Chinese New Year 2015

Hello people.

This post won't be much writing because I'm kinda tired so I'm going to place up tons of photos from my Chinese New Year. And yes, I'm back in my hometown now and trying not to think that I'm going back to KL this Sunday because this fact makes me really, really sad. 

Anyway, my new year like everybody else's spend in guilty pleasure: FOOD. 

New Year is all about eating and eating and eating and stuffing food down even though you're already full. It's the only time of the year people won't really judge you if you get fat, because they're getting fatter too. Hehe. 

I mean to upload a lot of food photos I took during the new year, but my internet is quite slow so I have to cut it down into a few important pieces. This is going to be a mash-up of what I ate during the new year, and mind you, this is only a very small part of it because I got sick of capturing food photos after the second day of Chinese New Year. I mean, hello, I don't think I have the energy to capture since there're like, I don't know, tons of food.

Other than food, it's the new clothes (dresses, mostly) I got to wear and now I realized that I have new dresses that I haven't wear yet (omg). And New Year is all about reunion with family members and gathering with old friends. I did a lot of those, and maybe that's why I didn't have time to update my new year here day per day so everything won't be this messy like I'm doing right now.

Or maybe we have my procrastinating skill to blame.

...

Er, enjoy!

First day (left) and second day.

 Third day (left) and fourth day (aka outing with friends)

Me and my cousins.

We went to a cafe and had cake today. Oh did I mentioned it's like 10 something at night?

Guilty.

My family. And yes, for some reason my mom looks younger than me. And I look like my dad.

I don't think I have to tell you guys that these are all food, right? Keep in mind this is only like, 1/4 of all the food we had during the short period of Chinese New Year.

Once again, guilty.

The rest of the photos were on the fourth day of Chinese New Year, which I went out with my bunch of pretty friends. Or crazy, whichever.

YEAH MY HOMIES. 

My girl since we're seven. Hate and love the fact that she's prettier than me. Hmm.

Here's the end of my summary of this year's CNY. Have a great year ahead people!!

Till next time people.

xx

Blind Date with A Book

Hello people.

So I'm not planning to post any photos in this particular post because I'm actually uploading quite a lot of photos for another post I'll be writing after finish uploading, and boy, my internet sucks at uploading stuffs. 

While waiting for my photos to be uploaded, I'm visiting a few online bookstores and drool over the many books I want but can't have (money-wise). I remember when I was younger, I always told other people that when I got a boyfriend, I don't want typical gifts like flowers and cute accessories from him, but books. Tons and tons and tons of books. Well, of course chocolates are more than welcome. This is because well, I'm a nerd who love books to death.

Anyway, that's not the point. 

I was looking through the internet for books because I just finished two books today and found out one of those has a sequel which I didn't buy. Wait, let me finish with what books I read today. Patience, grasshopper. 

The first book I finished today is The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. Yes, yes, yes, I know. I'm really late on this trend. But I did the same thing with The Hunger Games, too. I only read it after everyone had finished with it. Not that I'm retarded or slow, but I sort of have this weird habit to not follow the trend and read the books after their trend were over. For instance, tons of my friends recommended me to read TFIOS a trillion billion years ago and I wanted to read too, don't get me wrong, but I wasn't in the mood for it. Or let me phrase it this way, I don't really want to spend my money on the book that soon. Also, I never watch the movie before because I don't believe in watching the movie before reading the book.

Okay, okay. I finished the book and it's awesome (though I already knew the ending before reading it thanks to its popularity and all the big mouths around me. Kidding) but for me, it's kinda boring for me at first. Funny, but a little bit boring for me. Or maybe I'm just waiting for the sad part to come sooner. Or maybe I have high expectations since everyone's saying how great this book really is. But I got engaged in the story very quickly after the "intro" part of the book, and cried like a baby the whole afternoon. 

It's the second book that made me searched online to buy new books. It's Clarity by Kim Harrington and I bought it during a Jumble Sale in my college. Well, needless to say that I didn't know that it has a sequel and the book is so damn good it makes me so frustrated that I don't have the sequel right in my hand this very moment. If only you can understand the frustration of wanting to read a book but don't have the book. Thankfully I did find it online, a little bit expensive but it's okay since I'm so desperately wanting to know the ending for the book, and also, which guy did the protagonist choose. Teehee. 

