Occasional Green Pastures and Quiet Waters

I'm going to cover several topics in today's post, hence the generic title.

First of is the completion of my undergraduate thesis. I think thanks are well deserved for several individuals, namely my mother, who stayed up with me and fed me through out my last leg. Her provision of moral support had been undeniably critical in times when I felt like just burning my computer. Jeremy, I owe you one for saving my ass in stats. Other shout outs go to Daryll, Kevin, and Rowen, who were great help in data collection. Also, to the congregation of SMACC1 and 2 for being such willing participants.

Next up is a preview of harvests to come in the vegetable plot I've been working on at the Nathaniel residence. The sole brinjal plant has begun bearing fruit, after such a long wait, and here is a picture of the first of many to come.

This one's rather small, and honestly, quite disappointing, but what can you expect from local brands. The carrots are coming along pretty well, though slower than I'd hope for it to be growing. I guess the instant life has got to me. The dill has bolted and since gone to seed. I think I'll dig it up once I'm back in KL.

Did I also mention that I may be moving? I've been staying with Mr. and Mrs. Colonel for far too long. Their goodwill (not taking rent, feeding me, and even taking me out for movies) is making me feel rather bad for staying so long. They're really a super nice couple, they are. I've managed to find a small, but cosy house tucked away in PJ. It's quite run down at the moment, but if I should rent the place, the owner has promised to spruce it up. There isn't much of a backyard, but the front is quite promising. I'm wondering if I should have the rambutan tree uprooted and plant vegetables there or leave it for the fruit, and rear rabbits for meat instead. I suspect it may be rabbits, since I'm already running the garden at the Nathaniels. What do you think?

And here's a shot of a little fella who crawled up my arm while I was sprucing up the vegetable plot after the digging. Now off to bed so I can rouse in time for my taiqi.

My brother has just added himself to the community of bloggers not too long ago. In a similar vein, my sister has finally resurrected her blog from the deepest depths of Blog-Sheol (her blog gets resurrected more than Kenny from South Park does). To commemorate this induction of all three siblings in my family into the bloggosphere, I write this post.

Here are all the blogs from those in my family. I would encourage you to visit and leave some encouraging comments as they share their thoughts and lives with us.

My dad - A History of Reformed Baptist Thinking in Malaysia.
Me... well you're reading an article on my blog... you shouldn't need directions.
My brother - A Walk of a Man to Be.
My sister - The Story Begins Here.

Links to their blogs can be found in my Recommended Sites column on the left of my home page.

Now if I can convince my mother to blog.... on second thought, I'd rather baby pictures of me stay off the internet. haha.

After the strangest Mother's day dinner ever (we were at a dai chao place by the roadside), I had a short talk with my grandmother about her past.

Turns out, she's led quite an adventure of a life. At the age of 9 months, she was given away to the Goh family in a village called Ho Kay Pi. That village was very small, consisting of only a few farming families. The house she once stayed in was called Zuii Bwei Lao. A very fancy name for a house of a farmer in the middle of no where.

I remember the stories she used to tell me from that village. There was one which always had me gripping my blanket in fear at night, staring at the shifting shadows on my bedroom wall as the lights from the neighbour sifted through the curtains. The Lang Wei(?) was a fearsome creature which lived in the mountains around Ho Ke Pi. It had flowing black hair and ran on all fours, feeding on unfortunate travelers with a wicked screech which could be heard across the vast expanse of forest. The only trick to escaping it was to run downhill so that its hair would fall into its face, blurring its vision.
There was another story about how a boy got burnt to death for not listening to his mother, but I guess that's a tale for some other time.

Turns out, good old grandma was married to my grandfather for eight years before she finally made that dangerous journey across the South China Sea to Malaya. She stayed with her in-laws at Liao Qi village for the whole time, while my grandfather was working in Malaya.
Grandma was supposed to join him after his first year there, but the matriarch insisted that she wait till after the Lunar New Year to have her photograph taken.
In those days, Grandma had to travel for a good whole day before a camera could be found. So by the time she had her picture taken and the paperwork filled out, the Malayan government had withdrawn their offer to allow her into the country. The next round of intakes was in eight years time, and so she waited, finally arriving in Melaka.

Such heritage... I wonder what stories I'd tell my grandkids?
I used to walk five minutes to the 7-11 round the corner to buy drinks.
You mean people still WALKED back then?!!!

Lol.

Hey there. It's been a while since I written in here. I've been running around doing a lot lately, so I hadn't had time to sit and properly put my thoughts into words.

I've always wanted to have pets since I was a kid. No help finding out that my mother is mortally afraid of anything furry which poops.

