let's all be happy today!

these are the friends i can meet everyday and not get bored of.. and these are the friends that i will always treasure..

after tuition in the morning... might be my last sunday tuition if the parents don't want to continue.. but all the "might be"s are irritating.. we will just see how things go..

and yes..i might cry... boo hoo hoo.. all you sadistic people rejoice

so after that ... its time to meet grace..

i have been friends with Grace since i was seven.. hmmm.. that makes 14 years of friendship...although i am only "19" actually this year... She is the only one who has seen through all my horrible hairstyles.. totally weird dressing sense.. and bad behaviour.. hahahaha.. she was the only one who was in all my classes for primary school.. how weird is that? hahha.. i think she is the only one who can successfully blackmail me in the whole world.. not that she need to.. thank you girl.. cheesy as it may sound.. but thanks for everything that you are..

so this is her and Yanni..

the one on the left is Grace.. in a state of "gee.. should i pose? maybe i should just act cute just in case" and Yanni.. most likely wondering why she is striking that pose all of a sudden..

New York New York at citylink is a nice place to just chill out .. simply because it has blueberry pancakes and waffles at affordable prices.. the food is adequte.. definitely better than Nooch which was occupying the space before them.



Yanni, my church mate.. all sporty looking and everything i am not.. i pant after climbing stairs to my class.. i feel like a flab beside her..hahaha.. but lunching with her is always so fun.. when she is bored she links everyone up with every guy she knows.. looks like she has just done an interview with a reporter and now she is posing with her food no?



Grace's sausages.. can't remember the name.. only remember it was super sinful on the menu.. but to the consumer... "not sinful enough leh" ... sigh.. i want to say that someday too leh.. currently it just looked like fear factor to me.. but i tried a bit of the sausages and i thought it was not bad..



no prize for guessing whose food this belonged to... i was preparing for dinner... and dessert just in case.. hahahaha...mine was diet friendly... hahaha talk about irony.. lol!.. its does look bad doesn't it? bleah

after lunch, yanni had to leave.. sigh... but not after promising that we will meet the week after.. and Grace and i went shopping at Far east.. didn't manage to buy much.. as there was no sales around.. no sales = no motivation to shop ... + the phonecall from mum asking me to go home for dinner .. not very happy after that.. sorry girl..didn't mean to drag down your mood as well.

after that.. its time for dinner... of course i didn't go home for some impromptu redundant family gathering..just because the richest one is there doesn't not mean i must be there as well.. i am following my cousin ... "i am VERY busy" .. my mum wants me to be a pushover like her so that she has company? sorry.. no deal.. entertin yourselves..

so i met up with siyun,cheeyong and diwei for dinner at Ju Shin Jung.. which i thought was very good.. more about it on the food blog.. not ready yet though.. so many side dishes... mmm... it reminded me of the korean restaurant i ate at in KL which was really good as well.. mmmm...

after which we decided to go west coast park.. it was to work off our food that we packed in like no tomorrow... maybe it was just me.. it was so much fun ... all of them basically was being their silly selves.. my gosh.. what would i be without them? my mum may have regretted her decision last time but i never did... thank you guys.. =)

and guess who we met? our form teacher from secondary school.. ferdinand quek... still looking metrosexual.. its been like five years ? what coincidence.. he is one of the best teachers i had.. haha.. although siyun might not think that way as he was always mixing her up with cheryl.. which pisses her off .. hahaha!..

and i went home... duh!.. i am just no good at reporting my day ... bleah...

oh./.. SHERYL... i received your postcard..(yeah! i love getting mail!) so so sorry.. wanted to email you since the day i received it.. got hell lots to tell you about.. AH! will email you soon!
do take care of yourselves over there k..

to Walter.. thanks so much for the PocoYo dvd...sorry it was so late but you deserve a mention .. my gosh.. SO CUTE!... ...pocoyo is TOO CUTE! woochie woochie woo.. HELLO~!!... aw man.. cannot take it..

you know you know you know...
obviously i don't.. or you will not be saying that to me..

i realise i have been saying things without thinking again.. just answering it with the main feeling that i am experiencing at that moment.. i am honest you say? but honesty should have a limit.. go past that limit and some people cannot take it..

