The Terrifying Ride on the Road

Hey peeps. Greetings from Makassar,South Sulawesi,Indonesia. I'm on holiday and I'll be here 'til late December. The horrible AS exam just ended last week so it's time to chillax.. YEAH!?!

So,it's been good here so far,with dad fussing over what I eat and all that. And gosh,you can't imagine what kind of a relief it is not having to go to Asia cafe and sit down and think of what to eat when there really isn't much choice for me because every shop seems to have the word "pork" on their menu. Dad even cooked for me last night.

Well,that's all there is for the fun part. Here comes the horror..

Yesterday was the first day I started my driving lesson. There I was thinking that they'd be "gentle" on a newbie like me. Maybe teach me all the fundamental basics before letting me drive the car. Boy was I wrong..

My lesson will last for 14 days,a 40-min on-the-road session each day. My first car,a Honda Jazz. Fine,it's not so big. Barely any bigger than the Kancil you may have used during your lessons. My instructor is this man who's got this really thick Makassar slang which makes it even harder for me because I could barely interpret what he wanted me to do. So,as if all that weren't intimidating enough,I was literally thrown into the congested road of Makassar. And believe me,you wouldn't want to experience what I did on your first practical lesson.

First,he showed me how to "use" the clutch. "Step harder" and "let go slowly". And that was all. Then he told me to get onto the road and start driving! *WTF* I was like,"are you serious"? I mean seriously.. I've never handled a car before and you expect me to know how to drive one?! I mean,I didn't even know you have to step on the clutch when you want to start the car or when I should change my gear. Talk about being cruel. And those Indonesian drivers on the road weren't of any help at all. They kept honking me! I panicked,BIG TIME.. And my car stopped several time. Sh*t. F*ck. I felt stewpid..

Then,I just followed wherever my instructor wanted me to go. We passed through several traffic lights, went to a very narrow alley (where a big red truck came out of nowhere and I had to reverse my car) and got stuck in a jam where my car died. All in a day's lesson.. Well,just pray that I'll survive this terrifying course and come back to Malaysia in one piece. Please,I need all your prayers right now.. And I mean,NOW!!!

But anyway,I think I'll make it. I hope. So,those of you who are having or are about to have your holiday,ENJOY! And to those who are still having exams, ALL THE BEST! Lotsa LOVE from Makassar~ XOXO

Of Blades and Romance

Two nights ago I went to bed with an unusually active mind. Maybe it was the chamomile tea I drank or the few episodes of Chuck / House / Bleach I was watching before that.

And that night, I dreamt! I don't usually dream a lot, actually very very seldom... Probably about once every few months I think. And this dream ah!

It started as like some cheesy romantic film where _______ and I went dating and we walked around and around someplace... Can't really remember this part much but the weird thing is it was like I was watching myself on tv... Third person view lah. Now when I think back it's like trying to penetrate a thick fog.

And then ah!

It suddenly turned into a weird scene where I was wearing the billowing shinigami baju (go watch Bleach) and I had a zanpaktou too! It was huge and shiny and meat cleaver-ish... Looked quite like Ichigo's one lo! And ah... NICKOLAI was there too, also in the shinigami baju and carrying a sword of his own. It had quite a cheapo look... like the kiddy plastic swords you can find in Toys 'R' Us. (Sorry nick XD)

Then for the rest of the dream we rushed around a Freiburg shopping centre called Zentrum Oberwiehre slaying monsters! Running up and down the escalators... Suprisingly we weren't that good at jumping down from great heights. And when we fight ah, fuiyoh got the half-bent knees stance and yelling and everything leh! And these monsters ah, very scary one you know! You chop through it once, it'll dissolve and another new body appears!

And on and on it went until I finally woke up at 6.30 feeling exhausted. Kill too many monsters edi lah.

Hahaha thought I'd write about it here so I won't forget... Give you guys a good laugh also.

XD

The other side of Food

Given the choice to either clean the house or cook, I would definitely opt for vacuuming and mopping. I never had the passion for baking and cooking although ironically, I love to eat. Yes, I do help my mum prepare the ingredients for lunch and dinner but that’s as far as it gets. The closest to preparing a meal that I have done so far is cooking rice and maggi noodles.
*Don’t laugh*

Unfortunately or fortunately for me, living 5 days a week at Intec without coming home has made done the unthinkable… COOK!!!

Believe it or not, just a few weeks back I actually fried an omelette for the first time in my life though it turned out a bit too salty and ‘nicely brown’ (I won’t admit it was slightly burnt even when my housemates told me so).

Surprisingly, I found it quite fun to cook in my unit as my mum’s not there to nag and tell me that I’ve messed the kitchen. By the way, that’s another reason why I stay away from my mum’s territory, the kitchen at home. And Hazel, you could give me some tips on cooking next time, your potato salad sure does look yummy.

I even tried my luck and went ahead with scrambled eggs. Tip : Don’t ever use powdered milk cause it makes the eggs taste weirdly sweet, preferably UHT or fresh milk instead and using butter instead of canola oil makes it taste even more yummier. My poor housemates were my experimental guinea pigs who tried my cooking and gave critical comments. Haha… luckily not of them died from food poisoning =)

After a few failed attempts with the rice turning out too soggy or slightly grainy due to it being a little uncooked, I’ve actually successfully managed to cook fried rice, rice with baked cheese and even mini pocket pizza (using a bread toaster of course).

I’m not going to put up any pictures cause honestly I fail miserably at trying to make the food look tasty and appetizing. However, I’ll substitute the pictures of the meals I prepared with these instead :

Time creeps by like snail slime when you're having a real scheiße class.

''No, no, no, no, no, no.''

''You must speak!''

''Sing more!''

''Phrasing!''

