Thursday, July 24, 2008

Heart Warming Stories from the 512 Earthquake in Si Chuan, China

I'm sure that the 512 Earthquake that shook the whole of Si Chuan is still something people would talk about even though it was already 2 months after it. Here are some heart warming stories that will, well, make you shed tears...

I've seen some of these stories here live on the television. It was not only heart warming but at the same time, it's also heart breaking. The one I remembered the most was the story of the man who died after 78 hours under the rubble. His name, was Chen Jian, which means strong. His moans wrenched my heart and made me cry even when I think about it... But most of the survivals survived because of the protection given to them by their teacher or their family members. Since it happened in the afternoon, many students are still in school. The picture of all the children under the burial, lying there motionless and lifeless, is a real nightmare....

Another story not stated here was about a policewoman who was still fighting to save lives of others even though she lost her family back home.

Please pray for those who left us during the 512 Earthquake...



Saturday, July 19, 2008

Bon Odori! 盆踊り!

Venue: Mashushita Sport's Centre, Shah Alam
Time: 5.00pm (Gates Open) - 11.15pm

It was fun although we only stayed there for only about 1 hour, maybe less. We only wanted to take a look about what it was all about. There was many people there, both locals and Japanese. Many were wearing the yukata (kimino in summer) and it was so nice! I even saw Malays wearing it with the tudung! Lol... It looked kinda weird. Aw... I want to have a chance to wear it! Maybe next year! =P Oh, and btw, I even saw the Malays speaking in FLUENT Japanese! I guess they are from the Japanese Language Society from some school. Why didn't my school have this club?! So, that gave me an idea to set it up... I even told Cheau Wei (a Japan-crazy gurl) and she went nuts about it!

We bought some food and sat down on the field to watch the dance performance. The japanese bread was also sold there! I don't really know what it's called but it was the 2nd time we ate it! Yummy!!! We were give those small, paper hand fan so it wasn't that hot. People were dancing along to those who are performing on stage. I didn't join in... Hehe!

That's all for now. Bye!

Pictures from The 1st Taylor's Culinary Competition


























































sorry if it's a bit messy... Hehe! You guys can just guess which dish was ours... =_=









Saturday, July 5, 2008

Taylor's Culinary Contest at the Taylor's School of Hospitailty! =)

Today, the 5th of July 2008, is quite a historical day for me... Becuz it's the first time ever that I cook something (other than frying eggs and cooking instant noodles and all those bad, instant cooking! =P) in the kitchen by myself, with another helper of course. She's ah YYV...

We woke up at 6.45am... T.T just to take the train to Setia Jaya which is only like 1/2 an hour away... Yea, well... We took the train there but don't really have a clue where it is.. We met Yi Hua n Xiao Ling in the train station.. So we just wandered around and keep our eyes looking up and down... Finally, somebody found it and we just walked through the gates. For a sudden, I felt as if I'm in Bali, Indo or something. There was those fountains and nice looking statues in a small pond.. Even when we were there, we didn't know where the main gate was! I guess we went there through the back gate, then.

After we found the main gate, we waited for Pn Sally to arrive. We saw those other contestants from other schools and they were like SO PROFFESIONAL! Even from their appearance! And we were jsut there to have some pure fun and not to mention, try out our luck la...

The competition started at about 12 or 11 am? I wasn't wearing my watch since it was accidentally kicked under my bed by me... Our team name was Ivy. Don't ask us why, it was just chosen randomly... So, our station number was No. 13. I know! It's bad luck, right?! But, nothing bad happened to us, so, yay! =P

Yong went to take the ingredients and she took loads of stuff since we don't really know what to cook. There was tomatoes, spaghetti, onion, garlic, celery and also a carrot. The chicken was prepared for us... What?! A chicken?! Both of us had NEVER dealt with a chicken bofore... =_= The girl from no. 14 was saying that it's her first time molesting a chicken while she was washing it! Lol... They were from SMKDU anyway. I saw it from their shirts. I think they're called Angel 2.

So we started our "cooking". I was only told to peel this, peel that, cut this, cut that, cook the spaghetti and most probably nothing else. 'Cuz Yong forbade me to touch the other things.. Yea, she's really quite a Little Miss Know-It-All... She seasoned the chicken with pepper and salt and went on cooking. She then said we were going to cook the so called "Black Pepper Chicken" with Spaghetti.

We were in tears when we cut the onions.. I was actually crying! Tears started to run out of my eyes like the tap water... Don't get me wrong, it's all because of the onion! It was really embarrasing!

Well, after like 1/2 and hour, yong was quite annoyed and she fired up. I didn't know what to do and asked her, since she said I was supposed to just do what she says. She got really annoyed and fed up! What?! I really didn't know what to do! Sorry to say but, sometimes, working with her is a real pain in the neck...

So we were like rushing through everything and did everything the last minute. Even the spaghetti was undercooked. Luckily our food was still edible... Haha! The chicken was quite okay. I reckon that our plate had too much food. Other school was really nice! The presetation was really really neat and nice to look at! I think they've had some professional training in school... Hehe! Our school's ERT club was pretty much just a "club" with not more than 10 activities in a year!

After that, they announced the final 6. We don't even stand 0.1% of being in the final 6. So, after having lunch, yong had to go home cuz she's having tution at night. As for me, Xiao Ling, Yi Hua and the other 2 gurls from Form 5 (Sory, I forgot ur names! ^^') went for the pastry demostration. There were 2 students there to demonstrate. Claire from Singapore and Blair from Australia. Yea, is it coincidence or what? Claire and Blaire... So they demonstrated how to make Paris-Brest and also Choux Chantily and Eclair. Both were tasty!

After that. there were also the blind tasting game. I only got like 3/7... =_= At least I got the dark chocolate correct! And then, there was the carving of fruits. Grapefruit and also orange. The orange is easier to cut! Then they were like cooking caramel or something, then they put the Pineapple slices in it and also some rum. It's really hard to prevent the sugar from turning brown and burn it. Our trial was a disaster.. =_= Our sugary thingy was more bitter than expected. So we just played around and go around snapping pictures...

So that was pretty much the end of it. Me, Xiao Ling and Yi Hua sat the KTM back to Klang and now here I am, typing my blog telling all u guys about it... If possble, I'll upload some pictures up here... For now, Ciao!