"oh.. i am transferring the pictures .. but it takes such a long time..so i only managed to do half. your computer is slow"
gee. i am sorry .. nothing can beat your speed to complain i guess.
"oh.. you are transferring the pictures from my comp to a disk or are you importing them?"
"i am leaving them in your comp"
"hmmm..for?"
"oh .. so that the family and you all can see the pictures next time"
"ah... never mind .. no need"
"..."

which is rude in a sense huh? ... but i was never keen on seeing his travel photos. i was in fact planning that on the day he is leaving to clear my system of his stuff.. he takes like 1200 photos of his trip to Europe and 600 during his trip to China.. and he is thinking to put them here ...for what? can't even use them to wipe my ass.. waste space only.. 1800 photos.. one shutter-friendly freak..and what i am to keep them here for? him to show off to who? this is not a museum... want to show off to your friends?... rent a space somewhere else ...

chey,.. he is not worth my time.. i am not a pushover like my mum ...

anyway..

i am itching to bake again... but i don't feel like eating it.. hahahah.. cos i have been eating too much and sitting down too much this week.

BUT... i got this HUGE craving for



blueberry pancakes.. maple syrup a must...preferably with lots of fresh blueberries on top and in them too.. one and a half will be enough.. i am not greedy..... hmmm.. i think new york new york has them... hmmm.. SHERYL! COME BACK NOW!!

and fosters apple pie.. that cost 8 dollars.. but man.. i have been thinking about it since two weeks ago.. hahaha...


ok.. i think i know what i want to make..

i want to make.. CORNFLAKE COOKIES (expecting something else? hahaha!)... my mum loves to eat them.. but i can't seem to find the recipe that she likes ... mmm...picky woman... hahahah... should i add raisins in them? or choc chips? or maybe oatmeal? krispies?.. the list is endless and i am getting excited..

lets make it an aim for everyone to satisfy all of julia's craving.. RENA.. HAHAHA! i will make sure that you are one of the first to try my cookies.. HAHAHAHA! you being so adverse to trying anything that i bake.. HAHAHA! aren't you excited!

news flash: my mum said ok.. but we have to wait for certain windbag to go home before we can bake ... awwww... so that is like another 2 weeks.. WHAT?!...

piece of shit.

i have found the way to happiness.

forget about climbing mountains or sitting under the tree or waterfall to seek the truth.

i have the answer.

all i need from you is to enter your savings into the account number i am going to show you in a while.
remember to be generous. happiness increases proportionally with the money you deposit.

ok.
happiness is free.. thats the good news. but sometimes free things cost a lot .. so its all in the perspective of the person. kinda of like getting free phones when you sign up for mobile plans in singapore. hahahaha. what a joke.

its rather easy to achieve really.
although you might still be a wee unhappy after that. but hey.. thats for afterwards.. one emotion at a time people. complex emotions are not good.

okay.. i think the secret to happiness is apathy. the art of "bo-chap".
and the one best way to achieve apathy is to forget. its the forgiveness part that gets people down... bypass the forgiveness and concentrate on forgetting.. when you forget a grudge.. what's there left to forgive?

and i can tell you most people do it really well. and none of the sensitive new age thingie. apathy is the way.

with such attitude .. who cares what other people think? if i want to wear red underwear outside .. i can. i am original. just like superman. and the best part is i don't care what other people say . so what if they laugh?

some times people get hurt emotionally because some idiots don't know how to keep their mouths shut and spew garbage all over. this kind of mess is so hard to clear. so doesn't it help if someone was to say, " you are so super ugly and fat" and it doesn't matter to you because you don't really care to hear that comment from the person and you forget about it. its kind of like smelling body ordour on the mrt train.Sure its nasty but after a while its gone.

