Making Myself Pretty… May 28, 2011

Sorry for not updating so much! In fact, I have been very busy with my blog, but not in the updating department. I have been cleaning up my blog, realising that I have messed up categories and tags, and in fact left a lot of my stuff uncategorised and un-tagged. I have nearly 500 entries to clean up, so I’ve been going through that whole mountain and slowly bringing everything up-to-date. Very proud of myself… had no idea that without tags and categories, your entries will be very lowly prioritised in Internet searches. No wonder I get a lot of linkbacks for more recent entries, but all my old entries are gone with the wind! It’s like they don’t exist on the Internet…

So as I’m updating my tags, I’m amused by my tag cloud, as it contains mostly stuff from my 2001 – 2004 blogging years… this is what my tag cloud looks like at the time of writing :

I’m still updating, so I’m really looking forward to seeing how my tag cloud will look like at the end! Meanwhile, I also saw a spike in the number of hits coming to my website. Hahahaha…  x100

This will just be a short blog, cos I really didn’t do much this Satuday. Was up early to meet Tron’s friend, who is actually his best friend’s wife. She is a sweet and pretty lady with a younger brother who is super talkative and friendly. When we were having bak kut teh (at this super secret place, dowan to share with u!!), halfway thru talking I felt like her brother is talking just like an adult! And he’s 13! We are more than twice his age! Anyway, it was a wonderful morning together…

Oh yeah, I did a make-up post while waiting for Tron to come pick me up! I had so much time on my hands cos he was slow this morning, hehe! =) If you’re interested to see how I do my make-up, click here! You can see how I transform :

After that, I got my hair did… spent a bundle at Kimarie to finally do hair rebonding after 1.5 – 2 years of not doing it! Actually, I’m really impressed with my hairstylist at Kimarie. There was this girl who shampoo-ed my hair and asked me if I wanted to do hair treatment as well. They always tell me that my hair is dry, and that it’s worse after rebonding. All the other times that I cut my hair at Kimarie, they ALWAYS ASK ME TO DO HAIR TREATMENT. I figured, since I was already spending so much, then FINE LAH, I will do hair treatment. Then when I was waiting in the room to get the treatment, my hair stylist suddenly told me, “Actually, your hair is super healthy, why do you need to do hair treatment?” I was shocked! I didn’t know my hair was considered as SUPER HEALTHY, but maybe it’s because I’ve been doing hair masks?

Anyway, I was a bit skeptical at first, who knows, he might say don’t do hair treatment, but do something EVEN PRICIER? In the end, he honestly told me that the hair treatment might make your hair feel super good for at most 3 washes. After which it will go back to normal. He recommended me a Kerastese hair product (which I will review on my other blog…)  which was half the price of the treatment (the treatment costs RM120! Egads! I so stupid, I didn’t even ask the price from the other lady and agreed to do this mofo expensive treatment?!!! The reason is because last time they quoted me RM80!). He said with the serum, it will keep the ends smooth and the dang bottle can last you 6 months to a year… which is definitely longer than 3 washes! Ok la, I *heart* my hairdresser now… He said definitely my hair is not damaged nor need additional treatment because I never blowdry it, I don’t curl it, I don’t dye it, etc. Actually, I dye it, but he said it was so long ago that it has healed itself. Hahahhaa.

Went for Patisfrance pastries for tea-time as Tron was busy with his own stuff. The cashier a bit rude today… I prefer the Patisfrance lady boss… she is really nice and seems like she makes all the pastry herself (SEEMS LIKE) cos she can talk really lovingly about each creation. Anyway, had the Lavazza coffee, two scoops of gelato (fresh yogurt & mango sorbet… both very yummy) and some buns! Such a lovely Saturday I had. Plus good news from the office that implementation given green light for Monday! Yahooo!

