Good One!

I had lunch with Monster yesterday at a deli. Since it was enclosed, the smell of the cooking seeped into my hair and clothes so much so that I really stank after that.

Today I text her to tell her about it and she says she didn’t notice any stink. To which I promptly told her, it was because she was surrounded by lawyers (she’s gonna be one, one fine day) and she quickly replied, “No, I was with bankers”. Sigh… she was right. I’ll find another one, don’t you worry.

Oh, on a totally unrelated note to the above, I had lunch at KLCC. Yup, the very place we at my old workplace use to dream of going for lunch and now I can just easily hop on the train and get there in minutes.

Busy Bee

I’ve been super busy. Yes, I know all my bosses are on leave and when the cat’s away… However, I’ve been given enough work to last me for some time. This is actually good news since I’m not left to cry myself through my yawns of boredom.

It’s coming to a month since I’ve switched jobs. I would have thought I’d get use to waking up early (yeah, 7am is considered DARN early for me) but no, I still go to bed after midnight which doesn’t warrant me enough sleep for the night. I’ve been one sleepy person at work the whole month, with bags under my eyes. Unfortunately, I’m not located at some obscure corner where I’d most probably catch forty winks after lunch but smack in the middle of the office with the common printer, fax machine and photocopying machine all beside me. There is always someone watching me. Crumbs.

I had a few good days meeting up with KS and Monster for lunch. It was a great relief to be able to talk in English. Since I don’t talk when I get back to my table, that’s the only time I get to share all the words suppressed in me. Poor KS has had a chatterbox each time he comes to pick me up coz my quota hasn’t been filled.

Tonight am meeting up with Ken who’s back from NZ. The first time we met with some other uni mates and this friend of mine who works in the same group but different company as me, nearly fell off his chair when I told him I’ve moved jobs to the same mother company as him. Guess I’ve been known to be the “loyal” one so now that leaves about 3 more uni mates who are still holding on to their first jobs.

Sorry, got nothing much to share. I’ve been WORKING. Yes, alas my time has been filled with non-stop work for the last 2 days and I haven’t had much of a life. But I did notice one thing yesterday on the way home, that the river running beside the Masjid Jamek LRT station was pretty high. The chocolate teh tarik colour mass surged angrily down the river. The power of it was rather scary but I secretly long to see the day when it floods my work area. Hai, me and my fascination with water/floods/tsunamis. But hey, I wasn’t the only one keeping my eyes glued to the river yesterday… so I’m not particularly weird.

Remembering the Tsunami

When I was much younger, I was utterly fascinated with the thought of a giant wave after I read about one that swamped Papua New Guinea. It was something unimaginable, something that would probably be enacted in a Hollywood production with small figures running away from a huge tidal wave.

Believing Malaysia would never ever encounter such a disaster since we are sandwiched between Indonesia and Borneo, I tucked it out of mind but remained curious.

Last year’s tsunami brought terror and tragedies rather than merely quenching my curiosity. The video recordings of the tidal waves across the region were not only jaw dropping but inconceivable as I watched via email as the horrific disaster enfolded before my eyes.
It came as a greater shock when one of my close friend’s uncle lost his life while holidaying in Thailand with his wife. His wife could only watch, powerless to save her husband as the waters consumed him. I can only pray for her, for every survivor and all the victims’ families that their pain will be alleviated as time goes by.

Christmas Day

As I mentioned before, KS and I had invited a few people over for dinner on Christmas Day itself. Two of our guests cancelled late that morning itself and I had to keep the second defrosted chicken I was going to bake that night. I must say I was rather upset because the excuses given were pathetic, since they had appointments which they would have planned earlier. I need not have spent so much to buy all the ingredients and now after defrosting the chicken and having to keep it back in the freezer just makes it unhealthy for consumption. Is it too much to ask to give us an earlier notice, not 6 to 9 hours before??! No manners! One of them I’ve never met before so my impression of him is phhtttt… down the drain. I’m not keen to get to know him anymore no matter how close he is to KS.

Anyways, it ended up quite well as there were 6 of us in the end and my table could only comfortably accommodate 6. In fact, with all the food, it was spilling at its sides.

KS is down with a flu but he summoned enough strength to entertain his guests. Of course, the next day he totally zonked out while I quietly entertained myself with books and tried to watch two French DVDs Amelie and Yamakaze, both of which started to jump about 10 minutes into the movie. Sigh. There goes my Amelie DVD.

All in all, I'm glad I had the rest day because the bags under my eyes have been reduced.

Coursing Through My Veins

When I was in secondary school, I used to like using this particular sentence “a coldness grasped and held the ventricles of my heart” as I thought it was cool and a sophisticated way of saying I’m plain scared lah.

Nowadays, that has to be changed to “the oily and fatty breakfasts I’m always having is grasping and holding the veins to my heart”. Mee goreng anyone?

Christmas Eve

It’s Christmas Eve’s eve! I can’t do any work anymore and keeping my eyeball on the wall clock so that as soon as it strikes 5pm, I’m outta here. It’s a shame they make us come back to work tomorrow for half day because I don’t know how I’m supposed to concentrate on my work!

I’m all tingly and excited about Christmas as always. Somehow, the days after Christmas always seem gloomy and sad. Although next week most bosses aren’t around, I don’t have the same joy bubbling in me right now.

And I don’t care what the Americans say, Merry Christmas to ALL of you! Whether I’m being politically incorrect, podahlah lu. The holidays came about BECAUSE of Christmas and now you want the Holidays to take over Christmas. Chee sin…

Floods

News today says the flood situation in Alor Star has worsened. It is said to be the worst flood in 30 years, long before I shifted to Alor Star. Just looking at the pictures on the web and seeing familiar places being submerged in muddy waters stirs … well, a curiosity in me.

Of course, I’m looking at it from the position of one who is not being affected and I’m absolutely certain it’s not much fun to those who’s houses have been affected. If it’s not enough that it destroys the entire contents of the house, you are then left with scrubbing the mud from every crack and the stench will linger until you become immune to it. You then have to start refurnishing your home.
This is only as far as I can imagine, as I am humbly thankful that we never had to go through the hardship of a flood. There’s the emotional loss of irreplaceable things, memories etched into that particular piece of article that went drifting with the floodwaters.

Gift Exchange

Last night we had a gift exchange in the CG and it was really fun to see what others had requested. Since I only warned them of the gift exchange a week before, I thought it would be only fair to ask everyone to list down three things that they’d want for Christmas with a budget. Then the person who draws his/her name will select one of the three items.

What an eclectic bunch of gifts we all got! From toilet paper to a sophisticated test pen, there was a great of laughing as everyone excited wondered which of his or her three items were chosen. There was soap powder, floor detergent, cactus plants and a jigsaw with a frame.

The only drawback to this is that it takes away the “thought” behind the gift. But I’m all for it since it’s very practical and we end up having gifts we all know we’d use or want. Perhaps next year we need a different gift giving strategy. Any ideas?

Taking the LRT

One of the things that I like about taking the LRT is that I get to see the landscapes of KL which I won’t be able to when I drive. Of course I’d probably get bored of it pretty soon but every day I try to look out for new things to discover.

Like there are pockets of kampungs nestled in the midst of towering buildings or there is an Ear Nose Throat clinic operating from a quaint bungalow. Then I also discovered a little stream with stones, just like my favourite streams in NZ. Of course, I’m too far to peek at the state of the water but I’m certain it’s polluted, just like any river/stream in KL.

Then there are the things that I dislike about the LRT. This morning, it was really packed and I had to grasp on to the hanging thing (darn, what is it called?) and it was filthy! Of course, throngs of unwashed hands would have earlier held on to it and I don’t suppose the cleaners would think of wiping it. My palm and fingers have a stench on it despite scrubbing with hand soap three times already.

So Near!

I’m getting to like my work location more and more. Not only am I close to Central Market (not that like I like to shop there), I am also close to Petaling Street. I’m getting old, have I mentioned this already?

Today we had a quick lunch at this place called Lai Foong that serves local hawker food. I’ve ALWAYS noticed this shop since young whenever we pass by Pudu area and this is my first time eating there. However, to my dismay, the guys selling Beef Noodles refused to serve me because I speak English. Even though my boss hastened to translate when he asked me to confirm what I ordered, he just walked away! B@$T@RD! I’m NEVER going to eat at his stall again. Then the drinks lady rejected a 10 sen coin that was a bit black. Hey, these people are abominably rude. Unfortunately, my colleagues seem to like the place and are undaunted by the rudeness. Sigh, I’ll just order from another stall next time.

