Once-in-a-thousand years

09-09-09

Ya, it's that kind of a date. Remember last year - 08-08-08 - had illicit quite a bit of excitement and buzz esp. among the Chinese? (coz 8 in Chinese sounds like a very auspicious no.)

This year when it comes to the turn of the 09, it also signifies something very special. Because in Mandarin - 9 is pronounced as jiu, and that's the sound-alike of another word meaning `lasting'. Thus, we can imagine the nos of Chinese couples tying the knot today - ie their marriage is `chang chang jiu jiu' (long and lasting)

Actually I was only reminded of this `special' day when I interviewed the people from the KL&Selangor Assembly Hall for a story I'm writing. I was told that they're organising a mass wedding on this date! Originally they aimed to get 99 couples (again, playing the auspicious no.) but due to overwhelming response, they now have close to 110 couples or so! And mind you, this is just ONE of many venues / organiser that's conducting such mass wedding in the Klang Valley or nation wide!

I'm not a stickler for nos and the sound-alike. I am perfectly at peace and happy to stay in hotel room that's no. 444 (4 sounds alike to death in Cantonese). But since I'm just running out of things to blog about besides telling people of what I do, buy, work etc.. (how boring!) Might as well just commemmorate this day since after all, it does ONLY happen ONCE in a life-time. ie. The next 09-09-09 would be in the year 3009!!

So may we all have a happy `lasting day' today.. ;)

I Heart my new SoHo!! (but no Internet yet..)

This post was written last night in my new SoHo - without Internet

I'm beginning a new lifestyle with my own new SoHo! :)

Yes, thanks to dad’s support and initiative, we’ve converted Ah Nei’s last room downstairs (she passed on in February) We have emptied the room and had and bought a set of desk and chairs – very economical too..

This morning the desk set arrived. And then I did something impulsive and drastic – I disconnected my own wireless Internet as I suddenly had the impulse to shift my whole desktop from my room to the new home-office ie. SoHo. I forgot I needed extra wiring which was done at my room desk.. but it’s too late, I have moved everything. So now, I have been Internet-less for the last seven hours.

I love this new study room.. It’s cosy and private – and the desk is HUGE and with extra storage place for just work-related stuff. And of course all computer-linked gadgets come down too, as well as some ornamental decorations.. looks pretty homey already! (Will upload a pix soon when Internet is up!) But it’s not completed as we intend to paint the wall.. And of course I need to call up Streamyx to install the wiring. Hopefully they can do it ASAP like tomorrow itself else I need to borrow’s Starbucks wireless to complete my work.

It’s amazing how addicted and dependent I’ve become to the Internet.

I just found out something..I won’t be able to be connected in my room anymore as the modem/router can only serve a certain area/distance. We have thick walls and my room is upstairs. I’ve tried before the other way round and there was no signal. Oh well, that means I have to make do with no Internet connection in my bedroom. Which will actually serve me better…

Right now (11:45pm Tues) I gave up doing my work – as I needed more inspiration and more importantly info which I have yet to obtain. And I’m dead tired as I hardly slept last night no thanks to the mossies and also many things in my mind. I am listening to music through ITune – and just chilling out..

I love being alone here at this time.. and I want to go back to bed not distracted with the Internet!

p.s. can't update travel post coz too busy and also no Internet.. later..

Just an update of loose thoughts..

It's weird how you always feel time has stretched when you're going through out-of-ordinary eventful happenings.. The week when Ah Nei fell critically ill leading up to her demise and funeral seemed so long..

It's been a week since her funeral. And time just zooms by again.. it feels quite scary.

At least things are getting back to normal, or routine one shall say.

But even though the last couple of years Ah Nei's movement was restricted mostly to her room, I still could feel the odd emptiness especially when I passed her room. Her hospital bed had been cleared, her wardrobe emptied and now given to one of the maids.. Her left over pampers, food and medical stuff have also been given away, though not all. A photo of her (the one we used for obituary and funeral rites) is now placed on the desk..

Sometimes, it feels weird to think that she is no longer around.. she's gone. For good...

As for myself, writing work has not really picked up well since end of last year.. I sometimes fear that I'm gradually losing it.. that if I can't even write a post in my blog, how bad a writer I am.. I hope to be more proactive and have some luck in this area.. but in the meantime, I'm also thankful that I have a retainer job helping out a theatre company as publicist/ press officer of sort. And now the first show of this year is opening this week.. so things are getting more busy.

