Bridging Fantasy & Reality

You know that really good feeling that comes when you laugh so hard that tears spill out of your eyes and your tummy muscles gleefully cramp up? I am so glad that I have friends and family who give me this rather joyful workout as I readjust to life in Malaysia. These are the things that I seemingly live for lately. To let loose all my inhibitions and enjoy light moments that come by every now and then. Glad to say that I've been enjoying more of my fair share recently.

I spent Saturday night with a group of friends that I met while living in Huia residence in Auckland. They are all Malaysian TESOL scholarship students and after two years of education there, they have returned to complete their training phase in KL. I'm pretty grateful to have them here to be quite honest coz with each person, I hold a different memory of a certain phase of my life in Auckland. Episodic memories that are all simultaneously retrieved when I spend time with them.

We headed to Indian Kitchen in Bangsar where we had an interesting array of really splendid Indian food. I got to taste the chicken, mutton, and seafaood briyani as well as the Goan fish curry with the garlic naan that I had ordered. And everything tasted surprisingly good to me, from the cucumber raita to the refreshing minty lemon drink that one of my friends had ordered. I'd totally recommend this place to anyone. We headed to McDonald's shortly after to for ice cream and a game of saboteur. Call me a nerd but I actually appreciate nights like these more than one with clubbing and drinks on the agenda. Never had I laughed so hard that I woke up the next morning feeling like I had done a couple of hundred sit ups in one go!

This is MY perfect idea of a sweet treat. Soft delicate swirls of vanilla ice cream flooded with warm thick chocolate fudge and great company to match. Heaven. Even more heavenly when shared amongst friends.

Shogi! Funny laugh. Man of his word. Can crack up a joke in the most tense of tense moments. Met this budding teacher to be at Huia where we went on a holiday of the east coast beaches in Auckland together....

Chewy - cutest sane alive. Adelynn - most feisty woman I've known to date. Chew was present every single day during UMSA's lantern fest preparation in Feb 2010. Met Adelynn when we set out on the same east coast Auckland beach road trip and we grew closer while training for futsal for the Auckland Bersatu Games in 2010.

Anita - giant heart. small eater. smile that could light up the world. Anita was an ornament that adorned Huia Residence. I significantly remember meeting her at the Huia Formal Dinner in 2009. Her smile made me smile in return.

whenever I hang out with this group of people in particular, they introduce me to new forms of card games. This time around it was Saboteur - a very awesome game especially if you have the numbers.

My darling grandmother's 82nd birthday was on Sunday. She woke up a little disorientated with cramps but by evening she was up and raring to go so we dressed up and went for a nice chinese dinner in SS2.

the lovely mango cake that mumsy bought her.

The cutest person ever. I noticed today that my grandmother values equality very seriously. She saved me an equal portion of her birthday cake because I was out the whole day and everyone else got to taste her cake. She's also got quite the eye of a hawk in the way that she observes people AND who says old people forget things easily! Definitely not her!

I wonder if I take after her?? Pati and me :) The very fortunate reason for the strange mix of culture and race that we have in our family.

The night concluded with durians because my grandmother adores savoring them just like a tauke would. With her fingers digging right into the yellow flesh and her lips covered in a custard-y concoction of what most non-Malaysian would deem terribly absurd. I'd say that this magnanimous woman was born to defy ;)