oh please go and read his entry on 21.10.2004.
i want to laugh and i want to cry as well. but you can imagine what i go through every spring cleaning season. same scenario. it's me against my mum.

http://kampungdusun.blogspot.com

it's cracking funny. i read it first at ain's..who posted it on her site.

at the other bazaar

we went to ikea last night..and we were sitting comfortably on a sofa at one of the 'display living rooms' ..and he said that was how he wanted the spare room to be. exactly. and i asked him..

"including the tv as well? in the spare room?"

i had so many questions and despite all the talk..lol..tell you, i was only teasing. it is yet to be seen if my subcouncious will get the better of me later on this matter. but right now i am only teasing..my main worry is not THAT actually...but..on the fact that ..

* i cant cook!*

yes, cik kaks ..i have about a few more months to hone my culinary skills. phyz EATS..and his family prefers to eat in rather than out. while i grew up in one that prefers to pack in or eat out.

....................................................................................................

i have always wanted to since the days we went to gallery..to attend a class at the coriander leaf. they have since moved..but i would still like to attend a class there if i have the spare moolah. not sure if it is expensive. i dun even know the market rate for cooking classes.. mav however had said that tis the preffered place for ladies of leisure, for the days if they decide they need to get together and learn to cook..hmm i tot that was the raffles culinary academy?

my preffered courses would be THAI, MEDITTERANEAN,ITALIAN...and now..


Screen Cuisine
Coriander Leaf presents...

Monsoon Wedding

A South Asian wedding in the monsoon seasons - and a
South Asian monsoon meal to match

Tidbits
Bhel Poori / Puffed Rice Snack
w/Sweet Tamarind Chutney & Spicy Mint Chutney

Samosas / Phyllo Triangles stuffed with Lentils

Mains
Achar Chicken / Chicken Cubes sauteed w/ Pickling Spices

Handi Kebab
Gently cooked strips of beef tenderloin, marinated in medley of spices

Spiced Green Mango Curry w/ Sizzling Oil

Cooling Cucmber and Mint Raita

Dessert
Semolina Halwa w/ Raisins and Whipped Cream


~ www.corrianderleaf.com

ok i have saved the previous entry coz it was very lengthy....but i save it partly for other reasons too lah...

and if you knew the bride groom2b when he used to rock and roll,
this is the before sunrise song mentioned in the previous entry.

..........................................................................................

someone i knew told me his friend met phy at a party few weeks back..

"how do you know it was my fiance? could be someone else?"

"like how many malay xxxxxx xxxxxx are there here?

"hmmm ok..still..she said he is quite a mat hah?"

"hmm ya lol but said he looks chinese and his nickname is ahpek"

"ha? correct then .but if he looks chinese how can he be a mat?"

"a mat manjen then. lol"

"well ah ok..maybe he is..lol..a mat is a mat at heart."

and a mat joke yesterday..

" i told you some people died from eating kambing infected with anthrax"
"yeah i know.read it in the papers"
"scary huh..how did they get it..i mean the kambing?"
"maybe the kambings listened to too much heavy metal"

okay fine, very lame. .

* is manjen a derogatory description? i dunno.. but when asked if sepet is, yasmin ahmad said it is only if you think it is. like it is not an attractive feature or something good.

same thing for mats and minahs i suppose. and to think of it, you cant escape being one, even if you dont realise it or deny it..coz if you are a malay..there is i am very sure a mat and minah in you as long as you are in this kampung..only which type ah ..coz there are many varieties here.

for sure tho my phyz is quite the mat rocker..was and is. and will always be..*rock never dies*...

and in case you ever wander what happen to the mat mat rocker and minah minah of the 80s esp the *anda mau rock* era.



if you are like us..who wants to find out..




Teater Nostalgia Mat Rock & Minah Kental
Teater Kami. Singapore
When: 03 Dec 2004 (Fri), 8.00 PM - 05 Dec 2004 (Sun),
8.00 PM at the Theatre Studio

if you are as ..errmm.. old as me.. you might have possibly gone to see this movie on a date. and it was one of the very first few movies we watched during the courtship days. and for a good reason, it had one of the IT boys then, ethan hawke, post-reality bites day..



