If you're fresh out of college and undecided to do, you'll be bombarded with the "So what's next?" questions. It is so frustrating to repeat yourselves.
If they think you're single then comes all the "Got boyfriend already ar?" questions.

But this year, I've promoted to the next level of questions.

Round 2:

"Oh! So when bringing him home ar?"
"So where are you studying again ar?"
"How is dentistry? Fun ar?"
"How was national service?"
"How many years ar your studies?"

I mean it's all very well meaning that they engage me in conversation. But every  now and then I'd like to hear more about the family gossips more than sounding like a broken tape recorder. It is most frustrating when I tell them where I go to study. By the time I'm done saying the name of my university, they've looked elsewhere and have lost interest. "Asian Institute Of Medicine Sci-erm, koo cheh, you're still listening?"

But I do suppose that chinese new year is the time for the aunties to stock up on their gossips to be shared during mah jong sessions.

Maybe next year I should print out all the answers on a card and hand it out. :)

I've started to disturb the younger kids and asked them, "Got boyfriend already ar?" And then they'd tell me they have three or four. Kids.

At least I still have 4 and a half years more worth of education to complete to be used as an excuse before I have to face the "SOOOoooOOo...when's your turn ar girl?" questions. That's round 3.

So when I DO get married, then time for Round 4. "SOOOooOOoo..when's the first one coming??"

Very predictable.

At least I've graduated out of the preliminary rounds of "Wahhhhh so tall already.....". This time around my Aunty Audrey was poking at my boobs and she was like, "Wah! All real!!?" *kembang*. And I flashed her my silicon bra and told her where she could get some.

Like my newly wed uncle and aunty, they were being bombarded with questions about 'new additions'. My grandaunty is really itchy for a grandchild to carry. It got so serious that she was ACTUALLY cradling my youngest cousin's babydoll like a real baby and was actually lost in her own world canoodling the babydoll. LOL. Such a strong hint. Hahahaha.

-

However, going back to Malacca only means meeting the immediate family members so no need for questions.

But there are strange things to do like comparing leg hair..


Clockwise from the bottom centre feet: me, Aunty Ping, Uncle Terry, Cousin Hong Fei, Mum, Dad the Pak Cham Kai(steamed chicken), My brother, My cousin Hong Weng, Uncle Yew Hee.

And other strange things like literally flying kites.....


Dad's got a new hobby.


Aunty Judy and Uncle Terry helping dad with the kite.


A middle east tourist found us interesting and decided to join us.


And up it goes..!

Dad insisted that it was a good work out for the lot of us as we had to run after his fallen kite and throw it up in the air again for him. He's so into it that he even booked a hotel in Port Dickson for my aunt, uncle, mum and himself on Thursday. Just so that he can go kite flying. -_-;. I'd rather stay home and see my friends. I'm quite torn actually. I want to go to the beaches there and have a shot of me lying down on the sand. Was thinking of using it as a blog header. Oh well. I've got another idea coming up though.


We drove towards the beach in Malacca and we saw other kites up in the air. Intrigued, we went for a closer look.


Oooh..! Pretty reflection!


One of the kites.


Can you see the sun rays?


Ahhhhh..~!


The rays are more distinct here.


This little boy flies a kite better than my dad.


After kite flying we went up St. John's hill for fun.

Making use of the canons at the fort.


The view from the fort atop St. John's hill. Can you see the sea?


So nice.:)


My cousin Hong Fei's wedding invitation card. So nice right? Since he's in graphics, he could design his own wedding invitation card with his own touch. :)


Catching some wind by the balcony..:D


The adults chilled with wine at the 1st floor's balcony...


..while the cousins, my brother and I went for mamak at 1am.
top l-r: Derek, Me
bottom l-r: Mervyn, Ted(Jacq's bf), Jacq.

They kept telling me not to turn the flash off and just take a normal one without the flash. But without the flash cannot see anything at all laa. And so when we finished, they were all so embarassed what with 3 out of 4 of them being Malaccans and Malacca is so small. Because, whoever takes photos at a mamak stall?

Only Jolene, only Jolene.


Saw loads of Ah Kuas behind the Jalan Hang Tuah(Malacca's one) but could not take any clear shots. As Ted said, "Later they throw their high heels at you then you know!"


