Home of Jules

Was still snoozing in bed early this morning before getting up for work when I received an SMS from my colleague, Choong. I was thinking sleepily, what does he want so early in the morning when I’m just gonna see him in about 2 hours anyway? I read the SMS and I thought I was dreaming when he told me, “Michael Jackson confirmed dead!!!”. OMG!! WHAT??! I quickly switched on the radio, and “Thriller” was playing on Hitz.fm… Damn, it must be true :S

How devastating!!! Never mind the Wacko Jacko that he became, I don’t care much for such gossip anyway… but when it comes to music, the King of Pop was definitely without a doubt, the BOMB! I literally grew up listening to his songs and watching his awesome dance moves in his amazing videos. It just felt a little surreal that he suddenly just died when he was about to go on his comeback tour. To celebrate his life, Hitz and Mix have been playing MJ songs back-to-back all day long, and I’ve been listening lol. A little overdosed on Bad, Billie Jean, Beat It, Black or White, Smooth Criminal, and Thriller… but I’m happy to be listening to the other songs that I have forgotten about, like Ben, Human Nature, They Don’t Really Care About Us, and the Earth Song, just to name a few. Also common favorites like You Are Not Alone, Man In The Mirror… And how about ABC, I’ll Be There, Rock With You, Pretty Young Thing, Leave Me Alone, Remember The Time, Heal The World, Stranger In Moscow… and many more… SIIIGH~!!!

There will never be another performer who will make quite an impact as MJ. The number of trademark styles he created, can never be topped! Crotch-grabbing, moonwalking, toe-stand… Sequined glove, fedora hat, gold suit… Yee-hee, ooow, hic, “sha’mou”…

Everyone was feeling so distraught about the bad news. And after an overdose on MJ songs for the whole day, by evening I was a little ‘cuckoo’ already lol. What more when I was bored at work on a Friday evening. And so… Jules made a(n inappropriate) joke and posted it on Facebook status:

*MJ’s new song… “coz i’m deaad, i’m deaaad, u know it “… ok ok bad joke, he’s gonna so haunt me tonight in my dreams… looking like a ‘thriller ‘ zombie… and singing “yooou are nooot aloooone “… then i can tell him to “beat iiiiit !!”

It’s an evil joke, but give some credit la, it IS quite funny, right? Just to lighten up the mourning mood. RIP, Michael Jackson. I, for one, will remember you fondly @–8—

Was driving home after work as usual today and was caught in a congestion as I approached Ampang area. At first, I didn’t think it was unusual, because traffic is often jammed up due the incoming cars from Ampang, KL, and AKLEH, into MRR2. But this time, this was not the reason. As I rolled along, I noticed that the cars up front were dodging something in a strange manner. Like, switching lanes from a far distance, slow and steady. Then as I got nearer to the scene, I saw smoke. Thick black smoke. Omg, don’t tell me… O.o Yes, my suspicions were right. A vehicle was on fire! And, like all the other cars, I dodged it carefully and slowly. And since I was driving so slowly, I managed to capture a shot

When I drove past it, I ducked as far and as quickly as I could. But still, in that 2 seconds that I was passing by the scene, I could feel the intense heat of the flames even when I was in my air-conditioned car about a couple of meters away. But thankfully there was nobody stuck in the burning car. Although the fella was still standing just a few meters away from it =_= Not scared of the possibility of an explosion wan ah??

Once in a while, I find myself questioning myself about what I wanna do with my life, or what would I want my life to be like. If I had things my way, with no obligations. Yesterday I suddenly had this thought in my mind, and I just randomly posted as status updates on Facebook:

* Jules Chin wants to run away, live in a cheap studio apartment, play my guitar for leisure, sell artworks/fashion accessories for a living, and fall in love with a musician.

* Jules Chin wants to run away, live in a cheap studio apartment in the city, play guitar for a garage band, sell artworks/fashion accessories for a living, and fall in love with a tattoo artist XD

Sounds like a pretty carefree life for a creative person, doesn’t it? A simple life doing what I’m passionate about, living it day by day as it is, without the rush for wealth and luxuries. But as if I’m gonna do that for real. It’s just too unrealistic to do such a thing in today’s world. Now if you wanna talk about being unrealistic, there’s plenty of thoughts in this crazy mind of mine haha.

* Jules Chin wants to quit her day job immediately and focus on her business which is still struggling to break through.

* Jules Chin wants to work odd/freelance jobs for a living. As a street fashion designer, a rock band member, a freestyle dancer.

