Cumpleaños

I started this graffiti board two weeks after my ex left for sabbatical. This is an outlet for me to document my rants and raves, angst, confusion and insecurities; to reflect back on my experiences, trips (shopping and holiday); to voice out my frustration with everyday issues; to share my footie rants, etc, etc (and, of course, of late to rave about fabulous Fàbregas).

Today, Reflections turns two. Time sure flies. And I hope to be able to continue string words together and sketch on this graffiti online canvas this confused and confusing brat’s personal journeys through life (I may be confused about my ethnicity but I have stopped puzzling over my roots some time back because first and foremost, I am a Muslim) and occasionally (try to) blog mind-boggling matters too.

Many happy returns of the day, Reflections!

And now for a brief shopping update: I went to The Gardens, a new shopping complex at Mid valley City, during lunch yesterday. It’s OK, nothing too impressive. It’s a bit like Pavilion in terms of tenants but instead of Tangs (yet to open) and Parkson at Pavilion KL, The Gardens has Isetan and Robinsons (yes, the Singaporean store). Isetan The Gardens is big and has a few extra brands to offer but less choice for each brand, e.g. more shoes and clothes brands but only a few racks for any one brand. It also houses some international boutiques namely Celine, Ferragamo, Burberry and Loewe. It’s a bit more posh, like Isetan Shinjuku, Tokyo (Isetan Shinjuku is a lot more gigantic and takes up practically a whole block, like Harrods and Selfridges in London). And no supermarket either; instead there’ll be a Cold Storage supermarket (yet to open, I think). As for Robinsons, what little I saw didn't impress me much.

Guess I’ll still stick to Isetan KLCC and Lot 10 for now.

Knocked Out

Yeah, sing it like Paula did!

You’ve got me knocked out, turn me inside out
It’s you that makes my heart beat
You’ve got me knocked out
Baby there’s no doubt
You swept me off my feet

Arsenal’s style of play has been claimed to knock spectators out, be them critics or fans. Beautiful football, played the right way. Heck, some even say Arsenal play the most admired football in the world, thanks to Wenger who has love for the beautiful game.

