Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Shop Till I Drop

mood: grumpy and angry and throwing an allowed tantrum
music: diatas normal (beyond normal) - peterpan ("pikiranku patutnya menyedari siapa yang harus dan tak harus ku cari" / my mind should realize who it should and should not be looking for")

oh well peeps! i'm back from a long break away from the cyberworld and ill health thanks to a certain antibiotic called amoxyllin.

i was in kelantan over the weekend for abang ngah's wedding. finally! i love family gatherings such as those (even though i was only half conscious to actually sit thru the entire ceremony). found time to go to pengkalan kubur, very near to the golok border to shop for dirt cheap items like nice fabrics, knick knacks and clothes. of course mother and uda went berserk with the tudong-shopping while i was actually melting under the 35 degrees sun. but still managed to find a very nice telekong for awak to give me as part of hantarans. *yay*!

we also found time to go down to terengganu on saturday. the pasar payang is a huge place! undoubtedly the objective of visiting the market was to buy songkets and batiks for me and awak to make more hantarans. it was there i realized what a terrible bargainer i am. i think i am every shopholder's dream customer. i never question the price, and certainly i don't have the guts to bargain the price down, even though i know i should. hahaha! but that's what uda is for! she bargained the price of the two songket sampings that i bought for awak down that even the shopkeeper was impressed!

and uda also insisted that i go to this boutique silk batik shop. allegedly, it's the best in malaysia and if you want to buy batik, you buy from noor arfa. and at uda's and mother's strongly worded encouragements, i got a lovely deep red batik cloth to make into a nice baju kebaya for awak to give me as yet another hantaran. i'm ashamed to share on the price i paid for that one. it seems terribly exorbitant, even when in rm. but, as uda rightly pointed out, "you get married only once! and this hantaran thing lah is the time for you to get him to give you stuff like this. once you're married, hah! don't even dream. husbands in general never do!"

hahahahaha....is that true guys? awak? really? will our hantarans be the last time you get me nice stuff like that? i hope not...but seriously, i don't mind if you never get me the kindda of stuff that we're having as hantaran...a nice 0.8 carat princess cut diamond solitaire set in platinum will do just fine. : )

so i'm pleased with my hauls...and given more time (and surely more money), me and awak would surely have found almost all the things we need for our hantarans. but since he wasn't there and seriously my pocket was getting lighter and lighter, i decided it was wise to buy stuff we had previously agreed on.

went back to work on toosday...for a dragonboating teambuilding challenge. a very useful session for today, i'm feeling muscles i never knew i had! cliche-dly, it was a fun activity, but it worked when it tried to get us to get to know each other and break the ice among peeps in the new divisions. ranj, baguana, coffeebean and me of course have our reservations about the prof...but we’re all adopting a wait-and-see approach.

but when it comes to work, seriously i don't care anymore.

that's about all that's happening in my world. yeah pathetic i know...but i like my life simple, thank you very much.

here's that seven thingy toots tagged me with. follow the instructions, peeps!

seven things that scare me
1. my ability to sin
2. my ability to forget
3. not getting His blessings for everything i do
4. speeding cars
5. dark places
6. watching incredible tales on channel five (blardee spooky man...)
7. flying cockroaches

seven things i like the most
1. my faith
2. His love
3. chocolate
4. chicken and cheese
5. my liana
6. teh peng
7. ok this one i hate to admit but...awak's corny jokes.

seven important things in my room
1. my praying corner
2. my bed
3. my fan and the wonky remote control
4. my curtains (coz i leave the grilles open and don't wanna do a full monty)
5. cici my cat (hey sometimes he's under my bed)
6. my terribly large collection of bags
7. by laundry basket (which always overflows coz i do laundry like once a month?)

seven random facts about me
1. i have long black hair (which i'm thinking of cutting soon...shld i?)
2. i'm a crybaby during pms-tic times
3. loud
4. i don't care who hears when i sing in the shower
5. i hate cleaning
6. i love cooking
7. the only place in america that i really wanna visit is the yellow stone.

seven things i plan to do before i die
1. pray and repent for my sins
2. repay my parents for every intangible deed
3. complete all the articles of faith
4. get masters in sociology
5. get masters/degree in seerah
6. do umrah at least once more
7. marry awak and have at least four of his kids. (he wants 10. he can have them himself!)

