Baby Bubbles!

I've gotten my way around working with videos and have sucessfully uploaded it on YouTube (yay me!). My first video upload on YouTube! You didn't think I was only going to give you people (whoever you may be) only pictures, did you now? Well, here it is. Watch her blow bubbles!

Happy Birthday, Literally!

It's finally here! After nine months of waiting! It finally popped! Seh yi's baby was healthily delivered today at 2a.m. in the morning. As always, I was the last one who got the news. Mom called to tell me in the morning while I was watching TRL and singing to PCD's Buttons, yelling excitedly through the phone.

Mom : Matt, double happiness! Double happiness!
Matt : Happy Birthday, mom.
Mom : I've got a princess for my birthday!
Matt : What?
Mom : Seh yi delivered a healthy baby girl last night at 2a.m. without any complications and God have answred my prayers!
Matt : That's great! That's great!
Mom : Praise the Lord!

Yeap, that's right. The best thing was, it was mom's birthday (09/10/2006). I could tell that mom was excited as hell! Mom then further told me that everything went fine during delivery. Her water bag broke at about 1.00 a.m. and she was rushed to the hospital and then the baby was delivered at exactly 2.01 a.m.. There were no complications along the way. Seh yi said her contractions weren't really painful and it was natural birth! Both the mom and the baby are healthy and fine. Simply amazing, isn't it?.

Being my usual self, I had to have the camera with me when dad drove me down the hospital to visit. On reaching the 3rd floor where seh yi and the baby was, we headed straight to the viewing area to see the baby instead of visiting seh yi first. The baby was there, sleeping soundly in the box (what do you call those transparent boxes the babies are put into? Cubicles?) among three other little babies. To be comparing with the other three babies, seh yi's child was the smallest in size. And indeed it is true, babies are the most adorable humans on earth! The baby was so cute! Simply adorable!

A nurse approached dad and me from behind asking which baby did we want to see. Dad mentioned seh yi's name and the nurse was nothing but pleased to shift the box for us to get a better view. At least that's what I thought. By that time, I already had my camera out. She looked carefully at the cards of the baby in their boxes and confirmed seh yi's name before she pushed the trolley out from the room and asked us which room the mother was in. We tailed her and entered into seh yi's ward where the nurse cheerfully placed the trolley beside seh yi's bed.

"Ok, I'll leave the baby here with you all. You want to take photographs right? Then I'll leave her here," she smilingly said. I nodded stupidly as I watched the nurse walked out of the room, surprised that we got to see the baby up close and personal. I wasted no time in working with my model and newest cousin. There was an odd sense of elation in me that I'm finally seeing and touching my baby cousin that I previously was rubbing outside her mother's womb. Technically, I was the the first cousin to meet her! Pretty cool to me!! I looked at her closely. I studied her features. Seeing that the rest of her body was tightly wrapped with the blanket making it look like a cocoon by the nurse , I could only look at her face.

I realise she had beautiful red luscious lips and rosy cheeks and a reasonable amount of thick black hair that covered her whole head. The cute little button nose was there, and her ears were just beautifully red. Here eyebrows were also very prominent (according to mom) at this stage and mom said that it was naturally beautiful. Obviously, not the likes of Shiloh Nouvel or Baby Suri or Sutton Federline Spears but she IS unique in her own way. She was just simply beautiful and healthy given her size (51cm) and weight (2.13 kg). Probably it was because of seh yi's body size herself that her babies aren't exactly on the big sized zone. Well, this only adds to seh yi's addition of baby girls. You don't suppose this is coincidence that tai yi has 3 sons and seh yi has 3 daughters, do you? LOL.

Wallpaper material isn't she?

But anyway, seh yi's discharging tomorrow with her baby and she's going to live woth poh poh for the time being. I'd like to give a warm welcome to our newest edition to the family and our line of cousins. The problem is, her parents haven't figured out a name for her yet. Pretty strange to me but I'm just watching by the sideline. I can't go barging in the room giving her names that I like, can I now? By the way, the pictures I have of her are the most exclusive pictures for I was the first one who photographed her (I don't think anyone else has so far). Kind of makes me feel like some big shot papparazi given the priviledge to take pictures of Baby Suri. =). I've also taken a few videos of her and am working on it to be posted on YouTube but I'm kind of hopeless when it comes to videos. So, please be patient.

