2006 last day @ work

yea! last day @ work for 2006! office is so quiet this whole week as most of ppl is off for the holidays. and i am so bored. hightlight of the day is a nice lunch in hay teen @ sri kembangan with the gals for 2006 sau kong chao. ha ha.

-- HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL --

a nite in bali

aaa. at last we get to meet shane for a birthday dinner in bumbu bali. and of course she's there as it was for her :) . gapi, shane and myself had a great time catching up and laughing our heads off - thanks to the beer and coconut. gapi la. insisted she wanted toddy and the closest we can get her is the coconut. ahahha.

although the food was not as good as before, we still enjoyed it very much especially the pasta. the brownie was fudgy but ice cream tasted cheap. should get a richer vanilla ice cream to compliment the lovely brownie. the staffs were surprisingly friendlier that nite but was stingy - cant even give free scoop of ice cream for the bday girl. ok. they provided a free candle. they should improve on their service as it is the first restaurant that didnt conjure up something when i announced that we were celebrating a birthday. even kfc and mcd gave complimentary set of meal when i did the birthday stun.

shane - welcome to the 3-0 league!
psstpsst : shane... when will you be bringing us in your spanking new civic??

attempted break in...

not sure when it happened but just noticed yesterday when i was sweeping the floor yesterday. someone attempted to break in to my house!! 2 holes were drilled in 2 of the glass doors... not sure what the burglar trying to do but thank god, the attempts were abandon else i wont be writing this now. made a police report and the police who came to survey the crime scene was just as perplex. according to him, in his 3 years of pecah rumah cases he investigated, this is his first encounter with a break in drilling such perfect holes. must be some canggih equipment. he also pointed out that it might be using some water as we can see water traces after he dusted the marks with those finger print detector powder. unfortunately no finger prints were lifted. guess i have to be more vigilante now on...

santa claus is coming to town

yes... he is coming to town dancing his butt off. after bridget's wedding ceremony, and since the day is still young and as kaki jalans, swee n me decided to go SHOPPING in pyramid! managed to grab some stuff that were on sale and also the latest vibration on chin toi for bridget's n hubby's pleasure. the ground floor was decked with xmas goodies and had quite a festive mood. but i was most attracted to the dancing santa..

you better watch out,

you better not cry,

better not pout,

i'm telling you why

santa claus is dancing in town ...

bridget's BIG day

finally.. bridget traditionally tied the knot. it was a simple but happy event. i went totally trigger happy - shooting and suggesting poses for bridget's photographer (who is quite cute actually...).

swee and me became 2 of her chi mus - passively as we were in the room with her until chim braved all the obstacles. unfortunately, the other chi mus squandered our share of the lai see - grrrr. ha ha. luckily bridget promised to give bigger ones to us later :)

my battery ran out in bridget&chim's house.. bugger... these pictures taken using my booboo hp camera which was set to smallest size ... bugger...

... my photo shooting @ klang ...

cute pie siang siang

had dinner with khaishen and family in a nyonya-thai restaurant, bibi wok. food was so so but atmostphere quite nice. siang2 the new kid on the block is such a cute pie.

my virgin photography contest entry

nope it got nothing to do with breaking of the hymen or stuff. it's my foray into photography contest... i received an email invitation to enter a photography contest jointly organised by national geographic channel and nikon (http://www.ngcasia.com/nikon/eng/index.htm) - "yellow to me" theme. so i thought why not. the prizes are good. a nikon d80! but yellow? hmm. thought of taking a photo of company's van or something since it's so yellow but what's so passionate it's to me. besides looking forward towards the end of month, currently i'm not really excited working. hmm... unless i describe the photo as "yellow to me" is ... $$ = life = happiness. ha ha ha.
so i dig around. aha! i got many many sunflowers photos which are so yellow... well i love flowers. and i have loads of flowers' photo from my garden. i even have a photo of a siamese sunflower that i had grown... but decided against it as the photo quality isnt that great and nothing much to tell about it.

so i decided to submit the macro shot of the sunflower. gave it a catchy title - stigmata. dont know what to put for "yellow to me is...". well, life kua since i am submitting a flower with it's sex organs enlarged... description... hmm... read some where on meaning of yellow. so "copied" the idea.. yellow is earth where life sprouts ... then i continued yellow is the sun with it's life-sustaining rays (or something like tat)... the picture depicts the sunflower reproduction system which creates life and needs both the earth and sun? hmm.. sounds corny but hey, cant blame a gal for trying....

