2010

Come tomorrow, 2009 will be history.

I have done so much recapping since SPM ended that I'm really quite tired of it. So no more recapping even on the last day of the year.

Is it not written, "Forget the past and look into the future"? :P

So, goodbye to some of the things that I've come to learn, know and love for nearly 11 years and that I may never again need to use in the near future and welcome to all the new things that I will come to know and learn and love in the new beginning. =)

Welcome 2010. :)

Resolutions

Tomorrow's the last day of 2009. So today I shall run through my new year resolution earlier this year which I had chucked aside for nearly 12 months. Hm... I've always known it's somewhere! Haha.

So here are all the things that I had planned to do, but mostly failed to do. -.-"

1. Get 100 for any subject at least once.

Failed.  =(

2. Get a Distinction for next guitar exam.

Lol. I think I achieved this one, despite screwing up 2 scales and playing a classical piece in swing rhythm.... =.="

3. Attend mass on a regular basis.

Failed. =(

4. Get straight A1s for SPM.

Ha.... See la next March. =)

5. Get 1st in class.

-____-" Since when is this even possible? Failed.

6. Eat healthier.

FAILED. =(

7. Exercise more.

FAILED. =(

8. Dress more decently. i.e Buy more decent clothes.

Failed. =( Apparently shorts are still in fashion.

9. Get rid of that evil little voice inside my head.

Failed la. I'm still procrastinating, aren't I? Lol.

10. Enjoy 2009. To the fullest.

I think this one I did extremely well. *beams*

So there you go. Achieved 2 out of 10. 

That's miserable. =.="

I shan't do a new year resolution anymore.

Hmph!

School

I just realised that school's starting next week! For most people anyway. Haha.

Most of my friends are leaving next week too. All of them are already armed with their canggih laptops. And I have in my hands a green bus ticket to Bau and an offer letter to college. One way or another, I'll have to figure out which piece of paper to throw out the window before Sunday. Thursday, preferably so that I can have enough time to buy my necessities. That's three days for deep thinking. Alas, life is never easy, eh?

So here are some of the my school moments this year. My last year wearing that blue pinafore. Shall never wear it again. Marilyn's parents suggested that she wear it at home. Ha-ha! Madam Euphrasia suggested we wear it to sleep. Ha-ha! Maybe without the white shirt but that's just odd. And a bit too airy, according to Abigail. Ha-ha!

So remember we started this year pretending to be kuai? :P

We were doing our Moral coursework. That's me teaching Kim EST! Or vice versa.

You can see we were trying so hard not to laugh. We had many attempts at that one. =P

That's for Self-development - helping your friends. Next, we had to do so-called Community Work, where we had to do something for the school. So we pretended to help clear the grass. If I remember correctly, that used to be the punishment for latecomers.

Many things are wrong with that picture. First of all, those grass were planted for decoration! Clearing it might as well be vandalism. And second of all, who cuts grass with tongs?! (so perhaps not vandalism after all! Heh!)

And of course the unforgettable lesson where we cut open some poor cow's heart! I remember distinctly it was on the 16th of January, Kim's birthday. What a way to celebrate going 17!

Biology was quite interesting. Unfortunately none of us shall ever touch it again. None of those who has discussed their course with me at least. We dissected a bull frog, which we named Mr. Frog, later into the year. We also tested our blood type. Marilyn bled damn banyak lor. And Kim had such thick skin.

This year, because it's our exam year, we had many ceramahs about teknik menjawab. While awaiting, we generally hang at the back of hall. Plenty of chairs and some privacy. Not that privacy's very important since we always speak at high volume. =P

That was us trying to count 1,2,3,4,5 in sync. Failed.

No one can forget pre-sale! Oh the good food. Teacher brought these clapping mechanisms and toy bells so that we can become loud street vendors and attract attention. Add those sound machines to our loud "COME! BUY! COME!" = noise pollution. We may have frightened off several potential customers. Hahahaha.

And our business associate / business arch rival, 3A1 was just next to our stall. These faces just pulls you to them. So we reached an agreement. You buy from me, I buy from you. You scratch my back, I scratch your back. Hehe.

They had awesome coconut jelly. I love their coconut song. I can't remember anything about the song now but it was so hilarious. One of them's supposed to sing it on my birthday! :P We had songs too!

If you are happy and you know it, buy some nasi lemak!

If you are happy and you know it, buy some nasi lemak!

Or in Koperasi, it's

Koperasi has some nasi lemak! E-ya-e-ya-oh!

And a fat-fat here and a fat-fat there!

Koperasi has some nasi lemak! E-ya-e-ya-oh!

