Welcome, if you enjoy these posts please consider staying updated via RSS Feed.

1 year old

Posted March 4th, 2010 by mayni | 1 Comment

I can’t believe it’s March already. The past two months have flown by in a blink of an eye. It’s funny how when I was younger, I always saw myself living in a time bubble that never seemed to move forward. Now, I feel like it’s passing me by so fast, I can’t even remember what I had for lunch yesterday! (yes, I am acutely aware that could also just mean my memory is failing me).

Most of all, I can’t believe I signed up to this blog exactly a year ago. It took me a while to figure out what it was that I wanted to express through this blog. I knew it would be public and I wanted to set myself apart from the usual daily blogs millions of other people have. I wanted to write about my passions, my memories and my thoughts. After a while, the blog pretty much came on its own.

My dear friends, I don’t know if you have noticed this but this blog has now pretty much become a blog which serves no purpose whatsoever (lol). Sure, when I started, I did try to follow a particular theme as suggested by several friends. However, after about 6 months, I realized it wasn’t very practical for someone who gets bored so easily. So I experimented with the types of topics I wanted to write about, books, saving money, childhood memories, etc. After a while, I realized I was running out of things to write on those topics. So I decided to expand to other areas, food, cooking, health etc. Hence, this is the result of my writing in the last 12 months.

I am still surprised I have managed to keep this blog going this long. This is the only thing that has remained constant in my life for the last 12 months. I guess I have more stuff going on in my mind than I thought. After all, I find this to be a great creativity outlet. I have never had an artistic flair and neither am I gifted in music (which seems to be the running gene in my family - cept for my eldest sis and me) but writing is one thing that I have always enjoyed doing.

It helps that there are always so many interesting and exciting things that happens around our daily lives which most people just take for granted. One of my favorite past times is to sit at a busy corner shop cafe and watch the world go by. For example, if someone had been doing that this morning while I got off the tram, they would have noticed that my shirt had miraculously unbuttoned itself the entire way and I was struggling to hold on to it, hoping nobody saw me.

I suppose the one thing I could try and work on for this blog is to add more pictures and maybe jazz it up abit. But on the other hand, I quite like the simplicity of it and the fact that well, this blog is after all about writing. Then again, it could just be my lazy ass finding an excuse not to bother finding out how to jazz it up. ah well. maybe one day…

Happy birthday lifeminiseries! :)

Posted in category: General | Tags:

attraction

Posted March 1st, 2010 by mayni | No Comments

I was talking to a friend the other day who had just broken up with her bf of 11 years. We were discussing on the topic of men and what kind of guys she find attractive. I did not see it coming when she said she’s into white boys..especially since the guy she’s been with since high school is an Asian.

But, attraction is a rather subjective matter, I think. According to a research done, it seems that women find different men attractive at various stages of their menstrual cycle. Personally, mine doesn’t change that fast but I have realised that the guys I would have gone for when I was younger is no longer the guys I would be attracted to these days.

I suppose age plays a big part too. The older I get, the more attracted I am to the mature, settled, stable kinda guy. Physically, he has to be fit, healthy and takes care of himself. It is not hard to see that the underlying message is that I want to make sure my life partner is going to at least last another 40 years of my life and be able to help me raise our kids and provide for them without bailing out at the first opportunity or prematurely dying from smoking or other disgusting habits people may have.

My friend and I both agreed that personality plays a major factor (which I always think is more so for women than for men). It’s a rare occasion when I meet a guy (or girl for that matter - but different story altogether) whom I can instantly click with. I am always pleasantly surprised when I am able to carry long witty conversations with a stranger and be able to joke and give each other shit like as though we have known each other for years. No awkward pauses and none of those moments when I’m cracking my brain trying to keep the conversation going. And best of all, I don’t need to fake an interested look when I’m just absolutely dying of boredom inside.

I sometimes wonder what exactly is it that attracts couples together. Some people may end up together for 10 years only to break up. Others may have only met and married within a 6 month period. And, if you are with someone, is it still normal to feel attraction for another person? And if so, what does this mean? Personally, I think that people are bound to feel attraction for other people, regardless of marriage or in a committed relationship. I think it is all harmless as long as the line is not crossed. Unfortunately, judging by the number of people who are caught cheating or who have cheated, this happens more often than one likes to admit.

