Two Cars, Ten People, and One Hill

Sketching in the hostel

Been having the urge to sketch Ronald McDonald House for months and today, I did it!

Other than that, i also sketched the construction site in front of my block.

Self portrait with S*diq

This definitely does not do justice for S*diq as his cuteness is not reflected in the sketch at all. S*diq is a chubby baby boy born to an Indian Muslim mother and a Pakistani. 

It is rumoured that his whole maternal family has some degree of schizophrenia and he’s admitted into our ward for suspected child neglect. When he first came, I found, to my horror, layers of dirt between the flexural parts of his knees but he was cheerful nonetheless. 

What makes him extra adorable is his welcoming ‘dance’ whenever someone approaches him. He’d kick his little lotus-like legs and flail his arms and SMILE. And that just makes my day. He has these big, round, innocent eyes and cute little double chin. Many of us commented that he’d be a handsome guy in the future . I wish little S*diq a bright future where he rises above the seemingly adverse condition he’s in now.

Checking M*rni’s eye

Jeffrey checking little orphan M*rni’s eye. M*rni has joined the many chronic residents in our ward for lung infection and is now awaiting weight gain. There are many baby orphans in our ward and they are our source of joy every day.

Sketches of uni

Bobo mee stall in front of Laman Midah. This will be a place of sweet and bitter

( bitten by mozzies) memories with ky and friends,where we appease our 

gastro departments and kindle relationships over a cup Ribena campur lemon slice.

My room sweet room! It's small and congested with stuff accumulated over the years but it feels like home after coming back from scoldings/threatenings/rejections etc in the wards/OT/labour rooms/clinics.

My sister's back 2 !

Bubu is back. Our family is complete and under one roof once again! 

 Where ever Bubu went, I tagged along to maximize our time together.

This is the famous Foh San DimSum in Ipoh.

Bubu has talent in drawing. I'm trying hard to make her love it and make sketching a habit so that we could go on sketching trips!

                                                                      My Papa.

my sister is baaaack!

My little sister, Bubu is back from USA! Mum and I were waiting at the arrival hall in KLIA. 

Too bad she's too jetlagged to chat with me right away. 

Frontera and 甜品哥哥

Tonight we vrooomed away in wc's spanking new Honda City towards Jaya One and our destination - Frontera Aya Karambaaaaa!!! Amidst a flurry of burritos and eschiladas we settled down and began to make orders and i started to sketch. So here they are: 

My eyes were immediately attracted to the big red words: "HORNY MARGARITAS" in the menu, at the most obvious corner with the biggest size in the whole menu. We ordered one and shared among 4. Even the driver drank some. 

Only the Frontera chicken nachos and the margarita were up to our standard. Delicioso! The others were so-so so we concluded that Frontera's eschiladas and burritos were overrated.

Then we went on a 2nd round to the dessert shop- 甜品哥哥 in SS2. 

I did not order because the one i wanted was finished. Plus i was too busy sketching anyway. After surveying the girls, 50% thought that they were satisfied, esp sharen with the almond soup. the other two thought that the desserts were overrated (poor thing..).

Fora slightly more professional food review of the same occasion, here it is! There will be photos and detailed description i think. =) adios for now! zzZzzz

Sabah Sketches

Here're my sketches that I promised to put up! =)

This is sketched in front of the handicraft market and it attracted a small crowd while I was sketching it.

 It did not turn our well, ruined mostly by the old-looking child. I should really work on my technique in drawing children.

The man on the left requested a portrait of himself so I drew him. 

The men on the right were playing chest and Kuan yew was crouched beside them taking photos.

                                                    This is the oldest hotel in kota kinabalu!

Nuff said, the coolest(literally) place I've been in sabah! MooooOoOoo! 

Miss their chocolate milk. How come I never see Desa brand fresh milk around?

This is a surprisingly touching visit. It's true that we share practically the same gene pool as the orang utans. They move, eat like humans and even have distinct personalities of their own!

These are drawn from photos in the info centre in Sepilok Orang Utan Sacntuary and painted from memory. So if you detect some weird colour combinations please do tell me =)

 The Jesselton Point! Sketched this under the scorching hot sun. sweat sweat sweat...

Joy of sketching

         Was feeling quite demotivated with the last few paintings of my sabah sketches because except a few, the others did not turn out as well as I'd hope for. Today I was extremely happy at some encouraging words and comments  on my sketches on Facebook. It reignited my desire to take up watercolour classes when I graduate. And then I found this incredibly cute and inspiring FREE ebook by a Michael Nobbs who's diagnosed with myalgic encephalopathy. He draws to cope and now finds such joy in it that he's actively encouraging people to draw. I just had to click on add to cart,then 'checkout', fill in my name and email and click download. Absolutely no fee required.

      

I wanna share the joy of sketching our everyday life. I bring my sketchbook out a lot( even to wards!)and draw interesting things, mundane things, adults, children, flowers, animals, roads, buildings, food etc.EVERYONE can draw! It's the first thing we could do with a pen( other than putting it into our mouth) as a child. 

