Group Swimming Lesson 1

Registered myself for Ko-K swimming, real lucky to be able to get myself in the class, very limited number of students accepted. Although only 1 unit of credit, but requires 4 hours of lesson a week. Many laughed when I informed them of my new 'subject', but for me, I take this up not only to learn the correct method of swimming, but also to learn how to teach a group of people how to swim.

Just as a record of each swimming lesson.

Started off with a little bit of simple exercises. Walked on water (high resistance), walked backwards on water (direction). Then did star float, arrow float, mushroom float and streamlined float.

Flutter kick, streamlined body.

Virgin Attempt at Kari Kay

When I told my grandmother and parents about my intention of making Curry Chicken, all parties were supportive, although they were a tad skeptical about me wanting to make the spice paste from scratch. My grandma said that even she herself does not make spice paste using mortar and pestle, instead, she has gone all modern and uses ready-made packaged curry powder.

I was keen on making curry chicken from scratch, since I kind of already know how (from my cooking bible, hah!), thus, if I were to make things simple and buy curry powder, then I might as well buy the whole of the curry chicken from some mamak stall, correct?

Spices

Shallots : Cried when I cut them up... boohoo

Done like a pro!

Some chilli landed on me while grounding them that I ended up with chilli burns:

Sigh, the sacrifices

And thus, I made it! I'm such a genius :D

Although my mom said that there’s definitely room for improvement, I’m already very much proud of myself. My dad marked me with 89 points. Good thing was, the whole thing was finished for lunch. Better thing was, none of us ended with diarrhoea.

Simmer

Not bad for a girl who can’t differentiate between kailan and bak choy veg, huh?

Housewife Jr.

I have a newfound passion.... cooking!

Was never really interested in how food that goes through my mouth was made. In fact, the only reason that I've ever been made to do any sort of cooking in the kitchen was to either heating up some leftovers or good ol' maggie mee.

I suppose one of the reasons that triggered this interest is the sudden awareness of how eating outside too much may not be healthy, thus knowing how to cook can be a real asset. Cooking can also be very fulfiling, I mean, literally and also, to have people who actually enjoy them.

Recently purchased a cookbook (omg!)... it really was not intentional. As it was the holidays, I thought that I might as well get some book to read. So there I was browsing around in Popular bookstore when this particular book caught my attention.

I find the book most interesting... as it includes plenty of recipes of dishes that I love, which my grandma seldom prepares nowadays. The photography on the dishes presented in the book also looks cool and the book's about one-and-a-half centimetres thick of glossy paper, for RM38 which I thought was pretty cheap. And hence, purchased :)

Cooking is actually very simple... it's just the preparation and the post-cooking cleaning that are very troublesome. Been cooking several times this week, simple stuff like stir-fried veggies and omelettes and things like that. But the expression on my dad's face! It's as if I had whipped up some bombastic French dish or something like that. Oh well, at least he likes it and anyways home-cooked stuff is healthier. Oh yeah, I found out that the chef in Pekaka Restaurant (behind Subaidah) smokes while he cooks. He cooks in an area visible to customers and IF he does that openly, God knows what other chefs can do when we can't watch them cooking.

Trying out a curry chicken recipe tomorrow! Hope it works.... :)

Day VI - Kuantan

Day VI
Woken by Wei Shan at 8:20am. Showered and changed + washed undergarments and waited downstairs for the others to get ready. The complete family will be going along for this hour-long ride. Teen Yuen got nagged AGAIN for dilly-dallying and being the slowest to get ready. Started out at 9:25am.

Reached the town of Kemaman at around 10:15 where we had breakfast in a Hainan restaurant. We had this unique dish of curry mee with steamed ikan kembung and sambal on the side. All of us had coffee, kinda funny really, you could tell what everyone wanted to do was sleep in our own cosy beds.

Then it’s off to a town in Chukai, on the way there we passed the Petronas Refinery, where Malaysia earns half of its income from. The whole of the Refinery is so damn huge! I just cannot imagine how many trees are cut down for the construction of this site, it is just so vast.

Like Olympic torch liddat

Next up was Awana Kijal Resort, which to me sounded a lot like Brinjal Resort. Anyway, one thing that I absolutely love about the east coast beaches is that the sea has such a cool shade of blue! It beats the murky brown colour of Batu Ferringhi beaches. It’s not a bad place, for relaxing purposes la, the pools are kinda cool too.

After snapping loads of photos with poor Teen Haw as the loyal photographer, we had lunch in the town. Aunty has already ordered stuffed crab and we brought them over to another restaurant where we ordered some other dishes: Singapore char bee hoon, Char Hor Fun, Hainan mee, fried Taufu with rojak sauce, mixed veggie and fried rice. My stomach was already bloated from the crab that I did not have much of the other dishes, but the food was good.

