Growing Amber

Here's a pix of Amber on our recent trip back to Melaka. They are really growing and soon, they'd be able to knock us down easily.

Public Blog?

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of meeting the editor of my favourite Malaysian magazine. As we chatted, I mentioned I blogged and she automatically asked for the address, if I didn't mind.

My jaw dropped. I had just posted the photo of the ulcer on my tongue and the thought of having the EDITOR of my fav magazine having access to the ummm... less appetizing blog entries etched all over my face. Thank goodness she was sweet and understanding without me saying much about why I was reluctant to share!

Then recently a headhunter contacted me and asked me, amongst other things, about my blog. Sheesh! I put it into my resume many moons back when I was angling it to suit a job which would have favoured having a blog and I forgot to remove it.

I would think that having a blog is pretty common nowadays but it seems it might be a topic of conversation when it's on a resume.

My New Accessory!

My first pair of cufflinks! Took me ages to finally find the right shirt and then I had to choose my cufflinks in less than 5 minutes to run for a movie.

What bothers me just a wee bit is that it is so... girly. Pink! Me! I was going to select a silver snowflake except it had a defect. In my moment of panic, the salesgirl maneuvered me to the most expensive range and suggested my first pair should be something more formal. Don't worry, there was a promotion so I was getting the cufflinks for free anyway.

I must comment that after griping about Malaysian customer service, this salesgirl was exceptional. Patiently bringing out every shirt I wanted to try on, with a smile on her face. I couldn't help but want to make my purchase there and then.

Never mind, I'm happy and excited with my purchase as it matches my shirts. Have yet to wear it to work!

Owwww....

My final embedded wisdom tooth is out via surgery. When I extracted my first embedded one, it was so painless, I didn't feel like I had a surgery. But this time, it hurts! Dang! The good thing is, I'm on MC for 5 days. Looks like I'm living with my parents full time with so many MCs over the last two months.

Jan said my other cheek looks swollen instead. That give you an indication of how round my face is, whether having a swollen cheek or not. Sheesh.

Sour Body

We're back! In one piece although it seems I'm the only one who's body is aching all over. And in Chinese, they'd call this ache "sour". All in all, it was a great weekend trip with family and friends. We crawled, swam, slid, climbed, sloshed, ducked, crab-walked and squeezed through crevices we never thought we'd fit.

Here are some photos:


Here's a photo of my shoes which I purchased for RM10 the day before for the excursion. Very striking laces... Wanted to take a photo of it after but it wasn't THAT destroyed after all.


Condition of our butts after.


View from our hotel window. The rooms Grand Hotel of Kampar is surprisingly affordable and huge. There are rather unusual great looking shoplots around the hotel such as these. One of the hills behind it is a graveyard.


The famous Kampar chicken in bread.


And we topped off our trip by gorging ourselves with durian! Yum!!

Caving!

This coming weekend, I'm going caving! I've always had the nagging desire to go explore the caves in Ipoh and now I'm finally going. Of course, I am filled with apprehension - what attire should I wear as I am told the shoes and clothes will be as good as to be discarded upon completing the course.

Thank goodness there are supposedly no cockroaches in this cave. Imagine being trapped in a dark and tight area with cockroaches crawling all over you! Ew... I think I'd die right there.

Need to go shopping tomorrow for Buy-And-Throw-Away (Bata) shoes and torchlight.

My parents are coming along too! Yay! One night in Kampar with good food, good company. Looking forward to it!

Friends

Just got back from meeting Shie Lee who's just back from London for a couple of days. It's great to meet up with old friends and leaves one filled with a fuzzy feeling.

We both confessed to being poor at keeping in touch with our friends. I think I shall make it an effort to meet up with more people by the end of the year. Fingers crossed.

Speaking of meeting up with old friends, I must say Facebook is also producing surprises. I'm connecting with friends whom I have lost touch with since college, high school and now, since kindergarten! Grace and Ron, you remember Rumaiza? She was the person I hung out with so much when I was growing up in Alor Star. She had a blue cat which they'd lock up in the toilet.

Anyway Shie Lee, if you're reading this, do get onto Facebook. You're the only one left from our group who has yet to sign up. :)

Cicak Girl

I seem to have a lot of things related to cicak. A cicak stuffed with sand, a cicak keychain and a cicak brooch. So when I was asked to choose a temporary tattoo, I initially said I'd choose a feminine one with pink and purple glittery hearts.

Then I spotted this and thought it would be more apt.

Friday The 13th

My colleague slipped and fell on the road beside my office, I also nearly slipped at the office but managed to gain balance and KS also slipped at his office and sprained his muscle on Friday the 13^th.

I also made my appointment for removing my other problematic wisdom tooth. Gaaaah!

I Stand Corrected

Was talking to KS about getting a fake branded bag in Bangkok this morning when he reminded me of Karen's comment of avoiding getting one as people in the fashion industry would recognise it as a fake. I totally, absolutely forgot about it and told him I never had such a conversation with him.

Now as I look back at the comments in my previous posting, yes, there it was. Karen's good advice.

Sigh. Now, I will eat humble pie and crawl upstairs to beg for forgiveness. Oh the gloating that will take place!

Sheesh. I seem to be talking about bags, bags and watches/accessories. And I recently bought a new mascara to replace the one I bought over 5 years ago. I'm becoming such a girl.

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Dang. Even though I made him promise not to gloat or say, "I told you so", I can feel it emanating from his pores.