Met up with my accompanist this afternoon - a pretty brilliant pianist who could sight-read brilliantly. Yes, I'll be sitting for my first vocal exam in June and I really need to work quite hard on the pieces! At the same time, after four Italian lessons, I still think I've remembered very little.. :( I have bought some dictionaries and notebooks for vocabs and grammars - similarly to how I learned French years back.. So you can't say I'm idle after all..

Oh, to think of it, I have not posted on my slimming endeavour this time! Without divulging too much, just say that it's a serious one. As in I paid quite a bit and so far.. in just two-and-a-half week, I have managed to lose about 3.8kg already - and inches off the body of course..

(But at the moment, I won't disclose much details.. perhaps later!)

Will be going for the CCF alumni camp this weekend! It should be fun and nostalgic, and hopefully fodder for more interesting posting!

For the love of ME - a narcissist's fantasy?

Presenting.. the FAMOUS ME - in the limelight around the globe !!
...or rather, a girl is allowed to have some narcissistic fantasies....

My photo is placed on this huge banner on the wall..

On the cover of Vogue!

I am the face of a new perfume

Seen on neonlight advertisements..

Another!

Featured in Andy Warhol paintings..

Look I'm just everywhere!!

Even on this huge billboard in the middle of nowhere

On construction site even..

Could be a fan who did this!!

Mmmm... am the object of desire (ok, this looks superimposed!!:p)

Yup, i'm so famous even the dollar note features me!

This is more subtle.. I love B&W photo

I think I broke this man's heart...

I'm an exhibit in the art gallery

Am the `apple of the eye'...

Oh i even made headline news in a foreign paper

Am I a wanted person - by this old man?

Look, even David Beckham has me as his tattoo...

Maybe because I am the President of this country

A portrait sketch

The nice finished work..

But I can't really recognise myself as Marilyn Monroe..

Errrr.. and I definitely look odd as Monalisa!

Such photos can go on but i think I've spent too much time on it. It's just sooo fun for a narcissisist like me. Ended up uploading these pix in my Flickr, Facebook phtoos and even use one of them as my profile pix! :p

Interested to try it out for yourself? check out www.photofunia.com

Mistress of the house (for 2 weeks)!!

Dad and mom left for their holiday in China for two weeks! This morning, I got up at 5:30am to send them to the airport.. I witnessed the rare (i mean rare for me :p) sunrise as I drove home and the weather was pretty lovely. I thought I should do something constructive so went to do marketing at 7:45am with my maid!

But after squeezing around in the crowded and getting hot market place, i got tired and went to bed again before waking up for lunch :p

And now I'm still groggy.. but in between had to do some work and also gave instructions to the workers we did something at the front garden as well as downstairs a nice little garden by a new patio!

So.. with the absence of dad and mom, I'm officially in charge of the house. And it's not just the house - it is also to be `in charge' of the two maids and my bed-ridden granny. There were quite a few things that I had to take note of in case of.. And then, mom also asked me to help her run errands :(

Some responsibilities huh.. but it's not the first time so i'm just taking it at my stride.

Oh, in case anyone comes here hoping to read updates on my trip.. my apologies. I think I won't be doing that.. unless I am suddenly so inspired. You see, I am actually going to write-up something on the trip - for sharing and presentation in church. We're calling it a `mission exposure trip'. Secondly, since I travelled to some really very scenic and nice places, I thought I should write a travel piece! So yes, I'm currently writing up a piece (focussed on Shangri-la area) for a magazine.

Perhaps later I'll post something after I've finished writing on both of that!

Hehe, I'm trying to be a good girl.. since I don't have any appointments set up at the moment, I'll try to remain at home as much as possible - well at least during weekdays.

Coz, as my Facebook status had been telling.. this is gonna be quite an exciting month! More later.. and yes, for one, i'll definite post on my experience of being a vendor at two upcoming junk sales!! ;)

This Saturday, will be having my Bible study group over for a gathering cum bridal party too.

Hmm. since when my blog is like a loose diary. I think I still have not gotten back to writing mode since the trip.

That's it for now..

Why I like Starbucks so much.. and an encounter with a good samaritan!

I'm now sitting at my favourite Starbucks in Borders, The Gardens - enjoying a Kitamu coffee with raisin scone.

