Going back to Shanghai

Going back to Shanghai for few days! Yay!

I am debating with myself, should I bring Lee Kai Fu's 世界因你不同 to continue finish reading it, or the novel I bought in KL's mph "Dear John".

Dim leh???  Probably Dear John because it is lighter, and because I want to slowly read this great book written by LKF. Some of his childhood stories made me laugh even when I was bangsai-ing.... haha~~

Hooray~~~~~

Warming Drawer

I am very 孤陋寡闻，only today I realized the existence of such appliances, named "warming drawer". Quote from a website "Warming drawers are the perfect solution for keeping dishes warm while you're waiting for guests to arrive or putting the finishing touches on the rest of the meal. "

They are not cheap!

Look at that! It's really a perfect solution to keep your dishes warm while waiting for your other dishes to complete cooking eh? For me, I always have this problem -- i like to cook, then only take shower before eating the meal. So by the time I finished the shower, some of the dishes are already turned cold, which I really don't like. But there's no way for me to eat first and then shower later because that will mean I have to shower much later - 2 hours after the meal.
 
I want this "toy" when we have our own house next time. It's such a cool feature!

Inception

I had so much expectation towards this movie Inception after I saw its trailer 2 weeks before it's show time.

I went for a movie last night, to watch Inception.

The outcome --- not quite I expected. First of all, the movie have this jap guy right called Saito - without subtitle of the movie in the cinema (I miss those english movie with subtitles in china and in KL), sometimes I don't know what is he talking about with his strong accent. And the dying father of Fischer, the last word he muttered "disappointed....." the "....." is so important, but again, I can't hear it, neither can Jay nor my English speaking friend. Arghh... a bit frustrated on that part.

The whole movie is too "intelligent". I can't understand some of the part, like the part Cobb told Mal they did grow old together.. and the 50 years they spent in their dream, then how come they not old one?? OMG, it's killing my brain cells so much. I have to come back home and googled for "inception explained" and got some of the answers (not all).

Overall, I don't quite like it lah. It's not my cup of tea I guess. I like to watch something I can understand with my own intelligent level. But I get to know that the director of this movie Christopher Nolan, he himself have this experience and fantasy to control his own dreams since he is young. But have to admit his plot is very very sci-fic loh. And the "effect" is very "real" in some part. I like it when Arthur walks in the hotel upside down and sideways. Hehehe... very cool. :p

Recently also watched Clash of Titans (downloaded). I find it quite nice. Not super nice, but not that bad also lah. I don't know why most chinese in China do not like the movie. They said the movie very childish. I find it quite OK, i will give it 6.5 out of 10 loh. haha.. The chinese only give 4-5. I also "accidentally" watched andy lau's 未来警察, because it is starred by Andy Lau, I thought it is a nice movie. But I was totally, absolutely, miserably disappointed by the whole movie. It's cheap, childish, and totally without nice graphic effect except for Andy Lau's police outfit. Damn, wasted my 1.5 hour. I was very angry after I watched it.

Composting

Just get to learn new vocab as I researching on composting method:

- straw: 稻草
- bark: 树皮
- sawdust: 木屑
- manure: 肥料

And apparently coffee grounds contain high level of nitrogen which worms will find it tasty..

And then, there are those specialize compost bin for sale one, and they are not cheap. This is so new to me.

Have a little faith

I have become Mitch Albom's reader after my dad passed away in 2008. His books soothe me in some ways, not spiritually, just something I cannot explain. And also most of his stories are true stories, real life stories.

I bought this book in Chicago Airport last year, when I was transitting the flight to Virginia to meet my family for the vacation. And I only get to read it early this month. I finished the book this morning, as usual, his book always leave me with teary eyes at the end. I am easily touched by emotional sentences in the book, especially when it is death related, because every death related incident made me think of my dad, and I miss him so much, still do, every single day.

