home cooked…

since all my meals are taken care of by the company, i’ve not had much excuse to do any cooking. or rather, i have found the perfect excuse to not cook! :P anyway, my mom bought me a few of those herbal soup packs, that all i’ve to do is just dump the whole pack into the rice cooker and let it cook by itself. so here’s my first attempt at cooking in sandland.

pat-tin/pat-chen herbal soup, also known as period soup… i guess only chinese daughters can related to this :)

i know biow would go “eewww” right about now… :) anyway, mon gave me the idea of putting in some vermicelli and eating it like mihun soup, instead of just drinking it as we would normally. i didn’t put in any chicken (still hate touching raw meat!), so would have to be content with just an egg… :)

lost baby, ex-boyfriends and a neighbour's secret...

i just had a miscarriage and was feeling rather depressed and sluggish. all i wanted to do was to curl up in bed and sleep the days away. so i applied for unpaid leave for a whole week, and since the final year exam is gonna be next month, my leave was approved rather quickly, coz the management thought i'm taking leave to study. for a brief moment, i did worry about the exam, coz medicine is not exactly an easy subject. but for now, i just wanted to sleep.

i ran through in my mind my list of ex-boyfriends... which ex-boyfriend's place should i stay at for this whole week? i can't possibly go home, coz i didn't want my mom to know. i went first to kay's place, but saw that he's staying in an atap house, not unlike the kampung house my late grandma used to stay.

i thought better of it and went instead to ray's place. that was when i realized that ray is actually renting a room in my neighbour's house! i knew that my other neighbour renovated their house to put in additional rooms to be rented out, i didn't realize that this neighbour also did the same. while walking into my neighbour's house, i was very worried that my parents would see me. i was also worried that my neighbour would recognize me, but was relieved when i saw that they had a separated entrance for their boarders.

once i got into my neighbour's house, i was surprised to see that the interior has changed so much from how i remembered it, from when my brother and i were young and we used to traipse over to play with the neighbour's kid. now, the place has been transformed into something like a motel, with room doors along the walls. there were even numbers on the doors! so this is the secret they've been keeping from us all these while huh! and in the middle of the place, there's like a courtyard kinda thing, with so many people milling about. i assumed they're all tenants of my neighbours, so i asked around for ray's room number.

