A Personal Blog, est. 1999
I told the kids to attack my father; their grandfather with hugs and kisses.
I love accompanying my grandfather to breakfast at the local roadside shops. He loves sitting around and saying hi to everyone who walks in to eat.
And of course, being surrounded by his grandkids and great-grandkids.
I suppose life ain’t grander than that 🙂
If you’d notice, you’d see that my assorted web profiles have the same photo of me in an orange dress. I wore it to a Carlsberg party and people said I looked nice in it.
There’s a story behind the dress: one day I looked through my closet and decided that I had nothing to wear to the party (of course everything else in the closet didn’t count).
I had to have something nice to wear! So I went shopping.
At Blook Subang, an Indian lady whose original gender remains unknown (to me) was manning the counter. She saw me listlessly browsing through the store items and approached me.
“Hello! What are you looking for?” she asked.
“Well,” I replied, “Something different from what I normally wear”.
Isn’t it strange how we expect shop assistants to be psychic? How the heck would she know what I’d usually wear unless she stalked me in her free time? But these small problems don’t come to mind there and then, so I looked at her as if she was to transform my life with a magical clothing piece.
“HAH COME!” She excitedly gestured for me to follow her, “I HAVE A DRESS FOR YOU, SURE CAN GET BOYFRIEND ONE!!”
I didn’t land a boyfriend that night. But I still felt good about myself and had such a great time, we can do the boyfriend snaring part another day, okay?
Still on the subject of clothes that I don’t normally wear: my friend Becky wanted to experiment with personal styling. So we went window shopping where I was her Barbie doll – minus the fair complexion, bright blue eyes, well-kept blonde hair and supermodel-like figure.
Nah, something that I wouldn’t choose for myself. But I have to admit, it looked decent on me.
See the wrinkly bits on my arms? That’s fat, in case you can’t identify it. So I’d have to wear a shawl over dresses like this.
At Dorothy Perkins, I tried this combination:
Might work if the skirt was way shorter. But nah, no go. Even the shop assistant behind me didn’t look impressed. Sorry for the messed up hair bit though it goes well with the ‘don’t want, don’t care’ look.
And two more from a boutique in Bangsar:
Not bad, not bad. But I didn’t buy any of them. Where the heck would I wear them to??
Here ends Monday’s vanity post.
What if I told you that there was a website where you could invite strangers to stay at your house and take them around town at your own cost?
Good luck trying to explain that one!
If you really think about it, such hospitality is not an alien concept to Asians. I grew up reading stories of kind folks offering their roof and food to weary travelers. In return they get tears of gratitude, repayment in kind years later or robbed. What? To be fair it could go either way.
The point is, it is in our blood to be warm, giving and compassionate. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Couchsurfing is a community website where you could meet people from around the world. If you travel to their areas, you could ask them (nicely) to host you; then you could stay with them for as long as they would put up with you. If they had time, they might take you around town too!
I find this exchange of trust and generosity amazing, especially in this day and age where we lock ourselves up in fear of anyone who do not look nor behave like us. So I joined as a member, read good and bad stories about couchsurfing, told myself to take the first step and be proactive, didn’t do what I told myself to do…
… until this guy wrote to me!
Yeap, that was a cute Spanish dude cracking eggs in my kitchen. His choice of t-shirt was purely coincidental.
Daniel is a 30 year old underwater photographer and scuba diver from Valencia, currently based in Gili Trawangan. He was holidaying in Thailand then had to be in Kuala Lumpur for work. So Daniel surfed a few Couchsurfing profiles, saw mine, clicked on the link to my blog then wrote me a nice e-mail asking if I’d like to host him. I was available during the dates, he was the first person to ask me to host and his background check was clean. So I said yes!
Turns out Daniel was an active couchsurfing host before moving to Lombok. Back home in Spain, he’d have the most interesting people stay over and listen to their crazy traveling stories. If he was busy with work, his guests could take his bicycle out to town by themselves. That’s some high level of trust there!
