Starf ofa compaleetalee ran doom

You shall only read this post once you have figured out what the title says, no cheating. HAH.

I think you are probably rather bored or... maybe mad, when I start apologizing when I haven't blogged in ages...

Lots happened... I am not sure if you consider it a lot because I get over excited over little things (I enjoy being over excited over little things, if you wait for really BIG things to happen your life may get rather dull waiting for them so I rather get over excited over little things cause lots of little things happen and it makes me... Well, happy! Even though some people may call it as mad, ahh... Oh well.)  so yeah, lots of things happened!

Here's the list of what I can remember:
1. I got a beautiful Canon EOS DSLR for no reason. I have always wanted one since I took a few billion pictures with one that wasn't mine and every picture turned out supah clear, oo la la.

2. I had a beautiful (I think I need to stop using this word but that seems to be the only word that can describe them! Isn't it a very good excuse for not wrecking my brain for a different word since I am err... Drugging it with a overdose of kapoop.) platter of my favorite sizzling steak for dinner (One of my favorite typas dinners in the world, I don't mind having it for lunch too actually but somehow it seems to be a dinner thing, doncha think so? I don't think I mind having it every day, I can never get bored of red meat. I am guessing you know why I am not vegetarian, I like my meat, HAH.), for no particular reason.
Referring to "1. and 2.": It's always nice when you wish for something just for fun, forget it then get it.. So wish but not too hard (On that day we went down to KL for some ship wreck thing in Museum Negara... SO.SO.SO boring.. There wasn't even an ACTUAL ship wreck, only bits, by bits I REALLY mean bits, like you can COUNT bits, of porcelain china that we POLISHED and CUT, I would have rather gone into a china shop... BUT.BUT.BUT, I found a REALLY, I am pretty sure you don't want me to repeat my words trice again, with full stops in the middle, beautiful piece which is kinda the inspiration for my entry's cake topper, WHOOT! Oh right, where was I supposed to be..? Right, right.. Praying too hard. The boys wanted pizza for dinner and they we jumping like mad in the car and going "PIZZAPIZZAPIZZAPIZZAPIZZA!!", their harmony sounded beautiful... And as still as a night sky... If you were deaf and perhaps blind too because they weren't all that still... Oh wait, I fast forwarded too much. Papa said what do you human beings want to eat inside Sungai Wang?! you know the boys reply, mine was: I don't want to eat INSIDE Sungai Wang, perhaps.. Outside.. Across the road.. In a "Ship.. Wreck".. Sneaky grin*)  because even if you don't get it you probably won't mind and if you do... MWA.HA.HA.HA

3. I (I think I overuse this word too.) got myself addicted to another kapoop group (It's Dong Bang Shin Ki if you were wondering.), it happens to Machika's favorite, I (HAH! Again!) finally understand why...
One of the main reasons why I got into them (Minus their vocals, they make SHINee sound like babies.. Now, I just wait for a angry mob of Shawols to come murder me...) is because.. Because.. They remind me of my childhood (I think you are probably wondering why I speak so much about it, I just think it's important that I try to remember it because I was a pretty happy person, until I started school but I did enjoy my schooling years I suppose... During the weekends when there was NO school and it was just me and Mommy, shopping and librarying. Oh right, I ACTUALLY remember hearing those DBSK songs.. I have a good memory, for certain things... I can't even remember what I did last week, seriously.) in Singapore.
Poo, it took me half my life to realize I was a kapoop fan.
Now DBSK is broken into two separate groups, one which still carries the original name and the other well...
Decided to do some research on why they did after like... Half a dozen years.
Over exhaustion.. Low pay (I always thought the rolled in money..).. Now I feel guilty.. For supporting such.. Stuff....

4. After that scrumptious dinner we walked around Sungai Wang a bit and went into MPH (Still remember those kids that say it means "Mental problem hospital"..)...
The first thing that caught my eye was the "90%" off sign on one of the tables then...        
THIS BOOK (Playing with my new toy camera again..):

Me: HORSEHORSEHORSEHORSE! (Remember how I said that I get over excited over little things? Must be embarrassing taking me out of my cake room..) Hmm... And the cover is blackish... Worth a read... Picks book up and reads description*
"The story of Rain-Dream rider, born warrior and queen-to-be. 
Rain is a girl with a certain destiny, living in an ancient time of blood, raised on mare's milk, nurtured with the strength of a thousand Amazon sisters. A girl of power, stronger than fifty men, she rides her white horse as fierce as a demon.." 
Oh may I add... She's thirteen too.
WHO WOULDN'T BUY THIS BOOK?! (It was RM 10, they were moving out I think... Bought the only one that was in good condition, the rest looked quite bad.)
Well... I understand if you aren't horse crazy... Love how they talk about her, the horses and other animals but mainly my favorite animal in the world (Officially!)- Horses, I am still baffled by the fact that they have "Thousands of Amazon sisters" but not a single men.. They still have such a huge population.. Oh well, haven't even gotten to even the middle yet.
AND... (Exciting music playing*) They sold my favorite series, the most expensive was.. RM 6 and I got a novel from one of my favorite authors for RM 10!!
The books are usually priced at RM 50 ish... Scary right?

5 (I.Feel.So.Sleepy.So.I.Shall.Stop.Here.JEONGMAL MIANHAE.). Bla, Blah, Blargh... Papa says Fai should learn how to read and write already since he is going to be 8 next Febuary and I was appointed the teacher.
It's funny how all my childhood dreams (See? That's why it's very important to remember as much of your childhood as possible.) are pretty much coming true but not in the way that I thought it would be like..

1. I wanted to be a giraffe (It was my favorite animal.) when I was I am not sure how old, I think I am pretty much a human giraffe now (The first thing people say to me is usually something about my height... Around 90% do, I am pretty sure.), not that I mind, I enjoy towering over people very much, thank you.

