weird or strange? you choose

WOW...a whole year and a half!!

2010-03-26T14:14:00.002+08:00

I had not realised that it has been more than a year since I last blogged.

I received a comment to one of the articles, and only then realised that it has been ages since i was last active on this page!

I apologise to my most ardent reader i.e. myself (LOL) and all those who have happened to accidently fall into this blog only to realise its stale, weir AND strange!!!

I shall endeavour...to improve...to be more regular (damn! that sounds like bowel movement!!!).

What has happened since my last blog? A lot! I have been promoted at work. This means, more of the same ol same ol but with the added responsibilities and liabilities! I am not quite sure i got the better end of the stick on that one :).

I have had health scares....decided to run the Standard Chartered 10km run in June 2010, made a promise to myself to TRY and exercise more (and to this end i have been donating a monthly fee to a gym that i have not stepped into since July 2009!)

I have been on holiday...it was a great experience and totally destressing. Great beaches, great food, great company and most of all AMAZING sunsets and snorkelling. On one occassion while we were snorkelling, we were attacked by a moray eel and a baby jellyfish. Okay, it was more like they were curious about us and were just going about their own jolly way but i took it personally :)

My sister had a baby boy, my brother killed 2 tvs and i have finally wall mounted the LCD tv in the bedroom (which could not have been done without the skill of a friend and his powertool hahaha).

The garden is looking great (but that's only because i have resorted to emplying a gardener to water the plants as otherwise they would die from dehydration).

There is another project i intend to start: the renovation of my teeny weeny bathroom. I want a stand alone shower, and a bathtub. Right now i have a bathtub that doesnt work and a shower built into that system. So, it will be something that i have to look into seriously...being creative with space and accessories. It will be a collaborative effort with special input from a friend who has just finished her 2.5 storey house with swimming pool. She took her time with it, so i will definately benefit from her research and knowledge and technical know how. It is gonna cost a bomb (ish), but i am sure i will develop a more than cursory knowledge of constructing a bathroom, at the end of this experiment.

I have started cooking more at home now (arising from the health scare) but i must say, the quality of my cooking has not improved much!!

I will attempt to post photographs from the last holiday during the next blog. Until then....keep them chocolate fudges coming :)

Year End Blues...

2008-11-25T14:06:00.000+08:00

I have lost the drive to run the last ten yards! I am bored, fed up with the same ol-same ol things that happen day in day out...the cumdrudgery of worklife and the never ending list of chores to undertake.

I have to simplify my life. I need a PA...someone to run my life! LOL

Any volunteers?

Erithromyacin, Nebulizers and Steroids

2008-11-12T13:43:00.002+08:00

Sigghh...thats what is involved.

I started off feeling wheezy yesterday morning, and by lunchtime i sounded like an accordian that could only play one note.

So i trotted off to the doctor in the same building as my office, and they gassed me with the nebulizer. So, with trembling hands...and much lighter lungs...i walked out of the clinic...together with benadryl and erithromyacin (which is an antibiotic to those less initiated into the wonderful world of drugs).

So feeling happy, i started back at my task in the office, only to feel that familiar tightening in the lungs at 5pm.

So i finished up as soon as i could, and went home at seven. Showered, ate a sandwhich (ok..half a bag of lays potato crisps too!) and took my meds and settled to watch tv.

However, the lungs didnt get any better, so i took a dose of Bricanyl...and that didnt help either. So i was off to my stash of steroids...predniselone no less. 10 mg and an hour later, i felt better and so managed to get some sleep.

But today, its back again. So i have taken some more bricanyl...and will go home later and take another 10mg of pred.

The wonderful world of drugs....sigh i do so hate it!

I want to not have to take these ever again. I know i wont have to...soon. Counting on it.

Sighh...anyway...misery loves company, so anyone wanna sneak off and sit in bed with a bag of lays potato crisps and watch tv?

Dear Santa....

2008-11-11T13:43:00.003+08:00

Dear Santa,

I have been a good girl all year. I have stayed away from men, worked really hard and been a good daughter, sister, aunt, friend and employee.

I have not collected any traffic summonses and declared everything i bought whilst travelling.

I have made full declaration on my income tax declarations, including undeclared income for 2006.

I have attended church faithfully (save when i was sick...oh ok...occassionally when i was lazy) and even visited the Holy Land. [as you can see, i have been truthfull and honest too!]

I have not killed any kittens and have saved numerous puppies, ants, grasshoppers, caterpillars and earthworms.

I have only let 6 plants die in my garden this year.

I have been nice to the horrid neighbour and been polite to annoying clients.

I have tolerated the idocy of my co-workers and subordinates and have even attempted to help them climb out of the cesspool of stupidity.

I have gone on 3 diets (which lasted all of one day each) and attempted a strict exercise regime. I failed in these but hey, i get points for trying don't I?

I have refrained from suing my ex partner for unpaid profits and I have attempted to not grin in glee when all his staff started leaving him one by one.

I did not create any new nicknames for people this year and have refrained from disclosing the identity of the missing link hiding in my department.

I did not make jokes about Palin while she ran with McCain for the second highest office in America (okay, i did laugh at Tina Fey's jokes and the various You Tube jokes on her, but i did not make any of my own!).

I have taken my vitamins and only ended in hospital once this year. I did not torture the hospital staff whilst i was there, and only broke out of prison...err i mean hospital, one night for a snack.

I was a good audience at the worst ever candidate in a stand up comedy competition.

I did not throw the crying child out of the plane in a 9 hour flight.

I refrained from telling my cousin his girlfried is actually a con man from Nigeria.

And i did not push anyone off the kerb whilst waiting to cross the street, no matter how bored i was.

All in all, as you can see, i have been a really good girl this year.

So pleaseeeee send me a Nikon D90 for christmas. A body only would suffice, no need of the kit lens.

Yours faithfully.

Despiteme.

P.S. If you are feeling more generous, you can send me the D90 AND the D3.

Jerusalem...and more

2008-11-10T13:05:00.005+08:00

Yup. That's where i have been. To Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, the sea of Galiliee (both of which are really lakes), the location of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Ein Geddi), Nazareth, Capernaum, Tabgha...and so many other wonderful historical, religious and beautiful sites.

It was truly an amazing trip, and i enjoyed all 8 days of it.

The journey to Ben Gurion airport and back took 24 hrs, airport to airport. So it was an exhausting trip.

Nevertheless, the food the people, the sights, the sounds the tastes...were worth the effort...not to mention feeling like a buoy floating in the Dead Sea!

Here are some sky shots that makes you believe that this is really God's land...

How it turned out...

2008-07-22T14:38:00.002+08:00

As it happens, the chicken kiev was not meant to be. A cat (at least i hope it was a cat and not some other weird creature!) stole the defrosting chicken breast. So instead i had a ceaser salad for dinner.

In the interim (since my last post) I had managed to get myself extremely busy at work, landed in hospital for a week, and am supposed to be on medical leave the rest of this week too.

Unfortunately, one cannot stay away from work too long as it tends to pile up! So here i am at work, pulling half days while i should be resting at home.

The only upside of ending up in hospital was i got to catch up on some long needed sleep. I also have been eating oats (eeyuucckk) as that is supposedly good for me to keep my blood sugars down. Turns out i am glucose intolerant.

So i am on steroids...starving all the time...AND have to watch what i eat...torture aint it?

I have been making some mean burgers tho...i had pork burger with sauteed onions and button mushrooms....today its going to be lamb burger..with herbed cheese and sauteed onions and mushrooms...ceaser salad and maybe some ice cream!

I did have some dastardly oats for breakfast tho...so i havent been totally bad.

And...i have booked myself into a 2 hr massage at 4 today. So thats something to look forward to!

Am looking forward to 2 hrs of bliss!

A Day, like any other..

2008-05-25T15:17:00.002+08:00

It is a day like any other. Quiet, overcast, slight breeze rustling through the cigar plants...the venus flytrap plants don't have many visitors and the birs are singing lazily in the trees.

It is a lazy day too. I have not done much. I woke up and showered, had a coffee and read the paper end to end.

Then i got dressed and watched tv, hung out some laundry...and figured out my recipe for dinner.

I have decided to go with Chicken Kiev. The recipe calls for a deep fryer...but i am going to do it in a saucepan of oil. I am not sure how it will turn out. Good or bad, you guys get to see the end result. IF i get the energy to cook.

I have this weird feeling that although the chicken breast meat is defrosting as I type, macdonalds is on my speed dial!

Anyway, we shall see how the rest of my lazy day goes.

The Fishing!

2008-05-21T14:46:00.003+08:00

So we all woke ourselves bright and early and went to Pangsun for the day.

Of course, before we hit the actual house and ponds, we had to stop for breakfast at our favourite lemang and jagung (corn) stall for breakfast. We also had some seruling with us and i discovered how yummy thosai and seruling really is!

After breakfast the 3 cars headed up the dirt steep road to the actual place....this is where my trusty wira had some difficulty on the corner right at the sharpest angle of the steep road. The tyres started to spin and i could smell burning rubber!!! So i had to let the car slide down a bit more...then take the curve at a different part of the road. Phewww we made it without leaving too much of my tyre behind.

Then we got to the job of fishing. Although i had brought my 2 rods and tackle, the owner's dad had made these crude fishing rods for us out of very young bamboo shoots and a lenght of line attached to the hook. It was amazing that this crude fishing rod proved to be highly effective and strong! The bait was a bit of dough mixed with fish food pellets...the fish loved it.

I caught 10 telapias and 2 Baoungs. But 2 telapias and the 2 Baoungs had to be released back into the pond as they were really small.

At the end of the day, we had caught loads of fish, feasted on a wonderful lunch and tea and then wrapped up all our fish to take back with us.

I was not going to gut and clean fish, so on the way back i dropped off at my mum's place and dropped off all the fish for her, and she proceeded to cook 4 of em for us for dinner. So my friends and i (4 of us in total) had our dinner at my mum's place.

The truly amazing thing is, after more than an hour out of the water, all the fish in the bag were dead, except for one. He/She was still alive! My nephew insisted that the fish be placed in his fish tank, and so we did. This lucky survivor proceeded to swim around as though nothing had happened to him!

So we named the fish RIMBA, after the place we caught it.

This fish is gonna have a long life, unless my mum runs out of fish and needs to cook one in a hurry!

Recce Part 2...

2008-05-11T22:56:00.007+08:00

So we went,,,Saturday was a day of eating...walking...sweating it out....and eating some more.
We met at Stella's house and we all got into Susan's new CRV. and headed off to Hulu Langat.
We drove past my house to get to Hulu Langat and i waved goodbye to Marmite....we then arrived at the Pangsun area and had breakfast at this Mamak stall..nothing great..we had 2 roti canai's between the four of us, some lemang and rendang and some fresh boiled corn on the cob. The lemang was yummy and soft and the rendang absolutely beautiful. the corn...was soooo sweet! we all had to buy more fresh corn to take home with us. We also bought papaya's and black watermelons.
We then went to the location, we met the owners and their 2 rottweilers (mei mei, who is pregnant and Handsome, the father to be). It was an extremely hot day and we were melting...and dehydrating at a really fast pace. the water i had helped but a gatorade would have been better! Will go better prepared next monday.
I took loads of photographs of the ponds and the fish (mainly haruan). But she has some "soon hock" as well.
The landscape was gorgeous, very natural and absolutely no feeling of manicured lawns etc. What few structured flower bushes that were there, were flowers local to the area and all very naturally done.
The house itself was gorgeous...very spanish hacienda-like. It was airy and cool on the inside despite how hot and humid it was outside.
We then decided to head to Sarang Murai to see what the accomodations would be like. It was a beautifully serene place and we met 3 really friendly doggies there too, matilda, bo and snoopy. Snoopy had amazing colouring and matilda was really really friendly.
Sarang Murai was a lot more shady and cool then the fishing place (i will not name the owners as they are very private people and dont want any publicity). We viewed the accomodation and walked around the property. I really liked the area..it had cinnamon trees, various types of ginger plants and a pond with water lilies. There was a suspended bridge over the pond with a bench nailed to the bridge. One could sit there for hours and just watch the breeze on the tree ferns and the ripples on the pond caused by the fish. The gentle breeze and the sound of the water was soothing and i can see myself snoozing right there.
After viewing the accomodation, we left, and headed back to town for a late lunch. We went back for more corn but along the way, happened on a stall that sold "ikan salai" and jungle plants. We bought both!
So lunch was eaten at the same stall where we had the lemang. The stall owner obligingly brought us some stools and let us sit around to eat the corn, ikan salai, mangosteens and we each had a young coconut to drink.
After lunch, we headed to the sungai gabai waterfalls....climbed those million or so stairs there!!!! It was a beautiful waterfall with wayy too many people there. So we just took some photos, paddled in the shallows and headed back home.
You can tell its not a very enthusiastic blog entry...am feeling tired and drained today...not much O2 reaching the brain i guess...its been difficult breathing today...dont know why. I am a bit concerned...but apart from taking the inhaler...i dont know what else to do.
Anyway...here are some of the shots...

Recce...

2008-05-08T11:11:00.002+08:00

Next weekend is a long weekend. The girls (actually some aunties are coming along too!) are plannign to go to this place called Pangsoon (pangsun?) in Hulu Langat.

There are many places there in Pangsoon, including the more famous Sarang Murai and Auntry Rosnah, but this place is slightly different. It is run by this widow, and we thought we would help her out a bit by going there.

She runs some chalets and cooks for her guests. There are fishing ponds there and lots of trails and hikes. I am told the river that runs through this place is still in pristine condition. In this regard, if anyone knows rivers in Malaysia, they would understand that pristine rivers are a rarity!

So, 4 of us are going up there this saturday morning to recce the place. We are going to check out the facilities and the activities that we can undertake, while we are there.

The plan is to stay one night. However, if there are more activities that require more time, who knows what the plan may turn out to be?

I am taking my sleeping bag, my 2 fishing rods, my hiking boots and lots of mozzie repellant spray,....also trusty Savlon and bite/sting ointment...it has not been raining that much (yesterday's thunder storm being the exception) so i do not think leeches would be a problem. In any event salt is an easily enough available commodity. Not that i think we will be eaten alive or anything like that...but best be prepared....

So this saturday we recce the place, which means i should be able to take loads of photographs...and that means, photos for the follow up blog!

Until then, there are errands to be run, bank accounts to be closed and opened, car shopping (any suggestions are deeply appreciated) and massages to be had! Friday is going to be a good day!

But today...its meetings, paperwork and more meetings!

Breaking it in...

2008-05-05T14:04:00.006+08:00

There was a holiday on Thursday last week...had the day off.

I could have spent the day exercising (as some people might point out, i just give excuses for no doing enough of that). However, i chose to do something else instead. I chose to have a girly day.

It was a nice girly day off too (i am beginning to cotton on to the girly things in life! must be an age thang!).

A friend and I started the day with a Bak Kut Teh brunch in Klang, at the Hokkien Association. Then we went to see our hairdresser...a nice, talented boy who speaks with his hands as much as his mouth!

He spent a good 3 hours on us, and then, we went off to shop! And Shop we did! 2 shirts, 1 skirt, one t shirt, yoga pants and a pair of shoes later....we were tired but happy bunnies.

We then came closer to home and had roti bakar with iced coffee as a nice wind down to the day out.

My friend spent her evening getting sloshed with 3 bottles of bubbly and a jazz band, and i had a lazy evening at home, watching dvds from my bed and basically doing nothing!...apart from the maggie mee that was my dinner.

I then spent the rest of the weekend, breaking in my shoes. I will admit, this is my very first pair of PINK (yes you heard me right, PINK!!!) shoes! This is what it looks like (without me in them of course):

They had a pair that was an orangy-red, which i really preferred, however they did not have that one in my size. So instead, i have ended up with a pair of PINK shoes!!!

It is quite conmfortable and does do rather well for walking about with nothing to do or going grocery shopping, but it is not the kind of shoes you would wear when you went out shopping or to have your nails done. I must remember that.

And oh, that shot was taken with a Nikkor f1.8 50 mm lens. I am still experimenting with that one. I have not completely understood it yet, and will take more shots of nothing while figuring that out.

Will post more shots of nothing in particular, when i have the mood.

(since i had the mood, here is a link to some shots http://www.flickr.com/photos/26395550@N04/?saved=1)

In the meantime, I am wondering what colour underwear goes well with those shoes...i dont have any hot pink ones!

Oh god!

2008-05-02T20:54:00.001+08:00

I have lost the bet....oh dear...the piper will have to be paid!

The night of nights!

2008-04-30T22:46:00.002+08:00

This is the night! Tonight Liverpool either lives up to its name or hangs its collective head in grief.

In one of my earlier posts, i have stated how i think i am a jinx to Liverpool...that i should never watch their games live, especially critical games, as they always lose when i watch! I am a jinx to them.

That's why i shall not watch the game live tonight...no matter how much i want to!

I have a huge bet riding on this game... so may the force be with you Liverpool!

arrgggggghhhhh i cant stand it!!!!

Hmmm picking your nose...

2008-04-28T19:28:00.005+08:00

I am sitting here in my office, waiting for a diary.

Yes, that's how sad the circumstance is. I need this diary you see, so that I would be able to fix some dates tomorrow. Now if these were dates of the romantic version...it might be worth it, The wait that is. But on second thought, I dont think even those are worth it. Dates are pretty much over-rated.

I mean, dates are loaded with high expectations, 100 mile-long lists of dos and donts...and it comes packed with so much stress that I am amazed the species has actually survived thus far!

I mean there must be a more efficient way for people to decide to start a family together. Like meerkats....do you think they are bothered about who is dating whom? or who is a better catch than the current beau? They all look alike dammit!

If the survival of the species depends on just dating, i doubt we would get as far as we have. It's a good thing that in the past, people were married off into good families, to start off their families. It was also a bad thing that people were married off into "good" families to start of happy families, only to find abuse and mental torture!

Nevertheless, the past seemed to have worked very well.... i am not sure about the present and its methodology. You do get a lot of people meeting more people in their lifetimes than anyone would have say, in 1776.

But that's not necessarily a good thing. The sheer choice available out there, coupled with thoughts of "perhaps i can do better" or "what if a better deal appears just after this one?"...has resulted in people not making choices, but merely waiting.

Which brings me back to what i am doing...waiting...for a diary.

Someone suggested that I pick my nose while I was waiting...that someone also suggested what I should do with my "pickings"..eeeeewwww grosssss......so I shall not go there.

That somone may have thought that the gross factor may alleviate the boredom factor....created by the wait factor....but it just makes me want to go home, take a shower, wash my hair and brush my teeth, floss and gargle with listerine!!!!

My appetite for my Singapore Fried Bee Hoon has just vanished. I think dinner will be vanilla flavoured soya milk and a magnum ice cream instead...or not.

I do hope that diary arrives soon...i want to go home and flop on my bed and watch the swelling on my foot....or rather observe it...of course this observation is for scientific reasons, and has nothing to do with my paranoia that I have broken a bone.

My accident prone self would have managed to break or bruise something from merely watching paint dry. I am convinced that accidents hunt me down...

I may use this time to think up a plan to trap that stray cat and her kittens...the one that has conveniently plonked herself in the sofa that my inconsiderate neighbour has left under the stairs. I have lodged a complaint with the building management, but i think the girl in management has a soft spot for cats!

I shall find a way to lure that vicious hissing cat into a garbage bag and hand her kicking, hissing and spitting...over to the lady with the soft spot! She can then purr and coo over the damn thing to her hearts content while that feline pees and poops all over her nice smelling office!

Now if marmite was still with me, none of this would have happened. Marmite my leg humping confused mutt who is happily running about my parents yard even as i type this.

She still has not forgiven me for leaving her with my mum, but what can i say, she grew too big for the apartment! It would have been cruel to keep her there.

My toe (which I hurt yesterday) has turned purple I am sure...but under the french manicure, it looks grey...i bet when i remove the nail polish tonight i will be greeted by some pretty vivid colours!

I do hope the swelling goes down...i dont want to wear a splint or a cast...or god forbid...another surgery but this time on the metatarsal (already have a metal plate on the metacarpal).

I am slowly but surely, working my way to becoming bionic. Now that I have seen the new jamie sommers...she is not too bad....but i still think i prefer Lindsay Wagner in that role.

It's been 9 years since the metacarpal....its not yet time!