**UPDATE**

We did, however managed to throw mom a little celebration the day before despite her refusal that we shouldn't even call it a celebration cause of kong kong's death this year. We couldn't resist but sang a birthday song (complete with a birthday cake, of course) at a Pizza Hut outlet. I even got her a gift today. I got this photograph produced over at a photo shop and got a plain black frame for it. I liked how the whole thing turned out and she did too. I told her it was something for her to put on her table at work to sooth her mind off things and it was from all of us. So this is the video (aww, c'mon... let me show off a little bit) of the time we sang her her Birthday song.

Auspicious October.

I'm having difficulty sleeping now, seeing that I had a nap just now. Rainy afternoons are perfect for (long) naps, mind you. From my previous post, it's already October and mom's birthday's just 9 days away. You can consider that I've totally forgotten about it but old memories inflicted the memory. Yeah, I saw the lipstick we got mom for her last birthday on her vanity top just now when I was taking a pee. To think of it, the lipstick has already been a year - and I still think the color looks great on her lips! She's definitely not doing anything to celebrate in commemoration of kong kong's death earlier this year. Well, I'm going to have to go on a shopping spree again to get her something - under dad's account, of course. Don't have anything in mind yet. Will think of something.

It's October and it means that Christmas is just about 3 months away! Yeah, I know this sounds crazy but you don't expect me to keep quiet and just wait till the 25th of December to start downloading Aly & AJ's Acoustics Hearts Of Winter (they just released Greatest Time Of The Year as their single)! I thought it was a weird time to be releasing Christmas albums too but I guess it was just how much the westerners anticipate the holiday. Even Ali Lohan (yes, Lindsay Lohan's sister), as I got to learn today, is going to release her Christmas album entitled Lohan Holiday on 3rd of October and her single, Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree's not bad, though I still prefer a more matured voice. All the sudden releases of Christmas albums and singles have got akak kind of unhappy. Pity her. Hari Raya isn't even over yet and I'm already in my Christmas mood! She hasn't even got the chance to play her Siti Nurhaliza cassette yet. Oh I can't wait to get the Christmas tree up. I wonder if mom will forbid it this year.

On a more depressing note. It's October and the final examinations are drawing closer. Everyone's examinations are practically going on right now - Carina's taking her PMR examinations and Edmund's doing his end-year examinations too while Adrian's set for next week. Mine's set till the beginning of next month, after the Hari Raya holidays. Pretty much suck seeing that I've done little to nothing studying. Oddly enough though, I'm feeling calm. Usually this'll be one of those hair-reaping moments for me but not now. Don't know why. Feeling a tad bit lazy too. I'm gonna havve to get myself fixed quick. This is not right for a student. This... this whole blogging in the middle of the night when I have school tomorrow is NOT RIGHT! I'm going to go suffocate myself with the pillow and see if it helps with me sleeping.

And yeah, it's finally October and 2006 is coming to an end. How time flies...

**UPDATE**

It's October and from what I've heard seh yi's delivering somewhere around 24th of October. Can't wait to welcome the new member to the family! The last time I saw her was a few weeks ago when we visited her at her office. She was looking pretty round to me.

"Hail Mary Full Of Grace..."

It's October - the Month of the Rosary. Mom, being her devout, religious self is no exception from the many Catholic homes that are taking the chance this month to recite more rosary. Believe me, I get quite a handful when it comes to reciting the rosary, especially when you wake up from a nap that might as well lasted till the next morning 15 minutes before your parents decided to start off the rosary without you. God's way of waking me up to recite the rosary, I suspect. I guess reciting the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary is inevitable once in a while, especially when you have a mom like mine, making numerous rounds into my room to tell me that they're waiting for me to start. Admittedly, sometimes, I'm not that much of a Holy person either. I did however, as you may have noticed, reluctantly relented to reciting the rosary, given the circumstances of a bugging mom and to remain faithful to my Catholic ways.

