May 19th, 2012 by Karmun

I don’t know how I could have forgotten but suddenly it’s Friday again, which means it’s been a whole week since I last blogged. My final year Honours Thesis takes up all my time these days so while I’m here, I’d like to extend an apology in advance. I foresee even more infrequent posting on this blog and while it kills me to just leave this space alone for extended periods of time, I would try my best to keep it alive. Being a Final Year student sucks major ass, have I told you that recently? Pfft. There are easily a hundred other things I’d rather be doing right now than arrange my essay in APA citation style among many other pains in my posterior. But like all the other nasty things in life, I have to just keep reminding myself that this too shall pass.

Now on to happy things!

The whole of last week was designated as the Ninja Rabbit’s birthday week. Yay to birthdays! Since he didn’t get a big bash like he did last year with all his closest friends joining him in celebration, we decided to extend his special to make up for the lack of a proper party, heh. Nick and Winston of course, couldn’t let him off the hook without at least trying to get him drunk.

The Ninja Rabbit had actually sworn off beer for his New Year’s Resolution (I know right, who does that??) but I convinced him that for the week, he may be exempted because it’s his birthday. Yea, I’m probably not the best role model to have around, heh.

I personally think that if there’s any moment in time when you may be granted the permission to do things that may not necessarily be good for you, it should be on your birthday.

The smile on his face tells me he agrees even if verbally he says he doesn’t! =P

Later in the week, because he’s really a little 5-year-old at heart who only pretends to be 22, we went to see the dinosaurs as requested by him since “it’s his birthday”. The National Science Centre is holding a special exhibition until the end of July that showcases the giant reptiles in full mechanical motion coupled with eerily realistic sounds. I must admit it got me quite excited too upon stepping foot into the place.

We’re talking about some serious Jurassic Park stuff!

For an afternoon, we were transported back to a time before man ruled the planet, a time when other much bigger scaly things were at the top of the foodchain.

These models are supposedly built to real life scale. Imagine how big crocodiles used to be back then!

This (relatively) little guy my favourite, heh. I’ve forgotten its exact name but it is supposedly the fastest running predator back in the day. In a land as vicious as one of the dinosaurs, I think being fast enough is pretty vital in terms of survival. You’ll need it for both hunting and escaping from being hunted!

Halfway through, the whole thing started to feel really nostalgic. Every dinosaur we came to brought to mind our favourite characters from The Land Before Time. If you remember that show as well, then your childhood was awesome.

I actually went and called out “Cera!” when we came to these big guys haha!

Their scientific names were too painfully long to pronounce what more memorise, so we just went about calling them Little Foot, Ducky, Pee-Tree and Spike, teehee. We saw many other Three-Horns and Swimmers and Flyers as well, I think we confused quite a lot of other people that day, going around naming the dinosaurs such weird petnames HAHAHA!

Suddenly out of nowhere there was this deafening roar of the most fearsome kind. We turned the corner and found what stared down at us, the nastiest looking dinosaur by name, looks and reputation – Sharp Tooth.

This was the monster that terrorised the Great Valley and all of Little Foot’s friends and families. It was one thing to just see it on TV; to see it in real size, even as just a prosthetic model, still painted it the terrifying picture as it was millions of years ago.

Then, just because he can, the Ninja Rabbit decided that he shall be a Sharptooth tamer LOL.

Because “it’s his birthday”, you know? ;]

When we came to the end of the exhibition, we almost wanted to double take and make a second round. But we promptly got distracted by the other attractions of the science centre.

Although intended for young kinds below the age of 12, a lot of the stuff they have to demonstrate the laws of Physics, Biology and Chemistry were genuinely fascinating. We spent a good two hours after we were done with the dinosaurs, just going around trying out all the little experiments on light, energy and gravity the place has to offer.

Wanna know if you’re high or low on charge?

According to this really cool-looking device, I have quite the potential to zap you to cause quite a surmountable amount of pain if I rub my feet across woollen carpet long enough, ngehehehehe. FEAR ME, MINIONS!!!!

In high school, I’ve always had difficulty explaining how a kaleidoscope works.

Well, not anymore.

The entire place was like a giant playground full of cool science-y stuff that I had once considered such a chore to learn about. If only I had discovered this place sooner! UPSR and PMR would have been a complete breeze. Science is so much more engaging when you’re seeing for yourself how it works as opposed to only reading about it in textbooks!

One of the coolest experiments they had there was this mirrormaze where they try to teach you how light is bent etc. We walked into it and seriously, literally, not-kidding-at-all got lost for a good ten minutes. We would make a turn and see ourselves standing right at the end of the tunnel from where we really were. We’d make another turn and see three of us staring back at ourselves. It was terribly confusing!

That kid you see right there? He was so confused, the poor guy ran face-first into a mirror a few times LOL. Towards the end, he surrendered to simply following us from behind as we paved the way out of the maze. You really can’t tell where there’s a mirror and where there’s none in that mirror prison!

Genuinely afraid of also running into a mirror and breaking my nose, I made my way through the place with my hands outstretched before me like a blind person who had lost his walking stick.

