reaching for the light

so it was friday night. it was time to put the work mess on hold and moved away from the hari raya trails. who says the party is over now that all the lemangs and ketupats are all history?

this month, the hindus will be celebrating their diwali which is also known as the festival of light. so when we pondered where to go for the night, i thought let's give little india a visit.


Diwali (Deepavali) in Little India

true enough, when we arrived in little india, the street was already submerged in the glowing light of many blinding colours. i felt like alice just found wonderland. ok maybe not really, but still it was nice to look.





even the smaller streets were decorated. wow someone do have lots of money to sponsor this. this is many times better than the hari raya light-up, which is pretty sad actually. but again, nothing should ever be compared to this mother of all light-ups. after all, the lights for hindus signifies victory of good over the evil within every human being.

and from the look of it, it was a one sided victory, hands down.

actually, it's quite a good place to buy things around little india, because you know you're not gonna be slashed off your throat. price wise i mean. having said that, i didn't buy anything. i was just got curious by that tangles of flowers beside this fruit stall. there were many tangles of flowers like this sold at every corners. my friend said they use those during prayers, and i thought, really? like how??

while strolling along the main street admiring the beauty (most of the time through my canon G7's LCD screen), we found this small roof-covered street that was packed with goodies. i never noticed this street before. looks like a lot of activities inside there so we ventured in, feeling every bit like harry potter just discovered diagon alley.





you know, if harry potter was mesmerized by the magical stuff on display in diagon alley, i was mesmerized by all these diwali decoration stuff. i thought wow, are there people actually buying all these things? everywhere i set your eyes on, there would be things on sale. everywhere. if my eyes could choke, it would by grasping for air in no time.




we bought a couple of these sweets. it costs 70 cents a piece. i don't know what they are called, but what i do know is that they were freakingly sweet. very very sweet. it's like stuffing sugar in my mouth, only in different texture. as i chewed those stuff, my mind went, 'diabetes.. weight.. diabetes.. weight'.



and i guess these bad boys do not need any introductions. what's interesting is that they were on air. bottles and bottles of muruku hanging for their lives. someone please save them and buy one quick!




all in all, it was quite a good night stroll. well, good in the sense of something different anyway. at least, we were together celebrating the victory of good over evil within ourselves.


and hey, maybe the spirit will carry over to next week when i hope the light is strong enough still to help me fight the evil in the office.




...ed

ode to the cow dung

i've completed my mission.

hari raya was fun. well, as fun as it could be now that i am celebrating it as an adult. which means it was just like any normal day but with nicer clothes and yummier foods on the table.

oh and significantly less money too. but again, i go through that in many parts of the year as well.

i could not believe how much meat i consumed. gosh, i think i ate more meat in that few days than what i ate the whole year. no wonder at my grandpa's village in rembau, negeri sembilan, i could only see dungs on the road but no cow.

mind you, that was so a sight to behold right now because, get this, i heard they are going to demolish the whole village by next year. yes demolish. which means by this time next year, there will be no more village and no more cow dungs on the road.

evil? i think so too.

you see, my grandpa's village in negeri sembilan is located just by the railway track. it's so strategic that we could enjoy the peaceful environment of the countryside one minute, and get a taste of urban development by the sound of the rushing train in another.






apparently someone has just decided to add in another railway track beside the existing one. which by the way, is so puzzling for me because who on earth takes the cross country train in malaysia these days? like 3 people in the whole year.

anyway, so they are going to add in new track. now, how wide is the train track? less than a meter wide. and how wide area beside the existing track that they are going to take for that so-called railway track building project? almost 50 meters. do the math.

hmm i'm not in a position to comment because i'm not as intelligent to understand the logic behind this. for all i know, i'm dumb-founded, as were my grandpa. these people, they can travel through time. or else, how could they enter the villagers property and did some area measurements stuff before even discussing anything about the plans, the compensation etc etc with the locals?

deal or no deal, we just have no say. it's the government anyway, it's not like they can ever do anything wrong. so it's a safe bet to say by next year, all the cow dungs on the village road would have become history.

i guess, that's the price we have to pay for development. we would want our country to prosper. we want to build the tallest building in the world and live in flat houses like the singaporeans, even if it means letting go of our own wide land for some stuffy houses with zero compound.

so where will we celebrate the next hari raya? in the city and the supermarkets just like what the singaporeans do. it will be ok. we will still have our nice clothes and yummier foods then.

even if it's made of frozen meat that did not litter any countryside roads.








...ed

10 thoughts on hari raya

1) hari raya is such a family day
we prepare for the big day together (clean and decorate the house, prepare the foods etc), then we spend the big day together (have the same sumptuous meals, go to the mosque in the same car, visits relatives) and then spend the after raya effect together (getting sick of the same food, feeling bumped out about having to return to our lives) too. in short, for that few days, we always see the same face, and we liked it.

2) duit raya giving should be abolished
i mean, that money in green packets all working people is expected to hand out to non-working people during hari raya, as if we didn't already spend a lot preparing for the day. well at least, make it to be given only by married people. it's not fair for non-married people you know, who's already miserable answering question about marriage plan by relatives, and then have to part with our only money soulmates. ok it's not like i'm miserable, but still... hey, teach our youngs the pain of earning money, shall we?

3) forgiveness is such a sad gesture
really. everytime me and my siblings asked for forgiveness from our parents on the morning of hari raya day, we cried. almost, for me anyway. my sister is the worst, she could barely speak and her mascara and eye liner all went down the drain.

4) it's a drive-cow-towards-extinction day
because that's all that we eat for that few days. beef. eat lemang (that glutinuous rice wrapped with banana leaves cooked inside bamboo pieces) with beef rendang, eat ketupat (that compressed rice cooked inside coconut leaves) with peanut sauce added with beef serunding. these dishes were in almost every house we visited too. no escape. our bodies are screwed.

