Jase - ur wish has been granted... The font size for the postings have been increased to accommodate easier reading. Arrr... no more need for your magnifying glasses now, aye matey?!

Aewis was set free from the confines of a boring conference call 15 minutes ago. I have now finished labelling my photos and put numbered stickers on the photo-negative holder for my reprint orders... It's amazing what I can get away with in the first hour of work.

Note added - 1:37pm: Coo-eEEee! I've now got my blog color scheme to bear as close a resemblance to the one in my yahoo account as possible.

On Sunday: Had to wake up at 6am to take dad to the airport once again. Went back home and slept like a log (just like the last time). Later in the afternoon, I went to McD's with my mum & aunt to try the bubur. The bubur was alrite - passable. Went on to the old flat unit with mum & my aunt to lend a hand at spring-cleaning the place. eEee-yuck! Should have seen the amount of cobwebs and dust in that place.

Moon-day traffic was subdued... Wonder how come there doesn't seem to be much traffic at the usual places... but I'm happy that the traffic is super-dee-doo-dah! Went home to waste 11 frames of film, so that I can send it for washing when I collect the roll sent for development last Saturday. Yippee! First set of photos done! (...and I laughed remembering the environment when some of the photos were taken... thus - a few of them have my friends and I in really odd facial expressions - I do mean those that u actually think u look hideous in)

Now... I am blogging! Will be moving on to complete some job reports soon. Will probably collect the other set of photos on my way home later today. 25 minutes to lunch time. Will scan photos pretty soon too (I hope).

Saturday, 27 July, CONVOCATION DAY: My alarm went off at 5:45am (the h/p alarm volume was up to max) stirring me up and definitely woke Pei Ling up. She called me up before going for her bath, telling me to use the other bathroom before the others came around. The morning air was unforgivingly cold. Luckily there was a water heater to give us all a warm bath. I quickly washed my hair and dressed up. Blow-dried my hair using the hairdryer that I had brought along. Ahh... the feel of warmth!! Hmmm-hmm-mmm!

For the lack of mirror space: By the time I had my hair dried (and tamed), everyone was hanging around the mirror in the room that PL & I shared. PL & Sze Lin were putting on their makeup, while Poon Wei & Shane were there to comb their hair and adjusting their tie. Lais & Siah were our guest - so we let them sleep... they'll find us at the hotel after the ceremony. I was the last to finish putting on some makeup, scribbled a note for Siah & Lais before rushing to put on my shoes... half hobbling out the door while locking the doorknob and balancing my baggage.

Luggage disposal, to hotel we marched... & Doraemon: Tossed our bags into the cars so we won't have to worry about them later. We then walked over to the hotel and into the graduands dressing room on the Mezzanine Floor at about 7:30am. Since the 5 of us have our robes pinned and ready to wear, we slipped it over our heads and helped our other friends put theirs on. While still in the dressing room, Mun Wye joked that he felt like Doraemon, since I kept asking him for safety pins I had earlier asked him to keep - while helping some others put on their robe (e.g. Sharimalan, Irene, Mook...). Later on, Mun Wye passed the pins to Kok Keong - and ta-dah! He's the new Doraemon of the moment.

The call! Soon it was 8:30am and the staff in-charge started calling for us to clear up and to line up in the order that we are called. I was helping Daniel when that happened. This dude arrived slightly before 8:30 man... wah-lau-eh! Luckily didn't prick my finger or nearly kill him with the safety pins, while rushing to pin on his robe & collar. Rush, rush, rush... I quickly put myself into the line and asked Kok Keong if I've put my mortar board on correctly. No mirror to help me judge on my own... so I gotta trust what KK says.

Last minute adjustments... Cindy was frantic that her robe-collar was not quite right. Quickly moved in to help her settle those little naughty bits of cloth with some complicated network of safety pins. At 9am, we were told to move into the ballroom...

The ceremony... and long speeches: All of us sat at our places before we were told to stand for the academic procession. After they've gone to their seats and 'Negaraku' had finished playing - we get to sit down and endure 3 speeches. The first was OK, the 2nd super-the-long, and the 3rd (I admit) was rather entertaining.

Going up stage: After the Hotel & Tourism school graduands had gone up, it was finally time for us Computing graduands to take the limelight. My friends and I who had to go up twice - were the last to go up under the first batch classified as "KDU Higher Diplomas & Graduate Diplomas Graduands", and the first to go up for the 2nd batch as "KDU - University of Lincoln Degree Graduands". Seriously, we didn't manage to sit down after our round 1 (tossed our first scroll onto our chairs) before being told to stand for Round 2.

