Want a bowl?

Today is the final day of Lunar New Year! Signifies the end of relaxation and celebration and glutton. Beginning of work, work and work.

Wuuwuu

Thank god for JULY! Keke!

Now, anyone throwing mandarin oranges tonight? I plan to throw a dozen, aiming at my B’s head! Muahahaha! Damn evil right me? But too bad he’s not in Penang. Oh well, gonna wait til next year only can do so. Keke!

]]> http://phingelicious.com/2010/02/chap-goh-meh/feed/ 4 http://phingelicious.com/2010/02/huat-ahhh/ http://phingelicious.com/2010/02/huat-ahhh/#comments Sun, 14 Feb 2010 03:12:49 +0000 angeline http://phingelicious.com/?p=1270 To all readers..

and Happy Valentine’s Day, B

]]> http://phingelicious.com/2010/02/huat-ahhh/feed/ 3 http://phingelicious.com/2009/12/year-2009/ http://phingelicious.com/2009/12/year-2009/#comments Thu, 31 Dec 2009 12:54:38 +0000 angeline http://phingelicious.com/?p=1119 Year 2009 is going to bide us goodbye in less than 4 hours time and let Year 2010 takes the throne.

This year has been bitter sweet year for me. Tough, tiring – but hey, I’ve made it through. I mean I’ll make it if nothing major will happen to me tonight.*smacks mouth*

I’m feeling abit nostalgic today. Went through some posts and comments in my blog. Some made me smile, some made me frown, some flared me up. Oh well, not easy to please everyone I supposed. Praises make me go further, critics make me stronger. So those who plans to make me down, make me climb higher instead. So, thank you for your harsh critics.

Self-discovery.

2009 is also the year where I grown maturely by leaps. I was taught to think in another perspective and optimistically. I was taught to decipher sentences in positive way. I was taught to convey my message clearly and sharply. I was taught to fight back in wiser words. I was taught to observe and listen more but speak little. I was taught that being lonely and alone is fine, as long as mind is occupied. I was taught to put family first before anyone else. I was taught to value and appreciate one’s presence and company as Death is ‘common’ now.

I was taught so many things that make me feel like I’m a better person now.

Working life.

Working life has been wonderful and torturous as well. I learned, I cried, I laughed. I am given great responsibility that’s beyond my capability. I am under pressure, increasing push – with hope of pushing me out of my comfort zone, mentally forcing me to rationale judgments in limited time. 9 months ago, I wondered if I could survive working in a cooking pressure, doing something that I never did before. 9 months later, I surprised myself by holding on this long. Reason : there are people coming in and resign in within 1-2 months of working. Some longer about half a year later.

Of course, I’m sadden by the fact that one by one, the friends I found at workplace leaving me. At the same time, I’m happy for them as they’re pursuing better career outside.

Granny.

I lost my maternal granny this year. She gradually felt sick since the death of her husband 5 years ago. I could feel sadness and loneliness in her eyes and would make her happy whenever I can. She was lonely as her grandchild all grown up; the youngest only played with her when she visited. Other than that, she sat at her chair, watching TV or staring into horizon. With nobody to talk to.

Soon, her eyesight got bad and she could no longer see us clearly. That was when her condition got worst. I supposed she felt frustrated for not able to see properly. In addition with nobody to communicate, I believed she drowned herself in loneliness and sadness.

From being able to walk freely, to being assisted by cane, to being carried around, to bedridden in span of 5 years. That’s how grief worked its way I supposed. Seeing her turning from a chirpy person to person who waited for her time to come, worried me as I’m very much similar to her. I know if I’m in her position, I would definitely end up being that too. So I vowed to be friend with ‘lonely’ in order to cope loneliness well.

Money management.

I found myself to be stringy than ever. I remember 10 years ago, I used to spend money on cute stationery, beautiful hairpins, earrings. 5 years ago I splurged on nice food and clothes.And shoes! Ah, I would buy shoes till my mum would harp on me – you got 3 pairs d! Why buy more? if she saw me with new pair of flipflop.

Now? I thought twice on the dress I love. I thought twice on the shoes I wanted to get. I thought twice on everything that comes out of my purse.

