The Notebook

I finally watched The Notebook. God I bawled my eyes out to this movie. I haven't cried at any movies since...I don't remember when.

Let me tell you in my words what this movie is about. It starts in an old nursing home, a man reading to another woman about this love story. A story out of the notebook:

Noah and Ally met in the carnival when Ally was 17 years old. She was beautiful and for Noah it was love at first sight. He asked her out. She rejected at first but eventually they fell in love. It was young love. Summer love. Innocent, carefree but real for both of them.

But Ally was from a rich family. Noah was earning 40 cents an hour at some low paying job. Ally was carted off to New York for college by her parents. Life moved on for both of them.

Noah went off to the war, Ally went to college. Some seven years later fate intervened and they met again. Ally was engaged to be married when she saw Noah's face in the newspaper with the dream house he'd promised Ally. She went back to meet him.

What happened next? Watch the movie. It's worth it really. Beautifully told story.

This is the trailer:

Boredom

This Saturday night we went to Asian Recipe for dinner. From the name I think its pretty obvious what type of cuisine it served. I didn't take any photos. Lazy. We had pineapple fried rice (mum's fav), green curry, deep fried soft shell crab, fried calamari, and manichai (a type of local vege). Overall food wasn't bad and not pricey too.

You know how we decide where to go every Saturday night? Its a routine seriously.

Dad: where do you guys want to eat?
Winnie: Garden Hill. The old Tappanga.
Mum and dad considers this then,
Mum said: Why don't we just eat seafood at Hui Sing?
Dad interrupts: why don't we go to Mr Ho at Crowne Plaze?
Mum: hah?? don't want la.
Dad: Then go where?
Dad: Amy, you been to Imperial Duck before? You want to try?
Amy: You tapau last time remember? I tried already.
Dad: But you want to try again?
Amy: Erm, no thanks. I'm fine really.
Mum and dad continue to decide where to eat.
Winnie:I don't think we need to say anything.
Amy:No point really. They decide everything.

This always happens until sooner or later mum, dad, winnie or me gets pissed off.


A post is not complete without a photo of me.

Out of curiousity, has anyone watched The Notebook? I keep putting off watching it.

On a random note, Eli (our housemaid) went back home for Raya! Nooo!! I will be kept busy by mum. She's a perfectionist I swear. And in her house, you do things her way! You sweep the floor her way, you line bottles up her way, you do not touch or shift anything she arranged. Or else! Sometimes I pity Eli seriously.

I think I have a weird sense of humour. I suddenly remembered that once I thought it'd be hilarious to ask Eli to stand in front of our auto gates and say: Buka Pintu (Open the door) and voila the door will open. Of course I was inside the house holding the remote and laughing my head off. When I told Shirley, she thought I was plain evil for tricking eli into believing the door will open.

Another example: when I was young I wondered what it'd be like to fall down a flight of stairs? So I pushed my brother down the stairs one day. He rolled all the way down, shouting and of course was hurt and bruised. I got scolded and caned by my mum. Boo.

Where's the fun without the risk right? Hahaa.. ok. I'm weird.

Just for fun

I have a mini personality test for you. Its actually in chinese but I'm trying to translate them to English. Which of these places would be more scary for you? Imagine going to one of these places by yourself at night. Choose one only.

#1 Graveyard

#2 Hospital Morgue

#3 Crematorium

#4 Haunted House

#5 Guilottine / Hang Man Place such as in the World War 2 era

#6 Eerie Unused Toilet

#7 Imagine a lab out of a Van Helsing/Frankenstein movie with dead bodies.

Out of these 7 places, which would terrify you the most?

Think.

Think.

Imagine

yourself

alone

in

a graveyard at night?

at the morgue?

toilets at night?

Got the answer?

OK..

DON'T SCROLL DOWN TILL YOU HAVE YOUR ANSWER










ANSWERS!!

