Monday....

I woke up feeling tired today...


Amidst the usual sounds of the morning, I paused for 15 minutes, listening to the world go by.


I look in the mirror and see the dark circles, the pale complexion, the tired eyes.


My back's achy and my tummy's sulking...


Only means 1 thing....yep, *sigh* it's Monday....

Emily Diet - NOT Day!!!!

I actually DO HAVE the discipline to see the Emily Diet through, unlike the Eric Diet where one only needs ONE bad virus attack, the Emily Diet needs patience, discipline and will of steel (I have never willed myself to faint this much in my life.... ever)!

But, having all the discipline, will and patience is ONE thing..... having parents that think anything less than a double chin means "YOU'RE STARVING!!!!!" doesn't really help either....

Classic case of Emily Diet-Not happened just this morning....

I'm asleep, when at 8.40am my mom comes pounding on my room door "WAKE UP!!! I MADE BREAKFAST!!!!!"

And I'm a morning person, cause of this wonderful inducement called breakfast..... so I hop gleefully out of bed and practically dance my way to the dining table.

There, she's cooked up some super kickass mee suah, dry version, swimming in lard oil, generously covered with stir-fried black sauce minced pork and garlic, blanketting strips and strips of prawn omelette.... yum-YUMMY-yum-YUM!!!!!!!!!

The loveliest thing to wake up to is Mum's cooking really..... espcially if she cooks anything with stir-fried black sauce minced pork with garlic.... It's one thing savouring stir-fried black sauce minced pork with garlic first thing in the morning, which is great, but the real BLISS comes from getting to burp stir-fried black sauce minced pork with garlic THE WHOLE DAY LONG!!!!!!!!!!! aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh *big happy smile*

Anyways, how easily I digress..... back to the Emily Diet- NOT incident, there I was, happily napping for another 30 mins after I wiped the pork flavoured oil slick on my morning face, when I hear my father coming home from his morning "lim-teh" session. (See how I'm trying to meng-Hokkienise this blog?) And with him, he's bought.... sigh.... ONLY MY SECOND FAVOURITEST FOOD IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! mee hoon kueh!!!!!!!

Ahhhhhhh ...... the unmistakable smell of ikan bilis broth, still piping hot, the crispy ikan bilis and fried onions, the smooth pieces of carbs floating between pieces of sliced pig.... YUM!!!!!!!

So deciding there and then that this was going to be an Emily Diet - NOT day, I dig in, intending only to "taste" the soup....and okay, MAYBE a couple of slices of "mee hoon kueh"..... budden... before I know it, 90% of the bowl's gone!!!!!

I really should learn to focus..... between eating my mee hoon kueh, talking to my parents and reading the papers, I somehow auto-pilotted myself into finishing most of my food!!!!

So, no Emily today.

But BOY AM I HAPPY!!!!! :D:D:D:D

Olympic Dreams....

It was immediately after the much anticipated singles men's badminton Olympic final, battle for GOLD!!! Lin Dan had just beaten our Lim Chong Wei in straight sets, without even breaking a sweat... sigh.....

The tv was still flashing Lin Dan's emotional outburst after he'd won, music akin to "charriots of fire" <-- China version playing in the background, replaying the scene where he gets up from the badminton court, and rushes to his coaches, giving them a big BIG hug and sobbing into their sportjackets.....

When my phone rings....

It's Ah Ming.

She's laughing uncontrollably into the phone.... and I'm thinking she's lost a couple of marbles cause Malaysia's NOT getting that golden public holiday....

But that really wasn't the case.

She was laughing herself silly cause of this this :-


Caught up in the victorious Olympic gold medal moment of Lin Dan and his coaches after watching the match, Little A (her 3 year old son) ran up to her and her husband and asked for a "hug-hug".... (Awwwwwwwww...)

Hearts melted as only a parent's heart can when a child shows such displays of pure love and affection, the following conversation ensued :-

Father : Aww, Little A, do you wanna go to the Olympics???

Little A : I want!!!

Mother : You do? What do you want to do at the Olympics???

(Hearts beaming with love, pride, and ambition for their little boy, both parents looked lovingly at their potential Olympic champion, waiting for his answer....)

Little A : Mop floor.


I think i dropped my phone then..... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Hey, at least he wants to do it at the OLYMPICS!!!!

Hokkien, you gotta love it.. (Part 2)

I've been laughed at (yes, all you evil people who made fun of my Hokkien speaking abilities...... ) and been the butt of jokes about my command of the language for YEARS now (all in good humuor, thankfully).

So recently, I've been putting a bit of effort in making myself speak Hokkien a bit more frequently, like once every month, specifically when ordering bah kut teh (no greens, it is SO WRONG bunny!) or spare rib rice. Nevermind that people INSIST that one never really speaks in hokkien, one SHOUTS it, or HOLLERS it. And it is not uncommon for the non-Hokkien speaking crowd to huddle together in fear while traversing the streets of my beloved Hokkien speaking town, for to their untrained ears, "EVERYONE'S FIGHTING!!!!!".

I love Klang, and it's dialect of choice, so I pooh-poohed their naivette, and took to my Hokkien speaking lessons seriously.

And in my quest, I've googled my dad many a time for the Hokkien version of a certain word.

Usually, my dad, being a fine, true blue, born and bred in Klang specimen, will answer me INSTANTANEOUSLY, sometimes with a bemused look on his face (accompanied by a little chuckle) and sometimes with a "where did I go wrong educating this child of mine" look (accompanied by a sad shake of the head). Well... some of the words are pretty basic, I AM in my thirties, and he IS a teacher.....sigh.

But ONCE and only ONCE did one of my "how do you say this in Hokkien" queries stump him.

I mean, he was literally, at a loss for words.

I did my usual "how do you say [word] in Hokkien?" thing on him and expected him to answer in an instant.

He didn't.

Instead, he put down his chopsticks (yes, we DO love our food in Klang), pondered for a full 10 seconds, looked this way and that, looked staight at me with a "I CANT BELIEVE THIS" look on his face and said very gently, "In the Hokkien language, there is no such word".

Everyone around the dining table stopped eating. Too stunned to do or say anything.

The word I asked him about?

"Please".

Hokkien, you GOTTA love it!!!

Hokkien, gotta love it! (Part 1)

They're talking about the hokkien language on the Nut's blog today....

I live in Klang, and it's almost a natural guaranteed consequence that I am Hokkien (which I am).

But, like the Nut, both my parents are English teachers (retired now) and we never had any grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins or such living with us. Just the Booker brood.

So growing up, I never had to speak anything else but English to be understood. Even in school, everyone spoke English.

And as a natural almost guaranteed consequence of that, I dont really speak Hokkien.

I mean I DO speak it, only I cant say that anyone in Klang (or in any other hokkien speaking province) will understand it.....

Booker : Pappy! Wa lang kha tan ai khe to lok ah?
[Pappy! Where are we going later?]

Pappy : (*Pained look on his face*)
Khe chiak ming kia lor
[To eat lor]

Booker : Khe tolok chiak? Ho chiak boh....

(and i go on to rattle on in what i thought was pretty good Hokkien, feeling rather proud of my hokkien heritage... when my dad stops me midsentence, wearing an expression like he just heard fingernails on a whiteboard....)

Pappy : Speak in English *term of endearment for me*................ Please........ speak in English.


Sigh...

Sleeeeeeeeeeeeepy

Zzzzzzz.........zz..........z..............................zzzzzzzz.

(I wonder if this counts as a blog entry?)