After lunch, we stopped over at this nearby shopping mall opposite Petaling Street. One of the shops had all this funny knick knacks, things you’d consider junk but the longer I stayed, the more things I wanted to buy. I managed to control myself and ended up buying a cheap teapot with a filter to be used for Chinese tea (no, not like my cute small pot with it’s dainty cups) and a heel scrub for my Mum. I nearly wanted to get a cheap pot for boiling my tea towels but can you imagine when I go home later, I can imagine the stares of me carrying pots in the packed LRT.

Then we walked into Petaling Street. Man, I need to go there by myself and take a good look at all the things there SLOWLY. Too many things, too little time.

I can’t believe I just took less than 10 minutes to write all these and the quarter page of my proposal took me the entire morning until now. Sigh… If only I could write my proposal paper this quickly. Business papers aren’t fun.

How did you do that…

I just got an email from an ex colleague who tells me that you, Karen, have somehow managed to visit her blog. Now, how on earth did you manage to do that? I don’t have any links to her blog, neither does coffee81… That’s pretty freaky. Unfortunately, I’ve lost your email in the process of shifting jobs but I’ve reactivated my hotmail so please write to me and tell me how you did that. My friend is pretty bewildered too. So, in a bid to get in touch with you without your email, hence this entry.

Onions

Did you know that onions give you gas? I guess I might have heard about it before but it never really stuck. I remember baked beans will give you gas because of some jokes about it but I haven’t heard any jokes involving onions and gas.

Anyways, last night I (well, more like KS) found out the hard way. I had dinner with a friend who swore that the Kerabu Chicken Feet at that restaurant was absolutely not to be missed. It came with de-boned chicken feet (my first time eating de-boned chicken feet! Usually I love to chew on the soft bones and tendons that seem impossible to separate from the skin and never thought anyone would go through the trouble to de-bone it) and raw onions saturated in some light chilli and vinegar marinade. It looked doubtful but the first mouthful was enough to convince me to finish half the dish.

Later, when KS picked me up, he refused to let me talk to him and if he could, would have prevented me from breathing. Even after I scrubbed and brushed my teeth, the reek of onions continued to linger.

THEN, we learnt that onions cause gas. BAD gas.

So jadi, never eat too many onions if you don’t want to kill your mate. Now is the morning after and I’m chewing gum now to rid the last few remaining traces of onion breath.

Be Prepared!

Hot in the press these days is about the case of the naked girl doing ear squats at the police station as the court proceedings have started. Police declare that it is a standard procedure to ask detainees to do ear squats in the nude to extricate stuff like drugs and contrabands hidden up their ah, nether cavities. They insist this procedure must continue to help arrest and eradicate these smugglers.

Today, as I walk to my office, I notice this newly painted message on a corner wall that says: Pemeriksaan polis di hadapan. Bersedia untuk berbogel dan ketuk ketampi (Police check ahead. Prepare to strip naked and do ear squats).

I wish I had a camera phone.

PJ House Again

KS has gone off to a camp for 4 days and have left me to stay with Jan for the time being. It's great having to hear the familiar LRT pass by the back of the house, the familiar pong of the neighbour's dog's poo and the chirping crickets at night.

By the way, I've finally got my email and internet connection at work. I doubt if I'd have the same amount of time for me to blog as before and I don't really want to set a bad record right in my first month. But at LEAST I have internet! Hallelujah!

Alone at Christmas

This year for Christmas, we've decided to stay in Klang instead of going back up to Alor Star. As much as I'd like to, I guess travelling in such a short period of time isn't going to help us since I am working on Christmas eve. Bummer.

Usually, I'd love to go back home and enjoy Christmas carols and food from church members back there. We'd wait up til midnight for the carollers to come to the last house and this is when Mrs Chua would make the most delicious food for them. Of course, parents and relatives to come to collect their children after a night out singing are most welcome to whatever that is served.

So this year, I'll be missing all that. I think I've already had my fare share of carols for the year though but I'll miss my parents and the Alor Star gang.

Instead, we've invited a couple of friends over to our house to see the Christmas tree which KS painstakingly decorated and have some small celebration. This is going to be my first time hosting a Christmas dinner and I'm no Martha Stewart. Most of the food is going to be plain and simple to prepare. Thank goodness most of the guests are guys who don't really take notice on whether your cutlery matches or your plates are of the same design. Haha... that even sounds terrible just saying it. Okay, I shan't say more. I'm just looking forward to the small and warm company we'd be having, although half of them are KS's workmates whom I've never met.

Switched Roles

“Honey, the leaking faucet has been fixed and the tap has also been repaired. How’s decorating the Christmas Tree coming along?”

Guess who did what. My new colleague asked if we cross-dressed at home. Even if we did, I’d never tell him, would I?

Disagreeable

“Oh! You stay in Sea Park? I used to stay there and I love the place! It has so much good food!”

“Not really.”

“Erm… where do you work then? Phileo Damansaras? Oh, those offices are quite nice with their modern buildings…”

“But there’s always a traffic jam in and out.”

“Oh… what is it that you do then? Training? I’ve got a friend who’s a trainer and she loves being paid for talking!”

“It’s just a job.”

Sigh… I couldn’t seem to find the right buttons to push. Either that or this person was the most disagreeable person I’ve met this year.

What Kind of Chocolates…

In my friend’s office, there’s this manager who has “engrish” syndromes. She would spell “lip gross” and email it out happily to the rest of the entire office colleagues.

Anyways, what usually happens in this office is that whenever they buy food to be shared by the whole office, it would be placed in the pantry and an announcement will be made via email in the subject heading. Now, usually it would be a simple line such as “Curry puffs in the pantry” and everyone will understand.

So this manager comes back from her holiday and had bought chocolates for everyone. And the title of her email? “Chocolates in the panty”.

Extra Hands

One thing that I’m really glad about my cell group is that everyone is always willing to give a hand. If there are chairs that needs to be arranged, all will chip in. If there’s cleaning up to be done, everyone helps to clear up.

No one acts more superior than the rest and this is one thing that makes a team a great one. It is not easy to find such a group in the world out there, even when I was in uni. Some would merely watch while the rest of us would toil over arranging the chairs etc and as soon as the person in charge steps in, he/she would immediately push in the last chair and look as though they were part of the hard work.

At work, I’ve only managed to find that one team when I was in Comms. As mentioned before, I have many fond memories of when our work became an enjoyable experience because of each other.

Anyways, I was just thinking about it because we had a Christmas party last weekend. On my part, it was a disaster which I will not mention here but will forever haunt my memories and make me want to bury my head in the sand. Everyone else did beautifully and really, heading this team of dedicated folks really is a pleasure. There’s no need for me to check on whether this or that is done.

None of my CG members read my blog but I’d like to appreciate them and thank God for them.

Choosy

4 years ago, I had set my eyes upon the then new Nokia 3210. It was THE phone for me and so I waited patiently for the prices to drop so that I could afford it. It was only after it nearly went out of circulation then only did I finally purchase it.

I still lovingly hold on to this old phone although the phone industry is thriving with new and improved handphones that only stop short of becoming your kitchen sink. Nokia, once the market leader, is now facing stiff competition from the likes of Sony Ericsson. One of the main reasons why the Ericsson is doing so well is because they are the cheaper option and their designs are better than Nokia.

Anyways, before I start doing a business analysis of the brands (12 days here and my language is changing), I must confess my 3210 has lately started to feel challenged. At lunch, everyone places their handphones on the lunch table and my poor 3210 is too shy to make it’s appearance in a world where phones are changed as often as wardrobes. Heck, even the cleaners and the foreign labourers who frequent the bank downstairs have newer and better phones than me.

The problem is this, I’d like a Sony Ericsson but I’d rather still have a Nokia for it’s familiar functions. Also, with a Nokia, KS and I can share chargers whenever we go away for the weekend. But the Nokia phones are expensive and well, I don’t like their new designs. Plus the fact that I haven’t figured out if I want a camera function on my phone or not makes it all more complicated. Heck, just reading what I wrote also sounds confusing.

Never mind, I’ll start saving up and hopefully by next year, would have figured out some solution when I have the cash to buy the darn thing. In the meantime, my faithful 3210 (or not so faithful on weekends when it chooses to blank it’s screen, yup, only on weekends) will remain hidden on my lap at lunches.

B-A-N-A-N-A

This term, banana, is usually used as a degrading reference to a Chinese who is unable to speak the language but understands English (yellow skin but white inside). However, I’ve chosen to use it to refer to myself albeit with a slight fondness whenever someone casts me a shocked glance when I tell them I can’t speak Cantonese, my own mother tongue.

All my almost 7 working years here in KL have not made me much better at the language despite the being the majority language.

