Do You Know Who You Really Are

So I have been watching more YouTube channels lately and I have subscribed to a couple of new ones.

Well, they are not new at making Youtube videos. Some have been doing it for almost 10 years. 

10 years of making short videos for a living! Amazing!

Something struck me the other day when one of them was having a hard time in life right now. Among other things, identity crisis was one of the reasons given.

It is hard enough to be at an age where you don't know what you want to be or how you're going to portray yourself to the world. I think it is even harder for someone from a minority ethnicity to be living in an environment where there is definitely going to be a clash of cultures.

Which brings me to something that I've always thought of for my own kids. 

How much Asian do they want to be in a Western world?

How much of a Bidayuh do they want to be in Australian society?

I used to think that Asian kids born into a Western society will be able to adapt themselves easily simply because they know no other way of life. 

But after watching and reading more on the struggles of these Asian youngsters living in the Western society, I may have to rethink of my way in approaching the issues that my kids will face in the future. 

The struggle is real, people!

Do you have similar experiences growing up? Or having one right now?

x

K-Drama Chaos: Love Rain

I love watching Korean dramas and it excites me each time I read about new and upcoming dramas. The first K-drama that I saw was Winter Sonata and it was one of those melodrama type with lots of tears, sad faces, crying, wailing and the likes. Yes, that drama really paved the way to my life-long journey of K-drama addiction.

I wasn't a big fan back then because to me, K-drama was all about the crying and tears with very absurd storyline. However I became a regular fan during 2004 because by then I had moved to a different state because of my work and living away from family and friends, I would watch K-drama to fill my time. 

There are many genres in K-drama and if you Wiki it up you'll read more on the history. The genre I like most is romantic comedy because it is fun, has a light storyline and most of the time quite humorous. But after watching one romantic comedy after another, I began to wonder what it would be like to watch dramas of different genres.  

I don't think I want to do a recap or summary of the dramas that I've watched because there are many other websites out there that does a much better job compared to what I am capable of. Instead, I'll just share screenshots of my favourite moments from the drama. 

Today I'm going to share about the latest drama that I've watched which is Love Rain. It falls under the Romance/Melodrama genre and my first impression of this drama is that there will be a lot of tears and emotions.

My main motivation of watching this drama is the leading male, Jang keun-suk. He is not the manly man type, instead he is more towards the pretty type. The first drama featuring him that I watched was You're Beautiful. He can also be seen in Mary Stayed Out All Night, Pretty Man and Hong Gil Dong. 

The drama is about a couple who met, fell in love but due to life circumstances, went their separate ways. More than 20 years later, their offsprings met, fell in love and things gets complicated from then on. 

 The drama starts off with the a boy and a girl meeting each other and the boy fell in love with the girl in just 3 seconds. Yes..1..2..3..seconds.

 Apparently romance happens when it rains, under a brightly coloured barely functioning umbrella, where the guy gets soaked because he wants to protect the girl from being drenched. Chances of the girl falling for the guy in this instance has just gone up tenfold.

(More than 20 years later) The young couple's first encounter at the train station, SeoJoon(SJ) and HaNa(HN)

This fountain kissing scene is memorable but I think is still somewhat stiff

The face of a guy who has fallen for a girl

I love this scene because of the trees in the background. White trees? Beautiful!

Close up of a loving, tender moment between the two

The pretty boys who work at the White building. When you have friends like this looking at you having a tender moment with your loved one, your life is sure to be fun :)

This is the son of a chaebol who likes HN, but befriended her first pretending to be just an ordinary guy. For once, I am happy that the son of a chaebol did not get the girl this time

The moment that HN confessed her feelings for SJ and is ready to reciprocate SJ's feelings, HN put a couples ring on his finger. I like this scene as well because for once the girl took the initiative to put a ring on a guy's finger first

 

Jealous moment by SJ

More pretty boys and look at how adorable they are!

Intervention by the pretty boys. They are telling HN to not fall in love with SJ because they do not want her to get hurt. Well boys, you are too late!

Breakup scene

Yes, that is the face when you realise your mom and your boyfriend's dad are having a romantic relationship.

Okay, at this stage I have to ask. Is it wrong for kids who have no blood relation to date when their respective parents are seeing each other at the same time? Is that a taboo in any parts of the world?

The moment when the kids are officially introduced to each other. Awkward.

The son of the chaebol who is still trying to win HN over

Sad faces

And more sad poses

SJ's father told SJ that he knew of the relationship between HN and him

And this is when SJ's father told SJ that he isn't going to marry HN's mom

Yay, they are hooking up again!

Running away. Is it normal to run away while holding hands when you just decided to give the relationship a go again?

Run away my beautiful people, run away!

The good friend who has a crush on HN and here he is on a video call with HN. The other pretty boys said he will get a new hairdo every time he fails in his romantic endeavour.

The awkward moment when SJ's mom tried to set him up with another girl and trying to break his relationship with HN at a dinner party...in front of her friends. 

He said he is leaving, but it is not a breakup, just a temporary absence until she is not needed by her mom anymore.

That moment when HN is not despised by SJ's mom, just nicely tolerated

This kissing scene is sweet and beautiful because it looks real and not stiff

SJ's mom giving the why-don't-you-two-just-get-married-already look

Are we hearing you right?