Oh btw, I'm sure Christine was traumatised by all the tallness around her, that's why she'd hid her head away. Hehe. Especially by the one who loves bamboo. *cough*Amy*cough*

And then there's the final Special Assembly at the end of the day.

Ah, the debate team. Lame one this gang. =P Who spends their precious quarantine time singing and dancing and impersonating Elvis? Or discuss Roald Dahl and musicals? Or in the case of Emmeline, blots her face and cam-whore? Haha!

Then there was the real day of course.

Eu Fern and her many prizes. WAH. Nuff said. =)

I remember her only remark was, "Faster take picture! I drop it all to the floor then you know!"

Haha. Well not all classes can go on smoothly, can they? There's bound to be someone getting distracted at some time of the day. =P

See. I told you so. :P

Well to those returning to school, happy schooling. =)

Vacation '09

Here's a little more about my 2009 family vacation. =)

I'm too lazy to elaborate so I shall just post some pictures.

As mentioned, Penang had the most attraction. On the second day that we were there, we took a one day guide to visit the famous spots in Penang. Among it was the Kek Lok Si temple. 

I never have much fascinations for temples (except for some of those really old ones in China because they normally come with an interesting story) but I do have much fascinations for turtles! They had turtles!! =D

So I got myself a handful of sayur and tried to feed the turtles.

I really thought there was some way I could go down that pagoda and feed the sayur to the turtles directly. Imagine my disappointment when mum told me that I only had to throw the sayur down! =(

There were stalls inside the temple selling printed Penang tees and other stuff. There was also the super tall bronze Guan Yin statue up a mountain. And a random garden some where in the middle. I met my evolution ancestor. =P

After that, we went off to visit Penang Hill.

I did not know Penang Hill is Bukit Bendera. -____-"

And it took me pretty long to figure out that Star Hill is in fact, Bukit Bintang. -____-"

Anyway, the train up the hill can use some improving. It was moving turtle speed and it was jam-packed. Very hot in there too. And again, no queuing. Just going up and down the hill alone takes more than one hour.

But to make up for it, the air was reasonably cool. The view wasn't so bad. We even saw monkeys! =D We didn't walk very far because the sun was still rather hot up there. None of us had any wish to go tan.

Yes, I even sought shed under a bush. Haha.

The visit to the Peranakan House was extremely satisfying though. It's Chen Xi's house in Little Nyonya!

Doesn't that look familiar? Hehehe.

We had an awesome guide from the place who told us of many things. We visited the various rooms and at one time, we even came across their chamberpot.

How they could sit on such a fragile looking thing, I have no idea. It looks like vase la, dude!

We also saw their beaded shoes, called "Manik Eh" (read "eh" in hokkien, lol!) The guy said that the beads were so minute that if the ladies back then had to sew without a pair of magnifying glasses, they'd go blind in a few days.

He also said that crafts work was how the people last time spend their time. Each work can take up to half a year. Or more than 2 years if the work's really intricate and huge. Very impressive looking crafts though.

And this is probably the camera the Little Nyonya crew used for the Japanese guy - Ju Xiang's husband and Yue Niang's father. 

We also visited the kitchen. In Little Nyonya, this was where all the ladies gathered to compete to become Chen Xi's wife. A tad disappointing looking because in tv, they made it look so huge! Haha. Oh wells. 

I'm pretty sure the fridge wasn't there in the show. Lol!

Besides visiting this movie site, we also visited the place where Anna and the King was shot. This is the Khoo Kongsi's house.

It's rather like a muzeum. The family history was really impressive. Every graduate had their name engraved on a gold plate (or something golden-ish) and the plate's hung in one of the rooms. Their family tree can be traced over 20 generations back! (or is it more?)

We also had a look at the jetty. Nothing much to see there except houses and boats and the sea.

On another different day, we also visited the Gurney Drive.

The beach is polluted.

It's like Kuching's waterfront minus all the pretty elaborate lights.

There're plenty of couples pak toh-ing here too. As we sat waiting for the bus after dinner that night, 9 out of 10 people who walked past us were holding hands.

We visited the Spice Garden on one of those days too. I forgot what plant this is, but I probably had a story in mind when I took this photo. Can't remember it now.

I learnt here that a lot of ornamental flowers are poisonous.

Mum: I keep this at home! Is it poisonous?

Man: Yes.

Mum: What about this? People plant this in their back yards some times.

Man: Definitely poisonous.

Don't simply plant flowers in your back yards, that's the lesson learnt. Haha.

The man also showed us one of Harry Potter-ish broom made of some plant's parts. I wanted a picture so I simply grabbed a broom and sat on it. Pretty happily, I might add.

