Chinese New Year Eve

Chinese New Year's Eve only means one thing.
Reunion dinners.
This is when my whole extended family gets together to eat and be merry. ( Those that are stilll in Kuching anyway)
So this year was no different.
But due to certain unforeseen circumstances, or something to that effect, our family had our dinner in a restaurant instead of having a home-cooked feast at my uncle's place.
I would have much prefered having a dinner at my uncle's place instead of in a restaurant where we're having our family dinner with other families but what the hell. I'm not complaining cause I wasnt paying xp

The food came after about 10 minutes of waiting and we dug in straightaway.

Then the next dish came, like 5 minutes later. We started eating faster cause there wasnt enough space on the table.

And the dishes just kept coming, and coming, and coming, and coming. One after another with an interval of about 5 to 10 minutes between each dish. By this time, we were all pretty focused on our task: Put food in mouth, chew, swallow. Put food in mouth, chew, swallow and repeat.

And repeat. And repeat. And repeat.

And the dishes just kept coming.

By the time we managed to go through all the dishes. The dining table resembled a food warzone. Everyone was just sitting there taking a breath. And burping.

We arrived at the restaurant at about 7pm.

What time did we finish?

7:30 pm.

Fast eh?

Its like an express family reunion dinner.

"Catch up with family members you havent seen for more than a year in just half an hour!

Dinner provided!"

All in all, it was an okay night. Nice to see all of them after so long.

My proud uncle with his new camera.

Snap snap snap.

HOME ( For Real!)

Okay.
This time I'm REEEAAAALLLLYYYY RRREEEEAAAALLLLYYY home!!!
Kuching!
My real home!
Hahaha.
Hello Kuching!
Its so good to be home.
And find that everything is still the same....
Well with a few additions here and there. New malls springing up, roads are where there weren't any before. My mom and I found ourselves in unfamiliair places several times cause we thought we were travelling on roads we knew l;ike the back of our hands!
Ahh. I never wanna leave.

HOME!

First of all, a thousand apologies for going 'incommunicando' as Elysia so politely described..
I have an explanation for that. I left my mobile behind on the taxi that I took to the airport on Thursday. Therefore, I lost all my contacts and also couldnt receive and calls or textes until I got back in Malaysia.. which was on a Saturday as I stopped at Perth to visit Madeleine and her family for a couple of nights.
Perth is crazy hot!!! 37 bloody degrees!
That can't be for humans...
So anyway,
I'M HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!
Back in Malaysia! Home of the Hornbills, Orangutans and some even say Bigfoot, home of humidity, green green rainforests, sodomizing ministers, crazy illegal drivers, rude unsmiling cashiers, and a glorious selection of food!
Ah, Malaysia.
Its good to be home...
My teacher was once telling us ( He's Spanish) that he noticed us Malaysians put a lot of emphasis on food. Whenever he asks us what we miss the most, the answer is almost 95%- THE FOOD!
I got off the plane that day 0n Saturday and realized.. Well, He's right about that.
I haven't stopped eating since I landed!There's the ever popular roti canai... with plentiful gravy ( they charge you extra for a measly, miserable tiny bowl of gravy back in Australia)

Ah, Nasi Lemak, Nasi Lemak.....

The dish I missed the most was this. Its called Lei Cha and its a traditional dish usually prepared by the Hakkas. You can't find this in Australia thats for sure.... Its rice, mixed with 7 other vegetables and soaked in soup made from all kinds of herbs I can never pronounce...

I nearly wet my shirt drooling when the lady set this steaming bowl of lei cha in front of me!

And there's also mom's cooking which has been sorely missed. Really. You never truly appreciate what you have until it's gone.

And now, it'll be time for catching up with people I have not seen for a while.

Met up with Shann yesterday at MidValley, had a good time. And she wondered aloud why I never mention her in my blog.... Well here you are Shann!!!

Haha. It was good catching up with her and getting up to date on the latest gossip XD

So anyway, now that I'm home, call me!!!

If you read my blog u most probably have my msn. My phone number's there. Cause I'm not about to announce my phone number for the whole world to see here haha.

See you guys!!!

Movie Marathon

Jojo and I went for a movie marathon today.
Ahh. Movie marathon. Even saying it makes me feel all happy and excited...

We watched 2 movies. Marley & Me ( google doesnt seem to have the damn movie poster)
Really charming movie, and Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston are just great in there. There were more than a few sniffles in the theatre- Dog Lovers, don't watch this if you don't wanna embarras yourself by breaking down and blubbering like a little girl in the theatre.

And The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Now that was a beautiful movie! It was well done and so so hauntingly sad. About a man who is born under ( and I quote) 'unusual circumstances. While everybody else was agin', I was gettin' younger" Its a great concept for movie and a bit long but totally worth it!

And of course there's the added bonus of Brad Pitt ( getting hotter and hotter and hotter as he becomes younger) and a wonderful score. And some ironic quotes that only a movie like that can use

The girl he loves grows older as he goes younger and she asks him one night

"Will you still love me when my skin is old and saggy?"'

And he replies, " Will you still love me when I have acne?"

haha.