When I got back to Subang, I went to pick up my luggage and my printer from Cze Yin's house(since she drove back from kedah) and brought Lishen along to pai lin.


Ooooo..white chocolate with chopped almonds.


Cze Yin and I


I was perpetually having a mandarin orange in my hand.

Today we headed over to Dennis' place to pai lin and for a mahjong session!

l-r: Yuen Fatt, Joshua

l-r: Hsin, Ben Shyen


Mel, Liss, Myself and Manda posing with the oh so famous Dennis Chan who changed his name as a child(inside joke).


Me insisting that I've had one too many cornflake cookie and Dennis was being a gracious host. Pai Seh.

With Angel doing her thing, it sure makes the message extra special! OH! I just realised!! Year of the dog! And Angel's a dog!

The lighting is bad because after all, we're not professionals. Hope you guys like it though! Gong hei fatt choi!

I spent my chinese new eve, rather productively I'd say. I spent quality time with Esther and her sis Alicia in Subang Parade before heading to Mel's place as they'll be leaving for Australia in a couple of weeks. SIgh. Whenever I come home to Subang, Subang won't be the same anymore without them living so near that I can just drive over and drag them out for a drink.

At Mel's place, her grandma put up a table full of food for the ancestors and the deceased by their doorway. Mel asked me not to bang onto the seats because apparently there are "people seating". Wahaha. But I thought the way Mel cupped the rice on teacups for their 'makan session' was pretty unique. So out comes the camera.

Nice right?

Some mess in my kitchen which is such a must during chinese new year. No mess not real.

I decorated Angel with the ribbon from the hamper and got her to pose for a few shots. Rather reluctantly, don't you think? But she does look like a little VIP of sorts, what with the big flower on her ..er..chest.

Spring cleaning comes hand in hand with Chinese New Year. So guess who washed the car for the first time ever since she got her license in April 2004?!

I'm such a horrible daughter.

10 years ago I would have pointed the water at myself after spraying the car...but....maturity has kicked in and I well, don't wet myself anymore, but I camwhore:) You'll see later.


Angel decided to keep me company while basking under the afternoon sun.


So fluffy!



It's not like I've never washed a car. I have. I just can't remember when.


Hard at work. See, at least I remember where to scrub what.


Scrubbing and scrubbing.


And posing too!:)

-

According to chinese beliefs, if there is a death in the family, the family's not allowed to celebrate any occasion within the first three years of the person's death. However, it has been reduced to one year for the modern superstitious chinese. Out of respect, my family is practicising it therefore, we will not be going visiting this year.

Sorry to disappoint the lot of you, but my parents won't be able to give out ang pows this year. So you can forget about dropping by if your aim is to up your ang pow collection. Sorry ya.

But nobody said anything about reunion dinners! :D

it was a modest feast, all homecooked. It was quite emotional actually because my Aunty Judy who's back from the UK proposed a minute of silence for my grandparents and then she burst out in tears as she wished my grandparents happy chinese new year/eat rice.

It was more like a pot luck dinner... but my father's side only has 9 people. So yeah, I have a very small family, nothing much to scream about. We held the reunion dinner at my grandparents' place. It makes everyone feel ... normal in a way.


A salad dish.


Ang ku with lap cheong!


Man Lingau @ Steamed/Brewed Lotus


Ladies fingers with sambal belacan.


Lingau Tong!! @ Lotus soup


And the obligatory yee sang.


My mum's potato and chicken dish.


Dad and his video cam and a cute expression on.


Mum laying out the dishes.


yee sang with that crispy thing. Lovely!


Yee Sang literally means Fish Fresh. So of course we need salmon! :)


Aunty Judy and Aunty Susie busy with preparations.


Uncle Terry influenced all the men to stay put. The ladies did all the work. :(


This the mixing bit and everyone says a thing or two nice things. We did it in English because poor Uncle Terry would not understand chinese.


Tossing it~!


