Stuff i felt like typing out. MY blog.Mine.Mine .Mine.muahahah

I have a crisis.

It is 2am AND THERE IS A COCKROACH IN MY ROOM!

I was reading peacefully in my room, when i saw something move across the bedroom floor from the corner of my eye.

I thought it was a furball from the dog or what… so I nonchalantly took my time turning around and looking at the dark thing moving across my bedroom floor. When I finally saw it, it was a long COCKROACH!

I panicked and took my encylopedia britannica from a stack near my wall and slammed it on the cockroach, screaming ‘die die die’.

The little bugger managed to crawl under my cupboard.

My dad who was walking to the kitchen for a drink heard me and worriedly knocked on my door. When i came out wild eyed he took a step back and asked whats wrong. When I said ‘ there is a cockroach in my room DAd!’  He stared blanky at me and said ‘use the bug spraylah’.

So my dad sprayed under my cupboard for me. I could have done it myself of course, but I think my dad didn’t trust my judgement for the moment.

Now I can’t sleep, cos im afraid the thing will come out for revenge ( I did try to kill it after all)  when Im asleep and my defenses are low.

So yes, I’m losing sleep. Over a cockroach.

I think everyone needs a hero. The world needs more heroes. Not the tv series, real heroes.

    While trying not to be preachy or overtly sentimental here, I personally feel heroes are great.

      Life really isn’t all that great, it is pretty mundane. Heroes are inspirational and they make you ( at least me) have something to aspire to. I heard on the radio today about this dog, who was adopted from a dog pound and repaid his owner. Seems the owners baby was in the garden and the owner just came out of the house and saw a poisonous snake near her baby. The dog grabbed the baby and flipped the bay over his shoulder and attacked the snake. Seems the dog got bitten, but the snake came out worst in the fight. The dog was sent to a vet and has since made full recovery. The Superman of dogs.

The best heroes are the ones who don’t think themselves as heroes. In this world, it seems to be necessary to put yourself forward and promote yourself. It shows confidence and ability it seems. I thought people should do something because it has to be done. Do it because it is necessary not because anyone asked you to, or tells you to or because it looks good if you do.

My life ambition, is to be a hero. Not a world acknowledge, people saluting hero, crowd cheering hero. A hero that could make a small mark in the world. A small mark is enough. I wouldn’t like going though this whole life, without doing anything.

Another subtopic:

Why is it that Condolezza RIce can be the most powerful woman in the US and she can never wear pants to official functions? She always wears skirts. How practical can skirts be lah?

How come any feature articles on women almost always mention how the woman looks? Go through any feature article on a woman and chances are very high that her looks will be mentioned.

Women and looks always seem to go hand in hand. They are not judged on talent alone. It is usually beauty and brains, not brains and beauty even.

Most people, seriously no matter what, have the bottom line thinking that a woman can only be a real woman by being domesticated. The thinking is ‘Yeah women should have equal rights, they are just as good as men, but personally I think a woman should focus on the family. Personally, the man is the head of the family’. No one wants to admit that they think women are not completely equal to men, thus the word personally is used to make it seem less serious.

If a woman wants to do anything then she should be free to do it. The same goes for men of course, but that seems to be accepted without question. Everyone is different with different interest. Not all women are career orientated, the same as not all women love the domestic scene.  I have nothing but respect for firemen and male doctors, but i also have complete respect for men who work from home, or are stay at home dads, and male nurses. All heroes in their own way.

Now, usually I would make this post less severe by putting a funny comment or a self disparaging remark either in the end or in between the lines.

But for once I shall be brave and not do it. Humour is good as masking issues and making statements less bold. But for once, I won’t. There are all sorts of courage, and it takes me some to not to put a joke.

Marina.

1) Each player must post these rules first.
2) Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3) People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4) At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5) Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

8 Random,unknown facts about Marina.

She think she is born a century or 2 too late. Im not meant for this modern world with no horses,no wagons, no farming…

7)She plans to name her son/sons (if she has sons) Galahad and Gawain Groban. Galahad and Gawain are the most noble knights of Arthurs Round Table.

6) The songs in her phone are:

-Girlfriend -Avril Lavigne

-At the Beginning ( Soundtrack to Anastasia)- Richard Marx and Donna Lewis

-I won’t say(I’m in love) (Soundtract to Hercules Disney)- er…Meg? Hercules love interest.