5) i have 1001 living relatives
i may not meet them for any other part of the year. for most, i don't even know their names or remember their faces or know how we are related, but man, do i have lots of blood relatives. when i was in my grandpa's village, people kept coming in visiting and i was like, who the hell are these people? it's almost a wonder why siti nurhaliza wasn't one of them.

6) teenagers do the craziest(stupidest) things
like sleeping on the train track. i heard that during the last fasting month, 5 teenage students from nearby hostel escaped from nightime hostel curfew, then somehow ended up sleeping on nearby railway track. in the middle of the night, the train came and 2 of them didn't manage to wake up on time. stupid? well, my auntie said they were sniffing glue that night, which would make more sense...

7) ghosts do exist. or do they?
ok i risked tagging this site with RA-21 with this. i heard story about this black furry without-head figure that likes to pin people down on the bed from a neighbour's house at my grandpa's village. that house has an old grave underneath the stairs. plus, the old abandoned houses in the village has many 'mysterious beings. apparently, last time the villagers like to rare these, well, paranormal beings to help them in their everyday's work. when these villagers die, these 'things were left unattended in the emptied house. have you ever wonder why some abandoned house become bad so fast, but when people stay there without doing any house fix it won't become bad at all? call mulder and scully!

8) the government is evil
they want to add in a new railway track in addition to the existing one that runs across my grandpa's village but i heard they are going to take the villagers' land that could make 20 railway tracks. the notice is up but the villagers were not told of any compensation deal yet. this looks like a losing battle. if this is true, i'm left without a village by next year.

9) everybody looks for chicken after hari raya
call it post hari raya effect. after we returned to the city, we decided that we were sick of hari raya food. so we went out to buy some kfc. the take-out line was long. looked like everybody was sick of hari raya food too. alternative? chickens. everybody was buying in buckets until they ran out of fried chickens. so we drove to mc donalds instead but there we were told to wait 30 minutes for them to prepare another batch of sold-out fried chickens. it was a night of fried chicken hunting and we failed. we ate pizza hut instead. not without queing.

10) ermmm.. i thought of writing this haha...
ok no more thoughts. i'm sleepy. it has been a busy day so i want to sleep now.


..till the next year hari raya!




...ed

mission (im)possible

ok don't panic, don't panic.

24hrs to go before the mission to kuala lumpur.

time for last minute check-outs. everything must be covered. all stones should not be left unturned. zero miss tolerated.



checklist for today

1100hrs
go to the bank in smart black suits, complete with latest design wide black non-see-through rayban and hair gelled neatly. limousine drop-off preferred, right in front of bank main entrance. don't forget the briefcase.

1130hrs
make the withdrawal. few millions dollars should cover the green packets money.

1140hrs
still counting money and arrange them neatly inside the briefcase.

1200hrs
ok the briefcase overflows. stack the remnant notes inside double-layered NTUC plastic bags which i happen to be carrying my carton of soya bean milk for healthy morning snack.

1215hrs
leave the scene. speed through the highways towards the east. make sure not being followed. if there is any helicopter trailing, make use of the new underground KPE tunnel.

1300hrs
expected to be at tampines courts. ok we need to find the item fast and efficient before the clock with big red numbers countdown ticks off. should swarm in with bullet proof SWAT jacket together with other team members. some should drop in from the ceiling using ropes. lights dimmed. let the search begins.

1321hrs
ok cannot find what we seek for. time to just ask the customer service or the electronic section salesman where to find creative 2G mp3 player. my brother in kuala lumpur requested this device and i am not leaving till i get one.

1340hrs
make the exchange deal. this should happened in the big unloading bay with both parties team members watching closely from afar. i give money, they give me the requested gadget. beware of any miscue.

1400hrs
limousine pick-up in front of the building. heads to simei eastpoint for an important appointment.

1430hrs
discussion in the hair salon on the 5th floor. the agent is an undercover hairdresser. i should pretend to do my hair while he surrepticiously whisper further instructions for my mission. do not take any drinks or foods offered as they may be contaminated.

1700hrs
make over complete for the upcoming undercover mission in kuala lumpur and rembau negeri sembilan. this look should go with all new clothes prepared for this event. nothing unmatched that could raise suspicion.

1730hrs
speed through the pan island expressway heading to orphanage house for the alms-giving and more. this act should be left unnoticed. make sure to wipe all the fingerprints clean and most importantly, no paparazzi shot should take place. capture and erase etheir memory if needed.

1830hrs
head back to the home base. final review of kuala lumpur mission plan. make sure all bring-along devices and gadgets are intact in the luggage. get the passport ready.

2100hrs
confirm departure time. communicate with kuala lumpur base about arrival time. this conversation should be brief and quick in case anybody is tapping this conversation and track our locations. remember to use the secret code identification.

end the conversation with,
"SEE YOU SOON FOR HARI RAYA, MUM"


that should cover it.

may the force be with us.



... ed signing off.

the eggs fanclub

the other day i watched malaysian opposition's MP teresa kok's interview on tv after she had just been released from that draconian internal security act (ISA) body that has power to detain people without trials (read: without no apparent reason).

she said she was given a rice, 2 boiled eggs and a cucumber to eat while in prison, which she then added, just (a little bit better than) like a dog's food.

in a normal world, that's a normal no-harm neutral statement. because let's face it, prison food sucks. i won't expect people to eat buffet there. so when people ask if you liked it, then you say no, the food sucks.

full stop.

but apparently teresa kok is about to get sued because she spoke ill of the eggs. normal boiled eggs, not even some cute humpty dumpty or anything.

because those retarded people said eggs are poor people's food. so when she said boiled eggs menu in prison sucks, she must have meant poor people's food is not fit for human consumption.

meaning, she's insulting the poor people.

i mean, just how ridiculous is that?

ok so i don't like that smelly tofu dish. i say, i think the smell is like garbage, make me wanna puke. will you get angry with me because then i'm being disrespectful to the chinese people who eats it? will you sue me in court and demand millions of dollars in compensation?

i can understand if those people that complained are from some global egg organization that spend their entire life taking care of egg's human rights, no, egg's food right, but that is so unlikely.

or maybe because people are just angry she mentioned eggs are dog's food. apparently you are a dog's class if you eat the same food as the dog. my grandfather feeds his chicken rice in the village, so i expect i'm a chicken class now.

i'm just relieved nobody has find out yet if our prophet ate eggs so they can start accuse her of insulting the religion.

seriously, this kind of news made it to the pro-government's mainstream media. what does it tell you about the mentality of the people in that business? or even in this country that made it like it's such a big deal?

i rest my case.



