nostalgia

(a bit late i know but better late than never!)

09 february 2007, friday

12 years...

8 hot babes...

one big night.

well... it almost went according to plan. haha. in order of appearance: shereen, myself, kavi, huda, mooch, yaya, aishah. missing in action: candida. even after we all simultaneously sent an sms that read: theme of the night- SHOW UP OR DIE! haha. i'm assuming kavi already took care of her. ;) friends help you move, real friends help you move bodies.

had dinner at magic wok, then went over to menotti for dessert... not surprising right? we went there before 10pm tho, so we didn't get the half price desserts. they were gooooood. had to wrestle my soffiato away from huda. haha. even the non- lover of choc, mooches, had the morbida choc mousse. yummy... made our way to timbre after that but got put on the waiting list with an estimated time of 2 hours. we were like, fuck it lah let's head over to chijmes. so we ended up at insomnia. man, last time i went to chijmes was like 2 years ago. forgot how pretty it was inside. spotted a pizzeria that looked pretty good, might head over there to sample the food one day.

all in all it was a good night, reminiscing and reliving the good old days... old being the operative word. 12 years since we first entered tkgs!! oh man... it's great to see how far we have come (cue the first few notes of take that's never forget)... we (well i'd like to think so) grew up! we (ok except those still studying ie. kavi and yaya) got jobs! we (ok ok, huda) got married! at the end of it all, we're still breast friends and bosom buddies. haha. this is an ode to you girls. you rock!

aishah

for your great voice, exuberence and total disregard for my 'better safe than sorry' approach. without which we would've missed out on many interesting moments ;)

mooch
for those spontaneous outings (remember cycling to tampines park and playing with the cats??), early night conversations in aust and putting up with my whining. hehe. jangan bimbang jadi gembira, mate!!

kavi
for believing that i can do stuff (like driving. haha), implementing the 'plan to find naz a man' and bouts of creativity. here's to more late night wanderings in our respective rides!

shereen

for your generosity with pretty much everything, obsession with cats and disdain for anything low brow. u're right, once you know what quality is, there's no turning back!

huda

for your embodiment of the phrase 'sugar, spice & everything nice', being similarly concerned about haircare and giggly sessions. i'm not sure if there's anything u can do to convince me that veggies taste good tho. haha.

yaya

for your hyperactivity, being a starchaser, fellow celebrity crusher and food lover. whatever happens in tkgs, stays in tkgs. haha. you're a great dancer lah! and i want abs like yours.

candida

for your practical advice, being the theorist lab partner and since we left school, your perpetual swearing. whatever happened to 'girls, no need to swear'?? still can't get over your spanish adventures. lol

here's to future reunions and even more great memories :)

interesting article

Let's all bash Singapore

Feb 8th 2007 | BANGKOK

From The Economist print edition

The rich little place that the others love to hate

SINGAPORE won South-East Asia's football championship on February 4th in a final against Thailand that was mostly peaceful, despite a bad-tempered first leg in which the Thais stomped off the pitch and sulked for 15 minutes. The players were doing no more than imitate their military-run government, which has been in a strop with Singapore since Singapore's deputy prime minister met Thaksin Shinawatra, the deposed Thai leader, last month. In protest, top-level meetings with Singaporean officials were cancelled. General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, the Thai junta's leader, accused Singapore of spying on Thailand, using the telecoms business it bought last year from Mr Thaksin's family. He told his soldiers to stop using their mobiles and go back to walkie-talkies.

Despite 40 years of expressing fraternal warmth at meetings of the Association of South-East Asian Nations, the region's leaders never miss an opportunity to pick a fight with Singapore. In recent years, Singaporean firms, many of them state-backed, have bought businesses across the region, providing cause for paranoia. Indonesian parliamentarians claimed this month that their military secrets were also at risk because the Singaporeans had bought into a local satellite firm.

Even sand is a matter of national security. On February 6th, an Indonesian ban on sand exports came into force, following a similar move by Malaysia some years ago. Singapore buys the sand to reclaim land from the sea and increase its puny terrain. Indonesia's official reason for the ban was to stop the environmental damage caused by sand mining. But a senior navy man let slip that it was motivated by various diplomatic spats with Singapore. The Indonesian navy has now sent no fewer than eight warships to its maritime border with Singapore to intercept suspected sand-smugglers. At the same time, the Indonesian sand-shovellers' association, facing unemployment, is threatening to sue the government over the ban.