2. Archaeologist... I was dinosaur obsessed, I remember loving my.. OH GAWD I forgot the name of my favorite dinosaur! The one that has... Has... Starts Googleing* Oh yaaa! Iguanodon! Loved it so much that when it's hand broke I plastered it with my Tweety bird plaster and would change it everyday, I wonder if Mommy got mad... Speaking of making Mommy mad.. I remember pouring half a bottle of talcum powder into my clothes drawer and adding water into it and stirring it with my hands to wash my clothes! Hahaha! That was fun... I should do it again some time. Well, this is one I haven't became yet I suppose...      

3. Builder and designer (At that age when I LOVED my Legos, paper dolls and Barbies.), I think you can consider building a few tier cake, building, right? And designing = Cake decorating.

4. Modelling, another one that I haven't done yet. Something that has got to do with the "human giraffe" thing, almost everyone says that I should take it up but I think there is more to modelling than height...
It takes some confidence and I don't exactly call myself all that pretty! Although.. I may pursue in it, one fine day..

5. TEACHER (Always wanted, still do, to become one, I just.. Simply enjoy teaching, hence the random tutorials on my blog. One of my biggest dreams right now is probably become a sugar teacher, travelling around the world, teaching, EATING, travelling.. What a beautiful life.)
I think teaching Fai is going quite well, on our second day and I made four sentences from the twelve words random spelling words (I would show him the word, ask him to try to pronounce it, write it down, make him memorize them then do a quick spelling test after... 5 Minutes, pretty surprised he got half of them right!) I thought him yesterday and today and he could read all four (Each sentence contains about.. Roughly 7ish words.) sentences WITHOUT my help, I would just say if it's correct or not.
At the end of the day (Oh right, I teach, make life sized English gum paste roses and listen to kapoop at the same time, it's quite fun since I enjoy multi tasking. Especially when your little brother sings random parts of the song with, say "THAT" part in in SHINee's Jap Replay sounds like "Bak kut teh", I fell off my chair laughing and nearly smashed a rose, says his favorite songs are Lucifer and Mirotic..) we started with spelling numbers and letting him construct his own VERY short sentences with the numbers he knows like: One green cat.
Don't ask.. You may not even want to hear about the sentences I constructed from the random words!
Well here is one in case you need a bit off a giggle: The ray has a big spot on it's nose.
And perhaps another: The lion has a leaf green comb.
HAHAHAHAHHAA I can't believe I am literally dying of laughter while typing this out!
Poor Fai, he has to put up with such a crazy teacher.

I think I bragged too much in this post, hope you lived up to this sentence.
-Krazy Karrot Kake  

Bear Reese

Tum tum tum tee tum too teeeeeee tum... Grin* 

I am fairly (More like VERYLY! But... I am not going to get too over excited, it spoils my calm image.) pleased with my berries (Forgot what they are called, saw them in one of Alan Dunn's books but they look lie mulberries so I shall just call them that, even though they are a little too round.. So you shall call them mulberries all because I am too lazy to walk to my cakery, flip open the book, search like crazy through the pages and tell you, aren't I evil?)

This is my very first time making berries (Now I am getting addicted to making seed pods as well! Both berries and seed pods are SUPER easy to make and they give a nice "Fun" look to a err... Bundle of flowers!), never wanted to try them before because they looked a little tough but after reading (I don't really like Alan Dunn's instructions in his books, it's somewhat hard to read. So I usually flip through unless one really catches my eye.) through the whole thing it seemed quite simple.

Roll a ball of gumpaste, stick a wire through, roll a few billion tiny balls (A simple task but rather time consuming, nearly died of boredom..), stick them on to the bigger blob of wired gum paste, cut loads of stamens up into small bits, stick them into random small blobs, once dried DUSTDUSTDUST (I LOVEEE dusting sugar flowers, I have no idea why.. It's just SUPER fun!) and GLAZE (Anyone want a tutorial on this paticular berry?).. Ooh ahh..

Speaking about the awesome word called GLAZE..

Here's a short story by Karen Cuppy Cake:

One fine afternoon a girl was making some berries and weird-can't-remember-the-name seed pods, there was something bothering her it was the fact that she couldn't complete the entire berry and seedpod because she didn't have any edible glaze to make the berries and seedpods err... SHINE!

And also that the fact that her other foliage won't look "realistic" as well. (Note* I know that girl very well and she want's to win the competition and go to UK, full stop.)

So she got her father to get a bottle of it for her and she started "painting" (She couldn't find a spray one.) her gum paste foliage the next day and when she opened the cap the smell nearly killed her because it smelt like... Note* It took her about 5 brain cracking minutes to realize what it smelt like because she hadn't smelt that smell in YEARS!

Note* Found this photo on the net, I don't own it. I was pretty surprised it even came up!

Anyways, yes THAT was what it smelt like! 

Anyone else remember playing with these? I remember blowing them when I was like, 5 or something and it smelt SOOO chemically, bleackh.

Imagine having to endure that smell for err... SOME time, it makes we somewhat faintish as well, yeesh.

AND! I have a question, I hope it is a good one. 

IS EDIBLE glaze even EDIBLE?! It smells full of chemical and the "Ingredient label" says it's made of (Runs to cakery and back*): Food grade refined bleached lacquer, whatever liqueur.. Err, I mean lacquer is, it doesn't smell good that's for sure.

Now it makes me think.

My all time favorite almond coated milk chocolate is coated with glaze.. YUCK! Let's pray it isn't the the same edible glaze that I used on my berries today because I will still be eating them no matter what, HAH.   

    But ever since I started caking I have "weaned" myself of a couple of my favorite foods, mainly those that contain VEGETABLE SHORTENING, I just find food that contain vegetable shortening.. Yucky.

