i have recently developed into a passable chef. =) i guess i did inherit some of my mother's genes.

due to high demand (if i do say so myself..*grin), this is the recipe to my chu kiok chou. it's really very simple and you'll be amazed at how well you can suddenly cook!

Ingredients:
2 large cloves of garlic (slightly crushed, but not chopped)
2 large chunks of ginger (cut into small pieces)
1 white carrot (cut into cubes)
black chinese mushrooms (stalks removed and cut into half)
pork trotters, OR
pork spare ribs (cut into bite size)
2 chinese bowls of black vinegar
thick, black sauce
sugar
salt

Method:
first, fry the garlic till it's fragrant.
second, add in the pork (i couldn't find trotters so i just used spare ribs. how much is up to you) and fry till slightly browned
third, add in the ginger and fry some more till flavours are infused into the pork or until the pork is cooked.
fourth, add in the black sauce (how much is up to you, you want it blacker, add in more)
fifth, add in the white carrot and black mushrooms
sixth, add in the 2 bowls of black vinegar
seventh, add in sugar and salt to taste (i used 2 tablespoons of sugar)
bring it to the boil and then lower down the fire and let it simmer for about an hour.

if you really like it sour, then add more vinegar. remember to counter with sugar if not your guests will be making sour faces the whole night. the secret is in the vinegar and LOTS of ginger.

this is my mummy's recipe. i know there may be other recipes out there which require different ingredients but this is how she does it. and i'm pretty sure it's gone down well with quite a lot of people. =)

sorry lena, haven't gotten round to asking han nien for his char siew recipe. but i will soon!

and if you guys out there want to try a new lemon chicken recipe,

Ingredients:
2 pieces of chicken thigh fillet
1 clove of ginger
1 small chunk of ginger (grated)
2 tablespoons of flour
250ml of chicken stock
rind and juice of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons of basil
salt
pepper

Method:
finely chop the garlic and lemon rind and mix it with the flour.
cut the chicken into bite sized pieces and add it into the flour/garlic/lemon rind mixture. let it marinate for about 10 minutes.
fry the chicken till golden brown.
add in the grated ginger, flour mixture, stock and sugar into the pan and bring to boil and cook for 5 mins.
next, blend the egg yolk and lemon juice and add it into the pan.
add salt and pepper to taste.

the sauce will be slightly thick and creamy due to the flour. can be eaten with rice or with pasta.

and there you go. 2 simple dishes. hahaha..relatively. hope you guys enjoy it.

well. it's almost the end of the chinese new year, and i must say that being away from home for the first time kinda sucks. i miss the festiveness. i miss the togetherness. i miss the noise and chaos and ruckus.

the getting ready for the dinner. everyone rushing for the toilet and yelling at each other to hurry up. my sisters and i trying on clothes and putting on our makeup. all the men watching tv and waiting patiently for their grandmother, wives, daughters and nieces to get ready. the convoy of cars heading towards the restaurant. finally arriving and waiting to be seated. my grandparents and relatives greeting everyone they see as they've grown up with the whole of muar. waiting for the food to arrive, scarfing down the same dinner as the rest of the restaurant. teasing cousins and joking uncles. twittering aunts and blissfull grandparents.

the gambling and supper afterwards. the washing of the mahjong tiles. the shuffling of the cards. the 'phish' of the cans of soft drinks and beer and shandy. the cracking open of peanuts and munching of new year cookies. the blare of the tv and the raise voices to be heard over the hullabuloo. the neverending love.

i miss it all.

happy chinese new year everyone.

FOOD!

had a Chinese New Year dinner tonight. i must say, everyone went all out to create sumptuous dishes. all in the spirit of togetherness and of course, competitiveness. hahaha...but, it was a wonderful dinner. everyone ate to the brink of bursting.




once again, everyone's gathering at our home.


sarah, ying wei, me and linda


lining up for food...


ying wei's A1 soup


daniel's black pepper chicken


han nien's char siew


linda's potatoes


dexter's sweet and sour fish


sarah's woh tip (dumplings)


su-ann's eggplant with mince chicken and bean paste


daniel's brocolli with mushrooms


and finally, my chu kiok chou (pork trotters in vinegar)


and this is chef han nien, slicing his really, really tasty char siew


sarah and me


tucking in


me, su-ann and rand

yes, i wore a cheongsam. was the only one who was festive enough to dress up. but then, i'd use any excuse just to put on a pretty dress. =)

so yeah...everyone ended up just sitting around, chatting and watching tv. none of the gambling and mahjong playing like back home. hahaha..they'd all still be here if we were gambling, that's for sure.

