cny lethargy

feel lethargic now...

chinese new year has been a bit exhausting with some late nights. been waking up late in the late morning 2 days in a row as well. that is mainly because i have no more activities lined up for chinese new year. no more open houses to visit. how bored. the house is all quiet at the moment too. only the grandparents are with me. the rest (parents, aunt and yeelin) have gone up to cameron highlands to visit aunt's friend. wei should be in bangkok already now. he left home yesterday and today he flew to bangkok with his friends.

i still have 2 more days at home to rejuvenate...i hope the battery will not fall dead because of lethargy ;)

oh and good news for perakians...3 february is a public holiday for the state! it is to mark the silver jubilee of the sultan. yeah! go to work one day, then another day of rest. and on 9th february also holiday for thaipusam! woohoo!!!







all food are in this sort of red plastic covered jars this year. fill till all the four corners cannot take.
our food for reunion dinner...err...the steam fish is missing...someone forgot to take it out from the wok...haha...but dun worry...the mistake was later realised and the whole fish only left the bone by the end of dinner.

sob sob...the meagre chinese new year decorations we have in this corner...

this is taken today...the turtle actually got out from his pail today and was crawling all the way to the gate...beanie barked the whole house down and got grandpa's attention who later notified grandma. and i ran down from upstairs after beanie did not stop barking. the turtle crawled into the drain but before it dropped into the big drain in front of the house, grandma scooped it up. phew! so a feather in the cap for beanie for saving the turtle from escaping!!! beanie was actually more scared of the turtle...it did not even touch it...just followed it and barked all the way.

oh, another beanie story. few days ago mom caught a rat in the rat trap. so she boiled a pot of hot water to u know what. when the water was boiled, she brought the rat in the trap out into the garden and poured the hot water to kill it. beanie followed the whole procedure with curiousity. then when the rat died, mom put the pot down and wrapped the rat in plastic and went outside to throw the rat into the bin. after that, mom came back to retrieve the pot from the garden and when beanie saw mom retrieving the pot, he straightaway shot to the back of the house. haha...i think u guys know what that dog was thinking right? ...would i be next? gosh....he was sooo funny.

oh, those in tm yearning for some pizzas, u can do so now until feb 1. there is pizza on wheel in front of the bus station. although they only have pan pizza, well, it is still pizza. i bought one on the 2nd day of cny on the way back from sing thian's house with yeelin.

yeelin has been with me during my house visits too since she had nothing to do. well, of course she collected a few ang pows on the way, but her most important mission was to introduce all to the game of chikam!

yes, she brought the cards along in my bag! now almost all my friends know how to chi kam. so next year more kakis i guess since it is such a fast game and u really get to see who is lucky.

this is the entrance of pavilion on the third day of cny. went to candy's house in subang jaya for lunch with aunt and yeelin. i also visited pikkien at her grandma's new condo. then it was off to sg wang and pavilion after picking up jia en. aunt was in pavilion to meet her secondary school friend....it has been ages since they met. aunty raslah came with her husband uncle zamry. so i accompanied them while yeelin and en went to sg wang. we reached home 30 mins before midnight....owww...so tiring. as the driver for the day, i managed to pocket rm100 worth of red packets. haha...so not bad eh. the collection this year has not dwindled, the amount i get is still the same as last year's. yeelin seeing me still able to take in ang pows said she does not want to get married. waaa....just for this reason???

any activities for this weekend? i think aunt and yeelin will follow uncle back to kl tomorrow and on sunday, they have got a room in genting. so i won't be seeing them as they will be leaving for australia on 5th. a good time to finish watching my curious case of benjamin button.

happy niu year

happy new year everyone! i wish everyone a good year although the forecast has not been that good. anyway, the ox is a tough and resilient creature, so just hang on there and i am sure things will turn out fine.

new year card is losing its presence this year. i only got 4...3 from non-chinese colleagues and one from the house developer. bad times no card? well, yesterday had a bbq at ying's house...been ages since we last had one. there were only 6 of us: ying, sally (in picture), chanling, chailih, kamwei and yours truly...with 32 chicken wings, 2 dozens of sausages, japanese cucumber, beer and water. what a small gathering. the rest were at the in-laws or not back to tm yet.