balls or guts

some organisation culture : story of the 5 monkeys

e4 e4 e4...

tsk. so sway. my last day as primary support also get an e4 call. luckily i slept early today - thanks to a spliting headache. had a great snooze before being distrupted by the call.

am i lonely?

the chinese radio dj were blabbering loudly as i drove to our lunch destination. bridget was curious why i was listening to a chinese station. hmm i dont know... recently, i love to hear obnoxious deejays chatter and the 988 has loads of them. ok. i admit sometimes they were pretty funny that is if i understood what they were talking. she said probably i was lonely and needed to hear someone talking. what did she meant? i have vodka! when mom's not around. she pointed out the obvious - vodka! doesnt talk. erm. maybe not the way human does...
oh well. so i am lonely. am i? i dont know. let see. here are some meaning of lonely :
destitute of sympathetic or friendly companionship: definitely not deprived of sympathetic companionship! i mean who wants to be sympathised? friendly companionship. aaa. then this is different. yea. i missed that but again not deprived. i still have loads of friendly companions :)
lone; solitary; without company; companionless: ok. almost 1/2 of my days after work, fortnightly i have limited human company. but there's vodka! and korean drama of course. well, so i dont live a solitary life.
remote from places of human habitation: come on! i stay in a typical malaysian taman. nuff said.
let see. so i guess i am not lonely. and if i really am, i am not alone in this loneliness. ha ha.

gun-totting fun

ok, the title might get some hate-mails from anti-arm groups but paintball rocks! erm. especially if it was paid by the company. bwahahahah. getting up at 0600 on a saturday morning really sucks and i was still contemplating whether should i go. however, knowing that i might change my mind last minute, i committed myself in car-pooling with swee and eric to sg buloh paintball facilities. so there was no way out and oh boy! i would regret loads if i had skipped the event.
we arrived and breakfast was waiting us. yum. someone told me lunch was at 1400, so i stuffed myself silly.. i mean it was just around 0900!! then we would be running, shooting and sweating around. i need the energy! ha ha. i was actually quite impressed with the number of turn outs. i expected less as the venue was at sg buloh... well ok. there was a small bunch of us that was quite disappointed it had to be in sg buloh.
after the briefing and quite a messy reshuffling of teams the matches began. i was up against eric's team which had several big sized guys. i was thinking ha ha - easy targets. how very wrong i was!! with a very sound strategy, my team went out to get them to only be beaten in less than 5 minutes. i was like - hey!! it's over already?!! then i felt a stung on my thigh... urgh!! i got shot! (it is a mass of purple,red,green,yellow patch now...). we lost one more match and decided to go all out. since we will not be progressing to the next stage, might as well finish out pellet allocated to us. final strategy - be trigger happy! yeeha! we managed to salvage some pride by trumping the final opponent. at least we broke our little egg. ha ha
eric was hurt pretty badly during his second match with one over-zealous team (which my team exact revenge on later). he was sent to the nearby clinic to be treated as he received several really close range shots on his arms and neck. swee not missing out on the injury list got her bums shot. ha ha ha. one on each cheek! hmm i wonder who was the cheeky guy....
since none of us (swee,eric and me) will be involved in the next stage of the game, after hanging out to watch one match, we decided to head home. injuries aside, it was really a great day

note: the author of this blog is not a beauty queen but believes in world peace and is against violence & possession of harmful arms....

vodka!'s day out

vodka! had a fun foaming time in yesterday's dog carnival by pet-n-you/eukanuba. we reached central park around 0830 and it's already happening :)
vodka! became an instant star the minute he steps into the field. everyone was snapping him. cos he is a handsome boy and unique. we ran into the camera crew and they were so interested in him. i proudly said he is goldendoodle! a mix-breed. the lady reporter (or something) was shocked as it is her first time hearing n seeing this breed. she thought vodka! is a giant schnauzer . when i register to get the goodie bag, the man there was also shocked. he told me vodka! is the first golden retriever / poodle mix. i informed him that goldendoodle is a really famous designer dog. a lot of kids, when we pass them by, they exclaimed excitedly to their parents - "hey! it's shaggy dog!"
finally i met lee wan, whiskey's owner. whiskey is a really cute beagle. he has those eyes that would melt any heart. and he is so padat!! ahahha. the whole family was there with another beagle owner. the 2 beagles and vodka were all foaming at the mouth.. ahah pretty scary sight.. but i guess it is because they are excited.
note : thanks lee wan for your photos.