During my 3 hour long hair rebonding session, I managed to read finish Amy Chua’s Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, and I have to say, I really do admire her! This is the online article about the book that I first read that made me want to buy the book. Firstly, a lot of people have already hated on her just because of the online article, but you really have to read the book to understand what was going through her mind when she trained her two daughters with the discipline of a drill sergeant. It is not just shouting at your daughter and making her do as you will. A Tiger Mother has to put in as much dedication as her child if she wants her child to become a prodigy. Not any Tom, Dick or Harry can become a Tiger Mother. You think striking fear into your child’s heart would make her play better? Amy was willing to spend ANY FREE TIME THAT SHE HAD to oversee her child’s development. In order to know how her child was progressing, she would learn about music as well. She was willing to drive her children for hours to go for classes with world-reknown violinists or pianists in order for them to have the very, very best.

It’s not about being unreasonable and demanding. Yes, she was quite hurtful to her children at some points, but she was never malicious. To Amy Chua – I salute you! I believe that children do need to be pushed in order to succeed. Of course, as in the case of her 2nd daughter, it would be good if they had a choice in what they succeeded in. I really did empathise with Louisa as I felt that I was more like her… always compared (unfavorably) to my older sister. I too often wondered – is this how it always is? That the younger sibling cannot perform on par with the older sibling? As time went on, I just realised that it was all down to my own self-esteem issues. The problem was with me, and not my mother. And I believe that Amy Chua really did believe in her children and she taught them to always ask, “If that person can do it, why not I?” Wonderful to have someone as formidable as her as your mother, backing you up.

Had a wonderful night after that with Tron… dinner at Din Tai Fung and he regretted asking me if I wanted anything from Caring pharmacy. He was buying some stuff and generously offered. My eyes were round because I had just bought some stuff in Guardian (for contests) and was feeling a bit too over-the-top if I grabbed indiscriminately in Caring as well. I tried my luck by asking him to get me the RM68 Palmer’s Eventone Fade Cream and Anti-Darkening Sunscreen from their Skin Success range. Tron dismissed it by saying that I was too much and that I don’t need it. Hmph. I’ll get it myself. But he did buy me some Fruit of the Earth Cocoa Butter lotion though, can’t wait to try that. =)

Anyways, can’t wait to read my new magazines just a-lying on my bed. Good night! Leaving you with two random pictures from the work week :

I always wondered why cops NEVER catch drivers in Malaysia who go over the white line at the traffic light. From this picture, you will know the answer — cos they can’t stop BEFORE the white line themselves! They probably don’t even know that they are supposed to…

My RM4.90 BRIGHT FLUORESCENT GREEN shorts from some random cheap clothes sale at South City Plaza. Actually, it’s a pretty good fit …

Don’t Give Me Good Food Now… May 18, 2011

… not when I’m sick…? But it seems like good food was what I got last weekend, during our belated Mother’s Day celebration. We had a wonderful dinner at Erawan, in Kota Damansara thanks to my sister. Erawan is a cosy little Thai fusion restaurant with decadent furnishings, right down to the heavy silver cutleries you use. The dining atmosphere here is lively and warm, mainly due to the owner who walks around to give little anecdotes about each dish that he serves. Was so glad that I made myself able to attend the night’s festivities even though I was feeling like crap.

Four angle bean salad which was really yummy. Tip : don’t pour all the sauce in one go over the salad. I think my mom poured only 2/3 of the sauce in and it was just spicy enough for us! Lovely salad, check out the luscious looking squid and the boiled eggs! How do you get eggs to look like that?!

A rather expensive dish, IMHO, but it was a unique experience for us. Halved rose apples (aka gajus), to be coated with Erawan’s special topping made out of prawn paste, peanuts, cashews and other wondrous mysteries.

There you go… you should be more generous because you’ll definitely not be able to finish the entire pot of topping.

Chicken galagal soup, which the owner informed us was a soup specially created by the Thais to replace the tom yum soup that foreigners found too spicy for the tongue. This tasted like normal cream chicken soup… not spicy at all.

