And It's the School Holidays!

What's cool is that most of my kids are from the kindergartens, so if school's out, so is swimming!! (applicable on weekdays only)

KL first. I went to Ikea sale, also quickly got my hair trimmed and pampered at my regular stylist at Curve (since there was no swimming for 4 days straight). Finished Yate's 'Revolutionary Road' in surprising 3 days. Also got to complete certain important sub-chapters of my dissertation. And not forgetting Alan brought my parents to buy a new sophisticated sewing machine. Win-win situation for all.

In Ipoh. The last time I came back was CNY in January. I ate 3 char kuay teows from 3 different areas in Ipoh for 3 days, and I highly recommend the char-kuay teow @ Hollywood hawker corner lot at Canning Gardens (it has always been well known though), but their drinks service has always sucked big time there. Only when I was about to finish my noodles, the drinks came. As usual, no other significant doings in Ipoh.

Holy-moly stuffs I did this week:

1. Holy-moly-ly bought a new swim-suit when I have tonnes at home. Not quite a swim-suit but a more like a long-sleeve swim top.

2. Accidentally found my old authentic CK skirt-jeans which cost close to RM400 and planned to modify/alter it (MYSELF!) though Miracle Man's help may be needed.



3. First time travelling back to KL from Ipoh by KTM train. Watched 'Fun with Dick and Jane' on board on their wide screen Samsung LCD. KTM! Wooots! Woots!

4. Went to the 3K Hotel, Sunway for bargains of clothes and accessories! Bought 2 clinchers and a dress in all less than RM100. Actually, they were all online boutiques coming out to show off their stuffs beyond the virtual world. Spotted my fav. online shops - Attire's Attic and Chocolate Buttons - and got to touch their barangs for the first time.

The dress I bought from the bazaar. Surprisingly, it's a yellow piece.

5. Went to Genting Highlands with Alan and Eddy with Eddy's new & (over-modified) Honda Civic. With body kit, spoiler and 17-inch sportrim and what not, he ran thrU' 6 corners at 100 km/h. I cursed him the whole way up but alas kissed him for winning RM50 for me on the roulette which is good enough for a kiasu (and kiasi) like me.

Genting - 21 March 09, 2am

6. I found a broken-english notice board in Genting. It screams CHINA for a renown company like Baskins.

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I actually did say well-done to myself for this week.

The Ultimate Question

Darn...my parents are here in KL. That means I am bombarded by nothing else but phrases very much related to CLEANLINESS e.g. "Why the floor soo sticky?", "Why the cupboard and TV sooo dusty?", "Why the ceiling got spider-web?" (that's why I'm an 'avid' entomologist, mum!)" or worst of all: "Why don't you cook everyday since soo things so expensive now?". (kinda contradictory, 'cause cooking means getting the house oily and that's why I seldom cook, get it!?).

But this time round, I was thrown one question that I would never expect from my parents. And it went somthing like that:

"When are you getting married? We will be very happy for you if you get married too, u know. It's about time you THINK ABOUT IT. You arr...never even think about it. Married is a good thing, but make sure you're happy with him........Not enough money to start a new life?? There's never enough money to start a new life! If he thinks about you, he'll marry you when he loves you, not when he found money, or car, or big house. Life starts automatically, money or no money. If you wait for car, money, bungalow, everything to turn up beautifully and then only you get married, I'm sure he's a 45-year-old guy by then".

"If he loves you and he THINKS about YOU, he'll marry you now, cause he'll THINKS about the kids you will be bearing and not himself solely. He should understand that you should have the FIRST child beyond 30. It's risky as I've seen soo many Down syndrome cases and complications as I took care of kids along already, etc. etc. etc. ............"

And then, Dad added, "Last time when we married your mum, I was without savings. Now I millionaire" Ohhh...Dad (when were you ever a millionaire, duh! Say little when you nothing to say next time. In a good way, I believe Beh should concur my Dad's statement.

