NARCISSISM IS NECESSARY

Had steamboat dinner with my Mom today. We ate chive dumplings, which reminded mom of something from her childhood.

According to Mom, when she was a small girl, she used to keep a coin in her mouth. It drove my granny crazy!

I asked Mom why she did such a gross thing and she said back in those days she didn’t have a purse cause she was too little so she used to put whatever coin she got from my grandparents behind her ear.

However, the coin kept falling off the back of her ear, so she came up with the brilliant idea of keeping it in her mouth instead.

One day, while she was playing with a neighbour, she accidentally swallowed the coin. She started panicking and cried hysterically.

My late grandfather told my Mom that there were only two ways to get the coin out; she had to go to a doctor who would cut her belly open and pluck it out…or she would have to eat chicken poop which would induce vomitting.

“Which method do you want?”, asked my grandfather.

She thought for a while, and with tears in her eyes, “I’d eat chicken poop”.

My uncle (mom’s elder brother) who was observing the entire episode, helpfully suggested to Mom that they hunt for the perfect chicken poop together. Back in those days, my granny reared a few chickens so there were plenty of avian poop to choose from.

There were watery ones, and there were solid ones. After studying every single chicken poop they came across in my grandparents’ backyard, my uncle asked mom whether she had decided on which one to ingest.

“I want the watery one”, she said.

“Why?”, asked my uncle.

“Cause it will dissolve in water better”, Mom replied.

At this point, my grandmother told my uncle to cut it out and stop bullying my Mom.

Only then Mom realised that she had been taken for a ride.

She stopped speaking to my uncle for 2 weeks and proceeded to stuff his precious encyclopaedias in several Milo tins and buried them under the chicken pen, while he was at school.

As for the coin in Mom’s belly, apparently my granny soaked a stalk of chive in water till it’s soft and made my mom swallow it whole. The belief was that the chive would wrap itself around the coin, of which my Mom would then safely pass it out.

True enough, she safely pooped out a chive wrapped coin a day later.

Just want to share with you guys this place I went for lunch recently. It’s called Ah Lye Curry Fish Head and it’s located in SS19, Subang.

# – Ah Lye Curry Fish Head.

I love fish head curries but only the ones sold in chinese joints. I don’t mind the ones by indians…but I always find them slightly too spicy for me and I don’t mean spicy as in heat. Sorry, am racist when it comes to fish head curries.

Maybe I haven’t found a good indian curry fish head yet. Feel free to enlighten me!

Anyway, back to Ah Lye’s. My lunchmates were really excited about the place while I was more worried about how I was going to chew.

Background story, I just had orthodontic rubber spacers put around my teeth for my pre-braces work…so they’re tender as hell and I can’t really chew cause the rubbers broke the 1st time I attempted chewing.

# – Gross picture of my teeth. Spot the blue orthodontic spacers? These stuff are suppose to create gaps between my teeth.

Right now, I can only chew with my two front teeth (TEDIOUS) and it’s getting harder each day because I swear I can feel like my teeth have protruded even more than they were before the spacers. Bla bla bla who cares?

(I realise I should blog about my teeth in another post and not a food review post lol sorry)

Ah Lye’s Curry Fish Head is located in a row of shops smacked right in the middle of SS19 residences. When we’re there, parking was ample but I think we’re just lucky.

A friend who’s a regular did the ordering.

# – Fish head curry of course. It comes in Medium or Large portion.

Dayummmm it was good! The fish was just nice, fresh and flaky. The curry gravy was flavoursome…so delicious!

In fact, my friend who did the ordering told us that the last time she brought her brother there, when all the fish and vegetables had been devoured save the gravy, her brother ordered another bowl of rice, dumped it into the claypot, mixed it all up with the gravy and ate it all!

I can totally understand and if I had known earlier that someone had already pulled off such an anti-social stunt I would have gladly done the same. Hehehe.

# – Nam Yu pork.

The Nam Yu pork was pretty good but not outstanding. I think mostly cause I had issues chewing them too :( Nevertheless they went down well with everyone.

# – Deep fried stuffed bean curd sheets.

Pretty damn good. Sure, it was a bit greasy, but oh so delicious! It was filled with bits of carrots and onions, very appetising, very moreish.

# – Asam prawns.

I thought these were marmite prawns with a tangy twist at first, but they weren’t. They’re actually tamarind prawns and they were OMFG GREAT! The sticky sauce was addictive, the prawns were huge AND fresh. Sucking off the prawn heads….blissful! I could have eaten about a dozen of this if it weren’t for my stupid teeth. I mean the fish head curry was great but I would go back to Ah Lye just for the prawns, no question.

Ah Lye Curry Fish Head is an air-conditioned joint, which makes it an awesome lunch place as you can take shelter from the sweltering heat. Temperature’s been really crazy lately by the way. The service was pretty fast and no-nonsense.

Becareful when you order “small” rice though because they’re not kidding about the size – the portion literally is about 3 tablespoons of rice.

I will be back!