So here's the link to the ebook.

Another joy of sketching comes from how it brings strangers closer. A few weeks ago, I sketched in front of a handicraft market in kota kinabalu and it attracted a small crowd around me and I got to interact with the locals who otherwise wouldn't talk to me like they did. 

At first I was sketching on my own.

Then there was one local who came near me.

And another.

Then there're three.

Lastly, a small crowd!

.

I felt very flattered such and ordinary sketching could attract people to stop and watch. 

Most probably they're there anyway and bored enough to watch a tourist sketch,

 but I still feel very happy cuz this has never happened before. 

The sketch? It didn't turn out very well but who cares? It's just one bad drawing.

 I can strive to make better ones =)

Sabah 沙巴之旅

Before my memory fails me, before the excitement fizzles out, before lights are off and before no one's interested anymore, here's my post on our sabah trip! Sketches'll will come later, after I paint them but for now, words and some simple photos!

First off, this is a crazy  trip planned by Kuan Yew the nature and adventure lover, who dragged me along with him but now that I've been to Sabah, I must thank him a million cuz this place oozes of personality and warmth from its people. Malaysians from the peninsular who's never been to this beautiful place must visit it at least once in their lifetime!

To my pleasant surprise, this is not the ulu( remote) place I imagined it. How 'frog under the well' I was. It boasts of many shopping complexes that're comparable to some of KL's! They have 1 Borneo, KK time square , Suria Sabah(which is not even half full but will be in a matter of a year, which means by the time I start my housemanship there, I get to chill out in mega shopping malls!! yay! Provided i have the time la, fingers crossed). 

By crazy trip I mean renting a small Kelisa which power we have not tested and driving it( all by ky, poor thing) from kk to kundasang and then to sandakan on the Road of  Thousand Holes. But the lodge that greeted us and the next day's trip to Sepilok Orang Utan Santuary was all worth the horrifying journey. That said I was more than happy to be heading back to KK( I've never thought of myself as the hustle bustle city girl but I am one, no matter how much I'd like to be more balanced). The thought of everything at a stone's throw away is a hugely comforting one and of course, not being surrounded by bugs and creepy mysterious animals promotes a sense of peace in me.

Anyhoo, we went to Kundasang on the way to Sandakan and got a taste of how New Zealand ( where sheeps outnumber humans by 17 times!! baa baa baaaa) must feel like in Desa Dairy Farm, Mesilou. baa baa..

Here's a picture I took with my handphone, which is of course not so nice compared to ky's DSLR photo, which i promise that I'll steal and put there once he uploads it on facebook hehe heh.. 

Interesting things that I learned on this trip:

1. Cows are surrounded by buzzling flies 24/7 and they smell like their own feces. Sketching among piles of cow dung is as exciting, though.

2. Been invited to dine in a wedding by mother of the bride in a village called Buli Sim-sim. It's a long time since I felt so warmly welcomed  by friendly strangers.

3.  Sandflies are sneaky lil creatures. I was tortured with painful, extremely itchy bites the very first night. Avoid them at all cost!

4. Living cost in kk can be even higher than in KL because of the transport fee( from west msia to east msia) and it being a tourist area. So the extra allowance for housemen are rightly justified.

5. The aborigines are more often than not warmer than the owner of the food stall  you paid through your nose to have dinner at.

6. In KKGH ( Queen Elizabeth Hospital) , housemen perform DAILY lumbar puncture, compulsory quota of 3 Csec and 3 appendisectomy. How cool is that? hehehe...

7. Once you get past the tiredness, dirtiness and smelliness, backpacking is actually the funnest way to travel.( minus the sandfly bites and sleepless night, of course) We get to interact with people from different countries and travelling tips( it's not safe to rely solely on Lonely Planet and the like cuz it may be outdated. Like what Lonely Planet says about my hometown Ipoh. It says that its new town's traffic is congested and ipoh is only a transit to Pulau Pangkor and Cameron! And said nothing about the famous food like taugeh chicken, white coffee, YeeHup hiong beng etc! How dare they =(

Okie, here's all first. More coming soon!



5. 

Ice Kacang Puppy Love: A review

                                                                                                                         ( pic taken from http://www.icekacangpuppylove.com/movie-pic.html)

Had been anticipating this 100 % Malaysian made movie , largely filmed in a little town called Tronoh(near Ipoh). The official website's here. When I saw the trailer, I was still dazed by Woohoo the Chinese New Year comedy(which I wrote a short review on it here) and couldn't help comparing both of them. I was a little bit disappointed by Ice Kacang for these few reasons:

1. In the first few scenes, the child Botak, child Fighter fish and the other kids were very obviously just regurgitating what's on their scripts. Overall I think the children's performance should be more natural. Whereas Woohoo started off very well in captivating its audience in introducing its funniest character- Ah Beng. Fighter Fish's mischievous and nonchalant behaviours (  putting charcoal into Botak's customer's coffee and other actions which disregard people's comfort) put me off from the start. I couldn't help laughing all through WooHoo. On the contrary I was bored watching Ice Kacang.

