The mix feelings of giving

Have you ever bought an expensive toy for a kid, and all that he finds facinating was the box. And he spends hours playing with the box, totally negleting and unappreciative of the contents?

Well, yea that feeling sux. You feel that all your effort, where you spend hours looking for the perfect toy to make him happy, has gone down the drain. It's worse than a slap in the face or punch in the guts. It's like your heart breaking into a thousand pieces. You feel that you have let him down by not being able to make him happy with the gift (because the whole intention of buying the gift was to make him happy).

And when you think THAT is the worse feeling, try finding out that the kid actually thinks that someone elses' gifts are better. Yes, that's like rubbing H2SO4* (acid) into an open wound. Yea, sux even further. It's like those thousand pieces from your broken heart falling into an abyss that's so deep that it's deeper than Mariana Trench**. Yea, it's so deep that even as I type, the pieces are still falling. Nope, it hasn't reached the bottom yet...

Well, kids don't intentionally wanna hurt your feelings, but from their excited feeling when they receive other gifts or by showing off the gifts of others or when he's genuinely happy with playing with other gifts, you know that they prefer other gifts than yours... And that feeling sux...big time...

And that is why.... today, I am rather happy, to see little b so happy..... mainly because I made him so happy.. hahaha

I received a green cap (similiar to that of Ben 10) in the mail from a contest, and I gave it to him. He was estactic, as it made him look like his current favourite superhero Ben Tennyson. And then in the car, I surprised him further with another present, a Ben 10 comic book. His eyes GLEAMED with excitedment as he opened the present. He whispered, "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.... I think it's a Ben 10 book." And it was... And he can't wait to open the plastic cover and kept repeating while I was driving, "Mom, can you help me open the plastic, please?"

And then he realised that it's the schoold holidays and exclaimed, "Oh, what a pity that I don't have school tomorrow. Otherwise I can show it to my friends." (All his friends are fans of Ben 10 and have Ben 10 books of their own. This is little b FIRST Ben 10 book.).

Kinda makes me feel proud that he's so happy with his present that he wanted to show it off to his friends. And then he even make a logical comment and say, "Oh, it's ok. I can read it first, and then show them in January! There's school again in January, right Mom? "

He's still new to the concept of time, days, months, and year. So I find it a BIG DEAL that he could say such logical words. I couldn't help but give him a big hug and a big kiss and praised him profusely.

Upon reaching home, he burst into a chant... (almost a song), "Yeah yeah, I've got a cap ....and I've got a Ben 10 book..." And ran to show off to his grandmother while gigling with glee...

Haha, I die a happy Mom tonight...

p/s In the excitement of fussing over his new pressies, he left his favourite Ninja turtle in the car (which he takes to bed every night). And when he willingly accepts the Ben 10 book as a substitute bedtime pacifier, I know I have bought the PERFECT gift.. :)

* Sulfuric Acid

**the deepest point in the world, located in the Pacific ocean.

*** End note: The author is not preaching that it's good for kids to show off, nor condoning arrogance. The author merely uses the "show off scenario" as an example on how to gauge whether a kid is happy with your gift.

Rock

I wish I was hard as a rock mountain,

Being able to be selfish and unbudging...

Being able to withstand all kinds of weather, without a single word...

But alas, I am not...

I am just being pinned down by a rock... unable to move, unable to breathe, unable to say a single word..

Sufferng in silence... for a rock...

Same

And then I realise....

That essentially all of us are the same...

Delayed Reaction

OMG... Woke up with muscle ache all over my arms and legs - a delayed reaction from the fatigue caused by over-exhaustion of my body on Friday. I feel wobbly on my arms and legs and don't feel like waking up...

This is a sign....
...
...
...

That I haven't been exercising for a long time!!!

(Haven't gone clubbing like in years and sudddenly dance/move for 5 hours... hahaha)

I know I know... I can almost hear you saying under your breath,"It's a sign of getting old la...."

Well, as I always say... we're only as old as we think we are... party on people... p-p-p party everyday... while we're still alive...(body ache shows that we're still alive.. :P)

Just something positive to chase away the Monday blues... well, me better go get ready for work...

Dogs

I watched "Up" with Bryan on DVD recently... wasn't paying much attentin to the movie actually, but there was one scene which caught my eye.

There was this dog, whom the master has shouted at and given up due to desperation of the moment... and the dog and master parted ways, leaving the master all by himself in a lonely big old house. Then later when the house flew up into the sky with the balloons, with the owner thinking he was up in the air all by himself, there was a knock on the door. To his pleasant surprise, when the master open the door, it was the dog.

The dog, Dug, said, (yeah, it was a talking dog!), "I hid under your porch because I love you, master."

The point that the movie tries to highlight is that dogs can love their master unconditionally... regardless of what you do, because they just simply love their master. And this kind of reminded me of a certain dog owner... or dog lover actually... who cannot have a dog in the house due to parents objections. But still she loves dogs and will find a way to help dogs and feed them at animal shelters everyday before going home (even though her job is taxing and requires long hours). What's more amazing is that, she finds time to feed the dog first before going out to treat herself i.e. singing or clubbing which she fancies a lot. I find that she has some similar traits with dogs in terms of loving someone unconditionally.

Why do I say that? Well, I find that she loves the people around her a lot, regardless of the things they do to her. Her brother for example, has done innumerous naughty things to her, like maybe feeding her barbie doll set to the dogs, but she has always find a way to forgive him as she tells me that she only has one brother... (awww.... If that's not love, what is? Munster hates me for publishing such soapy stuffs but hey, I always report the truth...hehehe). And her unconditional love for dogs is commendable. And I can see that she loves her parents and other relatives a lot by the things she does..... and she does love her friends a lot too.. :P And I know she loves me.. :)

Thanks for being there .... and still loving me even though I liken you with a dog.. HAHAHHA...

Happy Velvety Halloween

"I am dehydrated", said Alex-san, one of the clubbers yesterday night who drink and dance at the Halloween party at Velvet, while sipping his orange juice next to me on the way home.

Yeah, regular clubbers knows that they have to keep themselves hydrated because after a night of booze, the body is totally dehydrated, not only of fluid but of energy. I remember there was one part of the night where I couldn't feel my legs due to non-stop 3 hours of dancing on high heels. But it was all fun... just to release some stress and forget the real world for a second and party with the "ghosts of the night" in the spirit of Halloween.

T'was a pretty crazy night... with the earlier part of the night spent singing our lungs out in the Scary Karaoke before we adjourned to Velvet to join the other scary party (Ummm.. Munster was really scared (worried) of who his designated driver would be coz Alex-san crashed his car twice recently and he was equally scared that any of us would dirty his beloved car with puke (including his own).... )

Highlights of the night includes partying with a bunch of cool beautiful girls and getting Leo Ku to party with us!




