Searching for Strawberries in the Slums

'Slumdog Millionaire' (SM) won EIGHT Oscars and I am glad about that. Although tight on budget, my forty Hong Kong Dollars were well spent on that movie. I am glad that I have actually chosen to watch it over The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which I will definitely watch some time later. It is a genius to have the narration of the story using flashbacks in a way that they do not bore the audience at all. Most importantly, SM shows that we learn best through life experience and that every little answer we have within ourselves are related to our life experience. I have always loved to watch such inspirational movies. Somehow I relate SM to 'Catch Me if You Can' and 'Forrest Gump', which both have inspired me very much. I would love to watch SM again, not only because of the very good storyline, the clever children actors and actresses, but also because every time I watch such story, I will have a very good feeling that comes from within myself - that I have a better life than others, that I am not as poor at doing something as I think, that I can do something to help others. Enough of SM, now I am looking forward to read the novel which the movie was based on - 'Q&A' by Vikas Swarup. The last time I checked, the University's libraries only have the Chinese edition. Duh.

Last Sunday I joined an outing to an organic farm and plucked strawberries. On that trip, I was allowed to pluck 160gms of strawberries form both Japan and France. Those from the former were sweeter whereas the latter, juicier. Apart from the strawberries, the highlights of the day is that the drivers [two of them] got lost on the way to and fro the farm. That resulted in the cancellation of other leisure activities but I was happy that I got to spend a fun time with Yuki and Mandy in our, err, presumably second outing together.



Seeing all green at the farm.


Our 'bloodied' hands.. Just kidding. Hands were dyed pink/red by juices from the strawberries. Made our hands smell good too. Natural fragrance. XD

Another highlight of the week would be my Korean barbeque outing. I would say that it is more of a grill thing because I consider barbeque as a cooking activity which you use wood or charcoal to make fire and not use the grilling/'barbeque' pan conducted with electricity. Anyway, the food was good but I find them to be a little extra salty sometimes. How many slices of pork, beef, mutton, chicken and fish fillet did I have? Ten? Twenty? I would recommend the beef slices because they tasted the best. Mushrooms, onions and kimchi tasted good too. Desserts were OK. I have some theories for the buffet - 1. Eat 김지 to 开胃. 2. Drink tea to help digestion. 3. Eat quickly to prevent feeling full easily. My friends and I were on the verge of 'dying' due to overeating. We used only 2.5 hours out of the 4 we supposed to have to gobble up everything we can. All in all, they are food for thought here. [I mean that you can think about giving the buffet a try].


Three girls + 50 dishes [maybe I exaggerated] in 2.5 hours = ?? [I don't want to say this, but how am I to stay healthy and reduce my weight if I don't stop binge eating?]




Well, Saturday is coming to an end now and I better start working soon...
잘가요.

..By the way [when can I stop babbling?], I was fascinated by these containers for bananas when I was buying a lunchbox. What if there are bananas with somewhat out-of-the-ordinary shapes.. can they still fit into those containers?




Also, I have my post titled 'Searching for Strawberries in the Slums' with the hope those children in Garib Nagar would find their happiness, gain more access to education and enjoy lives like other children.

In the News: Children Producing Children

On and off, I came across news about teenagers having underage sex. I am often shocked by the tender age of those involved in such incident. What is more, when they had unprotected sex and as a result, give birth to babies or contracted STDs. Today, I just browsed for some juicy gossips at News of the World (Warning: sometimes there are photos that are not suitable for children's viewing) as it just came to my mind that I have not visited the website for a very long time. Usually, I only read the headlines for I think sometimes the paparazzi have gone too far to write about celebrities and their acquaintances so that their stories sell well. The only news pieces that I perhaps spend much time reading are those pertaining the Royal Family, more particularly those about Princess Diana and her two sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.

Well, back to the shocking news that I have read today. It is about a 13-year-old boy fathered baby Maisie with his 15-year-old girlfriend. I have came across the news before and also about younger kids being involved in such cases but this time, I was flabbergasted when I saw the photo of Alfie Patten, purportedly the father of Maisie - he does not even look like a tween, I see him as an elementary school kid as he appears to be a tiny child. The media have also exploited baby Maisie's mother's for having a considerably big number of sexual partners in just a time spanning 3 months.

Uh, I just have to question - what are in the minds of the children nowadays? Children are just growing up faster and faster. Suddenly, I am also reminded of some kids I met at Ocean Park last summer. My friend said one looked like a 5-year-old but from the way she dressed and talked to her friends who are all around the age of thirteen, she looked like a teenager while the rest of her friends, well, appears like they pretended to be in their early 20s. Here are me and my friends who do not want to grow up that fast but children nowadays are doing just the opposite. Does this has to do with globalization? Influence of the media? Parental control? Education? No matter what, I believe that their bringing up is fundamental to the person that they become as they grow up - too speedily.

