Our First

"Can I be your boyboy?"

me, to her,

three-hundred-sixty-five days ago

.

It felt like it was just yesterday, ain't it?

I caught her off-guard when we were taking a rest at Taman Tasik Titiwangsa.

Yes, this post is specially dedicated for you, baby. It has been a while since we started. In fact, a year has past since we have been together. Literally. I have never place any confidence in a long-distance relationship. More so, when I am very well aware that I will not to be there physically for my other half once I committed myself into such relationship. I just feel it will be unfair for both of us because we will not get to spend time together doing what couples usually do when they are together. How a relationship will be able to progress to the next level, when the two lovers are separated thousand of miles away, two different continents apart. I doubted that it would have a happy fairy-tale ending back then.

Though, life is all about giving yourself and that someone a chance, isn't it?

We did, and I am very glad that we took that chance. What unfolded from that moment will always remain as sweet memories between both of us. There are just too many things that brought us together, but I will just sum it up into one word - FATE. It was just slightly one year back, when we come across each other's life path out of the blue. It was not a planned thing. Neither of us thought that a sincere innocent friendship would bring us together - getting to meet the other half of our lives. Just like how the saying goes, when something is meant to happen, nothing will stop it.

I guess that best describe on how we started being together.

Life just cannot get any better when you have someone who you love so much, to be there for you, regardless of how you are feeling on a particular day. She is the one who I know will always be there for me, to share my joy, my sorrows, the times when I am emo, and at the same time, she will come out with something witty, something funny or some lame jokes from her creative mind just to cheer me up. She has always been supportive to me, just like how a girlfriend will always be to her boyfriend. She will also be the first person I will go upon, whenever I have something to share. It was just a day after we were together, that I rushed back from my classroom after my papers, just because I wanted to see her. I was smiling along the way then, and when you see a guy behaving in such way, there are only two main possibilities - either he has some mental problem, or he is deeply in love. Just in case you might get that wrong, I am the latter.

The one thing that I will never ever get bored of is her smile. Seeing her giving me that sweet smile will make me smile back to her, no matter how bad my day had gone. There is something special in her smile that invokes a great pleasant feeling of comfort on me. No matter how pissed off am I with something, she will try her best just to cheer me up and make me return to my usual self. Despite her having the normal bubbly personality like what every other girl normally has, she is one of the most independent girl you will ever know. She knows what is she doing all the time, which sometimes make me feel that I am behaving like a small immature kid. One more thing is, she cooks quite well too, although I have yet to taste any of her cooking yet. Soon, very soon. There was also a time when we were debating about who bakes better fudge slice and she kept telling me her baking skills is much better than mine.

I have to admit that it is hard for me to disagree on that.

A short message she scribble on the paper while she was having her free period during her one-month stint as a temporary teacher late last year.

Long-distance relationship is no doubt the most challenging and toughest relationship you will come across. Some never believe in such thing as they said it will never work. Well, they are free to voice out their opinion but we are still going strong after one year and I believe it is just going to get better from now on. It is a huge sacrifice for both of us, but I know we have a date ahead of us and when that time comes around, we will realised that the sacrifice we had made is really worthwhile.

Having fights and misunderstanding is also quite common for us. Although we are not together, we could still end up not talking to each other for some time. How can that be, you might wonder. It happens, but lately I find that it has been a lot lesser than how it used to be. One funny thing is that after every time we fight, we will end up getting much closer to each other. Neither one of us is too bold, unwilling to admit our mistakes, apologise and make up. The making-up part is one of the nicest parts and usually it will happen immediately after every fight. Why would we want to prolong it, when we have so many better stuffs to do, instead of keeping our silence to each other, not exchanging words with one another, right? That is not what couples should be doing.

Love isn't finding someone you can live with; it's finding someone you can't live without. Of course we would have preferred to be living together, instead of being separated so far like what we are at the moment. But that is something that is beyond our control and we just have to live with it for now, at least. Looking at a more positive note, I just have the feeling that being apart from each other makes us treasure and appreciate more of each other. We know we will not get to spend that much time and we will always try to make the best of the time we have together. There was a time some distance ago, when we asked each other what we were having for dinner that night. Instead of just telling what we were eating, we decided to take a picture and sent it to each other. I could still remember that back then, I had a bowl of Maggi's instant noodle with an egg and excessive of cabbages, while she had a char siew pau, which she just bought back.

