Talk about quick decisions...

Facing yet another one of those stupid things that I just can't make up my mind about, I took the easy way out - I called my tai kor.

~Hi, sis. What's up?
- Nothing.
~ Why nothing? How's work?
- Ok. Nice.
~ You're not enthusiastic enough. Something's wrong. Tell me.
- Nothing lah
~ Cakapla cepat... (as in - stop wasting my time and spill the beans)

Damn. Dia ni CIA ke haper? I told.
~ OK. Do this, and this, and this. Then tell me what happened.

Right. So I do items 1, 2 and 3. One hour later, results in. Text him update.
~ See. I told you so. :-)

Wonderful. Input, process and results in a less than 3 minutes conversation. The guy's a walking mainframe. I gotta take lessons sometime.

Our Very Personal Relationships with….

…OUR CARS.

No? Come on, admit it. You have a name for your car, right? Anaz has Obit. Bet has his WiMP. Mine is Zach. We can be very attached to our cars. Abang still uses the nick Ceejay after the now extinct Lancer he started out with. Zura refers to hers as her “new bf”. My Dad refuses to part with his 1978 relic. (Yes, Abah, I KNOW it’s a Merc. It still won’t last FOREVER…)

Cars fit their owners too; they’re an extension of themselves to a certain point. Take Reeza’s old Accord – sleek, solid and dependable. Risq’s Civic- flash. Anuar’s Ford Turbo Coupe – more flash. Angela’s antique powder blue Merc – unique and classy.

But hey, I don’t judge books by their cover. Just like me a few years back, some of us are using whatever available to get from point A to point B, as a necessity to get around the atrocious public transport system that we have. The most important part of a car is the driver.

I tend to judge people by the way they drive. A few people have been blacklisted from ever driving MY car. It all boils down to being safe. Someone who drives safe is more likely to care about their responsibilities, in this case, their passenger(s). I definitely won’t feel safe in a red Ferrari heading towards an oil palm. In contrast, I felt extremely safe in an older version chariot I hitched a ride in recently. I may have insulted the driver though… Oops, sorry; I have foot-in-mouth disease sometimes.

Admit it; we take insults to our car very personally. I flamed when someone said a white Satria was boring. Coming from someone driving a green Matrix? Speak for yourself, bro. To be invited to drive a brand new car is an honour. It’s a statement of trust when someone allows you to drive his spanking new expensive car. And to NOT be allowed to test drive a car is a downright insult. (Flashback: This is automatic, you drive manual. Tak boleh :-p)

So that’s it, folks. My 2 cents worth. Have to get back to my seminar now :-D

Helpless...

Sometimes, things are just bigger than you are... I have been feeling unbalanced the whole day, and suddenly a dear friend tells me something bad had happened. It was something she had been worried about for some time. I feel so helpless, I can't help her... all I can do is pray that she'll be strong enough to face this difficulty. I wouldn't know what to do if it happened to me...

Tekadmon to the Rescue...

Of course I had a wonderful weekend, but I'm not going to detail it minute by minute and bore everyone to tears yet again. My head was spinning with numerous ideas to update the blog on my way to work, but could not find anything that really hit the spot. All are just too mundane, too controversial, too revealing, too pathetic, you name it...

Read my emails and voila! Zehan had sent this piece. OK, it's not my original thoughts, but believe me, you don't want to look into my brain today. It's a jumbled mess of half-baked ideas. Not pretty.

-------------------:-P
Dear Tech Support
LAST year I upgraded from Boyfriend 5.0 to Husband 1.0 and noticed a slow down in the overall performance, particularly in the flower and jewellery applications that had operated flawlessly under Boyfriend5.0. In addition, Husband 1.0 un-installed many other valuable programs, such as Romance 9.5 and Personal Attention 6.5, but installed undesirable programs such as NFL 5.0, NBA 3.0 and ESPN 2.0. And now Conversation 8.0 no longer runs and House Cleaning 2.6 simply crashes the system. I've tried running Nagging 5.3 to fix these problems, but to no avail.

