Life

Resolutions 2012

2012-01-10T13:58:00.003+08:00

Let's see the resolutions I made in '11.

1. Reduce procrastinating. I nearly single-handedly screw up my entire future, since I studied only approximately 2 weeks before each exam, compare to my colleagues that started like months before. I seriously learned my lesson, and will not put myself through that kind of torture ever again. (yeah right)
- For the last semester, I actually caught up with the lecture notes which it's an amazing feat. Baby steps, but progress nonetheless.

2. Learn to apologise more often when I'm in the wrong. I learned that I'll never apologise last time and just make it up to the person in other ways. In 2010, I did say sorry more often, but not enough I guess.
- Not enough still I guess. But I'm getting there eventually :)

3. Never trust someone that easily, give a longer time frame before start disclosing secrets to them. I'll say I trusted some of my friends wrongly by telling them secrets I never told other people before, and now we are as good as strangers.
- I did learned how to spill my beans lesser to unfamiliar people, so yay! Another resolution done.

4. Master my DSLR/micro four third and be a semi-pro photographer :)
- I semi-mastered it, but there's still a lot to learn which I gave up. Knowing the basics should be sufficed since I'm not planning to be a professional photographer.

5. Blog more frequently, at least twice a month. I like writing and studying medicine shall not deter me from doing so. My grammar and vocabulary really deteriorated.
- I failed very badly for this, nuff said.

6. Improve my driving skills, don't get much opportunity to drive usually (only three cars in the family, for mum, dad and bro). Never side park before as well, which I shall soon attempt.
- Obviously I did improved since I'm driving more nowadays. However, my driving skills will pour down the drain whenever my mum sits beside me, all the nerves just racked up. And I can't drive properly in a stressful condition. Still a lot to learn!

7. Be healthier, at least go for evening walks once a MONTH. The only walks I ever do is in shopping malls.
- I don't even know why I bother to add this resolution when I know it's impossible for me.

8. Make an effort to online my MSN more often and initiate a conversation with friends to keep in touch.
- Erm, I barely on MSN the whole of '11. But I'm always available at whatsapp and facebook :/. I didn't really keep in touch much frankly, so I failed this too.

9. Sleep lesser during lectures. Almost every single lecture, I'll fall asleep and just basically throwing my parent's money down the drain by doing so. I will reduce my sleeping capacity, and vow to fall asleep a maximum of only three times a week during lectures.
- This resolution is such a joke. For my last semester, I have resorted to not attending any lectures at all, the number of lectures I attended can count with my 10 fingers, not kidding.

10. Avoid waking up past 3 pm during holidays or weekends. I can sleep all the way to 6pm if there's no alarm. Lastly, do not sleep later than 6am, and try to sleep earlier before 2am as often as possible.
- epic fail.

4/10. I need to make more realistic resolutions that I can fulfill.

Anyway, new year, new start. Resolutions for '12 -

1. Make sure my marimo ball, Money survives a year.

2. Use facial cleanser every night before I sleep. I just use water usually cause can't be bothered.

3. Be more prepared and ready for class. I'm going to enter my clinical years soon and will be dealing with real patients, so I really need to be on my toes at all times.

4. Learn how to bake. Having an oven in Seremban!

5. Sleep before 1am during days where by I have 8am classes. And try to sleep earlier if possible at times.

6. Avoid showering after midnight.

7. Walk in the park at LEAST once a month. (repeating the resolution from last year).

8. Do laundry more often and not because I'm running out of clothes.

9. Wash my car at least once every three months.

10. Blog at least once a month!

Already have a feeling that I won't be able to fulfill some of the resolutions :/ but shall remain positive.

2011-12-24T00:09:00.000+08:00

Do not make a promise unless you can keep it.

Mid-breath

2011-10-31T01:29:00.004+08:00

Can't stand going to my blog anymore and seeing the same old post again at the top of the page :(. So, anyway, short update!

Woohoo, seriously been studying like mad for the past few weeks. Even showering and eating seem like a waste of time at times. I start studying the moment I woke up till my bedtime :(. Sigh, already been having this kind of lifestyle for a month and a half, another more to go. Although I do procrastinate in between and relax with TV series, it still felt like I did nothing for the past month except studying :(.

I have a feeling I'm going to have a mental breakdown after my Semester 5 test on 11/11 (great date for an exam that's for sure, memorable, and also my second year anniversary), cause that's when the real horror will begin. I'll need to cramp in 9 systems, or everything I'd learned in the past 1.5 years into just a mere 2 weeks for the final BIG exam before clinical school! Tell me how is this even possible? Already had multiple mental breakdowns, involving overactive lacrimal glands function at times, so I'm not sure how am I going to survive the 2 weeks of study break.

Anyway, a list of stuff I plan to blog once exam's over :)

1. My awesome 20th birthday
2. Pui Mun, Kok, YanXia, Shirly and Kevin's birthday (wow, that's a lot)
3. My 2nd year anniversary :D (which haven't happen yet for now)
4. And all the fun stuffs I'll be doing once exam's over!

Can't wait to start planning on trips once exam's over :). And now, back to studying!

It's 5.30am.

2011-09-01T05:31:00.000+08:00

I'm still awake at this ungodly hour, tossing and turning for the umpteen time on my bed, and I'm not the least bit exhausted yet. I just want to say that euphoria can really keep the energy bar running!

Smitten? Beyond.

Phnom Penh

2011-06-22T17:19:00.017+08:00

Very back-dated post since I'd been procrastinating blogging for so long. The details are almost a fuzzy blur, but shall make do with what my memory still retain.

Day 1

Anyway, Phnom Penh is the capital city of Cambodia, so obviously the king lives there. I can't recall what's the name of the building but it's the royal hall whereby the king will have his coronation ceremony.

Pictures aren't allow inside the royal hall, so this is a closer view of the building. The lion symbolizes wealth, which I proceed to stroke it, no harm in doing so anyway.

This what the royal mount station looks like. The king will proceed here if he ever feels the need to mount on an elephant to bring him around the royal grounds.

This is one of the replica of the instruments needed during the coronation ceremony.

For females working in the royal grounds, they're supposed to wear the sash with their outfits depending on the days they're working. A different colour for each day of the week.

The background is the entrance to the Silver Pagoda, where the floor is apparently made of real silver. However, it's more of a dull silver grey now that centuries of chemical reaction with the air had worn it out. Visitors are not allow to take any pictures inside of it though. And, the birdhouse you will assume in the picture is actually a spirit house where the deceased dwells.

This is the tree that Buddha was born! Not this tree in particular, but the type of tree.

White elephant, long extinct.

Next stop, Central Market. Opening hours is when the sun rises and close at sun set. So, on darker days, it will be closed earlier. Place to flock to for souvenirs and fake branded goods.

Almost all the restaurants at Phnom Penh has wifi, probably to attract tourists. I was pleasantly surprise to see cendol being served when I had my dinner, and it was rather good.

Day 2

After a hearty buffet breakfast at the hotel, we went to the Toul Sleng musuem, or also known as the killing musuem. During the Khmer rouge regime, this high school was transformed into a prison where people were captured and tortured as suspected spies even when they're clearly innocent. Even children and women didn't escape the horror.

Barbaric regime.

One of the many torture tools. It used to be a place for exercising but the troops managed to convert it to inflict pain. The victims will be tied with their hands behind the back and the rope attached to the hook in the picture. Then, the victims will be reportedly pulled up and down and when they're almost unconscious, their heads will be dunk into the pot filled with water.

I didn't dare to take lots of pictures here because many people died here, and can feel an eerie aura just by being there itself. The prisoners only live by 3 scoops of diluted porridge a day, inhumane. Most of them either died of starvation or being torture.

The barbed wires on every floor was installed after a female prisoner escaped and jumped off for a more merciful death.

After that, we went to the outskirts of town to the Killing Field. For prisoners that survived the torture, they will be brought here to be killed instead. The stupa at the background was erected to honour the deceased and their restless souls. The whole stupa was arranged to the top with shelves of different type of bones they managed to find from the killing field.

They were so many bones in the field that new ones are found everyday, and I accidentally step on a tooth as well. I'm sorry :(

At the killing field, there were mass graves all over. All of it being just a hole in the ground where hundreds of people were killed in each of it.

Babies were beat against this palm tree till they died.

This is just a small portion of the field, with all the holes being mass graves.

The executioners thought of everything, even how to drown out the victims' screams.

After the gloomy morning, finally we went to a different environment. The Russian Market was not bad, quite a lot of metal souvenirs to be bought and Cambodian silk scarves.

I finally managed to enter my first casino ever although I'm still underage, Naga World! It's opened by a Malaysian and anyone can just enter, no one bother to examine how old you are.

In the early evening, we went to the hill where Phnom Penh was discovered. A little trivia - it's called Phnom Penh because a lady with the name Penh founded some Buddha statues at this hill (Phnom in Khmer language), and they decided to start a civilization here.

The giant clock really works!

This is the victory monument in remembrance of the Vietnamese troops that helped the country to defeat the Khmer Rouge.

Anyone is hungry and up for a little snack? Unhatched duck eggs, a common sight at Phnom Penh.

No way I'll ever try this.

During the early evening, we took a ferry ride across the Mekong river to see how the even more impoverished citizens live.

And that's the last day of my Cambodia trip, and this is my last dinner there. Tom yam soup as usual, which accompanied almost every meal I'd at Cambodia. Theirs were always less spicy compare to the Malaysian variant.

Kangkung, also known as morning glory leaves. Fresh and crunchy as always, since it's one of the staple food there.

As Cambodia is also famous for one of Asia's biggest freshwater lake, Tonle Sap (didn't manage to go cause it's low tide season) the fish there was undoubtedly fresh. Deep fried with flour until really cripsy, my kind of food :)

The last place we managed to go before departing the next day for our flight back to Malaysia was the Phnom Penh night market. Everything there was a steal, like this stall here. Three pair of short jeans for only 5USD, making it around RM15 only! How do they earn?
\

The end of my Cambodia trip =)

Siam Reap

2011-06-22T00:22:00.008+08:00

I'd been away for a blissful 5days 4nights trip to the Kingdom of Cambodia with my mum and grandma, and I managed to explore two of its states there - Siam Reap and Phnom Penh. I shall get straight to the point and blog about my days at Siam Reap first. Earlier, I was having a hard time sorting out which photos to upload since they were so many things I wanted to talk about, but I shall settle for the few pictures below :)

Day 1

Touchdown at beautiful Siam Reap at early noon! Since it's not the capital state, the airport here is rather plain. No wifi, no air-cond and no eateries, but it has its own touch of quaintness.

With my grandma, and it was rather windy.

Rice Cake - Cambodian's local delicacy. It's made in all kinds of shapes and sizes, but all tasted downright queer to me.

Amok Fish, had this almost every day at Cambodia, since it was rather common there. It always come in cute little pandan leaf boxes with a small slice of fish in it, and drenched in some green gravy. I had no idea what it was but it tasted quite like rendang.

Snails/Escargots - not a common sight usually for buffet lunch but that didn't warrant a try from me, I'm never the adventurous type. I'll stick to chicken, please and thank you.

During the genocidal incident at Cambodian many years ago, the remnants of the deceased, skulls particularly were collected all around Siam Reap and stored in this tower as a remembrance of the fatal incident.

Cambodia is famous for their scarfs, so the one decked around my neck was a complimentary gift as part of the tour.

Stupa is where the ashes of the deceased are stored in according to Cambodian culture. However, only the more well-off can afford a small plot of land to build the stupa. And how lavishly painted the stupa and the size of it also represents wealth.

As part of the tour, I get to visit D' Artisan Angkor as well. All the handicraft workers here are disabled or have some form of deformities. Albeit that, their artwork were really good. Case in point is the picture below which was painted on wood.

Ta Prohm temple

Inclusive in the tour package was an hour massage, with the choice of either foot or body. I opted for the foot massage cause I'm not comfortable with the idea of someone massaging my body. The one hour of foot massage, with the last 15 minutes ending as a neck massage was pure bliss. If only I could live like this everyday...

That's my feet!

A famed tourist hangout spot at night at Siam Reap is Pub Street. Along the whole stretch of streets at both sides, there are tons of al fresco food joint/pub outlet. For a tourist trap place, the pricing of the food here were surprisingly affordable as Cambodian living standards are still low.

After a walk up and down the street, we decided to settle for one of the posher-looking food joint at Pub Street. Where else can you get a lobster for approximately only RM18 (upon conversion) with two side dishes of corn on a cob and a barbecued potato? The salad bar here is free flow too as long as you're a paying customer.

The mode of transport around Cambodia is the famous Tuk Tuk. The Cambodians are really diligent and honest workers. An example is the Tuk Tuk driver in the photo which was our designated driver to and from Pub Street. After dropping us there, he asked us how long we will take and he promised to be back before then. With that, he left us there without even collecting half of his payments yet. If we got bored of Pub Street and decided to leave earlier with another Tuk Tuk, his fees will be voided but yet he trusted us, complete strangers.

The Tuk Tuk driver that excitedly posed for this photo without any of us asking.

Day 2

The main highlight of the entire trip is the 800 years old Angkor Wat. The whole temple is surrounded by a moat, with a pathway leading to it and an exit pathway. I first knew of this place from every high school student nightmare, History text book. I always assumed it to be like another typical temple from the book description, the size aspect that is. To my surprise, the temple circumference is measured in kilometres instead. It took us two hours just to briefly walk through all the levels of the temple, with some pit stops for photography.

This is just the back gate to enter Angkor Wat.

After passing the gate, I still need to walk for five minutes before I reached the temple itself. Blazing hot sun shall not deter me from exploring the temple :)

Obligatory tourist shot.

There were lots of monkeys in front of the temple. I was clutching to my belongings tightly at first with the initial sightings of these primates, a classical conditioning I would say. Most monkeys I usually encounter at temples will chase after you and attempt to get away with whatever you're holding, particularly if it's food. This is the first exception I encountered as the monkeys were quiet and good-mannered and just sit quietly at the floor and stared at passers-by.

Aww, cute and chubby.

One of the many picturesque view inside the temple. Ancient ruins or whatnot, you can't help but to feel awed.

There are three levels within the temple. The highest being Nirvana, which is the highest state of enlightenment a Buddhist person can ever achieve and closest to God. The fastest way to Nirvana is to climb the steep stairs all the way up to the final level. Luckily, construction helped tremendously to ease the process of achieving Nirvana by the wooden steps built over the ancient tiny steps. The ancient steps can only fit half a foot-step at a time, and way steeper.

I'm ready to achieve Nirvana, the fast way without years of meditation!

A last group shot at Angkor Wat before leaving it, truly a breathtaking place for its grandeur architectural design, and literally breathtaking for its size and many steps.

Another obligatory tourist spot as well cause the moat induced a reflection of the Angkor Wat that can only be seen through the camera lens and not the naked eye.

The whole day of itinerary was packed with sight-seeing of ancient temple ruins and the picture below is one of the four gates (north, south, east, west) to gain access to the different temples at the Angkor region.

With my mum :)

Although my skin was basking in the golden sun earlier, sadly it's greeted by a heavy downpour by early noon, so we adjourned to lunch first whilst waiting for the rain to come to a drizzle. At lunch, we thought we were duped at first as we were promised 'Baby Lobsters', and we didn't get what we were hoping for. Instead, what we were served with were three shrimps instead with a rather hard shell (though much softer than the real lobster shell). It turned out that the Cambodians referred to the hard-shelled prawns as baby lobsters.

'Baby Lobsters' and Amok Fish with a side serving of rice.

After lunch, the sky cleared again and we headed for our next destination - Ta Phrom temple. Fun fact - The movie 'Tomb Raider' was filmed here with Angelina Jolie as the leading lady. Another fun fact is there are trees growing on top of the temple roofs throughout and roots encircling and wrapping around the temple. At this spot, we were greeted by dark clouds once again and the short sunny period was just a deception. Thus, I was too busy seeking for shelter most of the time and didn't get to take much scenic photos.

The tree grew on top of the temple for hundreds of years without any soil.

The next temple in destination - Elephant temple. The walls of the temple are engraved with these elephant statues that always present itself in triplets.

Nearby the area, next stop was the Leper King Temple. The only memorable thing I remembered from this temple is there's a bridge connecting all the way to the Tonle Sap River. The bridge can be seen from the picture, the one I'm standing next to.

The view from the Leper King Temple is a few small temples arranges in a row all right across. There are total of twelve of these tiny temples that are supposed to represent the twelve zodiacs.

My legs were aching badly, so I just take a shot of the Zodiac temples from faraway.

One of the best temples of the day after Angkor Wat would be the Bayon temple in my opinion. It's much smaller than Angkor Wat, but I would say it has more aesthetic value than it. There are 64 pillars throughout the temple, all with a face of Buddha smiling on all four sides of it.

My hair was drenched earlier from rain water :/

The last temple before calling it a day is a temple up the hill. I can't recall the temple's name cause Khmer language is not really my forte. The walk up the hill was bearable, not too steep although it took about half an hour just to reach the top. At this point, I was using an umbrella as a walking stick as it had been ages since I walked so much in a day. The final temple have the steepest steps of all (as well as narrowest) and the most level as well, five in total. I gave up halfway through the second level as I was fearing for my life if I fall as the steps are getting steeper each level, almost 80 degrees inclination.

This must be what mountain climbing feels like.

Nothing beats a chilled blend of watermelon after a whole day of exploring temples at the Angkor region. Fruits are cheap, sweet and fresh at Cambodia so their juices never disappoint! :)

I ordered a glass of watermelon juice for almost every dinner I had in Cambodia.

The last night at Siam Reap, I was feeling like a typical tourist and decided to wear a tropical beach dress I bought for only RM12, which I bargained all the way from RM24. And, the foot massage at Siam Reap Night Market was at a stellar price of only 1USD (approximately RM3) for 20 minutes where they will washed your feet for you as well in a basin of water. If foot massage is this cheap in M'sia, I will make sure I get one every single day.

