jenmin1314

A discussion with my close friend on westernized chinese food in Adelaide.

troublemaker55:  we should go eat dim sum one day
me:  u know anywhere nice for dim sum?
i tried two places with the saints.. so so only
troublemaker55:  the most famous place is kowloon lo…i think u’ve been there before
but there’s another place called bazu
quite exp
me:  i’ve been to city zen and another on gouger
haha
troublemaker55:  oh! but i heard that city zen is the best woh!
me:  my sis coming back to aus with me for her summer hols.. we go then ok?
troublemaker55:  i have yet to try la
me: 
what la this city zen so so nia
troublemaker55:  hahaha…cool!! sure!
haha
really
?? i dunno la…never been there
me:  best maybe to ang moh lo
troublemaker55:  hahaha…
maybe ur standard too high la
LOL
me:  many many the ang mohs at city zen.. westernize d i think
troublemaker55:  hahahahahahaha
yeah yeah…many ang mohs=not nice
me:  yea yea!
i know!
i try to avoid whatever chinese food the ang mohs like
they like wok in the box, which is a joke!!!
i want to shut this stupid wok in the box down man
troublemaker55:  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA yeah!!! i know!!!
OMG!!
me:  their char kuay teow got broccoli one!!
troublemaker55:  ROTFL so funny la u!!!!
me:  siao ar.. u call that char kuay teow!
troublemaker55:  wanna shut it down pulak
me:  hahha
troublemaker55:  improvised
LOL
funny only!!
me:  hahahaha
troublemaker55:  n it’s quite exp lo…for such a small portion :S
me:  if bring to penang no one will believe its char kuey teow
ya
and then their char kuey teow very soupy/saucy at the bottom of the box!!! eeeww!!
doesn’t taste right also
i was very sad
cos they trick me
troublemaker55:  u tried before?! o.O
me:  yes…
first few days here
near my house got mah
so give it a go lo
troublemaker55:  wow!!
i’ve stayed here so long n i’ve never tried it lo
LOL
me:  they say they sell char kuey teow but actually they try to trick me into believing this broccoli nonsense is char kuey teow!
FAIL!
yea don’t try la
troublemaker55:  HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
omg…
me:  its for unsuspecting ang mohs
troublemaker55:  so funny la u…
me:  hahahaha
troublemaker55: 

Yay! Yesterday I finished my final assignment for the semester! For the coming two weeks its just study study study then the two weeks after that take exam study take exam study take exam PACK AND CATCH A FLIGHT HOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (that is so important to me that I must Cap Bold Italic Underline it ok!)

And for July it’s all about family, home, mom’s food, nasi kandar, the awesome chicken rice, char kuay teow, hokkien mee, laksa, shark fin soup, banana leaf, mee goreng, chopper board, kim gary, yong tau foo, cendol, malaysian milo ,chicken maggi mee, amandari and other restaurants my family eat at often, 大人餐厅, KL, GY, movies, college, friends, lecturers, unlimited internet access, penang saints, my own bed and table, warm weather, my car, cheap shopping, penang mandarin hokkien manglish, fun chats with dad in the car, hitz.fm djs pranking people so on so forth.

FORGET subway, fish and chips, nandos, crap chinese food and fake char kuay teows, my lousy plain cooking, 小白菜, broccoli, chicken and potatos, pathetic chicken rice which the ang mohs like, australian accent, buses, incredibly limited internet access causing me to watch youtube in the wee hours of the morning otherwise i’d never get to watch anything here, kangabats (no i take that back, wombats are cute!), expensive oversized overpriced cheap made in china clothes sold for 100 dollars here that will tear soonafter (like my housemate’s Country Road shirt!), people saying the f word to replace all nouns verbs adjectives and all other proper expressions, in front of children, expensive supersized portions of food which don’t even taste like food!!! so on so forth

Ok despite saying all that Australia is not that bad. I am just a homely girl who misses home that’s all. Australians are generally quite nice. The weather is also usually very nice as well, cool breezy but warm education standard is much higher than home, overall a safe place to live in… so not too bad! but i love home more! forget the PR. forget the honours program (if i can even get it haha). after my four semesters here I’m going home I’m not saying I regret coming here because this two years will be a truly valuable studying growing up experience and I do appreciate it. But I think for me, these two years will be enough. I don’t wish to stay here any longer than necessary.

