Buying ice cream

That day, I was just about to leave the coffee shop when I heard the familiar 'ice cream bell'. I immediately ran outside and tried to locate the ice cream man... He was no where to be seen! :'( Then I heard the sound again. It seemed to come from the back so i went behind the shophouses and there, i saw him. He was slowly pushing his ice cream cart under the hot sun. The bicycle, ice box and umbrella which made up the ice cream cart looked a bit too heavy for him now.... 

I called out "ice-cream!" like old times.  I really missed the ice cream in butter bun... I really wanted to know if it still tastes as good as it was, so i said 'gu you bao' (butter bun) please. He searched through the bags of buns in the basket. While waiting, I looked at this man who I used to buy ice cream from. It was quite hard to believe that this is the same person... He used to be very young, full of energy and have dark hair.  He now has grey hair and there were so many deep lines on his face and hands... And he looked much smaller than before. He has definitely grown very old. Suddenly I felt sad. What if I wouldn't see him in the streets anymore? It would be like losing a childhood memory! 

Before I could think any further, he replied 'today no gu you bao, how about a plain one?' He looked at me with a mixed expressions.. as if he felt sorry that he didn't have what i wanted and hoped I would still buy something. I nodded. He quickly cut open the plain bun and stuff a few scoops of ice cream in between and handed it to me. He asked me if i would like to try other ice cream and started to point at the pictures on his ice box.. He said this one is new, quite nice... Was he was trying to tell me not to look backwards (i.e.  always ask for things I had ages ago) and instead I should look forward (i.e. try new things)?   

Ice cream in plain bun~

I still prefer the butter bun *stubborn*

Haha, ok, i think too much. He was just trying to sell me more ice creams. I did buy more... One for mum, one for dad and 2 for me!

I must buy more next time!

Jenn is a Food Addict!!

I can resist all kind of temptations but when it comes to food, I find it hard to resist... T___T and would do anything to have it...  There, my answer to why I can't fit into my older dress :S

While on my way to take a bus to the airport, I spotted these cute looking egg puddings in real egg shells! Gosh, they looked delish and simply screamed "eat me!". I stood in front of the counter for a while, wondering whether I should add more weigh to my already heavy bags. What's more, these little devils need to be refrigerated, would they go bad after a 12-hour journey? Otherwise, my effort and cash would be wasted! And it's sinful to waste food too!

Must try when in Taipei!

Have an egg pudding after my home-cooked lunch

The next moment, I found myself telling the cashier that I wanted to take away one box of their delicious egg puddings. T___T I always have weak will power when it comes to food.... Fortunately, they remained fresh and yummy when I got home. My mum loved it too... both of us were fighting for the puddings and i wished I had gotten 2 boxes instead! one for her and one for me....! 

Since I'm on the food topic now, i want to tell u something I eat lately. We all know that instant noodles isn't healthy and we should avoid eating it as much as we can... but what if the instant noodles is good for your health ....? Like this one....

The other morning, mum didn't make me any breakfast.... So i grabbed a packet of the Chinese Herbal flavour vegetarian noodles and ran to work... The pantry of my office is 4 levels below where I am so I decided to cook in my own way.. I wasn't being lazy, it's just that, going down and climbing up will spoil my appetite hehe... So, how did i cook my breakfast?

Ready to enjoy in 2 minutes!

It was quite good. There are real wolfberries too! wow, so healthy! My vision was sharpened immediately! haha...  Too bad i didn't remember to take some veggie on my way out. It would have been healthier! 

Nah never mind, i can always cook a healthier one next time~

My secret diary

When we were in Perth for CNY, my eldest sister asked us to go through the stuff we left in her shed. While digging through boxes of items, I saw my old diary. I remember mum bought it for me after we watched the Disney cartoon, Aladdin in the cinema. How long has it been? *counting fingers & toes* I took my diary back together with many other things of sentimental value. 

The diary was locked but with my cleverness, i opened it easily with a pair of scissors. Sorry kid, the lock is only for decoration. If you think your secrets are safe in there, then you have been misled. Your parents and siblings, best friends and even the maid have probably read your mind while u are gone :S I'm sure this didn't happen to me because being an insecure person who trusted no one and even with the lock, i still found it necessary to hide it haha.. well, at least that is what i think la :P

Author: Jennifer

Type: Autobiography

The other night, i made myself a cup of tea and sat down to read my diary. Wow, the diary was written when I was 14?! My first year living in AUS!  I couldn't even recall some of the happenings! Is this why people keep a diary? The other day, Jane told me that as time goes by, she found herself slowly losing some of the past memories... Sometimes I do found myself in that situation too. It's like, one person is only given that amount of storage to keep her memories. Once it's used up,  older memories get deleted automatically to make way for new ones. Hmmm... Or is it a sign of aging? >__<   

My diary really made me laughed and teared. Teared because i recalled how  much I missed my parents, my younger brother, hometown, friends and old life back home.... And how i struggled to adapt to new environment and life and how much i went through to concur my struggles... I laughed when I read about happy moments which I spent with my family and school friends and the day my eldest nephew was born. I cried when i recalled sending my parents off... 

