Lost my O2 mini

It’s a horrible feeling to lose something… Especially something that you have grown accustomed to on a daily basis. Yeah, I lost my dear O2 mini XDA II phone…. Noticed that I said lost and not stolen. It’s my fault entirely… which makes it so much harder to swallow and forget the whole incident. I know I must let it go and move on.. But the thought of my own carelessness in causing the lost is too painful..

Anyway, I have gotten over it a little.. everything takes time to douse the impact… ease the pain… that’s why I have the courage to talk about it now… Prior to this, I just want to forget the incident and move on… Oh, how I hated it when people ask me how it happened, and I have to relive the whole ordeal again and again to each and every nice person who cared enough to enquire about the incident.

Actually I am the type of person who will get close to something after some time together. When I first got my chevy… no feeling… after a while, the more I found out about the car, the more I love it. Some goes for my O2. When I first got my phone, I felt stupid coz I spend so much (RM2588) on a phone that keeps rebooting itself, or keep hanging… and then slowly, after playing with it almost daily, I would feel quite lost even if I didn’t play with it for just 1 day. It provided me with so much entertainment and solutions, i.e. games, movies, camera functions, calendar, reminders, tasks update, calculator, maps, etc etc… sigh.. I really do miss it a lot…

Right now I am not sure what phone to get. So far, ppl tell me IPAQ and Dopod is good and cheap but I feel like getting an O2 again… Coz everywhere I look, traces of my O2 is staring at me – my charger, my download cable, the extra stylus, my colleague’s O2 mini (which we bought together) etc .. AHAHAHAHA (sounds like a break off with boyfriend eh?).. every little thing around me seems to have fond memories connected to my O2… even those Annual dinner photos have shadows of my O2… (hahaha sounds so dramatic and pathetic…) Sigh…

Anyway, just to document down how it happened for the benefit of those who care….

I went for my annual dinner last Saturday. Everything was fine and well. All dolled up and ready to go before 6. This is one of the first times I got ready before the dinner starts… hahaha … Not that I was overly excited and started dolling up early.. but it’s because I didn’t bother to doll up. And then I decided to use a small handbag which doesn’t fit my O2 mini. So I decided to hold the O2 in one hand and the handbag in another - the first wrong decision made for the night.

And then all was well during dinner; laughing, jeering at friends, taking photos and good food to top it all up. All was well until they serve substandard performances one after another. It was aqua show after aqua show. And aqua here doesn’t mean water if you get what I mean… Not that I am prejudice, but the performances like this grounds to a drone when you watch it year after year…. So I made the next wrong decision for the night by going to the washroom. And that’s how it all happened. There’s a place for you to leave your belongings on top of the toilet roll holder and I left my handphone there. To make a long story short, and spare you of other lewd details, I left the cubicle without my O2.

Went to wash my hands and was surprised to see my user, Shanti, pregnant. So I made some small talk without realizing my O2 was shouting for help. And as we were walking out, I realized my hands were quite empty, and rushed back into my cubicle. IT WAS GONE!!!! Checked with the cleaner who was changing the toilet rolls then and she said she didn’t see anything. Funny as there wasn’t anyone in the cubicle except her. I didn’t try to interrogate her but instead, complain to the Sunway Hotel Receptionist who directed me to her manager and later the security manager came in “Men in Black” style. The funny thing was, the cleaner was no where to be found when I went to complain. She didn’t follow me when I went to make the complain. Anyway, the men-in-black handed me a form to fill and ask if I want to make a police report. I told him I can’t possibly go to the police station dressed like that, but if they can retrieve my handphone and return to me, I won’t question nor pursue with the police.

They were quite professional and called me the next day to inform me that they have done all checks and surprise checks and locker checks onto the cleaners but my handphone was not found.

Well, life goes on… and I have to let it go… It’s a real pity that I lost it… it has serve me well, but I didn’t take care of it enough..

Which brings me to the lesson learnt… Must take care of Brandon well… hahahaha…

Will you still love me... tomorrow...

When I get older losing my hair,
Many years from now,
Will you still be sending me a valentine,
Birthday greetings, bottles of wine?

You'll be older too

And if you say the word

I could stay with you

I could be handy, mending a fuse,
When your lights have gone,
You can knit a sweater by the fireside
Sunday mornings go for a ride,

Doing the garden, digging the weeds,
Who could ask for more,
Will you still need me,
Will you still feed me,
When I am sixty-four?

(Excerpt from Beatle's song, 'When I'm Sixty Four', 1967 Northern Songs.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~**********@@@@@@@@@@@**********~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
13 April 2007, Friday.

Yesterday night, I worked till late, skipping dinner and all. I got a call from Brandon at around 10pm asking for my whereabouts and he sounded disappointed that I was still in the office and passed the phone to our son to wish me goodnight. I told him I’d probably finished at around 11 and reach home by 12, expecting him to tuck himself to bed first. When I finish, it was already 11:30pm. I literally flew home (KL to home in around 20 minutes!) as I was so tired and exhausted that I want to end the day as soon as possible. When I reached home, Brandon has thoughtfully left the non-auto gate open for me so that I can drive straight in. As I close the gate, I heard the front door opening, and a sleepy head peeked out from behind the grill. He smiled and that was the sweetest smile I have seen the whole day and it immediately took some of my fatigue away. I gave him a bear hug and kiss as I entered the door and I could tell that he missed me very much from his lingering kiss right at the gates (we are very shy people and usually avoid public expression of love haha). Then we suddenly realized that the neighbours might be watching, and giggled as we close the wooden door and walked hugging each other upstairs.


Now, if you think that we did something X-rated after that… no worries, no juicy details as I am having my monthly cycle. Ha ha. Our usual routine would be he’d go to bed and I will continue with my “getting ready for bed” ritual which may range from 30 minutes to 3 hours depending whether I get stuck surfing the internet. But yesterday was a little different. He was still awake after my bath and asked if I wanted to have supper. I was hungry, but I didn’t want to get fat, so I told him so.