There's fish massage also for only RM6 for half an hour, and a free can of coke or beer to accompany the experience. Seriously, how do they even earn?

Day 3

What's an exotic country without some exotic food for sale? Deep-fried cockroaches anyone? There were many stalls selling all kinds of deep fried insects at the outskirts of Siam Reap, on the way to Phnom Penh (the capital city). As expected, the closest encounter I had with these creepy crawlies was this photo only.

Gah.

The bus trip to Phnom Penh from Siam Reap took a freaking 7 hours (although there's a 30 minutes break in between). The best part is the distance was only 340km. Do the math and you can estimate how fast the speed of the bus was on the highway. The highway has only two lanes only as well, with each going opposite directions and it was rather rundown so the whole journey was very bumpy due to stones and potholes. All in all, a one of a kind experience that I will never want to repeat.

The bus company provided free food and a bottle of water as well to ease the journey. Not to mention, there was a female bus attendant dressed in air stewardess-like uniform that announced in the front of the bus from time to time how long more the arduous journey will take.

Next stop/blog post, Phnom Penh :)

Food hunt up North

2011-05-14T21:05:00.015+08:00

So, I made a wise decision to make full use of my one week break (which should be a study break instead seeing my bleak situation) to eat till my heart's content at Penang. However, I don't regret it a single bit, since this will probably be my last chance to enjoy as next semester will be a killer, and hopefully I'll come out alive with minimal brain damage.

Jelutong

The famous Jelutong burger nearby the post office with a freaking long waiting time of approximately half an hour. This is the Papa Special, comes with two chicken patties, cheese and egg.

Looks bigger in real-life.

New World Park

And probably my favourite food haunt at Penang, the food court at New World Park. Some of my stomach's haul - yam with sprinkled fried onions and chili suace.

Watery steamed otak-otak variant that can only be found at Penang. The one I'm used to is the barbequed version, more solidified and elongated presentation. This is nice in a completely different way but can't consume in large quantities or get bored of the taste rather quickly.

Pai Tee or also known as Top Hat, which if I'm not wrong is a traditional Nyonya dish.

Best oochien ever! Very crispy :) but not cheap.

Ice kacang with a dollop of ice cream to cool off before leaving New World Park.

Kapitan

Quite a good mamak, my first in Penang but very slow service. Maggie goreng.

Cheese naan with tandoori chicken. The naan is very thin, quite unlike the thick ones I'm used to, but a pleasant change.

Tandoori chicken again with nasi briyani. First time trying nasi briyani *insert background gasping noise* and it's quite fragrant, but rather dry if not for the curry.

Winter Warmers (Queensbay Mall)

I'll say not worth the money to come here for the food since it's rather exorbitant for the quality. However, the tea seems quite worthwhile from what my observation of most tables.

My pan-fried dory. Not bad, but nothing spectacular and I think I can get a yummier version of this with the same price elsewhere.

Someone else ordered this but I took a picture to serve as a warning to prevent anyone from ever ordering this. Pricey garlic bread with too much garlic on top that you'll probably scare away all vampires a mile away.

Qbean

Soya ice cream, I liked this so much that I went back another time for this. My initial urge to get this was propelled by the soya ice cream I tasted once in Singapore. The Qbean version pales in comparison but still quite good nonetheless.

From My Bag

Completely unrelated to the blog post's context, I shall now introduce you to Bean Boozler by Jelly Belly, a packet of jellybeans I bought from Singapore. It comes in ten colours, each with two flavours of its own, one being good and another being downright nasty. They have nasty flavours like dog food, centipede, barf etc (which I'm not kidding you when I'm saying that it's too horrible to even swallow it).

If my memory serves me well, this is booger and mouldy cheese.

Random Roadside Popiah Stall at Seberang Perai

Tasted normal, nothing much to say.

Ananda Bawal

It's a high-end mamak shop with nice ambience, and the sea is just right across the road. I like how our drinks were served, although the cups looked a bit like toilet urns.

First time I'd ever tried roti bom and it's really good, can't believe I didn't try it sooner. Rich condensed milk enclosed inside :)

Cheese naan and tandoori chicken again, wondering when will I be bored of it?

The mighty towering Roti Tisu in pink syrup! I'll say the best roti tisu I'd ever tasted to date.

Some free papadam on the house. (with some parts of it being uncooked)

Charlie Brown Cafe (Straits Quay)

This is one of the most expensive drinks I'd ever ordered - Franklin Frappe. Cost Rm16.50 overall which I can go to Starbucks already and order a Venti size frappe already. To be fair, the frappe at Charlie Brown was quite good, just that the price tag is too hefty. However, the Snoopy-themed decorations of the cafe made the price more bearable.

James Foo

My favourite western food place since the food is good and the price is cheap! A giant glass of watermelon juice and best of all, it's not diluted.

Another reason to love this place, it's non-halal, making it one of the few rare places in Malaysia to get pork chop. I ordered the Hawaiian Pork Chop with cheese and ham :)

A Mamak Store Nearby James Foo Which I Forgot The Name

Another variant of roti tisu, this time with condensed milk. It'll be better if the base of the roti tisu is crispy as well.

And, another varient of Roti Bom. This one came with condensed milk and egg inside.

Crepe Cottage (Gurney promenade)

Prepare to be patient if you ever come here! Long waiting time but it's really worth it. I ordered the Mango Cup without fail everytime I come here. The mango ice cream is homemade, so you can't get this anywhere else. The interior of the crepe cup is lined with honey, which goes really well with the cream.

Roadside Stall nearby Island Glades

Peanut soup! I used to consume this a lot when I was young and loved it to bits. However, this version seems to be too watery for my liking but the peanuts were good.

Lorong Selamat

I know this is clearly a tourist trap since a normal plate of char kuey teow with egg cost RM 7.50. Albeit that, I'm willing to scoop out the money cause I find this the best char kuey teow ever! The prawns were huge and juicy, the flat noodles very flavourful and not oily and the whole plate was just perfect in my bias point of view!

I miss this the most from Penang :(

T.G.I Fridays (Queensbay)

I know it's odd to eat this at Penang but food is still food. Boneless buffalo wings! I know why the Americans are so crazy over this already, cause I can just munch on this for the entire day.

Friday's Shrimps. Crispy juicy shrimps on a bed of fries :)

Food Court At Unknown Location (short-term memory loss)

Very cheap and good seafood cooked in Bali style (as they proclaimed) with the total bill coming up to RM 32.80 only and two stuffed beyond brim customers. Clams, spicy with a sweet tinge to it.

Stingray marinated in whatever sauce it is. I literally have to force myself to finish this cause the fish was just too huge for two person to consume.

Sotong! My favourite among all the dishes and the spiciest as well too.

And with the last seafood meal, it commences the end of my food trip at Penang. I shall end this blog post with a cute picture I found of someone's drawing :)

Disclaimer: The best food still comes from Melaka! :)

Pent-up frustrations

2011-04-19T01:11:00.003+08:00

I just spent more than an hour wrestling with my stupid printer so that I can skimp on the printer ink, by editing the PDF file to reduce the amount of printing by a total of 40 slides. And, as usual, I'm way behind my studies as well! Already into the ninth week of semester 4, and I just only started studying the first week today, so I'm inside the rice cooker once again.

At this point, I'm starting to fill up with more self-loathing on my under achievements in life. I no longer excel in anything I do, I'm introverted and have the stamina of a jellyfish. Studies used to be my only strength, something I used to be immensely proud of, but now reduced to nothing but a dilapidated stage of mere average. I have no drive to push myself to study, so I have no one to blame but myself, as procrastinate just continue to gnaw deeper into me, which will permanently be embedded.

Not counting the fact, I'd been quite depressed, or a more apt word, disappointed with how people are turning out in my life. It comes to a stage in life where the number of friends I can turn to in my time of need have reduced to nothing more than what my right hand can count. And at times, I feel quite pretentious in greeting people I despise, for the sake of not making any enemies. Who needs enemies when all my friends are turning into strangers one at a time?

I am feeling very let down by many people in my life, some I still need time till now to adjust to. And thanks to the latest addition, I never expect you to let me down, but you did. And it' stupid of me to cry over some trivial issues, but being ditched by a friend really gets to me, as I'm very emotional by nature as well. I'm really disappointed in you, and I misjudged you as my close friend.

It's been so long since I blog like this, but this reminded me back when this blog just started. That time, I always enjoyed typing long-winded post like this cause no one can judge me, as it's my prerogative for self-expression at my own platform.

Anyway, done with the tears, and done with the sporadic ramblings, the blog never fails to make me feel better each time after every word churn!

P/S: And thanks to you, for never fail in cheering me up :)

Sheer Mathness!

2011-04-16T16:45:00.008+08:00

It started as a harmless status posted by Sherms.

thursdays are usually my pancake days, but today i don't feel like making any. SOMETHING IS VERY WRONG. too much math last night.

Comments unrelated to Maths was removed :)

Flight de Fantaisie

2011-04-11T21:10:00.013+08:00

Prom was way better than expected. Luckily that we managed to secure a table in time, left two tables only by the time we set our mind straight on going :)!

Here's the make-believe limousine for the night.

I'm starting to fall in love with Audi, shall work hard in the future and hopefully buy one on my own.

My picturesque corsage, love how all the colours go together. Specially pre-ordered, and first time receiving live flowers. *beams*

Now, it's all dried up and wrinkly!

Upon early arrival, there's only one obligatory act that all girls should do at a formal event.

It's still early, so time to sip on some yummy fruit punch that the waiters were serving at the lounge area outside the ballroom.

I was contemplating whether should I wear my mum's long black gown for prom for quite a number of days before deciding to go with it, was quite reluctant at first since I was worried I'll be overdressed (how wrongly proven was I). My final decision was propelled with the fact that my mum will be so happy seeing me wearing her dress, and also I'm broke :).

I barely spent at all for this prom. I learned to do my hair from youtube and shoes was a pair of black stilettos I bought two years ago for college prom but didn't wear it in the end (walking in it was an arduous task). Oh, and can't resist to mention this, got free BB cream sample from Skin Food so I used it as well :)

Driver and date for the night!

I can't believe I put my life in the hands of this driver. This is the person that lost his first P license from forgetting to renew it after it expired for a year, thus voided (Yes, he drove for a year with an expired license). His second P license expired as well a few weeks back which he realised in time and drove to JPJ to renew it, a day before prom. However, he drove for two days with an expired license and without a P sticker on the car windscreen, by some dumb luck that there's no road block.

The design of the ballroom was very dreamy-like, fitting the theme to a T.

And there's purple smoke spewing everywhere.

This was undoubtedly my favourite picture of the night!

Perfect lighting.

Our table - no. 52 situated right at the back, directly in front of the sound system.

Pui Mun is the girl reaching for the tealight candles in the picture. She's the one that told me to make full use of my height and wear a long gown, cause not many people get the chance to do so *insert giant grin*.

The highlight of the prom, the food! To start with, some bread (looks more like a potato) with butter. I asked for it for two more times after my initial one cause I was beyond famished.

And I was an uncouth sight while eating the bread. My brain was deprived of glucose so I proceeded to dip the whole bread in butter and just bite like a wild savage beast. Other people were slowly cutting the bread into fine dainty pieces and spread the butter on it before using a fork to eat.

Finally, the meal officially begun, and I was in agony seeing other tables being served way before us. Lesson of the day: Book your prom table earlier.

Cream of wild mushroom with truffle whipped cream.

Very rich and creamy.

Brine supreme chicken breast, with chorizo sausages and spanish risotto, mushroom and duck liver quenelles, and herbs cress. Fancy name indeed.

The chicken breast was nice, perfectly seasoned and very tender. The duck liver, which I'm curious as to why they don't just name it foie gras (probably it's not force-fed), was awful. I spit it out within one bite, it's soft and mushy and taste like brain (as what I imagine brain would taste like). The spanish risotto was not to my liking as well, tasted queer. Sigh, maybe my taste buds are just not meant for eating any gourmet delicacies.

Passion fruit cheesecake with passion fruit coulis.

Passion fruit and cheese, who would have thought this combination goes so well together? Mmm.

When the intense passage of edible substances down the oesophagus was done, time to fool around with my camera at the escalator!

Tons of effort had been put in to capture this moment, it required stability and precision of the photographer and all the models had to go up and down the escalator a few times. Not an easy feat.

The dance floor was open to the public upon coronation of the prom king and queen. So, this is me attempting to make a fool out of myself and pretending to pose for a slow dance for the sake of a picture.

I can't dance to save my life, dead serious about this.

A picture with my ex-college classmates. 0801APM1, you shall remain a legacy.

Batch photo, ME209!

I'm at the top right hand corner, just slightly below that area :)

Since JW Marriott Hotel is just right across Pavilion, we headed there to search for our very own cool afterparty, which sadly was nothing but a flop. We sat at Starbucks for a few minutes, then declared it to be too boring and left. Our alternative was a mamak store, and it's definitely the first time anyone ever dressed so grand there.

I was sitting down cause at this point, my feet were screaming in pain for mercy already. After this picture, I decided to just walk on concrete pavement barefooted, felt much better.

Chicken Hot Pot

2011-04-06T20:04:00.008+08:00

Oh look, a hot pot!

So, what is this you may ask? I have no idea until I tried it as well. It's my second time at Kuchai Lama area and I spotted this Changqing Hot Pot shop the first time there! The aroma was so captivating and everyone there seemed to enjoy the food a lot.

With some miracle, Jiunn Liang managed to borrow a car from his uncle, so we headed to try this at last! We opted for the medium-sized chicken hot pot and you can adjust the spiciness range you desire. Between none, mild, normal and spicy, we chose mild and it was just at the right amount of spicy kick!

Mmmm. Succulent and juicy chicken meat, bursting with flavour with every bite, infused with thick gravy!

The shop also serves a variety of other meat like fish, beef and pork! And sadly to say, from some other blogs I just read to find out the shop's name (since I can't read chinese), that there's more to meet the eye about the pot. After you finish, you can order some vegetables (ala raw steamboat style) and the waitress will pour soup into the pot, and it transforms into a steamboat instead, with all the rich gravy still intact ready to seep into the soup. *sigh*

The driver with his so appropriately named shirt :)

The super annoying driver that got impatient while I was trying to take picture of the hot pot, cause he was rushing to sink his teeth into it!

And I finally satisfied my Snowflake cravings after so long! Went Pavillion in the afternoon with Pui Mun and had it there.

There's another Snowflake at Kuchai Lama, so how is it possible to resist? As always, Soya Ice with the usual works.

If only I have a car, I'll be obese in just a month, so many food places to try out in KL!

Elcerdo @ Changkat Bukit Bintang

2011-03-23T20:05:00.000+08:00

It's still The Pig's birthday, and second part of his birthday celebration was scheduled as well. Beforehand, a slight detour in the afternoon to meet up with two of his Penang friends for the first time.

At Spaghetti Grill :). Seriously their lunch promo is a steal, only RM9.90 for a main dish and refillable soft drinks. The food is good always as well, since it's managed by the same company like Chili's, but expect the complete opposite service-wise.

The Pig with his friends. As usual, I'm always tongue-tied and introverted whenever I meet new people.

His fifth cake for his birthday!

Someone is really getting old.

We ordered this Fish Bites to share among us. Coated in soft and light batter and fried to golden crisp!

The Pig's stone oven-baked spicy dory pizza. Mediocre, tasted rather queer.

My awesome fish and chips. I never fail to order this whenever I visit Spaghetti Grill. Best fish and chips so far that I'd ever tasted.

And now, let's adjourned to the second part of the birthday celebration I had in store for him. I been hunting down good food places via the web for an entire week, where I finally settled for Elcerdo at Changkat Bukit Bintang. I read approximately twenty over blogs gushing on the food here and I'm sold. Reservations were made and money was withdrawn since the price is rather hefty.

Elcerdo, with its motto "Head to Tail Eating" specialises in all things pork. Even the interior decoration was not an exception. It's a semi-fine dining place with its posh interior of all things pig and impeccable customer service. I wanted to go around the restaurant to take pictures of all the pig decor but decided that I should at least behave decently in the swanky environment.

Here's the wall where our table was at.

Asparagus soup on the house - very rich and thick in flavour. My only complaint would be it being too small.

Fluffy warm bread, complimentary as well. Rather tasty and not bland at all. Strong hint of homemade butter on it, but I could be wrong. Goes really well with the warm soup.

Please focus on the glass of water in the picture. It cost RM5.50, so avoid saying yes if the waiter enquire if you need any sky juice. Both Jiunn Liang and I ordered our respective drinks already, so when the waiter asked us about this, we said yes assuming that it's free of charge. This is the problem of eating in an expensive joint, waiters will not tell you the price as they assume all of their customers are filthy rich.

The drink that I ordered, named appropriately Love at First Try. It's made using tea as the base with some mild delicate fruity flavour and slightly sweetened. Very refreshing and live up to its name.

RM8.90

The Pig ordered Hot Chocolate. It's not the typical instant sachet kind, so it's good.

RM9.50

Here's our appetizer for the night, the sauce accompanying it that is. I didn't really fancy the sauce but The Pig liked it a lot. It's sourish, and I never have an affinity for sour stuffs before.

All the sausages at Elcerdo are handmade so it's not the typical run of the mill frozen dogs we're used to. We opted for the German Mini Sausages. It's wrapped with bacon (how can you not love bacon?) on a skewer, and served with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. It's both of our first time trying sauerkraut which is basically a German dish of sour cabbage, not bad actually.

Rm28

The sausages were really good that's for sure, a word of advice is to consume while it's piping hot instead of attempting to take lots of picture of it in different angles like me.

The Pig busy dismantling the juicy bacon bits from the stick for easy consumption.