I have forgotten how my sister used to bully me and made me do stuff for her in exchange for a ride to school. And how i fought with Jane for the bean bag in the TV room and that we actually woke up at 630am on cold winter mornings to watch Garfield! And while my parents were away, we had fried rice everyday and made sandwiches as lunch to bring to school. And that we had to cycle to school in the cold rain and fought through the strong wind. We even had to control our spending to ensure continuous supply of food & utilities. And how we kept checking the mailbox (not the cyber space one but the wooden one in front of our home) everyday hoping to see a letter from friends back home. Everything started to come back to me... Half way through my own diary, i found an envelope. I opened it and found a top secret written by me! haha, funny! Well, since it's a top secret, i can't tell u what i wrote :P 

Am publishing more than 50% of what used to be my secrets in this blog! Oh gosh, the 14 yo me would be furious if she found out! haha... 

I don't write a diary anymore. Hmm, maybe I just don't have secrets anymore haha... However, i am grateful that I have this blog to keep track of some of the happenings and thoughts in my life.. so that when my oldER data gets deleted from my 'hard disk', at least i have this blog to refer to... And if i ever have children and grandchildren, they could read through this blog to learn how their great mother and grandmother lived her life haha... Who knows? There might be interested publisher who would like to spend their hard-earned money to publish my blog into a book...! OK, i think a little bit too much haha....  but in case it did become a reality, please support by buying a few copies! Thank you in advance!

Last day of CNY

Chinese New Year is officially over (but it's still CNY to me which means the non-stop eating frenzy continues :P)... 

Last night, we had a simple meal at home. When the sky turned dark, the firecrackers and fireworks show began until it started to rain at around 10pm.  The whole neighbourhood was so alive! It really felt like we were at war or something, except this is the sound of excitement and happiness... Of course, at times I worried too coz we were also polluting the air :S

Tiger didn't really find it amusing at all though. When our neighbours played firecrackers, he started to bark.. It's like, he was yelling "BE QUIET!!!" haha... When fireworks explored above his head, he looked up and barked at them as well... At the end, he got really tired and just ignored everything and rested himself in the garden... I bet he must be thinking " since i can't beat them, I might as well ignore them" hahaha....

The scariest thing after CNY is my weigh. After all the uncontrollable eating, I wonder how many KGs I have put on! It is pretty hard to resist those high fat high calories food during CNY you know. They are just on the table right in front of me and it's not polite to reject them... So, I joined everyone else and ate and ate and ate..*weak will power*.. til now, I still haven't had the guts to weigh myself. I'm just not ready to accept the truth >__<  but judging from my skirt and pants, I think the outcome will not be so pleasant.... T___T Jane on the other hand is the brave one for she weighed herself on the 7th day of CNY and found herself heavier by 4kg... She reckoned that 4kg is on her face instead of her body.. what do u think? haha

Yay... waiting for our Vietnamese hor-fun!

Looks like both of us have really round face... but i like to think of it as 福气满满！ *self-consoling* I have to put the blame on my sister... because from the very first day we arrived Perth and entered her house, all of us were 'blessed'.

Like other Chinese, my sister has words of good luck hung at her front door... It is said that, by hanging these at your main entrance, these blessings will come to you all year round... So, what happens when these words were hung by one of my nieces who doesn't understand Chinese? It's still a blessing to all who lived at or visited her house BUT in a different way... 

You see, my sister asked for "getting rich"  and "good fortune"... which sound very good on their own... unfortunately when you combined the Chinese words, they actually mean "getting fat" (發福) haha... Spotted it and told my sister.. She explained it to her daughter and we all laughed hysterically.... 

Getting Rich on the left

Good Fortune on the Right

發福 = Getting Fat

Thanks sis for the extra pounds! Would be great if these were actually British Pound which she enclosed in the angpow! 

CNY Down Under

I'm back! .... to reality >___<

How was your CNY? I had too much fun and had to drag myself back.. so, where have i been?

Just like all our previous CNY, my parents made last minute decision on the country where we will be celebrating CNY. This year, they picked Perth. Golden CNY... Hmm...

I thought airfare to Perth would be cheap since it's summer at the moment and everyone would want to escape from the heat instead of flying there to be baked... haha, i was wrong. Flights were quite full and as usual, we ended up with expensive airfare... well, it's alright because spending time with all my loved ones during CNY is gonna be priceless!

I took a midnight flight to Perth this time... I was planning to fall asleep and wake up in Perth but... my plan didn't happen because I was surrounded by babies and toddlers who didn't need to sleep for 5.5 hours T___T You see, half way thru my sweet dreams, I got woken up by their cries.. or them knocking into me when playing at the aisle, or they accidentally pulled my hair while trying to stand up.. or they kept screaming for their parents to play with them... Good that I only need to deal with them for 5.5 hours.. I can't imagine how their parents do it everyday! Well, i guess if they were my kids, i would put up with their naughtiness too... but with limits :P

Then I decided to hide myself under my shawl, blocking myself from all the insanity... Then in my little sanctuary, i fell asleep... BUT not for long because I got woken up again... Darn! This time by the captain's announcement! Seriously, I don't really care how you fly your plane. I don't need to know details of how far I've flown, how many metres I'm above the ground, how fast the plane is travelling at.. I just want to SLEEP and reach my destination safely and on time.. haha, i can see you nodding your head in agreement. I don't usually complain because I am grateful that the pilots take me to where I need to be but it's midnight.. we want to sleep... You know what? It would be great if their announcements could be made in writing so I could read when I want to and best of all, if things don't turn out the way they say, at least I have black and white as evidence buahahhaha... Ok, i was just kidding. I think I am still insane after the 5.5 hours of torture....