Although we know that we’ll both get fat eating at 1 o’clock in the morning, he was adamant that I shouldn’t go to bed without dinner (an excuse I presume as he also wanted to eat! :P). So, he rushed down to the kitchen and fixed me my favourite Indomie Goreng (topped with a sunny side up) and an Ibumie Prawn Mee for himself. I was truly smitten by the perfectly done eggs…. I melted when he served me the hot plate of noodles capped with the wobbling orange egg yolk. I switched the TV to his favourite sports channel and we both slurped down our noodles watching the Champion’s League highlights where Man U thrashed Roma 7-1 and Arsenal beat Valencia 2-1. After I cleaned up all the dishes, we walked up again hand-in-hand, tired, sleepy, but fully satisfied. :D


~~~~~~~~~~~~~**********@@@@@@@@@@@**********~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The above was a sneak preview of what an ordinary married life would be. Of course it varies from day to day and it definitely has its ups and downs, but these are the days we live for and cherish and try to remember till our dying days.

Recently I had a friend who was quite adamant in staying single, possibly due to pass failed relationship, bad experiences or the ever increasing divorce rate. I felt sad as I thought he was missing a little gift from God. I mean, I am not saying marriage is all bliss and seventh heaven, but it’s really not as bad as we all think it is. God created this life cycle,

born -> grow -> marriage -> reproduce

for a reason. I am sure He didn’t create it just to punish us sinners ahahaha…

So I hope the above snippet would spread a little cheer, give a little hope, maybe change some views about getting married…

The Beatle song serves as a reminder of how wonderful married life (or staying together with someone) can be in our golden retirement years (if we set our goals to achieve so....)

Yet Another Wedding..

Yet another wedding. Strange as it may be, but at our age, we still get a lot of wedding invitations. At least that’s what my sister thought. She said, most of the invites that we should be getting are children parties invites… not weddings, as most of my friends should have been married by now at our age. ha ha, What’s my age again? (Note: No offence to my single, unattached friends. I think you guys are great to be able to hold on to your own principles for so long!)

Well, the invites are mainly due to the diversity of friends that both Brandon and I have. And of course the influx of weddings is mainly due to the race to get the ‘Golden Boar’ baby by the end of the year (according to one of the wives during our casual conversations). The latest wedding we attended was Brandon’s futsal friend, Kien Mun’s wedding. One would have thought that after attending so many weddings by now, there’s really nothing new to look forward to. However, with Brandon’s friends, one can and SHOULD expect the extra-ordinary. Well, one thing for sure, if they are the “heng tai” (brothers or buddies or a member of the groom’s entourage), they will surely be early birds, no matter how drunk or how tired they were the night before or in this case, even if they had a tiring golf game just before the wedding banquet.

This time, Brandon had to be there at 5pm, for rehearsals, debriefing, organizing, the works. At the rehearsals, I found that 2 of Brandon’s friends, the Lees (coincidentally, both share the same surname but not the same blood), were given the chance to grace the banquet as Master of Ceremonies! This was their maiden attempt and gosh, I thought, these two comedians are going create some fun… and a lot of fun they DID create. I had lots of laugh when they were rehearsing their lines and trying to get everything right, down to the very last details and timing.

They ask the groom to time their wedding march down the aisle, so that when they enter the dinner hall, the correct melodies were aired and the right video was projected and the precise words were uttered. Since the bride was busy preparing herself, another “heng tai” had to play her part and it was hilarious to see 2 men in tuxedos waltzing down the red carpet while waving their hands and blowing kisses like beauty queens walking their walk of honour. They timed everything exactly, from the music to the beat whereby the groom must step in, to the pause in the middle of the hall to wave at the guests, to the timing of the photo-video, to the seating of the bride and moment when the MCs starts to entertain. What’s even more hilarious was, when it was time for the actual thing, the groom was so nervous, he just marched straight into the dinning hall, forgetting his waves and forgetting the pause in the middle. I guess his thoughts was with the Bride all the time that he totally forgot his rehearsed steps.. awwww… how romantic…

Talking about romance, the couple had earlier shot a documentary about their romantic courtship and it was the first of its kind that I have seen, so I was truly taken by its novelty. (yeah, I am a sucker for romance!) The short movie clip included interviews, behind the scenes, the actual shot of the proposal (shot in the jewelry shop, much like in the movies!). It was really romantic of the guy to go through the trouble to plan and get everything in place. Brandon will not even participate even if I had planned all these things… he’s the shy type and thinks romance is a dirty word ahahaha…

The MCs, being their first attempt, was exceptionally smart and funny that night, especially the time when they panicked when they realized that they had lost their scripts just minutes before the ceremony starts. They later found it under their own seats. One wonders how on earth it ever got there in the first place…. (*hmm what were they doing under the table???!!!)

Well, as I type this, the blissfully married couple is enjoying their honeymoon in Europe, and is now in the romantic city of Paris…. :) Congratulations again to Kien Mun and wife, and may you have a Golden Boar baby (better yet, twins!) by the end of the year!

Oh, will upload some photos if I ever get my hands on one. I noticed Lee always made sure the ‘heng tais’ took some photos at the end of each wedding…. So I am sure there are some good photos to be uploaded in the near future. Watch this space for the photos okay.. :)

Of Wedding Dinners and Ceremonies....

Wednesday, OCT 11, 2006: I attended the wedding dinner at Tropicana yerterday and I found it quite different from the usual as the ushers are mostly guys, in fact, ALL guys. For a pleasant change, we girls get to sit down and gossip about them while our hubbies did all the work (from checking the name liststo ushering people to their seats to bringing drinks to them - the whole works).The groom had around >10 buddies (or brothers or "Heng Tai") and as they were all new to ushering, they were all very excited ("Chin sai mei jou ko" – Last life didn’t do any work – as one of the wives told us ahahahaha). So we had a good time laughing at them especially when the real waiters were just grouping and loitering around as they didn’t have much work to do, as the bulk of the work was already taken over by the buddies… ha ha…)Then another wife told us that his husband was so eager to be at the dinner early that he called her to get ready at around 3 to get ready (right after his golf game). His wife was actually still working at that time but had plans to leave early but she never expected him to call as early as 3!! Then of course other wives chipped in and said, “Yeah, at around 4 my husband asked me to get ready and wait outside my office so as not to waste any time. I had to get my children ready by 4:30!” I felt a little lucky as Brandon came to fetch me at 5:30 but was already waiting at the back of the office by 5:15pm. You see, the ushers has to “check in” by 6:30.

