2 years since I've been home

Malaysia has changed. The roads and buildings don't look familiar anymore. The drains smelled worse than I remembered (lol). But the weather is still sweltering hot and unbearable. And the ubiquitous mozzies :x Home is still comfy and never runs out of food. The fish pond is now full of life. And now there is Wii to play with.

As much I miss Pasar Malam, I have to give it a miss today because it is just so damn hot. Too hot for me to even walk around. Because it's sunday we get to bake :D Helped with baking tofu cake, pumpkin scones and egg tarts.

Mom is complaining that I am too skinny. (ROFL, she has never done that!) I think she's determined to forcefeed me. My cousins are all growing tangentially and I look like the tiniest person in the house. Even the Indonesian maid is bigger than me.lol.

Tried Malaysian food list: Pan Mee, Wanton noodles, curry chicken, chee cheong fan, roti canai& telur, jambu, poh piah, yam cake, instant soy bean milk, milo.

I wanted to upload some photos but the internet is a bit slow for it. Oh well, I can always do it later.

Not complaining :)

I had so much to do during the semester. But now I have been too free. Waking up at whatever time I like, watching Korean series and basically slacking. Sometimes, I am even too lazy to step out of the house.haha. Of course I can't complain about my freedom!

Less than a week before I fly back to Malaysia and head to Taiwan :) I really look forward to the trip. The weather forecast is 14-20 degrees right now. Nice!

Nothing much to update about my recent life. Slacking is good~

The rite to adulthood

My dear brother,

I wish you a very happy and blessed 21st birthday!
It's time to talk and think like an adult. To value independence and shoulder responsiblity.

Friends

How should one define friends? How much do you have to know about a person for them to become your friend? What roles do they play in your life? Which is better: to have many friends or few true friends?

My observations:

1. A friend in need is a friend indeed. True in most circumstances but not in the odd occasion whereby the only time you are 'needed' is the only time you get an affectionate phonecall. No casual catch-ups, only the once-in-a-year phonecall imploring for help. They may consider me as a friend but I just think that it is plain ridiculous to only ask for favours all the time without real friendship.

2. Being too calculative. Despite being a poor uni student, friends should at least be generous to each other. Perhaps not in the sense of giving away $$ to your friend, but the occasional homemade cookies and cakes are not so bad an idea. But make sure you offer your friend decent stuff. Not chicken neck from your whole roast chicken for example. Or charging 15people a $5 box of chocolate for sharing.

3. Selective sharing. Some eccentric people tend to keep the goodies, so to speak, to only their bestest friend(s). Fair enough, but the false pretence of excusing themselves *frantically shoving all the goodies into a bag* whilst bumping into their other friends is just pathetic. Maybe it's a fault in character that can't be fixed.

4. The extremely generous and kind. They will offer their life if you ask. Nice people who drives people around all the time, never asking for return. The homey dinner boxes that you get during exam period when all you think about is studying and not good food. The pretty postcards you get in the mail box. The warm and fuzzy feeling :) You know what I mean.

5. The 'pretend' extremely generous and kind. They only do things when everyone is watching. Wash the dishes in the student common room and help to tidy up the kitchen area; leaving the dishes at home(shared house) for at least a week and never bother to follow the duty roster for housework at home.

I don't think anyone is perfect and neither am I. I need to vent or compliment what I think is disgusting or plaudable. Perhaps I have made some of these mistakes myself. But one needs to learn from mistakes.

Roadtrip

Last minute decision for a 3 days 2 nights getaway to Lakes Entrance& Tyers. C.Ying managed to arrange for a huge holiday house for all 15 of us. The house was much spacious and elegant than I could have imagined :D And it's my first attempt of long distance driving. I only managed to sustain my attention for about 2 hours though. Need more practice!

The day  kicked off with C.Ying's brunch when we stopped over at Traralgon-- hotdog croissant. We then headed to Lakes Entrance. The day was sweltering hot, the sand at the beach was scorching but the water was rejuvenating. And we've missed the dolphins again.haha. After a scrumptious lunch, we then explored the beach near our holiday house. The day was just perfect for beach goers. The 90 miles beach near the house was quite secluded and it's quite like our own private beach. We planned to play beach ball and frisbees but the wind was too strong and Li Ping and I had to run across the beach for about 300m just to get the ball back. It was a lot of fun to be buried underneath the sand. Very cooling. The BBQ dinner was enjoyable too as C.Wang, Ryan and I were in charge of the grill. We had onions. corns. sausages, mushrooms, chicken pieces and lamb chops.

We had trouble planning what to do on day 2. It's because there are a zillion things that we could do! Everyone was ready for the day at about 8.30am. lol. The sun was so bright that no one could sleep in. After much detouring and asking around, 6 of us (C.Wang, Ryan, K.Wen, Li Ping, Jess and I) finally started crabbing. The others went cycling around Lake Entrance beach. It was interesting to note that how hiring nets was not the way to go. So we bought 2 nets and ended up with 3 nets instead (someones abondoned theirs). According to one of the other 'crabber', he used to get about 100 crabs in a day. But he only got like 3 that day. And we got 2--one got away and the other one was terribly handicapped. The excitement of finally getting a crab was overwhelmed by my sympathy towards the crab. We didn't eat it. It had no pincers and there was a mussel deeply wedged into it's right eye. I suspect that it lost  a fight and ended up in this pathetic state. We cleaned it and put it in a pyrex bowl. It passed away peacefully during the night. We then buried it at the beach near our house. Now we've got nets, more excuses to go crabbing! The night was a 'romantic' one with our own 'high school' themed dinner. Everyone dressed up. But I didn't really have anything in my wardrobe vaguely resembling high school gear so I just dressed up as a girl scout. haha.

The last day was a lazy one. It was quite a gloomy morning though. We packed our luggage and left the fun behind.

Photos on FB, group photos

At least there is no more exam for the next few years!

Yes, I have officially finished 4th year (I hope)! I have survived and hopefully have succeeded. The gruelling papers& OSCEs. The morning awakenings. The palpitations. The life with books. The life with exam talks. The life without enjoyment.

But I probably have enjoyed myself a little bit too much these few days.
Holiday Day 1: Lunch at Yum Cha Inn. Mow the almost 1m long lawn in our front and back yards, then off to Southland shopping, then PFE till home at 2am.

Day 2: A lazy start, then return Amy's lawn mower, then Dandenong Market, then shopping at South Wharf, then buffet dinner at Chilli Padi, then BBQ at Zhi Xuan's.

Day 3: PBL gathering at Chaddy for a few hours. Had heaps of dessert at Lindt cafe then had Hungry Jacks for lunch. Also explored the store a bit.

And the next few days went by in a blur, including cleaning the house for the coming inspection. But I am coming down with a cold. I can feel it :X

Photos on facebook!

1 more day!

The ordeal is going to be over soon. Gone the days with early morning awakenings and palpitations! Last paper tomorrow but I just can't seem to concentrate on last minute revisions. The excitement is too overpowering :D :D