Of semester breaks and plate-washing.

Yo! 2010 is over, and so are my FINALS!! =D

*dramatic music plays*
Tears rolled down my cheeks as I bid a last farewell to Alkanes and Alkenes and Aldehydes and Ketones and the rest of my friends from the Organic Chemistry gang, with my heart beating in sorrow as I knew that I would no longer be able to embrace them in warm and loving hugs . . .

Ahahahah. Okay, I lied =3 I can't describe how ridiculously happy I am that they are no longer a part of my humble life. Anyway, my sem break has started, and will last for all of 2 weeks. Right now, I am back at my father's place. And something has given me a spark of inspiration to write a new blog post.

Okay, we all know that the conventional 5 Senses are the sense of Sight, Sound, Smell, Taste and Touch. Then there's the Sixth Sense, which people may or may not believe in. However, the seventh sense - which I have recently discovered - is the sense of plate-washing . . . which NEITHER MY FATHER NOR MY BROTHER HAS =.= What they do have is a whole stack/dump/collection (your pick) of unwashed plates waiting in the kitchen for me every single time I come back to Penang!

Clearly, neither of them bother to wash the plates at all. It's not like they've recently thrown a party, and never had the time to do the washing. No, that's not it at all. The frightening truth is that they leave the plates in the kitchen sink for WEEKS! It makes one think that they're waiting for the plates to rot to a point that they would grow their own legs and run away! So I mustered every bit of courage I have . . . to walk into the kitchen . . . and wash every single one of those freakish plates. They were SLIMY! I was surprised to see that there was no mould or mushrooms to be found anywhere. (=.=!)

True enough, after I finished washing them, my brother came to me and said, 'You know, I don't think anybody has washed any plates since the last time you came home.' I would've been speechless if I hadn't already guessed that earlier. You see, that's precisely why MEN NEED WIVES AND BROTHERS NEED SISTERS. In other words, NO HOUSEHOLD CAN SURVIVE WITHOUT FEMALES. Unless, of course, the members of an all-male household have . . . uh, an acute sense of plate-washing. The problem is, most or all DO NOT. Therefore, if you don't have wives/mothers/sisters: GET PAPER PLATES!!!

And just for the fun of it . . .

PROBLEM:

Plates that have been left unwashed for weeks

and are about to start exhibiting radioactive properties

FEASIBLE SOLUTIONS:

More troublesome; long-term

GET MARRIED!

OR

Simpler; short-term

GET PAPER PLATES!!

Hehehe, love you guys! Muacks!! =3

I love my brother.

His real name is Zhi Yong. But at home we used to call him Lester (just like my real name is Xing Yii but I am also called Leanne). And note, USED to. Because approximately a year ago he decided for himself that he wants to be called Leo. He didn’t like his name very much, apparently. Because he used to get teased very often – really, there are SO many ways to mutate that name.

So now I call him Mr. Ng. Because I simply don’t know what to call him anymore =o

To me, he has always been Lester. I’ll never call him Leo or Zhi Yong because it’s just really weird to call somebody with another name after so many years of calling them with . . . their old name.

Nevertheless, one thing’s for sure. He’s still my brother. Nothing about THAT has changed. And you know what?

I love him.

And I love him because:

1) He feeds me potato chips when I am at the computer and don’t want my hands to get dirty.

2) He pokes my arm and tells me to ‘walk further in’ when we’re on a sidewalk and a car is passing by.

3) He cuts my steak into smaller pieces for me, even when we’ve had a big argument and I’m not talking to him. (It’s his silent plea to have our relationship fixed. Almost charming, really.)

These are just several instances. There are so many more than I can possibly list. Of course, we have fights, shouting sessions and differences too, but what is a relationship between siblings if it is without the occasional conflicts? One word: IMPOSSIBLE. We see each other every day; we must both be crazy if we never fought!

As little children, we argued very often. Over A LOT of things. But now, he’s grown up. He has matured. And that’s the best part. We don’t argue over stupid, petty things anymore. In fact, we argue SO MUCH LESS nowadays. That makes me happy, really. =)

There have been many times when I tell people that I am at my father’s house during the weekdays and go back to my mother’s house during the weekend . . . and they ask me, “So when you go to your father’s house, your brother goes back to your mother’s house?” Or the other way around. Well, the answer is a big NO. Why should we be living separately like that?? It makes no sense, really. We go everywhere together. (ALMOST everywhere – because he can’t go to a girls’ school. =.=) So yeah, he’s the person I’ve spent the MOST time with over the years. He’s the one person I see absolutely every day. We’ve been through thick and thin together. Through our parents’ divorce and everything else that came after that.

