Funny Engrish again

Christmas '08 Wish List

It's never too early to start a Wish List!

Among the things I covet around the world, here are some that are at least, obtainable, and hopefully, in some of the wrapped boxes I receive :P

• L'Occitane fragrant candle/s
  
• Eiffel Tower wall decal
  
• A big, black, leather bag. Well, not too big
  
• A ticket to watch ZAIA in Macao
  
• More later.......
  

Cancelled???

I can't believe Dirty Sexy Money is gonna be cancelled!! (Well, technically, ABC is just not buying anymore episodes, but that's kinda the same thing). No no no nono no no no nono no no!! I LOVE that show, I love Brian and Karen Darling... I love Donald Sutherland... SIGH.

Into thin air

I have been spending so much money lately, it's not funny. And it's not even to clothes shopping! Once I get my hands on some RM50 notes, they literally fizzle away. Sigh.

First, it was a new PC to replace the old one which kept crashing. I keep this PC as a backup for... I dunno what for. But the little terrors love it, so...

Then it was that Amanda Brown dress which is splendid, but which still magically siphoned up quite a few RM50 notes.

After that, it was a new mobile phone (stupid Sony Ericsson S50i keys keep getting stuck and crack themselves, I'm fed up!). This one I'm quite excited about as I'll be going back to my beloved Razr, specifically, the Razr2, which is supposed to be better. It'd better be!

And, what? Christmas is coming up? I'm gonna start pulling some people's hair out if I don't get paid on time this month!

***

UPDATE

On the very day I blog on how much money is slipping away from me, Sunshine Mary very nicely takes me to Telawi to return her borrowed clothes to Mooie, and I end up purchasing some very nice stuff from there and Moca too! Grrr...... luckily they were all on sale.

DIY notebook

A few days ago I was quite restless. So I made a notebook.




That's the front and back. You may think it looks good, but... it can't be opened. Hehe. The ribbon I used was too short so I had to tie it really tight till I couldn't open the book fully. Haven't had the energy since then to replace the ribbon. Well, at least I made use of some of the stack of raw material I have stashed in my shelves.

Answerable? Or not.

A guy meets a girl in a bar. What goes through his mind? What goes through her mind? Is there such a thing as meeting people for friendship, or is there always that one motive that drives us? And if there really is only that one motive, when one party discovers the other is uninterested or unavailable, do they just lose interest and lose contact, or value the other still as a potential friend?

What are the dynamics between two people who meet in a bar??

fashfab #6 = absolutely fabulous

So I attended fashfab #6 at twentyone last night and it was great! First up, I always enjoy the music there. Sounds like house to me (what do girls know about music genres, eh? <-- according to someone I know), it's really good anyway, kinda like background music for clubs. You can talk over it if you want, and you can move to it if you feel like it.

TallJac picked the best spot at the bar because we were right in front of the bartenders, Ben from Sweden and Kelly from New York, who kept serving up samples of their specialty drinks. But even if we had to pay, it would've been alright, because their specialty cocktails were RM10 right up till... 11.30pm or somewhere there. Niiiiiiiiiice!

Since last night was a shoesshoesshoes thingy, there were 2 fashion shows displaying their shoes, and then some... corsets? But a word of advice to shoe models out there. Sure, you start your walk at the top of the steps and pose sexily with the shoes, but when you walk, do you have to walk as if you're Lewis Hamilton's car? Just a flash of... wait, was that yellow? And then a BLINDING flash from the camera, and then another flash of... maybe it was gold, after all?

Talking about shoesshoesshoes, we got a goodie bag from them which, as I wrote yesterday, I was pretty excited about. Obviously I didn't really think there'd be shoes in there, but at least something more substantial than... an RM20 voucher off their shoes. A bloody RM20 off shoes that are RM300? And only for the month of November? Eh, this is what I would enter in Wiktionary under the heading "grudgingly". I seriously would've expected more from them, not in terms of discount, but class. This disappointment was at least made better by twentyone's generous RM50 off their food. That's more like it!

On the whole I had a loada fun, just us girls out for the night. Can't say much for how they're feeling this morning at the office though, heheheh...

Past weeks in a nutshell

It's been a while, yes, but I've not been in the mood to type. I've had loads of things running around my head, for example, the existence and persistence of man (yes, it's true...)... and one other thing which has now completely flown out of my head.

Maxi peed in my room 3 days ago and was solitary-ed in the backyard for 2 nights. Darn dog still managed to find a way through the fence and kept pitter pattering into my room about 5 times a day.

I've also been out a fair bit... oh, I watched Quantum of Solace on Tuesday. Nice nice nice! Daniel Craig is awfully sexy, innit? Yeahh... he's GOWgeous :P

Also went to Quattro for the first time last weekend. Doesn't seem a bad place, except to someone's friend, who left early, saying, "The people here are too cheesy". Mmm... okaaaaaay! It's so good to know we've got a 'coolness' barometer to let us know whether we're at the right place or not. I thought it was nice anyway, and the people upstairs at Winter seemed pretty normal to me.

By the way, I just heard the advert on the radio for Quattro. The voiceover pronounces Quattro's 'Qua' like the 'quar' in 'quarter'. I dunno, but it seems to me that it should be pronounced like 'kwa' since it's Italian. However, as far as Malaysians go, most people would probably pronounce it with a super quick 'w' in the middle and make it sound pasar, just like how they pronounce Leona (Lewis) as if it's Liona instead of LeOna. So perhaps pronouncing Quattro as in 'quarter' mightn't be such a bad idea. It just kinda shivers me timbers whenever I hear people pronouncing foreign words wrongly.

I also attended 789's 2nd anniversary party on... I think it was last Thursday? And, well, it was free flow and that was nice, but the people there are so leery. They're all in their late thirties to fifties and all the guys are looking for a fling, and all the women are watching out for competition. I love the place and all, but the people there that night (and I expect, most nights) just seem a tad pretentious, wannabe urban crowd. Isn't this supposed to be a classy, chic place? Not some pick-up bar?

Tonight, however, I'm really looking forward to it... going off to Twentyone with some girls for the shoesshoesshoes party. No idea what it is, but hopefully we get some goodie bags hehe. With a pair of shoes in it, maybe????

Oh, and I know, I wish I had some pictures to post, but ever since I started using G's camera, I haven't actually been able to use it. It's a digital camera, not an SLR, but not a simple point and shoot either. Also the size is like a mini SLR and it's just so un-glamourous to hang around your neck when you're wearing a nice little dress :)

Super Saturday

I had an AWESOME Saturday night! It'd been so long since I went out clubbing/bar-ing and I was quite craving it in the beginning of the week, except no one was up for it. So I waited till Friday, when I hoped something fun would be planned, but in the end we went for a quiet night at La Bodega. Managed to get myself tipsy enough to feel happy though.

So last night I had a night out with Tequila Lin and Dan the Drinker, who are both keen and avid drinkers (totally didn't guess it from their names, I bet). Dan the Drinker had to attend a colleague's farewell thing at Twenty One, so I just tagged along. Tequila Lin and her friend arrived first and informed us that there was no table (at 11pm, obviously not!) and Dan the Drinker's smart friend hadn't made any reservations.

It was still great! That bar is so nice... the people look nice... everything's nice. So we just hung out at the bar, I had the most awful vodka martini, but managed small sips for an hour (yup!) and finish it. Anyway, towards the end, my tongue was already getting quite numb from the lingering vodka taste.

Dan the Drinker and his mate then went off to meet their other colleagues who were eating in the resto next door (looking very formal and, well, boring...), so the three of us hopped off to Frangipani. It was our first time there, but I loved it! Firstly, no cover charge. Brilliant stuff. And the place was just jumping, it was awesome. Went to the bar to order champagne, but they only had Bollinger and Mumm. We're not made of money, so we had a bottle of the good red stuff instead. Nice wine, horrible glasses. What the heck wine glasses were those? Looked like water glasses. No swilling for me then.

Anyways, Tequila Lin and I made a round of the place to scope out any eye candy. Lots of hip and happening people, but no one jumped out.

And then I turned, and bumped into Gwyn! Pretty surprised... well, not surprised to see her there, but surprised to see someone I knew there. I was already a little tipsy, so kinda tried to get out of the conversation quickly (natural reaction, I dunno why). She thanked me for the gift I sent her a few days ago and I tried to be gracious, saying that I wasn't sure she received it (because she never sent me a thank you note or text!), but yeah I had actually been a little ticked off that she didn't take the time to thank me for it immediately.