I get eggstreamilee happy when I see a cupcake boutique anymore because.. Mine are the best, no really.

A couple I have been to after I started baking, their cupcakes make my teeth feel funny, like, squeaky... I wonder what's in them... 

Signing off from another one of my random cakecomp updates!

-Karen Cuppy Cake

How to: DIY Gumpaste rose veiner

Omsk to you and you and you! Didn't expect to be back so soon but I guess you followers must be praying hard, eh?

ANYWAYS (I hereby swear that I will use this word in every post I post this blog of mine.), I was in my caking room one fine afternoon after lunch wanting to start on some gum paste roses since my hands were rather tired from all that RI piping, even though I hadn't started piping yet that day I already was, mentally, I suppose.

Not long after gathering most of my tools I realized my "paint brush veiner" (It was an old wooden paintbrush which I turned into a veiner by using my craft knife to kinda cut very slightly all around the paintbrush handle vertically.) was missing so... I decided to make another and also decided to make it into a short tutorial since I haven't made one in some time and I missed making one (You get hooked onto it, somehow.)!

Saw some florist wires laying around on my table I cut out the day before to make the wired petals and then the idea just hit me. BLONK*

Stuff you need:

30 Gauge wire (Actually it doesn't really matter it's up to you how "big" you want the veins to be but 30 gauge seems to be the best.)

Any type of tape

A wire cutter and scissors to cut the wire and tape.

I am pretty sure every cake decorator has these right? Proves how easy (And inexpensive compared to store  bought ones!) it is to make a rose veiner!

 Step 1:

Take about 4 "strands" of wire.

Step 2;

Chop each wire into three, you should end up with this white wire-y mess.

Step 3:

Cut some tape and wrap it around the middle, make sure all the wires are at different lengths and........... You are DONE! I hope you didn't expect it to be extremely long! 

Mmm... This post seems a little too short to end so lets test the veiner, eh?

1. Lalala... Roll out some gum paste to the usual transparent-ish, chomp out some petals with a cutter.

2. Deep breath* Place your veiner on the petal, use your index finger to roll it with a tinge of pressure from one corner to the other.

3. Roll your ball tool all round the edges of the petal (My thin foam pad kinda disintegrated and not long after I realized my palm was better than the foam pad! I also like the fact that the back of my petal doesn't get that "spongy texture" which I have always hated seeing in my roses from day one! One of the reasons why I like making freehand roses better!) and WALAH! I hope you can see the veins properly, I am a lousy photographer, I think I have mentioned that before. 

4. Add a few more rounds of petals (Continue making your rose here, you may want to skip the petal making part though.) and TADAH! (Excuse mess.)

Eeee... Feeling so slippery sleepy now and I have riding tomorrow, good night me lovelay followers! Huge sleepy smile*

-Karen Cuppy Cake

Chan Tee Lee

Omsk (I don't know what it means but it seems like a pretty interesting word, that I made up one fine day and I think it means "Hi", I think I should use "Omsk" instead of "Hi" to greet people from now one, it would make life a whole lot more interesting, eh?) A thousand apologies for not blogging for a dozen days, hopefully the picture above would make up for my absence, it's a peek of what I'm up to (Not 100% done with it yet, maybe around 80%-ish.), it's one of my favorite tires so far for this particular wedding cake.

Love the edelweiss (I feel like being fancy/showoff-y with color names since I learnt SO many fancy names of colors ever since I got that suit case full of Squire kitchen food colors! Had to open 90% to know what color it was since almost all of them appear black/brown-ish!) royal icing against the.. The... Whazza blue color called again? Runs to cakery and back, puff, pant, puff, pant* Ahh! It's Gentian, I knew it sounded something like gelatin but I just couldn't recall it! A tiny tinge of gentian to be exact!

I have always liked blue fondant as a background but not the "primary color" blue, that blue is an eyesore, yuck.

 Above:
(After browsing through my cake inspiration file for a billion hours, trust me you won't want to open that folder, a mountain of SUPERB cakes will fall on you and you would probably drown from all that fondant...)This was the blue cake that started it all (Now that I look at it again... It doesn't impress me as much as it did when I first saved it, I think that was about a year ago, oh wells.), I LOVE the flawless (Used to think fondant/gum paste drapes were SUPER hard, that's until I tried it, drapes are WONDERFUL mistake cover-uppers! Note* Look at my wedding cake competition's cake topper and try guessing what's under those drapes, I... dare... you.) gold drapes against the I-am-not-sure-what-the-exact-color-is-called blue fondant, it makes the cake look classy, elegant and EXPENSIVE, my kinda cake (Speaking about my cake, I just scrolled up to look at it. My photography is horrible, compared to beautiful goldyblue cake here, sob.).   


Below:
Ahh... Isn't this simple GRAND? I have a weakness for tall (And big, my clumsiness doesn't let me handle big cake very much, let alone tall. Speaking about clumsiness, today would be the third time I stabbed myself accidentally with a corsage pin for this cake competition entry not my entire caking life but just THIS entry, I wonder how many times I have stabbed myself with it in this 2 3/4 years? Gosh... I can't believe I have been caking for such a long time. Anyways the first and third time was when I was "poking" away the dried RI from the tip, I kinda jabbed my finger instead of the tip, oh which reminds me... I am horrible with needles, did you know how many holes I poked in my fingers when I sewed that cupcake tshirt?! And the second time I am not exactly sure how that happened but I usually always have about 2-5 corsage pins lying around my caking table, I use one and it disappears so I have to take another out and another and another, I think you get the point. So I was doing some piping I think for that gelatin blue cake of mine and I kinda wanted to rest my elbow on the table and I wanted to put it down quite quickly since it was getting tired and the next thing I knew something sharp hit my elbow bone, pulled the pin out and it was rather bloody... My elbow was painful then numb then painful then numb for about 3 days! I was pretty glad that I didn't have to saw it off, whew! Omm... I need to keep. Omm.. my corsage pins. Omm... properly. Omm...) cakes, they somehow always "wow" me, heh.

