Day out with Maniacal Musicmaker

Met up with Maniacal Nick for lunch today at Chawan. Then went shopping at Village Grocer and he found this really weird yogurt thingy.


On one side of a decidedly ugly wrapper is a picture of food... I suppose to tell you how to use your yogurt on food. Hmm. And on the other side...


... a picture of a woman with a yogurt mask on her face. Uh, yeah... we should so get this yogurt cuz it has such multiple abilities. Gawd, it's just gross to eat from a yogurt tub that has a picture of a woman looking like that.

At another aisle, Maniacal Nick was checking out some... painkillers, I think... and in the same section was this:


Durex Play, a lubricant for intimate moments, placed between Panadol, SlimUp (shouldn't it be Slim Down instead, though?), mosquito repellent and a fever patch for kids. Yes, very good place indeed. So easy for people to find what they're looking for.

Strange things!

Crossing my fingers and wishing hard

Received good news in the mail this morning, so am pretty relieved. Just waiting for the next step now with crossed fingers.

Once the beach towels dried on the rack, they stopped stinking. But I think I'm gonna chuck them in for another round just for luck.

Yikes, 1.30pm and I haven't had lunch!

Oh, and I've been meaning to update my readers on that supposed "park for pets" near my place. Remember a few weeks back, when I was chased out of the main playground because I had two little dogs with me? Well, I drove past the area where the guy said pets are allowed, and OMG....... it's just a square piece of gravel land, about the size of a typical coffee shop ground floor (it's actually a parking lot at night). And in there, I saw about 10 dog walkers, half of them Caucasians, just standing around pathetically with their really nice dogs. I felt so bloody sorry for them and their dogs. Gawd, I'm gonna be one of them.

Come on, man, give us a break! At least set aside, even a small space, a place with proper grass and benches at the very least!

Will try to snap a photo one day I'm there.

A Monday in the life of Me

Oh gawd, I just took the beach towels out from the bucket where they were soaking, and they stink like a sewer! The water was brown and was so so gnarly. And then I found out that someone had chucked in my bikini and Zara top in as well. Thank you.

Put them in for a good wash in the machine and they still stink. Not as bad as before, but hopefully after the second round that's running right now, it'll be alright.

Sent some compulsory work back for feedback this morning (that has literally taken MONTHS to complete, and wait, isn't completed yet), and can finally move on to something interesting. Working on something for the Souled Out group now.

Had a good rant with two friends (one of whom is frachely), who supported and assured me that I am doing the right thing in insisting that someone moves out.

Hopefully I get some kind of resolution by the end of the week. Or I might end up with severe sleep deprivation.

Mid-year resolution: Keeping my plants alive and well.

PHOTOS: Melbourne May 2009

As promised, here are a few of them. The rest are on Facebook, and others are just not interesting enough for the general public :)

Bea in preparation for her wedding over the weekend.

Happy Janice and I walked to the supermarket one afternoon to get a couple of necessities. And came back with this lot.


My iBook's plug is quite loose when plugged into the international adaptor, so Happy Janice and I came up with the brilliant idea of using loads of cellophane tape to the plug to the adaptor. We'd succeeded in making it stay, when Marcus came in and said, "Why don't you just put a stack of books under it?".


Happy Janice and I waiting at the tramstop outside Julz's apartment.


Bea in her wedding gown and coat, after the superb wedding lunch, waiting to be sent home :P

The wedding entrée. So so so yummy. Forgot to take photos of the courses following this.


And a big jump to the Daylesford one night trip. Our four coffees at The Gourmet Larder.


Zlynn playing in the big autumn leaves at the Lavender Farm.


Sharry Berry and I camera syncing. Such superpowers.


Zlynn admiring a painting in The Convent Gallery. The girl in the painting does look quite charming.


Schrobbenmaster Rik camwhoring his own beautiful blue eyes.


Glorious blue and yellow Cirque tents!


Crowd in the Grand Chapiteau being entertained by the clowns while waiting for Dralion to start.


The Dralion stage.

A piece of uninspired writing

I don't think I've ever travelled so much in a short space of time as I have this year. First, Bangkok in early April, then Australia in late May and I've just come back from Pulau Rawa a few days ago.