Just over a week ago, I didn't see her coming online although it was almost midnight already. Not getting to see her on that day is one thing, but my uncertainties about her whereabouts was the thing that I was more concerned about. That was the time I had the feeling of missing her badly running through my minds and I realised that I cannot live with her absence, not even a single day. As we almost never fail to catch each other daily, of course I sensed something was not right and I tried calling her. But she didn't pick up my call. However, I later found out that she was on acutes and had to stay at the hospital much later than usual, which came to my relieve.

Gifts from her - a pop-up chocolate card and a photo frame of the two of us at KLIA, moments before I left for Japan early this year.

The times we spent together last year still remain vividly in my mind till today. We had a great time together during those few days, despite the fact we didn't get to do as much things as we would like. Nothing beats the feeling of being by the side of your loved one. One of it would be the time when we sat on the floor in her room and she showed me her photos when she was still a little baby. That time, I was not really paying attention to the photos. Instead, my attention was more to starring at her, looking at how excited she was when describing each and every of her photos. I never tell her about this until today, and I bet she didn't know about this either.

As for now, I am just really looking forward to the next time we will get to meet again. I bet she shares the same feeling as much as I do, right baby? Thank you for your unconditional love and I really appreciate it.

Happy first anniversary, and I love you, baby.

Love you as much as eight-turned-ninety-degree.

*She did something I totally didn't expect at all, or I can just say, I got punked in her entry on our anniversary*

Chicken Rice

Have you ever tasted a fusion chicken rice? I bet it is a fat chance that many who can claim to have tried such chicken rice. The fact that I didn't have all the right ingredients for a proper dish of chicken rice, I used whatever I had with me and modified the recipe I got from my mum some time ago. This is not my first time cooking chicken rice but certainly, it is different compared to my first attempt.

I know the recipe below might be weird as it is neither considered a Chinese style or a Malay style. I would prefer to call it a fusion in between the two. I don't think Chinese use cloves when they cook their rice, and it is more common that the chicken is steamed instead of fried. So, the two main thing of the dish - the rice and the chicken are more inclined towards the Malay style. All this while, I have never come across any chili taken together with the chicken rice presented in green colour. But it is hard to get red chillies here in Japan and I just used the last capsicum I had in the fridge. As for the bean sprout (taugeh), it was just a random thing. I guess I took the idea from the famous Nga Hak Choi Kai which is so well-known in Ipoh.

So here is the recipe, which is suitable for two meals and I did it under one hour.

Soup

• 1/4 cabbage
• 1/2 chicken bone
• Salt
• Pepper

1. Clean the chicken bone and put it into a pot of boiling water and leave it a while.
2. Insert the cabbages, followed by some salt and pepper.

Rice

• 1 cup rice
• 5 cloves garlic (sliced finely)
• 3 cloves (bunga cengkih)
• Salt

1. Sauté the garlic and the cloves with some oil.
2. Add in the washed rice and continue stirring it under low fire.
3. Add some salt and take out.
4. Transfer the rice into rice cooker and use the soup to cook the rice.

Chicken

• 1 skinned chicken breast
• 2 tbspn black soy sauce
• 1 tbspn sesame oil
• Pepper (for seasoning)
  

1. Cut the chicken into two thin pieces.
2. Add in sesame oil and black soy sauce and rub it so that it covered every part of the chicken.
3. Season it with some pepper and leave it aside.
4. After a while, sauté the chicken with some oil until it turns black.

Bean sprout

• 200g bean sprout
• 1/2 onion
  

1. Put the bean sprout into boiling water for less than a minute.
2. Take out and drain it.
3. Add some fried onions on top with some oil used for frying the onion.

Chilly

• 1 capsicum / 2 red chillies
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/4 inch ginger
• Salt and sugar

Blend all the ingredients with some water.

