Quoted straight from nana's mouth:
"I don't have a sweet tooth, I have sweet teeth" (followed by a huge grin)

It's times like these that make me wonder if my madness is inherited :P

Nana got back from Sibu yesterday. Brought back k/g-ong pia. They're little bun thingies that come in two flavours, sweet or salty. I think they're awesome, especially with melted cheese, too bad I can't get them anywhere else. A whole box of langsat came back with dad as well. Apparently someone told him that langsat from Sibu is the sweetest around, but honestly, I don't really see the difference between this and langsat from other regions *shrug* Even more exciting was the creepy crawlies that hitched a ride along with the fruit... ugh! A couple of little worms (funny how they weren't in the fruit, just in the stems :S), a spider (*shriek* kill it kill it kill it!!), a whitish hairy round bug that scuttled rather quickly and looked as though it was growing some fungus on itself (interesting but I'm not touching it), and worse of all, a double-tailed blackish insect that moved like lightning which attempted to crawl up my fingers. That was the last straw, the box was closed back and chucked to one side. :P Let Nana sort them out when he gets back from work.

My locks have been gotten rid off at last. My head feels so much lighter :D, and I can now say bye-bye (with immense joy too) to having to invest so much energy and time washing, combing and tying them keratin strands. Though it's rather unfortunate that the hairdresser didn't get the style I wanted. Not that the one I got is all that bad, I admit she did a decent job of it, but when one gets psyche up about getting THE hairstyle, it's somewhat of a letdown to not get it.

But in a way some of those qualities can actually be "bought". Even a talentless child can be trained to be really really good at something. But to do that, the parents probably might need to the funds to get the child trained. And a child with talent might never get the chance to shine simply because there isn't funds for him or her to train it up in the first place. And it seems a bit... bratty though to 'milk' the parents like that. Parents probably would gladly give the kids the best they can, but to expect it like that, seems to come uncomfortably close to taking something for granted. Not that I'm innocent of the latter myself now that I think of it :O! There's this ad over the radio where some lady was stuttering, struggling to say thanks to someone because she found it hard to do so. Not too realistic I would say. I think saying thanks is easy (being sincere at the same time would be more difficult I think, in which case one might as well not say it in the first place lol) but it's more of a case of forgetting or overlooking it?

Anyways, report on the tapioca cookies: dough was a tad too dry, and so it cracked in the oven and lacked that melt in the mouth feel. Bola likes it all the same, but I suspect it's more to do with the sugar content more than anything else. The chocolate cake I tried making came out incredibly moist. To the point where inverting it caused the top to go splat *wince*. It was cooked though, and a good blast of low temperatures put it right :P I put the blame on the oven *grin* The xiao long pao isn't worth mentioning. Could have passed for ordinary buns lol!

Of all the weird and nausea-inducing sights I've seen, that big bloody skinless, eye-lid-less, lip-less cow's head on resting on the big round wooden blood-stained chopping block trumps it all. Mumsy and I were turning into this little alley in the wet market to look for a certain stall, and being the unobservant lump I am (which in this case would have had proven useful... :S) I didn't notice a single thing except for the target destination until mum gave a startled jump. *ahem* I mean jump literally. Which then brought the monstrosity to my attention. It wouldn't have been bad if it had it's eyelids or something intact. Seeing those black shiny eyes looking as though they would nearly pop out of their sockets is just ... undescribable. Yet, morbid perverted person that I am, I just had to take a second look :S!!! We basically just back out and ran off from that alley. Those traders must have thought us chicken or something, but better than me chucking my breakfast anyways. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

And no matter what mum says, horseshoe crabs look just plain weird. And I don't like seeing live stuff for sale, fresh as they are. My pride at being a land-being tells me stuff that comes out from the water = weird. Though I'll readily admit fishies in a bowl are pretty. Weird but pretty.

Will start on the xiao long pao tomorrow, perhaps they might last long enough for nana... if they work out that is.

Upgraded blog today. Should have known better and saved up all the links lol, rather than believing that eB would save it all up automatically ^^"' Will have to start packing soon to see how much baggage space I have left. Don't want to run the risk of going overweight! Pretty quiet in the mornings and going to try out that yam dish thingy Cl explained to me :D

Etia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem
No more things should be presumed to exist than are absolutely necessary

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!

^^

More driving today. For some reason or other, the lump of gray noodles up there set the alarm at all the odd times of the morning. Think 5am, and 7.15am, when I only needed to wake up at 8am. Grraah... the black grapes are threatening to take up residence under my eyes!

Anyways, did some driving at the hospital carpark again. Actually, not much. More like a few runs and stops to make sure I can start off smoothly (more or less) without causing th ecar to buck or *gasp* stall. Then it was out onto the road for a few runs around the block.

