Everyday is Halloween with this here computer at my office desk. It still restarts itself a few times a day. My reflex to go for Ctrl+S has much improved because of that... but I still wasn't fast enough to save what I was halfway typing for this here blog. Anyway... Happy Halloween!!

Wed, 30 Oct: Once again, I find myself in Shamrock. I didn't drive this time. Chin did. She picked Joce up too. At the parking area, we bummed into Daniel Chan & Mervyn. They were coincidentally going to Shamrock too (turns out that someone else from our group invited them to join us... that means we are in the same party... ahhh... small world). Shamrock was quite a sight to behold - all decked up for Halloween. The bartenders, waitresses and some patrons had ghoulish masks on; OR had their face painted in ways that can scare the living daylights off the faint-hearted. They even gave us those Salem party bags. Harharhar!! That's where things got a bit violent. Everyone had a turn at whacking other people with those balloon rod things. Blood.... *slurp*

Our group consisted of quite a lot of people. Let's see who was there: Su Jin, Erh Pin, Shen, Pamela Geh, Mei Ling, another Pamela, Francesca, Chin Chin, Jamie, Jocelyn, myself, Fiona, Fiona's other half, Daniel, Mervyn, Shawn, Soon Beng, and one other guy. Whoa! That's 16 people. Think the waiters had fun too. Some of them (in their ghoulish splendour...) sneaked up to unsuspecting customers - of whom some screamed their lungs out because of utter shock! Muahahaha... evil... evil...

As usual, some of us went for some mamak after the whole club/pub thinghy... some people just needed to sober up. Teh halia for me & shared a "burger special" with Chin. *Yum!* for the tum.

Tue, 29 Oct: At 12++ AM, Yasmin was frantic over MSN Messenger & asked me to read a mail she forwarded. Fine. Read it. We talked about the issue she's concerned about. She gave me a load of crap based on a very vague email & news from the rumor-mill. What was disconcerting was she was making terrible assumptions about Pinky's reaction in attending to the incident. I decided to interrogate Yas & found out that she didn't even make a real effort to get the real story from Pinky. What's worse is that rumormongers are taking the chance to defame the integrity of the SC and Yas has assumed that they are being ignorant. Oh, shite!

I too did not know head or tail of what actually happened, so I told Yas that if she's so concerned, she should at least email the key SC-ers & Pinky to find out their side of the story. So she emailed them & also sent a 2^nd email to the xSC-ers. But here's what I did not expect - her tone in those messages downright vaguely accused an SC-er (implicating Pinky's "inaction") as the sole cause of destroying the reputation of the SC. WTF?!

This issue had worried me a lot. Lucky for me, after Yas went offline, Malcolm came online. At least I have someone to talk this over with. Slept only at 2 AM-ish. The xSC-ers who responded, being the wiser, ended up shooting Yas for being downright presumptious and basically told her to grow a brain, as well as agreeing to one or two statements regarding management. She should know how to evaluate this, being an xSC-er herself. The thing that made it worse was she actually made a U-turn on her stand and agreed with the people who shot her down. Shame on her!

For the rest of the day, I must say that I managed to do some pretty good investigating work. I got hold of Chris & Pinky over the phone. Much later, I also managed to ask them out for a drink in Gurney's Dome. It was real pissy to know that the real story is a far cry from what the rumor mill has come up with. In short, the victim of crime has moved on (Yes, the incident involved a crime! Please don't ask me to elaborate what it was.), Pinky & the SC has done a lot to help the victim (and gets accused needlessly for something they shouldn't be accused of), and many people are using personal vendetta to lash out at the SC - hurting not only the SC, but potentially the whole college. I don't like what's happening. Period.

At least Pinky now knows that most of the xSC did not outright support Yas' views and were more sensible in handling the news... (p/s: It's also good to know that we managed to keep our humor in stead of all this crap... so the outing was in the end - not depressing but a really fun one!)

Sat, 26 Oct: This is officially a wasted day. Had only managed to settle to sleep at 3 AM because dad's bus arrived near 2 AM. Only woke up about 10:30 AM. Worked half day in the afternoon. Got home after that to sleep some more. Woke up for dinner... watched Pokemon... and 1 hour of a movie before succumbing to sleep again. Seems that if I don't get sleep at the correct hour on Friday nights, my Saturday & Sundays will officially be sleepy day.

