Books to read.......

This post is for a friend in New Zealand ( you KNOW who you are..) who has requested for recommendations on what to read in 2009. Off the top of my head here's a list of what i think SHOULD be on your reading list.

1. Maeve Binchey's "Heart and Soul" . Binchey's Irish. The reason why I say this is I'm partial to Irish authors. Only they...can tweak your heart strings and get them tears going just at the right moment. Not too much mind..but just enuff. Unlike Piccoult , who tends to do too deep into the emotional bits leaving the reader ( me that is ) drained ...Binchey strikes a fine balance. If you're thinking of reading Heart and Soul....I think you should pick up Scarlet Feather first. ( The characters in S. Feather feature in Heart and Soul too.) But there's no hard and fast rule.



2. A vicarage family by Noel Streatfield. It's semi autobiographical book. I thought it was very good. But it's an old book. And you may have some trouble getting your hands on it.



3. Things I want my daughter to know. By Elizabeth Noble. I picked this up because it was on sale at TIME. Surprisingly insightful and if you're a mum..you'ld enjoy it that bit more I think. Got it for RM 35.( with some further discount )



4. A friend of the family by Lisa Jewel. Fairly recent book. YOu shouldn't have trouble getting it from any bookstore. I got mine from a warehouse sale. One of those ones...where you take a chance simply because it's heavily discounted. Once again a very good read I thought.



5. And if you haven't read any of Melissa Hill's book....please please try one. There's always a pleasing twist in her story line. She hasn't written that many and they are not inter-related so you can read them in any order.

Quite techno-savvy

Okay, there's a leap from no dial-up to broadband. Whilst dipping our toes into the world of internet, let's be daring and splash about...heck let's make some waves. And into this world come my parents. They're sensible folks generally. And brilliant as parents...with just the right support ( not over-bearing ) and encouragement along the years. Midweek we got connected to the brother (Funny-shirt) on the webcam. So here are just a few hiccups along the way

1) scenario number one. ( No webcam on our side ...just skype )
On seeing the image of her beloved son Funny-shirt Mum hollers and waves madly into the screen. ( As I'm busy typing away on the screen ) Had to stop laughing before I could explain.

2) Scenario number two. ( we located an OLD webcam...with no mike and shoddy image a freebie in fact).
We're on skype...image comes on, funny-shirt waves to mum and mum waves and hollers again. Having a real conversation....once again we had to tell her no mike. Just images, She's miffed but gets the general picture pretty fast

3) Scenario number three.( New webcam installed with separate microphone plugged...we're pretty pleased with the result.)
Funny-shirt comes on line...image and voice come across pretty clear....Funny-shirt is in his room..( which is pretty messy ). Mum stares at the screen..smiles widely and then remarks loudly to dad who's lying horizontal on the couch to the left..."OOOOH what a messy room. Dun they ever clean up after themselves?"We had to pull the mike out of the socket...and remind her we are now connected and every word said is being sent as clear as a bell across the net to Funny-shirt's room!!

We're on the verge of becoming very techno-savvy:)

A much needed mini face-life for the blog

Yes not only has this blog been deprived of weekly if not monthly entries, it has also been forced to remain with the original bare template while others move on.I've seen some gorgeous blogs mushrooming on the web since the birth of Absolutely. Initial attempts at being colourful failed. Still unsure of the reason. But today....with a little inspiration after visiting Anna's blog ( which is, to me what a blog should be..)I decided to take the BULL by its horns and get down to it. With a little bit of messing about, and a lot of time spent correcting and re-doing steps along the way, I here by present Absolutely in its new and slightly more girlish outlook.

As for the more frequent posts...that remains to be seen. I am no author...and certainly procrastination gets the better of me most days.

Noel Streatfield

For those of you who've never read Ballet Shoes....this would be a good time to head out and get yourself a copy. I bought mine back in 1984. ( And how would I remember that you ask...back in those days I had this small obsession of writing my name and the year in each and every book I bought). Not for all books, but for this I remember exactly the shelf I found it, the bookstore I found it in.

Posy, Petrova and Pauline...GUM, Garnie, cook, Madame....

Goodreads!!!

Some might ask " What is Chick Lit?" And who reads these books. Click on this to get a rough idea. In no particular order..I am borrowing this idea from Anna's blog...and will list all the books I've read in 08. It's also a test memory. I'll add the author's name if I remember but otherwise it'll have to be just the title of the book.

1) A prisoner of Birth by Jeffrey Archer

2)Return to Thrush Green by Miss Read

3)Battles at Thrush Green by Miss Read

4) Gossip from Thrush Green by Miss Read

5)Village Centenery by Miss Read

6)The Gift by Cecelia Ahern.

