Crumbs and Craft

Zoo time!

2011-11-29T15:47:00.001+08:00

A month into settling down in a new place, we finally have some free time to go about exploring. With buying an old bike in mind, we set off in search of a scrap yard.

As we went deeper and deeper into 'unchartered territories'' of the land of Borneo, we found a wildlife park!

So we abandoned the original idea and went into the park and I did 4 pieces of sketches.

Old China Cafe and Antique Gallery

2011-09-28T00:01:00.003+08:00

Found this gem in Balai Polis street, near Petaling street. It was very retro and full of antique. Must try its Nyonya laksa. A trick to fully savour the laksa is to order a bowl of white rice and eat it with the gravy. After a tourist at a neighbour table saw us doing that, she did the same. =)

Unsung heros of Ipoh's heritage

2011-09-26T00:42:00.000+08:00

A day after I posted about preserving heritage buildings in Ipoh, I made a pleasant discovery on Hugh Low Street, right beside the building where my mom used to work at, and where I spent my childhood playing on the second floor. The pleasant discovery was 'Lim Kopi' restaurant, serving traditional Hainanese food and really good white coffee.

The atmosphere was nice and most importantly, the whole family values heritage buildings, and Lim Ko Pi is just one of the 12 buildings acquired by them with preservation and conservation in mind. The family was even invited by the city mayor to meet him in appreciation of the Lim family's effort in conserving Ipoh's heritage.

What was amazing was it all started with the eldest daughter, Lim Bay Sie, who is the same age as me. She started having interest in heritage conservation after she'd been to other countries and seen how heritage was conserved. So similar to my case! I started valuing heritage after my NZ trip.

Here are some links to newspaper articles about the Lim Family :
1. The Star: Family prides in preservingpre-war buildings
2. Nan Yang Siang Bao: 市厅研究保育古迹奖励老建筑物或扣门牌税

Previous OAC building, Lim Kopi is the red buidling

I spent 2 days walking around Ipoh old town, trying to record as many heritage buildings as possible with my Hero pen and brush.

Han Chin Pet Soo 闲真别墅

Preserving Ipoh's heritage: What We Can Learn from Georgetown, Napier and Greymouth

2011-09-19T17:56:00.000+08:00

My sketch of Ipoh's living heritage- Ipoh white Coffee

A few years ago, I was infuriated by a short passage in the Lonely Planet book on my beloved hometown. It described Ipoh as,

“… mainly a transit town, a place where you change buses; … chaotic traffic; … crumbling Chinese shop houses and ugly modern blocks”; and, specifically for New Town: “…. generally dingy part of town, with a notorious prostitution problem and no real attractions.”

No mention of its food, its heritage, its natural attractions whatsoever! As I visited more and more cities, both in Malaysia and overseas, most recently New Zealand, I began to realize the lack of appreciation for heritage and culture in my hometown. Some cities have done really well on heritage preservation, most notably Georgetown and Malacca, which both obtained World UNESCO historic city status in 2008.

The same cannot be said of some cities in Malaysia. As much as I was impressed and cheered by vibrant, youthful walls of the buildings in Chinatown, Kuala Terengganu, which I visited 3 years ago, I now think that they are nothing but an evidence of misinterpretation of the meaning of heritage tourism by the local government, or maybe it wasn’t even thinking about heritage tourism? It looked more like a fun fair with its garish appearance. You’d almost expect Mickey Mouse and gang to materialize any minute. But at least the municipal people there did something to promote tourism.

Garish wall in Chinatown, Kuala Terengganu,

Back in Ipoh, I heard of the infamous new toilet replacing the historic Birch fountain in Little India, the demolition of a whole row of buildings once filmed in Ang Lee’s ‘Lust, Caution’ and the Yau Tet Shin market-turned-carpark and most recently, crumbling of 2 of the 7 dangerous buildings in Concubine Lane( Lorong Panglima ) making national news.

Birch fountain ( demolished )

toilet ( current)

(photos taken from Ipoh Echo)

In Napier, New Zealand, I joined an art deco walk guided by volunteers. There were only 2 of us, a middle aged woman from Australia and me. Being on a very tight budget, I’d forgone 2 other heritage walks (in Dunedin and Wellington) that I was interested in and shortly after the Napier walk, felt that I should have joined the heritage walks instead. As I have no basics in architecture, I think I only understood about 50 % of what the guide said, retained about 2% as I made the silly mistake of throwing away the art deco walk brochure (into the recycle bin). Retrospectively, I have no regret joining the Napier walk, although I still wish I’d joined the heritage walks. That 2% of knowledge has sparked off in me a new found interest in heritage buildings.

When I came back to Ipoh, it became clear to me that Napier and Ipoh have a lot in common:

In 1892, the ‘Great Fire of Ipoh’ destroyed over 120 houses. Town planners reorganized the town’s layout and replaced soil paths with proper straight roads. Old town was founded. The population swelled to 11,000!

Fast forward to 1930, Ipoh became the first town in Malaya to supply electricity. In the same year, Napier was devastated by an earthquake, which was followed by a fire, The disaster changes, forever, its geological landmark, giving it more land and a new start, with wider roads, and most notably, the opportunity to build what was very fashionable back then – art deco buildings.

Source:

1. Ipoh, the sentimental side: A self-guided heritage tour to touch the past( brochure)

2. memory from guided tour ( brain cells)

Sadly the similarity stopped pretty much there, at least in the efforts made for heritage preservation and tourism. Napier has an impressive collection of art deco buildings. It is not shy to show it to the world, promoting it in the form of art deco guided walks and the annual art deco festival, a major tourist attraction. On that day, people in art deco costumes would go on street to dance and sing and be spectators of a vintage car parade.

Art Deco festival in Napier ( photo taken from punahou)

And as most cities in the First World, they are very strict about the preservation of the art deco buildings. Renovations of an art deco building are to follow strict rules on what constitutes art deco architecture.

Ipoh has been commended by visitors as a very well planned town, some even said that it’s the best planned in Malaysia ( Putrajaya doesn’t count)! Neat rows of buildings, 45 degree design( don’t know the technical term) at major junctions to enable motorists to have a better view of vehicles approaching from sides, old and new Towns flanked by 2 major roads( Hugh Low and Brewster Rds) and clearly demarcated by the Kinta river( another sad story for another day). Sadly, the CBD in Ipoh seems to have shifted to Greentown (with no historic value at all).

On my recent trips to Georgetown, I was very impressed by the effort made to preserve heritage buildings and to promote heritage tourism, especially after visiting Mr Tan Yeow Wooi’s office, an architect specializing in heritage building restoration.

It dawned on me that Penang was doing as good, if not better, as the cities in New Zealand! I was pleasantly surprised as frequently as every few steps on streets like Armenian Street, Love Lane, Muntri street by its bilingual/trilingual street name signage,

heritage building turned boutique hotels/ hostels,

Ryokan Chic Hotel, Muntri Street

art galleries,

quirky souvenir stores eg 14 Living Story,

14 Living Story, Armenian street.

restored temples

Khoo Kongsi

various heritage organizations in beautiful heritage buildings with lots of free tourist info brochures, Just like isite, the government tourist info centre seen everywhere in NZ, even in rural towns with only 330 people ( Norsewood ).