At first glance, it is a book of religions. After my dad passed away, I believe in no religion at all, for if something so powerful named God, I am sure he wouldn't make somebody as nice a person as my dad to leave this world so abruptly. This is unfair, and I still hold grudges towards Him (if he is out there). I don't care if I go to hell after I died, because I am losing faith that there is a Heaven anyway. Anyway, why do I still buy this book even though at first glance it is about religions? Because I believe in Mitch Albom the writer. Well, he proves me right again, this is aother good book written by him, after Tuesdays with Morrie. I have 5 of his books, and I still think Tuesdays with Morrie is still my favorite. I have to "murder" 2 tissue papers when I read the last chapters. It is that moving.

Just like to share some of the good books I read recently, now that I have so much time on hand for reading.

My first attempt on muffins

My first attempt on muffin. Turns out quite good and Jay is loving it:) It is his birthday today. This is his birthday cake so to say:)

Making muffin here is so easy, they already premix some ingredient and sell it in pack, u just need to add 2 eggs, some water, and some blueberry:) And baking time needed is only less than 20 minutes.

I want to learn how to bake cake next!

The Christmas List

I haven't had this feeling for very long time, too long that I don't even remember when was the last time - to finish a book within a day because I simply can't get my hands and eyes off it. I borrowed "The Christmas List" from library yesterday, and I was having such a good time reading it. At some chapters, i will laugh out all loud, some chapters I will laugh cynically, and towards the end of the chapters, I was crying and Jay was so worried he asked me what am I reading, is everything OK?

This is a book of love, friendship, father & son, betrayal, redemption and repention, etc. Oh.. so emotionally rich! Towards the end of the chapters, I was first crying because I was feeling so romantic and touched, then I cried because I felt sad because his wife is dying, then I cried because I felt happy for him that he has changed to a better man!

I am seriously thinking of buying this book to keep. Jay said I crazy, it will just collect dust on our bookshelve and I won't even read it second time. Maybe he is right. Anyway, I can picture how great a movie will the plot from this book make. Not sure if they made it into movie before?

bui bui's "new" bike

Bui Bui's "new" bike. We bought used one advertized online. He joined a gym lately, the gym's location is not very far, not within walking distance either, so, driving is a waste and parking is a hassle. Instead, biking is the best option. But we very giamsiap on spending. New immigrant mah, get used one loh. It is selling for $100. It took us forever to get this bike fit into our car, and at the end, scratches our baby (our honda) a bit on the trunk. Bad boy! It had better worth all the effort in getting it. It is now sitting in our store-room. Bui Bui is lazy, he should have brought it to pump air in the gas station nearby, but instead, he goes to take a nap. He very 吊儿郎当 sometimes.

In order to bike "legally", he also made an attempt to buy a new helmet, and a new lock. We were so startled when we went into the biking store, it has so many biking related stuff that we will never even think of. Sports is a crazy industry and good business in BC. 

The used bike, as advertized, it is a "18-speed Sportek "Mud Dawg" Full Suspension with Shimano Altus parts". Without the stickers though.

It's a bright sunny day @ Stanely Park

We didn't have a swim suit when we visited Stanley Park yesterday (I totally forgotten Stanley Park has a beach), so we just chilling under a big tree, and playing with jay's phone's camera;)

new hobby

I bought chives and superhot chilli (指天椒) and transplanted them to small pot at my balcony today. Jay commented sarcastically "let's see how long will my honey's new hobby last this time". Hmmmmm....

I forgot to get any furtilizer... yiu.... have to go back to the farm again?

Learnt new vocab

I am constantly learning new vocabulary here (shy shy...):

I thought all 地毯 is called carpet. I didn't know the smaller ones are called rug until now.

I thought the small drawer next to bed is called drawer, but it is actually called "night stand".

I thought all tables are called table, i didn't know there's coffee table, tv stand (yah i considered this table too), and dining table.

And then, I thought chairs are chairs. I didn't know there's a type called "ghost chair", and I thought it is very scary. Then only I realized ghost chair is just those chairs very plastic feel, almost transparent, maybe that's why it is called ghost chair.

