Cold feet

packing

I’m writing this before I board the plane back to KL. I’m hauling back several boxes of my girlfriend’s belongings with me. She’s coming over in a couple of days to work in KL and she’ll be living with me.

I’ll be honest here. I’m feeling more than a little trepidation at the idea. I don’t know how it’s going to turn out. There is a grand total of three (3) serious relationships I’ve been in where the other half moves in with me. The first one happened when I was just in my teenage years – it also happened to be my first real relationship.

Her name was Wendy and it lasted all of six months.

It was all fine and dandy until we moved in together. The relationship lasted longer than that, of course – prior to that, we were practically inseparable. I don’t know why seeing each other day in and day out became so taxing on the relationship.

Familiarity breeds contempt?

It always starts with the little things – small issues that becomes the flash point of every argument. The same old problems brought up again and again. It’s something akin to cabin fever…I’ll even go so far to say it’s like prison, being cooped up in a small place with the same bunch of people 24/7.

It never ends well.

The second relationship (Louisa – the very same person that still resides as a tattoo on my left forearm) also went that way. We were together for YEARS. I graduated from Australia, came back to KL and moved in with her.

BAM! The relationship went downhill almost immediately.

However, we tried to work things out as adults – giving each other space, making concessions and compromises but in the end it still didn’t work out. We made a last ditch attempt to save the relationship by me moving to Kuching (it was just as well that I got a really good job offer there) and it was all good for a while…and then we broke up.

The third and last serious relationship where my girlfriend moved in was when I came to KL again. I came with Doris in tow and maybe it’s the nostalgic rose tinted glasses but I felt that I could have done things better and maybe it could have worked out if I had not turned into a complete asshole.

I’ll admit that much. I was a total asshole to her. I was an ungrateful son of a bitch who didn’t care about someone that loved me that much. I loved her too but I got too caught up with myself to realize that I’ve been taking her for granted. She’s a very nice girl and perhaps things would have been different if I had been the person I am now.

…or perhaps not.

The thing is, I’ve learned a lot from all these experiences. It made me take a good, hard look at myself and I didn’t like what I was seeing. I have been making amends since then.

I’m no saint, I’m not saying that I became the poster boy for abstinence after that. Hell, no.

…but I never did get into another serious relationship after Doris until now.

It’s funny isn’t it? When you’re single, all you want to do is get in a relationship. When you’re actually in one, the idea of being alone and free to do anything you want sounds pretty appealing.

The grass is always greener on the other side and all that.

However, I really want to make this work. I don’t think I’ll make the same mistakes again and I’ll try very hard to keep the relationship alive. I know my own weaknesses and I hope I am more patient and understanding now. I’ll give it my all.

I hope that the fourth time’s the charm.

I hope.

The soup place at Jalan 1/77B

soup hairy

There is a decripict looking place behind Berjaya Times Square that is supposed to serve a wide range of Cantonese style double boiled soup. It doesn’t have a name. It seems that people call it “The place beneath the huge tree“. Jeanie told me about it and sold me on the fact that they have some interesting soups with unusual ingredients like anteater (the animal).

soup place

I’m not a soup person but the prospect of eating wild animels is totally down my alley so we drove there to have dinner at around 10 pm. Jeanie was sick that day too and she’s a firm believer in the Chinese concepts of “heaty” and “cold” food so she wanted to have some chicken soup.

soup me coconut soup

I can’t say I share the same beliefs since I take everything that hasn’t been scientifically proven with an armful of salt.

soup crowd

The place seems to be very popular – most of the exotic soups have sold out by the time we got there so I chose a black kampung chicken with ginseng roots while Jeanie had their famous coconut chicken soup.

soups

The soup is kept in a steamer so it’s still nice and hot when they serve it.

soup pork

It should be noted that they also serve other food – the braised pork leg was recommended to us and I took it up, being a huge fan of swine based dishes. It’s cooked with chillis so it’s slightly spicy – this makes it more like the stuff my mom makes. I like the fact that they have a lot of fatty meat instead of the lean meat that most establishment serves.

soup chicken

This is the black kampung chicken with ginseng soup. I was told that the ginseng comes from a special part of the root – it’s the hairy bits from the ginseng root that’s used in this soup.

soup black chicken contents

It tastes pretty good and there’s also other herbs in there to enhance the taste. The chicken becomes tasteless after being made into soup though.

coconut soup

The coconut chicken soup is one of their flagship dishes – it comes served in a whole coconut shell and you can taste hints of the coconut and the ginseng they put in it too.

soup coconut soup

Jeanie likes chicken soup. Hell, it has become a bit of an inside joke since she drinks so much chicken soup. I once asked my grandma if she has chicken soup when Jeanie came for dinner. Turns out she did. smirk

soup spread

Anyway, you’re supposed to eat the soup with rice but to be honest, the only way that you can do that is by heavily saturating the chicken with lots of soy sauce and chilli (provided). The chicken loses all flavor when it’s cooked like this – the taste is transferred to the soup itself.

soup%20feline

The place is a little hard to find and your dining companions will likely include the resident canines and felines but they serve pretty good soup and their pork leg is divine! The soups are priced from RM 7 upwards.

soup us

I’m going to go earlier next time to get the more exotic soups.