The Malaysians, always up for a row with their estranged ex-spouse (Singapore and Malaysia were in a brief, unhappy union in the 1960s), are blaming their recent floods on Singapore's land reclamation. Mahathir Mohamad, Malaysia's disgruntled former prime minister, has sought to undermine his successor, Abdullah Badawi, by accusing him of secretly negotiating with the Singaporeans to lift the sand ban. Mr Mahathir also added his voice to the Thai junta's attacks on the Singaporeans: “You'll get nowhere with them either being nice or being tough, they only think of themselves,” he said on Thai television.

There is always a plausible-sounding reason for the fights that Singapore's neighbours pick with it. The Singaporeans' kiasu (win at all costs) negotiating style does them few favours in a region where saving face is important. But it is hard to avoid the suspicion that the little country's unforgivable offence is being richer and more successful than
its neighbours, and not particularly apologetic about it.

after reading this, does anyone else feel like we're the little nerds who are bullying the jocks? hmm. i wonder if their paranoia over the spying is unfounded.

baby got back(ache) [u guys know tt song rite? i'm not referring to myself as 'baby' lah. eew tt's so gross]

hmm my lower back has been aching for the past couple of days. i don't know what i should sttribute it to. can't be the dragonboating last week, cos i was fine after that. only started feeling this on fri. hmm. strange. i think it might be becos of my poor posture while at work. and the lack of exercise. and the wt i seem to be steadily putting on since becoming overly indulgent and being too busy to get to the gym... maybe it's a combi of all those. whatever it is, hurts like a bitch lor. can't even bend at the waist properly!! aaaaarrgghh!! this would explain why i'm at home now and not at dragonboat training. :(

anyway, had to cancel wakeboarding yest to go to ansar's wedding. waited half an hour for a cab ok!! was very very sorely tempted to take the car out but then again, i had no idea how to get to the venue so it would have been pretty pointless. bumped into plenty of old friends and hajar, fadzil, fiza, zur and i ended up at the same table as faisal. bride and groom looked great in their gold outfits. congratulations! so exciting. haha. the food was goooood. there was a roti kirai maker on hand! yummy man, light, crispy and not oily at all. wanted to stand there and watch him making them but then i figured he'd be a bit embarrassed by that. haha. desserts and chendol rocked too.

went over to hajar's new place for the first time after the wedding. waaaaaaaah i liiiiiiiike!! love the white kitchen and the minimalist, clean look, of the whole house, with accessories to spice it up, of course. the moment i stepped into the kitchen i was like, hajar, can i come and cook here once in a while? it was THAT inspiring... and the answer is, yes, i can. :) awesome chandeliers and light fixtures too.

now i'm completely confused as to what i want my new house to look like. really. should i go classic? modern? eclectic? argh!! i want it all! how like that!! i want bright, bold colours but i also want clean, neutral tones... dilemma dilemma. should i convince my mum to go with a white kitchen? or baby blue and white? or light grey and salmon pink? or beige? think furniture wise confirm we're going with dark wood and white. why do i have the feeling that my room is gonna look damn messy and mixed up... like my current one. haha. right now i got funky striped walls, heavy dark green furniture, solid wood coffee table & comp table and practical ikea swivel cabinet mirror and tv console. go figure. i'm choked on ideas right now. all of 'em cloying for attention, dunno which one to go for. le sigh.

i was feeling a little bored at work the other day (what's new) so i started calculating how much one can expect to pay if one were to take up a home loan of $500k for say, 35 years with an interest rate of approximately 4.00% pa. it totally blew me away. i have been in this department for, what, close to 9 months and only now i realise how much the interest will actually cost you. a whopping $900k++ by the time you finish paying off your loan. shit man. all the while been calculating monthly repayments only lah, so that's why didn't get the whole picture until the other day. wahlau eh... no wonder there's been talk about islamic mortgages and financing and stuff lately. i'd like to know where all that interest is going too sia.

ok lah gonna go wash the loo. hope my back is up to the task. haiz... so this is what growing old feels like.

shit happened

so right, i got into an accident yesterday. junction, me in the car turning right, bike going straight. bike skidded, rider obtained some scrapes and a couple of stitches but she should be ok. nothing broken or anything except the bike. mum, dad, bro, sis and niece were in the car with me. our car is ok, practically undamaged.

