They are out, out, OUT!!

Who? Jess and Lani of course! It was childish, but I actually pumped my fist undignifiedly when Allan Wu announced their elimination. Of course, I'm talking about the Amazing Race Asia 4. I've been a sucker for the Amazing Race Asia Season 4. It was because one of the Malaysian teams are Sarawakians, and we support our home team hehehe.

There are 10 teams participating in the race, and ALL of them, EXCEPT the Malaysian teams, had a member who are some sort of local celebrities in their home countries. I'm serious. You can check the wikipedia page. But despite the lack of celebrity presence in the Malaysian team, which suits me fine, they had performed remarkably well. If there had been a 'Miss Congeniality' award, either of the Malaysian teams would win it.

Now, let's break down to my favorite moments. These are the two Malaysian teams:

Ivan and Hilda, married. The Sarawakian team.And Ethan and Khairie, friends.

I started out rooting for Ivan and Hilda just because, but they were eliminated at the end of leg 6, which broke my heart a little, but then the other Malaysian team are still in it. I loved that episode in New Zealand when Ethan became the sheep whisperer. I laughed so hard. xD These two can be so funny together. They were eventually eliminated in leg 8, ending at 5th position. But because Ethan and Khairie are good friends with the Singaporean team, I started supporting them too. Michelle and Claire are now in the top 3, so you know who I'm rooting for!

Despite their elimination, I must say that I'm quite proud of their performance, both to each other and with the other teams. You don't see them backstabbing or using dirty tactics to finish a task. They were only focused on themselves. And they are nice to the other teams when they crossed paths, even though they knew they were being last and the team passing them by is going to beat them to the finish line, they still managed to wish them luck. Sincerely. Which is a hard thing to do in their situation.

Needless to say, the Malaysian teams went down fighting, with their honour intact. I'm proud of you guys!! (The temple challenge in Korea clearly showed that both the Malaysian teams were put down as teams with 'most likely to team up with' and 'enviable relationship' by the other teams).

The Philipine teams are being represented by fake Filipinos. They have been proven to be good racers, and the Richards turned out not to be spoiled brats after all (as opposed to the Indian teams, surprisingly). But despite representing the Philipines, all four of the participants don't even live in the Philipines. The Richards are of Filipinos ethinicity to a certain degree, but were both raised in the United States, while Jess and Lani are Australians with Lani having some Filipino ethinicity. Team Philipines spoke with either an American accent or an Aussie accent. I bet the Filipinos are proud of them. I think the first thing I disliked about Jess & Lani is Lani's accent. I didn't know she was Aussie. But if she was, then what is she doing in the Amazing Race Asia?? They were proud, and they had mentioned very early on they were willing to do anything to win the race; lie, seduce, flirt, take advantage, ANYTHING. And they did. And they claimed to not know why the other teams didn't like them eventhough they have explicitly mentioned that they are friendly to everyone, but never went out to make friends. Still, I had no problem with that. But it was probably their little snide comments about the other teams throughout the race that annoyed me the most. They were already ahead, winning 1st for three legs. Do they really had to put down the other teams behind their backs so much? When they finished fourth in the race for top 3, I was aesthetic. They totally did not deserve to be in the final.

The Indian Teams! Where do I start? There are two Indian teams, the Indian Boys and the Indian Girls teams. All four of them have appeared on the local television there, which explains their good looks and spoiled personalities. You would have thought people from third world (developing) countries to be a little humble and hardworking, but obviously not these people! Sahil & Manas are hands down spoiled city boys. I agree with the father-daughter Indonesian team there. the girls are more hardworking though, but their cocky attitude made them hard to get along with by the non-Malaysian teams (because they dont have drama). Their rivalry with the Singapore team made me dislike them even more because I like the Singaporean team. overall, I think the Indian team were very un-Indian-like. They were so eager to prove they are not the typical Indian from the poverty-stricken country that they were practically acting like, uugh, God save us, Americans. Indians acting like Americans. Enough said.

The Indonesian teams. Such a contrast. The first father-daughter team. And a beauty queen and TV presenter. The former, a real underdog from the beginning, came out first to be in the top 3 in th leg before the finale. And the latter, was the first team to be eliminated. The father-daughter team is quite cute. They made it first in Korea because the father negotiated with taxi drivers to show them the road around. As opposed to Jess & Lani who refused to pay the expensive taxi cabs and got amazingly lost. It turned out to be a great factor to their win, and elimination hehehe.