The book is about a psychic girl trying to solve a murder case that her brother (also psychic but cute) got involved in. Romance, suspense and hot guys. What more can you ask for?

Okay. I'm sounding silly up there. Forget about it. What I really like about this book is that it's like a fresh breath of air after the sadness of cancer and star-crossed lovers stuffs in TFIOS. It's light and easy to read. And that's why I love this book and almost died when I found out there's a sequel. I mean, I usually know the book has a sequel before I finish the whole thing, but this time, I sort of heed my father's advice to not peek at the ending before finish reading. I should have read the ending and realized there's another book after so I won't read this book first until I find the next book. 

Another weird fact about me. I need to get all the books from the series before I can read. I hate ending-less and this frustration I'm going through right now. Ugh.

After my mission accomplished (finding the sequels, also for my other books that I don't have the sequels), I wandered into an online bookstore called http://www.bookxcessonline.com/ (go check it out, especially if you're a Malaysian book-lover) and found treasures in it. I found the Inkheart trilogy selling for only RM29.90!! Thank god I didn't buy at the bookstore, which will cost me over 100 bucks!!

Then something caught my eyes. It said: Blind Date with A Book, and of course I'm intrigued. I couldn't help myself but to click onto it and bam, my dream comes true. I'd saw events quite like this online but there're all in other countries. It's literally a blind date with books. I flipped through the catalog and the books are all wrapped up in brown papers so you can't see which book is wrapped inside the package. There's only a line of the book or a hint of what the book really is printed on top of the brown wrapping paper and I already guessed the real identity of a couple of books inside. 

Really. "Pain demands to be felt". Even I know what book is that. Well, probably because I just finished the book today, but still. Definitely not adding that book into my cart, now that I know. Thank God I finished TFIOS today, if not I'd probably buy the book twice. 

This is a great activity except the part nowadays we have Google and I totally can find out which book has that particular quote or something. 

...

Not much a blind date anymore, eh?

...

Till next time people.

(or in my next post)

xx

Fondest Memories ― Motorcycle-Ride Down The Lane

Hello people.

It's almost three a.m while I'm typing this particular sentence. Instead of feeling sleepy, I'm feeling nostalgic. In fact, this feeling started this afternoon, when I was attending a church service at my cousin's church. I started having flashbacks of parts of my life before, and I knew I have to get them all down before I lost them all again. I straight away pulled out my phone and started scribbling with my personal, messy handwriting, and jotted down this new idea called: Fondest Memories.

Here I introduce this new section of my blog, where I record down all those little memories my subconscious had stored for me over the what little amount of years I'd lived. I'm not trying to make this a formal thing, but I don't think these pieces that I'm going to do will be well-suited under the labels I'd done before. It's about life, of course, but the mostly-forgotten parts of it. 

Fingers-crossed that more and more little, insignificant memories will come back one at a time, so I can continue to jot down the piece of my life. It feels like putting pieces of puzzles back to their own places to form a bigger, clearer picture: my life.

The image that hit me hard today was a short lane just right out of my maternal grandparents' house in Sibu, Sarawak. I was about four, I guess, on my way back home from the kindergarten there, wearing my red color uniform, if I'm not mistaken. Sibu is my mom's hometown, where we visited almost every year till our financial abilities stopped that routine. My mom was walking hand in hand with me as we turned into that lane that lead to the house. The kindergarten was located in a church nearby my grandparents' house, so it's not that far of a walk. 

I still remembered vaguely that I was talking to my mom about how my day was when a huge tall man riding his motorcycle turned into the corner that lead to the lane. I was delighted when the motorcycle halted to a stop, and saw his easy grin etched on his face. It was my uncle who's years younger than my mom that met us at the crossroad. He still had that boyish smile on his face, and his playfulness in his personality although he already has a daughter who is the same age as me. Back then, he had less dignity than he is now as he was much more or less of a young adult.