地獄少女

"闇に纏いし哀れな影よ。 人を傷つけ貶めて罪に溺れし業の魂 ・・・イッペン　死ンデミル？"
"O miserable shadow clad in darkness! Hurting and disdaining people, a karmic soul drowning in sin... Would you try dying for once?"
— enma ai.

plot synopsis
rumor has it that somewhere on the internet there is a website accessible only at midnight -- the hotline to hell -- where people can ask the hell girl to take revenge on people who have wronged them. however, when one person is cursed, two graves are dug, for if the hell girl fulfils your request, when you die you too will be consigned to the pit of hell when you die. would you untie the red ribbon and sell your soul to the hell girl for vengeance?

hauntingly hooked
i guess those who are on the anime block will be familiar with the haunting phrases from 地獄少女 , Jigoku Shōjo. i waited for weeks for it to be aired in animax and actually missed 8 episodes of it due to the long holidays (balik kampung tanam jagung... no astro). although, sweet trap, 甘い罠 was the first episode i watched in the series and i was hooked on it.

i love the colors. vivid and ghastly in a spooky way. when the red string if untied, ai will ascent into the living world in flowy kimonos adorned with flowers or butterflies which are extremely captivating. she speaks softly but commands the attention of the audience with her unnerving aura and unblinking red eyes. however one can almost feel the sadness lurking behind those fearful eyes. the story lines were simple and the reasons leading to the need to summon the hell girl somehow believable. personally, i think good soundtracks lifts any show a notch higher. jigoku shōjo scored top marks here. the dark, melancholy background melodies enhanced the mood for the scenes.

align="justify">really did enjoyed it and ai's haunting promise "when one person is cursed, two graves are dug" is still echoing in my brain.

road·kill

roadkill : animal(s) killed by being struck by a motor vehicle.

it was a beautiful morning, last monday. i woke up earlier than usual and left for work right on time. the minute i hit the main road towards the toll (puchong to cyberjaya), horrors unveiled themselves in guise of ROADKILLS!

roadkill #1 : a small furry critter just infront of puchong’s petronas. not sure whether it was the left over of a cat’s head or a small puppy. The fur was soft cream color and still fluffy. reminded me of golden retriever puppy…
roadkill #2 : a light brown mongrel. from the carcass, looked like the unfortunate event just happened not long.. this is just after the flyover towards cyberjaya.
roadkill #3 : a small reptile. i think it was a monitor lizard. head's gone.
roadkill #4 : another mongrel lying very dead on the curvy road back from cyberjaya connecting to the LDP.

i prayed for every single one of them. as a firm believer of reicarnation, i prayed for their soul to be reborn in better condition. let their sufferings end this cycle. sadly, except for roadkill #1, the others were still lying on the road. where is the mpsj or whatever mpxx when we needed them. especially roadkill #2 which was lying just next to a road repair. unless they werent working that day. and as a matter of fact, for many many days as the road repair was blocked since 2-3 months ago! it is really sad, as for several days i noticed how the lifeless form stripped off their flesh, slowly reveiling their inner layers. besides, this it was quite a dangerous situation for drivers who might not notice them earlier and try to make an instant swerve to avoid going over the carcass. i wished i could end their lifeless misery, however, i will only but myself in grave danger – i might be one of the roadkills statistics! fortunately all the carcasses were removed by end of the week.

these roadkills reminded me of one of my form 6 classmates. he is a quiet, studious looking chap. however, he has a violent streak. in one of our daily conversation he softly but gleefully admitted his passion of driving over kittens and cats. not sure whether he was making it up but his graphical recalls were very spooky. met him years ago in one of the cny outings. he was doing very well in some graphical animations of some sort of weird fantasies (or something like that...), etc in uk.

this morning, i witnessed another kind of roadkill. well, no life was concerned so it couldn’t be consider a kill but it was upside-down which looks like a roadkill… a TRACTOR. first time i see a traktor, lying exactly on it’s roof. so, i guess this was a mechanical roadkill :)

on the way back from lunch, then i found out there are more roadkill pychos…. ha ha.. bridget, my colleague confessed she always has this drive to go over or hit any birds that’s in her driving path… i really don't know how the birds owed her in her past life.

the moral of this blog entry : i am really glad that i am neither a furry nor feathered critter.

