Wilting Flower Getting Excess Flab

Sunday- 26/11/2006.
It’s a week now. The beautiful sweet smell of lilies and pink roses (Oh, incidentally Richard thinks pink roses meant “indecision”!!! Gosh! I haven’t confronted Brandon yet though) have reduced to somewhat of a pong. And to avoid the pollens from staining everything it falls upon, I had to throw them away (yes, the stamen of lilies produces yellowish pollens which will stain everything, even your hand, like iodine - and being the male reproductive organ, they can be kinda sticky,... hahaha). Hmmm so RM250 lasted for about a week – (not so value for money eh Kee?).

Brandon forbids me from keeping the feather scarf as he didn’t want me to go out with that “thing”. *Actually he doesn’t want to be seen with me in feathers. I thought it was quite kinky though. Ha ha. So I decided to keep it for my sister. She always wanted a feather scarf (if my memory doesn’t fail me… hahaha…)

Talking about wilting flowers, I felt like one over the weekend. We went shopping at Times Square (yeah, one of the rare occasions when Brandon would bring me shopping!). Actually it was Bryan’s request as he wanted to watch IMAX dinosaurs again to prove that he is not afraid. The last time we went, he took off his 3D glasses, covered his eyes and turned around shouting, “I can’t see this, I can’t see this!!!” Well, he was only 3 then and it was his first 3D experience, he was quite terrified. Unfortunately for him, he can’t prove himself as Nicol David did with winning yet another British Open to remain World #1. There wasn’t any 3D movie till late evening due to 007’s Casino Royale taking up most of the screening times. Anyway, back to the shopping experience. I needed a couple of new outfits to attend a couple of Brandon’s friends’ weddings and parties. Incidentally, I have used up all my fancy dresses last month after attending 4 weddings (True enough, there was a funeral too but I won’t talk about gloomy stuffs here.). So we went to Metrojaya which usually houses a lot of party dresses at this time of the year.

As I stepped in, I was quite excited as they had already started to promote Xmas shopping which meant they have a lot of party dresses. True enough, we both found a glittery bluish grey lacy dress that we both liked just seconds after setting foot into the women’s department. However, it only came in XS size. The sales girl reminded me to “be careful” with the dress when she told me that they were out of S or M size. Hrrmmmpfff….. Do I look like an M size? Anyway, I strode into the dressing room and excitedly tried it on. Hmmm… all was fine except the reflection on the mirror. Who is this Fat Lady staring back at me? It was awful. The soft t-shirt type material clings on to me, making me look like a “dumpling” (Kuih Bah Chang). It was a strapless gown which made my shoulders and arms look like Chicken (maybe Turkey) drumsticks. I didn’t even have the guts to show Brandon. I just took it off and it has completely ruined my shopping experience. Then Brandon suggested perhaps it was the color that was a problem and selected another red get-up for me to try on. Boy, it was the same… it didn’t flatter my curves (or whatever that’s left of it) at all!!!!

That’s it…. Let’s go to the shoes department…. my legs couldn’t possibly be fat… but wait….. As I was looking at the mirror to admire my beautiful long legs with those stylish shoes, .. “eh, what’s that dimple doing on my thighs?” ….. Arghhhhhh, CELLULITE!!! Those sneaky b**tards have somehow found their way to latch onto my legs…. Arrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhh…. This shocked frenzied mother need to go home to calm down…

Hmmm, let’s switch on the tele to take my mind off the whole “FAT” thing. Oh, our favourite movie, Mr and Mrs Smith. Darn, Angelina is sooooo pretty. She purposely showed off her cellulite-free thighs and stick thin torso and meatless shoulders and stick-thin arms…. Hrmmmpfffhhhh… this is too much… I thought I had better go to bed to think about work the next day. Hmm, it really didn’t help that I have 3 male colleagues who is as thin as Justin Timberlake. Even the one who is of William Hung’s size thinks I have a fat (yes it’s not a typo, he said FAT not FLAT) tummy… Arrghhhh I think I will go and get an OSIM U-zap during lunch…. Or maybe seriously rethink my decision of not needing to join a gym. Incidentally, my colleagues gave me a whole new reason to go. They say gyms are filled with rich Datins and Gigolos!!! They also say gigolos usually come in six-packs and good looks… so I might add that to my Pro-Gym list. What’s in my Con-Gym list? Well, no appropriate gear is the #1 excuse (I told Brandon that I didn’t have any gym shoes and he asks me to get one from BATA!). Con-Gym list #2 - #30 is filled up with the word Lazy!!! Hahaha… So now that I have found an entry onto the Pro-Gym list, only 29 to go before I decide to join a gym ahahhaha,,,,,