Rawa was really nice. Very small beach, about 10 minutes walk from one end to the other, and yet even though Rawa Safaris (where we stayed) was probably about 75% occupied, it still felt very private. Accommodation and food was of really bare minimum quality, but good enough. I'd say it's better than Le Club though, which looked more backpacker and budget-friendly.

I didn't take any photos while there, unfortunately.

I still intend to put up some photos of the obstacle course Yelleh Belleh did a few weekends ago, which are on my phone, but my Bluetooth has very nicely decided not to work and I'll have to dig out the cable from the box. Will get to that soon. I guess.

Feeling quite uninspired to post at the moment so I'd better stop before my standard of writing seriously drops and I lose the two people who actually read this!

Do they exist?

Is there such a thing as a "boyfriend without issues"?

How could someone get into such a situation and bring these problems onto me?

Bloody hell, I hate female exes. Because I'm a girl, and I know how girls think.

How can you get entangled with someone so freaking crazy?!

One week from now, I'd better hear some good news.

God gave us brains for SOMETHING

On Friday night, I was driving home after dinner and right off the Federal Highway, in the middle of the road, was this extremely slow motorcyclist. I was about to honk him for stalling and blocking traffic, when I saw his L plate, and that he was just a boy.

So, being the soft-hearted person I am, I had to brake abruptly and try to change lanes, which was difficult as other cars were zooming by as well. Then I saw that this L biker was following his older brother, who was on another bike, waving at him and guiding him on the road. Well, on its own, it's quite sweet that he's teaching his younger brother how to ride, but what the heck... freaking barely off the highway, late on a Friday night?? Does he want to get his younger brother killed?

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Last night I was meeting Sharry Berry and friends at La Bodega Telawi to say farewell to Julz (who's back to Melbourne today) and to also celebrate his birthday today. Weeknights are usually good parking down the McDonald's row, in front of Poh Kong and Saravana Bhavan. As expected, I found a spot and turned into it. There was a big Indian family who had just parked next to my spot and who were halfway alighting from their car.

So I waited for them to remove themselves from my space.

There was a man who had alighted from the passenger seat, who was just standing there, in my space, looking into the middle distance, dreaming. And at the backseat, a fat woman was waiting for another fat woman to come out. Obviously they were blocking me so I waited politely. But how long does it take before you start to lose patience with people getting out of their car?

The fat woman finally got out of the car, and the first fat woman took her hand, held it and they both started talking to each other for a few seconds. Geez, man! Then after the clenching of hands together, they slowly waddle away, and I inch forward and the bloody man is STILL standing in my space, dreaming. With me inching towards him, fire in my eyes, he finally realises about one foot away from my car, turns and walks slowly back out to the shops.

OMG I hate stupid people!!!

New internet!

The guys from Sentralfon came this morning to install my new internet. It's Ethernet To The Home (don't ask me what that is), and basically my internet comes in through cables instead of wirelessly, or through a telephone line, which apparently can't give as high a speed as ETTH can. Well, at least that's what I understand. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

So far we tested the speed and it seems really fast, about 250kbps up and down, but I'll only really be able to use it this evening when my wireless router gets connected, since I'm in the office and the cable is outside in the hallway.

Good timing though, since my existing Izzi wireless internet account is on its last day today!

If You Know You're Right, Don't Be Rude

Nothing interesting to talk about these days. Well... actually, on Sunday, I decided to take the dogs out for a much-needed walk. I drove the to the Lake Gardens, but once I reached, I saw a big sign saying "No Dogs"... :( Discrimination! So I drove them back to Taman Desa, to the park we usually go to during the week. As it was a Sunday though, the park was absolutely brimming with people. I leashed the dogs and took them a few rounds.

Now these are tiny dogs, mind you... little silky terriers that don't bark or disturb other people (on the leash, that is). And yet, after our third round, this pissed off Malay guy shouts from 100 metres away, "Hallo! No pet allowed! Got sign there! No pet allowed!". Okay, so I had only just seen the sign two minutes before he shouted at me, so I didn't argue with him. I just said "Oh." and walked across the park to the other side even though there was an exit right next to me.

I was pretty upset because my poor dogs hadn't done anything, and yes, I know that other dogs might not be as well-behaved, but it was just upsetting that the poor little things had been rejected twice in one day :( And by such an unfriendly guy too. He could have at least said in a nice manner that there was a sign saying No Pets Allowed, instead of shouting at me angrily and using the existence of a sign in a defensive manner.

