new obsessions

Spent the afternoon with the boys at one of my favourite haunts. Been awhile, so it was extra fun. Also had the opportunity to feed my new obsession... hmmm all things hijabista ie shawls, scarfs, inners etc. you name it, I'm obsessed with it. I literally have tonnes at home and they never seem enough! *sighs* Anyway, have been on somewhat of a 'quest' for the perfect inner neck. Have bought expensive ones, mid-priced ones, cheap ones but to no avail :( Seems that this has occupied my thoughts constantly and have not been able to go online without asking makcik Google at least once - "inner neck cotton". Anyway today, I think I finally found it! It's a bit pricey at RM35 but I think will be very well worth it, the cotton is soft without being too 'lembik' thus causing the top bit to stretch and sag, and firm enough to stay in place without riding up. And of course, found it at the place I bought my first inner neck, ie Jedan at BSV II. Yup, should have just stuck o the same place instead of 'experimenting' at al those places. Sorry, even the famed Al-Humaira let me down :( So I'm a happy owner of 5 new multi colour inner neck, happy enough to face Monday!

what to blog?

Am waiting for the weekend to officially start in 10 mins time, so to kill time thought i'd update this almost-dead blog of mine.

Uneventful day, woke up with a 'neck-ache' and the flu and it hasn't improved, despite the not-too-tender ministrations of my colleague using her ELBOW. Yeah, i'm into pain in a big way ha ha... still, no luck. one colleague helpfully suggested "Salon Pas", maybe i'll get it later.

Weekend plans? Need to spruce up the crib, coz thinking of having (yet another) BBQ party next week. Need to get rugs and stuff, including a bookcase. Will try to convince the hubby to join the throngs of folks at Ikea tomorrow morning and this time maybe we can skip some bits and go through the bits we missed 2 weeks ago.

Maybe apart from rugs, like a lampshade or something. Oh yeah, and something that hubby can hang his day-old jeans. Ha ha...

6 minutes to go...

what do you want to be when you grow up?

when i was young-er, i wanted to be doing so many things, but not once did i think i would do what i'm doing now.

adult : "N bila besar nak jadi apa?"

me : "N rasa N nak jadi pilot la"

adult : "kenapa N nak jadi pilot? ?"

me: "best apa jadi pilot, boleh naik plane gi mana-mana N suka."

adult: "stewardess pun naik plane apa, kenapa tak nak jadi stewardess?"

me: "mummy kata stewardess tu macam 'waitress' jer, kena hidang air la, makanan la. tak best. jadi pilot relax jer macam boss, duduk jer kat dalam bilik kecik kat depan tu".

adult: "nanti kalau kapal terbang kena hijack, pilot mati dulu tau" (so ok, this was in the 1970s...ha ha)

me: "apa pulak pilot mati dulu?"

adult: "sebab pilot kan boss dalam plane tu....boss la kena mati dulu" (what words of wisdom!)

so there goes one childhood dream.

me: "kalau camtu N tak nak jadi pilot la, N nak jadi orang yang buat plane."

I found out that that would be a "aeronautical engineer", but i dumped that ambition soon enough mainly because:

1. It was too hard to spell in essays and difficult to pronounce when one is asked.
2. It wasn't as glamourous as a pilot.
3. I suck in chemistry (so ok, i wanted to be that till about Form 4. ha ha...)

so for a while i didn't really have an ambition and my lack of ambition was worrying my mum. especially when after form 5, i didn't know what i wanted to do. i tried going back to school for my form 6 and stayed till the work got harder (after being voted "Freshie Queen" of course! ha ha). i also enrolled in a local uni to do an external course but left after 3 months. yeah, this was despite my dad giving me free access to his car to go to classes! and yeah i left when it got boring.

spoilt brat that i am, in the end, my mum gave up and 'gave' me a year's holiday! yay!

then my mum took me to see her friend, who is a successful businessman.

he asked, "how do you see yourself living when you're older? where do you want to stay, what do you want to drive, how do you want to live?"

me: "actually, it would be nice to wear shorts and a floral shirt, sipping a cool drink by the beach all day."

i guess my mum's friend sensed that this is not going where my mum wanted it to. "well, so what do you need to do so that you could live like that?".

me: "I could be like a tour guide or something, or own a few chalets."

yes, that sounds like an ambition!

me: "But that could be my last job, like after I've done all the real adult work stuff"

now we're getting somewhere!

me: (and I was on a roll...) "I could still drive my VW, although it would be in a better condition la, since I'll be working, I can get it done up. Then I'd live in one of those hillside townhouses at Bangsar?"

I guess mum's friend must have been relieved hearing that, "So what do you need to do to live that life?"

me: (hey, I've been tricked!) "Study?"

mum's friend: "Yes, but what would it be?"

of course the rest of it is history really, my mum thought it was a good idea to do a 1-year pre-uni course since i already took a year off, which i did. and when it was time to decide what course i should take at uni, it was really, like my mum said "something which will give you the flexibility to do what you want after you graduate".

so I guess, that's how I came to do what I'm doing now. Although now I feel like I'm ready for my next phase -

"to wear shorts and a floral shirt, sipping a cool drink by the beach all day."

lazy tuesday, NOT!

