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*

8 days as Relief Teacher

Dear jumjum...

  Okay so on the last day of exam Mdm Soon came up to my table after the papers were collected and told me that Mdm Armstrong wanted to see me. I was super freaked out because the last time she came to look for me was to scold me for parking at the front gate! I got Cam to accompany me to her class, and Mdm Armstrong was like, "The Chemistry teacher at national is on leave for two weeks and they need someone who knows Chem to sit in, would you be interested?" Interested? I was MORE than interested!

  The night before I was to start work, I wasn't feeling so confident anymore. In my head I was thinking, I suck at Chem! And the reaction the ex-national Lodgians gave me when they heard didn't help either: "Huh?! Good luck man..." 

  The teacher had already allocated worksheets for them to do each day, and all I had to do was make sure they did it and to answer any questions they had. So the day before, I would do my revision on the chapter and complete the worksheets myself to make sure that I got it all down pat before the kids do it. 


  Anyway the first day wasn't so bad, I think because the kids didn't know me they were kinda subdued and scared...but the second day was really bad. They basically realised that I'm not as fierce as their real Chem teacher and started pushing the boundaries, and so from the third day onwards I put my foot down. I tried to start each class with a quiz, but in order to not scare them too much I gave it a funny name- "Is (insert class here) a Jumjum or a Dumdum?", and basically called up random names from the class list and made them answer questions related to their worksheet that day. Some classes were really funny, when anyone got it wrong they'd yell "Dumdum!" and boo them lol. Once I could more or less control the classes it was pretty fun, amd from then on I started to bond with some of the kids, which made leaving them really hard =(


  I was told I had to be in school for a minimum of 6 hours each day, so whenever I didn't have classes I'd be in the staffroom preparing for the next day. And when that was done I'd be bored to tears! So from the second day onwards I started bringing my advanced biology book to read and kill time... And of course, there was the near constant office gossip going on in the staffroom to keep me entertained!

   Sadness of having lunch everyday alone at my cubicle...except the last day when some teachers got me to sit with them in the canteen.

Ms Carrie!

  Very few teachers talked to me, and they all seemed really busy and it made me feel pretty ashamed of myself and so I pretended to look busy too heh heh. Ms Carrie and Mr Kelvin were really nice and helpful though, telling me where my classes were, reminding me of my sit-ins, chatting with me and the such. And in my last two days I approached Cikgu Anita (everyone's favourite Biology teacher) and she gave me all the advice and shared her experiences with me.

  All in all, I quite enjoyed my time there. The last day was hard, though...the kids had some camp that night so a lot of them went home already, and so had most of the teachers, but I had two sit-ins with classes that I wasn't familiar with =( and the whole school looked like it was the zombie apocolypse, all quiet and lonely =((

  Oh yea! During one of the periods with 5D, I was flipping through the notice board at the back and out of nowhere jumped out this big dark lizard! And I was so shocked I did a mighty leap backwards (in my tight black skirt) THANK GOODNESS I didn't scream!!! Only one girl saw me and she was laughing her head off! Ahhh 丢脸！！！

  Oh and teh youngest that students and teachers guessed me to be was 23, the oldest....28! =O sadness!

Someone took a pic of me on one of my 'patrols' making sure everyone was doing their work...and I had no idea I looked so sour grapes! ><

  On another note, HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAM!!! Lessthanthreeyou! Can't wait to spend all 24 hours of the next 9 days with you! =D

*atm*

Farewell, Raphael!

Dear jumjum...

  This morning we'll be bidding farewell to one of our own, my son the prince, Mr Raphael Chen the Singaporean. 

  I still remember the first day he came to Lodge, a few days after classes had already started, and he asked me to lend him my maths book to copy the notes. I must say, if I knew then what a little math genius you were, I probably wouldn't have lent it to you xD That day during break that little boy started talking to me and asking me about us Kuchingites and only then I realised how lonely he must have felt, alone in this little city, with all of us more or less already formed into little groups. 

  Somehow he joined our little clique, going out daily for lunch with us and such. And I think my fondest memory of you will always be the time we went to Bako National Park and you made a comment that confused me and I asked you somewhat unbelievingly, "Raphael, you DO know Bako is a natural park and not man-made?!" and he was all, WHAT? REALLY?? LOL!!!

  I just wanna say, Raphael, that you really are one of us now, and oh yeah! I wanna thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping us out so much with all our maths problems, especially during exam time =) HAVE FUN IN NS ahaha. We're definitely gonna miss you, kid!