And this is dessert. We are seldom this elaborate. It's nice though. :)

--

Ah, yes. I have a two weeks break from lousy Kedah. We ended our first term on a very happy note. We finished our exams and we had a lovely talk from our dean about their plans for our dental program. All the hopes that he is giving us sounds so promising and concrete. Our university is finally getting less obscure. :)

Another delightful turn of events was when he announced the winners for the dentistry project. Remember the project that involved the map of Sabah and Sarawak?? It was actually quite ugly compared to the other groups'. I thought we were going to get last place ... but turns out that we got 33/40 marks and the project was HIGHLY COMMENDED and it'll go into records(of I don't know what). But still, it's damn flattering! We got second place!! We put in effort by making phone calls to the dentistry departments in Sabah and Sarawak therefore our information on our poster was quite concrete. Sigh, the satisfaction. :)

Happy things keep coming.. must be the onset of Chinese New Year being lucky to me. I finally got to touch my new baby!!!

My Dell Inspiron 630m. The processor speed is 1.6 Ghz, 504 Mb of Ram! And the hard disk space is ..about 60gigs!

I'll miss my Acer travelmate..but it was a goner.

I love the buttons!!! It has electric blue lightings..

Furthermore, being home always makes me happy. :)

So many friends to see(especially those who are going to aussie)
so many days to spend with Chee Kiang,
so many things to settle together with Weng Lum at the national service's headquarters asap if we want to change our deferment into an exemption,
the quest for a purple/lilac dress for my Cousin Hong Fei's purple-themed wedding, the mass making of farewell presents. (more than 10 friends leaving for Aussie).
the mass effort in The Valentine's Day 2006's present(it's a tradition between us since 2001..;))
the exchange of yearbooks from form1-form5 to laugh at each other and mutual friends with Calvin,
excessive yamcha sessions namely with Justin, Dennis, Joshua etc.
MUST SEE ABBY ARGHH
... oh, and collect MyKad too!

Yes, it is a good thing. But back then there was something called 'latihan books' and past year papers. Now? Zilch, zero. One of the cons of being a pioneer batch. So I can't say much about my academic-material absorbance.

Splitting headache going on. But I'll persevere and satiate my blogging quota for the day.

When I'm studying, a mess is a solid evidence of my efforts.


Everybody going all the way..

I don't know if I speak for the rest of the females, but when exams roll around, my physical appearance takes a back seat. I don't have the chance to go out, so why bother doing the oligatory eye brow plucking, pimple healing, hair combing, lip balming, moisturising and armpit shaving procedures? :D


EwWwWww..


One of the things that come hand in hand with scary exams are pimples. In this photo, a pimple sits amidst my forrest of unkempt eyebrows. There's a discolouration around the corners of my eye due to lack of sleep.


A lone pimple sits just below my cheek bone. It's like an eclipse going on what with the mole just a distance away.


A sorry excuse for a pair of lips. The cracks remind me of the dry African lands in a bad bad drought. Wateeerrrrrrrrrrrrr-*hack* *hack*.


This is the obligatory "Fuck It Lah" hairstyle. Everyone in the hostel is wearing it.


I found a whole collection of pimples beneath my bangs.

The must-have eyebags. Ohmygod, my skin is so.....weird. I think it is wrinkles. I'm a young old lady.


After my exams, I promise I'll go for a haircut, redefine my pathetic brows, moisturise my skin and lips, sleep more, eat better....oh, and I'm down with the flu again(hence the red nose).

When I don't have exams, I try my best to look as uncrappy as possible. it's just a matter of combing my hair/straightening it, using some makeup, smiling more etc.


I mean even when I dress up, I'm still not exactly the epitome of RAVISHING BEAUTY *makes hand motions and opens eyes big big*... but at least I look presentable enough and do not get thrown out of establishments and joints, right?:D

But with the way I look now, *scratches places where you should not know about*, erm, where was I, ah yes, yeah, with the way I look now, I'll probably get mistaken for a crazy bag lady.


Hehehe, sorry, miang for awhile.

But my point is that there's such a stark difference between making an effort and the just-fuck-it-lah attitude. I guess that's the thing about being a woman for the rest of us.


And yes, I love my stickybra.  Now that I have exams? Big t-shirts and ratty old spaggetis that do not require the services of my dear stickybra.  

So you see people, to enjoy life, we must have a bit of good and a bit of bad. Yin and Yang. Sometimes the occasions call for the luxury of looking presentable and in other circumstances, we simply cannot afford simple habits such as moisturising and combing one's hair.

I hope I make sense.