Cute way of serving us our rice!

Spicy softshell crab that was AWESOME! Best dish of the night, but I’m biased cos I love softshell crab. This is a MUST TRY in Erawan!

Very fishy otak-otak… At first we thought 2 would not be enough to go around… and that might be true if I was feeling more upbeat. As I wasn’t, the fishy smell was a bit overwhelming, so my sister ate most of this. But it’s really, really excellent otak-otak… maybe I’ll come again when I’m feeling better.

Normal stirfried broccoli with shrimp.

Australian beef green curry that was also lovely. My father really loved this dish!

Traditional Thai dessert “Red Ruby”… I didn’t try this as I was too full. Wasted! But I tried Red Ruby before in another store, but didn’t like it.

All in all, really nice place to eat at. Romantic too… might bring Tron here another day. Cost for the entire meal (plus lemongrass tea drinks that were refillable) is RM290. About RM50 per person only. (My sister paid, hence the obnoxious usage of the word “only”).

Since I’ve been feeling down, I had a lot of time to catch up on my reading. Plus, on Saturday Tron was busy with work stuff, so I was left alone, lying on my bed and feeling a whole lot of sorry for myself. Of course, I did get out to eat my lunch… in fact I ate so much lunch at Jojo’s Little Kitchen that the store owner (that semi knows me and Tron) said, “For someone who has gastric, you sure ate a lot today.” -____- Anyway, I managed to finish reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett and The Blue Notebook by James A. Levine.

The Help is a story about how black people were treated in Mississipi back in the 1960s. This was a time when black women “were trusted to look after the children of white people, but not trusted to not steal the silver”. It’s a heartbreaking novel about 3 women who work to overcome boundaries in order to change things. It was a riveting book (I finished it in less than 24 hours), heart breaking and the anecdotes on how ignorant some people can get was really really juicy to read. Hahahha. I could never even begin to imagine how I would feel if I was maligned in such a way. It makes those racist statements made by our government look light (though I’m not trivialising it in any manner). This book isn’t really fiction as the author drew on her own experiences as well as real life stories in order to flesh out this book.

My main grouse with this novel is that Ms Skeeter was not so much as trying to help the maids as she was trying to help herself. No doubt she took risks… but it seemed like she was only willing to take those risks in order to be able to make it as an author. So I kind of felt that she was a hateful person. Mimmy Jackson was definitely the person that I liked reading about the most in the book. She was just so colorful, and so lively and vivacious… it’s so easy to picture her. Kathryn Stockett did an amazing job fleshing her out. The ending was appropriate and now I can’t wait to watch the movie when it comes out! Emma Stone is playing Ms Skeeter, and I think she’s too pretty for that role. I don’t get why Hollywood keeps casting Emma Stone in the “reject” kind of roles. She is soooo freakin’ pretty! And Hilly is supposed to be another pudgy devil… why did they cast Bryce Dallas in that role?!

I thought The Blue Notebook was non-fiction, but as the movie got gradually more and more dramatic, it was evident that it wasn’t, though the author says that what he wrote about is based on real-life stories from child prostitutes in India. Yes, in short, that’s what this novel is about – child prostituition from the eyes of a 15 year old prococious child named Batuk. She describes how she was sold into the sex trade, what goes on in her daily life and culminates into an event that leads her to leaving the Blue Notebook with us.

It’s sad to imagine that stories like hers are actually a dime a dozen in certain parts of the world. I can’t say that I don’t understand why a father could sell his own flesh and blood away, but when faced with starvation and the fact that selling one child could feed your 7 other children, these are some harsh decisions that some people make. That things like this goes on in the world is undeniable and if you want a small insight, then pick up this book. It’s quite short, you could finish it in less than half a day.

