happy chap goh mei

it's the last day of chinese new year today....also known as chap goh mei here in malaysia.
this day is also known as the chinese valentine's day. apparently, on this day during ancient time, unmarried ladies will go out and stroll around the town, kind of to show potential single guys that they are available.
also done on this day, is the tradition of throwing mandarin oranges into the river, leaving your  contact details for single guys out there to fish the oranges out and get in touch with you.

so did anyone reading this do any of the above???

well, i did not of course.

i just stayed home and gave my classes and still stayed home here at night marking exercise books.

i have never thown any mandarin oranges nor have i any intention to.

does that mean that i do not intend to end my single life?

well, whatever will be will be. i am not going to force myself to get attached just because age is catching up with me. i am not worried at all, so please stop worrying about my single status.
if a right guy comes along, it will be great. if not, i will just live my life and be happy.

i am signing off now. so wishing everyone a smooth year and may all the wishes made, will come true this year.

cny week, not huat all the way

what a difference a week made.
last sunday, we celebrated the coming of the year of the snake, and today, it is already the 8th day and it is the time for hokkiens to celebrate their new year.
there are bound to be firecrackers lighting up the sky at midnight again....and oohh....how i wish i was deaf to all noises.

last week, i was happily celebrating the new year, but today, i am slowly dreading going back to work.
well, i managed to get another of break but it is by no means any cheating. i am really sick and i really cannot, i repeat cannot wake up at 6a.m. to drag myself to class. i will be coughing and wheezing and feeling drowsy the whole day no doubt.

so i finally dragged myself to the doctor and got that medical certificate....and also some pills which i told him to make them knock me out. i need my sleep! i am so sleep deprived! there is no way i can pay back the sleep debt i owe. i haven't been sleeping soundly for more than a few hours for the past 3 nights.

i was awake when my brothers came home, i was still awake when the azan sounded from the mosque calling the muslims for prayers at dawn and i was awake to hear those birds feeding their chicks outside my brother's room windows!!! how irritating!!!!

my failing health was due to sleep deprivation (when i got home at 3a.m. and had passed that sleeping time of mine), getting wet in the rain when i did my japan visa application, air-conditioner from the mall and the car, changes of weather and the odd sleeping hours. hmm....signs of aging.

i better finish this post fast so i can get to bed afterwards.

now, it is time for some photos to do their talkings.

1st day of cny:

 

we held special prayer for grandma's first death anniversary at home. it was all vegetarian on the table. not because grandma was a vegetarian, but it was more because it was the first day of cny.

on the 2nd day of cny, my dad, aunts, uncle, cousins and siblings went to the memorial to offer their prayer while mom and i stayed home. mom's sis and nieces were coming, so i decided to wait for them instead.

i did this special braid on my cousin's hair. nice eh? i saw the picture on facebook and took some time to analyse how to go about doing it. it was the first time i did it and it was successful. i could never do this on my own hair, it was too tedious and my hair would go all messy i am sure.

i did not house visiting on the first day, just stayed home waiting for relatives from mom's side to come. we seldom see each other, so it was apt that i stayed home to see them since they made it all the way from puchong just to see us.

i only went out on the second day, afternoon.
that night, we also celebrated a friend's birthday. i had never celebrated her birthday with her before, so it was good being able to do that and to give her a surprise birthday cake.
the location was none other than ma-ni, thai restaurant. oh, my brother asked why ma-ni was chosen, the boss told him that it meant come in thai.
i managed to get us a private room where we could make so much noise and not disturb other patrons.

red lanterns were hung at strategic places to suit the cny mood.

another flower decoration at the bar.

curry.....and lots of them!!! seafood tom  yum, seafood dry curry, stir-fried glass noodle, mango salad, grilled duck curry, steamed cuttle fish and fish cake.

rasberry cheesecake for the birthday girl. i searched the whole town and the only cake shop which was opened, was secret recipe. gosh, their whole cake is so expensive now. it is rm87 for one.
well, if you are reading this, i don't need such expensive cake for my birthday ok. a slice will do. and i haven't tried rainbow cake yet....that will be the best choice for this year ;) muahahahaha.