~ oh my goldendoodle ~ (left me a puddle of muddle)

yes. vodka! is a goldendoodle or fondly known as groodle by oz. with him around, my days are filled!!
woof woof... i wanna pee pee
yes. he is my four legged walking alarm clock. he will kacau me around 0630 and if by 0700 i didnt respond to him... he will jump on my bed and sometimes stand on me - ON ALL FOUR!! haiz... thank god for mattress protector. i ignored him today... come on it's a holiday! i dont want to get up until 8am. i'm not asking too much, right? wrong. he just let go after pestering me for around 15mins. yes. ON MY BED... this forced me up. which was a good thing also. i kickstarted by house chores that i had put off on sun.
who needs the gym?!
yes. who needs them when u got a hyperactive pup, a lazy brother and messy me.

1. clean up pee pee mess -> 30 mins, climbed 3-4 times stairs ****
2. put soiled stuff into machine, find more stuff to wash -> 15 mins, climbed 2-3 times stairs **
3. play, feed, etc for vodka! -> 60 mins **
4. bath n groom vodka! -> 45 mins **
5. wash car -> 60 mins ****
6. sweep n mop house -> 90 mins ****
7. wash porch -> 20mins **

basically, the hours i spent, equals to a week of gym. guess i can skip my gym sessions now. yeah!

bukit tinggi trip

cheche and me decided to bring mom to bkt tinggi as a birthday gift trip. we booked the 2d1n package which costs rm138 pp. we stayed in colmar tropicale, a french-themed resort which is in the village itself. besides the name and some not so facsinating french facade, nothing much frenchie i assure you. they have pasta shop but that's italian. ok. a bakery but i cant find even one authentic french dish on the menu. we ended up eating in the japanese restaurant nestled in the botanical garden. the tables were dusty and some dead insects lying about. food was not so good and price quite high. we still enjoy it la. it's the company and the weather was nice. the japanese garden is small but clean and fresh. again. not much japanese about it. mom enjoyed looking, touching and feeding the japanese carps in the pond. tip : bring some fish food. they were selling a small wee pack for rm1.
the weather was cooling and it rained in the evening. due to the heavy rain, our room's windows leaked and we had to change room. the second room was huge! unfortunately it leaked too but not as bad as the previous room. later we had to wait for nearly an hour for them to fix the hot shower. after settling down n cleaning up we headed down for the buffet dinner. it was quite a disappointment. food was rather bland, bbq chicken looks more like charchoal pieces and the service - bad. we didnt spend much time outside after dinner as it was still raining. so we headed back to the room to retire for the nite. it was still raining next morning but cleared just before breakfast - which was so so. after breakfast we invaded the rabbit park which was rather pathetic. there were a few sick rabbits left untreated in the corner. all in all, the trip was ok but be prepared to entertain yourselves as there is nothing much to do.
bukit tinggi photos

かみちゅ!

at last anime is shown in malaysia without the irritating bm dubbed voices. "tooooonggkaaat saktiiiii" in very high pitched irritating voice... ha ha ha. of all my current fave is definitely kamichu! / かみちゅ!
it is light-hearted and entertaining. bountiful of kawaii-ness without being overly silly. great colour and excellent graphics. winner of the Excellence Award at the Japan Media Arts Festival 2005 said it all. it's almost like spirited away minus the creeps and angst. every turn there are some little surprises and imaginative charaters. highly recommend to catch this anime. かみちゅ! http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=5356
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/reviews/display.php?id=996

frac‧ture /frak-cher/ –noun

frac‧ture  /frak-cher/ –noun

1. the breaking of a bone, cartilage, or the like, or the resulting condition.
2. the act of breaking; state of being broken.
3. a break, breach, or split.
4. the characteristic manner of breaking: a material of unpredictable fracture.
5. the characteristic appearance of a broken surface, as of a mineral. –verb (used with object)
6. to cause or to suffer a fracture in (a bone, etc.).
7. to break or crack.
8. Slang. to amuse highly or cause to laugh heartily; delight: The new comic really fractured the audience. –verb (used without object)
9. to become fractured; break: a mineral that does not fracture easily.
   ---source---
   fractured. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.0.1). Retrieved September 05, 2006, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=fractured&x=19&y=16

yes. this month is not my lucky month... it was just like any other fridays except for a dramatic acrobatic act : tripped-flew-fell which i ended up with a fractured arm. so embarassing!! felt so touched as my work mates rushed to help me up especially bridget.