*atm*

I see the colour!

Dear jumjum...

  I just realised that I didn't blog yesterday. Dam! Failed my challenge...

  Today I noticed that my hair colour is actually starting to show! YES! Very subtly, just the way I like it ;) But it looks different from different angles..idk. Please excuse the awkward photos, had to climb onto the bathtub to get the setting sunrays...

*atm*

Songs with Memories

Dear jumjum...

 All my life I have unintentionally associated songs with memories and I'm sure that I'm not the only one. It's pretty cool how listening to an old song can stir up the exact memory and feeling and emotions you had and felt at that certain point in life.

  When we were living in Kajang, Selangor, my dad used to help my mum sweep and mop the floor every Saturday morning and I remember waking up to the tunes of the Bee Gees and Air Supply blasting downstairs and my dad singing along and I would be so excited that the weekend has started and that my dad didn't need to go to work for the next two days. 

  During one of our trips back to Kuching before we moved back, my sister, mum and I, influenced by my late grandmother, were obsessed over this chinese drama series 偷龙转凤, and we would all huddle near the tevlevision set after dinner. It was also the time when I leant to sing 逃亡- I don't remember if that was the theme song or our cousin just happened to play it all the time, but I always associate that song to that series. Also, I believe that was the first chinese song that I learnt the full lyrics to too.

  For our primary 6 graduation ceremony, my friend and I performed Now and Forever by Richard Marx and then we also sang 隐形的翅膀 together with the other class. I remember how excited I was to be finally graduating and no longer going to 'kid-school', and how I couldn't wait to join my sister in sceondary school.

  I also remember singing Teenagers by My Chemical Romance back and forth together with Edric in form 1. We used to compete to see who could sing it the fastest and with the most vehemently lol! 

  Song of the year in form 2 was Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis. I used to sing it all day, everyday- I would put my phone in the shower cap hanging on the door so I could sing while bathing. And because of that, every time the song came on in the car my mum used to joke and sing 'Keep bathing, keep keep bathing' instead of bleeding xD

  Form 3 post-PMR song was the Black Eyed Peas' I Got A Feeling and it was SO appropriate since it's a very club-dancing, upbeat sort of song that described our mood at that time so very well.

  If We Ever Meet Again by Timberland ft Katy Perry reminds me of form 4 when I had a crush on a senior, and we were in the midst of organising prefects' dinner and Freda and I were also preparing for the science show competition. I remember just feeling really busy but contented. 

  Just before SPM I was learning to play Allegro op. 50 no. 1 on my guitar and it was a time when everything was crazy with exam stress, sadness of leaving secondary school and all the conflicts that were going on and I remember not being able to sleep, I would pick up my guitar and practice as softly as I could to vent my frustrations. And even now whenever I play that song it sounds even more violent than it should...

  
  I generally do not listen to Korean songs as a rule, but thanks to my crazy friends everytime I hear Big Bang's Fantastic Baby I think of our time in A Levels. Ahhh. And the boys surrounding MiaoMiao and serenating her during our first field trip...

  Last year when I was watching Pitch Perfect I was so happy to hear No Diggity again! I remember listening to that song sometime in my childhood and I really liked the beat but had no idea what it was called or what they were rapping about...

*atm*

I just wanted to say...

Dear jumjum...

  Yay! Accomplished all my goals for today. =)

  I just wanna say to my ANNOYING BROTHER: YOU ARE VERY ANNOYING. SOH AH GLEE AH YOU. AH GLEE ER BY THE DAY. STOP READING MY BLOGS.

  Also, hereby promising myself to post something less boring tomorrow. I know I know, just super tired. Heh heh.

*atm*

Annoyed to the max

Dear jumjum...

  Okay I really really really don't feel like posting today, but I'm tied by my self-challenge =S

  Was very tired when I got home, bathed and took a nap- supposed to sleep for 10 minutes only, as per usual, but I was practically dead til two hours later. Very annoyed as I was supposed to help my mum out with dinner. 

  I had tomorrow planned out fully- go to work, go straight to Suki's place, go home to bathe then pick my cousins for sushi and movie. And then I got on the computer and saw this !@#$%^& email that ruined my whole day. Argh. Have to cut my plans short tomorrow and deal with this first. AND it's gonna cost me more $$. AND my printer chooses now of all times to be out of ink so I can't print the documents. Thank goodness for Ele, who's gonna help me print.

  Really hope everything gets done by tomorrow. And I hope the movie tickets won't be sold out by the time we get there! 

*atm*