RACONTEUR-ESQUE SCRIBBLINGS

. yThe curtain pullers of 2007 are standing by the sides, holding onto the ropes just waiting for the year to end so that they can move on with their lives after the curtain falls, while many of us are still wondering where did all the time go. Wasn't it just the other day when we ushered in 2007 amidst fireworks, auld lang syne and a crazy countdown? So, what did 2007 do for us? It was a strange year, as it moved at an abnormal pace. Way too fast to do anyone much good, way too fast to be remembered as one of those good years by people who look at each year as a passing phase. So fast that I can't even remember if a certain incident happened in this year or the year before! Things I learnt in 2007: 1. Adrenaline can be your best friend 2. Fingers are not heat proof 3. Coffee is addictive (after many years!) 4. Previous year's claims of insomnia were exaggerated. 2007 was the real deal 5. Vista can be a pain, but you get used to it. In fact you can get used to an...

Monday, the first day of training was pretty uneventful… here we found out what damage literal translation can do – make you laugh till you can’t laugh anymore! Anyway, after 5 pm, we found ourselves activity-less, so after dinner which we had at 6:30 pm, we decided to head out to the local area to check out their v ersion of Carrefour and visit the 100 yen shop. Tuesday night dinner – The training division decided to have a dinner together for all the trainers and trainees that night. We had a chance to dine the proper Japanese way on the low table. The food was amazing. We had steamboat, salmon, octopus (this is a must try!) and a var iety of mushrooms. The low table where we had our dinner After eating we were ‘forced’ to participate in some games like to use 3 matchsticks to make 4 triangles, or try to ‘push’ off a 1000 yen note of the table without actually touching it, and the local version of rock, paper, scissors. Next, each country had to go out and sing a song. Why???? The ...

Day 1 – touchdown and some adventures in Osaka We touched down at Kansai International at 7 am Japanese time on Sunday morning after having a ridiculous attempt at sleeping in the plane. “Would you like to have Malaysian fried rice with chicken satay or the omelette with potatoes for breakfast?” asks a very chirpy flight attendant at 4 am . Groggily I say I would prefer the fried rice. Anyway, who on earth (besides people who really have to) has breakfast at 4 am? We waited a bit for other trainees from other cou ntries, got to kno w each other and took a long ride in an airport limo bus to the train station nearest to where we were supposed to stay throughout our training… a boarding house also known as a dormitory. The rooms were really nic e and spacious, and at that moment the *sun was actually shining into the room and the effect was just lovely! The room without the sun... The floor is lined with Katami - (something like a mat that helps keep off the cold) While some of them s...

It’s been almost a week since I touched down in Malaysia after a about a week of living in and a 6 hour flight from Japan. What’s really funny was I thought I found back my muse in Japan, especially when we were on the limousine bus from the airport to the nearest train station. There was this really long bridge, and the view from the bus was simply magnificent… the streets unbelievably clean and sea birds perched at the sides of the bridge as though they were waiting for an unseen sign to fly away together. Alas, I lost it again on the flight back when I forced myself to watch 3 in-flight movies back to back (sle pt through ¾ of 1 of them, though… hehehe) Our cups of coffee The Training…. Anyway, the main reason I went there was to train about static electricity, which seems to be one of the major causes of workplace r elated accidents, and we were there to be trained on proper prevention methods. Despite the serious tone of the training, we had coffee breaks every ho ur or so. In t...

Yeah, that's right... I'm going to Japan! (for work purposes) I kinda found out about this a few months ago, but I never said anything because I was too afraid that it would be cancelled at the last minute or something equally as bad. Now that it's just 3 days away, I feel that it may be safe to say it out aloud. "I'm going to Japan" I can't described how thrilled I am, or how much of a nervous wreck I am, right now... I still haven't packed anything yet, and last I heard, is that the temperature has dropped really low in the recent days, which means I have to get a hat/cap to protect my head. Today's temperature is about 13 C (55 F) but it could go as low as 4 C (40 F) (I'm used to 27 C (80 F) and above... ) And this is also one of the reasons why I've sort of slacked in blogging - the other reasons being procrastination, and 'ahem' other interests... See you all when I get back!

