Last bit of Christmas shopping + treat for self!

I don't know why I'm so lazy at blogging considering that I used to be the blogging monster! Anyway, today being my day off, I went out to finish the last of the Christmas gift shopping. It was blistering cold though, and snowing. Ugh!

Saw in a fair trade shop a really gorgeous necklace that I thought MJ would love, so I bought it. :s

<3

Only problem is, I absolutely adore it too! *sigh* The box is mine as the necklace did not come with a box but I need something presentable to put it in. So tempted to keep it for myself, but I won't. I'll be good. What the necklace did come with is a set of matching earrings. Now these I've decided to keep for myself because MJ has staunchly refused to have her ears pierced all this time so she can't wear these anyway. She only wear clip-ons.

Hooray, new earrings! :)

So I am appeased by the fact that even though I don't get the coveted necklace, I still get it's smaller earring counterpart. It's really just to restrict me from running out to the shop again to get another set for myself!

Close-up shot of one of the earrings.

So cute. Love it. :)

Malaysia Trip Summer 2009 Pt. 3

Because I'm really a very lazy person and because there are way too many photos that made up the 2 days I stayed in KL during the summer, this is all you're going to get for Malaysia Trip Summer 2009 Pt 3. Also because I don't remember much that went on now, other than more eating and drinking and walking around and meeting friends and general nice life.

LL and her boyfriend hosted us whilst we were in KL and were very gracious and patient with us, even went as far as to drive us all the way to Malacca to try out the famous satay celup. The following is a collection of photos taken whilst we were in KL.

Photos in no particular order.

Needless to say, it was a very enjoyable trip and we sampled plenty of Malaysian food or food with a Malaysian spin to it. :P

And I just notice something whilst going through all those pictures from the last tripe. My hair went through a crazy growth spurt in the past 4-5 months! Compare:

Left: Taken July 2009 . Right: Taken November 2009

Mad. o_O I need a haircut soon anyway, it's way overdue.

Human photos at Dragon-i

I haven't really written about the rest of my Malaysian trip yet, so I shall do so as soon as possible. In the meantime, to follow up on the last entry I did on it, here are some human photos to accompany the previously published food photos for that night at Dragon-i@Sunway Pyramid.

The girls.

With my best friend from secondary school and college.

Guess who?

Oh, and I'm really fat, so I totally need to lose weight at some point in time. I've not decided when yet.

Work's Christmas do!

I went for my work's Christmas do yesterday night. Since I had nothing better to do during the day and the previous coat of paint that I applied for my brother's wedding has since chipped off, I painted my nails. But I have a most horrific collection of nail polish available - all which I was given free during promotions and whatnots. I have shimmery pearly pink, glittery nudey brown, glossy hot pink, deep raspberry framboise, and a strange purpley colour. Didn't like any of them, and I seem to have misplaced my sheer creamy strawberry nail polish I used in Malaysia.

So I ended up painting my nails with the pearly pink, found it too boring and bland, and started to add bits of hot pink to it. Voila!

Attempt at self-painted nails.

It's not fantastic, but at least it's not boring! I'm not very good or steady with my hands when it comes to painting my own nails, unfortunately. And the only reason why I've started to paint my nails in the past two weeks is that I actually can grow my nails during my holidays. They're getting clipped short once I start back at work next Monday! :( I was told in uni that if we were people who wanted to keep our nails long, we were in the wrong course.

Ate soft boiled eggs for breakfast and then a pot of Muller Light raspberry yogurt for lunch to prepare myself for a 3-course meal for dinner. Was picked up at 7.20pm by NC, EY and DO in a taxi and we were off to ASK where we had a table of 15 booked for us.

Merlot plus free champagne for ordering from their Christmas menu. Yum!

Bruschetta - For something that is so full of raw vegetables, I loved it! It's so flavourful and light at the same time! I can live off these stuff...

Christmas Calzone - folded pizza filled with pepperoni, ham, pancetta, beef meatballs, tomato sauce, green chillies with mozzarella and caramelised onions. Nice and spicy, but the bruschetta was better in taste.

Chocolate Nemesis - the melted chocolate in the middle pudding with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. I just wish the ice cream isn't already so melted by the time it got served!

The food took forever. We got there at 7.30pm, and we finished at around 10.30pm! Two people didn't get their starters until half an hour after everyone else did, and one person's starter was a whole hour later than everyone else's! And KN didn't even get to have her dessert since she was to be picked up at 10pm by her partner, and we weren't served dessert by then. 3 hours for a 3-course meal is mad, considering that we had 10 courses at my brother's wedding and that took 3 hours at the most.

And we didn't even get the £10 ASK voucher (to use in January) we were promised! :(

Of course, you probably want to see the people photos now and not just the food photos, however much you like food. :P Thankfully my eyebags are not as obvious as usual - proof that a good holiday is all I need to get rid of them.

NR, me and CR.

NR, me and CR again because CR wants a smiley photo.

HF and I.

Me and LM.

Me and KN, the ex-boss.

