Raynebows

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T21:54:00.002+08:00

I can't believe 2011 is coming to an end soon. Where has the year gone? Is it true that the older you get, the faster the time passes? I find that each year, time passes faster than the preceding one. Sigh.

Anyway, I hope all of you had a good 2011 and may 2012 bring you greater meaning in all that you do.

Merry Christmas and a wonderful year ahead!

Crowd Control is necessary!

2011-06-21T11:44:00.004+08:00

When the iPad2 was launched recently in Malaysia, the Apple fans in this part of the world went crazy. I know of many who had been waiting impatiently for news of the launch date and once the date was announced, there was a scramble to get into queues to be the first ones to own the iPad2.

Actually, "scramble" is just a mild description... "mad rush" would be more apt. Apple fans started queuing the night before, just to ensure they are in the first group of buyers certain of getting the iPad2. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the crowds queuing up for the iPad2 were pretty organised, thanks to well-placed stanchions and barriers around the area leading to the shop. I didn't hear of any bad incident of people fighting or jumping lines!

I would say generally the Malaysian public does a good job when queuing up in lines, especially at airports, supermarkets, banks, stadiums... most indoor places. In such indoor venues, usually velvet ropes would be sufficient to keep the lines in check and most people are well-behaved enough to line up accordingly.

For outdoor places like bus stations or stadiums, the crowds can get a bit unruly at times. I have personally seen some rude people pushing and jostling and trying to jump queues. Besides getting these people brain-fried on a course of public courtesy or just to be plain civic-minded, stronger crowd control equipment is called for. Velvet ropes and simple stanchions just won't work here - probably things like rigid rail barricades may work? You know, those tough-looking barriers they put up at high-security places - perhaps those may work. I never think about this much, but having seen how a rough-looking stout fella trying to elbow his way through a queue recently, crowd control equipment is still a necessity no matter how "civilized" a crowd may seem!

My new friend - Cookie

2011-02-02T18:28:00.002+08:00

My GREEN neighbourhood

2010-11-22T10:23:00.007+08:00

When we first moved to Kemuning 3+ years ago, it was a pretty quiet suburb. Well, that's the main reason why we moved there, in the first place!

The roads are wide, there are lots of matured shady trees everywhere.

I love trees... look how GREEN the place is! Trees across the road are like growing towards each other and creating canopies above... so lovely!

I'm not complaining about the trees or the roads... they have remained as lush as ever and the roads have not narrowed...

These photos were taken just yesterday... so you can see the green-ness, lush-ness is still status quo...

Development has caught up with us in Kemuning... compared to 3 years ago: there's now a medical centre, a Carrefour, a Giant (across the highway) and countless shophouses! I don't understand why 2 huge hypermarkets are needed here - there are enough of those in Klang and Subang, which are just a few kilometres away!!! Of course that means traffic to the area has increased tremendously too. I just hope it won't turn into another nightmarishly-jammed place...

I want my neighbourhood to maintain its lovely green pristine environment... please please, no more shopping malls or hypermarkets in the area please!

From my garden...

2010-11-11T16:11:00.002+08:00

Here are some photos taken with my GF1... I was trying it out taking shots of stuff growing in my garden!

Hope you enjoy them!

Faces of Kikko & Koji

2010-11-09T16:38:00.003+08:00

It's been quite some time since I last posted photos of my 2 doggies. Since I now have a new baby - the GF1 - to play with, I took some photos of them recently, using the "Pet" mode.

This is really the Most Adorable pose of Kikko, don't you think?

And here are the MANY faces of Kikko ... all her different expressions!

This is a Full Body shot of the little princess, hehe!

Koji, the father of Kikko is ever the unquestionable "Canine King" of the house...

Like Father, like Daughter... right?!

My New Baby - the Lumix GF1

2010-10-25T18:13:00.003+08:00

You know what they say about "Impulsive Buying"... how dangerous that is and all?

Well, it's true. I always end up buying something I have not planned to whenever that happens!

It happened last weekend. At Mega Mall. From the carpark to the escalator to the LG Floor where Fotokem was holding a Camera Fair, right in the Concourse Area. As we had a few hours to kill before our movie at 2.15pm, we walked over to the fair to "have a look".

From "having a look", I ended up buying my New Baby!

I didn't plan on buying a camera, any camera. But then, the GF1 has always been on my mind as "the camera" to get. I love it for its "compactness" and yet yields DSLR-quality photos.

Maybe the promotions at the fair was really too good to miss, hehe! For the package, they were giving away several free items - hardcase cabin bag, camera bag, extra battery (original Lumix), tripod, cleaning kit, t-shirts etc etc!

Right now, I'm still trying to get familiar with my New Baby... she's a bit more complicated than my LX-3. But I can't wait to see what I can do with it!!!

I found Folavril!

2010-10-18T09:06:00.005+08:00

It all started a couple of months ago when I had lunch with my friend Su and she dabbed some mysterious fragrance onto my wrists and told me "it's very nice one - you try and see!" The problem with my friend Su is that she knows what's nice and all.... BUT when you ask her for more details about it, eg the NAME? the BRAND?... she's totally clueless. It is true what she dabbed on me was NICE, really nice. It was so nice that when I was buying some stuff at a shop right after the lunch with Su, the shop assistant actually asked me what fragrance I was using. And I felt rather silly when I could not answer her.

So that was how the search started. When I persisted in "interrogating" Su, she managed to give me 2 vital details: the name starts with an "A", it's unpronouncable" and "you can only get it in a shop in Bangsar". See, my friend Su is really helpful.

Ahhh... so what did I do?

I turned to Google, of course.

I managed to narrow the name down to "Annick Goutal" and asked Su whether that's the name and she went "Ahhh ya ya, I think so la!" OK, one down. From then on, it was easy to find out that there IS an Annick Goutal standalone boutique in Bangsar Shopping Centre - the only one in South-East Asia (wahh...Singapore also doesn't have wor!)

That was how I found myself in BSC last weekend. But... I faced another challenge.

Annick Goutal has 26 fragrances for women and 10 for men. Soooo.... which among the 26 was the one I fell in love with? The boutique manager was very helpful... when I described to her how the perfume smelled like: a bit fruity, a bit floral, very refreshing... she narrowed the choices to 3 best-sellers: Petite Cherie, Mandragore and d'Hadrien. From these 3, she advised that the Mandragore was most suitable for me. While I kinda agreed with her and I was already at the counter on the verge of paying for this...yet, somehow, I wasn't 100% sure that Mandragore was the one I was searching for.

I went back to the testers counter and tried a few more - no luck. They were either very heavy, too musky, very Middle-Eastern-types, too spicy etc etc... and I was almost like going back to pay for the Mandragore when I pointed to 1 tester bottle placed right at the far corner, towards the edge of the counter. I smelled the tester strip sprayed with this....

... and VOILA! YES - this is IT!

I have found IT! It is the FOLAVRIL.

Folavril is the very first perfume that Annick Goutal created - in 1980. It is her interpretation of spring. The fragrance is made from the piquant tomato leaves, mango, jasmine and most importantly, the Boronia flower! The fragrant Boronia flower is mostly grown wild in south-western Australia, in open forests and woodlands. There are about 95 species of this flower but the most intensely-aromatic specie is the Boronia Megastigma, particularly the brown strain.

I absolutely love the unique combination of floral and fruity notes in Folavril - it's got the perfect balance of "casualness" and "classiness" without smothering the olfactory senses. I can't stand overpowering scents - they're like driving knives into the nose & giving you a headache.

It's amazing what the right perfume can do - it blends in with your skin's natural odour and creates a unique subtle scent that is your signature. The choice of perfume is really very personal.

Mmmm... Folavril - to me, it really uplifts the spirit and puts me in a good sensory mood to face the day!

*This is NOT an advert for Annick Goutal - I paid good money for my Folavril, ok!

Adam Lambert: Glam Nation concert

2010-10-15T08:55:00.009+08:00

It was all JJ and Ean of Hit Radio Hitz.fm could talk about this morning.

Heck, they've been talking about it for days! Days leading up to the Glam Concert of the year! I'm talking about THIS....

Yep, ADAM LAMBERT's GLAM NATION TOUR Concert! One Night Only in Kuala Lumpur! That was last night and I was there!

The concert was held in Putra Stadium at the Bkt Jalil Sports Complex. It was my very first time going to this venue. I was rather apprehensive that there'd be massive jams leading to the place but I was pleasantly surprised that traffic was pretty good! There was proper traffic control around the sports complex and when I arrived there just before 7pm, there was still plenty of parking spaces in the allocated carparks. Many of the fans came by the LRT, I guess, as I saw groups walking along the road from the station heading to the stadium.

Yes, I'm a fan of his - I like his music, his singing, his style, his struts, his "diva-ness" (or whatever you may call it!), his super glam image - who cares about his preferred sexual orientation! This dude is a true entertainer... and boy, did he entertain! For a full 90 minutes on stage, he had the crowd eating out of his pretty manicured hand!

Before he came on stage, the crowd was already screaming every time they played his Glam Nation teaser clip on the 2 giant screens!

Lights dimmed at just after 8pm ... for his 2 opening acts - 2 local singers took the stage: Daniel Lee and Iqwal (I think that's the name la). They performed 1 rock song each and that really got the rythm going. The sound system in the stadium was decent and the fans started gyrating and doing their moves to the beat.

The crowd went absolutely bonkers the moment Adam appeared on stage and immediately went into a medley of his hits like "For Your Entertainment", "Voodoo", "Down the Rabbit Hole", "Ring of Fire" - all in feet-stomping hands-waving beat!

The sound system was pumping hot - his band was great, so were his dancers - all were hot hot hot!

However, out of respect to the Malaysian government (as he had been warned, so I heard), Adam's costumes were considered conservative, haha! The most "daring" piece of clothing he had on was a sleeveless vest, which only revealed his armpits... something like this...

and tight leather pants. All his other costumes were like, true-blue -glam-Adam style: long overcoats with "furry" collar, glittery coat-tailed jacket & his signature tophat and lots of risque accessories!

When he went off stage & the lights came on, the crowd refused to leave and screams of "More!", "Adam!", "Encore" reverberated in the stadium. After several minutes - by this time I think most of them were already sore with the screaming, Adam strutted back on stage and performed "Mad World" which was almost drowned by the fans screaming. He sang this song is a fast uptempo beat - I still prefer the version he sang on American Idol - that slow haunting version which totally showcased his amazing vocals to the max. His final song for the night was "20th Century Boy" and after that, that was it. Seeing that all his band members had also left the stage, the fans had to accept that the show was finally over and reluctantly everyone headed to the exits.

It took a while for my ears to clear - they were still "whinnngggingggggg" from the blasts of the sound system! And my throat is a bit sore too from all that screaming ;-)

You can view some of the photos from last night's concert here. There are lots of other links too, all by his fans on the Adam Lambert Fan Club in Facebook.

Ahh, it's been a long time since I went for any such concert and I'm so so glad I went for this one. Truly time & money well-spent: it's a world-class act.

I wished it had been longer than 90 minutes!

Taylor's University College Lakeside Campus

2010-08-26T13:37:00.003+08:00

Recently we were at Taylor's University College Lakeside Campus in Sunway to register LL for his degree course. Set on 27 acres of tropical greenery, the campus is indeed impressive.

It's surrounded by a 5.5 acre man-made lake and beautifully landscaped with trees, shrubs and flowers.

The architectural design of the campus marries the philosophy of education, environment and community.

From the Main Entrance, you step into the chic modernistic foyer, manned by friendly staff...

I totally love their bright colourful artsy-fartsy furniture...

The cheerful blend of colours, from walls to carpets/tiles to furniture was a pleasant blast to the senses and a feast for the eyes ...

The play of art, shapes and design was evident in almost every corner you turn!

I'm not sure if these are comfortable, but they certainly look very fun!

The pride of the campus is undeniably their Library - a splendid 4-storey glass building with unclustered view of the panoramic lake beyond. The Library deco itself is far from the usual dreary colours...

See... they are very into Apple here! Their computer lab is fully-installed with iMacs, no less!

Don't you just love their funky chill-out sofas?

Lecture halls and auditorium were state-of-the-art...

All the right facilities and amenities are available on this campus which makes it a pretty ideal place to study...

The development of the whole campus (an almost RM500 million project) is done in phases and once everything is completed, it will boast a total package community of shops, cafes, banks, student residences and even a boutique hotel! All their tertiary programs will be housed here.

I'm so glad LL has the opportunity to experience his tertiary education in such a complete and beautifully conducive environment.

And no, I was not paid to "promote" this... in fact, we're paying a bomb for LL's course there!

A New Look!

2010-07-22T16:58:00.003+08:00

I took a hiatus.

Yes I know I went MIA for a while. Well, actually it wasn't that long, really. Just slightly a bit more than a month. I have been busy with stuff these past few weeks.

Mom went for an operation as she suffered a fracture to the top of her femur when she fell in the bathroom. So we have been travelling back to Ipoh to check on her. She's back home now and taking it real slow to get back on her feet again. Well, as long as she's recovering and not in pain, I can't complain. I can't rush her to do her physiotherapy if she doesn't want to. She's eating well and her lungs are in good order - the kids and neighbours get an earful of her quite a bit, according to sis-in-law!

Anyway, while I was away, I played around with the new themes available in Blogger and decided to give the blog a new coat of paint and some deco! Haha... so how do you like the result? Definitely more "in", cheerful and colourful, right!

Here's to more regular blogging from now on ;-)

My iPhone is gone!

2010-06-10T14:26:00.003+08:00

I had the most horrible start to my day today.

My beloved iPhone has been stolen. Yes, stolen. Picked by some dirty unseen hand from my bag at the SS2 market. Of course it's my fault that I placed it in the outer pocket of my bag which is secured by just a magnetic clasp. Stupid me. Stupid careless me. Of course I know that SS2 market is a pickpocket-infested notorious nest. The vendors there are constantly reminding their customers to be careful with their bags and purses. I have heard that warning before, really I have.