Photo boo-boo: While in line to go up a 2nd time, I heard laughter from the audience and saw that Poon Wei was shaking his head - attempting to nudge something away. Later found out that he had turned a bit too fast, the photographer snapped while his mortar board tassle was stuck to his face before the UL professor was able to move his tassle from the right to the left of the MB. *lol*

Our Book Prize Winner - Pei Ling: As the day before, we told PL that she would be charged a toll fee per person that she has to squeeze through in order to get out to the path for the stage from her seat. Inflation rate from rehearsal day = 20 sen to RM 1 per person passed. Mercenaries we are. *ark,ark,ark* (p/s: Earlier this morning, Sze Lin & I had given her a token gift to commemorate her achievement)

At the ceremony closing... Everyone stands while 'Negaraku' is played once more. The academic procession leaves and "Hurrah!" my friends and I are the first to follow them out. I quickly went to the dressing room to get my camera and stuff.

Photo frenzy! Everyone wants a photo with everyone else. Everywhere I turn, every few steps I take - there's someone who's bound to go "Oi! Don't run away! I want to take a photo with you". Ying Lai & Li Siah was there to celebrate with us. With the help of Shane, I managed to take a photo with my parents before they went off. The most memorable moment must have been when KK, Shane, PW, PL, Huey Fen, Geik Tiong, MW, SL & I went out to the grassland by the beach to get a photograph of ourselves throwing up our mortar boards. With the help of friends and our relatives, we each had a shot of the throwing... (hmm... if we are not mistaken, there seems to have been some tourist who took photos of us too...) Next thing we know, a Caucasian lady sunbather was asking "Hey, is this for me?"... seems that PW had thrown his so high that the wind had carried it towards the lady.

Returning the robe: Some of us who had earlier informed the registry that we'd return the robes on convo-day, went on to line up to return our robe & collect our deposits. Alfian couldn't find my name on the list (twice!), until I decided to glanced through it and pointed it to him - when he looked up, he said, "Eh! You ah?! If I had seen that it's you I would have found your name already"... I replied, "If only you weren't so engrossed with your piece of paper... *grin*" and he laughed. There we go! The robe has been disposed and deposit masuk pocket.

Dinner for lunch... We felt rather tired by now. Although some of us can't make it for lunch, the rest of us decided to go for lunch and cancel dinner plans. PW, PL, Shane, MW & me went down to Nando's Gurney Plaza for lunch. I managed to weasel Mun Wye to promise that he'll organize a gathering sometime soon... hmm... now I wonder how long before he starts acting on that?

KO to Dreamland... Before Shane dropped me home, I had asked him to detour to the photo shop. Yay! Will get to see photos by Monday. By 4pm, I had cleared up part of my baggage, washed my face, changed to slumber T-shirt & bermudas... and ZzzZZzzzz.....

...*wakey-wakey* it's dinner time Mum woke me up for dinner. I helped set the table and munched with the family. Sat around for a while before taking a refreshing bath.

Sudden BriLLiaNt idea! I had missed taking photos with some people but they would be at the Graduation Ball at Bayview Beach... quickly grabbed a dress from my closet, made a slight adjustment to the dress straps, grabbed my purse & camera and started my drive from Green Lane at 9:20pm. The drive took me about 40 mins... much shorter than I had expected it to take. Hurray!

Gate-crashing: Now here's the thing - I don't have a ticket to the Ball but ain't it a beauty when you know some people in the organizing team? Kak Wan (who looked splendidly glamorous ala Saloma) took me into her table... but a short while later I switched over to the next table where Shari, Celine & Daw Seong were sitting. They kept asking me to eat! Oh well, I was more interested to find people so I skipped out on the fish. Eventually, I found everyone I wanted to find... and also a few that I didn't expect to see there (like Dominic & Stanley). Ah! What a bonus! Later went back to the table and relented to have the desert... It was good!! (p/s: Apparently the desert and a chicken dish were the only ones that were delicious... according to Shari). I wanted to leave early so before I left, I politely asked 2 people to take photos with me - and left message with Daws to let Shari know that I had left.

The end of the night: Before leaving, I managed to chat with Ewen (my former advisor in Student Council). I think I've somehow in the process, instigated him to leave the Ball early with the excuse of avoiding the traffic jam that will happen soon after (sidetracking - common feedback: this year's Ball programme has a slow progression = boring?!). Nevertheless, before I got home, I detoured to get supper for mum & dad (or they will devour me with their words for forgetting).

