truce of some sort. If I don’t mess up her kitchen and she doesn’t butt into my personal business, then all is well. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I dislike talking with mother, but she has way of speaking to me as if she was throwing verbal daggers laced with poisonous sarcasm. I know she doesn’t mean to speak like that with her children. Mom is just never comfortable with showing her emotions. Between the bluntness, the sarcasm, the critisms, she genuinely cares. I’ve come to understand that. However, that doesn’t mean I am an expert at dodging all her verbal daggers like Neo in Matrix.

Ah well, home isn’t home without her. Why even last week she and I made chocolate chips cookies together in a ‘mom and daughter team’ moment thing. It wasn’t unpleasant but I won’t be doing it any time soon though, it’s like making cookies with the last dowager empress of china. Terrified at the thought of a wrong word I could be sentenced to a death of a thousand cuts.

You know my brother and I have a code for when Mom is in a bad mood and starts scolding everyone till they turn black. We would say, “Careful, Mom keluar power today. Nag skill + 85% critical rate.” Man, we are really horrid children.

Oh yeah, while I am in KB, I read in the papers about the first Animal Shelter in Brunei. I can’t tell you how glad I was to find that people out there actually did something about it. You see, I’ve been reading forever in the papers in the opinion section about the complaints of the strays wandering around and breeding freely in public. Typical, a lot of people wrote in about the problem but no one has taken the intiative. Finally now I see that there is someone in Brunei who genuinely cared enough to do something about it. I joined their worthy cause and they tell me that they need more help in BSB than in KB. So I will report in for duty when I return to the capital. They need a lot of help so volunteers are always welcomed.

Speaking of pets, I got a friend who has quiet a few pets but no worries about abandament there cuz those are quality purebred dogs. The latest addition and my favourite is Cola, the American Cockerel Spaniel. I’ve always been partial to cockerel spaniels from the early days of watching Lady and the Tramp. Cola is really an adorable whirlwind of puppy flesh. I love his floppy ears but I’ve read somewhere that they need careful handling and proper care esp those ears cuz that’s where bacteria breeds most.

Also, speaking of careful handling and proper care, I’m happy to announce that Shikin gave birth to a lovely baby boy. Danish Daniel (DD for short) is just coming to a month old and he’s the cutest, most capi capi, adorable little munchkin. Pat, Shikin and I were talking baby stuff (well, they were, my last exp with raising a baby was 10 yrs ago.) and Pat suggested they both bring their boys out go Raya visiting together. But then what about me le? Nvm, can also, I bring Andrew! Who is Andrew? My baby la! 100% cotton yo. Made in China again. Steady le? *lol*

Sigh, it seems just a while ago I was blogging about Shikin and Pat’s weddings…and now I’m talking about their babies. Pural some more! Aiyah, makes me feel so old la, friends getting married and having tiny tots. Wait, dun get the wrong idea. I don’t feel like having a tiny tot myself or anything like that. Goodness no. Not yet anyway. What I meant was that I was feeling a little sad and nostalgic of how time flew right out of my hand just like that. I don’t know where I am anymore. I am in the present but it feels like my heart is in the past while my mind is on the future.

Que sera sera?

Haiz ~ Monotony

2007-07-07T18:56:00.000+08:00

Everyday is the same. I wake up, shower, have my cup of coffee, get dressed and go to work. It doesn’t matter if I was on morning shift or afternoon’s shift because I always just wake up enough time to just get ready for work. XD

After work I would go online, chat with my friends from Ragnarok or Magic the Gathering. Download manga to read whenever I’m bored at work.

There are only two restaurants I go to near work and I’m such a regular there that they know what I like. If its mamak, then it’s always the ‘the tarik, roti kosong with telur mata lembu.’ If it s the Trader Inn restaurant, then its always coffee. Food is optional in that one cuz I only like their noodles and the vinegar chilli.

Then I go home, shower, take a cig and watch a movie or the numerous series that are available. American, Korean, Japanese. Three countries producing endless streams of action, drama and comedy.

Heroes, house, prison break, ugly Betty, black adder. Sassy girl, my lovely samsoon, my girl. Not to mention the endless Anime stretching to high heaven. Naruto, Ghost Hunt, Code Gaess, Claymore, Full metal alchemist.

The list just goes on and they have seasons again.

Which is good because lately I haven’t been sleeping well, which is ridiculous because I always drink strawberry milk before sleeping and its common knowledge that milk helps to induce sleep.

I would be in my bed staring at my ceiling fan thinking, “why is there's a fan on the ceiling when I got an air con? Is that my reflection from the metal hub of the fan?” Then I moved my foot, “Hey, it is my reflection!” …

At least I’m not short of entertainment.

The other night I switched off all the lights including my floor lamp. (I like to leave that on usually, well, for the ambiance. No, that’s a lie! I leave them on because I have a vivid imagination especially when I can’t sleep. Which is one reason why I don't watch scary movies alone at night, because I tend to replay them in my head over and over again esp in the dark.)

So there I was, in the dark, when suddenly James Brown’s ‘Play that funky music white boy’ popped up in my head.

Spent that night with ‘Friends’ season 9. Ross is so nerdy cute.

Welcome To My Life

2007-07-02T22:18:00.000+08:00

by Simple Plan

Do you ever feel like breaking down?
Do you ever feel out of place?
Like somehow you just don't belong
And no one understands you
Do you ever wanna run away?
Do you lock yourself in your room?
With the radio on turned up so loud
That no one hears you screaming

No you don't know what it's like
When nothing feels all right
You don't know what it's like
To be like me

To be hurt
To feel lost
To be left out in the dark
To be kicked when you're down
To feel like you've been pushed around
To be on the edge of breaking down
And no one's there to save you
No you don't know what it's like
Welcome to my life

Do you wanna be somebody else?
Are you sick of feeling so left out?
Are you desperate to find something more?
Before your life is over
Are you stuck inside a world you hate?
Are you sick of everyone around?
With their big fake smiles and stupid lies
While deep inside you're bleeding

No you don't know what it's like
When nothing feels all right
You don't know what it's like
To be like me

To be hurtTo feel lost
To be left out in the dark
To be kicked when you're down
To feel like you've been pushed around
To be on the edge of breaking down
And no one's there to save you
No you don't know what it's like
Welcome to my life

No one ever lied straight to your face
And no one ever stabbed you in the back
You might think I'm happy but I'm not gonna be okay
Everybody always gave you what you wanted
You never had to work it was always there
You don't know what it's like, what it's like

To be hurt
To feel lost
To be left out in the dark
To be kicked when you're down
To feel like you've been pushed around

To be on the edge of breaking down
And no one's there to save you
No you don't know what it's like
Welcome to my life
Welcome to my life
Welcome to my life

Where Did the Little Girl Go?

2007-06-28T13:30:00.000+08:00

When I was a school girl I’ve always planned my actions. I would map out what I would do or what class I would attend afterschool or when I’m gonna save enough for an item.

Sometimes I miss that girl. She also has this large blue folder that acts as an organizer since she was primary 6 and continued using it till she graduated form 5.

She also had a cute calender filled with birthdays, exams and other important events of the year. She was also quiet a pack rat. There’s like 6 shoe boxes filled with junk locked in her closet.

How I wish that girl is here with me right now. She would know what to do, when to visit the museums and library of the capital, where and what to eat and she would never be late for work.

I bet she would have recorded in their diary on how living alone without friends or family aroudn has taken its toll on her. How the four bare walls in her room made her felt claustrophobic.

She would wonder who would bring her chicken ginger porridge when she is sick and who would worry about her if she never returned home from the night before.

A few times she wished there was someone with her when she cruised the capital at night enjoying the beautiful night lights reflected in the waters of kampung Ayer.

Thinking how monotonous her job is and only a steady stream of customers would make her shift go a little faster.

She loves her independence but the freedom has made her numb. There is no school to go to her shifts are forever changing so she seldom plans for anything more than which days to sleep in and when to do her laundry.

Well, basically there's not much for her to do now anymore.

Should I go for more activities? Maybe meeting new people is always an exciting thing but its not kindergarden anymore. It’s not like I could share the same sandbox with someone new and we instant become friends.

I can’t stand superficial people and do you know how many are they roaming the capital? Lots!

You can toss a stone into a crowd and hit no less than 3. At Chills or at Dome, they are there, ready to judge.

So yeah, no sandbox for them. Thank you very much.

Its hard to make new friends. Friends I can trust, friends I can hang out and laugh about the same stuff with. I’m not that all easy to get along sometimes. I mean sometmies I lose my temper and sometimes I tend to put my foot in my mouth and a lot of times I tend to overreact (yeah, drama queens would love me.)

God, I miss my pals back in KB. Effy, Shikin and Pat, guys, I can’t wait to see you all again.

2007-06-04T17:40:00.000+08:00

ANIME REVIEW

Title: GHOST HUNT
Episodes : 1 – 25
Rated: 7.5/10

Taniyama Mai, a young energetic 1st year student who has a passion for the supernatural and horror stories, accidentally injured a strange person while she was snooping around an old haunted school building. The person turned out to be the assistant of Shibuya Kazuya, head of the Shibuya Psyhic Research. Since he turned out to be such a narcisstic, arrogant and cold, he was thus nick named by Mai, ‘Narcisstic Naru-Chan’.

For some reason she was convinced to work in place of the injured (sprained ankle) assistant. They are joined by the following spiritual specialists.

Takigawa Houshou, a monk or more precisely hakaisou (a monk who left his, er, monkly duties?) from Mt.Kouya. Incidentally Mt.Kouya is a place in Japan that is considered to be scared and holy, with powerful spiritual essence. That’s why monks from there are revered and considered to be the real deal.

Matsuzaki Ayako, a miko (Shrine Maiden), and was immediately questioned by the rather arrogant Kazuya on her authenticity. I would too, because I’ve always thought shrine maidens are young pure innocent virgin girls. She looks a bit too saucy and ‘mature’ to be a genuine miko.

John Brown, an Australian priest specializing in exorcism. Why John Brown? If they added John Smith, it couldn’t be more typical example of a western name. John Brown… seriously although I liked this character more than the others. I don’t know why. Maybe I have a thing for priests? *sweat*

Hara Masako, a spirit channeler. This character is just about as narcisstic and arrogant as Naru-chan himself, so it’s not suprising when she shows signs of attraction towards Shibuya Kazuya himself.

Lin, (for those who understand chinese, plz don’t make fun of Lin’s name or else he’ll become tu lan lin) the capable assistant of Naru-chan. Later in the series you will see what his skills really are when it comes to the paranormal.

The concept is simple, they are like detectives and people hire them to solve unexplained mysteries and occurances.

Basically the whole series is a collection of ghostly or paranormal cases presented and solved by the Shibuya Psyhic Research. The overall quality of the animation is passable and not very original when it comes to character designs but this just sets the stage for the extraordinary storyline. The script is written well and leaves little room for further questioning as each story is revealed.

If you liked the ghost stories you use to hear about as a kid, I’m sure you’ll find that the Japanese animates your inner child well.

For further info here’s the wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Hunt_%28anime%29

2007-05-19T23:11:00.000+08:00

Where Have I been?

It’s been a while since I last blogged. Well, more than a while even. I didn’t even finish blogging about my trip to KL last year which I felt was getting a bit draggy.

The only thing left worth mentioning was the trip to Genting Highlands which was very cold and very interesting. I got an ang pow there thanks to Uncle Lim. Hehehe. There are several rules to abide to when one is at the casino (it’s nothing james bond about it, no tux, no cocktails, but got free milo) that is not to stand behind anyone looking at their hand, not to make noise or bump or ask “why he do that for?”. Seriously, some people who go there to gamble are really into it, don’t play play. Also absolutely no picture taking allowed, unless you want to be escorted to the VIP back room for a little chat.

I loved the scenery in Genting Highlands though. Misty and wet, even the vegetation changed somewhat to more fern than flora. Overall, it was a nice trip,

There are no excuses for my long absence, just that I took a needed break from the blogsphere. All the loading of the pics, thinking of what to type about even when I don’t even feel like typing anything at all is just taxing.

So here I am again after nearly 5 months to blog again. Nothing in particular though, just a few things here and there that I thought is worth mentioning.

The past few festivities were of nothing much worth mentioning. Christmas came and gone where I got a monkey figure & monkey cup from my family. Grandma came to Brunei from Merudi and we all went out to take pictures at the NBT display. New year’s eve I spent alone at the hostel toasting to the dawn of a new year with vodka ice and a fruit cocktail dessert.

Chinese New Year was more interesting when I decided to join mum to go Miri to visit my relatives there along. Grandma was there, active as ever, chatting away with us all. I visited my uncle’s new house which is pretty nice but looks exactly the same as all the others in the neighbourhood. What can I say, suburban development. Sure wasn’t easy to find his house.

One thing that makes it worth going all the way to Miri to spend CNY is the fireworks. Oh, the fireworks. It was amazing. Maybe I’ll go again next year.

Other than all that, there’s really nothing much interesting been happening to me lately. I miss my friends in KB terribly and I don’t hang out late as much as I use to. I just stay cooped up inside my room playing PS2 games most of the time. Even my RO time has taken a step back since I no longer plan my own shifts and that I cannot play RO in the shop anymore. (Not with my exec around and online 24/7 on her laptop. *sigh*)

I don’t go online after 12 usually because there isn’t a phone line in the hostel at my disposal. So yeah, socially in real life and online, everything just kinda took a step backwards. Only now I have a car. I just go back and forth from work and that’s it. I don’t have that many friends in Bandar as I used to. So yeah…it kinda made me wonder how I survived those two years living in BSB without a car. *heh*

Anyway, I’ve been meaning to get back into blogging action so look forward to more posts in the future. ^_^

2007-01-27T14:11:00.000+08:00

Window Shoping : Lady Knife's Way of Lepak-ing

Hmm, nothing much happened on that particular Wednesday. I woke up around 10 at a silent house…ah, everyone is either at work or busy doing their own thing.

“Today I’ll be travelling to KLCC on my own for the first time! *Determined look* Yes, you can do it!”

After washing my laundry, I went of lala-ling outside. Don’t worry, Quin left me the house spare keys, so I wasn’t locked in and I could lock the doors when I go out ...unlike my own uncle from Canada who once stayed with my family, locked his own nephew and niece in their own house after escaping with the spare house keys while they were asleep. *swt* Not funny you know, we were locked upstairs and the toilets were downstairs.

One thing I noticed about Quin’s neighbourhood was it reminds me of those alley ways you see sometimes when you watch Japanese anime or movies. They were narrow and populated with kitties all over. I wouldn’t mind living in a place like that, friendly and safe, even with a park and school nearby.

Okay, other than being accident prone, I’m also a person who has no sense of direction whatsoever. When I wanted to look for the Malaysian Embassy to get my visa done, it took me an hour to get remotely close to the area then for some reason I ended up at Hua Ho in Muara. *swt* I went an entire circle and didn’t even reach anywhere near the embassy. In the end because I was such a lost cause and there wasn’t much time, I asked my uncle for help. *sigh* So much for trying to be independent.

So this time, I really tried my best and paid full attention the night before when Quin showed me where to go and what to do.

Right, see the large LRT station. Get ticket, go wait for the LRT and then board all the way to KLCC.

I think it was about 6 stops?

Finally reached my destination, hee, what to do, what to do? It was lunch time, so how about some lunch? I picked up a chicken and mushroom pie, got my trusty bottle of water and spent the next hour or so munching and day dreaming at the fountain.

Some of the pictures I’ve taken here turned out quiet nice.

Then it started to rain. Bugger. I couldn’t take any more pics. Oh well, what else is there better to do when it’s raining outside and I’m stuck inside a building full of branded bags & blings? Kinokuniya! ^_^

Hey, I’m not so hopelessly addicted to Kino la, this time I went there with a true purpose! To purchase ‘Thank you’ gifts! I don’t know about other people but I just don’t feel nice when I don’t get a little something for friends who have been so (maybe too) kind to me on this trip. I was thinking of a bottle of wine at first but then I don’t know enough about it to be able to choose a nice one. So, what do I know best about? Books of course! ^_^

So since I’m alone I picked this opportunity to hunt for the right books. After I found the right ones, I spent the rest of the afternoon lepak-ing and reading comic books. Most of the books are sealed but there are always some lying about free for all to browse through. Ah ~ I spent an afternoon in bookwormy bliss.

Later I returned the same way I came back. Wah! The train was packed to the max! Of course to the KL people it’s the norm but not for me! The last time I felt so smushed between people in a small compartment was when I was in Singapore’s MRT at 6pm.