And usually I am very careful with my stuff. But not this morning. This morning was bad.

Or maybe it is just fated that I have to lose my beautiful iPhone.

I'm trying to look at the "brighter" side of this sad event... like:

* Thank God my car key was not picked
* Thank God my purse was not picked
* Thank God iPhone 4 has been launched

I miss my "Stars" game on my iPhone... sob sob.

Greece, Road Trip - Day 2

2010-06-04T11:40:00.003+08:00

After a good night's rest at the Hotel Amalia, we woke up bright and early, tucked in a hearty breakfast and were all ready to enjoy the day's adventures. The weather that day was perfect: pale blue skies, bright sunshine yet the air was cold and crisp (about 16 degrees C, I think). Beautiful!

Waiting for the other travel companions to board our bus...

First destination was to the archaeological site of the Sanctuary of Olympian Zeus - the ancient stadium and the archaeological museum. The bus parked right in front of this quaint charming hotel...

I just love the wintery foliage framing this photo!

We alighted from the bus and took this long scenic walk to the site...

The site is like a lovely park... but with a difference. Everywhere there're areas marked and cordoned off... all in the name of conservation. Those stone structures are all that's left from the ruins of the ancient buildings...

The Temple of Hera is one of the several sacred temples of ancient times...

The arched entrance to the ancient stadium of Olympia... I could almost imagine the troops of athletes marching in through this stone arch...

This was where the ancient Olympic Games took place every 4 years, bringing together the entire Greek world in peaceful sporting competition.

As we stood around on the now-empty vast area that was the stadium many centuries ago, listening to our wise guide telling us the stories and history of this place, the sky started to darken and grey clouds blew our way... and the temperature dropped further...

The 1st Olympic Games, dating back as early as 776B.C. (or even earlier), were held to honour Zeus.

View from the other side of the arched entrance...

The skies turned to a slate grey as we hurried out of the park, making our way to the museum...

We sought refuge in the museum among the company of these artifacts... sculptured ornaments from the Temple of Zeus...

This was everyone's favourite... one of the masterpieces of ancient Greek art... the beautiful marble statue of Hermes, carrying the infant Dionysos...

Maybe you'll like the rear view better ;-) Just look at those lines & curvatures of muscles and flesh... so real!

From the Sanctuary of Olympia, we drove on and stopped at a quaint little restaurant - Ambrosia Restaurant & Tavern, for lunch.

My favourite: Moussaka - heavenly layers of mashed potatoes, aubergines baked to soft tenderness, topped with sprinkling of cheese....mmmm!

The boys' favourite: Solid porkchop - what more can I say?

All around the restaurant were countless orange trees... and they didn't seem to belong to anyone... I mean, they were all like growing wild and abundantly by the road side ...

... like, in no man's land...

And so... here's the answer to why nobody was picking the oranges to eat (a mystery I left unanswered in my previous post). It is because, the moment you take a bit into an orange there, your face will look like this...!!

You get the picture, eh?!!

Those oranges were the most sour ones we ever tasted in our lives! More sour than lemons and limes, I would say. I think they are meant to be juiced (and not eaten raw! and can only be palatable after adding tons of sugar!

With tummies fully satiated, it was back to the bus again... this time driving through the plains of Ilia and Achaia.... with breath-taking snow-peaked mountains in the distance... and little towns and villages dotting the slopes and valleys...

As we approached the crossing over the Corinthian Bay from Rion to Antirion, we were greeted by the magnificent sight of the famous world's longest cable stayed bridge...

You can check out its awesome specifications and history here.... and be suitably impressed.

We passed by the picturesque towns of Nafpaktos (Lepanto) and Itea...

Another jigsaw puzzle picture perfect town!

It was almost nightfall by the time we reached Delphi...

Stay tuned for Day 3 & 4, ok!

Greece - Road Trip, Day 1

2010-05-13T11:04:00.003+08:00

This is a continuation of my Greek holiday. So far, I have posted about Athens, where we actually spent 3 days.

If you want to see Greece with all its historic splendour, you definitely have to go out of the city into the outskirts and outlaying small towns/cities like Tripolis, Megalopolis, Olympia, Delphi, Trikala, Thermopylae etc. Yeah, they all certainly sound like names I read from my history books a long time ago! The best way to visit all these places is to go on a road trip... and that's exactly what we did.

We started our bus journey early in the morning, leaving Athens. Even at that early hour, the streets of Athens were already so busy...

... unless you opt for THIS mode of transportation...

If you think the highways here are jammed, wait till you see the highways leading out of Athens...

Haha, just as bad as in KL, right?

Anyway, traffic improved as we sped further away from the city. We were heading towards the Corinth Canal in "Korinthos", as you can see...

We made a short pitstop at the famous Corinth Canal - the very narrow canal (about 21m wide) which separates mainland Greece from The Peloponnese and connects the Gulf of Corinth to the Sarconic Gulf. Read this for more on the history of this canal.

The bus drove on... and the 1st historic site we visited was the ancient Theatre of Epidaurus - the best preserved Greek theatre and famous for its accoustics, in Mycenae.

Built in the 4th century BC, this huge theatre is remembered for its beauty and symmetry and marvelled for its exceptional accoustics. Do you know that if you stand at the proscenium - centre - of the theatre and make a small sound, it can be amplified to all 15,000 spectators (that's the estimated no. of people this theatre can seat)??

Is that an accidental thing or a product of astounding advanced design?

Perfect camouflage, don't you think?

Epidaurus, a World Heritage site also has other ancient ruins of temples, sanctuaries, baths etc.

Within Mycenae itself, the Lion Gate at the citadel guards the entrance to the fortress...

The other side of the Lion Gate, inside the fortress ruins...

Further down a bit, there's the Tomb of Agamemnon...

Note the perfect triangle at the entrance and inside it there's this "beehive" construction in the ceiling - really remarkable! Unfortunately, photos didn't turn out at all - it was pitch black & pretty eerie inside!
And then, when you get tired of walking & climbing all those ancient stoned pathways, you can take a rest amongst the trees & breathe in the fresh pine air, hehe!

There are lots of olive trees everywhere. Not surprising, as olives are one of the major export item for Greece. Along the countryside, you can see miles and miles of olive orchards! Olive trees have lovely silvery green leaves...

I love the colours of winter too...

We stopped for lunch at this classy but empty restaurant along the way...

We stayed the night at Olympia. By the time we reached our Hotel Amalia, it was already very dark. It's certainly a long bus ride that we had and all we wanted to do was just have dinner and went to sleep!

Stay tuned for Day 2 - will show you the sights of Olympia!

Kikko has grown!

2010-05-10T14:56:00.002+08:00

My little Kikko has grown so much! She is now 1 year + 2 months' old.

Before she reached her 1 year-birthday, we had always tied her hair in a little "coconut tree" on top of her head! But once she's 1 year old, I restyled her hair.

She now has this mop of curly hair on top...

She has such a "smiling" face, don't you think?

She loves to be carried around and can actually sit still on your lap for a long time. But she's a real attention-seeker. Whenever she sees me sitting on the sofa in the living hall, she'll bark until she's released from her play pen!

Fast track your fundraising!

2010-05-03T13:25:00.002+08:00

I was having lunch with a friend the other day. While we were chomping our way through a delicious nyonya lunch, she was lamenting how awfully difficult it is to raise funds for some dialysis centres she was helping out. People nowadays are very careful with their money and they have become increasingly discerning in their choices of support, whether it's for charity or otherwise.

Then she mentioned something about getting the Net to help out with such activities. Now I know that the Net is really a life-saver in giving you all information about just anything under the sun, but I didn't know that you can actually get help from FastTrackFundraising.com for such tasks!

This very helpful site offers their ideas and services on raising funds for just about any event you can think of. If you're helping out at your local church and need some church fundraiser ideas, you now know where to head to. Before I visited this site, I never knew there are so many ways and means you can raise funds with! Forget about the usual boring jumble sales or selling nasi lemak. Have you heard of lollipop fundraising??! Well, I never did but now I know better!

Selling t-shirts may be a good idea to raise funds but then, ordinary-looking t-shirts are stale news. If you want to draw crowds and top your targets, you have to think about selling funny t-shirts which others have not seen or worn before. I mean, everyone loves to have a unique t-shirt that you don't see a dozen others wearing on the streets, right?

FastTrackFundraising.com is full of unique ideas - some of them are really mind-boggling! But they are guaranteed to help out with your fund raising. Why not give them a try? After all, my friend did get her fund raising all done with super results :-)

Do you need some laughs?

2010-05-03T12:09:00.003+08:00

We all need laughs in our lives.

Like they said: "Laughter is the Best Medicine". We put up with so much stress, bad news (just read the newspapers), irritations, frustrations in our lives... that if we don't try and see the funny side of life, we'd all be heading for heart attacks soon.

May promises to be a month of laughs. Now, why do I say that? As if other months are just laugh-less months? Hehe... maybe... but then May is more promising because...

... there're a host of laughs coming up in the Laugh Fest at PJLA. Not sure what I'm talking about? Well, just head on over to the site and check it out for yourself!

This is not an advert for PJLA.

The only reason I'm blogging about this right now is because I simply can't make up my mind which show to catch! I don't have a bottomless pocket - otherwise I'd go for all the shows. As it is, I need to make some discerning choices here.

I'm all for supporting the local arts :-))

Save money while shopping!

2010-04-29T11:42:00.004+08:00

How do you save your hard-earned money?

That's a really good question and one which is rather difficult to answer. Very often we spend without much thinking, especially when there are sales in the malls. Some of us are very disciplined - we actually make an effort to put aside a certain amount every month into the bank savings account; we spend wisely according to a certain budget set and never ever deviate from that plan. Well, honestly - do you really do that?

I'm not proud to say that sometimes (or most times?!) I'm not that disciplined. It's something I really should work on, I know. It's so easy to just spend spend spend. Especially now that we have the shops & goods at our fingertips - literally - the Internet! Yes, Online Shopping! But do you know that you can actually save money while shopping online?? Don't believe me? Well, check out Savings.com.

There are amazing deals and coupons in this site which will literally save you lots when you shop for stuff, ranging from apparel, shoes, books, toys, gifts, food, cosmetics, mobile phones - just about anything under the sun! You can even get discount coupons for booking airline tickets, hotel rooms or vacation packages. I was also surprised that from this site, you can shop for a domain name in Go Daddy! - at really great prices too with these Go Daddy coupon codes.

Mother's Day is just round the corner. How about getting that important woman in your life something special? Get special coupons from Savings.com. As for me, I'm eyeing some really cool Calvin Klein stuff, which with the coupons obtained from Savings.com, you can get discounts of up to 40%! I don't think you can get such fantastic discounts even if you shop at the store itself!

My little nephew's birthday is coming soon and I have actually spotted something I want to buy with these Toys R Us coupons. I can't wait to see how his face will light up when he gets his present!

You have to be quick to catch the best deals in this site because every deal has an expiry date. Go on, make a smart shopping choice today. I think if you record and tabulate your purchases made from this site, you can see quite a tidy sum of savings piling up :-)

BMW X1 Launch Event

2010-04-08T12:05:00.003+08:00

I was very excited to receive an invitation in the post and when I opened the thick envelope, it read something like this...

It's an invitation from BMW to their Launch Event of the X1!!! That was what made us beat the notorious traffic jams of KL city centre last evening to make our way to Avenue K - the venue for this exclusive launch. There was already a long line of sleek beemers parked all over the entrance to the building when we arrived just before 8.00pm.

We then made our way to the Registration Counter... it was quicker at the "White Card Members" lane - that's where we headed...

After getting our "passports", we were given these wrist bands...(which we had to wear throughout the evening)...

Food and drinks - free flow of wines, beer, martinis, fruit juices were served by the service crew from Westin Hotel...

We wined and we dined and waited impatiently for the Main Thing of the night... Finally, Geoff Briscoe, the Managing Director of BMW Malaysia took to the stage, said a few words of welcome & appreciation and then unveiled the new babe of the BMW fleet... taaa daaa.... the X1!

The X1 is the smallest X model and it's called a "SAV" (Sports Activity Vehicle). It's a really compact SUV and is actually a little bit smaller than the Honda CRV!

It will be sold here in Malaysia in 2 engine options: diesel and petrol. At the moment, only the xDrive20D model is available and I heard the sDrive18ipetrol model will only reach here sometime in June this year.

I was told for RM90 worth of diesel in the tank, the X1 can run for 900+km. Now, isn't that good news as far as cost savings is concerned?!

Seen at the launch was the Nougat Brown colour, a new colour it seems... the rich coppery tones certainly lent a glamorous sexy slant to the vehicle...

But for me, I would opt for the Super Sexy Garnet Red, man!

Isn't this beautiful, hehe?! Nothing beats a sleek red beemer!!!

If you think the copper and the red are too flamboyant, why not stick to the Classic Elegant White?

Looks good to me, too ;-)

So, after ogling at the new babe, I went and tried my luck at the "Wheel of Experiences" - BMW's version of "Wheel of Fortune" lah.

Well, neither "experiences" nor "luck" was on my side - I only got a BMW notebook. "Notebook" as in a small writing pad for taking notes, not the laptop computer, ok!

On the way out, there were all these questions that BMW posed...

I can't wait for my Extended Weekend test drive of this new babe ... after that I'll be able to tell whether you'll really get 900+km for RM90 and whether it's more powerful than the 323i or 325i - well, that's what the salesman said!

With a price tag of RM299K, this fully imported CBU model is a dream to own!

Athens 2009

2010-04-01T15:39:00.003+08:00

This post is long overdue.

My last blog post here was before I went on this trip to Dubai/Abu Dhabi and Greece... a couple of weeks before Christmas. I think if I don't resume blogging here, Blogger would probably delete my blog very soon!

