of books, exam and Matt Damon

I'm currently reading this and making poor progress. Out of 503 pages, I'm only at 124 since god knows when. Instead I'm out here reading and writing blogs. Yeah, lame excuse. Luckily I'm not reading for an exam or a test.
Talking about exam, my 9 year old will be sitting for his final exam starting tomorrow. He was stucked with me for the past 2 days revising. Poor kid. I'm definitely not a good teacher. I keep reminding myself to be patient all the time. Since my husband will be going outstation a few days this week, no guessing of who has to make sure my son go thru his school lessons. Even if my husband is at home, the said task will always be left to me.
Now that reminds me that I have to cancel a movie date with a girlfriend next week. We suppose to go and see Bourne Ultimatum starring Matt Damon. Guess it has to be next time.

Brown Eyes Vol 1 - Already a year ...

It's finally here. I heard Reason 4 Breathing courtesy of a friend before and decided I must have it. It turned out that this group had released a vol 1 before so I bought both. I still havent had enough of the first one (which happens to be the 2nd album -am I making any sense here?). Managed to buy it from the net last week and it arrives today.

I'm already liking the first 2 tracks and I know I'm gonna like all the songs. Sadly, this duo is no longer together. Oh they made such beautiful music! Just brilliant!

Urban Legend

I was looking up for a photo to match my entry, this is the scariest by far! My youngest son sticking his tongue out. Ha! Ha! Cruel me. I bet if I stick my tongue out like that, it will be more ugly and scarier looking!

Anyways, the whole of last week had been predominantly conquered by the news about a missing 9 year old girl. She was missing about a month and her body was found last week in a bag. DNA test matches hers. So since last week, I kept reminding my sons almost to the point of nagging, to stick close to us every time we go off at shopping centers and not to wonder far. Trust my children to start asking difficult questions. Why cant they just stop at the 5Ws (what, when, why, who, hoW). No they must come out with how come, why not etc. etc. I wish I can just say 'bcos I said so'. Nope, no such luck.

I remembered when I was young. It was so easy to frighten me. When I was at my son's age, I had this phobia about this man who cycles around the neighbourhood to cut grass. He had this curved knife/cutter whatever you called it which he used to
cut grass and also ...cut little children's head! The heads will be thrown into the sea somewhere near Penang to ease the 'guardian' so that the new bridge can be build without much complication. Since it is a long bridge so they need a lot of heads.. children heads. Don't ask where I got the idea but almost all kids know about this. There's one time, when I was alone in the house and my mom had gone to my aunt's house 2 doors away and he came to my house, went round and round the house calling for it's occupants. Maybe he wanted to ask whether we would like him to cut our garden grass but I was too scared to even move a muscle. After the longest time, my mom came back and found me still under the bed, drowning in my sweat. And I could see that she was trying hard not to laugh at me when I relate the story to her. Anyways, that 'urban legend' enough to keep me indoors most of the time.

Hmm..I wonder if it works on my boys, ^__^ (wicked, wicked)

After 19 years

I had a mini reunion of my high school batch last Friday. It was for the breaking of fast. We usually do this once a year. But I can't make it last year. It was a last minute arrangement and both me n hubby confirmed just a day before. We had the gathering dinner at this small but beautiful Balinese-themed restaurant called Bora Asmara. Ambient wise, it was excellent but I cant say the same for the food, maybe bcos I was paying more attention to my old school mates rather than the food they served. In short, I didn't eat much. They served traditional Malay and Indonesian food. And I was hoping for ...oyster or sushi perhaps or at least international cuisine/buffet. But food was not my main agenda that nite, although I was fasting.

Some friends I haven't met since I last left my Alma mater in 1988. While most ladies maintained their slim figure, most guys were not that lucky. I'm proud to note that my hubby is one of the lucky ones. I know some people are reluctant to go to school reunion for many reasons. But I had fond memories and furthermore I still keep in touch with many of my school friends. I did take a few photos from my mobile handphone but since the restaurant lights were too dimmed it didn't turned out nice. Guess i have to wait for some other friends to post me their pics. One thing good about the dimmed lights was - it hides away those laugh lines and wrinkle on our faces. Ha! Ha! Vain me!

We had plenty of laughs, kissing and hugging and of cos reminiscing about the good old days and I had too much sugar from the dessert! Left the place at about 1000pm, in time to catch my favourite Korean drama - Lover at 1030pm. The next day I suffered a mild gastritis, but I still managed to continue my fasting.

Until next year.