Now he lives in Gili Trawangan where he takes underwater photography, teaches scuba diving and work on a dive centre’s website and social media. What a different life from mine!
As I was preparing for a home party, Daniel helped with shopping and what-not. He also made a delicious Spanish omelette for the party, which went down very well with my guests!
It was lovely meeting you, Daniel. You were pleasant, amiable and respectful, and made my first Couchsurfing hosting experience such a positive one. Cheers to that!
tl;dr – I invited a stranger to stay at my house and he didn’t kill me in my sleep.
I was quite unwell last week so off I went to the doctor’s.
Never been to this one at Seapark before but what the heck.
Middle-aged doctor with funny eyes, took his stethoscope and proceeded to listen to my breathing… in, out, in out…
… all across my chest. A couple inches more and he might as well check to see if I was physically suitable for breast feeding.
I’ve been to doctors before but never had one who was so unnecessarily thorough with the stethoscope.
Didn’t make a scene though. Was more amused than upset.
Have you had extra attention from the doctor before? What did you do about it?
It was a good, loooooong Chinese New Year break. Guess I was more mentally burned-out than thought! I spent most of it in Batu Pahat, did nothing much but shut down, chill and refocus.
Well that’s the grown-up stuff. Let’s go back to the simple joy of posting photos and commenting on them.
Like most festivals, the Lunar New Year celebrations focuses on strengthening family ties. One of the most important traditions is the tuan nian fan, translated as reunion meal. This year we had our favourite braised cabbage dish, steamed pomfret and pig’s stomach soup. She bought two dishes from a restaurant but I prefer the homecooked stuff 😉
Served with warm white rice, mmmm
I spent a lot of time with the kid; rather inevitable as we had her this CNY. Many hours went into annoying the s- out of her, making her imitate silly actions and edging her to do sillier stunts. It was fun to get her reaction, I suppose. She wasn’t very pleased but I take comfort in that she’ll not remember any of this when she grows up.
Look ma, I’m almost camwhoring!
First day of CNY is always at my grandparents’ for lunch and to receive the odd angpau. This year I only had one of those ‘get married, don’t have to give you angpau‘ remarks. Being older, it doesn’t bother me; bring it on even if it really makes you happy!
Having said that, I’m happy that my family on both sides are really cool about these sort of things. Some gave, some didn’t. I’m good with both – after all if you wanted to give me angpau, I’d be extremely stupid not to accept, right?? Heh…
My grandparents!
Oh look, I have permed hair again. You know why? So I don’t have to comb my hair for 1.5 years, yay!
Not sure why but my grandparents always cater for nasi beriani with ayam masak merah or rendang for our CNY lunch. It’s becoming our tradition.
On the 2nd day of CNY, we always eat with my Dad’s side of the family. This year was our family’s turn to host, and we had:
Spot the pig
Batu Pahat has changed quite a fair bit. I don’t go back much and everytime I do, there’s something different at every corner. Back in my days, young people would leave for KL, JB or Singapore to study, work and eventually stay there. From what I see, a lot more younger folks are staying in Batu Pahat, making their mark.
Like this one in Taman Bukit Pasir, I think it’s friggin’ awesome!
Say what you will about creativity…
We went to Kluang for my Dad’s annual CNY get-together with his friends. This year it was subdued as a family friend was not feeling all that super. Still there was food, drinks, talk, laughter and the best homemade yee sang.
Toss toss toss for health and prosperity!
We had dim sum with grandparents before my sister left for KL. Batu Pahat’s dim sum isn’t all that great but a nice change from our usual lontong, nasi lemak, economy noodles etc.
After reading that Huai Bin’s grandmother’s house was robbed, I took my grandma to the bank to deposit her CNY gains. Even spooked her a bit to be more aware of her surroundings, crime is everywhere!
Then we went to the Kuan Yin temple as she’s the praying type.
Lanterns at the temple
Sometimes I wonder if people really pray when they seem to be praying, or do it for the sake of doing it. I wonder what they’re thinking. What are they wishing for?
