I got engaged on 11th March 2000 and Sue got married on 11th March 2007. So, it would be very easy to remember Sue's anniversary, right? Hmmmm...

I've uploaded the wedding pictures in my photo album entitled Sue's-Wedding-110307. Luckily, none of the 'parut chicken pox' showed in the pictures and notice the beautifully crafted 'inai di jari'. I'm so sure that took hours to do, man!

Sue is my colleague. She happens to be one of the people who just clicked with me. Maybe it was because we were involved in the same project, forced to share the same hotel room many times, have the same taste in food, drinks and music. Or maybe, due to the fact that both of us are struggling having an occupation that is male dominated, we became close. (By the way, you all should know that our taste in men is totally different. Hahahah).

I pray for her happiness and wishing her the best of luck in marriage. Although it will not always be smooth sailing, marriage is still the key to human's happiness. Tell me you agree with me...

I may not be the only one in this world addicted to blogging. To date, I'm blogging at more than 3 places with different target viewers. Frequency of update ranges from twice weekly to once a month. Well, come to think of it, I don't fall in the hopelessly-addicted-to-blogging category yet. Maybe this is still quite normal and healthy. I can still live without blogging for a few days.

So, the blogs I have belong to different categories:

 

1. My blogspot: This is for communication with my lady friends where I'd rant on gossips, the challenges I face as a mother, wife and boredom at the workplace.

 

2. My ITToolbox: Here I share my experiences in the IT industry. Most of my entries are complaints and suggestions on the local IT scene. This community really help me in career development as some of my connections here are famous IT experts from around the globe.

 

3. My friendster: Just started this about three weeks ago. My main objective here is to document my journey to becoming an author. I plan to have all the relevant links and share some of my attempted writing pieces in this blog.

 

4. My pourtavie@blogspot: This has somehow becoming more like another ivillage type of journal. You can find 7 lovely ladies (including yours truly :)) sharing tips and info on women related stuffs like fashion, cooking, diet, internal decoration etc. A good stop for people who needs fresh ideas for the home, marriage and raising kids.

 

5. This myspace: Well, this site is mostly for photo sharing. I don't blog much here.

 

Some of my friends complained that most of the times they couldn't find the idea on what to write in their blogs. Not everybody is keen on the idea of documenting things that they do everyday in the blogs that will be read by the whole world. Some are only blogging on current issues and perhaps some only write about their feelings. As for me, since I blog in 5 different categories, whatever that crossed my mind and fit in any of the categories, can be used as a blog entry material. It's just a matter of viewing people, things, animals and even nature that surrounds you more carefully, then a whole new paragraph can be started and completed in no time.

 

Talking about author's block, that could also happen to bloggers. It's a complicated situation where you're suddenly unable to even complete a sentence you started. Then some story plots could come to mind, but you can't figure out how they could be expanded or elaborated. There will also be times when you managed to complete maybe a chapter, but upon re-reading, you couldn't see any point why that chapter should be published, ever. The worst case would be when an author thought that he couldn't tell any more stories and the mind is just stuck, as if malfunctioning.

 

The way I see it, blogging can be a training ground for budding authors. Keep an open mind, and take a step at a time. Sooner or later, you can take the full stride. Perhaps, I can say that blogging can become one of the healthiest addiction one could have.

 

I have been regularly visiting a blog that features recommended authors and books. The

blog owner happens to be one of the well known book reviewers in Malaysia. Out of

curiosity (and of course, part of my retail therapy), last month I bought 3 books, one each

by these authors: Marian Keys, Sophie Kinsella and Sue Townsend. I managed to finish

them all in 3 weeks.

All in all the three books can be categorized as Chicklits. They're for light entertaining,

breezy and made you feel like 18 again (most of the times).

Then, after completing them all, I felt kind of empty. So I bought 2 books written

by Sarah Waters as she had been nominated and won a few awards and prizes in

the recent years. I've finished one of the books, entitled Tipping The Velvet. It may

seem rather out of the ordinary for me to be reading a lesbian romance book. However

Sarah Waters is such a fine author, she wrote beautifully. Even with just simple

language her descriptions were accurate and all the emotional expressions really

touched my heart. Although I have no experience being a lesbian, the book really

taught me how it would feel to love another woman.

Now I'm moving on to her second book, entitled Affinity. Still at the early chapters, I

did not read any of the reviews in Amazon, so I don't know what are the surprises

waiting for me.

I suddenly felt proud for this, me reading 5 books in less than 2 months. It is an

achievement. There were times when I didn't buy or read any book for a few years.

By the way, those chicklit books, they're not about mushy gushy romance as light

entertainment only, I learned a lot on being an author and getting your book

published from Marian Keys' The Other Side Of The Story. As for the rest, there were

a lot of lessons learned too.