However, I believe that is all about to change. Just like in Alor Star where I grew up, I never bothered picking up Hokkien even though I was in a school filled with quite a fair bit of Chinese students. Instead, for the first year or so in secondary school, I mixed with Indians and Malays which enabled me to speak in my second language, Malay. After that, my closest group of friends were Chinese who spoke Hokkien to no end. My first Hokkien word was ka tow, which means scissors, to ka (cut) and tow (and throw). As I now mingle with a bunch of people who speak only Cantonese, I guess in no time, I would have to pick it up by force!

One of my weaknesses is language, I must admit. If I don’t use it, words get rusty and I forget how to form complete sentences. For example, I tried talking Malay yesterday and my sentences were abominable! I couldn’t even find the right vocabulary, substituting it in English instead. My Chinese teacher gave up on me when I tried taking up Mandarin classes when I was in primary school. I proudly hold a cert to verify me conversant in Japanese but of course, you can imagine how little of the language I still hold in my brain.

The irony is that I live in Malaysia where it is common for people to talk in at least 4 languages/dialects. Shame on me!

Observations

There is a frequent blaring of horns as the vehicles downstairs get stuck in the myriad of roads that winds around this old part of KL. This is a big difference from being in a kampung-like environment where by the silence outside is punctuated by chirping birds and an occasional thumping from the factory.

It’s slightly distracting, although there’s absolutely nothing for me to be distracted from at this point. I’ve been reading manuals and haven’t been successfully keeping my eyes open. I tribute my dark circles under my eyes as my unfit sleeping patterns. Waking up at least 3 times every working night, I would hurried check my clock to see how many more hours it would be before I would need to get up.

I had even dreamt that I had gone back to my old company on Monday. Everything was the same, no one said or looked at me strangely for having sent a mass goodbye mail and yet appearing again at work after three days. I only realized my mistake of going to the wrong office at the end of the day and had gone hysterical when KS mournfully mentioned I would be fired for not turning up at my new workplace for the whole day on my third day of work.

Anyways, back to my surroundings, there are plenty of old pre-war shops surrounding the vicinity. They are many dry food wholesalers and I think I’m going to go nuts visiting them. Brings back good ol’ memories of when Mum used to buy packs of a dozen Twisties and other junk food. I love going into these wholesale shops, squeezing my way through the narrow shelves decked to the brim with goods. Hmm… it’s similar to the sundry shops but a slightly larger version of it.

As for food, everything is walking distance. I’m generally not fussy about food (KS, wipe that disbelieving look on your face), well except when it comes to green veggies, and there are plenty of food varieties available here. Tucked in strange nooks and corners, there are shops that have existed for generations. The secret recipes have been successfully handed down and are delighting the many stomachs around here.

Another of our offices across the street has the train running right beside their windows almost every 5 minutes. Those working there shrug it off as part and parcel of their working environment. I must say I’m glad that I only hear the horns at jam hours.

Oh, another thing that I’ve observed for the last two days is that some girls who work around this area wear skirts that make my jaws drop. Their slits on their skirts are incredibly high! Whether their hemline reaches their knee or skirts below their bum, their side slits reach up almost to the waist! Ok, I’m exaggerating but it’s high enough to cause eyes to pop. Too bad I don’t have legs like that to show off…

U2 Tickets Sold Out!

Within the hour the tickets were put up for sale in Australia, all U2 concert tickets were sold out AND placed on ebay for the highest bidder. Every single concert from Adelaide to Sydney, 70,000 tickets gone in 60 minutes!

My sister-in-law couldn’t even get into the website to help book for us the tickets. So, looks like our trip to Sydney next year will not be happening. :(

Malaysia’s Most Beautiful

I’ve been wanting to talk about this new reality show here and even from the clips alone, one can see that the 14 girls brought together to be judged as Malaysia’s Most Beautiful is really done in bad taste. In line with most of the reality shows out there, they bitch against each other and although the producers claim the show is supposed to find beauty within and not so much on the external, the girls are showing off their best “assets”.

Don’t get me wrong, nothing wrong with showing their best assets just that it’s disgusting if they are beautiful on the outside and horrible on the inside and claim they are Malaysia’s Most Beautiful.

Jan was discussing this with me the other day saying that the real test would be to get the girls to compete in cooking Malay, Chinese and Indian food. Then, judge them as a tour guide to any state in the country to two tourists each. They must know what that state is famous for, introduce them the places of interest and where good food can be found. The final test would be to make them walk in a park whereby there will be an overturned rubbish bin and to see if any of them would be civic minded enough to pick up the rubbish. Or help a blind guy cross the road.

One has to encapsulate Malaysia’s best in order to be named Malaysia’s Most Beautiful. Not some backstabbing bitching session to see who gets ousted. Shame on Revlon and Marie France for sponsoring such a programme. I’m never buying Revlon again.

Lucky Rat

Again we caught a rat and this time, KS had agreed for me to kill it and dispose of it. My normal method of rat killing is to leave the fella out in the sun to kill it within two hours.

However, this rat got a lucky break as the sun wasn't it's usual glaring self. By the time it past 2pm, I gave up and gave the green light to KS to release it at the posh residency across the highway, which he did in glee.

Even if I had the option of throwing it out of the window of a high storey building, I wouldn't have because it's been proven to be most excruciating to watch if it doesn't die instantly. Thanks for reporting on your experiment, Karen. I also wonder what the jeep owner would have thought upon returning to his/her vehicle and to spot the dead rat on the roof.

"Congrats!"

At last! The whole afternoon took me to every part of the company to bid almost everyone farewell. And like Monster said, I did meet one new person so it was like "Hi! Nice to meet you and all the best to you". Datin had a special message for me "Behave yourself out there" so I shot back "You mean here I wasn't?". What on earth did I do?'

I've also got strange responses when I went to say goodbye, "Today is your last day? Are you sure? How come?". Then I had the fair share of "Congrats!" and "Got job for me at your new workplace ah?".

My colleagues have been fantastic. They managed to buy me an old letter opener produced by the company 30 years ago which have been using every day. They polished it and put it into a nice box for me. Since it's such an old item, it's not in the system anymore and thus is difficult to procure something like that.

My colleague W has also been fantastic. She organised my farewell lunches and made sure everyone turned up. I'm going to miss those times she'd open all the mpeg files she'd get from her sister and watch and laugh.

Also, goodbye to my internet connection for a while. If things get desperate, I'm gonna have to ask KS to keep my blog alive. Sigh... I'd go through desperate measures for my blog.

Malaysian Police Again

Hmm... it seems that the Malaysian Police Force is getting a lot of PR lately. BAD PR. And I love talking about them because their antics are so beyond stupidity. Oh well, they provide a good source of head shaking in disbelief.

Recently, a Chinese woman was made to do ear squats. She was naked, and doing the squats in front of a policewoman while someone recorded the whole event from a window outside.

The response from the Police Force? "The person who did the recording was in the wrong and should go punished!" And today, censored from the newspapers is a quote from the Deputy Internal Security Minister Noh Omar (source from jeffooi.com who seems to have an accuracy for breaking news):

"If foreigners think that Malaysia police are brutal, please go back to their own countries and not to stay here..."

Of course, this is a totally different tune being sung by the PM who's still urging foreigners to come visit our beautiful Malaysia.

No Break

People ask me why am I starting work the very next day after I quit. Firstly, no planning lah! Plain and simple. If I had planned earlier, I would have been able to sneak in a couple of weeks break.

Secondly, no one wants to wait for me to give my 3 months notice. I'm glad my new place will only need 1 month's notice.

Thirdly, I'd be eating grass if I took too long a break as I run on a paycheck to paycheck lifestyle.

Fourthly, it's because I've never resigned before so I didn't know I could do such things.

Ok, in truth, I was lu-lu enough not to know there's such an option as letting myself have a break in between jobs. I promise to think about that for my next change of jobs ok?

Different Paths

Yesterday as I was packing up my stuff, I had second thoughts about leaving the whole bulk back so that I could pack EVERYTHING today. Fortunately, I decided to bring down the 3 bags despite the weight. And today? The lift is not working! Boy, little decisions can save your back.

It's not sunk in yet or maybe I just don't feel that sadness or teary eyed at leaving. I know there are a lot of faces I will never see again in my life, especially when I walk through the factory and spot familiar faces. Our paths will never cross again but I'm glad that they did.

Will be going around later after lunch to say my farewells.

Packing Up

It would seem that after almost 7 years, I'd have accumulated a lot of stuff at my office but I am proud to say that all my belongings fit into two small paper bags. I've happily dumped files to the respective people who will be taking over my jobs and now my place is almost clear.

Already had one farewell lunch this afternoon. I'm starting to feel a tinge of sadness at leaving this place. My new boss texted me over the weekend and expressed that they were looking forward to me joining them which made me really glad. She added that we'll be having a marketing meeting for the whole of Friday. Yikes!

Wake Up!