Moved on, ordered lychee martinis for me and the tequila lady and then decided I shoulda conversed more with Gwyn, so went back for another (longer) chat and I think we're back on good terms with each other. It was her boyfriend's birthday and he's pretty hot (of course). She invited me for a Halloween party at her office, themed "Dead Celebrities"... umm... okay, the first image in my head was Elvis. No way am I going as Elvis, I thought. Or said. I'm sure I didn't say it aloud.

Oh, talking about gays (...okay, I'd actually written a paragraph before this then decided I didn't want anyone reading it but was lazy to change the first four words in this paragraph. No, I don't think Elvis was gay), when I told Dan the Drinker we'd be at Frangi, he replied...

"Isn't that a club for gays????????????"

Hehe. No, it's not. And even if it is, it's still a bloody nice place to be.

Finally left Frangi at about 2.30am. Pretty proud of myself for leaving so early, actually.

Awesome Saturday night! Will definitely go back.

Turn, switch, push

Totally random.

You know how people used to say "turn the TV on, turn the radio off" etc? Well, that was from the times of televisions and radios with knobs. And then you know how people say "switch the light on/off" because switches have an up/down mechanism?

So why don't people now say "push the TV on", cuz they're now operated by buttons (on the TV/remote)?

What else should we change?

I ♥ Marton Csokas

I think he's so hot, so rugged, so manly... :) I just love his face! I just wiki-ed him and apparently he's dating Eva Green, who happens to be one of my most admired actresses. Lucky girl!

... Anyway, more interesting posts coming up. Just sorting through some photos first.

Product of a lazy, crazy Saturday :)

I actually managed to achieve something yesterday. Really quite surprised myself, as I only did it to pass the time and didn't even plan ahead. It's a watercolour I did, straight from the palette and onto the paper. Considered sketching out a rough shape first, but I hate pencil lines underneath painting, so decided to just jump right into it. And I'm honestly surprised it came out quite perspectively correct :)

I haven't finished the top of her head and below her shoulders. Unfortunately, the two little terrors are over and I persuaded them to do some painting instead of playing my computers so they've taken over the palettes.



Hey, don't pick at the painting and say it's this and it's that, cuz this is purely for relaxation, but I thought it'd be nice to document this as I paint so very rarely. I'm telling you... you and I will be very lucky if I actually finish it.

Running Down The Way Up

I woke up to a drizzling mid-morning today and it felt wonderful. I like the diffused light that comes with drizzly mornings. Also because there's a gap between my two curtains, and on normal days, the sun comes shining in, annoying me into consciousness.

So I floated around the apartment not really knowing what to do. I prepared cereal for brunch and considered turning the mac on, but decided to not do that at least one day this week. Switched my TV on instead and watched some not very interesting shows, finished my cereal, slid down the sofa and suddenly felt really lethargic. So spent another 2 hours watching even more lousy shows. Stupid Astro.

Finally decided to go online and see who else was on. Well I saw someone who made my spine tingle, but decided not to talk to him because I just couldn't handle that emotional rollercoaster anymore. Then surfed Etsy for a while. Which made me feel really inspired to do some painting.

Looked for some watercolours in my drawer and found a box from Marie's, which I believe was my mum's? Or did she only use acrylic? Mmm whatever. Found out I didn't have a palette so just pooh pooh-ed it and decided to just squirt the bloody paint straight onto the paper. What a great idea, huh.

So I fill up my cups with water, get my sketchbook ready and do the necessary stuff, and finally settle down to paint God-knows-what. I wet my brush, and reach for... wait, there's no light blue in here... okay some kind of teal colour then. Try to unscrew the cap and fail. That's when the feeling of dread crept up. So I reached for some weird orangey reddy colour, unscrew it and promptly squeeze the paint out. Except it doesn't come out. Mmm... I'm a failure before I even start!

Fine, I thought, I'll get dressed and go buy the bloody palette and some new watercolours from the local stationery shop. And while I'm at it, I may as well buy a new payment voucher too since it's been on my shopping list for the past month. So I reach the local town centre, park, and find that my shop's closed. Get back into the car, go down the road and find another shop, so I park again.

Ooh, I just love stationery, don't you? (Just reminded myself of Marjorie Dawes - "I JUST LOVE THE CAKE") Anyway, of course it's some little local stationery shop, so the only watercolours they had were Buncho and some other weird box I didn't even want to pick up. So I had to buy Buncho. It was only RM8.50 for 12 colours and I figure I'll probably use it only once anyway.

As I was walking to the cashier, I thought of how I used to paint with a special 50-compartment palette which could store paint so I didn't have to keep opening the watercolour tubes, and how I used to use Alpha Artists colours (okay, it's no Daler & Rowney, or whatever), but it was professional enough for art school, and how I now use...Buncho...?

Am I going up or down in the world??

(Incidentally, I only wrote the title of the post after I finished writing, and if it rings any bells, it's by BT and it's a nice song.)

VIKA agony

That's the tabletop that's been giving me trouble all last night and this morning. Quite literally, I've got blisters on my right hand from clutching and twisting the screwdriver. 5 screws x 4 table legs. And this is how all the screws look. I've decided to just screw two in tightly so that the plate doesn't move, and then just jam the bloody legs in and wait for a shining knight to come over and help me screw the rest in. Easier said than done though. Just tightly screwing one in is agony.

Just felt my right arm, think my muscle is a bit more toned now. Better start using my left arm's strength now. Which means the screws ain't gonna budge.

And now I'm just procrastinating having lunch cuz I'm too lazy to get up and cook something. Guess I'll have to do it before I start feeling whoozy. If only the cafe downstairs had nicer food. And not so expensive. Grr.

On another note, does anyone know if the Intel Atom processor (not the dual-core version) is any good for a low-end desktop computer?

First Anniversary!

Goodputty is celebrating its first anniversary the whole of October and November. Thanks to everyone who helped us in one way or another, and here's to many more fruitful years!

In particular, we'd like to thank:

• Mumsy Bumsy (who helped me register the company a year ago)
  
• Yelleh Belleh (who helped approve company names and mascots)
  
• Dad (who gave advice sparingly and never questioned my decisions)
  
• Slavedriver (although he will never read this blog, I just want to acknowledge him for his mentoring and work offloading)
  
• G (who is technically part of Goodputty, but deserves thanks for all the support and encouragement)
  

To celebrate this special occasion, Paperie is selling Ready-To-Go notepads at RM10 each (RRP: RM12/notepad) with FREE POSTAGE for the whole of October and November. So whatcha waiting for?!

I Heart NY t-shirt

Look what I got! A nice little present from Sharry Berry while she was in NYC a few weeks ago.

Always admired this design from afar (note: magazines and websites) and felt disdain for copycats (note: DIGI and Sony Ericsson... although SE is not as outright as DIGI is). But to many people, this I heart NY design is just a graphic, just something you know, recognise and overlook, and very often, with icons like these, people don't realise how much history it has and how it came about.

That's why I'm using this post to enlighten my readers :)

The I Heart NY, or I Love New York logo was designed by Milton Glaser way back in 1975 (I wonder if they had a 30-year anniversary of the logo and I missed it?). Like in most design fairytales, this iconic logo came about when he was doodling in a taxi. Sigh. (But of course, they never tell you how much he probably cried and sweated in his studio before getting this brainwave.)

So respect where respect is due. Awesome logo, timeless and inspirational for generations to come!

The importance of planning

I just realised a few days ago that Goodputty will be a year old in a couple of weeks. I need more time to plan! Banners, thank you mailers, gifts perhaps? Also planning a special promotion for Paperie products in conjunction with the anniversary.

Anyways, hungry now and wanna watch TV. Catch up later.

On your toes!

How difficult is it to stand on one leg?

Pretty easy as you get older because you know where to put your weight, right? Young kids find it difficult because they don't understand that they have to put all their weight on the one foot.

How difficult is it to stand on one leg, on tiptoe?

Bloody difficult! I feel like a young kid again, falling everywhere. It was only until yesterday that I really thought about the physics (?) of it. If you put all your weight on the one foot when standing on one leg normally, you can stay like that for a long, long time. So it only makes sense that when you go up on tiptoe, you have to put all your weight on the front of your foot! So why. can't. I. grasp. that?

Can you imagine me standing in the middle of my apartment tiptoeing on one foot, arms outstretched, as if I'm a Shaolin monk? Well, you don't have to now. Just use a telephoto lens. And sell the pics of me falling all over to the papparazzi :P

Fragrant flames

Started an obsession with fragrant candles recently. Well, ever since the dogs moved in and started leaving their own furry smell everywhere. Tried the cheapo candles before from IKEA and other places, but they don't work.

