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Milk In My Fish Soup, Please.

Audio: Paramore – Ignorance (Acoustic)

I often write VERY metaphoric titles to my blog posts. Often they involve lines from song lyrics which have touched me, or self-coined titles which sound pseudo-cool and relate to me and no one else.

I guarantee you, this is none of the above.

So a small bunch of us went to have a German dinner with Edwin for his birthday recently, and then when we found out we were still hungry, we went looking for this place which sells fish noodles!

It’s in Bandar Puteri, Puchong. Em. Can’t really recall the name of the street, but well, it’s opposite the Boston Cafe place, near Bumbu Bali etc. (:

Edwin says their specialities comprise of two dishes, fish head noodles and cod belly noodles in soup! He fancies the latter, and hence I ordered one to try them out.

I initially expected the cod fish to be boiled within the soup stock or cooked in some soupy way and poured over vermicelli, but no, to my surprise, the cod belly was fried!

It’s a beautiful contrast, this. The cod is fried til crispy and just before served are dropped into clear soup… or soup mixed with fresh milk, making that white-ish broth-of-a-thing that to some may be utterly disgusting.

But to others, oh so appetizing!

To spice it up there’s dried shallots and spring onions to add to the noodles, which you have the choice of picking thin or thick vermicelli.

Just a warning that the cod belly does have bones. I almost learnt the hard way.

And oh, eat this hot! Don’t spend TOO MUCH time photographing it or tweeting to me you’re having it right now because the cod will soon get, well…

Soggy.

So eat it hot to enjoy it. Recommend a drink of milk-soup, a small bite into a chunk of the meat first to taste the flavoured of the fish, then divulge into the noodles.

It is purely good stuff, I give it a whole seven out of ten experience.

Well, with the scale of one being raw celery and ten being the gastronomical wunderbar that is flat noodles cooked in chicken broth and lathered with home made red pepper oil extract.

In other words chilli pan mee. Heh.

Kidding. Chili pan mee doesn’t come to ten, I think only heaven comes to ten, but good food brings you close. So you judge the scales yourself. (:

Bandar Puteri. It’s a good place to eat hehe especially this place.

Cracking My Head Wondering

Audio: The Fray – Unsaid

I’ve received an opinion “with love.” A reminder, of sorts. I’ve still yet to clarify it fully, but suffice to say there are those who are disappointed.

And who am I kidding? These are those whose opinions matter.

Then it got me to thinking about what they say. I began to decipher what I wanted, what I expected:

Starting Point: what I (humanly) wanted to hear from them are commendations for how last year went and how well I did.

Then it got me to see, who do I really strive to please?

Premise #1: I do what I do to gain not people’s commendation, but for God’s smile from heaven at my worship, my ministry, my life.

But do I prevent myself from listening to their critique?

Premise #2: I do still think their opinions matter.

So? What do I do?

Minor Conclusion: I want to clarify my position.

How? Or do I should just listen to what they have to say?

Premise #3: I have to enter this with an open mind, and respect all they say, as much as it hurts. Only then do I get my turn to express my side.

It’s only fair, and they would not let me not have a say. But most importantly:

Conclusion: I want to hear God have a say.

But I don’t have an answer, not yet. Which leaves me today just, cracking my head.

And seeking.

When I can’t feel you, I have learned to reach out just the same
When I can’t hear you, I know you still hear everyword I pray
And i want you more than i want to live another day
And as I wait for you maybe I’m made more faithful.
-Brooke Fraser-

Amen.

Alexis Tiramisu

I utterly love it, by far the best commercial cake I’ve ever had in Malaysia.

Yum. See it. Yum. (:

Those Flashing Lights Mean Nothing.

Audio: Everly – Stars

When the stars all go home
I won’t fight to be known
I will listen for your voice
That calls me home.

Those flashing lights mean nothing, compared to the sound of Your voice that calls me home.

There are some positions and places where you influence, you contribute and you pour your all in.

These are the same positions where you’re watched, observed, commended, pictured and respected.