Never thought that my 32nd birthday could be so exciting. I must say that this was the first time that so many people remembered the date and wished me. Never mind about the medium used lah... there were SMSes, emails, YM messages, MSN messages, phone calls and even some came personally to me to wish.

 

This was also the first time that Mr. Hubby wished me Happy Birthday early in the morning. There was a year when he only wished me when were about to go to bed (that must be around 11.30pm!). There was even once when he totally forgotten (so I demanded an expensive gift afterwards). Sometimes, I even had to remind him that it was my birthday. *Sigh* Birthdate is just a combination of numbers, if guys are so good at Maths and Physics, then why is it so difficult to remember birthdates???

 

So, to all friends and acquintances who wished me Happy Birthday, I thank you all for the thought and of course your time. I know each of us lives hectic life, always on the go. Chasing time, chasing money. So, thank you again for remaining friends.

Yo people, cast your votes. Which one is your choice? Mr. Fleshy, Mr. Hairy or Mr. Skinny?

I just hated last minute business assignment. Especially now that Mr. Hubby doesn't allow me to drive long distance alone. I have no problem travelling alone, be it driving or taking the flight, however now Mr. Hubby is rather paranoid, I can't explain why. Maybe it was caused by the 2 traffic summons I received due to speeding.

hahahah..

So, last Friday my customer confirmed that we're going to the production site (in Alor Setar) and start work on Monday morning. Well, that left me with only 2 days to plan for the trip. I made phone booking for flight ticket, went to collect it at KL Central, put some money in my Credit Card account and paid a quick visit to the gym (to ensure I was fit to travel? Hahahah)

Then, came the challenging part, getting a hotel room. Having not reading the papers or watching the prime news, I was so ignorant on the happenings in Malaysia that I didn't know there's SUKMA going on in Kedah. My goodness, I didn't get to book any hotel room. All the 2 stars and above were all fully booked, while the no-star ones only accept walk-in guests. It was so frustrating. Then I contacted my friends who work in Alor Setar.

Unluckily, one was on holiday at her hometown while another has been transferred to Perlis. My last hope was another girl-friend, but she was also not in Alor Setar... she's in KL attending a 3 weeks training. What a bad luck... *sigh*.

So, I just took the risk (and the possibility of having to spend the night at one of the mosques in Alor Setar), took the night flight and arrived there at around 9.15pm.

Once safely inside the terminal I started dialling all the hotel numbers I had. Out of the 4 hotels that accepted walk-in guests only, 2 were already full, 1 was not picking up the phone, leaving me with only 1 hope. Then all of a sudden Lady Luck was with me, the last hotel still had a few rooms left. Being the typical old-fashioned Malay woman I started having doubts. Hmmm... something must not be right with this hotel, why is it not full? Why was the receptionist sounded so eager to hear my voice? Is it haunted? Is it really bad, that not many people decided to stay there?

I pushed those thinkings aside after imagining myself sleeping on the carpeted floor of one of the mosques, or worse case would be having to sleep at the mosque's verandah.

So, I checked in and actually the room rate really surprised me. It was RM130++.... for a no-star hotel?

The room condition? Well, I couldn't find the right words to describe it... look at the photo of the 2 coffee chairs... hehehehe. It felt like going back to the 70s. It looked like the furniture were never replaced ever since the Grease Era.

However, I had a good night sleep. I set the alarm to go off at 7a.m, but at 6.20 I was already awakened. It was rather strange, I felt like somebody was calling out my name. I tried going back to sleep but I was already feeling fresh and ready to start the day.

Checked out at 8a.m, catched a cab and off I went to the customer's place.

At 2pm I was already on my way to the airport to catch the 3.15 flight.

 

Last week I had hair fall problem, now today I'm having eye lashes falling on my face. There were two this morning, then one after lunch. I'm wondering whether anybody's been missing me lately. According to my late grandma, if you eyelashes fall that means somebody's missing you.... how sweet.

I'm still trying to figure out who the person is, I've called my husband, my old friends, my brothers... they sound normal (read: not missing me hahahahah). Suddenly it made me so excited, thinking that somewhere in this world there's someone thinking about me, longing to be with me... missing me terribly. Wow, have I been so ignorant to people that actually really cared about me? Hmmmm... maybe...

This person (whoever she/he might be) must be somebody that I haven't thought of in a while (that's why I didn't call her/him). Or, probably I don't have her/his number anymore. Well, that will narrow down my search. The person  must be a 'he', and he must have been one of my exes or someone I used to date for some time, then dumped him once he became clingy... hahahahah. Noooo.... I don't think any of those guys would still be thinking of me.