Last Christmas, Mumsy Bumsy's friend gave her a set of Marks & Spencer fragrant tealights which she passed to me. So I tried them out, and they were superb! Have only one left now :( but Mumsy Bumsy helped pick up a candle from L'Occitane earlier. It smells delicious, but I haven't lit it yet, so can't give a verdict. Judging by the price, though, I'd say it bloody well works :) You just can't skimp on these sort of things cuz you really get what you pay for.

Talking about skimping, I picked up the India Hicks fragrant candle in Crabtree & Evelyn and saw that it cost RM175! I hope my eyes were deceiving me though. Don't think I'll ever try that out unless I have a very generous friend who buys me that for Christmas.

I remember getting an Annick Goutal candle in a jar (which came in a zipped pouch!) a few years ago as a gift and by golly, did it last! It just wouldn't finish burning and the smell was amazing. Well, the strength of it anyway. The smell itself was one of their signature weird smells. Not bad, just... unique. Like their perfumes. But at least you get the feeling that they actually do do their work instead of sticking their name to someone else's fragrance.

Murderers. Plain and simple.

The murder of the student from Chad in Wangsa Maju is SHAMEFUL. And damnable! How could some Malaysians behave like this? Is it so hebat that there are twenty of you wielding metal rods, knives and sticks? I'm sure the person who stabbed him in the back didn't intend to kill, but kill him he did and he shall answer for it, if not to the Malaysian police (whom I very much doubt will do anything about it, as much as the woman who asked my sister if she 'mau ais' in her drink twice, brought ice in her drink in the end), then to God. For as they were Malay youths, they were Muslims, and therefore answerable to their God. Where did they learn that it was okay to stab people or intimidate them?

Sure, big black guys can be intimidating, I've seen them fight amongst themselves and make a lot of ruckus in public, but I've never seen them disturb anyone they don't know. And even if they did, it absolutely does not warrant an attack.

In fact, some of the most respectful Catholics I've seen have been black. I don't know where they're from, so unfortunately, I can only refer to them as blacks, but I'd never say it in a disrespectful way.

The poor victim was 22, he had a wife and a newborn, and he was looking forward to returning home to Chad to celebrate Hari Raya. The killer and conspirators must pay for robbing so many people.

It's getting more embarrassing every day to tell people that I'm Malaysian because everything they hear these days is bad.

On another note, I can't believe some Malaysians don't even know what's going on these days. Type 'Free RPK' on your MSN and see how many people ask you, "who's RPK ah?". It's embarrassing! And it really winds me up. Sign of trouble? "Go Australia lah". No wonder people call you pendatang.

Where else in the world would we fit in, really? Nowhere, I'm telling you, honestly. Nowhere else.

Girl-on-girl action

Most of the male population seem to be turned on by threesomes, or lesbians, or just knowing a girl who has kissed a girl. Or is that a myth?

I've heard of straight girls turning lesbian, and even lesbians becoming straight. As a guy, though, would you get turned on knowing your girlfriend used to be a lesbian? I know I'd be freaked out if I found out my boyfriend used to be gay.

This post isn't sexist, or 'sexual-orientationist', but just an opinion of mine, and how uncomfortable I'd feel if I found something like that out. And I think I can speak for many females.

But how about males? Since they seem to love the idea of girl-on-girl action, would they also love to have a girlfriend who used to be a lesbian?

All opinions welcome. I'm curious.

Sketchies

Was clearing up the office (still work in progress!) and managed to clear out two cardboard boxes and my old school portfolio bag. I looked through all my past work from about 6-7 years ago and was just thinking, wow, I spent so much time doing all this! I'm so glad I don't have to anymore, although if I was getting paid for it, I'd probably enjoy doing a bit of sketching for a change.

Here's a selection of my better attempts:










And this last one is from a street artist in Paris in 2004. I hated him for ripping me off and hid this sketch for a loooong time so I wouldn't remember it. I think I've got over it now.

Cap'n Crunch?

So how scary is this new economy crisis in the States? I've been listening to BBC all day and it's started to affect the British banks as well. The Brits call it the 'credit crunch'. What a cute name for a horrid situation. Can we eat it?

And the Lehmans? Can you imagine, you're working in a huge, prestigious multinational, sure, you think you have job security. And one day it all collapses and you don't even get that month's wages. There goes all the wise naggings from your grandma about getting a good job in a big foreign company so you can reap the benefits, eh.

PHOTOS: When G was in KL

Whenever G's in town, we have to visit a bao restaurant. Any one will do, but his favourite this trip has been Din Tai Fung in The Gardens. It's quite a posh place and really does have nice food. In the spirit of bao, here's a photo of a special type, with crab and pork soup in it (this was from some resto at The Curve, can't remember the name).



And in the spirit of dumplings, here's another type of 'dumpling':



I know I've posted this signboard up before, but this is a better photo :P

Traffic in KL these days is so relaxing, isn't it? Almost therapeutic.



And to end today's post, aren't these the most beautiful bouquet of flowers ever? If anyone's interested, the deep pink flowers are called celosia and were probably the most expensive flowers in there.

The dogs r here

My dogs have finally moved in with me. And they're getting comfortable very quickly indeed.

National Service? Run!

Sorry, sorry, Kel (and others), I've been very preoccupied with having my boyfriend visit. Yes! He was here for two weeks (yippee!), but has just gone back to UK (sigh).

Anyway, I've been reading Ah Yap's blog, which is - according to him - "better than reading newspaper". Do pay a visit to him, he has a very humourous way of writing, and the best part about his blog are his notes on intelligent investing. But what I wanted to note down here was a comment someone left about the NS (National Service).

You'd think after so many years of running the NS, people would get used to it and stop objecting and avoiding it, but how can you start accepting it when there are still so many casualties? And these are teenagers, worryingly getting fatally sick, who are supposedly doing a useful and helpful activity. When will the people in charge learn to take these deaths seriously?

Ah Yap's post was on how to trick people into choosing the option you want them to. He asked his readers to give other examples, and Anon came up with:

Najib during fuel increase: Do you want to live moderate lifestyle or face higher inflation?
(doesnt mater because fuel increase will lead to inflation anyway and our moderate lifestyle become no lifestyle so that fella can keep the petronas profits for himself and cronies and other arms deals etc etc)
Najib about NS: You can go to NS or go to jail.
(both decision leads to somethig bad anyway, but at least if you choose jail you might not end up dead)

And I thought I was the only one who thought NS trainees had a higher risk of death at training than in war.

Chinese -> (not quite) English

I was clearing out the office a few days ago and found bits and bobs of rubbish that I hadn't thrown away cuz I meant to do something with them. In the interest of a neat and tidy workplace, I'm gonna attempt to clear all these things.

One such bob is the leaflet for Tang Long Imperial Wine which I've been meaning to post on this blog for ages because of its lovely translation from Chinese to English. They picked a few people to give testimonials on the benefits of the drink. They were obviously given in Chinese, and the English translator is obviously a doofus.

Here are a few of them:

Hooi Poh Sim
One year ago, I was having Lymph cancer (over for tea?). After the operation, the condition is become well, but due to long term take medicine, I always feel asleep and do not have appetite to eat and tire (mmm, I feel like eating tire today). On December 2003, my health condition is become after consuming Tang Long Imperial (become what?! what?! I'm in suspense!). My body would not feel tire easily and my appetite is improving a lot...

Leang Shee Meng
When I was setting the grill and always feel backache and cold. (feels like I walked in on a conversation halfway through) It was because I did not take care well when I was young and just took painkiller when I feel aching. Luckily, after medical hall introduced to drink Tang Long Imperial, I consumed one small cup before I sleep. I feel my backache problem is lesser and body would not feel so cold. My hand and feet muscle is become more active (here come the jitters!). I would like to thank you Tang Long Imperial have brought me so much health improvement.

Tay Yong
I am an old woman aged eighty something (and they stated everyone's exact age next to their testimonials). Due to aging problem (so how do we solve it?), I have been suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure for 10 years plus (I say only getting them when you're 70 years old is pretty damn great). But since my friend introduced me to drink Tang Long Imperial, I feel different in term of my health problem is improving a lot and diabetes level is not increasing and my backache problem is lesser and I am so touching about the health improvement. (take a well-deserved breath, old girl!)

Wee Yin Hua (this is my favourite)
My body is weak all the while and my digest system is not so good, as well as can't sleep well, I have been suffered for these problems for about 30 years. On August 2003, I knew Tang Long Imperial from radio station, so I tried bought Tang Long Imperial to drink for sometimes, I feel it really help to improve my health problem. I drink Tang Long on morning and night time after dinner (and in the evening, and underneath the moon), then I will fast asleep and my stomach air is lesser and more comfortable. I would not having unsleeping (??) problem since I have been taking Tang Long Imperial for 6 bottle (alcoholic?) and I fell more energetic on my work.

