successful complaint 2

pizza hut called me yesterday. i filled in their online survey form notifying them my bad experience in their outlet in t intan.
so it was quite fast yeah. the man on the line apologised for the rude behaviour of the duty manager and they are going to make a check on the outlet.
he even asked to meet me in pizza hut again but i told him i was not local. hmmh...i wonder whether i would get a free meal if i went.

a birthday tag

A Birthday wishes tag from miss mathew

The rules are :-
1. Make a list of what you want on your birthday.

2. The list should be 10 numbers

1- a surprise birthday party (the best party right??)
2- everyone to celebrate with me because they want to and not because they are obliged to
3- jewellery
4- a nice leather designer bag....dream on
5- fly me to somewhere exotic for the weekend
6- a prince charming?
7- a pampering session at a spa
8- a happy meal where there is non-stop chattering with friends and everyone eating to their heart's contents without worrying about gaining weight
9- birthday wishes from sammi ;P
10- everyone to be healthy and happy

3. Post the image of this award in your posting

4. Give it to 10 friends of yours

err....i dun have that many friends with blog!!! but i will just tag anyone i can think of and maybe you can leave your answers in the comment box.
1- yoonming
2- pikkien
3- chailih
4- sj
5-kx (ok...so what if your birthday is over)
6- queen
7- jia en
8- yee lin
9- jet
10-kwei...if he ever drops by

good and bad

to keep sane and in touch with the good and bad sides of life. how ironic. there you have shape magazine and extra chewing gum. the right you have fashion feeds and junk food. call it a balanced life. nicol david enticed me to buy the magazine. it is my first time buying that. well, i am a big fan of hers. the packet of jigs is still unopened. we have a big barrel of fried potato crackers which taste like prawn crackers. so will attack those crackers first. eat in moderation.
hopefully the 2 magazines will last me one week.

friday eat out

i can't believe the amount of food i stuffed into my stomach on friday! it was like eat-all-you-can. do i really need so much food?? i think it was more like liberation because yippee!! it was friday and the workpile on the table had been reduced by quite a lot.

so first up, lunch at bidor curry house. i actually had food at home, but when a colleague asked if i wanted to join her, what the heck...i felt like some curry.

this is what i had, two pieces of chicken, fried cauliflower and papadom. i am greedy and a carnivor! that cost me rm6.50. it is so expensive to eat nasi kandar. the smaller plate opposite mine cost rm9, with white squid and fish, fried bitter gourd and small pieces of chicken.
it was filling all right. i felt like vomitting when i went jogging at 5p.m. but i just pushed myself to finish the route because it had been a few days since we had a sunny evening. plus, there was the dinner to burn away.

so at 7p.m.....dinner time. well, not so fast actually. let us drive to teluk intan first. so 7 of us in an unser, drove to teluk intan in the rain. it wasn't raining in teluk intan so we were dry.

the famous landmark of teluk intan, our malaysia's own leaning tower. this tower is already more than 120 years old. my sony k801 cybershot mobile phone does not disappoint me. we went for a stroll at the square after dinner. and oh, the clock of this tower is actually brought in all the way from london. and we were lucky to be able to hear it chime 10 times (10p.m.) i feel so privileged and proud to see this pagoda-like structure.

oh, back to dinner. venue: pizza hut. ok...crazy 7 who drove all the way from bidor to t. intan for pizza. when u are with friends you enjoy being with, anything is fun and fine. so had a filling meal of stuffing myself with unhealthy dough. but the mantra for the night was: eat first, the rest- figure it out after eating. this pizza hut got poor mark for its hospitality...and i have notified pizza hut malaysia about it by filling in their customer feedback form in their website. you watch out! waited 1 hour for 2 deli wings and poorly stocked salad bar (less than 10 pieces of raisins), etc. am i addicted to making complaints? no...i am just doing it for their own good. reeeallly!

the last stop after hearing the clock chime- mcdonalds. yeah, the golden arches have invaded teluk intan. from bidor, you will see road signs indicating the distance to reach this restaurant. 42km, 40km, 30km, on and on. this place was packed on a friday night. no wi-fi but there is a tv outside and families with kids were enjoying their supper of fries and sundaes while teenagers who had just finished their basketball practice congregated here. how healthy.

we still have space in our tummies? well, let the feast continue with desserts. the main purpose of stopping here was for the banana pies for tomorrow (not me) but almost everyone ended up with sundaes as well. see, when you are happy, you will eat more!

since my gluttony started in the afternoon already, the supper is no exception. mcflurry cornetto strawberry. yummy. but the size! oh...how small you have become! and the price is rm4.75. well, i think it will be a long time before i have another cup...unless someone treats me one. hehehe...burp!
and look- caught on the way out. the one in red wondering 'how much could you dig out from the small cup?/ are you going to finish everything yourself?'

did u do your part?

ok...earth hour came and left. were you part of the millions or billions around the world who switched off?
well, i better be frank. i did not. the question is: do i really want to?
again...let me just tell you the truth, i think this is just trying to make a statement and to join the so-called 'cool' crowd. what happens next? for me, the most practical is to inculcate the having of saving natural resources in your daily life. doing it for one hour a year is useless.

the picture on the left is taken from inside the house. outside, the porch is all dark. i din switch off the light. grandfather did. so is he the cool one in the house? 8tv stopped transmission at that time and grandpa decided to do his part. he left the tv and went to switch off the light outside. he couldn't switch off those inside because i had my class going on. the second pic on the right showed the street outside our house. i wonder if the neighbour on the left and right purposely switched off or was just a coincidence. ooh...let me check. nope, the lights are still off, so i guess she does not need to switch on her porch light since the street light is bright enough to light the porch. how lucky.

so...what did you do at 8.30p.m. on saturday 28 march 2009

a reply from galaxy

hmmh....i wrote a letter to galaxy organisers about my woes at a-mei concert and they have finally replied. well, it was good of them to do this...at least they are more credible then some government departments who never bother to reply any comment you give although they say, do leave comments.
well, i guess i am satisfied with the reply but too bad, the concert was already a thing of the past and there was no second chance for me to capture those nice photos of a-mei's customes because of one overzealous rela officer! damn him! misjudge? stupid!!! dunno how to differentiate between photo-taking and video-recording??? ppl taking photo will be checking the camera everytime a shot is taken while those recording will keep on holding their camera for many many seconds still. sigh....maybe i should have been more adamant on that day and pick up an argument with the officer. haha...that would scare mom so much.


Hi, first of all, we would like to say sorry for the bad experience incurred during A Mei concert. We feel regret and at the same time, honoured to have gained your support all this while.

Indeed, we do not restrict phototaking using normal digital camera but noticing that digital camera has a recording function, it is hard for one to tell which function is being operated from far. The RELA officer might have misjudged during then and consequently reacted that way. As the organiser, please allow us to apologise on behalf of him.

Maintaining the security of the venue is no doubt the biggest resposibility of the RELA, but to uphold the rules & regulations of the concert is also their obligation. Recording is strictly against the copyright rule especially when the Artiste Management representatives are observing closely at the venue, thus everyone of us including the management, usher, ticket checker and RELA are paying high attention on this issue, sometimes causing certain individuals to become over sensitive.

Therefore, your forgiveness and understanding is deeply appreciated.

Thanks a zillion.

the end of one week

end of one week break.
what have i achieved?
slept a lot.
got my passport done.
sat for my exam. sucks.
went to a concert and visited relatives.
watched a few movies....yeah!....the wrestler- mickey rourke was good and marisa tomei as the stripper...salute.mickey was better than brad pitt in benjamin button. milk- no wonder sean penn won the best actor award. the movie is better than bbutton too. rachel getting married starring anne hathaway. it was ok. confession of a shopaholic...so-so.

hmmhh...that's it. oh, and booking the flights to hk. how easy to spend 7 days.
have to go now. have a wedding banquet to attend. a colleague is getting married. time to play dress up and take out those heels baby. yeah...liberation for a few hours in those killer heels. tomorrow will be back to sports shoes again.

puchong and a-mei

yesterday...


went down to puchong with mom to aunt's house (mom's sister). had to go down to bukit jalil anyway for a-mei star tour 2009. got free tickets from sally. lucky me. since no one want to accompany me, i dragged mom along. it is her first visit to bukit jalil and she has never been to a concert here.


we reached there in the afternoon and waited for wei to come. it was his day off. gosh, his company is making the employees take one day off a week now and they only work 4 days.


and wei became our unofficial driver for the afternoon.

first visit, to uncle's house (mom's brother) also in puchong. forgot which taman already. there are just so many housing areas here in puchong. i dun think i can find my way to uncle's house if you tell me to go there again tomorrow.

uncle wasn't home but his wife and sons are. oh, his eldest who just finished spm last year got 11 A's. 9A1 and 2 A2. how clever...and he did not apply for any scholarship!!! he only applied for matriculation and he is now waiting to enter form 6. he is adamant to fulfil his ambition of being a veterinarian and he knows there is only one local uni that offers the course which is upm. so in order to enter the uni, he has to do form 6 regardless of how difficult ppl say it is.

the above pic is an extension built just for the dog house. this great dane (scooby doo) whose name is rocky even has his own fan in the house. oh, such comfort. he is very tall but getting old and frail already. he hardly stood up to greet us and oh-so-well-trained. din bark at all. when can my dog be like this?

the interior of the house. the living room is spacious, bigger than the kitchen although aunt bakes a lot. hmmh...they should have made the kitchen bigger. aunt does a lot of baking here and she is a good baker...cookies and cakes. anyone would like to order any?? she does take order and her business during cny is thriving.

next stop: nilam terraces. just 5 mins away to cousin sister's house (kuan). she was not at home, in singapore with the husband, but her son and mother-in-law were. her son, jonathan was in the stroller when we reached. his granny was letting him get some air outside and do some bird watching. gosh, he is such a shy boy. when he saw so many strangers surrounding him, he started crying.

just stayed for a while. then it was to another relative's house. this one, i dun really know who. again mom's side. actually it was to a funeral. mom's aunt passed away on thursday and we were there to pay our respect at their house. it is also in puchong. i have vague recollection of this grand-aunt (i call her that right?) from the photo.

all these visits ended after 5p.m. and it was too late to go anywhere else. so we went back to aunt's house to rest while wei went back to his.

at 7.30p.m. i headed to national sports complex aka bukit jalil stadium for the concert. luckily, there was no rain and no congestion on the road. phew! it was smooth sailing all the way to the carpark.

met sally and ying at the main entrance here. the lanterns were surrounding the vvip and royal box entrance. concerts seldom use this entrance actually and it is not usually on this side of the stadium. i think they used this side yesterday to avoid confusion and congestion at the other normal side where they also had disney princess on ice at putra stadium. i like this side better.

the stage and seats were all under the covered part of the stadium. clever move by the organiser because there was a high possibility of rain and rain it did....around 11.30p.m. i think it was almost full house because the sounds of the audience singing along was really awesome. it was like a major karaoke sing-along session whenever a-mei sang her slow numbers. and the audience really sang melodiously that it brought tears to her eyes.

the most expensive ticket was 298 and cheapest 88...the cheapest would be at tier 3 i think. i wonder what they see from way up high.

at 8.45p.m. sharp, suki from one in a million contest opened the concert with her new number. she just appeared on stage and sang. there was no proper introduction at all. poor thing. but her vocal was quite good. i was surprised. she has improved.

and the concert? well, it was good! very very good! ok, i have to admit that i am not a fan and i dunno how to sing her songs although i have heard them before, so it was actually a bit hard for me to engross myself in the singing and stuff. but a-mei was good, the concert was good, the arrangement was good, the audience was great. man, it was even better than my sammi cheng concert in genting. pathetic but true. the stage display, lighting and props were really a feast for the eyes. well, too much actually. my eyes are still sore from the bright lights that i can't look at the computer screen for long. next time, sunglasses should be provided. she even had a bed with fluffy pillows and fire on stage. how cool was that. in one of the segments, the background was all black except for those hundreds of lights lighting the stage like stars blinking. beautiful. she did a lot of rock numbers as well, but i found that it was her slow numbers which captured the audience more and it was when her vocal really stood out. thanks to the big screens that displayed the lyrics, i could even murmur a few lines ;P

oh, where are the pics? i could only take photos in the first 2 customes sections. she did 8 custome changes. damn the superzealous rela officers! that badass one was rooted few steps away from me all the while! ok....cool down. before the concert began, there was the usual reminders: no sound recording allowed, no video recording allowed, no flash photography allowed and no handphone allowed. so where the hell is the part that says no photography??? i din record anything nor did i use any flash!!!

that rela officer wanted to confiscate my camera and told me that he wanted to give me a talk on copyright. at the entrance before we came in, our bags were checked for camera and the rela did not allow camera saying that they would keep it for me. then a staff from the organiser said that we were allowed to bring digital camera except those with zoom lens.

so where does copyright come in when we only take photos?? copyright for the customes or for the way she posed?? most concerts won't allow recording, yes i understood. but photography? that is too much.

anyway, not to let that experience spoil my night, the concert ended at 12 midnight. yup, a-mei sang more than 3 hours! it was really worth it. oh, there were lots of malaysia boleh shouts and she even sang 2 lines from lagenda. i dun think there is anyone who din enjoy this concert.

boo-hoo bully

i witnessed a 'bullying' case of a female adult to a 13-year-old boy and all i could do was just watch.

this protective mother scolded the 13-year-old boy in front of all his friends and his boy. in her 'clarifications' (her own words) with the boy, she sounded him for changing his boy's name. she said, "i have given such a lovely name to my son, don't you dare change it. this is my last warning to you." and other stuff like don't you bully my son, blah blah blah.
i couldn't be bothered to listen any more.

i wonder if anyone has ever scolded her son like how she did for teasing? i am sure her son is no angel from what i see. boys will be boys and of course teasing is something unavoidable at this age.
tell me who haven't been teased before? gosh, last time we have nicknames based on colours, numbers, height, weight, animals, things, hairstyle, fruits, etc. and we did not have parents picking fights with our peers...do we??

i personally think the boy who was scolded did not deserve such harsh bombardment in front of all his friends. she could have pulled the boy aside and spoke nicely to him. her son might lose a few friends or one friend now. but on the other hand, children are quite forgiving so maybe what happened yesterday is already the past.

what a llloooooonnng morning!

before the sun had risen in the east, before the birds came out chirping and looking for food, ...my eyes opened to the sounds of pitter patter of the rain. it was still dark outside and i had to drag myself out of the bed. not that i could sleep any longer. my subconscious mind was already kicking waaay before that. i think it was more of a case where i did not get my sleep last night. too early to bed i.e. before midnight.


why must it rain on the day i had chosen to go and renew my passport??? after much effort, a cup of coffee and toast (no fruit for breakfast today to avoid hunger at mid morning), i started my journey before 7.30a.m. at the esso petrol kiosk, met the lady operator who said it would be a breeze at damansara counter because they have a lot of counters open. she just did hers not long ago. well, that was a relief and i have heard a lot about our automated passport renewal kiosk which will get your passport delivered in 2 hours. so far so good...

but ohh....the journey came to a crawl as soon as i passed sg buloh and it really crawled all the way till pusat bandar damansara. WAAAA!!!! workday crawl...and i reminded myself i am oh-so-glad not to be working in kl.

taken at the tol plaza...these 2 lines of cars would slowly merged into one under the green roof. malaysian drivers! we are so good at improvising and the lines were actually quite orderly mind you. but hell! don't they see that there is only 1 entrance for touch n go for this lane!!???!!!!

9a.m. as soon as i reached pbd, off into the parking bay and u know how LOW you have to go for visitor parking lot here. so i went all the way to p5 (basement 5) to find that place. no problem, lots of space. then straight off to the information counter to find the automated kiosk. it turns out that the kiosks as you see in the picture above, are situated next to the main entrance of the immigration office.

as i was about to enter kippas, i met an immigration officer who was on his way out after collecting a stack of passports in envelopes to be renewed. i showed him the passport photo i had taken earlier in tm to see whether it was ok. well, it turned out that the background in my passport photo was too dark! and i had to take another set with lighter blue background. damn those photo studios! so next time...remember....light blue background for passport photo....light blue like on a clear blue sky!

there went my rm14 for 4 pieces of new passport photo. gosh...no more radiant me in pink blouse and nice hair potrait. it was pale me with blemishes and darkblue collared shirt. and you dun need to wear collared shirt for your passport photo actually. i read the requirements pasted on the wall, as long as your clothing cover your shoulders and chest, you are all right.
ok, so back to kippas i went. followed the instruction on the atm-like machine until the part where they told you to put your old passport in the slot provided. another problem! the message 'cannot detect thumbprint' popped up!!! WTF!!! ok, i knew that they could not detect my thumbprint the last time i did my old passport, but what i din know was they did not put any of my thumbprint scan in the old passport! i remembered that the officer told me she could not detect my right thumb's scan so she put in the left one instead. i cannot go through the automatic scan in the airport so i have to queue and get my passport checked manually instead all this while.

ok....so i approached one of the officers there in the kiosk...and i was told to go upstairs and renew my passport there instead!!! AAAAA!!!!!

went to bought the form for rm1 (why are we charged???) and filled it there.
oh, did i tell you the automated kiosk was empty except for one lady doing her passport renewal there??!! why can't the staff on duty at the selling form counter tell ppl that they can renew their passports at the kiosk? that was they save rm1 and a lot of time in queueing up??? the kiosk is not for new passport application...it is only for renewal. but i saw many ppl in the queue (pic below) were actually renewing their passport too! come on immigration dept...the KIPPAS kiosk has so much potential. dun make them white elephant!

9.15a.m. got up and joined the queue. it didn't look long right?? but wait....i only got to the counter at 9.45a.m.! why soo long encik??? but the indian chap sitting behind the counter was smiley and friendly...that took away the gloom for a while.

9.45a.m. finally got my number 1136. the number serviced at that time was 1089. 40 numbers to go before my turn. i had to wait for them to call my no so i could hand them my documents (photocopy of ic, old passport, photo and mykad). waaaaiit.....waaaiit.....waaaiiit......waaiiit.....until my blood started boiling!!!!at 10 plus, those numbers just stopped moving!!! computer breakdown maybe???? i am sure it is not for tea break. even the makcik behind me came up with this speculation.

my number....wanna buy 4 ekor??...1136 was finally called at 11.35a.m. 11.35 freaking a.m.! that was almost 2 hours of waiting!

so went to the counter to hand in my documents and they had to scan my thumb print. oh i hate this part!!! CANNOT SEE!! i had to put on some cream and rub them between my two thumbs and scanned a few times. this time, the lady told me that, they could get the right print but not the left one. whatever. then waaaaaiiiit again for the same number to be called. for what?? to pay lah!!! i still had not made the payment at this time!!!

finally...few minutes before 12p.m. number was called and i paid!!! what a big big relief!!! by that time i had sent out a few messages to release my bottled up anger. so thank you guys for entertaining my long message.

so now....the waiting time for the red book to reach my hand began again. start the clock now. you can start collecting your passport two hours after you have paid the cashier!

so...those ppl who told you about the 2 hours waiting time only....ask them which waiting time ok.

and how did i spend my 2 hours??? i walked around outside. saw so many fast food outlets and pharmacies and mamak restaurants. starbucks looked so posh for those who could afford the designer coffee and notebook with wifi connection. hahaha...only a few tables were taken.
i ended up in mcdonalds and ordered myself a chocolate milkshake and fries. yes, these were lunch. it was soo crowded with office workers and college students pilling on the burgers and soft drinks. ok...i am turning health freak here. i dun wanna take soft drinks and burgers! but what a hypocrite, i ordered fries! so the rest of the day will just be fruits...nothing but fruits.

and oh....i finally got my passport 10 minutes before 2p.m. what a big relief. the potrait photo with a smirk was staring at me in the page with a yellowish tint...but one good thing about the photo....i love the hair! well, that is a consolation.

and zoooooom....paid rm9.70 for carpark fees and back to tm i headed.

tomorrow....another long morning.
wake up time? same as today.
destination? bidor.
purpose? examination!!!
i guess today's morning call is a practice call for tomorrow. i wonder whether it will be a wet or dry one.

holiday filler

can a haircut change a person's look that much? the salesgirl of the bookshop that i frequent here in tm cannot recognise me and treated me like a total stranger!! she would come to me knowing that i went to pick up my orders but today, she just stood there when i went in and did not give me any smile.
well, do i mind? hmmh...come to think of it, isn't the reason why i love haircuts so much?? that it can change your look? maybe that is why i like to keep my hair to an ugly length and then take the drastic cut.


well you all still recognise this is beanie right despite all his hair clinging to his body?? he dreads taking showers and will go into hiding when he sees mom with his bottle of shampoo. he has to be coaxed out so that he can be put on the leash.
oh, talking about shower...we have installed a new water heater at home. yea to great shower time. no more turning on the gas countless times just to get heated water. no more shivering in the cold water. great booster pump as well.


and there is this green and purple monster in town. amidst those yellow buildings, this one really stood out. it is next to the market. from afar, you really can't miss it. it is not such a sore in this picture, but in the big picture, it really stuck out. i wonder what it is going to be used for? another departmental store?

oh so 'tough'

tough jeans has just appointed gillian chung as the face of the brand recently and she is busy doing promo for the brand as her comeback project.

how do you feel about buying the jeans now? i will certainly not buy it knowing she is the spokesperson. well, not that i like the brand anyway. call me bias but i can't help it. what was the company thinking? i have never really been a big fan of twins although i did buy their best compilation cds. i mean some of their songs are catchy despite their weak vocals. but gillian pretending to be all innocent and naive all these years. i was so thankful when the real her was exposed in the edison photo scandal. no more lying behind that so-called girl-next-door image anymore.

she can make her comeback and i won't give a damn. just no more lying and acting as the so innocent one.

7 things

Name 7 things/persons that you love and then pass this to 7 other bloggers....tagged by miss mathew.

1. family
2. friends
3. money
4. health
5. beanie
6. writing
7. travelling

wow...that was fast. i was going to add the eight which is books.

dun have 7 bloggers on my list...so i guess it will just be sj and what the heck...those of you who wanna do...just do it and post in the comment box!!!

one slow week ahead

life has been pretty mundane lately, hence the void.

it gets like this everytime this time of the year. after the initial excitement at the beginning of the year, things are slowly going downhill after the first quarter.

am having my one week break now and i guess i won't be doing anything much. stay home and watch movies. just have to run one errand that is getting my passport done. my passport expires in september so it is useless now.

there will be a short trip to hk and macau to look forward to in april, april 17 to 20 to be exact. shh....dun tell those ppl at work ok. i have applied for my leave and the boss has signed it. so keep my fingers crossed that all the hotel bookings and stuff will go smoothly. sis is in charge of booking the flight tickets, while i search for the hotel. gosh, it is so tedious looking at the prices and locations and rooms. mind you, rooms in hk are not cheap. first 2 nights will be in hk while the last one will be in macau. so anyone has any suggestion or you know anyone who will be so happy to lend us a bed there do tell me. i will make sure i bring you back some lou por peng or almond biscuits as souvenir. ;)

i will be playing the tour guide with my illiterate chinese skill while sis will be opening her eyes to the new sights and sounds. let me see, this is like my 3rd time there. well, i still hope to catch something new. oh, anyone would like to join us?? it will make eating more fun as we will be able to try more food then. dishes are big there. definitely no dim sum if it is just the two of us. and oh pleeaasee...do have some sales while i am there ok? haha....

tv night

aah...tomorrow is a holiday...
and i spent sunday night watching movie, badminton match and series.

to kick off the night, i had marley and me. yup, now i have another movie to add to 'movies that make me cry list'. it is not that good a movie actually. the book is of course better...capturing the whole marley madness and chaos scenes in the grogan household. those who haven't read the book would not understand the endless chaos caused by the 'worst' dog in the world. i was remembering snippets from the book while watching the movie hence the crying part when they had to put marley to sleep. i could not really feel the connection the couple had with the dog in the movie. it is not even a dog movie, it is the grogan's movie.

luckily i din watch the movie with kien in the cinema. was thinking of doing that when i meet her next week if i did not get my hand on the movie. i bet both of us would be sniffing and handing tissue papers to each other by the end of the movie. she is a mad dog lover. i wonder how i would take beanie's death when it comes. still a long long way to go.

next...the all england's badminton man singles between lindan and lee chong wei. did not really expect malaysian flag to be soaring in the arena frankly. although this is lindan's first match of the year, he is still a very good player. luckily, it is better than the olympic's final in beijing. the other single players out there really have to put in more effort to break lindan's streak. he is super! remember when ppl said federer was unbeatable, well, i am waiting to see who will be the 'nadal' smashing the shuttlecock at lindan.

and lastly, ugly betty, episode 15 and 16. yeah...finally!

new discovery

my new morning booster. no longer the red packet nescafe 3-in-1 but it is the brown nescafe gold 3-in-1 now.

it is not as sweet as the red packet and the aroma is richer. and of course the price is steeper. i have forgotten how much i bought this for, but it comes in a pack of 20. it is about rm9 if i am not mistaken. well, it still beats the price of designer coffee. the last time i had starbucks was after a friend's wedding when my bunch of friends decided to hang out at the outlet in taipan. and i ordered hot choc. starbucks sales would have definitely dropped in this time of recession...so if you need a cheaper cup of coffee, i would suggest this 3-in-1. it is still coffee right?

and my next supply will come when brother wei comes back from kl. i smsed him to get them for me when he goes to the hypermarket...and that same night, he had already bought them. so efficient.

oh, talking about sibling. my sis, yee is coming back from melbourne in april for 2 weeks. yeah! everyone is looking forward to it. the last time she came back was like 3 years ago??? but of course i met her in gold coast last year. we are thinking of a short weekend trip on sultan perak's birthday weekend. any suggestion where to go? airasia's free tickets are very much welcome.

i am a warrior of light

i want to share something i got from my warrior of light newsletter by paulo coelho. anyone interested to receive this newsletter in the e-mail can subsribe at www.paulocoelho.com. he does have some neat stuff.

In search of the perfect leader

A reader sends me a questionnaire in which he presents the profile of three world leaders who lived in the same period of history, and asks if it is possible to choose the best one using the following data:

Candidate A was associated with witchdoctors and often consulted astrologists. He had two mistresses. His wife was a Lesbian. He smoked a lot. He drank eight to ten martinis a day.

Candidate B never managed to hold down a job because of his arrogance. He slept the whole morning. He used opium at school, and was always considered a bad student. He drank a glass of brandy every morning.

Candidate C was decorated a hero. A vegetarian, he did not smoke. His discipline was exemplary. He occasionally drank a beer. He stayed with the same woman during his moments of glory and defeat.

And what was the answer?

A] Franklin Delano Roosevelt. B] Winston Churchill. C] Adolf Hitler.

So what then is leadership? The encyclopedia defines it as an individual’s capacity to motivate others to seek the same objective. The bookstores are full of texts on this theme, and the leaders are normally portrayed in brilliant colors, with enviable qualities and supreme ideals. The leader is to society as the “master” is to spirituality. This, however, is not absolutely true (in either case).

Our big problem, especially in a world that is growing more and more fundamentalist, is not allowing people in prominent positions to commit human mistakes. We are always in search of the perfect ruler. We are always looking for a pastor to guide and help us find our way. The truth is that the great revolutions and the progress made by humanity were brought about by people just like us – the only difference being that they had the courage to make a key decision at a crucial moment.

A long time ago, in my unconscious, I changed the word “leader” for the expression “warrior of light”. What is a warrior of light?

Warriors of light keep the spark in their eyes.

They are in the world, are part of other people’s lives, and began their journey without a rucksack and sandals. They are often cowards. They don’t always act right.

Warriors of light suffer over useless things, have some petty attitudes, and at times feel they are incapable of growing. They frequently believe they are unworthy of any blessing or miracle.

Warriors of light are not always sure what they are doing here. Often they stay up all night thinking that their lives have no meaning.

Every warrior of light has felt the fear of joining in battle. Every warrior of light has once lost faith in the future.

Every warrior of light has once trodden a path that was not his. Every warrior of light has once felt that he was not a warrior of light. Every warrior of light has once failed in his spiritual obligations.

That is what makes him a warrior of light; because he has been through all this and has not lost the hope of becoming better than he was.

That is why they are warriors of light. Because they make mistakes. Because they wonder. Because they look for a reason – and they will certainly find one.

an apple a day....

an apple a day keeps the stomach flat. ;P

yeah, try this....but u have to watch what you eat for the rest of the day too lah....
i have been doing this for 4 days now starting on monday. instead of my usual bread and coffee for breakfast, i have been having a big apple and the normal cup of coffee. it helps in bowel movement too. but this apple does not come cheap ah. mom bought them at rm1 each. hahaha...cost wise it is more expensive than eating bread...but health wise, it is tonnes better.

in the afternoon, i try to have as much fruits as possible. for mid-morning snack, i have been having grapes. no need to cut or peel mah at the office. in the afternoon, if i cannot stand the hunger, i will take some biscuits. no more rice meal. i have oranges and big pears waiting in the fridge too. at night, it will be the caterer's food ie soup and 3 dishes.

i should take the caterer's food in the afternoon hor...it is more ideal to have a proper lunch than a proper dinner. but i sometimes leave office at about 2, so that makes the lunch very late. might change the pattern next week and have proper lunch in the afternoon while fruits for dinner.

am i on a quest to make myself thinner? not really lah...just wanna put in less processed food in my body.

on another note...the boss said my hairstyle is stylish..ahem! but unfortunately, those young young ones (14-year-old to be precise) said it is horrible. boohooo....i guess they could not take the drastic transformation.

shorter than ri ri's

oh bugger, i have gone and cut my hair again!! and this time it ain't no trimming, it is complete overhaul baby!

snip snip snip! all gone. my hair now is shorter than rihanna's. hahha...she has grown hers long now especially the front part. let me see...mine will be a bit like posh spice aka victoria beckham's new short style if you have seen her recent photos.

my hair has not even reached shoulder length...and it was getting all out of place. now i only have a head of hair with no fly-away strands nor hair to tuck behind the ears. a malay colleague asked why did i cut? she said long hair was cute....blehh....i dun think the word 'CUTE' can ever be used to describe me. those who know me...am i CUTE??

well, i felt like a celebrity this morning walking along the corridor. hahaha...head's held high and every step was with confident. why not? i had heads popping out and wolf whistles. haha...yeah...some were standing there struck didn't know whether it was me. 'fresh',and 'yau yeng' are two comments i remember.

(let me just eliminate the tomboy ones from my head!)

and it is in a dark brown shade now. i think i will be walking around in this short hair thingy for a while. save on shampoo and it is a fuss free hair. just scrunge some wax and i am ready to go. just-out-of-bed look anyone?

what recession???

yo yo yo...kl is on sale babes. we need some excuses to perk up the spending habit of the people and hence the kl grand prix sale. yes we can have a city-wide sale in conjunction with the f1 race which will be held in april. it started yesterday on the last day of feb and will only end in april. so what are you waiting for?

shops which normally don't do sale at this period of time are also having one. one such store is adidas originals. i asked the sale assistant and she said, "what to do? bad economy." they usually have theirs at mid-year and end of the year only.

my initial plan to shop at isetan was also dropped after learning that parkson grand has double vouchers promo for bonuslink members. on newspaper yesterday, bonuslink members day was only for a day. the salesperson in parkson told me that it is extended to 3 more days. hence, i got all the cosmetic stuff from parkson grand and got rm20 vouchers for every rm100 spent. (isetan only gives rm10) and besides that, you will also get rm10 voucher for every rm150 spent for other purchases. isetan never gives this.

so yesterday i walked till the shop closed, from about 3.30pm to 10pm. painful leg? what pain? haha...total shopaholic mood man! syiok! but ouch on the purse. anyway, i stay true to the mantra not to buy retail...all stuffs bought yesterday were discounted.

lunch box on the go? well, not mine actually. it was for a colleague who had to rush from bidor to tm without her lunch. the kind of thing i could do on ppl just so i could spend more time shopping...ehehehe. anyway, it was quite a lunch box. rice with stewed duck meat and mushroom and fried egg with bitter gourd. on the right, all the shopping bags left on the floor while we had our seafood platter meal at manhattan fish market for dinner. my hands almost broke from carrying them, luckily i had a few 'assistants'.

clothes! clothes! clothes! that nike tee was accidental. i just had to find a way to finish using my cash voucher, hence that shirt. anyway, it was 50% off. and the ACG shorts was only rm39 from nike sportsland. and ooh...i have another pair of evisu jeans. this time it is bootcut. love the rugged details i.e torn and faded effect. this was not impulsive buy ok. i actually tried it on last year but then let go of the idea. then few months later, i finally got it. so i adhered to the advice of thinking carefully before making a purchase in order not to regret later. ;P and that denim dress too. tried it on last year, and yesterday saw that it had a 60% discount tag on. tunggu apa lagi??

accessories...do i need another pair of sports shoes? err...well, let me have another pair of shoes i can wear to work lah. i have been wearing the pair of mizuno faithfully to work everyday, so let me alternate with another pair. and ooh....don't you love that fossil leather clutch? again, i spotted this clutch last year while shopping for a bag to use for dinner but did not but because it was too expensive (more than rm600). but lucky me, isetan had fossil clearance sale yesterday and the clutch was at 60%. yes...so that is my best buy of the day! below the cluth is fossil necklace. that ring is from najo (an australian brand...they have some really nice sterling jewellery). 50% for that pair of nike socks. u can rarely get their socks at this price now. rm7.95.

aaahh....pamperings. facial steamer to get rid of those dirt hidden in the pores (keep my fingers crossed that it works), twisties and listerine from watsons. supposedly value buy...but the twisties is the same price as outside. slumpdog millionaire the novel...i have orders to buy them. 20% from kinokuniya...only rm27.90. too bad the original one Q&A is selling at more than rm50 now. i am glad wei got ours at around rm30 years ago when it first published. he caught a gem there. and this last bag was the heaviest, all the facial toners, cleansers, moisturisers and masks. that big bottle of clinique clarifying lotion was salon size and it was best buy at rm115. it is really cheap. my first time trying clinique. actually toner is in my shopping list...so i decided to give it a try since i get a good bargain. i also got a free clinique travel size compact powder because i got special invitation from parkson for free skin consultation. this was the real reason why i went to parkson in the first place...to get this free gift. and as u already know, i ended up spending most of my time here.

aaahh....going to fast shopping now for a few months. enough splurge. so shopaholic or what???

and i said goodnight to beanie only at about 1.30am this morning. he couldn't be bothered with my antique taking his photo because he wanted to catch his sleep. wasn't i tired? of course i was but the oscars repeat made me stayed longer on the couch.

end of this week's post. wonder if i have anything more interesting to do next week to beat this. i am going to be quite free. so the wandering mind might come up with something. or do you wanna suggest anything??