20/11/2006 - Pleasant Surprise

It was a pleasant surprise. It’s been 5-6 years since I last received any bouquets from Brandon (not that I am counting ha ha), so when I saw the flowers on my desk after coming back from the hair salon (again?!) after lunch, it was a pleasant surprise. I was so surprised that I was oblivious to the fact my big boss (Head of the Solutions Division) followed me to my desk and started snooping about the flowers. He took out the card and I jokingly said, “Hey, I haven’t even read the card!” And he said, “Aiyah, the rest of the team have already all read it lar, I am not the first. I just came here!”. I couldn’t think of any smart retorts then. In fact, I couldn’t think at all then… I was too shock. I remember I murmured under my breath that “Luckily, it’s from my husband!”, to which my megaphone boss reiterated, “Huh, lucky ah? Why lucky?” … hahahaha… I just laughed and let his imagination answer that (not sure if he has any imagination hahahah)….

Only in the morning I was telling my buddies that I don’t want flowers as they were a total waste of money and they can’t be eaten! (Really, when I found out the price of the flowers, I thought I could make better use of it to go for hair treatment instead or maybe Geoducks!!). And I was so confident that Brandon understood me well enough to send something more practical (or perhaps edible!). But what do you know!! A bunch of flowers unveiled before my eyes just as I stepped foot into the office on that unsuspecting afternoon.

Anyway, after calming down for a few seconds, I started checking out the bouquet. Hmm, Lilies of the valley… and some pink roses and Forget-Me-Nots …. And some red seeds which I have yet to find out the names and their meanings. Anyway, a fellow colleague, Richard, said that pink roses are not appropriate, it should be red. I have yet to find out the real meaning but Richard sounded suspicious when he asked me “why pink roses?”. Well, knowing Brandon, he would just tell the florist to get me some lilies as he knows I liked them. The rest, like he puts it, are just mere decorations. And I don’t think he would bothered to be so meticulous as to find out what matches with which flower and what each colour/flower meant. So it was really a surprise that he even took the trouble to go to the florist at all. (Well, later I found out that the florist was located next to his agent’s shop ha ha. He was there on a business meeting). Oh, the funniest thing was the flowers came with a “Kinky White Feather Scarf”. Well, colleagues were laughing their head off because of the term, “Kai Mou Ngap Huit” in Cantonese (Chicken Feathers, Duck Blood). And they were implying that Loke Wee, a male colleague who had received flowers and a cake for his birthday just 2 weeks ago, has caused other’s to be in “Kai Mou Ngap Huit” situation as they were using him as a “Standard” or “Benchmark” for receiving flowers on birthdays. Loke Wee said that he has already given serious (*but not harsh) warning to the girlfriend not to send those next year. Pity the girlfriend ahahaha… I remembered getting the same warning from Brandon when I sent him some yellow roses years ago.

Well, the celebrations went on at the karaoke. We sang our hearts out with mostly duet ballads. We even took some videos of our singing. Boy, were those videos funny! It captured our horrendous singing and also my “hearty” laughter. Now I know I am not that petite after all hahahah…. We left early as we wanted to celebrate with our son too, so we bought an ice-cream cake home so that son can blow the candles as well. My son was happily jumping around like a frog and stopped in front of me and asked me to kiss him. I thought he just learnt the Frog Prince at school and wanted to turn into a Prince with my kiss. So I obliged and gave him a peck on the head. When I did, he jumped up and said he has transformed…. Into DONALD DUCK! Hahahaa… Then he told me he has just watched “the frog prince” on Playhouse with Mickey Mouse. Hahaha, the things they teach on TV nowadays….

All in all it was a beautiful celebration, one of the best I would say. But then again, every year I would say it’s the best, much like the James Bond advertisement which always claim the current 007 movie to be “THE” best James Bond movie ever each time a new James Bond movie is produced. Ha ha. Didn’t manage to catch the Casino Royale as planned but will probably catch it next week when it’s under “free list allowed”. Must make use of the free birthday ticket, you see. Hahahahaha… Cheapskate….

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. Have a great year ahead too!

Bryan's first day at Kindergarten - 07 Jan 2006

Something very funny happened in school (CEC USJ9) today.

Again it’s Bryan’s first day of school today. He’s quite alright… maybe because Papa was there. We just dropped him into his class and then went outside. Brandon went off to work while I sat outside. Lots of parents were busy looking through the glass window to see how their children mingle with other kids. (much like the zoo really….) Some were busy taking photos. In fact most of the parents brought their cameras.

Then it was time to play outside the class. They lined up and went to the playground. Some of the girls screamed when they went down the slides and guess what our “King Kong Fanatic” Bryan did. He shouted, “Scream Ann, Scream for your Life!” ahahahahah He picked that up from the King Kong trailer. Then he went up to the Slide Tower , put his head out and shouted…“Miss Darrow, Miss Darrow”….. Also a scene from King Kong… hahahaha so funny…. I think I caught that on my camera but it's too bad I cant publish videos here. Bryan is such a funny little thing to watch. Never fail to bring a smile on my face.