Well, I couldn't get hold of all the pictures... so here's just a few to scare you.... Happy Halloween everybody.. :)

Halloween for little b

Little b was quite excited about trick or treating for this halloween. He even came up with his own costume that came with a mask (which he made in school) to boot. I know it's not our culture to go trick or treating, but with the influence of disney channel, I am sure he's happy just to be a part of an international celebration. Well, I think he just enjoy having someone t play with and the new toy and new activities of making a costume an a mask.. :)

Happy Halloween.. :) Trick or treat... Muahahahah

Culture of Compliance

Blue Ribbon for yours truly, despite being accidentally misjudged for speaking out of time. The Timer (being a first timer - pun intended haha...) thought that the speech was to be delivered within 6 minutes instead of 7, and buzz me off while I was delivering the final punchline at 6:30 minutes. The impact of her actions took the entire point out of the speech, which is crucial for this assignment since the main objective of Project 3 is "Get to the Point". Anyway, all's well ends well.. :) But it'll be fun to see her face if I were to become her timer during her next speech. Ting Ting Ting Ting...Buzzz!!!! Muahahahaha....

=================================================

Does anyone know this man? He is Flavio Briatore. Who is Flavio Briatore? This is the face of a Cheater!

Ladies and Gentleman, Fellow toastmasters and friends,

Why am I talking about this cheater? Who is he? What has he cheated me of? Not of my money, as he has 100 times more money than I do. And I am not jealous of his wife. This man is closely link to all of us. And I feel I need to make all of you aware of this man and what he has done to us. Flavio Briatore was the Managing Director of the Renault Formula One team. And this man has now been suspended for life from F1 activities!

Up until last week, ING was sponsoring the Renault F1 team. And luckily, ING was very wise to denounce the sponsorship immediately upon knowing this incident, otherwise ING will be labelled as a CHEATER as well. Imagine the impact if our customers were to associate us as cheaters if we continue to associate and endorse a cheating team.

You can see how this one man, Flavio Briatore has brought shame to the entire Renault F1 team by masterminding a race-fixing scandal and indirectly bringing shame to all of us in ING as well. For those who are unaware, let me tell you of this scandal. Everyone loves to hear a good scandal, don’t we?

Who watched F1 last Sunday? Where was it held? Yes, Singapore. Incidentally, last September in Singapore, Flavio Briatore ordered Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash his car so that teammate Fernando Alonso could win the 2008 Grand Prix title. His action not only compromised the integrity of the sport but also endangered the lives of the spectators and drivers!

Sports is considered to be an avenue for clean competition, thus you see many big companies endorsing sports event and promoting sportsmanship. And F1 is supposed to be the Big Boys Sports -the luxurious lifestyle where fame and fortune comes hand in hand with face. Thus this scandal is a big blow to the world sports body and all the companies involved.

In our corporate world, the people make the difference. Many do not realise the importance of compliance or corporate governance and how one mistake from one person can change the entire image of the company. Corporate governance is not only about having rules and regulations and policies. We know it's not enough to have policies. It's not enough to have procedures. It's not enough to have good intentions. All of these can help. But to be successful, compliance must be an embedded part of our firm's culture.

With the major impact shown by various major companies such as Enron, Arthur Andersen and Barings bank, we've noticed that the root cause is mainly their poor cultures of compliance. In many cases it seems clear that the culture of immediate, short-term profit overwhelmed the culture of compliance. Scandal teaches us that the culture of compliance must be taken seriously. As such, ING and all of us must learn from all these scandals and not make the same mistakes. I strongly believe that having a culture of compliance must be part of every firm's core business model.

A wise person once said that the test of a truly moral person, is whether he does the right thing when no one is looking. Certainly, the test for all firms is whether they maintain and each day, reinforce, a culture of compliance — which includes a culture of doing not only what is within the strict parameters of the law, but also what is right — whether or not a regulator or anyone else is looking. It is critical that firms establish a strong culture of compliance that guides and reinforces employees as they make decisions and choices each day.

In conclusion, having a healthy compliance culture is very important to our business. As we witness all the scandals and their impact, we will benefit, because it will help us sharpen the focus of our oversight in the compliance area. But more importantly, it will also enhance the protection we deliver to investors, which is after all, the ultimate goal of every culture of compliance.

So I leave you all with a simple question. If your boss was Flavio Briatore, and you were in Nelson Piquet Jr’s shoes, would you have done what your boss have asked you to do? Remember you can make a difference. You can make the change and be part of the culture of compliance.

Broken

Something happened earlier which completely killed my passion to write. My spirit was so broken... I couldn't type on the keyboard... All I could manage was just to click insanely on the mouse (to play some totally silly games) to kill my meaningless time...

That's why my blog site is Tundra-like these days... so barren and empty.

Well, I am slowly getting over it...

The seeds are already sown...

Just waiting for the rain ...

Maybe some fertilisers will do me good.. :)

Yellow Ribbon for Helping Friends

Me joining a humourous speech contest. That must be a joke. Me being given less than 10 hours notice that I have been entered into the competition is a bigger joke. Amazingly, I actually accepted the challenge. (Actually, I was made to do this. I mean, your CIO came up to you and ask you nicely whether you can help to do the speech. And this is not the first time he asked (a few times and all nicely some more)... Well, since I already was preparing for my second speech, I thought, what the heck, just do it.... I had tough time preparing myself mentally but my funny friends really did help ease the burden by sharing my worries (really does beat carrying the mental anxiety all alone) :)

And when it was time to speak, it was comforting to know that I was speaking on home ground with all my supporters behind me... (yea, now I know how MU feels playing at Old Trafford).... Anyway, I was still nervous... as I was up against all the veterens. These people definitely looked seasoned but I thought, what the heck, it was the experience that counts. To cut a long story short, yours truly got 3rd place!!! Not bad for a new comer, eh? And it feels really good when Mr. VPE (sorta like the Minister of Education in Toastmasters terms) came up to me and say, "If there was a prize for "Best Newcomer Award", I should be the one receiving it. :) Well, yours truly was all smiles when the whole thing was over... If you were there, you really could see me breathe a sigh of relieve that I hadn't let my whole club down... :)

Here's the "humourous" speech that I made that day... haven't have the chance t get my hands on the video and the photos of the winners... so you'll just have to put up with the 3rd best thing for now...

===========================================================

Friends helping friends to succeed.

Good evening ladies and gentlemen,

How many of you have friends, raise your hands? Or How many of us don’t have friends? So pitiful, come and see me later, I will try to arrange something for you.

Fellow toastmasters, guests, and friends,

“Friends helping friends to succeed”. I find this tagline very appropriate because essentially Toastmasters is a non-profitable club and so what is the driving force behind all you motivated members? This is not the official answer, but I find that one of the driving force is friendship.

I feel honoured to be amongst friends today, friends like all of you, helping me to succeed in my communication, in my speech and in so many other uncountable ways. We have all kinds of friends, some are good, and some are not. So what is friendship, really?

Friendship is a special kind of bonding that is similar but yet differs from all other relationship. It starts from acquaintance but friendship differs from social acquaintanceship, as friendship is based on love. It defers from lovers and marriage, as friendship is free from jealousy. Unlike family ties, friendship is not a responsibility but build on voluntary affection. Friendship has no status in law. Business partnerships are based on contract, so is marriage. Parents are bound by the law, as are the children.

Friends are there to stand by you, to give you courage, a push when you’re stuck, a helping hand when you need one and a steady shoulder to lean on when you you’re down.
I have to say I am lucky to have friends. I was stuck with this speech for quite a while and due to my lack of experience, I couldn’t find anything to say. I told my friends that I have a problem, and they laughed at me. I told them, “No, I have a serious problem.” They laughed even louder. They said, “Kelly, don’t worry. You don’t have t be a One Speech wonder. We can help you become a legend like Michael Jackson!”