For the last couple of weeks, KS and I have been very bad at waking up early for work. I start work at 9:30am and we take an hour to reach my office while KS is supposed to start work at 9am. We've been waking up at 8am every morning (sometimes 8:30am) and of course reaching office like nearly 11am.

Of course, by Thursday, we'll have to get up at 6:30am in order to leave the house latest by 7:30am so that we work through traffic for more than one hour followed by my train ride and short walk to my new workplace by 9am.

This morning, we were supposed to "practise" waking up early. I completely forgot but was awakened when KS attempted to wake up just before 6:45am. Asking him what's wrong and why he couldn't sleep, I scratched his arm to make him go back to sleep (yes, KS has a "trigger" on his arm that will help him sleep faster). I continued scratching in between naps until it was 7:45am. Only then I realised our goal was to wake up an hour earlier. Great. This is going to be the greatest struggle for us to wake up so early.

My Name

Whenever people ask where my Chinese name came from, I would proudly tell them it was inspired by the late songbird Teresa Teng. My Dad is a fan of her songs and naturally I was given the name.

Until yesterday I found out that my Mum was the one who gave me my Chinese name and that my Dad insists he only knew Teresa Teng's songs long after I was born. And who did my Mum get my name from? My uncle's ex-girlfriend! Waahh!! Spoil liao lah my name! I'm going to stick to my original version and live in denial for the rest of my life.

Oh Melaka

Had a blast of a weekend back in Melaka. Two aunties were there to celebrate my Dad-in-law's birthday and we ate and ate and ate. I love going back to Melaka because of the many memories it holds for me when I was young (besides the food and pampering from Mum-in-law!).

We drove by Klebang Besar and I was peering at all the familiar landmarks along the way, the Gospel Hall, my grand-aunt's house we'd visit every Chinese New Year... It's actually quite sad to see how shoddy town planning has affected the whole area. Pressing my nose to the car window, I would see lovely old shoplots, paints peeling off many of them but still in operation selling all sorts of things. Then I'd get a shock as these are punctuated by art deco buildings luminated with neon lights that jar the old and quaint scenery. Along the beaches you'd then get tall massive apartments randomly built that make the beach front hideous.

The thing that gets to me is that the historical parts are not taken care of. There is some construction going on in front of Mahkota Parade and it's been going on for years. You know the reason why? As they were doing the piling for the foundation, they hit upon a sort of wall. Upon closer inspection, it is actually part of the wall that connects to the A Famosa, the famous historical landmark of Melaka. Wouldn't that be an exciting discovery? NO! They've decided to proceed with their building after much discussion.

Poor Melaka.

What Quidditch World Cup?

Yeah, finally caught Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It was not unexpected and I didn't go away from the cinema with a Wow factor coursing through my blood like when I watched The Fellowship of the Ring or even Minority Report. I blame it on having read the book so recently again and knowing and expecting every single next move.

Won't talk too much about it. Instead, we got to see the previews for a couple of shows. King Kong looks like a funny movie and I never knew there were dinosaurs in King Kong!

Memoirs of a Geisha looks really really good. I wonder though, why she has blue eyes. Don't remember it being mentioned in the book. And the cast is really strong. I like Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi, they're absolutely gorgeous.

2 Books

I finally got my hands on the book, The Curious Incident of a Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. Grace gave it to me for my birthday (thanks Grace! I'd freak out if it were another knife).

My review of it? Well, it's different. I'm not sure if I like alternate chapters discussing topics out of the main story as it jarred the story quite a bit. I struggled a bit with reading it and the alternate "irrelevant" chapters made it easier for me to put it down. Took me about 3 days to finish it. Also, I had strange expectations that it was a funny book but it wasn't. I also felt like I was going crazy when he was talking about the math solutions. It's poignant ending is a far cry from all the feel good endings books I've been reading lately.

Speaking of other books, I've also just finished my David Sedaris. This is a great book, full of laugh-out-loud kinda humour. Was introduced to him by Monster who lent me Me Talk Pretty One Day and I was hooked. My next target is Naked.

Now I 've got my new Mary Higgins Clark to read but I'm afraid of being spooked. Well, there's always Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter to reread!

Poli$ Malaysia

What did I tell you about reporting to the Anti Corruption Agency (ACA) about graft from policemen? This teenage girl who reported a policeman for bribing RM304 to ACA is now facing a lot of problems. ACA lost the case due to "technicalities" and now is facing a civil suit by the policeman.

Malaysia BOLEH!

Keeping Up with the Jo

Monster is struggling to keep up with my blog. It's just that since you've left, I haven't had anyone here in the office to share all my insignificant details which only you have the patience to listen to! Like this morning I found a mushroom in my shower and thought of you. Apart from it being a stark reminder for me to clean the bathroom, aren't you proud that I think of you when I look at a fungi?

The reason why I'm furiously blogging is because I know my internet hours are going to be severely ah... severed after 1 Dec. And because I have already handed over the majority of my work so I'm left with not much to do anymore. Again, this will change drastically come 1 Dec.

Convincing or not?

Thrown Together

It's funny to see how my parents and in-laws are thrown together. They'd be staying there for two nights. This is only the 5th time they're meeting (including the 2 weddings!) but I guess it could be worse considering they're staying miles apart.

It took them 7 years of our courting before they met each other because my parents were shy. They nearly met when my parents dropped me off at his place and rushed off before KS parents managed to come out of the house to meet them. When they finally met up, it was so strange to see them together. At that time, KS's uncle from Sydney was with us and he joined in as well which made it uneven (his side came with more people than ours) but it was so funny to see particularly my Mum trying to be extra sociable. Mum's not very comfortable with strangers, especially adults, let alone future in-laws!

I have full confidence that my parents are being well taken care of despite my in-laws having two other guests at the moment (KS grandma and auntie are also there from Ipoh). We're getting reports from both ends to assure us everything is ok, which makes the situation even funnier.

Goodbye and Hello!

I've set an appointment with my counterpart at the bank I'll be joining. I doubt if he knows I'm joining them very soon. It's going to be really funny as I'll be informing him that I'm leaving the company and then in a few days time I will say hello to him as my new colleague! I'll tell you about his reaction on my first day of work, I promise!

So unprepared. Haven't started clearing my desk yet even though I have the time. Cleared ONE shelve and have to stop due to not knowing what I can throw. My company tends to keep everything for years and of course, the moment you throw it away, someone will ask you about it. I also found a mug which has an encrusted base as I forgot to wash it since the last time I drank green tea out of it. Euuggghhh... anyone wants a double walled nice looking mug? I can't imagine using it again so I might just bin it.

Harry Potter Tickets

Getting Harry Potter tickets now is like getting me to eat asparagus (but no, I will NOT bet on this). Cinemas are fully booked even if they have more than 5 screens showing at the same location at half hour intervals every day. Even the remotest places (like my favourite cinema in Subang) where you'd think people would shy away from is packed.

I reread the book to refresh myself before the movie came out and I'm excited to see Viktor Krum looking like how I imagined and how the Veelas look like.

Great. I just went into Wikipedia and found out about Fleur Delacour and what happened in the 6th book (which I still haven't read). What spoilers! Once again, my desire to read the 6th book has been stirred. Don't ask me why I haven't read it otherwise you'd know the real meaning of pathetic excuses.

Anyways, KS is off to try to get tickets for Thursday night. Cross fingers!

*****
WE GOT THE TICKETS!!!!!

U2

It's official! U2 is heading to Australia next year for their Vertigo tour! We're targetting their Sydney 31 March 06 concert since I haven't been there yet and KS would like to meet up with his uncle and aunt there.

I'd better save all my leave (I hope I can take leave before I'm confirmed in my new job) and eat grass from now on to save money!

More Knives

My Mum gave me another knife, a small one, last weekend. Jan had already told her about my birthday gifts this year and her face cracked up at my bewilderment when Mum presented it to me.

What's with knives this month? I still haven't used them as I haven't cooked since I got them. I think they're useful and love them, it's just bizzare that I've gotten SO many all at once!

Parents' Black Day

My parents went down to Melaka this morning to help my uncle get his new identity card. I was told by a friend when I got in the office that there is a nationwide breakdown of the IC department so their trip would have been fruitless.

However, upon reaching, Dad failed to check for oncoming cars and opened his door. A car smashed into it but thank God he wasn't hurt.

The car door can't be closed and it's about to rain. And Dad had to go with the other driver (whose car is less than a month old) to her mechanic to have it fixed while Mum was left behind to figure out how to seal the door from the rain. Along the way, the smashed bumper lopsided and they were stranded somewere else for a bit. When they finally arrived, the mechanic said that the car was too new that they didn't have any spare parts. So they finally had to drive to the manufacturer's outlet. This is gonna cost him a grand for the other car.

