Monday morning blues

The "Insanely Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cake" you baked last night turned out less than perfect and you can't stop thinking about baking another which will, of course, turn out perfect. Can't stop thinking that because I had no baking soda and substituted it with an extra spoon of baking powder instead, all the chips sunk right down to the bottom. It still tastes all right, though. But what if it turned out perfect?? Shoot. The ravages of watching "Private Practice" and reading up Dell's blog and finding recipes in there. It's irresistible, I tell you. Damn. I need tall, dark and handsome unmarried stranger to whisk me away and kiss me senseless. Yeah, like Pete and Addison. BTW, if you're going "What the &%$* is she talking about?", the answer is Addison (ex-wife of McDreamy of Grey's Anatomy); has slunk off to LA to work in a private health clinic with nutty colleagues and oh-so-comel receptionist who goes surfing at lunchtime and bakes cakes for his crush - the divorced-but-still-in-love-with-ex-husband boss who is also Addison's friend. - Refer GA Season 3.

In any case, stupid me spent all weekend fooling around in between straightening out stupid house and am painfully aware that I will need to tie up the loose ends of the WWF job and sort out IMR article matters while anticipating a bunch of new stuff coming in. Also have other jobs to think about... Good for me, if I can just kick myself in the butt hard enough to ever get anything done.

Plus, it really is pissing me off that said 'rescuer' of little Kiko has not done anything to find him a home, and I've not received any responses so far except for one person who asked if she could take him in March. I said, yes, if he's still available. I also suggested that she could take him now if her apartment allows pets, because he's an indoor cat and toilet trained. She never replied. It's just SO annoying when people practice the 'paham2 ajelah attitude'. What if we 'paham' the wrong thing? Which is what usually happens. Don't ask, it's rude. It's better to assume (the wrong thing). Ha. No wonder everyone's a screw up. I mentioned that I don't want him too attached to me. More like me getting attached to him. I can just imagine myself saying farewell, with loads of advice to the adopter - "Don't give him milk, it gives him diarrhoea." "Watch out for his claws, he loves scrambling up uncovered legs." Don't let him in bed with you. He'll play half the night and you'll never get any sleep."But cats mean money. The boys eat A LOT. And sometimes they need vets, which are not cheap. I can sometimes get free advice, but jabs and stuff require cold hard cash, which I'm not exactly rolling in at the moment. Plus, their loo litter costs more than double what I pay for my water bills.

Just while we're rambling, have to say that British comedy writers are WAY better than American ones. Their humour is funny, as opposed to sick. Yes, they do write about a lot of humping, and getting wasted. But it's so much nicer to say 'bloke' and 'dangly bits' and 'being ratso' instead of using proper words for improper behaviour.

In any case, here's to the week ahead. Cheers!

Of Dreams and Desire

The scariest thing that happened recently was losing hope. For a while, the future was dark, there was nothing to see. Alhamdulillah, dreams and desires have returned, and life has meaning again.

I'm hoping to send the computer for repairs soon. I want to have my own lappie again.

I want many more big jobs.

I dream of a new car.

I have hopes of finding someone new.

- Desires are what drives our actions to achieve greatness.
- Don't quit 3 feet from the gold.
- Protect your dreams from negativity.
- And many more.

Thank you Mr Napoleon Hill; you give good advice.

From McDreamy to Mc... Needy?

Argh.. This is SO not right. I waited ages for Grey's Anatomy latest episode (S4Ep11) to come out. Watched it yesterday and surfed a little today, only to find out about a writers' strike. No wonder la it was so long coming... So 411 will probably be the de facto season finale until they clear up that mess. Darn.

And just to 'kacau' those who haven't watched Season 4 yet, Derek actually kissed someone else, gaduh with Meredith, and now he actually asked the other girl out. Darn it, Derek. Are you REALLY that desperate to start a family? Come on, you don't want her. You want Meredith. You'll just regret it later, I'm telling you.

Sigh. And I never used to actually bother watching TV...

BTW, is Astro showing CSI Season 8 yet? It's great :D

Kitten Need Home

Yeah, yeah. Same old, same old.

My neighbour found this kitten in the rain at SS14 a week ago. It had been abandoned; wet and scared. She took pity on it and took it home - to ME! I agreed to take care of it until we find him a new home, but definitely I can't keep it.

Leo can't contain his jealousy and now only comes home at mealtimes. Males! Pakcik Pseudo is a little more accommodating, but still, I'm not keen on taking on another responsibility.

The kitten is male, about 7-8 weeks old, healthy, playful, manja and (thankfully) toilet trained. It's black and white with the sweetest blue-grey eyes. And yes, long, soft fur. Perfect for people with older children.