 Above and below:
(The one above doesn't have a blue background but it's too beautiful to leave out!)
Since a mountain of cake photos/avalanche already fell on me, I might as well drag a few more of my "fine specimens" out. 
 Next to "grand" cakes I have always liked neat and modern-ish cakes, there are always something very eye catching about them.

 Above and below (I am feeling in a lazy to type mood, I think.):
Mosaic cakes, no one knows how much I am in love with them, I suppose it's because it's different/unique and eye catching again. 

I can't remember where I got these images from but all credit goes to the cake's artist, your cakes have inspired me very, VERY much, thank you.
I just realized that all the pictures I posted have ALL somehow inspired me for this very wedding cake, I am rather shocked, huh.

ANYWAYS (I still love that word.), you are probably scratching your head about the title or maybe you guys are already immune to my weird titles and words, I hope not.
This tier was Chantilly lace inspired, was hanging up the curtains for our house when we just moved into PD, the curtains were lacey ones some I made a note to make one of the tiers lacey and not long after that I some a post in one of CakeCentral's forums about "Chantilly lace", I was pretty curious since I have never heard of something called "Chantilly lace" (I was about to type down all the names of the laces I knew but my mind is very blacko right now, too bad.) before so I opened it up and TADAH!
Beautiful "real" lace specimens appeared before my eyes and boy, were they STUNNING!
The only thing different about them to me is probably the circles and of course the flowers.

And as usual... Things I want to recreate never looks like the original (Unless it's sugar flowers, hahaha!), mine clearly became some sort of "Rojak" piping work!
I just piped out whatever came to my mind and did some of that "circles", more like semi circles though.

Alrightyeo! Now that you know I am still alive and haven't abandoned my blog I shall be off.

~Karen

Bothers

I mean bRothers, my brothers who are bothers. Weak smile*
Oh and some other ACTUAL bothers...

I just realized I haven't posted ANYTHING in about a week... Oopsies?
Anyways, half way through that very silent week... There was this day when it was raining horses and ponies the ENTIRE day and the next morning after (Didn't want to enter and cake since it was wet and I was positive that working with gum paste was going to be hard so I kinda "ignored" the room that whole day.) I went in to find that...

1. My humongous white 22" cake board (I only use such HUGE cake boards for competitions, they somehow scare me that's why I enjoy making mini cakes and mini wedding cakes! But of course what's the point of entering a competition and not err... I mean staying in your comfort zone. Like last year, I used square cake dummies instead of the usual round because I wanted to get over my square sharp corner phobia...) that I was in the middle of completing a gothic lace on top was the color of yeast (And sticky to the touch, all the fondant cover dummy cakes were too! And it felt more like some sort of icing instead of fondant!), obviously it was some sort of yeast colored fungus... (And the 3 mini bottom tiers that were a "continuation" of the gothic table cloth like thing were fungused up too! I took a day for EACH mini bottom tier things with such a small tip that made my right palm almost disabled!)

2. My black gothic (This years entry is very goth/vampire inspired, I think you realized that already..) necklace inspired,  #0 tip was... was... A black puddle of muck around the round grey cake dummy, with the runny, melted black royal icing running down, all round the cake like messed up eye liner!

3.
My (I think I need to stop saying my but that was my SUPER hard aching hands work that was a cake wreck in a DAY! No one would ever know how frustrated I felt at that moment, EVER.) multi colored, hand painted (And piped.) stained glass window inspired tier separator was another eye liner running down mess with a brown not black pool of VERY watery royal icing at the bottom!
I spent about... 3 Days in total on that tier, all ruined, sigh...

That day was another one of those days where I absolutely HATE the country I live in, WHY did I have to be born in such a HUMID country?!
WHY couldn't I have been placed um... A bit... Higher up?
Not long after, the flood gates couldn't stand it.
And not long after that my whole shirt was soaked with tears and I was curled up in a fetal position on my favorite couch trying to concentrate on reading a horseback riding book I borrowed from the Science center library but... My eyes didn't seem to be able to focus on anything.

Now that I recall... I cried last year too, working on my entry.
In the end my entry only had 3 tiers and a cake topper when it was supposed to have five, I am PRAYING that wouldn't happen this year.
And hopefully they won't ask me to go on stage to speak again and if they do I hope I don't start crying.

Conclusion= I think I cry too much... It's amazing how I did not die of dehydration.

So anyways, the only thing that could make me happy was...

You guessed it (Or maybe not...)! K-pop/Kapoop.
So after a couple of days of full time kapooping I think.. I am finally mentally, alright to start over again.
And this time... Armed with those dehumidifiers!
I have my fingers, toes and any other part of my body that I can cross, crossed now and I am also praying that it would make the 1 1/2 hours rather pot holey (Believe me, I tried counting the amount of portholes/bumps on the way to KL! But somehow lost count!) journey to Sunway giza at some very scary time in the morning and I would be 3/4 asleep so... Errh. I think I should think too much about it right now.

Anyways (I LOVE this word! It's my "change subject" word, I think.), my laptop was being hogged by some people/person so I was getting a bit restless this morning...
I can't start my day with out my "coffee" (That's what Mommy calls err... it.), it used to mean just Facebooking but now I think... My SHINee is more important.