I still vividly recall one morning when my brother and I had a little black puppy trail us home. Knowing that Mom didn't like animals, we sneaked it in through the kitchen door to feed it some scraps. As we were feeding it, who else but Mom had to enter the kitchen. The puppy took a look at her and I think it quite liked her because it bounded right up to her.

What happened next?

Mom leaped into the nearest chair and screamed the whole sky down. "Get that thing out of my kitchen!!!!!!!!"
Poor doggy had to go. haha.

Now that I don't necessarily stay with her anymore, I can finally get something furry which poops. Muahahahahaha.

Project Junior begins =)

So after my trip to Pulau Besar, we were driving home when my dad asked us:

He was met with silence, so he gave us the answers instead:
After a while, I realised he wasn't talking about fish. Haha. Sneaky dad.
Still, the apex of the joke was still this:
Very true, both literally and metaphorically.

lol.

The first four days I spent back home was at a CF committee planning retreat, nothing much to write about there. Just nine people cramped around a table trying to make plans for the rest of the year.

After a 1.5 hour long trip from KL to Melaka, courtesy of Tim, I'm finally home (^_^)

Woke up with a sore head. Dad asked what to do with all the potatoes “menganggur-ing” on the shelf.

Well… what better way to eat spuds than to mash it.

According to ‘The Man Who Ate Everything’ written by one Jeffrey Steingarten, the way to stop your mash from becoming glue is to pre-cook your spuds at 70 degrees Celsius  for 20mins (double that time if your spuds are the waxy kind), cool them, then cook them again at 80 degrees Celsius till they are soft.
Did that, added a generous lump of butter, and a good slosh of milk, some rosemary, mashed it all together, and hey presto! I have a lump of soft yellow heaven in a bowl. (^-^)

Just about then, the oven cried out in under-use. And so I tore up 10 slices of bread, chucked in about 12 tbs of sugar, 2 eggs, an adequate amount of milk, and let the mixture sit in the fridge while I chopped up some Granny Smiths *plays SAW soundtrack*. Mixed everything together then slammed it into the oven.

Took a blue pill and went to bed since my sneezing was getting really annoying. Woke up hours later to find someone had cooked some beef patties and sausages, prepared a head of lettuce, and sliced some tomatoes. I forgot to mention that ‘that someone’ had also neglected to wash up the pan after frying the patties, so I added some red wine to the stuff (you know… the grease and juice from the meat) left in the pan for sauce, and diced up the sausages (that went into the mash).
Bibbady Bobbidy Boo!* Ladies and Genteelmen, dinner is served!

* this is from Disney’s Cinderella in case some of you have left your childhood memories behind, or simply never grew up with Disney.

I tell you... my siblings are just wonderful at maths...

Outward Bound School ends on the 7th of December, and it lasts 10 days. And they come to Ipoh on the 25th for 2 days so they can play with the Lees, and go to OBS on the 27th.

Then on the night of the 26th, they discover that going back 10 days from the 7th of December is the 28th...

So my mom gets one extra day off from work and they get to play an extra day.

While I now have to take a bus to KL on my own...

And next time when your mom tells you to go to the toilet before a long journey, take it from me: Just do it.

2 and a half hours of holding a full bladder is seriously no fun at all.

This time I got wise. Instead of sitting in the bus all the way to Pudu station, I got off at Hang Tuah Monorail station and got back. Smart huh? hehe...

Just like how I suck at dancing, I kinda suck at kung fu too. Must be the memorising part...

After coming back from the Kung Fu lesson, we packed up and headed off to Ipoh to visit Jessica and her family. After a wrong turn which led us on a 13 km ride, we checked into Clearwater Sanctuary Golf Resort. Out went the luggage, on came the beachwear.


First stop was archery. The nice Indian lady was more of a live target than an assistant, since she kinda loved hanging around the target board while we had our bows nocked and drawn. By the time we got the hang of it, it was timesup.

Next on the list was kayaking, but since it was drizzling, we went swimming instead. Splashed around until the weather cleared, then it was off to the mining pool. Switched between the single kayak and the double seater. Paddling with my sis is such a bore... She complains too much and rows too little.





As it started to rain, we moved on to fishing in the mining pool with bread. Ended up feeding the fishes.



Later in the evening, Jessica and family came over to visit us. Dinner was quick, and we dissapeared off to the tennis courts while the adults chatted. We started off with 15 balls, but by 9pm, we had shot 10 of them out into the darkness. (^^)







Round and round the garden, like a teddy bear...

Dad: I'm sure it's this way...

Bro: This way la...

15mins later

Dad: I'm sure it was around here somewhere...


Now I'm here blogging my afternoon away... Can't wait for tomorrow night!