Cocky Robin (NGM.com)

Yup, bored enough that I've gotten myself hooked on those silly computer games again. But lookee here, it's 88 moves! Yup, an amazing 88. My first ever ^^ Haha, so very 'wu liao'.

Got a slight cold again. Made soda bread yesterday with a crust so hard that one knock on the head is all it takes to give a person a cracked skull. Weather here is still hot and oppressive, makes me feel sloth-ish. Getting my nana back tomorrow ^^ He's probably whizzing somewhere around a few thousand miles up in the air now kekeke. Two more weeks of freedom left, though it's kinda welcome and not at the same time. Too long a holiday is boring, but I'm reluctant to start classes again lol. Now back to thinking about how to amuse myself tomorrow morning ^^

www.wisdomofthecrone.com/strength.html
Nice poem there as well btw ;)

Just a thought that has been buzzing in my head for days now:
Strength must come from within, not from an external force, only then can one acheive anything.

Dad once said I shouldn't make a... dead and final statement about not believing, and that it was within. He defined it for me at that time as the love within everyone. I think he missed out the above as well, since for many it's what motivates people. So, in the end it's still a word, a symbol, for all that is good I guess. But what matters most I suppose, is what's inside. Without belief in oneself then there's no point believing in anything.

I'm (not-so??) Random Rambling again...

Reading this at the moment. Parrotsai's book actually which she had finished and left behind for me ^^ Interesting story and even better drawings I must say! Come to tell the truth, I wouldn't even have touched the book if it weren't for it's excellent cover... yeah, it makes me wonder as well what sort of lousy + picky + superficial excuse of a reader I am ;P

Tried making bagels today. Didn't come out very right somehow. I don't think they are meant to be that hard. I mean, a diamond hard crust. It wasn't even brown. I suppose it must have been too long in the oven?? After all, it did say until it sounds hollow when tapped (hey, it can't be all that soft if you can tap it right??) and I didn't really check. I just went straight ahead for the max time stated in the recipe. And I'll know what a small fist is like next time. Lol, mumsy and bola mistook them for doughnuts! Oh, the shame of it all!

Tuna works well as a stuffing for fried dumplings using popiah skin. And I've discovered that strawberry jam doesn't taste all that bad after all. Though I still think the colour is revolting. Still surviving the lack of sleep-dark bags under the eyes, no thanks to bola, especially after realising that he's been setting the alarm at 5.50am even though he goes off to school only at 6.45am. This is what people call neurotic. This is what makes bola so disturbing. Note to self, mix in some mind-altering drug into his milo tomorrow. Kweee!

Got bola's little bed down today and put away parrotsai's into her cupboard now :( Miss my parrotsai... no more bullying in the morning for me. At least now he can quit trying to crawl onto the foot of my bed at night. Just hope he doesn't stomp on me in the mornings rushing out of bed :S!! LOL

Darn, can't get a photo up somehow. Anyhoo, here's the update:

Still kickin' and alive, though missing my nana and parrotsai, especially parrotsai in the mornings. It's awfully hard to pass a whole morning without company. So it's just the bola and I and mumsy in the house these days. Grandma pops by as well for dinner, 'cos aunt's not doing anymore cooking until the new year and mum knows she prefers good old home-cooking than get something from the hawkers out here.

Been getting up really early since nana's been gone. Simply because bola is now resorting to using an alarm clock to get up in the mornings and once me brain has been jolted awake, it stays awake until the next moonrise :(

Baked that bread this morning. Twas' a two day affair, what with it having to sit in the fridge for 12 hours or overnight says the recipe. It was still rather soft and sticky even with that long being in the cold (I was hoping rather it would harden up or something) so that shaping it was a really unpleasant affair. Tons of flour went into dusting that's all I can say lol. I supposed that part is somewhat different from what the recipe was like. It said the dough would be batter-like and creamy, which mine was alright. But after the refridgeration, it says roll into balls and blah blah, which is near impossible with mine. It will NEVER hold any fancy shape I swear. Who cares though, mum gave it the thumbs up and for me, that's what counts.

Learnt how to cook kachama chicken yesterday as well. Pretty easy stuff, I wonder if any other sort of leaves can be used instead of kachama leaves? Not everyone gets to have a steady supply of it from Kch for sure. I'm thinking of trying something with tea leaves next time round, got that idea when mum smelt the dry leaves and remarked they smelt somewhat like tea, though the final version certainly smells nothing like tea that's for sure. Hmm.....

