Bleargh

My "holiday" is coming to an end. Tomorrow I would have to start the old routine again, and I’m just not looking forward to that. Having had nothing to do at the office has been great because I got to goof off and still got paid for it. One would think that with all that free time at work, I would actually be able to write all those story ideas I had been storing for months.

Er, no such luck.

For one, Scrabulous has taken over my life. I’m still hooked on it till today, and I get very upset when I lose by anything less than 50 points. I get even more upset when my rating falls after I’ve worked so hard on getting it right up there with the big leagues.

It’s only a game, I know, but Scrabble is my favourite board game to date. I used to play all the time — all by my lonesome, as OMY would say. You see, by the time I was old enough to spell, none of my brothers and sister was interested in the game anymore. The kids in my neighbourhood were, well, let’s just say they struggled to speak proper English at the time, and cousins were nowhere in sight.

So, I played Scrabble by myself. I guess it was a little sad and pathetic but hey, I turned out to be a well-balanced human being nonetheless. Plus, my command of the English language rocks, so there!

These days I play online with strangers and friends. I like playing with strangers because it’s pretty challenging, though I do tend to play with people whose ratings are lower than mine heh heh. The only problem is that most of these strangers come from either the US or Britain, so the timing ain’t so great. Because of that, I sometimes have to wait ages for them to make a move and that’s just pretty damn annoying.

Oh well.

Now that I have to get back to the old routine of coming in early and staying back till very late I guess I have to cut back on Scrabulousing.

Anyway, on to a cheerier topic: This morning, after almost five months of being absent from film previews, I actually dragged my ass out of bed early to watch a movie.

"At last… my arm is complete!"

And at last, my hunger for more Johnny Depp action is satiated with Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

In this film adaptation of the Broadway musical (I think it was Broadway, or was it West End? Ah, who cares, right?), Johnny plays Sweeney Todd, a man who was sentenced to a life of hard labour in another land (it’s Australia, but I don’t think it was mentioned in the film) on false charges.

He escapes, and is saved at sea by a young sailor. They head for Sweeney’s old hometown — London, a place filled with people who are filled with shit (hey, those are the words, baby!).

There, he goes back to his old apartment, which he once shared with his lovely wife with yellow hair, and their baby girl. Of course, his family is no longer there. A woman, who proclaims that she makes the worse meat pies in London, tells him that his wife had poisoned herself years ago, and that his child is now under the care of the horrible Judge Turpin, the same guy who sent Sweeney Todd into exile.

Angry, crazy but still beautiful, Sweeney Todd sharpens his barber’s razors and starts plotting his revenge on the judge, with the help of the meat pie lady.

Or something like that lah.

Anyway, not only is the story interesting, the film also has been wonderfully made by kooky director Tim Burton. Expect dark undertones, grey clouds (it’s London, after all), lots of raccoon-eye makeup, crazy hairdos and quirky costumes.

To top it all off, is a singing Johnny Depp.

Helena Bonham Carter sings pretty well too, though I must say the three younger actors in the film are the best singers (sure, the girl sings in an ungodly high-pitched and over-the-top voice but it IS a musical, duh!).

The script was well written, but I have no idea how much of the original script was used so I can’t give credit for that. The songs are pretty great too, and I found myself humming the last song in the film after I walked out of the cinema.

Unfortunately, the overly festive "gong xi, gong xi, gong xi nie" song was piping through the mall’s PA system and I soon started humming that tune instead.

Blast!

Oh, before you pack your kids in the car and head for the nearest cinema to watch the movie (it opens next week), do take note that it is one GORY film. I think there is more throat slitting and blood flowing in this film than in 300!

Even though some slitting of the throats have been censored, it still did give me goosebumps each time Johnny, I mean Sweeney Todd, sharpens his razor. The first kill he makes in the film will sure give some kids nightmares. Worse, your child will never ever go to a barber after that, which is not a good thing if your kid’s a boy…

Okay, it’s getting a little annoying this, posting, re-posting, re-booting and whatever. What’s wrong Mr Server Dude??

I can’t even be bothered to correct one grammatical error I found in the previous post… although, it does bother me a bit. Dang.

So anyways.

Last weekend, a group of us from Sabah took a road trip up north to Perlis.

It was for DK and Hafiz’s wedding kenduri, so I joined in the Sabah rombongan (we took a bus which was named "Dayangti", how apt!) to make things merrier. Aiseh, perasan.

Anyways, HH was also on the "tour" so it was okay. Her mum was there too, and many other aunts, uncles, a few cousins and a niece.

Understandably, going to the northmost state in the peninsula from KL would take a LOOOONG time. It took us almost eight hours really, only because we stopped quite a number of times and for long periods too. I think if we had only stopped twice, we would have reached Perlis much earlier, but it’s alright, it was a fun ride nevertheless.

