Wednesday, December 26, 2007

my engagement

my engagement
23122007


As u can see, it's not really the hush2x affair that I've always wanted. Apparently, my mum have other ideas, much the the chagrin of the rest of my family.

Despite the fact that I was still doing marketing at Geylang with her on the big day itself (till 11+am!) and running around like a headless chicken the days before, I'm glad all went well.

Many many thanks to all those who made it possible and to both my Paternal & Maternal cousins, Thank You soooo much for being there for/with me!

Those who contribute to the goodie trays, thank you! In fact the only thing from me is the cake itself. Just that. The rest are contributions.

Many thanks also to Tini & her sis, Kak Yani for doing my face & hair. And also to Jeemee, my collegue cum photographer. The shots are fabulous!

And yes, my fiance (gosh, it's still weird to call him tat) came by in the evening, to many cat-calls from my relatives, who stayed back to see him. And not to mention my pals, who hung around just so they can have a glimpse of him.

My bro was the one who put on his ring (albeit on the wrong hand). The 'abang-ipar' (elder bro-in-law) who is younger than he is.. heheh...

**click on pic to get to photo album.
























































PS: For privacy reasons, I dun really upload pics of ppl taken with me. Pls email or SMS me to request. Thank you!

Sunday, December 16, 2007

the tow truck

i get to ride in a tow truck!

coolness!

But then again, getting to ride in it means 2 things.

Either I befriend a tow truck driver or that my car broke down.

Apparently, it's the latter. And where were we when it happened?

In J.B.

With a full load. Passengers max out at 5 persons and grocery shopping maxed it out even further.

Grrrreat...!

Maybe things happen for a reason. The seamstress screwed up on one of my dresses so we came back to Komtar before going back to S'pore.

I can't imagine this happening when I was already at the customs.

And that's when I realised that my windscreen fogged up badly. From THE INSIDE. Which means the front of my car was hot. VERY hot. So much so that it almost sizzled when the rain drops fell on it.

I looked at the temperature meter. It suddenly cross my mind to look at it. It was wayyy above 'H'. Hot damn (pun intended)!

I parked my car at one of the VIP lots. The security came over to tell me to go but I told her in an urgent tone, "Can you let me stay here awhile? Something's wrong with my car."

As luck would have it, there was a group of contractors finishing up on their work nearby (the building was under renovation).

I popped my hood but I was so panicked I fumbled, while trying to pull it open. The smoke was already wafting out the sides.

Maybe that was what caught one of the guys' attention. That or the fact that there's a girl in distress. Heh.

As he came over, all streotyped thoughts of "cheeky M'sian guys" went out the window and I told him my problem.

He opened my hood and remarked, "Wah, you car is seriously overheated. We need to pour water into the radiator. But not now. It's too hot. Let's keep the hood open and let it cool off."

Thank goodness it was drizzling then. That'll make the cooling process faster.

Somehow, I remembered that just this morning, we had forgotten to temporarily place our car-products in my aunt's place and they kinda take up space in the boot.

THANK GOODNESS they're still there cos' I frantically rummaged through the groceries and manage to dig out this huge bottle of coolant. PHEW!

I used to think that the bottle seemed a little "extra-sized" for a coolant but I guess it does come in handy after all.

That guy came over with a handful of newspapers. He was already wearing a thick glove then. And he attempted to open the radiator cap. His friends warned him of the hot water that may sprout out.

Thankfully that didn't happen. He asked for water. We gave him the big bottle that we kept in the boot for cleaning purposes. Then I asked if he want coolant. He nodded so I passed him the bottle.

He balked at the size of the bottle and remarked, "Wah, macam tahu aje..?" (Wah, it seems that you know this might happen?)

His frens soon finished with their work and came over. There must be like 6-7 guys standing around the hood, helping to fill in the water and coolant.

Meanwhile, I was on the line, frantically describing the whole situation to my father and my panicky mother was quick to put the blame on me because I had driven into a sandbag that morning.

That sandbag had looked so innoucuous!

