CNY Eve 2011

CNY...is..............over?

Why is it that since few years back I start to feel like a year passed a bit too fast compared to when I was a student? Blink one eye...half a year gone. Blink another eye...writing yearly performance appraisal. Blink again...Christmas, New Year, Chinese New Year. Blink again, everything is OVER and before you know it, it's MARCH!

Err..



#1 First photo for CNY Eve. We're still cleaning halfway and blow drying all the power plug and sockets. That morning we woke up to a spoilt TV =( ya when we tried to turn it on, it kept doing those small explosion on the screen and it got more frequent and faster and getting louder. So we turned it off and the whole morning basically what we did is just lying around and sleeping. BECAUSE WHAT KIND OF CNY NO TV TO WATCH! AND WHERE TO FIND PEOPLE TO FIX TV ON CNY EVE AFTER FLOOD! My mum suggested us to blowdry the TV haha because according to her it might be damp inside but we ignored her obviously. Then after few hours my brother cannot tahan and he took the dryer and blow dry the back of the TV for 5 minutes or so...then WHOALAAAAAAAAA THE TV CAN TURN ON AND NO EXPLOSION SOUND AT ALL. See! Mums are always correct dammit. They're the only people in the world that can constantly use the "I told you so" phrase wahahaha.


#2 We had to use bricks to hold up all the cabinets because water is still dripping down.


#3 We had 9 nice wood dining chairs that came with the table bought er..20 years ago? Damn good wood ok! But the cushion on top of it was all wet from the flood so we threw it away. Left the table and found 5 plastic chairs for 5 of us at home.


#4 First thing to do is to take all the cookies from upstairs and put it on the table just incase people come visiting (although we doubt it).


#5 It's time like these that you will know who your real friends are. We don't have anything to cook in the house, even got also no time to cook, and markets are all sold out because nobody can lorry fresh vege/meat to Sgt due to the flood. All these are "donated" haha nola actually my dad's friend brought us all this food for lunch! And we kept telling my dad to treasure this friend because he came a few times to bring us breakfast and help us charge our hp batteries and such at his place and bring back for us when it's fully charged.


#6 Initially my dad didn't want to pray that night. My dad say he dont want to pray leh you all now what a big deal that is or not! He's very gung-ho when it comes to all these prayers and temple and god stuff so when he said he's too tired to pray, then we know my dad is REALLY VERY EXHAUSTED BEYOND LIMIT wtf. Anyway we told him it's fine if there's no food or nothing to offer for prayers but it's fine we'll just put some fruits and stuff. Well, god will understand and forgive us.


#7 HAHAHA that's what my sister and brother are doing when my dad is busy setting up the table outside and my mum still busy arranging stuff in the kitchen.


#8 Busy and exhausted fella.


#9 Busy dad. We never help out on this because only he knows the correct way of doing it.


#10 Fruits only!


#11 Exhausted dad. haha.


#12 It's midnight and I had to wake my sleeping sister up to pray.


#13 You see her tulan face hahahaha. So bo kam luan!


#14 Brother preparing things inside.


#15 Ok another one haha.


#16 No tripod so take turns in taking photo to remember the exceptional CNY where we all look tired and...broke.


#17 Another one. Wah so long never had my 2nd sister in CNY photos already. If only Martin & Pauline could be back too!


#18 Chinese being chinese, even though everyone's house was wiped out by the flood, everyone still prayed and celebrated start of CNY with lots of fireworks and exceptionally more red firecrackers too.


#19 Normally not that much coz police will be scouting for people to fine but this year, not a single police car around this year. Well just let us celebrate the way we want it after all the suffering!


#20 Non stop fireworks from all direction.


#21 Luckily electricity is back.


#22 Exhausted dad.


#23 Exhausted mum. Not very exhausted sister.


#24 More.


#25 More. The whole night for like 2 hours.


#26 My friends always say its very easy to recognize my house coz of all the lightings almost like a disco.

