pix from surprise (pt1)

I totally forgot about taking pictures when i went back for the surprise. these are from my mom's camera.

Datuk and popo at their place. so glad I got to see them and spend an afternoon with them. 

That's me hiding behind the door with Charmaine, while Theresa signals for me to go out to surprise dad. 

 target spotted. attack from behind!    target surprised.

 mission accomplished.

 

crap wey... the youngest cousin is growing too fast!

 justine made me a photo colage of me and everyone else in the family since i was a "fat ass baby" quote my uncle. 

the crazy bunch aka,  the keh leh fehs

(clock wise from left) charmaine, amanda (wide-eyed girl with thick framed spex), clemence, theresa, justine, sebastian, stephanie.

mom, dad and charmaine with my bday cake, red eggs and me drumstick! muahaahha.... 

 mama burnt my drumstick... and she just laughed about it

 the sit-around-the-table sessions. dad and i 'cheers'ing our hard boiled eggs. i wonder who started the tradition of having red eggs and drumsticks on birthdays.

 keh leh fehs holding something random each. hahah... charmaine's expression is classic! (she's holding a cherry from the cake by the way...)

lesson learnt from what i see in these pix: hair does not look good in humid msian weather

Surprise Surprise (pt1)

Remember when I fell super sick last year, that I became one with my couch, and had to push thru convy fundraising dinner as MC with a major headache and fever? Wooooh! That was an experience...

So around that time... I became super homesick and wanted so badly to be nursed by mom and to get attention from datuk (grandad), and drink popo (granma)’s soup. I wanted to go home so badly that I logged on to flight sites and booked a ticket back to Malaysia. 

Yes... that’s right. I didn’t know how bad my condition was until I saw the itinerary email that AirAsia sent to me. 

So anyhoot, this year came, and I kept that secret from my family since then. Boarded the plane with uncomfortable black leather seats, and flew 5.30 hours from Perth to KL. I got to spend a day in Perth, which I intended to just laze around, yet it turned out to be a day I met up with so many people! 

Ok, back to the story... I was greeted by Tim with roses and signboard with my name on it. That was my 1st ever name-on-signboard-when-arriving-at-airport thingy! Hahah... then we headed to the Curve for lunch (extremely spicy Indonesian food), and we witnessed the endless queue that led to Zara’s massive sale at CineLeisure. Crazy!

After that we headed to the bowling place where my mom and sis always go to on Thursday evenings. Tim called my mom to arrange for a meet up as he had something to pass to her from Australia. He walked in to the bowling place, said hi to mom, and told her that the thing for her is too big and it’s outside. Then I walked in casually to taste the moment of surprise. Haha! That’s so worth the looong flight. Mom and sis were shocked beyond words, cuz all mom cud say was “she’s supposed to be in Australia!”. 

Later that night, my cousins made an ambush towards my dad who still didn’t know I was back. That surprised look on dad was priceless as well. I’ve to give credit to my cousins, especially Theresa, who was the master mind behind this plan. I was so glad to be back with my family. Really miss those Saturday nights when we’d go pasar malam together, then sit around the table and talk about anything talkable, and laugh about anything unlaughable. 

Even though it was just for 3 days and 2 nights, I got to spend my birthday with my family, hug and kiss Charmaine when she’s half asleep, talk about the good ol’ days with cousins, aunties and uncles, hold my grandparents’ hands, sing with Charmaine while we wait for mom and dad to wake up for dinner. 

I also got to set up a facebook account for Charmaine, break the last string of my mom’s guitar, attend Shirley and David’s wedding, meet mama’s new dog (Bubble), drive over to have a short mamak session with Heidi, have curry fish head with grandparents and kau fu, have breakfast with dad, hug Sandra and play with her dog, chat with Boon Pin and play with his dog, and eat my drumstick and red eggs which we get every year on our birthdays (I missed out 3 years of this man!!!). 

Oh well, back to Adelaide, with another surprise story to tell. Stay tuned~ 

I woke up this morning (well, it was the afternoon already, but just for the sake of writing it, it shall be morning) with 2 words floating around me: overwhelming, and undeserving.

The past few days were AMAZING, and my little self can’t take anything more than this! I flew all the way back to Malaysia to surprise my family on my birthday, and came all the way back to Adelaide to be surprised by my friends with the most randomest events!  

I’ll start blogging about them once I get my hands on some pictures. 

As for now, I wanna say thank you all for making me feel so special!!!! And to ee may who requested that I update my blog, well, gotta gimme some time. Kinda caught up with heaps of stuff now. anyhow, I miss u heaps!

