My Family; the Love of My Life

Apparently, it is not as easy as it seems to be for a part-time blogger to constantly keep his / her blog updated at least twice a month. Here, I am talking about quality contents that are created based on one’s own opinions and experiences; those that require plenty of brain juice. During the past few months, I have drafted some posts spontaneously about different topics that flashed through my mind but most of them were often left unfinished, and eventually deleted. That’s probably how my passion for blogging begins to fade slowly. Such feeling sucks.

For your information, I have started my very first permanent job at Layang Layang Guest House in Malacca since 11 January 2015, after the submission of my final Industrial Training Report. After being in this food paradise for more than six months, including those days as an intern, I sure have come across certain good places nearby that are not popularly known or recommended on many travel sites. While I wished to introduce my fellow readers to all of these places, I think I ought to stop when I find myself being biased, because of it being one of the main responsibilities of any bloggers out there. This sucks, too.

Argh! ;(

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Our latest family portrait taken at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) before Kenneth left for further studies in Australia.

It’s that time of the year again, when all lovely mums deserve a day off from all sorts of household duties and fully enjoy being showered with unconditional love. I am supposed to be at home, having endless conversations with my family members over a great dinner. Yet, here I am, sitting on my big bed in a tiny room all by myself albeit extremely comfortable, and being emotional.

I miss my family, too much. It always sucks to be homesick.

I return home only once a month on average. I work seven days a week and I accumulate my off days (once a week) and holidays to return home for my family. Even though we constantly share our stories and experiences to keep everyone updated via WhatsApp from different places including Australia, Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru and Malacca, it will never feel the same to have them by my side, listening to my boring words and knowing that everyone is still growing well horizontally wtf.

Indeed, my family is my everything. Right now, I just want to go back home, spend a day or so with them, and return back to reality again. Homesickness is definitely a killer.

Something about Malacca and food next time, perhaps?

x.

Gong Gong's 92nd birthday.

Good day folks! It was yet another ordinary weekend when I was told about Gong Gong a.k.a my grandpa's ninety-second birthday that we would be celebrating on 4th of December, 2011 in Mentakab, Pahang. Knowing that I could rarely meet my beloved old man of my life and the fact that he is advanced in years, I agreed to spend the wonderful Sunday together with my extended family with the Badman tagging along. Honestly, I was bored as usual almost throughout the entire afternoon before the celebration, that I decided to take a little nap before leaving back to home, I never regretted going back to meet everyone whom I missed very much especially the cousins.

Unlike the previous celebrations when the housewives spent their noon in the kitchen preparing some delicious dishes, or when the younger people went out to buy buckets of fried chickens with some mashed potatoes and coleslaw from KFC, we ordered from outside to save the troubles. I'm not sure about which company or restaurant the elderly ordered from, compliments were given to most of the foods served despite the amount of plastics and polystyrene we had wasted.

That's my cousin brother being caught stealing a piece of chicken nugget by my younger cousin sister before anyone else started eating.

The curry chicken was one of the most awesome ones I have ever eaten in my life besides my mum's as one of the compulsory dishes during Chinese New Year, even though it was slightly too spicy. It was served together with some yellow ginger rice that was a little hard for the housewives' liking, yet it's still so tasty.

She's my niece, whom we used to call her a lotus rhizome while her younger sister was known as a pudding. :P

They're the main characters of the day, my beloved grandparents who are of 92 and 85 respectively, with around 10 children in total.

In case if you're wondering, there wasn't any theme announced but most of us were in red simply because it was such a special day; heck, how often do you get to find an elderly of above 90 nowadays with such a healthy body? Here's to present you the photo of the grandparents and the grandchildren, and the photo of the parents and the children and partners of lives. I really love looking at the happy faces in the photos which represent happiness. :D

According to my youngest aunt, the jelly cake was specially designed and ordered online to celebrate the big day of my grandpa, which to be honest, it was so freaking delicious that I couldn't resist but to stand beside the table to grab as many as I could even though my tummy was already filled with the lunch I had previously. I was fortunate enough to still be able to have some durians as well after that. Sense the growing fatness! We stayed in the house to chill a bit before we started moving our asses off in the evening to arrive in Kuala Lumpur at night, and I spent that few hours lying on the Badman's laps for a good nap until half an hour before we're homed.