-I Just can’t wait to be king ( Soundtrack to The Lion King)- Er..Simba and Zazu? (Zazu in this song is by Rowan Atkinson, ur Mr Bean)

-Not Ready to Make Nice-Dixie Chicks.

-Blue Eyes Blue-Eric Clapton.

-To Where You Are- Josh Groban.

-I Only Want To Be With You-Vonda Shepard

-A Whole New World (Soundtrack to Aladdin)- Er, Aladdin and Jasmine?

-When You Know (Serendipity Sountrack)- Shawn Colvin.

-Always on Your Side-Sheryl Crow and Sting.

-Neighbourhood-Vonda Shepard.

-Give it To ME-Timbaland,Timberlake and Furtado.

-EVerything-Michael Buble.

5) She likes children, but she likes old people more.

4) She procratinates.

5) SHe is addicted to Dynomite, and her life ambition is to top her brother’s Dynomite score (94490). Her’s ( 80270)

4) Pronounces Enid Blyton as En-Nid not Ee-nid.

3) Her favourite animals are-The Elephant and the Orang Utan.

2) Actually quite likes her Kancil. As long as she is driving on level ground.

1) She is a strong advocate for coeducational schools.She IS VERY VERY glad she went to a coeducational school. In other words, she likes having girls and boys as classmates.

People tagged:

1) Esther ( haha Esther tagged me in the 1st place)

2)Daphne (also tagged by Esther)

3)Amy

4)Sally

5) Satyanarayana.

6)Justin.(also tagged by Esther)

7)Razin.(Also tagged by Esther)

er. Im pathetic, I dont know anyone else with a blog i can tag.

         One of my subjects in University is INT 1010 which is International Studies. Just a glamour name for Sejarah Dunia lah. So we learn about WW1,WW2, how USA started to dip it’s hands into world politics from it’s ‘isolation’ stand before that. How Communism came about and ended, how Fascism came about, wiped out millions of Jews and anyone else Hitler didn’t like, and how stupid Singapore became an ‘Asian Tiger’ while Malaysia is was just an Asian Cub.

          So anyway, Hitler is this German guy, Germany’s ‘Fuhrer’ (leader) who is obsessed with race la. He has this idea that blonde,blue eyed tall German was from the Aryan race and tht was THE race to be ( oh yeah but Hitler himself wasnt blond or blue eyed or tall ok. He was short with dark hair n eyed) He didnt like any disabled people-mentally or physically, and particularly disliked Jew. SO he spent alot of his ruling years wiping them all out, ( The Germans created Zyclone B, cool name- this cyanide tablet which was turned into gas and used on the ppl mentioned above.) so his perfect race wouldnt be contaminated.

            Thats not the point. The point of this post is, while i was ’studying’ my INT1010, i saw this page about Hitlers rules on getting married. Very funny, so I decided to post it up:

‘THE 10 COMMANDMENTS OF A SPOUSE’  Berlin, 1934

1) Remember that you are German

2) If you are genetically healthy, you should not remain unmarried.

3)Keep your body pure.

4)You should keep your mind and spirit pure.

5)As a German, choose only a spouse of the same Nordic blood.

6) In choosing a spouse, ask about his ancestors.

7)Health is also a precondition of physical beauty.

Marry only for love

9)Don’t look for a playmate, but a companion for marriage.

10) You should want as many children as possible.

* Hitler wanted to make the Perfect Race right, so healthy people were encourage to get married and have as many little ‘perfect race’ kids as possible. When a couple got married, theyw ere entitled to get a loan to start off their new life, if they had minimum 4 kids, they didnt have to repay the loan. Women were just expected to be mothers and wives. (CYEH, I knew there was something wrong with that man.)

Here are other bits of information I thought interesting on Nazi Germany

*Every married couple was given a free copy of hitlers book , Mein Kampf (My struggle) for their honeymoon.

