festive fever

quicker than a ray of light, it's already end of october, and it'll be festival week very soon. or what the media says, deeparaya holiday. in fact, quite a number of my colleagues already started their holiday, and they're neither malay nor indians.

i visited geylang serai for the last time yesterday. it was very crowded, i guess other ppl got emotional too as geylang serai would never be the same again from next year onwards. while browsing through the foods in the bazaar, i even took out my digicam and snapped some photos. i know i'd look like a foreigner but forgive me for being sentimental.who knows whether there'll ever be geylangs serai in the future?

well at least i've got lapis cake monica moschovitz that my mum asked me to buy from malay village bazaar. 2 boxes. they came in normal favours, raisins, spices and chocolate. my mum likes the raisin flavour. it's delicious and cheap too. 10 dollars only when in malaysia lapis cake always costs at least 45 ringgit. even cheaper then the one sold in batam.

as usual, the gelang serai was a nightmare if u tried to find a decent place to break fast. ppl would book tables as early as before 6. so me and my friends bought our foods (crab okonomiyaki and chicken satay for me, i've been craving satay for days) and ate squatting down by the road shoulders. there were other ppl along the road shoulders too, it really added up to the atmosphere.

i think i've had enough of the place. for now. now it's time to think of what to bring back when i go back kl for the deeparaya holiday tomorrow. there's this alcom line phone complete with its child unit that i plan to bring back home. my parents have the current line phone in middle of the stairs landing and my mum always came breathless from climbing the stairs everytime she answered calls. plus, that phone area is a bit dark and batalions of mosquitoes reside there, and in this dengue epidemic sweeping the country, that isn't what u call a preferable condition. now at least she can put the phone child unit downstairs so it will no longer be necessary to climb the stair to accept calls.

add that with 2 boxes of lapis cakes, my clothes including new samuel and kelvin jeans, my digicam and handycam, books (blink by malcolm gladwell and the shining by stephen king), my walkman (playing new compilation mp3 cd i just made this afternoon consists of ashlee simpson i am me, destiny's child #1, kelly clarkson breakaway), my vitamins etc my GAP backpack which i bought in Paris looks like a fully diluted pregnant woman.

i'm just somewhat concern of the m'sian side customs. last time i beautifully wrapped (ok it was not me but the customer service chap in robinson) this cake mixer because i wanted to give my mum for mother's day and ended up being taxed for it. the other year, i brought back my unused sony vcd player, which i carefully wrapped with old newspaper, because i wanted to give it my grandfather but of course the custom scanning machine caught it and i was taxed for it too.

whatever happen to flexibility and leniency? it's not that i brought those stuff for me for whatever selfish reasons, but they were for other ppl that i care. it's not like i'm trafficking cake mixer in a whole underground secret cake mixer inter-continental exportation or something, so those taxes were just plain ridiculous. i mean, instead of imagining the joyful face of those presents, now i'm worrying over the customs 'verdict. i suspect if i cursed them who taxed me, it might even came true.

anyway, i'm not gonna let that spoil my festive holidays. the event is almost possibly ruined already when my father (again) apparently insisted on celebrating the season at our home in kl instead of my mus side grandfather's home in a village in negri sembilan, which we went every year recently. i like celebrating in the village, where the traditional tradition still goes on. plus, other relatives will be there too, so it's not like we're gonna celebrate all by ourselves surrounded by our usual 4 concrete walls with neighbours mostly back in their own hometowns.

but knowing my father, he always has the final say. well almost all the times anyway, partly because we were too afraid to argue. unless my mum starts to prison herself in the bedroom and refused to cook. this happened once or twice before when i was around. this time, as my father already retired from work last september, it maybe changed the whole situation.

not much that i can do so i'll just hope for the best. hey, i got the lapis cake as requested, so at least things seem to be going the good way.

happy diwali and selamat hari raya aidilfitri!


