ta pa kuih...or whatever you call it in your language
I wouldn't blame you for not knowing what it is...I wouldn't have recognized it before last summer, when I learned how to make it from my grandmother.
You see, I myself am more used to the deep-fried kind. (you know, the one coated with sesame, that you can find easily at roadside/pasar malam* stalls) I like that one better, but it's too much work so I made the steamed type.
I only made mini-balls...and I had to steam them four by four on a small dish because I didn't have anything bigger to steam it in. It took quite some time because of that...what you see in the photo isn't all I made; I took the photo while one "quartet" (lol) was steaming and I was eating ;P
I couldn't quite figure out what it is...but there was something a little different about the ta pa kuih I made (compared to the ones I ate last summer). I'm still wondering, but in the meantime...
This one starts with a parody on the Iron Chef...so if you want to get to the song you should skip to somewhere just before 3:00.
I like the first video better, but the second was good in the sense that they really copied everything in the 'N Sync video, including the part where Justin laughs and where they cleaned the cassette in the car. (I had totally forgotten about those parts before seeing this video!)
And do notice the play on the album titles! ;) (Larger than life and No strings attached for those who don't know them)
Okay, I know I said the opposite before. :P But hey, I was kidding anyway.
You see, in supermarkets they are smart. They never place the cheapest stuff at eye level, but either at the top or at the bottom of the shelf (more often at the bottom, so that not even tall people will see them) But then, the "advantage" (for them, at least...certainly not for me!) of putting it at the top is that short people can't reach them.
The other day I was in Champion (the supermarket near my place) and I needed to buy dishwashing liquid. I always buy the cheapest kind, since it washes very well and I don't see any need for fancy perfumes (my food smells nice enough, thank you very much :P). But...it was at the topmost shelf. Usually I can reach one on the edge of the shelf by standing on tiptoe, but there wasn't any near the edge...so I had to look for someone to get it for me. I guess they were counting on people either not seeing the cheapest item...or else giving up and taking another one because they can't reach it. No such luck with me! I know it's there, and if I can't get a kind shopper to help me, I'll ask one of your workers. There!
I just got another 13. It just beat my previous record by some tenths of a second, but this time it was done non-flagging. And it really is my fastest time on intermediate, including the first, "non-valid" 13.
Seeing as I've been playing less and less for the past few years, it's nice to beat a record! :) I'm still hoping to do better than that one day (and also finish an expert game in less than 50 seconds), but for now maybe I should just be content and not hope too much. After all, that's how this record came along...
And here are the stats, if they mean anything to you ;)
By the way, this was done listening to the Backstreet Boys' We've got it going on ^_^
Warning: Emo post. Don't translate, you might distort the meaning. And if in the end, you wonder why I wrote this, it was because I wanted to get it off my chest. These thoughts have been around all the time, just never put into words.
Pour le stage ça va bien. Grâce aux autres stagiaires. Je ne suis pas toute seule, nous les stagiaires sommes même plus nombreux que les gens qui travaillent en permanence dans le bureau. Et ça aide, d'avoir d'autres stagiaires...surtout quand il y en a qu'on connait déjà.
Mais maintenant je m'inquiète pour l'année prochaine. Pour la rentrée.
Il y en a qui disent que je me débrouille pas mal avec les gens. Mais vous savez pas comment j'ai forcé. Comment je me suis forcée à ne pas rester dans mon coin, à parler aux gens. J'ai même presque lâché un ami pour faire ça.
J'étais pas censée être dans le groupe 4. Au début j'étais dans le groupe 1, où on était 4 ASINSAs. Dans le groupe 4 il y en avait que 2. Mais j'ai changé. C'était pas moi qui voulait changer; je change pas ce genre de choses, j'ai trop peur de regretter plus tard. Mais l'autre fille, celle dans le groupe 4, voulait changer. Et je me suis dit que ça faisait pas trop de mal d'être dans le groupe 4, de faire son stage au 2ème semestre. Et aussi - et ça j'ai jamais dit - de ne pas rester trop près de trop d'ASINSAs. Parce que je me connais. Si je reste avec eux je vais jamais parler à d'autres personnes.
