We had intended to go to Coffee Bean at Gurney Tower last night but saw that it was dark. If not a power failure, it must be closed. But we wouldn't wanna risk parking and find out that IT IS CLOSED.

Ash had the sudden brilliant idea that we could go watch a late night movie... "How about watching Shrek 2?". I was like, "Yeah. OK! Let's go to GSC, get tickets and we could sit at one of the coffee places while waiting for our movie"... That being said, Mal drove us all to Gurney Plaza. Woo-hoo!

Let's see... it was only about 10++pm when we got our tickets... and we ended up sitting at Dome - having a drink and some yummy potato wedges (no... I'm afraid I don't know the meaning of health freak diet).

The movie began very promptly at 11:45pm. Shrek 2 is really funny from start til the end!! I don't think I ever laughed so much for any other movie within the last year.

As per the original Shrek tradition... they have yet again done subtle spoofs of scenes and characters from other movies. At my last count... there are at least 8 of those. Won't list them out less it becomes a spoiler to anyone who hasn't watched the movie! :)

These days, I feel that I'm lucky to have a pretty amazing bunch of people as my colleagues. Among the things we do for each other...

There are the few that will stop and ask "How are you?" or "How's your day so far?"

...and then of course - we have the occasional joker who will do or say something absolutely insane... witnesses will not be spared from fits of laughter. Great stress relief mechanism, isn't it?

For example - colleague #1 recently "crushed" her toe and her foot is now in a cast. She proclaimed that how it happened was embarrasing.

Colleague #2 in S'pore just found out about it from #1 because I had refused to tell him why #1 was on MC earlier in the week.

Then over a phone call this evening... #2 sneakily diverted the conversation. He started with "we should give a minute of silence for the injured toe" (huh?? *speechless*)

...then he went on to "hey, you know what? you should go over and visit the toe and say aww toe-eee *kiss, kiss* (shh! don't tell anyone I said that. *laughs*)"

Gosh! I really didn't see that one coming... but I should have known better since this one is an absolute nutcase after all.

Ooh... forgot to mention... have finally watched Troy on Tuesday night. I found the movie flow was good for a 2hr 45mins movie. I wasn't dozing off... :P

Hector (Eric Bana) the noble prince and hero of Troy, Paris (Orlando Bloom) was the wimpy bother of Hector who needed to grow up mentally, and Archilles (Brad Pitt) the fearless (and virtually emotionless) Greek warrior were among the key characters.

They had spiffy Greek costumes... and of course... the infamous Trojan horse was also portrayed in the movie.

You are the pilot.

Saint Exupery's 'The Little Prince' Quiz.
brought to you by Quizilla

Gee... the only thing that matches the quiz result is my dull mood.

ROTFL

This is quite a hilarious read.

Movie Mania?

Let's see what I've managed to watch in the past month or so...

• Along Came Polly - I enjoyed this Ben Stiller & Jennifer Aniston romantic comedy flick. Loved the way Hank Azaria as that French guy who kept calling Ben Stiller's character --> "Loo-bend" (Reuben)
  

• Super Sapiens a.k.a. Hellboy - Hohoho!!! Wouldn't say that the storyline was one of genious... but the makeup and effects were pretty good... one big red dude and that water-being that likes to read 5 books at one go
  

• Van Helsing - Gosh!! What can I say?!! The visual effects have been superb from start to end. As for the story, I quite like the way the story of Dracula, Frankenstein and Werewolves were all weaved into one major plot. Sweet...

  Btw... I found that Dracula looked cool... his brides were rightfully slutty... Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman)... WHOA!!... and Princess Anna (Kate Beckinsale) was a pretty strong character in her own right.

OHHH MY GAWWDD!!! Why LaToya? Why??? She was way better than Jasmine but yet the votes decided she had to go...

This sucks *grumbles* I'm disappointed. But moving on... let's wait and see who will become the 3rd American Idol.

The finale for Survivor: All Stars is just so full of drama!! Marriage proposal from Rob to Amber before they announced the vote... again... OHHH My GaWwwwDDD!!

All of a sudden... Reality TV seems to be full of interesting twists and turns. Just when I was getting quite bored with them. drE@mZzz...

p/s: But am glad that it's Amber who won the money - and may those 2 love birds live happily ever after.