And then they brought me to a tea session to help me loosen up and get my speech going. And they came up with 1001 topics for me to talk about. Some of the more interesting one was to talk about my dating experience as they thought you all would like to know about my past boyfriends… or girlfriends. But no, I can’t talk about relationships as I am not the type who kiss and tell. So don’t worry Alan, your secret is safe with me.

And they also suggested talking about my funny experience of how they have helped me make my decision to replace 10 year old car. Not too long ago, I went on a car hunting trip to replace my 10 year old jalopy, my dear old Iswara. I was so serious about getting a new car because I am a person who drives a car for a very very long time (yes I am a very loyal person). So I want to have the best car possible with the limited budget that I have. Thus I came up with a spreadsheet. IT people always come out with spreadsheets to do comparison. Look at all the parameters.

[Show PPT Spreadsheet]

You know I am a serious buyer when you see my spreadsheet. And then I showed this spreadsheet to those lighthearted friends of mine and guess what they did? They changed all the inputs for the parameters to compare girls!!!!

These friends of mine helped me see the lighter side of everything and help loosen me up so that I can be myself and excel. There have been there with me through some thicks and some thins. Friends bask in each other’s success, and despair together over failures. Friends take care of each other, nurse each other and learn from each other’s lessons. Life is too short to make all the mistakes by ourselves, and that’s why you need to learn from friend’s lessons.

So you can see how important friends are to me. And incidentally Alan has adopted the “Friends helping friends to succeed” as our ING Leadership Toastmaster’s club tagline. I will conclude with this simple poem that I wrote on how friends can help friends to succeed:

Friends cannot solve all your problems, doubts and fears
But they can listen to you and help you find courage and answers
Friends cannot change the past, the heartaches and pains
But they can remind you not to make the same mistakes again,

Friends dont take your joys, triumphs, successes
But they are here to share your sorrows and happiness
So take my hand and a journey together we proceed,
And let friends help friends to succeed.

To Ah is human

Yours truly was the “ ’ah!’ counter” for the day. Ah counter is one of the roles played in the Toastmasters International Club and it’s purpose is mainly for personal growth, i.e. to practise the listening skills. The Ah Counter also helps the speakers get off their crutches and their dependencies on “Pause Fillers” during their presentation.

The role of an Ah Counters is exactly what the Title depicts. I count the number of Ahs that is used in a presenter’s speech. Actually I count other words or sounds such as “Ummm”, “Err”, “La”, “You know”, “So”, “Ok” etc. These are what the people in the public presentation world call “Pause Fillers”. Pause fillers are considered crutches that a speaker use to sustain their speech. In other words, pause fillers are, y’know, the time when you stand out in front of the crowd and you forgot what you wanna say and you start saying,” Ummm”, to break the silence while you try to remember the next line of your speech. Opps… I am also a sinner in this area. I use “Ah”,”Lah”, “Ok”, “Ummm”, ever so often that it has become second nature to me while talking and even while writing. Everyone does it, afterall, to “ah” is human, I mean, to err is human… :) We all do it but with the feedback from the ah counter, we hope that the dependencies on these Pause fillers are reduced if not eliminated.

Incidentally, today we found that even the most experienced speakers uses pause fillers in their speech, subconsciously… So to those new in public speaking don’t despair. Help is on the way. With more practise, we can all get rid of these crutches and stand on our own two feet.

To "ah" is human,
To forgive divine,
Lessons learnt are for a lifetime...

To learn is to change,
To change is to grow,
To grow is to a better tomorrow.

Toast to a better you and me. Cheers.

Speech Bug

little b has also caught the speech bug.. :)

I was bz trying to crack my head over the next topic for my speech when little b became impatient (coz he wants to use my notebook and I was hogging his "ben 10 game" time). He told me, "here, let me show you how to make a speech!"

And here's what I manage to catch on camera... :) I found it soooo cute....

Blue ribbon for the girl with the most names

"Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen, Fellow Toastmasters and Guests..."

That's the opening line for my Toastmasters IceBreaker Speech that I keep practising for the pass 3 days in front of a few of my closer colleagues, so much so, that they run away from me each time I go near them. And thus each time I only get to practise this opening line. Nobody seems interested in my toastmasters ice breaker speech. Yes, ice breaker speech can be boring for some....

So, I tried to practise in front of little b and he thought I was playing a game with him and started acting out the Sam Witwicky Classroom scene in Transformers 2, whereby Sam had a mental breakdown and started talking gibberish.

And Mr. Big B, not to pleased with me laughing at his name in my speech, also avoided me whenever I tried to practise in front of him, and gave me weird advice, like doing the Michael Jackson moonwalk while doing my speech or doing the human boom-box to catch people's attention like those who auditioned for the American Idol.

Anyway, all my "hard work" of practising inside my car while driving to work these 2 mornings have paid off well because tonight I won the Blue Ribbon for the Best Speaker for Prepared Speech. I guess I won because I was the only one who didn't use any notes and my speech was presented in an interesting "storytelling" mode instead of the usual "chronological introduction to my life" kind of presentation. (*Note: The icebreaker speech is a 4-6 minute speech to introduce the speaker to the rest of the club members.)

What makes winning this award all the more special is, I was up against 6 other more "seasoned" speakers as they hold positions in the office which required them to give presentations on a daily basis while I seldom (if ever) talk in the office. (Boss, if you are reading this, please do not start assigning me with presentation work, ok?).

Actually, you cannot imagine how estatic I am now with my achievements tonight. Yes, it feels great having so many people congratulating you and clapping for you. Kinda motivating in a way, especially for the other newbies seeing a nobody like me can actually be 1 up against all the other giants or "hot favourites".

I just reviewed my video, and I found that my speech wasn't that great but I feel it was still one of the best among those who spoke tonight. (Actually, I think my boss's speech was very good too and I probably won due to popularity vote, but hey, isn't this world about popularity nowadays - just look at all the reality shows they dish out to us on the idiot box which we call TV). Whichever way it is, the bottomline is I still won the ribbon, and tonight was MY NIGHT. Wooo Hooo!! Yeeee Haaaa!!! AHAHHAHAHAHA (Allow me to gloat for just once, ok? This doesn't happen to me very often... :)

So I guess I will bask in this euphoria for another 2 weeks before they crown another Blue Ribbon winner for the next meeting. But right now, having the best speech for the night is ....... priceless.

==============================================

Here's the speech I delivered earlier tonight...

A rose, by any other name, is just as beautiful.

Good evening ladies and gentlemen, fellow toastmasters and guests.

It is very intimidating for me to stand up here to talk in front of all of you after all those superb speeches given by my colleagues. Everyone knows that I am a shy person, and it took me a lot of courage to stand up here and open up myself. Even as I speak now, my heart is beating like [thud thud thud] 100 times a minute and my brain is working 1000 harder to control myself from having a heart attack. In fact, I think that there should be another role introduced into the Toastmasters Club, which is the Paramedic Role, to save people when they actually have a heart attack and collapse right here at the lectern.

