Dramatic December

December has been an exhilarating month! It all started out with my Corporate Financial Management examination, of which I made a super boo-boo (unknowingly) - used the wrong buy/sell rate for calculation of mutual funds. Otherwise, I think I was way more easygoing this time around. Perhaps I'm just getting tired of exams!

And then it was full on to the planning of the CL's wedding reception decoration. We wanted to get the girl at the Section 9 shop to do some flower arrangements but when we went there on Sunday, the shop was closed and had a different name! So we started panicking and asked around if anyone who knew where the old shop had shifted to. However thank God a few days later we decided to try out the new shop, and voila, the girl was still there! She'd only changed the shop name, but everything was still the same.

And then came the rehearsal day. Nobody told me I was to be my aunty's chauffeur and so when I was awaken by a phone call, I jumped up, got dressed in record time and drove so fast. We went to SS2 for some last-minute purchases and 'char siew pau's for the tea ceremony. When we got back, it was already time to pick CL's best man from One World Hotel. I waited for my aunty while she went into the hotel to look for the best man. Unknowingly he was the one who was peering peculiarly into my car - and I thought he was just a KPC guy! hahaha (Note to self: shall not judge a book by its cover in future!)

Drove so fast on Sprint that I 'nearly' crashed into a line of cars stuck in a massive jam near Pusat Damansara. However thankfully we were able to reach church on the dot! The rest of the entourage was still missing btw! And I got yelled at by LK because he had lost his way somewhere in Damansara Heights. But ultimately, all arrived about an hour later and rehearsal commenced. I never knew that there were so many protocols to follow in a church wedding - from how you link arms and where to stand, to where the parents should sit in the front pews and when the couple should stand/kneel!

After the rehearsal, there was only enough time to send my aunty and the best man back and then fetch my friend (CY) to church to decorate the CRC for the wedding reception. Our problem was how to hang up the flower arrangement onto the brick arch at the CRC? In the end, dad suggested we hang the flower arrangement using the 'metal frame' of the ceiling and it worked!

Main piece of our decorations

The wedding was a nice one. We had great weather, thank God! I missed half of the church ceremony, manning the registration table outside, but I managed to witness the signing. After the reception, we hurried back to my aunty's house for the tea ceremony. And later on, I managed to catch some winks in the guest room before going for the Chinese dinner at Overseas Restaurant, Jaya One. Funny - CL managed to go for a jog/run before he dressed for dinner! So calm! haha

'Hollywood-like' IPOH sign

Good thing we managed to go for the Ipoh ceremony and dinner. This time I could sit back and witness everything! Although we reached the church a little late because we'd got lost in Ipoh... Anyway, I'm not going to elaborate here because the only person who'd be interested in reading it would be me! So on to the next event.

First time ever going to Lookout Point - it's somewhere near Hulu Langat! Journey was... interesting... we got lost and entered some sort of village road leading up to a dark deserted 'taman pertanian'. We, three girls, had to stop for directions three times but in the end managed to reach the hill. It was foggy when we were driving up the hill and parking was crazy up there! Food in Haven was ok, much better than I expected.

I had this - Chicken Chop

My friend had this - Lobster (was around RM80 - price ok right?)

The view - my hands were shaky and was using my Nikon point and shoot

And then it was Christmas! This year we went to DUMC for Christmas day service. I didn't realise that our church staged a Christmas musical on the eve, when I was falling asleep at our family reunion dinner. If I knew, I'd have gone for it - I was so near (location-wise), yet so far!

Christmas with the Wongs (gift exchange)

Christmas with the Leongs (Empire Hotel)

Christmas was nice. A lot of family moments - which is a rare thing, these days. Praise the Lord for Christmas!

However a few days later, my second encounter with flying objects occurred. My last post was about the incident with my windshield and a stone. Within that short span of time, I had another mishap. This time, I was waiting (stationary) at a traffic light near SS2, the 2 lane road next to an elevated portion of the LDP. I wasn't moving... yet some chunk of flying concrete found my car and collided with my driver's side door handle, scratching part of my rear side-window and paintwork on my door. The collision caused a loud whack sound, and I was worried that someone on the next lane had hit my car door (but my car didn't shake, so that wasn't it). At first I thought it was a stone flung by one of the passing cars on the next lane. But later, when I thought about it and saw that what hit me was like wet cement/concrete, I figured it could've been a cement mixer or truck traveling fast on the elevated LDP highway above us. I couldn't believe it that I'd had 2 close encounters with flying hard objects in a span of just 1 month! My car must've been some magnet towards flying objects! :(

Part of the damage. This was after I had scooped off a goop of wet cement/concrete

So ends my December and also 2010! Many sweet memories and 2 whopping flying objects!