Georgetown World heritage Inc building
(photo taken from the star)

Speaking of Norsewood, this reminds me of another happy discovery in Georgetown, community arts! Fuh, now very excited! The first evidence of community art I spotted in Penang is an impressive wall mural by English artist Ernest Zacharevic. It’s a mural of old man on the wall of Armenian Art café.

Impressive wall mural, Armenian Art cafe

There’re also quite a lot of giant sized wall photographs of normal people of Georgetown, praises for Georgetown by world renowned people like Zang Toi, printed on boards fixed on walls. And the one that tickled my heart the most was a kind of thick wire art depicting stories of the old Penang.

wire art , Muntri st.

How much does it cost to make wire art like this? I’d rather the money to build the ugly toilet in Little India be channeled to decorate Ipoh. Speaking of the ugly toilet, there’s a pile of horrendous-looking fake stones under the flyover near Kampar Road. I bet it’ll cost much lesser if the money’d been used to sponsor local artists to paint mural on walls of the flyover.

If I were to be given the chance to be part of a group to introduce community art in Ipoh, I’d do it in a heartbeat! Maybe I’m just not aware of an existence of community art in Ipoh, just as I was not aware of the availability of the Ipoh heritage walk. Maybe there is hope for Ipoh art! We could print LAT’s cartoons of old Ipoh and famous Ipoh food on giant sized boards and put them around Old and New towns!

LAT's cartoon of the demolished Yau tet Shin market, now a carpark =(

When I expressed my concern over Ipoh’s lack of effort to a staff of Georgetown heritage Inc ( an ex-Ipohite, who attended the same school, Anderson school as LAT) , he lamented that Perak was not meant to strive on tourism, but tin. But Greymouth in New Zealand (commented by many to be the ugliest town in nz) was not meant to strive on tourism either, but Gold! So they focused on that and built a gold mining heritage theme park.

Greymouth brochures explained extensively about the history of Gold mining. Although I was not attracted, my boyfriend certainly was. There have been talks on building a tin mining heritage museum/gallery in Ipoh but where is it?

Something must be done to revive Ipoh’s past glory. I am leaving Ipoh in a short while and may never live here except for the occasional balik kampong trips on holidays. I hope that my fellow hometown people may someday realize that what we have is very special and it depends on us to preserve it. And what I can do right now, as my time before leaving Ipoh dwindles from weeks to days, is to sketch as many of the heritage buildings as possible before they deteriorate beyond recognition and repair, and I wholeheartedly wish that that day will never come.

My sketch of Ipoh Old Town

Sketching Georgetown The Second Time! 念念槟岛

2011-09-17T12:31:00.000+08:00

I went to Georgetown for the second time this year. I did a warm up sketch in the ferry and a little old lady asked to see my sketches. She then started talking about how crime rate was high these days and depicted a robbery story she heard from someone she knew. She reminded me of an old man in KL, who reminded me to hide my wallet in my bag.

ferry

When I reached the terminal, Kiah Kien was already waiting there. He brought me to a printing shop and I saw some really nice paintings on the wall. One of them inspired me to try out a new watercolour style. He then left me to go back to his parents' house. I walked along Church Street and settled down at the junction of Church st and King st to draw a Chinese association and the temple beside it.

Guangdong Chinese Association

As I was starting to paint, Kiah Kien joined me and produced a vertical sketch of the building I was sitting in front of. Some of the passersby stopped and looked at us sketch. One of them was an amateur photographer who spent 2 weeks photographing a street, which I forgot the name.

We were then joined by Cheang Jing, another painter friend and had some local food. Cheang Jin did a quick sketch at the hawker stall.

I then continued sketching and found a nice spot at Armenian street. I lingered for quite a while before settling down, trying to decide between sketching yet another temple and a row of old buildings. The later won. Just as I started sketching, a man walked up to me and started commenting:

''Why are you using pen instead of pencil ar? Use pencil ma, can correct mistake.''

''Why your leaves so round ar? Dun bluff la. The leaves are pointed.''

To my horror, he then insisted upon showing me his pencil colour drawings and said he'd tear up the ones that I didn't like. What a weird guy.

Anyway, I got rid of him by saying I needed time to sketch and he could show me his drawings later. Fuh, peace at last.

Armenian street

I then walked to Love Lane and had a pleasant discovery, a new art gallery exhibiting cheerful and colourful paintings by artist Joey Lim and her students. I saw a nice all white table with some wooden coloured pencils and was tempted to draw something so I did!

Unique PenangArt Gallery ( check out their facebook! Owned by a lovely couple Clovis and Joey)

Then I spent my evening visiting 2 art exhibitions at Straits Quay and A2( nice food!)

On the second day, I woke up to heavy downpour and was worried that the sketching session organized by penang sketchers group'd be cancelled. Luckily it's not and I sketched something simple.

Campbell street market

All of us!

After lunch, I continued sketching and was joined by Marni half way through. We sketched on Love Lane.

Love Lane 爱情巷

Then we moved to Muntri Street. A man saw us and walked across the street from Muntri Mews and chatted with us( actually I kind of ignored him cuz I wanted to save time to sketch so Marni was the one answering his questions). Then Kiah Kien arrived to fetch us and the man's friend was holding Kiah Kieh's book - 素描老槟城 Sketches of Pulo Pinang and he shouted,'' Hey this is the man lah! '' and took a photo with Kiah Kien.

Muntri Mews, Muntri Street

We then attended a mid autumn gathering at a very unique art gallery. By that time I was quite exhausted. But upon reaching my Penang host, WanLu and Yong Qing's house, wanlu and I talked til 2.40am. yak yak yak....

On the third day, I did a sketch and met with Kuan Yew.

Carnavon Street, sketched in front of Penang Heritage Inc. building

Lebuh Carvanon

Kuan Yew and me

We had homemade cake and vanilla ice cream at Moontree 47. Delicious!

I really do love Georgetown. I wish I could work there. I hope that Kuan Yew'd one day fall in love with Georgetown as I have.

石头论

2011-08-27T18:00:00.000+08:00

今天原本到斗母宫的目的是看到报纸说有电脑展，电脑adaptor一命呜呼，便想去一趟。一到斗母宫，便喜见一盆巨盆栽，耸立门口，原来是有盆栽及雅石展赛会！

盆栽比赛又分大型和小型，有各种各样我第一次听到的树种，最新奇的叫寿娘子。除了盆栽，还有雅石展。刚好我们去的时候，有来自吉隆坡的雅石爱好家张国顺医生，给了一个名为，“雅石的鉴赏与艺术”的座谈会。张品石家说，欣赏一个石头，有四大条件，即“ 形﹑质、色、纹” 。其中形和质又是最主要的。

我听了讲座后对那些展出的石头‘另眼相看’。

后张医生又谈到雅石和艺术的关系。他说，一些人还在争论石头是不是艺术这个问题。因为石头不是人造的，是天然的，而普遍上人们口中的艺术品是指人造的。张医生解说道，如果有个朽木，被丢在河里，便不是艺术品。要是有一个人把它带回家，洗干净，再修饰、替它提名，那么那块木就是一个艺术品。说得非常好！这也令我想起，上个星期托嘉强的福，有幸到陈耀威建筑修复家的办公室参观。看到好多原本是横梁的弃木，摆在架子上，有的刻上字，成了艺术品，除装饰点缀外，还有纪念老房子的价值。

问答时段时，有位观众提到一些参展的石头很美很好看，可惜被布置得有点弄巧反拙。言下之意，是说那名玩石家的书法或画工不好，配不上雅石的美。爸爸整天说我的字不美，坏了我的速写。呜呜呜。。。难道我也犯了同样的错误？

槟岛。会大师。亲子游。Penang Sketching Trip

2011-08-26T23:52:00.002+08:00

Ever since the first sketching/painting session organised by the Facebook group Penang Sketchers about a year ago, I'd been wanting to attend the sessions, but due to my location i was unable to. Last week I finally, finally attended one, at the world heritage site in Georgetown! Nothing could have been more wonderful than seeing my favourite sketch/painters in action with my own eyes.