Hope you had a good chuckle.

Revenge

Some of you may know that I've been suffering for a couple of months now with my downstairs neighbours loud music-playing, banging and karaoke-singing/yelling. Most mornings I wake up to bass beats through my floor, making the bed vibrate. Most days, I call the management office to tell them to shut up. Most times, it works. For an hour.

I have been damning them to hell for a few weeks now but it doesn't seem to have worked. And as I write this, they are laughing and talking loudly at their balcony for all the world to hear.

So I have been trying to think of revenge tactics, but none that I can do that can make them as annoyed as I am by them. The best thing would be to have them kicked out of the apartment, but how do you do that? The management office says there are a few of them living there, Indonesian students, apparently, renting. There are no bloody colleges in this area, why do they live here?

Tonight I went online in search of 'neighbour revenge tactics' and found a few funny and also malicious ones, none of which would really stop their music-playing. But then I stumbled upon a discussion which really grabbed my attention and made me read to the end.

Ideas for dirty deeds to annoy an ex-neighbour

I would recommend reading that even if it is a bit lengthy. I think Timstone might, since he loves reading :)

It starts out with revenge tactics, but it then becomes a debate between the "why do you need revenge?" people and the "they deserve it" people. honestly, the people on the first team really mustn't have had any bad neighbours before. plus, it really irks me when people post arguments on a thread which is about something else. If you have a problem with revenge tactics, STOP READING! And don't even bother posting, will you?

Anyway, it really becomes an interesting debate, because the person who posted the problem - although insulted by the opposing team - still explains rationally and maturely without getting angry as most people would do.

Still hasn't helped me with the neighbour problem, but it gave me a really entertaining read for half an hour though.

Why hangovers are good for you

No, not because it shows you had a great time the night before. Besides, once you wake up with a hangover, you're virtually dreading the next time you go out drinking. Well, almost.

No, what I realised is that when I've drunk a lot and need to rest till past noon, I also tend to go to bed earlier that night. And then it becomes a habit. So I start waking up earlier as well, and feel fresher and nicer cuz I've had enough rest at proper times.

I was doing that for about 2 weeks until last week when I started sleeping late again. And couldn't stop. These days I feel tired and sleepy and lazy.

I really need to get a hangover soon.

J'adore Nuages Du Monde! Je l'adore! Woohoo!

I don't know why it's taken me so bloody long to blog about this, but I FINALLY HAVE NUAGES DU MONDE! This is Delerium's latest album - okay, I say latest, but it was actually released in 2006, and I didn't know about it because none of the music shops here brought it in!!! Anger and resentment.

Incidentally, the smart-ass joker at Rock Corner sucks. It'll take too long for me to explain what he did, but basically, he thinks he's smart, and he bloody well is NOT.

Anyway, searched online, but all the US sites didn't accept Malaysian credit cards, and the UK shops were too expensive. So I asked lovely G's help to use his credit card. In the end he bought it from a UK site cuz he didn't wanna use his CC on a "dodgy US website".

Waited, waited, waited... and he finally got it a few days ago! He ripped the CD and sent it to me.. been listening every day since. And it's awesome awesome awesome!

It's actually playing here now, in case you're wondering why there's music playing. TURN UP YOUR SPEAKERS! All the music is from Nuages Du Monde, except for Satellite Girl, which is by Conjure One, my second favourite musicians. Hmm, this song is also causing me a lot of angst as I can't find it anywhere to download or purchase. So the only time I can listen to it is if I visit my blog. Which isn't such a bad thing, I guess.

Cream of the crop: Tectonic Shift (seriously lovin' this track as it's like an 'advanced' Delerium - if possible) and Apparition (which is on the blog playlist - scroll to the bottom to select it).

Beijing Olympics opening ceremony

It was AMAZING! AMAZING! You really can't beat the Chinese when it comes to organising mass performances with thousands of participants, can you? The ceremony was so awesome and planned so well. I really don't know what other superlative to use before it gets repetitive :P

My favourite part was the tai ji quan performance, but that was just because I love seeing those kind of things - body movement and control. But otherwise, I'd say all the performances were on par with each other - excellent!

I don't know if they'll repeat it anymore, as they've done so twice that I know of. Unfortunately I've not subscribed to the sports package on Astro so I can only hear audio (when I press the 'R' button), and there's not much use in that. Gotta run over to dad's to watch if I want to.

I am so DEFINITELY going to watch the closing ceremony!

Alexis @ Ampang

It's been a few years since I last went to Alexis in Great Eastern Mall, but it doesn't seem to have changed. Still has a great vibe, and everything looks as it was. I just love the interior of the place.

Last night, I went there for drinks with Sookie. It was a Thursday night and there weren't many people there, but enough to make it cosy. I felt chocolate-cakey (since that night at Duck King when I chose to have gui ling gao instead of chocolate cake) so I had a look at their selection. Most places only have 1 or 2 chocolate selections, but this place is great! It had chocolate mousse, chocolate cinnamon, chocolate brownie, chocolate something else and 1 or 2 more. Yum!

In the end, I chose the chocolate cinnamon cake with ice cream and I wasn't disappointed. It was so so so yummy! I really recommend that if you like chocolate cakes. It tastes like flourless chocolate cake with a hint of cinnamon.

Well, that's all I wanted to say. Just go try their chocolate cinnamon. It's RM14, which is an obscene amount for cake, but really good, nevertheless.

Oh, and one more thing. If you go on a weeknight ie. Sunday-Thursday, don't park in the basement if you're going to stay past midnight. Sookie and I (in one car) drove past the open boomgate happily thinking we didn't have to pay for parking, but when we reached the exit, the roller shutter was down! We drove all round the carpark looking for the alternative exit, but there wasn't one. Then we drove to the security room whose lights were on, but there was no one inside. Typical!

So we had to park the car in front of the shutter and walk up again looking for a guard, whom we eventually found Starbucks-ing with his co-worker. And he got the shutter open for us. But what a hassle! Just park outside lah. Don't have to pay for parking either.

I'm a queen bed

Have any of you seen this Swedish Furniture Name Generator before? It's hilarious! Click the picture below to try it out and do us all a favour by coming back to leave a comment on what your name is!

Just say No

So this week I've had a little more free time than I've had for the past few months, and I got a little worried: "Will I have enough money to eat? Is this the end of Goodputty?" :)

So I decided to post my profile on more creative databases online. I've had a profile on coroflot since I was a uni student and I get one or two offers of work a year from it. I figured this creative database thingy should be helpful during lulls in workload.

I found two listed in a reputable magazine and joined up. The part I hate most about these sites is that I have to upload my portfolio. So I end up just uploading 4 or 5 pieces of work. This probably doesn't really help, but when I find a project I'm interested in I'll just refer the buyer to my website.

Truth be told, I think most buyers prefer to work with people from the same country, ie. US, cuz, well, you don't know what these unscrupulous and untrustworthy Asians might do. That's how I lost out on one of the projects I was quite interested in. Our prices were pretty close to each other (and I'm not gonna accept that the other designer's work is better as a reason :P), but the designer was from US, as was the buyer.

Anyway, to the main point of the post. I bid on another project a few days ago, and I got a reply asking for a mockup. Now this put me in a dilemma. I did want the project, but I don't do mockups if I'm not guaranteed a project. This is like pitching, something ad agencies love to do, but which I hate. But then, ad agencies spend RM5000 on a pitch, for a chance to win a RM500,000 account, so, well, they're entitled to do it. And they do get paid for pitches sometimes.

Sending pre-contract mockups aka spec work (defined as producing a piece for a potential client with no guarantee that your work will be chosen and/or paid for - No!Spec) is not something that I've just decided against out of whim or arrogance. It's an actual issue that affects the design industry and undermines its value.

Facts are: I see a project I'm interested in, I contact the buyer detailing how I can benefit him with my work. He replies and asks me to do some work before he can decide if he will pay me. What a raw deal! Imagine that he has 10 designers sending him mockups. He has at least 10 designs to choose from, all for free. Most of them will also be of a quality good enough to send for final print. He has an idea - just take that, send it to the printer, and print. No charge to him at all.

It sounds fair for someone to know what your ideas are. But you have to be adequately compensated for it. Do you go to a restaurant and ask to sample each dish before you decide what you want to eat? No, you look at words or you look at pictures on the menu. In the same way, I ask potential clients to look at my portfolio to see the quality and style of my work before I do anything at all for them. Time is money, and I value my time and expertise too much to give away for free.

Stuff. And money!

Went to New Zealand Natural in The Curve a couple of weeks ago to get chocolate ice cream with chocolate sprinkles. That's my standard order at every ice cream shop I visit. And New Zealand Natural's chocolate ice cream (Chocolate Ecstasy, or that brownie flavoured one) is really awesome.