Then we also called my aunt, whose house we came back from, to send her hubby over to maybe send us back to S'pore. Next, I called the insurance company, asking for a tow truck. Then I called the tow truck company.

Then the guys looked under the engine one of them remarked that there was water dripping. One of them said that there might be a leak. I stopped my conversation with my dad.

My mum was already raising her voice at me. "See I told you it's because you hit that sandbag. Maybe it wasn't 'just sand' in there. That's why it caused that leak."

She almost drive me crazy with the blaming game. She's good at doing that. Really!

Then one of the guys said that he had poured water over the radiator to cool it down. Maybe that's where the water dripped from. The one of them wisely said that if the dripping water had coolant in it, then MAYBE there's a leak.

Made sense, there. So they looked. After 5 mins, they agreed that it wasn't a leak after all. Then... "Eh wait, there's coolant ah!" Shit!

So my mum was right. I hit that sandbag which eventually caused a leak.....

"Eh, no la, the coolant overflowed! No leak!"

Phew!

One of them asked for the car keys and then he asked me to start the car cos' his hands were all blackened. The temperature meter was back at the normal level.

Then he revved the engine. Still ok. So he said, "I think it should be ok, now."

Then, one of the guys standing at the hood said, "Eh wait! Something's not right. Press the gas again!"

He did. The same guy said out, "The radiator fan's not moving!" Aww... Shucks!

One guy put his finger where the fan is. "Maybe it's stuck, it's definitely not spinning just now."

Then their company van arrived. "I'm sorry, ladyl. But I think it's best that you dun drive it. It's too dangerous. Later your engine might fail." He gave me the number of a nearby mechanic but the mechanics have already left when I called.

The whole bunch of us can't thank them enough. My mum offered to give them some cash but they won't accept it.

Meanwhile, I was back on the line with the tow-truck company. They were hesitant to pick my car up from across the causeway so the lady on the line discussed with the mechanic, who told her that I can slowly attempt to drive across and call them once I'm already in S'pore.

It's not practical to call them over and it's gonna be very expensive.

We decide to wait for my uncle to come by since we've already called him over. Maybe we can get a 2nd opinion as to what I can do. He was a tad late, though.

When he finally arrived and accessed the situation, he had sincerely offered to send us across, but I don't want to leave my car behind and it's too much of a hassle for him.

He said it had happened to him before and he kept on driving. The issue is, I need to watch the temperature meter. The engine mustn't get too hot or else I have to stop the car and let it cool down before moving on again. That might be possible had I have to travel down the highway with nary a traffic.

The problem is, I'm (><) close to the customs. My uncle had said that there ain't a jam. Cos' if there is, the traffic build up would have reached where we were then. I will have a HUGE problem if there's a jam.

As I drive off, the temperature remained at the normal level. As we approached the customs, it rose a weeny bit. Upon approaching the customs, we saw what was ahead. A jam was starting. And reacting similarly, was the temperature meter. It started going up too....

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Okay, that's was a pretty loong entry and I'm still not done yet. Felt like I was writing a short story.

Didn't mean to bore you but I just want to let it out of my system and I want a record of the first time my car broke down. And I have to be THE ONE going through it. Across the causeway, no less.

So what happened after the temperature went up...?

Tell you tomorrow. Ok, nites!

Monday, December 10, 2007

that saturday pt 1

that saturday pt. 1

That Tattooist is a pretty boring movie, eh?

I tot' he had chosen the movie because of its "action" label. Then I realised that this is a horror movie. Okayy...

It doesn't take long for me to realise that he watched this movie because it was a part-kiwi movie. Wait, it's 80% Kiwi, if you ask me.

He's sooo into the Kiwi culture. No thanks to his rugby days.

Well, at least I can convince him to save up for a trip to New Zealand! So what if he's there to do the Hakka dance with the Maoris. I'm gonna get my bungy, white-water rafting and zorb
ball. Yeah, I think a plan is in hand....