And then, I didn't know 烤 is broil. I didn't even know the word "broil" existed before this. Luckily we brought a dictionary over. So I checked it out and realized I have the chicken "baked" instead of "broiled" for past 5 minutes, so, I quickly change the setting to broil and have the wonderful broiled chicken. haha.

I have to say I am a bit lost here still. I really miss Shanghai a lot. Miss the food, miss the cheap books, miss the cheap stuff, miss the taobao.com, miss amazon.cn, miss sooooooo many things. wooo...wooo...... Miss communicating people in pure mandarin. sei mei?

One lazy afternoon at Granville Island

All the troubles seem so far away when you have such beautiful day.

Canada Day

Tomorrow, July 1st, is Canada Day. Holiday.

National Day for Canada. (Don't ask me how many years it went independent, so memalukan to say, I also don't remember how many years has Malaysia went independent)

Strange that I don't see many houses or cars hang the national flags... Maybe here not "heng" this??

I am so sleepy~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

hey, I miss Shanghai!!!!! I love Shanghai!!! It took me 2 years+ to fall in love with Shanghai, will it take me same amount of time to switch to love Canada??? Sometimes I feel so pathetic to be a Malaysian -- pardon me and forgive me but I have to say this out loud - I feel I am a second citizen in everywhere in this world, including my own country! But to be honest, I don't feel so "second" in China at all. In China, we foreigners are treated so equally with the rest of the chinese people, it makes us feel so comfortable in that sense without any "discrimination". They don't have special discount for locals in buying houses regardless your skin color (eh-hemmm..); they don't have certain bank acount or termed deposit for certain kind of people (eh-hemmm-hemmmmmm!!!); they don't have the kind of different attitude in police station in treating different skin color people (eh-hemm-hemmm-hemmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!).

When can I fall in love with my own country without feeling depressed???

p/s: I feel depressed recently because my sister got bullied at "polis" station because of the accident involved with a "ah-hem" race and we chinese race. The polis man immediately have that kind of look on their face that shows "must be the ah-hem race correct, chinese is at wrong". WTF is this???? Still got 天理 in our country or not??? This is totally high-level-discrimination!!!!!! The very truth is, the ah-hem race is at fault because his stupid motorbike hit my sister car because he still goes at red light and there are witnesses and the polis still want to say the guy is right and my sister is wrong! WTF is wrong with our country?

Hmm...

I am so going to watch Sex and the City 2!!!!!!

And, just discovered iGoogle, it is cool! The search page now is empowered with your unique preference style.

Someitmes I wonder, what were we doing when we were without internet and handphone last time?

Fuzzy Wuzzy

I bought a new "gadget" today.

You know how I cannot stand the dust on the table surface? Today while I shop at a supermarket, i saw this thing called "Fuzzy Wuzzy". It is a unique double sided multi purpose mitt, that allows you to clean the dust easily. And then the other good thing is, it is machine washable - again, this is environmental friendly and economical eh?

Mine is the pink one. hehe. Can you see the BEFORE and AFTER effect?

I didn't know it sells so cheap on Amazon. I paid like 5.99 to get this leh... and I am so surprised it only sells 0.99 at amazon. eee....

This baby really sweep away the dust so easily and leave the surface so clean and smooth. I guess the dust are all trapped in the strip like thing on this fuzzy wuzzy thing.

Better than 鸡毛扫？=）

老爸，你也在听吗？

以前就觉得bui bui在很多方面很像我父亲。今天，他在youtube播放了很多他喜欢的老歌--猫王的"only you", "love you tender", "always on my mind", John Lennon's "Imagine", Simon & Gafunker "Sound of Silence"... 听着这些老歌，让我很是想念我的父亲。听着听着，眼眶湿湿的...

bui bui 说他很喜欢这类老歌。连这一点都像我父亲，不爱死他是不行的了...

不知道我的父亲这时候是不是也在天国享受着这一些老歌，还是他已在tea-time with Elvis up there???

My new toy - Vacuum cleaner!