Probably because I want a fat piggy bank instead a slim one. Haha. Yet somehow it wouldn’t grow much. Hmm.

Travelling.

I always love travelling (who wouldn’t?). I’m thankful that I was able to travel domestically since I was baby. Though I can’t recall them. I know some of my friends never out of town before – so I was constantly reminded I was the luckier ones. I got even luckier when my parents decided to bring us overseas for holiday. So thanks mum and dad for showing the world to us.

This year for the first time, I went for a backpack trip to Cambodia with friends. First time doing all alone without having a tour guide following us all the way from Penang to Cambodia. Though we did seek for travel guide in Siem Reap, but this feeling is totally different from the normal tours I’ve been. It was way exciting, we have more freedom and we got closer to the local.

Everyone had the hype even after coming back from Cambodia which led to the 2nd backpack trip in early 2010 and 3rd in mid 2010.

There might be a Cinaland trip in between. Hmm.

True enough, 2010 is gonna be a hectic year for me.

Lastly, Myself.

To be frank, I’m not pampering myself even since I started working. I remember I used to put mask once every 2 nights to make sure my face stays healthy and fresh. I remember I used to do hair mask on my hair, to ensure it remained silky and nice. I remember I used to apply lotions like nobody’s business on my skin to prevent cracks and dryness.

What happen to me now?! Like an auntie – my high school friends teased me when we gathered 2 days ago.

Sigh. I’m turning into an uglyunfashionableworkslave.

Blah.

Resolution.

Come on, how could I end my post without resolute for year 2010? Though I can’t remember what was my 2009 resolution. Aha!

To keep it clean and simple – I resolute to be a better person, daughter, sister, lover, dog-carer, employee, colleague, friend, ipod-owner, listener, talker, companion, traveler-buddy,than year 2009.

Happy New Year 2010!

]]> http://phingelicious.com/2009/12/year-2009/feed/ 3 http://phingelicious.com/2009/12/falalalalaaaa-la-la-la-laaaa/ http://phingelicious.com/2009/12/falalalalaaaa-la-la-la-laaaa/#comments Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:04:18 +0000 angeline http://phingelicious.com/?p=1112 3 more days to Xmas! <3 <3 <3

Finally gotten and wrapped the pressiez for beloved ones and for the office Xmas exchange gift (see the one with ribbon and panda).

Excited I am!

Hope the person who got my gift will like it! Spent half an hour going round the store looking for suitable ‘unisex’ gift! Spent half an hour turning the ribbon I bought at Ikea last week into flower and folding the panda card! Haha!

Plan to surprise family members with pressiez as well. Just feel like seeing smile on their faces when they know they got gifts! Well, who doesn’t smile when they got a gift? Haha.

Pocket is burnt for now, but I believe if one willing to part with money for good cause, money will come back in double! Haha.

Can’t wait for this long weekend as well!

Tis’ the season to be jolly~* Falalalalaaaa~ la la la laaaa~*

]]> http://phingelicious.com/2009/12/falalalalaaaa-la-la-la-laaaa/feed/ 0 http://phingelicious.com/2009/07/cambodia-ep-7-exploring-tonle-sap/ http://phingelicious.com/2009/07/cambodia-ep-7-exploring-tonle-sap/#comments Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:42:56 +0000 angeline http://phingelicious.com/?p=870 Satisfied with our morning breakfast, we moved to our first destination – the lake of Tonle Sap. It was a jolly 20-30 minutes ride. But at that moment, I seriously didn’t have a clue on where we were heading to despite knowing the whole trip itinerary way before going Cambodia. Probably brain was still sleeping. Haha.

Our tour guide, Siya (or Ya) is a friendly person. He broke the ice by introducing himself and brief us his country, the history and the culture. He’s a soft spoken guy, so accompanied with the noise coming from the van’s engine, those sitting at the back of the van couldn’t hear anything at all. Probably should install a mic in the van then everyone can hear loud and clear.

We passed by this kampung area where we could see a bright arch on top of a hill from afar. As we moved closer, I could see the stairs leading up to the temple on top. I noticed that there is a small gazebo at the middle of the hill. Before asking out what’s that, Ya explained that is a temple where the villagers especially the fishermen go there to pray for safety and well-being as well as big catches from the river.

