Absence

Up till the 5th of February, I am off to relive my surreal days in Melbourne with Jem, but this time at a different, yet, familiar place, with very, very familiar people. :)

All this excitement is getting to me.

Picture January

1# Watched Sherlock Holmes with Tim, and I'd give it a 7/10.

#2 Finally had use of the book light I've had since my 21st birthday during the night drive to Malacca. Thank you, Pei Hao and Yong Hui :D

3# I've known Ee Ping for years, but this is my first time sitting down, having a proper conversation with her over a cuppa coffee ♥

#4 It's been more than a year(!) since I've had Korean food, and in this month alone, I'm lucky enough to have it twice; both with very special people! :)

#6 White Havaianas that came all the way from Singapore!
Also, my nails look pretty much ready for Chinese New Year :)

#7 New haircut - Extra fluffy ears :3

#8 One of those coffee moments when Jem and I were catching up.

#9 I just had to put this picture again :')

#10 Better late than never.

The Water Dragon

There's so much more happiness to go around this Chinese New Year, as compared to past years.

My happy (embarrassing) family. ♥

I find the atmosphere at our home feels lighter and more refreshing, somewhat.

Shauna loves his little sibling. :3

It took me awhile for me to realize that it's been quite awhile since we properly celebrated, since our family went through a fair share of tough times which consequently led us to escape overseas on previous occasions.

The past two years has been saturated with waves of ups and downs, but I'm here to say that the three of us are here to sincerely usher in the beginning of the Dragon Year. :)

Every year, we spend most days of the new year with our extended Chow family, and like all other years, we laugh, devour our favourite homemade soup, get fat, grow old, and lose money to our Aunty Su whom is the luckiest person I've ever met. *bitter*

Another tradition we kept was our yearly day-trip to Malacca town to visit mum's relatives, but with a side twist - we did a pitstop at our secret food haunts before going home!

 I'm also quite happy to have rekindled my love for baking, because I can now tempt people with cakes and brownies just so they can drop by my house for a visit :D

BFF :D

Five long years since the BFF's last group picture was taken, can you believe it?

My Grandma Knows Kung Fu

While waiting for the rest of the family to arrive for the reunion dinner, I sat around with Shauna and my other cousins in front of the tele box, and helped swat away some flies that were trying to invade my favourite soups and pork dishes.

A few minutes later, I saw this wad of newspaper flew past me like a battling spear, heard a loud THWACCCCCK!!!, and my grandmother heaved a small sigh, bent over to take up the newspaper, and underneath it was the exact same fly that I was trying to very hard to shoo away.

Except now, it's a dead fly.

We all looked at her, and back at ourselves again; each equally speechless as the other.

My uncle joked that it she probably took that eighty years of her life to cultivate all that qi and inner energy, coupled with the fact that she doesn't have much to do at home anyway, hence the unbelievable talent and lightning hand reflex.

...

I told you, my Mama is just awesome.

A List of Things...

...That recently annoyed me -

• Drivers who continuously blare their horns when they're cars are stagnant in a traffic jam.
• Just when I finally decide to buy my favourite pair of white Havaianas, the salesperson tells me that my size is out of stock. For three months.
• Must gaining weight after eating big and delicious portions for dinner every night be the natural way of things?
• The resident rat in my neighborhood is keeping my dog awake at night!
• My supposed family trip to Cambodia went from reality to dream when the agent called to say all the hotels were fully booked by Chinese tourists during CHINESE NEW YEAR!??!?!  -___-"
• The current hot and humid weather's the perfect combination for an eczema attack.
• You search high and low for that 5 cent coin for an ice-cream cone from McDonald's, they tell you their machine's out of order.
• Seriously, two assignments even before the beginning of semester?
• My dog eats book receipts that I compile for my mother's income tax.

The one that got to me most, was how annoyed I was with myself for reversing into someone else's car, resulting in a huge hole in my wallet after paying for the damages of both our cars!

Sigh, never again.

Project 16/21; Baked A Birthday Cake

And it was a success!!! :))))

This person that I baked for is actually a friend, but recently, I see him more often as my patient in the dental clinic as compared to other socializing occasions. You'd hardly find friends who are that patient to when you experiment with their teeth, and even gives you and your partner little gifts from time to time.

So when dinner was set for upcoming 30th birthday, I thought a homemade cake would be a good gift to show how grateful I am for his kindness!

Before the icing.

Honestly, I haven't baked a proper cake in years, and this strawberry cake that I did was the biggest (and grandest) scale I have ever achieved in a single try. The fact that the finished product turned out to be what I dreamt it would be actually surprised me.

The final product.

I'm not too sure if my friends didn't want to make me feel bad, but I really hope that everyone was as pleased with the outcome as I am; especially Chin Aik.

Here's to more experiments in the future; I just need to find potential guinea pigs to try! 

Quote #57

"I always continue to smile after I put down the phone with you. Heh"

"Me too"

"Then I guess we're weird together :)"

Palpitations

Tomorrow, someone will once again return home, and the thought of us catching up and digesting 6 months of each other's lives sounds quite exciting in my books. 

I wonder how's it gonna be like, but so long as there are no heart attacks this time, it's all good.
I hope?

Fifth Semester

Can you believe it?

Next week marks another beginning; the beginning of the last few months of my pre-clinical phase of dental school.

It was barely a month ago that I made my happiness known to the whole world that I have made it into third year, but honestly, to digest that fact itself obviously took a longer time than expected. In my case, the epiphany only arrived at my doorstep after my new timetable (finally) appeared in my university portal two days ago. Heh.

Other factors also came in like a slap in the face - how we suddenly have two assignments patiently waiting for us to digest even BEFORE we officially start our term, and four clinical slots in our first week(!) alone marks the beginning of our continuous hunt for patients again.

Anyone interested? :D

Happy as I am to be treating people and seeing my friends again, I am unsure as to how excited I should actually be about resuming classes. One, because the time for us to part our separate ways is drawing nearer and nearer and secondly, you tell me lah who prefers to wake up early, slog and tire your brain cells for eight continuous hours than to sleep in and have breakfast in bed???

My days of jellying around are going to end once more, and the next time I get this chance; an entirely new phase awaits me.

YDC 20th; Dhamma Initiative

The thought of this possibly being the last camp that I'll be attending in a long while saddens me, because this was how everything started a long time ago, and has become a huge part of me ever since.

Looking at the latest stream of pictures that we took at OUTBAC Broga, mostly funny ones with my #epicfail facial expressions, I realized that it's been nearly nine years. Nine long years, and yet, most of my favourite aspects, like the people I have known since young, still walk with me till this very day.

In between, I have also met people who infused much colour and joy into this already wonderful experience, and I sometimes wonder who will I ever be, if not for them?

This act of initiative dealt me a number of lessons for me to ponder upon, and just like all previous camps that I have been to, I came back home feeling inspired and subsequently, rediscovered the old, funny, lame, sentimental and hyperactive Cheese in me.

Through it all, I am more than happy to have been apart of all the works of The Dhamma Initiative; smiley toes and all!