Until the man said that I'd got the wrong model.

-_____-"

The man said it didn't matter if I knew the spell, the broom still wouldn't fly if I'd got the wrong one!

And as we explored Penang Road, look who I came across!

Blue Hippo!!

Hahahaha! SO CUTE!

Poor guy inside must be sweating silly because I remember it was a hot day that day. =P

I'm still trying to cling on to the Christmas mood because I think Christmas is one of the best times of the year.

I didn't see any santas around, except for some deflated ones giving out sweets in malls.

Didn't feel like hugging deflated santas.

So I hugged a fat, happy, white snowman instead. =)

Culinary Tour

Well hey guys! I'm back. Finally. =) I'd been homesick for a couple of days now, really.

For this holidays season, I went to four different places in Malaysia. Yes, it's Cuti-cuti Malaysia for me. I'm helping to promote Tourism Malaysia. Hehe. Anyways, I was in Penang for 5 days. On the fifth day, I left for Genting to spend 2 nights there. After that, I took the KTM for a long journey to Klang for 1 night and finally ended the 10-day long vacation in KL for some shopping.

The shopping failed btw. =(

Of all the places, Penang proved to be best. Klang followed closely behind. Genting's disappointing. I stayed in this really small room (it was cheap room la, but still it was a bit too small even for a cheap room!) and there were sooo many people! Sure the decorations were nice but the crowd just made me lose all my mood. Every time I tried to snap a picture, several heads would pop up out of nowhere! It's impossible. So I ended up staying inside my super small room watching the super small, old-fashioned tv. So old-fashioned the remote control's either gone missing or is just non-existent.

Nonetheless, I still think that this is the most interesting trip I've ever taken in 17 years. =) We walked a lot, ate a lot and chilled a lot. Most fun, I say, but really, it wouldn't hurt to have a car! All that bus waiting and monorail squeezing aren't exactly pleasant, ya know? Malaysians have yet to master the art of queuing. And it's even more unpleasant to have sat waiting for a bus for one hour only to discover at the end of the day that that particular bus route had been cancelled ages ago.

But to the more joyful, pleasant and fulfilling part of the trip is definitely the Jalan-jalan Cari Makan quest. =D We walked and walked for several kilometres long, enjoying the fact that we were actually burning some fat, until we stopped at some crowded shop with good food. And then we'd eat and feast and gain back whatever fat we'd just burnt (and some more, inevitably!).

Thus, having done that myself, I too can now be thy culinary tour master. =D (Actually we also followed random googled bloggers. Apparently now I can join the team. Probably not very cun, but oh wells, it's about as good as I can make it to be. If you have faith in me, thou may follow. If you don't, there's always Google. Haha!)

So first, let's do Penang. At New World, somewhere near Jalan Macalister, is where a lot of hawker stalls are grouped. If you'd like to try some of Penang's famed delicacies without having to walk all over the town under the hot sun, then I suppose this is the place to go la. This is where we first stopped to try some of Penang's best.

Here, we have the Penang Hokkien Prawn Mee.

The Penang Prawn Mee

This next one, I know! Hahahahaha! It's Penang's Fried Kueh Tiaw. This is the New World's version.

Penang Char Kueh Tiaw

But when you talk about Penang's Fried Kueh Tiaw, it's hard to ignore the famous Sister Char Kueh Tiaw. It's also near Macalister Street. Trust me, you can't miss it. It may be a roadside stall but there's graffiti every where with arrows pointing you to the shop!

Sister Char Kueh Tiaw

You will not have tried Penang's Char Kueh Tiaw until you've tried this plate, I think. People queue up and take numbers for this one. It costs RM 5 per plate if I'm not mistaken. In my opinion, Kuching's Go Say Lak apek cooks nicer (and much cheaper, not to mention with a much larger portion) char kueh tiaw. Nothing much to it la, I think. But still, it's famous so it should be worth a try.

At Sister's, we also tried their O Kueh (yam cake). Since we had to wait for the kueh tiaw, we might as well have something while waiting. The yam cake is done differently there. The toppings are only spread on top when one buys whereas in Kuching, the toppings are spread before it's sold. I like Kuching's version better (but hey, I'm a Kuchingnite. My taste buds belong to the catcity.)

O Kueh

Oh! I forgot about New World! There, we also tried the Ice Kacang and Cendol. First time I had ice kacang served on plates. Haha!

New World's cendol (with fruits and ice cream) on plate 

The guide who brought us there also suggested that we try the banana pancake. Quite delicious, really. =)

Banana pancake - worth a try!