I can’t comment further without giving the novel away, but I can say that this novel will have you sitting with your legs crossed…

Oh yes, I also went for Tron’s colleague’s baby’s full moon. If that is a mouthful, then basically — Tron’s colleague gave birth recently and the baby girl is now 1 month old! His colleague is not from the same department as him, but somehow their cubicles are next to each other. When I first met her, she said, “Argggh your boyfriend is so annoying!! He always annoys me!!” Hahahha.. but I think they both really like each other. After all, Tron is the only one from his department that she invited to this event. =) Sadly, the baby was asleep throughout the celebration, but we enjoyed a lovely Indian buffet dinner and chit chat with each other. Had fun despite my gastric… sigh. The food was really yummy, and I LOVE spicy food. But due to my condition, couldn’t even go for more than 1 round, what a party pooper.

Tron and I standing behind…. in front all the finance ladies…

And because I had no choice but to use my expiring Groupon… we had ice-cream at 100 Yen shop in SS15… it’s a new branch next to Jojo’s Little Kitchen. When I first bought the coupon, I thought that it would be darn easy to use it because we used to go to Jojo’s ALL THE TIME! Now, we rarely go there, only dropped by 100 Yen shop after a day out in Subang Parade because coupon expiring ady. The coupon was RM4.90 for RM10 worth of snow ice and other stuff from the 100 Yen shop. So basically, after the snow ice (which costs RM4.90) you can get another RM5.10 worth of stuff from the shop, and it will only cost you RM4.90. In the end, I just treated it as a buy 1 free 1 deal and both Tron and I had Snow Ice there. Cos I’m craving for snow ice for the longest time ever!!!

Tron had lychee while I had strawberry… somehow I remember the snow ice from the Taipan shop tasting yummier… but that can’t be right.. haha… since it’s all the same ingredients. Anyway, to be on the safe side, next time stick to the mango snow ice!! I loved that one..

By the way, I started a new blog just to talk about all my pharmaceutical buys and I’m also using that for ad income and shits. I don’t want to clutter stuff on this blog even though this one gets more hits, but I figured since I would be writing about products without getting any $$ on the other blog, I might as well put on some ads, wtf. It’s here if you want to check it out, but really not writing a lot of stuff as evident from the first entry… hehehe.

Time For a Weekend Update! March 8, 2011

… which means that I’ve run out of things to talk about, so I just wanna “remind” myself how the weeks have been flying by. Sheesh, 1st quarter of the year is almost over and so little to show for it. *scared* To be honest, haven’t been blogging much about weekends because I’ve been so demotivated at work that weekends were just to rejuvenate my mind. And by the time I finish rejuvenating my mind, it’s like … time to start work again. Sigh… anyway, I was also inundated with a lot of guilty feelings and a lot of negativity recently. Despite what I kept trying to tell myself (brainwashing / positive thinking!), I just kept falling deeper and deeper into despair. Finally, I just did what had to be done, and I hope that what I have done is a step in the right direction… I will keep you updated! =)

Last weekend was spent at the Jaya 33 area on Saturday. Wanted to have dim sum at Oriental Pavillion, but the place opens soooo late. We had hakka mee for brekkie first, and then dim sum for lunch. The service at Oriental Pavillion kinda sucks! The lady hit me with the tablecloth when she was preparing the table. Er.. you know how they unfurl tablecloths in restaurants? She like just threw the cloth across the table and hit me lor. And I was so blur standing there… sheesh… -___- Anyway, the dim sum there is alright, still prefer the one in Bangsar Village.. *greedy* But of course, much nicer than the Hon Ping dim sum I’m used to… :p

I didn’t really read Terence’s update on Facebook when he ranted about how Baskin Robbins is no longer serving rum & raisin flavor in Malaysia… at first I thought he was just ranting because they ran out of stock. But it’s true… the flavor is no longer part of the “31 flavors”, which is a DANG PITY because it was ALWAYS my go-to flavor in Baskin Robbins. Seriously, what *are* the other 30 flavors? Such a stupid reason to get rid of an awesome flavor… Why didn’t they give us like… a really long prior warning (was there?)… I would’ve stockpiled on rum & raisin. I would’ve eaten myself SICK with rum & raisin…

This is love potion #31 and mango tango. Both are alright… but not rum & raisin. Tron says we should make our own rum & raisin ice-cream. WTF.