I saw the geek in the pink

Very few of you would know that I really really like Jason Mraz. Well, not much of the person himself but his style of music and his word play in lyrics. Love the funkiness and groove.

Many of you would know that I have not been employed since I graduated and have been pretty tight on the $pending lately. And many of you may also have known that Jason Mraz made Adelaide one of his stops for his world tour; and yes... I dreaded the fact that JM was so close yet so far. 

...and most of you know that I have this super awesome boyfriend who loves me so much that he gave me the chance to not live like a poor jobless person who is stripped off the opportunity to even think about having some true concert experience of her favourite singer. 

So he surprised me with an advanced birthday gift...

Wooohooo!!! Tim did not just bought the tickets just like that. He made sure someone I know is going for the concert too cuz he didn’t want me to go alone. 

So yeah, I went with a bunch of friends who I didn’t know liked Jason Mraz as much as I do too (just that I’m the cheapo fan who did not buy the t-shirt or his CDs). 

Though I really enjoyed the concert which had Missy Higgins performing as well, and JM & his band was super entertaining, I wished the person who bought my ticket was there with me too. 

Things to do while I’m alive:

#22: See Jason Mraz live in person—Checked

Thing to do now:

Get a job-- Pending 

sambal vacuum cleaner

The vacuum cleaner smells funny. 

Smells like sambal. Not in a good way.

So I sprayed the vacuumed room with perfume. Perfume that mom gave me when she came here for my graduation. 

Now my room smells like mom. 

I miss mom.

Yup, congratulate her for graduating and awarded for:

-best offspring driver

-best spaghetti bolognaise maker

-best animal-designed-tightpants-wearer

-best mother

wisdom from the ground

I was walking from my house to the city one day, and I saw this spray-painted on the pavement:

So true...

fight-o... OH!

My positive thoughts: I’m super free, still have a place to stay, have food in my freezer, have clothes to wear, no assignments to rush, a great holiday with family to look forward to

My only negative thought: I’m jobless

That negative thought haunts me deeply. The discouragements of not getting any replies from companies that I sent my resumes to are really killing my motivation. It’s like a slow and numbing death of my excitement to life. I need challenge, I need positive challenge...

Sometimes I do get tired of trying to keep myself afloat in this misery. But I know sometime in the future, I’ll surely look back at this time and be proud, knowing I survived this unpleasant transition period.

If I can get a job so easily, I would not have the chance to experience the hardship of getting one. If I want great victory, I shall fight a good fight.

CatCake

I made a cake. I didnt just make an ordinary cake... I made a cat cake.

Yes sir ree... a CAT cake.

‘Twas the coming day to celebrate the birth of Huey Chi
That we decided to do something to make her happy
Dressing up as Star Wars characters r too hard, for goodness sake
We shall just bake her a huge CatCake!

That's mandy doing her 'thang'~
she's just so good at this...

We also made little kittens for the huge cat face.
(Those edges are their ears, mind you... they're not angry possums.)
((spot the outcast pig))

Yummm... I think it was super duper sweet cuz of the icing, but I found more joy in looking at my achievement other than eating it.

Miss doing stuff with mandy... wish I could still hang out with her... Canberra is just too far away!

black swan o' black swan

The black swan represents this state that has almost 70% of its population voting for a ‘no’ on daylight saving—Western Australia.

I had a chance to visit this place for the third time in my life, and I’m glad I came back. Mainly it’s because I could hardly remember anything about this place (Cuz I was 2 and 8 the last times I came here), and also cuz the food here is so much more similar to home. Cantik~

This breath taking view could be seen from King’s Park, and the one at night is really nice too. Coming from Adelaide, I was like the ulu kampong girl: ‘waaaaaahhh… tall buildings…’.

I had a feel of their china town, with the one and only Chinese arch. Oh ya, I tried 2 bubble teas from 2 different shops, wasn’t bad, but I somehow still like the one in Adelaide.

Had a chance to walk around the ‘art gallery’ at night. The pictures were so cool…

Got to visit my Dai Bak (Big uncle) and wife. He took me to the place where I cried really badly when the swan almost ate my dad’s hand. ok... maybe it was just a peck... but still!!! It was M rated Horror for a 2-year-old! I can still remember trying to climb on any adult near me who’d have the heart to carry me up, away from the ferocious black feathery things which was almost my size then.

I also enjoyed my chao kuey teow, which tasted just like the one in taman midah, just without the si ham.

Speaking of food… Tim’s household had a huge BBQ party- the aussie style (apparently). So much food leftover! That’s me giving a go at flipping them snags.