My parents and I received the warmest northern hospitality from sketchers Cheang Jin and Kiah Kien. I am a typical introvert. Long and loud outings drain my inner energy and confuse my overstimulated brain. But after meeting with my new sketcher friends I always felt revitalised and elated, for days!

The only sketch I did during the sketching session( 4.5 hours!) as I had an inflammed wrist (De Quervain's disease) but most importantly, I wanted to learn water colouring from the master. The first 3 hours of Cheang Jin's painting process were slow, tedious, impossible even. Then, everything just fell right into place,unveiling an extremely realistic, three dimensional painting that attracted passersby and drew admiration from onlookers and facebook friends. Great patience and skill pay well, after all!

Photo of happy sketchers.

蕉风椰林。我的家

2011-08-18T20:58:00.000+08:00

蕉风椰林。我的家

今天心血来潮，到家附近画画。画了一棵不知名的树，和一棵香蕉树。
十三号是种不知名树的家牌号码。

肉骨茶。书香天

2011-08-17T17:09:00.000+08:00

Fruit King and Queen!

2011-08-11T21:19:00.001+08:00

These are my parents, and they are avid supporter of local fruits, especially our king of the fruits, durian!

It is a traditional Chinese belief that durians are 'heaty' food, and is best countered by 'cooling' food, which is none ther than the queen of the fruits, mangosteen! Or, you can drink salt water with a durian shell.

Starting a Scrapbook

2011-08-07T11:40:00.001+08:00

Got inspired by Julia Rothman and Alison Worman's scrap/sketchbook, so I've decided to start my own. While cleaning and organizing my room( it took 3 days!), I found piles of papers from the past, school work, notes, letters, childhood drawings. These are the first few pages of my scrapbook. More to come!

The scrapbook will act as a remembrance to a big chapter of my life, as very soon I will start another chapter- working life. =)

Visiting my favourite Sketcher in Singapore

2011-08-02T22:59:00.003+08:00

My favourite sketcher from Singapore, Don Low, posted a blog entry about my visit to singapore and of me joining the ad hoc sketchwalk organized by him! Don is a great inspiration to me.

I am soooooo happy! And grateful for the kindness of Don and Edric in bringing Kuan Yew and me around Singapore, searching for art materials, browsing in artsy shops, and treating us to noodle mee pok and coffee! Below is the blog entry :

A Cheerful Visitor & Sketcher from Malaysia

Posted on August 2, 2011

Ru Hui was the cheerful visitor and sketcher from Malaysia, to be exact from Ipoh, Malaysia. She is a prolific sketcher who have just spent 3 months backpacking in New Zealand @_@. On the way home, she decided to drop by our tiny island with her boy friend Kuan Yew (clear throat… not that KY, you know who). We had lunch at Tiong Bahru’s one and only Fishball Noodle restaurant, Hua Bee. Then we exchanged sketchbooks. I was pretty eager to thumb through her NZ sketchbook especially when I have already seen the pages from Facebook. After lunch I requested Ru Hui to draw something on my sketchbook for keepsake. While she was still deciding what to sketch, I suggested her sketching the fishball noodle auntie while she is standing beside her stove. I did a similar one earlier on.

Ru Hui and her sketch of the mee pok auntie

While Ru Hui was sketching, I stole a shot of her. LOL! She looked like a kid doodling on her sketchbook.

Later in the afternoon, we brought them to some quaint bookshops to browse, then to White Canvas for the Tiong Bahru gallery show, and finally to Straits Co. to get some art supplies. Ru Hui has always wanted to try the Hero fountain pen so she bought one for herself, as well as a brush pen and a bottle of Hero fountain pen ink. She would be able to try out the pen when she came for a sketching and painting trip at One Fullerton. Here’s a shot of the event.

Sketchers @ One Fullerton
(End of Don's blog entry.)

This is the historic issuu publication, posted on Urban Sketcher, that introduced me to the wonderful works of Don. I remember staring at the sketches, totally mesmerized by each and everyone of them. I believe that this might be one of the biggest push for me to start sketching on location!

The Nature Guy in New Zealand

2011-08-02T01:25:00.003+08:00

My guy is a nature lover.

He is never bored looking at animals, plants and trees.

There are pictorial evidence.

Because of his love for the nature, he took up photography.

And spent hours and hours taking photos of...

...beautiful creatures, like birds

and...more birds,

...and cute creatures, like sheep,

...even scary creatures, like the spiders, ( speaking of which, this one look like a crab!)

And he is always gentle to them,

...feeding them,

...taking them on a walk,

or run!

Spider is not the only creepy, crawlie creature he is not scared of,
he is into bee keeping as well!

There goes a brief introduction of the nature lover, Kuan Yew！

Backpacking in New Zealand

2011-07-31T23:46:00.001+08:00

Sorry for not updating this blog in, *gasp* 4 months' time! Hmmm actually I don't feel bad cause not many read this anyway. But for the sake of 'eternalizing' my first huge overseas backpacking experience, I'll post a few entries on the trip!

The above pictures were written on the first two days of me touching down on Christchurch, two months after the 2nd earthquake.

The long awaited Excursion to Jalan Raja Chulan

2011-03-25T15:12:00.000+08:00

I woke up and thought to myself,'' It's now or never!!!'' and so I hopped out of bed and googled the map of Jalan Raja Chulan. An hour later, I was on my way to the bus stop.

I waited 45 minutes for U45, the infamous bus to come. I was seriously considering to turn back and wallow in self-pity after standing and sweating under the unyielding mid-day sun. Minutes into standing in the bus, I saw kindness unfold before me, a Malay school boy stood up immediately upon seeing an elderly Chinese grandma boarding the bus with a little boy. And the grandma thanked the school boy and let her grandson take the seat. Then an old man beside the little boy asked whether he'd been hardworking, a standard question when a Chinese elderly sees a school child. The boy shouted,'Yes!!' and the old man patted the boy's head in encouragement. The same old man then reminded me to hide my wallet and talked about his experience of witnessing how pickpocketing was carried out in the 1980's. These little acts of kindness remind me that there is still warmth among city folks. And I get a glimpse of how the Japanese must have felt when disaster struck their country. Here, the poor public transport service, the rising crime rate and the inequality have more or less brought the people together, helping and encouraging each other in small but significant ways.