We were like children again, trying our hands at simple experiments of sound, light and movements. The National Science Centre is the last place I thought I would enjoy myself so tremendously.

We stayed till closing time, and even then we refused to leave until the security guard blew his whistle at us and showed us the way to the front door.The Ninja Rabbit had this ingenius idea to hide in one of the giant hamster human-wheel in hopes of escaping the guard’s notice lol.

It might just work – you’ll never know – it’s his birthday after all…

That was pretty much last week, minus the hours I spent on my thesis. Can’t wait till I submit the damn thing and be over and done with it!

Till then, I shall live off happy thoughts and the very near prospect of our next holiday. We’ve booked a three day two night weekend in Redang! That shall be my motivation to work on my thesis!

Just earlier during a FaceTime call with my Mummy did she tell me: Happiness is made, not found, by you, and no one else.

Here’s to making more happy memories!

Happy Weekend all! Do the Happy Weekend Dance!

May 11th, 2012 by Karmun

May is turning out to be every bit the awesome month it’s supposed to be. Sometime ago, I got an e-mail from the editor of I.M. Magazine letting me know that they’re running one of my articles in this month’s issue. I didn’t give it much thought because I’ve written a few times for them before, and assumed this was only going to be another column piece with my name slotted in somewhere obscure in the end pages. Imagine my surprise when this time it was a feature travel piece they decided to run, one complemented with my own photos. While I’ve had articles published many times before, getting three whole pages in full colour to myself is definitely something new. To have both your words and photos printed and distributed all over Malaysia! It is something completely different from just seeing a by-line as I’ve grown rather to accustomed to the past few years. Maybe my dream of becoming a travel writer/photojournalist isn’t that far-fetched after all… Thank you I.M.! =)

May 4th, 2012 by Karmun

I write from my bedroom in Penang tonight. From my own table, on my own chair, with my own air-conditioner on to fight away the summer night’s heat. Nothing rented, nothing borrowed. I am happy. There’s just nothing like home.

May has always been greeted with just that little extra bit of cheer. And it’s not difficult to see why. With May comes Summer and with Summer comes holidays of the best kind. Exams are now out of the way so there’s nothing to hold us back from going all out with having all the fun we want. Can I get a “Hell Yeah”?

We’ve been spending a lot of time just catching up with friends. A couple of months may not sound like a really long time, but you’d be amazed at the number of things that could’ve gone on in a friend’s life unbeknownst to you.

We took the first opportunity we got to meet up with our favourite double-date couple, Vanitha and Wei Jin.

I love it how she’s always so super happy to see me =D

And we love it that both our boyfriends click so well. They just bonded without much prompting from us the moment they met, it’s brilliant. They always end up  in a world of their own which consists of very deep discussions of the latest games, music, and techy stuff that we’re left with hours to ourselves to simply catch up with gossip. Have we got the perfect set-up here, or what? You’d think they were long lost BFF’s themselves. When all else fail, bring out the game consoles. Nothing better to distract a boy than with video games! Although I must admit, Resident Evil on the Wii looks quite interesting even to me.

Other things that make Summer holidays so awesome include late night Martinis with girlfriends.

If you happen to be in Penang, you’d be interested to know that Healy Mac’s in Strait’s Quay is having this beer competition. 100 shots of beer in 100 minutes – do it and you walk away RM300 richer. The catch is that you’re not allowed to go to the toilet. Not so bad if you’ve got the bladder of a whale. My friend, Christ, did it not only once, but attempted it a second time one of the nights we got all dressed up for drinks.

Sister stood strong in the competition while male competitors were throwing up and giving up around her.

Maybe it’s cause she had our support backing her up, tehehehehehe.

Old habits die hard. The Ninja Rabbit ended up going around entertaining the rest of the boys instead of just sitting back and relaxing with a beer as was the original plan, LOL. We’re not complaining, it saved us girls the patronizing roll of eyes from the guys when we did what we did best – exchange life stories and take a thousand and one photos.

My favourite part about coming home to these girls, is how we always just pick up where we last left off as if we’ve not been apart at all. Conversations resume at the same speed and tone, jokes get repeated as if it being told the second time makes it funnier (it does) and stories get exchanged sprinkled with twice the essence of hyperbole of how it truly it happened because we all know life is too dull without a bit of drama to fall back on. There’s just no where like home =)

The following picture was specially taken because it suddenly dawned on the both of us that the last time we had a picture together just the two of us, was when we were 12. Yes we go that far back. We were 12 and she had invited another friend and I over to her place for spaghetti and a movie (we watched Sister Act 2). In that picture, I had blue teeth from too much Blue Monster candy and she was staring at me like I had gone completely crazy. Here’s a better version to make up for that, 10 years later.

We’ve substituted spaghetti and meatballs with a Lime Martini but the two main characters are still essentially the same. Happy ten years of friendship, Madeline! Can you believe it, our friendship is a whole decade old! =)

Family time also makes being back home one of the best things on the world. I love being with family and equally as much, I love eating. The other day, I got to do both things at once.

