Chapter : Just Another Saturday.

It was such a tiring day. First went over to the mall to grab Harry Potter movie tickets with the boyfriend and walked around a bit. It was such a bad idea to wear 3 (or was it 4?) inch heels because it killed my feet. After few rounds, the shoes were literally eating my feet ALIVE!

The boyfriend and I did some walking around, ate some brunch and then some yoghurt. Then off to see him get his hair cut. His hair finally grew back after months of being a little monk. Anyway, Harry Potter movie was not bad. I wouldn’t say it was awesome because it felt...to me incomplete. Like I would always feel that there would be a HARRY POTTER MOVIE COMEBACK or something along those lines.

I was really happy to see the actor who played Neville Longbottom. He grew up to be such a handsome stud and he has a lot of screen time too! So yay for me! I was scared shitless when I saw the scenes with the huge ass snake. Wouldn’t mind watching Harry Potter again though...

After the movie, rushed off to celebrate my aunt’s 60th birthday which was located at some Chinese restaurant near where the boyfriend’s office is. The room we were in has a karaoke machine so naturally all of us started to choose songs to sing!

Karaoke, brings people together...brings joy and laughter. Everyone is just there to have fun, singing and laughing regardless whether they can belt out a tune or not. Maybe I was really tired and my feet were killing me...couldn’t take all the singing and people talking at the same time...but at least I know that everyone enjoyed themselves including my grandmother. She was clapping whenever my aunts were singing. 

Towards the end I was singing Lady Gaga’s - Bad Romance because my youngest aunt requested for it and then Kelly Clarkson’s – Because of You. That song literally left me breathless because it’s always high pitch and powerful and my voice...Like a toad can’t reach that high so it sounded like someone trying to choke a duck. 

But it really made me want to go to have an awesome karaoke session again with my girlfriends. Maybe should plan another karaoke session with the rock band group...hmm...

Chapter : Epic Birthday Celebration!

Yesterday I had the most epic and awesome birthday celebration! Before I go any further on that, this week is what I would call “Celebration Week” because there are a lot of things to celebration. 

First, is the boyfriend’s birthday, then it was our one year anniversary (yes, I tend to remember things like that) and MY birthday!

Anyway, I organized a dinner with my usual girlfriends, the Rashingis (Joey, Sylvia and Kelsie), the AC (Whippy, James, Yuki, Lavena...sadly Yie and Ky couldn’t make it) and Yuki Rye to celebrate my birthday and also to welcome Sylvia’s boyfriend, Joe (he’s from the states). I brought the boyfriend along and those who had partners brought theirs. 

Dinner was at Capricciosa, Sunway Pyramid. I booked a table for 12. During dinner, everyone was catching up with each other; the boyfriend and Joe were talking about some “Call of Duty” stuffs I supposed while I was running around trying to take pictures with everyone. 

We were just hanging around in the restaurant and I was asking whether anyone wants to go somewhere else to grab dessert and then out of nowhere, the staffs from Capricciosa came from behind to surprised me with a birthday cake given by the Rashingis and AC’s! Actually I jumped in shocked because they caught me, surprised. After I blew out the candles, the group asked me to take the candles out from the cake using my mouth. Imagine the fear that someone might push my face right into the cake! I ate a few candle waxes here and there though...the cake was DELICIOUS.

After dinner we head down to Red Box for the most EPIC karaoke session! We actually sang out hearts out till 3 a.m.! Everyone dedicated a song to me and I never felt so blessed in my entire life! The funniest part was when the group decided to sing to me Happy Birthday (the Click Five) and they changed the lyrics here and there. We laughed, we screamed and we jumped inside the room. Everyone was having a blast. 

I have to personally thank the boyfriend was accompanying me for dinner and sending me back at the wee hours in the morning. Thank you love! I appreciated it so much! Sorry you had to blow your budget this month! 

Ah! I got so many lovely presents from everyone! The boyfriend gave me a 1 TB hard drive because he knew I was whining for one and never gotten the chance to get it. Though at first I suspected that he was getting me pepper spray! Thank you again!! 

A compact powder, eye liner and BB cream from Whippy, James, Yuki and I think Yuki Rye...and Yuki Rye gave me a lovely card too!

A blusher from Lavena.

A musical box from Joe and Sylvia.

Godiva chocolates from Kelsie.