And then, when i reached the place I'd been dreaming about since the first time I saw it 3 years ago, I jumped out of the bus and strode towards St Andrew's presbyterian church. Located strategically on the famous Jalan Raja Chulan, against a backdrop of lush greeneries, it gave me a feel of what old England must have looked like. I've always have a soft spot for English sceneries, thanks to childhood reading materials like Enid Blyton's. That explains why I love going to Fraser's Hills( although I've only been there once) and Cameron Highlands, and the high class resident area full of houses with English gardens built in the colonial era near my alma mater.

Anyway, I took out my makeshift stool, sat on it quiet awkwardly and began sketching the church. For the whole hour or so when I was sketching and painting, only one passerby,a Caucasian tourist, stopped and looked. I smiled at him and he smiled back. He left after a few seconds. Other than that, people just walked past me. Seemed like I'd worried unnecessary that I'd be attacked by robbers/bandits/foreign workers/pirates while sketching alone.

Then, tired and hungry, I proceeded to Changkat Raja Chulan, remembering that it was connected to Changkat Bukit Bintang, which'd lead me to the Golden Triangle. At around 1pm, Changkat Raja Chulan, was practically deserted, except for a few tourists wandering around, presumably from the Golden Triangle. I could not have hoped for a better time to sketch. The last time I arrived there to sketch was already late evening and unfortunately for me, it'd sprung to life, brimming and buzzing with foreign, rich looking businessmen and tourists. The last thing I want was for some waiter to throw coins at me and ask me to leave. I identified the most sketchable building( striking colours, not too many details) and settled down.

Halfway through, a beautiful waitress from the restaurant I was sketching crossed the road to look at me sketch. She gave a few praises and asked to see my previous sketches. After the unpleasant experience in Bintang Walk, I half suspected that she'd been ordered by the manager to chase me away. But after seeing my sketches, she left and asked me to continue sketching. There was a foreign worker who stood in front of me to watch me sketch and after a few minutes, walked back to watch me again, until the waitress came. Hmmm, i wonder if she'd been ordered to 'save' me instead of chase me? I really need to stop thinking nonsense. Anyway, it started to rain, so I got up and walked towards the Golden Triangle. And so ends my first solo sketching excursion!

Post Exam Stress Syndrome

2011-03-25T11:37:00.000+08:00

I have been self-destructive since after the exam. Binge eating, binge sleeping. Anything to avenge the psychological deprivation in the past month. Funny how the human mind works, logically, after such deprivation and longing, the final release should have resulted in bursts of euphoria. And all I felt was a deep sense of hollowness. I felt lost. Nothing I did gave me the happiness I expected. But then again, I was sort of expecting what I call, the 'post exam stress syndrome'.

It is not something new to me. I've had it since the secondary 3 government exam, PMR. At that time, I was confused of the hollowness I was feeling, which could be aptly described as anhedonia. And now, after battling extreme stress, exam-themed dreams every night, I'm battling anhedonia. But of course one of the reason behind this, is the worry that the battle has not been won, the possibility that there's six more months, gone along with plans to go overseas and family and friend time.

Anyway, results'll be out next week. Mimu mimu...

Breakfast with family

2011-02-02T12:57:00.000+08:00

Back in hometown for Chinese New Year!!!

Happy Rabbit year!

Two Cars, Ten People, and One Hill

2010-10-03T21:53:00.000+08:00

Sketching in the hostel

2010-09-10T23:20:00.001+08:00

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.

2010-07-24T14:02:00.000+08:00

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

2010-07-22T21:25:00.000+08:00

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 !

2010-05-22T00:28:00.001+08:00

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!

2010-05-19T10:41:00.000+08:00

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

2010-05-13T01:43:00.000+08:00

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

2010-05-10T16:29:00.001+08:00

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

2010-05-10T16:16:00.001+08:00

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

2010-04-29T22:32:00.003+08:00

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

2010-04-18T21:11:00.000+08:00

( 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

2010-04-18T21:00:00.000+08:00

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

2010-04-17T21:36:00.003+08:00

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

2010-04-17T20:21:00.001+08:00

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

2010-04-12T21:00:00.003+08:00

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.

The Plight of Nice People

2010-04-11T23:52:00.000+08:00

"The man sitting behind the sleeping man is Jason, a young Indian ( who can speak fluent Mandarin!).

His legs are practically squashed by the overly reclined seat of the inconsiderate middle aged man

( who speaks VERY loudly over the phone).
Such is the contrast between the very rude and the very nice."

This was sketched in a Konsortium bus on our way back from Muar to Ipoh. The man in front of me reclined his seat without considering the comfort of the person behind him(me). I had to sit up absolutely straight to avoid being squashed by the chair. It was very uncomfortable. As I whined about my bad luck, Kuan Yew pointed to the poor man beside me. I was shocked seeing an even more sorry case compared to mine. Jason, the kind Indian man had to endure this horrible misfortune for more than an hour. Imagine the soreness of the legs at the end of the journey!

Mum and her folk art

2010-04-05T21:00:00.001+08:00

Mum engrossed in her folk art. She bought two little wooden boxes and I sketched her painting one of them. It's wonderful and a blessing to find something you like to do after you retire. It adds fun to your life and may even make you feel fulfilled!

I've decided that I love sketching and painting more than sewing. Sewing really requires patience and skill. I'm a beginner and because no one I know sews, I have to rely on blogs, websites and youtube to learn the basic stuff. And it can be very frustrating. Moreover, i think something is wrong with my sewing machine although it appeared ok when I brought it to the shop. I don't get the 'flow' when I sew as I do with sketching.

As I grow older, I've come to the realisation that I'm an indoors person cuz all of my hobbies are indoor ones!

1. reading

2. sketching and painting

3. sewing

4. room makeover

5. researching anything regarding the hobbies above

I can't think of any outdoor activity that I truly enjoy, other than theme parks and travelling( but that's because I can sketch) I have no interest in climbing, cycling, snorkelling, or any outdoor activities in that matter.

And Kuan Yew is undoubtedly a mixture of both out- and indoors person. I guess i'll have to train myself to like outdoors more. Wait a minute, I love sketching outdoors, especially in cities! huhu, finally found some 'outdoorsiness' ( got such word ar? neologism, haha) in me.

My mum's kitchen

2010-04-04T21:00:00.001+08:00

This is a fish view of my mum's kitchen.

Drawing it fishview style just occurred to me and I was surprised at the liberty and 'flow' it gave me!

It was very liberating when I made up my mind not to follow the proportion and dimension strictly.

I'm gonna sketch more fish views in the future.

Stools in my house

2010-04-03T21:00:00.001+08:00

These are the stools in my house, which have provided resting places for my family and me for as long as I can remember, except a few of the newly added ones mum brought from the folk art studio she joined a while ago. The one with Barbie dolls is my birthday gift from mum! And the one behind it ( in yellow and black) is what she's currently working on with acrylic. I can see that it's turning out well. And the two Chinese looking stools on the far right and left are dad's tea stools. They're the most exotic looking and sturdy.

