noodle, stir-fry or boil?

Goodbye ...

2008-03-04T19:56:00.003+08:00

As dreams turn into ashes,
float away in streams of tears,
I stand here waiting...
waiting for an answer, waiting for a sign that all this is not in vain.....

My heart bleeds deep with sorrow,
My heart aches knowing days ahead are without you..
Our love is strong, our love is true,
But not enough to pull us through...

Let me call you Baby,
Let me call you Love,
For you will always be in my heart and mind,
For you I will always care.

Love does not conquer all,
Love does not hide the truth.
Love is humility, it is kindness, and
In time perhaps it will set us free.

Super Protogeny Guppy 8-)

2007-12-02T23:49:00.000+08:00

You should know by now that I have a puppy, but how many of you know about my guppy? :D
Officially, its not my fish, its Baby's..... but since he is not around I'm the one feeding and changing the water so its mine now! :P

I know I've said it before, about how I uninspiring having fish as pet could be... I mean all it does is swim and eat.... you can't cuddle it, it doesn't greet you or acknowledge you exist... so why am I taking active ownership of one simple guppy?? Well, the little red guppy I have right now is extra special, it doesn't have a name but that is not the point.... the point is it was a female but now its a male!!!!!!!

Yep. You read correctly. It went through an all natural sex change when the original 3 male 2 female guppy was left with just 2 females.... and one day, it became one male and one female! I kid you not. Being an avid national geographic and discovery channel watcher, I was made aware that some fish and frogs has the ability to change sex to exploit the opportunity that it found itself in. Say, if the whole pond is female, some females will naturally transform and becomes male and thus ensuring pro-creation is still very much in business..... ;) If you recall, this is one of the reason Jurassic Park was overflowing with dinos at one point...

A quick check on Google revealed that for male to female its called protandry while the opposite is called protogeny. I haven't searched to confirm that guppies have this ability, but I know my guppies and I know this happened.... Oh BTW, I found the dead body of the female guppy at the bottom of the fish bowl one day, so now I'm only left with the super sex changed guppy... :D I'm curious to see what will happen now if I introduce another male guppy into the bowl... do you think one will change to a female?! :O

Baby didn't like the idea of getting more guppies for our fish bowl, I guess the 4 dead fish weighs heavily on his conscience.... he told me, we'll get more fish when we have a proper tank.....

I'm cool just having one sex changed guppy 8-)

New Loves: Badminton & Bali

2007-11-18T11:19:00.000+08:00

I have a new love and I spend 2 hours every Saturdays on it. :) I've picked up playing badminton about a month ago and found it fulfilling everything that a gym never did. I sweat bucket loads, I laugh and get to spend time with my favourite people, which is even important since Baby is away again for a couple of weeks feeling the autumn cold in Yokohama.

After every game, my body aches for a few days, its a good ache, at least that is what i tell myself when I negotiate a flight of stairs on monday carrying my laptop and walking on heels... :| but the best motivator is really when you notice you look much better in photographs and in clothes, and people asked if I've lost weight *grin* .... AND the queen of all motivation is when you notice the diminishing cellulite and orange peel on your rear....! OH MOMMA! :D

Its a no brainer for me, so I've decided to terminate my gym membership and try to make badminton a double occurance in my week... atm, just can't find a suitable time on a week day (not too late in the night) and place (not too far from work or home)....

I am also hoping that when my second brother moves in to the same neighbourhood, we could have a family badminton session... and if Mom and dad comes visit it would be a more meaningful visit then just about eating and window shopping at IKEA..... Mom and dad already plays twice a week and their eyes light up when I suggested this :) Oh and Dad restrung a nice racquet for me when he heard I taken up the game... so, all I need are court shoes!

Oh right, I should mention about my holiday in Bali recently :D Baby and I finally get to go and it was a superb 5 days of excellent food, massages and pampering, shopping and nature walks..... We skipped the beach altogether! I know, I know.... you folks are probably gasped at the total omission of Bali's famed beaches, but we plan to do that the next time we visit... the first was just to relax... God knows how stressed out Baby is working on this current project... imagine working through the weekends past midnight most of the time..... I hardly saw him and we hardly eat together and much less go out kai kai..... but, like I told him, at least he is by my side.... not some far off place where I have never been before...

Bali is special... we were at Legian for about 2 days and paid a visit to the Bali Bombing Memorial Wall. I looked through all the names of the people who died and felt a strange sadness... these are people who were just like us, coming here all excited about a beautiful island only to die is such a fashion. There were sisters who died together, husband and wife, friends, local people who is just making an honest living.... I was there for a long time, just looking at the names on the wall... I saw other people wiping away tears and I felt scared too for being there.... honestly? the main reason I chose to stay at Legian instead of Kuta, was just that - to be away from the centre where foreign tourists seem to congregate and the same reason why we traveled off peak season.

We took on a guide and off to see mountains and rice terraces in Jatiluwih up north, Baby visited a temple at Batukau (wanted to visit more temples like the one in the sea at Tanah Lot, but I was menstruating and I chose to respect their customs of not entering the temples in my "unclean" condition.) After Legian, we were off to Ubud. The centre of Bali's arts. It was a weird feeling to arrive in Ubud... suddenly everything seems to be much more relaxed and there was more artistic feel in the air... I can't quite describe the feeling.. :)

We just love it in Ubud! The paintings gallery were fascinating and we couldn't resist and bought 2 for our home. I fell in love with a huge painting... I could stare at it forever... it is a oil painting of a receding shore with silhouttes of men with their fishing rods upon a blue sky and sandy shores... I remember the feeling of standing at one of the lookout stations at Blue Mountain, Sydney where the landscape stretches as far as the eye can see... makes you realise how beautiful nature is and small you are in comparison..... I felt the same when I look at this painting... but at a whopping USD4k, it is wayy wayyy out of our budget!

Bali was excellent. The mountains, the landscape, the architecture, the culture..... The people so genuinely friendly and there were so many things we didn't get to do during our stay there... they were just not enough time! I can't say enough, but I'm getting hungry and tired already to write anymore :P

Next trip.... looking forward to it.

The Person Within

2007-10-15T11:22:00.000+08:00

I read somewhere that the reason why we never notice the time when we are having fun or being happy is because we never take time to dwell into happiness. Think about it, when you are sad or miserable you can't help but to stop and ask yourself "why is this happening?" or "why am I sad?" Through contemplation, we often find people to blame or we blame our bad luck or fate and to some, we blame ourselves.....

Does this imply that, we are suppose to live in happiness and that sadness or unhappiness is in a way abnormal?