So that's how it is for our CNY eve with 'donated' food and lots of cleaning. It's a good experience but please, one time enough already this kind of experience pftttt.

Make it Better.

McDonalds is doing all these promotions of make it better and get 1-for-1 burgers all this week. Print out all the coupons from here and go get it if you don't love your body anymore wtf.

Absurd.

I need a break....from sleep. Pftt. Yesterday night I dreamt that all the animals in the country got infected or something and they turned really violent and even the duck kills! No really not kidding I was in the hospital or something and the policewoman brought in a duck that apparently is very violent and had to be put to sleep. DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE WEIRD THING IS? This is NOT the first time I dreamt animals killing and I seem to "know" it in my dreams and I knew exactly what to do (even in dreams). So in the dream, I ran home, shouted at my mum to get ready with knives and an axe and a saw. And I was holding the axe and we were scouting the house because earlier we saw one duck, one pig and one dog came into the house already. I was standing in the living hall then I saw the dog coming down the stairs from the 2nd floor so I hid behind the door and when the dog appeared in front of me (it's brown color btw), I swing my axe and missed it.

Then I woke up.

And the night before I dreamt I was hunted by people and I have no way out because I found out I was in an island or something. I woke up in the morning and saw Kiang Leng fb mentioning he was being chased in his dream also but I swear I didn't see him in my dream wtf.

ANYWAY

The other day I posted this GroupOn deal and quoted

"Don't worry about the credit card purchasing, it's safe. I've bought the deals for almost 1 year now and if the deal was not unlocked then it will not charge your credit card."

Sunday midnight I got a call from the bank and they informed me of my Mastercard fraud. Someone is charging it AUD1.5K on AppleStore (buy Ipad kot) so I told them no I didn't do it and they managed to stop the transaction. The bank officer asked me to check on my bank statements and I found 6 unknown transactions all in AUD and USD and most of them are through this item called "SteamRayCam" (sounds dodgy).

I dropped by the bank yesterday to get a on the spot card replacement and reported the unknown transactions. I was told that they will get back to me once they finished the 'investigation'. In other words, FAN NGOK KEI DANG SIU SEK.

So, my point is, think twice before you do all those purchasing online.

End of fraud awareness notification. Time to get back to work.

Unwinding.

Unwinding from a busy weekend with 3 slightly overburnt egg toast and half glass of milk for dinner after 15 minutes of interval training. Urghh..loading up on carbs after exercise wtf.



Bring it on..Monday!

Officially a Gleek!

I just downloaded all episodes of Glee S1 & S2. You haven't? Go do it NAOOO if not you can catch them on TV. I believe it's showing now anyway. Super lovE! I listen to these youtubes over & over again. I actually thought their version of songs are all better than the original!

You guys have probably watched this over a million times already but I don't care! I'm sharing it anyhow!

super lousy version of Telephone Lady Gaga by Charice. Charice is the new girl in school and they're trying to get her to join Glee Club. If you don't know Charice please google her up. She's the 14 year old girl singing along with Celine Dion and then got so famous it's not even funny.



Teenage Dream


Umbrella full auditorium performance. Gwenyth Paltrow? Is that her? she can sing???


Over the Rainbow for the season finale - My super favorite song of all time, doesn't matter whose version. I totally dig that simple song! Everyone has got their ONE song that they don't mind listening to over and over again over the years. Okay lah maybe mine is 'Wonderful Tonight' & 'Over the Rainbow' haha.


Very short version of Empire State of Mind. The unpopular Glee Club tried to perform some 'IN' music for a change during school time to encourage students to join. But still nobody wanted to join after that lol.


I love flash mobs they're all fucking awesome! I mean ANY songs, not just Glee's. My all time favorite is still the Do Re Mi FlashMob in Antwerp train station.
Glee have a few in Seattle & Madrid or something like that. Youtube them!