The next day, we explored SS2 mall after church. The place is practically empty… but there were some food stalls opened. We ate at Chicken Hot Pot, that I remembered eating with Pauline & co… long long time ago. Reignited the memories with Tron. We had dinosaur ribs and chicken hot pot… it was yummy! And we took the mildest level of spiciness and was still too spicy for us. So please don’t get too adventurous when you are eating here. By the way, both of us got stomachache after eating here… must be because of all the dried chilli. Dang! I was in pain driving to work today! Actually, I won’t mind eating here again, but Tron has banned this place, hahahaha.

Tron also got me Adrian Mole : 39 & 3/4 – The Prostate Years… It’s such a funny read… thankiew! I got tired of Adrian Mole during his mid 30s, but he is redeeming himself here. Anyway, he’s such a loser, it’s hard to hate him. He’s just so completely clueless. The next book that I want to read is Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother. I read an excerpt online and it is so completely funny, but horrific. I mean, I really don’t have the ENERGY to be a “tiger mother”… and I kind of pity her children, except that her children are like super gifted pianists now. And they attribute it to their mom’s insane energy at forcing them to play the piano. So.. practice really makes perfect?

Just before I went to Langkawi, I celebrated my sister’s birthday! She turns 30, omg! That just means two and a half years before I hit the “magic number” myself. *cry cry crrrrryyyyy* Seriously, I fear growing older because I still feel like I’m so un-accomplished and soooooo immature. Sometimes I just want to slap myself because I’m so stupid!! ((see, this is the self-loathing I have to deal with..)) Anyway… my brother-in-law planned this semi-potluck thingy at their condo, and everyone was invited. Hahhaa. I had to make a few dishes, and I was so stressed I tell you. And in the end I needn’t be stressed because the crazy couple cooked most of the stuff themselves, and it was all good. I was so ashamed. And I tell you, I was so stressed beforehand! This was what I had to make :
~ california rolls (totally my own “ingenuity” as I thought it would make for good starters. These were actually fantastic as it involved no cooking of any sort. Well, not much.)
~ western-Tandoori chicken (aka my bastardised version of Tandoori chicken)
~ LY’s birthday cake

Oh let me start with the disaster that was LY’s birthday cake! She bought this book of cake recipes from some online cake maestro and has been affectionately making cakes for all of us. Since I had been baking on and off, she offered to type some of the recipes out for me. She gave me a list of cakes to choose from, and I chose 3 yummy sounding ones. In the end, one used some funny ingredients that I can’t purchase in Malaysia. Another one was a basic butter and chocolate cake, a bit boring in my humble opinion (wtf.. looking for trouble). The last one was a chiffon cake. When I told my mom, she said that chiffon cakes are super difficult to make. She told me to save myself the time and buy LY a cake. But I was adamant! I would bake her something, just not something from the recipes she gave me lah. Since I bought a formspring pan recently, decided to make her a no-bake cheesecake. Should be simple, right!?

Disasters encountered :
1) The chocolate I got for her “decadent 3-layer cheesecake” couldn’t melt. I burned my hands several times trying to melt it
2) Just when I thought I could just “melt” the chocolate by mixing the cheese & chocolate really really hard with my “legendary muscular arms”, I knocked over the mixer. The mixer switched itself on and bits of cream cheese went EVERYWHERE. I screamed, brother thought I had “mixed” my own hand. -__-
3) When everything had CALMED down, I started putting the mixture onto the biscuit base… and then realised that I forgot to add dark chocolate to the biscuit base.
4) Had problem with the gelatin because I stupidly put the gelatin into the hot water instead of pouring hot water into the gelatin. If you did it “my stupid way”, it will cause the gelatin to just congeal together and you have a lumpy, smelly mixture. SIGH!!! I had to use more gelatin than expected (and eff it, gelatin is expensive!), and then just pray really hard, wtf.
5) When almost everything had been poured on top of the biscuit base, I asked myself, “How come there seems to be so little batter?” Then I realised that there was 2/3 cup of whipping cream that I forgot to add back in!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH!!!
6) I started LIFTING the batter off the biscuit base to try and salvage what I could. But then I found out that I must’ve been too stingy with the butter or something cos the biscuit base was WAY WAY to soft and it kept coming off. *cry*