La première semaine on ne savait même pas qui était dans notre groupe (sauf ceux qu'on connaissait déjà) A la fin de la semaine on devait avoir trouvé un co-TP. J'en ai trouvé un...et la semaine suivante il s'était mis avec nous - mon camarade d'ASINSA et moi. Etant admis direct, il connaissait personne...
Plus tard on a eu notre séance de projet. PRDCE. Je crois que c'était la 3ème semaine, mais je suis pas sûre. N'importe. Mais là on a eu nos groupes de projet. Mon camarade d'ASINSA et mon co-TP était dans le même groupe, et moi j étais dans un autre. Et encore - quelque chose que j'ai jamais dit - j'étais en fait...thankful (le dictionnaire me donne reconnaissant et content, auxquels j'ai déjà pensé, mais ni l'un ni l'autre ne convient) Pour la même raison que précédemment. C'était pas que j'aimais pas eux deux, c'était juste parce que ça m'oblige à parler à d'autres personnes. Et au moins, même s'il y a rien à dire, il y aura au moins des choses à faire.
C'est triste quand il faut se fier au hasard pour se faire des amis.
Et pendant des semaines qui suivaient, je vascillais. Je ne lâche pas mes amis. Mais...il était clair que personne ne voulait parler à ceux avec qui j'ai passé mes deux premières semaines. Ils (les deux) n'étaient pas méchants...c'était juste qu'ils parlaient pas beaucoup. Comme moi. Et j'étais obligée de choisir.
Je n'étais pas fière. Je ne le suis toujours pas. J'essaie quand même de leur parler de temps en temps - c'était plus facile l'année dernière que cette année - mais ce n'est pas très facile. Surtout puisque je parle pas beaucoup.
Mais vous leur avez pas donné une chance. Savez-vous qu'en première année, mon camarade d'ASINSA a été choisi par les autres de la classe comme étant parmi les plus drôles? C'était pendant une séance de théâtre, et on nous a dit de nous mettre en file, avec les plus drôles devant, puis en ordre décroissant. (enfin si je m'exprime bien)
Peut-être qu'ils ont pas essayé. Mais c'est pas toujours facile, d'essayer...c'est en partie dû à la chance que j'ai réussi (enfin, si on peut dire que j'ai réussi...vu que j'ai peur pour l'année prochaine ça a pas tellement marché) C'est de leur faute, vous allez dire, et c'est peut-être vrai. Vous êtes pas obligés de parler aux gens qui font pas l'effort de vous parler. Mais...ce n'est pas non plus interdit. Et ça aide.
Peut-être que vous voyez maintenant. Quand vous vous moquez d'eux, je vous le dis, ça aurait pu être moi, à leur place.
Et peut-être que vous comprenez mieux mon dédicace.
Warning: Dumb, self-searching, quarter-life-crisis post. Read at your own risk.
I don't understand myself sometimes. With some people I hardly say a word, and sometimes with complete strangers I just manage to talk quite "normally" (I mean like not psychotically quiet), even bordering on friendly! With the people at my internship (die lor if they come see this) and like half the people in GE I can hardly speak, and last night this bunch of people were looking for the tent for the Karnaval Humanitaire (which is a yearly event in INSA, and which I have never been to) and I not only offered to show them where it was, I even spoke a bit to one of them on the way (of course, she wasn't absolutely quiet, which was probably why) but what really really surprised me was how in the end I wished her bonne soirée (have a nice evening) of my own accord. I hardly ever say that, not even to my friends. What's gotten into me?
Well, as I mentioned in my previous post, I went to Grenoble for the weekend. I had been there once before, and you can read about my previous visit here.
