Different families will have different ways in communicating with each member. In some cases, it gets a little wacky. As for my mom, she tells me things through newspaper articles. Yeap… readings u get from the daily newspaper…
Being a loyal newspaper reader, my mom would go though the daily tabloid, without fail, during the wee hours of the day when everything else is practically dead. Sometimes she gets a little edgy if she didn’t consume her “daily dosage” of information.
So with that habit of hers, she’d cut out articles that interest her, files them up or sticks them in her scrap book. And for certain articles that would have a hidden message within it, she would cut it out and get me to read them the next day.
I remember once I was being stopped by both my parents from getting into a relationship, and she then gave me a few articles about relationships and even cuttings from Big Bro. She didn’t have to verbally tell me. I was warned through the writings of others which are being circulated nationwide.
Studying away from home allowed me to come back to a whole stack of newspaper cuttings she collected throughout the year. Articles ranging from interviews of famous Malaysian icons to “How to win in a singing competition”.
After reading each article, I’d hv to guess “what exactly r u trying to tell me this time, mom?”
I used to get paranoid with this form of communication between my mom and I. “Why cant u be a little normal and just tell me straight so I don’t hv to go around guessing”
But now, I could see that some things are better left unsaid—and better just being read and understood. Sometimes its also not easy bringing up a topic that is not worth discussing because it could make the whole situation even weirder and much worse. Plus, we still are not adaptable to the culture of just blurting out whatever we feel about something and expect the discussion to solve every equation. After all, we’re Asian—if you know wat I mean.
So in conclusion, my mom has a very unique and smart way in telling me things. Now I just gotta find a way to respond to her messages so that it could be a successful form of communication.
Friday, December 29, 2006
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Merry Christmas!!!!
| Stack the halls with sweets and chocolates, Fala la la la...la la la la Jez will fill them in her pockets, Fala la la la...la la la la Then we'll order meat and turkey, Fala la... la la laAA ... la la la Eat them up to fill our tummy, Fala la la la... la la la laaaa Blessed Christmas everyone!!!! |
Friday, December 22, 2006
Cam cam cam cambodia
“Why Cambodia?!” others will ask when I tell them that I went to Siem Reap, Cambodia for a family trip.
I think it was cuz of the cheap Air Asia fair that my dad booked. And also cuz we’ve not been there b4. My dad went there in 1993 and it was super different then.
It was jz 2 days after I came back from Australia. Still trying very hard to adjust myself to the humidity, I had to bear with the extra heat and dust in Siem Reap. I was suffering….
As I was saying that the air ticket was the cheap one, we had to rush for good seats in the plane. I forgot that I’m back in a country that is soaked in Kiasu-ism. They were supposed to let the families with kids and senior citizens to board the plane 1st… but once the gates of hell was open, the middle aged dudes ran out of that low cost terminal, pass those families and straight pass the air stewardess with the nice bum (which I think my dad was also looking at =p). that was so scary… the uncle ran like there’s no tmr.
In the plane, the voice from speaker said “your life jacket is allocated below your seats…” and I saw my life jacket in the front pocket leh!!! Lagi scary! Dunno if it still works or not. The plane was small so we cud actually see the cockpit when they opened the cockpit door. And then I saw that the pilot with spex (?!?!) shrugged at the co-pilot. Wah, panic la… hahah, sorry la, this was my 1st experience on a low cost plane… plus! A fly came onboard too… my mom said it’ll faint b4 we reach Siem Reap. And she was right…
The airport was nice. Very grand and luxurious. But when we got out… the streets were dusty, people were in torn clothes, old motorbikes, sweaty and hungry looking… huge contrast.
Our tour guide, Mr. Seng DaLing thought us some Cambodian language. Soosday (Hello). SohSohBai (How r u?). Oh Koon (Thank you). We also had a driver, Mr. Pain. He spoke mandarin, but seldom spoke la. Mr. DaLing’s said that when he was young, they taught them how to hate and curse the king. (!??!!) and the current king is also not liked by the citizens… he fled the country when it was attacked. And came back with bad leadership skills also. So too bad.
But he’s a karaoke king! He sings on national tv and tells ppl he likes to “cheong K”. This corrupted country has a karaoke king! When I turned on the TV, channel 1 and 2 were channels just for karaoke. Seriously… Cambodian songs… and the MTV also made locally. Wah, super funny…
Anywayz, we visited heaps of temples. And these temples are ancient stone ones that look alike. Except for the one built by women. Banti Srey (Women’s Citidel). Chun man…. It was made with pink sandstones and pink sandstones are very rare in Cambodia! Girl power! The carvings were so intricate. It was built only by women, and the men stayed home to jaga anak.