Finally, I reached Quin’s place, then quickly showered, packed my overnight stuff (cuz I was going to stay over night at Spire’s place) and stashed the books somewhere.

PB, Quin and I then went for woe. Sorry I can’t remember much now about what happened at woe that day, except that it was fun and we got two castles, I think, Gary went and took the emp at Pron 333 at the very last few seconds.

Then at night, they sent me to Spire’s place to stay overnight. There I met her cousin (Spire – Sorry that I forgot your cousins name) and had a preview of her latest cosplay costume. (It’s sweet I tell ya. Sometimes I wish I can cosplay also. Haiz. But that would only scare people.) Then after I read a comic she had lying about, I immediately went to sleep.

Coming up – My Hobo Holiday at Pyramid.

To Be Continued…

2007-01-15T12:11:00.000+08:00

The Perfect Storm

I remember that morning I woke up around 6 something because it was too hot in the room to continue sleeping comfortably. During my stay there, the fan in the room broke down for unknown reasons. Heck, I didn’t even verbally abuse it. It just gave out this pathetic sputter of life before it died. Since it was my last nite in the apartment, I couldn’t be bothered with complaining about it to the receptionist.

Looked outside from the balcony for a moment, the sun was still sleepy also and the sea water just looked tempting. It made me felt like visiting the beach one last time because it was our last day in Penang. Thing is everyone was sleeping so soundly, I didn’t want to wake them up, so instead, I try to go to go back to sleep in the living room. It turned out to be too cold there, back to the room, then too hot, then back to the living, too cold, and so I alternated until it was 10 in the morning when Sala said I looked like I had a hang over.

-_-"

We all got busy packing up everything and getting stuff down into the cars. Then it was off for some breakfast. This time I ordered the famous Penang Prawn Mee. Sorry I didn’t take a picture of it this time, I was too hungry and it was too delicious. Heh.

The trip back to KL was kinda somber partly because everyone was kinda tired and because Penang decided to bid us farewell with a perfect storm. It rained heavily most of the way to KL where it only got worse, with thunder and lightning all over. At one time I was seriously scared ok, cuz the lightning was so close and the thunder was booming everywhere.

We all headed straight for dinner at EuroDeli where I was so tired I hardly remember what we talked about that time, was very blur. Then we finally reached home. Quin took me out again though, for a quick stop at HSBC and to show me where the LRT is and how to use it to go to Kino-, er, I mean KLCC. This is because the next day Quin and everyone else would be busy working liao and I would be left to my own devices. Heh.

Returned to her house and we managed to catch up on zzzs.

To Be Continued…

2007-01-08T15:58:00.000+08:00

Play Play In Penang

I woke up around 10 something to see, of all things, people playing RISK. After a quick shower, a group of us went off to visit the beach at the Rasa Sayang Hotel.

I saw a lot going on the beach, there were some japanese folks sun bathing, some guy was parasailing (eee...parasailing...I wonder if I would have enough guts to do that one day.), there were also this lady learning to do tai chi from this old fella (I presume one of the hotel employees) and there were even people set up some kind of tent to provide foot &/or back massages.

Penang beach was kinda pretty cuz it glitters a bit from tiny pebbles. There was also boulders…I don’t know what’s my sakai fascination with the boulders on the beach. I guess my imagination subconsciously assumed that all boulders protruding from the waters has something mystical about it, something that’s just sitting there, begging to be explored. I mean who knows right? Maybe eons eons EONS ago a mermaid sat on one of these boulders while all her pretty mermaid friends swam and played around.

Okay, that may have been a tad overboard, heh, I mean if it’s long, long, long ago the boulder prolly was still part of a cliff or something.

The sand is very different from Brunei sand, ours are soft and powdery whereas Penang sand is kinda rough and exfoliates while you joyfully burrow your feet into it. It has more feel to it I guess. I wouldn’t mind being buried from the neck down in that sand, no need spa lo, 100% natural.

Still, have to be careful where you step, cuz joy of all joys there are horses on them beaches. A ride on them was about RM40 which was no fun since mostly what you do is sit on them while they lead the horse around by the halter. Bo-ring! Hee, I would rather ride the horse on a full gallop right down the beach, and perhaps break my neck along the way. XD Sadly though, the horses looked thin and malnourished even though they were all sporting shiny coats and a full mane. Cicak kinda got stuck on top of one. Hee Hee.

After visiting the beach, we had breakfast at one of the many cafes along the road. I dunno if I was hungry or what, but it was one of best omeletes I had in a long time. I love trying out omeletes in new places that serve them. I like to think a simple omelets can tell the diner a lot about the chef who made it. What I don’t like is the French fries. Why do people always serve French fries with omeletes? A toast would be nice or even a salad maybe, but French fries for breakfast? Meh.

Afternoon we all head out for lunch. Penang chow kuay teow wasn’t at all what I expected. I love chow kuay teow, next to kolo lau shu fen and kway chat soup, so I was kinda looking forward to it. Turns the Penang chow kuay teow is a lot of chow, little soy sauce and lots of little extras like mussles and small prawns. Keeps the meal interesting I guess.

Quin ordered laksa for herself but she let me have a bit of taste. Oh, that one taste was as good as it smells. I’m actually salivating from the memory.

Okay, that green drink right there, I have no idea what it is. I think it was either nutmeg or guava, or both, I dunno. The fella asked me what I wanted to drink first in hokkien then I went something like “Huh?” in mandarin, then the fella kindly repeated what he said in mandarin and I was like “Huh?” again. In my head though, I was thinking, “Siap!” I heard something like suan mei in there somewhere so I said, “Er, suan mei…” The man nodded and disappeared into the back of the café. What just happened? A few minutes later he brought my drinks along with the others. *sweat* It was green with one sad looking 'suan mei' blobbling in it.

I knew I should’ve ordered something simple like cendol or barley. Thing is they put black sugar or gula melaka in their cendol so it’s something I just haven’t gotten used to just yet. The cendol I usually have at Simpur KB contains syrup, not black sugar…although some of them do but I always request them not to…like I said, I haven’t gotten used to the taste of it yet.

We went biscuit hunting after that. Terror some of the shops there I tell you, a simple biscuit shop with a nice looking lau pan in front can also sell a shopping catalogue displaying the latest in samurai swords and katana. Steady la.

After we secured a few boxes of biscuits, we all went off to spend the afternoon at a shopping plaza. Again don’t ask me where it was, cuz I have no idea. Poor PB had this ridiculous verbal misunderstanding with the basement parking ticket booth attendant. I think they need to re-educate that guy cuz he can’t seem to understand a bit of what PB was saying, in malay or otherwise. In fact, I don’t think the guy is registering that someone is speaking to him at all. He could be an android repeating the same words over and over in his built in recorder. Then the smart fella, who didn’t have enough change in his cashier to pay PB the balance, went off to the other booths to look for change. Good. Smart. Rajin. BUT, he left his cash register full of $$$ wide open. Good. Smart. Rajin. Employee of the month I tell you.

We were going bowling but then last minute changed to playing pool instead. I was kinda relieved, cuz I have no idea how to bowl and not really sure if I would like it, you know, that a clumsy, accident prone person like me, tossing a heavy dangerous object around. Not a good idea I tell you. Pool, I really like cuz I injure less people that way, including myself. You see there’s a lot of pool & snooker places around Brunei, so my friends and I spent many our college nights out in them. (Of course, always during our free time when there were no classes held, when exams were either over or not due and especially after we all finished our homework and assignments.) :P

So, when we’re done with that, we all went back to the apartment to shower or just relax. Then Sala and gang presented Pictionary the board game.

Omg, Pictionary…rofl. The rest is history. We spent a good hour or so laughing our heads off pointing at each others’ artistic monstrosity. Poor Eekie, she was already not feeling well at the start of the trip and there she is laughing so hard in her hoarse voice. But she couldn’t help laughing and neither could the rest of us. Haha. Even now while I’m typing this I’m still smiling at the memory. God, I have to get that game one day and have a go at it with my friends.

Memorable Artistic Highlights of Pictionary:-

‘Da Foot’ by Sala
‘Dic-tator’ by PB & Eekie
‘Down Under’ by Mareen (me)
‘West Monster’ by Quin
‘Accelerator’ by Mach
‘Dysfunctional Dolphin’ by Quin
‘Shark Dog’ by Gary
‘Air Rage’ by Eekie
‘Tedious Teddy’ by Spire

Sala has the original drawings and if he scans some of them, I will put them up in this entry but for now you will just have to use your imagination. ^_^

Only hunger drove us all out of the apartment and into Gurney for more hawker food. I will always remember the roasted chicken feet PB bought for me. Eeee, I want to go back and have some more. We also had one ton mien, (wan tan mien or what we call kolomee over here) where they fried their wan tan instead of boiling it.

Before you know it, it was already time to bid Pozart farewell. As Sala, Eekie, Spire and Gary sent Pozart home, PB and Quin decided to bring me to do some tourist-sy stuff. There’s a street where vendors would set up their stall and er, vend. There was some usual souvenir stuff like carved out wooden boxes or arts and craft things made in Penang. Then there were also some UNusual stuff there as well, samurai swords, short yakuza swords, copper knuckle dusters and even a tazer was for sale. Interesting, no?

Then the storm came. I tell you that was really a treat. To see the lights, from the little town area and the hotel, diffused and blurred by the rain…it’s really…something.

With all of us cozy inside the apartment, it called for a few more rounds of Pictionary. This time we were joined by Ben who is a hell of a guesser. Don’t know how he does it. He didn’t stay overnight though, but Gary did as he claimed the couch in the living room.

As Sala, PB and Ben started another round of RISK (they tried to convince me to play but first, I dunno how to play, second, I’m crap at rolling the dice and third, I was damn sleepy.) so Quin in the end took over while I went off to lala land.

To Be Continued…

2006-12-30T13:36:00.000+08:00

** Hey guys, just taking a moment to wish everyone a very belated Merry Christmas and an early Happy New Year! 2007 woot! Here I come! What are your New Year resolutions? **

Monkeying Around Penang

Slept at 2am and woke at 5am. I just sat there dazing out…until…suddenly…out of nowhere…

Morning prayers from the nearby mosque rang out as loud as if I was in the mosque itself. I was jolted into awareness and wondered, “Why does Quin’s alarm has the morning prayer in it?” Okay, so maybe not fully awake still.

I was still blur as I showered and got ready for the Penang trip. PB was to pick us up and then we were going to meet up with everyone else for dim sum. It was fun seeing all of us wearing the guild t-shirt. Hee, I felt more part of the guild instead of a lost monkey. After a hearty breakfast, a quick stop at a petrol station, we were on our way.

This time I spent the trip riding with Sala, Eekie and Spire. It was fun as we entertained each other with stories during our 3 hr trips. Viewed the scenery made more interesting by Sala’s info on each one. The cave where people from the Communist insurgency hid…well according to Sala, or maybe my memory may be faulty.

Beautiful weather that day as well.

Sala pointed out the temple built into a cliff (we went too fast to take a pic of it, it looks amazing though) and the spot where they shot part of the movie ‘Anna and the King’. The natural waterfall, the perils of driving around that area because not too long ago a boulder fell on the road, quarries that made the moutains look like giant pieces of nougat. Mom would love to go hashing in those hills. Palm trees, lots of palm trees…it brought me back to my geography lessons where I learned Palm oil is one of the resources of Malaysia.

I loved the scenery, you don’t get much of this while driving from KB to Bandar…the only place I can think of that can compare is Shah Bandar and that is only if you do the grunt work to hike the hills, only then can you enjoy the scenery.

A quick stop to grab some Baskin Robins (mmm, pistacio this time) where we were entertained by ‘It’s a Bug’s Life: The Adventure of the Cave of Wax’ written and directed by PB.

We went to pick up Pozart first at Butterworth? Why does that name keep popping up in my head? I think it’s wrong but I remember reading Butterworth there…why do I remember Butterworth??? Pozart is from BM, btw, but I have no idea what BM stands for.

I tot Pozart would look kinda round, cute and with a dancing hamster on his shoulder. He turned out to be like more of an anime char from Pokemon. I have no idea what his family must have thought about us…I mean if my online guild friends suddenly popped out of nowhere one Sunday and wanted to take me out for a fun filled day of board games, my mom would prolly locked me up in my room without an internet connection and throw away the key.

After kidnapping Poring we went off to pick up Gary. Now Sala said Gary looks like a romulan…although the resemblance is kinda uncanny (all he needs now are the ears to complete the romulan cosplay) Gary also has this permanent scowl on his face like he has the weight of the world upon him. I dunno whether he’s thinking about lunch or contemplating Socrates.

Off to Gurney Plaza to meet up with Cicak, Mach, Xiang and Wei Ho.

What to say about these fellas, hmm…

Cicak – Tall, he had an unfortunate encounter with a toothpick on his ear, sleepy fella like he just drank a whole bottle of nyquil before coming. I accidentally sponsored him a root beer.

Mach – Tall (ALL of the Penang trio are tall, what do they put in the Penang food kan?), bulky fella, likes to make fun of me and sea spiders.

Xiang – Very quiet kid which is suprising since online he’s the chattiest.

Wei Ho – I dunno who is cuter, Wei Ho or Pozart… Wei Ho looks like the Asian version of Harry Potter especially when he put the guild tee shirt on. ROFL, the shirt practically ROBED the fella. Everytime he eats, he waves his wand “Consumedious!” and *poof* the food disappears.

After A&W at Gurney Plaza, we all went to check in at Sri Sayang Apartments. Nothing much to say about the apartment we rented. The shower is a bit funky and likes to surprise people, the chairs were traps disguised as chairs and if there is a killer on the lose, there’s no alternative escape route unless you jumped form one balcony to one next door.

The best part was the view. We were on the 14th floor you see and I loved it. I spent a lot of time just spazing out there. There was this one night, where it was full moon and you can see moonlight reflecting off the sea. It was windy and so soothing.

Most of us played RISK during the afternoon. RISK I find is a complicated game full of strategy, kinda like CIV (Civillization IV) except you don’t develop cities, and it’s a war game. It was fun to watch but I didn’t play, mainly I wasn’t too interested and it was kidna fully booked already. Everyone was in pairs. Haha. Spire didn’t play and we instead spent the afternoon playing MTG, discussing MTG strats and deck builds.

Soon it was dinner time and we all headed out for a simple makan at this Indian place where they can mix almost anything at your request. Just point at anything and they scoop a ladle full of that and plop it onto your plate, pay at the counter then eat.

Next they brought me to this place which I have no idea what it’s called but I named it ‘Hawker’s Street’ cuz the whole jalan just paved with hawkers stands. I had some rojak and some other stuff I can’t name now cuz I totally fogot what they are called. I took pictures of them though.

See? ^_^

We headed back to the apartment for more RISK, Monopoly and MTG, then finally sleep beckoned us all.

To Be Continued…

2006-12-14T13:18:00.000+08:00

KLCC, KINOKUNIYA & KILLING TIME

Woke up at around 9 something, then showered and everything. PB came over and the three of us headed out for some breakfast dim sum at this nice place that I have no idea what the name is but it’s pretty nice. The chicken feet & ha kau there was good, very fresh. Got to remember to ask PB what the place is called. XD

Then it was off to KLCC to meet up with Sala, Eekie and Spire. Turns out they were having sushi there. Omg, sushi, but I was too full with dim sum liao. Nvm, I’ll catch the sushi next time I go KL. Hehehe. Really, it was ok, cuz you know why? It was Kinokuniya next…the kingdom of knowledge, the realm of the written word, the holy temple of text. There were just so many books there…I wouldn’t mind working at a place like that or opening my own bookshop one day. But then…I’m afraid that I would either splurge my entire salary and buy the books on employee discount or, hang up the ‘closed’ sign and spend the rest of my days reading in my own shop, thus heading straight for bankrupcy.

Haiz, my habit of reading everything under the sun will be death of me one day.

However, since I am on a budget trip, I spent the time mostly browsing (No, I didn’t walk around sniffing the books, despite what rumours say.) and looking for something that I think my sister would like. She’s a regular bookworm, just like me. ^_^

I was kinda disappointed they didn’t have the book I wanted in stock. It’s Tale of Murasaki by Liza Dalby which came out around last year I think.

Sidenote: Lady Murasaki was a courtesan of 11th century Japan. She was the writer responsible for the famous ‘Tale of Genji’, probably the first novel ever written in history.