then i saw ray among a group of people. it seems like they're in the midst of a board game of some kind. so i went up to him and asked him which room is his but he told me to wait for him to finish his game first. i was so annoyed! i just had a miscarriage, for goodness sake!  i was just about to open my mouth to say something nasty... then i woke up.

~~~

what a weird dream over the weekend! i guess i slept too much, that my brain went all murky and sluggish. hehehe... but waitaminute, since when is kay my bf, let alone my ex-boyfriend??? dem funny... and in the dream, it seemed like i wasn't too bothered about the identity of father of the baby that i miscarried. also, it seemed like i had a whole long list of ex-boyfriends, huh? :D and the funny thing is, why have to only go to ex-boyfriends' place? why never thought of going to any of my good friends' place? dem weird...

btw, ray is really one of my ex, but i ain't gonna tell which one, so don't ask! :P

operation rabbit…

ok, i know i’ve not been updating lately… been too busy lazy :P

anyway, i think most of you knows that i went home for the chinese new year last 2 weeks. so i guess i better put up a post about it before the cny ends… hehe…

so, it was after about 1 month in sandland that i decided that i wanna go home. originally, i told my parents that i’ll not be going home for cny as i’d still be under probation and will not be able to take leave. but after 1 month, i decided to try my luck and ask my hr if it’ll be ok for me to go home for the festivities. and they said ok! i was elated! so i quickly went to ask my immediate superior if it’s ok for me to take a few days off. she was a bit blur at first, coz it was nov and as far as she knows, there’s never been a “chinese new year” in nov! after explaining that cny’s in feb, but i’m asking coz i’d like to book my flights early, she gave her nod too… yay!

anyway, i then made up my mind to give my parents a surprise, so when i told my brother abt my impending trip, i made him promise not to tell them. then as the date neared, more and more people asked me if i’m going home, so i told them, “yes, but don’t tell my parents!” so in the end, it seems like the whole world knows except for them… :P

one bad thing about arriving early at the airport is that with nothing much to do, we tend to look for food…

and shop too much at the duty free stores!

on the day of my arrival, it was drizzling a bit… i got down from the taxi, and expected to see my dad sticking his head out to see who is at the front gate, like always, when he hears a car stopping outside our house. but that day, no head stuck out. i dragged my luggage right up to the grill door, peered in and called out, “hi! hi!” and proceeded to open the door. then i heard my dad’s voice calling out to my mom, “anne, someone’s here!” oh, dad’s lying on the couch. he didn’t even bother to turn around to see who it was! then i got into the house, and was bending down to take off my shoes when my mom came out. she was stunned for a while, just staring at me for like 5 seconds before uttering one word, “ei?”

then she turned to dad and said, “it’s ah girl!”. that’s when my dad jumped up from the couch… actually he’s sprained his leg and was in a lot of pain but apparently when he heard it was me, all the pain seemed to have disappeared! hahaha…

anyway, here are some snippets of conversations from my trip home… :)

2 months ago
me: i'll be home for reunion dinner lar... 3pm arrive in kl, take cab back to m'ca. should be able to arrive on time kua...
bro: then should i ask ma to cook more rice?
me: aiya, no need lar. if u ask, then she'll know
bro: but she'll not cook enough for one more
me: apa lar, as if i'm such a big eater. worse comes to worse, we'll just eat less and then have supper later at night. anyway, ma always cooks extra for cny eve
bro: ok lar. but u sure ma's heart can take it? better tell her in advance
mo: no! dun tell!

2 days before my departure
bro: So, could you pls confirm your flight details again? Make sure you arrive before Ma starts cooking the rice... haha.
me: ETA KL 3pm. pray the highway is not jam! i'm not worried abt the food lar... i'm sure will have enough, and it's not like i'm such a big eater!
bro: I think you better call pama once you touched down in KL... otherwise it would be too shocking for them to see you at the front door.... remember ma just had a balloon done on her heart... hehe.
me: aiya, then no surprise element liao... no problem one lar...

can pengsan right, this brother?? =_=’’’

tried something special this year… fruits yee-sang!

taxi ride from airport
me: abang, agak-agak pukul brapa boleh sampai? (what time do you think we'll arrive?)
taxi driver: kira-kira 5 stengah lah. jgn risau, i tau mlm ni u ada makan besar. sure sempat punya... (around 5.30. don't worry, i know you have big dinner tonight. u'll sure be able make it)

at home
mom: when i saw u with ur big luggage, i thought u quit ur job and is home for good! :D
me: sorry ma, my luggage is empty one. i'll be buying more things to bring over there!

phone call
5th cousin sis: hello uncle, are you all having dinner now?
dad: not yet lar...
5th cousin sis: oh, how many people having dinner at your house today?
dad: 5 people. me, my wife, my son, my son's wife and my girlfriend lar
5th cousin sis: oh, sue has arrived issit?!
dad: you all very good har? all pakat behind our backs!
5th cousin sis: haha... i wasn't sure if she's arrived, and didn't wanna spoil the surprise if she hasn't... :P

relatives gathering at my house on 2nd day
kluang aunt: so did u meet any rich oil king?
3rd cousin sis: remember har, must be oil king har. if not, dun bother.
5th cousin sis: must own a house where when u open the door, there's an oil-well right outside!
3rd cousin: yeah. when u cook also easier. just scoop out the oil from the well.
me: =_='''

visiting at relative's house
mom's cousin sis: eh, must find a rich oil tycoon har! then when u get married, u can charter a plane to fly us all over there. reserve 5 seats for us from this house. remember har!
me: =_='''

checking in my cello… bye-bye baby, see u in 7 hours!

 

reshuffling my stuff due to overweight luggage
airport counter staff: pergi dubai makan mamee jer? (u'll only eat mamee in dubai?)
me: dubai takde mamee! (no mamee in dubai!)
airport counter staff: eh, yang bongo ni u main eh? ada konsert ker? (u play this bongo? are u having a consert?)
me: =_='''

tho’ it was a short trip, and pretty hectic, but i was glad i made it home! i know i’d regret it if i didn’t, and i’d feel all miserable the whole time, knowing all the things that are happening back home. the fun times, crazy laughters and good food…

also, managed to meet up with my besties mon and san for my fav fish head noodles! and some bak-kua (dried meat) and shandy at pin’s place… and also some catching up with N when she fetched me to the airport!

  no teary eyes this time round at the airport, tho’ the panda eyes were worse than ever! all from staying up late to watch astro with a vengeance… :P

when i exit from the dubai airport to look for a taxi, a man directed me towards the “pink line” where all the bigger taxis are. i thought, “what the hell? i just want a normal taxi! i’m not gonna let them bully me into taking a bigger taxi just because i have a cello with me!” but as it turned out, the “pink line” is the line for pink taxis, driven by lady drivers!

up until now, these “pink taxis” have been only a hearsay (for me, at least) coz we seldom see them on the roads. these taxis are exclusively for ladies and families. and this lady driver was so friendly and chatty. she’s indonesian and when she found out that i’m m’sian, she started speaking malay to me. and she didn’t allow me to lift a finger when loading and unloading my heavy luggage and cello onto/from her taxi! :) oh, and unlike in m’sia, the bigger taxis (family size) are of the same price as the normal size taxis…

ok, this is getting to be a very long post. hope it’ll make up for my lack of updates these past few weeks… but before i go, i’ll just end with a photo of myself on my first day back to work after cny, since N complained that i don’t post enough photos of myself on facebook and my blog. anyway, can’t really see, but i was actually wearing a red blouse there, a deviation from my normal “funeral clothing” – blacks and whites! not that i’m superstitious or anything, but just for the fun of it… :)

hope everyone had a great cny this year!

hoi-kung dai-katt!!

p/s: this big-ass mirror is just beside the door to my gm’s office and i simply love it! not only is it big (from floor to ceiling), it also tends make us look tall and slim! :P