Operation: Karen's Birthday

You know it's a good time to spring a birthday surprise when the Birthday VIP thinks you're there to hit shuttlecocks and jump around only.

In our attempt to succeed in our long term goal of winning a Guinness World Record for throwing the most birthday surprises, we happily came up with a plan to celebrate Karen's birthday with another of our notorious out-of-nowhere-happy-birthday-here's-a-cake ideas.

We did play some badminton, but the Birthday's Girl's surprise was the real issue. The celebration was early as her real birthday was on Sunday. Hope it wasn't too early for her.

Karen was celebrating her 18th birthday, and I had to light 18 candles. Why? Not because we used 18 small candles but because I lit the 1 big one and 8 small ones, then they said she wasn't coming yet. So someone snuffed out the flames before the candles burned themselves into the cream. Then I lit them all over again.

I think I accidentally burned my thumb. It looks a bit raw now, but I'm not complaining. Things were a lot worse when I touched a hot iron some time ago.

I think the surprise would have been a better success if the guard there hadn't told Karen that somebody was doing a birthday celebration in the badminton court. Ouch. I knew we should have invited that Uncle to sing Happy Birthday with us. Then he wouldn't have met Karen outside!

The Cake

Karen - The Day's VIP

Cut it, then freeze. We need to take the photos. FREEZE!

Sit around and makan.

Habis makan? Play!

I know it's still a bit too early, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY IN ADVANCE, KAREN!

Shape Shifting Robots

The stupid flowers I planted a week ago just won't grow. Bet the seeds are dead and gone by now, but this post is not about a failed gardening project.

Today I met up with my pals again and we watched Transformers: Revenge of the Sith... I mean Fallen. That means if you fall on the road you have the right to take revenge on the banana skin that you slipped on. Even if you're not a Transformer.

Sorry pals, I have not been getting enough sleep lately so I'm deviating more than usual. Makes sense? Yes? No? Ar... whatever.

It's a good movie. Great plot coupled up with spectacular effects. It has it's laughs too. If you haven't seen the movie I strongly urge you to. If you've seen the movie... well you may watch it again too if you really like it that much.

While the Autobots and Decepticons rage on with their war in cinemas, I found a way to not forget a cinema reservation number. It does not make me a genius or a Nobel prize winner, but it's an idea. Even if it's a bloody lousy one.

You take a pen and write the number on your hand. See? Tadaa!

I sense many of you would like to initiate acts of violence similar to that in the Transformer movie on me. Can't blame you, I'm the one who gave the crappy idea.

Before I suffer the fate of most of the Decepticons, that is, being torn to pieces, I better make the run for it.

Oh ya and I'll plant another pot of flowers tomorrow. Hopefully this one works. Any advice please contact me. If you think I'm crazy to keep talking about bunga-bunga, tell me also.

I just remembered I said I wanted to run. So I better go now.

Happy Father's Day

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY PAPA!

LOVE YOU AND WILL ALWAYS DO!

Real Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. 18th June. Yay. That means I'm officially 18 but with the mentality of an officially 8. Not bad.

Birthday or not, I had to appear at INTI to get my Malaysian Studies results. Luckily it was an A, or it would have spoilt my day. Met up with Ken, Shun Mu, Lay Kiew, Carlyn, Yee Ching, Sheralyn, Ai Lynn, Karen... did I miss anyone? Don't think so. Later some of us went to Queensbay for lunch. McDonalds. Yup fast food again.

It's my birthday, but who says you can't watch horror movies on your birthday?

So Lay Kiew, Ai Lynn, Ken, Wei Zhe (joined us at Queensbay) and I went to watch 'Drag Me To Hell'. No I'm not asking you to drag me to hell. Sheralyn, Caryln and Shun Mu went for blood. I mean 'Blood - The Last Vampire'. I know a horror movie is supposed to be scary, but watch it with friends and it becomes... well... amusing.

But the movie had it's moments. Not bad, really.

Later at home I celebrated my birthday with my family. Never fail to do so every year. And will never fail to do so I hope. It's been a wonderful birthday. Thanks everyone for everything.

Badminton Version 2.0

So off we go to Karen's place to play badminton again. Who says we don't get enough exercise? This time I have to record my thanks to Ai Lynn for fetching me, Ken and Sheralyn there.

Stretch and you will get it. Nice posture.

'I see it...i see it... it's COMING!'

20,000 point bonus for hitting this guy. I know. Gambar senget. I realised 20 seconds too late. Lazy to edit.

The pro in action. He has the ability to whack down a Boeing-747 moving at 300km/h.

Finally, a 'say all you want' session.

Durian

It's spiky. It's thorny. It packs quite a punch, just like all Malaysians do. The Westerners say it tastes like heaven but stinks like hell. The locals wonder what's wrong with those Westerners. It's seasonal. Its very presence drives its enthusiasts crazy. Behold...

DURIAN!!!

I admit I'm a die-hard fan of durian. I've been having it since I learned how to poke my own nose.

Papa is a professional durian-chooser. He's been picking his own durians since he was a kid. We got our loot from this guy called Ah Sin. He used to deliver durians to my grandma's place when he was my age. So, my father knows him very well.

Ah Sin at the Lip Sin old market

We opened our durians at home. Papa is a pro at that too. He teaches me his 'kang hu' when he gets the chance. Yes, when it comes to durians, my Dad's the hero.

To open the durians, we use a knife.

A BIG knife.

That's Papa in action. First you look for the lines at the butt of the durian. Then you chop in and pry it open bit by bit with the knife, and finally you use your hands to pull the spiky thing apart.

All open already. Some are eaten immediately, while some are kept away in a container and put in the fridge. Those kept away won't taste that good, but it's like eating ice cream. Quite nice. Usually we finish them quite fast. Hopefully by next week there will be more. Hehe.

