I am usually very nice but if someone takes advantage or steps on my tail….and THAT’S IT! If I am in a good mood, you may still survive with one arm hanging. Otherwise……mm.. I leave it to your imagination.

WTF – 1

(No, it is not any profanity that you think. It stands for Wah! That’s fierce! — from Mr. Brown’s WTF! show)

It all started when I was in kindergarten. Not sure how I became the big sister in the class, though I was the youngest one. (I was 4 years old and the rest was 5 or 6) No, don’t get me wrong. I didn’t do anything violent or stupid. It was just that I had "members" following me wherever I went. Sometimes even to toilet and playground. The same scenario went on to primary school. I had "members" waited for me at the school gate and carried my bag when I alighted. Cool hey..:)

I still remember vividly that this boy who took my red colour pencil without asking my permission. Well, I thought it was OK although I felt a pinch in my heart. (Colour pencils have always been my precious) When he returned it to me, its length was only 10% of the original one (because he kept sharpening it for some reasons). He gave me some silly gestures and said that my colour pencil sucked. At that moment, I could feel my blood boiling. Without hesitation, I picked up the colour pencil and……POKED HIS HAND!!

It followed by a loud scream. Teacher stopped teaching and everyone looked at our direction. The boy was sobbing and I was horrified by what I had done but I did not cry. No…there wasn’t blood at all. Hey what are you thinking? I was only 4 and do you think I was strong enough to poke through his skin???!!!

The teacher contacted my mom and was scolded by my parents for an evening. I told her about this incident just now and she seemed very proud and said I was good. Man…what kind of mother is that?

WTF – 2

How often do you see young people sitting comfortably while an old and senile lady/man standing shakily in front of them? I have seen a few and these people get on my nerve sometimes. Like hello?? You blind or something??

There was a day when I was happily riding MRT to town (note: happily), and I saw an old man standing shakily with stick near the entrance. I was sitting quite a distant from him, so I thought the guy sitting in front of him might offer his seat to the old man. But he didn’t! He pretended that he did not see him!!! I was like hello??

I waved to the old man but he can’t see me (because of the crowd standing and obstructed the view). I kept waving frantically, hopefully someone would ask him on my behalf but NO!! People just looking at me like I was just discharged from mental hospital.

So I stood up and walked shakily to him. Imagine, even I had problem walking steadily, let alone old people??? I told him that he can take my seat. The uncle pointed at my seat as if he wanted to say something. I kept reassuring him that it was OK. But what I didn’t know was…MY SEAT WAS TAKEN!! My mistake! My back was facing my seat and I didn’t see this auntie who stood in front of me earlier on ‘conquered’ my seat so quickly. I was stunned. I walked to ‘supposedly’ my seat and stared at the auntie.

I should have put my both hands on my waist and said:"Hey you!! Who said you can sit!!! You very old mer??" But I didn’t.

I opened my "very small" eyes as wide as possible (luckily my contact lenses didn’t fall off), bit my lower lips, used my thumb to signal her to get off.

Oh…actually that didn’t happen also. It was purely my imagination. The truth was, I stared at her and said:"Excuse me, do you mind?" while pointing at the old man behind me. She wasn’t very happy but she had to get up anyway. Apparently, everyone (including her) saw me waving at the old man first. No one dare to take my seat except her!!! As I said, I was in good mood that day…Otherwise…mm..

Posted under Life documentaries | 1 Comment 

"HOT please!!" (Of course I hope it would be the answer)

My students and I went for a farewell dinner. One of my students is going for OSIP (an internship program) to Thailand. Yeah, we all joked that he will come back as who HE is and not who SHE is.

I wanted my students to try something new so I recommended an Arabian restaurant called Al-masril at Arab street. That’s the restaurant in the picture. We were seated across the street.

I am a big fan of arabian cuisine. If you like herbs then you should try it. They use many types of herbs for cooking and marinating. One of my favourite is Felafel, Shish kebab, Sharwama and Baklava.

It was funny that the tables were scattered around the restaurant. Since all the tables in the restaurant were taken, we were asked to sit across the street where they placed tables in front of other shops. There were no light and fan! After awhile, all of us were soaking wet with sweat.

My students wanted to order soft drinks but I encouraged them to try something different. There were more than 20 choices of herbal teas. Well, coincidentally there was a "Cherry tea" on the menu. My student, being mischievous as always, ordered a cup of Cherry tea. The waiter asked:" Do you want your Cherry hot or cold?" There was a quiet pause followed by laughter. Nevertheless, my student wanted a cold one…:(

I had a tea called "Crazy horse" instead. It tasted a little bit like bourbon and ginger…which I hated very much! But I finished it anyway co’s mom always teach me not to waste food…:P

My "crazy horse". Yee har…. And no..I did not turn crazy…

Appetizer – My favourite Felafel

I ordered Shawarma. The lamb and beef was so tender and tasty!

Well, as I said it was very dark because there wasn’t any light across street. When the food was served, we had to use a mini torch and mobile phone to "shine" on our food. If there was a cock coach, I don’t think we can see it too.

After dinner, we moved into the restaurant because there were seats available. Many people were smoking Sheesha and most of them had strawberry flavoured Sheesha. (And yes, there was also cherry flavoured one) The restaurant was very cozy and the decorative items were for sale too.

For dessert, I recommended this: Muhalabia (rice milk pudding with pistachio, nuts and raisins). It is not very sweet and it has rose fragrance!