seven things i can do
1. row in a dragonboat (just learnt!)
2. drive
3. sing and yoddle
4. cook a mean spaghetti
5. sleep an afternoon away
6. talk to cici
7. find liana when i've parked it

seven things i can't do
1. read a compass
2. write or read mandarin
3. see beyond 20 meters without my glasses/contacts
4. fix stuff that i've broken.
5. understand why morons and idiots exists
6. remember anything i learnt in sec school maths class
7. my gce o levels combined science paper

seven things i say the most
1. "ha?"
2. "ya Allah!"
3. "sure..."
4. "ta ma de!"
5. "what? why?"
6. "why not"
7. "blinking..."

seven celeb crushes
1. taufik batisah!
2. bryan greenberg - jake in one tree hill
3. milo ventimiglia - jesse in gilmore girls
4. chris pratt - bright in everwood
5. ariel - lead singer of peterpan
6. noah wyle - dr carter in er
7. anthony ruivivar - carlos in third watch

seven people who will have to do this
all y'all who's reading this! even if it exceeds seven!

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

He Loves Me Yeah Yeah Yeah

mood: i seem to feel pretty happy today...
music: the freshman - the verve ("for the life of me i cannot remember what made us think that we were wise and we'd never compromise")

yesterday i took awak to meet cik midah, my family's financial health doctor. she's been pasl with my mom for the longest time and she insures our entire family. so naturally i took awak to her for a quick check up. we discussed a lot about his work and the need for him to be totally insured, thanks to the line he's in. and now he's on the way to being insured.

as i listened to awak and cik midah's animated discussion, i found myself blushing...it was very weird. because...awak kept referring to me as one of his dependents! whenever questions came up about what his financial priorities are, it's always his parents first and then me. when asked how much he would like his dependents to get every month in the event of his death, he turned to me and ask, "dear how much do you want?" i laughed the question off.

we then took off. to my annoyance, we ended up at his carpark.

me: what are we doing here, dear? it's past ten already.
awak: yeah i gotta go upstairs take something.
me: take what? you're sending me back what?
awak: aiyah just go up lah.

so we trudged up to his place. and guess what? future mother in law had made kuih keria for me!

omg...i was floored! it was like the home made kind and it was delicious! she packed like a dozen for me to bring back.

i remember complaining to awak a few weeks ago on how there weren't any good kuih keria stalls around. (well that was before coffee bean took me to that shop at shenton way, THANKS!) i didn't think he'd remember or that he or the future mother in law would go through all that trouble! i was speechless and touched. as we were leaving his place, we passed by the hall was his dad was with a guest, a long time family friend. he salam-ed the guy and pointed to me and said, "tunang saya". ("my fiancee").

so last night i went to sleep feeling very nervous coz for the first time in a long time, i realized that this is serious. with the planning our financial health to being with each other's family and stuff. crunching numbers, i counted 268 days (8.25mths, 38 weeks, 6432 hours, 385920 mins, 23155200 secs) to our wedding.

wow. i'm seriously doing this.

and awak...i don't want your money. i want you to be healthy and alive.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Answers!

oh yes! and answers to my previous post - the are actually TEN factual errors, and they are:

1. i was washing my car (I NEVER WASH MY CAR)

2. unruffling his long lovely hair (awak doesn't have long hair. pls lah, he just finished reservist!)

3 i jumped into his arms (not till we're married lah!)


4. he swung me around. (still not married!)

5. i held on so tight (not married yet lah!)

6. he cupped my face (really...no kidding...not married!)

7. awak: baby, i missed you (awak will never call me baby...)

8. me: honey i love you back (...and i will never call him honey!)

9. and we kissed. (i kid you not...we're not married!)

10. he held me in his arms. (what a pity we're not married yet!)

so who ever who spotted EIGHT can claim the prize from me. anyone spotted TEN?

Thirty! Twenty-five! Ten!

mood: tired...but happy at last
music: everything will be alright - the killers ("i believe in you and me i'm coming to find you if it takes me all night")

good night tonight is.

the battered soldiers who survived the reorg waves hitting the wayang drama agency went out for dinner and ktv session. so nostalgic...as if we all knew that this would be the last time we did this as a team under ID.

sang and sang and drank and drank...haha! thanks for that game that you play with multiples of five and if you lose you gotta drink (thankfully the iced jasmine tea is nice!) we had fun and totally let our hair down.

highlight of the evening was when mrs sham gave a resounding rendition of the mandarin song "Hui Jia" by (eh guys by who ah?) and anyone of you can be a good friend and gimme a translation pweeze?