Sun, 27 Oct: Another wasted day. Slept a lot. Jocelyn came to borrow a camera just before we were going out for lunch at Penang Swimming Club. My Canon SLR camera is somehow officially dysfunctional... luckily my dad was around to help tutor her on how to use the old Minolta. Dad took the Canon back with him so that he can send it to the Canon service center in KL/PJ. Think that's about as interesting as Sunday gets.

Today: Whoopeee!!! I've been out of office from 11:45 AM - 4:00 PM. Coolness!! After a boring morning of dealing with dust, as I was helping my colleague organize training materials into binders and packing them nicely into boxes - I was whisked away by my boss to do filming of a workshop in Gurney Hotel. Joy!! Hallelujah!!

12 noon: Received a call from my mum (calling from my neighbor's?!). She said that some motorcyclist snatched her purse and she's locked out from our house. Right. Crap. Made a few calls & took emergency leave for the rest of the day. I knew I had to go back & steer her to do some damage control (aside from having to open the doors for her).

First things first, I made sure that my mum ate something. She's obviously shocked and has taken to the procrastinator's seat. Then I took her to the police station to enquire whether a report should be made - apparently we don't have to. The cop told her to take her birth certificate to the Department of Registry, report her loss of I/C, & to apply for a new one. Literally dragged my mum to the Registry as I kept telling her that they should reopen at about 2-something (she kept saying we could do it tomorrow). It only opened at 2:45PM.

So while waiting for her to get her new I/C application done, I went next door to KDU. First stop, visited Julie in Marketing to get some print-companies' contacts. Next, I took a peek at the Dept. of Student Affairs and saw everyone is home. Ethan was hanging around the place too. Daws chatted me up about handphones again... (err... ok...)... with the occasional participation of his colleagues (quite a welcome additional entertainment actually... hehe...) He also passed back to me a plactic bag with my Cats program book, the IKEA 2003 catalog and... what's that pink box?! Whoa... I didn't expect that! It's a really nice doll! Ah... apparently it's a belated birthday present. WoW! Still... wow!!

Also managed to go to the resource centre to look up Pinky. Hanged around there for a while before Cik Salmah came back & Ethan popped in. We had a really interesting conversation about a pretty controversial issue regarding a soon-to-be open state of d'art concert hall before my mum called me to say that she's ready... (nope - not gonna furnish details about that issue... =P)

We rushed home so that mum could get ready for her dance rehearsal. Stayed home a good 20 minutes before rushing out again to get gramps home & rushing back home to wait for the locksmith. He came on time & changed our main door & grill locks. After he was done, I quickly washed up for my dinner meeting with Sze Lin, Ester, Jamie, Debs, & Karen. Picked up Sze Lin and we headed for Chaser's. The food there is really good. Couldn't follow them for the midnight show of Red Dragon though. I had to go pick up my dad from the station at 1AM. Glad to have met up with them but yet sad not to have been able to watch the movie... oh well!!

Hola! Hmmm... Since I tend to be very narrative (read: longwinded), let's see if I can make this update somewhat shorter & sweeter. Here we go!

Mon, 21 Oct (Nightly Edition): Before I left the office, I gave Daws (via ICQ) a price-list for some H/P models earlier taken from my aunt. The unbelievably low price quoted for Nokia 6610 made him immediately interested to go for it. A few "Are you sure (of the price)?" questions ensued but I cut him short (coz I really wanted to cabut from the office already!) and issued an ultimatum for him to order or to balik-consider. He went for it... so, I called up my aunt - ordered - shut down the computer - arriba! arriba! outta office I go!!

Aunt later told me that the model is very new and stock has yet to hit Penang market, thus that's what I told Daws. Later at night, he chatted me up over MSN and mainly discussed about H/Ps. At the end of the whole chat, I seriously wanted to cekik him man! That idiot kept showing fascination for other H/P models throughout the chat (macam ada a 10-way tug-of-war on what to choose) - I ended up asking if he wanted to cancel the order. He held it. Idiot!! (On another note, I was shocked when he told me he just heard over the radio that there was a shooting in Melbourne U... Crap! Questions about my MU friends safety raced across my mind.)

Putting worries aside - I went offline and watched Ally McBeal. Yay!

Tue, 22 Oct: Nothing. Just the average mundane day. Had managed to get in touch with Yoke Sim, though. Thank God she's safe. She was in the building next to Monash Clayton where the shooting happened. Summary of what she told me, "Shooter is a Chinese, 36 year-old, Honors student. He speaks poor English, believed to be stressed - went to class and fired shots. 2 Chinese dead, 5 Aussies injured. More guns and a large knife was found in shooter's home. Mother who lives with him in shock over the incident, appears not to know about the weapons. The authorities, crisis counsellors, and TV News Teams are swarming around campus. Exams are less than a week away." *sigh!*

Otherwise, my greatest achievement of the day would be Getting all the clothes in my ever growing pile of cleaned laundry ironed. Rawk!!

