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I am back!!!!!!
Back again in good old Malaysia, with its narrow roads, polluted air, awesome food, traffic jams and (sometimes) incredibly rude people. Ahhhh, its good to be back.

I've been really productive. My mom took one look at my hair and drove my to the hairdressers. So hair, check!
Then I had my knees checked (finally) cause they've only been bothering me for about, I don't know, 7 years?? And I find out that my cartillage on my knees are thinning, from overactivity he said, overactivity!!!! So I gotta watch what I do now, no heavy strain on my knees!!!!

Well thats about as much that;s going on now, pics will be up soon cause I've been fiddling around with my dad's SLR, its so cool!!

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!!!!!
You're now half a century!!!!!!!
Hahahahaha. I'm lucky to have you for a dad, couldn't ask for anyone better.
Have a great one this year, can't wait to get back soon.
Love you.

hugs and kisses, Ida.

FREEDOM

EXAMS ARE OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOOHOO!!!!

Assignments, check; Placement, check; Exams, check.

All done!!!

Now, all that's left is work ( blah) and doing nothing!!!!

Ahhhhh. Summer holidays bliss here I come!!!! :D

November Babies

We had a surprise birthday lunch for Hosanna's November babies a couple of days ago.
Well, it wasn't that much of a surprise for some people because they found out about it.... shows just how easy it is to keep a secret in Hosanna, but the food and company was good, so who's complaining?
And which self-respecting asian wouldn't take pictures of food??Birthday boys. Namely, Douglas, Sanjeet, and Edouard ( our new, very french resident... even his name is spelled differently! :D)
Ribs. I assume they were good cause I didn't have any.
Nachos, these were simply delicious!!!
Roast chicken. Mmmmmm. Roast chicken with onions and lime stuffed up their arses.
Douglas carving up the chicken with Edouard and me digging into my long-awaited mashed potatoes that I shamelessly requested.
Mmmmm. Mashed potatoes rock.
Pasta. Yummy yummy yummy I've got love in my tummy.
Digging in.
Took some pictures..
Birthday boys cutting the cake. (Homophobic men afraid to hold the knife together)
After all that food we had to crash on Amanda's 'bed' to rest a bit before dessert!
Cookies and creme!!!!
Group photo
Waiting for the bus that was almost an hour late at Paradise interchange before making our way home. All in all, it was an awesome lunch thanks to Lalita who did all the cooking!!! :)

Aunty Nancy

'Sadly darling, it's her'

Who would've thought these 4 simple words would bring tears to my eyes and a stop to my heart?

Aunty Nancy was always this fixture in my church. She was just always there. She taught in Sabbath School, she conducted the children's choir, she played the piano during service, all my life in church, she was there.
Every kid who grew up in church knew her, every one of them would've been taught by her, spoken to by her.
I found out on facebook from her grandaughter that she's now in a coma and will most probably be going soon within the week. Imagine my shock, imagine my sadness, imagine.
I mean, its not that I had a very close and meaningful relationship with her. I've not spoken to her in such a long time, in fact, it shames me to say I can't even remember our last encounter.
But I look back, and I realise just how much she is in all of my memories in church. Sure, she was always in the background, but she was just there.
And now, when I go back to chuch back home, she just won't be.
And life will go on, as usual, people will continue to leave.
But there will always be this void she left.
Its amazing how fast things can change, just to remind us how temporary this life is, how important every encounter in life is, how little time we really have to share our love.

Rest in peace, Aunty Nancy. You're free now.

Happy Birthday Ivan!!!

Happy Belated Birthday, Ivan!!!!
Sorry it's a little late.. I've been flat out these couple of days...
Happy 14th birthday, have a great one this year, and I hope you've grown up more when I get back!!! :)

One Step Closer

Ahh.
I am finally done with placement.
Placement and work has been hell. I'd be on placement 8 hours a day, five days a week and then have to go to work on weekends as well.
Well, today was my last day of placement. FINALLY. I can have a day off. FINALLY. After a straight run of 12 days, I can kick and back and stay home all day!!!
Well there's still an exam coming up on Wednesday, and I guess its about time I get off my lazy and tired bum and start studying. Man, I miss those days when the biggest worry was what I would do with my day.
oh well, I'll get there soon, with the end of placement, I'm one more step closer to freedom!!!
Wish me luck!! :)

A moment of self-indulgence

Ahhh. SLR cameras really do take better pictures. :)

Happy 21st Birthday Joy!!!!

Happy 21st Joy!!!
Wish I was there to celelbrate with you!!!!!
HAve a good one this year, girl!!!!!
See ya when I get back!!!
hugs and kisses. :D

Brazillian Festival

After coming along with us for all our Malaysian festivals, eating our Malaysian food, tolerating our Malaysian talk, doing all our regular Malaysian stuff, we finally gave Douglas ( the only Brazillian, which we never let him forget) a break and went to a Brazillian festival. We had Brazillian dishes, dessert, and music. All in all, it was a pretty awesome cultural experience, I've never seen so many Brazillians in my life!! :)
Feijoada. A dish that consists of rice cooked with beans, some kinda vege, some kinda fried flour thingy which was delicious, meat, and oranges!! They have their oranges in their rice cause apparently it helps with digestion!! Which is weird. And the beans are kinda salty and garlicky.. (Which explains why Douglas once poured our sweet red bean soup all over his rice once!) So this is how a regular everyday dish looks in Brazil.
The chocolate thing in Lalita's hand is called a Brigadeiro. Its basically chocolate made into balls with condensed milk. The orange thing is called a Quindim, and its custard and egg I think. The white ball is a Pao de Quiejo ( I forgot the spelling) and its my favourite!! Its basically just bread with gloriously melted cheese inside!!! And the nipple-shaped thing is a Coxinha, its a fried thing with chicken and potato in there I think. And the flat thing is a Pastel... or Patel, whichever, that's fried pastry with either minced meat or cheese in there. We got the minced meat one, delish!!! :)
And this is a drink everyone drinks in BRazil... Its made from this fruit called the guarana... and its really really yummy. Its sorta an energy drink, only healthier. So apparently most people drink this instead of Coke.
THen there were some dancers in their traditional gear.
Traditional drums. THis was awesome!!!
The live Brazillian band. They played some really cool songs too.
The food area. The cooks were all Brazilian, and when I was there they were all speaking in Portuguese, it was so awesome!! It was like I was in a telenovela or something ( and you know how much I love my telenovelas!!)... Man I was so hoping one of them would speak to me in Portuguese and I could reply 'Eu no fala Portuguese, voce falo Ingles??' ( Meaning: I don't speak Portuguese, do you speak Englsh??' Muahahahahaha.