Oze National Park

There was another trip for the international students in my college over a couple of weekends ago to Oze National Park in Fukushima prefecture, located to the south of Niigata prefecture where I am currently studying. Despite the fact that we have so many national parks in Malaysia, I have yet to step my foot on any of them yet until this day. On the contrary, this trip made it a second national park that I have visited in Japan. My first thought was we were going for a hiking there, have our lunch and be back by late afternoon. We later found out that however, it was totally different from what I first thought. The journey would take us nearly four hours, just to get to the national park.

So the journey begins.

We took a few stops along the way to the national park and one of the stop was at a dam. It spotted a great similarity to the Okutadami Dam we went last autumn when the area was covered with breathtaking autumn foliage.

This is the dam at one of the stop we made. Engineers will always be engineers. When I saw this dam, the thing that went through my brain instantly was how much force is acted upon the wall of the damn from the water pressure. Well, it involves some calculations, depending on the depth and density of the water which I won't be explaining them here.

Next to the dam is of course a huge man-made lake. We didn't stop long here, as there was a sudden downpour with strong winds blowing away. The weather was not that good that day as it was cloudy almost the whole day and several times of downpour throughout the day. That also explain why most of the picture taken that day was nothing spectacular.

One more thing about our journey is that we went through lots of tunnel along the way. When I said lots, I really mean it. I had already lost my count on the numbers of tunnels we went through when the figure reached double digits. The tunnels however, looked rather different from what we usually see because the majority of them were not built through mountain without requiring any drilling. They were mainly built to protect vehicles passing by the area from the water flowing down from the mountain through the road, besides serving as a protection from falling rocks.

One of the many tunnels we went through.

Well, perhaps they are not considered tunnels after all.

But I was too lazy to find the right word for it. So, I will continue refer them as tunnels. There are also familiar ones like this. The entrance of the tunnel is the same circular shape but built outside as an extension of the main tunnel.

At another stop-over, while waiting for the others who went for their toilet breaks, I saw this huge piece of snow being preserved on the slopes of a ski resort. The snow were covered using a few large aluminum foil-like material and will be used during the mid-summer festival next month. What is amazing about this is that the snow have not melted even though it is already early summer now.

One more thing is, imagine how many bowls of ais kacang can be made from the amount of ice there.

We soon almost reached Oze National Park but our journey was halted because a bus was in front of us and we had to tail that bus for some time. The road was so narrow, so it would be dangerous to overtake the bus under that circumstances and so, we had no choice but to tail behind the bus.

A snail was in front of us.

Lucky thing that the bus driver was wise enough to slow down and signaled us to over-take him. At least we could save some time there.

We finally reached the location at noon and later found out that we would have to fork out 800yen (RM26) for the shuttle bus to the starting point of the hiking trail. So as usual, cheapskates like us was whining over it because usually we don't have to pay by ourselves when we follow such trips. Too bad this time as we didn't get any sponsorship, so what else but to pay for the ticket unwillingly since we had made it so far there.

So after some twenty minutes bus ride, we got to the location and started our hiking. We were fortunate that the sun came out and at least we did not have to walk in a muddy and wet condition. After hiking along the trail for about ten minutes going up the hill, down the slopes, then up again, and down again, wtf like roller coaster only; this is what we saw.

Saw the lake in the middle of the picture. Yes, that is where we were suppose to head to and that is like super the far, right? Since the elderly sensei who tagged along us looked so energetic, we did not dare to show our tiredness or otherwise we were sure to lose our face.

One thing I have to mention here is that the Japanese passing by were very friendly. They will greet you with "Konnichiwa" while giving you that smiling friendly face. Yes, I know this is kind of ironice when I just ranted so badly about the Japanese not so long ago, but like I said, there are nice Japanese too, of course. Back to this "Konnichiwa" thing, it would be rude if we do not reply them, isn't it? That is why we repeated the same thing so many times until our throat got dry. So I suggested that why not we try to mix things up by saying something different, say "Good morning", for instance?

Time like this when we will go "Konnichiwaaaaa~~~"

To make things more interesting, one of my friend came out with the line, "Aku cuak" which sounds almost the same as "Konnichiwa". I tried it and some actually replied me, although there were also some who just ignored me. Haha, they must be wondering where I studied my Japanese to get that so wrong.

