Thursday, April 29, 2004

dreaming of carbonara fettu... wat?

I probably can't remember the exact spelling of some italian dishes, but the thought of sinking my teeth into them just makes me wanna :P~~


Venue for dinna tonite : Some Italian restaurant .... :D
Reason for foreign food fest : Lok's birthday. Tho belated, is still a reason to celebrate!
Where I'm typing this : In da office
Reason for me STILL being here : It's raining rhinos and elephants! :(

Heck, I think I shall make dash for the car...! :)))

Tuesday, April 27, 2004

urgh

If God gave women MENstruation, what did He give men?

Urgh. I feel like going home. Lie down and hug my pillow.
I really think if the woman is not feeling the cheeriest of all days, it's the discomfort to blame. Used to think I could get away with mood swings by saying "I'm having my periods!" But as the years passed, I realised, it's more of the pain and urgh-ness that makes you wanna tear your hair out and give everyone a look which says "Don't even think of coming 10 feet within my perimeter!"

Think I'll go grab myself a hot cup of milo...

Monday, April 26, 2004

in print

Woohoo!

I have my name in the Metro, The Star, today!
In other words, my little complaint about NPE's toll rates have garnered me advertising space worth approximately RM504. :D

This ain't the first time my letter to the editor got published in national newspaper, but I'm suitably delighted seeing my opinions being immortalised in print. No(t much) point talking about it when the person hearing it have no power/ability to do something about it. Well, it's good to air your grouses and exchange ideas. But nothing like seeing it in print and being read by thousands, if not hundreds (let's be reasonable here), of fellow Malaysians. Heh.

And while I'm at it, might as well publish it here for the benefit of those reading their news online :

High toll puts cars back on Federal Highway

Wednesday, April 21, 2004

of lobsters and the spa voucher

I was sinking my teeth into a piece of deep-fried garlic lobster when Irene called.

Irene : Hey woman, what you doing?
Me : Ooo, having some delicious seafood here...
Irene : What's that noise there? You having party ar?
Me : *munch* Ya, I'm with my grrlfriends here. Birthday celebration.
Irene : Yours?
Me : *crunch* Hehe, ya! Belated lor. So hard to get everyone together..
Irene : Wah, you're so blessed!!
Me : *grinning* Yalor, yalor...
Irene : Ok lar, don't want to kacau you then. Have fun!

With that, I slipped the handphone back into my handbag and thought briefly about how blessed I was. After all these years, we're still together celebrating each other's birthdays. Not that we're middle-aged with hubbies and kids in tow, nor flung into various corners of the earth with high-flying jobs and exotic tales to boast about.

Heck, we're just enjoying the prime time of our lives. We're still single, have jobs which pays for a decent holiday once in awhile, meet up regularly to chat over a nice meal, and exchange stories about the guys in our lives.

And on this day, we made time to celebrate the birthdays of 3 grrls, mine included. It used to be individual or double celebrations, depending on which month our birthday falls. Since it was difficult to gather everyone last month, we decided to celebrate for the April birthday grrl too.

I kinda guessed what I was getting from them. After all, they did ask me for a wish list! Out of the 10 items (which includes downpayment for a Kia Rio! hehe), they decided to choose the spa voucher for my birthday gift. I was almost squeling for delight when I slowly pulled out the voucher from the birthday package.

As I scanned through the list for their services, I was already imagining myself being pampered with an aromatherapy full body massage. The strong and able hands of the masseuse stroking my sore muscles. The massage oil being rubbed into the skin. Me falling asleep on the bed after an hour of pampering. :D

Yes, indeed I am blessed. So loved hehe.. :P

Thursday, April 15, 2004

gems in traffic jams

Do you notice how drivers when stuck in a traffic jam tend to do things not normally done when people are around?

Or so they think.

As usual today, I was inching my way through the morning traffic on the Federal Highway. Since I was still recovering from my company's teambuilding training, I took a leisurely drive and in doing so, observed the drivers around me.

Behind me was this grrl so absorbed in digging gold in her right ear.
She must've been doing that for a whole kilometre or so coz she was tailing me since the Subang intersection to somewhere before the Motorola interchange.

There was another time when I caught a middle-aged man harvesting diamonds from his nostrils. Must be diamonds coz he was digging quite rigorously, if I may use that term. Not only was his nose contorted in a strange shape, but part of the face surrounding that area was looking a bit strange too. Must be quite a rare gem he's looking. Such effort he put in to get it out.

Thursday, April 08, 2004

mr secret agent

You never know how useful having certain connections can be until you get a tip off from them.

The Communic@tions Dept, together with the Hum@n Resources and Leg@l & Custodi@l, are considered P&C departments in my company. We are usually grouped together, not necessarily in the same office space, but on the same floor. (We've had our offices reshuffled at least 3 times in the past 4 years. Methinks company too much $$$ to spend) So it was quite natural that the staff from these departments mingled together and knew each other quite well.

The HR manager would drop by just to chat with the Leg@l head or my boss. We cannot tell whether it's strictly business or just chitchats. You could hear sudden roars of laughter coming in from their offices when they are around. Well, not all business talk have to be serious. Right??

On a few occasions, we have had information on which staff was going to be dismissed due to disciplinary behaviour, which new guy they recruited to be the new Sr President, and which Big Big Boss would be away on their shopping holidays in Europe!

Yesterday, the HR manager came in and seemed to be indulged in one of his usual chitchats with the Leg@l head. As soon as he left, Mr Leg@l came to our side of the office and spoke in a hush-hush tone to my Asst. Manager (AM). Somehow through the grapevine, we found out that the t0p management has planted a spy in the foodcourt.

The spy was assigned to take down the names of staff who went down to have their breakfast after 8:30am. Those found loitering in the foodcourt, eating or buying breakfast would be called in and asked to comment on their during-office-hours-meal.

Well, the 2nd part wasn't really confirmed, but it was preposterous even to have a spy down there. First of all, Mr Secret Agent would have to know the names of ALL STAFF in the company to be able to jot down their names. Secondly, there is no such rule in the Staff Handbook that states eating of breakfast is not allowed during office hours. Thirdly, eating breakfast actually increases the productivity of staff. By refraining them from having the most important meal of the day, their energy level and concentration would be affected.

Fourth, who's going to stop Mr Secret Agent from eating breakfast himself?

Tuesday, April 06, 2004

off to the hairdresser's we go

Going to the hairdresser can be quite a daunting experience. You just can't wait to hear what the hairdresser has to say about the condition of your hair.

The last stylist almost killed my hair by shredding the cuticles off. Waitaminute, "shred" ain't exactly the term here, but I found out that's what he did from my current hairdresser. To explain briefly, he used the edges of his scissors to slice away the cuticles (outer layer of the hair), making it thinner and lighter. However, this exposed the cortex (center part of the hair), making it dry and brittle. No wonder lar.. no matter how much conditioner I use, it still looks dry! So when my hairdresser pulled some of the hair up and let go, they did not fall down nicely. Instead, some hung halfway and looked really lifeless.

To overcome this problem, she told me that she'd have to cut off those parts which was damaged by his scissors. That would amount to about 2 to 3 inches. 3 inches?! I was cringing when she measured that length with her thumb and forefinger. So long ar??, I thought.

Ok, I said. As long as this solves my dry hair. To go one step further, I asked her to steam my hair. So after cutting my hair (thank God it didn't look like she cut a lot!), she proceeded to slap some creamy looking gunk and massage it into my hair. Pulling the hair into separate sections, she gently pulled and flipped my hair as if it was a piece of roti canai. I could feel my whole head sway. When the whole hair was smothered in the said gunk, she took the steamer thingy and put it over my head. It was like being in a sauna, except that the rest of the body was not in it.

After what must have felt like half an hour in head sauna, she removed the protective towel and washed the gunk off. Doing the usual blow drying and styling, I secretly hoped that I (my hair, to be specific) would look like Jennifor Aniston's... LOL! Well, it did turn out beautifully. I was really pleased with the results.

But the Jennifer hair only remained like that until I washed my hair off the next day :P

Thursday, April 01, 2004

Michael Bublé (p2)

I remember posting about Michael Bublé late last year. About falling in love with his voice and wanting to have a sample of it.

Last week, I got a belated birthday pressie from one of my grrlfriends and I was almost expecting a Josh Groban CD. Well, in her card she indicated that it would be something I'd love listening to. She had earlier asked me to make a wish list for my birthday. The more the better, then it would be harder to guess what I would be getting. So among the list of 10 things, I wrote Josh Groban CD and Michael Bublé CD.

Since Josh's "You Raise Me Up" had been playing on local airwaves quite frequently, I automatically assume I'd be getting his CD. Lo and behold, it was Michael Bublé! What a surprise!!! :D

But the problem is, this CD doesn't seem to play on normal CD players. It said on the cover "Enhanced CD", and when I inserted it into my PC's CD player, it didn't play by itself. How weird.... This CD must be too canggih for my old PC :((

Such agony, it's like receiving a CD player but not having a CD to enjoy its features!