This is the reason why I'll return to Elcerdo for sure without fail although the price tag will weigh down my wallet, Iberico Spare Ribs with Pineapple Salsa. Describing this dish with any adjectives or singing in high praises about it will still be an understatement on how truly orgasmic this dish was. An interesting trivia, the Iberian pig is black or grey in colour and it is very active so it has way leaner meat than its pig counterparts.

Rm 68.00 (The ribs are worth every single penny of it, all 7 of them)

The Pig approving of the dish.

First time ever I experienced gnawing on ribs like a beaver! The meat was marinated and seasoned perfectly, no sign of fats whatsoever on it and a burst of flavour accompanied every bite. My favourite part was the meat being stuck at the back of the teeth from biting it, and when I used my tongue to sweep the meat down my throat, the flavour was still intact!

Sigh. I'd been craving for this dish like crazy ever since last Saturday immediately after the meal. Definitely not a meal I can afford on a frequent basis.

Observe the card in the picture, well I made it. I gave it to The Pig at the beginning of the meal alongside with the orange present box. The catch to open the present was to guess what was it inside. A lot of clues were given throughout the meal but The Pig was completely clueless.

When he finally opened it, he was rendered speechless as he thought I gave him a hole puncher, the box whereby I kept his present. Then, it suddenly struck him that the present was too light to be a puncher and he quickly opened the box. Inside the box was a wire with an USB port, and if only I thought of recording his expression, it will be a video of the most clueless person on earth. I can see that he was busy thinking up excuses to give me on how much he liked the present but words completely failed him.

At that moment was when I took out his real birthday present. And for the third time, he was surprised, but in a good way this time. I bought him an external hard disk enclosed in a pouch I sew myself with a car on it since he has a thing for luxury cars. A cartoon car is still a car, so don't judge :). The wire earlier was the extension for the hard disk.

How can a meal be complete without dessert? We ordered the Werner's Special since it's one of their signature dessert. The waiter was thoughtful enough to split it into two portions for easy consumption without being asked to. It's made of wild raspberry sherbet that the chefs made it themselves, with lots of fresh raspberries and strawberries for the first layer. The second layer was vanilla sherbet I reckon with manga sauce. The final layer was chocolate mousse! Very rich and diabetic-inducing dessert, but I loved it since I have a penchant for all things sweet.

I shall now certify both of us as connoisseurs of pork meat.

The total bill came up to be Rm 165.20.

Two shots of vodka with lemon to aid digestion (on the house) before we hit the road.

Elcerdo did not seem that posh from the outside, but inside was another story. Next time, I must try their suckling pig whereby it's a tradition to cut it with a plate and then break the plate afterwards into a barrel.

Birthday Surprise for The Pig

2011-03-21T19:51:00.019+08:00

On 18th march, the eve of The Pig's birthday, a plan was already in motion to give him the greatest birthday surprise ever! However, due to his own impatience, he almost tossed the whole plan down the drain. I was making last minute arrangements of the surprise party and spent a tad long time discussing it with Pui Mun. I was going to ask her help to buy some balloons although she can't make it to the party, but decided against it last minute.

In the process, I kept The Pig waiting and we got into a rather heated argument which led to me blurting out that I was asking Pui Mun to buy something for him. Rest assure, I managed to turn my slip of words into the plan as well.

Going according to plan, the naive unsuspecting Pig just assumed the Chinese dinner together that night was his birthday celebration. This was just the distraction to divert him off-course from the real surprise at midnight. Besides serving as a commotion, it gave me freedom to approach our/his friends openly in front of him to discuss about the midnight surprise. He being his gullible self, assumed that I was asking them out for the dinner and left me to mind my own business.

Scrumptious Chinese food (with the exception of the last picture)

Nearing the end of the dinner, I whipped out the Tiramisu I'd been hiding in my bag all along. Taking advantage of his trusting nature, I lied that this was what I asked Pui Mun to buy earlier although the truth was, Wai Lin and I walked to Sri Petaling ourselves to buy everything needed for the midnight surprise. This Tiramisu was another decoy as well, cause it's odd for everyone to gather together for dinner if there wasn't any special occasion.

The Pig is 22 years old btw, not 20 :)

Everyone at the dinner acted shock that it was his birthday and apologised for not remembering while wishing him profusely. The tiramisu decoy worked perfectly well, and The Pig presumed that it's his birthday surprise.

After dinner, everyone was supposed to hide somewhere (those not staying at Vista) or go back home first. Knowing that The Pig will walk me back home as usual, I told everyone that I'll text them the time to meet up again, to avoid them bumping into The Pig at the swimming pool area where The Pig will usually pass to go back to his apartment.

Once Gerard (his housemate), texted me that The Pig reached home already, the plan was set in action. All of us gathered up again (with addition of a few more people joining this part of the plan), blowing balloons and preparing the cake with candles.

Blowing balloons was a much strenuous job than I recall when I was a wee child.

This picture was taken right outside the corridor of where he's staying. Balloons were blown and tied, the cakes (yes, cakes, not cake) were decked with candles and all that's left was invading his apartment.

Gerard pretended that his friend was coming over to stay and opened the door for us. The Pig was too busy playing DotA to pay any attention to us raiding his premise. We were about to shout 'Surprise' when we realised his eyes were still glued to his computer screen. So, about four of us managed to slip in and hide in the kitchen before the truth finally hit him. Sigh.

Sigh again. Him and his ugly singlet. He had about four of these, which I swear that I'll one day set all of them on fire.

Thank God that he quickly changed into something more presentable and pleasant to be seen in.

Three cakes for the birthday boy. Two big candles on the big cheese cake while a small candle each on the cake slices. Twenty two :).

The Pooh balloon that I'm holding in the picture was part of his birthday present as well. It was put to good use later on when everyone requested I hit him with it for twenty-two times.

Together with the speechless birthday boy.

The horrible ordeal of the night. The Pig was requested by the crowd to feed me a slice of chocolate from the cake with his mouth.

Group two orientation members picture :). Timothy was absent as he was busy talking on the phone.

The Pig with his housemates.

Pegasus house members!

See the packet of tissue in the picture, I stole it from the Chinese restaurant whereby we had our dinner earlier, just saying.

The last part of the celebration before everyone reported to dreamland - balloons popping frenzy!

The Pig was requested to do push-ups with the balloon under his shirt till it burst. Before that managed to take place, a few of them pushed him hard against the floor and 'Pop'.

The balloon popping threesome.

After that, most of the guys went havoc and ran around attempting to burst the balloons on each other. And here's the last picture of all of us together before we dismissed, with what's left of us there.

Mission accomplished :)

Once you go big, you can't go back.

2011-03-19T23:51:00.007+08:00

I finally learned how to resize the photos uploaded to blogger to be huge :). I'm more inspired to blog now, more so than ever!

However, thanks to my Obsessive Compulsive Disorder of all things digital, I'll most likely waddle through every single one of my blog posts to change the size of all the pictures. Sigh, I hate myself at times. In this case though, my laziness will mostly prevail so I decided to just change the size of my recent blog posts taken with my trusty GF-1.

Two shots of vodka with lemon.

Testament to my noob HTML skills :)

The battle of the Pan Mee

2011-03-16T20:42:00.008+08:00

Jojo's Lat Jiu Pan Mee (8.5/10)
This taste like regular pan mee except way better. The noodles are very thick, and I like the elastic texture accompanying it, like how any regular pan mee should taste like. Nothing spectacular about the noodles except its texture. The shredded pork is heaven, cover in thick sauce and very flavourful. The price is a bit hefty for pan mee, rm6.50 a bowl if my memory serves me well. The egg yolk is not too runny and the noodle is hot (temperature-wise) to the very last slurp. This bowl of pan mee is perfect, except without the oomph factor inside.

Madam Chiam's Dry Chili Cheras Pan Mee (9.5/10)
If you're planning to try this for the very first time, do not pour the whole bowl of dry chili flakes into the noodles, unless you're planning to burn a hole through the roof of your mouth. Once the chili flakes are poured, time to break the egg and stare in glee as the egg yolk spreads and drench your noodles. Then, time to mix the whole concoction together and tuck in! I am completely clueless why I'm so in love with this that I make it a point to order extra large whenever I get the opportunity to eat this! The noodles are thin and maggie-like, and does not taste like regular pan mee at all, however soooooo addictive. Their shredded pork is just mediocre though and too dry for my liking. Usually halfway eating this, the noodles will be quite cold already as well. The redeeming factor is seriously the noodles, best noodles ever tasted! Will get a perfect 10 if not for the few minor factors bringing it down.

Public Service Announcement

2011-03-13T00:18:00.004+08:00

Spread the news!!! What I'm about to say will shock fans of Sushi Zanmai and soft shell crabs so prepare to be blown away. Oh, and also if you like inari, the sweetened beancurd skin you will see in Japanese food outlets.

Here I present to you, Inari Soft Shell Crab sushi :).

It's not available in the menu, but the chefs can make it for you. And so far, this is my latest cravings disturbing my train of thoughts throughout the day. Inari and soft shell crab, winning combo :)

Food makes the world go round!

2011-03-10T00:36:00.015+08:00

The Apartment, KLCC

Eton Mess! As quoted directly from the menu, broken crisp meringue with strawberry, whipped cream & coulis gently folded. Interesting taste but didn't really like it, not a fan of meringue, tasted rather queer. If you ever pay a visit to The Apartment, their chocolate pudding is sensational!

Courtesy of Sheng Giap

Gorgeous gigantic popcorn heavily laden with caramel! Best popcorn ever tasted in my life, and this is not a hyperbole. Can only be bought at a shop specialising in popcorns outside of Universal World Studio Singapore. And it comes with a fancy price tag also, this amount of popcorn, approximately 10SGD. One giant packet, 24SGD :(. Smuggled it into the cinema and shared it with Jiunn Liang (his name is mentioned here cause he wants his name to be known in the blog post *sigh*) during 'The King's Speech'.

Pasta Zanmai, Midvalley

Refillable jug of green tea, only Rm3, satisfying and cheap.

Fresh bowl of garden salad with crab sticks, didn't order this, but the waiter accidentally served it to my table. I dislike raw vegetables with a passion, why can't they just cook it?

Hotate (scallop) pizza, one of my favourite dish ever at Pasta Zanmai. Thin crust with fat scallops on top. Can never get bored of this :)

Teriyaki chicken with spaghetti. Asian Western fusion, and the spaghetti tasted so much better when I broke the egg yolk and let it spread all over it. Mmm.

Ebi (prawn) curry rice. Japanese curry is nice in a very different way compare to the Mamak kind of curry we Malaysians are used to. Less on the spicy area, and it's sweeter. Another crowd-pleaser dish :).

Alexis, The Gardens

Tiramisu, hefty price of rm15 per slice. Really nice and I like the sweetened walnuts and some crunchy stuffs on top. The red sauce in the picture is raspberry which complements the cake rather well.

LeVain Boulangerie Patisserie, off Jalan Imbi

Chocolate crunch!!! Looks very adorable with its beady eyes. Didn't sample it though, chocolate is too thirst inducing, and LeVain ran out of water the day we went.

Octopus bun. I took this cause I found the name to be rather cute but was slightly disappointed. Not that it tasted bad or anything, was good but the taste was exactly how a hot dog bun will taste like, not that I should be surprised. Appearance is deceiving :(.

I had two of this and I still can't get enough of it. The best baked product I ever tasted so far! Turkey ham and egg bun, the ham was succulent and the egg, pure genius! The yolk looked solid in appearance but under the solid exterior, it's actually scrambled egg, nicely encapsulated. Perfect combination :)

Chicken curry bun. Right amount of balance between the chicken curry (which was ample) and not too much bread nor too little to hold it. Plus point also that the bun was slightly crispy.

Banana caramel danish. I love this! Really crispy and soft, and the banana was perfectly drizzled with semi-hardened caramel.

Walnut bread, so soft and slightly bland, but in a good way. Exactly the kind of food that tree-huggers will love, not sure is there any dairy content in it though. Minimal amount of sweetness but right amount of taste.

Hazelnut praline and triple chocolate macaroons!! Sounds way better than how it taste though :( What a pity, cost Rm3.60 each. Or maybe I just don't know how to appreciate it, but I had better ones in Singapore before!

I guess all of this contributed to my sudden 4kg gain in just three weeks.

Eve of Red

2011-02-03T00:34:00.009+08:00

My mum suddenly had an urge to catch a movie at the cinema as she claimed that she never entered a cinema before, which is now rightfully rectified. So, my mum and I, along with four cousins in toll watched "Mr and Mrs Incredible", a chinese comedy without substantial plot line but made of us all burst out laughing throughout the screening.

Some pictures taken to kill time before the show.

All of us cousins :)

All the girl cousins and my mum.

My mum and I!

Bumped into YeeThong just now outside the cinema, and she made my mum very happy when she mistaken my mum as one of my cousins.

And another reason that's making me happy now is sugary goodness from Starbucks. Thanks to Tracy for it, her mum got it for her from the Starbucks at China which she generously shared with me!

Blueberries covered in milk chocolate. Can't wait to try this.

Peppermint chewing gum.

Random picture of a cake Pui Xiang and I made for YokeWan's 21st birthday which we celebrated in conjunction with the annual BBQ gathering of ol' friends at my house! It's ICE CREAM CAKE! And, it contained tons of Oreos! Not bad for two of us first-timer.

Melissa mistaken that we bought the cake and estimated the price to be around RM 70 *beams with pride*.

Random burst of happiness.

2011-01-31T18:10:00.009+08:00

Sooooooo... I'm too lazy to continue blogging about the Singapore trip, but I shall replace it with this blog post instead.

Some stuffs that make me a very happy person nowadays :D.

1. Graphic Tees with cute captions.

This T-shirt fits me perfectly well!

This doesn't really suit me, but my mum thinks it does.

2. A designer lamp worth rm400 that I won in a contest! Its light is adjusted by motion sensor of the base, and you can even adjust the brightness depends on how many times you touch the base, going to bring it back to my room in Vista, and it will be the most expensive furniture there :P

3. A quart of Baskin Robbin, cause it's 31st today. Mix three flavours into it which I chose Chocolate Mousse Royal and Strawberry Cheesecake. My mum chose the last flavour, Citrus Sorbet. I'll be fat, but at least happy :).

4. House MD series. I know I'm outdated, but who cares. Started straight from Season 5, and in the process of downloading Season 1, 2,3 and 4 now. Best TV series ever, since I'll consider myself revising from watching it due to the amount of medical jargons they spew out! Guilt-free pleasure!

5. SIMS THREE! . Haven't start playing it yet but when I do start, I expect myself to be confined to the mercy of my laptop and lose what's left of my lifeless life now. Goodbye real life, and hello virtual life!

6. Buffet steamboat and BBQ with close friends =).

Singapore (Day 1)

2011-01-25T14:26:00.005+08:00

It's the first time I ever flew on a plane without my parents so I was beyond excited. Tickets were cheap, Rm175 two-way on AirAsia. Results were not bad, nothing to worry about before take off :). The only thing on my mind was sufficient funds to last me throughout the trip.

Since AirAsia is a budget airline, the airport terminal is at LCCT instead of KLIA. Wasn't bad but there's only one duty free shop and nothing much to do while waiting for time to pass.

The cheapest food available at LCCT, hotroll, rm6 :(

Oh and I think I see my flabby tummy.

The flight was brief, only an hour or so. But it was a night flight, so when the plane touchdown on Singapore, it was already 9.30pm. Nothing left to do on the first day but having supper and call it a night.

We went to a place called East Coast Food Court and had some expensive hawker food in a swanky environment, but nice nonetheless.

Sugarcane with lemon, quite good.

Otak-otak where the Singaporeans called it otah-otah.

My favourite of the day! Prawn mee, quite unlike Malaysia one, and better than ours as well sadly. About SGD6, but enough for two.

Lastly, BBQ chicken wings!

And thus, end of first day.

Resolutions

2011-01-10T18:57:00.004+08:00

I usually don't bother making resolutions, but let's just see how well I can keep them by the end of 2011.

1. Reduce procrastinating. I nearly single-handedly screw up my entire future, since I studied only approximately 2 weeks before each exam, compare to my colleagues that started like months before. I seriously learned my lesson, and will not put myself through that kind of torture ever again. (yeah right)

2. Learn to apologise more often when I'm in the wrong. I learned that I'll never apologise last time and just make it up to the person in other ways. In 2010, I did say sorry more often, but not enough I guess.

3. Never trust someone that easily, give a longer time frame before start disclosing secrets to them. I'll say I trusted some of my friends wrongly by telling them secrets I never told other people before, and now we are as good as strangers.

4. Master my DSLR/micro four third and be a semi-pro photographer :)

5. Blog more frequently, at least twice a month. I like writing and studying medicine shall not deter me from doing so. My grammar and vocabulary really deteriorated.

6. Improve my driving skills, don't get much opportunity to drive usually (only three cars in the family, for mum, dad and bro). Never side park before as well, which I shall soon attempt.

7. Be healthier, at least go for evening walks once a MONTH. The only walks I ever do is in shopping malls.

8. Make an effort to online my MSN more often and initiate a conversation with friends to keep in touch.

9. Sleep lesser during lectures. Almost every single lecture, I'll fall asleep and just basically throwing my parent's money down the drain by doing so. I will reduce my sleeping capacity, and vow to fall asleep a maximum of only three times a week during lectures.

10. Avoid waking up past 3 pm during holidays or weekends. I can sleep all the way to 6pm if there's no alarm. Lastly, do not sleep later than 6am, and try to sleep earlier before 2am as often as possible.

Domokun Pouch

2010-12-03T15:13:00.010+08:00

So, yesterday I embarked on a project to make a domokun handphone pouch. I was browsing some websites online a few weeks ago, and felted domokun pouch can easily goes up to 30 USD, rough conversion of about RM100.

