Kreative Blogger Award

Got this from Javapot who owns a lovely blog on delicious home made bentos, recipes and all things nice! Isn’t it everyone’s wish to always have a cup of hot caffeine laden goodness with best company and watch the days go by.

Well, this award requested seven things about the recipient.. so here goes… (since it’s called “kreative”, I guess I am going to list something on the creative side of me.. well, I’ll try.)

List of seven “kreative” things about myself

1. Creative blogger, huh? I think I owe my creativity to my dreams. I have always been a dreamer. I dreamed a lot when I was in primary/secondary school till college. Since I started my permanent job way back in 2000, I haven’t been having a lot of dreams till.. say, 7 years later, 2007. I wonder why people dream. Subconscious worries? Suppressed needs? LOL! I wish my dreams can be translated into some creative writing? Maybe a short movie script? Fat chance.*

2.  I blog to keep a piece of my life and share it with people I care. It’s never about money. It’s never about fame. I do get a few friends from here for which I remain grateful. Sometimes, I just want to quit blogging because it’s getting a little crowded in here. But thanks to readers like you for encouraging words and keep me motivated.

3. I rather talk to a cat than to be stuck in a meaningless and boring conversation with a fellow human.. and speaking about pets, I always wanted a dog and named him Murphy (after Robocop’s human name – I was so damn impressed by the movie when I was little).

4. Once, I hand painted 30+ Christmas cards using water color as gifts for my church mates and friends. That time, I wished I had a camera to take pics of the 30+ cards. They were all from different sizes, designs, etc. Not one is the same!

5. I am very bad at taking pictures of people. Somehow, I just could not master portraits. Speaking of which, I am getting rather rusty now for not picking up my camera… I am super LAZY!

6. When I was involved in a church many years ago, I wanted to be a missionary. Somehow, college life woke me up. I am not sure if this is a good thing.

7.  I want to learn oil painting. When I was 15, my art teacher said my techniques were good enough to do oil painting. He wanted to give me classes but then, he migrated to the USA. I think when I really have nothing to do (i.e. not feeling lazy), I would pick this up as a hobby.

*By the way, I had a short dream on Saturday. I dreamed that I was going for my form 6 exams (I did A levels in real life, though) and we were supposed to bring our own animal to dissect for the subject Biology. Instead of the usual white mouse, frog or cockroach, I brought 7 little yellow chickens. On my way to the lab, to my horror, 5 chickens out of 7 suffocated and died! I was frantic and scout around for replacement. I was fortunate enough that the lab was situated near a village. I was relieved to be able to see a few chickens roaming around freely. Then I saw two great specimens – one small little yellow chicken and a slightly bigger chick in orange hue. I ran after them. The two chickens ran back to their pens. When I got to their pens, I saw mother hens protecting their respective offsprings. They looked somewhat mutated – they have elongated, rectangular bodies. When I was about to catch the two little buggers, a man came to stop me and said, I could not take those chicks away. I asked him why? He said, these two are celebrity chickens! I was shocked and asked again, what did he mean by that?

“They have facebook profiles! They are called Nie and Amie!”

My jaw dropped. Then I woke up. And for the record, I don’t even play the ^lame games (Farmville/Barn Buddy) on facebook.

^ I mean the game is lame, not the people playing it, okay?

Well, for those who are interested in this meme, please feel free to do so and remember to put your link here! I would like to read them! Have fun!

25 Random Things

I have done my first 25 things in facebook.. so thinking of doing another 25 for the heck of it. Wanna do this earlier in this blog, but someone beat me to it… So here goes…

1. I can do things alone – shopping, watching movie in the cinema, gym, swimming, driving.. but I cannot eat alone in public. But I can eat alone at home.
2. I don’t like crowded places. The one and only time when I was in a massive crowd was during the millennium celebration in Bintang Walk. Gawd.. that was one hell of an experience.
3. I have no success rate in match making my friends, so please stop coming to me as if I own a matchmaking agency.
4. I hate to admit this but, I am very, very, very patt! LOL!
5. I should start taking it seriously when a guy told me, I am too smart for my own good.
6. I fell in love with Hugh Grant ever since he appeared as Will “About a Boy” (I watched this movie 7x) and no Divine Brown ever gonna stop me!
7. I refused to have air conditioner installed in my room, even when my aunt offered to pay for it some 15 years ago because I did’t want to contribute to the thinning ozone layer. With current heat wave in KL, I wonder if the offer still stands…
8. My siblings and I learned swimming on our own. My mom just took us to the many waterfalls in Taiping every weekend and gave us each a float, and we could swim like fishes!
9. I love kevjumba!!
10. I have super mammoth memory. It has nothing to do with my body size, I think.. but then, I remember a lot, a lot of things. I am the worst enemy you can have.
11. I used to be able to guess accurately what perfume a person is wearing because of my obsession with fragrant back in college. I’ve been slacking since.
12. My all time favorite perfume is Clinique Happy.
13. Most of my blouses and t shirts are in black, grey, brown and red.
14. I dare not wear red when I was little, afraid of bulls chasing after me. (In Taiping, there are a lot of cows roaming our residential area to graze grass and shit everywhere in the playground! I damn hate those cows!)
15. I think of succulent beef cheese burger before I sleep and wake up thinking of the same. This is bad.
16. Spending RM1,000 on facials bothers me a lot but I have no problem spending 4x the amount for cameras.
17. I don’t have any ear piercing or any body piercings and don’t intend to get one.
18. On the contrary to what most people think that I go out rather regularly, I don’t. In fact, I have only gone out only 2x this month to celebrate my birthday and one more tomorrow. That’s only 3x this month!
19. I wear the same pair of shoes to work everyday even though I have 20 other pairs lying around the shoe rack.
20. I started drinking coffee real early in my life – ever since I was in my mom’s womb.
21. I hate my unruly curly hair. They are still curly even when I have them short all the time.
22. I wish my dad sent me to Chinese school instead! There are so many things I miss because I am Mandarin illiterate. I speak quite good Mandarin though.
23. I can watch a movie over and over again and even memorize the scenes and this pissed my sister off because I would always tell her the ending when she was gasping and anxious about it.
24. I am okay with roads around KL but totally hopeless with PJ roads. So I always make my appointments in KL and hardly PJ except the Curve, One Utama or Centerpoint. LOL!
25. I never take hot shower because it’s too hot in Malaysia, even at 6 am. But in Melbourne, no choice lah coz it’s freezing!

My birthday was a blast. Thanks for cooking me a wonderful meal and for the many, many cakes, a special home made oreo cheesecake (*beams*), dinners, Salvatore Ferragamo’s Incanto, etc! I love, love, love them! And then God gave me a weird birthday present. He gave me a urinary tract infection last Sunday. LOL! Ok.. cannot blame God. Blame myself for not drinking enough water!

7 Random Things

Thanks to Lingzie for tagging me and the numerous blogging “awards”. Haha!

I think I shall not award anyone but would do the meme. So here goes…

1. I always close the toilet lid whenever I flush the toilet. A friend told me that the germs spread in the air via the flushing of water could reach as far as 2m away and it just freaks me out.
2. I always wash my feet before I go to sleep to prevent having bad dreams. It’s an old Malay superstition. I have been doing this since I was 14 when I related my bad dreams to my Malay friend who sat next to me in class. It works like a charm.
3. I only go to dentist when there is pain. Luckily, the pain comes only once every 10 years.
4. I don’t really like to eat prawns because I am too lazy to peel the shells.
5. I secretly hope it would rain every evening so I don’t get the guilt trip from my own conscience to go brisk walking.
6. I love movies which illustrate great human survival skills and normally, they are always tear jerking.
7. Contrary to what most people think of me as a social butterfly, I very much prefer to stay at home, watch some tv or simply sleep the weekends away. (Signs of old age).

Thanks again to Lingzie, for the awards and this meme.

Love of Literature

Thanks to CC for this meme. I need a break from my routine bitching session!

Do you remember how you developed a love for reading?
I was quite a lazy child. I spent most of my time playing in the sun when I was little. I think I didn’t really read much (till much later at age 10) except memorizing Bible verses being taught in Sunday School where my mom forced every child in my family to attend to improve our English! Haha! But I remember instead of the toy section, my mom would leave me at the book section in the supermarket while she did her marketing. Yes. In those days the security was THAT great!

What are some books you read as a child?
I read mainly Malay books when I was a child and not English. My command in English was quite bad then. I love the Malay language. My mom spoiled me rotten whenever I requested to buy books from the school program at a fraction of a price. (I think it was about RM1.90 per book only!) I seized the opportunity and read every single book from Alfred Hitchcock (The Alfred Hitchcock series), Enid Blyton (Famous Five – I love Georgina!) and Franklin W. Dixon (The Hardy Boys) in Malay! My top favorite is a collection of folklores from Asean countries. I remember buying 6 books (8 short stories per book) and finished reading them in two days! Proud to say my mom’s contribution and my zealousness for the Malay language paid off when I scored distinctions in both SRP and SPM. Chewah!

What is your favourite genre?
It has to be mixture of literature, fiction, biography and comedy. I am always intrigued by how an ordinary individual can do extraordinary things. People in the likes of Mahatma Ghandi, Fidel Castro, Princess Diana, Francis Coppola, etc fascinate me. Also human struggles and sufferings of great magnitude, for instance, Dr. Haing S Ngor, in the Survival in the Killing Fields. I prefer reading Asian literature. And I am with CC. I am one of the very rare breed of people who don’t fancy reading Harry Potter and don’t give a rat ass about the big hoo hah over the book! I fell asleep even before finishing the last sentence on the first page. The movie is okay though.

Do you have a favourite novel?
If I have to choose only one, it has to be the Wind Up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami. I’ve been Murakamized after that! And amongst others – A Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan, Bridget Jones Diary by Helen Fielding, the Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseni, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho, Farewell to my Concubine by Lillian Lee and Wild Swans by Jung Chang.

Where do you usually read?
When I was a child, I used to read in the toilet. Haha! Or lying on the floor in the living room with half my body tugged under the wooden couch with cushions, where the floor was cold. As I got older, when I was still taking the public transport – I read on the bus. Now, I read when I am traveling or on my bed .

When do you usually read?
Only when I am in the mood.. and usually, moments before I go to sleep.

Do you usually have more than one book you are reading at a time?
Yes…. that is a bad habit. If the book is boring, I would switch books then go back to the same book again. I would try to finish what I started. But then nowadays, my bad habits seem to get better hold of me. Sigh.

Do you read nonfiction in a different way or place than you read fiction?
I tend to get very serious and emotional when I read non fiction. Haha!

Do you buy most of the books you read, or borrow them, or check them out of the library?
I bought most of the books I own now. Most friends know I love books, so they sometimes buy for me! Yay! A friend, Kat, usually would chuck me whatever she has read to me. I don’t know why but I cannot read e-books. Prefer them in hard copies, with cover and the mildew smell of the low quality paper!

Do you keep most of the books you buy? If not, what do you do with them?
Yes. I think todate, I have about 400 books stacking at every corner of my house much to the chagrin of my aunt! I still have some of the books I read when I was a child!

If you have children, what are some of the favorite books you have shared with them? Were they some of the same ones you read as a child?
This is a bloody tricky question. For now, I would like Sasha and Lok Lok to read the Asean folklore that I loved so much. Even till today.

What are you reading now?
I am hit by the lazy bug now. So, I am reading books with lots of pictures! Haha! I recently bought a few series on history of the world in pictures. And I am also reading Paulo Coelho’s the Witch of Portobello.

Do you keep a TBR (to be read) list?
I have a list in facebook but I never follow! I read as and when I feel like reading.

What’s next?
I think I will try reading the Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie. I can’t seem to get pass the first chapter. It’s quite mind boggling. I am waiting for Khaled Hosseni’s A Thousand Splendid Suns as Christmas gift. *Hint hint*

What books would you like to reread?
When I get my Norwegian Wood (by Haruki Murakami) back from Sailor Boy, I would like to re-read that! And Love in the time of Cholera (by Gabriel Garcia Marquez).

Who are your favourite authors?
“I’ve been Murakamized” says it all! Haha! I am also a fan of Paulo Coelho (reading almost his entire collection!) and Gabriel Garcia Marquez (top favorite – Love in the Time of Cholera).

I know only a few people who read and tag Zing (fantasy!), Mr Fat Dragon (or should we call him Slim Dragon now?), Mrs Short Horse (My English Teacher!), Lil Ms Pinky and The Hermit (it’s about time for her to start blogging again!).

Between Your Legs

Got this in facebook. I find this utterly hilarious!!!

*** Between your legs****
Everybody.. lets get this started and see what creative movie titles we can come up with.. here’s the rules.. think up a movie title(ANY movie title), and add “Between Your Legs” to the movie title..ill get it goin…continue to forward this!!!

Gail :- Gone in 60 Seconds Between Your Legs

Cindy :- Rush Hour Between Your Legs

Patrick :- Gone with the wind Between your legs

Carl :- Finding Nemo Between your legs

Damian:- Mad MAx Between your legs

David:- Armageddon Between your legs

Andre: – 300 Between your legs

Trace: – Dirty Dancing Between your legs…

Amy: Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure Between Your Legs

Jordy: Midnight Express Between your legs

Joshua: Training Day Between your legs

Callie: Cruel Intentions Between your Legs

Tom: Final Fantasy Between your legs

Garrett: The Abyss Between your legs

Ji; Dirty dancing Between your legs

Belinda – Fast and Furious between your legs

Zac- Finding Nemo between your legs

San-Dodge ball between your legs

Norman – The Phantom Menace between your legs

Jazz – The city of lost children between your legs

Aileen – Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon between your legs

Pik Choo – READ between your legs

ChrisC – MAN ON FIRE between your legs

Lionel – Top Gun Between Your Legs

Faisal – Bad Boys Between Your Legs

Felix – Snow White & the 7 Dwarfs Between Your Legs

Vincent – 101 Damations Between Your Legs

Felix (the 3rd) – The Labyrinth Between Your Legs (ooo yes, baby…)

Manvir – Braveheart between your legs

Revathi- Grease between your legs

Soon Yean – The King and I between your legs

Grace – Indiana Jones Between you legs

Robert – Love Actually Between your legs

Nicole – Anaconda Between your legs…

Gina – Just Like Heaven between your legs

Now… your turn!