Monday, September 21, 2009

This entry is a continuation of the last one. It was supposed to have been posted ages ago but I guess posting it wasn't exactly high on my priorities list (its nowhere near sleeping and eating).

The last post ended on a cliff hanger (Not really but it sounds a lot cooler). We, which consisted of Dude, Dude's boyfriend, Dude's friend, and Dude's sister (aka, Resident Pyrophile), went for a weekend getaway to Kemaman Terengganu and had oodles of fun. Come Sunday the 5th of July and we were back in the traffic congested Kuala Lumpur. Intent on having tonnes more fun, we were back on the road by the next morning heading for Tanah Tinggi Cameron. And this time the mode of transport was the coach! So here's a not very accurate account (due to the fact that it was eons ago) of the awesome trip that I went on.

Monday - 6th July 2009

Early Morning - Woke up early to pack and hitched a ride with Mum&Ayah to get to Pudu
- Got stuck in traffic
- Prayed that we didn't miss the bus
- Prayers were answered (coach was delayed)



Morning - Spent the whole morning on the bus in a state of semi-consciousness
- The view wasn't all that memorable on the highway (kelapa sawit as far as the eyes can see)
- There were a few exceptions though (see picture below)



Noon-ish - Arrived safely (despite nearly having cardiac arrest on the way up due to the narrow roads and the not so proportionate amount of traffic)
- Visited the very small tourist info center to look for interesting things to do
- Signed up for the Agro Tour, checked into rooms and walked around the very small town whilst waiting for the tour to start



1430 - The Agro Tour Started
- Visited a few farms/gardens (veggies, flowers, etc..)
- Reminiscent of a school field trip





Evening - Wrapped up the tour with dinner (steamboat)



- walked around the very small town again and had supper (mamak :D)



- turned in early to prepare for the day after


Tuesday - 7th July 2009

Before Dawn - Woke up, took a shower (freezing cold) and got ready for the sunrise

Sunrise - Watched the sunrise in awe with a mug of hot coffee





Morning - Packed up stuff, checked out and headed to Tourist Info Center to book a bus ride home
- Signed up for the nature trail
- Waited to go on the nature trail




-The Nature Trail-

1. Gunung Brinchang (highest peak on the highlands)



2. Mossy Forest (Yep, it was mossy and kinda moldy as well)



3. Tea Factory (Not too sure how this is considered 'nature' but it was still fun)



The nature trail ended just in time for us to get on the bus home. It was a fun albeit exhausting trip.

The journey back was for the most part, spent in a state of semi-consciousness. Although a good chunk of it was also spent praying that the bus driver would stop at the next rest stop due to my bladder being too small to retain all the water I drank in the morning. That afternoon we arrived safely and made our way back home, tired but happy.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Tripping Part 1

"No man needs a vacation so much as the person who has just had one." ~Elbert Hubbard

No kidding Hubbard-jii-san...

A few weeks back, dude's friend from high school came over for a holiday. Dude asked me if I'd like to come along and show him around. And before she could finish her sentence, I'd already packed my bags. Alright, that was a lie. I'd never pack my bags until the hour before I'm supposed to leave for somewhere. But you get the point. How could I possibly say no to a trip right?
So ladies and gents, let the pic spam begin!!


Saturday - 4th July 2009

0900 - Fazuan (aka Dude's bf) picked us up in his shiny new Chevrolet and we were on our way



1300 - Arrived at Riverview/River Garden Hotel
- Unpacked and recharged


1430 - Ate at the famous Hai Peng Kopitiam. Had Banana Toast or something. It was really yummy (>_<) Too hungry to take any pictures. - Took a walk around town


1630 - Fazuan arrived with little sister and we headed to Cherating

1745 - The Fish Incident


Me - Urghh dead fish! Hajar~ Tengok ni ade ikan!!!
Hajar - (Ran towards me and Mike, checked out the fish, and picked it up)
Mike - Awwh bless~ She's putting it back in the sea.
Me - Gross. I wouldn't pick that up. Would you?
Mike - No, not really.
Hajar - (Ran off with the fish)
Me and Mike - ???
Me - Hajar!! Nak buat ape dengan ikan tu? Taruk balik!!!
Hajar - (As she ran off into the distance) Nak bawak balik kasi mak masak~

2000 - Went to Kuala Kemaman with the intention of seeing fireflies. Until it started raining, that is. Opted for dinner instead. Nasi lemak & ikan bakar.