# – Ah Lye Curry Fish Head.

Ah Lye Curry Fish Head
No.28, SS19/1G
47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor
Tel: 603-56380468 / 603-56349692
Business Hour: 12pm-3pm (Lunch) & 5pm-10pm (Dinner)
GPS Coordinates: 3.0758887 101.5754559 (N03° 4.5533′, E101° 34.5274′)

What is the one thing that you carry with you all the time?

House keys, mobile phone, lip balm…what else?

# – My work bag.

# – My weekend bag.

# – My party bag.

As you can see, I always have Kleenex® Natural 3-ply facial tissues with me. In fact, my husband has one in every pocket on his cargo trousers too. That’s how much we love the Kleenex® Natural 3-ply facial tissues.

# – Kleenex® Natural 3-ply facial tissues in hanky packs. It is also available in Soft Packs and Boxes.

# – Kleenex® Natural 3-ply facial tissues in Boxes.

# – Kleenex® Natural 3-ply facial tissues in soft packs.

# – Hubs lovesssssssssss the Kleenex® Natural 3-ply facial tissues.

It might be weird, but I get slightly giddy opening a fresh packet of Kleenex® Natural 3-ply facial tissues.

# – Like opening presents!

Perspiration, stray food, dirt…you name it, we’ve used Kleenex on it and it works like a charm…every single time.

With cucumber extract, it leaves our skin feeling extra soft and soothed. Ordinary facial tissues can’t hold a candle to Kleenex® Natural 3-ply facial tissues.

# – Gentle and soft…like me.

In conjunction with the launch of the new 3-ply facial tissues, Kleenex has launched “Share The Softness with Kleenex®”, an 8 week campaign running from March to April.

The essence of the campaign is about sharing simple words and gestures to lift the spirits of friends and loved ones, reminding us that everyone deserves some tender loving care amidst busy and hectic lifestyles.

So, how can you participate in the campaign? It is very easy! Just become fans of the Kleenex® Facebook page, then post and share a series of notes of encouragement or inspirations from the page with your family and friends. Just that, and you stand to win a relaxing spa experience, loads of Kleenex® Natural facial tissues and the best of all…a Kleenex Party for 50 friends!

With prizes worth up to RM24,000 up for grabs, log on to facebook.com/Kleenex.Malaysia now!

Kleenex® Natural facial tissues are available in boxes for use at home, office or in the car.

The hanky packs, our favourite is wonderful for on-the go usage. There’s also bigger-size soft packs for heavier usage when you’re out and about. You can find Kleenex® Natural 3-ply facial tissues at all major supermarkets, hypermarkets and pharmacies nationwide, ranging from RM4.90 to RM14.95 in Peninsular Malaysia and RM5.30 to RM15.95 in East Malaysia.

When it comes to relationships with other people, don’t focus on what their motives or intentions are. Don’t focus on their speeches.

Focus on their actions instead. Actions are tangible while thoughts and speeches are not.

Because you will never, ever truly know what people’s minds are thinking….you will just end up hurting yourself & others by speculating & guessing. Why? Because uncertainty breeds contempt and resentment. That is not fair to anyone.

If you disliked someone’s action, tell that somebody immediately so that he or she can decide what to do. Only then you handle it from there.

Don’t keep the dislike or discomfort inside you because it will fill your head with doubt and ultimately consume you and everything else that is good.

Lastly, learn to let go. Because the past should never overpower your future.

Had an enlightening conversation with my husband. He basically taught me the wisdom above.

I have finally come to the realisation that I overanalyse one’s action so much so that it becomes bigger and more severe than it really is.

I am too preoccupied with the “motive” or intention behind an action that I simply forget that shit just happens.  Simply put, I am a fucked-up, straight-up batshit crazy conspiracy theorist. I get too carried away.

Today I will start to change that.

I’ve always told people that I have no desire to have any daughter because of how I was when I was a child. Calling my younger self a nightmare is an understatement.

Ran away from home. Played truant. Intercepted letters from school addressed to my parents for playing truant. Did badly in school. Eating disorders. Depression. Some unmentionables. Locked mom out of her own house and stared cock at her from the inside for hours. I haven’t done it all, but I certainly did enough.

As I grew up, I started to see that it’s not easy being a parent. Not only do you have to mangle your vagina giving birth to a piece of shit, you have to spend most of your money onto a piece of shit that yells at you.

Why do people even become parents? What’s so great about bringing up a human being?

Is it the novelty of being able to see someone who is part you, part your spouse? Is it because you want someone to take care of you when you’re old? Is it because of societal pressure? Is it because your friends are having babies? Is it because you’re bored?

Why are you having children?

I used to wish that I was never born.

Even though I possibly mangled my mom’s private bits (I’m not saying I know for a fact), she still loves me so, so much. Although I was a nightmare to deal with, she has persevered in making me who I am today – less of a nightmare.

Today, I was chatting with mom on whatsapp. She seemed a little sad. Distant.

So I went to into positive overdrive and that means being overly interested and chatty. After almost an hour of intermittent & monosyllabic replies from mummy…I was ready to call her up to yell at her, gently.

And suddenly, this appeared on my phone, “Talk tonight I very busy watching Walking Dead”.

I burst out laughing. And then I thanked the universe.