Another funny thing was the “coat” or “blazers” which all of them had to wear. One of the wives told us that her husband never liked wearing “coats”. Even for his own wedding, which we attended and witnessed, he just wore it for awhile to enter the dinner hall and took it off after a while….. However, for the sake of his buddy, he borrowed the coat to wear and kept it on throughout the wedding morning on Sunday and also throughout the “usher session” yesterday. Hmmm… love must definitely be in the air to be able to make such drastic “sacrifices”. The wife was saying, “He’s not even as excited as this during our own wedding!” to which we all laughed.

Then they talked about the convoy of 6 cars which followed the Groom’s car to Klang (the wive’s house). They had everything “planned” and even had walkie-talkies in several cars to ensure everything goes well. The reason why we found it so amazing is because these husbands of ours usually NEVER planned ANYTHING… but yet seems to have planned this wedding so meticulously. Most of the guys/buddies are married for a few years and most already have kids, so the wives reasoned that them being so excited this time must be due to the fact they wanted to “re-lived” their “glory days” as it’s been a while since there was any weddings for them to “plan” ahahhaaha… So it was a chance for them to let loose their suppressed childish self inside …hahahhahah…

Anyway, I had a good time too and I noticed that their photos were quite good. Since they had the wedding ceremony on Sunday and dinner on Tuesday, they had a bit of time to process and show off their wedding ceremony photos as a slide show. He had a few photographers and there was this particular short photographer who likes to take pictures from the bottom, or from-the-floor-up angle. Even during the dinner, when the brother’s (about 10-15 of them) was having a “group hug” (sorta like rugby players grouping together to get the ball), the photographer actually crawled into the middle among the legs of the guys and slept on the floor to take their pictures. Something really different I suppose….

Gong Xi Fa Cai! 2007 Part 2 : The legend continues....

And it’s back to work again for most of us after the long auspicious week of resting (for some), or frenzied visiting (for others). Notably, it’s the 9th day of the CNY today, which incidentally is actually the first day of CNY for the Hokkiens. For those who are not familiar, according to verbal legends, long long time ago in China, there was an ethnic cleansing activity done on the Hokkiens (maybe due to some “kongsi gelap” or triad fight). The Hokkiens seek refuge in their sugar cane farm but their enemies were persistant with their searched and destroy agenda and proceeded to burn down the farm. The Hokkiens prayed hard to the Jade Emperor (one of the Chinese Deities) and miraculously, the skies begin to pour and dowse the fire and washed away the assassins. Coincidentally, this happened during the midnight of the 8th Day of the Lunar New Year, when the Hokkiens came out of hiding, unhurt and safe from being wiped out. Since then, the Hokkiens celebrated their Chinese New Year on the midnight of the 8th day of the CNY by giving thanks and praise to Tin Kung (God of the Sky) for having mercy on them on that fateful night and preserving the existence of their clan. It is also noted that it usually rains on the 9th day of CNY. Like it did just now during the Lion dance performance in my company.

While we're on the subject, I have another story to tell regarding the lion dance. How did the lion dance came about? Well, according to Chinese legends (again!), The Year (Nien) is a fearful monster which terrorized humankind once every 12 months, at the beginning of the Lunar Year. There were no Superman or Ultraman then to battle the stealthy Nien so people live in fear of the Nien for many years, each time spring arrive. One day, a monk from the mountains (Not sure if he’s from Shaolin Temple though but legend has it that he has a big head and a big fan) tamed a Lion and converted the Lion into a vegetarian. Together with his vegetarian lion (which explains why Lion dances usually come with that Green Vegetable as a reward for the lion), they found that loud noises and the red colour will scare the Nien Monster away. And with that discovery, the Chinese were free from The Year Monster. From then onwards, the Chinese celebrated this overcoming of fear as Chinese New Year, which incidentally is also called “Kuo Nien” ( which literally means “overcoming the monster, Nien”). Each year during spring, they will make lots of noise via fireworks and lion dances (lead by a monk with a big fan called Tai Tao Fatt in Cantonese) and put up lots of red decorations and give red packets to each other as blessings and protection from the Nien Monster.

That’s my story for this Chinese New Year which I hope will somehow bring forth some insights to the rich Chinese culture that has been brought down many generations since thousands of years. There are many more myths and legends that come with the Chinese New Year (like the deity Nuwa making humans from clay on the 7th day of the lunar calendar and thus making it everyone’s birthday every 7th day of the CNY). All these makes the celebrating of the coming of the lunar year so much more meaningful and exciting. I view myself as almost at the end of the Chinese generations in my family to observe the Chinese traditional practices/prayers (yes, I guess I shame my ancestors as I don’t know how to set up the altar etc …with the excuse of westernization and modernization *blush*). As such, I only hope that in my writings, I can at least carry on some of the Chinese Legends and Cultures for my future generations.

Chinese New Year 2007

The Big Chinese New Year is finally here. Yes, the Golden Boar (I wont use the other “non-halal” word as a respect to muslim readers) has arrived and has been bestowed the honour to bring luck, prosperity and happiness to one and all. The “Dog” has done a good job before handing over the year to the Boar by starting the stock market rally, treating many happy punters to big fat bonus just before the Chinese New Year holidays. And the Boar continued the rally by bringing in foreign investors to make Bursa Malaysia history (KLCI hits 14-year high in record volume on the first day of trading after the CNY break!).