I suppose it’s just another “When harry met sally” debate. Can two people honestly remain as friends if there is mutual attraction? On rare occasions such as these, I’d like to have faith in the human race and say I’d like to think so.

Posted in category: General | Tags:

swimming

Posted February 24th, 2010 by mayni | No Comments

I had the opportunity to go swimming last weekend. The weather was just right and regardless of whether we ended up crashing my friend’s place to use her pool or not, it was a hell lot of fun.

One of the reasons why I really wanted to go was so that a friend of mine could teach me how to swim freestyle. I had signed up for classes a year ago but long story cut short, I just couldn’t be bothered arguing to the centre that they still owed me 4 classes.

When I was younger, my parents taught me and my sisters how to swim. That was the only ‘lessons’ we ever had. Sure, we learnt how to float, how to swim from one end to the other, how to stay underwater and just get used to swimming in a pool. But we never actually learnt anything else other than breast stroke.  I suppose on the upside, at least we got used to being in water and not freaking out when we are underwater. On the other hand, because I got so used to being in pools, I now freak out at the thought of swimming in the open sea where there are no edges that I can eventually hang on to when I’m too tired of staying afloat and also where I can’t see the bottom. Worst of all, where I know there are things lurking around that I may not even be able to identify. The worst thing you can get at a pool is a floating band aid coming right at your face. I won’t even touch on the pee-ing issue because everyone prefers to think it never happens.

Last year, when I signed up for classes, I thought, ok, I’m finally gonna learn how to swim freestyle. The instructor asked if I knew any other style and I said, “yea, my parents taught me breast stroke when I was younger and that’s basically the only thing I can swim.”

So she asks me to show her my technique which I did. When I got up, she had this look on her face and went, “dude, I don’t know what shite you just pulled right there, but that ain’t no breast stroke!”

Ok, she didn’t say that, but she may as well have! All I could think of at that moment was, WTF? What have I been swimming all my life if that wasn’t breast stroke???? Did my parents just make us invent a new swimming technique?? Like how they never corrected our hokkien?? Then I thought about how I had openly swam my ‘breast stroke’ in front of the hundreds of people since I ‘learnt’ how to swim. o…m…g.

Does anyone else feel my embarrassment here?

Anyway, moving along, I eventually learnt how to swim freestyle. It was great but extremely tiring. After less than an hour in the pool, I was exhausted. I got out of the water and could hardly walk without feeling like my legs were about to collapse on me.

I hadn’t practiced since then. So last weekend when I went back to the pool with a friend who was happy to teach me, it all came back to me. It  wasn’t so hard after that. I’m actually surprised I can swim that fast especially since breast stroke always seems so slow (then again, it could have been due to the fact that I wasn’t actually swimming breast stroke). Before I knew it, I’m already at the end of the pool. Now I understand how people can swim so many laps in an hour.

It was great being back in the pool. My family used to go swimming every Sunday and I hold many fond memories of those days. I just hope the weather doesn’t get too cold too soon!

Posted in category: General | Tags:

Being chinese (part 2)

Posted February 23rd, 2010 by mayni | 1 Comment

I was having my lunch earlier and like always, I was busy reading the news online. I wasn’t really paying much attention to my food and while I was busy scooping up the remaining bits of noodles, I looked down and realised what I had subconsciously done.

photo1

Does anyone else leave the best bits to the last as well? ;)

Posted in category: General | Tags:

Book review 4

Posted February 17th, 2010 by mayni | No Comments

I recently finished 2 more books over the holidays. The reason for this somewhat slow development is that when I was back home, I just caught up on my Lat magazines. Anyway, the two books I read in the last month+ has been very well worth the read.

Valley of the Horses

This is the sequel to Jean M. Auel’s “Clan of the Cave Bear” Earth Children series. It follows Ayla’s story from when she was banished from her clan and her survival story while looking for people of her kind. I was quite hooked from the first book and am happy to say it carried on to the second book. The only parts which I didn’t like about the book were the hunting scenes (but that’s only because I can’t stand reading/watching/hearing about any animals being killed) but I also realise that this was at a time when it was about survival and you couldn’t just go to the shops to get a piece of nicely cut eye fillet steak.

I give this 4/5 star.