...ed

undercover

there's departmental meeting going on this morning. normally i'll go to the meeting slightly early because they provide breakfast, so u can eat and gossip with colleagues and choose strategic seats (strategic as in far from front view, and close to the door for early escape).

however as it's still in the fasting month now, i'll let the meeting pass. after all, the breakfast is the prime reason ppl join the meeting, considering more than half always leave even before the first technical presentation starts.

a bit like charity donation program they always do in spore. take away the prizes that could be won with every dollar you donate, and see if ppl still donate in millions.

killing time, i browsed through the current top news. i like to read bbc news, good coverage and not as biased as the cnn. from the main headlines, seems like iranian president just urged muslim countries to 'wipe off israel' from the world map.

which is quite puzzling if u ask me. while it's no secret that iran loaths israel, they are already being pressured to prove that their nuclear program development is peaceful, and israel market bomb yesterday does not help to condition either. one may ask, what's the objective then of that quote?

it's like u rare a fierce dog that like to bite ppl. so the neighbours get paranoia. so u ascertain them that u'll not let the dog bite anybody, but at the same time u said that this particular neighbour deserve a bite, and urge other neighbours to get this particular neighbour bitten.

ok that's not that good of an example, but u get the point.

high level affairs are always complicated. it's a relieve that my job scope does not include maintaining world peace. i don't even have to stride along the high walk-away and gracefully mouthed 'world peace' while giving small waves. or hide guns in my inner thigh because i'm an FBI agent undercover in some beauty peagent contest.

it does require me to always answer my boss' mail questions though. which is what i'm gonna have to start doing now. it's not that i'm scared of him or anything, but i'd like him to see me as capable. the other day, we discussed on things i need to do in order to get promoted to higher level, which got me going for like 5 minutes. after that, i returned to my 'safe mode' and just content in just being 'capable'.

i mean, work is just work. i have plenty of things that i'm concern about other than work. for instance, like what the new madonna album will sound like. ok this maybe not really a concern, but i'm curious.

her new single 'hung up' is really a bum-shaking number. not just ordinary bum-shaking, but john travolta style shaking. yeah the lyrics sucks, forgetable and doesn't go with the melody (who sings about being hung up in a upbeat, happy tone??) but once u're in the dancefloors, or alone in the living room with blasting hi-fi, who cares?

unless, of course, if the lyrics is about wiping the zionist regime off the map or sth.


...ed

trippin' (that's the way life goes)

i've never been a suria channel fan. the only time I tuned in was when there was no alternative. like when sports channels are showing never-ending EPL soccer (not my cup to tea), or F1 racing (round and round in a repetitive cycle, boring), or worst, golf (big yawn, can see my tonsils?).

but when i attended dinner cum break fast at my relatives house last saturday at punggol (well, not before they called me hinting me to go visit them once in awhile whenever i got time), they had suria channel turned on while we were eating.

not that i care. i guess we always turn on tv in a gathering just so that ppl have sth to see when they are not chatting away. i played 'shrek 2' during my house warming party last month for the same purpose (and also i get to show off my new 42-inch plasma tv in its rich display colours, which was the reason i selected animation movie). but what disturbed me that night was this particular program suria channel had on.

it introduced japanese 'ramen'. translated in malay. complete with introduction that the main ingredient is ermm..pork. plus, how they make it, best place to have it, even interviewed ppl to ask how it tastes like. very very inappropriate considering the malays cannot eat ramen at all due to its pork contents. one would ask then, what's the purpose?

but i'm not going bananas over it. i mean, who watch suria channel anyway? like 10 ppl in the whole island. exactly. unless, if they have siti nurhaliza on. or taufik batisah, except this one might not be true nowadays. just see how many ppl tune in to shooting stars on tuesday night? maybe 20.

last night i went for *in whisper tone* interview. out of a sudden i got this phone call last weekend to arrange appointment. apparently it was sth to do with finance. i didn't asked much on the phone because i was busy karaokeing off my pc speaker that night so it was a bit difficult to concentrate. after all the place is in bugis, not like at some weird corners of the world or anything.

the park view square where i had the interview was actually very nice and classy with exotic feelings to it. i suspect i was introducted by this net friend. i casually told him previously that i would like to consider this area of expertise as a part time. not full time as what it apparently turned out to be. after all, who needs to beg ppl to join some financial plans, or enganged in some financial advice sessions, just to earn some commissions when i can get few fixed thousands just by sitting here writing this blog?

ok i'm not merely writing blogs normally at work but forgive me the workload really sucks nowadays. sucks as in it leaves you with nothing much to do. moreover, i got to sit down quietly and do stuff with my pc when other ppl are out for lunch, or even tea break. surely i have rooms to do non-work stuff during these times. i mean, ppl don't expect me to work when i'm not eating, do they? that will definitely break some clause of the human right codes.

it's not like i'm watching some crappy programmes off the tv or anything.