Ok, now that I didn’t collapse, I have no choice but to continue with my speech. The title of my speech is “A rose by any other names is just as beautiful”. What better way to introduce myself than with my name. Once upon a time, not so very long ago, (I won’t tell you how long ago because it will reveal my age), my half-Japanese grandmother wanted to name me, Keiko Kawashima, meaning “the adored one on the river islands”. But the name on my IC, the last I checked, is XXX *(Censored to protect the writer's identity). My Chinese father, insisted on my Chinese roots and named me XXX instead. What does it mean? I don’t really know actually because I don’t read Chinese. My parents tell me that they got the name from the fortune teller when I was born.

The told me that my name was carefully and painstakingly chosen and they had to go through so much hassle to book the famous fortune teller in town just to get me my name. But I don’t believe them, because much later, I found out that my name is similar to the Taiwanese singer, Teressa Teng and she was very famous around the time I was born, thus I think they just conveniently took her name and gave it to me.

So all through my childhood, and teenage life, my friends call me by my Chinese name. Then I went to college and suddenly there was a fad in having an English name. I resisted the temptations of having one until later I went over to UK to further my studies. And then Oh My God!!! Most of my foreign classmates could not remember my Chinese name and had difficulty pronouncing it, and it sounded so horrifying that I don’t even want to mention it. In order not to allow them to further degrade my beautiful name, I chose to be called Kelly. And that is how I am better known as in the REAL world… as Kelly Kong.

REAL world? Yes, you heard me right. Because I live in another world too - the cyber world. I am very active online. I participate in forums, and online chats and have facebook, friendster and twitter accounts to keep in touch with my friends and family. Naturally, being a cyber citizen, I also keep a blog to log all the happenings in my life. One of the main reasons why I kept a blog was because I have very bad memory, thus I like to write down all the good things that has happened into the blog. Yes, it’s a little like keeping an online diary, so if you would like to get to know me better, you can just go to my blog and read all about me. Incidentally, it was my blog that landed me the task as the editor for ING Leadership Toastmaster’s Club newsletter. You can comment on my writings when you read the newsletter when it is published later. If it’s good, let me know. I’d try to pretend to be humble when you praise me. If you don’t think it’s good, you can just keep quiet. Haha, kidding, constructive criticism is welcome as I am always looking for ways to improve myself.

Back to my name. In the cyberworld, I go by the pseudonym Kelly Rivers. Why Rivers? My surname Kong means Rivers in Chinese.

And then there is one name that I seldom use or try to avoid using. I went on to marry my husband and automatically I inherited his name and guess what? His surname is Bean. Mr. Bean. So I become Mrs. Bean. I don’t think I need to explain why I don’t use this name.

So as you can see, I have many names, but essentially there’s only one me. I am the same nice person irregardless of all the names you call me, just like the saying goes, a rose by any other names, is just as beautiful.

First Toastmasters' meeting

1/7/2009 - The first toastsmasters meeting for our ING Leadership Club has just came and gone... but the dust can hardly settle. And yea, I know, not only you cannot believe it.... even I can't believe it myself. Me, a toastmasters? Ha Ha. Someone like me ,who can write a lot, is usually the quiet or soft-spoken type, the shy type.... If I go to a party, you'll see me slowly blending with the wallpapers. Yes, I can be very very verbose when I write, (my good friend Gina will call it verbal diarheoa), there's usually not enough words for me to write if there's a word limit. However, when it come to speeches, boy, I am done for. I mean, where do people find the words to say after the usual niceties like, "Good evening, it's good that we have nice weather tonight to conduct this party." (even though it looks like rain outside but I just use the same line over, because I do not carry a whole black book of "pick up lines" like the guys often do.)

Anyway, back to the meeting...It was two hours orientation by the Division W Governor and other mentors who are going to help us get the club going for the first 6 months and after that they believe that we can stand on our own two feet. Wow, there were a lot of information or just one meeting. And we were given some demos on how we can train to give impromptu short speeches and also give slightly longer prepared speeches. It's all like a course in public speaking and yours truly being an advocate to learning something new was like a young girl given a new toy.

Ok ok, bad analogy. Perhaps I should say it's like a young kid on their first day at Kindergarten. Remember how fun Kindergarten was, With all the teachers making learning fun and all your friends who doesn't have any care in the world? And all the kids were eager beavers in learning new things. And oh, remember the teabreaks where they serve milo, cakes and koko crunch? And in some kindies, they even have show and tell. And the "table topics" (impromptu speeches) in toastmasters are pretty much like show and tell. You can talk basically about anything, because the main thing that they want to teach you is to "speak".

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the meeting was 2 hours but it didnt really feel long as the energy level created by those experienced Toastmasters were excellent and everyone went home feeling that they could somewhat benefit from the program. Well, I was quite skeptical at first because I didnt believe anyone can help a quiet person like to talk like Anthony Robbins or Obama. I mean, you can't teach an old dog new tricks, can we?

However, after watching how dedicated the mentors and other volunteery council members are, I was sold. These people are very motivated and they dont profit monetarily which is what earned my respect! (But I still wonder where they find so much time, and energy and how they get so motivated... hmmm....).

Well, there's still much to learn and much to practise. As for now, it's just the beginning of the journey and we learn a new thing a step at a time...and that's what makes our journey more pleasurable, more meaningful and more colourful.

Cheers to all who are embarking on this new journey. :)

Honesty, it's such a lonely word

Honesty.

(Yes, this is a single word blog to illustrate that honesty is indeed a lonely word and is so hard to find these days and it's what I need most right now.)

Badminton fever ... again?

Yes, I did it!

I finally played some badminton...

Yeah, I know... I cannot believe it myself.. Hahaha... sometimes I surprise even myself... :P

I finally picked up enough courage to join the group to play...(mostly due to fear of retribution as previously I was fond of laughing while others play) ...Well, now that I have done it, I am pretty happy about it. Not that I know how to play... but being able to hit the ball across the net was great enough achievement for me.. :)

And being able to sweat so much and drink lots of water feels good. Having the body aches makes me feel alive!(instead of feeling old as I initially feared!) In fact, I feel I look much better after a game of sport... hahaha...I know it's all in the mind, but still, I liked what I saw in the mirror. Haha, I know you are probably puking yesterday's meal now.

Anyhow, despite me not being able to do well in the game, it still feels good to have done some exercise. Somehow exercise can amazingly relax or open your mind, and if done regularly, can also do wonders to your physique.

Talking about physique, it reminded me that I have never been into sports that requires me to be physically active. I was never a sports person, basically because I am not a sun person. Besides, mom doesn't think it's wise for weak old me to be too indulged in sports... because I have already spent too much time on rhythmic gymnastics and she'd rather I spent more time on my books. I would agree that I have a weak physique and had never really excelled in sports. Thus, I guess God is fair and gave me some brains in place of brawn, ha ha. Can you imagine that when in school, and we're suppose to join at least 1 sporting event, and I chose chess! (Heck! If they had "9 ball pool" as 1 of their sports options, I bet I would've joined that too!)

So you see, my bad habit of avoiding physically active sports started from school. And then it stuck until university days, where I would rather choose to have a pool game or fooseball than to hit the gym. So that's another reason why I am pretty happy today... coz I am breaking the negative mould!

