Slam Dunk 2012: A Birthday Special

It's definitely been awhile. So what am I up to? What's with the silent treatment? Nothing much actually except I bought myself some Photobooks. Again. And am busy at work. Again. 

The funny thing is sometimes I get all worked up and motivated over the entire process. Picking photos, arranging them, putting words into them, etc. And then suddenly in the middle of it all, I just feel what a self-indulgence this is. I mean it's actually nothing more than syok sendiri. Yes, they're going to be awesome memory books and all, so what? 

It's funny how you can get from one emotion to another so quick.

Like how this suppose-post about my birthday spontaneously ended up 

being a post about my conflicting self. O_O

Alright. Back to the topic, shall we?

This year I decided to tune it up. Literally. Like let's just not eat to celebrate. Let's eat... and sing to celebrate! Oh dear, me singing? When Cik Datang found out about it she cynically asked if it rained. Cis! But yeah, it was different and because of that, we have a different set of photo memories to cherish this year.

But the best shot of the night has to be this!

Papa singing/trying to be Aerosmith. 

Yup, my papa is awesome. *hearts*

Well, karaoke happened few days before my actual birthday 

just so we can celebrate with little sis while she's home. 

On the actual birthday itself, well, I have to go to work. Boo.

But I received this at work. Yay!

A gift from Cik Datang. Eco(nomical)-friendly wrapped in a printed recycled paper 

with ribbon drawn on top. As expected from an Art Director.

Well, inside this gift bag was...

... a little bag! 

And inside this little bag...

... was a big bag!

Talk about a bag of surprises. :)

As a "Ohayo-Arigatou-Hai" Japanese-influenced lady that I am 

(though recently I've been splashed by the Korean wave), 

my other fellow colleagues generously treated me out to...

Duh. A Japanese lunch.

Where strangely has *ahem* an interesting selection of magazines.

Anyhow, I enjoyed my big bowl of Muscle Noodle, I mean Mussel Ramen.

And managed to shoot a Samsung Galaxy S2 ad at the same time.  

Group shot! Thank you guys!

As if muscle-filled lunch was not yummy enough...

...in came a precious box of sweeeeet memories!

A gift from dearest Cubbie who is one of the few who know about my longstanding love for Slam Dunk. She was worried that it was a bit old school but to me, that just show we go way back. (Though still not long enough if you ask me) Let's go for another 10, 20, 30 years and beyond, eh Cubbie? *hearts*

To end this special day with a special cake.

It's really special in that papa even made an effort to order it the day before. Haha. Sure it's no secret recipe but I am still very much touched by the effort especially since we usually buy a cake off the shelve every year. I told papa that I don't need an expensive dinner treat or anything but just a good cake. I love cakes! Like LOVE. And this Blueberry Cake (though very unexpected in choice... haha) was very very deliciousssss! Thank you papa, and mummy, too of course. Which reminds me, where's my sister in all these? Cis cis!

My nine precious cupcakes was kept in the fridge until the weekend when I finally had the time to give them the attention they deserve. Took a good amount of photos of each of them to store in my great memory bank. :)

And for that, here's the last shot for this year's oh-my-gawd-i'm-getting-older occasion.

Happy Birthday to me!

Stories My Papa Tells Me: His First Kite-Flying Experience

My papa was a kampung kid. Then again, who wasn't back in the days? Grandpa works with the police, not as a policeman but an admin clerk of some sort. So he gets transfered around from time to time. Anyhow, papa's childhood seemed to be the most memorable in Baling. I believe that when he began to hit his early teenage years.

Today, a delightful story came up. From green tiny soldiers (which were already a litte old school), we went back further into time when little boys play in big paddy fields.


"I remember last time kite was only 20 cents. When my father bought us our first kite, we were so excited we couldn't sleep. We got up at about 6 the next morning when it was still dark outside and went out to fly our kite. By 7 we came home already. Hahaha. The grass was still wet with dew and every time our kite fell, it got wetter and wetter and eventually torn. Our brand new kite didn't even last an hour."