But never mind if they dun have my book in stock cuz I’m in Kinokuniya. People asked me before, if I’m so into books, why don’t I just order them online. My friend, nothing beats entering a shop full of books, ok? The smell of new covers, the feel of crisp pages, the sight of rows and rows of books just waiting for you to pick them up, it’s just lovely.

*ahem*

Okay, after I bought a couple of books, we all headed off to Times Square. There’s another bookshop there which according to Spire, is a big place, I didn’t go there though. I swear on my Louisa M. Alcott books, I didn’t. Haha. Instead, after a quick stop at Baskin Robins for ice cream, we went off to the huge arcade there. (I have no idea how they manage to put a roller coaster inside that building, it didn’t look that big to me from the ouside.)

The last arcade I’ve been to was in Gadong, where they had the old street fighter and shooting games. Too bad the place closed down after the PS was introduced into Brunei. So, I felt kinda like 13 again when I saw the place. Noisy, crowded and dim, it was the ideal hang out place for teens. Spire wanted me to try the para para machine. Sure I will try it, when I’m all alone and inside my room under a controlled environment.

She’s good at para para-ing, I can give her that much.

It’s really something to see my friends, 30’s and 20’s somethings, gaming and shooting baskets along side with the adolecents. In truth, I’m more into the shooting arcade games there. The smashing music button game reminds me too much of the button music smashing game my brother plays on the ps2. There’s a game called ‘House of the Dead’ or something like that, that I really wanted to try but it was fully booked so I pulled spire to accompany me playing ‘Timeline’ or something, another shooting game. There were also the seasoned DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) kids. This one kid, woah, breakdanced through this really wicked song on invisible mode. Freaky.

If all fails there’s always the lollipop machine. All you have to do is to drop in a coin and push the button. Viola, lollipops comes out. Eekie loved this machine. All Hail the Lollipop Princess. XD

When we’re all done, it was time for us to go to WOE. Omg, woe…*meow*

Actually, other than being constantly under the air conditioning throughout the 2 hours or so, it was pretty good. 6 people, 3 on each row, all for one purpose. It was really weird for me because well, for one, I never actually reported verbally and I am neither used to taking orders verbally. But I can tell you it was not so bad, other than the fact that I clicked too much. I learned a lot that night, such as if I limited my clicking, focused more on the angle of my direction, my performance would be better. I found out its very true.

Also I was as nervous as a kamikaze heading for a mission because Sala (Guild Leader) sat right beside me. Dammit, I actually felt my hands shaking that night. Or maybe it’s the air conditioning instead. Well either way, I felt as if my body was drained of every drop of blood. I felt numb, nervous and numb.

In the end it turned out better than I thought it would be. All of us talked about the woe while we all headed for TOLA. I THINK I had nasi lemak and milo peng cuz I was still kinda numb at the time. Everyone was talking and eating, amongst all the chatter we discussed our plans for tomorrow. What gonna happen tomorrow? We were all heading for Penang to meet other guild mates! Woot!

Effy (not Eekie) and Calvin was suppose to join us at TOLA but they didn’t make it in time. Instead, Quin directed them to a nearby makan place and dropped me there. I introduced her to Effy. Effy, meet Quin, my KL jie jie. Quin, meet Effy, my good friend and sister under the So-So Sisterhood of Jen. After an invigorating debate with Calvin about the pros and cons for a Bruneian like me to migrate to KL, we headed home. (Effy kinda like, “Yeah! You’re right!” on the side. Lol. I think she very bored with me debating with Calvin like that. Can’t help it what, the fella baited me…kinda.)

See how bored she is? Sampai play play with her mobile instead. Rofl!

It was 1 am already when they dropped me off at Quin’s place. I was worried Quin would forget about me and lock the door, go to sleep liao. *meow!* I would deserve it too, for coming back that late. Fortunately, Quin is an understanding sweetie and opened the door to let the stray cat (me) in.

I quickly packed my stuff for the Penang trip and went to bed at 2 am.

To be continued…

2006-12-03T17:39:00.000+08:00

Come Fly With Me, Let's Fly, Let's Fly Away ~

When I went to KL last year with Shikin, I didn’t think I would visit again and alone even more. Sad to say ah, the last time I traveled alone was when I was sent to Singapore for job training and that was 4 years ago. So this is the second time I’m actually traveling alone.

The main purpose of going to KL this time was to visit my guild mates in KL and Penang. Even a guild mate from Singapore went. It was exciting to think I’ll be meeting and staying with friends I’ve only known online. Ones that I trust won’t leave me in a tub of ice with both my kidneys missing. This is gathering also marks the one year I’ve been playing Ragnarok Online. Haha, I remembered that I wanted to try RO just for the fun of it. Look at where I am now, still playing RO.

I was so excited the night before that I couldn’t sleep and finally snoozed at around 5am. Nevermind, my flight was scheduled at 6pm, no problem.

Reached the airport in time and checked in. Scan, scan, scan, everything put into the big x ray machine and scan. I put in Josey (laptop) first but when she went in, the whole machine stopped. Ah? My baby is still in there, at least let me pass le. Haiz, but couldn’t cuz the whole gate power down. Maybe they forgot to pay last month’s electric bill. So we had to wait for a while for them to sort things out lo. At least I’m better off than this guy who was in line before me. Since he had metal buckles on his shoes, he had to take them off and put them through the x-ray machine. Ended up his shoes on one side and the fella was bare foot on the other. XD

Finally seated in the plane, can hear my heart go bump bump bump, cuz in 2 hrs, I would be meeting Quin and PB in person. So excited! Kya~! >_<

So I tried to settle down when who I see happen to pass by? It was Mr. X, head of a department in the company I work for. Okay la, wave and say hello to the fella, that’s it, but a few minutes later, “Any one sitting here?” Aiyoh…

The fella talked mostly about investments, bank interests, inflation and insurance for 2 solid hours. Woopeee…

Trust me, I’ve tried steering the conversation into other topics.

“So why is Mr. X flying to KL?”
“Oh going to catch a flight to Penang around midnight.”
“Mr. X got business in Penang?”
“Not really, my family is there, and my father in law is celebrating his birthday this weekend so I decided to attend.”
“Oh, I see…I’m gonna visit Penang this Sunday.”
“Is it? You should really try the hawker food there, it’s really good.”
“Yeah, that’s what I heard too.”

…

*smile* *smile*

…

“So you already got your own insurance plan?”

Lord, give me strength.

Turns out he’s going back to Brunei on Sunday. He said it was a pity cuz then he could show me around in Penang. In my heart I was thinking there is a God after all.

Finally when the plane landed, I picked up my luggage and started messaging Quin. She asked me to wait for her at the coffee zone near by, and since I slept so late the night before, I was already lagging a bit and the smell of the coffee was so nice…

“Hi Mareen”

Huh? Who? Oh ya, that’s me. ^_^ Heh, not use to hearing people call me by my internet nick.

PB and Quin, I recognize them since I’ve seen their pictures before. Then I was introduced to Quin’s mom also. I tried to speak to auntie with my best mandarin le, but even that failed, PB had a nice time poking me. Damn me and my broken mandarin tongue.

Everyone dropped by Quin’s house first where I freshened up. Sala, Eekie and Spire presented the guild tee shirt (really cute! A1!)

Hmm…I dunno how to describe it lo, first time meeting the people who I’ve befriended and even grown close to virtually for a year now. I didn’t know what to say. It was kinda awkward for me. Most of the time I remember thinking how surreal it felt or maybe it could be because I was kinda tired. Everyone said I resemble Eekie but I think she’s like an energizer bunny and her voice matches her personality, very cute. I feel like pinching her now.

We all went out for supper.

Mino – bits of burger like meat (you can choose either chicken or beef) fried and mixed with cabbage and mayonnaise, all wrapped up in a nicely cooked egg with cheese on top.

I mostly spent my time studying their faces, occasionally saying something or answering a question or two thrown my way, otherwise I was pretty quiet. I like listening to everyone talk instead. It’s interesting what people say sometimes. Then after that, PB went home to finish off some work while the rest of us head for La Bodega for drinks. I’m not a drinker. I dunno what my alcoholic preferences are. I know I dun like vodka. I know I like good whiskey & wine. That’s it. In the end I ordered something called Mai Tai, which seems safe enough.

It turned out to be pretty nice. We didn’t drink much, mind you, unlike the last time when I drank any alcoholic beverage in KL. Ok, I better not get into that. (Shikin & Effy, shhhh! Don't have to say anything. You know, I know, ok, right?) XD

Everyone headed home and I managed to catch some sleep.

To be continued…

2006-11-25T23:25:00.000+08:00

Second Home

After 7 days from the sanding, there’s one last ceremony left. I dun remember what it’s called but I’m guessing something like ‘Returning Home’. This is when Wandi will bring his lovely bride, Shikin, back to his house.

I’ve been to Wandi’s house several times but only entered once. Funny how all these years I’ve lived so close to Shikin, Effy and pat but never knew that much about them until our hostel days together. I knew Patricia from school but she wasn’t that long in SJS and I only remember her as this funny girl who pops up once in a while.

Anyway I’m digress, so, first I went to Shikin’s house and I helped her put on her make up cuz the make up artist wouldn’t be coming for that occasion. I guess I did alright, nothing really compared to what the make up artist did but good enough. Haha. It’s fun applying make up on my friends. Effy too, I love to make her girly. Haha, I guess it’s because I can still remember her during the time when I first met her. She was a very serious looking girl. Many people wrongly assume that Effy’s the elder sister and Shikin the younger.

** Haha, jagan marah Effy, mua mu serious masa tu what, kau lagi tinggi daripada Shikin. Takut ku liat mua mu dulu, macam kan makan orang, masa ni, makan orang pulang tapi species jenis laki, dalam dark corners lagi tu. Hahahaha. **

So once the couple was ready, we all set off, convoy to Wandi’s house where then tents are still there, and all the makanan was prepared. The couple was seated in the pelamin of the groom’s side and pictures were taken. There was some traditional gifts set in front of the pelamin too, sacks of rice, oil, kitchen utensils…wifey stuff. Then the couple greeted or salam all the elders and guests. After a quick prayer it was time to dig in.

Wah, I still remember the food from that day, seriously, the sambal got real kick le. I still like Shikin & Effy’s mom’s sambal and chenchalu, but the food that nite was not bad also. Then there’s Aiman…who I seriously think is in love with Effy la. It seems like she’s the only one who can understand him and he keeps dragging her here and there and showing her stuff. Maybe it was puppy love at first sight. Maybe he’s already planning Effy’s pelamin. Whahahahaha.

After most of the guests have eaten and went home, some stayed back and started to kareoke. Okay, this is something I always wondered, if it’s not the song ‘Isabella’ it’s always this dangdut song starting with the lyrics, “Jatuh bagun ~” I dun know what the song is called but I swear, every malay wedding I’ve been to or can hear (especially when they are my neighbours) sure will have either one or both songs. Must be real popular wedding songs.

Tired but happy, everyone of us went to our respective homes. (Except Shikin of course, being the bride, she has to spend the night at Wandi’s house.) Hmm, I dunno what more I can wish Wandi & Shikin, except that may your cup always be full and your plate never empty and that your years together will grow richer than the year before. *kampai!* XD

Also, in happy days, in sad days, in good days and in bad days, remember whatever day it is, your friends and family are always near by. ^_^ Congrats chabo!

2006-11-16T09:34:00.000+08:00

The Sanding

Got up quiet early this time because it’s an important day where the most guests would attend. This day is the ‘sanding’ where Wandi and Shikin is ‘Raja and Raja Isteri’ (King & Queen) for a day.

Effy and I head off to Helen’s to get our hair set for the day. We were bridesmaids mah, must make up pretty pretty also le. Hahaha. But they say 3 times a bridesmaid, never a bride. >_<

Then the groom, Wandi, arrived also dressed in blue. His car was escorted by an entourage of bikers. Before entering the house he made the customary ‘3 rounds’.

Inside seated beside Shikin on the pelamin, *sigh* it finally hit me that they are husband and wife liao.

When everyone has eaten liao they all gathered to cheer on the newly weds who stood at the balcony at front of their house. After the noise, the crowd, the food, all gone, then finally everyone took a well earned rest. We viewed what Effy took on her camcorder. It was fun. I was just damn tired, dunno from what also, all I remember is a lot of walking around, taking pics, talking to people, carrying food…all that.

At night there’s left a trickle of guests left but the band was still there playing. Pat and I hung around cuz we wanted to see what wedding presents Shikin and Wandi got. One by one they peeled off the present paper and opened each box. Of course, she opened the nice necklace Pat and I got for her. ^_^

Then in the middle of it all, suddenly everyone rushed to the window to look outside. I wondered what was going on until I saw Shikin’s grandfather was dancing outside along with the band music! Wahlau le! Steady la their grandfather. Then the grandchildren (Shikin, Effy and their siblings) made a beeline through the guests and chairs.

Next thing I know, one was pouring water into a cup, the other patting his back, the other two sitting there looking concerned and asking what in the world was he doing. His answer was that all the people are not celebrating and dancing to the music as they should at an after wedding party so he decided to take matters into his own hands! That’s one gutsy granddad I tell you.

I thought it was over but in a week up comes, the ceremony where the bride goes back to the groom's house. *Can't remember what this ceremony is called!* XD

Note: I had fun taking all these pictures. Yes I like taking pictures and this one on the left is my favourite pic out of the whole lot.

2006-11-15T01:01:00.000+08:00

The Berbadak...

Woke up the next day at the sound of the ‘orang tua’ knocking at the door of Shikin’s room cuz it was already time for her mandi. I dun know what it was exactly but I had to go out anyway. When I entered the kitchen that morning simply to greet the parents good morn, lo and behold, there’s Shikin’s mother at the back with a big ass bloody cleaver, mobile phone held between her ear and shoulder, talking a mile a minute.

It was really something of an eye opener as she went on to complain about yesterday’s buffet to the unfortunate person at the other end of the line and chopping up chunks of beef. First thing on my mind was, “Where did she get all that meat?” There was bags and bags load of beef. *Did she get mad at the bland buffet yesterday? Was she so pissed that she went out with that cleaver and killed a cow?*

Effy grinned “Nada lah, order lah.” Oh…cuz I swear, her mom that morning looked cool enough to kill something with her bare hands. Kinda like Resident Evil cool, blood, big chopper and all.

Basically we lolled around the house because things aren’t starting to happen until later that evening. It was only until mid afternoon that Effy and I managed to get our asses into a car and run errands for the household. Buy extension, big plastic covers for the food, tomato sauce, etc, etc, etc. When we got back, we hung around shikin’s room cuz basically most of the hantaran was transferred there and plus, shikin’s still not yet allowed to go out. You can imagine how hard it is to be cooped inside your own house/room for three whole days, it would drive any sane person mad.

During the evening she was getting ready. Make up artist made her lovely as usual with her hair and face all dolled up. *sigh* My *ahem* lovely Shikin is getting married (already married since her nikah was the day before), now left only Effy and I the bachelorettes.

That night they preformed the berbadak ceremony. This is where they sprinkle some fragant stuff on to her hands, kinda like a blessing I think. I didn’t ask what it was all about nor did I take a close look at what it actually was. I was afraid they might want to ask me to preform the simple ritual as well. For all I know, I might trip and spill the whole thing on Shikin. >_<

That night there was more makan, which we again brought to the living room upstairs for the make up artist and the photographer.

I decided to stay another night, cuz the next say is the ‘sanding’. Plus my car was still blocked so can't escape. Haha.

To be continued…

2006-09-19T13:34:00.000+08:00

Shikin's Wedding : Part One

The Introduction

This is Shikin.

I first met her when I started studying in Focus Computer School around 6 years ago. In truth I wasn’t all that keen on speaking with her or her sister Effy at the time. This is because at that time I was prolly the only Bruneian girl who DID NOT UNDERSTAND A SINGLE DAMN WORD of the malay language. I was a real dodo of the local tongue. When I moved into the girl’s hostel of the school, that’s when I really started getting to know her better. The more I know about her, the more I like her. In the end the four of us, Shikin, Effy, Patricia and I, became inseperable buddies.

The Night Before

I’ve been visiting the girls (shikin and effy) for a couple of nights before the wedding (ok that sounds kinda wrong) and we would catch up on loads of stuff. Especially with Effy, since she only got back a few days ago. On the night before the nikah, Patricia and some more friends joined us at Shikin’s house (according to their tradition the bride can’t go out of the house before the wedding is completed). What a fun nite that was.

