Saturday, May 28, 2005

Keys to my heart indeed :P












The Keys to Your Heart



You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free.

In love, you feel the most alive when things are straight-forward, and you're told that you're loved.

You'd like to your lover to think you are stylish and alluring.

You would be forced to break up with someone who was emotional, moody, and difficult to please.

Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with.

Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment.

You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred.

In this moment, you think of love as commitment. Love only works when both people are totally devoted.


Rejected crayon quiz.

You are


What Rejected Crayon Are You?

Quiz time.

You May Be a Bit Dependent ...



You're more than a little preoccupied with being abandoned.
You need a lot of support in your life, at all times.
It's difficult for you to survive on your own...
And you don't reallly think you ever could.

What Personality Disorder Are You?


maybe i am...

Four friends, blue skies and the cool mountain air. Posted by Hello

In Kundasang, trying to make my escape from the other drunkards... Posted by Hello

Under the sheets we go... Posted by Hello

and move behind the curtains... Posted by Hello

...a hop into the tub... Posted by Hello

...and into the closet Posted by Hello

Group shot...Still sober. From left:Daniel, me, Melissa and Haw. Posted by Hello

Back to the suite with our bottles of beer. Posted by Hello

Bar closed? No problem!  Posted by Hello

Long weekend...again.

And so Sabahans revel in the long weekend, thanks to the Harvest Festival, or Kaamatan as we call it. Our weekend stretches all the way to Tuesday so if KL suddenly becomes infested with Sabahans, you know why.

My weekend plans? Nice and easy, with the occassional pub hopping (and yes, it's still for work). We have five pubs/clubs to go and then i can take a nice, long break from alcohol. I think my body needs it. Went clubbing last night (yes yes for work) and even after several encounters with Jim Beam, I hardly felt buzzy. My body must've developed some immunity to alcohol by now.

Where's the fun in that????

Drinking aside, I'm gonna catch Star Wars this weekend. Probably go at some odd hour because i don't like watching movies in the cinema with 5 million other people. Oh and Madagascar is out! Talking animals are always good in my book. My family wants to go on a picnic by the beach (how cliched, heh heh) one of these days. We haven't done that since i was 15.

I played futsal again last night. That's twice this week. I got a ball kicked on the left side of my face and i fell to the floor for a brief moment. My face was burning and ego bruised, but i played on. I also got kicked -leaving me a nice shiner on my right ankle- and let's just say women should be allowed to wear breast plates when they play soccer. Ouch. But that said, I scored three for the day so that made it all worthwhile.

I'm looking forward to doing nothing this weekend. Feels like i haven't had that in a while. Hope you all have a great weekend too.

"Flower man, flower man,
When you gonna grow...
When you gonna lay down,
Everything you know."
-Flower Man by Tonic. I'm not sure if the song goes like that but in my head it does...

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Buzzy busy bee blogging.

Yes, yes, I know I’ve been missed. Or so I wish. Anyway, the last week has been crazy. Actually, now that I look back, it’s been about 13 days since I last blogged. Talk about time flying.

As I was saying, me busy. Crazy busy. It’s been a non-stop roller coaster of events, especially at work. I’ll do a little breakdown:

My Birthday, May 13
My birthday (thanks for the wishes. I’ve decided to stay 25 for another year, snort) was a laid-back celebration, which I preferred. The office threw a little cake cutting ceremony for all those celebrating their birthdays in May and my colleagues bought me clothes from MNG as a gift (thanks guys!). At night, Lester brought me out for dinner and we met up with Mia, Adrian, Sel and Pu for coffee after. Me so touched to have my close friends surround me on my birthday. Thanks for coming out peeps, especially since it was raining heavily that night.

Sunset Cruise, May 16
Had to do a story on the Kinabalu Sunset Cruise package so spent the evening on board the Pangkor. I have to admit it was nice to end a long day at the office cruising the South China Sea, watching the sunset and enjoying a glass of wine. Would’ve been nicer without the diesel fumes though. As the sun set, we enjoyed a buffet style dinner while I did the usual who/what/when/how routine with the owner of the boat. At night, we had a nice view of the city lights at the harbour. Just as we got back to shore, it started to pour. Went back home, hugged my cat and was off to bed.