So, back to my trip to Greece (it seems so long ago, but it's just only 3+ months ago!).

Greece comprises a vast number of islands ~ about 1,400 of them, of which 227 are inhabited. I was so excited, looking out the plane window, as we were about to land in Athens...

Breath-taking, isn't it?

One of the very first things that thrilled me as we first set foot on Athens was the sight of orange trees EVERYWHERE! By the roads, in the park, in people's front & back yards, orange trees heavily laden with fruits were flourishing everywhere! There were lots of orange groves in the outskirts too! I was wondering why no one picked the fruits to eat as they were all over the place? Want to know why? Will reveal later ;-)

The streets of Athens are an eclectic mix of modern buildings built side by side with traditional ones on narrow winding streets.

Traffic can be pretty chaotic...

Some of the more interesting sights in the city ...

The Constitution Square, where the Hellenic Parliament building is located. It's guarded round the clock and at every hour, there's a "Changing of the Guards"... it's not as elaborate as the one in London's Buckingham Palace. We witnessed this scene on the first night we were there. There are 3 ceremonial guards who are changed at every hour, after standing stock-still for an hour, in the freezing cold! One poor guy actually buckled over... his feet must have been numb.

Our hotel was located in Monastiraki - a very vibrant place, with lots of shops, restaurants, taverns and souvlakis right at our doorstep! The famous Athens Flea Market (which is open throughout the week) was just a hop & a skip away...

We love wandering and browsing the shops & stalls inside this flea market... lots of stuff to see and the weather was perfect... mostly around 15-18 degrees Celcius...

The area where the flea market is located is known as the Plaka, which is the oldest section in Athens. It's like a small village with traditional quaint buildings on steep slopes and narrow paths.

The Greeks are great artists and love art in every form & everywhere! You can see graffiti on practically every surface in the city - on walls, signboards, pavements...!

As it was just a week away from Christmas, the Yuletide spirit was very much in the air. Streets and shops were all decked to the brim...

We were really caught up with the Christmas spirit there!

From the narrow winding streets in the Plaka, you could actually walk up to the Acropolis - the icon of Athens. The Acropolis is actually a flat-topped rock rising 150m above sea level in the city of Athens.

There are a few sacred sites up at the Acropolis, namely the Parthenon... where the Temple of Athena is dedicated... it's actually under restoration now.

On another side there's the Erechtheum - a combination of smaller sacred precincts...

The view from the Acropolis is absolutely beautiful...

I just love the next 2 photos ... I used to have a huge jigsaw puzzle with this scene and I spent hours & hours (which lasted over many many weeks) doing it!

However, I think the Acropolis looks more magical & majestic when seen at night...

Don't you agree?? This photo was taken from our hotel room balcony! Every night we were in Athens, we feasted our eyes on this wondrous sight.

We also took a short ride out of the city of Athens (69km away) to Sounion at the southernmost tip of the Attica Peninsula overlooking the Aegean Sea...

The most famous site in Cape Sounion is of course the Temple of Poseidon, built circa 440BC (whatever that's left of it) who is the God of the Sea in classical Greek mythology.

We did a 4-day Road Trip out of Athens to visit the major ancient historical sites - places like Delphi, Mycenae, Epidaurus, Olympia and of course, Meteora. I will blog about those places in another post... check this site again, later :-))

My new cool Nike

2009-12-03T09:33:00.007+08:00

I have not sweated in almost 4 weeks. Really. That's a bit abnormal for me.

Yeah, since the surgery, I have not been doing any exercise. My doc told me "No strenuous work, cannot carry heavy stuff.... and give yourself a few weeks before starting on some light cardio work."

"Cannot carry heavy things" - that means no weights training lah.

But can do some cardio work and also since I got an INCENTIVE to exercise ...

This is the INCENTIVE!

Yeah... my new Nike Air Max (thank you DL!) ... So I decided to try these out at the gym yesterday...

Yep - you can use these with Nike+, the cool training software which you can connect to your iPhone/iPod to monitor your workout! Ahh... but then I don't need that at the moment lah, coz all my cardio workouts are at the gym where they have the super-duper machines to tell you everything about your workout!

I tell you - they are SUPER comfortable! There's a firm cushion inside that kinda curves up following the front shape of the shoe... and when you walk, you feel like you're bouncing, LOL! So it was quite a breeze for me to "bounce" for 40 minutes on the treadmill.

And I love the colour - my fave purplish pink!!! These will be sooo good for my holiday - there'll be lots of walking in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Greece and possibly Jordan too! ;-)

The only plus point about staying in hospital...

2009-12-02T14:01:00.012+08:00

The only plus point about a hospital stay is the flowers you get. Well, most people will send you flowers to cheer you up while you're being miserable in a hospital room...

... and these were what I received...

A huge basket of exotic flowers and lots of fruits - this came from my boss :-) Everyone was so intrigued by the cabbage-like flower centrepiece.... they asked me whether it can be eaten??! Hmmm... I really don't know and I didn't wanna attempt eating it, OK!

Guess who plonked her cutie self right beside the flowers when I was snapping the pics?! See how the lil Kikko's smiling so widely too?

These were the blooms from the big basket...

This basket was from my office...
I like lillies... so elegant!
And this cute pretty basket of beautiful red roses was from dear Z...
So nice, hoh? :-)

Ahh... not forgetting the plain basket of fruits from the person who screwed up my surgery time!
My fridge was totally stuffed with all these fruits... I had to give away some of the dragonfruits to my SILs. Hmmm... I think there're still some oranges in the fridge... should juice them, hehe!

More on the Hospital story ...

2009-11-30T21:34:00.004+08:00

It's raining cats & dogs now... and as usual Astro is not working: "Services currently not available" is the title splashed across all channels. Don't you just hate Astro for that? For all their hype and A&P, they still can't solve this issue. Since the past month has been so rainy and thundery and lightningy, please go and calculate just how many good days Astro channels worked for you and we should all deduct those bad days accordingly. Sometimes I can't help thinking they're just another bunch of crooks there.

Anyway...

Since I can't watch my fave 701 or 702, let me update a bit on my hospital story...

OK... so I was there bright and early this time for the ERCP. And this time nobody dared to screw up my timing. Not after the huge fuss I kicked up the last time. I think they already know my face so well around there. In fact, the moment my gastroenterologist's clerk (she was the one who screwed up the last time!) saw me at the registration counter, she rushed over and told me no need to register at the counter, instead I was to be admitted immediately. She then led me to the Admissions counter (although I had by then known my way blindfolded in the hospital, I tell ya!) and I breezed through the process and given my single room. I was also told that the staff will take my blood in my room for the mandatory test - I didn't have to walk to the LG Floor to the Lab for that - great!

So... once I was settled in my room, the staff came and took my blood sample and all I had to do was wait for the result of the test before my good gastro can do the ERCP. I whiled away time watching Astro in my room (yes, they had a flatscreen tv in the room with decent no. of Astro channels available - not bad lah). By about 11.15am I called my gastro's clinic and asked if my procedure was on schedule and the clerk reassured me that YES, it's on schedule, ie at 12.00noon.

Sure enough, right on the dot of 11.30am, the nurse came in and told me I had to change into their green gown and it was time to wheel me down to the Endoscopy Room on the Ground Floor. I had several "dayang dayang" to accompany me on that royal journey down - these were their student nurses lah - guess they find that trip more exciting and educational than me and they needed to pass the "Pushing Hospital Bed" practical assignment kwa...

The Endoscopy Room looked like one of those high-tech labs with lots of equipment and screens around. The whole room looked very cold, sterile and your entertainment comes from the beeps and whirring of the machines around you. When a nurse inserted the cannula into my vein, I yelled in pain because she sucked at doing that - clumsy & inadequate! Such a difference when it was the anaesthetist who did this prior to my surgery! Of course there IS a difference between a nurse and a anaesthetist - duhh!

I was told to lie on my stomach on the narrow bed. My gastro and his nurses were all gowned and he quickly administered the sleeping liquid... I could feel the cold saline mixing with the drug coursing through the vein in my right hand... and before I knew it, I was asleep. I recall that through the wooziness of my sleep-induced mind, I could vaguely hear the nurses' chatter...and some rattling & vibrating of equipment ... and then the wheeling back into my room...

I woke up in my room just after 1.00pm and was told that the next 6 hours would be critical. Critical in the sense that if my pancreas had reacted sensitively to the endoscopy procedure, it could result in pancreatitis... and if that happened, I would have acute pain within those 6 hours! If nothing happens in those 6 hours, then I would be selamat! And NO water - don't even talk about food - during those 6 hours. So I kept my fingers & toes crossed and waited with bated breath for the 6 hours to pass. Yeah... by the time 7.00pm came.... I breathed a sigh of great relief. No pain! No pancreatitis! Can makan!

Nope...wrong - CANNOT makan! My good doc came and told me cannot makan - not even porridge! Can only drink soup or Milo for that night. If everything sails through that night, then only can I makan as normal the next day.

OK... fine. So, liquid diet it was... good for the diet also, kan? The hospital gave me a small bowl of insipid tasteless soup - not sure what it was.... probably just cabbage soup, from the looks of it. Thank god for my dear friend, Z, who came to visit me bearing the most delish nutrituous chicken soup... yum yum yum! Then a couple hours later, the SILs came with some delish porky soup, hehe! So... with a tummy filled with yummy home-boiled soup, the night became more bearable :-)

The next morning I was given the green light to pack up and balik rumah - yayyy! Surprisingly the discharge procedure took not-too-long and by 11.00am I was already out of the hospital - on my way to some wantan mee ;-)

Today I'm back to work... after almost 3 weeks away. So far so good *keeping fingers+toes crossed* and hope everything will be smooth from now on so that I can climb the steps effortlessly to the Acropolis in Athens in about 2 weeks' time!

Cross your fingers for me, too, will ya? :-)

To the Hospital (again!)

2009-11-19T15:29:00.003+08:00

I know, there has been a serious lack of postings on my blog for some time. (Hello! are you people still around?!) Well, I've been kinda busy lately. Busy for not very good reasons, I must say.

Been busy going in and out of the hospital - that's what I'm saying.

Last week I went in for a laparascopic cholecystectomy. For the medically-inclined, you would know that that means it's a removal of the gall bladder. Yeah, I have been plagued with some painful episodes of gallstones attack for the past 6 months and it was then diagnosed and recommended that I went for this surgery. Let me tell you all about the "fiasco" I went through in the process!

My surgery was scheduled for 1pm and I was told I could have a light breakfast before 7am on the day itself before going to the hospital. I was on the way to the hospital at about 10am when I got a call from the surgeon's clerk that my surgery was actually at 11am! Prior to this, I was totally not informed of the change in time. When I reached the hospital, the anaesthetist did not want to take any risk in anaesthizing me as I had food at 7am! Soooo... to cut a long story short, because the 11am slot at the Operating Theatre was missed, the OT was not available until after 7pm that day!!! So, what did I do?? Besides shooting up my blood pressure in frustration, I just had to wait in the hospital until 7pm!

All that waiting & frustrations could have been avoided if SOMEONE at the hospital had informed me about the change in time for my surgery!!! Of course that someone got an earful from me and a basket of fruits was duly sent as apology.

Anyway, the surgery went well and I was discharged the very next day. The 5 stitches in the 3 tiny slits healed nicely and the stitches were removed 1 week later (a few days ago). So I was pretty happy that I was on the road of recovery.... until...

2 nights ago I got ANOTHER one of those painful attacks! I was like ... WTF... the gallbladder (plus the gallstones) had been removed already what... so why daheck was I getting one of those attacks somemore??!! The pain was so bad I could not sleep the entire night and as soon as morning came, I made my way to the hospital, to see my good gastro specialist again. To tell the truth, he was also a bit puzzled by this attack... and told me that possibly I could be so unlucky as to have another stone dislodged somewhere in my guts. OMG.

So, what to do now??

I had to go through another series of blood tests and ultra-sound scan the past 2 days and the results indicate a high possibility of a delinquent stone somewhere inside! Damn blardy stone!

So ... tomorrow I have to go in again to the hospital for a ERCP. Basically, it's an endoscopy procedure that's supposed to find and dislodge/suck out that delinquent stone lah.

So, you tell me lah... have I been busy or not??!

And it came crashing down!

2009-11-05T15:12:00.002+08:00

What happens when your party tent comes crashing down like this?

Does your party go on?

The neighbour across the road put up 2 tents, with one right smack in the middle of the road... and then along came a car and knocked into one of the thin poles!

So how? So how?
Party or no party???

A Glorious Garden

2009-10-30T09:50:00.013+08:00

It's Friday today - a happy day for most, no? With the weekend coming up, most people are in a lighter mood, I would say. So, because it's a happy day (at least for me, it is, haha!), I'd like to share some visual feasting with you...

Let me introduce you to my good friend, CC's beautiful house...

Hmmm... did you think CC's house is somewhere in Cameron Highlands? ... or maybe in Fraser's Hill...... maybe even somewhere in a foreign land, where the climate is cooler (like in Yorkshire or Melbourne?) ... where flowers like these would bloom in such abundant glory?

Well, if you thought that, then you're totally forgiven for making that wrong assumption - because CC's magnificent house and garden is located just a stonethrow away from my house! Yes - it's somewhere here in hot humid Malaysia! In Shah Alam, to be exact.

A.m.a.z.i.n.g.... isn't it???

Let me tell you how CC spent tremendous efforts in renovating her house... from the normal Malaysian link house to this lovely lovely unique abode... with the rustic wood + stone facade... The interior is also very rustic-English-cottage-style, but sorry, no pics of the interior here.

And just look at the garden!!! There're hundreds of roses - of every size and colour, besides multi-coloured bougainvilla....

and many other types of flowers & shrubs (sorry, I don't know all their names! CC, if you're reading this, maybe you can help!)