The only friends they know in Melaka are overseas at the moment so I contacted my in-laws who are on their way back from Ipoh today and they've been absolutely fantastic. They've arranged for someone to fix Dad's car and also offered them to stay over since it would take 2 days for the repair.

Hand Me Downs

Mum brought some old clothes from my home in Alor Star to give away and I've been gleefully going through the bags and having a fine time laughing at my old clothes. I look like I stepped out of Sound of Music for some dresses.

The thing is, I discovered I can wear most of my Mum's clothes! I have a new wardrobe, all waiting for me to put on a bit more weight. Mum has the loveliest baju kebaya and she doesn't wear them anymore.

Yay! New old clothes to wear!

War Games

War Games or Paintball - two teams armed with air guns filled with paintballs battle to capture the opposing team's flag. Was reminiscing about this with H last night. Talk to anyone who has participated in one and they'd furnish you with exciting and funny tales. And sometimes, painful and jaw dropping tales.

My experience was in New Zealand and I only played it once. The reason why I never went for a second or third was because my blue-black from a shot lasted me a good 3 months. The adrenalin that courses your veins at the start of the game can make you do things you'd never expect yourself to do like crawling on your elbows in mud. There is a deafening silence and an occasional rattle of the paintballs in a moving gun pierces the air. You wouldn't know if your enemy could be crouching just behind the next bush waiting to spring an attack. In fact, most of the time, we shoot our own team members anyway either because of fright or just to kenakan the fella.

We had a friend who wore neon green sneakers and kept wondering why everyone was shooting him. And there are "professionals" who garb themselves in camouflage gear (I hear there are some who bring smoke bombs in there too) and have their own personal guns.

We had this group of Kelabits (a small community found in Bario, Sarawak. The Kelabit family we know is absolutely out of this world but that is another story altogether. Actually, one of the brothers, Z, alone has done things which could fill a book by its own like trying to make his own furniture to save money and chose to use the chainsaw at 2am) were considered pros in paintballing. They climbed trees and shoot those creeping below them. With their camouflage outfit, you won't be able to spot them. Don't play-play.

Then we've had folks to shoot at close range on the head. The victim nearly fainted and a massive swell formed on his skull. It's fortunate he is used to injuries as he plays a lot of football and has broken several bones but still! Some people never think.

This is getting to be a popular activity here in Malaysia but we moan of the terrain and props which are still much to be improved. Here, the terrain is flat and has empty oil drums and plywood as places to dodge bullets. In NZ, there were closely grown shrubs, trees, a rusting car, tall grass, a stream to divide the two areas with a small plank bridge, hills and valleys. If only... but still, I guess I'd have my reservations to play again because of the pain.

Skin

Did you know that skin doesn't flush down very well? I peeled a large layer from my sunburnt thigh and threw it into the toilet bowl two days ago. After two hours, I went back and it was still floating there!

I just threw a few more bits just now. Will go back at the end of the day to see if it's still floating there.

A Second on the Lips, Forever on the Hips

Last night my dinner date stood me up. Not that I can blame her since she's in the media line and her boss needed a report by 9pm. Man...

Anyways, I ended up going to do a spot of shopping to quench the shopping urge I've had in me since two weeks ago. No, that 5 hours at 1 Utama didn't quench it because I didn't buy anything. So last night I hopped to Metrojaya in Section 14 and it was completely empty! I love having not to wait in line for the fitting room so I tried everything that caught my fancy. Plus the fact that I had ALL night to shop.

There was this office dress that caught my fancy and it was on sale. Of course, after all that binging of pasta and fast food over the last couple of days (no, make that months), the result is a bottom heavy figure and thus the dress fitted me perfectly from the waist up. I tried the dress twice, much to the surprise of the salesgirl, vehemently in denial that I'm just a tad bigger because I'm ovulating. After 10 minutes, the fact bulged loud and clear and I had to mournfully hang the dress back on it's rack.

Feeling fat and guilty, I decided to skip dinner or have something really light like a bun. Gone are the days when I was wrought with food poisoning and when I could brisk walk for 20 to 30 minutes and lose a dress size. Those were the days... The thought lasted exactly half and hour and thereafter I was happily gorging down a cheese naan.

Gatal

My office invited an artist couple to showcase their works at the Visitor Centre. Unfortunately, I can't remember their names. His work only features very large sized women, inspired by his mother while his wife does skinny women. He is more famous than she and thus his works are larger oil paintings while she brought some small ones in sets of four or six.

There are also two henna artist brought in from Brickfields. They charge RM10 per design. Most people put henna on the back of their palms while my colleague had hers done on her arm and back. It looks great on her! I battled the thought that it might last until I start at my new workplace and having henna on my hand wouldn't be a too professional way to start my first day there.



I succumbed! KS who only noticed it this morning said it looked like a disease. Bah, men!

Alas...

My heart is broken and torn to bits. I'm trying to ignore it but I can't help thinking about it. The kitten is missing.

He wasn't there yesterday morning although Jan, KS and I took our time hanging outside the garden. He usually greets us at the door within 10 seconds at most if he's in the neighbour's garden. Last night I got home, still no cat. KS and I walked the neighbourhood calling out to him but he made no appearance. This morning, still no sign of him. And Jan and I just came up with a name for him.

First Jay, now this kitten. How many more heartbreaks can I take?

Harassed

It's quite funny to see how the new female staff who are "pounced" upon by some oogling males in the company. I guess with the halt of new intakes, fresh blood are few and far between.

Today, D was approached by this factory guy who had the nerve to come up all the way to the office floor and ask her the following:

"Do you speak Tamil?"
"No"
"Are you married?"
No answer.
"Why aren't you married?"

She ignored his questions and quickly scrambled to my place for refuge until the "pest" had gone away. Apparently, every time she passes them in the factory (their department is unfortunately in our path to the outside world), the whole bunch of them would fall silent and oogle at her. Recently, it had escalated to them calling her but she keeps her head down and pretends they're calling someone else.

And now this guy took the brave step to come out of his territory to ask her if she's available! Oh, I'm gonna enjoy watching the show to see what's next! Hopefully it happens within the next two weeks.

This is a Rat

So last night, we confirmed it was a rat that we caught in the room. We tried to educate the kitten about the relationship between cats and rats:

See the way he is looking at the rat with his fur standing up? Unfortunately, he went no further than curious sniffs around the cage and prolonged stares. I hope he knows I don't mean him to be friends with the rat.

And keeping to my promise of letting the next rat live, we kept it at the back of the house and waited til the morning to throw it somewhere far away. Unfortunately, KS fed it breakfast with my expensive roasted pork long yuk which I bought from Petaling St the other day! That he actually thought about the welfare of the THING made me really mad. My "compassion" can only go so far. So the next rat we catch, I'm going to kill it. All deals are off.

Birds of a Feather...

"I'm thinking of getting my sister some knives for her birthday. What do you think?"

Jan's colleague whipped up his head from his work and gaped at her. In Chinese, giving knives or anything sharp means you want to cut ties with that person. Meaning, it's not a good gift lah.

"Er... if she really loves to cook, then oklah." he weakly replied.

Since we're none too fussy and more practical, she went ahead and bought me a butcher's knife and a small chef's knife.

Now beat this, the night before, KS gave me a butcher's knife and a chef's knife. I think these two have been hanging out together for too long. I mean, what are the chances of the two closest people in my life to buy me two same knives for my birthday?!

I'm not complaining though, I love the gifts and I'm really amused that they know me so well as to get me something functional and practical. Thanks guys! *muah*

Steven Seagal Cat

Last night I unwittingly locked a rat (or some creature) in the spare room downstairs. I heard some rustling in the kitchen and decided to check it out. Noticing that the door to the room was open, I closed it so that whatever the creature was, it wouldn't go in.

This morning, there were shreds of the door strewn on the outside of the room as though SOMETHING was scratching the door from the inside. We've set the bait and pushed the trap in this morning. Hopefully, we'd get some answers tonight.

In the car:
"I was thinking of throwing the kitten into the room but nah... the rat might be bigger than the cat"

"Yeah, and if there's entrails and blood, who's gonna clean up the place?"

"Oh? Don't cats just twist rats neck and be done with it?"

"Think what? Steven Seagal, is it?

Skin Shedders

Here are some of the usual creatures in the wild that shed their skins:



My sunburn is starting to peel and it's darn itchy. Feeling like a monkey with my constant scratching. My scalp is coming down in large flakes.

Internet Connections

After my valiant efforts to call the company which I signed up for internet connections yesterday, they called in the evening to announce that my housing area STILL doesn't have Telekom cables.

"Maybe next year lah, then we will call you."

NEXT YEAR? I wouldn't know how to use a mouse by then... sheesh...