End post. *Phew!*

2010 No Accident Record Shattered

Woke up late
Batu Tiga road jammed
Decided to turn off into Federal Highway (toll rate = RM1.10)
Federal Highway jammed, extended till the portion of road near the clock tower
Decided to turn off into Subang Airport road
Took NKVE
All Clear
Took turn off route to Damansara toll exit
POP!
*Covers ears, squeeze eyes shut as auto reflex*
*Realises I can still steer the car - so it wasn't the tyres*
*Notices a 5 inch radial crack on windshield*
"Shit!"
Continued driving
Stopped at the rest stop near the Damansara toll gates
Inspected damage
"Shit!"
Called parents
Paid toll (RM1.00)
Continued on to office
.
.
.
Mechanic said the whole windshield would have to be replaced. He said we can claim the cost from our car insurer, as we did buy the rider which covers for windshield damages on top of the comprehensive insurance plan. He also said he could repair the more than 2 years old bumper damage from my first ever accident in 2008.

The damage

Apparently, the Myvi windshield has 2 layers of glass therefore the crack only penetrated the outer layer, and not all the way into the inner surface of the windshield. Nevertheless, with the crack, it would be easier for someone to poke a hole in my windshield if he wanted to.

I really thank God that the POP! wasn't my tyre exploding and that the crack was just at the corner and not my whole windshield. If it was either, I don't know whether I'd be here typing this now. I guess it was just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

A friend said I could make a report at the PLUS Highway office and make a claim from them - since the accident was caused by a flying stone from a grass-cutter along their highway. But I didn't take a receipt at the time, so it would be futile trying to prove to them that I was there at that time.

I can't believe that shortly after the incident happened, I started thinking about the mechanics of the accident. I was imagining how much kinetic energy the rock must've had in order to break the covalent bonds between the silica molecules in the glass. And perhaps the atoms/electrons would be spinning around frantically after the impact, maybe with some heat energy produced.

When I heard that the glass repairer could repair some cases of cracks, I started wondering how they would go about doing that. They would probably have to heat up the glass so that the displaced SiO2 molecules could realign themselves to a lattice arrangement and also the heat would provide the energy required for new covalent bonds formation. Anyway, I won't be able to see the outcome of a repaired glass windshield as mine is beyond repair and will be replaced with a new one.

So at the end of the day, I paid for an extra toll and ended up with a cracked windshield. Was it worth it?

Job Ad

I guess a job is still a job, irrespective of what it is - whether it is a GM or a GRO. I saw this job ad from a reputable job site daily digest in my email today:

High Pay Models : Beach Bash (RM1000 Per Day)
-We need you to be able to talk and look posh.
-We need you to be able to drink with vvip.
-We need you to be a open minded person hanky panky is POSSIBLE. (+pay)
-We need you to be a active person can run,swim,dance.
-On the job day (2days) transportation and accommodation is provided
-If you are shy,under age please dont apply


If you are interested please send your full-size most recent beach-dresses photos.Application without photos will not be entertain.

Imagination Plays in Dream

Yesterday on the way home, the car in front had a portion of a human arm sticking up from the sillhouette of the back seat. At first I thought it was a passenger holding up his hand to text on a phone or whatever. But the hand did not seem to move and looked pretty rigid and finally I saw that there was nothing in the grasp of the hand! That was when I started imagining there was probably a dead body in his rear seats - with rigor mortis, hence the uplifted arm! But let me be clear here that I do not have any proof of what I saw was what I thought it was - it could've very well been a mannequin's arm sticking up.

Anyway, the point of my post is that when I retired to sleep that night, I had a queer dream. We (a bunch of people whom I knew in the dream but none I could identify from among my real-life acquaintances) were at a private party in an old colonial building, wearing clothes from the 1920s. There was the usual pairing off and flirting of some of the guests. And at one point we had to buy some meat.