As he explained that, our van suddenly pulled a stop at a toll like area. Ya got off the van and our eyes curiously followed him. We wondered what was happening as there are people with guns. It was after Ya came back we know that he had to declare him and us to the officers there before granted permissions to get in the area.

Mr. van driver then drove along the river bank and I could see many houses on stilts. And floating houses too.

We saw make shift tents on the land, and Ya told us that someone is getting married later that day. And I begin to wonder is January 2009 the month where the people felt like getting married? Cause we witnessed 2 there! Haha.

Our driver stopped at the ‘parking lots’ near the ports. We got off the van and Ya led us to down the river bank where we could see whole rows of  long boats parked there!

Walking to the boats is not an easy task. We were taunted with souvenir sellers and stalked by a girl holding a slr! Unsure why she took pictures of us, I just shielded my face and looked at other place when she pointed the camera at my direction. As van parked at higher ground, we had to walk down the stone-y slope, before climbing up to the boat.

Our boat is beautifully decorated!!! There are 10 wooden chairs with seat cushions for us to sit and red cloth hanging on the side of the boat.

As I took my seat, I was afraid that I would fall into the river and got eaten by the catfish, so I hold on to the beam that secured the roof to the boat tightly when the boat started moving.

Luckily, the ride is steady enough that I learned to take my hand off the beam and started shooting.

Our boat came to a fork and we took the one on the left. There’s nothing much to shoot except for bushes, trees and boats that passed us by. It was windy as our boat was moving at maximum speed (I guess) and caused the waves threatening to wash our pants and shoes when the faster boat passed by us.

At the end of the route, we came to an open sea!

It was then dawn to us that it isn’t a sea that we’re looking at. But the lake of TONLE SAP – largest lake in South East Asia.

The boat took a left turn and we soon reached and stopped at this blue floating house. There were few boats parked in front of this house, so I guess this place is sort of pit-stop for this cruise.

We had to get off our boat, and it was kinda scary when we got off the boat one by one. Luckily there is people at the platform to assist me out of the boat. If ask me got off by myself, I’m pretty sure I’ll remain on the boat. Haha!

After all of us got off the boat, Ya led us to the catfish farm and the crocodile farm which is situated at the side of the blue house.

Seeing the crocodiles bersantai-ing down there, Aaron decided to throw in his Crocs to unite with the ones down there. Haha!

We then decided to walk into the blue house, to see what else to see. There’s a man, with a covered pail beside him. As we walked nearer, he then opened up the cover to reveal the ‘treasure’. It is a python. I IMMEDIATELY WALKED AWAY FROM THAT PAIL AS I’M OPHIDIOPHOBIA!!!

The man took out the python and offered to put around our neck. William offered his.

Slowly one by one offering theirs.

Except for me and B. Haha!

The snake was pretty aggressive when by the time it got to May’s neck. And it started hissing when it landed on Emily’s neck. Emily posed gracefully for the camera, and immediately yelled for help after that.

The man took back the snake and put it in the plastic pail before telling us, “1 dollah”.

We felt like being robbed at that time. Shockingly, we gave him a dollar bill – wondering is this part of the gimmick to earn few bucks easily by putting snake around visitors’ necks. -.-!!!

Connected to the blue boathouse, is another boathouse displaying fishes in aquariums. Nothing much to see as the catfishes are still in form of baby, not the gigantic ones. So, I walked over to the window and I saw 2 kiddos waving and paddling towards me. Seeing their cute expression, I took few pictures of them.

And then both of them started crying “miss… one dollah…”

I remembered what Wenyan told me bout the kids in Cambodia who begs for money. It was kinda turn-off for me, as those children supposed to attend school rather than begging for money. So, I walked away. The rest heard the cries, and walked to where I stood earlier and started talking pictures of them, as they posed for them again before crying the same thing. However some of them heard the kids saying, “sweet… sweet…” instead of one dollar.

I was taking picture of the surrounding when I suddenly heard the kids crying for their mum. Instantly, all of them walked away from the window. We hopped back to the blue boathouse and went up to the dock area. The view from the dock is magnificent!