On the way back we went over to look for some keropok lekor. We did found a nice place where the view is nice, creates a contrasting colour, the rocks and the blue sea.

Postcard perfect

Anyway, the lekor that auntie bought for me was boiled, but not deep fried. It tasted funny and has a raw-ish quality about it, plus it’s a weird grey colour and it twists around in a clump that it sort of looks like dog shit… But I felt so guilty requesting for the lekor and uncle actually went around looking for it that it seems so rude not to finish the lekor, however weird it tasted. Luckily I have a boyfriend with a garbage bin for a stomach and we agreed that he can have three-quarters of the lekor and I shall try to finish the remaining quarter. Thank goodness for boyfriends who eat anything.

Dinner was also simple, we had stir-fried spinach, stir-fried heng chai and pork chop which was prepared by TY’s grandma. Apparently she has not been cooking ever since she fell into coma and when the family heard that she has cooked again, they were so enthusiastic that it was another wave of guilty feeling as uncle said that grandma cooked for me, dunno how far true is that… Felt like I’m adding burden to everyone around me. Unfortunately we still have not had the Tiramisu yet! Tomorrow I will make darn sure that we will eat it, can’t wait!

Day V - Kuantan

Day V
Destination for the day: Sg. Lembing. Up even before the crack of dawn, 5:48am. When auntie came into the room, I was already three-quarters awake ‘cause I just got out of the bathroom after nature’s call. She told me there’s no need to take a bath as we will be climbing up some mountain there. Sg. Lembing is a small quiet town about 30 minutes’ ride from Buaya AND uncle and auntie’s hometown, they used to study in the same secondary school.

Was out of the house by 6.30am, minus Teen Hao and Wei Shan as they have tuition later that day. It was still dark outside and I was so darn sleepy… First stop was at the foot of a hill where there are stairs leading halfway up to the hill. Mind you, the way up was very steep and with the lack of sleep I nearly threw up at one point. There are roaches that live in the hill too.

Back down, we went for breakfast. The town is mostly made up of old people, where uncle told me that the old just sit around yam-cha-ing the whole day while their kids working elsewhere will sent them money so that they can yam-cha for the whole day. It was a pretty laidback town, where everything goes around slowly and the only entertainment available there was karaoke. We had curry mee, that’s one of their specialties there, except that their curry mee is slightly more spicy than the ones in Penang and you sort of choose your ingredients in the mee, Yong Tau Foo-style. I had stuffed brinjal, pork balls (as in meatballs-pork balls, not pork balls-pork balls), fish stuffed lady’s fingers and some other fried stuff.

We tapao-ed quite a number of delicacy, namely ‘nasi dagang’ (glutinous rice with curry), some kuehs with gula melaka). Then it was back home after that, just wanted to get some much-needed sleep. Don’t really feel well the whole time with BTY’s fast and sharp cornering. I was just sitting right behind him and I am beginning to think that I should have thrown up right on the back of his neck to pass the message to take turnings slowly. Darn him.

Auntie taught me how to make Tiramisu! She is so darn geng, she can cook practically everything and she can bake practically everything. First, she baked an inch thick sponge cake, which will later be divided into three layers for the layerings in the cake. Then she mixed 4 slabs of cream cheese with a packet of whipped cream with a mixer until the cheese becomes very soft and gooey. This will go in between the layers of the sponge cake. Then she made this flavouring using coffee liquor called Kahlűa boiled with hot water and then distributed evenly to the three layer of sponge cake mentioned above. The cake is then leave to set in the fridge, takes roughly a day for that. I’m so sure it’s going to be good!

A piece of heaven

Night time had a simple dinner, fried fish with stir-fried mengkuang and stir-fried bean sprout leaves. At 10pm, TY and I went over to a friend of his, Le Seng, apparently also studying in USM (HBP) for Gimrummy. Hui Leng was also there (USM-Chem) and the four of us gambled until close to 4am. I won about 6 bucks whereas TY +1 or 2 bucks. I would love to get my hands on those mahjong tiles and just have them handy anytime. I think it’s fun just to pass time and spend time with friends. Definitely not a reason to earn money obviously.

After the gamble, we SHOULD have just gone back straight as we are, again SHOULD be getting up early tomorrow for Kemaman, a town in Terengganu. But, as it was a Saturday night, I assumed that we can catch some live actions and Ah Guas around Kuantan. We went to a few places but I was fairly disappointed as I only saw a handful of them, some were real old and fat, only a couple I saw could pass as having a voluptuous body. I had wanted to see some action going on, preferably in the back of a car or somewhat but I guess I was not lucky…

Day IV - Kuantan

Started the day 1 hour later than I would have preferred. Up at 10am, by the time I bathed and stuff was nearly 11.