2. The characters were too obvious on  belonging to either the good side or the bad. I especially couldn't stand Ma Ling Shu and Ma Li Bing's mother - the woman who frequents Botak's dad's coffee shop, selling 3D to the villagers. Although Ma Ling Shu( the town bully, well into his teenage hood) have sidekicks who possess sizes on both ends of the spectrum, thus adding some element of comedy to the movie, some of the characters are redundant eg Fish Leong's character( Ma Li Bing).

3. The relationship chart in the movie is too complicated where guy A likes girl B, who likes guy C, who likes girl D, who likes guy E who likes girl B so on and so forth. You get the picture. 

That said, there are some good points: 

1. I like how Botak narrates the story. 

2. I love the localness of the movie. For a moment, I thought that it's filmed in Ipoh (my hometown) and was pleasantly surprised until towards the 2nd last scene where Fighter Fish and her mother wait for their bus in a bus station and I heard workers shouting 'Ipoh, Ipoh!' , 'Taiping Taiping! " to attract customers. Nonetheless, it's still very heart warming  seeing all the familiar buildings and scenes in the movie. 

3. Good effort by by Ah Niu- the director, writer and actor of the movie. 

4. Really impressive sketches and oil painting of Lee Sin Jie.

I'd give it a 2/5. 

So far, nothing bad has been said about this movie. In fact, it has been well received in Hong Kong. I guess it's just not my cup of tea. 

Passport cover

    Today I made a passport cover based on Chubby Hobby's tutorial. This passport cover is for Su Yan, who gave me a lovely book for my birthday. It's called 'Handwork Zakka 40 Styles'. It includes tissue box cover, document cover, dog pillow and even some recipes! There're of course other projects other than sewing ones.

And some pages found inside the book. I especially love the bird tutorial! Tweet tweet!

Here's the passport cover.

The inside of it.

 I stiched ' Su Yan' on a piece of jeans fabric. She can put two passports in the cover. 

There're two pockets for Mykad, ATM card, or any cards for that matter. 

Here's the cover and the back.

Besides a passport cover, I sewed a Rubbit on my measuring tape.

Every time I used the tape, Murphy's law happened invariably. 

I'd always grab the wrong end.

I got so frustrated I stiched Rubbit on the wrong end and 

voila, now I know which end to grab.

Near to Nature in Cameron Highlands

After a blissful day of tea and scones, we went on a nature walk around Kea Farm, Boh and Cameron Valley tea plantations and the lovely, lovely Rose Centre. Here're some sketches done. 

This is a sketch of Cameron Valley( aka Bharat) tea plantation. I arrived there feeling ok but within seconds, I was attacked by mosquitoes and quickly plummeted into this foul mood ( YONG SUI mood) and gone was my sketching mood. Kuan Yew disturbing a bee hive did not help alleviate the bad mood either( Great, now not only do I have to worry about mosquitoes, I'v BEES to watch out for)

 Luckily Kuan Yew encouraged me to sketch so here it is! hehe...

This is the LOVELY Rose Centre! It looked haunted and worn out from the outside but once you enter( entrance fee rm5), you'd be amazed(deeply) by the beauty of the myriad of flowers you see!

On the contrary, the Butterfly Farm(also in Kea Farm) dissapoints with a lazy worker( who was obviously Anglo-philic as well) and overcrowded display boxes of creatures. They did not bother to move some of the poor animals to another box when the population in the box was apparently too packed. 

Taugeh Chicken in Ipoh

老黄芽菜鸡（Lou Wong Nga Choi Gai) or Onn Kee is not the only place to go if you want to try succulent, soft chicken meat and smooth, fine kuey teow in Ipoh. There's a shop called Kedai Kopi Kam Hor. Here's a comprehensive review of it. It includes pictures and address and a Google map of it!

This sketch was done while waiting to be served. A very unique point of this restaurant : it is manned by a very old couple who has all the patience in the world, preparing their food delicately and slowly. So you might have to  wait for more than half an hour for the food to be ready. But good if you advocate slow food in a complete cycle: prepare slowly AND eat slowly.

Tea and Scones in Cameron Highland

Tea and scones is a must on visits to Cameron Highland. I just got back from Cameron two days ago and had found some really nice places for tea and scones. I didn't try the tea cuz my system is accustomed to chinese tea and the taste buds would not 'tolerate' tea other than Chinese tea. The first stop for tea and scones was T cafe in Tanah Rata town. It is owned by a 70 something year old man( who looked 20 years younger). A man with serious humor:

The man actually stuck an obituary of his first pet fish on the tank in his restaurant!

Here's a sketch of T Cafe

The next stop was Cameronian Inn, just a few metres from where we stayed. It served nice scones but what blew us away was the pancake with honey and banana. Bananas! Nothing can go wrong with bananas, not even Quaker's oats.

Here's a night sketch done in Cameronian Inn.