2100 - ish - Rain cleared up. Got on a boat. Saw pretty fireflies. Wish I had a bottle or a jar.



Sometime later that night - The most awesome activity of the day - Tengok Penyu Telor!!



-End of Day 1-

Sunday - 5th July 2009

Early Morning - Headed for Kuala Kemaman to get some keropok. Got to watch them make keropok lekor, plus eat some freshly goreng'ed ones. Oishii zo!!

\

Later - Stopped by the seaside for a bit to look at flares. Once a pyrophile, always a pyrophile.



A bit after later - Headed home~


So that was how the first 2 days went. The pretty pictures up there are from Mike's camera so credit goes to him. The senget ones were most likely Dude's doing so credit goes to her too I guess. (^^)v

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Homage

You know that saying 'Blood is thicker than water'? Well, I'm not sure what 'thick' means in this case. Maybe they should change it to 'Blood is more viscous than water'. Although that might not be entirely correct. I can't be sure. In fact, I'm not even sure whether you can compare blood and water. Sure they're both fluid but blood is non-Newtonian and doesn't follow all sorts of rules. Sort of like ketchup. Guess we should just stick with 'thick' after all eh?

Anyhow, that old saying just wants to point out that family ties are stronger than others. Which means that the relationship that I have with my big sister, Along (aka Dude) could only be described as the blood that's been put in water with high salt content where osmosis happens and all the water comes out of the blood and into the solution and the blood cells go shrivelly. Yep, that sounds about right.


Our relationship started when I was born. She was only 3 years old. She was a good big sister. She looked out for me in a way only big sisters can. She even raised the alarm when I fell out of a moving car. Apparently she said 'Ma, adik jatuh'.


As you can see from the photo, I've always wanted to be like her when I was younger. I always did what Dude did. I wanted to dress up like her, get my hair done the same way. I'm not sure whether it was because I really adored her, or because I haven't got the imagination to think of something else.

One of my early childhood memories is of me constantly changing the way I address her. When it was just the two of us, I called her 'Kakak' but when my younger sister came along and ruined my 'youngest child' status, I was taught to call her 'Along'. And during the transition period, I remember not being able to make up my mind on what to call her. Since then I've settled on 'Dude'.


Growing up, I didn't feel the need to emulate her every move anymore. But I doubt the feeling of admiration and idolization ever went away. She is my big sister after all. My payung, payung, payung (to the tune of Rihanna's Umbrella, ella, ella). So, after all that, I would just like to say....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DUDE


May God bless you and grant you a long and eventful life which you can share with me. May you continue to shower us with all your love and generosity and continue memayung me from all evil. \(^_^)/

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Haemodynamics

The Laws of Haemodynamics are strongly related to the Laws of Stressodynamics. In order to fully understand Haemodynamics, we first need to look at Stressodynamics.

The first (and so far only) Law of Stressodynamics states that,

"Stress can never be created nor destroyed"

Explanation - Stress is comparable to energy in a sense that you can't ever create stress and you can't make it go away either. The only difference is the magnitude of the stress. Some days you're more stressed out than other days.

Back to Haemodynamics. Stress plays a major factor in determining any Haemodynamic parameter. Its similar to how the change in velocity affects the force of an object. The most famous haemodynamic parameter, the BLOOD PRESSURE, is very much influenced by the stress level. Athough there are several factors that affect the blood pressure, the general rule of thumb is that stress contributes 80% towards this value.

As you can clearly see, stress has gotten to me lately. So much so that I dedicated a whole entry to it. The first guess many people make as to why I might be stressed out is my job. Let me tell you now, its not. I actually like my job. Its nice to be able to apply what I learnt in uni and then learn some more.