Anywayyy, ManUre have been Knocked Out of the Carling Cup, sent home in their own home. Hahaha! (Yes, I actually laughed out loud in glee when I found out the results at 6.30 am this morning.) And guess Stamford Bridge isn’t falling down yet and the ‘Roman Empire’ isn’t crumbling down yet as Chels*** Knocked Out Reading, a week after the departure of the Spastic One. Grant-ed, it’s early days yet.

~~~~~~~~

It’s my darling nephew’s and good friend SK’s birthday today. Happy birthday dears!

Reacquainted

My colleague and I had a discussion with BigBoss yesterday afternoon about a survey we plan to issue. At one point, BigBoss used his Bagan Datoh hometown to illustrate an example. He then began to detail the town and the economic activities the locals are engaged in. At our blank expressions, he asked if we ever go back to hometown or kampong to which my colleague said yes but it’s mainly an annual affair and that is to celebrate Eid, while my reply was: I go back to Ampang for Eid. He was silent as he digested my reply.

We then continued our discussion and he raised another point. Again, this was greeted by blank expressions and silence, well at least on my part. In exasperation, he asked whether we watched Malay dramas or movies. My colleague shook her head and I said, ‘I don’t watch Malay dramas; I watch Korean dramas.’

Reflecting back, I wonder if he perceives me as a clueless city girl (at least my colleague goes back to her hometown for Eid). He probably thinks I don’t know my roots (he got that at least almost right for sometimes I wonder about my roots too. Especially since I get mistaken for being a Chinese, Vietnamese, even Japanese a lot). The thing is the persons I can ask from are all dead. Gone. I asked Mummy once and she got upset and I gather it’s because she probably doesn’t know either. I have a vague idea as to where Abah’s side hailed from.

But I’m not all naïve. I may not watch Malay dramas or movies or that touching programme depicting people living in sad conditions but I’m not ignorant. I know such people exist. I don’t have a rose-tinted view of the world. After all, I learnt Social Corporate Responsibility at graduate school. And I did spend a weekend on an exchange programme somewhere in the heart of Jengka when I was a still wet-behind-the-ears teenager [OK so it was only a weekend but at least I had that experience unlike some of my classmates who missed out because their parents didn’t allow them to go on the exchange programme].

Anyway, I spent the better part of this morning calling up various states, trying to talk and find out if they do have such information that we are seeking. Not an enjoyable experience, having to place calls through the hardly-there operators and trying to speak to the right person when I finally got connected. And I have never spoken so much Malay in all my life before (at primary school, we spoke a mixture of English and Malay with my Chinese and Malay friends; and at boarding school, even though my friends were all Malays, we spoke a smorgasbord of languages - Malay, English and our own unique lingo of words). I was so tired after making those phone calls.

If after reading the above you think I idolise the Western culture, way of life and language and reject or neglect my own, you’re very much mistaken. Because I am equally intrigued with things Oriental as I am with the great ancient civilisations of the West and the Islamic world. Because I do eat local food and I can speak my mother tongue quite fluently [it does takes longer but for this morning’s calls, I didn’t need to write out a script] although my Malay may sound strange and formal. Because I (silently) boycott (some, not all yet, slowly getting there) American brands in my protest over the Iraqi war.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to rest.

Men At The Top

OK, boys at the top more like it. After all, almost everyone dismissed them as being too young, too naïve, too inexperienced. If anything, I think they were too much in the shadow of Henry; so much so the mere mention of Arsenal would equate Henry and vice versa. But this is the very young green team which is now topping the EPL and it has not lost a game yet (OK, neither has Liverpool. Blackburn just lost their first match to Pompey and Newcastle to, shock of all shocks, Derby). I almost felt sorry for Derby (but Davies is a good man who could accept defeat unlike someone else who would just moan and blame another); they probably lack the funds to buy new players but then again, Arsenal isn’t known to be a major spender either.

All getting on top of Fábregas.

Now, if only the team close on our heels isn’t ManU*e.

I didn’t watch ManU*e and Chels*** match because when two teams like that meet, well, it wouldn’t be a pleasant watch. And it turned out to be that. Chels*** got robbed of one player, two goals and three points. I wonder what Moan-rinho would have said and how he would have reacted after that match, had he still been around. But he had said plenty when he was in England. (Calling someone a voyeur, what cheek!).

Apart from the entertaining footie match on Saturday evening, the weekend was a mixture of retail therapy work-out, resting, reading and recovering on Sunday. I visited Pavilion, the new shopping magnet in BB [it opened on 20 September] and located right at the site of my primary school [sheesh. Didn’t the Ministry of Culture, Arts & Heritage say anything before the demolition of the school?!]. It was a hot, hot, hot Saturday alright before the blessed rain came on Sunday afternoon.

~~~~~~~~

I haven’t mentioned about the brutal death of the child in this blog since the confirmation on Thursday. This doesn’t mean I’m trivialising the case - the death after all has shocked the locals and been published in many dailies and talked about since - or think footie is more important. It’s such a shame, not to mention disturbing, that we have such beast(s) amongst us. Please spare a prayer for her and I hope she didn’t die a painful death. And now I can understand why my parents have always been so overprotective of me, even at this age. Because it doesn’t matter how old one is to a sick pervert (even a grandmother was raped in this can-do land). It is a sick, dangerous world out there.

Stylish And Sensational

Stylish was how Arsenal won their Champions League match last night. And Fàbregas taught some Spanish lessons too with his deflected strike for Arsenal’s first goal (OK, some may say it was an own goal...). His free kick in the second half allowed van Persie to double the Gunners’ lead, and his and Hleb’s good work resulted in the third goal by Eduardo. Well, I think the Spanish side should at least have expected the Spanish inquisition.

Sensational is the news of Moan-rinho’s departure from Chels***. I find him amusing at times (will miss his antics) and much prefer him to Fergit any day. Heh, I thought Martin Jol would be the first one to be axed but turned out it was Moan-rinho who had been mulling the song ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go’ all along. Still, it’s early days yet to be singing Stamford Bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down...

Oh, and by the way, I don’t miss Lehmann at all.

SE7EN

Seven ayat for al-Fatihah. Seven wonders of the world. Seven days of the week. Seven continents. The Seven Sisters. Seven hills of Rome. Seven deadly sins.

