A hectic week

The festive season is looming ahead. This is the last weekend before Hari Raya Puasa, and so practically anyone and everyone is out with full force, spending an obscene amount of money. While others are relegated to the sidelines...merely observing. Roads to avoid would be....any road leading to the city center of particular note would be the infamous Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman.....this would be a good time to experiment with public transport. Friday evening traffic was bad. My yearning for a good meal led me to KLCC. I certainly did not enjoy the drive there nor the gloomy wait for a parking sport. Neither did I enjoy waiting for the friend to arrive for dinner. I had to dodge people as I walked towards the escalator and even having a cuppa was marred by the keen smoker positioned behind me. I decided to take a picture of KLCC....without any human life-form. ( picture above)

For the sake of completeness ...I should like to say my trip wasn't totally tinged with gloom. I bought three magazines. Two trashy mags with no intellectual stimulation whatsoever ( they're the best ones really aren't they?) and one boringly factual magazine which featured "bird flu...is there going to be a pandemic?" Couldn't resist such a title.

How do you remember roads?

I've always found it helpful to remember landmarks. For instance...you'ld see a "celcom" advert just before you take the wee tunnel and then you'ld be keeping to your left ( with the Shell petrol station on your left ) until you reach the "chinese assembly hall" which is a white building on your left where you'ld turn left...and then there's a bus stop on your left just after you turn where you would loop around and squeeze into the left lane again where you would go up and then you'ld want to keep straight on....

That's part of my directions to friends on how to get back to my place. I wonder how everyone else would say it? BTW road names are absolutely uselesss. Where is Jalan Hang Jebat in relation to Jalan Tun Razak for instance.

A nation in mourning

The prime minister's wife Datin Seri Endon Mahmood passed away this morning after losing her battle to breast cancer. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer about 5 years ago and had lost her twin to the same disease in 2003. Her death comes as a shock to Malaysians as more recent reports have down played her illness . It has been only 18 days since she returned from the states after undergoing chemotherapy there. May her soul rest in peace.

Hopes & Fears

Hopes

I hope that every bit of important information I gather from now until the 21st of NOV remains in my mind.

I hope nobody notices I've lost one mud flap from the car. And if they do, I hope they continue to pretend not to have seen the assymmetry.

I hope I can spend more time doing what i like ie yoga , reading and shopping...in no particular order. I especially like reading PG Wodehouse and Enid blyton. Wodehouse during day time and E Blyton during meals and toilet-visits. ( refer to KATE FOX on bog reading ) My next read would be Marian Keye's latest book.....

Fears

I fear gettting early alzheimers. I also fear becoming overweight and having my double chin increase in size and number....but one can diet whilst getting a brain transplant would only occur in the simpsons.

I fear the contents of the chicken rice I had for lunch today. There wasn't much choice, It was between THAT and the sorry looking muffin in the basket....which was there yesterday and probably the day before. BTW, chicken rice ( savoury ) and chocolate milk ( not savoury ) creates havoc when mixed together in the tummy. Please void this combination in future.

I'm terrified of snakes. I deal with my fear of them by simple avoidance of anything snake-related. Any page with a snake on it is firmly stapled....to ensure it doesn't get viewed accidentally when I'm at my most vulnerable...ie bedtime reading. I went through a phase where I would have to look under the bed before sleeping just to make myself happy.

I'm frightened of losing hair and becoming bald but I think that's quite rational.

Desperate housewives

Who is your favourite character? Felicity Huffman aka Lynette wins hands down in my mind. She's about as real as you can get. The rest of the cast fade in comparison. Botox Bree isn't too dusty either. It's aired every Toosday night on Channel eight. That's the highlight of the week for me. Damm it's Thursday...4 more days to the next episode.

Alternatively I could buy the entire first season on VCD....

Public transport

Public transport makes me cringe. It brings to mind sweaty armpits and fat hairy men. I 'm not sure why it appears in this combination but it does. KL Sentral was buzzing with people this evening. It had rained earlier in the day and the downpour had fizzled into one of those mist-like-spray.I love gloomy evenings.....especially after a rain. It's like the sky has had a good cry and is all ready to go. Malaysians tend to moan about taking public transport. Well, for those of you who insist public transport is shitty....( as Jennifer aniston would say ) "TURN THE PAGE".

