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*

Bangkok Trip 2013

Dear jumjum…

  

Ahhh I can’t believe I delayed this post for so long!! Sorry BunnyWoman for disappointing you again and again... ><

  So anyway, Cam and I went to Thailand for a week and stayed at my dad’s apartment. Our daily routine was basically to wake up, prepare breakfast, have breakfast, watch Law & Order and CSI back to back, bathe, walk to the BTS station, invade a mall, tire ourselves out shopping, have dinner with my dad, do some laundry, sleep. Hehehe. It was nice to go with Cam because we’re both such kiasu shoppers, we walk really fast and rush everywhere to make sure that we don’t miss out on any shopping. After going to Thailand for five times already, I must say Siam Paragon is still my favourite mall- not too cheapo but not too luxurious either, with a wide array of shops to explore.

Asoke BTS

Cam and I spent two hours in this shop!! They sell the cutest, randomest thngs!!

                                                                  Second ice cream of the day at Swenson's.

 My dad did make sure that we didn’t spend all our time there just shopping- he brought us for a walk in Chinatown, to watch World War Z (where we got to experience first-hand everyone standing for the anthem in respect of the Thai King before the movie), to Pattaya and Ayutthaya floating market. Pattaya was great fun! We went parasailing (my knees were seriously shaking), underwater walking where you wear this astronaut-like oxygen helmet on your head and jet-skiing. I drove first on the jet-ski then we swapped places and Cam took over. Let me tell you, if you think Cam’s driving is reckless, her jet-skiing is even worse! She’s so brave and went all out on that jet-ski that I nearly flew off..aaand she kept saying that she wanted to try and make the jet-ski flip and I nearly flipped out!

Chinatown.

                                                              While waiting for our movie to start...

                                                                                          Pattaya

  

 Fish feeding @ Ayutthaya (disgusted face cause they splashed fish water at me) 

 Coconut ice cream!! Best ever!!! Had this in 2010 at the same floating market and walked all around the market just to look for this. And I had two in one go hehehe.



  Oh yea! We saw two loony men during our trip. =S While waiting for the car outside Platinum mall, this untidy man squatted down a few feet in front of us and left something on the floor. He smiled at us and walked away, and only then did we realize that he left 100 baht (RM10) on the sidewalk! Immediately after that, a tuk-tuk driver stopped his vehicle by the side of the road, jumped down, picked up the $ while giving us a look as if daring us to challenge him, hopped back on and drove his tuk-tuk away. Cam and I were wondering if he was following this loony man (and his trail of cash!) around because it was pretty impossible that he saw the money lying there if he was just driving past.  It was funny because that sidewalk was railed so the driver had to reach his whole arm through the bars to get the cash. The second loony guy we saw was a motorbike taxi driver who probably dreams of becoming a traffic policeman. He was waving vehicles like one at a big intersection and didn’t even budge when the lights were green for his lane! It was good entertainment, though, for that long wait at the traffic light..

  

Shibuya Honey Toast, recommended by Ms Suki! #besttoastever!

 While eating at McD's one day (Cam wanted to try the pork burger), we saw this forlorn-looking woman sitting outside, so my dad started telling this story that long ago, this woman was young and pretty, and she fell in love with a pharang (what thais call the angmo) but her family objected. They arranged to meet under the Banyan tree on a Staurday where they would run away together and live happily ever after. But that Saturday came and went and that woman never saw her lover. And so, every Saturday night since, she would faithfully wait there for him, with his favourite homemade soup in a tumbler, and over the years the place developed into a McD's to her right and a mall to her left. Little did she know, (walking down the road we saw this angmo) her lover has always been there every Saturday too, just watching her from a distance because he does not think it wise to tear her away from her family...

( I seriously hope nobody who knows these two people ever see this post! HAHAHA)

We had an early flight out of Bangkok and Cam and I are not morning people and were really grumpy and bad-a** on the plane. I won’t go into details but I ended up saying sarcastically to two China girls, “You wanna kill me is it?!” and Cam ended up hitting the headrest in front of her in annoyance. TEEHEE. Starting to plan our next trip already!

And finally-my newest baby!! Finally got this after lusting over it for so long. Thanks dad!!!!!


*atm*