Well, I am pretty tired... Almost dozing off... must be the effect of the "physical active sports" kicking in.. Ahahha..

Ok, I have done my part, now you too pick up your lazy bum and go get some exercise done. (No, sending sms or clicking the remote control or surfing the net doesn't count as exercise.) C'mon, give exercise a chance.... If nothing else, perhaps it'll help you sleep better.. :) It's a much better way to cure insomnia than booze.

Good night, and signing off for today as a tired but happy blogger... :)

Happy Mother's Day!

"Mom, can I have a dollar?"

"Why dear?"

"I wanna buy a flower... from school... It's made of plastic. For Mother's Day celebration. Must show it to my mom..."

I must say, initially, I was kinda touched by this simple gesture from him. Then he said...

"What's Mother's Day celebration, mom?"

Haha... he doesn't even know what's Mother's day and yet the people from school are already introducing material stuffs for the pupils spend their pocket money on.

"No need to buy flowers lar. Keep your money and use it to buy books."

"Can I have 4.90 to buy Ben 10 books then?"

Wow, this little guy is smooth.... first he try to pull my heart strings but his actual intentions were to get 4.90 to buy his Ben 10 stuffs... hahahah...

Probably grow up to be a good politician ahhaha

====@@@@====

Nowadays, Mother's days are somewhat blown out of proportion by consumerism media to become a comercialised celebration for all to earn an extra buck. Having said that, I would still be delighted to receive flowers as a token of appreaciation. haha...

From a mother's perspective, I would say, all mothers like to be appreciated. I mean, everyone loves to be appreciated.

Be nice to your mother today even if you can't be nice to her everyday... Just imagined that she loved you unconditionally for the first few years of your life even though you were crying all night and fussing all day... Treat her to a nice lunch, or dinner if you think getting flowers or giving her a big hug are too cheesy... Make her happy... because... she's the only mother you'll ever have...

And even if she "seemed" unappreciative of your efforts (like how I ask little b not to waste money on flowers... ), know that deep inside, she still likes it and would be deeply touched by it... (I would know coz I am a mom...)

Happy Mother's day to all the wonderful wonderful women out there.... :) Have a great day, today and everyday....

====@@@@====

Why are mothers special?

When I came home in the rain,
Brother snorted, "Why didn't you take an umbrella?"
Sister advised, "Why didn't you wait till rain stopped?"
Father angrily warned, "You could've caught a cold!"
But Mother, while drying my hair said, "Stupid rain! Couldn't it wait till my child came home?"
- Source unknown

Which is GOOD?

I was busy minding my own business at work when two grown men started the following conversation in front of my cubicle. And they were pretty loud, mind you, so I wasn't eavesdropping...

I have changed their names to protect the innocent.... ummm, even though they are anything but innocent..., well, let's just use Ping vs Pong in this scenario to depict the fast-paced (because 1 party wanna leave the place fast!), adrenalin pumping (aka blood vomit inducing) exchange of words that took place in front of me.. ..

Pong: "Ping, what printer good ah?
Ping: There's no good or no good 1.. depends on your requirements
Pong: U using printer at home?
Ping: Yeah, so what are your requirements?
Pong: Just to print kid's project la
Ping: Aiyah, that 1 then chinchai buy 1 would do lar… no need to buy good 1
Pong: But what is GOOD?
Ping: *(Still patient but can see slight discomfort as he stares at me as though asking for help) I told you , got no Good or no good... Depends on requirements

Pong paused for 2 seconds…

Pong: So if print project, which one is good?
Ping: *(Getting frust and smile at me like asking me, “Is this guy for real?”) Aiyah, already say there's no good or no good... Just normal and highend... up to you wanna buy normal or highend lar...
Pong: yeah, but which brand is GOOD?
Ping: *(Getting really frust) Sigh,…. I said ady lokkkkk.... there's no good or no good... just normal or highend

Pong: What brand you use at home? Goodor not?
Ping: *(Getting really impatient and starting to move away) XXX Brand... but I said ady lokkk…. cannot say good or no good... depends on your requirements

Then Ping went away...

Pong turned to me and say, “But I still don’t know which brand is good.”

I guess if it was someone else other than Ping, there will definitely be bloodshed... hahaha

Malaysian Idol Contestants

Was browsing some old videos and found these 3 funny home videos. It was taken during Chinese New Year 31 January 2006. Hope these kids dont sue me for royalty when they grow up... :P

Contestant 1. 7 years old. (Song: Tung Hua By Michael Wong)

Contestant 2. 5 years old. (Song: Lau Tzu Ai Ta Mi) Note: Check out the ending where another contestant cant wait for his turn)

Contestant 3. 4 years old. (Song: Yellow by Coldplay)

Badminton Fever Part 3 - Prize Ceremony

The situation was funny and “liun sui” (messy). All the winners wear eager to get a glimpse of their prize money and trophies. The guys were teasing and asked the girls why they never dress up for the prize giving ceremony and Shirley retorted that she forgot to bring her night gown. Then Desmond added that she should just go Sg. Wang to “set up” her hair. Incidentally the winners of the Women’s doubles (from another department) were actually in full make up when they were playing last Saturday, so we really wondered if they really did go to the salon before going for the prize giving ceremony haha. (Hello, this is a sports prize giving ceremony, not your high school prom, ok?…. hahaha)

The winners : Check out the one with "full make up" - can you find the prom queen?

All the winners were totally excited (almost drooling!) when they saw their prizes. I don’t blame them old folks, as the last prize giving ceremony which they have been to was their junior high sports day or probably their kid’s school sports event. So you can imagine how long it has been …

In all his excitement to receive the final and most prestigious prize for the morning, the champion trophy for the Men’s Singles category, Sam dropped his Men’s doubles trophy which he had received just minutes before. Watch the video to see the commotion which he caused with his funny antics. Who would have thought something as hilarious as this would happen on a mundane prize giving ceremony? Well, there’s always something funny when you’re with this bunch. Check out the video to see what I mean...

(*Just for your information, the happy guy in green was just a representative for Sean (2nd runner up winner for Men's singles) but doesn't he seems sooo happy to receive the prize? haahha)

Badminton Fever Part 2

25 APR 2009: It was a hot sweltering afternoon and as I drove to the tournament grounds in PJ, I can't help but wonder to myself if the trip was even worth it. My text message to LP on whether it was already too late to watch any of the games went unanswered and I thought probably the answer was not favourable, thus she didn't bother to answer. You see, the games started at 9am but I could only get off my other full-time job only at around 2pm. (Eh, eh, What were you thinking? I was refering to my weekend housewife job!) Ah well, even if there weren't any games left, I could always go for the MPH or Diethlam Sale ...

And so I went, and I have to say, I was really surprised to see most of the teams already entered finals or semis. As I walked into the stuffy hall of heat and sweat, all of them were already complaining about back aches, arm injuries, muscle pull, leg strains ... all kinds of everything, which makes it even harder to believe that so many of them have qualified (I actually asked a few people, a few times, to confirm that they really qualified... haha).