If you chose:

#1 You respect the person you love

#2 You are dependent on your lover

#3 You're a player

#4 You are immature, easily jealous and possessive

#5 You're a sex maniac

#6 You are loyal to your lover

#7 You don't concentrate on loving one person.

What do you think? I chose toilet #6

Happy Birthday to Shirley

To my best friend, to the sister I never had, to the bitch!

Many happy returns!! You turn 24 this year. I know its been a while but you know I miss you. You're always screwing me for not keeping in touch. So this is for you!

Now that I am in Kuching and you're still in London, I really don't know when will we meet each other again. You sent me off at Heathrow so many times. Hugged each other goodbye before boarding. Acting tough, determined not to cry, not to break down. Instead when we leave each other, you cry in the toilets or on the train back home. Me i cry when the plane takes off. Idiots.



Looking back we've known each other only 6 years and been close only when we decided to go to London together. I still remember the first thing you said to me in the cafeteria back in IBMS. You were with Ivy and you asked: why am I so quiet? Hahahaa..this made me laugh to myself now. Even back then it seems inevitable that I'm the quiet one and you're the noisy one. Anyone who knows Shirley should pity me for having to stay in the same room with her for 3 years!!! OMG! She's one crazy woman.


Said crazy woman at KLIA before departure.

I still remember our first quarrel at Asda over some small thing. I remember both of us saving money at Tesco by waiting for them to reduce the price on the bread. I remember buying 19p bread to eat. haha! I remember that 7/7 bombings when we stayed home not knowing anything. I remember Shirley's steamed egg with rice, and tang yuen and the first time we cooked together.

Who is going to sing that song with me now? The song we used to hum together since we both don't know the lyrics to that dumb song. I remember how we shared each other's clothes all the time. Even arguing over which clothes to bring back to Malaysia and which to leave in London. And how could I forget the day you got drunk? 

We've been through so much together that there is no easy way to write this. Squeezing tons of memories into a few sentences. 

Some random facts about Shirley:

- she likes eating rice. a lot. 

- she taught her colleagues from Bangladesh, Hungary etc how to scold cibai.

- she takes a long time to get ready in the morning before work or to go anywhere really.

- she has a very infectuous laughter. she laughs hysterically to herself when watching drama series online.

- she has big boobs. hahahaha.. compared to mine of course.

- she can't drink wine. cos she threw up very badly once and I had to look after her. but she never drank wine after that. come to think of it, she can't drink whiskey too cos she'll throw up too. so she drinks beer.

- she eats a lot of McD. =) but not beef products.

- She. Is. Loud!

Nifer and Shirley at Greenwich. 

You're always there for me, someone to offer an ear, a shoulder to cry on or a hug. And that means the world to me. Its never easy living together. Thank you for putting up with my awful temper, thank you for washing the dishes when I had to run out, thank you for putting up with my music when I was studying, thank you for doing my laundry when I went off to Newcastle, and thank you for washing the toilets. haha. 

Do you remember the time when we walked to McD drive thru at 5am in the morning? How bout the 168B dish we created together with Nifer? Being stuck out of the house on Christmas morning! God! Our Bachelors graduation in Sunderland? Paris trip? Taking different trains home to save money. Hahaha.. Remember our Bond Street shopping trips, and night time system barter? 

Mandy, Shirley, Nifer and I at Chinatown, 07.

It was so hard to drag your (and Nifer's) lazy ass to go clubbing sometimes. One of those rare occasions was on 26 Dec 06 in the photo below when Wai Tjun and Eva came to London.  =p

Thanks for all the wonderful things you do. I found a true friend when I found you.

Happy Birthday!

Boredom

I'm seriously bored now. And what do seriously bored people do?

Write crap!

Don't want to write anything sadist and pessimist lest I get screwed by WInnie again! Sigh. WHy does my younger sister gets to scold me?! WHy?! Cos she's smarter. haha. I'm a bimbo with no brains. My MBA was bought from screwing Dr Kumar. Haha. That was a sarcastic joke in case you didn't know.