So . . . who said that siblings are a nuisance? Oops. I've said it myself many, many times before! =x

Hehe. But be assured that has changed. I’m a much better and more loving sister now. I’m a lot nicer to him now. And I love having him around the house. He talks – A LOT. And he makes me laugh. (Well, a lot of people make me laugh but he is the only one at home who does it! xD)

He’s my house-bestfriend. He’s my laughing gas. He’s my brother. And I love him. =)

P/S: And NO, I don’t say that to his face because he might think that I’ve lost my mind or something. I doubt he’ll ever come across this post, but I’m sure deep down in his heart he’ll always know that I do love him, regardless of what I say or don’t say or do or don’t do.

Blessing in disguise?

Last night I was halfway bathing when my mother knocked on the bathroom door.
"Girl, come out and see! [My brother] found two dunno-what, look like mouse or rats or something."
I was like, "Hah?? What what? Wait for me, don't throw away yet - I wanna seee...!"

So out I ran, wrapped up in my towel to see what the commotion was all about. True enough, on our big dustbin lid were two furry little brown creatures, about 4 or 5 inches in length. Here's what happened. My mother had asked my brother to fill up a watering can. He was just about to do so when he discovered that it was FILLED WITH LEAVES. So he began to empty the leaves onto our big dustbin lid, and *plop* the two creatures fell out of it!

At first glance I thought they looked like moles, but it couldn't have been possible at all. Because we don't just find moles where we live. Upon further inspection we thought they could be baby squirrels. Newborn squirrels, in fact - haven't even opened their eyes yet! So we were all "How, how, what do we do??" We lined a shoebox with newspaper and tissue and put them in there. (Of course, we DID NOT use bare hands because you know how some fussy mothers will abandon their young if they have foreign scents.)

There was nothing else we could do. We did try feeding them water but they repeatedly shied away from the straw. We left the box as close as possible to the original position of the watering can, in hope that the mother would come back and see them there. Then I went on Yahoo! Answers to see if people could give suggestions as to what we might be able to do. Most people said that the mother will not come back for them anymore because we disturbed the nest and removed the young. What were supposed to do? We simply couldn't put them back into the watering can??

We wished that we never accidentally disturbed the nest. Little did we realize. . . In actual fact, there were some windows installed there earlier this week. My mother was away - and the windows were left closed all along. This means that the mother squirrel could not return to them in the first place. She might've already given up in the first place. Had my brother not emptied the watering can and discovered them there, they would've starved and died. It was a blessing in disguise that we discovered them there after all.

As I said earlier, we left them outside. And prayed against all odds that the mother WOULD come back and take them away and they'd be gone by the morning. Meanwhile, I asked around to see if anybody would they them as pets, or help us bring them to an animal shelter. The next morning it appeared to us that the mother did not come back. My mother decided to take them to RSPCA. But no one was there. So she decided to try pet shops instead. Pet shop after pet shop. At last she did find one that would take them! We were relieved. She wanted to keep them, actually, and so did I - but they were much too young for people with no squirrel-care experience. And I was very afraid that they would die under our care. >.<

That's pretty much the end of the fascinating experience of finding two baby squirrel in a WATERING CAN. We're dropping by the pet shop next weekend to visit them, though. Here're some photos we managed to take.

My favourite. Squirrel says "Hi-5!!"

No actually, it was waving goodbye.

Sigh. Good luck, squirrels!!

DETECTIVE *ahem ahem* XY

Last Saturday around noon we were going to leave my grandmother's place. So we went down to the carpark, and got to our car. Upon approaching it, however, I saw that the rear windscreen (yeah well, what else do you call it) looked white-ish. Or fuzzy or whatever you'd call it. Further inspection gave me an utter shock! You know why?? Here's why. The WHOLE rear windscreen was cracked! Down to every last inch. Like this.

WHAT. THE. ****. Who could've done it?? And why would anybody do something like that to us?? It's not like my mother has some along going after her. Anyway, I begin trying to figure out how it was done. If you'd take a look at the photo, you can see that the, um - cracking is even, like there is no apparent point of impact. You know, the point from which there is a BIG crack then it spreads out like a circle and there are those littler crack lines . . .

Anyway, a few moments after that we noticed something I thought was EVEN STRANGER. Here.

Lidi sticks! On the car hood! If that isn't strange, what is. Like some weird voodoo ritual! Like somebody put them on the car hood with an evil intention or something. It obviously wasn't the cause of the cracking! Strange as it was, I was much more interested in the rear windscreen. So I went back to it. And saw this!

Little impact points at the top left hand corner. Small, yeah - but there. Remember somebody said stones were what caused the windscreen (I'll just say ws from now on, okay) - ws to crack? Those marks looked like they were caused by stones all right! The common ones we see all the time.

WELL, WHADDYA KNOW! Soon after, enough prying around gave us THIS.