It’s been a “boar-ing” new year for me. Maybe it’s due to the fact that I had to report for work on the 2nd day of CNY which dulls the whole event. Not even the ang pow which I received from my boss could cheer me up. Somehow everything seems sluggish. Even on the first day of New Lunar Year, we didn’t do much but eat and sleep a lot… signature habit of the boar? Ha ha. Up until today, the 5th day of Chinese New Year, we haven’t done much to celebrate except to sleep and eat dried meat, cookies, and Yee Sang. When we visited friends and relatives, we end up eating more dried meat, cookies and Yee Sang. In fact, the biggest event that happened to me this year is having Yee Sang with my Malay friends. Now, that was a very meaningful lunch for me - to be able to have a happy “muhibbah” lunch with my friends (ex-MBA classmates). For one of them, Azhar, it was his first time tasting Yee Sang and he found it very good (even though we found the Genki Sushi’s Yee Sang a little too bland). So that’s even more meaningful. J Incidentally, I want to add that Chinese New Year is not a Religious Celebration, but a spring festival to celebrate the coming of Spring, so that’s why you see Chinese who are of various religions celebrating it together.


Eating Muhibbah Yee Sang at Genki Sushi

Besides that, nothing interesting happened to me thus far, so I will keep this blog short and simple. Oh, a frown on Brandon’s face when I say nothing else is interesting reminded me to thank him for making me the “unofficial” product endorser for Nike Golf. Have been wearing nothing but Nike Golf shirts, Nike golf culottes, and Nike golf shoes for the whole of CNY… ”I would like to thank God for getting me where I am today and Thank you, Brandon for making all this possible.” Note that I am saying this ala Grammy’s style. Ha ha… Have a great Chinese New Year, Gong Xi Fa Cai, to all who are celebrating and to those who don’t, hope your long holidays was a great one.

Chinese New Year 2006

Happy Human Day - 04 February 2006

I can’t believe it. So far, this chatterbox has nothing to write about for Chinese New Year this year until now. In fact, I haven’t much inspiration after King Kong. Was even too lazy to write about Geisha, although initially I thought the story was a tat too simple to be a blockbuster. However, after watching Last Samurai today, I realized that these kinds of shows amazes the westerners as it brings forth the deep and mysterious culture and heritage that only we Asians have the fortune to have. And seriously, if I didn’t watch Last Samurai and Geisha, I wouldn’t have the slightest idea what these rich cultures (or ways of lives) of the Japanese were all about. These traditions that the Japanese fight fiercely with their lives, carries profound meanings and intense substance that most of us do not understand. After all, the Japanese can proudly boast that these cultures belong to them and them alone.

Of course, we Malaysians also have many things to be proud about. Our multi-culture and multi-ethnic group population makes us even richer with cultures and traditions even though much have been altered, enhanced and omitted through the years due to various reasons such as inconvenience, social welfare and adaptation. Even the Chinese New Year traditions albeit rich, are not resilient to these evolutions.

Yee Sang, for example, is a locally “invented tradition” where the Chinese in China, Taiwan or Hong Kong do not practice serving this dish as part of their Chinese New Year Cuisine. In

Malaysia

, it’s a must have traditional CNY cuisine to symbolizes good luck, increasing prosperity and successful business. In fact, even in

Malaysia

itself, the Yee Sang has evolved from being served only on “Human Day” (the seventh day of CNY which incidentally is today) to almost everyday even before the CNY starts! Those who are doing marketing courses can cite Yee Sang as a classic example of successful marketing. Extremely successful in fact, as the margin for a plate of these colorful cheap vegetarian ingredients plus a few slices of fish and a packet of crisps, can be up to 300%-400% (especially if served in a fancy restaurant)! Hmmm, come to think of it, the restaurants are getting all the “good luck, increasing prosperity and successful business” which the Yee Sang brings. Having said this, I would still pay for it as I like the taste and it reflects our own significant CNY culture (aiyah, only once a year).

As we put our chopsticks together to indulge in boisterous flipping, mixing and tossing the “al cheapo” ingredients (except if you’re having abalone Yee Sang (Note: aha, the ingredients itself show an evolution of tradition here. It used to be only raw fish as the name Yee Sang suggested but the innovative Chinese has invented various other ingredients such as abalone, jellyfish etc)), I am sure you get that quintessential feeling of family togetherness/bonding/affirmation of ties/social unity all at the same time! Well, that is what cultures and traditions are all about - creating unity and family/friendship bonding. If we don’t uphold them (not necessary to fight with our lives like the Last Samurai), then the cultures and traditions will be lost forever! And strong family ties and friendship will slowly fade away.

Have a wonderful Chinese New Year 2006 – The year of the Dog. As I write, the Hokkien families are already beginning to prepare for the second family reunion dinner tomorrow which continues to midnight to “Pai Tin Koong”, (the Ninth day of CNY where Hokkiens offer prayers to the God of Heaven or Jade Emperor). This is another tradition that should be proudly passed down to the younger generations. Excuse me while I peep out my window to get a glance of the beautiful fireworks released by authorized parties (note that the usage of firecrackers as tradition to scare away the “Nien” (New Year) monster/dragon has been omitted in view of the welfare and health of children and insomniacs).

Alright, I will end here with some auspicious or lucky sayings (Traditionally these lucky sayings, which usually rhymes, are written in beautiful calligraphy only red strips of paper called “Fai Choon” to be pasted onto the doors to welcome good luck):

May you have a year of health and joy,

And an abundance of good fortune which you can enjoy!

Happy Chinese New Year, Gong Xi Gong Xi!

Kelly Rivers

p/s. The above article is not an endorsement or declaration of all the Malaysian Chinese New Year traditions and cultures. It is just a recollection of my personal experience and thoughts in conjunction with the Chinese New Year. The article is written just to promote the festive mood and bring you well wishes.

Sea Park School Alumni - Tang Lung Festival 2005

SAT, SEPT 24, ARA DAMANSARA: Last weekend I went to a tang lung celebration (yeah I know, it’s 1 week late but hey it’s a great way to dispose leftover mooncakes ha ha) … organized by my High School Alumni, The Sea Park School Alumni. It was a great event as I haven’t seen my high school mates since leaving school 13 years ago. I brought my 3 year old son and there were lots of other kids there to play with him. He mixes well with other kids … and was immediately made popular by his electronic dragon lantern which has blinking lights, and can walk, flap its wings and sing…. The sound emitted from that dragon is truly annoying (it’s like chipmunks singing “Old McDonalds”… I am sure you have experienced those noisy electronic lanterns and how irritating they can be… but the children just love it. Just for the record, I didn’t buy it. My mom did. My mom must be silently punishing me for all the noise I made in her house ha ha). My son was dancing along to the music and it caught a little girl’s attention and they clicked immediately. Hmm... talk about ease of picking up girls ahahahaha kidding…