...ed

like no other day

For the first time in my life, I did charity work last Saturday. I went to Jamiyah Children's home Darul Ma'wa, as part of company's charity team to help decorate the children's dining hall for Hari Raya.

I was surprised on how small the building is. Just a one storey unit. In fact I almost missed it if not for this white van with Jamiyah Children's Home written in green parked in the compound.

There were bunch of NS army guys in the home lobby, and after wading through them I managed to find my fellow colleagues, whom mostly I have never met or spoken too before being in whole diff department. Well, they were friendly enough, which shouldn't be a surprised considering unfriendly ppl and charity normally don't go hand in hand.

On the way to the dining hall, we passed through rooms with single beds lined up to fill all available space. No fancy bedsheet, minimum pillows and no personal touch at all. Simple and neat. The walls along the corridor were decorated with activities photos, achievements acknowledgements, and some navy ships photos complete with commander signatures. I was briefly reminded that the residents are small children.

Upon arriving the the dining hall, we were swarmed by the children wanted to shake and kiss our hands. I was touched, and I remembered thinking how small and cold their palms are. They looked pretty playful together and maybe a little anxious to see what's coming from us that day. One of them even said something to me which I could not make out, nevertheless I smiled and gave him a brotherly pat.

The dining hall is just big enough to accommodate 2 long metallic tables and one small stage in front. There were words welcoming some government officials for break fast dinner on the stage board which were decorated in purple cloth. That's about the only decoration I noticed. On the walls were mostly reminders. There was even this photos of a dying african kid due to hunger, being watched nearby by a vulture, reminding us that we should not waste our food and be grateful for it.

The kids made a dikir barat presentation for the army team, as they were the one sitting in front of the stage while me and my company at the other side of the hall tieing golden strings to ketupat ribbons. The dikir barat poked fun to the Singaporean lifestyle, and pretty good considering their age.

We tied the ketupat ribbons to strings and laid them wall to wall covering the whole dining hall with dangling ketupats. To be frank, I did not do much after tieing the ketupats to the strings as 2 of my colleagues did all the strings hanging. Once in awhile I went close-by to see the army guys accompanied the childrens drawing with magic colours and taught them making things with polysterine cups. The whole place became a mess with cut papers but at least they looked that they were having fun.

By noon, the place already has Hari Raya vibes to it. Before leaving dropped a few notes inside the donation box, regretting for not carrying more cash. I'm like my father when it comes to carry-on cash. Catch me at most times and my wallet will have fewer than 20 dollars. Saw a signboard that ppl can pay their zakat fitr here too, and after scooping whatever coins left in my pocket, found it enough to pay the zakat. To my surprise, they gave me a plastic of Hari Raya cookies and a box of Curry Powder after payment. Never had I imagined I'd be getting sth after a visit there, something that should be the other way around.



…ed

confessions in a dark room

it's almost 9pm and i'm still in front of this pc in a slightly dark room. i've told myself countless time i have to reduce my nightly online addiction and starts addicting on sth else, like tv shows or sth. especially since rafael nadal is not playing these recent months, my starhub cable tv subscription almost sounds like a waste.

what's worse, i noticed an extra 2 dollars on my cable bills last month. first of all, let me express that i'm not a control freak that checks every words and sentences out of each and every bills, but if the figure stalls every months, and suddenly you see different numbers for total amount, believe me you'd noticed it too.

apparently starhub started to charge 2 dollars for the analog modem box fee, which just plain ridiculous. i mean, they'd started charging the digital box way in advance before perhaps, they suddenly noticed, 'oh we forgot to charge for the old analog one since it went into the market like gazillion years ago..'

well i'm not gonna get petty bout a bloody 2 dollars, there's much other things that could be my concern now. like thinking how i could help those poor south asia recent earthquake victims that get desperate as the time goes by.

just like the series LOST, surviving isn't always good news. well at least in a whole general perception because don't get me wrong, being alive is always a bless. but those poor kashmirians are suffering. no shelters, no food. i see off the BBC the males and females formed lines and passed sacks of food and clothes from one to another out of army trucks and planes but yet, it doesn't seem enough.

and i keep telling myself, what can i do? it was easy to look out the window appreciating the peaceful but wet view of sunday afternoon that was drenched by day-long drizzling rains, and forget about the whole affairs in the other side of the globe, and only fretting about why the condo management decided to re-paint the buildings normal boring yellow rather than the previously unique pink.

ppl does make all sorts of stupid decisions sometimes. like me, i'm still in front of this pc....