Let's just say that the order of my visit was ironic...I first met Fabien, who just started his internship in Grenoble a month ago, and so he didn't know the town very well either. Then I met my batchmate Salwati, who's there since September (this school year). Next I went to see Pei Xin who's in her second year there...and lastly I met Thierry who's been there all his life! So it was like each person I met knew more than the person before.
So here you go, chronologically like I like it :P
Appointment #1: Fabien
He met me at the train station, and we simply went walking around town.
the market
This building reminded me of the marketplace in Angoulême ^_^
This was quite early in the morning, and even though the sun was out and it wasn't cold, it wasn't that hot yet...
This was the top of the fountain that we couldn't get in the other photo.
a picture of the Isère river
The weather was better this time round, and the leaves are green instead of orange. (you can see the photos from my last trip using the link at the beginning of the post)
I like this statue, which I didn't see the last time I went to Grenoble (I don't believe I crossed the river to the road on the other side)
Then we climbed up the steps on the right of this statue. They supposedly lead up to Bastille, but we didn't climb up very high... From where we reached, I took this photo of the theatre which was across the river.
Then I suddenly noticed that the windows were actually painted on, so I tried to zoom in for a better view (the quality's not that good since it's a digital zoom...do you think you can see it better?)
Fabien and I went to the other side of the train station to look for the Asian neighbourhood (he had heard that it was there, but he hadn't been there yet) To go there we had to cross below the train tracks, and here was a bar preventing vehicles of more than 1.9 metres in height from passing. Fabien could pass...but he said that theoretically there was 1cm to spare! lol
We saw this church on a square where there seemed to be a flea market. I saw it from the "main road" (where the tram passes) and we passed through a smaller lane to get to the square. I liked the church...more than most churches I usually see! There's something about the style that's a bit different, I guess. Not the same old, same old design...
Unfortunately the sun wasn't on our side (literally!) so the photo is quite dark. Here's another photo that I took closer to it...but then we can't see much.
Then I saw this pencil, and I wondered what it was for...
And further away we saw another one, close to a kindergarten, so I think it might have something to do with the kindergarten! The walls were beautifully painted...I just had to take a few photos of it!
See? It was already getting warmer :P (actually we started feeling hot and took off our jackets while climbing up the steps near Bastille...)
We saw these chairs near the Victor Hugo tram station (at first I was going to meet Salwati there, then we changed the place)
I don't understand why they are facing opposite directions...there were several pairs of chairs that way, and only one pair with both facing the same direction (as far as I could see) At first Fabien thought that we could turn them around, but we found that we couldn't.
Appointment #2: Salwati
We had lunch together...then we walked a bit and went to a bookshop because Salwati was looking for a book. We took a photo in this little park.
Appointment #3: Pei Xin
I went to Pei Xin's place by tram...it was easy and very convenient (besides, Fabien said that the public transport is better than Lyon's...I wouldn't be able to judge it from the short time I've spent there, but it seems to be true from the map)
We went to Grand Place, a commercial centre near her place where there was a Carrefour, and she bought stuff for preparing dinner. Here are some pictures of the food to make you drool :P
the wrapped wantan (we wrapped them together...it was the only thing she would let me do!)
the "star" dish...Pei Xin's special...very yummy!
and the other dishes (the cooked wantan amongst them)
Just a digression to say that I love Picasa. Earlier I used Picasa 2 and the collages were kinda difficult to do...because you had to keep on clicking and wait until you get a layout you like (and that's maybe never) But now this is Picasa 3 and we can personalise our collages, by making each photo bigger or smaller and by rotating them. I also did a collage of all the people I met in Grenoble, but since I'm already putting the individual photos here, I won't put that...maybe in another post? (The downside, though, is that it slows down my computer...)
Appointment #4: the other Grenoblois
Pei Xin had invited the other Malaysians in Grenoble over for dinner, so that I could meet them. Here's the table set for dinner.
we ate buffet-style...like Malaysians do when there's not enough place at the table
And here we are, taking the inevitable group photo.
from left: Ping Tarng, Xiao Yuan, Max, me, my host and that night's chef Pei Xin, and Alvin (yet another!)