Birthday Early

Hmm. Apparently I can count on my INTI pals to surprise me. This post backdates to last Thursday.

First they call me to this place called Redbox. I still don't know why it's called Redbox. After so many years.

What do people do in a red box?... I mean in Redbox? They sing.

That is one thing I was never good at, but, ah well sing...la. Luckily my voice didn't break any glasses or make the ceiling collapse.

Then this guy walks in with a cake. I then realised I forgot to wish Sheralyn happy birthday. Her birthday was the next day.

It took me a whole minute to realise the cake was for me too. I'm er... Sheralyn's junior by 6 days.

How nice of them.

The photos here were taken from ChiaYi's blog. If you're reading this I hope you don't mind, ChiaYi. Ah and thanks everyone for the surprise. I appreciate all the stuff you all did. Terima kasih banyak banyak.

That's Sheralyn and me.

That's part of the err... organising committee. There are more people not in the photo.

Blowing out the candles. I accidentally used my hidden abililty to move at light speed. Yes I can move at light speed.

To finish the elaborate process, the cake needs to be cut. Then only can makan.

Again, thanks people for everything. Thanks a lot.

Hatyai After 6 Years

Came back from Hatyai yesterday. The place hasn't changed much since I saw it 6 years ago. It's a lot quieter though. Not as many tourists as last time. The things there are also much more expensive (in many cases more expensive than here in Penang).

I went there with my family and my aunt.

Travel time wasn't very long, but I can't say how long. Forgot to keep track. We had to store our car away in a small town in Kedah called Changlun.
This is Changlun. You can easily get a taxi to Hatyai from there. It's near Bukit Kayu Hitam, that's the border.

After that we got into a van and smashed into the immigrations. Okay we didn't smash.

Malaysian Immigrations @ Bukit Kayu Hitam

Then across the No-Man's Land part which well... nobody owns, is the Thai immigrations.

Thai immigrations @ Sadao (border town)

Another 1 hour ride in and you can get to Hatyai. I'm not going to bother you with my whole itinerary there. You won't be interested and I don't have the time. So just a bit of pics from here and there...

Ah hah! If you ever go to Hatyai, remember to come here at least once-

It has a Chinese name, but it serves Thai food. The food's really good. The locals call it Khan Eng or something like that.

If you don't speak a word of Thai, don't worry. The waiters there actually understand Hokkien. Their hokkien sounds funny, but it's better than communicating with hand signals.

There's also the evening market, where can get lots of delicious (and weird) stuff.

When in Thailand, try their dessert.
I realised they use a LOT of glutinous rice. I think they can get it cheap. That's why. They're really good at it.

In the morning we visited the morning market. Yes, there are a lot of markets. Big and small. Morning, day and night.

They sell all kinds of stuff.

EVEN BUGS. BIG, FAT BUGS.

Instead of eating bugs, I opted for something more... er... edible.

Little pineapples. Cute and sweet. Surprisingly sweet. I don't know what the 100% thing means, and I don't care. It's a lot better than eating those bugs.


What's Hatyai without the famous Toot Toot. No I didn't censor anything. The locals call this form of transport Tuk Tuk, but I've been calling it Toot Toot since I knew what it was.

From left, Papa, Mummy, my Aunt, err and me. My younger brother's holding the camera.

And another thing on my list to talk... I mean type about is-

Tau Hua/Tau Huey. They even have it there. However, they pack so much ginger in the soup it burns a hole in your tongue. In the middle is pek kui (白果）*the 2nd Chinese character is wrong. My computer cannot generate the correct word.

If you think that cup of white stuff is also Tau Huey, you're not as smart as I thought.

It's just a soya bean drink buster.

While in Hatyai, I also visited my relatives there.
Say hi folks.

Go ahead. Say hi. Don't be shy.

That's about it. Enough. If I stare at this computer any longer my eyes will explode.

Life's Lessons

Not written by a wise man, but just read on and give face la. All these were discovered in the past few weeks.

1. The main effect of overdosing panadol is lau sai tak henti-henti.

2. Potatoes dug out several months too late have lots of fibre.

3. Last left has its benefits.

4. Last right does not.

5. 5 bananas in a day improves bowel movements by 100%.

6. Blog away too late in the night and you get bombarded by a huge barrage of firepower. Run for your life!

Whack!

You don't expect us INTI people to spend the semester holidays without any plans, so we did plan to meet for a game of badminton yesterday.

At least we did plan.

We met at Karen's place, where there was a court for us to practise our wacky whacky thing. It's not the easiest place to find in the world, but it can be found. Have to thank Yee Ching for the ride there. Terima kasih banyak-banyak.

So we began swinging our racquets...

That's Lay Kiew and Carlyn whacking the shuttle to bits...

Karen, Ken either in action or learning to tango, Yee Ching and the real pro, Shun Mu.

STRETCH AND GET IT!!!

Yo Shun Mu got da style man!

As usual, playing with my camera makes me forget to take pictures of myself. I was never the professional. My brother's the real pro. But I do have one photo...

...Of that mong cha guy you all know as Ewe Juan.

Then I changed and followed my pals to dinner at McDonalds. So much for all the exercise. Ah well, at least we did exercise, and we planned to walk a lot later.

We visited the pasar malam in Paya Terubong. It's crowded, it's packed and it's big and there's really a lot to see.

...And eat.

After that it was getting late so we hurried back home. Thanks Yee Ching for the ride again. Reached home at 10.30p.m. Tak tidur lagi. Did a few headshots with my brother. Counter Strike. I know it's a waste of time, but hey, we all have to waste time sometimes.

Oh yes and by the way try the new poll. Thanks.