*Legal obligation for every German person to greet every other person by raising a hand skyward and shouting ‘HAIL HITLER"

*Winter relief programme- Every winter, around Christmas time, leding Nazis could be seen standing underneath giant Christmas trees in German Towns and Cities, holding giant buckets which passing Germans were expected to put money in. A giant scoreboard in Berlin City centre,  gave a running commentary on the total of the money raised. WInter Relief raised millions of marks each year, which was ued to give a food hamper for old age pensioners. ( I personally think this programme isnt such a bad thing)

     So there you go. Easy rules for your marital happiness:)

   I live in an apartment in K.L when I am in K.L. My little apartment, has a little balcony. Evry year, a little yellow belly bird, will build it’s baglike nest on my little porch. This year it was the same. On the 23 of March, the 2 eggs in the little nest, hatched and there were two little birds. For 2 tiny little birds, they sure had huge beaks, which were most of the time open wide for food. Heck, even when they are asleep, they rest their heads against the walls of the nest, and leave their beaks open. You can’t really see the baby birds in this photo, but the only thing you can distinguish, is their yellow beaks which are wide open.

    Anyway, my Dad really likes the bird building it’s nest on my little porch. And it is pretty cool lah, since the bird uses our hair and broom fibres to build it’s nest. Usually, my Dad said, the bird only lays 1 egg. This year, there were 2. Twins:)

                   Anyway, that not the point. The point is, on the 28th of March,it was a very windy day and  my Dad, Brother, Sister and I went for a Yong Tau Foo dinner. When we arrived home at about 9.30pm, we went to peep a the bird’s nest. It was gone! No wait, it was on the porch floor! The part of the nest which was connected to our clothes line broke! Every one was panicking, and one baby bird rolled out of the fallen nest onto the floor. My Sister (Fern) said "eh! Min! Pick the baby bird up!". I was like "HUH?? Why ME?" Then my Dad went "Min faster pick the baby bird up! You like baby birds!"    I do??Since when? I feebly protested " Eh, wait I die of bird flu how?" I was bmbarded with cries of  "No bird flu one lah!" and "Faster MIN! wait the baby bird die! Wait got ants!".  Sigh, so I thought, Ah well. If it’s time to die, at least I died for a noble cause..saving baby birds.. haha what an unambitious noble cause:P. Anyway, I scooped the baby bird from the floor up. It had some feathers, but the silly thing couldn’t tell friend from foe and kept wiggling. I had to put my fingers firmly around its wings and say "Stop wiggling u stupid bird" before it stopped. It might have fainted, now that I think about it..Anyway, with one hand wrapped around the baby bird, the other i picked the nest up. The bird in the nest was upside down. Must have been a bumpy ride down . So I sumbat both birds the correct way up into the nest. And while my engineer dad figured  out how to fix the nest, I exposed myself further to bird flu germs/virus by holding the nest patiently at the porch.

   We then put the bird nest into the fish net we had, and used a piece of plastic to tie the nest back to the clothes line. Then, I sewed the nest to the line to secure it. Haha I can’t really sew, but I dont think the birds minded the unasthetical look on the nest. My Dad and Sister were so worried the parent birds would abandon the baby birds, so I googled for information on ‘feeding baby birds’. One of the food suggestions was to feed the birds boiled chicken egg. The bird nutritionist must know his job I suppose, but I thought feeding the birds eggs of another bird would make it a sort of bird cannibal…a Hannibal Lecter with wings so to speak. And it said baby birds should be feed 2-3 hours once, from sunup to sundown! Guess who was volunteered to be surrogate mother to the birds? "Min, if the mother bird doesnt come back, you have to feed the baby birds ok..".

   Next morning, while I was sleeping, I heard a commotion on the porch. Turns out both the MOm bird and the Dad bird came back to the nest at the same time. We had never seen both birds  at the same time, but on that morning, my sister said both MOm and Dad birds came back to see the nest…Aw…thats a kind of Disney moment isn’t it? Both MOm and Dad birds coming to check on their babies. So I was let off surrogate mothering duties. Whew.

   Oh yeah, when we fixed the nest, we kind of had to squash the nest into the fish net, so the nest got abit smaller. Usually at night, the mother bird would sleep in the nest, but for the next day or two, she slept in the nest, but on the baby birds. Hahah we could see 1 baby birds head sticking out of the nest in a weird angle with the mother bird on it. We were like "Is the baby bird dead? Did we save the baby birds only to have the mother bird sit on it to death?" The mother bird must have heard us, cause from then on, she slept outside the nest, clinging to the door of the nest..at 1st she would be straight up, but as the night goes on, she would be asleep I assume, and would slowly slip lower and lower, till her head would be pointing towards the floor! HAHAHA. It was the 1st time I saw a bird, sleep like a bat. The yellow part is her belly and the underside of her tail.That sharp thing is her beak, so u can see she really is upside down.