...ed

boys just wanna have fun

people say time flies when you're having fun.

you know what, i don't really think so. like today, i frantically tried to finish this report at work, shunning everybody else behind my back like the monitor screen was my only world.

i was not having fun.

but before i knew it, it was already late afternoon. i swear, it was as if the clock striked in twos. in the end, i could only managed to complete one tiny report in my whole day at work.

productive?

well it depends. on whether people actually read that report. chances are, it would just get ignored. later out of nowhere people would come and ask me about it when i already like moved on to the next life, and i would be like, dude, check your deleted mailbox.

ok maybe that's a bit exaggerated.

still, the fact is, people would only pay attention when something screws up. maybe if the ball dropped, then people would frantically trace back their steps to see things they had overlooked. like in this case, my whole-heartedly-completed report.

it's the same like that milk scandal in china. nobody cares about the milk they consume until suddenly some melanine, no, melamine tainted the chinese produced milk causing tens of thousands sick. i bet before this the word melamine was not even a word yet.

now the word melamine is as common as britney spears.

it's not fair you know. people would think consuming milk would get them strong, healthy and osteoporosis free like what michelle yeoh is all concerned for, on top of her ferrari man, but apparently not for those 6 who died of organ failures.

i mean, what do you have to do to be really healthy in today's world?

in the end, it's what others do that affects you. you could be all saints, eating rabbit foods, not smoking, drinking or whatever, even use overhead bridge to cross the road, but ultimately some bugger would pull the trigger, or release some poisonous gas, or just randomly detain you under ISA and you're doomed before your prime.

so what should we do to survive?

nothing. unless you're willing to sit still in a bullet-no-make-that-earthquake-proof safety box your entire life, you're gonna have to take risks.

as long as it takes for the risk to become a real threat to your own survival, you should just enjoy your life. even if it means to spend the entire night watching the new season of heroes.

if you ask me, my life is pretty enjoyable. that is, until i have to make another round of work reports..

..but at least the time will still fly then...



...ed

second step phone call

when was the last time you made a bad phone call that could potentially affect your life?

i kinda just did.

oh god, i should have never opened my mouth.

i spent like few hours peeking through technical notes for this inter-continental conversation but what were the questions asked?

basic personality questions.

duh.. as if i work in a bank.

so i was completely caught wrong-footed. but i had to keep my composure and go through with it.

here goes..

how do you see yourself in 5 years?

err wait, let me consult my crystal ball. hmmm i think i see a haze. a blur. which should mean i'm so blur to answer this question...

seriously what is the correct answer for this?

i guess i could paint a prefect scenario where i am a high-flyer technically-adapt project lead that leads his engineers as natural as the sky is blue.

ok move on..

what do you think is your strong personal traits?

ok i have this on top of my head. i'm a goal-oriented person, very eager to learn.

actually i thought that's a pretty good answer until i was asked to give an example.

bummer.

so i had to go on and on about how i made effort learning some perl stuff to be able to write test scripts that would assist me in my analysis work.

what is your weakness and how do you improve it?

gosh how to answer this question? should i venture into 'that' area? ok ok this is strictly work related, so what's my weakness?

i said something in the line of being too careful in doing my work, until it takes longer than necessary.

i don't even know how to improve that. ok maybe if i be more confident, which comes from experience, i wouldn't be that sceptical in my work in the first place.

see.. those were the sample questions. i might have written them answers in perfect english but god knows i had difficulty string 2 relevant words together.

don't get me wrong, i think i'm highly qualified, it's just that these subjective answer is very hard to make. this is not like some technical transistor law that you have equations to work on.

plus, i was very nervous. it's like you're walking on plane of wood. which should be easy right? now let's say someone put a gun on your loved ones and say he will kill your loved one if you ever step a toe out of the plane. now try and walk as calm as before.

the point is, i just hope that they would look beyond those jittery answers and my blabbering to see the man inside, i mean, talent inside.

keeping my fingers crossed.



...ed

a date with a hairdresser

i was sitting on the high chair feeling all happy and pampered, and beginning to understand the true meaning of heaven on earth, when the hairdresser put a plate of nicely cut mooncake on the desk in front, amongst the various magazines.

errr.. gosh.

god knows i like surprises.

and i like moon cake! it's the 15th day of the chinese lunar calender 8th month, but...

'i cannot eat this', i said.

'you don't eat moon cake? i'm afraid you're hungry'.

said the young hairdresser. i told him i haven't had lunch just a moment ago when he asked. i thought it was just a casual conversation.

oh if my heart can melt, it will.

what should i do?

'no no.. i eat, but i cannot eat now', i said.

he took a glimpse to the steam dome covering my head. he's not thinking i cannot eat because i'm being steamed at the moment, is he?

gosh, this is difficult.

'so you're not gonna eat?', he said.