I look forward to the finale. I'm supporting team Singapore now. How about you? xD

Ta'ra!

p/s I GOT AN A!!! AFTER 4 LEVELS I FINALLY GOT AN A!!!!! Ok that's it.

Feet Tea

It's not that I have smelly feet. It always depends on the type of footwear. And socks. It's a given that your feet would stink after a long day of work. The locker room would stink so bad you could literally taste it on your tongue. A certain bitterness. I am not against changing footwear after work, but some of these people leave their stinky socks in their lockers together with their smelly shoes, leaving a very pleasant frangrance!

My lockermates did that before; leaving their shoes and socks in the locker without so much as putting it in a shoebox. It made my apron smelled of their shoes eew! Don't they have common sense!? So, rather than complaining to them, I took the matters into my own hand; I prepared a shoe box in the locker for their use! At least, when they left, the shoe box would remain there for future idiots to take notice of!

And no, I wear my shoes straight from home, so the only thing I left in my locker is my apron and nametag. And a bottle of lotion I hardly use.

But when I get home, my feet are tired, battered and smelled of mouldy socks. I remember seeing my homie back in uni soaking her feet in saltwater. I thought, 'oh how nice'. The first time I tried it, I just wanted to soak my feet in something herby and nice. I remembered this episode on Oprah where the girl was told to soak her feet in tea to cure her smelly feet problem. Normally when they bother me, I just go and take a shower and scrub my feet. The smell can be persistent even after thorough washing and they won't completely disappear until the next morning.

Determined to relax my battered feet, I foraged around the kitchen and found some old tea bags. I doubt their taste is suitable for consumption now which made them great for foot soaking. I popped two teabags in a bucket and poured hot water. I let them seep for a while and then added tap water to the right temparature. Then I settled into my chair and soaked my feet. Ah~ bliss.

My feet emerged like prunes, but man did they not smell - of anything! Not even of earl grey! I do this about once a week or when I feel like it. It's a lot of work, you know. Carrying the bucket around. But then I found this article about the benefits of soaking feet in tea. Apparently if you soak your feet in tea for 30 minutes everyday for a week, you can keep smelly feet at bay for weeks to come. And from then on just do it once or twice a week to keep the symptoms at bay. The tannin in tea shrinks the sweat glands in your feet, causing your feet to sweat less, giving bacterias less surfaces to breed and cause smelly feet.

Like I said, I don't naturally have smelly feet. But I might just try it because it's so nice and relaxing hehehe!

Try it! You'll love it! Ta'ra!

Random Crap V

Since this is Random Crap V, yes it means there have been Random Crap I-IV proceeding it.

So, staying true to the title, let's start with work. After the initial outburst of work-related posts almost exactly one year ago, it became obvious to me quite quickly that I did not like to blog about work. Simply because work should stay where it is; at work. As you know, my work involves carrying a lot of books around. I do my best to transfer the weight to my thighs and butt, trying to spare my back as much as possible, but you get tired and you get lazy.

If you are worried about my back, thank you. But I assure you, they do not get as much abuse as my butt. I squat and lift from it a lot. From the rate I'm going, I'm surprised that it hasn't grown muscles down there yet!!

What irritate me so much is how, 7 times out of 10, each time I have a huge and heavy (huge does not necessary mean heavy, of course. Books with lots of pictures are heavier than text-only books) load in my arms, I will get customer inquiries looking for the most impossible book! SERIOUSLY! CAN'T YOU SEE THE HEAVY LOAD I'M CARRYING GLARING AT YOU!?

I went to bed at night and I couldn't sleep thinking at how irritated it made me. RAAWR!!

...

They speak so fast. Those Japanese. And I returned Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei because of the annoying faces. Go watch it yourself. It Irritated me just thinking about it. I thought the files were tampered with, because obviously 70% of the animes sold there are downloaded materials and so not original. So I returned it, and although having convinced by the guy that the anime was not tampered with, I insisted on changing it. I bought Black Butler instead. I always thought I'd end up watching it one day. Might as well be now. And I downloaded K-ON Season 2. After I did some porn transferring of course hehehehe.