Thoughts on F1 racing

I can close my eyes and imagine that Michael Schumacher wins one race after another. I'm now continually more interested in what goes on behind the master. The stars seem to shine bright for the BAR Honda team and their current boy-wonder, Jenson Button. That much can be said past the Imola race that happened last Sunday.

The BMW Williams team where Button was once a part of seem to be hanging on as much points as they can get... mostly via Montoya. Though what is happening with Mercedes McLaren could be a repeat of what happened last year. Lacklustre performance in the early stages but they managed to claw back up both the driver and team charts after a third of the season had gone by. This was achieved mostly via consistent performance by Raikkonen.

Thoughts about life in the past week...

In a few words... "Crazy, tiring, and quarter-end closing at work". For both last Wed & Thu... went home past 10pm. For last Friday... 2am the next morning... and I was back into the office again at 9am that same Sat to tie up loose-ends. This seems to happen during every quarter-end which we had so far.

No wonder I can sleep as though I were dead... it's not easy to wake me up when I'm dead tired... my parents can attest to that... ;P

Anyhow, Jocelyn called on Friday to tell me that she's back for a while from KL and wants to meet up... and so that's what we did when I picked her and Daisy up to have some drinks at Shamrock on Saturday night. It feels good to finally see people other than those I see at work day in and day out for the past week or so.

Truth be told... it's kind of a stress-breaker. The only other entertainment I had before this week of hell... was going to this magic show thing in PISA on 25-Apr'04 (Sunday) and bumping into Patricia. Found out that she's back in Penang and would be working for TNB.

Day 1, 17-Apr'04: Reached Jerteh by bus from Penang (left the island 9:20PM last night) at about 5:30-ish AM. From the bus station, the sleepy trio got onto a taxi to Kuala Besut... and boy was that a ride!

The taxi-dude drove as though he was in an F1-car... and his speedometer wasn't even working. Along the way we passed a police check point... but the cop was sitted in a chair was obviously in lala-land.

Still way early at 6AM... we sat and wasted some time in a coffee shop near the office of our "travel service". It's called Cocohut Travel by the way... and no... they aren't overrun by coconuts all around the place. XP

At about 8AM - we started our 30 mins boat ride to Pulau Perhentian Besar after doing all the necessary registrations. Arriving on the island, my pals and I put our luggage under the care of the chalet management coz we don't get to check in til noon... and headed for the sea!! Woo-Hoo!!

Clear, cool waters... we dipped into the water for a while... then we suddenly realized that it'd be better to get snorkels from the chalet ppl first. That was the beginning of it all... first reef area in front of the chalets... hmm... nice... 2nd spot... even better!

HelloOoo Nemo! Okay... so I saw a bright fluorescent orange clown fish playing among the anemone... mwuaaaahhh!!! I happily swam around some more until I saw a jellyfish somewhere in the water... arrgh!!! I'm too chicken to stick around... bubbye!!!

Meals were included into our holiday package... and our first meal there was a real shock. One huge and scrumptious fried fish, a dish that looked like kung-pao squid, large plate of vege & a huge serving of tom yam soup... enough to feed 5 ppl but there are only 3 of us!! Gosh... that's a lot of food

After lunch... and a short rest... the REAL snorkelling trips began. 1st drop point somewhere off Perhentian... the reef was the most beautiful among all the others that they took us to. A close look at the corals sometimes reveal a camouflaged fish... most often - the stonefish that pretty much matches the coloring of a type of hard coral.

I started to have a headache after getting out of the water and into the boat to leave for our next destination.

2nd drop point (also off Perhentian)... we went looking for turtles. Decided to hit the water again despite my headache... and yup! I had a good look at the turtle - big fella but it's a shy one...

3rd drop point... decided that I better skip it... accumulative effect from lack of rest + going under the heat of the sun is not a good thing. Siew Hooi said that there were more anemone and plenty of clown fish there... and btw... by now... we noticed that no matter where you go... you can always spot sea cucumber (many different species of them too).

Back at the chalet... it was some rest before dinner... and again... huge servings. Night time, we did some star-gazing while lazing on the beach enjoying the breeze. By now, we were quite buddy with our "tour guide" and a few people who are our partners in crime during this trip. In short, we are in the same activities group.