Despite the boredom without any internet in the house, not even any fun I could have around the area, I would never regret going back to my hometown just for the grandparents even though I used to complain a lot a few years back, which I found myself pretty childish at the moment. It's been quite a while after the celebration; I would still like to wish my grandpa to be as healthy as he always is, forever and ever.

I love you, Gong Gong! :D ♥

x.

A little hello.

One family photo with a total of three generations, from the grandparents to the parents and to the children including the parents' future son-in-law wtf; credit to Wei Qing's camera which this photo was taken by one of the waitresses right after our buffet lunch in Grand Millennium Hotel, Kuala Lumpur on a beautiful Wednesday. :)

I have been busily engaged with my work currently in one of the travel agents in Petaling Jaya ever since I started my internship on 26th of September, which it will be ending in approximately two months time on the 16th of December. Heck, I don't work overtime for the fact that my salary would never increase but considering about the travelling distance and time, my time has pretty much been taken up leaving a few more hours for daily basic do. I have been suffering from uncured flu due to the weather that has been constantly changing lately from scorching hot to freezing cold just within minutes, and I'm crazily depending on medicines whenever I think I seriously need it; I've have enough time breathing forcefully continuously since I was young.

Please do not hesitate to advise me if you have any better method to cure flu for sensitive nose like me, besides chopping it off.

I will definitely be back pretty soon for an update about my trip to Penang with Nantha Travel and Tours. Stay tuned! :D

x.

Temporarily emotional.

It's 5:09am on the 18th of September, 2011 as I started typing this post, and I am still sitting at 24/7 Study Room, Taylor's University at this hour fighting for my upcoming finals on this coming week. Helmy, Fahmi, Wan, and Jessica have fallen asleep on the chairs, on the tables, and on the floor respectively with snore all around the room.

At this hour when I could easily get emotional, I start to miss my family members including my parents, my brothers, my cousin sisters, and each and every one from my big family with tears rolling in my eyes repeatedly. My mum is departing to Macau pretty soon at 9.30am from home with my aunts for the entire week and I have completely clueless about how much I am going to miss her crazily. It's been two whole weeks I haven't met her, not even my brothers, ever since our Hari Raya break ended. The person who is supposed to be here with me couldn't make it due to personal reason, and I have no one to rely on and to talk to at this very moment. I would've pleased him to send me back home just to say goodbye to my mum and give her a big, tight hug if he was to be here.

Oh my, it is not supposed to be the time to be emotional until finals end! :(

x.

The greatest men in my life.

It's weird how I replaced my mummy who is now in Thailand enjoying her trip, to wake the youngest brother up early in the morning, hang all the clothes before leaving the house, and send that baby little brother to my brother's badminton hall before I started my journey.

It's happy how I was awoken by the Badman early in the morning with him giving me a sweet call from downstairs when I was having a bad dream, asking for permission to enter my room just to wake me up before I fall asleep again due to laziness. :P

It's funny how when my tears secretly rolled down my cheeks when I was waiting for the traffic lights to turn green, the Badman accidentally saw it and asked, "Why are you sweating?"

It's ridiculous how when we were looking for ways to go to the city from places we're not familiar with, the Badman led me to the wrong way and ended up we went all the way to Putrajaya without anywhere for us to make a U-turn until we arrived at the extremely far end where we saw the signboards stating "Kepong" and "Kuala Lumpur"; that's when I felt relief. :\

It's awesome how we finally made our way to the bitchy girlfriend's house in Cheras after getting lost, without telling her or even giving her any call until we arrived at her house to simply give her an extremely huge surprise. She didn't believe that I was right in front of her house when I told her on the phone until she saw me running towards her house from where I parked my car, and we had some really nice talk under the scorching hot sun with our butts almost burnt. Best of all was that she has recovered from her sickness right after I left. ;D

It's really awesome today even though I was sort of depressed by several stupid drivers on the road for a few times; but it's the memorable ones that count. Dear Badman, you just made my day again. :D ♥

Daddy's words are awesomely heartwarming. :)

x.

Buffet lunch at Shangri-La Hotel.