Friday, eve of Convocation Day: 7.10am, left home to pick up Sze Lin. After dropping gramps at his office in town, Sze Lin and I went for breakfast in Pulau Tikus. Better feed ourselves now coz it will be a long day ahead. Left the kopitiam for Bayview Beach Resort at about 8am via the Mt. Erskine road to avoid major traffic and many traffic lights on the main road. Arrived at the hotel early enough (circa 8:40) to not have to worry about parking... met Pei Ling, Poon Wei & a few others at the parking lot. A short while later we went into the lobby to wait for the others to arrive. The graduation reception only set themselves up at about 9:20. We either had to wait for them to call our names or squeeze ourselves near the reception table - just to get our name slips, which has our seat number on it and later used to be given to the announcer.

Into the ballroom we go: ...after being barked at by the Super Sr. of KDU. She's always a real pain in the neck. She's not one who minces her words but she gets her work done. As soon as everyone was in the ballroom, they began with telling us "The Rules of the Ceremony" followed by a demo on "How to wear the Graduation Robe". The demo was conducted by Super Sr. and her model was Alfian, a pretty fit & well-built fellow from the Registry Office. Sweet. After what seemed like ages, we finally went up for the mock ceremony. A few of us had to go up to receive twice... once for Graduate Diploma & once more for the Degree. Hardly have time to sit before we were asked to go up a 2nd time. After our turn, we waited 1 hr before the last person went up the stage and the valedictorians did their speeches.

Released from imprisonment... a bunch of us went down to Island Plaza for lunch. Yummy! Food at last! With lunch done, I went to return my car to gramps and from there on hitched a ride with PW & PL. PW first dropped SL & moi at KOMTAR coz we had to look for court shoes. "Oh crap! Why won't they let us wear strappies?" *sigh* more expenditure here... Meanwhile, PW & PL went to Telekoms to get a few things done. Later we met up again to make inquiries at the Kong Beng studio along Pg Rd.

Parting of ways... Sze Lin followed her sis to go pick up Ying Lai & Li Siah. I followed PW & PL to first collect the Bayu Emas apartment keys from Swanee in KDU. (the apt is opposite the BBR hotel) We freshened up at PW's place while he packed. We also changed into our "graduation attire" and pinned the robe's collar piece onto the robe so we'll waste less time at the studio later.

Sze Lin decides to ditch the photo thinghy: After picking up Siah & Lais, she came to get the apartment keys. Sad though that she doesn't want to come along. Meanwhile we called Shane and he told us to wait for him at the studio. Leaving PW's, we went to PL's to get her shoes from her mum.

At the studio... the photographer went "Smile! Smile!" to each of us until we showed a good dose of our teeth. Oh crap! I don't look good smiling with teeth showing. Hopefully they make the end product look good since they said they would "clean-up" the photos. Nvm then. Meanwhile, Shane has yet to show up when the 3 of us were done with taking our mugshots. I decided to walk over to KOMTAR to get extra $ from the money machine and something else that I've forgotten to buy earlier. Saw him as I went out.

The McDonald's takeaway: PL calls to say they've decided to buy McD up to the apt while I was paying for my stuff. Hence I find myself waiting for her at McD's. Our order was a pretty complicated one for the cashier to pack... until we had to kindly tell the people behind us in the queue to go over to make their orders at the next counter. I carried the drinks bag, which felt as heavy as 2kg weights. Both of us went back to the studio where the guys were at that moment paying the deposits and carrying the robes. We finally left the studio soon after. This time I take a ride with Shane to keep him company.

AWOL! PL & PW gives me a call asking us where Shane and I was, as we were nowhere within their sight. Ok... so I had to explain that we had taken a detour to get some bottled water and snacks at Giant. When we finally made our way up to the apartment, everyone was clearly famished but they are so kind to have waited for us. PW was setting up his PS2.

The FRIES-Files: We somehow ended up with a pack of fries that nobody wants to finish up. Ying Lai having earlier declared her love for soggy fries desperately tried to get someone to dispose of it in her usual "super-mode". No luck there. It ended up being the penalty for her 2 am game of "Chor Tai Dee" with Tong Seng & Siah.

Freddie & Tong Seng actually came up to visit Sze Lin and ended up giving SL, Siah & Lais a means to meet up with Jamie & some others who have came up to Batu Feringghi night market for some shopping. Meanwhile, the rest of us stayed back to play games on the PS2. Felt rather sleepy by midnight but continued to play on... Muahahahaha! PL had dozed off. The last game we played was "Top Shop" - very monopoly-isque and the cartoon representatives were really CuTe. PW was "the Cactus", Shane "the Oil Tank", & I'm "the Katak". Shane was winning and determined to takeover one of my shops - but the Katak managed a counter-attack and closed 2 of his, while PW had closed 1 of Shane's. Needless to say - Shane ended up losing the game. The winner was *drumrollllllll* - PW!