Sidenote: Patricia is 7 mths pregnant now. Woot! Go Pat! Go!

Effy, Pat and I planned stuff for the next day.

The Nikah

Today the girls and I actually wanted to meet up for breakfast then drop by the salon to get our hair fixed. Effy actually was a bit cranky that morning to say the least. She harassed the salon girls. They just have no idea what she wanted them to do with her hair. She wanted some kind of provocative clipped hairdo. After we done our errands (pick up clothes, had some ‘candy’ *ahem* ) and reach home it was around 12 noon. The ceremony would start around 1 something. We rushed around to get things ready.

The make up artist came and did up Shikin’s hair and make up. (sorry I dun have the pictures ready yet, cuz at the time I was using my mother’s old canon camera.) I’m also waiting for the pictures to come from the photographer. Both the make up artist and photographer were friendly people. They turned what otherwise would have been a nervous atmosphere into a relaxed scene.

Effy was the camerawoman of the day, running here and there to get the most potential angles so she can capture the best shots. I was taking a lot of pictures also but dunno what’s wrong with my canon camera *swt* it just keeps jamming and making stupid noises at the most inappropriate times.

Like the silent meaningful moment where the imam preforms the ceremony in Shikin’s room…all were watching, tears at the tip and on hold, beautiful moment…then *click* *weeeeezeeeeeeekkeeeeeeeeeeeheeeeeeeeezeeeeeeee* I could kill myself and my camera that moment, just toss both out of the window. Everyone was laughing and even the stoic imam smiled. Beautiful moment? Spoiled!

Then wandi came over, also all dressed in white, and everyone sat around in the living room to complete the Nikah ceremony. It was lovely. I didn’t spoile that moment cuz at the time I hate the camera and the film ran out. My N80 also low batt so I couldn’t use that either. Man I could kick myself.

After the ceremony, everyone else had some food and went home (including the groom). Patricia went home but I stayed overnight cuz one, shikin and effy asked me to, two, it’s more fun that way and three, easier that way cuz next day I dun have to run over to their house again. Pat, Shikin & Effy and I live like 5 minutes drive from each other.

(To be continued …)

2006-09-15T02:52:00.000+08:00

Happy Birthday Basic Life

It’s been exactly 1 year since I started this blog. Looking back there’s a lot that happened within a year. Since moving back to Kuala Belait I’ve bumped into many of my old friends. Some of them are married and are proud parents to tiny tots.

I use to keep a diary and use to write down every details of my life diligently. I would start each entry with a ‘Dear Diary’ and end it with love. This feature I only started adding after I read ‘Anne Frank’s Diary’ where she would sign off each entry like writing a letter. So my diary became my best pen pal.

My first entry:-

24th December 1990
Dear, Diary, Today my friend Ah Sui is here to play with me and my brother. At 30 12 1990 at Sunday will be my birthday and today night 12 o clock I and my mother also with my brother will get present. Tomorrow will be Christmas day and they will be a lot of cartoon to see from morning till night. And wish me and my parent a merry charismas and a happy new year. –

22nd August 1997
…Really, there are too much complex situations now in this world that honesty should be valued and loyalty treasured. I hate people who are rude, dishonest, crude, selfish and conceited. Naturally we are not all perfect. We are not made nor meant to be, if we were then all of us would be exactly the same. CLONES!...

My last entry was on the 28th October 2004. (Which turned out to be too personal to post here, haha, restricted area, sorry.)

A year after that then only I started to blog. First I created Fish Cakes as my first blog in Friendster but later I found blogspot to be a better place because it’s more flexible and allows me to change my blog accordingly to my taste.

Yet a year later, Basic Life still remains, this is the 50th entry. Thanks go to all my friends and people who bother to read this blog of mine.

2006-09-14T18:44:00.000+08:00

Okay...

I know it's been two months since I last posted but recently I've been having a writer's block. Trust me there is A LOT to blog about but as soon as I sit in front of Josey (laptop) my mind just goes blank.

Here's what to expect coming up:-

Shikin's Wedding...

This blog's 1st year anniversary...

Me playing Ragnarok for 1 year anniversary...

So please be patient while I organize all the mumbo jumbo that's been festering in my cranium for the past two months.

Much oblidged.

2006-07-16T16:10:00.000+08:00

Excapade Sushi
(No, not escape with the sushi)

There's a lot of sushi restaurants mushrooming around Brunei but my fav is still Excapade Sushi. Their first restaurant opened in Kuilap. It use to be an old coffee shop where my friends and I once hung out. Plus I use to live just 100 metres away, in the staff hostel right above the old Dee Jay shop.

Ever since I moved back to KB, I missed the food there until...tada! They opened their own branch in KB itself. Wooooot!

What I like about this place is that there's no stuffiness or snob atmosphere of some sushi places I've been. The place is comfortable, cosy and crowded. XD

Sometimes my friends and I have to reserve a place just to eat there. Yes, it's that popular.

Not only the food is nice (ingredients brought in from Japan) but there's an interesting variety for everyone. I'm spoilt for choice usually. Plus sometimes they make different kinds of maki or rolls or dishes apart from the menu to put on the choo choo train.

David and I went there for lunch today. Hehee, yes, the fella is back from Australia for his cousin's wedding.

Here's some of my favourite dishes.

Here's some of David's preference...or something he just felt like eating at the time.

Hehehe, finish liao!

2006-07-11T15:05:00.000+08:00

Full Metal Alchemist
The Movie : Conqueror of Shamballa

"Tu tooo lu tu loooo, hm? What's this? Full Metal? I already watched the whole thing... what? Oh, it's the movie?...The Movie!?!?"

Yes, I dunno if it recently came out or a few years ago and I just never heard of it. Nevertheless, FMA is one of my favourite manga/anime series. It sits on my list of favourites right next to Ran Ma 1/2, Fruit Basket and One Piece.

You get a pretty nifty cover. One is a DVD with the movie and the other is a CD of FMA sountrack from the series. Although everything on the cover looks legit but I still have my doubts. It's hard to find real originals in Brunei that doesn't cost you an arm and 1/2 your spleen. This one cost me $12.

What? $12? But the movie on the pirated VCD ver is only $3. I know, I know, but I much rather have something that I can keep for a while instead of having it lasting only 6 mths and then turn into crap the next 6 mths.

WARNING: Do not watch this movie unless you have finished watching the series or else you will have no idea what is actually going on. Same, if you continue reading this entry, it will be a spoiler for your if you HAVE NOT FINISHED WATCHING THE SERIES. If you dun care about spoilers anyway, then just go ahead reading.

The story basically is this. It's been two years since the last episode of the series. Edward and his brother Alphonse are in seperate parallel worlds and they are their best to find a way back to reunite.

Edward ends up in Berlin and finds that he cannot use alchemy anymore. He helps out working with rockets to see if it's a way for him to get back. There he meets up with many people he recognize although they are not who they were in his world. He even meets up with those who are suppose to be dead.

Alphonse is now an experienced alchemist in his own right and journeys on his own to find a way to get back his brother. He has no memory of the past 4 years, the time when he spent with Edward travelling in search of a way to restore their original bodies. Alphonse looks remarkably like Edward from his pony tail down to the boots he wears. Alphonse amazing alchemy ability reminds one of his brother's talent as well. One wonders if this is the side effect of using the Philosopher's Stone.

In this movie we also get to see what happened with the other chars that played such an important roles in the series. Roy Mustang (he was my fav char in FMA) was not the man he once was. Alex Armstrong is still same as ever *glitter glitter* *swt swt swt* Winry is as lovely as ever.

Watch it. It ties up many of the loose ends left behind by the series and even created a new road of the brothers to travel...whethertogether or not, well, you will just have to find out now, won't you?

Whatever the outcome is, it's really satisfying and didn't disappoint me one bit. Truly Full Metal Alchemist to the end.

2006-07-07T00:01:00.000+08:00

*Snap* *Snap* *Snappity* *Snap*

Sorry for not blogging much lately. I seem to have nothing to blog about these days...not surprsing though, this coming form someone who works in a boring job of a boring company in the boringest part of Brunei Darussalam.

There was a black out last saturday though. It only lasted a few hours from around 12 midnight to 3 am. It was nice cuz I spent most of it imagining I was in an era where there is no electricity, when ppl used oil lamps and candles. I also made a wax ball from melted wax of my candle.

No Electricity = Bored Woman in the Dark

At least in Temburong I can go hunt animals or fry insects or something. What is there to do in Kuala Belait? Ab-so-lute-ly nothing! Well, of course there's always Miri, but so sien visit Miri...nothing to do there also but to drink and get wasted.

So what am I doing now? Being trigger happy that's what I'm doing. I just got a new Nokia N80 and let me tell you, it's sweet. 3 megapix baby yeah! It's about time my blog gets clearer better pics.

This is all taken in chronological order so it's a bit random. I'm just putting the ones that aren't :-

A. Shakey
B. Dark
C. Pointless, nothing to see at all kind of pics taken by bored user.

Today I went to Bandar with Shikin. We didn't have anything to do so went to catch a movie instead at the Mall. Superman, RV, Recycle...bleh...nothing much so we hamtam pick one, 'Grandma's Boy'. It turned out to be freaking hilarious though.

36yr old game tester got kicked out his house by landlord cuz his roomate spent all the rent money on hookers. With no where to go, he moved into his grandmother's house and that's where all the trouble starts of course. It's a comedy where you get an inside look of how a loser/geek/nerd adult life is like. There's absolutely no story line here. It's more like you're watching a very entertaining bunch of monkeys.

But it's freaking hilarious. Ever watch 'Dude Where's My Car?' the concept is similar. Lots of funnies, little sense. Out of 10 I rate this movie : -

Story Line = 0.5

Funny Factor = 7.5

Total = 8.0

Was it worth my $5 + $3 popcorn? Not really, it's worth a $5 DVD 9 but not a one night stand cinema ticket. I rather hold out for Pirates of the Carribean 2. Jonny Depp, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightly, oh yeah.

2006-06-21T00:14:00.000+08:00

Coffee, Tea or Tomato?

Last Saturday I went on an overdue family trip to Bandar Seri Bergawan. On the way we would usually have breakfast at the ‘mien tang’ (hawker stand) in Seria but I bought some dim sum instead and so we skipped that idea.

Thing is I was the one hankering for a chou kuay teow with hor pau tan (stir fried noodles with egg sunny side up) which is stupid cuz I work only 10 mins away from Seria and could get that anytime. Maybe it’s cuz my dad and I had developed this habit of having breakfast there everytime he send me back to my hostel back in my private college days.

So when we passed Sungai Liang there’s a tiny café there which, according to mom, sells really good stir fried noodles. I was thinking of getting some when my drove into the parking lot and asked me to ta pau 2 milo and 1 kopi for her and my sisters.

Got out of the car, walked to the tiny establishment, lo behold, it full of old men, sitting around ‘yum char’ (drink tea) or ‘pak toh’ (dating) for all I know. They all looked at me as if I am the first female to step into the place since 1964.

“Hell, no, not ordering any food from here. Dunno they drug me with it and later sell my meat to make char siew pau with.”

Walked to the counter, “Lau Pan (boss), can I have two cups of milo and 1 cup of kopi to go?” ”Sorry, we dun sell by cups, we sell by bottles.”

Bottles? So special ar? Ok lah.

*wait wait wait*

“Ok, here ya go. $2.60 please.”

“Here, ok…thank…you?”

The guy handed me a plastic bag with 3 large glass bottles of maggi chilli and tomato sauce. Nga? What the…? Then upon closer inspection... *PFFFF!!!*

These people put the coffee into the bottles. Do they actually expect ppl to drink out of this? What the hell?Poor mom, she chug it down with real gutso but I bet the other drivers are wondering why there’s a lady drinking maggi sauce while driving.

Who needs red bull, eh? Got tomato faloured coffee le, real kick. >_<

2006-06-16T19:37:00.000+08:00

House of Dreams

I logged into hotmail and this tickle headline popped up at me "What's Your Ideal Home?"

Why not?

Click click click click click cli...

[30 clicks later]

The Results! Ta da!:

"Lady Knife, your fantasy home is a Sophisticated Sanctuary
Whether you get your inspiration from the latest home and garden magazines or count solely on your own instincts, you bring a sophisticated sensibility to the hearth.

It's clear you take pride in the presentation of your home and see it as an extension of your personal style and great taste. From the décor to the ambiance, your abode set a scene that's as understated and stylish as you are.

Entertaining at your place is sure to be a memorable and classy event no matter if it's a BBQ in the backyard or a weekend brunch. And that never goes out of style! "

I found a pic to suit the description as well.

Nice le?

2006-06-06T22:59:00.000+08:00

Pirated Paris Hiltons

I often wondered what goes on behind a Paris Hilton copy cat’s mind. More or less I would like to walk up to them and ask if they play MMORPG. You know the kind of girls I’m talking about. The kind you can picture when you listen to songs like ‘My Hump’ from Black Eyed Peas. Salon hair dos, mini skirts, immaculate nails, original Gucci bags and Prada shoes.

Probably one day at a swank party I would be introduced to a group of such girls. They would have sassy cute names like Missy, Miffy and Millie. Then later I find out that one of the Missy’s boyfriend has a game I wanted to try out real bad.

Me: Er, Missy, can I ask if you can…
Missy: Oh my gooooood! Who told you about my new honey boy? I mean, it’s was totally a secret you know.
Me: Ar?
Millie: Oh tell us Missy, I love a good secret, tell, tell, tell, pretty please pleeeeeeeeease.
Miffy: Yah Missy, dun be such a bitch and tell us already.
Millie: Oh my goooooood, Miffy! You said the b-word, you’re such a whore.
Miffy: Well, you were, like, thinking it!
Millie: Yeah, but you said it!

*lots of giggles*

Gooooooood help me then, give me the strength not to smack them with their own Gucci bags.

2006-05-29T10:59:00.000+08:00

Good Old SJS

This is St John’s School, where I spent 11 years of my life.

How I got into this school was this, one day I was watching TV when I noticed that I couldn’t understand any of the stuff they were saying. It was all in English…so I made up my mind to learn more. My dad told me it was the 1st day of my primary 2 year in Chung Hwa Middle School when I walked into my class hand in hand with him, took one look, and told him “I want to study in an English school.”

So that was that. For some reason, I have to go through primary 1 all over again in St John’s (SJS from now on). This is why for the rest of my SJS years I was always a year older than my classmates. In my first day of school I didn’t like the idea of studying with ‘the babies of primary 1’ so I boldly walked into primary 2 class and just sat there until the homeroom teacher came in.
Obviously my name wasn’t on her lists of student and she found out I was suppose to be in primary 1 from the books I was carrying. Got kicked back into the right class. XD

St John’s School was the school that my father went to until form 3 as well. That time the school was run by a catholic priest. The school during his time was old and the church was made of wood. Today’s SJS’s church is quiet nice actually.

Now this is a good school with a good reputation for its solid curriculum back then. Fail Malay? FAIL. Fail English? FAIL. Fail Math? Guess what? FAIL! So yeah since I was very weak in malay, I had to repeat in Form 1 and Form 3. Not my happy years.

*Ahem*

Friendships were a little difficult thing back then. I wasn’t ashamed that my parents weren’t working in some glam job at Shell. Yes, they don’t collect mercedes for a hobby or nim teh with Bill Gates, or whatever the hell rich people usually do. So what? My mother works as a house keeper, my dad is a house painter. They work hard and they put food on the table.

But for some reason, I got friends’ parents who are prejudiced about that. I still feel it today. Yes, they smile and say hello, but I can feel underneath that mask they will do the best they can to keep me from their son/daughter. Like I got malaria or the black plague.

Like talking on the phone and the parent would pick up the other one and put an end to our conversation. Or fail to invite us into their house during CNY and their daughter had to entertain her friends outside the house on the patio.

Or how about telling me not to ‘sit too close’ to their son while playing games (I was holding the magazine with the fighting combos and he was tapping away.) Geez, lady, we’re playing PS2 games, not spin the fuck bottle.

I’m not saying that there weren’t any good friends but when I repeated Form 3, I slowly began to see who my real friends were. My usual ‘gang’ stopped inviting me to ‘hang out’. I slowly lost touch with them because of their superficiality. If they stopped talking to me cuz their parents say “Dun talk to the girl who failed her malay or else you might fail your malay too.” Fine by me. It’s not their fault if their parents were like that. I couldn’t give a shit.