What I notice about myself is that, the deeper the pain and suffering, the more I know myself in the end. But this only happens after a long, drawn out conversations with myself.... I recall all those stories I read about the protagonist going on some journey in search of something, but only to realise that what they were searching for was always there, within..... one such story is the Alchemist. The story ends where the journey began.

Does this imply that with sadness is where all the learning is done? I think so.

And perhaps, happiness is not meant to be perpetual? And I don't believe love is perpetual either, I am not afraid to say that all the love I have given to everyone and everything IS conditional.... I don't know how I know this, but I have an inkling that the only unconditional love I am capable of is to my child.

Consider this scenario:
Your mother and your husband is drowning and you only have enough time to save one person, who do you choose?

My answer: My mother and it would break my heart.

Your mother and your child is drowning and you only have time to save one person, who do you choose?

My answer: My child. It would break my heart but I know she will forgive me.

A Great Saturday All by Myself :)

2007-09-22T22:26:00.000+08:00

I went to watch a movie today in one of those least crowded shopping mall near my home - yes! they exist! :) Went straight to the ticket counter (with no queue) and got myself a single ticket. The aged Jodie Foster still has it, and I would really recommend this The Brave One because of it's touching human feelings it portrays.... How some random violence leave a mark on people's lives and the transformation of a person into a totally different person because of that.... it makes me think how strong and (at the same time) weak the human soul is and how knowing this transformation is in itself a realisation of the tragedy that has taken place. I really enjoyed this movie and often I wished Baby was there to watch this with me.... (Baby is in Jakarta now, which he says reminds him of a slightly better Bangladesh?)

I am also reading a really nice book at the moment, remember the previous post I talked about sharing my books away, you know in my quest to be less possessive of my books? In return, another colleague of mine has lend me his favourite book called Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer who is also the author of Everything Is Illuminated. What strikes me the most of this book is how incredibly intelligent and sad it is, it is intelligent in the witty and ingenious way on how the author conveys the feelings and thoughts of the characters through humour and how the within the humour and wit, sadness is implied. One third through the book and I had to take a pause... because I'm feeling the 'heavy boots'... I have never read a story that comes near to how weird and different as how this was presented.

Sigh... 'heavy boots'.....

I also bought a book today, my first travel book - Lonely Planet Bali & Lombok ;) Yes folks, I'm taking this planning to Bali thing very seriously now.... because I'm finding it a tad tedious to search for info that I need from the Internet and of course, I'm getting self conscious doing this in the office while everybody else is busy with their work! As you may guess, it's getting pretty quiet for me now, I'm not really complaining... just.... *whispers* I'm too free? :|

Ahh well, the last time I complained I got this huge scary project to manage... so let's forget I said that ok? :P

Additional: I forgot to mention that they made a movie out of Everything Is Illuminated although not everything was adapted into the movie and they plan to do the same for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Noodle Meets Prince Charming

2007-08-31T23:28:00.001+08:00

His Royal Highness The Prince Andrew,
Duke of York

Literally, that was what happened on the 30th August 2007, I met with the 4th in line to the throne of England, shook his hand and did the best I could in the presentation in spite of the nerves... :|

HRH Prince Andrew, Duke of York has a very warm and cheerful disposition, which worked great and took lots of the pressure off for me and my other colleagues who was to meet him that afternoon. We spent days preparing for the presentation and had to change the script from our normal presentation due to the very limited time we have for each presentation - 3 minutes each, where normally we yak away 10-15 minutes, and the fact that we could only address him as His Royal Highness and Sir ONLY. It's a bit hard when all of the sudden you have to get used to not saying the word "you". If you can't imagine it, just try not saying this word as you attempt to explain something to that person... or you could just trust me, it's hard!!

The prince's visit to my company was part of the 50th Independence Celebration, and the fact that my company was selected is largely due to the recently launched programme we have with the Malaysian government to down stream technology to the local SMEs.

He was on time as he walked through the door, and he was very surprised with the warm reception... :) After a short lunch, he mingled and asked questions on what we do... and as warned by his aides, he did go off the agreed path and lingered longer when some ideas and illustration we drew on the ideas' board caught his eye. My other colleague gave an impromptu presentation which went very well! :D And yes, he just hate to be ushered around and man does he walk fast! My colleague who is the designated camera person was frantic as he tries to find the best shot ..... heh... and from the pictures, there were some great shots indeed :D

As I think back on this and all other events I am involved with, I do feel that my job now is indeed very special... largely due to our location and nature of business, I am given many opportunities to be involved with many interesting projects. Majority is with high visibility....

PK gave me a link to some personality test recently, I found out that I am actually an ENFJ.

According to the Jung type description my favoured careers are as follows:
casting directory , film critic, wedding planner , work in the performing arts, teacher (art, preschool, elementary), actor, fashion designer, news anchor, fashion merchandiser, school psychologist, broadcaster, stylist, interior designer, event coordinator, restaurant owner, childcare worker, hair stylist, film director, counselor, dancer.

I like ALL the stuff here! :D And secretly, I've fantasied about doing all those stuff one time or the other... seriously, SERIOUSLY! :P

Unfavoured careers:
race car driver, scientist, computer specialist, airline pilot, computer programmer, financial manager, epidemiologist, truck driver, electrical engineer, software designer, web designer, business consultant, dj, bookseller.

LOL... electricl engineer!! Shhiiiiiiiitt! 8-|

A Quick Update....

2007-08-25T11:41:00.001+08:00

At the office again on a Saturday, eating tapao rice from my favourite Malay stall. My contractors are very late today, some logistics problem (again!) and I wonder at what time would I be able to leave today but I shall not start my blog entry with too much complaints... for the fact that I am blogger shows its not all that bad being here eh? :) I will be finishing off some paperwork today so that the contractors will get paid and will work towards closure of the big project I undertook since months ago... The showcase looks splendid now, result of all the hard work put in by myself and the people I work with, but the issues of the showcase is far, far from closed... which reminds me, I have to start shaping those slides packs for draft 2 soon.....

I've got a steady stream of visitors to the showcase, did a few presentations just this month but what I'm really nervous about is the one coming end of the month... will blog about it if it comes to anything to talk about :)

My team is steadily growing in size as well. The 3rd round of interviews has started and I think it started rather badly. The candidate we saw yesterday just rubbed me the wrong way... but I guess I should have known better when I saw he submitted a 20 page resume! Ugh, and what he wrote in his CV about his capabilities is literally like digging his own grave, too many instances where you know he is just a real bullshitter.... I mean he even rated his own leadership, interpersonal, research and presentation skills with "Intermediate" and "Advance". When I saw that, I thought it prudent to ask him how he came about with those gradings. He answered "I asked my friends..." and when I asked him did he do a 360 evaluation, he didn't know anything about that too.... my manager grew impatient as well and started to grill him about his so called declaration of "...(office) politics can be solved when both parties learn to talk it over and agree what is best based on company direction..." Naive and know-it-all-but-knows nothing-show-off is what I would call him.... I felt if he was more sincere instead of trying to project this "expert" image, he would have stood a chance....