Here is the grassy field we saw from the top before that.

Perhaps we had went there a tad too early because most of the flowers have yet to fully bloom.

Here is an exception.

That is why much part of the area is covered with just green grass.

We continue walking and came to a signboard which state the name of the place. I should have got myself more sleep a night before because my eyes resembles a pair of panda eyes so much.

More greens surrounding a lake. I like this one very much.

And finally a group picture we took with the lake as the background.

There is a mountain there, in which its peak was covered with thick clouds that day.

The weather was not too bad, although it was not a perfect sunny day.

You must be thinking is it really worth it to travel so far just to see such scenery, don't you?

At least we got to see something different. A group of duckling swimming behind their mother duck, who was at quite a distance ahead of them.

At some parts of the lake, the water was crystal clear and there was a school of fishes who came so close to the river bank. Please don't ask me what kind of fishes are those 'coz I only know two types of fishes and that would be ikan bilis and ikan masin. We would have caught some and barbecued them for our lunch if we had the right equipment that time.

This picture is interesting. Three different actions in one picture. There is one girl on the left emoing trying to take pictures of the scenery by the lake, a pair of boys who were competing on who could throw the stone furthest in the middle, and a pair of couples on the right who was, well, I don't think I need to explain what they were doing there, right?

A shot I took before we head back. It was about five and although it have not got dark yet, the moon was already visible. Anyway, it is not something amazing as the moon is always there in the sky all the time.

While on our way back, we stopped several times for toilet breaks and at one of those stops, there was a lake.

With two boats and floating trunks on the water.

The winding road we took on the journey back was a long one. We went through narrow roads around the mountainous area for at least nearly thirty kilometers non-stop. I tired to keep myself awake but in the end, I couldn't stand it anymore and went to my dreamland. It was a good thing that it wasn't raining or it would be dangerous to drive along the road, especially when there are high cliffs just next to the road, which most of them are as deep as a few hundred meters. The car in front made a sudden stop at one point and we thought there was some problem, only to find out that the sensei saw some remaining snow and wanted to let the new juniors, who had never seen snow before, have some taste of how snow looks like.

That marked the end of our trip this time and thank you for reading.

I Am Turning An Aunty, Soon

Just like how the title suggest, I have a slight feeling that I have picked up all the traits of an aunty lately. A couple of weeks ago, I was told that a new hypermarket has just been opened near my place and the stuff there was kinda cheap. The name of the hypermarket is quite catchy as well - Challenger. Since I was already in the town, I decided to check out on that new place, which is located at the basement floor of a building which was almost left abandoned all these while, although it has gone through some renovations work recently.

And when I stepped my foot into the first section of the hypermarket, I was like wtf-the-price-is-so-cheap-I-feel-like-grabbing-all-the-stuff-there. I don't know if it was just an early gimmick to attract the customers there, but seriously, the price were damn cheap. One big onion is usually priced around 50yen (RM 1.60) and the cheapeast I have ever got is 19yen (RM 0.60), But the one I saw was one onion for only 8yen (RM 0.25). With that price, I could buy like six onions using the same price I usually get for one onion normally. But I knew I already had some onions at home, so I just settled with four of them that day, although inside my heart I really wanted to buy more. Even when I was walking away from the onions, I still take a look at them 'coz I know I wanted to get more. Buying onions also want to emo like that as if I am going to open a shop selling onions wtf.

Saw the 88yen tag in the middle? That is for one loaf of bread but I didn't buy it 'coz I can get a cheaper one at 78yen.

I later proceeded to the dairy section and again, I saw cheap things. You know, when you are a cheapskate like me, the first thing you will see are the price tags, no matter how tiny they put them. But rule #1 in running a business tells you that the cheaper a thing is, the bigger the size of the price tag. So, this will allow people like us to spot them easier, faster, less energy, cost effective, higher productivity and something like that lah. Don't ask me what am I talking 'coz I also don't know what am I crapping now. Okay back to what I saw at the dairy section, I saw a cow on promotion. That cow, still moo-ing while showing his tak-tau-malu face to the customers, was on offer for 150,000yen.