This was the first time I met Xiao Yuan and Alvin...they're my juniors who just arrived in Grenoble in September.
We had the craziest night ever... I think it started with Pei Xin taking out her keyboard (she had bought one recently) and then playing tong hua (by Michael Wong, or Guang Liang if you want his Chinese name) Then someone (I've forgotten who) played the video on Youtube, and Alvin started miming to the song (while holding a Malaysian flag - you know, the small ones we wave around during merdeka? - as a mike) Ping Tarng started taking a video with his phone...and at one moment he passed a poster of Guang Liang (Pei Xin happens to be a fan) to Alvin, upon which Alvin placed the singer's face in front of his own and continued miming...and Ping Tarng started screaming "Guang Liang! Guang Liang!" behind the camera like a crazed fan (that is the most deafening part of the video, by the way) We were already laughing like mad at that time, and what's more, Ping Tarng suddenly passed the camera to Max and started miming playing the keyboard. It's hard to imagine it (Ping Tarng threatened to kill us if we shared the video, and I don't wanna die yet!) but I assure you that we were rolling over in laughter!
What's more, after that they searched two Jay Chou's songs on Youtube and started miming again...though this time it was mainly pulling a hood over their heads Jay Chou-style (THREE of them had hoods!) It was like a Jay Chou look-alike competition! lol
Then we watched the videos on the computer and again burst into laughter...we really went wacko that night...
Here's the song tong hua:
And you know, because of that, today at work I kept hearing that song in my head...and felt like laughing when I thought of their antics! Hahaha I think that in future this song will make me think of that crazy night in Grenoble!
The next morning Pei Xin and I didn't do much...and after lunch we went for a walk in the park at her place.
photo in the park
It was really sunny so we went out just wearing t-shirts, but the wind was so strong! The sun was warm enough to keep us from freezing, but it would have been better to wear an extra layer (which I did later :P )
a long slide in the park (you have to climb up those steps if you want to slide down!)
Then I saw this weird thing in a children's playground.
Turned out that it was a game somewhat like snakes and ladders or ludo. There was even a dice to roll!
It's an environment-friendly game...here's an example of the squares:
It says "You took a shower and turned off the tap when you were soaping yourself. You divided your water consumption by three. Bravo! Go to 12."
Appointment #5: Thierry
My last "appointment" was with Thierry. (since he's so busy) By the way this is the guy (the guy for those of you to whom I've already talked about this, and a guy for the rest) who's doing humanitarian stuff for Togo...and he's looking for people to go there in the summer. (which is why he's so busy) So...let him know (or more like let me know, and I'll let him know) if you're interested to know more ;)
This is a square that he took me to...he said that it was nice, and yes it is...but I'm not sure what this building is :P
Somewhere on the left of this building is the theatre I saw from the steps going up to Bastille. (the back of it, that is) Which means that the river is somewhere behind this building. (this is more for me than for you, so that I won't forget! :P )
He told me loads of stuff about Grenoble...some of which I have forgotten and most of which I shall probably forget (désolée! (that's sorry in French; just take off the last e if you're a guy)) But I do remember him saying that it was thanks to Grenoble that the second world war was won :P
He was highly uncooperative photo-wise though...he didn't want to use the timer of my camera, and since I couldn't force him to stand still long enough, we settled for taking photos holding the camera at arm's length.
This photo was taken somewhere near the train station; you can see that somewhat weird piece of art behind us, and the train station is somewhere further back and to the left. And from the little geography lesson that he gave me, that is the Vercors in the background, and if we pass by the left of it, we will be going towards Lyon!
