Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label friends. Show all posts

When Being The Best Is Not Enough

15 years of friendship, been through all the ups and downs together. I was so full of confidence that nothing could tear us apart and the friendship would grow stronger. I overestimated our friendship. Or I shall say, I overestimated myself to have the strength to maintain a friendship with her.

I may not be a good friend, but whenever she needed help, I would have done all I could to be there. When she needed a shoulder to cry on, I was there ready to take in all her craps. When she wanted a companion during her low times, I compromised my other commitments to be with her. I was prepared to be there for her, all she needed to do was just ask and call.

She is a person who would always want to share her feelings and thoughts with me. I appreciate her trust in me. On the other hand, I am not one that would share every little thing with a friend. I share when I feel there is a need. It is so often that she misunderstood I did not treat her as a best friend.

I love to comfort and advise. At times, I realised I have talked too much. Sometimes all she wanted was a listener. I have offended her a few times too when I said the hardest thing to bring her back to the reality. I admitted I was wrong and I apologised. I am fortunate that I was forgiven too. To avoid hurting her again, I chose not to talk or comment so much. After all, she is an adult, she knows exactly what to do. I, as a best friend, should give her the support that she needed.

I talked less, and listened more. I was happier that way. But she didn't feel the same. She said I have changed and I was ignoring her by not talking to her. I was disappointed that she felt that way. Obviously, talking and listening too much weren't all she wanted. I did not know what she wanted from me anymore. However, I was too stubborn to let go. No, I shouldn't let go of something I have put so much effort in. That is just not me, I never give up easily. I picked up the pieces, moved on. Communicated with her all over again and I thought we have finally reached some mutual understanding that could make our friendship last forever.

When she is busy, she expects me to accommodate to her busy schedule. When I am busy, she expects me to accommodate to her out of my busy schedule. I grumbled a bit, but I did all I could. Sometimes I disappointed her, I am sorry. But I know I have done my best.

For her, I never ask for anything in return. It has never crossed my mind to ask her to repay any of my kindness. I believe the friendship was mutual. It was so sweet of her to always insist on sending me home because she feels guilty of asking me out. I've told her don't be, as she is "the only one that I'd never get calculating with".

fter so long, I now feel like a drying well. I have been providing and giving constantly. She never notices how much is left of me to be able to provide and give. Whenever it is drying, I would dig deeper to replenish the well. The deeper I dig, the harder it gets to replenish. I am so deep under the ground, waiting for the rain that would never come.

She broke my heart a few times over the years. I, being the strong and stubborn one, picked up the broken pieces on my own, and mended it. The friendship was so precious to me that I wasn't willing to let go. I was all ready to forgive and move on. I truly believed that bad times could only make the friendship grows stronger than ever.

My heart, that has been broken and mended countless of times, is out of shape. I can't recognise my heart anymore and I doubt I would be able to mend it one more time.

In my life thus far, I have cried twice because of friends. When I was 11, and now at my 30. I thought I would be mature and strong enough to handle it, I was so wrong. I am not as strong as I thought I was.

I do not feel angry, because the feeling of sadness is too overwhelming.

I do not blame her, I blame myself for not doing enough of what she wanted me to.

My 15 years of friendship, has just been denied by the best friend I have ever had. I finally decide to let go after badly wounded. I can now take all the time in the world to heal my wounds and heart.

From now on, I shall not be blamed for not being an understanding friend. Because, I do not care now. Till the time my heart is ready to believe again.

I am sorry, my BFF. I know friends shouldn't turn their back on each other, I am not. But I need a break.
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Courtyard Garden Restaurant, Damansara Heights

Last week Andrew has already told me that his friend was planning a birthday surprise for her boyfriend, Shaq. Shaq, is actually Andrew's school mate. We got to know Jennifer, Shaq's girlfriend since last year. Why is his name Shaq? Hahaha. It's his nickname since school because he played good basketball, is tall and big, like the NBA basketball player Shaquille O'Neal. :)

The birthday dinner supposed to be on Friday, but Shaq's family was here in town, gotta postpone the dinner to Saturday. Here we were, at Courtyard Garden Restaurant in Damansara Heights.

My jaw dropped open so big when I saw the prices in the menu. We already expected it to be expensive, since Andrew has promised Jennifer to go, we had to keep to that promise. For a Wanton noodles it costs RM20! A clay-pot assam noodles needs RM28. I told Andrew to better order something which is more worthy than a plate of noodles! LOL! They offer fusion menu, Asian delights and western. All of us went for western! Hahaha.