Meanwhile, Perskindol is my NBF (new best friend). It says on the can "for relief of muscles, aches and pains". I wonder how one relieves one's self of muscles. It's use is for arthritis, strains, bruises (check!), simple back ache, stiff neck (ok, i can think of quite a few people that i should sneak up on and spray the living daylights out of them), sprains (most possibly, check!) and cramps.

Cramps.... wonders if this is the new improved Panadol menstrual. Now if i were the type of person who had period cramps...i would volunteer to try out this product during that time of the month. But since i dont feel it come or go (just get annoyed the hell out of bleeding so much!!!) i cant put this product to its test.

So, I am asking all period crampy people to call me, so that i can conduct a scientific test...yes there will be hunky doctors in white coats and nurses in kinky uniforms (cant be thinking of hetero's only!) on standby to assist with this experiment. I figure the eye candy will be lure enough for the experiment...and oh yes....it's spelt P-E-R-S-K-I-N-D-O-L.

The product is "propelled" by butane (is that the stuff that comes out when one farts?).

The conclusion of all this nothing waiting, nose picking, farting and even more nothing is, ...I am still waiting....its wayyy past the appointed time.

I have half a mind to go home (wait, i do have only half a mind!).

So, its time to go....ta everyone!

Cars

2008-04-25T18:22:00.002+08:00

It's time again...to think of cars.

I just finished paying off my last car. It was to be carefree days of freedom from hire purchase payments.

Then on April 11, this 60 year old woman decides to ram her car into mine. A loud bang, a painful jolt and 10 seconds of absolute silence...after which i realised....drat....this is bad!!!

My friend was in my car, and she was asking me if i was ok. I was asking her if she was ok. But the woman that crashed into us, was banging on my window demanding i come out of the car and deal with the mess she claims i created!

So after making sure we were both in one piece, i stepped out of the car and proceeded to take pictures of the crash without talking to her...simply because she had not stopped yelling.

Anyway, after a looong afternoon with tow trucks, policemen and insurance claims. The lady was issued a traffic summons and my car was taken away to be fixed.

I now have to decide on what car to buy...to replace this one.

Any suggestions?

Meeting President George W Bush

2008-01-30T11:11:00.000+08:00

I have met President George W Bush! Well, at least by the concept of 6 degrees of separation.

Except in this instance it is less than 6 degrees of separation. Let me explain....

I had a breakfast meeting with a client today. This client, who was a lawyer by profession, turned out to also be a member of parliament in a south east asian nation (and this is no 3rd world nation!).

The breakfast was held at the Shang Ri La Hotel here, and was scheduled for 7.45 am! Can you imagine me, waking at 6, doing my morning 7 minute routine, showering, getting dressed and fighting traffic - all before 7.45 am??? All those who know me would definately applaud me for not taking the man's head the moment he stuck his hand out by way of introduction!

You see, I am NOT a morning person. I usually set my alarm for 7 am, and thereafter actually crawl out of bed at around 7.30 am....bleary eyed to the coffee machine and set it up, before I do anything else.

Then its a slow process from first coffee to civilised human being. I usually reach the status of civilised human being by about 11 am....IF i try.

Back to the story...we met the MP at the lobby of the hotel, and then headed off for breakfast at the Lemon Garden cafe. It was a nice spread indeed, but one just takes bread and fruit when one is having a working breakfast meeting.

So there I was drooling at all that lovely food, and stabbing at my grapefruit and croissant and sipping daintily at coffee.

The MP regaled us with some stories of meeting our Deputy PM the previous day, and then told us of how last year, he, together with HIS Prime Minister, visited the White House. He had an audience (i guess that's what you term it like when you meet the Queen or someone similar), with President George W Bush.

Therefore, by virtue of having met this client, I have met President Bush by only 1 degree of separation. Isn't that weird?

Actually, I would prefer that proximity of meeting to be with Matthew McConnoughey or Jon Bon Jovi, rather that ol' GWB. I mean, he is the last person I would ever want to meet. Everytime I think of GWB, I recall that often replayed segment of him sitting in a kindergarten seat in some children's school somewhere, reading a child's story book UPSIDE DOWN.

That image is still burnt on my brain. I can't remove it (believe me, I rather have NO image of GWB on my brain, as he is somewhat weird looking...like he ran into the rear of a cow when he was a kid or something).

Having said that, I know have "met" ol' GWB.

I wonder when I will have my real fantasies fulfilled....do you hear me Matt?

Coughs and Numb Tongues.

2008-01-04T14:26:00.000+08:00

Right, where do I start.

I caught this flu on sunday. I had to go to work on Monday feeling as sick as a dog...and then the doc gave me meds but not the day off. So I struggled through the day with a fogged up brain and went home on the dot. Spent new year's eve at home and new years day in bed. Returned to work on wednesday and all I can say now is, the flu has progressed into a nuclear powered cough and a scratchy sore throat that makes me cough so hard it warrants a rating on the richter scale!

Needless to say, I didnt get enough sleep last night. I am still groggy but I have with me the guaranteed solution. It's called "Strepsils pain relief". It is an antiseptic lozenge that has a numbing effect to relieve pain. It is also blackcurrant flavoured. Sounds great doesn't?

Well, the thing is, one would think that since its meant for the throat, your throat is the part that ought to get numbed. Instead I now have a numb tongue. I sound like this "Am i thounding thrange? it ith thith thoopid lothenge that i took. It ith killing meeeee!!!!!"

Anyway, I thougt it prudent to warn everyone, that tongue numbness is what they mean when they say "Numbing Action relieves pain". Needless to say...the pain in my throat is THILL THERE!!!!.

Nevertheless, because it tastes nice, I shall have my second one now.

I guess i will haveto wait till I get home to get cracking on the home remedy of green apples and chinese dates slow boiled into a herbal soup.

Would anyone like some thoup?

The New Year is Here!

2008-01-02T11:40:00.000+08:00

Yes the new year is born. I spent New Year's Eve at home sick as a dog. A flu...a bad one too...its had sharp teeth that clawed into me and caused all kinds of bodily aches and pains. IT drained the fluid outta me like some weird vampire...and the meds the docs gave me gave me a hangover without the benefit of the high that alcohol usually provides.

It's mean to have a hangover when one didn't even have a drop of alcohol!

Anyway, I am back at work. The new year means another year of plodding away on other people's problems. It also means another year of opportunities and hopefully more regular blogs.

I had considered the pros and cons of continuing to blog. I think it will do my soul good to vent here. It would also help improve my writing skills (the lack thereof being the real problem!).

I know nobody reads this really, and maybe thats why I have a boldness and high level of openness about the stories and life relays that I post here.

I like having the best and the worst of me being laid bare here. It won't reach the massess nor the small group of friends and people that know me, but at least I am being honest with myself.

I try to be interesting, but that's not what this blog is all about. It is all about my weirdness and strangeness. Maybe someone will relate to these posts, but then again, maybe no one will. Who cares really, it just makes me feel lighter (even if the scales tell a different story altogether!).

Here's to all you people out there who don't read my blog...Happy New Year...may it be filled with hope, joy, peace, friendships that last, prosperity, honesty and happiness.

She Lived in a crooked house...

2007-12-30T00:32:00.000+08:00

There is this woman (me) who lived in this house (alright, condo) who had a crooked cat (hmm...mad dog?) and had ....well her kitchen wall paint started peeling and so this obliging friend offered to scrape it, seal it with a sealant and thereafter repaint the wall.

However, I now have a half scraped kitchen wall...it looks weird...but then again what do you expect from someone who is weird or strange or both???

I also tried to put up a shelf in my home office, all by myself today. It was a disaster ! For some strange reason the right hand side bracket would not go flush against the wall...and so i have a slightly crooked shelf! so i cant put books or heavy stuff on it (like bricks...but why would i want to place bricks on a shelf???). So the crooked shelf now houses my collection of pigs.

By the way, my collection is incomplete as I still dont have a diamond, emerald, gold and platinum pig (hint hint).

Feel free to donate to the needy pig family.

I have refrained from installing the 2nd shelf as I think my drilling skills require more practice. I shall practice in my sister's house, since she just moved in to her new house and thinks that I am a highly skilled "driller".

Little does she know...she shall have crooked curtain railings ....

The crooked house shall continue...

Sampras vs Federer

2007-12-28T18:02:00.000+08:00

Yes, sometime during my absence I managed to catch an exhibition tennis game where Pete Sampras played the current world no. 1 Roger Federer in Malaysia.

It was soooo cooool!

Although Sampras lost. But he won in Macau.

Well Whaddaya know? 2 posts in one day!

I have been bad....

2007-12-28T17:28:00.000+08:00

Yes, I have been very very bad.

I have not posted a single blog in more than a year!

I used to thrive on this. But I later realised I started blogging in a time of changes in my life. I had started to blog when I formed a partnership (one that ultimately didnt work out) and had lots of time on my hands.

The fact that I had lots of time on my hands when I started a new venture should have been an alarm bell in itself, but i wrote it off as merely a slow start. The slow start became a slow period of my life.

A period during which I amassed a large debt.

However, since I wrote off that partnership (and yes I was betrayed by this partner who was also a friend), I went back into being an employee, slaving away for the bosses who earned the big bucks and drove the fancy cars.

However 1 year and 8 months after going back into employment, I have managed to recover...I have paid off the debts, and come to a comfortable lifestyle. There must be something to be said about a healthy pay packet!!!

I am now happier, without the weight of debts on my shoulders. I am enjoying a good quality of life, my garden never looked better, I enjoy shopping and holidays....yes all of this at one small price....I dont have as much time as I used to!

As a direct result of this malady, I have not been able to blog. More scarily...I have not had anyhing interesting to blog about!

I am afraid my life has become boring. I have become mundane and unexciting...not that I was particularly exciting...but at least I had something to write about.

My writing skills (had very few to begin with) has disintegrated into nothing and my familiarity with blogspots that I used to read has totally vanished.

I am mourning for my blogging past.

I don't know if I will recover, regain and re-blog....but I am hopeful!

Pangkor Island...

2006-09-05T20:52:00.000+08:00

I had gone on an office trip to this island. Its quite a tranquil place. It is indeed relaxing to be by any beach....well it is for me anyway. I love beaches. I love just lazing and doing nothing but ...well, lazing!

Reading, swimming when it gets too hot...eating drinking...enjoying the views...thats what i like about beaches.

The resort we went to...was the same resort i went to on an office trip a few years ago (it was a different office then, but strangely housed in the same building!). It had changed management but not much else was changed. So it was not too bad really.

You could see giant hornbills flying about, and this resort actually fed them. They would come and sit on the breakfast deck and feed off the scraps that the guests left behind. they can be pretty intimidating, but i am told they are shy.

The sunset on beaches (especially here) can be glorious. It just makes ordinary photographers like me seem like amazing photographers. But truly, gorgeous photos just appear magically even in cameras handled by idiots like me! Just take a look at these...

See what i mean....

Its such a nice place...i do plan to go back. In fact...i have already made reservations there for october....now i only have to pray that it does not rain on my beach....

Where have i been?

2006-08-30T12:26:00.000+08:00

Hmmmm...where do i start?

I haven't had the time...i have been busy...with what?

Well...changing jobs...trying to fit in at the new office, hearing hurtful comments being passed about me in the office, realising that i wont have friends in my office - just colleagues.

But, sister got married in february....sister had miscarriage in July....My garden got chopped off by the building management for no apparent reason (was MOST upset)....wrote letter of complain and now they are in the midst of replanting it. In this regard, i am researching rock pools for the garden. It is going to be my project for when i take some time off in october.

Work is...work! you just get it done you know? Am slowly getting back into the court circle...3 day trial begins next monday.

I started jogging twice a week in the evenings with a friend...and now tha the rains are here our evenings are getting pretty washed out. So ...the two of us decided today to try the mornings out for our jog. It was not too bad...but it kinda rushes your morning? Anyway as a result of morning jog...am STARVING now and can't concentrate on work. So i finally decided to do something about my blogspot.

I guess it really needs to be maintained more regularly. I also have to cathc up on whats happening on the blogs that i used to read.

I am truly SAD.

However, the less time i spend online...means the more time i am out there...you know..that place they call the "real world".

A couple of weeks ago, my neighbour gave me tickets for 4 to attend the starlight movies. So a couple of friends and i decided to go watch XMen 3 at the open air cinema. K packed some bacon sandwhiches for us...and we all got into their car , Goldy - a really old gold volvo, and we spread out the waterproof sheet and lay on it...ate our sandwhiches and had orange juice and apple juice and lay's potato crisps...while waiting for the movie to start. It was a pretty cool night...so it was quite a nice experience....

Anyway...my pals should be swinging by anytime now to pick me up for lunch.....so i better get going.

I promise to try and be more regular....really i do...

In the meantime...happy lunching...and happy birthday malaysia!

Home...

2006-03-21T11:25:00.000+08:00

It has indeed been a long time since my last post.

Since then, my sister got married, i went on a short holiday around the country...the oldest rainforest jungle in the world right in our backyard, the gorgeous beaches in kuantan, the awesome seafood there (think lobster ...800 grammes at roughly 20USD) wonderful cool air, tea plantations and pick your own strawberry farms in cameron highlands and the F1 race in Sepang.

I enjoyed the company of a true friend and the friendship moved to new heights or levels. It was a really nice time we had and i am even more convinced that the right job for me is to be a beach bum.

Sun sand and sea....i have tonnes of pictures to download....but i havent yet...i think my one gig CF card is full! I need to get back here and post some pictures....all in good time i am sure!

Till then..i will try to keep smiling for the next 12 hours.

Back Home Now...

2006-01-27T10:54:00.000+08:00

Well I am back home now and reality has hit!

I am back again in the thick of things. "Things" being....work, cleaning the apartment, salvaging the garden, recovering from a baaa cough and flu...and...helping to prepare for my sister's wedding on the 25th of February. The guest list is 800 strong!!! (an entire state in some places?).

I got back from england on the 11th of January and went straight back to work on the 12th. My sister's engagement was on the 14th of January. Now, i know it may be a little confusing for non-asians that the engagement date is "fixed". But this is a cultural thing.

The engagement is not a private affair between the couple. The engagement is a formal event, organised by the female side of the pair's family. It is hosted in the girls home and the boy's family arrive in an entourage. They bring with them trays of gifts and a saree that the girl has to receive, go upstairs and get changed into, and return downstairs to sit beside her fiance.

The ceremony begins when the fathers of the couple, exchange trays of betel nut and betel leaves, a symbol giving to the other their respective child. Then they smear scented sandalwood paste on each others arms and splash rose scented water on each other. Then the grooms father hands a tray with the saree to the brides uncle who hands it to her for her to go and get changed.

She returns and sits beside her fiance and then they exchange rings.

After that there is a huge feast and the formal part of the engagement is over.

Needless to say its an exhausting time preparing for it and cleaning the house after. The guest list for the engagement (made up of immediate and close family and very close friends) was 120.

In any event it is also a joyous occassion, lotsa fun and food but sometimes fraught with tensions that come with two families that are very different, merging in ideas and concepts.

This engagement was similarly fraught with such tensions, but its over now. We just have to get ready for the bigger tensions of the wedding preparations.

This saturday we go to buy the bride's wedding saree and to buy the bridesmaid's saree as well. It is an occassion where representatives from both sides of the family as well as the bride and groom and the bridesmaid, go shopping together...what fun. NOT!!!!!

Yes, you guessed it right...i am going to be the bridesmaid for my sister's wedding and i am NOT looking forward to this saturday.

I suspect a very rough and aarggghhhhh type blog will follow the event.Shall keep you posted.

..and then there was ludlow, ironbridge, shrewsbury and church stretton..

2005-12-28T08:49:00.000+08:00

Well, i didnt get a white christmas. But i more than made up for that lack with an overindulgence in food. I need to go on a diet when i get home!

These are shots of our christmas lunch and the trifle and pudding i made for our christmas lunch dessert as well as the family's cat Jacob after the lunch. Needless to say we all felt like Jacob!

Of course i also had some trouble sleeping, especially with jetlag finally catching up with me! So i was up bright and early to catch the sunrise out of my bedroom window.

Before Christmas I also went to a place called Ludlow and Ironbridge. Ironbridge is the seat of the industrial revolution of England and thus holds a distinguished place in her history as well as being milked for all its worth in terms of tourism. Replicas of the bridge, the bridge itself, its toll house and the surrounding area of this part on either side of the severn river in this town is catered to emulate, recreate and remind everyone of the towns history. Nonetheless it is done tastefully and remains a pretty town in the county of Shropshire. Because of the over emphasis of the bridge, i decided to photograph the pictureesque River Severn and her fowl, because if it werent for the river, the industrial age would not have been born there.

Ludlow on the other hand is a nice mix of old and new. It also boasts a ruined fortress and castle. I liked the look of it. Reminded me of all thos King Arthur and Robin Hood tales of yorn...err yesteryears? errr ok, i admit my ye olde englishe is not up to mark. I am told there are villages in the county of shropshire where they still use the words "thee", "thou" and "thine" etc etc...in its everyday conversations!

Like i said earlier i didnt get my white christmas. But on 27th december, when i went on a rambling trail at Church Stretton, it was really cold [the word rambling reminds me of a friend....ramblez]. I woke up to frost on the ground and cars. It was beautiful to find a light dusting of frost on the plants and trees. And as i walked the trail, there it began to snow! Powder soft white that dissappeared into my hair and clothes. It also snowed when i was at shrewsbury, busily staring into a bronze statute of Charles Darwin, placed in front of his old school.

Anyway, these photogrpahs are beginning to look like next years' postcards. So be warned...am sending this out to all my friends as my postcards from the beyond...well far east anyway!

It is now 2 am and i am still publishing this post while packing. To leave the beautiful and serene shropshire area for a different scene...cambridge. It is a 5 hour bus (or as they call it here, coach) ride to cambridge from wolverhampton. I have a book and a warm coat.... my travelling companions....and my trusty camera.

Anyway...i should go to bed now...long journey tomorrow and a new town to explore and photograph.

You know...i can keep doing this forever and a day. Wish i didnt have to work to support this...LOL! Work sure gets in the way of LIFE.

Am not sure when i will have access to a pc again...so i may not blog for a while...maybe till i get back home. Shall see how it goes. if i dont get to blog before the new year.....Happy New Year everyone!

God Bless!

Greetings from Shropshire!

2005-12-20T18:30:00.000+08:00

The journey was looong. But i am finally here in Shropshire England. The town is called Bridgnorth, its near wolverhampton and Birmingham. The place is very pretty...of course it doesnt help detract from the fact that i am freezing my butt off!

Before landing in england i had a one night stopover at Doha in Qatar. I managed to see a bit of the town and photograph some of the sunrise.

After an almost 8 hrs plane ride from Qatar to Heathrow..i had a 3 hour bus ride from heathrow to wolverhampton where my aunt met me at the bus station.

We then travelled about 30 minutes to bridgnorth where she and her family live. Its really pretty here. And i managed to see a bit of the town. Even went to a sainsbury's outlet last nite!

I went and saw ol shakespeare's birthplace and the quaint town...also the church in which he is buried...its a pretty awesome looking church surrounded by graves that date to a time when men wore skirts.

I enjoyed the quaint shops and nearly died paying for food there...the sterling is too darned strong man...for what i paid for a miserable sandwhich i could have had a hugely satisfying steak back home!

Anyway dont think...just eat is what i told myself. In any event, the food was at least nice and the tea horribly weak! typically english i guess.

Next time i am having kopi...for those who dont undertstand the lingo...thats malay for coffee.

Until the next report...am signing off...hopefully uncle hugh has woken up and is ready to take me antique shopping.

Ta ta till then....

Christmas Tree....

2005-12-08T14:58:00.000+08:00

I put up my christmas tree this morning. It is a hand-me-down christmas tree from my cousin. They bought an 8 foot tree and decorated it to the brim. It is gorgoeus. Will post pictures of it once i have taken some.

So i brought home this hand-me-down tree with the warning that it is a "lil crooked". And yes it is VERY crooked!

But hey a crooked tree is better than no tree. Or maybe i am the crooked lady that lived in a crooked house with a crooked dog (marmite is gonna kill me!) and yes with a crooked tree.

Of course i dont have lights...just the tree, some ribbon and 8 baubles, 2 angels, 1 santa and 1 one snowman to hang on the tree. I think i need to go christmas decoration shopping but i dont have the time. or i could go visit my cousin daily and sneak one ornament each time from her tree ..hehehe that does sound deliciously naughty and fun!

In any event, the tree is up and i will leave in 9 days...i hope to see less crooked trees in england.

