Archive for the ‘Penang’ Category

December, Penang Pt. II

Posted on February 18th, 2009 • Filed under KL, Penang, Personal Life, Triggerhappy • 1 Comment

Long overdue photos of my December holidays in Penang.

WARNING: ANOTHER PHOTO-FILLED POST

I spent a large amount of time with Wei Zhi, Ghee, June, Jason and Chuan Wei during my December trip back so here are some pictures

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Penang, December 2008 Pt. 1

Posted on January 18th, 2009 • Filed under Penang, Triggerhappy • No Comments

WARNINNG: PHOTO-FILLED POST!

My holidays usually consist of a lot of lazing, a lot of pigging out, a lot of tv, and a lot of napping. This time however, I spent most of my time rushing from here to there and there to here – total insanity! I’ve decided to scrap text (most of it anyway) and just display my holidays in a series of pictures.

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Regardless.

Posted on October 13th, 2008 • Filed under Musings, Penang • No Comments

It’s 3.30 in the morning and I’ve spent 6 hours discussing my Assessment and Profiling group project with my group mates. Simply put, I’ve wasted 4-5 hours on it. 4-5 hours I could have spent completing another dreadful assignment and 4-5 I could have spent studying for my coming midterms. But we do what we have to do. So now that I’m waiting for them to apply finishing touches to the assignment, i’m here – blog-hopping, Facebook-hopping and dying to sleep.

During the discussion, I managed to go out to talk to Bee Sim, talk to my other housemates about my hair, feel hungry because I hadn’t eaten dinner, talked to my mum on the phone and had a pretty long phone conversation with Eddy S (I’m only so specific because I know more than one Edward) and I’m still here. *sighs*.

I’ve been commanded (his version of a suggestion) to blog about what we talked about today. But since I don’t like repeating myself (that often and that soon), I’ll blog about something else related to that today.

Yes, I’ll blog about you, big (and I mean big, but not in a very nice way =P) doofus.

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Guess Where I Was Last Week?

Posted on June 23rd, 2008 • Filed under Penang, Triggerhappy • 3 Comments

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Rats! (Part 1)

Posted on February 16th, 2008 • Filed under Penang • No Comments

WARNING: LOTS OF PHOTOS

Gong Hei Fatt Choy everyone!

I’m back in drabby ol’ KL after the terribly short Chinese New Year holidays. Took a small amount of class skipping to stretch it from the measly 2 days to almost a week! Aside from the angpows and the food, CNY is my favourite time of the year because of…. family gatherings! Yes, when it comes to family, I can be a total collectivist. I enjoy huge family gatherings with noisy kids, boisterous uncles (and an aunt or two), heaps of food and a blaring tv or karaoke system. It’s really the way it is with my maternal side of the family.

First days were spent according to tradition with the first visit-y place being my dad’s sisters’ place (not grandma’s anymore since she passed away) followed by dad’s eldest sister’s place, my grandaunt’s place (mum’s side, granduncle’s wife, followed by my dad’s close friends’ place (where he apparently spent most of his childhood and schooling days at). Then we head home and chill the night away. This year I added a twist by joining Emmanuel in Gurney for some cocktails (yum – alcohol!) after dinner before heading home to snooze the night away.

Day 2 was also typical, visit my PorPor’s (grandma’s) place! PorPor here means mum’s mum. Day 2 (aka chor yee, cheh jee) is my most favourite day of Chinese New Year yo!

How can I not?

1. Lots of family members = noise + chaos

CousinFei & TinTin.

CousinWen & TinTin

TinTin The Adorable

Cousins Nikki & Fei!

MonkeyCousinRyan

The kids on the swing – (L-R) Ryan, Nikki, Fei, TinTin

Looking at them, I can’t help but think of the fact that 10 years ago, I was in the exact same position on the second day of Chinese New Year in my PorPor’s house on that same swing that my KongKong always coats with a fresh layer of paint once the old one wears out. Now that KongKong’s not around anymore, that swing is still there, in the same silver coat of paint he last painted it in. 10 years ago, I sat on that swing playing the same games with Nico, Chris, Chern, Hoong, my brother and on some years, Alexis and Rachel. When I watched them, I felt so very old…

And then another little monkey showed up

Little Jie Shern. Seems like only yesterday that he had two teeth and wanted to be picked up and carried everywhere!

