it's friday nite and i dont feel like working already eventho i had done ALOT this week and there is a ALOT more to be done.. but it's friday...

i got my tickets yesterday. and we discussed again our plans. normally i am the paranoid one..but yesterday and today i found myself trying to sell the idea to two persons. last night it was him. he was slightly apprehensive. i was gungho about climbing eventhough it will eat into our budget, it will be siong as i heard..we can go for the cheaper alternative..but i need a challenge. well, last year it was the wedding if that can be counted..the year before was the run. i just need a challenge here.

he wasnt as excited about the hike as he said it "hah...you want me to go through NS again is it? pee in the bushes?"...and i had to add "and pluck chicken feathers! the porters do carry life chickens along to cook for our meals, you know." not the first time i will be witnessing slaughter and plucking of chicken.

and we thought it will be nice to have people along. so we have been selling the idea to friends as well and someone is sounding keen at the idea..so hopefully we get to have friends to come along for the hike.

i have been busy...handling very anal people

the paper was handed in 2 days ago..after going through 2 rounds with markings and editions all over that it can almost be framed up like an art piece. the good thing is, these did not really shake my confidence. the first reason being my boss is infamous for this. on wanting to do a certain way and things said in a certain way.

and my current boss is not the first boss i have worked with who is so very anal...i had another one who vetted my slides and told me things like no thick borders on the table coz it looks like a tombstone and the peolpe in china will not like that...cant decide if i should take it as something new to learn about PRC or my boss just being picky.

and the thing is..the bosses who are so very very picky..all happen to be MEN! and we thought women are the ones who are into details! the only concession for me is that my men bosses and me are on 'friends' term..so i can whine and complain and occasionally 'scold' them about their behaviour without feeling that he will judge me ..or bitch about me behind my back..so they can be like they are right now. coz i have to say i always prefer men bosses to women anytime, even if it seems to be against my own kind.

the horrid week is however ending on a good note coz based on the feedback i have been getting..i aced my first presenation today.

which is good. now i can better enjoy the weekend. the 'getaway' awaits.

last week when i decided i need a break, left work early and met a friend for tea. she told me,

'eh, i told my colig i am meeting a friend from M , and she asked me if you are from M KL, coz they have very good deals with great service there..'

it happens that my friend's colig have been trawling the web at work for promos on hotels, airfares or basically getaway deals for her and hubby..and she seems to be planning one each holiday/long weekend to 'escape' her parents whom she stays with.

sounds familiar.

not that i want to escape..but it's that wanderlust ..that itch getting to me again after a year or so of deprivation..

so i got meself a new role as wife, which is to be the holiday planner for the two of us.. and tonight i have just sold the idea to him. that this june we shall go trekking! yes. which was part of my BIGM list. now a BIGP plan.

if all goes well..insyallah




side chat with friend on msn this afternoon:

continuation of that baby name chat...

+ " eh, decided i want mountain names as part of my kid's name"
+ " aisha rinjani"
- "sounds mama..like ranjan ranjan"
+ " but the rinjani sounds nice"
+ " the guy will be ali bromo"
- " so scary"
+ "can lah..then all the K1 kiddies will be scared of him"

no?

other alternatives Khamis Krakatao, Citra Agung (after Mt Agung), Ayung Lestari (not a mt, but the river ayung)

till 24th April (that's tomorrow!)
U/t/t/e/r/l/y A/r/t E/x/h/i/b/i/t/i/o/n S/p/a/c/e
208 South Bridge Road
Mon-Sat: 1130am -8pm, Sun 12-530pm

Went to the exhibition by his friend, dynn. i like his works..and the collection was good. actually first saw a glimpse of some of the works at d/e/w/i's site. and i told him we had to go down and see..and so we did.

i love his works. for what he has to say through them, resonates. especially the feeling of nostalgia placed on places and old buildings. and the cat of course.

"The city paintings, potrayed in flat graphic silhouttes and outlines, act as place markers in Dyn's mind's eye. They represent buildings of the past,or even new buildings in old locations that the artist finds resonance with. The cat is Dyn himself, his personal symbol of nostalgia. As a territorial creature, the cat is an apt metaphor for the artist as he experiences territorial enroachment and violation each time another childhood landmark goes missing or is replaced."


identified a few favourites in the collection. we were lucky to have the artist himself present at the gallery last night, and i just had to thank him. he is a very nice guy. and when we enquired..he was kind and sweet to offer that he could do a new piece for us.heh.