I am very pleased with the new guys that joined us, they prove to be hardworking, helpful and playful folks. We've started futsal games every Thursday. I've learnt to scream less and kick better these days, and my stamina is getting better every week! :D

Baby's in Yokohama again for a few weeks, so Tag's only got me and I've been a very very bad owner in terms of being consistent with his walks :|.... its been raining every morning for the past week and he is getting restless, and I haven't been cooking his favourite chicken liver stew lately... been coming home after the fresh market close these days so he's been eating his dry pellets with the occasional milk. I am seriously thinking about getting the rain coat out and taking him on his walk.... seems unfair to the poor thing. :(

Oh right! I know I haven't told you guys this, but I FINALLY got it!! The Roomba!!!! :D :D
The local distributor was selling it a promotional price of RM1699 at the home furnishing exhibition, so Baby and I and SS went there for the sole purpose of getting it! >:) We also paused to look at the magical Laurelstarr (I don't think i spelled it correctly) its a spectacular iron system that saves time and doesn't damage your clothes and is idiot proof because it only has 1 temperature setting for all types of ironing. Baby's eyes were all transfixed on the ironing system and I know that he badly wants it! (Or it could be the nice sales lady who was doing the demo...:P) The ONLY snag was the pricey price tag of RM6k! (SS asked if the "person" is included with the price lol) So, into a wish list it goes! :P

I've also finished reading HP7. I must say it's really exciting read right from the beginning! And I felt a bit sad when I was breezing through it that there would not be anymore HP books to look forward to.... I'm reading something else now, Sacred Games by Vikram Chandra. Very promising actually :)

On the subject of books and reading, recently I confided in a book reading friend about my possessiveness of my books.. on how I am very reluctant to share them with other people... her reply stayed with me for the longest time ".... books are only 'alive' when read, on the shelves they are 'dead' you know?..." Ugh, I hate her! So Babe, I've lend out The Alchemist to my fresh grad colleague and before I hand it to him, told him about all the rules about book handling and pointed out to him that the edition he is holding is the 10th Anniversary Edition....! Sigh..

The things we do for love.

07/07/07

2007-07-07T13:25:00.000+08:00

I had a very short career as a car thief today... well not exactly the whole breaking in and hot-wiring and driving it away.. its more like driving the car fast with the hazard lights on and alarms blaring because the damn (both) remote car keys failed.

Tag was going crazy because of the alarm... poor thing... :| while I was stressed out and running late to my appointment with contractors at the office.... bad start to a Saturday morning.

The alarm stops a few seconds before continuing loud and shrill, I was sooo embarassed but luckily and weirdly, after the 4th turn the alarm went silent completely! I turn on the CD player and tried to relax but always afraid that any second now the alarm will go off again. I made it safely to the Honda Service Centre, wondering ironically, why did the alarm died off - in parallel I imagined a car thief smiling to himself as he drives the stolen vehicle to its secret workshop of owned by a syndicate ring.... As I open the door to hail a service personel walking by, the alarm went off again! He told me to go in to get help.

I went straight to the counter and begged the customer service guy for help, I told him the alarm is blaring away and he took my case as an emergency. After a while he said that I'll have to leave the car behind and I removed valueables from the care while making a few calls to my contractor telling him about my delay, another call to Baby to tell him what's happening and the last call to my brother asking him to come get me and take me to the office....

What seems to be ages, my brothers showed up... was glad to see some familiar faces actually :)
Oh, if you are wondering where Baby is at the moment, he is back to his home town to attend a friend's wedding.. so its just Tag and me again....

I reached the office at 11am, 2 hours late.... good thing I have very good rapport with my workers, they just teased me and said that I have to bribe them with food later etc etc etc..

5:40pm now and I'm back from getting my car from the service centre, was glad to see the car that I forgot to ask them how do I disarm the alarm from the inside...sigh.... and I kinda start to smell bad....tired too.... I hope I don't have to go home too late today.

Single's Meal

2007-06-18T23:03:00.000+08:00

When you are cooking for one, can be quite tricky. If you're like me who loves to cook and eat it, you're actually quite custom to cooking for more then just one. Typical chinese cooking dictates that 2 dishes are minimal, so the fair thing to do is to have one vege and one meat dish. Herein lies the dilemma - 2 dishes CAN be a little too much for one person. SO, the best thing is actually to cook western! Cooking a single's meal I would very much like to recommend this recipe for those who love pasta....

Fusili in Spicy Mushroom Cream (I just made the name up actually..)

Ingredients:
1) A plate full of fusili
2) 5 fresh mushrooms, stalk removed, and sliced
3) 2 fresh chili padi, chopped
4) 2 clove of garlic, chopped
5) half a capsicum (your choice of red, green, or yellow)
6) evaporated milk ( oh I dunno, just enough to wet everything without drowning it)
7) sugar, salt & pepper to taste
8) dried basil leaves
9) olive oil (extra virgin if you are really into those..)
10) Oh.. almost forgot - last ingredient is 5-6 fresh prawns, shelled & de-vined

Method:
1) Add fusili into boiling pot of water, add some salt into the pot and let boil. Remember to remove the cover if you understand that frothy pots makes messy clean-up work.
2) Heat a dash of olive oil on frying pan, when hot enough, stir fry the garlic.
3) When garlic becomes fragrant, add sliced capsicum, mushroom and chili padi. You can add more oil here to assist in the stir frying, because them mushrooms are oil drinkers!
4) Add salt, sugar and pepper to taste, also the dried basil leaves.
5) Fry about 5 minute and when you have determine, mushroom & capsicum is cooked, add fresh prawns.
6) When prawns are almost cooked, add evaporated milk. Carefull not to pour too much! Remember just enough to wet everything, okay?
7) Let boil and thicken. By this time, your fusili that's boiling in the other pot is cooked! Drain and pour fusili in the flat plate.
8) Switch off the fire and scoup up the mushroom stuff on top of the fusili and you are done!
9) Eat.

I love this recipe, its jointly developed by me and Baby, with understandable variations depending who is cooking it of course. Just had this last Saturday, yummy! :D

In A Nutshell

2007-06-10T12:20:00.001+08:00

So much to blog about but so little time!!!