On the third day, we walked the whole of Penang Road in search of one particular Cendol stall. It was drizzling but no matter. The Cendol stall was so famous that we had to go to it.

The famous cendol stall by the roadside

We walked and got lost and asked for directions and turned back (in that order, for about 3 times) before we finally found it. Penang Road has so many streets, it's almost impossible to find it without proper instructions. But now I shall tell you it's in Lebuh Keng Kwee. If you still can't find it, just follow the crowd. You can never go wrong following the crowd.

Look at the crowd!

If you ever come across a stall with people lining up for its food while there is another stall just next to it, selling the exact same thing but can only hear crickets crick, you can be 99.99% sure that the former stall's food is top class.

Quote my dad: It must be good! I cast no doubt!

And hey! This cendol stall even had customers from Singapore!

That's how famous it in - In Singapore, Penang and Blogger

PCK's not the only one. In his tiny shop, there are pictures and newspaper cuttings of the owner and artists like Adrian Pang, the Ah Teck actor from Under One Roof (what's his name?) and oh, even the Penang's current Chief Minister. How can we not brave the rain for this stall's cendol le? =P

THE Cendol

Another one of Penang Road's MUST TRY is the Duck Porridge in Lebuh Kimberley. It is one of the most marvellous food I've tried in Penang. Truthfully, I still miss it!

The stall

Penang's best are all by the roadside. Hahahaha.

They also had plenty of side orders. Like the big intestines. 

The big intestine

They also have kueh chap if you don't like porridge. But trust me, porridge is waaaayyyy nicer than the kueh chap. =P

Duck kueh chap

So here's the best porridge I've ever eaten thus far in my short, nearly-two-decade-long life. =) It's also RM 5. But it's big!

Duck porridge

You might also want to try Penang's O Zien (Oyster Omelette). I think Gurney Drive (or is it street?) has one of the nicest o zien. Well I only tried 2 places la and Gurney's was tastier and had people queuing for it so... go figure. Haha. It was nice though. Not fried like Kuching's version but still equally as awesome. =)

O zien!

And actually that's about it. The first day in Penang was our arrival. Day 2 was to New World, Day 3 to Penang Road, Day 4 to Gurney and Day 5 was departure. So regretable that that's all the food we could try. Next time, we'll be there for 5 weeks instead of 5 days. Hahahaha! Joke joke. =P

While you're in Penang, you might also want to try the nutmeg juice. Buah pala, btw. It tastes... a mixture of sweet, sour, salty? Well, the taste's indescribable. Just try it at least once. Haha!

Nutmeg juice

Before I end this food post, I'd also like to mention Klang's bak kut teh. Klang is super famous for bak kut teh that the number of famous bak kut teh stalls there is just... countless. Every stall has its special taste and being there only for a night, we only managed to try one in Pandamaran.

Pork leg

Oh it was GOOD. Kuching cannot beat. Sorry the picture's not very halal. 

Klang bak kut teh

So anyway, that's the end of this food post. If you're salivating right now, quick! Book a ticket to Penang! Haha. Or just to do it the old fashioned way and cook hot cup. Heh.

So PMR results are out. Congratulations to all. =)

I've yet to receive any reply from the only college I've applied to. =( So if that doesn't work, I'm off to serve my nation next week. Next week. How much sooner can I possibly make it sound?

Anyway, MERRY CHRISTMAS! :D:D

SMSes

My message inbox is currently on the verge of exploding. So I thought I'd do some spring cleaning. Found some rather interesting messages that dates back to last year.... Most are rather funny. Hehe.

#1: Robotics with Maxine and Andrea. Maxine complained that I was too calm for her own good. =p

#2: Amanda's complaint that once when she got sick in school, Maryann gave her a Kool Fever to stick on her forehead. It was so embarrassing for her that she had Erica stand in front of the sick room door so that no one could see her. Lol!

#3: Rockets competition period. This is a text from Maxine saying that we've got 5 parachutes and 7 sets of wings. Paranoia. =P We had like a gamillion cones btw! And about one day later was another text saying "NEED MORE WINGS!" Hahahaha!

#4: The Konsert Syukur period. Could never join in this one simply because my instrument's not needed. (sob!) So I could only be kept updated by Amanda. Who told me of the food Pn. Yii Ling bring to practice. The people who went off to have pizza. The practice which was so tiring people sleep on the couch (I said they should just be happy they were there!). All that happened while I was in school, helping the teachers to document some 70+ letters that dates over 4 years. =.="

#5: "Studying fail" period. End. Lol. This was us in the midst of "studying". =P

Me: I have a lot of work to do la! And my room's like shyt now. My books are everywhere. I can't even sit properly! Had to share one table with the computer. And you think I can find a small book?