And now, Adek’s lists of sevens.

Seven Things (And More) You Won’t Find In Adek’s Fridge/Kitchen

1. Eggs - I don’t eat eggs in their form but I do eat cakes or ice-cream that have eggs in them (what can I say, I was bullied into eating eggs when I was small - that’s for being the seventh and youngest child in the family)
2. Bread – not after a five-year boarding school bread diet surely! – and, by extension, jam.
3. Coffee – ‘cause I’m English, not American
4. Oyster sauce – never get around to buying it and have so far managed to live without it
5. Tomato ketchup (same reason as oyster sauce) and chilli sauce (‘cause I associate chilli with spiciness although I know chilli sauce is usually mild)
6. Flour – not about to start making dough, cakes or cookies any time soon!
7. Fiery chillies (the pint-sized chillies)

Seven Things Adek Isn’t Good At

1. Buying birthday gifts for kids
2. Sewing
3. Cooking
4. Ironing
5. Being patient
6. Handling/entertaining kids
7. Being quiet when watching footie

Seven Things Adek Likes Doing

1. Reading
2. Travelling
3. Shopping
4. Daydreaming, playing pranks
5. Treasure Hunting
6. Talking to God
7. Going to the movies

Seven Favourite Football Players

1. Fàbregas
2. Kaka
3. Inzaghi
4. Maldini
5. Nesta
6. Cannavaro
7. Alessandro del Piero

Seven Actors I Like To Watch

1. George Clooney
2. Brad Pitt (he acted in Se7en with then-fiancée Paltrow)
3. Christian Bale
4. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers
5. Dermot Mulroney
6. John Cusack
7. Matt Damon (in the Bourne movies)

Seven Oft-repeated Phrases (In Various Circumstances)

1. Mummy...!
2. Mummy Daddy
3. Cheers! or Cheers mate!
4. Blinking
5. Bugger
6. Seriously?!
7. S***

Seven Things To Do Before I Die

1. Go on another Haj trip and more Umrah trips
2. Have beautiful, quality and meaningful relationships and friendships
3. Make a will
4. Travel to South America and Africa, Middle East and ex-Soviet countries and more
5. Travel along the ancient Silk Road
6. Be financially independent
7. Be really contented, happy, satisfied and thankful with life.

Magnificent Matador

... is what Fàbregas is. He set up the goal for Adebayor and then crashed his own stunning goal in the Saturday derby against Spurs.

Adebayor then went on to score his second goal to secure a win for the Gunners. And, for now at least, Arsenal is topping the Premier League table. Lead the way, Fàbregas! Henry, Henry, aren’t you sorry you left now?

Embarrassing ... is what England rugby team is for that humiliating defeat to the Springboks late Friday. I’m predicting a Springboks-Wallabies final match.

Ramadan Kareem

First day of fasting today. First few hours of fasting and I’m already feeling weak. Silly really. After all, I did get up for my pre-dawn meal - heated food up, made a hot drink, the whole works - all with eyes half-closed of course.

Looks like the usual bus doesn’t run the normal schedule anymore so this morning I had to take another and change. You’d have thought that by now I’d get used to fasting but all that walking and stair-climbing this morning really made me exhausted and maybe that’s why I’m feeling weak. Pardon me, I do take time to warm up for Ramadan and only last night as I was about to perform tarawih prayers did I really feel it was really Ramadan already. Just give me a few more days before I really get into the hang of things. In the meantime, I shall limit walking about and try to conserve energy by not climbing up and down the stairs at micasa too often.

I was just settling down into my chair this morning when I felt myself being rocked. Strange, I thought. I mean, yes, it is the first day of Ramadan but I couldn’t already be hallucinating now, could I? I actually wondered if the keyboard was somehow vibrating and I was feeling the vibrations (haha). The rocking continued and after a while I stood up. Then my colleague came and asked if I felt anything because she felt a tremor too. We thought then that what we felt were the little aftershock tremors following the earthquake that rocked Sumatra yesterday. Turned out there was another powerful quake that hit Indonesia again this morning.

Wow, that was my first time experiencing a real earthquake (a simulated experience in Tokyo surely doesn’t count! And besides, we didn’t take it too seriously as it was only a simulation).

