The acrobat who went into his room and stuck his arrow into his food

*Man… that sounded really wrong. But it caught your attention didn’t it? =)
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I was checking out the Star papers online the other day and out pops this ad.
“Family Holidays at Club Med, where children stay, eat and play , for FREE!”

Wow…
To the children, it’s like…Wheeeee…we get to play for FREEE!! Eat chocolate, strawberry and vanilla ice cream without paying!!

Which reminds me of the time when my brother told my dad – "Pa, no problem wat, if no money, just get from the bank la”
-_-“

To the parents, it’s like “okaaaay….What’s the catch?”

Before we go on, for starters, I’m not an ad for Club Med. The only reason why I know it’s NOT for free is because I have been there, eons ago, when I still qualified for the Kids’ Club. The Kids’ Club were meant for kids below 12. My brother, at that time, still qualified for the Mini Club, which were meant for kids below 9. That is more than 10 years ago, the rules and regulations have changed since then

We went to Club Med Cherating when I was 12. Everything was amazing at that time. I was also one heck of a brat, who refused to eat her vegetables, who was asthmatic, who refused to do anything which involved people other than her family, who realised that in one of the performances, where she had to be a leopard, she had to have her leotards “upgraded” to one which had a sponge bra cup so that her nipples wouldn’t be seen protruding against the thin black cloth. Not that it matters anyway, since the whole stage was so dark. But I was self-conscious. I insisted!

The room
My parents paid for the holiday in advance – everything in that “lump sum” was for the accommodation, food, play and performances for the next 4 days. Hence, the “free” holiday. We stayed in this tiny room with 2 double decker beds and a bathroom smaller than my current storeroom. When we entered the room, it felt more like going to prison than to a beach holiday.

“Where are all the luxuries of a hotel room?”
“Have we made the wrong choice?”
“What kind of holiday is this?!”

Relax… the only reason why they made you stay in rooms like these is simple. You’re NOT SUPPOSED TO BE IN YOUR ROOMS! What’s the point of being in Club Med when all you do is sit ter-sepuk in your room? There are endless activities lined up for you!

The arrow
I had my first taste of archery when I was 12. This long curly-haired gung ho-looking instructor in a rider’s outfit on a black horse, raised his right hand and yelled “ARROWSSSSS!!” All of us, also on shiny black horses, pulled an arrow each out of case that we had slung on our backs. Out came masked men riding on black horses with arrows pointing menacingly at us. We’re supposed to hit them before they hit us!! My horse panicked! Before I could do anything, it retreated and galloped into the night, with me still on its back… Nooo... Stoppp…STOPPP…STOPPPPPPPPPP!!
Oh wait..sorry, that was my imagination.
In reality, there really was an instructor – also with long curls. But he was neither in a rider’s outfit nor on a shiny black horse. Sigh…
Our arrows were nicely placed next to us. So when he yelled “Arrowwws!”, all we had to do was reach out and be prepared.
And no, no masked men came riding at us. Instead, in front of us were huge pieces of paper taped on boards propped up on stands, with circles drawn on ‘em. The bullseye was marked red. A row of 10 archers stepped forward. Whoa gaya! But when the arrows were released, only 4 probably hit the board. The others probably invented their own game – with the arrows hitting every possible target in that open field but the target. I was one of them.
Damn potong stim…

The food and the acrobat
The one thing that everyone looked forward to when we were in Club Med was the food. Food is in abundance! Look around you – it’s like a feast fit for a king. Thai food, Vietnamese food, Balinese food, German food, Chinese food, Indian food, you name it, they have it. It was such a shame that I was so young when I was there – I had no friggin’ adventurous taste buds at all at 12. All I looked forward to was the ais-kacang with atap chee. I came back to the table where my parents were already seated cos this big brat refused to join the Kids’ Club for their kiddie meals.. haha.. I wanted to be a grown up at 12! Woo hoo…

I was just about to put one spoon of ais kacang in my mouth when my mom exclaimed “Girl girl… look at this boy. Aiyo.. he’s climbing up to that trapeze!! So young, probably 9 or 10 years old oni. Where are his parents ar?”

We saw the boy climb at least 10 feet high. At least. It was friggin’ high. There was no way that this scaredy-cat brat can ever climb that high without chickening out. But this boy was amazing! He climbed all the way to the top and was obviously very pleased with himself. My mom closed her eyes as she saw the boy grabbed the oncoming swing and then, off he went! He swung back and forth, back and forth like a seasoned acrobat.
The GO’s (Gentle organisers) slowly lowered him down and he jumped onto the safety net below him. I stood up, ready to applaud at the bravery of that kid. And then…..

