french, anyone?

Some of my church friends write to each other on a regular basis. Most of us are helping out in the children's church and tend to have discussions through email. On one ocassion, they included a new guy into the mailing list. He had been rather silent all these while because he was still trying to adjust to our way of writing.

One day, Juliet mentions about her joining a french class. So this new guy (let's call him W) writes his first email and mentioned that he was French-literate :
Mdm Juliet, c'est long du temp je parle en fraincaise, donc, si vous plaite, parle avec moi. Mai, je parle une petite peu et ecrite par bien.

Thus began many email discussions on what he really meant. With my limited french (I only attended the first class :P), I told them that he "can speak a little, but write well".

Another friend corrected me and said that he "speaks a little, but don't write well".

After a few more emails, another friend writes back telling us that W's grammar was wrong and his gender usage was a bit out. And this is how it should be :
Mdm Juliet, j'ai parlé pendant longtemps français, donc, s’il vous
plait, parle avec moi. Mais, je parle très peu, et écris bien!

And until today, we cannot decide whether he can speak and write well or not. French is so complicated!

My favourite cny ad...

... surely must be the one from TNB. When I first caught it, it had already started halfway and I thought it was an ad from either Osim or Ogawa promoting their latest water-based vacuum cleaner. You should see the whole family whooshing about with their respective vacuum cleaners. Mrs Chang pointing the long nose of her vacuum to suck the dust off the walls, while the Chang sibilings fly about ala-Matrix in mid air cleaning the living room. The younger son, Chang Chang hops on the railings of the stairs and slides down with a vacuum by his side. Mr Chang sees a stray ball of dust on the floor and rushes to eliminate it. But before he can do that, granma Chang comes in from nowhere, spinning down the hall and knocking off the rest of the family members with her trusty broom. While they are stunned by the appearance of the matriarch, granma Chang lets out an evil laughter. And as quick as she came, so did she sweep off the ball of dust into her dustpan.

At the end of the commercial, the Chang family poses in various kungfu stance with their cleaning machines. Even granma Chang lifts up her leg slightly to show off her agility. But just as she is about to fall, Mr Chang helps support granma from behind.

I think it is a brilliant ad showing the spirit of family ties and unity.
And did you manage to catch the other ad which I also find amusing - the one from TV3 where everything has to be in red?

cny reunion

Had my first CNY reunion with my mum's side of the family. Mum's 2 brothers, elder sister and their families, together with Ah-Poh, the matriarch of the family. Her family is rather medium-sized going by the norm of those days. Aunt Karen had already booked 2 tables in the very restaurant where she and Uncle Tony celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary not too long ago.

The 8-course menu went like this :
1. yee sang
2. four seasons
3. sharks' fin soup with crabmeat (i know, it's cruel. but it's already there, so waste not)
4. king prawn in herbal and garlic soup
5. australian pink garoupa in soy sauce
6. roast piglet
7. longan and sea coconut tong sui
8. sweet dumplings

If this did not help me put an extra 1kg, I don't know what will!

of the baby pink ao dai

we had a misions convention in church last weekend, and to create the awareness among the members, we were encouraged to wear an ethnic outfit. it could be the baju kurung, sari or cheongsam, or even a national outfit from any country that our church was sending its missions team to.

since i had the baju kedah, mini cheongsam and ao dai to choose from, i decided to wear something different. i was quite sure that most ladies in the church would opt for something malaysian. many said the baby pink ao dai looked sweet on me. i was glad it was a good buy! :D

it was quite fun looking at those people who were sporting enough to don traditional costumes walking around in church. an outsider thought we wore like this every time we go to church. they must've thought we were having a costume party in there!

coupling that with the speaker's motivation to share about his experiences in vietnam, it was encouraging to see many people coming forward to serve in this ministry. indeed the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few [Matthew 9:37].

so anyways, my friends decided to watch a movie in 1utama after church. seeing that i didn't have an extra change of clothes to change into, i wore my ao dai to the shopping mall. you should've seen the faces of the shoppers at the mall. i couldn't go into any boutique without having to endure stares from puzzled adults and curious kids.

i wonder if this is how famous models felt like when bring recognised. or worse, maybe this is how people look at aliens.

i am glucose

You are glucose. People feed off of you. You are sweet, caring, and a source of energy for everyone around you. You can inspire others with your creativity and depth, and you can keep people alive when in times of famine. People love you...or at least the way you taste.

LOL ... people love the way i taste?? ewwww :P

Which biological molecule are you?

Pubic Bank

Headline of Berita Harian, dated 12th January 2004 :

Pubic Bank, Great Eastern lancar Pelan Jaminan Pulangan Tunai (italics mine)

First paragraph states :
"PUBLIC Bank Berhad (Pubic Bank) dan Great Eastern Life Assurance (Malaysia) Bhd (Great Eastern) melancarkan pelan endowmen premium tunggal lima tahun yang dikenali sebagai 'Pelan Jaminan Pulangan Tunai' dengan saiz dana sebanyak RM150 juta."

It goes on to report about the representatives from each company who came to witness the signing ceremony, how the endowment plan works and the amount of returns one could get if they subscribed to it.

There is no further mention of Pubic Bank, but Public Bank comes into picture for the next few paragraphs.

First we had Sperm Bank, then Public Bank... whatever next??

at the rate...

... the traffic jam is going, i'm gonna have to leave my house at 630am!

i wish i didn't have to complain so much about the traffic, it's not as if my working life revolves around it. but the early morning stress is wearing me down. perhaps that's why i have not been blogging much since school started.

i started reasonably well last week, with about 2 late attendance. then i decided to leave home at about 715am early this week. still late by about 10 minutes. then i left even earlier this morning, and if not for some stewpik truck which banged into a signboard near the palace, i would've reached office on time! now i take 1.5 hours to reach the office, double of what i normally would have taken last year.

by the time i neared my office block, my blood pressure must've gone up to my head. i must either change jobs or get posted to a nearer company branch or shift house!

dilbert

whenever tuesday or thursday comes, i will look earnestly in the in-tech supplements to check out the dilbert comic strips. considered by some to be sarcastic or sardonic, i can relate to their brand of humour because they reflect the typical working life of the downtrodden employee and his/her relationship with the no-brainer boss. LOL!

dilbert never fails to bring laughter on a mundane working day!

smoking kills

Here's proof that ...

... smoke really does kill.

just for laughs

The Washington Post postulated that English should have male and female nouns, and asked readers to assign a gender to nouns of their choice and explain their reason. These were some of the best submissions :

COPIER - female, because once turned off, it takes a while to warm up. Because it is an effective reproductive device when the right buttons are pushed. Because it can wreak havoc when the wrong buttons are pushed.

SWISS ARMY KNIFE - male, because even though it appears useful for a wide variety of work, it spends most of its time just opening bottles.

KIDNEYS - female, because they always go to the bathroom in pairs.

TYRE - male, because it goes bald and often is over-inflated.

HOT AIR BALLOON - male, because to get it to go anywhere, you have to light a fire under it. And, of course, there's the hot air part.

SPONGES - female, because they are soft and squeezable and retain water.

WEB PAGE - female, because it is always getting hit on.

SHOE - male, because it is usually unpolished, with its tongue hanging out.

ZIPLOC BAG - male, because they hold everything in, but you can always see right through them.

SUBWAY - male, because it uses the same old lines to pick people up.

HOURGLASS - female, because over time, the weight shifts to the bottom.

HAMMER - male, because it hasn't evolved much over the last 5,000 years, but it's handy to have around.

Extracted from The Star

of the rush job (p2)

today, my immediate boss handed me the presentation draft with the Big Big Big Boss' comments : "OK for your action".

whoppee! i guess he was in a good mood after all.

this looks set to be a good start to the first week of january 2004.