I arrived Perth at the crack of dawn. 5.20am to be exact. The rising sun created layers of colours in the sky. It was beautiful! While waiting for Jane who would only arrive at 645am, I stood outside the airport feeling Perth, the place I used to call home...

Fooling around at 530am

Everything felt so familiar. The heat, the summer breeze, the smell of air and the scenery are just the way I remembered... The air is fresh and smells of dried grass.. The sun was so bright that I could hardly open my eyes... The wind was a bit warm and dry and I felt my skin started to tighten up... Nothing has changed, even the toilet smells just the way I remembered, in a good way la hahaha... Well, I don't know how to describe it to u.. I can show u pictures of things/ places I remember but not the smell, taste and the feeling.. I guess there are certain things that just cannot be substituted by technologies.. you see, we can take pictures and videos to remind us on wonderful or not-so wonderful events.... but not the smell, taste and our feelings.. Hmmm... there, this is an idea to the inventors out there...

Memories of my teenage years flooded back.. This airport used to be my happiest and saddest place... Happiest when I came to pick my parents and saddest when I sent them off....

Clear blue sky

Our family reunion was super duber great! We had dim sum and dinners together... these were the craziest times because getting a place for 25 people is almost impossible. With such big crowds, we were the noisiest in the restaurants because to talk and to be heard, we practically had to scream haha... We totally disregarded others in the restaurants.. Yup, we lived in a world of our own. A few times, I felt envious eyes on us.. I bet people wish they had a big family like ours too.. We could throw a party without having to worry that it would be a boring and quiet one haha... Don't believe me? Just take a look below...

p/s: no reunion is complete without good food :P it's cny so naturally, red is the theme!

I really love that there are so many of us in the family.. Although I didn't enjoy the heat (42 degree celsius), I really enjoyed spending time with my loved ones.... so many of us but too little time!

The colour of happiness

The unfortunate has happened.... I know it will happen one day but i didn't expect it to happen so soon... oh well, there is nothing I could do to stop it anyway... but I know i could have been nicer to lengthen its life... 

Guess what? am now typing with a laptop which i borrowed to use.. my trusty old friend was sicked 2 weeks ago.. Initially, i didn't think it was gonna be anything serious coz i only had problem connecting to the internet. So i called Dr. Network to help. He spent a few minutes clicking here and there and doing a whole lot of tests which i had no idea what they were... then he said "there, u can now connect to internet...But......" great, i love and hate that word! "...but, i think u should send it to the workshop for more checking coz there is something weird about your laptop." huh? serious? something weird about my laptop? well, at least i wasn't the only weird one! ha! Like user, like laptop i guess :P

So i obediently sent my laptop to the workshop for diagnosis... 2 days later, i got a phone call... Dr. Workshop asked me if i have backed up my stuff. Yes, i have! Countless of time... on countless HD to be exact so in case one fails, i still have other back-up... Everyone must have a plan B right? 

He said "good, coz your laptop needs to be retired...." @___@ I was devastated! I really love my laptop! Because it hasn't given me any trouble at all for the past 3 years! Sigh, life is strange.. one second you are strong and healthy, another second you are pronounced dead! :S

Okie, it's CNY soon,  let's  talk about something cheerful and ... RED like....

Big and sweet strawbies my friend bought for us.... And also fresh strawberry milk! yummo!

They scream "EAT ME!" haha

Strawbies milk~~ Must try!

These are very yummy...! Some people said red colour will immediately brighten up your day... I didn't know that eating and drinking something red can also cheer u up! 

Also, i bought myself a pair of pink shoes for CNY! Aren't they charming?

Do u like my new shoes?

Even Tiger gets something red!!

Be happy everybody! ^^

Ready to say I'm ready!

I'm so ready for CNY!

I must give all the credit to mum this year. She is the one who decorates the house with red lanterns, ang pows, new curtains, cushions, new flowers by the corner of our living room, new door mats for the main and side entrances, new table clothes... ow, my dad and i did lend a hand too... like cleaned the car porch with super water gun and washed the balcony... 

Mum is very very efficient... one day 3 weeks before CNY, when i came home from work, i found a cupboard full of CNY titbits. I gotta admit, mum is a super woman.. how did she manage to get so many things done in so little time? 

it's a torture to see them everyday and not allowed to eat!

Last year, my mum made me a cute bed sheet... Guess what I get this year? 

In the year of snake, my mum decided that my bedsheet should be more romantic...  like a Secret Garden! 

Like Like! Got CNY Feel~~

Gong Xi Fa Cai! 

May you stay healthy and happy forever!