Ok, I do this quite often.. nothing significant to blog about. Only this time, guess what? I don't have a single sen with me.. In fact I had absentmindedly left my wallet at home!!

This is the second time it happens to me in the last month.. That time, as if by miracle, a friend happened to be there and gave me RM20.

But this time, no friend turned up with money. And I only realised it after I ordered my coffee.. that my wallet was not in my bag.. but I'm dying to have my coffee..! how?

As usual I can be `thick-skin' and so I related my plight to the nice barrister.. and to my pleasant surprise, he said I could have my coffee.. and they would just bill me next time I come.

Actually I was also planning to eat something since I had a light lunch.. and was planning to go to gym after this (but now depending i have enough coins for the carpark!!) So I asked another friendly barrister if I could order food too, and she straight away said: `no problem at all'.

Yey! So here I am having my coffee and scones at Starbucks sans wallet. Guess it pays to be a regular.. but at the same time, I must commend them on their excellent customer service. And oh and they even offer to give me free refill for my COW. ;)

That's also why I like to frequnt SB as opposed to other coffee chains.. The quality of the coffeee is one thing, but it's the good service that makes you feel welcome there!

p.s. I hope I have enough coins in my coin purse in the car to make it RM1 for the parking later - else I wonder if the MVM carpark management is as nice as Starbucks!?

update: 7:35pm
Ahh, horrors! I miscalculated - I've exceeded the RM1 parking fees by 4 mins and as I poured all my coins at the ticket counter, it totalled only RM1.10. So I pleaded with the woman but she was merciless, insisting I had to pay RM2. She said she had to call her supervisor but the supervisor wasn't free.. I already explained my predicament and asked nicely if I could just borrow RM1 from her and gave her back the next day. She said no such rule - and she does then everyone would ask for the same!!

I guess my half-pleading/half complaining arouse the attention of passerby. About 5 minutes on, a young woman approached me and asked if I needed one ringgit and proceeded to pass me a RM1 note! I was a bit stunned and all I could say was `thank you' and also asked how I could pay her back but she smiled, petted my shoulder and said: `no worries' and walked away with her male friend.

Such nice person... I thought, and there was this warm feeling inside me as I walked towards my car..

To be honest, I wasn't afraid to face the supervisor and spent more time there - whatever it is, they had to let me out eventually! But I'm really thankful by a kind act from this good samaritan. Although RM1 is not a big sum, it's her kind gesture of bother to help out a total stranger that really touches me..

Thank you again.. Ms good Samaritan. :)

Unfortunately I can't say the same for the ticket counter staff.. but again, I should be a bit more charitable as she's merely doing her job.

funny how...

Funny how sometimes something that at first pisses you off can turn into something `enjoyable' and positive.. in the way I see it.

After writing the post last week about me going on my first short-term missions trip, I got a `rude surprise' in the form of a comment from someone I know pretty well - (i shall not go into our `relationship' - no NOT that kind of relationship la) I felt it was quite uncalled for the way he seemed to `attack' my faith. Of course i replied to retort and even told a friend online about it so she also wanted to share her piece.. which was quite long

And then all was quiet. The first commenter didn't comment anymore. I thought he just couldn't be bothered - not that he was scared or ran out of words - but maybe also busy and think it's not worth pursuing.

And there weren't anymore comments. I guess most of my Christian (or even non-Christian) readers are all peace-loving people who dislike religious debate.

Then today, I found out he actually commented but Blogger didn't register his comment. So I personally invited him to comment again.. and he did.

This time, I was much less annoyed as he also toned down his words .. and as I began to reply him, I realised, hey, he is actually giving me a good opportunity to share my faith and belief - or in Christian jargon - doing apologetics (ie defending your faith) Ya, I realise I'm pretty long winded though I hope to make it readable for him as well as others.

So, I must say thank you to Douglas Yau - an aetheist/Buddhist whose starting point I was told was to `help and save' us Christians from our belief, for giving me the chance to say so much about my faith!

Read this post and comments if you haven't already, and feel free to add on your thoughts - I welcome all sorts of views as long as you're reasonable and do not use profinities!

SMS Spam!

Is this a current thing or is it just me?