So after exiting the park, I purposely walked around the perimeter of the park with the dogs just to say that, okay, we won't lick your bloody ankles 2 metres away, in your fenced up enclosure, but we're perfectly allowed to jump on you if you so much as step out in our path onto non-park territory.

After one round, a Chinese guy comes out in front of me, looking all apologetic and concerned, and says, "There's a little park further down the road past the traffic lights where everyone brings their pets. Pets are allowed there so you can walk your dogs there." Okay, as he said that, I had envisioned this tiny space where all the rejected and outcast animals and their owners were bumping into each other's shoulders just because that was the only space where pets were allowed. What a stupid country!

But that was very nice of him to go out of his way to tell me that. He must've been standing nearby when the freaking clown shouted at me and felt that instead of just chasing us away, he should also suggest another place for us animal-loving rejects.

Anyway, it was too late to visit that park that day, but I will definitely bring my dogs there this weekend. Thanks, Mr Chinese Guy from the Taman Desa Park!

I'm back!

I'm looking for art lessons for kids as I'm typing this. Waiting for a page to load on how to make paint like how the cavemen did. Bet that will keep the kids interested!

Anyway, got back from Melbourne two days ago and really enjoyed hanging out and chatting to my old friends again. I haven't moved any photos from my camera to my mac yet, but will definitely do that soon, when work becomes a little less hectic (also, I've just started playing Diaper Dash on my pc and I get hooked on to that whenever my mind gets tired of working, so more procrastination there...)

Tomorrow night is a little reunion with college mates from Limkokwing. Looking forward to that!

More stories to come when the photos are ready to be uploaded ;)

A Day at Home

Yes! Internet is back up at Janice's! Think it was just a case of reconfiguration and changed settings, luckily nothing more complicated than that.

However, I just found out that my external hard drive cable is not the same cable that can be connected to my camera. And I have no card reader. So no photos can be uploaded till I get back to hot ol' Kuala Lumpur. Awww.....

I spent the day at home today, making up for lost internet time hehe... didn't do much actually. Apart from booking a Sydney hotel for next week. That should be fun. Meeting up with the Sydney gang.

It's getting really cold here. I'm hiding out in the living/dining area now because it's the only room with a heater. My room is so cold! I'll only go in when I'm ready to go under the covers and stay there :P

My Melbourne gang are watching Billy Elliot in the theatre now. Opted not to go, but alas, I saw the commercial on TV the other day and it looks really good! Anyway, I've got Dralion to look forward to, so I don't feel so bad.

I hope tomorrow's a better day weather-wise so I can go out and spend the money I should be saving.

Bea's Wedding

The internets has been down at Janice's all weekend so I've had no chance to update my blog. Been taking a few photos of the mischief I've been getting up to, but until I have access to the internets on my own laptop (using someone else's now), I can't upload any photos.

To cut it short, I've been meeting up with everyone here, and tonight is The Big Get-Together Dinner. Gonna be great!

This morning I got up early to head into the city for Bea's wedding ceremony and reception. Made me tear a few times, listening to the maid of honour's speech and the video presentation she prepared for her elder sister. Complete with messages from friends back in KL who couldn't make it to Melbourne for the ceremony. Awwww!!! Food was good... and it was awesome to get a little intoxicated with wine and bubbly in the afternoon. Helps keep the chill away heehee!

Well, off to dinner now, so hopefully Janice's internets is back up tomorrow after I give them a call and reconfigure some techie thingies :S

First day in Melbourne

In Melbourne now... feel tired this evening, probably from lack of sleep. Was busy watching The Simpsons, Twilight and Australia on the plane. Australia was so much better than I thought it would be. I really recommend it!

Am at Bea's house now helping her prepare for her wedding reception. Place cards, corsages and truffles... yummy!

Okay signing off for now... off to dinner with Janice.

Locked out!

So, to continue my week of drama (yes you are missing something because I shan't write about the drama I faced on Monday night - you know who you are... yes, you)...

