Jom le February 27, 2006

“Lonely……..I’m so lonely…..I have nobody….on my own…..mmmhmmmmhhmmhmmm..”

(I know you’re shooting daggers at your computer screen Sarah. Hahaha.)

Come on peeps, help my red ball. It’s been singing that song for far too long already. And it’s sitting pretty atop my book shelf. Sitting pretty!! A ball doesn’t sit pretty! It’s supposed to look scruffy and worn out and ‘jantan’ish you know. Except for the ones in the shops of course.

So what say you? Let’s play ball! Let’s let’s! Flat 5, get wanee to read this coz I know she doesn’t normally read my blog. Wanee, hang gi la book sports hall tu. Saya ni dah lama tak keluaq keringat hang tau. Seluaq pon macam dah tak muat. Bukan macam hang, longgaq sentiasa. Hehe. See Wanee, Muar ‘murtad’ aku sbb hang.

To Sarah : Basically I’m coaxing Wanee to get her book the sports hall.

Plus we have the Malaysian Food Festival coming next Wednesday. We could do with a few extra inches of breathing space in our jeans right? Could do with?? I need them!! coz I wanna have K.Her’s Nasi Dagang AND Nasi Kerabu (the blue rice) on the same day. (Dah takde orang nak jual Laksa Johor nak buat camner kan?)

But it’s okay if you girls don’t feel like it. I’ll just sell my pwetty ball on e-bay I guess………………………………………………… =”””(

Ready, get set, cook. February 25, 2006

I’m Pphhhhhfffftttttt! Yet again. Yes, I’m sooo grateful for all the meals and snacks that I’ve had for today but at the same time I wish I hadn’t eaten so much coz now all my oxygen’s gone to my tummy instead of to my brain. Hellllooooo, I need you up here or else I won’t be able to get my reading done! GGGrrrrrrr. Okay, maybe not all of it but u get what I mean.

Now, onto my random thoughts. When was the first time that you cooked for your mum? I mean single-handedly prepared everything from scratch without the help of a maid or a sister or whoever’s more familiar with the kitchen. Hmmm, if the time has yet to come: bad, bad child! Go cook for her now! Hehe.

Talk about being a nag, for someone whose first time was when she was 19++ and who, more importantly had merely cooked Maggi for that first time. I don’t have much of a standing here to accuse anyone of being a bad child now, do I? I’m it!! I can still remember…(hehe,what an expression!)
It was just the two of us back then in the house; maid was off-duty and dad was on-duty somewhere. Mum was very hungry and I was very lazy. My sentences rhyme!
So yeah, mum called out for me and said, “Would you be a darling and make me something to eat?”

Me, “Seriously? I’m hopeless in the kitchen and you know that.”

Mum, “Am not expecting much. Maggi(instant noodles) will do. Please darling.”

Being the dutiful daughter that I was and still am, hehe, went down to make the noodles. It really was my first time preparing everything from the bowl, to the fork and spoon, and to the works of a Maggi lah. Even cooked the Maggi on the stove instead of just pouring hot boiling water over the Maggi in a bowl, thinking that the stove would make the Maggi tastier. Heck, whaddya know? Nothing Jid, you knew nothing back then!

So brought the bowl of Maggi up to mum along with a nice presentation on the tray; iced juice or some sort, napkins, etc.

Momma, “Ala, pandainye anak mama. Bestnye kalau Jid layan mama macam ni hari2.” (something to the effect of “I’m so lucky to have you as my daughter” kinda sentence. Direct translation won’t do it.To the Malays, Shut up!)

I was practically thumping my chest at that praise from my mum. Until…

She said, “Are you hungry? I’m full, can’t seem to finish this.”

Dang! Takkan Maggi pon tak jadi kot?
You can imagine how my face fell, “Please don’t tell me there’s something wrong with it. It’s just plain Maggi Ma. Where could I have gone wrong?”

Mum, “Too much water perhaps? A bit bland coz the flavour’s been diluted with too much water.”

Shaking my head in frustration, “I’ve failed you haven’t I? You raised me up and I can’t even cook you a decent Maggi. I’ve failed you haven’t I?” (I swear I am not being a drama queen, I did say all of that to my mum. You wouldn’t understand the disappointment until you hear it from you mum that your MAGGI is tawar! (bland))

For once my mum didn’t get into a strop over my barely-there-culinary skills and my lack of initiative to improve them. That’s because the tawar Maggi by itself had served as a slap to me, far more stinging than any of the mouthfuls that I have had from her. And of course she knew that! So instead she consoled me by saying that I’ll learn how to cook when I’m alone in the UK and that I had nothing to worry about.

With cheeks hot from the sting, I finished the Maggi by myself. Tawar beb, tawar. That’s what you get for letting your friends in boarding school and college make your Maggis for you. Never ever let them!

But now, I have to say that my mum is at liberty to say “Can you make me nasi lemak for breakfast tomorrow?” without having to fear facing a frustrated child after having a mouthful of the rice. Yeay!!! At last, I’m worth her effort. Hehe.