Until then, Merry Christmas everyone and a Blessed New Years!

Do you believe in LOVE? and that happiness follows....

2005-11-24T17:16:00.000+08:00

A friend of mine has started a new business. This is where you can find out more about it www.millionlove.com.

He is a lively fun interesting and yes slightly strange person. One has to be all of that to be a friend of mine...some kinda prerequisite i think. He is enterprising and totally positive in his outlook in life.

He has also found love and suddenly needs the world to be in love too.

NO CAN DO!

Anyway, he wants me to register and find happiness. Give me a lifetime credit at godiva chocolates and i am happy. Pay for a gourmet chef to cook for me every weekend ...both meals and desserts....and i will be happy.

If i want love i have my marmite. If i want happiness, read the above.

I think i have both. So ....i doubt you will be seeing me anytime soon on that website....but until then...all the best Cseng!

pictures i didnt plan to take with my Nikon D70s

2005-11-21T14:13:00.000+08:00

21st November 2005, i didnt plan to begin the day (at 1 am) quite this way. I dont think anyone does!

I was on my way home from my cousin's house and i was driving my car and my brother was seated beside me in the front passenger seat. About 2 Km from my condo, i get off the federal highway and take a ramp up to the road that leads to university hospital on the right and jalan gasing on the left. It's a T junction and has traffic lights. Of course the traffic lights and the street lamps werent working that nite.

I approach the junction and stop. I look to my right and seeing no vehicles...i drove out into the intersection. I cleared the lane of oncoming traffic on my right and just as i cross the divider into the traffice coming from the left, a van suddenly appears out of nowhere and crashes into the driver's side door. Yeah the side where i was seated and driving.

I figure he didnt have his lights on because it was sooo dark that had he had his lights on i would have seen it.

He is 22 years old and probationary licence holder.

His breath smelt slightly of alcohol but by the time i insisted on a breathalyser, it was 3 hrs later and there was no trace.

We lodged policed reports and statements were made. The seargeant then came with his photographer to the scene and took photos.

Went back to station and administered the breathalyser. We were both negative. I havent drunk any alcohol in 2 months.

The seargeant said the ASP would need to read through the file and make a finding as to who was in fault.

So we wait. Meanwhile car at garage ...am carless for 3 weeks at least. Am miserable!

But am thankful i walked out of the car...granted by scooting to passender side and using that door.

Apart from minor lacerations cuts and small bruises, i am thankful to be alive!

Countdown begins...

2005-11-18T16:41:00.000+08:00

Its the 18th of November. I have a month before i leave for London. I have too little time and too much to do between then and now. I have so much to clear at work before i leave.

I havent completed my winter clothes shopping, nor have i finalised my itenarary. This is the least prepared i have been for a trip... ever...except those unexpected trips to the loo when diarrhea attacks...thats pretty unprepared too.

I collected the photographs i had sent for developing and i had a couple done in 8R size. the idjut that developed the picture chopped off my entire right arm and left tonnes of space on the other end of the picture...where there was a stooopid chair. I don't know what gave him the idea that i wanted the chair in the picture but not my right arm????

Thankfully the headshot of marmite that i wanted for my bedside table came out nice. She looks sooo pretty. I miss her!

I am going home tonite to go see and play with her.

Dad borrowed my car the other day and when he drove it home, she got all excited. Marmite was jumping at the window on the driver's side and jumped straight in when the door opened. She was stunned that it wasnt me. She then went around to the front passenger side to see if i was hiding out there. And i wasnt there. She ran in circles around the car trying to figure out where i was. I guess the car kinda "smelt" of me? Anyway my mum called me immediately on the phone to tell me about marmite's behaviour. I guess she misses me as much as i miss her!

I am seriously looking to buy a house...that way marmite can come and live with me again.

Until that happens, i shall commute!

Oh the weekend is here....what will i do? shop? definately need groceris gloves and a hat. also need flowers to brighten up my room and house.

Will also spend more time fiddling with the camera....hmmm need a tripod too.

Shopping it is!

Present to myself

2005-11-10T12:28:00.000+08:00

I bought myself a pre-holiday christmas present. Ok ok...its something i HAD to buy since my sofa was falling to bits...literally!

Anyway, was being controlled by that evil monster called "limited budget" who insisted i couldnt buy anything that i really wanted. So i had to get this green one you see here.

Of course that means i have to change the curtains soon. Any ideas?

Always in my garden.. (2)

2005-11-07T16:48:00.000+08:00

As promised, here are the pictures of the lil bird!

I think she was a baby pigeon. Haven't seen her since. Hope she is fine.

Saw a blue bird flying around the brush near the office. Didn't have my camera with me though, so couldnt capture the vibrant blue of its wings for you guys to see.

Am bored today. As you can tell. Abrupt short sentences. Energy fades by 4th word. Its always like this after holidays. A week of bliss. Of doing absolutely nothing and getting tired doing it.

How was your week?

Always in my garden....!

2005-10-24T12:20:00.000+08:00

This morning there was a baby bird (ok, maybe not baby but teenaged bird?) on one of my upended flower pots. She couldn't fly and was sitting there and cleaning her feathers with her beak.

She was gray-ey brown with some feint speckling on the wings. Not really sure what kinda bird she was. She had a long-ish beak (black) and she was half the size of a pigeon.

I managed to photograph her. She posed rather prettily but as i got closer to check on her, you could see her breathing change as she got more scared and she pooped! So i didnt touch her in case she had a heart attack but i was rather worried as there are cats lurking about waiting to sink their fangs and claws into her feathery bosom and draw blood and life from her. Ewwww sounds terrible doesnt it?

The thing is, it delayed me this morning as (A) it got be snap happy with my camera and (B) i had to figure out a way to keep her safe from the cats.

while i was worrying and watching, she suddenly fluttered her wings and hopped off the pot. She did this strange fluttery-walk and slowly dissappeared from my garden. Am still worried in case that nasty cat got her.

But i didnt wanna chase after her (A) in my pajamas and (B) give her another heart attack.

And this is not the first time this has happened to me. These baby birds always choose my garden to land in.

A few months ago this really tiny bird (the size of a small sparrow) was in my garden on the grass. She was very very pretty. She had a brown back and wings and her undersides were yellow. Very pretty and intelligent face. She was also bleeding. So i asked a friend's mum (the couple is a retired couple and love animals) if she would look after her. when they agreed, i drove over with the bird in a shoe box and handed her to the care of the couple. They built a stand for her and fed her and stuff, but the bleeding seemed to get worse and in 2 days she died. We were all very sad. Especially the couple, the husband grew very attached to the lil one.

And months before that a yellow bird (bright yellow with black markings) also landed in my garden. But i could see the mummy bird in a nearby tree chirping to her and the baby responding. But i didnt wanna leave the baby in the grass as the nasty cats would get her. so i picked her up and placed her in one of the flower pots hanging from a tree. It was above ground and away from easy reach of the branch it was hanging from. the mother bird could get to the baby and the baby was safe. So i left for work after doing that. In the evening when i returned, the baby bird and the mummy bird were both gone. I like to think they managed to get back to their nest safely.

The thing is, i dont know why they choose to land in my garden and thereby make their future and very life, my responsibility!

I worry after them and i get all guilty in case i didnt do the best for them!

Next thing i know i will have to rescue the squirrels that are bold enough to play in my pots while i am just 3 feet away! They are very bold these squirrels. they even broke into a bag of breadcrumbs on my larder shelf.

I hope they animals in the neighbourhood realise i will be gone for 3 weeks in december to january, and dont LAND in my yard. I wont be there to save em from the cats and whatnot!

Anyway, i shall now get back to work and TRY to stop worrying about the baby bird. Will post a picture of her once i download the picture.

Full Moon Parties....

2005-10-19T18:01:00.000+08:00

There used to be a time when Full Moon Parties had an exciting and adventurous meaning to it. they used to evoke a sense of adventure, mystery and oooo...all those thoughts one shouldnt be entertaining....

But these days they carry a different meaning to me. In the last month I have been to 3 Full Moon Parties. Most of you non asians probably won't know what it means.

Full Moon parties are parties thrown by new parents for their month old babies. It is a chinese tradition. There are several desserts that HAVE to be served at these functions...one of which is the Ang Koi. A red coloured steamed paste confection encasing a green bean paste.

Also there will be hard boiled eggs , the shells of which are dyed red (in the old days they used onion skins to create the dye, now its regular food dye). These eggs have to be taken home by the guests (you have to take home 2, no less, no more). These are to celebrate the fertility of the couple (mainly the woman who stores the eggs) and to wish them many more children.

It is sad that i have come to the age where are i am now attending these things. I mean i am now in that age range???? dammit i refuse to be called "aunty"!!

I am gonna teach all my friend's kids to call me cher-cher.

Anyway, this saturday is a full day. An AGM and a Full Moon, i can't imagine which i dread more....

Until then i shall have to wallow in misery before the telly with a bag of Lays potato crisps!

Got it!

2005-10-17T11:38:00.000+08:00

I got it. And have spent the entire weekend (well most part of it anyway) playing with the new toy.

Here are some early experimental shots.

Marmite's face is nice and happy isnt it? It would seem she is having a great time there with all the space and freedom and a doggy friend (her mommy, sabrina).

It's sad that she is happier there. But i guess i have to think of whats good for her? the only plus point is, she hasnt forgotten me nor is she mad at me for abandoning her there. She listens still only to me (obeys me and no one else, so thats not so good for the rest of the family). She whimpers when i arrive and wants to be let out to play. We still have that bond.

I do miss her lots. But i am getting used to the weekly visits. I think we can continue this relationship till i get a house with a big enough yard for her.

till then...photographs will have to do.

Update II

2005-10-13T14:24:00.000+08:00

Yay!

Tomorrow i am getting my new toy. I get to play with it almost immediately. A friend of a friend has offered to "train" the padawan in night photography. I think he will see that he has a HUGE problem on his hands.....i will be too busy drooling over the camera that i may not even take my eyes off it!

It is also scarey that someone so talented is gonna be totally apalled at my kookiness. LOL.

Oh well.. it takes all kinds to make the world go around (i tell myself that and convince myself i am not certifiable).

I mean look at this picture...

This picture and this link http://www.ming-group.com/ have been posted with permission.

I love this picture. It shows the perfection of creation and reminds us to be careful with its delicateness.

I doubt we humans are capable of such perfection. We can create replicas and capture our version of that beauty, but to create something new that is perfect in every way...is impossible.

We are ourselves a creation so perfect, but filled with imperfections.

But we can stand in awe and appreciate the beauty around us. It's time to take a step back and just look, to see, to appreciate, to be thankful.....despite all that has happened.

Update on new toy

2005-10-11T11:02:00.000+08:00

The Update is really very short.

I haven't got the new toy yet. Reason beign...work got in the way DAMMIT!!!

Also busy organising mum's 60th Birthday party.

Getting the family to agree on stuff and where to hold it and who to invite...arrgghhh i am going bald from pulling out my hair every time we sit to discuss this.

Everyone has an opinion on the topic of my mum's birthday party, but no one wants to decide. So i have been appointed official blameworthy person i.e. i make the decisions and everyone gets to blame me for the whole damn thing no matter how it turns out!

Sigghhh ....

Ok i just thought of something...i should get the camera before the birthday so that i can take some awesome shots of my mother's bday party and thereby have photographic evidence of the great time everyone had!...or didnt have!.

I shall be successfull...this weekend is shopping weekend.

Yeah i have one more thing that needs to be bought. A sofa. I shall post a picture of the living room here and then you all can give me suggestions on what kind of a sofa i should get.

Until then, ta everyone!

new toy

2005-09-28T11:00:00.000+08:00

I have decided to get myself a new toy. This purchase will have a dual purpose and therefore is a worthy investment. The new toy is the Nikon D50.

First, it is to cheer me up and lift my spirits.

Secondly, it is to record the wintry holiday i am planning for christmas. I aim to spend Christmas in London and New Years in Ireland. I am sure there are going to be lots and lots of snow banks for me to photograph.

And if i am really lucky, some shots of people slipping on the sleet and ice.

Oh i will also take pictures of the humongous christmas trees and lots of pubs (tho those shots may be of the area under tables of views from under bar tables).

There will of course be the all famous shot of the eiffel tower (if i can afford the steep price of the train to paris, since this camera eats into the budget!) and of the irate french refusing to speak english to me. I wonder if they will respond if i said to them "me love u long time" with a vapid and empty expression on my face?

Anyway, now that i have decided what toy to get, i have to go in search of the best price in town as otherwise i might have to eat that sleet and ice to survive while on that holiday and weakly attempting to depress the snap button on the barely above ground camera.....

wish me luck folks!

Recovery

2005-09-20T10:07:00.000+08:00

I think I am recovering.

I still miss marmite. I visit her regularly. She is ecstatic when I visit...I can't keep her still or quiet. She jumps about and runs around me in mad lil circles. Poor baby. It's heartbreaking!

Nevertheless, instead of moping around and moaning, I have decided to take on the local authority. Well this is a very preliminary decision. I am gonna conduct some inquiries and if, from their official response, if they fail to provide a reasonable explanation, I may consider taking legal action against them.

Its going to be a long drawn out arduous endeavour, but one that must indeed be done. For my sanity's sake.

I am also decided that I would spend Christmas in England and New Years in Ireland. I am trying to sneak Paris in somewhere in between. We shall see.

If anyone has any ideas...Let me know.

Sad Day...

2005-09-06T23:08:00.000+08:00

I am in mourning. As i write this my heart is breaking.

My neighbour and i have dogs. Hers is a labrador...and mine is a mutt.

Today she received a notice under section 82 (5) of the Local Government Act 1976, requiring her to immediately cease the nuisance of keeping the dog. Her dog is really quiet and gentle. I dont see how it can be a nuisance.

In any event, the notice was served personally on her.

I checked my mailbox...i didnt get one ....yet.

I think the notice has to be served personally on the owner of the premises or the occupant of the premises, they cant leave it in the mailbox. Since i work and was not home during office hours, i suspect the only reason i havent received just such a notice is that they were not able to serve it on me personally. Therefore its only a matter of time before i receive one.

That means marmite has to relocate. She cant live with me anymore...she has only lived with me since the age of 6 weeks. I cant bear the thought of separating from her. I am pissed off, angry as hell and totally upset! This post probably wont make much sense as a result.

It is some intolerant neighbour that has done this. Someone who probably has 20 cats that i see running around.

They dont even say what the nuisance is...why are people so cruel? why do they think that only human beings have emotions. Pets have emotions too. Dogs are very intelligent beings and get sad when their owners are sad...you can see it in their eyes...in their body language and they way they place their head and paw in your lap and look at you with deep brown eyes.

If i find out who the complainant is, that person had better get ready. For woe be unto you, ye heartless being. A curse upon you and your kind. A plague upon your household. You shall never see the sun nor feel its warmth, you shall lie destitute with not a soul to care for you. A lonely sad life shall you lead.

The bible says the power of life and death lies in the tongue. I wonder if it applies to one pouring out one's heart in a blog entry. If it does, right now i cant retract it, so god forgive me for that.

I cant help it..my heart will never feel again. I hate human beings and heartless policies...i hate the powers that be that are incapable of understanding love and concern. The ones that feel nothing for the defenceless. The ones that look upon these animals as things to be destroyed...to be wiped off the face of the earth.

I may never recover from this. I may not ever be able to look into marmite's eyes again nor feel her cuddled against me.

I think i may not even blog again. I shall never be the same again. Today the sun has set, never to rise again. Bleakness bears new meaning. i will not forgive them that did this to marmite...and to me.

It is over.

Weight Loss Programme

2005-09-06T09:57:00.000+08:00

I have put on quite a bit a of weight recently and have decided to take on a weight loss programme to remedy this problem.

I have decided to take on the following rigorous and healthy schedule (coupled with a healthy eating habit) to recover my (many moons ago) svelte figure.

1. 5 km walk every morning
2. Swimming 20 laps every alternate evening
3. 2 hrs of gym alternate evenings (alternate to the swimming days of course)
4. will not sit at all during the weekends (yes eat , read, sleep, talk, shower all standing upright!).
5. Breakfast is one grapefruit and low fat milk, lunch is wheat crackers with celery and dinner is one bowl of celery and alfalfa sprout salad.

Now whilst undertaking the above programme (some might call it daunting, but i think it is achieveable!), i have also decided to take on another problem that i have, and quickly resolve it. My 2nd biggest problem is i am terrible at delegating authority. I tend to take on the work and never delegate to ensure an efficient and productive response to the task at hand.

So, in order to overcome this problem and to kill 2 birds with one stone, i have decided to delegate my new Weight Loss Programme as follows:-

1. My dog marmite will undertake the 5 km walk daily (solo of course, she can hold her leash in her own mouth)
2. i will get a pet frog to swim my 20 laps every alternate day.
3. My gym instructor will be delegated to undertake my 2 hrs of gym work on the other alternate days ( i am particularly proud of this one, as i have optimised his hours at the gym AND delegated a job so efficiently it is bound to create results super fast!)
4. Have decided that the plants in my garden will undertake the standing throughout the weekend (since the lazy sods spend the whole day standing in the sunshine and fresh breeze anyway!)
5. The dietary requirements are assigned to my extra skinny upstairs neighbour since she already eats only that!

I am soooo proud of myself! I already feel 10 kilos lighter. It is true that delegation indeed lightens one's load and gets the job done! I wonder why i never thought of this earlier?

Frog or Prince?

2005-09-02T14:11:00.000+08:00

You know the saying....kiss a frog and turn him into a prince?

Well, i think today's version is kiss a boyfriend and turn him into a frog.

I stumbled upon this character called "Crazy Frog". Now this frog has a most interesting lifestory. For background on the frog go here. Anyway, this frog started his life as a ringtone tadpole and then morphed into this larger than life FROG that has released an album and had a number one hit single in UK beating even Coldplay. Now that is some feat!

The interesting thing about this frog is its original name. Crazy Frog was known as THAT ANNOYING THING. Now i KNOW a lot of you out there are nodding...yesssss that's the name i call my other half!!!.

So having that saying in mind....this crazy frog truly epitomises the evolution of a handsome boyfriend into that annoying thing...right down to the beer belly, the enlarged eyes (from being glued to the tv) the lack of desire to dress well and look amazing (yes, practically wearing nothing at home)....and yes...the fixation with vehicles (in frog's case the imaginary motorbike or moped) and finaly the penile fixation (has to have his dangling and he's proud of it dammit!!! LOL).

Don't you girls agree with me? ...and some of you non-girls too ;)

A pot by any other name.

2005-08-25T16:45:00.000+08:00

Some of you may be aware that i have a puppy...well she's a dog now really but she's my baby so she's a puppy. Her name is marmite. When someone asked me what marmite was i led them to this website http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/marmite.htm#whatdo to help them appease their curiosity.

Most of us know marmite as this:

However, this is my MARMITE...my baby...my...ok i won't gross you all out with this.

In any event, to my great surprise in frowarding this information, i found out something that i had not known previously. This is what i learnt :

A marmite is a French stock pot or cooking pot—like the one pictured on the front of the jar and shaped somewhat like the jar itself. The name of the French pot is pronounced "mar-MEET." The product name may have been derived from a famous French soup, petite marmite.

So, the long and short of this is, my marmite is either a vegetable based bread spread, a pot or a famous french soup!
Some day when my baby learns to read and browse the net, she's gonna kill me for naming her that...but intil then...ignorance is bliss!
P.S. You must admit that the colouring of my baby and the marmite bottle is somewhat similar.

I am soooooo BORING!!!!

2005-08-23T12:54:00.000+08:00

I just read some of my archived stuff. From here. And i have come to the conclusion that somewhere between january and april this year, i became boring...oh soooo sooooo boring.

I am trying to recall what that one incident could be that made me oh soooo soooo boring...or was it a series of subtle incidents that overtook me.

It must be that series of subtle incidents that i can't for the life of me recall, because ...yeah i can't recall anything.

Does one slip into boring oblivion when one hits their 30's?

Is it all the way downhill now for me as far as wit, sarcasm and funniness is concerned? am i gonna be labelled "that boring old hag on the ground floor with the insane dog"?

I mean, who in their right mind names their dog "Marmite" (and all you irritating people out there that call her BOVRIL, i have already taken out a contract on your lives!).

I have come to the conclusion that i need to do something to make me more interesting...to reignite my funny bone and sarcasm and wit (to wit?).

The question is: what should i do to achieve that goal?