If anyone is interested, do call me at 019-267 4896 ASAP. Az

Letter to Annoying Girl

Girl,

Thanks for your numerous annoying SMSes about your payment. As I mentioned much earlier, the money will be paid when payment is received. No one is getting anything as yet. Why should you? I understand that you might be desperate for the paltry amount. Well, everyone wants their money. You did not incur any costs to produce the substandard photographs you provided.
I am not used to 'passive agressive' behaviour, but I find it unnecessary to entertain pushy messages by someone who refuses to understand the way the system works. Actually, the amount is not so large. I could actually forward it using my own money. But I guess I'm only a kiasu Malaysian. Why spend my own money on a squeaky wheel when it's someone else due? You can just wait for the payment to come in in a couple more months.

In the meantime, shut up and wait.

Selamat Menyambut Maal Hijrah

Isn't it amazing what a little heart can do?

I celebrated the Masehi New Year with feasting and we celebrated the stroke of midnight with slices of cheesecake and fake wine. It did nothing to my heart.

I celebrated Maal Hijrah while driving, saying "amin" to the doa akhir & awal tahun read over the radio with one hand on the steering wheel, making my way home through heavy traffic while a headache starts to pound in my head. It continued with an unknown ustadz with a heavy Jawa accent telling the story of the Prophet's perilous hijrah away from Makkah to Madinah and those who were there to support him. It made it all so much more real to know that it wasn't a simple miraculous act of disappearing from one place and reappearing in another. It took courage, planning, logistics, espionage and communications. And it happened 1429 years ago. Their GPS was the stars. Their guide was Jewish. The tracks were covered by a flock of sheep.

Why did I never learn about all this before? Why did I not know how beautiful history was? I think I'll start learning more about the truth now. Islam is more than praying 5 times a day, fasting in Ramadhan and reading the Quran. And not about doing puasa sunat & sembahyang hajat just to earn points and to make wishes come true. I want to be like the people of old, who discovered medicine, and astronomy and mathematics. People who lived by the words of the Book, not merely reading them with beautiful tajwid, yet knowing nothing of its true contents.

Selamat Menyambut Maal Hijrah. Semoga tahun yang mendatang dipenuhi kebahagiaan, kesejahteraan, keberkatan dan keampunan dariNya. Amin.

Lallalaa...

Ngeh 3x... It's been a pretty entertaining day.

Started off with birding with Loret and the bear. Managed to find the MNH, but I did the unpardonable sin of scaring it away... Went over to the car park and got quite number of birds there. Had lunch at Makbul, then balik la.

In the afternoon, lepak main Scrabble. Then I happened to 'layan' this guy on Skype. Well, yeah, I shouldn't have, I suppose. But anyway, ingat saja la nak borak2. As usual, I declined to give my phone number. Dah pulak mamat tu sibuk memujuk rayu... Apa lagi, warning bells mula la berbunyi. Ada macam si Taichee punya budak gila je bunyinya. I memang pantang kalau orang pujuk2 ni. Tak caya den doh. Lagi kalau dia sebut2 bab agama. Memang trick con man la tu. Pas tu dah merajuk taknak kawan lak.. Dah sah kaki kelentong. Kalau orang ikhlas, apa la salahnya tunggu 2-3 minggu nak dapatkan phone number. Bukannya orang tak nak bagi langsung. Kalau itu pun takleh nak tunggu, karang dot dot dot pulak yang dia demand. Heh. Whatever... Hmm.. Letih aku berusaha nak jaga PR hari ni. Hari lain awal2 dah kena slam. Tetapi oleh kerana dah bertekad nak jadi "nice girl", terpaksalah berlemah lembut... Sabar ajelah...

Esok kena keja la. La la la... :D

What We Need..

Sometimes, all we need is some reassurance. An encouraging message from a friend, a kind word, something to tell you that you did not royally screw up.

Was getting very worried about my translation work until I called Surin and he assured me that the work was actually 'pretty good'. Okay. A B minus, probably. As long it's not a big fat D or E... Good. Then I might actually get paid. I had nightmares of the work being rejected and bla bla bla... Sheez.

A few other things kind of nags at me constantly, and I think I'm not breathing very well lately. I kind of miss pakcik being around to assure me that I'm not a total loss like some people insisted I was. In any case, I suppose I can hang in there a little longer, and I just hope the year gets better as it progresses. Better than starting high and going downhill, right?


BTW, I swear I saw some messages from P and Jeff on the taggie the other day, tapi hari ni dah hilang. Kena tarik balik ke? Anyhow, assuming that I wasn't hallucinating, thanks for the kind wishes, and wish everyone a great year ahead.

Happy New Year?

Suffice to say, it's not looking very rosy right about now. At least Leo's home.