The Great Expectations by Mum Dickens

My mother always say that she didn't give birth to me. I agree 70%. Cause there's little in common in our characters and being. She's street-smart, I am book-smart; She was prettiest girl in Taiping (my dad vouched), I took the crown of prettiest in Jalan Persiaran Perajurit 2 Ipoh ever since my mum got old(er) and wrinkly; She loves raring chickens and do gardening, I was afraid of chicken droppings and has 'hot' hands (even cactus die under my care).

I despise her fashion sense. She hates mine completely.

But then mathematically, the 30% has some truth: We are both females..duh!; we love to eat anything and everything that is edible + sambal belacan-kinda-spicy; she and I are caring..yup yup...to a certain extent; she and I can never say "no" (kinda bad trait, actually) to any requests; both me and my mum loves flowers; she likes to entertain people, and so do I (e.g. jemput orang makan-makan, masak byk-byk di rumah, suka ber-party, etc.). And this trait, no one can deny: She and I are both super-talkative and opinionated/vocal.

Some China-based flowering plant which only thrive in cool climates, but my mum managed to make  it grow and bloom in hot, humid Ipoh.

Why did I even start this blogpost?


I suddenly miss my mum. No wonder I hate holidays (yesterday). Thinking of nothing makes you think of something. Tak han mou yeh chou. Makes me over-think about things...and worst, I get emotional over it.

So yes...I miss my mum. If I hadn't talk to her in a couple of days, I may suffer, die or stab myself to death. Not that I am dependent on my mum, but she gives the best opinion ever and some how, and I dunno how, her opinion turns out right. She used to pressure me a lot when I was younger to study, music, swimming, and other sports but I understand why....cause I could do it. Since my 20s, I've been buggering (it came to a point that I was WARNING her) her to stop putting any pressure on me anymore in my studies, career...and surprisingly she relented. I know why. When I was young, she thought I was perfect and could do wonders until.... I didn't fare quite well in STPM onwards. Today, my mum probably has come to grounds that I am a failure in many things, and finally it made sense to her: I am only human.

My Ipoh's house is full of plants, crops and flowers maintain by my mum. No wonder I was named after a plant by my mum.

Yup, in spite of all the madhouse, old-school punishments, caning and scoldings I endured....I was given a lot of freedom and most important of all: she trusts me. She allowed me to do and pursue anything I want. I was allowed to dye my hair red (which I didn't), go clubbing every single weekend (in my mid-20s), drink and drunk, buy as much clothes as I want with my teaching-swimming side income, date any guys I want. She doesn't care who I brought back home. But she only warn me of these 3 things:
1. No drugs,
2. No smoking, and
3. Don't get raped.

And her favourite sentence of all time: "Never be kan-cheong in anything you do". But I always feel that she meant otherwise. Cause it's soooo unlike her to say this to me after all the pushing and pressure she imposed to me to do just about everything.

My mum is my best friend. You can see me and her talking in the afternoon and one will never know that's my mum on the other side of the line. We talk like friends... taruh each other, talk loud-loud, scold each other (both of us opinionated marr)...but there's definitely a sense of respect somewhere.

Or maybe I don't have a sister. I do secretly pray each day that I had a sister one day. Father and brothers...ahem...I won't say you guys aren't any good in this earth, but you don't have enough oestrogens to understand me. You guys are really from Mars!


I love you, Mum.


Bla bLa bla bla...Okay, now Mum, cook me some prawn sambal petai!

At Lumut jetty. Mum showing of her 'luxury' salted fish. She had gotten it at a bargain price and soooo proud a...salty fish?!

You can do it, guys,

Whassup August?! 

Before you know it, it's already mid-August and  for me, August is the month of flowers. Roses to be exact. I am not shy to say (to all the guys out there): every girl in this world loves flowers. And guys, it's always worth giving flower(s) to your love ones though I totally know many out there will curse me for campaigning so. Don't cha believe it if a girl tells you she's not into flowers - that's BS. 

Cause any girl will go head-over-heels over flowers!

And give real flowers. If you're like my dad who thinks real flowers represents real love, then you're right. Though it wilts and last barely a week, at least it's FOR REAL. I don't buy into the idea of giving fake plastic flowers that obviously doesn't die, but thinking that it represents everlasting love? Nah....so not appropriate. Leave fake flowers for decorating houses. :P 

Bouquet I got when I was at Secret of Louisiana, KJ. The flowers were a surprise, an so was the venue.                         Hidden gem of Selangor.

I got these roses for no apparent reason.

...and these too.

This are fee yen's bouquet after complaining of not getting one (when I got 2 in a month!).  Kidding lah... Hubby surprised her with these white-peach bouquet for anniversary. Sweet!

YP's bouquet of lilies (pretty!) sent by hubby to her office. *sorry for copywriting this fr your FB

OOoooo...seems like a trend here. Keep it up, guys!

But just want to set the record straight: besides flowers and roses, I am also into Coach bags, Gucci, Sports Cars, Tiffany's Diamonds, Blue Mountain beans, Caviar, Fois Gras, Truffles, Kobe beef, etc, etc.... (fill in the blanks with luxury items here). Muahahahaha.

And btw, my Ph.D. graduation/convocation (sigh, finally!) will be this October 15th. *Hint**hint*

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I just love the Spongebob Squarepants sticker used during today's Pacemaker's Relay Run. See, see, rambut serabut and blur....just like I every morning! I chose this sticker cause it reminds me that I need to get a hair cut quite quickly.

I've never done a relay, but it's pretty stressful. My pace was brought to a sprint(!), and I was panting the sh*t out of myself upon passing the baton to the next runner. But believe me, I had really great fun with the SpongeBob Square Pants/ BKT runners :)

More pics of the event in my FB page.


Ivy Out!