Despite all that, I got good friends too who I still talk to and occasionally hang out today. Funny thing, Patricia and I weren’t very close back in school. Maybe it’s because she was my junior. Haha. Siao Mei Mei (small sister) Whahahahaha. Then there’s also Aaron who never changes. Ho Woei Lin who I can always count on. Leonard who I can trust 120%. (Len, you get to have my diaries when I am no longer around in this world. Ha.) Siew Huey, the girl with the same corny sense of humour as I have. Druba, like batman, knows all, hears all, but no one knows how. Desmond, we still geek out with MTG nights and games.

Good people, living good lives surrounded by good friends with good memories. This is what I got from good old SJS, it was more than just text book.

2006-05-14T20:09:00.000+08:00

May All Mothers Be Blessed…God knows they deserve it

I’m a female and one day I may or may not be one. Heck I’m ½ mother already to my sisters so I’m not afraid of future childcare horrors.

“What? You swallowed a torch? Who’s torch? Daddy’s torch? Well, at least now you don’t have to be afraid of the dark anymore.”

Anyway, today is not about me, today is all about Mothers. Old mothers, young mothers, hawt mothers, single mothers, tired mothers, adopted mothers, grandmothers, the mother you never knew, the mother you thought you knew, yeah, all of them.

My mom had a though time with her first two born kids. First one (me) couldn’t wait to see the fire works and insisted in witnessing the coming of the new year. There ya go, one end of the year baby. Only I was born on the 30th, not the 31st.

Mom thought maybe she would be a bit luckier the next round. Well, she was kinda.

My brother came along 5 years later. Smack in the middle of the Chinese New Year Celebrations. How lucky is that? He was the heaviest baby in the ward at the time. Go figure. He’s now a 6 feet tall walking sack of meat.

My mother and I never understand each other. I ceased understanding her when I was about 13 or 14, when she said that one of my sketches looked horrible. Okay, I was 2/3 spoiled at the time. Moving on.

When we were kids, she loved to experiment in cooking and feed us all sort of stuff. My brother and I would laugh over her dishes, cooked up oh so long time ago in her small kitchen of the maid quarters in the Panaga area.

Let’s see…there was the roast chicken in this tiny roasting oven she got. It was black on the outside and raw in the inside. Then there was the pizza where the crust was so hard, we used steak knives to saw through it. In the end we just ate the toppings. (>_<)

Mom is also a superwoman and a ½. When she’s not out rescuing her clients from dust bunnies, she out conquering Shah Bandar (a nature reserve with 11 hills, nature’s creation to challenge you into a fitter lifestyle, or kill you.) with her group of superhero friends. They are the Hashing League. They go out every Wednesdays evenings, fighting bugs and leeches, clay caked hills and muddy paths all in the name of health and fitness. She comes back home grinning from ear to ear. Captain Planet would salute her.

Okay, I admit, my mom is one good looking gal. I guess she’s a tad disappointed that I didn’t follow her footsteps. My dad would tell me stories of how he won mom from her string of admirers. Okay, he might be stretching it a bit, but heck, who cares, its fun to listen. I’ve seen pictures of my mom when she was at my age. There’s little Lady Knife beside her, looking like a teeny tiny whiny chinesey girl with her bob cut. My mom was already a mom of two kids at my age. Damn. I don’t know if I have that kind strength, yet…

I want to say to my mother today “Thanks mom for raising us and putting up with all our crap.”

But I didn’t…cuz she’ll think I’m being sarcastic.

So I bought her flowers instead. Words she might not understand, but actions, yeah, louder than words. Anytime.

2006-04-25T23:04:00.000+08:00

Can I Take You And Your Broom Out For Dinner?

Earlier being in a good mood while driving home from work I decided to bring my family out for dinner sometime this sat or next wed. I told my mom when I reached home.

This is how it went:-

"Ma, this sat are you free?”
"Why?”
“I mean are you busy?”
“Depends on what you want to do.”

*Smart*

“I just want to take the family out for dinner. Sushi.”
“How can the kids (somehow my sisters are always referred to as ‘The Kids’ never ‘your sisters’ in this family.) eat those kind of things?”

“Aiya, got the normal stuff also ma, like fried rice.”
“…”

At this moment we both look at each other. A questioning look at another…one can probably picture our silent mental conversation like this:-

*Why all of the sudden you so nice take family out to dinner?*

*I good mood lor, like that also cannot?*
*There’s something you want from me issit?*
*Do you hear me asking you for anything?*
*You killed someone, didn’t you? Knocked down some innocent pedestrian on a bike while driving too fast, issit?*
*Nothing like that!*
*You’re not gonna order something weird and make mommy sick, issit?*

*Why would I want to do that?*
*For fun lor.*
*Aiya! This time I really earnest what. Long time liao I dun treat family to dinner so this time I want to bring mommie out for sushi cuz mommie say never go before and thinks sushi nice to eat, good to experience ma. Plus, mother's day is coming agian.*
*Ok lor, ok lor…*
*…what…why are you looking funny at me like that?*
*Are you gonna bring a guy to introduce to us during this dinner?*
*No such thing!!!*
*Oh ok…cuz if you are then mommy have to tell daddy, he would want to come and see...*
*Already said, no such thing!*

It’s draining I tell you, staring at each other like that, anticipating each other’s next verbal move. Then she said, ok, she think about it, if got something come up this sat, she will let me know.

Later I can hear her sweeping the floor downstairs and it was 11pm. Haiz. Probably so puzzled by my behaviour that she felt she had to do something normal.

2006-04-13T18:06:00.000+08:00

Lady Knife the Firefighter

Since working in the BSP area, I’ve been briefed before on the standard safety and precaution regulations set by Brunei Shell Petroleum. They are very particular about this and it’s good because, let’s face it, nobody wants to lose an arm or a leg or a head even while working. Think of the paperwork.

The only time I’ve witness a fire demonstration was when I was in school, and that was like far, far, FAR away from the fire, in a crowded side of the school. One of the teachers would be brave enough to step up and grab the extinguisher. Execute the three ‘P’s, Pull, Point and Press.

Then there was a time when my boss of Dee Jay was smoking in his office and tossed the cig into the waste paper basket without putting it out entirely. We were all wondering where the smell of burning came from before realizing it was from the office. The boss was out at the time. I didn’t see the fire, but then one of the guys came in and put out the fire.

Those are the two scenarios of fire fighting I’ve witnessed.

However, this is different.

First we have a small lecture in the conference room. Interesting stuff, like if I am crawling along in a dark room, I should feel the wall with my palm up and not down. Close all doors when you evacuate the building and how to open the door properly so you don’t become a barbequed kebab by the time you get out.

We had to put on the standard training clothes before moving on to the physical part of the course. I’m glad of this when I saw what we had to do. We had to go through the smoke room. It looks like a normal building from the outside but inside, its pitch black and narrow, with steps, tunnels and various obstacles. It felt like scout endurance course but only in the dark.

I’ve been through something like that before, when I was in a scout leader training camp. We were blind folded and had to walk through the bushes and what not with only a rope to guide us. Along the way, the first person would shout out body count, 1,2,3, and so on. We lost two people from a group of 7 that day. XD

So this time I was a tiny bit worried cuz I was the last one in a line of 7. Worse, I was in a group of giggling ladies from a salon also in the BSP area. You can only imagine what happened in there. There was a lot of giggling, talk and a lot of shushing from my part. (worse, they were all talking in Chinese, giving out instruction in Chinese “Start crawling here!” when they clearly forgot that there are two malay girls in the line as well. Sheesh.) I was hit in the head by someone’s shoe but didn’t mind, cuz at least I didn’t get stuck or left behind. It took us four minutes to get out. Real fire fighters take 45 seconds.

Then all that’s left is the proper handling of the fire extinguishers. Pull, Point and Press. That’s what I did…only the fire didn’t go out like it was suppose to…instead it reignited. *Ack!* Spray, spray, spray some more. Finally it went out.

“This, ladies and gentlemen, is a good example never to turn your back from a fire. You need to make sure to put the fire out once and for all and just back away but always facing the fire.”

*sweat*

There was a lot of rain during the outside fire extinguishing exercise. So in the end I’m all wet and tired but it was lots of fun. So now, when any fire breaks out, my advice, do what I would do, be the first one out of the building. Don’t hero, please.

2006-04-11T18:07:00.000+08:00

natsuhiboshi naze akai
yuube kanashii yume wo mita
naite hanshita
akai me wo
natsushiboshi naze mayou
kieta warashi wa sagashitteiru
dakara kanashii yume wo miru

why is the summer star red
last night I had a sad dream
I was crying and talking
with red eyes
why has the summer star lost its way
I know such childish stories
that's why I have such sad dreams

2006-04-10T13:07:00.000+08:00

Random Thoughts

Recently a friend suggested that I put all my thoughts into a log or a book, and then when in time of need I can bring out these thoughts to help. I use to do that with my diaries, whenever I am sad or confused, I would write in them until I feel better. It was a safe outlet for sorting out my own confusing emotions during my teenage years.

Over time I got busier and busier with work and games…er, I mean, life, I altogether stopped writing in my last diary.

I’ve always started my entries with ‘dear diary…’ because it seems like I’m writing to my best of best friends, the one who will never judge, criticize or betray me. Then after I read ‘Diary of Anne Frank’, I started the habit of signing off my entries with ‘with love, Felicity.’

Here however, it’s a public journal. So please forgive me if I refrain from publishing my innermost secrets but I will still however like take my friend’s suggestion and blog my random thoughts once in a while. You can choose not to read this as it’s all my own thought manifesting in my brain.

I Want to Live ‘Till Tomorrow

Have you ever met someone you really like and then have that person like you back? I’m not saying girl meet guy kind of feeling but probably someone you might bump into at work or at a school function or even online. It’s one of the greatest feelings in the world. You feel better about yourself, more confident, happier cuz you got to know someone neat like that.

Why is that?

It’s because, unconsciously, we are all looking for acceptance in general society. One step at a time, one person after another, one place after the last.

The most important to us still are our parents acceptance of us. Our flaws, our strengths, our worries, our hopes and dreams. Teach us to get up when we fall down, let us grow in the sunlight and shield us not from the rain. Let us grow and guide us with wisdom.

That is what we human do best, we learn, we adapt, we invent, we survive, we claw our way into existence.

So when we are hurt, we shield or protect what is most important to us. When we find something that makes us feel good, we try to find it again and try to keep it. This behavior, if overindulged turns to greed, is normal in all of us. It’s the basic instinct we are all born with.

We all started out as an empty vessel with nothing but a soul. Without scars, without memories, we all began as a blank book.

But then, what happens when we like someone but that someone doesn’t like us? It’s sad is it not? Worse, what if the person that we like starts to criticize us? Saying things that they don’t really mean but nonetheless hurts us at the most core?

What happens then?

We get on with our lives. The sun will still rise, and then it will still set. Day in, day out, time will pass us by until that bit of wound is healed and we forget what had hurt us in the first place and wonder why we’ve been so petty in the first place.

Yes, it did hurt, but it wasn’t petty, it had meant something to us at the time. It only seems petty, perhaps regretful or shameful now because we’ve become stronger.

Being weak is what means to be human. We are born weak and we will die weak. Our existence is fragile, we are fragile.

So we learn to become stronger. Why? Because we want to protect our existence and the existence of those we love, who are most important to us.

But by being stronger, until we shield everything from us, bad or good isn’t the solution to everything. That is also a weakness.

It’s because human beings are a weak race that is why we have to forgive. We all have flaws. None of us are perfect. Teach each other, learn from each other, apologize and forgive each other, no one is perfect, no one is right, and everyone just wants to live until tomorrow same as everybody else. This is how we survive.

2006-04-06T18:08:00.000+08:00

0.5 Year Anniversary of Ragnarok

Yes ladies and gentlemen, 6 mths has gone by in a blink of a virtual eye. A lot of things has happened since I started out, alone and innocent, into the world of Ragnarok.

First I would like to thank those of my guild members who have so graciously and patiently put up with my wishy washy ways and taught me a lot. They accepted me as part of their family where I met good people and had many memorable times. ^_^

Limited as Ragnarok may be, it’s a lot of fun. Although my sucky dail up inhibits my game play, still it doesn’t prevent me from continuing on playing, no matter how frustrated I become. I keep on playing because I still want to meet my friends online in RO, still want to keep on learning, keep on improving myself.

There is just so much to explore and do. I don’t understand how some people would become arrogant and say things like, “sien la, so boring here.” Or “dunno la, see first lor, got no mood to go.” Then why log into RO at all? Might as well just sit and stone at home.

As for me, I’ve incorporated so much of RO into my daily life that my friends and staff at work knows I go for War of Emperiums every Wednesday and Saturday. Haha. They understand inside jokes like “Dying is OK!” I think I’ve actually achieved balance in my virtual and real world.

Favorite places to visit in Ragnarok? I like Payon, Gonryun and Niflheim.

Ro Music? I like the music of Gonryun and Prontera.

Favourite Item? Ack! I don't know! I like them all!

Easiest Job Change? That has to be the swordie change job test. All you have to do is to make sure you WALK properly.

Nicest Quest? Erm, all the ones I've tried are fun actually. Lol.

Most memorable moments? When I got my Ragnarok guidebook, thanks to Ulat and when I got my AI CD, thanks to Eekie! You two rawk!

OMG Moment of the past 6 mths? Spire is married to Popo??? “Pedophile is OK!” *omg!omg!omg!*

2006-03-23T10:08:00.000+08:00

Old McDonald had a Garage Sale ...ee, i, ee, i, oooo...

Sorry I haven't been updating my blog lately. There are a few stuff running through my head but as soon as I try to write them down, it just went to pieces. *sigh*

Anyway, I saw this ad on a post board outside a supermarket. Struck me as funny how someone can be selling this so cheap and in such a nonchalant way. Do you have any idea how much it cost just to keep one alive? lol.

2006-03-10T16:08:00.000+08:00

Game Rant

Game:- Fatal Frame III : The Tormented
Developer:- Tecmo

Once in a blue moon, my brother would actually manage to do something right. This time he went ahead and got Fatal Frame III : The Tormented. It’s developed and published by Tecmo, which is also responsible for the famous ‘Monster Rancher’ and ‘Dead or Alive’ series.

Main char, a young woman, Rei Kurosawa, spots her dead boyfriend roaming in a haunted mansion. After the incident she visits the ‘spirit world’ only when she sleeps. This storyline offers the player to visit both the scary place and the ‘real realm’. The more she investigates, the more her ‘Curse’ (a painful, yakuza styled, snake like tattoo) spreads on her body.

At first glance I assumed that it’s no different from it predecessor Crimson Butterfly. Perverted spooks walking about, trying to maim you or the least, try to grab the character’s chest. The only thing the she’s got is a torchlight and an old wonky ‘Camera Abscura’.

This is the original part from other survival horror games I’ve played. The camera. To fight it out with the angry spooks the char has to pretend she’s in a photo shoot where all the models sport the latest fashion seen on the catwalks of the netherworld. Blood shot eyes, missing or disjointed limbs and ‘Ju-On’ hair styles are all the rage, baby, yeah!

Take enough fab shots of the spooks strutting their stuff (especially when they come charging at the char with eyes and mouth wide open) and they will moan into disappearance. However, don’t be fooled, unlike in Crimson Butterfly where when you beat a semi-boss spook, it’s gone forever. In The Tormented, they stay tormented, so be snap ready at all times.

Throughout the game you accumulate points and find additional lens to upgrade the camera with making it easier to shoot and beat the spooks.

Another spin in this game is that you don’t stick with one char throughout the whole game. You get to play as a man and a child later on. You would even get to meet the stars from Crimson Butterfly, the twins.

Not recommended for the faint hearted, I played Crimson Butterfly with a natural fear factor like high, but this one has me making excuses to switch it off, only to go back playing it again within an hour.

2006-03-04T12:19:00.000+08:00

Friendly Fire

Last evening while I was waiting in line at a supermarket counter when I realized the person right in front of me was my cousin from my mother side.

”Cousin? How nice to see you! Why didn’t you say something? I almost didn’t recognize you. How are you? I heard you just had a baby girl!”

*what am I suppose to say again? Oh yeah congratulations, say it, say it.*

“Ah cousin Knife, sorry there, I also didn’t recognize you. I kept wondering if you are cousin Knife or not. Just haven’t seen you for so long. How are you? Is your mom well?”