the chicken i marinated got praises and sally proclaimed it as the best chicken wings she ever had (ahem) so that made my day. there are still 8 wings left at ying's house, so i guess her lunch or dinner tonight will have fried wings as well. not bad ah i tell you. the red onion juice is really fragrant and i sacrificed my tears in front of the mortar and pestle.

ying ying the satay woman...just for a while. the mobile tray is really handy. 4 wings at one time. i think i had 5 wings and about 6 sausages yesterday. sally had about 7 or 8 wings. chanling about 7 wings too. what big eaters we were...but the wings were not big la.

this is this afternoon's lunch....offerings to the ancestors. yummy?? all their favourite food. see the big abalone? tonight's dinner and soup. yum yum!

klcc and its simple decoration at the centre court. friday night was not buzzing at all. i think most ppl was heading home. the road was filled with cars but there was no congestion. phew!

my shopping: a new adidas original digital watch to replace my nike which is already dead. love the white and its classic design. the last piece left. 15% discount and paid using the cash rebate vouchers i got from isetan. hehehehe.

five houses in a row in front of my rented house in bidor- all dazzling with lights for the new year. they are really in cny mood. ppl actually came to check out the lights on motorbikes. there is more celebratory atmosphere in the small town. kl is already emptying.

well, i hope that i will get a rest this week. time to rejuvenate and reenergise the flattening cells. hope the rest of you will enjoy the break as well. can't be hoping for too much ang pows at this age. just keep fingers crossed for less debts now.

yeah....one week break!

are you in the mood to celebrate chinese new year already?? it is 3 days away.
the new year mood is not really in the air at the work place. yes, we play new year songs early in the morning and the administrators had distributed mandarin oranges and cookies...and oh, the clerical staff too gave each of us a cny card (my one and only this year)...but that's it. everyone is so busy completing all sorts of paperwork which we need to send in in january. that means by this friday lah! when we come back to work, it is already february.

will be going to proton city tomorrow morning and then coming back to bidor and then back to tm again. hope the event in proton city will end early. will head to kl with aunt and yeelin to shop at isetan. i am sure we will be stuck in the jam on the way back at night....but expected lah. wei will be on the road on friday night too...so maybe we will meet on the highway. am taking the opp to still get the rm10 cash voucher for every rm100 spent in the cosmetifc dept. i'm not getting anything there lah...only aunt. have to help wei look for his cny shirt...such a good sister...shopping for brothers all the time. hehehe.

got this from vevon...yeah...fried crabstick. yummy....i wish the jar was this large. greedy....

and how i love this photo. the exuberance of childhood. i love how the blue sky meets the yellow estate worker houses and then the green from from the not so lush palm oil estate. and how all the boys are walking or trying to run in one line. this is the estate which is down the road from the row of house where i stay. the stream does invite many boys to frolic in its water. what a wonderful childhood.

hot hot off the frying wok. and it is such a hot hot day as well.

the weather is cool in the morning and evening while burning hot in the afternoon. this kind of weather will continue till the end of the month i read.

i will be tanned for the new year no doubt. another few days on the field and i will be toasted. so much for the fair skin.

aunt and yeelin coming back tomorrow. so more baking in the house?? or are they going to be spending their time in kl??

isetan is having their cosmetic vouchers promotion till next saturday...so i am sure aunt will get her stuff. so not worth it if you dun get the cash vouchers. that reminds me to leave my isetan card at home for them.

ox coming soon

cny is just around the corner and all my neighbours in bidor have started lighting up their houses with colourful and bright twinkling lights. it is quite a welcoming sight turning into my row and seeing all the lights. even the plants are not spared. my house is the most pathetic and barren. not that we mind. still only 2 of us in the house, can't find a third person to share.

and damn...no more dinner sent to the house starting from next week. the caterer is resting for cny period. how??? some suggested maggi mee for every night...oh help! too lazy to cook and i dun have cooking ingredients...not even cooking oil now! after cny also, the caterer will only be cooking lunch, so if i am to order, my food will arrive by noon and i will keep it until dinner time when everything in the carrier will be cold. sigh...another caterer maybe? but she is the only one in the town.

mom has started baking pineapple cookies...but this time the dough is thicker because of a different mould. i want lots of jam and thin dough!!! but still yummy lah.
the arrow shoots (nga ku) are already peeled and in the fridge. just waiting to be sliced into the boiling oil.

and i got new year pressies too....