Ahh... there's a Bunga Raya there - you see, even her bunga rayas look so different - they're bigger, more vibrant-coloured, healthier!!!
This is just the perfect spot to sit down and have a cup of tea... aint it lovely?

Guess what these are? They are Lavender!!! Yes, lavender! Who says lavender can't be grown here in our hot humid weather? CC has a whole big patch of these in her front lawn!

Amidst the lavendar bush, there're these bright sunflowers clamouring round the letterbox...

CC spends countless hours in her garden, sometimes even till the wee hours of the morning! - you cannot believe the amount of work that's needed to grow and maintain this showpiece. It's her passion. She doesn't have any helper or maid or gardener - she does everything herself. From planting, weeding, watering, pruning, fertilizing - OMG, that's a whole lot of sweaty efforts, I tell you!

But just look at the results - her house and garden is the pride of the neighbourhood. At the guardhouse, you don't need to tell her address, you just tell 'em guards that you wanna visit "The Rose Garden" and they will know perfectly well which house you're referring to!

By the way, do you know that CC spends an average of RM1,500 a month in maintaining this floral paradise? And roses thrive on fresh live organic "fertilizers" - stuff like fish innards, which CC buys from the fresh market every other week and carefully buries under the rose bushes!

Now, tell me, if that isn't passion, I don't know what else is!

Kikko back from the vet!

2009-10-26T11:06:00.006+08:00

My poor lil Kikko! What happened to her??

I sent her to the vet to get her spayed over the weekend. And now she has to wear this latest-fashion collar... to prevent her from licking the wound.
She looks so sad... my poor baby! Well, that's her first day back home after the surgery - guess she's still feeling kinda wobbly. But she's recovering well. In fact, the vet said she's such an excellent "patient" and so friendly too!... she's up and about as soon as she woke up and wagged her lil tail whenever her name's called!
She has to wear that cone-thingy for 10 days to enable the incision to heal completely. See, she's already getting used to it...

Hehe... no eye see - don't disturb me!

iPhone 3G S

2009-10-26T10:53:00.005+08:00

Isn't this cute? Yeah, I love this - that's my iPhone cover - it's a Paul Frank monkey - it's so bright, it's so colourful, it's so orange, it's so cheeky! It houses my supercool iPhone 3GS!

I used to not like the iPhone, hehe! I was a diehard Nokia user. And I always thought it's difficult to manouver the fingers on the iPhone's super-sensitive touch-keypad! Well, guess what? It's all a matter of getting-used-to-it, haha! You can't place your finger directly on top of the character you want - you have to place it a bit to the top left corner - that's the secret lah! I believe the Apple geniuses intentionally designed it this way to confuse their users and perhaps differentiate them from their competitors, LOL!

Anyway, once I overcame that little shortcoming, I now absolutely love this cool toy - you know, the sliding, the touching... and how things just swooosh into the trashcan when you delete your junk!

Thank you DL for this wondertoy :-) Have a beeyootifool monkee day!!!

The Ugly Side...

2009-09-24T10:30:00.004+08:00

The 4-day Hari Raya break last weekend was certainly refreshing and very much-needed. I wish we have more of these :-P
It was a blur of activities for me - mainly going on food haunts and lepakking in the malls - movies, shopping etc ... and just driving along the wonderfully deserted roads here in the Klang Valley.

While enjoying myself during the precious off-days at the malls, I experienced some near-frustration moments too. Incidents that show the ugly side of people. Let me tell you more about them...

Incident 1
This was in Mega Mall. I was waiting my turn at the washroom when one became available - this woman walked out from the toilet with a kid (probably about 4-5 years old) in tow. When I went inside, I was disgusted at the huge pile of toilet paper dumped into the toilet bowl full of piss which she obviously did not flush off. From the looks of her & her kid, they certainly did not come from the slums but her behaviour clearly indicated a lack of breeding. I actually gave her a dirty look and said "you should have flushed the toilet!" Guess what - she just "buat tak tahu" - just like what cacat people usually do ... sigh. It's not that the toilet flush wasn't working because I flushed it vigorously before I used it and after, of course. I guess her child will grow up with the attitude that it's OK not to flush toilets after using them.

Incident 2
After getting our tickets for a movie in Pavillion, I was stepping into the queue to buy popcorn when these 2 women practically shoved themselves ahead of me. OK, I tahan, I kept quiet. When it came to paying for their stuff, one of them poured this huge pile of 5-sen and 10-sen coins on the counter. I tell you - there were at least 50 coins there. They took their time counting their precious coins with the long queue behind them. Then it was the service staff's turn to count the coins and he actually recounted them thrice! Then it turned out the amount was not enough and RM2 was still due. So these 2 Ah Lians started rummaging in their purses, could not find RM2 in small change and in the end, produced a RM10 note! And proceeded to scoop up all their coins - after all the hassle and time wasted and everyone was bristling! Blow or not, you tell me??!!

Incident 3
I don't know why some people here just canNOT understand that handicap parking lots are meant for handicapped people. The handicap lots at The Gardens are extra large - that's necessary for people to load/unload wheelchairs, right? But no, kiasu able-bodied people (but with cacat minds) will actually see that as parking for TWO cars! Yes, that was exactly what they did. Two cars (with no handicap stickers on them) parked haphazardly on one lot meant for the less fortunate people. Depriving the less fortunate people of their rightful parking never entered their shallow cacat minds. I should have taken a photo of those cars and post it on a "Hall of Shame" website or something like that. But even so, I don't think it will deter these people. Strict enforcement, eg imposing a HEAVY fine, like RM1,000 on these culprits may help. Clamp them and fine them! These selfish kiasu losers must be taught a lesson and the best way is through their wallets. Some countries, like in the Middle East, actually do that and it has proven to be effective

Come on lah people ... be more civic-minded and considerate, can or not?

And how was your Hari Raya break?

The Wall

2009-09-03T11:51:00.002+08:00

See this beautiful wall here? It's been there in my neighbourhood for the past 3 years, at least - providing security to the area and adding its rustic charm to the beauty of the place .....

... until ....

one fine morning (2 days ago, actually), some fella lost control of his van and crashed into this beautiful wall... and as a result, the poor wall is now "bandaged up" ...

Owwhhh... I'm so dismayed looking at this injury! It's a straight quiet road there - how can anyone just crash into that wall??!!

Touch Touch

2009-08-19T13:53:00.004+08:00

So... what have I been busy with lately? Well, it's that little red thing up there...

... any idea what it is?

No, it's not a handphone...

It's my latest little toy.... it's the IPod Touch! (thanks DL...muakks!)

I love the red red casing! Ahhh... still learning how to sync it with iTunes... and plug it in my new lean mean machine, too ;-)

Macho or what?

2009-08-12T17:23:00.002+08:00

I always have an “entertaining” time at the gym. While doing my workouts, it’s good to observe the people around me and the things that some of them do … well, sometimes these can be quite funny but some can be damn irritating.

I enjoy Bodypump and I try to attend this twice a week. For the uninitiated, this is a weights/strength training workout for the entire body. It’s a 60-minute class, led by a qualified Les Mills instructor and basically you carry bar and free weights to work all the major muscle groups of your body. The thing is you start with light weights to get your muscles working and you gradually increase these weights once your muscles get used to the routines and the resistance - that's how you build up your strength.

Now it is very common… and I see this happening all the time… there are people who are either very foolish or they love to “show off” by using very heavy weights in the class. The weights are so heavy they can’t handle them properly.

Just like the other day, I saw this guy carrying 10kg weights on each side of the bar, totaling 20kg, for the Biceps routine. The routine, done in tune to an upbeat song lasting easily 4-5 minutes, engages varying speed/tempo of the bicep curls. For the Biceps routine, you are just to use your arms only (that’s why it’s called the Biceps routine, duhh!) to lift the weights - other parts of your body are to be isolated and remain still. But this guy was clearly struggling with the weights - he was using almost his entire body to help lift the weights! So there he was… pushing and pulling his torso, his chest, his butt and even his legs trying to lift the 20kg weights with his arms and then letting the weights crash down instead of following the counts from the instructor. It was quite a sight! I wonder why guys (yes, it’s mostly guys!) love to do this - is it a show of macho-ness, an ego high? Don’t they know how ridiculous and pathetic they actually look?

Then there are the people who absolutely cannot live without their mobiles… no, not even for an hour or so when they’re working out in the gym. It’s so damn irritating & disruptive to hear a handphone ring when you’re in the midst of a class and then the fler scrambled to retrieve his mobile and start talking into it. Just yesterday I was on the bicycle next to this fler who was busy with his mobile while cycling - of course he wasn’t really cycling lah. If they’re so busy with their mobiles, they shouldn’t be working out in the gym then…. Sheeesh!

Are you a secret-teri?

2009-07-24T11:40:00.003+08:00

Recently there was this email that was going around urging people to vote FOR or AGAINST the government’s latest policy about teaching Math and Science in BM to our kids in a couple of years' time. I'm sure many of you have received this. Did you click on the link to place your vote? I hope you did, and I certainly hope you voted AGAINST it.

The standard of English amongst the younger generation these days is really atrocious. This is not to say that all in the older generation are very powderful in their England also lah. But … but I really want to share with you how I constantly get irritated by the way English is spoken (don’t even talk about the written version!) by the "young professionals" these days.

The past 2 days I have been getting calls from this very prominent US-based global company. It’s considered one of the giants in the IT industry, rated among the top Fortune 500 companies, and we’re also currently located in a building bearing their name. Hehe… those smart ones out there will know which company I’m talking about.

Anyway, this was how the telephone conversation went. Yesterday - it was a female who called me… let’s call her Ah Lian, because … errr… she spoke exactly like an Ah Lian lor.

Ah Lian: Harroh, I’m calling from IB XYZ. Can I speak to Mr Ong ahh?

Me: I’m sorry - Mr Ong is not in.

Ah Lian: When will he be back ahh?

Me: Mr Ong is traveling at the moment. Can I help you?

Ah Lian: Orhhh… I wanna ask ahh… we sent Mr Ong one email about our ~~dunno watdafook~~ event - he got receive ahh?

Me : What event is that and when was your email sent?

Ah Lian: Orhhh… the email sent veli long oredi - you no receive meh? I think maybe sent 2 months oredi la.

Me : *clicking on Lotus Notes to trace email* I’m sorry but I don’t see any email from your company.

Ah Lian: Got one, sure got one. You see got under “ IB XYZ” or not lah.

Me : *gritting my teeth* No, sorry, we didn’t receive any such mail.

Ah Lian: Aiyah, OK la… I send again to you, can ah? Are you his secret-teri ahh?

Me : *breathe in breathe out slowly* No, I’m not his secret-teri. I’m his secretary.

Ah Lian: Orhhh…since you are his secret-teri, I can send you again la the email. How to spell your email address ahh?

Me : *trying hard not to scream… spelled out my email addy thrice for her and thankfully put the phone down*

OK, so I thought that was the end of having to deal with IB XYZ.

Thim-chi early this morning, another moron from IB XYZ called me - this time it’s a male. Shall we call him Ah Beng?

Ah Beng: Halloh… I’m calling from IB XYZ. Can I speak to Mr Ong or not?

Me: I’m sorry but Mr Ong is not in.

Ah Beng: You know what time he coming back ahh?

Me: Mr Ong is currently traveling.

Ah Beng: Ohh… so you know what time he coming back or not?

Me: You mean you want to know what time his flight is landing? *but i know my sarcasm was lost on him lah*

Ah Beng: *kept quiet for a moment* Ohh… you mean he take aeroplane ahh?

Me: *TNS KNN NMFL!!!* He is overseas at the moment.

Ah Beng: Oh I see. I want to know, ahh… he coming for our ~~dunno watdafook~~ event or not? He got receive our email right?

Me: *breathe in & out slowwwly* No, we have not received your email. And somebody from your office already called me yesterday about this. Why don’t you check with your colleague before calling us??

Ah Beng: Oh ya kah? So you are the secret-teri izzit?

Me: *felt like screaming, pounding the table and wringing somebody’s neck* No, I’m not the secret-teri.

Ah Beng: Ok nebermind. I check my kolik first.

Me: *TNS KNN NMFL!!* Put phone down.

So now you see… somehow these people from IB XYZ have trained their staff well to irritate secret-teris all over the world.

Have a good weekend, all!

Almost raped

2009-07-23T09:51:00.003+08:00

Yesterday one of our office cleaners was attacked in the men’s toilet. She was cleaning the toilet when the loser went in, locked the door, grabbed her and molested her with the intention of raping her. She screamed and luckily another cleaner came to her aid. The bastard was caught and today the management company people are coming over to our office for a meeting on this incident. I heard the bastard will be deported back to Bangladesh.

All this happened at 10am on a working day in a supposedly-secured 5-star intelligent office building. Did you think something like this would only happen in a dark lonely alley somewhere in Chow Kit or in that deserted dingy basement carpark? Well, think again.

People, especially women, are constantly attacked, molested, sodomised, raped, mutilated and killed in places where you think it’s very safe. It can be in the office (like mine), in a bus, in a busy train station, in a shopping mall (remember Canny Ong?) - heck, it can even be in your own house! Do you honestly think your house is the safest place?

Just last week I attended a “City Survival” training, conducted by very experienced facilitators. These are safety experts who save lives on a daily basis, who gave us very valuable tips and advice on How To Survive An Attack - may it be a snatch theft, a molestation… worse still, a rape with intention to kill. We were shown extremely gruesome and explicit graphics of such victims. We cringed and closed our eyes … some even almost pengsan looking at those gory slides. Unreported cases, profiles & photos of the sick perpetrators, pictures of the crime scenes - we don’t see these in the newspapers - but the message driven across was clear: it is a BIG BAD world out there and if ever we’re so unlucky to be caught in such a situation, we better be prepared to know how to escape and survive.