It was windy yet sunny. We could barely open up our eyes. Yet we decided that’s the place to take awesome group photo. Haha!

After group shots, we went back to our boat and left the blue boathouse.

We saw a boathouse decorated with Korean flags. I guess quite a lot of Koreans visit Cambodia yearly, thus the existance of the boathouse. Or probably a Korean migrated there and opened up a boathouse for the Korean to visit them? If so, will a Malaysian move over there to built a boathouse decorated with Malaysian flags for Malaysians to visit? Don’t think so hor? Hahaha!

While passing the Korean boathouse, we saw a boat quickly paddled to a bigger boat with arm stretch out.

Then I realised the lady from the big boat was giving something to the local. I wonder what’s that.

Few minutes later, we heard kids’ voices and laughters. We searched for the source of the noise. It’s a floating school. Kids as young as 5 were seen paddling to and away from the school. Seeing that was really an eye-opener as I never seen a floating school with my own eyes before.

As we moved away from the school, I realised that it was a Vietnamese School! It made me feel that Vietnam is just a river away – which is true but wrong to use for the location I was at. Tonle Sap Lake is in the heart of Cambodia, so Vietnam is not near – unless you follow the lake and river heading South, you’ll reach the border of Vietnam in probably like a day or two.

15 minutes later, we found ourselves surrounded by swampy area on both sides of the river. Then we saw 2-3 boats parked at the bank on the left. They carried something from their boat to the land. Ya told us that someone had passed away, and their body will be burried there after prayers. I got goosebumps upon hearing that@.@

Then a fast speed boat passing us. Aaron who sat in front of me, was taking picture of the boat. This Korean lady in pink felt it’s nice to pose, therefore flashed a big sunshine smile with a peace sign to him. Little did she knows that everyone in our boat was armed with DSLR, quickly aimed our lens at her upon seeing her pose.

I guess she was shocked and paiseh that she couldn’t stop laughing and turned her head away. So, imho, Aaron is the one who has a nice purrfect picture of the lady! *claps*

Our boat reached the bank soon and we started walking up to our van. Then the girl with the slr started walking towards us with plates in her hands.

I saw my face and but I walked by as the picture on the plate didn’t show that it’s me. I wore cap and was looking at other direction, so it may look like me, but it’s not me. Bleks. The plate isn’t cheap though. But I didn’t bother remembering the price. Haha! The girls followed us to our van, but we just walked to our van without stopping and they still stood there when we closed the van door. It was only after our van moved away, the  ladies cabut.

It was a fun and eye-opener cruise with lots lessons learnt! I learnt to appreciate my life more and be total, TOTALLY grateful for what I had. So, to those ungrateful brats out there, get your pigu to Cambodia and you’ll stop whining and start to be thankful for everything you have right now.

coming next : an artistic place with full of talented people.

Why 10th monniversary?

**picture taken from somewhere in the net. Nice right? **

Do you hear me,
I’m talking to you
Across the water across the deep blue ocean
Under the open sky oh my, baby I’m trying

We were just friends – with both of us busy with own things. Yet, we’ll talk alot to each other when both of us were online.

Boy I hear you in my dreams
I feel your whisper across the sea
I keep you with me in my heart
You make it easier when life gets hard

Slowly, I realised that the relationship changed from normal friends, to close friends and now even closer…

I’m lucky I’m in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
I’m lucky we’re in love in every way
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed
Lucky to be coming home someday

Yes, this song is sort of ‘our song’ – and I miss singing this song with him. Our relationship can basically be summarised in this song; like I’m lucky to have his love, lucky to have his full attention n priority, lucky to be part of his life. And I’m sure he feels the same way.

On this special date, even though we didn’t get to see each other and celebrate the first Vday together since we’re 400++ km apart, yet I want to wish him Happy Valentine’s Day.

B, miss you dearly.

Not about Japan today. Can’t blog in detail on the hot spring bath bee-cors I smuggled in nikon s200 (now belongs to my sis) instead of d60, into the hot spring bath EARLYYYY in the morning (when they’re nobody there) to take pic of the place. The quality isn’t there, but still you can get the picture of how the bath looks like. So have to wait till my sis to come back from KL then only I will blog solely on the hot spring bath.