*what you mean you didn’t recognize me? I saw you looking at me. If I didn’t take the initiative to say hello, we would be absolute strangers!*

“Yes, she’s just fine. You know hashing and stuff. Haha. Is that your son? What a handsome little man he is.”

*He is adorable. I wish I can go over and coo over him. Hi little darling, I’m your auntie Knife.*

“Yes that’s my son, he’s 1yr old already and that’s my husband there, I would introduce you to him but my in laws are waiting for us in the car, so we’re kinda rushing here. Haha…”

*Woah, that’s her husband? Hold the phone! That is one delicious looking muffin! *

“Oh, er, that’s alright, you go on now, better not keep them waiting but promise you’d drop by the shop for a chat sometime, ok?”

”Sure I will. Bye cousin.”

”Bye.”

Now this got me thinking and I confessed a little worried. This cousin of mine is only older than me by 2 years. Now she’s with two kids and a husband. My mom told me that her hospital room (when she gave birth) was like a florist shop. Flowers everywhere.

What I’m seriously worried about is not about my single status but that of my gossipy aunts. They will probably start asking my mom when her eldest daughter is gonna get hitched? After all she’s 26, er, 25 already and tick tock tick tock dear.

I bet many people hear this all the time. Not only are there sibling rivalry but here we have to deal with cousin competitions as well. Instead of the “My daddy can whoop your daddy’s ass” kind of comparisons, this is “My daughter can out marry your daughter.” Or “My son can land a better job than your son.”

Of course, being adults this is never said in one’s face. It’s done with tact and finesse befitting the best strategists.

Senario Example:

“Mrs X long time no see! How’s your family doing? How’s your daughter? I heard she works for this-this company.”

“Yes Mrs Y, she just got the job last week and she did mention some stress but I’m sure youngsters these days have it easier than we do. She’s already planning a trip to Korea (jealousy arrows FIRE!) this august to ‘reward herself’, well, as long as she pays the bills, I’m not complaining. I’m sure your son experience the same stress in his job with that-that company.”

“Oh yes, youngster these days have no backbone, I’m sure, but it’s all about the money. It’s enough to keep the family together and put food on the table I suppose. I mean I don’t know what his boss would do without him really, keep sending him overseas to china, korea, japan, (warning! Warning! Arrows deflected, launched heat seeking Envy Missiles!) you just can’t imagine the stress he’s on. He even doesn’t have the time to see his fiancée sometimes (Lock target! Aim! Fire!), poor girl.”

“Hmm yes, poor girl… ( Target hit! Damage control!) oh well, Mrs Y, I would love to chat all day but I’m late for a church meeting already.”

“Oh yes, yes, I’ll talk to you next time. I have to get home as well, have to cook dinner soon. See ya!”

“See ya!”

This is a typical scenario where Mrs X would go home and start nagging her daughter. *sigh* Yes I know it very well. My mom has 8 siblings and all together I have 20 cousins although my mom compares me with only 10 of them cuz they are around my age. This bugs me immensely because I for one like my cousins a lot and am particularly close to a few. That is why when my own mother nags me about this cousin’s job or that cousin’s marriage, I keep quiet.

I admit I have a little green eyed monster in me but it’s not a big one. Still, it’s annoying. There was a time when she nags I would fret about it but now, not really. It’s because I realized it’s not fair to keep comparing myself with others, especially those who are related to me or even more important, who I respect.

In a sense I can understand my mother only wanted me to improve my own life. Any mother would only want what’s best for her own children, right?

2006-03-02T16:10:00.000+08:00

Book Rant

Title: Confessions of a Shopaholic
Author: Sophie Kinsella

On a frist look the cover’s bright, almost too bright, like those girls in pink outfits complete with pink bags and shoes. No decent man would be caught dead with this book because not only for it's cover but also for it's intimate desription of a very scary world of a regular working woman in England.

Rebecca Bloomwood is a 25yr old with all the worst and the best of luck. She’s a shopaholic and a desperate one. Overdrawn in credit cards, she’s got bankers on her shadow and bargain sales in her sight. She would twitch and squirm if not in a place of new bright shiny purchasable goods. Tell her it’s on sale, it’s one of a kind and it can be charged on either visa or master, she’s hooked.

Every new working woman can sympathize with poor Rebecca. The more depressed she gets with her debts, her lack of social life, the more she spends and yet many can understand the kind of rut she gets herself into because let’s face it, we have been (or still are) there or worse, are going to be. Women, for some reason, have no will power against shopping.

Add to that, she seems to have the knack in winding up in the most hilarious and embarassing situations. A nut in a rut, she frantically tries to find ways to wipe out her debt problems, even date a millionaire?

A good light read to tickle the funny bone. I reckon is book is worth charging to one's visa card.

2006-02-14T10:42:00.000+08:00

In All Honesty..

Dear Lord,

On this joyous occasion in celebration of St. Valentine, we pray...

...for all those who are cashing in on this event. May they won't go and burn in hell for charging their customers extra $10 bucks for a bunch of roses just because it was flown in from Newburbia or somewhere remote and equally unheard of.

...for St.Valentine so that he may not turn in his grave when couples fight over ridiculous reasons and demands.

...for my brother who has this brilliant idea of asking his sister to get a bouquet of roses flown in from Newburbia. "I'll pay you back later." Brilliant.

...for every single who doesn't have a date, may they remember that there's many kind of love. Such as love for family, friends, books , gaming, chocolates, wine, shopping sprees, etc, etc, etc.

...for those who watch romantic movies. May God help them if they even think for one second that any of it is real. One can hope, but please, try not to believe in a movie catered to strumming heart strings.

...for oprah who pointed at a photograph taken from a magazine depicting a bride smiling to a groom. "This is a photograph, these two are surrounded by a dozen of people, he's got a light shining on him and there's someone telling her to smile more. Then after the shoot, these two people put back on their jeans and will never see each other again."

...for all this, and much more, Dear Lord, we pray. Amen.

2006-02-09T00:00:00.000+08:00

10 Things I Love About Brunei

People here practice indifference and mutual respect for other race and religion. Look at my circle of friends, malay, Chinese-dusun-muslim, Chinese-roman-catholic, Chinese-buddist, Chinese-christian, Chinese-muslim, Indian-roman-catholic…and the list goes on and on.
There is free medical treatment and education provided. I had fun in my government school. Best years of my school life. Although, I had to wear a tudung. Confound it.
Crime rate is incredibly low, even for a small nation. I can go out alone, have a meal at an outdoor restaurant and go home at 1 in the morning without much worry. I feel safe. I don’t have to live behind barred windows or doors. Seriously, if someone pulled out a gun, we wouldn’t know how painful it can be. Now if someone pulled out a parang…
Green stuff, lovely greenery every where. Brunei is 75% rainforest. A cure for AIDS could be in there somewhere.
It’s peaceful. No political hum drum. No rar rar, down with this and that, burn him in hell, kind of stuff.
Brunei maintains friendly relations with other countries. You don’t see us getting all hoity toity when the Japanese published a textbook that white washes it’s militarist past.
The people here are friendly and warm. Or busybodies. One time my brake wasn’t working properly and I had to use the hand brake. Even still, some guys stopped by to see if I needed help or if I was alright. It was great. Then one of them asked for my phone number. Yeesh.
Most Bruneians can communicate, at least, in 2 languages. If the person is Chinese, then it’s 3. Although my Chinese is…different…as I was sometime told.
Brunei has no tax for food or luxury items. I can actually afford to buy my own car with my own money.
Alcohol is banned from Brunei. No one is allowed to sell alcohol. So I’m kinda glad, cuz then I wouldn’t have to worry about people I care about becoming alcoholics. My grandfather was one.

10 Things I Hate About Brunei

Bruneians do not know how to watch a movie in a cinema properly. Dammit ppl, switch off your p.diddy missy elliot 50 cents wannabe mobiles! And stop talking while the movie is playing!
I’m born here, but I’m a permanent resident. Not a citizen of Brunei. Go figure.
Brunei would develop a tad faster. Come on la, some highways are not even properly lit. People die in accidents, heeellloooo?
Some people here actually think that Harry Potter is some kind of cult. Well, er, PRETIFICUS!
I wish the libraries here are bigger and better. With all kinds of updated books.
A lot of stuff can use a lot of work. Such as our free medical treatment and education system. Yes, I love that it’s free, but I hate that it’s limited in a way. When my brother was young he had a huge ulcer problems, in the end, we had to take him to Singapore to find a solution.
People here take their life for granted. Some flaunt their money like it’s just a big game of Monopoly.
A lot here are dependant on the oil and gas industry. I shudder to think when it all runs out. What? You didn’t know? It WILL run out one day.
I hate how some people work here. Hello, it’s called work, not slouch, scratch one’s butt and dig nose kind of thing. I wish I can drop them in the Middle East or better yet New York and let them see what real work is about. Jeez, a lot still dream of sitting their asses behind a government desk job. What kind of career is that? Do we even have a Bruneian word for CAREER?
There is no Sea World in Brunei.

2006-01-24T20:42:00.000+08:00

Minamoto Yoshitsune (1159-1189)
(Part 2)

Yoshitsune's war efforts were recognized by the court, thus was granted the same titles as his brother Noriyori. This infuriated Yoritomo who didn't wish to see his youngest brother to be involved with court politics.
Well, too late.

Around this time our hero met the lovely Shizuka Gozen, a shirabyoshi, who performed dances for gods. She became his favourtie concubine, and during his last years, she followed as he fled from his capital residence and into hiding.

However, later she became pregnant and was deposited in a temple where she was found and brought to Yoritomo. Here she was questioned on the whereabouts of her lover but she stayed loyal and remained silent. She then gave birth to a baby boy who, by the orders of Yoritomo, was put to death.

If that wasn't enough, after she recovered, she was the ordered to preform a dance. She was forced to preform in front of Yoritomo. So she did and in the middle of it all, she burst into a defiant song declaring her love for Yoshitsune. This, of course, made Yoritomo pretty pissed and wanted her executed on the spot but because she was a dancer for the gods (a quiet famous to boot), he was convienced to do otherwise. She was commanded to shave her head and become a nun. She did so but a year later she died, presumably out of despair for her lost lover and dead son. She was only 19.

Yoshitsune continued on fleeing from the capital and went to his past mentor, Fujiwara Hidehira. Remember Fujiwara was already an old man before, so this time, he's practically on his deathbed. But before he died, he made sure Yoshitsune was installed in a small mansion, well cared and protected. However, this didn't last long, as after his death, one of his sons, Yasuhira, decided that Yoshitsune had to go.

Yasuhira went against his father's wishes and offered Yoshitsune's position to Yoritomo.

In the dead of the night, a small army crept close to the mansion, and it was there Yoshitsune with his faithful retainers faught their last battle. In the very last moments, Benkei, his most loyal friend and retainer, blocked the main door way with his very own corspe by impaling himself on his own sword. After Yoshitsune realised there was no escape, he killed his own wife and children, then commited sepukku. With the same dagger that old man Fujiwara Hidehira gave him. He was 30 yrs old.

"Their exploits and presonalities have been so embellished by legend and choronicle, so operatically distorted by Kabuki and Noh drama that, except for a few facts about their accomplishments and their deaths, they have become men of glamour and mystery."

"One can visit Benkei's tomb in the ruins of Hiraizumi but does the great monk really lie there? None one knows."

Lynn Guest, 'Children of Hachiman'

Of course, this doesn't stop Yoshitsune into becoming a legend in Japanese history.

Not only there are famous skits preforms by Kabuki and Noh based on his story, but there's a PS2 game also titled Genji (I'm playing it at the moment. The graphics are amazing but game play is alright. Nothing really exciting or new.)

In Japan, there's a TV series playing, also based on his life. The actor playing Yoshitsune is Hideaki Takizawa.

Well, at least they weren't kidding when they said he was a hansome fella.

For a more detailed record go to this site http://www.samurai-archives.com/yoshitsune.html

It has dates, names, places where he battled, etc, then whole kebab. For some reason I can't find much on Shizuka Gozen. Perhaps she herself is a myth, incoperated into the his legend to bring in a sense of romance and tragedy. However, there are many people who believe that she really existed. She herself was also so popular in legend that...

"Centuries later, when the first Geisha appeared they claimed the beautiful and spirited dancer [Shizuka Gozen] as their ancestor."

Lesley Downer, 'Geisha : The secret history of a vanishing world'

As for his tyrant of a brother, Yoritomo, he went on to install the first Samurai Dokoro (samurai government if you will) and became Shogun (the highest rank a samurai can achieve) but his power and rule didn't last long.

He fell off his horse and suffered internal injuries. He died soon after. It was rumoured that he saw the ghost of the betrayed Yoshitsune, back to haunt him. Whether this is true or not, one can only imagine, however, keep in mind that a samurai is a superb horseman among other things. In one hand he might be delusional, on the other, his horse might have been startled by something else and threw its rider off.

The samurai dokoro's power soon became corrupted and full of conspiracies. The title shogun was, like the Emperor, placed on a child as a mere puppet for the real hands of power. The last was the Tokugawa shogunate which fell in 1868, around the time of Perry's first visit to Japan. The shogunate was Japan military government, 2nd in power only after the Emperor, for nearly 700 years.

2006-01-24T10:14:00.000+08:00

Minamoto Yoshitsune (1159-1189)
(Part 1)

The first time I read about this legendary samurai was in the book 'The Children of Hachiman' by Lynn Guest. The book iteslf came to me by chance.

A friend was migrating to Australia back when I was 15yrs old. Right before that, her house flooded because of a storm the previous night, so they had to clear everything out. At the same time I was visiting, saying goodbye and so on, when her brother invited me to pillage any books around.

I was happy and picked two books. One of them being 'Children of Hachiman'. At that time, I found it kinda boring and set it aside for many years, until one boring afternoon I picked it up again. After that it became one of my favourites.

Yoshitsune was the youngest son of Minamoto Yoshitomo who died while he attempted to defy the Taira Clan. Later one of his wives and children were found but not executed, Yoshitsune was one of them. Instead, he was sent to a temple where he ran away before he was forced to take his vow.

Later he was given the Sword of Hachiman, which was a legendary sword said to be fored by the great Hachiman God himself. It's been passed down from father to son in the Minamoto Clan for generations. Although by rights it should've been passed to Minomoto Yoritomo, his eldest brother......but for some reason (his talent perhaps in handling a sword) it was passed to him.

He ran away to Mutsu, where the governor, Fujiwara Hidehira, gave him shelter and treated him like his own son. At the time Hidehira was already an old man but still go on hunts on horseback daily. He admired Yoshitsune for his youthful vigor and sword skill. So much so that he passed Yoshitsune a priceless hierloom, a small dagger (usually used to preform Speukku).

Later our young hero goes to join his older brother, the head of the Minamoto Clan, Yoritomo. In his youthful mind, perhaps, he pictured his brothers and himself, riding side by side, charging into a battle or something equally dramatic. But it was said that he never got along with his older brother, who was a proud and suspicious man. Disillusioned, Yoshitsune vow to prove that he is a samurai that one can be proud of.

Off he set to win victory after victory in the name of the clan. It was an era of war, of one powerful samurai clan against another, Minamoto VS Taira.

But the Taira has some pretty big connections. One of the Taira daughters was given to the Emperor and have birth to a son. Taira Kiyomori, head of the Taira Clan, was the grandfather of a future emperor.

Many things contributed to Yoshitsune's downfall. During the preparations before a war champaign, he argued with Kajiwara Kagetoki, one the right hand men of Yoritomo. This later further fueled the animosity between the two brothers. Later Yoritomo refused to grant Yoshitsune court titles, the same that was given to Noriyori (also their brother, older than Yoshitsune, younger than Yoritomo), eventhough Yoshisune had won many battles and deserved the honour.

A lot speculated that Yoritomo was jealous of Yoshitsune's popularity among the common folk and people of the court alike. Not only he inherited the Sword of Hachiman but he was reputed as a good looking fella with an even greater reputation as a cunning strategist and brilliant general. Most probably Yoritomo feared that his younger brother would raise an army to take over the position of head of the Minamoto Clan.

[end of Part 1)

2006-01-22T17:58:00.000+08:00

Tung Tu Lung Tung Chiang

When my mother starts changes all the curtains and scrubbing the kitchen walls, I know it's close to Chinese New Year. My mother, given her occupation in life, has always been a tad 'sot' (crazy) about cleanliness. Her motto, if she has one, could easily be something like "Cleanliness is next to Godliness." Or something along those lines.