Joey said that she will pass my present when she sees me the next time. Thank you all again for giving me such lovely presents and also the most epic birthday celebration ever!

I almost forgot to thank my parents and my godmother, Aunty Helen for giving me presents too! Parents gave me a purse and Aunty Helen gave me a little charm from Thomas Sabo. Thank you!! 

Chapter : Celebration!!

This past few weeks was crazy for me. There were so many birthday celebrations and the amount of cakes I have consumed; I think I’m at the borderline to have diabetes!

30th June, my colleague’s birthday, so we had “Death by Chocolate” cake and I really died from overly dosage of chocolate. Then during dinner with Stephanie and Chuong, we had a small piece of cheesecake.

1st July, my youngest brother birthday, so we too had another cake, some mango sponge cake thing. 

4th July, another colleague’s birthday (her real birthday was on the 1st though) and they too bought another chocolate cake. 

Then I took a small break from all the cakes...just a tiny one...

Then today...I mean yesterday, 12th July, the boyfriend’s birthday. His best friend baked a cake for him and that was chocolate too! It was so rich and thick, I felt as though I was really a huge bar of chocolate! Quite delicious I must say!

Anyway, reason for this post is to wrap up what happened on the boyfriend’s birthday.Luckily his birthday fell on the day where we normally meet up with the Rock Band group to play board games. So it was a perfect occasion to call everyone for dinner and celebrate!

The boyfriend knew there was dinner but he didn’t know that there would be cake and a little surprise waiting for him. Well, he told me later he suspected something was going on though...because everyone just kept disappearing!

So as usual, we have our dinner and catching up with everyone, then once everyone was done, Farah (his best friend who baked the cake) brought the cake out. Tried distracting him while she prepared the cake but doing a very bad job at it because the boyfriend said he could tell I was trying to make conversation. Damn social skills, why you fail me at the wrong time?

After we sang Happy Birthday to him, we gave him a troll card which I thought up. Remember Terry Crews from White Chicks? If you can remember the portrait of him in the movie, well that was at the front and everyone just signed behind it. If you can’t, look at the picture below...

I know I'm sexy!

 

So imagine, when you turn over the card and see that face, what would your expression be? The boyfriend laughed. How the idea came about? The boyfriend was joking with me one day saying that he would love to have a poster of him so he could stick it in his room. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a high resolution of the picture so I asked a friend to print out an A4 size of it and turned it into a card.

Tony Roma’s actually gave the boyfriend a birthday cake to celebrate and we sang Happy Birthday to him again. It was funny! Overall, I hope the boyfriend enjoyed his birthday and the card. I wonder where he would put it. Imagine if he put it up in his room, what would his brother or his parents say? 

That would be hilarious.

To the birthday boyfriend, Happy Birthday once again! I mean...belated Birthday. Love ya!

Chapter : Clearing My Head.

Lately I have been out almost every single day to meet the boyfriend or to hang out with my friends. Last week alone I have been out with the boyfriend almost every single day. We hung out to watch movies at the cinema or just merely hanging out...it was lovely.

Yesterday I was out with my girlfriends and it has been months since the four of us got together just to catch up with each other’s life. Sadly, one had to leave because she had deadlines so she went back to her office which was located right in the heart of town. 

One of our many discussions was hobbies, business and making monies. Well, best friend A always had the passion to sew and create things and was thinking of making a business out of it. Best friend B too had the passion to learn how to sew, create things AND also sculpting. So I just randomly suggested that both of them should just start a business together to sell their handicrafts once they polished their skills and I would just become their promoter. They actually considered it!

Well, I could say these are just ideas that we have in our head but it’s all up to us whether we want to pursue it and make it happen. True, there’s a HUGE risk to take, but if one is afraid of the risks, they wouldn’t succeed in life, no? Not sure whether I’m saying it right...

Remember the post on my quarter life crisis? I have been thinking a hell lot. How am I supposed to get some side income? Some said freelance, some said sell insurances and some said start your own business. Freelance, I’m not that confident with my current works hence I have been researching and trying to learn some tricks and trades that would help me enhance my skills. Hopefully I could polish my skills and be ready to take on some projects on my own.

Friends suggested me to sell insurances because I can bullshit a lot. Not sure whether they meant it in a good way or not. But I don’t want to sell insurances because I know how annoying it can be, constantly persuading someone into buying things when they don’t need it or already have.