I'm hungry! Must be my hormones out of control. Period coming.

Last night with mum and dad they started talking about Japanese guys and the conversation turned to my ex. Kazutoyo Hirano. My Japanese bastard of a boyfriend. Anyway. I came across some BBQ photos we had back in those days when we still stayed together. I lived with some Japanese, 2 Spanish guys and 1 Polish guy. Kaz was a vegetarian and while I was with him, I also became vegatarian. Therefore our BBQ consists of corn, salmon fish, bread, pizza, green and red peppers and lots of alcohol and weed!


Simon lighting the BBQ in 6 Linkway London.

Nobu and Maiko preparing the pizza. Very nice people. Can you tell Nobu is a model back in Japan? Hot he is! Even in London. Its so weird to hear a guy tell you: don't eat so much McD. Fat! I felt so guilty eating a cheeseburger in front of him!

Me and Simon's mum preparing the food. Shirley in the background.

Cooking.

3 Spanish guys, one Polish guy and one Japanese. We stayed in the same house then. So many memories. Good and bad.

Leam prepared these mushrooms. Spanish dish he said. Basil and garlic on top of mushrooms. Delish! Yum.

Simon and I looking buri buri. In our living room. I miss those guys. In a way. Life was so fun with them. Going to concerts in the park and dancing with hundreds of people. Going to the park late at night. Going to their rooms to listen to thier guitar playing. Simon is a musician and damn he is good! Even in London people were staring as he jumped up and down to the music in the clubs. 

Leam, Simon and Nobu at Finsbury Park posing. 

Me in the red room; a room at the 3rd floor of the house. Simon came down one night and knocked on our doors handing out tickets to their band in their red room at night. Truth be told it was fun living in that house but only for a few months. 

Simon and I at Finsbury Park. The Wailers were playing at Finsbury Park.

Squeezing in among the crowd.

Maiko, Simon's mum, me and Simon.

The photo below was taken at Brighton 06. I'm such a useless camwhore. I hardly dress up, put on make up or take decent photos of myself that I can't find any nice photos to post up. 

Going to sleep now. Bye.

Accident prone

Shirley probably remembers the many times she had to rub Zambuk on my bruises in the 3 years we've stayed together. This time the bruise is so huge and ugly. Damn. I hate myself sometimes. I'm so accident prone its not funny at all.


I got this when I was getting out of the car and accidentally bumped into another car's behind. Don't ask me how I did it. Obviously I'm very careless.

One of the most embarrassing incident was when I slipped and fell in the lobby of a hotel. I slipped on my high heels and fell down some stairs at Holiday Inn. God it was embarrassing. It hurts like hell yet I can't burst into tears cos so many people were staring at me. My skin were peeling and blood was trickling down my legs, I couldn't move sitting on the floor at an awkward angle with a short skirt, file and handbags on the floor. It was embarrassing! My colleague helped me up while I tried not to notice the people around me. 

Also, I really bruise easily. For example in London I bring a sling bag out for a whole day and while walking the bag slaps against my thigs right? At the end of the day, I have a huge bruise on  my thigh. Why?! So not fair! Or at work in McD, I use my thigh to close the tills when I'm in a hurry, when there are so many customers I really have to hurry up. But at the end of the day there are so many cuts and bruises on my body. It sucks. What did Willie love about my body before? Haha..

I got this after a rollerblade session at home. Damn idiotic. I was so happy to rollerblade outside my neighborhood that when my legs started hurting I thought it was due to lack of exercise. Then when I took it off I realized my legs were bleeding. Idiot. Permanent scar now!

After ice skating one winter, I developed this huge blister, cut and bruise that took one year to heal. I'm so not kidding. I didn't take any photos but I learnt my lesson. When your feet or any where on your body hurts, its your body telling you to slow down, to stop. Don't ever ignore your body.