He took the first day of school much at his own stride. Some of the kids cried (from the start of school at 8:30 to end at 10:30) but not Bryan. He was just steady and minded his own business. Brandon came back to the kindergarten from work at around 10. We watched him secretly from a darken window at the side of the class. Most parents didn’t know of that spot so we had a clear view. I know coz I been there before. The best part was, when it was time to go home, I told Brandon “Look at our Bryan, he will surely forget to take his water.” (coz he left his water on the table and did not put it back in his bag.) But much to our surprise, he grabbed his water and chucked it clumsily into his bag. But he left his bag open, and again I am skeptical and told Brandon. “Oh no, he surely wont know how to close his bag.” And just as I finished my sentence, he put his bag on the table and zipped it up. It was such a magical moment as we realize that Bryan is finally getting independent and can be on his own without us.




Pretty good for the first day of school.

Guiness World Of Records Affairs 9 July 2006

===========Sypnosis/Summary ===========

Weekend outing was fun with visits to 2 Guiness World of Record events – the Asian Cultural Lantern Festival which aims to enter the GWoR with it’s longest porcelain dragon lantern and Bookfair on Doulos, the oldest active passenger ship as recognized by GWoR. These 2 places are excellent for family outings and superb for photography (pretty challenging as lighting is on the 2 extreme ends, one in the dark and the other with too much sunlight). Just make sure you bring a fan and crowd repellent or anti-crowd depressant. And of course, timing is everything. Go at night for the Lantern Festival (obviously) and if your children or you can sleep late, loiter until 11 (opens till 12 am) so that you can take good pictures. For Doulos, reach the West Port Jetty at 1:30 sharp. Believe me, you don’t want to queue in the sweltering heat as the habour and the ship, although shaded, can reach a temperature that surpasses the fainting level.

========== Full Story ===========

The weekend was quite eventful. First of all, got an invitation to a vocal audition for a Jazz song but failed to attend due to my “busy” schedule (An excuse, I was ill prepared actually ahaha). Another invitation to a mamak get together and also a buffet lunch at Crowne Plaza also didn’t work out. Well, you must be thinking I had a pretty tight schedule… On the contrary really… I just did 2 things (for my situation, it’s a lot already…. apart from the weekly chore of washing clothes.)

Ok, on Saturday night… we went to the 2006 Asian Cultural Lantern Festival. That’s after sleeping the whole afternoon. So Bryan was pretty fresh that night. In fact, he woke up and said, I want to go see the dragon lantern now. He’s been bugging us to go for the lantern festival ever since his uncle (my brother) showed him a newspaper cutting of the event. Pretty good memory for a 4 year old. Well, we reach Bukit Jalil Stadium after a short drive from Subang via Puchong. It wasn’t difficult to find the place at night as the place was brightly lit with all the lanterns in sight from the main road. Luckily for us, parking wasn’t any trouble too as we found a space near one of the entrance (there are a few entrances). We paid RM10 for the entrance (RM5 for adults and free for children under 6) and went in with an open mind. Hmm actually the lanterns are mostly the plastic type. They add in motorized characters (most of the exhibits can move, squirt water, exhale smoke etc..) to spice up the exhibits. Lanterns that represents buildings is big enough for people to walk through them.

The main highlight would be the dragon which is made up of porcelain plates, cups and saucers, spoons and small wine glasses - cleverly tied together to form the longest porcelain dragon in history. Quite an amazing effort, thus, it’s no wonder why they are trying to get it listed in the Guiness World of Records.

Besides that, the next amusing lantern would be the moving Buddha which is quite huge and has moving eyes and arms and can squirt water and emits smoke. Quite a crowd magnet. Didn’t really manage to get near the Phoenix as by the time we reach there, Brandon was already quite put off with the crowd. He is allergic to crowds. We didn’t even try to wade through the small crowd to watch the Chinese Concert which was happening somewhere in the middle. Food were sold but not sure if there were Chinese food or Malaysian. Also, we rather gave the kiddie rides (which pops up here and there as some of the lanterns came with rides) as it’s really… err…. not impressive (the real word I wanted to use is “Low tech” and “lau beh”… ). Of course, Bryan would want to ride on anything, but luckily Papa was around to put a strain on the rein. So Bryan just amuse himself with the various insects on display (of course, he likes the Beetle the most –MushiKing, the King of all Beetles) and of course the dinosaurs. He was quiet amused with the huge Brontosaurus and the Stegosaurus Lanterns. He would’ve loved it better if there was a T-rex but there weren’t any. Just a Velopciraptor and Triceratops and a few others. Probably T-rex wasn’t a species found in China ha ha.

