SZ home. I told MAN I blog a lot lesser nowadays. I am too lazy because I know he is not reading. So I ask him to scold me and make me cry so I have something to blog about. MAN is peeping now.

It’s been 2 weeks since the last post. I still remember I have a blog. I wasn’t down with H1N1. A lot of things happened, and lot of thoughts.

I broke a hairdryer, my hairs twirled into the reverse side of hairdryer that I have cut my hair off with a scissors. And I bought a new hairdryer with constant heat and ion treatment. Now I know a good hairdryer is important. I have a saloon size hairdryer back at home, it dries my hair really fast but always ended up with over dried hair and wake up with frizzy hair the next morning. Now with the new hairdryer, I don’t have to deal with tangled hair anymore.

Was in some thought of the question of living quality comparing my life in Penang and SZ. It has significantly dropped. I have almost strike out the word “bus” in my transportation options back in Penang, but I take public bus everyday here, it’s so crowded at peak hour and I can’t even move a step. I have to admit that the buses in Penang have improved a lot since those days when I was still taking bus. This made me think whether I should purchase a car. Owning a car don’t cost me too much if I am not too particular on the brand or the power of the car and solely take it as a convenience of transportation. But there is a lot more to consider.

Working with the natives here is challenging. Being straightforward and ethical might bring myself into trouble. I have to be alert all the time to not to trust people around me and this is tiring. A lot of strategic planning and brainstorming slowly changing myself from plain-speaking to evasive. This is so not like me.

Some good news to myself. After working for half a year, I was informed that I have 10 whole days of annual leave today, and have to spend it before this calendar year end. Wahaha. Must plan for a good holiday.

SZ home. I feel like making pancake now, but MAN is having sore-throat. How?

Foreigners who work in SZ are treated a bit differently, both good and bad.

People here are more friendly to westerners. For me, a Malaysian Chinese who looked not much different from the local Chinese have not receive any special treatment, therefore I live like native Chinese. I got to experience how the people here talk very loudly in public transport, I got pushed away from the bus door when everyone is squeezing to get on to the bus, I got to hold my breath when people walking in front of me spit on the walkway and a lot more that I would not go through if I’m not here in SZ.

My experience of getting my work permit is definitely the most bumpy compared to other foreigners that I know of. I got hired when the immigration restriction for Olympics was still in place, I have to go through the complicated application cycle, I even went back to Penang and work from home for a short period of time until I finally got the invitation letter that issued by the government and I flew back here to continue the work permit application. The whole cycle took about 2 and half months.

And now, my colleague who needs to renew his work permit are free from these complicated process due to the economy downturn and the government wish to bring in more opportunity, therefore they simplify the process. I was the unlucky one.

The Immigration Officer visited me in the office recently. They said visit but it’s actually spot checking whether I’m actually an employee of the company or just faking myself as employee to get a residential permit. I shown them my work permit that I brought with me wherever I travel to within the city, and they request for my passport which I didn’t bring along.

Officer: Can you show me your passport?

me: Sorry sir, I don’t have it with me, I left it at home.

Officer: Why didn’t you bring it? You should bring it wherever you go.

me: Oh, I did bring my work permit but not the passport, I’m afraid that I lost it. ( I was meant to say got pick-pocketed, but I managed to “brake”.)

Officer: Did you bring money with you?

me: Err…Yes.. (I wasn’t sure why the question.)

Officer: Don’t you afraid you lost it, why are you still bringing it along.

me: … (wtf, money can earn again and I’m not losing it all at one go, but losing my passport gonna bring me into trouble, you know?)

SZ Home. MAN bought a new Macbook with aluminum case last 3 weeks. Apple announced the Macbook Pro family included the aluminum case Macbook as 13inch Macbook Pro with a slightly better spec but at a lower price. MAN is crying with no tear hugging his Macbook “Pro”.

I couldn’t remember the whole dramatic dream, but the only shot that keep on replaying in my mind for whole day made me creepy.

In my dream, I felt an itchiness in my hair and I started to scratch my head, a little piece of almond-flake-like thingy drop from my head. When I look closely, it was actually a watermelon seed. I check my hair again a found out a little spot of my head is full of watermelon seeds and I started to pick it one by one and found another spot of watermelon seeds. I started to freak out and picking all the watermelon seeds. When I was almost done, there comes another few pieces of watermelon seeds at the back of my head. It made me prickle with horror.

My hair started to drop while I picking the seeds, one by one and my hair is dropping, one strand follow by another strand, another one and …

Ouch… I feel a pain on my butt.

It was MAN who turn his body over and hit my butt with his knee.

Oh, thanks MAN for the hit that saved me from the nightmare, I check my hair, they are still here, phew. And no watermelon seeds. I felt a big release with pain on my butt and continue to sleep.

SZ Home. It’s Friday tomorrow, I love Friday. I am planning to upgrade my wordpress to the latest version, I am still at 2.1.3, old but great.

My fourth time to Penang Hill, playing the host and bring my friend to experience the tram ride.

I wasn’t a good tour guide though, during the train ride, I only managed to show her durian trees, monkeys and some fern trees, other than that are categorized as plants and animals.

I should have brought MAN, my licensed tour guide together.

Looking at the Roti Tisu, I’m salivating.

I remember Roti Tisu wasn’t in cone shape last time, the mamak stall is getting more and more creative to make their food more presentable.

But Roti Telur Bawang still the one I like best.

This temple is situated not far from my house.

This was where my granny’s house located.

The temple which was right next to my granny’s house got renovated after my granny moved out and it got extended to a huge and monumental temple with fine carve.



Raw Salmon, fish roe, tamagoyaki, cucumber and sushi rice.

I bought this from bento express in Mongkok for HKD26, I thought this is really worth, with the amount of Salmon on top of the rice and the fish roe.

This is what me and MAN would carry all the way from HK back to SZ and eat it as dinner. How I wish I can buy more and keep it in my fridge.

The delicious fried kuey teow with huge prawn. I’m grrrr…hungry.

We are back at SZ. This week started on Sunday, the first working day of the week. It’s a long week.

This trip back to Penang, I was a little tour guide of my colleague from SZ. I brought her to Kek Lok Si and Penang Hill, before heading to Batu Feringgi, she decided to spend the rest of the days to sample all the food. That was kinda easy for me, good food is everywhere in Penang.

Being a tour guide, I had a chance to learn to love Penang Food from a whole new stance, especially the drinks. The hot weather in Penang made iced cold drinks very common, we take iced water almost everyday and we took it for granted. Now I know how unique these drinks are to a tourist.

I had a little time to spend with my family this time round. And I know I must have missed out a lot of things that we supposed to experience together, though I call home everyweek, but that is certainly not sufficient. I chose to work here in SZ, and this is something I have to let go. I’m hoping that they are here with me, but that would not happen, I know.

Now I am looking forward for my next arrival at Penang in October, I’m not bringing anyone with me so I can spend more time with my family. I miss them all.