*sigh*...back to reality. what to do? once a cliche bugger said that change was the only constant in life. oh so true. this december will mark my second year with the wayang drama agency, and i have seen so many changes happening. you suck it up and you move on, right? just do your best, with the people around you as support.

so here's to the people around me who gave me support. mr retail, mr attractions, miss ir, mr future director, baguana, viva, ajojoz, mrs sham, ms carnegie hall and mr singh. and also to those who weren't around, princess fiona, sar, and the rest of your ten floor-ers. and to keep us sane and not give up...here's something that captain kan shared with us at the offsite. so peeps, keep your hopes and dreams up. and stay insane.

"here's to the crazy ones. the misfits. the rebels. the troublemakers. the round pegs in the square holes. the one who see things differently. they're not fond of rules. and they have no respect for the status quo. you can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. about the only thing you can't do is ignore them. because they change things. they invent. they imagine. they heal. they explore. they create. they inspire. they push the human race forward. maybe they have to be crazy. how else can you stare at an empty canvas and see a work of art? or sit in silence and hear a song that's never been written? or gaze at a red planet and see a laboratory on wheels? we make tools for these kinds of people. while some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. because the people who are crazy enough to thinkthey can change the world, are the ones who do." - apple computers

g'night peeps...stay safe tonight.

Monday, August 15, 2005

Seven Days

mood: top of the world
music: underneath your clothes - shakira ("underneath your clothes there's an endless story. there's the man i chose there's my territory")

awak is baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

it was such a shock. i was washing my car and cursing the birds above when i heard the all too familiar thunder of his phantom. true 'nuff, he parked at his usual spot, took of his helmet and shook his head, unruffling his long lovely hair. i shrieked, dropped my sponge and ran towards him. he met me halfway across the carpark. i jumped into his arms and he swung me around. i held on so tight and didn't wanna let go. he cupped my face and looked deep into my eyes and into my soul.


awak: baby, i missed you
me: honey i love you back

and we kissed. and the clouds above parted and the moon shone with such brilliance. as he held me in his arms, i felt all my worries melt away.



yeah right.


yeaup...been reading too many trashy romance novels, thanks to mother who's been pestering me to write some reviews for publication.

by the way...there are EIGHT factual errors in the fiction above. whichever one of you can tell will be rewarded with a special edition "friends" button from me!

what really happened was...

he came back, and we had a lovely lunch at breeks harbourfront, where the food was good and the service not bad. we caught up on a lot of things, he updating me on the force front and me updating him with the latest waves hitting the wayang drama agency.

awak : so how are you dear?
me: ok...but i missed you much. did you miss me?
awak: nope. not at all. i was too busy.

i looked down, pouting to myself. then he cleared his throat and asked.

awak: so...err...did anybody disturb you while i was away?

the question shocked me. how did he know?!

so i told him the truth. the story about the guy from the train station. sorry awak...you're mine..ALL MINE! (evil laughter)

we also talked a bit about our impending wedding in 276 days time, having hit on some ideas i got over the weekend. to me, it is a bit too early to start the wheel in motion, but there's no harm in throwing out ideas and plans yeah?

then we caught "the truth about love". hilarious coz of three reasons.

a) the ticket lady and the usher asked for my ic as proof that i was above 16,
b) the movie theater was empty so awak and i laughed out loud everytime the eff word was said, and
c) jennifer love hewitt's efforts at trying to speak with an english accent

and then we went back. nice day, coz he was around and there were so many things we had to catch up on. and i just kindda love the feeling that he's around. makes me feel safe.

so awak is back y'all! you hear me?! he's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

alhamdulillah.... : )

Thursday, August 11, 2005

May God Have Mercy On Your Soul

mood: bite me
music: polaris - jimmyeatworld ("i'll say it straight and plain. i know i've made mistakes i've always been afraid.")

so tired.

tired of feeling angry and upset all the time. tired of complaining. tired of asking why.

tired of making excuses for people who are undeserving. tired of putting up with those who will never ever be satisfied with no matter what i do. tired of them who try to make me feel stupid and put me down.

tired of those who lie to my face. tired of them who talk behind my back. tired of the ones who take advantage of me.

you know what? fine. i don't need you. you are nothing to me and i don't give two hoots about who you are and what you think you can do to me. as far as i'm concerned, you do not exist, and what does not exist to me can't hurt me. i'm made of stronger things and i have been through worse rubbish than what you're dishing out to me right now, so who the hucking fell do you think you are?

don't need to ask. i forgive you. sincerely. with all my heart. now go and seek forgiveness to God. may He forgive you.

