Ms. SJMC

Ms. SJMC was the name given to me by my aikido instructor due to my frequent apperance in Subang Jaya Medical Centre. I worked there for 3 months in 2003, but I still think I don't deserve this nickname!

This time I was warded due to a mild fits. My body was overstressed though my mind was basically 'normal'. (No worries, I still am Ph.D. material :) I don't know how to define my disease but basically my bones and joins all got numb and my heartbeat was so quick i thought I had a heart attack. I just couldn't move and my body starts to ache like crazy (esp. my neck)!! Plus, my legs were wobbly. And I broke out in cold sweats. I thought it was denggi fever or some viral fever, but I don't even have a temperature to start with. Both the SJMC doctor and my doctor uncle added that it could be a panic attack or stress-related disorder. Maybe a nervous breakdown.

So, here I was in SJMC. Results showed that my white blood count was extremely high that I thought it was leukemia (doc didn't think so, but I'm soo 'proud' to query him about leukemia). Touchwood, hope it's not. Just my immune system went to its lowest low. Got some bacteria infection in blood and urine (could be due to low immunity) but still....weirdest thing....no fever!!!! Drink loads of water (coffee can ahh?) and rest (sleep) more was the advice. Hey, but I thought I slept a lot in Redang!??!?! Damn.

After a burst appendicitis and my initial Bell's palsy scare, I always know what to do first thing I feel ANY pain - GO TO SJMC! (because got insurance already marrr).

Fondue

Fondue - a foreign word that was familiar but I didn't actually know what it means. 'Til I met my girlfriends in Chilis, BSC one night, I didn't know it was a type of dessert. So here goes - all my chatty girlfriends were trying to describe to me with their own elaborative adjectives of what a fondue is. I thought: why don't we just stick to wiki, eh?

I went to Haagen Dazs at Bangsar Village to see/taste for myself what a fondue was. So it did look like what I expected it to look like (after I looked it in wiki) (warning: tongue twisted here). The presentation was absolutely charming Somehow I expected the chocolate to overflow like a lava (or like the banjir kilat in KL), but my wild imagination failed me again.

Oooooo...macam rusa masuk kampung, so here is what I did: dip in my fresh fruits, ice cream, cakes and whatever they've dumped me with! Oooo..I didn't know that earlier but I was glad to bring along a not-soo-kampung guy to teach me to fondue. I think I need a 'Fondue For Dummies' book.

I had a great time! Yeah, like the time when he messed my face with chocolate and ice-cream. The fondue was just enough for 2 people (he ate most of it). I think it was about RM56.90 but I would pay any amount for the fun and indulgence I had that moment in Haagen.

Perhentian-Redang-Lang Tengah Trip

I was suprised by my own quick thinking, a spell of good lucks (only in this case, you'll see), my sole rapid decisions, and a sequence of saddening events that led to my get-away trip to Pulau Perhentian-Redang this week. First hint of things to come was that -he was suddenly gone. And what hurt me most was that he HAD the right excuse. It's the most relevant of excuses that even I, a very defensive (stubborn!) person, could not deter him. As fast as he came, he left. I wanted a week off from (lab)work to figure what does ALL of these meant, what my future holds, and what is required of me to do henceforth. I needed time and his trip gave me ample time. Thanks to Perhentian, the sharks, the turtles, the snorkellings, the weather, the sunsets and the bestest friend called Chris, I am now more confident in making a decision. Risky, but I want a decision that reflects me and yet not regretting it later.

I wanted to go Phuket, but my swimming boss told me one morning that he scratched his own Redang trip at the last minute (with deposit already paid) and beg me to replace him. So, I did. It was just 6 days before the intended trip! I needed a quick decision. Who the hell could actually ask for a leave from work that quick??!??!?!?! And the trip starts on a weekday - a Wednesday!

I actually wanted to go for the trip all ALONE, but yeah... that was the silliest thought even to start with. I knew Chris quit his previous job, so I called him first and he agreed on the spot!! He's not started his new job til next Monday. What a coinidence..

I kau-tim (settled) every piece of the packaged trip in 4hours..well..sans the itinerary. Booked the plane tickets on the same day too.