The one smacked right in the middle is my favourite one, because of its curves and most importantly, the colour! It's a mixture of crimson water colour paint and ink. hehe... I first saw this colour in Don Low's website and was mesmerized by it. I feel so happy when I got the combination of crimson and ink right. It's like figuring out some ancient secret recipe! But of course mixing paint is easier than having to taste and retaste spices and food.

Speaking of cooking, I've never really have much of an interest in cooking and have, in all my life, just baked twice, the first one for my ex boyfriend and the second one with Kuan Yew. Both cake/cookies turned out edible and were actually quite tasty! But then again nothing can go wrong with chocolate.

Vietnamese Pouch/ Bag tutorial

2010-03-31T19:36:00.005+08:00

This is my first sewing tutorial. Been looking at people's tutorials and thought
that I should give something back to the sewing community, especially the beginners.
So here it is!

Material:

1. Fabric A measuring 17" x 14" ( for me, the chocolate polka dot)

2. Fabric B measuring 17" x 21" ( the extra 7" of fabric will be the handle.

For me, it's the plain cotton linen)

3. a bundle of white rope to wrap around the handle( refer to picture above)

4. Optional : 2 cute buttons and some lace.

Step 1: Before sewing anything together, you might want to use UHU glue to glue all four sides of both the fabrics so that your bag has a tidier look. Remember to fold the side from the right(outer) side to the inner side. The picture below shows the OPPOSITE of the correct way and I had to pry the folds.

Step 2: Then, sew along the sides that you have glued to enforce the folds.

Step 3: Put fabric A and B together, with the WRONG(inner) sides facing OUT and sew 3"(see white line below) on each side and along the bottom of the fabrics as shown in the diagram:

Step 4: Then comes the part where I blundered the most - the bottom. I nearly gave up but when I figured it out, it was very easy! Just fold the bottom of the pouch and smooth it out, making it look like a rectangle, then sew along the lines like in the photo.

Step 5: Flip over to the outer side, sew along the lines to make the angle sharper, indicated in the photo.

Step 6: Decoration time! I hand sewed lace and buttons, then stitched 'Amy's shopping bag' on it.

Amy's my mum.

Step 7: Sew the upper border of fabric A to upper border of fabric B.

Step 8: Handle : Clip the ends of the intended handle with cloth pegs( large ones)

and start wrapping it with the white rope. I tied a little ribbon around it when it's done

Voila! You're done!

This pouch/bag is made based on a bag I bought in a shop near Petaling Street. The shop sells all kinds of Vietnam products which are adorable! I made this bag for my mum's birthday and she loves it. hehe...The original one is mine and I use it to put my Moleskine and sketching stationery. It can be used as a handbag too. It's handy for family/friend gatherings when you just want to put your wallet and hand phone.

I hope my tutorial is clear enough for the beginners, especially the bottom part where I don't have a clear picture to show how it's done. I guess you'll reach there by trial and error no matter what. I was met with error for nearly every trial so it's ok to make mistakes.

Please tell me if my instructions weren't clear enough and if you make a bag based on this tutorial, I'd love to see it!

画神台

2010-03-31T12:44:00.001+08:00

This is a sketch of a common sight in most of the houses of Malaysian Chinese. It is a structure to worship the Sky God( 天公）。

I finished the outline outside but because of two Aedes mosquitoe bites I painted it in my room. I hate mosquitoes! Especially Aedes. They're endemic here in Malaysia and they cause Dengue fever, which recently killed a young healthy man, and many others.

My draft of the structure.

Kitchen makeover

2010-03-31T00:34:00.001+08:00

When I have my own house and need to cook, I will decorate my kitchen. Just as I tried to do with my mum's. The photos are of a small little rack in mum's kitchen, which i saved from a life of insignificance and dreadfulness *brags a lil while more* by applying two coats of white enamel and decorating it with kitchen-themed cartoons.

Front view of the
revamped kitchen rack.

I also repainted the ragged wooden cat bought in Bali and wrote ' Amy's kitchen' on it.

Add ~~some~~ a lot of cleaning, scrubbing, rearraging and mopping, my lil kitchen makeover is completed!

Pipit Wonderful Market IV

2010-03-30T01:23:00.001+08:00

I wanna go to Pipit =)

Little Rubbits

2010-03-29T23:48:00.000+08:00

Today, I made two more Rubbits.

They're not that perfectly shaped but I'd prefer

to think that as the beauty of things handmade =P

Rubbit the rabbit

2010-03-28T17:46:00.001+08:00

Saw this in Mairuru's blog so I ciplak one for myself and named him Rubbit the rabbit.

Now he's the guardian of my pencil box.

Sketching man in stripes

2010-03-28T17:08:00.000+08:00

That was not the first time I encounter such people asking for donation for so and so charity, and it certainly will not be the last time. News of scams have taught me to be extremely cautious when donating. Such people, even with their few copies of whatever permit they claim to obtain from the government or the police(!), still look suspicious to me. And this man in particular, frustrated at our lack of response, even questioned our generosity as a race.

Sketching man on bus

2010-03-27T21:34:00.000+08:00

Text in the sketch ( just in case my handwriting is indecipherable) :

The man on the bus was engrossed in his handphone game with the game music blasting. It nearly triggered my tinnitus. I had the strong urge to get up and (politely) ask him to decrease the volume but didn't have the guts to. At that moment, I wish I was not the weaker sex and the lone traveler. Besides that, he's a foreign worker, most probably from Indonesia. Now, I'm not saying that all Indonesians are inconsiderate or dangerous. In fact, I've been to Solo and Bali where I met many friendly locals. This man in particular did not look like a serial killer. Anyway, just when I thought that things couldn't get any worse, he moved to the seat right beside me! I couldn't stand the music anymore and asked him to "kurangkan sikit music( decrease the volume)". And HE DID! So I said thank you. Now I have the urge to sketch him but it'd be too obvious. Then I took out my lil mirror and sketched his reflection. ( Being the fairer sex has its advantage after all!)

11.40 a.m.

26th mar 2010

Plusliner bus from KL to Ipoh.

After I sketched him, I moved to the seat in front of him to sketch another man. After some time, I felt something wriggling and touching my butt. I turned over and to my horror, there were two feet sticking out from the gap on my seat! When i stared at him, he looked like he's in agony and feigned innocence. What an inconsiderate person. Luckily he moved his feet away.

I admit that I have a lot of pet peeves when it comes to fellow bus passengers. I'm most sensitive to noise; blasting music put on by the bus driver, people talking loudly to their phone, loud ring tones or message tones, people who make disgusting sounds cleaning their teeth and mouth and gums and who know whats etc. I also can't stand people who recline their seats too far back, disregarding the people sitting behind, people who keep pushing their knees into your back through your backseat, people who smell of heavy smoking etc. I wish that we have programmes or campaigns to teach people 'bus manners'.

Leukaemia and anisometropia

2010-03-26T20:12:00.000+08:00

   Thrice a week, I'd go to the paediatric ward to give questionnaires to parents with children having leukaemia requiring chemotherapy. The medication is administered through a procedure called lumbar puncture. In most occasions, the procedure is painful and scary. To get a clearer picture, try to imaging a big needle poking you at the back, straight to the spinal cord. Of course, the child is given sedation and local anaesthesia but they can only help so much.