Lately I've been receiving too many spam-SMSes! I get an average of about two-three a day at least, and they range from services and promotions of all kinds to invitations to events I never heard of. And then there have been some which quite obviously are scams - saying I've won certain contests which I never took part in! And the latest I just received on Friday - offering easy money from a `licensed money lender'! (read: Ah Long!)

When I say spam, I have already excluded those which I know I've given out my mobile no. to - like some boutiques or my banks. But it really beats me when I receive sms-es from totally unknown sources.. some of them in Malay - and you know how good my Malay is. It's getting really annoying.. and on the other hand, I am wondering have I been too `promiscuous' in giving out my no.?

Besides SMSes, I have also been getting quite a lot of calls from tele-marketers! This I think has become a competitive `industry' and I'm sure others probably have the same complain as me.. well, I try always to be polite but firm and it has worked so far.

But back to those spam SMSes. It gets me thinking. Like e-mails (that's ANOTHER story altogether - yes, I get TONNES of junk mails in all my email accounts) which I know people do sell and buy contact lists, is there a chance that somebody - maybe even our mobile service provider - selling our numbers out to interested parties??

Hmm.. and if this is not possible, then do you think these `mysterious senders' just SMS out to numbers randomly - not knowing who the recipients are? Cos, honestly, some of the SMSes I receive make no sense at all.. they are totally irrelevant to me.

Just curious, I wonder anyone else having this problem too?

of busyness, family and personality types...

It's a long weekend thanks to Hari Raya, but for a freelancer like me, it doesn't really make a difference.. In fact, i should be working now but I'm totally exhausted from lack of sleep a busy day at church.. so I guess it's easier to blog than to work!! :p

The second half of October will be quite a gruelling time for me.. besides the bridal assignment which many aspects have only been confirmed just, there are still so much more to do!! And then I have two feature articles due by end of the month as well. Thank goodness I'm now quite good at multi-tasking but sometimes it's not easy especially when the assignments involve more than just writing...

Dad and mom are leaving tomorrow for their China `balik-kampung' trip with some relatives.. yeah, they are going to visit our ancestor's home in Taipo in Guangdong province. I had the privilege of going there 10 years ago during Chinese New Year and it was a really memorable trip.. This time round, dad and mom will be joined by other relatives who have not been back to their `kampung' before..

So the next fortnight I have been `charaged' with the responsibility of taking care of the household and also looking after grandma - well, not literally since our maid Wati is the one who has been taking care of her. I would like to spend more time at home really but looks like I got to be out and about quite a bit especially during the day time..

It's kinda strange... now that I'm much older and supposedly more independent, I feel I have grown much more attached to my parents. I was telling dad that when I was studying in the U.K., yeah although I did miss home from time to time, I was ok not to see my family for months and month.. (cos I usually just came back during summer) But now that I've been home and living with them for more than 10 years, I have been so used to their presence.. and I actually miss my parents when they go on holiday!

And this time even before they leave I already feel I will miss them...the house just doesn't feel the same when they are not here.

Which is quite an irony.. because normally I like to go about by myself and enjoy my own company in doing many things.. I would even travel by myself on a holiday..I'm independent in that sense.. But on the other hand, at the end of the day.. I think I'm still one who likes company, especially people dear to me. I don't like the idea of living all by myself.. like some of the friends I know. Ok, it maybe more bearable if I have my two Js with me of course..

Which reminds me of the conversation some friends and I had at supper on Friday. It's funny but kinda sad that our topic of conversation was on nothing else but Facebook, which most of us were quite active on and taken by. (Well, I have been trying to `cure my addiction' on it but no one believes I could do it!!) Remembering a personality test that me and a friend had done, I was curious to find out who were extroverts and introverts among us... Then I realised that friends who I thought were extroverts were actually not, and the only extrovert - and according to them, true blue one - was me!!

Well I never denied I am not one but it's interesting that I found out more on how personality is defined as an extrovert or introvert. Wikipedia puts it quite nicely. Although I like my time alone but to think of it, I do get energised being with people... and this was something I didn't really realise.. as i thought i actually like solitude more!?

So looks like there is no escape then.. I'm like an `open-book' extrovert. Six out of six friends who did an `i-describe' of me on Facebook all used the word to describe me!

But among my circle of friends, seem like introverts far outnumber extroverts. U-hoo, any extroverts out there?

p.s. Oh, if you're not sure, try this interesting personality test to determine whether you're an introvert or extrovert, and much more!