The Kite Runner

AMAZING book. I hadn’t read a book like this for the longest time. I simply could not put it down. As a matter of fact, I finished it within 2-3 days, which is a feat considering the lack of time I have had lately. I had put off reading this for a while as I felt that it would have demanded more attention than the usual fiction novel and I am glad I did so. This book is incredibly captivating. I think it is the first book I have ever cried to. I highly recommend this book to anyone.

I give it 5/5 star. Hell..if I could give it 10/5 I would!

I am now in the process of looking for more books on my list but it seems the library doesn’t stock much of them. Either that or it has 2-3 people waiting in line to get their hands on them. So I have joined my local library instead. I will check it out this week to see if there are any good books in the list available there instead. Otherwise, I guess I can just read the 3rd instalment of the Earth Children :)
Happy reading everyone!

Posted in category: General, Stuff to do | Tags:

tong tong chiang!

Posted February 15th, 2010 by mayni | 1 Comment

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

So this year is the year of the Tiger. Apparently, according to my animal sign, it’s gonna be one tough year ahead for me. However, looking back 12 years ago (when it was the year of the tiger too), I had one of the best years of my life. Unfortunately, my friend felt the need to point out that each animal year is different from the last one so you can’t just make that conclusion. Whatever - I remember people saying it was a bad year back then too. I’m trying to look at things optimistically here.

I haven’t been back in Malaysia for the last 2-3 years for CNY as my family has adopted Dec as our reunion month instead. So now, I celebrate it with a CNY eve dinner with my small extended family here. It’s not too bad - there are usually 2 other families who join us. We talk about the same things - how life has been treating everyone, what’s been going on around us, good restaurants around, etc.  Then we finish eating with some leftovers given to me, I wish them well and hope to see them again in a year’s time, then I leave. When I arrive home, I find Indy hiding because the restaurant opposite must have let go some firecrackers.

A year later, we just repeat the whole thing all over again.

I guess on the upside, at least I don’t have to listen (and watch!) the dvd with those annoying pesky little girls singing Chinese New Year songs that my Pa (who doesn’t even understand Mandarin) always have a tendency to buy just before the day. That alone almost makes up for the fact that I don’t get to go home to spend the new year with my family.

Here’s wishing all a great year ahead!

Posted in category: General, Happy Thoughts | Tags:

life

Posted February 11th, 2010 by mayni | No Comments

Sometimes, life is like riding a ferris wheel isn’t it?

From the moment you get on the carriage, the anticipation builds up its momentum and your palms start getting damp. You look up and see the dangling legs from the other carriages and think, you’ll be at that spot soon enough. You wonder how many rounds you get but wave the thought away - it doesn’t matter, your turn’s about to start.

As the carriage starts moving upward, you feel your heart soaring up in the sky and for a brief moment, you feel invincible. For those few minutes, all your worries fade away and all you can think about is how happy you are feeling. You look down at the world bustling below you and it’s as though time just stood still. The higher you go, the more exhilarating it becomes while at the same time, at the back of your mind, you subconsciously realize, the harder the fall.

When you reach the peak, all you can think of is, “I wish this moment will stay forever”. But it never does. After all, everyone knows that what goes up must come down.

And so, your carriage is now replaced by another at the top. As it goes lower, you can feel your heart sinking with it. Then you go through the cycle all over again. This goes on a couple of times until you realise your time must be up soon. And that’s when the palm sweating begins again.

Each time your carriage goes closer to the ground, your beating heart becomes deafening, not wanting it to end. You dread having to face reality once again. Your mind goes on a frenzy - “is it the end already? But I haven’t fully enjoyed it. I was too busy. I was too distracted. Will they let me get on again? But look at all those people lining up! It’ll take me forever to get back on - I may never get the chance to do this again”. Then you realise you have bypassed the exit door. The relief is overwhelming. You realize your time isn’t up yet - you get another chance. You try to do everything better this time, you don’t want to make the same mistake as the last time.

Eventually, your carriage is the one that opens and you know it’s time to leave.

I guess the ultimate feeling at the end of the ride is to feel as though you have accomplished what you had set out for. You are ready to leave the carriage and leave no regrets behind.

For some people, unfortunately, the end arrives far too early. For many others, it is the fear of letting go.

Sometimes, no matter how hard you have tried, you realize there is only so much you can do alone. By that point, letting go is the best gift you can give to anyone, especially yourself.