Before Sunrise 1995
"When Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) met on a Eurail train, the connection between them was immediate and profound. The 14-hour relationship that followed, as the pair explored the spontaneous and unexpected in Vienna, ended on a train platform where they swore they'd meet again six months later.

They never did.

Nine years have passed since that morning..."



Before Sunset 2004
"...Sunset tops the first installment because it involves characters who have more life under their belts. nothing like a few years to clarify a personality.""

nothing like a few years.......

as for the earlier movie, before sunrise, it was actually the inspiration for a song of the same name recorded by a group of boys i know. nine years have passed since then...

that group has since disbanded but for the record, now one of 'em is a tv producer, one i last heard was in UC Berkeley, one is doing very well in an events company and the last one...is going to be married to moi..heh..

* i have here a song by that group of four..not the one with the same tittle as the movie..but one of my favourites nevertheless.

*bits & pieces*

1. the other day, i had a talk with a lady..we started talking about things in general and then she started talking about her daughter. it was surprising yet not surprising. cant explain. the behaviour of youths is unpredictable so much so that it has become predictable? doesnt matter what sort of background i figured, it just take some twist somewhere in the environment or the storyline and our youths are susceptible to their moments of madness. we were there once, werent we?

2. yesterday on the train ride to work, there was a guy a few seats from me who started talking to himself. at first it was some inane mumbo jumbo then he started spewing some vulgarities. i was too lazy to move seat. and i was rooted there partly coz i had a tiny fear if i did he would be aware of it even in his mad state and start to target me. irrational fear. coz then i wondered as much as i feared for me i think he will have more to fear for himself.

this morning's train ride was equally interesting. an encounter with a snorer. it was funny coz his snores was so loud i think people from the other end of the carriage could probably hear him too.

3. my family's experience with the quiessential air kathira tis ramadan has been a hit and miss affair these past weeks. last week i bought a pack and it was masam by the time we took it during buka ie. dah basi, it had turned sour and bad. and the other day we tried our luck at another stall. it dissapointed us as well coz the kathira didnt taste like kathira.. it tasted powdery! hah! i suppose they had used powdered milk as a substitute. we did have one good one last week. and my mum kept telling me to go to that stall to get the kathira..so it's my fault lah i wanted to experiment with different stalls..but dissapointing kathira experience so far now has reformed me. i now know which one to get mine from.


4. we went to bussorah st to buy some kueh yesterday and we walked past pahang st and past the old chungcheng school. that place has changed after being abandoned for so long. when i was young we thought that old school was spooky coz legend had it that one student had committed suicide, jumped down and got him/herself pierced through the sharp rod gates. now there's another type of spook. a big costume company now resides there. the joke we had is that at night they bozos and ghosts are probably having a good haunt party.

5. and i can now officially hum 'big yellow taxi' ...as i walk past the field that used to be my playground...

"they took all the trees
put ’em in a tree museum
and they charged the people
a dollar and a half just to see ’em

don’t it always seem to go
that you don’t know what you’ve got
till it’s gone
they paved paradise
and put up a parking lot"

coz guess what? they ARE building a parking lot! so now it will be known as the parking lot that used to be our playing field. one day i will blog about it..not right now..i may just tear if i do now.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060934913/102-0144779-6793769?v=glance

...................................................................................................

i have always wanted to get 'kitchen confidential'..three years ago anthony bourdain actually came down to singapore and i could get him to sign a copy of it..but darn i missed it..

but somehow i thought of the book again today coz i was getting a lil bit stressed in the kitchen.i volunteered to do dinner today. fine, it was only dinner, and my kitchen is no great chef domain, but in case anybody aspire to be in one..sweating it out (literally with all the steam and vapour) under any form of pressure is no fun. it was stressful enough for the amateur main masak masak cook here, to get something palatable ready for dinner, considering i only had slightly more than an hour (my hats off to the iron chefs and challengers)

as it is, things can be chaotic..and cooking requires some organisational skills..and there is always the kitchen management politics you know if you are sharing it with others in hostel, rented place or even with the family. like the fridge space. like how you manage the kitchen or do certain things in terms of how things should be chopped, diced, arranged, washed, dried and so on and so forth..hahahah.. serious. the last thing some cooks want to have while watching the dish, is to have someone poking nosily around telling them what to do, esp if it is their dish. (actually both of us agreed this is prob one of the reasons why there will always be more men chef than women coz women can get into catfights over such things. emotional)..and if one adds a neurotic nitpicking personality more common in women, esp to keep things clean at all time..then die, you may need hours to prepare that meal.