On the 1st of April, Sunday, I peeped at the birds, and they were pretty big already. As I went closer and closer to take a photo, the bigger bird panicked and flew straight out the nest! ALmost to my face! Chuak man. AFter all I did for it, exposing myself to possiblr bird flu, and this is how it thanks me?? By being afraid of me?? And flying off without saying goodbye?? Thats gratitude for you. Birdbrain. The other baby bird flew away the next day, Monday. Again, no ‘ Goodbye Min/Marina. Thanks for lifting us up when we were down.Literally’. Nvm, I shall be an unsung hero. A closet saviour of little birds.

    So now the porch is quiet…no more noisy chirping from huge opened beaks…no more stupid baby birds…sigh. I guess this is a form of empty nest syndrom…hahaha I just had to say that.

Ps1* Oh yeah. Another bird anecdote. On Wednesday or thursday of the same week, I found a dead bird in my kitchen sink. A burung tiong. Magpie in English? Didnt really notice it’s species, I was more occupied with the fact that it is a bird, and it is dead in my sink. Geez, 1st birth of birds. Now the death of one. Full circle of life man ( Hums ciiiiiirle of life from the Lion King…)

ps2* Oh yeah, on Tuesday of the same week, my sister wasnt home so I was alone in the bedroom. It was at night, and I was going to bed. Brushed my teeth, turn off the lights, got on bed, pulled the blankets up, put my head on my pillow. Then I put my hand under my pillow….and I felt something cling on my finger! It was a scratchy kind of grip. I refrained from yelling my lungs out, and pulled my hand and started shaking it like I had epilepsy. Then I ran and turned on the lights. It was a beetle. A 20 cent size beetle ok. It’s legs were serrated and it had hooks. It had a bronze shell, and it was under my pillow! I shudder to think what would happen if it got into my hair….  AFter I caught the beetle into a container. I checked under my pillow again, and went to bed. Oh yeah, and I kept my hair tied that night. Just in case…

So yeah, like my sister Chern said, "That was an exciting week for you huh. Birds leaving the nest, bird dying in your sink, and beetle under your pillow." 

Haiyo.

I had my Birthday last tuesday, 6th of March. But thats not what this blog is about. It’s about what happened AFTER the 6th of March.

    I went to bed on the 6th, with a slight tingling on the right corner of my mouth. Not taking any notice of it, I scratched it before going to bed. It’s like the calm before the storm, I peacefully went to bed without a care in the world, thinking what a great birthday I had.

   THE NEXT DAY- Woke up, went to brush my teeth. And I saw it/them…tiny buble like,liquid filled clusters of thingies at the corner of my lips!  But I didnt paniclah. It wasn’t so bad. It did itch abit though.

   THE NEXT NEXT DAY- It got worse…bigger. Help.Oh btw, it’s a cold sore. A simple virus, that is fairly common. But, like all viruses, it’s difficult to get rid of. The lesion might heal, but the virus just lays dormant in your system, till the next time your immune system is weak (eg-when you have the flu) then it strikes again. I got it before more than a year ago. Same problems.

A few  NEXT NEXT NEXT DAYs later- I’m having difficult eating. No, not difficulty breathing. EATING. Cause like I said before, it’s at the corner of my lips, where the top and bottom lip join. So everytime I open my mouth more than 2 cm, it cracks and bleeds. Yay.

   Went to sleep, and during the night, the cold sore bleed and this is what I saw in the morning . Heh heh heh gross eh?

     Back to my eating, or my inability to eat.  Do you how how stressful it is, to have to slowly stretch your mouth open, then slowly put the spoon quarter filled with rice in, every moment anticipating the cold sore cracking and having blood and pus and dried crust of skin mingled in with ur food? Or absent mindedly licking ur lips when u feel something wet on it, only to taste blood and pus? It’s a very strange sensation…you can just picture that your licking your bare epidermisless flesh, cause of the smooth sensation and slightly raw taste..gross, but in a morbid way, the sensation stays in your mind for a very long time…

   A few days later, while I slept, I felt something wet on my lips..I was half asleep so I didnt bother to check. Next morning,the blood had pooled on my lips again. Looking like this —-} the dark thing is the semidried, sticky blood. Gross eh? ( But I kinda like this photo…I think I’m a very morbid person)

  Did I mention I couldnt SMILE either? It’s been more than a week now and I havent been able to smile properly…just a pathetic mouth-pursed-i-look-like-im-trying-to-look-cool  kinda smile. And laughing is out of the question…Aiyooo… I feel so…constipated not being able to smile, or grin. Tragic. But sometimes, when there is a really good joke, I sacrifice some blood and pain when I can’t help laughing.  Laughter the best medicine my foot.