DK came back to Penang last Friday for Thaipusam! And after rotting in Penang for days, he only chose to see me the day before he goes back to Cyber. So sedihs.

Haha. That’s actually not true ler. Both of us have been very busy for past few days and were very thankful that we managed to meet up.

The juicy details of our pakthoring will not be disclosed here. P&C!!! Lalalaaa~

By the way, Valentine’s Day is coming soon. Initially, I can’t wait to celebrate this ‘extra-expensive-day’ with him. But UNFORTUNATELY, he’s unable to come back this weekends and I can’t go down to KL too this weekends.

I was disappointed, yes I was. But to think of that, 14th of Feb is too over exaggerated by human beings – all those the fancy dinner, big teddy bear holding hearts, chocolates, expensive flowers and gifts, etc2; totally not worth celebrating on that day.

And so he gave me an earlier gift!

Hopefully this is not the only one ar

No, that bear is a souvenir from Europe, not from him. The rose was in a nice wrapper, but I took it out, put in a glass bottle with the hope that it will bloom after few days. I even cut the wrapper and wrapped it around the bottle and tied the ribbons at the neck of the bottle to beautify the bottle.

I know, I’m very creative and smart for turning a plain glass bottle into such a attractive looking vase! LOL!!! BLEKS!!!!

Does that means we’re not celebrating Vday together this day? No way!!! We will definitely have a post-Vday when we meet again in March. Moreover, like what he always tells me, every time he’s with me is a Valentine’s day to him. Am I right, dear?

Happy Valentine’s day to the attached ones. If you’re still single and available, don’t fret! You can celebrate with your family members like what I’m doing this year. Or with bunch of friends? Who said you have to stay at home with long face just because you didn’t have a date? LOL!!!

Anyway, we went to Mae’s farewell dinner at Lao Sher Tea House situated at one of the shoplots in Burmah Road. Didn’t bring my d60 there, therefore no food pictures today. Paisehs.

The food there is nice. Just that the food is spicy. And I don’t take spicy food. Luckily, I ordered the tomyam fried rice, so it wasn’t THAT spicy (compared to the tomyam mee/bihun/tanghoon soup). So I only kantoi-ed halfway there. LOL.

Meeting Mae for the first time was really a pleasant one. She’s such a sweet, soft-spoken girl, that makes everyone just fall in love with her smile. Am glad that I met her before she heading to Melbourne for studies. Mae, all the best to you and stay happy always.

*yawn* Time to sleep. Goonai~ and stay tune for more.

Showered, donned new clothes and then went down to have sweet ‘breakfast’ – gingko, longan and red dates dessert.

After filling our tummies, angpow-taking session started! *ngek ngek ngek*

At noon, we headed to ah mah’s house in Balik Pulau. Had steamboat session there. But I’m not a fan of steamboat as I will feel full after 2-3 rounds and will feel hungry 1-2 hours later. ‘

-_____-”

Planning to watch ‘All Well Ends Well 2009′ in cinema late afternoon but then bcz I was unable to buy the tickets online, we decided to get down from the hill at around 4 to Gurney Plaza to try our luck.

However, we couldn’t get ourselves tickets for that movie as only front seats were available at that time. As we don’t want to strain our neck for 2 hours, we opted for another movie – The Wedding Game.

Mum suggested to have earlier dinner before the movie started. So, off we went to Sushi King.

Ordered their yee sang and my, it was very delicious! *yumyum~*

Satisfied with the food, we walked around the ‘almost closed’ Gurney Plaza. Most shops are closed for CNY and only reopen on Wednesday, therefore not much shops we can visit. Ironically, I saw alot of Chinese olang-s there. I guess they’re like us – headed to Gurney Plaza for a movie. LOL!

Review on the movie : ‘The Wedding Game’ is seriously one hell of a funny movie! I couldn’t stop laughing, it was really hilarious. 2 thumbs up for this movie

That’s my usual Day 1 of Lunar New Year. Tomorrow I’ll be heading to Kuala Perlis to visit my mum’s mum and relatives. LOL!

Again, wanna wish y’all Gong Xi Fatt Chai and get more angpows ya~