I had fake lashes on, which everyone found extremely interesting. EY was like, "Can I touch it?" CT (the other optom) asked me to look down so that she can have a look from the top to detect the line, and she couldn't (I covered it with lots of eyeliner and eyeshadow!). And then there was the discussion where everyone admits to trying to use false eyelashes at some point in their lives and found that they always gets stuck at the wrong place. Personally I still struggle with them, so I never bother with them unless I have a lot of time to get ready.

Everyone liked the dress too - they thought it made me look like a Grecian goddess. Haha!

Apparently I have been missed at work! Awwww. <3 So sweet.

During the dinner, DD kept flirting with the table next to us, which was conveniently a table full of men with one woman (who is a lesbian) who were also on their work's Christmas do. They ended up coming along with us after dinner to Lloyds Bar next door for some drinks and dancing! Poor NC had this guy who thought she was stunning and was all over her the rest of the night, hanging on to her every word! Hehe.

HB and HF, the youngins that they are, kept dragging me onto the dance floor. Was fun, but decided to call it a night before midnight since I have to cab it home and cab fares gets hiked up after at midnight! ^^

BK mini-pancakes and syrup

Woke up craving for something sugary sweet and fattening, thanks to someone. And since I am supposed to be on a diet because my mother thinks I'm fat, I have banned myself from getting anything junk-foody from our grocery shop. That includes any Belgian buns, cinnamon swirls, ice fingers, cookies, cakes etc. Raided my kitchen and there wasn't anything there that would satisfy my sweet tooth, so I waited around for Boy to wake up.

Went out to BK and my wish came true with their new range - mini pancakes and syrup, available all day! :D

Pack of mini-pancakes. They're so tiny and cute and fluffy!

Buttery pancakes + syrup = <3!

They were goooooood. And because they're so fluffy they're almost ball-like, biting into one gives you the satisfying explosion of warm, moist, buttery goodness.

But just to make sure I don't break my "diet" (probably only until I get back to work) any more than necessary, I've bought myself some bananas and Muller Light yoghurt to stave off future sweet cravings. :P Delicious food or not, I need to behave.

Jalan-jalan makan Malaysia!

Wednesday, we went to KL on the express bus that was late by 40 minutes. Was picked up by LL and her boyfriend AC after they finished work, and then we went off to Sunway Pyramid. Plans were Midvalley Megamall, but EL said it was too expensive and so plans were changed to banana leaf rice in SS15, but AW said she'd prefer something else since we're technically celebrating her birthday (which I can understand), so that's where we ended up and then EL said that she's not joining us for food after all.

Choosing a place and organising a meet in Malaysia is possibly the most difficult endeavour ever when everyone is so busy saying they don't know where to go and generally not wanting to make any suggestions but at the same time, they keep rejecting suggestions made. If you have a specific requirement, make a frickin' suggestion. Don't beat around the bush and hope someone will read your mind on what you want, because we just end up wasting precious time.

We arrived an hour earlier than everyone else, so we went to BreadStory first and got a "White Forest" (which we figured is like black forest, but with white chocolate) birthday cake for AW. Then we headed to Dragon-i to drop the cake off and make a reservation for 8pm. In the meantime, we spent some time wandering around the shopping complex looking for gifts for Boy's parents.

Bought some smellies as requested, and then headed off back to the restaurant to sit down and wait for the others to arrive. AW and her boyfriend MG arrived at just after 8, and we started ordering our food.

Inside Dragon-i restaurant.

Xiaolongbao is love! <3 This is even better because it's free!

Fried eel. Very crunchy.

Stir-fried long beans with minced meat.

Kung po chicken! Boy's favourite, haha. It was listed as chicken with cashew nuts in Szechuan sauce.

Prawn in... I don't know what.

Minced meat with... some biscuity thing that we fill up. Such a big pouch, so little meat. :(

All in all, a very delicious meal that ended up costing us RM199! Haha. Split the bill between us two couples as it is AW's birthday. We ended up sitting around discussing where to go next since Pyramid supposedly is shut at 10pm, and one of the waiters starting setting out empty small dessert plates on the table. AW said excitedly, "We're getting fruits!" (Apparently, the restaurant offers free fresh fruit platter for dessert for large groups of people dining?)

AC humoured her and said, "Yes, fruits."

It wasn't until the birthday song started over the speakers and the cake was brought out to our table that the realisation dawned upon her. She started crying.

Oops. None of us were expecting that.

Anyway. That was quite a surprise for her. Then JL and EL arrived with EL's boyfriend which was never introduced by name, I don't think, and they had cake along with the rest of us. We took some photos of the group and the cake, which are currently still residing in LL's memory card. Then we packed up and left for LOL Cafe, which JL recommended to us.

Where we ended up yum-cha'ing.

EL said she was going to join us for the yum cha session after dinner, but she never did turn up, so in total she spent maybe 10 minutes with us. Huh. Nevermind. Anyway, JS's boyfriend KP turned up after sorting out some work stuff, and AC's friend turned up too, so there was quite a large group still. We had a great time at the cafe just talking and sharing stories and jokes until past midnight, and headed home when it got too late for a weekday night, what with people working the next day and all. :P I noticed that MG was a lot more talkative this time around, which is a nice change.

