Kuih Keria FAIL

I wanted to make this:

...but this was the results:

Haha!

I made two mistakes. 

One, I accidentally bought Japanese sweet potatoes and two, I used brown sugar.

FAIL.

I'm not sure if I will try again. 

Maybe. 

pearlie

It's the simple things that make us happy

7-11 is currently giving away Hello Kitty Career Plates if you collect enough stickers when you make your purchases there.

I didn't buy anything from 7-11 but I was given one by someone. 

On first look, the first thing I asked was what in the world is a career plate?

I flipped over the package and ahhh...plastic plates that feature different careers.

Being a Human Resource practitioner, I started quipping--I know what a Career Plan is but a Career Plate?!

I opened mine and I got the sailor one. My colleague exclaimed that she likes it.

She opened hers and got the e-gamer one, and I told her I like it. 

I asked her, shall we swap? 

She quickly took hers and handed it to me. 

Haha...really, the little things that make us happy.

pearlie

I'm so exhausted

I really thought of doing this today.

The only reason why I didn't was because the toilet cubicles are always occupied all the time and there is always a line out there waiting. 

pearlie

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

pearlie

What is it with being "open-minded"?

I found this hilarious quote in one of my journal app today. 

I know being open-minded means having "a willingness to listen to or accept different ideas or opinions" but I must say I don't like the word. 

I'm all for being a good listener but being all opened up for anything?

I guess that is what Stephen A. Kallis, Jr. is trying to say—you still need to have your own opinion and worldview and you can have your own stand in the matter. 

What do you think would be a better word instead?

pearlie

I went watchless only for a month

I posted last month that I am again doing without a watch but it only lasted for a month.

I keep lifting my wrist to read the time.

I was chatting with my husband when I mentioned the new Mi Band 4 and before I knew it, he ordered two units. 

One for him and one for me. 

They arrived a couple days ago and we are so far very happy with it. 

With an AMOLED screen, the watch face is very bright and attractive. 

And I found out today that we can actually load up third party watch faces on it.

Since my Razer Phone 2 does become a conversation piece wherever I go, I found this cool watch face for my Mi Band 4. 

pearlie

Rosak already lah...

I was watching a Korean drama when I saw this:

It is obviously a product placement but for any Malaysians who see this would chuckle and probably shake their heads. 

One must really be multi-lingual when it comes to branding. 

Really...they must. 

Note to non-Malaysians: meaning of the word rosak (Malay to English.)

1. Rosak - damaged, ruined, broken (of things); disrepair, bruise, frazzle, destroyed 

2. Merosak - deprave, deflower, corrode, botch, blight 

3. Merosakkan - destroy, desolate, deleterious, deface, damage 

Source: Kamus Online

pearlie

My very 紧张 morning

This morning was indeed very 紧张 (Cant. gan2zoeng1/Mand. jǐn zhāng) for me. 

I almost never mix languages in a single sentence in my blog, though that is very much how most of us converse here in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where we will sometimes even use up to 4 languages in one sentence—English, Malay, Mandarin and Cantonese or Hokkien. 

I don’t think there is a direct translation for 紧张, but I think “being nervous, stressful, intense and nerve-wrecking” would be quite accurate to translate it. 

And there is no better way to describe what happened to me this morning. 

Today was my US Visa interview day and I requested for the 8:00am slot. I am not allowed to be there earlier than 7:45am and so I decided to drive and park my car at my office and take a GrabCar to the embassy, which is quite nearby. 

My alarm rang at 6:00am but I dillyed-dallyed while keeping an eye on the expected time of arrival on Waze. I planned to arrive at 7:30am and loiter around until 7:45am. 

All was good. 

Until I hopped into my car, and Waze added an extra 30 minutes to the expected time of arrival. 

I started to panic. Oh no, oh no, oh no. 

I tried my best to drive as fast as I could, using the fastest congested lane. 

But traffic was bad. 

And as I considered the two alternatives—drive directly to the embassy and look for a parking space or park in office and take a GrabCar—I decided on the latter. 

