Harajukucat’s posting of Yorkshire vs. London got me thinking about my own priorities. Being a thorough and through city girl, it has been hard for me settling down in Yorkshire where the sheep baa and the cows roam free.Well,not really roam free, but any city/town centre that you can reach all ends within 20mins by foot is not really a city city per se.

I miss the buzz of being in the city. I miss the weekly happenings, the special sales, the wide variety of food, shops, the rude people.I used to wonder what do people in places like Kuantan (an east coast town in Malaysia, akin to Whitby) or Alor Star (town north of Malaysia..akin to Barnsley in the UK)do during their weekends. There are but one shopping complex in the whole town. And obviously you won’t see the likes of Armin Van Buuren playing there - I think in Kuantan nightclubs are even banned..complete with entertainment of any sort. Heck, I could not even imagine myself living in Penang, which is probably considered the second biggest city in Malaysia after KL….even having being born there

And fast forward a year and here I am, in a tiny hamlet of a town (apparently the fastest growing city in the UK!) and UK’s third biggest city. Then why do I feel like a sheep in the city? I feel I stick out like a sore thumb…catcat’s observation of getting lost in London’s crowd but not being able to do that at Leeds stands true. I had not grown up knowing discrimination, and this is probably the first place I’m living in with such a small population of ‘ethnic minorities’ . On the plus side, people usually remember and recognize me and bacon….we went back to homebase two months after we paid for the bed, and the sales guy serving us not only remembered us, he remembered which bed did we order.I doubt that he just has a good memory.

On the plus side, this IS exordinarily ordinary,and I’d rather be anything other than ordinary.

I still sorely miss the buzz of a big city..but hopefully one day I will grow up and my priorities will be reset to a more relaxed lifestyle,where everything is at a slower pace = living longer. At the moment, given half a chance, I would move back into the city - despite coming back with an inch thick of soot on my face every day.

You can take the girl out of the city but not the city out of the girl.

Changed sidebar to add on two additional link sections - one of random posts from the past and another one on various travelouges that I’ve blogged about previously.I like looking back and reminiscing - like last christmas

Not sure that I like the look of it..a little too long winded methinks.whaddaya think?

I miss the sun…

Today’s a rare day of sunshine @ Leeds.I’m going out to take pictures for lunch

Update: It is now 12.22 - lunchtime. And currently pissing it down tiuniamachauhai..

Its’ thanksgiving today, if anyone care. An all american holiday - this is usually celebrated hard core in the States. The day where you give thanks for the bounty that was reaped from the autumn harvest (also known as the Harvest Festival)..and also signifies the arrival of christmas…the day after thanksgiving has been historically the busiest shopping day of the year in the States where everyone go crazy on their plastics in the commercialisation that is christmas. One little note: I think its fairly strange that I still celebrate and love all holidays american style - 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Halloween.I also celebrate deepavali and merdeka..if I can I would be celebrating all year long. Since Deepavali I had Indian food, Chinese New year I had scottish haggis (don’t ask) today I shall have the traditional roast turkey complete with sprouts and spuds with the addition of a Yorkshire pudding. Not many people have tried this, but I actually make a dead mean turkey.Moist on the inside, crispy skin on the outside, I stole my recepie from Whole Foods - and never looked back ever since.MaybeI will pop one out after xmas and serve it to the outlaws

I had also used thanksgiving as the marker day for christmas…therefore this scrooge did a headcount of presents yesterday - and I am doing suprisingly very well. Most people on my list have two gifts ‘assigned’ to them…and most of them probably need another one. I’ve lost the mil and the granma il’s presents….purchased them at Camden when I was last down at London and of course, left it to Bacon to safekeep = dissapeared! I am having problems buying for men though…I have the ignorant accountant, the bro in law, fil and step fil. Then there is the assorted people that Bacon call friends.I had been asking around work for ideas…aftershave is a good one and some other guy suggested remote controlled car/helicopter/rocket. I’ll probably pop over M&S and grab some man toys…compass,keychain sudoku ect.Bacon keep telling me that he don’t care if I don’t like Christmas, HE does. My reply was that it was because I was buying all the presents on his behalf - he has not bought one single miserly present…therefore = no stress. And it’s his family and friends that I’m buyin for. If I was him (sit back, relax and let the presents roll in without spending a penny) I would love christmas too! But anyone with any ideas for xmas gifts - let me know!

(at the moment everyone is getting candles/incense/soaps, or all three. Bacon’s family and friends are going to be one fragant lot)

Ding dong the scooge is dead, the scrooge is dead!