The diving is on hold while my lungs learn to behave themselves, but i have done a lot of snorkelling in lieu thereof (OMG I said "in lieu thereof!!!!").

I have decided that rock climbing is an accident waiting to happen in light of my previous accident prone history.

Learning to fly requires to much time, time I don't have at the moment. So that's out.

Any suggestions? When suggesting stuff the following have to be considered:

1. Am a total klutz
2. Have a short attention span
3.Cant tolerate irritating instructors (what is irritating changes from hour to hour)
4. has a dual personality that wars with self (as all geminis are)
5. enjoys food...lives to eat
6.enjoys even more foood....yummmmmm (ok its lunchtime and i am starving waiting for my business partner to finish up before we can go to lunch!)
7. i love books...the more pictures the better :)
8. I love spas...the more pampering the better.
9. i love beaches...the more sun and sand and sea the better

The rest is just fillers. Work and stuff...just fillers in between....annoying fillers...that dry up fast and fall off and then you gotta find more fillers..fillers are the bane of our existence...i think we have to declare war against fillers...it will be more effective than the war against terrorism...i am quite quite certain...only we would need a tea break and a lunch break and yet another tea break between segments of the war against fillers.

Any volunteers for my regiment?

We shall be called the FillerKiller Regiment. A bit obvious i know...but it does have that ominous ring to it that would cause our reputation to precede us. It would make all Fillers run screaming as though their lives depended on it (and indeed it would).

and what would our creed be?

Long Live Beach Bums....well bums in general.

enrolment has begun, and we shall begin training with margharitas and nachos at chillis this thursday night.

Municipal Councillors..DIEEEE!!!!!

2005-08-19T12:59:00.000+08:00

It all started with this one kid getting attacked by this Rottweiller....the beginning of the end.

Now this kid would have been attacked for one of the following reasons:

1.Called the dog names as he walked past the house daily.
2.Threw stuff at the dog as he walked past the house.
3. Made faces at the dog as he walked past the house.
4.Made rude gestures at the dog as he walked past the house.
5.Called the dog names as he walked past the house.
6. Any other type of act, sound or conduct that we human beings find annoying and extremely irritating.

Therefore, based on that ONE incident, the municipal councils have taken it upon themselves to come up with the following horrendous and totally unfair rulings and bye laws:-

1.There can only be one dog per house.
2.The dog can only be taken outside the premises if the dog is accompanied by the owner and is on a leash and muzzled!!!!!
3. The dog is not allowed in parks or any other public place.
4.the owner must be sensitive to neghbours when it comes to the disturbance that dogs could cause.
5. Anyone caught protecting, keeping or rearing an unlicensed dog are subject to a fine and or jailed.

Now the council members think that this would overcome the problems of children being attacked by dogs.

I dont think so!

Oh yes, the other weird thing is...CATS are not covered by this thing. Cats are free to raom and leave their feaces lying around...peeing in peoples pots and plants...stealing food from kitchens....leaving paw prints on cars and kitchen counter tops...thats all FINEEEEE.

But dogs...nooooo especially if such dogs are there to aid the blind...nooo they cant be allowed on public transportation and in public plants...the blind owners must muzzle their dogs so that these dogs cant bark or lick them to warn them of stuff...and these dogs...cannot lead these blind people anywhere where there is a remote possibility of encountering children and/or other insae adults that could taunt these helpless creatures and then suddenyl react one day only to be marked as deranged creatures that need to be put down.

Hmmmpppfffff!!!

Christmas...Now!

2005-08-18T14:47:00.000+08:00

I want christmas to be now!

Then i can have my christmas break and do all the fun and crazy stuff i normally blame on too much drinks and holiday seasons.

I want to wear crazy hats and weird t shirts....i want to blow party horns into peoples faces and splash drinks on their faces....wait i can do that anytime in any bar!

I also want to go around people's homes and collect nice presents and say "oh, you shouldn't have"...all the time stretching out and reaching for my gift.

I can eat and drink for free in peoples homes...and have them come over, and prepare stuff i pretended to cook and drink the wine they brought.

Sigghhh...i want christmas ....

Friends

2005-08-10T23:45:00.000+08:00

I met this friend for dinner this evening.

It was truly awesome to see him again.

I met him in person during his summer break last year. When he did this attachment with our firm. Then he buggered off to Cardiff to finish his law degree. He's graduated now...and he is back here for about 10 days before he joins his family back in NZ.

He had been through a lot...some because he asked for it..and some because he is just too nice a person.

He's intelligent...but a sucker in some situations. He is witty and has this weird sense of humour that i ssooo get! its weird...we are more than a decade apart yet i so get him...its really weird.

I am glad he's home...i am glad he has a venture in place...i am glad that he is alive and well.

I know come what may he will succeed. I just hope he has the strenght to make himself happy.

And oh yeah...i am looking forward to him cooking for me...as he promised he will!

HAZE....

2005-08-03T15:03:00.000+08:00

The haze is back...with a veangence...and my lungs are retaliating...the problem is...I GET STUCK IN THE MIDDLE.

I hate carrying my inhaler around. Its like this weird shaoed thing that i lug around when i take my dog for her walks. I mean bad enough i have to lug house keys and poopy scooper...now inhaler too? and cope with mad jumpy , race across the road dog???

While waking and wheezing and talkin to marmite...in between i have to go "puff Puff, breatheeeeee in ".

Then continue...

Sigghh air quality...tell em to stop burning whatever it is they are burning ...some of us have to walk dogs!

LOST!

2005-07-25T12:34:00.000+08:00

I spent a mad weekend (beginning Friday) working on something that had today as a deadline. It was focussed on working and getting it done.

I didnt eat much...forgot to drink water for 2 days (save for a glass before bedtime)...and when i stopped working after it got done...i realised i had lost my bracelet..which was on my wrist....its not there anymore...i dont know where it is or where its gone... cant remember when i last saw it on my wrist.

My dad gave it to me for my birthday last month...and its gone :(

Am pissed off at myself and upset with the loss. Don't know what i am going to say to my father! when he asks why i am not wearing it anymore...siggh

Hen Night

2005-07-18T11:54:00.000+08:00

It was my partners Hen night that we were celebrating it by going off for the weekend to Kuantan. Kuantan has gorgeous beaches and awesome seafood. The main beach area that most of the tourists and locals go to is called Cherating.

We booked into a new hotel that we found online. As we were driving up (4 gals in a comfy old volvo), there was a steady drizzle and the sky was grey and moody and not a single ray of sunshine was to be seen anywhere. It was depressing to say the least.

To add to that depression, when we arrived at the hotel we had booked, we found that some company was having their "Family Day" there. The pool was overcrowded with fully clothed...yes FULLY CLOTHED...people both adults and children.

They were happily jumping into the pool straight from the sea and vice versa. No showering first to get the sand and sea out of their clothes and hair. No care for hygene and common courtesy. To top it off there were no beach towels being handed out and so kids and parents alike were dripping wet and trailing a slimy wet path all the way to the lifts and down corridors to their rooms. Needless to say if any one of us had worn our swimsuits and ventured onto the beach (god forbid that infected and infested pool) we would have been marked as scarlet women and stared at non stop!

Needless to say, with the weather being what it was, we only took a walk on the beach and holed up in our rooms and had a malibu and pineapple juice and vodka kurant and ribena party with lotsa chips and dips and tv. We of course ventured out to a seafood restaurant for lunch and dinner and drinks at the village (cherating village). The food was awesome!

We had crayfish, lala, egg foo yong, rice, vegetables, soup and chicken. We had wayyy too much to eat but thats what the weekend was all about. That was the only saving grace about saturday. The sun never showed up all day.

Sunday we woke early and had breakfast (which was crap at this hotel) and checked out. We drove from cherating to Terengganu to a really nice golf and spa resort and registered as day users there (since we were leaving that afternoon). Those few hours we spent there was the best and made the weekend worth its while.

The sandy beach was gorgeous, the clear waters of the surf was awesome ( our colman with our vodka and malibu and mixers helped in the heat!). The sun was out in all its glory and there was plenty of eye candy to appreciate!

While we were swimming in the sea, two guys came over to heroically warn us that there was a single lost jellyfish swimming close to us. So we said EEEEK ran out of the surf with a very quick thank you and crossed to the other end of the beach and went back into the water. Happily chatting as we floated and swam. The boys tried to smile at us and encourage conversation, but i guess we were too busy enjoying each others company and the sea that we werent very responsive...soon they left the water and attacked some very cold beers at the beach hut!

We took our time and came out of the water and played with this really cute kitten we found (bell and beads around the neck no less). She was owned by the girl that worked at the sport and recreating counter. The kitten was a grey and black lil tiger. He was sooo curious and playful, but still a baby. When i finally picked him up and cuddled him, he started purring and meowing in lil baby sounds! Adorable!!!!

Of course too soon it was time to go and we showered and left, only to bump into the same 2 guys that "saved" us from the jellyfish. They said "Hi!" in their american accents and we said hello and thanks for the jellyfish warning and we have to run. So their bubble was burst for the second time in a row.

We then got into the car and drove to cherating village and sat in this shaded shack by the beach for our last seafood meal in cherating. We had bamboo lala and beef with kailan and rice and coconut water that was soooo refershing and sweet!

All in all we had a great time...of course on the journey back it was raining all the way which made it a careful and longer trip back (the road cuts through a mountain range, is very winding and lotsa uphill and downhill windy stretches, and is a known accident prone stretch of the highway).

Having said all that, that was three weeks in a row of weekends by the beach and so i have nothing to complain about. I am all focussed on working my ass off now, so that i can retire in 5 years and settle down on that coast and become a beach bum. Anyone care to join me?

Redang Island...sigghh

2005-07-11T16:44:00.000+08:00

On the 8th to the 10th of July, i was on Redang Island. Redand Island is an island off the coast of the state of Terengganu in Malaysia and is on the South China Sea.

We flew onto the island in the morning of Friday. The only airlines that flies there direct (for now) is Berjaya Air. I stayed here http://www.berjayaresorts.com.my/redang-beach/info.html.

It was 3 days of snorkelling...swimming and lying in the sun...and oh yesssss stuffing my face too.

I didnt have time to get PADI certified for you need at least 4 days for that, but the snorkelling was awesome!!!!

We jumped onto this speed boat that took us for a tour around the island and and dropped us off at 4 spots around the island to snorkel and view the corals and fish. It was a glorious burst of colour and life. The fish actually LOOKED happy. They are sooo friendly. They nibble at your fingers and toes. At one point i just sat at the edge of the boat and dangled my feet in the water...and there was a gathering of colourful pretty happy fish nibbling at my toes...i only stopped them because it was ticklish and i was laughing so hard i may have fallen into the water.

The locals (as in islanders) are also a happy bunch. They are also very tanned and VERYYYY TONED!!! You can see every ligament , tendon and muscle formation on them with not an ounce of fat! Needless to say they looked fantastic. Smiling men with hard awesome bodies hehehe ok time to stop drooling now.

Our boatman looked at the children of our boat and asked "Nak abang ambilkan Nemo untuk adik?" which translates to "would you like me to get you a couple of nemos?".

he promptly dived into the 30 to 40 feet of water, with no snorkelling equipment and came up with a 500ml mineral water bottle filled with clear sea water and 2 clownfish. The coulours were more vibrant than any i have seen in the aquariums! Of course he released them back into the water at the end of the tour. the island has a marine park and is strictly regulated. One cannot remove any shells, coral or fish from where you find them and there are stiff fines and penalties if you are found to be carrying any of them.

As we got to talking with the boatmen, we became friendly and asked to be shown turtles. So he deviated from the route and showed us the place where turtles swam. They are such shy gentle creatures. Graceful too despite their bulk. Pretty and graceful and shy...hahah all the things i am NOT!

At the last point i gave in to temptation and stripped off the life jacket and snorkel equipment and just swam with the fishies. It was exhilarating to say the least!

The pools were nice the sun hot and the sand white and powdery. Even at the resort beach the fishies (small ones) swam right where the waves crashed on the shore. The food was good and plentiful (especially the barbecue on saturday nite!) and i am browned to a crisp ...like chicken! hehehe

Its nice to wear a swimsuit and a sarong all day and not worry about what to wear next or how your hair looks. All you need is your sunglasses and your sunblock....and your alcoholic beverages! One does get awfully thirsty on while lying around doing nothing. Afternoon snoozes are also neat! Spying tanned firm bodies from behind sunglasses is also tonnes of fun.

So on the whole...i had a great time...i would go there again...i would do exactly the same again...and yes i wish i was heading there this weekend too :)

Hope you all had an equally enjoyable weekend!

errr excuse me, but i think you're not supposed to do that!!!!

2005-07-04T21:24:00.000+08:00

Its marmite again....i think i need a dog psychologist....know any in my area????

I left her with my sister and her kids for the weekend as i was away. Its not the first time she has visited there...after all that is her "hometown" so to speak. She as born there and her mommy still lives there. So technically she went home to mommy for the weekend.

Anyway, i picked her up last nite and came home. Naturally she was a lil naughty...tearing up stuff and all. Retaliation for being left alone for the weekend with family but not ME.

So this morning she seemed ok and when i left for work i said the usual goodbye and she seemed fine.

Evening when i got home...she was all waggily tail and jumping up and down and eager to go for her walk. So i took in the laundry and the got her leash and off we went on our walk. We took an extra long route and she had fun coz it was new and she had lots of new things to sniff and and stick her nose into.

Then we came home and i unleashed her and she had her water to drink and after she had caught her breath... thats when she did IT.

She HUMPED my leg!!!!!! I had to smack her to make her stop. She's just completed 5 months and she's entered the 6th month. She just lost her baby fangs and new teeth are growing...shes still my BABY and my BABY is humping my leg!!!!!!

I am in shock. The other thing that weirded me out was...well..shes a girly dog...girly dogs dont hump legs...its them boy dogs that do that! Its sooooo weird.

I cant believe shes gay...hang one...is she gay if shes humping a female HUMAN leg and not another female dog?

I probably need a therapist to help me through this period too. Sigghhhh is there a doctor in the house???

She keeps biting!

2005-06-28T22:13:00.000+08:00

Its marmite! i have never had a dog quite like her!

She cant sit still - she has to be biting some part of me...my hand my feet my face my hair my clothes my ...well you get the idea.

I either have to keep her tied so that i can eat or watch an hour of CSI or i have to lock myself in the room and she out. I cant bear keeping her tied so invariably i am the one cooped up in mu bedroom so she can run around the house.

I really am beginning to wonder who is the dog and who is the owner!

I have uncountable scars, but i love the monster mutt.

I am just running out of ideas. HELP!

In Laws!

2005-06-14T12:18:00.000+08:00

I just got off the phone. My very good friend who is married and has one son, has just finished venting her mother in law and father in law woes. She apologised profusely for venting with me, that i was a victim....but she had no one else to vent on!

She is an enterprising young lady, in a successfull career, earning a substantial salary. She is married to the second son in that particular family and has one son who is about a year and a bit old. About a month ago, her new maid ran away leaving her maidless and with no one to care for the baby while she and her husband worked. Her mother (who is arthritic) used to supervise the maid but as she wasnt feeling too well, she had left for her son's home and that was when the maid ran away.

So now, while awaiting the replacement maid (hmmm replacement killers???), she is forced with the only workable solution, which is to have her in-laws live with them pending the arrival of the new maid.

A bit of background is needed here, her husband is the successful and responsible son. He managed to work his butt off to get where he is, while his elder brother cant hold a job for more than 6 months, has run through a series of girlfriends, (like he changes underwear) who all incidentally get younger with each change (his latest is 22 and is Thai). The elder brother bought a huge monster bike ...and lost it...and so my friend's husband is still paying for it, the elder brother bought an apartment...and my friend's brother is paying for it....the younger brother has changed courses so many times, and every time ...yes you guessed it...my friend's husband paid for those course fees.

So my friend and her husband owned 2 apartments, and as they wanted to buy a house (which they did), sold one apartment, to my friends brother. IT was sold lock stock and barrel and at market value.

The elder brother rents a room from my friend's brother and is never on time with the rent. The parents had the cheek to suggest to my friend that her brother should waive rental in the first quarter of the year as their son has to pay insurance fees and income tax during that period!

She nearly hit the roof.

Anyway, back to the story, since the in laws moved in in the last month, my friend would do the marketing and fill the fridge and freezer with stuff to be cooked for the family and for the son. Everytime when she arrived home with her husband after work, the younger son would be in the house and the 3 of them would have already had their dinner, leaving only one portion of the meal left. That means my friend or her husband wouldnt have anything to eat. She has had to make do with a sandwhich or a hot drink before bed! and all this at HEr expense.

The other day when she came home, for dinner all that was prepared was rice, a vegetable and steamed egg. She knew there was tonnes of food in the fridge. So her husband asked the mother why she didnt cook the fish, and the mother's response was...since your younger brother isnt coming for dinner today, i am saving it for when he is here!

Not only was she fuming, he was boiling and that night he was venting in the room.

I am totally at a loss, that a mother can treat one son that way (the one that provides all her meals and a roof over her head), and show preference to the good for nothing sons. She expects this son to provide for the entire family. Never mind that the elder son cant afford anything for himself, now he even borrows money from his brother to maintain the gf who is in town!

Sheeessshh. The old hag has the gall to suggest to my friend, that when they move into their new house, that the 2 sons should be allowed to stay in the apartment RENT FREE!

It amazes me that people in this day and age can behave in that manner!

In any event, in laws and their relationship vis a vis each other has always astounded me. If we are allowed to hate with a vengeance our blood relatives, why is it intolerable to find a personality clash among in laws.

Why is it that if in laws cant get along, it is because one or the other is a total bitch or monster with horns??? Of course in my friend's case the Mother in law is a bitch AND a monster with horns (though she is very good to the grandson)...in most cases it is merely a case of personality clashes.

Why cant we accept that some people just arent gonna get along and leave the contact to a minimal. they may share only one thing in common i.e. the love of the son and husband...but other than that...there is no common place. So why not leave it at that?

Why must one be forced to like them???? I mean there are aunts i smile politely at and steer clear away from because if i open my mouth it would be after chewing them thoroughly to spit em out....hehehhe...so i best not say anything right? so if i can dislike strongly blood relatives, why not in laws???

Birthdays

2005-06-12T01:57:00.000+08:00

Its my birthday today.

I am truly loved! It doesnt need to take a birthday for us to realise that. Nor should it only be shown on such days...love i mean, but this year, i really have come to know friends and family and the depth of their love and care for me.

My colleagues (the entire firm and the related corporation) threw a surprise lunch for me on friday...there even was a banana and mocha cream cake!. It was a wonderful surprise as i had had a really rotten day in court that morning.

In face i thought i would have to cancel everything and work the entire weekend, but thankfully after having a morning meeting on saturday, that lasted 2 hrs, i didnt have to take the original route planned and so didnt have to work all weekend.

Friday nite a very good girlfriend and i went to dinner (her treat) and we had this humongous seafood pasta at Bakerzin. It was really really good!

Saturday, after the meeting i had lunch with another friend and then i came home. I hadnt done my chores but couldnt do it then as i had to bake this potato de mornay for a barbecue that afternoon. So i baked 6 potatoes and then went to my friend's condo. She and her husband and another friend had a barbecue for my birthday. It was great. We swam, the water was warm and the pool deep. The company awesome and the barbecue turned into us cooking the burgers in the condo! We had sausages, burgers, potato de mornay, chicken wings and lays chips. We also had fruit juice and mango cream strudel for dessert with tea. We watched the movie "History of the World" with Mel Brooks in it and a horror flick called "Madhouse". I came home at midnite. It was a great day! despite having to work.

But when i came home i realised i had to do all the chores. Mopping and sweeping the house, washing the bathrooms, and the kitchen and laundry. So at midnite i started and finished it all at 1.58 am ....on my birthday. So i spent the first 2 hrs of my birthday cleaning house. My dog is running around the room in mad circles now and growling at nothing in particular. She's too full of energy!

Anyway, i have church in the morning and a hi tea that my mum is throwing as a party for me later in the day. So i should get some sleep.

I thank god for my friends, my family and the love and care and concern they have for me. God bless em all and god bless you all.

murders and gardens

2005-06-05T00:41:00.000+08:00

I have a garden in which my marmite plays. She rips around and crashes into my canna plants. They have all stopped flowering for me. They are too offended by my dog.

She pees in their shadow and smugly walks away leaving them wilting at the ammonia scent.