Oklah, back to the said movie. The little bit of patriotism left in me brought on this slight tingle on seeing that the movie starts in Singapore. Almost felt like an STB ad.

And it doesn't take a genius to realise that my slight gasp and, "Oh, Hallo...!" upon seeing Jason Behr's naked form standing on the hotel balcony at Swissotel Westin - was a big mistake.

Was that a pinch I felt, in the darkness..? Heh.

He had a hot bod and the tattoos on him was just too sexy, lah. Uber sexy..! YUM!


Erm..
Jason Behr, I mean. Did I also mention that his eyes are really, really sexy?!

Caroline Cheong was different from how we've seen her on local tv. Supposedly vampy..?

Everything seems fine, until she talked, that is. I dunno if she's supposed to be a Kiwi in the movie but she sounded so... Ah-Lian.

Her voice intonations bordered on being irritating and the Singlish seemed to linger in her dialogues.

But I like the scenes where her character started dying. Maybe that's because I finally didn't get distracted by her voice, seeing that she no longer talked.


But at the end of the movie, I realised that I have a crush on the character, Alipati, the Samoan tattooist.

He's got this sweet features, (very) nice bod and was very charismatic. VERY.

And yes, that was a string of sweets around his neck.


But I do get some digs from watching this movie, seeing that I was a big fan of the tv show, Miami Ink.

Tattoo culture is interesting, provided one breaks out of the stigma of seeing it as a religious infringement and see it more as an artform.

Friday, December 07, 2007

boys brigade gift box

boys brigade sharity gift box

Ok everyone! You know what to do!

It's that time of the year again and it's just so convenient that these boxes are mostly outside the supermarkets, ain't it??

So go buy groceries for those who need them! As you pick out your own household goods, don't forget to pick out some for them. Simple stuff like rice, oil, sugar, biscuits, noodles etc. Dry goods, that is.

Then hand these groceries to the boys stationed outside the places mentioned below. They'll be grateful for making their wait worth it.

And you can volunteer to help them deliver, too!

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

tini's new baby boy!

welcome to the world...

..... Muhd Danish (I hope I got the spelling right and what's the other name, again..?)

Yesh, it's a boy!






On Monday, 3rd December 2007, at around 8pm, ma dear fren of more than 18 years, Suriatini, finally gave birth!

Woo hoo!

















And she just SMSed me to say that both her son and herself have been discharged, meaning there are no complications whatsoever.

Alhamdulillah...

Hope the drink from soaking the usefaul herb, Bunga Fatima helps with the smooth delivery.

That's what I heard it's for.

Will visit you soon. I know I will cos' my mum's just so excited to see you both!

And oh, Congratulations to the father of the baby, too!

Monday, December 03, 2007

work life balance

Here's something that a friend who's still working (and studying) in 'this line', namely: Architecture or more 'fondly' known as 'archi-torture'.

He recommended this site:

And there's this interesting entry that most of my peers can't agree more on:

work life balance

Generally, in architectural practises, office hours get stretched a little bit. Not only for junior ranks or interns during peak periods – it’s common. You know - architectural practices have a lot of hour-sucking work. Funny enough, architects are often proud of that.

Being surrounded mostly by colleagues younger than thirty might be a good indicator for an office with a bad work life balance policy. People tend to leave these kind of places when they get older and switch to a firm that reflects their demands for life: spend time with family and kids, develop new interests, learning a language, charity work, ...

anArchitecture doesn’t mind hard work – but it's important to have a life outside the office. Architects have to give their clients an optimistic outlook to something new. How should they do that if they’re just staying in the office?

am i ready to get married

am i ready to get married... NOT!

You're Almost Ready to Get Married, But Not Quite

No doubt that you've warmed up to the idea of marriage and life long love.
You just aren't quite ready to follow up with your desires, yet.
You may be a bit young, or a bit commitment phobic...
Give it time ( I wonder how much of this I have left..?)
Concentrate on guys who you can imagine being with next year. Forever can wait.

I CAN'T AGREE MORE!