I went out this morning to drop a mockup with a client, then thought I'd come home and have a nice afternoon finishing up other work and doing some housework before I leave for Melbourne tomorrow morning. So came home all hungry and thirsty (cuz I rushed out in the morning), unlocked my door, pushed it, and it got stuck... locked and unlocked again, pushed it, and it opened... 2 inches! BECAUSE THE DAMN LATCH HAD BEEN PUSHED INTO LOCK POSITION BY THE BLOODY STRONG WIND! (Okay partly my fault since I left the balcony doors open to let the wind in).

So I digged a card out of my purse (first used my IC, then decided I'd be in even more trouble if it broke, so used my Bonuslink card... see it can be useful sometimes) to try pushing the latch back. Which of course didn't work. So gave a huge sigh of frustration (which echoed in the corridors rather marvelously) and went down to call the house technician. Who looked incredulously at me and came up with a guard. And on the way up they were talking about how this could've happened, and the technician goes sarcastically, "Tak taulah, tanya dia!" as if I don't bloody understand Malay.

Anyway, they came to check out the situation, laughed at me to themselves, then went down to get a long metal ruler. The guard tirelessly worked at my latch for half an hour, and finally got the bolts out and the latch came loose. Allelujah! Allelujah! In the middle of it, I really felt like taking a photo of him and calling it "How to Break and Enter Using a Metal Ruler". But then I thought he might not like it as I could frame him for breaking into my house and getting him fired and possibly deported back to wherever he comes from. Darn phones with camera snapping sound effects!

I was just thinking, "Thank goodness I don't have to use the toilet right now."

Never been so happy to see my door open. Never ever.

PHOTOS: Bangkok April 2009

I feel guilty for having not blogged for 3 weeks, so here's a short post to show everyone I'm still here and haven't given up on my blogging!

I just came back from Bangkok a week ago. Was my first time there and I had high hopes for superb shopping and awesome nightlife. Well, shopping I wasn't disappointed. Although it was super tiring, but I managed to get a few items I'm really happy with. The malls and buildings are really nice and most importantly, have nice nice air-conditioning.

Nightlife, on the other hand, was a little disappointing. Lapsap Kel who proclaimed that RCA was awesome, was sadly mistaken. I think Sharry Berry had also mentioned partying there. Well, we went into Route 66 and 808, apparently two of the more happening clubs there, and were severely disappointed. By the music, the deejays and the crowd. The clubs themselves looked awesome... massive buildings and nice lighting. But I have to maintain that KL partygoers are so much more fun.

Ahh... well, I said I'd write a short post, but what the heck... here are the photos from Bangkok. These are not on my Facebook, so fret not, you will not be overloaded with the same photos :)


Smoky in the plane.


Pints of beer at Bully's!


Schrobbenmaster Rik and Alex K at Bamboo having shisha.


McDonald's in Thai script.


Me in stupid glasses in the iMax 3D theatre watching Monsters vs. Aliens.


Me and Plum at Gazebo. Holding an RM50 bloody cocktail there. Not even that much liquid in there!


Taking the boat to our destination... Platinum mall!


Schrobbenmaster Rik giving a weird face to the camera.


People getting off the boat.


In front of Central World.


Having dinner at the Old German Beer House before hitting the clubs.


One of the rooms in Route 66 at RCA.


Party people at 808.


Outside 808, people drenched in water and foam. Pre-Song Kran party, I reckon.


Adjourned to Wong's after and had a really fun time! That's Sophie and Pete. And a guy about to puke in the background.


That's Wong at work.


Mini chinese lanterns to show his heritage ;) And 80s music video to show how "young" he is? Heehee.


Next day, sightseeing on the Chao Praya.


View from the river.


Rehearsals at Wat Arun for the upcoming Song Kran festival.


Schrobbenmaster Rik and I at Wat Arun.


Some artsy photo snapping on his part.


Nice detailing on the Wat. Love how people in the old days could spend time on making beautiful and intricate things.


Watching a golden cat watching a white kitten half its size.


Man-made flood on Khao Sarn Road. Some pipes burst, I believe. Probably just another day in the lives of Khao Sarn backpackers.


"OMG what a bloody hot day". Jumping back in the boat to go home.

PHOTOS: Birthday 2009, Yassir's Birthday, Funny Dan

Not in the mood for work today so I'm diligently updating my blog. People go on living when they're not working, you know.

Here are some randoms from my party.


Uncle Henry and me.