A few casual words exchanged between him and my mom, then he turned to me and offered me a ride on his motorcycle. Let me get something straight, for all of my life, I've only been on a motorcycle twice or thrice, and I believe that it was my first motorcycle ride. My parents deeply believed that motorcycles are dangerous and they never ever let me get a ride on motorcycles; I only get rides when I got back to Sarawak, where my uncle and grandfather used motorcycles as their transportation. I was so excited to finally get a chance to sit on a motorcycle, no matter how short the distance was. As if a miracle had happened, my mom actually said yes and my uncle just hauled me off the ground easily (he's really tall, I think easily over 6 feet and he's huge) and placed me in front of him on the motorcycle, in the small basket where he could ensure that I wouldn't fall off and hurt myself.

 Happiness literally filled my by then four years old heart. I felt like I could burst with pride and happiness as I finally got a ride on the motorcycle after watching my cousin sat on it so many times. I didn't know what got my mother to agree to this monstrous request (you should see how my parents react to my brother wanting to take up motorcycle lessons when he's older) but I was so happy she did. I was so happy through the short ride, I think not more than 30 seconds. That's how easy to please a little child like me back then. 

Now that I hardly go back to Sarawak anymore, I didn't get to see a lot of my relatives. Of course my relationship with my uncle faded a little by a little over the years, where he started to get busier with his work and having more children to feed. He has become successful in a way, and now has six kids and believes in almost all religion. My aunt (his wife) still sends us clothes whenever my grandmother comes out and visit us in the Peninsular Malaysia (aka the pineapple-like land below Thailand). Well, that's one reason less for me to spend money on new clothes. 

This particular flashback make me realize how much I really miss my family back in Sarawak. I miss our dynamic and our old routine, where I always went back with my mother and little brother during our long school holiday at the end of the year. I think my mom misses her hometown even worse than me, but given the fact that I'm out here in college (meaning tons of money need to spend) and our financial status, and of course, her lack of holidays (no need to start the shitstorm) equal to no chance to head back to Sarawak anytime soon.

Well, I think I'd better stop the coming-whining before I begin to whine over little things (typical) and it's pretty late now (or early) so I better get some sleep so I won't be late for class tomorrow. Also, I have a lot of packing ahead as I'm heading back home for almost two weeks for Chinese New Year, eep!

So I guess this is it, my first fondest memories and hopefully, many more to come. 

I hope you guys enjoy reading this and if you have any little memories or flashbacks you wanna share, you can always comment below. I'd love to see what your little memories that you haven't think for quite a while are. 

Till next time people.

xx

Living Alone and Good News

Hello people.

Well, as I so frequently mentioned in my blog posts, I started my college life a little over a month ago. It's a whole new journey for me, a lot of new experiences gained, terrible mood swings and of course, the never-ending homesickness. 

The phrase "living alone" doesn't indicate that I have an apartment all by myself. Not really that alone; since I have seven others living with me in the same unit. I'm living in the school hostel right now, straight up to 20th floor of the building. I'm sharing my room with sotong (we requested for it, and it costed us 100 bucks each. Ouch) and sharing the commonplace with six other people.

Living independently means that I have to take up a lot of responsibilities. I used to be the most pampered at home, as my brother and my parents really dote on me, where most of the house chores were done by them for me when I lived back home. Now I have to make my own bed, wash my own clothes, cook my own food and do everything by myself. 

For most of the time, I missed my family so terribly much. This definitely contributed to my good nature to them whenever I headed back home during the weekends. Also, it also made me feel excited for the coming Chinese New Year for the first time. I never really liked Chinese New Year, in fact, it's safe to say that I never really like it for the whole of my life. Well, that changes this year since Chinese New Year = Holidays and that means that I can spend a lot more time with my family than ever.

Outside food had become a huge part of my life without my mom's home cooking. I lost my appetite for the first week I got here, and I was craving so badly for home food. Well... things changed after I got back my appetite and it's safe to say that I'd put on some quality fats. Fingers-crossed that I still can fit into my New Year dresses. Things surely get better after I sneaked around cooking for my roommate and I, since she only knows how to cook rice and nothing else. 

I'll continue to moan about living alone if you'll let me, but I'm aching to tell you guys my good news! Remember that I went for my ATCL recital last December?

I FREAKING PASSED THE RECITAL AND GOT MY DIPLOMA.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Yes, I was so shocked that I actually passed. Got 72 out of 100, it's already great enough for me. I thought I passed and went to heaven or else, dreaming when my piano teacher sent a congratulation sticker to me through LINE. I was so freaking happy but resisted the urge to scream since I was in the middle of Christian Fellowship and obviously I couldn't scream out loud. Since they'll think that I'm cuckoo and send me to an asylum.