I was pottering around (i do hate that phrase, makes me sound 80) in the garden today after cleaning and doing the laundry and bathing the lil mutt (not so lil anymore, she has crossed 10 Kg), when i had this thought.

Since i attend to my garden as often as i can, moving pots around, repotting stuff and making new flower beds...i thought of murderers and shallow graves that they dig (too much CSI i think!).

I mean most of the times, people get suspicious when a neighbour goes missing and there is a new bed of flowers in one of the neighbours houses.

But if i were the kind to regularly garden...new beds every now and then, relocating some other beds of flowers....and if the murdered victim was not from the neighbourhood, no one would suspect the avid gardener as THE one the police are looking for, and warning people against.

"Hello Mr Smith! My your azaleas do look jaunty today. It must be a really good fertiliser you have there. Wonder if you will let us in on your secret?"

Mr Smith thinks to himself...yes it was that nasty lady in the BMW that stole my parking lot at the midvalley shopping mall the other day....

Funny thought perhaps, but it made me think......do we really KNOW our neighbours??? Wonder if there are any rapists, serial murderers, bank robbers or plane hijackers living in my condo development....

end of may

2005-05-30T13:42:00.000+08:00

Its the end of may. Its nine months into my new partnership. Its nine months of being skint. the gestation period is over. I demand to make more now LOL.

I decided to live like i do...in my head. I am planning this awesome 6 week holiday...in my head.

I am going to go to egypt...china...nepal.....greece....vietnam/cambodia....and maybe holland.

Egypt because i love anything to do with pyramids pharoahs and mummies.

China because its got the wall and the wall and the wall....

Nepal...coz i like the way the name of the country sounds.

Vietnam/Cambodia because my mummy says its not safe to go there.

and Holland because i havent rolled in a field of tulips before.

I think i will spend a week in each of those places...and then i will spend one week on a beach somewhere. That one i havent decided yet. I thought i should decide it while i am in nepal or china. then there would be something to look forward to.

I will pick the place while on holiday and then just land there. without accomodation or reservations of any kind. Then i would walk around and figure out where i wanted to be, in the meantime i could sleep in my sleeping bag on the beach somewhere.

For food i would just stop anywhere my nose took me and to drink i would try anything local.

I would of course have my fair share of duty free alcohol to keep me company too. I would share my drink with anyone bunking on the beach too, coz the bottle is half full. But if you drove a car i would say...errr sorry mate the bottles half empty.

If you wore formal attire i would say i cant share my poison with you as it my soil your suit.

If you had a dog with you , you can finish the bottle...as i would be off splashing with the doggy in the surf.

When i come home no one would recognise me. actually i probably wont recognise me too. Kinda like how darth vader would have felt when he awoke after being burnt in the lava pit and being worked on by the emperor.

Can you imagine how he would have reacted when he woke up and went to the mirror to shave???

Anyway, since i wont recognise myself, i would have to think up a new personality, a new career path and a new wardrobe (personality changes makes one have different tastes in clothes too).

After getting all that sorted out. It would be time to plan the next holiday....in my head.

Of Champions and Idols

2005-05-27T12:17:00.000+08:00

Yesterday was a great day. I got a lot of work done for one reason. I was on a real high. A kind of high i havent been in in a looooonggg time.

At 2.30 am my time yesterday, the champions league final was played in turkey. The finalists were the italian greats AC Milan and the 5th ranked team in the EPL, Liverpool FC.

I am of course a liverpool fan. There hadnt been much reason to celebrate being a fan, but as any loyal fan, we have this die hard hope that they would rise once again like a phoenix from the ashes (of being placed5th and that too behind merseyside rivals EVERTON).

In any event, the first half of the game seemed like it was all over for Liverpool. We actually were down 3-0 to the italian giants. The long sad faces, loss of appetite and the fact that marmite actually thought i was crying and upset...shows what the general mood of liverpool fans all around the world was like at half time.

But rise to the occassion they did. The second half was exciting to say they least. 3 goals were scored within 10 minutes. The heroes of liverpool held the mighty italian gianst to a draw at the end of the full time play. Extra time didnt see much change either. So penalty shoot outs it was.

Some would call it luck, but call it whatever you may, Liverpool raised the cup at the end of it all.

The question remains tho, would the defending champions be allowed to defend the cup at next years Champions league, in view of the fact that only the top 4 ranked in the EPL will make it to the champions league.

Sigghhhh...it always has to be an uphill battle for us liverpool fans, but at least we know that we will never walk alone!

However, i must say, i was rather dissappointed at the voting results of the american idol. I was a Bo Bice fan from very early in the show. I was quite certain the boy would win. All i can say is, america....there arent any weapons of mass destruction there and Bo Bice should have been your american idol.

And oh...please let the apprentice participants know that their boss to be has terrible taste in hairdressers and hairstyles and that should translate to everything he does. They would have better luck with Ivana.

On that note... i rest. Because its lunch time and i am off for a feast of Yong Tau Foo. ta ta all!

and on and on

2005-05-24T14:01:00.000+08:00

Ok I know its been ages since my last post. But a lot has happened since.

I had to be rushed to the A&E of the nearby hospital at 4 am when i had an asthma attack...survived that...went home to mommies to recover (with marmite). I know how people with babies travel now. Marmite had her food, her snacks, her bedding, her shampoos, her nail clipper, her brush, her toys and loads of other stuff to cart back and forth, whereas all i needed was my pajamas :)

Anyway, after that came catching up with work. had to drive 1000ms over 2 days for hearings in different courts, had paperwork and research to catch up on, meetings with clients...sigghhh...it just went on and on and on.

Then came last weekend, it was a long one as monday was a public holiday. Wesak day...the birthday of Buddha.

In any event, friday was a nite out with some ex colleagues/friends. Saturday was cleaning day and vet day and evening was dinner with another group of friends. Sunday was a close family friend's wedding reception (the wedding was out of town on saturday). And on Monday, i finally caught Star Wars: Episode III.

It wasnt as great as the original trilogy, but it was tonnes better than the last 2. the battle sequences were okay and the creativeness of the aircraft and other droids was not bad. But what i really didnt like was that in the last 15 minutes of the movie, they tied everything up in a neat lil package with a pink bow. Yes pink! It had that kinda too sweet tinge to it. I mean introducing the wookies was fine, but did chewy really have to be a named entity in this episode??? the way padme amidala named the babies was also a bit of a melodrama that i thought was only to be found in indian films. Sigghhh.

In any event, i did enjoy watching it. I mean george lucas needed closure as did all of us. But i wish he did it in sequence. For the best was really the original trilogy.

I hear war of the worlds is up next...in June...i wanna see that . Its got to be awesome...and maybe spielberg would do better this time.

Time will tell. Until then, life goes on and on and on....

Of walks and gyms and wasted subscriptions

2005-05-04T11:54:00.000+08:00

I have been a member of several gyms. Phillip Wain, Fitness First, Body Sculpting and now Clark Hatch.

The reasons i left the previous gyms are manifold.

I left Phillip Wain because ...well i joined Phillip Wain as it was in the same building as i worked, but when the subscription came up for renewal ( i had an 18 month subscription) it was almost double the price so i didnt renew. then i left the building to set up my own firm and thats why i am in clark hatch now...its in the same building.

I left Fitness First because, one could never get into their classes (always full by ladies who didnt work and had the time of day to plonk themselves at the gym and wait for the class to start) and it was so crowded that one had to wait in line for the machines. So it wasnt much of a workout at the end of the day.

Body Sculpture closed down so i had no choice in that one! but i would have found some reason to quit i am sure LOL.

anyway, i signed up with Clark Hatch and its a pretty good simple gym. Its just that sometimes the darned instructors notice that you leave early and comment to a friend...hey, how come she left so early today??? errr because i had enuff huffing and puffing? because i had better things to do...like EATTTTT LOL.

During lunch yesterday, my colleague's wife said that walking is wayyyy better than going to the gym. I dont know if its true, but i know it wont work for me as the moment i go home, i play with the dog in the yard and then shower and eat and plonk myself in front of the tv or in my home office to do more work. In other words, i wont leave the house unless its a food related excursion :)

However, yesterday, as i finally got marmite my dog to realise that the leash is not a torture tool ( she yelps and barks and whimpers as though i am beating her up when i attach the leash to her collar), we went for a walk at 6.30 in the evening. I actually walked around parts of my neighbourhood i never knew existed. So i have decided that marmite will go on walks the days i get home in time and i dont go to the gym.

I guess she will only go on walks on alternate days then.

Oh one other thing, i noticed the other people walking their dogs or just plain ol walking...were people in their 50's and 60's eeeeeekkk! Joined the wrong generation. There goes my fantasy of bumping into a Jude Law lookalike while on my walks!

Anyway, the moral of the story is, dont walk when you can be eating, watching a movie (with jude law in it) or sleeping. Much more exciting options than walking!

UK? Progressive???

2005-04-26T16:50:00.000+08:00

WHOAAAA!!!!! the land of Margaret Thatcher (the last REAL leader of UK, in my view that is) is actually moving forward, being progressive and no vaccillating (like the US) on the subject matter.

It is indeed quite a surprise!

I just came across an article that said Elton John is about to marry his beau of many years ( 11 is many??? thought it had to be a 35 year affair to qualify as many!) David Furnish (yeah david furnished his house apparently ...ok bad joke but its 5 in the afternoon and i am starvinggggg).

Apparently there is a new law coming into force in the UK on December 5th 2005, that legalises same sex marriages and affords them the same tax breaks and benefits that "regular" married couples enjoy.

So 2 very ugly men are going to get married at the end of the year or early next year. It must be the year of ugly marriages in UK...what with charles and camilla leading the way!

In any event, i bet the theme for the wedding will be Lilac and shades of purple.

Anyone wanna take up the bet?

BAKING!!!!

2005-04-25T13:51:00.000+08:00

It is my uncle's 66th birthday today and my parents anniversary tomorrow.

We, as in the respective kids, are throwing a surprise party for them tonight.

So yesterday at 4.30 pm my sister and i started baking a birthday cake and an anniversary cake.

We started off with one recipe each and baked one square cake and one round cake. When it was done, they looked tiny! Needless to say it was barely enough to feed me let alone a brood.

so we set about to make the identical square and round cakes...round 2 of baking. We were sweating and swearing by then. Marmite kept trying to get at the mixer and at us. She was in between our legs all excited and in a frenzy. I nearly dropped a bowl of 10 eggs on her!

So after round 2 of baking, and cooling the cakes, we set about icing them with butter icing i.e. round 3. It did taste yummy...the icing that is...the cake i have no idea at all.

we spread mixed fruit jam on the top of one cake and upended the other over the jam, then iced the cake. It wasnt too bad.

Except when we were done, we realised we had piped the wrong age on my uncles cake. So, round 4 began, the ornerous job of removing icing from the cake and re icing the top in as smooth a fashion as we could and replacing the numbers with neatly piped 66 on it. Sigghhh by the time we were done it was 10 pm.

All i wanted was to shower and sleep and sleep in in the morning. Of course i couldnt sleep in as I was due in court this morning.

So i dragged my tired creaky bones out of bed and showered and fed the dog and gpt dressed, picked my pilot case and headed for the car. Then had to run back to place the cakes in a safe spot. Away from marmite and any flying creatures that might be fooled into thinking that was a REAL Cake worht eating Hahahah.

Anyway the guinea pigs tonight (read relatives) will find out soon enough if i fed them or poisoned them.

will keep all posted!

Short Break - Reality

2005-04-19T23:32:00.000+08:00

So i am home from the Too short break.

It wasnt completely as i envisaged it but wasnt all that bad either.

For starters, my cousin didnt make it as she cancelled out at the last moment. So my sister and I made the drive to Kuantan. All 250 Kms through a new highway built across the mountain range.

We started off at about 2 pm sunday. Drove through lush green virgin rainforest jungles, rubber and oil palm plantations and some awesome ranges.

We reached Kuantan at 4.45 pm and the hotel at 5.30 pm.

We checked out our rooms (we had the pool/sea view rooms!) and then unpacked and went out to dinner.

We had dinner at this seafood restaurant built on the beach. There is no roof just a low wall around a cemented area on which our tables and chairs are placed. At the end is the house like structure that houses the kitchen. We had curried grouper, chesse tiger prawns and baby kailan with garlic for dinner. Was AWESOME.

Totally stuffed we returned to our room, but made a quick stop at the store to get our beer, wine cooler and ice cream (cornettos!).

Then when we got back to the hotel, we placed the stuff in the fridge and took a couple of beers to the beach to drink and talk. The strong breeze from the south china sea was awesome and we finished our beers leisurely before walking back to the rooms, and settling in for the nite.

Next morning we ate like pigs at the buffet breakfast, then headed off to the beach to scour it for seashells that we promised to pick for my 2 year old nephew and 4 year old niece.

After the sweaty walk on the beach (the day was a scorcher!) we headed to the pool and picked out our deckchairs and settled in with our drinks, books and huge green beach towels.

We lounged there and read our books, and when it got warm plunged into the pool. She in her navy blue suit and me in my 2 shades of purple bikini. We drank drinks with bright colours and sad umbrellas. We spent the whole day there watching the americans and english talk really loudly and make their presence totally FELT and HEARD.

There were 4 american boys and 2 english young couples (looked like they were in their late teens) there were also 4 european girls and 3 pairs of european couples. There were also 2 other local families, the children only swimming in the baby pool.

The americans tried to impress us, but i think we barely noticed them...or rather we did not allow them to notice us noticing them LOL. At the end of the day my sister and i came to the conclusion that they probably thought we were a lesbian couple since we were not taking their bait!

We played snooker at the bar while sipping our gin tonics at 3 pm in the afternoon...that was sinfully wicked and felt great!...i beat my sister 2 games to 1. We also played 2 games of fooseball, both of which i won...i must say...it was my lucky day as i suck at both games! We made small talk with the pool boy and the bartender but didnt get too heavy with them. They were a tad young LOL.

Anyway after devouring the ice creams poolside and playing a game of upwards, and baking in the sun and cooling in the pool, we headed to our room to shower and change and meet a friend for dinner. We drove into town and had dinner and took a tour of the town.

We saw the State Menteri BEsar's residence, the Sultan 's residence and the Crown Prince's residence too. We saw the royal golf course built along the coast and the huge mansions built by the chinese timber tycoons.

Then we headed back and chatted for a bit by the pool and in the room, before our friend left and we ...although we tried to stay awake, crashed for the nite.

Today , we woke early, had nasi lemak for breakfast with coffee and fruit juice...then went to the pool again. We soaked and lounged and swam and listened to music and then showered and checked out at 1 pm. We then headed to the touristy part of town to buy t shirts for my nephew and niece. We also had lunch at the hyatt on the deck built over the white sandy beach with the waves crashing on the shore some 25 feet away. We wathced some people carry supplies onto a rubber motorised dinghy and push their way to their yacht anchored about 50 yards from the shore...and ate a yummy lunch. My sister had the club sandwhich and i had a ceaser salad. We had an apple pie with vanilla ice cream as dessert...then headed home.

I arrived back at my mum's place late evening and had dinner there. My mum had babysat marmite, my puppy, for me. marmite was most unhappy with my leaving her behind for 3 days and so took it out on me throughout the drive home. She managed to break my skin in about 15 spots with her playful but angry nips and i think i will need a tetanus shot in the morning.

So thats my lil break. Oh, i forgot...i absolutely forgot to take my camera with me so i dont have pictures.,...but i DO have tan lines to prove the holiday did indeed take place!

So whilst it wasnt exactly as i planned it...but it was great and pretty darned close in all the good parts anyway.

I am ready for work, for horrid clients and for horrid court staff.

Life is ready to go on, and so am i!

Short Break

2005-04-14T11:38:00.000+08:00

This is to inform all, in advance that i am taking a short break. I will be going to the beach on the east coast. For 2 nights at a nice hotel. With my sister and cousin. Its gonna be a girls break.

We are gonna drink lotsa crazy coloourful drinks with umbrellas and bits of fruit and lotsa alcohol...swim in the pool and flirt with the poolside bartender...make eyes at male counter parts sunning on deck chairs beside their loving wives....yeah right and proper shit stirrers we are LOL.

Massages and spa treatments...tennis if we feel like it.....big breakfast....medium/small lunch...and seafood dinners.

We are gonna shop for silk batik...and crazy t shirts and hats...

Pick shells on the beach and tell each other scary stories at nite.

Will report later on if my plans for the break match the reality of it.

I would take pictures definately, but since i dont know how to paste em here....you guys dont get to see em LOL.

But i know you all wish me fun and a great time. I can just hear all of you wish me well in the manner of "HOPE IT RAINS ALL DAY AND ALL NITE!" hahaah

As some form of consolation to you all out there, note that i will be working like a DOGGGGGG from today up to sunday (the hour of my departure) in order to be able to take 3 days off.

So see ya all after!

Stoooopid pick-up lines

2005-04-05T15:09:00.000+08:00

I was watching this movie yesterday. It has GOT to be the stooopidest movie i have ever seen. Its about Indians (as in from India) in America. The problems they face, the assimilation issues, the losing of cultural identity issues etc. All taken in a joeky-jokey manner.

I also learnt a new term. The "americanises" indians call the one's that sound and behave like they still are in the mother-land, FOBs. It stands for "Fresh off the Boat".

In any event, the stoooopidest pick up line i have EVER heard came from this movie and was in a scene where this "americanised" indian guy at a party, slinks into a seat next to this hot looking babe (also americanised indian chick) and says......

"How about I add you to me, subtract, your clothes, divide your legs and miltiply?"

Now isnt that just plain old LAME???? Needless to say this guy was a math major in college...or was trying to convince his parents that he was a math major there. He probably was majoring in SKIVING at college.

I am sure this is not the worst any of you reading this has heard, because although i love movies i haven't had much time to catch up on recent ones.

I have just managed to get my hands on a DVD of Million Dollar Baby. thats what i will be watching this weekend.

In the meantime feel free to drop a few samples in the comments area, of what you would term as the lamest or worstest or corniest or eeeeyeeeeeewwwww-est pick up lines that you have heard, experienced and/or used.

sick as a slug

2005-03-31T12:54:00.000+08:00

I used to say sick as a dog...but my dog never seems to be sick and is too full of life to even remotely qualify for that saying.

So now i am sick as a slug.

The haze that resulted from the open burning in Sumatera and the hot spot fires we had here on the peninsular as a result of the drought we had, has caused my throat and lungs some problems. I have a cough that sounds like i am dying from tuberculosis, and a wheezing sound from the lungs that sound as though i have an old geezer living in my chest!

Today we are celebrating a friend's birthday and we are going to a Thai restaurant. hmmm spicy food that will set my throat on fire.

One of 2 possibilities will result: One i will be totally cured of my cough or TWO i will loose my voice.

I have the uncanny feeling its going to be the latter.

The only positive thing about losing one's voice is that when you do start to get it back again, its a very husky sexy sounding voice for a couple of days. Thats when i make all these fone calls and set up dates LOL. Actually i dont really have the time for dates, as is obvious from my sporadic blogging.

In any event, will keep you posted on the VOICE.

Hmmm wondering how to yell STOP and NO! to marmite when i have no voice? wonder if a placard with the words stop and no printed on it would help. Can dogs read? apart from dogbert that is.

Saturdays

2005-03-26T15:11:00.000+08:00

The thing i love most about saturdays is that its a day of possibilities.

Never mind that i usually laze saturdays away. The fact is there are a million possibilities!

Its the day you could go to the beach, you could go shopping, you could have the big breakfast brunch at La Bodega with the girls for a gossip session, you could read by the pool, you could picnic by a waterfall, you could take a hike in a mysterious jungle!

OR

You could do laundry, clean the house, wash the bathrooms, stock up the larder and fridge, pay bills and read the papers.

As you can figure out, thats exactly what i did today.

But at least i had a choice, i could have done the former (and gone through the next week with no fresh underwear) but chose the latter.

Guess i have become BLAH and BORING!

Sighhhhh...next saturday i think it will be the pool thang.....

Bacon

2005-03-17T16:18:00.000+08:00

I have to say, one of my most favourite foods is bacon. I love it on its own, i love it with hash browns and eggs and sausages, i love it as a sandwhich filling in bread and love it in pasta and in any other dish one can imagine placing it in.

Long and short of it is...i LOVEEEEE bacon!

I have just found out that animals (well okay cats and dogs only, really) are as crazy over the stuff as i am.