Addendum: I just remembered that I did experience an earth tremor before. It was on Sunday, 28 October 2001 [and not in November as reported here], and I was in Nottingham (yes, you read that right). Apparently, once upon a time, Nottingham had an earthquake that dried up the River Trent and earth tremors are actually quite common in England.

~~~~~~~~

I braved the scorching noon sun yesterday to print a year’s worth of photos at a nearby shopping complex. It was a long process having to identify and scan the folders of photos I want to be processed from the CDs and thumb-drive I brought with me, plus the lady behind the counter was distracted by other customers. As the total number of photos I had turned out to be quite substantial, the lady said I was entitled to some free large prints (8R or so).

But in her next breath, she told me that they now charge processing fee [just like they do for developing films] for every memory stick/CD/thumb-drive accessed to retrieve one’s photos. I wasn’t pleased to hear that and when I found out that I could get the processing fees waived if I didn’t opt for the free prints, I opted not to get the free prints. I handed RM50 to her only to be told that I must pay in full. Eh? Told her the RM50 was for deposit but she said, no, I must settle it in full even though I told her earlier that I would only collect the photos on Friday. [Even if I had known at the onset how many photos I have in total anyway, I don’t normally walk around with a lot of cash – after all I have been pick-pocketed twice and got my bag snatched once.] And they charge 3% for credit card transaction. I was not happy with this, especially after having wasted more than 30 minutes in there and walked off after saying, ‘It has been a waste of time.’

God must have not wanted me to return to that shop – although I did contemplate on it as I still wanted to process my photos – because all the ATM machines I passed after that were either out of service or had terribly long queues.

So folks, you now have to pay to process your digital photos just like you did when you processed your films previously. And Foto Suria does not accept deposit; you must pay in full. Whatever happened to deposits and/or COD?

Called up Foto Zzoom and found they currently have an offer and I would actually save money by developing my photos there, even after taking into account the charge for processing.

Just my recent experience to share with other consumers out there.

Love Thy Neighbour

Well, in my case, it will be quite a challenge. See, I have Ms Nosy Parker Peeping Tom the area volunteer for Neighbourhood Watch on my left. And on my right are the new neighbours who just moved in in early August: I just discovered that the new neighbours have a very bad, irresponsible habit of throwing rubbish into the drain. I happened to look into the drain on Saturday morning as I was leaving for a reunion of sorts and was annoyed to find it full of bottles and cans.

When I got back that afternoon, I actually went into the drain to clear it and found cans and bottles of motor engine oil and shampoo, a dirty floor-mat and a vehicle license sticker (OK, whatever you call it). I was about to throw the sticker away when I thought of looking at the vehicle number printed and whaddya know, it matched the Honda CRV parked in my neighbour’s porch. Well, fie on you: you drive a fancy vehicle and yet don’t have enough common sense to dispose of your garbage thoughtfully. They were pulling out of the driveway on Sunday when I unlocked my gate and when I stepped out, I looked pointedly into the drain to (hopefully) give the message that I’m checking to see that the drain is clear of rubbish. (You don’t have to be the self-appointed City Hall rep in that area to know that it’s stupid and irresponsible to clog the drain!)

The new neighbours also bothered me two weekends ago with hammering and knocking noises all throughout the weekend... even at 9 pm (for 20 minutes or so), 11 pm (yes, you read it right) and... at midnight. I did consider knocking back on the wall to let them know the noise was bothering me, or I could ring their doorbell but that’d mean dressing up decently, donning the head-scarf and all – and I hadn’t met them properly so it really wouldn’t be nice to be ringing their doorbell at midnight, introduce myself as their neighbour and knock some common sense into them, err, I mean, ask politely if they could lower down the noise volume or turn it off altogether. Thankfully the midnight hammering didn’t last long. Oh but the next day (yes, Sunday Morning no less), it started again with a vengeance at 8.30 am. And that afternoon I had to endure nerve-wrecking noise of endless drilling. Thankfully, I saw the man of the house later that evening as I was about to water the lawn and after acknowledging him, asked what they were doing. And when I asked about the hammering the night before, he actually asked back if I could hear the sound. Like hello, how could anyone turn a deaf ear to that racket?

The noise reduced considerably after our short conversation. And so far, it hadn’t returned. But I do hope I won’t have to keep clearing the drain of the rubbish dumped in there.

Excuse me while I let off Steam and air my annoyance and irritation here.