So, poof, suddenly I found myself in a butcher's shop (not like the Dettol-cleaned supermarket ones). There were packages of sausage and Chinese sausage on the wall racks and chillers with partially frozen packaged meats. I was in there with another girl, who was doing all the talking. She wanted to get some chicken thighs. I was just looking around when I started noticing certain peculiar looking meat cuts on display. And as I was passing one of the chillers, I saw this huge vacuum-packed thing - about 6 feet long - lying on the floor. At first I wasn't able to tell what dead animal it was but suddenly I realised it was a dead man inside the vacuum package. Nearby the plastic-wrapped body, there were human body parts partially butchered to be packaged and sold!

I remember trying to make excuses to my friend (the other girl) so that we could leave the shop immediately but she insisted on staying and getting what she needed. So I told her I'd wait for her outside and walked off trying to look as cool as if nothing had happened (but inside I was freaking out!).

I can't remember much of the rest of the dream after that. Talk about weird morbid dreams!?!

Bogus Traffic Report

After 5 detours and more than 2 hours on the road, I'm finally home! Let me just detail my time- and petrol-wasting adventure of the day.

Knowing that the rain would cause the 'highway-turned-massive-carpark' traffic phenomenon, well-talked of by Malaysian motorists, I decided to stay back in office and check the LLM Website for traffic updates. NKVE and LDP were reported to have high traffic. I could see the LDP photos to confirm the report, however the NKVE cameras were out, so I was solely relying on their text reports.

At around 7pm, after monitoring the traffic reports for at least 30 minutes, the NKVE reports changed to 'GENERALLY ALL TRAFFIC CLEAR'. So I quickly packed up and left my office, headed to NKVE and got stuck in a bad jam right after taking the toll ticket! After about 5 minutes of practically not moving, I decided to inch my way to the far right and go for the Kota Damansara exit (instead of my targeted Subang Exit). I was heading back towards my office area. So thanks to the NKVE traffic report, I had to pay RM1 (and petrol) to get into a massive jam and end up further from home.

To cut the long story short I then took the LDP, which was pretty clear, then had to make another detour before the 'new' ramp connecting the Subang airport road to USJ because the jam was spilling out everywhere. I took the U-turn back to Glenmarie, Shah Alam (avoiding the notorious Federal Highway) and got caught in another traffic jam around Section U1 or U2, made another 3 detours to finally get on to the road back home.

After 5 detours and more than 2 hours on the road, I feel like I'd just came back from an outstation trip! But it was just from office to home.... but the key word here is HOME. I'm home! Phew!

Shut That Gab!

Sometimes when I read our local news, I just wan't to lash out in public with unsavoury derogatory words, but I ALWAYS check myself and stop myself from doing so. If I can do it, then why the heck can't 'some people' do it too? Why the hell are all these politicians trying to stir shit? Making patronising, judgemental, racist statements! The reason of all our problems is SO clear but they just talk about it, saying that yes, we should do something about it and pretend to formulate campaigns. But is there any change in mentality? NO. Is anyone giving up their special rights for the better good of everyone else? NO. Do you really want US to be a part of YOUR TEAM? To the press, it is a 'yes', but deep down - NO.

So here lies our problem - this sham of a charade. What kind of leaders do we have - who do/say things just for short-term benefit, but which would have long-term damage. Aren't 'leaders' supposed to be visionaries? I guess that doesn't apply in this part of the world.

Crap Threshold

I used to think that my ability to accept nonsense behaviour, a.k.a crap, from people was pretty high. I would get annoyed but would keep it to myself and not disclose it to anyone else. However, when I have to face the same crap day after day, I've found that my crap threshold (for repeated crap) is actually very low. And I instantly feel like complaining to someone.

I just don't get it why it's so hard to make a simple unimportant decision - like where to eat? It's not a life or death decision. Go figure. I hope I myself won't turn into one of these in the future.

Funneh! Foolish Comments Wall War

This morning I read an MSN news article about TV3 pulling out their Raya 2010 advertisement because of an outcry from the public. I searched for the video and finally found it on YouTube. You can view it here and read all the nasty comments below the video.

Admittedly, the advert doesn't seem to emanate the Ramadan feel that good Raya ads are supposed to do. It was like a case of confused/mixed up cultural identity with a silly storyline. Perhaps the creator(s) were aiming to portray an assimilation of our many cultures into one advert and I don't blame them for trying, after so much press on the 1Malaysia concept and the idea of bringing Malaysians together again. However it was foolish of them not to realise that there would be a backlash from the viewing public. Never meddle too much with race and religion issues - most people are just not matured enough to accept differing opinions about their personal beliefs, and this is when things start getting nasty and personal attacks abound.