Have I ever mentioned that I love thunderstorms? As I'm writing this out - on paper using a pencil while wondering why the temperature of this thing I'm looking at is higher than it's ever supposed to be, a thunderstorm is happening out there, the rain pouring down while I'm indoors, protected from the cold wind - a great arrangement if I may say so myself. Lightning is flashing across the sky and smoke stacks from the factory next door is creating patterns in the *clouds So, I've noticed lately that I've lost my ability to allow thoughts that form in my head to be directly transferred through electronic means via the keyboard. Instead, I find writing it down the old fashioned way seems to be much better, especially in a moving train as you see the scenery around you change as you move from station to station. Now, that is a pretty big problem for me, seeing that I only take the train once every 2 to 3 months or so... (sigh) and so all those thoughts remain,...

Do you think you're not fit enough? Well, there's a new blog in town, created by Aunty Helpful Dictator as a support network for those who need to up their fitness level. Basically it's about attempts to go and join the fitness bandwagon. She welcomes contributors, so if you're interested to put in your 3lbs of thoughts in it, just comment in her blog with your e-mail address.

Well, it's been a busy week and what seems to me like the longest week ever, what with working for 14 to 15 hours on Monday and Tuesday. I'm actually very very tired and this might also have been contributed by the severe lack of sleep and a brand new addiction throwing pillows at and casting spells on friends with this thing called Facebook (all this after the long hours in front of the computer and mentally exhausting discussions with fellow colleagues!) Anyway, I had a lot of stuff in my mind, you know, the kind of posts that you plan to post about (after all I'm 70% addicted to blogging as a test I took says), but never actually sat down and typed them out. Why does it always seem nicer in our minds as opposed to on the screen? About two weekends ago, I got to meet some really old childhood family friends. We had lost contact because we were too young back then to maintain contact, and they had also moved over to Belgium so meeting up after we got in touch again too...

They did... Back in 1969 So, our country's first astronaut (or spaceflight participant- ahem) - known locally as angkasawan finally went up to space in the swanky Soyuz TMA11 at 9:23 pm local time last Wednesday. In the midst of all the drama surrounding the excitement of sending off our first man to space almost 40 years after the first man landed on the moon, I had missed out on what he was actually supposed to do up there... was it to make ' pulled tea '? or make " roti canai " a type of bread which you have to toss into the air (so that it collects all the dirt from the atmosphere hence making it yummier) - as you can see, Malaysians are obsessed with food! Then there was talk about him playing batu seremban in zero gravity, and trying to spin the top.... It baffles me... the man is a doctor. Maybe he could make pulled tea... but tossing a roti canai, or spinning a top - you need some experience. But what's the point? It's not like we built our ow...

I just noticed this evening that you can be perfectly content for a maximum of three days without any worries... that is if you chuck all the worries at the back of your head, eat cornflakes sans milk at 10 pm (don't ask why), have a reunion with some really really old pals, sleep very very late at night after half scaring yourself to death with some scary stuff, and listening to your favourite songs (all in no particular order) And then reality sets in at an unexpected moment. You don't have a plan... where do you see yourself in a year? or two? No plan at all! Oh crap! I'm panicking!!!! Why now?

Quite some time back, out of curiosity, I submitted this blog to be reviewed by Bloggy Awards . Basically, what they do is they rate your blog based on several categories such as visual asthetics, user friendliness, reading enjoyment, useful info as well as an overall experience of your blog. It's quite interesting actually, to know how your blog is perceived by others. For instance now I know I need to spruce up the blog with a little bit more visuals. Add some colour, perhaps... Anyway, if you're interested, the review can be viewed here: http://www.bloggyaward.com/bloggyaward/the-secret-backup-blog/

It was as normal as any normal Sunday morning (circa 1 am) could be. Sleep deprived and yet unable to sleep, I was switching windows like a crazed maniac, playing Sudoku and crossword puzzles at the same time, stalking blogs and fooling around with a new project. An inactive friendster tab lay undisturbed until I thought that I might as well close it. The laptop touchpad being what it is and my clumsy fingers being what they are I ended up on my messages page. There was something new there, I read it with eyes wide open, started laughing madly at the laptop, got somewhat freaked out and closed up everything. Haunted cyberspace? Here's the e-mail, copied and pasted word for word. Only the e-mail address of the sender was deleted. Hello There, How are you my dear lady?. How's your life getting on? Hows your career, you're your job and everything at work? Is everybody treating you well? I really hope that your job gives you satisfaction and will open-up new avenues. How...