The thing that really gets my blood pressure up is the 45minute travel between home and office. Its so frustrating, as a lot of you might know. How is it possible that a 20minute drive become a 45minute torture-ride I hear you ask. Simple, its the DUKE's (Duta-Ulu Kelang Expressway) fault. Where's the sense in dumping the people from Jalan Duta, and Keramat all on the already saturated MRR2? I do wonder sometimes whether these people checked things out before they started to make it all happen. Sure, 7 minutes to Jalan Duta from Ampang sounds really enticing but even I could tell you that this whole project would cause a massive, daily traffic congestion.

To make matters worse, a lot of Malaysian drivers belong in this one species. The Selfishica Motoristum. Those that are categorized in this species share the same traits. They have no regard for other drivers and they think its okay to use the emergency lane if it means they could reach their destination 5 minutes earlier. They also think its fun to switch lanes all the time and cutting queue is definitely their favourite pastime. They dislike giving signals because it would make their fingers ache.

Wow, just talking (or rather, typing) about it made my heartbeat increase. Despite all the complaints, I always count my blessings. I'm grateful that I have a job to be stressed about, I'm grateful that I can get stressed in a car instead of getting stressed on the LRT, and I'm also grateful that AKLEH (Ampang-KL Elevated Highway) was built. Its like it was made especially for me (10-12 minutes to KLCC from home with little traffic).

So the next time one of you think about braving the MRR2 on a weekday morning, think again. You might find yourself in the car pulling your hair out and making obscene gestures at other motorists.

Disclaimer: The Laws of Haemodynamics and Stressodynamics may or may not be true. I have found that the rule of thumb applies to me but do not quote me as reference if your GP tells you otherwise.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Firestarter?!

I just got the most awesome news ever! My darling Kak Ima, who was my roommate when I was in 2nd year, had safely given birth to a baby girl!



おめでとうございます!!!!
Isnt that awesome? Giving birth is like the ultimate task for a woman. You cant be anymore woman-er after you've given birth. That's it. You've done your job. I hope the baby grows up to be as awesome as the mother, or maybe even awesomer, what with all the help she'll be getting from aunt kiren.

I was watching Man vs Wild last night. Thats a cool show. You can pretty much put Bear Grylles anywhere, save Mars. Where do I find a hot survivor like that? Straying away a bit there. My point is, after watching the show, I got to thinking. The title of my blog is firestarter, and I'm a self-professed pyrophile (fire's pretty) but I doubt I could start a fire without having a lighter or a match or a cooking stove. So I wonder whether I should change the name of the blog...

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Warning - The Language Barrier

I've always been fascinated with language. how some languages are similar that when you know one, you can pretty much figure out the other. and the way some languages have similar words for the same thing even though you might think that the two languages are completely unrelated (ie: the spanish word for fireman is bombero, in malay its bomba). or how some languages have the same words which means completely different things (ie: seronok in malay is fun whilst seronok in bahasa indonesia has a negative connotation, leaning towards slutty).

its also interesting to note that animals speak differently too! dont believe me? check this out.


see what I mean?

onto more serious matters. have you seen these type of things floating around newspapers and billboards?


i'm pretty sure you have. gross isnt it? disturbing isnt it? gives you nightmares doesnt it? i reckon the new packaging did a great job in grossing people out. but does it really work? i dont think so. apart from traumatising the faint hearted non-smokers like me, the campaign isnt doing much. how do i know?

exhibit 1 - the carton of cigarettes in the picture above is my dad's
exhibit 2 - dude's bf continues to smoke albeit the gross pictures on the packs
exhibit 3 - patron of the mamak store: mamak! kotak rokok lain takde ke? yang ni geli la.

i think smokers are completely missing the point here. the pictures are meant to deter you from smoking, not make you ask for a different pack. seriously. i wonder what it takes.