Well, I've passed my project management exam and am now a certified project manager, but then nothing changes really, but I think Baby will digress :P... things are picking up at work for me, I've just landed a role in a huge project for my company - really exciting work with short time frames. Its good because I'm working with my ex-boss, always new things to learn! With me in my team is another outstanding colleague and also my current boss - excellent boss I might add, I could just feel the jealous eyes on my back when this project was announced... ah well, no time to entertain those green eyed monsters! Everything seems to be on target at the moment, tracking these stuff can be rather daunting, talking to Singaporean and UK counterparts while keeping other nosy people on a need-to-know-only-basis...

I'm also interviewing people for new openings in my team, I'm really excited about all the new people who is going to join us, God knows we have plenty of great projects to go around... new blood into the team always means change, I hope they will work well with the oldies and inspire each other to excel in our deliverables... I've already started to plan for training and team building exercises on behalf of my boss.. everything's on track. Interesting managing people, and often its hard work.... and the politics... ahh, never ending...!

I've also stole time to read a few books since few months back, I was rather embarassed by end of last year when I realised I only managed to read 2 books! So far I manage to finish, Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka, Dogs of Babel by Carolyn Parkhurst and Marley & Me by John Grogan. Not a bad start eh? :D
Currently, I'm reading Zahir by Paulo Coelho and watching 6 Feet Under DVDs, so what that means is that I'm thinking about life and what it means - reading Paulo Coelho does that to you.. and I have this urge to say "F*ck!" when I'm displeased with something or someone - watching 6 Feet Under does that to you .... *shrugs*

Did I tell you Baby and I went to Singapore to watch Phantom of the Opera? Oh yeah we did that, bought the package thingy that includes bus transport, hotel stay and theater tickets and stayed the weekend there. Drank the best beer since my London trip at Paulaner Brauhous in Singapore and saw our favourite musical - that's one check on my list of must do!

I guess another check was made on Baby's list that same weekend.... as he got down on his knee while singing " All I Ask From You" to present me with shining band he was holding between his thumb and index finger. I couldn't make out what it was because I just got out from bed, hair uncombed and no contact lenses.. He was smiling this smile, but I thought he was just simply happy about seeing his favourite musical the night before and we were about to go down for our complimentary breakfast in the hotel - yeah, he gets excited about food easily :P

It took me sometime to focus and when I realise what he was holding, I did the typical thing I hear women do when they get proposed by the man they love - I cried. I've always imagine I'll make some smart comments when I get proposed, but then again he really caught me off gurad, I mean when he got down on his knee, I was actually sitting on the toilet peeing!! How romantic eh? =))

So right now, we are scouting for the right place with the right price for our wedding dinner... we are looking at next year February for it in hope to get as many of our close overseas friends to attend, we are almost firm about having the dinner on the 2nd. Close friends are hurrying me on the wedding preps, but we'll keeping cool, the most important is that we do what we want right? and that means not doing it the typical way... I'm saying no to studio photography and opting for on-day, on-site photography... that is if we have the budget for it. We are trying to keep it simple and small scale with only really close friends to join us on it, chinese weddings have such notoriety these days as money making scheme that its kinda embarassing when you think about it and if its not that, couples find themselves in debt after the whole thing blows over, you can't imagine how much it costs to get married these days! :|

Anyway, Baby is in Japan at the moment, he will be back in a few weeks.. and I guess, we will be able to concentrate on the preps after July (hehe, I can already hear people shrieking... that's not enough time!) Maybe its time to respond to some "old flames" that I'm getting hitched ;)

Take care folks!

Stay at Home Time

2007-04-16T10:32:00.000+08:00

I'll be spending more time at home the coming weeks, largely due to an exam I'm preparing for, and I've taken leave just to get away from all the work in the office but so far I've been having only moderate success... Sigh, although on leave I was still doing work and checking other people's work and replying emails to coordinate some events in the coming months and not to mention coordinating some repair and maintenence work as well among other stuff.... I'm beginning to think either I'm being too accomodating or I'm actually a control freak that likes to do everything and can't say no to more responsibilities... :| And because work commitments has eaten its way to the time I was suppose to be spent revising, I've actually postponed by exam date to early next month. I could risk it and take it as planned this Thursday but I hate to think that I went there not fully prepared.

The advantage of staying at home more is I get to spend more time looking after Tag :D He's grown somemore and he just went to the vet yesterday to get his final vaccination shot and anti flea medication (not to imply he HAS flea but its a precaution).

I've got some more pictures of the little rascal, its not been easy taking care of this little fella and god knows there was disagreement and so far one major fight between its caretakers over him.... hmmm, but its to be expected. He's learnt to sit on command, give his paw on command, and retrieve ball.. all made possible by little bribes of doggie treats and other yummy stuff. :P

Its always interesting giving him new stuff to try out, like bananas and apples, ice cubes too. With apples and ice cubes he will usually play with it first before consuming it bit by bit :D Alright can't stay on too long, got revisions to do, enjoy the pictures folks! :)

Tag at 4 months

Tag heeded the sit command and nicely posed for me here :P

The ears have grown rather large - one still flops though you can't see it in this picture
He has a thing for my feet ;)

Itchy, itchy, itchy!

Oh yeah, I found this little video of Tag when he was about 2+ months, watch this and you can see how much he's grown...awwww :-*

Cocktail Night

2007-03-23T08:53:00.000+08:00

Ahhh.... you know. a few weeks back Baby and I were at this party with some close friends. It was a long overdue reunion when 2 of our good friends came back from cold, gloomy UK for a visit and to spend Chinese New Year's here... (Hi Matt! Hi Siows!)

So we catered food and because the idea was to spend whole night together, we also brought some nice alcohol for cocktails ;) Days before, I was researching online to get some recipes for cocktails, we have at home a list of these:

* Bailey's
* Grand Marnier
* Kahlua
* Absolute Vodka
* Malibu

For the diserning reader, you may be able to guess from this list what combination of drinks that we can produce ;)

So after chowing down the lovely Indon Sotong, delicious fried beehom, fried rice and chicken chop, we got down to making cocktails! And because this group is not the pub crawler type, they were all rather amused and curious about our cocktail basket we brought over.. heh...

The frist thing I made was Malibu Bay Breeze... I went easy on the white rum and it was readily accepted by these cocktail virgins :P Next, Baby whipped up the Screaming Orgasm!! Haha...! The name sounds more fun then the actual drink.... and we only made 2 for the night, Mr Khoo and his animated wife Mrs Khoo - we toast to the newly weds wishing them a lovely and *ahem* enjoyable marriage.. :P

Next was a hot favourite really and my firm favourite - B52! This drink was requested most frequently that night, and it was fun to watch Baby in full concentration in its making...! And I was glad I bought the dosage syringe for this purpose :D

I also made Malibu Coke as a light refreshment, and Baby also opened up a nice bottle of Riesling and that instantly won over the proclaimed "I don't drink wine wan!"