Day 2, 18-Apr'04: Mmmm-mmMMmm! Another day of blue skies, clear sapphire blue waters across the horizon. Along with Lyne, Siew Hooi and the group we've been joined with... it's off to a trip around the Redang group of islands.

A few minutes after we left Perhentian Besar, our boatman received a call to turn back. Seems our guide forgot to take our packed lunches into the boat... patah balik!!!

We had good laugh about that as we journeyed to our 1st snorkelling stop. Dunno where it was except our guide, Andy, told us the place was called Teluk... to which I replied "Teluk what?!". Great view though.

Next, Redang's longest beach... Pasir Panjang... place with white sandy beaches, part coral graveyard nearer to the beach and regenerating/surviving reef further off the beach.

Sea life here is diverse... and the fish are very used to people... mush out some water soaked stale bread and they come around you like a swarm of bees. We also get to see a few small groups of coral sharks here. Yup! The same kind that Richard Hatch caught in one of the Survivor episodes.

Swimming further out, I managed to see a fish that looks like a brown-yellow giant version of the whatever-horn fish that was so popular... my guess is - it could be about 4 to 5 feet long from head to tail.

Final snorkelling stop for the day - Redang Marine park. But before we hit the water again... it's time to grab some lunch. It was probably one of the best nasi kandar meal I had outside Penang.

We each had rice with squid, cabbage, a kind of roast chicken, and some sambal... on picnic tables and benches under the shade of some beach front trees. Yes... that includes coconut trees. ;P

After washing our hands at the facilities that were built on the island, we swam to have a look at the sunken ship first. Corals have grown on and around the structure... and fishes have made it their home too. We then swam within the perimeter heading to the jetty and saw this really big school of white pomfret somewhere further out.

Taking my head out from facing underwater for a while... I heard Siew Hooi saying "Mmm... yummy!" - I couldn't help but laugh as I myself imagined having a nice, sweet, and juicy bawal putih for dinner. Not long after that, I spotted what looked like a fish that was about 10 t0 15 feet in length somewhere about 50 or so feet below the surface... wow...

However, the corals around here were different. They were more dull and it was not hard to see that there were plenty of spots of dead corals here and there. I also remember following a garoupa that had glowing spots on it for a while before it ducked into the corals to hide from view.

The area where I was at that time kinda freaked me out though. The coral reef couldn't have been more than 3 inches below me and I didn't want to get myself scratched all over. I swam as fast as I could back to the beach in a sort of panic while trying to keep myself as high on the surface as possible. Getting to the beach felt really good after that.

Before leaving the marine park, we took some pictures to remember the amazing view around the place. Siew Hooi and I concluded that Lyne was a really bad influence. You see... our friend Lyne hung on the tree with her hands and feet clinging to a tree branch (we took a photo of that), and some others in the group started doing the same a bit later.

It was amazing the the branch didn't break when one of the heavier folk got on the branch ala orang utan. Bless them all for not getting hurt.

On the way back, we dropped by Pulau Lang Tengah. Our guide just left us there to enjoy the beach. There's not much to do there actually since the waters off the beach were very shallow and quite rocky. All there was to do there was to relax and enjoy the view... :)

Later, as we were getting back to our chalet, our guide took us to a cold water spring on the other side of Perhentian Besar. Splashing ice cold water over our heads never felt so good. It sure took out the feeling of having a "burning" head and body after a whole day of snorkelling.

Finally back on solid ground, we took turns to have shower before heading to the restaurant to have a fantastic lazing and snacking bout. We ordered a chocolate banana pancake... while Lyne ordered her standard Milo + 1 glass of warm water, Siew Hooi ordered a fantastic mango smoothie, while I got myself a banana smoothie.

The smoothies were Sinfully delicious! They used real fruit to make those... there's no such thing as using carton packed juices here (like what our normal food outlets would do). We vowed that we will have to come for a smoothie again before we leave the island the next day.

Having finished our snack - we grabbed some magazines to read while hanging out on the beach... lazing on the deckchairs. Shortly after that, we heard a few ppl from the other group asking for someone (anyone in our trio) to fill in an empty spot for a game of "chor-tai-tee" on the porch of their chalet.