i realise that even people of talents and with brains and looks get really down in the dumps. i would think they have no reason to be unhappy.. but taking a look at their blogs on a good mood day makes me depressed too. why? i feel that is because they care too much about eveything else.

and i know sometimes when the expectations are darn low, any variations above the mark will make you really happy.

be apathetic people.

only catch is apathy cannot be controlled.. one day you think that "oh this thing doesn't matter". before you know it. everything else doesn't matter. dates, people, things of value. ...and then you become so self-centred that you don't even realise it.
you forget things. you disregard feelings, you ignore matters of importance .. and you really focused on superficial things to make you happy.

and sure you get happy. but the happiness period get shorter and shorter each time but you demand a higher and higher level of satisfaction . you will be constantly seeking it. finding it within your grasp and then losing it again. this endless vicious cycle that sucks you in like quicksand.

gradually.
to a black bottomless depth of emptiness
you lose your soul.

all these to keep some shit from pea-brains from mattering too much. all these to keep from feeling depressed. sure. you are alive. but so are zombies.

is it worth it?

some tend to mistake apathy for tolerance and confidance too.
don't you agree that having confidence you must first have a certain level of apathy too?

so..
instant gratification or bouts of depression but interlaced with minor victories or short bursts of joy?
before you know it. you are a one man island ... how do you connect to people when you don't even understand what they are feeling.. most of the time, it may even end up as "so what"s in your head whenever something happen.
before long, there will never be a question of "hmmm.. what should i do for others today?" but it will be replaced by "hey! where can't they do that for me?", "what did i do to deserve this?", "why is nothing good happening to me", "haha. they deserve that", "so? whats so special about that?"

scary isn't it?
you mean you don't feel this way?
oh.

hahaha. hmmm.. just a thought la.

i believe i said it before, the worst feeling to experience is not hatred or murder or depressed but indifference.

that was the one coherent sentence i remembered from last saturday.. it was a night of booze and cards minus the sleaze though. duh!

we had decided to give a 'surprise' birthday party for mr lousy friend... most people call him diwei.. but "lousy friend" seems more endearing to us.

the plan was to hide the present in the fridge and at midnight get him to take something from the fridge so when he sees the note he can find the present and voila .. a surprise... simple yet so ingenious...

why is it 'surprise' with the inverted commas .. cos my mum went to spoil it all by greeting the whole group of them with

"eh.. you all are here to celebrate someone's birthday right"

which cause all of us to be stunned for a few seconds.. which definitely meant something... how to get out of such a situation? my mum has zero ability to speak softly and hide surprises..i was so angry. i bet the rest was disappointed too ... cos it was meant to be a surprise... i hate spoilers.. element of surprise must be there else why go through so much trouble... was fuming so badly that i think i made my rebonded hair curl.

but the rest was so nice about it... the birthday boy pretended not to know... as if all of us don't know you know.. and you pretended not knowing just so we can pretend not knowing that you know that we know that you know...

that sentence was so meaningless yet so fun to type..

so ok.. on to pictures.



just look at that face.. she is definitely high but she insist she's not..
the way she hit diwei was totally out of range and she fell over leaning on me.. who is also a little whacked ...

we drank in a controlled environment.. sometimes you need good friends to drink with .. and you realise how wonderful life is ... hahaha.. wait.. i sound like some beer commercial..

the ingrediants to making a toxic concoction.. ever drank ribena and green tea with lime and redbull.. hmmm... but it tasted surprisingly like the bright red cough mixture i used to get...




