was a month ago. Sri Aman Secondary Girls’ School celebrated it right before they broke free for their well-deserved school holidays. Tee Ming and I went back to school to perform. I’m glad I went back to school, because that Teacher’s Day was extra special. The Alumni invited the ex-teachers and headmistresses back to school to surprise the current retiring teachers. When I found out, I was excited myself too, to see them again. My Geography teacher left when I was in Form Two, and my headmistress left when I finished Form Five.

It was a pleasure to dedicate a song to them, and to meet my teachers again. =) I just wished I didn’t wear my heels.. it was such a torture walking on school grounds with em. I’m glad Tee Ming brought her camera!! =D

Pn Loo, my Physics teacher who poked my ribs when I drank water in class without her permission, pulled my hair when I drew my gelombang wrongly, and threw chalk at students who gave wrong answers to her questions. And she loved to do this: “Ok girls, look at Latihan 4.5 … For homework, I want you to do questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 only.”

Ms Liew, my Girl Guides advisor. Used to find her a lot to sign minutes. =p

Pn Leong … she never taught me, but I knew her through her daughter, who was my classmate. Heheh.

Pn Mahalingam, my Geography teacher in Form Two. She once danced Macarena at our class party! XD

Pn Siti Zaharah, former Penolong Kanan.

Muahahaha.. me and my headmistress who left the same year as me: Pn Hjh Maharani.

It was a great honour to meet the first ever headmistress and one of the pioneers of Sri Aman Secondary Girls’ School, Ms Jeanette. =) She was headmistress in 1975, before I was even born!

Tee Ming and I presenting a little message and Faith Hill’s There You’ll Be to the teachers on stage.

Proud (former) member of Kelab Pencinta Alam dan Orkid! =p But sadly, there’s no such club in the school anymore because the students are simply uninterested. =(

I have a feeling I sound like a teacher’s pet here, posting up pictures of my teachers.. but I’m not. I just simply love them a lot, and I miss the ones who left school, especially my headmistress and Geography teacher. Walking along the corridors, looking at the fading murals which were once brightly coloured as we laid our brushes on, and looking into the classrooms made me feel nostalgic. I was once there in those places, in my pinafore or baju kurung.. can’t go back to it anymore, so it’ll just remain a treasured memory. =)

Rushing around in the library, trying to get out of there as soon as possible, I simply grabbed books about orchids, judging by their cover, and high quality pictures in them. I grabbed four heavy hard covered ones.

My anxious poring over the pages rewarded me with this:

Dendrobium Siam Jewel. Hmm.

I’ll be back. Sis wanna do homework on comp..

My favourite bloom. =) I love the fact that they are not relatively delicate and fragile, and they last long in a vase (of water). I used to visit a particular florist in Pasar Seni occasionally to buy a bunch of orchids to put at home. Mum would always scold me for wasting money. Whoops..

This is my first time buying a potted orchid! The nursery is located at Rawang, at the side of the road to Batu Arang. It is really huge – stretches along the road for 200 meters! I know because there was a sign from the end of the nursery to its main gate, indicating: Orchid Nursery: 200 meters ahead.

Right now I’m trying to google on basic care for orchids. I know I should’ve done that before purchasing the plant, but but.. I couldn’t resist! XD I don’t even know the species of it. =S All I could find are websites with lovely vibrant images of orchids.. I’m confused among Dendrobium, Vanda, Cattleya, and Papheopedilum. I’m like, what? Making a mental note to visit the PJ Community Library to flip through orchid books. (Yes, there IS a library in PJ, for those of you out there who didn’t know) Love the veiny effect on the petals. =) I shall call it.. Vein.

spent my day experimenting with the chocolate truffles recipe which i’m gonna use for my students in sunday school on mother’s day. today’s a huge improvement, as compared to the first time i tried making it. i used the wrong cheese and the batter ended up being too runny to be rolled up into a ball. mum passed by the kitchen and wrinkled her nose. she said that the cheese smelled sour. and when i attempted to roll the runny batter into a ball and coating the round surface with chocolate rice, you can imagine the choco mess. =p they picked up chocolate rice all right, but they became bigger and bigger as i rolled and the chocolate rice getting less and less.

however, today it was a success! philadelphia cream cheese rocks. =) chelsea loved it too. she loves cheese a LOT. this will be the sample for the other sunday school teachers to decide whether we should let the children try their hand at it.

the instructions are pretty simple.. since they are meant for kids to make anyway. 55 grams of cream cheese, 55 grams of icing sugar, 55 grams of chopped nuts or dried fruits (i replaced with sultanas), and 30 grams of cocoa powder can make a dozen truffles. mix em up in a big bowl with a spoon till you get chocolatey dough, roll em into balls, and then roll in a bowl of rainbow sprinkles or chocolate rice, and voila. =) you can eat it there and then, but chilling them first in the fridge makes them taste better.