SH & Lyne didn't really know the game but I knew how to play it... so they shoo-ed me off to join our holiday friends for the game of cards. We played for quite a few rounds before going back to join the group hanging out at the beach while we all waited for our designated dinner time. That was when we couldn't resist ourselves from gossipping about the black sheep in our holiday group.

We talked about this notorious couple that was always last to get on the boat or join in for any meal... probably because they were oblivious about everything else while being in a world of their own. They don't even make it a point to apologize for each time they made us wait for them.

Everyone got so used to it that we roll our eyes whenever we notice the missing headcount... coz it's always the same 2 that are missing.

Then there were the episodes where the two couples in the group... where the guy willingly carries the girlfriend if she happens to complain that she is tired and doesn't want to continue to walk/swim. Oh gosh! Textbook helpless damsels in distress... we never thought we'd see a page of history coming to life.

Finally, it was dinner time. On our table... a big plate of fried mee hoon... while the main attraction was BBQ-ed squids, fishes, and succulent crabs. Yummy! Yummmmmmmyyyyy!!!

Halfway through dinner - the pompous guy (one-half of the couple who's always late) asked us if it was our first time at Perhentian and if we liked our chalet. SH told him that it was a first for Lyne and herself and yes we liked what we have paid for... and that this wasn't my first trip there as I've been to Redang before.

He then asked me if I liked Redang or Perhentian better... and when I said Perhentian... he continued to ask if I endured my stay in Redang because there were guys who were better looking than him in the group I was with. Not wanting to stroke his overgrown ego - I replied, "Hell yeah!". SH and Lyne couldn't be more proud of their "lil' sister" (that's what they playfully called me throughout the trip).

Later... as life would be on the island - we armed ourself with mosquitoe repellent before settling ourselves back onto the deckchairs along the beach. We chatted about a great many things and was later joined by Ah Huat from the other group. This dude apparently resembles one of our colleague's sons. Our guide also joined us for a while.

We later noticed lights flashing from the waters but it didn't quite register what was it about until we heard a shout from a boatman... he said "Please inform the owner of the place. We ran out of fuel!"

Not long after that... I think some kind of rescue mission happened. A small boat went out to pass some fuel to the stranded passing boat that was just drifting towards wherever the current was taking it to.

That was quite an eventful observation before we all decided to call it a night.

Day 3, 19-Apr'04: After breakfast, we all followed our guide for a bout of jungle trekking. Someone asked if it they should wear shoes before we started the hiking trip... and Andy replied, "Piece of cake. No shoes needed". But truth be told... never trust a native of the island... he's used to being barefoot. Pity the poor suckers who believed Andy and went barefoot.

Our first target was to get to the other side of the island. Lyne and I seem to be ahead of the group most of the time... to which someone trailing behind commented that the 2 of us must be experienced hikers. Hah... erm... yeah... maybe.

Soon as Lyne saw that we've probably reached "the other side" - she exclaimed that out loud. Andy who was a bit behind us quickly shouted back, "Wait, wait, wait!" before darting ahead of us. Lyne and I soon realized that he wanted the appearance that he was first to arrive at our destination... and started to laugh at Andy. He's one nutty chap (and a nice one too).

The other side had a really nice, long, wide and white sandy beach... with hammocks hung between coconut trees; and a roofed hut to shade us from the sun. We rested and rehydrated ourselves before taking another trail to go back to our chalet.

The trail back was a much easier one... except for the part where there was a drop that we had to take before crossing a small, passing stream. Two guys were overzealous and fell down but luckily they were not hurt bar a few scratches.

We soon reached a 5-star chalet resort and walked through it's compound. Up on one of the trees in that area was a family of white-faced black-furred monkeys. Real peaceful creatures who really wouldn't understand our fascination with them as we (this included some gwai-lows who are residents of that resort) stared and looked up at them.

This was an obviously more upmarket and more commercial stretch along Perhentian as we spotted some souvenir shops around the place. As the stretch of beach ended... we thought that all we had to do was to climb a few more steps across the hilly terrain and we'd back to our chalet.

Boy were we wrong!! The guide told us to go ahead and follow where the big black water pipe goes as he waited for stragglers in the group. (You guessed it... the infamous couple are missing again!)