Monday, March 30, 2009

destroyer of worlds

i haven't written anything about kamen rider in a while so here goes.

this year's kamen rider is decade.


a pink rider? they've ran out of cool colours


this time round its special since decade travels to other heisei riders' universes. in the first episode this dude came up to decade/tsukasa kadoya amidst his crumbling world and told him that in order to save his world, he has to go and destroy the other worlds. or something. we're up to the 9th episode now and we've gone through:

kuuga (from the year 2000)



kiva (2008)



ryuki (2002)



and blade (2004)


at first i thought they were gonna go about this chronologically since kuuga is the first rider from the heisei era. but then they jumped to kiva's world so that theory basically went down the drain. and they made changes to the characters and storyline as well. i didnt know this when they went through kuuga's world since i've only seen 5 out of the 9 previous rider series (ryuki, hibiki, kabuto, den-o, kiva). so when they arrived at kiva's world, i expected to see seto koji as kurenai wataru but instead got this little kid who played the small kandou jan in gekiranger. its interesting to see how things unfold in this whole alternate universe thing.

moving on, decade henshins using this card system and he can henshin into other riders as well using these cards that he has.


Justify Fulldecade card on the left, kuuga card on the right


his signature rider kick thingamagig (called final attack ride) reminds me a bit of den-o's rod form, where den-o would chuck the rod through a series of hexagonal shapey thingeys. decade does his kick through a series of card shapey thingeys. its really quite awesome.


final attack rider

its way too early to tell whats going on, as in who the bad guys are. seems like someone's been going around the other riders' world telling them that an evil rider called decade is gonna turn up and destroy their worlds so when he does turn up, all the riders start to attack him. but in the end he saves everyone and their worlds anyway. so i guess i'll just have to wait and see. anyone wanna wait and see with me?


Saturday, March 28, 2009

Mr Manhattan



Nope, I don't get it either.

Monday, March 23, 2009

it's been a while since i properly finished my tertiary education. and i'm wondering whether i should get off my bum and start to properly look for a job. i mean, a month or 2 at home doing nothing is certainly nice but i cant help feeling like my brain is going rusty from the lack of doing brain challenging activities. sure, watching poorly translated kamen rider dvds require an enormous amount of brain power but it totally falls short to the daily neuron stimulations i encountered during my uni days.


speaking of stimulations, have you ever felt the need to touch something after you've taken a look at it? case in point. went to my cousin's house warming on saturday. they took out their wedding photos (they got married on the 31st of January this year). and the photo paper of the, well, photos, looked textured and i just had to touch it to see whether the feel of the thing matches what i'm seeing. same goes for all of the albums that they took out. awesome isnt it? Multisensory Aesthetic Experience (mae).

mae is a band i've been listening to for quite a while. their music is really pretty. why are they multisensory? because they have these little pictures in their cd booklet and you're supposed to look at the pictures while you listen to the songs. cool huh? although i never really do that whole multisensory thing because lets face it, how long can you stare at a non-moving picture. my attention span just wont permit it.

isnt it just an awesome concept though? imagine if you could capture not just the sights and sounds, but the smell, taste, and basically the feel of a moment. wouldnt it be awesome, if years down the road, you'd be able to let your kids smell the rain at your wedding, or have a taste of your wedding cake? hmm, fancy that.



on to the subject of cakes and the like. i'm off to bake a pudding. apparently my sister dreamt i made queens pudding a few nights ago which is her brain telling her i havent been making anything sweet for tea in a while now. my grandad seems to like it to so i should definitely bring some round for lunch.

oh, before i go. earth hour! have you signed up? switch off all your electrical appliances (lights, fans, pcs and the like) this saturday (28th March) from 8.30pm for a whole hour in support of Earth Hour. if KL Tower can join in why not us? it'll be nice to be engulfed in complete darkness once in a while eh? oh, and make sure you guys are somewhere familiar when you're in the dark or you'd probably bump into all sorts of things.


Thursday, March 05, 2009

I &hearts Mraz



went to his concert last night and i only have 1 word. adorkable. hehe. he's awesome. that tshirt he's wearing in the pic, it says i ♥ kl. how awesome is that?

the concert was at stadium negara and never have i seen it so full. it wasnt that full when inxs played there and it wasnt that full even when muse had their concert there. the air was just humid and stagnant (at least at the rock zone anyway). but it was well fun. he's an awesome singer (vocal range up there with mariah carey) and an awesome performer. even managed to put in bits of wonderwall (oasis's song) into one of his songs (you and i both methinks) which i thought was just awesome.