Speaking of Japanese people, we finally met up with Ooshiro Sensei and her baby!

I have better pictures in my camera but so mafan to upload. Wakana-chan was also very excited to meet us hehehehe.

Earlier the same week we celecbrated Andou Sensei's xxth birthday.
He's always ready to humor us (also because I already confirmed with him that he's free after class that day so there's no getting out of it!).

And also, Kinokuniya's Annual Dinner! My Assistant Unit Chief is in the picture.

I'm sure you can pick him out hehehe.

A lot of things happened after I came back from Sabah it seems. Now if only I could get some homework done. Sighs.

Ta'ra!

I Went To Sabah. And Stuff.

I went to Sabah last weekend for my dad's old friend's daughter's wedding. This is my second visit to Sabah. I enjoyed my first time there immensely and I enjoyed this trip too.

My last dinner at home before I left for KK. That day was awesome. I stayed at home, cooked a total of three times and sat at home watching TV and eating. All day. Awesome. It was at the spur of the moment too. I suddenly decided that I wanted to eat meatballs. So I went down to Carrefour and bought some minced meat and spaghetti. Then I used all the leftover ingredients from my open house and made some awesome meatballs and put them in the spaghetti sauce. And TA-DA! Spaghetti meatballs!

The verdict? It's as good as it looks.

Anyway. I have been watching (listening) to anime these days (forefully). My interest in it has dissipated long ago and nowadays if not becasue of the prospect of failing JLPT, I wouldn't be putting myself through such torture. I selected anime of the right cast of characters, setting and timeline. To ensure I don't suddenly stun my sensei with vocabularies that would have made his grandfather proud. Since I don't like dramas, so I've chosen these two animes;

K-ON.

I could only take two episodes per day. I turned off the subtitles and let the words run wild. With subs I'll just end up reading. I've finally finished all 12 episodes. Only 2 OVAS left! Yay me! This is not an anime review blog so I shall not review it. I'll just say their Sawa-chan-sensei is my favorite character hehehe.

And Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei.

The guy at the store said that it's kinda old now, comparatively. But Ive been eyeing the manga at work you see, but I'm too lazy to read them (or have enough resources to start collecting. It's up to vol 7 now). And besides, I previewed the first ep on youtube. And aside from the slow start, I like the voice actor for the sensei hehehe. The art is fresh too hehe. The store only had a compilation of seasons 1-3 plus OVAS. So I have no choice but to swallow all 38 episodes eventually. I hope the story is interesting enough to keep me going.

When choosing these two animes, I chose those that I think are interesting enough to follow yet I don't really care enough for the storyline to want to know every single thing that was happening since I'll be watching them with subs off. With K-ON I only turned on the subs a few times on only 3 episodes. Just to the part that I was curious about. But so far I'm amazed at how easily I understand them and how much I understood if I just listened carefully. Thus, headphones are imperative.

Okay time to shower! Ta'ra!

Am I Invisible?

For two nights in a row, I was almost cut in the queue by bloody rude foreigners! Here's how!

Last night, after coming back from work, I stopped by McD Bukit Bintang for the triple cheese burger. As usual, it was crowded with tourists. After living here for four years, you become weary of their "rudeness". No, it's no longer a cultural thing. They were being rude. Don't let them make you think otherwise. If it's a dirty look you're given, it is a dirty look. End of story.

Anyway.

I was queuing. Like anyone should. Normally the queues at McDs go quite fast because the person who takes your orders and the one who fulfills it are two different people. So basically there are two queues at each counter; order making and order taking. You go to order making first, and then order taking. So there I was, queueing. Suddenly, this big guy found himself in the order taking queue and was surprised that he didn't get served. After a while he realized he was in the wrong queue and started standing next to the guy in front of me! So I glared.

And glared and glared. He didn't take the hint.

Since I was fourth in line, I was quite curious to see if
1) he will seriously jump queue in front of me
2) knowing that, will the staff serve him first, and
3) If I was patient enough to wait until I humiliate him.

I was third in line.