best part is i went on my maiden voyage less than 24 hrs earlier. whatever little confidence i had gained was shattered in a matter of seconds. this just shows that you should never get too cocky cos the world will come and fuck you up the ass when you least expect it.

will i ever go driving again? hell yeah. that which does not kill you will only serve to make you stronger. as i mentioned to di, when i go skating, i need to fall before i'm brave enough to go all out. apply that to this situation. of cos in this case someone else got hurt lah, so that's bad. still can't believe that it happened lah. hmm. i'm just glad that it was a minor accident and not a major one.

summary lah summary

so where shall i start... can't believe it's feb already! gawd. time flies. tomoro mon already sommore. argh!! wkends are too short, i tell ya.

anyways, summary of events, not that u care.

wed
had staff charity day. was selling otak2 and fishballs... the vendor sent us 100 fishballs short! caused a bit of a panic but it was all good in the end. managed to raise about $500 for the adopted charity. not bad eh? i got a limited edition carebear and a set of 4 cupcakes from the other stalls. the cupcakes are yummy!! look damn good man. i'm refraining from putting up pics cos i won't do them any justice so u can view them here instead.

watched survivor singapore at jubilee hall with rohana. it was ok only lah, i've seen better. despite having karen tan and kumar as part of the cast, the play fell short of my expectations. karen was brilliant as usual. i'm such a fan. haha.

oh ya an incident happened at coffee club. rohana and i headed there for dinner first, and the waiter said to me, you look familiar. i was like, i do? from where? i wasn't really expecting a great answer. then he said, nazira. i was shocked! holy crap, how does this total stranger know my name?? so i'm like, eh how u know?? where do i know u from?? what's your name?? he turned out to be an ex pr sch mate. small world eh? didn't manage to say bye when we left cos we were late and rushing off ready, so after the play we actually went back to coffee club to say bye. haha. think he was surprised and touched.

the quality of food and service standard of the place is not controlled man. when i had garlic bread at siglap coffee club, the cheese was measly but it came pretty fast. at the raffles city one, it was pretty slow but the garlic bread was drowning in cheese and tasted way better than at siglap. hmm. go figure.

thurs
dad's birthday, went to baladi at arab st. i sponsored the cake, royal choc from secret recipe. yummy! that's like the 4th birthday in 4 mths consecutively. overindulging sia. next month there are another 2, my bro and my sis in law. since we're running out of places to go in sg, we mite justhead across the border. haha. cheap and good. the baladi food wasn't that great lah... beef and chicken were kinda tough, lamb was fine, rice was dry... the ambience of the place and presentation of the meal was good tho. they even sang happy birthday for my dad. haha. can bring yr bf/ gf here to impress them/ set the mood or whatever.

fri
was super pissed off with my super today. i hate being micro- managed and bossed around. was in a foul mood all day. i so totally cannot handle being under watch. gggrrr. can't wait to leave this office. after work i gymmed, then hung out with dirty and filthy at arab st.

sat
scoured the papers for jobs. not bad ah the market? haven't gotten round to sending any apps... note to self, please do so. also found a 30% discount cut out for borders. woohoo!

went dragonboating in the arvo with neighbour asraf and the canadian dragons. was damn fun sia!! tho now my butt, back and legs hurt like hell. haha. guess i was doing something right... still considering joining the team, so gonna go for a couple more sessions first. can think of plenty of pros and cons... but the pros are more convincing. haha.
at night di and i went to borders... gave her my discount cos my book was cheap anyway. got blink by malcolm gladwell. :) the other book i wanted will be in only in 2 - 3 wks. bah... i have a 3 for 2 coupon for biz books too, but i at the time i couldn't decide what to get. will need to do some browsing and research before i use it.

sun
mooch's bro's wedding. met up with the girls, did a lot of gossiping and catching up. hehe. it was fun... bride and groom looked good, mooches too!

day of reckoning for me, cos was my first time driving in sg without my dad and on the journey home, alone. figured it was about bloody time to conquer my fear of driving in sg. went from fetching kavi to mooch's to orchard to yio chu kang and back home. shereen is a fantastic navigator lah! haha.i got horned at only once but i had the opportunity to horn at other people more often. gave in to the temptation once. i think i'm too aggressive. oh well. one small step for womankind, one giant leap for naz. wahaha. feels damn good lah. i should do this more often. considering getting a beat up chapalang old car that i can bang around. this could be a challenge seeing how i don't do cheap. haha. we'll see.

shereen got me another borders discount thingy so i got my hands on cook with jamie. woohoo! coincidentally, yaya's mum wants this book too. haha. saw a white pinstriped suit at g2000... seriously considering getting it. been looking for one for quite a while. hmm...

ok lah sleepy ready ah. expecting a shitty day at work tomoro as usual. sighs. repeat the following to self: bonus in march bonus in march bonus in march bonus in march...

because i'm bored...

i will entertain u people with more pics.