At that time, against all the odds, the men of IT have already qualified for both men's singles finals and men's doubles finals. Sean was already in a game fighting for 3rd placing in men's singles which he eventually won without much stress. There were 2 women doubles team from IT and one of them have already qualified for the finals (hurray!celebrations guaranteed!) and the other women doubles team was already halfway in the semi finals game (so "kancheong" aka. exciting). It was a really close game as we could see the girls fighting right to the end of the rubber set. Despite this little setback, the girls still made us really proud for bagging the 2nd and 3rd placing. Go gurlllls!!!

The mix doubles semi finals was pretty fun to watch with Puah saying that his arms were dropping off and Patrick and LP joking around in the courts during the game. There was one part where Pat asked LP if she hated him so much that she was giving the opportunity for the opponent to smash the shuttle at him. It was probably part of their strategy as the opponent started to eavesdrop onto their conversation and laughed and began losing points. On the other court, Puah jokingly called out to Sam for a helping hand and Sam passed him a wristband (or was it a hairband!?) to "prevent Puah's arms from falling off"!



Then the real action began. Sam played a tough opponent to grab the Men's Singles Champion title with rubber set while Sam and Patrick took home the Men's Double Champion. (The guys had played a total of 16 and 14 sets each on the same day! Amazing!). Actually, it was pretty intimidating when I first saw the 2 tall and lean young opponents; both of whom had that "National Badminton Player-look". It was like watching Malaysia vs Indonesia doubles finals. Little did I think that our IT guys stood a chance against those young, mean looking opponents but yet again, they surprised me pleasantly by giving these young opponents a run for their money! (watch the video but kids, dont try this at home!)

At the end of the day, IT bagged 4 out of 11 titles offered (3 positions for men's singles, 2 each for women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mix doubles) .... A very impressive figure, wouldn't you say, considering the stereotyping of IT techies/geeks to be weak in sports.

I have to put my hats down for our IT Badminton team. They can really have fun during training and yet when it comes to business (tournament), they really can beat the living daylights out of their opponents. In my humble opinion, if every department adapts this kind of culture into their daily work (have fun at work but yet getting the job done!), I am sure we can build a tight, fun, highly motivated and successful team.

Badminton Fever?

It's badminton night again tonight. I cannot believe the bunch will follow through after last week. I thought it was like the Gym craze where participants will drop out like flies and eventually die a natural death. But no, this week, it was full attendance. Despite all the complains from all the old folks about arm pains, leg pains, here pain, there pain, all of them turned up for the practise this week. It is pretty amazing to see how team spirit can bring out the best in people.

You see, there's an intra-company Badminton Tournament this coming weekend and it's interesting to see quite a number of participants from our department. Even though majority are old folks and possibly joining the competition for the sake of some exercise (old folks are more concerned about health), it's refreshing to see new blood blending in too (the younger ones tend to speed up the game and make it a more interesting watch ahaha).

Today, there were major casualties. 3 players got sprained... and the funny thing was... all 3 had injuries at the unthinkable areas!!! All sprained their BUTTOCKS!!! I find it so weird as I have never heard reports about badminton players spraining their buttocks. Imagine, the newspapers reports: Lim Chong Wei drops out of Malaysian Open due to BUTTOCKS INJURY. Ahahaha.. I think even Misbun will chuckle during the press conference. HAHHAHA

I think I will just leave you with some photos and let you be the judge of what the tournament this coming weekend would turn out to be. And some of them already finding excuses for not winning the tournament due to injuries.

Incidentally, there's a high chance for our IT division to win some titles due to the low participants from other divisions. So probably some of us might just get lucky and eventually walk over to win some titles. Whatever the outcome, yours truly is just eager to join in the yumcha and gossip sessions after all these games. hahaha. As they say, winning is not everything... but sure is a bonus.. :)

Ham sup blog

As you know, I have the blogger's block earlier ... and somehow doesn't feel what I write. When I don't feel what I write, the stories just goes down the drain. So I rather not write than to write something that bore the living daylights out of you.

And then, some brilliant friends came up with the idea of writing a hamsup (lustful) topic because everyone is attracted to these topics in one way or another... either because they are really lustful(hahaha!) or because they are just curious. Also, coincidentally, today's yumcha (tea session) garnered a full crowd when told that the yumcha topic was a "hamsup" topic.

Anyway, before you think this is going to be an X-rated blog, rest assured that this is just a PG13 blogsite... and you won't get full X-rated stuffs in here (sorry to disappoint those real hamsup fellows who are reading this... hahaha).

The whole hamsup topic was brought about because Keyman says that we cannot judge a book by its cover, i.e. we cannot tell whether a guy is lustful by just looking at his appearance. There were some interesting sweeping statements which was brought up:

1) Most "sei ngan jai" (4 eyed boys a.k.a be-spectacled guys) are hamsup. (reason being, they hide and read a lot of playboy magazines thus spoiling their eyesight).

2) Most "fei jai" (fatty/chubby guys) are hamsup. (reason given was that they have too much fat tissues, thus causing their body temperature to be higher than most boys, thus getting "aroused" easily).

3) Most "woo sou jai" (moustached guys) are hamsup. (This statement was made purely based on looks where guys with moustache looks generally more villiany or vice inclined)

4) Most "gong tau jai" (balding guys) are hamsup. (The rational is that there are more male hormones, i.e. testosterone, in balding guys and these hormones are responsible for higher sexual desires thus making them more lustful)

5) All real men should be hamsup. (refer to story below for the reasoning:)

Cat, Descool, and I were on MSN messenger one night. It was already midnight and Cat just signed on. Cat just gave birth and was waiting for the right time to breastfeed her son.

Descool: Eh, why midnight wake up to feed milk one?
Cat: because mine is a son.
Descool: Why son must drink milk at night?
Cat: because guy more hamsup so drink more milk (lol).
Descool: ka ka ka..... Kelly, your son got drink milk at night or not?
Me: hahaha, no wor....
Cat: yeah what, a guy who is not hamsup is not a guy.
Descool: ka ka ka..... so Kelly, you must teach your son to be more hamsup lar
Me: hahaha, crazy fellas.... midnight talk about hamsup stuffs
Cat: yeah, married woman all very hamsup one.
Me: Yerr, why you talk like that?
Cat: Yeah hor, I forgot I am also a married woman.. hahaha

So you be the judge.

Are those statements really true about the categories of men being more lustful? Ahaha...


*Disclaimer: The above statements are made purely based on the author's friends' personal judgements and are not based on any scientific research or facts. The article is meant as a joke for merriment and fun only and not meant to offend anyone. If the statements, by any chance, bears any resemblance to any persons, it is purely coincidental.

BM lessons anyone?

I was revising Bahasa Malaysia (BM) with little b the other day. I haven't been using nor reading BM for gazillion years... but now I have no choice... little b really needs help. His BM is so atrocious! He doesn't know what's "Saya" or "Satu" ... yeah, it's that bad... So I had to do something...

I went out to buy a few simple BM story books and a tri-lingual picture dictionary. And I asked him to read a page, then I test him...

Me : What's "mother" in BM?
little b: "Emak"
Me : What's "father" in BM?
little b: "Papa"
Me : (Press lips to pronounce clearly) "BA-PA la!!"

Me : What's "cousin" in BM?
little b: Errr,... Err.... Se... Se....
Me : Yes?
little b: Se.... Su.... Yes! SUSUPU!!!
Me : (in between muffled laughs...) NOOOO!!! You wanna drink Susu is it? (*knowing that Bryan hates milk)
little b: I know I know.... SESUPU!
Me : (Roll eyes) SE-PUPU lar!!!