Stones. Stones. STONES. Stones that fit within the impact point made on the ws! *gasps* Obviously, we've found the - murder weapon (Yeah - it murdered the rear windscreen didn't it?) but WHO was the murderer??

By then, my grandmother had already managed to attract a decent bunch of people who were either caring or kaypo (very thin line of difference, mind you). No pictures though - didn't want them to think they were on some sort of movie. Ahh, but despite the *Um how do you say lau zuak in English??* OLD HOT - no, that can't be right - okay, hustling and bustling, the criminals decided to reveal themselves! Well, so much for detective work.

Several children were throwing stones down from dunno-what-th floor! In spite of the crowd of adults just right there. Yeah, you'd think I'd have had a bit of sense to look for them and see which floor they were on. Of course, given my wonderful eyesight I didn't even have time to catch the slightest glimpse of them! My wonderful ears did hear kiddy voices, though.

And boy, was I enraged when it simply confirmed that it WAS children after all. What - have they NO BRAINS?? Can't they like, stick to action figures or PlayStations?! I felt like going up there and just throttling all of them. After much ado and investigation, it appeared that these were the same, notorious bunch of kids who have been warned before - for splashing curry and throwing various stuff onto the cars downstairs. To my pleasant surprise, the mother of one of those kids came down to . . . plead guilty. So they talked. And exchanged numbers. And another guy who was the father of another one of the kids came and talked. And exchanged numbers. My grandmother said he looked like a policeman, so yeah, HE HAD BETTER. Or else . . .

So . . . settled! But wait - what about the car?? o.O Here's what we did to temporarily protect it.

Bandaged it, that's what! With two large pieces of plastic! Until it was sent for a rear ws transplant! =D

bye bye, wormhole

It's not really invisible, but highlight to read anyway. PLEASE DO NOT READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO HEAR ME CURSE OR IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE THE DARKER SIDE OF ME. YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO CONDEMN ME AFTER READING.

*I'd rather Esther and Tricia NOT read it. Thank you if you listen.

I was so freaking angry!! The modem (or whatever you call it) wouldn't work for me. So I told my father, and he said, "Yes it does laa...You always talk like you so clever, you try doing it yourself."

Okay. How hard could it be? I tried. Everytime, it says it's 'CONNECTED', but I only get a 'limited connectivity' - which means you are connected, in some way, and to something, but you can't use the Internet anyway. So I tampered around with the settings, but I RESET EACH SETTING THAT I CHANGED WHEN I FOUND THAT IT STILL DIDN'T WORK, you know, like trial-and-error, hoping that I would change something by luck and finally make it work. I tried for quite some time, but my efforts were in vain. I gave up, and told my father, "It doesn't work la?? It only says it's connected, but it doesn't actually work!"

"ONLY KNOW HOW TO USE YOUR MOUTH AND TALK. USE SOME BRAINS LA. IF YOU USED YOUR BRAINS THEN THINGS WILL AUTOMATICALLY START TO WORK."

So he sat down. And said, "Nah, look la." He tried, a few times, but nope, it didn't work too.

I said, "SEE, TOLD YOU IT DOESN'T WORK." He slapped me on my face.

"DID YOU DO ANYTHING TO THE SETTINGS??"

"Yeah I changed a few things here and there, but I changed them all back."

"YOU STUPID WHY DID YOU HAVE TO TOUCH IT, IT WAS FINE BEFORE - COULDN'T YOU JUST HAVE LEFT THEM ALONE?!"

"WOI I TOLD YOU I CHANGED THEM ALL BACK ALREADY OKAY!!"

"YOU SILLY WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO SPOIL EVERYTHING??"

What. The. FUCK.

He doesn't listen???

Didn't he hear me??

IT DIDN'T FUCKING WORK IN THE FIRST PLACE.

I got so angry I got up and stomped into my room - and slammed the door after me. Clearly, it was a mistake. He came in moments later and slapped me somemore.

The next day, he'd apparently 'fixed' it. So he showed me. I watched.

It was exactly as I did - over and over again the night before, but FOR SOME FUCKING REASON simply didn't work for me??! Okay so maybe he'd already fixed something. It didn't matter what. I knew what I had to do; it was really simple. Later that night, I tried yet again, really convinced that it would work this time. However...IT DIDN'T.

I told him again. He came and tried. Failed. So he said, "Yeah la why so funny. I've been using it for a while now. How come everytime it doesn't work for you..."

"Yeah so funny la...How come it ONLY WORKS IN YOUR PROFILE, BUT NOT IN MINE?"

"Yeah I don't know why you have so many problems."

"The problem is not me la, IT'S MY PROFILE?!"

"NO NO THE PROBLEM IS WITH YOU. YOU ARE SO PROBLEMATIC!!"

I DON'T SEE THE FUCKING REASON AS TO WHY THIS IS MY PROBLEM??

