Party Hopping

It was last Saturday when I was invited to join this be-early birthday surprise plan. I would say it was pretty well organised by a sweet girlfriend for her beloved boyfriend. Since he is turning 30 this year, the theme for this birthday dinner was “Old” and therefore, we all had to dress up as an old person.

That’s the birthday man and they even made a bunting for him. Cool, right?

And these are the group of ‘senior’ citizens for the night. Very creative, aren’t they? It’s really interesting to see how much effort they put to dress up though.

It was believe that there were around 50 people and we had two floors. Awesome, right?

Each of us paid 150rmb and it was all-you-can-drink; they had red wines, beers and soft drinks. Unfortunately I had to teach the next day and therefore, I resisted to drink that night. See that burger above? It was huge but smaller compared to this. I didn’t finish it though as it came really late and I had 5-6 pieces of drumsticks before it reached my table.

Later when the clock struck 10pm, I left to Ying’s. She organised a house party at hers that night. Well, most of them were surprised when I turned up at the party though. They thought I would not be able to make it.

However, I was glad to have turned up at the party. It was indeed a great one.

And guess what? I got to know a Malaysian intern at the party. She’s from LC USM. Pretty great, huh?

Punchie #18

Behold the breakfast homemade by my dearest Mexican colleague, Yvo! It’s just weird for him to make his own breakfast.

Don’t really get it? Well, not really sure if this is a good example but it’s just like you seeing Mr. Koay making his own breakfast.

Julien’s Farewell@Shanghai Gecheng

After Stefan left, we had a French dude moved into our flat. He is really cool too. Though he moved in when inevitably, I had to leave Shanghai for two weeks back in February, we managed to hang out a few times over lunches and dinners. He pretty much likes to sing and therefore, I told him that he really should do a karaoke before leaving Shanghai.

And he did!

For his farewell.

French was dominating the room since he is working at a French company. I almost died of hunger as I was saving up space for the buffet at KTV. I enjoyed the food more than karaoke.

Since I had to wake up early the next day, I left earlier. I know I will miss this guy even though we didn’t spend a lot of time together. However, during the time we spent together, we really had fun.

As for who our new flatmate is, a Spanish dude moved in first thing in the next morning after Julien left. He, too, is spending two months here.

Looking forward to hang out with him :)

Punchie #17

It was that week when I lost my motivation, lost my will to smile. Yeah, it was two weeks ago. Nervous breakdown can be unimaginable scary that I decided to take two days of sick leave and bonus, a weekend awaiting for me. It was one of those nights when I decided to take up the challenge that a friend of mine and I had made: to gobble up 1L of ice-cream. A great opportunity to cheer myself up.

Though the ice-cream above was less than 1L, it was still a challenge. And indeed, I felt a little better though I had to stop consuming ice-cream for at least a month now. Else, instead of being depressed about it, I will be depressed for being overweight.

Easter Sunday

Finally my blog is in April. It’s catching up with us real soon though we are going to May. The temperature should be lovely now in Shanghai since supposedly it’s spring now. However, global warming is more serious than I thought. It’s still so cold in Shanghai. The winter is not over  though we had already celebrated Spring Festival, wtf!

Anyway, I started off my April with an amazing Easter Sunday. A friend of mine invited me to and Easter buffet lunch. I was very delighted and at that time, I needed that desperately. Therefore, after I finished teaching (and woo! I received my pay that day too!), I joined the buffet lunch. It was all-you-can-eat (no drinks) Brazilian food buffet. Countless of meat charging at you. The waiters would come to your table with different types of meat. I consumed a lot as I took that buffet as my lunch and dinner for the day lol! It’s ninety-eight kuai. No way I were to waste that nine-eight!

After lunch, we headed to the guys’ place to chill. Watched a few Xbox FIFA games and movies before we ordered dinner and well, beer the whole damn time! They aimed to get lashed that day. No way I ain’t joining them so, I started to power up for drinks and we headed to Muse for music and dance.