I don't want to blog about the whole trip to these pretty island paradise. It's not about the adventures, but the time off from everything - love, work, money, family, food, friends, KL. All I can say is that I had both heated conversations and friendly, crazy chatters with Chris. It was the most interesting conversation I had in years!

Chris has a brand new, unofficiated NIKON SLR camera and he snaps most of the photos. I've not gotten many photos with me as I was just armed with my camera phone. My photos can be seen here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/cchivy/VacationPulauPerhentianTrip912April2008

Sexy

And there was I with a bikini. My first one. If you didn't know what peer-pressure was: my bikini was the product of that. I was pressured by several girls to get myself a bikini. And the first one I picked and tried out was the ONE I bought. Needless to say, my reputation as the most modest and highly-regarded swimming teacher in town has gone down the drain! What I didn't understand was my choice of colour and pattern for my bikini. I think it was innately present in my subconcious mind to choose a hyperly kiddie bikini (in short: cheesy). My bikini had colourful hearts all over (my hairs are standing on ends now). I could have chosen a blank pink piece, but NOoo, I had to choose that hideous un-sophisticated one. WHAT A CRIME!

What was really uncomfortable besides THAT being my first bikini and my first time wearing it was that I had this large scar over my belly from a surgery due to a burst appendicitis. And there were these colourful hearts....... (sigh).

What did make me feel sexy, however, was my voice. I had literally NO VOICE (or I would say: husky) on the day of my (kinda) huge Ph.d. presentation. I was glad that it went on quite well, and even a professor said I was very sexy during presentation. And he literally added that it's not the voice, but my whole presentation was 'SEXY'. Ooooo ...WHAT IS HE IMPLYING??! :P

And nope, I'm never gonna wear that bikini. Maybe only for someone (you know who you are!!). For now, I'll stick to my Speedos. Girls, this time you can't pressure me! See you girls at my apartment.

Coffee in me.

I took a difficult break from labwork despite having more piling up in weeks to come. Still I was glad to have took it.

My parents and I made a trip to Kuantan town and then all the way up to Kemaman where we drank the more-famous-than-Ipoh-white coffee's Hai Peng's original coffee at its original shop. The only thing about this coffee is that it's not 'white-coffee' like the Ipoh one, however, still creamier and had a better aroma and taste! (Hey, I still love Ipoh Old Kopitiam, ok?!). While 'Oldtown Kopitiam' had too many franchises around KL with Bangladeshies, Vietnamese or Filipino people serving me, the only Kemaman Hai Peng shop I know of is in IOI Mall next to Popular Bookstore. Not promoting here, but I think Hai Peng's coffee is sooo superb and my dad had to say this: I'll go all the way to Kemaman to taste it again! (later I reminded him that IOI had it too) In fact, the Kemaman original shop is very small and had a 'very old-feel' to it (older than the Ipoh original one); you can see his generation still living there and still living their (grand)father's dream of not-over-expanding the business and kept it original by grinding coffee beans right behind their shop. I think it's older than the Ipoh one. It's like since 1920s. I dunno, man...wiki/google it! HERE.

Awana Kijal about 15 min from Kemaman was a thrilling sight. The beach was beautiful but the waves were a huge horror! You could surf in there! I had a great time at their olympic size pool and had steamboat buffet at night. My parents left me alone in the room while I work on my laptop, while they took strolled along the beach. Finished every sachet of the hotel's free supply of Nescafe 3in1 and conciously dreamt of Kemaman's coffee and also ximut tea (from Oldtown Kopitiam) after.

P/S: Ya, gotta thank Leong for the buy one free one Starbucks vouchers. You spoil me. And ultimately killed my NY's resolution. Thanks...

Power Failure? A sign of retaliation?

On Monday 12.30am to 2.00am, my place at Bandar Puchong Jaya faced a power failure! I've stayed in Puchong for 5 years, and this is the FIRST time this has happened! Maybe 2nd time, but rare!

(Previous) government a.k.a. BN retaliating silently? Woooo...I wonder what's next. This is getting exciting and HOT. Didn't get to save the report I was typing halfway before my computer blanks out. SWEAT!

