Belalang = Grasshopper

18 Watashi no heya

Kaklong letak gambar lampu liplap, alang letak gambar bilik liplap. wowowo.

I proudly present you,

Lagi,

The pins are my prized possessions,

I’ve finished doing my ‘Family Corner’ (panggil corner sebab kat corner of the room). Nama yang cheesy.

I used the exercise mat Ibu brought back from somewhere somewhere (London kot) as background. Nasib baik ayah tak marah. Notice the thermometer far left, above the bear? That’s the one I bought from the stationery shop.

Fat lazy cat,

Muka malas je. Dahla gemok. This was taken in my room after she got tired making a mess of it. She climbed the chestdrawer, table, printer, chair, bed, whatever catches her curious self. She even sat on the books and made a huge mess as the pile of books tumbled down over the floor. It’s the first time she’s explored the whole room (macam besar sangat je). She nearly jumped out of the window but I got hold of her before she could jump. Nak mati cepat kot Box tu.

17 Sodatsu, onegai!

I just feel like ranting.

Ever come across texts like this “hYe! nK mInX tLg awK b0Le x?” or “nApeW mcM tuW?” or “j0mZ mAmaM esKremZ!” or anything of the same sort? Hey sender, is that alien language you’re trying to deliver cos if it is, I don’t speak alien. Minta maaf.

“hYe! nK mInX tLg awK b0Le x?” - The hYe word is actually derived from “Hai”. To make it look cool, they invented the word, HYE, like how you pronounce DYE, or EYE but I will always read it as HI-YE. Kiddos, they think that it’s cool to englishify (:P) Malay words. Sebagai contoh: Boo-what gar-this muh-knees done are-you (Buat gadis manis dan ayu). Mari kita translate ayat ini kepada BM: Boo apa gar ini saya punya (konon2 muh ni my la ok) lutut-lutut siap adakah awak. KIDDO.
When I was in Form 3 (or 2), it became a trend among my friends to use these kinda words in writing letters (zaman dulu masih tulis surat) but even now people are still englishify-ing (:PP) malay words but the meaning of the words are still in malay (alamak, sendiri pening baca ni). It’s so uncool.
“nK mInX tLg awK b0Le x?” (nak minta tolong awak boleh tak?). Saya baca “nak minx (kalau disebutnya mingks?) tolong awak boleh tak?). It takes a minute of my time to get what it meant. Susah sangat nak tulis minta, padahal tambah satu huruf jer. minx? minx? You can use “X” for “TAK” in front of words ie. “x nak” or “x perlu” or “x de” but putting it at the back makes the word hard for the reader to decipher. Kalau lantak, jadi lanx la? katak jadi kax? botak jadi box? Eh, ada nama kucing kita la.

“nApeW mcM tuW?”
Budak2 betul. Tahu tak sebutan ew tu, macam EWW, atau e-you? Try saying this out loud “napiu mcm tuw(kena stresskan sikit kat belakang tu)”
Why do they have to add the W word at the back? Vandalize malay words betul budak2 ni. “adew kew akuw tanyew?” (adiu kiu akuuu tanyiu?). “manew adew lew” (maniu adiu liu).

“j0mZ mAmaM esKremZ!”
Ni lagi satu. Tak cukup dengan huruf W, huruf Z pun mahu juga. “OkIEz.. mamAmZ same2 jomZ”. Nak tidur saya mendengarnya. ZZZ.
R pun menjadi trend  “Hari ni nak makan aper yer? Jom makan cuker dan guler samer-samer. sedap tak terhingger-hingger”. Ops, lebih-lebih puler.

Another thing that annoys me is profuse short words. Of course, using short abbreviations when sending messages is required so as to fit a whole message into one text, then it wouldn’t cost much. But what if the message went like this “xrti ak nk jwb q td. gle ssh tul. ko cmne lk?” After 15 minutes of reading it repetitiously, the message was finally deciphered to: “Tak reti aku nak jawab soalan tadi. Gila susah betul. Kau macam mana pulak?”
Or am I too old to not understand shortforms like this? Kiukiukiu.

Well truthfully, these things don’t really annoy me. What annoys me the most is the BIGsmallBIGsmallBIGsmall letters in one word. Do they have that much time to change the letters from large to small to large again and back to small? Even typing hEll0 takes me two minutes when I can actually do it in two or less seconds. Okay la, maybe they have more than enough time to capitalize and un-capitalize words (or press # if it’s on the phone) but! BUT! It would be a nuisance to the readers as it takes more time to read ‘patterned’ than normal writings. Kan cantik kalau type macam biasa je. I wouldn’t mind that much if it comes from a 12-year-old, but what if your 23 (nearly 24)-year-old friend does that? MaCaM mAnA tU?

This entry is so full of what ifs.

(Sebenarnya, contoh-contoh yang diberikan tiada kaitan dengan yang hidup atau yang mati. Semuanya adalah contoh semata-mata)

Saja nak ramble sorang2.

16 BOXUUU!

She played peek-a-boo with Ayah, taking a peek on Ayah now and then from behind the tupperware.