Then there's the shopping. Woah the shopping. It's as if we don't have enough stuff already in the house, she went out buying who knows what for the new year. Other than the 'must have' for the new year such as new clothes, the usual tibits and drinks, ang pows, new money, etc, etc, etc. There's also the 'don't need but get it anyway. Decorations and whatever ki ling ka lang she needs to decorate the house with.

Just yesterday my sisters skipped into my room, clearly walking on air, and said "Sis! Would you like to see what we got for chinese new year?" Actually I don't care much, but to amuse them, hey why not? They are cute when they are excited.

What I am looking foward to is the Dancing Lions from Chung Hua School. Every year I would try to make it in time to watch them preform. The loud drum beats, the crowd of people, the kids sitting in front just so they can touch the lions as they pass by. It's rumoured that if you manage to get a peice of fur from the lion, it can be kept as a good luck charm.

[Yes that guy is wearing make up. Looks like the monkey king, doesn't he?] ----->

I only know of two lion dance troupes. One from Chung Hua Middle school and another one from the chinese community of Seria. I have a friend who belongs to the latter. He has been 'tung tu lung tung chiang' for 7 years now. I hope this year I'll be able to take some pictures to share with everyone.

There's a lot of superstition for the new year. First everything and EVERYTHING, down to the last sock, underwear and fish bowl, must be cleaned. That is to wash or get rid of the bad luck of the previous year. On the stroke of midnight, everyone would put out pow chang or fire crackers to ward away the evil spirits and bad luck. All the doors, and windows even, would be open to welcome the new year and again, good luck. Along with the mosquitoes.

On the first day of CNY, cannot sweep or clean the floor, or else the good luck might be swept away. Eeveryone would wear all their new clothes, wish mom and day fatt choy (wish you get real holy to golden frogs rich, Daddy & Mommy.) Then start receiving relatives and later go out with friends to visit other friends and er, spread the wealth around a bit so to speak. Or maybe to rake it in. Hehehe. I will not lie to you, alcohol will be consumed, nonsense will happen, and good thing I don't usually drive while going pai nein (visiting).

Chinese New Year is mainly celebrated by the chinese but over here we have other races visiting and enjoying the festivities as well. Like Patricia, even though she's a muslim now, she will be opening her house on the 29th and everyone is invited. Hahaha, Pat will kill me if her house overflows. >_<

<------- [Chinese New Year celebrations in San Francisco! How cool is that?]

I myself am a christian but I still continue to celebrate chinese new year. I mean, hello, I may believe in God but I'm still chinese what. I'm sure there's nothing in the Bible that said 'Thou shall not eat nien kao or receive ang pow.'

But that's what Chinese New Year is all about. It's visiting relatives and friends, wishing them a prosperous year, drinking to their health and looking foward to a good year together.

Hehe, I can't bloody wait.

2006-01-11T13:44:00.000+08:00

WiFi at Wy Wy

Last time I wrote about WiFi at OGDC where it wasn't a hang out. It was a place where parents bring their kids out to surf on their laptops. I suspect it's an attempt on the parent's part to show there's more out of their house. Normal outside stuff like, you know, the sun, the man eating koi.

Since the cost of getting a Laptop has gone considerably down recently, I see more and more of them mushrooming everywhere. Carried in sleek laptop bags, in cybercafes, at home and heck, even my executive was provided one from the company.

So it makes sense that other cafes or restaurants start jumping into the WiFi bandwagon. Hey, if there's money to be made from metro geeks here, why not? After all, the savvy cool crowd who hangs out here and those who hang around just to look at the cool crowd, ain't really enough. Gotta catch them all.

This is place is formally known as Restoran Nasi Ayam WyWy. The locals just call it the new WyWy place at Pandan Lima.

It's quiet a large place with an outside area for smokers. Inside there are open tables and cosy booths for family and couples to dine. I like hanging outside cuz they have sockets in case my josey's batt dies. (For some reason they don't have them inside the building.)

The menu here is fairly decent with a wide range of stuff to choose from. However, that doesn't guarantee that all of them are tasty. I just like their teh and honey dew bubble milk tea here. I haven't eaten anything from here so far that I particularly drool for. I think it's because they have such a wide variety of dishes that they don't specialize in any of them. Their chicken rice, only so-so.

However, their range of drinks and deserts are good. I had a fruit salad + yam ice cream sorta like ABC desert the other night here. It was good.

Although the WiFi sucks at times, 7 out of 10 the WiFi here is decent enough. I come here mainly because it's closest to my house. It's only a 10 mins drive. Much better than the 20 - 30 mins drive (depending on traffic, there's often big trucks or vehicles slowing the traffic on that particular seria road) to OGDC.

Why is it called WyWy? It's probably opened by the same two brothers who opened the big chain of game/accesories/mobile stores called WyWy and JJ (Jill & Jill).

Or at least that's what I heard.

2006-01-10T20:21:00.000+08:00

Don Mozarella talks about Do and Don't

Don’ts

1. Don’t toss your friends around like they are nothing to you. In the end, you end up being nothing to anyone.

2. Don’t diss your friends just cuz you have a new job, new life, new wife, new gf, new bf, whatever la. Fixing up a broken friendship is a bitch and a ½.

3. Don’t think your friends will understand all the time. Yes they understand that you can’t hang with them or that you may not reply to their messages but if you don’t understand how they miss or care about you, well, go get your head fixed.

4. Don’t be a p*ssy and stay angry with friends just cause they make a mistake. Think about how many times you have made mistakes and how good it feels to be forgiven.

5. Don’t take advantage of your friends, cuz you’ll only be taken advantaged on by leech suckers friends. They’ll be the only ones left clinging onto you.

Do’s

1. Do be forgiving and honest with your friends. Only those who remain are honest enough to tell you in your face they care about you and when you’re being a total bitch.

2. Do remember that ‘friends forever’ isn’t really true. Friends can’t be there for you forever. It’s impractical. But treasuring your memories with them and staying friends even if they are at the other end of the earth, is possible and even better.

3. Do take the initiative and invite friends out for a night in town or a dinner and drinks at your home. If everyone is waiting for the other to do something, then pffff, better start talking to your plants.

4. Do miss your friends and call or msg them sometimes.

5. Do share things with friends. Share your fun, share your misery, share your successes, share life.

As for me, if someone cuts me, fine. I forgive you. Pretentious pompous portentous pricks. Have your people call my people, apologize, then maybe we’ll do lunch.

Or according to Don Mozarella, I should just go to the matresses and shoot them.

2006-01-03T17:15:00.000+08:00

You Can Like the Life You're Living, You Can Live the Life You Like. (From the Movie 'Chicago')

Out of the blue, a friend asked me today, "Why are you so addicted to the internet? What about your real life in Brunei or your family and friends? Don't you think you are missing out on what's available here and now?"

In a way I can understand what she's trying to tell me. The grass isn't always greener on the other side, but I want to find out for myself, is that so wrong? Let me point out several things and just randomly rant.

Okay I admit Brunei isn't all that bad, it's still a developing country so I'll cut her some slack. Brunei is a deep emerald of a jewel, with the friendly people, low crime rate, oil & gas income, green stuff everywhere and overally a very relaxing environment. I have a few malaysian and singaporean friends who came over said, "Brunei is so peaceful (yes i know, abode of peace) and relaxing (not much traffic or rush rush or kill kill, dog eat dog going on here)"

But seriously, do you want to be retired before you even started to live? There's a whole world out there just waiting for you to explore. If you think that everything worth discovering has already been discovered, then you are wrong. I don't mean travelling or backpacking through europe (although that's a good idea too) but even in your own living room, communicating with other people from other countries. It's an enriching experience by its own right.

Then you learn to socialize and start caring about people, listen to their stories and descriptions about their country or environment. What their ineterests are and sometimes their worries and problems. In a way, for me, it felt good to be able to help my online friends somehow just by listening to them, talking to them, giving or receiving advice. Just goes to show, a world of people who never met can still care for each other, is not such a bad world after all.

On this kind of road in life, there's just so many ways we can choose to travel it. My way is different from yours. I love Brunei, it will always be the country where my heart grew up in. It doesn't mean though, that it will be the place where my heart stays. You think we would be able to fly to the moon just by talking or dreaming about it? If you have the technology and means to go there, why not?

There is just so much out there to discover, to learn. So much to learn...*lol* I will forever thirst for knowledge. So since I don't own a Jet or millions of dollars where i can just go anywhere and try out anything with just a snap of my fingers. *I don't think it'll be a rewarding experience at all. Would be fun but not rewarding.*

For now I only have Josey (BenQ Laptop) and Renee Baby (Toyota Rav4) . So why dun just let me explore the virtual world to my heart's content? Cuz in the end, I'll still swhich off Josey, drive Renee Baby back to my home in Kuala Belait, Brunei Darrusalam, and say, "Hi, mom, hi sis, I'm home."

2006-01-02T13:02:00.000+08:00

Heeeelllloooo 2006

God created the world in 7 days, so I will try to create a better life with 7 New Year Resolutions…

1. Try to understand people better. (My brother is the exception because I think his brain is running on amoeba power.)

2. Don’t sweat the small stuff.

3. Finally pay off my car loan.

4. Budget better in order to save up and travel. Locations I wanna visit Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Canada, Japan, China, England and America.

5. Study and better understand the complexities of online games.

6. Drink less coffee and more H2O.

7. Actually stick to my resolutions this year! XD

2005-12-21T00:14:00.000+08:00

Santa Pimp My Ride!

You know it's that time of the year where you walk around the shopping mall and wonder, "Hmm...what should I get for my special someone?"

Wanna talk about gifts? How about something red? Something shiny? Something SEXY?

Then Santa, please pimp my ride.

This is Patricia's car.

She just got it today.

I was thinking...

"...I want one too..."

"How? Can...I got plan. Go marry damn rich guy."

"Yeah lor, then buy FLYING CAR! Hah, that will show Santa."

2005-12-19T17:38:00.000+08:00

Christmas At Home...

This is our xmas tree. It's about 6 ft tall. I helped my sisters just set it up yesterday. Mom helped them decorate it. Looks nice doesn't it? Brings back lots of memories. This tree was given to us by my mom's boss when he went back to Holland after his contract in Brunei finished. It's been wif us since 1994, wow, 11 years.

Of course, we have our own local flair in decorating Christmas trees here... like a chilli perhaps?

I noticed this year, Mom did away wif all the old decorations. The paper lanterns my bro and I made when we were in sunday school were missing.

Her fav xmas candle figures are still around though.

I remember a Christmas eve when my mom took my bro and sisters to church. Dad was working in the Capital that time and didn't have the time to come back to a holiday he didn't believe in (dad's a free thinker). It was raining hard outside, I would have a cup of milo, turn out all the lights except for the ones on the xmas tree and sing "I'm dreaming of a wet christmas..." while watching the special programs on TV.

Yep, tis the season people. I feel like decorating a coconut tree or something.

2005-12-17T14:08:00.000+08:00

Merry Christmas Ladies & Gentlemen. (Bleh Version)

It’s December again. The last month, when businesses wrap up their accounts, the holiday month, the month of bitter cold or rainy monsoon, the month of celebration and all that jazz.

It’s also my birthday month. I’ve been wondering about that for a while now. Why was I born on the 2nd last day of the year? Why not on new year’s eve? But then I thought, does it even matter? No, not really. Just wondering, you know? Haha. My mother use to say that I couldn’t wait to see the New Year. Bleh.

Christ was born on the 25th of Dec. Why 25th? Then again, why not? Would it be just as meaningful if he was born on the 8th of June? *heh* I guess so. God didn’t invent the calendar, we did. Go figure. No wonder it doesn’t work properly. Come on la, leap year? Bleh.

My family wasn’t born into Christianity. My mom started bringing my bro and I to church one Sunday (I was 10, bro was 5) and that was that. To tell you the truth I have no idea of ½ the things we did at church that time. I was just a kid. When I was in Primary 4 I was so scared of failing that year that I prayed for nothing else but to pass my exams. In the end I did pass and my faith was sealed. Like I said, I was only 10 at the time.

As a kid I’ve always knew there is a God but I didn’t know I have to go for confessions to him or that I have to go for Holy Communion. I mean does doing those things bring me closer to God? Would He only recognize me when I go to Mass? I don’t think so. Actually I think this free will thing is that God dun give a rat’s ass with what we do as long as we recognize and love him and his creations.

But of course, that is just what I think. Heh. Bleh.

Our Christmas tree when I was a kid, was the middle wooden pole holding up our part of the house. I would stick pins and thumb tacks in the middle of the pole with Christmas decoration and pretend it’s a tree. I would put a list of things I wish for in a new sock and also stick it on the xmas pole. It’s always the next morning the sock would be gone and a present would be sitting there. Heh. I didn’t mind it wasn’t what I wanted because was too ecstatic that HE came. Who? Duh, Santa of course. Bleh.

That time we were living in the maid quarters of Panaga while my mom worked for a Dutch family. At the time, most of the people living in Panaga are from Holland. It’s not surprising that they also have their own traditional celebrations. Like a Saint Nick with his black elves, throwing candy at good little kids while they run through the area. At bad kids, I hear, they throw coal and pebbles. But then I dun think they actually did that. What if the bad kid happened to be the son of Saint Nick’s Boss’s?

“I’ll see you Monday morning, Nick.” *gulp* Hehe. Bleh.

This year I’ll be taking a 5 day leave for xmas. Not sure what I’ll be doing yet because the same thing happens every year. Dad would be at home watching TV with a beer. Mom would be at Church with the choir. My sisters would either be with her at Church or watching TV at home. Only God knows what my brother will be doing, working probably. I know I’ll be going for WOE (Ragnarok) on xmas eve. Heh. Bleh.

I’ve been invited several times to spend xmas at KL. It sounds awfully tempting (I hear some places in KL rawk during xmas.) but sad to say I’m in no financial position to go. Maybe next Christmas. Bleh.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!!! ^_^

2005-12-11T19:16:00.000+08:00

Plea for the Pets Exposed to the Abuse of Humanity

A bark of help for the pets of the animal kingdom. Please place your vote here. It's a petition to the prime minister for applying harsher fine/punishment for abusers of animals.

Furry friends who trusted us to take care of them, instead they are exposed to the most inhuman treatment I've ever heard of.

note: I know the img is not there for some reason, but the link works, so just click on it anyway.

2005-12-10T12:29:00.000+08:00

Late Date with Miri

I thank God that I’ve taken leave on Friday to get ready for Pat’s Chinese reception in Miri.

Woke up late that day and after a shower I started packing for the overnight stay. Passport, check, towel, check, toothbrush check…hmmm feels like I’ve forgotten something…

My dress~!

Effy and Shikin messaged me and we arranged to go to the salon together after I pick up my new dress from Yvonne’s Mom, who tailored my dress. I was so excited. Actually I just wanted to trim, wash and blow dry my hair straight. But then Shikin mentioned ‘Set’ I was like ‘Set?’ what? The three of us one set have discount kah? Yes I was that damn blur ok?

Effy was signaling to me *Hello? Set? Like make hair pretty and curly and cute?*

Oh~! *Smack on the head*

After the hot curling, Shikin went off to work. So, Effy and I continue to another salon to get our nails done. We went to the Korean House of Nails. Well…actually there is no such place, Effy just made it up, but it sounds classy, eh?

Nails done, bag packed, dressed nicely steamed and we’re all on our way to Miri with Wandi as the driver.

Aaron messaged me “Where are u guys? It’s late already.”

DUH~! You think we want to be late ah? No choice mah. Some people have to work for a living what.

Anyway, checked into the hotel, changed and got ready in our room, everyone rushing about, doing their make up, zipping up dresses, strapping on heels. Off we go, down the elevator and into the ballroom where the party was.

There was a live band. Woohoo! Music was good, food was good and everyone was feeling good. It was a great time.

Took pictures after the dinner. Lovely couple eh?

After the initial polite manners and chit chat, we all went up again to change to our more casual clothes to par-tay in Cherry Berries. (What to do? This is Miri we’re talking about.)

Okay, whatever happens in Cherry Berries, STAYS in Cherry Berries. Heh.

Off we go back to the hotel to snooze the night away. Next evening back to the normality of our life in Kuala Belait.

Helloooo Brunei.

2005-12-01T20:11:00.000+08:00

Married be Patricia

3rd Day: The Sanding (san-ding, not sand-ing)

The last day of their malay wedding ceremony, the sanding, which is where they get to be King and Queen for the day. (True, it’s called Raja Sehari)

It was hot day and the smart guests brought traditional fans to cool themselves. Those who wasn’t smart enough to bring one and worst, decided to wear a black baju kurung for the scorching occasion, hai…, dunno what to say.