It's a wrap! ...rub-a-dub-dub - robe,water,iron: PL has woken up. PW packs up the PS2. It's 1:30am and the others just came back. I tried to sleep but no luck - too much noise from the "CTD" game. Decided to help the rest with their last minute robe ironing activity... Yup! That shall do it... felt so taxed after I'm done ironing that once I hit the bunk, it's "hello~.. Lala-land!"

Thursday nite: Finally tackled the ironing of my laundry stack & the graduation robe. Spent about 3 hours to do that. Found out that the one that took the longest time to iron was the grad-robe. It's one heck of a HEAVY piece of tailored cloth. By the time I was done ironing, it was 11-ish & I felt quite hungry. Hmm... OK ~ so I called up Pinky to find out if the rehearsal was almost over... and popped over to Sally's once again. Ended up waiting a while and being "speech coach" to Julie, who needed a listening board who could comment on how she's expressing the narration. That idiot of a Kevin had to mishear the playful mention of "speech coach" to become "b**ch coach"... ish! He never fails to be somewhat irritating & vulgar. When the rehearsal is finally over, went to Raffe's with Pinky to have a teh tarik... hmm... ok! That will suffice for the night. After that, dropped Pinky off at the hostel and went home to pack for tomorrow.

How frequently do you cancel a dinner plan and then "reinstate" the plan within 15 minutes? Not often I'm sure of that - but it happened to me yesterday evening. Around 4pm, I was kinda disappointed that so many people withdrew from the dinner plan that I actually cancelled it via calls n emails. Daniel, after a short lapse of time, emailed me to say that we should go on and have dinner between the remaining 4 of us (despite the lack of attendance from the rest).

That being said, he called up Angelia & I called up Julian. Man! It sure was good to see Angelia after about a year. And what's more? She's only having a few days in Penang... she'd be off again this Friday! Real jet-setter lar this girl... just back from UK and she had already stoped by a few states.

After dinner - I dropped by to see Pinky at the rehearsal... (sidetracking: ...why? Coz I remembered that I finally wore the skirt that she wanted to see me in... ahh... it's a girl thing -- anyhow, there is no such thing as trying out clothes while at the Batu Feringghi night market where I bought it). Eventually, I somehow ended up helping Julie with her narrative for the opening dance *itchy fingers*... didn't get back home until like 1 something. Slept a total of 3 1/2 hrs for the night (shortest record of nightcap duration in 2 months! hurrah! broke the duck).

Chronicles of the days before:

Yesterday: Went back a little earlier from work to first take grandpa back home from town before leaving to go collect my Convocation gowns at KDU. Now... the thing is I need to collect 4 sets of [gowns + mortar board + invitations] - one for me, one each for Daniel, Joanne Seaton & Bowie who couldn't go to college to collect theirs. Ended up looking like I bought out a whole boutique when I left the college.

First I bummed into Kenneth while I was collecting the gowns. Met even more people like Mun Wye, Shane, Kok Keong, Mook, Wei Nee, etc... 'coz I was hanging around the college after I've taken the 4 bags of stuff - first to go kacau Daws, second to kacau Pinky, and lastly to pop in to see the Student Councillors who were hannging around in their room.

After Pinky left for the Grad Ball rehearsals at Sally's apartment with the Student Affairs people (that's where Daws works anyhow... for the uninitiated) & Julie (Marketing) - I decided to go home & make sure that rice is cooked for dinner. Decided to pop by to observe the rehearsals after dinner - so called Daws to see if it was OK.. don't wanna intrude if it's a closed door thing y'know? (but obviously it was not lar).

Was about to ask if any of the folks over there wanted me to buy some food for the people over there -cept his h/p batteries went dead. "Oh well... to buy or not to buy?" I thought for a while and decided not to... not without any confirmation anyway - nanti waste food pulak. It was kinda interesting to see what they've prepared for the opening dance. It's kinda tribal.

Some time later - teman-ed Daws who was super hungry for his dinner. The others seemed rather absorbed in the rehearsal still coz no one replied to the question of if they wanted us to bring back some munchies. So off we went from Sally's - first stop, saw that the stalls were closing... oh nvm... moving on he decided to go to the Macalister Rd. "Coffeeshop Trio" (at least that's what I call it). For him it was dinner+supper+drink. Moi? Supper+drink. I think that during that time, I also had quite a few calls n msgs - not easy to finish my simple meal of HK Chee Cheong Fun when they keep coming.