Awwwwww I miss dancing! I'm not very good at it but one of my best kept memories is when I was with Danzity practicing every other day. Truly missed those old times where I truly feel really happy everytime class finishes <3 I'm checking out dance studios here in Spore but 1st, they're a tad bit pricey and 2nd, they're mostly filled with young pretty teenagers. Me? I fear I feel out of place for being the old one tsk tsk

FLASH MOB in MALAYSIAAAAAAA. Other flash mobs have at least 200k viewers. Malaysia's max only 20k viewers. haha. funny la.


If Glee crew does a stage performance anywhere near me I'm definitely going!

GroupOn Awesome Deals

I wanted to blog about CNY but photos uploading speed has been horrible so most of the time I just cancelled the operation. Thanks to PPS hmph!

Since there's no photo so let me tell you about this awesome thing. I've been meaning to blog about this since last year but too kedekut to share wtf no lah just plain lazy.

If you have not heard of GroupOn, Hello? Where have you been mates? GroupOn was launched since 2008 & originated from the US. It's a website where they offer awesome deals if you buy in groups, for example certain deals need 25 people to sign up only the deal is unlocked. The deals ranging from spa, facial, pedi mani, restaurants, movies, now even overseas trips!

Now it has propagated to Malaysia & Singapore. Not now I mean now as in since 2009 or 2010 I also not sure. At first there's only 1 or 2 which I frequent then since mid last year, these websites mushroomed and even I have thought of creating one! It's super easy because this concept has been widely accepted throughout the country's vendors and you don't need to persuade them to buy the idea. You just need to go to every single damn store and ask for these deals and display in your website for purchase. Win-win right? Anyway now there's over 20 websites so if you're thinking of doing it now, forget it la, too late!

Don't worry about the credit card purchasing, it's safe. I've bought the deals for almost 1 year now and if the deal was not unlocked then it will not charge your credit card.

OKAY Now let me show you the websites.

Malaysia

1. Groupsmore.com



2. MilkADeal.com



3 and onwards please refer to the complete list here -> GroupOn Clones in Malaysia

These deals are not just for KL folks so if you're in Penang, they DO offer deals in Penang albeit not so many lah.

Singapore

1. What else but GroupOn.sg

Other GroupOn clones in Singapore:

2. Deal.com.sg

3. BigDeal.sg

4. Beeconomic.com


Okay go now. Go get your deals. I love sharing good deals <3

Segamat Flood Jan 2011

I was beyond ecstatic when my sister told me she bought the ticket back for CNY！She hasn't been back for CNY for...........so long I also can't recall how many years. Too bad my eldest sister couldn't make it else would have been even greater!

It was raining cats & dogs for days leading up to Saturday (29th Jan..seems so long ago now that I think about it) when her flight touched down. It was so cold, only around ~23'C-25'C. I swept & mopped the floor, then tucked myself under the comfy duvet at just 8pm! Brother woke me up around midnight to pick up my sister at the airport, and by then it was only drizzling.

She reached on time. We put all the luggage into the car, and head to what else... but *jeng jeng jeng* ROTI CANAI (called Roti Prata here though). Roti canai on a rainy night, pure bliss, except it's a tad bit too oily.

Weekend spent hanging out, until we received the news back home that it has been raining continuously for a whole week and the river water level started rising.

The 1st major flood was December 19, 2006. I remembered very clearly because Dec 19th was my birthday. I was hospitalized weeks before that for killing headaches and went through head scans but they found nothing (thank god!), then went to Bangkok for a week and on birthday itself, I had dinner at Audees, Burmah Road Penang with my sister & JinGiap. I had everything written down clearly in my Xanga blog but unfortunately I can't unlock it because it's too private but let me show you a few photos from 2006!


#1 The night before the horrible flood. We spent it in the newly opened Manhattan Fish Market Qbay where I scolded the waitress. Lousy service, what a mood spoiler!


#2 Dinner night itself spent with sister in Audees where we fine-dined. What a lousy photo why I look so fat ar?