We decided to give this new Barbecue Steamboat place somewhere in town a try. All-you-can-eat, baby. Prepare your tummies!

The Ninja Rabbit often wondered where I got my insanely voracious appetite from. I get hungry every couple of hours and worse, at the most Godforsaken hour of the day. It’ll be 2am in the morning and I’ll want something like a pepperoni pizza. He now wonders no more eversince he’s been introduced to the rest of the family xD

I think it’s the Penangite in us lol. We just love our food.

A lot of my friends think I eat too much for a girl my size. They’ve not had the pleasure of meeting my sisters.

Then again, who could resist. Certainly not us that night! We had the widest array of seafood and marinated meats to choose from to put on our grill, on top of platters of tantalising streetfood that are ready to eat if you’re the impatient sort.

Hello happy boy =D

I myself didn’t quite know where to start. Do I want to load up on more seafood (which takes longer to cook) or just settle with juicy meats (which cook faster but fill you up too quickly to be worth your money at an all-you-can-eat buffet)? Dilemma, dilemma…

And then I came to the clearest conclusion: eat everything.

I’m going to have to up my mileage during my training runs!

When we finally eased into dessert, the funniest thing happened. May was settling in to get comfortable before she digs into her tower of Cookies n’ Cream ice-cream she had piled for herself, when her chair snapped loud and sharp under her weight.

Have you ever eaten so much you broke the chair you were sitting on HAHAHAHAHA!

Being back in Penang is awesome, have I said that? KL is great and all, but it hasn’t got all this. It hasn’t got the beach, it hasn’t got awesome food, it hasn’t got all my girlfriends at the press of the Call button. It hasn’t got my family. KL is great, but KL isn’t home.

We pack up to go back to reality in three days, so off I go to make the rest of whatever time I have left here. I’m going to watch some cartoon on TV, maybe make myself some instant noodles just for old times’ sake, and squeeze in a last 12km at the Botanical Gardens in the morning.

There’s just nothing and nowhere like home.

April 30th, 2012 by Karmun

Today is the birthday of the most important man in my life. He was the one who taught me how to ride a bike, the one who checked my Math homework back in primary school (although it was much to my chagrin back then, heh) and the one we all ran to when the lid on the jar of jam was stuck again. Back then, Daddy was the strongest person there ever was, and if we ever got lost trying to get anywhere, Daddy would find the way. He sent us to school and was there to pick us up every afternoon. He spoon-fed us our lunch because we were unfortunately very picky eaters and would’ve taken 3 hours to finish our meal, if at all we touched the icky beans or yucky vegetables. He was the one we conveniently turned to for a second opinion when Mummy said No.

There were only three rules when it came to Daddy. We had to make our beds in the morning, shower twice a day, and eat whatever he put on our plates. If you obey those rules, you may watch however much TV you like, and pick whatever you toy you fancy when we make the monthly trip to the toystore. It was simple: if we behaved, we got rewarded. If we didn’t, we stand to endure Daddy’s death glare which was warning number one. If we continued the bad behaviour, then we can’t say we’ve not been warned. Let’s just say most times, we stop being bad the moment we see the death glare.

Daddy was the man who gave us everything we ever wanted without once asking for something in return (except maybe for an extra hug or two). He works long hours, getting up in the morning long before we even wake up for school, and coming back only after we’ve all showered and had our dinner. He works hard and untiringly, yet always has a smile reserved for us when he got home. There are four of us, yet he’s always got the time if ever we needed anything from him. He may get a little cranky sometimes, but there’s nothing some chocolate can’t do to help calm him down.

Today is my Daddy’s birthday and I want the whole world to know just what a great Daddy he is. He taught me the value of hardwork if I wanted something, the importance of showing kindness  if ever a fellow human being needed help, and the vital lesson of always sharing my sweets. (People don’t like kids who wouldn’t share their stuff, you know. Then no one would wanna be your friend and you’ll never have any friends.) He is the most selfless man I know, and he never judges; he’s friends with literally everyone he meets – our newspaper delivery man, the uncle who sells Curry Mee at his favourite coffeeshop, our neighbour from eight units away. He lives his life in the simplest manner and finds contentment in the smallest of things. And he always manages to find the humour in the downest of situations.

If unconditional love had a face, it would look exactly like my Daddy. He doesn’t say it often because he’s too gruff and tough to say mushy things, but I know he loves my siblings and I down to the smallest bit. And because he’s such a great Daddy, we all love him to bits too. I wouldn’t trade being me for anyone else simply because I have him in my life. He is my biggest wall of support, my warmest hug, my strongest safety-net. He’s always been there for me and I know he’ll keep his word when he said he’ll continue being there throughout.

So Happy Birthday Daddy, the best-est Daddy in the world. I’ve never been prouder to be Daddy’s Litte Girl. After all, if you hadn’t already noticed, inheriting 50% of my good looks from this man is only one small part of what makes me this awesome ;]

Note: yes, that little coconut-head of a baby is me, if you can’t see it. Worry not, she will eventually grow up to be less rounded in basically every area of the body hahaha!