And the housemates who insist that their pictures do not appear online (well u can’t really see them from here can u?) =p

We also had a few rounds of monopoly (Credit Card style). I’m gonna make a comeback next time round! Just u wait, Clayton!

We also had a Christmas party with a Chinese serenading Santa Clause…Who also played mah jong.

I also was asked on a date! oooOOoooOO~

Though the chairs at the Bell House was really low, I looooved the food there. I always thought fancy food always come in small portions on a huge plate to signify that it won’t taste as good as it looks. But I was wrong… Thanks Tim dear for the lovely evening~

I also got to go to Fremantle and I saw the brewers of Little Creatures, had their famous Fish n’ Chips, and I found this!

I also got to meet up with David Ow and have my fair share of real roti canai.

Also got to meet tekki (and girlfriend), who had to eat that whole bowl (literally a medium sized mixer bowl) of seafood.

Hmmm, we went to the beach too, but I just noticed that I didn’t take any pictures then. All in their camera…

While lilian and abishek were here in perth too, willy took all of us out to tour around the place. We had corica apple strudles! Yummy!!! (yes! No raisins!) Hahaha, I cant stop laughing when I see this picture. Hahah… willy got tricked into making a funny pose =p

Anyhoot, Tim and I had a chance to ferry all the way to Rottness Island! Wahhh, it was soooooo pretty! The beach was like… REAL! Hahaha, it had crystal clear water with tiny waves coming in constantly. And the sand was so fine it was like powder!

We also hired bicycles and did a small round on one side of the island. It was so hilly I was praying so hard I won’t get blown off by the wind when I flew downhill along the coast.

I went to so many beaches, watched Australia (and another show that was going on inside the cinema), shopped in Perth’s Harbour Town, had lemon lime bitters at 3pm with EeVon, took the ferry to South Perth, visited 2 churches, had good meals at Tim’s family friend’s place, went jogging in the morning and partly regretted doing so, met and even had lunch with an Australian policeman, walked around Carousel, drove Tim’s car for a bit, took the free bus around the city, rented DVDs, messed up Tim’s room, get stuck in a real jam, lived with 2 free-fluttering birds in the same house for 10 days.

Yup, I had fun ;)

then we flew to Melbourne on Christmas night for another exciting holiday~

oh look! an egg is cooking on the pavement!

I guess I don’t need to say much for updates. The only main thing that’s been going on here in little Adelaide is the crazy ass HEAT (with a capital EAT).

It successfully whacked most of us crazy. We can sleep naked at night and still sweat. Lowest of 36 Celsius and a whopping 44 Celsius high for one whole week. Wahlau…. BEH TA HAN!!!

Maybe they should consider changing the country’s name from Australia to EXtralia. Cuz it has such extremes! My goodness… it can be super cold (and still no snow), and super hot (and still no sandstorm).

I’ve always thought the summer season does not last long and it’ll pass really soon. But Amanda reminded me yesterday that it’s cuz I always go back to Malaysia during summer and I kinda avoid the hot drag of the month. And I was like… oh crap. U mean I’ve to go thru the full swing of it this time?!?!?! Noooooooooo….

Oh well, but at least I got to skip some parts of winter, heheh… I managed to escape 3 weeks of cold with the Basils to the northern hemisphere. Nyahahah…

So now, I’m sleeping with Ruby in the dinning hall with the aircon (almost like our life support machine). Huey chi… u lucky girl… u just dodged the heat week!!!

All I can wish u now is ‘stay cool’ and ‘chill mate… chill’.

Happy Chinese ‘Niu’ Year!

My 1st time ever being away from home during chinese new year... the thought of it just makes me feel so .. boooooooo.... =(
Well, it didn’t turn out as bad as I thought it’d be. If it wasn’t for the coincidence that CNY fell on Australia Day, it wouldn’t be this exciting. It’s usually a working day in Australia during CNY, but this year, all the aussies are celebrating this auspicious day with us! Hey~

I had a family reunion dinner with Dai Yee (big aunt), uncle Jason, uncle Michael, aunty Ivy, Christopher, Joshua, Jeremy, their cousin Aaron and a family friend who I’ve met through somewhere else b4, called Joanna. I dun really feel it was a reunion cuz it wasn’t much of a reuniting thing anyways. But it was fun. Good food and we had a few rounds of mah jong and played with some sparklers out in the back yard.

No one counted down with me this time. I made James, Daniel and Esther play chor dai dee with me to get the mood going, while the others emotionlessly wished each other ‘gong hei gong hei’ when it was 12:01. I could recall how crazy it would be in mama’s house. Everyone would stop what they’re doing, countdown together in the living room, then wish everyone happy CNY, and we’d pour tea for mama, while she gives out ang pows. We’d line up for ang pows from our uncles and aunties, and then after the whole happy commotion, we’d go back to what we were doing b4 (playing with cards, mah jong, watching tv, just talking about weird stuff around the dinning table).