It may have taken me a little bit of difficulty to detached my butt from the computer chair to spend the next half an hour sitting on the floorboard with folded legs and my back against the wall, chanting (albeit dreamily) the 5 decades of Hail Marys, but I did managed to grab hold of the rosary itself from my room's altar (mom had an altar built in my room during the renovation) and fumble my way to the living room. Obviously needed a little dusting (both my altar and my rosary) considering the amount of times the family actually recites the rosary. Well, we're not exactly the role model of a proverbial Catholic home, if you ask me. Even the candles on our altar gave out a sort of weird sound when I lighted them clumsily. I'm guessing that it was burning the tiny specs of dust collected at the tip of the candles over the months from the last time we recited the rosary. I gave it a thought before settling down comfortably with my rosary and the rosary book in hand, that the number of times we recited the rosary after moving back in after the renovations were actually numbered. Quite shocking, isn't it? Pretty much reflects how lazy the family is when it comes to spending an extra half an hour every night before bed.

"...Pray for us sinners now and at the hour of death. Amen."

Not that the parents are to be blamed, instead, we, the children are to be held responsible for the lack of prayers. We definitely aren't the sort of children who jump in excitement with the rosary ready in hand at the very sound of mom calling for a rosary session. More to the sort who whines, complains, and gives all sorts of crappy and lame excuses just to slide our way through reciting the rosary. As the saying goes, we're not all that holy and we all have our fair share of sins. The only times we actually relent to recite the rosary are the times when someone is in peril or desperately in need of some prayers. Guess it only comes to show we're still human in our little sinful ways and we're definitely not a family who produces priests and nuns (maybe "nones").

Still, doesn't remove us from the fact that it felt extremely awkward reciting the rosary as a "family" with the absence of Grace and Edmund. That little scoundrel managed to trick his way out of it and went to bed before mom even had the chance to utter the word "rosary". What else with me deliberately trying to create impromptu prayers considering that I didn't have a copy of "Intentions" that has little prayers on it that we usually recite and dedicate the decade to after every decade of the rosary. I was also beginning to get tired of reciting those same printed words of intentions over the years of my rosary recitation that I thought it brought little significance to what we actually had in mind to pray for. I went ahead and blurted out my intentions for Carina's PMR examinations tomorrow and some other stuff that wasn't in the book like the Pope's ongoing case with the misunderstood statement. Some seriously impromptu shit, seeing that I barely even follow the news or keep myself updated with the Pope's misunderstood statement. Though, I did manage to get a glimpse of Malaysian demonstrating against the Pope Benedict XVI in the front page of Herald today.

Certainly, this sudden act of reciting the rosary with the mere excuse of the Rosary Month is only the beginning. I'm not having my hopes high up that this is only going to be a one time thing. We're still expecting the BEC to show up tomorrow night for prayers. Prayers will be held in rotation at the houses of various BEC members throughout this entire month, if I'm not mistaken. It seems to me, we're not only reciting the rosary at our own home. But I'm sure mom will jump at every opportunity she gets to get us chanting the Hail Mary again. Not that I have anything against it. Seriously, I don't. In fact, after our first time just now, since a very long time, there was a certain sense of calmness and serenity during and after the recitation of the rosary. Kind of make all your reluctant-ness dispersed into the air. Which is strange and great at the same time when you're experiencing Mother Mary first hand.

Oh, please don't freak at all this religious talk from me. I kind of realised how much I've never talked about my religion since I started blogging. Decided it was about time I stop being shy about my religion. Not that I was before this but I was kind of afraid that I needed to do alot of explanation when it comes to religious terms and the like. But after identifying who my main readers are, I don't mind giving it a shot at my religion. So, to my fellow non-Catholic brethrens, if there's any questions about terms on religious matter that might strike your interest, don't be afraid to ask me. I'll try my best to explain things to you, if I can. But hey, there's always Google, you know!

New Templates.