I sms-ed my sister to tell her that I ruined her birthday cake. She was really nice about it. In the end, it hardened enough (thank you gelatin!!) to be served, but also, in the end, it was way too sweet to be enjoyable.

The next day, I was determined not to kill the chicken and the sushi rolls, but even then, I had minor heart attacks when :
a. forgot the roasted white sesame to be crushed with the sushi rice.. and I had purposely told myself “DO NOT FORGET THE SESAME SEEDS LEECH!! YOU SPENT RM2.50 ON THEM!!” …. grrr!
b. the chicken normal saja lah… but because I was soooooo worried about killing the recipe, I baked it a bit too much and I think it came out a bit too tough. But still edible la. Just not AWESOME as what I am used to. Hahhaha

So that was my disastrous cooking experience for 2011. You know what, this really kills any enthusiasm I had about experimenting with cooking and such. I think Tron also don’t dare to eat what I cook anymore. Ditto for my colleagues. Anyway, we are all so busy at work that the last thing I want to do is be all Mary Sue and give out cupcakes at work.

Here’s the luscious looking food at the party….

By the way, I still owe her a birthday gift.. I’m thinking of some SMALL and UNDERSTATED piece of jewelry… haha. Not many family photos cos obviously the cameraman (my brother) was more interested in food than people! Tsk tsk…

Book Bits of 2011 March 6, 2011

I spent less than 24 hours to read finish “Perfect Match”, a novel by Jodi Picoult about what happens to a couple when they find out that their 5 year old son has been sexually abused. It is super gripping (I’m really moved and emotionally rocked whenever I read novels about children abuse because I just can’t understand why animals like these exist! How could any adult bear to hurt someone so young and helpless… who most of the time love the adult unconditionally and naively, and will always wonder how the adult could do something like that when he/she (the childr) is so devoted to them), and I stayed up til 3/4am reading the book. Then I took the book along with me to work so that I could sneak in a few pages whenever I got a brief reprieve. Before I know it, it’s all over.

This isn’t the first Jodi Picoult I read, and it won’t be the last. I already found “Vanishing Acts” in the bag of book goodies that my sister passed to me. Itching to crack it open, but I can’t take another late night. >_< [[I read it already, and it's full of shit.]] I don’t know why I’m so into the books also, thinking back, her books are kinda formulaic. They are always :
- bound to be tearjerkers. If you are a female, you surely will weep bucketloads reading her stories
- has something to do with court cases / law drama + medical / forensic drama or all of the above
- always happens in some small town
- the novel sounds very smart, but when you explain it to your friend, suddenly you and the friend can find a lot of logic problems / holes in the plot
- sure got sex scene wan… (trying to attract some male readers?)
- got at least 3 twists before the central plot is revealed. kind of like an agatha christie novel “omg who did it?! I know, it’s the best friend! No, it’s the butler! No… it’s her husband!?”
- the heroine usually got 2 guys going after her, and both also are darn perfect. I suppose this appeals to female fantasy of some sort? Cos just the other day, my parents and I were watching this TVB drama where two equally hot chicks are really into one guy, and I was like, their hotness levels are way above the guy’s one! Why do they have to fight over him? Same case la… male fantasy.
- omg, heroine will usually cheat on her husband and the husband will find out but he loves her so much he doesn’t give a damn (WTF)… this was especially true in Vanishing Acts which is probably going to end in a menage a trois in the future….
- at the end, sure got another twist one, but at this point you don’t really care already
…

Ok, maybe I haven’t read enough to generalise. I still love reading her books though! Guilty pleasure. I don’t like the heroine in “Perfect Match” by the way. Act so smart and cocky, but dumbest person ever. And I don’t like how she “got away with it” in the end. Oops, spoiler. I know you like happy endings, Ms Picoult, but this ending just irritated me to the very end.