So, I've recently resorted to the company of a scrunched up packet of Fisherman's Friend - the amazing sore throat lozenges that seem to do their work just fine, although the sore throat (or what remains of it) has given me what friends from school use to call a 'sexy voice' hahaha... Anyway, last Wednesday, when I was reaching my house, I saw a big difference on the main road. They resurfaced the road with new tar (which I'm afraid will start displaying potholes within the month given the high volume traffic) and painted new lines. But it's not the evenings that bother me. On the Thursday morning as I was rushing out, I noticed that I could not get out into the main road because of the new lines they made the day before. The road had been made into a double lane that stretched out a few metres ahead of my exit and cars were moving in twos (and sometimes threes) without giving a tuppence about those of us waiting to get out. That is until a man in a Pajero ...

It may be a day late, but it's never too late to support a good cause

Growing up in the 80’s I was constantly exposed to music of that era, especially when I hung out at grandma’s. It was fun while it lasted, but then life dictated that school was a must, and well music took a backseat while I concentrated on adding and subtracting, synonyms, homonyms and antonyms, as well as trying to figure out which countries had earthquakes and why, or how photosynthesis occurred. It was when I was in my teens where I got reacquainted with music, but this time it was even better, because I had information about the titles as well as the artistes. Recently, a relatively new singer came up with a new song, which actually wasn’t entirely new. In fact, she sampled the intro from Africa by Toto, which coincidentally happens to be one of my favourite songs ever. Had she only covered the song, it wouldn’t have been half as bad, but she took the liberty to include her own mushy lyrics while poor old Toto sang in the background. Ugh! And she’s not the first, eith...

There's this piece of document we all lug around and hold on to for dear life. Although we can very well say that we are so and so (insert name here) but if the document doesn't say so, then we might as well dig a hole and bury ourselves in it. This so called document is none other than a normal sized card that fits snugly into some wallets which goes by the name MyKad. I was watching the local news last night (surprisingly there was no hailstorm that followed - not in this part of the world anyway) on channel no 7 which ceased making us feel good with their self righteous, moral police wannabe ways. They had a poll seeking the opinion of the general public about the new rate for replacing MyKad. I'm taking the liberty to make assumptions as I could not obtain the full story - I seriously lack the time to do proper research. All I know, is there might be an increase. And it makes you wonder if the people in charge of suggesting this idea actually think that people lose t...

Within reach was a site that offered movies, a sister who recommended a great movie, Vista behaving itself, and some spare time. Set in 1967, long before I saw daylight and based on a book written by Charles Webb, we see a clueless young man, Benjamin, who had just recently graduated from college, played perfectly by Dustin Hoffman. For the viewer, his friends only seem to be his parents friends, and he doesn't seem very excited to see them or have proper conversations with them at a party which was organised for him. He then gets cornered by a Mrs. Robinson played by Anne Bancroft, an stylish woman with class who seduces him. Or so he thinks. The dialogue is witty throughout the movie, but not in a trying too hard way. The actors are all really good, and they seem to just be the characters. One memorable scene is at the hotel, where he's actually planning to have an affair with Mrs Robinson... Hotel clerk: Are you here for an affair, sir? Benjamin:??? (Guilty look flash...

It was strange waking up today to the annoying alarm. I have been having a few dreams the last few days, and they all seem to be interconnected, like chapters in a book that you take your time to read. It's filled with characters from my real life that don't know each other, but the places we go to are sometimes familiar, and at other times seem to be a combination of several places. In this particular dream, I was with a colleague of mine, and apparently it was Thursday (in real life , I would be waking up to Wednesday) and it was also the day for sports... (We're supposed to pick our favourite sport, and after work at 5:30, we head out to the fields and play) and I was wondering how come I was not aware of this new fun idea. (Once again, in reality this is simply impossible!) Anyway, this colleague and I were in a stationary car, and I was looking at this tree which fell down across a hill which looked like the hill where our training centre was when I went down to...

