MaRvELgAL.blogsome.com

While

meanwhile….

Can’t spot the difference? Just check out the crowd size. Hundreds vs thousands.

petrol hike king’s birthday kuala lumpur june 2008

Ah finally, been waiting for about a month since we planned this Perhentian trip with my boyfriend and friends from Bishan a.k.a Kenny Gan, Stanley and Pek Bee.

We were really lucky to still get accommodation during this long Wesak weekend, thanks to Mei’s recommendation of D’Lagoon Chalet. The other resorts at Perhentian were fully booked.

Our journey started with train ride for more than 12 hours, from Johor Bahru to Tanah Merah.

Through my experience with the long distance traveling, this time I smart a bit. I brought a book “Wild Swans” by Jung Chang (till now still haven’t finished reading), my greatest friend, Nintendo DS, and my recently uploaded 949 songs into my new 8GB Sony Ericsson w960i, on board to accompany me on our super long train ride. We even went to the canteen coach to have our best-mee-goreng-ever-tasted, however, this time, it wasn’t that great at all. Stan was so disappointed because he purposely joined this trip just to eat this mee goreng. Although the journey was long, I was really excited. I thought I won’t be able to sleep but I did. What a pig.

Need to mention one funny incident. Before we reached Tanah Merah train station, I managed to catch a train officer and asked if there were taxis available from the train station to the Kuala Besut jetty. He was very helpful, immediately took out his handphone, called his friend ‘Beri’ to arrange a taxi for us and that’s settled! I asked the officer his name, and he flashed open his jacket to reveal his name tag ‘ZAKARIA’. Hahahaha. A mini strip show. The action is still replaying in my head.

..click here to continue reading..

You know the food is good if I can finish mine! Hahaha! Best theory ever.

After work today, I tried calling my girlfriends for dinner. Chern was at Penang like dunno since when, Pek Bee needs to head to the gym and Fay disappeared, ignoring my calls. My boyfriend was still at work, as usual, that workaholic.

Which lead to a good thing so I had to dinner alone, and I bought a new handbag. Ah, don’t worry, it cost only $10. I have never believed in buying expensive branded handbags because I get bored of it so easily, like Singapore’s political scene. But cannot cheapo on backpacks, because you really need to invest in a good, quality one, like mine, which I love so much and carrying heavy stuff is a breeeeeeeeeeeze.

Today I discovered a new eating place in my area, which I have never been to before after staying here for nearly 2 years. As usual, I couldn’t decide on what to eat, so I just talked to my feet.

“Feet ar feet, take me to a new place lar, damn bored of the eateries here oredi.”

“OK”, feet simply said to me, and I trusted it.

So off they took me to…. JIA XIANG SARAWAK KOLO MEE. Hahahaha. And only because feet understood me, and feet walked to the shop where NOBODY was eating, so I don’t have to queue and wait long time.

I’ve tasted the Sarawak Kolo Mee in KL before. Not too bad, but it’s not something you’d want to eat everyday.

I was really expecting the worse lah, the mee must taste horrible like wanton mee here, really sucks. Completely tasteless. Actually, completely taste like flour.

But surprisingly, it didn’t wor. It was actually quite nice and acceptable. I ordered the recommended dish, which also served wanton, char siew and abalone (you can choose prawn). The sambal was really good, and the wanton was really fresh. I finished the entire bowl! And the portion was just right for me. In fact, it even tasted better than the local mee pok / mee kia, which is quite crappy, actually. You can only taste vinegar, and that’s about it.

I wanted to take some pictures but I didn’t because I was too occupied with enjoying my meal. Then I tried to google some pictures and read some blogs about this Jia Xiang Sarawak Mee. Most bloggers, especially Singaporean bloggers, dislike the taste of this kolo mee. Just try and google and see what I mean.

