Meh.

Dear jumjum...

  These few days have been pretty hot, and so I don't have the heart to do much at all. My to-do list is ever-growing but I don't really care. Other than tutoring and church, I havn't been out much and am suffering from cabin fever. The problem is, I'm don't even feel like dragging myself out =S

  Anyway I realised I've been cooking a lot since the end of exams- cooked breakfast throughout our stay in Bangkok, then when I came back my mum left for KL so I was on kitchen duty, when my mum came back her hands started peeling really bad (it seems like an annual thing- same thing last year) so I had to cook AND clean. I must say, I think my culinary skills have improved a lot =) I usually cook three dishes for dinner- one following my mum's usual cooking style, one following a new recipe online, one freestyle where I let my imagination take over- and the last one usually ends in a disaster, except for this: 

(before steaming)

  I marinated the fish (don't ask me what fish that is I have no idea) with 花雕酒, cut up some ginger and tumeric slices, sprinkled it with this lemon-y herb infusion someone brought back from Thailand, and wrapped it in tumeric leaves to steam. I know those are very standard ingredients for steamed fish but I combo-ed it myself and  IT TASTES SO GOOD and I'm very proud!

  Also, my old guitar teacher contacted me out of the blue and I arranged for temporary lessons starting tonight since I kinda forgot the fingering for the last song. I've stopped my lessons about a year ago (to focus on A Levels) and to be honest, I havn't really practised much as of late. I'm so doomed. He's gonna laugh at me for sure...

*atm*

Blogilates Key Lime Pie

Dear jumjum...

  I have been following Pilates instructor Cassey Ho from Blogilates for awhile now, and today I tried one of her 'Cheap Clean Eats' because it was Key Lime Pie! I freakin love sour desserts and I never tasted avocados before. Anyway fyi, this recipe isn't as cheap as it would be in the US because avocados and dates and nuts here are super expensive. Just keep that in mind. One avocado from Cold Storage is around RM 6. Fyi also, Stevia is a healthier sweetener option or something. I just substituted that with a dribble of natural honey.

Couldn't find walnuts, so almonds and sunflower seeds it was.

No food processer, so I used the old fashioned way instead-don't make it too crumbly though..

This looks horrible I know, but V was hurrying me to start our exercise and I didn't have enough blended avocados to cover the whole thing

  The green part tastes like Solero ice cream! No kidding. Yumyum!

The real thing:

  I highly recommend trying our her workout videos too! She's a bit siao one that woman. Super duper hyper active! Guaranteed sore muscles the next day! And it's free =) Also check out her website www.blogilates.com for before and after pics of Popsters (her fans). Okay I sound like a promoter now bye xD

*atm*

Primary School Days III: Of Being Bullied, Conned and Looked Down Upon

Dear jumjum...

  The afternoon session kids in my primary school had to line up near the bus stands and recite the 三字经 along with the audio broadcast before we went to our respective classes. We were pretty obedient in reciting but of course we would sometimes get sidetracked and start chatting with our friends instead. For this purpose, there were prefects on duty to catch us out. In primary 2, there was a short and fierce primary 3 prefect (I can still picture her face- she had the most gorgeous silky brownish hair) who was in charge of our class. For some reason, she would ignore all the other students who were talking and single me out for scolding. And I didn't even talk much! I think I was pretty guai le. Anyway one day she scolded me really badly and I started to tear up (for the record, I wasn't scared of her or anything- I just tear up easily) It was so hilarious because she started staring intently at me with her big round eyes- because she was so short and I was quite tall, she had to tilt her head backwards to look at me- and I just kept quiet and stared back ( with tears streaming down my face), she ordered me to stop crying, but I continued. Then she must have got scared or something because she went away and never came back to bother me for the rest of the year. LOL. Crying power!