Somehow, bloggin just isn’t the same without picture. I find it so hard to express what I want to say…waaaaaah!Am going to try to use the mil’s pc to upload over the weekend..bear with me..

So I’ve decided to do an ‘about me’ section….yeah.that should be every blog’s starting point but due to the fact that my other 5 blogs did not survive I see no point in creating one for this, never predicting it will last this long!

• Exordinarily Ordinary started as my wramblings on how exordinary my life was, yet ordinary to many of my peers. Early influences include Shaky & Spike.My best blogger friend-like person is Moo
• I once started a blog just to whinge about this ONE guy I was obsessed with. And I posted daily.Every day.I made dreybee read it. Every day.
• I am excitable,uncontrollable and most of all, loud. I am protective and extremely loyal, but will drop you at a heartbeat if you hurt me.
• I love vices, and sometimes wonder if I am growing up too fast and moving too close to ordinarily ordinary.
• For the same reason, I collect Mr. Potatohead figures, shotglasses and rubber duckies.
• Bacon, the other white meat, collects alcohol.Lots of it.And retro records.Ala 1950s
• I always have enough money saved up to make an impromptu round the world trip,money that I can use to pack up and go when/if it gets too hot to handle. I call it my runaway funds.I still have it.
• I used to play the guitar. As soon as I started getting quite good, my parents bought me an expensive Charvel. I promptly quit.
• I started raving because some guy broke my heart. I could not bear listening to commercial love songs, therefore I had a year filled with nothing but songs without lyrics.With that came the boozing, the late nights, the pack a day habit and the best time of my life.
• That same guy also made me realise that if I could survive what he put me through,I can survive anything. I am invincible.
• I want to write a travel food book when I grow up…or work for Hallmark penning verses to cards - if you know me, you will agree!
• I came one inch of moving to Paris…and chickened out at the last minute. Now my french is back to elementary at best.
• I’ve always wanted to explore the world and had lived in different countries.Now that I had moved permanently, I wanna go home.
• My fav city in the world(other than KL) is San Francisco. I can sit for hours just watching the world go by.
• My friends are all from very different background - I don’t collect more than a small handful of friends in every stage of my life.And I love them all the same.
• An ex bf called the cops on me once. No, I did not beat him up. He was threatening me to dial 911 and accidentaly did.
• I don’t know how to deal with babies.I think they are as afraid of me as I am of them.
• I had a shihtzu named sasha who was as lazy as me, she hated walks.She slept in my room every night watching my bedroom door for intruders. She died of a stomach failure.It broke the whole family’s heart and we vowed never to have another dog
• I now have a black cat named tetley whom I am a stepmother to.
• I have fat feet.It makes it hard for me to buy pretty dancing heels
• Fact: All my ex bfs, and now bacon, can cook to varying degrees.From a full fledged chef to baking,roasting and spring rolls.And we wonder why am I fat.
• I am addicted to sugar.Not a day goes by that I do not have a choc of some sort
• The one and only award/piala that I’ve ever won was for an art competition I entered when I was 5.I won 1st prize with my stick figurines.All the jealous uncles and aunties kept telling me it was just to humour me. This leads me to…
• My deepest fear is that I am not as creative as I wished I was

To be continued…

I rushed back to old house at 3.30…arriving to find that most of our junk had been moved in the first load,leaving me with other ect items and also stuff to trash i.e. mucky sofa.Cleaned up with the mil a little, leaving the house dirty would cost about £500 in deposit..reminding me of my apartment in Fresno. Catcat was running around dead scared - there were strangers everywhere and nothing in the house. He was a rescue cat - was found locked in a garage when his owner had moved out..so he had reasons of being afraid when he sees things being moved out of the house.

Anyway it is now spick and span and ready for anyone to move in. Seeing that it was pitch black at 6pm, we moved into the mil’s house complete with catcat in tow..set him up with food and water, and he seemed a little calmer then.Popped down to get some chinese takeaway in - I’ve had so much takeaway food I swear my blood is 50% msg flavoured now..Aji-no-motooo…

Bright and early on Sat morn @7.30am, had leftover fried rice (they were amused at the fact that I can eat fried rice for breakfast - hey, if I can have iHOP’s pancakes-steak-eggs platter for breakfast, fried rice is nothing). Enegrised, I eventually got to see new home - boxes strewn all over the place, my mattress and shoe cabinet in the kitchen next to rotting container of tofu. Imported Kev over to help move boxes