Lunch at home prepared by Aunty. We had ‘min fan gou’ which is basically made up of dough where it is shredded and pressed, mushrooms, a type of veggie and shredded pork, all cooked together until the soup boils. Served with deep fried anchovies, had this sorta meal back in SP a few times and I loved it. Spent most of the day reading the first Harry Potter book: The Philosopher’s Stone. There was a huge storm and it rained heavily again. I love rains. Everything gets dark and cooling, the way I like my days best :P

Rain went on for about 2 hours and when it has stopped, TY and I borrowed bicycles from his cousin and just rode around the area. The weather’s just nice for riding, cooling from the after-rain and not very sunny. It must have been more than a year that I rode on a bicycle, took me some time to get used to it.

Dinner at TY’s granny’s place and we had ‘soto ayam’, a dish from Indonesia. There’s this stuff like pulut with shredded cabbage, taugeh mixed in this soupy saffron gravy thing, which I have no idea how to describe.

After dinner went to 2 different supermarkets in Kuantan to visit 2 of TY’s aunts. Uncle wanted me to play a prank on one of them by asking what’s a BabySham or sumwhat, haha long story. I guess it runs in the family.

Definitely regretted sleeping so darn late last night, plan to replenish my alertness by sleeping ultra early tonight.

4 Down, 2 To Go

Had my second swimming lesson this evening (not the student, the instructor heh), taught 2 students, both females. One is Ai Chen, 28, who works in Dell and been getting comments from fellow lifeguards that she's pretty. Yea, I guess so, good features and fair fair skin. The other one's her cousin, chubby Wee Theeng, 12 years old. Each at RM15 per hour, earned a total of RM30 (3 red notes). May not seem a lot, but it sure was fulfilling to earn your own money, with your own effort. Makes me think twice before I spend my money too.

Been having trouble keeping track of my finances this semester. Treating myself with too much good food it seems. Sigh. Kinda guilty spending money like drinking water when my daddy labours off to earn them. Really gotta control myself.

2nd last paper this coming Sunday at 9.00am, Microprocessors-4 units. I don't really know what to study! Honestly, notes are not sufficient and you can't even find certain informations in the reference book. Oh well. After this paper, will head back to SP. I miss home! And Pickles! And my parents! And Grandma's cooking! And my bed! Astro! Will be heading back Penang on the 20th, thats on a Friday for Exco's Dinner. Don't worry Kenneth, I will be posting up pics of the food we had there. Sure to beat your kimchi.

Aquatic Night 2007

Aquatic Night is an annual event social event held on the second semester of every academic term. The contributions of lifeguards, lifesaving instructors, swimming clinic instructors and graduating seniors are honoured during this occasion.

This year, this event was held at the Crown Jewel Hotel, Tanjung Bungah on the 10th of March 2007. The theme was Evan's idea: Divas and Rockstars.

All committees were supposed to reach the hotel by 6pm. Went over to a hair salon just opposite Desa U to get my hair and makeup done. Normally would not have bothered to go through so much trouble for just one night. But, being the Project Director, supposed to give a speech, sitting at the VIP table, I thought, fine, so long as it's only for once a year. Better to overdress than to be under-dressed. Spent RM60 in total for hair and makeup, new dress, was kinda cheap so I won't reveal here :p , wore an old pair of black heels.

There were supposed to be 4 VIPs -En Muhammad (Head of USM Sports Unit), Ms Toh (LG Corps advisor), Mr Peter Khoo, Mr Hooi and Mdm Kah Ling (all 3 are examiners) to grace the night, unfortunately, Ms. Toh's mother just recently passed away and therefore she could not attend, En Muhammad had another important event to go to (hmmph) whereas Mr Hooi had an emergency during the night itself.

Everyone looked gorgeous/dashing. Evan, my goodness, painted his nails black and had a whole lot of metal hanging around his jeans. Event put on eye-liner ok! Some more has the nerve to put on sunglasses (it was already night, and the lights in the function room wasn't exactly super bright) But it was kinda fun, seeing people getting into the mood, dressing up. I love dressing up... Hee...

Sadly, the meeting could not start on time as many were late including the VIPs. Supposed to start at 7.30pm, but the second VIP only arrived at 8.30pm. Sigh, why are VIPs these days so like that wan? Nevermind that, know what others thought of my speech? They felt it was kinda Oscar-ish. Haha, it is an Oscar award, an award for a night that was successfully planned and will be brought to motion :)

Didn't have much to eat as was feeling queasy although was initially hungry. Senior games was kinda boring, as it did only involves the Games Department and none of the other guests. Many actually took the opportunity to take pictures while the games was going on -_-

Sitting at the VIP table, naturally I had to 'layan' the VIPs. It was kinda fun talking to Mr Peter Khoo and Mdm Kah Ling. They were both ex-lifeguards and get this - their husband/wife are also ex-lifeguards! Hahaha, never thought that the LG Corps can be a place for you to target on your future soulmate. Hmmm.... wonder if I'll be telling the same thing to other super super super super junior lifeguards... 