and how can a meal during cny be without 'lou sang'? see that top left corner in the picture? those are raw fish slices for you. the presentation of this dish was even better than those in the chinese restaurants.

and after all the 'lous' and all the wishes and hope being shouted out loud, you have this pile of mess left on the plate. may all wishes come true. this dish is a truly malaysian created one but has caught up in other places as well. i heard those in hong kong are also doing it. it is really an auspicious one for chinese new year, so have you had one??

there was also a day, the 3rd day of cny to be specific where i played driver to my sister and aunt and i drove them all the way to subang for their friends' reunion. i only tagged along for free food and some ang pows ;)

lattes and cakes at empire with aunt while waiting for sis.
that trip took me to empire, usj 6 and also paradigm mall. my first time to paradigm, not bad.....of course, i did some shopping there!

got home kinda late that night, 1030pm and still got invitations to go out. gosh, i wanted to decline but one of the groups sent me a nice pick-up in the form of a volkswagen passat and off i went. how could i decline when the car stopped right in front of the house?

it was just one big can of heineken for me that night. i had 3 coronas at the same place 2 nights ago. i was definitely too tired....and this was the night where the sleeping time all started to get screwed up.
only went home at 3a.m. and i couldn't sleep till morning came. it was waaaay passed my sleeping time hence i couldn't fall asleep. two plus was ok, but not 3 for sure. lesson learnt.

on the 4th day,oh, valentine's day as well, it was just resting and doing nothing at home. well, during the day only. went out with friends to loaf at the newly opened old town kopitiam. the food and service really sucked! left a bad taste in the mouth. don't think i will hang out there.

then on the 5th day, it was off to kl again to submit my japan visa application. i had to do it this week!!! woke up, got the documents ready, went to town to take that passport sized photo with white background and off i shot off with my siblings in the car. rain had started to fall when i went to town to take that photo and i was praying during the drive to kl that i wouldn't be delayed by any accidents or storms. oh, time was crucial here as the embassy would close at 4pm. we finally reached the embassy at half past three. phew!

visa was submitted and klcc was the next destination to meet an aunt of my cousin.
the meeting went well, we had dinner and my sister and i shopped ;)
luckily the trip back was a smooth one. no more rain.

a new watch for my sister...the one on top. a seiko similar to mine but hers was limited edition and came with a date face. a good buy. 20% discount.

my friend picked me up to ma-ni restaurant again that night. i was already having a cold then but i went along. got a stalk of pink rose from the boss- post valentine's rose. yeah.....one flower this valentine!!!

visa application. kaka....of course i am not going to show my passport photo here albeit i have only received good compliments on the photo. i looked young, like a korean, bla bla. have to thank the photoshop work too, that pimple next to the nose, disappeared.

dinner in kl that day was at bens.

lemon meringue pie, 3 plates of spaghettinis and one plate of nasi special for my bro.

wohoo....my shopping loot! the first time i shopped more after chinese new year than before. there were still sales in the mall, so i made good use of the opportunity and hot myself a few new blouses and skirts.........and below:
a few pairs of shoes too!!!
never had i bought so many pairs of shoes in one week. sales sales sales!!!

reminder, clean the wardrobe when you get back and get rid of clothes and shoes which are really worn dy.

all the red packets i got this year won't be enough to pay for the things i got above. there were no angpows from the family this year as we were not supposed to celebrate so the collection was much less than what i got last year.

the total: rm164. good enough.

and now to some medicine collection to get rid of this cold.

mom helped me buy clarinase from the pharmacy but it kept me awake the whole night atfer i took it yesterday. a friend of mine also had this effect on her. so i guess, i will keep this for daytime...hopefully not in the near future.