...aaaahhhhh...it seems everyone here has the same idea of getting out of here for the long weekend. as it stands, we have been rejected countless of times coz there are simply no rooms anywhere available to places we want to go. pffft....

the very very last resort..we are thinking of checking in locally..hahahah..does that sound silly or what? errr...just to have a getwaway. @ the gallery perhaps ..if all else fails.

got a booking now.. heh.. we will be going to a retreat come the labour day weekend.

and i think it's a good deal :)

something else that was in the news lately..parents naming their kids with unique names..

i have already a list of possible names in my head for our future kids...if i am to follow the trend of parents today, i will call our kids alpha, beta and gamma..that suit us well..but those are not very islamic are they? ...or maybe call the kid algebra? do you know that algebra was actually 'invented' by a muslim from baghdad in AD790..he called it Hisab Al-Jabr...and hence the Al-Gebra..so aljabr maybe?

but not malay sounding enough..after all..i have a strong feeling our kids may just turn looking anything but...

therefore my preference is actually for some good old classic malay names..the following is copied and taken from somwhere but i am glad she saved it..coz it still amuses me..

me says:
i want my girl to be called meena
me says:
ameena
friend says:
taknak ahhh
friend says:
oi
me says:
can lah
friend says:
DONT LAH
friend says:
so many nama
friend says:
meena yang kau kasi
me says:
classic apa
friend says:
tak mau lah mina
friend says:
pls lah
friend says:
why not Munah
me says:
meena is e least glamer
friend says:
lagi glamer
friend says:
Munah
me says:
i prefer meeeeeeeeena
friend says:
Munah
friend says:
or maimon
me says:
or meenaaaaaaa
friend says:
HAHAHAHAH
friend says:
MAIMONNNNNNNNNNN
friend says:
thats a CLASSIC
friend says:
a winner
me says:
i dont like os
me says:
Os
me says:
eee and aaaa
me says:
best
friend says:
ok Maumun
friend says:
O gemuk is it?
me says:
macam mau mau
friend says:
Maimun
friend says:
why not Cumi
friend says:
or Ciki
friend says:
macam kucing
friend says:
LOL
me says:
itu macam sotong
me says:
dont make me laugh
friend says:
Cumi is not sotong lah
friend says:
its kucing
me says:
i m wearing a mask
me says:
cumi-cumi

me says:
how abt i name my daughter yasmin
me says:
e guy YEs-man
friend says:
Yusman lah
me says:
ah ah eh
me says:
boleh
me says:
lol
friend says:
just play around with the vowels
me says:
jasman pun ok
friend says:
Yismon
friend says:
nobody has Yismon
me says:
yismon somehow sounds jewish
friend says:
the next one can be Yishun
me says:
yisbun
friend says:
HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHHAA
me says:
oh no!
me says:
my mask nak crack
friend says:
Yisbun = yeast bun
friend says:
HAHAHAHAHA
me says:
can
friend says:
lol
me says:
skarang orang trend nama anak ganjil2 kan
friend says:
u play with vowels and common names will become uncommon
friend says:
just give your kid name Ganjil
friend says:
anak dia can call Ginjal
friend says:
HAHAHAH
me says:
ok ok
friend says:
Ginjal bin Ganjil
me says:
lol
friend says:
Ganjil bin Mustahil
friend says:
Mustahil bin Mustahak
me says:
chet
me says:
kasi nama macam
me says:
….alpha
me says:
beta
friend says:
give flower names lah
friend says:
Melor
me says:
Kembang
me says:
Kuncup
me says:
or orked
friend says:
eeee
friend says:
Roked
friend says:
Roket
friend says:
HAHAHAHA


friend says:
i know of someone named Ribut
me says:
ok apa
friend says:
RIBUT???
me says:
can lah
friend says:
Ribut Binte Taufan
friend says:
Taufan Bin Halilintar
me says:
like poetry


me says:
how abt epal
friend says:
Epal your head la
me says:
apple
me says:
g/w/y/n/e/t/h p/a/l/t/r/o/w’s kid
friend says:
later teacher ask, e untuk apa?
friend says:
e untuk saya
me says:
salah!
friend says:
betul cikgu
friend says:
e tu saya
friend says:
bukan, E untuk Epal
friend says:
Epal tu saya cikgu


me says:
meena can lah
friend says:
ehhh if you marry an adam
friend says:
and u name ur kid apple
friend says:
she is Adam’s apple
friend says:
BUAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

and errr... i have actually discussed with my man, the possiblity of having kids with names Yasmin, Yesman,Yisbun.. ;)

in the news lately;

about that p/s/c s/c/h/o/l/a/r in the news ( somehow all these scholars seem to hogging the news tis days with their misdeeds! )...my two cents on this matter as i was telling him;

the father of the s/c/h/o/l/a/r in an attempt to defend his son, not being a r/a/c/i/s/t, went to say he went for volunteer trips to nepal to teach english and also work with minorities in the US. somehow i personally dont think that is good enough to say one is not a racist. yes i am questioning the sincerity of some people who go for such trips, especially knowing for a fact that we have many young careerists in schools. especially those who feel they are eligible for scholarships and such things do good for one's resumes. of coz i know of people who are eligible for scholarships who do such things and who do it out of the kindness of their hearts...it's just that i know the other type..so the only solid defence this guy can have, will be if his minority friends be it indian or malay come up and speak up for him..let's just see..i seriously doubt he has any...