Reply from Tech Support: First keep in mind; Boyfriend 5.0 is an entertainment package, while Husband 1.0 is an operating system. Try entering the command C:/ I THOUGHT YOU LOVED ME and download Tears 6.2 to install Guilt 3.0. If all works as designed, Husband 1.0 should automatically run the applications Jewellery 2.0 and Flowers 3.5.
.........................................................................:-p

Too Much of A Good Thing...

Guess I overdid staying up on Monday & Tuesday, 'coz I got a bit ill yesterday.

Saw Nix for dinner Monday, then we chatted until almost 2.30 in the morning. It was OK for her since she had jet lag and could sleep in the next day. I went to work as usual, then in the afternoon quitted early to take her to MERCY. THEN we had to meet with Alia in Mid-Valley, had dinner at Food Junction, the two were craving yong tau foo - kat UK & NL mana nak cari! Went window shopping and topped it all off with cake at Secret Recipe. After sending Nik home, hantar Alia pulak... by the time I reached home dah 12.30 a.m. I'm usually OK with staying up late, but I guess sometimes you hit your tolerance limit kot...

Yesterday started sniffling and felt feverish, so tried to work from home. Didn't get much done, though. Am going in today even tho I feel a l'il under the weather. Takpelah, kalau tak tahan sangat I balik awal. Need to get at least a few things done before the weekend. :-)

What a Weekend!!

Spent the better half of the weekend in hot sun and discovered my new best friend - oral rehydration salts!

Left the office on Friday in a good mood after a week of productive work and social meets. Had dinner with Chris & Lorett Wednesday, and another with Yuen Ae Thursday. I was on a roll. Some guy actually asked if we had met b4 and asked for my number on my way out!! Har har... Corniest as pickup lines go. Come to think of it, I MIGHT have met him at the Oz Embassy do last April, but in any case, it's no big deal la. Told him I'd give the no if I bumped into him 3x. Fair enough, right? :-D Better safe than sorry, silap2 ter-bagi my number to some fella who'd start pestering me to join his dodgy pyramid scheme. Choy!!

Saturday - did my rounds before proceeding to Putrajaya to watch the rowing competition. Missed the morning heats, so went upstairs to meet Cik Jee dekat the Lake Club cafe, then we both went to Allamanda and met Anaz there. Anaz was with her adik-beradik and as Effy dah merajuk, she couldn't lepak2 with us. So after wandering aimlessly, Cik Jee dropped me back at the Lake Club where I'd left my car. Caught the afternoon repercharge, then left. I was pretty dehydrated; I got back, put on the A/C to cool down and woke up at nine pm! Found some ORS Yumiko had left behind, they helped a little but later found that they were slightly expired. Oops...

Sunday - went again to see the finals. Discovered that my sunblock had mysteriously disappeared. Darn. Feeling guilty about running around when there is work to be done, I took my notes and laptop along. Good thing too, 'coz it was quite a lot of waiting in between short bursts of activity. Halfway thru, Azura messaged saying she was stuck with a flat tepi hiway. Called her to make sure she was OK. Then Inas called, spoke to her for a bit, just catching up on news. She's offline at the moment, so been a bit out of the loop. Risq called, made some plans. Watched the races in between calls...

UTM was supposed to have an established team, and I could see they did well, starting slow and sprinting to the finish line. UPSI and UM did OK too. Unitar and Uniten didn't do so well. P's event - UM Men's 4 coxed was fast and furious, but bad luck - their 2nd stroke lost grip of his oar and cost his team. Sorry, babes, better luck next time... Overall, I think the tourney would have benefited from more training for all the teams. They could not even stay in their allocated lanes, there were numerous collisions, one headed for (and went up) the bank, one hit the jetty and many 'pancit' before they finished half of the 500m length! Insufficiently trained coxswains cost their teams 'coz as they were the only ones facing forward, they were supposed to direct the rowers. Pasal tu the boats were going in the wrong direction!! It was funny in a way, same as we canoeists looking forward to a capsized boat to lighten the mood : D At least our event is relay, so we had a chance to catch up as we went along... When the last race had been run, said goodbye to P, then left at eleven. Didn't even wait to see who actually won overall.