Ok! Forget short & sweet!! I seriously need to rant... ish-ish-ish...

Today, 23 Oct: Work was mundane as usual but I sure was being kept busy. At 9-ish, I went to pick up Jocelyn & Chin2. We went to Shamrock to hang out. It was Ladies' Night, so we had free flow of cocktails. Bumped into Dom... eeEeeEeeeeeEe... someone looks more 'prosperous'... hehehe... anyhow there was this 2 Caucasian blokes who really suck at pool hogging the table while making some rather lame attempts to attract the attention of 4 Caucasian gals sitting at another table. GeeEeez...

Joce & I finally got to a play a game when they finally decided that they had enough of pool. (Oh! They've already managed to get the girls' attention by then...) The white ball is kinda cacat though - one huge dent in it. Suj came in as we were finishing the game... (woo-hoo! One more to the party) As she walked towards our table, one of the 2 blokes tried to hit on her. Ugh! It was a really lame effort - we tried not to laugh. 11:30-ish, we left the joint to go get some burgers. Original destination - stall not there... OK! Plan B - walked to the nearest mamak joint and orders some drinks, burgers & a nasi goreng. *Slurp! Yummy!!*

Now here's some serious ranting: Leaving the mamak's, this Indian guy on a motorbike comes by but detours slightly further up the road when a cop car came by to "chat with the guy". Then suddenly, he left his bike next to the cop car & ran towards my car after Jocelyn & I boarded my car. We quickly locked the doors. He came up to my window, snobbishly demanding and trying to intimidate us for RM 2. We couldn't give a shit! We were leaving!! I very hostilely told him that I was parked in a legal MPPP lot... it's after the pay-for-parking hours!!! (Deep in my head, I was cursing "Ass!!! F.O.!!!")

We also noticed that Suj is in trouble - her car was right next to the cop car, parked next to a yellow line! Chin had luckily offered to accompany Suj to her car... so they stood alongside the road as though they were chatting. Joce & I decidedly picked them up and took them for a ride around the block. Shit! We all know that those cops can't issue traffic summonses simply because they were not traffic police!! The cops had left when we got back there to drop Suj off. She quickly jumped into her car but that guy saw us and quickly put his bike in front of her car, went to her window and tried to rip RM 5 from her. When she refused he started to scold her, "You have no sense?! I helped you!! I'm just making a living!!" (literally translated). She must have pretended not to understand coz he came towards us shouting "Talk to your friend! Tell her!".

We ignored him although we were afraid and knew that he could be marking our car number plates. We waited for Suj to start the car and when she looked ready to move, I went forward to give her space to come out - then we drove off like there was no tomorrow!! Just in case, I opted to take a route where we could accompany Suj for as long as we can. Joce, Chin & I decided to stay away from Shamrock for the time being. If we happen to go there anytime in the near future, we will park our car in some other area - as far away from that place as possible to avoid meeting that guy. GeEEeeEezZzz... what a night for 4 gals.

Sat, 19 Oct: No work today can only mean one thing - it is time to do errands. Got most of it done way, way, way before noon. Realised I had time to actually act out on an earlier promise - to buy a pack of one of the yummiest chicken rice, from the coffee shop near my home, for the Pink-one's lunch. Called her. Nope, no one answering. She called back a short while later, accepting the offer for me to get her the chicken rice. Passed her her lunch & also gave her a ride to college from the hostel (after all, it is along the way to go get my grandpa...).

~(Evening)~ [*Note to self - (1) Remember to send ecards to Shakila & Celeste. Check! (2) Pick a birthday card from my shelf & something from my "gift-stock" for Jamie. Check! ]

aaaahh.... ok, sliced a length of wrapping paper and grabbed it with me into the car. Wrapped the present while my dad was driving me to "The Ship" (town branch) before he & mum went for "K-19: Widowmaker" - filled up the card everytime we stopped at a red light. Dinner was good. I had the Grilled Salmon Steak and shared a dozen Escargot mainly between Chin & Joce. Deb, Suj & Jamie tried one each. Andy & Candy were there too. For dessert, we each had a thin slice of Spanish Cake *yum,yum!* that was bought from Jenny's (it was Jamie's b'day cake... we're celebrating it early).

