Braveheart
In my family, only my dad and brother know how to ride a motorbike. My dad rode one when he was young, and my brother is still riding his. As for the rest of us (my mum, sis, sister-in-law and me), only my sister-in-law is a regular pillion-rider with my brother, as it requires lots of courage to ride on one.
I've tried it twice. The first time, I nearly "suffocated" my brother by wrapping my arms really tightly around his waist for fear of falling off the bike. Throughout the journey, he had to turn his head back many times to shout at me to loosen my grip. In turn, I had to tell him many times to slow down. By the time we reached our destination, his shirt was drenched, especially at the waist area. My brother looked at me and shook his head in disgust while airing his shirt. The second time was much better. I roughly got the hang of riding on a motorbike. It was quite fun actually, but I still dread the part when my brother had to do a turning. He had to slant the bike at nearly 45 degrees and it always felt as though it was going to topple over.
My sis also tried riding the bike with my brother at the wheel (poor guy!). He later told me that when he did a turning, my sis also automatically "turned" his body, as though she was at the wheel. He was also nearly "suffocated".
As for my mum, no matter how we persuaded her to try riding it, she simply refused. One fine day, she finally relented. It was only when my brother agreed to push the bike instead. And the "journey"? It was from one end of my house to the next. Even then, when she descended from the bike, she could hardly walk.
Someday, I hope to learn to ride a motorbike, but as my legs are not long enough to reach the ground when seated, I'll have to be contented with driving a car.
Food For Thought
Have any of you out there tried any really unusual food, such as those featured on Extreme Gourmet, Survivor and Fear Factor? I myself haven't and I don't intend to. So far, the unusual ones I've tried were monkey's brain (when I was young) and rabbit thighs (which I tried more than 10 years ago).
I remembered watching a documentary about how a South African tribal group hunted giant tarantulas for food. It showed them searching through a thick forest, digging on certain grounds for the spiders, and how they caught them with their bare hands. It also showed how the spiders were spreaded "nicely" over the fire to be cooked. Then I saw how the tribal group peeled away the spiders like how we would peel prawns and crabs. EEKS!!! The final straw came when I saw one of them use a spider leg to pick his teeth! SOMEBODY HELP ME!!! However, nowadays, spiders and other creepy crawlies are considered delicacies in some countries, and many people are putting their taste buds to a test by trying them out.
On one episode of Fear Factor, contestants had to eat raw bull testicles. As bulls are huge animals, you can imagine the size of their thingy. Just watching the contestants eating them can put you off anything big and round. Some other episodes also featured contestants eating live roaches and worms, and you could hear them burst in the contestants' mouths, not to mention their "juices" squirting out of them. This reminded me of my dad telling us that during WWII, when food was very scarce, he had to catch cockroaches and rats from dirty drains for food.
Boy! I really take my hats off these brave human beings, and you too, dad! I could never be as brave as you all!
You Are The "Piss" of My Life
The other day, someone called me up to do some piano accompaniment for an exam at the end of the year. He told me the names of the exam pieces and I told him that I didn't have two of them. I thought he would say that he would bring the two pieces to me. Instead, he asked if he could EMAIL them to me instead. I couldn't believe my ears!
"Email?!" I nearly shouted at him. Then he said he could also fax them to me. I just couldn't believe that there are such stupid and calculative people around. Here they are, asking me for help, and they expect me to either print out, or waste my fax papers on the stack of music!!! The least he could do was to bring them to me!!! In the first place, HE was the one who wanted my help, not the other way round!!! I really DETEST such stupid, brainless, calculative and selfish people. I pray hard that I don't ever cross path with such people again! In the end, I was so pissed off with him that I told him I would be very busy and I would have no time for him. Full stop. "Even if I have all the time in the world, mister, I wouldn't want to play for you 'cause you SUCK!!!"
Clearance Day
I did some clearing of my useless stuffs today. There was too much junk in my shelves, on the dining chair and on the floor, as I have ran out of storage space. I threw away many things and "re-found" many things which I have long forgotten existed, if not for today's clearing. I still have lots of stuffs in drawers which I do not intend, for the moment, to look through. I'll pretend that they do not exist. Many times, I feel like throwing everything into the fire. That will definitely safe me loads of trouble!
Boy! I must really make it a point to throw away whatever I don't need immediately. If not, I'll have to find another day to clear them all over again...Sigh!
Sleeping Spells
Late last night, my sis and I were surfing the net for some information, and after browsing through a few pages, I found that she took exceptionally long to read a certain page. I turned to look at her and found that she had fallen asleep, her mouth slightly open, and her hand still hogging the mouse. I gave her a sharp nudge and that jolted her out of her slumber. We had a good laugh after that.
She once told me a story of a student who was having music theory lesson with her theory teacher. The teacher was writing some notes for her when she found that his writing had suddenly turned into a long, straight line. She looked at him and saw that he had dozed off while writing!
Years ago, a friend's dad was driving my sis and I home after a night concert, when the car starting to reduce speed and move in a slight zig-zag manner. Our friend, who was seated next to her dad, found him nodding away at the wheel. We quickly woke him up and that saved us from crashing into a lamp post. Luckily, we were already outside our house, so my sis and I quickly alighted. I think our friend gave her dad a big piece of her mind after that.
Traffic Horror
Recently, I was told about people getting knocked down by cars in China. It reminded me of my own near-fatal experience when I was in Beijing some years ago.
