How to Burger

So when a bunch of friends decided to squeeze some time off their busy schedules and meet up... 

What do they usually do?

Chill at a cafe? Lunch at a fancy restaurant? Or grab a movie at the nearest mall?

NOT FOR US!

We go back to the basics: man, nature, AND burger

First off, deciding to meet at 10pm at a Friday night is already as crazy as it sounds

But, to insist on having a nice warm BBQ session right after a rain? 

You know nothing's gonna stop us!

So here we are at our fav spot

Underneath Penang Bridge

A nice view to look at while we prepare our fire...

Which was sipek challenging cause of the rain

Finding tree branches and leaves are the easy part

Lighting em up to a decent fire took us about 1 hour

So it's 1 hour of non stop fanning, blowing onto almost-dead flames and throwing in small branches

But the guys did manage to ignite the whole BBQ set with only 1 火种 and a few charcoals

As fo me... Well, while I was waiting for the others to arrive, I was busy taking selfies

.

.

.

Until I tripped and sprained my ankle...

Which confined me to sitting on a tiny rock afterwards for the whole night

Boo.... 

Readying the fire

Baby you're a firework...

 You just gotto ignite, the light...

And let, it shine!

Voila!

Burger in the making

Look at em go

Mr.Tommy - chicken tosser

Mr.Sheng - fire controller

Ms.Wendy - Rock sitter / Selfie taker

United, as one!

Pepo, these are the rare instances where you can see

womenfolk sitting around doing nothing, while the guys do all the work.

A toast, to you both!

Then 3 random strangers decided to come join our fire

Yes, they are totally random :D

How to prepare a mouth watering burger?

(hidden episode from how-to basics)

#1 - Ready the ingredients

#2 - Burn the buns

#3 - Slap waaaay too much mayo on your bun

#4 - Put in cheese that doesnt look like cheese

#5 - Smash in readied chicken breast

#6 - Regret your decision and try to save it by slapping black pepper sauce

#7 - Enjoy it anyways! 

*Ting*

Moar photos!

Le first burger taster

Working with almost melted cheese

Reminds us of... Stuff.

Fire burning our burnt bun

Mayo slapper

Everyone enjoyed their burger

Nice chilling and catching up with everyone :)

All in all, an awesome experience!

Even tho I got a bit tipsy towards the end, but I self-declare this gathering...

A SUCCESS!

I had an awesome time hanging out with you guys

Hopefully, there will be another one soon!

To end this amazing blog post, a photo of our beloved 大姐!

To many many more gatherings in near future

"I love you guys, you guys are awesomeeeeee"

- Jacky, 2014

Signing off
JCG

Searching for myself

Well, it's been a month since I've written.
Yes, I miss the times when I could just sit down and write about anything that comes to mind.
But now, with so many plannings, preparations and work going on...
Yea, I still have free time, I'm just a lazy b*tch.

Well, convocation's this Saturday, so that's new.
Excited? Perhaps, but still, the last hurdle before entering society for real.
Which brings me to my dilemma, finding the right career.

I'm pretty tied up so far, working on off in projects, researchers, and others.
I'm also taking my teacher's course in music.
Well, at times I could be really free and at times, I would stay up late nights to finish off work.

I am shaping my future towards education, but I'm not too sure if that's what I want.
People around me advised me to go for what you CAN, instead of what you WANT to get me up on my feet.
While I agreed to that to some point, I just can't shake the feeling of me wanting to do so much more in life!
I want to write articles, I want to learn and meet exciting people and stuff, I want to travel...
So many things I've wanted, but is it for me?

That's why lately I've been bubbling myself into vacation plannings & field trips.
It's like my go-to escape plan to explore the world without actually needing to stray too far away from my future career now.
Who know where I'll end up next.

When in doubt, I actually stumbled on this article on career choices, if you are facing some sort of career problem, you can definitely look it up.

Finally, I'd like to say, what I'm going through is something pretty common.
But it is something new to me, so I need time to adjust to everything.
I know that no matter what we do, we just gotto inject some fun, humour and life into it...
And voilà, life's beautiful again!

