The Circle of Life

Picture Shhhhh by David April (www.dpcprints.com)

Last night, my prayers were simple....Dear God, please let mum and dad sleep well.

I was watching the Amazing Race..we were all gathered around the TV. Dad, mom, me and my nephew, Jim. And mom and dad fell asleep. I turned down the tv, silent the cell phone and tip- toed around the house.

When my parents reach past 60, they turned into very light sleepers. Lack of sleep just make them tired, moody and irritable...and oh yes, less tolerant of each other....especially Dad.

I'm sure when we were babies, our parents would do anything just to get us to sleep, and tip toe around the house not to wake us up. Life is an interesting cycle, aint it.

Technical problem

On Tuesday, I wrote at length about the past 10 days. From my drive home to mom's surgery to sis's departure for her Haj and all the stresses and strains in between. I'm not sure if its the office server or Blogger was having problem, but the post just vanished.

And i'm too tired to repeat the same story......suffice to say that mom is doing great, sis is doing well in Mecca and i'm having a bad flu!

Its a slow week at the office, there aint many people around. Everyone's just taking it easy having long lunches and making the early exit.

All the antibiotics and pills are making me drowsy and irritable. I'm gonna go for an early lunch now.

Vroom, vroom

I'm taking the day off tomorrow - Balik kampung. The whole family will be back, both my brothers and family will be departing this evening. I've decided to drive back early tomorrow morning. Macam nak raya pulak.

Mum is going for surgery tomorrow. We want to be there for her and dad.

At the same time, i am going to take this opportunity to horse train my car. My brother told me a new car is like a horse - you need to train in to run fast or it will forever be lazy.....He asked me to speed the car after the mileage reached 400km...nothing less than 140km/hr. (is this true?)
I only managed short stretches so far.

So i'm kind of looking forward to the long drive.....

Have a good weekend everyone....

I should be worried..........

There are a few things i should be worried about this week, but i'm not. I guess its a good thing - not worrying. I've been told i worry too much.

There's an almost guilty feeling for not worrying.

Maybe i'm just not worried yet........

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Good

Jill & I are already in talks with possible strategic alliances for our "project" next year. In fact, we are doing some paperwork already to propose possible projects. We were only going to start next year, but windows of opportunities are already presenting itself.

The Bad

Jill is busy and all stressed - the hair pulling kind as she puts it. I still have my commitments at work - 72 days to go to be exact. By evening when we want to sit down and think about our "project", we would be dead tired.

The Ugly

Physically, here i am at work, but mentally i'm so not here. Its hard because i am in the middle of a tough project, and everything is sort of thrown in my lap. Jill and I owe our strategic alliance some paper work by tomorrow, and here i am staring at my laptop...i have all the ideas figured out in my head, but having trouble downloading it. I'm waiting for Jill to get off work@7. My working hours is over. Hopefully Jill can do 'brain surgery'. We'll be working as late as Starbucks can have us.....and shift to the Mamak next door if need be.

Movie Marathon

One Saturday - Two movies, both local production by the way. I hardly watch local movies at the cinema unless they're supposedly worth the watch. This time i wanted to watch Cinta because i read great reviews about it, and its apparently the talk of the town. Its been a while since i've seen Rahim Razali in a movie - Abang 92??

The Red Kebaya, i had doubts, but Jill wanted to watch it. It was supposedly different - plot wise, cast and crew, some clever effect. I thot i might as well go along with Jill rather than go home and brood over my problems.

I'm giving thumbs-up for Cinta (bring tissues) and thumbs-down for Red Kebaya (it started off well, and yawn, yawn - when is it going to end???)

Dead Tired

This morning, i woke up on the sofa, dressed in what i wore to work yesterday. I must have been dead tired. Running errands mostly, not so much the work. I was running around settling some car loan matters in the morning, then after work i was shopping for my sis, and some stuff for the car.

I'm going home to rest now.

It's my Birthday

Its my birthday today. A reminder of my age....the part i dont like most. Yet i find many reasons to celebrate as well.........

New friends, a small group of people i have become very fond with at the office over the last few months. Nothing like suffering together for that extra-special bonding! A nice lunch treat today, to be followed by another weekend get-together.

Calls and sms from people you havent heard from for ages - i'm ashamed to admit i dont even remember their birthdays.

I registered my new car today, its kind of cool i thot to coincide it with my birthday. I wanted to get the number 2311 but its taken. Settled for 252. Nice? The only 3 digit reg. no left for sale. Even the good people at JPJ got excited that it's my birthday when they were entering my IC no. ;-).

I am meeting a friend for dinner in a bit.

I have put in my resignation letter 3 days ago, and all set for a new beginning.

We talked...

We talked for what seems like forever....just me and him. It was like we have been friends for ages.

This morning, i got up to answer the phone, it was mum. She wanted to know if i was ok, after the stomach ache last night. I told her i was ok. Then i just sat there wondering why this happy feeling.

Its been a while since i had a good dream.

More Dad Update

Dad went for his check up yesterday, exactly 14 days after the "collaspe" incident. The not so good news is he has a heart condition, the good news is even though there are irregularities, the heart doctor said its not serious, so no need for surgery. He just need to be on daily medication, and we have to rush him to a hospital if he has chest pains. His BP which was too low before has stabilised somewhat.

Not the best of news, yet i am grateful that it is not worst than it already is.

No TV!!!!!

Only a tv junkie like me would have a full appreciation of my predicament. There has been no Astro signal feed to my tv for the past 12 hours...(at least). Maybe more. I returned home at 10.30pm after a horrible day at work, some issues with the family and a supposedly stress-relieving workout at the gym - to a blank screen.

"Services currently not available"

Its a normal problem if it rains (yes, despite the fact its PAY_TV!!). But this one lasted forever. The agony of trying, and retrying and retrying.....Because i live in an apartment building, the feed comes from a central receiver...not that "wok"-like dish. So when there's a problem, you need building management to help. Not good at midnight, not good when the office is closed over the weekend.

I have no idea if the neighbours are facing the same problem, as tempting as it is to knock on their door and ask that late at night. I fell asleep, woke up, still no TV. I cant even get free tv coz the arial point is directly connected to astro, and i dont have an indoor antenna.

I had this problem before, and the building management had me call the Astro Service man...Mr. Ibrahim. I found the number. Just called the guy....he's on his way to Balakong, and will drop by in the afternoon. Apparently i'm not the only one with the problem.

Aaargh, so restless...Save me Mr. Ibrahim, save me...

6 November....Someone's birthday.

In my bigger plan some years back, we should be celebrating this birthday together. Yours today and mine a few weeks from now.

It just aint happening. Happy Birthday.

Decisions...decisions...

Recently, i parted with almost RM400 for a gym membership....it wasnt even planned. You know they have these promos, and the irritating sales people try to convince you take up this great offer only valid for the day...i'm usually the last person to fall into such traps. My friends were amused. I thought it was a good deal. The RM400 is for 2 months membership, i.e. month 1 & month 12 (compulsory tie-up for 12 months). The other 100 admin fee. The outlet i signed up for is opening next year at location B. Until location B opens, dunno when maybe March, April or May.....i workout for free at outlet A. It sounded good at the time.

The morning after......what the hell, i wasnt even planning to join a gym in the first place. But hey, my friend Shal and her sis joined as well, so i can tag along with them ....I'm still upset with myself, but hey...i might as well make full use of it and get fit.

Dad Update- my dad is still weak, tired and coughing. His BP is still on the low side, and the doctor sd it takes a bit of time to go up to normal. He's loss his apetite;-(. Mum said today he's slightly better than yesterday, and I pray that tomorrow he'll feel better than today.

Salam Aidilfitri

I'm back to work after the long raya break last week. Didnt get a chance to post a raya message before i left town, so Selamat Hari Raya & Maaf Zahir Batin to friends and fellow bloggers...u know who you are.

I have loads to tell, but now is not a good time. When i left my hometown for Shah Alam yesterday morning, mum and dad was ok. Dad even look refreshed than the previous few days. He was due for his doctor's appointment today. Just the usual to get his supply of medication.

I got a call from mum about noon. While waiting for Mak Ngah to fetch them from hospital, dad just fainted on the pavement. Lucky my aunt arrived and some good samaritans helped to get dad in the car.

Now dad is at the Medical Center seeing his physician. His blood pressure has dropped too low. At the time of writing, Dad is with the heart doctor for some tests. His heart has always been good so far, so i am worried. I hope he's just tired. I am praying for good news, insyaallah.

The Entrepreneur

This is my niece. She's 8. She has recently turned into a young entrepreneur, and the last i've heard her net profit is closing RM50...that's huge for a kid, right...

Her modus operandi is simple, her little friends can place an order for any song lyrics to her. Then she'll go home and get daddy to surf the net, download, reformat and print out for her. She keeps the original printout for "stock", and photocopy at 10sen per piece and sell it at 20sen.

I met her the other night an she showed me her best sellers. Check out what 8 year olds are listening to:

(Not in any particular order)
1. My Heart- the soundtrack from the lovy-dovy Indon movie Heart
2. Kenangan Terindah - Indon band Samson
3. some love song fr Indon band Peter Pan
4. all songs from Disney's High School Musical
5. some love song fr Indon band Radja

And to supplement her core business, she's also selling tissue packets at 50sen each. Of course she bulk buys...only the ones with cute cartoons on the packet. However, her parents thinks she's ripping her friends off so now tissues are on a discount at 30sen per packet...

I dont think i sold anything at that age....i think the whole thing she's doing is cute & i'm so proud of her;-)

One week to go

Its been one week since i last posted. Its been a hell of a week and i was not in the mood. One of those Murphy's Law week when just when you thought you hit rock bottom, you sink in deeper. Mostly its about work, and people at work. I so wanted to blog the day the apartment security didnt want to let me in because i have not changed the car sticker, and i did a stunt...reversed my car and accelerated through the exit gate....the most exciting event of the week. That's the night the dial up connection at home was on standstill.

I havent been able to get much sleep the past 2 days, with all the anger and frustration in my system. I am on puasa leave (ladies do get days off, ok!) but i only eat once in a span of 24 hours. Now i feel almost zombie like.

But on the upside, i'm looking forward to finish my Hari Raya shopping this weekend. Then there's only i working week before the long week off.

Depressing Haze

The haze is back, again from some forest burning going on at a neighbouring country. How many times have this happened? When is it going to stop? The last haze incident, i think the news reported both country's ministers met and talked. The "neighbour" was supposed to take steps to prevent open burning.

The view from my office window is depressing. Everything looks grey. This picture i took from my bedroom window yesterday evening, while waiting for buka puasa. On a clear day, i can see the Twin Towers all the way from Shah Alam.

My throat didnt feel so good. The air smell smoky. I rushed through the Ramadan Bazaar, choosing food less exposed. Not exposed would be almost impossible.
I called my parents. Both of them are asmathic, ...luckily the air is clear where they are.

The air is supposed to clear in three days, not the open burning, but some monsoon wind is forcasted to blow the smoke away from us...(at least that's what i heard on the news).

Stay indoors people!

Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis: a striking change of circumstances.

Today, i'm more determined than ever, to do all that i can, for the "Metamorphosis" to happen sooner than later. There is the final push, and then there's the violent shove.

I have discovered that i can never wait for all lights to turn green, there will never be a perfect time.

So i made the call the Maria....a much welcomed one to my surprise. We are meeting next week.

Say No to Chickens?

There's a buzz around town, in the media that if the consumers gang up together and boycott chicken for a while, the price will go down. Yes, basic economics...supply exceeding demand will force sellers to drop the price.

But i can't not eat chicken. I already did that during the bird flu episode, but that was a life& death thing.

I need my chicken murtabak, chicken percik, and other chicken dishes for buka puasa. I want my chicken rendang with ketupat for pagi raya.

Can you guys go without chicken?

Snacthed!!

I left office early yesterday, and had to to stopover at the Ramadan Bazaar at Stadium Shah Alam. I went for the atmosphere more than the food. There are not many muslims at my office so you dont feel the ramadhan excitement as much. At my previous workplace, i still remember in the afternoons Pdose & I will start a discussion about food for berbuka, which stall has the best murtabak, those were the days....

Anyway, it was fun. I took this snapshot just for Javard, apparently a Ramadan Bazaar fan whose fasting in Australia. J, they still look the same since you left....;-)


on a less pleasant note........

i got a phone call from Mum after 10p.m.. Angah & Along, my retired aunties got robbed at the mosque during tarawih prayers. You know the curtain dividers between men& ladies...they were in the front row, and placed their bags against the curtains. While they pray, some guys/ boys snacthed the bags from under the curtains.

Along only had RM1 and her glasses in her bag, but Angah had her car keys, house keys and purse in hers. The mosque is like 5 minutes drive away, but a good 15 -20 mins by foot, maybe more at "auntie speed". So they walked to a neighbour's house to call my mum for SOS...the only number they can recall probably. Mum called a mechanic to help with the car and called me to ask what to do. I then called my brother, who called my sister in law who called her brother to go and held (you see.....we have a very bad emergency response plan in the family;-) )

Anyways, they were finally rescued by 2 good neighbours, who broke the current lock and replaced pedlocks for them. And the mechanic came to get the spare keys from Angah and drove the car home - how technical was that - i was expecting some hot-wiring action. I was scared that the "snatcher" will drive away the car, and drop by the house as Angah's address is on her IC. But all ended ok.

Of all places to get robbed......in the house of God in this holy month.