“LIM YONG HSIN!!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!!”

My mom’s eyes were as big as they could go. My dad’s jaw dropped open. I stopped in my tracks. That kid – is my kid brother. That 9-year-old, who did not join us for lunch because he was having lunch with the other kids in the Mini Club. Even at 9, my brother has already shown his daredevil streaks.

He ran towards us grinning “Did you see that??!!” We couldn’t wipe that grin off his face that night. He was still grinning even though my mom insisted that he sat next to her during dinner. As though on a leash, haha, my mom insisted that both her kids sat next to her throughout the performances that night. It didn’t matter that one of our friends’ dad was doing a “striptease”, hahaha, nothing’s “too much” anymore after my brother became an acrobat in the afternoon.

To my brother – who’s 22 today – Happy Birthday!! =) There’s probably 3 minutes to go before your birthday ends. But fat and all, I still love you.. This post is dedicated to you, your devilish streak and that won’t-die-wan-la attitude =) Hope you had a fantastic birthday!

Trip to Japan - Day 2 - Part 3

After a while... pretending to be fine tourists who appreciate Venetian glass and the Picasso collection got to us. And we decided to hop into another Japanese "wooden" place to have lunch! =)















<-- Even the tea pot is YSL!

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Then Nobuto said that he'll take all of us to an "onsen". ahhh.. we thought, finally, we're gonna experience the hot bath, the Japanese way! I silently chided myself as to whether I would have the guts to strip off every piece of clothing I have in front of my friends and the many other strangers.

"Nawwww.... I don't think i can do it"

"Do it... and besides, what they have, you have too rite?"

And you know what... gawd, we never did it. I just..couldn't! I was ready (or so I thought) to strip, but then i saw boobs of all shapes and sizes and bushes / forests...

and then they got more and more.. it was like... *head throbbing* Noooooooo! I don't think i can do this...The Japanese women (and the men too, I'm sure!) are so comfortable with being naked around each other! It's one thing to soak yourselves into the hot baths with only your necks and heads above the water..

... but it's another thing to see women sitting down on rocks and talking to each other, stark naked!

*throbbing in the head gets worse*

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Such a traumatic I had at the onsen... I was only glad to have that personal trauma remedied, albeit much later, by a cool glass of beer..

Trip to Japan - Day 2 - Part 2

It was nearly 10am when we left the lava spine to head towards Lake Ashi.

<-- Lake Ashi - the crater lake, famous for its views of Mount Fuji, with boats and ferries providing scenic views for tourists. It was here that we had our first meal of soba in Japan.














<-- That's my soba 2nd breakfast, with scallops =)

This is followed by our visit to the Hakone Glass Forest, where we visited both the museum which contains glass sculptures and various other glass art exhibits, as well as the Italian Garden, which has Venetian influence. While we were there, people were allowed to don costumes (ala a masquerade) and walk around the garden and the museum to take pictures. But erm, we weren't too keen - lah...

<--And check this out wei... the types of jams on display can rival any shop there is in Australia!

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Our next place of visit was the Hakone Open Air Museum - where loads of weird-ass sculptures were on display. Ok-lah, they're not weird. In fact, according to this website I read, "The Hakone Open Air Museum (Japanese: Hakone Chokoku No Mori Bijutsukan), successfully attempts to create a harmonic balance of nature and art by exhibiting various sculptures on its spacious grounds in combination with beautiful views of the surrounding valley and mountains. Besides the sculptures, the Hakone Open Air Museum features various indoor galleries, including a sizable Picasso Collection, consisting of paintings, prints, sculptures and ceramic creations."

Sigh... we probably didn't have the interest nor the knowledge to appreciate these art pieces. Nevertheless, we acted like fine tourists =)

<-- Yea okaaay, except for that last picture there.... we probably jumped higher on the egg than any other kid there! But hey...it would be a while before we stepped foot into Hakone again.. so.... *grin..

Trip to Japan - Day 2 - Part 1

This is a long overdue post. I thought I'd get down to it - I gotta do it.. before I forget where I visited in Tokyo, Hakone, Kobe and Kyoto!



We were up pretty early on the morning of 29th March 2009. A three-hour car ride from Tokyo to Hakone awaits us. Being the caffeine junkie that I am, it's only fitting that the first place we stopped was an equivalent of a 7-11, where i found... *gasp! mini Starbucks!!
Gawd.. I love Japan already!