I tapped to book a GrabCar at 7:35am while I was still in the Smart Tunnel, which was a good decision because after parking my car and going up to the designated pickup point at the main entrance, the GrabCar arrived just in time at 7:50am. 

The driver used the fastest route possible, using back lanes and shortcuts. And at the slip road into Jalan Tun Razak, I actually begged the policeman to not stop us but let us through. 

I had my hands clasped together like in a prayer rubbing my palms while saying, “Tolong, tolong, tolong, tolong...” (Malay word for “help” but I said it with a Chinese accent).

He must have seen me though he can’t possibly hear me, because he stopped the car behind us instead!

I arrived at the embassy at 8:06am. I was late but thankfully I was still allowed in. 

It was quite a long queue, since I think today is the first interview day for the year after the long Christmas break, but I got it all done in 35 minutes. 

They only asked me four questions and they approved my visa. All the documents I prepared were not requested for. 

They only took my passport. 

Woohoo...USA, here I come. 

pearlie

My not very obsessed obsession with Doraemon

I finally found myself a Doraemon t-shirt and bought one!

pearlie

I’m mixing up all my days

I am getting old - not only am I using a pill organizer like what you see above - I am also mixing all my days up. 

On Tuesday, I thought it was Wednesday and when I took the pills from the Wednesday slot, I told myself oh no, I forgot my medication yesterday. 

On Thursday, it became clear that it is not a Friday and when I looked at the Thursday slot, I asked myself, where did my pills go?

Oh dear...

pearlie

Facebook never fails in reconnecting us with old friends

Something amusing happened to me in Facebook today. 

I received an message from a really old classmate, only to realize that I sent her a message for us to reconnect back in 2011!

And it took her exactly 6 years to reply. 

The irony is she said she accidentally saw my message. After 6 years. 

That's quite amusing. 

pearlie

See what Air Asia gave me for my birthday

I received an e-Gift voucher from Air Asia for my birthday. They called me ahem, a Big Shot and so I was really curious as to what they will offer me. 

So I filled in my details to find out. 

I wasn't expecting much since I have not been traveling at all. But what they offered was quite a joke.  Here is what they gave me:

A RM5 voucher? Haha. Are you kidding me? I am not sure whether to laugh or to cry. 

I asked several people to guess the value of the voucher and the answers I got was RM100 and RM200, which means I'm not alone in thinking this is funny. 

Seriously, I am not expecting anything at all but if they want to give me a RM5 voucher, they might as well not give me anything. It's not even enough to buy a pack of nasi lemak in the plane. 

pearlie

I haven't had a fringe in so many, many years

I had my fringe trimmed short recently and much to my delight, I've received quite a number of good reviews about it. Some did not even recognize me!

All is great until my brother said to me today: why in the world would you cut it. It looks bad. 

Sigh...that's my brother. 

pearlie

Crazy Karaoke

I haven't been to a karaoke in ages. There is a free entry pass in our U Mobile Subscriber Rewards and a few of us took the privilege and went this evening. 

If you are a U Mobile user, check this deal out in your MyUMobile app. 

I didn't get to sing much. I am not familiar with enough songs to want to sing them in public! That's why. Haha. 

These are the few that I know, beginning with...

And this one is not easy to sing. And I am bad with timing but I managed to figure it out though. 

I did try this Mandarin song but I had to use the hanyu pinyin lyrics in my Apple Music. She sings the verses too fast for me to follow the lyrics in Chinese and what more, the lyrics shown in the karaoke screen was in traditional Chinese. 

I also tried a couple of Korean songs!

Well, the craziest one we did was Abba's Dancing Queen, which was recorded but I would never ever show it to anyone, not even myself!

pearlie

I'm starting a collection of what Starbucks calls me

Back in 2011, I was Merlin...

...today I became Berlin. 

pearlie

When you can't figure out the tune in your head

We were on our way to lunch yesterday when my colleague yawned and she yawned the first 4 notes of a classical piece of music. 