the tummy was making weird noises this afternoon. ended up in the toilet repeatedly. so concludes my first case of lao-sai in Queensland.

hahaha...

just got back from PEC (psychiatric emergency center) in the hospital. apparently tonight was a record in their history.

no patients.

didn't get to see a single one.

it was so quiet. except for this one guy who acts crazy so that he gets to come in and get a free meal. and this other lady who was caught walking around in her underwear behind a police station. but she said she was tired and didn't want to be bothered.

so...

it was a boring night.

or...was it?

ying wei and i walked into PEC full of anticipation over what this night would give. and we weren't disappointed. not one bit.

as we walked in, we were greeted by really nice nurses and hit it off straightaway. but it gets better. we met THE doctor. and oh my word...what a doctor. he was oh..so..cute. not hot. but cute. tall, dark hair. slight 5 o'clock shadow, glasses, nice dark brown eyes, but he wore his pants in a weird way. probably because he was so tall. we couldn't help but stare and giggle everytime we looked at him. but not in front of him of course. sigh...it really helps to have someone nice to look at. so...we were chatting with him about mental health when we were interrupted.

by...

and oh..so..gorgeously macho man. at first i thought he must be a nurse since he was in jeans and had long hair and was so deliciously hunky. but then i saw his name tag and was pleasantly tickled by the 'medical' title on it. oh yum...second helpings plea-se. so he sat down with us and started to discuss patient cases with dr.Cute and so nicely let us sit in and learn as well.

but halfway through the discussion, dr.Cute had to intervene with a patient that had been waiting in the corridor. it was a 22 year old guy with a history of mental illness for the last 7 years. but only now is being treated. so it was his first psychiatric episode. he looked completely normal and very handsome. the type of guy i would look twice at on the street. tall, dark haired, nice deep set eyes, very nice nose and a very pleasant smile. so anyway...they had to give him some medication and were trying very hard to coax him into taking it even though he kept saying that he didn't want the medication. clearly he thought he didn't need it. but...oh well. they had 3 very burly security guards around him, ready to tackle him and pin him down in case they had to forcefully administer the medication. part of me was hoping that he would keep refusing and i could get to see him get aggresive. but then i felt bad for him as well. so young and already his future is so bleak. luckily he finally agreed to take the medication on his own. probably got scared by the security guards around him.

phew.

then it was back to dr.Cute and dr.Gorgeous. halfway watching the scene with the handsome patient, i casually mentioned to dr.Gorgeous how difficult it must be to coax a patient into taking medication. to which he replied it is definitely easier for a normal patient. and then he proceeded to show me how intimidating it would be if someone were to just stare at you with 3 burly security guards around. and he gave me the most intense stare as an example. and oh my LORD...his eyes! i first noticed them as a light, icy blue. but when he looked at me, they turned a magnificent shade of turquoise! *sigh* it was disarming. my hand flew to my chest in awe and sheer delight. hahaha...seriously.

all i know was, throughout the discussion with dr.Cute and dr.Gorgeous, ying wei and i kept trying to catch each other's eye just to convey our delight and euphoria over getting such magnificent specimens to be our doctors for the night.

and dr.Cute is really nice. he felt really bad that we didn't get to see any patients that he gave us a mini tutorial/grilling of the mental state exam. which was really nice of him since most doctors would just leave us there to rot anyway.

my night...is complete.

i've finally got internet. was so happy i was bouncing off the walls last night. yes! it's all finally coming together. and we've got a couch that was delivered about half an hour ago. so the house is finally looking like a home.

fate is dealing me quite a pretty hand at the moment, i must say. how? do i hear you ask? pray sit and i will elaborate to my highest possible ability.

i was on a bus heading towards a one, crystal tan soo yi's apartment in southbank. and as buses do, they make numerous stops. at one particular stop, a group of young men and a young woman hopped on. in the group, there was this one asian guy, which i must say, IS OH SO HOT! seriously. he just oozed confidence, and raw sexuality, i couldn't stop staring at him. seriously. thank God i had on my shades if not he'd see the bulging eyes of a one grace lau der wen. so, i feasted my eyes on the magnificence which was him and sighed in disappointment when he hopped off the bus when he reached his stop.

sigh...

ok. that was incident number one.

i think it was last week. ying wei and i were walking around in the mall, grocery shopping. and this mall, like all new, modern and ultra classy malls had little foyers and concourses where they would have nice, plush sofas for weary shoppers to rest their worn out flat feet. it was here that fate, again stepped in and threw me a bone. there he was. just sitting on one of the sofas. and as we passed him, i glanced his way, and he was looking at me! *swoon* of course, i didn't make any sudden movements to betray the excitement coursing through my veins. on the other hand, i played it subtle and cool, and looked back at him with that lazy, sexy look that i have. eye contact. check.

and THAT was incident number two.

today, after a mini tutorial session with a really nice consultant. where i displayed my total inability to answer questions without making a fool out of myself, fate again held out it's carrot to dangle in front of me. we were hanging out in the corridor waiting for plans to be made, when from behind, 2 guys passed us. and yes, you've guessed right. one of them was mchottie. *bliss* of course, he didn't see me and i didn't really see him. but oh...i saw his best side. his back side. mm mmm mmmm...those gluts. sigh..they filled out his pants like hot buns in the oven waiting to come out.