But, dammit! They don't serve choc sprinkles anymore! How disappointing is that?

(I still bought - and enjoyed - the choc ice cream plain anyway)

---

I just heard... an English paper ran an article on those exclusive London nightclubs and how much people spend there. They also printed a copy of a receipt which contained orders of Cristal champagne - 49 bottles and 6 magnums - among others!

The bill for all that - ONE bill, mind you - was £26728.33 and the tip was £2969.

...course a few quid from there would be used to clean up the champagne spray-filled walls, but who bloody cares?

Who wants to own an exclusive London nightclub put up their hands.

I love Borders

Went to Borders yesterday to look for a corner cutter, but they didn't sell them. So I just started browsing through some books to pass the time. I stayed away from the Basheer section cuz I knew I didn't have any money to get anything but would be sorely tempted to anyway.

Now I usually don't browse much in bookstores other than Times cuz I have their membership card and I get a discount every time I purchase something. Besides which, at the end of every year, they send me a whole list of what books I've bought from them so I can send it in to the LHDN (it is the LHDN, right?). Which is why I didn't pay much attention to the majority of books in Borders, but headed straight to the BARGAIN section.

Woohoo, I love a bargain, don't you?

Anyway, I'm so pleased... I walked out of there with 3 books which only cost me RM60! Two as presents for my lil sis and cousin, and one dog book for myself...mmmmm...

The Green Fairy

"The first stage is like ordinary drinking, the second when you begin to see monstrous and cruel things, but if you can persevere you will enter in upon the third stage where you see things that you want to see, wonderful curious things." "Absinthe has a wonderful colour, green. A glass of absinthe is as poetical as anything in the world. What difference is there between a glass of absinthe and a sunset?" - Oscar Wilde

After reading that, who wouldn't be even slightly curious as to what this green fairy does to your mind? How about this?

"Let me be mad, mad with the madness of Absinthe, the wildest, most luxurious madness in the world." - Marie Corelli

According to Fairies World, the appeal of Absinthe to the creative person (I say creative because they were the only ones to write about it) is the contradiction of its properties and what it does to the mind. It contains a formidable amount of alcohol which is a depressant, but also contains herbal subtances which stimulate the brain keeping it clear and aware of thoughts going through it.

This line from the article sums it up perfectly:

Alcohol relaxes inhibitions and invites in new ideas, and the stimulants allow you to logically process the new data.

Hey, if Wilde and Toulouse-Lautrec were fans of it, look at their work and tell me you're not tempted to fall in love with the fairy? Oh, make sure you have someone with you though, or you might wake up one morning, not with a hangover or an ugly creature in bed, but with one less ear.

To Tim

I finally dropped by your blog today and am so honoured and touched that this blog, my website and my side project are all linked from yours :P Many thanks, mate.

I liked your post on the sexy dance contest, by the way. Made me chuckle out loud.

Malaysia, a developed country?

I didn't realise it'd been so long since I last posted till Mumsy Bumsy pointed it out. I've had lots of things on my mind, but not ones that I particularly wanted to talk about on this blog.

I wish restaurants/bars/clubs/pubs would ban smoking indoors. I know lots of you out there are gasping in shock and disgust, but it's such a bad habit, and smoking does not only affect you, but non-smokers. I know you've all heard this a million times, but doesn't this phrase then come to mind - "truth prevails"?

If Malaysia is so keen to be modernised, advanced and considered a developed country, why not follow their good examples? The UK and Australia have already enforced a ban on smoking indoors, even in pubs (UK). I'm not very clear on Australian rules or how it's like in America, but I know for sure that smoking is banned virtually everywhere indoors in the UK. And that's a great thing. How many smokers are killing non-smokers slowly? This is not like drinking alcohol, where it only affects the drinker. Smoking affects EVERYONE.

Why am I so upset about this? Because every time I go out to party or to have fun, I come home coughing, my clothes stink and I feel so unwell. Out of the 7 months that have passed this year, I have NOT COUGHED for 2 months.

Do I have to make myself sick in order to have fun with my friends?

Great night out at Aliyaa

A few of us went for dinner at Mama's Kitchen in TTDI last night. Since Zlynn had just come back from 6 months in London, we thought she should have some good ol' local Chinese coffee shop food. I guess the food was okay, but I can't say that the so-called famous loh shee fun lived up to its name.

Chia was so dressed and ready to club last night! Poor him had been deceived, as we'd only planned to do a bar night. After a brief session at some old fart place in Plaza TTDI (where we watched some wrestling... yes, it was that kind of old buggery place), we shipped off to Aliyaa in Damansara Heights. This was more like it!

Eager to shake the dust off my feet, the three of us who were there earliest sat down for some wine while waiting for the others to arrive. Friends kept trickling in and it was so great to be able to actually sit and talk with these people who I'm usually shouting nonsense at on Saturday nights. Took some wacky photos (which I don't have... yet) and wined all night. All in all, just a great session in a very nice place.

Looking forward to tonight! :P

Knowing your limits hurts

All of a sudden, I feel really depressed. The day started out fine, with me turning my Mac on and starting work with a nice cup of tea. Then I got a call from Slavedriver, saying that one of my clients wants to see me because I sent her a brochure that I was apparently supposed to redesign, but which looks like the old one. I got confused and called her directly to ask her what she meant. It was just a misunderstanding, and we worked it out in the end. Still have to see her tomorrow morning, but to sort out other work.

That episode kind of shocked my system a little, as clients don't usually have problems with my work.

Then in the afternoon, I got a reply from another potential client about a website design. She'd emailed me for a quote last month, and then didn't reply, so I followed up last week, asking what the situation was. Today she replied saying that her friend loved my fee but was looking for stronger, more conceptual designs that's specific and unique to her start-up company, instead of general designs like what I have done so far. She was very friendly about it, and I thanked her for coming back to me.

However, I'm getting depressed. I just took a look at my web portfolio and started to feel quite down. One of the reasons I don't create very conceptual website designs is that I don't have the skill to produce on web what I can do in print. I am, after all, a graphic designer, not a web designer. My forte is print. Although most people are happy with the website designs I create for them because I tell them in advance what they should expect.

Of course that lady had the right to look elsewhere for more advanced web design skills, but I guess it's the rejection and realisation of my limits that hurts.

I thought I'd done quite okay so far. But I guess this jolted me and made my pedestal shake a bit, nearly throwing me off. In fact, I think I have been thrown off. Now I'm just trying to hang on and climb back up again :(

Goodputty::Paperie

My studio has just started a side project called Goodputty::Paperie. You can order customisable stationery, cards or invites there. It's still being developed, so prices will be on a case-by-case basis until the kinks are worked out.



Do give your support and visit the site to order a little something for yourself or your friends :D

PHOTOS: Being a KLite

I don't often drive to town at night, especially at dinnertime, unless G is here. But tonight happened to be Teng's birthday dinner at Olé Cafe on Changkat Bukit Bintang. Please don't go there. Crap service, crap food. Nuff said.

Anyway, I was kinda lazy to drive so decided to take the Smart Tunnel. Nice and easy drive. Until I reached the exit. Wow, what a jam! I guess I shoulda known, but it's been so long since I've actually driven to town at dinnertime that I didn't know it had become such a bad place for traffic. What with all the new highways, byways and flyways, it should have improved!


View from my car waiting for the traffic lights.

I love hanging out with my friends but boy, am I doing a lot of second hand smoking! And a perfectly good top was ruined because it smelt so smoky. Damn. If restaurants allow smoking inside, they should have better ventilation. I'm not a fan of Singapore, but they do have the no smoking in public rule down pat. Very good.

---

Another joy of living in KL is the art scene that's getting more exposure. Sometimes I don't know if some of them are just wannabes or if they're genuine. Nevertheless, like theatre, you start to see the same faces everywhere. I think the problem is that these artsy people think they're so unique and special that they want to keep their own clique to themselves, but at the same time, want to bring the KL art scene to another level. Maybe if they stopped being so cliquey it'd help.

Art and design markets like the Lapsap/Kraftgrafik Junkyard Sales and other marts hosted by Kraftgrafik are great, but you tend to see the same sellers at each one and the prices are not very buyer-friendly. Artists (I believe) are, by nature, quite stingy. We don't have a lot of money, and oftentimes we look at something and think to ourselves: "I could do/make that", which is usually true - and so we end up not buying anything unless the seller is a friend, or the price is really low. Artists love buying crap for low prices: "Oh, I could use this to bohemia-fy/junk up my home".


Melissa and bride-to-Bea having a discussion at Palate Palette.