Unbelievably Goat, Sam and I bumped into our direct boss in the club. We were invited to his private booked room for some crazy KTV and dance as well! It was so weird but at the same time, fun. Imagine you see your boss drinking, singing and dancing with some Chinese chicks! It’s not like you could witness this often! In a nutshell, that day went pretty well for me and I had a lot of fun. It was epic!

Shanghai Jade Buddha Temple

Finally I was in a mood to go for a short sightseeing around Shanghai. Well, only to one place though. Plus, it was my first time to travel alone. Lonely but interesting. Anyway, Jade Buddha Temple was where I went after I finished teaching that Sunday.

Great Treasure Hall where worshippers pray to the past, present and future Buddhas.

The Hall of Heavenly Kings that contains its namesake kings.

I guess these must be done by couples.

In order to view this famous Jade Buddha that seated in his own hall, I had to pay extra 10 kuai and unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photography in the hall. Sad but true.

This was my last stop. I was watching those kids trying really hard to toss their coins into that building looking pillar. Guess what happened next? Well, the silly me of course went to do the same after they left. I made three wishes though and they are...

My Bodoh-ness

Still remember me being reckless not registering myself at the police station when I landed Shanghai here? Well, I took a few pictures of the event as ‘souvenir.’

Room 116, Bed 4 at le Tour Traveler’s Rest. A cardkey and my locker’s key.

That’s my ‘bed’ for the night. And oh, the room was occupied by another person. However, I didn’t get to meet him/her. Didn’t stay in though I had already paid it. I would if I didn’t have to teach the next day.

My Students

I believe you are aware that I had taken up a part-time job as an English teacher. Below are examples of social activity that I conducted in class.

How does this work?

Each student will have to come up with two words each round to create a story.

And what was the question?

Would you want to be a volunteer abroad?

I am getting a hang on this job. Been doing alright and had received my first pay! Looking forward to my next pay though. Rent is due the end of this week :(

Food Adventure

My colleagues and I had a random food adventure the other day. We crossed the bridge and took a stroll at the other side of the ‘world’.

We had fried noodles and dumplings for our lunch on the bridge. It was so much more fun when the sun comes out where else it’s been raining and cloudy now..

Let’s Goat Around!

Before I start further on this post, I would like to reassure everyone that I am still in Shanghai. I realised that my previous posted had confused most of my friends; they thought I am already back in Malaysia, which was true but two months ago. My blog is one month behind us.

So, let’s Goat around now!

One of my colleagues, a Frenchie, had a housewarming part at his newly moved apartment. I was like the 98th guest for the night and blimey, it was really packed!

It was all good until the policemen came to shut the party down and therefore, a few of us headed to The Shelter for Drum ‘n’ Bass!

The place is cool. The music was good. The crowd was awesome. Everything was perfect. However, I had the urge to go back home earlier than I would have.

And my my, you couldn’t believe how glad I were to be back home earlier. When I was back home, I smelled something strange and to my surprise, the cooking gas wasn’t switched off. The soup was over-boiled at some point of time and nobody was there to look after it.

What in the world could happen if I were not back home earlier...

Fumo Update #13

Chocolates all the way from USA and UK. Very the awesome, right? Other being an ice-cream person, I am a chocolate person. I love it when they are not stingy with almond nuts. Since I had already finished those chocolates above, guess what? I am fortunate enough to meet this Dutch guy who will be in Sydney for three weeks; will be back on April 23rd and I can’t wait to see him! Why? Because I asked him a favour to buy chocolates for me from Aussie (woo)!

***

Finally becoming a workaholic. I got myself a part-time job for the weekends; Sunday mornings, to be exact, and this change my life totally. I am more disciplined now (hooray!) and believe it or not, no more party or alcohol on Saturday nights. I still have friends who ask me out on Saturday nights but trust me, it ain't easy to push away the invitations. The temptation of not wanting to miss out and having fun together was really strong. However, I am proud that I resisted *give myself a good pat at the back*

***

My first non-alcohol Tairyo Teppanyaki. Imagine how excruciating it was to watch my housemates drinking beer and sake non-stop. Seriously, it was not worth paying 150RMB that night just to eat and drink canned drinks. You must be curious as to why didn’t I drink? Well, aforementioned, I had gotten myself a part-time job so, yeah, I did Teppanyaki with my housemates on Saturday. Bad timing, I know.