*whine* the above happened when i was clearing up cupboards in time for our workstation reshuffle and audit. didn't even realise it until ages later. best part is they weren't even my cupboards!! if i had my way i would've chucked away all the docs i found but no... have to keep for audit. pfft.
i promise this will be the last pic of desserts... for now. haha. pasta cafe's cookies & cream and rocky road. hedonistic, i know. the only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it... in the wise words of oscar wilde.

unfortunately i have to take myself off now to yet another neighbourhood meeting. i swear i'm way too young to dedicate one fri nite each month to this cause. oh well... enbloc happening this year anyway. yay yay.

getting my just desserts

i just wanna make you guys drool. screw the diet, mate. don't waste your calories on bad food, try some of these...

newest items of craving, vilage crepes (strawberry and caramel banana)

repeat offender, menotti's soffiato

i would include the nydc ones as well but i can't remember if i put them up before. probably did. anyways, my desserts days are gonna be over soon. or rather, they're gonna get cut down very severely. very. very. severely. need to start training for my runs liao. :(

this means clocking at least 15km per wk for the first 2 wks, followed by 20km per wk for the next 3 wks and so on and so forth. slotting in at least one super long (ok fine, 10km is super long to me ok) run per fortnight. of cos can't forget abt the strength training... hmm. can't let my muscles atrophy from all that cardio. need some variety also like skating, cycling, etc so that i don't get bored or end up using the same muscles too much and neglect the rest. cakap macam paham sey. wahahaha.

i know the 2 topics don't go together very well, but u know what does?

secret recipe choc banana cake + vanilla ice- cream

cloudy evening + a quiet reservoir run

oh shit, forgot birthday dedication. imagine i put this up on 17 jan ok?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MILLS!! *muacks*

p.s. i want pics... from u or nas har?

we swallow, do you?

ok i'm really sleepy right now but will make a sorry attempt at an entry just becos i'm putting off refilling my kitty's litter box... it's not what u think, i'm waiting for the box and floor to dry lah. just washed the loo. again. and hakka's been eyeing my dad's jambul bird in the balcony and killing cockroaches. be afraid, be very afraid...

anyway. rohana, kecik and i went to watch forbidden chestnuts: portrait of a brokeback geisha. it was bloody hilarious! they were making parodies out of practically everything that was hot in 2006, entertainment- wise. good thing that i managed to catch quite a few of the local productions last year with rohana so we knew what was going on most of the time. i guess some people are clubbers, some are drinkers... me? i'd say i'm a player. wahaha. my favourites were the matrix spoof and the tokyo drift song at the end. what was not so hot was the fact that the actors didn't properly enunciate their words sometimes, so they came out rather garbled and unintelligible. say wha?

got a little pissed off when we were on our way home cos mum called and was like, where r u? y never tell? when u coming back? now those qns r fine, but then she started nagging again about how i've been going out too much, not telling them where i'm going, dad's not happy, etc. i'm thinking, why now? i never tell them where i go!! well sometimes i do but it's not a habit. unless i'm going back really late like say, after 12am, then i tell lah cos i don't want them to lock the door. for some reason my key doesn't work anymore. bah. so yeah, it really irritated me that i was expected to report strength all the bloody time. when did mum call? 10.30pm!! so early sia, i used to come back from the gym at 11pm for goodness sake and no one said anything! i'm an adult, dammit!

speaking of grown ups, another thing to whinge about. work. had my appraisal today cos it was postponed from yest. funny thing is, i think my senior and i rated ourselves very high individually compared to the other colleagues. lol. good thing is our super kinda agreed with most of the ratings we gave ourselves. for me the kpi was a prob tho, cos it was collective and not individual and i didn't state how i contributed. of cos i contributed to some more than others lah. understood mah! i'm not the only one responsible for bringing in the bacon. pfft. also we were supposed to mention ad hoc projects. i just looked at the super and was like, my entire job scope is ad hoc. she agreed. haha. they were also commending me on something that i thought i really sucked at- promptness. i was like, huh? i give express service? since when? usually i'll ignore stuff until i feel like getting back to them. wahaha. if this is express can u imagine how efficient i'd be if i actually acted on things immediately?? boggles the mind.

