Tonari no Totoro

Tonari no Totoro or also known as My Neighbour Totoro is a 1988 Japanese anume film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film follows the two young daughters of a professor and their interactions with friendly wood spirits in postwar rural Japan. This film won theAnimage Anime Grand Prix prize and the Mainichi Film Award for Best Film in 1988. [From wikipedia]

I was so bored that I found the movie here =)

Bye China Relatives

Yup, my dear China relatives are going home this afternoon.

Well, they are kinda like my grandfather's brother's sons and daughters and his grandchildren. So that is how we are all related. Anyway, will try to get some pictures from them then will post it up here.

I am now bored in my office because most of the staffs are at another floor attending a training so nothing to do besides reading my book. So till then =)

About splurging on books and China relatives

Woke up and went for ballet class lazily. Came home and went to 1 Utama because mom is meeting her friends so my sis and I went and watched
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This movie is well, OK? Didn't have any expectation so just enjoyed it. But I'm kinda into Justin Long now =P

Next, went to Amcorp Mall's Bookxcess for
1.

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6.

7.

8.

Yup, and I spent RM133 on them and I got a 3 years membership card and a free book thong(Huh? It's like a book mark but made out of strings and ribbons)! Crazy right? I know. Impulse buying? But it's not really impulse since I actually sent an email and asked them to reserve the books for me. I'm such a bookacholic!!

After getting my books, we went to a Dato Liu's place. Apparently he is the Ti Ratana Welfare Society Kuala Lumpur's President/ Chairman. Wow right? His house is as big as Jacqueline's place (maybe smaller before her's underwent renovation) but Jacq's place is definitely bigger and nicer. His place was err, I don't know, I don't feel hommy. According to my mom, he's my cousin.

The left guy with the open hand is him.

Anyway, my main point of blogging is about my relatives from China. I met them on Thursday night for dinner and after that went to my uncle's place (where they're staying) for fruits (a cousin sells fruits). There was 7 of them here in Malaysia and and all are my, well, I'm confused, well, they're uncles and aunts and cousins and my cousin's children.

Anyway, that night I didn't get the chance to actually talk to all of them but I can tell you one thing. They definitely look like us, Malaysians. They did not look like those typical beady (sepet) eyes with pink cheeks and they speak hakka just like my mom's side. When one of the uncle knew that I can't speak Hakka, he was nice enough to speak to me in Mandarin (they call it bu3 tong1 hua4) and his Mandarin was a little difficult to understand. Either it's the intonation's problem or my Mandarin sucks.

So today, I had a nice chat with them and got to know the youngest among that 7 relatives- a 23 years old cousin's daughter. She's pretty and she just finished her degree in English so she could speak English albeit a little broken. Her Mandarin is VERY understandable!! I could speak to her fluently and well, we just felt like a family =)

Oh ya, before I forget, Datuk Liu has a huge family. He has 14 (including him) brothers and sisters!!!! 14 siblings!!! So by 7pm, most of that 14 siblings and their family arrived and hence we had like a HUGE family reunion!! Found another younger generation girl among that crowd and she's a Malay mix Chinese CBN form 4 girl. So my 23 years old China relative, this 16 years old "Chinlay", my 15 years old sis (who just smiled and listened and acted like her mouth has gold) and me chatting away with a lot of awkward and non awkward pauses in between.

I'm dead tired and I got to wrap my books so I'll call it a day now. Will continue soon and hopefully can get some pictures of (or from) them to put here.

Envy me? Go ask your parents if they can somehow contact your relatives at China =P

Family Tree Book

Do you or your family own a family tree book? Well, apparently my mother's side has. Last year, they traced back to China and had a small family reunion at China and my sister went too. I was, well, preparing for EOS or summative I think and hence stayed at Malaysia.

Anyway, according to my mother, each Liew boy in the family has that family tree book and it's their responsibilities to continue recording and keeping the family tree book "alive" so my uncle did his part by contacting the relatives at China.

Today, these relatives of mine from China will be coming to Malaysia and we're going to be their host. We as in my mother and her 7 siblings and families. We even had a few family meetings (my mother's side always have such meetings) and decided to bring them around Malaysia for a tour so we'll be having dinner with them on Thursday and Saturday when they come back from Ipoh and Melaka respectively.

What to expect? More Hakka and Chinaman I guess =P

PS: Blood Lies by Daniel Kalla is out of stock at Kinokuniya!! Should have bought it when it was available!!! Sob~~

10.10.10

I started off by watching an episode of House (again =P) and then went to temple for Puja. Maha Vihara was filled with couples registrating to be husband and wife and the relatives were wearing quite inappropriate mini skirts and micro dress at the temple. Can't they just use their pea brain and think before wearing those revealing clothes to a temple? Jeez. But the atmosphere was wonderful with lion dance and small kids dressed up as whatever they need to be.

I was in a dilemma whether to go uni to start studying and kick start my study mode or go to a nearby MPH to get my House Rules because MJ actually smsed me to inform me that it's out. Thanks MJ!! So when mum said she wants to go home after puja I asked her to drop me at KL Sentral so I'll take a train to uni. Lady luck smiled on me when suddenly mom asked if I really want to go uni to study and I was "err..I don't know..." so she drove us to Mid Valley and made my 10.10.10 a memorable one.

Since we were at MV and it was 10am, I decided to treat my mom a movie but instead we bought tickets for 2 movies.
We were deciding on
1. Charlie St. Cloud

2. Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame3. Wall streets: Money Never Sleeps 4. Dinner with Schmucks 5. Legend of the Fist : The Return of Chen Zhen6. The Switch 7. Alpha and Omega 8. The Joshua Tapes9. Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of GahooleIn the end we watched Wall Streets and Detective Dee back to back with 5 minutes in between for toilet break =)

It was nice and entertaining and I really enjoyed both movies but I really regret not watching the Joshua Tapes because one of the main actor is my friend who was at first my brother's friend but we kinda got closer when I was college so I am going to suport him later by watching it this week. GO WATCH TOO!!! SUPPORT LOCAL!!!

We didn't watch The Switch because this movie's review on The Star was not very good. For Alpha and Omega and Legend of the Guardians, we might watch it with my sister later since tomorrow is her last PMR paper. I rather read the Charlie St Cloud book than watch the movie. My mom is the one who wants to watch Legend of the Fist and Dinner for Schmucks is a stupid movie which I'll watch when I need a good laugh and hence that 2 choices.

MPH was having a huge sale yesterday!! MPH card members get 20% discount on every book besides those that are already having discount. Buy more than RM100, you can get those skill books with DVD (How to Play Guitar, Yoga etc) for RM10. Buy one book with original price and get another for 30% discount for non members etc!!! I got my
and I got this

for the 30% discount. I would love to get more but by the time I want to look for more, it was movie time.

So we spent almost 7 hours in Mid Valley and went home feeling so happy even though everything was on me besides her books.

I'm going to get my Blood Lies TODAY at Kinokuniya NO MATTER WHAT because MPH didn't have the book!!

PS: I'm kinda half peta now as in when I eat, I'll stick to non meat meal BUT when there's nothing but meat like Saturday's dinner at Daorae, I was forced to consume them but I am really trying to go vegetarian. Trying is better than nothing right??