Now if you think those trainers taught us some kungfu or taekwando kicks to save ourselves, sorry… those do not work unless you are trained & qualified in such skills and actually practise them everyday. By the way, forget about kicking the bastard in the groin - that’s what we’ve always been told, right?? Tell me, how many women can actually raise their legs and aim to kick their balls - especially if the fler is taller & bigger-sized and you’re already trembling in your high heels?? There IS a better & easier spot to inflict pain on the bugger - that we were taught.

What we were taught were actually very sensible practical workable tips and ideas on how to turn around a potentially dangerous situation, escape and survive. Yeah, even simple stuff like HOW to use your pepper spray! Do you actually know how to do that, assuming you even have a pepper spray with you? Gals, if you don’t already have one, go buy one now - it IS a good tool, believe me.

That City Survival training was strictly for women only. One of my male colleagues was thrown out (yeah, almost physically) the room when he tried his luck to attend. You know why the trainers warned us about NOT sharing those tips/info they taught us with the guys? Because… when such info is circulated among the guys, you never know which one will turn out to be a bastard who will then have wisened up to what we women have been taught to protect ourselves. I don't mean to say that your husband/boyfriend/brother are potential rapists... but they may just share this info with their beer buddies/workers/the gardener/the taxi-driver etc ... and how well do you know these people?? Get my drift???

Oh, did I mention that from hard statistics & facts, rapists are often people that you know/trust… and such crimes can happen in the safest places. Yes, it IS scary… but it IS REAL.

I seriously recommend that you gals go and equip yourselves with some of these tips and info - it may save your life. Those guys are having a session for the public next Saturday, 1 August in Bangsar Village from 12.30pm-5.30pm and seats are limited to 150 people only. Cost is RM50 - a small price to pay to learn something so useful. Email me for the contact number to book your place - I’m not sure if it’s already full.

No, I don’t work for these people or get a commission for recommending the training or paid to blog about this. I just feel that this is something very very real, more so with what happened to our cleaner yesterday.

People, be safe.

Just a tulan post

2009-07-22T12:29:00.001+08:00

I shall not let SOME people spoil my day/mood by their stupid senseless attitude. Just because your computer crashed and you lost your precious data doesn’t mean you can go around spitting your tulan-ness on people who were purely trying to sympathize with you. The world does not owe you or ends just because your computer crashed and stop blaming everyone for that. Come to think of it, padan muka that your computer crashed - maybe it also cannot tahan you… maybe it’s some divine punishment for the way you’ve been treating people all this time. May you have endless frustrations trying to retrieve your data. And once you have done that, may it crash again…. And again.

A ghostly encounter

2009-07-20T14:41:00.002+08:00

It’s lunch time and I went and tapau’ed back some congee. My stomach has been acting up the past 2 days - my toilet seat has been very warmed up since last Saturday night. I suspect it’s the durians I took that evening. Dunno why… but these days whenever I eat durians, my tummy immediately swells up with air and I’d feel bloated like a toad until the air gets released (as in farts lah) and then the air slowly turned to liquid and that’s when the toilet seat gets heated up.

Anyway, I meant to write about how that teruk congee was so watery it was like slurping water … but at least it was hot and I needed some hot liquids to warm up my empty stomach. So while slurping the watery congee, I was reading a hantu post by this blogger Adrian Lee. And that made me think of a ghostly encounter I had when I was young.

This was way back in Ipoh… at that time I was maybe in my early teens. My mother used to work as a housekeeper in this huge old bungalow and we all lived there too, in the staff quarters. This house had an enormous garden… I wouldn’t even call it a garden - it’s more like “grounds” - a few acres of it, I believe. There were lots of giant trees too - old old ones with trunks spanning more 15 feet in circumference, with exposed gnarled roots snaking all over the ground and the canopy of leaves can cover half a football field - I kid you not. There were coniferous trees (like christmas trees) about 20-30ft tall - (I remember the prickly thorny seeds that used to litter the grounds, damn painful when you step on them), bamboo clusters (good homes for snakes), an orchard of rambutan trees but most memorable were the “pokok kapas” (cotton trees?). Now if you know about malay folklore, you would know that pokok kapas are the favourite homes of pontianak (female flying blood-sucking spirits with long hair & white baju). Yes, go ask your malay friends if you don’t believe me. The staff quarters were located like 600m-800m away from the main house. Every night (usually around 10pm or even later) I would walk back to the quarters after dinner and after watching tv (no tv in the staff quarters, ok).

Anyway, the ghostly encounter I wanna share with you was not during those long dark walks back to the quarters. I digress. (But that one also got story... but let's keep that for another day).

It happened in the main house one night when I, together with a friend who came over, were sleeping in one of the rooms upstairs. I always have this habit of waking up in the middle of the night to “orh yeh liu” (go toilet lah). Now, we were sleeping in a room at the end of a long corridor and I can remember it was a long walk in pitch darkness to reach the stairs in order to get to the toilet on the ground floor. When I reached the top of the stairs, about to descend the steps, suddenly I saw this tall dark figure (now my bulu roma also naik!) coming up from the bottom of the stairs. No, actually the word should be “floating” because it really was kinda like floating up. I remember I called out “siapa itu!” but the figure continued to float up towards me. Until this day I can recall it was like wearing a black cloak, from top to toe. It actually floated up to about 3ft away from me and until now I can still remember there was no face, just a very tall cloaked figure in black.

So what did I do lah??

I turned and ran back to the room, heart pounding and woke up my friend. I told her about what I saw… and then both of us went out (we very gungho one!), turned on all the lights on the corridor and of course, there was nothing there.

But I swear I really saw that black figure… and from that night onwards, I never slept in the upstairs room anymore.

My tummy is on a rollercoaster again - must go warm the toilet seat again...haiya.

BMW 323i

2009-07-06T10:23:00.007+08:00

I had the privilege of testing this beauty the entire weekend - courtesy of Auto Bavaria. Oh yes, this black beauty was at my disposal the past couple of days.
This car is really so-in-your-face, don't you think??
Known as the E90 Sedan Facelift model, this is one of the latest 3-series beemer you see on the roads today. Even though it's tagged as "323", it has a detuned 2.5L engine which responds beautifully with just some light pressure on the pedal. Packing 200BHP, it ate up the kms effortlessly.

I took it for a spin to Ipoh ... a journey which took just over 1 hour 40 minutes on the North-South highway. The maximum I pushed it was only at 195km/hr - it sailed along solidly with still a lot of give in its engine power, hehe! (oh dear, if kena saman, errr... it won't be coming to me leh, LOL!)

The other cool features of this beauty which I absolutely love are its I-Drive (its onboard computer) and the key-less ignition with its smart key (very canggih la!).

Ahhh... I'm sooo bonded with this baby I don't wanna return it to AB!!!

Hair grown so long!

2009-07-02T16:23:00.007+08:00

Kikko's hair has grown so much, especially on top of her head - so much so that I decided to tie it up in a little bunch to keep that tuft of hair falling into her eyes...
Of course in order to do this, I had to put her into the sink...so that she'd keep absolutely still!
Ahhh... isn't that better now? No more hair falling over & covering her eyes, hehe!
I think I should go and get some cutsey little ribbons for her - after all, she is a gal!
She looks more and more like her father everyday... and she's the absolute little terror in the house - terrorising her poor father, Koji, most of the time! For a small furry ball like her, she has a BIG bark, ok! She loves "attacking" Koji and when he ignores her, she'll just bark right into his face... until he beh tahan - and that's when the "wrestling" starts!

Michael Jackson died

2009-06-26T10:17:00.003+08:00

I thought I was dreaming when I was woken up early this morning by some announcement from my clock radio that Michael Jackson had had a cardiac arrest and died! Through the fuzziness of my brain when I was still halfway in slumber land, I heard that MJ never recovered from the coma he slipped into after the cardiac arrest.

Oh.My.God.

Michael Jackson is dead. I can't believe it. The King of Pop, at age 50, had passed on. It's so shocking. I mean, all this while, there was never any news that he was sick. But then, a heart attack can be due to anything. The whole world is mourning.

So... all morning I've been listening to MJ's songs on the radio. Almost every other radio channel is playing his songs as a tribute to this great artiste. Hey, he had his issues... but still, he's a legend.

Rest in peace, Michael.

Transformers Mania

2009-06-24T16:36:00.007+08:00

Have you caught the Transformers bug yet?

I think I have.

The GSC website has been jammed since last night and it was just impossible to log in to buy or book tickets! So... I did the unheard-of thing:

I.went.to.queue.up.at.the.cinema. (yau moe kau chor??!)

On a weekday during lunch time, this was the crowd at the tickets counter... even with 5 out of 6 counters selling Transformers' tickets...

It took almost 25 minutes before I got my 4 tickets for this Saturday's noon screening.

The Autobots better put up a good show for me, man!
Can't wait to see my favourite Bumblebee in action.

Softaman your hands!

2009-06-22T10:08:00.003+08:00

The A(H1N1) virus spread here is getting worrisome, don't you all agree? One school in the Klang Valley has been closed as the flu has now reached the "local transmission" mode and so far, 5 school kids have been infected. Hopefully this virus can be contained soon.

One of the very important ways we can help ourselves to prevent any infection, whether it's the H1N1 or anything else, is to keep our hands clean and disinfected at all possible times!

Do try this Softa-Man - a hospital-grade hand disinfectant that's very gentle to the skin and hands - and believe me, this is one of the best germ-busting product around! I mean, if the doctors and nurses are using it, it must be darn effective, right? They come in 1L bottles (for the home) and also in handy 100ml bottles which you can carry in your handbag. I love its refreshing scent too.

It's available in all Caring pharmacies!

The many faces of Kikko

2009-06-15T14:54:00.010+08:00

Fire Fire!

2009-06-09T14:25:00.008+08:00

Being located on the topmost floor of a commercial building comes with some great advantages - fantastic view, a feeling of being "on top of the world" etc.

But in the unlucky event that there's a fire, well... it's a whole different story! I found this out in a fire drill carried out. A real simulation of the real thing!

So, there we were...busily working at our desks... when suddenly "CCCLLAANNGGGG" - the fire alarm went off and the announcement came on informing everyone to keep cool, don't panic, make your way to the nearest fire exit.

So we dutifully did that... the nearest fire exit to me is just about 20 steps away and I was among the first few people walking down the stairs....
... until we reached a few floors below and occupants from other floors joined in the long walk down to the ground level...

Ahhh... 10th Floor - just only halfway down...another 10 more floors to go...

Finally... the door that says "Emergency Final Exit"...
...and we exited the building...

Bomba was there... an ambulance was also on standby - in case someone pengsan...
Everyone was sweating in the heat...and so glad when it's over after half an hour and we can all go back to the comfort of our air-conditioned offices! Pheewww!

The Audi Q5

2009-06-05T16:14:00.008+08:00

Audi's Q5 has been launched here a couple of months ago and it's causing quite a stir among SUV fans. Termed as a "compact crossover SUV" after the full-size Q7, the Q5 packs a lot of power in its 2L turbo-charged engine.
As a SUV fan myself, I just could not resist the opportunity to take this black beauty for a spin one fine Saturday morning.

With its very canggih keyless ignition, the powerful tiptronic automatic transmission engine roared to life like a dream. It's super responsive and just the mere touch of your foot on the accelerator had the SUV surging forward effortlessly.

Mated with Audi's Quattro permanent 4-wheel drive system, the Q5 is a dream vehicle on regular roads as well as for off-road excursions.

It's mean-looking sexy lines with Audi's signature "wide mouth" front grille makes the Q5 a force to be reckoned with on the roads.

Having test-driven the A4 last year, driving the Q5 feels a lot like driving the A4 (just that the Q5 is taller, haha!). This is not surprising as Audi built the Q5 based on the same unibody platform architecture as the A4 in Ingolstadt, Germany.
The interior's luxurious and roomy with top quality vinyl, leather and wood, just like th A4. The control layout is also identical.

It seems there is quite a long queue for this baby. If you order the basic model, which costs RM299K, you can expect delivery sometime in October this year. You can also customise your order with a host of Audi's extra options (like a Bang & Olufsen stereo system) and for that, you need to wait at least 6 months!

I love its sporty driving experience, the sexy LED headlights and the modern luxurious versatile interior. Only 1 small complaint from me: the wing mirrors are too huge and placed in an awkward position which blocks my view whenever I need to check the side views.

Other than this, nothing beats driving a menacing SUV which renders you taller than all the sedans on the road, haha!

Kikko's Haircut

2009-05-28T09:39:00.014+08:00

You won't believe how fast Kikko's hair grows! When I brought her home a few weeks ago, I had snipped her facial hair and before long, they have grown so much to almost poking into her eyes.

See how "comot" she looked? And the hair at her lips were so long that they looked very messy each time she has taken her meal...Kikko must be the most bitey/nippy little dog on planet Earth! She loves biting/nipping at our arms, fingers, toes, legs, clothes - anything BUT the toys we got her! She has really sharp little teeth that can pack some screams of pain from you. Don't believe? Just look at her little razors here...

Anyway, I had a hard time getting Kikko to keep still for me to trim her hair. She's very frisky and just loves to play bite with my hands!

These are the tools of the trade... scissors and comb...

Finally... I had this great idea of dumping her into my bath sink and VOILA!! That did the trick! She kept absolutely STILL for me to do a really good "haircut" on her face! The sink must be so alien to her that she dared not move an inch!

And this is the end result!

See how langlui she is now? And she was mighty pleased with it too...hehe!

Not bad eh... anyone wanna have their hair cut??

Shanghai - Day 5

2009-05-26T15:31:00.017+08:00

Continuing with my Shanghai trip report... Day 5 was our 2nd last day there.