ok that was a small load off. i'm good now.

p.s. in case u didn't notice, allow me to draw your attention to the list at the right titled grey matter stimulants. it's a list of books i'm currently reading. i was gonna add in stuff that i wanna read also but then ah... dunno how to keep the 2 separated leh. ok fine, there's probably a really simple solution but i'm just way too lazy to entertain that thought right now. gimme yr views!

calligraffiti-ed/ nas-ed

so yesterday was a pretty packed sat. woke up pretty late (ok my idea of late is.. mebbe 10am) due to late night/ early morning wanderings on fri. simpang, arab st, back to simpang. haha. interesting.

went for a calligraffiti workshop at the national library (for details on why, please read rohana's entry) and was intrigued, amused and frustrated by the entire thing.

intrigued
it's art. what more can i say? was truly fascinated by the different ways in which you can write the arabic alphabet and the dedication and practice involved to produce such pieces. so little time, so many styles! the guys who were doing it were pretty darn good too.

amused
the crowd was made up of teenagers mostly. what amused me was that the little boy beside me was trying to chat me up. he was so completely mat sia. what amused rohana was the way i brushed him off. ha. ha. ha.
also when we were supposed to practice writing, rohana and i had brought our own materials so we politely declined the paper offered. unfortunately the organisers came to us one after another and insisted that we take a piece each. we had to oblige lah, tho i didn't even use mine. rohana cheated ah, her notebook had lines. haha.

frustrated
the presenters weren't that great. the slides weren't that great. they were going too fast and sad to say, they lacked the personality needed to engage the audience. i would give them points for effort but they really need to polish it up a lot. when they were descibing the different styles, it would have helped if they had the key features in point form and maybe performed a demo while going thru them or something. talk so much ah, coming from someone who loathes giving presentations... this just means that i'm in a better position to say what works and what doesn't. ya ya i'm critical, bite me.
miss ocd doesn't know how to hold a double pencil and doesn't cross lines. that's all i have to say.
we cabut-ed early cos being typically melayu, the workshop started about half an hour late and we only got a break at around 4.15pm. we were supposed to be done by 4.30pm. ape lagi, we beat a hasty exit. got things to do, places to go, people to meet! very busy women, can't waste our time on you. hahaha.

got home and started making my friend's birthday gift. put my new skills to the test and this is what happened:thank god her name is short.

was supposed to meet the birthday party (as in, party of people, not party party) at 7.30pm. i only left the house at 8pm. wahlau eh. good thing is i wasn't the last to arrive lah, haha. had pretty good pasta for dinner at marina. fantastic view of the city skyline from where we were seated.

then upon my recommendation, we adjourned to menotti for dessert. it's half price for desserts after 10pm daily, by the way. awesome awesome stuff. most of it was sold out by the time we ordered but we did manage to get our hands on a few different desserts. i didn't get my choc mousse! think it was called morbida on the menu. haha. managed to grab soffiatos (i have gone on about this sinful delight before, no?), strudels, canollis, profiteroles, etc. yum yum yum. the strudel was damn rich sia! not the run off the mill bakery type you know. real fruits, real nuts, no cream. just layers of great pastry and spiced filling accompanied by cinnamon vanilla ice cream.

was a well- spent saturday i reckon. and before i forget,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAS!!

even if she doesn't read my blog. haha.

good things come to those who wait

yesterday rohana sent me something that totally made my day. it was a list of movies to look out for in 2007. of course, being excited, i forwarded this to a few others. one of them emailed me back and said that a year long movie pass would be awesome. i told him that movie vouchers were available and that they are a good alternative i suppose, seeing how a year long pass doesn't exist (yet). so i thought, hey, the union offers them vouchers, so i went to check em out.