So I’m almost there! I finished my first semester of studying in Australia and did not give up or fail through the tougher times! I made it out alive and I’m quite happy with my progress so far!

by the way mozilla just crashed on me but i love wordpress for saving my drafts automatically! I was going to upload a photo but this action has caused the browser to crash on me twice. so maybe next time.

The other day behind me on the bus were 2 men. One was really weird asking this malay guy about muslims, islam, where can he buy the middle eastern white traditional clothes for men, where to buy the quran… I was really sleepy cos i slept at 4 and was also getting tired of him being so loud and annoying that I put my head on my hand and turned away to close my eyes. that guy was sitting all the way on the opposite side of the aisle but got up anyway and lean over to touch my hair asking out loud “what’s wrong with her ?” (or her hair, I didn’t hear carefully) so i lifted up my head, turnaround and fiercely give him the ‘WTF are u doing??!!!” death stare and he quickly sat down. Then his friend was saying, “if you did that in older times, that would be considered polite” (I can’t believe he said that! since when is weird men touching random women’s hair POLITE????) and continued “but now it’s just wrong man.” those clueless dirty wild countrymen with no teeth!!! Good thing they got off the bus at central bus station otherwise I would have to change bus just to stay away. I felt sooo polluted and dirty the whole day till I had my shower.

My bus stopped at Chinatown. Unlike usual, only a few boarded, including this young black man who once sat next to me.

That time, he boarded (at Chinatown again) and saw me stting in the front row. I thought I saw a hint of  excitement in his eyes and felt uncomfortable. I looked away and ignored him, waiting for him to walk past me. Unfortunately, he stopped where I was and gave me a creepy smile. He asked if he could sit next to me. I thought maybe I was just unintentionally being racist or something to have a bad feeling about him, and since the bus was full, fine. Take a seat. Throughout my journey home, he only read his book quietly. I let out a sigh of relief when I got off at my stop and felt bad for how I judged him the moment I saw him.

Today he boarded I was uncomfortable again for some reason. The bus was pretty empty at 4pm. He did not sit with me. He sat next to the young asian girl behind me. He greeted her and talked. Maybe they knew one another. However after 5 minutes his conversation started to piss me off.

Him: CAN…YOU…SPEAK…ENGLISH…WITH…PEOPLE…FOR…30…MINUTES?

Her: (soft answer…)

Him: CAN…YOU…SPEAK…ENGLISH…WITH…PEOPLE…FOR…30…MINUTES?

Her: (soft answer) I can speak english.

Him: Blah blah blah blah blah….

.

.

.

Him: How old are you?

Her: 19

Him: Do you live with your parents?

Her: (soft answer about her family…)

Him: (More annoying questions)

.

.

.

And this is where I started to worry for the poor girl…

Him: Can I have you number?

Her: No

Him: WHY?

Her: I don’t give out my number.

Him: haha! Who asked you to do that? Your mother? Your father?

Her: My boyfriend.

(I laughed a bit thinking that was a nice answer from her, but I knew she was getting uncomfortable)

Him: HAHA!!!! BOYFRIEND!!! HAHAH!!!! What’s his name huh? What’s his name?

Her: (soft answer I can’t hear)

Then I comtemplated so hard on whether I should do something to protect her. So vulnerable and too kind to ask him to stop being rude. But I was afraid that this guy would get all “It’s not your business I can ask her whatever I want” and then proceed to track where I live and stuff like that. I was so afraid to tell him to leave her alone all because of my safety and face. And I am not confrontational. I dare not imagine what would happen if he started attacking me verbally on the bus in front of everyone.

My stop came up. I got up and got out without turning around to look at her so Iwouldn’t risk making eye contact with him, even though I really wanted to see her facial expression and make sure she was ok. I feel very helpless about the situation. I just hoped she managed to get rid of him and safely return home.