Of course, there are the ones who’ve grown up like…

Cousin Yen Chern who’s a big boy now – this picture doesn’t do the justice to his good looks

Or my favourite cousin Yen “TuaPui/Fatty” Hoong who spent a lot of his childhood at my place raiding the fridge.

And even my brother who’s a big boy now even though he doesn’t act like one

The Boys

Not forgetting the relatives from the older generation

My HowMoonKuPor -KongKong’s second sister (he’s got 8 of ‘em, 3 of them half sisters!)

HowMoonKuPor is here with my HowChanKuPor, the youngest of my grandpa’s 5 sisters. I swear the sisters look more and more alike as they age!

My beloved PorPor who looked so tired from all the preparations!

My uncle EngHee whose moustache (and now hair) gets whiter and whiter every time I see him

His eldest brother my uncle EngIt who came all the way from London to celebrate the Lunar New Year with us!

Uncle Patrick who decided to do a JieShern immitation O_o

My relatives gathering outside of the house in line to wait for some yummy CharKoayTeow!

(L-R) UncleEngIt’s friend, UncleEngIt, Dad, MeiAieEeEe

(L-R) Uncle Andrew, Uncle EngSim+AuntieJude

2. Fantastico Food!

(L-R) Uncle Lenny, EeEeMeiLee, Uncle Andrew taking their turn to dig into the feast!

3. And, of course, the sinful once-a-year blackjack session?

One thing for sure – CNY is always bloody hot!

Year after year, I melt in the sweltering heat that Chinese New Year brings and this year, it’s not much of a difference, heat-wise. What I miss most about Chinese New Year this year?

Nico, Christiaan, SinKuPor and UncleFrits. Since last year they’ve gone back to Holland (since there’s no more sand for Singapore’s expansion) and I totally look forward to seeing them this July/August!!

Alexis was down last year and spending CNY with her was a blast!

That night, I had dinner with my dad’s side of the family at Forum@Island Plaza. It was a typical affair really, nothing fancy. Just my dad’s siblings and their families.

The Highlight of the night would have to be the children (my nephews and niece) or dinner would have been the usual quiet affair.

This Monkey would be Edwin.

I told him to do the gangster look and this was what he gave me…

He was our little poser monkey who loved pictures! Posed with my brother

Then me

And then them

(L-R) Addy, CousinAlvin, Edwin & AuntCPeng

His older brother and him later ran off to pose with their uncles

(L-R) Edwin, Brother, Addy, Daniel, Moses

And then, there was the little princess, Celine

Cute little doll. Her dress was beautiful! Very fragile and girly though, Not the run around and play type. But adorable nonetheless.. Not easy to warm up though..

I ended the night joining Emmanuel, Leon, Zam and TowerRecordsDaniel and their friends for a drink at SegaFredo in UPR. Hadn’t seen the lot of them in a long time and it was great to reminisce and catch up over coffee, stout and Heineken!

More pictures up next!

Crazy at Home

Posted on June 24th, 2007 • Filed under Penang, Personal Life • No Comments

My father is driving me absolutely crazy now.

He’s hovering behind my back.

Laughing like a hyena.

Cis

Bedebah

>_<

Mini Penang Trip

Posted on May 29th, 2007 • Filed under Penang, Personal Life, Triggerhappy • No Comments

I made some time in my busy (liar!liar!) schedule to return to my beloved hometown for a couple of days. Flew by AirAsia on Thursday around noon and got back Saturday afternoon (which reminds me of a story I want to share with you).

The purpose of my trip this time round?

These two bubs!

The last time they were in Penang was last year circa Sept and I only got to see them for a couple of days. Usually, my Unclen’AuntJ (and the bubs) will make a trip somewhere during the second half of the year. But this year, duty calls for my careersuccessful Aunt and destination Asia this time around? Land of the MerLion. So they thought why not make an early trip?

If I thought my last trip was short – this was shorter. I saw them only for a total of two days and spent as much time as humanly possible with them. To my pleasant surprise, the both of them had near perfect recollection of me and did not really need to warm up to me (thankfully!). Unfortunately, due to time constraints, I did not manage to capture the usual impossibleamountofphotos I normally would’ve. Previously I could take them to the park, pool, beach and snap away at them playin but this time around I could only make do with photographing them when we went for a temple visit on Friday afternoon.

Thursday afternoon within an hour of my reaching Penang, I joined my mum, the bubs and my Unclen’AuntJ for lunch along Gottlieb Rd. and had fantastic braised beef horfun in blackbean sauce and not so fantastic claypot chicken rice. After our late lunch, me and the bubs went for a quick beaching and swimming session in their hotel before they were dropped off at my place for some good ol’ babysitting. The rest of the day was spent running after chattyandhyperactive Joel and tutoring the more demure Julianne in Math and Piano. Julianne stayed over and Joel wanted to too so he kicked up a huge fuss over being uninvited – or rather not allowed attendance – to our ’slumberparty’.

The next morning, to my utmost horror, when I woke, I was voiceless. I attempted to wish Jul g’morning when all I could do was croak.

{Jul: Why do you sound funny?}

Multiple attempts to clear my throat were to no avail. Eventually, I swung by a clinic in PrimaTanjung after heading to the CIMB Branch there and was duly diagnosed with laryngitis. Larynwhateveritis could not stop me from indulging in ThoYuen! HongTouMeen, MunMeen, KohnHorFun, YauChoy and their scrumptious fried rice lined my tummy after the Chung-Chin family had their very filling twohour eating session. For Penangites, Tho Yuen is an ancient coffeeshop run by equally ancient staff along Campbell St. It’s the only place I know of in Penang that has that delish hongtoumeen. To my horror (and definitely to my relatives’ horror as well), my mum and her sister EE Mei Lin were not full after that feast! No, they weren’t. So together with my poor grandma who had to tagalong, they headed to Padang for pohpiah and charkoayteow and sorts while I joined the Unclen’AuntJ, the bubs, and AuntJ’s doctor guest Dr. Owamura (I think) sightseeing.

We went to the Burmese temples (sleeping+standing Buddha) in between Kelawei Rd. and P. Tikus before stopping by Mt. Erskine’s hawker stalls for delish muarchee on the way to Teluk Bahang’s ButterFlyFarm (which to the bubs’ disappointment, was closed).

Following that, I went home for some muchneeded rest before dinner in YellowLight. YellowLight is a Thai restaurant cleverly hidden in a little house where Mt. Erskine meets Vale of Tempe’s notorious winding road. It’s very noticable from a distance and quickly identified by a tall pillar on top of which sits a once-yellow-but-now-white lamp. Delish Thai food followed and home.

I came back to KL the next day but tales of my travels can be postponed.

Jul and Joel have grown so much in less than a year, it kinda makes me nostalgic to think that in no time, they’ll be taller than me and physical distance won’t be the only thing separating us cousins. Quite different from Alexis and Rachel (who were both born on Malaysian soil and spent many childhood years with us playing), Jul and Joel are more Americans than Asians and in a few years, coming back to their father’s homecountry will no longer be the luxury it is now. It pains me to think that our generation of cousins, compared to my mother’s generation, will soon be more foreigners to each other. With distance separating most of us, it’ll only be me, my brother and Su Yin.. and maybe Alexis, who will keep in contact. That saddens me greatly. My mother has a large network of cousins, both local and abroad, and they are a rowdy crowd in search of good fun. They’re friends and family and care for each other. That would also be thanks to the number of children my GreatGrandPa had in total – 3 sons and 5 daughters with my GreatGrandMa and another 3 with my StepGreatGrandMa. My grandparents had 4 children. I doubt when I’m my mother’s age, I will have that same network.

It won’t be long before culture, age and distance separates us first cousins.

I’ll always remember days I spent frolicking in the sun with these two bubs, being bigsister and TickleMonster.

I definitely miss the bubs.

Monotony

Posted on April 28th, 2007 • Filed under Penang, Personal Life • 3 Comments

{Now Playing} Rilo Kiley – Always

I’ve been relying a lot on visual aids to accessorize my posts and I’m definitely affected by the lack of Adobe Photoshop to properly edit/resize/caption-ize my photos. I’ve also just realized that I’ll probably have to redownload all the brushes and fonts I had previously! How catastrophic!?!

Excuse the geek please, she’s absolutely mortified at the prospect of scouring the endless archives of artsy sites like fontgarden and deviantart to regain lost brushes and fonts.

Well, geektalk aside, let me give you a glimpse (take it metaphorically) into my life back in Penang.

Wake up at some godforsaken hour when the sun’s nicely vertical, or maybe leaning slightly west already.
Sits lazy ass in front of Miyako.
Takes a shower.
Has lunch.
Turns on tv to channelsurf.
Goes upstairs to seek Miyako’s company.
Opens a book.
Takes a nap (if two hours in dreamland is considered a nap).
Wakes up for dinner.
Watches some tv (provided my mum’s not hogging it to watch Channel 21).
Munches something from the refridgerator.
Goes up for Miyako again for the next few hours.
An hour or two before the sun starts to play peekaboo, the bed beckons.

Yes. That’s my life pigging out. Of course, I have the occasional outing but so far, none of them have lasted more than two hours. And I have some 24 hours in a day to kill. I should be happy, really, since in a week’s time, I’ll be carted off to the hustle and bustle of KL. Thing is, I love being home. I love the food, the atmosphere, the lazy days…
But the lack of people to hang out with! Okay, that really sucks. Big time. There’s no Lyn, Chiew, Shao Thing, Ghee, Ewe Jin, Wei Zhi, June.. the usual people I hang out with. Of course I don’t have them for company in KL as well but hey, there’re peeps like Jacks, Mirness, Shean, AnnandDev (they’re officially a unit now. Unicell.), KingCheese… yeah. I guess I do miss the people I chill with. Who wouldn’t when you see them every single bludgeoning day? Don’t ask me why I used bludgeoning.

Complaints aside, like my new layout? I like it too.. and could like it more… if not for that horrific-looking rainbow-coloured madness masquerading as a banner!! I love the font, the layout, the colours… but that… thing. That.. thing. I need an art program… NOW.

Leave you be.

{Now Playing} The Almost – Dirty and Left Out

Overdue Holiday Post

Posted on January 30th, 2007 • Filed under KL, Penang, Personal Life • 1 Comment

CHRISTMAS BASHES

1. My first Christmas celebration was a Japanese affair with old school friends in Yataimura, Pulau Tikus (you know, that big twostory shop with a red racoon?). One thing I really like about Yataimura is the ambience and the reasonable prices. Although I do have a higher preference for Aji No Ren in Fettes Park but hey, the red racoon ain’t too bad! Dinner was fun-filled with pictures (thanks to VainVene) and the food and company made it all the better.

(photowillbeaddedlater hehe)

2. Christmas is a rather big affair for my relatives (note the use of the word relatives – immediate family might be mostly Christian but we really don’t celebrate Christmas bigscale). Every year, my SinKuPor will come down with Uncles Nic and Chris and GranduncleFritz from Singapore (where my granduncle is posted until July this year :[) and celebrate Christmas with us. It’s usually potluck and held in my Sin/KumKP’s place and every family will bring a little something for us to eat. The typical fare usually consists of stuffed roast turkey, hams/salami and loads and loads and loads of yummy things! I love Christmas. To top it all off, I have adorable little cousins to play with tee hee heeeeeee

3. Following familyfilledchristmasjoy came… friendfunchristmas. Hehe. We had this Christmas-cum-earlydecemberbabiesbirthday thing at May’s place. Guests of honours included Priscilla Lim (no not Fishilla, another Priscilla from the MGSGraduatesof2003 archives… except she left when we were in Std 6 in 1998 so.. hehe) and Szuen. Of course, what’s an evening with pals without loads of camwhoring right? You add Mel and VainVene to the mix and even more photos crop up.