Don't you hate it when you're searching for a particular something and you just can't find it but when you're not even looking for it, it pops out right in front of you? That was how I found this new template. I swear, I wasn't even looking forward to it after all those failed templates I've tried from Blogskins.com. Practically given up any hope of ever changing my original blogger template. But while clicking unenthusiastically at V4NY's site, I came across the template that you're looking at now. Wasn't sure about it at first but downloaded the .txt file after previewing it. I backed up a copy of my original skin beforehand, in case anything goes wrong, and proceeded with applying my new template which means, putting all the links, players and tagboards into place. When it comes to me changing template, it's usually got alot to do with the [copy] + [paste] buttons being used. Nothing professional that requires kick-ass Photoshop skills. Just a simple rip-off from the developer itself. =P

Still, I'm kind of proud and content with this new template myself considering the fact that I designed the head banner myself. Not the whole thing, but I made the words of my blog title with Photoshop which only comes to show that the copy of Adobe Photoshop CS2 for Dummies I downloaded the other day is proving itself useful and the pure fact that I can work Photoshop now! I know it's nothing impressive but at least I can call it my own creation. Of course, the little devil by the side was from the original template. I only added my blog title and the sub-title. The simplicity of the fonts are intended, for your information. And the things by the sides of the main content are arranged in no particular order. The tagboard's colours are sel-customised to fir the colours of the template. Admittedly, there're still some weaknesses here and there but this is one of the skins that I deemed as perfect. And of course, nothing compared to dear Adelyn's more refined work.

I've also just recently changed the template over at Durian Photography. Took me long enough to notice that my photographs look much better on a black background. Anyway, it seems to me that I wasn't the only one who's changing templates. Even Yahoo's been making some changes with its new Yahoo! Mail Beta. Being curious myself, I switched my Yahoo! Mail instantly, yesterday, went through the short, animated introduction to what's new and found out that the whole interface's pretty much the same with Outlook Express 6. It's running kind of slow too if you actually notice. But I guess, overall, it's ok and with a little bit of patience, I can live with it. If it's possible, please tell me what you think about the new template here and on Durian Photography. And don't forget to try out the new Yahoo! Mail Beta. Even if you don't it's only a matter of time before they make it default. So why not give it a shot?!

Amah, Poh Poh, and Akak.

Amah has finally moved back into her musty smelling loft with low-hanging cobwebs and smoked ceilings (due to the joss stick she burns). I mean, she's preferring blurry cable TV over crystal-clear satellite TV, man! How desperate can she be? I tried talking her out of it with her before she left to only receive blatant smiles and tear-jerking moments along with soft refusals and empty promises to come back when she's free. C'mon... she's always free. "Whatever it is, the house still belongs to me and it needs a tenant," she ends the conversation, wiping her tears. It's either another one of her superstitions that leaving houses empty for a long time signifies leaving the house to rot or that she really misses her fuzzy TV. Weird. Well, at least, she's happy now, sitting at home in, catching another one of her soaps and falling asleep eventually. It'd be a while before she actually decides to visit, despite the fact that we only live a couple of kilometres apart.

Amah, talking with Grace over the webcam...

On the other hand, poh poh's been keeping herself busy lately with her sudden sewing addiction. Not sure if I'd actually call it an addiction but she's pretty content with herself after successfully completing sewing something. To me, it's a good way of utilising her time and keeping busy instead of just sitting at home, thinking about our dear departed kong kong. In return, I get custom made pants and pyjamas pants. Yeah, she's been sewing pyjamas pants for most of the male members of the family. She's using the cloth brought back by mom from her factory and making them into simple pyjamas pants for everyone. I've heard mom mention that I was the only lucky person who got two pairs of trousers while everyone else got one. Lucky me, I guess. Poh poh even had mine washed and ironed before bringing them to me, unlike everyone else's. Plus, I even got to request for normal short pants. It was the perfect opportunity for me to save on pants seeing that the ones I got either has holes on the ass area or washed for so many times that their torned and the material, almost see through. Guess I've got to go say my 'thank you' later.

I've not mention this before but akak's going back to her hometown. She's going back to her home at Jawa Tengah for a month to celebrate the Hari Raya festivities with her family. The last time she went home was 2 years back, if i'm not mistaken, that was for a month also. The air tickets have been purchased and she's already starting to pack her bags. There's still 20 more days before her departure and she's pretty excited about it, I can tell. It's just that we're hoping that she'll come back home. You know, all those stories about Indonesian maids taking off for their holidays and never coming back again really freaks us out. She has proven to us that she's trustworthy the last time and now we're just praying that she doesn't disappoint us. I think she's alright. Well, her going back only means one thing - more house chores for me! I'll have to do the dishes, laundry, cleaning, dusting, and even scrubbing toilets. Hey, the last time when she was away, I lost weight doing all the house chores. But then, I had Grace's help. Now, I'm going to have to settle everything myself. *sighs*. Thankfully, I've inherited mom's compulsive overeating desire to see everything sparkling clean. I swear it runs in the blood! Well, looking forward to shedding off some pounds.