These positions are all the more reason to stand for the photographs, but have you ever thought about the one calling you back home?

Home, to rest. Home, to listen. Home, to learn. Home, where humility is.

Until the next stream of stars, I rest. (:

Two Zero Ten.

Audio: John Mayer – Crossroads

The decade is over!!

No resolutions this year, just knowing that this year is going to be larger than life.

This year I’ll get out of my comfort zone of class-to-home routine and get involved with uni and internships by the year’s end.

This year I want to get back into writing, like back in my college days when I wrote for Taylor’s and Campus Plus; with the height of my short career the exclusive interview with Pete Teo for the latter.

I mean, celebrity interviews!! Fun! Articles on lifestyle, fun as well! Political and economic opinion? Oh, the bomb.

This year I want to reignite my writing.

What else?

I wanna be a better leader, boyfriend, son, child of God.

I hope to be a more instrumental part of Ignite, and taking my participation to a higher level.

I wanna learn about the legal industry, and maybe even the journalism industry by the end of this year.

I wanna get a casual part time job.

Wait.

Just to clarify.

These aren’t resolutions, because by God’s grace these will actually come true! Unlike resolutions.

I don’t do resolutions. (:

Welcome, new decade. Here’s to a new year of influence, significance, faith, hope, and love.

Ah, every New Year needs good explosions.

Let’s start 2010 with a bang! Happy New Year, all.

Photoshop Mobile

I just downloaded Photoshop mobile, and it’s pretty cool!

Check this out! (: just one picture, edited with preset vignette blur effect.

I must be pretty bored. Hehe blame wordpress for making an iPhone app!

The Relationship History Lookback.

Audio: A Fine Frenzy – Near To You

I’ve been looking through my old stuff and blog posts today and I took note on what Grace did recently; she very honestly note to me at Beth’s birthday party the other day… well…

Basically what she said was this: Calvin, you’ve been around.

Then in true best-friend-cum-ex-girlfriend manner she listed the names of people since late high school.

So I was a little girl-crazed. And that (and she knows this) did not end even after the months with Grace. Even time in ministry didn’t “cure” this.

It took me a wrong relationship choice (and series of choices) to actually knock myself in the head and realise what I’ve been doing wrong.

It took God to knock me in the head, really.

Then He slowly allowed me to re-examine my previous experiences and how they’ve put me, 21 years young, in a much better place than, well, 18-year old Calvin.

I realised that out of out of the many, only very few have been able to teach me a few lessons of my own.

(Grace? yes, she still teaches me lessons, trust me)

From these very few, one was the one I made the wrong choices with and was unequally yoked.

That lesson was from God to me, straight on.

But I’d like to touch on two people today whose lives they led influenced me and wowed me, even to today.

Person One.

This girl in college I strongly pursued, albeit knowing she liked another (who has feelings for her in return, and was waiting for her). They weren’t officially together at the time so at eighteen I figured what the heck.

She was one of the first people to convince me to stop the cigarettes.

She was a strong, Godly woman.

I was intrigued by this person, and mostly, in hindsight, by her faith and faithfulness: especially in knowing how not to be unequally yoked.

I wasn’t a church-going person. At that time, I believed but I didn’t bother. I was out to live life to the full in another direction and she knew that.

She told me that God will help me get out of bad-for-health habits.
She told me she prays for me. (That I totally fell heads over heels for)

So we went out a few times. Lunches at college, and as more as she shared her life with me I began to realise that living life to the full wasn’t much what I did after all.

Now to the bad part. I knew she had this other guy, but I played my cards and we got emotionally entangled anyway.

I also knew she never had a slow-dance before.

We planned senior prom together.

There was the win, thought I, back then.

So I went up to her and asked her for a dance. Her FIRST dance. And then I whisked her away after the soft songs died down and we sat somewhere quiet. She was tired and leaned on me, and we talked. And I asked about who she was involved with.

She admitted she was confused.

But I didn’t ask her to be with me. I didn’t insist. I didn’t go Meredith Grey and say pick me, pick me!