I find Singaporeans disliking everything that’s Malaysian. So for us Malaysians who finally found good Malaysian food in Singapore, these restaurants don’t usually last long because they don’t have enough ’supporters’. We should do our part to support Malaysian food here in Singapore, like Klang Bak Kut Teh, Ampang Yong Tau Foo (though quite misleading here), KL Chee Cheong Fun and finally, this Sarawak Kolo Mee.

OK, next time I will try the curry flavour.

jia xiang sarawak kolo mee

Dear friends and dear Malaysians anywhere in the world,

Thank you for your voice and thank you for your votes.

Yesterday, we have spoken through the ballot boxes. And we have denied the ruling party 2/3s majority. This means, they cannot simply amend the constitution and it will take more than debating skills and calling members of parliaments "Racist racist racist!" or "monkeys" to change a policy.

The Opposition has also captured 5 states: Kedah, Kelantan, Penang, Perak and Selangor. 

I am very proud of you.

Truth to be told, this was my first vote. My first vote! I came back from more than 500km away to vote. And I felt immensely moved that although it seemed that my voice was so small in that little piece of paper, my voice was a part of a large declaration of the people, telling the government that we had enough of your incompetence.

Do you feel the winds of change? I do.

I am very happy to be a part of this revolution. 

To the Opposition, you’ve done a great job. Thank you and I salute you. But this is only the beginning. Work harder for a better Malaysia.

To all volunteers who have helped the Opposition during election campaigns, thank you.

To all bloggers, your efforts of keeping the community always updated with news have been worthwhile. They will never ever underestimate our power anymore. I thank you.

To all my friends, near and far, who lent me their ears and and their email inboxes when I flood them about political news, thank you.

To Natasha, Kevin Vijay, Peter Kua, Lawrence, Fay, Stan, Mariean, Chern and my 7.5, thank you for staying till 3am yesterday and keeping each other update with the latest results, I thank you.

And lastly, to Politics101Malaysia, thank you for introducing me to the world of Malaysian politics, because yours was the first blogsite I visited and you inspired me to get involved.

The People have spoken!

It’s a good day for Malaysia. 

Every night I look forward to do something really enjoyable after work. Like my violin classes every Monday night. Teacher said I have been making progress, eventhough I have only been practising once a week, which is like the last final minutes before my class starts haha. And teacher said I learn very fast.

I guess it proves to say that I’m really talented *smug*.

Hey just imagine, if I really practiced everyday, I can be the worldest classiest violinist. Currently, teacher has been giving me these retarded Chinese pop songs to play. No challenge at all. Maybe I shouldn’t study pop violin, I should go for classical violin course. Take exams. Get a cert and go teach. It is very hard to find violin teachers nowadays, I’m sure there is a demand for them.

My teacher inspires me too. I like watching him play the violin, and everytime he does it, I tell myself I want to be better than him. In some ways, I got hot-hot chicken shit also on violin playing. I took it up for the wrong reason. I took it up because I adored Wang Lee Hom, then, and he knew how to play the violin and the piano. So I wanted to be like him. But when I stopped adoring and started hating him, I was lost as to why should I even continue violin playing. Sure, I’ve bought the violin… sure I’ve signed up for a month course but I had no reason to continue.

And now, my teacher is my inspiration, and he taught me many many things about the violin which I didn’t know. I used to look at a violin as a violin, but now I look at it as a beautiful musical instrument.

That’s life isn’t it? Just when you thought that you know everything, along comes a person who will make you realize and show you that there is so much more beauty in this world that you wouldn’t have noticed in the first place.

Also, my teacher has a wicked sense of humour like he will say, "… look at this chord, this can end on 5th right…. or is it…. hmmmm….?" and trails off with a mysterious tone of voice.

Apart from teacher, listening to songs with violin or cello accompaniment, or violin solos, also motivates me to continue learning violin. Like songs by One Republic. They were made famous by Timbaland featuring them in the song Apologize. Even in the song Apologize, you can hear the intro by a cello and a bass violin. And the same can be said for all their songs in their album "Dreaming Out Loud". I love the album, all the tracks are very good. If they hold a concert in Singapore, I will definitely go.