I ordered an asparagus soup, RM9, and Black Olive Crustecean with scallops and tiger prawns, RM35. Andrew got himself Butter Fish (cajun fish), RM45. Most of us ordered pasta! The pasta is nice I must say, but I couldn't finish mine as it was too oily (although it's olive oil) and it was a lot. Andrew's butter fish wasn't exactly what I like, there was this fishy smell and it was too dry. Overall, we enjoyed the dinner. For us who ordered pastas, we were happy. :) Worth the price or not? Hmm...... You could actually get the similar thing from TGIF. You go figure. :)

If you would like to go for a try, do not get stunned by the prices, I warn you first. :) Will I go again? Hmm...... I don't think so. :P Unless you're the one who pick up the tab. Hehehe.

While having my pasta, I had a flashback of our times in Taipei, having our lovely lunch in Mr. J's restaurant. I'd still prefer the pasta in Mr. J's restaurant. Gosh....... I miss Taipei so much.

Please pardon my photos quality, taken by my miserable 2MP iPhone 3G. It is still better than none.

Geez... O.P. Ribs, RM220 per kg!!! What is that??!!!

My asparagus soup, not bad. Not thick enough though, pretty watery.

The Black Olive Crustacean! It is nice, they're not stingy in the ingredients. Pretty healthy with all the greens, olive oil and tomatoes.

Andrew's Butter (cajun) Fish. Love the greens, but the fish is a bit too dry.

The birthday boy! And we had Baskin Robbins ice-cream cake for desserts. :D

Shaq got a box of Marlboro as birthday gift, and he gave us one to keep. :) No, Andrew and I don't smoke. This is purely for collection.

Shopping Spree Continues

Had a date with my fellow 'sistas', Jenny, Yee and Wan Yi. Wan Yi told me last night that she could join us. Jenny is at her 3rd trimester, so good that I could finally feel and touch her big tummy. :D

We had our lunches in Din Tai Fung in The Gardens Mall. The Xiao Long Bao (steamed dumpling) is so nice! Juicy and tender. I had a bowl of beef noodles too, thumbs up! Reminded me of all the beef noodles I had in Taiwan. Oh, I miss Taiwan so much.

After a satisfying lunch, gotta do some exercise instead of sit and chat and let the fats accumulated around our waists. LOL! Got myself a Le Sportsac handbag, my first Le Sportsac! Hahaha. Wan Yi got one too. Around 3pm, we all went separate ways. Me, while waiting for Andrew who was on his way, went to Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Miss Selfridge to hunt for my "perfect" top. I managed to grab a few of them! Oh my gosh, it's been a while since I last splurged on clothes! Not even when I was in Taiwan! Geez...... Enough of spending, Ashley. Please don't go back to your old shopaholic self.

From Miss Selfridge, RM167 after discount.

From Dorothy Perkins, RM80.10 each, after discount. They don't look nice and attractive right? Well, look perfectly beautiful when you put them on! I was surprised they suit me well. :)

Le Sportsac handbag, RM95 after 50% discount."

Few hundreds gone. :(

On The Other Side

I love to take photos, I love photography, that is a known fact. But do you know that I love to be photographed too? I finally get to be on the other side of the camera, "full-time". :D

Owner of the sweet Canon 450D for 1 and a half years, Andrew has never offered to photograph me except when we were traveling. I would have to tell him "take here, I want this... I want to see this...... right right, left left......" LOL! Bossy? Hahaha. Perhaps. I have lots of photos, but never a proper portraits kind.

I did not expect it to be a total photo-shooting session with Wan Yi and Melissa! We started off with a 3 hours of karaoke in Redbox The Gardens, singing our hearts and lungs out. Although I was late, I had a wonderful time still. The Backstreet Boys' Everybody is still echoing in my little head. Haha.

After the karaoke, the unbelievable photo-shooting session began! And I, have become their model, officially. Or I shall say "guinea pig"? LOL! They wanted a BIG "moving" subject to practice, and I was happy to be that subject. Hahaha. Who to blame?! I never had a GOOD photo-shooting session of my own.

Here, let's see what we have now. I am so, so, so happy with all the photos. I am happy as a clam! :D

(These are from Wan Yi. For photos from Melissa, click HERE.)







A great day has come to an end, in a great way. :)

Went dinner with Wan Yi and Kong, fish head noodles, in Kuchai Lama. Pretty good. Had my first sip of the soup, thought the one in Desa Petaling that Phoebe brought me to was nicer. Towards the end, found that this one was better. The milk isn't too much and that makes the soup whole lot better. I almost finished the soup!