When we went back to Sally's, most of the performers have left except for the last batch who were still practising their act. Later offered to give one of the girls a ride home since she was only a short detour from my route home, as she needed transport. Oh well...

Yesterday of Yesterday: Washed my car although I blardy well know that it is the rainy season. I just can't stand to see some weird looking fungus like things starting to grow on the patches of what used to be birdie-poo. Eww. It really looked as though part of my old white car was becoming literally like a Dalmation.

Visited the Bon Odori on Saturday evening at the Esplanade. It started with loads of speeches (which I'm glad to have missed most of it coz we went there later than we originally wanted to). Saw a group of 16 drummers from Japan - they were pretty vocal with quite a lot of "nyah-aik", "ah", etc. Hmm... wanna know something? They kinda sounded like those anime's when they yelp or something like that. Then next up, there was the Bon Odori traditional dance thinghy - where some local Japanese women started by standing in a circle on stage while some others took their place around the stage (below on the grassland). The lead for the dance below on the field, was a really amusing little old Japanese lady who wore a mask over her right ear. The public were invited to join in if they wanted to do so.

The music starts and the dance begins. As time passed, more & more people joined in the dance. Some of the girls who went in looked so dead serious! They were trying to copy the steps and actions correctly, while it was obvious that the guys couldn't care if the steps were exact. Some of the guys even looked as if they were about to topple over. Gosh... It was real fun to just observe what was going on and exchange remarks with my friends over the whole thing.

We didn't stay until the end of the event though - we decided to go off and have dinner elsewhere coz the crowd is just getting kinda packed and starting to make us feel suffocated... missed out on seeing fireworks tho.

Now: Working in Agilent on a Saturday morning. *sigh* Hoping to finish doing this stack of data entries that I have here with me. Whoever's reading this - Have a good weekend!!

Friday dinner was... fun! It's been some time since I've met up with Jacinta & all. Actually the steamboat dinner was held in honor of the one on semester break and back from Russia, the FAT B**ch @ Sharimalan.

I was messaged in the afternoon with a "urgent! pls call me at the office" from DawS' ICQ. I was thinking "huh? since when has he mentioned something like that to me?" - oklar.. let's make a call and see what is so 'tai-wok' - and guess who answers? The FAT-1. Patutlar! He's the one who wrote the msg from DawS' office desk. Over the phone - that's when I found out about the dinner arrangement.

And such, I find myself walking to Jac's place b4 7pm (...she thought I was crazy to walk myself there... aduhhh! It's about a 100m walk only wat..!). Looks like I was first to arrive. So, while waiting for the others - I munched on pieces of a large crispy biscuit (which I've broken into smaller pieces) & help look after Jac's little girl, Hillary.

Hmm, well... Jac's h/p was like a hotline. Since she was rather busy - I helped her to answer a call with a "Jac's Secretary. How can I help you?" coz I thought it was just the ever nutty Shari calling for a 2nd time using DawS' h/p yet again. Mana tau it was actually Daws - oklar... the both of them just needed to know which apt unit to go to.

When they finally came up - the FAT-1 came straight for a major humongous hug. "Nooo!! Don't!!" was all I could muster while sitting on the floor, halfway putting a biscuit piece into my mouth and balancing the plastic with the biscuit pieces on my lap. Finally gave him a hug a little later after the biscuits had been "disposed". Ah... feels nice to have the presence of the chirpy-witty-and-often-times-vulgar dude around. Btw, he even brought back souvenirs for us. That's nice.

Jac asked us to start off with the steamboat without the rest first, since the thing was boiling-boiling already. So we started eating first while Hillary who already had her dinner came to the dining table and played with whatever she could get her hands on (oh yeah... she was hitting the table too as if it was a drum... she's a real smart n cheeky kid)

The other's finally trickled in: Celine, her hubby & baby; Rain & also Jimmy. Celine's baby... CuTe!! He can get a little cranky sometimes tho. So everyone more or less caught up with one another and such - Lokie even called from her workplace way in Taiping to talk to Shari. Aww... but why is she working so late?? It was already 10++ when she called. She's being exploited man... poor thing.

Before we all left, Shari was contemplating to have Baskins (it was 10:45) - but had to give him the wet blanket... "Sorry lar Shari, Baskins closes at 11... not enough time to even get there b4 they close". Hitched a ride home with Daws & Shari when we all finally decided to move out of Jac's place (not a good idea to walk home at night).

Conclusion: Haven't laughed so hard for a night in quite a while. Ah... tak boleh tahan this Shari nih... it's all because of him - joker.