“Letting go doesn’t mean giving up, but rather accepting that there are things that cannot be.” - Anonymous

Posted in category: General | Tags:

yuuummm

Posted February 10th, 2010 by mayni | 1 Comment

I am an instant noodle addict.

If I my Ma found out bout this, I’m dead. Actually, I think she already knows. Either way, based on the volume of instant noodles I eat every month, I am pretty sure I have prematurely brought my death forward anyway.

Thinking back,  I bet it was that blue monster featured on the gold mamee pack that got me hooked in the first place. I loved buying the 20 cent packet from the ‘kedai runcit’ (local sundry shop) opposite my house. I would smash it up as much as I can, then shake it to make sure I had covered all grounds before opening and devouring it to the very last crunchy noodle. It was the highlight of my day.

Of course, my Ma used to flip whenever she caught me spending all my limited pocket money buying junk food. What can I say? I was a kid after all!

When I moved overseas and was living on a student budget, I ate instant noodles constantly. $0.35 for a bowl of noodles compared to $6? HELL YEA! All I had to do was dunk some veges, tomato, chicken pieces and an egg in there and I had what some restaurants were selling for $7. I was mighty proud of my streetwise money saving noodles revelation.

Unfortunately, when I started earning decent money, my love for instant noodles kinda grew with it as well. As the world of research and technology advanced forward, I couldn’t help but notice the instant noodles rack turning into an entire corner, only to take over the biscuits area to monopolize the entire section which later became an entire aisle. I remember walking into an Asian grocery store one day and thought I had landed in instant noodle heaven when I saw the entire aisle was stocked with various types of flavours from all over Asia. I can easily spend up to 30 minutes just walking up and down the aisle deciding on which ones to get.

My favourite brands are the Nissin and Thai ones. I also favour Cintan because I grew up on those and the noodles have a nice chewy texture. I know friends who love the Korean ones but I find them way too spicy for me. I prefer the Thai ones which are tangy and sour. It’s also spicy enough for me. I recently discovered spinach noodles which has replaced my potato noodles obsession.

Although I like those ones that come in containers which you just pour hot water in, it just doesn’t seem to beat the ‘real’ thing. But if I had to choose, the Nissin Cup Noodles are the best. Unfortunately, it costs $3.50 each which is quite pricey compared to $0.45 of the regular packs.

Nowadays, I comb through each variety to find the latest flavours out there. I love the herbal flavoured ones and those that remind me of home like Hokkien Mee, Curry Mee or Soto Ayam flavours. Sometimes, I don’t even know what flavours they are because they’re written in another language. So, I judge it based on how delicious the picture looks like on the packaging. That’s when it’s usually a hit and miss scenario. I could end up eating something I have no idea what the flavour is and other times, I think…hmm…yuuum….!

I think about once every 2-3 months, I make my pilgrimage to the local Asian grocery store and stack up on instant noodles. I always wonder what the people at the check out think of me when they scan through all the packets of instant noodles from the overflowing basket.

At the moment, my pantry looks like this:

photo

Honestly, I think it looks quite harmless. I really don’t know why people always seem to gasp when they see it….hmm..

Posted in category: General, Happy Thoughts | Tags:

random thoughts…

Posted February 2nd, 2010 by mayni | No Comments

You know what I find fascinating sometimes?

Chickens.

Has anyone ever wondered how eggs come out of those tiny lil chickens? They’re about the size of their heads! And not only do they usually pop them out every day, we’re talking bout a few each time! Amazing..

I am highly strung these days. My patience is wearing thin and it does not take much to annoy the shit outta me. I am doing all that I can to occupy my mind so that it does not wander and visions of strangling certain people does not play in front of me as often. It is hard work.

So, I am trying to think about happy thoughts. Or, I suppose, in this case, random thoughts.

Now who thinks that the chicken came before the egg? Who here believes in evolution? I do. I like to know how things work. I find comfort in explanations. Of course, sometimes, logic doesn’t quite jump out at me when it’s late at night and I swore I saw a shadow move somewhere when I know nobody else is around.

Anyhow, I bet the egg came before the chicken. My theory is, the chicken used to be something else…and because of evolution, something gradually happened in the egg that made that animal evolve into poultry.

These days, there are heaps of shows on organic food and how it’s healthy for you and that chickens kept at organic farms lead a much happier life before being sent to the abattoir (or are chickens too small to be sent to abattoirs? Back home, they just keep them in coops til you are ready to choose the one you want. Then they take it out, break the neck and slit the throat within seconds. All you hear is a squawk and the chicken’s dead - probably never even saw it coming).