Yes, I was the fanless dum dum in black.

They also had the traditional Hadrah which was entertaining for Shikin, Tini and I, in more ways than one. (One of the better looking Hadrah guys was looking at our direction, but we could be imagining it.)

Before we were cooked to ‘well done’, Hamdani came out to the tents to greet all the guests. I’ve always been a sucker for guys in baju cara melayu (and any kind of uniforms, traditional Chinese outfits, formal wear, in good jeans, dress shirts, three piece suits…er…okay…) So Hamdani scored a prefect 10 from his shiny shoes to his super lipstick smile.

Then they started the doa. Okay, keep in mind that we’ve been cooking since 11am to 12.30 noon. We’re hot and thirsty. This is because after the 1st doa we immediately stood up (the 3 of us) and was gonna head for the drinks. Thing is…no one else stood up and to our embarrassment there was another doa before the makan. We couldn’t help laughing and giggling all through the 2nd doa. Dammit we were so embarrassed.

After the eats we head for the main house for photos and air con. There I met my long ago classmate who also happens to be the cousin of Hamdani, Fadzillah. After we chatted a bit, we went inside to the living room where the pelamin is to have our picture taken with the King and Queen.

Patricia looked so lovely in her gold coloured gown…*sigh*

Now, all that’s left is the swinging Chinese reception in Miri coming tomorrow. I can’t wait *grin* It’s gonna be at Grand Palace Hotel too.

2005-11-28T22:02:00.000+08:00

Married Be Her

Day 2 : Getting Ready

Saturday was a quiet day. Nothing much happening during the day and except for the odd msg in the mobile, I didn’t really hear from Pat. I was planning on visiting her at Hamdan’s house later at night, after I was done with WOE in Ragnarok.

The connection at Marilyn’s café was decent enough. Not really good, but good enough for surfers. For gaming, I suggest OGDC, because I was pretty happy the last time I went there for gaming.

Anyway, Shikin and I was messaging each other back and forth that day when I thought about inviting her along. She seemed like she needed a distraction. She readily agreed to come along with me at Marilyn and witnessed WOE. It was a funny experience, I can tell you that.

Later around 9.30pm, we drove over to Pat’s house to check and see how she’s doing.

She looked tired as she laid there with her hands and feet occupied with the henna. We talked and joked about the stuff that happened in Nikkah and what would happen the following Sunday. She said she was in a lot pain from her allergic reaction.

Didn’t stay long because she was tired and there were certain things that occurred which I took notice and didn’t like. I will not blog in out in public due to respect to Patricia and Hamdani. However, when I talked about it later with Shikin, turns out she didn’t like it either. Don’t worry, it had nothing to do with us, it was just how others were treated in front of us.

Anyway, Pat and Hamdani looked prepped for the next day. I was so excited to see how good they would look.

[to be continued…]

2005-11-27T21:35:00.000+08:00

Married Be She

Today was the last day of the 3 day malay celebration of Patricia & Hamdani’s Wedding. This is the chronology of their wedding with love from Felicity.

Day 1 : The Nikkah

Both side of the family is celebrating this event. I was really nervous because I’ve never been involved with a malay wedding 110%. You can ask Shikin, I was fumbling in my purse, dropping stuff and forgetting things.

Basically, I was no help much. Pat’s mom and Pam pretty much have everything done. Thumbs up on their hard work into making Pat’s wedding special. There was around 100 people there, mostly relatives and friends of the family, including moi. I arrived there around 1 plus. Shikin had to work so she went off at 2. I had work at 5 which sucks but my staff’s son had convocation on the same nite. So there ya go.

Still, it was an exciting time. Aziz and Tini did a good job in guiding the guests. We all had some food to eat, then waited for the people from Hamdani’s side to come with the hantaran.

I didn’t count Pat’s hantaran but I know there was quiet a few. (Pat…if ur white shoes are missing, ask Tini. You know I can’t fit into your shoes. Now…if it was your bags missing…that’s a diff story.) *lol*

Hamdani’s hantaran wasn’t small stuff either. The biggest fuss everyone made had got to be the guitar. Yes, you read right, it was a real freaking good lookin one too. It was huge, we were wondering how to actually place it gracefully and prettily with the rest of the gifts.

So we all drove to Hamdani’s place where we all gathered in the living room where the ceremony was to take place. Before that, we dropped into the couple while they were getting ready.

My first glimpse of Patricia in all her make up and finery was…memorable. She was so beautiful dressed in all white. It didn’t seem like the Patricia I know. Instead there stood a composed, lovely woman, all ready to devote herself to be Hamdani’s wife for the rest of her life.

When they preformed the ceremony, thought I didn’t understand a single thing still…when Hamdani said that “Yes, I accept this woman, Izzah Batricia, as my wife.” I really felt so weepy. They shook hands, rings, signed the contracts…Tini and I were openly weeping.

Some kid handed us tissue. Glad to see that gentlemen still exists in the world.
“Eh sei…kau ni…”
“Nada lah, karang make up orang gugur?”

I had just enough time after the ceremony to congratulate Pat and family before rushing off to work. Later Tini messaged me that Pat went to the hospital. I was shocked! Why? Cuz the make up artist used a body shop lip balm on Pat and she had a allergic reaction to it. She was in major pain. So they took her to the hospital where she had two injections.

Poor Pat.

At least this much I can say, I’ve never seen her look as beautiful as she did on that day, all dressed in white and made up. She looked so HAPPY. I’m just as happy for her. Well, that’s the first girl in our gang to wed.

[To be continued...]

2005-11-22T21:33:00.000+08:00

Lost Lemon Tree

Right on top of a long lost hill,
grew a lemon tree,
a girl rests there so still,
thoughtful repose is she,

"Loneliness feels so close to me,
A force which long lost its teeth.

It grips my heart, through which it pours,
such warm poison into my soul.

A kind of drug that comforts me,
But erase my sense of self.

I sleep like a butterfly in a cocoon,
Unmotivated to emerge out into the real world.

Dreaming of warm sun and rain drops,
Of stars in the heaven and wind in my hair.

Of a touch I'm fond of,
which was lost oh so long ago. "

Right on top of a long lost hill,
at the foot of the lemon tree,
the lovely girl rest so still,
dreaming of butterflies does she.

2005-11-17T22:09:00.000+08:00

Mysteries of the Edible

You know there’s nothing compared to home cooking. After a hard day’s work you would like nothing more than a hot meal in one’s own cozy kitchen.

Unless of course you have parents like mine…

May I present to you, fresh from my father’s garden, the CATERPILLAR VEG (Ulat Veg)!

The veg itself is neither big nor long. This one I judged to be roughly 4 inches long. It’s always green in colour and my parents love them. As for me, the mere sight of them gimme the creeps, much less so to actually picture chewing it in my mouth.

Mom usually just chops them up and stir fry them with garlic.

My brother seems to like eating them but that’s just my brother, he makes the weirdest and most disgusting dishes imaginable. He eats anything, as long as he’s hungry. -_-"

2005-11-14T11:25:00.000+08:00

HE knows better than I

Woke up late today cuz I thought that it was still early. The sky was still a bit dark, no birds were singing and the bed felt oh so comfortable. When I peeked into my mobile beside the bed, 9.15!!!! Holy rain drops! I’m gonna be late. Quick shower, coffee, change and zipped out of the house.

*sigh* Why it never rains when I work afternoons or on my off days?

Well at least this is noticeably better than yesterday where it was scorching hot. It was so hot that I swear I could FEEL my dear Josephine’s (BenQ Laptop) suffering. So today I had her propped up with books. I should invent something like this for all LT users.

Lovely, sweet, refreshing rainy weather we have in Kuala Belait today. Not that big stormy monsoon like rain, but soft pitter pattering rain. Yes, I love rain. I love to listen to it, feel and smell it.

Some people say that when it rains it means God is crying. I don’t think so. I like to think (not that my thinking matters to any one) that God causes it to rain to feed and cleanse us. Kinda like laundry day, where God sees a particular part of the world is kinda dry, dusty and dirty, He sends in some rain to water and clean up then He waits for the earth to spin and dry in the sun.

Okay, if that’s the case then why there’s TOO much rain on some parts of the world causing floods or how about the typhoon Katrina situation in New Orleans?

Ok, I will not say it’s natural. I will not say Americans just so happens to be in the way of Typhoon Katrina. I will not say its God’s Will. We will never know why it happened, but I believe everything happens for a cause.

There’s a song that goes,

"I’ve seen a cloud and thought it was the sky,
I saw a bird and thought that I could follow,
but it was You who taught that bird to fly.

Cause You know better than I,
You know the way,
I’ve let go the need to know why,
for You know better than I.”

So yeah, we all need a little hope, a bit of patience and lots of faith.

2005-11-08T12:17:00.000+08:00

Pre-marital Attack of the Butterflies

During this festive season my staff had taken a few days, 5 days to be exact, leave to fully indulge their Raya mood. Only, I wish they taken some time to bring a cake or a kuih to the shop once in a while for me. Ah, how kasian am I? *Will work for raya cakes!*

Anyway, update on the recent happenings.

Pat's wedding is coming. Who’s is Pat? Pat is actually Patricia Luin (AKA Izzah Batricia Binti Abdullah Luin) of Kuala Belait, Brunei Darussalam. Hahaha. I dedicate this entry entirely to her, basically because it’s gonna be about her marriage to the *ahem* Hamdani (AKA Mohammad Hamdani Bin Jailani.)

They've been a couple for four years now, ppl, and are getting married. Woohoo!

It’s coming closer now, the inevitable, the unavoidable and really, the undeniable fact that a close female friend is getting married soon. We’re talking about next few weeks soon, baby, yeah!

A tiny voice in my head squeaks “You know the old saying, dearie, three times a bride’s maid, never a bride.”

Well, fortunately this Pat is getting married in both Malay and Chinese style, both of which don’t require the presence of bride’s maids. Haha! I beat that old wives tale. (Why do old wives make tales anyway? Maybe they can’t have sex anymore? *ack!* Don’t be so mean! But then again…maybe it’s true?)

The other morning, I happened to watch on Oprah as to why 90% women in America have post marriage depression. Well, Oprah, that’s America, here in Brunei, an unhappy wife doesn’t have post marriage depression. They either have two things, credit cards or an affair with someone that has credit cards.

It’s sad, I know, but true. I’ve seen it happen countless of times. But seriously, though, doesn’t marriage mean anything to these people?

This however will never happen to Pat and Ham because I've never seen two love bunnies so...so in TUNE with each other. Pat talk, Ham listen. Ham cook, Pat eat. See? It's a match made in heaven.

Besides, both of them have credit cards.

But I digress. Back to Patricia’s wedding.

Wedding planning is no easy thing. People would tend to think of silk, satin, lace and veils. In reality, we’re talking about decisions, decisions and more decisions. Silver or gold? Pink or purple? Long or short? Up or down? Abalone or shark fin? Or both?

I have trouble even deciding what t shoes to wear sometimes, so I can’t imagine how it would be like to actually make final decisions on a wedding gown, a chapel and list of guests.

However, Patricia is a great girl and somehow manages to pull it off. Now she only has a few more adjustments to settle. This is how she’s like now.

Normal conversation with the bride to be:

Pat: “I’m getting married!”
Me: “Shikin, what u want to eat?"
Pat: ”In less than 3 weeks!”
Me: “I hear the butter chicken here not bad.”
Pat: “I got butterflies in my stomach...”
Me: ”Pat? What are u having?”
Pat: ”Did I book the rooms already?”
Shikin: ”Ooh, I like ur skirt, Pat.”
Pat: ”Oh no! The rooms! The rooms!”

*whips out her mini notebook to jot down wedding notes and to-dos.

Shikin & Me: *sigh*

2005-10-29T22:57:00.000+08:00

It’s been a while since I last blogged anything. I blame it entirely on Ragnarok…and work…well…just Ragnarok then. *Haha*

I just got my salary yesterday but after paying all my bills, I find I’m broke again. Only this time I’m broke with more credibility. -_-“

Early happy Halloween to all those celebrating this interesting western holiday, where everyone dress up and gets free candy for it. Well, for the kids anyway.

I remember when I was 12 and living in the Panaga Area, I once dress up as a crippled hunchback (pillow stuffed at my back and a plank taped to my leg), my best friend Rana was a mummy (the toiler paper kept falling off her), my brother was a bleeding zombie (blue and green make up and tomato sauce on an old t shirt) and his best friend Patrick was a vampire. Our collection for that night was one apple, two lollies, strepsils and small but brightly wrapped candy.

It wasn’t the candy that I remember most about that night. It was the time we toilet papered a house whose owner shooed us away (we did say “TRICK or treat.” How much fun it was roaming around the neighbourhood, meeting up other kids and staying up past our bedtime.

Raya is coming up just around the corner, kiddies, are you ready for it? I am, haha, planning to go around visiting all my malay friends and my malay staff on the 1st day of Raya. Gonna hunt for kek batik and green ang pow. (Aren’t you a bit too old for ang pow, red OR green? XD …No!) I even have my baju kurung all ready and waiting. Hehehe, it’s gonna be fun cuz this is the 1st Raya for me in my hometown after 4 years living in the capital. Plus, most of my friends are back from Uni overseas. It’s gonna be uber fun.

But it will not as much fun as I will have during Chinese New Year. (duh! You’re Chinese, of course, you’ll have more fun!) I can’t wait! XD

Then let’s not forget Christmas…

Wait! ROFL! I almost forgot my birthday! It’s coming on the 30th December! How old am I this year? Well…okay, I’ll tell you since I’m not ashamed of my age (yet). I’m turning 25yrs old this year. Isn’t that lovely? It’s a very lovely number. I’m at the prime of my life and it’s gonna get better! Woohoo!

Kek batik, green ang pow, Christmas cards and birthday pressies are most welcome! Hahaha.

2005-10-18T17:28:00.000+08:00

Today I checked on my friend's blog and saw she took an animal personality test.

I tried it out and the results are...

What Is Your Animal Personality?
brought to you by Quizilla

TADA!

I'm a horse! Hahahaaha! Are you guys ready for this? I wasn't. E-to... let's see, shall we?

Caring, free-spirited and full of compassion. [Me love everybodee! Muah muah!]

You are well loved and for all the right reasons. [My boobs? Well, they are pretty nice I guess... Maybe I should run for president one day...only in brunei there are no presidents, damn.]

You enjoy the company of others & try to keep them happy, making you a 1st class friend. [Ppl, hear dat? Me 1st class fren eh, no some low class chabo. Woot!]

"Me 1st class, me enjoy keeping you company, keep you happy long time. Ok?" ROFL! [Not like that! Aiyah! What you thinking oh? I dunno eh.]

You want a warm place to call home, but you always have the urge to escape. [Totally right, i just want to go home and cook mee goreng, but when i see my mom's car home, i kia to the nearest mee mamak stall. Can't stand my mom nagging me 24/7, esp when i cook mee goreng for some reason...]

So there ya go.

Click here for your Animal Personality Quiz!

2005-10-16T10:29:00.000+08:00

Ore wa hitore ja nai... (I am not alone)

You know there are always times when it’s bad or depressing. When the one you are fond of most isn’t with you anymore. Perhaps you feel alone even when you are in a crowded room. Or maybe when you are in bed, staring into the darkness, and thinking about what happened in the day time or wondering what dreams you might have when you sleep.

Suddenly you feel heavy deep within, as if someone poured in cement to harden your heart and seal your soul.

But it’s not as simple as it seems. The human heart and soul is not easily sealed as long as you have others, other people who have their faith in you, who believe in you, who trust you. It doesn’t matter if you deserve it or not. It doesn’t matter if they are not around or if they don’t exist in this world anymore.

The main thing is that they are attached to you. The string of your faith is woven in the complex cloth of life. One string may not make much of a difference, but with many strings, it creates a beautiful design. If one string is cut, then that piece of cloth becomes less beautiful, a little bare.

So today, smile and know that you have people’s faith in you. Your teacher put faith in you to pass your class, your boss counts on you to do your work and your parents hope the best for you. Although sometimes crap happens, it’s true, there’s no way to avoid the unavoidable.

Still...

I believe there’s a reason for everyone to be here. Even if we don’t know what that reason might be, and might never know until we die, but it’s there. No one is brought into this world without a reason to live. Everyone has a purpose.