Well, the event went well, with lots of people from my year coming, most of them whose name I have totally forgotten (sorry *blush*). There were lots of food and you can easily identify who used to be Scouts as they were extremely good at BBQing. The ones that they made were all just right… they knew just how much margarine and honey to put on those wings in order NOT to serve cancer-inducing burnt chicken wings. Well, I took the easy way out and serve myself and my son with those boiled sausages and fishballs. Mmmm, taste good all the same. Of course, there were still plenty of bee hoon, potato salad and of course leftover moon-cakes but my carnivorous son wasn’t too keen on those.

To make it sound grand, there were people who came all the way from the US, well, at least 2 people I know came back from the US. I didn’t get to mingle with everyone as I was busy watching over my son in case he sets fire to the beautiful house. It was doubly hazardous with the BBQ fire and the candle-lanterns. The highlight of the night, besides the Malaysian Idol Grand finale (oh, for your information, most Sea Parkians thought Daniel would lose), was the lantern walk where all the kids get to walk around the park with their lanterns. Of course my son had to aggravate the neighbours’ dogs which made them howl and bark and woke the whole neighbourhood.

It was my fault really, as I told my son, “Oh look, can you see the dog lying over there?” and my son gave an evil grin, “Oh yeah, a dog, mua ha ha ha, woof woof”. He was imitating the naughty Sid from Toy Story. This triggered the other kids to start teasing the dog as well. It is no wonder that I stepped on dog poo after coming back from the Tang Lung walk. Hmmm, now I am a believer that God sees all and punishes accordingly.

When I came back into the house, my friends immediately picked up the stench and asked me, “Phew, you smell bad.”

I tried to defend myself and blamed it on the poor rabbit. (Oh, Tuck Loong, did your rabbit die after being inflicted with so much torture from the kids? The poor rabbit was trembling the whole night with the kids trying to poke it and scare it into insanity with the silly “Old McDonald’s” song).

It was a blessing that the commotion of a burning lantern at the park took the attention away from me and my pong. As a devoted father quickly ran to replace the burnt lantern, I quietly went to the side of the drain to scrub away the ugly patch of dung which stubbornly stuck to my shoes like glue. Gosh, wonder what this dog has been feeding on, UHU glue?

All in all, it was a good outing. We have Tuck Loong (the current President) to thank for offering his beautiful house for our destruction. Thanks to him, my son has learnt to use his crayons on my walls. Oh, Tuck Loong’s daughter is a budding Picasso as Tuck Loong has generously converted the wall of his porch into a huge canvas for his daughter to draw on. And I am truly sorry that son influenced other kids to turn your Sunflowers into Light Sabers, but rest assured that my son has nothing to do with your Rabbit’s continuous shivering. Oh, did I mention that Mei Yin’s kids were like angels? What’s your secret Mei Yin? They were so well behaved (except for the time they became willing victims of Hui Theng’s abduction. Earlier in the evening, Hui Theng had tried to runaway with 4 children but they only manage as far as the playground).

The other day I heard my friends saying, “Assunta’s Alumni is sooo “tight” (US colloq. for intense). It’s really awesome!” Let’s hope that our Alumni would be envied by others in days to come. With the current growth rate of our alumni, it wont be long before we can proudly tell other people that Sea Park School Alumni is ssoooo awesomely “tight”!

Chinese New Year 2005 - Part 2

Happy Valentine's day and Human Day (Part 2 - 15 Feb 2005)

Wow, I didn't realize that my quest for a "Hot date" would gather so much feedback and interest! For those who sniggered at my ability to find a hot date (What? Can an Auntie get a hot date? Dream on!), well, wait till it's your turn. Oh, btw, let me remind you that I am not a girl but NOT YET an auntie (sung to the tune of Britney Spears, "I am not a girl, not yet a woman").

For those who gave their well wishes and prayed for me, thank you very much as you have proven that the power of group prayers does work! Initially I didn't think anything would happen. Well, I did receive a few disappointing sms, emails and calls from guyfriends asking me if I managed to find a hot date for the night. But they did not follow up with an invitation. Their main purpose of calling was just to see whether cobwebs have grown on me and another was worse, he asked me for directions to Mont Kiara as his hot date is waiting for him there! I even got turned down when I tried to camouflage my endeavor with a "lo sang" invitation. Harrummpphhh...!!! Anyway, these are really close buddies of mine and I guess they were just poking fun and rubbing salt coz they know they can.... Ha ha... (errr... guys, I guessed right, RIGHT?)

And then my luck changed when I received a phone call from a girlfriend who happened to be at the next building finalizing her air tickets. Not wanting to depend on the opposite sex for some valentine's fun, we decided to go to the movies after I dropped off the hardcopies of my final assignments at the college. And then all the invitations started coming in through the phone. At first, I thought I was just sympathy calls from well meaning friends but it wasn't!!! There were like 20 continuous smses for us to join a group of friends at a Japanese restaurant in Mont Kiara. Boy, I wondered what is wrong with men and their timing. I couldn't even concentrate on the movie as I was busy deleting the smses!!

Anyway, to cut the long story short, we had a great dinner and proceeded to Neway where we croon (croak rather) to our hearts content. The best thing was - we manage to claim our 3 free bottles of Hennessy from the Director himself (Hmm, another long story which shall be told another time - thanks to our dear friend Michelle -> No worries Mich, there's still another 2 bottles left!). The night was filled with joy and laughter and everyone laughed their hearts out. As we bid our goodbyes at around 4am, we wished everyone Happy Birthday as today is the seventh day of the lunar year, i.e. a day to celebrate the creation of human (according to the Chinese believe).

Well, I took half a day off today to recuperate from the hangover and I came in earlier to write this update as many were interested in knowing how my "hot valentine's day" went. Hmmm... not as romantic as it should traditionally be, but still it was just simply superb.... Thanks B for spicing up my life and saving the day!