  Anyway, today is one of the days I dragged myself to the ward. While the mother filled in the form, I pretended to write something in my Moleskine while I sketched her and the little boy. He's in remission (cancer free period) and is on maintenance chemo. He was running around at one time, doing his homework the other. Then it's his turn to go in for the jab. He immediately hugged his mother but tried to look brave. I asked the mum whether he'd protested every time he knew he's coming to the hospital, she said no. What a brave lil boy!

  Today I'm also a patient. I had an appointment with the hospital optometrist because i had some problems with my new glasses. So she dilated my pupils to relax my ciliary muscles. This was to rule out any accommodative problems. In the end, she said that my blurred vision when I wore the new glasses was caused by anisometropia ( difference of power of more than 200 between the eyes) Apparently, the eye with much higher power has adapted itself to only 'see' far stuff, and the lower power eye only sees near stuff. So I think it's sort of like amblyopia( lazy eye) that kids can have. The optometrist said that the only solution was to wear contact lens. Finally I have a legitimate reason to be vain! But the bad news is that I can't have perfect binocular vision, which means I most probably can't be a microscopic surgeon next time. This is sad cuz I think ENT and opthalmology are interesting.

Mindfulness, happiness and the stethoscope

2010-03-26T00:13:00.000+08:00

Pimples

2010-03-23T20:56:00.003+08:00

They give me the worst of moods.
Conscious of every stare.
They're painful, naggy, costly and time-consuming.
At my age, I'm not supposed to produce so much oil to nurture these little monsters.
Please leave me alone.

Anyhoo, this is my first time trying out continuous contour drawing. But of course I cheated a bit. haha..

Sketching Sultan Abdul Samad Building, Royal Selangor Club and Tun Perak Road

2010-03-21T14:52:00.000+08:00

Sketching Masjid Jamek

2010-03-21T14:43:00.000+08:00

Masjid Jamek - designed by the same architect that also designed the Sultan Abdul Samad building( which is the must-appear spot every Merdeka celebration). It is one of the oldest mosque in Malaysia and served as the main mosque in KL before the National mosque was built.

I sketched this in ink and messed up few of the details. Will have to sharpen my skill at drawing directly with ink before attempting such feat again.

Natinal Textile Museum and Central Market

2010-03-21T13:26:00.005+08:00

Inspired by Urban Sketchers, I've decided to go on a sketchcrawl to Central market and sketch the area around it. Kuan Yew has been so kind to accompany me on my crawl. He did some photographing. We walked from Masjid Jamek LRT station to Dataran Merdeka and passed by National Textile Museum. Initially, i was reluctant to enter yet another museum but succumbed anyway to his persuasion. Bored at first, i walked around in it but when i spotted this old sewing machine, I couldn't resist sketching it. And here it is!

These are women of the east coast making traditional textile.

Peranakan clothes and head wear

Central market Food court - it was airconned. The food court itself is culturally diverse enough to represent the vibrant urban life in Malaysia. A look around shows people of at least 6 races mingling around and at least 15culinary choices from many stalls.

Poor Kuan Yew catching a nap while i sketched.

Hot Air Balloon Festival 2010

2010-03-20T13:36:00.000+08:00

I've always been accused by Kuan Yew of not being romantic enough be

cause i don't like to watch fireworks. They look exciting to me for the first four seconds and become boring thereafter. In my childhood memories, fireworks were not really associated with fun. On the other hand,a distinct memory is of our neighbour coming over to our house where we were playing fireworks and lamented on how it caused air pollution. The loud sound every time a firework is released'd send me jumping, and that'd be another cause of annoyance for ky.

Anyway, today's topic is hot air balloon. Whether or not it is associated with the notion romance, im not sure. But it reminds a lot of people of the animation 'Up'. For me, it's the best animation after 'Finding Nemo'. And the gist and most touching part of the whole movie is the 4 minute mime depicting old man Carl and his wife Ellies' whole lives together, which explains the reason why an old man would be crazy enough to attach thousands of helium balloons to his house so that he and the house could fly off to another country.

Being a big fan of the movie, any chance of experiencing it must be grabbed. But the primary reason for me to travel 2 hours just to see a few balloons was because it was a return favour to kuan yew for accompanying me on my sketching marathon yesterday. A few girl friends who are genuinely interested in the festival( who, by ky's loose definition, are more romantically inclined than me, i suppose) tagged along.

The photo on the left - Kuan Yew adjusting his cap before the balloon man starts the gas to heat up air in the balloon。 Wearing a cap is a tip from previous balloon passengers for avoiding the hair from burning.

This is a sketch of the lakeside where lots of lil children( and some adults) played in giant water balls. It looked really fun but expensive too(rm5 for 5 minutes). Too bad i couldn't play cuz i was wearing a dress.

A sketch of the balloons against the backdrop of the famous putrajaya bridge, which i admit not knowing the name of =P

Sketching portraits

2010-03-17T00:47:00.000+08:00

Looked at many sketches from various sketchers' blogs around the world, linked from Urban Sketchers (www.urbansketchers.com) and am really amazed by their ability to sketch. My personal favourite is this singaporean, Don Low(http://www.donlowillustration.com/blog/) with his unique style. My goal is to be able to sketch portraits smoothly. As much as i want to blame the people for moving too frequently or having faces not distinct enough for sketching, it really is my lack of skill that is the cause. Hope that one day i can sketch people like i sketch buildings and still life.

KL and Krabi sketchings

2010-03-12T20:03:00.000+08:00

Lanterns and bamboo roofs have become my favourite subjects to sketch. The man closest to me sold Papa the bad food which caused stomach discomfort and diarrhea.

Petaling street.Sketched this sitting outside a kopitiam. I'd inhaled in gallons of noxious

fumes and felt sick after that. But exhilarated at the same time cuz this is my first time

doing a live sketch =)

This turned out quite nice. Was hesitant at the beginning to sketch a tokong cuz of the

intricate details but brought it on anyway and am happy with the result!

My attempt at back portraits. This is a lovely pair of couple waiting to board a plane in the departure hall. They were sitting right in front of me. Wonder how they'd react if they turned around and saw me sketching them.

As seen from the balcony of my room. Nice panoramic view. Will colour it later. Im not well versed with painting nature. Hope that it'll turn out well

A comparison between Petaling street before and after painting.. I prefer the uncoloured one though. Quite disappointed at how it turned out.

Sarubobo dolls

2010-03-08T00:35:00.000+08:00

Today, i made my first sarubobo doll based on this tutorial. It's extremely easy.
Just that you've to be delicate cuz the recommended measurements are real small.
There are several variations in the tutorial. I just tried one. Can't wait to try the others!
Made this for Kuan Yew. hehe...

According to Wikipedia:

Nowadays, sarubobo are a popular souvenir in Takayama, and are available in many different colours and shapes from souvenir shops. There is even a Hello Kitty doll dressed as a sarubobo.

The differently coloured sarubobos are each associated with different wishes;

Blue sarubobo - for luck in study and work
Pink sarubobo - for luck in love ( mine is in pink! well, at least its dress and button are)
Green sarubobo - for luck in health
Yellow sarubobo - for luck in money
Black sarubobo - to remove bad luck

There is also a differently-shaped sarubobo called a "tobibobo."