as luck would have it, i came across this offer that they had- union members get 5% off ipods plus some accessories at certain stores. so i thought, woo freaking hoo, i can go get my nano cos i was actually considering a shuffle, seeing how i'd only use it for working out anyway, but since there's a discount, why the hell not, cos the price difference ain't that much and u get a lot more bang for your buck. so that was me with my mind more or less made up, next paycheck, i'm getting me a nano. i mean, it's about time lah, had been eyeing an ipod since the first generation came out dunno how many years ago.

this would also mean that my pda would have to wait, cos it's one or the other, u know wat i mean. i'm still thinking about getting it cos the idea of carrying so many gadgets around does not appeal to me in the slightest.

i also feel kinda pressured into getting a new phone cos lately my family seems to have been on a phone buying spree. first my mum, then my sis, then my lil bro. but of cos, since when have i succumbed to pressure? real, imagined, or otherwise.

today, i got a cnet newsletter in my inbox. i love reading about all this geeky stuff cos it's just so damned fascinating. i decided not to read it at work cos the internet was super slow and it was pissing me off. so i left it alone.

when i got home today, i read the newsletter. oh. my. god. suddenly i was the most absurdly happy person in the entire world. suddenly, my dreary day didn't seem so bad after all. suddenly, i was thankful that i'm so fickle when it comes to big ticket items. i was (and still am) methaphorically squealing in delight. i would do it quite literally but i don't wanna scare the cat. i love innovation. i love creativity. i love technology. i freaking LOVE steve jobs. he is DA MAN. no one can argue with me on that one ok. don't you dare. behold, the source of my bliss and giddiness The Apple iPhone.

ipod + phone + pda. i knew this was rumoured and in the works but come on. to think i was just about to get an ipod. to think i was just about to get, heaven forbid, one of the new nokia phones. to think i was thinking of getting a pda, even though none of them had all the features i was looking for.

this is way too much for me. i need to go lie down. enjoy.

because the weather is brilliant

no, i did not say that in sarcasm. it's perfectly sunny outside, great for outdoor activities such as, i dunno, kayaking. which i really wanna go do but alas, i ain't got no kaki. so here i am, indoors, commenting on how lovely it is outside and in a while i'm gonna take a short snooze. but first...

hari raya haji 2006. posing with a sleeping marsya

do u realise how cool this photo would've been if a certain brother of mine had not ruined it by stepping in the background?? i had no idea he was there. if i did, he would've been in trouble. no, i did not check the photos after my sis took them, ok? probably should've...

my mama's 50th birthday on 3 jan 2007. celebrated at el-sheikh in pahang st. or penang rd. or wherever. great food and ambience there! cake is choc indulgence from secret recipe. oh so sinful stuff... mmm... she got a new handphone and wallet from us. yes, she was very happy with the gifts.

2006 in review. kind of.

ok so 2006 has drawn to a close and i must say, 2007 has started off with quite a bang, literally. well, several. i am of cos referring to fireworks and not anything that shaz's dirty dirty mind can come up with. i had 2 lists for 2006, one of which i posted up in my jan 2006 entry. shall not provide a link cos i'm that lazy. if u wanna see then go check back lor. wahaha. anyways, i had another 'things to do' list and i'm quite happy to announce that i did manage to cross some of the items off. they are:

big walk
kayaking/ canoeing
see thailand (phuket is a start ok)
get life insurance
get an investment portfolio
save $5k by end of the year

6 out of 14 ain't too bad right? 43% success rate... well, there is one more thing which i shall not mention here but if i were to add it, it would be a 50% success rate. haha. other stuff worth mentioning are:

my 7th piercing
running the stanchart 10km in 80 min
shed more excess weight
donated blood 3 times (good enough, even tho i was aiming for 4)
debt free since july
watched many many plays
flexed my creative muscles. well, kind of.

i haven't thought of a list or resolutions for 2007 yet lah, been too busy. only just managed to get an organiser today sommore. wanted to buy one but there was a pretty one free with some women's mag so i got that instead. it's so pretty. hehe. no calendar at a glance tho, so i guess will hv to rely on the planner i got from the office. speaking of office, i'm happy to announce that work will remain as low a priority this year as it was in 2006. ahaha. that is, unless i get to do something that i actually give a damn about. insyaallah i will find my calling. still unsure as to which direction i should go in. sighs.

hmm looks like my 'face of an angel with a body built for sin' goal for 2006 didn't exactly happen. i'm on my way there, i promise! my current weight is the lightest i've been since 2000 and i'm damned proud of that fact. still got a few more to go but it'll happen! i can feel it in my fingers, i feel it in my toes...