(I was supposed to complete this post last night but my Dad managed to grab it from me to do his Rotary work so since I had to wake up early the next morning, today, for horseback riding, I went up to sleep.
ANYWAYS I am "half leasing" KC now, can't remember if I said that already in my previous post and "half leasing" give me the ABILITY to ride him 3 times a week, chose Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, if you must know, 3 hours a day! Before leaving I mummified myself with... Looks at tape dispenser*, apparently it is surgical tape but it is just expensive masking tape to me... Let's see I had to tape both my ring fingers at the "middle joint", my left finger had a bubbly blister burst, skin peeled out, healed slightly, cut, healed, peeled off and now it looks fine I think, hopefully I won't cut it again and my right finger is fine but I will be "mummyfrying" them forever because even my right alright finger seems rather painful after riding WITH the "surgical tape"! And... Patching up some random parts of my body. For the record I ACTUALLY ran out of plasters! KCC never runs out of plasters, EVER. So I had to use some nail polish remover cotton and surgical tape to make my own plaster and "patch up" my body..
ANYWAYS, I am going to purposely overuse this word in my post today. Since I was "half leasing", full leasing is 6 times a week I think, I would DIE if I full leased a horse... KC, I OFFICIALLY know what it stands for! KC= Karen Cuppycake's horse, HAH! Okay wait, let me start again, Since I was "half leasing" Karen Cuppycake's horse there of course, were no "instructors" and I could... Go clockwise and anti a billion times so I could sploosh in the big fat puddle that the little bit of rain created at dawn! Disadvantage= No people yelling at me. Kinda miss that...
ANYWAYS after the usual 6 rounds of "fast" walking, not the usual "sleep" walking I do with Key, I mean King, I keep mentally calling Key, King today, I mean King, Key, sigh... Started on the sitting trot, it was getting easier but I think I was getting used to the bumps so I decided to try what Zarina and the riding book I have been reading's technique but somehow I... Bounced around even more!
So I somehow tried err... Different ways to sit in the saddle?
After a couple/handful of minutes I had ACTUALLY got it! I was supposed to "relax" my waist and follow the flow but it was somehow rather tough so instead of concentrating on keeping your waist stuck to saddle your stomach! And kinda push it down and forward-ish, kinda hard to explain so when you concentrate on your stomach your waist is free to do what ever it pleased so whatever it pleases = relaxing!
YESH! I felt as though as I had crack the Da Vinci code or something.. Humongous grin*
So instead of my behind being painful it was my stomach but I guess after 1 1/2 months horseback riding... You are used to pain!
The rest of the 1 1/2 hours on Karen Cuppycake's horse was bliss...
So I had a VERY enjoyable "leasing" today, yippee! Can't wait to ride again in the evening!
Okay! Back to the story!)  

So, yesterday my Dad was hogging the laptop from morning till late afternoon from his Rotary work, rolls eyes*
Wait, I think I already said that and the fact that I was half dead without my "coffee".
Somehow... Fai managed to drag me to read a HUGE Pokemon book (I think it was some annual or something we did "Number coloring" too, 1=Pink, 2=Green typa thing. I kinda forgot that he couldn't color very well since he enjoys drawing more I think and he is pretty good at drawing his knights and other mythical stuff, no way I could draw those when I was 7! I think my favorite things to draw then were fat giraffes and butterflies... So I kinda taught him how to color "evenly" and of course teach him colors!) to him, I think need to tell you that I don't read to my brothers very much but I found it kinda fun and tongue drying so I managed to read about... 3 stories and after every two minutes Zed dabaliewee would reply to my text so I would have to run from the hall to the study since the phone was charging!
It was a fun sister-brother bonding time thingy, then me, Han (Fai wanted to play with the uno stacko..), Mommy and Ean cycled (I cycled with Han, Mommy and Ean walked. Han wanted to stand on the "extended back seat" at first but after 10 seconds he slowly started to squat then after 5 seconds he was sitting because... Apparently (I seem to over use this word too..) I am too skinny to hold on too while he is standing.) to buy some Malay kuai (Nice fresh currypuffies, om nom noms.) for tea, Mommy and ean didn't follow us back because Ean wanted to go to the beach and the moment we reached home Papa was done with his hogging and went to the beach as well, unfortunately for me the "remaining" boys got to the laptop before I did to play their Poptropica, couldn't stand my kapoop urge so I asked them to open up a new window and type "Y" in the search bar and press enter (Hah! Auto youtube. Winks*) while I put head phones on.
Then type "R-I-N-G-D-I-N-G-D-O-N-G" in the youtube search bar (It amazing how happy they can get while typing something out..) and press on the first video that comes out, they were pretty pleased with themselves, still have no idea why.
After a couple of seconds Han yelled out: I LOVE this song (I think he remembers listening to it on Machika's iPod..)! It has angels in it right?!
They were supposed to just go back to their Poptropica after pressing "Play" for me but they wanted to watch the angels then Han yanked out my headphones and said: I want to listen too! Fake frowny face*
After rewatching it for the second time he pointed at Onew and said: I like this angel.
And when he came on again he said: THAT'S my angel!
I was pretty shocked that he could recognize him since I could only recognize all off them after like... A couple of days! I think he has better eyes/brains than me.  Laughs*
Showed him Lucifer but he said he liked the "Angels" one better but this one was O.K and Hello but he said he liked the other two better this one is boringgg... Annoyed face*
Not long after the loaf of bread Ean or was it Han or Fai? Baked was done so we had a nice bread and a slab of butter picnic. Smiley face*

When we were half way through (When the "rest" came back and after dinner was cooked.) dinner Han suddenly went "Fantastic Elastic Fantastic Elastic Fantastic Fantastic" (I still don't understand why ALL kapoop songs like putting in random English words in their songs, I suppose that's like their... Trade mark?) and I kinda fell off my chair laughing and choked on some rice! (Got a deathly what did YOU do to Han when we were away glare from Mommy.)
I didn't expect him to remember ANY of the lyrics from the song..!
He sang that awkward verse again when he was brushing his teeth, hahaha! He enjoys singing the awkwark verse at awkward moments...
I hope this doesn't continue...