I CAN'T SEE THE FUCKING REASON AS TO HOW I'M RELATED TO THIS WHOLE THING, WHEN OBVIOUSLY, THE FAULT IS WITH MY PROFILE!!!

"What the fuck," I said under my breath, stomped into my room once again, and slammed the door much harder this time. However, I was smarter this time too. I locked the door. And he came banging on it, unable to come in. And yeah~ I was inside feeling this sense of satisfaction.

I hate him.

Apart from all that,

just here to say goodbye to my wormhole until the exams are over~!!

It's a happy daaaayyyy~! =P

Today was a great day! Couldn't have been better =D

Here is the list of things that made my day:

1) During assembly, I returned Julin the black top I borrowed from her a long, long time ago. She took it, said her thanks and proceeded to ask me if I was still playing in PESSOC, and if I would be going for the music camp this year. She told me to go, because it's free! No, it doesn't matter if it was free or wasn't - the point is that she spoke to me!! Great start already! =P

2) During English, Pn. Yon - aside from calling me long-winded because I said 'not anything' instead of 'nothing', and also doubting that 'egotistical' was a real word (she tot I so free go con her??) =.= gave me an A+ for my (Ideal Husband) essay, said that it was very interesting, and that I "can really - ...!" No, she didn't finish the sentence, but I didn't need her to - I was already feeling so happy!

3) I have to go out 5 minutes before recess everyday to do my canteen duty. Today, when I asked Pn. Salmah for permission to leave the class, she was so nice about it!

She was like,

"Ya, nak pergi mana, sayang?"

"Minta maaf, cikgu, saya kena ke kantin untuk buat duty."

"Oh ya kena keluar awal 5 minit kan?"

"Yaya."

"Okey pergi pergi."

"Terima kasih, cikgu."

"Sama-sama."

And it was not like she sounded very sarcastic or had that very sarcastic grin of hers on her face; no, she sounded so nice! (Yes - well, it's not a big deal at all, but I was so happy with my day already that every little thing seemed so wonderful~!) And when I reached the canteen, guess what I saw?? Yes, the rows of such colourful cakes - some of the primary school students had a cake decorating competition! What better sign than prettily decorated cakes, to show that my day was going to be simply wonderful??

4) The Bio presentation today couldn't have gone any better! I felt so proud of our team and myself and it left me feeling doubly happier (if possible! =P). Yvonne told me that we were the best team for the day and that I was so cute and she also said that my slides looked so professional. *none of my business - all credits to Jolene; she did it for me =)* Carmen also said during Ms. Lee's that my presentation today was so fun. Yay! XP

5) I reached home from school, checked my phone, and read a text message from my mother. It said that she has already been discharged, though she will be on medication which will 'slowly heal the ulcers'. The doctors could not diagnose anything for her kidney - tests taken only showed vague results. But what matters is that she's already out of the hospital~

6) Piano lesson today was lovely too. There was alot of smiling and laughing and I managed to convince my oh-so-cute teacher into spending the first half of my lesson playing demo for some songs for me 'to see if I like or not' XP  It was lovely watching him play; I always like watching him play =)

I guess that's it. Oh how I loved today~! Why don't I have more days like this?? If only I did, I'd be so much better a person...

And oh, the only bad thing that happened today was that when I went to pay Ms. Lee tuition fees, she said, "Where is your silly name?"

...

...

Hahaha it's not very bad at all, considering everything else that happened today!

I'm happy, happy, happy~

It's got to be the BEST DAY OF THE YEAR!!

It's a happy daaayyy,

and I thank God for the weather...

(Yesss Esther dear, I still remember the SONG XP) 

My mother is sick >.<

She complained of abdominal pains that begin several days ago. They begun as the common gastritis pains, but over the days, have apparently intensified and become so great she equates them to 'labour pains'. They come every 2 hours. When they do, she would eat, and become better. But they come back - yes, 2 hours later. More accurately on time than any alarm clock, she says.

She went to see the doctor on Saturday, and was told that she was either having severe gatritis, or gallstones - or both. She took medication, but it didn't really work for her. She had to take leave from work for so many days, just lying around the house, doing nothing but, well - lying around. My dog saw this to her advantage and became as lazy as could be. Whenever my mother sleeps, she sleeps. Whenever my mother doesn't sleep, she sleeps anyway...

She (my mother, not dog) left for Adventist Hospital yesterday morning, and has been warded there, for who knows until when. However, tests have shown that the cause of her pains are stomach ulcers. Yeah. Three of 'em little buggers. I'm not sure how the procedure is like, or how the doctors are going to cure or remove them. But I sure hope that she'll be up and about soon. (People die from stomach ulcers, because it eventually leads to stoamch cancer. =/ )

God Bless.