*Sigh*

b_0122_ldavenport_01, originally uploaded by airfoong.

Sigh.... Lindsay lost to Serena Williams in the finals... 6-2, 3-6, 0-6. Also lost in the doubles finals. Hope she won't retire so soon and come back next year.

Red Hill

Bathing time at Bukit Merah, originally uploaded by airfoong.

This blog is specially written for James & Chin Hor ;P

"The Hills are alive with the sound of music......"
ok ok.... so the Bukit Merah Laketown Resort wasn't really on a hill(though we have to drive thru a hill to get to it) ...at least it really has a lake there. Last weekend five of us...... me, Yuen Theng, Joanne, Paul & Raymond took a road trip to Bukit Merah which was located about 45mins drive up north from Taiping. All of us were really excited about this trip since we first talked about it last year. It was to be our first and last trip as a LifeGroup/cellgroup together but sadly, James & Chin Hor couldn't make it. Why did we choose Bukit Merah? Well we had Yuen Theng & Raymond to thank for since they won a couple of free vouchers for a 3 days 2 nights stay in an apartment and it comes with free buffet breakfast.

So on friday morning we packed our stuff an headed up north on the NKVE. Haha poor Raymond's car trunk was full of stuff.... Food, our own luggage, food, my electrical pot, paul's fishing gears and more food. Of course with any outstation trip we had to stop somewhere to makan. Our FIRST stop for breakfast was Bidor which Yuen Theng claims that the "Boiled duck noodles" was good. Bump into Kelvin there (his group was heading to Cameron Highlands). The noodles was ok(joanne said the one she had in Penang taste better) but we got a shock as we paid the bill..... RM5 per bowl and we had to pay a 5% government tax! This is in a kopitiam in a small town. All of us were shaking our heads. For sure we won't be going back to that kopitiam ever again. Our SECOND stop(for lunch) was at Taiping, famous for the wantan noodles and popiah. Sadly the famous wantan noodles stall only open at 2pm and the popiah stalls only opens at 1pm. Anyway Paul had a good fried kuay teow and I had wantan noodles from another stall which cost me only RM2 (potion quite small).

Finally after all the eating we reached our destination.......The resort was located just next to the highway. The penthouse was quite spacious, 2 storey with 4 bedrooms. Well there were 5 of us and 4 bedrooms so I had one of the master bedroom all to myself *GRIN*

Well we didn't do much there becoz we refuse to pay to go into the water park, the Eco-park or the Orang Utan Island. And the fishing park wasn't open becoz..can u believe it..it has no fish in it (*sob* no ikan bakar for us). We basically just eat, sleep, watch VCD and swim. Oh yeah we did a bit of kayaking, fishing(by the "longkang" in front of the apartment) and played pool/snooker and Daytona.

I guess it's really a holiday and for some of us we get to catch up on our sleep. For me even though we didn't do much I really enjoyed the time spend and fellowship with them. Joanne said that now only she knows how much Yuen Theng can eat! hehe and I also discovered that I have a "gift" for floating on the water which the rest of them tried but couldn't...ok ok maybe it's becoz I have a lot more fat then them but hey at least I know I won't have any problem floating if I ever got into any trouble at sea!!

will post up more photos once I get them from Paul or Raymond....

Old Times and old Frens

One of my ex-classmate, Daphne came back from the US so a few of us met up at the Padang Timur A&W (opposite Amcorp Mall) yesterday nite. "What? A&W...aiyah choose another place lah..nosiy lah", Olivia was complaining. I told her to choose another place but she couldn't come up with one so A&W it is. I've alwiz like that place eventhough the burgers sucks. It's probably the only A&W in malaysia that still serves rootbeer in a glass mug. Becoz it's the nearest fastfood outlet to our secondary school it has alwiz been a favourite lepak place for us. After basketball practise, after school concerts, after sport's day, after any school celebration, even on any other normal day we'll alwiz hang out there. You can gurantee that there is alwiz some Assuntarian lepaking there from Mon-Fri.