This was really an experience. Really enjoyed it, and Brazillian food is goooooooood!!!! :)

Halloween

Halloween. October 31st.
So just a little interesting tidbit. The origins of Halloween can be traced back to an old Celtic festival of Samhain. Samhain roughly means 'summer's end'. So apparently this festival was to celebrate the end of the lighter half of the year and the beginning of the darker half (winter). The ancient celts also believed that on this day, the border between this world and the otherworld was at its thinnest and therefore, spirits and demons and all those other nasties that go bump in the night would be free to travel into our world. Hence, the use of masks to ward off these evil beings. ( Though how they think a mask would scare off evil spirits I really don't know.)
So anyway, in the true spirit of Halloween, Audrey organized a Halloween Costume Party and we all got into our costumes to celebrate!!
I went as a She-Devil. Black eyeliner, check. Red lipstick, check. Pitchfork, check. Tail, check. Red dress, check.
There was Michael Jackson, Tom Cruise from Risky Business, A Mexican, Audrey Hepburn ( which is ironic because the person who's Audrey Hepburn is Audrey!), a Geisha, and DEATH.
Devil looking up the Mexican's poncho. :)

Then Wolverine showed up. But by this point, his hair had dropped a little bit....so it was a little bit harder to identify..
Death and the Devil taking a break after a long day's work.
Then someone showed up as Facebook!!! Original!!!!
Fred Flinstone.
Pirate.
We also had a chance to rock on rock band!!!
All in all, it was an awesome party!!!!

To live or not to live?

Modern medicine is, to put it simply, nothing short of miraculous.
I work in a hospital and still all these new procedures and new ways to prolong the human life has never ceased to amaze me.
But sometimes I wonder, is modern medicine really bringing us more good than harm??
I look at some of my patients sometimes, depending on all kinds of machines to survive. Getting invasive tubes inserted, getting little devices inserted to replace the heart, barely hanging on to that thin thread of life.
Sometimes, is it better to just let go, and go the way nature intended? Even ( who knows) the way God intended?
What is the point to prolong life when you are going to go through life being just a shadow of the person you were? No longer able to walk and run and jump and dance. No longer able to eat whatever you wanted to. No longer able to sit in the sun whenever you want to, to take a shower without someone there watching you, to even move in your own bed without someone there assisting you.
How horrible it must be to live life like that.
I believe we should all fight to live, but sometimes, when it is obvious who is winning the battle, would it be wiser to just let go, and leave this life with whatever dignity you have left? So that people remember you as you were, not what you had become?
This is really grey area I know, but it's just been on my mind for a while.
Feel free to comment :)

Pictures tell a story better.

Yes yes, I haven't been updating my blog lately. Shame on me, bla bla bla.
But life has been pretty busy. Not just from all the fun I've been having *GRIN* but also because I have had 3 major assignments due in the last 4 weeks and my 3-week intensive placement is up and after that one major exam.
Whew. Its no piece of cake being in uni.
So anyway. I've been up to a few things, most of which involves food unfortunately.
There was a Hari Raya Open House thing at Adelaide Uni, and since it wasn't just Malaysian food, it was FREE.
Being the cheapos that we are and am proud of, we hopped on the bus and made our way down to the Barr-Smith Lawns of Adelaide Uni. Patriotism. Ahhh.

Amanda and I with our Malaysian food. (Some of which I never even knew existed in the first place. Shows how much I know about my own culture :D)
There was laksa, rojak, and you can't see what used to be in the middle plate, but there was satay sauce, ketupat, pineapple rice, cornflake cookies, rendang, and ayam merah ( or sth liddat)
Trying my bestest to explain our Malaysian flag. But judging from the looks on my friends' faces, I don't think I did the best job... plus I think I got some colours mixed up a little. White doesn't symbolize surrender apparently. whoops.
Taking a picture with the flag with all the wannabes. :D
Then there was Steamboat!!! Which was awesome.
Also for Dileepa's birthday. Which wasn't very fair because we celebrated his birthday 3 times. So he had 3 birthday cakes!!!
Somebody tell me how that is fair!!
Namgay, Caro and I
The girls.
The whole group.
And then, the beach!!! Where the water was unbelievably cold ( I'm talking Titanic cold here!!) but we die-hard beach-goers went anyway.
There was a certain amount of volleyball-ing.
Okay, a LOT of volley-balling as the water was simply too cold!
Nevis and I
There were some attempts to get an even tan. Attempts made said person look like a beached whale, unfortunately.
Group photo as always.
Then Lalita and Amanda decided to cook for us in Amanda's spiffy new kitchen in her spiffy, white, new home!
Group photo again, a must-have in every occasion, even if its just on a mattress with a white background. :)
The food was delicious!!!