To read the news or take a look at Alfie, hit here.

Procrastination does not go along with examination

Would you believe if I say that I have spent the entire week revamping my blog and watching Korean drama series? High school friends would say that I lied. Hahaha. I cannot force anyone to believe me.

Have completed an examination today without much studying (as usual). I admit that I am a bad student. I watched drama and ponder about love and money until early in the morning. I did something good too - I messed around with the new programme that I have downloaded for editing photos. BUT - Why am I always doing unimportant things at important times?

This evening played a game of tennis with Yuki and Mandy. Felt weak after just about half an hour. Perhaps it is because I only had bread for lunch (but I had FOUR of them. ~.~ How am I going to lose weight?). I think I just lost my energy by laughing and picking up the tennis balls. My girl friends would definitely agree with these.

To cut my grandmother's stories short,
for matters of the heart, I am doing good and I am happy about it.
for money, I think I am being useless and that is related to growing up. I think I have the Peter Pan Syndrome.
for studies, I was just nagged by the only person whom I listen to to study (that was an hour ago and I am still procrastinating.)

Oh, well. I have another exam tomorrow (it is just a quiz but the fact that I have not studied nor revised my work for weeks made me think that it is a monstrous exam. And I am still not studying.) Better stop now, so as to not disappoint myself and the person who always come to me at the right time. Thanks.

May

Home Sweet Home x A Lovey-dovey Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

Me and my Valentine.

Looks like my plan to update my blog weekly has failed. Due to my many assignments for the week (and also three exams this coming week), I will try not to spend too much time writing now (not that I did not waste my time watching Korean dramas...). Anyway, I would like to wish everyone I love a "Happy Valentine's Day". Not being able to spend the day with all those I love today but it does not matter because other days that we got to spend together are so much more precious and special than this particular day. Who would want to join the crowd at the shopping malls, restaurants and cinemas watching romantic movies at this day of the year? As a consolation, I watched as many episodes of drama as I want and listened to love songs to commemorate this day while doing my homework at the sametime (at a super slow pace. Anyhow, tonight I would be having some good fun cooking and dining with a good friend.

This Chinese New Year, I have returned home for fifteen days. And it is the most special time of all that I have spent in Malaysia. Being away from home, I missed my family and friends very much. Being able to be home and stay closer to my relatives and soulmate made my holidays a very enjoyable one, although I have to spend some days working on my assignments that are due on the days that I would not be in Hong Kong. Armed with my camera, I took many photos of everyone I met. The time spent home this time seem so much shorter than the year before as I have no time to be together with everyone I want to. Lucky that I got to meet almost everyone at least once. More importantly, I truly appreciated the time I got to spent with my immediate family and soulmate even though the time that we spent together were rather short but I was satisfied.

Upon returning to Hong Kong, my heart ached badly. I begin to realize that there are many important things and people around me that I may have ignored in the past due to my spending too much time facing the computer screen. Time flies. Therefore, I would always treasure every single moment that I get to spend with my loved ones as I would not know when I would meet them again. Take one of my best school friend, SY for example. I hated that I missed the chance to see her before she left the country but I have a feeling that we would meet some time very soon. Like love, friendships transcend boundaries. People do not have to meet or speak to one another everyday as long as the love and friendship connections exist between them. As friends and I grow up, we have lesser chance to meet due to incompatibility of our schedules but the best of friends stay together - forever. True friends are not easy to find - you can always count with one hand, or two at most, the number of true friends that one have.

My loved ones - family and friends:

That was her way of saying "goodbye" to me.

Glad to have celebrated Shawn's burfday!

Me at work. First time that I actually won a game. lolx. XD

My sifu at work. Look how straight his hand is!




And for those who did not go back with me...
This IS Malaysia.

Night view of the pretty vacant highways.

Hong Kong has one in the shape of a ship, Malaysia has one in the shape of a lion.

At the beach!

Was treated to a very good buffet dinner here before I left. Oysters were the size of my palm - or even bigger!

No durians and no dogs (although it says 'pets').

When you see these, you know it is Chinese New Year (since most restaurants are closed).

Many friends do not know about this so here are some photos of offerings to the God Emperor on the 8th night of the Lunar New Year:

Many also asked me what Malaysian food are so I took photos of some of the food that I had at home. I just realized that I lost some of the photos I took so there are not many here... (Uh, I just realized that I have accidently deleted many photos of food and I cannot trace any of them back...)

And lastly, view from inside the airplane on my way back to Hong Kong.

"I'll be back soon, Malaysia!"