Okay, maybe I shouldn't say "highly" uncooperative..."quite" uncooperative would be enough...at least he condescended to use his (longer :P) arm to take the photos! (all but one, actually)
I liked Grenoble better this time. I don't know why, maybe it was the weather, or maybe it was that I had more time and saw more of it. And maybe, also, it was because I was there to see first people, and then the town as a plus. At any rate, I like it. Pretty much like I like Rouen ^_^
I have three photos to share. Yesterday (Thursday) or Wednesday morning - I'm not sure - I woke up to see this view from my window:
'Twas the moon, not the sun...
My window faces west, you see (remember my photos of sunset? ;) )
And this was 6:30am. I'm so glad the day's getting light earlier! :D
Then last night we had a potluck at Julie's place. There was supposed to be six of us, but two couldn't come.
from left: Julie, yours truly, Cheikh and Parvan
Hehe, if it were at my place we'd have been sitting on the floor! :P
I didn't take photos of the food this time...I made a kind of hor fun for them to try...I brought the kuey teow (a kind of noodles) and the sauce in separate containers, and we heated up the sauce just before eating. I brought just enough for everyone to try a little...it was probably a good thing because Parvan and Cheikh both brought rather big portions!
Parvan made a moussaka, which was a baked dish with potatoes and minced meat, with a mixture of eggs and milk (I think I got that right...correct me if I'm wrong!) He's Bulgarian, and it's a Bulgarian dish, but he said that it came from Turkey and has been modified since (oh well, like all those Chinese dishes in Malaysia, I guess)
Cheikh brought a kind of rice cooked with spices and chicken. There was a taste I recognised in that dish...and I spent quite some time trying to place it...and finally I realised that it was a taste that was in the fried rice in my secondary school. I wonder what spice it is...Cheikh couldn't tell me! (he used a mix) This dish was Senegalese, by the way (see how international we are? lol)
As dessert, we had Julie's chocolate cake. And since we were eating at her place, she baked it while we were finishing our meal...so we had a warm cake fresh out of the oven! :D Since there was some left over, I took a slice back and had it for breakfast this morning. (I still wasn't hungry then...we had eaten so much!)
And for the last photo (there are three, remember?) here's a new metro in Lyon:
To get to work I take the metro right to the end of the D line. This was when we were coming back...and we saw this "lovely" new metro. There are less seats (though if you haven't been to Lyon I guess you won't know how's the old one...), so I don't like it that much! That would mean that it will be harder for me to find a seat in the morning, when all I want to do in the metro is sit down and close my eyes and doze until the final stop. They haven't replaced all the old metros though...we got "lucky" today. I had already seen this new design once, when I was in the metro going the other way...I remember remarking the poles, 'cos in the old one we don't have that...but I didn't see the seats.
Tomorrow I shall be going to Grenoble for the weekend...I will be trying to meet up with quite a few people! I have an "appointment" for when I arrive at the train station, and I'm hoping that each "appointment" will help me get to the next one! lol But for more news about that you'll have to wait...I can't exactly tell you what I did in Grenoble before I've been there, can I? :P
Dogs are everywhere in Greece. And even more so in Santorini. While we were walking back to the villa the first night in Santorini, there was a dog that followed us almost the whole way back. Not only that, it managed to bump into us from behind several times. Imagine the shock when you are walking in the dark and suddenly something bumps into your legs. -_- That is why I don't like Greek dogs. lol
Here, for example, was when there were three dogs around us.
Can you spot all three?
Alex became good friends with one of the dogs.
And he even took a photo of his friend so that he wouldn't forget its face. :P
On a separate occasion (when half of us had already left Santorini to go back to Athens), Hsin Shen made friends with another dog.
Who cares about Blogger's automatic "profile" link? I prefer making one of my own :-P
If you're visiting this site, I guess you know me already, so here are just some not-very-well-known stuff about me. ;-) (if you're interested :-P)
My minesweeper career
My scores: 2+13+52=67
(beginner+intermediate+expert=total)
For info
The time on this site is Malaysian time. The time in France is -6 hours in summer and -7 hours in winter.
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ta pa kuih...or whatever you call it in your language
Want some? ;)
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