Till the next edition, Happy Birthday everyone!!!


Regards,
Kelly Rivers

Chinese New Year 2005

Happy Everyday to you! (14 Feb 2005)

My CNY begins today. Yes, the gruesome exams which has almost taken over my life is finally over. Yes, no more assignments and books for a very very long time.... I finally understand the feeling of lazing on the couch, with dried meat on one hand and a Chrysanthemum drink on the other, watching endless DVDs and Astro with no worries of unfinished assignments! Yes, that feels good. Too good. In fact, I wanted to finish watching both Kill Bill 1 & 2 in one sitting after watching Jiang Hu, New Aces Go Places and other Wah Lai Toi series and variety shows. Well, as I had to come back to work today, I content myself with watching only Kill Bill 1, after all the Chinese movies on Astro (Awww, how unfortunate to be working on the supposedly first day of CNY which coincides with Valentine's Day). I figure I could continue with Kill Bill 2 tonight. More dried meat, soft drinks and lazing around for me... Yippee...

Anyway, there are countless things that I want to do, like clearing all the DVD backlogs, going for exercise (this is a lie but I have to TRY to fulfill my new year resolution), learning cooking and baking (this could be another lie too ha ha), picking up music and singing (too much complains on my croaks during karaoke sessions!), updating my blogs page, visiting places etc etc. But first thing's first. There are still truckloads of laundry which I have conveniently put aside due to the exams. My room looks like a tsunami has just swept by, my car needs a good wash and spring cleaning (yes, my car has become a warehouse for my notes), and the utility, phone and credit card bills needs sorting out. I still haven't changed my IC to the new card format yet, knowing very well that this is the last year to do it.

Well, with so much time in my hands now... I guess I can insert a chore at a time while indulging in more dried meat, soft drinks and DVDs.... Have a great CNY and Valentine's Day. Happy Happy Happy Everyday to you!!! J

p/s In case you're wondering why there's no mushy love stuffs in this edition, well, maybe tomorrow I'll have a story to tell (that's if I land myself a real hot date tonight). Hmmm... if you don't hear from me tomorrow, you can guess how well the date went ahahaha

Chinese New Year 2004

January 20, 2004

. Chinese New Year edition -

Chinese New Year Greetings with a twist... Pepsi Twist!

With the frantic simultaneous Chinese New Year spring cleaning during the weekend, it's no wonder that KL has been a little hazy lately. Luckily, the heavy rain yesterday night cleared the air a little so we can at least breath some dust-less air (not dustless, just less dust..... haha). However, the rain indirectly has caused tremendous traffic jams in and around KL. It was still slow moving when I left at around 11:30 last night!

Talking about traffic, I am quite surprise to see so many people still in KL. This morning when I left around 6:25 am, traffic was already building up. What was I doing up so early you ask? Do I hear some of you say, "It's not like you to be so early"? Well, it's a stupid mistake really. The alarm clock was telling the wrong time and with me going home so late last night, little did I realize that it has run 1 hour ahead of the actual time! So the alarm went off at the preset time (6:30 am) and I was ready by the time the alarm clock shows 7:15 am.

As I was about to leave the house, I realize that my watch was showing 6:15am. I couldn't believe it! A quick check with the handphone and kitchen clock confirms it! Darn! Wasted one whole hour of beauty sleep! Oh bummer, might as well just go for breakfast! Hmm.. the Roti Bom and Milo Tarik is the main culprit for my drowsiness now (not to mention all the fat around my waist! I must change my principle of "not letting food go to WASTE" to "not letting food go to WAIST"!)

Anyway, back to traffic conditions. It's really funny how traffic is getting more and more congested nowadays. Hardly any more room to move about! Have you ever listened to those daily radio traffic updates? Most roads in KL are reported having slow moving traffic or have been converted to a massive car park (imagine an almost stationary traffic on a major highway!). Even during this week when some of the cars have already gone back to their respective hometowns to celebrate the festive season! Does this mean that most families have emigrated to KL and thus are celebrating the festivities in KL? Well, I don't have any statistics with me now but the shopping complexes, hotels and even city council have done their bit to improve the festive mood around here with street lights, lanterns and Chinese New Year songs. Nevertheless, I am sure it's still a far cry from the boisterous and jovial sub-urban reunion celebrations!

Well, no matter where you're celebrating the new year, I am sure it will still be as joyous, fun and exuberant as it has always been the previous years! There's no stopping the Chinese from their traditions of "gift exchanging" and generous ang pow giving! So here's wishing all those celebrating Chinese New Year, good health and a happy, prosperous Chinese New Year. Hopefully we'll be able to slot into our busy schedules to meet up during the Chinese New Year as part of upholding the Chinese New Year visitations tradition! Those who are not celebrating, have a nice, and enjoyable holiday! Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Celebrations... (Wedding Anniversary 19/1/2006)

If you are looking for a romantic western eatery to celebrate a special occasion, I know the place just for you. On Monday, Brandon and I went to San Francisco Steak House in Summit USJ to celebrate our wedding anniversary. The place looks quite ordinary from the front but when we reach the interior, we were pleasantly surprised by the spacious and warm cozy ambience.

Then we ordered. The waitress was extremely friendly and funny. She even joked about the lobster saluting to us when she showed us our live lobster. We ordered 1 live lobster to be shared and they allow 2 different flavours for it, i.e. Cream Cheese Mushroom and Bake Tomato. Both was extremely good because the lobster was really fresh (it's live!) and I love the succulent sweet taste of the lobster meat. A bit pricy for an Australian Lobster (or was it Boston..not sure lar) at RM19 per 100gm. Averagely, 1 lobster comes to about 800gm - 1kg. Ours was 950gm.

We also had escargots, which was quite good. The garlic and cheese was abundance.

The sharksfin soup however was not too good as it was done in western cream style. I would prefer the Chinese clear soup style.

Anyway, food portion wise was quite reasonable. We shared most of the dishes and I was very full and well, Brandon (being his size) was just nice. If you spend above RM100, you get a complimentary special Sugar Coffee (sugar is burnt onto the outside the glass and you're to sip the black coffee while laying your tongue on the sugary glass).