Shout outs February 23, 2006

Sisters in KL,

I may not appear online to you two as I often did last week coz my erratic sleeping pattern has thankfully been replaced with a normal one. I now sleep and look like a normal person. Oh, the pleasure! So take care over there and we’ll catch up later alright? Much love from me, mwahhhhh!

Serious stuff 2 February 17, 2006

Some of us are infuriated by it while there are some who are indifferent towards it. Towards what?

Weird February 15, 2006

A new word today for Sarah and Van: HUTAN = jungle.

So if i say babi hutan, what will that make out of the pig? A pig that lives in a jungle right? And what do you get out of that?………

A wild boar!

Congratulations! You just passed your first test. So another word to be added to your vocabulary is babi hutan.(=wildboar)

Geeeeeez. Get over the topic of babi already! I wanted to write about something else; like how broken-hearted I was when I broke my flask. Do NOT say "already??"!!! I've had plenty of "already?"s already. (Erin, I'm sooo going to hold you on that pink flask promise. Hehe. Main2 je!)

But nahh, am not gonna bore you with more of my "acts of gracelessness" stories coz I'm pretty sure y'all are very much familiar with it by now.

The e-mail my brother gave me this morning is far more interesting than that. An interesting e-mail from my super busy 32-yr-old brother?? Seeing that he is a man of few words when it comes to e-mailing, it is not that surprising that he can render an e-mail, which reads a mere sentence, interesting. Coz a man of few words sure loves attaching photos! lol. His e-mail simply reads : "babi hutan masuk dalam kolam last week." No "hi, bye, apekaba" bullshit. Straight to the pictures. (I adore your style abg!haha)

I know the pictures are quite small, but the photos would be blurry if enlarged. Yo bro, it's high time for you to get a good digital camera lah!

I can't imagine the reaction of whoever it was that discovered the wild boar in the pond. Can you imagine walking towards the pond with the hope of enjoying the tranquility of watching the koi fishes swim in the pond and then suddenly, "ghhooorrrkkkkkkkk''!!!! A big black creature emerges from the water. Yikessssss! If it was my niece, I'm sure the whole of Kuala Lumpur would have heard her. But whoever it was, rest assured he/she won't be going to that pond for quite awhile from now on. I can imagine the trauma. Brrrrrr. But it must have been quite a havoc when that happened! I wish i was there. The kids must have been so amused by the wild boar's presence.

Mana plak abang kau angkut mat salleh tuh ha Jid? He is the son of my brother's neighbour actually. They moved to Malaysia like 2 yrs ago from the States. They can converse in Malay fluently now. Cool eh? Very kind of him to have helped get the poor wild boar out of the pond. And no, the other guy in the picture with the side parted hair is not my brother, thank you. Abang, i sure hope u helped the men get the boar out of your pond! If not, gone la all your manliness. Haha.
What are the chances of finding a boar in your pond eh? This will surely go down Taman Melawati's history.

To K.shima and K.lin, thank God your gardens are pond-less. If not Aniq would have joined in with his Pumba and Najla would have bullied the boar silly!

Welcome! February 11, 2006

When I came into the flat this evening after spending two days and one night at Monte, I found these written on the board that we have in the kitchen:

“Welcome!

Bienvenue!

Wilkommen!

(Unintelligible writing in Chinese = welcome)!

Babi!” (which by the way is the word for pig in Malay)

I was beyond bewilderment just in case you’re wondering. It seemed that the both of them(Sarah n Vanessa) had been cleaning the kitchen for half the day today and had wanted to surprise me with a sparkly new kitchen. Received a text from Sarah asking me to come home and that was what I did. And came home to find that on the board.
Vanessa n Sarah (finishing each other’s sentences): Oh, oh. We wanted to write “welcome” in Malay but we just couldn’t remember how to do it. The only thing that we could remember from what you taught us is the word “babi”. So better that than nothing.

So yeah, I got a pig for coming home. lol. After almost two years living with Sarah and almost one year with Van, it is with shame I am now confessing that I have only taught them three words in Malay; nasi(rice), babi(pig), and terima kasih(thank you). What a disgrace?!!! I know, I know. Sorry Dewan Bahasa(this body which produces the Malay dictionary) but in my defense they could’ve written terima kasih instead of babi as a welcoming note! Sheeeeeesh. Of all the things to write you guys. It reflects on me too you know. Haha.

When I first taught Sarah the word “thank you” in Malay, she couldn’t stop pronouncing the word in a singsong; like how they do it on TV3: “Terima kasih, kerana memilih TV3″. And there was once when Van and Sarah got into a mock fight, both of them scrambled like anything to remember how to say “pig” in Malay.

Van: I know, I know. It starts with “b”. No, no, shut up don’t tell me.

Van n Sarah at the same time pointing to each other: Yes!!! BOBBY!!!!!

Am I not one proud teacher of my students?