vodka! vs. squeeky the ball

my handsome boy

at last. vodka! got his first shot. i was so anxious as previously brandy succumbed to the vaccinated and was afraid history repeats. according to vet, it's a case of 1 in 1000. :( i guess brandy was really unlucky.
he was praised so much by the vet. even called him handsome boy! ha ha. but what a shocked he had when the needle pricked him. well, he was a good boy. just yelped once :) and confirmed he is a giant puppy. he weighed 7.3 kg!! nearly as heavy as bronte (which was around 9kg).
got him a puffer like ball with a squeeky whistle when pressed. fun to see him start playing with it. at first he was taken aback with the spikes ... then when he know how to bite it, it was a squeeking fun time. he even know how to make different squeeks now :P

http://sofiafoo.multiply.com/video/item/2

favourite cendol haunt

love the cendol here. the owners are also friendly chaps. those who wants to try nyonya laksa should stop by this shop too as they have varieties of laksa and tasty too. i used to makan this auntie laksa when i was young where her shop was nearby my ah-ma house. after laksa, you can wash down the spicy food with the deliciously real gula melaka laced cendol. they have a bottle of gula melaka that you can top up if u fancy. i always did. very sweet tooth i have. they also have some nyonya kuehs which is worth trying. the shop itself is a delight. little treasures in every corner.

tip : go early as parking is hard to get. take a leisure walk between the narrow streets. it's a pleasure especially for first timers in malacca.

a-ma scorecard : 8-0!

***too lazy to write ... will update and post more photos...

my little GIANT pup (3 months old)

bo ta po pheng you?

i'm so looking forward to balik kampung and especially for my granny 80th birthday bash tomorrow. however this could also mean one thing - facing the wrath of all my grand-aunties,grand-uncles, aunties and uncles snoopy behaviours.
these will be some of the questions coming my way :

"ta po pheng you ler?"

"bo ta po pheng you ar?"

"ge be oo ta po pheng you ar?

"kan chew beh?"

then some bolder relatives will tease my patience :

"ti si ai kah win ar?"

"ti si ai chia wa chiak chew?"

and the worst :

"ti si li lau bu eh sai po xun?????"

tao tia. pengsan.

sky..

please do not PANIC!!

ha ha. sorry. but i cant help myself by putting that title. yea. we had safety and security exercise, cymex 1 today. it's some emergency evacuation drill in case of some disasters e.g. terrorist attacks, fire, etc. personally i find it is a great drill.

however ... does the government need to spend the citizen tax $$$ by having a launch for this exercise?? i mean amazing! daily we were told to economised electricity, water, fuel, whatever. and here we have an emergency drill with all the pomp & pageantry & dignitaries to launch it in mdec. haiz.

anyway, back to the drill at my company. at first it was fun and loud- siren and all. thank goodness for the tents else we will be rentung in the hot sun. hey! they even distributed mineral water to us. hmm.. is there where our lavish ad&d budget has gone to? .... then we were left stranded there for more than one hour! i mean. it's just a drill. do it and get over it. haiz.

in my opinion. although drills are exellent way to prepare us, i still think without discipline, when disaster strikes, pandemonium will break loose! come on. we are malaysian. we are individualistics. "me first!" ha ha. so u think the fire marshalls will wait for all the staff to line up like good gals and boys? hey no offence fire marshalls.

my point is. drills are ok but more need to be done for minimum casualties in any emergency evacuations.

dhl boat race 2006

well the turn out wasnt as many as expected but we still had fun. everyone was anxious and worried that sakti would not turn up with our free tees. he did and so did our orange tees.
i did the double kayak with phooi2 but the dragon boat was cancelled due to the burning weather. darn, i was looking forward to show off my drumming skills. ha ha ha. anyway, i was rather impressed with one of quad scull team. their synchronisation was almost perfect. lunch was simple and nice. it ended with a happy surprised. each of us was given a rm50 parkson voucher. aaa. shopping again...

more photos, courtesy of tony and chee kin...