Rainy Season.

The clouds above are pulled over like curtains closing on stage, blocking out the burning rays of the sun, leaving nothing but a faint glow of sunlight behind and a dull, grey sky for us to pass the day with with the occasional drips from heaven. Right now, as I'm typing this, it's drizzling out there with the rain, taking liberty to wet every surface that it lands on. Things are pretty much the same for the past few days. Even at school, students make their way hurriedly across the roads, ignoringly stepping on puddles of water while holding files over their heads to avoid the rain, to make it into the waiting cars of their parents. The rain's been causing the drains in school to be filled to the brink, overflowing the fields and causing enormous puddles of water in the hallways and stairways due to the roof leaking at several parts of the school building. I've been pretty much spending my cosy cold afternoons in bed napping, furled up under the covers comfortably or watch multiple episodes of Grey's Anatomy with the covers pulled up to my chin.

School's been alright. I mean, there's still an endless list of homework for me to complete (it just keeps coming in!) and there's the lazy feeling of attending classes for five days a week but other than that, I can say that my days in school are ok. It's the same every single day. I go to school, meet Edward and get amused by his facts over his obsession of Ms. Mimi, and then I attend classes obediently while battling with myself for sanity and some awareness and attention. After that, it's watching Edward and another dozen students munch down their food as they chit chat over the table and exchange false smiles in the canteen before attending the second half session of school when I'd usually daydream and ponder over the possibilities of Mrs.Tan having an illegitimate love child. And later, I'll find myself sitting in the co-driver's seat in the car staring outside the windshield at the splashing water made by wheels of zooming vehicles and having my thoughts disturbed by the car pulling over at the parking space at home. Then, I'll spend the rest of the day couped up in my room, clicking selflessly on the mouse and staring mindlessly at the computer screen until my eyes get weary and I'll decide to go to bed. Pathetic isn't it?

Oh well, the rainy season's clearly here. Ironically, we're covering Monsoon History (the poem) by poet Shirley Geok-lin Lim, totally giving the whole rainy season feel to the class everytime Mr. Goh gives us notes to copy during his class. Plus the rain pouring outside, the sound of rain hitting the tar road, and the chilly wind brushing against our faces as we listen to his views on the poem itself, it's hard not to fall asleep in the cosy atmosphere. Just have to resist laying my head on my folded arms on the table. *sigh*. Nowadays, I only find Mr. Goh's class relatively relaxing. I mean, the man walks in and goes around the class repeatingly firing the question, "Work or sit around?" to his students and when majority chooses the latter, we'll eventually get to laze around in class. Seriously. Is that cool or what? And especially now, the month of Ramadhan has began and the Malays have started fasting, Mr. Goh's been taking more requests by the students to rest during his lesson. Now that's what I call understanding.

Sadly, other teachers who failed to be at least a little bit understanding remain their same old ways. Mr. Khor still "graces" the class with his endless , complain rants on discipline and his schoolwork woes while Ms. Chee is not even near to considering reducing her workload on us. I have my History notes piling up before me and another handful of Accounts to complete. I mean, everytime the bell rings, either one of us from class will deliberately run to the Teacher's Attendance board to check and see if the next teacher's in school or not. If their names were listed, it'll give all of us something to rejoice. If they're not, it's back to sitting in class and hoping for the clock to turn miraculously faster. There's always that tiny flicker of hope in between classes, you know. The hope that the teacher might be absent from school, on sick leaves or bogged down with other school affairs, leaving us with some lousy substitute that does nothing but patrol the class. Without this hope, I'm not even sure I'd be able to make it through everyday in that mad house under the new management.