Try as I might, using all the apps and websites I could find to try identify it, I couldn't figure out what music it was. 

It was really irritating!

I still couldn't get it out of my mind this morning and I had to ask a friend. I sent him the first 4 notes and he asked me to check out the concertos by Tchaikovsky. 

The amusing thing was that the first video I checked out in YouTube is the right one. 

pearlie 

Here's how the French say it

Talking about learning foreign languages, which one can beat French in its unusual expressions: 

French people don’t “fall madly in love”…they “are struck by lightning” (Avoir un coup de foudre). 

A French person don’t “feel depressed”…they “have the cockroach” (Avoir le cafard).

French people don’t say “it drives me crazy”…they say “It’s taking my head” (Ca me prend la tête).

French people are not “stupid”…they “have the same IQ as an oyster” (Avoir le QI d’une huître).

French don’t “sleep in”…they “have a fat morning” (Faire la grasse matinée).

Here the full list of 21 French Expressions that will Make You Laugh. 

pearlie

Do you talk to yourself?

I do that sometimes, and apparently it is good for you: The Benefits of Talking to Yourself

So just ignore those weird looks and just start talking to yourself, out loud. 

However, for me, I usually stop short at talking to myself when I am at work because my staff had turned to me before with an inquiring look, thinking I'm asking her something, and I would sheepishly tell her I'm only talking to myself. 

pearlie

What would you name your guinea pig?

My hubby sent me an article from Gizmodo about this organization called Portland Guinea Pig Rescue that requested for an Artificial Intelligence (AI) to come up with names for their guinea pigs that are put up for adoption. 

The names that the AI came up with were brilliant and as what the writer termed them as so quintessentially guinea pig. 

This is my favourite: Popchop

Do click on the link above to check it out. 

pearlie

Photo: Portland Guinea Pig Rescue

I'm seriously addicted to these language apps!

Clockwise from top left: StickyStudy Chinese (HSK Hanzi SRS Flashcard), AnkiMobile Flashcards, Clavis Sinica Xiezi HSK Levels 1-3, TrainChinese: Dictionary & Flashcards

Since I started getting more serious in learning Mandarin, I am now addicted to these apps! I cannot go by one day without using them. And that is amusing since I have always hated studying Chinese. 

The catalyst to it all is the Anki app. I uploaded 5 pre-built flashcards decks from Chinese Audio Flashcards and these flashcards worked for me because they come in sentences giving context to the words I'm learning. 

HSK Flashcard in Anki

I progressed so well with the decks that I re-downloaded the StickyStudy app to help me view it character by character and word by word as and when I like. I can't do that with Anki, with it being a true Spaced Repetition System (SRS) app, where you will only see the cards when it's time for you to see the card. You can't call it up by choice. 

HSK Vocabulary Cards in StickyStudy

I have also began to use a lot of TrainChinese which I find is the best of all Chinese dictionary apps. The free version allows you to keep two lists of words in flashcard form. I wonder if there is a word limit to the free version. 

Screenshots of TrainChinese

I blogged a few days ago about Chinese writing being at risk. About a week before reading that BBC article, I did start using a notebook to practice my Chinese writing, but I found carrying a physical book with me quite cumbersome. 

So me being me, I naturally went hunting and found the Clavis Sinica Chinese character trainer app. In just 2 days, I have already practiced and put to memory 153 characters, compared to just 22 words I have in my notebook after one week. 

The only thing I'm not happy with it is that the app has not been updated since 2012. I hope they will update it soon with the upcoming iOS 11. 

Screenshots of CS Xiezi Character Trainer

These apps are money well spent, since I am not taking any classes or hiring any teachers anyway. 

They only cost me:

- StickyStudy RM16.90/$4.99

- Anki RM104.90/$25

   HSK Flashcards RM45/$10 with 

   a promo-code

- TrainChinese is free but it comes with

   an annual subscription for premium use

- CS Xiezi HSK 1-3 RM16.90/$4.99

Total = RM183.70/$44.98

pearlie