anyways, shall go fiddle around with my brain and 2007 diary. i loooooove fresh starts. i do it almost every month. haha.

the not so suay week 24 dec - 31 dec

compared to the last week, this week had been pretty amazing. busy like crazy but it was good.

sun: sent barek off to the airport with a few other people. had a great time when he was here, and i'd like to thank everyone who turned up at the various outings. wouldn't have been the same without you guys!

mon: er... i can't remember what i did on mon. but i'm sure it was pretty happening. oh wait, yes i remember! watched night at the museum with rohana and shaz. it was bloody hilarious siaaaaaaa. love octavius and jed!! ahahahahaaha. dumdum, gimme gumgum! wahahahahahha.

tues: took hakka to the vet. vet said he's a pretty boy, very tame, and i made a good choice. :) yeah yeah i know, he's just saying that but still... makes me proud! ahaha. and yes shaz, against my better judgement i will listen to you and spell his name with a double k, ok?

wed: watched eragon with nas and mills. had sushi for dinner. mmmmm sushi... eragon wasn't that great lah. like a b grade lord of the rings. not much star power except for john malkovich and a cameo by joss stone. the atmosphere and mood wasn't there either. pfft. but the dragon was cool lah, reminded me of hakka at one point and i started missing him sooooo bad. hahaha

thurs: had my office party. it kinda rocked. stayed up until 3am the night before to do the deco and i must say it looked pretty good. haha. i won a capita mall voucher in the lucky draw. woohoo!

fri: had my neighbourhood committee party. was supposed to bring tandoori but i didn't manage to drag my lazy ass down to mustafa centre so i had my mum make honey roasted chicken instead. we sat around singing songs while one of the guys played guitar. it was pretty cool i guess, even tho i was half the age of the youngest member. haha.

sat: cleaned up my room and the toilet big time in the morning. having a cat is damn leceh lor. like having a kid sia! first thing i do in the morning is feed him and last thing i do at night is pick up his poop and wipe his ass. haha.
also met up with someone i'm supposed to meet since june. photoshoot in jan or feb probably. ;) this meeting also made me realise what my biggest turn off is. shall blog about this later too mebbe.
met up with suzie and went hunting for a present for my mum's b'day. accidentally touched pigskin at gucci. aaaarrgghhh! fell in love with a ferragamo wallet though. think my mum will love it but when i told her the price she said it was too ex. oh well... toscano or buffel it is then. boring mans. went to metro to check out the toscano and buffel and guess what i saw sitting prettily in the handbag section. my bloody guess bag lor!! needless to say, i snapped it up, even tho it was the last piece. finally, the search was over...
met up with shaz, diyana and farhan at simpang after that. shaz and di sat at the wrong table!! ahahaaha. traitors! gave them shit abt it all night. that was fun. haha.

sun: selamat hari raya haji!! will be going over to my aunt's today as she'll be having an akikah for my latest cousin. should be fun. then gotta get back home quick to prepare for marsya's cukur rambut on mon. yeah i know, packed week ok! but a great start to the new year. :) friends and family, what more could i ask for?

ok lah off to have brekkie. damn hungry ahhhhhhh.

selamat hari raya haji and a happy 2007 to all!!!

the suay week 17 dec - 23 dec

ok, so writing this only because of rohana cos i promised that i would blog about my suay week. haha. i can hardly remember half the things that happened, much less in chronological order, but here goes:

1. came back from KL (will blog abt this later insyaallah) at 4.30am on mon morn. taxi driver was a fool, revved the engine like crazy but didn't switch gears until the last min. each time. he also had this dumdum look about him. doesn't exactly inspire confidence in his abilities but i reached home in 1 piece, thank god. really couldn't make it waking up in the morn so took half a day am leave instead.

2. went hunting for this guess bag that i'm dying to get my hands on. been eyeing it for a few months and this was the perfect opportunity to go get it as tis the season and all. went to the plaza sing outlet, right style and material,wrong colour. girl checked and said it was available at the sutec outlet, so i made my way there. when the suntec girl brandished the bag with a flourish, it was the right colour, right style,wrong material. she checked and said it was available at the raffles outlet. raffles bimbo checked the system and it was available. she went missing for quite a while in the storeroom and came back with completely different bags which were nothing like what i was looking for. they didn't even have anything remotely similar to the fucking bag lor. raffles nice girl took over when she saw i was getting damned pissed off and checked with plaza sing girl. came back and said that they didn't even have the bag that i saw a couple of hours ago and she doubts that it even exists. are you calling me a fucking liar? i know what i saw and i described it completely to her in every damned detail. this would've been enough for me to blow my top and give them a verbal trashing for their incompetence and inadequacies but no... raffles nice girl said she would do her best to check with the warehouses or other outlets. she gave great service too, tho i didn't get wat i wanted. 2 hours. 3 stores. all over the fucking place. no bag. i was NOT happy.