Amanda: You think I don't have work to do? I have a stack of merit forms to fill, physics proposal, fix the rocket wings coz it came off, put prefect's night pictures for Debbie and a LOT more.... After I finish studying then I do.... I suddenly realise that we are so busy!

Me: So MANY! If you can finish that, tomorrow I congratulate you. Buy you pudding for your effort! :P

Amanda: I want nasi lemak. :P:P

Haha! And just for the record, since about 26 of July, Amanda and I have been telling each other we'd finish Bio chapter 6 "tonight". 10 days later, about the 6th of August, we were still telling each other we'd finish Bio chapter 6 that night. See how much we failed to study? Haha!

#6: Our rooms were in horrible conditions too. Speaking of horrible conditions, I have yet to clear my table. Hmm...  books are stacked up like mountains. =.="

Quote: "Books everywhere. On cupboard, iron, bed, table, floor... even under the pillow!"

#7: Oh! There was a period where Amanda wanted to diet and get a flat stomach too! Hahaha! I remember this was also the time I had Kim take out the money from the pencil case and it ended up with her coming to school the next day thinking she had money in her pencil case but there was none. So she was forced to diet together with the Voons. Hahaha!

Me: I'm not going to skip meals. I'm going to change my diet.

Kim: HAHA! Yeah yours is changing meals. ADDING into your diet (as in daily intake). LOL!

iPeng.

#8: And this is by far, the most sensible text I have ever received from Amanda.

"We better stop smsing. If not, we'll die even worse."

October exams. Lol.

#9: And this is the most kek tiok sms from Amanda. (2.20 p.m. on 17 Oct 2008)

"I got hundred!"

In Additional Maths. Twice in a year, the crazy Math Whizz!

#10: Formation of Secret. 

#11: This is from Kim.

"Shit hafta study math! =( Since when ever need to study math.... sigh."

Yea, we text a lot during exams period for no apparent reason. Guess we just needed excuses to not study. Haha.

#12: Band camp planning period. This one text sums it all. =P

"A lot to bring la. Ngaidi... become committee so sad de."

Hahaha!

And moving into this year...

It started with our oral which started out harmless... and then it got crazier and crazier... until

"Can we not make Erica pregnant? It sounds so freaking pien tai."

Lol!

Joy to you and me!

Well, first of all, SPM's over. So, HALLELUJAH! iMerdeka! :D

Marilyn's beg was right beside me throughout the last paper of Chemistry. Shouts were heard at the other side of the hall at 3.30 p.m. on 8.12.09. My class' side was just... claps. Anti-climax but oh wells. Came down and saw Mdm. Euphrasia awaiting, suggesting that after this is "more facebooking". Haha!

Btw! I just realised that there are so many teachers in Facebook! I suppose at normal times, this should be odd and we students should start feeling self conscious. But then, we ended up adding each other and sharing pictures and cracking jokes. :P Fun lor, like that. Hehe.

Oh. She even used her Facebook to remind us to study Chemistry in the midst of SPM. Lol!

After the last paper, we finally had our class dinner at Tempayan Restaurant. Food was nice but we hardly ate because we were too busy unleashing our pent-up energy on karaoke singing. Haha. No one had any karaoke disc so we were stuck with the provided disc which had a gamillion oldies songs. Not our time! :P

We either only know the chorus or we don't know the song at all. Miserable lot, us. The first song we actually completed successfully was We Are The World. King of Pop's song is still famous among the younger generation. Hehehe!

The day after the last day of SPM, we went off to Spring to watch Bulan Baru. We entered the cinema a few minutes late so the movie started off without us. We made a LOT of heads turn when about 6 of us gasped in unison, "Oh, it started!!" =.="

When Jacob tore off his shirt, I was expecting the cinema to gasp. But there wasn't any gasping. Instead, it was a long "Ooooooo!!!". Died-ed!

My friends even more embarrassing lor. When Edward went shirtless, they whispered across the aisle "Hairy chest! See his hairy chest!"

-___________-"

Haha. Then, we had a long dinner at Secret Recipe. Met Deb so we ended up staying even longer. Was at Spring for about 8 hours. :P

And the next day, we headed off to Damai. I think I'll save that for another post. :) There were just a lot of Mahjong and beach strolling. Hehe. Though I think I must be ageing real bad because one day in Spring and one evening of beach strolling = unimaginable muscle fatigue.

Anyway, it's my father's birthday today. The sun is up shining brightly the whole morning. Sun shines brightly on birthdays. It runs in the family. Hahahaha!

Happy birthday, Daddy. :)