2 from mankit and 2 from puiye. so nice of them...i have stacked all the boxes high instead of in a row. save space.

and a hamper...maybe the biscuits will come in handy when i go hungry at dinner time. from the chong and liew family.

exhaustion is kicking in at the workplace. one saturday done, 3 more replacements to go for the year. a meeting in ipoh on tuesday...yeah...escape work. but of course, come back from meeting, more work. then friday proton city in the morning and then cny!

let me go through this coming week with as little trouble as possible please.

green

An explosion of fire from the east rocked all the buildings in the vicinity. It had been a peaceful morning in the city until the sudden change of event.

The green grass on the field turned into ashes of grey within seconds. People stumbled out of their houses with puzzled looks on their faces while crying children were soothed in their parents’ arms. Office buildings were abandoned as the workers who had just turned in to work streamed out from their blocks to the source of commotion.

The sea of faces that filled the space on the road was like a scene from a disaster movie.

Rina was among the crowd of dazed people. She was in her favourite tee of 5 dancing ballerinas on tiptoe. The sudden explosion had messed up with her preparation to meet her best friend at the latest shopping mall to hit town that morning. She was just about to do her make-up when the loud noise came. She stumbled in her room as she felt the building swaying and her arm had knocked down a bottle of ink from the table. The cover of the bottle came undone and spilt the blue ink onto her new carpet. She could not be bothered to check the extent of damage on her thousand-dollar carpet as she quickly dashed out of her apartment to the nearest exit stairs. Other occupants like her who had been shaken from their morning routine had already filled the way.

No one spoke a word. Nobody knew what it was that caused the loud noise. They were cautious and wary with each step that brought them closer to the field. As Rina’s apartment block was one of the nearest buildings to the spot, she and the occupants were the first to reach the scene.
What they saw made them more puzzled than ever. The grass which was covered in grey had formed into a grey triangle. Whispers were abound as everyone was wondering what it was. The sky still looked clear and the triangular patch gave no sign that it had fallen from the sky.
As the crowd grew larger by the seconds, a loud cry suddenly rang out from the patch of grey triangle.

“People of Tristano!”
Everyone stopped in their tracks and mouths were ajar.

“We have come in peace. We would like to apologize for the unexpected landing. Our captain had some difficulty finding this fertile spot but the problem has all been fixed now.”

“We are here because we need your earth to help us continue living. Our planet has exhausted itself of its ability to generate life. This piece of green we are taking from you is our only hope. We have no other choice. Your generosity will always be treasured by the people of Guber.”
With that, a sudden darkness came and then brightness. Rina had to use her hand to shield her eyes from the sudden rays. The patch of grey was still there and everyone stood there as if they had just been woken up from a dream. Was there really life outside this planet? Or was someone just pulling their legs?

Nobody knows till this day, but the patch of grey still remains. It is now surrounded by lush green grass in the city park and is a reminder to the people of Tristano how precious their green was.

ok...not that i have nothing to do...but i gave a task to others to write with the 5 phrases/words which i have highlighted. the intro paragraph just popped up in the lull of silence as the others started picking up their pens and i started writing mine. and above is what i have. anyone else like to try?

p/s: the jetlag phase is over...i can sleep well. phew.

random pics

photos from last week...

the magic sleep potion which worked for a few hours when the effect lasted. well, at least some sound sleep. i think i can do without the potion now. slept well this weekend at home.

phone accessory from shanghai and a woven bookmark from turkey...from colleagues

from my housemate...i think she got it from thailand as well...a hairclip...unfortunately, i dun have that much hair to be clipped.

new curtains in the room...very cheery

windchime from thailand...from housemate too...with suns, star and moon.

he asked me, "aren't you going to make me famous in your blog?" well...i better satisfy him just this once again. he was in the tee shirt that i brought back from germany. aunt bought for him. i wanted one for myself, but they did not have it in my size. yes, it is boys' size.

it is not even 10.30p.m. and i am going to hit the sack soon. yawn!
yesterday managed to sleep without any assistance. yahoo! i hope the jetlag period is finally over.

went to get my medic report today....clean bill of health. and i finally found out my blood type...yeah...30 years after i was born. i am O positive. very common and is a suitable donor.
should try to donate blood eh, but scared of the needle on the arm. we will see.

nite.

beanie time

yummy papaya...his daily fruit diet...twice, once from mom another from dad. they share the papaya.