''Don't use your wrist and arm, use your fingers!''

Then after all that has been corrected,

''It sounds unnatural! Music should be natural!''

Argh.

So frustrating when I think I'm doing something but it doesn't show in my playing. Even more frustrating when the teacher gets frustrated. Even more frustrating when the teacher doesn't give you time and chances to try things out before expecting you to get it right. Even more frustrating when you have to skip lunch for a lousy class like this.

''No, no, no, no, no.''

Today I spent one hour... ONE HOUR... on ONE PAGE... during piano class.

After that one page I thought I'd be free to go edi, manatau the next person came ONE HOUR LATE. So we spent the next hour on yet another ONE PAGE of another piece.

Yes, I had a very lousy class today.

New road

My college called me up a few weeks back, telling me I've been offered by a firm to pursue another course ICAEW, similar to the one I'm supposed to take next year, ACCA.

The main difference is.. ICAEW requires working and studying. And much tougher.. My lecturer regard ICAEW as BMW.. and ACCA as toyota camry.. lols. If you know the difference.. :)

I get to enjoy benefits like.. around 70% of my education fees sponsored , study leave, some employee benefits... and of course, SALARY. hahahaa.

The downside.. I kinda have to sort of 'give up' my childhood life earlier.. less leisure time.. full time working, part time studying during weekends.

After talking with a few people.. discussing pros and cons, I've decided to accept the offer! Will still be studying full time next year, and i'll be starting work end of december 2010!

Of course there're many terms and conditions to fulfil.. but for now you can put it this way.. I GOT A JOB ALREADY! LOL!

Oh another downside, I'm only having around 10 classmates next year!! Out of that, ONLY THREE BOYS!!!!

Lone bowl out in the cold.

Today I found out I can send files from my phone to my laptop using Bluetooth!! Hahahaha. *proud*

But to the main point of this post...

Today I burned two hours of my precious afternoon to make this!

*tada*

Potato salad!!

Looks so yummy right? Too bad I had to leave home again before it was done chilling so I'll tell you how it tastes tomorrow. =D

But! This is how I made it:

First you take three medium sized potatoes (or 6 small or 2 big, you count la okay) and one medium carrot and boil them until they're soft.
Then you take one egg and boil that until it's hard boiled.
In the meantime you take 10cm of cucumber and remove the seeds then slice it very thinly.
Then you take one small onion and slice that thinly too.
Then you put them both into bowls and then add a little salt then wait till they ooze their juices out then squeeze dry.
By that time your potatoes and carrots should be done edi, so take them out and peel! Careful ah, very hot.
Then you cut the potatoes into small pieces and slice the carrot, then add some salt and pepper.
Then you take the hard-boiled egg and chop that up.
Then you wait for the potatoes and carrots to cool.
Then you can mix everything in edi! Add a lot of mayonnaise and then chill your salad for at least one hour.
Then.... Bon appetit!

Hehehhe. Welcome to 'Cooking With Hazel Beh'! Hehehehhe.

As of now my salad is STILL chilling like so:


... outside the house cos the fridge is full edi.

Hehehhe.

Okay spent too much time typing this, late for class edi! Oh no oh no.

When God decides to pay a surprise visit

Sundays are always meant to be the nice, slow, relaxing, time wasting, enjoyable & a procrastinating day. Well, that is how my Sundays had always been, till today.

Me, together with my theater finals group went to one of our friend's house in Tropicana Indah to have our practice for the final performance next Friday.

The "rich people's territory"

After we felt that we've had enough of practice, we all left back to Subang Jaya. Since my friend live in PJ, I told him to just drop me off in college & I'll take the bus back home.


Here's a time chronology of the incredible experience I had on this incredible Sunday evening.

6.00 pm: As I was walking towards the bus stop, I stepped on a thorn. Paused, pulled it out & continue walking to the bus stop. There, I was suddenly struck with the urge to go to the toilet to pee, rather helplessly. But I wasn't able to find any toilet nearby so I just walked & walked, while my toe started to bleed.

6.05: After walking some distance, I reached Castrol so I went to use the toilet. Since I was already very far off the original bus stop, I decided to just walk to the next one.

6.10: Continued walking while constantly looking behind to see if the bus is coming. Soon I realized that my zip was wide open, God knows since when. So I had do move from the road towards the housing area to close it.

6.15: I walked in the SS 18 housing area & managed to close my zip. As I walked, I realized there isn't any space fr me to wait for a bus there so I'll have to walk to the stop in front SMK SU to catch a bus.

6.20: Walked & walked as I saw a Metro bus pass me, but I wasn't able to stop it. It started to drizzle.

6.25: Then a rapid KL bus passed, before another Metro while I was still in no situation to stop it.

6.30: I reached the SMK SU bus stop, & it started to rain really heavily. Just waited & waited there..

6.50: A rapid bus arrived & all my problems ended, or I thought. I entered, handed him a RM 10 note which he didn't accept, asking me to get a small change of RM 1, which I didn't have. So he asked me to get down from the bus. how sweet.

7.05: A Metro bus arrived & the conductor had the change fr RM 10 so I finally got my ride back.

7.15: I finally got the sight of home to my relieve. My house never looked better. Went to shower when I realized, my shorts was very badly torn in a couple of areas.

DISCLAIMER: This is just a sample & not the real picture of my torn shorts

Come to think of it, I was actually walking with an open zip for part of my journey.
And not forgetting a badly torn backside of a shorts for the entire journey!

And all those WONDERFUL things just HAD to happened just when you're feeling damn sick, coughing non-stop like as if you're having lung cancer! And not to forget the mucus that keeps dropping from your nose. -.-

You guys can go on & laugh about it, because I feel one's misery is another's comedy.

Brilliant choreographing by God. Enough said.