*a chef is i guess not the same as a cook in a franchised eatery. i've actually worked with a former chef. he said he wont ever get back to it again for some reasons you know if you read the book. and there was one chem engineer i knew who took some sabatical and decided to try his hands at it, joined a culinary school to become a chef. but it turned out to be shortlived.

*still i spose it must be exciting..watched a few episodes of the restaurant when it showed some time back. would love to have it shown again.

psst...lol..i said i will blog less but i have some time to kill now..

a few moments ago i was going through the new Urban paper-mag that comes with the daily every thurs now, with my colig. it was very enriching experience, coz you see he is someone i can term to be the metrosexual..(he's not the only want i know) but the one i have to face everyday coz he is my colig.. he's such a sweet boy. his cubicle is well-stocked with herbal tea, infusion tea, candies, and snacks from mark n spencers..and get this he even has a small cute minifridge...and that's not the only homelytouch. he has that small air freshener thing with the whirling water in it that gives off a pleasant scent. and my sweet boy of a colig not only likes to offer me royce chocs and lemon flavoured tea, he also has his cabinet stocked with shower essentials which he said i can always borrow in case i want to shower at the office..


aahh.. but its not these possessions that make me say he is a bonafide metrosexual. back to the enriching experience i was talking about, today he went over with me the virtues and benefits of all the different brands of men's skincare range that you see splashed in the Urban paper-mag today..he has tried them all..i have to say i was impressed especially, for a girl who cant even tell the difference between most moisturiser, cream and lotion. and he is as metrosexuals are said to be, very fashion conscious..last gss, he got excited about his shopping spree at the hugo sale. and he loves zara. and topmen. and he has three pair of glasses, one for work, one for trendy night outs and one for sports or sporty look tho actually they all look the same funky types to me. and he wears very nice shirts, well pressed and ironed and most importanly well cut trousers and clean looking shoes. notice that ALOT of local men esp the civil servant type, wear ill fitting ugly ahpek trousers and shabby shoes (some green with mould somemore)

anyway, there's a segment on metrosexuals in Urban today as well..and i have to stress again, metrosexual does not equate queer..coz i know some hotblooded straight metrosexual men out there. it's just very nice to have well scrubbed, clean-looking and fashionable men companions that can talk fashion to you.

* do checkout tho
http://www.bravotv.com/Queer_Eye_for_the_Straight_Guy/

i have told some people that tis month i may just cut down on blogging..a few days i have been making myself stay offline..and i think it is
l i b e r a t i n g
somewhat.

to tell the truth sometimes i cringe at what i have put up here. normally i have my entries at night before i sleep..and i have to say..there are times the next morning i would wake up and say to myself ..oh gosh, cant believe i had that down online..hahahaha..those are the times when i go to self censure mode and put some entries offline..tho sometimes i just couldnt be bothered..hahaha..

so i think tho i dont think it may happen this holy good month..if anyone is going to slander me through whatever i have written down here..like there have been rampant ones on some blogs..i think now i may just roll off the bed and laugh..coz like i said..i cringe at my own entries. some things i write seem damn silly, crappy, sometimes mushy, sometimes emo with bad grammar and a structure that is truly disjointed. betul tak..this blog being public is for everybody and nobody in particular actually. dont take it seriously coz its partly here for me to humour myself .. anyway so much for self bitching about myself and this blog..


have a good ramadan and we all shall be good, oh make that extra good, girls and boys.

one of my coligs in my dept is on an extended medical leave..i had an idea of what happened but wasnt too sure. the last i heard she had discovered a growth and had been going for checkups. another colig of mine then updated me that she could possibly need to go for more treatments and maybe chemo. so it is maligned. my friend said she is not considered in the high risk group since she is relatively young and has borne two kids. but i told her you never know.

i have known people who have been rather careful with relatively high level of awareness of their diet and health succumbing to illness as such and there are also people who throw caution to the wind when it comes to taking care of themselves, going strong. so it's god's will. but being aware does make one pretty edgy seeing the way some people you care about treat themselves, putting themselves in the high risk group and then also not wanting to listen to your advice...i can only hope they have 'strong genes' if there is ever such a thing against illness.