Adobe Pagemaker, May 18-19
Yep, finally learned how to use Adobe Pagemaker. My boss has been urging me and Melina, my colleague, to learn how to use Pagemaker so we could get involved in design work. So off to a two-day course in Cosmopoint we went. Our trainer turned out to be my secondary schoolmate, Brenda. And, get this: There were only 2 of us in the class. So we had Brenda all to ourselves (wait a minute, that doesn’t sound right…). Morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea were provided and everything was smooth sailing. Two days later, we emerged Pagemaker extraordinaires. Heh. Certificates and all.

Pub inspections, May 21-23
And a-drinking we went. Haw, Mel C, Daniel and I (all of us colleagues) piled into the office Hilux on Saturday afternoon and made our way to Keningau (a town some 2 and a half hours away from KK) for our first pub inspection. We had dinner, witnessed a gang fight and, again, braved the rain. At nine pm, we switched to party mode and hoped for the best from Peppermint Pub and Lounge (the name wasn’t very promising to start off with…). To make a long story short, we started off the night rather mellow, drinking warm beer – I kid you not – and singing (or slaughtering) Bon Jovi songs. I dunno when it exactly began but I think it was somewhere between the fourth and the fifth jug of warm beer we started getting ‘happy’ and even the pub staff were having fun watching us having fun. I’m not gonna say much because the night was a blur of singing, dancing, crawling in the hotel lobby and spilling fish curry on my pink pajamas. I’ll let the photos do the talking.

Day 2 we headed towards the mountain. Well actually, we had to drive back to KK for 2 and a half hours, have lunch, and drive another 2 and a half hours in the other direction. I was looking forward to the cool mountain air for a change. They had no more rooms in the hotel we checked into, being a public holiday and all, so we had to take what was left: A suite on the top floor. Heh, not complaining. We had an amazing view of the mountain! The bed was huge so we spent the earlier part of the evening ‘mattress diving’.
Evening rolled around. Looking for a decent meal in unfamiliar territories always proves to be an adventure. No gang fights this time around but the coffee shop was full of flying insects that kept landing on our food, nose, ears...You get the pic. Tired from our journey, all four of us lazed around in the suite watching Master & Commander (long movie, I wasn’t paying attention) and we only hauled ass at almost ten pm to the pub downstairs. The beer was cold, so that was good. Service? Bad. They turned off most of the lights, air conditioner, music and tv at exactly 12am. Problem is, we were still IN the pub. With half a jug to go. Annoyed and still thirsty, we bought six bottles of beer and brought it up to the room. Again, I’ll let the photos tell the story of Four Friends and Six Bottle of Beer.


Swedes on a Sunset Cruise, May 24
Last night, I went on the sunset cruise (again) but this time to accompany six Swedish gentlemen, who are checking out Sabah’s potential in hosting their next company event. Anyway, did the usual hand-shaking, name-card exchanging routine. What was supposed to be a simple four-hour meet and greet session turned out to be a drinking session that lasted till 1am. Beer, Chivas, Long Island Tea…I had ‘em all. I haven’t even recuperated from the previous drinking session so imagine my horror. Sigh.

…And today I am trying to deal with the shitload of work on my desk. FYI, writing this entry began at around 10am and I finally completed it at 2:30pm. Tonight, I’m playing futsal with my colleagues. I’m tired but, in some strange way, being this busy beats having nothing to do. And my French classes begin next week, aaarrrgh!

Coming soon to a blog near you: Photos of my weekend.

Cheers.


"Why do birds suddenly appear, everytime you are near?
Just like me, they long to be....Close to you."
-The Carpenters, Close To You. Yep, one too many karaoke sessions this week.

Thursday, May 12, 2005

Look,ma, no hangover!