We were lucky that a couple of my Shanghai colleagues were able to take time off on that day to be our "tour guides". Besides hosting us for lunch and dinner that day - read more about the Food Reviews here - they also took turns to take us around the city.

One of my favourite parts of this buzzing cosmopolitan city is the French Quarters area... where the East meets West, where the quaint European architecture is still very much evident in the buildings there.

You can be forgiven if, at first glance, you think this is somewhere in France... hehe!
Spring's in the air - tree branches with budding leaves framing the roads and sidewalks... such a pretty sight!
We took a walk through the People's Square where the pigeons were more friendly than the people!

This is the unique circular roof of the Shanghai Museum - we didn't have time to actually visit the museum.
The popular Pedestrians Mall in Nanjing Road - thousands of signboards here and never-ending shopping! It will take you forever to visit every shop here!
There were many of these posters everywhere announcing the Expo 2010 which Shanghai will be hosting. The designs of the many pavilions from different countries participating in this Expo are just mind-boggling! Just look at some of them here...

Buildings and more buildings in this city which never seems to sleep...
Jackie Chan also had to take a breather here!

They say that Shanghai in the Daytime is like a black & white tv - see, like this photo below...but at night, it transforms into a Colour TV!
These are photos of The Bund...
... which we only managed to visit on the final night we were in Shanghai. The night was beautifully chilly, hehe! We thoroughly enjoyed hanging out at The Bund after dinner that night and just took in the breath-taking scenes, the cool cool night air and just basking in the history & significance of this river-front area...
The majestic Pearl Tower shone and twinkled like a fairy tower...
... the lights change colours every few seconds...
Don't ever miss The Bund at night in Shanghai!

Don't want to wake up!!!

2009-05-20T11:13:00.003+08:00

Have you ever been woken up rudely & loudly by your alarm clock early in the morning and as you stumbled out from your nice sweet sleep, you wished that you could still snuggle up in bed the whole day like this.... !!

This happens to me almost every morning ... yawnnn!

My Orange Nikes

2009-05-18T14:56:00.004+08:00

I got this pair of ORANGE Nike Zoom several weeks ago and have yet to wear them! (Thank you, DL!)
I first spotted this pair of bright orange shoes in Shanghai but they didn't have my size. At that time I was sure they didn't have the orange in Malaysia - they had the purple ones though.

Then... a week or so after I came back, the orange ones were available here!

So this evening I'm going to hoi-cheong and wear them for the 1st time in the BodyPump class!
Aha-aha-aha...don't you think they're so cool? :-))

Kikko's 1st weekend at home

2009-05-18T09:03:00.010+08:00

Kikko: I'm certainly getting very comfortable in my new home...

Is this a real dog or is it a toy that runs on batteries?

This is as close as it can get as far as father-and-daughter "bonding" is concerned! Koji is very indifferent to his little gal and avoids her whenever Kikko tries to get closer to him...

Oh by the way, the frayed edges of that rug is the handiwork of Koji!

Kikko: I love rolling on the floor...
... lying on my back on the cool white floor is a good way of relaxing...
...sometimes I'm camera-shy, too!
... even though I'm cute all the time!

Shhhh... I'm thinking... and wondering when I can get to play outside...
I love nibbling on fingers... so yummy!

Shanghai - Zhouzhuang Water Village

2009-05-14T09:42:00.024+08:00

I love Zhouzhuang.

There are many small towns and villages south of the Yangtze River which are surrounded by water and canals. Zhouzhuang, with its 900-year-old history, is one of them and probably one of the most famous ones. It's located between Shanghai and Suzhou and about an hour and a half drive from Shanghai... actually in Kushan City, Province of Jiangsu. It's widely known as "Venice of the Orient".

When you enter the village, you will be greeted by scenes like these...

Walking along the pathways of the village, I felt as if I was transported back in time - back to the olden China days like the Ming & Qing dynasties. Many of the ancient architecture are actually from those dynasties.

Criss-crossing the canals and water lanes are many stone bridges and the most famous ones are these Twin Bridges here... built more than 4 centuries ago. This is, in fact, the symbol of Zhouzhuang!

Boats or "gondolas" are used to traverse the many water lanes in the village. We had the opportunity to ride in one and glide through the canals, taking closer looks at all those ancient buildings...

Believe it or not, all the gondolas ferrying visitors through the village are rowed by women! For a small tip, they will even sing traditional folk songs for you throughout that boat ride.

This was the gondola we were in and that's the "auntie" who rowed it...

There are many shops you can browse through in the village. Most of them sell traditional handricrafts like these paintings inside glass ornaments, bottles... they actually insert the brushes into the bottles and draw on the insides!

As the village is surrounded by water, it's not surprising that pearls are one of their main offerings too...
You may be a bit baffled by this sign! What it actually meant was calligraphy done on grains of rice! Yes, these skilled artisans can actually do that on tiny grains of rice!

Clay teapots... in typical ancient chinese designs...

Beautifully-manicured gardens added on the charm and tranquility of this place...

Oh there were many stalls selling delicate embroidery too... beautiful handiwork. I bought a few pieces of these...

There were many shops like these selling some of their food specialities... guess what that is?
Hehe... it's THIS! For a more detailed review of this speciality, click HERE.

This was the Exit from the village...
Outside the ancient village, the main town looked like this...

Pretty boring huh... compared to the pretty village...
I really wouldn't mind spending another day in the water village... maybe next trip lah!

Rain please

2009-05-13T14:59:00.004+08:00

Hallelujah... it's raining!

And I mean, really raining... torrents of it with strong wind blowing... that goes "wooOOooshh...wooOOooo" and you can actually see the rain slanting in the direction of the wind!

So why am I so euphoric about the rain?

Well, you would be if you have been living in an oven the past few weeks, sweating even when having a cold shower (and that's the 5th shower for the day), cursing that the aircond doesn't seem to be working even though it's down to its lowest temperature and you get an immediate headache at the thought of being out in the hot hot humid outdoors!!! Yes, that's how it has been for the past several weeks and it doesn't help that the newspaper said this is gonna last till September - sei mou!

So just now while returning from lunch ... it's like the skies suddenly opened up and just splashed all the rain that's been stuck for weeks - wahhh... it's like at last, we have some relief from the hot weather!

I promise I won't even curse (no, not even once) at the forthcoming bad traffic jams this evening... let's have more rain, please.

Welcome Kikko!

2009-05-13T10:23:00.012+08:00

Here's the latest addition to the family - welcome, KIKKO!

Yes, we brought Kikko home last Sunday. Born on 15 March 2009, she's exactly 8 weeks old when we took her back from Z's house.

Initially she was rather quiet - she's probably missing her mother and sisters. However, by Sunday night she has perked up a bit and the next morning she was even chirpier. She wags her little tail like crazy whenever we approach her and call her name. She will jump around excitedly and stick to us, nipping our feet and following us around - we have to be careful not to step on her!

Oh, she loves trying anything new... like LL's dumb-bells here...
She's very strong, you know... she can push this around...hehe!
Size-wise, you can see she's about the same size as my shoe... and she weighs 1.2kg...
And, boy.... she has some very sharp teeth, I tell you! Small but quite lethal - you will actually scream in pain when she chomps down on you!

Don't you think she's just like a toy dog??
Oh, she loves chewing on anything... shoe-laces are one of her favourites, haha!

She really loves my Adidas... must be something nice inside there!

Ahh... and it tastes delicious too, eh!

So moe-liew

2009-05-01T22:05:00.003+08:00

So it's the Labour Day holiday - what have you been up to today?

All I did was lepak and hibernate at home... staying out of the heat. Have been a bit under the weather lately - cough and a bit of flu. Last night was bad - my chest felt so tight with phlegm and to top that, my nose was congested - all that made breathing quite a chore. Had to go and visit my favourite Dr Ding again and got some decongestant. Woke up this mornng with a dry throat and with all sense of taste gone from my tongue - aihhh!

Took my medication like a good gal and then plonked down to watch "Connected" which surprisingly kept me pretty much engrossed. That Koo Tin Lok - in all his tanned glory - managed to inject lots of kancheong-ness into the pace of the movie - so much so that I actually did not doze off despite being pumped full of drugs, haha! Took my 40 winks after the movie ended.

Anyone watching the One In A Million Grand Finals now? It's on live tv now... but somehow I never find such shows to be very exciting. Despite what Paul Moss and Shafinaz said, I find all the performances very mediocre and same like the previous years - nothing new! That's why I decided to take out my laptop and type out this moe-liew post, LOL!

I should just take my last dose of the drugs for today and hit the pillows... thanks for putting up with my moeliew-ness!

Err...moe-liew translated from cantonese means something like "irrelevant," - is that right?

First bath!

2009-04-30T16:09:00.011+08:00

Let's take a break from my Shanghai updates and show you some pics that my good friend, Z, just sent me...to show you how much the puppies have grown!

All photos here are courtesy of Z.

The puppies had their 1st bath today and they are now all fluffy and sweet smelling!

This is the Big Bully of the trio - Kikko - she was the tiniest of the lot but she has a Mak Rempit attitude (according to Z). She bullies her 2 bigger siblings like nobody's business!

This is Mysti - she has the lightest coloring so far...
And this is the sleepy one, Fizzy - she's always sleeping... until Kikko bulldozes her!

How do you sleep, in what kinda positions?

According to Z, this is how you should NOT sleep...

Do not try to cross your legs when sleeping...you may get cramps!

Do not lie flat on your back and shove your legs out the cage...and expose everything - shame shame!

Do not try to stick your belly against the sides of the cage...very unbecoming!

Do not twist your body & head in a curve - you will get neckache!

Obviously this fella never listened to above advice - see how twisted she is!!

But then you can't blame them... not when their daddy sleeps like this!

Hangzhou - an insight

2009-04-29T16:11:00.021+08:00

On the 2nd day of my Shanghai trip we decided to go to Hangzhou. After a quick breakfast at one of the more popular chinese fast-food joints, Yon Ho, we headed to Hangzhou which was about 2 hours' drive away from Shanghai. For more details of this place and the food we ate, please click here.

The main attraction in Hangzhou is of course, the West Lake. It's a huge lake, very tranquil and scenic. You see lots of willow trees growing by the lakeside, their long branches swaying gracefully in the wind, the leaves flirting gently with the ripples on the water...

You can take a short cruise up and down the lake on these wooden chinese junks...

The boats will make various stops - you can get off, walk around the gardens and then hop onto the boats in the next stop...
Such beautiful lakeside scenes made me imagine how the ancient chinese folks, dressed in their long robes, with flowing hair and holding fans in their hands, would stroll along these gardens, speaking in lyrical prose and poems... just like in the movies or tv shows!

However, in reality, instead of those poets of ancient times, what you see at the West Lake were actually hordes of tourists! And a majority of them are local tourists - chinese people visiting from the many provinces! You can spot them immediately by their LOUD voices and their NON-STOP yakking. Serious. They talk like they're quarelling... they just cannot converse in normal tones.
I really love the beautiful lush greenery around the lake. Just look at how pretty these trees are... some are sooo green... and then in the midst of them, you see a few special trees with red leaves...
Along the winding walking pathways, small stalls were set up to sell a variety of souvenir items, like these pretty lacy umbrellas... not for practical use, just for collecting dust somewhere in your shelves or cupboards...
These would be the more practical real umbrellas...and they're pretty pricey.
More souvenirs...

It started to rain while we were walking halfway through the Lake and we had to buy some cheap umbrellas at RM5 each. The enterprising vendors were practically shoving umbrellas into our faces!

This guy here came all prepared to do some fishing at the lake, rain or no rain...

It's springtime - the bare branches of the trees were just starting to sprout leaves while some are still bare... I love these pics of the spidery branches framed against the stark greyness of the sky...

From the West Lake, we went on to the Tea Plantations nearby. Hangzhou is famous for its Long Jeng green tea - very fragrant! These trays of fresh tea leaves were just only picked that day...
The tea leaves are dried manually - practically "hand-fried" to retain its aroma better. Most of the tea plantations there are family-owned and they live there too...
A typical tea factory-cum-house there...
When in Hangzhou, do not miss their Pedestrian Mall... a long street with lots of shops - for shopping as well as eating...
Luckily the rain had stopped by the time we were browsing through this area...

We tried a few snacks and stall food at the Food Street (more pictures in Pureglutton). There were lots of food stalls on both sides of the street with tables & chairs in the centre for you to sit and enjoy your food. They even provide a small bin on the table for you to throw your rubbish/unwanted food.

Now I just want to highlight this incident.

While we were sitting at a table eating, my friend CH, who had bought 3 flat buns (RMB5 for 3 pieces) took 2 bites from 1 of the buns, declared it was not tasty and she threw it away into the bin on the table. Barely seconds later, a guy walked past, took that discarded bun and just ate it! We were rather shocked to see that and thought maybe that was just one weird guy. He didn't look like a beggar - he was quite decently dressed, in fact. So after a while, we stood up to leave and there was a bowl of unfinished duckblood + vegetables soup (a delicacy there) and some other leftover fried fritters and IMMEDIATELY a group of people just crowded round our table to grab the unfinished food! As we walked away, we noticed that there were also similar groups of people picking up & eating leftover food at other tables - they even shook the plastic cups to check if there was any unfinished drinks inside. These people were not shabbily dressed - I think it's just that they don't have enough to eat or cannot afford to buy food for themselves.

Now that was quite an insight for us. It made us realise that there's so much wasted food here in our country whereas over there, not a morsel of food go wasted.

Interesting bronze figures depicting the traditional life in Hangzhou...
Stay tuned for more updates later! :-))

Back from Shanghai

2009-04-23T15:36:00.032+08:00

Ahhh... how fast time flies! I have been back from Shanghai almost a week now. I had a wonderful time there. The weather was perfect - it's spring there now with temperatures ranging from 12-20 deg.C; the food was fantastic and of course the company of friends there was most memorable and enjoyable!