I had bacon, hash browns and sausages for dinner last night, and marmite was sitting there looking pathetic at being left out....whe she had just gobbled her bowl of food....so i dropped marmite a small bit of bacon. You should have seen her then....every inch of her was twitching and gobbling up that morsel of bacon. She was frantically sniffing the floor for more and starting jumping up at me.

In turn. i had to feed her small bits slowly while i quickly tried to finish the bacon on my plate to avoid the aroma of the bacon lingering in the air and driving my dog beserk!

She even ate the hash browns that was cooked in the bacon fat!

She was just twitching and gobbling... a mass of quivering dog on a hunt for bacon.

Looks like she loves it even more than i do...and i thought NO ONE could love bacon more than me sigghhhh.

Its no fun being dethroned from my role as bacon queen!

Chewed Hair

2005-03-15T15:20:00.000+08:00

The new puppy, Marmite, has taken to sleeping either above my head on my pillow, or on my head and proceeds to chew on my hair!

Well as you are all probably thinking, i am letting her bully me, and its probably true. She has these adoring eyes and sad look and i cant help but pick her up and put her on the bed with me at night.

She does not straight off walk over and sleep on my head, but she lets me doze off then slowly creeps and crawls over me and my bedding and finds her spot. Then she chews on my hair until she falls asleep.

That means i have to wake up 2 hours earlier each day now to let her out in the garden and play with her AND wash my hair and dry it before work!

The only good thing about being yer own boss is, having the need of 2 more hrs in the morning, does not mean wakingup 2 hrs earlier, but rather gettin into the office 2 hrs later LOL.

Except on days that i have meetings or court attendances. Sigghhh then she gets really upset with me for not having enough time with her...and she start nipping and biting my ankles and toes and feet and hands and fingers and yes even my nose when i bend down to talk to her!

I think puppies are tougher than babies. What do you think?

Collars and Leashes

2005-03-11T22:55:00.000+08:00

Yesterday i went i and picked up all the puppy's stuff. I got her water bottle, her feeding bowl, her cans of puppy food, her toy, her shampoo and her collar and leash.

The collar has a lil bell and both the collar and leash come in the same pattern, electric blue with white paw prints in a row. Its adorable.

Today was my partner's birthday and we threw her a lil surprise party at tea. We had red wine and carrot and walnut cake and potatoe crisps.LOL

After work i went and picker her up....yes Marmite is home!

I was so excited all day. But she seems upset now that she is here.

She must miss her mum and siblings, and she must miss her larger kennel. She fussed and whimpered and cried when i put her in her new home with a soft toy and a rubber ball, her water bottle and her bowl. She didnt like it at all. She walked all around and bumped her body against the water bottle so she was getting wet.

She refused to sit and was howling at one point...sorta in between a whimper and howl.

I felt really bad. Maybe its cruel to separate her. She is really adorable, but maybe she just doesnt like me?

I wanted to keep her in my room at night but i think the air conditioner might be too cold for her and keeping her in my bed is not yet an option as she isnt potty trained yet.

Oh yes, any hints and pointers on the potty training?

So i had to turn all the lights out and put her in the living room ( so no tv for me tonight!) and sit with her and calm her down and talk to her till she decided to settle down. Occassionaly i can hear her whimper, i think when she wakes up and realises she is alone. Poor baby! i feel so bad for her.

Wonder when she will start feeling like this is home and stop missing her old life. She is all of 6 weeks old. and i feel bad that shes soooo sad. I wanna cry! seeing her so upset.

Did i do right? i know i can give her a good home and i know i work all day but in the evenings i will be there for her all the time. Is it wrong? should i take her back before its too late? but i sooo want her. Shes my baby and i already love her. I really hope she settles down soon for its breaking my heart.

I really dont know what to do now.

Oh dear, and tomorrow she gets her jabs at the vet. She isnt gonna like me even more !

Termites!

2005-03-08T14:27:00.000+08:00

What has termites got to do with legal proceedings? well i will tell you what..

Monday, after less than 4 hrs sleep i went to court all ready for amazing arguments and battles with ants with big shadows.

After almost 2 hours of waiting our turn and briefing the judge, he comes out and says, actually, they had the entire court house, including this court room and his chambers, with termite treatment stuff and as that particular judge had a terribly sinus problem, he said he needed to go home and read the file. So we stood adjourned till wednesday.

My misery isnt over yet. The saga continues on wednesday. after wednesday i want to sleep for a year.

My next blog will be from when i wake up from hibernation!

The Saga Continues...

2005-03-05T11:23:00.000+08:00

I feel I am writing some kinda star wars episode...where the forces of good and evil do constant battle. However in a siuation of duelling lawyers, i wonder if its what people consider the battle between evil and even more evil!

In any event, following from my previous entry, it indeed was an early morning yesterday! Picked up the client and went off to the commissioner for oaths to affirm his affidavit then i sent him to the ERL to catch the 28 minute train ride to the airport.

Then i came back and arranged to go to the firm where I used to work, to use the library for research. My old boss was very sweet and was delighted to see my partner and me. I suspect we were his favourites, she because she "grew up" in that firm and is the Senior Partner's niece, and me because we developed a work method that was quick and almost telephatic. He trusted me to prepare everything and he would only read it the day before the hearing and have a quick discussion with him, then we would next meet in court for that matter.

In any event we went there (Created quite a buzz too, everyone popped in to say HI) and we spent a good 5 hours researching. Then we got all 198 pages of cases copied and we came back to the office. We worked on the pleadings and then at 8 my partner left. I stayed on to choose the relevant cases that i wanted to use in submissions, did some research at IPWathcdog (an american intellectual property website that is run by a practitioner and educator in america for the concept of trade dress. (i know ...this is the boring part! LOL).

In any event, completed researching, indexing the bundles of authorities and made the master copy, packed my briefcase for work over the weekend at home, and left the office at midnight. And yes i forgot all about dinner!

This morning (saturday) i am back in the office, sending the master copy of to be copied and bound into volumes and then collecting them from the shop and highlighting them for everyone's ease and convenience (and they say they pay us lawyers too much!).

In any event, once the highlighting is done, i am gonna go home and start of my submissions for the hearing on Monday.

I haven't had time to get my grandmother a gift (its her birthday lunch on sunday) and neither did i get my brother his birthday gift yet (his birthday was on the 3rd). Sigghhh, am terrible arent i?

I shall have to make it up to them later i guess.

I have always believed that the weekend should be 3 days. That way we really get to rest (or work more over the weekend LOL). Anyway, i shall have to get back to work now.

Wish me Luck!

Sneaky!

2005-03-03T23:46:00.000+08:00

I am appalled by the stunt they pulled!

They are a large law firm and internationally well known. They have a huge stable of lawyers and senior partners in that firmr; they have an amazing infrastructure and support staff that means they are ready to deal with any situation.

The fact that they had their client depose the affidavit on wednesday evening, means that they filed it first thing in the morning. It is indeed confirmed that they filed not only their client's affidavit first thing in the morning, but they also filed their skeletal submissions and bundles of authorities.

The registrar calls us and says, hey where is your submissions, i need to prepare a brief for the judge! That's when we, the solicitors for the 1st Defendant and me, the solicitors for the second defendant, found out that we were waiting pontlessly for their affidavit in reply.

We rushed and prepared the skeletal submissions and bundles of authorities and had it sent to the registrar by 4 pm.

Their 29 page affidavit then arrives at 4.40 BUT no skeletal submissions and authorities in sight. Meanwhile of course like an ethical and dutiful lawyer, i had sent mine across to them.

So much for fair play.

Mine is a new firm, young, made up of us 3 partners of which only I handle litigation. There isn't anyone to help me and no infrastructure and staff beyond our one receptionist cum general clerk.

So to pull a stunt like that against us is like well really playing dirty. Its like using a nuclear bomb to kill an ant.

Not that i am an ant. Not by any stretch of the imagination.

While they may have thought that we are small and without resources, they did not count on one thing that many people think lawyers don't have - FRIENDS.

The firm i left to set up this practice is large, and i have many friends there including my ex boss, a pretty senior chappie at the bar and well respected at the Bar and by the Bench. On top of that, i have a friendly and accomodating librarian there. He is awesome and can pdf a caselaw on the spot and email it to me in the blink of an eye. He is a saviour in times of urgency.

I am blessed to know them and to count them my friends.

So, instead of a nuclear bomb, i think my trusty 6 shooter will be sufficient to put out this ant with a big shadow. I look forward to doing battle of monday, their day of reckoning!

On that note i shall go to bed, for its an early day tomorrow to affirm the affidavit and have the same filed and served on the slugs.

I hope you guys didnt get back stabbed today.

Oh and ME, Blog Ho and Chris and all other readers...i hope i shall have more juice (erotic even) yarns to draw out for you guys next week.

Ta ta for now!

Hot Stone Massage

2005-02-26T21:57:00.000+08:00

YESSSSSSSSSS! i did it. yesterday at 4 pm i got myself a hot stone massage and a facial.

oh my ohmy ohhhhh myyyyyy! hot stone massages are awesommeeeeee!

Its these flat volcanic rocks that are heated ..really hot! then the masseuse warms her hands with it and massages you, after doing that, the masseuse uses the hot stones themselves to massage you, and finally the masseuse leaves u lying on your belly with these hot stones neatly arranged on your back.

Its just wonderful. you float away to nirvana, you are in heavenly bliss!

After that i was officially destressed.

However today, i went to court in the morning, then i came home and washed 2 bathrooms, (the third was still clean!) and swept the entire house, dusted, tidied the home office and generally about the house, mopped the entire place and was pooped. Then i proceeded to do some gardening after which i had lunch at 5 pm.

Then i showered and got dressed (oh yes i shaved my legs too LOL) and went grocery shopping. Its now 10 pm and i am too tired to cook. So dinner is half a honey dew melon (tomorrow's dessert!). i will figure out what to do for dessert tomorrow, when i have to.

And now, although i am not stressed, i am beat. So its off to bed. Nitey nite all!

Courier Blues

2005-02-24T17:54:00.000+08:00

Can you imagine that? the document i have been slaving over for the past week! yes a week because no one else wanted to work on the weekend (and forgot to tell me) and then decided to only look at it on tuesday, well it was finally agreed on by all parties yesterday and affirmed in singapore yesterday.

THEN it was sent by courier to reach me by noon today. But what happens?

The plane couldnt take off yesterday nor today due to technical fault. So the package only arrives tomorrow. And i get to go and file it tomorrow, which means, i may not get to have my facial and hot stone massage tomorrow!

The one thing that kept me going all week long was that i had something nice to look forward to. Now i have no choice but to continue to be SUPER BITCH till i get a de-stresser.

Any volunteers? for destressing that is!

Blogger's Block

2005-02-22T17:14:00.000+08:00

I have come to the conclusion, that having a terribly busy week (one darned long week that stretched from last monday till today and continues) does not assist in blogging.

I have no thoughts whatosoever!

ME, the person that never runs out of things to talk about, cant put a few words together to form a sentence, a paragraph, without it sounding like some legal jargon.

Siggghhh

I have been advised and verily believe that this bloggers block is not of my own making but has been somewhat caused by the insouciant (i know the word doesnt fit here but i like the sound of the word, so i am gonna use it anyway) blithering clients that cannot deliver their facts in a systematic manner, but resort to the assistance of soothsayers (also another word i like) and descriptive colouring of the scenario. This has the obvious result of causing one adviser to sit at a desk till the week hours of the morn, hitting away at chattering (another word that doesnt fit but who cares! its my blog) keys on the keyboard in the hopes that some sense may be made of it all.

So. on that note, i give in to the bloggers block and shall retreat into the gloom of never ending drafting and filing.

If anyone REALLY needs me, i will be buried under a pile of documents on aisle 56.

making hay

2005-02-19T23:07:00.000+08:00

You know the saying...make hay while the sun shines...siggghhhh

HATE IT. Why cant we find a way to make hay no matter what the weather. I mean, after all i live in a country where its summer all year round (save for the monsoon, when it rains and rains and rains!). Shouldnt i be allowed to make hay whenever i want and not when it i am SUPPOSED to?

When ya work for yerself, you don't get to be the master of your own time. Well THEY let you THINK that you own your own time, but really THEY do.

I mean, when a huge case comes along, your not gonna sit down and say, errr its fridya, if i take this, it would mean my entire weekend and THEN some is gonna be totally ruined. So i shall decline this job.

NOOOOOOO! You would do as i did. Take the job, work yourself around the clock and another round around the clock to get it ready and sorted out, so that its good to go (i know how MANY people hate that saying, and as i am NOT done being a bitch i shall use that term) by tuesday latest.

Anyway, thats the position we are in. You make hay while the sun shines. When the opportunity to make money appears, you grab it with both hands as you dont know when the next one will be right? And you have bills to pay right?

When is it gonna stabilise? so that i can say...errr its friday....so i shall decline.

The only good thing that happened today is, no matter how tired i felt, i drove to my mum's house, had a nice home cooked meal, spent some time with my sister and her daughter (the rest were out!) and played with the 6 puppies...yes 6 LOL.

They are a lazy bunch, these puppies, they seem to only wanna sleep and drink milk. They have fat pink tongues and absolutely no teeth! ADORABLE babies!

I have decided to take one. But i shall let my sister find homes for them all save one, and i shall keep that one. You see 4 of the puppies are lil gurls, and only 2 are lil boys. So the boy puppies will find homes easily. My aunt is taking one of em, and the other will be snapped up soon.

The neighbour is also taking one and that means there will be at least 4 girl puppies that need homes. People here dont wanna adopt female puppies as they may need spaying and dont want to pay for that.

So i shall let the cutest and the fattest and the whatever ....all be chosen, and the one that doesnt have a home, i shall adopt that one. I already have chosen the name. I am gonna call her MARMITE.

I do have some time to puppy proof the apartment, as they are only 3 weeks and cant be weaned from their mum yet.

Well...that was a nice bit of sunshine in my dreary day...

Well...when all is said and done...i do hope i get to ROLL in the hay i make, and not be too old and creaky for that. Wonder if wheelchairs can "roll" in the hay......

Infringement!!!!!

2005-02-17T23:46:00.000+08:00

I am truly beginning to hate that word.....and love it.

It cause me grief as it disrupts my schedule and my life....but at the same time it translates into big bucks.

Patent infringement, trademark infringement, copyright infringement...these words cause me to shudder.

I dont know why clients only "discover" these suits on thursdays and fridays. They never seem to discover the suit against them on a monday or a tuesday. They get served on the eve of weekends and make me WORK weekends. Sigghhh...guess i am working this weekend.

We got the 45 page fax today from singapore, just before lunch. Grabbed a quick lunch then started ploughing through the papers and research. Worked till 11.10 pm. The client from Japan and Singapore are flying in tomorrow and will be in the office at 9.30 am. Sigghhh!

Sleeping late is NOT an option. Hmmmm guess i cant roll in bed and sighhh and laze about in the morning tomorrow. I think its punishment for waking up late today and only walkin into the office at 10 am today!

Oh well...at least i get to bill the client for a weekend surcharge! hehehe you can ruin my weekend....at a cost, a HUGE cost.

I mean i could be getting a massage or a facial...a pedicure and a manicure...getting my hair done...browsing in bookstores ...shopping for shoes....reading, watching a movie, going out on dinner dates...instead all of that is now cancelled!

Work rules this weekend. Someone recently told me misery loves company.

One miserable bitch seeks company this weekend, to take a lot of crap and whinging but promises to be sweet on monday...no wait! tuesday....

Any takers?

Shocker on Valentines

2005-02-14T16:28:00.000+08:00

This has got to be the most shocking valentines for me. Ever.

Its the first day back at work after the chinese new year break, and i had a meeting at 10 am. I met up with the MD of this company that is my client. We discussed the matter at hand and being chinese, he gave me an Ang Pow for good luck.

Then he hads me a gift wrapped box and says "Happy Valentine's day". First of all, this guy is married. Secondly this is only my 3rd meeting with him and its always been a business meeting.

He then proceeded to invite me to lunch. I said we have to do it another time as i already made a lunch appointment. YES i lied LOL. But i wasnt having lunch on valentines day with a client that had just handed me a valentines day gift!

I also know his brother who is the MD of a public listed company. I do work for his company too, in fact i know the older brother first and it was he that brought me to meet this client as he had a matter that i needed to manage for him.

So, receiving a valentines day gift from a married client, counts as the most strangest and awkward valentines.

In any event, we have a long way to go before we conclude our business relationship, i hope it doesnt get weird.

Am a big girl, i should be able to handle it huh?

Black Jack...

2005-02-12T03:13:00.000+08:00

There are a few things you "have" to do during chinese new year.

1. Do the "Yee Sang" thing (where you toss the salad with chopsticks as high as you can while wishing everyone at the table a happy prosperous new year);
2. You eat lots of mandarin oranges and love letters;
3. You drink brandy;
4. You gamble.
5. Married people must give unmarried people "Ang Pow" (red packets with money inside)

Now in terms of gambling there are the usual card games and some unique ones like "Chor Thai Thi" (which translates to the BIG NO.2) and "in between".

So on the first day of chinese new year i was invited to one of my best friends home and i had dinner with her family and another couple (mutual friends). She made steamboat and we had a great time talking and stuffing our faces. I got sara lee's strawberries and cream ice cream for dessert and we all enjoyed that after as the day was terribly hot.

Tonight, being the 3rd of Chinese New Year a friend and i were invited to our mutual friends dinner. She and her family invited us to dinner at a chinese restaurant. The menu was great, we had the "yee sang" of course as a starter, then we had sea cucumber and mushrooms with broccolli, braised pork, Steamed Fish, prawns and asparagus, Chillied lamb and rice.

After dinner, we adjourned to their home. We put the babies to sleep and then, the couple and her parents, her brother and my friend and I settled down at the table with our brandies, oranges and cookies to play cards. Our chosen poison was Black Jack.

I normally dont do so badly, but today i lost 75 bucks. And the host basically won and we all contributed to his coffers. He made 347 bucks!

However, i figure i didnt do so badly as although i lost 75 bucks, i made 4o bucks in Ang Pow and had a free dinner. So i figure i broke even at the very least :)

Anyway, with the luck alex was having, we all decided that he would pick 4 numbers by drawing 4 cards and tomorrow he would buy the 4 digit numbers. This is where u bet on numbers and there is a draw and if your bet worked you win money based on how big your bet was and what the prize was (i.e. was it 1st prize 2nd, or consolation etc). So alex has picked the numbers and we have all contributed an equal amount to the pool to place the bet. Lets see if his luck holds out till tomorrow!

So that explains me coming home at 3 am. However, as a result of that i am so NOT sleepy that i am now entering this blog. Wonder what everyone else did this chinese new year?

A Royal Wedding

2005-02-10T19:27:00.000+08:00

So there is to be a Royal Wedding on April 8th at Windsor Castle.

Charles is to marry his long time mistress and arguably the cause of the break up of his first wedding, camilla parker bowles.

I have mixed feelings on this. On the one hand i am glad he is making an honest woman of her, and he is setting an example to his children that if you love someone enough you should make that commitment to them. This could be seen has an encouragement of family values.

On the other hand, should a man and woman for that matter, benefit from the wrongs he has done. Should the woman that caused misery to his first wife and the breakdown of that marriage and a disruption of an entire family's life, benefit from those actions.

Should a man, granted its not been proven, shrouded in suspicion of having a hand in the death of his ex wife, be allowed to benefit from that wrongful act.

Should this unions be allowed to be the representation of a nations values and religious belief.

Should the monarchy survive this travesty?

Like i said, i have mixed feelings, but right now they are leaning towards the dissolution of the monarchy. Aren't they glad that i dont have a say in it? LOL

Chinese New Year

2005-02-09T01:06:00.000+08:00

Today is Chinese New Year's eve. Many a chinese family would have gathered this evening for the reunion dinner. They would have had traditional chinese dishes and the family would have travelled from far and near to gather around the table for this meal.

My friend in Cardiff is all alone this new years. He is chinese (but kinda indianised LOL). He's great though, he will find a way to cheer himself up and come out tops on this one. He's sensitive and grouchy at times...but hey arent all totally weird people (me included) allowed that ?

In any event, chinese families all across the land have travelled many miles to get together to eat the reunion meal together.

Its awesome living in such a mulit cultural society, you get to share in all the food fests!