The other half of Melissa and Kraftgrafik - Aaron.

---

G and I took a road trip up to Scotland this March and marked a few places to stopover. One of them was Glasgow. Before we went, everyone was telling us about what a rough place it was and how rundown and ghetto it would be. When we got there, I was pretty impressed. Money had been poured into the city and it was almost as beautiful as Edinburgh... okay, I exaggerate. Edinburgh is awesome. But Glasgow is really excellent as well. The nightlife, restaurants, cafes... very sophisticated yet welcoming. It was somewhat like Melbourne and London put together.


G at Mamasan.

The restaurants near our hotel - Novotel, which incidentally is a really good hotel! - were really cool because they were located in either the basements or ground levels of 5-storey buildings lining the street going downhill. The menus would be on the pavement and you could just walk up and down or across the street looking for something interesting. It was cool!

We finally picked a place called Mamasan which serves Asian food. I won't say much more about the place because G wants to keep it secret. But I just have to say the atmosphere was amazing, the waiters were all hunky, capable and efficient, and the food was the best of all.

---

Okay, so I have been jumping about from topic to topic in this post. Could you tell I did it to clear the photos in my phone? :D

It's what time?

Okay, honestly, it's already nearly 10am now so I shouldn't call this early. However, I DID wake up at 8.15am today because I had to deliver a document to a client by 9am. Thank God for Daddy's driver.

It was so very hectic yesterday because the client only gave me ONE day to amend a 24-page newsletter AND print a mockup. I told her I would give it to her on Thursday, she says okay, then emails to say that she's on leave Thursday, so can I give it to her on Wednesday? What the...? But because I'd messed something up in the first draft, I felt obligated to do better this round.

And I achieved it!

Not without lots of panicking, rushing around to the other studio with the big A3 printer, then finding out that Mac didn't have the fonts I was using, so I had to call poor Mumsy Bumsy to go over to mine and teach her how to find the things I needed and email them over. I finished just in the nick of time because I also had to go to Actor's Studio Bangsar to watch Sybil, which, incidentally, is a very good production. The two lead actors for Sybil and Yoshimura were brilliant.

Was a bit skeptical about watching "100 minutes of relentless torture", but it turned out alright (although I did wish the story would move on after about 60 minutes).

Loving the Chronicles of Narnia Part 1 soundtrack, by the way... need to get Prince Caspian next time I go to Victoria.

---

On another note, last weekend I had planned to launch Operation Tidy Up at home, but it didn't work out. Can't remember why. I've already taken some "before" pictures, but the "after" scenario isn't quite ready yet (an understatement if there ever was one). Let's aim for this weekend.

And I fell down again at BarClub last Saturday. It's starting to be a very embarrassing trademark of mine.

Post #300!

To honour this momentous occasion of my 300th post, here's a picture that reveals something about myself.



G took a picture of this picture (heh) from the newspaper about a little piglet who absolutely refused to walk in the mud! And so the farmer had to make little piggylet booties for it, and wearing them, the piggylet's happily romping around in the mud now! How amazing is that?

Yup, I'm a piggy zodiac sign and I hate getting my feet dirty.

Nothing to write so...

Stingy ain't good

A plumber came over today to check out all the problems with my... plumbing, of course... and to give me a quote for work that needs doing.

He quoted me RM600 for half a day's work! That nearly got me fainting, cuz I didn't expect the quote to be so high. Just leaking taps here and there and a blocked toilet bowl.

After that, I thought to myself, if a plumber can charge RM600 for half a day's work, why can't I? Why do people make noise if I give them a quote that is probably lower than a plumber's quote, hour for hour? I don't understand the mindset of these people who want nice things, nicely designed, nice stationery for their company, nice websites, nice everything... and yet can't bear to pay out for it.

Just remember... you get what you pay for.

Jonathan Strange casting

To anyone who has anything to do with the Jonathan Strange film:

Tom Hollander for the gentleman with the thistle down hair!
Tom Hollander for the gentleman with the thistle down hair!
Tom Hollander for the gentleman with the thistle down hair!
Tom Hollander for the gentleman with the thistle down hair!
Tom Hollander for the gentleman with the thistle down hair!
Tom Hollander for the gentleman with the thistle down hair!
Tom Hollander for the gentleman with the thistle down hair!

Can't stop the music!

I'm going crazy with Mark Mancina's Blood+ soundtracks! The music is driving me insane with its haunting beauty and emotion. Plus, I've just finished watching Blood+ till the end, and to say I can't stop thinking about it is an understatement. I'm traumatised by all that's happened. I'm going mad, I tell you. And I can't stop the music! I can't stop it!

Korean BBQ Yumster

Last weekend, I was feeling kinda bored, so I called a few of my kaki for dinner. Dan, Bin, Thila and Lapsap (sorry, dunno what other name to give ya) joined me for a Korean BBQ dinner at Seok Gun in SS2. My first experience in Malaysia.



Since Lapsap is almost a Korean himself, we bade him do all the ordering. Happily, he ordered in Korean and we put all our trust in his tastebuds.

He proved himself to us with a wonderful dinner of beef, pork (there was pork, wasn't there? Or did we accidentally get a double order of chicken?), chicken and 3 types of soup. All very tasty except for that beancurd soup thingy. Can't tell you not to order that since I've no idea what it's called.



Those are all the side dishes that accompanied our order. Had fun trying them all, but I dunno if I'd have all of them again the second time. Nothing really stood out for me but maybe I just had a taste amalgamation situation in my mouth with all the spices.



That's Thila on the left, dreaming of Jason Castro of American Idol fame. Unfortunately, Jason himself was dreaming of Bob Marley.

I just had a thought: Isn't it funny how all my dinners end up with 5 people, no more no less?

Review: Cirque Balagan in KL

The experience of watching Cirque Du Soleil is to have watery eyes (you dare not blink), shortness of breath (you hold your breath because the stunts just go on and on and on and on) and prickly skin (the music and performance engulf all your senses).

Today's show was nothing like that, sadly, although the clown did quite well, getting some laughs out of us and being very likeable, staying in character all the while. Another character who stayed true to himself was the 'ringmaster', in this case some funny bird-faced guy carrying a dusty book and huge feather quill around the stage.

However, the rest of the cast just didn't live up to expectations. Most of the acrobats were just not world-class performers, being not very fluid, and not having proper training in performing to an audience. Cirque Du Soleil cast members have the benefit of an amazing artistic director who directs them in every tiny detail, from whether their hands should be open to the audience, to what degree their arms should be stretched out from their body. Acrobats are not natural performers and have to be trained, after all.

I was expecting a better show today. On the other hand, I thought that maybe I'd been spoilt, having already watched two shows from the best circus in the world - so after the show today I asked Mumsy Bumsy what she thought, and she gave the same response as above.

The choreography was well below the standard it should be when they charge people over RM300 for one show. The acrobats naturally are not Olympic standard (as those have already been grabbed by Cirque Du Soleil). Although some of them weren't bad, like the contortionist and the Oriental group of ring jumpers (whatever they're called) - they could be much more enjoyable with better choreography and training.

If you haven't seen this kind of cirque performance before, go and check it out anyway just to find out what it's like. Just buy the cheapest tickets and opt for the matinee show because the hall won't be full and they'll ask you to move to the front anyway. They're on for another 2 days.

Magic Sponge?

I've been receiving so many enquiries about the Magic Sponge I wrote about several months ago (type 'Magic Sponge' in the search bar at the top left). And every time I tell people it's at Village Grocer in Bangsar Village, they don't seem to be able to find it. So I decided to go for myself and check if they're still selling it.



Here it is.

It's still at the same place at the back of the store. To be exact, just walk up the Japanese food aisle towards the shelves displaying kitchen/cooking utensils.

Price is now RM5.90, but I still say it's bloody useful so go buy it and clean up that shit-infested laptop!

Men

I've been intending to write about so many things here but they all seem to require much thinking and planning before the writing actually gets achieved. But it's been a while now, so I thought I'd just jot down the topics instead of writing a full-blown post about them.

I had a meeting today, after so many weeks, at Hunky Jap Guy's office. So there I was, all hopeful, ringing the doorbell. I'd been to the office next door every day last week, but never had the opportunity to go to his office, so I thought, finally, today's the day! Anyway, I rang the doorbell and peered inside, but he wasn't at his desk. "Uh oh", I thought. True enough, he wasn't there today. Sigh. Hopes dashed, expectations dissolved. At least I know his name now, anyway.

I bumped into him a couple of weeks back at Mid Valley. He was with a girl. Hopefully not a girlfriend. Although it doesn't make a difference to me, seeing as I'm already in a relationship myself! But you know... I'm sure you girls out there will understand what I mean.