My sneakers squeak -- I want a Snickers bar but I think I shall not tempt myself - today's paradox -

At 4:30 pm: My supervisor comes back from conducting an in-house course, at one of the Training Rooms, with Crunch Ice Cream Bar for everyone in our little office within this huge manufacturing plant. *yum!*

An automatic paranoid reaction to press CTRL+S every so often has saved me quite a few times today. The *bleeping* confounded PC has ALREADY restarted itself about 5 times today...

Hoping real hard *crossing-my-fingers* that it won't suddenly go off for the time being. At the moment, I am backing up some files into the CD-R/W... *tick,tock,tick,tock*

Hurray! I've finally gone to get my hair trimmed. Okay... its actually slightly more than trimmed... it's cut to where I want it. Just told my hairdresser to trim coz she is just too scissor-happy. I've learnt from experience never to tell her how much of your hair you actually want cut off - she'll somehow cut more than you want her too. (So... a trim it is then)

Earlier on my way home from work, I had an encounter with one of the loopiest characters. What would you think when the driver of a small white Kancil purposely drives beside your car; overtakes you; and then takes his hands off his steering wheel to wave his hands up cheerfully like a loony toon? This character could very well earn a place in the sanatorium! ...then my phone rings and I saw that it's my friend Kah Lee... *gotta love caller ID*

Ah! That explains it all! He was that crazy muppet driving the white Kancil. Gee... I should have figured that out a little sooner... there's nobody else I know who is that insane in a sense. *chuckles*

By the way, ever seen a cop on a kapcai (small motorbike) chase a dude on a speeding kapcai? It's kinda funny to recall that before I turned a corner, last night - I saw the cop just waiting (lepak...) at the roadside doing nothing. Just after I turned the corner -- FwOoooOOmMMmmm... This-bike-suddenly-darts-out-of-the-corner-and-speeds-away-and-in-a-split-second-the-policeman-was-chasing-after-him! Dang... talk about being blur. Looks like the guy didn't even notice the man in blue with the luminous suit.

Today I am disoriented. My body clock is now pretty screwed up. Does anyone wake up at 5am on a Sunday? Well... I had to be woken up coz my dad needed someone to drop him off to the airport. *sigh* As soon as I got home again it was "Hello sweet bed o'mine!" Didn't wake up til 1pm tho.. after having lunch... plonked back to lalaland at about 4pm until I woke up with a headahe at 7pm. Was woken up by my mum just so that I could do some cabling clean up coz my brother had just finished fixing up the new VCR & DVD players. No complains there... some new gadgets in the house to play with.

Oh well, anyway, I had a late dinner today and answered an SOS from my lil' god-sis. She needed someone to pick her up from the Jetty at 10:45pm. Right... ok lar! Have since picked her up from there and dropped her back home. I've been at home for about an hour already.

Restocking of groceries: all this was done yesterday. Not to mention that was when my parents also bought the VCR & DVD players. They had to get a new VCR coz the old one is "kaputsky". Meanwhile, the DVD player was the result of my brother's "elaborate & devious plan". He bought a DVD for my mum when we do not have a DVD player in the house. At that time, the lucky brat -- who won a free trip to Scotland via a radio show contest to watch the Champions League 2002 Final between his favourite team Real Madrid (they won the match) & Bayern Leverkusen -- was on his way back from Scotland. So that's it for now... gotta wait until I feel sleepy before I go to bed now... I'm screwed!!

Mystery unfolded: I have since found out the cause of my uncle's death. It looks like he died of an ulcer that was somewhere in the gastrointestinal system. Eeks... it's another of those family medical history things to look out for.

...so much to do... just so much to do... tomorrow is a public holiday, and Agilent is taking a replacement holiday on Monday. Alas, woe is me! My employers who placed me in Agilent is not on holiday on Monday, so I'll be in office with one other colleague while the plant is virtually a desertland. Only bright side is we can work to clear up the pile of work that seems to have suddenly grown mountainous.

Had a good time at lunch tho. My colleagues and I had lunch at the meeting table and there were 2 of those sausage stuffed crust pizza from Pizza Hut. Initially thought that it was a bit weird but then again - looks can be deceiving... It was good! *2-thumbs-up*. To top it all up - we each had a coffee (or ice blended) from Coffee Bean (talk about being utterly sinful!). Can't remember what we were joking about at lunch but it sure felt like we laughed the calories away... hehe... yummy.

On the flip side of the coin: Quirky & dark news of today - dad calls in the afternoon to say that my mum's bro had a sudden and unexpected death... hmm... yet to find out what actually happened to him...

Today is a pretty c0nFu§iNg day simply because... it's not easy having to work with 2 computers at once. Looked at 2 different screens and kept thinking that I could use one same set of keyboard and mouse for both computers. Aargh!!