Yep, had another drinking session last night, all in the name of work. This is getting tiring. After a couple of beers at a couple of sorta-dodgy clubs, my team and I headed to Shenanigan’s (aka Den of Evil) to get some serious partying done. Well, more like serious drinking anyway. Out came the jugs of vodka lime, whiskey coke… And the inevitable bottle of Black Label. Hoo ha hoo ha a bit but after an hour or so, I decided to take a seat. Turned out to be a mistake because I started drifting off. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I actually nodded off in Shenanigan’s amidst the noise and crowd. Haw figured that was the cue for all of us to head back. It was almost 1am when we staggered to his car, me clinging to his shirt for fear of making facial contact with the tar road. Or getting hit by a moving vehicle as we crossed the road. Either way, wouldn’t be a pretty sight.

Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t drunk. After so many years of drinking, trust me, I’d know the difference. I was already exhausted from working the whole day and pub-hopping wasn’t exactly the most relaxing thing to do. Alcohol + fatigue = room spinning and inability to keep eyes open and head up. It was a weird sensation. My body felt like lead but I was still aware of everything around me. But my eyes were just…so…heavy. I decided Haw’s sleep-inducing collection of songs playing on his CD player was the last thing I needed to I slipped in some Bon Jovi CD. We both started singing Bed Of Roses at the top of our lungs and, for a brief moment, I was the best drummer in the world (minus the actual drum set. Heh).

Made my way up the stairs after checking all the locks on the doors. My cat, loyal as ever, meowed (in annoyance? Pleasure to see me? I couldn’t tell). Washed my face, brushed my teeth and picked up Gaya from the toilet bowl he fell in (and I thought I was tipsy). Wiped his paws dry, gave him water to drink and I plopped on my bed. Cringed at the thought of going to work the next morning.

But here I am. Sleepy. Drowsy. BUT no hangover. And I think that’s what matters most. Cheers all around.

Next pub-hopping outing: Saturday night. Sigh. Stay tuned for more Adventures of the Drinking Kind.

“I wanna lay you down in a bed of roses
For tonight I'll sleep on a bed of nails...”

-Bon Jovi, Bed of Roses. Didja know he wrote this song for his wife? Trivia for the day compliments of Haw.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Eye candy

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I like him. He’s cute. I just need some eye candy right now. Van Persie. Arsenal player. Nice kan?

I’m in a crabby mood. Everyone in the office is in a crabby mood. Those who aren’t crabby are busy annoying the crabby people. Vicious cycle.


So I’m gonna post pix of cute guys for my pleasure.



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Johnny Depp. The crankiest day would still be Mardi Gras if i came home to this.



 



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I had an elf-crush on him as Legolas but in Kingdom of Heaven, he's just delicious. Manly, no?
(i just realised that he looks like Johnny Depp here...hmm)

And of course...




Image hosted by Photobucket.com



Don't you just wanna take him home? No? Ok, then i will.

My day is done. Everything is better now. Over and out.

Monday, May 09, 2005


I heard the two-tone look is very 'in' right now... Posted by Hello

My cat loves me.

And so I blog another day in the life of your truly. Let’s see…Weekend updates. Friday I watched Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven. Orlando Bloom finally decided to take a none-wimpy role (ie: annoying brother in Troy) that makes you wanna cheer for him throughout the movie. But I still believe he looks best as a blonde elfin archer. Yum. The movie was alright though I have to admit I kept waiting for a mind-blowing climax (aren’t we all, heh heh) but never got it. The themes were strong and interesting, action sequences good enough for me but…something was missing. Can’t quite put my finger on it. Go watch la, still entertaining nonetheless.

Saturday I went to the hair salon. I’m trying to grow my hair out but it’s getting a bit dull so I got my hairdresser to put some layers in. It went well except when this blonde-wannabe dude started blow-drying my hair. After knocking my head three times with the dryer and burning my ear with hot air (“Aik…solly miss, solly miss”), I told him how unpleasant everything was. And you know what he said? “Pain ah? How come?”

He was lucky my hairdresser came over at that point and took over, or I just might have shoved a hairdryer up where the sun don’t shine and go, “Pain ah? Pain ah? How come? Tell me, bitch!” Anyway, I started ranting about how incompetent and unprofessional her new stylist was and she said I wasn’t the first to complain. That said, I’m happy with my new hair.