Went back to LL's place, slept, woke up the next day at 7am! Could not sleep anymore. So we waited around until JL woke up and texted me so we could hang out or something before I headed home, since she wasn't working that day. Ordered in McDonald's breakfast and realised that they have changed the sausagemeat patty to sausage slices. Ew. Was not as good as sausage patty! Change it back! :(

JL texted me at around 11.30am, and then came around to pick us up at 12pm-ish after sorting out some stuff. We went to Damansara in SS15, old hangout from college days, and I got to have my murtabak! <3 It was so yummy... sigh. First murtabak in 3 years. I lead a sad life. :( There is no photo of it because I was too excited of actually eating it, so I only remembered about taking a photo after I was halfway through eating.

After that, JL dropped us off at Kelana Jaya LRT station so we could make our way to Bukit Bintang area. Wanting to walk around in Low Yat Plaza to see if there were any good deals on gadgets and electronics. Ended up to be pretty crap experience. Things are so bloody expensive there now! In fact, I found possibly the one thing that is more expensive in Malaysia than in the UK!

The iPhone 3GS 16GB is £440 (~RM2500) in the UK (without the contract). In Malaysia? It's RM2790(~£481). What the hell! So much for Malaysia being cheaper to shop in. And the seller was BS'ing about how Malaysia electronics get taxed (and did he think UK doesn't get tax at an extortionate rate?), how you have to sign up a contract in the UK to get an iPhone (which I told him is a blatant lie!), how it's all made in California and it takes longer to ship to Malaysia than UK... BS lah!

Anyway. Got picked up by Brother #2 and started heading home after that.

Next morning, Mum asked us if we wanted lunch. Since it was Hari Raya Haji (Eid al-Adha), not a lot of places are open, so we ended up at this cafe nearby that was styled similarly to the Old Town White Coffee group.

Chendol! Would've been lovely if not for the sweetcorn... I just want chendol only! :(

Nasi Lemak Ayam Rendang... which was okay, nothing special. I wanted the sotong version. :(

Didn't spend the day doing much the whole of yesterday. Going to Kuantan later on today maybe to see if we can't get tickets to watch 2012. Online booking system is down for GSC, which is very disappointing! Phone booking line is screwed too!

Looking back at the xiaolongbao makes me want to go out and eat dimsum!

Foreigner in a foreign land

Every time I come home to Malaysia for a visit, my mother asks me variants of the same question: "When are you coming back for good?"

And I always answer with the same, "I don't know."

I really don't. I always tell people that the reason why I've not come back to stay is due to the insane heat in Malaysia which I have complained and barely tolerated in my 20 years growing up in Malaysia before I went to England for further education. But what really drives a girl away from all her friends and her family and all that is familiar to her to a place of unknown?

Most of you know what drove me there. What you don't know is what kept me there. Other than Boy, that is.

It is the political climate and the underlying racial tension all around us. It is things like this: www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/malaysia/44775-btn-taught-me-the-chinese-are-the-jews-of-asia

I, for one, do not believe racism is inherent in us. Racism is learnt. We acquire this from others, our peers and family and sometimes, the people we respect or are told to respect. I went to a Presbyterian kindergarten even though I wasn't Christian and then I went to a Malay primary school and were one of the five (and later, six) Chinese girls in our class. All through that, I did not think there were any difference between me and my Christian friends, or me and my Malay friends. Perhaps I was naive, but as far as I could remember, we were kids, we played and laughed and learnt together. Some of us were very close despite belonging to different religions, different cultural backgrounds, etc.

I first learnt about racism and the effects of it when I was eleven. I cried in my mother's lap and asked why did it have to be so. She said that is life. For a long time, I refused to believe that life has to be that way, but she was right. Life continued on, and racism became more apparent in secondary school when we were joined by students from the Chinese primary school and the chasm widened. The Chinese and the Malays hung out with "their own kind". The Chinese students who studied in the Malay primary school had to make a choice.

I distanced myself from people, not willing to participate in this game.

Do you think it is sad that I feel more accepted in a foreign country like England than I do in Malaysia, the country where I was born and bred? I am treated as a second-class citizen in my home country. I am penalised for my origins, my skin tone, my race, all which I cannot help or change.

I am treated as an equal in a foreign land regardless of what colour I am and which god I worship.

Why, then, would I - or anyone else - want to come back? Even if I were treated like a second-class citizen in a foreign land, I'd rather that than to be treated that way by my motherland. You know why? I can rationalise easier on why a foreign country may alienate me, but I can never rationalise why my own country would do so to me. It's like being abused by your own parents, who are supposed to love you most. You can understand why a stranger may hit you for something that is not your fault, but you can never understand why your own mother would do so.

But I have never ever thought of myself as anything other than Malaysian. Even now, when I am in England, people curiously ask me if I am Chinese. They wonder if I had been born or brought up in England.

I smile and I tell them that I am Malaysian.

But I don't know if I ever will come back for good.