'err no thanks'.

so he slowly took the plate away and i felt like curling my whole body inside the steamer.

i felt horrible. is this how i treat someone's sweet gesture?

but i have no choice. it's fasting month now, and i simply cannot eat in the middle of a hair salon in the middle of the day.

i could have explained, but then he'd feel embarrased of his ignorance. i mean, he's not local, so it's not his fault actually.

ok maybe a little, but still.. it'd be like telling off mother theresa.

well, looking at the way he did my hair in the end after the treatments (i asked to be cut short at side, spike on top, and long in front. yeah spell that - FUNKY), at least he didn't resort to mawning my head off.

i really hope not.

because he's my favourite hairdresser. i just need to remember NOT to be visiting during this particular month.

i'll take note.



...ed

the annual geylang serai 'pilgrimage'

after the tanjong katong parking lot incident (previous entree), we proceed to the geylang serai ramadhan bazaar. it was my virgin trip there this year.

so.. how's geylang serai this year?

hmmm light-up decoration not as bad as last year, which looked kinda cheap. this year it was pretty ok, simple, pleasant but nothing special. i've seen this every single year, so there was hardly a surprise there.

what made me more excited? THE FOOD... haaa just now i broke fast at circuit road, eating vegetarian nasi lemak. the plan was to eat something light before going to geylang serai food sweep.

unique huh? i'm sure nobody else ever broke fast with a vegetarian nasi lemak before. it was nice, the sambal was just.. divine.

so makan part 2 would be in geylang serai. the reason why i didn't break fast in geylang in the first place, was because you need to make prior reservation, or else you'd end up eating beside the drain. and that was just too sad to bear.

as usual, there lots and lots of food in geylang serai on ramadhan nights. i expect we could feed the whole somalia with those food spread.

only that i was not very enticed. i didn't feel like eating those sliced bbq meat, fried mee, fried kuey teow, kebab, roti john etc etc. what i wanted? fried cempedak. i don't know why i had a crave for fried cempedak. so i bought 2 dollar (that abang gave me an extra piece, so i got 5 pieces!), and ate standing by the roadside.

there were lots of stalls selling raya shirts, raya curtains, raya cookies, raya cars, raya money.. i mean, raya money envelop.. what a large crown turned-out, it was as if we were walking towards a rock concert show entrance. shoulders rubbed all the time, i felt like we were in a mass orgy or someting.

i wanted to buy the monica lapis legit cake that i always buy every year. the layered cake is nice and cheap but last night, it was sold at 11 dollars, 1 dollar more than the usual price. what a blood sucker. so i didn't buy.

we made rounds after rounds of the many stalls. actually i was hoping to get me a new raya baju melayu, the traditional malay wear that we always wear on the first day of hari raya festival.

but then, the baju melayu dan baju kurung/kebaya (for females) sold in this lion city were.. well.. too glamorous. too modern! for the female's, there were glittering patterns here and there, with body-hugging cutting that gives zero tolerance to coughs or sneezes. very sexy, you could walk in grammy's red carpet in that but to my grandpa's malay village in rembau, malaysia? you'd get stoned for sure (ok this was an expression, haha.. of course we no longer stone people).

even for the men's, mostly the fashions were too daring. the last thing i wanted to do was being looked at as a lost-caused singapore guy in my grandpa's village. really.


so in the end i chose this simple but yet modern, golden-coloured ensemble (SGD52). i matched it with a golden-thread sampin, which is to be worn like a kilt (ok this sounded weird when i wrote it like this, i guess you have to see it actually worn to appreciate) (SGD40).

so one thing done for my hari raya 2008 checklist.


ok 2 things done. because by this, i have done my annual geylang serai ramadhan bazaar 'pilgrimage' too...




...ed

incidents in a dark parking lot

i just managed to grab a parking lot just beside the tanjong katong complex nearby paya lebar station. there were so many cars, all queuing for parking spots to visit the annual geylang serai ramadhan bazaar, i felt like i stroke toto to be able to park within 5 minutes after entry.

the moment i set foot outside the car, i heard...

'peace be upon you...'

ohh i was surprised ok. it was all dark in the parking lot, it was like the voice came out of nowhere to my ears.

oh i just noticed there was this guy wearing a kopiah and a worn-out malay shirt behind my front door. hmm at first glance, this guy was surely not local. must be from bangladesh, pakistan sides...

suddenly he tried handing me a book. in that dim light, it looked like the holy book.

'take this.. i'm from pakistan... donation blah blah blah..'

i wrote blah blah blah because at that particular time, my ears had shut off from listening. i've met this kind of people a lot ok. let's say if he was really from pakistan, what the hell was he doing there collecting money? there should be a proper place for us to donate, so they don't have to ambush me in that dark parking lot.

quick walk away from there!

i barely made 10 steps when suddenly ...

there was a van stopped nearby me. then a chinese, late 20-ish, wearing a cap opened the van door and walked briskly towards me...

ok if he kidnaps me i'm so gonna scream.

'hey brotha... u want home theater system?'

what?? like a reflex i shook my head. when i'm faced with unexpected and suspicious incidents like this, automatically i'd pull out and say no. there's no time to analize the situation and decide the intention whether it's good or bad.

'brotha, i'm not selling, i have one extra. u want?'

the chinese guy asked again, while at the corner of my eyes, i noticed the white van with dark mirrors slowly moved closer to us. gosh, isn't this getting suspiciously dangerous?

why the hell is he insisting me to take his home theater system? looking at that old van, i'm sure he's not a millionare, tycoon or something that can donate without any reason.

i don't understand. maybe there's drugs or something he stuffed inside the home theater system and i'm supposed to carry that around. oh gosh..

quick! run away!

'it's ok, it's ok, i have already'...

i answered while turning 180 degrees and quickly walked towards some malay youngsters crowd at the other side of the carpark. what he did behind me, i didn't know.

oh gosh, i have no idea this parking lot beide tanjong katong complex is so 'eventful'...