Found a couple, erm, about a hundred more like, of old photos on nana's desktop. Must have been scanned from what was salvaged from after the fire. The colours look oldish somewhat. And I've discovered there's a good thing about being the eldest :P you get to hog your parents' attention (until the others come along that is) and nana is more enthusiastic about photography :D

Nothing much happening around here for the past few days. Since the last entry... hm.. lots of last minute shopping for my little worm to equip her in carrying out my orders ^^, done some packing and realised that even though I'm nowhere near being overweight, it's still going to be hard to lug around 10+ kgs! Made a new though somewhat rough (not ugly!!) cardboard cover for a secondhand score book I pulled out from the basket at the thrift store (still trying to figure out how on earth to salvage the other two thinner books though), and learnt how to make and knead pizza dough. Yeah, pretty measly list for such a long time. Parrotsai-worm sprouting wings to fly off today, nana going along as well. About 3 more weeks or so before I leave for Dnd and about a month before I start classes again. *pushes repeat button*

Plum and Pear Still life by Linda Paul

I'm reducing myself to still life here, and probably morphing even as I speak into a pear *gasp in horror at prospect*. Albeit a dry candied one, with the weather here so hot and all. It's odd, and so very hard to reconcile the fact that over in Johr that people are homeless due to too much rain while there are people slowly baking in the overabundance of heat and light in Pen :S

That aside, it's only a matter of days before Parrotsai leaves for Chch. That leaves Bola and I. In the evenings that is. And I alone in the mornings. :( How thrilling. Oh yeah, KL is now Bola. Seeing how calling him KL doesn't seem to get much of a response from him sometimes, and the fact that he answered to Bola almost readily yesterday night... we'll stick to Bola for now I guess ^^ Haha, I guess he could always be grateful I'm not reverting back to Baby *evil grin*

Currently reading It by Stephen King. Slightly more than halfway through now. Pretty interesting story, especially if you're anything like me, with a mild dislike of clowns (their faces are just creepy, especially those big non-stop grins... it's not normal, ok?), a liking for man-eating (more kid than man actually) monsters ^^ and a healthy loony bunch of noodles up there, ready to believe in anything if it sounds half credible. LOL.

By the way, chee cheong fan goes well with curry. Is that cool or what?! This lady down the corner sells them in a chicken curry gravy. Not very spicy, but it does make it seem more like some sort of noodle dish that way. And much better than the thick black sauce that it always seem to come with, though mum would probably beg to differ. Yum yum.

Back from Kch just yesterday. And at Parrotsai's insistence, pics of the glutinous rice dumplings we made (grandma had lots of ground peanut leftover and was anxious we finish it up LOL). And why stop at having chocolate in the dough, stuff them dumplings full of it!



See the two... turtle like things up there... Parrotsai made the flat one. You can very guess who made the other. Like the big-headed overinflated egoistic thing I am, I'm gonna say mine's better, regardless of what mum and grandma says (T_T how can I lose to someone 3 years younger than I am! Don't they know how fragile my ego is?! Don't they know how important it is to keep it intact!!! WAHHHH!!)...

And to those little friends of Parrotsai aka Wormy that happen to visit:
Here's what she made and was anxious that I post it up for your viewing. I swear I have nothing to do with it... Scout's honour!
http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l294/Rachelley2l/kuching4.jpg

And we bought cempedak at the Sunday market. Can't remember how much it was for, probably about 2 bucks?? For some reason or other I forgot.... would you believe it? I FORGOT that I didn't quite like this fruit and so sis and I ended up getting it. Fried ones aren't so bad, but raw ones... ugh... I couldn't stomach more than a few pips. No idea how Parrotsai and dad finish up the rest though. *mutters: weirdos :P!*

The dragonfruit that grandma bought.

Tampui. You've got to love the name. I rarely see these on the market though. One whole big bunch for only a buck. Yipee!

Mangosteens. Five for a dollar. No purpley stains on my shirts. As you can probably guess, we've had had an extremely high fibre diet for the last few days. Add on 2 kgs of langsat and the durians and you get the idea.