Know why? I received a phone call from my cousin in Taiwan last week. Sigh. One of my relative has lung cancer. It was such a shock since she doesn't smoke or drink at all and exercises regularly. She had backaches recently and went to the doctor for a check up only to reveal lung cancer! 

Wish I could persuade mum and dad to go for yearly body check up but they are obstinate as hell. 

Life is short. Play hard!

Saturday night

My typical normal Saturday night in Kuching would be dinner with the family outside at a restaurant. Mum never cooks on Saturday's since many many years ago and we always go out to whatever place we choose to eat. This weekend however, mum and dad have been quarrelling since last night. Winnie and I stayed home last night and tonight *gasp* because of this. So kwai. So unlike me! Haha..

So this Saturday night found me, winnie and kevin at home playing cards (Big 2), Uno, and Gin Rummy. Btw since we didn't eat out we tapau Pizza!


Bored siblings reunited in the face our parents squabble. Haha..ok. that was very lame. 

Accompanied by whiskey coke. =p So ironic that our older brother Kevin doesn't drink at all. He hates alcohol. Can't drink at all. I remember once in the pub my cousin forced him to down one mug of Heineken and he threw up afterwards in the toilet straightaway with blood some more. He just can't drink alcohol. 

I hate Kevin's mouth! When he wins he just can't stop teasing me or Winnie. He calls her pig! All the time. When he himself is so much fatter. And he always do stuff such as sing: Amy loses again, again, forever losing. then proceeds to laugh himself stupid. wtf.  When he loses, he said how he ALMOST won. How he had the cards but end up losing to us. sigh. why am i cursed with this brother??!! =p

Jenga. Didn't play this cos it would be too noisy. Didn't want to risk mum and sad scolding us again.

Titanic cards winnie bought many years ago in Taiwan. Jeez. I forgot about these.

And Kevin's Dragonball cards. Kids wtf. Hahaha...spend money on these crap!

Me? When in Taiwan I spend money on stickers when I was young. Then as I got older, clothes, accessories, shoes, and handbags. Kevin spends on food when he goes back nowadays.

Anyway that is our Saturday night. Now that we finished our card games some 3 hours later Kev is back to his computer games, Winnie is watching dvd and I'm online! 

Black and white

People are always making fun of me or exasperated when I try to hide/shield myself from the sun. In Kuching, I bring a jacket in the car ALL the time to shade myself. Two shades at the window, gloves for my hands, and always sunscreen SPF 50 when i go out in the day time. In the day time if I really have to go out of the car, I bring an umbrella if the situation allows or bring a jacket.

But I have my own reasons for wanting to be fair. I melt in the sun! wtf. Ok. I was really dark back in high school. Let me show you the black Amy.


Damn ugly.. This was 5 years ago.


Unplucked eyebrows like a bushman. Dark skinned. Ugly smile from ugly angle. I look like shit. Haha. Who in their right minds would want me then? lol

Grandma's birthday dinner at Lok Thian in 2004. 

This is fair skinned:

 

This is 5 years later. There isn't much difference except I'm much fairer. Everthing else is the same. My weight and height are the same minus eyebrows and pimples. I found that using Loreal Pure Zone helped a lot with my pimples. Skin is smoother and less acne prone. Touch on wood. Just wash, tone and moisturize with all three of the Loreal Pure Zone products. Works well for me but I know Shirley doesn't like it. Doesn't go well with her skin.


Black and white. Haha. My ex McD colleagues. I look so fair in contrast to them. Cheers guys!

This was taken at Westminster. Big Ben and the Parliament Houses in London.