   But it’s getting better. The cold sore still cracks, but it’s just blood now, nice bright red blood. No more pus, or dried skin.

   AH well. It’g getting betterlah. One day. I’ll be able to smile again.

PS*At   home   my heartless sister and brother go "EWWW Min, don’t look here! Gross man your lips!. Even now, as she was looking over my shoulder and reading my blog, she said "EWWW Min, you can’t do this! You can’t put these pictures up! It’s too disturbing. I’m going to report you for putting graphically disturbing pictures on Friendster. You’re sick"

   Hahahahhaahahah. What?? Nice what these pictures…                                                                                                 

I like listening to Light FM (formerly known as Light and Easy). Some of my favourite songs that only Light Fm plays are Old Lang Song,Island in the Stream and Escape. Old songs usually tell a story. Escape by Rupert Holmes goes like this-

    I was tired of my lady, we’d been together too long.
Like a worn-out recording, of a favorite song.
So while she lay there sleeping, I read the paper in bed.
And in the personals column, there was this letter I read:

"If you like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain.
And the feel of the ocean, and the taste of champagne.
If you like making love at midnight, in the dunes of the cape.
You’re the love that I’ve looked for, come with me, and escape."

  This song is about a guy, who feels life with his wife is stuck in a rut. He reads a personal ad in the papers and the writer loves Pina Coladas among other things, just like him. The writer seems to be a perfect Escape from his mundane marriage, so he replied to the ad and makes plans to meet her at a bar. In walks the writer, and it turns out the person that attracted him, the writer, was his wife! haha both angan-angan wanted to cheat on the other, and ended up chosing each other to cheat with..

   Besides the obvious-DO NOT CHEAT ON YOUR PARTNER, I feel this song is also about how somehow we will find the one that is meant for us, as long as we don’t take each other for granted. Even among all the other ads, he was attracted to the ad of the person that he married in the 1st place. She was too. Funny song. It never fails to make me smile and sing along when i hear it on the radio. (i know, i knoooow I’m and oldie, this song was release in 1979…sigh)   

   But thats what love is about isn’t it? Finding the love of your life, and sticking to him/her…(and finding out his/her favorite cocktail of course:))

  Now, lets compare this Pina Colada song with a current one, Unfaithful by Rihanna

Story of my life
Searching for the right
But it keeps avoiding me
Sorrow in my soul
Cause it seems that wrong
Really loves my company

He’s more than a man
And this is more than love
The reason that the sky is blue
But clouds are rolling in
Because I’m gone again
And to him I just can’t be true

And I know that he knows I’m unfaithful
And it kills him inside
To know that I am happy with some other guy
I can see him dying

I don’t wanna do this anymore
I don’t wanna be the reason why
Everytime I walk out the door
I see him die a little more inside
I don’t wanna hurt him anymore
I don’t wanna take away his life
I don’t wanna be…
A murderer

I feel it in the air
As I’m doing my hair
Preparing for another date
A kiss upon my cheek
As he reluctantly
Asks if I’m gonna be out late
I say I won’t be long
Just hanging with the girls
A lie I didn’t have to tell
Because we both know
Where I’m about to go
And we know it very well

Cause I know that he knows I’m unfaithful
And it kills him inside
To know that I am happy with some other guy
I can see him dying

I don’t wanna do this anymore
I don’t wanna be the reason why
Everytime I walk out the door
I see him die a little more inside
I don’t wanna hurt him anymore
I don’t wanna take away his life
I don’t wanna be…
A murderer

Our love, his trust
I might as well take a gun and put it to his head
Get it over with
I don’t wanna do this
Anymore
Uh
Anymore (anymore)

I don’t wanna do this anymore
I don’t wanna be the reason why
And everytime I walk out the door
I see him die a little more inside
And I don’t wanna hurt him anymore
I don’t wanna take away his life
I don’t wanna be…
A murderer (a murderer)

Sigh. If he is Wrong then why in the world choose him in the 1st place lah…if he is wrong Break Uplah….u cheat on the guy and whine about how u don’t want to useless also right…

   I have no patience with this song.

