Cheng Beng

This is my dad, doing his bit in burning some money. ( Symbolic of course ...what you burn will reach the "other" side.) He used the wrong spot to burn....ie Grandmother's spot..anything burned in this will reach her. And as she's catholic...my mother was quick to quipt " Amah doesn't need money, she's catholic".( The visit was to honour my Buddhist Grandfather..who died when I was five years old.)

Cheng Beng is the chineses' All Souls Day. It usually falls on the 104th day following the winter solstice, around the 5th of April. Chinese families honor their ancestors by visiting the graves , clearing it up and repairing any broken bits. Having one grandparent Buddhist and the other Catholic means doing these separately.We brought with us , 2 umbrellas ( because it always rains when we're there ), jossticks, a cigrarette lighter,( although nobody smokes this is much handier than a match), some food and wads of cash. ( fake ones.)

Need to have

Picture from sokole oko

Of course it isn't true. I don't need to have this macbook. I just want it. Plain and simple.

I've been tagged

Picture from detentionslip.org
Thank goodness for tags...this is long overdue.
Finish the sentence...
1. My ex is ...still alive. DAmmit!
2. Maybe I should...colour my greys.
3. I love...second-hand-bookstores.
4. People would say that I'm...vertically challenged.
5. I don't understand..people who can calculate in their heads. I hate them.
6. When I wake up in the morning...I hunt about for my alarm clock(s).That's right I have two of'em.
7. I lost...my favourite beige skirt two years back. Found it in the cupboard back home during the CNY break this year. I can't think how I ever thought it was a lovely skirt. *roll eyes*
8. Life is full of...possibilities if only we take some time to realise it.
9. My past...could have been more interesting. But The future is what's gonna be great
10. I get annoyed when... I wake up and the sun is already shining.
11. Parties are...fun only if you know more than 50% of the folks there. Parties with many strangers lurking about is tiring.
12. I wish...I wasn't such a hoarder.
13. Dogs...cute until they do a wee...and then they're not so cute.
14. Cats...hypocrites. They purr and purr when you have food.
15. Tomorrow...is Monday so I need to wear a new outfit to perk up the spirit.
16. I have a low tolerance... for fussy and demanding patients. They are the worst kind who test my patience. ( And they also tend to come to Monday clinics rather than Thursday clinics.)
17. If I had a million dollars...I would invest a little, donate a little, and employ a daily help.
18. I'm totally terrified...snakes. I staple magazines with snakes in them just to avoid flicking the page open accidentally. That's the extend of my phobia.
19. My spouse...is taking a long time coming to me. When this knight in shining armour comes, I'm gonna smack him real hard for taking his time.
20. My life...is filled with love. Thank you:)

I tag ANNA

Earth Hour was yesterday

A lot of things we do are symbolic, it may not lead to the actual goal immediately, but there's a feel-good-factor that you have ( in your small corner of the world) done your bit. And so, yesterday evening, I was paying at the till when the customer ahead ( who was a bit annoying and eventually took one of my shopping bags by mistake and had to be hunted down ) chatted to the cashier in a loud voice.

" You know, anyone can take things in the dark"

( silence..as the cashier continues scanning her legs of mutton)

She continues "It's hard to shop in the dark, I could just take something and run off"

Cashier perks up " No cannot, you cannot do like that".

My first thought was, what a silly woman. Then it hit me, that it was earth hour she was jabbering on and on about. Time to head home...and sit in darkness in an attempt to save the world.

The reality of it was, I fell asleep ...and for the first time in weeks had a good 9 hours sleep. Sitting in the darkness thinking pure thoughts is all good, but at around 9pm-ish I started feeling slugging with no visual stimulation whatsoever and nodded off shamelessly.It's 7:25am this morning. I'm having breakfast before heading for the 8am mass. Happy Earth hour hope yours was a little bit more exciting than mine.

Milestones

DIED. On May 24th 2007, she made her debut on the third series of Big Brother.Since then she has remained very much in the public eye. We can choose to remember her for her exploits on the reality show. Alternatively, we can choose to remember that by choosing to deal with her cervical cancer publicly, more women are coming forward for screening. More lives will be saved.

Fact - Worldwide 250,000 women die annually from cervical cancer

Are you traditional or trendy?

Whichever you are,getting a pedicure isn't just getting some colour on your toes. It's a whole process of de-stressing. It's time to forget your hang-ups about being ticklish.Just let those thoughts go and allow yourself to enjoy. Otherwise, there's a risk you 'll end up NEVER experiencing a good thing.

The wrong sort of fingers

Photo of my fingers hard at it on a different instrument.

What a dreadful situation. My second finger being that bit longer than the average has made it impossible for the 4th finger to anchor down whilst playing. This is going to make it extraordinarily difficult to become a superb violinist let alone a violinist who can play 5th position at ease.Short fingers have plagued violinist for centuries( surely.) The violin-teacher and I sat back for a bit this evening, whilst we pondered my fingers. ( At least I'm sure I did....the Teacher, perhaps could have been thinking about dinner)

You cannot change the cards you're dealt with.

And I found this article on Orphic Anthroposophy, which writes exactly what I want to read. Amazing:)

The next step

Wanted: Easy Chair.

Found: Stockholm series, in "blad multicolor" from Ikea.

Essential read!