and i found it laughable, the only lame thing the s/c/h/o/l/a/r himself had to say to the media:

"He said: 'I guess I was not myself when I wrote those things. I don't use my own persona when I write on my blog. I realise they were in very poor taste and I deeply regret my actions. I am not like that.'"

duh! i think it's just BS to save his skin. anyone who blogs know how it is when one blogs, even the whys and how comes of blogging, rite... and even to have an alt ego or persona of such is equally worrying..

anyway, this was what he had on his blog..taken from another blog:

"his entry on April 10th 2005 :

somehow, the singaporean association here in my school has become an indian association. so gross. and somemore non-singaporean. its just so repulsive…these ugly guys with dark skin n irksome features. ya. i discovered i’m so racist. at the club (under lighting in which everyone is supposed to look good), i still find indians and filipinos (dark ones) so repulsive n such a turn-off. anyway, so now we have this ugly mass as our president. n his indian counterpart who isn’t even singaporean is our senator. what is the world coming to? why are indians dominating the singaporeans here?
all these mang ka-li….gross gross. don’t come near me!"

It just gets better…

In his entry dated April 21 2004

i think an issue which finally dawned on me is that my family is pretty impressive in some senses… like i told my di i realised it…n he was like “duh”. hahahaha. putting it in light of sociological analysis (ahem)…maybe i was justified to have not noticed it earlier. coz i have always been in like the “best”….since pri sch. thru RI, n HCJC. like it juz seemed “normal” that everyone was getting scholarships n everyone was smart. but i suppose to many others, this didn’t seem “normal.” den my bro got into GEP n got straight As for A levels etc…it just didn’t seem out of the ordinary for me. now i think about it, actually it is.

n the followup question is always : is ur sister stressed? i think somehow me n aaron came to e same ans…sadly to say, if u’re pretty far frm comparison u juz dun bother to compare. (like, does proton saga compare itself to a jaguar??) or there is juz little need to compare.
not saying proud or anything. juz a sociological observation.ha…i love sociology!!!!
"

just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. racism+eltism. this coming from the so called elite that had been highlighted in the media..and suppose he is one day positioned to be high ranked in the government..well...

our plan for the escape out of singapre on the impending long weekend..is yet to be...

manado: after a few smses and a few online checks on volcanic activites, found that twas safe and far far way from the center of rumblings, only to find out that the flight was ful. Pfft!..ya, we know it still doesnt sound that safe but a night out with people with kids have them reinforcing to us if we want some adventure, we should be going for it now.

n the not so exotic tioman: we decided somewhere nearer so that we wont be tired out by the journey. but shitz again. for the dates, or rather the long weekends we wanted to book our gateway, the place was fully booked!

that is i suppose the curse of my job..and perhaps also of many others who share the strong strong desire to get away from tis tiny lil island of ours where every holiday, long weekend is a good excuse to get out.

how i choose my destinations:
a) power beach, not so power resort OR
b) not so great beach, must have a great resort..

coz the main aim is just to 'nua', ether one will be just nice for me.
and the pretty place in tioman, the love sarang- sarang villa at japamala resort. darn..anyone not bound to depend on 'official' holidays, do give it a try but dont tell me.

still looking for options. not too expensive, like 3D2N at both the above options will cost us less or the same as a night at banyan tree bintan..so there.

'Every adult life could be said to be defined by two great love stories. The first - the story of our quest for sexual love - is well known and well-charted. The second - the story of our quest for love from the world - is a more secret and shameful tale. And yet this second love story is no less intense than the first.'


from one of my favourite writers..

the last one i read from him 'how proust can change your life' with chapters such as my favourites, 'how to suffer sucessfully', 'how to take your time' and 'how to be a good friend' , ...now ..




Power, rank, reputation, appearance — unless you're extraordinarily self-sufficient, you care about these things. Even if you don't, you're aware of them.