and i went to the clinic today to get another medicine for the flu and i got cough mixture too. yeah, the cough came already and i am wheezing now. the nose is slightly blocked.
am going to sleep after this. hopefully the pill will help me sleep better.
i am dreading midnight when all those firecrackers will explode.
thank goodness i have got that medical certificate. it would be impossible to wake up tomorrow and having to go to classes. tomorrow is vital for rest to get ready for tuesday.
tonight.....it is essential that i get my sleep!

good night.

welcoming the year of the snake

happy chinese new year. the year of the water snake beckons and hopefully it will be a good year to everyone. if you listen to zodiac predictions, it ain't gonna be a good one for me, a snake.  yesh, you can go ahead and guess my age.
and they might be true from the amount of money i have lost on the playing table in the game of 'chi kam'. lol.  i have only won once from the many times the cards were spread on the table. how pathetic.
i really couldn't take it anymore and asked to be excused.

the reunion dinner was already over and i bet everyone is with their family and friends now.

we had 8 dishes on the table. one was bought from restaurant fu man, pun chooi. the rest were cooked by aunt and mom. preparation started since yesterday and the meal was over in less than an hour.

enlarge the picture if you want to see what we had. i just realised that most of the dishes were brown in colour when making the collage. there were quite many meat dishes as well. my favourite? the fish of course. the soup was good too.

there is no welcoming the god of prosperity at midnight nor any special prayer to welcome the year of the snake. we will have one prayer tomorrow, for grandma's death anniversary and there is no need to even be dressed in the customary new clothes.
our house is void of any red chinese new year decoration as well and the adults are not going to give us any red packets. there goes a few hundreds. well, the tradition is the king of the day.

anyway, there still are things i have to do just to make myself more psyched up to welcome the new year. it just doesn't seem right not to join in all the festivities.

the car has to be cleaned no matter what and thank god, there is the service of the auto car cleaner in town. for a meagre price of rm5, i got the car washed. of course, at that price, no vacuuming is included. well, at least the car is clean now....see the picture? it is actually gleaming hahahaha.....
and i didn't even have to drive the car to the car wash. i had my brother and cousin to do that for me.
come to think of it, i still haven't paid him. hahahhaa.

and of course my hello kitty cushions needed some cleaning too. i has been ages since i last cleaned them. so the new year gives me a motivation to wash them.

i also had a pre-cny workout yesterday upon the insistence of my brother who couldn't find anyone to accompany him to the gym in proton city's sports complex. he sponsored my trip to the gym of course, rm 4 was the price.

the view from the gym was really peaceful. it was quite a big gym room but unfortunately the equipment there was nothing to shout about. they are quite limited only. what a waste of space.
i only went on the treadmill and ran for 40 minutes. it was a good sweating session.

i had mentioned earlier that there won't be any celebration come tomorrow, but it still won't feel right without any new clothes in the wardrobe. i only had 2 new tee shirts which i bought last year and haven't worn. i will have nothing new to wear when i go back to work once the week's holiday is over.
hence i insisted on going to ipoh when the opportunity rose with the hope of buying at least a set of new clothes for work.

well, i did get one skirt and a shirt. phew! and the set of towels above? haha...birthday present for this year. it is something which i have always wanted. and with a bit of whining, i did get it. kakakakkaa....so new towels for the new year!!!!

and we went for a little drink after shopping too. the place is called sky lounge in ipoh. it is on the 7th floor of a hotel which name i had forgotten. it is open air and a really good place for drinking. however, the drinks were nothing to shout about. i ordered a jack daniels...it has been ages since i had one.

dinner that night was japanese but not at sky lounge.

it was at a restaurant called ninja jones at de garden, opposite kinta city. the food was so-so. the waiter was really scary with his ninja look complete with half-covered face. don't think i will ever go back since ipoh do have some other really good japanese restaurants.

since it is the cny week, i also had the opportunity to meet with some ex-kids who came back from singapore. they purposely came to look for me and brought me some stuff too.

love them!!!! imagine going to mcdonalds and buying their happy meal every week for a month just to get me these dolls. and that big box of chocolates! i will be fat!

