Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year Eve:

Chinese New Year Eve home-cooked dinner

Sister came back from Sibu, I sent Perry off at the airport to Australia and dad cooked Chinese New Year Eve dinner while mum helped. Ate dinner that night and then sister decided to go shopping. We just sat while she shopped.

Chinese New Year Day 1:

Fireworks at 12.00AM

Lots of firecrackers went off at midnight on the first day of Chinese New Year. I could hardly hear myself speak or think and the whole neighborhood was filled with smoke. This just shows that Chinese are the noisiest race in Malaysia.

Over at my grandparents' house with a few of my cousins and my sister

Then it was time to start visiting the family members and be visited.

Chinese New Year Day 2:

Chinese New Year home-cooked dinner with family members

We went visiting in the morning and when we got back home, dad started to prepare all the food for the family dinner that night.

All the my first cousins on my mother's side with my sister and I

Chinese New Year Day 3:
Breakfast of dim sum at Lok Thian (full house and we had to wait for our turn to be seated) and then later in the evening, sister leaves back to Sibu. Went to The Spring that night to get a Logitech webcam. Lots of people at The Spring and lots of funny dressers too.

Chinese New Year Day 4:
Cordelia's coming over today, probably with classmates. I invited Rhema to come over too.

Day Before The Eve

Some ugly tissue box similar to the ones I saw at Green Gallery
(picture from some blogger who calls herself milkmaidgal86)

Early in the morning at 7.00PM, the old man who lives opposite my house got up and started hanging big red lanterns and pineapples in his garage. Then later, the currently single divorcee who lives next door, makes a racket dragging his ladder out to his garage and hung up twenty mini red lanterns. The old grandmother living on the right side of my house, hung pink koi carps at her wooden front door. When it's dark at night, the whole stretch of houses glow red. Some Chinese New Year decorations are pretty ugly in my opinion.

A broken chandelier in the garden

Most people are doing Chinese New Year cleaning now, wiping dust off their furniture, sending their cars to the garage for a wash and so I decided to do a little cleaning myself too. I polished my violin and I consider that cleaning. I shall polish my piano tonight so those brass pedals are going to gleam and the black coat's shiny enough to be improvised as a mirror.

Some strange flower in my living rom

Went out with P today for a while to Secret Recipe since he's leaving to Australia tomorrow. So freaking soon. Everyone seems to be leaving. Anyway, once again, basement car park at The Spring was full.

I cut my hair and dyed my hair ash blonde. Believable?

Coins and Cars

On the coin in 2009
On the Mini Cooper some day

Giant Goldfish

Some Canadian man saw these fish in this pond in Tokyo. I think they're called koi fish by us Malaysians? Or are they carps? I think the Japanese call them carps. Koi carps? I'm not a fish-for-pets person anyway. Guess what the Canadian man called those carps? (this is not one of my lame jokes telling sessions but one of my 101% non-exaggerated posts of what I witnessed) He called them giant goldfish.

That just made my day.

Picture Post

Down the gravel driveway

Went to my grandmother's place this afternoon for a visit. Was hoping to meet the labrador but instead I was greeted by a German Shepherd that ran away and hid in its kernel the moment it saw me. Moments later, it peeked out of the kernel and ducked back inside when I took a step closer. What a chicken.

The labrador which, I think is named Max

Hands

Some grass seed I abducted from the blowing wind. It was blowing around about 2 feet above my head. I had to jump and and down to get it. Looks like tall isn't quite tall enough.

I baked and yes, again

I baked a minced chicken pie with cream, corn, peas, carrots and a mashed potato topping this morning. Quite a bit of baking going on today. Chinese New Year preparations. Gave my grandmother some pie too.

Then, there was some leftover dough and fillings and so I made a mini pie.

Tagged by Irene

Finally I got this, a photo with a soon-to-be chef and a "retard" who calls me a "retard".

Tagged by IRENE PUNG!.

How old are you?
Turning 18 in just another nine months.

Are you single?
I'm not double or triple or quadruple. You think?

At what age do you think you'll get married?
101 years old

Do you think you'll be marrying the person you are with now?
Tags just get weirder and weirder these days.

If not, who do you want to marry?
Gabriel Nathan J.

Do you want a garden/beach or a traditional wedding?
Traditional I suppose. I mean, name me a good garden in Kuching or a beach that isn't polluted with Malay Ah Bengs and Ah Lians who will 100% wolf whistle and throw empty bottles at you when you step onto the beach in your wedding dress/tux.

Your ideal motive?
Motive to what? Get married??

Where do you plan to go on a honeymoon?
Erm? Why plan so early about honeymoons when I'm only 17 going 18.

How many guests do you think you'll invite?
Depending on how much $$$ I have or he has.

