Gutting it out for the CNY

Ever since I've moved out, I've been making countless trips to my parent's place slowly shifting my belongings. Oh, and occasionally raid their fridge and pantry cupboard.

My mum complains that I hardly 'visit' her. So today, I decided to fulfill the obligatory filial daughter duty and 'visit' her the whole day.

Instead, she sent me to Midvalley Megamall to do last-minute grocery shopping for the CNY celebrations. Top on her list is 3 pieces of pig's stomach.

Every year, on the first day of the lunar year, my mum brews a big pot of hearty, peppery pig's stomach soup for her clan of 30-odd family members. And I'm unofficially the best buyer for this ingredient - haha, it's true! No one, not even my brother (who is her pet among my siblings) is entrusted with this delicate task.

One year, my brother was delegated to buy the said ingredient and the result was a malodorous soup that smelled vaguely of cat's urine; which no one went for seconds or dared comment. That was the year with a huge pot of leftover pig's stomach soup.

It's fairly easy to choose the best pig's stomach. Regardless of freshness, the stomach lining looks grey. So the trick is to examine the veins. Simply choose one with healthy veins that has a red pinkish colour. And voila, you've the best slab of pig's stomach for brewing the most delicious pig's stomach soup.

Perhaps, a steaming bowl of peppery pig's stomach soup on the first day of the lunar year will kick me back in the CNY mood. Yeah, and I'm rambling on about pig's innards.

Anyway, Gong Hei Fatt Choy, everyone!

CNY blues

After months of resisting the gorgeous necklaces at pashupatina, I caved in today and bought my first necklace online. The lovely blue hue of the necklace beads was too exquisite to pass. And it's going to cost me a ridiculous RM250.

Perhaps, it's to compensate for my non-exisiting CNY mood. Don't know why but I'm so not in the CNY festive mood this year. I didn't buy a single dress or shoe or let alone, a red floozy bag. And this is most uncharacteristic of me - I didn't bake a single cookie.

It was a seriously spur of the moment purchase which I took a gamble to buy online, for P.os Malaysia service is questionably reliable.

I don't know what's with me today - buying things without even trying.

We are family

(on the phone)
Mum: Hello, girl ah. Don't forget we have reunion dinner at Imbi Palace Restaurant this Saturday.

Me : Yes, Ma.

Mum : Dinner starts at 5.30.

Me : What?!

Mum : 5.30

Me : 5.30?! Why 5.30?

Mum : Because I've booked 4 tables and the restaurant says it's either 5.30 or 8.30. Because they're heavily overbooked. So have to let diners eat in two shifts.

Me : Huh? Eat in shifts?! Ok, whatever. I'll be there at 5.30

Mum : And girl. We are visiting your place on neen chor yat.

Me : No! Ma, cannot!!

Mum: Why not? We haven't been to your place.

Me : I don't have any furniture. Haven't bought a sofa set. I've been sitting on the floor to watch tv.

Mum: But Uncle Yee, Aunty May and your FAMILY (she meant the rest of the 30-odd family members of the clan) want to come visiting...

*********

And that's precisely why I had to get my own place.

* Neen chor yat - Cantonese for New Year's Day

Mememe 4

Alrighty. Got tagged by Little Miss Drinkalot.

4 jobs you've had in your life
- University library assistant (Australia)
- Kitchenhand at a Thai restaurant (Australia)
- Bank Officer (M'sia)
- Advertising Account Exec (M'sia)

4 movies you could watch over and over
- The Sound of Music
- Little Women
- Amelie Poulain
- The Bourne Identity (+ Supremacy)

4 TV shows you love(d) to watch
- CSI
- Come Dine with Me
- Faking It
- Sex and the City

4 places you've lived
- 612, Taman Nee Yan, Seremban
- Upstairs a double-storey terrace house at Ipoh Road, KL which was opposite a pig farm.
- An old, creaky fifties era house in Australia
- Studio flat in Australia

4 places you've been on vacation to
- Tokyo
- Sydney
- Hong Kong
- Burma

4 places you would rather be
- Provence
- Paris
- San Francisco
- New York

4 of your favourite foods
- Tandoori Chicken & Nan
- Seremban Beef Noodles
- Hokkien Noodles
- Sashimi

4 websites you visit daily
- HSX (to rub my hands in glee; watching my Hollywood shares grow)
- Elle
- The Writer's Almanac ( Garrison Keller's voice is so earthy and mellow)
- New Musical Express

4 tagged
- Anjali
- JellyGirl
- Tiffanie
- Mao Tai

To call or not to call?

Last night, 7.30pm on Yahoo IM chat-

CCQ - Happy new year. Tis a bit late.

Glenn- No worries, babe. Happy new year 2 u, too.

CCQ - Nice photos u got there at ur Christmas party.

Glenn- Thanks. You missed all the fun lah. My nieces & nephews are the cutest bunch. Can die one.

CCQ - Totally agree. ;)

Glenn - Eh, I tell u this. Promise u won't get mad at me, ok?

CCQ - What is it? I promise I won't throw a hissy fit.

Glenn - Sure, ah?

CCQ - Yeah. Fai-teet lah.. TELL!! Aiyah, u arr. Worse than women.

Glenn- Erm...
J has a present for you. He thought you might turn up at the last minute.

CCQ - ....

Glenn - Hello? U not mad at me?

CCQ - Nope. I didn't get u guys presents. Eh, u sure it's for me?