Then it’s starting your own business...it’s not an easy task to do. You have to put in your heart and soul into starting something and hoping it will become something. Plus knowing what risks factors are out there sometimes puts you off. Best friend A said, "one must have the courage to be daring enough to just do it. You want to sell something, just do it. You must have the guts!"

To me, depending what kind of business you’re planning to venture into...first you must look out what competitors are out there. Then you must think of a way to make YOUR business stands out. What’s so different about it? What would attract customers to want your product or services? Well, there’s more of course...but with all these factors to think about, we must do heavy duty research. If not, it would shut us down instantly. 

I always like to joke to my friends who have a business proposal and they shared their ideas with me. If they have an idea of a business that they want to start, I would become their promoter and business partner. I would chip in some money for them to start it and would just help them promote their product or services to people because I said, "I can’t cook, sew, plant, sculpt, bake or any other fancy mancy things you guys can do. The only “tool” I have is my mouth. Hope that it would help somehow." Funnily enough, some actually considered my offer, saying, “Sure why not? We would love you to become our business partner,” or “Of course! You very good at talking!!!”

Sometimes I wish I had my mom’s sense of the business traits. Her side of the family are into business and stuffs like that. It actually makes me want to become their apprentice and learn from them. How in the world could they just think like that? How in the world they could be so ingenious?  Do their brains function differently from non-business people?

Oh well, these are just thoughts in my head. Maybe I should read more about them...the art of business, the art of investing, and the art of God-knows-what-else.

Man, I wonder whether my brain could take all these shits.

Chapter : Cheesecake Success!

Yesterday was my mom’s birthday so I decided to do something really out from the blue. I have decided to bake a cake for her birthday. Well, you see, I’m not kind of person who can cook or bake...so this is a big accomplishment for me.

The day before her birthday, I went over to my godmother’s house to bake the cake and also needed her guidance to help me complete the actual cake itself. So straight after work, I rushed to her house and after I ate dinner which she prepared, we started baking the cake!

To cut story short, I managed to complete a basic cheesecake with Oreo as its base. Little did I know that hiding the cake from my own mom is the simplest thing to achieve! Just move some jars and used them to cover the cake and it’s done! 

My dad brought us to some Chinese restaurant for dinner and then I was really excited to go home and prepare the cake. I gave a candle for my mom to blow out because if I put her actual age, she will probably scold me...but the expression on my mom’s face was classic. 

It’s because whenever it comes to celebrating my parent’s birthday, they never had their own candle to blow out or cake to cut into so I decided a small change for once. So my mom gets to experienced cake cutting and making the wish process. 

Mom said the cake wasn’t bad and I brought some for the boyfriend and his family to try and they liked it. It makes me happy to see people liking what I cooked for them...or maybe they are just being nice. I don’t know. 

Maybe I will try something else another day. Should I bake one for the boyfriend? Hopefully he will tell me what cake he really likes...I still have yet to make Japanese curry for him too...good Lord, I’m cooking and baking. Who am I?

Chapter : Life Crisis?

Currently typing an entry at such odd hour...slept for a while and then I just couldn’t sleep anymore. Guess I have a lot of things going through my head these days, influencing me mentally, emotionally and physically. 

I feel like I’m going through some life crisis but I do not want to admit that I’m in it. I’m worried about my career path, my life and my future. Everything now seems so bleak. I guess I’m slowly learning the hard way of growing up. It’s kind of hard coming from a person who was sheltered and spoon-fed throughout her entire life.

I guess some could tell that something’s up with me. But as usual, being the person that I am, I always try to hide it. I was never the serious one. I’m always taking things as it goes, always laughing and not bothered about anything. But as you grow older, your responsibility grows bigger and you have to start growing up. Guess it’s time for me to start now....one step at a time and in hopes that I will have some guide to lead me the way.

People said that I’m a daddy’s or mommy’s girl because everything I answer, “I don’t know my parents said so or don’t know; I have to ask my parents...” Everything I do have to ask my parents. Well, I guess I take them to be my "life-guide" counselor because they are older and wiser but my parents are funny people. At times they will tell me the reason why, at times they don't. But these days, they do explain the reason why but was given some strict rules on what I should expose (Sounds like I have a lot of dark secrets) but please bear with me here. 