Went to Chaser's and they gave us a room. The chairs (couches) were really comfy and we indulged in some white wine, as we chatted. One question all of us had to answer was quite interesting - "If you are given the chance to go back to a point in time, be anyone, & bring one item with you - what would your choice be?". We sure ended up with a really interesting bunch of well-thought answers... *giggles*

Sun, 20 Oct: Didn't do much today. I have however managed to reorganize my collection of music CDs that have been strewn in at least 3 parts of the house :P Was wiping dust off the covers and reorganizing them while watching Sabrina, CSI & Gilmore girls. Multi-tasking ala couch-potato.

Today: Morning traffic is so tame that it's unbelievable. Near lunch time, the sky turned freakishly luminously-cloudy... the kind of sky that'd make you think that you are in the Twilight Zone. Then at lunch time, to quote the secretary, "It rained bulldogs & wild cats". Luckily for us, it had stopped not too long ago, but parts of the car park in the plant compound is flooded. Hope it subsides by the time it's time to go home... if not... well... guess I just gotta wade through water then~ *swish,swoop,swish,swoop,swish...*

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Test of the day: ...err, the result?! really~?! nah... not 100%

Take the Purrsonality Quiz!

Thu, 17 Oct: Had rushed from work to pick-up grandpa, dropped him home, collected a bagful of stuff before rushing out to meet Daws at his office A.S.A.P. since he told me earlier this afternoon that he had to rush home. I was pretty blur when I got there. Passed him the 2 CDs bought on his behalf from the 2nd-hand CD shop in Bkt. Bintang, 2 weekends ago, and also lent to him my Cats CD & program book... while I borrowed his Evita OST. Didn't ask for the VCD but he brought it for me, so... what the heck? Take it and watch it again when I'm too free.

Hmm... come to think of it, he must have thought I loved it a lot coz this is the 2nd time I borrowed the OST (...patutlah he brought the VCD! XP). Actually... I don't think much of the movie - it's the music! 1st time round (about a yr back) - MP3s. 2nd time round - making use of my CD-writer. Andrew Llyod-Webber is definitely one of the genius composers in the world of theatre music.

Before I left he said something I didn't hear correctly the first time round. I only heard the "...see you again ..." part. Then I blurted out cheekily, "Of course! If not you won't see your 'Evita' nor I see my 'Cats' ever again *grin,grin*". Ah... not exactly the response I'd give immediately if I heard him the first time. He then repeated that we should meet up for a meal next time (I suppose that's to make up for the one we had to cancel today). Err... well I feel rather ~sheepish~ for that :P

I then detoured to the SC-room to pass to Ethan a copy of Miss Saigon lyrics. There, I got caught up in talking about all sorts of nonsense stuff with him, Pinky & Chris... and forgot to go up to the CIS office to collect a stack of transcripts I had requested for. Much later, I ended up having dinner with Pinky & some of her hostelmates. Mmm... mamak sup ayam + roti planta...

Fri, 18 Oct: Had lunch with Peky, Chin, and Angelia at Cook Book. It was sort of a farewell lunch for Peky before she returns to UTM, tomorrow, to finish her studies. We all took the fish fillet lunch set. Must say that it was rather tasty... *slurp* Then, in a case of super-divaness, Julian drops-by to say farewell to Peky just after we had finished our main meal. (p/s: Chin had also passed to me the CDs containing Smallville episodes... muahaha... that should keep me occupied for a while)

Back at the office I realised I left my handphone at home. Shit! I needed to urgently send an SMS to Pinky to remind her to help me collect those transcripts from the CIS Admin. Double shit! I don't trust ICQ SMS that much (it might arrive a day later for all I know) and coincidentally everyone in the office didn't have their h/p with them too. Drat & double Drat! I ended up pestering Daws (via ICQ) to help me send the SMS from his h/p for me and had thanked him profusely after he agreed, as backup to the one I'm sending via ICQ. Ah... somehow stress to get things done turns me somewhat obsessive and panicky.

Evening comes, work ends, the weekend begins for real! I went to see Rain at her office and ate in there with her colleagues. Free food! There were all sorts of foodstuff leftover from the day's earlier birthday celebration for their head of dept. Not that I'm complaining - it's free & it's good. Following that, Rain & I went to Prangin Mall for a little walk, window-shopping and well... shopping!... although... erm... we didn't really buy much else than hair clips and stuff like that. After that to our own home we returned to, for a relaxing bath and a date with the TV. It's Charmed and Survivor on NTV7.