The older I become, the more conscious I am of death. The worst thing is, not just my own. I am concerned bout death of family (which is normal), beloved friends, acquaintances, and for some reason, especially animals. I am becoming increasingly bothered by animals killed not just in the wild for other animals’ survival (I never can bring myself to watch National Geographic) but by humans because of their greedy need of a tusk or genitalia, and worse of all, animals that die because their natural habitat has been endangered.

The more I watch these shows (which btw, are not documentaries but cooking shows), the more I seem inclined to buy organic meat. After going through the death of my first pet at the age of 13, each one that followed (not that I killed alot of them or anything - hamsters just have a very short life span!) were always comforted by the thought that they had a great life while it lasted. I seem to be living by that alot these days, especially when I am standing at the meat aisle deciding which pack is going into my chicken soup.

The only slight problem is the fact that organic meat tend to be about $2/kg more. But I think that’s a small price to pay for a chicken’s happiness for 3 weeks while it lived to be plumped up. I can almost see it running around in the open farm under the warm sun while playing around with its equally doomed friends.

Life’s a bitch sometimes.

Posted in category: General, Happy Thoughts | Tags:

i am old..I really AM!

Posted January 29th, 2010 by mayni | No Comments

I take the public transport to and from work every day. These days, because the tennis open is on, it’s hard to get a seat on the trams. This is fine as long as I can find a spot to stand and not have to sniff in the next person’s BO or get strangled by someone else’ hair.

My problem isn’t so much standing. It’s sitting. As long as I can get a seat, I’m happy. However, I also like to give my seat up for elderly people, pregnant women, disabled people, etc. That’s where the problem comes in.

See, as an Asian, I tend to look younger than the locals. So when I see a woman whom I think could be younger than me or just slightly older, I just think, tough luck. But at the same time, I’m wondering if other people are looking at me thinking, “look at that bitch – just sitting there refusing to give her seat up for her elders”. Is it just my conscience that seems to hate me or does anyone else have the same issue?

People here age remarkably fast. Someone my age can look at least 10 years older than they actually are. So I hardly think it’s fair that I should give my seat up for someone who can’t even take care of their youthful physical appearance. That’s what you get for trying to tan the freaking daylights out of yourself when you were a teen. Now, you gotta live the consequences and if that means no seat given up for you, so be it.

Of course, there are times when I do want to give my seat up but the person is on the other end of the tram, which really leaves me no choice but to stay put. I have experienced times when I would give my seat up when some asshole decides he has more right to sit on it than the poor lil lady standing next to him. These days, I tend to tap the elderly person and offer my seat so that nobody steals it instead.

Anyway, for the times when I am unable to do so because of the above said distance, I would then give ‘you should be SO ASHAMED of yourself’ looks to the men and young people who fastidiously ignore the elderly person trying to cling on to the railings for dear life. The worst are those who sit there and smiles to them pitifully and looks away. At least, although selfish, the former knew that what they were doing was wrong!

I know that this is nothing more than cultural upbringing. No respect is taught at home anymore. Parents just leave their kids to decide what they think is best and to make decisions and grow up as individuals without any discipline or guidance. Ok, I just made that all up, but I bet this exists because all of them seem to take the same trams as me.

Let me tell you about the experience I had in Japan. I decided to take the bus one day because I wanted to see what it was like instead of the train. Japan is notoriously well known for its aging population and sure enough, I did see a lot of older generation while I was there (all up, I saw about 5 children during my almost 2 week stay there). So while on this bus, a couple of elderly people came on board.

Now, what I am about to reveal probably doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world. The most extraordinary thing happened each time they came on board. At least 3-4 people would spring up from their seats for them to sit. These old people actually had a choice on which seats to sit on. It was remarkable to watch. I felt like I was in a parallel universe (the Japanese probably consider this to be true anyway). This is one of the reasons why I would go back to Japan in a heartbeat. I mean, sure, they work you to death there, but at the same time, they have the lowest mortality rate, that is, if they don’t commit suicide first from the workload. Ok, maybe not anytime soon, but definitely when one is ready to retire and live out the remainder of your life. Plus, by then, you can always count on getting a seat on public transportation.

Posted in category: General | Tags:

Custom Search