Do you want an extravagant wedding or a simple wedding?
Simple

Do you want the traditional vows or something you'd make up on your own?
Heh. This tag makes me feel as if I'm getting married in two weeks.

How many layers of cake do you want?
I prefer egg tarts.

Do you prefer having your reception at a hotel or a simple place?
Got to see the amount of cash in the pocket at that moment.

When do you want to get married, morning or evening?
Morning.

You'd rather have your reception outdoors or indoors?
Indoors.

Do you like a grand entrance for your bride/groom?
Uh...

Name the song you like to play on your wedding.
Erm? Anything but the state anthem or national anthem I suppose.

Are you a morning person or a night person?
Morning.

Do you want a solemn ceremony or a light one?
Light one.

Describe your ideal husband/wife?
-_-" Stabs for the person who invented such a tag.

You prefer fine dining or just the normal spoon & fork/knife?
Again, whichever my budget can afford..

Champagne or red wine?
Champagne. Tastes sweeter.

Honeymoon right after the wedding or days after the wedding?
Either one's fine I suppose since either way it's still happening.

Money or household items?
Money to buy household items.

Who will pay for the bills?
He.

Are you ready for married life?
I'm 17 going 18. No.

Do you think you will still be a virgin until you get married?
Yes.

Will you always be true to your wife/husband?
Yes.

How many kids would you like to have?
Uh... reasonable amount?

A new house for a newly wed or an old one?
New one

What kind of cuisine would you like for your wedding?
Chinese? Hahaha. African cuisine. Braised girraffe with spring onions.

Will you record your honeymoon in VCD/DVD?
I suppose.

Whose wedding plans would you like to know next?
Andrea
Perry
Rina
Jonas
Amy

Cupcakes & Driving

Oats and nestum peanut butter Milo cupcakes with raisins

Baked again today. I experimented whether 40% of flour could be substituted with oats and Nestum instead and 20% of butter with milk (trying to invent healthier cupcakes). Worked well and cupcakes turned out to be moist. Low-sugar and low-fat oats and nestum cinnamon raisins almond cupcakes and then, I made another batch of oats and nestum peanut butter Milo cupcakes with raisins (too lazy to dig for the cocoa in the fridge). Self-invented recipes but edible. Nobody died yet from eating them.

Drove around today too for two hours from Swinburne to the driving institute at Pending to some housing area and then to Petra Jaya then to Satok (packed traffic) and next to Rock Road (packed traffic again) and finally drove back home. Driving instructor let me test-drive at 80kmph to "let me know what driving fast feels like". I drove at 60-70kmph and yet, so many cars still overtake my car. Even the big lorries. -_-"

Rain & Flood

The Spring on a Sunday morning at 11.00AM

On Saturday afternoon, I decided to go to MPH to get a 2009 planner and annoyingly, the basement parking was full and it was pouring cats and dogs. So I came again on Saturday night, and there was a queue of vehicles all the way from the Y-road towards The Spring and Kenyalang Park. Basement parking was full again and it was raining heavily again. Annoying. So I went home and came back to The Spring yesterday morning. Again, a long queue of vehicles entering The Spring. Basement parking was nearly full and once again, it was raining heavily.

The flood in Kuching

Seems to be flooding most of the places and the traffic's pretty bad these few days. Jams all over town area. Laundry's not drying either, I can see tons of damp clothing hanging in my backyard. Thank goodness it doesn't flood at my housing area. But all that rain is rather depressing, the bedsheets lose that nice warmth and the floors are always stone cold. My house cleaner's house is flooded two feet with water, all her furniture's ruined she said. Single storey house.

Lemon pie, an hour after coming out of the oven

I made a lemon pie yesterday night. After I took it out of the oven yesterday, the fillings were as thick as once inch. This morning, when I took it out, it looked one centimeter thick. Not sure if it is suppose to deflate or not.

One centimeter thick lemon fillings

Tid Bit

Days are getting longer and longer.
But you know what?
March is nearing and that means SPM results.
Dang. If only I could turn back time and live secondary school life again.

I Baked Again

Yesterday, my dad had a craving for sultana cake and he wanted to make one. Unfortunately it was already 10.00PM and baking a cake would probably only be done by 1.00AM. Not wise on a working day.
So, today I made mini sultana cupcakes (since the cupcake trays were too big for the electric oven, I shaped my own individual cupcake tins out of tin foil, rather ugly looking but at least they hold up well) and I experimented on three modified-into-strawberry "sultana" cupcakes. The modified sultana cupcakes looked fine in the oven but I think they can't be baked as long as the sultana cupcakes. So, they sort of got a bit too brown.
That's what they look like out of the oven, fresh. Like I said, the strawberry cupcakes should have probably spent 15 minutes in the oven unlike the 25-minutes sultana cupcakes.
And that's now the cupcakes I just baked, finally look like. My first time baking cakes. The cupcakes labelled W means my dad is only allowed to eat two. I don't think I am going to eat any. Somehow, it much nicer to eat food that somebody else makes and I get to shake my legs and wait for the food to arrive. Everytime I bake, I hardly eat what I what I bake. Boring holidays.Then dad says, "why so little??" and so I made another batch but with brown sugar and reduced as well. This time, I perfected the strawberry cupcakes.