I have been addicted to exercising as well. Scientifically, exercising makes you spurt more endorphins.  Emotionally, exercising makes you happy. Financially, exercising makes no difference. One visit to the gym was enough to set me fired up in wanting to sign a 3 years membership with California Fitness. Their nearest gym is just 1 MRT stop away from where I stay and there is also another outlet just walking distance from where I work. I had a one month trial membership so I am going to try until the trial expires then…. err… see how. A few thousand dollars for a bloody gym membership is unnecessary expenditure, really. I can bring that money home and let my parents shop till they drop. Buy whatever they want. Then seeing them happy is priceless.

Actually, local community centres here provide gym facilities too, at the cost of $2 per entry, no need to sign up any membership whatsoever. You get the same gym equipments as those private ones. Of course the slack part is you don’t have showers, saunas, personal trainer, lockers and towels la. But the equipments are as well maintained.

Last weekend, I was back at KL. My main intention was to be in the ‘zone’ of election campaigning. Turned out that my zone was pretty dead. All the exciting actions only took place at ‘hot’ areas like SS2 and Lembah Pantai. Even Puchong saw the visit of Anwar Ibrahim. So I painted my house in protest. Orange colour. My next door neighbour, who was an Indian, was fed up with the ruling coalition as well, especially Samy Vellu.

Even so, I could still see the ceramah like I am there, as they are many many video uploads of those ceramahs at Malaysiakini.tv or YouTube. I particularly like Haris Ibrahim’s speech at SS2 and one of his lines that struck me was,

My friends, Dr Chia mentioned just now, 50 acts to amend the constitution introducing 700 amendments… this is OUR document! They took an oath, every time an MP enters parliament he takes an oath of office. What does he say?

I swear to defend, uphold and preserve the constitution.

BN has been dismantling our document SYSTEMATICALLY, in the process taking away our rights, in the process taking away our constitutional institutions… we have been sitting back and allowing this to go on for too long, why?

Jangan…don’t get involveeeee…. (laughter from crowd) 

ISA……

They, they hope we will continue to fear. And as long as we fear, they will rule the day.  

and 

Now, I think it was late last year November, Gerakan at assembly, suggested to Pak Lah, maybe it’s time for us to move away from race based politics.

What did he say? 

"Nation not yet ready." (laughter from crowd)

He don’t want us ever to be ready…. alright? As long as they can continue to maintain their race based politics, they will continue to divide us… they will continue to divide the economic pie. UMNO will say, this bahagian we want to give to our people, you don’t ask how we divide, OSA.

(laughter from crowd) 

And that is all I have to say.

violin one+republic california+fitness election haris+ibrahim gerakan umno

While walking down the street one day a Malaysian Boleh Minister is tragically hit by a truck and dies.

His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance.

"Welcome to heaven," says St. Peter. "Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you see, so we’re not sure what to do with you."

"No problem, just let me in," says the man.

"Well, I’d like to, but I have orders from higher up. What we’ll do is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity."

"Really, I have made up my mind. I want to be in heaven," says the Yang Berhormat.

"I’m sorry, but we have our rules," says St. Peter.

And with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had worked with him.

Everyone is very happy and dressed in the finest batik there is. They run to greet him, shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the people.  They play a friendly game of golf and then indulge themselves on lobsters, caviar and the most expensive food there is.

Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly guy who has a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having such a good time that before he realizes it, it is time to go.

Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises.

The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on heaven where St.Peter is waiting for him.

"Now it’s time to visit heaven."

So, 24 hours pass with the Yang Berhormat joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns.

"Well, then, you’ve spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now choose your eternity."

The Yang Berhormat reflects for a minute, then he answers: "Well, I would never have said it before, I mean heaven has been delightful, but I think Ai yam better off in hell."

So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. Now the doors of the elevator open and he’s in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage.

He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags as more trash falls from above.

The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulder.

"I don’t understand," stammers the Yang Berhormat. "Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and caviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time. Now there’s just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable. What happened?"

