Home of Jules

And so… Goliath finally died. It was NOT a pretty sight >.< I have no idea exactly when he died. I just came into the office on Monday morning after the weekend, and found his body floating and rotting. Ugh, sad as I am, I have to say… That was kind of gross ^^”’ The fishes usually sink to the bottom when they just died. I wonder how long it was until he floated to the surface and started to rot… O.o Gosh, I mean, the whole water turned brown!

I replaced him with Hellboy in the office tank. So I have 2 empty tanks at home now, excluding the other tank currently occupied by apple snails. What the heck do I do with them? Keep them until they grow big and eventually die of old age? Lol.

Monday, 31 Aug 09. Merdeka!!! Lol, for the first time in all my life, I feel the least patriotic. All because I wasn’t even in the country, so I don’t feel ANYthing for the national day. Oh well.

So! Nothing much on this day, since we’ll be flying off that night, home-bound! Awhhh already? 2 weeks sure passed by quickly when you’re having fun! So first things first. Pack up my luggage and make sure that I didn’t leave anything behind (BoyEe was sniffing and kepoh-ing around, making sure that I didn’t take away any of his toys lol). Had a simple lunch at home, cooked with whatever’s left in the fridge and pantry. I was once again mom’s kitchen assistant because Sis doesn’t seem to like to cook very much, and Bro was busy with studies. Anyway, I fried the luncheon meat and the eggs. Mom just prepared the salted chicken lol.

 Luncheon meat, fried egg, leftover steamed chicken (now salted).

After that, didn’t do much the whole day. Didn’t even go out lol. So I spent my time by uploading photos of the trip to Facebook. Only managed to upload up to day 3, then connection failed =_= Ok now I’m bored lol. So I just spent the time looking through all the photos and watching all the videos that I’ve taken. Oh, how did I manage to take so many photos and videos on my 2gb memory card, you ask? I didn’t! I uploaded photos to Bro’s laptop and cleared the memory card every 3 days lol! I brought everything home by burning some into DVD, and some into my thumbdrives. Almost 6gb worth XD Yeah, anyway…

Really wished I could get online, cause it was a holiday back home. So Darling should be free to be able to chat with me. I kept on trying to reconnect, but still can’t. Sigh! Ah well. Nothing to do, might as well grab a snack:
 I’m gonna sooooo miss these big juicy ‘Pink Lady’ apples.

Mom cooked dinner that night. Sis and Bro wanted the last home-cooked meal from Mommy dearest before we head home lol. Just a simple meal. Braised chicken with mushroom and peanuts, my fave!

 I love chicken, I love mushrooms, I love peanuts. Yum!

 And we must have our greens!

 Oh, Ben Gor da bao’ed an extra roasted chicken from the supermarket, in case we don’t have enough to eat This is good too!

After dinner, final packing up and we’re off to the airport already! Final goodbyes to the kids. Ah Yee is gonna miss you both soooooo much:

 Hug&Kisses

Ok off we go. Yippee! I’m so glad for this trip, but I gotta admit. I can’t wait to get back to home sweet home where it’s hot and humid. The cold and dry winter is seriously irritating the sanity out of me. My poor skin! So yeah, I was a little excited to get back home where everything is familiar again. And omg, I have not driven a car in 2 whole weeks! Home! Let’s go!

My excitement died down after a while, when we’re about to go through the customs area towards the boarding gate. That’s where my parents and I would have to part with my siblings again, until the next time either of us travelled. Oh gosh, I never expected it, but I was on a verge of tears when I hugged them goodbye. My Bro so bad, he was like, “Woi, again??”. I just simply replied, “Shut up”. Lol I guess… No matter how we tend to get into disagreements now and then, we still hate the fact that the 3 siblings will never get to be together unless someone travels thousands of miles. Sigh, and the banging headache didn’t help too.