his band was equally awesome. the brass band (all 3 of them) were wearing malaysia's football jersey. you know, the black and yellow stripey one, instantly endearing themselves to everyone who went to the concert, despite the weird situation and the heavy criticism the football team is under right now.





he played all the songs that i hope he would except wordplay and curbside prophet. but songs like life is wonderful and dynamo volition more than made up for those songs' absence. he really had the crowd going. despite the (almost) unbearable heat. and he must've said thank you in every language known to the modern man.

all in all he's worthy of every 'awesome' in this post and certainly more. right at the end he said it certainly wont be their last visit to malaysia. i'm really counting on that.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

help the aged


greetings earthlings!!


after 42 days, i finally found the energy to rant. that surely is a sign that i'm getting old right? before, i had so much life in me that i'd blog/rant about pretty much anything. nowadays, i could full well have met the prime minister and still manage to skip the blogging/ranting.

another, very obvious sign of getting old is when you put different shoes on. which was exactly what happened to me 2 days ago. we (me, mum, and sisters) were supposed to catch Puteri Gunung Ledang the Musical when i decided to wear my sister's shoes which went so well with my outfit (that and i cant be bothered to look for my own shoes). obviously, my size 8/9 feet (huge arent they?) felt really uncomfortable in my sister's size 6 shoes (how i manage to even fit in them is really a mystery in itself). so i decided to take them off during the ride there.

when we got to istana budaya, dude dropped off me and mum near the entrance so she could go look for parking with the other 2 girls. i quickly put my (or rather, my sister's) shoes on, and got out the car. here's how it went after dude drove off and i took 2 steps:

me : gyah! (pause in disbelief) mama!! look at my shoes!!
mum: khairun nisaa.. macam mane awak boleh pakai kasut sebelah lain sebelah lain?
me: ntah. kite main sarung je tadi.
mum: ha, padan la muke. try and call your along.
me: can i use your phone?
mum: (exasperated) go on then. try speed dial 4.
me: (tried speed dial 4 but stopped when my phone rang. dialled dude's number while running after car)
nurul: hello?
me: nurul, get along to stop the car. i sarung the wrong shoe on.
nurul: (speaking very slowly) ape? how did you pakai the wrong one?
me: does it matter? suro je la along stop. (still chasing after the car)

the car stopped and after about a minute of all out running, i got to the car, put the correct shoe on amidst the 'you joker' and the 'how did you manage to pakai the wrong kasut?', and walked back, very uncomfortably, to where mum was. the 3 hours that i had to spend in those shoes resulted in blisters which hurt up till now.

so, moral of the story, you cant avoid getting old. but what you can avoid is, wearing shoes that are too small for your feet, no matter how well they go with your outfit.

onto the real blog worthy part. puteri gunung ledang the musical!! i was pleasantly surprised during the show. lets face it though, the only musical theatre experience that i have are the school musical i was involved in (lighting crew, christmas production of Oliver Twist) and the tonnes of anime derived musicals (Prince of Tennis Musicals and Bleach Musicals). it really didnt take much to pleasantly surprise me. to tell you the truth, i fell in love with the show right at the beginning when the announcer said that there'll be pyrotechnics involved.

aside the awesome fireworks, i have never seen (or heard) a man hold a note for what must've been a full minute or possibly more. that man is stephen rahman-hughes (the dude who plays hang tuah). 2 words. massive lungs. naturally, when i got home, i just had to google him. turns out, he's actually 1 and a half a person, being, according to wikipedia, "half english, half pakistani and half malaysian". bwahaha. he's awesome. anyone who's made of three halves is a tick in my book.

eeyaa~ thats enough for now. told you i'm getting old. its 1.40am and i can hardly keep my eyes open. back when i was younger, i could stay up all night and still manage to concentrate in class.

well then, bye now!

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

1st post of 2009

meet momotarosu.












he's an imagin.

i had a dream about him two days ago.

the two of us went to some kind of matsuri and the entire dream was in japanese.

i think he was my boyfriend.

weird huh?

anyway, minna-sama,

あけましておめでとうございます <-- HAPPY NEW YEAR

v(^-^)