Since I've been told to 'visualise and run through the steps in (my) head', here it goes:

• Sit properly in the driver's seat, and adjust. Strap myself in, or face a lesson in flying out the windscreen the next time the car stalls suddenly (which nearly happened yesterday -_-"' and no one noticed my not wearing the belt... *shock*!!).
• If the engine is running, forget about turning the key. If you've stalled, start from ground zero and turn it! Press the clutch (darn, it's manual!), first gear, release handbrake, press accelerator and release clutch to move. Not too fast, or the big piece of metal will play horsie or even dead.
• Total clutch release, and move a little before changing to gears de secundo and above. I should have told you earlier, this is brain-draining work. Unless you're another of those zombie drivers that populate this earth then you'll find it all easy-peasy.
• Press brake first before the clutch for a smoother stop, and so that Parrotsai's stomach doesn't do the flip-flopeys and Nana doesn't go into cardiac arrest.
• If the gear wouldn't go into R, then make it go into third gear first and try R again.
• Don't DON'T DON'T turn around the bend too quickly!!! You'll or I will at least, not make it in time one day and smoosh myself into smithereens against something.
• Change my gear to third gear (if it's a clear and less busy road) before going around the bend, and lower if there are lots of cars and lots of skittles running around. *But why can't we knock the skittles down, Nanny? Isn't that the point of skittles??*
• When stopping the car, do as for the smooth stop. Free the gear and lift the handbrake, and pass it onto Nanny.
• Fourth gear when you reach 40km/hr please.

That's all I can remember for now. Parrotsai did some work on parking, but for most of that time I was awol so I've not much idea as to what happened then. I can tell you that the backseat of a Kancil is NOT nice to nap in, unless you're an extremely lacking in the height department.

GwahaRhaHAr... and I drove all the way home from practice today. Which all together Nanny said wasn't too bad. Hmm... doubt it still. But this much is apparent from my observations, even a noob will realise that the road on this GFS island is litter-ed with drivers who are older than I am (and therefore should be better at their driving!) and not much better than me at driving. *expletives* to the guy who nearly drove me into a wall and hence got me a scolding, *expletives and a honk* to the guy who honked at me and then drove ahead and then decided to stop right in front of me -_-"'.

And that's my day's worth of driving. Whew! ^_^

Got this off The Scent of Green Bananas. I guess LDL aka Satan butter tastes better?

Splat kerplash eeks growl boinky donks tonk!

聖誕快樂○●　
☆　　╱╲☆╱╲　☆　　　　☆　☆ 　
　╱╳ +▲+ 　╲　╱╲　☆　　　　☆　　☆ 　
╱╱　 ◢◣+　 　+╳　　╲　　　☆　　☆ 　
╱　 +◢█◣+ 　／　　　　╲☆　　　☆　☆ 　
☆　 ◢██◣ 　
___▂▂█▂▂___ ○●◎新年快樂+天天快樂○●

Muahahah, the first photo is the actual one that a friend sent to me over Msg. Copy paste into a blog entry and everything was topsy turvy, inside out, all wrong, but nothing a couple of minor adjustments couldn't fix ^_^! Parrotsai says 'ho ho ho' to it all.

As proof that I've got nothing much to do lately, I've finished Picoult's Keeping Faith and started on The Historian. Keeping Faith was interesting, but not as good as My Sister's Keeper, though both endings leave me scratching my head.

More driving practice with dad today. We've decided to do a few more runs before going about asking after those classes... For a licence holder, it probably isn't too good an idea for me to turn up not even knowing how to turn on the engine :P! LOL, it's not that bad, but heck, with me stalling at every chance I can get, I probably would need loads of classes, which also equates to more money going to the tutor, money which I rather use for some other stuff ^_^... PGH's carpark was pretty empty today, so we started there. Nana keeps on saying changing gears is a purely mechanical thing, and that I would get the hang of it quickly... but apparently not quickly enough -_-"' I've given the car a few good jolts (thanks to the speed bumps!), nearly kissed a Pajero (I'm using a Kancil, eeeps!) and a motorcyclist (the car wasn't moving across the road fast enough!! *wails*), nearly threw nana out the window (thank goodness for seatbelts!)... The few workers doing some repairs to the curb at one of the junction certainly were sniggling away at my performance.... grrr... I'll remember to pack along some lightning bolts for their butts next time!

And I haven't been doing much piano practice lately... *shakes head at self* In fact, I haven't been able to concentrate on anything much for long... Holidays are good, but long extended holidays are baaad.... just as well nana's taking leave week after! Yippee! A chance to get off the island coming right up!