That evening, I had to play emcee for a cultural show in conjunction with Sabah Fest (as seen on our flyer ‘A celebration of Sabah’s natural charms!’). At eight pm, Lester swung by to pick me up so we could proceed for dinner. On the way, we had an argument, upon which I lost my appetite. 9:15pm, Haw picks me up from home and we’re off to our club/pub hopping for tourism inspection purposes (I kid you not). We meet with two other committee members at the Waterfront. By the end of the night, I’ve polished a Corona, Frozen Margarita, white wine, beer and more beer. Someone pops open a bottle of Chivas and after four glasses, I’m a goner. I’m not sure about the journey home but Haw escorted me home. Everything else was a blur but I woke up at 4am to discover that I was sleeping next to the toilet bowl and my cat’s on my lap (sob, just when you think no one could love you in that state…).

Sunday morning = hangover. And did I mention I was on emcee duty again that afternoon? So there I was, battling the disgusting aftertaste in my mouth and my churning stomach while smiling and raving enthusiastically about Sabah’s wonderful ethnic diversity. What I REALLY wanted to say was, “F*** all this shit, where’s my bed?”


The afternoon was spent with my cat as we watched a repeat episode of The Apprentice (Raj. Annoying. Very.). At night, went to my sister’s place for a simple mother’s day dinner (my parents are away so I thought I should spend it with someone else’s mother, heh). Played with my nieces and went home around 9 pm. Heavy downpour. Waited for Lester, who never showed up. Turns out he has food poisoning. Still, that doesn’t stop us from having another argument on the phone – what a waste of my phone bill. Annoyed, I call up a friend, we have a few beers and when I get home, I can’t sleep so I chat with Sel, who’s online. After a few rounds of annoying each other, I say good night, check on my cat and hit the sack.

Today is Monday. Enough said.

"Few times I've been around that track
so it's not just gonna happen just like that
'Cause I ain't no hollaback girl
I ain't no hollaback girl"
- Gwen Stefani's Hollaback Girl. Current song stuck in my head.

Friday, May 06, 2005

I promised.

I pwomise that I won't Kill Sel when I read this.

I will pay her RM59.99 plus tax for making me smile today.

Oooggiieeee ooogggiiieee yooooooo.

Salamdary Boos Bubu.

Wednesday, May 04, 2005


Group shot. Nice and burnt.  Posted by Hello

Our boat. When it's cruising, the best seat is from the top deck where you get a bird's eye view of everything. Posted by Hello

Yay! First catch of the day. Happy smiles all around. Posted by Hello

Fresh bait is the best. We used a variety of smaller fishes and squid. Posted by Hello

Here fishy fishy... Posted by Hello

My first bite. Ah, the excitement... Posted by Hello

Hook,line and sinker.

So i spent Saturday deep sea fishing (words i never imagined to say). It's for a story i'm working on and although my initial plan was to just grab some brochures and interview some anglers, my boss decided the story would have a better 'feel' if i actually WENT on the fishing trip. Great.

And i did. My morning started at 5:30. I had one nagging fear. No, it wasn't hooking the bait. It wasn't the scorching heat. It wasn't even the fact that pirates could raid us in the open sea at any moment.

It was the high probability of getting sea-sick.

I don't have any problems with being on boats. Living in KK means growing up by the sea and hopping on speed boats for weekends on nearby islands (I *heart* KK, as certain people would say). But i was forewarned of getting sea-sick once the boat stopped moving at high speed. All that tossing and tumbling would guarantee at least three shades of green. So i popped in a motion sickness pill and hoped for the best.