Lobster yummy

This pic was taken quite sometime ago, in Aug to be precise on my birthday. While looking for a place to have lunch both me and hubby bummed into this seafood restaurant which serves lobster. I kinda like lobster but they don't come cheap here. I've been lucky that the first time I had lobster was at this old restaurant in SS2 PJ called what else...Lobsterman. Ambient was not that great but food was good. Ironically it was introduced to us by our expatriate friends from Hong Kong and Sweden from my hubby's previous company. Guess good food can be smell miles away!! The first time I had it, our HK friend had to show me how to use the utensil to get the meat! So it has been 'the' place for us eversince if we do feel like having lobster. Luckily that urge only comes on special occasions. Although Lobsterman is quite affordable compare to others that we've came across before but I don't think our pocket can cope of too much lobster 'urges'.

Leaning Tower of Teluk Intan

If Italy has the Leaning Tower of Pisa, then Malaysia has the above. Teluk Intan is a town in the Perak state. Teluk Intan literally means Diamond Bay was formerly known as Teluk Anson. My husband was there last week so he took this pic.

Teluk Intan hold a specially memory for both me and hubby. We both came from the same science boarding school in Teluk Intan. For 5 years, the clock tower aka leaning tower became a common sight for us every time we went to the town during weekends. I never knew if there was anybody from my school who had gone up the tower, maybe there was, I don't know. But not me. I'm just too afraid that it will topple, whilst I'm climbing its stairs. Silly me.

Come Wednesday, the caretaker will wind up the clock's mechanism using a crank. The clock chimes twice every 15 minutes.

Books therapy

The last time I went to the book sale was last February. And I went again yesterday. Within 1hr 40 mins (actually the time limit imposed by my hubby was 1hr only)- I ended up with 5 books. Ohh..I just feel warm, comfort, fuzzy (in a good way)inside of me just by looking at it. I traced the book cover one by one with my fingers, write the date - I bought them and smell its 'bookly' fragrant. Ya I know, its weird but really, books have that effect on me.

Total I spent about RM120 for all the books yesterday (borrowed the money from my husband, bcos I forgot to withdraw money from the ATM) but I refuse to label this entry as shopping. Simply bcos, to me books are necessity (no matter for what purpose! be it leisure, knowledge, hobby or obsession). So I'm not going to consider it as shopping even though buying them makes me feel so, so good ^__^. Currently I'm reading 3 books (which I bought earlier between this year and 2006). I'll write about that later. Ciao

I’m doomed

Last week I started watching a Korean drama called Lovers and now I’m hooked. I hardly got the chance to watch TV often but when I got the chance I will surf the channels and that’s when I usually bummed into certain movie worse if it’s a series or drama especially Korean, then that’s it – gone case! Since last week, I’ve been diligently tucking the kids to bed at 10pm sharp and begging my hubby to past me the TV remote at 1030pm. Luckily so far there is no football at that hour on other channel but again I’m not sure how long this good fortune gonna last…

As I’m writing this, I remembered receiving a sms from my sis-in law aka
No.1 K-drama fan (she has a library full of original k-drama dvds – and they don’t come cheap either). Usually I refuse her offer to lend me any dvd bcos I’m so afraid of getting hook up on any(actually trying so hard not to be so ahjumma (korean word for an older woman) unless I myself want to watch..like in this case. Hmm..maybe if worse come to worst I would ask her to lend me her dvd...gosh! this is what Korean dramas do to you. Trust me, they are very addictive… especially the good one...so caution – don’t ever start or you’ll be happily doom...like me.

Have a good weekend.

Spirit of Ramadhan

Today mark the first day of Ramadhan in Malaysia. Muslims will fast from dawn till dusk. Except for my 5 year old son Danial (who claimed this morning that he is fasting after finishing a bowl of cereal ;-)), all of us in the family is fasting including my 9 year old who didnt even miss a day of the entire holy month last year. Pretty impressive for a boy his age.

Actually Ramadhan month means more than just refraining oneself from eating and drinking. It's a blessed month marked by prayers, fasting and charity. Fasting serves many purposes. While they are hungry and thirsty, Muslims are reminded of the suffering of the poor. Fasting is also an opportunity to practice self-control and to cleanse the body and mind. And in this most sacred month, fasting helps Muslims feel the peace that comes from spiritual devotion as well as kinship with fellow believers -Holly Hartman (infoplease.com). In short, Ramadhan means more than just hunger and thirst. He who does not desist from obscene language and acting obscenely, Allah has no need that he did not eat or drink -(Bukhari, Muslim).

