A week long holiday

Its the starting of a week long holiday for me and family as we celebrate the approaching of Eid Ul Fitr(Aidil Fitri known locally) to mark the end of Ramadhan (fasting month). Although the official dates are not until Oct 1 but me and hubby took several leave days so our family get to 'balik kampong'-drive back to our hometowns. My children are ecstatic. They can hardly wait to meet up with their cousins, play their fire crackers, wear their newly bought baju melayu (traditional Malay male garments) and of cos collect duit raya (token sum of money) from extra generous elders (usually parents, relatives, grand parents and family friends).

Once I'm there it's quite hard to guess when I will be able to get access to the internet. But sometime me and my other fellow cannot-live-without-our-usual-dose-of-www partners in crime (usually my cool brother in-laws) will make our way to the nearest free wifi mamak stall and buy ourselves a cup of tea and sit there for hours to use the internet.

But if that doesnt happen, so this is sayonara for about a week. I see everyone maybe after Oct 4. Till then Maaf Zahir Batin (pardon my physical and emotional wrongdoings), take care and peace to everyone.

Fridge magnet (84) - Ceylon

One day I saw this stuck on my house fridge. Wait a minute, where does this come from?? So I've learned that hubby's friend when to Ceylon or Sri Lanka as we know it here and got us the fridge magnet. Isnt it unique and beautiful? It somehow reminds me of Bali too. Nevetheless,

thank youuu hubby's friend!

Moon River by Frank Sinatra

I was listening to a newly bought compilation of jazz tunes cd when a song alone again (naturally) struck a chord to me. After googling to it, I was horrified to learn its lyric. I mean the tune and song is wonderful but the lyrics was so sad and depressing and I decided to let it pass. Then I came upon Sinatra's Moon River. I posted Fly Me to the Moon before and this is equally a haunting tune ... in a good way. This MAN is so talented. They dont make songs like this anymore *sigh* Ohh this is soo romantic! Pls take your time. Enjoy this.

Its the weekend

It has been a brutal week ..... at work that is. Its the 1st draft submission of our FY10 budget and all other deadlines must be within the week in anticipation of the long festive holidays to come. On top of that, when your big boss has to meet his big boss for the Q2 update, YOU will die standing! Its
'see if you can get me this report say from year 2006 to now and I want it before 4pm today', 'and your forward planner for 2009 is ready right?', 'I'm planning to revamp our pool of vehicles from say petrol to NGV, do a proposal and let me see it'. What do you mean the cost centre is not under you? It's okay just do it, and I will let you incharge of the cost centre from now on and I want it say in 2 weeks time?
And on top of it all, its one meeting after another.
For the whole month of Ramadhan, our HR policy allows muslims staffs to leave the office early at 4:30pm from the usual 6:00pm provided they clock in by 8:30am (usual hr is at 9am) and work thru lunch. I have yet to leave the office at 4:30pm although I clocked in at 8am and lately I found myself at the office by 7:10am and leave at quarter to 6:00pm! But i guess this is better bcos on normal days I usually leave at 7pm. So after the break of fast at 7:15pm, I'm usually a dead meat by 9:30pm only to wake at 4:30am to finish whatever leftover assignment before the pre-dawn meal called sahur with the family at 5:05am.
So yes, I am very greatful and thankful for this short break of weekend. Until it start all over again on Monday.
Wish everyone a blessed Ramadhan.

Midnight in the garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

"Chablis? That's pretty, " I said. "What's your full name?"

"The Lady of Chablis, I'm a show girl. My mama got the name Chablis off a wine bottle".

"A cool white wine for a cool black girl, " I said.

"What's was your name before that?" I asked.

"Frank," she said.

I finished the last 4 chapters reading from 0540hr this morning. The book is soo intriguing! Its characters are eccentric. I love it. It's like reading a detailed, larger than life tourist brochure on the city of Savannah, its landmarks, its cemeteries and its people ... definitely its colorful people who gave the book its characters. I found myself sharing the details of its characters with my colleague everytime I finished a chapter bcos many of it was just too fascinating. Three names that kept popping out from the pages amongst it many, many interesting personalities are Jim Williams, Danny Hansford and of cos' Chablis. I think part of my fascinating of the book is bcos it is a non-fiction. Yes, all the characters really exist. That adds to the wow factor for me. So much so that it prompted me to google Savannah map and identify all it towns featured in the book and Wikipedia (ing) the landmarks. I'm glad I did that after I read the book bcos it would spoil the thrill of the murder trial featured in the book. I guess the bizarreness of the events described in the book gave true meaning to the phrase 'fact is stranger than fiction'.


I also learned that I am 17 years behind when THE book (famously known as) hit the bookstore in 1994. It has been in New York Times best seller list for 3 years and became sensational again in 1997 when Clint Eastwood turned it into a movie. I know that not all book can turn into a good movie in this case THE movie but guess what, it has Jude Law as Danny Hansford!! That's enough for me lol. But the movie boast other star cast as well, Kevin Spacey as Jim Williams and Lady Chablis as herself. Come to think of it, I remembered watching a snippet of the movie bcos I received a text from a friend saying Jude Law on one of the channel in an almost black and white movie. I turned on the channel saw him but was too sleepy to watch. Oh now I definitely have to scan the TV guide for a rerun.

Now back to my interrupted sleep.

Paper, ink and glue

It was a hot Sunday afternoon in the fasting month and I'd asked my husband to bring me to the books clearance sale. To my delight, he agreed! But when we reached there I knew he regretted his decision. There were rows and rows of books and there I was like a kid let loose in a toy shop without adults supervision! But I did behave. Yes sir I did. Mainly bcos the kids were with us and within ten minutes they were already restless. Even after their father took them to tour the whole place, just so that their mother had the time to browse around. Since I dont have much time so I just took which ever book that caught my eye. In total I got myself 6books with an unbelievable cheap price and I'm over the moon. Can't hardly wait to get my hands on them.
In the car my husband said, but you still havent read the book I got for you last month, the one with 1088 pages? And you bought more books? Don't worry, I'll make time for it. You know I will, was my reply. And at the back of the car, my children were already jumping up and down 'so can we go and buy food now?'

"When you sell a man a book,
you don't sell him 12 ounces of
paper and ink and glue-
you sell him a whole new life."
-Christopher Morley
(from paylessbooks.com)

Soran Bushi Traditional Japanese dance

I caught this video quite sometime ago. At that time, I didnt know anything about the dance. All I know was the song-music accompanying the dance was very catchy. It stayed in my head and my children's too, long after we left the mall bcos we kept humming the tune even on the next day.

So now I know that Suran Bushi(the name of the dance) is a traditional japanese dance. It's got to do with the fishing community. In the next video, you can clearly see the dance movement has a lot to do with the capturing of fish by fisherman. A better representation of the dance compare to my limited video. Must try to catch the live performance if I ever bump into one. I must say the dance provides a good workout for the dancers. Enjoy.

Happy Birthday to Danish

My eldest son Danish turned 10 today. Being the second day of Ramadhan (holy fasting month for Muslims) we didnt take him out to celebrate. We did however had an earlier celebration last weekend since we know that his birthday will fall on fasting day. Nevertheless today, we did buy him an ice cream cake to be eaten after the breaking of fast. It supposed to be a surprise for him but the younger brother was too excited and blurted out that we had bought an ice cream cake and it's hiding in the fridge.