We had a great time and I am planning to go again next week. I will take my mom to its hi tea next Saturday (hopefully). It is only 12 dollars per person! *drool*

Update: My student said he did order the ‘HOT’ Cherry tea, not the cold one. My memory is not as good as before.*grin*

Posted under Glorious food! | No Comments 

Image extracted from Machinima.com. This animation was created using The Sims 2. (One of my favourite games)

I, as a game freak, have fallen in love with Machinima (machine + animation + cinema)! Gamers use game consoles such as Xbox and PS2 to create 3D animation with their characters as the actors. During the machinima workshop, we were taught using Halo 2 to create our own short animation.

It is pretty simple and straightforward. We had 2 players on set and the third player acted as a ‘camera man’. We had Xbox and PC connected to the TV, then the animation was recorded through the third person’s view.

Check out this website for more machinima entries. You will be surprised how free creative gamers can be.

Posted under Thoughts & musings | No Comments 

"Are you nuts!!??"

"Wah…you siao?!!"

These were all the ‘exclamations’ that were thrown to me when I touched down in Penang last week. My cousins, grandma, auntie, dad….etc almost everyone said I was crazy to travel to JB alone. After seeing the big bruise on my shin, I was warned not to travel like that again..Mmm….Will see…:P I actually planned to take Air Asia again..but secretly of course.

My mom showed me a news article about a girl travelled to Singapore for class and was robbed by a motorist. She was heading towards the checkpoint in Johor and right before the checkpoint, a motorist came from the back and pulled her backpack. She fell on her chest and was dragged for a short distance. Her chest, face, legs were brushed against the rough bitumen road. Needless to say, she had to undergo face surgery and etc. OUCH!

Well, I was ‘warned’ again that it could have happened on me. Looking at her picture really sent a chill down my spine. Thinking back how I was running here and there with my backpack the other day….*shudder*

But this time, my mom and I travelled together back to Singapore so it wasn’t so bad. (I bought return tickets…) The flight took off 10 minutes earlier again…(which was good) and we got to sit at first row. (thanks to my mom). The crews were very polite and the pilots chatted with us for awhile before taking off. Mom was totally ‘enchanted’ by the American pilot when he complimented her scarf. *grin* Mom bought a cup of hot milo for 4 dollars but I think it was reasonable because it was served by a very beautiful air stewardess.

I can see the pilots from my seat!

And very close to the entrance too.

The arrival – touched down at 10 p.m

The real ‘adventure’ started when we alighted at Senai Airport. This time my mom guided me to take an express bus straight to a bus terminal (kotaraya) in town. From there, we took another bus to Johor checkpoint. My mom and I were arguing about paying in Ringgit or Singapore dollar since the bus was operated by Singapore’s SBS Transit. My mom was right. We actually paid Ringgit to board the bus! Weird…

We alighted at Johor checkpoint. Mom was ‘digging’ her bag clumsily for her passport outside the checkpoint and her handbag was swinging happily on her arm. Then I saw a few guys hanging around at the checkpoint looking at my mom’s handbag. I was freaked out! You will be surprised that there was no police/guard at all despite so many robbing incidents. I quickly pushed my mom into the checkpoint and asked her to search for her passport there.

The bloody officer was so snobbish and lazy! She was lying on her chair comfortably and was so reluctant to even lift her arms. AND SHE DID NOT STAMP OUR PASSPORTS!! Before we could ask anything, she waved her hand and asked us to leave. Argh!!!

After stamping our passports, we had to take another express bus to Bugis. This old uncle was very funny. He wrote $2.40 x 2 on a piece of paper and handed it to us. We were to keep the ‘ticket’ till we reached at Woodland checkpoint. (at the back of the paper was actually a lotto form)

We were surprised how different Woodlands checkpoint was and it was exactly the opposite of Johor checkpoint while it was just across a causeway! It was clean and we felt relieved instantly once we stepped into the checkpoint after seeing all the machos and good-looking police. No one dares to make a fool of themselves in front of a bunch of policemen and guards with guns.

After stamping at Singapore checkpoint, we boarded the same bus and handed our ‘$2.40 ticket’ to the same uncle. It went straight to Bugis bus terminal and from there we took a taxi home.

Reached home at 12 a.m.
Total travelling time from Senai Airport: 2 hours.
No. of buses taken: 3.

My cousin asked me why I didn’t take a taxi instead. Well, I don’t mind taking taxi in Singapore but taking taxi in JB is a bit….er…worrying. I don’t like being cheated. Of course not every taxi is like that but I have encountered way too many times in Malaysia. They either covered their meters with cloth, or told me that the meter was broken or quoted me a super high price before the journey. Worse still, I do not want to be sent to some places that I don’t know and ….well, you can complete the story.

You may thought that I was paranoid…and may be I was. But being a lady has to be cautious and alert all the time when travelling alone, regardless where you are. Something that I don’t get it is, why there isn’t any police guarding near the Johor checkpoint?? From what I have read from the news, robbing incidents always happen there. Would it be too much to ask to have police guarding there because after all, one of their duties is to protect the people.

Posted under Life documentaries , Travel | No Comments 

NEW BOY FRIEND IS IN TOWN!!

Hehehehe..did I give you a fright?? Heartbeat racing?

Introducing… my new BOY FRIEND……

"Yay!!"

He is always with me wherever I go…I’m so attached to him that I can no longer leave home without him..

Because of him, I have more time practising japanese now. I have subscribed to JapanesePod101.com and listen to japanese conversation everyday.

Because of him, commutors were afraid to sit next to me.. (because I chortled on and off suddenly when I was listening to Mr.brown show)

Because of him, I walked like Beyonce Knowls as if I was shooting a MTV.

Because of him, I talked very loud because I can’t hear what the other party was talking about.

Because of him, I am turning into a gadget-freak…(Oh dear!)

Posted under Me! Me! | [2] Comments