...ed

a malaysian in distress

i'm a malaysian. it's still in my blood eventhough i do not live in the country. after all, i'm just a causeway bridge away.

there are lots of things malaysian that i'm proud of. like...

wait..

ok there must be something.

.. well anyway, i'm sure there is, i just don't have to give example now.

but all i want to say is, the POLITICS is the one i'm very not proud of.

what's up with all recent yahoos in top managements?

i'm sorry but i don't like what i read about the governments. even with my durr-brain, i could see so many blunders.

apparently the government have resorted to arresting frenzy over opposition party's figures. that, i believe after all other means has failed in getting the mass crowds to support them.

the goverment uses the ISA, the internal security act, to detain without trial. the reason? non-official line says these loud opposition figures create all sorts of problem to the governments.

yes, it's not because whatever they did caused havoc to the country, but to the current 11-hrs governments.

for them perhaps, government equals country (citizens), but i say, not at all. how could anybody said that when the government did't even get clear majority of the popular votes during recent general election?

if we follow the commonly accepted logic, that ruling party member who claimed the chinese are mere squatters in malaysia, and by that comment, stirred the racial discomfort, should head towards the detention gutter first.

but call it the malaysian-way, the government sent the opposition party leader who made the police report about that racist remark under ISA. she was apparently alleged to have complained about the noise of morning prayers at a mosque in her electorate by the media, which she has said the accusation is preposterous and threatened legal action.

ok what about that reporter for the chinese-language daily that was also arrested because she reported about that squarter-calling incident?

the fact is that people in the government who make mistakes walk freely while the reporters, politicians and bloggers who said the facts are detained.

that is why that racist ruling party member though, is still free to roam the country doing his planned road shows to utter more offensive stuff.

i'm sorry but my intelect just failed to understand this.

is the government going all the way to provoke the opposition party members and supporters to create unrest so they will take matters to the street and thus, give the reason for them leaders to be arrested?

this could be among the attempts to dismember opposition-takes-over-the-parliment move planned for mid-september. this is despite the effort of sending a bunch of ruling MP backbenchers to oversea to avoid them from jumping to the opposition.

for me, do whatever they can. it doesn't matter 16-september, or 20-september when the opposition will try to topple the ruling coalition. sooner or later the citizen will have to cast their votes again, and my durr-brain is pretty sure which box they are gonna cross.



...a malaysian in distress

ode to the ice-cream pints

you know, there's nothing going on in my life.

seriously. i don't know how people can blog every single day about their lives and make it sounds like a movie climax every single time.

because for me, every day is the same day. if i don't know any better, i'd say i'm the truman in the truman show movie.

if you ask me what did i do today, well i woke up, went to work, blew some fire inside my boss' office, worked some more, then went back home.

i'm pretty sure i could do all that in my sleep by now.

gosh am i leading such a boring life?

i guess, after so many years leading this working life, everything is already dangerously set to routines.

ok so maybe i'd be late for work one day. big deal. i've been late many times before too.

maybe if i were to wake up late to a completely another day, then maybe it could become something out-of-this-world but that's so not gonna happen.

so considering nothing on top of my head that is worth blogging for, let me just blog about ice-cream.

the other day i had a craving for a magnum ice-cream.

you know, the one with eva longoria on the advertisement. the sole reason that she was inside it made me wanna try.

because it's unusual. i mean, people endorse beauty products, watches, even shaving tools all the time but ice cream?

it's like madonna suddenly endorse a cup cake.

plus, it's eva we're talking about here, that classy ex-model in wisteria lane, who is by the way, as slim as a dance pole. she's the last object that ppl could associate with ice cream surely.

so i went to the store and try to find one. to tell you the truth, i'm not even so much of an ice cream eater. except maybe occasional cone ice creams in super hot weather, but normally in my book, it's a no-go.

to my surprise, it costs $3.90 for one. that's expensive, no? just for some sweetened iced thingy on a stick? you could almost buy a whopper with that money. or maybe half a seat in the cinema.

nevertheless, i bought it. that was after a few days of buy-no-buy because mysteriously the rain started pouring down like nobody's business causing the weather all chilly everytime i wanted to buy one.


my verdict? hmm ok it wasn't bad. i think it's kind of good, but nothing that made me lose sleep about. ok maybe fretting about the calories i consumed could made me, but the ice cream was fine.





i told this to my female colleagues the next day, hoping they could help explain the logic behind their spesies' ice cream demeanours but instead, they recommended me ben & jerry ice cream.

and i was like, 'did you mean, 'tom' & jerry?'

apparently it was not. in fact they said this is the closest you could get to heaven. in a female's world that is. you'd think they're having an orgasm hearing them describing the joy in consuming this ben & jerry stuff.

ok maybe i should give this a try too.

so just now while i was shopping in the grocery store, i detoured to the ice cream section.

ok there were so many boxes. which one? maybe the one with a cat and a mouse's picture on it?

oh ok i found it. there were so many rows of boxes, or pints as they called it, arranged somewhat neatly in the open freezer. some addicts must have scrambled through all this boxes.

and i glanced upwards to see the tag...

what? ..$13.50? ..and that was after the sale price.

wow what does the ice made of? some remote eternal youth spring water from barbados or something?

man, no wonder female is such a high maintanence walking machine.

i for one, definitely don't need a $13.50 ice cream to fly me to heaven. maybe a good movie show will. or a nice KFC outings. even just a hot cup of marble mocha macchiato.

only those aren't in my boring everyday routine unfortunately...



