new year nuggets

1.
Sunday night I went for drinks with my parents at the DFS lounge in JB's Eden Hotel. My dad's friend who was spending his new year alone was asked along too. His name is Ah Qian. I asked my mom, 'Ah Qian, as in, lui eh qian?' My mom described Ah Qian before we picked him up: 'Like small boy, 30plus, but later you see, he looks like a small boy!' So well, my mom and I talk alike sometimes. At Eden, between us four, we had six jugs of Heineken. Anyway, that is way too much, when I drink that much beer, I end up sleeping too lightly. The last time that happened was when I had two and a half of the barrel-sized Hoegaarden's. After beer, we had very nice prata in Tmn. Pelangi. The tissue prata, nice! With condensed milk drizzled just so slightly. Yup. And RM$1.50. Istimewa, bagus sia!


2.
My parents' place in JB has no internet, and no neighbours' wireless connections to steal either. Suffice to say, I was bored, and somehow felt that I would not be able to get much work done, which in the end I did a bit on Cal's trusty lappy. Anyway life was so languid for the holidays: eat, sleep, watch TV, read my old journals, letters and autograph books, pray, write, read Archie! I slept so much my mom marvelled.


3.
Malaysia's festive holiday celebration will be incomplete without firecrackers and such.




















Disclaimer: Not mine, distant neighbours'.





4.
Even though I love my parents very much and constantly worry and pray for them, I think that if we were to stay together, life would be a little more frictional. My parents came over to my place and even though I cleaned the place before I left home, they still said my house was terribly messy and dirty. Not forgetting the fact that my mom also said I put on weight. That was on the night we went out for drinks; it was a fat day! Probably water retention? I hope?


5.
My parents didn't cook petai. I love petai!. And I am missing out on tomorrow's assam fish because I am already back in Singapore - early because I need to get all my work done by tomorrow.


6.
One of the funniest smses my dad got from his Malay client:
"Ayam pergi, anjing mali. 'Sueh' pergi, 'ONG' mali..." This was in reciprocation of my dad's sms to him over the orthodox 2006 new year. In translation it means: 'Chicken go, Dog come. Suay goes, Ong (wang in chinese) comes.' And I thought 'step step tall grow', 'horse come work done' was funny!