So, instead, I decided to make my own version, for a cheaper cost with better materials and some modifications.

Total cost = RM 12 (with lots of excess felts that I can keep for future projects :))
Modification: I used spectacles cloth as the inner lining instead of felt to reduce friction when slotting in the phone as well as wiping the screen at the same time.

Cutting up the pieces I need took me two hours. I kept trimming because I want my phone to fit snugly inside but still aiming for an easy insert. Other than that, I still need to estimate the interior space after sewing blanket stitch all around. And, having only a small scissors is definitely an impediment in cutting felt and spectacles cloth.

Adjusting all the cut-outs together to make sure it will fit perfectly.

Lastly, the sewing part, which is very irritating. Never use spectacles cloths for sewing, it's slippery and smooth, but the final result is worth it if you have the time to spare. I used four layers of spectacles cloth, two for each of the front and back inner layer, because one layer is too thin for my liking. However, having to adjust the cloth after every stitch, almost made my patience run out.

And, the final product.

Front

Back

Inner Layer

While making it, I was worrying in fear that my phone won't fit in the end and all my effort will be down the drain, but luckily, it fits perfectly :)

Alright, now I really MUST start studying. I wasted two weeks out of the six weeks study break I have for four systems doing almost everything but studying. I'm dead.

Goon Wah

2010-11-24T18:35:00.006+08:00

So far, I'm loving the Lumix GF-1 camera, seriously the photo quality is superb. And the best part, it effortlessly helps you to take gorgeous photos with its intelligent detection auto mode, but I'm trying to learn manual as well.

With the camera in toll for my first day usage, I bought my dad to Goon Wah XO Fish Head Noodles shop, thanks to Shuang's introduction to it.

For appetizer, a bowl of sweet potato soup :). Quite good, but as expected of how a sweet potato soup taste like, nothing special.

The main course, the famed Fish Head Noodles in "salty vegetables broth'. Order this, it won't disappoint you. I like how the fish has an extra elasticity to it, giving a crab meat texture to the fish. Oh, and the soup's refillable so drink to your heart's content! The soup is cooked with yam, and there's a hint of spicy punch to it, making it more enjoyable.

And the Claypot Lou Shu Fun is a must-try! I like that they added crunchy ha mai (tiny prawns) on top of the noodles, and the sauce consistency is just perfect, not too runny or thick. Seriously, it's the best CLSF ever tried in my life.

And now, as I'm typing this, I can feel my stomach churning at the thought of it (nerd moment: cephalic phase of gastric secretion). Too bad the shop only open on weekdays, and only for a mere 6 hours from 9.30am to 3.30pm only. Overall, the damage of the meal was only RM28, quite cheap considering my dad and I struggled to finish the meal and they gave a lot of fish slices in the broth.

P/s: First day of using the camera EPIC FAIL, didn't realise I set the photo size to be small in the camera, so hence the quality isn't so good :(

Feeling lucky

2010-11-09T02:16:00.005+08:00

I been trying to contain my excitement into a tiny portion of my brain to be forgotten until my exam is over but the excitement is practically fighting to get out of my brain and I think it's giving me encephalopathy.

Received a phone call from my dad last Sunday. (goes roughly something like this but in Cantonese)
Dad: I bought a camera for you already, Lumix GF1.
Me: Huh? Why? WHAT?
Dad: Your belated birthday present.
Me: How much? (cause I have a bad feeling that my dad sure spent a lot on it)
Dad: Quite cheap, got discount, don't worry about the price. (found out later on he's lying)

And after some googling, I was baffled by how good the camera is and most importantly, the price, it's too freaking expensive for a non-photographer like me, but all the same I'm excited! More than 2k so I'm feeling kind of guilty about it as well :(

I remember last time my dad and I was at Midvalley, and I just casually entered a camera shop to try out some DSLR models, cause I played with my friend's one the day before and felt curious to know more.

I didn't know that incident will drive my dad to buy a camera for me, I seriously have the best dad in the world!!! =)

And after finding out the news from my dad, I immediately launched into a hyper research mode on the model itself. It's a micro 4/3, which from my noob photography knowledge, it is a compact size camera but with almost comparable DSLR photo quality, and the lens are interchangeable as well. Ideal camera for anyone that wants DSLR photo quality and hate the bulky shape of it :)

Can't wait for exams to be over and kick it out of my life, then rush back to my hometown and try my hands on photography! So much to learn, ISO, shutter speed, aperture, all Greek to me.

Do you know?

2010-11-04T00:03:00.002+08:00

You never notice how dark the world can be until you are alone in a room, on the bed with the lights off. And the only sound you can hear is you yourself crying.

Primum non nocere (to oneself before patient)

2010-10-26T23:17:00.005+08:00

I'm so freaking depressed now, I don't think I have enough time to finish studying in time for Summative 2, and the sudden realisation of this is when I encounter Dr. Vijay Singh's Thalassemia notes which is like greek to me. And now, it gave me the notion that I'm going to do badly for the upcoming Summative 2, and I get way too depressed if I get bad results or fail, although it's clearly my freaking fault for procrastinating so much.

And no thanks to the food poisoning which I suspect is due to Clostridium perfringens from uncooked meat at Seoul Garden that gave me very bad diarrhoea and abdominal cramps for 3 whole days, which wasted more of my precious studying time when I just gotten into the studying cramping session not long ago. This 3 days can perform miracles to a last-minute studying person like me T_T.

How is it possible to cramp the remaining 3 weeks of Haemotology system and 6 weeks of Gastrointestinal system lectures notes in just 3 weeks?! And if by some dumb luck I managed to do so, I probably forgot everything I study at the earlier weeks which will equal to me having a panic attack during exam T_____________T.

And now I'm wasting more time blogging cause if I don't type what is pent up inside of me now, I think I might explode with stress, and yes, stress kills. I hate the feeling of doing nothing but studying the entire day like a nerd but I guess I have no choice now. I'm just typing whatever that comes to my mind right now cause it feels better after doing so.

Not to forget, I need to practise for my mock OSCE which is three days prior to exams and my physical examination skills suck big time. I don't know how I'm going to survive this, but I probably will I think, I hope, maybe.

Medical student life is really inhumane.

Things that fascinate me

2010-10-05T02:23:00.002+08:00

1. Immediate association between scoring well as studying hard or scoring bad as not studying, not always the case.

2. Drifting friendship with people going to the same study institution as I am, but getting closer to those that studying overseas.

3. A guy I know that can be so selfless that he always willing to sacrifice his own benefits for others, rare indeed nowadays.

4. The number of close friends a person have is inversely proportional to their total number of friends. (in my case)

5. Not having any 19th birthday celebration but got the best birthday present ever!

6. The fact that studying two weeks before any exams in medical school is considered as last minute.

7. I procrastinate doing anything, even sleeping.

8. My hometown Melaka is now foreign to me, there's almost no one left there.

9. Society jumping to conclusion at every given chance, I'm tall and thin for Asian standards, so I am assumed to be anorexia (I eat twice the amount that normal girls eat okay).

10. J.K Rowling's thoughts, and the day she finally decides to start writing the 8th Harry Potter book :)

Roomie-ate

2010-09-12T22:54:00.010+08:00

This is dedicated to the girl I stayed with in college for half a year who tormented me with her craziness and weirdness, Mavis. (at this point, you should feel touch that I came out of my blog-retirement for you! )

I admit you are quite insane at times, but makes my life more interesting la.

Some pictures I dug out from my external hard disk!

Day before your 17th birthday, we made jelly together, you forced me to make one. You wanted to bring for Piau to try the next day when he's fetching you out. Tasted super good, but oh well, it's instant -.-.

Awesome Melaka trip with the entire class! =) Also my roomie-ate at the hotel we were staying :)

Caught in action buying condoms!

First time went Midvalley together for prom dress shopping!

See how small is her face.

After the last paper of A levels, super happy and taken in front of McD SS15/8. The place whereby sometimes we camped till 4am, ate mcD breakfast and then went back and slept during exam period.

Gorgeous eye make up that I did :). Seriously, you are lucky to be my first guinea pig ever!

Our obsessions at one point, cupcakes from Cupcake Chic. Super sinfully sweet but sooo good. I'm going to miss sharing desserts with you if ever have anymore pm1 outing :(

One of my favourite pictures! After watching "Coming Soon" with the guys in class, and two of us were thrown into the back of Piau's car cause we're the only two girls there. Super bumpy ride.

Another of our obsessions, thanks to me. At one point, we will buy and stock up in the fridge. There's one incident where we thought MyPlace will be hit by flood and we were panicking about food supply. The only thing we thought of is whether we had enough green tea ice cream to last us through a not.

At Asia Cafe, with Shuang also. Shuang came to our apartment to study Mechanics together, and then we went for supper together after that. Had a plate of nasi lemak three of us shared like vultures and ikan bakar. Hilarious incident with the cetak rompak disk seller thinking we're too poor to afford a CD. Too bad three of us never had any more ikan bakar date after this :(

Lemon Jade Jelly at Snowflake, with Adelynn. Most frequently visited dessert place during A levels.

First time travel to One Utama together, in the bus.

PATRICK! Thanks to you, RM20 flew out from my wallet, because you got one of this and it was so freaking cute that I couldn't resist to get one myself as well = =.

This photo is put up to show how much torture my camera went through as it was abducted all the time by the person in the picture to camwhore, luckily the camera screen never crack.

Day before AS results was released. BAMS first and only visit to Swensen's so far, had the awesome earthquake together. When going to have BAMS gathering there again? :(

At KLCC convention centre toilet. Travel there for Education Fair. Salute us that day for managed to walk all the way from MyPlace to Subang Jaya KTM station and back somemore, considering two of us like super unfit.

In our room! The worst and messiest room ever in the history, there was literally no place at all to walk in the room. As Adelynn put it, "Living in a jungle".

One of your many random webcam sessions with me. This is when you need to take a bath and told me Patrick (Andre) will chat with me while you're showering.

Your 17th birthday, touched right? At A&W's whereby we planned a surprise party for you. I was the bait and distracted you and tricked you into going A&W. This remind me that I still haven't blog about the part 2 of your 17th birthday, haha. Too bad, I doubt I'll ever blog about it.

Our world-famous spaghetti bolognese. First time when we made it, took us an hour, but we improved so much with subsequent cooking that we managed to reduce to just 20minutes. Don't think we'll ever get the chance to make it again :(

First time BAM cooking together. Also the day you coined the term 'BAM', haven't added Shuang yet to it. Eggs, mushrooms, carrots, mushroom soup and mashed potatoes :) Mashed potatoes was a disaster, thanks to Adelynn insisting on adding carrots and the potatos weren't soft either. In the end, we fed the mashed potatoes to the stray cats around MyPlace, and the cats didn't like it either.

PM1 class photo, the best class on earth :) made college life so awesome. It's legen- wait for it, DARY!

BAMS penang trip together! Ate so much of good food, we should have another trip next year :).

Your 18th birthday. Went out with PM1 to Nando's =D

Ate at Tokyo G once while you're still working there. I know you sure will complain this shot of you is very unglamorous but too bad, only picture I had of you in your uniform. Thanks for the free miso soup you got for me! :D And also for you serving us while cursing at the same time.

So anyway, this is the end of the post. Don't be emo so much about leaving Malaysia, UK is a brand new start and before you know it, you will have such a good time there till forget about us people in Malaysia :(. Camwhore more, blog (if it's possible), facebook more to keep us updated about your UK life.

Take care, don't do stupid and reckless things (which I think you will), don't get con by Caucasians and grow taller please. Most importantly, buy me lots of souvenirs to bring back next year June!

Stay loyal, don't get a new wife, you won't find anyone more awesome-r than me! =)

I will miss you.

Semester 3

2010-07-12T18:14:00.003+08:00

So far, it has been a week since my semester 3 started after my one month of glorious holiday :)

Went Penang for the very first time with my best college friends :). Was not bad, but was too short a trip.

Credits to Mavis for editing the picture.

So, now I'm in semester 3, no more time to relax, but so far I'm still in holiday mood. I will start studying ASAP, hopefully. No longer going to study last minute anymore, I think.

Contented for now

2010-06-01T16:38:00.005+08:00

I'm happily decomposing at home currently after the grueling one month of non-stop studying for my Year 1 final exam. Was fear-stricken while trying to open the envelope containing my results, dropped it thrice and even misread my grade, realised it only half an hour later! Good thing that my grade upgraded instead of degraded :).

I'm beyond satisfied with my results, better than expected considering the fact that I started studying quite late compare to my peers. I'm rather lucky when come to major exams I guess, but shouldn't gamble on this fact too often in case my luck runs out :).

I vow to work slightly harder next semester, but going to make it a point to never become a full-time nerd. Medical students do have life contrary to popular belief!

Trip to Genting while waiting for results to be released, was not enjoying my holidays fully yet, but now I can :)

You know you're grown up when...

2010-04-17T14:43:00.002+08:00

... visits to the dentist no longer scare the living daylights out of you nor haunt you in your dreams.

Now, an hour and a half dental treatment involving needles easily 3 centimetres long, with an approximate of 20 needles poking into your tooth canal only lull you to sleep instead and you are trying your best to not doze off.

If only I could turn back time

2010-04-11T13:41:00.006+08:00

As you can see from my previous blog post, I almost screwed up my future and trying my best to save it now. And actually, I'm still living my rather sedentary lifestyle, I spent more hours a day relaxing than studying actually, which is insane of me. My batchmates that studied months ago are even more stress than me, so seriously I need some sense knock into me.

On a random note, I've been pondering a lot lately on how should a medical life student be. Many people already have the typical cookie-cutter lifestyle implanted in their head, studying
incessantly everyday.

Someone told me this, few years down the road, does anyone cares what grade you got as a medical student when you're just a normal GP like all your other peers? Instead, you will be regretting that you spent your university life slaving away, instead of enjoying the process.

And, I missed hanging out with my high school friends a lot.

By the way, a big thanks to JeeHui for this panda hat. Can't wait to receive it although it will take ages as it's at Australia currently!

I shall eat a chocolate and be happy.

2010-03-22T22:01:00.006+08:00

I swear I laugh at the face of danger and find some sick masochist thrill in torturing myself by not studying when I'm in a medical school.

It just suddenly dawned on me today that I haven't start studying at all this semester, and there's a big test a month away only. What the hell had I been doing all this while? I need to stop deliberately destroying my own future.

I am very very depressed (quote from someone that use this line for every little menial issues).

Wee Jee Hui

2010-02-20T01:53:00.003+08:00

Take care in Australia and take good care of the scarf I made for you. I will be expecting an expensive souvenir from you next time you're back!

Shuang's Farewell

2010-01-25T18:17:00.006+08:00

Last weekend was definitely memorable.

1. Watched Malaysia Open Semi-Finals with Chao and Wei Siong. Wei Siong kept his high school student card and managed to obtain student price for his ticket, unbelievable considering he's the oldest among us, and Chao and I had to pay the full price. Good match, Chong Wei won, as well as Koo Kien Kiat - Tan Boon Heong!

2. Shuang messaged me to ask whether Lee Chong Wei won or lost. Chao decided to prank her and asked me to tell her that Chong Wei lost 23-21 and 21-9! Shuang believed us fully, and proceeded to tell her whole family that Chong Wei lost and she even thought the Astro commentor said wrongly for saying that Chong Wei will proceed to the finals the next day. (By the way, Chong Wei won the finals as well! =D)

3. Chao wanted to drink alcohol and bought two bottles of red wine. Approximately 1.30am, when about to open the bottles, realised no bottle opener. Ended up with six of us, going to a 24-hour convenience store to buy a bottle opener. Ransacked the store trying to find. In the end was told that the store ran out of stock, but the cashier owned a bottle opener and he had it with him that time. So went back to the apartment to get both the wine bottles to the store and asked the cashier to open. By the time we got back for real, already 2.30am.

Ransacking the store.

Finally opened!

4. Nobody got drunk! However, someone vomited :(. All of us barely got any sleep.

5. Went Sunway Lagoon, 10 of us!

6. Zi Yang and Dhass went insane and sat the G-Force extreme ride.

7. Gave Shuang her farewell present which I hope she will like. A scarf I crocheted for her :)

Take care in Perth :) Remember to miss me!

Books =D

2010-01-22T15:46:00.005+08:00

It's impossible not to be afraid of dentist when they put a thumbtack-like object with twice the needle length into your tooth about twenty times.

Anyway, the point of this post is to talk about the three books that I managed to read in the past few months. Kind of sad really unable to read as much as I want anymore, but this three books are seriously worth reading.

1. Time Traveler's Wife (by Audrey Niffenegger)

This title shouldn't be that foreign since it was shown in the cinemas not long ago. I read the book before watching the movie, and the movie was still good to me albeit tons of changes. It's about a guy, Henry sufffering from Chrono Displacement Disorder and traveled through time, meeting someone extraordinary in the process, Clare, whereby both of them struggled to live a normal life.

The book is just simply beautiful and not at all confusing seeing there's so many time traveling taking place. The best part of the book is probably time traveling is made simple without all those hard-to-grasp facts, and mainly centered upon an extraordinary love story, which both men and women will enjoy it :).

2. Marley and Me (by John Grogon)

This title shouldn't be foreign as well. It's a true story about a family developing and maturing along with a Labrador Retriever, Marley, the world worst's dog being there, and witnessed how he started from a puppy till he died (you are really cold blooded if you didn't feel even a slightest tinge of emotion at his demise).

I cried watching the movie, I cried even harder reading the book till I had to put it down to wipe my tears cause it's blurring up my vision. This is the first book that caused my tear glands to leak like a faulty faucet, and laughed out loud to myself in the room. Never had I laughed or cried so much over a book before. Even if you're not a dog lover, it's impossible not to love it.