Well, never mind. I'm not gonna let this unsolved mystery bother my today. So, to whoever that's missing me, trust me... I care for you too (if I know who you are)... and if you really miss me, give me a call lah wey! My phone got 3G, can always have Video call.

We went back to my hometown on Friday to celebrate mother's day. Yeah, we celebrated way ahead of the actual day. Bought a cake for my mum, it was her favorite Carrot Slice from Secret Recipe. This year I didn't buy her any present, 'pokai' already. After that expensive spa, new phone, a few fine dinings, the huge credit card bills for last month and now I am really broke (hoping that someone will be spending me lunch today..... wink! wink!). Got back in KL on Saturday night, Mr. Hubby wanted to watch Liverpool play against Westham United. Nasib baik Liverpool menang... otherwise, he would have been in a really bad mood until the World cup season.

It's time to show off again, people...

I'll be on leave next Friday, to watch Grease, The Musical at KL Convention Center with Mr. Hubby.

It's been almost 5 years since we last watched a stage/play together. I know it's going to be awesome, and

hopefully Mr. Hubby won't fall asleep during the show. He told me he only watch football, not theatre while I love theatre, not football. We are so the opposite, I wonder how we manage to stay under the same roof for almost 6 years now.

Nothing much to write... just to show off the quality pics taken using my new 6280.

 

Yeay! Yeay! I bought myself a new Nokia phone. It's a 6280 model. Not as 'canggih' as the new 3250, but it has everything that I need.

So, people don't be jealous. I'm taking 6 days off, going to spa, gym, relaxing, 'balik kampung' and explore my new phone. Will be sending you all pictures snapped using this new toy soon!

I was introduced to coffee about 8 years ago. It all started out during the first month of my first job. The company was having food/drinks testing sessions for its F&B outlet. Being a freshie and got nothing much to

do (most of the time), my friends and me were forced to be the testers. There were about 8 sessions that went on for more than 2 weeks. We have to taste the samples, then fill in the 'OPINION' forms. Being a bad cook and

a very good 'eater', I remembered putting all food as 'VERY DELICIOUS'...., but frankly, the food I tasted were all really delicious. There were dodol durian, rempeyek, muruku, putu, lempok durian (yummmm so much of durian...), kuih karas and many other traditional kuih I loved so much.

So, one of the testing sessions was for coffee tasting. Before that day I have no idea that there are so many types of coffee blends. Now I'm talking Malaysian made coffee blends... some were from Perak, Sarawak, Johor and even Ulu Selangor. Since my family only drink tea (and sometimes Milo), I decided maybe I should try some coffee. Who knows, I might like them.

After 5 cups of the samples, oh my god.... I loved them so much. Then, before I knew it I was patronizing Starbucks, Coffe Beans then some time later Gloria Jeans and not forgetting Syed's, Maulana and many other mamak stalls for the thick, over sweetened iced Nescafe.

Initially it was one dose of coffee perday (usually taken after lunch). Then, slowly they increased to 2, 3, 4

and lately I realized that I've been taking 5 doses of coffee everyday. That doesn't include the SURECO coffee

I took at night, before bed (that coffee actually belongs to my mom in law. We have so much of it at home, so I drink that too... heheheh).

Then, one fine day I came across a health article in ivillage.com that was discussing on toxic in our body. It was a rather boring article, as I've read most of the points in de-tox products advertisings. Then, towards the ending, one of the points caught my eye:

"Drinking too much coffe could prevent the de-tox process."

Oooopsss.... all these while I thought smoking cigarettes does that. So, I started thinking... how much is considered too much? 1 cup, 3 cups? How about my 5 cups of coffee (on a daily basis)?? Hmmm... I'm in a dilemma... How much toxic is there in my body now? And... what'll happen in 10 years' time if I'm not able to flush them out? Should I stop taking coffee? Maybe not... Perhaps I should reduce the daily dosage. Then, what should I do if I get sleepy, or bored, or just craving for it? Chew gums? Take sweets? What else? Drink coffee, but take de-caf only? Sounds boring.

Ok, I'll give it a deeper thought this weekend. The decision will be made on next Tuesday morning, in the mean time, I'll stick to my current regime, hahahahah.

I could feel that my joints ache, my veins are narrowing, my nights are short, my days are too long, driving to the office is dreadful, I felt crappy all day long...

I wish I'm elsewhere, waking up to the birds chirping, breathing clean, fresh mountain air after getting 12 hours of undisturbed sleep. Then, when I finally woke up, I'd realise that actually I don't have to be up, I could always

go back curling underneath the sheets and dream away.

God, I need a long holiday.