*ok, i sincerely hope my parents aren't reading this. LYN..it's YOUR job to KEEP THEM AWAY*

so as you all can conclude, it's a matter of time before we end up literally BUMPING into each other and introductions are made.

and..i've learnt he's a fourth year medical student in the same hospital i'm in and that he's a friend of pang's.

now...who's pang again?

went to the city for a bit of shopping and sightseeing on saturday. didn't buy anything though. wasn't exactly in the mood. brisbane's actually quite a cute city. it's not too old, it's not too young. but it IS the fastest growing city in Australia. apparently there wasn't a skyline about 3 years ago, (according to one crystal tan soo yi) and now there is. might have to go dig up a before and after photo to prove it.

so there are all these nice places to shop right, but i realised, a lot of the clothes here are geared towards the younger crowd. nothing that i'd wear very often since...i'm not that young anymore? hahaha...i'm just telling it like it is. but then again, the bargains are FANTASTIC!! was itching to buy stuff but then always stopping and wondering if i would wear it or would just end up chucking it to my sister and wasting my money. not like i haven't wasted enough on them. just sent back a whole bagful of sweets and clothes for them. hope they like it.

mental health has been pretty relaxed lately. turnover of patients aren't really that high. so one can only go to the ward so many times to see and interview the same patients before they get pissed off at you and end up relapsing just to have a reason to throw things at you to get outta their face. but i kid. patients here are so highly sedated, partly from the valium the hospital staff literally pump into their veins or the electric convulsive therapy which shock their brains into mush and make them so disorientated, they can't tell their left hand from their right. it's quite sad to see them so...helpless? they can't really help themselves so when they check themselves in to GET help, they get this. hmm, not for me to ponder. can't argue with the Health Board of the state of Queensland.

oh well...i know i won't be this relaxed once i get started on my internal medicine and surgery postings. oh...i am so not looking forward to that.

pictures

VERY STRESS!

just had my first tutorial of the year. whooo...luckily i read up last night if not sure die.

had a GREAT tutor. she's absolutely fantawasomtic. she's like a genius or something. or maybe all older doctors are like that and i'm just lagging WAAAAAAy behind.

so...yeah...stress.

this is how stressed out i look now. while everyone else is jolly-jolly. especially su-ann.



and here are some pics of the valley aka chinatown.







didn't take much. since it wasn't my camera. hahaha...leeching off people's pics.

have been meeting really weird people around here lately.

just yesterday, yingwei and i were heading over to the mall which is about 5 minutes' walk from our house when we were sorta 'hit' on by a random dude.

we were just walking along, minding our own business when suddenly yingwei got a faceful of water sprinkles from an overhead tree. so she was busy rubbing it off her face when this guy came from behind and commented that it happened to him too. he fell into step with us and starting chatting. it was all ok and he left halfway to go to the bank.

didn't pay much heed to it. just chalked it up to the ozzie's friendly nature and all.

we stopped at the traffic light waiting to cross and the same dude reappears and starts chatting us up again. it was all very innocent and light. about where we were from, what we're doing here, where he was from, what he works as. incidentally, he works at a TIM TAM factory. so, we shall hereby dubbed him Mr. Tim Tam. he looked to be about in the his 30's. unshaven, head closely shaved though, casually dressed, friendly, approachable, gave information freely, (especially about his weight, dunno why), seemed to be in good spirits, mentioned he could get by with just a couple of hours of sleep a night. *wah...this is how we assess mental status in crazy patients*

so, Mr. Tim Tam was being all conversationaly and friendly and we didn't think much of it. UNTIL he asked whether we had boyfriends. again, we thought it was a casual question, so i mentioned yingwei was attached. and he further probed to see if her other half was in australia. to which she replied no. then...walk, walk, walk, walk. and he asked.

'are you girls free friday night?'

O.o

i came up with the really clever, albeit nerdy excuse that we would be studying since medicine is like the toughest profession in the world.

phew...potential hazard averted.

but...