I'm gonna make the complete color set for the sarubobos.

Sidenote: Tomorrow, I'm gonna officially start sketching in my precious moleskine watercolor notebook. It's going to be my first travelogue sketchbook !

Fabric baskets

2010-03-07T13:13:00.000+08:00

In love with patchwork now. Was thinking of buying this craft book 'I love Patchwork' by this incredibly talented lady. Can go to her blog here. But it's RM100 over in Kinokuniya. sob..

My second fabric bag. Made based on this easy to follow tutorial.

My full set of fabric baskets =)

Tote bag

2010-03-02T01:01:00.000+08:00

Feeling really disheartened when i couldn't figure out how to do the inner lining of my sewing machine cover. I was in bad mood and my whole mind focused on how to get it right the whole day. Went into a frenzy googling tutorials and websites and youtube etc. Never thought that sewing could bring me such agony.

The sewing machine cover without lining =(

This was supposed to be the lining. But i just couldn't figure out

how to attach it snugly to the outer cover.

For a second I was doubting my decision to buy a sewing machine. it's not really expensive but rm300 is still money, esp for a student. And the 2nd hand machine kept failing me. I'd to rethread in between sewing different parts, which was really frustrating. Plus I had no one to ask for help. No beginner's luck at all. I guess this doesn't apply to learning a new skill.

Planning as carefully as possible so as to not waste my precious ( and expensive) fabrics.

At 11.30p.m, I FINALLY, FINALLY got the inner lining right for my 3rd project, the tote bag!!!!!!! Yes Yes Yes!

No pain, no gain.

There's a bulb in the sewing machine. How convenient!

Thinking of trading my 2nd hand sewing machine in with the newer model cuz the 2nd hand one keeps giving me trouble. Plus the newer model has free flow quilting function, my biggest draw to learn sewing.

Last but no least, a collage of my tote bag pictures. hehe...

Collage of my sewing project

2010-03-01T00:26:00.000+08:00

I bought a sewing machine!

2010-02-26T20:39:00.000+08:00

Learning to sew in the sewing machine centre. Searched thru whole ipoh and found this nice 3 unit Brother sewing machine shop. Luckier still, there's a 2nd hand Brother VX1250 available! Traded in by someone who's just moved house. Mum bargained til the price dropped fr rm400 to 300. haha.. so happy.

The hole-filled camera pouch.

My Brother VX 1250!

My first attempt at making a camera pouch.
I dissected the hole-filled one and learned the ways.
It's non-functional but I'll watch lots of videos to improve. hehehe...

《WooHoo 大日子！》❀

2010-02-25T00:47:00.000+08:00

《WooHoo 大日子！》真是不可多得的好制作。原本要和爸妈到戏院去观赏，可惜我考完试戏已下画，买翻版的念头萌生，可又想到本地华人这么不容易制作了一部电影片，我是应该支持的。❀

我欢天喜地到Speedy 买，售价19.90。心想，“真便宜！” 岂知，到楼上一看，店主把贴纸往原价一黏，售价17.90。我只好自叹没货比三家才买。❀

观赏完《大日子》后，深感每一分都花得很值得。真是一部好戏。跟爸妈看很温馨，整间屋子笑声连连。让我想起以前看新加波《小孩不笨2》是的欢乐时光。

❀ waaaa, i cannot tahan already. This pinyin is making me crazy and type ❀ like a tortoise. Typing in chinese is another skill i have yet to master. It doesn't help that my pinyin is the weakest part of my chinese knowledge. Out of 10 pinyin questions in SPM, I'd get 9 wrong. Luckily there was only one pinyin question in the grammar section. hahaha...❀

Anyway, watching "WooHoo" has made me realize that we're not short on local talents and the least we can do is to buy original DVDs or go to the cinemas to support them ❀

❀
❀ p.s. thx su yan for recommending this movie to me!

Cleansing oil

2010-02-25T00:29:00.000+08:00

Have read for the umpteenth time that sunblock must be removed with a proper make up remover, so after comparing prices between Etude House Cleansing water/oil/cream(rm46.50, 150ml) and Elianto(RM29, 200ml) and some brand unheard of in Watson, I bought Elianto's green tea cleansing oil and so far ( after 1 use) find it very nice! I love the feeling of the oil 'melting' the residual sunblock. let's hope it wouldn't cause any (additional)breakouts.

Got a free, tiny sample of Clinique derma white brightening city block with SPF 40/PA +++. huhu...it's only 7ml so i think it's enough for only one application. But good enough already. Will compare it to Shiseido's sunblock. Although it's very pricey ( rm105 for 100ml), i still consider it a good investment cuz it suits my skin and wouldn't bleach it upon application. It brightens my skin tone instead so why not spend the money and make myself happy while i'm still young?

鄭丁賢: 瑪麗娜，妳不是……

2010-02-22T22:55:00.000+08:00

image taken from: api.ning.com/files/O-iKfvl4*QgY3...girl.jpg

她的名字是瑪麗娜恩道（Marina Undau），她住在砂拉越內陸的斯里阿曼，她的父親是伊班人。

17歲的瑪麗娜，從來沒有對自己的身份感到懷疑：她是伊班人，大家認為的砂拉越土著。

她考取大馬教育文憑（SPM），獲得9個A和1個B。以全國水平衡量，或許不算頂尖，但是，在教育資源短缺的東馬內陸地區，這是了不起的成績，是家族的榮耀。

在大馬的扶弱政策之下，瑪麗娜應該獲得特別的照顧，她應該比西馬資源和條件優厚的土著，更有資格被送到國外深造。

然而，她沒有這個機會。

她是個謙虛的女孩，她唯一的心願，就是能夠進入本地的大學預科班（Matrikulasi），以便一年後可以升上大學。

這是一個很謙卑的心願，以土著學生考得如此成績，要進入大學預科班，簡直是輕而易舉。

然而，她的申請被拒絕了。

理由：她不是土著。

教育部審核她的背景時，發覺她的母親是華人，因而認為她不具土著資格，把她排除在大學預科班之外。

她的父親幾次上訴，都被駁回；說你不是就不是，我們是按照規矩來做事。

瑪麗娜傷心莫名。只因她是一個混血的伊班人，血統不夠純正，所以，她不能進入大學預科班。

她不瞭解馬來西亞的種族政策，她不清楚西馬的官僚作風，她不明白她是種族主義底下的另一個犧牲者。

有誰能夠告訴她，以扶弱為名的土著政策，為甚麼不能照顧一個生活在惡劣環境之下，卻積極努力，想要改變命運的伊班／華裔子民。

難道她不是真正需要照顧，而且值得照顧的弱勢群體嗎？

如果一種扶弱政策，不能真正的去幫助需要照顧，值得照顧的人民，那麼，這種扶弱政策，還有甚麼存在的意義！

或許，當這個事件被帶到政治高層時，會有網開一面的機會；對於政治人物而言，施予小惠並不困難，而且還能得到寬宏大量的美譽。很多的爭議，不都是這麼“解決”的嗎？

但是，問題在於這個封閉和腐朽的制度。它繼續浪費國家社會的資源，它繼續扼殺年輕聰慧的人才，它繼續消耗公平和正義的價值。

它也繼續在分裂這個國家。

星洲日報／馬荷加尼‧作者：鄭丁賢‧2009.11.04

摘自http://opinions.sinchew-i.com/node/12187

续无良人士

2010-02-20T21:08:00.000+08:00

无良人士

2010-02-20T20:57:00.000+08:00

Padi and Jagung

2010-02-20T20:44:00.000+08:00

A series of recent encounters have got me thinking of what professionalism is. To me, professionalism is not just about applying knowledge in our job but also about being passionate. It is also important to use the knowledge that we’ve gained to help people. Within a year as a medical student, I’ve encountered people who were passionate professionals and also people who were to me, excuses giving and money minded.

