I was making myself a really late dinner (OK, I can’t cook, so it was only Indomie Goreng) last night when I accidentally touched the hot pot with my hand.

It didn’t feel so bad initially but after a while, a blister was forming and the burnt part still felt as if it was on fire…

So I had to slap on some burn medication (geez, why didn’t I do that earlier?) and left it on overnight. This morning the blister’s gone down and the pain’s gone. Phew!

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If I were in America, you’d both get my votes!!!

It’s the 24th today. That’s one day down. Three more months to go.

The first day of Chinese New Year has passed, but it’s still considered Chinese New Year as celebrations go on for up to 15 days. This year I received a grand total of <…drumroll…> ONE Chinese New Year greeting card! Woohooo!!!

OK, actually I received two but I’m not counting one of them because it was sent by my insurance agent’s company and it’s one of those generic well-wishing ones.

The ONE Chinese New Year card I received was a highly personal one, and what is so great about it was that it was given to me by a parent of one of my students in the school. She attached a personal letter with it (which obviously I am not going to publish the contents here) and that really means a lot to me – that someone, a parent no less, appreciates my contribution and care to her child.

Chinese New Year card from a parent. Personal letter attached, folded to keep your prying eyes away from it

The card was given to me prior to the CNY holidays. And on the same day, I received a thank-you card from a former student (Form 5 last year): Thank you card from Lye Yee Hern (5 Mozart, Class of 2007)
Well, to be very honest, I was quite surprised that Yee Hern gave me the card, because I never thought he enjoyed Physics that much. Maybe he really did, or maybe he didn’t; but either way I appreciate the way he shows his appreciation to his teachers.Thank you, Yee Hern! You and Kristina have really made my year!By the way, Ee Ping, in case you are reading this -yes of course I also have not forgotten you! In case you folks are wondering, Ee Ping gave me a teacher’s day gift last year as well as a fantastic thank you card at the end of the year… and she’s not even technically my student (she’s not in any of my classes).

Me with Ee Ping [Photo taken Sept 14, 2007]

Card from Ee Ping [Given Sept 20, 2007]

Well, of course I haven’t forgotten thank-you cards and gifts from my students of earlier years… Berlin, Suzana, Melissa, Hana, Lyn Ley, Nadhira, Sue-Yi…

OMG, I can actually count the number of students on my fingers. It’s so sad, isn’t it? I must be a terrible teacher…

OK, not really a Japanese scholar…

My brother has been in Japan for the past two years studying medicine on scholarship. For the past two years, I’ve been kinda the only child at home (barring my younger sister who has Down’s Syndrome) which sounds a lot more fun than it is. With my older sister in UK and my brother in Japan, I’m the only child who has never studied overseas, and I’m the only one now for my parents to pick on all kinds of things, such as the late hours I stay out (not that I do that much), the mess in my room, when I was going to get married…

On the plus side, a lot of the space in the house is now mine to use. I took over my sister’s wardrobe, desk, and shelves; and after my maid left, I converted her room into my home office, and took over my one of my brother’s chest of drawers. So when my sister and bro do come back for good, I’d have to give up a lot of my space, and rather reluctantly I might add.

Well I’m not sure when my sister would be back, but my brother won’t be back for good for years, since he’s only just completed his first year in medicine (prior to that he had to take a one-year compulsory Japanese language course) and he would definitely want to do his housemanship after that. He’s back for one month for the holidays for now though and he hasn’t resented my taking over his chest of drawers; rather he was more pleased about the fact that he could use my broadband connection which he found rather fast. Odd. I find it rather slow. And he was in Japan, for Christ’s sakes – the land of super technology. Maybe after all my complaining, he had really low expectations, so the speed at which he could connect surpassed his expectations.

Anyway, his plane was due tonight, so my mother and I drove over to KLIA to pick him up. Mum had called the airport to find out what time his plane was due, and was informed about 7.50pm. However we were only ready to leave by 7.50pm because my brother had mistakenly told me it was due at 8.35pm and Mum didn’t make the call until 7.15pm. We didn’t rush though, because my brother would need time to collect his baggage and check out at the immigration.

We arrived about 8.40pm, and went to the arrival hall to look for him. He didn’t have a local handphone number so we couldn’t call him. As we were walking and looking at the hall for him, a guy suddenly came up to me, and it took me 2 seconds before I suddenly realised it was him. Goodness gracious, he looked so different!

Check out the photos below:

My brother and me – taken at the airport in 2006 before his departure

My brother and me – taken at the airport today after his arrival

A little rounder, with much longer hair… I guess in the photos he is recognizably the same, but in person he looked different to me, OK?!

What struck me most was that he still sounded the same. I mean, I’d have thought after being in Japan for 2 years he’d have picked some Japanese accent or other After all, my sister spoke with a British accent when I saw her after being in UK for a year; and my best friend Choon Meng spoke with (or more accurately, attempted to speak with) an Australian accent after being there for only half a year. And I have friends who never shed their [fake] Australian accent even though left Down Under years ago. But here was my brother, speaking as if he had never left Malaysia, with his usual high-speed chatter and the perfect Malaysian slangs thrown in all the right places.

He’s been in KL for less than 5 hours and he’s already off yamcha-ing with his high school buddies. He really hasn’t changed.