Sunday, January 27, 2008

R.I.P

This week has been a very grave week for me and my family. My grandma just passed away on the 23rd of Jan '08 morning. It was a public holiday. Thaipusam. First time ever, Thaipusam was officially announced to be a public holiday. Among ourselves, we said that the public holiday was specially 'established' for my grandma. Probably coincidence, but we would like to believe so.

None of us was expecting the bad news as everything started out nice and warm that day. It was a public holiday. Everyone was home. Mum and I departed to send ZhongZhong to the LRT station while my dad left to visit grandma at the ICU in Pantai Hospital. I remembered saying 'Daddy, say hi to popo for me!' despite the fact that my grandma can barely move or hear and no longer talk at that time. Stroke is evil....

After dropping ZhongZhong at the station, we dropped our baby Leo at the pet shop for a saloon session. And then... we got a call from my aunt telling us that popo passed away that morning. My mum was sobbing so I had to call my dad to inform him but he didn't pick up the call. I assumed he had already reached the hospital and found out for himself. Indeed, later he called us to inform us that popo had left peacefully. No sign of struggle at all.

That night and the following night, we paid respect to popo in the Buddhist style. It was heart-wrecking. But we were told at the age of 89(92 according to Chinese calendar), grandma was considerably long-lived. So it would be a 笑喪 and we were not supposed to cry but on the contrary, laugh... be happy. I know it sounds weird but it does make sense. My cousin told me, if the deceased was above 100 years of age... people would be wearing red instead of white. o.o Wow... like celebration, huh?

Friday morning, popo's coffin was moved to the cemetery at Nilai. The ceremony was solemn but we were asked to change into bright clothes after the ceremony. I don't really understand why but i wasn't really in the inquiring mood back then. Today(Sunday), we visited popo's grave again. And we brought lots of food!!! XD I'm sure popo would be happy because every family chipped in to bring popo's favourite food hehe. Pan mee, Siew pork, Loh Mai Gai, Char Siew Bao, Char Kuey Teow, Durian(!!), fried egg, coca-cola, cupcakes and many many more! XD We bought flowers too. Popo loved flowers ne~ One thing we didn't bring was KFC haha. We promised to bring it next time.

Popo... rest in peace.... Hope you like the house we burned for you. ^_^ And the Mercedes Benz.


********

I got the news of Heath Ledger's death from my cousins during my grandma's funeral. =.= Talk about ironic... I watched Brokeback Mountain and that's all. I do feel sad but it's kinda surreal... maybe it's because he's a someone of different 'status'. Different as in one being an actor and another one being normal unknown puny insignificant.

Besides that..... I received a sms from Ching Yee and was told that our fellow Ausmat classmate was killed in an accident on the way from Penang to KL. Lee Nian Ning... I don't know her personally but she was quite well known during Ausmat. Practically everyone knows her because she's smart and pretty. JPA scholar student. Future doctor. Enough said.

Article on the accident : http://www.nst.com.my/Saturday/National/20080126080752/Article/index_html

Pardon me and my language but the bus driver can go to HELL. Why in the world was he still driving a DOUBLE DECKER BUS when he already had THIRTEEN samans since year 2000?? As a bus driver!?? Does other people's safety meant ANYTHING to him at all!??? Bloody idiot with NO sense of responsibility... If u want to speed, u can speed yourself and risk YOUR OWN LIFE. Don't make innocent people pay for YOUR wrongdoings.

Geez.......









Now that i've slightly cooled down, let's have a moment of silence for the deceased...... My grandma, Nian Ning... and yes, Heath Ledger............ Rest In Peace.

Thank you.



And yes... i shall update more about the Europe trip soon....

And again yes...... Life is short...... so i would like to say one last thing before i end this sad sad entry...




I LOVE YOU PEOPLE!!!! ... Seriously.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

First entry in the year of Rat 2008...

...and the first entry after months of abandonment. Teehee... sorry but that's the way it is. I'm lazy. Full stop. Surprise surprise.

Speaking of year 2008... I'll be officially 20 this year. O.O I don't want to sound corny but... seriously, time flies... I don't think i'm old or anything. In fact, I didn't think much about it at all. Until yesterday, friend A(for privacy's sake lol) said 'Tomorrow i'll be 20... I feel a bit panic now'. Hm indeed a step towards 20 and above is a step towards adulthood. LoL By 21, i'll be able to do whatever i want... kinda. Vote and blah~

Ok... most of my friends know that i went to Europe for vacation so i guess i should update about it. Not sure if anyone is interested but i'm gonna blog about it anyway for memory's sake. XP Lovely lovely time during the Europe trip. For those friends who are looking forward to get souvenirs from me... well, don't have high expectations. Heh. Not like i can buy Godiva for everyone. Aaaanyway...