'do you girls have phones? wanna gimme your numbers so i can call you when you're free?'

urhhh...

again...supergracie to the rescue. told him we HAD a phone. but it was a landline and it was connected yet. said that we had just arrived and haven't gotten a handphone. to which he started telling about getting a prepaid number and then instantly we'll have phones.

dodged that bullet.

and he went on.

'how about i give YOU my number. then you can call me when you're free.'

talk about hardball.

so eventually, he gave us his number and asked our names. i was already in the store trying to get something righted. so yingwei very cleverly said that she was jane and that i was lily. jolly good show. luckily, we didn't bump into him again. thank God for very big malls.

case closed.

yesterday was Australia Day. which is equivalent to our Merdeka Day back home and the whole bunch of us went to Southbank, aka the happening place to be during Australia Day to get some well deserved fun.




that's soo yi and me



had dinner of fish and chips on the grass. as you all can see, i'm super tanned. no thanks to the really hot hot sun here.



su-ann, me, ying wei and soo yi





FIREWORKS! really nice ones. but the gunpowder smell clung to us the rest of the night.



su-ann and i in front of the SunCorp Piazza where they had free concerts for Australia Day



they had street salsa dancing here. tried my legs at it. was completely hopeless.

so...we spent the evening watching the fireworks and emersing ourselves in the culture and flea market and merriment. later on we went to watch 'Miss Potter' in the IMAX cinema where tickets only cost 5.70 for students. cute show.

there were random people coming up to us and saying 'happy aussie day!' and we'd be like..'oh..happy aussie day' and when they'd pass i'd go....MERDEKA! hahaha...a bit of malaysian lameness.

and yes, yin, there were plenty of hot guys going around without their shirts on. but they were all high schoolers. the older ones were too drunk to even stand up straight.

sadly, it's only this fun and happening on friday nights. i'm here in soo yi's place again tonight, which is a saturday night and the place is silent. absolutely silent. i am SO not used to this.

i miss home.

so much.

sigh...

ok...so quick updates.

we've got a house. quite a nice one. managed to get it furnished by the first week so we've all got beds to sleep in and cupboards to put our clothes in. a fridge to put our food in. a washing maching to wash our clothes with. so i guess we're pretty much set for the year. only thing that's not up yet is the internet and the tv. internet will be up in about 2 weeks. which really sucks cos even in malaysia it's like 3 days or so. and then the tv, we're trying to scout around to see if we can get any cheap ones.

so here i am in the medical library of the Royal Brisbane Women's Hospital checking my very long list of emails and updating myself on what's been happening in Malaysia while i'm here.

have been pretty down in the dumps lately as you all can tell. have been feeling homesick and all. read through my mental health textbook and i've got a few of the symptoms that suggest depression. i even had a panic attack the other day. of course i didn't know it was a panic attack till i read about it yesterday.

daddy's a bit worried that i might become depressed so he's been asking me to go have some fun. but there's nothing much that is fun to do around here. i mean, there's this really huge shopping complex near my house, but there's only so many times i can go there and then TRY not to spend money since it's so scarce. although, the shopping's pretty good and there's sale on now and everything's so cheap. and then, everything closes by 5. so the evening's are pretty much dead unless we have the tv and the internet. and we have neither. so...go figure.

mummy's been really great. calling everyday to see if i'm ok. bucking me up and encouraging me all the way through. i think right now, she's the only one that's keeping me sane. all in all, she's being a real brick. wish she were here with me. wish all my family members were here with me.

getting around isn't as easy as i thought it was either. travelling to the hospital is easy enough since i have to just hop onto one bus and in 15-20 minutes, i'm there. getting to the city and to places of interest is a bit more difficult. unless you have a car. with a car, we can go anywhere within minutes. places are literally quite close. but with public transport, well, a 15 min car ride can turn into a 45 minute one.

but i shouldn't be one to gripe. i have friends with me. i have a roof over my head. all that's left to do is study hard, do my best and try to make the most out of life here. that's what people have been telling me. right now, i'm thinking...talk is cheap and easier said than done. but i appreciate the support. and i need to buck up and tell myself to suck it up.

the grace lau i thought i was is definitely tougher than this. i can't believe i'm this wuss.

well...today was a pretty fruitful day.

started off with me taking the bus from southbank, to RBH. first time alone on the bus. phew...big accomplishment. hahaha..yeah..got there and waited for the rest to come and all together-gether we went to see this lady who was supposed to be in charge of us. waited for 2 whole hours.

i was getting more and more stressed by the minute. seriously and when she finally go to us, she was apologetic and really nice. and she gave me the greatest news. i will be posted in RBH for the WHOLE YEAR!! yeah! i was so afraid 'cause i was hearing horror stories from seniors about being thrown everywhere for all the different rotations. that would seriously be very painful to the pocket. but PRAISE THE LORD! it's all in the same hospital for us.