  I went to my sister's class to see her before, so her classmates all knew I was her sister. One day I was using the pay phone and this girl  beside me was watching me open my blue-striped Hello Kitty purse to get my coins. Now I was very paranoid as a kid, and I used to bring like, RM30 to school everyday because I was scared that I might one day forget to bring money to pay some fees. (I just remembered something completely irrelevant: in primary one I would only buy sandwiches in the canteen even though they were huge and I could only finish one out of the two- because they cost RM1 and I could hand them the exact amount without having to calculate how much change I should get if I bought anything else- yes I was very very bad at maths) Anyway this girl asks me if I'm 珍梅的妹妹 and she tells me that she desperately needs some money (I forgot what her excuse was) and could I please lend her (I think it was) RM20? I wasn't dumb, but she really looked so sad and needy so I asked for her name and gave it to her. I don't remember if I told my family when I got home. A few days later she came to my class to see me and she was really panicky and asked me to return her the money she lent me! I was like, WTH?! Don't speak nonsense with me, woman! She started crying and said her aunty was downstairs waiting for her to get her money back and she would be really angry with her if she didn't. I refused to back down so she threatened tell her aunty and so I told her I'll be informing my parents before I went back to my class. The next day my parents brought me to the vice principal's office to settle the matter. Before we arrived (my sister was in the morning session, I was in the afternoon session) I think my outraged sister confronted her and had already scolded her. The vice principal called her to his office and she continued to deny that she borrowed money from me. I don't really remember how it ended but when she left, the vp told us that she was a problem child from a broken family, and that this wasn't the first time she caused problems in school. 

  In primary 4 we had a mini chinese test and I got a C. The form teacher told the class that if you got a B, you should work hard towards an A for UPSR. If you got a C (the worst grade in class because we were the 精英班), you have no hope of getting an A for UPSR. I was pretty upset. In hindsight, how could she just assume the worst of us like that? Heck, we had two more years to improve our chinese before our UPSR. Anyway I was in Kuching for primary 5 and 6 and had the awesomest, fiercest, most pushy chinese and maths teacher- she would make us stay back after school two days a week for those two years to give us tuition free of charge, and I respected and was in awe of her, so I pushed myself partly for her sake and  my two most dreaded subjects improved greatly. When I got an A for chinese in UPSR, I really felt like flying back to Kajang and waving the results slip in that teacher's face.

  The only other thing left that I remember about those days is that my mum would take our exams so seriously (she still does). When I was in lower primary, throughout the exam period my mum would bring hot milo in a Jacob's biscuits cup for me during breaktime every single day, sometimes she would send my sister. (We lived like, 3 minutes away from the school) She would be standing in the doorway until the recess bell rings and I would go and take it in front of the whole class. Weirdly, I never felt embarassed- just very happy and honoured that my mum cared so much about me. =)

Random picture during Children's Day- I drew that cake!

*atm*

YOLO became OHNO

Dear jumjum...

 I have always wanted to dye my hair purple but lacked the guts.. Then I found out that Suki shares the same wish but like me, she didn't really dare to do it. So we decided to do it together so at least we wouldn't be alone and we would have at least done it once in our lives. Today was to be that YOLO day. Haiz. So disappointed. I don't even know what to say.

Colour we aimed for:

Initially being very excited...

  Suki was sort of a step ahead of me in the process so her hair colour was exposed first. And when she walked back to her seat to have her hair blown dry I saw the colour and nearly died. Later she told me that she too, looked in the miror and almost died. 

  I really don't understand how we SPECIFIED PURPLE and even showed the woman SPECIFIC PICTURES and ended up with a head full of CHEAPO COPPER. Poor Suki ended up with hair even redder than mine because her hair is naturally lighter in colour... And I'm also very mad at myself for not demanding an explanation and a discount from that stupid woman straight away. Haiz. Was super tired and hungry and dehydrated after 4 hours of being cooped up there.  

  And this wasn't just a random trip to the hairdressers! It was a YOLO, long planned, long researched (you should see the number of purple hair pics we saved and compared), and first-ever saloon dye trip! We just went to the wrong place...

 The back isn't half as bad as the front where all the !@#$% copper colour seems to acummulate.

You know, it looks nicer in the pictures. In real life it's much shittier!

After two vigorous washings!

  V and Z's reaction: "Eh look! We have an Ah Lian sister!" =S

  Well. Once bitten twice shy- no more next time! >:/

*atm*

Primary School Days II: Dancing!

Dear jumjum...

My slightly tomboy stage with
short hair and no two front teeth!

  Part two of my primary school experience! My school required all boys to keep a crew cut (up til secondary school, so it was pretty hard to tell the boys apart from the back), and girls had to cut lo ma zhuang (no idea how to write in chinese) which basically meant your fringe should not touch your eyebrows, your sideburns should not touch your ears, and your hair should not cover your neck. Rumour has it that the school once had to deal with a severe kutu outbreak, hence the rule (no idea how true this is).The only way to escape this was to join the dance troupe or gymnastics-only if you have joined for a year and have shown real passion in it, they'll let you start growing your hair long. Once you quit, your long hair-growing rights are forfeited. I don't remember if initially my sister just wanted to grow her hair long or she was genuinely interested in joining the dance troupe, but she fell in love with it and stayed on until secondary school. And I, the little sister, just wanted to follow everything she did so I joined too (also story telling, debate, mooting, A Levels- just tailing after my sister). 