Photo session!!

3 Junior Excos

Aquatic Night Committee - some missing

LG Corps

If it weren't for my committee, Kenneth and Evan, the whole night would not have been possible. Many thanks to everyone, although it has been a busy year, but I feel a sense of accomplishment. :)

Interaction Day 06/07

Forgive me if the next few posts may backtrack to a month ago, but these are things that I would like to record down.

Interaction Day is a day where members of the USM Lifeguard Corps, juniors, seniors and ex-lifeguards spend 2 days and a night somewhere-interacting. Being an active member (I honestly have no choice in this...), exco of the Corps and also Head of Social and Recreation (S&R) Dept, numerous meetings are held within my dept and... this year, it was held on the 10th of February 2007 at Sg. Sedim, Kedah. (yeay, Hidup Kedah :) at RM90 per person. Among its attractions are its cool, clean river and having the longest tree top walk in the world (yea, you read that right, longest in the world in its own suspended from the bottom category).

Was up at the crack of dawn and it took us about 2 hours to reach there. Our program flow is as follows :

DAY 1

• 0900 - Arrival and Check-in
• 0930 - Jungle Trekking
• 1200 - Lunch
• 1300 - Games
• 1500 - Flying Fox
• 1900 - BBQ Dinner
• 2000 - Sketch
• 2130 - Junior Games

DAY 2

• 0830 - Breakfast
• 0930 - Tree Top Walk
• 1100 - Check-out

First activity was jungle trekking. Gosh! There was no trail and we were just really crawling on our knees at one point and had scratches all over ourselves, leeches just all around, waiting to pounce and suck the lives outta us... Towards the end of the hike, this deliciously cool waterfall made it worth all that effort.

Clockwise from top left : CJ, Evan, Wei Wei, me and Teen Yuen.

Later on that evening, flying fox was next on our activity list. Now, I kind of had a fear for heights and this is one sport that I can't just calmly get it over with! And if I don't do this, I know that I won't forgive myself for being such a chicken.

How do I get out of this thing ?

Everyone there was divided into groups to perform sketches later on at night, after our BBQ dinner. My group, Orca, is supposed to perform a sketch on "Snow White VS Sleeping Beauty"... it was hilarious! But unfortunately, our sketch wasn't voted as the best... although I really thought that we deserved to win! :p Hong En had this thick layer of powder on his face as Snow White and Evan was really sporting, really bringing the Evil Stepmother to life hahahah! And of course... the newspaper-stuffed boobs, can't leave that out... :D

Orca with "Snow White VS Sleeping Beauty"

Shark with "Doraemon"

Crocodile with "Death Note"

Oh yeah, did I mention another purpose of our Interaction Day? Also a time to torture our newly recruited juniors... ngeh ngeh ngeh. There were a number of stations and these juniors had goggles on with tissues stuffed inside so they are visually impaired. They have no idea what is going on as we 'played' with them and snapped humiliating photos of them.. hee :)

Waiting to be tortured

The games lasted well into the wee hours and well, at least both juniors and seniors find the games funny and they didn't complain much....

Day 2: Everyone woke up sleepy including me, and well, second day was a blur to me... I can only recall that at one point that there was a misunderstanding and I abused my Dear with my temper :( But all ended well and I still am very sorry with what I had done. 

Being an exco can be very taxing and with people having high expectations on you, is extremely exhausting. At the end of the day, I'm just glad that it's all over and the best part is that I received a lot of positive feedbacks on the trip there. At least everyone else enjoyed their stay over there... for me, it was more of work than a fun trip. :) 

Chapter 1

First of all, welcome to this blogger's crib. Now, I wouldn't really call myself a blogger... I mean, I'm no Kenny Sia , no Karljam. Stuff that I post here are mostly events, memories that I would like to preserve. Thoughts that I would like to jot down and maybe, in a few years' time have a good laugh over them. See if there is any difference between then and now.

Born a Sagittarius on Friday the 13th of December, this Asian female is currently an undergraduate in University Sains Malaysia, Penang-Malaysia of course. Pursuing her degree in Applied Physics while minoring in Management is her priority at the moment... although there is another organization that is taking up a lot- I mean a LOT- of her time. Being very terrible in time management (call it ironic...) she finds herself always getting stressed up when assignments are due or when she is burdened with organizing events or when tests are heading her way.

Being the youngest of 3, she was born in Penang, but grew up in an industrial town of Sg. Petani, Kedah. Determined to have her way of life, she wonders, what is her way of life?