Oh yes, and I would have been an idiot to not have bananas there as well. Two big bunches for a dollar. No way bananas can get any cheaper than this. Not even in West M'sia.

Parrotsai says I look like a singh. x.X I was trying to be a copy-cat version of the fat octopus caption from Pirates of the Carribean II for crying out loud! Yeah, I know, she's mad. :P

Nana painted this on MY (*ahem* and later, sis's as well -_-"') bedroom wall when I poped out into this world ^^ It's still there!

Two bunch of bananas: RM1
2kgs of langsat: RM3
6 durians: RM 16
Knowing daddy loves you: Priceless

Muahahaa, was thinking that I would be having heaps of problemos trying to upload this little cutie up but it took no longer than normal! ^_^ Has the dreaded ghost of the dead undersea cable finally left us??

Anyways, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone. Durian/ static/ pomelo boy just had to add in 'oh! che che's XX already?!'... yeah yeah, like I need to be told how old I am... GaaAhh... I see wrinkles coming! LOL

Back from the little road trip and from a little visit to Cl's and Sh's. I'm not on the laptop so I'll keep this short so that I don't burn while typing out too much here:

I'm not sure what is still so special about Iph hor-fun because it seems pretty normal to me, but their bean sprouts is something outta this world; I got cheated (through my ke-nong-nong-an, doh!) and climbed all the way up a crazy uneven 300+ steps at Perak Tong/ Pi Li Dong; we found Taiping to be very hot and they need to do something about their lakes in their public gardens >:-O ; you can't find accomodation easily in Tlk Intan close to Xmas day and we finally found the real location of the char-siew stall and bought Parrotsai 10 bucks worth of the char-siew she had been hankering about for ages; we spent Xmas day at Bat Cvs and the Indian temple there, gawd I love their temples! and I oogled heaps at the humongous statue of Lord Vishnu standing guard in front of the steps; went up to Bkt Tinggi and bored ourselves out and immediately evacuated the very next day, only Parrotsai enjoyed the limited number of bunnies at their bunny farm -_-"'; and during all this time we didn't lose our way much and used the old highway too, three cheers for Nana *hip hip hurrah*!; went down to Mlca and stayed with Ee Ee and Parrotsai had a taste of what is to come if she really ever turns into a kiddy jackpot; we made our way to Kelana Jaya as well and big thanks to an Aunty at the petrol kiosk; Cl's Goliku took us for Bakut Teh (mmmm...) and then to Ptrjy (how does he stuff all that info into his head anyway?) where Cl and I walked around the compounds of the mosque there and then her uncle took us for a lovely boat ride ^-^; gosh, someone's place is huge or have I just been too long in Pen now?? and Cl's folks were really nice to us... if only our extended family was as close *i'm jealous!* (oh, and her kakak is one hell of a great cook too!); Sh's quick tour of Seremban left me speechless at (1) how much she knows of her town!! (2) her super-pro driving skills (ga... better beef up my own... wah.. but I don't like driving!), and Srmbn is so cool compared to KL and Pen, and we chanced upon a big lizard taking its sweet time to cross the road and yes, there's something about the little shophouses in Srmbn that reminds me vaguely of Pen, but then the abundance of greenary reminds me lots of Kch as well.. should I tell mum about that place?? hm... ; parents pick up and then a 5 hr drive back up North using the NS highway and that's about it in brief ^^

Went for an interview for a waitressing job yesterday and pulled along sis as well. Had to wait for ages in the lobby just for some guy to finish his lunch! Darn, should have said I could work with the guy forever instead of until Feb for then he practically kicked me out of the office and told me for that short of period, it's impossible to find a job now, and so sis and I were both turned out onto the streets and had to walk home 'cos mum was now on her way to pick up the baby... Good thing we chose the right way home or we would have winded up further away in the wilderness since mum said 'just walk straight ahead'. So now I'll have to find some way to convince mum to still let me sign up for the French classes. Heh heh heh, should I go into *bambi eyes* mode or just threaten to flush Pomelo down the toilet bowl???

Flying back to Kch today and will be cut off until next week. No access to Internet there and can't go out anywhere without grandma :( for fear the (nope, not the Boogeyman) Indo workers would get me. Grahahah, we'll see if Mlcc's Lui Cha beats Kch's, mum already said Kch's better :P! Huggles to everyone!