Ayah’s laptop case/bag

This is the little Cheek, which now I call Skunk. I’d never run out of lists to give her a new name.

What about skat? Skunk+Fat. Oh Box, how you have grown so well and magnificent, always so humbly elegant, now even walking ever so graceful. You have been brought up well.

Not at all! (Langsung tak!)

She’s the same naughty tyke as she was before. She hasn’t changed apart from getting bigger and larger in the belly and chubbier in the cheeks (cat cheek?). Almost. Her playful side never wears off and it is not oh-so-cute as when she was only 3 months old. Her teeth have gotten stronger, and her grip has become firmer. She still gets over-hyper when she bites something, then her eyes would go to this crazy mode, like those in cartoons where crazy mad characters have these swirling mad eyes. They’re exactly the same!

She is a teenage cat with a childish heart. Hah.

Now, she could even jump on the table-top.
Try arranging this in the correct order:
Chair, Floor, Clothes (trousers in this case), Table-top (is this how it’s actually spelt?), Dining Table, Window.
What did you get?
ANS: Floor, Clothes, Chair, Dining Table, Tabletop, Window
It’s the sequence of her ability to climb on things as she grew bigger and stronger. The Floor, she couldn’t even jump. She was just a baby. Then she started to learn how to jump by gripping on people’s clothes, The Clothes. Next, as she became more accustomed to jumping, she started to jump on The Chair. Since The Chair is right next to The Dining Table, she’s been jumping on The Dining Table just for the fun of it (to kacau2 us eating mostly). And now, she’s started to jump on The Table-top to go to the other side (out of the window) which explains The Window. Maybe after this would be The Wall, like how the Evil Orange Cat (lets call him Oren, ok) has an expertise in climbing.

But no matter how fat she’s become, she still have no guts to fight Oren. Oren is just one big bully who likes to pick on Box cos he knows that she’s scared of him. And I have a feeling that he’s just making fun of her by having her poop all over the place. Meanie. It’s hilarious though, that her poop went out nearly halfway. I can imagine poop hanging from her buntut, dangling there when Oren was laughing his head off.
Don’t let your imaginations run too wild. Haih.

And sometimes I think that Oren has been harassing Box cos he’s too shy to admit that he likes her. So he’s been bullying her to hide the fact that he has feelings for her (mana tak nye, dari kecik toek lg kena kacau). Come on and admit it Fatso, you’ve been stalking her all the time. Tsk2.

Lari tajuk lagi. Ada tajuk ke?
Akhir kata. Box penakut, suka gigit orang, suka cakar orang, perut gemuk, pandai melompat, makan serangga, makan cicak, buat mata puss-in-boots dlm cerita shrek tu bila nak mintak simpati, mengada2 bila nak manja, tak sedar diri bila mengganas, pernah kejar alang sekeliling dapur, berak dah keras, bangga diri bila tengok reflection dalam cermin, penakut air, and lastly, tengah tido atas katil dalam bilik alang dengan sebelah tangan menutup matanya. Gemok la kamu ni Box.
Kalau ada nak tambah list, silakan.

15 That's mean? That means?

They sound almost the same, but deliver a different meaning. Some people use “That’s mean” when they actually want to say “That means”. These are two different meanings dear homo sapiens. It makes me flinch (Sakura style ie. in head) when the words are being misused. It’s common that new English learners think that it’s correct. To some people, it might not matter as long as the message is brought across, but in reality, it can be annoying to the listener especially if the offender has been corrected before.

I remember being taught in primary school the correct usage of words and how to use short forms ie. ‘s can be short for “is”, “has” and can also be a genitive. Which brings back to the main question. If one says “That’s mean you will go lah?”, would that sound right? If yes, then will “That is mean you will go lah?” sound right now? No matter how you look at it, it’s just so, wrong.
Direct translation: “Ia adalah kejam awak nak pergi lah?”
EH? Nani sore? Apakah betul bunyinya pada anda semua? (kakngah sorang je :p)

It’s been fossilised in their head to use “That’s/It’s mean” instead of “That/It means” that they are so confident of, even after repetitiously being told it’s not right. Sangat pantangla mendengarnya. Jadi, silalah jangan gunakan di depan saya. Just these words leave an impact on me. Kalau other grammatical errors, I’m okay with hem, tp yang ni je takleh. Kenapa? Isk2.

My English is still quite bad, sometimes I pause to think for the translation of words, I make grammatical mistakes, and I always use short words and arrange them in short sentences just to keep it safe. It was a lot worse before but got better gradually. When I come across something that I don’t understand the structure of, I’ll look up in the dictionary, or on the internet. But true, one can’t become better only by reading.

However, I do think that having preference in people with good English equals to being arrogant. It’s hard to learn, what with the tenses, nouns, pronouns, verbs etc. which I never took notice until today. Bahasa rojak lagi senang. Bahasa rojak saya tu menunjukkan bahasa inggeris saya masih memerlukan pembaikpulihan. Tengok la, even my Malay is bad. Huahua.
Yeah, I don’t have the right to complain. But when people get a bit too extreme, it’s intolerable.

