My creation!

All of us have different ways of keeping our secrets.

Some write them (but do people still use their hands to write?) in their diaries. Some tell others about their secrets. Some prefer to keep them deep inside their hearts.

I used to write my secrets in my diaries and naively thought that they would be safe from intrusion for I had them "well-locked". 

I also tell people my secrets.... but only when I decided that they are no longer secrets :P

I also keep them deep inside my heart but i try to avoid this method because they take up the 'storage' space. It's a pain having tode-clutter it. 

So instead of burying them in my heart or jot them down, I now have a new method... that is by burying my secrets in the garden! hehe...

Haha, this is my little secret garden.

I have never liked gardening before although i love flowers and fruit trees. I don't understand why people would want to cover their whole backyard in cement. It just feels 'cold' although it's actually producing a lot of heat during hot days. 

I am lousy at planting. I used to have a few cactus in my office but they all became jelly-soft and died after a while. I suspected they died from radiation overdose.

10 years ago, i saw some colourful cactus in the market. I couldn't resist and bought one.  It didn't die! BRAVO! All because i gave it the correct soil and fed it the correct amount of water. It even  flowered! oh man, i didn't even know my cactus can last that long, let alone flowered!! Then i learned that, plants are just like human beings. In order to live long and stay healthy, they need what they need and not what we think they need. 

gardening tools must be flowery too hehe

People say, one's hobby changes from time to time. It's true.... I analysed my posts for the past 9 years and found that, one of my hobbies was eating, then it was cooking (or reading and keeping recipes). Then I sort of didn't have any hobby for a while and now it's gardening. I don't know how long this hobby will last but for now, I kinda enjoy the little secret garden i have created with my own hands. 

Gotten the tree cutting men to chop fallen trees into chunks

My car actually "sank" a bit because of the weight! hehe

It makes me happy to see the plants being so healthy. It's joyful to see flowers blossoming. It's wonderful to be able to pick up something i've planted to make drinks for my mother and myself. 

I love how the plants are expressing their appreciation when you treat them well. No poker face, no taking you for granted. They love you the way you love them. Ahahaha, ok, i'm a bit out of topic but it's amazing that gardening can increase wisdom too! :P

What's your IQ level?

When you see this label stuck on a food packaging, what do you think it means?

RM3.50 per pack and expires on 30 December 2016 right?

If so, you are just like me. Like the shop called me '头脑进水'. In simple English, it means stupid or moron. 

My overseas friends were visiting in  mid July and asked me about the candied coconut strips. 

I used to have these when i was a kid. It was common and i remember having these during movies. Time has changed and kids don't eat these anymore. I couldn't recall when these started to become uncommon so when my friends read somewhere that these are the local candy to get, I went everywhere looking for them.

When i finally found this shop in Padungan, a few shops away from the police station, i was sOoooo happy! I was even happier when i found that they could be kept until 30 December 2016. I immediately bought the remaining 7 packets. The lady boss told me they could be the only shop selling these and these are made by an old grandma. I felt so lucky.

After 3 weeks, the night before my friends' departure, they returned the candied coconut strips to me and said they are not bringing them back because the coconut strips are mouldy. I was shocked and embarrassed. Shocked because i was 'told' that they would be good until 30 Dec! Embarrassed because I had given something foul as gifts @-@

Initially I thought of just throwing them away since it's not a lot of money. Then I thought i should at least let the shop knows in order to improve so other customers do not suffer the same... 

One lunch time, I decided to quickly drive to the place to give my feedback. I showed the unopened packets of mouldy coconut strips to the owner. She was unhappy and said i should've gone back after 3 days of purchase. She said she can't do anything now. I told her nicely that, i didn't return within 3 days because they weren't mouldy yet. And the fact that her label indicated that these could last until 30 December, they should rightly stay good until then. Thus it doesn't matter when i come to do the return as long as it's before 30 Dec 2016. 

Then she raised her voice a bit and said i shouldn't believe the date on the label because they couldn't leave that part of the label blank, so they "simply" put something. I was a bit shocked to hear that honestly. SIMPLY put?! Is that even a valid excuse? Instead of being apologetic, she BLAMED me, the consumer for TRUSTING a label put by her shop. Is this even logical? 

I looked at her with disbelief. Does she know what she is talking about? I could've reported such irresponsible act to the consumer protection agency! 

One of her staff then came to me, TRYING to EXPLAIN to me about their SOP.

She said that the goods here are handmade. They label the packets themselves. Apparently, they needed to put "something" on the top of the label so at that time, they put 30.12.2016 BUT that DOESN'T mean these things can last until that date because they are handmade and they don't use any preservatives, so we CANNOT expect these to last until the stated date. 

I see... So i have been misled and it is my fault.

She further pointed out that I SHOULD HAVE put these in the fridge if I don't consume them in the next few days after the purchase because these are handmade and don't contain any preservatives (yep, she kept emphasizing on this). Great, I didn't know that, to buy from this shop, I SHOULD know many things which are NOT made known to me.

Hmmmm... Somehow these explanations didn't sound convincing. It puzzled me even more,  if they know that these things couldn't last that long, i don't understand why they would want to put a date which would mislead consumers.

I'm not an expert in this area and definitely rely on their labels. I SINCERELY put my trust on them. 

But the staff wasn't happy that I believed what was stated on their label. She called me ‘tou kak gim zui' (hokkien for 头脑进水, stupid/moron) for being so naive.

At this point, the lady boss shooed her away. She told me to ignore her staff for she is a bad tempered person. Well, whether bad tempered or not, i do not care. i just think it's interesting that there are people out there who say the weirdest things and still think they are right. 

Or am i really the weird one in this case?

I decided to verify my IQ level. I showed this to my colleagues and friends and asked what they think this means. Sad to say, we are all a bunch of  头脑进水 (stupid/ moron), as the staff puts it.

Are you in my club too?

p/s: i don't usually complain. Look, i don't even have a proper post labels to label this post! haha...