We also went to the temple which they filmed Tomb Raider in. we stood on the spot where Angelina Jolie stood. We jz needed guns, tight leather pants and big boobs… the temple was called Ta Prohm which means Jungle temple cuz the temple is now covered and almost destroyed by roots of trees. Mother Nature claims the land. This temple was built for the king’s mother.
We went to Angkor Thom (the Great City). Entered Bayon through Tun Lay Ohm (South Gate), Pré Rup (change body), Preah Ko (Sacred Ox), Bakong… oh ya! And the highlight!!! Angkor Wat.
They said its one of the 7 man made wonders of the world. I checked online and it wasn’t… =( so disappointing. But jz to make myself feel better… I’VE BEEN TO ONE OF THE 7 WONDERS OF THE WORLD!!! WOOT~
It wasn’t very different from the other temples. This was jz very much bigger and higher, and wider and has more tourists. The challenging part was to climb up the steep steps to the peak, which only my dad and I took up the challenge. Not forgetting that I’m scared of heights… I kept my eyes on the peak and never looked back. The other challenge was to come down! Hahah, but it was fun. Dad and I did some camwhoring up there.
The carvings on the walls very very cool. Imagine reading stories from walls, not from books. And there are always these drawings of the Apsara dancers. It’s the ancient dance which we saw in one of the restaurants. Not much different from the Thai dance, but this one looks more like the movements of a pigeon…
Back to the carvings, our guide showed us 2 very funny carvings. One was the apsara dancer smiling with her teeth showing. And another was the apsara dancer sticking her tongue out. Joker la those carvers.
And u know what… for 4 days we were using a stolen vehicle! Apparently, 70% of the vehicles on the roads are stolen. No number plates… some were left hand drive, some right hand. Memang tak ada system. I only managed to spot 2 traffic lights, and the motorbikes were like flies on cow dung! 4 adults on one motorbike…. Geng… We didn’t know how to cross the road… and there’s no age limit for driving. This 13 year-old minister’s son drove a Lexus. How unfair!!!
Another important pointer… one must always remember that one is not in Korea but in Cambodia. The place was infested with Korean tourist. So much so that they had Korean restaurants and hotels just for them. When we were in Tonle Sap, they had floating karaoke parlours for Koreans. Another cool thing was the Korean church which was also floating.
Overall, I had fun. Just because I went with my family. My dad said the money was well spent, cuz all four of us got to spend time together. We had to motivate Charmaine to keep walking cuz it was quite boring for her… temple after temple. We had to tahan mom’s bragging about buying souvenirs. We had to laugh at dad’s lame jokes. I love them heaps (not the jokes… I love my family).
Once at lunch time we had coconut ice-cream and coffee. Dad was too lazy to get milk and sugar for his coffee, so he put coconut ice-cream in his coffee, and said it tasted good… so that’s where I got the trait of mixing my food up…
This non-luxurious trip made me appreciate the stuff we often take for granted. And I also felt for the kids who have to beg to have a meal for their families. A speaker from convention 06 said “Lord, break my heart with the things that break Yours”. Really, my heart broke when I saw this little boy with nothing but a torn tshirt, asking for money beside his weak grandmother. I can’t give him anything cuz if I do, the other will swamp over me. All I could do was to pray that this country will be given justice and peace one day.
I think it was cuz of the cheap Air Asia fair that my dad booked. And also cuz we’ve not been there b4. My dad went there in 1993 and it was super different then.
It was jz 2 days after I came back from Australia. Still trying very hard to adjust myself to the humidity, I had to bear with the extra heat and dust in Siem Reap. I was suffering….
As I was saying that the air ticket was the cheap one, we had to rush for good seats in the plane. I forgot that I’m back in a country that is soaked in Kiasu-ism. They were supposed to let the families with kids and senior citizens to board the plane 1st… but once the gates of hell was open, the middle aged dudes ran out of that low cost terminal, pass those families and straight pass the air stewardess with the nice bum (which I think my dad was also looking at =p). that was so scary… the uncle ran like there’s no tmr.
In the plane, the voice from speaker said “your life jacket is allocated below your seats…” and I saw my life jacket in the front pocket leh!!! Lagi scary! Dunno if it still works or not. The plane was small so we cud actually see the cockpit when they opened the cockpit door. And then I saw that the pilot with spex (?!?!) shrugged at the co-pilot. Wah, panic la… hahah, sorry la, this was my 1st experience on a low cost plane… plus! A fly came onboard too… my mom said it’ll faint b4 we reach Siem Reap. And she was right…
The airport was nice. Very grand and luxurious. But when we got out… the streets were dusty, people were in torn clothes, old motorbikes, sweaty and hungry looking… huge contrast.