Anyway just a few of us met up.....me, Olivia, Daphne, Narissa & Siew Peng. Of course we did the usual stuff....gossipping about who's geting married(that would be Olivia, Siew Peng & Lai Yee), who's married(too many to tell!), who's pregnant(Shu Yuh), who's pregnant with the second child, who's still single (me!) and who's doing what. Narissa happens to have gone back to the school for a gathering a few weeks back and she was telling us about the changes. Apparently the canteen has gone thru a whole lot of renovation and now it even has chairs and tables like those from Coffee Bean! And finally after years of fundraising the brick wall is up(those of you from Assunta would know what I'm talking about). We felt kind of dissapointed when she told us that our classroom which is the nearest to the teacher's staff room has been turned into some sort of a store room. haha Maybe we were making too much noise until they decided that it would be much better & more peaceful to use that room to store stuff!! We were also talking about Francis's wedding (he got married to an Indonesian Chiness girl). When Daphne first told me that she's coming back for his wedding, suddenly I felt so old. I've known her since kindergarden and we used to play together with her "little" brother and now he's married. Talk about ageing. Even Olivia's brother is all grown up now.

Well we had a good time chatting, laughing, gossipping and more laughing. I felt kind of warm and fuzzy just sitting there, seeing old frens, chatting and catching up with one another. I was just looking at Daphne & Siew Peng..... thinking about how I've known them since kindergarden, they are my 2 oldest fren and now more than 20 years on, I'm sitting down here and chatting with them and also wondering if in 10 or 20 years time we'll be able to meet up, sit down and chat. I certainly hope so.

Ozzie Open

Yee Hah! Lindsay totally smoked Conchita Martinez in Round 1, 6-1 6-0. Almost a double bagel. Go Lindsay!!

The Government not enuff $$$ ah?

Woke up early today at 6:30am to get to Putrajaya to change my old IC to the new MyKad together with Jo, Liz & Aileen. Upon reaching Putrajaya it feels like we were in a totally different country. There were wide roads...pretty streets......plenty of bridges.....extremely ugly lampposts (which look like cobras!).... and of course all the modern designed government buildings. As usual there weren't any signs stating which building is for which department so we had to stop the car and asked for directions. And as usual their main entrance is not facing the front but at the side towards the back. Surprisingly...we were expecting a crowd but there weren't anyone there..... not even one person lining up. WOW Happily we took our numbers and filled up our forms. And then while processing my stuff the lady told me that I had to pay a fine of RM90 becoz I didn't changed my old IC when I reached 18 years old. According to her you'll have time to changed your IC between 18 - 25 years old...if not you'll have to pay a fine! ALAMAK! I was furious. Ironically I changed my IC when I was 17 as it was stolen then. But I still have to pay the stupid fine! Rm90 might not be much but I could have gone for a Shangri-La buffet with that amount! It could have paid for my Bukit Merah trip! Heck...it could have paid for some medical supplies for the Tsunami victims! I was complaining to the lady that I didn't know about this stupid law but she said it has been there all the time. I was thinking to myself, is it my ignorance that I dunno about this law or the stupid, lazy, corrupted government didn't do a good job informing us about it? Why do I have to pay for something that is not my fault? Even my frens didn't know about it. Even my sisters didn't know about it. Reluctantly I had to borrow the $$ from Liz to pay the fine (she was joking that I'm paying for one of the ugly lamppost outside!). Thank goodness the staff there were frenly and helpful. They told me that luckily I changed my IC b4 I turn 30 years old if not I'll have to pay a higher fine. That was the only bad hiccup but other than that the whole process took only 10 minutes (we were expecting to spend 2 hours there). Before I left I asked the lady if I need to change my IC again after a certain age, she said no need, it will last me for the rest of my life but with the government being so fickle minded...I have a feeling that I might need to come back someday to change to another new IC.....

For those poor ignorance souls out there.... GO CHANGE YOUR IC ASAP! You do not want to contribute to any of those ugly lampost!

Anyone care for Stir Fried Oats?