What better way to end a blog with a chicken selfie!

Bak Bak! hehehehehehehehe

(Taken after my taman run - training for Penang Marathon yo! 7km!)

Signing off,

JCG

Happy Goodbyes

I was proud of myself when I told my roommate CK, "No, I won't feel sad because I'm leaving, I feel neutral."
Yes, that was a few days back when I think that those grads crying and sobbing is overrated.
Now that I'm going to leave the comfort -no, it's not comfortable at all here, it's freaking hot- safety of my hostel, I felt the weight of it all.
Suddenly, I felt lost. 

Days before my final exam, I was already busying myself with job applications, resumes and such.
I was so sure that with a job in hand, I would feel good about myself, I would feel proud and happy, even though I'm leaving USM.
But I woke up today, and looked around my room, I felt unsure.
Running my hands on the once bed bugs infested walls, looking around at that dim atmosphere of the room, lit by redness from our window curtains, and finally resting my gaze on my sleeping roommate, I felt a sudden pang of reality.
I'm going to leave this place for good.

I'm going to miss the morning calls by the birds living on top of our ceiling, the birds we once hated so much to the extend we threw objects to the ceiling to quiet them down.
I'm going to miss the walks to school crossing over SK school, where there's always a crowd of busy people rushing to their classes and I'll have to bump everyone to get through.
I'm going to miss our lecture sessions, trying to pay attention in class, talking behind the lecturer's back, sharing private jokes between ourselves.
I'm going to miss our lunch dates, we would just walk a 5 minutes down to Red House and we would share a joyfully 'loud' lunch, complaining about our school work or just plain blow water '吹水'.
I'm going to miss our after lunch hideaway at our school's resource room, where we care not about the resourcefulness of the room, but of the kind and cooling air-con and their computers.
I'm going to miss the walks / drives out to our school, towards that familiar street with 4 fast food restaurants, but we'd still complain there's nothing nice to eat around here.
I'm going to miss times when we would BBQ in front of lake Harapan, and the cheap booze we would sneak in to couple with our meals and sauce, just to relax and enjoy the Biawaks swimming around us.
I'm definitely going to miss the long endless sessions of talk my friends and I share, talking about school, about life, about love, about friends, about dreams and about sex. *wink*

There's a famous Chinese saying that goes by 人面不知何处去，桃花依旧笑春风, signifying the habitual rhythm of life that runs everyday, but the familiar faces we once associate with are no longer there.
I think what I miss most, is the safeness of this place, not the place itself.
I like the way that I could just walk down a flight of stairs to search for my coursemates, H&M (Hannah & Meiyin)
I feel safe when I'm surrounded by familiar faces in class, the always sleeping KS sitting beside AG and always talking Jacky.
Of course, I cannot forget the limb Chiaying, always wishing for the class to end early, and the always writing Casey, always wishing he could write faster while his other hand busied himself with tissues.
Tommy, who's always secretly planning on which next country he would like to visit and BBQ at.
Shashee, the forever loving girl who would always say goodbyes with a hug.
Bingqian, the Chinese from China who's always in cool clothing but in sweat from her walking 30 mins to school.
Fidah & Rou, where I would usually chat through FB, but I secretly feel proud because I can mix around with them.
Of course, my cute and slightly plumb roommate CK along with my next door neighbors Yumei & Meiyee, who shared so many food with me!
And many more which their names are not mentioned here.
The SAFENESS of my friends being beside me, to care for me and to remind me that we have yet to complete assignments and stuff.

BUT, I would prefer not to miss them.
I prefer happy goodbyes and 再见s, which meant we will definitely see each other again.
We might feel lost now that we have to go on with life and to take on jobs, careers and responsibilities.
But I'm sure, no matter how hard life might take us, we would still look back today and say that, I had a wonderful Uni life.
Sad? Perhaps, but it's a proud moment of being sad.
But there will still be chances we'll meet together, play together and have fun together.
Till we meet again my silly friends.

Signing off,

JCG