Japan is really amazing lah. They even sell cows which are still alive in their hypermarkets.

How that uncle on the left reacted after he saw that cow. He must be thinking, "Want to buy that cow or not leh?"

Yes lah, as if you would believe me, right?

No, I didn't see a cow, but I saw chickens instead. Chicken meat that is, not real chicken, okay? Normal price of boneless chicken breast is about 79yen (RM 2.60) per 100gram and the cheapest I could get is 49yen per 100gram. But they were selling it for 39yen that day and again, I couldn't resist on not getting some of that. I ended up buying three pieces of chicken breast that day. I hardly eat any other meat here, apart from chicken as they are quite pricey. Maybe it is harder to grow pigs and goats here, compared to chickens because chicken can withstand the four seasons. And I am crapping once again wtf. I won't go on and on talking about how cheap the things were but I promise this will be the last one. Ten eggs was for 50yen (RM1.70), compared to the normal price of (RM3.30). That is like half the usual price. But I didn't buy that 'coz it was only for customers whose purchase is more than 1,500yen (RM50).

Just when I was heading to the cashier, I remembered something I wanted to buy earlier - cornflakes. I went around searching for it and finally found what I was looking for, just beside where I was standing. I am not sure whether you have seen this entry before but I saw a new addition to the two Temmy's cereal called Honey Pops. Sounds so similar to Nestle's Honey Stars, but I have no clear idea who copied who. Anyway, the bear on the box was too cute and I decided to try it. I never thought I would fall for such illustrations, meant to lure the kids into forcing their parents to buy it for them.

I have these with milk for my breakfast when I am not taking my bread.

Looks more like a pigeon's food.

When I had my first taste of the Honey Pops several days ago, it was not as nice as the Honey Stars I have tasted before. It was quite dry and not that sweet, although it is called Honey Pops and supposed to be sweet. See it also not that it would make me feel like eating it. But when I take it together with milk, it was still not that bad. By the way, when I thought that almost every thing has the Made-in-China tag behind them, Temmy is a product of Egypt, of so many countries. Soon they might come out with another new flavour for their cereal using camel as the mascot.

I never thought of buying much that day, 'coz my initial intention was just to take a look at the new place. In the end, I spent more than 1,000yen there, although it didn't exceed 1,500yen or I would have get to buy my eggs for 50yen. Haha, still lamenting about my poor eggs (pun unintended). On a different note, I went to pay my phone bill the other day as usual and when that Japanese girl was returning my paying slip, she gave me a small packet of something, which I never get before. Apparently, they will be moving out late this month (or was it early next month, but who cares) and instead of giving out flyers, they came out with something different. Nothing much inside the small package but a few sweets and a chewing gum.

Ohh yea, plus a jelly too. Strawberry flavour.

The Day I Turned Into Gulliver

"Checkered, Eventful, Historical"

the almost humanly impossible to create models

.

Does the two towers on the right look familiar to you? Well, I traveled to the past and managed to capture the picture of the World Trade Center when they were still standing proudly before the 9/11 incident. And yes, I am just bluffing only.

While we were on our journey to Tobu World Square, our tour guide gave us a brief introduction about the place and what we were going to expect when we reach there. When she mentioned the word "Gulliver", I could almost guess what kind of location it would be. It was exactly the same thing as my earlier guess when we stepped into the theme park. After walking through the Japanese Zone, there are a few other zones including Americe Zone, Egypt Zone, Europe Zone and Asia Zone. Captions that follow every pictures will explain briefly about each and every picture below. This will be the last entry for the school trip we had this year, but a warning beforehand. This entry is one of the heaviest entry I have done for some time, so get set for tons of pictures.

Fuji-maru on the left and a fishing port on the left. Both are actually located in the Modern Japan Zone. As for the background, the Statue of Liberty could be spotted and that aside, the once stood tall World Trade Center and the Empire State Building are among the skyscrapers from the States.

Flatiron Building on the left and Chrysler Building, which has a unique flat design on the right. Both of these buildings were destroyed along with the World Trade Center as well.