Today as I was standing in the kitchen at BLC wondering what I should have for lunch..... I opened the cupboard and saw packets of instant noodles...hmmm..... nah.... no instant noodles for me. As I'm on a diet (Liz stop laughing!) I decided to just have some stir fried vegies. Then I remembered I bought a huge packet of oats from tesco...hmmm.... I'm sick of eating oats with mushroom soup or milk..... then suddenly *ting* ting*...hey why not have stir fried oats!! Similar to fried rice but instead of using rice just use oats! haha

I pop in the usual stuff in the wok...garlic, onion, vegies, egg and some seasoning and then just add in the oats & water and continue frying it until all the oats have absorb the water and voila I have my stir fried oats!! How does it taste like? Like chicken! hehe just kidding. I believe everyone have different taste...why dun you try it yourself and let me know if you like it or not! Just to give you a hint of what it might LOOK like....have you ever eaten David's version of Fried Rice? *Wink*

A Chinese Wedding

Sunday 9th January 2005, 6:45am: My beloved aunty came barging into my room, switch on the light and shouted "Wake up.....dun you have to be at Selayang by 7:30am?" I mumbled a few words, pulled the blanket over my head and went back to sleep. Who needs an alarm clock when you have a human one at home. I guess my aunty is pretty excited about the wedding even though it's her nephew who is the one getting married. Dun blame her...it's the first time someone from this side of the family is getting married in KL.

I was one of the destinated driver to go to the bride's place from Selayang to Pandan Indah (my sisters escaped from being the drivers becoz they have absolutely no sense of directions which I think it's actually a blessing in disguise as they dun need to wake up so early!) The wedding entourage was one of the longest I've seen...... 11 cars including the bridal car..... my aunt (groom's mom) says must have 9 cars or more going there as in "cheong cheong kau kau" which means being together forever. They even hire one of those "Tai Kam cheh" to follow the groom & bride around teaching them where and who to kow-tow to and alwiz saying nice & prosperous words like "Nien sang kuai chi"(every year give birth to son), "bak nien hou hup" (er...together for a hundred years..I think)... she even sang a folk song. It's quite amusing seeing them kow-towing to almost everything... they kow tow to each other...to their parents...to all the aunties & uncles, relatives....to the sky...the earth....the altar...... almost like a Japanese! My aunty even got ready a "chinese potty", stuck a red paper on top and asked one of my younger cousin brother to punch a hole in it and got him to roll on the newly-weds bed so that they'll have a son ASAP! ngahahahaha

It's really a big different from all the other weddings that I've attended. They are so many things that are "pantang" or a taboo like no wearing black, girls cannot sit on the newly-weds bed, the bride & groom cannot see each other on the eve of the wedding, must have red colour...etc. It was really an eye-opener and I really enjoyed myself. The wedding dinner was the best I've ever had (if not I dun think my uncle will supply veggies to that restaurant anymore!!)

Well after this wedding my mother& my aunt are pretty excited about coordinating my second sister's wedding (may God bless my sister!!). She's even talking about hiring one of the best "Tai Kum Cheh" in the business. *ROLL EYES* Just yesterday both of them went downtown to see a medium to find a "kat yat" (properous day) for the wedding. Initially my sis wanted the wedding in July, she even took leave and book the flight ticket to come back from Finland but my mom says cannot...becoz it's the month of the hungry ghost festival. haha I guess we are going to have another chinese wedding again. Well I just hope that my future brother-in-law won't get a cultural shock!!

Weekend in Grace

Phew! What a weekend. On saturday BLC had a fundraising event for the tsunami victims at Sentul @ the Grace Methodist Church's basketball courts. Had to wake up early at 7am becoz I'm tumpanging Chin Hor's car there and he had to get there early to make sure everything is in place. Though it was drizzling quite a bit for quite a long time....I think most of us had fun there...... the food was good...... the music was good......plenty of good and cheap stuff to buy especially from Siew Poh's stall (courtesy of Memory Lane). I didn't get anything from that stall...wanted to get one of those musical thingy where you wind the key and the thing on top will go round and round but Hooi Ann said she wanted it (only cost RM5 and we were fighting for it...you can never bargain with a mother of 2!!) and it's the only one there so I was feeling a bit sad and refuse to buy anything else from there! haha Sorry Siew Poh..... but I did get quite a good bargain for 5 brown glasses from the next stall for Rm3. It was those classic looking glasses from the 50s or 60s and you can't get them anywhere else (it even has the words "Plum Oil Factory" printed on it) so I was pretty happy about it. Anyway according to Sivin the event raised closed to RM13,000!! Wow..... I was pretty impress becoz half way thru I asked Jo how much we've raised so far and she told me around RM2,000 which I think was quite good for an event like this. I think the rain is really God's grace raining down on us that day.