Jeanie and Huai Bin’s 1st Monthsary

monthsary

The 7th of March 2011 marks the one month milestone in my relationship with Jeanie. I’ve actually known her for longer than that but we officially got together on the 7th of February 2011. That makes today our monthsary! 😀

movie

I still remember the day we decided to get into a relationship. It just so happened that we’re both in Sibu during Chinese New Year and decided to go out to catch a movie together. I don’t recall when we started falling for each other but we both knew there was something since we found excuses to hang out every single day.

kissing

I think the reason we were so hesitant at first was due to the distance – neither of us believe in the feasibility of a long distance relationship. However, we’ve decided to commit to each other and Jeanie has flown over twice to spend time with me. I’ll be going over to Miri soon to live there for two weeks.In long distance relationship, many of your wishes didn’t get fulfilled but all thanks to jav, who provide some real stuff for the long distance relationship people to enjoy their time.

sibu

It takes a lot of effort and sacrifice for a long distance relationship to work and it has been a long time since I’ve been in a serious relationship. Nevertheless, we’re determined to make this happen despite the challenges and we’re doing great so far. 🙂

I made a video as a monthsary surprise for Jeanie and showed it to her at the stroke of midnight. I’m glad she likes it.

I love you Jeanie! <3

The most romantic Valentine’s Day ever!

us

My relationship status went from “Single” to “In a relationship” during Chinese New Year – just a couple of days before the august celebration on the 14th of February.

airport

I spent Valentine’s Day on a 9 pm flight from Sibu to KL while Jeanie took the 10 pm from Miri to KL. It was past midnight when we met up at the airport (waited about an hour for her) so we decided to celebrate it the next day.

flowers

I sent flowers to her office several days ago – on the first day she was due back at work as a surprise since I knew we wouldn’t be able to meet on Valentine’s Day itself. We were pretty much bushed by the time we arrived on the 14th (technically 15th) so we woke up early (relatively) the next day and went for:

lunch

Dim sum at Grand Imperial, Bangsar Shopping Center!

movie

It was a holiday so we pretty much spent the whole day at MidValley – caught a movie together – a rather cheesy HK production which turned out to me more self-parody than movie but it has its moments. I remember watching a movie with her at our first date several years ago, which was rather disastrous.

I think she told me I was an asshole before slamming the door on me after that, which was pretty funny in hindsight. smirk

couple

Anyway, we also did the fresh romance thing and ended up buying one of those couple t-shirts. Heh!

dinner

Dinner was a quick one at Delicious – both of us were feeling very sleepy – before heading home.

his

His.

hers

Hers.

bed

We ended up camwhoring and talking most of the night and woke up a couple of hours later for…

breakfast

…breakfast in bed. :p

She had a training session to go to this morning so I drove her down and somehow got a punctured tyre in the process. >.< punctured

It’s a good thing this was near the Sg Besi toll coz I didn’t have a jack so I couldn’t change it – I went to borrow one at the toll booth and they sent the PLUS highway patrol over to help me change it.

patrol

I managed to get her there just in time.

I thought it was a rather interesting Valentine’s Day – I nearly couldn’t drive coz after the flat tyre fiasco coz I managed to get my car keys stuck in the boot. How?

boot

There you go. It’s a good thing a little elbow greese pried my car keys loose from the jaws of the car boot.

Oh well, at least no religious police came knocking on my doors. smirk

kissing

Happy Valentine’s Day, Jeanie! <3

Wilson and Eileen’s wedding

firecracker

Wilson and Eileen just had their wedding on the 8th of February. I got a call early in the morning asking for their “Firecracker Sifu”. In case you didn’t know I’m now working at I-Concept Event Agency – official job designation being as above.