You also get a couple of complimentary roses, which the waitress will playfully force the guy to give to the girl. If you are celebrating an occasion, they will bring a piece of cake complete with a candle for you. Actually I think they will give complimentary photo also but I think they forgot as we asked for the bill right after the main dish (Brandon wanted to go Karaoke after that).

Best of all, if you have children, there's a playground for your kids complete with slides and other play things just beside the lounge where you can have a seat to relax while waiting for your dessert or waiting for a seat before your food comes. There are magazines there if you're waiting for someone to arrive.

The bill came up to about RM260 or RM280 (cant remember coz I didn’t pay for it) but I think it was quite alright for a nice evening out, complete with a full course of starters, main dish and dessert (and a beer). We couldn’t even finish the small piece of chocolate brownie.

Go have a try... you will feel that you want to celebrate every special occasion there!

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.

My Independence Day

I went to The National Museum y’day. Well, the thing that Bryan loves the most is the stuffed animals section. Other than that, he was only interested in those videos that they play. The room he hates most is the section where they showcase the Porcelains of the World (he keeps asking me to go back to the animals section). By the time he reaches the Music Instruments and Arsenal and Armour section (last department we visited), he was already restless.

Anyway, the museum was just as I remembered it way back when Dad brought us there. Can’t remember how many years since I have been to that place. Brandon suddenly decided to go to the Museum after failing to go to the National Zoo (again!) due to the heavy downpour. The stuffed animals part was also the most impressive parts for me coz they had a lot of specimen. They had tigers, leopard, monkeys, deers and even an elephant, rhinoceros and a tapir. Of course all the smaller animals which are quite usual for stuffed animals are there like insects, squirrels, flying foxs, birds, bats, rats, cats (hmmm they don’t have dogs ahahahah) are available but not worth mentioning coz it’s quite “dead” as they are stuck to the wall. The most impressive dead animal there is the 22 feet crocodile and the 10 feet Giant Grouper fish (there were 2 specimens) which was on display right at the entrance. The fish was as big as the Malayan tiger. Impressive! Bryan was not afraid though, but Brandon was horrified and warn Bryan not to touch those formalin glazed display. Also, there weren’t any snakes (or I don’t remember seeing them). The stuffed mammals displays were good as they were preserved in a few jungle-like displays to project their original habitats.

Brandon was quite interested in the first room we visited which displayed the different “adat istiadat” of Malaysia. “Berkhatan” (circumcision) was one of the main display. He stayed to watch the whole video on it. I was interested but I wasn’t patient enough go through the video so my knowledge on this “cutting skin” ceremony is still zero after the visit. And he was also very interested in Wayang Kulit and took special care to educate Bryan about it by letting him watch the video on wayang kulit. But Bryan was more interested in finding where the “slide” was as he thought that there was going to be a playground around the area (we walked through the garden where they display canons, Frank Swettenham and King Edward earlier).

While looking for the slide, Bryan was temporarily distracted by the huge model of Burung Petalawati (so the myth goes that it was Deity Siva’s mode of transport). And of course there were different display of all the different ethnic groups of Malaysia, all complete with their costumes and customs. Brandon was disgusted that the mannequins all looked like European. He complains that they could at least modify the mannequins to look like Malaysians. Hahahaha… Never knew he was such a detailed person. I found the way they portrayed the Chinese, Malay and Indian very aptly as they show the Malays are mostly nelayan, with their kolek (malay dragon boat) and making dodol in the kampong halaman…. Then the Chinese are mostly businessmen, with textile shop, kopitiam, kedai runcit, fortune telling & “kedai jual alat sembayang” and goldsmith shops. Then for the Indians they made a Batu Caves replica and show them taking the Kavadi up… hmmm…… makes me wanna laugh as they portray taking the kavadi up as a way of life. Sigh… Another thing that’s worth complaining is their video in the room that was suppose to show “faces of malaysia”, the one where they show black and white strips of sejarah (on war and kemerdekaan I think). The video was horrible as it has run too many times… with lots of “petak petak”. I can hear people going in and leave immediately while saying, “Gosh, they play pirated CDs here! Ha ha”

Well, that’s the trip to the national museum. Not bad for RM2 per adult. Then we adjourned to Tugu Kebangsaan for some photo shots. Bryan was only impressed with the fountains… He asked me if there were crocodiles in them. I bet he didn’t even notice the black monument of the soldiers. As I was busy taking pictures, I forgot to remind him that those were the soldiers who fought and sacrificed themselves to give us independence. Well, maybe next independence day then. Or he can learn from the pictures after I developed them. After all, he is more attentive to books and videos rather than the real thing. In the museum, he was more interested in the videos and drawings on the wall than the real thing which was displayed right in front of him. Boy, he has so much more to learn…….

First Day at the Nursery - 27 July 2004

27July 2004 - It was a fine Sunday. The phone rang and Michelle’s sweet voice greeted us on the other side of the line. Thanks to her, we manage to secure a place at Kidzsports in Bangsar for a trial nursery class for Bryan. Excitement brewed from then onwards.

I tried to tuck Bryan to slumber as it was already 12pm and time for his afternoon nap. I told him, “Quick, let’s go to sleep. Mommy is going to bring you to Kindergarten later.” This somehow gave him the wrong message. He thought I meant to bring him to the “garden”. (On most weekends, my brother and sister-in-law take Bryan and his cousins to the playground which they call garden. The kids often mistake the “Guardian” store nearby for “Garden” as well. Hmmm talk about miscommunication!).

Anyway, the Kindergarten word sparked some excitement in him and he quickly ran to the door and grabbed his shoes. He jumped up and down while shouting, “Mommy garden, mommy garden….”. When he finds me moving in sloth motion, and getting the bed ready for a nap, he started crying and shouted, “Mommy garden” even louder… so pitiful!!!

Mommy, Iet’s go Garden. Water bottle is ready, let’s go!