...ed

Ramadhan night food hunting

last saturday night, a bunch of us went out to have our break fast together. it was the first time i broke fast NOT being accompanied by my 4-walls. ok actually it was the second time, because one of the night i broke fast behind the wheels..

so just the mere fact that we were going to do this together got me all pumped up and high. we went to eat at serangoon garden food court, near chomp2, off the north-eastern part of the island.

i like this place because it is easy to find a spot to park my car, and there are plenty of tables to sit on, you don't have to go table-hunting like most food courts. but most important, it has my favourite mee rebus stall.

i never actually liked mee rebus (how do i translate this, boiled mee?) until i ate at this place.

go try and spot the mee lol.. ok the mee was being covered by that thick, sweet gravy that is simply out-of-this-world. who needs drug when you can have this?

and this is the selling stall...





having that big-A-deal mee rebus like that, i don't understand why the stall signboard made satay as the main speciality. because the satay was so non-entity cum forgetable. in fact, i have never tasted satay in this Lion city that is as good as KAJANG satay in malaysian southern-KL small KAJANG city where satay is like what belgium is for waffles. simply divine.

at this pak jaapar stall however, satay is just a mere chunks of meat on sticks.

next destination? to changi village later during the night for supper.

this changi village is famous for its nasi lemak (malay dish coconut milk rice). you'd surely see long line forming in front of the stall at the corner of the food court, as if buying madonna's concert tickets. it's that long.

but if you ask me, i don't think there's anything special about the nasi lemak. i mean, there are lot more better place than this one surely. in KL where i grew up, this nasi lemak would have been very mediocre.

the good thing about changi village is that it is easy to find a spot to park my car, and there are plenty of tables to sit on, you don't have to go table-hunting like most food courts.(by the way, if you noticed, my idea of a good place are : 1) easy to find parking-spot 2) plenty of tables to sit at. none of these,equals to a crappy place).

my favourite stall at changi village is actually selling nasi ayam penyet. ok how should i translate this. squashed chicken rice? sounds gross huh. but assure you, it doesn't taste gross at all.

ok you almost won't be able to find this dish in KL. apparently this nasi ayam penyet diah is originated from surabaya, or so my indonesian friend told me. for me, squashed chicken just sounds like dead chicken being steamrolled on the road by cars.

eeeek.

it's just a rice cooked with chicken soup, eaten with crispy fried (and of course, later squashed) chicken, sweet and spicy chilli gravy, as well as friend tofu and tempe (fermented beans). for me, whether the dish is nice or not depends on the chilly gravy. score on this one, you score all the way home.

in this whole singapore island, i like this stall selling nasi ayam penyet the most. ok i don't remember the stall name, but it's at the same row with that famous nasi lemak stall.

however, when we went there that night, it was close. what a BIG bummer. especially we already craved into our minds we were gonna have nasi ayam penyet that very night. i mean, did we drool for nothing?

luckily we spotted this another stall that boasted, 'famous nasi ayam penyet : the first and the original'.

hmm.. actually it's hard to believe signboards like this. like you can find easily 10 stalls that claim their's are the original one, so which one you wanna believe? it's not like it's trademarked or anything. you can practically put anything up there.

because we have no other choice, we just sit down and ordered. turned out to be a very good nasi ayam penyet! the chilly gravy was almost as divine, although the fried tofu and fermented beans seemed like had missed the last bus. not in sight.

for me, this nasi ayam penyet was better than the famous nasi ayam penyet ria restaurant in orchard lucky plaza. what makes nasi ayam penyet ria special is that it has this crispy fried bits together with the crisply chicken. however, the chilly gravy there not on-par with my favourite. plus, it's expensive at 6 dollars per dish, hard to get parking, and have to pay ERP bla bla bla...

we went back at almost midnight, ending a night long of jalan jalan cari makan on this particular ramadhan night.

the end.



...ed

break fast countdown

faster than a ray of light, it's already the 9th day of Ramadhan, the fasting month.

does it bare any significance to me? yes. well, today is the 2nd time i broke fast inside my car with one hand on the steering.

why? because some buggers decided it was a perfect time to do stunts on the road and caused accidents.

or else, how could any car meet with an accident in singapore highways? the road is 4-lanes big, very clear road dividers, super bright lightings, no construction holes whatsoever, and there are speed limit reminder every 10 steps, not to mention speed camera at every 10 breaths.

because of the road jam, i only drank a vitagen and munched some bread pudding that was so mediocre i forgot why i munched it in the first place behind the wheel at 7.08pm sharp.

the reason why i went back late just now was because i attended the weekly yoga class after work in the office.

yes, you heard that right. i did yoga. weird?

one thing i hate is that people tend to think that you are all weak when you're fasting. they expect you to look like old vegetable all day.

so i'm fasting. big deal. i still do my weekly badminton and you know what? i survived it. for all i know, i even felt lighter with zero foreign substance in my system.

the other day, i went to work all red-eyed, sleepy and miserable, and my colleague was like, 'oh you look tired. must be the fasting..'

which was so not. i played tennis the night before until late, and then some break fast late night rendezvous so i practically went asleep at 3am, woke up 4.30am for morning iftar, and slept again till 7am.

for all i know, the first week of Ramadhan had me all busy with activities, which god forbids my father from finding this out, has nothing to do with this holy month.

which should be ok, right? as long as i observe my utmost dedication to the rituals in daytime. not enough, i even extended my good deeds beyond daytime.

like just now. i never curse those accident buggers that held me up.

ok maybe i gloated a lil' bit.



...ed

disturbia

i blasted my stereo the other day and rihanna was on. i've already had a miserable week, ok relatively more miserable than any other weeks, so when she goes..

Bum bum be-dum bum bum be-dum bum
What's wrong with me?

and i was like, yeah, what's wrong with me?

Bum bum be-dum bum bum be-dum bum
Why do I feel like this?
Bum bum be-dum bum bum be-dum bum
I'm going crazy now

oh yes, i'm so going crazy now. why? because there were still no words, no nothing. nil. nada. every morning i woke up with a glint of hope but by the time i glanced through my mail before dashing off for breakfast, all hope gone leaving me with this big heavy load in my chest.