This was definitely a hard flight. The day flight was better because at least I could spend a couple of hours watching the beautiful sky and clouds. But this flight was during the night, and there was nothing to see as it was waaay too dark outside. I couldn’t sleep well either, my back was aching, my neck was aching, my ass was numb, and so were my legs. Sleepy as heck but I couldn’t get comfortable. And it was too cold on board too, I was shivering! Gahhh torture!

After a gruelling 8-hours… We finally finally arrived! Touched down to KL at 7am, 1st Sept. Lovely weather, a little warm with some wind. I’m just glad to be home where the wind isn’t piercing cold lol. Gave a morning call to Darling, hearing each others’ voices for the first time in 2 weeks ^^

 Goooood morning, KL. We’re back!

Got back home, what was the first thing I did? Check the fishies! I left Zeus and Ares for 2 weeks unfed. Omg wouldn’t you believe it… They’re ok! *Feeds* Buka puasa, darlings ^^ Lol. 

Oh after that, I totally skipped lunch and went straight to my comfortable cozy bed! Cannot tahan already… Zzz…

Remember that thing I was excited about, about a week ago? Ok, so the thing is this. It was about an audition to participate in a dancing flash mob for Beyonce’s I Am… Tour in KL. Like, hey. Dance? Beyonce? For free ??? Why the hell not! And so I went for audition, with a few of my dancemates. Vivian, Nadia and Izra already got in during the audition a day before, so the rest of us (Dila, Omar, Hariz, myself) decided to go for it the following day.

I’m so glad I did! Ok first, I’ve got to tell you this… The audition was on Tuesday, right. So we all waited all week to get some news on whether we got it or not. On Sunday, finally we received calls. However the experience was a little confusing. First we each got a call saying that we passed the audition and got in. Whoopee! We were in the middle of Subang Parade, and I literally went “yayyyy!!” threw my hands up in the air after I hung up. Darling was like, WTH are you doing?? Haha XD Omg, so excited, yo!

Then about half an hour after that, we each got an SMS saying that there was an error with the results?? The heck?! How disappointing! Whyyyy~?! T_T sigh… THEN another hour later, another phone call. This time, she said that I DID get the part. I was like, confirm?? Sure?? For real??

Now, by then I felt kind of indifferent already. Like, should I get excited again? Will something screw up after this? I mean, I got my hype up so high, only to be let down half an hour later. So it’s kinda hard to up it again so soon lol.

Guess what? The very next day, there was word going around that the concert’s being postponed =_=”’ GREAT! I should’ve guessed it XD Lol, it’s ok… I have too many routines in my head already as it is. Having one postponed is fine by me! Btw, I have beautiful bruises on my knees that keep coming back. Cause I practise the move as soon as the pain goes away I guess I’m gonna avoid going out bare-legged for a while. Leggings are my best friends XD

PS, only one more post on the Melbourne trip. Finally lol. It took me over a month to type all 14 days worth? Aheyyy Sorry la, kan busy woman…

Sunday, 30 Aug 09. Oh man, such a cold morning. Kinda windy too. So I figured the 3 layers that I’m wearing to go out that day probably isn’t enough. Ah well… Out to St Kilda!

 Lots of these bumblebee trams at St Kilda, somehow.

First things first, food! A few cafes over there along the street. So we just simply chose one and had sort of a late breakfast there. Wrong choice, the food here sucks! I had a very normal ham and cheese sandwich, and a terribly sweet, sorry excuse for chocolate cake. Yech.
 Tak sedap pun… Biasa je.