3. Flowers for Algernon (by Daniel Keyes)

The only thing I didn't like about this book is that it's way too short for me. I just completed this an hour ago, so it's still retaining a poignant effect in me. It's about a guy with subnormal IQ, Charlie Gordon. He's going to be the first person to participate in an experiment that will make him smarter. The procedures were highly successful when tested on a white mouse, Algernon, and it became smarter. It worked the same way for Charlie as well, and soon his IQ surpassed the professors that engineered his metamorphosis. But when Algernon starts facing deterioration, what will happen to Charlie?

This book really struck a chord in my heart and kept me thinking even after I completed the book. It's simple, succinct yet disturbing at the same time. This book is simply brilliant :).

Books I bought and will soon be read:
Carrie by Stephen King
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Anne Frank : The Diary of a Young Girl

Books I'm planning to buy:
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold

2010-01-21T15:09:00.000+08:00

I have short hair now.

:(

License to Kill

2010-01-18T11:12:00.004+08:00

Yesterday, my attempt to sleep early before my driving test failed miserably. I went to bed, and spent God knows how long turning around attempting to drift to sleep. And when I'm finally tired enough and about to fall into dreamland, I had a massive toothache. I got up from my bed at least five times to keep drinking water. Water helps okay, but it's a very very brief soothing effect.

I did managed to fell asleep in the end, but only a mere two hours or lesser. I woke up feeling like crap. And this crappy feeling somehow created a miracle and let me PASS MY DRIVING TEST!

This is a miracle, I wasn't expecting to pass at my first time, was prepared to fail miserably and be the worst driver in my family since everyone else passed at their first try.

I'm beyond ELATED! =)

P/S: Thank YOU for waking up early at 7am just to wish me good luck :)

Lesson of the day.

2010-01-17T21:34:00.004+08:00

If you're ever planning to send a letter by snail mail, make sure you get the house address correctly. So, the lesson is, do not type the address and save in your phone with a malfunctioning keypad that particularly affects the no.4 button, that won't stop auto-pressing itself. Cause, you assumed you typed in the house number as 5, but turned out, it's 45.

Then when it was time for you to send the letter, you won't remember the original address you saved with house number 5, and ended up sending to house number 45 instead. Thank you malfunctioning keypad button 4.

I'm going to pour kerosene over my phone now and set it on fire.

Awesome long food post

2010-01-11T17:05:00.012+08:00

Can't be bothered to find a nice template, so I will stick with blogger basics, white =).

I shall be random and blog about food I'd been eating for the past half a year.

Commando Chips. Fries mixed with sambal and anchovies, superbly nice!

Nando's Mild Peri Peri 1/4 chicken, with two sidelines.

La Mian in Szechuan spicy and sour soup at Dragon-I, got it for free! =)

Green tea milkshake with a soft served ice cream on top at Ministry of Food, with Shirly in the background :D.

Snowflake finally opened a branch in Pavillion! Best ice dessert ever, especially the Soya Ice Series :)

Chocolate Milkshake at Manhattan's, not worth the money, but nice nonetheless.

Half Onion Loaf at Tony Roma's, yes the whole thing is made of onion and yet it can taste so good!

Golden Honey Salmon at TGIF, wasn't mine but I stole some portion so counted as myself eating it as well. Really really nice!

Chicken and Shrimps baked with cheese at TGIF as well. Was treated, so thank you, you know who you are! =D

At Pepper Lunch, salmon with rice! This is officially one of my favourite dining place for now, before my mind gets fickle again.

Made glutinous rice ball in ginger soup for Winter Solstice Day, with the help of some friends. Going to make this every year from now onwards, tasted really authentic and good even if I do say so myself :)

My perfectly (well, almost perfect) round fried egg! Not easy to do so you know. *feels accomplished*

Pancakes for breakfast! Doesn't look that attractive as haven't pour in the honey yet. Made using Instant Pancake Mix by *forgot the brand name*. But it's the brand whereby there's a little boy in white, no it's not Casper, wearing a chef hat.

French Fries, added too much salt at the end, but I love salty food :)!

Nuggets I fried, until it's crispy brown!

Fried rice that my friend made with my help!

YanXia and Shirly ordered this (forgot the name) at Tony Roma's, contains 20% alcohol. Luckily they didn't get drunk, and I stole some sips. Does not taste that nice, but not bad if you drink it along with the salt (the white stuff at the rim of the glass).

At a Shanghai Restaurant Shuang brought me to, forgot the name. My La Mian with prawn and pork wantans. Really worth it as the wantans are huge and there were around 8 of it!

Steamed Small Dragon Pau (Xiu Long Bao) that I shared with Shuang. Really nice!

Treasure Box at Paddington House of Pancakes! Shared with Mavis and Shuang :). Dollar size pancakes, with strawberries, peaches, cinnamon, bananas and a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream =).

Fried kangkung in sambal belacan.

Tofu in hot plate :)

Marmite chicken, fried till really crispy, but will be nicer if it's in bite-sized pieces.

I'm really addicted to this! Sotong fritters with salted egg yolk :D

My New Year dinner at "The Ship". Sizzling chicken in black pepper sauce with giant prawns in a hot plate :).

Conclusion, I gained a lot of weight as a result of eating too much.

2009-11-30T15:32:00.000+08:00

My laptop officially crashed, and I'm here typing this in my university library.

*sigh*

Where art thou?

2009-11-24T00:02:00.004+08:00

Didn't update for ages, but I'd been slacking a tad bit too much T_T. One more month to the first ever exam in IMU, and also the ending of Semester 1, so time for some last minute mugging as usual. *sigh*

Anyway, being random, I lost quite a lot of stuffs in IMU so far.

1. My water bottle that my dad bought for me specially for university, lasted like 3 months? I forgot where I left it!

2. My black jacket, which is the oldest jacket I'd ever owned in my wardrobe. Bought by my mum, and it has great sentimental value for me :(.

3. My freaking adorable penguin pencil box that I got it for my last year's birthday from my mum.

(Picture taken this year in Taylor's Chemistry Lab, with the scene set up by Piau and Dhassie)

Next thing you know, I'm going to misplace my brain =_________=

.... Back?

2009-10-25T13:57:00.004+08:00

I should just shut down my blog or something. This is the first time I neglected it for so long. And I'm going to continue neglecting it :D.

Anyway, life in IMU is rather relaxing, but definitely have to push myself to study every single day or I will be so screwed.

Having my first exam soon on 26th December. Yeap, a day after Christmas.... And there will only be a week break during December, which will undoubtedly be a study break. Won't be going back to Melaka for a long time, but I'll be there the whole of January. So, I'll catch up with you all then? :)

The good ol' days :)

2009-10-04T03:34:00.001+08:00

Guess who finally got an internet connection? :D

I'm back (at least for now)

2009-09-19T16:29:00.003+08:00

I'm back to sunny Melaka :D MIA for so long due to the overwhelming schedule of orientation and also adjusting to university life :)

My awesome orientation group :)

Yet to get an internet connection at my place at IMU, so I won't be updating much. Just happy that I'm fitting quite well into my varsity life. Oh, and my 18th birthday was the best celebration ever in my life :) (will blog when I'm feeling less indolent).

P/S: To whoever it may concern, please just keep things peaceful, this issue is really affecting me.

Can't wait.

2009-08-21T01:07:00.000+08:00

I'm leaving off to a new beginning :)

Time?

2009-08-19T11:59:00.003+08:00

My driving instructor can't read the time at all. For the first few lessons, he's usually an hour late from our appointment time. And he will not even bother to call to inform me beforehand, just kept me waiting.

After the first few lessons, finally he learned to be punctual. Arriving around a span of 5 minutes from the appointment time. I was always ready and waiting for him 10 minutes before the scheduled time each time for our driving lesson,so that's not a problem.

And for the last few lessons, he decided to be super early. Arriving 30 minutes each time before the time we set on. The worst is, he expected me to be ready and waiting for him each time 30 minutes beforehand.

Today was another dreaded morning of driving lesson. I set my alarm 30 minutes from 10am (the time), and usually I'll be ready by 9.45am. For a teenager, I'll say I'm good enough, punctual and always ready for his lesson and never once late. Somehow, one minute after my alarm rang today, my instructor called me. He was already outside my gate and was scolding me through the phone saying I don't really want to learn by not being ready.

My mum went and explained to him, and said, if you set 10am, my daughter will be ready 10minutes before 10am, so what's wrong with that? Obviously my mum defended for me while I was brushing my teeth profusely at the bathroom. Record speed, I managed to get ready in a time span of 10 minutes which was quite a miracle for most girls out there.

When I reached the car, he actually scolded me. Blamed me for being late, not sincere in learning driving and don't know what is punctuality. Then he somehow related my 'tardiness' to me being always late to colleges and late for appointments and everything. I value punctuality and this is seriously taking a stab to my character.

I'm so glad it's my last lesson already and if I pass my real driving test, good riddance to him from my life. My anger management improved drastically ever since I learned driving. I never once retorted back cause I know it's pointless, he will be more adamant in scolding me, and end up I can't concentrate, probably even crash.

Can't he even read the time? Even primary kids can do that.

Another miracle.

2009-08-12T10:12:00.003+08:00

Due to some bizarre stroke of luck... I PASSED MY PRA-TEST :D

Now to await for my real test, which I need to wait a month from the date my L license was issued.

If I may say so myself, I don't deserve to pass... The car I tested in was comparably different from the one I used to learn. The car I used today had a lower clutch level, a harder to engage gear and also the brake was less sensitive. It wasn't until the first traffic stop when I jammed the brake only to realise it is not sensitive at all, quickly slammed it down, was thankful I didn't crash, and managed to stop a distance of 2 metres away!!! My tester seemed to be in distraught though, so was I.

And at the second traffic light, had problem engaging the gear! I'm just happy my engine didn't die off at all. Overall, I thought I did pretty well until almost reaching the driving school again. I was hasty trying to get the whole thing over and didn't see a car when I turned in the junction. If the car didn't stop abruptly and let me had my way, an accident will be a sure thing.

Bless my tester!!! He ignored my last horrible move and passed me :D

However, I doubt I can pass for my real driving test :( I realised I can't adapt quickly to a different car, particularly to a not-so-good car.

And things can't get weirder.

2009-08-11T13:23:00.006+08:00

I'm still over the moon over my results :). Thanks a lot for those that genuinely was happy for me for my results especially PI! Really really thankful :)

And, I didn't get scolded for today's driving lesson, so it just enhances my happiness :D Pra-Test tomorrow though, wish me luck T_T.

Anyway, a couple of my friends had gone lunatic...

Yesterday

And today, while I was learning driving. Was odd that I received 4 sms-es at once...

All of it received at exactly 12.20pm. And this came awhile later after I replied them one-by-one....

WTH T______T

EDITED

Turned out, my torture wasn't short-lived. Received this a few hours later after I blogged.

Definitely doesn't deserve a title.

2009-08-09T17:11:00.004+08:00

I'm squirming and withering in my own anxiety.........

I know I exaggerated countless times on minute things, but this is seriously deciding my future...

Results coming out tomorrow, and I have no idea what to expect... How is it even possible for me to sleep tonight?

I'm giving a warning to everyone that knows me, to try their very best to not talk to me after I get my results, I might just breakdown......

Impending doom...

T_T

2009-08-07T21:47:00.003+08:00

Three more days before results will be released. 72 more hours.

Monday shall be doomsday.

Memories at The Peak

2009-08-06T20:15:00.024+08:00

I wasn't planning to blog about the Genting trip, but since two other lazier bloggers than me already blogged about it... CY and WS, I'll just have to follow suit, can't lose out to them :P

Highlights of the trip. (cause I'm too indolent to blog about everything)

Dinner at Jogoya with Wei Siong (Shuang went off to PC Fair). My priciest dinner ever, RM 100+ :( But definitely ate till heart's content! I miss the Haagen Dazs ice cream :D

Our very kiasu game of Scrabble. Ended up all three of us only slept less than 2 hours prior to our Genting trip. None of us wanted to surrender... Phobia of the letter Q and Z now.

The brisk ride up to Genting with Nadia, my travel companion up and down the mountain :)

Shirly, being so fear-stricken sitting on any of the slightly more 'thrill' rides. Oh, and her obsession for stairs xD.

My partner-in-crime for all the thrill rides, the only girl that shared my enthusiasm! We shall go and take over Universal studios next :D

Poor Wei Siong, had to sit most of the rides alone due to odd numbers... But thanks to him, managed to befriend an old man on the bus, which coincidentally is a tour guide, we got 20% off our theme park tickets.

Queued up an hour for the Corkscrew ride. Was worth it! Ended up riding it a total of 3 times.

Waiting for our turn to ride the Go-Karts, and we had no choice but to wear weird shower caps to ensure the hygiene when we wear the helmets later on. Was raining rather heavily outside, only managed to went one round before we were asked to stop. The mist was really thick as well, which caused me to crash onto some orange cones thingy T____T

The very misty mist! It was only 3 o clock or so, but was so misty till the extent we can't see more than 3 metres in front of us. So chilling and cool :D

On the pirate ship. Zi Yang, the top most right hand corner guy, amazed all of us. Managed to remain expressionless for all the rides, ALL THE RIDES....... How is that even possible?

Archery, where Zi Yang was the best shooter definitely. Couldn't play cause my left arm was still suffering from a constant throbbing pain due to the Hepatitis B booster shot.

We stayed at the outdoor theme park till it was closing time, 10pm. All of us were starved, freezing but happy ^^

The very expensive bak kuh teh dinner (at 10 pm+ ) I shared with Yan Xia. Damage dealt, RM30+. At least, it kept us warm though :(

At our very cramped hotel room. Many memorable events took place here. I waited till 4am before I got a chance to take a shower........... And spent the whole night listening to Chee Yuen telling about everyone's horoscopes. Thanks to CY, three deluded Libras now have the assumption that they are very attractive to the opposite gender. =________=

At the bus terminal leaving Genting :( Guess what we're trying to mimic?

At Shuang's very beautiful garden :D We shall plan a reunion one day and gather there again and talk :)

Late night game of Monopoly. And, I WON! Oxford Street, I love you!

Woke up early to find Poh Yuan at Klang the next day. Thanks a lot to Chee Yuen for fetching Wei Siong and me! I'm salivating just by starting at the picture. It was beyond good, thanks a lot to PY for treating! I ate like a glutton, 1.5 plates of rice and two pots of this steaming dry chilly pork meat. Must go again xD.

'Clubbing' at CY's house afterwards. Only got the style, no substance T___T Couldn't get a hole-in-one at all.

Went to a Karaoke lounge for 4 hours before heading back to Melaka. Reached around 1.30am. Took KTM to Seremban already ate up 2 hours, but thanks WS for accompanying! :)

I really miss everyone in PM1 :) This holiday is certainly the best yet!

Oh great.

2009-07-30T17:34:00.003+08:00

Today is a rather unlucky day.

1. Blogging rapidly using someone's PC... Somehow, I managed to spoil my house PC. Don't ask me how. Now it won't even turn on.

2. My immunity against Hepatitis B is completely zero. So, I would have to take three booster shots. Just had my first one. I'm just glad that I didn't scream or made any rapid jerk in my movement and stayed immobilize until the end. Mavis seriously wasn't kidding when she said it is damn painful. Two more shots to not look forward to.

3. Driving today was a miracle, I didn't kill my engine at all!! NOT EVEN ONCE. But somehow, my instructor wasn't in a good mood today, and still got scolded. Great, just great.

4. Haven't receive my email that will decide my future. My patience is running short, the leash is reaching its end.

Seriously looking forward to the Genting trip this weekends, hope nothing bad will crop up.

Friday, here I come.

2009-07-29T17:20:00.007+08:00

I need to stop dishing out blog posts with a few words that summed up how much I screwed up my future, very unhealthy for the mind. Anyway, for now, I'm awaiting a reply regarding my woeful condition, so there's nothing I can do but wait. If miraculously, everything manage to revert back to normal, I promise I'll never procrastinate ever!

My life so far.

I can eat this whole day long. A box of Belgium chocolates my mum bought for me :)

Bon Odori wasn't bad. It'll be more fun if I wasn't half dead and sick when I went. Pui Xiang and me along with our souvenirs from Shwu Pei (when she went China).

Hanging out with ol' friends along the beautifully-lit pathway along the Melaka River.

Went for my Hepatitis B check-up this afternoon. As usual, the mental pain is always worse than the physical one. Like ant bite really, barely can feel anything. Anyway, hopefully the results will be good, so that I have no reason to be administered booster shots. (Removing the plaster was even more painful than the injection itself)

Will be leaving for Subang this Friday for the whole weekends. Genting trip :D I'm going to make sure I sit all the roller coaster rides at least twice!

...

2009-07-28T22:45:00.004+08:00

This is probably THE biggest blunder I'd ever made in my life... And now my whole future probably hanging by a thread thanks to my idiocy..

I screwed up big time :(

How can I fix this?

Half Blood Prince

2009-07-22T22:12:00.004+08:00

I'm a big avid fan of Harry Potter series - books and movies. So, spare me the comments straight in my face on how bad it is, how much it sucks and how overrated you think it is. I'm tired of refuting already.

For me, it's beyond fantastic and nothing's going to change that :)

Rewatching Half Blood Prince again, the casts, cinematography and setting was just so enjoyable to watch. Can't wait for the adaption of the last book into the big screen, going to be separated into two movies - making it all the more better.

And Half Blood Prince was the best yet. It's even better than Transformer : Revenge of the Fallens. No doubt about that. (Frankly, I fell asleep watching it...)

P/S: The next person who attempts to change my mind, I'm just going to give the silent treatment.

A series of events

2009-07-13T13:09:00.012+08:00

Too many outdated blog posts, so I'll just summarise everything into one, alright?

1. Good luck to Mavis for her first day of Uni today :) Remember to prepare a report for me!

I know you miss having me as your roommate!