*takes a deep breath*....ok God, it's over to You now. i redha with all that You destine. please grant me the strenght to accept it.

Monday, August 08, 2005

Stay Safe Tonight, Awak

mood: sleepie at the office
music: mad season - matchbox twenty ("i need you now do you think you can cope")

awak is full of suprises.

on saturday night i called him from jb. the conversation went:

me: dear what are you watching?
awak: paycheck.
what are you doing?
me: oh i'm watching the story of us.
awak: of course you are...coz it's the first movie we watched together.

i was so shocked he actually remembered! and he knew i'd be watching. but he did...aww~~.

*grin like monkey*


*grin some more*


*still grinning*


ok ok i'll cut it out....*grin*..HAHAHAHA! i can't help it!

so when i got back on sunday, we went buying his stuff. awak's reservist in-camp training starts monday for a week. poor baby. we got socks, boxers, tshirts, shampoo (don't they have these stuff?) and packed the rest of his barang-barangs.

so he's in station for a week. probably at central or sengkang. take care, baby...and don't play hero. i'd like my fiancee to come home. alive. in one piece. please? will doa for your safety, dear. *sniff*

but it's ok peeps! it doesn't mean i will have the my-fiancee's-on-reservist syndrome. there were times during the poly days, i saw lotsa girls suffering from the "my-boyfriend's-in-ns" syndrome which was kindda bad. if you form a project group with them, don't ever schedule meets or expect them to do work over the weekend, coz that's when the boyfriend books out and well..you know what happens. so thank God for peer evaluations!

but that was light years ago. another time. another me. i still worry, a lot, given the nature of this work. so i do have a lot to be thankful for.

insya Allah he will be alright. he can cope.

Friday, August 05, 2005

Must Be Good To Be A Bucket

mood: i wanna be a kid all over again
music: willy wonka - oompah loompahs ("willy wonka! willy wonka!")

the best movie this year. the best. this is the kind of movie that makes you forget that you're an old fuddy duddy grown up and brings you back to a time where life was much much less complicated.

johnny depp is truly an inspiring actor. as i watched him bring willy wonka to life, i kept having flashbacks to him in edward scissorhand, blow, pirates of the carribean and i said, "that cannot be the same man." but it was! it was him. excellent excellent performance. give that man an oscar!

if i could make one improvement it'd be the fact that there was no subtitles for the songs that the oompah loompahs sang....they were wonderful...but the lyrics can hardly be heard over the music, so i thought that they should have subtitled the music in english too...as they did in mandarin..

one thing spoiled it for me. it was very very very disturbing and annoying for me to have sat in the movie in front of a row of ignorant kids. throughout the movie, they kept asking anal questions like "mommy why is the house senget? (lopsided)" and "why the grandparents sleep together?" and "mommy why they always eat cabbage soup?" and (i think this is the stupidest question of all "why the elevator make from glass one?"

OH FOR FISH SAKE!

go read the damn book! i didn't think i'd meet anyone who's not heard of charlie and the chocolate factory as a book...dumba**!

but catch it you must! and i can't wait for them to turn the glass elevator into the next movie!!!!!!


"in fact, everything in this room is eatable, even me. but that would be called cannibalism." - willy wonka, charlie and the chocolate factory.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Work Hard For The Money

mood: cold at this height
music: hear you me - jimmyeatworld ("what would you think of me now so lucky so strong so proud")

545 came and went. it's ok, right, awak? it just wasn't meant to be. we'll get it perfect when it's our turn. : )

i realized looking thru my past posts and (hey where'd my archives go?) that i don't talk much about work. now there is a reason, coz i remember signing this piece of document that had the heading of "Official Secrets Act Chapter 213". well...haveing sat for a law paper while doing mcm (and doing pretty well on it, i must say), i know what kindda trouble i can get in the public domain. also with the recent hype on bloggers, i really really don't wanna attract any unnecessary attention.

anyway...what i wanted to share today was the realities of working life. eversince i started working, the message of The Holy Prophet (s.a.w) really hit home, especially when he said the best income was one earned through a business. after all, he (s.a.w) himself was a businessman, a prosperous and honest one at that.