“The Wee Free Men” by Terry Pratchett was much much better and a joy to read. I love the Nac MacFeegle so much! Before this, I encountered them in another Pratchett novel… one which featured the rag tag night watch team. Didn’t really fall in love with the blue little people. But this time, they were the stars of the book, and boy were they well fleshed out. Tiffany Aching is also a strong character that will definitely have you rooting for her. The ending got a bit too confusing for me, but it’s a book that I will definitely read again. And of course, it isn’t a Pratchett novel if it isn’t rib-ticklingly hilarious. Le sigh…

On the “Christian novel” front, I read “They Drank From The River and Died in the Wilderness” by Dan Ravenhill, which is a really, really insightful and inspiring book about how to continuously improve yourself and not be satisfied with superficialities. Of course, since this is a 200 page book, I’m REALLY summarising it and am not doing the author any justice. So just read it for yourself. By the way, I just finished reading the Book of Luke and it is my favorite Book in the New Testament (so far). In church, we are studying the Book of Acts… 2 chapters done (so far). But usually we take an entire year to finish one Book. Last year was the Book of Daniel (OT). I’ve also been reading on&off “100 Days of Favor” by Pastor Joseph Prinze. It was a book I bought from Singapore at ROCK in Suntec City. I had no idea that Joseph Prinze was the pastor for the local church! Singaporeans, you are so blessed! I have been so encouraged by his book that the next time I go to Singapore, I definitely want to drop by the church.

Although I planned to read 48 books in a year, I really don’t think I’m going to be able to make it! Based on my current count, it’s almost the end of February and I haven’t even reached 5 books!

P.S: Although people say Easy A is such a good movie, etc, I think it’s so stupid lor. Don’t you think that it’s a little bit TOO over-the-top for the heroine to make a jump into deciding to look like the school tramp just because she’s getting gossiped about? Ok, it is not fair for people to gossip about her since she was truly virginous and didn’t even sleep with anyone that one weekend. Do you think you can quell rumors by behaving that way? I thought she’s supposed to be so smart and geeky? And she can make the transition sooooo easily lor, so unbelievable. And yes, I do find it annoying that they have so many movies where they make the religious people either look like freaks, hypocrites or mentally-challenged. The heroine is like, oh-so -understanding, oh-so easy-going, so happening and more morally righteous than those who proclaim to be so. Same like that Mandy Moore show only… Saved. In fact,I can draw a lot of parallels between Saved and Easy A, so the latter is not as outrageously creative and new as it would like people to think it is.

P.S.S : I don’t see myself as Amanda Bynes or Mandy Moore in either movie, by the way. I am more of the heroine, but Christian heroine. Can? =P If cannot, why not? You not holey or holy or whorey… let’s find some middle ground here.

* * * * * * *

Finished Eat, Pray, Love in about 4 days (while in Langkawi!) and I have to say, I can totally see why this is a bestseller and was made into a major motion picture! Though many will disagree with the actions of Elizabeth Gilbert, I found her to be a very brave and open woman and I admire her for the decisions that she made. Many may not agree with her views on religion, but if you read this book without being too judge-y, I think you’ll find that it is a very enjoyable read.