My trip to Midvalley shopping mall was painless. If I'd driven, finding a park would have made me crabby for sure. I used my "touch and go" card for the kommuter for the first time ever this evening. Exciting!!I touched....and ....it beeped twice ( there were instructions written thankfully ) and the gate swung open. I certainly got a great big buzz from this new unfamilliar technology. One of the things which amuses me is the ability of small things to make me feel good. This being a classic example of a feel-good-factor arising from a simple task.I might just begin taking public transport now.

I wouldn't mind having this for lunch

Nasi lemak is a staple breakfast for most folks who don't give a hoot re expanding waistlines and clogged arteries. The bookstore called affectionately "Ko-op" sells a mean-nasi lemak. And I've been tempted loads of times from the path of righteousness and promptly hopped onto the path of gluttony. The rice needs to be fluffy with just a suggestion of coconut milk. The The egg needs to be compressible and the yolk a soft yellow. The cucumber bits they stash with it has to be crunchy and 2 mm thick. Anything less would be deemed floppy. The sambal , would be a mixture of tastes. I prefer mine to be spicy and sweet with loads of shallots in them. Oh dear , I 'm in the mood for nasi lemak now. Dammit.

Love at first sniff

Whatever else you do, remember to hydrate self after the meal, detoxyfying is of the utmost importance. Otherwise the whiff surrounds you like a cloud of doom. A small and negligle price to pay for what I believe is a taste liken to the sip of good wine. I am of course referring to the local delicacy of "sambal petai". It's got an odd texture, rubbery after the initial crunch.

Feeling Eeyorish

It's official. I'm down with the flu. What was initially an allergy has turned into a full blown nagging leaky-nose-sniffles sort of day.

Will that be snow-wash miss??

I've finally gone one step closer to my ideal world...got the car washed after three long dusty weeks. For any of you out there who've read Kate Fox's book..( refer to earlier entry ) you'll understand the statement: I have now reached the rank of lower-middle class.

It's a gloriously sunny saturday morning. A few things have gone right....

1. Car is washed. Am no longer embarrassed to park where people can see me coming OUT of the car. ( hands up those who've never felt like this before.....)
2.I am having sambal petai for lunch.
3.I've stopped sneezing since 11:00am

Sneezing tires me out no end. Lunch was interspered with at least 10 sneezes. Having a leaky nose upsets me. I had to coordinate the movement of spoon to mouth, hand to tissure, hand to drink hand to tissue again...and spoon to mouth gulp gulp.

Memory space exceeded...is that possible?

I am currently in an upright position. This after being horizontal for the better part of the evening. There's the blasted reading to be done. And I have to be able to to regurgitate them out in a convincing matter. It CAN be done.

In an ideal world....
1. I would be able to play the violin like Vanessa-Mae
2. Touching my toes would be a breeze..instead of an achievement
3. Patience would be a virtue I embrace cheerfully on a daily basis so help me god.
4. My car would auto-wash itself....weekly instead of making me drive about in vain looking for the nearest auto-wash.
5. I would own a plasma TV ...and have astro....
6. The last boyfriend I had would rot cheerfully.
7. My hair would stop dropping. ( > 100 per day is pathological...havent gotten around to counting...but I believe it has reached the ranks of near pathological)
8. There would be a parking space reserved just for me at work.
9. They would open up a new road which would lead straight to WORK. And I would be the 1 out of 30 people using it most mornings.
10.........to be continued.

Missing...one sock

Apparently, it is quite the norm to sleep with a pair of socks on..and wake up with only one left. I had the experience last week. It's been 4 days and I'm still one sock short. For those smarty pants out there wondering why the bloody hell I sleep with socks....

I had decided to moisturize the corns. Have you ever tired walking with moisturized feet? It's no easy task. In fact, it is next to impossible. With grit determination, I crawled to the chest of drawers to wear me a pair of socks. ( explanation done)

And if you can't decide......

Make sure your friends have a packet of amos cookies each. It saves the bother of being polite. It also then makes it socially acceptable to be selfish and eat them ALL yourself.

A mouthful of cookies

The best way to eat famous amos cookies is simple. Straight out of the packet. No namby pamby plate needed.You may choose to eat it with friends but be cautious. Gastronomic philistines are definite no nos. I still have my packet ....it's sitting on the dining table.