i have so much time in the world to do things that i’ve always wanted.. yeah right.

i’m technically no longer a student.. i’ve been telling people that i’m unemployed. guats suggested a nicer term for my status now: selling grapes (menganggur). =D i do miss college and classes, and of course, my course mates whom i’ve gotten so close to, in these two years. it doesn’t really feel like i’ve ended college, nor it’s goodbye to my peers. it feels.. surreal. it’s like, another semester break.

vitamin c’s graduation made more impact now, when its turn came in my windows media player playlist.

as we go on
we remember
all the times we had together
and as our lives change
come whatever
we will still be
friends forever

on the other hand, i don’t feel like working just yet. *sigh*

the launching of SS Gospel Centre Cell Group with Lok-lok! =D

amenda dragged me to help out with food preparation, i reluctantly agreed. but i’m glad i turned up.. realised how much i missed the youth. XD i poured my creativity in skewing chinese cabbages and oyster mushrooms, which sent zhiliang wrinkling his nose and worrying about whether people would eat them, “it looks peculiar and odd.”

i thought it looked cute. the chinese cabbage looked like leaves while the oyster mushroom at the tip of the satay stick looked like flowers! sorry la, you know me, i’m a flower person. =p it was kinda difficult at first, but the three of us got the hang of it after that. i pricked my finger with the stick too. =s

yepyep.. we had fun. =) and yea, i noticed the shots are blur and not focused. =s

know what? i found my former xanga background again! yay! but i don’t know if i should use it again, since i like this current background too.

i completed my 2,500 word creative writing story yesterday, and handed up the draft. i’ve been having the writer’s block for some time already. every time i started a story, i had no idea how it’d end. i could just sit and think about it until i’m tired, and all i have were weak ideas.

hmm.. maybe they were okay, if only i put in a little more effort to question my ideas. i’ve changed my story twice. actually i was tempted to change the third one as well, but due to time constraint, i carried on with it, forcing my pea-sized brain to work overtime.

and my tutor loves my story! =D now i have confidence in my story too!

lately, i’ve been having too much sleep, going to bed at 5.30pm. heheh. well, it was supposed to be a nap. at least i make it up by waking up early! i love to be the only one awake at night. but sometimes it could be creepy, like after watching horror movies, or hearing ghost stories which are, well, real.

sorry for the randomness of this post. just wanna do anything to keep the previous post down.

I think the most interesting subject I had so far is Creative Writing. Yesterday during tutorial, our tutor made us go anywhere in the campus for fifteen minutes and record other people’s conversations, without letting them know that you are recording them. I thought, fun fun fun!

Michelle, Geeta and I headed to the canteen. I had an advantage over Mich and Geetz, because I know Cantonese and Mandarin. But I’d prefer English to Canto, anytime. We walked through the canteen, and I felt Chelsea, my dog, with her ears acting like a radar, picking up every sound. I picked a LOT of Mandarin conversations.

Finally, we spotted our juniors! *muahahaha* Six of them were killing time talking before their next class. Mich and I went to their table with our notebook and papers. We sat at their table pretending we were discussing about our assignments. But I think we failed, cuz we were busy listening than speaking to each other. Lol.

It wasn’t easy jotting down conversations. They talked fast, like how people would in a conversation with people they know. Unless you’re introducing yourself to someone new, you talk clearer and slower and you don’t interrupt each other. So there we sat, trying to jot as much as we could, including expressions like “ahh” and “uhm”. We had no idea what they’re talking about. Like they didn’t make any sense to you at all.

Somehow, they found out what I was doing. Mich was still safe. One of the juniors, Delilah, read my scribbles out loud to her friends and went, “Oh my God, they recorded everything weh!” But they were okay about it. I told them it was a task from out tutor. I decided to eavesdrop another Mandarin-speaking group which was beside me.

Wenhui recorded a conversation between two maintenance workers. I saw him leaning on the wall of our block as the ladies sat on the steps, talking to each other. I gave him a knowing smile.

We saw Delilah and her friend, Aishah, today when we walked to class. We hollered and waved hi, and they went, “Hi! Eh wait, don’t talk to them.. they’ll record us!!”

Lol! So cute.

I have to finish two books for Creative Writing as well: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. We’re doing novel critiques, which are on Wednesdays. The latter in more difficult to read. The starting is rather slow and I didn’t see the point where it was going. But my tutor said that as you read on, you’ll find it more interesting. That’s when it becomes juicier. I hope so.