There is a totally malaysian chinese culture that has evolved its called "Yee Sang". Its a salad with lotsa greens and fish, usually salmon with sauces. The ingredients are not mixed but are on a dish , sorta in clumps. The people sitting down for the meal will stand up and with chopsticks toss the salad together (and its literally tossing the salad as you are required to lift high as this indicates the amount of luck for the next year) and wish each other lots of luck and prosperity in the new year. This "yee sang" can be done for 14 days of the new year.

I have a couple of invites for the "yee sang". And a couple of invites to have coffee and cake and just hang out. Havent done much of that in ages!

But i dont know if i wanna do that. I mean i really wanna just laze at home. The last 2 days were killers.

There were written submissions to the judge due today i.e. by 4.30 pm today. The submissions together with the bundles of authorities (with passages nicely highlighted) have to be served. Counsel (a pretty senior chappie) had to prepare them. I hadnt seen a draft in all the time and i sent a reminder to him last week. Yesterday at 5 he calls me and says that he is sending me a draft and that i should "do whatever tweaking and editing i wanted with it" and file em in court.

So he emails me the draft at 7 pm and i work till midnight correcting and finalising the thing. Then he sends over a small part of the authorities at 1 pm today. I rush like mad to get the list compiled, sent to the photocopiers to get copied and bound in volumes, get it returned in time to highlight and fill in the page numbers in the submissions AND then send it to court and leave it with the judge's secretary.

So because of his lackadaisical attitude, and his lack of proffessionalism, i got to spend the last two days on tenterhooks and stressed to the max.

So dont you think i ought to just bum around the condo the next few days?

But then again, these are really good friends, and i dont see enough of em....so...no rest for the wicked huh?

Laziness...

2005-02-05T23:04:00.000+08:00

Today was the definition of laziness.

I didnt do anything.

This blog entry is a testament to that.

Goodnight!

TGIF?

2005-02-04T21:41:00.000+08:00

I never thought i would say this, but....why is it friday already??? where did the week go to? i havent finished work for this week yet!

As an employee i always looked forward to the weekend. Granted there were some weekends where one couldnt avoid having to work but generally, one could close a file on friday evening and enjoy the weekend.

But not now! Now that i am running a firm with 2 friends, we just want to get the work done and BILL for it LOL! And if that means hoping the week lasts longer, then well and good. Next week is an even shorter week. With Chinese New Year holidays and all, we only work Monday and Tuesday. So i have to rush deadlines and meet crazy schedules to get stuff done and filed and in order.

Anyway, its a new feeling definately.

Despite running out of time, it was a loooonggg week and i didnt have a breather in between. I didnt even have time to go to the gym this week. So when 6.30 pm hit today my 2 partners, a business associate and I, decided to call it a week and head of to Deutsche Bierhaus for drinks.

We had spicy sausages and a cheese and ham platter with a bread basket together with Hoegaarden and Paulaners. It was yummy beer and a great time of talking, laughing our heads off and discovering interesting bits of news!

I generally dont like beer but german beer is the one beer i really like. That too Paulaner. Its smooth and tasty and well its just different i guess from the regular stuff that tries to imitate what beer is supposed to be like !

In any event, i had a great time.

Let next week take care of next week!

This weekend i am gonna read, swim, relax and watch telly. And will worry about Monday on Monday.

Puppies!

2005-02-01T02:11:00.000+08:00

My niece's dog, Sabrina, was sometime ago raped (well thats how my sister put it) by a neighbourhood dog, was pregnant and this Morning (31.01.2005) gave birth to 6 puppies!

Can you imagine that? 6 puppies at one go...pheeewww!

She has 4 lil baby girls and 2 lil baby boys. There is a completely black one, a completely brown one and 2 black and white ones and 2 black, white and brown ones.

I have booked the black pup. Dont know if its a lil girl or boy. But tomorrow i am going to visit the new born babies.

Siggghhh I LOVEEEEE puppies. They are adorable. These ones are blind at the moment. their eyes arent open yet. Cant wait to see what their eyes will look like.

I may have said this in earlier blog entires...i have always had dogs. The last 2 years have been the exception. So i think its time i got a puppy.

Well i hope he/she likes me when i go visit. I am kinda anxious that he/she may not like me. Then what would i do? i know i will fall in love with all of em at first sight. I always fall in love with dogs and puppies. Anyway, tomorrow all will be revealed.

And yeah, if anyone knows anyone who needs a puppy, let me know!

Frozen Margharitas

2005-01-29T01:13:00.000+08:00

Today was a girls nite out.

Yesssss it was a nice end to a full work week.

5 of us gals (we all used to work together, now only 2 of the 5 remain at the original workplace) always get together to celebrate each others birthday or because one of us had a terribly shitty week/day/hour.

This occassion was Karen's birthday. We met up at La Bodega's in Bangsar for drinks and a meal. Its a cool place with a nice bar and great tapas. We had our fair share of both.

The conversation was great, lotsa humour and catching up. Lotsa ghost stories (in hotel rooms when we had to travel solo for work) and lots of good natured bitching about so-and-so and the world in general.

We were introduced to a gal who had the audacity to remind us that she was a top 10 finalist in the Malaysian Idol competition (aaaacckk choke cough and DIE!), when we really didnt care. We were more engrossed in each other and having a great time.

Towards the end of our meal and just before we ordered dessert, a whole bunch of lawyers with 5 englishmen entered the place. They had just finished a week of advocacy courses conducted by the local chapter of the Bar. With the influx of lawyers (we see enough of them during the week to not want to mingle with them on OUR TIME ....never mind that we are a bunch of lawyers too LOL!), we decided against dessert there and walked to the next lane and sat ourselves down at a cozy table in Alexis. We had the bread and butter pudding and chocolate and banana cheese cake. Both were great and our chamomile tea was a nice drink to wash all that sugar down.

Its great catching up with the girls. I really do miss them. Miss being able to walk into their rooms and stealing cream crackers from their tin and having a vent of the last phone call that pissed me off or person in court that i wanted to throttle. I miss having them around to toss ideas and concepts around with and having their intelligent input. I miss them.

But i am glad i have this avenues of catching up with them and keeping the friendship going.

It was a nice end to the week. This week in itself was kinda surprising. I found out that a friend of ours that runs a company secretarial service for an international client base, has needs of nominee directors for companies. She wanted my partner and I to consider it. It isnt quite lucrative, but it is a source of revenue both personal and for the firm. These companies will need legal advice and we can provide it. So all in all, its pretty neat!

Its amazing that work comes knocking from strange corners i never expected. When we left the cushy job for a small firm of 3 friends and scarey uncertain prospects, we never knew that people would seek us out. That they liked our work and not just the firm we worked for.

It is a great confidence booster, but it also is testament to the fact that good work (read sweat blood effort and a wee bit intelligence) always pays. It goes a long distance. Never compromise that.

So whilst i may not be at "cushy" levels yet. I am enjoying the freedom, the challenge and the blessings that come my way.

Like I said...great end to a looonggg hard but good week!

A Wonderful evening

2005-01-23T17:15:00.000+08:00

Yesterday evening, Saturday 22nd January 2005, was a wonderful surprise and a great evening.

To understand the joy of this suprise, one has to first understand that after beginning my firm (in partnership with 2 others) in september 2004, I had lived a life without entertainment and general socialising in clubs and restaurants for two reasons. One, i was concentrating on developing the business and working hard and Two, i was reserving spare cash (what spare cash???) to stretch and last me as long as it could as who knew what the cashflow for the firm was going to be like. Thus i hadn't really gone to the movies or been to a play, in quite a while.

Therefore, when a good buddy of mine called and informed me that he had a spare ticket for a concert at the MPO (Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra) that evening and invited me to go with him, i was elated. It was a gift i had not expected and was something i really enjoyed. [For a view of the MPO and all it has to offer click here : http://www.malaysianphilharmonic.com/ ]

Thus he picked me up at 6.15, and we were at the Petronas Twin Towers (tallest building in the world...for the time being LOL) by 6.30 pm. The MPO is situated within Tower 2 of the Twin Towers. We then had dinner at a japanese restaurant on the 4th floor called Nippon Tei. We had soft shell crab california roll for starters and then I had the beef and he had the chicken, plus lots of green tea and interesting conversation.

We were done with dinner in plenty of time to stroll over to the entrance of the MPO where we met a gentleman who plays and teaches violon ( a friend of my friend's) and his elegant wife who teaches piano. They gave us a fresh and enlightening peak into what we were to expect from the concert. We also met a few other regulars (friends of my friend again!) and had wonderful insights into the world of classical music and the people in it. At 8.20 the doors opened and we went inside ready to be thrilled and flown into a different world for the next 2 hrs.

The Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra that night played the following:

Gioacchino Rossini's Overture to "La scala di seta"; Wolfgang A Mozart's Piano Concerto No 21 in C, K 467 and Adagio and Fugue in C minor, K 546; Franz Schubert's Symphony No 6, D 589 "Little C Major".

The MPO had a guest conductor that night and he was also the pianist for the night. He was awesome and he conducted the second part of the concert from the piano bench. Tamas Vasary, the guest conductor and pianist, is a 72 year old man of great stature and command. He appears friendly and humble for the amount of talent he packs into that thin tall frame. He is a hungarian and is tremendously passionate about music. That passion is obvious in the energetic and vivacious way in which he both conducts the orchestra and takes complete charge of the piano. I have never seen a man more immersed in his music as he was when he played his second encore. His fingers flew across the ivory keys in a flurry of passion, tehcnical superiority and total dedication. His fingers reminded me of a hummingbird's wings when it appears to hover in midair. He was AWESOME to watch and to hear. [For more on Tamas Vasary go here :http://www.hungorchestras.com/english/e_mr.htm].

I was so excited after the second encore which was right before the intermission. As we sipped our wine during intermission our eyes were bright and faces flushed with the sheer joy of that experience!

Indeed it was a most enjoyable evening. I was excited and rejuvenated by the evening and am ready for the week ahead.

Thank you, my friend, for the evening. It is a memory i will carry with me for a looooonnggg time.

Tribute to Blackface

2005-01-18T20:42:00.000+08:00

My friend lost his cat to cancer last night. Her name was Blackface.

She was a siamese cat that was adored by the family she chose to live with. She chose them to impart her special kind of love and presence to.

She was an amazing cat, i am told. I regret i never got the chance to meet her.

The death of a family member is a tragedy and a difficult one to overcome. YES pets are a member of the family. A member of the family that you can only love and never hate.

I lost my doggy ace last year and i can understand the trauma the family is undergoing. It takes time to recover from this. But recover you will.

To the family of Blackface, my heart goes out to you.

A Fan's Anfield Woes

2005-01-16T01:54:00.000+08:00

Today i watched the Liverpool- Man United game at a friends house. He is a Man United fan and I am a Liverpool fan. The game was being played at Anfield which is Liverpool's home ground. The game at Man United's home ground of Old Trafford was already played and Man United won 2-1.

If you followed the English Premier League, you would understand the magnitude of this game. Man United and Liverpool are arch rivals. A player never leaves one team for the other...they would leave and join other EPL teams or European or Spanish teams...but never the rival team.

Thus you can imagine the stadium. Jam Packed with die-hard fans and my friends house a small reflection of the same energy and rivalry.

Of course in line with my tradition in his house i had to spill a drink and this happened at half time. i spilt the green tea i was drinking on the table and floor. So he had to wipe it up LOL.

It was a small consolation to me as by that time Man United was already leadin 1-0.

It was horrid. The game that is. By the 25th minute of the first half Man United scored. It wasnt even a remarkable goal it was the goalkeeper's fault. He is definately gonna get strung in the papers tomorrow.

The second half saw Wes Brown of Man United being sent off and the played the rest of the game with only 10 men. Even then Liverpool couldnt score. They fielded Morientes in his debut game for Liverpool but as he was not completely match fit he came off in the second half. Gerrard tried very very hard and there even was an ingenious attempt at a free kick by him towards carragher but it still did not score a goal. Sigghh

And i think the reason they lost is because of MEEEEEE!!!!

I have been keeping track that every time i watch Liverpool play at Anfield (live telecasts that is) they lose!

The last home game of Liverpool's that i watched was on new years day when they played Chelsea at Anfield. They lost to Chelsea 0-1.

This trend is horrendous.

Thus i think as a loyal fan i must make the ultimate sacrifice and NOT watch any Liverpool home games. For their sake and for mine. I cant bear it that i may have something to do with their loss. Sob Sob!

God only knows what would happen if i happened to attend at Anfield and watch a game there! the entire team might get the red card! God Forbid!

Anyway, thats my sad saturday news siggghhhhh.

My friend did buy me dinner to cheer me up. But even when my favourite Hokkien Mee was placed in front of me...i couldnt bear to eat it. Instead i just stared at the Chelsea-Spurs game.

Anyway i promise you Liverpool, i shan't watch your home games live anymore. Will only watch delayed telecasts or recorded matches. I pray Alex Ferguson doesnt read blogs and doesnt use me as a weapon against Liverpool!

Liverpool, my heart is always with you....You'll NEVER walk alone!

Filling in the time between

2005-01-14T22:07:00.000+08:00

Its been 2 weeks since my last post. A lot has happened since.

Been busy at work, as things were inadvertently pushed into january as most people and businesses slowed down during the Christmas to New Year period, started erupting. Yes, erupting. Work tends to suddenly spring to life and want to accelerate in the week after new years.

Not all my work was indoors though. Just this last wednesday i had to attend court in Port Dickson a coastal holiday beach type town. It is a small town that relies on the tourists and locals that holiday there. Its a 1.5 hour drive from Kuala Lumpur and used to be the primary holiday spot for malaysians. However, since the sudden growth of holiday resorts, marinas, and weekend apartments since the 90's PD's sea (which is actually a strait) has died. The water is brackish sometimes and there are no shells on the beach indicating a lack of ocean life. There are no fish that one can see swimming along with the holiday makers as one used to. One does however, get to see the sewerage pipes that lead from the coastal constructions that seemingly dissappear into the sea.

In any event, wednesday was a gorgeous beach day! It was the clearest blue sky, with wispy white clouds interspersed on the blue canvas. The birds were flying and the breeze was strong enough to compensate for the scorching sun. I looked longingly at the sand and surf as i drove to the magistrates court dressed in my black suit and white shirt. If only i packed a swimsuit!

The weekend before this, was a family trek to singapore. 3 carloads of relatives drove down to Singapore to celebrate an aunt's 60th Birthday. We left saturday morning at 4 am and breakfasted at Johor Bahru at 9.30 am. We then crossed the causeway into singapore trying to stay awake for the immigration officers on both ends to get a glimpse of us to match against our passports. The long and short of it was that it was a hectic and tiring weekend.

It was also an enjoyable one. We caught up with uncles, aunties cousins and nephews and nieces we had not seen in about a year. At least i had not seen them in that long.

I had taken Monday off to recover from the trip and so after waking at 10 am i decided to do some gardening. I had let it get a lil overgrown over christmas and so i weeded repotted and trimmed plants till they all looked nice and pretty again. I watered them and then settled with my book, "The two Mrs Grenvilles" by Dominick Dunne. I still have not finished the book! I will definately finish it this weekend.

I decided to cook dinner for me and my brother on monday and prepared a 3 sauce noodles with peppered chicken breast with shiitake mushrooms and snow peas and onions. It was pretty good if i do say so myself. Not bad for a lousey cook huh? My brother even asked if i really did make it from scratch LOL. Well apart from the noodles itself, the rest was made from scratch.

All in all it was a productive and enjoyable 2 weeks. I must say that as a new business its tough, but i am here for the long haul. I have dreams that i am stubborn enough not to release and pride enough to not want to fail. Above all i do believe that hardwork and gods grace will see me through...until my true lazy self can finally emerge LOL.

So until that day...when i can laze the sunny day away...its back to the grindstone....

Definition of Exhaustion

2005-01-02T01:35:00.000+08:00

Today..right at this moment ... i am exhausted. Really really tired. And i have no one to blame but myself.

It all started with cousins intending to have a new year's barbecue at my place. So we divided up the menu and came up with the following:-

Brother gets the chicken
Cousin gets the lamb
Yet another cousin the sausages
Mum gets the fish
Sister gets the fruits
Friend gets the fried meehoon
I get the mashed potatoes, the salad and the drinks

Of course i had to get the pit ready. Get enough charcoal and firestarters. Ensure i have the necessary paraphernalia that goes with it.

Then i needed to get garbage bags, candles and lamps for the garden, disposable plates and cups and cutlery.

I also had to get the house cleaned up by 5 pm.

Then comes the news at 2 pm that friend cant make it and therefore no fried meehon. Also comes additional news that dad has invited an additional 6 guests.

So i scramble at 2pm. Getting the place ready and fishing out additional chicken, fishcake and spinach from the fridge to make fried meehoon. Of course i havent really made fried meehoon before in my whole life. So i set about getting the stuff ready.

Soaked the meehoon and dried chilli, peeled onions and garlic (tonnes of em!), cut the meat and fishcake and vegetables and waited for my cousin to come and help with the actual cooking of it.

She did an excellent job and the fried meehon was a hit!

Anyway, at 5pm the pit was fired up and we started the barbecue. Then at 8 pm it started to drizzle...big fat ploppy drops!

So we scrambled and got every thing inside and had a not too bad time of eating laffing and a game of taboo was even squeezed into the schedule.

Of course after that (read at atter 11 pm) came the cleaning. I washed, packed leftovers, cleaned the floors and rearranged furniture till about 30 minutes ago.

Then i took a shower, washed my hair and just finished drying my hair. Oh ! i also cut my hair 2 days ago. A good chunk has been chopped off.

I feel like an airhead now! Its soooo light now! my head that is. I guess i really am getting stoopid in my old age LOL. I used up all my grey matter already it would seem.

anyway...all that would have still been manageable on its own....had i gone to bed early the night before and done nothing but barbecue.

Instead i went to a friends house for awesome tiramisue and wine and we had this sudden brilliant idea to sit and watcht he digitalised re-edited version of Return of the Jedi. And that ended at 4 am.

At 10 am i had a brunch with a friend and his fiance as i wont be able to make it to their wedding coming saturday. We had dim sum. Then we went to a bookstore and browsed (a weakness, followed by a 2nd weakness of SPENDING pots of money at the bookstore). Came home at 1.40 pm to be greeted by life changing news that i had to make the fried beehoon.

So as you can see, i wasnt really in the best frame of mind to actually deal with COOKING (am the worst cook on earth!).

But the thing is, it went well..everyone had a great time....we stuffed our faces...and we all went back a happy bunch....and so yeah i am a happy monkey...with a backache and tired sore feet.

It was well worth it though.

So thats the first day of my life in 2005 told during the second day of 2005.

Christmas Eve

2004-12-24T21:04:00.000+08:00

It is indeed Christmas Eve. Its a quiet one for me this year. It is kinda like the quiet before the storm.

Tomorrow i wake up bright and early and start on the 2 dishes that i am making for the family christmas lunch - mash with onion gravy and pasta and tuna salad.

Each of us siblings are cooking some dishes and my mum takes on the main dishes like the turkey and the other meat dishes. We stuff our faces , open presents and laze the afternoon away.

In the evening it will be an "Open House" for our friends and family.

We have got the caterers in for the evening so mummy gets a break from the cooking and washing up especially. Although the washing up is done by us kids (not kids anymore!) so its really us that gets a break from that when we cater.

Anyway, tomorrow will be a long day and so the "quiet before the storm" is well appreciated.

So, until sanity returns (in roughly 2 days) i want to wish everyone a Blessed Christmas and a Joyful and Prosperous New Year. God Bless.

time to ponder

2004-12-21T22:17:00.000+08:00

Its been quite a while since my last blog.

I think i kinda lost the drive to write. Didn't feel the urge to put finger to keyboard and write anything.

I have been thinking about a lot of things. My life, every aspect of it, and trying to see if i still recognise myself. Am i the person i think i am.

I see myself one way and wonder if thats the way others see me. It may not be so. Of course they won't see everything about me, only what i let them see as far as emotions go. But in terms of character...i wonder if they see me as i see myself.

I realise i jump ahead of myself a lot. This happens in conversations especially. My mind races and my mouth or fingers as the case may be, hurry to catch up. I try to say it quickly (or type it) because i may forget it later....if i wait to say it. So yeah , my mind not only races ahead it appears i also have the memory of a goldfish.

Then very much later i think...dang i forgot to ask that although i wanted to at that time.

Story of my life!

Back to pondering about my life. Where am i headed, am i glad to be heading wherever solo? am i glad to be petless? can i truly take care of a pet now given the circumstances of living in a condo and working long hours? Do i need to reasess some of my friendships?