   Oh yes, Happy Valentines Day! Especially to my psychotic nutcase friends who took hold of my love life and traumatised me for life…nut jobs….all of them…..

Cheers!

I can’t remember how the crazy idea started…or who had a lapse of sanity and thought of it in the first place-let’s make love letters for this CNY!!!! We nutcases, Esther lee, Amy kok, and Marina tan decided what the heck, lets do this while we are young and still full of energy. So despite our mothers’ lack of faith in us and their ‘ You people sure make 3 pieces then throw the rest of the batter away’ , " rolling love letters is hot work you know" and " Why are u making love letters? We have already ordered 300 pieces" we went full steam ahead anyway. Esther managed to beg/borrow/steal 6 love letter moulds, and I dug out an old Her World magazine recipe book, and we were on our way.

          2nd Feb 2007, Thursday 8.30AM. We buying tapioca flour,a bag of charcoal,rice flor 16 eggs,castor sugar,and regular flour .We headed back to headquarters (otherwise known as the Kok residence) and while  Esther drove to Paya Ikan with the senior lady Kok to buy freshly squeezed coconut milk, Amy went to her kitchen to mix the batter while I, began to start the fire. I can start fires pretty well ok. Years of barbequeing experience. After all the preparation work and Esther coming back, we started! It was 10AM.

        Amy and I sat opposite each other facing the long barbequeue pit while esther sat at the end. We had 3 moulds each. We coated the moulds with oil and heated them, before pouring a thin layer of batter onto the moulds. Unfortunately due to uncontrollable circumstances ( eg: our lack of experience) the 1st piece of love letter was burned so badly tht it stuck to the mould. Thus, one mould had to be taken out of service. ( For those tender hearted souls, you need not worry the mould was ok in the end)

    In the meanwhile, we had 5 moulds. I find it quite vital to say tht i was in charge of 3 moulds while Amy was only in charge of 2.(heh heh) The 1st few rounds were hilarious because like I said before, we had no experience whatsoever. You can hear Marina moaning ‘oh crap crap CRAP terbakar!’  Amy crying "EHh EHHHHH black d!"  and poor esther blowing her fingers and panting ‘ Ouch hot hot HOT!’ But after a that we were fine… we were on a roll! Like professional nyonya ladies we turned the moulds so tht both sides would brown evenly and taking them off the charcoal to pass to Esther who competently folded them into quarters with minimal ouches. She soon upgraded herself to rolling the love letters instead. Thats harder, because your fingers have to have more contact with the hot love letters.

    After our 1st batch, we had to refill the charcoal,have lunch and make more batter. While Amy and i scoffed down the fried rice ‘kakak’ cooked for us, Esther cycled to buy 2 more bags of charcoal. ( We found out she did not have what it takes to be a Mat Rempit. Private joke :D)  Marina then refilled the barbequeue pit ( MY hands we black…couldnt bother to use the fire tongs to take the charcoal. Heh heh like Charcoalrella. YEs i washed my hands before making another love letter)

    2nd round was a breeze….then Crystal came, became our handy publicity shot photographer and love letter tester. After stealing a few nice ones which Esther was guarding and getting smacked by Esther she had to go for class. Soon we were on our own again. Since we were kind of experienced now, we had time to joke and daydream. AMy and Esther were even talking about investing for our own moulds!! (smacks forehead)

      Then, we had a break for food again:D Amy’s mom feeds us well (amy-don’t need to buylah mommy! I’m full already just buy for you and Popo) We ate the food. Oh yes I forgot to mention that Esther was our Quality Control manager. All slightly darker shade of brown love letters were rejected amids of Amy and my cries of ‘EHhhh where got brown! Canla Esther! Put in the tinla!!!" But she always prevailed…it always, ALWAYS got put into the rejected tin instead. Aiyo…. Crystal came again muttering "Sia sia only I go for class……"

   3rd lot was suppose to be the last batch, but ESTHER was ambitious. SHe cycled to buy more santan for the 4th batch. Then she had to squeeze the coconut milk. Looked like reaally hard work man…. I again was in charge of the fire thank goodness. Then Esther had a brainwave. She exclaimed "EH! Lets continue and barbequeu saysages for dinnerla. Since the fire is all set up… " So Crystal the Photographer also double as Crystal the dinner shopper:D She went to JJ to buy barbequeue stuff.