Glenn - I saw a golden wrapped present and he didn't give it to anyone. So I thought surely must be for the princess who was supposed to come. Golden wrapper- all so classy and elegant. For who else lah?

CCQ- Eeyer, u sure or not?

Glenn- Yep, absolutely 100% positively sure. I got Jo (his g'f) to peek and it says for the princess here.

Holy moly. What shall I do? To call or not call him?

Drats. Just after I got all weepy and brawled my eyes out on Sunday.

*Fai-teet - Cantonese for 'hurry up'

Falling

I received a mass-email from Glenn yesterday, with a link to his Kodakshare webpage. In the email, he wished me (and some other people whom I don't know) a very happy new year.

Two weeks ago, Glenn invited me to his Christmas party at his hometown, Penang. And it was inevitable that I'd have to hitch a 4-hour ride in Mr. J's car to Penang. Not wanting to make things more complicated with Mr. J, I turned down Glenn's offer. I was (and still am) dealing with the breakup.

In Glenn's Kodakshare page, there were photos of the Christmas party which I missed. There was one charming photo of Mr. J cradling this little boy in his arms. The little angel looked around 3 years old. Little angel rested his wee head on Mr. J's shoulders and Mr. J was grinning at the camera.

When I first saw that photo, I smiled. After viewing the rest of the album, I went back to that photo. This time, I noticed tiredness and exhaustion at Mr. J's face. He looked so tired. He had huge, dark underbags. I could instantly tell that his aura was dull and low from the senseless weekly clubbing, drinking and partying. And that troubled me last night.

This morning, I woke up with this huge sad void inside me. And I realise that I'm feeling sad because I didn't feel that tugging of the heart when I saw Mr. J cradling the little boy. I'm sad because I don't miss Mr. J. anymore. I'm sad because he looked so worn out and drained.

I honestly wish I could pick up the phone, right now, and call him. But I don't want to detect weariness concealed by his boistorous laughter. I don't want to see exhaustion behind his boyish grin. I don't want to sense dread behind his updating me on his seemingly happy life.

Seeing him in deep denial with his own reality hurts so bad.

I came undone

I am not one of those women with an extensive shoe wardrobe. I only buy shoes when I really like them, which is a rare probability. For the past 2 years, I've been alternating between black ballet flats and black strappy heels for work.

Yesterday, I was viewing exquisite artwork of Nirmala Dutt's at Valentine Willie Gallery at Bangsar when my black ballet flats came undone. The left outer sole has unglued itself and my left shoe flapped a little as I walked. I got a little paranoid of the whole shoe coming off with the outer sole left lying on the pavement. That would be so embarassing. Imagine, me doing an unglamourous version of Cinderella leaving behind one outer solle of her ballet flat on the pavement for all Bangsar lunch crowd to see!

I could easily fix my flats. All I need to do is visit my friendly neighbourhood malay cobbler to glue it back. But last week, I saw this gorgeous pair of black suede flats with a sparkly edging at TopShop.

Today, I decided to go to TopShop to check it out. The flats were a little pricey at RM179 and I wasn't in a splurge mode. So I thought I go check out Zara sales instead. As I stepped into Zara, the left heel of my black strappy heels got stuck between this metal floor divider at the entrance. Not to make an utter fool of myself, I merely tugged my left foot to get the heel out. Unknowingly, I left the little plastic sole stuck between the metal edging. As I walked, I heard an unusual light metallic clink from my left heel. It was only in the dressing room that I discovered the mishap.

I literally had to skip back to TopShop, just to get the black suede flats before I wear out my left heel. I tell you, I felt really ridiculous as the TopShop sales assistant gave me a knowing smile as he had greeted me earlier.

Never in my life have I had such a bad, baaad shoe day. And not once but two days in a row!

(Pic - The TopShop flats that saw me skipping 100 metres from Zara to TopShop at Midvalley today)

Afternoon antidote

I hate afternoons, especially after lunch. Between two to four o'clock, my brain goes into shutdown mode and I struggle to get work done.

Over the years, I fought against the heavy afternoon stupor where my lazy procrastinating self emerges from nowhere. I get distracted by a million and one things- reply emails, play online games, make a trip to nearest mall to get really unnecessary things like Nivea body cream and even toothpaste.

After much trial and error, I now have a winning formula that beat the afternoon lethargicness.

1. Have a light lunch - I usually have a bowl of soup and sometimes, a tall, cold glass of tomato juice with a sprinkling of pepper.

2. Drink copious cups of jasmine tea. When really stressed and headachy, camomile tea is especially good in relaxing my tense shoulder blades and calming my frazzled mind.

3. Slather on Jurlique rose hand cream. It has to be Jurlique's rose and nothing else. The rose scent is simply divine and it keeps me going.

4. Blog. Yes, writing one entry gets me back on the track. :)

My wish collage for 2006

Every new year's eve, I'd sit down and do a wish collage. Things that I aspire to do and to have. I'd skim through old magazines and tear photos and phrases of things that I want in my life. Strangely, it doesn't take me long to find the right images. I usually complete the wish collage in about thirty minutes.

In 2004, I wished for a boyfriend , so I did a collage with mandarin birds and couples. Believe it or not, I found myself in not one but two relationships- both pretty short but intense experiences.

Here's a sneak of my wishlist for 2006. The key to make things happen- do the wish collage and forget about it for the rest of the year.