I answered, "I know lah...er...er...er...but I also dunno lah, up to him also watt because his life's philosophy is......". Since the night FP, Callie and I went to watch Bride's War, I do not think about how my marriage day or the 'aftermath' of it would be. What triggers the question from my parents could be at that moment of conversation there was this news in E! Channel about Madonna and whatever kiddo she's living in now and Jennifer Aniston with that John Mayer dating life on air. Parents caught up with Hollywood?! Or maybe earlier I told my parents about my to-date THREE invitations to weddings in 2009 already.


This month has been a self-relfection time for me too. They call it the Crossroad. These are the times I loathe but will consequently face.

1. I always make my Ph.D. number one priority. Finish it first, then only we talk about other things, k? Which will subsequently come to point no. 2:

2. I will marry only when I start working. Which is NOT teaching swimming although it could earn me more than my future job.

3. Uncle Kuok needs me to work a proper job. Which is NOT teaching swimming.

4. I have a house, a car, and savings. But I have not found my true passion yet. Which is NOT Salsa. Which is definitely not insects. Not shopping. It was Aikido. Maybe it IS swimming? Writing? I don't know.....

5. Marriage comes naturally, and it comes from the male-side of things (Of course mar, I propose to him meh?!)

6. Almost forgot: I need a man.

My dad came out with a simple solution: Engage first.

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Wait........ isn't that Marriage too?!

I'll wake up forever for these....

I have made several shots of our skyline with my camera phone in my almost daily drive to/from swimming classes. In the morn, I usually start before 7am to UKM because I have long recognised my frustration with the daily bumper-to-bumper crawl near Giant Kinrara especially after 7am. There are usually shots of sunrise, but some shots are the orange sun itself, halos, full moons or sometimes weird cloud formations as my car slows down to a crawl (traffic sucks!).

Here are some quick and blurry but precious moments with my webcam from my Kelisa. I have had these shots in my cameraphone but never had a reason to reveal the pics as I initially deemed them useless... 'til today.

7am, SILK highway - Clouds' silver (golden?) lining.

7am, Kajang SILK - My fav sunrise pic of all time.

5pm, IOI Mall - Rainbow after a light shower.

8am - Burning sun. Could be due to the haze.

7.30am, LDP towards south - Very low fluffy clouds at the horizon

Low-lying clouds, 7.30am LDP

11.30am, Kajang SILK highway - Just one blob of cloud right in the middle of the sky. Showing me the LOVE?

One heart-shape cloud standing on its own! There were no other clouds nearby.

But I am no camera enthusiast either. What do you expect from a lousy camera phone, taken by the driver, in her moving car! That's what I call Mutitasking.

"Miracle man, I am fat!"

So many times have I purchased stuffs online. Things ranging from rare DVDs, books, books and...yah, seems like books only. I usually have no faith in buying things that requires a size, e.g. shoes, clothings or swim suits, because I dunno what my size is ....until today, when I measured my body with a tape. Err...not something I am proud off to reveal.

Today will be the first 2 clothings in my entire life being purchase online! Because of these 2 purchases, I have now greater faith in online shopping especially on clothings. But the greatest faith I have (besides in Jesus) is actually on the indian-man seamstress(?) in front of my apartment. He's a Miracle Man. Armed with an old sewing machine, he just has the ability to fix every of my clothing in no time! I think it's quite weird too (or issit his business talk?) that he says CAN or YAH YAH YAH (like in Lingam's phone case) to fixing/modifying every single clothes I passed to him! To date, I've asked him to fixed like 10 of my clothings!! Sometimes I wonder if I asked him to sew me a bra/panty, will he have said YAH YAH YAH too? Let me have the courage to find that out..........

Back to my online purchases: I love them both! Even from the pics from the webpage, I fell in love virtually and instantly! I thought: "Well, no harm buying something that I adore so much (while salivating in front of the screen) and it's sooo cheap too! If it doesn't fit, I've got my Indian Miracle Man right outside"

True enough, one of the dresses doesn't really fit properly. I am fat! Case close.