* Jules Chin wants to hit lottery so that she doesn’t have to work to survive ever again. Life would be no work and all play!

* Jules Chin wants to own a villa by the beach where she can escape to R&R whenever she wants to.

* Jules Chin’s biological clock is ticking way too early and she wants a baby to shower love on!

* Jules Chin is getting a new tattoo for her birthday every year. Bring on the sleeves!

And more It gets crazier as it goes, so I rather not spill ALL my mind’s contents here too publicly lol.

Last night, me and my colleagues (Ron, Choong, Kelvin) went to Zouk. Yes it was a Thursday night. But as Zouk’s Facebook member, this is the only day that I can sign in 3 guests Yeah, wanna party but still cheapskate haha.

So we went there a little too early that we had to wait outside until 10.30pm. A slight confusion on where I was supposed to sign in myself and my 3 guests, then we’re in! One good thing about being ridiculously early for clubbing is that we could get a table easily lol. So what now? Too early. The crowd’s not in yet, the music’s still chilled, and not time yet for my Ladies Nite free flow drinks. Photo time! This is the best shot from 3 takes… Noob girl doesn’t know how to snap photos:

Ron, Choong, Jules, Kelvin:

They ordered 2 jugs of beer and I had my free flow of gin+coke. I managed to have about 6 cups of that lol. Ok la, not too bad.

Ooh! Ooh! The funniest thing happened last night. We were around the members area upstairs, looking down at the crowd at the side. I noticed a lady came to the side and stood just next to me. I thought her side profile looked familiar, but I couldn’t be bothered to look properly cause scared pai seh Then she walked off. I turned around to the table to grab my drink, and I saw that lady standing right there. I stared at her, she stared at me… OMG it’s Vivian, my street jam instructor! XD I came to Zouk to party and dance all night long and I bumped into my dance instructor, of all people lol. Hope that when she saw the way I dance, it wasn’t disappointing

Left the place at about 2.30am, reached home around 3am. Showered off the ciggy stench, simply blowdried my hair, and KO to sleep. I woke up today feeling ok, then as the day goes, the sleepiness kicked in. To the point that I dozed off at my work station in the evening ^^;;; On top of that, my tummy felt funny all day. My alcohol tolerance is high but ugh, my tummy does not take hard liquor well… *stomach churns*

All in all, great night out! I literally danced all night long, it was soooo much fun

Last night was my ex-colleague (from Xixili) Tammy’s wedding dinner at Tai Thong/ Imperial Palace restaurant @ Puchong. Wow it was like a reunion haha. My ex-colleagues who still work at Xixili were there too So good to catch up with them! The first thing they did when they saw me was stare at my face and say, “See your eyes!”. Haha ok ok, so I have a new look You know, I never realised that I actually missed hanging out with them. After seeing them last night, wow. That was nice! Hehe… Unfortunately I didn’t take much photos last night, so I’m not even bothered to upload

I was browsing through my collection of photos in my backup disk (20.9 GB of photos!)… Then I stumbled upon this photo taken during CNY in January this year at my aunt’s house. It’s just too CUTE ! My brother just walked over to the main door, crossed his arms and was just staring outside. Then my cousin’s kid walked over and imitated what my brother was doing!

Saturday, 30/5/09:

Set the alarm for 8am to get to the office as per usual working hours, but I was so drunken tired and I overslept til 9.30. Bah… Slightly hungover… Ok good thing neither boss nor Nelson was awake yet.

So I got up to wash up. Wanted to shower asap, but I couldn’t get the pilot for the water heater to light up. They don’t have such a thing in Malaysia, our heaters are run by electric >.< Finally I managed to have it lit up, then I took a shower. Then I saw little Queenie playing by herself in the room, I went to kacau and play with her. She was so enjoying it that she made noise and cried when I wanted to leave. Aiyo, would love to stay and play, but I need to pack up cause I’m going home! So I sneaked out when she was pretending to sleep… One of her games, I guess lol.

Walked to office. My last day in HK and it was finally sunny. Meh… Had breakfast, back to office, packed a bit of work stuff to bring back to KL, then off we go to the airport. After yet another 4 backaching hours on the plane, I’m hooooome! It was a good trip, but boy, was I glad to be back in home sweet home hehe. Back to a place of familiar language and familiar places lol ^^

Friday, 29/5/09:

The chilliest day all week. Wasn’t it supposed to be summer already? I wore a jacket almost all day, cause it was freaking 21 degrees. What kind of summer is this?? Or was it still a little springy? Hmmm… Nice weather to walk in though, hehe. So I hung out at the office for most of the day. Super bored! I wished I could go out for shopping or whatever, but Mong Kok is quite far from Tsuen Wan, and I’m too chicken to take the minibus on my own Scared of getting lost in a place where I can’t read the language lol. Ahem, excuse only, I know. Shut up, I fear being alone in strange places, ok?