Enough about school. Already disturbing enough to be attending it for five days a week. The rainy season's here and so is the MoonCake Festival. It has, undoubtedly made its presence felt with the annoying battery-operated power ranger lanterns that plays nursery rhymes whenever it is switched on and of course, the excessively packed mooncakes, stacked in the malls. Even cable TVs are occupied with mooncake commercials - and I especially think the Cantonese commercial with the people singing in it quite amusing. We never bother to even take a second glance at the stacks of mooncakes and annoying battery-operated lanterns in the malls cause mom always receives free mooncakes from her colleagues. I came back from school that day to only find two boxes (those really fancy boxes that could be used as jewellery boxes) of mooncakes on the table from mom's colleagues and to see another one later that same night . I'm not exactly a die-hard fan for mooncakes but have a sudden liking towards it due to photography values. I opened them to check out the contents to only see "Cheese" and "Nyonya Sambal Udang" tags pasted across the plastic packaging of the mooncake. Certainly raised my curiosities cause the only ones I'm familiar with when it comes to mooncakes are red-bean paste. I'm gonna have to cut them open to try soon.

It's freaky what the confectionaries could come up with these days...

Still, doesn't change the cold fact that there'll be more chilly mornings and cosy afternoons to look forward to. Going to try to get some schoolwork done over this weekend. That is if my desires to watch The O.C. doesn't prevail. Oh, how I love the rainy seasons. Don't you love the rainy seasons? I think it's way better than scorching suns and hazey skies.

Tormenting Treatments.

All covered in sweat and breathing a little bit too heavily, I sit here and type this post with jittery fingers. The musty smell of sweat that has dampen onto my t-shirt's really beginning to annoy me. My throat's tied up and the taste of bitterness at the back of the tounge is so prominent and my lips feels like the Sahara dessert. The smell of a rotting corpse, exposed for days, is no different to the smell of my breath and the oil on my face is similar to the oil covered on a fried egg where you could easily see it stain a tissue paper. I'm light-headed most of the time, walking as if I'm suspended from mid-air and having no sense of direction. The body's weak, extremely weak - I suppose every single muscle and tissue I have in me have shrunk and shrivelled up in agony.

I guess this was supposed to be expected when I fall sick. I came down with a fever on Wednesday night, when I started feeling oddly cold and I suspected that it was quite bad as I couldn't even wake up to blog about it. Though, I did wake up to play some songs but got quite dizzy after attempting to type with the jittery fingers. Pretty weak, I guess. Don't know where this fever came from but I suspect it must've belonged to Edmund as he had a fever the past couple of days before. One thing's for sure, I've not had (solid) food or showered for days! That's probably one of the consequences when you decide to visit the Chinese doctor. It's always the same old crap - no bathing, no air-conditioning, no fried food, no solids and what not. Funny, I didn't even think of trying to take a shower secretly this time. Probably was way too sapless to even think straigt. It's starting to piss me off that there's so many restrictions when it comes to the proverbial Chinese singseh when the medicine he prescribes is already gut-wrenching enough!

Certainly, the old man seems to have taken a little pride upon himself over the years of proficiency in dealing with numerous ailments and diseases. I mean, the guy leaves for lunch breaks without prior notice, leaving a whole crowd of patients waiting outside, fanning themselves vigorously due to the slow spinning age-old fan above them. Technically, he can't switch on the fan to a higher number as most of his medicine are powdered herbs and roots. Another thing is, his shop isn't exactly well equipped with air-conditioning, air refreshener and comfortable leather seats to chill on. It's the four-legged plastic chairs we get during local wedding dinners and the smell of mixed spices (the bitter ones) will always fight their way to your nostrils. It's been decades he's been working in a condition like this and yet, he refuses to change anything for the better! See, I never had anything against this old man until that day when he had me waiting on number 11 when I began to realise how slow this man worked. Due to that, I kind of developed reasons to dislike him.