Good day peeps! I hope the beginning of your weekend was fine and certainly, I hope you all would be having a good weekend ahead. Do away with formalities; my Saturday has been filled with foods, foods, and foods that I had during a tiny little family gathering in Shangri-La Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. This hotel is known to be a luxurious hotel yet truth to be told, everything was normal as compared to the private hotels I had been staying before, and there wasn't any exaggerating expressions at all when we stepped into the lobby of the hotel. The parking basement of the hotel itself was already something pretty disappointing and it was even worse than the shopping malls like 1U, Midvalley Megamall, Sunway Pyramid, and et cetera. Before I continue destroying their image and get sued like how those incidents that happened quite some time ago, I shall start off with some food-related photos that might make you drool. :P

I'm sorry to say that the photos were all taken after I had done enjoying the delicious foods and when I started enjoying my desserts. Hehe! This photo actually tells you what they have as our dessert; chocolate fondue with fruits like honeydews, strawberries, and some kind of pearls with pink skins prepared with sticks, enabling you to shower the fruits with the flowing chocolate. Oh my!

I didn't take this but my aunt who is an all-time chocolate super lover was the one who took all of them again and again. Personally, I didn't like the chocolate balls because there was too much of chocolate until I felt like puking while swallowing the one and the only one I had eaten. However, it's still highly recommended if you happen to be a chocolate lover because these chocolate balls contained melting chocolate at the inside that you might feel as if you're in the heaven. I'm serious!

I tend to start drawing with the sticks once I'm done eating the fruits to kill time, with the chocolate that is left on my plate. Meet my surname! :D

These were prawns wrapped with some mee-hoon-like thingy that they tasted good even though the shells weren't peeled off but since they're fried with the mee-hoon-like thingy, I couldn't feel the shells at all but they're so crispy instead. Apart from prawns, the Chinese section has the common Chinese foods like steamed fishes that tasted heavenly good and fresh at the beginning but worsen when more people came, Chinese-style fried rice, roasted ducks, some common dim sum and others, but I didn't really support this section for God's sake.

Macaroons have been something I was so wanted to eat after the ones ZM brought from Singapore but these tasted so different and so disgusting, as if I was eating some kind of coloured tasteless sugars that were so powdery. These were taken for the sake of ZM by the way, and I ended up throwing one of them into a cup of tea and did something pretty disgusting. Who told you to serve such disgusting dessert? :P

I didn't try their chocolate mousse and I didn't hear any comments about the two of them at the end, but my aunt said the ones ZM made were still the best. :)

Besides Chinese foods section, they also served Japanese foods, western foods, Malaysian foods which were the musts, and et cetera including different types of salads. They served sashimi too but I swear I will never eat the raw fishes, but I still ate their cold but cooked prawns because for your information, prawns are always in my top favourite list.

I will never eat the raw oysters too but this photo is dedicated you, my dear readers. :)

I have to say that they have the best satay I have ever eaten so far, because the chicken meats were so tender and I couldn't even taste any oily chicken fats at all, like seriously. Even my mummy who would never eat too many satays said so. Yummmmmmm! :D

Say hi to the chocolate fondue! There was another one that looked more like a strawberry fondue but it seemed to be prepared for kids only. I hated the taste so freaking much! D:

They had otak-otak as well but I personally thought there wasn't anything special.

They didn't serve variety of drinks like how the other restaurants did, but you can request for coffee or tea from the waiters or waitresses on duty. Hot water can be requested too in case you don't drink cold water that would be prepared on your table. They served milk for your cup of coffee or tea as well but if you couldn't finish the milk, my aunt would be very willing to help you out. LOL!

I told you I ruined one of the macaroons right? Look at how small the bite was and imagine how disgusting it could be, I can do something even more disgusting because you have to know how cruel I could be when it comes to food. Okay I'm just joking! :P 

It's the cup of cold water that hurt my throat so much until I coughed badly. I regretted for not requesting for a cup of hot or warm one.

They have a noodles section where you can choose your favourite types of noodles together with mushrooms, vegetables and others and the chef would cook for you right on the spot.

There was a waiter standing near our table waiting for some other people to pay, hence we decided to take a group photo with him holding my camera. I adjusted everything and I even switched my camera to auto-focus yet the outcome wasn't really satisfying but oh well, they should be trained in terms of photographing before they start serving customers. Huhuuu! :P 

I just knew that there's this day called Easter Day but I don't know how it is celebrated by the people from which country, and how it started yet I'm so lazy to read the paragraph on Wikipedia. :P Easter eggs then become one of the decorations of a tiny little bakery at a corner in the lobby, and there're a few in the restaurant where we had our buffet lunch too but I ignored. I thought there wasn't anything special until my third aunt told me a little bit about it at the bakery.