~K

P.S
I changed my mind about having no pictures in this post, here are the disaster photos I took while clearing out my cake room: Entering crime scene*

 Above:

My "Stained glass window" inspired cake separator, I guess now it REALLY is stained, the grey dummy cake was the gothic necklace inspired one and now the top of it has a photo copy of the stained glass inspired cake's RI piping!

And... Try spotting the pale pink (Un-dusted, whew!) roses.

Below:

My stained glass inspired cake separator working place, notice the black watery pool, it was stiff consistency black RI awhile back... (Ignore piping bags.)   

Above:

My 3 tiers on 3 base (Inspired by the royal wedding cake.) with a half completed cake board. FUNGUSY!  

Below:

At least I managed to save two tiers of work... They are now "drying" in my cake room.

Above and below:

YEAST FUNGUS THINGY

Above:

Managed to save the cake board as well by scrapping off the paper!

Goodbye... My beautiful (Freehand piping in monochrome...), sob.

Below:

More fungus?

KC

Yeah, not very long ago Casey (Chestnut brown with white stockings, my favorite type of horse.) was actually KC but I think I prefer Casey more than a short formed name, after today's lesson I think I realized what KC meant, I have a feeling it's krazykicking Casey..!

Well just to get you a bit more excited, I actually (Let's see, I rode Casey on my second lesson with that instructor that never returned and I kinda fell but not to the floor, hugged it's neck until I was helped off, so I don't really think that's considered a fall, right? Oh fine, half fall, happy?) fell off Krazykicking Casey.
Okay enough, let me torture you with the boring stuff. MWAHAHA?

Today I got Casey because... I am not exactly sure why but I think it's because I won't get too used to riding King and if I get put on another horse I won't be able to ride it?

I should skip the waking up, breakfast and leaving the house and reaching the stables part...
If you need to know I woke up at a VERY chilly 7AM, had a piece of buttered toast for breakfast and we reached the stables pretty early so we got to play with the horses a bit.

Getting on Casey seemed easier than King, it's either his shorter or I am getting better.. Or maybe both?

Did the usual walking x6 rounds, I was pretty surprised on it's ability to not do the sleep walk (King enjoys doing that when he isn't fully awake yet or during the early morning lessons.) or trot but at the perfect walking speed which was quite hard get obtain when I was riding King because first he would do his groggy sleep walk and when I ask him to go faster AKA kick him, he starts trotting!
I guess I was somewhat pleased with it's walking since I didn't have to kick (Trust me... Kicking the horse lightly for 6 rounds is quite tiring, I told you the rider does more work than the horse!) him much and I could reeeellaaaaxxx... And leave my waist loose to follow his err.. Walking rhythm thing. I felt pretty jellyfishy!

I was pretty shocked when I asked it to trot because I would usually kick King a lot (He's stubborn, trust moi. And lazy.. And 6 years older than Casey.) and do that "tsk tsk tsk" clicking tongue thing before it started to move while I only had to double click and Casey would "Vroooooooooooooooooom", that kinda pumped a lot of adrenaline (And a half a second panic!) around my head!

It was SOOOO fun going super speedy trotting (Rising trot, sitting trot isn't possible at that speed! It is possible but I don't exactly feel like bouncing my head off!) around the "Sandy training pen", I was the only one there (Fai was there too but he was in the middle so it doesn't bother me much.) and it was kinda awesome seeing the mist of sand behind you, very good for pretending you are in some Wild westish scene! The only thing that is missing is the cactus, your cowboy hat and rope!

then, Then, THEN... I decided to practice the jumping position thingy (Lift ya butt off the saddle when your horse is trotting and basically just balance on your stir ups while leaning forward a little, it REALLY tests your balancing skills! And mine apparently isn't all that good..) which I learnt during the last lesson, too lazy to blog about that since the only thing new was the jumping preparation, I really had no clue that I was going to be doing the jumping over hurdles thing...

It was pretty hard to figure out what speed it was going at and little did I know it was going to start to canter!
So while I was balancing on the stir ups it started to canter without my knowledge!
Obviously I lost balance did the hug-neck-thing but somehow my hands slipped a little and plop on the sand I went!
The only thing that was on my mind at that time was probably "Please don't stomp on me!"!
When Casey stopped (I didn't get dragged around, I still have no idea how my feet got out of the stir ups so easily! Well I am VERY glad my feet didn't get stuck in the stir ups cause I would probably be dragged if I didn't!) I got up and dusted the sand off (The only thought in my head then was probably "Oh mai JODHPURS!! It looked as though as I was wearing sand more than a pair of jodhpurs!) and hopped back on Casey without the instructor teaching Fai's knowledge!
I think he caught me climbing back on, I remember his eyes nearly popping out as he came running!

I still have no idea what I did since I didn't get even a scratch or even an aching joint!
Oh well, hooray for meee!
A very good lesson learnt, don't try new "moves" on a new horse (That you don't know how fast it can go.), it may get scary but it's always good learning it this way instead of someone/your instructor telling it to you because... It doesn't seem to really get drilled into your brain.

Just after I got on the owner (Auntie Zarina's husband if you remember me mentioning her name from one of my previous horsey posts.) of the horsey academy (Justa make it sound FIAANNNCYYY, hahaha!) came running and apologizing that he was late and when the staff called him to say that I was already on Casey he started rushing here!
He asked me if I cantered already, I said yes, he said me if I fell, I said yes, see? I am always one step ahead of everyone, hah!
Then I got asked if I was alright or not and I replied (Maybe snapped, can't really remember.) "I AM alive right?!", that's my typical reply when someone asks me that dumb question, I mean, why ask if I look alright? Weird face*


Stopping Casey (I seem to get more tired riding Casey, I think it is quite obvious why! And it's harder keeping Casey collected, err.. Head tuck down and more likely to follow instructions? So I did that pull left rein, pull right rein so much that I kinda have a bubbly blister on one ring finger and some skin peeled of on the other one. Just in case you were wondering you don't use your pinky as the last finger when you grip the reins, you use your ring finger and thumb to lock the reins in place. Pinkies up and pretend you are having a nice cuppa tea!) was another problem cause I needed to pull my hands, wait, wrist off and bounce around in the saddle a bitlot (You're not suppose stop with your butt floating in midair, hahaha!), I am not sure what's more tiring.. Riding him or stopping him!