...ed

the minority report

every morning i will leave house for work before 7.30am so that i can get a copy of this freely distributed newspaper at the train station, so that by the time i arrived to my company, i've more or less browsed through the latest affairs in the world.

one of the columns that i always found amusing, is the reader's post. like last week, there was this guy, whose name i don't even want to remember, complained about the government act to provide disable-friendly environment for the handicapped ppl.he mentioned that it's not worth and cost effective to spend so much for the minority.

the minority. yeah like we would stop after the disabled if it really go through. i bet after that, we would attack the other minorities. like races. that would be ugly. not that it hasn't happened yet. just ask the 2 bloggers jailed for posting rascist comments on their blog.

i'm amused that ppl carry such opinion, even more amused that they take effort to get it published to the public without an ounce of doubt that the opinion is well, not very appropriate. sth must have gone wrong in the social system that the ppl start to get confuse on the simple rights and wrongs.

then yesterday there was this other guy that said the disabled ppl are asking for too much, and they should go for the taxis rather than public transportation so that they won't delay other so-called normal ppl's business.

there you go.

recently i read this analysis on developed countries vs not-so-developed countries from one of the e-mail chain. it says, number of talents, natural resources and land size do not matter (if not why else we have third world country's citizen being a work force in developed countries, switzerland producing world's best chocolates without planting any cocoa plant, and india and china that are so big yet so poor).

all that matters is the ppl's attitude.

no wonder the latest survey done recently ranked s'pore as the 54th liveable city in the world. well i'm not surprised.

yesterday i met this friend of mine from LA, knows him from the net. he was in town for a holiday, so we met for a short while over dinner. he was with his taiwanese friend that looks cool but speaks rather soft it sounded funny.

anyway, while the cleaning aunty was cleaning our table, he mentioned that back in the States, you have to send your dirty dishes to approriate stn after eating in the restaurant. here we expect to be served.

i guess, we tend to draw a clear line between our own type or level, and others. customers are not supposed to be handling dirty dishes.

like the so-called normal ppl are not supposed to be taken into the same level with the disabled.

duh.


...ed

day after tomorrow

i got headache all day, which became worse and worse morning to afternoon to evening. it's the 5th day fasting today, which means panadol is not an option. besides, received in e-mail chain that panadol stays in our liver up to 5 years, so i'm really making effort to reduce my intake anyway.

which is a pity really. hail to whoever invented panadol. i like the red one, panadol extra. that white pills are like magic, little drops of heaven that could cure headache in few minutes time. seriously.

actually i think the real problem must be my eyes. i'm not wearing any glasses or contact lenses, but i do suspect my eyes is causing me headache sometimes. especially because i love reading while lying down in beds, and watching movies in dark room. one of these days i really need to go for check-outs.

which should be the right thing to do. tackle the root cause of the problem.

not like a bit like thaksin, who send troops to southern thailand and start catching random local religious leaders to reduce the regional unrest. does he care to find out whats troubling the southern muslims? no. and does he succeed in forming peace there? double no.

nobody learns from bush's mistake in tackling terrorism. war is a big no-no. he could catch all the so-called al-qaeda leaders he wants, but for every man he captured, 10 more will emerge. it's a never ending story. the world gets even more unsafe to live on as the days go by.

add those humanitarian conflicts with recent mother nature catastrophies, and we'll get the impression that the whole world is in a mess. tsunami in south-east asia, hurricanes in north america, landslide in middle america, earthquake in south asia, the list goes on. that's what obvious in our eyes, but what about dengue epidemic in singapore and malaysia, and bird flu in indonesia?

it's ramadhan now, the month of devotion to god, and pray for forgiveness and our well-being. i sure hope things will get better.

if it's any indication, my headache is getting better. really.


...ed