Tea Culture

It's been a great day today. This morning, the roads were EMPTY and I dropped KS and reach my office in less than an hour! And just now, I went out on a market survey with three others, two of them designers to Petaling Street.

Petaling St has always been where one would bring tourists to buy "genuine imitation" stuff - bags, DVDs, sunglasses, wristwatches, you name it. However, amongst my artistically inclined friends, they always go there to get supplies like flowers, deco, Chinese tea related stuff etc. And people always talk about the food there. I've never seen Petaling St in that light before since the last time we had a meal there as a family decades ago, the restaurant charged us exorbitantly for food that wasn't so great anyway.

Today, I finally went with the eyes of a designer and visited a Chinese tea shop in Petaling St. The art of drinking Chinese tea is waaaay beyond what is involved in drinking wine, which to me, is already quite overwhelming. Did you know there is a sniffer cup for drinking Chinese tea? It's a longish cup which you pour the tea into before transferring the tea into a cup. Then you sniff the sniffer cup to excite your senses before drinking the tea. Wah lau... that's just a fraction of the whole art to it. Okay, maybe wine has about the same list of fuss you need to do before downing it, I don't know.

Anyway, my colleague decided to get me a little tea pot and some cups as my farewell gift. I'm so touched. Gonna start drinking tea a bit more properly now. What used to be "drink in quantity" will now be changed to "drink in quality" with tiny cups and sips. You saw my photo of my green tea drinking? It's a bowl compared to what the actualy Chinese tea cups are. And my new delicate tea pot is like 5 times smaller than my existing giant one.

Okay, I won't bore you with details as to how to properly brew the tea. Just some quick tips based on what I've been doing for some time; for green tea, do NOT use boiling water; for a clay tea pot, do NOT wash with soap; waiting time for the tea to brew is only 30 to 40 seconds, not 10 minutes. No wonder my tea drinking skills at home always killed the tea.

And just to add, we had great food in Petaling St. Ask me again in a week's time as to where to go, I'd have forgotten. I've been getting bouts of forgetting this and that the last couple of days. Of course I blame it on ageing. But oh! I must mention this! My colleague ordered soup for each of us and I waved a RM10 in front of the trader, thinking it would be enough. It cost RM26 for 4 bowls of soup! Man... I wanna boil soup and charge that amount too.

Anti Graft Badge

Today's paper proudly reports that all policemen are supposed to wear a "I am anti-graft" badge as part of a campaign to wipe out corruption in the police force.

The funny thing is that they have also done up banners and car stickers amongst other thing and one of their car stickers say "Report if there is corruption". Yeah right, report to whom?

Imagine this scene:
Me at a police station: Your colleague just tried to bribe me at the roadblock down the road and I'm here to report him.
Policeman 1: Really? Are you sure you were the one who didn't offer him in the first place? You must have been speeding in the first place and was trying to get out of the ticket.
Policeman 2 who just walks in: What's going on here?
Policeman 1: Oh nothing, this person was trying to weasel out of a speeding ticket.

Scene inspired from my previous blog.

No Internet

One of my greatest fears about joining the new company is that I won't be able to get my internet connection. No more blogging! Apparently the banks are pretty strict with their internet surfing and judging from how I currently deal with them, they aren't even allowed to receive large emails, not even a jpg. Horror of all horrors.

Last month or so, we were told that our housing area has finally been fixed with telephone lines and we gleefully signed up for a Streamyx connection. However, after all this time, we haven't had news from them and I'm growing worried. If you don't book it fast enough, other people will get their connections and use up all the lines and we'd need to wait until Telekom fixes new lines. Of course, that would take a VERY long time. In the meantime, I think I'd kill myself without internet connection.

So I give the folks we signed up with a call this morning and yup, no one answers. Damnation.

The Birds and the Bees

The radio was talking about how we got to know about the birds and the bees as there was a suggestion for the school curriculum to include sex education pretty soon. Most of the callers said they were informed by a friend at school during their teenage years.

For me, my Mum was smart enough to buy us this book, "Where did I come from?". This book has been with my family since my eldest sister was very young. One day while my mum had her sewing/cooking/YWCA women's meeting at home, my sister walked up to Mum in the midst of their meeting and asked loudly something about the penis or vagina I can't remember what. There was a stunned silence as all eyes flicked to my Mum and with a red face, Mum had to explain about the book she had bought for the kids. Mum surely must have a lot of memories of these kind of landmark incidents involving my eldest sister.

Another Story of my Sister is that in school, she described how babies came about to her friend. Her friend was horrified and cried, saying she didn't believe her parents did "such a disgusting thing". She would go home and confirm with her parents. I must say her parents had the decency to not disillusion their daughter as she sulkily came sniffing back the next day.

Anyways, that was how I got my sex education and it began when I could start to read.

Bad Girl

I've been a bad bad girl. I just went for another interview this morning. Although this company is located at my ideal spot (in PJ), they work every Saturday. At least with the bank, I get 2 Saturdays off! And, the position I applied for requires me to do loads of travelling from Penang to Singapore. On weekends.

Doesn't sound very attractive. Oh well.

Light in a Cup

While drinking green tea the other night, I was waiting for it to cool down and noticed I could look at the light bulb above it without squinting my eyes. So I quickly grabbed my camera and took a shot of it.



Was I bored or what?

A Week of Movies

As we had loads of holidays last week to the point that we absolutely didn't have ANYTHING to do on the second day of Raya, we bought some DVDs and watched til our eyes nearly popped.

Here's a list of shows we watched:
1. Miyazaki's Whisper of the Heart
Nice ending to my 10 movie box set I borrowed from my friend as our brains didn't burst trying to figure out what Miyazaki's trying to say in the movie.

2. The Grimm Brothers
Gave me nightmares although it wasn't that scary. I'm chicken when it comes to anything remotely eerie.

3. The Runaway Jury
Watched it twice, with KS and then with Jan. Gene Hackman was really good. I love John Grisham. Made me go out and get the book The Client.

4. Sound of Music
KS's first time watching! Made him sit out the entire 133 minutes. He declared it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be.

5. Cinema Paradiso
The young boy looks like M. Night Shyamalan. Worth watching at least once. Made me a bit upset at the end though of what might have been.

6. The Divine Secrets of the Ya-ya Sisterhood
Wasn't as good as the book but still it was fun to see Vivi in action.

7. Amelie
I enjoyed Amelie tremendously. All the characters are so essentric and I love the parts with the garden gnome! It's a MUST watch.

Last night, we caught Corpse Bride and I kept looking out for the non-existant English subtitles. Which was a pity since I couldn't catch all their lyrics hence didn't get the full picture of how the corpse bride came to be. Weird visuals and KS made a remark about how Tim Burton portrayed life up here is all in grey and static (think of the starting scene) while "down there", the life is more colourful and energetic.

New Cat in Da House

Here's a picture of the new kitten. Ash is just a working name actually, we still haven't come to a conclusion as to what to call it until we determine it's gender. In the meantime, we're calling it a he.

He's getting very attached to us and Jan spent many hours just playing with him and keeping him company yesterday.

Sheer Sillyness

Yes, I had an extra t-shirt on Saturday at the pool but did it cross my mind to wear it like everyone else?? As I mentioned earlier, I have quite severe sunburns. The last time I had such agonising sunburns was when I went to Tioman with my family like 5 years ago when I completely forgot to put on sunscreen.

So, here's how my back looks like. I can't wear my handbag on my shoulder and must resort to my strapless bras for the time being. OUCH!

Sun Burnt

I just had a chance to use some scuba gear from a friend who works for a company that coaches people for PADI licenses. Although it was just in a pool of 5 ft depth, it was still loads of fun. Found out that it surely is a difficult thing for me to sink even though I had like 4 weights. Great. Now I know for sure I won't sink to the bottom of the ocean.

I don't think my interest in scuba diving will drive me to get my PADI license. Firstly, my nose doesn't quite fit the mask. It's too flat and water keeps going in after a while. Then, I also get a bit panicky when I don't seem to sink. Plus the general fear of the open waters. Well, not very solid reasons, all can be overcome. Perhaps one day lah, if I get to do it free...hahaha...

So now I'm totally burnt since the session was from 11am to 4pm. I'm about to drop off to sleep for a bit before church. *yawn*

Dang, Jan just called to say she's reached the bus station. So looks like I'll have to skip my nap.

Holiday Mood

Yesterday was Deepavali and tomorrow is Hari Raya. Which means for the whole of this week, working days are only Monday and today, Wednesday. Most people have taken the 2 days off so that they have the entire stretch off. But, because I have resigned, I have no more leave (as all my leave has been used to offset the days I owe as I am leaving earlier than the 3 months notice) so I am here at work. Technically, I am here but work? Well, just sauntering along since all my counterparts are on leave.

