BICYCLE! BICYCLE! BAIIIIICYCLE!

Last Friday we went to Neway Karaoke to celebrate KS Dad's upcoming birthday. It was a package whereby you pay RM44++ for dinner and you get to sing for 4 hours for relatively cheap. I don't normally karaoke and usually end up softly singing or just humming to the tunes.

However, this time around, when it came to Bicycle Race by Queen, Jan, KS and I screamed on top of our lungs. This is a really fun song to sing at karaokes!

One Week Review

This is how my phone looks like. Yes, I got a white Sony Ericsson W810i - FINALLY! I love the white as it makes it look so different from other black phones.

After one week of using it, I am quite familiar with it already. It is surprisingly user friendly, coming from a Nokia 3210 user. Symbols are quite easily understood and the keypad allows two thumb typing with a good flow.

What I haven't done is to download songs into it to make full use of my Walkman feature. But I'll only start learning that once I get my hands on a software that allows me to snip parts of the music that I want for ringtones.

I'm looking for unusual tunes (currently using the song sung by Stephen Chow in Shaolin Soccer, the horribly out of tune one). Already know what tune to use when am being summoned by my boss - O Fortuna. Other than that, I have yet to be inspired.

All in all, I am very happy with the phone and love that I can hold a decent conversations without having the battery die on me.

(Ron, when you get back to Malaysia, can you bring me a copy of your CD from Paris?)

Garden Creatures

You want photos? I hardly take photos unless there's something interesting that I'd like to capture. Like these for instance. Our garden is crawling with these creatures.


This is when I caught them mating while I was hanging clothes. Never seen them at it before but they were sure taking their time even after a couple of hours. This is what I grew up knowing as "Gonggok". They curl into a tight ball when threatened.


Now this one, I don't know what it's called.

Our driveway is filled with these fellas at various stages of life. They provide the occassional crunch when we're walking by in a hurry.

And this one was a gigantic ant that was crossing my path as I was trying to wear my slippers. I stalled it by confusing it with placed slippers in it's path so that I could get this shot.


I never saw it again after that. Dat Fella was the one who alerted me when her entire focus was on it as it walked by.

Sure Sign of Aging

Couple of days back, I was combing through my hair with my fingers when Jan stopped me. She excited exclaimed, “You’ve got WHITE HAIR!”. Now, the last time she did this was a false alarm as she discovered it was the glint of the sun that made my hair look white – but it wasn’t!

So I didn’t believe her but allowed her to pluck it out. The darn thing WAS silvery white from the root for a good 3 inches! My first white hair!

Yes, yes, I know there are many out there who have white hair even before they crawl out of primary school but my family has a fortunate DNA that doesn’t allow us to have a shock of white hair.

My Grandpa had about half his head covered in black hair a month before he passed away at nearly 91. My dad always gets people coming up to him and whispering “Tell me lah, you coloured your hair black, didn’t you? Don’t worry lah, you can tell me, I can keep a secret” at his age of 62.

Hopefully, that’s what the condition of my hair will be when I’m that age. But still, the first cut is the deepest. Waaah!

A Little Snippet – Coincidence

As at last week, Jan, KS and I have a boss by the name of Peter. Jan has had her Peter (an Aussie) since the day she started work, I had my Peter (I dunno what he is, maybe Portugese) since I joined the bank and KS just got his Peter (Chinese) last week. I kid you not.

And I just found out a slang word for “peter” when I happened to be in dictionary.com. It is the same meaning as Dick.

Things you learn on the Internet.

After All These Years

Jan said something really funny the other day. We were having breakfast when KS asked if she were free to go Karaoke to celebrate my dad-in-law’s birthday. She usually joins us for all celebrations, whether it’s the 8th day of Chinese New Year (Hokkien Chinese New Year), KS grandma, father, mother, sister, auntie… you name it… birthdays, anniversaries… I think you get the picture.

This has been going on for about 3 years now when she suddenly asked in reply to the invitation, “Eh, does your family actually mind or not, that I always join you all for these celebrations?”

There was a dumbfounded silence.

She quickly went on, “I told Mum and she scolded me saying that I was imposing myself. And I never thought about it until now!”

Well Jan, it’s 3 years a bit too late now. But never mind, we still love you.

Burst My Balloon, Won’t Ya?

Today I woke up with a slight tremor of anticipation. My phone will be delivered today! I had clipped my nails to prepare my fingers for furious keypad testings and for the first time in many moons, I actually looked forward to a Monday.

But when I got to work and read my email, the supplier says she will only send it tomorrow. Dang! I have to wait one more day!

My colleague just simply asked, “Why didn’t you just insist on them sending it to you today?”

D’OH! It’s too late now!

Of Handphones, Again!

If you remember, I have been hawing on the fact that my antiquated 3210 Nokia is giving way, with a moody screen that blanks out during weekends, battery life that supports half a conversation... I can almost see eyes rolling on some who have endured the years of my complains.

For some people, changing handphones is like buying clothes, never mind the thousands they need to part every time they do it. Jan's colleage has an obsession of getting the latest ones in the market and what does he do with the "old" ones? He destroys it and takes out the memory chip. WHY? These gadgets are worth a month's pay!

Anyway, KS has kindly forced offered to get a new one for me to which I have counter offered to accept a subsidy of it, out of embarrassment.

So with an abandoned flourish (if that is possible), I clicked SEND to place my order via email yesterday. Now I will await in eagerness come Monday. KS will have to wait and see if I got the white or black.

Comes with Age

What's happened to me? For the past few weekends, I simply haven't been able to sleep past 8am! An automatic clock wakes me and even though I try my darnest to go back to sleep, I can't!

Grrr...

Rabbit Shearing

I swear, this is the first thing I thought about when I woke this morning. It must be because Kennysia went to Waitomo, NZ, gave a full account of what he did there but did not seem to have visited the Angora Rabbit factory.

No, it is not a slaughterhouse but an angora wool farm. Many who travel to NZ or Australia watch sheep shearing but how many people see rabbit shearing?

The Angora rabbit is a REALLY fluffy rabbit. Sometimes so fluffy you can't see it's face. Anyway, it takes 3 to 4 months for the fur to grow and by then, it needs to be shaved otherwise it will be too hot for the fella to live.

They are placed on a table with straps on both ends to fasten its legs, stretched as though it could do yoga. The clippers shave the top of the rabbit first, then the rabbit is flipped on the table to reach the bottom of it. Then finally the legs and tail. What's left is a skinny, shivering little fella, looking more like a normal rabbit.

Go see it if you're in Waitomo.