Hehehe... this story was funny when it first happened, which was somewhere around last Thursday, technically the last day of the month (31st was a public holiday) and of course everyone was running around because it was the last day, etc There's a whole new meaning to the wild goose chase. Imagine a stationary item,... a whole bunch of people are on the lookout for the said item. Besides, it's like 200kgs which is more or less 440 pounds of liquid weight. It can't just vanish like that without a trace, but that's what seemed to have happened. We covered the 3 storeys in turns, pausing at every container looking for the elusive one. We searched the waste disposal area, if some smart aleck had decided to chuck it there. 6 people and no results. The sad part is that it takes about 3 days to make the item we were looking for. 3 long days and plenty of hassle. Nothing is easy.... yeah. In the end, the last person to handle the item was called. He was asked a few quest...

When you talk about insomnia, you think of haggard looking folks with their swollen eyes and tired faces trudging along to the routine of their daily lives except when it comes to the time to sleep. Try as they might, they just cannot fall asleep and build castles in the sky or run away from monsters of the world (which when you come to think of it, is not that bad at all) I used to face the problem at a certain time, when my mind will be racing through thoughts and memories, and music, and movies or ideas for stories deep in the night when everyone else was fast asleep. Since I never went to see any doctor about the issue, I was never really diagnosed with insomnia, and as my mind/body has it's own way to deal with the so-called problem with the ever famous 'pay back sleep' scheme, it has never been a major problem. But what's happening now, is I find myself self inducing insomnia, where I refuse to try and sleep regardless of how tired (and sleepy) I actually am. ...

OK. I'm officially annoyed with this thing called technology. And everything connected to it! It seems to have formed a club where the main aim is to gang up on me and cause me sleepless nights, small little heart attacks and have me singing the chorus of Blur's Tender to those so called tech equipment to get things going. Here's the story.... You could say that it all began somewhere in February when I saw that (insert laptop brand name) were having a promotion via (insert bank name) Very well knowing that I've been intending to get a laptop ever since Penti3's soundcard crashed I decided to get that laptop, because: i. The favou rite sibling has used hers of the same brand and says it's pretty good ii. Yours truly is too lazy does not have the time to get it from a shop iii. Talking to sales people in computer shops can be very confusing Now so far, the laptop itself has no major issues with the exception of the (drum rolls please) Operating system. ...

Via e-mail: You've might not known these philosophy, but a lot of non-living objects are actually either male or female. Here are some examples: FREEZER BAGS: They are male, because they hold everything in, but you can see right through them. PHOTOCOPIERS: These are female, because once turned off, it takes a while to warm them up again. They are an effective reproductive device if the right buttons are pushed, but can also wreak havoc if you push the wrong buttons. TIRE: Tire are male, because they go bald easily and are often over inflated. HOT AIR BALLOONS: Also a male object, because to get them to go anywhere, you have to light a fire under their arce SPONGES: These are female, because they are soft, squeezable and retain water. WEB PAGES: Female, because they're constantly being loo...

Err… the only thing missing was the sun, because it rained. It started out as a warm sunshiny day. A big group of people in teal coloured t-shirts were gathered at one of the pergolas waiting in excited anticipation for the event of the year (the proof lies in the fact that for the past two weeks at least, if you met someone else and intended to have some small t alk, the obvious fodder for conversation would include: A) who you are bringing along for the event; B) wh at do you plan to wear (obviously the teal coloured t-shirt is compulsory, but what goes with it is entirely up to you which gave some people the notion that maybe you didn’t have to wear anything with it!) C) M emories from two years ago) After a rather hurried officiating, a commonplace breakfast and a hilarious conversation with a child, we were gathered again to watch some games that were organized including a p articularly funny one that went by the name lay an egg. It seemed as though everything was rushed throu...