Less tomboy here. On holiday in Kuching, at my aunt's old house, 3rd mile.

From left: me, the smartest girl and class moniter, gymnast, pretty girl who speaks cantonese.

  The only time in my life that I was actually thin was when I was dancing! For the afternoon session students, dance practice was every Wednesday,  from 10am to ?? (I forgot), in the school hall, and I lovedlovedloved it!! We would dance barefooted and our soles would be black with dirt. We wore the dance t-shirt and dark coloured short tights. I remember I had two pairs of tights, one black and one dark blue, and the dark blue one was looser and less flattering, so I'd only wear it when we had to practise on consecutive days for a performance- when I had no choice since the black one would not have dried yet. 

Yes, I still keep my shirt =)

  Our teacher was a short guy, married with a daughter but had pondan characteristics. We used to be super scared of him because he always wore black sandals, and if you messed up your moves he'll take off one side and throw his sandal at the floor near you (man he had a pretty good aim!). He rarely complimented us, but would shout at us all the time. I can still remember his voice barking at us- 一，二， 三， 四，五 (he'll always exagerrate the 五)， 六， 七， 八， 二， 二， 三， 四，五，六， 七，停 (he'll say 停 with a slight relief in his voice like, finally! You guys did it!)。Despite all that, he was very lovable and the students rarely complained about him.

  We would start off with warm up and stretching exercises, then proceed with the routine dances, and sometimes the selected few would practise special performances. After practice we had to change into our school uniforms and get ready for classes. We would go behind the stage curtains to change, and it was pretty dark so we'd always mix up our shirt or pinafore or belt and come out with different coloured pinafore and belt and look ridiculous!

Only picture of the hall I could find off the internet...the same curtains we changed behind!!

  There were two school teachers in charge of the troupe, not actually teaching the dancing but just coordinating and taking care of us when we went out for performances. One was this plump, fair and jovial teacher who was constantly sweating! She always carried a small black bag in the crook of her elbow and always had a tissue in hand, dabbing at her sweat. The other was the one we all hated. She always criticised our dancing and tried to change certain moves she didn't like when in fact it was none of her business, and our real dance teacher would always ask us to ignore her remarks behind her back xD

  We had an unspoken feud with the gymnastics people. They had a different dance practice schedule from us, but when our performances clash, we'll all have practice everyday, so we'd be forced to share the hall and our teachers would have disagreements on the way the hall was divided between us. We had much more people than them but they use these fancy mats that roll out and take up half the hall (so their feet were never blackened like ours)! They were like the elite kids in school- they were the rich kids whose mums would stay in the hall and watch them throughout practice. And I was secretly in awe and admiration of them and would watch them and imitate their moves at home LOL.

  Those days when we had perfomances, the girl with a mobile phone would be the most popular girl for the day. My parents would always come and see us perform and check up on us, no matter how far away the venue was. The grandest one I was in was the one at Stadium Bukit Jalil, for the official national day celebrations in 2003 where we could see the king in the front row. It was crazy mayhem backstage because there were all the local artistes, other dance troupes and everyone else all together. I remember squatting at the side of the walkway with 家芸(if I remember correctly), opening our lunch packs- rice with cockles and bitter gourd. At that time I hated bitter gourd, and  家芸 hated cockles, so we exchanged and purely ate what each of us liked xD

  Sometimes we'd get to see our seniors in secondary school perform, and I always thought that that would be my future- dancing in sec school and probably for life. My biggest regret is not continuing dancing after we moved. I guess my loyalty to my old dance troupe made me reluctant to join another, and at the back of my mind I always thought the move was temporary and that one day I'd go back. Ahhhh I miss dancing! 

Our school was partly independent, so we had fund-raising dinners each year. This was 2002.

The one in the center is meee! So skinny but face so round.

*atm*
  

  

  

Primary School Days I: First Best Friend

Dear jumjum...

My 1E classroom was the first classroom on the left side, ground floor. Admin office was the middle section, ground floor. The hall was middle section, 3rd floor and the staffroom below it.

  I attended primary school at 加影育华小学 SRJK(C) Yu Hua , Kajang, Selangor from primary one to four and was really upset to leave when we moved to Kuching. It is a massive school, with around 50 students per class and classes A to K in each year, so primary 1 to 3 in the afternoon session and 4 to 6 in the morning. The school has computer rooms, music rooms, 视听室, big library, basketball courts and chess and ping pong tables where all the boys would run to during breaks, and it was totally different from SK Song Kheng Hai, the primary school I moved to- back then it didn't have a music or computer room and the library was super small. The primary and secondary school are built side by side with a big gate cutting off the primary side from the secondary side, but we shared a canteen so the canteen was massive too, with a main caterer and several minor stalls around, like a mini food court. 

