Computer Wizard...

In the making?

Future Bill Gates, possible?

Who knows, he might invent Jamiesoft...

Signed off,
Teng Aun.

Pai Thi Kong

Something is definitely wrong with the New Year celebration this year... The spirit is not as high as it was in the previous years anymore.

2 days ago, was Pai Thi Kong, or praying to the Sky God. My dad says the street outside of my house would look as if there is a festival going on, and take a look at the current situation...

Quiet, ain't it?

Well, time to prepare...

2 shoots of bamboo, some "mee ku", a decorated cloth, table, some sweets and small pieces of fruits on sticks, orange, etc.

All set.

The cloth...

And the table setting...

Guess who was even more anxious than all of my family members...

Somehow the praying tradition of all families vary. For my family its the same thing every year. The table was set with goods and food, two bamboos on the side, a big joss-stick and lots of gold paper. My neighbours just walk to the main gate with 3 joss-sticks, pray, and they are done with...

Here comes the big joss-stick...

After that, folding of the gold paper into money-like shape...

My turn to pray...

Next, 'kai' session, or cleansing of one's soul. We use dolls with our names written on it to cleanse ourselves... Don't ask me why, I am definitely not familiar with all this traditional stuff...

No, they are not voodoo dolls, they are hand-made...

One were to pick up the doll, move it all around you while praying, or chanting... My grandma helped me with mine, so I don't really know how to perform it...

My uncle in action...

Mine...

Next will be the burning process. Again, don't ask me why... I guess its to send all the gold papers to the Sky God...

Burn outside, please!

Even the bamboos were not left out...

Went straight to sleep after that. I no longer have the energy to help clean everything since I have to wake up at 6 the next day to go to school... *sigh*

P.S. this post is a little late than I promised 'someone' because I was having problems with uploading photos to blogspot.com. Case solved now.

Signed off,
Teng Aun.

The Soft Roar...

Well, its Chinese New Year again, and this year, its the year of the Tiger! ROAR!!! Spirits high, curiosity peeks, cheers everywhere, fireworks beyond eardrum's limit, eh? WRONG! This year has got to be one of the least spirited years among all Chinese New Years I have ever celebrated. No, its not because we don't have the mood to celebrate, we still are our usual selves during Chinese New Year. Just... something's missing...

The thing is... crowd. Every year, my family and a few uncles/aunties will compete with another family of our relatives to see who will 'pai chia' the earliest. I still remember I was called to wake up at 7 to get ready. This year however, we started to 'pai chia' a little later, which is 9.00a.m... Also, the amount of relatives we were to visit has decreased drastically over time. I still remember I could complete downloading a 1GB+ size file of Maple Story Installer if I were to initiate the download before I depart to 'pai chia' as soon as I came home... Now, hah! I bet I couldn't even finish downloading full albums... We could only go to 4 houses this year...

1st house, a tall apartment at Paya Terubong. Short visit, but I love visiting that place... Their house is located at the 23rd floor, so the breeze is very strong at any time... Its a nice place to just relax...

2nd house, directly behind a 4D Toto, opposite of the Air Itam Police Station. Another short visit... Had a drink and watched the Race Skating among countries. VERY VERY amazed at how South Korea representative could win when came in last at the beginning of the race, and won the race by just an inch, pointing out her toes... Oh yeah, not to mention the red packets. Love them... (Muahahaha)

3rd house, a few metres away from the 2nd. This house is an ancient house, but boy, I love it. The structure is really amazing, really symbolizes the heritage of Penang. Its comfortable, seriously, even without soft cushions and sofas. The kitchen is superb. Not the designs and stuff, but the space... just... wow. Stopped at this house the longest, since the previous generation spoke a lot more here. Then I realised, did I took picture of the previous houses? NO! *Snatches camera from sis*

They offered us Nasi Lemak, which I find difficulty eating, since I took a heavy breakfast, which is also curry! My stomach...

But if you were to slowly enjoy it, its pretty good.

Act cute...

Went and took a few more pictures...

... and on to the next house after chatting a little while longer.

4th house, near Chung Nam Hawker Store.

Somehow, I felt that the environment is a little gloomy. I guess perhaps its because most of the conversation is serious, not jokes and stuff... Things have seriously changed compared to the previous years... There used to be 1, 2 or more families in one home, making the surrounding more noisy and compact, but the... OMPH! is there... Not to mention I guess the red packets have decreased too... But whatever it is the money will still go to my father's hand since I asked for an advance in my allowance for a new cellphone... *sigh* this is not a good sign to start of the year...

Went home, switched on the computer... OUCH, STOMACH ACHE!!! Must be from all the curry consumption... Even after a long struggle in the lavatory, my stomach continues to ache... Things just don't get better, do they?

Tomorrow, I will depart to Sungai Petani and visit my grandma. Maybe things will change, or maybe not?

Signed off,
Teng Aun.

Chinese New Year Eve at Hardwicke

Ahhh.... Its that time of the year again, where every single member of a family will form a re-union to celebrate this grand occasion, the festival that most Chinese look forward for... The older generations hope to see the faces of all family members while most of the younger generations want are the most powerful item in the entire world, all wrapped up in red packets, handed upon by married couples...

