With the blink of an eye

I know it's a cliche to say that time passes by so quickly, just like the blink of an eye. Well I would say that only GOOD time passes by quickly, not the bad ones. It's Monday already and the 5 days of holiday back home has come to an end. *sigh*

I don't know how I feel right now, except that I dreaded today to come. Monday in the office! I miss my family and I miss Saucer. It will be a long time (maybe until Chinese new year) before I can actually have the same long stretch of holidays spent at home just lazing and doing nothing. I am a firm believer of the saying "home sweet home" now. For there is no where in the world that I would feel more comfortable than at home. Having family members and loved ones surrounding you is a feeling that is priceless. And during this holiday, I didn't even have to worry about exams or assignments anymore! Maybe a little bit on work, but I suppose we never really can escape from that unless we're not working anymore.

I reached home on Tuesday around 7.30pm. Traffic was kind to me that day because there was no jam at all from Penang, not even at the bridge, even though I only left at 5pm. Usually, by 5pm, the road to the bridge would have been jammed all the way to the coastal high way. The whole journey was very smooth too, and I counted my blessings when I reached home safely. That night, we had home cooked dinner by my grandmother. To date, my grandmother is the best cook on earth! She knows how to cook absolutely ANYTHING! Even tortoise or fox or wild boar, and she made them taste fantastic! OK, it's not that I ate any of those during the holidays, no need for the faces. :) I grew up eating her cooking and so did the rest of the family. I remember when I was still young and schooling, I always wanted to eat outside, simply because eating home cooked food every meal and every day was boring. Sometimes, I even chose to go out with friends to eat even though home cooked dinner was already nicely prepared at home. What a silly girl I was! I suppose I speak for everyone when I say that home cooked food is the best food. Right now, when I am working away from home, I miss home cooked food every day. It's the worst feeling when I'm alone at night, away from the laughter and warmth of home. *sigh*

The next day was a holiday, so my parents and I went to a temple in Ipoh to pray for the Nine Emperor Gods Festival. After that, I accompanied my mom to go shopping while my dad sat nearby and people-watched. *LOL* Going shopping with my mom made me realize that she missed shopping a lot! And I don't blame her, because I was the only one who would patiently shop with her and give her ideas, being the only daughter at home. Going shopping with my dad is hopeless, because he would just look for the nearest bench and wait there. This experience made me realize that I should really go home more often and spend more time with her because she has no one else to go shopping with! Oh during this time, she also bought me a really nice bracelet that I will show you later in another post! :)

At night, we met up with the rest of the family (my brother and grandparents) and Saucer for dinner. My grandma was not feeling to comfortable and had to go back before she even reached the restaurant. Gastric, was what she told us. My mom brought her to the clinic the next morning and she's feeling much better now.

The next day was the second day of Raya, and Saucer and I went to Ipoh to watch Mamma Mia! We had to go all the way there because that's the nearest place with a cinema. Mamma Mia was fantastic, and Saucer agreed. I bet many people agreed too, judging from its fabulous reviews. We went to visit the recently opened Big Apple donuts store after that and bought half a dozen of them to try out. I only had 2 halves of them, sharing with the Saucer. The rest of the donuts were finished by my brother who's a glutton! Seriously, he could stomach anything that is edible, and that's amazing.

Big Apple Donuts

For dinner, everyone of us went to Tanjung Tualang for seafood. I'm not sure if this is a well-known place but it's famous for the freshwater prawns and fish. Tualang prawns are deemed to be fresh, huge and succulent. Judge for yourself:

Steamed Tualang prawns

'Kam heong' Tualang prawns

Also their freshwater fish:
I had to take an up close picture of the fish fillets because they were absolutely fresh and bouncy and smooth!

Stir fried freshwater fish

Another of their specialty, the fried beancurd:

Fried beancurd

If you have time, you really should go and try the freshwater seafood in Tg Tualang. :) The restaurant I tried was called Sun Swee Kiong. Tualang is a very small town, so you could easily get to this restaurant even by directions from the locals.

The next day was 3rd of October, also known as my Birthday! I woke up to many many sms from friends wishing me birthday. It was really sweet of everyone of you! Some even sent me international messages and a good friend called me all the way from the UK! I felt blessed just knowing that there are so many people who remember and care for me. :) Thank you! We went to have breakfast at the local market and after that, I asked Saucer to accompany me to the latest addition in Kampar town... Tesco!

I was amazed that Tesco chose to set up a store in Kampar! I mean, why Kampar? It's such a SMALL little town with population of less than 20,000. I'm not sure if the number has increased now due to the establishment of UTAR, but still... Kampar? Anyway, good for us though! No need for long journeys to Ipoh if we ever want to go to Tesco. It will just be a 5 minutes drive away! :) The new Tesco was obviously much smaller than the ones in KL or in Penang, but it has most of the basic items and sections required. The best part was, Sushi King was born! I never imagined a small town like Kampar would have anything more luxurious than KFC. Back then, during my secondary school years, the most 'high-class' place with aircon was really KFC. So, you see, Kampar has improved by leaps and bounds! Well done!

Sushi King in Tesco, Kampar

After getting some fruits and groceries for my grandma, we went back home and I made Konyaku jelly. The outcome wasn't really that great because I put in too much water. :( The instructions asked for 1litre and I added in more than that, maybe 1.2l, because I thought the water would evaporate while boiling. Turned out that once the water boiled, you should turn off the heat and start stirring the mixture. Therefore, there wasn't much evaporation occurring and the final outcome was a little soft. *sigh* Anyway, my little brother never failed to finish them up for me. *grins*

At night, we went to the one and only 3-star hotel in Kampar for my birthday dinner. See? I told you Kampar has definitely grown! 3-star hotel! I will dedicate a whole post for this place and the dinner later. :)

The next day, which was a Saturday, was basically spent at home, watching HK series! Bamboo lent me a series called Heart of Greed and I started watching at home with my mom. In the end, the WHOLE family got addicted and we're all watching the series together, one after another, without stopping! I tell you, the show was really good and it's perfect to be shared with family members because the show itself talked about family values. We spent a big chunk of the day just watching the series and eating. Yes yes, couch potatoes. Too bad we didn't have enough time to finish off the whole series of 40 episodes. At the time that I left, we only managed to watch until episode 29. *LOL*

Finally, without realizing it, Sunday came. The saddest day of the week, I'd say. :( I went for a hair cut and hair treatment in the morning and had brunch with my family later. We visited Grand Kampar Hotel again for their hi-tea buffet, starting from 12-3pm. It only costs RM15 nett per person! Variety was not great but quality wasn't bad. I think we would definitely go there again in the future. :) Guess what we did after that? More Heart of Greed! Right up to the time that my ride to Penang came! Serious addiction. Not good at all.

But I miss being at home. And I miss Saucer. *sigh* Time flies!