At least it was a risk that I took and now I can confidently say I am daring.

Daring like you, Jonie, YAH YAH YAH??????


P/S: No pics of my purchases because they are for my indulgence and my indulgence ONLY. Hhahahahaa... However, here are the websites I've done my purchases from:
http://attireattic.blogspot.com
http://www.irenelim.com/fashion

Kuok Foundation Get-Together 09

Last Saturday, I attended the get-together event of the Kuok Foundation current award recipients and also past recipients (alumni). They had it every year, but I have never attended any one of them because I am a loner by choice. Nah... actually, I didn't join the informal event previous times because I did believe the event was for undergrads awardees only! Postgrad were invited this year and what better opportunity to meet (network?!) with KF's alumni to 'polish some shoes' at these bad economic times. Kakakakakaa....Yah, my intentions were evil but isn't this what networkings are for?

I brought a whole stack of my name card (and eventually pass just ONE pathetic one, but not that all pathetic, because I passed it to Dr Gue). Dr. Gue was on the same table as I; a KF former recipient and my interviewer for my KF scholarship 3 years back who fortunately remembers me as an interviewee very well! He is a soil expert and his latest stint involves the Bukit Antarabangsa landslide and he was a consultant there. He gave me lots of advice and still remembered the questions he asked me on the scholarship interview. What a memory!

The informal get-together was at Armada hotel. I felt like a nobody amongst the many scholarship recipients! But later.... I found out I asked to sit on the VIP table!
Eveyone registered and got their tags (wicked! - my tag was different from the rest) :) I was walking around, unable to get into the mingling mood. But soon, I met a group of undergrads who were former classmates with one another and they accepted me into their click. Yeeeeeee.... dunno wanna be happy or not but I felt young again, and I loved them all!!! They were all formerly from a high-school in Malacca. I missed a photo with them because 1. I hate my pariah camera phone, and 2. I don't cam-whore. But truly a waste not to get a pic of me with them.

Aiseh....undergrads and FEMALES, mostly. Can't spot any cute guys. Most of them are either younger than I, or have clicked into their own (young) groupie or seemed tooooo smart for my liking. I like smart man, but some guys (even girls) have this cocky I-am-a-medic-student-and-better-than-your-agriculture-or-whatever-vege-you're-doing looks. Sorry, but as indicated in my earlier post, my EQ is very high and I can detect any cocky looks w/o the need of a single word to them. Maybe all my teaching swimming for 3++ years has improved my PR skills with many kids and parents and my increased ability to detect their thoughts. Sorry, but yah, now I sound cocky.
Advisors of the foundation, current postgraduate students. Dr. Teo (left) is a famous clinical psychologist.

The new trustee was Dato Seri Ong. Yes yes, I was sitting opposite him on the same table with other distinguished guests. Dr. Gue was the one in the dark shirt (pic below).

I have no comment at this point regarding my relation to all the guests, esp. with Dato Seri who was former MCA president. Kuok Foundation remains apolitical and so must I (at this point). If not, I'll be stripped. Not off my shirt (I wish), but off my award. So no comment of me being in the same table and in conversation with anyone. It's just that I am sitted on the VIP table to make my face more recognizable to the big-shots, rub some shoulders, polish some apple/shoes, exchange name cards and to find avenue to send my CV/resume in. Yah, sorry again, but that's what networking is all about, right?!

Dato Seri Ong, Dr. Geo and a Masters student in Engineering in Nottingham, Semenyih. We chat mostly about the education system in Malaysia, general stuffs about students, the brain, memory, some paradoxes and mostly education matters. We touched very little about politics, of course! But we did discuss about Alantuya and who they think did it :P

From top: Balwani, Me, Mei Leng and Lynette, GM of KF; Lim Teck Hoe, former KF award recipient, a memory expert and World Champion giving us a lecture about memory; 2nd place in a quite difficult ice-breaking game. I spotted Ai Y'ng 2nd from right! Woooo...at least there's one person I really know.