Have decided to go for the 7.30am to 430pm shift during Ramadhan, so was up bright and early this morning. Arrived at the office 5 minutes early and immediately started to upload stuff i was working on during the weekend. yeah, it was THAT kinda weekend. It's been like that a lot lately :-(

Anyway, sent the whole lot off (since i forgot to bring home my usb cable) via email to various parties, prepared updates on a few things, approved some, forwarded others etc.

It's only 11.45am and i'm bushed. And sleepy...

Az started his sugarcane juice and soyabean drink business yesterday. He's actually helping his sister and bro-in-law, who owns a sugarcane farm. Az is not what you would call a social creature. He hardly talks, and would not normally be the first person to strike up a conversation. So am wondering how he'd do as a salesperson.

Had a conversation last night about how his first day went. We were talking about these 2 nasi ayam sellers who would compete on being the "loudest". One would go;

"Nasi ayam Kak Lina, ingat sampai bila-bila, sampai ke Filipina." Don't ask, these things never make sense do they? Ha ha poetic licence perhaps?

His competitor would shout;

"Mari, mari nasi ayam hainan, nombor 1 di Seremban"

That was when Az said, "Well, I did that too".

"Huh? You gotta be kidding" says I.

"No lah, kalau nak buat business kenalah" he retorted.

Still skeptical, I asked "Awak cakap apa?"

"Saya jeritlah - Air tebu, air tebu...3 ringgit, 3 ringgit! or Air Soya, 1 ringgit!"

Well, this I really gotta see ;-)

harassed

have had a busy week with so many issues coming up to boil. started monday morning at my former alma mater presenting a paper. ended up having to stay for the whole day since there was no one from office around to answer questions or to respond to issues. big boss was supposed to officiate but 'main man' had an event in sarawak and he ended having to go there. so of coz when big boss is not around, no one wants to show face! hmm...except me, i am such a loser. ha ha....

anyway, it was pretty interesting. it's been awhile since i got into anything 'academic' and mingle with professors, phd-holders etc. they're such experts in their fields but know little about anything else. and they're very theoretical. but it did spark my interest to do my phd. well, i've had that interest for quite a while already, especially since for so many years i've had phd students from all and sundry interviewing me and picking my brains. well, wonder how much is left? :p

also met up with a prof from a singapore uni who is a very prolific writer in the communications and new media field. have read his books and so was quite excited to finally meet him. egads! i'm such a groupie.

i also met a former lecturer who's now branched out into ICT field. to think that he used to teach me 'air law' (about hijacking and stuff, quite interesting actually). quite a change.

there was also a visiting professor from taiwan. she probably thought i was pretty strange for staring at her and trying to make out the brand of her fabulous watch - RADO! *sigh*

tuesday (OMG that's only yesterday!) was like a monday, with correspondences waiting and papers to vet. also had another meeting with academics (this time for a different reason) in the afternoon. we're planning to give out grants for research, so been discussing quite a fair bit with them on the proposed fields of research, drafting call for papers, guidelines etc.

wanted to update yesterday, and was blog-hopping till i came across a blog which carried a news item which was of great concern to us. yeah, surfing can be bad for your stress levels. so had to stay up pretty late preparing a note for the main man about it.

today, more memos, complaints, research, preparing slides for next week's seminar etc. etc.

it's just past 5.30pm now and i so deserve to go home early!

hang on...something's just came in the mailbox.........

back to the office......

conference ended today so tomorrow, will be back in the office. it seems that i never left, thanks to the blackberry. yup don't leave the office without it. works goes with you wherever you are and at any time.

the big boss is a big fan of this gadget, simply because it lets him work anywhere and at any time. i'd get emails late at night during weekends from him complaining about the awful subtitles on his favourite bollywood films. or he'll email me whatever 'brilliant' ideas or insights he might have that he's dying to share, which actually means more work for me :-(

but i really can't complain. i now get to play 'Tetris' on the go! and update my FB, not to mention YM and gtalk.

plus my stakeholders are probably blogging somewhere in cyberspace complaining about me sending emails at odd hours complaining about what i've just seen on telly or heard on radio. ha ha.....no lah, i'm not that bad.

we just got our new phones the other day - an LG KU990, Nokia N95 and Nokia N77. still waiting for the sim cards though, so we're now just literally looking (and salivating) at it. we're supposed to play with it, download stuff and write a report. but if anything goes wrong, the buck stops here. we're supposed to have all the answers. well, yeah.

cat

we've just adopted a grey cat, a female cat, a very pregnant female cat that we very imaginatively call "Cat".

this is not her, but she looks very much like it.

i've mentioned it in my earlier entry, it was previously not very friendly, Az admitted to chasing it away. but i started to feed it regularly and the rest, is history.

being very pregnant, it spends most of the day lying on the cool cement floor, stretched out. or otherwise, it'll sit among the bits and pieces of cut-up newspapers in my mum's room (don't ask). it goes out at night sometimes, maybe to hunt?

we feed it at least twice a day, a mixture of canned fish and biscuits. so it's now very well fed.

anyway, that's it. introducing "Cat" :-)