Going through Kaz's blog, I remembered this one bombshell of information that was received during last Saturday's lunch. What happened was, Daniel received a missed-call from Siti (not her real name). He called her back and found out that she had made the call by mistake but anyhow, she continued with some small talk with Danny-boy. He had no idea why he asked her about the IIU student suspected by the US to be involved with Al-Qaeda (maybe it's coz she studies there too) - and she suddenly broke down and cried. To our shock, it turns out that he's her fiance! Her fiance!! Omigawd!!! The world is so small... I dunno if I should put in more regarding her side of the story... at least, just whatever else she told Dan that day.

Btw, I've just added Elise, Empress, Jumbuck & Kaz into my "buddy blogs" listing.

Addition at 4:30pm: Ok... there's not much to add - Siti tells us that he's innocent and even asked us if we would lend her support when she needs it. We are not entirely sure where to stand or what kind of support she might ask for. Some of you might have read that his father persuaded him to hand himself in - that much is true (remember the pretext of the Malay saying "Berani kerana benar, takut kerana salah")... As far as we know, they are trying very hard to get him back.

Why am I up at this hour? Hmm... erm... well... I had fallen into deep slumber as soon as I came home from work on the ever humble Wednesday evening and I just woke up at 10pm to have dinner, bathe, & watch my taped selections from Monday night - ER & Ally McBeal. It was horrendous trying to stay awake at work when my body was telling me it's exhausted - "Go to sleep, go to sleep". Trust me, I was extremely tempted to take a siesta in the office, but then again... I do have work to clear. Now, I'm just waiting to feel sleepy again.

Anyhow, nothing much happened the past 2 days. Nandos lunch was postponed coz we found clashing schedules and we couldn't find time to get the whole lot together... we only managed to synchronize time for later this afternoon. Ah well... what can we do? It is the company year-end closing. Everyone is being tied up with all sorts of things to complete.

Outside of the office, I'm pretty intrigued that I have witnessed 1 major post-accident scene for each of the past 2 days, on my way home from work.

• Tue: On the lane of the opposing traffic direction - it seems that a lorry had hit a car pretty hard; the impact caused the car to swerve and traverse across the divider; and it stopped in such a way that it effectively blocked off 1 of 3-lanes on my side of the expressway. The cops were there to help ease the rush hour traffic.
• Wed: The road had been cleared up but the evident wreckage was still there. It seems like those traffic accidents fellas had pulled the wreck to the traffic island marking the apex of the fork-off from the Coastal Road to the Penang Bridge and the exit to Georgetown. Did I mention that the wreck is a Proton Wira turned-turtle? No? Ok... it was turned-turtle.

About Pocahontas... hmm... I'm not so sure about that quiz result - I definitely can't see the colours of the wind. Ahh.... finally drowsiness comes! *yawn* Bonsoir!

Sun, 13 Oct: Hmmm... lunch was yummy~! I finally get to eat the delicious fried spring chicken of Ocean Green, best taken with a dash of their special salt & asam mix... and 4 other dishes too... hehe :)

Later, I went home to watch the Japan F1 race I've taped. Pretty much an interesting race compared to some other races. To the Japanese crowd, Takuma Sato who came in 5th was their hero. Must give credit to the guy for holding on to his position... after all, he wasn't doing too well in the rest of the 2002 races & for the fact that he actually wasn't all too familiar with the Japanese track.

Later I had to drop my dad off at his friend's place... they are driving down to KL together. Leaving him there, I was supposed to collect a ticket refund but the car fuel tank was empty! NoOoo...!! In all his rushing about, my dad has conveniently forgot to refuel it. Ok... can get home, get a credit card - fill up tank at nearest station - then only go get ticket refund. Fuh... that's enough adventure for a Sunday.

Today: Well... my parents actually gave me my birthday present way, way earlier on Saturday... except I decided to be good & wait til today to open it. Haven't opened it yet. Will do that when I get home. Hmm... seems that no one could get through my phone pass midnight... although my cell was on until 1:00 am. Weird. The messages (carrying greeting & such) all came in soon as I blearily switched on my phone after killing the alarm. Shucks! Had to drown the loud beepings under my pillow... hehe...

Arriving at work, my colleagues told me that they'd take me to Giordano in BJC to shop for my present coz they have no idea what to give me... hehe... Shopping at Lunch time!! Ah well *grins*... Anyhow, we bought vegetarian stuff back to the office and had a "community lunch" - Nandos lunch will be on Tue/Wed when our colleague comes back from her business travel.