We stayed at the private residence of the Perlis Menteri Besar (he currently stays at his state/official home). There were more than 30 of us in the group so a few stayed at a nearby hotel, but the bulk of us stayed at the house on Jalan Tembusu (hahaha) in Jejawi/Kangar. If you’re thinking of a huge mansion, you’re wrong. It was actually two separate houses situated on one property.

So okay enough of the boring stuff.

The next day, we went to the groom’s parents’ house. We had great food and were given special treatment since we were "special guests who came ALL THE WAY from Sabah". Ahem :P  It’s not incorrect what…

DK and Hafiz looked great in their er, I wanna say lilac-ky, lavendar-y baju… (in print, it’s really not a macho colour for a guy, but it looks good in real life and in pics heh).

How cool is this? The cake is made from nasi minyak or nasi kuning or whatever you call it, and it is decorated with mashed potatoes, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and parsley. I forgot to eat it though haha. I’m sure it was good, since everything else that day was yummy. Mmm….

There are more pics, and if you know me, you’ll know where to find them

Ah, it must be Christmas.

I just lost a pretty long entry that I had written earlier, but didn’t manage to save before the computer hung. And I’ve been trying to re-post this for the past two hours but have been unsuccessful (bloody server down the whole day!). But I’m still a-okay — bar the cursing though hehe.

Maybe because the entry wasn’t so hot. Or maybe it’s because Christmas and the New Year are beckoning so it’s good to forgive and forget.

Or maybe because I’m so hyped up on sugar and caffeine… I do seem to be skipping a lot these past two days.

OR,

maybe because as of yesterday, there’s basically nothing for me to do at work…

Well, not really NOTHING, but I don’t have to worry about daily pullouts anymore, at least for about five to six weeks. Yay!

Also, yesterday we put up our Christmas trees at work. I brought my trusty old tree from home because I decided to do red and white this year, so I bought a new one (a smaller one, though). That white tree has been up for two weeks and yet I’m still adding ornaments to it.

So anyways, back to the trees at the office. We have two this year because I wouldn’t allow any other colour apart from blue/white/silver on the big tree, and the rest were not too happy about that and decided to put up the smaller tree and add all their stuff on that. Both trees look great, so it’s all good!

Besides, we have the space for more than two trees anyway, and our office is on the first floor (so we get loads more visitors than the others on the higher floors), so show off a bit lah.

I haven’t been buying presents though, or even made a list of things to buy. But since I still have presents from last Christmas which have yet to be picked up by friends, I figured this time I would only get presents for those who actually need things.

I was also thinking of sending stuff back home to my family (no cousins though, heh sorry!), since I have never done that before in the 11 years I’ve been in KL. It’s okay, I always make up for it during Chinese New Year

I sent a big package to KK recently for some of the younger kids, and for my mum, dad and sister.

Unfortunately, I forgot about ONE nephew! You see, that’s the thing about having 13 nieces and nephews, you always forgot one person.

The poor kid had just gotten his UPSR results too, kesian… What a bad aunty I am

Oh well, he’ll get a gift in the mail soon enough.

Whoa. It’s been a while…

Anyway… just got back from a working trip to Japan and this time around, I got to see Osaka and Kyoto. Didn’t spend much time there though, but at least the places I did manage to go to were nice.

Before that I went to HK for like two days. That was quite fun too, and I wish it was for a longer period.

Before that I went back to KK for the year’s grand wedding. It was a four-day affair, and friends from all over the world dropped by to join in the fun (good Lord doesn’t this sound like a brochure?). Tayan came back, and this time around we got to spend loads of time together because we were the only ones who were on holiday at the time. And Rats was busy getting married so we really didn’t want to get in her way… haha.

Also, I got myself two new nephews — Benjamin Graham from my sister, and Xavier McCallum from me cousin. Yay!

Ah, and the Swiss Misses came back too. JY was back for a spell a few months back, and Anna and family are currently in KK spending precious time with her kin and friends. They’ll be back in KL in a few days, so I gets to see the precious little Alesha again yay!

But I am bummed out that I didn’t get to meet Mr Jonah Teo though. It would’ve been great to tickle his fancy.

Speaking of tiny tykes, everyone’s waiting for Pops to pop. It’ll be a boy, says the mama, so I guess I won’t be buying any tiny cute dresses anytime soon. Osso’s pregs too, but she doesn’t know the baby’s sex yet. Baby Mikhail is turning one soon, while the cheeky little Baby Ciaran turned one in July.

Yes, everybody’s either with child or already has a child/children. It’s the baby-making year, don’t you know?

Egads, not writing for a long time has certainly affected my ability to come up with interesting stories… One would think that after a long hiatus, there’d be tons to talk about. Sheesh.