7)Friday Night by Joanna trollope

8) Life Begins by Amanda Brookfield

9) Things I want my daughters to know by Elizabeth Noble

10) It's a kind of magic by Carole Matthews

11) Wishful thinking by Melissa Hill

12) Before I forget by Melissa Hill

13) An offer you can't refuse by Jill Mansell

14) The love of her life by Harriet Evans

15) A friend of the family by Lisa Jewel

16) Me and Mr Darcy by Alexandra Potter

17) You drive me crazy by Carole Matthews

18) Petitie Anglaise by Catherine Sanderson

And these are the books I've read in 2009

1) Heart and Soul by Maeve Binchey

2)For Better or worse by Carole Matthews

3) Getting out of the house by Isla Dewar

Want to buy

1) This Charming Man by Marian Keyes

2) How will I know by Sheila O'Flanagan

3) The Builders ( open door ) by Maeve Binchey

4) The Secret Shopper's revenge by Kate Harrison

5) Any book by Noel Streatfield apart from the ones I already have

6) Books by Antonia Forest , angela brazil

7) Nothing bad ever happens in Tiffanys by Marian Keyes

I must have read more than 18 books but at the moment the memory fails me. Tired hands and tired eyes.

Same T-shirt...different country

We're just across the Selat Teberau....so close and so very different. The main gripe is the exchange rate. Everything's more pricey. I guess if you're travelling further from home, you can allow yourself the liberty of spending just that bit more than what you would normally spend. But a 45 minute flight away....it feels sinful to spend slightly more than twice the amount for most things. So I window shopped...and took pictures. This is me, in Takashimaya. The sales were on-going and I was surrounded by Singaporeans with huge spending power.

Need a break!

I cannot wait for the last week in December. There's christmas, a family get-to-gether, home-cooked food and ASTRO.

What I have been up to...in the month of November

Yesterday we went Christmas Shopping at Midvalley. The decorations are up......after visiting Bangkok everything in KL seemed expensive in comparison. I bought one magazine. And spent the rest of the time window-shopping. Don't you think the christmas trees look gorgeous?

The most recent trip would be to Bangkok.We spent 5 days there...and we left for home via Suvarnabhumi international airport just two days before the fiasco at the airport. Such a shame, Bangkok is a shopping haven. Loads of stuff to buy. It's difficult to shop and take pictures. No prizes for guessing which dominated the trip. The picture above was taken at the grounds of the Grand Palace. No shops there....no reason to spend money so I concentrated on taking pictures. Loads of people including local school children....I saw 2 girls posing and asked for them to pose WITH me in this shot. These kids....they keep us young.

Some time in November,the catholic korean community pitched in for a fun raising event. There were tents pitched up in the old parish hall grounds and after mass, the next obvious stop was these tents and the promise of authentic Korean fare. And we had a taste of home-made korean kimchi...korean pancake, korean rice ball and korean sushi. The women-folk were chattering away in Korean. Too fast for me to make out any words. ( I dun speak korean but after having seen at least 6 korean serials...I should have been able to make out some words.) These ladies are making rice ball. It's rice with different types of filling.

Jimbo wrote that there's a conspiracy re number of hours in a weekend is significantly shorter than the weekdays. I have another theory, as the year ends, your system slows down ( like it knows christmas is around the corner ) and what takes 30 minutes to complete, now turns into a 2 day event. The picture above was taken in Port Dickson, that's my kipling monkey being squished into the sand. It was done cos there was nothing else amusing on the beach. And it felt therapeutic.

Presents from Friends!

I have good friends. They feed me well. Which makes it difficult to diet at times but I'm not going to complain. The tarts were from Mas...and the variety of cookies in a famous amos tin were from Sue. If it hadn't been for a growling tummy two afternoons back, I would have honestly gone on thinking the tin of famous amos cookies...contained famous amos cookies and nothing else. A very pleasant surprise...which I'm sure the friend didn't meant to...but it was.

Kerepek Bawang

How do you make this keperek bawang? Why do I ask? Mainly because it's very addictive to eat and getting your hands on a crunchy , non oily, cracker with just a tinge of onion taste is hard. The more commercially produced ones are thicker,less crunchy and oilier. This came from Pahang courtesy of Adda. ( THANKS very much....)

Little luxuries in life..

There is a reason to feel euphoric today. After just one working day we are thrown headlong into the weekend. And it rained which made it seem even more like a day to indulge self in something nice. Food was out. There is only THAT much of good food you can stuff into your stomach in less than 48 hours. And unlike cows, we've been short-changed with only ONE stomach. A nice buff , a pink-glow peppermint and lavendar scrub later..and I have nice shiny nails with a touch of pink to call my own. The holiday spirit made me chatty, so Phoebe ( not her real name ) and i chatted while she buffed my nails. She thought me some tagalog and I taught her some Malay. Barter system...

Now comes the hard part...it takes a full 24 hours for the nails to dry properly. In the meantime I'm handicapped. Hair washing post-poned to tomorrow, typing on the laptop with the pulps of my fingers is harder than I thought...plus doing just about anything is hard. I want to keep the shiny nails as shiny for as long as I can you see. Is that too much to ask?

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What I'm reading today...

One of the many books I bought during the TIME warehouse sale at Plaza Damas last month. A steal at RM 15. Good condition, no dog ears and no scribbles inside dedicating the book to some obscure name which you find in most second-hand books. Am at page 19.

This is the FIRST time reading this author. ( Oh oh I've only just realise this is Cheek's second book I'm reading. ) Why her? OKay I admit, the cover ( shallow, shallow ) attracted me, the paper quality was to my liking and the synopsis at the back seemed intriguing. It isn't until this morning, that I took a GOOD look at the author. Once again, the face is not ugly, so that rule of ugly auhors writing well must surely be thrown out the window at this stage.