I came back home shivering and thwarting over the possibility that the old man purposedly put me on hold, knowing that I was the only person who looked extremely unwell. Surpirsed that I still had the energy to frown, I stormed into my bedroom and buried myself under the blankets. I woke up with mom's soft prompting, telling me that I have my medicine to take. I thought it was going to be the usualy powdered crap I get after every visit to the singseh, never once did the thought of brewed herbal tea crossed my mind! If you have that clear, transparent, yellow coloured water which comes from dropping a tea beag into a hot cup of water in mind, you're absolutely wrong!! This... this... thing comes wrapped in brown paper (like the ones we see on traditional Chinese movies where the tai tai clips them uner their armpits) and requires careful brewing to attain the right amount of medicine. I haven't actully seen the contents in this brown paper before - cause mom is always so secretive when one of us has to drink it, whispering in hush vocies to akak - but I can vaguely remember seeing cricket's legs and tree twigs at sedimented at the bottom of the bowl.

The whole thing is jet black in colour and it smells horrible. A taste of it will evoke senses that you will never want to go near in contact again for the rest of your lives. It's really that disgusting. The smell is so strong and it sticks to the insides of your mouth that swallowing and chewing multiple sweets at one go could not make the taste any fainter. I always have my nose clipped with pegs, or else, I would never even make it through the first excruciating gulp. I remembered how Grace puked half her bowl of medicine when she first had to drink it! And the worse thing is, it messes with your stomach, churning the insides. Mom says it's clearing up the toxic in my stomach. I say, that tea has poison and it's making me crap it all out!!

Nothing much really changed after that. I spent Thursday and Friday in bed feeling the change of my body temperature so rapidly that it gets me confused some of the time. One moment, I'm shivering like a dog left in the cold, the other, I'm sweating like I've been running in the open fields in broad daylight! I only wake up for medication (every 4 hours) and for toilet breaks which I will wobble dangerously before regaining my balance from holding onto my cupboard and then drag my feet slowly to the bathroom, grabbing anything I could to maintain balance to only have my pee smelling like the medicine I took hours before. I felt drowsy and my eyes were weary. Not sure if it was the medicine or the fever itself, but either way, it didn't feel good. I tried watching Prison Break but got highly nauseous at the middle of it that I stopped any further attempts of watching anything. The nausea was due to the hunger, I suppose. I kept gagging for no reasons and everytime I gagged, it feels like the whole body was about to turn inside out. Really sick.

Oh well, let bygones be bygones, that's what they say. I'm feeling much more better today. Still on the road to recovery, I'm not thanking the singseh cause his medication has always needed a significant amount of time to take effect. I still prefer the modern day tablets and pills to brewed crickets or cockroaches! I'm definitely going to resume my solid intake and I'm finally getting a shower! Akak's making spaghetti today. It's her first time and I'm relatively excited about it. Now, I'll have to go clean up. Give my teeth some good brushing and my tounge, a good scrubbing to get rid of the smell of leftover medicines.

Some Catching Up.

Plastic was banned from school today. It kind of sucks for all those people (including me at times) who usually buy junk food, packed in little plastic bags and bring it somewhere else to eat (probably due to the heat of the canteen they prefer eating outside) which is counted as breaking the rule in our school. Dumb rules, I know. But since I had to strap rubbers over my teeth to keep the posture straight, I've pretty much stayed away from canteen food, so I had nothing against the banning of plastics in school. Unlike Edward, he found it a little bit annoying that he couldn't buy food to take it somewhere else to eat anymore. He got frustrated today and decided to eat at the canteen instead. Poor thing.

We'll usually stay away from the canteen and reside at the pond area of our school where there are marble benches and table for students to hang out. Student here are confined to their own respective places (the early bird gets the worm) and friends and they don't bother much about what other people are doing, like taking a dip in the filthy pond nearby, unlike the canteen of course where it's filled with the noise of clanking pots and students chatting. I'll always try to grab a spot at the pond area before others get to it and will try to deliberately complete given homeworks. Edward will buy his food from the canteen and stuff the plastic bags of food in his relatively huge pocket and join me. As I said, it was illegal to be eating outside the canteen, so Edward usually eats with caution and I'll warn him if prefects were nearby.

With the ban of plastic in school, I guess it only means one thing now. I have to spend more time in the canteen, watching Edward and the rest of the senior class line-up for their food as they exchange words of no importance. LOL. Recess is the only time where I get to talk with Edward, like, real conversations (eventhough the topic may be any less important). But I don't exactly get to talk with the other 20 people in my class who barely use English and don't listen to English music. Besides, his what you call a best friend.