On the other side of the world, G has finally decided to buck up and work hard at his photography career. View his photos at gooodputty.com. They're really good. If anyone's looking for a photographer for an event, party, wedding or to take photos for a catalogue or ad, do contact him via email. He'll be available in KL from August 2008.

At least, he'd better be if he wants me to stick around.

What else is there? Oh, lots! But... my mind is suddenly a blank now and I'm starting to feel quite hot in here with all the windows closed.

Do I sound unfaithful?

May: Why don't you...

I know it's a bit late to be talking about doing something in May when there's only a week left, but "it's never too late" should be everyone's motto. So why don't you...


Image grabbed from official website

Watch Cirque Balagan, showing for only 5 days from 28 May. It is so rare for Malaysians to catch a performance in this genre - European circus - locally that no matter how expensive it may seem (RM93-RM353), it will be worth it. Sure, it isn't the Cirque Du Soleil, but you take what you can get! And this promises not to disappoint, based on the music I'm listening to on its website right now! Click here to listen.

For more information, visit Time Out KL.

Thank God for Fridays

Because...

1. Clients can't demand things for the next day
   
2. Everyone you meet is just a little happier (except clients)
   
3. Midsomer Murders is on TV
   
4. Sleeping late is guilt-free
   
5. Another week gone, another week closer to G's arrival
   

I love Fridays!

Change is necessary

It annoys me somewhat whenever people say that kids these days are overweight and obese because they stay inside playing their computer games and PlayStations instead of going out to the park. And then they'll go on to the topic of "I used to walk to school every day and now kids get sent in their 4-wheel drives and don't have to walk at all... that's why they get so fat!"

Well, you had to walk to school and play outdoors every day because those were the times and those things were done. In modern days, how do you expect kids to play outdoors and walk anywhere alone when there're so many mental people about to kidnap, rape or kill them?

These are the days when you have to find other ways to keep kids active. Can't just keep moaning about "those were the days, tsk tsk". Sure it's sad that your kids can't do the same things you did, but times change and you have to change along with it.

Art Grabbed

Dropped by Central Market today to see what was on offer at Art for Grabs, where everything is RM100 or less. Sounds potentially rewarding, doesn't it? So Bea and I went eagerly looking for hidden treasure.

Well, the Annexe Gallery was full with everyone displaying and selling their wares. I must say I was hoping for more art, rather than the abundance of crafts that were available. Sure, crafts is art too, but really, you don't have to go far to find crafts for under RM100, do you?



Ex-colleagues Danny and Winnie were there selling photographs. Very nice, but... I don't buy photographs. Why buy when your boyfriend is a photographer who takes brilliant photos? Plus, I don't frame photos of places I haven't been to, or of people I have never met. Having said that, though, please buy photos if they really take your fancy.





Oh yes, I also bumped into ol' Fahmi F who was bouncing around the place carrying some intellectual literature, or mind-provoking prose, or whatever it is he's championing at the moment. :P.

After buying a pair of handmade mengkuang earrings and some mini cupcakes for Mumsy Bumsy, I went downstairs to They Art Gallery to look for some real paintings. Everything's very affordable there with canvases ranging from RM25 into the few hundreds (but very worth it considering the size and technique of the artists).

By the way, I was speaking to an artist selling his paintings at the event upstairs, and found out one of his paintings cost just under RM2000, so I peered closer at the work to see what could make it worth so much. After which I still saw black and white lines and a huge smudge. To each his own, I guess.

Anyway, back at the gallery, a piece of art by Damis of Super Sunday, a graffiti artist, called out to me. So I bought it. Very nice, simple and good display of technique. It's now hanging on the wall next to the main entrance.

Viewing by invitation only.

An Enigmatic Post on Life and Love by One

After being virtually single for an extended period of time, one's mind (or eyes) can't help but start to wander. It should have happened before the four years it's taken, but in this country, somehow, guys just don't get it right.

(Until now, but technically, the wandering eye is looking towards the Far East)

And now that one's mind has started to wander, one starts to see the benefits of not walking down the aisle. Not committing to any one person frees one to steal as many glances as one might like to.

And one would really like to :) So she has stolen a little glance through the glass doors of the next door office today.

But can one continue doing this without consequences? I think not. And not, especially, to someone who is perfect for her in almost every way.

And, so, one guesses, there will be at least one path - a very desirable path, one might add, desirable but morally forbidden - that one will never be following.

Sigh.

Restaurant Review: Cova

There's something about a nicely made bed. Especially mine. It always makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

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There aren't many restaurants in KL that are really good in terms of service and/or food. Cova is one of the exceptions.

Located inside The Gardens just off the walkway from Mid Valley, it looks like any other ultra-modern, clichéd and personality-less restaurants. But we were hungry and it was close by. So we went in. And like any other ultra-modern, clichéd restaurant, the smoking area outside was full of yuppies. But we should be thankful enough that it's actually separated from the non-smoking area by an actual glass wall and not just by 3 feet of air.

Prices are pretty decent there - I ordered the chargrilled chicken wrap (felt like being healthy) which was under RM20, and a carrot and orange juice which was RM10.50 - also really decent for a genuine freshly-made juice.

The waiters were friendly and courteous, and the manager came over to explain some of the dishes and to tell me what it was that smelt so nice (fried chicken wings, by the way).



Unfortunately, the food took its own sweet time coming. I didn't keep time, but it was well over the usual wait. However, when my meal came, I have to admit it was worth it. The chicken wrap tasted just right, and the chips were authentic potato chips and cooked to perfection. Yelleh Belleh's pan-seared dory fillet waited another 20 minutes to show up, but the manager brought her a wildly tasty wild mushroom soup to tide her over in the meantime. And judging by the look on her face when she had the first taste of the fish and mashed potato... the wait was definitely worth the fish ;)



This restaurant comes highly recommended. I normally hate waiting for my food, but you can tell that this restaurant takes pride in their dishes - which makes it all worth it.

Me, my shelf and I

I'm sitting here in front of my 24" Intel iMac (gloat, gloat), eating Square Fruit Jelly, thinking of what to type tonight. How long has it been since you've had Square Fruit Jelly, by the way?

Oh wait a minute... it's not Square Fruit Jelly, it's TENTEN Fruit Flavoured Jelly. I'm sure they're the same thing anyway.

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I think I'm growing up.

I can see it in the different magazines I pick up now. The old me (before the quarter life crisis) collected GLAMOUR magazine every month without fail. And then Mumsy Bumsy dumped her copy of Harper's Bazaar UK on me.

In the past I'd pick up magazines like Vogue and Bazaar, but I'd pooh-pooh them, saying that they're just full of ads and a waste of money. In fact, they ARE full of ads, but I find now that I'm just as interested in the ads as in the articles. Because the ads show what current fashion trends are. Just like the fashion section of any mag. With better photography.

So today, I was at Czip Lee in Bangsar (only because I'd been uber lucky enough to find a parking spot right in front of it when I was heading to Eon Bank, and thus decided to make the spot worth it by spending some time in Czip Lee. Kiasu? More like, thankful), and I was looking for May's issue of Bazaar UK. Sadly (for me) and shamefully (for them), they didn't have it! They had Bazaar Malaysia, but it was wrapped in plastic and I was afraid it would contain pages of Aunty and Datin fashion. A HUGE NO-NO. So I put it back down (but with the option of picking it up again if I ever saw it without plastic).

I looked around some more and saw Vogue UK. Okay, I thought, I can't go wrong with Vogue. So I bought it. I've so far gone through the first 30 pages and... I prefer Bazaar. Vogue does have awesome pictures, but Bazaar has more interesting articles. Better written as well. Vogue's articles are really really dry - articles that you can't concentrate on or understand if you've not got a stilettoed foot in the fashion world.

I'm growing up. You can tell by my magazine shelf.

Eye Candy!

I'd been feeling pretty overloaded with work for the past three weeks because since I came back from the UK, Slavedriver has been tossing pretty much all his work my way. So I've had to meet and learn up everything on his clients - which I had no time for, because I had to finish projects that had already started and start on new ones I knew nothing about!

So, yes, pretty stressed :(

But earlier this week I finally caught up with Slavedriver at the office, and he gave me a run-through of some things I was working on. Now I don't feel quite as lost as I did, and talking to him kind of motivated me because I needed someone to tell me that, YES, I could do this work. I guess he kinda threw me the life jacket I needed.

Another perk this week was... Hunky Jap Guy.

He works in the office of one of my clients. I'd seen him twice before but first time was just a 'Hi', and second time was when he asked if I was leaving and opened the front door for me. Naturally, I'd already noticed that there was this hunky dude sitting in the corner, but as I had no work to do with him, we never really talked.