A beginner's guide to being a junior doctor: Dumbing down

Thanks for sharing with us this IMMENSELY entertaining post. I hope all those members of the secretariat read this piece and learn - then act like TRUE secretariats....the ones who treat us with a modicum of respect:)

Somebody's got to do it

Image taken from QTW

2 Saturdays back, I had 3 loads of laundry to do. In fact I can tell you I made it into 2 loads. Under normal circs, this wouldn't have been a issue. Instead, I now know the shiny sequins on your clothes WILL snag whatever bits they fancy. ( Despite being in a special laundry bag)

Surrendering to the feeling

Image from dooce
I can't stop obsessing over the to-do-list every morning. It's hard to break a habit of 5 months. I'm obsessing over it because-well, because we're at work 10 hours a day and this qualifies as more than 50% of our waking hours. And the time we're THINKING about work? So I keep trying to stare down the list. Which brings us to the question why. To hear us working-folks tell it, you'ld think we're a little mental. I like to call it having a conscience:)

Why we need to read labels

Despite a sagging world economy, Malaysians are a defiant bunch collectively. And this same bunch of people was seen (with their extended family) at Ikea last Sunday. How do I know this? Because I made a trip there and waded my way through push-prams, toddlers with sticky fingers, pregnant women ( who took up quite a bit of space) and sulky school-going children dragged reluctantly on this expedition to furniture-land by their parents. Everybody was out to SPEND SPEND SPEND!! I hardly think any other sane person would have bothered heading that direction after seeing the crowds at the entrance.
After a face-to-face meeting with what was to become my sole purchase from Ikea that afternoon, I hurried along ( wasn't that fast...impeded by humans ) and got to the exit. For those of us who are not brain surgeons, looking for stuff ( aisle number and such ) is probably the most complex weekend thing we do. A few minutes later, after developing a torticollis-like posture I gave-up and asked. Only to be told

"Maam, you should have asked the lady upstairs and order there BEFORE heading down here."
"But I'm here now, can't I just get it off you."
"The label says "contact staff for purchase and information" ...ma'aam.
So the tip of the year is " READ THE DAMM LABELS"

Hair today and gone tomorrow

RM1000 to the person who can give the most logical reason why hair drops. We're not talking male pattern balding because that's *wave hands* genetic and I'm not a male, so am not remotely interested in the whys of male balding. I mean to say, are we stressed? Is it the length of the hair what makes it drop? ( This is possibly ot proven to be very accurate.) Having chopped the mop off a few weeks ago..the hair loss remains persistent daily. At this rate *sniff* I shall no longer have a thick head of hair to be proud off:(

Practised to death

P ractising the violin. That's the answer to the query "what have you been doing these days?". Of course I haven't been ( ahem) quite as regular with the practising. You know these things, they tend to get shoved to the bottom of the to-do-list of things. And it's now begun to show. Boohoohoohoohoo.

Temptations of Taste

Ths title is chosen from a booklet picked off the rack at the Gardens. From 16th Feb to 15th March you get discounts from ( most if not all ) bistros, restaurants, bakeries and restaurants. That's what it says. The trouble with reading stuff like that is it gnaws your gastric juices and you now become convinced you wouldn't be happy unless you're eating at least 5 goodies off that hateful booklet.

Australia

As I had tea with "old" friends yesterday evening, we talked and after the obligatory exchange of niceties, the topic of good movies came up. Now, there is no reason not to watch "Australia". It has a good balance of light humour at the begining ( Nicole Kidman does act a tad stiffly..but only because she's potraying a stiff aristocrat). Midway through there's a subtle change of mood. And as you progress along the movie lures you into a thoughful mode. Creamy is a mix-race child who has this interesting aboriginal way of speaking ( not sure how authentic this is..having never met any aboriginal person before). The story line involves Mrs Boss aka Nicole Kidman( Mr boss having died early on in the movie by a spear) heading into the Aussie outback ...along with Drover ( who droves cattles). Together they find themselves in a battle with an old meanie mr bad guy ( I cant remember the name now). You get double the value in the movie, good acting and an exposure to Australia back in the dark ages.There is also a great deal of incidental information about the way aborigines were treated. It is the sort of movie anyone with even the faintest interest in human nature will enjoy.

Wonky internet connection

The streamyx has been acting up. Although I blamed the lightning zapping the modem initially. This led ( not surprisingly ) to a purchase of a new modem yesterday afternoon. It took me about half an hour to get the modem hooked and to realise the problem still was not solved. And there was no chance of getting on line any time in the future. I could have wept with rage. Whenever there is an academic reason to get on line....( and this HAS happened before ) the net shuts me out. My father who was visiting, looked a little mad at this stage...and together we proceeded to try various permutations; yellow wire, blue wire, my laptop, his laptop, my desktop.

Our tempers had slackened by which time, by some trick of fate, we discovered an odd method of linking to the net, wireless with a wired line snook into the modem as well. How's that for ingenuity? Of course, the darn thing didn't work even with that. But just a couple of minutes ago, I finally got on line...( and able to surf the net...with no limited connection.)

Weird contraption

I'm glad my teacher didn't make me use this weird thing

Secret recipe and fusion food

The thing is, despite what you may think, Tom Yam Spaghetti is pretty good. Don't let's worry about what Italians might think....just taste it and judge without prejudice. I like it. And will probably order it again should I eat in Secret recipe anytime in the near future.

Langkawi in 24 hours

Langkawi is HOT! You can feel your sweat evaporating ..leaving the skin dry. The Westin Langkawi prides itself on being the topmost resort on the Island. But I can't think why the place has changed management at least 5 times since it opened. Is it bad feng shui? After staying a mere 24 hours there, I think maybe it's the food. Nothing tasted quite like it looked. 4/10 for taste.