New York Harlem, just within the proximity of the area around the World Trade Center.

We didn't pay attention to the tiny plastic human figures placed around the area, until one of us realised that some of them depicts various everyday human events in the hustles and bustles of the city. Take this for example. An accident involving four cars in the middle of the city and people are crowding the area to kepoh. They even have ambulance with the paramedics too.

On the other side, three robbers were trying to escape from the police during the broad day light. But the posture of the policeman is so weird and funny. There is even one guy, which I suppose is a journalist, who still have the time to take a picture of the robbers.

As for this one, one driver got stopped for speeding on the bridge I supposed. And he could still stand in such posture when he got himself stopped by the policemen.

I came across this unintended. Honestly. The picture explains everything and I don't think I have to make a caption for this one.

The White House, one of the buildings that looked very realistic. That guy standing in the middle I suppose is the Mr. President.

Mention Egypt and what is the first thing you will think of? Certainly not Pinksterz, but the Pyramids. Haha, sorry yea Cik Merah Jambu ;) There are three gigantic pyramids here, grandly standing in the vast expanse of desert showing the enormous power of the ancient Egyptian rulers.

The Great Sphinx in Egypt. This poor statue, which is supposed to be a cat, apparently has lost its nose. But when you are Egypt, there is just going to be one animal which you will come across as often as how you come across the creature which very much resembles black sperm (I mean tadpoles) in the drains.

Yes, CAMEL!

I didn't count how many smaller camels there were there, but what I know is that they are lots of them around the pyramids.

Like this camel, where its master is trying to speak German to a Polish. No wonder he looks blur.

Some even chose some secluded area to spend some private moments together. Do this in an Arabian land, later got tangkap basah only know.

The Great Temple of Abu Simbel, also in Egypt. This one is worse than the Sphinx because he lost his whole head straight away.

The Parthenon in Greece. It reminds me of my first chapter of Sejarah Tingkatan 4, where we learned about the early civilizations in the world. Mesopotamia, leukemia, Mama Mia and all those stuff.

The Colosseum in Rome, Italy.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa. They have this tower from Italy, but not ours from Teluk Intan.

St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. My senior told me that he was touching at one of those plastic figures and accidentally broke one of them. So I suggested to him why not he just take it back as a souvenir, since they have thousands, of not millions of them around the building.

The Doumo in Milan, Italy.

Notre-Dame Cathedral in France.

The Arc de Triomphe in France.

The Eiffel Tower in Paris.

St. Vasilie Church in Russia.

The Windmill in Kinderdijk, Netherlands.

Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany, after which Disney's "Cinderella Castle" is said to have been modeled.

Buckingham Palace in England.

According to the legends, that figure on the left is a real person and was cast a spell by a witch. That is why he has stood there for years without moving even an inch. Was my story convincing enough?

Tower Bridge in England.

Big Ben and Houses of Parliament in England.

Sagrada Familia Church in Barcelona, Spain.

Masjid-e Emam in Esfahan, Iran.

Ananda Temple in Myanmar.

Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Taj Mahal in India, a white marble mausoleum built by Shah Jehan to show his true love to his beloved wife.

Forbidden City in China.

The Chinese in the older days are much shorter than I thought.

Yungang Buddhist Caves in China.

The Great Wall of China, extending as long as 2,400 kilometers, which represents a history of hottest battles between the then Chinese people and the then equestrian people.

I bet not many people had noticed these figures in one section of the Great Wall of China. They are the characters from the legendary "Journey to the West", but from this picture I could only recognise the Monkey, called Wukong, the Pig and Kuan Yin Tan San Zhang. I wonder what that green creature is. Incredible Hulk, perhaps?

The South Gate of Seoul in South Korea.

The Dragon and Tiger Pagodas in Kaohsiung in Taiwan.

If you might notice, there is not a single monument of building coming from Malaysia. And for most of us who will never going to afford to travel around the world to these places, I think coming to Tobu World Square will at least make up for that. After all, you will need less than two hours to visit those places under a minimal expenses. At the end of the day, you will be able to say announce proudly that you had gone around the world in eighty days two hours.

And thank you for reading it up till the end :)