But this Monday... he opened the door for me again (these office doors always gotta be opened by some electronic magnetic thing) and we spoke a bit more about being late for meetings (not my fault, my watch was 10 minutes slow, and I'd even arrived 10 minutes early by my reckoning). Okay, so there was a third guy there too, some local uncle-type person I'm working with on this project, but he's pretty negligible, right?

So I'm pretty thrilled that I finally am on speaking terms with Hunky Jap Guy. It's just so hard to find real, live, male eye candy in KL. And boy is he eye candy :P I wonder when my next meeting is?

Fascinating Food

The UK has an amazing food phenomenon - the ready-made meal. You just drop by a supermarket, pick a frozen pack of Chicken Madras, Spaghetti Carbonara, Chinese Fried Rice, whatever you like (and often 2 for 1), bring it home, chuck it in the oven for 4 minutes and it comes out amazing. I mean it. It tastes really good.

But, as always, things go in circles, and the return of the "fresh local farmer's food" seems to be at our doorstep.

One such place which sells really cool farmer's produce is in Whitchurch, where we stopped by one day to get some food for dinner (and ended up buying loads of freshly made food, one of the best-tasting being the tomato and mozzarella meatball).

Tell me, will you ever see an onion this size in a KL supermarket?


No kidding, actual size. And don't you just love those little handwritten tags? Well, I do, anyway.

But wait a minute, Malaysia has its special food too. Mumsy Bumsy and I were in the kitchen. She was slicing a papaya and I was pottering about doing nothing as usual. What's special about that?

Check it out.



We considered putting it up on eBay for a fortune, but I guess common sense took over and we just ate the special little thing.

Azrin's Birthday @ La Bodega

My first party after arriving home was last Wednesday at La Bodega, Telawi. Azrin turned a whopping 27! We've now known each other for a bit over a decade! Whew!

Was a really good night. Bodega's always a good place to hang out because they have the BEST SERVICE EVER. I haven't experienced any better in KL (besides 789, but that may be because they know me?)

Here are some photos stolen off Jo P's Multiply album.




An innovative cake! There was a bottle of Bailey's and milk with a straw barely sticking out for sucking :P


The cake was really really tasty! Somewhat in between a cake and a brownie. Mmm!!

Breakfast at Tiffany's

I just watched Breakfast at Tiffany's. How amazing was Audrey Hepburn? How could she be so good-looking and such a good actress too? Made me cry at the end cuz it was kind of a sad, happy ending. Quite a different type of romantic movie. Can't they make movies like this anymore?

OK, back to work!

Did I mention that I have a new Mac? Woohoo! Yes it's true! A glorious 24" Intel iMac desktop. Power-nya! Makes work such a joy. Or as much of a joy as it can be. Mmm. 'Makes work less torturous' is more like it.

OK, back to work!

(Well, after I find a new wallpaper. Because now that my screen is so BIG, I need one that strettttcccches further. Hoohoo.)

No wonder my hair is dropping out

Do you think the paper clip factory purposely makes their paper clips link together in the box to irritate you when you try to take one out?

I am so OVERLOADED with work!

Plus, I've been sleeping late every day, and working (almost) every waking hour since I came back from England that I'm about to have a meltdown. Can't wait till G gets here and he can do some of the running around for me.

A bright spark amongst the clutter of paperwork on my table though... I just received my copy of the MATAHATI book I worked on together with Gwyn. It accompanies the MATAHATI exhibition currently on until tomorrow (April 13) at several art venues, including Galeri Petronas in KLCC. Haven't gone to see it yet, but will do tomorrow afternoon.

The book looks good!

A very, very irritating thing

Tell me, if I say "UK", do you hear "London"? If I say "England", do you hear "London"? If I say "Manchester", do you hear "London"?

If you do, I hate you.

London is London, for pete's sake! Stop assuming everywhere in the UK is called London and start opening your eyes and ears!

The next time someone makes that mistake in front of me, I'm going to damn well throttle them.

It's goodbye and hello

It's back to reality time...!

It's awfully sad to be leaving MD and G and family, but, well, life goes on and home beckons.

I'm leaving tonight and will be back in KL on Monday night. It'll be good to be back... although I'm not looking forward to rude and inconsiderate people. And inefficient service workers. I AM looking forward to seeing my family, my dogs and my apartment. NOT looking forward to endless hours of work, but AM looking forward to working those brain cells anyway :P

So goodbye MD! And hello again, my friends!

'Is this me?'

A few days ago, I was sitting down in a pub having dinner with G's mum, sister, brother, uncle, aunt and G.

I looked around and thought to myself, 'how surreal this situation is!' I never could have imagined being in this sort of situation, ie. being accepted into and considered part of, an English family, much less being in the hospital every day, with G and his mum, visiting his frail-looking dad.

But as I was having dinner that night, I looked around, tuned out the English voices, and allowed a thought that had been coming to me every so often to resurface. Call it a quarter-life crisis or whatever, but I asked myself, 'Is this really me? Or am I only acting as someone I think is me?'

Have I been acting happy, carefree and successful, or am I really those things? Am I really myself, then? And if I'm not, why am I acting like this? And if I'm only acting, why do I not know what I'm hiding from?

Why am I asking myself this? Am I afraid to be myself? Am I afraid of having a white boyfriend? And why do I sometimes feel like I don't fit in anywhere?

Sometimes I feel like I don't think the same way my peers do, and that scares me, because then I'm afraid that I won't have any friends. And then, I find that I think the same way G and the like think. Maybe I was born in the wrong country. But I hate to think that way, because I love Malaysia. I love being Malaysian and I wish I was more like my friends. But if I was, I'd probably be as fearful, unadventurous and self-centred as them (generalisation).

Not that I'm not.

But I like to think I'm more world-savvy, if not Malaysia-savvy.

Perhaps I've just gotta wait a few more years for the answers. To gain more wisdom. Or maybe I just need time to settle down in this new stage of my life.

Your questions answered

Haven't had time to select and resize photos yet, but thought I'd unveil my new plan first!

Since I'm always wondering what things mean, and why things are the way they are, I thought it'd be nice if other people could also send in their questions and get their answers here. Course, I don't know how many people will really do that! But thought I'd give it a try.

So do leave your questions in the Comments section after the newest post, and sleep better at night :P

MIA

I wanted to do a quick post last week announcing that I was about to embark on a week-long road trip to Scotland, but I forgot... so that's the reason I've been MIA. I'll be back with a proper post tonight or tomorrow, with some photos, stories... and a new plan for this blog!

Only in England?

I forgot to wish everyone Happy Leap Year yesterday!

I don't know if it was a big thing over in KL, but February 29 is the only day (traditionally) when girls get to propose to men. There were some programmes on TV here following some girls about to propose, but I didn't watch any of them. Had better things to do.

I did catch an advertisement promoting one such programme, and they had a clip of this girl going to her boyfriend's factory workplace, and she nervously said...

"Today is the day girls are allowed to propose to guys, and so I'm asking you now... will you marry me...?"
Boyfriend looking dazed (and maybe drugged), replies: "Yeah, go on."

Damn! If my boyfriend replied me in that manner I'd so totally bosh his head with a sack of potatoes (assuming I could lift one up that high).

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Anyway, I forgot to mention a coupla days ago, that something exciting and completely new happened to me and G. We were in an earthquake!!

Might have been in the news all the way in Malaysia, but probably not. It was a Monday or Tuesday night, and G and I were in the room watching a DVD on his computer when we felt slight swaying and we looked at each other with eyes wide open... the swaying got stronger, but not worryingly. This continued for about 5 or 6 seconds and it slowed down again. I was like, "What was that?!!" And G insisted it was a poltergeist under our beds. Sheesh.

The next day, the earthquake was on the news, and our little town was actually mentioned! The epicentre was actually quite far away in Lincolnshire, but the newsreader said that it was the largest earthquake in Britain for 25 years. No fatalities, but a 19 year old was sleeping in his bed when his chimney fell on his arm and he had to be taken to the hospital. Several houses had sustained large cracks in the walls and roof tiles falling apart. And here's where we were mentioned: "In M.D., a chimney fell on the High Street."

How exciting!

In The Sun yesterday, which is a real tabloid of a newspaper, equivalent to Malay Mail in KL, they had a short story accompanied by a huge photo... of a teenage couple quite near the epicentre of the quake, who had been doing "intimate things" when the earthquake happened. They told the paper that they didn't realise it was an earthquake but thought it was their lovemaking causing the shakes. Excuse me while I roll my eyes. Apparently they asked each other:

"Did the earth move for you, darling?"

Oh oh, I think my eyes are stuck in the back of my head now.