I bought a new toy today -- it is a vacuum cleaner! I feel very happy when I bought it, and it suddenly hits me to realize that... am I 100% silai nowadays? I can feel very happy easily if I bought a useful household items, a nice oven plate, or even a handy rice container can make my day. Geez.... .....

Anyway, I am now charging the toy now. It is a cordless, bagless, stick broom type of vacuum cleaner. It is light, small and can fit into store-room closet perfectly. I didn't know the brand name before this, it is Oreck. But I came back yesterday and google for its review, seems pretty decent. So, I went back to buy it today. The indian seller gave me a free-gift. He wanted to give me a watch, it is very a cheap watch. I have so many nice watches I have no time to wear them, and u expect me to wear those china-made watch meh? So, I boldly asked him if he can give me other same value gift or not, I don't need a watch. At the end, he gave me a hand sanitizer liquid. Hehehe... this is much better. See? I am happy again for this liquid... Geez..... .....

I will try it on tomorrow. Hopefully it meets my expectation. My expectation is not high -- i want it light and no restriction for me to move around, so cordless it is; I want it to be able to convert to crevice tool to pick up dust in between sofa's cusion, this one can do, so should be alright; I want it to be economical and I don't want to keep buying bags to replace bag, so this one is bagless, I am glad. I just need it to work on the floor and some rugs, and keep my house clean. This expectation is minimum right? The dust is driving me crazy. I cannot stand to see dust lying on the surface, it drives me crazy and I will mumble whole day. Jay kept asking, "Have u taken your medicine, Martha?" [if you watched "24 hours", you will catch this line.. martha was president logan's wife, and she was mentally ill, at least that is what Logan believed, haha]. And I will answer him back, "are you my lover Aaron or u are stupid Logan?" [Aaron is Logan's body guard, but he became martha's lover at the end. Haha...]

We met a guy on the lift when coming back just now. He wished me "happy sweeping"... I really look like a silai I guess. SOB!

Our cell phone package - How I get "con" into subscribing to iPhone

We got our cell phone packaged gao tim on Day 2. I didn't do a good home work on this, so, I just go for what everybody says a good phone company - Rogers. It is just like Maxis in Malaysia.

We visited the Rogers at Downtown inside the Pacific Center, the system was down for more than 2 hours, so by the time after our dinner, it was still not able to sign us in. The salesman suggested us to go to another nearby branch, I think it was on robson street or somewhere there. So, we went. At the Pacific Center, both Jay and I have made up our mind to just subscribed to the minimum package, they have this thing called "couple plan". Then when we reached the robson st. branch, this lady, her 口才 is damn good, she ignited my passion for the iPhone with their promotional plan! I think the store got ghost also, coz it blinded my mind, I signed up for the iPhone package, which tight me up for the next 3 years. 3 years leh~~~~~ after I came out of the store, only I realized 3 years is a hell long time - after 3 years, I can be citizen already if I want to! So, it is a damn long time! But the lady is very good, she is very helpful, very passionate about her job. And she stayed up til 10pm that night just to sign us up (their working hour is supposing til 7pm only). we really appreciate for her help, even though she successfully "con" me into another iPhone customer.

But.... iPhone is really a great phone!! Lots of application is very user friendly in daily life. I love it, although the "3 years" thing is very haunting... anyway, what is done, is done.

We both signed up for 3 years deal, both got a new phone (free if u signed up for 3 years). Jay didn't get an iPhone, in fact, he didn't care about phone, he is fine as long as people can find him on phone or make phone calls. He got the LG again (yes, again... he is such a LG man), and the phone has the push-email function, so whenever he received an email, his phone will beep.

So, this is our cell phone package hunting (or, hunted) experience. Phone package here in Canada is so inhumanely high. In china, my phone bill per month seldom exceed 150 yuan (that is like 24 CDN dollar). But over here, my phone bill each month, minimum is 70 cdn dollar!!! (before blardy tax some more ok). I really miss shanghai....