Oh yea, there was also some rum being passed around courtesy of our lovely host Ms. Lily :) Suffice to say, we all talked a bit louder that night, some of the guys were all red faced and made funny noises, while the girls were laughing much as well...

We went on to play some drinking game as well that night and because it was chinese new year, there was also gambling! The big winner of that night was undeniably Mr Lily.... its fun to see all her antics in her Banker role... slapping mosquitoes, vibe reading, face reading, good luck bad luck management.... lol

For those interested in making your own cocktails, have a go at this And to entice you more, I've found some pictures ;)

Malibu Bay Breeze - yummy!

Screaming Orgasm - honouring the couple ;)

B52- Crowd favourite

Malibu Coke - Easy!

Wang Lee Hom's Heroes of Earth Concert

2007-03-14T09:39:00.000+08:00

To prove the skeptics wrong.. I'm back here again to write about what could be my long, lost destined lover that I didn't manage to meet up.... HAIH....!

Anyway, back to the story.. As I've hinted in my earlier post, Baby and I attended the Wang Lee Hom's concert at Bukit Jalil Stadium 2 weeks ago. You might be surprised to know that I listen to chinese songs, which I admit is kinda rare but you know Lee Hom is one of those artist/entertainer that is really talented - he writes his own songs, produces, sings and even direct his own music video. Plays all types of musical instruments and to top it all off, he is such a delicously good looking guy! :D

The concert was really good and it was about 2 hrs 40 mins long. I only know very few of his songs and boy for the ones that I actually heard the first time, made my eyes water.. Yeah.. I shamelessly cried a few times during his concert... damn he writes beautiful music and lyrics!! He was very energetic and that was good because he had a longish stage to cover and he was very playful and tried his hands on all instruments, from guitar, drums, violin (of course!), keyboard, piano (of course!) and even the er hu! It was also fun to see him direct the strong 25,000 audience into singing one of his songs, softer and softer and softer... and everytime he lowered the volume, he went lower and lower till he was totally flat on the stage and we couldn't see him anymore and couldn't hear him anymore... that is when the crowd started to call out his name and he looked up and we saw his lips was still moving! Haha.. he was constantly teasing us like that... hmmm :D

All in all, we really enjoyed the concert. Baby thought it was really worth the money as well. My next move would be to start listening to all of his songs, starting with the tear jerker "Kiss Goodbye".... And yeah, this thought came to my mind when I see this talented young man on stage, and I whispered to Baby "When I was younger, I'd always fantasize I would meet such a guy and fall in love.... but it never happened..." Baby just smiled gently and held my hand.

Meet Tag :)

2007-03-07T18:37:00.000+08:00

Updated: 20th Mac 2007 - Pictures! :D

Tag at 2 1/2 months

Can you see his tail?

Chewah... Natural poser!

Handsome fella eh? :P

..half way through a yawn...

Tag at 3 months old

Got him a new rawhide chew bone

"I know you're there! I can smell you!"

I've uploaded a video on youtube.

or

I'm first to the office this morning, and saw Dolly's offline msg with a link to Maija's blog that reminded me that I've not blogged for some time now although I do wanna tell you guys about 1) our sweet little puppy, 2) Wang Lee Hom concert and 3) Malibu Bay Breeze! :D

Yeah you read right! We have a puppy in the house and his name is Tag - Tagheuer :D Been thinking about blogging about this new addition to the home with cute pictures of him and even a video I plan to upload in YouTube... but alas, the pictures are still stuck in the camera along with the video.... /me mumbles excuses incoherently

Tag is a local mix breed we adopted from the Independent Pet Rescuers It all happened one Saturday where Baby took me for a drive but won't tell me where we are heading, we found ourselve in Hartamas Shopping Centre - we never come here for shopping mainly because its kinda far from where we live, and also because we are not up market people la.... So after a questions on what we are doing here, Baby finally told me that he's been reading about the Independent Pet Rescuers work and has come to see the pups being put up for adoption...(yeah, i noticed he's been pretty busy surfing the net for weeks although its past his bed time, but I thought he was just surfing porn.. lol..) we came to a corner of a phone shop and caught a glimpse of a few moving furballs in a play pen and a smiling chinese lady greeting us... then suddenly it started to drizzle... and the next thing we know we were holding a puppy each and helping the nice chinese lady move pups, cage, plastic begs and other stuff to a new location away from the rain! So, we spent the next hour or so, talking to the Pet Rescuers and playing with the pups. The next thing, I was filing up an adoption form while Baby had a look of confusion and elation etched on his kind face.... I don't think he expected me to actually adopt a pup there and then when he decided to drive me here... lol

That aside, some of you would already know my reservations about owning a pet, it takes time, effort, money and adjustments to your lifestyle to accomodate their needs... that means no staying out late just like that, you gotta think about coming home on time to feed them, play with them and to a certain extent train them so that they don't destroy your shoes, car, wall, gate with their need to chew or make you public enemy number ONE with your neighbours with their aimless barking. You gotta think about where to house them, allocate some money for their food, medication and other supplies like biscuit treats, chewable rawhide, leash, toys, shampoo...

So, why did I succumb to it you might ask? Well, it might not be the best reason, but I know Baby really wanted one, I notice that he's been reading my encyclopedia of dog breeds a lot lately, he's been looking at puppy pictures off forums and stuff for weeks, but the kick was on one fine Saturday evening, he actually as me to take a walk with him around the neighbourhood!! Something that rarely happens because he hate doing that because he sweats too easily, and anywhere outside of an air-conditioned room a sweaty, uncomfortable experience for him. So curiously, I followed him out, talked about nothing important and we found ourselves at my elder brother's house (he and sis-in-law lives a few blocks behind us) and he said "Lets, see if they are home, I wanna take their dogs out for a walk.." So there we go, marching up to the front gate, only to discover bro's not home.... Baby looked disappointed and
restless... "Great...! When I want to walk a dog, there is none!"

Baby's had dogs when he was growing up and we've been talking about dogs on and off for a long time now. So in my mind, he's ready. Though I have my reservations I think we can pull it off....