So... we found ourselves were hiking along the jungle trail again (without a guide in front)... and starting to feel rather tired... SH and I cheerfully chanted out thoughts of ice cold 100 plus, delicious smoothies and a juicy burger to spur us home to the chalets.

15 minutes later... we were finally back at our chalets. Phew! Just in time for our check out too (noon). Luckily for SH, Lyne & myself... we could afford to rest and have a shower since we found out that there'd be no one who'd be checking into our unit. BLISSS!! However our neighbours weren't so lucky...

They had to move out soon as they reached back from the jungle trekking... so what they could do was move their stuff out and then they dropped by our place to take a shower... it was an alternative that better than nothing at all :)

After checking out - we ordered out lunch... Yup! We had our burgers... and SH had to have her mango smoothie again... while this time round, I tried the watermelon one. The taste of it reminded me of ais kacang. Ais kacang!!!

We had intended to leave on the 4pm boat ride out from Perhentian but the owner told us that 2pm would be a better time as the sea would be rough later in the evening. And so, we docked our bags and ourselves into the boat... put on our life jackets and said goodbye to Perhentian.

Back on land in Kuala Besut, we bought some keropok and arranged for a cab to Jerteh where we spent the entire afternoon until 10:30pm at night. We tried some of the local food there... the weirder the dish sounded or unfamiliar to us, the more likely we were to order it for our meal. One of it was "sup perut". It was good and no I didn't get diarrhoea the next day!

Before we went to wait for our bus, we managed to find a shop that operates much like a factory outlet store. Lyne and SH bought some shorts while I found a nice piece of sarong batik for my mum.

After that... we just waited for ages for our bus to come. It was late by about 30-45 mins. This time, our seats were wider and we dozed of soundly soon after since we've had a pretty tiring day. The only time we woke up was at the last rest stop that the buses made because we had to hop off the bus for a short while to warm up a little.

5:30am the next day, 20-Apr'04 - we were finally back at the point where we began our journey to the East Coast. The 3 of us decided to have an early breakfast of roti canai at the nearby mamak store. *yawn*

Then we headed for Lyne's car. It was part of the plan that we got someone to leave her car there the night before... so that Lyne can drop the other 2 of us home without having to bother others to wake up at an ungodly hour to pick us up.

Arriving home... I quickly unpacked what I could and made sure that I continue to stay awake since I had planned to dart into office to download my emails before everyone else got into office. After that was done, I had to drop my grandpa off to his office in town.

With that finally over and done with... it's time to hit the haystack and not wake up until whenever. ZZZzzz...

Well... I don't think it's much of a choice but more of an obligation that I had to make. I had to claim my half-day paid time off this afternoon. Dad feels strongly that we should follow my granduncle's funeral procession.

I didn't think that it would be too wise of an idea to let my dad drive today anyhow. He had, after all, just fell and hit his head over the weekend and earned himself 2 stitches on the head.

It was a crazy day for me... having to go into office by 7am for the 2nd day in a row... I know I'll be drained out at the end of today. But then again... going in to work at 7am also means that I can execute leaving for my 1/2 day off much earlier in the day.

When I arrived with my parents at my uncle's house for his father's funeral - he knew that he didn't have to find anyone else to babysit his 7-year old daughter cause she usually locates me easily like a homing missile.

The day was long and it was hot... but still we had to go through all the rituals. By the time we finally arrived home from whatever we had to do... I felt like a dead fish and lugged myself to bed. It was a long day indeed.

Today I'm observing Good Friday... courtesy of following the Singapore holiday calendar... wahahahaha!!!

Had managed to pop by the IRD with my colleague Cindy... just to confirm that we are not taxable yet... alritey!!!

...and best of all... being able to just hang out for a lengthy, chatty breakfast session without worrying that we had something to work on... coz we are on holiday on a Friday... JOY!!! JOY!!! JOY!!!

I'm so pissed that a certain group of people can be so brainless. Just because I'm not handling any accounts... it doesn't mean that I will forget the whole process and procedure... in fact... I have to know it and understand it all the time because it's part of what I do.

Sure... those idiots escalated the issue all the way to top management... except that they don't realize that they just threw a spanner into the clockwork. Now the system support model will be disrupted. It will be destabilized once more after finally finding and maintaining a solid ground for the past month.

Baka!! Baka!! Baka!! Whomsoever be the BPA(s) that brought this issue up should just try to be in my shoes... I don't want to find out the name(s) of the person who created and support the issue... coz I will not be able to stop myself from wanting to strangle them with my bare hands... grrrr!!!

It's a small world after all...

When you least think of it... something happens that reminds you that the world is not so big after all. For instance when I read about a recent murder of a discotheque manager, I went, "Hey! I know who he is!! That's the fag that coordinated a show for one of the grad balls that I had taken part in as an organizing committee member"

Then it seems to me that the world is even smaller than I think it is... when one of my ex-colleague and her sister talked about the murder and said that they knew this guy quite well... and that her sister cried when she heard the news coz they were friends. My ex-colleague, on the other hand, mentioned that she wasn't too fond of the guy.

But there was one thin that we all agree about. The way the late Nigel Samson talks can offend people. He's agressive and over-confident to the point that sometimes you just wanna give him a tight slap... yet we know he means well... he's good at what he does... and definitely the alpha-perfectionist. Even so... no one deserves a fate like his... such a terrible way to die...

This weekend was basically all about the Ching Ming festival... in other words... the Chinese version of All Souls' Day. Actually... we are doing this early by more or less a week since my dad will not be in Penang for the next 2 weeks.

And so... Saturday was the day that I was rustled up way early in the morning by my dad for our trip up to Balik Pulau to do some prayers at the grave of my great-grandparents.

Today... was more prayers at home... although... I did steal some time in between the usual proceedings to bake a Peach Cheesecake... ;)

Oh yeah! My favourite little cousin came visiting too... and gosh... I still got coaxed to do some impromptu drawings for her... and I've still not succeeded to come out with perfectly dry clothes on me after I give her a bath. *rolls eyes*

Later at night, Bowie came to have her share of the cheesecake with her beau. She also finally managed to see all the photos that I had wanted to share with her. According to her, I look alike a certain colleague of mine. Man... she's the 2nd person to tell me that

But I'm not so sure about it myself... somehow I just don't really think we look that alike... hmm... maybe I should just test the reaction of a few other ppl

Since the last time I wrote something here... I've watched The Missing, did my duty by going to vote in the 11th Malaysian Election, and have watched a pretty good race via the telly... namely our very own Malaysian Sepang F1 GP race

The movie? A pretty good vs. evil story... and it also emphasizes on the importance of family ties thread on some level. Also loved Cate Blanchett & Tommy Lee Jones in their roles.

The elections? I'd say it went pretty well... though my brother and I did notice that we were probably the only ones in the early 20-ies queuing up at our polling center to do the deed. Most of our friends popularly ask just this one question... "Hey! Where can I get registered?"

Like ... DUH-UH?!! All you have to do is walk into the Post Office... go up to the counter... tell them you wanna register for the electorate role... present your IC... and you are done in maybe... 5-10 mins (provided that the connection to the EC network is not down).

Basically, this just reflects the "tidak apa" attitude among most of the unregistered eligible voters in my age group. Where's your pride people?! Your single vote can logically sway the result of the poll - and thus leading to the selection of your state and parliament representatives by a simple majority.

The race? It was great compared to the race in Albert Park, Melbourne. It started with spots of rain at certain parts of the track... tricky business manoeuvring between the wet and dry areas. Plenty of interesting overtaking bouts by drivers in the top and mid-field... so it was not boring at all.

A job well done by the guys who made it to the podium... Michael Schumacher (who has skills and a superb car package), Juan Pablo Montoya (who kept his head and didn't over-push his car this time), and Jenson Button (who finally won a podium placing since he first stepped into F1 racing in year 2000)

F1 cometh once again...
The New F1 season has finally opened with the race on Sunday just passed. I can just say that the results has been nothing surprising so far. Same old faces for 1st-2nd... *yawn* but it was great to see Alonso making it to 3rd place. This guy is really someone to watch out for in the future after Michael Schumacher's days in F1.

Pity that Raikkonen had his engine blown out pretty early in the race... oh well... and it also seems the early 1st pitstop for Montoya didn't quite pan out to give him an advantage... pity... pity... seems Ferrari had one upped on everyone again with their superb car package.

Visitors at work...part 1
First - there is the furry kind. Found what looked like a small puddle of suspected mouse urine on my desk. Quickly armed myself with a bottle of glass cleaner; sprayed my whole desk after temporarily moving papers on my desk elsewhere; and wiped off the glass cleaner. No sign of furry visitor for the next few days...

(In Gollum-speak) "Good... gooood... they must hatessss the smellsss of the glass cleaner... yesssss... yessss... they hatesss it"

Visitors at work...part 2
The entire BPE team stationed in Asia was onsite in Penang for the whole week. Finally get to see them face to face. All in all... it was 3 from Singapore and 3 from Japan... the other 2 are actually stationed in Penang. They are really nice... but I'm not so sure about the one who didn't really seem to be in the mood to mix around. Hmm... nevermind our miss high-and-mighty. The others were pretty great company and we got to know them a little better too.

I also found out that not only is my yahoo-ing buddy, Thanadet, a humorous character (ok... whoever worked with him knew this)... he is an absolute riot simply because he is much like a kid at times (my new discovery)... he also seems to have an odd fascination about my braces... coz when he sees me... he looks at me all weird and especially when I talk... he's trying to spot the placement of the braces... (p/s: I think I'm gonna get that same treatment from kalamari when I meet him sometime in the near future o.O)

Last Tuesday... it was "School of Rock". This one is a really fun and entertaining watch. Borderline to slapstick comedy but it was a good one nonetheless. Yesterday... it was "Mona Lisa Smile". Sadly, I didn't find the storyline all that cohesive. But to quote Chin - it's a good chick flick.

Bless them cinema theatre "wars" - Tuesday is officially movie day with tickets as cheap as RM5.

For the 2nd Sunday in a row... I had a shopping walkabout thing at Gurney with Bowie. It's great to be somewhat back to having a normal life out of work and work alone. Must crawl back into having a social life...

Btw, I think I forgot to mention that I've had 3 teeth pulled out and I'm gonna be wearing braces soon. It's gonna hurt for a while... am sure of that... provided that all the horror stories I heard were not exaggerated... but I hope I can brave the pain and eat normally ASAP.

Woke up this morning feeling weird... then I recalled my dream.

For some reason, I was in a white room with no furniture. A "chun" babe with flawless complexion, beautiful facial features, and long black wavy hair... wearing a deep rose pink top and tight black shorts was lying on her side... with a laptop computer in front of her.

Then I heard myself asking "Hi Thanadet, I've got a question regarding (something-something-something)". She answered me in a calm voice and was very helpful indeed. Very cool.

So now I sit back and think... and it finally hit me that I called the uber-babe Thanadet. That's one of my colleague's name... but it's a he! Not a she.

*LOL* Omigosh! I'm gonna have a great time teasing my colleague... he did after all wrongly typed "saya sarah" instead of "saya marah" during one of our chats just some days ago. Will finally get to do the transvestite joke on him (with the added twist) since I let him go at that time because I was busy handling my horrendous pile of work.

Update: My colleague had a really good laugh when I told him this story... and thinks that I should not be so stressed... oh well.... o.O

Essentially - the past work week had been hell. Simple as that. So much to do... and so little rest... and quite the occasional stupid question or issue to attend to (easily throws everything out of da'flow)... almost everyday... something went wrong. Friday must be additionally jinx by the curse of Friday the 13th. Ouch!

Ok... saving grace on Friday for me was to have some fun and light-hearted chats/conversations with fun-loving colleagues... although office was quite lacking the Valentine atmosphere... not decked up in any sign of the lovey-dovey-romancey day... we thought "hey! virtual flowers will do... it's the thought that counts... and also - real flowers are too exorbitant at this time of the year..." *lol*

Anyway, I've managed to watch "The Last Samurai" (starring Tom Cruise) - last Saturday evening. The story is a pretty good one... and a period drama it definitely was. The movie was made in the style that was very much along the lines of "Braveheart".

About D-Valentine's Day? It's just another for me... and I for once amazingly have the accurate hunch that something will go awfully wrong with my car. One of the radiator host went totally bust... meaning that even if we put water into the radiator... it will flow out from one other end of the system almost immediately.... Fuh! What a day!