cancer also has an effect on whovever has come close contact with it. personally to witness it, is terribly heartwrenching, for one to see a normal healthy being reduced to just skin and bones. and i have friends whose mums had succumbed to breast cancer, and they are ever cautios now, doing regular checkups and worrying about suspicious lumps (coz it is in somewhat hereditary). some time ago i also had a lunch companion who's dad had colon cancer. as a result she became a health freak. she's on an organic diet and if she has to eat at hawker centers, she would ask for no msg in her food..being able to detect even the slightest hint of msg in the dishes.

currently in my work place, there is also a vegetarian who is very health concious. i cant help but notice she always has this wholemeal gruelly looking thing for breakfast..i havent ask her yet what is her motivation behind all those, but seeing how she is very paticular with her food, experience tells me that maybe there is some history to it.


* tis month also happen to be breast cancer awareness month, yes that pink ribbon campaign.

we were at almajlis last night, having a last big meal, sitting
at the side facing haji lane..when i got a sharp pang of nostalgia and
felt a bit melo..hahahah makes me sound so old. across the narrow
street was the kaki lima cafe..he was trying to explain to me how the
name kaki lima came about..he theorized that pavements were five feet
wide that's why its called kaki lima..while i liked to believe that
its because you need to take five steps to cover the length from one
that fronts one shophouse to the next one. hahah but i think his
theory seems more correct.

anyway, i had that feeling coz as we sat there enjoying the courses,
it got breezy and the dark clouds looked like they were heavy with
raindrops , about to burst out. (it never actually rained.) but the
kaki lima talk we had and the the shower i had expected reminded me of
the days when i was a lil kid and running around the kaki lima infront
of my late granny's house waiting for the rain to start. the small
drain infront of the pavement will then be filled up with rainwater
that will flow past fast and me and my cousins would imagined that it was fast
flowing rapids in some river. we would make small paper boats and let
the paper boats float on the rapids, then we would run to the end of
the kaki lima fronting the row of shophouses..towards the end, the
drain water will drop to an inlet underground bringing our paperboats
together with it.this drop we imagined it to be a waterfall, that
drowned our paperboats down.

........................................................................................................

also, while we were having our dinner, another couple walked past our table and stood facing the lane..the guy was looking very excitedly down the lane and talking animatedly with the lady, pointing to some distance ahead..we overheard him saying about the place having a certain 'feel' about it..i can only think of rustic for the 'feel'..it has a very easy living feel like a respite from the hustle and bustle that is just a few streets away. it also reminds me of a holiday place, bophut, we went to. and it has a potential for it to be a..i hate to use the word coz it has been used on another place, bohemian hangout..lol. infact we know some people who are seriously considering of renting some space there to be a semi hangout semi shopspace. the only thing we were not looking forward to is to have pubs and watering holes taking up space there. that will just kill the spirit of the whole area. i had a feeling the couple was eager to rent some space there too..now if only we have the money...

two years ago when J turned twenty-five in october, we had a small celebration..and over coffee and dessert, she set a challenge for JJ, who HNBK then..that by J's next birthday she would have a boyfriend to introduce..and my, JJ really took that challenge well, got a boyfriend by the following year's birthday and a husband even before J's birthday this month :)

here's the wedding story documented in pictures.

this is the month where i need to be FRUGAL. please remind me.

i shall stay home. eat at home..which is apt since it is ramadan. go out less often less it is absolutely necessary. scrub myself. stretch everyday so i dun feel achy and feel the need to go for a rubdown. find projects to do at home.

the moto for tis month: Spend Smart Live Rich.

contrary to what some people want to believe..i dont make oodles of money. alhamdullilah that it is a neat sum..but i still have bills and loans to pay and groceries to buy. and so does everybody else, i know. but i just like to stress i dont have huge sums of money stashed in the bank.

plus you know, i need to save up for the wedding.. uhhhm the other day, was chatting in the bus with someone. he is in the process of planning his end of the year wedding..and he told me how much money he had spent. one day, he was at a furniture shop and had to pay for the deposit for a set with his credit card..when it got rejected coz he had maxed it. apparently that is the strategy by a number of couples, to max the cards and recoup the profit from their wedding to repay the debts. i just thought it was Scary...since we know, malay weddings do not guarantee a profit most times. sometimes the balance in my current account at some parts of the month can already get me to a state of semi depression, i have to resist the temptation of dipping into the savings fund.

