Sunday, July 27, 2008

Spending a great weekend alone ...

Last weekend, I had myself pampered nicely in a manner that would leave most of my girl friends gaping in astonishment ... had they known what I did. My friends would think I am the extravagant one.

Saturday morning, i went yoga class and had my bones & muscles properly stretch and relax after one week's inactivity in office. Always feels good after a yoga class.

Then I googled for a good place for a haircut. They were many recommendations on Snips @ The Curve and Mofa @ Manjalara. Initially I thought of going for Snips. I ended up in Peek-A-Boo .. which was next door. I was pretty satisfied. At least much better than my last hairdresser at Kepong, which I decided to dump. RM55 - Slightly pricey, but its worth it coz I am sick of getting my hair messed up by "un-professionals".

Come Sunday morning, I woke up feeling my body aching all over ... maybe from yoga and also maybe because of heavy work of packing up. Never mind the reason - I gleefully felt that it was quite justifiable to get myself the nice massage that I had always wanted. I have never done a massage in KL. I had massages in Bangkok and Cambodia, but never in my own country. Asking my friends to recommend a good massage place would be out-of-the-question. Most likely than not, they would ask more questions rather than answer my question. So what do I do ? I search for online testimonials at websites like Malaysia Babes and Lowyat forum. Really quite a lot of discussion on this topic. I randomly picked that was recommended, Bodhi Sense @ Plaza Damas.

Bodhi Sense is a thai massage place, its quite a quiet nice place. The 1.5 hours session cost almost RM150. But what the heck, it feels so good. The masseur is a petite Thai girl, and she skilfully tries to massage away the stubborn knots on my neck. I'd always think that one of life's enjoyment of having a good massage. Massage increases one's endorphins level and sense of well-being.

After leaving the massage place, I ordered a simple Unagi Don and Cawan Mushi from Izakaya Ichiban @ Plaza Damas. It was really nice, have never tasted unagi that nice. The sauce is just slightly sweet and savoury enough. And the rice comes with 2 big servings of unagi. Totally unlike unagi don at Sakae Sushi or Sushi King, which has more egg slices than unagi. Totally satisfied my gastronomic appetite.

Conclusion, it is dangerous for a girl to wander out alone, lest there would be no one to control her weekend spendings. And I am supposed to feel quilty for such a heavy weekend spending, given that inflation and all. I am suppose to exercise some prudence in spending. To think of it, I don't mind being richer; then I won't need to sigh when I get my credit card bills.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

What's in a mug ?


My favourite mug broke today.... sob..sob... :(

Perhaps the water was too hot, as I was holding it... it just split cleanly into 2 and crashed to the floor. I picked up the pieces, and attempted to piece it back.

My favourite mug was not just a mug. It has a Pentium 600Mhz logo printed on it. It represents a piece of my past. Those were the times when i was a rookie - idealistic, naive, honest, and trusting. Totally very green.

The mug reminded me of colleagues who were kind and helpful, and taught me how to fend for myself. I also remembered the colleagues who were bullying and abusive, who sought to make my life miserable every day. On hindsight, I am a stronger person today .... and I have them to thank for. Ever hear the line which reminds us that those who made us trip and fell, are the people who help us grow too.
Yea, I am gonna use some UHU and glue back my mug. Guess my mug wont be siting in my kitchen anymore. It will be sitting in my living room shelves for display instead. After all, I am a sentimental person.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

What's real and what's not

There was people movement at the place where I worked. Unexpectedly, I was moved up to fill the vacuum .. call it a promo... moving up the ladder... temporary solution... or whatever you prefer to call it. Anyway, that's not what I want to dwell on today.

It is the obvious change in the way I get treated by my colleagues and customers that bothers me. People who dont usually lunch with me, now wants to lunch with me. Many more people drop by to chat with me, and I had to 'entertain' them when all I wanted to do was to finish the mountain of tasks at hand. People seems to be more polite than they were, i hear "t"s and "p"s so often that it is beginning to make me wiggle uncomfortably. More people pat my back, and shake my hands than I could remember.

It dawned to me how effortlessly humans adapt their behaviour and shift their attitude. Power attracts attention like magnet. With great power. comes great responsibility. I have no illusion about that. The day that you lose power, is the day all of these attention dissolves very quickly. In another way, this realisation upsets me.... and it continue to upset me for quite a few days.

It got me thinking... What happens to sincerity, true friendship, genuine camarade at workplace ? Does it not exist anymore ? How do I know what's real and what's not real ? Has my world transform into a unreal world like The Truman Show then ?

Sunday, July 6, 2008

On tattoos and hypocrite ....

My brother came to me some day back, happily and obviously excited about the prospect that he is going to get a tattoo. He jabbered excitedly about not sure whether to tattoo it on his butt, his arm or his thigh.

I stared at him coldly, and said "Bro... are you out of ur mind ? You wanna engage in self mutiliation and make papa disown u, izzit ? " Whoosh... a whole bucket of ice-water poured over his head. The big smile on his face quickly disappeared, and you can see his excitement just fizzled off like a balloon. Trying to undo the damage, i lamely tried to console him ... "Maybe you can get the stick-ons ones. They are nice too."

And yes, my father is the kind who thinks that even highlighting one's hair is a unacceptable form of not appreciating what nature gave you. The idea of tattooing is definitely gonna make him drop his spectacles and choke over his cup of coffee. No way ....

But I did highlight my hair, and lied to my father about it. My father have a bit of colour blind. And I even thought of getting a tattoo for myself. Why then, was I so harsh on my poor brother ? I'd often thought it would be nice to have one nice tattoo on my hip. But the one time that I seriously comtemplated about getting a tattoo is when I was feeling down. My partner and I had our share of ups and downs in our relationship. At one point, when I look up, the sky looks gray all the time. The emotional pain within can only be allleviated by inflicting physical pain. Tattoo sounds like a good idea then. Its a weird idea that physical pain can contra out the emotional pain somehow. Its like some kind of psychological equation.

Fear is a good thing sometimes. The rational side of me won. But that makes me a hypocrite, doesn't it ?

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Fading away ...

Last weekend I made a visit to my grandpa. It hurts to see grandpa look so frail and bony when he happily greet us at the door. He has been sick for some time. As mom and I were sorting thru his daily medicine intake, the packets of tablets, syrups on his daily menu is shocking. He is living on painkillers to make his journey bearable. I would have taken a picture of his medicine if I hadnt think it would be rude.

I was never granpa's favorite grandchild. Nor has he been my favorite grandparent. But that day, oddly I sense a strong loving affection from granpa. He was weak, croaking hoarsely but still try to upkeep his sense of humor. There was a strange warmth in his eyes that is only found when grandparents look at grandchildren.

This is all-the-more heartbreaking to see him wilting away in front of my eyes. Saying that granpa have not been a saint in his entire life, has to be an understatement. He has done many wrongs in his life. But at that particular moment, all that's past does not matter - all is forgiven.

To see someone wilting and fading away causes such pain....... when I can only offer my prayers.

And the drama continues ...

As if Altantuya's mystery case is not tantalizing enough, there comes Anwar's sodomy allegations. Saiful is either exceptionally courageous to take on the giants, or the alternative explanation is that he is just plain dumb to allow himself to be manipulated in this manner.

Rocky Bru have a interesting finding about this " Mr-23-year-old-Saiful-Nobody".... it seems that he is "Quite-a-Somebody" after all. He is the distant relative of Pak Lah. Then things made sense somehow. Its quite useless to try to hide your family tree.