The novel starts off with some background story (although a bit un-satisfying as she doesn’t divulge ENOUGH of a background story) on how she came to embark on a journey through Italy, India and Indonesia. She was approaching 30 and was undergoing a major crisis – suddenly, she finds that what she and her husband had always discussed about having (ie, a child) is not what SHE wants. Instead of going through it anyway and bringing up a babe in an unhealthy environment, she made the brave decision to get into a divorce. Some may disagree on getting a divorce at this juncture because she should’ve tried harder, discussed with the husband, etc. I don’t know, I’m not in her shoes. Based on what she wrote, I believe she exhausted all avenues before she decided on calling it off. Who are we to judge her? As I said, there was a lot of things she didn’t divulge.

Things just fell into place for her after that (not as easy as it seems), and she decided to learn how to be sexy again by learning Italian in Italy (and eating delicious Italian food), and then meditating in her Spiritual Guru’s ashram in India, and then finding a way to balance both worldly pleasures and spiritual needs in Indonesia. In case you’re wondering, “Why Indonesia?”, it’s because she met a medicine man prior to her divorce who said that he could teach her how to live a balanced life. So to Indonesia, she went. The Triple I’s in the name of the countries are a pure, but delightful coincidence.

In case you think that she was granted a huge divorce settlement that allowed her to traipse around the world, in fact, that was not so at all. That’s why I admire her so much! In fact, she lost all her money and property in the divorce, so she was penniless. However, the idea of this book delighted her publishers so much that they gave her an advance payment that funded for her trip. I suppose she wouldn’t have needed to spend so much in India or Indonesia, but still.. it was enough to cover expenditure for a year! If that’s not remarkable, I don’t know what is.

Anyway, the whole book details small stories and anecdotes on her travels, and how she managed to fulfil what she seeked for. It’s very inspiring (I want to travel like Liz!), funny (she has a self-deprecating sense of humour) and romantic (finding the love of her life in Indonesia!). Despite how weak she makes herself seem at the beginning, I really applaud how she managed to pull herself out from the deepest, murkiest parts of our life and move on to something way, way, better.

I love her analogy about how it’s the oak tree that pulls the acorn into growing into the oak tree. The oak tree cannot be, if not for the acorn. And the acorn cannot be the oak tree if the oak tree was not willing it to grow. Somewhere in the future, there is a better you, pulling the “current” you into being happier, more satisfied with life and more spiritually connected to God. Believe in that and see it come into being. =)

For me, the 3 countries I would like to spend my “eat, pray, love” life at would be :
“` China, because I’ve always said that I wanted to learn mandarin and there’s those express mandarin courses where you can spend 4 months getting up to speed. Plus, getting in touch with my Chinese roots. Specifically would stay in Shanghai as the nightlife there is awesome too! [for "eat", but you know... Ms Gilbert went to Italy to half-learn Italian and half-eat Italian food... my choice is more on the language than it is for the food. But a very very close second choice would be Spain. My Spanish is no where near flourishing and Spanish food is yummm... paella.... yummmmm.... ]
“` this one is easy… I really want to visit Israel. I don’t know how I can do it on my passport, but I think this is the most obvious choice… [for "pray"]
“` wow… love is really difficult. Some choices I had in mind were Malaysia because that’s where Tron is. But I suppose that if it’s MY version of Eat,Pray,Love, I can bring Tron along with me. ;P Then I thought of New York, because Tron and I both wanna visit there, but haven’t had the chance to. But I don’t think I can stand being in America for 4 months straight! New York is nice and exciting, but not really a place to fall in love in. I also like Italy, Spain and Paris but those seem like extremely cliched places, and I liked it when I was there… for a few days! Who am I to say I really got to know it during those few days.

Then I realised that I’m going about it the wrong way. The last country isn’t a country to fall in love in, but a place where you find balance between your spiritual self and your earthly self. Having thought that, I realised I was even further away from where I started! I have no idea… so maybe in the end, I’ll choose somewhere that is a mix of Chinese-ness and yet it’s a place where I feel it encourages spirituality. Hmm… *undecided*

Suggestions?