Old Regs. New Way.

When the sitcom Friends was still a hit on the TV....... When I just stepped into the ever-so-strange college...... When I first explored the everything-is-possible world of internet...... When the Yahoo! Chat was such an IN thing to do...... When Yahoo! Messenger was nothing but the hippest to have...... When others were crazy about ICQ, Hotmail and mIRC, I was hooked on Yahoo! Chat.


Yahoo! used to have plenty of chat-rooms that ran on Java. I was addicted to it, especially with this particular group of people in Friends chat-room! They are all from different countries, different ethnic groups, backgrounds and ages. But we all had one common interest - Friends - the hottest TV sitcom back then.


How long was I hooked on it? I would say during my 4 years of college, I spent pretty much of my free time chatting with them. Everyone knew everyone back then. We never ran out of things to talk. Anything under the sun could be our topic of the day. The time difference was never an issue to us. The group grew and grew, to a point that we became the old regulars of that particular chat-room.


We never met each other in real life. Some of them yes, but not me. I remember there was a girl from Penang, but seeing that I was restricted by the "resources" I had back then, 2 of us didn't have the chance to meet too. What's more where most of them are overseas.


Thanks to those virtual friends, I had the chance to polish my English. I learned their slangs, the way they wrote and typed. Now, I guess I have forgotten most of them. LOL!


When I finished college, the chat-room was kind of dying. It was empty most of the time, the old regs weren't there anymore. Everyone had just moved on with their life. A new group of people took over. We hardly get in touch after that, only a handful of them that I still spoke to. And the next moment before I knew it, Yahoo! Chat is gone.


Now, now...... Some old reg has made some effort, created a group in Facebook, inviting all the old regs!!! Good grief, most of them are back! I was so excited to see all of them! All those familiar humorous user ID...... Geez...... They bring back so much memories. We are now all on Facebook! Time really flies. Some I haven't even talked to for more than a decade! Gosh......


I guess you must be wondering why on earth I go all gaga over a bunch of virtual people who I have never met. Hmm...... I have no idea. Perhaps, they are proof that I was once silly and young and I did have a great time at some point of my life. Most importantly, they are part of my SWEET memories that I would definitely like to keep.


It's a blessing to be able to keep in touch with them once again. You can never say you have too many friends. Be it virtual or real. :)


I love you, Perkapalooza! (Okay, don't ask me what that means, I don't know either! LOL! Someone came up with it few years back and now it became the name of the group in Facebook. :P )



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Penang For Christmas 2009

It was during our trip to Seremban and they suggested to go Penang. No one dared to commit until 3 days before the trip, the other girl said she has booked a home stay unit near Gurney drive. Supposed to be 5 of us, but one of the guys stood us up! Hmm...... So, 4 of us still went ahead as Andrew said didn't want to spoil the holiday because of one person.


This is again, another eating trip. We ate all the way during our trip. I wonder how many kilos I've put on after the trip!


Since this is the first time for the other 2 friends, we stopped at Bidor to have the famous duck noodles. It was almost 3pm when we reached KL. We went to Batu Ferringhi and Hard Rock Hotel. It's newly opened. I was so excited when I saw the Michael Jackson statue at the entrance! Hahahaha! The hotel gives a very comfortable look and feel. The swimming pool nearby the beach is huge! It stretches alongside with the hotel. The rooms on the ground floor all having private exit to the pool. We didn't want to get stuck in the traffic, we parked our car in the condominium that were staying and walked to Gurney Drive to have our dinner. It was only 15 minutes walk. The food in Gurney Drive was bad, still edible but bad. Last year Andrew and I got fooled once, this year with another 2 friends, we got fooled again. Hahahaha.


On the second day, went to Kek Lok Si again. The Guan Yin statue is finally done. Pretty spectacular. We were eating the whole afternoon. Then we headed to Khoo Kongsi. This place never fails to fascinate me. Every time stepped inside it just like stepped into a warp hole, taking me back into the old days. How they used to live their life, their history, their family tree, their clan, their ways......


Went up to the Penang Hill on the third day, wasn't a good experience. The tram was moving like a snail, took 45 minutes to go up and another 45 minutes to come down, not forgetting the waiting time. The tram to go up was so crowded with people! It was hot and noisy. I was grumbling all the way up! LOL! Luckily it was lesser crowd when we came down, had some space to breathe. Penang Hill has nothing much. The view is okay, you can see the Penang bridge from above. But that's it. If you wanted to go, perhaps you should try to go in the evening. I'd bet the night view would be much nicer. There are a lot of spiders on Penang Hill! They're everywhere!