Oh yeah, btw. Encountered a stupid waitress there too. It goes something like this:

Dad: I’ll have a sandwich with salami and lettuce.
Girl: Do you want it toasted?
Dad: Yes please.
Girl: But how can it even be toasted, the lettuce will burn.
Everyone: ……….?!
(At this moment, in my head I was yelling, then why the hell did you even ask in the first place??? Sis probably had the same thought too)
Dad: You don’t toast the bread separately?
Girl: No we toast the whole sandwich in the toaster.
Dad: So it can’t be toasted if I want lettuce in my sandwich?
Girl: But the lettuce will burn.
Me: …. (My thought: You’ve got to be kidding me)
Ben Gor: Why don’t you just toast it without the lettuce, THEN you put in the lettuce?
Girl: ….. I’ll try.
Bro: =_=”’
Mom&Dad: ???!
Me&Sis: …!!! *silent scream*

What the hell is there to “try”?? Isn’t that the logical way to get it done? Duhhh… Nothing tastes good in this place, plus we had to face that bimbo of a waitress (looks like a student from India). The look of Sis’s face shows exactly what we think of this place:
 ”I’m not happy”

Forget that, at least our stomachs are filled. Now let’s go and enjoy the day! Walking walking… Oooh look what I spotted:
 Ahaks XD

Walked along the artsy stalls selling all sorts of crafts along the sidewalk of St Kilda.

 Oh look, there’s Sis and Ben Gor! I feel like papparazi lol.

Then I noticed the back view, in the distance. Omigosh, the sea is actually not that far away lol! Let’s go, let’s go! Woohoo, St Kilda Pier!

The view was magnificent! The sun glistening on the surface of the sea, fluffy clouds, lots of parasurfers out there. Needless to say, I took a whole lot of photos of the lovely scene. Just showing off a few here on the blog. Check out my Facebook album of day 13 for more.

 
Oh well… ALMOST could make these 2 shots join as 1 lol. Close enough That’s Sis and boyfriend in the photo on the right!

 Flyaway shawl, wheeee! My face looks so excited here lol.

We spent quite some time along the pier. Just enjoying the super strong wind, and the beautiful view. Some people may find just standing on the pier doing nothing is boring. But heck, I love the sea. I have a slight fear of being IN it, but from where it’s dry and safe, I absolutely love it lol.

Then off we go to Luna Park! It’s a really small amusement park, where we can just go in and browse around for free. The tiny amusement park with the freakiest entrance:

The price to go on the rides are really expensive though. After checking out what they have there, we decided not to go on any rides, cause they suck lol. Seriously, even Sunway Lagoon is better. I mean, you see lah:
 Exactly like Genting’s Flying Dragon, me thinks.

 Sunway’s Sky Flyer is taller than this one.

 That’s it?! We literally LOL’ed at the ketot-ness of this pathetic thing XD

Forget it lol. We got bored of this place much quicker than when we were out on the pier. So we went home to rest and warm up a little after being out in the wind for most of the day. I snacked on a big juicy apple and went online a bit. Soon, we all started to get hungry, cause neither of us had a proper meal yet that day, other than the sucky sandwiches and cakes. Out to Box Hill for yet another chinese dinner at Lantern Garden Restaurant. Just a simple meal, but with crabs ^^ Yums, crabs…

  Sorry ar, too hungry lol.

 Yummy!

 Mixed vege…

 Veges…

 Fired pork ribs…

 And sweet dessert, on the house!

What a meal! I kinda love the crabs with the ginger and spring onion gravy with noodle. I wonder if they have that style of cooking crabs here? Then back home and went online as usual. Poor darling was having a headache at the time

Maybe the decision to take that action today was a little rash. My mind was in a whirly state of complicated confusion, all because of some unforseen circumstances that led me to do something perhaps unneccessary. What’s more, the result of that action is still unknown. Sigh, what’s done is done. Now all I can do is hope for the best that my hasty enthusiasm will not go to hopeless waste.

I keep getting myself into trouble, don’t I? ^^”’ All these things coming up is putting me into hot water at my dreadful ‘commitment’. At this point, I just don’t bother to give a fuck about it anymore. Today’s incident made me feel like I really want/need the flexi hours. Cause life is just too short to be tied up to a much-hated fixed daily routine without any flexibility. And for what? What’s the point of killing yourself with something that stresses your wellbeing, just to collect more of the paper in bank? We are humans, not machines. If you must kill yourself, let it happen by doing something that makes you smile. People really should kick back and do what they desire the most, instead of binding to conform to what is ‘right’ in the eyes of society. To please whom, if even you yourself are not pleased? Will they even understand?