4. Following that, Christmas celebrations came to an abrupt end I really love Christmas. My birthday was up next *wheee* we had family Bday dinners (photos will be uploaded later) and I received a very !@#$%^& present from a certain Ooi Ghee Leng residing in Hong Kong through a certain idiot accomplice Lee Wei Zhi which resorted in a lot of camwhoring just to convey the message of murder to a certain someone……

Yes – you see right. These are cucumbers. Cucumbers with numerous stickers on each and every one of them, covered in ink ridiculing my love for these long green suckers and why I have acid reflux that damned disease now. So this is my retaliation to you Ghee!

Tempted to murder him when I saw hin in KL but… hey. this’ll have to do

5. Next up, ushering in the New Year. I had a whole load of plans to choose from and I decided to spend it with old friends partyin’ in Upper Penang Road. The initial plan was to sit in Segas (away from the youth and the crowds at Gurney as per usual) and talk and drink till countdown. Alas, nothing ever goes as planned. We ended up outside Momo’s watching a fireeater/dancer (who Mel horned herself up for), having weird tasting cocktails (like Mel’s Frustration – true to the name of the drink) and wishing each other Happy New Year twice. We might not have been tipsy, but we sure acted like a couple of drunkards, counting down and going crazy wishing each other before the actual countdown even began (it wouldnt have been so stupid if we did it on purpose…)

6. The next day was family-time. Me and my relatives had a nice litle barbecue thingamiajiggy going on in my aunt’s Paya Terubong hillside bungalow. I love the place – the view’s spectacular at night!

Of course, highlight of the night (in the monkeys’ Chris and Shang’s opinion) was the absolutely humongous almostonefootlong millipede we found by the entrance.

Lyn would just DIE if it came into contact with her!!!!!!

6. One of the last few things I did before leaving Penang was visit this veryoftenhypedabout Pasta place along Chulia Street. It’s a little unsuspecting shop tucked into the corner of the street notoriously known for transvestite prostitutes. Oh dear God it’s like a little pasta sanctuary! Some promotion here, everything they serve is made from homemade/homegrown products. They even grow their own herbs!! Make their own bread/pizzabase/pasta!! It was absolutely scrumptious – for a reasonable and affordable price too! Much more affordable compared to overpriced/overadvertised places like TGIF. The pasta was just great lah. *YUM*

Visit ECCO Cafe. Very yummiliciouslyhealthy food!

7. Oh… this wasn’t really during holidays but I feel like posting some camwhore pictures. I came back a few days before college started (daytrip) to register for my subjects and made my good ol’ buddies camwhore with me in Mir’s car. Hehe. Feast your eyes on idiots who won’t cooperate when I’m handling the camera.

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=

Before I end this photofilledpost, lemme leave you with a few shots of when I was home

Long Overdue Post About Home Pt. 2

Posted on October 25th, 2006 • Filed under Penang, Personal Life, Triggerhappy • 2 Comments

Salsas!

Ok… the only “highlight” would possibly be that we sent Lyn off at the airport and even then it wasn’t exactly a great moment. Let’s just say it was kinda an emo moment (as expected) and daymn – we miss you very much already, Lyn!

Anyway, me, Jo, Maithrea and May headed to Salsas in ‘tribute’ to Lyn (since she loves Salsas so much) after sending her off at the airport. I haven’t been to Salsas in aeons and I was very amused to see the latest addition to it’s delicate table setting. In fact – I love it!

I just love Salsas’ set lunches. Full of variety and definitely very worth it. *drools*

Their set lunches come equipped with soup and bread rolls, followed by your main course and then dessert. On top of that, they give you a choice of iced lemon tea, orange juice, coffee or tea with your food.