Since this blog has been receiving random viewers and commentators from different parts of the world due to wordpress’ “next blog” icon, I feel that it is my duty to make it clear to you guys that we Malaysians don’t welcome people by saying “Babi!” everytime we see them. We say “Selamat Datang” instead. And you should respond to that with a “Terima Kasih”. And if anyone ever comes up to you and says the word “babi” to your face, by all means give him/her the finger if you wish.
Other than that, “Thank you, come again.”: from Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.If you’d seen the film you should get the joke. If you haven’t, go watch it!!!! It’s the stupidest, funniest movie ever!

p/s: dvd courtesy of Ms. Ayu. Sorry la aku lupa! hehe.

Just so that this won’t be a total waste of your time February 9, 2006

Sunday weather for two days in a row. This is what I’m talking about England! Sadly, I’m not out there to enjoy the sunshine coz it’s my day off today. I have Thursdays off now till the end of the semester. How nice is that? Very! hehe.

A Thermos flask was one of the things included in my wish list for this month. I’ve got one now! Yeay!(I am easy to please really) I think I went to 5 different shops to find the right one. I wanted a pink one so that my impersonation of Elle Woods would be half complete but couldn’t find it. The other half that I’m lacking is her optimism towards life, her diligence in doing uni work, her blondeness and of course her figure! The pink department has been taken care of. Haha. Do you really think I’m serious? Of course I’m not. But I do watch the film when exams are around the corner but I surely don’t try to impersonate her. I swear! (Don’t you dare refute this Sarah!)

I so wanted a Thermos flask because I have had enough of the fuss of smuggling coffee into the library. I have a very shot span of concentration and the only thing that keeps me going is caffeine. Plus a regular latte at the cafe costs 75p. Hell, that’s a minimum 2.25 quid a week. So considering my inherent character of a klutz, which will eventually lead me to spill coffee all over myself infront of the library staff I decided that a flask will be a very good investment for my reputation indeed. [The act of smuggling coffee requires good coordination of balancing the coffee in between your file, chest, and hand (go wild with your imagination, haha) and the ability to multi task as you'll have to scout around for the presence of library staffs and at the same time avoid them]  This obviously is not my kinda thing.
With my Thermos now, I can just chuck my 0.5 L of coffee into my bag and walk into the library with a normal expression on my face. Hot coffee at anytime of the day at the cost of nothing! (Nescafe 3-in-1 from Carrefour Wangsa Maju, Kuala Lumpur)

So there, problem solved!  Next on my list is this storage jar from Habitat.  It’s so pretty but it will cost me 8 quid!  So if there’s anyone out there who suddenly has this feel of overwhelming love towards me, don’t hesitate to ask me which one.  theeeehehehehehheheee….

Lost February 6, 2006

I am one of those people who get easily inspired by watching whatever it is that they show on tv or in the cinemas. My all-time favourite movie is Legally Blonde. So go figure why I’m doing what I’m doing now. Oh God, can’t belive I’m letting people know how silly I am. Like you don’t know it already.

So anyway, this morning I was practically in a vegetative state on my praying mat after Subuh. It’s so unfair that I’ve got 9 o’clock starts three days in a ROW every week. So there I was lying prostrate on the mat thinking “I don’t wanna go to class, I hate class, I just wanna get married and stay at home ma, please.” (K.shim n K.lin, can u please tell mama this?) I seriously considered the easier option of jumping back under my duvet rather than getting ready for uni. “Tick tock tick tock, 45 more minutes till u miss the bus. So what say u?”

At that point the first episode of Lost came to mind. You know the part where the “hunksome” doctor told the girl about how he totally screwed up in an operation and all the nerves just spilled out of the kidney sac like noodles? Can u imagine that ever happening to u? Nauzubillah! So yeah, he told that woman how he was so scared at that time and how he overcame that fear by counting to 5. He only allowed himself 5 seconds of fear and then it was back to work; putting the noodles back where they belonged. Bleurrrrgghhh.

And guess what I did after that part of the episode played on my mind? You guessed right! I counted to five. Only this time, twice!:D Hehe.

“OK come on, get over your laziness now! One…two…..three……….four…hmmm………fi..ve…That’s it?!Slower this time, one……………………..two……………………..three…………………….” and at FIVE i got up!!!Rise and shine Southampton! Can’t believe it worked on me! Alhamdulillah. Ok,ok I know I cheated. I prolly counted to 15 instead of five with the long gaps in between the numbers. But who cares? I made it to my dreaded Comm. Sales class. Alhamdulillah again.

It’s been a productive day today, so I’m a grateful bunny. See, who says tv shows are not educational? Hope your day went well for you too. And whenever that duvet calls for you in the morning when you’re already half way up, remember to count to 5 or 15 (whichever works for you as long as it’s not in the hundreds!) and then quickly run as far away as possible from it. Even better, make up your bed at once! You’ll get to kill two birds with one stone. How about that huh? Happy trying/struggling!!!

Take a guess February 1, 2006

What do you get when you put together a clumsy arse with a mug of water, a borrowed hair dryer, and a Dell laptop……….?