Ok I’m not making any sense at all in this post lol. Toodles!

A few days ago, I bought a new fishy to go into one of the 3 empty tanks I have at home, left by my late Iori, Zodiac and Achilles. I’m not very certain yet what type he is, but he might just be a young halfmoon. I name him Hellboy lol XD

When I got him, he looked scrawny and sad like this:

And today, after a few days of loving feeding from Ms Owner, he looks happier now:

I kid you not, it’s the same fish! Hehe, he even made a bubble nest! Time to find him a wife? Lol.

Wheeee I’m so excited for tomorrow night! I don’t wanna jinx it, so I’m not saying what’s happening yet. Just wish me luck that all goes well, then I’ll announce it tomorrow

Saturday, 29 Aug 09. Breakfast at home of yummy ham on toasted buttered baguette. I tells ya, I have big breakfasts so often during the whole trip, it’ll be a miracle if I didn’t put on any weight lol. Then we got ready and went out to jalan-jalan around Chapel Street. Sis parked at Jam Factory. Yup that’s the name of the complex. Cute eh?

 Awesome tile collage on the pillar!

 Pancake Parlour, so cool! I mean, Lovely! XD

 Outside of Jam Factory.

We all agreed to skip lunch in preparation of the big dinner. Woot, the big meal that I’ve been looking forward to for months! You’ll see, at the end of this post hehe. We just window shopped around, nothing much.

 
Btw, we see the words ”yum cha” a lot in Aussie. But it’s not the KL type of yum cha with the kopi, milo, teh ais, etc… Rather the HK type of yum cha, with dimsum and all. I have to say that Melbourne is quite multicultural too hehe. 

The stuff on this street is kinda pricey eh O.o After a few hours of walking up and down the street, the shops were closing already (yeah heck, they close at 5pm over there!). So we went home for a while, cause it was a little too early for dinner. Rested our tired feet before we’re out again into the cold!

Off we go to Koo Yoong for Limor’s! The place was so crowded! Had a little problem because we had to wait for a table even though we already reserved one. But we MUST have this meal before we head back home in a couple of days. So… we waited! Check out the place, quite nice eh?

We don’t quite know exactly what cuisine this is. We couldn’t tell from the menu either. Some sort of fusion between Portuguese and Middle Eastern? No freaking clue. But who cares, as long as it tastes great The portions are HUGE, yo! We ordered the platter plus some sides. Woooyeah, the meal that I’ve been waiting for… Check this out, and please control your drool lol:

 Salad (boooring!)

 Sis’s must-have… Chips!

 The platter! Ribs, wings, sausages, breaded chicken fillet ^^

 Calamari and more wings!

I don’t usually eat lamb, cause I don’t fancy red meat. But I gotta admit, the ribs were gooooood! I’m guessing the special barbecue sauce was sweet enough to cover the lamb-y taste. And I looove the chicken wings, yumz!! I had the whole meal using my fingers haha. There’s just something about gnawing and sucking the meat of the bones using the fingers that makes the entire meal a little more… satisfactory lol.
 <– wings & ribs –>

Phew, we were all really really stuffed after this big big meal…

 The aftermath!

Aaand this was my plate! I had 3 of the ribs, 4 chicken wings, and a cut off the breaded chicken:

Ahhh… Happy ^^ Relaxed a little, enjoying the music playing. Some of the locals even got up and danced even though the place was sooo sempit lol. They sure know how to enjoy themselves without giving a damn for ‘face’, unlike the locals here. “Malu! Save face” kaaaan? I entertained my family by impersonating to the songs playing, with the likes of YMCA, Grease and MJ lol XD I bet I looked ridiculous.