No more gas in the rig
Can't even get it started
Nothing heard, nothing said
Can't even speak about it
All my life on my head
Don't want to think about it
Feels like I'm hurting my brain..

i swear, i felt as if i was in her video clip or something. this song could easily be my life anthem. did i write this in my sleep? because god knows my brain is hurting right now.

or else, tell me why on sunday afternoon when it was all rainy outside creating a perfect hybernation nest at home, i grabbed my car key and drove all the way to my company to check my e-mail? it's like badawi suddenly wakes up and decide to debate in parliment.

i felt like i was living in limbo. neither here nor there, and it's tiring. it's like, gosh, show me the way already! you see, even the annual chinese ghost earth-roaming time is almost up and they have to go back to their realm very soon.

i on the other hand, have to remain in standby-mode.

only that it's getting worse. i think i've become weird with this anticipation. for instance, everything i do now that has anything to do with this subject, i think i could jinx my chance.

like this entry, i wanted to put 'my heart will go on' as the title, but i was afraid it will sink my hope just like the titanic.

ridiculous huh. am i losing it?...

Your mind's in disturbia
It's like the darkness is the light
Disturbia
Am I scaring you tonight? Disturbia..

indeed. to tell you the truth, i'm scared myself.

but i guess, like i've always reminded myself, things happened for a reason. i just have to be patient and content.

so in the meantime i'd just go..

Bum bum be-dum bum bum be-dum bum (ba da da de din da)
Bum bum be-dum bum bum be-dum bum (ba da da da din daa)
Bum bum be-dum bum bum be-dum bum (disturbia ahh ohh)
Bum bum be-dum bum bum be-dum bum

...ed

a nation in distress

so anwar ibrahim won the malaysia's permatang pauh by-election.

with a bigger majority too! you see, having found it impossible to topple anwar in this home turf, the ruling national front party resorted to this conception, where they would consider victory if they were able to only reduce the majority.

haha so eat that s*ckers!

now, do i think the EC is 100% reliable and clean from any misdeed? nope. there were far too many complaints, about the waxed voting papers, missing or duplicated registration names, phantom voters, to just to name a few. but at least, nobody think these so-accused-riggings have anything to do with anwar's victory.

this landslide win is all attributed to the power of the people, who have spoken loud and clear that they wanted anwar back in the parliment. personally, i hope he will quickly topple the current government because excuse me, i don't have much confidence in the government that only interested in investigating other people's anus and swearing on the holy book that they don't know a certain mongolian model.

seriously. i mean, what kind of government that increase and reduce petrol price to the function of election dates? where's the integrity of the government that sneaked in dna identification bill in parliment whilst the bulk of the opposition was campaigning in Permatang Pauh?

as long as there is almost 50-50 representative from the ruling national front coalition and the opposition in the parliment, they will continue condemning each others down. which means, we can safely assume that there will be zero development until at least the next 4 years, when it will be time again for the general election.

that's why i believe anwar wining is the first step towards creating an alternative govenment which hopefully can turn malaysia to a better future. until then, i would continue to hang my flag upside down.



...ed

the top spin affair

rafael nadal won the olympic gold!

wow i'm so ecstatic, i'm practically in cloud-nine mode. ok i know it was not like i share the winning money or the gold, but still it was such a big deal for me.

yahoo sports getty image


especially considering nothing much else happening in my life right now. nothing that big a scale anyway. on the application, nothing has been confirmed yet. would it be my happy ending? i certainly hope so but for now it's all still grey.

i just bought myself a notebook, a sleek white acer aspire one with intel atom, 120G hard drives, 1G RAM, windows XP, for SGD799.


the acer is that small, not my hand is that big

i had wanted a notebook from like ages ago. every person i know has one. ok every cool person i know has one. not having one is just like not having a handphone! or a botox fix...

just plain wrong.


ed's top 5 reasons why he needs a notebook:

1. can blog and chat anytime anyplace
2. useful while travelling to upload all the camera photos in the run
3. it was on sale, at a totally rip-off price so i was actually saving money
4. makes me look cool and business-like
5. ..err what else? ..to give something to do at starbucks?
   

so i bought it. in fact, i'm so happily typing this from the notebook right now, almost oblivious to the fact that the particular notebook is part of past week's costly expenditure.

seriously, the money has been flowing out like water. it was scary alright...


ed's past week's major expenses:

1. above acer aspire one notebook $799
2. wireless router to get it connected to the internet $82
3. wireless receiver adaptor that the shop person said i need, but didn't $50
4. house master bedroom's water heater replacement $580
5. kitchen's water heater servicing $50
   

hmm..

well i don't have much choice.

what am i supposed to do? bathe in cold water? surely that is a health hazard. look at the japanese, they always soak in hot ofuro and they live like a gazillion years long.

anyway, those sums up are still cheaper than, say.. a DLSR camera which i drool on despite having a G7. or maybe an LV bag for the ladies (which i don't understand the handbag brand craving but again, maybe i just don't have the proper hormones to digest that).

the point is, it's not like i'm throwing out money irresponsibly...

still, it would be marvellously wonderful if i have the ability to win an olympic gold medal and get all that prize money, while having some unknown stranger in some corner of the world gloating over my victory...

i wish..


...ed

i hate wireless routers!

i hate wireless routers.

the last time i tried to configure one, back when i was still staying in a rented place with that horrible housemate, things went horribly wrong.

ok that horrible housemate was the one configuring it on my pc because he wanted to share the connection, but still i was left a few days with sero internet! it was like living in a cave.

losing internet connection is such a nightmare. for me, it ranks out there with other horrid things, you know, like hunger, death, and abdullah ahmad badawi.

so when i bought this wireless router just now, i had a tiny whiny hope that everything would work out alright. after all, the shop person insisted that the installation should be simple enough and fool-proof.

yeah right.

so when lee chong wei was fighting for his life from being totally annihilated by lin dan in beijing olympics men's gold medal match, i was fighting for my life from being tangled up in all those ethernet wires.



in the end, i managed to get things right... in the next morning! the remedy? i just had to restart my modem, and voila! everything works in place and i don't feel like burning the whole pc system anymore.

but that doesn't change the fact that wireless router is the ultimate evil evil being that the world could be better without.

or at least, just during lee chong wei's final gold medal match...