and then...it got better. we managed to look at 3 houses today and even got the keys to go inspect them ourselves. yay! was quite happy with 2 of them and wanted to send in applications for them.

but before we could submit our applications, we needed to get a bank statement. that means, opening a bank account. so that we did. but the transaction would only be recorded by tomorrow, so means i'll still have to wait till tomorrow. oh well...i should be thankful we found something. now i hope we get it. really..i hope we get it. everyone, PLEASE PLEASE pray that we get the 2 houses.

then we went to sarah's house, which is really nice. reminded me a lot of my ayi mee's house in germany. modern townhouse. sigh...wish we could get that...but as i told my mum, beggars can't be choosers.

it would make a really funny story about how we went from one house to another, peeking into windows to see if it was any good. but i'm just so tired right now. i have slept a total of 15 hours in the last 3 nights. so..it's high time to get some sleep

greetings and salutations from the one, the only, soo yi's apartment! went to church this morning. was really good. although i was super emotional and was crying throughout worship. that's the thing about me. when i get upset or stressed out about anything, i feel closest to God. so everytime He ministers to me, i break down. so...that's what i did again. shucks...

after church, we (zk, su-ann, dex, and i) went for lunch in chinatown with some of our seniors. had dim sum.

was feeling so homesick one of the seniors took a look at me and said..

'you're looking very depressed. are you ok?
wow...i need to learn how to maintain a poker face.

so we had dim sum and it seemed fairly familiar with all the asian faces around. but there was of course the ang moh, who came to eat as well and you know what? they drink wine and beer with dim sum. seriously. we drink tea, they have alcohol. hahaha..and there were these really pretty chinese mainland girls on the next table, so all the guys were sneaking covert glances across. boys will be boys.

and yes, yin, there are a lot of leng chais here. just haven't gotten the nerve or the mood to chat one up.

eveything's on sale now, since it's nearing the end of summer. but i'd rather watch out for better bargains later on and concentrate on looking for a place to live.

soo yi's been really kind in letting me bunk in with her. whereas the rest have to like stay in motel and pay about 38aud a night. or something like that.

house hunting isn't easy work. on saturday, we walked all the way from kedron, which is a suburb up north to herston, which was nearer the central area. i think it was about a 20km or so walk. and the weather here is super hot now. scorching. and i got burnt. already. 2 days and i'm burnt. hahahaha....so we went to herston to inspect a place which turned out to be a huge disappointment. 2 bedroom and it's the size of my gazebo back home. and that's like 170aud a month. it's crazy i know. sigh...but oh well..

went to caleb's place for dinner. ahko was there even though caleb's in malaysia. met his housemates. koreans, taiwanese, french mates. wow. hies place seems nice, a bit old thought since it's about 30 years old. had a typical aussie bbq although none of us were australian! it really seems like ahko has truly enjoyed herself here. i'm sure this won't be her last visit. she was practically the life of the party during the bbq seeing as they threw it in honour of her leaving today. i suddenly see my ahko in a whole new light.

mum's feeling a bit panicky at home also i guess since she got the kan brothers to call me and make fun of me not finding a house. but thanks for the link boys. managed to find about 4 places which would do really nicely. so, all i need to do now is call them tomorrow and arrange for an inspection. hopefully tomorrow as well. please, please pray for all of us here.

and yes, lyn. i'll learn to grow up. seems like i'm the only one missing home, other than sarah who had the same problem as me. su-ann misses her hamster. of all things..

anyway, lyn, soo yi's coming back in february. be nice and your birthay present may fly with her.

so here i am...in the land of sun, sea, sand, surf and STUDS. hahaha...that's according to my sister, LB. speaking of which, i'm really missing home. SO HOMESICK. i guess this is what happens when you leave home for the first time. away from loved ones, away from the comforts of home, away from the familiarity of routine life. in actually crying. like a freaking baby.

sigh...

i dunno how i'm going to survive the next 2 years. i always thought that i'd be tough. that 2 years was nothing, if but a breeze. and that i was gonna stay longer to work, etc, etc, etc. but right now, i'm not so sure anymore. i find myself thinking more and more about home and how much more i prefer it there. not just because it's comfortable and familiar, but because it's IN me. it kinda defines who i am today. i miss home.

sigh...

i think maybe, part of the reason why i'm feeling this way, is because i'm growing up. and honestly, i don't know if i'm ready for it. making my own decisions, being away from home, leading my own life. i don't know if i'm ready. you're probably thinking, 'wait a minute, you're almost 23. it's high time you get outta the house and experience life and all that it can give.' i know. i used to think that too.

sigh...

it's time to grow up, grace.