Had wanted to do a bit of kayaking, but they didn't allow it due to the event. Maybe another time... Got the price list from the Club, it's quite reasonable. Would like to try my hand at sculling sometime, or just get some friends to join me for some kayaking one of these days. Not worth signing up for membership, just pay full price as and when I can find time for a bit of boating lah... Am free sometime in July. Anyone game?

Was supposed to meet Risq, my ex-coursemate aka crony, at noon, to return the bowling ball I borrowed for Tekadbowl, but as usual, when you make plans with Risq, it has to change ten times before you get anywhere. :-p In the end I simply dug my heels in, refused to meet him in BSD and forced him to come over to the house. Met his new girlfriend and had some mint tea. As usual, being a Malaccan, he had to comment on the 'ubatgigi' taste of the tea... Sigh... They sure are a homogenous bunch, aren't they? No sense of adventure at all.

Later decided to watch Spinning Gasing, had borrowed the CD from Cyril in May, baru nak tengok. It was kind of interesting. Not sure what to make of it, though. Too lazy to think. Bits and pieces here and there, not really something with a plot, but then, most art movies aren't so straightforward anyway. At least the characters worked out well, not over-prettified like "Berlari Ke Langit". That was such a joke!

Fell asleep pretty early and woke up to find a message from Nix, she had come home from NL last week, her dad had just passed away. So now trying to finish off some work before going home, then meet up with her tonight. We have so much to talk about...

Cheers, guys. And have a good week ahead!! :-) Az

Idiots

I’m really pissed off with some people. Ok la, I’m not that popular among the masses, but I at least try to be civil despite my laser tongue. Not too long ago I was kind of a weirdo too, so I try not to be so harshly judgemental. But in this case, what can you say when someone is so offensive and irritating, and refuses to believe that her behaviour is unacceptable??? Maybe it was caused by cluelessness, but hey, PLEASE, listen to clue, OK? Stop being an idiot and LISTEN for once. Calling someone umpteen times and leaving countless messages on his phone because he was not able to pick-up is NOT acceptable. Now he thinks I have wackos for friends. Geez! Sabar ajelah :-p

Ouch...

Ouch... am suffering from last weekend's burst of activity... My muscles are sore from heavy duty rowing, even my butt hurts... And I skinned both knees crawling for that 'mystery challenge', even though I wore long pants. Can't imagine those that weren't protected - OWW!!!That's it. I'll HAVE to lose weight so that I can be a front paddler next year. Right now I can only paddle front for big guys like Chris, Thiaga and Saras, and they weren't around this year... sigh... I'm kind of stuck in the middle 'coz I'm too heavy to row front, but not strong enough to compensate for weak front paddlers. And with strong front paddlers, it's better to give the back paddler job to a guy 'coz they're stronger, so I end up not paddling. :-p Hate being stuck in the middle.

Am feeling quite uncomfortable, but still can work la. Have been in the office early today to catch up with work. Wonder if I should leave the computer again tonight so that I can focus on non-computer stuff. Have been glued to the PC too much lately. And not even for work, been playing games instead of focusing on things that NEED to be done. Yup, sounds like a good idea. Cook, feed myself, make some coffee, buff up the house a bit, read and sleep early. Maybe I should make this a habit, like most normal, highly-functional people. :-)

Ciao guys, need to update the Green Notes.

WWF 4th Canoe Challenge

Was roped in to take part for WWF again this year. And am glad I did!