for all wedding photographers out there..let me warn ya'all..there's one contender out there..



kecik kecik lagi dah start practice..






he hijacked his mummy's cammy and took photos of everyone and everything. the results..boleh lah..except for the tummy shots that were suppose to be faces..coz he's still a shortie..if he has to look up all the time to take mug shots of the BIG PEOPLE..he'll get neck cramps..ah..but i told him, next time just be fiercer and tell the BIG PEOPLE to squat.


tis one is one of my fav shots..of him tailing the official photog..but he has to learn from this silly kakak..hahah camera belum ready, hand so shaky..so the shot v blur..but i just like it.

smurfette's shoes...



and the art of eating the smurfettelicous cupcakes..





sniff and lick...while sitting preity


dainty bites from the sides..


or simply chomp from the top..

*we only cease to be angry when we cease to be so hopeful*

will be watching



with the apek...

www.sepet.com.my

19-year old Ah Loong is in charge of a stall selling pirated vcd's. Contrary to what you might expect someone of his social standing to be, Ah Loong is an incurable romantic with an unlikely hobby - he loves to read and write poetry. Quite content to carry on being the Romeo of the slums, Ah Loong's life takes a sudden turn one day when a 16-year old Malay schoolgirl arrives at his stall in search of Wong Kar-Wai's films.

"Those who are skilled in combat do not become angered,
those who are skilled at winning do not become afraid.
Thus the wise win before the fight,
while the ignorant fight to win."



someone i know is taking up aikido (doesnt she look abit like a yoko-ono doing the peace sleep-in in the photos?) , and taking up the sport also happens to be one in my BIGO list.. i have the desire to take up martial arts again..

why? coz i have the desire to throw people, if not my weight around..hahaha..

"I like tall men. I like to turn them into small men."
- A Tomiki Aikido Sensei

jokes aside, i was a judo-ka and represented my school when i was 18. i did not perserve long enough to have a respectable grading, but i am still quite proud of the fact that being a rather lightweight or maybe featherweight in the world of judo, i managed to outthrow, outwit a much bigger and bulkier opponent in one of the competitions i entered. the principles of judo, is very much application of physics. judo is very much a game of outwitting your opponent by waiting and spotting his weak moment and taking advantage of it..in the case of me overcoming a bigger opponent, making use of her strength in forward attack to overthrow her by applying the principle of moment..my leg being the fulcrum to pivot her weight about and making use of her very force on me to throw her off.


The word Judo is comprised of two kanji: "ju" (柔), which means gentleness or giving way, and "do" (道), meaning way of life (the same character as the Chinese "tao".) Thus Judo literally means "the gentle way" or "the way of giving way". Judo takes from jujutsu ("gentle art") the principle of using one's opponent's strength against him. Kano saw jujutsu as a disconnected bag of tricks, and sought to unify it according to some principle: he found it in the notion of "maximum efficiency". Jujitsu techniques involve redirecting the opponent's force, off-balancing the opponent, or making use of superior leverage.

other than that sweet moment of victory, i also remember judo, or more so competitive judo as a sport with ardous streinous trainings. sweat and sometimes blood soaked judo-gi..the tumblings, the cart wheels, the suffocating chokes..were all fun when one was 18. my friend reminded me all that when i said i wanted to take up judo again..heh..not too sure now if i want to go tumbling around in sweeaty gi at this age ...and since not a lot of places offer judo classes other than the association..i think i mite take up aikido instead..the principles are more or less the same and the cc near my house is offering aikido course. so maybe you'll get to see tis girl donning her gi once more ...

and as for my BIGO list..sometimes i wonder if that may just translate to be a BIGM list..

"The devil of Martha Stewart sits on one shoulder, seducing me with whispers about basil-tomato tarts and hydrangeas in silver bowls....