JULY 21st marked the long awaited world wide release of the seventh Harry Potter book, which is also the final in the series. There's a whole big fat marketing strategy involved, where major bookstores held pre-order sales for fans to book their copies months ahead to avoid disappointment of sold out books on launching day. To make things more interesting, they promised a small discount plus threw in a freebie and a possible invite to a mad pre-launch party. Of course, initially when the first book (HP and the Philosopher's Stone) was released, there was not much ado. Many years later, books 1 to 3 were shoved right under my nose, and hence began my interest in the books, where I was fervently looking for a copy of GOF to read (I was still a student back then and buying the book was quite out of the question) I got it in electronic format though and spent a few days straining my eyes over the computer screen, but it was all well worth it. It was however, the launch of OOTP...

Though ideas aplenty My head is kinda empty Like a dwindling pantry I could just be lazy While everything is hazy Or maybe claim to be crazy!

A sudden decision saw me heading down to our southern neighbour on Sunday. The journey was a long drive reminiscent of certain Sunday afternoons of the not so distant past. The main reason behind the unexpected journey (I say unexpected because I was only informed about it officially on Tuesday) is obviously a tad too boring for a blog post. Suffice to say that it involved hours spent in the lab mulling over non complex formulations and the testing of said formulations. But the interesting part I should say, is the food... The organisers of the training took care of us pretty well in terms of nourishment. For four days, lunch and dinner times saw us at restaurants serving cuisines from different parts of China. Shanghainese and Szechuan among others. And 'The Boss' (as how he was referred to -kind of makes you end up thinking of mafia like scenarios!) took the task of explaining about each dish as it was served. For instance Szechuan cuisine has an extremely hot and spicy...

Time for some fun stuff.... Gem, from Gem-osophy whose blog is one of my favourite haunts, received this amazing pink button from another blogger. Now, for those of you who haven't had the opportunity to check out her blog, please do so. She's has the amazing ability to put a smile on your face (or spill your coffee on the keyboard in laughter) via her posts. In the true spirit of blogging, all good things must be passed around, and Gem had kindly mentioned my blog among those that rock... :) Here's what she said: Terra Shield of Terra's Secret Backup Blog , who has shown us so many facets of herself over the past year--Terra the A-List Reader, the Intellectual, the Working Girl, the Writer, the Fragile Twenty-Something with a heart so big and wide open that we can feel it breaking along with her at times. Sweet, yeah? So here are the five chicks I'm passing along this awesomely hot pink button to in no particular order. Hope it matches your blogs :D 1. A...

Well, sort of, I guess… On the 3 rd floor of the *longest shopping mall, a myriad of stalls stood side by side piled on with items that ranged from clothes to food to wall hangings. Throngs of people walked through the narrow aisles, eyes feasting upon the colours that greeted them in a wave of friendliness. The stall owners stood or sat at their stalls, waiting for the folks to drop by. That was the Global Indian Shopping Festival which was held for the past two weeks. After missing out on the festival in 2006 for reasons that were soon forgotten, we made it a point to go this year. The idea of being able to find stuff that you don’t usually get in the Malaysian shops sounded enticing enough to brave the crowds that were sure to be there as it was the weekend as well as the second last day of the festival. It was pretty interesting as far as interesting things go. There were lots of clothes although the particular type of clothing I had in mind was nowhere to be seen. However, ...

Disclaimer: I quit studying art by the time I was 16 mostly due to the fact that I disliked the C's that stared at my face each time I got back my report card from my form teacher. A long time ago, just before my mini break, The Frolicsome Kid tagged me with this meme. Here's what you're supposed to do if you choose to do this tag. Go to JacksonPolloc.org and use your mouse to create a design (usually beyond your control) When you're happy with what you've got. Print screen and edit it using any art programs. Which in my case, I just used Paint. Kinda looks like a rabbit doesn't it? I'm not tagging anyone for this meme, but feel free to let your artistic tendecies flow if you wish :)

