kissing under the mistletoe

it was calvin lau who enlightened me on kissing under the mistletoe. we were both in india at that time. OK, i have never seen one mistletoe with him. so no kissing. wondering what is mistletoe?

mistletoe is a parasite associated with christmas holidays. you can see them on tall xmas trees. it has colorful berries that are poisonous. The mistletoe is still hung up in farm-houses and kitchens at Christmas, and the young men have the privilege of kissing the girls under it, plucking each time a berry from the bush. When the berries are all plucked the privilege ceases.

so couples kiss under the mistletoe one day and forgotten about it the next day (mind you... not the kiss but the mistletoe).

i was saying bon voyage to my close friend vny in msn this xmas afternoon when she asked me what is a mistletoe kiss (which i had left it as my personal status in the messenger)

vny : dear, what is mistletoe ?

princess : mistletoe is a plant which they put on top of the christmas tree

vny : then y kiss?

princes : when u see a mistletoe, you are supposed to kiss. it is a tradition

vny : is it? ok!! i learn new things

princess : u can try google image to see the mistletoe

vny : ok...later i will go find a xmas tree and look for mistletoe to kiss

princess : haha... u can buy mistletoe and put everywhere in your house. in your room, in your kitchen

vny : but not hygienic lorr....everybody kissing the same thing!! lolz

princess : no!! no!! you are supposed to kiss your partner.. not the plant

vny : lolz!! oh shit!! how stupid!

princess : haha.. damn funny. i am laughing non stop now. until my tears squeeze out jor...

vny : u say ma....see a mistletoe and u kiss. u din say kiss what or who also. so i tot kiss the leaf

princess : then i didn't say it clearly.. lol

vny : u humiliate me! how could you! i can't stop laughing di!

princess : ok rephrase... you are supposed to kiss your partner when you see a mistletoe

vny : don you dare go tell cafu. i know u will

princess : no point telling him.. later he goes and woo girls with mistletoe. plus he doesnt know what is mistletoe.. so not planning to tell him

vny : later you explain to him on mistletoe. you will tell him about this cos its super funny

princess : i can imagine u kissing the mistletoe now. and u climb the tall xmas tree to do so

vny : btw i'm not stopping u from telling ppl oso coz it's good to share something funny like this! luckily we talk about it here and make things clear. if not, imagine how ppl stare and got stunt when i kiss it in jusco!lolz

princess : lolz..funny leh.. at least i had a good laugh on christmas

vny : thanks to vny lor...

haha...thanks babe! i will remember your mistletoe story forever!!

MERRY XMAS TO YOU... MUACKS

it is really happening

It is really happening!! Induction in Klang on the day right after Christmas! Plus it will be held in a hotel notorious for its midnight activity in 8th floor. I thought that Christmas would be special this year with heaps of laughter and a grilled turkey. how disappointed!! It is going to be yet another lonely night. I am literally forcing myself to accept the fact that i am no longer jobless.

i am seriously anxious because ..............

I donno where am i heading to. Do i need to travel up to the north part of malaysia or back to the south? will the gov dump me in sabah just to serve the rural people there? it seemed so ridiculous to inform my friends that i will be working in january and not knowing which hospital to go.

i have never done my ward work seriously during senior clerkship. OH NO!! who is going to help me if i can't set the brannulas, can't withdraw blood and i don't know what am i feeling during VE?

Will the hostel be comfortable? i know i can't ask for a room like our girl's hostel back in campus. Sob.. If the hostel is really bad, where am i going to stay?

Should i bring my car along to work? i am so used to having cafu as my driver. What if we get a different hospital? i don't know how to take care of the car. I don't know how to pump petrol. don't even mention on how to add the battery water.

will i end up in a long distance relationship after 8 years ?

I hope that i will have a thick face and i won't feel bad when the senior HOs, MOs and specialists scold me..

it is supposed to be a new year of NEW ME, NEW JOB, NEW PLACE, NEW DEDICATION, NEW RESPONSIBILITY AND NEW FRIENDS............But i am seriously not ready for it.... help!!!!

all in all, MERRY xMAS and A HAPPY NEW YEAR to all my friends. i hope we will all be competent doctors :p

the way it used to be

You saw her name in your chat list. then you remembered how close she was to you back in secondary school. She sat next to you. Those gossiping sessions were endless. You walked to the chemistry lab together. She goes to the ladies with you whenever you need a companion. You would go to town together during the weekends. Both of you fell in love with westlife and stuck their posters in your girly bedrooms, giggling sheepishly.