 I was in 1E, and we used to call ourselves the 'E 班人' cause it sounded like 伊班人(Iban). LOL. So anyway I was really excited for my first day of school, I told my mum I could handle it and asked her to go home.  I sat together with this small sized girl (I've forgotten her name and her face) and we started talking. (huge challenge for me, a girl who grew up speaking English and only knew she had a Chinese name at age 4) I made a big effort to try and speak in Chinese because I thought that if my classmates knew I spoke English, they'll laugh at me... Anyway that girl and I agreed to sit together for the rest of the year, but the very next day she changed her mind and sat with the girl behind me! =( I was really annoyed cause now I looked like an outcast, sitting alone. 

  A few days later there was a late comer, accompanied by her mother. I was so excited because this  meant that I could potentially change my lonely situation! I don't know where I got my guts from, but I kept pointing at the seat beside me when the teacher was looking for a place for her, and I got my wish! Her name was 家芸.

 A few days later my mum came to class to look for me- I don't remember what she was telling me but I remember that she was holding this silver umbrella. My mum always speaks to me in English. When she left, 家芸 exclaimed in a super excited voice, "You speak English at home? Me too!!!" We immediately switched to English and that was when we really hit it off. Turns out, all the while we were both struggling to converse in Chinese with each other! It was hilarious! She became my first best friend- we joined the dance troupe together, we went to each others' house a lot, and I used to call her even after I moved to Kuching..I think the last time I called her was after PMR results were released. To this day, I can still remember her house phone number and we're also friends on FB. (I hope she doesn't read this and get creeped out hahaha) I can't believe I can't find any pictures of us together! Ish. 



*atm*

The No-reason Potluck

Dear jumjum...

  So last Thursday I had a potluck at my house. For no reason. =) And I actually never held any party at my house before...make that no party wherever. Never had a birthday party or anything. I mean like the really party ones. Not just lunch or dinner. Because I've always felt that they're weird. Where the heck am I going with this?!

  Okay sorry back to the topic. I felt compelled to vacuum and mop the whole house before the party even though I just did half a week ago...I guess I get that from my mum. Went to cold storage and unaco and some DIY shop to get the stuff in the morning and had my afternoon preps and baking schedule planned out (yes, I am very last minute), but it was all messed up by the arrival of the gate repairman. =S It was my first time working with pastry other than cakes, so yep, certainly an experience for me. Never knew that dough was so hard to knead. Made two batches so I could taste-try first before serving. Thank goodness I managed to get it done and it wasn't a complete failure, even though it did look like a horse shoe/ neck pillow.

  Big thanks to Suki and Kah Sing for coming early to help me out preparing the salad! =) I was initially very worried that we didn't have enough to eat but luckily there was and also lots leftover. We didn't take any pictures of the food though.. Suki brought oreo cheesecake, Kah Sing brought homemade jelly, Chris fruits, Lionel satay, Cam a huge vat of ice cream, Chia Yi mashed potatoes, Pik Ai brought egg tarts and surprised us with Ah Kua, Freda made spaghetti. 

  I realised that I become positively mute when I'm in a large crowd. =S Previously I thought it was because I was shy, but even though they were all my closest friends, I didn't talk much during dinner. Although I did enjoy myself just listening to their nonsense! =D Then we watched Mulan and by the time it finished, there was only Cam, Lionel and Chris left, so we proceeded to my room to chill and talk. And only then was I talking nineteen to the dozen. I'm so weird.

*atm*

Impromptu Adventure

Dear jumjum…

  My dad declared Sunday as ‘Independence Day!!!’ (yes, say it like that- with the exclamation in your tone =D )  because mummy wasn’t around to object to any random ideas he had in mind. So after church and lunch, my dad decided that we (dad, Z and I) should go on an impromptu trip to Ranchang Pool.

  When we were halfway there only did I realize that I was the only one who brought food. =.= Gah! Typical men. Due to the misleading road signs, we turned off at the wrong exit and ended up on a long road going through Kampung Slabi. Yes, SLABI! It sounded to us like some name off Star Wars or something. We were laughing our butts off and making very bad jokes about the Slabians! (as we called them) It was a pretty nice drive because the roads there were narrow and wind-y and hilly, so it was like going on a slow roller coaster.