Anyway, I immediately texted my mom and my besties. We're all so excited about it and I went to celebrate at night with sotong. Well, not really celebrate, we just got something a bit nicer to eat, and that's it. Now that I'm in charge of my own pocket money, I have to be really careful on what I spend on. But still, I can't wrap my head around the fact that I actually passed!!!

That means that I can get into a graduation robe and throw the graduation cap into the air!!!!!

All those torture to my fingers were totally WORTH IT. Now I just have one more result to anticipate, my SPM result is coming out on March 3rd and I really, really hoped I didn't screw it. 

Wow. It's almost one a.m. now and I'm still in school typing away.

I think I might go now, see you guys next time!

Till next time people.

xx

How I Became My Own Cook

Hello people. 

Sorry for being away for so long, and Happy Valentine's Day to all you people out there! Single or not, that's it. Don't be too upset if you don't have a valentine today, because I totally feel you. I'm not upset though, since I do actually have a valentine, just that it's not a person. 

It's my food. 

Which directly lead us to what I'm going to write about today, since I have tons of ideas boiling up when I wasn't writing in here, I jotted them all down in my phone and now the ideas are over-flowing in the note and I figured since today is Saturday, and I'm so damn free on Valentine's, why not a new blog post?

I wasn't able to write in here before because I was quite busy with tests and homework. Also, slow internet. But now with Chinese New Year around the corner, and me being temporary free from tests, I'm aching to write another blog post so I can cure that itch of wanting to write. 

Since I got here in college, I ate a lot of unhealthy outside food because I had no other choice. The food in the cafeteria and the hawker centers outside were oily and greasy. After eating, I always felt nauseated and I could literally feel the fats stuck on my arteries. Not that I'm very particular of being really healthy and only consumed healthy food, but constantly stuffing down outside food made me feel really unhealthy and disgusting.

I terribly missed home cooking but the main rule in here is that we can't cook. But my mom noticed that I was really unhappy constantly eating outside food, she bought a mini rice cooker (multipurpose) for me to bring it up here and cook. Secretly of course.

No worries, it's not fire hazard or something. So I'm not endangering anyone's life here. Also, plenty of people cook discreetly in here, not just me. Anyway, my roommate and I got really excited and went grocery shopping and bought home tons of food for cooking. 

For the first day, it's pasta night. 

I did pasta with salad as a side dish, and I feel so happy to finally not have to eat outside food. Or at least not as frequent as I used to be.

And yes, as you can see, I was pretty excited on the first day of cooking. That explained why there's so many photo of pasta and salad here. Huh.

It's quite easy to fix a bowl of pasta. Just bought some sauce (here we used some salad dressing as our pasta dressing, just because the sauce tasted really good) and boiled your pasta then ta-da, it's done. I bought some frozen seafood for extra ingredient. Also, I boiled some peas, corns and mushrooms to go with the pasta. As for salad, well, I just chopped up some raw vegetables (baby butterhead, red and green coral, purple cabbage and carrot) and put on my coleslaw sauce.

Second day was the chicken soup day. 

I love chicken soup to death. It's really simple to cook a pot of delicious chicken soup. What you need is some chicken parts with bones and a few slices of ginger. Throw the combination into the pot and boil for 45 minutes (approximately) and placed in some flavors and it's done.

That's the easiest way to cook chicken soup. Of course if you want you can add other ingredients such as ginseng or just some vegetables. What I cooked was my mother's recipe passed down from my grandmother. The easiest kind but the kind that preserved most the flavor of the chicken.

That night we also cooked chicken filet rice according to my roommate's sister's recipe to go along with my chicken soup. So basically that night was the chicken night?

For the another night, I steamed salmon fish and stir-fried some vegetables with mushrooms. And for the other night, I steamed eggs accompanied with my mother's stewed pork which I brought back from Muar.

Well, that's all for food. I'm not a really good cook but man, those surely beat those oily food out there. At least it's a little bit healthier to cook at home than eating out. 

Speaking of cooking, I'm going to cook for dinner now since I'm starving. 

Till next time people.

xx