Calling all ex-Franciscans, Class of 1993! Our 14th-year reunion do will be held this August 5 in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. It’s time to meet up, chat, gossip and reminisce the good and not-so-good times we had at St Francis Convent Secondary School.

Date: August 5, 2007
Venue: Mediterranean Restaurant, Tg. Aru
Time: Between 1pm and 5pm
Theme: Come dressed in your sports house colours - red for Jet, blue for Fokker, yellow for Comet and green for Boeing!
Charge: RM75 per head that covers food, drinks, venue and others

Do RSVP to me by sending me a msg on Friendster, or via SMS, if you have my number

It’s pay day today and everyone’s down because there ain’t no extras.

I am bummed out too, but at least for me it isn’t so bad because my claims all came in this month.

That doesn’t mean I’m loaded though

And because I fought with the Astro people last month, my latest bill came to more than 200. (okaylah it’s some stupid smart card problem shit which they said they’ll rectify but still…) On top of that, my phone bill also came up to more than 200 because I used 3G and all those other crap on the review phone so much that I forgot how expensive data call services were. At first I thought it had something to do with the calls and sms-es I made from Bali and Jkt, but it turns out those only cost my 30 bucks. :(

Complain complain whine whine…

Oh well.

In other news, The RatRizal Celebrations is getting close! I haven’t done any of the things I’m supposed to do for it: the video (don’t panic rat), the buying of clothes, the making of "prim and proper" clothes,  the losing of weight to fit into the clothes that i’m suppsoed to buy (muahaha) and the buying of the gift, but that’s not my fault.

This post is so sad. No newsworthy entry I’m afraid. Maybe it’s got something to do with Facebook. I’m on Facebook so often that I’ve sort of neglected Friendster. Heh. Kesian…

Oh okay, I’m watching Harry Potter next week… that’s a newsworthy entry right? No? Ok then…

Bleargh.

Goodbye then.

But before that, here’s a pic for my own viewing pleasure:

It’s Archie!

*** Oh, a shout out to Mr Hope: Happy belated (oooops… heh) birthday! And to Mrs Hope, got plans ah for 17?

How could I have forgotten the most important guy of all from our Bali trip???

Behold, AMI:

Okaylah, you can’t see how gorgeous he is when he’s sitting down like this, but TRUST us, he’s H-O-T (say it like Paris Hilton, baby!)

We call him AMI cause he looks like the Miami Ink dude, minus the excessive tattoos:

To answer your question Liz, YES Bali!

Anyways, me and two cousins went to Bali for five days from June 1, before heading over to Jakarta for another two days. We booked our tickets when Air Asia was giving away those 1 million free seats a long, long time ago so imagine how psyched we were by the last week of May!

We stayed at this quaint little inn at Kuta (where else?) at Poppies Lane, not where the bombing happened but withing walking distance. We were about a seven-minute walk away from the beach and from Miss Toh’s favourite place, Hard Rock Cafe/Hotel Bali.

Because we were so close to the beach, the inn was filled with shirtless surfer dudes and chicks with really skinny bikini bodies. Lucky us! Hehe. But not so lucky for me cause each time I had to walk next to a skinny woman, it kinda made me look like Goliath… Oh well. No one knew us Bali anyways so what the hell did I care?

Oh on our way to the inn from the airport, we passed by this:

Surprise!

Okay, I know it kinda spoils the whole "Bali is rich in old cultures and traditions" thing, but hey we were on holiday, so we’re allowed to indulge in foolish things like cream-filled glazed doughnuts!

Krispy Kreme is located at the Discovery Mall, which also had the familiar signages of Roti Boy and BreadTalk, as well as British products Marks & Spencer, Dorothy Perkins and Topshop. Yes, it’s a Mat Salleh place, basically. In fact, when you stand outside the mall, this is what you see:

Ala, it’s a little dark. Never mind, I actually wanted to show the billboards — Krispy Kreme, Pizza Hut, Starbucks and KFC (not in the pic, but it’s there). On the left side of the mall, though, is a temple where shopkeepers, salesgirls and donut-gives make their offering each day. So, Bali isn’t like 100% corrupted by western cultures also lah. I’m guessing these fast food joints and clothing stores are there to cater to the growing number of foreigners who make their stay permanent in Bali. And for sakai tourists. hehe.

To cut a long and winding story short, here’s a photo essay. I’ve uploaded more pics on imagestation Bali pics

The Kecak dancers at Uluwatu sure got sexyback. Heh. 