It was with much effort before I could calm him down to explain that we need to nap first before going out. The over-active boy was actually really tired as he dozed off soon after my little lecture. (or was it me?) Time flies as I quickly rush to finish off my weekly laundry routine, and took a bath while my mom to help prepare Bryan’s porridge for “take-away”. Sleepy head Bryan wakes at 2:15 and with drowsy eyes, he finished off his milk while I packed up the stuffs that he had brought to Poh-poh’s place for the usual weekend stay-over. He began to realize that we’re going out as we changed his clothes. Sensing that he’s going out (“kai-kai”), he became alert and excited and quickly reached for his shoes again (before we even manage to comb his hair)!

Hasty goodbyes were bid, with Bryan eagerly waving at anything he sees including the plants and the TV. He has the habit (which came from observing us) of switching off the TV and fans whenever we bring him “kai-kai”. His daddy had said that he is like a sponge now, absorbing everything he observes and later reproducing it. This is actually pretty scary considering he is already imitating how some of the acrobats jump on a trampoline and off it!

Bye Bye Cat! I am going off now!

Anyway, we reached the nursery around 2:45pm. While I was busy with the registration, Bryan managed to dupe Daddy into parting with a RM1 coin for his magical, rocking aeroplane ride. You should see his face as he rode. What a snob!! It was like, “Hmpffh, look at me, flying up in the sky. Pity you can’t join me!” (Let me jot down in my notebook to teach him some humility!) We were afraid that he might hog the plane when it stops. Luckily, the commotion of bringing him to the activity classroom distracted him.

The colorful classroom was more like an activity room with a baby-obstacle course that covers 3 sides of its walls while one side of the wall is fully mirrored. A slide, a music player and a balancing beam sits at the corner. Near the door there’s a cabinet for all the children’s bags (the usual diapers, water-bottles and a change of clothes for just-in-case situations!) Many other children were playing with toys in the center of the fully carpeted, air-conditioned room.

Bryan quickly made himself at home as he tottered into the center to join the group. The teacher bid him a warm welcome, calling him by his name (which was written on a piece of sticker and stuck onto his shirt for easy identification). The haughty Bryan, of course, ignored everyone’s greeting and went straight for the toys. When the teacher wanted to start the class, she ordered everyone to return the toys to the box. As I watched other children obediently returning the toys into the box, I was a little afraid that Bryan may do what he normally does at home… which is to turn the toy box over to completely release its contents onto the floor. Actually, he was about to do that when I ran over to stop him.



Anyway, things happened quickly and everyone was supposed to sit in a circle to introduce themselves. Bryan suddenly realized that he is amidst a group of strangers and began to cling to me. “Mommy pau pau, mommy pau pau” (“Mommy, hug me, carry me”), he mumbles softly in retreat. The teacher started a roll-call and took turns in introducing the children by asking them to each do a different action, i.e.

“Hi Melanie, wave your hands Melanie. Good girl Melanie.”

“Hi Benson, clap your hands for us. Well done Benson.”

"Bryan, put your hands in the air and wave. Bryan, let me see your hands. Bryan, Bryan, Bryan??? Oh, he’s a bit shy. It’s okay for the first time.”

I can sense the teacher dismay as she wonders why she has to face another obstinate and mischievous little devil.


Then Teacher started to teach singing and dancing. Ah, Bryan’s favorite activity. As the teacher rolled her hands and dance around in a song, Bryan finds it too tedious to follow her and began wondering around (with his hands still imitating the teacher’s rolling movement). He must be thinking, “Let me see if I can sneak over to the slide without them noticing. I’ll just pretend that I am following and dance myself through the crowd to the other side.” Bryan succeeded in getting onto the slide which he played with glee. Other classmates were distracted and began to play on the slide too… Some ran around the obstacle course without paying much attention to teacher’s pictures of bee hive and bees. The teacher continues to teach the few obedient students animal sounds while my son continues to roam around in the new environment.



Look Mom, I am sliding!


Then it was playtime! Much to the teacher’s relieve since she doesn’t have to preach to restricted but distracted students now. The children began to run, jump around and did somersaults (with parent guidance) at free will. It was really a task for the parents to run after their kids. My son, who is particularly rough, knocked into one of the little girls which sent her running back to her mommy while crying her lungs out. I felt so embarrass as my son continued to run around as though nothing has happened. I quickly made him apologize to her. She was still crying her hearts out but subsided after some gentle coaxing from her mom. Anyway, the good thing about children is that they forgive and forget soon enough to play together again.

As the children play, my attention was diverted to another child who began to remove her pants. Hmm, she must have wet herself or her pants must be extremely uncomfortable. Very independent I thought. Slowly, I returned my gaze to my son…. Now where is he??? Hmmm… nowhere to be found!!! The teacher appears from the storeroom with a huge opened parachute and behind her was Bryan, carrying his favourite toy – a football. After clarifying with Daddy who has seen the whole thing, he confirmed that the ball was taken without the knowledge of the teacher! He laid his eyes on the ball while playing on the obstacle course and went straight for the goal! Well, the ball was a good complement for the parachute game because other boys were also in favor of football. (errr, the teacher may not agree though as it created much distraction).Anyhow, I can see that Bryan enjoyed himself very much while interacting and playing with other children.

Then everyone settled down for another round of song and dance and it was time for the goodbye song. The children are taught to give the teacher a big hug. My son, who as usual was not paying attention, did not even know who the teacher was! He just grabbed a parent and hugged her much to everyone’s amusement! He adored everyone by affectionately hugging the other kids as well, much to my pleasant surprise! Awwww.. Guess watching Barney has brought out the subtle side of him.

His first day at the nursery was indeed a very good one for everyone (except for the teacher and the little girl whom Bryan knocked down) and would go down in memory lane as one of the better milestone both for me and Bryan. One small step for Bryan, one big step for me in parenthood. As a mother in a new era, many things have advanced in leaps and bounce, especially parenthood. Let’s just hope that I can learn as much and as fast as my son to let him have the best. Excuse me now, while I soak myself in all the information brochures (Shicida Method, Kumon, Early Childhood Enrichment programs, Smart Readers etc etc) in the hope to absorb all the necessary information like a sponge!

Nyah Nyah Nyah… I get to slide and you dont!