Encounter 1: Orthopaedic Arthro team

As I’ve had this pain and ‘click’ feel on hip extension occasionally for the past few years, I’ve decided to seek medical advice during my ortho posting. This Indian registrar that I approached did not hesitate to fill in a form so that I could have a pelvic and hip xray taken. After that, to be safe, he referred me to the specialist, who VERY patiently listened to my complaint and examined my hip, while teaching his registrar the technique to detect a ‘quadriceps tendon inflammation’. He then wrote a referral letter to the physiotherapy dept so that I could have an ultrasound anti inflammatory therapy, which I defaulted due to sheer laziness. But the point is, these doctors didn’t have to do all these but due to their professionalism, they willingly did them.

Encounter 2: Loratadine

Other than ‘quadriceps tendon inflammation’, I’ve also been suffering from allergic rhinitis since young. So I had this handsome doctor examine my turbinates which he said were hypertrophied but still pink. So he prescribed me some loratadine. It was 2pm and the doctor’s last day in the hospital (I think) but he patiently explained to and examined me and rouyun while smiling! Then after my med finished, I went back to have my prescription renewed and saw my supervisor. She welcomed me and asked what she could help upon seeing me. I was happy and grateful until the kerani kewangan ( ?financial clerk) refused to do a process to entitle me to free med because my letter to certify that I’m a student was outdated. (But I was wearing a white coat and a name tag and I told her my supervisor wanted to prescribe me the med!) Luckily, this doctor in my supervisor’s clinic called the clerk and asked her to do it. But she didn’t do as the doctor said and I was turned down at the pharmacy. To cut the long story short, I eventually got the med but not through the aforementioned clerk but a clerk from another dept. This is an example of red tape and rigidity of the jagungs( explained below). A few hours later, my supervisor was so nice to ask a friend to call me to ensure that I’d gotten my med.

Encounter 3: Eyes

A series of events led me to the misfortune of buying a pair of (seriously)overpriced and ~~substandard~~ no standard specs from S.S. optical. My power was over estimated and my eyes get tired and vision blurs easily as a result. I’m hypermetropic when I wear the specs. When confronted, the shopkeeper( Im not even sure if she was a registered optometrist)said it was ‘all in my head’. What a lame excuse to cover up her mistake. I had to have my power checked by another optometrist, so I approached the one in my hospital, for 5 times. I’ve had a patient complain that a staff was breastfeeding while working and I suspect it was this optometrist as she was carrying a small kid. She was incredibly unfriendly and was chatting with the other pembantu kesihatans the 1^st few times I approached her. She said to ‘make an appointment’ as she was ‘very busy’. But i’d time constraint and frankly, did not see the point of making one when she was so obviously free during all of the times I approached her. The last time I approached her, she was choosing make up brought to the clinic by a PK to sell. I had no choice but to approach a doctor. The doctor was very busy on the phone talking to one of his patients who did not turn up for his/her appointment. He agreed immediately to check my eyes as I had floaters for a few years. He dilated my eyes and checked for retinal detachment with slit lamp, some prism which can visualize my retina til ora serrata, B scan and another tool which I forgot the name. I had virteous degeneration by the way. The point is, the whole 40 minutes from when the mydriatics were applied, the waiting time for my eyes to dilate, the examining time, the ‘busy’ optometrist was looking at the make ups and chatting with the PKs. This is what I call the more ‘berisi’ a padi is, the lower it bends and the more tak berisi the jagung is, the straighter it stands. Something like that lah. Meaning the more knowledgable a person is, the humbler he is.

Lessons of the day:

1. I am grateful for all the wonderful doctors, my regular optometrist in ipoh who helped verify my power, the overprice-ness of the new glasses and the sub-standard of it, and the clerk who helped do the ‘fee exemption process’ for me.

2. With a single incident of faulty specs being so distressing where it necessitates so many trips to the substandard optical shop, my regular shop and the hospital optometrist, it makes me realize the responsibility I will bear in the future. If a relatively small matter like this can be so distressing, imagine what - a disease misdiagnosed, a treatment wrongly given, a preventable death not prevented because of human error- can cause! Therefore, I must be extra diligent and careful when I practise next time.

3. The same old thing, “the more the padi is berisi, the more it bends’. This is so true. That’s why people talk about the Little Napoleons syndrome. As a future junior doctor, I hope that I will not become one.

2010-02-20T01:18:00.000+08:00

Sketches of Vietnam

2010-02-20T01:00:00.000+08:00

Vietnam

Sketches!

2010-02-20T00:52:00.000+08:00

As seen from Poco Homemade Cafe

Ayer Jerneh- accompanied mum to the lil town where she attended primary school.

Palete Palette - other than the Tandoori chicken, nothing else was delicious.

Exams exams exams

2010-02-10T22:57:00.000+08:00

What i had during the study week. Very unhealthy but what to do?

Poco Handmade Cafe

2010-02-10T22:10:00.000+08:00

Poco Homemade!!!!

Little pleasures in life can be very exhilarating. Today Kuan yew and I went to this cute lil shop in Jalan Choo Cheng Khay named Poco Homemade. We arrived there a teeny bit earlier than the cook cum waitress and had fun taking some siao photos. I love the ambience on the street. It's very un-KL-like, and thinking that it's situated right off Jalan Maharajalela! Actually i never'd have gone to this shop alone. I suggested to Kuan Yew half expecting him to dismiss my idea but he promised to teman me there!

Posing with this cool 100% handmade sketch and art book by around 10 malaysians. The food was nice. I ordered Fish and Japanese curry set. It was delicious and tasted exactly like the chicken cooked with Japanese curry Kuan Yew made! It's not spicy but it retains its curry flavour. Made for people who love curry but can't take very spicy food, like meee.

My main aim of going to Poco was to see the craft this incredibly talented girl nicknamed meer's crafts. I was not disappointed. I've been fantasizing about owning a sewing machine that does quilts. But the girl in the shop told me that one'd cost rm700. sigh... maybe i'll buy the simplest one rm100 first then decide whether i'm truly interested(read: talented) in sewing. I remember sewing classes as one of the most boring during secondary school. How time changes a person's perspective.

Mana boleh forget to take couple pic? So we asked the cook cum waitress to take for us. At first i was apprehensive than she'll find using Kuan Yew's DSLR difficult but she held it in a professional way and snap! snap! snap! 3 beautifully taken, at just the right angle were born!