A hero called Mohinder Suresh :P

I was so into our Malaysia GE that I forgot to continue my story. Oh, before I continue, I woke up a happier person today :) There will be changes in my life and my Malaysia.

I would continue my story by replacing 'the girl'/'she' with 'I'/'me' because it's is very obvious the silly girl in my previous post was me.

So, I sat on the stairs about to swear out loud, scolding myself. I knew I will be able to survive the ordeal because my lab is quite self-sufficient by itself. And I have access to many other labs as I bodek almost every lab assistant in my faculty. Suddenly I heard a door knob of some room above me opening and a door squeaking. I leaped and ran up 20 flights of stairs to see who was it. It was this horticulture professor (who looks like Mohinder Suresh from Heroes without the curly hair bit) and his not-so heroic-looking Ph.D. student! I shout out to them "Hey, you guys!! (literrally calling them 'guys') I think we are ALL trap lahhh!!!). They loooked at me and say "What do you mean..?" Heh, they sounded blurrer than me and immediately thought: if I were to stay in the lab, at least I have some cute company.

So, Mr. 'Mohinder Suresh' called all those emergency numbers and couldn't get throughtoo. I suggested (che...it was me who suggested!!) to climb over the faculty's window. And jump. However, peering over the window gave me the chills because it was freaking HIGH. And being vertically challenged, I thought I could never make it because there wasn't any where to support my dangling legs before I jump. First, the graduate student jumped down, and I could see he was quite frightened too and had a hard time feeling the ground. Then it was my turn. The graduate student hold my legs from below, then I realised, hey Mohinder - Do something from above! I was sooo shocked when this Mohinder asked me: "Can I touch you?"

In my mind I was like: WHAT??!!! I'm dying here! Touch me wherever you want of my body!!! OMG, sooo modest.

I finally got to my car and rushed to the ulu swimming area. My Heroes performed below expectations. Anyway, I did felt like Prison Break in a Heroes movie. What an act. I didn't wiki MY mohinder, but found out that he used to be in the reserved army. Whatever it is, if it does happen again...just call the 999 number. Thanks Fipink for this advise :P Hahahahaa.

Trapped!

Once upon a time, this lovely, cute, enthusiastic girl was driving to the Faculty of Agriculture on a fine Saturday evening where the birds where chirping and the rambutan, jambu tree branches were dancing away to the gush of wind. It was 4.55pm (significant information!). She parked her car, careful not to park directly under the rambutan tree as to avoid those chirping bird's sh*#. She entered the main entrance of the faculty, quickly to realised that the faculty was way tooo quiet for her liking, opened the four locks of the lab doors (this takes significant amount of time), trying not to remind herself of creepy lab-ghost stories and then enter quickly. She went on to search for her spectacles, because that was btw the main reason she came all the way here. She soon believes that her "tai-tau-har"-ness is still very prevalent in her life. Well, since she's already there - what the heck - switch on the computer, began to chat and check her mails. Sweet.

Ooooo....5.30pm approaches, she packs up, lock those lab doors, getting ready to drive to another ulu area to do her charity (charity because of low pay) work of teaching kids swimming. She ran quickly down the dark quiet corridor, down stairs, towards the entrance. LOCK. Well, let's try the other 4 entrances door: ALL FOUR ENTRANCES ARE GRILL and PADLOCKED too!! She told herself: you are quickly to panic; calm down for goodness' sake! She phone some in-case-of emergency numbers writen on the notice board. Mr. N is in Rawang! Mr. S was not picking up his phones and Mr. M's phone had this lady nagging "tiada dalam perkhidmatan". Damnit.

Only then did she see the clear notice bluetagged to the door. She slap her forehead hard with her palm and started banging her heads to the wall. PINTU FAKULTI DITUTUP PUKUL 5.00pm. (But why??!!!!) She sat on the stairs with tears feeling up her eyes. Worst case scenario - stay in the lab for the next two days 'til Monday, drink double-distilled (!) water, switch on the computers and chat whole day & night, start breaking into my lab-mates' lockers for junk food. Or just eat the cute little pet-insects away for proteins. Oh... plus having a resident ghost accompanying her for the next 2 days.

To be continue......this is where the fun part starts: a miracle, a hero.