10 PM onwards: Went to Cravan in P.Tikus to meet up with Pinky, Alan, Chrissy-boy, and Ethan. They brought along a new SC-er too, Angelina. Anyhow, after some of them finished their dinner and some of us finished off half our drinks... they brought out a cake, sang the song... and well... the usual drill happened lar. Knowing these people, I knew they'd make sure I pick candles out of the cake with my teeth. So... *rolls-eyes* They pushed 2 into the cake (top-side) and 1 into the side. The 1 candle at the side was the hardest to take out... *bleargh*... had cream on my face - and wax in my mouth *ptui, ptui* Somethings never do change.... :)

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Which Disney Princess are you?

Sat, 12 Oct: A working Saturday morning once again. This time round, I finally get to give my manageress (of my direct employers) an update of what's up in Agilent... stuff like what's been going on with my work, how's my colleague coping (she's also contracted to Agilent) and yadah-yadah.

12:30 pm, I left the office. Chin2, Peky & Malcolm had come by to pick me up for our lunch outing at CRC with Dominic & also Daniel. But before going to CRC, we had to make a slight detour for Chin... she's on a vegetarian diet that day. Actually we had intended to eat at the CRC "canteen" place but Dom was already at the restaurant eating peanuts and having some tea. We all thought, "Oh well.... nevermind then... we can have lunch here too"

These people are really sweet - they had bought me a cake to celebrate my birthday (it wasn't my birthday yet... they just celebrated it early). Btw, thank God Julian couldn't make it... I know he would have made sure that I get some cream on my face if he was there. Anyhow, lunch (as we found out) was 2 times more expensive than it would have been if we had eaten at the "canteen"

Anyhow, all of us with exception for Daniel decided to go to Mega Pavilion (Bkt Jambul) to watch "Three" - a movie consisting of 3 short horror films, each from a Korean, Thai & Hong Kong director. I find the Korean movie creepy, and I would find the Thai film creepy if I were horribly superstitious. The Hong Kong one? It has a decent storyline that could freak us all out if only we didn't laugh at much. The little boy was too cute. Eric Tsang could act his role well... but what happens when everyone still remembers him more for his comedic acts?

Ok... after being sent home by Mal, safekeeping all my stuff & the leftover cake in the fridge... it was (Yes InDeEd!) - Nap Time!! Ah... ~LoVeLy~! Later, dinner being over and done with... my dad wanted to go for a movie and pondering over "The Tuxedo" & "K-19: Widowmaker"... I jumped at the chance and said I will follow if it's Tuxedo. And so that's decided. We waited for mum to be ready before making our way to the Mega Pav in Prangin. Anyhow, my folks wanted to go to Parkson to get some stuff before the movie began.

About the Tuxedo experience: It's a splendid comedy! Full of laughs... Jackie Chan back at what he does best - physical comedy in a basic good guy vs. bad guys story. I do find Jennifer Love Hewitt to be the right kind of co-star for him too. Of course the other thing about Jackie Chan movies... they all come with a section of boo-boo shots before or during the end-credits. Don't miss out on how he messes up his lines. Very cute.

Tue, 8 Oct: Did my packing in the morning before I taking a quick check on my emails. Arrived pretty early at the KTM station - about 45 minutes early actually... my dad had dropped me there earlier since he had to go for a meeting in the city. The bus left at about 3:40 PM. It was drizzling.

Most of the way back north it was alternating between light rain and heavy rain. When we reached the Garden Inn stop at 8:30 PM, it was monsoon rain at its torrential best. I think parts of my clothing were quite properly drenched. I had hoped that this won't mean that it'll make my cough any worse.

Wed, 9 Oct: Went to drop gramps at his office (as usual) before taking a detour to the clinic. It was stil closed. Aw, shucks! Looks like I have to come back later in the evening. Went to work to find out that there was nothing much to really pick up on. Lucky me!

Had gone to the workshop after work to collect the adjuster's receipt for my insurance claim & also to pay them the remainder of the repair fee for my car door. That being said and done, I went on to take gramps home, took an early dinner @ home, and went to the clinic. The doctor on duty was my uncle. He told me that my throat infection wasn't fully recovered... so that's why I'm still coughing. Right. More medication to battle them horrible germs!!

Thu, 10 Oct: Ah well... seems like I have to face the dreaded online procurement system again today... Sweet! Really, really sweet. So much angst over a system... I'm not the only one who has the same view about this... maybe we should start a support group - Frustrated iProcurement System Users Anonymous. hehehe...

Today: Yet again, I was given a few more things to do that required me to work with my all time favourite system. Dang. Heck... I also have a whole month's worth of weekly reports to complete. Considerably a busy day.