*but i still don't want to.

welcome, one and all, to another episode of...

FISH-TRAUMA-RAMA!

yuuuupp...you guessed it ladies and gentlemen..

the fish jumped yet again!

and this time, not into the adjacent pond, noooo sireee...but right onto dry land. YOU HEARD IT RIGHT! onto DRY LAND!

and it just lay there. for urhm...a fair bit of time i'm guessing.

you see, here's what happened.

i was having my sunday afternoon snooze, all up there in dreamland dreaming things that people do in dreamland when suddenly, i was rudely awakened by very rapid, staccato-like raps on my door. so i very groggily said..

'what?'
'JIE! YOU HAVE TO COME DOWN! NOW!!'
'why?'
'THE BIG FISH JUMPED OUT OF THE POND AND IT'S ON THE GROUND!'
'WHAAAAAAAAAAATT??'

then with an incredible burst of speed, i leaped up from my bed, almost hitting my ceiling fan in the process and scrambled to the door.

but then i remembered.

i headed to the toilet to do what i remembered to do.

'EH! STILL NEED TO GO TOILET ARRH??'
'i need to wear a bra right?'

*swt*

after all that, we rushed down and lo and behold. there it was. our ever so great, so big, so scary and so incredibly stupid fish. lying on the grass in front of our pagola.

apparently, uncle choy was having his evening walk and passed by our house when he noticed the really unusual sight of a fish out of water and proceeded to ring our doorbell till the cows came home.

which leads us now, to the FISH itself.

there it was. just lying there in all it's gruesome glory. it's tribal-carved-like face staring at us. taunting us.

'try and get me back in the pond. yeah..come on. i dare you'

it seemed to be saying. but of course, us being really scaredy pussies just stood there gawking at it like dumb chickens. and of course, taking pictures (click it. come on, i dare you) with it. i mean, come on, who could not be tempted. but it was scary of course. oh-so-scary.

we suddenly got the thought that it might be dead. since fish can't really breathe out of water. but then, i remembered that these fish could curl up in the mud of the amazon river where it originates during the dry spells and continue breathing. this is so, because they just happen to be, air-breathers. in the water, they come up for air to breathe.

but then, my sister, esther, got the hose and started watering it. and it quite frankly just suddenly came to life. it gasped for a few lungfuls of air and in the process, gained back quite a fair bit of it's energy. and what happened then? with it's newly regained energy, it started thrashing around on the ground! oh gosh..it was freakishly frightening. really. it just thrashed and flipped and flopped and it even changed direction! one minute it was facing the gate, which i think is north, and then it did a complete 180 degree turn and turned to face the house. which is of course, south of the gate.

and guess what we did?

we started jumping around and screaming like a bunch of headless banshees out for blood. i swear you could hear us from all the way in taipan.

two men were walking side-by-side in taipan, talking..
'hey..do you hear that?'
'hmm...faintly. what do you think it is?'
'i think it's a bunch of headless banshees'
they then proceed to continue on walking.

don't judge us. you there! the one with the bug-eyed glasses. yeah you. i know what you're thinking. stop it. you weren't here. you can't judge me. loser.

so, we jumped up and down and screamed till our throats were sore, and all the while, uncle choy kept coming up with ideas about how to try and get it in but never daring. 'cos methinks he was a weeeee bit scared too. but we heart you uncle choy and thanks for being here.

so, after a few more leaps and jumps, our hero arrived. in the form of my dad's indonesian foreman.

note:
my daddy's actually our real hero but he was in church, attending a board leader's meeting. so he couldn't rush back either since he had no car

so, there he came, putting on his motorcycle and when he arrived, he parked it, swished his helmet off and said

'bawa itu guni'

our very timid yet, really nice maid was standing in the sidelines holding the gunny sack and shaking like a pile of leaves.

she held it out to him, he took out his wallet and handphone, threw them on the ground and took the gunny sack. he threw it over the fish, who i think was beginning to see his short burst of freedom coming to an end, and proceeded to carry him back into the pond. but not before the fish put up the biggest struggle of it's life. and only after thrashing around and slapping our hero on his face, body and arms, did he get dumped back, albeit very unceremoniously, into the pond.

'wah...you macho lar'

what an ordeal. pheww..

it completely SUCKS to be a woman.

i repeat.

it SUCKS!

seriously.

i was walking and shopping at Petaling Street the other day with my mum and after a whole afternoon of walking and sweating and bargaining and brushing and bumping into smelly, sweaty, disgustingly ugly people, we went home. and in the car, mum said this..

"looks like it's going to pour eh? ah....can go home and rest and have ONE pineapple tart."

rewind.