On a totally unrelated matter, we've received the timetable for final examinations of the year. Some really fishy rumours has been going around that the principal's monitoring the results of every student for this exam and he'll pick out the bad apples in this school with the mere excuse of reclaiming the "Premiere School" title back as it was tarnished over the years with bad discipline records. But whether or not the rumours are true, it all lies within the monster himself. I was thinking I'd probably be one of those who's going to get picked by the horrible man himself and thus, never too be seen or heard off again after the holidays. I mean, look at my ever-failing Add. Maths and Accountancy papers. I'm just counting on the fact that I don't have many disciplinary records to boast about keep me in this school. Though, I secretly feel that it wouldn't be such a bad thing after all if I left this school.

I should be studying my ass off by this time of the year, going through revision books like they're some kind of old novels that I so desperately love to read and completing various so called "Clone SPM" excercises. Nah. I still have Grey's Anatomy, Prison Break, and The O.C. to finish, you know. Wow! Talk about procrastination. How long has it been since I finished downloading and I'm still not done with them! I'm not only procrastinating my work anymore, even shows! LOL. Desperate Housewives season 2 has already started airing on STAR World, every Tuesday 9p.m. (Malaysian time). I decided to watch the first episode the past two weeks, despite having watched it with Grace on DVD already, and got so annoyed with all the commercials breaks that I switched off the TV during the 3rd commercial break! I guess I've gotten really used to watching ad-free TV series that it's getting hard for me to watch real TV.

I've also noticed a slight change of my music taste lately. Don't what's the cause, but I'm really into John Mayer, Frank Sinatra, Enya, Michael Buble, Tom Petty, Josh Groban and Joshua Radin. They're all really soft music. Not sure what genre you call them (never bothered about the genre of music I listen to) but I like it. I suspect it has got something to do with hanging out at Uncle G's the other day. Maybe I was just blown away with his CD collection that I discovered a side of me that has never been known. I currently have Frank Sinatra's Come Fly With Me on my Windows Media Player. Don't misunderstand, I still think Danity Kane has got some good beat in their album and am still awaiting JoJo's and Jesse Mccartney's new album releases. The love of pop music is going to stay, I assume.

Adrian has just recently gotten a Canon PowerShot A530 from his uncle from Australia. His grandma was on a holiday in Sydney (or Melbourne) and she brought the camera back with her. Lucky guy. I started out digital with a FujiFilm FinePix A330 (it's probably extinct by now) and his first camera's a Canon PowerShot. He did allow me to fiddle with the compact last Sunday and I realised how much I miss using compacts - light and a breeze to use with not so many complicated functions. Hey, but no compact beats my baby. I made him set up a Flickr account to showcase his photos and here's his page. Which reminds me of what I meant to say. Adrian's a big boy now. I've never actually realised the fact that his going through puberty - the harsh voice change from the high pitched little squeks - and all until last Sunday when Uncle G (the choir master) "promoted" him from sopranos to tenors. I guess he's actually growing. Freaky to even see another member of the family go through puberty.

Which brings me to another unrelated matter. My blog readers. Lately, I realised Adrian has been reading my blog (he always said he has but I never believed him) when he sent me an image of his dektop. I mean, who would actually plough through this amount of words in blinding orange? Another person who has been reading my blog is Grace. Surprisingly. With all her blogs-are-stupid point of views, I'm fairly shocked that she keeps herself updated about the family and me through my blog. She sent me an email the other day, saying that she was frustrated that I haven't been sending her any emails and that I've not been updating this blog. My goodness. Imagine the shock on my face when she said that. And I think Edward and Carina are the other ones that check into my blog often. Don't know if they read but they do check in. Strange, huh?

Before I end and go back to packing my bag for tomorrow's school (double periods of Accountancy and History!), here's how my current desktop looks like. This is by far, my favourite skin from WindowBlinds.

Waiting On The World To Change

A great song (lyrics and tunes) from John Mayer's latest album, Continuum. Caught the end of the video on MTV last night and found it on Youtube.com. Here it is. I really like this song from Continuum. Apparently, it's his first single from this album too. You should really check out this album.