Me : How to say "stupid" in BM?
little b: Stares and blink at me blankly!!
Me : BO..... (Trying to help him remember by giving him the first syllable)
little b: I know I know... BO-DAH!!!! (*PODAH means "go away" in Tamil)
Me : (Tries very hard to refrain from laughing)... It's BO-DOH, honey... Say "Bodoh" 10 times so that you will remember.
little b: Bo-do-bo-do-bo-do-bo-do....


Me : How to say "clever" in BM?
little b: (confidently) GAYA.
Me : What?
little b: Yehhhhssss (while nodding his head).... GAYA means smart... (very confident and adamant that his answer is right because he watches Ultraman Gaia a lot)
Me : hahaha.. ok... ok... But I want Clever, not Smart....
little b: ..Umm.... Pandai...
Me : Good, Pandai pun... So how to say "stupid"?
little b: stunned for a while, and stares at me blankly again, indicating that he had once again forgotten ...
Me : BO.... (trying to prompt him again)
little b: I know! BO-DAH!!!!
Me : (Faints!)

Dinotrek at Petrosains

Ok, everyone around us knows that little b is crazy over dinosaurs. Neighbours can hear us watching Jurassic Park 1,2,3 and the making of Jurassic Park over and over again and in that sequence of order.... And little b is so sensitive to dinosaur sounds that he can hear if our neighbours are watching Jurassic park.. he'll go..

"Listen mom. What's that sound? It's a Velopciraptor, isn't it?"

He'll repeat this until you answer him... if you still don't answer, he'll grab your face and force your head to turn and look his way and answer him. Yes, he's insistent and persistent... And he had been through all the dinosaurs website and youtube clips on dinosaurs a zillion times.

So, when I told him that there's a Dinosaur Exhibition at Petrosains, KLCC, he was estactic! And he started surfing the Petrosains website the whole Saturday and repeatedly asked us if we're going to Dinotrek....even went to bed early on Saturday and bugged us whole Sunday Morning until we gave up.

"Mom, wake up, it's morning!! See the sun? Wake up!!!"

So when we trot off to KLCC and he was so excited... and he kept telling me about T-rex vs Spinosaurus, in between his "Are we there yet?" whinings.. ;)

The irony is... little b already knows that there are dinosaurs which are carnivores and some which are herbivores. Yet, he would stop at nothing just to get the kick out of feeding the animals. (watch the video to understand what I am getting at. He'd feed the animals anything... from ferns to meat!). He tells me, "But Mom, they are hungry...", in the most sincere tone with the most innocent eyes... Now how can I get mad at him for being kind!

However, what worries me is that he still doesn't quite understand the concept of danger with meat-eating animals. He didn't hesitate to offer his own hands as food to the Spinosaurus when facing the moving carnivorous giant monsters of yesteryears. Luckily, the Spinosaurus was not fond of "small" servings... hahaha... Here's the video to show you what I mean... :)

Anyway, all in all, the Dinotrek 2 exhibition was quite educational, with activities and fun stuffs for children. Not a big exhibition area, probably takes up 45 minutes to 1 hour to cover everything on a low patronage day (also depending on how long you can linger).

A real "value-for-money" family activity place where tickets costs RM3 for children and RM6 for adults. (This exhibit is a separate display, independent of the Petrosains Centre. You would need to purchase separate tickets into the Petrosains Centre. There are concession rates if you buy the combo tickets. We didn't visit Petrosains because the crowd was too much for comfort on that school holiday weekend and it closes quite early... around 6pm on a weekend.

Despite all the high tech animatronics, I think most kids found the conventional sandbox the most fun. All of the kids couldn't resist being Paleontologists for a day; digging, brushing, unearthing the burried Triceratop and Parasaurus Fossil.

Confessions of a Glutton

In a moment of gluttony,
I have downed 2 packets of Indomie,
Now I am full of guilt,
A huge waistline I have built!

To top that up,
Creamy Milo Dinasaur, one gigantic cup,
Made me so sleepy,
That I forgot my maternal responsibilities!

So to school I must go,
With a lunch box in tow,
To seek repentance,
through inconvenience.

And forgiven I have been,
When greeted by the sweetest smile I have seen,
All the effort have been worthy,
Oh, thank you for being my baby....

Blogger's Block

Havent blogged much lately because the writer have come to a bloggers' block (again!?)... The heart isn't where it used to be. There are ideas which comes and goes in the writer's head but they remained as ideas and never manage to see the light of a published article.

There are a few things I would like to blog about ... LV's wedding, The Game bachelor's night with the "add ice" incident, and trivia matters like the WPC moment with my boss,.... minor funny things that used to become life's little joy has now become somewhat so trivial (or worse, on the brink of being boring!)... My mind is kept busy with all the things I should have done or be doing and would like to do.

What are these things? Amazingly, I don't know... (Yes, I know you feel like slapping me silly) What do I want? I don't know...(Ok, now I feel like slapping myself silly).... There's nothing that I really crave for or really want... which makes me a little worried.. .That I don't have a drive or direction anymore...

Maybe I am just lazy. Maybe mid-life crisis has kicked in again. Maybe it's just the end of the school holidays that's giving me the jeepers creepers...

Maybe all I need is a nice long bath....



Pictures source: www.123rf.com

A day at the zoo

T'was a lonnggggg day at the zoo. Was there from 11am-6pm... People who don't know us well might think we're a kiasu family, trying to squeeze the value of our entrance tickets. It's only RM15 for adults, and RM6 for children/senior citizen. Optionals are RM4 for parking and RM3 and RM2 for the tram ride for adults and children respectively. One of the most economical family outing sites in KL actually.

We were just in time for the animal show when we arrived. The 20-minute animal show wasn't really that good (as compared to the Bird Park shows or the animal show in A'famosa Safari) but it still drew a full house because that was the highlight of the whole zoo. After that, my sister's daughter started to complain of a stomach ache and had to poo poo... . hahaha..... Right after pooing she was bright and happy and running around like a wild horse with Bryan. Before that, she was so moody and lethargic....(probably because she was too eager to go to the zoo after waking up and didn't go poo in the morning ahahah)

So after that, we went around to show the kids all the animals. Little b was exceptionally eager to see the reptiles, especially the Anaconda and crocodiles. With him being so naughty, Mom and I was just so paranoid that he might jump into the crocodile pit. You see, he had seen a National Geographic documentary on crocodiles in Australia recently and in that documentary, Allistar, the guy who survived a crocodile attack was re-enacting the whole scenario and little b was very intrigue with crocodiles after that. He spent like a whole 5 minutes just staring at the crocs, asking me why are they waiting so silently inside the river. Sister told her daughter about the Sang Kancil and the crocodile story about how the crocs pretended to be logs in the river to prey on unsuspecting victims. After hearing that story, little b wonders if the crocs were waiting to prey on children and repeatedly asked me what were the crocs waiting for... as if to confirm if there were really waiting to prey on them. I hope he doesn't have any nightmares like how he had nightmares after watching the movie "Frankenfish".