It's what you would see once you step into the lobby from the main entrance of the hotel.

I wish I could enjoy my coffee or tea together with my Badman one day later at this beautiful garden. It could be better without the tall buildings all around as you can see in the photo above wtf.

The overall buffet lunch was fine I would say but some of the waiters and waitresses were so impolite that they never smiled at the customers at all with poor customer services in the meantime. Anyway, the foods were pretty yummy that I would definitely come again and I mean it, even though I have to be well-prepared if I'm going to drive. Their parking facilities are so poor and are yet to be improved! Before I forget, never ever ask me how much we have paid because even I myself have no idea too! My uncle was the one paying while my mum was the one paying the money to my uncle. Heheeeeeee! ;D

Lemon Garden Café

Lobby level of Shangri-La Hotel, Kuala Lumpur

Tel: +603-20743900

Hours: 6am to 1am daily

x.

12 symbolic animals in my big, big family.

Before I start babbling, there is this one tradition in my big, big family that we, from kids to teenagers, would organize a mini performance to entertain the others, especially the grandparents, back in Mentakab during Chinese New Year. It is usually held at night on the day that most of us can be around as attendees and sometimes participants. Without exception, as similar as previously, this year's was held on the first day of Chinese New Year 2011, which was Thursday night before some of my cousins, Wei Syn, Wei Qing, and Wei Hong left to Johor Bahru to visit the relatives of their mum's side.

Upon the ending of the mini performance, someone suggested to take group photos of the 12 symbolic animals used to mark our birth years as prescribed in Chinese Lunar calendar. Just in case you don't know what the animals are, according to the arrangement, there are mouse, cow, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, chicken, dog, and pig. This session has seemed to be the funniest part among all because of how many of them posed while taking photos.

There you go! ;D

The rabbits aged between 12 and 60, I supposed.

You should have known what they are through their poses. It's weird to say so but still, the dogs aged between 17 and 53.

The tigers! They are 49 and 85 years old respectively if I'm not mistaken.

Then, it's my turn! :D We are the monkeys aged between 19 and 55 but we don't really look like ones, right? :P Unfortunately, daddy was gambling in Genting Highland so he wasn't in the photo, and mummy sort of blamed him for not being there with us during those important moments. Well done, mummy! :P

How do you usually pose like a monkey? We couldn't stop laughing because of what my eighth aunt, the second one from left, was doing. XD

They are the goats aged between 8 and 92. Truth to be told, I'm always so proud of my grandpa for being such a healthy person and he's going to be on this earth for almost one whole century. Even though as compared to previously, he's not anymore as active as those time but still, like what people say, old people can be like a baby. At times, my grandpa can be a very cute old man with a serious face. ;D

Calling them rats sounds better or mice? :O The both of them are like sisters and they are of the same age, 15 years old.

Again, it's weird to say this but they are chickens. Don't make me laugh! XD The three of them are aged between 17 and 30. Believe it or not, my cousin sister on the right is already 30 years old.

Can you guess what they are through their funny poses? Beyond doubt, they are the dragons aged between 23 and 47. Oh, the one posing as a tail is my mummy! Damn cute laaah! :D

They are the snakes of 10 and 22 years old respectively. The old snake is my oh-so-cute eldest brother yo!

The very first thing I think of whenever I see this photo is that they look more like motorcyclists rather than horses. Hahaha! :P Their ages are 21 and 45 respectively. For your information, the uncle is my grandparents' one and the only own son amongst his siblings.

Do you have any idea why their poses weren't related? It's simply because there's only a pig and a cow so far, and to not let them posing alone, everyone came out with a good idea. ;) The guy on the left is my beloved youngest brother of 16 years old but for me and my eldest brother, he is a big baby. :P I will leave the age of my cousin sister on the right to you if you understand the so-called concept of these 12 symbolic animals thingy.

Last but not least, the combination of dogs and a pig can form several idioms in Chinese but this group of people was forming only one. Try to guess it if you are interested in it and leave me a comment. :D I'm not sure about the other languages but that of in Chinese is what I know. :)

This section was a sudden suggestion and it was very well done by each and every one of us accompanied by all the laughter from the people who were watching. Back to the mini performance that I mentioned earlier, several videos were recorded but to protect their images, I wouldn't post any one of them on my blog. They were all uploaded only on a private group of our family that has just been created a few days ago.

I miss the night. :)

x.