Dunno why Sharry Berry wants to shout at me on my birthday *sniff*


Now she's feeling bad about it ;)

And some randoms from Always Wasted Yassir's







The many faces of Dan the Drinker


I really can't describe this expression.


About to throw up?


Dark, intense look a la Antonio Banderas?

What did I get for my birthday?

Okay, so here's the usefulness of having Wish Lists. Anyone who hasn't done so yet, should!

Seems the older you get, the less presents you receive. But the presents that you do receive are bigger and better! So no complaints there :)

• A shower FM radio ➤ thanks to Schrobbenmaster Rik
  
• Artsy/designer/vintage tableware (plates, cups, cutlery) ➤ thanks to Frachely and John T (who was nice enough to take photos at my party too)
  
• Any perfume in a beautiful bottle (btw, my Coco Mademoiselle by Chanel is finished) ➤ still open for any generous soul
  
• Wine glasses (at least ONE matching pair) ➤ thanks to Yelleh Belleh
  
• Comfy, soft, thick bathroom rugs (the larger the better) ➤ thanks to Tequila Lin and Dan the Drinker
  
• A short break to Bangkok, Thailand ➤ well, wasn't a gift, but I am going next week! ;)
  
• 3 months in Paris, France ➤ open for another generous soul (Mumsy Bumsy did sponsor some of my ticket to Melbourne, so it's just as great!)
  
• La Senza shopping vouchers (a gal can't have too much lingerie) ➤ anyone?
  
• Vodka or whisky (as stock for my next party - which the giver will most definitely be invited to) ➤ got some wine instead, which is just as good
  
• A large living room rug, preferably dark (black/brown/grey) and furry/hairy ➤ anyone??
  
• All-white plain/textured (NO patterns) tissue box covers ➤ guess this will go to my Christmas Wish List 2009
  
• Big white artificial flowers (roses/lilies/etc) - 20 of them would be lovely :P ➤ as will this!
  

Awesome gifts, thanks everyone!!

Zouk's 5th Birthday (Weekly roundup #3)

Yes, another weekly roundup because I've been too busy to update as regularly as I would love to.

After the plumber last week, guess what... time to fork out money again for my parking fines!! First up was MBPJ (formerly MPPJ, for those not in the know)... R kindly offered to go for me since his office is in the MBPJ tower anyway. He got it down to RM30! Whoopee! That's less than a movie for two at GSC Signature, by the way.

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Jaunty Josh had put our names down on the VIP guestlist for Zouk's 5th anniversary bash, so R and I headed there... 2 hours after we were supposed to (one's gotta be fashionably late, doesn't one? Okay, to be honest, it's actually, one's gotta have dinner, doesn't one?). We lined up at the Media and VIP invites booth looking very important and glad not to be queueing up with the commoners.

And then...

The woman there couldn't find our names! Grrr... she kept asking are you on the members' guestlist? And I kept saying, no, we should be on the VIP guestlist... and still she kept looking IN THE SAME LIST. It finally registered in her thick skull that we were on another list, and she picked up another piece of paper and found our names immediately. Phew. And a what the...?! How annoying of you to keep us VIPs standing there searching for our names? And then... she picks up the blue bands and sticks them on our wrists. Hey... it's the red bands that say VIP, I wanted to tell her. But I'm not that arrogant heehee. As long as I get in, and get to see what's happening in there, that's all that matters.

So we walk in and bump straight into Jaunty Josh with the customary hot blogger chick on his arm. Sometimes there are two. That night there were three. So he obviously had no time to chat to us. Just made some introductions all round, and we left him to check the rooms out.

The mainroom was pounding, really good music there. Got a drink, took a while as they usually do... bopped our heads a bit and watched people dancing. Then went exploring at Barsonic - which was completely empty! What a huge difference from when we were last there for that Japanese dude, whatsisname... oh yeah, Shinichi Osawa. Wasn't feeling any vibe up there so we moved to Phuture, which should always be packed since this is KL, after all. It was decently filled with a before midnight crowd, so we ordered a drink at the bar. Bumped into Giggsy Tan there too.

After about an hour we decided to give Barsonic another try, since it's our favourite room in the club. And yikes, it was another disappointment! Even after midnight, it was just as empty as before. Did see someone interesting though... one of my ex-crushes was there, taking me by surprise, but I was glad to realise that I had absolutely no feelings for him anymore. I just wanna find out what the bloody heck his problem was last December. Pfft... doesn't matter though. We just exchanged waves and then practised ignorance.