At present, my office is laden with a spreadful of sandwiches, cakes, danishes, fried popiah, coffee & tea. Looks pretty much like a mini-reception. The extra food came about because what was supposed to be a full-day meeting between one of the managers here with some partners/vendors finished in half a day. Snacks anyone?

Night edition: Okay... i added this section in on a Sunday. Basically, I went out to meet with some friends at Screwball to play some real pool. I must say that I'm still better at aiming those long shots. haha... weird-eh? Anyhow, I had to leave them at about 12:25 am to go to Garden Inn to pick up my parents who were arriving there from KL in say.... 5 minutes time? yeah... that's it.

Sun, 6 Oct: Took half a muffin & a huge mug of latte for breakfast. Had to take a cough syrup to suppress my cough. It's been acting up again. Lazed a while before... u guessed it - lunch time! Lunch was simple... it was cream cheese + pate on crackers.

When everyone was finally fed and ready, we started to arm ourselves to unload the books & schtuff sitting on the shelves, table tops & in the cabinet drawers in my dad's study - into some boxes. Man, was it dusty! *ack, ack* By the time we stopped... we've only managed to clean out only half of the stuff.

After cleaning ourselves up & taking a rest, dad took us to Carrefour (Subang) to stock up on a few items for the house before taking us to a scrumptious dinner at the Coliseum in KL. Mmm... yummy! To top it all up... we went home to have some Chocolate Cake for dessert. Rich, moist, delicious chocolate cake... but then again... I can't take too much of it... cough control... Ah well....! Win some, lose some.

Mon, 7 Oct: After a light breakfast, it was back to taking part in packing up what's left in the study shelves & cabinets. Lots of stuff to wipe. Earned myself quite a few papercuts while wiping off layers of dust from the books & files (some of them even had fungus growing on it.

After that was done - cleaned up & followed my brother to buy lunch. He was sick of eating rice, so we went to get Subway sandwiches. While I was in the shop getting my order done (including 1 for mum) - it suddenly poured like cats & dogs. Luckily the rain subsided somewhat by the time I paid for the take-aways.

With lunch finally over & done with, took a short rest before asking my brother to send me to the KTM station. Took the Komuter to Sentral; and a Putra LRT from there to KLCC. Went there to meet up with Ying Lai, who's now a pharmacist at Guardian, after her shift. We walked around a little... had a dessert each as a snack... and we came upon a huge Stitch soft toy that Lais wanted to kidnap right off the display... we also did a little shopping to stock-up on our own stationery/craft items.

Soon, we had to part ways. We boarded the LRT together - she hopped off at M. Jamek while I had to stay on the train until the end of the line - Kelana Jaya. My family picked me up at the Kelana station for a dinner with them at SS2 (different shop this time). I pretty much enjoyed my meal of porridge.

Back home again, my dad fell asleep on the couch while the remaining trio of mum, my bro & I shifted over the study's furniture pieces into another room (and swapped a few things over to the ex-study). Oh yeah... we had to move my bro's computer over too. Once the computer was hooked up, my bro tried to dial into Streamyx - it finally worked. Our verdict on why it didn't work previously is *drumroll* the other parallel phone line is somehow handicapped. That's why I could check my mails & the blogs on Monday night... muahahaha....

I hereby finally add the official updates to this blog - in place of my random ramblings that were used as a preview to the following. Onward!

Fri, 4 Oct: Ok... it was a very busy day at work. Skipped lunch (but that was OK since I had expected the workload and had the sense to take a heavier breakfast). At 4PM - I quickly cleared up my stuff and went on to update my colleague so that she could back me up (somewhat...) while I'm on leave.

Fortunately, I didn't speed on my way home coz there was a police roadblock somewhere along the way *phew* - reached home & quickly pack in some last minute stuff... went to pick up my grandpa first - drop mum & myself off at the bus pick-up point while letting gramps take the car home. Nearly missed our bus to KL. Reached KL at 10:30 PM... my dad & bro came to pick us up and took us for supper somewhere in SS2. Ahh... makan!

Oh yeah... also wished 2 people Happy Birthday today.

Sat, 5 Oct (meow-meow day): Woke up blissfully at 10-ish. Watched some toons on TV before we went out for our Dim Sum lunch at Sunway. Btw, the Dim Sum was halal... the items mostly had shrimp, chicken, shrimp, more shrimp & some other meats-vegie combinations.