2. MUET results just release. I got band 5 by the way :D Was good considering the disaster I went through. My Disastrous MUET exam. Next obstacle, IELTS.

3. In dire need to find an entire house to rent for IMU next time. Oh, and I'm trying to postpone my Hep B test for as long as possible, injection is not exactly a very pleasant thing to go through.

4. The BBQ we had after our finals was just beyond amazing. The company, the food (which I helped in preparing) and our heart-to-heart talk in the end, everything just fits perfectly. Can we do this every year? :)

5. Prom in my opinion was mediocre. High heels and dress were just plain torturing. And to the girl that stole YanXia's prom queen title, don't you have any guilt in you? All in all, still an experience.

6. The triple birthday bash went quite smoothly, better than expected, considering the fact that everything was planned last minute. Hope all of you liked your present :) Adelynn, make sure you bring the bottle with you to UK next time!

7. I'm going to miss you girls fetching me to 1Utama and back. And also the movie choices Pulsies always made, either horror or thriller. Anyway, only once I'm this generous and will treat you girls ice cream, so better remember it for life! :D

8. Thanks a lot for the mini farewell that YanXia planned for me. Was very touched :D It was worth staying back and reaching Melaka in the middle of the night for it.
Fine, I'm glad I heeded all of your advices and took this.

9. Redang was freaking awesome! I miss snorkelling and just all of us being together! Swimming, sun-baking and travelling together. The 8 hours bus journey was definitely worthed all these. And being a charcoal for days after that.

10. A big big thanks to Mavis, Wei Siong and Sheng Chao for being very good hosts to me in Port Dickson. Mavis for providing me with shelter. Wei Siong for providing me with transport. And Sheng Chao for treating me dinner. I just realised I didn't take a single picture there, a pity. I miss the ABC there though :)

11. I can't believe the Melaka trip worked out. After thirteen of you left, Melaka reverted itself back to its usual slow-paced and boring atmosphere. *sigh*

12. Anticipating the arrival of Beverly Yeang aka Beaver coming weekends! Since you forgot to bring along chocolate ants for me, treat me dinner T_T. You sure you're coming, right right?

13. I MISS PM1!

14. Mum's off to Bali for 5 days. Freedom and no curfews, but nothing to do. Is this how retirement feels like?

(Same scene when I retire, just that it'll be an older me)

15. Last but not least, anyone free to watch Harry Potter on its premier day coming Thursday? Less one day of studying won't kill you, you know?

ZZZ

2009-07-04T10:42:00.005+08:00

I swear someone out there has a vengeance against me. I started studying for my Undang rather late because earlier I was trying to plan the Melaka trip. In total, I only slept around two hours because of the Undang, I stayed up to mug. (Please spare me comments on how easy is Undang, no need study also can, unless you're sadistic and wants to rub salt on my wounds).

To my utter dismay, I went to the exam location, sat there for two hours until my patience ran short. Then, I marched up to the receptionist to enquire only to find out that the whole Melaka JPJ system is down, and they can only fix it by around 3pm (earliest). It was around 10am when I asked. 5 hours gap, and they don't bother even telling us a single freaking thing and just expect us to sit there and wait. Screw this. I pity those people that went earlier than me, they will have to wait a total of 7 hours just to take it.

The worst part, they even told me that it's possible that it will never get fix by today. A little information will be nice on your behalf instead of someone had to go right up to you to ask.

Time wasted, energy wasted, health drained. FML.

Off to Port Dickson. (Taking the test another day *sigh*)

Was about to publish this blog post when they just called me and told me it's okay already, and I'm back home. WHAT THE HECK IS THIS? I just only reached ten minutes ago =__=.

This is how dead I'm feeling currently.

Decomposition undertow.

2009-07-03T13:14:00.004+08:00

I'm done being a vampire, most probably I lost all the melanin I gained from Redang already. Not locking myself up in the house anymore, so anyone free to hang out? :) I'm feeling very idle, decomposing at home, while rest of my friends seemed really busy with their education. I miss studying actually.

Anyway, catching up with an old friend is really one of the many simple joys of life. And since she said I seldom blog about her, although she's my oldest friend (I don't mean it literally), here's a shout out to Ang Kai Li. The aunty-like friend that finally, FINALLY, has a msn. Congratulations, an achievement really.

I'll be MIA from Melaka for the next two days, taking my Undang test tomorrow and off to Port Dickson for two days =). And then, my group of college friends coming to raid Melaka from Monday to Wednesday, so I'll be pretty much occupied.

Words itself are boring, so here's a picture. My best friend in Redang :)

Hell and back

2009-07-01T17:08:00.005+08:00

I promised Beaver I'll blog today, so here I am. Was planning to blog about the BBQ, Midvalley shopping, Prom, OneU gathering, my farewell (that Pixie planned) and especially Redang trip.... but.... I'm just too tired.

And I have a very good reason why!

Today, I woke up at 7am, which is a miracle seeing it's the holidays now, for the dreaded Undang talk. I was thinking it can't be that bad, since everyone was telling me they can just go there and sleep, and no one will even give a damn.

They are all liars..................

Once registered (the overall process took 1 hour for all the students)... I decided to take a seat and before I can even walk anywhere, I was asked to sit directly in front, right in front of the teacher.

And it was very tiring, below are the reasons why.

1. I was holding a pen when he was telling a story on how great he is, I got scolded for holding a pen.

2. I was sleepy once, and before my head can even reached the table, got scolded yet again.

3. He was asking me how to calculate the velocity when two vehicles crashed, so being a science student, I told him the momentum formula, and he said wrong. Instead, he said should use y= mx + c instead................ *too utterly speechless*

4. Those taken before, remember the eyesight test before the talk starts? The test lasted merely two minutes, his explanation on how to do the test, lasted more than an hour. Where's the justice in that?

5. Out of the blue, he suddenly asked me how to make distilled water. So I just told him, in the lab using condensation process... and he burst out laughing.... and asked me go open a factory.

6. The talk lasted 6 hours 30 minutes. 2 hours was on the Undang talk. Rest of the time he used to praise
- how good is he
- how talented is he
- how brave is he
- how knowledgeable he is in Malay culture (he's an Indian)
- his admirable service for army
- the number of high ranking posts he held before
- how well he can speak Bahasa Malaysia although never learn before

7. Scolding us like we're dogs or something. And said we're not focusing, wasting his time... where actually, he spent most of his time praising himself.

8. He enjoys shaking his body very vigorously every few minutes. Eye sore.

So, that sums up why I'm so mentally and physically exhausted.

:)

2009-06-26T18:21:00.003+08:00

I know I'm supposed to update, on lots of outings.

However, right not I'm seriously energy depleted. Taking things at a slug-like pace at the moment, a humongous energy debt to repay. Going back to Melaka two days later, better start packing.

Redang honestly had to be the best vacation in my life, even better than that time I went Australia. Maybe it's the company :) and the island is just beyond picturesque.

Next stop: Melaka! Hope most of you can make it :) And we shall go crazy yet again!

Sun, beach and sun!

2009-06-22T13:53:00.001+08:00

I'll be going off with my beloved classmates to Redang for 3 days 2 nights :)

Can't wait!

Ah Tai

2009-06-18T16:50:00.004+08:00

For my recent absence in the blogsphere is mainly due to my great grandmother passing away. She was 94 when she passed away.

I won't say I'm sad when I heard of the news from my mum, more like, it's finally time.

Years ago, she had a stroke. We seek out opinions from three specialists. All of them gave almost similar advices. "Either she undergoes the surgery or there's no chance she will survive". And I believed that. I remembered my great grandmother will suddenly talk to people that long deceased all to herself. Isn't that a sign usually associated with the time is near?

Most of the relatives were already prepared for a funeral. There's almost no chance for a woman in her 90s to actually have the strength to make it through a brain surgery. And even if she did, why would you want an old lady that lived to such a ripe old age to suffer this tremendous pain? The right choice was to let go. She had lived long enough, through four generations and some would say, a rather fruitful life.

I still remember vividly what happened the night the specialists said she's not going to make it through. I remember crying to my mum, and she just tell me "This is what happens when age catches up".

Shall I call it a miracle? The night that the doctors predicted it's almost impossible for her to make through, she actually did. She managed to make it through a stroke with only her legs paralysed. At this age, this is a miracle. No other words can describe it better.

However, the heavens might had given her another shot in life, but they took away the very entity that defines us as humans. They ripped off most of her precious memories. I remembered visiting her, and she mistaken me for my mum. She couldn't recognise us any longer... us great grandchildren especially.

And she was no longer the great grandmother I knew. The one that always made the best iced Milo. The one that plays like a recorder telling over and over how deeply in love is she with her husband that passed away long before I was even born. The one that called me "Fei Mui", cause when I was born, I was a really heavy baby. The one that tells how the Japanese killed her brother. The one that enjoys watching the lead actress of "Yang Women's Warrior" TVB series with me. The one that always scold me when I steal some food from the kitchen right after my grandmother done cooking it.

All those little habits that I used to define her is gone. Who is she now? I can no longer recognise the woman that helped in raising me up. Though she still has a very defining habit of her that even stroke can't take away. Her complains. She never stop complaining, and I doubt any of us minded that, cause we had liven with that as long as I can imagine.

Just a week ago, was her death. It was a peaceful death. And I don't feel sad, at all. I already grieved for her a few years back, my great grandmother passed away a few years back.

This, I would say just her shell.

Rest well Ah Tai. You can finally be with the husband you loved so dearly. And maybe, you can once again walk on the beach with him.

To my pessimist side,

2009-05-31T23:39:00.005+08:00

Please just accept the reality you won't be getting an A for your Maths paper. What you get will be a B, and a broken spirit.

Life is full of disappointments, so why dwell on?

The truth still haven't sink in yet, and my thoughts keep circling on the possibilities there's one tiny inch of hope, but the better word to put it will be delusional.

I feel like surrendering, screwing up the rest of my papers. The fighting spirit had been broken, been reduced into nothing but a lump of false hopes and dreams. Now, at least it's starting to sink in. Finally, the facade of emotionless starting to shed, and there lies disappointment once the dust subsides.

I beg of myself, please just try your best one last time :(

... I feel like calling someone and just cry. *sigh*

... Move on, move on!

I'll just try my best, and give one last shot for Chemistry, though it's a very weak mild shot, but for now, that's the maximum I can push myself to.

Things to do before 10th August.

2009-05-30T20:00:00.005+08:00

1. Attend graduation ball :)

2. Bake under the sun at Redang.

3. Sit every roller coaster rides at Genting.

4. Watch Coraline and Up.

5. Get my license to kill.

6. Finish reading the 40 years of X-men comics I downloaded. Volume 13 now, and trying my best to restrain the urge to continue.

7. Catch up and re-read Naruto and Bleach.

8. Get a part-time job.

9. Spend the money I'd been saving since beginning of this year for a Nintendo DS Lite.

10. Get some reading done, around 7-10 books I bought still untouched :(

Sad till the extent I'm happy.

2009-05-29T22:01:00.004+08:00

I don't know what to feel anymore. I'm not sad, but I should be. After all the late nights, endless streaming of Pure Maths questions I tore my brain apart to do, it's not enough.

I did horribly for Pure Maths, and the sad part is, I tried my best. I worked like hell for this :(. And, this is finals, there's no way I can reverse what my results will be. And even if time do reverse, I don't think I can do any better, like I said, I gave my all for this.

I feel like resitting A Levels for maths... I want an A so badly for this.... I know I did well for Mechanics, Pure Maths AS and Statistics, so my only beacon of hope left, is for that three papers to make up for .... this. It's still possible I guess, but the chance is almost non-existent.

Like I always say, hard work NEVER pays off.

... I'm going to wallow in my misery by studying Chemistry, what better way to make you feel more miserable than Chemistry?

And just yesterday I was thinking that this will be the last time I'll do Maths, that I'll miss it so badly, that I'll miss integrating, differentiating, product rule and likes of that. It's true in a way, I'll miss the fact on how Maths proved to me that I'm stupid and hard work never cure stupidity. Someone up there obviously hates me, my dreams were raised sky-high, and it dropped.

Picking up the pieces, moving on with life, I'm not devastated, what's wrong with me?

Maybe I should cry. Keeping all the emotions in is rather unhealthy.

Maybe.

[On the other hand, Biology was ... rather good. Can I donate marks from my Biology to Maths?.... ]

And the wind blows.

2009-05-25T01:13:00.003+08:00

Stop spreading those rumours and instigating stuffs you do not know about. I'm happy with my life the way it is. Stop deciding for me who I like and such.

Yes, I'm happy being single. And it frustrates me to no end whenever people keeps dropping hints and attempting to pair me up because it's apparently wrong to have a guy friend.

Rumours are harmless to begin with, but after awhile, your harmless fun gets on my very last nerve. It's not funny when I denied vehemently umpteen times, and it's too hard for any of you to just digest the information and let me live my life.

2009-05-17T11:26:00.003+08:00

Hard work pays off.

I'm going to put my faith in this line yet again.

Please don't fail me :(

And, I'm going to severe all ties with 'carelessness'. So stay far away and keep your distance. This is one exam I can't afford to screw up and not planning to, if I can help it.

2009-05-16T18:24:00.002+08:00

I can live without the internet!

Okay, this shall be my resolution until finals over :(

End

2009-05-07T17:41:00.005+08:00

Tomorrow is the last day of college classes.

It's too fast, and I dread the day all of us go separate ways. Will there be a reunion after this? Hopefully.

(Credits to Piau)

I would say that this is one of my favourite classes I'd ever been in. All of us are really different in many ways, from different places, different personalities, yet we fitted in and intergrated ourselves :) Tons of people that I'm going to miss!

Keep in touch, alright?

And, I shall wait.

2009-04-30T22:23:00.009+08:00

Short Note : Being the IT illiterate I tend to be at times, I realised that I can just bluetooth pictures from my phone to the laptop....

Today was the very dreaded day for me. It's dreadful seeing that I just recovered from a sickness I have no idea what it was. Although all my symptoms were clearly similar to swine flu, oh well, thank God it wasn't! Very influenza-like symptoms. Anyway, woke up to a slight sore throat today as well which I'm thankful it cleared up by noon :)

And by late noon, it was my interview for International Medical University (IMU). I really hope I get this, cause uni application fees cost a bomb, and I only applied for this as it is my first choice. I'm thankful that Adelynn accompanied me to the interview! Really did calmed down my nerves. Xin Wei went too, for his interview as well, while Esteban needed to settle some stuffs.

The overall summary of my interview:
Interviewers: A man and a woman. Both are doctors with postgraduate degrees, one in pathology (cool!) and another in research.

The usual questions:
Tell us something about yourself.
Family, background, academical history and hobbies..

Why do you choose IMU?
Luckily I did my research on this uni, so I would say it went rather smoothly. Said something about holistic approach. And believing in the usage of technology to learn instead of cadavers.

What do you think the lifestyle of a doctor is like?
I said issues on the context on the graveyard shift, which they chuckled.. And also on difficulty to start a family, which both of them vehemently beg to differ. Both of them are happily married before age of 30. And, talked about hours I spent researching on the internet regarding this issue.. Somehow, it sounded rather unrealistic (IMO) as the guy interviewer began to bombard me. In the end he asked me, do I use wikipedia? I replied nope, cause most of the informations are rather unreliable. He agreed with that, so I hope I didn't give a bad impression as a lifeless internet social recluse.

Tell us about your strengths and weaknesses.
Strength: I said I'm rather responsible, and gave examples like treasurer for a few years... etc. Weakness: Language barrier, since I'm only proficient in English and this is a multiracial country. Stated that I'm trying to communicate more with other races to improve... etc.

What do you think is the most important criteria a doctor should have?
Oh, I love this question. I talked a lot about empathy, and also cut down on medical jargon and relate to the patient cause a patient deserve to know clearly what sickness they are diagnosed with instead of giving them a foggy idea by using scientific words. Patient-doctor's confidentially, trustworthiness. Also on confidence, cause the patient entrusting his health to you and such... And, the interviewer said it was a good answer :)

What postgraduate degree you're planning to take once you obtained your MBBS?
Stated that I would not want to decide on impulse and rather go through medical university and government service before deciding. Cause by then, I'll have a more mature mind and know where my interest lies. It's too impulsive to decide now when I haven't even went through the basic course outline. And and, the interviewer said it was a good answer also.. :D

Why do you want to be a doctor and not pursue other health science courses?
Talked a lot about my disinterest in being confine to lab works. Enjoys meeting new people from all walks of life. And also, want to learn in-depth knowledge of health science subjects. Profound interest and satisfaction in what a doctor does, and want to be in the frontier. I'm glad they did not bombard me with, why not a paramedic?

And reached the part of the horrible scenario. My scenario was really difficult, and even I myself failed miserably to justify my answer.

You reached an accident scene. The victims were your wife and the person your wife been cheating on you with, her lover. Even if you attend to your wife immediately, there's a high chance she will die. For the lover, if you stop his bleeding immediately, he might just live. So, who would you attend to first?

I almost felt like puking on the scenario sheet of paper they gave me. Both choices are equally horrible. In the end, I decided to go with honesty. If this kind of scenario really occurs, I would save my wife. And talked about how I would not want to live with the remorse of not giving my best shot to save my wife. And also, even though she cheated on me, in crucial times like this, definitely I can find a room in my heart to forgive her, even momentarily.

And, they shot me back. "Not a bad way, you can kill two birds with one stone, get rid of the wife's lover at the same time". I was stunned. I forgot what I replied them with... things like, doctors are only humans, they can't be rational most of the time, especially when their family members are involved. That is why there's a code of conduct to prevent doctors from treating their own family members in life-affecting treatments.