I think the rest of the lesson went quite alright, not my best but ookkkaaayy I suppose and as usual the 1 1/2 hours zoomed by too quickly!

When I got home I found a ton of sand in my boots, socks and jodhpurs, no wonder it felt rather uncomfortable...

~K



   

@ KL

It's now 1.36AM and I could just fall asleep anytime now but I have that "un-complete" feeling drifting around somewhere in my mind and to complete it.. I need to blog, haven't blogged much lately, I think.

Have been lazy, as usual.

Left the house at 730AM in my grandparent's Kembara, long story.. My Mom's car was in a workshop in PJ, my Grandparent's car broke down when they were in PD so they stayed here for an extra 2-3 days, they needed to do stuff in their farm in Melaka and the car still wasn't done yet so they used my Dad's car to drive there and THAT car broke down somewhere in Melaka, so we were carless for a day or two and we had SO much "instant" stuff (Instant noodles, roti canai, nuggets, mushroom soup and marmite soup etc.) that I actually got fed up (Imagine that...), so anyways, the Kembara was out of the workshop and we used that car to go down to KL and did I mention...? The air conditioning doesn't work. 

We (We= Mommy, Papa, me and Ean, left the other two boys at home.) kinda left early to avoid the sunnyness, yeah, I come from a family of vampires.

Wound down the windows to breath, by the time we reached KL (About 1 1/2 hours later..) I am pretty sure my face felt rather numb from all that find and my throat felt rather yucky and dry from all that smog, yuck.

  

Our first stop of the day was.. Back to my ol' neighborhood (It's nice being there again, I am not sure why. I just... Kinda miss it somehow I suppose there were a lot of memories created there, good ones.) to collect my Mom's car then have breakfast at our favorite "Mamak" shop that was next to the playground, Shannar Curry House I think it's called, it somehow doesn't seem to be spelt right over here but oh well.

It was our when Mommy-is-lazy-to-cook or when we got bored of Domino's (Why.don't.they.have.it.in.PORT DICKSON?! Pepperoni pizza... Mmmm...) place to eat and we ate there like.. At least 3 times a week!

I suppose I kinda missed my all time favorite "Maggi Goreng" (Fried instant noodles with vegetables and tofu which I usually push aside.), "Roti canai" and orange juice!

I think you can pretty much guess what I had, right?

After a hearty breakfast we (Mommy, me and Ean.) were dropped off at the PJ library, they were doing some rather not so major renovation and it was quite dark and abandoned looking (They ripped all the ceiling boards off and the return-borrow books counter..!) on the ground floor and it had a rather scary aura...

Made my way up the stairs (Using the lift alone feels even more scary this time round so I shall stick with my all time favorite stairs.) to the first floor, nothings changed, same books, same authors, it was getting boring..

When I find a new interesting series I borrow the whole thing then when I return it I am lost again, yeesh.

And of course, it was FREEZING and rather empty.. My borrowed-from-Mommy green scarf helped a bit but it was still hard to do anything, not long after I made my way down to a very dark room (It's usually pretty bright but I am not sure what happened.) called the "Kid's area", found Mommy and Ean there and decided to drag them to the cafe where it was warmer while we waited to get picked up, yawn.. I am getting sleepy so let's jump to Plaza Ampang City, hey! Did anyone realize it rhymes? 

We planned to go horse riding gear shopping earlier but we always seemed rather busy so it was postponed till today and of course, I felt rather excited, I always do when I get to go S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G!

Plaza Ampang City wasn't exactly what I expected it to be it was a rather old fashioned building with an ancient lift, the first thing I spotted when we were out of the lift was the "Equine KL" logo, actually it was the rows and rows of grand pianos on sale (For a split second I thought they were coffins..) but I suppose that doesn't count, eh?

 There were two "Equine KL" shops, one for the rider and one for the horse, didn't get to see the horse one though.

It was like horse rider's heaven in there, it was quite interesting to see what was inside a "Tack shop", the most interesting/amusing thing was probably the sunglasses that look two big huge fly eyes! 

Oh, and you would never guess how much the cost! I think I could have made my own out of mosquito netting and a small tea sieve and it would have costed... 1/4 Of the price! But who on earth wants to wear fly eye sunglasses?!

It was eye candy looking at the SHINee, whoops (It is kinda auto now, need.to.cut.down.my.kapooping!), I mean shiny helmets (But the price tag certainly was very eye candyish, it was eye popping outish, I don't understand why helmets cost so much..) and the rainbow colored jodhpurs!

I absolutely LOVE the word "Jodhpurs" (It's a strange word and I somehow enjoy saying it a lot! Jodhpurs, jodhpurs, jodhpurs!), at least it sounds much better than horse riding pants and certainly VERY much more posh and a couple of steps later you come to this tiny room filled with riding BOOTS! 

Let's see, ever since I had feet (I am not sure when I didn't.) I have ALWAYS liked boots (I don't know why, I just like stompy boots but not high heeled ones unless there is a secret knife in the heel..) but never once did I get a pair of boots so... Fingers crossed?

Until today I had NO idea that jodhpurs came in so many colors!

It thought there would just be the standard black, khaki and brown but I did secretly pray taht they would have some other colors or purple and... WALAH!