Then we adjourned to the Savannah walk, which had an arch that looked like Jurassic Park and Bryan was humming the Jurassic Park song as we enter the Savannah to experience the African Safari. Yeah, Bryan is obsessed with Jurassic Park recently after getting the DVD box set as a present...

Well, it was somewhat awesome to see the almost extinct white rhinoceros basking in the wild amongst the giraffes, zebra and ostriches... but the heat was a bit too much to bear for this princess... . So we went to find a nice cool spot to sit down and eat the fruits and sandwiches which we brought along... sorta like a picnic... And then my sister's daughter, who is quite artistic (read this to see what I mean), whisked out her drawing block, and started to draw the giraffes. I thought she would want to draw the whole savannah but then after drawing the outline of the giraffe, she told us she's done. Hahaha.. so much for artist's block....

Anyway, all in all, it was a very tiring day because we practically walked from 11am to 6pm... we didnt take the tram because it was slow and hot....My legs, which are not used to exercise, are kinda reacting to the long walk only now (1 day after the trip) ahhaha... feeling very "syuen" (cramp) . Y'day was a good day because the weather was good and most of the animals were awake.

The Lions, Tigers and Hyenas were awake when we were there... Usually most of them are sleeping at the corner of their liar. But yday, the King and Queen of the animals were quite vain and paraded themselves on the pedestal (exhibitionist!!). Initially, the Lion King was just lazing on the pedestal after waking from his afternoon nap...Then, the lioness went up to join him and rub herself against the lazy Alpha Lion (hmm didn't know big cats are into PDA too...)... and ended up sitting on top of him... while he lie down in sweet surrender... pretty romantic scene.... hahaha. And the tigers were awake too and went for a swim in the moat that separate us and their lair, giving us a pretty close look at him.... And we saw cougars, pumas (very fat ones), and leopards being very active too. There were some animals which I have never quite seen before like the Binturung (the civet cat which isn't a cat, but looks like a fox and it's very fat ahaha and belongs to the mongoose family), the Barasingha (which is a deer and not a singa/lion), the Prairie dog (which is not a dog but a squirrel), and the flying fox (which is a bat and not quite fox..hmmm.... I had always thought a flying fox was a squirrel but I learnt something new yesterday.....) hahaha...

Well, the kids had fun not only because of the animals, but because of the company of each other and having ice-creams together on an extremely hot day... hahaha. Actually, they had the most fun when they were feeding the giraffe and goats with leaves. Kids find it extremely fun when the animals take the food from their hands. They were laughing and giggling their heads off and were plucking leaves from the trees non-stop citing that the giraffes were still hungry. I had to scold them to stop them from killing all the plants at the zoo! hahaha

I guess the children used up a lot of energy during the trip... coz when we went for Korean dinner after that, my sister's 8 year old daughter had 1.5 bowl of rice!!!She wanted more but her mom stopped her from overfeeding..... Amazing, considering she's not that big size (*quite thin really)...

So much for my trip to the zoo.. :) Didn't manage to say hi to your relative though.. coz the primates section requires us to walk up way beyond the Savannah. Too tired and too hot to do that hahaha... Rather sit by the Savannah and enjoy an ice cream while the kids try their hand at capturing the savana on their art block ahhaha... Till I get my hands on the photos, here's hoping that you too will visit the zoo to contribute to some animal feeds. :)

Valentine's day or SAD, which is worse..?

14/2/2009

Today is Valentine's day.... a day to celebrate the greatness of love ...

However, also a painful day for the single and lonely... i.e.one without a valentine to declare your overwhelming love to...

Thus it's a day when the singles become very aware of their status... and their situation.. which is very single and alone... especially after being abandoned by "couple" friends around them. Hence, it's also aptly named Singles Awareness Day.

Was having tea just now with a relative and he lamented how terribly "sien" (boring) and uneventful his V day was.

In between his grouses and jokes about *how girls don't know how to value good stuffs when they see one, a thought came into mind... (Ting! Not really a lightbulb moment but close.. ahhaha)

Which one is worse?

NOT having a Valentine and thus, not celebrating Valentine's day...

Or having a Valentine, but STILL DON'T get to celebrate Valentine's day...

Yeah, to be celibate or be uncelebrated... that's the question...

In the first scenario, your expectations are low, and thus the slightest thing that happens on that day is Bonus...

In the second scenario, imagine the feeling of being disappointed year after year... after waiting 365 days for this day to come,.... each day planting a seed of hope that your valentine would somehow reinstate their vows and profess their strong undying love to you all over again,.... only to have it pass you by without any significance...

I asked a few of my married friends about their Vday plans,... (at least 4 - yeah, Kens, Khoo, Key, TFL, ... you guys are in the list) and they tell me that they are not celebrating Valentine's day. Kens even went to the extent to tell me that V day is S*Hai Day (In Cantonese, S*Hai means Suckers) as the V-day related items (cards, flowers, dinner, chocolates, ice-cream, or even anything with slight relationships, i.e. car park, hotels) are all exhorbitantly priced!

So, bro, sometimes being alone* ain't all bad.... It's just a matter of perspective.... hahaha

*these meat, I mean, words were deliberately minced, err.. changed to protect the innocent and to promote blogging ethics

Chap Goh Meh

Happy Chap Goh Meh to all...

Today is the final day of Chinese New Year 2009. It's called Chap Goh Meh (in hokkien meaning "15th night"). It's the Chinese Valentine's day actually, where "hopeful" single women throw "kam" (mandarin oranges) into the river while the daring single men go all out to grab these oranges. The most romantic day of all the days in Chinese New Year.

Incidentally, today marks the wedding anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Keyman. Kinda romantic when I think about it falling on a Valentine's day. However, Keyman tells me that he's celebrating the day with his "gay" friends.... (gay = in cantonese meaning machines/gadgets i.e. hi-fi, audio video stuffs).

Today is Ginger's birthday too (based on the Chinese Calender). Also very romantic because her actual birthday falls on 14th February, the western Valentine's day. How coincidental. She told me that this phenomenon only happens once every 19 years and it happened on the day she was born. How romantic, I thought. However, she tells me she's not celebrating tonight with a date, nor is she going to celebrate the coming Valentine's day with anyone.

Then cousin told me that his friend has organised a clubbing session this coming Saturday, but it's only for the singles. I was somewhat offended initially, thinking that I was prejudicially excluded from the outing on purpose. And then he told me I was not invited because it's "Single Awareness Day" (SAD) and only then did I realise that next Saturday is Valentine's day. Clubbing on Valentine's day for the singles seems like a romantic occassion until cousin told me that the meaning of single in his context does not refer to marital status but being alone!

Such irony. For what seemed to be romantic stories or situation, is actually celebrated with the least romantic inclination.

Closer to home, Big B is going for Badminton tonight, totally oblivious to any romantic relations...

So I decided not to be alone.... I went to cousin's house for some Guitar Hero. And boy was it fun...

"And so what, I'm still a rockstar..." Ahhahaha.. pfffttttt....

Happy Valentine's Day (said in rocker style... yeah! Peace, man, peace! hahaha)

*Disclaimer: This article is not a flamer to those romantic couples nor do I disapprove of romance, love and affection (I am a hopeless romantic, actually). Just something to spread cheer and help lift the spirits of the broken-hearted or the faith-departed.