Wheee.. I’m updating regularly again! XD

Layer ONE : On the Outside
Name : Chan Waiyee
Birth Date : 24.07
Current Status : Single
Eye color : Dark brown
Hair Color: Dark brown, yellowing ends
Righty or Lefty : Righty
Zodiac Sign : Leo. *arr*

Layer TWO : On the inside
Your Heritage : Chinese. But a stranger in Central Market told me I looked Mongolian.
Your Fears : Trust falls! Falling and drowning. Injuries.
Your Weakness : Procrastinative. XD
Your Perfect Pizza : Seafood!

Layer THREE : Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
Your thoughts first waking up : Am I late? Am I late? *fumbles for handphone*
Your Bedtime : Anytime from 6pm to 4am. Differs every day.
Your most missed memory : Nightdrives in KL. Hehe. And my days being a refugee in Refugee: Images. =p

Layer FOUR : Your Pick
Pepsi or Coke : Pepsi
McDonald’s or Burger King : McDonald’s.
Single or group dates: Uhh.. both.
Adidas or Nike : Adidas. That’s because I’ve never bought anything from Nike before.
Lipton tea or Nestea : Nestea.
Chocolate or vanilla: vanilla!
Cappuccino or coffee: Both. I’ll accept anything containing caffeine!

Layer FIVE : Do you
Smoke : No.
Curse : When my sister does it excessively to me.
Take a shower : *silence* Duh.
Have a crush : Nope.
Think you’ve been in love : Yep. =p
Go to school : No! XD
Want to get married : Yessh. =p
Believe in yourself : Sometimes.
Think you’re a health freak : No.

Layer SIX : In the Past Month
Drank alcohol: Yes. Every Sunday morning! XD
Gone to the mall: Yep.
Been on stage: Yes.
Eaten sushi: Ooo.. yes! Valentine’s eve at Midvalley.
Dyed your hair: Almost.

Layer SEVEN: Have You Ever?
Played a stripping game: Never.
Changed who you were to fit in: Yes. And it feels horrible and depressing.

Layer EIGHT
Age you’re hoping to be married : Before thirty!

Layer NINE: In a Girl/Guy.
Best eye colour: Does it really matter?
Best hair colour: Natural.
Short or long hair: Short!

Layer TEN: What Were You Doing.
1 minute ago: Chatting with Teeliang and declining early breakfast, cuz I’ve got an early class.
1 hour ago: Blogging (p/s: it’s updated!) and keeping someone awake to accompany me.
4.5 hours ago: Dreaming of grabbing free clothes from a huge pile in a school’s Makmal Sains and finding my sarong in the pile.
1 month ago: Enjoying Chinese New Year quietly in PJ for the first time in my life. (it has always been in Ipoh)
1 year ago: Passed the audition for the musical play Refugee: Images and officially a cast member!

Layer ELEVEN : Finish The Sentence
I love: taking pictures!
I feel: very awake.
I hate: rude people.
I hide: a lot of things.
I miss: all my friends who’ve gone overseas. =(
I need: to be more hardworking.

Layer TWELVE : Tag 5 people
Anyone
who comes here and reads this. If I named any five, most likely you’ve
done this already. =p Yeah, you can say I’m very lagging la yea.. lol.

the archived jottings of mine.
sunday, 18.03.07, VERY sunny

Two sweet sights caught my attention today.

I saw a man and his wife. They were seated side-by-side in church, at the front row. They were a little younger than elderly. His wife crossed her right leg over her left. Her hands were on her right knee, fidgetting with her fingernails. Both husband and wife fixed their attention to the speaker during sermon time.

It wasn’t very obvious. But if you observed carefully, there were three hands on her right knee. One slightly darker toned one belonged to her husband. She was actually scraping off hangnails or dry skin off her husband’s cuticles while looking at the speaker, listening to him. Occasionally, she shifted her attention to her husband’s fingers, idly scratching her fingernails against her husband’s own ones. The whole scenario was just so sweet.. simple act of care.

During lunchtime, a few of my church mates headed to the corner coffee shop. A young father, Darren, was there with his four-year-old son at a rectangular table beside the wall. Little Christian sat opposite his dad. His body was too small for the the brown plastic chair. His feet couldn’t even dangle; they stuck out straight just like how he would’ve if he sat on the floor. His little chin merely touched the top of the table. The cutest moment came when Darren held a small chunk of noodles with his chopsticks and fed Christian’s eagerly opened mouth. He reminded me of a baby bird with its opened beak, eagerly receiving food. The perfect photo opportunity.. but I left my gadget at home. ARGH!