Along our drive up to Hakone National Park where the views of Mount Fuji are apparently what they call "Spectacular, Spectacular!" Or maybe there aren't any other places to catch the view of Mount Fuji? I don't know.. but as I now know, the view was really "Spectacular, Spectacular!"

Lee Na and I came down from our car a number of times to catch a photo or 2 of all the "wooden" places of Japan. The air was fresh..the streets are clean. Gawd, did i tell you I love Japan?







Ah... that view of Mount Fuji. Check out the side bar for more pictures.














It's amazing, the discipline of the Japanese and the tourists visiting Japan (including us, of course). They say take off your shoes, and waddaya know... we take off our shoes!! Wow..

And we don't see bratty kids jumping around on the benches.. or people sitting around lazily on the words "eating and drinking prohibited" while eating and drinking. I'm just surprised that's all. We somehow see this sort of scenario and loads of rubbish everywhere here in Malaysia.





And that's me - standing on the bench, without my shoes of course, with my back facing Mount Fuji














On the way up along the "lava spine" called "Kanmuri-gatake". The steep lava spine was formed by the squeezing out of magma through the roof of the solid shell of the Kamiyama dome 2,900 years ago. Kamiyama is the highest peak in Hakone. The last magmatic eruption of Hakone took place as the lava spine, Kanmuri-gatake appeared and the explosion crater of Kamiyama was formed 3,000 years ago.

The unpleasant smell which comes out from the lava spine is due to Hydrogen Sulfide gas.






We didn't care that these eggs came from a "lava spine" with "hydrogen sulfide" gas. It was chilly and hot black eggs are good! =)

Trip to Ipoh

Another simple post..

Our aim of taking this camera up to Ipoh was to take pictures of factory sites. Look what we came back with. No pictures of factory sites.. instead.. we have a whole load of pictures on FOOD!

Going up to Ipoh is fun! =)



Breakfast in Ipoh... dim sum @ Ming Court is so good =)














Somewhere in Ipoh.. there's a cafe named after our Boss =) She now refers it as "my cafe"













This deliciously awesome dish at Pasta Zanmai in 1-Utama... I love it so much I forgot the name.. It's one of the thin pizzas they have there.. with seafood..














Another closer shot... yummy!!
*SLURP...

Cousins' steamboat dinner

First things first... Huay Yin has climbed to the top of Mount Kinabalu!! Woo hoo!! I finally understood Leonardo DiCaprio's feelings when he yelled "I'm on top of the worlddddd!!!" More on Kinabalu later...

For now, Neighbour, I promise I'd blog about the Parts 2, 3, 4, n of Japan, but oh no, i realised that the external hard drive which contains my pictures is in office!! Gee.. that addiction to work and office needs to be addressed.. fast. If I don't kick this habit fast enough, I might just kick the bucket sooner than desired.

Anyway, I thought, instead of leaving my blog empty and void of a new blog post..I'm gonna show that "It's still ALIVE!!" (Yay!!)

This is a pretty simple one.. a cousins dinner at Yuen Steamboat in Sunway Mentari on the 28th June 2009. I try not to be too ambitious (in terms of blogging) after going on a 1-month "break" =)


Our constantly full steamboat. Delicious!! Too bad we don't have pictures of our chicken wings... or did it go off before someone could even yell "get the camera!"?











L-R: Chai Lee (oops, sorry head got sliced off a little), Chai Leng (amazing appetite this girl!) and Bob (who bought us dinner that night..thankeww!)

Ohh..there's a glimpse of that chicken wings in front of Chai Leng!







The sisters - Chai Lee and Chai Leng














The boys - Bob and brudder











Wait.. how come there's no picture of me ar?

Happy Mom's Day and Happy Dad's Day

(For more pictures, check out brudder's blog)

So brudder and I are back in Melaka for the weekend. We are celebrating Dad's day one week earlier (yes, the rest of you, don need to stress okies.. we're early! You didn't forget) cos papa won't be around when the real Dad's day arrives, which is *ahem* NEXT Sunday.

Mom's Day and Dad's Day are just about a month apart. Erm, wait.. actually no, it's about 1 and a half month's apart. Which erm, actually shows that I have not been back in Melaka for the past 1 and a half months (-_-).

There really is not much difference between Mom's Day and Dad's day:




Mom and Dad happy on Mom's Day

Mom and Dad (more?) happy on Dad's Day

Fat brother feeling sick after dinner on Mom's Day

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Fat brother feeling sick after dinner on Dad's day.

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Brudder feeding himself on Mom's Day

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Oops.. caught in the act again on Dad's day.

