I Met A “Nice” Guy

That is the day before Chap Goh Meh at a vegetarian restaurant. I had vegetable tom yam bee hoon and green tea. Stuffed myself even more later with two types of dumplings, cold mango dessert, a glass of longan drink and half a glass of Chinese tea. Not to forget samples from some fruit ice cream shop. I had another big tumbler of ginger green tea that night. Thank you God not-so-fast-but-not-too-slow metabolism.

My Microsoft Office had several corrupted files, so I sent my Vaio to the Sony Centre for reformatting. There were two technicians there and both were in their twenties, one was younger and one was older. The younger one was much nicer and the older one simply needed PR lessons. He had his eyes glued to the TV screen with a PS3 console in his hands while asking me, “what?” and throughout the entire conversation. The only thing he said loud and clear was, “you have to pay RM80.00 for reformatting.”

So the younger one reformatted my computer for me, told me I could pick my Vaio up at 7.00PM. So I went for dinner with Amy and Peter. Then… I came back…

The older one said nothing and just waved vaguely at the my Vaio which, was sitting on the counter next to the power plug. Obviously telling me to go check my computer.

Okay… I switch it on and then I saw the log in screen, I realized… SHIT, WHY IS MY OPERATING SYSTEM RUNNING VISTA?! WHERE’S MY WINDOWS 7?!

Bloody… I turned to the older one who was standing nearest to me and said, “I’m using Windows 7, why is my operating system now Vista??”

He replied snappily, “how am I supposed to know?”

A nerve twitched, “you reformatted my computer. I told you I was using Windows 7. You’re the technician, you should know.”

Again, a snappy tone as if I committed piracy… “where did you get Windows 7 from ha?”

Another nerve twitched, “I paid TWO HUNDRED for the update from Sony! Now I am going to have to update again! Do you know how much time that is going to take me?? And I don’t have the CD now, it is back in my HOMETOWN.”

He glared at me, “you didn’t tell that you are using Windows 7!”

Oh what an ass…

The younger one interrupted, “actually she did tell that she’s running Windows 7…”

I stuffed my Vaio back into my bag grouchily, “NEVERMIND, I will wait until APRIL when I get back HOME to REUPGRADE on MY OWN.”

I was about the walk away then I realized, crap I have not paid them. Turned around… “whoops I forgot to pay. How much?”

The older one looked at me with a =.= expression and said, “nevermind la nevermind la, no need to pay la.”

Anyway… I bought an original Microsoft Office suite to save myself from all the hassle of hacking.

Auckland, NZ

 
Newcastle... Sydney... Malaysia... New Zealand...

Perry Xavier Tan Siew Shien, you Nomad. =)

East Returns To The West

I am back from my blogging vacation. Or perhaps this is just temporary.

11th February:

Had early Chinese New Year Eve dinner with college friends at Esquire Kitchen.

Spent RM20.00 on a double scoop of ice cream at Baskin Robbins. Scrumptious. Left my apartment that night to somewhere called Bukit Jelutong for two nights with my sister.

12th February:

Went down to Putrajaya for sister's marriage registration. Had fantastic wantan mee after that with meatball soup.

Went to Mid Valley and The Gardens that afternoon. Ate a coconut cake (wasn't at all too tasty) and picked the bread off the ham and cheese sandwiches at Delicious. Ate some more Baskin Robbins.

13th February:
Left to my hometown together with my sister and with my 29.6kg luggage.

14th February:

Celebrated the start of Chinese New Year with family.

Visited relatives. Ate lots of pineapple tarts, oatmeal cookies, cashew nuts, pistachios and cuttlefish. Lots of dad's cooking too. 

Family reunion (mum's side) at my house at night. Parents catered Middle Eastern cuisine. I had five pieces of Labanese bread with heaps of garlic butter sauce.
And here you go, meet my family.

21st February:
Oh shucks. I am back in my apartment and holidays are over. My luggage from my hometown back here weighed 32kg.

26th February:
Happy Birthday to Mei Ying and Prophet Muhammad.

Went down to Star Hill that morning. Had fantastic Nyonya curry mee and some sort of Nyonya kuih along Alor Road. Sent my laptop to Sony Centre and shopped around a bit.


Dinner at Tony Roma's, my so-call "belated birthday dinner". I had awesome Caesar salad with honey mustard dressing and bits of fish and chips.
 