Its been more then a month now since Tag came to out home. Close friends and family has met him. He was very timid in the first week and got me worried much as he wasn't really eating much and play was half hearted, but after the one visit to my brother's place, he came alive! Most probably it was the Lemon Cream cake that sis-in-law baked that caught his attention :P He was hopping merrily around and in words of Baby "..behaving like a dog.." Vet visit was good and his weight is good too. We improved his appetite by mixing his puppy food with milk. He's grown quite a bit since he's arrived, soon it will be his second visit to the vet for his vaccination. And as soon as he gets all the necessary shots, he will be free to mix around my brother's dogs when we all go off to work. Pity him, caged up all day and no companions until we come back from work. :|

I'll post pictures soon. And I guess I'll blog about the concert and the cocktail some other time... I'm tired already. :P

Work vs Play

2007-02-02T20:40:00.000+08:00

One of my new year's resolution is to actually make work second priority, I shared this to my ex-boss and he replied by asking me "Work as second priority might work if your boyfriend has the same attitude - what will be first priority then?"

I was quite stumped when I read his reply. Its not like I had a family of my own that is waiting for me to get off work, no little kiddies to put into bed... but what I do have is a lovely bf that works too hard himself too. I guess what I'm trying to do this year is to enforce that home/work boundary. When I'm off work and with Baby, I'll give him full attention to what and where we are. Just enjoy dinner and being together. It was indeed rather cruel of me to still think about the small crisis at work while he took me to that nice Japanese restaurant... :|

I really love that time we went for the ColdPlay concert... that was one of those things that we really did for us and us only. Don't care some (well meaning) people saying that it costs too much to fly there and not having the time to actually stay longer and do more in Singapore.

What is the point of having left over leave when taking leave doesn't affect your salary right?

p/s: I'm still in the office at 8:39PM on a Friday... seems Baby is working late tonight.

noodle in UK

2007-01-18T15:45:00.000+08:00

Sheesh! I almost forgot the password to this place!! That just prove undeniably that I have cruelly neglected my readers! I AM SO Sorry folks..!

But I guess you guys would be happy to know that I'm still alive, just been rather distracted from blogging because of work, work and life in general.

Lets see, lots have happened in the past months... most notably, I went to UK for the first time in me life and stayed there for the whole 2 weeks. Met with Quicky and yep he is tall but skinny kid with a weird goatee... :P

Was there for work for the first week and the second week was spent with some of Baby's good friends up in Reading. They let me stay with them in their cozy home and eat their stuff for free! Nice hor...? :D They also took time off to drive me to see Stonehenge and a nice, grand old Cathedral in Salisbury. Did some of the touristy bit in London as well, St. Paul's Cathedral and Tower of London... I must say I'm very impressed with all the loot the Bristish took from the colonised nations... 1st Star of Africa, 2nd Star of Africa.... all those huge diamonds and emeralds and sapphire and pearls! And what's that Egpytian Obelisk sitting in the middle of the city?!
If you haven't guessed it already, I didn't like the place very much.. just too smoggy and wet, and I guess I should have known the people there won't be as cheerful as the Aussies... oh and did I mention it was cold? It was late autumn when I got there, I was told I was lucky to get so much sunny days during the trip there.. and it is true what they say about the gloominess getting to you.. I felt it once when the first thing I saw in the morning was the gloomy sky and strangely I felt sad and depressed... :( Another thing, British people smoke too much and luckily I didn't see what my colleague saw - a man withdrawing money from an ATM while peeing at the same time! Talk about multitasking!! :O

But of course there are some things I like about the place. I love the boots, the pastries, the many varieties of winter jackets, I love that you can order other stuff in draught then plain old Tiger or Carlsberg. And its true, Belgian beers are simply delicious! :D I love that you can go out with just 20 quid in your pocket and loads of stuff you can buy below 1 quid...

Will I go back there again? With Baby in tow of course, but maybe just a few days to see Temple Church (I didn't get to see it because someone was inside doing a wedding practice or something) and visit the museums and take him to the Spanish bar with the killer Sangria and catch some musical before we head out to see Spain and bask in her beauty....sigh *day dreaming*

Lets Waste Time

2006-08-21T12:27:00.000+08:00

I remember in the movie Devil's Advocate, this line by the Devil played by Al Pacino that goes soemthing like this I've never asked you to leave your wife alone to come with me, to see all this places and people... you chose it yourself, so don't blame me when you neglect her.. When I realised the implication of what that line meant to the people running the rat race, I thought it was quite smart to link the dedication one has to their career and the casualty that has on family and relationships to a sort of seduction of the Devil. Clever, clever... :)

I guess it plays on the desires of man in wanting success. Nothing wrong in wanting success really, but then taking someone for granted is an ingredient for disaster (relationship wise). So the question really is, how do you keep both career and relationship needs balanced? Having boundries is one way, stop thinking about work when you are off work, stop taking and making calls when you are off... and just be there wholly when you hold the hands of your loved ones, all attention to the silly conversations you are having, feel it in your soul the connection, because it brings much satisfaction....

Baby gave me this song, he says he thinks of me when he listens to it.

Chasing Cars

We'll do it all
Everything
On our own

We don't need
Anything
Or anyone

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?

I don't quite know
How to say
How I feel

Those three words
Are said too much
They're not enough

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lay with me and just forget the world?

Forget what we're told
Before we get too old
Show me a garden that's bursting into life

All that I am
All that I ever was
Is here in your perfect eyes, they're all I can see

I don't know where
Confused about how as well
Just know that these things will never change for us at all

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lay with me and just forget the world?

Career Hazards

2006-08-21T10:22:00.000+08:00

Its Monday, August the 21st and I'm at home writing this entry. I'm on medical leave again today, just found out that the bloating feeling in my tummy and the dull ache after meals is not constipation or mild food poisoning but in fact gastric! I can't believe when the doc told me I have gastric, I felt so insulted to think that I've neglected to feed myself!? I told Baby what the doctor said and immediately he said "Its the stress Babe, you've not been sleeping well and all this waking up in the middle of the night stressing about your job is causing you to have gastric..." I replied " Shit, I never thought about it that way, here I am thinking what nonsense is the doctor saying I have gastric when I've never really skipped meals!" Babe replied "Yeah people always forget that stress can cause lots of problem" In fact, that's the second time in recent memory that I've been to that clinic for medical attention, I'm still coughing though - remnants of the flu I had previously.

Well, we managed to move the whole office to the new location, the new office is slowly but surely coming together nicely. As Project Manager, I've been on the job for months, from planning for contingency plans, doing paper work, meeting people, screaming at contractors and inspection of work etc. I always get home tired, hungry and dirty. Every morning and night when I clean my nostrils, I realise what hazardous air I'm been inhaling while on the site! Sigh...
Many times I wanted to kill my Boss since he's been so difficult at times, same goes for my electrical guy, my main contractor, my air-cond guy and to some extent my colleagues when they ask me stupid questions!! Arghhhh....