My MH flight took off on time from KLIA at 1.40am and arrived right on time in Pudong Airport in Shanghai at 7.00am. Immigration took a good 30-40 minutes due to the long queues but I must say their Immigration officials were pretty efficient and the line moved pretty fast. They greet you with the customary "ni hou" and even attempted to smile at me after clearing my entry!

My dear friend CH had arranged for a driver to pick us up at the airport and we quickly identified him by the piece of paper (written with our names) he was holding up. It was a good 45-minute drive from the airport to CH's lovely condo in the city. Our deepest appreciation to dear CH for being the perfect host - letting us stay in her beautiful condo, taking us around and also belanja'ing us lots of good food! Many thanks too to my colleagues in Shanghai for being wonderful "tour guides" on our 2nd last day in Shanghai.

This was the entrance to her condo...

This is the full view of her condo block... pretty imposing, huh?!

Upon entering the condo, this is the very comfortable Living room......with the Dining area at the other end...
and this is the f.a.n.t.a.s.t.i.c. view from her living room...

Yes, that's the Shanghai skyline along the famous Bund...

After freshening up, we proceeded immediately to the Yu Gardens...

...where they have the famous Nanxiang Xiao Loong Pau. There were long queues on the ground floor of the restaurant. For a complete write-up on the Xiao Loong Pau and our makan-makan escapades, please click here at my Food Blog - Pureglutton...

The pedestrian mall in the vicinity of the Yu Gardens was crowded with people...There were lots to see and buy... like these souvenir chopsticks...
... colourful vanity mirrors...
...chinese teapots in all shapes and sizes and colors...
...hand-sewn beaded slippers...

Ahhh... I loved these chinese masks - we bought 3 of these...
...more chinese decorative frames...
The entrance to the gardens...

Beware of bicycles coming from every direction!
My friend CH decided to do an "orientation" trip to the city with us... first stop was the famous Nanjing Road...with its pedestrian mall...
Lots of cute stuff to see along the pavements... like these mini bicycles...
If you're tired, you can always hop on these choo-choo trains - not sure if you have to pay or is it free?...
I couldn't resist snapping these pics in the NBA Shop we stopped by... for LL to drool over the shoes...
For jerseys, he doesn't need to drool because we bought him 2 of these...
In the evening, before dinner, we stopped by this tea shop called Ten Ru and we got quite an educational session from the shop assistants! We ended up buying several tins of jasmine and green tea from here.
When we stepped out from the tea shop, the lights had already come on and the streets were so prettily lit up!
CH took us to this quaint little restaurant downtown for our 1st dinner in Shanghai. Please check out Pureglutton for our food experience there. Many thanks to a new friend in Shanghai, TC, who insisted on paying for the lovely dinner there :-))
And that, was my 1st day in Shanghai!

Stay tuned for more updates :-))

Off to Shanghai!

2009-04-11T13:17:00.002+08:00

I'm flying off to Shanghai tonight for my long-awaited break! Yayyy! Can't wait to get out of this hot & humid weather here and head for cool cool Shanghai! Gonna be doing lots of shopping, eating and doing the touristy stuff, hehe!
Will be back next weekend... you all be good... tata!

MORE cuteness...

2009-04-08T08:42:00.014+08:00

Everytime I look at pics of the puppies, it never fails to bring smiles... just look at them - I'm sure you'll smile too!

They love hanging their heads over the edge ... sleeping dangerously, wouldn't you say?

*I can't keep my eyes open... help!*

*Let's do some wrestling before we sleep!*

*Ahhh... nice soft pillow for my chin...*

All 3 of them fitting nicely on the "bed"!
Just don't turn... she may just end up on the floor!

The mother, Venus, is always watchful over her babies...

*Mmm... you sleep on me, I sleep on her lah...*

*See my big round adorable eyes... *

*I like to sleep with my paws all spread out, cannot meh?...**...and when I grow up, I wanna sleep like my daddy - so yau-yeng, hoh!*

They have GROWN!

2009-04-06T11:08:00.014+08:00

Let's start the week with some CUTENESS!

See how Koji's daugthers have grown!! I didn't see them for a weekend and last Saturday when I went to visit them, they have grown lots!

Their eyes have opened now...

But most of the time they are sleepy...hehe!
This is the smallest baby of the 3...

Aawww... dontcha think she's the most ADORABLE little thing??!!
3 bundles of furry hairy cuteness...
They all have similar markings on their foreheads...
Don't you feel like pinching, squeezing them?? Sooo geram!

Look at how she spread out all her little paws...
They are a lazy sleepy lot, aren't they??
Sleepy dopey ... *go away! don't disturb! i wanna sleep!*
See how comfortable they are... back-to-back...

Mmmm... my finger was the perfect pacifier for this little baby...

Do you keep people waiting?

2009-04-01T09:28:00.002+08:00

The family across the road moved in a few months ago.

They have a delightful way of reminding the neighbours of their presence every morning at 6.20am.

That’s the time the school van comes to pick up the daughter to school. Every single blardy day the van is made to wait at least 5 minutes for the girl to come out from the house. Yes, without fail - every single day. And of course the van driver will honk a few times during the time he’s made to wait. Come on lah… if you are late occasionally, that’s acceptable… but every day?? Every morning the van, (plus several other kids inside), is made waiting and honking for her royal highness.

Oh… and that morning when I was sending off my friend Xara, waiting for the cab to take her to the airport, the school van came as usual, waited for almost 10 minutes and there was NO sign of the royal highness coming out - there was no light in the house and the front door was closed tight (I thought maybe everyone inside was in coma). Anyway, after 10 minutes, the van left. So I thought “Wahh, the van driver finally has some ~~balls~~ guts and did the right thing - don’t f*@# care about the inconsiderate girl and left without the passenger!”

Guess what? 5 minutes later the van came back! Yeah, the driver must have gone off to pick up some other kid and came back again!! And this time round, he still had to honk and waited another 5 minutes before the inconsiderate kid finally came out & boarded the van.

Times must be really bad that the van driver has to put up with this nonsense every day. If I were him, I would have told the asshole parents of the kid to go fly kite.

I don’t know about you but when I was fortunate enough to have a school van take me to school (only during primary school - once in secondary school, I had to cycle!), I was always the one waiting for the van, not vice-versa. I was always taught to be punctual, if not early, and that it’s almost a crime to keep somebody waiting… and it would be the ultimate sin (can burn in hell, you know!) if you keep the same person/s waiting every day!!!

I really don’t know what some parents teach their kids these days…sigh.

Koji in the car...

2009-03-30T11:39:00.006+08:00

Be very careful when you open your car door when KOJI is around.

Before you can say "jumping jimini", he's hopped into the car! Took the driver's seat, too...

Then he looks at you like "why don't you start the car NOW??"
He likes to think that he can drive the car ... see how comfortably he's seated on the driver's seat!And then when you coax him to come out of the car, he snuggles himself down at the pedals...

No matter how you pujuk, he won't budge!

See... he's even preparing to lie back and snooze there!

Best Food Junction featured my food review!

2009-03-26T16:14:00.005+08:00

Have you seen this rather new Food magazine on the racks? It's called "Best Food Junction" - it may not be the latest but it's certainly one of the latest, I think.

Well... guess what? They featured one of my food reviews from my food blog "Pureglutton"!

This particular review on "Dave's Pizza" was done sometime in mid-January. They did write to me seeking permission to print this in their magazine.

Yeahh...and to answer your next question - did I get paid for this?

Hehe...yes I got paid with 10 free copies of their March 2009 issue where my blog post appeared! I have not even gone to pick up the 10 copies from them yet...

It's a pretty cool magazine featuring food reviews by bloggers, restaurants review, travel talk and some special features. Do pick up a copy if you happen to see this at the news-stand!
Price: RM2.99 only.

Are you handicapped?

2009-03-26T10:31:00.003+08:00

I work in a very charitable, kind and tolerant organization.

We view corporate social responsibility in a responsible manner. We employ 2 staff who are physically-handicapped and these people perform in their own work requirements without much problem, despite their physical limitations.

However… we also have some people who have no physical disabilities but they are just MENTALLY-deficient. Their work attitude is warped, they abuse their so-called power, they shirk in their responsibilities and are generally hypocrites. (I continue to puke and puke whenever these people stand out and talk about “leadership”, “teamwork”, “responsibility”, “integrity”…!!) They have mouths and fingers to berate and point at others… while they themselves blatantly break those very rules. Yes, blatantly, openly! They treat their subordinates like their own personal maids and butlers, run their personal errands for them at the expense of company time and resources. Yes, their personal errands are priorities above official work.

(Examples of personal errands: get the office cleaner to peel your personal apples for you, make coffee/tea for you, wash your used cups/plates for you, get the despatch guy to send your shoes to the cobbler, buy your lunch from your fave stall even if it’s on the other side of town, pay your utility bills, do your banking, carry your shopping/gym bags to the car… OMG, I can go on and on!)

These are the mentally handicapped people that we suffer here and we continue to be charitable to them.

Anyone wanna apply for a job here?

*OK... end of rant*

Am I addicted to blogging?

2009-03-24T14:39:00.003+08:00

65%

I took this fun test from Reanaclaire just to see what kinda addiction level I am at.

Well, turns out that I'm not as seriously afflicted as Claire la, haha! 65% is just slightly above border-line, I would say... so I'm still pretty sane!

I started out blogging as a fun thing and it still is a fun thing to me now. Along the way I have done some "paid posts" but those are few and far between and the earnings are really a pittance compared to the professional bloggers. You would probably laugh your head off if you know how much I have earned so far from these "paid posts"... LOL!

Anyway, earning money is not my objective or reason for blogging. To me, this is a fun way of writing my online journal, capturing certain significant thoughts, events... whatever, that happen in my life... along with the many crazy rantings, haha! They are purely for my own personal recording/reading & reminiscing later on ... and if along the way, they are shared by the many kind people visiting my blog - hey then, that's a bonus and I welcome every one of your visits and comments :-))

They have grown!

2009-03-24T14:06:00.005+08:00

I couldn't believe how much the puppies have grown in 1 week! Woww... all that feeding and sleeping and feeding and sleeping really works...hehe! They have grown lots!

In exactly 7 days, the puppies have put on so much weight and grown so much bigger. When they were born, I could hold one in one hand. Now you need 2 hands to hold one pup!

See how cute they look even when sleeping?!

The black markings on their bodies have now lightened somewhat... it's now dark brown.
As they grow older, the colours will continue to lighten...

All 3 of them have almost-similar markings on their faces - ie dark area around the eyes, like wearing eye-band/sunglasses over their eyes! Just like their daddy's markings!

Xara's Knits - Completed!

2009-03-24T12:12:00.007+08:00

I have not been blogging as much these couple of weeks because... well, because I have been busy rushing up some knitting projects. 3 garments actually - all for my good friend, Xara. And the rush was because she was back the last 3 weeks and I had to make sure the garments are completed before she returns to the US! Well, she just flew off this morning... and yes! I did complete all 3 garments for her!

Needless to say, she was absolutely delighted with all of them and it took little to persuade her to pose in them. So here goes...

This is the Cardigan... it really gives a very preppy look when worn with a shirt underneath...

From the back, you can see the design clearly... it's knitted on double strand of pure wool - one purple strand mixed with 1 maroon strand...so the effect is really quite striking!

This is the Vest... yes, it's in purple too! The design gives a very streamlined and slimming effect to the silhouette and Xara loves it for that very reason, lol! It's also knitted on double strand wool - 1 light purple and 1 dark purple... the mixed colors turn out a bit more discreet and subtle, as compared to the cardigan but it certainly added a unique depth to the 2-toned purple vest!

And this is Xara's favourite - the Multi-Colored Top! It's a mixture of lilac, pink and white - a very sweet combination!

The zig-zag pattern also gives a very slimming effect and looks good worn with either pants or skirts! Like Xara said - perfect for summer! The yarn is a combination of cotton & synthetics so it's lighter and more "cooling"!

All 3 garments are personally hand-carried by Xara in her cabin bag - she wouldn't even put them in her checked-in luggage - all very precious indeed! I thoroughly enjoyed knitting all these projects - it gives me such satisfaction when they are completed, fit the wearer perfectly and make the wearer so happy, haha!

The babies are here!

2009-03-16T10:46:00.010+08:00

Ladies & ~~genitalmen~~ gentlemen, announcing the arrival of 3 beautiful offsprings of Venus and Koji... *drum roll, cymbals chang-chang-chang!*

These 3 cuties were born yesterday morning... all females...

So far, their coloring seem to be more on their father's side...
All of them have this white "crown" on the top of their heads, just like their daddy!
This is the proud mommy - Venus ...
... and she's really good in taking care of her babies...

This is the equally proud daddy - Koji ... although he aint doing much in taking care of his babies lor, haha!
Can't wait for the puppies to open their eyes and then see if they resemble the mommy or daddy!

Being Random

2009-03-13T09:28:00.003+08:00

It's a dark wet gloomy Friday morning here - perfect for snuggling up & snoozing in bed. Instead, I have to drag myself through horrible traffic and come to work. Oh well, it's a quiet day here (half the people are not around) so I thought I'd spend a few minutes writing something damn random here!

I remember I was tagged by LL some time ago and I still have not done this post (and he's always nagging me that I never do his tags!) I know this is something that only teenagers do in their blogs... but watdaheck, since it's Friday and I can't wait for the weekend, why not do something mindlessly random like this, yeah?!

OK, here are the rules... damn, write random stuff also got rules meh?? But OK, since it's Friday, I'll play along and humour everyone, ok!

Rules: It's harder than it looks! Copy to your own note, erase my answers, enter yours, and tag twenty people.(20?? are u kidding??!) Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real...nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You cannot use any word twice and you can't use your name for the boy/girl name question.