ONE PINEAPPLE TART.

i looked at her and said,

"it sucks being a woman huh?"

and she nodded her head sadly.

it's so completely sad what we women have to go through.

first, there's the whole body image thing. ok, i know that we shouldn't conform and be happy they way we are because we're all made differently and in the image of God, but then again. do you think God would look like a fat blimp, the size of Australia? i mean, hello?

ok, i'm sounding waaaaaaaay too bimbotic for my liking.

but really, to maintain appearances, we women go through all sorts of shit to look good. we diet, we exercise, (and if you're anything like me, it doesn't help. at all.), we squeeze ourselves into really tight clothes that are supposedly 'in fashion', we do our hair, we buy ridiculously high shoes, (but that's a plus, and a priviledge, of course), and the most suckiest of all, we get period cramps, hot flashes, mood swings and pimple breakouts.

sigh...

you can tell by now, that i'm not a happy camper.

i've got cramps.

both in my tummy and in my mood.

i made fajitas tonight. beef and chicken, so that my sisters who are really picky eaters could have a choice. and stupid me, didn't check the nutrition information until AFTER i ate 1 and a half pieces of tortilla bread. it's SUPER DUPER HIGH IN CARBO! crap.

i also made tuna potato salad and stuffed mushrooms.

so, i'm off now to exercise my butt off. literally. it's growing to size of the whole american continent.

i currently have 7, count 'em...7 bruises. yeah.

not 1..not 2..3? yeah right..not even 4, 5, hardly, 6, gimme a break, but 7.

7 major bruises all around my legs.

and i don't even remember how i got half of them.

i've got one on my shin, two around my left knee, another 2 on my thighs one on the dorsum of my foot and one major one on my hip.

sigh...

i know i got the ones on my shin and knees when i was running up the spiral staircase. my sisters and i were alone at home at that time and they were bugging me to cook lunch for them. so i very nicely went and cooked them lunch. oh..did i mention we were having a grey's anatomy marathon? yeah..so, i rushed all the way up since i didn't wanna miss any bit of it. and guess what? i tripped on the 2nd last step of the spiral staircase and the bowl of noodles that i had cooked went flying outta my hands. don't ask what happened next.

sigh...

then a couple of days ago, i was hooking up my laptop to my printer and had to squeeze in between a table and a cupboard. so after hooking it up, i stood up and banged my hip straight into the table. ow. so now i've got a really angry looking bruise on my hip.

AND...

guess what happened this morning.

daddy and mummy were sending me to work and stopped at the end of the road so that he didn't have to turn in. so, i got down from the car, closed the door, and suddenly just slipped and fell. i can just picture in my head how my parents must have been going like..'whaa??' when they could at first clearly see me walking away from them and suddenly just disappear from sight. so, why did i fall? well, my slip in sandals broke. and when i took a step forward in them, i slipped, fell, and twisted my knee in a weird angle.

now i've got a strawberry mark on my other knee.

jolly good.

i am such a klutz...

speaking of strawberries, i made strawberry cupcakes last night. parents said it was too sweet. that means, it's perfect. =)

take one part sweat, stir in with 2 parts eyebags (due to lack of sleep), then add in 5 parts burnt fingers and mix in 2 parts tired legs and what do you get?

LASAGNA!

today was and still is my parents' 23rd anniversary

1, 2, 3...times 5 divided by 8 equals....23! ok, correct!


decided to make them dinner. sisters and i wanted to make it all romantic like how we did it for them during valentine's but then it turned out to be a normal family dinner. how boring.

decided to try making lasagna for the first time. and i think it turned out quite ok.

ok, i'm gonna tell you guys a secret.

the lasagna sheets i used were bought about half a year ago and have been sitting in the pantry for quite a bit.

so, today when i took them out to cook it, a whole bunch of weird looking ants came tumbling out too! and some actually got stuck and died in between the lasagna sheets! eeyieeer! it sounds quite gross and it looked even grosser.

*is there such a word? grosser?*

but then...while i was looking at it...