Now I am sick of baking.

Temper & Baking

ANNOYED
1. BY ALL THAT CLUTTERED MESS

I leave a cup on the table, feeling annoyed and walk away from it, thinking who cares about the bloody cup and I'll just pick it up later to the sink, not in the mood now. I turn my back away from it, take thirty steps away from the cup and an irritating nagging feeling, almost magnetic-like will cause me to turn around and whip the cup into my hands and head over to the sink. Annoying. Later, I spot my music stand and somehow it annoys me because it is placed in the wrong position and then, I just have to put it to the right place. Irksome. Obsessive compulsive disorder. Lite. Then, a pile of fresh laundry sitting in the laundry basket and it annoys me, it just has to be folded and there I am, speed-folding and feeling mega-irritated. Utterly annoyed at the moment, so annoyed that I've turned my mobile phone off cause it plain annoys me.

Anyway, I made Amish bread pudding. I snipped up pieces of bread and line the tray, added raisins, cinnamon powder, this and that. I added everything there was to add. That's how it looked like before going into the electric oven.
Staring at the mountain of bread and raisins in the baking tin.
And here's what my Amish bread pudding looks like after it came out from the oven and with self-made vanilla sauce on top. Then, I realized I forgot to add the eggs because I forgot to take them out of the fridge. Then again, I've never seen my mum add eggs to the bread puddings she makes. Still tastes fine and moist enough.

Black Pepper Chicken Pie

A slice of black pepper chicken pie that I baked

I had nothing better to do yesterday and so I suddenly decided to make a pie since I have never made one before in my entire life. I can bake.
Here's my production before being popped into the oven. I found the recipe for chicken pie in one of my mum's cookbooks. However, I ended up improvising it because I did not read that it was 1/3 cup of ice cold water not 1/2 cup of ice cold water. I must had given up reading the instructions. As for the chicken inside, my own black pepper chicken, ham, mushrooms and onions concoction. An approved and tasteful concoction, mind you. I got a bit lazy in the end when it came to shaping the pie crust.
Then, here's my production popped into an electric oven in my house. I didn't know how to light the gas oven or even where to light it. Dad usually uses the electric oven for making three-layered pork and hence, my pie is not halal since my utensils are not halal. My pie glazing looked retarded anyway, was supposed to glaze with a brush but as usual, I felt too lazy and I used a fork instead.
And finally, here's the end my end product. I would say not bad for a first-timer. I should have used my DSLR camera instead of my Nokia to take photographs of my pie. As you all know, food taken with a good camera and with good lighting can result in food that looks better in picture than it actually does when placed in front of your face.

Short Note

School has started but there's no need for me to attend school since I have graduated from secondary school. Fortunately and at the same time, how very unfortunate. I rather go to school and study rather than spend three whole months at home with nothing much to do. In short I rather be studying right now. Desperation much?


I was driving on the road and suddenly it struck me, a one degree turn of the car steering wheel will cause the body of the car to turn by a multiplication of how many times a degree? Brain's getting restless from the lack of stress and reduced workload.


I was reading the daily newspaper and I came across the 4D section. It hit me that there are 10000 number combinations to choose from, meaning if I buy all 10000 numbers, I am guaranteed 101% to strike all the 4D prizes. It also hit me that number 4 is usually present in most of the prize numbers.


That just shows that I am in desperate need of some work.

On The Road

Had my very first driving lesson today together with Max. Driving instructor gave a long talk about the batteries, air filter, engine and so forth. Then, proceeded to telling us this is the steering wheel, push this to signal light, push this to spray water and so forth. Then steps to do when you get into the car and he repeated this twice, in English and in Bahasa Malaysia. This was the boring part of my first driving lesson.

Then, he said "ladies first" and so I got into the driver's seat. Wow! My first time sitting in the driver's seat. Okay, I'm a noob driving student but who cares? We did "mime driving" for a short while and then he said, "okay now release the clutch" and the car moved. I remembered saying, "eh! The car is moving!" and well, obviously. Then, he made me drive out to the main road! I was expecting to just stay in the institution and who knows, drive up and down straight roads. I laughed a lot during driving and "hahaha shit", "what to do now?" and "my goodness" pretty often while driving today.