I am far from being a perfect Muslim. But what Ramadhan teaches me most is humility and moderation. Whenever Ramadhan arrives, I felt a sense of calm in me and it reflected in my actions. Indeed the Spirit of Ramadhan should lives in every Muslim for the entire year not just 30 days.

As we remember the Sept 11 tragedy, let us pray that irresponsible people do not repeat such act and claimed it to be in the name of a religion. Nobody deserves to be a victim in such tragedy - not the Americans, nor the Palestinians, nor Iraqis, nor Balinese and not the South Koreans. Not anyone!!!

Above all the spirit of Ramadhan reminds me to correct/educate/prepare/forgive myself . I would like to borrow a line from Michael Jackson's (Man in the Mirror)'If you wanna make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make that change'. So let us make ourselves be a better person instead of judging or questioning others.

Ramadhan Al Mubarak (Blessed Ramadhan)to all

Here we go again

Whenever my family goes back to my parents place, my kids will always ask us to bring them to the beach. You can never say no to them or they will keep asking you until you finally said okay. And if that okay means later in the afternoon, you better make sure you convey that message earlier on or they will purposely act as if they don’t know the time and bug you with ‘can we go now?’ just about a million times.




And once you are at the beach, it’s another battle persuading them to go back home when the time is up.
Angah and me watched out for the kids as they played on the sand till sunset. They had so much fun.


On our way back in the car, my son asked me ‘Ma, when can we go again?’

Kids stuffs…are you kidding me?

My boys were excited about their new Bionicle figurines.
The green one belongs to Danish while the brown one is Danial’s.
Danish spent only half an hour to assemble TWO of these ‘creatures’ last nite. I gets headache just looking at the manual. But according to my son, this is ‘kacang putih’ (white nuts - literally means very easy) compare to assembling his gundam figurines – which the manuals are in Japanese!! I guess kids nowadays are so advance in many ways. This morning they posed their new treasure for me to take pictures.
I can hear them in the next room planning their attack to each other. Trying to save their own galaxy. Lost in their own little game.

The End, finally

At last I managed to finish ‘the’ book. When I just started, I don’t quite like the story. Not until I reached at page 300 or so that I started to enjoy the story’s dark secrets, painful memories etc. Most of the time the story leads you into making some harsh or rather an obvious conclusion to its mystery only to be told otherwise in the next chapter. The plot twist and turn. Sometimes, the writings/words were just too eerily familiar with how you would think/talk/response which shows how clever it is being written. As I mentioned in my other entry earlier on, this book is different from my usual genre (which also explains why I struggle to finish it) but I guess its okay. Bcos at the end, I did enjoy it (this much is true).
Tonite, after fallen asleep twice and woke up to continue reading, I ‘m proud to say that I had finally conquered its 1000 small font pages.

Now back to sleep.

Awakenings

I just finished watching Awakenings. I know, I know its an old movie but I never get the chance to watch it (or maybe just plain uninterested before) until just now. Maybe this comment of mine is many years too late...but anyways Robert DeNiro's acting was superb. His portray as a neurologically damage patient was so believable. And Robin Williams as his compassionate doctor was brilliant too. This is a good movie. I'm glad I was able to catch it.
Cried my eyes out.

50 years and counting

Merdeka literally means freedom. Above is the copy (reproduce) of the newspaper headlines in 1957 when independence was declared 50 years ago.

Malaysia celebrated its 50th Merdeka (Independence) last Aug 31. I don't know why but every time I watch the Proclamation of Independence by Tunku Abdul Rahman, it never fail to bring tears to my eyes.

I hope for the next 50 years, as Malaysian we will be able to free and outgrow ourselves from the narrow boundaries of races, religion and mindset. We will never lose sight of the past and the sacrifices made by our yester years heroes so that we will always be grateful for the freedom that we enjoy today. And may it always last.

Happy 50th Merdeka

Wired...less

Last weekend was a long weekend cum holiday for my family and I. Since hubby had some work in downtown Ipoh so we decided to drive back to our hometowns early. I took leave on Thursday while the kids skip one day of school (yeah, the father said it's okay). The boys had a wonderful time with their cousins (2 of my sister in-laws family were down as well) and of cos' meeting their grandparents.

The only thing I don't quite fancy when it comes to going back to our hometowns is the inaccessibility to the Internet. So I was un-connected for 5 days!! I used to go berserk the last time when I don't have access to the net but not anymore. I learn to keep it under control. Good thing I had my really thick novel with me (which I've been trying hard to finish) and I'm happy to say that I'm almost there.

Last nite I was busy catching up on news and visiting blogs.