Happy New Year!

I won't be able to access this blog anytime around New Year's day so here's wishing a Happy New Year to everyone in advance. May 2010 favour us all!

Since this will also be the last post for the Year 2009, I'd like to thank all readers and supporters of this little blog for bearing with my mostly nonsensical scribbles for nearly a year. The fact that somebody does bother to find time to read this blog is very encouraging. Also a big thank you goes to all who have left comments here and there. It doesn't matter if it's a one word comment or an essay that I cannot understand even after going through it 7,508 times. I appreciate comments, and that's that.

Yep it's a whole new year and a whole new adventure for all of us, so good luck and may 2010 be a fruitful year for all!

Merry Christmas!

I know Christmas is nearly over, but here's a very Merry Christmas to all my dear readers, and my best wishes for the future. Right now I'm so tired I can't even find the energy to swipe the bug off my teddy bear. Enjoy your Christmas presents folks.

冬至

Winter of course never comes to this side of the globe but who cares? We can still have our 汤圆. I'm a fan but my parents don't know why. Both of them never liked that stuff.

Another year comes and goes. So fast. This time one year ago I just dragged myself through SPM. Now I'm worrying about different things already.

Oh and here's a useful reminder to everyone. Take good care of your keys or someone may duplicate them and get in... or get out when they're not supposed to. Why am I telling you this? It's a long story so I'm not elaborating just yet. Perhaps next time if I remember.

Ah well, 冬至快乐!!!

One Smokey Birthday

Carlyn's birthday. In order to celebrate this much anticipated festival...er...okay...festival, TAFE Sem. 2 declared Tuesday a public holiday and burned meat. It was our semester break anyway so to hell with declaring it a holiday. Holy day perhaps? Maybe, but that's up to the birthday girl.

Oh ya but the celebration was made early so it ain't the real date.

As for the burned meat part, I will clarify it as barbecue. You know... that activity in which you er... burn meat? Yes that's what I mean. In our case it was more of sausages of all kinds be they long, short, thick or thin. Fishballs and meatballs too, be they round or not so round. Chicken wings, be they bent or forcefully straightened, and not to forget marshmallows, be they more of marsh or mallows.

...and charcoal, be it simply some charred coal.

NEVER underestimate charcoal. They make you cry if you get too much smoke in your eyes. Ouch.

Back to the story. Firstly I was pleasantly surprised that I managed to maneuver my car up the hill to find Shun Mu's beautiful condominium. The heavens must have given me face, because when I parked my car on the slope it did not prove the existence of gravity and slide down. Phew...

Thanks to Kai Wen for his help in trying to locate Shun Mu's secret military base... I mean condominium. Credit for the preparation work goes to my excellent classmates, who seemed to have gotten everything ready. All that was left was to fan the fire. Why fan the fire? Because the fire's HOT! That's why. Don't you fan yourself when you're hot?

Okay okay sorry for the crap. When we finally got the charcoal burning merrily, everything edible was placed above the fire. Some came out just right while some came out like the Yin-Yang symbol. Half black half white. Very interesting.

There is an unspoken rule that you never let the birthday girl see the cake until she is less than 3 meters away from it. Secrecy is vital for surprise after all. Unfortunately the human wall did not work as well as expected, and Carlyn ended up seeing the cake I think 3x3 meters away from it. It might have been further.

We actually spent more than 4 hours at the barbecue pit. Now that I think back I never realised it was so long. Time flies.

And here come 'em photos. Forgive me for the lousy quality of the photos. Me no professional photographer. Hehe.

It's not easy to get these lighted and burning.

That's a lot of fishballs.

Home base, where all the raw materials are.

It gets darker.

And darker.

And darker. But we still makan.

Excellent place to rest and eat.

Cake-cutting ceremony where birthday girl has to freeze for photos. Forgot the flash sorry folks.

That's better. Everyone say hi.

The guys. Wei Zhe's shirt says "I'm not a bad guy". Let's take his word for it.

Finally a rest at Shun Mu's place before balik kampung.

Aaaand last but not least, happy 18th birthday Carlyn!

Cameron Highlands

Back from Cameron with family. It was hotter than the last time I went up there. Still cool though. Like the weather very much. Pity those lorries kept leaving trails of carbon monoxide, or the air would have been a lot fresher.

It's a gardener's paradise up there. I'm no gardener, but I do appreciate pretty plants.

Lots of colour.

I particularly like this one.

What's Cameron without the strawberries?

Smaller version of your tomatoes, or at least I think that's what they are.

Little carrots. Cute eh?

Strawberries (yeah as though you haven't seen 'em before)

More flowers.

At the Sam Poh Temple.

Fish in the Temple. They're friendly enough to let you touch them.

Cameron's not only about flowers and strawberries.

The cacti come in bright colours too.

Another day at work for this guy wrapping flowers for sale.

The Sungai Palas tea estate.

More tea.

And MORE tea. Notice the river down there.

The next time you go up the tea hills try to find this river. The water's freezing.

That's what happens when you decide to buy a big plant and put it in the car.

Got this to wear. On the front's my name and on the back "G6PD". So the world knows not to feed me anything sulphur-based. Papa's great idea.

The Orang Asli stalls by the highway can offer certain good bargains, if you bother to stop.

It was good to get away from the hot weather back here. Maybe next time I can get a part-time job plucking tea leaves. That'll be nice.

Yeah, right...

New v Moon (2009) GSC 2

Yes, I'm back. Law's finally over. So is semester 2. It's going to be a whole new semester soon, just like it's going to be a New Moon.

Normally you wouldn't catch me watching the twilight series or staring at the moon, but law's over and anything goes as long as it has nothing to do with law (I'm starting to regret the title of this particular post too). Anyway, at the very start of the movie we were shown a huge, and I mean HUGE moon on the screen. The moon was so big that if it was a pie it would have fed half the population of Malaysia. It however, did not look new to me. I suppose this breaches s52 and s53(a) of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth), and... okay I'll shut up about law.

I'm beginning to wonder why all our blood-sucking friends in the movie are so pale. They all look like they survived on nothing but antibiotics for 2 months to earn a Guinness World Record. I say they deserve the record. Hell even the only black vampire in the movie looked more like gray, not black. Ya I'm referring to the one eaten by werewolves.

One good thing about being a vampire, I have learned, is that you can literally rise and SHINE, especially where the sun's hot. Like in Malaysia where you can fry an egg by leaving it on the pavement under the sun. If Edward the pale guy lived here, he would have shined to such an extent that we would be wearing sunglasses while asking him what he would like for lunch.

That said, it's still a decent movie, though perhaps not deserving enough to top the charts.

And... In the case of What Starts v Must End (2009) FCA 209, it was held that semester 2's over, so get a good rest people before the roller coaster ride begins again next year.