That was when you initiated a conversation in that chat box. you treasured the friendship like sparkling polished diamonds. You called her by her old nickname, just like how you used to address her 8 years ago when you looked so gullible in your turquoise pinafore. In a split second, she dropped the bomb that tore your vulnerable heart. She told you that unless and until you stopped calling her that nickname, she is not going to talk to you anymore.

There you were, loving and reminiscing things on how they used to be. You were shocked to receive such a reply and realized that things have changed. You thought that nicknames made that friendship special in some ways. You wanted to apologize. But, why apologize? She had changed. Maybe she has a better quality of life now when you are still jobless.

There is nothing that you can do now. You had tried your best to initiate every conversation and her sentence that day would be the end of everything. You are seriously exhausted. You have to learn to let go. You have to move on with your life and meet new people.

jobless

Being jobless, i took the quiz to know myself better. I think it is quite accurate because my bau bei is not handsome and i do have plenty of dream jobs. i had always wanted to be a school teacher or maybe a mad scientist perhaps. Back in kindergarten, i wanted to be a fire fighter!! i want to save lives and put out fire. Haha

THE RESULTS

Your view on yourself:

You are intelligent, honest and sweet. You are friendly to everybody and don't like conflict. Because you're so cheerful and fun people are naturally attracted to you and like to talk to you.

The type of girlfriend/boyfriend you are looking for:

You like serious, smart and determined people. You don't judge a book by its cover, so good-looking people aren't necessarily your style. This makes you an attractive person in many people's eyes.

Your readiness to commit to a relationship:

You prefer to get to know a person very well before deciding whether you will commit to the relationship.

The seriousness of your love:

You are very serious about relationships and aren't interested in wasting time with people you don't really like. If you meet the right person, you will fall deeply and beautifully in love.

Your views on education

Education is very important in life. You want to study hard and learn as much as you can.

The right job for you:

You have plenty of dream jobs but have little chance of doing any of them if you don't focus on something in particular. You need to choose something and go for it to be happy and achieve success.

How do you view success:

You are afraid of failure and scared to have a go at the career you would like to have in case you don't succeed. Don't give up when you haven't yet even started! Be courageous.

What are you most afraid of:

You are afraid of having no one to rely on in times of trouble. You don't ever want to be unable to take care of yourself. Independence is important to you.

Who is your true self:

You are mature, reasonable, honest and give good advice. People ask for your comments on all sorts of different issues. Sometimes you might find yourself in a dilemma when trapped with a problem, which your heart rather than your head needs to solve.

sabah DAY 3

wholly disappointed with the polluted manukan island, we headed off to kundasang the next day.calvin lau had booked a chalet for us, nestled at the bottom of the kinabalu mountain. well, that accommodation cost another RM 800. phew!! we bought some souvenirs from the market and the forever enthusiastic photographer managed to snap some pics on the way to kundasang.

the chalet

it looked a bit Japanese to me. i could imagined JU-On climbing up the stairs after her throat was slit!

we had lunch in Liwagu.

0.5mL of drinking water in kundasang cost RM 3!!! so, you'll have to pay RM 3 for one drop of water. crazy nuts!!

our tour guide forced us to do some jungle trekking after our heavy lunch. Most of us are not prepared to climb the kinabalu mountain. Eric was merely panting for breath during the jungle trekking. I felt a lil bit hypoxic from exploring the sabah jungle.

Me inside the raflessia.

i don't know what was eric trying to do. i pity cafu's ass!!! i guessed this was what the boys did whenever they were bored.

Had some photography session again at the entrance to the kinabalu mountain.

i loved the colour contrast in this picture. ehem....Being the creative one, i was the one who gave him the idea.

A sabahan girl commented that hamlau was very handsome when we had this picture taken. I swear that he was blushing!! wee!!! never seen him blushed before until that day.

the ugly sister. this part of the mountain looked like a lady lying down.

we had BBQ in our chalet that night. It was not an easy task because CK Tan was not there. He had always been the cook, the one who marinated the chickens, the one who planned what to cook, the one who sliced our birthday cakes.... we realized how important he was to us that day. Eric had to call him for some tips on how to marinate the chickens. He sounded serious. lol... Thank God, Calvin Lau's mommy gave us a helping hand.

Calvin's secret recipe. Baba's curry powder, butter and some sugar for the fish. It was delicious!! haha...didn't know that hamlau could cooked!!

it was chilling at night. we had our bath robes on! too bad, eric didn't have his! i guessed he must be shivering like mad at night. lol

sabah DAY 2

Pulau Manukan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here we come!!!!!!!!!