Yes... the sick desktop is back and plugged to the 19" screen - but heavy multitasking on that computer is dangerous!! It loves to restart itself... dunno why it does that (it's still an X-File here). Not a good thing when having to toggle between photoshop & dreamweaver (in addition to other less taxing applications) - and forgetting to save file every few minutes... no way can I work using this PC when it is burning CDs *sniffle*

The notebook is however very stable and can handle the load... cept it's a bit harder to view stuff coz the screen is small. Can't win them all... but at least it lets me do some work while the CD Writer is backing up my supervisor's files into the CDs *sigh*

Was just wondering about what my brother said not too long ago... hmm... a bit too coincidental that we are more toilet prone today. Bad milk? Maybe...

It's amazing how much junk I cleared out from the work computer today -- a hefty 1GB. Time to start burning some of the downloads so that I can:
1. Clear out the old; and
2. download some new stuff; and then
3. burn some more CDs... *grins*

Had some cereal with milk earlier and a hot cup of homemade latte by the pantry. Hmm... time to think of what to do for lunch today...

oh nutz! Just remembered that there can't be much of a plan today... have a conference call at 1pm. Dang, Cripes!

My actual PC unit at work is finally back from the "hospital". Ahh... and I was just beginning to get attached to the borrowed notebook... *sigh* 1 more hour at work and its time to go. The sun is up now, still cloudy but it's brighter outside.

Yay! I have a Crunch ice cream bar! Just gotta love the fact that there is a convenience store in this place. Yip-pe-dee-doo-dah!

Dark and forlorn do tears fall from heavens above
The heart forebodes under a heavy shrouded sky
A calling from a nether world beckons
as soothing cold encourages not the eyes open
"Sleep my little one, return to the land of fantasy"
Alas, I can only wish but that cannot be!

It looks depressing (I mean the weather... it's wet, it's cold, it's dank, it's dark). Not a very good day either - traffic jam everywhere. On my way to work today -- I noticed a firetruck, a police car, the peronda jambatan's truck, and possibly a rescue vehicle; a few other stopped cars and a toppled bike. It caused a major traffic jam coz these blokes were at the major exit from the Penang Bridge into the Coastal Road (towards the Bayan Lepas FTZ)... and guess what typical Malaysians do when stuff like this happens? They have to really slowdown to see what's going on (untuk ambil # ekor?). Another friend who takes the Relau way to get to the FTZ also got caught in a traffic ruckus involving - 1 honda civic, 2 vans & 1 factory bus stalled somewhere along the way + remains of an earlier accident's debris left on the road. Bad enough for a hillside road. Eeks... not a good start.
     Luckily the telephone conference at 10am didn't last a lifetime like it usually does. There is a silver lining after all! :)

Hmm... nothing's happening now. Just met up with an old pal for lunch earlier today... I seriously couldn't really recognise him at all (saving grace? --> at least one of us recognised the other... and that would be... obviously not me... and oops! I'm rambling). Earlier waved at someone else whom I thought could have been him while waiting for him to pick me up from the guardhouse post. *sheepish* err... kinda embarrassing thing to do, but it happens sometimes. Yet to watch the "I Not Stupid" VCD... hmm, won't open at my PC... rite... must think of a way to hijack some time to use the VCD player (*contemplates* ...like maybe when everyone else couldn't be bothered to watch national TV... seems like almost never gonna happen! I live with a bunch of couch potatoes at home!! *sigh*).

I have finally watched Minority Report yesterday afternoon. It's a pretty cool show with lots of cool looking toys like the Lexus concept car and all the other computer gadgetry. Check out the pre-crime board that John Anderton, Tom Cruise, uses. Kinda scary though to think about how retinal scan devices (placed all over the city) and electronic cars programmed to have your ownership on it - can be used to track you down. Yeesh.... yech! Sounds somewhat along the lines of "Enemy of the State" doesn't it? Anyhow, the show has a pretty interesting storyline to go with all those tech wizardry in the show. It's definitely worth a watch at the cinema (and that goes for MIB2 too... just waiting for it to hit the local screens)!

