My Member of Parliment

Last nite, 28th August 2008, BRP 7 had their Yee Lan community dinner at the padang. Yee Lan festival is to celebrate the Lunar Ghost Festival and tomorrow (30/8) is the last day before our unseen visitors have to go home.

We got a table for the whole family, it’s only RM 380/table. Today is no cooking day for mother in law and also a KPC day for me lah…can go mingle with neighbours loh

The guests of honour were :

MP for Subang YAB Mr Sivarasa Rasiah from PKR
Adun for Kuang – YB Ir . Muhammad Bushro bin Mat Johor from BN

After Mr Sivarasa gave a speech, we expected the BN Adun to also give a speech..tapi unfortunately tak nampak muka dia lah..your guess is as good as mine ….he did not attend this function, for reasons only know to him (and for actual reason known to all of us, the kind you know & I know lah reasons).

I took this opportunity to have a photograph taken with my Member of Parliament – YB Mr Sivarasa . Mana tahu, one day maybe he will be a Minister in Putrajaya …

Saigon - Chu Chi Tunnels

After the Temple Visit, our Cu Chi Tunnel adventure

Saigon - Day 02 / 18th Aug - Part 1

A picture tells a thousand words..so enjoy some of the pictures I took on Day 2

Saigon..here we come

Was in Saigon during the school holidays..(school holidays are the only time I can get away from being the ‘unpaid’ bas sekolah driver)

Day 01 - 17th Aug / Sunday
The gang of 6 (all ladies) met at KLIA departure hall for our flight to Saigon. Our MH flight left punctually and arrived less than 2 hours later at Saigon’s Tan Son Nhat Airport. After going through customs, went searching for our driver. Found him and after walking out from the comfortable cool arrival hall, the Saigon heat hit us …it was very hot and humid

Got into 2 taxis and began our journey into Saigon…absorbing the ‘amazing’ sight of Saigon…

Arrived at our small hotel -


Blue River Hotel, 283/2C Pham Ngu Lao Street,
Dist 1 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

It's a small family run hotel. We had 2 triple rooms and the rates was only US$32/nett, with american breakfast.


As our rooms were not ready, Thuy (the nice owner) recommended us to have lunch

at Pho 24, which was 2 minutes walk. It's like our McDonalds, except they sells noodles. The noodles was delicious, (don't know because we were hungry or what)..it comes with a separate plate of green herbs/condiments.


The most hilarious part was we confused the waiter when we asked him to convert the bills from Vietnam Dong into US$...guess we were all not maths geniuses.

Converstion ; 1 US$ = VD 16,000

Back to hotel, checked into our room..mine was on the 1st floor, so going up 2 flights of stairs was ok. The other room was on the 4th floor..my the other 3 friends had some free good leg exercises climbing.

The rain came and we had to stay put...it was a good excuse for a short nap. Was still drizzling at five thirtyish, so we decided to brave the slight rain and made our way to Cho Ben Thanh Market by feet.

This market is just big maze of little stores, selling from edible to non edibles. Walked around to familarise.

Then the fun started, with the haggling for more and more discounts. Due to language barrier, we used lots of hand signals, calculator and taking out Dongs to show the agreed bargained prices.

I bought 2 pairs of clogs (with beads and ribbon flowers) for US$4/pair.. A girlfriend bought 4 pairs for US$5/pair from a different stall, same design..too bad for her.

Had dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant recommended by Thuy. At this restaurant, 2 'ahemmm' Vietnamse guys offered us some very very sweet desserts, made from flour with durian flavour.

Back to hotel at about 9 thirtyish and discovered to my horror, my camera jammed.

After some technical assistance from hubby (via sms) managed to fix the problems, but all photos for the 1st day also kaputed..


Slept early for next day's Cu Chi Tunnels & Cai Doa temple day trip.

MONday Blues

Back to work today. Tons of emails & snail mails ..business and private. Attended the work related ones first, have yet got the time to read all my private mails..

Already bankrupt after all the shoppings (in Saigon & KL), luckily gaji is out today, otherwise I will have to start my puasa (fasting) earlier than my muslim friends…and talking about month end, that means more expenses reports and accounts to update…going to be a busy and tiring DAY.. hopefully still got energy to do my line dancing later this evening.