So I just stayed in, was on MSN and Facebook all day, with short talks with boss in between. More like he talked and I listened Finally, work over for the colleagues. Went out to Mong Kok by bus, shopped a little at Langham Plaza. H&M!!! I bought a hat hehe. Then bought a purple tank top from dunno-which shop… After a couple hours of shopping (though I didn’t buy much), we got hungry, so we walked around Mong Kok for a place to eat. This is me in Mong Kok:

We had dinner and dessert at this place called Orchard Garden Cafe & Restaurant, popular for its dessert apparently. And yesh it was awesome! Four of us shared this berry pastry dessert:

Normally I’m not a fan of strawberries, but I have to say, this was excellent!

We then adjurned to a pub called Moon to meet up with boss and few others for drinks. It was alright, I guess… Not my kind of pub though And I didn’t like the mixers for the Black Label. Green tea, soda water, or honey. What?! I want Coke! Next best thing? Soda lah… =_= Yuck. But still I got quite tipsy anyway, out of drinking games and getting toasts. Why did I get toasted at? Because I’m the Malaysian among Hongkies. Bleh. Also boss got drunken emo, and I had to listen and teman him drink.

Took a cab back home. By the time we arrived, it was already 5am. I was so tipsy and sleepy, that I didn’t bother to shower, I just wanted to KO in bed. Quick wash up, then wanted to take off my contacts, and WTF there were already contact lenses in my case. Got me so confused, I kept confirming that my contacts are still in my eyes… What’s going on???

Ok so apparently, Nelson arrived and thought that the lense case was for him =_______= helloooo you forgot that I’m heeeeeere?? I sudah mabuk at that time and I wanna faster hit the bed, I didn’t need that XD ok long story short, I woke him up, he found me another case, and I KOed. I just rolled around getting comfortable, and just as I was about to drift into sleep… Guess what?

Sunrise =_________________= meh… Omg the sun rises at 5-fucking-30 am in summer. Awh c’mooon! It’s too bright!

*covers eyes under pillow*

Thursday, 28/5/09:

Slept til 10am, got up and packed up. Waited til someone came to fetch me and I checked out of the hotel. They didn’t have enough money for a cab, because the supper added an extra amount to the bill So we walked to the factory (nooooo). Sigh, had to walk through the “slums” again. I really dislike it because… I dunno it’s psychology or what, but I always end up smelling weird ^^;; Like what the hell did I step on?? And it felt like, ew…

Had lunch at the factory’s dining hall. Since it was the Dumpling Festival, they had a somewhat special meal lah. The dishes are pretty traditional chinese. Quite homely hehe.

Truth be told, I wasn’t full Cause although this is sort of home-cooked, but gotta admit. This isn’t exactly mom’s lol.

After makan, boss took me and 3 other colleagues to go jalan-jalan at the wholesales area in Fumen, etc. Omg. Fugly super lala stuff. I find myself cringing at everything I see. I mean, seriously, who wears that?? Then I had to go to the toilet. Oh no, I’ve heard stories that public toilets in China have no doors to the cubicles, shit! But boy, was I glad to see that there ARE doors in the toilets in that wholesale complex hehe. I spoke too soon. When it was finally my turn in the queue, I went into the cubicle… and… +_+;;; There is no lock. Not that the lock is broken, not that the lock dropped off. There is NONE. There’s just the door on its hinges, with a pathetic knob to swing it open. And no fucking lock. I felt so freaked that I put out my arm to hold the door when I was taking a piss =_=;;; Sheez, enough of this! I wanna go back to HK!

Then we’re out in the streets again. I kept looking at the wrong bloody side of the road. *Grumbles* Freakin’ left-hand drives… Boss brought us to Grand Noble Hotel’s coffeeshop for a drink. I had orange juice, and I had a weird burning sensation in my tongue. What the heck did I eat/drink that burnt my tongue? Probably the hot porridge last night. Ah well. Boss ordered some salad to share, and ended up me and him are the only ones who eat salad The others are not used to taking their veges raw lol.