I started pondering about one friendship in particular. This friend came into my life last year. This friend was introduced by a mutual friend in terms of me helping her out professionally but without charging her...yes giving professional advice on a friendly basis and the friendly rate of FREE. I dont mind that. I enjoyed doing it, helping her develop the business and avoid problems. It gave me a sense of helping someone out in need and i did enjoy that.

I welcomed this friend into my life...i introduced her to siblings, parents and cousins...and other friends. She happened to then "like" a friend of mine. He and i know each other yonks...and i am NOT romantically interested in him. She thinks i am.

So within this friendship...undercurrents were at play...and i was oblivious to it all.

She then started "sharing" with a family member of mine...without me knowing. Telling the family member stuff about me (mostly half truths and some outright lies) and painted me in a very different light. This family member was torn as she felt torn between her loyalties to me and the fact that the friend was confiding in her on a confidential basis. So much so that she started avoiding the calls. You see this relative and I...we are very very very close.

Then one day my friend and i had a misunderstanding and she brought up the guy. She said i am behaving such because i am jealous. So i said noooo way. And we sorta resolved it all and we promised to be open with each other and not keep things hidden and let it fester in the future. I spent a fun day with her and thought things were good.

Of course during that session of total honesty, never once did she say she was confiding in my family member and to let bygones be bygones.

Anyway, the family member heard we had sorted issues out between us and were now totally honest between us and so she said she was thankful as she couldnt bear "betraying" me any longer. It was then that i realised my friend was not totally honest with me! I was truly betrayed...not by the family member but by my friend.

When i found out the things she had said , i was truly hurt and betrayed. I felt deeply wounded..and i dont use those words lightly.

I couldnt face her anymore as my feelings show very easily on my face. So i started avoiding her. My friend still doesnt know that i know about her and my relative.

So after a loooonggg while of hardly any contact with the friend, she called me last week and we decided to go have a drink. I decided to do that because after the time, i guess i felt i should forgive, release and move on. That dissappointment and bitterness are not healthy and i should be able to be a better person than that.

So i went and had a drink and came home. While there i received a call from my relative but i didnt answer the call and decided to call her when i got home.

So i called my relative when i got home only to find out that my friend had called her and asked her a lot of stuff...general stuff and stuff about me.

During the time with my friend, she asked me about my relative as in how is so and so etc. Did not mention that she had called and spoken to her just moments before calling me to make the appointment.

All the feelings, the resentment the sense of betrayal and dissapointment resurfaced! I am now unable to put it aside. I am unable to trust her anymore...any longer.

I am unable to see any value in a friendship of fakeness...where i feel she feels a need to hurt me and cant be truthful..cant be real with me.

Am i being small? could you continue if you were in my shoes?

Am i over reacting....i don't think so. I mean...she still feels a need to hide that aspect from me. There was no harm in saying "i spoke to so and so earlier". Need not tell me what she discussed with her. Just that they spoke. Why pretend or imply that she hasn't had contact with her and is now asking me as a "by the way".

I really am confused also as to how to deal with it. I know i dont want to continue. But i dont know how to tell her that i know all about that and i really dont wanna have anything to do with her anymore. I dont know how to say it...or if i should say it at all. Maybe i should just allow things to drift to a point where we are strangers and it becomes harder and harder to meet and talk and so she will drop it herself.

Am i being a chicken in taking that way out? i just don't want to rehash it and with that rehash, all the emotions i felt. I dont want to allow the poison to surface again. I just want to set it aside and move on.

I want to erase it from my memory.

Wilting....

2004-12-12T15:41:00.000+08:00

It is SUCH a hot day today! the humidity is about 90% and it must be about 38 degrees celcius out there.

Its great for my laundry of course, but in here i am wilting!!!!!

The Plants also probably like it a lot...the crimson bud roses are looking JAUNTY...now there's a word i do not have cause to use often enough. But yeah they are looking jaunty....the wind is rustling in this huge tree that has purple flowers and the other 2 frangipani trees. The shrubs and other flowering plants are waving their happy heads.

ME???? i am fuming in here and trying not to move too much. Typing causes persiparation as though i have been running a marathon.

It doesnt help that i have run out of everything and need to get to the shops to get some groceries and other basic needs, but the heat is soooo overpowering that ...the spirit is willing but the flesh is wiltingly weak!

I wish i could pass my list and my credit card to some kind soul to get my shopping done for me, but unfortunately it isnt possible.

It is at times like this that i wish i had a submissive male counterpart aka husband...to bully into doing my bidding. But the fact that at other times he would merely clutter up my life...is the one thing holding me back from obtaining just such a handy weekend object...heheheh

I know, i know...men are more than objects and that too, have more uses than on weekends.

They are lifeforms that can also clean the bathrooms and toilets mid-week and water the plants every evening :)

Some of them also provide very good entertainment and drool-ability when one watches such life forms carry out these laborious tasks. I have spent a decent number of hours watching them rake and climb ladders and sweat it out and...oooo ok i am getting ahead of myself here.

Anyway.....i havent yet convinced myself that the droolability is worth the clutter. So until such a time...its up to plain ol me to go get the groceries, take in the laundry and water the plants...not necessarily in that order.

And do i really HAVE to go to the gym tomorrow? i shall work on my list of excuses for tomorrow. Somehow i see myself going on tuesday instead of monday. Monday is such a BIG day that i cannot handle the thought of going to the gym (that i actually psyche myself to do) as well. Mondays carry with it its own "psyching" requirements.

I have to be at home by 8 on sundays to prepare for mondays. I cannot do anything more laborious than watching tv, sipping a drink or lying in bed and reading a book, on sunday evenings.

All these prepare me to face the next day (of having to wake up early and DO stuff).

That means i have roughly 4 hours to psyche myself into going to the supermarket and getting the groceries and folding the laundry and water the plants!

YIKEEEESSS time is a running out!!!!

Tragedies....

2004-12-08T21:15:00.000+08:00

Its final and its an official tragedy...at least in my book. Tom Hanks is playing the role of Robert Langdon in the movie version of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code!

How can "Life is like a box of chocolates" hanks play that role??? I cannot believe that hollywood has totally lost its ability to cast roles.

Sigghhh...now i would rather have Matthew McConnoughey play that role...he is scrumptiously delicious...truly! And he can play the role of smoothish proffessor type with brains and good looks and cant drive a stick shift, perfectly!

My other candidate for this role is Hugh Jackman. Now i know most of you think of him as Wolverine.....but seriously..he is more than that. He is swordfish...and he is HUGH JACKMAN lol. Okay okay he is also very cuteeeeee!

I considered casting Dennis Quaid in the role too..but i think DQ needs to lose some weight first or the tweed jacket the role requires might look somewhat like a sack.

Then there is Jude Law....okay he may be too pretty to play the role...but since we were talking of cute men...how can i not mention jude law???

Pierce Brosnan would need a whole lot of shakin and stirrin before he ends up in a tweed jacket so i dont think he can carry the role and for god's sake no one even think of Tom Cruise.

I still think they should have cast Matthew McConnoughey in the role.

Any other befitting candidates?

It's almost Christmas!!!!

2004-12-03T16:02:00.000+08:00

Oh my! I can hardly believe it's December and that 2004 is coming to an end. It feels like the year just began. I know everyone seems to say that, but i really do MEAN that.

I started this year as an employee. In a cushy job, fat paycheck, great colleagues and a comfortable life. This year was also the year i started my very own garden.

Now it's December, and I have 2 partners, no cushy job, no fat paycheck, employing one permanent staff and 2 temporary staff, enjoying the freedom of running my own business but struggling with the weight of "liquidity" in the firm. I know it won't last long. It will get better.

The fact remains though, that so much has changed this year.

My garden is thriving, after an initial attack of mealy bugs. Its flowering and healthy now, and yes it was back breaking work (and still is!) but it is also therapeutic.

The firm is doing great, my partners and I are having a ball and we really enjoy the work and working with each other.

My social life is suddenly alive and kicking...i have made some interesting new friends and am suddenly hip and happening (if that is at all possible at the ripe old age of...never mind!).

A long time ago, i received an email about friends and how they are sometimes for life, sometimes only for a season and sometimes for a spot only. I have found this to be sooo true.

The important thing is, to understand, and not get upset, when friends sometimes may not have that much time for you anymore. You see, life sometimes takes us in different directions. Some of my sunday school friends, the only point of contact was sunday at church, and our life never crossed in any other occasion or place (other than church functions, weddings and even funerals !). I dont meet any of them anymore, not on a regular basis. I dont know whats going on in their lives. But if we were to meet somewhere, we would recognise each other and "catch up" with lotsa polite small talk. But we dont KNOW each other anymore.

Then there are these friends i made this year. They are interesting, in my age group, one married 2 single, of my zany and crazy wavelength. we can talk about anything and everything. will this last? who knows, but i am determined to enjoy it while it lasts.

Each day has a surprise around the corner, a new experience. I have decided to be open and embrace everything the day has to offer. the good, the bad and the ugly LOL.

Today...after more than a year's break...i am going to the gym. I decided it was cheaper (and not to mention a whole lot easier) to join a gym than to shop for an antirely new wardrobe.

You see...i am a real foody...i love food. And if i am to continue this lifelong passionate affair with food, i either have to be able to shop like mad every 6 months...or workout a lil.

Since i am considering an eco holiday next year....i thought i may as well start on the workout. So off to the gym it is in 20 mins. Oh yeah...did i mention that its great being your own boss and being able to go to the gym ANY TIME of the day...read: when its empty and my cellullite thunder thighs and jelly belly will not offend anyone LOL. So at 4.30 pm (only waiting that late as my partner is off at a meeting and only will be back then) i shall make my first trip for this year into the gym.

Its strange how things go full circle...i am back at a gym...planning a holiday and wondering what the next year will hold. A cyclical life, cyclical decisions just different scenery.

So...life is boringly familiar yet excitingly new every day. Go figure!

The week that was full but what would i do?

2004-11-29T01:06:00.000+08:00

I am exhausted!

My week started last Monday and has not ended yet. It was a heavy week workwise and it was a rather busy week socially as well. And as i did not really have a weekend, this week has not ended and will only end next friday. Sigghhh.

Tuesday was yet another Hari Raya Open House in the evening. It was at a client's house. I dont know anyone except the hostess and was in two minds about going, but thought it was bad form not to turn up. So i went.

It turend out pretty well. I ended up staying till 1.30 am, because we were having such a good time. We closed the party out LOL. I met a freelance graphic designer (a rather young boy) and his sister who is the broadcasting manager at a local tv station and a mechanical and electrical engineer (and yes she is a girl). My client is in advertising. We ended the evening telling each other ghost stories. How lame? but the truth is, i had not done that in a while (now that all my close mates are married and "busy"). So it was fun to meet a couple of single gals and have a nice evening.

Then the week went on as usual. However on thursday, i had a surprise call and the gang (having only met each other for the first time on tuesday) decided to meet for dinner again. So meet we did. I bought dinner at a place called souled out. Then we went to a karaoke lounge and had a pretty good time doing the 80's songs and killing each other with our "versions" (read awfully bad singing) of these songs. It was FUN. Once again we ended a lot later than we intended (at 3 am).

Friday was another Hari Raya Open house at my ex-bosses house and after that was drinks and hanging out with my ex colleagues. Was a great night and yes it ended at 1 am.

That would have been ok had i the weekend to recover. BUT this was the weekend of a 2 days Special Member's Course to be admitted as a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

I had to wake up on saturday at 7 am!!!! my normal saturday wake up time is 10 or 11. Anyway it was a rigorous 2 days. I am barely alive. It had role plays and critiques and it was an intensive course. The sad thing is on Saturday they gave us HOMEWORK!!!!! i havent had homeword since ....well tooo long for me to tell you and age myself. I mean i have brouhgt work home before, but this is HOMEWORK that you were being graded on and it would be sent to the UK for moderation of the grading before we are admitted as members of the CIARB. and the worse thing is, i dont event know if i have passed the course as i have to wait for the UK to revert with the results. Talk about sitting on nails till that happens!!!

Why on earth did i put myself through that???

The concept of HOMEWORK is such an alien concept to me now, it really took a loooonnng time for me to convince myself last night, that indeed i COULD do it. Then the actual doing required some research and thought when i was already all brain dead from the exertion of having to think and talk in full sentences on a saturday!!! Then today the course started at 8.30 am and ended at 4 pm. I came home and crashed. Slept for about 3 hrs and then woke up and watched ...yesss a sadddd movie called John Q starring Denzel Washington.

This movie was about a man who finds out suddenly that his son has an enlarged heart and basically is dying very fast unless a heart donor can be found and surgery done. Of course the dad hasnt the money for surgery (despite selling all his belongings) and then, when the hospital threatens to discharge the son, he takes the emergency unit of the hospital (together with the cardiac surgeon) hostage . The hostage crisis is a media frenzy with the cops and swat in place. His plan? well the hostages all like him and they understand where he is coming from and support him throughout the crisis. But basically his plan is, to kill himself and let his son have his heart. The movie actually ended with a donor being found for the son right at the last minute (not before he actually pulls the trigger, but he forgot to release the safety).

But i was thinking, do we really love the people in our lives so much, that we would make that ultimate sacrifice?

Would we think, yeah we can have more kids or thats his lot in life and i will do my best to get him/her the best medical help, but if he doesnt get a donor...well i would be really sad etc but would it even cross our minds that we could go and become an organ donor and immediately walk in front of a bus?

I was thinking about that, would i do it for my dad or my mum? my siblings? my nephew or niece? would i? I honestly don't know. Right now i think i wont be able to do it. But i don't know if i could face living without my parents?

I dont want to think of their death. I mean i know in my head its inevitable. We all die, but i cant think about a life without them. I like knowing they are around...and i could drop by and see them anytime i chose.

If they had a sudden death there isnt anything anyone can do. But if i had the option, that a liver or kidney or heart of mine could save them, at that juncture, would i say take it?

I dont really know the answer to that. I hope i never have to make that decision. I hope you never have to either.

Scars, cosmetic surgery and memories....

2004-11-23T20:23:00.000+08:00

When i was growing up, i was constantly in some kind of scrape or another. Oh i had the usual falls off the bicycle, the skateboard, the roller skates (yes thats what they were called in my time!) and no end of bumping into or tripping over stuff.

When my aunt's husband was stationed in the singapore high commission here and they lived here for 3 years, the families would meet once a week at her place and we kids would get together and play and play and play and we would eat a feast later BUT we girls had to do the dishes after dinner. There was this dinner glasses that my aunt had. She had 12 glasses in the set. And systematically, dinner by dinner, i ended up breaking each and everyone of the glass set while washing them. She never fails to remind me of that fact even now.

When we cousins went during the school holidays to amachi's house in penang, we would have the time of our lives at the beach and in parks and long walks and playing in the yard. We were playing high jump ones and we used a rafia string instead of rubber bands, the end result was, that i fell and hit my head on the concrete and spent 2 days in hospital as a result thereof.

At age 18, my sister and i found a baby bird on the 1st floor ledge and we knew it fell out of the nests that were in the space between the roof and the ceiling. So we decided to put it back (never mind how we were gonna figure out WHICH particular nest he/she had fallen out of). Placed a step ladder in my bedroom as the access was there and removed the small piece of asbestos and we climbed into the space. The ceiling was of asbestos connected to wood. So we had to step/kneel on the wood as the asbestos was not strong enough to take our weight. So we crawled along and then my sister who was ahead of me stepped forward and the wood i was kneeling on (after we had gotten 3/4 the distance we had to) suddenly swung out and i ended up crashing throuhg the ceiling! i managed to catch one end of the wooden frame and found myself dangling from there with scrapes bleeding on me. I noticed i was situated in the ironing room just above the iron! Everyone that heard the crash came up and instead of helping me were rolling on the floor laughing. I dont really blame them, it was a funny sight! Needless to say baby bird was abandoned there at that point as pappa didn't let me go back up there.

I don't think my adult life is without accidents either. I tend to stare at the ground deep in thought as i walk, and one day i was walking and looked up just in time to walk into a road sign! That really did hurt like hell and i had a resounding throbbing headache for 3 days ! I have also gone tumbling down the stairs at the family home with just some bumps and nothing major but it also really hurt like hell.

Its a good thing i already have 2 insurance policies on my life prior to posting this blog. They may not have wanted to insure me otherwise !

Anyway, i figure its a better to have scars one can laugh and reminisce about then ones deep within that continue to wound and hurt and cause pain.

My faint scars remind me of a happy childhood and full life. I have no regrets of them (though i might have words with God about the pain factor). I like my scars. They are as much a part of who i am as every other learning process has moulded me.

I wont exchange them for the world. And i definately am NOT having cosmetic surgery to remove em and make perfect my imperfections formed by a perfectly normal life. Would you?

The one where you eat, eat, eat and eat some more...

2004-11-21T10:36:00.000+08:00

This place, where i live is glorious! I mean you have your usual political melodrama and economy struggles, but life here is great.

You know why its great? There is lots of food foood and foooooooodddd! Any time of the day, any where, there is bound to be something yummylicious to consume and titillate your palate and other senses :)

Another reason why its so great is the number of cultural festivals that we have (which are public holidays) and the ...yes....the insane amount of food we get to consume all in the name of racial harmony and a spirit of brotherhood.

Now don't you wish you lived here too?

Last week was a wonderful week. It started of with Deepavali as its called here (and Diwali elsewhere) on the 11th of November. Being a thursday, most offices closed the friday as well as Sunday and Monday were the holidays for Hari Raya Aidil Fitri. So we had a whole week off. We stopped working on wednesday and we only resumed work the next wednesday.

NOW don't you wish you lived here?

The thing about this country is, because there are so many people celebrating the festivals and they are so close together, the feasting and celebrating is likely to go on for 2 weeks at least. There is also a concept called "Open House" which basically means the house is open to anyone who chooses to walk in, and you will be served with the cookies and delicacies of the particular festival. For example if you walked into a Deepavali open house, you would likely come across, Murukku, Ghee Balls, Chippi and other indian sweets and you would be served a meal of ghee rice or yellow rice or tomato rice, with mutton either in a curry or a dry curry, aubergine with chillies, Korma curry, chicken prepared in some spicy way and pickles.

If you were walking into a Hari Raya open house, there would be all kinds of cookies and jam tarts and other local biscuits, and there will be for the main meal, Beef Rendang, Chicken curry with Roti Jala, Rice, Lemang, achar, some kind of sambal and vegetables and lots of susu bandung ( which is milk mixed with rose syrup and served chilled).

Having said that, one has to be careful not to over eat at these open houses (however you try, it is inevitable - it's like trying to push a waterfall backwards...siggghhh).

The norm is, you walk in, greet the host/hostess and give them your festival greetings, sit down in the living room and taste the cookies and have a drink, then you are invited to the main meal, thereafter its more cookies and drinks with lots of chit chat.

It is customary for a group of friends to start in the morning, visiting various mutual friends, with breakfast at one place, brunch at another, lunch at yet another, tea at one more house, dinner at yet another house and supper in the last house. So basically you eat the whole day. I am told that if you eat in a group, and intersperse the eating with lots of chit chat, the calories don't count. However, my hips have not been enlightened as to that fact (sigghhhh).

It is common to have lots of alcoholic beverages at Deepavali open houses and NONE at Hari Raya open houses as Muslims don't drink alcohol (generally speaking).

Being as Hari Raya and Deepavali have fallen so closely together this year, and the open houses are still on-going for both festivals (i had a Deepavali dinner last night and have a Raya Lunch today), there are ample opportunities to sober up in between getting-sloshed sessions.

Therefore, it requires extreme skill, care and careful timing, to get the best of all the festivals and food consuming capabilities to blend with the alcoholic consumption, so that you are in a sufficient high but not so that you end up making a fool of yourself or ruining someones perfectly sparkling powder room.

All things said and done, i loveeeeeee living here. I think the weather is great, the food is awesome and people? they are just wonderful....once you get to know us......otherwise most people think we wear bearskin (never mind that we only have tiny lil honey bears here) and live way up in the trees (have you really seen how high trees can grow in a virgin rainforest jungle???) and hunt for food (and miss all that i told you about above????) with our bare hands. Oh yeah, we watch ESPN, Discovery channel and National Geographic (not to mention the genre of comedies like seinfeld, friends, simpsons etc) from our lofty homes wayyyyy up in the trees together with the monkeys and chimps and cacophony of tropical birds!

Happy eating everyone!