     Once again, I'm working on a Saturday afternoon... but this only happens on alternate weekends (public holidays are not counted in the work schedule). Hmm... only went to sleep at 3am today 'coz I was configuring the formatting for the comments script until it was 'el mucho perfecto' to my liking. Woke up a few times and went back to sleep before actually getting up at 11am. Received an SMS from 'the Psyche @ Jase' soon after, telling me about how bored he was and that he was at work -- I replied with a "just woke up". Man! Like he'd like to know that it could have been him sleeping in on a weekend... I'm so mean *chuckles*
     Anyhow, I knew I can't afford to laze around anymore coz I need to start preparing to go to work by 1pm. Yes, don't forget to cook the rice for lunch. Check! Dad call's in at 12 noon to ask me to call Gramps & tell him that Dad can only pick him up from town about 1:30pm.
     But hold on a second here! Did Dad just say that he can get Gramps about 1:30pm?? Cripes! Found out that dad forgot (and mum too!) that he was suppose to get me to work by 1pm, and he was at Bayan Lepas hanging around the durian orchard with Uncle Harold (who's visiting from US with his family). Oh woe (panic attack)! It won't be possible to get to work on time even if I try to go catch a bus at that moment. No time for lunch now... and had to wake my brother up (who's still sleeping like a log) to tell him that he'll have to switch off the stove when the rice is cooked. And here's the irony... both mum & dad had both asked me last night about whether I was working on Sat -- and I told them I am! *arhh*
     Ok, gotta try my luck. Call Dan... alrite! Good friend (saviour!) - struck a deal with him... he told me to drop him at the TMC, I take his car to work & later after work - take the car back to the church & he'll drop me back home. There was a traffic jam on way to work but got there on time. Gotta belanja Dan CB&T or Starbucks liau!!
     A bit on yesterday: Received SMS from Ming Chiat saying that the usual college group plans to go watch Minority Report on Sunday afternoon - yeah! I'm game for that. Later after dinner, dropped by Jacinta's place to pass her the bag I brought back from KL for her & to catch up a little. Hmm... when I got home, managed to watch a little of "Jack & Jill" & a little of "Charmed" on idiotbox #1. Nope... didn't go to anywhere happening on a Friday night. Instead went to switch on idiotbox #2 and went online. That's all folks!

Rating of life today: pretty hum-drum. Only perky point was in the morning - singing Happy Birthday for a colleague with the rest of the gals in our little department. Managed to be pseudo-Aunt-Agony too, to a friend (LL) by "listening" via ICQ about her personal dilemma. Other than that, I can't remember doing anything much today... hmm... nope! nothing much at all. Click, click, click, tap, tap-tappity, tap. Was mostly catching up on my reading at work (for work) and then later at home - yesterday and today's newspaper. After that - caught tonight's episode of "Angel" on TV before switching on the computer. Tinkered a while on the piano while waiting for the computer to boot into win98... and thus now here I am! Logged into the www for my nightly "hit & run" to check mails & stuff like that. Good night...

     Just came back about 1-hour ago & took a nice, refreshing bath. Had been out again soon after dropping grandpa and my organizer at home right after work today.
     Was in my former college to support my junior Student Councillors (SC-ers) for a talent show they've organized called "The Big Show". Was "invited" for this event about a month back by Pinky. The event actually started at 5pm, but I arrived at 7pm. I suppose being there was all that really mattered. It's the thought that counts, right?
     Anyway, one of my ex-colleagues' band won the talent show tonight (Hey! I was part-timing as college computer lab asst. while still studying for my Diploma & Graduate Papers). She, Thien Thien, is a really good singer.
     After the event, we were all very hungry. I was waiting for the SC-ers to finish cleaning up the place so we could go for dinner together (OK, so I pitched in some help too... I'm not heartless). Btw, Julian (fellow xSC-er) was there to give support too.
     However before everything was done, a new SC fella Ken somehow freakishly collected a cut on his right thumb that couldn't seem to stop bleeding! Luckily with a few basic reminders from some people, I managed to gather my wits and started to think like the First Aider that I was trained to be (once upon a time...) - problem solved! Made a bandage strips by cutting it out of his hanky and dressed the cut after cleaning it in the best way we could think of.
     Finally after the SC-ers snap photos as a team and with some of the volunteers and participants, we went out to eat at a nearby eatery. We had our fill of food, drinks and laughter... but soon after it was time to call it a night. Offered to give the hostel girls (Pinky, Yasmin, Apple) a ride home... and as we reach my car, we found that some creep had broken into the car. Crap! But lucky for me there is nothing valuable in the old Ford. Ah well, on to another day then!

     Hello! Good evening! It's nearly 5 pm and time to get off from work. Nothing better to do it seems, for now. Oh well... World Cup 2002, Japan/Korea (May 31 - June 30, 2002) has just come to a close... still a bit sad that Germany lost the (Grand) Final Match to Brazil, though.
     Anyhow, I did enjoy a good laugh when Edmilson was having trouble trying to put his double-layered jersey over his head... "ahhh... that must be the funniest moment in WC2002 history!" :)