We saw how magnificent pulau manukan was in the tourism brochure. the sea water was clear. fishes darting in and out from the undersea coral gardens. i love beaches because it allows rays of sunlight to tanned me up.

I bought a sarong batik. It didn't look good on me because the bikini top didn't blend well with its bright yellowish paint.

the 30 minutes bumpy boat ride was the best. the thrill was equivalent to being strapped in a roller coaster. salted, warm sea water kept splashing on my cheeks. the wind was blowing so harshly that i couldn't keep my eyes open.

we were so disappointed once we stepped our feet into pulau manukan. the sea water was the most salty of all. i could not see the underwater creatures clearly for the water wasn't as clear as we thought it was. the fish were aggressive. they bit us and gave us red papules as souvenirs.

The sea walking adventure costs RM 150 per person. All you have to do is to sit on a scooter which looks more like a toilet bowl to me. The oxygen tank will be provided and the whole underwater adventure will be recorded. Thank God we didn't have enough money in our pockets. There is no point visiting the coral reefs and feasting our eyes on colourful fishes when the sea is so polluted!

all in all, we snapped quite a few photos as remembrance.

IF................................we had allowed calvin's advice to fall on our deaf ears, we would be spending the sunny day in sutera harbour. they have a private beach and it was so much cleaner. the swimming pool is the biggest that i have witnessed. owh...how disappointed.

.

I've made a promise to myself. the next time i visit Sabah bah, i will stay in sutera harbour for the whole day. so what if the hotel costs RM 800 plus per night? I fell in love with the swimming pool at first sight. lol

we had dinner with calvin's parents the very same day. the ocean restaurant serves the best seafood. we followed calvin's daddy to the vast aquariums where he chose the seafood. it was like selecting rare sea creatures in ocean park HK to feed the hungry, demanding tummy. the seafood was fresh and was super tasty that cafu had to change his plate for TEN times. i do pity the waitress. that dinner itself cost RM 1080 and it was the most expensive dinner that i had in 25 years!!! we had seven star fish, two king lobsters, abalone, clams, flower crabs, mantis prawn, sabah veg and lobster noodles.

special thanks to hamlau's parents!

wondering why calvin didn't follow us to manukan island? today is the DOB of his lancer evo 10. i can imagine andrew calling the car a cutie and how beautiful she is. But, it is just another car to me. Hehe...of course it can speed way faster than my cafu's altis. blek

sabah DAY 1

With a terrible earache during flight descent, i handed my ic to the officer in KKIA. IC was curtly returned. I left awesome semenanjung behind me and stepped into the gloomy and yet disturbing island of sabah. Calvin was already waiting for us in his Honda. his gigantic forearm pressed firmly against the tinted automobile window. As we inched, we noticed that calvin had took the trouble to welcome us with a huge card.

we stood at the front yard of his mansion, jaw dropping in great astonishment on how rich our friend is. He has 2 living rooms.

A lovely YAMAHA grand piano nestled so beautifully at the corner of the first living room. His mommy was kind enough to grant me the permission to play some songs. I am never good with the piano, but it was always my dream to have one. I guess that is how we ended up calling calvin's sweet home as our fantasyland, just like how michael jackson owned Neverland. His house must be really huge for i couldn't locate the kitchen. The boys slept in Calvin's room while both the girls spent the quiet nights in his sister's room.

Introducing the faithful Tiger and Beckham. Beckham is the older dog. he is already 14 years old and is down with arthritis. his hind legs resembled the gait of the ducks. I do not know whether he is in pain but he needs to have a grooming done. Tiger is just so super duper scary. He is never friendly and is always barking at us. He never fail to greet us with his sharp incisors!!

We had lunch in Little Italy. My nose was blocked and i couldn't taste. Grr.... what a waste for food looked mouth watering.

We had a stroll in town after our late lunch. Spotted a big sword fish in the heart of Sabah which i initially thought that it was a dolphin. Some of the shops were dim with little in them.

we headed off to yayasan sabah. Calvin kept telling us that the building was rotating. we were all squinting as hard as we could and then we realized that it was merely an optical illusion.

I was trying my best to rotate the tower

Had candle light dinner in yayasan sabah with ham lau as the waiter.

Had some grilled seafood and gao tie at night. Gao tie is fried dumpling.

We had our first movie in one borneo that night. Planet 51! i dozed off during the movie. i was just too exhausted from travelling. that's the end of day 1