All in all, two great movies. Worth watching in the cinema.

Which way is up?

Sometimes I really think that when your time is up, its up.

No matter how close you come to passing on, even if you have the nearest near death experience ever, if your time isn't up, it just isn't.

I mean, seriously. There are people who have survived tsunamis, earthquakes, being trapped without food and water for days. And there are people who just go because of some silly coincidental circumstance, some freak accident.

Take this guy for instance. The reason he passed on was because he didn't know which way was up! No kidding. Real story.

He's a pilot from Australia, flying one of these planes ( in the picture above). He's only licensed to fly during good weather, right?

Well, he didn't check the weather forecast properly the day before. And he flies the place with three other family members in it that day when the sky is all foggy and grey and blurry.

He turns right into the middle of all this fog and because he cant see a thing and is disorientated in the air. He thinks the sea is the sky, and drives his place strrraaaigggghttt into the ocean. The rescue team finds the remains of his plane on the shore later.

I find that so absurd and such a horrible way to go. I mean, losing your life just because you cant tell which way is up? Makes me wonder what those radars and meters and crap the pilot uses in the cockpit is for. And what made the pilot think that they'd managed to turn 360 degrees so that the sky was below him. Oh well. I guess I'll never know.

Jeepers. I hope the guy piloting my planes home are licensed to fly in all weathers and can tell which way is up.... Touchwood. Pray for me, guys.

Randomness

Everytime I watch this scene between Phoebe and Monica I crack up.
They're having coffee in the coffeehouse and Monica asks Phoebe
Monica: Phoebe, do you think your favourite animals say a lot about you?
Phoebe: ( Eyes widens in alarm) Wh-what, you mean behind my back????

Hahaha. Cracks me up. Yeah yeah, random I know.

Blast from the Past

I was cruising around in Facebook when I saw that I'd been tagged in 10 photos.
Took a look and boy, did I get a blast of the past, courtesy of Amira.
The photo album was titled SWIMMING HISTORY and boy was it history. I think this was at Amira's 12th bday party at Merdeka Palace... That's me, Joy, Amira and Nadia.

Damai Triathlon haha. Me n sibs, Amira and PEiling.

MSSM in Ipoh, 2000... with all the girls at the hostel we were staying in...

Apparently this was in Sarawak Club though I have absolutely no recollection of it...

I dunno where this was.

I miss swimming. I forgot how much I enjoyed it.

Not just the fact that we werent sweaty and smelly at the end of each training session, but the fun, laughter, friendship and that great sense of belonging we all had being part of the team.

Especially the swimming meets. Kuching Age, Sarawak Age, National Age, MSSM and so on and so on...Where we'd meet with friends from other distrcts, states and catch up between our events. I never really rested in between events like I should've, I spent all my time talking and laughing and having fun with the others. Nothing compares to the atmosphere during comps, there's the warming up first thing in the morning everyone hates, the chocolates, energy drinks, reporting stands where everyone tries to psyche out their worst rival, the record breaking, the thrill that comes with doing your personal best time, the horrible disappointment when you fail to do your best, and that nasty sunburn that always comes after the end of each meet...

Then there were the training sessions..

Sitting in Mr Teo's van talking and laughing with Peiling, Yvonne, Melissa while the boys went about their business in the backseats. I remember once we were talking about farts and we were imitating our grandmother's farts. Mr Teo had this bright idea to record everything down in his phone ( cause I think we were really loud and annoying him) and play it back to us. Then there were also the trips we took to Damai where we had loads and loads of fun and the same amount of sand we would find in our suits during our showers.

Training in Stampark with a different circle of friends, under Xiao Pao Jiao Lian. Boy, those were the best times of my life too. I remember going to training at 5 in the morning nearly everyday and how cold and dark and scary it was. I was singing hymns everytime I got to the other side. And then Ivan claimed he spotted a little girl standing behind a banana tree waving at him and nobody showed up for training the next day.

I remember laughing and talking to Joy ( No doubt laughing about something her friend Davin had said- Buttzilla!- or quoting something from Spongebob, The Simpsons, Friends or some sort) so much one morning that the coach punished us. Made us run an extra 5 rounds and we didnt even know we were being punished, still laughing and talking. Made us to frog jumps and we STILL didnt know. Until finally he made us stay in a half-standing half-squatting position did we realized we were being punished. That didnt stop the laughter. How fit we were then. Without a care in the world.

I remember how we gossiped in the shower room, Madeleine, Joy, Stephanie, Nadia and me. Complaining and gossiping and laughing while we showered, changed, and got dressed. But then we hit, 15, 16 and had a new coach. People stopped coming so much. Exams were coming as well. Studies became more important, our future seemed more important now that it was nearer. Less people continued to come faithfully and I guess swimming just lost its fun. And then I stopped going too, and I've never looked back.

Now I'm looking back, and I'm reliving those years and times we had. So many memories, so many people. I wonder where they all are now, I wonder what they're all doing now. Its so hard to keep in touch. They used to be like my second family. They were people I saw everyday, sometimes even twice a day. Now we're so far apart, so distant.

I miss those times, those were the best years of my life. I would do anything to go back to that time. Anything.