Dong Dong Qiang!

Family reunions during festive seasons, definitely on my top ten list of favourite moments.

The simplicity of homemade food made lunch very enjoyable, and so I went for second and third helpings. However, I would say that the best part of it was having the meal with my fellow cousins, who came back from different regions of the country just to celebrate the occasion.

Stir-fried assorted mushrooms and peas.

Steamed kampung chicken.

Fried fish in sweet & sour sauce.

Chicken rendang.

Some black pepper stewed meat.

A type of shellfish, known as lala, cooked with dried shrimps.

Fish & prawn paste wrapped in wonton skin.

And the rest of our lunch served on the common table.

Second day of Chinese New Year was spent at Genting Highlands, and the initial plan was to use the cable-car to reach the top instead of driving there. However, Mr. Driver missed a turn and we ended up at the Genting Skyway at Awana, which was not operating when we were there. We continued our journey in the family car, and was fortunate enough as we saw the Chin Swee Temple on the way and decided to pay a visit.

The weather was quite cold, but I would say that addition of mist made the temple visit seem as if we were in China, and I really like that.

And these were taken indoors.

We got hungry, so we went to The Bakery to get some nice pastries!

Strawberry cheese cupcake, I like, I like, I like!

Hot chicken pie!

Onion and ham quiche, yum.

All in all, Chinese New Year this year was pure superbness.

Addition To The Collection

Homecomings. My snowglobes. Teehee!

Addition to my collection.

This one is given by Ashley, who came to visit after her AFS High School Exchange Program in Italy. The snow globe's from Rome!

This one from Heidelberg, Germany, is at least the size of my fist.

The bigger, the better - my favourite! My brother got it when he was in Barcelona, the second largest city in Spain. Sparkle sparkle, hee.

The Red Fortress. From Alhambra, Spain. It was a palace back then. The little monument in the globe is the Alhambra itself, while the others around it are historical places in Spain.

In Spain, he visited the bull-fighting ring and got this for me. Barcino - Mosaic Animal Collection. Miniature bull inside is made out of mosaic tiles, obviously.

Tadaa. Surprise! Teddy bears and soft toys are not supposed to be included in my collection, but as far as I can remember, I seem to receive many from the people I love since my tenth birthday. So I decided that they do deserve to sit in the display shelf, proud and happy to be mine.

Love this one! Apparently, this is a beer bear for some reasons that I am not too sure myself. In the paper tag above, icons of beer mugs are used to describe the place of where my bear came from. Not an alcoholic, I hope.

Presents, presents, presents. Who doesn't want them?

Thankful, thankful, thankful? Yes I am, yes I am, yes I am.

p.s. Have a happy Chinese New Year!

Random Things: Day #1

Walking down the black tar road towards the entrance of the place, I see people of all kinds.

A dude munching on his late breakfast, dragging his feet while others hurriedly walked towards their destination.

A petite lady clinging onto the arms of her tall friend, as he carried her heavy books with his free arm.

Then, a yellow bus stopped directly in front of the entrance. As the passengers scurried out of the vehicle, they chatted and laughed, obviously excited about a new day.

It is then, when I decided that my new hobby would be watching people. I shall learn how to grow as I witness their growth.

During lunch, I met a few friends (Kenneth, Lucas, Matthew, Subrash) who came all the way from another town to catch up with their friend, Pravin. My classmates, Abi and Sue Yinn, were with me. After the bunch of people waved goodbye and left us to our remaining lunch, I couldn't remember whether it was Abi or Sue Yinn who exclaimed in surprise, but one of them said that they have never met someone who was taller than David before this. This David we know is pretty tall, but since Subrash paid a visit and reminded me of his distinct height, I realized that there are many things and people that I've yet to discover and meet. And not one of them would be a duplicate of the other.

There are no limits to how one can grow, whether physically, mentally or emotionally.

Yesterday, catching up with Soon Yie, Geraldine and Loges was awesome. For the first time in my life, I played Para Para Paradise at the arcade. Fun fun fun! And we actually went into the glass capsule-like booth for karaoke at Green Box.

Trying something new brings no harm, as long as the nature of that something does not harm oneself.

I guess that there is so much to learn out there, therefore I wish myself all the best in deciphering this coded life.

p.s. Happy birthday, Sue Yinn! And congratulations to David, the new Class Representative of Class L1 2010.

This Is Totally Last Year

With RM15.00 in my purse to purchase the ticket, I managed to capture these photographs with my mobile phone camera in just an hour. Too bad for the lousy quality, but these were the least it could offer.

This is the event booklet cover; done by fans, for fans.

And these are the 19 shots that I got as a result from the one hour I spent at the Sunway Convention Centre:

To be frank and honest, I did not know the origins of more than half the characters portrayed by these enthusiastic costume players. I would not dare to call myself a fan, but I truly admire the Japanese workpieces.

To think about it, I was once so attracted to the beauty of animations that I had tried learning to draw them by myself. Indeed, it was fun. That was once upon a time, I would say. Do not get me wrong though. My interests in these areas are not gone, but I must admit that there are many things out there that I prefer to explore. Yes, this may seem to be the end of manga drawing for me, but who knows?

Maybe, just maybe, you can find them alive in some random pages of my college notebooks. Just the heads, and I hope that's not too disappointing. To master the art of drawing the whole anatomy of a character proportionately is by far the most challenging task to do in manga drawing. I think.

Well, duh, Joyce. Duh.

Totally last year, but the passion was there nevertheless.

Happy 2010 for now,

Joyce.