This post goes out to the mad man on the motorbike. Right. So there I was on my way back yesterday. The road was sort of not crowded along the stretch I was on (thank goodness for school holidays!) and I was sitting back and enjoying the colourful hues of the sky against the almost setting sun while driving. My reverie was interrupted by a motorbike that chose to move around in what most people would call a dangerous manner... weaving in and out in front of the few cars around me. The rider moved precariously close and kept at an annoying pace in front of my car right in the middle of the road. Next thing i know, he moves his skinny backside to one side, digs into a bag/pocket or something like that, turns behind and throws something. I imagined a hand grenade flying through the air and blasting off there and then. I don't want to die now. Not this way, anyway... Well, before I get blamed for having a ridiculously wild imagination, I must explain that this person was wearin...

After a few days of non-blogging, I have decided to come back.... not that the clutter in my head has reduced or anything like that, but I kinda feel way better than I was a few weeks ago! Allright, I have another post to put up, and will be visiting my favourite hangouts soon!

I've noticed that I have been having an immense difficulty in gathering my thoughts and am therefore unable to blog at a frequency that pleases me. So for that reason as well as being extremely busy with the thing I do daily to at least help pay the internet bill, I have come to the decision to take a small break for an unknown period. On that note, to all the tags and memes I haven't yet been able to do, (tags by Lizza and the frolicsome kid as well as the queen) no worries... I shall return to them when I've settled all those unfinished business. See ya'll soon :)

Barbarians rule the house, Potty mouthed and vile, Play games like cat and mouse We're sure they taste like bile. Disrespect and chauvinism, Part of the package they say, Living in a chasm, Disgusting in a way.

Wasn't that a mouthful? What I'm trying to subtly say is that I have finished reading Crime and Punishment by Fyodor D. Finally. (see, I can't even type out the authors surname without looking it up... the book is far away at the moment!) It took me slightly more than 3 months to finish it, and if it weren't for the conditions I set in early March, the book may have been chucked into the cupboard and be best friends with the silverfish (the insect) that lurk there (whenever allowed to), abandoned and yellowing and hating me for the desertion. If any book could be called complex, this has to be it. The main character is a multi faceted and extremely complex guy that it makes it difficult for easy reading. (Of course it was probably never intended to be easy reading in the first place, but as I now do most of my reading before going to sleep, maybe this book was a bad idea! - It's like taking an encyclopaedia on airplanes (when you're not an airplane afficion...

Thick or thin, with shoes Chaffing occurs in stages I run away from all

This happened some time back... when I was at home, forcing myself to read a book which I started in December but find it almost impossible to complete... I blame it on all the other distractions! Anyway, my dad was watching football (or soccer depending on which part of the world you're from) on the telly and was rooting for Liverpool, whereas I was not really rooting for any team in particular. Well, except for the team that was playing against Liverpool.... Me: (in a quiet whisper) Man U! Man U! Dad: I thought you quit supporting them after Cantona left. Me: Yeah Dad: Then read your book... Liverpool has to win tonight (day). Anyway, why are you suddenly watching football? Me: I just saw a cute guy Dad: I think I know who you're talking about Me: Really? "It's that one right?" dad asked pointing to a guy in white. "He's Neville." Dad said rather nonchalantly. There are 22 people on the field excluding the referees. 11 of them play fo...

I'm not being lazy... The last thing I need is an unauthorized copying lawsuit. I could use my hard earned money for so many other better things. http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=254012

Where is the fine line between being a fan and being an addict? I always thought that I was just a fan, be it in the simplest form of 3 in 1 with some hot water, or at the mamak, or even the version with all the fancy names... think frapuccino! Yesterday, I realised (rather horrifiedly!) that I've passed the stage of just being a fan and had graduated to the status of an addict. As to when on earth did this strange occurence take place, I have no idea. Now, it's been a habit of late (on working days, that is) where I have a cup in the mornings or during lunch break, where I rummage my bag for that red tube of deliciousness that exudes an aroma that fills the air with delight, but to my dismay, I found none! I rummaged again, but all I found were rectangular packets of cereal... no way, this can't have happened. I'm sure I replenished my supply just last week. Distressed, I opened my desk drawer, hoping against all odds that a stray red tube might be lurking unde...