a kaleidoscope of everything

Earlier in the month, I was really eager to cook my tamarind-taucheong-belacan chillies that Amah always cooks for me.. cos.. god, i miss those SOOOOOOOO much !!!

bought my chillies and green pepper bell last week, bought my belacan earlier and bought the tamarind juice even earlier. and finally today, i got my prawns n taucheong. tried n tested d prawns, 1 word - SUCKS! i stir fried about 6 of it wif tang oh for dinner, n omg, the prawns were like, springy ? not like squid-springy but springy-springy! n the tau cheong was d rough kind wif beans in it ... so looks like i'll hafta do a lil extra work by mashing them all up!

n while i was googling 'tau cheong sauce', i came across a blogsite, that posts quite alot of really nice recipes n pictures of nyonya home cooked food. oh well, i would say its more of fusion than just nyonya alone. looks good, not sure how good it tastes. of course, amah's still definitely the best! haha! n while i was looking at those pics, AGAIN, i suddenly feel SOOOOOO homesick.... i'll just sit down n stare into space n go, "i wan go home, i wan go home" ....but then again, i really try not to let all this home things get to me, it happens sometimes, but i try really hard to push it to the back of my head, so i wont feel so miserable. so i called mum .. n we spoke for about 20 over minutes...n there was about 8 minutes left so i called Amah. oh i miss them both woman! sighx- even amah comforted me in the conversation when i told her how i wish i could go home cos she told me Ee Ee is going back to Pg this Dec from US..

about halloween, i didnt dress up as a geisha, neither as a mad scientist. Instead, i went as "JAMIE GOING TO BED" ..!! ##$%^&* lol !! serious! i wore, Grace's red pyjamas, the bedroom slipper ee ee bought as well as the beanie, and i wore also the "DO NOT DISTURB" eye mask! lolx.! the best part was, i tugged along my favourite baby pillow. ahhaha! too bad i dint tug along my throw towel, otherwise i'll really look like one of those kids going to sleep in peter pan. oh, n there was a HUGE poster sale on UCD. 1/2 price cuts n all . guess wat i bought? HAHA SUPERMAN poster! lolx! n 1 more small one wif some chinese writings on it which looks absoutely, stunningly COOL ! =D gonna blutack it on my wall soon, maybe later, maybe tmrw. kinda tired already.

speaking of which, i went to a maternity hosp for my hospital visit this morning, and omg, seriously, it was a darn good experience! they showed us a real, video of natural birth which of cos i've nvr seen b4, like totally zoomed into the vagina n stuff, from the healthcare professionals' point of view. including those local aneasthetic jabs, dilation, constriction, and OMG, the cutting of that skin, labia watever... with the scisoors! (the video was shot in 1970s) it was ... breathless. n today was actually THE FIRST TIME, i ever saw a 1 DAY old baby! whoa! they brought in 2 mothers who just delivered a day earlier. ... oh muchi muchi... d babies look so... peaceful ? lol ! i dunno any other better words, cos they were just sleeping away n twitched once in a while. n the HIGHLIGHT of the morning - the fresh placenta !!! hahaha. i was the first one to run down the lecture theatre, put on my gloves, WAITED PATIENTLY for the doc to finish explaining wheres wat, bla bla bla ... n YAHOO ~ i stuck my finger in it . LOLx~! it feels, soft, meaty, the cord feels .. like 'hun cheang' !

after that, went over to Charmings for chinese noodles. n scoot off to Cheshire Home in Dun Laoghaire. its darn far i tell u, n i dint quite hear the directions the ppl from the home gave me earlier, cos the reception wasnt too good on the cell, twice, n i told d bus driver ... OOHEFTOWN lodge .. thinking, where got such name in english but gave it the BOD cos irish spelling, maklumlah, super weird with super weird pronounciations. i reached the home, 45 minutes LATE. it was more than an hour bus ride ! n as it turns out to be, the name of the hotel is, ROCHESTOWN lodge !

oh anyway, Cheshire Home, is i think, a place where ppl with any sort of disabillity stays there to lead an independent life, with occasional assistance from those around. n i really really salute some of them there, who came from really difficult times, fought tooth n nail for survival when hope seems so bleak. like there was a woman, who loves marilyn monroe, had an accident or sumthing like that n is paralysed from neck bottom. she wasnt treated well at the hospital she was in n felt stipped off her dignity bcos she shared d hospital ward with some other 15 people, with just curtain railings separating them. n when she wanted to move into the home, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. sighx- and theres another young lady , if i'm not mistaken, she looks rather young, maybe 20 sumthing. she met with an accident when she was 11, on the way home from school where she was hit by a moving vehicle. n from then on, she has some kinda mental - speech retardation and she cannot control the coordination of her limbs at all. so she spoke to us via a machine where she types down n the machine reads it aloud. believe it or not, she joins the paralympics in a sporting event, lawn bowl if i'm not mistaken, cos i saw a photo frame of her in the Sydney 2000 paralympics and she did mention that she just came back from Beijing last week for a familiarisation camp.. however, the coordinator of the home told us that her condition is deteriorating as the years go by because she is rather reluctant when it comes to taking medication ..

oh, as i walked out the cheshire home today n looked at the skies above me, with the beautiful scenery of the harbour not far away, i suddenly realised that these people, are not to be sympathised. in fact, i found a renewed faith, a new found hope that if these people can fight tooth n nail for somethings so impossible and yet come out of it living so gleefully and grateful of dear life, why would i feel disappointed and sad over the slightest things? theres so much hope in this world. n really, they only pushed me harder to strive for the things most important in my life, to work harder, and to become a successful person as i was blessed to be..