The roads are clear, the parking lot empty and the office is quiet with hardly any phones ringing. Aaah... I'm glad I haven't started at my new workplace yet as I have high speed internet connection here. :)

Tired But Happy

As I mentioned earlier, I had a party of sorts yesterday and hosted over 15 relatives consisting of 3 generations for lunch and then for tea. Oh and two cousins brought their partners along so I got to meet them and get to know them a bit better.

The day started pretty late but we cooked and baked and cleaned and scrubbed non-stop until the last remnants of relatives had finally streamed out. I must really commend KS for doing ALL the cleaning up though.

Although it was stressful trying to whip up so much food, we really had fun catching up with everybody. Well, almost everybody anyway. Those few elusive cousins remained elusive to personal conversations but overall, we managed to catch up with majority of them. I must admit it was difficult to converse with them as my Cantonese tongue refused to speak Cantonese (well, maybe because my brain has absolutely NO idea how to speak the language).

At the end of the day, KS and I grinned at each other and gave each other a thump on the back for a job well done in entertaining such a huge group. And we swear we won't repeat this performance again.

Adopted Again

On Saturday night, as we walked past through our gates, a wee little thing, which KS at first thought was a rat, starting picking it's way through our garden towards our direction. He came towards us mewing and rubbing itself at our ankles. I couldn't help but to feed him.

Yep, we've been adopted again by another kitten. Unfortunately, since he's (or she, I can't tell. Yes, I've stayed with 14 cats two times in my life yet I wasn't able to determine Jay's gender until I took him to the vet. As I said, I'm glad I didn't give him a feminine name) still a kitten, he's quite attached unlike Charles who hasn't been back for more than a week now. This kitten has been around every day since then.

He's black to ash with an orange dot between his ears with a faint orange streak on his back. We're calling him Ashton for the time being or Ashley if he turns out to be a she.

Tales of Eric - The Gas Tank

Okay, I'm bored with Neopets (for once!) and can't do any more work as I am starting to feel the strain on the back of my neck, and KS is still doing work (dang you boy, don't live for the company!) so I'm going to tell you more tales of Eric as promised. Sorry Eric, my own stories aren't as colourful as yours and since you'd never blog...

Since I told you the most recent incident that happened to him, I'll go backwards in time. This one has to do with his car's gas tank.

About the end of last year, he came to pay KS and I a visit in my in-law's home. Upon reaching, we greeted him with open doors (Ah Jin the dog who has many victims was securely locked up) and found him instead crouching on all fours looking under his car. He explained that at a curve he negotiated neaby, a loud scraping sound screeched from below his car and he was looking to see what was making all that racket.

He found a metal strip apparently stuck to his car so he yanked it out, took one curious glance at it, flung it into a vacant lot opposite the house and shrugged off any other thought to it.

Until early this year. One morning on his way into his office car park, he heard a loud thud and came down to inspect what it was. This time, it was quite evident that his gas tank was protruding from below. Gingerly, he manouvered his car into a parking lot and called his mechanic.

His mechanic came up with the brilliant idea of asking him to drive to the workshop, which wasn't far off but STILL. And Eric, obediently following his mechanic's advice, drove his car slowly onto the highway. I must say he managed to go quite a distance with the tank hanging precariously on one belt (yup, it was one of two belts that he threw away last year) until he approached a road bump. Not expecting to make it, he tried to go as slow as he could but...

CRASH! The belt gave way and the entire tank landed on the road. He had just filled his tank to it's brim the night before. Petrol started spilling onto the road but thank goodness it wasn't gushing from any cracks. He managed to drag his car to the side of the road although I wonder how he did that without creating any sparks with the tank on the tar.

In the end, the mechanic had to drive his tow truck to take his car away. But before that, he had to risk his life by crawling under the car to slowly drain the petrol tank. He was soaked in petrol and should there have been even a mere spark, he, along with Eric and car, would have been engulfed by some spectacular flames.

Now, how many people do you know who've had his gas tank fall out AND find a 10 foot long python in his 12th floor apartment? Wait, there's more. Until the next episode.

Fare thee well

Today is the last day for my boss and my Monster friend. Monster, I expect you to still keep in touch and still read my blog. I promise to read yours if you'd update it more often. Boss, I don't expect you to read or ever stumble upon this blog.

Now my lunch group from an original 6 is whittled down to 3 and once I leave next month, it will be down to 2. I've been trying to sell tickets to other colleagues to join our elite group that gives you better chances of leaving this company. See our success rate of 66.67%! Nobody's buying it though.

Spared!

My generous relatives have decided not to risk their health by eating a meal prepared by me and have decided to come for tea instead. Ah, THAT one I can handle.

So in the meantime, I've invited more relatives for lunch on the same day so that I don't have to cook just for one aunt! Hahahaha... I'm trying to kill myself.

Speaking about killing myself, I've baked 4 cakes in 48 hours with work in between and CG on Wednesday which ended at nearly midnight. Last night's cake said it plain and clear, "You're no spring chicken and you can't take this stress". As I was washing up while waiting for it to bake, I buckled over the sink as a dizzying spell hit me. I tried sitting with my head between my knees but nothing worked as the room span crazily. In the end, I was reduced to a crumpled heap on the bed, attempting to shut my brains from the spinning sensation and intructing my lungs to "Breathe in, breathe out" otherwise I would have forgotten.

Well, ok, I won't blame the cakes for this. It's more likely the stress from the weekend without resting and the thought of having to handover for my last month here while dreading the new job with working Saturdays and a much faster pace. I was talking to my future colleague (I'm not sure he knows I'm joining them) and casually asked him how many projects he was currently handling. He offhandedly said, "Oh, 20 at the moment". I nearly dropped from my chair. I have 3 projects and I'm struggling. Oh well, maybe they're 20 itsy-bitsy projects. Yeah right.

***************

Just found out that I'm having low blood pressure which is why I'm feeling dizzy. Need to eat more salt. Tau ewe, here I come!

Supersize

I've been wanting to invite my aunt over to my place in Klang and finally asked her a couple of weeks ago. She selected Deepavali as she was then free to come over.

So I was thinking, what on earth do I cook for just one person? All that effort, I might as well invite some other relatives.

Unwittingly, I sent an sms to my cousin in KL inviting them to come over. I ASSUMED that since it was so far, only one car would make it, bringing the total number of guests to 6. Yeah right.

Today, she calls me and excitedly informs me that ALL of them are coming, from my grandma to my aunt who is back from UK, all my cousins (which is like 6 of them excluding partners - add 3 to that number) and bringing the 3rd generation of 2 kids as well.

BRAVO for that SMART move, girl. Never have I hosted a dozen people for lunch and mind you, I DON'T COOK. At first I was thinking of simple pasta but now with grandma coming, she ain't gonna switch her 80 year diet of Chinese food for pasta.

I am so screwed. Now, the superpower I'd like to have right now is to wave my hand over uncooked food and have them cooked to perfection.

Super Powers

Jan and I were having dinner with H two days ago and Jan started talking about Sky High, the movie she had caught over the weekend. After describing the super powers of some characters, we starting thinking about what kind of super power that hasn't been created yet and that we'd like to have.

H was so funny as the first thing he came up with was "Being able to change myself into a Mamak anytime!". His super strength would be able to fling tosei and roti canai which would slice anything in it's path. Oh and we'd get a free meal everytime we went to any Mamak shop to eat since he could transform and act as though he's the owner.

Later, Jan then suggested to be able to walk past anything messy and it would miraculously be transformed into a clean and neat place. H scoffed and said that was so FEMININE of us to think of such things. Challenging him to come up with something better than that, he shrugged and said he'd like to be able to transform into a traffic light. No explanation given.

Devil's Nut

During the mooncake month (the Chinese Mid Autumn Festival), where I grew up in Alor Star I had only known mooncakes and lanterns as the norm of the season.

When I came to KL after my secondary school, my friend introduced me this scary looking nut and insisted these were also eaten during the season. I reckon it's only popular here in the Klang Valley.


It looks like the devil itself doesn't it? Can you see the eyes and the horns?

I don't know what it's called. If you manage to crack the hard shell open without blistering your fingers, the fruit itself is soft and white. I can't say much for the flavour as I can't remember. But I know I'm not overly fond of it. This piece is a souvenier from the season and sitting in my wardrobe, don't ask me why.

Sua Ku

Some people are so easily excited. Such a simple thing as standing at the start of the tarmac at the airport to watch the planes approach and seeing the giant steel machines guided to perfect landings also can evoke such giddy bouts of awe.



Even then, also bring camera along to take photos of the approaching planes. What lah. As though never seen a plane before or even sat in one. Even more embarrassing, wave to the pilots like crazy as though they'll wave back.