Watch

I've been on a lookout for a watch and since my last watch was a Swatch at least 5 years back, I was very surprised to find that watches ARE expensive. Sure, I have been exposed to the high end ones that cost over RM30,000 but I figured I could get one around RM100.

So, upon scouting for one, they range from RM250-RM1,000 but they all look the same! Metal strap, metal face. Just different brands and colours of the face.

Since I haven't had one in over 5 years, I'm still contemplating if I really need one. Are watches important anymore with our handphones, our computers, clocks at work and in the car? Why am I thinking of getting one? Because someone mentioned it completes a more professional look. Humph. Now, if a watch could do more stuff like switch on your rice cooker at home, start up your car...

Malaysian Customer Service

One thing I appreciate about my old company was that they had excellent service. You could be assured of stepping into an outlet and if they didn't have the stock, they will take the effort to find out where they can get it for you so that you'd have to drop by the same outlet to get it in a couple of days. Or, they may even send it to your office if you're nearby.

But the customer service for other retailers is absolutely crap. I mentioned buying a Bonita document bag just last Sunday from the Bukit Tinggi Jusco outlet and I discovered within the first use that the zip was faulty. So, because I stay in PJ and work in KL, it was impossible for me to go all the way to Klang just to exchange the bag.

I walked into it's branch in Pavillion and they refused to change it for me "because our stock will not be balanced". Like that's my problem. And because she wasn't interested to serve me, I had to ask for the phone number of the outlet I bought it from to confirm if I could return it over the weekend. Let's just say she wasn't too happy to have to bother finding out the phone number.

After calling and confirming that I could replace it, I went back this morning, 6 days after purchase, something which she repeated at least thrice until I told her to get over it. And the girl there told me I simply couldn't change it after 3 days. An argument ensued and I felt like threatening them. After calling her supervisor twice, she allowed me to exchange it.

Alas, the only other stock left was also faulty. What poor quality goods Bonita must carry! She just looked at me and indicated that I should just choose either faulty bag and live with it. In the end, she said she was going to get me another stock from another outlet within the week.

What bugs me now is that I left my bag there and just have my paid receipt for it instead of a replacement receipt. Didn't want to be further accused of scratching the bag (it was scratched already when I bought it).

Bangkok II

So I’ve book our flight tickets again for a second attempt at going to Bangkok in July. This time, our stay will just cover the weekend and will focus on shopping (KS has yet to know this bit, can’t wait to see his eyes pop at the thought!).

And I just heard that a certain shopping place called MBK is well known for AA grade genuine imitation handbags. Hmm… coupled with my new urge to blend with the Joneses…

Speaking of bags, I just bought a lovely red document bag on sale over the weekend. I proudly brought it to work, thinking it looked waay better than my Rootote for work. My confident step was mauled on the way home when my male colleague looked at it and commented "That looks like a cheap bag" and my bag proceeded to protest by failing at the zip. I now have to bring it back to make the replacement IF they replace it. (A lovely "Thank you for buying our products. Our goods are non refundable and non returnable" is stated on the receipt).

Anyway, I turned to my colleague and said, "This could be one reason you're still single".

Ulcer

I'm still having my huge ulcer under my tongue. It's not getting better although I'm getting immune to the pain. I guess it's coz it's located on a moving and stretchable muscle and doesn't allow it to heal.

Want to see it? Surprisingly my colleagues declined a live version. Photo later unless there are strong protests of seeing something gross. :)

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See that monster? Well, I'm glad to say that it's now finally gone, after 2 weeks.

Oops!

My colleague was rather pissed off with a supplier after speaking to her over the phone. In irritation, she wanted to tell her boss how arrogant the supplier was and used words like "she's probably having her PMS!"

And she SMSes the message accidentally to the supplier instead of her boss. And she had to meet her the next day for a meeting.

Her story made my day today. I laughed till my sides ached. I don't think I ever did anything like that. Sure, the occasional wrongly sent SMS but always for innocent stuff. Have you?

Fuel Price Hike

Forty percent hike. Overnight. This is the biggest jump of petrol prices Malaysians have seen. Indonesia rose in demonstrations when it happened. Let's see what Malaysians are capable of. Already the blogs contain scathing remarks against the government.

It is inevitable, with oil prices going up worldwide. But the question here is this. What is the government planning to do with the savings from the greatly reduced petrol subsidy? Who will actually be the ones to benefit from this?

Chew Your Food

I was watching a Korean channel on pay TV the other day with my Mum and they showed a documentary on chewing food. It seems you need to chew a lot before you swallow (one old man chews his food 100 times) to help digestion and dementia.

Since Mum and I have been having some digestion problems, we sat through our breakfast the next day in silence, chewing profusely. The noodles started soaking up my soup even before I could get through a quarter of it. It was quite funny actually. Eventually, I gave up as my food became cold and tasteless.

Which, in a way, is good too coz then I don’t eat that much. Sounds like a plan. Right after my humongous ulcer on my tongue, which is stopping me from eating too much, disappears.

Guarding My Turf

I’ve often heard this phrase and never thought it could happen to me. In fact, when it happened a few times with this particular person, I felt a bit strange when this person kept doing my work. I mean, who would complain, right, if someone else does your menial task?

But this person has repeatedly done this and now I need to dig my heels in and stop being taken as a doormat. Time to show my teeth! Grrr…