it will be a week of meeting friends and relatives. gosh, i will be dreading those questions related to my single status for sure. well, i am just sick of those questions more than dreading them i think.
whatever will be, will be.
can't wait to sample cny goodies and having some banters with my friends.

so have a good year everyone despite what the zodiac predictions say. live a good life and enjoy to the fullest every day that you have.

all in red

one more week and the year of the water snake beckons.
but i am not really feeling any excitement this year. we are not allowed to put up any cny decorations at home because of some chinese taboo saying that we are not to celebrate any festivals since my grandma had passed away for less than a year.

i am not in the mood to buy any new clothes as well. i do have a new dress which i haven't worn yet, but it is in black and white. i don't think it will be auspicious to wear that for chinese new year when everything that you do has to bring some luck to the house.
i do have 2 new tee-shirts, so those will be new clothes and of course there are no new skirts or pants to pair them with. it will be old and new combo.
oh, but i do have an auspicious lucky red bag and it is brand new!  it is coach's legacy shoulder bag. so that bag will bring in lots of luck for sure.
oh oh, i do have a pair of red shoes too. waaa......another something to bring in more luck!!!! and it is also brand new with some jewels as well.
gosh, come to think of it, almost everything new i have is red. one of those new tee shirts is in.......hahahah.......of course, RED! i will be like a walking red lantern if i put all my red stuff together. red shoes, red bag and red shirt. aarrrghhhh!!!
oh well, i will think of what to wear when i get the permission to celebrate the new year after our special prayer session for grandma's death anniversary which i heard will be done on the first day of the chinese lunar calendar itself.

well, it is one more week at work and then it will be another week off. can't wait. am i going to bring back some books to mark during that holiday week? hahah.....that will really bad luck eh. but i don't think i can finish marking all books!!! arrrgghh.......!!!
book in cantonese is read in a way that it sounded like 'lose'. hence it is a no-no to touch any book or have any book around when you gamble.

i have got 2 chinese new year card so far, not counting the one sent by the house developer. will i get more??

one of the cards came with a box of ferroro rocher chocolates. very generous indeed. and i also got some chocolates from switzerland. woohoooo....i love my lindt.

it had been a week of accepting. tuesday's dinner was also sent to the house by a 14-year-old who just wanted to buy me my dinner. so sweet. and even told me to set a reminder in my phone a day before so i wouldn't forget.

it was also a very very very hot day in terms of the weather. the sky was void of clouds every afternoon and there was no rain as well. the craving for something cold came everyday despite knowing that it was not good for health.

but on thursday, after a game of basketball where i was challenged by kid to play with him, sent me straight to the shaved ice stall in town. aarrghh......just look at that bowl of deliciously tempting shaved iced topped with jellies and drowned in orange juice. cooling!!!

i have also had ice-cream two days in a row. yesterday, i got some ice-cream at the petrol station. the one above was brought by my brother from the ice-cream man who came around the neighbourhood on his motorbike. that reminded me of back in the olden times when we were still young. all those tinkling of the bells were much awaited in the afternoon and evening. be it the roti man, ice-cream man or chi cheong fun man, it was always a joy to be able to stop them. hahahaha.

the kitchen at home was also quite busy with a little chinese new year preparations. cookies had to be baked to serve visiting guests and i am not involved. hahaha...phew! yes, i am lazy.
it was muruku making session in the photo above.

i love my bag! okok....i was just trying to show the 4 colours of sports houses we have- yellow, red, blue and green. it was the cross-country competition yesterday, saturday. it is the first year i am in red house and i was really dreading it since red had been on a losing streak in the past few years. from a winning house, i was sent to a losing house. it took so much psyching up on my side to make me prepare my role in the new house. many kids were devastated to hear that i had left green and even wanted to follow me to red. too bad, only the teachers were all changed and not the kids.

well, in the end, red did not do too badly albeit the not so good attendance. we still managed to clinch the second place and the mark difference was only 34! how my heart ached. i really want to kick those absentees' asses!!! will do so tomorrow. someone has to be the bad person to teach them a lesson.