Would I stay here for the next 3 years???

p/s: It has been a while I get pushed by pedestrian here. In Shanghai, I get pushed everytime I am walking on the street. I kinda miss the pushiness over there... Help~~~~~~

Big Ticket Item - Car

As soon as we arrived, we realized we needed a car. We are not those energetic students anymore, can figure out where to take bus. Unlike in Shanghai where subway can practically brings u to anywhere u wanted to go, and for places where subway cannot reach, you can always take a cab. It's totally totally different here. So, we need a car. (I really miss the subway-life in Shanghai... so convenient... I think I am a very subway-girl... :s)

My good fren Hosea is very kind to lend us his car while he goes to work. So, we take his car to shop around car dealer shop. Our aim is to get a used car. If we were to sell it off again in a year's time, it won't depreciate that much. We have test-drove toyota matrix, honda civic, and toyota corolla. Matrix is quite spacious inside, but the engine is very loud, yes we know this version engine is quite loud, but it is very uncomfortably loud, so we passed that one. The corolla is in orangy red color, Jay doesn't like it, and I also think the resell value could be affected given this strange color, even though its mileage is very low, so we gave it a passed as well.. so, at the end, we bought the Honda Civic, it's blue color - Jay's favorite color, and it's very comfortable. Both of us test-drove it (the car dealer very scared of me, coz i so used to Malaysia road system, i drove very to the right side... could have hit the right lane car one... til today I still have this issue... dim suen??), we both love it, the only disadvantage it has is its mileage is very high, well, nothing is perfect in this world. We feel it has some connection to us, like we knew him very long time like that. So, this is yuen fen, we bought it. I bargain for it, wanted to bargain for 500 off, at the end only get 350 off... ok lah, better than nothing. The car salesman is a Korean guy, can see he very happy to make this deal. While we sigining the paper, the toyota guy kept calling my handphone... yew... so hungry meh these salesmen? So, we paid the money in cash (what to do? new immigrant, no cheque book yet, no credit card yet), gao dim the insurance in 15 minutes (damn expensive the insurance here!! and I already got 40+% off because I hold canadian driver license for more than 10 years, luckily I got it renewed on last trip), and drove the new baby back the same day. We are quite efficient in buying car. Haha...

Do you like it?:) So, this is our first big ticket item - Honda Civid used car - got it on Day 3.

p/s: by the way, car dealer here is very strange, they can sell new car (say authorised car dealer for toyota), and at the same time carries different brand of used car. Very chap-ba-lang.

In Vancouver

Hey folks, haven't been blogging for a while, I hope I can resume doing so next week. Time flies, we have been in Vancouver for 3 weeks+ already! Wow... I can still remember the night before our flight, I was having difficulties in sleeping because my mind was still twirling around the luggages - "will it be too heavy?" "did I bring everything?" "where did I put the lock? shit!" "would we create a scene with 4 big luggages?" "excess luggage charge?"

But it turns out everything is fine. MU didn't even check the luggage weight. However, we did have some small issue in Vancouver Airport. Apparently we have to know EXACTLY how much money (different currencies) we bring into Canada and declare it. As you know, we are quite a heavy travellers, we have unfinished euro, australian dollars, US dollars, canadian dollars, renminbi, ringgit, HK dollar, Macau dollar, Japanese yen, Indo notes, etc etc, we really do not know EXACTLY how much money each currency we have! So, we gave an estimates to the officer. The officer jotted down our words, and then he said, "OK folks, I am going to search your luggage, if I found more $ than what u declared, they will be confisticated, understood?". WAHHHH.... I immediately stopped him, "actually, those are only estimates. If you want the real number, let me count in front of u. we don't want to lie to u, but we really do not know how much we have." So, as we searching for keys to unlock the luggage, officer said, "OK, wait here.". He went into a room, and when he came out, he just said, "I believe the number you told me this time. But next time, please know how much currency you bring into Canada. Today is the only warning you going to get, understood?". What a relief... phew... actually, they just want you to declare how much money u bring into canada, they are not going to tax u, they just need to know, so to avoid terrorist bringing big sum of money into the country.

Will blog more next week =)