Pissed, mainly because I'm hungry, tired and am generally pissed at being treated like crap by foreigners at work, I approached him. Remember, he was standing too closely to the guy in front of me.
Me: Excuse me, are you with them? *points to an Arab looking couple in front of the guy in front of me*
Guy: No.
Me: Then you're cutting queue.
Guy: *looked down at me and talking as if yes, I acknowledge you, but I see no problem in standing here anyway* You are after him, right? *indicating the guy in front of me*
Me: Yes, and the back of the line to you.

My words were sharp and clear and he obliged, BY STANDING BEHIND ME! Seriously, which country is this guy from!? THERE ARE PEOPLE BEHIND ME! HE SHOULD BE BEHIND THE PEOPLE BEHIND ME! RAWR! He must have thought he's behind me so he should be after me, but he joined the queue wrongly so he should rightly be at the END OF THE LINE! But despite him being inappropriately close to me after that, I got my rightful place. It's up to the people behind me whether they wanted to put up with him.

I thought that was the end of it. Tonight I went to KFC. KFC has a terrible waiting time because they use the same staff to take and fulfill orders. But I was quite full and I just wanted a snack so I didnt mind the wait. KFC has one of the stupidest system despite this being one of the busiest outlets. But I am used to the stupidity and I was not hungry. And I had a drink to keep me occupied.

KFC had four counters and only two counters, the two at the ends that are open. The two in the middle are perpetually closed. Like I said, stupidity. So there I was, in the queue.I started off being fifth in line. The people at the head of both queues happened to be same group, so while they occupied both counters, once the one in my queue had finished taking his orders, his friend on the other queue canceled, which prompted a cursing frenzy from the tired staffs. I totally understand. And yes, they were foreigners of caucasian looking people who do not speak good english.

Suddenly, a group of men, all with broad built and short cropped hair entered. at first a few of them stood at the closed counter looking up at the menu. After a while of asking for service, they were told (rather unpolitely) by the staff that the counter is closed. Dismayed, they started standing BESIDE THE PERSON IN FRONT OF ME, AGAIN! RAWR! I was second in line damn you!

Again, since this guy was the same height as me, I glared at him. If my eyes could shoot lasers he would have had two holes in place of eyes that time. The people in front of me were locals; father and son. the foreigner was bretahing down their necks and they were getting uncomfortable. It's obvious they wanted to cut queue and it was me, AGAIN! SERIOUSLY, AM I INVISIBLE!?

You don't think I'm going to stay quiet did you? Of course not!

Me: Excuse me sir, there is a queue.
Guy: Well there was this thing with the counter.
Me: RIGHT! (I DONT CARE). *GLARE*

He slunk away to the back.

You think a small (comparatively) local girl like me would be intimidated by your foreigner superiority complex?? YOU WISH! If you think that Malaysians are just like some third-world country people bent on extorting money from rich foreigners, then you are wrong. Those are just the taxi drivers. There are plenty of well-educated proud Sarawakians along the streets of KL and we are not to be bullied and intimidated. You, sirs, have picked on the wrong Malaysian.

If I hadn't stood up for myself and let these bastards cut me in queue I would cause a scene somewhere along the lines of:

This guy jumped the line! I was here first! What? YOU HAVEN'T EATEN IN TEN YEARS IS IT!?

I would like to see how they would have reacted to that.

I do admit that Malaysians in general has a too laid back attitude when it comes to foreigners being rude to them. They don't want trouble, they say. Well bullshit! I've had enough of being bullied by the likes of you people who look down on us! If our country is not good enough for you, then WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU HERE ANYWAY!? GO BACK TO WHICHEVER HELLHOLE YOU CAME FROM! RAWR!

Being corteous is too hard? Indeed it is.

Ta'ra

Kanji Will Be The End of Me!

It's done. I registered. I paid. I'll be taking N3 and N4 both this end of the year. After I found out on the website that N3 and N4 are going to be in separate times, I pounced! I mean, I just have to register anyway, as long as I didn't pay it's not official. But I paid. I knew it was RM80 each, but in case I saw it wrongly and it's RM120 instead, I only asked for RM120. But I ended up paying RM160. Uugh.

Not surprisingly I am not the only one who registered for the N3 class but is taking N4 as a safety net. On last count my JLPT preparatory class had 8 people. I missed the last two classes on purpose (sleeping) mostly because I felt that the sensei wasn't really teaching us anything new. Outside students might find it useful, but for someone like me who is currently attending a course there, I'm better off asking my own class sensei.