did i tell u how excited beanie was when i first got back from germany? the moment i reached home, he was out walking somewhere with mom. so when mom finally reached home with beanie and i yelled out his name, he pulled mom along all the way to the door and was shaking his whole body non-stop. he missed me!! undeniable! that was sooo sweet.

and today when i got home too, it took me few mins from the gate to the door. i parked my car outside. again, he was excited to see me. he circled me and nudged to be stroked. so every few steps i took, he stopped me. finally, i was rescued by dad.

i heard atticus made beanie run up and down playing fetch. atticus would use a stick and hit the 100plus can, and he would then call out 'fetch'. beanie of course enjoyed himself but he too grew tired after a while. hahaaha. he went back to his place near the pingpong table and did not budge.

atticus even asked mom if he could dig a pond in the garden for the 2 turtles. hahaha....

i think atticus had enjoyed himself back in malaysia with his dad this time around.

and oh, i met a cute kid in the garden while walking beanie this evening. i guess when u have a dog, it is easier for someone to strike a conversation with you, no? the boy was about 5 and he was sitting on the swing. he asked me for beanie's name, and then he started telling me about his dog called johnny too. sooo cute. when he ran, beanie tried to chase and it was hard then to pull beanie. the boy's grandpa told him not to play with beanie because he was scared beanie would bite his grandson, but his grandson said no. beanie treated the running as a game because he did not bark. i could not stand the pain in the palms pulling the iron chain, so i brought him home.

my sleeping potion

today...woke up after getting quite an ok sleep...and it was because of some beer i took while at a farewell dinner for 2 colleagues in tapah.

yesterday...hahahaha....woke up at 7a.m. it was one hour later than the time set on the alarm clock. housemate said she knocked on my door but there was no response. then she smsed at 7 to tell me that it was 7 already. i was deliberating whether to read the sms or not at that time, and luckily i did. quickly rushed and managed to reach just when the bell rang. phew... but was so grodgy the whole morning.
i did not get my sleep at all that day. it was totally unbearable.

now....i am more rested and the battery is slightly charged. beer might be the magic potion. so can i have another can?

my day

dozed off after 2a.m. so is still consider sleep? i was like dozing and waking and dozing again. then lastly, alarm clock rang at 6a.m.
felt so lethargic and it had been a nonstop morning.
no time to rest. could feel slight sore throat so no more talking today.
the sky was clear and bright in the morning but now it is starting to turn gloomy. there goes the plan to go jogging. was hoping the exercise will make sleep easy.
have to run some errands first. house cleaning went fine thanks to queen.
most prob getting a hair cut today. hair is flying everywhere now.

what a way to start

HELP!!! how am i supposed to wake up at 6a.m. tomorrow and start work at 7.30a.m. and work work and work till 1.10p.m.??
what is your problem you may ask. well...this morning...sleep came only after 5a.m.!!! 5 bloody a.m. when ppl in the malay village behind were starting to take their morning shower!!! yup, i heard that sound of water splashing! i was tossing and turning the whole night and morning trying to fall asleep. how??
at midnight, i felt hungry (well, it was dinner time in germany) and when i finally rose out of bed at about 12noon, i had no appetite.
so what is going to me my meal time for the coming week? i will just stuff myself with something when i wake up to warm-up the engine. and then i will be doing the zombie walk till noon and my battery falls flat because i do not get enough sleep. i dread this!
i guess the body must be getting old already. and the back pain does not help either. dunno the reason for the pain but it already was there in germany.

and ooh...the cleaning i have to do back in bidor after this. WAAA!!! all the dust which had settled on the furniture and the floor. sweeping, mopping, wiping, arranging, etc. can someone send me a fairygodmother?? haha...i can think of one in the form of ah queen whom i have specially requested to help me and of course she being so obliging to my request cannot say no.

the sneeze has come and the eyes are so dry. you will not see me chirpy and excited to start work tomorrow. i just need enough power to last me till noon. so please grant me that.

let us get to work

so has anyone started going to the office for work this 2009??? my brother took 2nd jan off and he is still at home. his work hasn't started officially yet...and so is mine.
i wonder how i will stay alert on the first day of work come monday. i woke up at 11.30a.m. and could not really find sleep until 3a.m. yes, there is still some jetlag in me.
and the palms and feet feel sticky all over and the wet weather is not helping much. but it is better to be cool and gloomy than hot and dry now.