Most families in the previous era would cook up a steamboat, enough to feed 20 hungry humans, on the eve of Chinese New Year. However, time changes everything. Families prefer to dine out on this day. Not only it might be cheaper considering the location, it save tons of energy in cooking and cleaning. Image, the amount of food your beloved mother/father/grandmother/grandfather had to cook to gain enough food for the entire family, and how many plates to be cleaned. Same thing happened to my family this year.

Instead of the traditional steamboat on the front yard of my house, we've decided to have our CNY dinner at Hardwicke, a bungalow style buffet restaurant, located at Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah.

Most of you might be familiar with the place. It serves a great variety of food, ranging from Chinese to Western cuisine, for affordable prices. Lunch buffet is at RM18++ while Dinner buffet is at RM38++. Wanna know whats behind the building?

Heh, a famous trademark of Penang Island...

Northam Tower, of course...

The place was fully booked as usual, so we had to dine outdoors. Not a bad place, though.

Then, comes a special dish every family will order on the eve of Chinese New Year...

'yi sang'... Sorry, not familiar with the spelling...

Its a traditional dish for prosperity, rumor has it. All family members were to pick up their chopsticks...

...raise it...

...as high as possible...

...and let go... Voila! Time to dig in!

The food there was amazing, had a BIG plate of the main course, 2 bowls of mushroom soup with papadam and prawn crackers dipped into it, 1 plate of salad and 3 scoops of ice-cream. Did I miss anything? Sorry, no photos were taken, mouth was VERY occupied...

Well, in between dishes, I managed to capture a few photos as I was strolling around trying to get a hold of myself before I move to the next dish...

Well, I did manage to capture a picture of...

...this ice-cream...

...and this gluttonous lady...

After the chow, we stayed for a 'little' while longer to chat. Went and get myself a drink and this is what I get...

...mind guessing what this is?

At about 10.10p.m., reached home and... well... blogged about it.

Cheers!

Signed off,
Teng Aun.

Spastic Centre Community Service

Most of you might know that there is a spastic centre located in Greenlane. It is now on renovation to improvise and to improve its exterior by adding modern designs to its walls and sophisticated mirrors which I find just plain narrow and long.

The Interact Club of Penang Free School had to plan a community service or the members will suffer from insufficient marks to obtain testimonial, of thats what I have heard from the Grand Old Lady (no, not Free School, the 'grand' OLD lady, Koko Lee...). Anyways, SauFei, as president of Interact Club, planned a social service at this spastic centre, which was held yesterday, directly after celebrating ShinYe's 19th birthday.

Me, the goat among all cows, decided to tag along as a non-member of the club. Crazy ain't I? Bah, I'd suffer from boredom as well if I stayed at school, waiting for Sports House Practice to commerce. Took a ride on YuenChiek's Kancil and arrived at that centre approximately 15 minutes later...

Strolled around the building and took some pictures while waiting for the administrator of the centre to arrive. SauFei wasn't there as well, went to help some of the members with something in MGS. A bare-looking building from the outside, actually has a pretty well decorated interior, which surprises me...

Small 'koi' pond with a mini Penang Bridge...

Chinese New Year mood is everywhere...

Playground... reminiscing the past just by looking at it...

Plantation, done by Interact Club as well on their previous community service...

After minutes of waiting, the administrator is still not arriving, and we were starting to feel impatient. The gardener decided (or ordered) to give us some work on their backyard garden instead.

We had to...

...rake the leaves...

... remove the weeds...

... and basically everything else related...

SauFei reached the spastic centre when we were about to finish our job. Other members being frustrated after doing all the hard work, 'ordered' him to finish up where we left off. Pity...

'katchak' smile! You are on candid camera...

Not to mention moments of vain...

... And headed back to school for our house practice. It seems that I've been skipping too many house practices the secretary (my classmate by the way) did not type in my name in the name list... Its not like I chose to skip, and I gave my letter of excuse!

Signed off,
Teng Aun.

19th B'day Of AhBu

Yet again, another post on an individual's anniversary of birth... Yet again, a big hole in my pocket, for their birthday cakes... This is the problem when we have quite some close friends... Well, not complaining, not gonna be an outcast, NEVER!!!

Well, her(ShinYe) birthday was supposed to be today, but we celebrated it a day earlier, mainly due to insufficient time and tight schedule... Rushed to buy a cake immediately after dismissal at 2.40p.m. Dragged YuenChiek together to Eden Bakery. Well, the birthday girl had to ask a lot of question, hadn't she? I had to fib to get my way out just to buy a cake for your sake, so please just stop asking questions!

Made quick decisions and chose a colourful (sort of) cake, and brought it back to the school cantten as quick as possible before they leave for Interact Club activity. Managed to surprise her, although I don't really believe she didn't suspect anything fishy going on around us... I shall pass the mike to the pictures.

Cake~~~

Smile like a rich queen... 'Beh ken siau'...

Group Photo...

The roses...

... and the thorn... (Muahahaha)

That pretty much sums everything up. Ate the cake, we proceed to our normal routines. AhBu(ShinYe) being greedy as usual, asked for birthday presents... I've decided to give her the matches (used to lit up the cake), which she refused... Free class fund for a week? She asked for a year... *sigh* an AhBu like this is difficult to 'maintain'...

Signed off,
Teng Aun.