...ed

p/s to keep to record straight, linksys router is wonderfully simple enough, just maybe i was just 'that' dumb when it comes to router setting...

the ball game

that's it.

i've pressed the button. now the ball is officially in their court.

there's no turning back. am i scared? honestly, a bit, yeah. but just like in malaysian politics, it's not a matter of whether can i afford to change things now, but rather can i afford not to?

now that i wrote this, i couldn't help feeling kinda deja-vu. you know, i've done this before. i've clicked the button too sometime last year but what where did the ball ended up to?

rot in their court.

but i'm sure this time is different. i mean, this is not like following the common trend and going with the flow without knowing if i really want it.

i had wanted this since years back.

in fact, this couldn't have come at a better time. it's as if the heaven's door was wide open when i was having my doubts about recent events and hoping for some enlightenment.

did i accidentally rub any magic lamp recently?

anyway, it's only fair. i've been in this tunnel long enough. longer than the time it took for my car to go through its first petrol kiosk car wash. heck, even cinderella has a midnight dateline.

what i'm going to do now, is just see how things go. if this doesn't work out, just like the almost-expired free movie passes i carry around in my bag failing to be utilized due to prolonged unmatched timings, so be it. everything must have happened for a reason so why fret over unsuspected turn of events?

except my friend said this is not enough. apparently wanting it just 80% will not get me what i want because i have 20% doubts. i need to be wanting it 110%. or at least the intention to cut my wrist if anything goes by negative.

hmm actually he has a point. my brain just shut down and i stuttered like a retarded shabery during his live debate with anwar ibrahim in malaysian tv during last year's interview, because i didn't know how to answer why i wanted that position.

if i were to rate how much i had wanted that job, maybe somewhere around 5%.

that was just slightly more than how i wanted that pink shirt in EDC but eventually backed out because i already bought the discounted green striped one and i wanted to be frugal. or maybe how much i wanted to watch dark knight at the cinema now that people said it was all talk an no action.

the point is, i just need to make my decision and stick to it.

yes. i mean, i had thrown the ball to their court, so if they want to play beach volleyball with it, then so i will.

...no matter how hot the sand would be under my feet like last saturday noon sentosa game. at least this time i will be prepared not to get sun-burnt.




...ed

because the family is gold

it's the beijing olympic opening day today! sharp on 8 Aug 08 at 8.08pm.

wow it was such a great opening ceremony. i just loved the fireworks shaped like a foot step, shot into the sky one after another along the highway as if foot steps walking towards the bird's nest stadium. 29 steps altogether symbolizing the 29th olympic stop. creative right?

overall, it was such a grand, yet very culturistic performance. i think the performance managed to show the world what china is all about in just one evening. it was orchested by zhang yimou, so what do you expect?

it's almost scary how they managed to mobilized tens of thousands of people to create such a perfect show. i guess it helped that china has the most disciplined and most patriotic citizens i've ever known. seriously. i mean, hang the malaysian flag out of you window and you'd just be stamped as badawi ass-licker in no time.

i had just came back from a few days escapade in kota kinabalu. yes, again. twice in the last 3 months which is so unlike me, because when it comes to travelling, i prefer a one night stand approach. but this time was to bring my parents there.

to tell you the truth, i never thought a time off with my family would be so fun. not that we are not in good terms or anything, but things just somehow tend to get formal whenever i'm with them.

perhaps it all traced back during my childhood time when i used to be scared of my parents. i was the kind that ordered plain water during an eat-out session because i was afraid that other drinks would be too expensive.

in fact, now that i think about it, i was afraid of many things when i was little. ever heard of students getting caught smoking in the toilet, or skipped classes to sniff bicycle gums behind the school block? i never did those things because that would be against the norm and i so afraid to commit them.

that is why now when i'm all grown ups and no longer live with them, stepping my toes out of line feels like disneyland. freedom embraces me like drugs, i could get half of the singapore population into my bed and nobody's gonna even bother.

except those times when i'm in my parents company, when all these invisible rules come swooping back and haunts me like a lingering poltergeist. before i knew it, every words i said sound like work interview replies, and the shower room can expect me no later than 7pm everyday again.

so forgive me for being sceptical about this particular family trip at first. especially after i realized how fun it was spending time together, be it in our joined le meridien room, or while walking along the waterfront to find eating place that suited them, or even inside the cramped toyota uncer that brought us through 2-hours of bumpy ride to kundasang.

to make the trip even better, i managed to do thing that i missed out during my last visit. like spotting the raflesia, the world's biggest flower at kg kokob near ranau.

this flower takes 15 months to bloom and it lasts only 7 days

or so it was said because the version that i saw was just slightly bigger than a pensieve. nevermind that we had to pay RM10 per person just to see the flower, and we couldn't even get near to it to smell the stench.

the island outing also was better because this time it was all clear and sunny compared to heavy storm the last time i went. i believe that previous weather bitch must have had her ass kicked by the mt kinabalu bobohizans. we chose mamutik island because we have never been there, and it still has live corals.

where we managed to spot nemo! yeah apparently we don't need to carry like a tonne heavy air tank and dive to the sea bottom to spot one, just enough by glancing from the surface.

pulau mamutik escapade in such a blessed weather

at the end of the day, i just felt fulfilled. i mean after all, people might come and go, in and out of our beds but family will always be there to stay when you need them.

no wonder when sarah brightman sang the olympic song just now, i wished it was 'keep it together' by madonna instead.



...ed