The devil looks at him, smiles and says, "Yesterday we were campaigning just like you during an election…… Today you voted."

I found a very good Chee Cheong Fun KL style hawker stall near where I stay. The sauce is really really like KL style. If you’ve watched the movie Ratatouie, you know there was a funny scene when the food critic ate a dish cooked by both the human and the rat, and he sort of went back in time to his childhood days and he teared?

Yeah, that is how I felt when I first tasted this Chee Cheong Fun. No kidding!

Finally, I am able to find something good here in Singapore that tastes exactly like how I like it in KL.

There was this Chinese Rojak stall beside too, that has a queuing system. Yes ladies and gentlemen you heard me right, a queuing system. You place your order with that really nasty and cranky old lady, you pay, you take your number, then you observe the digital LED board for your turn, then you collect your Rojak. And Singaporeans are very into food ratings with celebrities and all the other Makansutra eat eat shows. They proudly show off their articles, newspaper cuttings, awards and all that jazz and I can tell you, honestly, the ratings can’t be trusted.

Everytime I go and try the food from a 4-5 chopsticks rating stall, I end up cursing and spitting. I tolerated the behaviours of the stall owners; usually arrogant, obnoxious and like don’t want to do business like that, to try their food. I want to know, what is so big deal about this stall that has so many bloody newspaper cuttings and good ratings.

Ptuih lah. All the exaggeration for nothing. Just like that rojak shop with the queueing system. Really spit saliva. You pick any damn Rojak stall in KL also better than this over-rated stall. Even Malays make better Rojaks. Even Mamaks make better Rojaks. And the old lady is really cranky. Every time of the day. No customer service, no smiles. She probably thinks she can afford to be arrogant and be pushy cos she’s got too much to do. And Singaporeans don’t go there for the food, they just like to be in the hype.

When I was younger and staying at Pekeliling Flats, there was a market right in front of the flat, where part of the section of the market were food stalls. I remember my mother or my grandpa, always tapao (pack back) breakfast for us to eat from there, and one of my favourites was the Chee Cheong Fun. We were very close to the auntie who sold Chee Cheong Fun too. Until one day, word got around that there were worms in her Chee Cheong Fun. Aiyah you know lah, how when neighbours gossip, the whole market including my mother also knew about it. Gossips spread like fire you know, so we never buy Chee Cheong Fun from her anymore.

And there was this really good Chinese rojak under a huge tree at Pekeliling Flats. It’s right opposite the KL General Hospital. That was my family’s favourite. The uncle who sold the Rojak also knew us very well. Sometimes he gave extra pineapples cos he knew those were my favourite. You know sometimes I request for the Rojak with just pineapples and yau char kuey cos I wouldn’t eat the rest hahahaha.

I have since shifted to a new place but during my dinner earlier, while eating this KL style Chee Cheong Fun, I am reminded of those times when everyone was younger and things were simpler. I guess sometimes it’s not so good to be educated or be knowledgable. You learn too much, you absorb too much and the knowledge you have becomes a burden and it brings more pressure in life to succeed more than success itself. You are more a bitter person than before.

I don’t know what I’m trying to say, but… I miss my childhood days. I wish I could go back and stay there forever. I used to complain so much about it, and I wanted to grow up quickly to get out of that rotten place.

Now I wish I could go back.

It’s like when I am back in Malaysia, I can’t wait to get out of the rotten country. Issues like banning ‘Allah’, Chua Soi Lek, HINDRAF, BERSIH, lawyer issue, corruption, crime at all time high, ministers asking my race to go back to China, Port Klang bail out, AP issue, petrol hike, tol hike, squat issue, ISA detainees, Lina Joy; I wish I could leave the country quickly.

But now that I’m in a foreign land, I want to go back home to Malaysia. I miss Malaysia. I miss everything about it, the people, the smell, the traffic jams, the take 2 hours to find parking, the huge ass variety of food and the beaches.

Life is such irony.