One story eventually led to another. From his own silly kite-making stories to the great "Ang Mor Lao" people that makes the most awesome kites with glass threads on. But it is this short little story that he started with that puts a smile on my face (and a good laugh). That's when I thought, it's time to pen these stories down somewhere. Hopefully, this will be the first of many. :)

[InstaMyLife] Through the Eyes of Instagram (Part I)

That's the thing about having a smartphone with you. It's easier to capture the moment and record it down. So easy that you sometimes wonder why do you even need to blog about it after that? But even though I don't blog religiously, I know that this blog remains the one constant that I can count on even after all the many technology fads that may come and go.

I admit, I love my Instagram. A lot.

But even more, I love the moments I took with it. 

Enough to take the trouble to have them here as well.

Like the very first shot I took with my brand new phone.

Colours of the rain. - 5 June 2012

The day the fangirl in me flailed. - 11 June 2012

The day I visited the hospital for a check-up and turns out...

The longest queue at the hospital is at the bakery. - 23 June 2012

The day I went down the rabbit hole and into the land of origami.

おりがみ ♥ - 27 June 2012

And from then on, it was no turning back.

おりがみ origami class 3: panda mama and child - 28 June 2012

I couldn't stop.

おりがみ class no 5: doggie meets inuchan ♥ - 2 July 2012

Until it was turning into a zoo... that's when I knew I had to stop.

It's getting a little crowded in here. - 2 July 2012

Sometimes, there is no need for words and all that was captioned 

for this was a simple heart.

♥ - 6 July 2012

Brandfest 2012. It's been a long day. - 9 July 2012

So I may be very generous in 'giving' my heart away when it comes to food.

Sauteed mushroom is ♥ - 11 July 2012

Capturing Tizer being all kinds of adorable.

The jam you love to hate. - 20 July 2012

Had one good meal after another.

A very yummy meal. A very happy tummy. ♥ - 19 July 2012

And another...

Wanted to go to Korea but ended up in Taiwan instead. - 25 July 2012

A week to remember. Hwaiting! ↖(^ω^)↗ - 31 July 2012

Breakfast for RM3.30. ♥ the egg. - 2 August 2012

Cafe 다리 ♡ - 3 August 2012

So finally we did end up in 'Korea'. 

Ironically, a friend on Facebook actually asked if we were in Korea. 

How I wish. 

[L.E.P.A.K series: London] Chapter 27: The Morning After

 Yes. This is it. This is the last of my L.E.P.A.K posts. The adventure is coming to an end. 

Just a little bit more to go. Are you ready? 

 I'm not. :(

 But here goes! Our morning market stroll was greeted with all kinds of 'wacky'.

Seriously. Who would be looking for Ice Cold Water in this weather?

The must-have Notting Hill shopping bag. ;)

Umm... for those who are patriotic inside and out?

Alright. There's nothing really 'wacky' about this stall. 

It's just that we passed by it, took a shot and moved along... 

.

.

.

 ...and then when we passed by it again, much later...

WAA-LAH!

Lots and lots of pastries to choose from. We bought some to munch later. 

It was a very 'bread' day for us. £1 each or 3 for £2.70. 

Very affordable to the locals but that's a whooping RM13 to us. Oh well.

Merry men playing merry music for the merry people on the street. 

They were pretty good but we're pretty poor, so yeah. Haha.

This was the point where we decided it's time 

to make a U-turn and head back. Time to go 'home'. :(

One last pretty before we go.

Good bye Baker Street.

Struggle struggle. Resist resist.

Waaaaaa.... at the waiting lounge.

Attempts one last shot together.

One last London meal. Yes, bread again. But this was soooo yummy too. 

The Real Prawn Salad with crazy load of fresh prawns. Squashy. Yummy.

And so it begun... our 13-hour flight back to Malaysia.

Think the story has come to an end? 

 Think again. I'm not done yet. 

I want to remember some details on board.

You see, our plane took off at approximately five in the evening. The scenery outside changed from daylight to sunset, from sunset to total darkness and from night to sunrise and back to full daylight as shown in the sequence of photos above. During our flight from Malaysia to London, it was just daylight throughout the entire journey as we were travelling backwards in time, so we were stuck with 13 hours of daylight.

 So naturally this time, everyone went to bed at one point during the flight. 

That's normal right? 