This is typically like the Malay proverb "Bagai katak di bawah tempurung" or other versions such as "being like a frog in a well" or "just like one has come out from the kampung". Crazy lah these people. Landing planes also can get so excited.

Psssstt.... if you wanna know where to go to watch them at KLIA, I'll bring you there next time. I've memorised the way there. This is me with an approaching plane.

Snake in Toilet

There's an article in the papers today about someone finding a snake in their toilet. I'll tell you a more amazing story.

It happened to my friend Eric (KS's best man at our wedding). He lives on the 12th floor of his apartments. He woke up early one Saturday morning and went into his attached bathroom. The first thing he noticed was that the toilet seat was down and for a guy who lives alone, this hardly happens. Shrugging it off, he started cleaning the bathroom, taking his time in cleaning it carefully since he had the whole morning to do it.

Then he got into the shower and also took his time. As he shoved the shower curtain aside to step out, he glanced up and noticed this huge monster of a snake coiled tightly around some drain pipes just above his toilet. If you had never seen a dripping naked guy jump out of the bathroom in absolute fright, this was the time it happened.

He immediately slammed the bathroom door shut and called the Fire & Rescue Department after he calmed his nerves and dressed. The person who responded to the call was almost disbelieving, "What, you're saying there's a snake on your 12th floor apartment?".

Not wanting to be in the same vincinity of the snake, he proceeded downstairs to the entrance of his apartment to wait for the fire brigade. Now, this was already about 8:30am when the fire engines wailed and screamed their sirens into his apartments, causing a rousing amongst the residents. The burly men jumped out and Eric took them to his apartment. By that time, the entourage had attracted a mass of inquisitive neighbours. They kept asking Eric to let them into his place to see the snake but Eric, in a flash horroried realisation, decided against letting them trample into his clean apartments just to gawk at the snake while the firemen tried to wring it from the pipes.

In the end, they managed to bring it down and bag it. One fireman confessed that in all his years of service, he had NEVER encountered such a huge snake. It was estimated to be about 10 feet long with a massive diameter of a good 6 inches.

In the midst of all the hullabaloo, a tousled Korean student appeared and claimed that the snake was his. Apparently he had just bought it from a pet shop the day before and had not secured the enclosure, resulting in its escape. He reported it's disappearance to the guards but somehow none of the guards seemed to have remembered in time to tell Eric it belonged to his neighbour.

Eric blasted the Korean boy for his irresponsibility and demanded he remove it from the premises immediately. It was fortunate that the boy was in the process of shifting out so he managed to park the snake somewhere else before he shifted out.

Oh, I have more Stories of Eric which will amaze you but will have to tell you at another time as I need to go home now.

Brains Wrung Dry

It was a weekend that is best described by KS:

"I feel like the top of my skull was carved open, my brains taken out, spun around and placed back again."

It was an intensive weekend of planning for the youth ministry in my church where KS is serving and I tagged along. Right from Friday night, we shot to a Sepang hotel to get holed up for the entire weekend just squeezing out brains out. I was the only one who wasn't serving in this ministry and had to work doubly hard in firstly understanding what the discussions were about and then digesting it before trying to come up with suggestions.

On Sunday, I was so tired and stressed when it suddenly occured to me that, Hey! Why am I getting so stressed over all the planning when I'm only HELPING, for cryin' out loud! So then I decided to join the Pastor's wife who was looking after their kids and watched Barbie's Swan Lake.

But it was a good time of understanding on what the church's youth culture is like and the dedication and commitment these leaders have behind it. To be honest, I'd be scared stiff to join them as it is intense and has a very high level of commitment. Makes me take a look at my own ministry and realise that gee, WHAT have I put into my own CG?

Studio Ghibli

I borrowed a 10 VCD set from a friend all from the Ghibli Studio. I first heard of him after watching Spirited Away. If you haven't watched it, go watch it. The first time I did, it was strange and I didn't enjoy it as much. After a couple of weeks, we got our hands on the DVD and watched it again. I'm now hooked.

This 10 boxed set movie is a collection of his old cartoons. Famous ones are Princess Mononoke and Totoro. Most of them make you feel very weird and gloomy and to a certain extent, depressing. Particularly the Tombstone of the Fireflies. That is so SAD!

The soundtrack for each movie has a unique strain of hauntingly beautiful melodies. Perfect for that stare-out-of-the-window-when-it-is-raining minutes.

KS and I were excitedly talking about it just before lunch and I urged him to go get the soundtrack at lunch. Oh, why can't the day go a bit faster today??

Reactions

What I had reckoned would be a general reaction to the news of the death of the First Lady was totally wrong when I heard some ridiculous and heartless responses:

"Oh! So do we get a holiday?"

(After some spam was distributed about Monday being declared a holiday to mark the death) "Yay! Public holiday on Monday!" "Eh, someone has died and you're celebrating?!" "I'm not the one who died mah" came the reply.

I suppose the reason why I'm more affected was because for 2 years now, my entire church has been praying for her recovery. We've always remembered her in our prayers off and on.

I can't believe someone from the Press asked the PM, "So how are you feeling now?". What did he expect for an answer?? His reponse? "We'll see".

Sad Day for Malaysia

The nation goes into grief as it is announced that PM Pak Lah's wife Endon has passed away this morning at 7:55am after battling with breast cancer for years. Pak Lah has always made his love for his wife apparent and had spent the last few days being with her as much as he could.

I'll tell you why Toilets

Okay, I admit, there was something that bothered me to the point that I kept dreaming of toilets. I was having an infection and was living in denial.

It came to a point that I started to have blood in my urine on Friday and that frigthened the crap out of me. So I obediently went to the doctor, one week after the symptoms started. The doctor was of course aghast that I chose to suffer in silence and proceeded to give me a good scolding with loads of medication.

The antibiotics worked and a foul tasting liquid which was supposed to help me but made me feel like throwing up. Later, I was told that I could actually dillute it instead of drinking it straight from the bottle. Yucks! The doctor should have told me that to save my suffering!

Anyway, by yesterday, the last day of my antibiotics course, I was feeling wuzzy and queasy. Later I found out that the antibiotics that I took had that side effect on "some people". Great. Again, another little detail the doctor missed out.

So I took an MC yesterday and tried to sleep all the dizziness off. Thank God my parents were around so they looked after me. Hence, my silence over the last couple of days. I'm still not a 100% but much better and taking a stronger dose of antibiotics. Great.

Toilet Fireplace

Last night's toilet dream was grander than the toilets dreamt for the last 3 nights. This time, I was in my old school and was trying to use the toilets but they had shut it for some filming (don't ask me why a crew was shooting in a school toilet). So I had to go upstairs where there was a special toilet reserved for the Sultanah when she was a student there. Somehow, her tastes were very much Queen Elizabethen as there was a fireplace (in this weather!), an elaborate carpet with a reclining couch with loads of details on it. Think Versache. (Must be that Becky Leogardo lady, who sells beauty products and advertises her face on her billboards, we were talking about the other day).

To the right of the room, opposite the fireplace and couch, there were wooden chairs lined up against the walls. Of course, they were not really chairs as right in the middle of it, there was the toilet bowl. It had arm rests and of course, no partitians whatsoever.

So there I was, again, in urgent need to go so I sat on the first chair which was lodged in a corner, hoping that it wasn't too visible. Before I could pull my pants down, someone from the filming crew came in and cautiously took a clock from the mantelpiece muttering, "I hope the Queen doesn't mind if I borrowed this for the shoot". Of course she saw me.

After so much stress of trying to pull down my pants to take a pee, I woke up and did my now familiar routine, go to the toilet. Thereafter, I couldn't fall back sleep since it was an hour before I had to get up.

I ain't drinking any water tonight.

Believing in your Product

Normally, when you do any sort of selling, you would firstly need to convince yourself in the product, right?

So far in my first job, I didn't quite believe in selling a product worth half a million but I did sell one before I left that job. Now, I'm selling some collectibles which to me, are nice to look at but something I won't collect on my own since I don't have much of hobby in it.

Anyways, so here I am, on MSN with a customer who suddenly asks, "Do you think it is worthwhile for me to get another complete set?". A complete set is worth more than RM7k. I can simply just say, "Yes! It's absolutely worth it! You MUST get it and not let this chance pass!".

Instead, I find myself lamely saying things like, "When you collect something, the value really depends on how you, as a collector, views it". Now how obscure could I get?

I'd better start brainwashing myself to start loving my new product in my new place soon.

Aedes

The papers talk about super aedes lurking in our very midsts. The radio announced the death toll from Aedes is 76 so far this year with more than 1000 cases alone reported THIS WEEK. And what do I have?

Proudly standing out on my left arm from elbow to fingertips is 9 bites while on my right, I have 7 bites, all from one night. Either that or I'm coming down with some kind of pox.

Oh, and another night of toilet dreams.