we made popcorn too...i didn't know that you made popcorn this way... i thought you needed the oven for it but mmmm... popcorn.. i *heart* popcorn. hahahaha.. spot the difference.. can you see that one of the corn has popped?!.. hahahaha

mr birthday boy... the shirt was the present.. i thought it suited him well.. siyun you got the size right.. =)

the whole works.. the astroboy story goes way back.. hahahaha.. he used to have hair that looks like astroboy.. hahahaha... one day.. i shall dig out the pictures and show all of you

the whole night.. i felt that i was sober but now while typing out .. all i remembered was laughing a lot.. walking unsteadily..laughing at siyun.. eating a lot ... and taking photos with shurong.. hahahaha..diwei lying on the floor cos he drank a really strong one too fast.. haha.. and vaguely remembering cheeyong cleaning up after everything.. i am like a guest in my house..

i don't even remember taking or posing for the following photos.. (credit to shurong, i sponge them off her blog) hahaha

but i like!...




they are so silly its funny!


thank you everyone for making that night a blast.. now i sound like i was the one having b day.. lol...thank you everyone for cleaning up after me after i started to stone in my own world.. can't wait till we meet next time.. =) thank you..

k... i am going to stop here.. suddenly don't feel like blogging... boo julia booo..

*after staring at a sum for 4 minutes which is longer than a normal human being should and as i believe i do not teach idiots, he is obviously dreaming in la-la land.

"hey, you know why maths books cry?"
*i thought its some wisecrack about how he is going to cry from the problem sums
"because you are the one doing them and looking at how you disfigure the books, which book of yours will not cry?"
"haha.. no"
"hmmm.. i don't know... why?"
"because they have a lot of problems"

not funny meh? you all have no sense of humour!

that was the funniest. he kept pretending going to the toilet (students always use this excuse to go do redundant things... like i used to tell my tuition teacher to let me go toilet and then used the time to lie on my bed cos i'm always really sleepy when i start to do work.. hahaha.. but before i go back i always flush the toilet or they might think i am darn dirty.. waste water .. yeah.. whatever) so that he can think of more jokes to tell me. by the way.. all the different conversations i blogged about so far are by different students.

"okay.. here's another one.. why can't two elephants swim together?"
"cos there is not enough space"
"no.. try again"
"cos there is not enough water for them both"
"NoooO"
"cos there is no swimming pool big enough"
"no no"
"ok... i give up .. why?"
"cos there is only one PAIR of trunks"
" -__-"
"get it?"
"haha.. yah"

*stares at me
"ok.. sorry no.. the maths question one is funnier"
"hmmm.. wait i still got some more"
"no.. you do your sums now.. or YOU will cry"
"awww..."

later that night... at a different house.

"i ask you a chinese question ok?"
"okay... just don't disturb your brother"
"糖果是公的还是母的?"
"公的"
"不是"
"母的loh。。可是why?"
"因为放在桌上会生蚂蚁"

not sure why.. but i am full of angst these few days... and since i think its a little late to be the start of puberty for me... i guess it might be the haze.. but then i am blaming everything else on the haze already.. might be that time of the month. no wonder i am feeling bloated.. but then i am always feeling bloated..

but definitely i am right and everything and everyone else is wrong.
WHAT? I AM UNREASONABLE YOU SAY?

no? ok..

even getting off the bus at my school bus stop makes me really pissed.. whats the deal man..i think i am going crazy..

YOU SAY I AM CRAZY?

no? ok...

ok... nothing more to blog.. i am pissing myself off with my grumbles... head over to here for an unflattering review about a "restaurant"...

if there is anything that singaporeans value more than their lives, it got be numbers..

first there is TOTO and 4-D then now there is the PSI showing the severity of the haze problem.

my students constantly updates me about it. their parents too. they always run out on the pretence of going to the toilet but goes to their room to switch on the tv and then rushing back to tell me about it..

"cher, the PSI now 80 leh.. last night was 130 loh"
"yup. it was really hazy on my way here. but thankfully we are indoors now"
"yah loh. 130 leh. so smelly"
"yup. i thought you went to the toilet? back so soon?"
"oh yah. haha. but i want to see the psi mah. now 80 leh."
*waits for response from me to escape doing work.
"so what are you waiting for?"
"cher, i can't see a thing when i am outside"
*looks at me expectantly
"alright. that's it.. continue doing your problem sum"
"awww.. can don't give so much homework today?"
"no. psi very high. i am not in a good mood. quick do your work. now now now."