Karaoke

I went to karaoke earlier tonight. Some people love singing but I'm so not a karaoke person. I NEVER sing. Not in public, not at home, not even in the shower to myself. Every time I go to a karaoke I just clap and dance and drink. Till I drift off to sleep. =P

Its weird that since young I grew up listening to parents and relatives singing karaoke during every chinese new year, birthday parties, wedding dinners and any get togethers. One of my uncle is especially good at singing those oldies such as: Pretty Woman, Knock Three Times, Five Hundred Miles etc. But ironically my brother, sister and I are exceptionally shy about singing in public. During these family gatherings we often get pushed on stage. This is the part where we all hide in the toilets, pretend to act busy and walk off. Whatever it takes to avoid singing.

I've come to realize that when singing its your confidence that makes you stand out. Even if you can't carry off a tune, just sing on, smile and laugh whenever you go off key and people will look up to you for it. After all how many really good singers are they?

Once in London Shirley, Nifer and I started singing karaoke. Or rather they sang while I took photos and videos. No mics so we took out Shirley's speakers as our microphone.


Ah mei's wo ke yi pau ni ma. I still remember girls!

Shirley is so gonna screw me for posting this photo of her haha.

Karaoke aside. I got a new job offer so therefore starting my new job in early October this time as a Company Analyst. Yeah for me! 

Celeste's 18th

Another Friday night has come and gone away.  This time its Celeste's 18th birthday. She is officially legal. Drink more yea?

Winnie and I. Oh yea, Shirley. Before you start lecturing me about wearing that H&M long sleeved shirt again, I wasn't feeling well. So I wore long sleeved. I had flu. Cold. Lucky I brought it back to Kuching instead of leaving it in London for you eh? Hahahahahaha...

Said birthday girl with her tiramisu cheese cake. 

Sisters being idiotically vain. 

Yuki and Celeste.

To be honest, I'm glad I have a sister that I'm close to. Someone to talk crap to, someone who will be brutally honest when you need an opinion, someone to drink and dance with. A forever friend. 

I seem to be saying "to be honest" a few times today. I'm being honest now. But talking with others, normally when I include "to be honest" I'm avoiding the truth. =p

Another photo of us. Must be sick of us already. 

Last. So not in the mood to write anything long so photos will suffice for now. 

Tired and cranky now. Must be PMS.

Bye.

For my bitches

Shirley sent me a text message saying I'm bo yung (useless) for not keeping in touch with her. So fine! I will prove I'm not bo yung. Haha. I miss you lar bitch. You and Nifer both. I just keep it in my heart. So I dedicate this post to both of you okie.

Its going to take too long to post our stories. Too many memories. How do I start?
How do I cram in all past 3 years into one post? Quite impossible really..we've lived together for so long. Shared a bed, the bathroom, cooked together, celebrated chinese new years, birthdays, christmases and holidayed together. Not to mention quarreled over petty issues.


Shirley, me and Nifer back in 2005. Miss them so much.

Nifer always asking this question: wo mei li mar? every time she poses in front of this mirror. Shirley and my room the first year.


In class. Damn I was so fat. Evi in the background.


How could I forget that night Shirley got drunk? The three of us finished both bottles so fast that Nifer fell asleep on the couch downstairs and Shirley was throwing up in the toilet upstairs while I had to take care of her! I will never forget that. 12/12/05. The day we said we'd remember forever. =) I miss you both!!


Last minute studying for exams. Never stay with your friend. You get distracted too easily. Posing for camera, cooking in the kitchen, talking talking talking, planning shopping trips, holidays and neglecting your studies.

Mcd and Pizza Hut. All 3 of us were McD employees. Haha..Nifer for 2 weeks. Shirley stayed on the longest. Me, for a year plus?

Looking through our past photos and videos, I really don't know how to write our stories lar. What should I mention? The tang yuen Shirley and Nifer are always making. Our shopping trips? Bond Street? Oxford Street? Our Paris trip? Cardiff? Amsterdam? Grocery shopping at Tesco, feeding the ducks at Southwark, Body Shop, Sock Shop, Chinatown etc. Impossible.

Those are in the past but those memories will always stay in my mind and fond in my heart. We may be busy with our own lives now but I will always remember you guys.

Love you.