Then they questioned me, if you open a clinic, means you will treat your own family members first and let other patients to die? Stunned once again.... Was horrible. I just hope I remained my composure during the scenario question and can possibly score some brownie points.

The very last question was:
Do you have any question to ask?
I enquired whether the course method of teaching which is the Problem-based learning (PBL) approach will change in the near future.

They replied me that they are rather proud of this system, and don't see it being drop anytime soon. And one of the interviewers asked me back, what do you know about the PBL system?

I'm glad I went and did my research on this :)

Overall, some questions I really did badly for it. Especially the scenario..........
Hopefully those questions that they complimented me on are sufficient to at least get me a conditional offer.

I want this so bad :(

Aaargh. Now, the countdown begins. Either offer, waitlist or rejection letter will come in a period of 1-3 weeks. And the anxiety starts as well.

On a way more frivolous and lighter note, Adelynn and me went for some comfort food after the grueling interview. Manhattan Fish Market.

Passed by Giardano, saw a shirt which Adelynn said reminds her of me :D.

Nearly forgot to mention, formal shoes are the epitome of feet killer! I had to stuff tissues and put plasters to ease the pain slightly, which after a period of time did no justice to my feet. To those wandering around Taylor's area, along the stretch of road, I'm definitely a sight to behold. I was walking barefooted back to the residency area with Adelynn. Even black, rough tar pavements seemed like a carpet compare to walking in formal shoes.

Note of gratitude: Adelynn for being such a supportive friend :) Shuang and Mavis for 'interviewing' me beforehand as practise. Nadia, Pixie and Shirly for your moral support! Oh, and Fish and Cat, two of you too :D

And the time ticks.

Not a morning person.

2009-04-28T16:10:00.003+08:00

Woke up to a massive hangover although I did not consume any liquor. And I'm denying all accussations that it's because of my abnormality of sleeping at 5am. Self-denial.

Startled and jumped up, cause almost late for class.

Had to wait ages for one of the girls to use finish the toilet, decided to save time by brushing my teeth in the kitchen sink instead.

Hunted the whole room upside down for the air-cond remote control. Called roommate to enquire, twice. Twice she misinterpreted and thought I was asking where's the Maths Past Year Mark Scheme, and told me it was outside the room. So I hunted outside the room as well. Wasted twenty minutes.

Found the remote control in the end, tucked under the mountain of Mavis's soft toys. Switched off the air-cond, only to realise when I went back after college, I didn't switch it off. Faulty remote.

Hurriedly dressed, and barged out of the room. Knocked down a chair containing tons of books on the way. Stopped and picked it up.

When I bent down to pick up the fallen books, knocked my back against a fire hydrant.

Mornings are seriously deleterious to health, both mentally and physically.

Choosing Science has never felt more right.

2009-04-25T18:28:00.004+08:00

I never thought I will ever say this in my life but I am beyond relieved that I do not need to take another English exam in my life.

I realised now I have this amazing talent to screw up English papers during big major exams, first it's SPM. And now, MUET.

It'll take a miracle for me to meet the minimum band score of 4... Probably I'll have to retake.

Unless... you are applauded for surpassing the word limit by not a few mere words, but a hundred.

Unless.. not writing a conclusion for your main essay does not matter that much.. lack of time, and guess what? The same thing happened during my SPM too. History is haunting me.

Unless... not having sufficient time for your reading test and just randomly choosing the answers in moments of desperation is adequate to help me pass.

*sigh*

Never mind, there's ample time to retake once my A levels is over and done with.

......

Musings

2009-04-23T14:07:00.004+08:00

I took a step forward.

I looked back, there was nothing. And gently, I lowered my right foot onto the path to advance forward. This time, not looking back, cause there's nothing to look back to.

And if I did looked back this time, I would see the path behind me gradually fading, and vanished into thin air. Leaving behind nothing but the memories of the footprints that were once there. Faint tiny footprints dust specks suspended in mid-air.

With all the energy I can muster, I moved on. And before I knew it, I reached the end of the path. I paused for a moment to catch my breath. Finally, I looked around. I'm in the middle of nowhere, standing on a square platform that had just enough room space for my feet. The platform was in another dimension entirely.

I knew, cause there's nothing around me. Pitch black, as black as the asphalt. If I dare to venture outside the platform, I'll fall. All the way down the unfathomable abyss.

I sighed. I looked up. I looked down. I sighed again. Just when I was about to throw in the towel, a bubble floated up. I held my breath seeing it as a remedial sign, for things to be right once more. As though sensing my intuition, the bubble hovered directly in front of me. It was as though the bubble was asking me to get up, get on it.

Without thinking twice, I jumped onto the bubble, somewhat precariously. Afraid of the bubble bursting, as this was my last beacon of hope. And it rose. It rose with all the hope in the world I channeled towards it.

It carried me away from the abyssal dismay.

But, when will it stop?

This is what I symbolize hope to look like. Some optimism is good every now and then :)

My contemplations

2009-04-21T23:24:00.003+08:00

1. Mirrors are one of the most perplexing object in the house, not to mention it acts like a portal to the other world from another dimension.

2. Some individuals are really insensitive clods to people's feelings.

3. The shower temperature at the apartment I'm staying at only runs in two - ice cold or scalding hot.

4. My attachment towards inanimate objects that will never reciprocates what I feel.

5. My addiction towards horror movies even though it not only scare the living daylights out of me, as well as what little sanity left in me... It's just too tempting.

6. The TV series, "Heroes" affected me more than I thought it would. I still sore and dejected over Daphne's beautiful but saddening departure. Not to mention feeling infuriated by Matt Parkman's change of heart.

7. My innate ability to worry over practically every little things under the sun. Like, punctuations one thing for example.

8. My adoration towards books and keeps buying it even though I have tons of books at home that I still haven't get around to.

9. My uncommon hobby of crocheting which is almost unheard of in Malaysia.

10. My slight inner masochism that enjoys the pain of peeling off scabs.

11. My nocturnal instinct that refuses to let me sleep until the wee hours of the morning.

12. I hear people calling my name very frequently although they are not actually calling my name. A lot of names end with the sound 'C'... like Bet-sy(C).

13. College made me loath my favourite subject from high school which used to be Chemistry.. And now, I can't even comprehend it. Much less focusing on it.

14. The ability of my trusty camera deteriorated, the pictures nowadays require a longer duration of focusing to get a clearer image compare to last time. Or time moves slower?

15. I have a very elongated traumatic period over frogs and lizards. I'm still recovering over the incident of a frog that was in my boots more than a decade ago, as well as a lizard falling from the ceiling and landed in front of me after I stupidly sprayed water at it with a syringe.

16. The feeling of typing out words is possibly the most therapeutic regime for me, even though I have nothing sensible or even make sense to type out at times.

And that explains this blog post. I'm feeling more demotivated that usual. I have the passion, just not the drive. My finals is less than a month's time and I can't help but feel my whole life's efforts boil down to this. Not to mention my future career and all the aspirations I have in the world will crumble to pieces if I fail to make it.

Make it or break it.

=.=

2009-04-17T00:16:00.002+08:00

Crap. I left my Memory Card Reader back in hometown, and I was planning not to go back for two months, until finals is over. Seeing that I bring my camera everywhere I go, as though it's an anatomical part attached to me, this is going to be a difficult period for me. I need the Reader badly to transfer pictures to blog and everything. So, for a period of time, I shall only churn out wordy blog posts. Yes, I have a diabolical plan to torture human race with wordy posts.

*bang head against table*

Of Puppies and Dogs

2009-04-15T23:27:00.003+08:00

It's no secret that I love dogs. And if I can afford to own one in the future, I would want to get either a Golden Retriever or an Alaskan Husky (Alaskan Malamute will be dandy too).

How can you not be charmed? Adorable, slightly furry with the long droopy ears. And grows up to be loyal, endearing and cuddly.

My heart melted after I see this picture. I think I'm in love.

As for the Alaskan Husky, it's too gorgeous. Magnificent would be an understatement to describe it.

Awwwww. Stunning.

SO FREAKING CUTE!

It'll be better if I can get one when it's just a puppy, and train it. I like the feeling of whenever you reach back home, the dog will lick you like it never seen you for a long time. And also on how forgiving and loyal it can be. You can leave them at home the whole day when you go to work, and the moment the door 'clicked', they'll forget about you leaving them behind, and wag their tails like there's no tomorrow.

Truly Man's best friend :)

Pet Peeves

2009-04-11T17:06:00.004+08:00

While the blogging urge still resides in me, better make full use of it. Second post for the day.

I spent most of my time either being outside with friends or being online. Internet had already integrate itself until it becomes a necessity in my life. Being online for such an unhealthy period of time leads to observing many things. And I do think I have slight obsessive compulsive disorder over certain stuffs. The most infamous one probably is the way I categorise all the songs in my laptop, it's a work of art :)

Some of my many minor pet peeves online. Before you begin reading, no offense intended to anyone. It's just that these things bother me in a way which normal humans won't even bat an eyelash at. I'm OCD okay, don't mind me.

1. MSN name
- Those people that enjoys encoding mini images to their names. A flower, a star, or something. It just irritates the hell out of me. Especially if the code is wrong. Instead their name will appear something like [c=49]Jeffrey[/c=36]

- Calling themselves Princess or Baby. Example: Baby Alice. Oh God, spare my eyes please.

- People with long MSN names, not personal message okay.
Example: Amelia - I hate school, I hate life, but you give me the reason to live.
Cause whenever you chat with the person, their name is so godamn long.
eg.

Amelia - I hate school, I hate life, but you give me the reason to live says:
hi
Amelia - I hate school, I hate life, but you give me the reason to live says:
how are you?

The name being so long just irritates me especially I tend to read it over and over without meaning to whenever I try to read the message. Something is seriously wrong with me. Leave the long message for your 'personal message' please. I need to stop reading the names whenever I read the message. Help anyone?

- Self-pity names.
I have a contact that permanently his name will be "Lonely Jason"......... hope he doesn't read my blog.

2. Typing/Chatting/Blogging
- Like a retard.
Eg. Iiies llooouvvee uuuesss. Houuuw arrrrrea uuuues? Serious, there are people in my msn that type like this all the time. People like this usually I block or avoid chatting with at all cost.

- People that enjoys using emoticons too often that replaces every word they're typing.
Eg. I see you. What they types come out as [image of eye] [image of the sea] [image of a human pointing finger at you]. And, have to right click, click 'add emoticon as..' to see what they are actually typing.

- Short replies.
Eg. If you want to come and chat with me, then for goodness sake, type more than a word please. I hate how I can type a paragraph of conversation and then they just reply with 'oic or lol or k'. If like that, find someone that chats more of your own wavelength please.

- Punctuations
This is not a sin at all, since I tend to do that sometimes as well. But, some ppl totally too lazy to press a button for fullstop.
Eg. what are you doing tmr cuz i want to go out watch movie or something or are u studying or have another appointment are you there now

- Too-much-time-to-type style.
Do NoT tYpE lIkE ThIs AlL tHe TiMe PlEaSe.

- I heart [insert an object or a human]. Whenever I see this, I for sure cringe. Just use 'love' please.

-Spacing, please space after a comma, or a fullstop or something.
Eg. i like to eat a lot,cause eating is my life.do you like to eat?erm,japanese food?
It's perfectly understandable, just me, I tend to notice this whenever people do that, why am I so weird? *sigh*

- Overly short abbreviations.
Eg. tmr u fr? lts go ot, hv lnch. [Remove all the vowels =.=]

- Over usage of '~'

Sarah says:
Really?~
Sarah says:
why is it so?~~
Sarah says:
cause I think it's rather nice that way~~~
Sarah says:
Haha~~~

3. Photos/Pictures
- Photoshop
Eg. *sigh* Is looks that important? Cause, I'd seen pictures of people at my facebook, photoshop till I can't even recognise them. Don't think their parents can recognise them even.

4. Blogging Style
- Blogging like writing a report. Every detail must be present. Time this thing happen, that thing happen and such.
Eg.

At 3.45 pm, i waited at the restaurant. For 15 minutes. Then, 4pm, they reached. We ordered our food, took about 15 minute to decide. Ate our food for 30 minutes. Called the waiter but he was so slow, we waited a full 5 minutes for the bill.

- Capital letters.
Eg. Some people can blog with every first letter of the first word begin with small letters. And sometimes I feel uneasy reading it. But somehow, some people can type this way and still it totally doesn't jitter me a bit. Like quaintly. She writes beautifully btw :)

Disclaimer: All examples are made up by me. Not using real examples just in case anyone gets offended.

Goodbye Trials

2009-04-11T15:23:00.006+08:00

Okay, I received a sms from someone asking me to blog to keep her entertain during her holidays, so here I am. *glints at Nadia*

Flashback to about a week ago, the happy day where trials ended. And oh God, I never felt this relieved before, I'd been so sleep-deprived that I swear if you bump into me in broad daylight, you might had mistaken me for a zombie and thought zombie invasion or something. Lesson learned - Never procrastinate. (Yet I'm doing it now again for my two blissful weeks of holiday *sigh*). For the entire two weeks of trials, my life's motto became, "Sleep is a luxury, not everyone can afford it". I certainly abide by it, reluctantly.

The remaining five minutes before my very last paper was collected. My expression was plastered with a huge smile, and my eyes looking restless staring at the clock. Okay, I should stop harping on how elated I am, but I really am :)

Then, off to Sunway Pyramid to catch a movie, or two. Lining up to buy a ticket, but all of us, Nadia, Shirly, Pixie and me was either indecisive or can't reach a common agreement. So, on impulse, Nadia told the ticket-seller, "Four tickets for Unborn". And before I knew it, I have a ticket to a horror film.

As if the situation not woeful enough, the cinema (no. 12 I think) our movie will be showing was almost empty, barely anyone watching this flick. Oh, how steep it was as well the seats arrangement. If you fall, by the time you say hello to the ground, you probably suffer from an intensive head damage.

So steep until you can't even see the ground.

As if the most indigenous thing to do, the moment the lights were dimmed, I started to feel like running out. Thank God I didn't, at least I can tell people I'm not that cowardly anymore! With that, I braced myself for a foreboding fear.

Here's my few cents of thoughts on the movie.
For a horror film, it's not that scary. Somehow, I don't think Shirly and Pixie will agree with this statement. At least, for once I actually understood the plot of a horror flick. Usually those Koreans or Japanese ones have intricate storyline that's impossible to comprehend by a normal human brain, completely opposite from English ones. However, English horror flicks fall short at the 'horror' part, or it's just me. English ghosts seem less creepier than Asian ghosts.. there's just something hilarious about it.

The animation weren't too shabby, but some parts of it were so absurd that I burst out laughing. Particularly at the part where the "Dybook" possessed a stroke patient, and caused his head to spin 360 degrees. I like the exorcism part at the end, where they recited lines from the Bible, and Jumby was summoned. Haha. Jumby wants to be born now.

Pros: Definitely scary at certain parts, but not till the extent it will haunt your dreams for days. Understandable storyline. Love the ending, ingenious however predictable. The lead actress is hot. Storyline rather succinct for a ghost movie.

Cons: Some parts just seemed too cookie-cutter, redundant and absurd. Still worth a try watching. I like the show though :)

For lunch, we decided to try a new place, Sushi Zanmai. And after the visit there, I'm boycotting Sushi King.. since it's overpriced and lack of quality control. Sushi Zanmai is going to be my new haunting place. The food there is way cheaper, tasted better, bigger portion and have a nicer atmosphere.

And I vouch for everything I said regarding Sushi Zanmai based on only one kind of dish I ordered. So, it's a bias review.
Spider Maki. How simplicity can seems so perfect at times. I can eat this whole day long, if my stomach and purse permits me.

Thick juicy soft shell crab meat.

One of my favourite pictures I took. I like how the back seemed so blurry, while the object I'm focusing upon was clear.

Definitely picturesque.

The only thing Pixie will ever order in a Japanese restaurant, Salmon sushi. See how succulent and fresh the salmon seemed like :)

After the meal, the girls went back. And, I went and joined with another group of people from my class. We're watching Fast and Furious 4. Thank goodness I went and bought the tickets earlier in the morning, cause it was a full house screening.

Once again, time for my truckload of blabber on my opinions about the movie that no one would bother reading.

Quoted from Nadia, "Fast and Furious must be the guys' version of a chick flick". However, I beg to differ cause there's more profundity in the movie than I thought at first. The casts were amazing, they are definitely Chemistry between them. Vin Diesel is cool, as usual. Paul Walker is just simply good, and has the full package. Looks, charm and the ability to act. Definitely keeping an eye for his future movies. Mia Brewster was fantastic as well. Especially during the final scene, when she's behind the wheels. I swear if I'm a guy, I'll fall in love with her.

Pros: Action blockbuster that worth every single cent I'm paying for the ticket. Manage to instill humour without being too distracting or slap-stick. Brilliant cast. Mind-blowing action scenes.

Cons: Defies law of Physics. But who cares, I hate Physics anyway.

Go catch it at the big screen before it's too late, you get what you pay for. Highly recommended :)

P/S: Nadia, hope it's long enough for you to cure your boredom. Make sure you read every single word.

Spring Cleaning

2009-04-06T14:50:00.002+08:00

I was planning to blog about the sleepover at Adelynn's house, April Fool's Day - regarding how I got the worst prank ever and also on the day trials ended, was beyond relief. Oh well, those have to be put on hold, too laz-, I mean too busy to blog about it.

On the otherhand, here's a short update :)

Yesterday, my mum was up to her sporadic, my-room-must-be-cleaned mode. Hence, a spring cleaning of my room was issued and must be done on that day itself.....

And, for once I thoroughly enjoyed it, yes, miracles do happen. Sky will fall. Pigs will fly. What else? I hit the jackpot yesterday!!!