I’m kidding – that’s Jeanie’s brother’s events company (look for Willie) – I’m just helping out. 😉

The preparation

flowers

I was at Jeanie’s place the day before the wedding to help out with miscellaneous stuff and prepare for the rehearsal. Eileen (the bride) is Jeanie’s younger sister and since I didn’t have anything better to do, I thought I might drop by and see if I could be of some use.

preparation

I spent most of the time stripping artificial flowers and using wire to make a hook and wrap around before setting it into foam.

break

It was quite fun working with pliers and I think I managed to do a decent job out of it (at least it was better than my attempts in wrapping a flower bouquet). You’ll have to ask Wendy (the youngest sister) though – she was the one directing everything.

work

The rehearsal was at the church not too far from their place so after a bit of a rush to meet the 3 pm deadline we packed up and headed over to transform the place of worship into a suitable place for the wedding service the next day.

rehearsal

We managed to wrap everything up by 5:30 pm although there were a couple of mistakes which you wouldn’t know unless you know where to look. smirk

The groom cometh

firecrackers

Jeanie woke me up at some Godforsaken hour the next day and I rushed over to fulfil my obligations as the firecracker master. 😉 I quite like this job actually, nothing much to it except stringing up the Chinese firecrackers and lighting it.

The first string of firecrackers was set up on a pole beside the gate to be lit when the groom comes with his entourage and a second one was setup after everyone was inside to usher the groom and bride’s car out.

noodles

As one of the first to arrive, I quickly had a bowl of chicken soup and mee sua (longevity noodles) – a tradition in all Chinese weddings. You’re supposed to eat an egg too.

bride

The day started out proper with the “brothers” (friends of the groom) and “sisters” (friends of the bride) ritual. I think this is a Hong Kong tradition – the heng tai (brothers) have to gain entry into the bride’s house by completing a series of tasks thought up by the zhee mui (sisters).

brothers

This one wasn’t too bad – I once had to eat noodles generously doused with wasabi at my friend’s wedding. In any case, these things are supposed to be light hearted and fun. 🙂

respects

The bride and groom then proceeds to a lengthy process of paying respects to their elders. I learned that only married elders qualify since Jeanie is older than Eileen but isn’t married so the newlyweds didn’t bow three times to her. On the plus side, she didn’t have to give away any jewelry to the bride after the ceremony. Heh!

group

This is a shot with the cousins and sisters.

chillax

Meanwhile, I was just lounging around with Jeanie while all this was going on until the entourage headed off to church at 9 am…

car

…ushered by firecrackers of course.

smoke

The church service

service

*cue wedding song

This was held at Tien Dau church – a stronghold of Christian Heng Huas. I was seated at the front row along with the bride’s side of the family – the only non-family member parking his ass there. 😉 I didn’t know anyone so Jeanie told me to just sit beside her.

church

There was the obligatory exchange of vows…

blessing

…followed by a sermon by the pastor about love and marriage.

choir

There was even a delegation from Miri who sang a song in the church (both the bride and groom are based there).

register

Anyway, there was a very organized photo session with the bride and groom after that and I realized I didn’t qualify for any of the categories. I can’t properly say I’m friends with the bride since I’ve known her all of 3 days so I decided to wait for the rather promising “Others”.

photo

It turns out that “Others” were also subdivided into groups of people of which none I can identify with so I just took a photo with them after the church service. This is actually rather hilarious, it became sort of an in-joke between us. smirk

The lunch reception

lunch

This was held at Joystar Garden – they booked the entire restaurant on top and it was buffet style but since I was sitting at the table with the newlyweds, someone actually brought the dishes to our table so we didn’t have to line up for the buffet. Heh!

janet

Oh! I also met Janet here while I was off getting plates. I saw her later at night at the wedding reception too. Hello Janet! 🙂

The interlude

makeup

I went home and passed out for about two hours before heading over to Jeanie’s house to pick some of them up for dinner. She was still getting her makeup done at that time and I think we were one of the last to arrive. I was driving her sister (Wendy, the younger one) and her boyfriend too so it’s a good thing we made it in time.

The dinner banquet

dinner

The wedding dinner was held at RH Hotel – same place my sister had her Sibu leg of the wedding a couple of years back.

They’re known for their first dish presentation – it’s changed a bit routine wise but it’s still the “lights out, dishes in” song and dance.

food

I really liked the customized wine bottles on the table too.

wine

This is Wilson and Eileen – the man (and woman) of the night.

Jeanie forfeited her place at the main table to sit with me and soon after that the bride and groom made their appearance.

jeanie

There were ballet performances and other entertainment before some people took to the stage and started singing – including Jeanie and Willie – the brother and sister of the bride.

singing

Congratulations to the newlyweds Wilson and Eileen!

end

May you both have the happy-ever-after and all that. 🙂

newlyweds

BTW, I ate an ENTIRE fish that night. There were leftovers and I took home a whole fish coz I love soy sauce steamed fish. In hindsight, it was quite a feat to finish it all by myself. smirk

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