job responsibilities for the coming term are still the same. damn! i thought they were going to at least take away one of the posts since there are so many new ppl coming in. and we will have visitor on the first day already...observing the on-goings and making sure that work starts...really starts on the first day itself. some attention will be given to us no doubt since we managed to get an achievement award...best in the district in the recently announced examination results. a feather in the cap but more birds prying over us.

and oh, i am going to hate mondays so much! 6 periods not including the assembly. sucks big time! i hope the ppl in my team will be co-operative and perform their duties with passion. they are just not that good at establishing that rapport and hence, who wanna pay attention to u? ppl will start complaining but i cannot go and confront those lazy staff and say "hey, can you stop being such an ass and just do your job properly?" i better take good care of my own ass and face the challenges in front for this year. challenges will improve a person...so no fear.

woman on a flight

woman is said to be a temperamental creature. how can she not be when she cannot even control what is happening within her own body? no, not the physical changes we have to go through from puberty but the menstrual cycle that is such a mystery even to the woman herself. all women will have a story to tell about their experiences. i am so sure of that.


and after so many years, i still cannot figure out mine. i thought it had been regular for years and i am not the type who has ugly stomach cramps (well, up till now, i think i have about 5). this month(well, already the last month of 08), the cycle came a week late! how could it be? usually it would be the same date as last month's or around the same date, but 1 whole week!!


and damn it, it chose to come on the last day of the year when i was about to board my flight home yesterday! i had been waiting, and waiting, and waiting and complaining to aunt and yeelin about it but to no avail. it just would not come. could it be the body adjusting to the change of time and habits in december while i was in europe?


so the morning started well and we went to the airport on time and reached there early for me to do my custom check and VAT refund. again, the flight was only half full and i checked in all my three bags! they were more than 30 kg but they did not even bother to weigh them. haha...


as it was still early and terminal 2 of frankfurt airport only had a pathetic shopping area, i took the skyline to terminal 1 hall b and c to explore. but again, the goethe shopping area in that terminal was not that big either. i did not walk all the way to hall a, that would have been too far.

so the flight started on time and the seat next to mine was empty. yeah! i happily chose the japanese movie flowers over boys: the movie aka f4 the movie. it was not bad...but somewhere near the end of the movie, the pain came. an unbearable pain in the tummy that made me bent over and i pressed my tummy with the pillow. those who had experienced stomach cramps should know how i felt. i could see my lips turning pale on the screen of the monitor.

could feel cold starting to come from within me. decided to go to the toilet but it was occupied. so while waiting outside, i was gripping at a seat beside to spread the pain from the tummy to the fist. another man came and waited behind me and i had to pretend i was not in that much pain. my relief came as soon as the toilet door was open. i was sweating while on the toilet bowl and my head was all sweats. well, the man waiting behind me was already back at his seat when i went back to mine, so you can guess i must have spent quite some time inside. but it was a relief and i slowly got better after that.

gosh, the nightmare did not repeat itself and i had a better time watching 3 more movies after that although there was still the lingering pain. i just kept a pillow on the tummy to keep it warm and tried to sip some whiskey. haha...what a time to have whiskey. well at least it kept me warm inside.

well, did not catch any sleep in the flight as it was a day flight...from 12 noon germany time...i reached malaysia at 6.40a.m. local time which meant it was just passed midnight in germany. how to sleep? and they kept the cabin bright. oh, there was no countdown for new year...which time would u follow anyway? but they did give u a choice of champagne when they pushed the drink trolley and new year message came on screen. was in no mood for champagne at all. and food sucks. they were no more in the aluminium box but in a black plastic with transparent white plastic cover. soooo like air asia's. cheap! the quality of food sucks as well. the fried rice was so soft and lumpy and the chicken sausage for breakfast was so tough.

i must be suffering from this bad jet lag that makes me so grudgy and grumpy. but whatever mentioned about the flight is not affected by this exhaustion. my fingers are bloated and my feet are too. the palms and soles have been sweating non-stop. it is almost 11p.m. now and my alarm is set for 6.30a.m. tomorrow. so let me go and get a good sound sleep to face the next day's meeting. the first meeting for 2009. no more temperamental tummy to affect my alertness except...lack of sleep...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz