Vengeance

There is a saying that goes 'Do not bite the hand that feeds you'..

In my case, I'd say, do not backstab the person who have saved you lots of money (and your arses!) countless times.

Well, it's too late even for that saying now. I am now done with tolerating ungrateful STUPID people. There're thresholds to patience and empathy and this morning, those limits were reached. And they say private people work harder and more professional compared to their public counterparts. Bahh!

Anyway, in a couple of hours' time, I will finally tell them exactly what I think of them. They seriously have no idea who they're dealing with and I will make them regret for messing up with me... seriously. Just hope they won't steal my thunder by not being where they should be later (and one of them is pretty well-known for frequent disappearing acts!)

Living in fear

I am feeling unsettled with a hint of anger. Don't know I'm angry at whom exactly, but yeah, I am a bit pissed off.

It all started when I was in Surabaya a few weeks ago. One thursday morning, my family had a surprise 'visit' from FOUR robbers at about 5am. They fortunately didn't managed to get into the house since my family woke up on time but they took their time to calmly broke into my dad's car and walked away with the GPS and stereo sets. They did that while my family helplessly watched from the window just a few inches from the car... my dad shouted at them throughout but that didn't deter them at all, knowing fully well that my family wouldn't dare to get out of the house while they were still here. And the fact that they were armed.

So, because of the incident, just like before, my parents are now back into their edgy mode again and I got the first taste of it on the day after I got back from Surabaya. While I was having drinks with my friends post-futsal that sunday night, I received a sms from my mom, asking when was I going to come home...and it was only 8.45pm ok! So, since then, I sort of lost my independence. No more late night outings. Not that my parents actually stop me from going out, but I just don't want them to worry...and worse, wait for me. One night, I had to go out for an emergency and when I got home at 4am, BOTH my parents were at the door to see me in. I can't do that to them again, can I?

Anyway, nowadays, the slightest sound in the middle of the night would wake both of them up. And I think, the paranoia is creeping on me too. I now have ears of a cat and keep waking up at night with any movement sound from outside the house. The fact that I have a few cats roaming around the house is not helping either... I used to be able to differentiate moving sounds made by the cats from the unusual ones but now, any sound can make me easily anxious and full of suspicion.

No wonder I am always tired and cranky nowadays... I am deprived of good, quality night sleep!

_______________________________________________

I woke up almost every hour on friday night because of numerous weird sound throughout the night (or were they all just in my head?) and as a result, I was completely wasted and didn't have the energy to get up on time for basketball the next morning eventhough I received a number of wake-up calls. But since all I did was tossing and turning instead of sleeping, I finally pulled myself out of the bed at 8.30am and went to the court. I took some (boring) shots to kill time while waiting for them to finish the game and go for breakfast...















Man.... I really need to go for another holiday fast.. I should have photos of exotic places on this blog, not of sweaty boys!

Sepetang di kolam renang

Overheard: Boy, try to swim like that auntie!

Firstly,

I can only do breast stroke well... my freestyle is still below par...

Secondly,

AUNTIE???

Ceh.

_______________________________________

Only 20 laps today.

My official excuse for the early exit: It started to drizzle by lap 19.

My real reason for the early exit: Jantung dah rasa nak terkeluar!

Looking back through new glasses

Time flies.

I only realised a few days ago that this blog is already 5 years old... It was created with the help of a dear friend in July 2003, originally as an outlet for me to sort out my cluttered mind when I was silently battling to save my on-off marriage after the rock-bottom experience in summer 2002. On-off because we had good times and bad times, laughters and tears, anger and love, all jumbled up together that most of the times, we didn't even know whether we were staying or going. Ironically, only good times were portrayed in this blog during the confusing times, until the inevitable happened (again) in October-December 2004. Looking back, it was just my way of getting on with life and dealing with the uncertainties. People say seeing is believing right? If you see me happy, then I might or would be. That was the whole idea back then..

Anyway, I am glad that over the years, this blog has served me more than just an emotional outlet. It helped me to reunite with old friends, made me quite a number of new friends and most of all, it gave me a platform to chart my new experiences, challenges and travels. So, to celebrate the (mostly) good 5 years, I have decided to give this blog a brand new look although the orange colour theme is maintained...it is just my way of being nostalgic :)

Hope you guys like it!

_______________________________________________



TULIPS

It's probably full-blown summer in the UK by now. During my Hillsborough years (my house was only a stone throw from Sheffield Wednesday's homeground), spring and summer were when my living room got decorated with tulips every weekend especially in my last year there, without fail. It was such a routine that my local florist would automatically chose the best tulips for me as soon as I stepped out of the tram and into her shop after my weekly groceries shopping on saturday mornings.I just loved the subtle smell of the flowers that filled up the room especially during the cold summer nights. Pink tulips, fireplace, soothing music and a good book on a cold night... heavenly.

PETIT

Most of the times during my routine visits to my local flowershop, my cat Petit (named after Emanuel Petit, the french footballer), would be there too, eagerly waiting for me so that she could walk me back home, knowing that I would also have new supply of canned cat food for her in my shopping bags. Such a clever cat, she was. On my last night before flying back to KL for good, I found her in my almost-closed luggage bag..it was just her way to tell me that she wanted to come along I guess. But Hillsborough was where she belong, so I left her in the care of my next-door neighbour on the day I left. I hope she is still there enjoying the fresh breeze of spring and summer mornings, the lovely daffodils and tulips in my neighbour's backyard and remains the queen of Shepperson Road, Hillsborough..

_______________________________________________

Something from those cold summer nights..

Ini adalah post yang ada banyak gambar makanan

It's 4.27 in the morning. I just woke up from a bloody nightmare. Don't feel like going to bed (yet) again in case the nightmare is continued if I resleep (is there such word?). I can do that sometimes. I'm still having palpitation now and need to calm down. Maybe I slept on a full stomach. Maybe it was the oysters... damn you oysters!

____________________________________

It has been a while since my colleagues and I went for a night out together.. So, in conjunction with Shuey's and Ivy's birthday, we went to Jogoya Restaurant at Starhill for a taste of Japanese Buffet last night. It was a lil' bit expensive but the buffet spread was great and in abundance. I think I only tried about 30% of the food varieties prepared... and that was already alot! Here are some photos:


Fresh oysters


Cheesy oysters


More fresh oysters..I had 4 or 5 altogether!


Free flow of coconut drinks


King prawn salad


Salmon Teppayaki


Oreo Cheesecake


My assorted dessert.. the chocolate mousse was gorgeous!


More dessert.. they had about a dozen varieties of Haagen Danz ice-creams


Camomile + Marigold + Chrysanthemum Tea


Yam-Seng time.. Siapa la yam-seng dengan teapot tu!

I think the staff must be glad when we finally walked off after 3 hours there. For a bunch of 12 girls and a guy, we were really loud!

Gettin' hitched

I managed to catch the rerun of Hitch on AXN while I was in Surabaya 2 weeks ago... it was my third time watching it and I still love the movie. I actually watched it twice at the cinema when it first came out a few years ago, each time with different good friends.

Why do I love the movie? Because it is a spot on and because the fact that I am a hopeless romantic and I love movies with happy-endings. Falling in love is hard. Finding true love is even more difficult. Making the person you love to fall for you is probably near impossible. Well, impossible for me anyway... because I am such a coward. I'd rather die with a secret love than to swallow my pride and go up to a guy out of the blue and confess my feelings. I am not a risk-taker when it comes to love... not anymore anyway. I can't deal with rejections and bruised ego well, you see.

So, to have a personal love coach to help you make people fall for you in a 'natural' way is to me, a grand idea. Do these coaches exist in real life?

Well, I haven't found the person I want to fall for me yet...but I am sure it's good to have a love coach on your speed dial... you'll never know when his/her help is needed right? heheh..

ok..I'd better stop my ramblings now.. tah apa2....

Greetings from Surabaya (part 1)

It's my last day in Surabaya today and am now killing my time while waiting to check-out. Planned to go shopping this morning but it's too hot out there and I'm just too lazy to go out. Anyway, parts of this entry was written on the first day but didn't managed to finish it until today. As I normally say...better late than never! ;)
_______________________________

What a start to this lone trip:

1. I witnessed a war of words between 2 makciks while queueing to check-in at LCCT this morning. It was only over a simple misunderstanding. Makcik A accused Makcik B of cutting queue while Makcik B thought the queue was actually split into two lanes (it was!) so she came straight behind me. Anyway, they were really nasty to each other up to the point that Makcik A called Makcik B Cina Apek (Makcik B is a Chinese) and wanted to terajang her while Makcik B cursed Makcik A that she would die in Surabaya...crazy huh? I really wanted to turn around to slap shut them both but I couldn't risk myself getting a terajang AND a death curse, could I?

2. I ended up sitting next to my BIG boss (the hospital director!) on the 2-hour flight and I didn't sleep a wink during the journey because of that. Just imagine if I accidentally lean on his shoulder while I was asleep ( and I have the tendency to do just that!), that would be a big disaster, wouldn't it? Thank god I brought along The Last Lecture that I borrowed from Dr Bubbles.. managed to finish 3/4 of the book by the time we landed in Surabaya.

3. Surabaya locals (are they called Surabayans?) DO NOT walk in the sun. When I walked from my hotel to the conference centre (about 5 minutes away) and then to Tunjungan Plaza, a HUGE shopping mall which is only about 20 minutes away by foot, I received a number of passing comments like “Panas bu!” and “naik teksi aja bu, panas!”. The walkways are clean and wide yet I was the only user most of the times…weird eh?

4. The locals are very friendly, polite and helpful, way beyond my expectations. I was a bit apprehensive at the beginning in case they have any untoward ulterior motives but after ½ a day, I truly warmed up to them. The hotel staff, security guards, pak polisi and even the waiter guy at A&W @ Restoran Khas Amerika were eager to help me with maps and directions and even dispensed tips on where to visit and shop. Unfortunately, I am not much of a shopper so I don’t think the info will be of much use to me. Oh, I love A&W here.. you don’t have to carry your food to your tables yourself, they have waiters to do that for you..always with a broad smile too. Cool eh?

5. Here in Indonesia, the letter ‘U’ is pronounced as ‘uu’ instead of the usual ‘yu’ while the letter ‘G’ is pronounced as ‘gay’. It was mind-boggling at first when they kept saying Lantai uu-gay when I asked the direction for the hardware store in Tunjungan Plaza… I was really blur until I saw a signage near an escalator that says Upper Ground (UG) Floor. I went “ooooooooh…” when it finally struck me. Hehe… a bit slow, am I?