They had this beautiful maroon purpleish colored pair on jodhpurs, mmm....  
Didn't have to look at the rest once I tried the purple pair of jodhpurs on.
Jodhpurs= The most comfortable pair of "fitting" I have ever worn pants next to leggings, my jeans felt rather/very hard when I changed back into it!

then, Then, THEN! (I kinda forgot how I got to this part..)
I COULD GET BOOTS!
I WAS OVER THE MOON HAPPY!
LALALALALALALALA!
Ooh, look! A whole rack to choose from!
Brown boots, black boots (I wonder why they don't have a whole range of colors to choose from like the jodhpurs, I think I would suggest that to them.), lacy uppy boots, long farmer boots, short stumpy boots, zippy boots, hard stiff boots, soft furry boots! (Hahaha! I feel like Dr Suess, somehow. One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish!)
After trying all (Or almost all.) of the above I decided on a not too low (It's rather ugly and it looks like men's err... Office working shoes? And my jodhpurs are a little too short for me so it's going to look awkward unless I cover it up with chaps but I don't really need them yet so I didn't get them this time round, I don't think I will need them ever though..) or high (I LOVE high boots but too bad I had to get a custom made one because well... My feet are too big for my skinny legs so the boots don't exactly "hug" my calf and it looks as though as I am wearing RM10 "pasar malam" rubber boots! A custom made pair of boots cost 2-3 times more than the "un-custom" made ones!) pair, a nice black lace in the front (To adjust so it will "hug" your err... Lower calf?), zip at the back (So I don't have to re-tie them every single time.), black, stompy pair of boots!
I got booooots! Wheeepeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!




It's always VERY nice when you get what you have always dreamed for and mine was: Black lace up boot and a pair of jeans that wasn't blue, khaki or black, I think I didn't exactly do the jeans part but still...
And they happen to be the MOST expensive pair of pants and shoes I have EVER bought, I guess I am very budgetty shopper, I remember Machika calling me a good "backpacker" (We plan to travel the world on a budget, we both agree that the funnest things in the world are travelling and eating!) on one of our shopping trips!

I think I will just fast forward this part a bit.. Pushes the fast forward button*
*Note: Read this part extremely fast so you get the fast forward effect.

Thenwewenttoanother"mamak"shop(Again!Ithinkwemissittoomuch!)thatwasafloorabovethehorseyshop,huggedmy"EquineKL"bagasthoughasitwasmyfavoritepillow,itwasjustasprecioustomebutofcourseidon'tthinkIwouldeverwanttohugapairofridingbootstosleepandicouldneverbeartowearmyfavoritepillowonmy..Feet.
KindafellasleeponceIsatonthecarseat,Iamnotsurewhatexhaustedmesomuch..Ithinkitwasallthatallthathoppingandbouncingaround(Mentallyandphysically.)duetoexcitementinthehorseyrider'sgearshop!
ThenextthingIknewIwasawakeatatrafficlightandinfrontofmewasSungaiWangPlaza,wewerefollowingmyDadtohisweeklyRotarymeetingtoday.
Wewere2hoursormaybe3hoursearlysoweparkedthecarinBanker'sCluandwalkedovertoSungaiWangtokilltimeand..GetEuHan's5thbirthdaypresent.
Aftersomeaimlesswalking(Papacalleditpresenthunting..MeandMommycalleditaimlesswalking.)andTransformerbuyingwemadeourwaybacktoBanker'sClubforthemeeting.

If you managed to read all that.. CONGRATULATIONS, if not.. Too bad? Who knew my secret codes (I am a detective in disguise... I think I am a pretty bad one too.) were so hard, eh?

The last time I was here (And on the same floor! The 22nd and highest I think.), I was delivering the vet wedding cake.. I wonder if that was a good memory or a bad one..?

This weeks topic was: The need some villages have for clean water supply.
I know, it sounds VERY VERY boring, I thought that too, until the speaker, Siti Kassim started speaking...

The villages were Orang Asli (Direct translation: People Original, I think you may need to turn that around..) and 4 Orang Asli (2 Were getting sickish after less than 24 hours in KL! Proves how very polluted KL is compared to the outskirts..) from Gua (Or was it Gunung? I don't think they live in a cave.. Quick translation: Gua=Cave, Gunung=Mountain.) Musang, Kelantan joined us as well and they were all wearing tri color (Black, brown and yellowish, all natural, un-dyed! It took two hours to make one, I don't think I could ever be that patient..) hand weaved ratan bracelets, oh how much I love Malaysian Orang Asli handicraft (Actually I like any kind of "crafted" jewelry but this one's Malaysian and un-plastic so it's a wee bit more special to me.)!

Siti spoke about the "issues" the 18 Orang Asli tribes around peninsula Malaysia had but more onto the water side, in a way that made me hang onto her every word because well... It was certainly very interesting.

How the government intrude into their land without their permission, start clearing their land to plant oil palm or just logging, their rivers and streams become clogged up with eroded soil, chemical from the I-am-not-sure-what-I-kinda-forgot, it becomes so filthy that they cannot bath in it cause the chemical eats into their skin or gives them skin disease, let alone drink it.
Then one of the Orang Asli men spoke up and said that it looks so much like tea you just needed to add sugar to drink it!
At that moment I kinda pictured the "tea" going down your throat and eating all the organ-tissue-thing (Oh dear, how on earth can I forget what it's called?! I think I just failed my biology test.) it passes like acid, eek, scary thought..
And then they are moved away from their land to some very small "shacks" to live in that were only a feet apart from each other and they were promised to have electricity (There is an electricity pole there and wires to the house but no electricity running through it..) and clean water but that didn't happen and not long after the shacks started collapsing...

It was a rather pitiful and inspiring (Somehow.) speech that I enjoyed lots, I am feeling very sleepy now so I shan't continue..

Karen
P.S Did you know Karen is a name of a an Orang Asli tribe?! And the women like lots of jewelry and beads, just like me!