If you believe in some Chinese astrology, your year of birth might say that you are fan Tai Sui – literally translated as ‘offending the Grand Duke of Jupiter’ for this year of the Snake. If you’re one of the unlucky sods to fan Tai Sui this year, the stars and universe says that you should expect a rough year ahead.
Now, I don’t believe in it (odd, seeing where I used to work) but a lot of people do. So they do all sorts of things to try appease the Tai Sui, which to me is funny because Jupiter is a planet.
But they do it all in the name of wanting to protect their loved ones, and we should be grateful for keepers of tradition.
Donating to appease the Tai Sui
I didn’t see a lot of friends this time round, only Melissa and friends from YBF. We visited Bhante Sumana as we do every CNY and this year, finally had a group photo taken.
Still the funniest, wittiest, sharpest, most logical, down-to-earth monk I know.
It seemed that on my long CNY break, everyone else was on break as well. I didn’t manage to eat some of my favourite Batu Pahat food, no one wanted to work!
The night before I came back to KL, we had dinner at the Batu Pahat riverside hawker centre. I’ve been eating there since I was a kid, it’s my must-go whenever I return to BP.
I love the big main road, Jalan Rahmat that leads to the riverside. The hill in the background, the old shophouses and dusk make it so picturesque.
We are Fuzhou lang so we eat Fuzhou noodles! If you don’t know what it is, basically it’s like Hokkien noodles plus a touch of vinegar. At least that’s how it’s done in Batu Pahat, not sure about other Fuzhou populated areas in Malaysia. I think this guy make his own noodles, it has a tad more bite than the usual fat yellow noodles for Hokkien mee.
Batu Pahat Fuzhou noodles
Not forgetting one of my favourite Batu Pahat to-eat, grilled stingray! The way we have it here is to grill it and drown the fish with ‘cili boh’ (chilli paste). If you know where I can get this type of grilled stingray in KL, please let me know!
Mmm stingray is so good!
I also got to eat some lontong before I came back. This was at our favourite in Taman Maju (I think). We stopped going to the one at the roundabout near TIGS because it was too chaotic and inconsistent, even though it was touted the best in town.
Lontong in Taman Maju
While having breakfast at Sri Gading with my grandparents, I spent about 2 minutes wondering why the rust on roofs have different patterns…
So, why?
A couple doors from my aunt’s sundry shop is this old-style barber. At first I was fascinated by the DIY A4 self-written sign, so I took this photo. I wanted to take another one but the barber turned around and saw me.
So I scurried back to the car.
That was my CNY in Batu Pahat in a blog post. Almost wished I didn’t have to come back, but remembered the two bottles of pinot gris in my fridge waiting for my return, heh. I hope you have had a most enjoyable holiday too!
Short version: Had surprise birthday parties for Mom two years in a row with Groupons.
Long version: I’m not sure why (maybe it’s a psychological thing that no one is interested in) but I go on a group buying spree come every December and January. It so happens they lay out the good stuff in these two months. Or at least the deals that I find useful anyway.
It also so happens that with the help of my family members, we managed to organise surprise birthday dos for my mom two years in a row now, all thanks to Groupon.
How? As aforementioned, they have the good deals come end/beginning of the year and I can’t help but to buy them. Only then I think of a use for them.
Last year, it was a good deal for the then newly opened Trattoria Il Porcellino at Menara Hap Seng. I had a lovely dining experience at its pork-free counterpart, the Trattoria Cucina Italiana at Rohas Perkasa, so decided to check out this pork-friendly version.
Great choice! Good food, wine and service – my mom was duly and pleasantly surprised, fantastic!
My mom’s surprise birthday do in 2012
By the way, do check out Trattoria Il Porcellino at Menara Hap Seng for good ol’ comforting Italian food at decent prices. The last time I was there, they still dish out the complimentary chocolate vodka at the end of the meal.
This year, it was Ayamas’ xth anniversary and the deal was 2 roasted chicken for almost half the price.
I know, I know… from delectable Italian cuisine to mass roasted chicken… how the mighty seems to have fallen…
But not quite! We decided to make a home party out of it, and we had the pleasure of relatives to join us in this surprise do.
So I contributed the 2 roasted chickens and creamy mashed potatoes, recipe from The Pioneer Woman. That means butter, cream, butter, butter, milk, cream and more butter. If you’re wondering why your arse seemed bigger after eating it, well that’s why… and a whole block of cream cheese.
Before covering the top with butter and more butter
But we only live once, and getting older with fears of clotted arteries means that I’ll never make creamy mashed potatoes that way again, even though it was possibly the most delicious creamy mashed potatoes I’d ever had.
I think I used up 3/4 block of butter for it.
So I got ready the chicken, potatoes and ready-to-mix salad, and my sister the domestic goddess came up with everything else.
… pasta salad, pasta in bolognese sauce, tuna sushi, chicken liver pate with toasted French bread, pumpkin soup, konyaku jelly with fruits. Everything homemade, all done in one night.
Sometimes I don’t think we came from the same mother.
Mom was again surprised and happy, yay! I asked if she was pretending to be surprised just to layan us but she denied it. In civilised societies, you don’t ask your mom if she was lying through her teeth just so you can prove a non-valid point. So I didn’t.
Surprise birthday do 2013
I wonder what next year’s Groupon deal will be. That magic unicorn ride would have been really awesome #justsaying
… or woman. But that’s just semantics 😉
Not sure if I should apologise for all these ‘feel good’, ‘the sun is shining, birds are chirping’ stuff. But I’m feeling real good about life (at the moment, have been for a while now). Definitely comes with growing older. Plus it’s hard to be miserable when you’re surrounded by super awesome people!
So, deal with happiness 😀 As well as a long blog post with 12 photos.
All in all, I had an amazing 25th 31st birthday celebration. A few days before the actual date, I was at a get-together with old YBF friends. Hui Hui made a mille crepe for Richard and I as our birthdays are close together.
We had a fun time ‘decorating’ the cake 😛
Shirley came to KL for my birthday weekend, she got me…
Peel feet, peel!
I’d used them before and oddly enough, enjoyed the peeling sensation. The downside to it is, you can’t control when it peels. I probably deposited my DNA in half of Klang Valley..
She also bought me dinner at Jogoya where I mostly ate..
Best dessert in the world!
New Zealand macadamia ice cream with honeycomb cake! Best combination ever! I ate way too much of this, I don’t want to remember how much.
Then we went to hang out with Jaime and Timm, and Jaime got me…
Delicious chocolate banana cake from Ben’s
The next day, I had to stand around at a job fair for work for a bit. My colleagues got me…
Thanks girls 🙂
Then it was off to the Cheangs for a lovely evening of BBQ, fun and laughter.
Part of dinner! BBQ wagyu beef! Noms!
Mel got me a happy cake…
I was excited about this cake as it gives out such a happy vibe, don’t you think? Mike and Lance’s dad (who was fed with lots of alcohol by AhFa) was caught up in my enthusiasm and decided to put a smile on the cake…
“LET ME PUT A SMILE TO THAT CAKE!”
So he took the plastic cake knife and drew a smiley face on the side. I didn’t manage to get a good photo as I was doubled up with laughter.
Also got leftover from the BBQ from Mike…
Mmmmm I seem to be the only one who enjoy this though…
One of my sisters gave me…
New rims for Gladys!
The other one gave me…
Airfryer for new cooking adventures!
It’s a couple hundreds cheaper to buy in Singapore, so Shirley helped me get it and hand carried it into Malaysia <3
AhFa got me this!
Then yesterday in the office (way after my birthday), my colleagues got me this!
Life’s awesome or what???
Thanks everyone for your kind thoughts, gestures, songs and wishes. I am truly touched, humbled and I appreciate everything! Thank you for making me feel like I’m the luckiest girl in the world, thank you 🙂