All in all, it’s a nice place for family outing and photography. Just don’t expect anything spectacular, it not something out of this world! And I am sure Brandon would not want to go again (ironically, I think we went to one years ago when we were still courting). We left the place after about 1 hour or so. From some of my photos, we were sweating quite profusely hahahaha so probably Brandon dislike the place due to discomfort and worry about mosquitoes rather than boredom (Note from Brandon: actually boredom too). Bryan of course doesn’t want to leave the place as he never ever wanted any family outings to end. As we left the place, he said he wanted to go on the rides. When papa said no, he tried his luck by saying he wants to go see the ship. “I want to go see the ship now, I want to see Doulos now! Pleaseeeee” … Yes, that’s another newspaper article which my brother showed him and again, he’s been bugging us to go board the ship ever since. Anyway, Bryan was appeased after we told him that we’re going to go to the place tomorrow.

Sunday, another interesting day. Went out for dimsum before embarking on a long trip to Klang. Port Klang was quite a maze though as we are not sure which port the Doulos was docked. Made a couple of phone calls to each of the port only to end up with a “Tak Tahu la” answer. In the end, Brandon’s sharp eyes found some small ground level road signs directing us to West Port, the place where the Genting Star Cruises dock. As we visited a friend on board the Superstar Virgo (one of the Star Cruises) before, we were quite familiar with the way without having to rely on those small signs. We reached there at 1pm. We were asked to return at around 1:30pm as the ship is only open to public at 2pm. So, Brandon took us on a land cruise around Pulau Indah (where we bought a packet of a sotong only to find that it’s rotten – luckily we opened it straight away hence, we got to exchange it for another pack). Then we took some photos at the Tentera Laut’s front gate. Left hastily as the army guard came out to question us but he didn’t really mind us taking photos. Being respectful of authorities, we don’t want to be thought of as spies so we just took a few pictures and left. Furthermore, it was almost 1:45pm, and thus, we returned to the jetty. Bryan was already so restless, alternating between, wanting to board Doulos and requesting to board a ship. When we reach the jetty, we were shock to see the number of cars that were lining up to pay the Jetty Facility Fee of RM1. Earlier, the place was almost haunted with only 2 to 3 cars, now it was like there was a Megasale! Anyway, we manage to get our car into the car park nicely (again quite lucky to get a place near the arrival hall). When we disembark from our car, the afternoon sun was almost unbearable. However, we see some people lining up in the hot sun as the Arrival Hall was already filled with people. They were all waiting for the gate to open at 2pm. Since it’s only 1:45pm and Brandon would never go in line esp in the hot sun, we decided to walk around the area under the shade of the building. We found a Star Cruise lounge and waited around there when suddenly Bryan says he wanted to pee. Great job Bryan because the washroom was only available in the arrival hall! So we had a great excuse to get into the hall and guess what, by the time Bryan finish, the gate opens, and Brandon manage to get a place in line as the line was already moving. Bryan was sooo excited when we were walking on the jetty towards Doulos. He keep saying, “Oh no, the boats are moving away, quickly let’s go”. There are some small sampans moving around the dock a distant away. When we finally go up the ship, Bryan was quite disappointed as it wasn’t moving. Well, I was glad that it wasn’t moving as Doulos is already 92 years old, being the world's oldest active ocean-going passenger ship (as recognised in the Guinness Book of World Records).

Anyway, Bryan wasn’t interested in the books on sale and neither was Brandon interested in pushing through the crowd to go to the children’s section. So we just browse the Cooking section and some children books out in the front and decided that RM8 for 100 units (the books are labeled using international units so that they don’t have to change the price tag at each of the over 500 habours of the 100 over countries it has visited) is too expensive. Wanted to buy a globe for Bryan (those blow into a ball type) but decided that 150 units which translate into RM12 is not too worthy as Bryan would be more interested in kicking a ball than to find a country in the globe. I think I’ll rather expose him to Google Earth when he is older. So I used the RM12 to get a Starbucks ice blended Mocca Latte to cool us down from sweltering deck. Bryan got to see a bit of the green sea from the railings and told me that there are no sharks. Before leaving the ship, we took a picture with one of the crew who incidentally are one of the volunteers to board the ship with the purpose to serve God and the nations they visit.

A word of advise to those who want to visit Doulos (which incidentally, is a moving, floating bookfair organized by a non-profit, private, charitable organization registered in Germany and is currently docked in West Port, Port Klang till 31 July before moving to Pasir Gudang and Kuantan and later Thailand). Go at 1:30pm. That’s because, when we left at 2:45pm, the queue was from the SHIP up to the arrival hall and more! When we went in at 2pm, the jetty was empty… with just us walking towards the ship and stopping over here and there to take pictures. This is because they can only allow a certain number of people aboard the ship at any time. The slight difference in timing can cause a massive queue and plenty of frustration, so plan your time well.