Instead, I asked her things like: Who do you love? Who suits you best? That’s who you go for.

And two weeks later she got together with the guy who waited for her.

I gutted myself for not insisting.

But then doing that, I may not have been led to Person Two.

This one was a very public, but at the same time, very private and personal year-plus long tango which everyone has either heard a snippet, guessed who it was, or seen us together, that’s the public part.

The personal part was that I wasn’t ready, and neither was she.

This one involved a lot of drama, and totally put me off dramatic relationships for, well, life.

She taught me how to fall in love. There. I said it. Those three words though never got to her (until now when I tell it to the world).

But indirectly, she did teach me a few other things:

Early on as I first left for Australia, the distance and the presence of ‘competition’ from a good friend convinced me, at one point, to give her up. I heard he told her and she reacted positively. So that was end-game for me.

She taught me to let go, and let God.

And He has a wicked sense of humour.

I let her go, and not very long later she spilled about what really happened between her and our good friend. And no, she did not feel the same way.

And so I deduced, if she doesn’t like him, she likes…

And after awhile I told her how I felt.

And she said the same.

Then the long distance in-between began. It climaxed when I literally ran home from Melbourne at the start of the summer break just to see her.

I had to admit that first days back was the high of my life. And then it all went back to Earth.

This was because there was deep emotional entanglement coexisting with limited boundaries and not-settled-yet decisions.

We were the ultimate in betweens.

End story, she had to decide for us and said no, just before the end of my break.

That, kinda… well… Sucked. At the time. But I thank God for that decision.

Hard pill to swallow, it was, but it was harder for the one who said it, rather than the one who heard it. Speaks loads about her strength, maturity and faithfulness to go through with the hard decisions…

…Characters that I adore and try to emulate even today.

Looking back, one thought which came to my head was maybe I wasn’t man enough to insist or ask, or persist at the beginning, much like the situation with Person One…

But I thank God for making me chicken the first two times because in a nutshell… Person One and Two made me a better person for Person Three.

His plan was flawless, and the rest they say, is history. Right, Mel? (:

Iphone Blogging

So on a slow day I figured out I can blog using my iPhone on the wordpress app!

I’m back in the blogging world. Home is good, slow Internet sucks, but food and people are awesome!

Have You Ever Thought

Audio: Missy Higgins – The River

It’s my semester break, and I actually have a day for myself, which is great. Here’s what I did:

1. I woke up close to noon
2. I spent time with Him.
3. I told Mel I missed her
4. I had leftover pasta for lunch
5. I watched Grey’s Anatomy.
6. I remembered about my blog.

I might shut my blogger down. It seems to me I’ve been updating too little for my own good. Besides, I know it’s a bad excuse but I don’t really have the time.

I won’t delete the blog, there’s just too much good stuff here. I might not even go through with this idea at all.

But what put me into perspective is this. All day I spent at home relaxing until four-odd in the evening, all night I had a good sleep in my comfortable bed and I was alone in my own space, comfortable.

Little did I know my housemate was in the next room, knocked out all day because he’s been hard at work for his ENTIRE Spring Break at the Royal Melbourne Show.

He slept at ten last night, and he’s not awake yet. Fast asleep with this look on his face. One that shows content, that he’s happy God’s taken him through this week and this tough season he’s facing.

What was he doing working? Running a snack van part time. Why? Because he’s working to pay his fees.

And the most I could think about on this cloudy Monday morning is whether or not I have the time to fit blogging into my life.

Puts you in a little bit of perspective isn’t it?

Let’s see how this goes from here. However solemn this may sound I actually feel energised to focus on the work I need to be doing from here on end, that I actually am not anywhere near my 100%.

Talk about 100%. My housemate, fast asleep gave his 200%, so why can’t I?

I love blogging. Well. I loved it. Until I found that the other things I love doing take up all my time. Sad, but true.

But I’ll fit it in, somewhere, somehow. My blog’s a treasure I still want to keep.