The angel of Susan Faludi sits on the other, warning me about the crisis of conscience I will experience when I sign on the dotted line for a 5-digit menu, and the dilettante of feminism and liberalism that I will officially become the second that I purchase a hand-embellished gown that I will only wear once in my life. "


some sharing of perspectives:
http://www.pineapple-girl.com/wed/archives/2004/09/got_them_no_wed_1.htm#more


.......................................................................................................


did i tell you...that i've got my gown..in restrospect, i am not sure why i chose it..my friend was with me then..and i think i did tell her i felt princessy in the gown. maybe that's why i chose it...lol!

so guess what i told him today...i am going to go all the way...it feels a bit like a farce me being princessy but i think i will go with it. might as well. so i told him i will wear a tiara at my wedding..hahahah...he of coz gasped..but i am seriously considering it. really. the question now....


will i be an audrey..



or a marilyn...?



lol! note, tis girl has her toungue firmly in her cheek :X

.....but truth is..she has tis tiny tinge of regret at acquiring the mentioned princess gown..

i am waiting for him to fetch me..in the meantime i did a whole lot of primetime catching up from some downloaded episodes..errr..if you consider watching reality shows primtime activity..

but the show in question is the apprentice,(at the other end of the spectrum i also love A top model) was hooked to it but due to work and the need to catch up on sleep, had missed a few episodes of it.

one of the reasons i love it...is the boardroom saga at the end of each episode. d.trump has perfected the art of firing personnel , or rather the art of providing criticism. notice how he brings to a close the arguments to fire someone..there is no mercy involved but at the same time he does not go all out doing any character slaying. what he often does is focus on the flaws of the actions rather than go about character bashing...or going into destructive criticism..which is the form that a lot of the pakciks at kedai kopis get into.

there is also something else..close relative of criticism..something which i call tactlessness of comments..how do we define this? encounters of this form sometimes involve acquaintances..and i wonder..how do we respond to this? just grin to show we dont take the comments or ourselves seriously , bear it and later bitch about it to our partners privately...how do we decide to accept it as harmless commenting or sheer tactless behavior? like criticising the size of one's engagement ring?

"errmm, no..he needs the money for something else.." "so which is more important, your or his XXXX, what is the point? he shuld have gotten you a bigger one"

...is there a need for me to defend it at all?? is that critical appraisal or is that a sign of bad upbringing? i am not sure..the consolation however is that once one get into such acts, they are but a reflection of the personalities of the persons involved.

on the same subject..i am on this book by the same author of On Love, and an excerpt from it:

"we seem afflicted by the opposite tendency: to listen to everyone, to be upset by every unkind word and sarcastic observation. we fail to ask ourselves the cardinal and most consoling questions: on what basis has this dark censure been made? we treat with equal seriousness the objections of the critic who had thought rigourously and honestly and those of the critic who has acted on misanthropy and envy."

learn from that? or as like what my fh probably will say on this, everytime i bring up the subject.."to hell with what people think.." hahahahah... and if all else fails to make us feel any better, learn from the show the apprentice again..everytime at the very end, the dejected contestants driven out in the yellow cabs would have had gathered themselves good, and following what we know of a lot of a.mericans, learn to develop big ass sense of confidence in ourselves. errrm... i guess that's also in survival 101.

today i received an sms from an ex-classmate asking me if i had heard about another old friend, R,and i said NO?

about two months ago, my friend, R met with a road accident as she was driving in the states. she was declared braindead,and went into coma for two days before the doctors decided to pull the plug.

what's the most horrible thing about it? she was on my msn list but we hardly chatted. it is regretabble..we were close once long long time ago, but then we went to separate schools, she went to the states to study..we didnt keep in contact. along the way..in recent years..i got to know her complicated lovelife via a bungled email hijacker..which was a mean thing for someone to do.. and by the time we did get on each other's msn list, i guess we both felt that the gap was too wide for us to bridge, not knowing that now the gap has become an unrecoverable gulf. it is regretable, and it is terrible that i feel this way only after she is gone..if i still have her name pop up together with the greenman in the right hand corner of my screen, i may have continued to ignore it. the only excuse i have is..and it is an even worse one..is that i had changed my msn email id..and had not got her in the list thereafter.. :(

another friend of mine said relationships and friendships are transient. we get to outgrow some. i guess there is some truth to that. but even if they got to that state..i will still remember the friends and characters who have filled up my life..

then of coz, the remembering is the easy part, saying even just a 'hi' is the part where we all can do better.