Reading the comments below the YouTube video, I was at first amused at how these people were in a war of words with each other and everyone else. I didn't manage to read all 800+ comments but the later ones were mostly personal attacks and not related to the video at all. There were many other comments which showed that there is still a bunch of racists and religion-supremacists in Malaysia. Sad case, but I guess these kinds of people will never become an extinct species. (I would trade one of these humans for the restoration of life of an extinct dodo bird in a heart beat! God forgive me for thinking such thoughts)

I really don't get it why people can't embrace the differences in our cultures. It is this which makes Malaysia unique and interesting - a home to many cultures. I mean, we're actually using that fact to 'market' our country as an ideal tourist destination to the world! So why don't we practice what we preach?

Every culture is important and should not be sidelined just because it belongs to a minority group. And when it comes to religion, I understand that everyone thinks their respective religious beliefs is the best and that it would be a better world if only everyone else would just embrace that religion (this is admirable as their zealousness probably shows the level of faith they have). However, if you really intend to propagate your religious beliefs, wouldn't it be better to win their hearts first, and then win their minds. Let others witness with their own eyes how your beliefs has made you a better person. Let every aspect of your life - your thoughts, your words, your actions - be a testimony of how great your god is. After all, what good is a religion if it doesn't change your heart, and subsequently your life?

I am in no way implying that I am what I've just described above, but I meant it more as an advice to those people who think they have a right to publicly condemn other races and religions and say things like "my religion is the ultimate truth and those who are not of the same faith will never be able to fathom this truth until they die and meet the creator". Honestly, if I was still seeking a faith to believe in, words like those would put me off in an instance. I would not want to believe in a god whose followers speak with arrogance and show no mercy. Although technically, it is not right to blame god for the follies of man, but whether we like it or not, each of us are ambassadors of the god we believe in. The moment we identify ourselves with our faith, our every actions are being meticulously assessed, constantly (be it consciously or unconsciously), by unbelievers (those of other faiths or atheists). Therefore a seemingly harmless move (to you) could stumble someone's walk in faith.

If only people could get it into their thick skulls that the way to win a person over is through their hearts and not by a battle of intellect or forcing them into believing something they have not 'experienced' themselves, then we would have so much more peace in the world! 

Reading the Word

I don't know if it is coincidence or not, but I find that sometimes when I read the Bible for different reasons (such as for WBS lesson, during service/celebration or when using Bible reading guide), the topics seem to overlap (unplanned). For example, when I've had a bad experience with someone, verses of forgiveness seem to jump out at me from the Bible study materials or the reference verses quoted, and all these are from totally unrelated sources! Is this how God is speaking to me?

Moving to another topic, yesterday I found an interesting part of the Bible - a talking donkey! In Numbers 22:28-30, Yahweh enabled Balaam's donkey to speak. God was angry when Balaam followed Balak's princes back and He put an angel with a drawn sword to block Balaam's path. The donkey was able to see the angel, but not Balaam. So she (donkey) turned away from the path and Balaam beat her. The second time she saw the angel in a narrow path, she pressed close to the wall, crushing Balaam's foot, and he beat her again. The third time the angel appeared, she could not turn anywhere so she lay down under Balaam, and he beat her the third time. Then God gave her speech and she chastised her owner for beating her three times. After that, God opened Balaam's eyes and he saw the angel standing in the road with his sword drawn. Balaam bowed and fell face forward.

Now, on to another topic altogether, I remember one of the prayer items at the Saturday celebration 2 weeks ago (2/10) was to pray for the wellbeing and rescue of the 33 Chilean miners who had been trapped more than 600m underground for 8 weeks (then). The church prayed corporately during the Saturday evening and Sunday morning celebrations. Last Wednesday (6/10), I read on BBC.co.uk that there was a breakthrough in the miners' rescue and the rescue could start by the weekend! Well, the miners rescue did not actually start on the recent weekend but now, I'm watching live on CNN the second miner being winched up in a capsule! I just saw the rescue of the first miner a few minutes ago! Praise the Lord! =)

Why 'W' is called 'Double U'

I was caught in the web of words that Dictionary.com has strung up for us, i.e. clicking from link to link, and I discovered this little piece of info (which is new to me, but maybe not for you).

 W 

In Old English, 'wynn' (ƿ) was a character that represented the sound 'w', that we know today as double-u. This was because 'wynn' was replaced by 'uu' which eventually developed into the modern letter 'w'. You can read more here.