It was like my very first time driving and I've been thrown into a Kancil and out onto a real road with cars, roundabouts, cornerings, dogs and human beings walking along the road. Thank goodness the engine did not die while I was on the road, thank goodness the gear didn't get stuck while I was changing gears and thank goodness I didn't step on the accelerator instead of the brake. Haha! Anyway, nobody or anything got ran over during my first time driving on the road!

After a couple of rounds on the road, he told me to drive to the circuit in the institutioni Engine died twice there, something about releasing the clutch too abruptly. Anyway, never died after that. He made me do zig-zag driving, weaving in and out of cones. I feel like one of those German Shepherds training for some fitness competition, running between cones. I think the circuit is harder than the road. I'm saying so because the road looks big and haha engine never died on the actual road.

Then drove to this empty patch of cement and he literally told me to drive around in semi circles. Clutch and lots of full steering wheel turning to the right then left then right then left and the whole process repeats. Can see all my tyre threadmarks on the floor. Hahahaha! I think the whole while I was driving less than 40kmph (I think!) but it feels like 80kmph. Bet an old man could walk faster than the speed I was driving at. Haha! Think I wasn't that good for a first timer but neither that terrible either. At least I can change gears fast enough without the engine dying. Haha!

I conclude that my first driving lesson was funny (I couldn't help but laugh at myself while driving) but a little bit nervewrecking at the thought of crashing into curbs, trees or worst still, living creatures. Driving's bit like play the piano (lots of footwork and fingerwork) except that when playing the piano I don't need to look left, right, front, back and the piano doesn't move.

Today

Banana cake takeaway from Deli Cafe, a place swarmed by Caucasians.

I watched Bedtime Stories today and the movie is definitely a bedtime story, enough to put me to sleep. Boring, illogical and cheapskate movie. I have not been to the cinema for ages and I was amazed that the number of Ah Bengs and Ah Liens (Chinese, Malay or Bumiputera) have greatly reduced by practically 95%. Three cheers to that.

Rhe gave me a little gift, what she called, "a gross frog ran over by a truck."Going to drive for the first time tomorrow, wonder if anybody or anything will end up like the frog above...

Today and Days Before

Mosquitoes are very annoying creatures. I got bitten once on the forehead, once on the eyelid, twice on the cheek, once on the middle finger and once on the ankle by one very annoyingly greedy mosquito and it caused me to get up around 4.00AM three times just to scratch and slap. So, when I woke up in the morning at 10.00AM, I was feeling so cranky that I told P I don't want to go out.
Anyway I spent my New Year's Eve and New Year with my family. Dad made roasted lamb leg on New Year's Day with gravy, bread and all. One lamb leg cost a bomb, RM61.25 but I think we only consumed RM15.00 worth of the lamb. We happened to drive past Scoops and I hate to say this but I think Scoops ice cream sucks for an RM8.00 double scoop. That's the first time I get the "half dead" feeling trying to finish a small cup of ice cream.

Dad made pansur, sweet corn, leek and some sort of pork dish during the eve. The photograph below shows the way to make pansur the modern way on a German stove.

An Ass

It's the second day of the year 2009 and I am already feeling extremely annoyed at a person named XYZ. Correction, I am angry. Pissed off. Mad.

XYZ wanted company during practical (one of my friends who was supposed to accompany XYZ, had failed the theory) and so XYZ asked whether XYZ could learn practical on the same day as I will be learning. Wasn't too keen but whatever and so I said up to our driving instructor to decide.

Then this @$$#0!? XYZ informed me that our driving instructor said that it is okay and that my first driving lesson will be on the 5th of January, 4.00PM to 6.00PM. We'll be taking practical together. Well, to me it was like whatever afterall I couldn't be bothered who will be taking practical the same day as I would be.

So I went out for breakfast today (supposedly the day of my first ever driving lesson) and then I waited in the car for my dad to pay his bills. Then I got a phone call from my driving instructor,

D.I : Are you at home?
Me : Why?? *starts panicking*
D.I : Eh did you forget? Your driving lesson is today.
Me : XYZ told me that you changed my lesson from the 2nd to the 5th? *starts feeling pissed off*
D.I : Aiyah. Like that nevermind then. XYZ wanted to take lessons together. I told XYZ I will see first and I will give you a call if there are any changes of your lessons.
Me : *pissed off at XYZ*
D.I : Nevermind. Lesson will be on the 5th then.
Me : *appologizes and still pissed off at XYZ*

The conversation between my driving instructor and I was pretty much something like that. I'm certainly not pretty much pissed off at XYZ but more like plain pissed off at XYZ. Call me gullible but is it that #^(%!&* tough to pass a simple piece of information without giving the wrong details? @$$#0!?