Finally went back down to Zouk and woohoo! Lapsap were there producing customary Barsonic sounds in Zouk mainroom. A little unbalancing, but awesome all the same! Ended the night enjoying their mixes... just had a whole lot of fun. Thanks Jaunty Josh!

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On Friday I had scheduled myself to pay the DBKL fine. Had to go into town to the main office in order to get my fine lowered to RM30, so I made the trip. It was a real experience for R! We thought the counter was at the lobby (as was told by the guy at the drive-in counter), but instead, R had to run up 22 floors (lifts were rosak, of course) in order to get the ticket stamped to reduce it to RM30, then run back down to pay at the lobby counter. Hmm... I had to make it up to him of course, which I surely did, with a yummy meal at Dome after that.

Didn't have much time after Dome before we had to get ready and leave again for Always Wasted Yassir's birthday party at Poppy. Ridiculously expensive parking there though... we shoulda just parked at 7atenine since we ended up having one last drink there after Poppy anyway. While there, we both got picked up by a drunken Scot. And then abused by a drunken Englishman. And consequently made peace with two Italians.

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Next up will be some miscellaneous photos from my birthday party (the official album is on Facebook) and some other randoms. Check back soon (hopefully)!

My toilet's sucking me dry

My toilet's done me in again!

The pipe below my sink, which holds it up (it's a wall-attached sink), came loose a few days ago and started leaking water out. Got it temporarily fixed with tape (Mr Tape is one of my favourite people in history) and called the plumber in this morning. I only had RM250 in my purse, but figured a bit of fixing up shouldn't cost too much, even if he has to buy another pipe.

Well, of course he had to buy a new pipe because, hey, this is me, and this is my birthday month... I seem to fork out a lot of money around this time of year. By the way, I didn't mention that I got another fine, this time by MBPJ. Same RM100 shit.

Anyway, he calls me from the shop to say he's found the matching pipe, and do I want to confirm his services for RM280? My eyes popped out of their sockets. Luckily I was wearing my specs then, so managed to catch them before they rolled away. Okay, that was a little gross and gory.

Obviously, I had to have it changed, so I said alright, for RM250.

So my purse is now as light as the Samsonite® Aeroline (a little advertising there, I dunno why). Just a couple months ago, I had to spend RM600 on unclogging my toilet bowl. Which didn't even really help, because in the end, they found out that the original plumbers had installed the wrong size toilet bowl for me, and I couldn't change my whole toilet bowl, it being only a couple years old.

Grrrrrr......... well, hopefully the dinner and movie tonight will lift my spirits a little :P

Just ruined my week.

I'd thought this week was my lucky week, being my birthday week - first, I found out that it's also school holidays, which means that I have no art classes to prepare for! Not only that, I don't have to wake up freaking early on Saturday, so I can party nicely on Friday (my birthday) itself!

Then, I decided to spend all week celebrating, well, pre-celebrating for the coming of my 26th birthday... not sure what's up yet, but it'll surely be fun! My birthday itself on Friday will be spent with close friends, with lots (and lots) of wine and talking nonsense all night... what could be better than that? :P The next day, I'll be celebrating with collegemates, another fun bunch of guys who talk even more nonsense. Here's hoping Dan The Drinker honours us with more yoga poses this year.

So all in all, I'm in a rather good mood this week. Work is not exceedingly stressful, life is great! And then...

I received a summons.

From DBKL (City Council), no less. Whose summonses are worse than the police's.

I was only gone a measly half an hour!!

And I have to pay RM100 for a spot that WAS NOT EVEN BLOCKING ANYONE.

I always find this happening - a driver gets fined for going 10km/h above speed limit, when the ones going 60km/h over... don't. I, who parked in a residential neighbourhood, far from any traffic, at 11am, get fined a whopping RM100, when the damn cars on Jalan Telawi (post office row), who hold up traffic and force two lanes into one... don't.

So I parked where I shouldn't have. But at least be fair and fine EVERYONE instead of the people who are easy to fine, ie. the people driving insignificant cars (meaning they're not lawyers, politicians, or children of lawyers, politicians).