After we’re done, finally we’re at the bus station. Back to Shenzhen by bus. Again, the Chinese customs asked if I did my eyelids =_= What is up with this strictness wei… Then train back to HK. Woot! Hong Kong! Ahhh what a feeling. Free! I was feeling sooo stressed all the time when I was in China. Just can’t help but feel so at risk… Back home, had a home-cooked dinner. Yummy steamed egg with minced pork ^^ And I was made to finish the steamed chicken lol. After dinner, boss took his family and me out to show me East Tsim. The port! Chilly night, the wind was so strong. Enjoyed staring into the night, the ocean, and the beautiful night view of HK city lights. I was just kicking myself in the ass for not having the camera with me (was left in the office before leaving for China 2 days before). So this is the best I could take from my phone (which the battery was really low and I left the charger in the office too… Champion!):

This view made me had a sudden emo moment with someone on my mind which stung my eyes. Sigh! Ok, done with the lovely view, time to get back home cause the kiddies are getting sleepy. Little Queenie sat on my lap during the car ride back home, and eventually she fell asleep in my arms. So preciously sweet! <3

It has been a long day… Luckily that the phone alarm still works even when the phone is switched off, or else I wouldn’t have enough power in the battery to keep it switched on through the night XD

Wednesday, 27/5/09:

The sleep in the hotel was good, but I woke up feeling somewhat constipated and I couldn’t go. Fuck. I’m suspecting either it’s because I’m travelling, or I lack water, or my routine breakfast of oatmeal was halted. Anyway, too much information lol. So I got ready and was waiting for someone to come and fetch me. I had nothing to do and the TV shows sucked, so how did I pass the time? Plugged in my MP3 player and turned on “Circus”, and practised the choreography haha. Time well spent, since I had to miss street jam class that week (which I’m upset about because they learned “Whine Up”!).

Had breakfast with 2 Chinese colleague in the hotel’s coffeeshop. Already sick of the heavy breakfasts I was having, so I ordered something with fiber. Sandwiches!

And I’m sure the milk tea is good, but I really really don’t like tea… I was missing Milo so badly!

Then we took a cab to the office/factory. I noticed that the cabbies in China are all in “cages”. To prevent robbery? Hmm, it still looked strange. I was on MSN and Facebook for most of the day because there really was nothing for me to do but to just looksee! Was dying of boredom and wished that I was back in HK lol. Later in the evening, I accompanied a colleague to the bank. We walked out to the main street to get a cab. The walk in the back streets was horrible. It was smelly and filthy, and full of rough/tough people. My guard was on full alert. It took a while for us to hail a cab. The cab ride was terrifying! Lots of honking and cutting lanes. End of the day, I don’t know what’s worse. Walking on my own feet in fear of getting mugged/molested, or riding in a monster cab with my precious life in a stranger’s hands…

Back to office, safe! Chilled for a while. Boss’s brother Nelson (the 2nd boss, based in China) came over in his car to fetch us to Guangzhou to meet up our customer Francis again. Traffic was hell >.< I still think Guangdong streets are horrible because I saw a homeless man with no pants. Totally gross… Reached Guangzhou in about an hour and half, now this place is more like it! Guangzhou is obviously much more developed than Guangdong, and I didn’t feel so scared when I was there. Even the people dressed better lol. We went to TeeMall for Thai dinner at this restaurant:

I hear you, you’re saying, “What?? Julie?? Having THAI food??”. Lol, yeah, what can I do? Customer’s choice, I didn’t get to have a say on this But luckily it wasn’t as spicy as the Thai food in KL. They did order some non-spicy dishes, I only avoided the tomyam soup. So it was alright, suprisingly I ate til I was full too haha.

Then off the Francis’s home for a quick meeting. He and his wife had an elderly Australian couple (Dave and Margaret, if I recall right) as guests, so I had a good chat with them. Really nice and funny folks They were telling me the good places I should check out when I’m in Melbourne hehe. Well, honestly I’m just really delighted to be able to be speaking English for once :P Because I had to speak fully in cantonese all the time during the whole trip.

By the time the meeting was over, it was midnight already. Back to Guangdong, sigh. It was amusing that Nelson was playing country music in his car (!). The likes of Kenny Rogers and Tim McGraw lol. I got back to the hotel around 1.30am, yawnzzz. I just wanted to go get a hot shower and sleep. But Nelson wanted supper, so ok lor… At the hotel coffeeshop again. I had claypot porridge with chicken strips and century egg. It was delicious!

Shower, blablabla… The next day was Duan Wu Jie (Dumpling Festival), so it was a public holiday in China. So boss said that we don’t need to wake up so early lol. Good! Bedtime at 3am zzzzz…