Time to go! It was a rainy evening, so the night was f-f-freeeeezing! Not really windy, just reeeally cold lol. The big meal was not quite enough to keep us warm Shivering all the way while jogging to the car. Got back home, everyone went to bed but I was online with Darling again. We were playing MSN games til 2am. I win, wheeee~ ^^

The little handicaped fishy that I sayang so much… He’s got some sort of handicap, not sure what. Either an underdeveloped spine or some swim bladder disorder. He was small when we got him. I always had his tank only half full of water since he couldn’t swim well. Most of the time, he’s at the bottom on the tank, trying to keep balance. Suprisingly, though it’s difficult for him, he tried to swim anyway. And he did grow, and soon there was less trouble trying to keep his balance upright.

I must have had him for about 2 months. Today, suddenly I found him dead in his tank T_T why??!

Sigh… Why are the young ones dying one by one… And my older ones aren’t as fragile?

Oh, my spartan spawn? From 300 fry, reduced to less than 50 today, after one and a half weeks. WT~! Oh man, this breeding thing is harder than I thought… I don’t even know what I’m doing wrong What did I do? Or what did I not do? Sigh.. I’m hoping hard that I’ll have SOME survivors from this attempt at least!

Friday, 28 Aug 09. Woke up a little early on this day. Had breakfast at home before heading out and meeting up with Bro after his class/exam. We took a little tour around Victoria Market. It’s like a pasar, but much cleaner and organised lol.
 From outside.

 In the market…

 Oil painter.

Oooh, I bought these cuties on clearance sale as souveniers for my loves
 

After that we drove out to Lygon Street for an italian lunch as Mercadante. The waiter was serving us the plates, then he flung one at me. I was so freaked by the flying china plate coming my way and I went speechless and just ducked a little, like eep! Turned out… Sheez! It was just a plastic plate. Very funny =_= Apparently that’s how they roll here, playing little pranks on customers. Jahat! XD My siblings know this too, cause they’ve been here before. Purposely kept quiet about it so that they could watch us freak out. Jahat!! Lol. Found out that the waiter’s name is Karlos. Asked him to take a photo of all of us, and look what he did:

 Idiot XD

So funny, he acted silly and got the camera facing the wrong way intentionally. Then he took a few bad photos of either Dad or Sis missing from the photo before he finally took this nice shot. Gracias, Karlos!:

 Mi familia!

Alrighty now, let’s move on to the foooood! We shared 2 pastas and 1 pizza. Let’s let the photos do the talking, shall we?

 Alfredo…

 Al Salmone…

 Quattro… Something… Pizza

After that good meal, we took a long walk up and down Lygon Street. The feel is kind of European, Italian mainly. Lots of italian cafes and restaurants here. A few greek places too. Eventually we arrived at the Royal Exhibition Building, the place where Bro takes his uni exams.

Love it, love it. The big big garden and lawn and trees. Took lots of photos, cause you know the camwhore loves nature lol. Despite being winter, it’s still pretty much green, although most of the trees are leafless ^^

 Bwee~!

 Bro seems ecstatic too XD

Ooh we saw a weird rodent up in the tree. Something that we hadn’t seen before. What do you think it is? A friend guessed possum, but I have no idea XD

Ok, it’s cold being outdoors for so long. So we walked to Chinatown (again lol) and had some tea before dinner. This was an… interesting dinner, but a damn scary one that I did not really enjoy! Sichuan dinner, god help me, cause you know Jules does not do spicy food. Not at all! Sichuan cuisine is mostly super spicy, everything! It HAS to be the scariest menu that I’ve ever seen. I mean, look at this:

Like, what the HELL am I supposed to eat??? Sis joked, white rice with soya sauce. So bad ^^;;; I ordered one extra non-spicy dish just for myself. My favorite lotus root hehe:

Ok la, to give face that I’ve actually tried Sichuan food, I had 3 tiny pieces of the fried chicken in lots of dried chillis. OMG I almost dieded la, friend. Me likey fried chicken, but I do NOT like the burning sensation on my lips, mouth and throat. *Chokes*
 Pedih…

After that, sent the parents back home to rest. Then me and the siblings plus Ben Gor went to play pool. Not a great session. They were playing MJ videos on TV, and that was very distracting XD Went back soon after, and was on a late MSN session with Darling from 1am until about 3am. Aussie time

Bad week, bad bad week…

Yesterday was alright, according to plan. I had Iks to help out during the first half, and Clinston during the second half. Thanks, dears! But today? Sigh… Let’s just say… someone got lost in dreamland and couldn’t get out. I had to call Iks to back me up at the very last minute to rush over and help me out. Thanks so much for being there when I needed you, babe!