Lots of people didn't believe I could make the time schedule to move, the bosses were worried that we would be "homeless" when we couldn't get another week's extension to the old place while the new place is still "under construction"! Additional stress really to convince the bosses when they visit the site and breathing in dusty air and walking on saw dust and other grey dust from the cement work and what-have-yous. But we did move, though not under the best conditions, it was a real logistic problem but we did make it work eventually. We worked on weekends, my Boss and some other colleagues actually moved boxes, vacum the carpet and sweep the floor, lay protective sheets and walked barefooted.

All these meant that I was away from Baby for some extended time, and of course he wasn't one bit happy with the arrangement. My Boss's wife stopped speaking to him (its an on and off again thing) and my constant pre-occupation with work while I was out having dinner or in the car with Baby was causing resentment. We had a long chat recently, emotional and honest. In the end of the day, it is just a job right? I enjoy my work and see the potential it holds for the future but I think a balance must be found. I read somewhere recently about how we create boundries for ourselves when it comes to work. The article talks about this lady's experience where she kept delaying her going home time because she always got work to do or soemthing that comes up suddenly that she needed to fix. The article talks about drawing boundries like if you target to leave at 6pm, then leave on 6pm and whatever that needs to be done or fixed can be left for tomorrow if its not life or death.

With the office renovation coming to a close, I'm actively involved with the Showcase now. Last Thursday, we had some very important people that came to see the showcase and I'm happy to report that everything went very well that day. We have some big plans lined up for the office and Showcase so there is in fact more work to be done in the future, but for the time being, I'll take a little rest and do some pleasurable things that I've been missing. I'll also take these quite times to comtemplate my thoughts and actions for the past months....

Singapore Coldplay Twisted Logic - We Were There!

2006-07-11T21:43:00.000+08:00

It was on a recent business trip to Singapore that I came across the TV advert about Coldplay's Twisted Logic Tour. It got me all excited and I was reminded of the "promise" Baby and I made about making seeing and hearing Coldplay live one of the must-do!

The pledge was made one fine day when both of us was digilently sweating it out on the treadmill with our headphones on. We were apparently looking at the same screen that moment and Coldplay's Fix You video was on.... it was our first time really listening to the song (no thanks to the lousy radio we have on the old Toyota LE :P), the slow and soft church organ at the background just draws you... the first time we really understood what the hell Chris Martin was wailing about :P It was in the pre-chorus where the guitar comes in and the drum beat gets more intense, the music climbs and climbs... and you see Chris starts running and running... at this moment the video cuts and you see him running up on stage in front of thousands of fans as the lights came on... the crowd screams and suddenly, they all started singing the chorus in unison... that moment was magic. That is when it hit me. And as the music ends, I glance to my left and saw Baby looking back with a face that must have mirrored what I was feeling inside...

It was a one night only concert, and in Singapore on a MONDAY night! But I was determined to do this, in the back of my mind I knew this IS that time that we have to really do something about the things we plan to do - NOW, not next year, not next time. And I knew, the hardest part wasn't the money - I'll just use the bonus I got to pay for some of the expenses, it wasn't the distance, wasn't really the time either, but the act to just decide we are going to do this! So I set my plan in motion, I was going to corner Baby about this and make it so idiot proof that he won’t have the excuse to save him this time! >:)

So, with a phone call I told Baby that if we are going to do this we have to decide now. Never being comfortable with spontaneity, I just knew he was squirming on the other end of the line. I let him sleep on it for one night. Then I got the green light (he smiled bitterly as he said “OK”) >:) Paid for the concert tickets, arranged the flight tickets and hotel room (got into some argument with him in the process, I’m telling you, its hard on him when I’m arranging these stuff on his behalf… talk about being a control freak! :P)

So, got half day leave, left for the airport at 3pm, got a hasty dinner and there we were inside Singapore Indoor Stadium ten minutes to 8pm. The concert was terrific, I would especially note the creative graphics that was being displayed at the backdrop of the stage, to borrow from Baby “Its like watching a live MTV.” Since we are fans since recently, there were some songs that we aren’t familiar with, so I just closed my eyes and just listen to the music and that voice that just seem to sing right into your soul…. Chris sang all the crowd favourites and I discovered how beautiful the lyrics to In My Place is, same goes to The Scientist…

What I’ll remember most are the white sneakers, the crazy awkward dance Chris did, the music, the singing crowd, and definitely that look on Baby’s face.

Facts of Life... So Far...

2006-07-09T19:34:00.000+08:00

In my absence from blogging I have learnt a few things:

Driving

If you drive a brand new car you can easily do 100km/h and beyond without much effort and you won’t even realise that you already breaking the speed limit. You tend to have more patience and enjoy the drive more. You are generally calmer, and all the stop go won’t faze you at all. You feel comfortable, safe and happy.

People

When dealing with people, it makes a huge difference if you are able to communicate and convey your point across in an economic and clear manner. Before you speak, know where you are firm and where you can bend and negotiate. Its important to know your facts and argue them professionally. Throw in some charm and humour. Even if you don’t always get what you want, at least people will respect you.

Liquor

Margeritas are wonderful concoction of vodka and lemon juice, once you start, you just wanna keep going. Kilkenny is smooth and tender and I’m glad I was introduced to it. Later when you start getting light headed, a nice sharp tequila shot will fix you right up! Be nice to your nice guy pals, because they are very generous with buying drinks ;)

Stress

It gives you pimples, rudely wakes you up in the middle of the night, makes your palms sweaty and heart pump faster. You’ll talk faster and usually in rapid string of sentences.

Time

It runs fast.

Exhibition Tension

2006-05-12T06:43:00.000+08:00

Hmm... can't sleep again... the exhibition I'm managing for my company is getting to me. More pimples on the face, cold hands and feet throughout the day and more so as the exhibition day draws closer... but I'm relieved that at least most stuff is already being done, but yesterday was especially a little hard to handle: the main poster crisis, office jerks and other inane comments coming from certain quarters...

My blood was really boiling yesterday, but I've got many things to be grateful for and more people to say 'thank you' to... they've really come through for me and its always a great comfort when you know you can rely on your boss to shield you from stupid office politics...