After lunch it was on to Istana Budaya for our matinee show of Cats™ *meow* I find the 1st half of the show rather slow... but what I do find interesting is the incorporation of Choral Speaking - it was used to convey some verses of T.S.Elliot's poem from which this production was based on. At intermission, I went to get the program book and the CD before meeting up with my parents & mum for a drink. On our way back to our seats, I bummed into Chin Chin & Alan. Also noticed a 'Cat' - he was sniffing at something in a lady's hand. She gestured to offer it to the Cat... and I nearly laughed when the Cat quickly shook his head to indicate that he didn't want it.

Back at our seats, I saw a Cat moving around the Upper Circle (UC) from the left and grooming herself every now & then. Not long after that, a HUGE grey cat walked in and started playing with the Caucasian kids in the row behind - poking one of them on her tummy. By now... I felt I was in for a little trouble... HUGE Grey Cat stood behind my seat for a while... (I think it sniffed at my cardigan that was draped over my shoulders)... he pulled my scrunchy - climbed on my seat and DisPlaced me from my seat... (ok... So I was actually sitting on the Cat before he pushed me away towards my brother) It just gave me an innocent look when I looked at him in the face... very much like a typical cat.

He continued climbing down the rows - making a few kids scream (he was quite scary), sitting on some people, and lying across a row of people. Ganas. Then he moved over to the right of the UC... and rummaged through a purse & pretended to toss it off the balcony. By then, a third Cat was in the UC... the kid who screamed played with her tail when she walked pass. She went on to chase the HUGE grey cat around the UC...

Soon the 2nd half of the show began. We were all more perked up now since those Cats had come up to 'play' with us. Moreover, I do think that the 2nd half of the show was livelier too... more interesting characters. I loved the dancing by the 'Magical' Cat... (that Cat has the power to call on the pyrotechnics too!) Neato!

Oh well... overall, I do find Cats to be an interesting play on its own. The stage set had plenty of trap doors. The lighting effects were a really good visual aid - it helped to set the scenes as they switched between the dark of night - to the world of the old cats while they were in their prime.

After the show, we went for a walk in Bukit Bintang. Went to StarHill... before my brother took me to the 2nd hand CD shop. Actually found a copy of the Miss Saigon recording there... Yay! Also found a few CDs that Daws might want... so I called him to ask him if he wanted me to get it for him... in a later call to him... I found out that he was also in KL! Kecilnya dunia ini...

On the way home, my dad had to detour back to Sunway Hotel to collect the Chocolate Mud Cake that he ordered and forgot to collect. We reached home about 15 minutes before Kalamari & Kotak came to pick me up... Finally, I get introduced, face-to-face, to Kotak. We went for some apom, drinks, & plenty of chit-chat in USJ17. The food smelled great but we've all just had dinner prior to meeting up... so... it was just a snacky-chatty outing. Oh yeah... there was a moment when Kalamari had to figure out who between Kotak & I was fibbing... hehe... that was fun to watch ;)

Hmm... still have work to clear... darn data entry stuff... ish-ish... my colleague & I are being drowned in it for now... oh no! err... I just remembered I've been neglecting the web update request because of this... darn...

Anyway, I'm looking forward to my trip down to KL. Let's see... I'll be taking the evening bus from Penang on Friday and I'll be in KL until I leave by bus on Tue afternoon. On Saturday, I'll be watching Cats matinee show at the Istana Budaya. So I guess I'll be doing my packing tonight... hmm... I wonder what I should take along with me this time? =)

On the other hand... not really looking forward to the fact that while in KL, I need to help out in some furniture moving... yup! That's right... it has something to do with my dad's Feng Shui consultation.... oh well *sigh* I might not be of much help though, especially if a coughing fit hits me again when the heavy-duty moving gets going... hmm... that's a thought~

oh no!! Landslide of work today... die liau! No long stories to tell today... except... I dunno why I started doodling out little cartoon animals on a white A4 last night. Hmm... must find a use for them someday.

** p/s: Jerry! I finally linked you... sorry for the delay.

Nightline: I have no idea what happened to me - I couldn't stop coughing the whole evening. It's hard to drive when a coughing fit seizes on me. Thank God I managed to drive home safely today with my usual pick-up... gramps. Today was one of those days I feel like driving straight home instead of going the extra mile to chauffeur my gramps home from his shop. Am feeling a lil' better at the moment... sleep... sleep... sleep is still the best medicine.

Am feeling much better today - drinking more water than I normally would. Yeah... now that is way unusual because I normally drink like a camel - I mean... I drink very little water in a day. Yes! I know that is not good... but then again, old habits die hard.