We found this turn off that looked really interesting so we stopped the car and continued on foot to find out where it led. I had this theory that it was a secret governmental headquarters hehe…

Bro taking a shortcut- through the drain!

  

  Turns out it was just a (we guess) big water storage area. But it was pretty nice hike up and the view at the top was nice too. I was personally very happy that we got to force dad to exercise. At the same time I was kinda worried that he couldn’t take it because he doesn’t exercise very often and he forgot to bring his meds back to Kuching with him! So I was shielding him with my umbrella..it was a pretty hot day.

  And yes, being Jacq Aw, I did fall down- it happens to me so often that I was actually anticipating it. LOL. So did my dad- right before I fell he warned me to be careful. I slipped on some loose pebbles on the way down and landed on my bum. Thank goodness I was wearing long black tights and only sustained some bruises..

  We finally found our way to Ranchang Pool and my dad spotted a huge ‘X’ on this rock in the middle of the pool and he said it probably marked buried treasure. LOL!

  I'm pretty sure mum would flip if she knew how we spent last Sunday...... ;-)

*atm*

Suki Sleeps Over!

Dear jumjum…

  My mum left for KL to be with my sister on Friday, so I took the opportunity to invite Suki over for a sleepover since we have been talking about one since before exam. It was a super chill one though..we basically had nothing planned and didn’t have any idea what we were gonna do.

  Suki came over around 7pm with two big bags and we sat around watching tv while I ate my dindin. Then we went to my room and she went through my cosmetics (of course! xD) and old letters and books…honestly I never expected anyone but myself and my parents would be interested in looking through my 生字簿 from kindy but she did xD When we finally went downstairs again, my brother was like, “What the heck did you guys talk about for 2 hours?!” Heh heh. Girl power man!

  Suki is the cutest sleeper ever! Too bad I didn’t take any pictures. She slept with the blanket just below her nose with her big dark eyelashes peeking out! We arranged to meet Lionel for breakfast and met two other ex-schoolmates there too. After that we texted Kah Sing to make sure she was at work under the pretence of asking her out then we went to Cityone to surprise her. When I just parked the car, KS called and she sounded so disappointed that she couldn’t come out with us =( and I felt really bad having to cut the call short and be all, oh never mind see you next time- then the both of us rushed up to surprise her hehehe.

  After shopping for groceries, we went home and cooked lunch together- garlic-and-onion stir fried mushrooms with carrots and chickpeas before she went back. Apparently it was her first non-relative sleepover ever and I was really really glad that we finally had the time to talk to our hearts' content! =D 

*atm*

Clearing my room

Dear jumjum…

  On Wednesday I finally worked up the guts to clear my room! And it took me 3 days and 2 nights due to my indecisiveness (to keep or to throw?) and because I was reading through my old books and notes and scripts and bringing stuff to Val and starting "Do you remember.." conversations. And I ended up throwing away four huge plastic bags of junk and a boot full of stuff to recycle. No joke. I nearly gave up halfway but I couldn’t procrastinate and leave my room in that mess since my BunnyWoman was coming for a sleepover on Friday (next post) and I didn’t want her to sleep in my jungle of a room.

  Granted, some of it were books and A Level papers that I eventually cleared away but I seriously kept way too much stuff that my mum calls ‘nonsense’  and it’s because I’m too sentimental and feel the urge to hold on to anything that relates to a memory…  So Val suggested I take a picture of anything I wanna remember and just throw it away, which makes sense so I did and I’m very proud to say that my room is clutter-free now! Woohoo! Every time I enter my room now I feel a sense of accomplishment! =)

  And of course I didn’t throw ALL the sentimental stuff away- that would be ridiculous! *wink wink* I do have some really random and cute stuff from my past that I might blog about in another post. Oh yes I started having some sort of flu and a runny nose halfway through clearing, and I expected that it would go away after I wiped and sunned my drawers and vacuumed and mopped the whole place, but apparently the flu’s here to stay. =( Suki says I might’ve inhaled some allergens..dam.

 The mess after emptying the first two drawers...

 I like keeping angpaos! They serve as great bookmarks and puts me in a good mood...

Some of the stuff I threw-

 My old DIY windchime (the chimes broke off)

My Seiko watch box! Had to throw this too cause it got mouldy..I remember my mum waking me up and putting this brand-new watch box on my bed! Speaking of which, I need to save $ and get that watch fixed...after all these years I still think that it's the nicest watch ever!

 My first watch. I think I was 3 or 4. The strap was literally rotting in my hands..

First handbag? LOL Gifted by one of the aunties.

*atm*