We finished 3rd again this year, losing only one loop to Magnum. HSBC team 1 won top place with 55 loops, Magnum did 53 and we did 52. Of that amount, I contributed 3 loops only. Wasn't proud of my 1st one... did very badly, but was OK in the next 2, mainly 'coz I had a strong front paddler. Heh heh, me the kaki bangku with a penchant for paddling - can navigate but not very strong la. For most of the contestants, it was a team building effort. Most of the time we were watching or strategizing for the mystery challenges. We won mainly thanks to our 'heroes' - Pharmy, San, Saiful and Razulin. So much fun... Full report in the Panda Escapades - hafta get back to work in 5 mins...

I had fun meeting up with old friends, ex-colleagues, even an ex-admirer (eeps...) Hmm.. glad he forgave me enough to actually come over and say hi... wonder if I should call...? Naaahh... lost his number somehow. But I do know where he works... Oh dear... am I so desperate that I'm thinking to call a guy I happily ignored after the 1st date??? Sigh... well, I WAS head over heels in love with someone else at the time... "Date Dr" Yuz - any suggestions?

P/S - Pharmy - pliz don't forget to let me know abt next week's rowing tourney, ya? I really nak tengok... (Me actually loved "The Skulls" (Joshua Jackson) for the rowing scene...)

My new lampu!!

Eheheh.. apa la Oza, beli lampu pun nak citer ke? Pathetic gilos... Tapi nak citer jugak, pasal tragedi yang melanda ada kait mengait dengan lampu nih....

Begini citernya... Ari tu kan kita cakap nak beli lampu Yumiko, kan? So last week gi lah amik kat rumah dia. Nak dijadikan cerita, unit dia tu kat tingkat empat walk-up, tak ada lif... So dibawaklah lampu tu bagai menatang minyak yang penuh turun tangga... Tak semena-mena, tetiba batang dia patah kat tengah2!! Waaahhh!!! Tragis...! Tapi bawak jugakla balik rumah... Try nak dismantle, tukar connector dengan pipe connector, takleh bukak plak... Aisehman...

Next day, nak buat gathering, dah bosan tengok benda alah tu cacat, makcik bagi lah dia first aid. So sesapa yang datang malam tu nampak la lampu pakai bandage. Nasib baik still menyala. Kalau tak rugi, sieh... Lawa lak tu... hepi giler tengok ada soft lamp. Jadi cozy trus my hall.

Tetapi, oleh kerana tak puas hati, the next day cuba lagi bukak lampu tu. Malang tak berbau... makcik careless tak bukak dulu dia punyer shade (glass). Dia tergolek, langgar kaki meja, pocah badarai... emmm alahai... sabar ajelah... Ni dah penat sampai tahap dah tak berperasaan lagi dah...

Tadi gi Ikea cari spare part, depa tak jual pulak shade spare utk model tuh... So gi la beli shade pesen lain, pasang. Not bad jugak la, tapi still terkilan baru berapa hari dapat lampu, dah damaged... On the other hand, it's still nice, my house is cozy... give and take lar ya... nak buat cmaner lagi... just make the best of it la. Kalau dah kronik sangat beli ajer lampu baru! Abis citer!

T(r)olls

Once upon a time, there were big, ugly and nasty giants called trolls who roamed the world. They especially loved to live underneath bridges and demand payment from the people who wished to pass.

One day, a wicked aristocrat named Sir Sammy Vaylou learnt of these creatures and what they did. He thought that it was a GREAT idea. So he decided to replicate the business model and builts lots and lots of houses to house them across major roads. Because the name "troll-house" had a negative conotation, he needed the name to be glamourised (Alaa... like Telekom tukar jadi TM tuh...). After consultation with a major PR firm, they decided to call these houses "tolls". The trolls were enchanted to resemble cute "toll booth girls" that can tackle cute, red BMW driving rich guys who are clueless of their true entities. To this day, we still pay money to pass the t(r)olls.

THE END