This Blog

It's easy to own a blog, but it's tough keeping one. Well.. That's a different story altogether if one frequently updates it. Otherwise, it will be just like this one, updated probably once or twice in a month. Which is sad, really.

Of course, a blog is like a diary, except that there's a possibility that at least one person out there in the great, wide world would read it. True enough, we have the freedom to write whatever we like in it. It's where we can express our angers, sadness, joy and thoughts, regardless of who reads it, isn't it?

But that's the problem. Strangers read about your intimate feelings. People around you will somehow accidentally "land" onto your blogspace. Things you don't want certain people to know about but you write about it, and eventually, someway somehow, they know about it. What if I wanna rant about someone? What if I wanna write about any skeletons in my closet? It's.. It's awkward lar.. Freedom of speech or not, people who are close to you, will also judge you by your writings.

There are so many things I'd just want to write about, but at the end, I didn't because of issues like these. Therefore, I've created another blog quite some time ago and remain anonymous there. No such luck of revealing the link to you. Sorry.. That's where I'll write all my inner thoughts without ever fearing of any consequences caused from my writings.

But of course, I will still update this blog. Just that, whatever I write will probably be a bit general. Or I can put up photos. Or, I don't know.. Anything goes.. I might even have duplicate entries in both of the blogs. If you happen to chance upon that mysterious blog and think that you've read it before over here, yup, that's me. Lucky you! Hehe..

Thanks for popping by. Do check on this blog occasionally though. I won't let it die. Who knows, maybe I have another entry up my sleeves now. :)

Have a good day, everyone!

Post CNY

Oh wow. I haven't been blogging for nearly a month now. Not that it made any difference, did it How are you?

CNY came and went. Angpows collected. Lion dance performances witnessed. I actually saw a 'lion' fell off from a pole (horror!) at Amcorp Mall. Relatives visited. Reunion dinners attended. Listing of nieces/nephews (from my cousins' on Dad's side) increased to at least 20 now. *Gasp* And a lovely newborn cousin brother, who looks exactly like our late grandfather (Mum's dad, he passed away in early 1997). "Reincarnation", Mum and her siblings always said. "Small Father!" as they refer him. Hehe..

Had a mini 'lou sang' dinner with family at home last night for Chap Goh Meh, and 'tong yuen' for dessert. Mum heard from the radio that people normally have 'tong yuen' on the 15th day of CNY. I always thought it was only eaten during the Chinese Winter Solstice!

Now that the CNY celebration is over, it's time to open the angpow packets!! *nyek nyek nyek*

2 Hour Blackout

We had power shortage at about 12.25pm, shortly before lunch break (I couldn't heat up my nasi lemak!). We thought this was normal (power tripping is a VERY common thing in my company), only to find out that the whole area was affected too. I seriously pitied our next door neighbour - the cake factory. Sure make losses! Us? "Lepak je lar" in the R&D room as darkness surrounded us. Couldn't really go out, anyway, too hot to even want to picnic at the 'taman' in front of our office. Hehe..

Then realized everywhere else also 'kena' - Damansara Perdana, UM, Sunway, Subang, Cyberjaya, Putrajaya, Mid Valley, Bukit Jalil.. Heard that a power generator in Cameron's was shut down also. Even had trouble making calls from the handphones. Aduhai.. Thank goodness my housing area was not affected at all! Coz we've got renovation going on at home! Hhm.. Must be the fact that we chose a good date from the 'tong sing' (Chinese almanac) for renovation. Hehe.. Mum must have been soooooo glad!

Anyway, wanna know the cause? It's due to power tripping in Kapar's power station. You can read the news here. Other news related to the blackout are in The Star, The Sun, Bloomberg, TV Smith (this is damn cute) and Jeff Ooi. More of fellow bloggers' point of views are in Visa, PapiMami and Oliviasy. ;)

Now that electricity is back, it's back to work for everyone!

Revolving Christmas

Christmas is always a sentimental and romantic celebration. Last minute gift-shopping for loved ones. Christmas songs being played over the air. Decorations and bright lights hanging everywhere. Family dinners to make the picture perfect.

We had that. Sis' bf, Vainpot came down from Hong Kong yesterday for the weekend. We took that opportunity to go for the Christmas buffet dinner over at the Seri Angkasa Revolving Restaurant in KL Tower. It was a lovely restaurant. There were tables for two by the window glasses, overseeing the whole city as the tower revolves. Definitely the most romantic place in Malaysia. Hint for guyz who want to propose to their gfs, or at least, to make an impression to their ladies on their first dates. *wink* Although, it can be a rather expensive one.. It costs at least 90 bux per person on Christmas!

Bird's eye view of KL

Don't worry about the $$, the setting was lovely (Christmas trees and decorations everywhere), the buffet was marvellously yummy, especially the desserts.. Creme brulee.. Caramel pudding.. Hehe.. I'm a bigger fan of the desserts rather than the food. ;) After a round of Christmas songs, there was a live solo, singing lovey-dovey songs (like "Wonderful Tonight" and "Forever Love") as he plays the piano. How romantic can this NOT be?

Fluffy Santa Claus

Lovely.. Absolutely lovely.. Merry Christmas. ;)

Opening The Wine Bottle

A pre-Christmas "humour" (if not, a lame one)..

What happens if the R&D dept receives a hamper and there were no bosses around?
Answer: Open it la.

What happens if the hamper contains a bottle of wine and there's 2 and 1/2 more hours to go till the Christmas weekend?
Answer: Drink it la.

What happens if there is no bloody corkscrew around, not within the dept room, the pantry, not any other depts in other buildings?
Answer: Unscrew it the typical engineer way la.

How?
Answer: Get 2 long screws, 1 screwdriver (or testpen), 1 pair of pliers, 2-3 pairs of hands, and the rest as cheerleaders. Drill the screws deep into the cork. 1 pair of hands to use the pliers to pull the screws out (hence, pulling the cork out). The other 1-2 pairs of hands to hold the bottle. Pull as hard as you can get, and *wah lah*, the cork is out.

The screwed cork

Like I said, typical R&D engineers' way to open a wine bottle without a corkscrew. Hehe..

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas Eve and despite being in a Christian company, they're not letting us off early today. :( Oh well.. Am blasting Billy Gilman's "Jingle Bells Rock" now. I don't care if anyone's gonna be mad about it! It's Christmas Eve!!

I've always loved Christmas rather than CNY. CNYs are mainly "dong dong chang" and there's always the expectations of giving angpaus, exchanging oranges and all. No doubt, I'm not exactly a Christian. But somehow there's something melancholy about Christmas - the Christmas tree, carols, bright lights and cottony snow. Even the songs are sentimental. No expectations whatsoever, but merely the companionship of family and friends. I miss the days when I used to attend Sunday School, and we would go around the nearby housing area singing carols while holding lit candles.. That was, what, almost 15 years ago.

My family is definitely not Christians, but we do put up Christmas trees every year and decorate it with colourful ornaments, bells and candy sticks. Plus, our tree is the fibre optic one which looks like this, well, not exactly la, something like that. I would try to buy them Christmas gifts and we would go for Christmas dinners, just the 4 of us.

This year's Christmas, I got to dress up as Santa Rina for my company's Annual cum Christmas Dinner. It was fun "Ho ho ho"-ing at my colleagues and distributing gifts with another colleague, Santa Hippo. Although we were all required to bring a gift worth at least 10 bux, it was nice to see their excited eyes as they select their gifts. Yeah, I let them choose their own gifts (they suka big one, then take the big one lor). We played games, sang carols, performed a comedy skit and had lucky draw. I hope everyone had fun there.

As for my family, Sis' bf, Vainpot is down from Hong Kong for a short visit. This year, it's gonna be the 6 of us having our Christmad dinner in KL Tower. Hopefully the sky is clear tomorrow night and we'll get to see some fireworks. :)

"And so I'm offering this simple phrase
For kids from one to ninety-two
Although it's been said, many times, many ways
Merry Christmas to you".

Here's wishing you a marvellicious Christmas and may you have a much blessed one, surrounded with loads of love, joy and don't forget this, as I quote Sir Cliff Richard, that Christmas is "a time for giving, a time for getting, a time for forgiving, and for forgetting".

Merry Christmas. *Hugz*

Anyone Feeling Like This?

Got this through my colleague..

"I WANNA GO ON HOLIDAY NOW!!!"



Hehe.. I'm already on the holiday mood.. Are you?

Shaolin Kung Fu Masters Return

I went for this last night! Inspector got the 70 bux tickets from his colleague. It started at 8pm, we were late and I guess we'd pretty much missed the lion dance. His colleague managed to get us seats near theirs. The stadium was awfully packed, probably coz they only perform for these 2 nights?

The exponents were really superb! They had group demonstrations for animal styles and drunken fist, spears on the throat, knives on the abdomen, etc. I particularly was looking forward to the needle piercing through the glass pane act. The practitioner was supposed to use Qi Gong to pierce the glass pane with a needle and burst the balloon at the other side of the pane. He took a few tries and in the end, managed to pierce the pane, but he did not burst the balloon. Still.. It was a superb try. Another practitioner managed to push a van by using a spear against the throat. It looked sooooooooooo painful to me. Imaging having the pointy tip over at your throat, the van in front of you, you pushing the van backwards and therefore, pushing the spear deeper onto the throat. But he made it feel like nothing only! *Gasp*

Oh, there was this other fascinating act - Log ramming against the abdomen. They asked the audience to go onto the stage and hit the practitioner's abdomen. Most of the people that went up were kids. Hehe.. One kid kept wanting to hit, most of them left with the look on the face, telling us that their fists hurt, and there were some adults showing off kung fu style lar, taekwando style lar, and whatever style.. Just to hit on the abdomen! Hilarious!

Managed to buy a copy of the Shaolin CD from one of the exponents. 40 bux for a 2-hour disc! Seems expensive, but then again, nevermind lar.. Consider it as a donation to the Tung Shin Hospital lor.. We had to leave early though coz Inspector was really exhausted, so we missed the closing ceremony.

Nevertheless, I had a great time there. Truly wonderful experience. I don't mind going back to watch it the next time they come down. ;)