But 7+7+14 pages of revision per week!?!? SERIOUSLY!? I'm already falling behind, needless to say. The grammar and vocabulary exercise are 1 page a day each, but the kanji is 2 pages a day and can be finished in 6 weeks. Because I have three months, I am taking my time on purpose. When I first got the kanji exercise book, I found that there are only about 300+ kanji inside it. N3 has 600 basic kanji, so where did the other 300 went? Well apparently the other 300 are all N4 kanji. Therefore studying for N3 assumes that you are acquianted with the N4 kanjis as well.

600 kanjis...I'm having problems with just 10 kanjis a week T_T. Kanji will be the end of me.

Ta'ra!

Redang Trip

I know I said I would post up pictures two days ago, but I got lazy. Anyway, here we go. From KL we took the overnight bus to Kuala Terrengganu; a journey that would normally take 7 hours including rest stop, but was only 6 hours and 20 minutes (the driver drove like a madman). But despite arriving early, our ride was already waiting there for us. I arranged this trip through a travel agent and we were picked up by a sightseeing van (van persiaran that's typical of travel agencies). Throughout our trip, our land rides have always been punctual. So this is a very good travel agent and I reccomend it to everyone on their first trip to Redang! This is their website: http://www.pinganchorage.com.my/.

Between arriving at KT and getting to the jetty, we did nothing much but have breakfast and took a nap at the agency's backpackers' inn. Anyway, when we finally got to the jetty, we were greeted by this:
Yup, that's our boat. Not very big but everyone and everything fit in there, surprisingly. The left walkway actally leaned sideways and creaked like it was going to collapse anytime. When I first arrived, it freaked me out because I was walking freaking sideways! But surprisingly, when we returned from the island, it didnt bother me at all. I must have gotten my sea legs by then hehe.

When we arrived to our jetty, the operator said we have another 45 minutes before the boat leaves so we could go and have a look round first before we leave. Each resort operates their own boat in Redang so there's no issue of being left behind. So, while we waited, what else to do but...shop? xD


The jetty was littered with stalls selling souvenirs like these, in addition to t-shirts and island themed shirts. I bought a pair of colorful pants and a shirt to wear for our snorkelling trips and some souvenirs for people at work.

When it was time to board, the journey to Redang took about 45 minutes. It wasn't unpleasant, and I wasn't seasick, but it was incredibly boring. But we finally arrived!

It was almost noon by then so it was pretty hot. The boat was at the direction of the sun so I couldnt take a good picture of it. We got off the boat at a jetty by the beach, but we had to trek up the beach to where our resort is, and that's where they dumped our bags on the beach, which was quite thoughtful of them. Since we won't have to haul them all they way in the hot sun.

The legends are true. The beaches ARE BLUUUUUE!

After lunch we went snorkelling. My friend rented mask and life jacket while I only rented life jacket because I have my own mask. Snorkelling gear and snorkelling trips are all organized by the resort's Snokeling Center. xD

The first island we went to was THE BEST! It was my first time snorkelling and conditions couldn't have been better. The water wasn't too deep and the sun was shining brightly, giving great visibility. We were hauled to the snorkelling sites on an old fishing boat and it was...weird. But at least it has no barrier which means you can jump off the boat from whichever spot you like! Hahahaha.

The resort staff were very helpful. They told those who can't swim to leave last after they have prepared the floaters. My friend couldn't swim, so I had to wait as well. :P But unlike other resorts who just tossed the floaters out there for non-swimmers to cling to, they stayed and guided the floaters in addition to teaching them to swim. One of them is a man we now call Pakcik (Uncle). He's really not that that old, but with that overly tanned skin he might as well be.

Anyway, since my friend couldn't swim, I hung out around the floater alot, as he gave the hanger ons a tour of the coral reef. After some time, he dove down into the water and produced a large, black, and pointy S-shaped sea cucumber! I was freaked out! Not only did he raise it out of the water, he put it to his ear and said "hello? Hello?"

Me: "WTF IS THAT?!"
Pakcik: "It's a telephone. Hello? Hello? There's a call for you." puts the sea cucumber on the floater.
My friend and I screamed. You should have SEEN that thing! BIG BLACK POINTY! RAAWR.