DAY 1 (24th Dec 07)
Met the most 'cheong hei (longwinded)' tour guide ever. =.= Honestly, he beats all mothers. Even mothers can't stand him. Departed by flight to Bangkok.

DAY 2 (Christmas 07)
Midnight, we celebrated Christmas at the bloody huge airport during transit at Bangkok not after we celebrated Malaysian time Christmas one hour before. How very eventful... And then we took off for Switzerland.

Arrived at Zurich airport after like 12 hours of pain in the u-know-where flight and was zoomed off to Engelberg in a coach. The scenery was NO.1 on the way to and at Mt. Titlis. Or should I say, Switzerland is absolutely beeeautiful during winter. Not that i know how it is during summer but anyway... PICTURES!!!
First we went on a small cable car up then we had a rotair cable car ride to summit at 10000 ft of Mt. Titlis. The cable car rotated as we moved upwards so that we can take photos from every angle. Most of these pics were taken on it. The most enjoyable one should be the Icer Flyer Ride. I guess what made it so enjoyable was because I had the best companions haha. Crazy bunch of people. Screaming on the way up, screaming on the way down, saying hi and waved once in while to the other friendly tourists. Six of us were like... the noisiest bunch among the tour members.

After popping around in the snow field, we were brought to Lucerne to sightsee the Lion Monument. It was... just a lion, at first. Then, I came to realize it's...... a dead lion. LoL Ok, sorry... it's a piece of art. Carved in memories of the heroic deaths during French Revolution... or something. Sorry, history is never my best subject but trust me, it's an art. Deep and sad art. And the last sightseeing destination of the day was the Wooden Chapel Bridge. The scenery was very peaceful despite the fact that the highway is just few meters away.

DAY 3 (26th Dec 07)
Right after breakfast we were whizzed to Bucherer for the most famous thing in Switzerland... watches of many exclusive brands. We even arrived there before the store was open. Our tour guide repeated and repeated how buying a timepiece in Switzerland would be an investment. Well~ since he insisted... XP I bought a Swatch for myself. And mummy chose another one for daddy.

Then, we proceeded to the Rhine Falls! It was an impressive sight! XD The pics i'm gonna post up do NO JUSTICE to the scenery i saw with my own naked eyes. T_T So very very beautiful... My cousin sis Wenwei was trying to search for a word to describe the scenery then a word pop into my mind. 仙境。It literally means heaven's place. XD It was that great. And Wenwei was like 'YES!! That's the word!!'

After the photo stop at Rhines Falls, we continued our journey to Titisee, Germany and we past the Black Forest on the way. I enjoyed the journey a lot because the view outside was... wow. I think i'm running out of descriptive adjectives. When we arrived at Titisee, we had pork knuckle!! XD And ta-da~ Black Forest cake! It was yum~ After lunch, the Cuckoo Clock Workshop. A brief explanation of the making of cuckoo clock. Continued our journey to Heidelberg where we saw the night view of the castle and the Necker River. Too bad we don't have any good pics due to the lack of lighting... In less formal words, camera cacat during night lah~

DAY 4 (27th Dec 07)
Visited the historical landmark of the most ancient city in the Rhineland, Cologne... The Cologne Cathedral. Another breathtaking sight. The Cathedral can be considered as the greatest monument of Christendom of Gothic architecture. Amazing!! Inside and out! <3. After that we had our chance to walk around in the street... there was this refining feeling in the air for me. XP Haha, hard to explain in words.

After that, we finally crossed the border into the countryside of Holland and arrived at Amsterdam. We could see the stick-like modern windmills along the roads. Besides that, we were told that red light distri
ct is legalized in Amsterdam. And what else? Oh yeah, homosexual marriage is legal as well. And we could do marijuana there in the so-called 'coffee shop' legally. Talk about new found freedom. LoL But it's not like we would just jump into a coffee shop and do marijuana just for the kicks. However we did have a tour at the famous red light district. Not allowed to take photos of the women posing behind the glass windows wearing glow in the dark lingeries/bikinis, sadly. Not much to see if u ask me... I expected more i guess. XO The reactions of my bro and cousin bro were priceless haha~ Their eyes focused everywhere except the sexy women. XP Shy shy.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuu~~~ This is harder than I thought.... I barely finished half the trip to
Europe. T_T Oh well~ I'll continue my story soon. Ciao for now.


And yes, before i stop here...... Happy Birthday, Mry~~~~~~~~~ ^-^