That the result lah of being away from the office for a week

Holiday Time

taking the week off to go for a nice relaxing time off holidays with my girlfriends..to a country where we can shop shop , eat eat , look look, sleep late and wake up even later..

We are going to have a GIRLICIOUS HOLIDAY

Penang - Pearl of the Orient

This entry is a bit overdue as I managed only to organize the photos now ..talk about procastinating ..I will get an Olympic gold for that


Visited Penang during the May/June 2008 school holidays.

Left KL on a sunny Saturday morning at noon and reached Penang before dusk..we took the ferry across to the island



views of Penang from ferry







FOOD

My daughter is 'crazy' over Penang food, especially the hei koh chee cheong fun (shrimp paste). She had that at least once a day for our entire 4 days in Penang.

We ate tons of food, loh pak koh, wantan mee, asam laksa, prawn mee, pasembor rojak, curry mee, char kueh teow, oh chian.


I felt like a walrus after the trip


Below are the some places we visited :-

Bujang Archaeological Museum located at Kedah
Personally, nothing interesting at this site to see, except for some laterites moulds.


Batu Bersurat inside the Bujang Museum










Drove to Kuala Muda for some look see look see, and found a 'run away' cow trying to hitch a ride to??? / waiting for the bus to ???? (hahhahaha)


In Penang, we decided to see the older historical side of this beautiful island, so we walked around Georgetown.

Hall of St George Church


This church is a smaller twin of a church in Goa - India, built by the British. It survived WW II.







Wanted to visit Khoo Kongsi, but they were closed for some functions.


Detoured and visited Cheah Kongsi at Armenia Street and other
interesting old historical buildings along the same road, like Yap Kongsi & Temple and Hock Teik Cheng Sin Temple








We also decided to say hello to the this Strait state founder - Sir Fancis Light.




Went hunting and found him after braving mosquietoes bites. Along the way, bump into Anna's (from the King & I) hubby too..and many many of their friends.




Visited Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion . Very impressed

with the restoration work done to this old grand
mansion. Tour was informative as the lady explained in detailed the historic information, including the 'feng shui' factors of this great house.

No photography is allowed in the house.


This photo is taken using handphone, with the late evening sun ray streaming down









Next, we walked to Cathay Hotel, on the opposite of Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion. It used to be Mr Yeoh Wee Gark Mansion, one of Mr Cheong's buddy. Mr Cheong has asked his buddy to build this house in order to protect the feng shui of CFT Mansion.

Address 15, Leith Street was named after George Leith who was Lt Gov of Penang for 3 years between 1800-1803.


Somewhere along the same road is the Chocolate Boutique, operated by the Beryl's group..Chocolate choices wide & taste nice but expensive.

Then visited the Residence of Ku Din Ku Meh, which is also offering home stay to foreign and local visitors. This house belong to a local merchant by the name of (you guess it), has very interesting history attached to it..the grandson of Ku Din Ku Meh, Tengku Yahaya Tengku Mahadi is now the owner & he was so kind to give us a tour of this grand home.

On the 4th day, as unpaid 'driver' had to stay back for business, the three of us took the NICE comfortable bus home to Kula Lumpur..

Another informative quality holiday (& not so expensive) for the girls and me..

Two weeks later, Penang and Malacca were declared UNESCO heritage site

Our Saturday T Bits

After heavy breakfast this morning, no one was in the mood to have lunch..

unfortunately, the stomaches decided that they need some fuel to burn, so the owners (us lah) had to go top up the empty tanks loh..



Eldest daugher decided to make & have sushi
fuel, with banana topping

Mummy fried some pan cakes, and top them with honey and grape Jam
(both courtesy of McD - hahaha)

Daddy made cold ramen with soy based soup (which he bought in Japan)

* did not take the actual picture of the cooked ramen because the taste was weird & foreign to mumm until she lupa (forgot) to take photo

Easy Pizza Breakfast

The kids were getting bored with their daily breakfast of white bread with kaya/butter.

Woke up earlier this morning to prepare my version of home made pizza ..


Cut some sausages and fried them in margarine, add some pepper & em heong fun (5 spices powder)


Then take ready made pita bread, made small holes with the fork, plonked some butter and tomata sauce on the surface. placed the sausages slices on the pita bread, top up with some sliced cheddar cheese (run out of pamesan cheese) Put them into the oven, heat up at 120deg F, for about 20 minutes, and I have some yummy looking home made pizza...which my daugthers also tau paued to school..

Ain't I great...hahahhaa

have a nice weekend

BABI ON GOOGLE (GOOGLE ON BABI)

Google logon page has the pig doing diving as (11/08/08) Google olympic logo.
The logo is so cute and the pig so adorable. Look at his (her??) little curl up tail, it is like a little pony tail on a little girl's head.

And China’s teenage divers Chen Ruolin and Wang Xin claimed the women's 10-meter synchronized platform gold at the 2008 National Diving Championships here on Saturday.

Babi brings luck to Chinese...don't we just love them.

OUR IDOLS

The upcoming Alam Tam’s performance in Genting Highland end August 2008, got me and my daughter talking about our idols.

During the 80’s, the hottest singing idol in Asia was Alan Tam (& Leslie Cheung to some). Mine was definitely Alan Tam. He is a great singer, with good showmanship and of course, was (still is) so handsomely cute..wish to get boyfriend like him..he can croon and romance with love songs (fluttering eyelashes & more hearts fluttering)..

That was the 80’s loh..and now, he is still attractive (to some aunties lah ok)..

Daughter was laughing as she do not see Alam Tam’s in the same light like her mummy does..

Her idols are Jay Choy, JJ Lim and Nicholas Teo (and one guy called Rain or is it Sun..aiyah forgot lah)…She will collect these guys CD albums (pasar malam version) without fail and can listen to their songs 24/7, even memorizing the full lyrics …if only she applies the same tactics to her studies (roll eyes), mummy will be so happy

Mummy cannot see what so ‘attractive’ about these guys..

Jay Choy looks so obnoxious and very 'lanxi', JJ Lim is like a small cute boy, still not wean yet…and Nicholas, well, can’t find the exact word but he is Malaysian wuah..

So comparing them to Alan Tam, aiyah..they no fight lah..Alan is still the best..


Why? Because mummy said so loh..

My Character??

My linedancing kawan, Christina sent me a character testing email..

For want of something to do, I tried out the test for the fun of it..

And this is the result of my character..

So my kawan, is it correct??

After our $$

Today, 2 articles in the Star Newspaper caught my attention in particular

1st Heading (Page N18)
Ministry to explain sodomy charges overseas

Apparently the Foreign Ministry will organize a series of information sessions overseas on sodomy case against PKR adviser …


2nd Heading (N57)
More funds to needed to save Sufiah campaign
The UK Malay Association (Melayu UK) is still in need of more public contributions to its ‘Sayangi Sufiah’ campaign aimed at helping mathematic genius Sufiah Yusof, 23, lead a better life.

Do you see what I see…I see more of my hardworking $, which I pay as taxes to the government, being wasted on unnecessary activities.

First of all, if Government said, other countries should respect the law of our country, so why to bother to go and explain why DSAI is charged for sodomy..why do you have to justify your action to the world and must travel overseas to do so.

We do not have to justify our action to every Tom, Dick and Harry if we think what we do is correct (unless 'san yau shit').

One the second heading of Sufian case, in a previous interview, she mentioned that she is leading a life she never imagine she could have, being pampered by her paying clients and loving every minutes of her profession.

So apa pasal mahu pergi jaga tepi kain orang lain..we have more deserving cases to look into in our own backyard.

Aiyoh..anything just to waste more of the rakyat’s money!

TODAY IS VALENTINE DAY

August 7, 2008

Today, is the 7th day of the 7th month, in the Chinese Lunar Calenader. It is also known as the Chinese Valentine Day.


The origin has an interesting love story behind it.

Read further to know the love legend, and the celebrations on Chinese Valentines Day.

The love story of cowherd and weaver girl. Niulang, a poor orphaned cowherd, was gifted with an immortal ox from the heaven. One day Niulang happened to cross the nearby lake where the seven fairy sisters were bathing. The ox asked Niulang to hide their clothes to see the consequences. One of the fairies had to go to Niulang to retrieve their clothing and the youngest and most beautiful sister Zhinu (the weaver girl) went to get their clothing. Zhinu was the fairy who weaved beautiful clouds and rainbows in the sky. Since Niulang saw her naked, she agreed to his request for marriage.

The couple got married and had two children. However, the goddess of heaven got furious about her daughter's marriage with a mere mortal. She instructed Zhinu to come back. She made a wide river in the sky with the help of her hairpin to separate the lovers.

However she allowed the separated lovers to unite once in a year on seventh night of the seventh moon. This day is celebrated as Valentines Day in China.

Here are some of the unique and interesting traditional practices followed on Chinese Valentines Day.

*Hoping to find suitable husbands girls offer fruits and incense stick to Zhinu.

*In some Chinese provinces, people decorate flowers on ox's head to protect themselves from all disasters.

* Girls throw five colour ropes on the roof for magpies. They believe that magpie's will carry this rope to build a bridge for Zhinu and Niulang.

* To test their embroidery skills, unmarried girls throw a sewing needle into the bowl full of water in the previous night. If the needle doesn't sink but floats on top of the water, it is a pointer that the girl is a skilled embroiderer like Zhinu.

(this one definitely cannot apply in KL, sure all our daughters will fail terribly)

On the night of Chinese Valentine's Day, it will surely rain for the rain are the tears of the Weaving Maid and Cowherd.

Well, it looks like they are going to cry a lot today as the skies outside is getting dark ..so be prepared for a big downpour from heaven

M I A

While still trying to find my direction in my career, I thought that I would like to work in the bank, after all in those days, working in the bank is considered as secure job, because when do you ever hear of a bank going bankrupt?

When I saw clerical openings in one of the Malaysia’s pioneer bank, I wrote in my application, posted and waited. A month later, was called for an interview at the bank HQ in downtown.

I was only in my late teens and was so nervous in the interview. Was given a set of IQ / EQ questions. And this was my first time being tested on my IQ (and I truly admit it’s not something I can be proud about ;-)

Some questions were on the acronyms of certain professional bodies or the GLCs companies. Aiyah..those questions really really got me pusing pusing (dizzy).. I am just fresh out of school, and solli, but they do not teach us acronyms in school those days (or do they?)

I still remember one of the acronyms


M . I . A.


Heheeheeheee..do you know what I wrote

Missing In Action … (M I A - rite mah)

hahhahahhaa…I guess I watched too many COMBAT shows (the series starring the late Vic Morrow – see I can still remember the name) on TV. When his boys (army) are lost and not found (dead or alive), they are categorized as MIA ..

And did I get the job? Guess lah..

MIA - Malaysian Institute of Accountants

Bad-Breath Mouth

When I was taking my PSC (Private Secretarial Cert) in those many many moons ago.. we were taught ways to handle interviews and to answer any prospective employers’ questions diligently and to the point. I remembered that our lecturer (it's a lady) told us, in any interviews, never ever to bad-mouth any of our employers (current or ex, even though we like to stick a dagger thru their (the bosses lah) hearts and gladly go to jail for it, for all the mental torture they give us in our daily office lives)..

Her reason was that our future employer would not be impressed if we were to bad-mouthed our current or ex-employers, as we could also be applying the same tactic in our next job interviews…How wise and true she was and is.

So me being a good student, listener and adapter, I have actually managed to land myself many jobs and left good impressions with most of my employers (ahemm…ok..i know, you will tell me self praise is universal disgrace / shame). Some of them even reoffered me job after I have left them. All because I do not bad-mouthed my bosses (or most of them anyway)..

ok..you can go and puke now over my self praise blog..


PS : This work ethic only applies to some people, we read in the newspaper that sometime ..every one is bad-mouthing everyone publicly..especially bila ada by-elections.

Kepong's Bridge

Is Falling Down

Yesterday evening, the whole family was on the way home from One Utama. Right after paying the $1.60 LDP toll, we were shocked to see the traffic jam from Bandar Sri Damansara / Sunway SPK towards the flyover to Kepong/Maluri.

Thought that it must have been some accidents (it’s Ghost Month oledi mah).

And this morning…this appeared on our MSM headline

Scare and jam on MRR2 as debris from pillar falls on cars
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2008/8/4/nation/21997435&sec=nation


Tsk tsk tsk,,we have barely enjoyed the smooth drive along MRR 2, and now this is happening again…

So, here's another nursery rhyme we all can learn to sing, taken from
http://www.tvsmith.net.my/duasen/100804_kepongbridge.html


KEPONG BRIDGE IS FALLING DOWN
by TV Smith 10/08/04
In years to come, our children may be singing this nursery rhyme in the tadikas...

Kepong Bridge is falling down,
Falling down, falling down.
Kepong Bridge is falling down,
My fair Samy.

Take a gag and shut us up,
Shut us up, shut us up.
Take a gag and shut us up,
My fair Samy.

How will we build it up,
Build it up, build it up?
How will we build it up again,
My fair Samy? B

uild it up with tax and toll,
Tax and toll, tax and toll.
Build it up with tax and toll,
My fair Samy.

Roads and bridges bend and break,
Bend and break, bend and break.
Roads and bridges bend and break,
My fair Samy.

Blame it on an Act of God,
Act of God, Act of God.
Blame it on an Act of God,
My fair Samy.

Rocks and blames will wash away,
Wash away, wash away.
Rocks and blames will wash away,
My fair Samy.

Parody sing along to "London Bridge Is Falling Down"

FRIENDS IN NEED

I have friends whom take me as their walking telephone directories and dictionaries.. Whenever they need a contact number, they will beep me, when they need to know how to spell a word or the meaning to one, they will beep me..

It good to know that I am useful but sometimes, it also makes me wonder, why is it that they do not have a record of these numbers…or why can’t they have a dictionary ?

Haizzz…it’s very irritating to get these calls, especially when one is trying to rush through some urgent work and the girlfriend is on the other end, asking for the meaning to a word!

Or they will call to ask me if tomorrow and the day after is a public holiday..or what is the conversion rate of RM to xxxxx currency.. or what’s AA or MH airfare to this and that destinations

Well, they are my friends and buddies, so what to do…just have to bear with them and be their walking Oxford Dictionary , Yellow Pages & information kiosk loh.'

SomeOne's Watching Over Me

Last week, I wrote about not being able to access IE.

After the handsome IT administrator has installed my PC with some new softwares, I noticed this sign appearing on my PC!

Can you see it??

It’s The EYE…



The icon looks like someone is watching over my every movement in the office, remotely. It also reminded me of an old show ..TWILIGHT ZONE, the black & white TV series so many years back, with all the weird creepy stories shown after 11pm.

I recalled that whenever that show appeared on the screen, my uncle (a full grown one) would just vacate his comfortable chair and go to sleep …not that he is sleepy but takut lah…(LOL while shaking head)

So I have to be careful what I do now …SOMEONE'S WATCHING OVER ME



SomeOne's Watching Over Me by Hillary Duff
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCoViK0G43Y

IT'S THE GHOST MONTH

1st August 2008

Today, marks the first day of the Ghost Month. Not that I believe ghosts exist, unless, it is those ham sup kwais and lan toe kwais roaming amongst us ...

Two days ago was on MSN with my girlfriend..suddenly the connection just kaputed, die off on it’s own,,and after some seconds, we got connected again..

She : What happened?

Me : Tomorrow Ghost Month

She : So?

Me : The Ghost testing the highway lah to Earth, our world. Otherwise, when they need to use as passage, how to get through if block?

She : Don’t talk like that.

Hehehhe..

that had me wondering..if their world is similar to our's, what are the preparations they make before they cross over for their month long holidays?

- do they need to apply visas? {Psst..any bribery to get the visa approved}

- do they need to apply for annual leaves? (for those employed)

- do they need to get a job roster done (so that everything goes smoothly while they
are having their holidays)

- do they need to pack?

- do they need to do any bookings (air/land/sea)?

- do they need to do any room reservations?

- do they get to chose their destinations?

and














DO THEY NEED TO PAY TOLL to get over?