You know you like LeeHom too much when....

Just kidding: Seriously, this has nothing to do with blind fanaticism or mad fangirling. I just happen to have a dear and thoughtful friend who works for a tabloid magazine, who also remembered that I admire LeeHom enough to appreciate posters of him. Hehehe....thanks cyber-red! *hugs* I was quite surprised: I didn't expect the poster to be that big and of that type of quality.

I had no qualms dragging this back from Malaysia to Singapore. My landlady commented that I just need another poster like that to cover the other side of the window and I'll have some of the most coveted window shades ever (at least among young ladies in Asia). Ideally, the other poster should be a nice big image of WuChun.

Okaayyy....moving on:

Only recently, have I started to join my church's young adults group. I'm not quite sure why I hesitate to socialize with ppl of my age. Perhaps, it has something to do with that icky guy whom I met in a previous church (I won't elaborate; let's just say I'm glad to have left that church).

What I do like about my current church is the more I hang around and get involved, the more I think I can call it home. The pastors are surprisingly down-to-earth, approachable and they genuinely care. I mean, they actually ACTED upon a personal issue straight away, which I brought to them when I could no longer deal with it myself. That meant a lot to me. I feel as if I can talk to these leaders as if they're friends and for once, I have a group of Christian male leaders whom I genuinely look up to. They are not perfect, mind you but at least, they don't pretend to be perfect. Not only that, they are open to using the media/entertainment for evangelical purposes and they have mission trips to Japan. <-- This may not sound really attractive to others but for me, this rocks!

I can also be active in the church without having to worry about some icky dude checking me out with insincere intentions. (-__-);; There's this inherent desire to fulfill that good old almost-boring formula, you know - get a job, get married, get kids, get grandkids, die. Don't get me wrong: Nothing wrong with that (nuts, I want to get married and have kids one day). But at the moment, I have this stronger desire to get closer to God and discover the dreams or passions He has placed in my heart......

Blog-a-thon

.....Nah, I'm not going to slap 10 blog posts at one go but I certainly have some stuff I've been meaning to blog about for the longest time. Out with it, yo.

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Item #1) Baby Paris Hilton

I swear that some parents/grandparents today have gone mad. I mean, check out this little diva whom I came upon in one of my coach trips home.

Look at her with her cute halter-top (I only started wearing those at 22!), cellphone and.....high heels. Have a closer look to see how cute and glamorous her shoes are from the front.

Ohhh she even has her toenails polished! She's SO ready to be the sophisticated, sexy and confident woman of the modern society!

Just don't forget her diapers.

......

I'm not kidding. This kid wears diapers and high heels. Yeah, let that one sink in.


Item #2) Cutest Doggie Bag ever

The White Dog Restaurant in VivoCity makes packing leftovers fashionable. Is this the cutest packaging or what? XD


Item #3) "Huh?" Sign Award

Dude, this absolutely makes no sense.


Item #4) Great gifts from friends who know me best

Deathnote: There are a lot more rules to the DN than I thought. "The human who uses this note will neither go to Heaven nor Hell." Oh dear.

The Lefty Notebook: There are a lot of lefty fun facts I never knew. "The word 'sinister' is almost verbatim the Latin word for left-handed. " Oh dear.

Thank you, Pest and PrincessJ. I couldn't ask for a more appropriate set of notebooks! Time for me to make everyone proud by practising my natural gift of being wicked. LOL

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Wisdom can be a curse sometimes.....


No, I'm not talking about the Book of Ecclesiastes, where the Teacher proclaims, "Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything is meaningless! (including wisdom). But rather, I'm referring to my lousy left wisdom teeth, which decided to grow inwards away from my mouth. Last Tuesday, I was subjected to a relatively tedious oral surgery to get these two bad boys out.

The process itself was fine. It was the post-surgery experience that had me drowning in complete agony and reaching out for painkillers with trembling fingers.

......Ok, I'm over-dramatizing a little but it seriously hurt A LOT. Four days later, I'm a happier person who can't wait to eat solid foods. But until then, unto the intended blog content.


Hello Jakarta II

Now, we roam the streets of Jakarta. Well, part of it, at least. Check this out:

"Woah. What cheap horror flick is this?"

It's actually an automated chill/spice paste grinder. In the older days when your grandmother would use that batu giling, we now have a more high-tech gadget to do the job. Here's how the whole thing looks like:

It reminds me of a meat grinder or whatever you use to make sausages. In this pic, it's used to make 'santan' (coconut meat) by grinding the thick white flesh of old coconuts. XD

Here are the wet chill/spice pastes sold. The aunties would just have to buy the spice paste of their choice, take home and cook their family's favourite dish.

Moving along.....

As we (my group and I) strolled on in the market, we also encountered a few more interesting foodstuffs.

Call me a jakun**, but I still find milk packaged like this....weird.

Kerupuk (savory crackers, usually seafood-based/-flavored) are pretty common in South-east Asia but I didn't expect them to be colored pink. Hmmm.....maybe these are sweet rice crackers. Guh, I should have bought some to sample.

Finally, we had a look at local chicken distribution. A USDA official will have a heart attack upon seeing how chicken is sold in the wet market. Someone strolls in with a heavy gunni bag and dumps a bunch of skinned/de-feathered chicken onto the tiled table. Forget the temperatures this batch was stored during delivery and where the chicken is from. The whole chickens are chopped on a huge chopping board as customers poked and pick the chicken they want. Chicken bonanza!

Once the chicken is brought home, it's washed. Not everyone has kitchen sinks, yo. This is when I realize that I take many things in life for granted.

Oh and speaking of modern amenities, check out the laundry! Actually, I hang my laundry at home in a similar fashion. I just thought that it's funny how clothes dryers are practically non-existent here in South-east Asia.

Too bad I was only in Jakarta for 1 day. I would like to stay longer next time and explore some other locations. I mean, Indonesia is like, HUGE. But until then, I'll just imagine and wonder......

** A local term used to described someone who lives at the jungle, is uncivilized and isolated from the modern society. It's a little rude since there are real life native tribes in Malaysia Borneo by that name. (^_^);; I guess it's OK as long as you use that term in KL.