Reading is my hobby since age 7. Check my card 001.

I seldom review a book that I read. There a reason - I just read and absorb every single word from the book and alas....forgot the whole context; I don't know what to say about it. Buy a book, read, forget what you've just read after an average of 200 pages. If you see the my Friendster's typelist, there are a lot of books that I've read and enjoyed, and some authors that I've grown fond with. My fav. books titles range from the Harvard econs geek "Freakanomics" to romantic classics like "Jane Eyre" with no one genre that I can stay focus onto. I think I chose NOT to focus; I CHOSE to read a range of genre as to widen my knowledge and reinvent my worldview about everything to anything (politics, environment, travel, fantasies, history, and romances) that's happening around me (and not). My dad is my greatest motivator in reading. If you come to my home in Ipoh, you'll be surpised to see stacks of fiction and literatures lying around.....they are all my dad's!!! My dad reads more than anybody I've seen in my life. No joke. He loves literature especially those from kuno romantic English authors. There's no wonder he can accept any crap behaviour from me. He understands every woman's mind as easily as Bronte would have feministically pun-it in words.

I just finished reading "England, England" by Julian Barnes. This book was shortlisted for the prestigious Booker's Prize. I never could put this book down once I started. Well, no review here, as I said before: I don't write reviews (my English actually sucks) and every book/story relates to the reader in a different way. However, I totally recommend this book if you want something to mourn, laugh and wonder about. How satisfiying!

Another book I recommend is 'The Road" by Cormac McCarthy which won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize. If this sounds familiar to you, yes, this is the same author for "No Country For Old Men" which adapted screenplay has won an Oscar. Though I've not read the latter, "The Road" has actually made me thought of the maintenance of moral in mankind though the world has apparently ended. Can you still believe in God though you know God put you through this s**t? Do I have to behave properly although no one's looking? Will you survive without anyone but your dad who kept bugging you :P ? Survival skills and moral and innocence is the question behind "The Road". You must read it. I gave this favourite book away to Jo Nie on my trip to Bangkok. I NEVER give books away, but I would love to give it to someone I think is special.

Other books I recommend: Middlesex, Animal Farm by Orwell (this is a classic one!), The World Is Flat, Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (oooo, I recomm. this for aspiring politicians), 1984 by Orwell (again!).

Books that I plan to buy and read: The Other Boleyn Girl, Atonement by Ian McEwan, Love In The Time of Cholera, Molecular Cloning by T.A. Brown (Muahahaha! had to include this one, sorry!)

Writing off,

Ivy

P.S. I Love You

Condemned on both occasions.

Valentine's day (to my horror) is looming. Watching movies alone (again???!) and no popcorns to share with? My plan on V-day: re-watch Brokeback Mountain.

CNY was a major dissapointment because I was sick. On CNY's eve, the right side of my jaw and cheekbone were killing me. I blamed my wisdom tooth but I realised don't have any Wisdom since hell knows. So, what was it??? I wikipedia-ed the symptoms. Nothing. The pain throbs thru' the whole CNY eve dinner and starts to intensified 'til my neck got stiffened and soon my migrain started. Went to Assunta the next day and the doctor said I have some sinus points blocked. Bla Bla Bla bla bla bla bla.... Then my heart skipped a beat when she said the word: Bell's palsy. I felt like I was passed the death sentence (because it sounded like I was going to get retarded i.e. 'cere-bral palsy'), but who or what is this Bell??? Then I remembered my friend Kelvin Hew had something similar but I forgot the name of the penyakit. My two-week-incurable-runny-stuffy-nose-cum cold could be the trigger of it.

Then, my doctor uncle and aunt came on the second day. I asked them many questions about Bell. I ask JoNie too. All of them scared me to death with their explanation of the disease. Thanks Jo for the help and the fear instilled :P There's no medication. Just rest and let my nerves grow back. 2-6 weeks. Could be 6 months to 1 year. Depends. I really died-ed.

Btw, I still look leng-lui as usual, and my face is not SENGET. Not senget, ok!!? I can still smile and laugh. So, jangan harap ler, Beh!

Happy Chinese New Year and Valentine's Day. H/P: 016-2639631 if you want to watch Brokeback and cry with me.