*sigh* such large shoes to follow.

but really...more and more people i know love (read: loathe) their jobs. sister and i was discussing (using loud tones and angry gestures) about it with mother the other days about the eccentricities of our jobs and she commented, "you kids. you've not even worked for five years and you start complaining about you jobs, your bosses..." which was kindda true. i've not reached my two year mark, and sister just got another posting, but! that does not mean that we have to put up with crap at work.

but hearing more and more horror stories, i have come to two basic ideas on work.

idea number one: it's really really really important to do what you like. make a career out of your interests, and quickly decide what you want to do. easier said than done, but when you fall into the endless chain of daily routines, the only thing that keeps you coming back is the work that you do.

which leads me to the second idea.

idea number two: the grass is only greener on the other side coz more cows have crapped on it. if you think by changing jobs you can get away from all the rubbish office politics and horrible colleagues, you're wrong. peeeps, office politics and horrible colleagues are everywhere. they exist in all organizations, at every level. if you feel like changing jobs coz you can't stand your boss or your colleague makes life hell for you, who's to say the next job won't yield the same results?

which links idea number two back to idea number one.

if you like what you do, then you will have the passion to put up with all the rubish that comes along with it, including office politics and lousy colleagues. let's face it, the office politics game is played everywhere. it's how much you want to get involved and what degree of ethics, professionalism and honesty you want to play it with.

*sigh*...personally, it's hard. it's really hard for you to keep positive all the time, especially when crap hits the ceiling and you're drowning.

alhamdulillah...luckily i have awak...he keeps me afloat.

Monday, August 01, 2005

I Floored The Accelerator, And Liana Almost Flew

mood:sleepyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
music: come undone - duran duran ("who do you need who do you love when you come undone?")

*phew*...

i should be in a comatose state right now. left home at 0500 on saturday and returned on 1230hrs on monday. yes...i did it. i drove to KL. something i said that i will never do. heck yes, i'm proud of myself. doin 140 on kl roads...not bad for a manual 1.3 machine. and i also learnt how to drive like orang KL (read: weave in and out of bumper to bumper traffic).

well...anyway it was a good trip. awak's first (of many) road trips with the anak anak lani. of course he impressed all the datins datins. of course he made pals with the cousins. and of course i got nagged at to learn how to cook the food he likes, how to behave when around him (like i turn into a duzzy monkey!)...hrrmph! but awak thanks...for being my extra pair of eyes on the dark expressways. for entertaining my with your (corny) jokes and weird trivia. for feeding me all those asam, kuacis and gum...love you baby...to more of such family gatherings, yes?

as i observed how awak seemed to integrate just fine into my family, i can't help but worry how i will do with his. so far, my interactions with them are limited to his immediate family...not like mine, where my cousin's wife and my aunt's husband are already including us in other family plans lined up.

don't get me wrong. awak's family is great. great people. and i fell comfortable with them. but i've only met his immediate family...as in his parents, siblings and assorted nieces and nephews. err...that's about it? how awak, will your family love me? well...i suppose i have nothing to worry about. after all...i AM very lovable.

so now it's monday morning. back to work. back to my pews paper. back to reality. and reality will sink in at 5.45pm today...so peeps, please make doa for me. much needed. thanks.

have you ever wanted something so much but when faced with the reality of actually getting it, you ask yourself if you're prepared to get it and face all the good and bad things that come with it? Dear God, give me Your Strength and Wisdom to get through this. i don't know how it came to be like this. i should have know what i was getting myself into. but this is one of the rare times that i really feel like somebody's put the blinkers on me and i'm groping around in the dark. well...not exactly in the dark alone, awak's groping too (in the dark, not me...dun get any silly ideas, peeps).

so how, baby? we will clear this phase? counting down to 5.45pm today, ok?

to zackeroos...very sorry that you're going thru such a tough time. will make doa for you and girl, always here if you need. just remember, He will only test you if He Loves you and even so, He will only test you with something He knows you can overcome...so hang in there, dearies. and we'll meet up soon to plan the trip, kay?

and oh...i missed toots engagement!!!! toots...pics?