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Brother-sister Retard Act 1 on Mom's Day

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Brother-sister Retard Act 2 (and 3 and 4 on Facebook) on Dad's day

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(New York) Cheese cake on Mom's Day

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(Apple Crumble) Cheese Cake on Dad's day

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See what I mean?
Mom's Dad and Dad's Day are not so different after all. There's the fat cousin, there's the fat brother, there's (the no-longer-fat) me, there's the moms, there's the dads and there's the other cousin. I wanna say "being fat is in the genes", but i'll probably be made to be sorry for that statement for the rest of my life.

Now where's the Children's Day?

Federer wins Rolland Garros!

Ah..so Roger Federer finally wins Rolland Garros! Woo hoo! It's an amazing win I tell you.. for that one whole week after i got the news that "NADAL LOST!", I was excited beyond belief!

Never mind that Roger Federer doesn't know me. Never mind that I haven't played tennis in a while and my stamina has probably dropped to 4 (out of a possible 10). I say 4 and not zero because i have been going, erm, hiking.. (HAHAHA!) Stop laughing! Idiots. I'm gonna show you. When i finish climbing Mount Kinabalu.

For that 1 week after Nadal lost (such GLORIOUS news!) I started paying attention again to the French Open. I gotta admit, after watching him steal Federer's crown at Wimbledon and AGAIN at the Aussie open, I didn't want to watch the French. This is like his home turf.. never mind that this is in Paris and he's Spanish.. but he has won 3 finals in a row.. sigh... dowan... I swear, i boycott the French Open.

And then Robin Soderling became my hero! Nadal lost in the 4th round..and then Murray loses in the quarters. Double woo hoo! The crown was Federer's to lose. I diligently came home early every night after that.. (it was like American Idol season once again!) just so that I could watch the French Open. And he finally did it. I was so happy I could cry!

Gengs.. you missed a FABULOUS moment there!! What a night to go watch movie!

That 14th Crown. Ah.... *grins*

I don't know you.. but..geez.. FINALLY!

Warning: bimbo post ahead!

Ok Ok..So I have not been blogging, sigh.. I have perfectly valid reasons!

The most valid of them all is that.. work is piling up...like serious shit. I am even going back to work on Sundays again. Like wtf rite? How lame is it spending your glorious weekend, at your cubie, listening to your winamp, while looking at a draft prospectus.. This sounds like audit all over again! And some people tell me, "well.. at least u have a job to bitch about"
Okaaay... I shuddup..

And then, there's that part about doing the DRs and CRs for our national cheerleading association. I can tell you this - I suck at accounts. I don't know how I lasted 3 years as an auditor. God forbid, I need to tie my balance sheet for December 2008..And up till now, I'm still out by approximately RM 5k!

And then, there's this part about Mount KK. Yea yea, close those gaping mouths. I'm climbing up Mount KK in July! I'm so proud that after the weeks(?) of planning, Kaggom, Dan, ChoonPing, Iona and I are climbing mount KK! Which reminds me now, I have to put aside an amount between RM400 and RM 600 - just in case I need to pay a porter to carry me up to the summit (and they charge by the kilos!) and just in case I need to buy my cert. I promise I'll let you know if my cert is fake.

And because of Mount KK, I have been going hiking more often now. The most recent being yesterday up Bukit Gasing. I was panting by the time i reached the top. I hope I didn't look like a psycho huffing and puffing up the hill while talking to myself - "Huay Yin, you can't do this? You can't do KK!" We're heading up Frasers next.... I hope I don't tergolek to the bottom..

And then Mei Har is back from Adelaide..Whee! Had a coupla drinks at Souled Out and hopefully there's more to come at Alexis this Friday...

And then our Aaron Ng celebrated his 20-something birthday with all of us singing a birthday song dedicated to Ah Beng. Carol got spared that night as Nick decided to let Lav have it this time. Some girl flirted with Aaron and all of us ended up getting free drinks! Whee.. More girls should flirt with Aaron.. but here's something that didn't change - I came out of that party STILL owing him a lap dance..

And then we've been having a CF-do 3 Fridays in a row now...with a lot of drinks and very fattening food..our management trainee must think we're one helluva happening bunch of people! But then if I were our management trainee, I'd also be helluva broke by now.

And then there's the awesome summer movies. Well ok, Wolverine wasn't that good. But Hugh Jackman is still a hottie. And then there's that Spockism that I'm still glad to have weeks after watching Star Trek. And then, waddaya know.. Angels and Demons turned out to be pretty good!

And then... and then..
oh wait.. I think i'm done!
Yayness... =)
Time to go sleep.... ZzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZