Celebrate life!

There's something very endearing and emotionally inspiring when you read or watch stories of people with extreme physical disabilities and faced impossible challenges in life and eventually won admiration from many people for being a hero.

One such person is Kyle Maynard. Kyle was born with short appendages or medically speaking; a congenital amputee, his arms ending at his elbows and his legs at his knees. Despite his shortcomings, that didn't stop him from becoming a wrestling champion on the mat and in his life.

He even wrote a book about himself aptly titled 'No Excuses' about his battle against the odds. I haven't read his book yet, I only got to know of him in the Oprah Winfrey show this afternoon and immediately smitten with adulation for this young man.

He simply refused to accept life as it is and accept defeat with grace in his early days as a sportsman and moved on. To him, there is no excuses in pursuing his lifelong dream and the ultimate goal in achieving a normal life that many of us took for granted.

The Office Jerk

One of the many perks I get after finally quitting the mundane office job is the ability and capability to watch as many programmes on astro channels and I am spoilt for choice. One of my favorite tv programmes that I'm currently hooked on is The Office.

The Office is about a bunch of typical, dysfunctional bored office workers with an equally dysfunctional, obnoxious and ego-maniacal boss who goes by the name of Michael Scott played to the hilt by stand-up comedy actor, Steve Carrell.

This is the kind of sitcom that I really enjoy watching since Cheers back in the late 80's. Its humour is somewhat deadpan, subtle and hilarious with ego clashes, inappropriate behaviours and irksomeness. He's a boss who actually tries his level best to be helpful to his subordinates but always ends up screwing it up and come off as a complete jackass. And he thinks his problems is always BIGGER than the others. I just cannot imagine if anyone has ever had that kind of boss in a real life office situation.

I like the way its being filmed like a documentary and the characters acknowledged the camera angles as if they are being filmed for a reality tv program. This sitcom is not for everyone who appreciates dull, characterless slapstick sitcoms something like err..senario? Urghh...hate it!

If you are one of those people who enjoys dark, subtle comedies like this one, welcome on board!

Monday morning humour

Nothing beats my monday morning than a cuppa of piping hot milo and toast spread with margerine and sugar on it. Enjoy!

Monsters in the closet

How do we protect our children from these monstrous creatures? They appear to be normal and decent human beings. They are after all members of our family. Our own flesh and blood. 

Some carries the title of being a father, a stepfather, a grandfather, a brother or brother-in-law, an uncle and sometimes they are our childrens' teacher, neighbour, the husband to our female friend or a father/brother to our childrens' friend, people that we trust with all our hearts.

So it really disturbs and frightens me right down to my spine when reading horror stories from the newspapers, thinking hard why these people have done what they did to those poor children. What was on their mind? I just cannot fathom the atrocious acts they have done on these innocent children. Why? Somebody reason with me, please!

We used to think that they only exist in the western countries judging from the stories we heard in the news. Some of their life stories have been made into a movie. Yes, paedophiles do exist in our backyards everyone. They are everywhere. They are sexual predators lurking quietly beneath the exterior of unassuming people who can be nice, friendly and respectable in the community.

They come in all shapes and sizes and they rape and molest children and some even took pictures of their naked bodies for their personal collection. They are sick, demented and submerged in a world of their own. How do we spot the telltale signs of a paedophile ? We should be able to tell our children not to easily trust strangers even if they are our neighbours. We can never know.

I have two daughters and I always worry for their safety. My oldest daughter walks to school everyday to and fro and I always tell her to go with her friends whether she likes it or not. I always tell her not to speak to strangers; especially male, even if that stranger is a familiar and friendly person. And I told her not to accept any offer of ride from these people unless if it's auntie so and so who happens to send their children to and fro school.

This school holiday, Kak Long has been pestering me for a sleepover at her friend's house a couple of times coz some of her friends had been doing it. I simply refuse to entertain her request because I just don't feel like starting the trend at least in my household. I told her gently that it's not proper for little girls staying over in someone else's house just because everybody else is doing it. Why she asked? It's just not cool to do so unless our house is on fire and we don't have any place to camp out then it's ok to stay in someone's house.

How can I ever tell my daughter something horrible like monsters in the closet for I know she could never understand it at her age. 

It's not a safe world anymore.

Dumpsite revisited

one of the houses in Saujana Utama

I have been wanting to write a piece (of my mind) for this title ever since we moved here like six years ago. When we decide to buy a house at this place, we imagine that the place would be something like what the brochure had stated and it quoted:-

...Welcome to premier country living. Saujana Utama is a self-contained township exclusively planned and developed for ideal family living. Here, you enjoy a luxurious lifestyle surrounded by nature's greenery at prices you can well afford...(there's more but I'm skipping it to get to this paragraph)

At Saujana Utama, you are always assured of tranquility, seclusion and peace of mind, protected from the traffic jams and pollution of city living....

As in all compulsory housing brochures, it has a serene picture (aren't they all) of people on horseback riding, tall winding trees along a peaceful stretch, families enjoying a picnic brunch near the playground. Something like that. Yeah, a picture perfect brochure to attract gullible customers like me to buy their property. Everything seems to go well until they (the residents) decide to renovate their homes.

I must say people in SU are a rich lot and berduit. Barely a couple of years of moving in, they can afford to renovate their homes (back and front) with the must-have posh wooden or wrought iron gates with remote control and the likes and walla, their houses have become a cross between semi-d or bungalow, some with simple but elegant design, some with over the top designs that stood out like a sore thumb (asalkan korang bahagia lah) with variety of colours adorned the external walls. I can only imagine what the wall colours must be like inside. Must be awesome!

Not that I'm envious or anything with people renovating their homes. Its their business, its their money, so they are entitled to do whatever they like with it. But what I don't understand is the ciput attitudes of certain people in handling their rubbish post renovation. They are willing to spend money to renovate their homes but not on their garbage disposal?

They will throw their rubbish where and when as they like in full view of other neighbours. Sometimes nearby the roadside, in vacant plot, in unoccupied houses, near someone else's drain you name it, which some of these places have become breeding grounds for mosquitoes and other creepy crawlies. So it wasn't exactly a surprise to me when the neighbourhood in my area keep coming down with dengue cases not too long ago. And they keep yelling the MDKS people didn't do their job well.

I even have a neighbour who has the habit of dumping his junks in an empty house adjacent to his. Talk about the mentality of these so called well educated people and sadly, some of them are from the surau community, what a shame!

I guess the country living atmosphere as stated in the brochure did come true - people with kampung mentality.

Enough said!

Celebrity marriage

It appears that for every celebrity couple that ties the knot each month or so, one call it quits. Who can forget the highly publicised divorce of Nurul-Ajai these couple of weeks. Before them, it was Awie-Arni divorce case which finally came true after much speculation surrounding it, whether true or not that Awie had taken another wife which in fact he did!

Like many other A-list celebrities, they will have lavish fairy tale weddings and will release photos of the events for the whole world to marvel at. A few years later, trouble will start brewing, rumours will start flying sooner or later, D-day will finally knock on their doors and soon the couple will be no more. It's really sad, what with hundreds of thousand even million ringgits spent on their wedding gone with the wind just like that. Remember Yusry-Erra?

These days, I notice that the brides are getting younger and younger and the grooms older and older each time. Remember the not so recent wedding of a certain Dato and a famous diva young enough to be his daughter? And following suit after that, was another model and her dato-titled husband twice her age. But this particular marriage has the blessings of his children; all his children attended his wedding unlike the above couple mentioned, and the dato's first wife had passed away some 10 years ago.

The recent low-profile wedding of Dr Fazley (he finally did it) and the daughter of Dato' Seri Rosmah Mansor from her 1st marriage came to light in a midst of messy divorce proceedings and break-ups from other artistes and celebrities. I just wish that Fazley and wife will have a good if not great marriage until their last breath. Many many more celebrity weddings are coming our way soon, being in line is Linda Rafar and her beau (also a divorcee).

On a foreign note, Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes (or better known as TomKat) much awaited scientology wedding is to be held in a lakeside town of Bracciano, Italy (ahh...the favorite country of hopeless romantics). They have got star-studded celebrities and dignitaries list lining up. I wonder if Dr Spock or Yoda, the Jedi master will be the priest reciting their marriage vows. I envision the marriage vows will start with something like this "a long time ago in a galaxy far far away" or "to boldly go where no man has gone before". *LOL*

Bellydancing anyone?

The other half had cautioned me not too long ago that my tummy had looked like a 5 months pregnant lady except there is no foetus in it. Haven't we all ladies face this never-ending problem after each delivery of our offspring? Well, at least, we have an EXCUSE why our bellies have become what they are now. While you men DON'T!

Nine months (that's almost a year, man!) of carrying the baby, the product of our rendezvous many many moons ago coupled with the usual morning sickness (some women have it, some don't, bless those who don't), the lethargicness (eh is there such word? if no who cares!), mood swings changes in split seconds that can give shame to the current weather and yadda yadda yadda and he dared to comment my tummy?? After all, I bore him 3 healthy and active children that inherited some of his qualities.

So, I was a bit bothered when he said things like that although I knew deep deep down, he didn't really mean it . Nevertheless, being the self-conscious person that I am; I have tried all options available (read: selective ones) to reduce my tummy size from err 34 (halamak malunya) to 27 (that's the size I was during anak dara time huhu). 24 sounds so impossible ok!

I've tried :-

1. jogging (for a month on weekends only and after that I stopped as my jogging partner (my neighbour sorang tuh) decided to call it quits. I dare not jog alone as sick perverts might be lurking somewhere waiting to pounce on someone . You can never be too careful these days...
2. cycling (which I did for a smooth 3 months also on weekends) until I was chased by a pack of wild dogs. I cycled as hard as I can, nasib baik tak jatuh basikal...fuh! and after that it's tata titi tutu
3. wearing corset (cheap one only laa) but I am not the discipline type..hehe besides it's too tight and itchy  the whole body after usage
4. girdle - this one works better especially when I go out, I put it on so that my tummy does not look flabby when wearing long skirts or pants but it's only a temporary solution
5. dieting - didn't work! After 2 days of going riceless, I surrendered...kebuloq perghh!
6. slimming spa - too damn expensive!
7. liposuction - forget it!

So basically, I have tried every option there is to get rid of that excess baggage. Perhaps there's one more option I haven't tried it out yet - bellydancing, now that's something! Bellydancing is still new and catching up in Malaysia but it's a happening form of exercise in the west. Probably made famous by the lovely Colombian latino babe, Shakira. She really rocks!

Whenever, wherever...(I'm humming Shakira's famous debut single in my head right now..)

P/S: For some reason, I couldn't publish a picture of bellydancing...not even Shakira.

Opposites attract

He's quiet and reserved. She's talkative and friendly.

He's serious when he's talking about something, big or small matter. She's casual and relaxed. You can't even tell if she's serious when engaged in discussion.

If he makes a butt joke, it will take sometime for people to respond to it as people wouldn't know if he's serious or joking. She's a practical joker and likes to clown around.

He takes time to warm up to people he doesn't know. She can easily struck a conversation with a stranger.

He doesn't trust people so easily but when he does, he would take a bullet for it (acah jer) but don't betray his trust for he will never forgive that person ever. She trust him to the fullest.

He seldom smiles. But when he does, his smile is so awkward (think of Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator). She smiles quite often and she looked nice in it (perasan lah lu)

He constantly worries a lot. She worries little.

He looked older than his age. She looked younger than her age (again perasan)

He's the strict disciplinarian dad. She's one cool mom (oh okay... almost)

Together, they are not perfect people but they are perfect for each other.

Thousand apologies...

I didn't realise when I posted my second entry, the date was yesterday. 

Sorry for the mistake folks! I kept the subject in draft folder yesterday and when it's published, it's automatically backdated. Yesterday, it was raining all day from morning.

I should know it coz I was home all day. 

Raindrops keep falling on my head

It's the raining season again folks! It's raining cats and dogs everywhere and everyday for the past few weeks.

While I should be eternally grateful for it keeps my tiny garden blooming with flowers and greeny leaves, cooling rooms in the house without the need to switch on the air-conditioner and full blast ceiling fans, the same thing cannot be said of my laundry.

Dirty smelly clothes have been piling up like busut anai-anai in laundry baskets waiting loyally for their turn to be washed. The clothes outside have been hanging out for the last 2 days and they're still not dried yet. Lembap-lembap gitu!

I want really crisp dry warm clothes that the pleasure of folding them one by one is indescribable. Seriously ok.

This morning, when I push my hung clothes outside, the sun was furiously bright and sunny and the sky clear as a crystal. No clouds. Good sign. Hope it stays that way until all my clothes are dried.

Hello there!

Hey, this is my first daring attempt at writing my own journal online. Kinda like Bridget Jones's diary albeit with a laptop. Since every Tipah, Ah Moi and Meenachi has her own blog, I might as well start one too.

The thing is, I just don't know what to write coz I am no writer. I know how to scribble a few words but not a storyline. I'm still crawling at it and my english is well, rojak! Besides, I'm quite lazy to write anything longer than 500 words...sheesh!

Well, here goes nothing. Gedebushhhh! 

Stay tuned!