My second trip to Penang was great. We even went to Tambun for some seafood dinner. Get to know a new friend through my friend, what a friendly couple.


Last year, Penang was my last trip of the year. This year, again Penang is my last trip of the year! What a coincidence!










Makan-makan Seremban

After watching Avatar in the morning, we went to Seremban with Andrew's friends. His friend insisted us to tag along and they didn't even mind to wait for us to finish the movie. How sweet.


This trip was purely an eating trip. Hahaha. They even got the map and addresses for all the places that they wanted to go to taste the food. :)


First stop, beef noodles. Somewhere near the Seremban hospital, now I couldn't remember its name. Anyway, this is the shop. There's this beef noodles in Seremban wet market, but I heard from Melissa that the one in the market taste better. Andrew and I are not a beef person, but since we were there with the group, we had to adapt. No point yelling "eww I don't eat that" and making everybody feels awkward. No harm eating it. :) The beef noodles taste unique, it's dried with the gravy. The beef is a bit too hard though. Overall, it's special and good. I love the beef balls though!



After the beef noodles, they wanted to go for the Hakka Mee. I've been there before with Melissa and the rest. Hmm... This time my friends don't really like the Hakka Mee. They were saying the noodles are too oily.



I missed the Cendol, so I went ahead to have one! :D But this time was an Indian lady, didn't see the Indian uncle. And this lady wasn't friendly. :( My friends too had one, but they didn't really like it. LOL! It was a hot day, I just wanted something cold.



We headed to Port Dickson to see the sea and feel the breeze. Aww...... It was nice to set foot on PD again. The sea of course isn't as nice as those in the East Coast, but it's good to get away from the city and feel the sea breeze.



For dinner, we headed back to Seremban. It wasn't my first time to this restaurant Sun Yat Sing also, been there few times. Hahaha. Love the Marmite crab there. Again, my friends didn't find the dinner great as they were expecting something else. Only Andrew and I were enjoying the dinner! LOL! 2 of us were eating away like nobody's business. Hahaha.


It was one great eating day!

Halloween 2009

I noticed that I have totally forgotten to post this up as I promised earlier! Terrible me.


Nicole invited us to her house again, for another session of eating and Wii-ing. :) So, it was Halloween. We didn't have any party to go to, Nicole's house would be the perfect place then. Hahaha. Thanks to Nicole for cooking us such a nice and hearty meal again. :>


Photos speak a thousand words. :)


Ginger onion chicken wings. Yummy!


Sweet potatoes with raisins.


Banana muffins and raspberry chocolate chip muffins.


This potato salad is super yummy!!!


There, there...... Cheese!


Wii time!!! LOL!


We were having so much fun. Can't wait to invite them over to my house when the time comes! :D


Later in the evening, we went to the cafe downstairs to have our dinner, together with our hubbies. The food wasn't bad, in fact it was pretty good. They all come in big plate! Good for big eaters. Hahaha. My camera's batt went dead on me in the afternoon, had to take photos using my iPhone. Ish...... Didn't take a photo of the cafe.


Another one in the cafe. Hmm...... All of us looked tired here.

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朋友.依旧.

就这样,我身为人妻也有一年又一天了。昨天也没特别庆祝,日子如常。

2009年就快结束了。感觉有点害怕。怎么日子过得那么快?是谁偷偷的把时间的齿轮给转快了?

在清理照片时,看见一些去年和网友们见面的合照。一时之间,一股暖流飘进了心里。嘴角不自觉地往上扬。这种感觉,这种发自内心的微笑,是一种幸福。

当时大家都好兴奋终于要见面了。一群女人聚在一起,七嘴八舌的,好不热闹。好令人怀念。。。现在大家各有各忙的,以往的一群人再也迁就不到彼此的时间。那种聚在一起,没有猜疑、没有隔阂的时光,看来是很难再重温了。现在大家只能在彼此的“脸书”上留言几句,让对方知道“我没有人间蒸发”。哈哈哈哈。

那段日子是快乐的。只能叹息好景不长。











 

Photoshoot - Vivian C. & Shany

These are the photos taken on the same day I did Vivian's photoshoot. I didn't publish them before because I didn't have many of them. It was the other Vivian Tan that I took most. Now, here they are.


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