~~~~~~~~

Apart from the unplanned activity of clearing the drain, the weekend was one of late nights – I don’t do this often - and hectic days of rushing here and there and in between, doing household chores and a bit of entertaining too! I’m sleepy and still a bit tired from lack of rest. My Japanese friend calls it the Sazae-san syndrome. Sazae-san is an animated cartoon that has been broadcasted in Japan for almost 40 years. Apparently all Japanese know this story of a peaceful family; it is shown every Sunday evening on TV at 6:30pm. According to her, some viewers will get a headache after watching this cartoon, feel nervous, and basically not want to do anything, suffer sleepless Sunday nights etc... because they remember and are reminded of work or school the next day. (Sorry if I don’t explain it well, but that’s what I understand from her explanation).

~~~~~~~~

It’s 9/11 today. Let’s spare some time to remember the deceased. I do hope they hadn’t died a pointless or meaningless death.

Should I Stay Or Should I Go

Nahhh... I doubt that Monsieur Wenger had this song in mind despite the earlier doubts regarding his future at Arsenal. And as we now know, he has renewed a three-year contract with the Gunners. He did earlier indicate that he was still motivated to stay and felt responsible for the young Guns at the club.

There was a rumour too that Señor Fábregas may move to Real Madrid. Well, he did sign a new eight-year deal with the Gunners last year. I do hope he will honour his contract and not follow the footsteps of Thierry Henry back to his native country any time soon.

But a dear old friend will be leaving TheOrganisation for good, having tendered her resignation which will come into effect in a couple of days’ time. I’ve grown pretty close to her, as close as I’ll ever let myself with office colleagues. She’s patient with me and my queries especially on religious matters. We had lunch together last Friday. I do hope I’ll get to see her occasionally after this. Will not say goodbye to her ‘cause I just hate farewells. To be honest, I am a bit envious of her for being able to take such a bold move. Because sometimes I wonder too, if I should stay or if I should just go.

~~~~~~~~

The Rugby World Cup kicked off on Saturday in France (France is the host country this time but there will be some matches in Cardiff and Edinburgh. Oh, and France lost to Argentina on Saturday!). Watched a bit of the Wales-Canada match (Wales managed to fight back and win the match after losing the lead at one time) and a bit of Springboks-Samoa match. The South African Percy Montgomery is kinda cute. Somehow I doubt the All Blacks will win this time. For some reason, they never fared well at the World Cup, well except for the inaugural tournament when they became the first ever champions. Hmm, for someone who didn’t and couldn’t play anything to save her life at school, Adek does like to watch footie, tennis (FedEx won the American Open, yeay!), rugby (learnt about how the game is played from a friend back at varsity and find I like watching it), F1 (Lewis Hamilton’s lead is reduced to three after coming in second in Italy), baseball, basketball, volleyball and badminton. I can’t play but I can understand those games to a certain extent and boy, can I cheer too. Have yet to develop a liking for and understanding of golf though. Maybe not ever.

The rugby match between England (defending champion) and Springboks (world champions in 1995) this Friday evening GMT should be a very interesting one indeed. Maybe I’ll catch some action while having my pre-dawn meal.

So Far So Good

Hopefully it’s not too early to say it, since the new Premier League season is only a few weeks old. It could have been better for Arsenal of course - had Herr Lehmann not committed that blunder against Blackburn that cost the Gunners the whole three points [thankfully, Liverpool and Chelshit also drew and ManUre lost at the same weekend. Lehmann also gifted Fulham a goal the weekend before that until van Persie and Hleb scored to secure win for Arsenal]. Anyway, the Gunners won again yesterday – though I didn’t watch it as HQ is not subscribed to the sports channels. So, Henry who? Looks like we can still do it, With Or Without You, Henry...

And here are the scorers:










Read about it here and here. And don’t worry, am not about to turn this blog into a Fab poster [not that it’s such a bad idea]. For more on the wonderkid, have a dekko at this and this.