The boat ride from the Sutera Harbour Marina took around an hour plus. I watched as the islands and buildings around us got smaller and smaller, and soon disappeared completely. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the open sea. It was just blue as far as the eye can see! I was in awe of my surroundings and, lucky me, the sea was pretty calm that day. The boat finally came to a halt and i instantly panicked. The boat began bobbing up, down, left, right, round and round and round.... I kept my eye on the horizon (the only decent point of reference) to avoid getting sick. I decided to keep myself busy so i wouldn't think about getting sick. I asked one of the anglers (there were about nine of us on the boat, me being the alpha female, haha) to show me how to bait the hook. I kept myself occupied thereon and, lo and behold, I was doing fine.

Anyway, we started fishing at around 9:30am. There were loads of unfamiliar equipment and gadgets lying around the boat and i made myself a nuisance by asking what each of them were, heh. And then, just when everything was getting a bit too quiet, someone caught a fish! It was exciting, i have to admit, but not as exciting as when you catch your VERY OWN fish! Yessiree, I caught my first fish that fateful Saturday morning. First, a tug and then your rod starts to bend. The other guys were all excited for me and started throwing instructions, "Pull, slowly slowly! That's it... Ok, reel it in! Not so fast....There it is...slowly, slowly...That's beautiful!" Here's what i caught:



Ok maybe not. But it was a nice big one by my standards anyway. By noon, the sun was merciless and i kept slathering on sunblock (but, as i'll explain later, not enough apparently). I sat right at the edge of the boat, near the motor, where i could dip my feet in the sea. The men were impressed that I was still doing ok despite the bobbing and rocking. Hell yeah, once you catch a fish you forget about everything else! I was determined to catch more and that was all i could think of. Damn nice, man. There's a lot of waiting though. Sometimes you wait almost an hour before you even feel a nibble. No wonder it's the perfect setting for a male bonding session:

Junior: Dad, what's the meaning of life?
Senior: Well, son, when i was your age...
Junior: ....Wait, i got something!
Senior: Reel it in boy! That's it, that's it!
Junior: Wow, look what i caught!
Senior: *tears in his eyes* I'm so proud of you.
Junior: I love you too, dad.

You get the pic. Anyway, i caught a total of three fishes that day, the last fish being THE catch of the day. It was a huge (and i mean 2 kilos at least) red grouper. I actually lost it while i was reeling it in but one of the Master Anglers of the Highest Order (Mr Chong to you) took the baby fish i caught (it had teeth marks all the way down meaning, Big Fish was after Little Fish but Big Fish got away) and used it as bait for round two. Less than three minutes later, he reeled in the Big One that Almost Got Away and gave it to me, "Here you go, girl...This one actually yours." All hail the Angler King!

The sea was getting choppy by 4pm so we headed back to shore. The ride back was relaxing, the sun setting behind us and the occassional splash from the sea to cool us off. Back on land, we took the obligatory group photo. It was nice to be one of the guys for a day and they were a fun bunch. I smelled like fish from head to toe but it was well worth it. And I loved the look on my dad's face when i showed him my catch of the day. No points for guessing what we had for dinner :)

The aftermath? The worst sunburn ever. I'm gonna look 'well done' for the next week or so but if you asked me to do it again, I'd hop on the boat in a heartbeat.

"Rock the boat, (don't rock the boat baby)
don't tip the boat over..."
-It's on the radio. How appropriate.

Tuesday, May 03, 2005

You're kidding me...

First, there was Catherine Zeta-Jones and grandpappy Michael Douglas. And then there's Calista Flockhart and Harrison Ford. On the other side of the coin, Ashton fell for mummy-of-four, Demi. Here's the latest 'you're-kidding-me' couple:

.


Cruise Dating Katie Holmes (http://movies.msn.com/movies/hotgossipb)
April 27, 2005


Katie Holmes may have to kiss her mile-high stilettos goodbye. It looks like the former fiancée of Chris Klein has traded up -- way up -- the Hollywood food chain.
Both People and the Insider report the onetime "
Dawson's Creek" cutie, 26, is dating none other than Tom Cruise, 42.


(Hey, don't look at us, we're just as surprised as you are. And that sound you hear? It's a million voices all saying "whah?" at the same time.)

Cruise's rep confirmed the hook-up to People after paparazzi caught the new power couple holding hands in Rome Wednesday night.