Meh. What is wrong with e@Curve? Seriously. I thought that business was bad on Saturday due to the lack of crowd cause it was mid autumn festival. But Sunday was just as bad. I rather have a crowd looking, not buying than having no crowd at all. It was so boring and quiet! Iks and I got so bored, we started doodling on serviettes[sp?] lol. I did not even make enough sales to cover one day of rental. In fact, it was only one sale each day. Shit… What a waste of time and money! I do not blame the organiser for this. Just that… so strange! Where was everybody?

Speaking of time. I got into trouble for taking leave to setup stall on Saturday. If only I had known that business was so bad, I would’ve just setup late by going to work and saving me the trouble. But then again, OMG. I thought that the ‘lecture’ was kinda uncalled for. Sure I took 2 weeks off to go to Melbourne, and I had expected those 2 weeks to be unpaid leave. But no, it was paid. Company’s decision to not deduct my salary. Not good, I did not request for that ’special treatment’ cause then they expect me to work doubly hard as appreciation. WTF? I seriously do not mind that they deduct it, i mean, by all means. No such thing as pay first, then work accordingly. By right it should be the other way round. If I perform well, THEN you pay me accordingly. Really FTW. My personal life is important and I’m not about to sacrifice that just to work extra unpaid hours. Seriously, if I’m not up to expectations, by all means, please take action against me. I don’t mind. I’m sooo dreading going to work now, it’s gonna be a little awkward >.<

Oh, I almost got into a car accident on the way back home just now. Damn you racer wannabe! He was in front of me on the fast lane. Then he switched to the next lane and found out that it was slower there. Then he just decided to switch back to the fast lane as I was about to pass him! Wah lau eh, emergency braked and pressed hard on my horn. Burned rubber T_T Luckily my brakes are still good, managed to stop before crashing into him. @#$#%$*~!!!

Home sweet home… First thing first, check the Spartans (approximate 300 fry count lol, 2nd attempt, woot!). They’re bigger than the first batch, and seem to be growing healthy ^^ Next, feed the band (Dya wanted to name the 10 fry batch as Aerosmith, so be it lol). They’re growing bigger and bigger by the day! Can see their fins already, looking pretty ^^ Next, feed the adults. Oh wait a minute, where is my black copper? The tank was empty!!! OMG I searched high and low, where was it?? T_T I found Zodiac all dried up on a piece of paper on my desk. My dad wrote a note that said: This fish jumped out of its tank while we were out. NOOO~!!! First the doubletail, now the black copper?? I’m losing my special ones >.< Sigh, suicide case

On the other hand…

Not everything went terrible, I guess. At least I get to spend time with one of my chicas for 2 days, and also bonded some more with my younger pet brother. Also I got to meet up a younger cousin sister of mine for dinner on Saturday. I don’t get to see her much because she grew up in Teluk Intan and only comes to KL to visit during school holidays. But now she’s gone to Penang to work, even harder to meet up. She’s just in town over the weekend for a job exhibition. Good to catch up! And today, after packing up and late dinner, I had my first foosball session with the boyfriend and his nephew. Never knew foosball can be quite fun lol How exciting~ Oh yeah, and he got me a Patrick plushie hehe. Cute ^^ His apology gift lol.

Sigh then again… Still more bad things happened than good. Still lacking the solutions for it, and I’m not in a very good mood at the moment. Oh man, what a week!