It was the only time my friend who clung to the floater like her life depended on it, let go of it. I asked him again and again what it was, and he insisted that it was a telephone. It was hilarious, but at the same time freaky. After he was done freaking out everyone around him, he dove down and put back the sea cucumber on the sea floor.

On our last day he finally admitted that it was not a telephone, but a sea cucumber. In fact, the one that he held was a male and has a very fragile nature despite its hard exterior. It can die from just a simple cut.

This pic is from our last snorkelling trip. There was a sudden influx of people, so the fishing boat was not enough.We had to use this baot too. This boat couldn't go to the jetty, so everyone had to board from the beach. xD I asked Pakcik what the delay was about, he said the trip is canceled and we're going hiking instead. "With life jacket and snorkel?" He said yes. My friend stayed in the boat coz she was not only unable to swim, but is also afraid of the water. Sighs.

So we spend our days snorkelling and eating, what do we do at night? Why, we go sightseeing of course! Along our stretch of beach there are seven resorts. Our resort is at the end of the beach and we could easily walk to the four resort during high tide. But during low tide at night, we could go all the way to the end of the beach!

We met this sister in one of the neighbouring resorts. She works in the gift shop and was making a bracelet for her friend. We stood around admiring her work for a while and took pictures. She was seriously very good at it. She should sell her own bracelet instead of those manufactured ones in the shop!


On the second night Pakcik escorted us all the way to the end of the beach where we took pictures, had tea and snacks and talked about kueh lapis! IT WAS TOTALLY FUN! It wouldn't have happened if he hadn't tagged along with us because the bend that connects the two parts of the beach is dark and too dangerous for two girls to traverse alone. PAKCIK YOU'RE AWESOME!
Not only that, he has turtles for pets! YEAH!


Our resort may be the cheapest and the most minimum, but its strategically located at the end of the beach, above the rocks, which give you this kind of view 360 degrees. I left Redang with a heavy heart. I looked forward to going back to KL, but I did not enjoy the thought of going back to KT. It was a miserable place for me. I wanted to just go straight from KL to Redang.

One of the reasons was because we made a lot of new connections there. There was a group of students from PTPTL College during our trip and we met a Sarawakian and immediately hit it off. And then there was Pakcik who was one of those rare genuinely nice people out there. My friend sms'd him on the first day of fasting and he called back. It was funny because he was in the middle of shopping and I just blathered on about crap. He said the most words when he was going to hang up because he had to pay for his stuff hahahaha.

I am definitely planning to go back there next year! I don't know yet if I'll be staying at the same resort. Depending on my company, I may go to Laguna Redang instead of Redang Holiday, simply because the resort was cooler and has ice cream shops and coffee shops. But the beach is not for swimming as it is an active boating area. But I doubt we'll get the same sort of 'old friend' feeling with the staff. Whatever it may be, one thing is for certain; I am not going to take the bus there ever again! RAWR 7 hours is enough to drive anyone crazy, especially with a selfish and inconsiderate bitch sitting in front of you! I'm flying there next time around.

I'll post up more pictures in facebook. Ta'ra!

p/s While doing this post, I did the dishes, cleaned the table, cleaned the stove, and had dinner. Just goes to show how low my interest in blogging has become.

p/s/s My feet was so tired last night that I decided that I was going to soak it in some relaxing concoction. At first I thought of buying some salt from the Body Shop, but then I didn't want to spend any money on it so I thought of maybe tea? I found some old earl greys in the pantry and used two tea bags. It took a while to get the temperature right, but it was so worth it! I soaked my feet while watching CSI, so it was about 45-50 minutes, which I think is really more than enough. But it was SOO relaxing! Not only that, when I took out my feet, they did not smell of earl grey! Hahaha. In fact, they didn't smell of anything at all! Usually even after I shower there will always be a faint lingering of damp socky smell. If I am bothered I would put foot cream, but after the tea, the smell was completely gone! Tea is deodorizing. I knew that, but to see it worked is amazing! xD So if you have smelly feet or you just want to relax your feet cheaply, just use the cheapest tea you can find and soak your feet in them. You'll get fresh feet for sure! XD