1. What is your name: Raynebow (hehe, you can use your real name if you so choose!)

2. A four Letter Word: Rant

3. A boy's Name: Ronald

4. A girl's Name: Rebecca

5. An occupation: Rubbish collector

6. A color: Red

7. Something you'll wear: Rainbow-colored underwear (seriously!)

8. A food: Rice dumplings

9. Something found in the bathroom: Rubber duck (but I didn't say it's MY bathroom, ok!)

10. A place: Russia

11. A reason for being late: Rained cats & dogs!

12. Something you'd shout: RETARDS!! REMEMBER??!! (most times I use these 2 words together, but they also work very well when used separately on separate occasions!)

13. A movie title: Rain Man (that's a Dustin Hoffman classic, man!)

14. Something you drink: Ribena

15. A musical group: Righteous Brothers, The (I googled this... they sound familiar but I'm sure they were not even my genre - are they still alive?!)

16. An animal: Rat

17. A street name: Regat Canning (it's in Ipoh and I used to pass by this road everyday cycling to school!)

18. A type of car: Rolls Royce, Renault (prefer the former - more classy mah!)

19. The title of a song: Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head!
(haha, can't blame you if you have never heard of this! I was ~~just a baby~~ not born yet when this song hit the charts, lol!)

OK, there you go.

I can't ~~be bothered~~ think of 20 people to tag because this is so randomly mindless or mindlessly random that most people will think it's not worth their time.... but if you're feeling ~~stoned~~ bored like me today, be my guest and do this lame tag, OK! (yes, LL it IS lame, lol!)

Oh, yes...thank you all for taking time to humour me by reading this, hehe!

SPM Surprise

2009-03-12T14:55:00.003+08:00

The SPM results are out today!

Actually I had no idea about that until LL "reminded" me a couple of days ago. Wow...so fast!! I thought it's just like he sat for his SPM not too long ago - but oh my... it's already 3 months ago!

Anyway, we are so cool about it. About getting the results, I mean. I went to work as usual. And LL had to attend college in the morning - he said something like going to get the results later, after his practical test in college this morning. And then when I was at the office, I totally did not think about SPM or anything related to SPM.

It was close to lunchtime when LL called. I could hear lots of screaming & loud voices in the background and could hardly hear him until he yelled "5A's!" What?? 5A's?? Wahhh... LL scored 5A's wor. I had to ask him to repeat before it finally sank in me. Well, not bad eh! All those chauffering to his tuition and getting those home tutors for him at exorbitant rates - at least, those investments didn't go to waste! He scored A's in all those subjects that he took tuition for - Maths, Add Maths & Physics. What does that say? That means tuition is very the important, you just cannot harap the school teachers alone lah!

Well done, LL!
So will you consider doing an Engineering degree now, hehe?!

Xara's Cardie - Completed!

2009-02-28T21:57:00.003+08:00

Ok... the Xara Cardie is finally 100% completed! Here it is... I placed a white shirt underneath it to show up the cardie's design... nice or not?
It's knitted with double-strand pure wool... so it is super warm - perfect for the chilly cold SF winter!

My 300th Post

2009-02-19T09:56:00.008+08:00

Hey, this is my 300th Post!

Yesss.... I have done 300 posts since I started this blog back in July 2005. Hmmm... that's not really much after all, huhh?
But what a nice coincidence that this post is about being a "Best Mom Award" which was tagged and given to me by Reanaclaire.

Thanks a lot, Claire... although I don't think I deserve this award much. I'm still a "learning Mom"... far from being the best.

But anyway, since I have been tagged, I will accept it with grace :-))

And according to the rules, I have to post a pic(s) and blog about being a mom...

Now you may have seen recent shots of LL... he's such a "big boy" now... can drive me around and all... so I thought it'd be nice to show you all some pics when he was a little bit smaller...hehe! Just a little bit lah... these were taken just a couple of years ago...

...when he was less inhibited and was willing to do some canggih poses...! Now if you ask him to pose like this, die-die also he won't do it, I tell you!

LL and I - we do have our arguments, or he pisses me off with his stubborn-ness (like how he can play PS3 & chat online for hours and not do anything else!) & procrastination (like how many times DO I have to tell him to tidy his room??!!).

But at the end of the day, we always end up back in the warm lovey-dovey zone... like how we do a lot of stuff together - watch movies (he always likes the Signature @ The Gardens), lepak/shopping (fave haunts: PS3 games shops), go gym (let's do BodyPump soon), look for good food (not that Maggi Goreng again!) , scuba-diving (long time didn't go already hoh!)

...and lately, experiment in the kitchen ( ok-lah, your choc cake is getting better, hehe!)...

All these are precious stuff that we do and as he grows up, I only hope that we will continue to do these things together-gether...

Even though he's now almost a head taller than me (and ~~bigger~~ more well-built), he still does this to me... like wrestle me to death...lol!
That's a WWW wrestling tactic he's been pulling on me ever since he's a kid! (he still IS a kid to me, OK!)

Now, I'd like to pass this special award to Gargies & Goolymamma - yes, I know Claire has tagged them too and they better accept & post about this! And also to all the other moms who read this - you know who you are - feel free to receive this award and blog about it :-))

Xara's Colorful Top

2009-02-17T15:54:00.002+08:00

This is Xara's Colorful Top. It's knitted from the same yarn, pattern and 4.5mm needles as my Rainbow Top... just different colors.

As you can see, this is the Pink/Lilac/White scheme which Xara favours...

This is the Back Panel that I have knitted... done up to the armhole level whereby I will need to reduce stitches inwards.

With the Front Panel and 2 Short Sleeves to go, I hope I can complete this by 1st week of March when Xara's back!

My personal chauffeur

2009-02-17T12:23:00.003+08:00

Ever since LL got his "P" licence, he's been driving me around whenever there's an opportunity to do so, except when he's really sleepy (usually in the early mornings).

So how's his driving?

Well, there are occasions when he drives like he doesn't know how to slow down when the car in front brakes (and I actually automatically push my own feet in front like trying to brake for him!), drives too fast on the right lane (he's only allowed to drive up to the middle lane) & I have to constantly remind him to slow down, still does not know how to reverse-park (because JPJ does not test on this, so the driving instructor also did not teach)...

...I guess on the whole, it's good to have a chauffeur around and I can kinda get some shut-eye in the mornings going to work (sometimes)...

Xara's Cardigan

2009-02-10T11:38:00.003+08:00

This is an update for Xara - her purple cardigan is almost completed! Yes, this is the bodice, both front and back pieces joined...

... and these are the sleeves. I was working on joining the front/back pieces yesterday.... and all that's needed to complete the whole project is to attach the 2 sleeves and that's it!

So... this will definitely be waiting for Xara when she comes back next month. After this, I have to try and finish the other pink/mauve cotton top... and after that, the purple vest...!

Something Purple

2009-02-10T11:33:00.002+08:00

This is my latest mobile toy...

Yes... it's the Nokia 6220 Classic! In a beautiful plum colour... purple, if you like :-))

Of late my Nokia E-65 was kinda temperamental, so this purple beauty is my CNY present! (thank you, DL!)

Gong Xi Gong Xi!

2009-02-09T21:09:00.011+08:00

Today is Chap Goh Meh - the last day of the Chinese New Year - have you gone to throw your oranges into the sea yet?

I have been pretty busy the days leading up to the CNY as well as during it... that's why my last post was way back in mid January!

So, how was your CNY? Lots of feasting, merry-making, visiting... just pure indulging eh?

I'd like to share some scenes from my CNY...

"Nien koe" - the must-have kuih bakul... these were snapped in the SS2 market just before CNY.

Pretty wu-loe gourds tied with red ribbons, for good luck ...
Another must-have for CNY... plump ripe golden limes... signifies wealth & prosperity...

Loe sang loe sang! Yee Sang for prosperity & good luck!

The lion that came to my office and blessed my workstation...
See some similarities here with my little lion-dog?...
Koji in his CNY splendour... a bright red chinese tunic, hehe!
The Golden Ox at the entrance of Pavillion - perhaps the most photographed ox around town... after all, it's Happy Niu Year!

The Dolphin in Mandurah

2009-01-16T11:38:00.002+08:00

In my previous post on Perth -Part 6, I didn't mention the dolphin we spotted while on the boat cruise because I didn't have a good shot of that fella, except for this pic below:

Since Precious Pea asked me about it, I thought I'd just put this up. You can hardly see the dolphin's shape and fin jutting out of the water in the pic. It was so difficult to get a nice clear shot because the boat was quite a distance away and hey... the dolphin wasn't prepared to stay still & pose & smile! It was first spotted swimming against the river bank where the mansions were.

Imagine - if you live in one of those houses and you stroll down your backyard to find dolphins peeking at you from the water... OMG!

Anyway, this dolphin was swimming & frolicking away - dipped & surfaced a few times and after that, it disappeared! I guess it just got bored and decided to look for a more interesting spot...

Perth - Part 6

2009-01-15T11:15:00.037+08:00

Mandurah is a scenic port town south of Perth. From Scarborough, it's about 1 hour's drive. It was a bright Sunday morning that we set out and the drive down south was very pleasant. The road/highway was not very wide but we passed by scenic spots along the way... road signages were very clear and before we knew it, we reached pretty Mandurah.

We parked our car by the road along the river and right across the carpark, there were shops like these...

The streets are pretty narrow... with small roundabouts like this...

This was such a greeeennn building!
Another green building... an Irish Pub...

Ahh... we came across this Malaysian restaurant called "Penang House"... but we didn't go in. Who wanna eat Malaysian food (which probably would be very un-Malaysian tasting & cost a bomb!) in Perth, right?
As we walked along the riverside, we saw all these tents set up, with a very carnival look about the whole place...
It turned out to be some kinda Sunday market - something like our pasar pagi here, but their tents were more canggih than our kinda stalls, haha!

There were all kinds of stuff on sale... honey here ...... and casual clothings, footwear...
Sausages being fried on the spot...
Fancy some colorful mushrooms/toadstools for your garden?
... and home-stitched patchwork & needlework stuff...
...so colorful!
These weird-looking wooden staff are Didjeridu - an Australian aboriginal instrument...
It was such a perfect day - sunny, bright and windy... lots of people were just lazing on the river banks with the birds ...
...and BBQ picnics...

and this big fella also decided to join in the party - a pelican?!
After browsing through the tents/stalls with nothing to buy, we headed to the boardwalk where all the ferries and boats were moored. We had lunch at Cicerello's - a review of this place is in Pureglutton.

After lunch, we wanted to go on a riverboat cruise because that is the "in" thing to do in Mandurah, hehe!

Yeah, a 1 hour express cruise to explore the sheer beauty of Mandurah's waterways. It is the best way to cruise through the Ocean Marina and gawk at the magnificent houses and mansions that line Port Mandurah Canals. The cruise cost AUD25 per person.

Beautiful boats and yachts docking at the port...
As the cruise boat entered the canals, we couldn't help gawking ... ooh'ing & ahh'ing at all the amazing houses & mansions built along the banks...

...almost every house had a boat parked in front... just like we park our Protons in front of our houses lah...
It was quite strange to note that most of the houses there were people-less - we didn't see any of their occupants around...

These houses cost millions each... their prices have escalated only in the last few years...
Those people who bought these waterfront houses 10 years ago paid only a fraction of the current price...
... years ago, nobody wanted to buy property around here...
but now, they are very much in demand!
It seems Mandurah is one of the fastest growing towns in Perth, in terms of population. It means there are lots of people shifting/relocating to this port town now...
More houses for you to gawk, hehe!

Let's Make fall in Love!

2009-01-12T09:37:00.014+08:00

Ohhh... what a busy weekend I had! Not for Chinese New Year preparations or anything of that sort, but rather, was busy with Koji's girlfriend's visit, hehe!

This was an "arranged meeting" (siong-thaei" in cantonese, haha!)... but it turned out to be "Love at First Sight" for the cuties!

Meet Venus - my friend Z's adorable doggie...she became Koji's girlfriend just yesterday!

The first hello as Venus arrived - sniffing each other up at the front door...

Ahhh...they like the sight & smell of each other, so welcome in! Sila masuk!
At first, they were so shy-shy... sitting miles apart...Then Koji, being the gentleman, decided to take the 1st step and moved closer...

Venus reciprocated...giving Koji some encouragement...
The chemistry started to work... both of them looked adoringly at each other, hehe...Look at that big smile on Koji's face - he definitely got the right signals from Venus!

And things started to get more intimate - how about a kiss first?

And it got hotter and hotter...

My my...they certainly were frisky! The game of love has started and it got more intense...

Hmm... there were more explicit pictures of them "doing it" but I think those should be kept private, hehe! Have to maintain some dignity, right?

Love is hard work, you know! Poor Koji was panting so hard and if you look at the pic below, you can see the result of his panting - drops of drool on the floor, omg!

But it was a happy happy affair, hehe! Just look at the huge grin on Koji's face - basking in the afterglow, wahahaha!

Sleepy sleepy

2009-01-09T08:18:00.007+08:00

The weather here in the past couple of weeks has been quite pleasant - rainy and not so hot & humid. Nice weather to snooze, actually... especially on a rainy day.

But then, every morning when I wake up, regardless of how hot or cooling the weather is, this is what greets me...

My little rascal Koji sleeps like there is no tomorrow...
He was only woken up by the flash & click of my camera...

Then he moved to another more comfy spot on the bed...

Smart little bugger ... he found the perfect spot to lay his head... and before you can say "wake up sleepyhead!"...... he promptly snuggled in and went back to sleep!
See how shiokk-ly he's sleeping there! Aiyoyo... he's really such a spoiled brat lah!
I had to practically drag him off the bed, hehe!

No lahh... actually he jumped out of bed very quickly the moment he heard me calling him "come, let's go!!!" The magic words are "let's go" - he never fails to respond to these 2 words - I think it's because he loves going out for walks and we always tell him "come Koji, let's go" whenever we take him out.