28th February:
Going to have Chap Goh Meh dinner with family. =)

The F-Word

Obsessive dieting is stupid.

I am stating this after reading a dessert cookbook that I borrowed from the college library. I see pictures of bowls of chopped or pureed fruits decorated with some sprigs of mint or nuts. Why not just save all that time wasted to mash the fruits up and just eat the fruits whole?

What is the point of having a cookbook telling you how to chop fruits??

What is the point of calling it a “cheesecake” if it is a cake made of tofu??

I would personally rather read a cookbook telling me how to bake shepherd pies and New York cheesecakes if I could choose between a book like that or like the one I read this morning.

I find it rather annoying when I am eating say for example noodles and somebody comes and tells me, “oh my, this is seriously very fattening!”

What is with this obsessive mindset about food being fattening??? I’ve been enduring this torture of people telling me whatever I am eating is going to make me grow F-A-T for the past nineteen years in my life.

I am eating lean pork and someone comes and tells me, “pork is fattening”. BULLSHIT. In that case, eating a tub of yogurt is going to make you f-a-t.

I am eating one burger and someone comes and tells me, “this is damn fattening”. BULLSHIT AGAIN. One burger isn’t going to make me fat unless I eat three burgers a day for one whole month.

I am eating a slice of cake and someone comes and tells me, “butter is fattening”. BULLSHIT AGAIN. Butter isn’t fattening unless I consume a whole bar of butter in one go.

I am eating a packet of nuts and someone comes and tells me it is super fattening.

Why don’t I just starve myself and skip meals since EVERYTHING is fattening?? I might as well dig my own grave in that case since it’s like dieting my way to death.

I enjoy banana fritters and cheesecakes. I consume banana fritters almost every weekend and I don’t see myself growing any heavier than 50kgs.

East Malaysian Still At West

Just a few more hours left till I will be packing my bags along with me away from the vicinity of Sunway University College!!!

Malaccan friend brought famous Malacca pineapple tarts to college. Malaccan pineapple tarts are BIG. Bigger than your average pineapple tart.

I photocopied some new recipes from Malaccan friend too. Can’t wait to try to bake the lemon cheese cake this Saturday afternoon or perhaps an apple cheese cake.

I have Hershey mint truffle kisses in my refrigerator. Did I mention that it is a BIG bag? =DI bought weighing scales to weigh my luggage. Goodness. 21kgs of unwanted goods to ship back to my hometown. I took the opportunity to weigh myself too. Goodness again, I lost more weight despite eating heavier breakfast. Maybe heavier meals is inversely proportional to weight loss but there isn’t much truth to that.

I really think that I am just losing weight rapidly because I am actually working out or to be more precise, “WORKING OUT” by actually doing my own laundry on my own with my own two bare hands instead of sending it to the laundry every alternate day like I used to do last year.

For the past few days, the cough syrup has been making me doze off at 5PM, waking up at 12AM and sleeping at 4AM then getting up at 5AM and going off to college at 6.30AM. Darn.
This is by all means a very random photograph.

East Malaysian At West

Four more days of college left! I am replacing my Friday classes. Then, I will be off with my sister in Selangor until Saturday morning then I will be flying back to my hometown.Went shopping with some of my classmates yesterday. Bought a Levis’ backpack and a pair of Levis’ jeans. Too bad I was having a cough, couldn’t try the ice cream at the new ice cream shop. I finished two bottles of Woods peppermint cough syrup and goodness knows how many packets of Woods lozenges (somebody said I will end up overdosing) and there was no effect. So now I am on Benadryl. 

This is what I make for breakfast since I get up at 5.00AM daily.This is the view from my bedroom most mornings around 7AM.
This is the famous Teluk Intan salty mung bean piahs.

First Cough

First time catching a cough in Sunway.

Friday:
>Woke up with a sore throat
>Downed six lozenges and 1000mg of Vitamin C
>Had a gigantic bowl of mung beans (supposedly cooling)

Saturday:
>Downed more lozenges
>Had another gigantic bowl of mung beans (I wear it totals up to 5kg worth of mung beans)
>Had two glasses of lo han kuo drink

Won the sore throat battle.

Then…throat started feeling “dusty” and here came the cough…

…Woods Peppermint Cough Syrup.