Thu, 6 Feb, CNY (Day 6): Back to work. I was happy that there wasn't much in the request inbox in the morning and joy was pretty shortlived... by afternoon - the request inbox seems flooded. Baka! So much for wanting to keep staying in party-mode until the weekend is over. Later on my way home... I thought the nice straight and non-bumpy road suddenly had bumps... until I realise the road was still not bumpy but the engine had been knocking/choking every so often... eeks! It didn't seem that serious the night before though... luckily we've already made an appointment with the mechanic coz I previously thought the timing was a tad too low to my liking. Did I go anywhere tonight...? Nah. I stayed home and enjoyed watching "Fighting for Love" on tv. It's a Hong Kong produced romantic comedy starring Tony Leung and Sammi Cheng. It's just really cute.

Fri, 7 Feb, CNY (Day 7): Lunched with Mook at Sunshine market... then detoured to Sunshine Square to takeaway a large Twister Fries. Munched it together with Angela as we chatted in the office. By the way, it feels like the car is choking less violently. Gramps later tells me that he's worked it out with a mechanic, who's more familiar with Fords than our regular mechanic who is actually more familiar with Volvos, to take a look for necessary repairs that had been overlooked by our regular fella... next morning. Fine by me - I'm not working... just that it looks like dimsum breakfast plan with mum & bro gets postponed to Sunday. TV movie for tonite was "Love is All There is" - apparently the first Angelina Jolie movie ever... ahh... :)

Sat, 8 Feb, CNY (Day 8): I had my brother drop me over to Sze Lin's place at 4pm, and we waited for about 1hr before Kok Keong came. Sze Lin said she wanted to drive. Whoa-NeLLy! The first time I'm being a passenger when she drives. I eventually remembered I forgot to bring the bag with all of Pei Ling's Christmas + birthday presents in my safekeeping, so we took a detour to my house first. Sze Lin can take a mean turn at the corner!!... but it wasn't all that bad - apparently she's a very much more stable driver now.

Once parked in Gurney Plaza, we walked over to One-Stop since Sze Lin was looking around for some presents. I ended up buying another TY Beanie Baby. We walked back to Gurney at before 7pm. Still early for our dinner gathering with the others in our college group, we walked pass Nandos, made a reservation for 10 at 7:45pm... and lepak lagi. This time I got myself a Stitch in a Hula Skirt keychain. It's so CuUuTe! We also managed to peek at some house/apartment models being displayed in the property fair that's currently going on. Remember those shoebox houses we made in school? This is of course the more canggih and sophisticated version with a minimum 4-digit cost for each.

Then I got a call from Huey Fen, indicating that most of the group have arrived. Everyone seems to be pretty much on time - quite a first! Mun Wye had informed me that he'd be late - and he actually came - that's also a first! For the last few gatherings, he'd said that he'd drop by or he'd be late and then... doesn't show up. Anyway, it was nice to see everyone who could make it... and especially Yokes who's back for a while from Australia. The others there were Geik Tiong, John Paul (not the Pope), Pei Ling & Poon Wei. Meanwhile, a schoolmate, Boon Hui who came with another group - first spots Mun Wye (her colleague), spots a familiar face (Pei Ling, her schoolmate), and another (Sze Lin, another schoolmate), and another (me! - also her schoolmate). Once again... it shall be said - Penang is a small place indeed!

Sun, 9 Feb, CNY (Day 9): Dim Sum breakfast for the family on me... and a yee-sang lunch at Jade Palace on dad. Burp! Later in the evening, I dropped both dad & bro off at Kampungku. They're going back to KL. Before going home, made a detour to my youngest grandaunt's place to collect some roasted pork that they'd portioned out to distribute out to us. Got home to laze with my John Irving book that I've almost finish with in front of the TV. Everyone felt too lazy to go out for dinner... so I ended up being tasked to grab McD take-aways. Drive thru line seemed insanely long, so I decided to go in and line up. It was way faster! Whoopee! Went home in time before the winds got too windy. It drizzled most of the night. Then it was couch-potato time! Munch (more Twister Fries!!!) + marathon of TV series (Smallville + Gilmore Girls + Geena + videotaped CSI)... and my eyes are not yet square

THE NOW: Mon, 10 Feb, CNY (Day 10): Work begins again... traffic looked bad until I passed the post-accident point... then it was smooth sailing. 1.5 days of work left to go - 1 public HoLiDay - then back to work again.... 2.5 days before weekend partydom begins!!