Managing this exhibition IS fun... I'm learning many things and met so many people... and of course I do realise my weaknesses and the mistakes I've done along the way... for my team, they are a great bunch of helpful people, I look forward to the exhibition days next week and the weekend party with them in my home town :)

My intern's official last day was yesterday, but because she is such a darling she will be helping out during the exhibition - what a stark contrast to the whiney, bitching and pampered bunch... I did her evaluation yesterday, my boss had an evil smile when he passed me the forms of her evaluation to fill 2 days ago.... but I suspect he wanted me to learn something from that as well...
I'm gonna miss her when I don't see her after the exhibition, but instead there would be a new guy sitting in her place - the newest addition to the team - and my boss cheekily adds that its a man this time as requested. I hope he is nice to work with and "good looking" as my boss promised... heh

Yesterday we had a farewell lunch at one of my favourite restaurant in SK. One of the nicest guy colleague is leaving to work in a small media company he and his friends setup. Gave him The Google Story as a parting gift. He didn't expected that I think.. but then again, I always give books out to my favourite people (*winks at PK) :)

The Google Story

2006-04-23T14:49:00.000+08:00

I'm guilty of book hopping again :| Currently I'm hooked on reading “The Google Story” by David A. Vise and Mark Malseed and everytime I look up from my bed, I can sense “The Lily Theater” just staring back with betrayed eyes from the shelves... sigh.. “Sorry Lil, I just don't remember where I stopped previously and yes it was my fault for not inserting a book marker!”

The Google Story is a good read, mainly to the relevance of knowing about something that works so darn well and has changed so many lives... the story is in itself interesting but I find the style of the writers a tad lazy... I got irritated when they keep repeating and reusing the same old verbs like “amazing”, “innovative”etc to describe the Google founders and their invention... maybe I'm just spoilt due to the other books written by great writers before..

Reading about the Google Story is something sort of a departure from my usual fare and coincidently I feel its some how related to my current job scope in my new company... My new job requires me to adapt to a new way of thinking. Less of a problem solver or knowing how things work and instead thinking of how something should be packaged and sold.... yulch... I hate to admit it, but what I'm doing is more and more beginning to look like marketing and business.... :|

Perhaps I'll change my mind when I see the bonus :P

I'll leave you with this:

A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am."

The woman below replied, "You are in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You are between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude."

"You must be an engineer," said the balloonist.

" I am," replied the woman, How did you know?"

"Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is, technically correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost. Frankly, you've not been much help so far."

The woman below responded, "You must be in Management."

"I am, "replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?"

"Well," said the woman, you don't know where you are or where you are going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it's my fault".

Freaky Friday

2006-04-22T00:20:00.000+08:00

Sigh… Baby and I just finished watching a movie called Hostel… and yes this is one example where my brain was turned to mush and I got bored after the continuous assault of blood and gore…. :|

The premise of the movie was simple enough 3 young men journey to Bratislava in search of “hot chicks” that they can f*ck for free.. where sex is easy, pot smoking cool yada, yada, yada… it’s a typical American teen flick (read: male American teen flick) where bare breasts and asses galore…. But something else was in store for them when one by one the friends go missing and it turns out that they are actually the “star attraction” where rich sickos actually pay money to torture people… (yeah, I’m giving away the story here which is something I don’t do but then there isn’t much of a story here to begin with… and who knows after posting this, I might even save other people from watching this stupid movie! AHA! Some karma points there already :P)

So, as I was brushing my teeth I thought about the movie some more and some how recalled what I read in Baby’s recent blog entry about Dracula and his supposed dark habits of torturing people…. So, I thought since there are people out there with “atypical” preference like S&M (and other variants), Vilencia (a variant of giantessophilism), peadophilia, beastiality and fetishes that surrounds bloodily secretions etc… why not people who enjoy torturing people to death to feel the thrills?

Cathrine Willows: “Wake up and smell the species.” – from CSI, "Lady Heather’s Box"

Baby's New Toy

2006-04-11T21:31:00.000+08:00

Ahem...! I was waiting for Baby to announce on his blog any hint of his new toy I got for him when he turned older on the 4th ... so far still no news... :| so I thought it won't be too nosy of me to make some noise about it here... :D

This is what I got for Baby on his 28th :

For the uninitiated its a Dopod 577W! And what the hell is it?!? Well, basically its just a fancy phone that costs a bomb! :P But I got almost dealer price when my company decided to buy some units for testing.... So after 1 sleepless night thinking whether I should buy it or not, I went ahead with it.

The reason for the sleepless night was 1) the cost - it would have set my personal "fun" money to an all time low (but then again, this does come under "fun" purchase :P) and 2) I didn't have the typical 1 week to do enough research on this phone prior to the decision... but I did "some" reading about it and the review seems fine.... and 3) I didn't have any clues on what the heck is a smartphone! So what I found out was it has an OS -Windows CE version 5, so its like a PDA of sort where you can load programs to (whatever that may mean to the average user! :P), its got bluetooth, and wi-fi, SD storage, 1.3M pixel camera and this weird voice command thing going on to launch the programs or initiate calls etc.

I got the phone many days before his birthday, so after patiently charging the phone and all the sneaking around, I was caught one fine morning... you see, Baby has grown increasingly suspicous of all the door locking while I was in the room.... and being the curious me that I am, I fidgeted with the phone to learn about all its cool features till I stumble upon the voice command thingy.... THE BLOODY THING SPEAKS!! And Baby was just outside the bathroom door when it spoke! Darn it! In a frenzy I tried to hide it on top of the bathroom cabinet, but Baby found it anyway... :P And his expression softened immediately when I said "Happy Birthday!"as he grab the item from the top cabinet... but of course the whole 'I was gonna wrap it up nicely and only give him on some fancy dinner night out' was totally ruined! But then that look on his face was soooo precious! HA! And he thought I had mischieviously bought myself an MP3 player or something.. bleh! :P

So finally, my Baby has something cool as a phone! Yeyy! Good riddance to that old Samsung junk he stubbornly use! :D

This One's for the Voyuers :P

2006-04-09T11:02:00.000+08:00

After much delay, here are the photos I promised ;)

Front porch, the houses in front of us now costs RM500k I heard.

Living room. The wall's pretty bare at the mo.

That's where we serve food. The room with the sliding glass doors is the TV room.

Spot for the next project ;)

Inside the TV room. Better if that was a plasma TV no?

The extended kitchen.

Dry kitchen. Previously the spot for a bar with hanging glasses and stuff but alas practicality won the case... shelves got from IKEA and the shelve lights too.

Upstairs office place.

Guest room.

Our room ;) The matching red bedsheets and quilt was out drying in the sun when this picture was taken.

Some nice shelves Baby put up, I really like this :D
Yes, yes I realise the picture frames are empty :P

Lastly I leave you with this picture I took the first day we moved in here:

-END-