This is a book about an almost universal anxiety that rarely gets mentioned directly: an anxiety about what others think of us; about whether we're judged a success or a failure, a winner or a loser.

he's one author that i have been practicing 'pass it on' with some friends. coz he is hilarious if not thought provoking in his works..

go read.alaindebotton.com

one thing about marriage, that no one had really talked to me about..is how easy it is for things to fall into a routine..some are old routines..like work-dinner-tv... some are new. like shuttling in between two parents..ahh..which is i suppose is some sort of a precusor to shuttling around to send/fetch the kids some day (yikes!) and no, i am not going to break these routines by purposefully planning to have kids..not yet at least for now.

so to save ourselves...from becoming a smug married couple..

i listed down a few things which we mentioned..we so would love to do once we get married. together. and most are the things which we kind of left when the big wedding planning took over.


- we went back to our favourite haunt..errr..that is lil india..hahaha..and had tea at tekka today. and i told him we have to continue to 'date'. watch movies (eventho ticket prices are not as friendly) instead of settling to dvd/vcd night in.

- we started jogging. the plan was to buy a bike for me so we can go cycling. but we settle for jogging around the estate for now. and hopefully this will prepare us for the next thing on the list.

- travel. i bought Lonely Planet Indonesia. yes. new and non-pirated one. i came up with plans to travel flores this june (yes this june becoz i ALREADY have plans on where we are going next year..heh)... i was telling someone last night, that sometime in the 1990s there was an earthquake and flores was hit by giant tidal waves and tsunamis that wiped out a thousand of its inhabitants. crazy maybe..that i have such thoughts of going there. oh well, he seems to layan me..even if the plan only exist in my head for now.

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


another something out of the routine on saturdays. we went to johor. went to angsana. actually it was my inlaws who asked us along..(must say my in laws as i found out are more happening than us..will talk about that later).

and while window shopping at angsana..since none of the shops there sell non-original i.e. pirated vcds..we checked out the originals..and another change yet again. i found myself selecting a few malaysian (malay) cds..and a few indonesian cds.

ah..yes, this was planned action..since i have actually gone to muzika at geylang and felt dissapointed with the selection there. he actually asked me what had got into me that i have started buying if not listening to malay/indon songs. did it all start all because of the wedding (i was searching for suitable songs)..i will like to think so..but actually for a anumber of months i had spent many enjoyable sunday afternoons watching that mtv indonesian countdown on suria..so my answer to him was tak kenal maka tak cinta. there are a few gems out there and i have found a few malaysian and indonesian artists that suit my musical taste and whom i really like. my brother is actually far ahead than me and has quite a nice selection of cds by indonesian artists..i am just catching up but have to say my age will mean i have a preference for the oldies..eerr.. not not ziana zain, wings or the likes actually..but something even way back in the past..

our playlist in the car include songs which my inlaws can also singalong (which they did on the way back to singapore)
asmara- cover by the new authentics
and a few oldies cover by nurul & ajai which includes that seiring&sejalan, memori and Doa untuk kekasih..

heh ..i have said before that i am retro at heart didnt i.

i have been sick lately. previously it was the cough that was diffcult to shake off..and more recently a horrible flu..and when i am sick, i take the cab more often. and more often than not, i get some advice from nice concerned chinese cab drivers who will tell me what to take and what not. most interestingly the stuffs i can buy from the sinseh.

i have some friends who had introduced me to TCM (traditional chinese medicine).. actually it all started coz i was the kaypoh one who asked them the secret to their glowing smooth skin..most times dissapointingly it seems to boil down to genetics..but most of them also so happen to have mums who will double boil soups for them..and some TCM drinks..so thanks to them, i had tried homemade chrsyanthemum tea, beancurd skin with ginko nuts etc..and ...i do drop by to the sinseh to get some of the 'cooling' drinks whenever i feel kind of 'heaty' and a fever coming..

these encounters in TCM..got me thinking..and starting this conversation with a friend..since i now got no major projects..therefore boredom sets in easily..therefore i get these silly thoughts..why dont someone, if not me (it wont be me coz i dont have funds nor much knowledge) to open a HALA TCM store..

then the conversation got slightly off-tangent..if the chinese have TCM, why not someone also open a JAMU bar...you know since it is suppose to be beneficial (tho i dun know how, since i am not one who takes jamu) but why not?

if someone can market juice (i know the Juice bars have all but close down),why dont we have one hip and exciting Jamu bar..with waitresses in tube tops and sarong..hahaha like they had in indonesia. errrr... not a bad idea isn't it? my inlaws had also told us about this 91 year old men featured in BH, who apparently could walk up was it 20 storey high flat, and he attributes it partly to his jamu supplements.

so jamu concotions ...laced with honey of coz..anyone?