Really? Did she say that?

Are we really doing it?

The proposal scene *swoon*

Another angle to the proposal scene

A kiss under the arch, and no they are not married yet. HN had to stop by White building to water the flowers on their way to the wedding ceremony

And finally they are off!

So if you decide to give the drama a go, be prepared for a lot of gazing, intense soul searching, swoon worthy moments, non-stop brooding and diabetes-inducing romance.

x 



Korean drama. (2015, May 31). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 04:26, June 2, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Korean_drama&oldid=664909303

The Importance of History

I learnt history in school and during my time it was an obligatory subject to learn and pass in major exams.


It started with just local and national history. Then it moved on to European and Asian histories. I even had 2 semesters of TITAS in university, which stands for Tamadun Islam dan Tamadun Asia. It focuses on Islamic, Malay, Chinese and Indian civilisations.


To be frank, I never liked learning history. It was full of things that have already happened. There were always too many names to remember, too many exact dates to memorise and too many roles to commit to mind. And during exam I was expected to churn out those information verbatim. I had no appreciation for history. I excelled in exams for the subject because I had to.


It was only when I worked and lived in a different state from my hometown that I realised the importance of knowing my history. History helped me explain some disagreements and popular myths about my home state. Sometimes I would use history to ridicule people who had little or no knowledge at all of my home state, but this only happened when the prejudices were unbearable. 


Usually I would be very nice at explaining things to people who would like to know more. I was and still am a nice person.


So after many years of not having to explain myself or my ancestry to strangers with my Malaysia's and Sarawak's history, I found myself in a very familiar situation a couple of weeks back at a local playgroup that I attended.


The question was: WHY DO YOU HAVE AN ENGLISH NAME?


"Why not?"

"Why can't I?"

"Why do you think I can't have an english name as my name?"


No, I did not answer the lady back with those questions.


Instead I politely explained that my parents liked that name and they thought it would be good to bestow that name to their daughter.


I was anticipating follow up questions that would require my history knowledge. 


However the conversation turned to other subjects and I was happy with chatting away about mundane stuff.


I am glad that I still have my history knowledge intact and I have no problem sharing with others about my ancestry if there was a need. 


The past teaches us a lot about the present, and the present helps us shape our future.


x




A Passing Absence

It has been almost 3 months since my last blog post and the time off was well spent.

It was never meant to be a long absence from blogging. Daily life took over, I became idle in maintaining my writing and also my blog.

However, I can proudly say that there have been good things that I've done while away. 

I spent time learning how to create contents and write better.

I also spent time learning a foreign language. 

I managed to catch up on my Korean dramas.

Yes, I love my K-dramas and I'm not ashamed to say so. You might even read about my passion in the future.

Have a nice weekend everyone and till my next post. X 

Experimental Kitchen : Apple and Cinnamon Golden Syrup Scroll

It has been a busy month and I am trying to make time for blogging. Coming up with 1 blog post per week as what I've planned for when I started this blog has been a challenge. Maintaining a blog around my family commitments, personal pursuit and aspirations isn't easy as I have so many exciting ideas that I want to make happen in the near future. 

Despite all that, today I would like to share one of my favourite scroll recipe, Apple and Cinnamon Golden Syrup Scroll.

It took me more than 2 hours 30 minutes to prepare the scroll but the taste was amazing! I made it twice and although the top of the scroll was slightly burnt because of my wonky oven, it was a very good recipe which I highly recommend.

My favourite yeast

Brushed melted butter on the dough

Sprinkled sugar and cinnamon mixture

Folding and rolling wasn't easy as excess filling would squirt out on both sides

I recommend putting more granny smith (because my household likes granny smith apples!) and it should be chopped finer than what I did 

See the sugar mixture+butter oozing out?

Folding and rolling takes twice before putting the granny smith filling. Then cut.

First tray

Second tray

My wonky oven

End result

xox

A Cup of Flat White

Since this is my first entry of the year, I thought I would start with an easy going post. 

I have always been a tea lover for as long as I could remember. I don't drink coffee because of a long standing belief of my elders that drinking coffee will make my nose bleed, because random nose bleed has always been my affliction since I was small.

When I was in pre-Uni, I tried drinking instant coffee. After a week of drinking it every morning, I stopped because it was causing me migraine every time after consuming it.

So that was it, and I never thought of having another cup again until last year when I walked past a coffee shop and the whiff of coffee was too irresistible. 

After some intense reading and research, we decided to buy a coffee machine and make our own coffee at home. That will definitely be a future blog post :)

Today I want to talk about flat white, which is a coffee beverage invented in Australia in the 1970s. For a more detailed description and origin of flat white, please visit this wikipedia entry and SecondCup does a very good job at graphic explanation of the differences between a flat white and other types of coffee beverages.

My cup of flat white

I have had two cups of flat white at the same cafe on two separate occasions and I think my first cup tasted much better than the second one. I don't particularly like it because even though I put sugar in it, the flavour was too strong for my liking. I definitely prefer my coffee sweet and with lots of milk and froth. 





References

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Flat_white&oldid=645437004

SecondCup. http://www.secondcup.com/pdf/Flat_White/SCFW_Flat_white_en.pdf