*enters student's brother
"cher, now the psi 85 leh"

now.. finally.. after much deliberation.. i decided to blog about ONDE ONDEs

yup. actually i am feeling lazy.. it must be the haze... bleah

alright!

it is a delicate mission.
how to get the dough right and all.. how to get it all springy and stuff while maintaining the shape so that it doesn't burst when you boil it. yup they burst sometimes in the hot water and it isn't pretty. the art of making the dough.

but its boring and my mum was in charge of it so lets skip on to the next part which is the fillings and the rolling.. both impressively important parts. mainly because i was involved in it.



fine! this is the dough! very nice i must say.
on to the next part. chop chop!



and this is the filling. gula melaka. meaning brown sugar in english for certain people that do not understand ... yes you "indian people" person. never mind. private joke. its not racist. not everything is racist. call me yellow skin then, i don't care.

must be gula melaka. the flavour.... mmmm... mmmm... yummy. its more aromatic and it really oozes out.. mmmm..



then you must divide the dough. awww.. my mum has really cute hands.

not funny. but whats more to say? oh the dough is green because some pandan leaves extract is added to it.. all natural colour.. nice. i wonder if chili onde onde exist. i am into red now.. hmmmm..



after which you fill up the dough with small chopped up pieces of gula melaka in the middle and roll them into balls. the sugar is in solid block form at room temperature. it melts after boiling. then rehardens again.

of course the nicer ones are done by me. which ones you say? there, the nicer ones loh.. my mum cares naught for appearance. not a aesthete.
the rectangular ones are mine too. cos i put more gula melaka in them and making them into this shape is for easy identification after its boiled. bring on the sugar high, baby! hehehehe!



they float!
after dropping them into the steaming hot water to boil, wait for them to rise to the top.. stirring them won't really make them rise quicker but i do that anyway.



toss it in a layer of shredded coconut. mmm... getting close to eating time.. i don't care much for this but it prevents them from sticking to the plate



Chang chang! looking all tempting ... mmmm..

this is my rectangular piece.. so adorable... so much more gula melaka!

see! i wasn't lying... it oozes out! mmmmm... the skin is springy and chewy just like it should...
i'm sorry that you can't get to taste this (no.. not really) ... but its delicious.. its everything i described...

actually the gula melaka leaves a sourish aftertaste... i think my grandma kept it for too long. you know old people. they hoard things.. its a war thing.

and actually my rectangular piece was really too sweet. too much of the good stuff.. and my mum was "i told you so" which she did not. dots. but mine is definitely prettier.

onde onde has to be made fresh and then eaten. else the sugar will harden after 10 mins. very quick.. and reheating it is hazardous. i steamed it the next day and the filling became watery and the skin much harder.. and as i bit into it, it squirts all over the newspaper i was reading and onto my nose. not fun at all.

yup thats all... i am thinking of baking a cake next time. hehehe!

Random thing 1

"cher.. your rocket is launching ... they are leaving without you liao"
"....so then you must read up your adaptations ok? i am sure everything will be fine.. relax ok? if you have any more questions you can call me "
"launching .. take off ..starting in 3 2 1..."
"sleep early k. don't burn midnight oil"
"will the passenger julia please proceed to terminal one .. your plane is going to leave without you..dong dong dong dong.. will julia please proceed to terminal one"
"oi. you listening to me or not"
"i know. your dad waiting for you leh"
"i know but you are not paying attention to me and i have not finished"
"ok. byebye"
"... really no more question?"
"yah. anything can call you right? ok byebye"

and he proceeded to call me six times in one hour with the last call ending with this...