Back to the main topic (asyik lari tajuk je).
Conclusion:
That’s mean ≠ That means

Sekian.

14 Eating day

Hari ni, memang boleh jadi sejarah keluarga kita la. It all started with our usual monthly shopping. We shop at Giant instead of Carrefour (sp.?) now since kaklong is so keen on collecting stickers to get a cooking pot for Ibu :P okay, maybe that’s not really the reason but putting that aside, back to the main story. After unloading stuff we bought into the car, we went for lunch. Undecided at first where to eat, we discussed and later agreed on trying Pizza San Fransisco. It’s been about 8 years since the last time we ate at PSF and I remembered thinking the food was really expensive. But we went anyways.

A plate of spaghetti costs RM15.90, when you can get a cheaper price at Secret Recipe. Isk3.. tapi dah duduk kan, takkan nak keluar balik. So kaklong just ordered two pizzas. “We’ll go eat elsewhere after this”, kaklong said.

P.S: Dominos dgn Pizza Hut lagi sedap. Lagi murah. PSF tettt, mesti diblacklist. nyehnyeh.
Jadi San Francis je, tak muat camera.

Then we went around with our stomach quarter full (some maybe half) and looked for other places to eat. Kaklong stopped to buy tarts? puffs? Apa tah panggil but it has fillings inside and the outer side is crispy, crusty, oishii. Forgot to take a picture of the place, or the tarts. Ada lagi kat dalam fridge.

Next stop, CoolBlog.
The ice blended drinks are worth trying.

We decided to eat at A&W but the place was full so we went to Sweetchat. Never tried the place before so we ordered banana filling thingy and something that tasted like pizza. Tak tau la apa nama dia. While waiting for food, me and kaklong went to Subway and bought a foot long chicken sandwich (tak tau gak apa nama dia. haha). Yum!
Here’s the picture of the banana and pizza-like food from Sweetchat

Half foot sandwich from Subway

KENYANG! Kinda. Haha.

Solat zohor lepas tu.

Gramedia Bookstore came after that. Buku2 still tak tersusun. John Grisham would be seen among books like Hikayat Muhammad something something -_- I wonder when they’d start sorting the books properly.

Next, I went to Harvest Stationery and bought unimportant stuffs (including a thermometer xD). Rambang mata je pegi kedai macam tu, semua benda mengarut je, which I like. Hoho. Biasa la, benda2 dari Jepun mmg selalu ngarut je. Sampaikan amah marah alang sbb beli benda tak berfaedah. mwahaha.
From outside

Kedai BATA, beli kasut sbb kasut lama mcm kena gigit tikus je. (no pictures)

Started to feel hungry again (atau alang sorang je :P). Nak pergi Yogurberry but the place isn’t there anymore :( so pergi A&W je la. The place was still crowded but there was one table without anyone sitting. There was a book on the table tho, but since no one was there, we just took that table. When kaklong was ordering at the counter, two chinese girls came and put their tray on the table. Their other two friends went to another table and sat there. They could have just shared one table since it’s actually a table for four but no, they prefer to sit separately. Nak kenyek2 diorg pun ada je masa tu. I saw them glancing at us a few times, quietly talking in Mandarin. Kalau rasa bersalah tu bangun je la. Tak beradab betul la bagi org berdiri je. Dah tau kami ni takde tempat, why don’t you just share one place? Haih. (If only I can punch them once, I’d be satisfied). Ish3..istighfar2. Tapi ada la tempat kosong utk 4 org. Tapi kami ni 6 orang, lagi 2 org mana mau duduk ma? So kaklong dgn muka marah pun berdiri je la kat luar tu dengan dikyoh. I should’ve taken a picture of those uncivilised people and put it in my blog. Bagi famous sikit. This isn’t discriminating, or being racist. Kalau melayu buat mcm tu pun sama je. They need to learn how to be considerate of others.

Tengok muka kaklong. Haha.

We didn’t want to wait, and dikyoh wanted to have laksa instead of A&W so we headed to Lemongrass for dikyoh’s laksamana.

“Saya takmau laksa. Sushi sushi” kata Alang.

Sushi it is then. Yappari..Sushi King is the best :D

Selepas itu, kami pulang ke rumah. Berakhirlah pengembaraan mencari tempat makan pada hari ini. Kami pulang dengan perut yang kenyang, hati yang sedikit gembira, kereta yang penuh dan keinginan untuk ke tandas yang sangat tinggi (especially kaklong). nyahaha.

Sekian.

13 Bekonscot Model Village and Railway

Nah amik. Since you lost yours, me, as your nice sister uploaded most of the pictures I have from Bekonscot. These were taken using my phone, which I didn’t notice have ever existed in my netbook up till this morning. Kehkeh. I miss Bekonscot.

Some of them are in my Facebook. I stopped halfway cos it took me up to 10 minutes to upload just 5 pictures. Tumblr is faster.