He’s that guy on the right - yes, he’s single girls

He was so helpful that in under 4 hours, all the boxes were at the correct rooms and all the furniture were properly placed….after being stuffed all day in the downstairs lounge. . Mind you, he moved most of the boxes alone as Bacon was back in the old house clearing out the shed.I unpacked utensils and other kitchen stuff ect..by 2pm we’ve cleared the kitchen to resemble the hearth of the house! I still have bags of bah kut teh spices, curry mixture ect in a huge KLIA bag sitting on the floor,but can’t do much about that now..there simply isn’t enough cabinets in the kitchen! Must have a dedicated cabinet for food soon…

By 3.30pm I was completely knackered - the rest of the weekend was spent buying more stuff - a trip to ikea (with many more to come), a tumble dryer,groceries to stock up for the week now that we live a fair distance away from shops, curtain poles and curtains.Did’nt get curtains after all - stole some off the mil for immediate use as I’m sure the neighbours are sick of seeing us walk around half nekkid.

Frankly, quite proud of the fact that we have most things sorted out in 2 days time…now I just need to get some cabinets to unpack my clothes in ! However, bacon’s plumbed in the washing machine and I’ve even managed to wash one load of clothes yesterday..with 3 more to come.Can’t wait till my tumble dryer arrives to produce crisp clean DRY clothes!

This DIY thing is so amusing to me…bacon drilling holes in the walls, moving stuff, choosing cutain poles ect…back in Malaysia I would get someone else to do all that.He was amused at the fact that I’ve not done any DIY…well, other than the spice rack I made in Kemahiran Hidup (Shop class) class when I was 14.

In other news, I hate Christmas. I have got to be the most miserly person on Christmas..I can’t stand the fact that all the shops are always full, parking’s a horror and traffic is a complete standstill. GRR! And I have to come up with my own xmas list as well for gifts I want and also start buying gifts for other people…I hate I hate I hate….such a scrooge aren’t I?But it’s gotta be done, and hopefully this weekend I’ll start some shopping around.Have some ready stocking stuffers,but no major purchases yet for the outlaws.

Dear readers/gawkers

Rumors have been floating around on whether we have moved…so here is the official notice!

Please be patient whilst le bacons move pigstys!TOMORROW! As it will be a new home, we will not have a phone line installed until early december (that means no broadband)..and unless I can get a hold of another pc other than my work PC, no pictures will be uploaded!

What will I do now??No FlickR Pro for 2 weeks at least!

We will also not have any TV reception.Sigh.Oh well, at least I found my camera:)

Typical of any housewife wannabe, I enjoy the weekly grocery shopping. And it’s not only me, Bacon shares in this bizzare love of relpenishing our fridge. So much so we go grocery shopping all too regularly - I pop into Sainsbury or Morrisons’ every couple of days, with an almost weekly trip to ASDA (Walmart) and the occasional visit to Tesco.

A moment of truth: I enjoy grocery shopping full stop. I had my first introduction to larder management when I ran away to Paris/Bruxelles for 3 months…the boulangerie/pattiserie would get a visit from me in the morning and I’d pick up a tomato on the way back as well and sometimes a trip to the fromagerie.The mad rush for the supermarket for bigger items that I cannot carry will start when exbf gets back from work - grocery/supermarkets shuts at 6pm.As I had way too much time on my hands, I get cooking everyday.Lunch AND dinner.

Highlight of the week in Fresno is always packing dreybee and anyone else into my beat up civic and slowly crawl to Albertsons/Food4Less/Foodmart for weekly replenishing and the occasional jaunt into the mexican ghetto for cheapo grocery followed by the hmong ghetto for delicious bowls of pho.Ah.ghetto hopping….good times…

Anyway, I think I’ve lost the plot of the whole post…ah yes, trip to the grocery store with the bacons:

Strolling along with his basket..lalalala

I love the name…roooool and mop! Like rock and roll…rolled pickled herring.Don’t care much for the taste though

The *other* white meat. Something you’ll never find in Malaysian supermarket shelves.

I can’t cook fish, so I buy smoked.Just like La-La Chong’s with a squeeze of lime and pickled raikon.

Men need their own sort of tissues - the big sort.Cause they have big porus noses

I love cookies(look at the size of me!) - esp the Smarties ones

Xmas tree tortilla chips to usher in the xmas cheer

*salivate*.Why ang moh desserts are always way nicer (and cuter) than our halo halo/ais kacang?

Mommy mommy, someone ate Rudolph’s face!

Stocking up my sweet tooth - I love em’ Pink Smarties!

I *heart* sushi - yes, I’m a discount monger.Nothing will ever beat Zen’s sushi though.

The before

The after

In living colours

The bright-eyed will also have notice the return of the camera! Yes surrr….after about a month I have found the camera again! It felt like being reunited with a chopped off thumb…