 The thing was that it's Air Asia X. Not exactly the most comfortable long haul flight out there. Economical, yes. Spacious comfort, yes, if you pay more for a premium flat bed. So yeah, all of us 'economical' travellers were making the best out of the situation. 

 That was until a guy came right beside my seat and decided to create his own 'flat bed' 

by laying on the floor. 

 Say woot?!?!

You see. The usual plane seating would be 3-3-3, until you reach towards the curvy end of the plane where it gets narrower and the seating order changes to 2-3-2. Cik Anai and I were lucky enough to be seated at the very first 2-seater row. Yay! That means no stranger sitting with us. Double Yay because that also means we don't have to risk sitting next to a super big guy or a super smelly guy or a super talkative guy... (okay, I'm sounding a tad too bias and judgemental here but you get the idea). 

 But apparently we got ourselves a super strange guy instead. Who was laying right beside my seat, on the floor, trying to be as close to the side as possible because hello, the floor is of course, the aisle! And because it was 'night' time and everyone was 'asleep', no flight attendant actually noticed or came to ask the man to 'remove' himself. 

 Awkward. 

 The awkwardness continued for about 15 minutes or so and finally he stood up and left. 

 -_______-

After that, we passed through what we believed to be the desert, the Himalayas and we're home! 

 Our instant reaction?

H.O.T

Hot. Hot. Hot. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Our first meal upon touch down?

Curry Mee and Koay Teow Ting.

Unfortunately, we had them at the airport. So not yummy. 

 But we were too hungry to care. 

Sigh.

Yup. We're home.

When Smart + Smart doesn't necessarily equal 'Smarter'

The long overdue post is back. Yes. It's been more than a month. In fact, "whooosh!" and just like that we're more than half way through 2012. Well, this post is about one of the many little 'important' days to me.

Yes. It is the day I became... not just smart!

But Smart + Smart.

How's that for progress?

You see. After more than 10 years of being red, I finally switched to yellow.

Oh yes, I made the 'smarter' choice. Or so they claimed. Personally, I don't think it's really a 'smart' choice because quite frankly it loses big time to red in terms of connectivity, 

but it is really affordable.

And that is a BIG plus for me.

Because I live and breathe prepaid since I got my very first mobile phone when I was seventeen. And after 10 long years, I have reached the point where I am no longer even constrained by credit expiry. Yes, my lovely red offered me year-long credit validity. How cool is that? Very Cool. Except, my lovely red has a very expensive green partner. So I made the 'smarter' choice and went with yellow instead.

But it's not just that that matters.

If you ask me a few years ago, back when 'switching' means 'changing your number', 

I would have never taken that leap of faith. So that's another BIG BIG plus for me.

So what's with all these change we're talking about? Why now?

Because of this!

Before you go all "S2?!? Girl, it's S3 now!" Yaadaa yaadaa yaadaa.

Save your breath. It's my choice anyway. Not gonna justify it either.

*shrugs*

This is a 'big' leap for me already, okay?

After all, lookie at my old phone.

Ah. My simple ice-cream phone. So pink on its own.

Gotta take a picture and remember it as my 3rd phone. 

The 1st that I'd bought with my own hard earned money.

Now the funny thing was, my new s2 was way bigger than my ice-cream, 

so there's no way it could fit into my little knitted-bag. So I went on a hunt inside 

my room in attempt to find some means of protection for my new phone.

And I found this! 

A little pink bag that just managed to snug it perfectly.

So the 'pink' lives on!

I threaded the rest of the week with caution as I have yet to buy any cover for my phone. PSP-san, as resourceful as ever when it comes to all things gadgety, presented a cover for my phone "just to get by, until you buy one." It's a little dirty for being kept in a corner for too long but it's still a cover nonetheless!

BUT!!

Why is it pink too?!? Hahaha.

And you see that little cloth on the bottom right there, that's pink too.

It was a complimentary piece from the salesgirl when I bought my screen protector. I guess when she saw my pink-inspired phone, she naturally chose pink for me too.

No. Pink is not my favourite colour.

All these pink were not chosen by me anyway. 

So what did I choose then?

*slaps herself on the forehead*

I had no idea how I ended up with flowery pattern instead.

Sometimes, I don't understand myself either. LOL.