What started off as a run-of-the-mill spring cleaning, led to a treasure hunt. I found tons and tons of Chinese New Year cards, Birthday cards, handmade drawings, notes people left for me during high school. As cliché as this may sounds, they are certainly memories to last a lifetime :). All of it now nicely categorised in a file.

Oh, and I also found tons of little trinkets, souvenirs and tiny objects people gave me or things that mean something to me.

My room is seriously a treasure trove. Even something I lost almost three years ago miraculously appeared. My very first pendrive I'd owned. 2GB. Back then, it was a lot of space, contrary to now.

The best treasure I succeeded in extracting, undoubtedly money. I was sorting out bags when I opened a bag I did not use for ages, only to find, wade of cash! I almost wanted to cry on the spot for being too happy. Almost RM400 and 100 Singapore Dollars. Anyone wants to go on a holiday to Singapore? :D

All crumpled up but hey, it's still money!

My windfall did not stop there. I used to enjoy collecting old empty angpow packets when I was younger, keeping it as a sort of lucky protection. Yesterday, while ransacking my drawer, I found a stack. And I was about to throw it away believing it to be empty when my mum insisted on me opening it to double check. I'm so thankful I heeded her advice. I found more than RM100, unbelievably.

So, now I'm RM500 richer out of a sudden! Nintendo DS Lite, wait for me after A levels, I'm coming to get you. And also a pair of All-star Black Converse. Two items down from my wishlist :). Hopefully can afford to get both with a bit of help from my angpow money this year as well, which sadly, remained only one-third ... Now, how in the world am I going to stop myself from spending till then? Two and a half more months!

To clarify, my room is not messy in the first place okay. It's surprisingly tidy unless you go and open the cupboards and drawers, everything is threw inside without bothering to arrange. Yan Xia, Shirly and Nadia can vouch for that as they stayed in my room before. Now my room after spring cleaning is the same as before, except the books, CDs, clothes and stuffs are all neatly categorised.

On a lower note, my aunt and cousin is flying off to China today. My mum would had allowed me to go, but insufficient time to make a visa :(. And my aunt took along with her my camera, hence the picture in the post is kind of blurry, using my phone instead to snap it. I feel so vulnerable without my camera somehow, cause I go everywhere with it. Oh well, it's a sign, I should study hard and make full use of this holiday.... helppppppp!

Define happiness.

2009-03-28T16:02:00.004+08:00

This whole week had been insanely nerve-wrecking, partly due to my own stupid fault. I learned a big lesson, never procrastinate your studies till the very last second. I did that for Chemistry, and I ended up sleeping only half an hour before the paper. It was a waste of my time actually, considering the fact that everything I managed to cramp in my sacrificed sleeping time only came out like 5% in the real paper. With luck, I might still pass :)

Quoted from Shuang, "If you still fail by sleeping only half an hour, really you better kill yourself". I seriously need to stop procrastinating for Chemistry and stop using most of my time re-reading Biology, cause I'm weird that way.

After the ineffable ordeal of Chemistry paper, immediately I went to Sunway Pyramid with my friends. Sometimes, I'm amazed with how much energy my body can churn out. And when went back, was knocked out for six hours of afternoon nap.

Oh, and I currently look like the bride of Dracula Vlad Tepes. I seriously need to get more sleep.

Back to the blog topic. What defines happiness?
For me now, it will be green tea.

My array of green tea ice cream :)

Perfection.

Green Tea Mosaic.

Imperfection can look so perfect sometimes.

.. where all my allowance went to.

Hello Time

2009-03-25T16:05:00.004+08:00

I hate you.

Somehow, you always manage to rob me from what I'm trying to achieve and replace it with disappointment instead.

I rather not knowing, than to know and oppose by you, time.

Some lessons I learned today.

1. When your order of seats are not given, sit in the middle instead of way up front like what I did. The extra 30 seconds the invigilator need to collect the answer script from front (or maybe from way back) to the middle is more than sufficient to complete a question. I was writing my last word heterozy-... and before I can add in the -gous... my answer script was snatched from my hands.

2. You're in the exam hall for a reason. When someone cell phone suddenly rang, it's none of your business. Stay focus on the exam questions instead of being curious and looked up. Time is a-wasting.

3. Do not be deceived with what you're capable to do at home and at exam hall. Seriously. Why did I took my own sweet time answering just because I managed to finish within time with fifteen minutes to spare at home? Being overconfident with time kills, I swear time is out to get me.

4. Hard work only robs you of your health. I slept only a mere three hours so I was queasy the whole day and kept wanting to gack. My eyes hurt so bad now. My whole entire body system is exhausted, but I'm unable to sleep. My stomach hurts very badly. I'm feeling lethargic.

Why when I worked so hard, I ended up feeling more disappointed in myself than not working hard at all?

At least if I'm not working hard, I just have to blame myself for being lazy. Being lazy is way better than being disappointed.

:(

I wish there's a vendor I can go to and buy time.

Woe is me

2009-03-23T00:40:00.006+08:00

I'm having a rather insouciant attitude nowadays especially towards things that matter. Things that will refine my future especially. The stress from exam is making my mind wander even more than usual. Wander slightly further from the usual habitual thoughts. A tad further, slightly deeper, back to the days where things were less complicated and more carefree.

Memory is something queer. It's always there in your mind, but with time, it'll slowly relinquish its position to a less distant memory, and choose a more secluded place to reside. And there it'll lie, sometimes for a short while and sometimes for years before you even thought of it again. The right image you view, the proper scent, a sound will suddenly trigger things you long misplaced somewhere in the intricate complex neurones in the brain.

One of the many dreams I always had was owning a pet panda.
I'll have one when it's just a baby. And I'll devote my time taking care of it everyday. When it grows up, it'll remain faithful to me and carry me to school :)

Another of my dream is to own a house with a patio where I can sip lemonades all day long. Maybe this doesn't seem that impossible after all, less out of reach.

Okay, absurdity has a limit. I should probably get back to the real world, bedlam.

In a few days time, I probably die from Chemistry test. Anyone interested in buying a cadaver?

A night to remember

2009-03-22T01:29:00.004+08:00

Conversation of the day.
Mavis: F*** you.
Shuang: C'mon!

(Further details of the conversation is private and confidential. It involves a pencil. Not suitable to be published in case it contaminates the mind of young kids. )

Shuang suddenly decided to come over where Mavis and me stay, and hence, a study group on 'Mechanics' was formed. Not much studying was done though. All I know was, Mavis and Shuang spent most of their time hiding my stuff. My phone was offed by them and hid in my bag. My purse was hidden in Shuang's bag. My Ipod was put outside my room's door hoping I'll step on it... Some friends I have.

After only two hours of studying, we decided to head to AC for a late night supper.

Three of us decided to order fish and nasi lemak and share. The moment the nasi lemak arrived, we began to attack it like a pack of hungry wolves. Three people sharing one plate.

I think people around us assumed we were so poor and can't afford to order more food. Even the DVD seller went every table except ours! Haha.

And, later on, while we were still eating, the fruits seller came to our table. The moment he put down the large plastic container of fruits on our table, he immediately took it up and left. That time, we couldn't stop laughing already. We must had did heckuva convincing job of three poor teenage kids without even trying.

After a slightly longer than usual wait, our fish arrived. Once again, we attacked it. When we were about to be done with the fish, the DVD seller returned!

Me: So, we are finally rich enough to buy a DVD now!
All of us: *can't stop laughing*

Okay, not that funny now when put in words. It's a 'you-have-to-be-there-to-laugh" kind of joke. Oh well, a memorable night all in all!

Tomorrow I really have to begin my Chemistry or I'm so dead T___T

Tortoise Shuang

2009-03-22T00:15:00.009+08:00

Yesterday (Friday) was Shuang's birthday :)

At midnight, Mavis and me decided to call Shuang to wish her. Halfway while calling, Adelynn called her as well. And we wanted to have a 3-way conversation, and loudspeaker sounded kind of fuzzy. In the end, six phones were used for this purpose. Don't ask how and why.

[College]
To spice up her birthday, Adelynn came out with a crazy plan to torture Shuang for her birthday. Eighteen pieces of paper each containing a drawing were given to everyone in class. Each one contained a clue of an idea on what the present was and also the location of her birthday celebration.

Mission: Collect seventeen clues that will lead her to the eighteenth piece.
The catch: Before she can get the paper from the person, she had to do something the person ordered.

Some of the weird things she had to do before she got her clue.

1. Ordered by the guys to prank call. Didn't manage to do it in the end, lack of time.

2. Answer when's Adelynn and Joel's anniversay.

3. Speak Tamil.

4. Answer a question from Nadia. Name a famous artist and an artwork he drew. Shuang answered..... Moza Rela. HAHAHAHAHA! Mona Lisa -_-

5. Promise not to call herself stupid every again. (She calls herself stupid a few times every hour usually.)

and many more.

All her clues. Purple, pillow, pink, phenol, pi and etc.

After collecting more than 10 clues, only Shuang managed to get it that all of the hints begin with P!

Close-up on one of the clues. Penguins! I drew it. Don't laugh!

In the end, Shuang managed to get all the clues and claim her eighteenth clue from Maths lecturer. Was supposed to get from Piau, hence the 'P' hint... but, the guys went DOTA...... they skipped Maths class. (Curse you Dota)

The final clue revealed the location - Berry Passion.

Lazy to write anymore already. So, pictures time!

Shuang cutting her cake.

"Happy Birthday Tortoise". It's a cheesecake from RT Pastry, one of the best cheesecakes in the world.

Everyone that attended.

After all the pictures taking and cake cutting was over and done with, it was time for Shuang to find who's having her present.

The present was found with Ju Piau. Reason was, we gave her a jigsaw puzzle for her birthday. Both have the same acronyms. JP. Haha, I know, lame right? My idea -.-

A glow in the dark jigsaw puzzle :). Cause Shuang likes puzzles. Taking picture along with her 'present keeper'.

She did had one more final present. A pencil. Found on the floor.

Took tons more pictures but meh, lazy to upload. Mechanics sucked away all my energy.

13 things which keep me awake at night.

2009-03-19T23:38:00.003+08:00

1. My inability to comprehend Organics Chemistry. Who even give a fish about phenols, ketone, aldehyde and all the crap?

2. My nocturnal instinct. There's just something about the night environment that keeps me awake. Maybe I used to be an owl, or going to be an owl if I reincarnate.

3. Contemplating on life after death. I'm afraid of the empty sinking feeling of not knowing where I'm heading at afterlife.

4. Writing. I like to write, although I'm not very good at it, but I'm still trying to improve.

5. Green tea. Anything green tea. Just give me and I'll gobble it down.

6. Playing Sudoku with Beverly at MSN. One day I'll beat you!!!

7. Dreading about university applications and results. *sigh* I worry too much.

8. Television series. Once, I didn't sleep until 11 in the morning watching Heroes.

9. Games. Once I'm addicted, I'm really am. I will keep telling myself this will be the last game, and two hours later, I'll still be at it.

10. Spiffing good reads. A good book keeps the Sandman away.

11. Adelynn. The only friend that will message or call me at wee hours in the morning. Any calls or messages receive after three a.m, it's definitely Adelynn.

12. Biology. I'm addicted to Biology, it's like I'm born to study Biology or something in the context.

13. Geography Challenge. A facebook game, which surprisingly, through hours of playing, I became rather good at it. I can't resist to play it whenever I'm free. If you ask me, I can tell you the location of Victoria Falls. The flag colour of Mali. The shape of the country Honduras. The location of Urumqi at the Atlas.

There's no cure for idiocy!

2009-03-19T23:30:00.003+08:00

I'm an idiot. There's no cure for idiocy. And my idiocy is just going to get worse.

I lost my whole set of apartment keys.

Hunted EVERYWHERE.

Now, I'm going to have to come out a mini fortune from my mini allowance to change the padlock. Make duplication of keys for all six of my housemates. Made an entire set of four keys for myself. Great. Just great.

Better to be safe than sorry, if anything happens to one of my housemates, I'll be overwhelmed with guilt. However, in the first place, it's rather absurd that someone will even know where I live from my set of keys.

And, I studied for 2 hours and I only managed to finish phenols, benzene ring and methylbenzene. I'm stupid.

And, I'm depressed and disappointed with myself :(

Lameness

2009-03-17T21:10:00.006+08:00

My msn personal message: Mechanics is stupid.

(Mechanics is a maths topic by the way, not meaning the occupation)

PY says:
mechanics rocks~~

Betsy says:
i feel like u like to oppose me

Betsy says:
=_=

PY says:
no no

PY says:
really rocks mar

PY says:
coz very hard

PY says:
XD

Epic lameness. Somehow, my stress level seemed to drop! :D

Help :(

2009-03-16T02:33:00.003+08:00

Time is relative. Gone are the days where my time used to be omnipresent. Now, it's measured in seconds, milliseconds. Every single ticks just another indication I'm that much closer to death. Even if I grasp upon everything, it's never enough. Just by blinking, I lost another second. Just by sighing, another flew.

I hate aging. And it's happening.

It's always there. Just that I didn't realise. Or I chose not to.

Is it too late to learn to treasure time?

Stressed!

2009-03-14T23:02:00.003+08:00

Been two nights in a row I'd been sleeping at five in the morning. And that is seriously insane. I have no idea why but my surge of energy will usually only appear around midnight? Then last till about five before I'll give up and just slumped onto my bed. I can't seem to study before midnight for God knows what reason. Yes, I'm killing my body slowly this way.

And, I seem to have a big penchant for all things green tea nowadays as well. I can't seem to get enough of it. I seem to be binging on green tea, green tea frappucino and green tea ice cream whenever I got the chance to get my grubby hands on it.

I hereby declare, once again, I'll sleep at five tonight.

Trials is too close, too close for comfort. No rest till it's officially over.

For an entire month

2009-03-09T14:03:00.002+08:00

1. I shall cut down the amount of hours I spend online everyday drastically.

2. I shall devote at least four hours of my time per day studying.

3. I shall spend less and not buy unnecessary stuffs.

4. I shall sleep latest by 12.30am everyday unless I'm studying.

5. I shall quit reading once I finished "Norwegian Wood" until trials are over.

8th March

2009-03-08T17:47:00.003+08:00

Today is the birthday of a certain homosapien with fish-like instict, Sher Minn.

:)

So, Happy Birthday! :D

FML

2009-03-08T10:31:00.002+08:00

I'm amazed with my procrastinating abilities. Once again, I realised procrastination is the reason I always land myself into troubles.

1. My mum just told me that the age limit to take driving license had been raised to 21. I have no idea how true this is, or terms and conditions apply. Hopefully not applicable to people like me where I long qualified, fine about a year ago. T______T

I shouldn't have spend my December holiday loitering everyday and hanging out. T____T

Why didn't I heed the advice of my parents to go take driving license ins tead of choose to procrastinate and take it after A levels.

2. My trials is coming and I'm going to screw it up. Gah!

Pixel

2009-03-05T20:03:00.007+08:00

Note : Post inspired by the first chapter of "Norwegian Wood" by Haruki Murakami. That chapter was regarding on how a guy writing a book to remember his first love before he forgets everything as he ages.

I used to own a dog, a brown Cocker Spaniel, named Pixel. He was with the family for five years before he died abruptly. I was around nine that time if I'm not mistaken.

The one thing that I really regret is never ever took a picture with him or even of him properly. He was part of the family, my family. The many vain attempts of me trying to find a picture of Pixel always ended with disappointments. All I could find was a side view picture of him looking to the back. I was standing a few steps away to the right holding a Tanglung.

A month before his death, he was infected with fleas. His entire body, every part, every inch of him was covered with fleas. I remembered I spent a lot of my time picking them off whenever I'm free. And then, lighting up the joss stick and burnt them alive one by one for all the agony and pain they inflicted upon my beloved puppy. I know five is not a puppy anymore, but I would like to think so. And we can all agree on what a creepy kid I was for what I did to the fleas.

During his last week before his unforeseeable death, the fleas were still disturbing him. I used unforeseeable even though all the visible signs were telling that he's getting weaker and weaker day by day. I'll explain why later on. When my dad finally came back from his work, which is every fortnight, we (my bro and I) urged him to take Pixel to see a vet. However, my dad needed to go Singapore the very next day, it was as if his death was fated. What if we managed to get him to the vet in time? What if? Just what if.

The day before his death, which is the day before my weekly tuition at my grandmother's neighbour place, Pixel was all buoyant and lively again. It was as though everything was going to be okay. He was cheerful. He was perky. He was running around. That's why it was unforeseeable to me. But I should had known better. I remembered my brother and I were out with Pixel around the neighbourhood. Suddenly, we noticed there was tears coming from Pixel's eyes. As hogwash as this might sound, I swear it's true. I just assumed it could be dust in his eyes or something. Now I know why. He was sad to leave us. He, Pixel, knew it was time.

The next day, when we got back from school, Pixel was nowhere to be seen. The usual dog that will leap on his feet, wag his tail and run to us the moment we get back was gone. We assumed he might had ran off to play as he does this rather often. After lunch, when we went to search for him, we realised the truth. He was hiding in a secluded area behind the bush of the next door neighbour. He was stone cold. Dead.

That moment, I can only recall of me bursting into tears. I would like to believe that he chose to die at the next door neighbour's place cause he was doing it for us. He did not want us to see his dying body at his usual spot at the porch in case it'll make us feel sad before we enter the house each time. He chose to die somewhere else for us to cope with his death better. And his tears the day before, it all finally made sense. He, is the most unselfish being I'd ever met.

I wanted to skip tuition the very afternoon to mourn for him but my mum didn't allow. And my mum took Pixel's deceased body to the sea, and there was his final resting place. I knew I didn't learn anything that afternoon from tuition. I was crying the whole entire time. I missed Pixel till this date eventhough it's almost a decade.

I like to believe he's watching over me, of my family at his spot in heaven :)

I really miss you Pixel.

I can't believe that my eyes actually watered remembering this.