I miss home... I miss the atmosphere... I miss my crazy family who’d come up with really weird things to do when we gather.

Anyhow... on CNY day in Aus, I woke up with a major headache. But it all went fine after I went to ikea to buy chairs with Su, Ster and Deb. Then we went to mama and papa Basil’s house to ‘bai lin’. They had so many chinese titbits and Yeoh’s packet drinks!!!! Totally made my day. and it was really cool receiving ang pow from Andrew hahah...

Then we went back to ashok macho and had a massive cook-out. Deb and I rolled the tong yuin. Yih ling and michelle wrapped the wantons. Esther cooked non stop. James and su ling did the deco. That night, we had 11 happy chinese and 1 learned rojak. This dinner made me feel so much better. We had all the chinese cuisines which elevated the oriental celebration. Not forgetting the ‘dong dong dong chiang’ songs that went on and on the whole nite till we could see it flowing out of our ears the next day.

Wish I was home, but am grateful that I’ve friends here who brought home to me.

growing pains

Some people would do anything to look younger, turn back the clock, and even create a clock that goes backwards (hehe, just watched Benjamin Buttons, which was actually a really good one I must say... it’s randomly awesome!)... but for me, I appreciate the natural ability of growing older .

It’s like a gift from our Creator. It’s as simple as time. Addition in time = addition in age = addition in maturity.

Now, the thing is... something happened not too long ago to me. it had something to do with how I look as a 21-year-old girl who is stuck in the middle between graduation and having a steady job that will be able to provide for her chances of surviving in the world of money and materialism. This not-a-girl; not-yet-a-woman situation makes me feel so uneasy, I can’t wait to break out of it.

And as I was happily enjoying my almost-fulfilling retreat, a major catastrophe took place that sunny afternoon. I didn’t know what lay before as I stepped into that Korean saloon in Melbourne’s china town with Tim and Angeline.

I indicated with my fingers the length I want for my fringe. She said to close my eyes in Korean accent so she can trim my hair that flowed down my forehead, over my eyes. And when I opened my eyes, my heart fell to my feet. It’s so short it’s not classified as fringe!
Angeline, if u’re reading this, it got worse after that day. I thought it was fine after the cut, so I was ok then. Accepted the new look instantly. But when I got back, reality sank in. It was so bad I wish the tiles in the toilet floor would crack open and I’ll get sucked into a whirlpool of self-pity and disappointment.

Now I’m stuck in this stressful feeling. How do I go out and meet people, find a job, get applications for PR done etc? How how how? My self confident just ripped out from me instantly.

Tim says its cute. And we had a really good laugh and good scream in the car and in Sugar Bowl. But really... how long will it grow to a desirable length so I can feel pretty again?

Now that I look 10 years younger, I feel ‘uuuggghhhh’ about growing up. Bills to pay, rent coming every fortnight, car breaking down, job hunting disappointments, freaking expensive PR fees... and what did I say again? I appreciate the natural ability of growing old. Yes... that’s it. I love life. Come on adult issues!!! Bring it on!

The West Side Story

Hi there, silent public. Glad to know that this site is still visited even since the last update that was done donkey ages ago. So many things happened to little jez who thinks big, now, her little brain has scarce space for storage.

Tracking back, the last I spoke of was about my old house which I sometimes do miss. Yet, this new place has a lot more to offer. Even though I’m now technically not an East Sider, deep down in my heart, I’m always one (for as long as the gang remains in that territory).

I now live in a suburb called Mile End, but really, it’s quite the mile’s start. I’m 15 mins walk away from the city, and 15mins drive away from the beach. And if I need to know that I’m living in a city (Adelaide is not that dead ok?), I just need to open my sound proof windows and scream at the trucks that go along the Henley Beach Road which has 5 lanes. If I need to have some peace and quiet, the sun room is a lovely place to sun-dry my thoughts and watch them evaporate with the patterns on the curtains.

The toilet is just one door away from my room (compared to my old house, I’ve to walk out to the laundry, into the kitchen, then to the lounge, out into the entrance, then to the toilet) It’s amazing I don’t pee in my pants b4 I reach the sacred bowl.

Even though the moving process happened when I had 4 assignments due in that same week, I’m amazed how it all happened so smoothly, including my assignments. This new place has hibiscus growing right beside the garage! Woohooo, I’m < > this close to Malaysia =p