At home I thought about it and tried to come up with options to help her that would not threaten my own safety with this creep. Type a message on my phone in chinese and hold it high enough for her to know that she could get off the bus stop with me to catch another one in 15 minutes? But my australian phone didn’t have the chinese writing feature. And even if it did, what if she wasn’t chinese? Turn around and give him a fierce angry look to intimidate him?  Turn around and ask her to sit with me? Tell the bus driver when I left to keep an eye on him?

Any advice? I feel so bad T_T How can we help other people when they are caught in such a situation?

After the incident I realized the gut feeling I had about him the first time was right. He really was creepy. Always follow what your conscience/gut feeling tells you. It’s there for a reason.

Funny video about getting a girl’s number but not so funny anymore in real life.

Thanks to all you lovely people’s kind advice and suggestions!! I appreciate all the helpful tips.

Yesterday I cooked a successful chicken and potato dish. Housemate Chloe said it was really good. Previously I cooked masala curry and that was good too so tomorrow I will be doing that again yay! Tuesday housemate Kerrie will be taking me out for lunch at a nice restaurant which I’ve never been to. And Friday sister Yen Fen will have me over her house for cooking and dinner!

Everyone is so kind this week I will be well fed and happy.

Been struggling with a lot of work the past week. 2 assignments 3 tutorials 1 practical to be done within 8 days. So sad but I got through it. Now finishing the last tutorial for tomorrow =)

I’m doing Computer Systems this semester. It’s a really interesting subject, studying how the computer system works at such a low level in binary form. Never knew I would one day understand how 1s and 0s would make up low level programs. But sadly the assignments are so crazy it literally gives me a painful headache just staring at assembly language for more than 2-3 hours just trying to test it to find one stupid bug. In the end I gave up cos I’m only lacking in 2 marks which if you convert it to upon 10 it’s really just 0.25 marks. So yea! It’s successful, since considering at the beginning of the week I was so convinced I would be failing this assignment. In the end I managed to get 68/70 LOL. My sister is right. I told her a few months back that I was convinced I’m going to fail an assignment and of all things she said,

“You are on the right track!”

“Why?!”

“Cos everytime you say that you are going to fail, you end up doing really well!”

LOL… so cute. But I guess I just need that fear to drive me. Anyway she is returning to Adelaide with me in July yay! That will help me settle down better when leaving Penang. Maybe I will go to SF with her this year end haha… although the thought of flying 20 hours again really scares me!

I always buy food that will last me three days. That’s it! I have no idea what I would want to eat after that so I can’t quite plan what to buy in advance. Anyway I prefer fresh food! But look where that’s got me, eating one meal of 2 week old frozen bread with seaweed-eggs and instant seaweed soup per day, for the past two days. I repeat, I meal per day! Today I’m just having muesli bar and seaweed soup.

My fridge is normally pretty empty but that’s ok because I can just walk to Coles to restock. But this week it has been raining so heavily that I can’t restock, plus I have a flu already! And today is ANZAC day (memorial for WWII soldiers I think) so everywhere is closed…

And so… I’m at my all-time lowest weight on my suspicious weighing scale… but then again we have to add 2kg here to compare to our weight in Malaysia, so it’s not that bad, right? RIGHT?!

We’ve reached safely. I’m so thankful that all our flights were comfortable and didn’t have much turbulence. Those long hours went by fast with reading The Host. haha… still I’ve only read it halfway. Kinda weird not having bro and sis around. Guess I have to get used to that sooner or later…

Jet lagging here I think. Plus the flu… zzZzzZZZ

We’re leaving to US tonight so we can help my sister settle down there for studies. I’m kinda sad to be leaving her. I don’t know how life will be without her to hang out with everyday.

When we were young and got into fights, my dad would tell me, “When you grow older you won’t get to see her so much already, will you be happy with that?” something like that. Maybe that time when I got mad I might have liked the idea of not having to fight with her everyday. But now thinking back, I wished we got along better when we were younger. Ah well, at least we’ve been very good together since college, partly knowing we’d be leaving one another in a year or so.

I hope she will do well there and be happy and safe. May the Lord be with her throughout her studies in San Francisco.