     The last lot. We made and made and made love letters….this lot seems to be never ending. But we prevailed…. the final 3 scoops of the batter, we were all going "EHh. Throwla. So little already, just throw only lah eh…" but being the thrift people we are, we made sure we used up all the batter.

    Then, we had a barbequeue! Called Sally and she joined us. We ate sotong balls,sausages,nuggets and chicken.

   WE made 4 big square biscuit tins full of love letters!! An achievement! Plus we had alot of fun in the process. Despite burnt finers,sore palms and red faces, looking at our beautiful, delicious,crispy love letters, it was all worth it. We are planning to make this a yearly thing

  Ps*- Esther and I call them love letters and kuih kapit while Amy calls them kuih Belanda.

Ps* - We spent 10 hours making love letters.

Ps* - My mother and eldest sister were impressed when i showed them my tin full…though my eldest sister mentioned "Hmm if u worked for 10 hours u can easily buy 2 tins full" But this is nicer…

ps* - During CNY I plan to serve the guest each 1 piece of marina/esther/amy made love letter, brag about it, then let them eat their fill of the bought ones. Eh, MY love letters are to be savoured ok, not as stomach fodder…

Yes, my house was flooded. On the 21 December i think (hey, I’m on holiday I don’t take notice of the dates when I’m on holiday)

   Anyway, this is the list of things I savedlah. As in the things that are most important to me.

* My parents wedding photos - Sentimental value man. Photos taken almost 29 years ago, can u imagine losing them? After all, property and furniture can be replaced. Memories (or copies of them) cannot.

* Rageddy Ann - Put this on the highest point in my room. Don’t ask what a Rageddy Ann is pls

* My Harry Potters - 6 to be exact.

* My photo albums during my school days etc. I forgot my prefects blazer though…It got soaked. Sigh.

* My Enid Blyton/ every other author storybooks -BUT a few still got wet…..Siiiigggh.

  Of course we did raise the furniture, bring the tv away etc, but those are minor stuff not worth mentioning. ( Many ppl would beg to differ I’m sure)

A huge thank you to those who didn’t hesitate to help when I needed you the most. And also to those who called/sms to check on me. I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

  Oh and lastly, I hope you all had a great new year’s day! And may you have a great year all round as well. Lets see how long I can keep my New Years Resolution eh? To say what I mean, ( I memang mean what I say, so tht isnt a resolution), and …er.. I’ll write the others some other time. (Oh I guess ‘to not procrastinate’ should be a resolution too)

Ps* We created a new swearing phrase during the flood its - ‘The damn dam people.’

ps* Oh we moved back into the post flooded house on Christmas Day! And consequently spend the rest of the Christmas Days cleaning the house. Oh well, If I can’t end 2006 with a bang, I guess a swish of the broom would  have to do.

  CHEERS!!!!!!!!!

Hee Hee Hee my niece came over yesterday. We made Pizza, but I made her shell prawns first for the ingredients( she’s never done it before)  HAHAHA. I just taught her to peel a few, the she got the hang of it and peel the WHOLE CONTAINER. She quietly stood there n concentrated n cleaned the whole container.

   Ok, and we had sausage n filament stick. I was slicing ‘em up when she said she wanted to do it too. Sooo I gave her a butter knife and she cut them up lah. She cut one sausage into 5 pieces at first man. SO chunky. So i said cut smaller n she went "okokok. Min-ee this smells good. Can i eat some please?" I had microwaved the sausages to thaw them you see. But they were still RAW. I went "no!! They are raw, u musn’t eat them." THEN she told me "But i ate already..I’m ok. Can i eat some more?" *PENGSAN* Every time I had my back turned, she pops another piece of RAW sausage/filament stick in her mouth….Hmmm I think I should call her and ask her how she is today…

   Probably will be seing her again Wednesday. And yes, I’m keeping her away from RAW food…

Hui Shan  shelling prawns-