Our tour guide, Mr. Seng DaLing thought us some Cambodian language. Soosday (Hello). SohSohBai (How r u?). Oh Koon (Thank you). We also had a driver, Mr. Pain. He spoke mandarin, but seldom spoke la. Mr. DaLing’s said that when he was young, they taught them how to hate and curse the king. (!??!!) and the current king is also not liked by the citizens… he fled the country when it was attacked. And came back with bad leadership skills also. So too bad.
But he’s a karaoke king! He sings on national tv and tells ppl he likes to “cheong K”. This corrupted country has a karaoke king! When I turned on the TV, channel 1 and 2 were channels just for karaoke. Seriously… Cambodian songs… and the MTV also made locally. Wah, super funny…
Anywayz, we visited heaps of temples. And these temples are ancient stone ones that look alike. Except for the one built by women. Banti Srey (Women’s Citidel). Chun man…. It was made with pink sandstones and pink sandstones are very rare in Cambodia! Girl power! The carvings were so intricate. It was built only by women, and the men stayed home to jaga anak.We also went to the temple which they filmed Tomb Raider in. we stood on the spot where Angelina Jolie stood. We jz needed guns, tight leather pants and big boobs… the temple was called Ta Prohm which means Jungle temple cuz the temple is now covered and almost destroyed by roots of trees. Mother Nature claims the land. This temple was built for the king’s mother.
We went to Angkor Thom (the Great City). Entered Bayon through Tun Lay Ohm (South Gate), Pré Rup (change body), Preah Ko (Sacred Ox), Bakong… oh ya! And the highlight!!! Angkor Wat.
They said its one of the 7 man made wonders of the world. I checked online and it wasn’t… =( so disappointing. But jz to make myself feel better… I’VE BEEN TO ONE OF THE 7 WONDERS OF THE WORLD!!! WOOT~
It wasn’t very different from the other temples. This was jz very much bigger and higher, and wider and has more tourists. The challenging part was to climb up the steep steps to the peak, which only my dad and I took up the challenge. Not forgetting that I’m scared of heights… I kept my eyes on the peak and never looked back. The other challenge was to come down! Hahah, but it was fun. Dad and I did some camwhoring up there.The carvings on the walls very very cool. Imagine reading stories from walls, not from books. And there are always these drawings of the Apsara dancers. It’s the ancient dance which we saw in one of the restaurants. Not much different from the Thai dance, but this one looks more like the movements of a pigeon…
Back to the carvings, our guide showed us 2 very funny carvings. One was the apsara dancer smiling with her teeth showing. And another was the apsara dancer sticking her tongue out. Joker la those carvers.
And u know what… for 4 days we were using a stolen vehicle! Apparently, 70% of the vehicles on the roads are stolen. No number plates… some were left hand drive, some right hand. Memang tak ada system. I only managed to spot 2 traffic lights, and the motorbikes were like flies on cow dung! 4 adults on one motorbike…. Geng… We didn’t know how to cross the road… and there’s no age limit for driving. This 13 year-old minister’s son drove a Lexus. How unfair!!!
Another important pointer… one must always remember that one is not in Korea but in Cambodia. The place was infested with Korean tourist. So much so that they had Korean restaurants and hotels just for them. When we were in Tonle Sap, they had floating karaoke parlours for Koreans. Another cool thing was the Korean church which was also floating.
Overall, I had fun. Just because I went with my family. My dad said the money was well spent, cuz all four of us got to spend time together. We had to motivate Charmaine to keep walking cuz it was quite boring for her… temple after temple. We had to tahan mom’s bragging about buying souvenirs. We had to laugh at dad’s lame jokes. I love them heaps (not the jokes… I love my family).
Once at lunch time we had coconut ice-cream and coffee. Dad was too lazy to get milk and sugar for his coffee, so he put coconut ice-cream in his coffee, and said it tasted good… so that’s where I got the trait of mixing my food up…This non-luxurious trip made me appreciate the stuff we often take for granted. And I also felt for the kids who have to beg to have a meal for their families. A speaker from convention 06 said “Lord, break my heart with the things that break Yours”. Really, my heart broke when I saw this little boy with nothing but a torn tshirt, asking for money beside his weak grandmother. I can’t give him anything cuz if I do, the other will swamp over me. All I could do was to pray that this country will be given justice and peace one day.
More pix : http://littlejez.multiply.com/photos/album/15
we took more than 600 photos!!! Of course, I had to pick out some to post…
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