"hi.. this is just a prank call. i am doomed tomorrow and i am going to sleep now. good night"

and then he proceeded to hang up on me without hearing any comments from me.

hmmm.. i thought it was all so adorable... hahahaha.. a primary 6 student. but this morning he called again sounding rather sad? it seems like the science was not as easy as he has expected.. sigh. i am also worried.

but its all over now. PSLE students everywhere must be staying up real late tonight playing playstations and basically behaving like wild monkeys out from the zoo.

yup. i don't really like kids from ages 6 up and i am a tuition teacher. i love irony this way.

Random thing 2

on saturday morning, i was on my way to my PCGM meeting near my house. being the kaypoh sort, i like to look into people's house and bascially see what they do with their little porch in front of the house. some people grow boring flowers in boring rows of pots. some think they live in rubbish dumps. some think green carpet grass and a few pebbles count as a garden. some have dried up pond like structures. some have weird garden ornaments like FAKE dogs, this really is puzzling. fake pets? and others have so much shoes all over the porch. seriously . don't watch tv. take a walk around your neighbourhood.

but two days ago, as i was on my way, minding other people's business, i walked past this house with a weird front porch. first glance was ok until i notice that there seemed to be a red shelter like roof (rather small) sprouting from the side of the wall of the house. "how come the owners built such a thing? so ugly?!" was what i thought. until suddenly the rock underneath it sprouted four legs and crawled.

it was only ten in the morning so thankfully no one saw how i was standing there staring like an idiot.




the house reared 2 turtles. or wait tortoises? turtles live in sea right?
VERY BIG!!

these two turtles have good life. the owners cordorned most of the front garden and set such settings whoh. with the lamps, i bet they think they are in japan.
pardon the picture. i don't want to get scolded. so i took a quick one. the two striped like things under the red shelter are them. looks scary hoh. like some giant maggots on the ground hoh... what an analogy?!

Random thing 3

remember i was talking about my old playground?

now its back.. (yeah! with swings!) but better and upgraded editions.. it is now bigger, better and lots more to see.. hey i sound like a movie review. haha!

but not sure why, the first word to pop into my head was "monstrous" .. not that it was that huge though. hmmm..

Random thing 4

my mum made ONDE ONDE!! i rolled the ONDE ONDE!.. i shall write about it in my next post. i took many many pictures..MMMMMMmmmMMM! this deserves an entire post. hahaha!

For as long as i remember, the night time tabloids that my mum reads without fail has always been sent by this old uncle on motorcycle.. we call him the "mah bi po"
i know the "bi" may stand for the beep that sounds from his bike horn as he swings his arm back to throw the newspaper to my house..the "po" dialect for newspapers but the "mah"? to go along so that it will have a nice ring? whats the deal?

you would think that his aiming would be darn good after so many years of throwing.
no. whilst it didn't break any windows or land on the roof, the papers will sometimes land on the garden .. way under the car. in some cute corner that you have to perform yoga to get. and some times in the rain .. making the papers all soaked and every news watery and everyone in the pictures looking drenched.

he had a minor heart attack a few months back. i did not hear his horn for almost two weeks but after that it was back to business for him. so when i hear some people groaning about tutorials in school.. do they have the right to do so?

but now he has to stop because the business of newspaper was so bad that if he was to continue, he would be making a loss.

why did i blog about this? i don't know. just that familiarity breeds comfort and it felt like something was out of place. hahahaha..

talking about comfort. my room got a new light bulb. and its super bright. it is almost 12 midnight but it feels like 10 a.m. ... everytime i switch on the light i give myself a shock. haha.. but on the bright side (ahahaha a pun! a pun!) my brain keeps thinking that it is still early and i am feeling more awake than usual.

that makes me sound like a chicken though. you know.. cover their eyes and they sleep thinking that it is dark out .. what the hell!

ahahahah!i got a new bag .. by the way. shall post a pic when i feel like it. yes.. AGAIN! A NEW BAG!

woohoo! Xiao Jun you got good taste!