You want massage? Manicure? Umbrella? Towel? Pineapple? Mango? Ice-cream? Yes, we were hounded endlessly at the beach, but after a while you do sort of tune out and they’ll kind of leave you alone. Us being Asians, we were a little too nice and didn’t bark at them to go away, but there were these two British women who sat near me (when I went to the beach on the very last day alone to catch some rays and to oggle at surfer dudes) who just snapped at anyone who came by peddling their wares. Needless to say, people left the Britons alone. Earlier that week there was also a woman who took off her bikini top, baring her nippies for all to stare and drool over (the men lah). The locals left her alone too.

Ah, the bane of my dieting life, the babi guling! Why, oh, why can’t I get this in Malaysia?

If I had a proper house, I’d want my door to look like this. What place was this? Erm, the Ubud Palace, right next to Ibu Oka’s Babi Guling. Hehe.

Behind door number two is a car! Sorry I have no idea how to rotate the pic on friendster.

You would think that Babi Guling and Krispy Kreme don’t mix, but oh how wrong you would be!

Dear Lord, thank you for giving this guy such wonderful arms.

Sand between and ON my toes… bliss…

Okay, I can’t rival MsP and The Boy’s food pics, but hey I think I managed to make tempeh look good!

In a nutshell, Bali is a great holiday destination, especially if what you’re looking for are just simple things like the beach and a lot of sun, a bit of culture, a few specialty dishes (babi guling, baby!), great friends to hang with, cheap stuff to buy and hundreds of surfers and tourists with yummylicious bods!

So anyway, went for a holiday with me two cousins, saw tonnes of hunka burnin’ lovely guys, ate and drank "moderately" (for reals!) and now all three of us want to be there still.

Where is there? Nanti lah I tell you, today has been a freakishly busy day and I don’t really want to be in the office anymore so here’s a sneak peek:

RatsandRizal, I know what you guys have…

To quote someone: "I don’t think any of us would have thought to pair the two of them together with them being complete opposites but the results… magical. Like hot fudge brownies with cool vanilla ice-cream, like heavy rain on a hot sunny day creating a rainbow and my favourite, Jennifer Lopez and Mark Anthony making sweet Latin music."

Muahahahaha

After 11 years of hoping, wishing, dreaming that I’d one day meet Johnny Depp, I had finally given up when the Pirates of the Caribbean junket went to somebody else. Somebody who doesn’t work in the office no less. If only the bitch that signs all my claims wasn’t so farky I would have gone for it. But then again, Johnny Depp wasn’t going to participate in the junket so that’s some solace for me there, but still, I haven’t gotten a single one of those movie junkets since I was FORCED TO JOIN SOMETHING I HAVE ALWAYS HATED.

Yes I’m whining but it’s my right. Maybe I’m just a scorned woman like the fury that hell hath (thanks Jack!). If you’re already annoyed with me, scroll down. 

I am so re-in-love with .

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End ROCKS! I loved it. I love Johnny and his clones, I love Johnny’s long-lost relative, I love the monkey, the goat, the parrot, the crabs, the barnacles and the rum. Yes, there’s always rum.

Ah Fat-ko, or Chow Yun-Fat as Hollywood spells his name, was a little underused I felt, but you do feel the impact. He spoke Cantonese in the film though… As a Singaporean character, shouldn’t he be speaking er, Mandarin or Hokkien??? Hehe. Well, they never really mentioned that he was FROM Singapore, just that he was IN Singapore. In any case, wasn’t Singapore still known as Temasek then???

Ah, but, my dear friends, these questions won’t come to you while you’re watching it, so don’t worry. "It’s just my neh-chore."

What I didn’t like about the movie was the "Attack of the 50-foot Woman" scene. Seemed like an anti-climax to me.

Oooh, and, and, and, if you’re planning to get any CDs this week, get the Pirates soundtrack. That haunting "Yo-Ho" song (as opposed to the hippity-hoppity Yo, HOE!… haha private joke, move along) will keep playing in your head after the film’s over. AND, if you had been planning to buy the latest LP album, chuck that idea and buy the Pirates soundtrack instead.

Oh AND, please don’t walk out of the cinema RIGHT after because there’s kinda like a surprise thing about five to 10 minutes after the credits roll. Nothing much lah, some say that one also anti-climactic, but for me, it was fine.

For those of you who love Orlando Bloom, I can assure you you’ll wet your pants towards the end of the show when the goody-two-shoes Will Turner transforms into a new man with a bandana (is it bandanna? who cares!). I’m not a big fan of Bloom’s Will Turner, though I do love his Legolas (it’s the long, blonde hair thing, weird, I know), but dang, I gotta say that boy’s got the goods to play a rough-and-tumble kind of guy! Woohoo! 

FYI, this is BEFORE his transformation.

Hamana hamana hamana….

I swoon, you swoon, we all swoon…

Tomorrow morning I’ll be watching Shrek the Third. A colleague said it’s "okay-lah only" but then again, a bad film at the cinema is better than a good day at the office, ba-da-bing!