*thoughts fly back to eons ago*

i remembered that one time when i was helping daddy cook, actually cooked noodles that had these bugs in them before as well and when he boiled them, the bugs just floated off and died.

so, i tried to do the same thing.

and thank God it worked.

yup, so, boil, boil, boil, die, die, die, strain, strain, strain, and then onto the lasagna plate.

i don't remember getting diarrhoea from daddy's bug-drained noodles, so i hope i won't get it this time. and even if anything happens, it'll happen to me. i've got the weakest, stupidest stomach in my family.

who's got diarrhoea?
jie jie

who's got food poisoning?
jie jie

who's vomiting?
jie jie

see..it's always me. i've got a weird gastrointestinal tract.

so, i cooked lasagna and made caesar salad.

and you all know how caesar salad has lettuce, bacon bits, cheese, croutons and sliced boiled eggs in it right?

well, i forgot the bacon bits and eggs and croutons.

mainly cause when i went to shop for the ingredients, i ran outta money so i couldn't buy bacon and croutons. eggs, i just totally forgot.

so, to make up for the croutons, i heated up oil in the wok and cut up bread into little cube sized bits and deep fried them. it worked wonderfully. instant croutons. but i might have left them a little to long in the oil and it kinda turned blackish. so...instant croutons became instant charcoal pills. whoopee.

for the bacon bits, i tried to be smart. we had spam in the fridge and what i did was i sliced it really finely and fried them. till they were crispy and crunchy. turned out alright. didn't taste like bacon bits, but it made do.

talk about improvising.

but my salad was a hit and everything was eaten up. i even had to make seconds. not bad. oh and i made my own sauce as well. not baaaaaaaaaad.

happy anniversary mum and dad. love you guys.

starting to get worried.

although i know i shouldn't.

but i can't help it.

WHERE'S THE FRIGGIN' EMAIL THAT'S SUPPOSED TO GIVE ME MY STUDENT NUMBER?

sigh..

sarah and su-ann received their student number from UQ and i still haven't gotten mine. i hope i'm not the only one.

what if they got my email address wrong?

what if i end up in a weird, rural hospital while in queensland?

*what if i didn't get offered a place in UQ?*

...

so anyway, everyone's out.

they all went to get LB a new phone.

jolly good.

how did all this phone business come about hmm??

well, it all started when daddy's phone suddenly got infected by a virus, possibly due to receiving too many bluetooth messages or from an MMS. well, the virus caused daddy's phone to keep sending out MMSes. his contractors and friends from all over were getting MMSes from him but they couldn't open it. of course, daddy didn't know. but when his bill came, it was sky-high from all the MMSes he sent.

apparently this all began when i tried to send an MMS of a picture of my sisters and i to a cousin of mine in Australia.

oh...they're back.

she got a sony ericsson phone. will let HER blog about it.

so, back to the story. well, daddy went to get it checked out and yeah, it turned out to be a virus. so, he had to use my phone for a while.

there are about 4 old handphones lying around my house. 2 nokias and 2 samsungs. i'm using one of the old flip samsungs. i WAS previously using both the nokias, but i clogged them up with too many messages that i didn't want to erase, so i had to keep switching phones. so, the flip samsung is the latest one.

so, daddy's phone got fixed today and i got my flip back.

but...

for LB to get her new handphone, she had to trade in one of the old nokias.

sigh...

here's the sad part.

all my messages from my love, had to be deleted.

70 messages.

70 of the sweetest messages i've ever received.

all gone.

sigh...

so now LB's got a new phone.

my maid's changing my bedsheets today.

i guess i should be thankful that i at least HAVE a maid to change and wash my sheets.

but i don't like it that she changes it so often.

i think it's like she changes them every fortnight.

call me disgusting, but i kinda like my sheets to be on my bed for more than 2 weeks.

just when i've soften them and they've got my own smell, it goes into the wash and new sheets with the harsh sudsy, soappowderish smell meet my body every time i lie in bed.

i don't like.

i like sheets with my own smell.

ok, i'm not as disgusting as all that to want my sheets on forever so that i smell my own smell but leave them on at least for a month yeah?

...

have been getting really bad nights lately.

been plagued by really bad dreams, really weird dreams or just plain waking up in the middle of the night for no reason.

one of the earlier bad dreams that i've been having was one where a friend whom i no longer talk to anymore, appears in it.

won't go into details of how we become UN-friends, but just know enough that it was a tiny matter, which i blew way outta proportion. sigh...i miss my friend.

so my friend appears in it and we just started talking like it was when we WERE friends. and i woke up realising, i MUST call this friend before i head over to australia. must at least patch things up. if not recement the friendship, at least just become 'hi-bye' friends again.

i am losing my mind!!

OMG!!

the one thing i absolutely hate is the freaking renovation that's going on behind my house.

and the one thing i absolutely hate is how they build up walls, and beams and stuff that hold up houses and then proceed to BREAK THEM DOWN AGAIN!!

the noise is just absolutely driving me crazy.

you would think they'd know how to draw up a house, build it and then not tear it down again. IT IS a COMPLETE waste of money to keep building and tearing it down. not to mention time consuming since they'll continue at it till GOD knows when.

i'm annoyed and i'm bored. but there's a possibility of me getting a proper paying job in a whileeeeee....