It was a hot and stuffy afternoon. I was at Tiananmen Square with my mum and a group of friends, and we were busy taking pictures and enjoying the beauty of the place with its majestic monumental buildings. When it was time for us to board our tour bus across the road, we walked to the zebra crossing and waited to cross the road. It was a very wide road with about five big lanes.
When we finally found a chance, we happily began walking when out of nowhere, a few cars zoomed by, missing us by inches, obviously ignoring us and the zebra crossing. Shocked, we quickly retreated to where we originally were, and checked the road again. More and more cars zoomed by. The zebra crossing was simply "invisible" to them. A few locals tried to dash across but failed. The cars were simply too fast for them, and they simple refused to stop for any pedestrians. It felt as though we were trying to cross a racing track with hundreds of racing cars zooming towards us. With hearts pounding wildly, my mum and I grabbed each other's hands tightly, and when the road seemed "cross-able", we dashed across. Our friends and some others were close behind us, and we looked like a herd of animals running for dear life from predators! If we were to get struck (touch wood!) by the vehicles, we would look like human bowling-pins, flying in all directions!
That night, a few of us shared a cab to go to a restaurant for dinner. The cabbie drove at break-neck speed, weaving in and out of traffic, honking all the way. We were seated behind the cabbie and clutching our seats tightly, our bodies swaying about as he continued driving in that crazy manner.
Then, to our horror, in order to avoid a traffic jam, the cabbie suddenly turned into a small lane (meant for padestrians) in between two rows of shop houses, and continued with his crazy drive, totally ignoring the poor padestrians who were trying desperately to avoid our cab. We told him to slow down many times but we were ignored. He seemed to be enjoying himself and he was happily honking away.
By the time we reached our restaurant, our ears were numb from all the honkings and we could hardly stand. For a while, it felt as though we had just finished a rollar coaster ride in Disneyland. However, we were very thankful that we arrived in one piece, and we were still very much alive. Later, we learnt that this was how the locals actually drive! We were horrified, but at the same time, really glad that we had speed controls imposed in our own country. I can never imagine myself driving, or worst, walking through such traffic everyday!!!
The Art of Cooking IV: Barley Water
When my sis and I were still studying in Paris, a friend of hers came over to visit us at our hostel. After chatting for a while, my sis took her out to do some sight-seeing, while I stayed back to finish up some work. As the weather was quite warm that day, I decided to cook some barley water.
When my sis and her friend returned in the evening, I poured us three glasses. Halfway through her drink, my sis' friend remarked that the barley water looked cloudy and a little spotty. I innocently said that I didn't wash the barley. My sis and her friend nearly spit into my face. In the end, we threw the remainings away. What a waste! Hmph!
Toilet Woes
During my trip to the Fujian province of China a few years back, I experienced "doing business" in a public toilet with cubicle walls the height of my thighs, and no doors. I was there to visit a distant aunt, and I was staying at her home at that time, for a few days. As the public toilet was just across the road from her home, she didn't see the need to own one herself.
One morning after breakfast, I wanted to "release" myself, so she brought me across to the toilet, which was, much to my relieve, divided into "Male" and "Female" sections. There was a "guard" at the main entrance and he was in charge of cleaning both toilets. My aunt and I went into the female section and I saw a row of nearly-wall-less cubicles. They also had no doors. In place of toilet bowls, was a long and narrow drain which we were supposed to squat over and do our "business". The drain ran under the whole row of cubicles, so if there was anyone using it at the same time as you, you would be able to see "things" floating pass under you. I was very tempted to leave, but I couldn't. My bladder was going to burst. Luckily, there was no one else but us. My aunt went into one and I took another one a few cubicles away. The walls were so low that even when we squatted, I could still see the head and shoulders of my aunt in her cubicle. I've also learnt the trick of pulling up my pants while squatting.
For the rest of my stay, I tried to restrict my intake of water, no matter how thirsty I was. I ate sweets and fruits to "quench" my thirst. I also made sure I didn't get any stomach upset, as I wouldn't want to be seen running to and fro across the road to the toilet!
Cockroach Saga
The other day, when I was in the bathroom, I saw something moving under the sink. I took a look and saw a huge cockroach. Immediately, I stepped back and tried to escape from it. After spiders, cockroaches are next on my "Hate" list, especially flying cockroaches. I was praying hard that the one in the bathroom would stay on the floor. In the end, I decided to ignore my goose-pimples and get rid of it, once and for all.
I went near the cockroach and tried to step on it (I was wearing bathroom slippers, in case you are wondering whether I was bare-footed or not), but it ran to the far end of the bathroom. I chased it into a corner, and before I could step on it, it turned around and ran towards me instead! I freaked out and ran to the bathtub and hopped into it. Luckily, it couldn't climb up and thankfully, it didn't fly. I took the shower hose and sprayed water at the cockroach. That sent it into a frenzie, and I quickly took off one slipper and threw at it. The slipper landed on top of it, and for a moment, everything was still. I got out of the bathtub, walked slowly to the slipper and stepped on it again, just to make sure that the cockroach was dead. I removed the slipper to check, and sure enough, it was slightly squashed. YUCKS! I quickly washed it down the drain pipe with the shower hose, and felt my life returning to normal again.
For the rest of the day, I could feel my goose-pimples returning everytime I think of that incident. I hope I won't have to experience such an unpleasant encounter again.