***

What surprise me in China is that women were give half day off from work on International Women’s Day! Awesome, right?

Spring Festival: Day 4

..the fourth and the last day of mine to be in my hometown. I could not meet everyone I know in my life but I was really glad to meet my Year 4 & 5 secondary school classmates. And believe it or not, one of us were already married and gave birth to this adorable baby boy.

I found this interesting book at one of my friend’s place. ‘The Shit Book’, a direct translation to English from Chinese.

And this is my favourite page.

Then that night, I had a final drink night with my dudes. Yeahh, dudes lmao! And we were all on fire!

The Besties

It felt great to meet my besties whom I have already known for more than ten years. Jessica, the girl in the middle, is my childhood friend. We know each other when we were about five or six years old. On the other hand, Cherrie, the girl on the far right, and I got closer when were about nine. We are all physically apart but our friendship will always remain.

Spring Festival: Day 01

The first day of Chinese New Year was pretty hectic. We visited countless of relatives since morning.

Also, on the day itself, we celebrated both my mother’s and brother’s birthday.

And on that night, it was my very first time to step into my hometown’s club! Can you believe it? I had been to countless of clubs in Shanghai but not even on in the place where I was born and grew up! Shame!

The place was pretty awesome as I went with the right company. It was legendary! Like totally!

Behind the Scene

This is going to be an emo post. You are free to leave this post if you do not want to be as miserable as me after reading this post because as promised here, I would definitely get into that when I had a chance to think through on what to type.

To be honest, heading back home was the last thing I ever wanted to do when I was still in Shanghai. It truly was a bad idea to go back, or maybe not. I know it is great to be able to see your friends and family back home but there are things that you might want to avoid, and that is to see things that could pierce right into your heart and you wished you have had felt it when it happened.

As you can see, people, I am the type of person who would try to avoid problems. Seriously, I am. But it seems the problems would not let you off the hook easily. Eventually they will come back and haunt you hundred times more than it should have been.

Yes, people, I considered myself lucky enough as I did not bring loads of stuff over to Shanghai that could reminded me of him as much as those that could remind him of me. Especially that adorable black devil. That smile just penetrated my heart when I met him again in my room.

Going back to Malaysia had changed me. Like totally. Miserable, depressed, emotional. I don’t know and I definitely cannot understand how he had been through but I do know it is definitely excruciating because, people, I am currently going through what he had been through.

I admit when it happened, I was killed that night but survived as I was fortunate enough to have my mom to distract me for a week or two in which how this post was uploaded. I did look as if I was doing pretty good. That was because after she’s gone back to Malaysia, on that day itself, I was actively in search of new place to stay, which it did distract me a lot. Apartment hunting and moving out were really stressful. This went on until the end of that month when I finally moved into my new place and settled down a bit though it didn’t go as smoothly as I hoped for as mentioned here.

Moving on to my birthday month, I finally understood how it truly feel when you did not receive a birthday wish from only that particular person you really wanted to receive from. It would be like the best gift ever for your birthday. Therefore, things gradually turned ugly, post break-up regret, but I got myself into a shit situation which distracted me till the end of the year.

How.e.ver.

Things continue to turn uglier in the early of two double-O ten. And it got even much worse when I was back in Malaysia for Spring Festival which (bam!), for the first time in my life, I decided to look back...

I’m getting outta control!

Punchie #16

Speechless to the max

The Tale of RM3000

Let me show you the tale of RM3,000 which is equivalent to 6,000RMB, that was almost gone in one night, less than 5 hours.

Why not just save up the money and send me to Australia to take Masters?

Punchie #15

Better Transportation, Better Life

My Baby!

Finally, baby and I got together again. It had been a very long time since we last saw each other, spending time with each other. It felt so good to be able to touch him again.

To be honest, I really love driving now. I may not be a good and safe driver but hey, I am not that bad too either. I was once told by someone that ‘our legs are born to step on the accelerator.’ Interestingly enough I have lived in that believe. However, I have been walking a lot in Shanghai. Therefore, I really appreciated the time I had with my baby.