I remembered one college mate said to me, “Jessie, you’re actually a very good girl. You listen to your parents from head to toe. You try to be a bad ass, but you’re actually not.” And during that time, I was having a lot of arguments with my parents but I still obeyed their rules. Even my best friend, Joey said the same thing. Well, I guess it’s because it’s the way I brought up...

At times I will sit in my own little world, wondering what the future holds for me. But at this point now, all I see is just plain blur. The world is changing, people are changing, I’m not 18 anymore and I do know what responsibilities I have to bear. I can see my dad is slowly training me to take on the responsibilities given because like I have said, I’m the sheltered one...the biggest responsibilities was given to my elder sister and to my 21 year old brother at such young age. My sister have to bear showing a good example, being thrown all sort of things regarding about family, learning how to handles things when my parents are not around and many more. That’s why she is who she is today. As for my brother, my dad have never once let him live easy. Being tossed into a tough primary school, drilling that he has to be the man in the family or have to take the lead if anything goes wrong and exposing him to the outside world.

Unfortunately for me, I was given a small responsibility such as, be a good daughter, make sure get good grades, don’t fight with your sister and all those teeny little bits that anyone could handle while growing up. Now as I’m older, I’m learning about mortgages, bank loans, investments, bills, insurance, learning how to handle the family, basically tips on how to survive in this harsh and cruel world. It’s a lot to take in, but I’m trying my very best. At times I feel envious of my siblings because they managed to get these responsibilities at such young age to mould them to be who they are today whereas, I’m always being casted aside. It hurts at times, not knowing what’s happening in the family even though you’re the second eldest yet treated like one of the youngest. 

I remember my sister getting into an argument with my parents how they sheltered me, while she has to bear the responsibilities. I was pretending to be asleep that time but boy did I cry. Imagine sharing the room with your sister while she is having a heated argument with your parents in exact same room while eavesdropping and holding back tears or noise so they wouldn’t know that you’re listening or thinking that you’re a heavy sleeper. Because deep down you know that whatever your sister said is true. 

I know I’m not perfect. Nobody is...I’m juggling all these things together while trying to hold myself together. I may look like I’m not taking things seriously or not able to sit down and think it thoroughly but I do...maybe it’s just the way how I take things that make people think I’m not being serious. I’m always willing to learn to become a better and more responsible person. I admit, I’m stubborn and naive and always reverting to my old self, but I can’t change overnight. I’m taking small baby steps to grow and learn...we never stop learning as we grow. There are always new things out there that you do not know...my dad once said to me, "I know my faults and it’s hard for me to change, but I’m doing my best to change it and you have to bear with me. I know I’m not perfect, nobody is. If anyone is perfect, they would be a God."

Hey, who said life was easy?

Chapter : First Blood Donation

Few days ago, there was a blood donation drive happening just nearby my office. Then I have decided to donate some of my blood for the very first time. Well, I always wanted to donate some blood but before this I was always underweight. But now since I’m in the normal weight zone, I’m able to do so.

I went to the donation drive with two of my colleague, C and CY. Unfortunately, CY was under some Chinese medicine to treat his long time injury so he was not suitable to donate some blood. C on the other hand, her blood lack iron and she was the one who initiated to donate some blood. So C and CY had no choice but to keep my company while I wait for my turn to be poked by the needle...

Once it was my turn, the nurse injected some pain killer thing to numb my entire hand or veins before planting the huge ass needle with the bag...I have no idea what is it called. Then she passed me some PVC pipe (she said it wasn’t but it really looked like one) and asked me to keep on pressing it. While filling up the bag, I was talking to my colleague and laughing at the same time. C kept on joking, “Jessie! Hurry up! Pump faster!!! I got work to do!” So I did. 

Within minutes I filled up the bag and was done. The guy next to me was shocked that I filled up the bag so fast. After the nurse pulled out the needle, she asked me to rest for ten minutes before standing up or do anything. So I sat there watching my blood bag being packed properly by some other male nurses who were watching some Youtube videos. After ten minutes, I was asked to eat something in the next room but instead I chose to drink hot Milo.

It was a great experience for me and I wouldn’t mind donating blood again. The arm that was used to donate blood currently has some bruises which looked as though I’m some drug addict...but I'm so proud of myself!

When is the next blood donation drive?