And this was what I blogged 4 years back:



2006 I was one angry woman. I was pissed at everybody because they made fun of the flood and didn't think of it seriously. BUT 4 years after and I'm a changed person wtf. When people found out about the flood this time, some do still make jokes of it and when I said I'm a bit worried they laughed at it and just never understood the worry we had for our old parents at home. But I just shrugged it off with those people who never had good words. No anger, NOTHING. Well, can't blame them because they'll never understand unless they're in THAT shoe themselves. For people who called me, messaged me, emailed me, commented here in this blog, I remember each and everyone of you. Thanks for being so thoughtful ♥

2011 is not much different. Water level is actually higher this time around. When we called home at 6pm my dad said there's no water IN the house but when I called back around 8pm, they're too busy to even talk to me because water is IN & they are in a rush to move things upstairs.

All roads were flooded so we had to wait an extra day to drive home. And when we reached, thank god the water has receded. Let me show you a few before & after photos.


#3 Our neighborhood. Almost like an island.


#4 Our 20 years piano finally has to be thrown away! *sobs* All the strings inside were filled with mud and it's almost impossible to repair so we threw it away when the trash collector lorry came.


#5 The above photo was taken midnight when it flooded, but that's not when the water level is highest. The bottom photo was when I got home and the water receded. My parents have quickly washed the mud out the house since 4am and this is how the living room looks like at 4PM on the same day. They really worked damn quickly. They said if they didn't washed the mud away it will dry up and harden, by that time it'd take double the effort to clean.


#6 The garden.


#7 This is what my parents ate at night. Luckily there's plenty of food prepared for CNY!


#8 My parents lugged the stove & gas up to the balcony to cook water to drink.


#9 This is how we spent our nights. Electricity & water supply was cut off. So we had to use these rechargeable lights.


#10 And spent the night sitting on the balcony chatting away with practically NOTHING to do. Do what huh? No electricity no water dirty flood water covered house. Pft.

This is the SECOND time my almost 60 year old parents had to move the whole 1st floor up to the 2nd floor. Everytime I see them I felt they aged a whole lot. Because when I tried to carry those things back to the 1st floor AFTER the flood, I also felt like pengsan already. All of us sisters & brother kept taking breaks and napping, but my parents worked NON STOP cleaning this and that and this and that continuously for 2 whole days. SALUTE MAX OKAY. But they say if flood the 3rd time, they really wont have the energy already and if it really DOES flood, I probably have to call the rescue boat to ferry them out rightaway.

This time we had to throw a lot of things away. Most of the furniture that survived the 1st flood couldn't for the 2nd time. The orangy sofa set had to be thrown away because the water has seeped into it, dining chairs, piano, coffee table, shoe racks, cupboards, wooden doors. This is gonna cost a whole lot.

A lot of the Segamatians are pissed though. The government claimed they did a whole lot after the 2006 flood promising it won't happen again, claiming they made bigger drains blah blah blah etc etc and even repaired the train tracks and made it higher so when flood comes, train service wont be affected BUT GUESS WHAT. That's the stupid part because the train track separates 2 major parts of Segamat. And because it's so high up that's why when the flood comes, the water couldn't go to the other side of Segamat coz blocked by the train tracks. In the end, they had to tear it down so the water could flow over if not my house would be worse than just flooding the 1st floor. Dumb much? Turns out the train service is STILL affected and they had to repair and rebuild the tracks.

SIGH

Dont know who's the stupid one now. The other common one is the daylight robbery, where people just tear down the shops' grill doors and steal things. When I tell others that those people have to pay the rescue boat few hundred dollars to be sent out to the evacuation centre, nobody believed me but it's true. Refer to the angry Segamatian flood FB page and you'll know how UGLY things are when the flood comes.

Many of our neighbors did not celebrate CNY. Some of them did not pray on CNY eve but most of us who finished cleaning the house did still pray, but with limited offerings, but I'm sure God would forgive us.

More on CNY next!