3. went to the plaza sing store during lunch the next day and whaddya know, they had that bag that i saw in the first place! took a pic,fully determined to march over to raffles nice girl and prove that i wasn't seeing things. of cos this didn't happen. forced myself to let it go. trust me it was very hard.

4. my bus home broke down. second time this month. on the one day that i was actually going home straight from work and had no plans yet. i happily took another bus that goes to my place, along with a few other stranded passengers. guess where we ended up? at the other end of the bus route lor!! all the way out in whoop whoop!! myself and a couple other passengers were pissed off that the driver didn't warn us where he was going. cos logically speaking, if the bus is at the same bus stop as the other buses that were heading in the general east sdie direction, they would all end up at more or less the same destination, no? gggrrr... made friends with one of the passengers and we decided to take a cab, but the moment we decided that, whaddya know, no cabs!! then the bus turned up, so we took it lor.

5. met up with shaz, diyana, barek and farhan for supper. that was probably one of the highlights of my week. yeah i'm easy. haha. thanks guys. :)

6. weather been crap, but great for sleeping. i had been coming home at 2am, waking up at 7am and been horribly late for work each and every day.

meet haka

the long road to my becoming a 70 year old virgin with 12 cats has begun. i got me a kitty cat!
ok so he ain't my first but hopefully he'll be something long term. lol. check out the pics!



his name is haka and ain't he cute?? he's damn loud tho, kept mewing all the time since he came and OMG i almost strangled him. haha. today he's ok, mebbe he's used to us already, and been playing with my bro and sis all day. or he could be having a sorethroat from all that yelling. hmm...

he is so gorgeous... i can't wait for him to get big and fat. hehe. so exciting. and on the good advice of shereen and about.com, i ain't feeding him no cheap, easily available cat food! come on u guys know, f and w. haha. the fastfood equivalent for cats. but damn ex lar the brand i'm giving him. got a 1kg bag of kitten dry food for $13.65!!! robbery. especially if u get it from those big pet shops... u know the one. haha. then again if it means that haka is gonna be healthy and live all 9 of his lives... i'm willing to get robbed. haha.

i wanna take him to the vet for a full check up and shots but unfortunately i won't be able to until xmas wkend... if the vet is open that sunday of cos. sigh. ok then almost new year?? aaarrgghhh. planning on getting him sterilized in jan or feb... he would be about 6-7 months by then, just nice. i'm assuming he was born sometime in august so i'm gonna share my birth date with him. hehe.

sigh ok enuf gushing... gonna miss him when i go to kl this wkend man. luckily i have minions to do his bidding. wahahah.

stanchart marathon- ed

today i woke up at the ungodly hour of 4.30am after a restless night of tossing and turning and waking up practically every hour. i dreamt that i was super late, and so i was panicked and stressed as well. needless to say, i didn't get much rest. what was i so anxious about and why did i get up so early on a wkend morning, u ask? well... the singapore stanchart marathon, baby!! called mills to wake her up and her royal grumpiness was complaining about getting only 3 hours of sleep. try almost none!! i was all sunshine and happiness as the big day was finally here. haha. bet that irritated the hell out of her. we met up at macs for brekkie then made our way to city hall. our 10km women's run started at 7.30am and we arrived in plenty of time to go looking for the lost wayne aka bag carrier. hehe.

here we are posing at the start line. nice tops eh? check out the crowd!

we managed to stay together only for like, the first 3km. haha. after that i lost mills then mills lost me and we ran at our own paces for the rest of the way. it was super cool lah. never thought in a million years that i would voluntarily get up at 4.30am on a sunday morning to go running. RUNNING, people. 10 frigging km. moi. miss run- is- not- a- word- in- my- vocab. stranger things have happened i guess.

the run turned out to be pretty good. i was playing eye of the tiger in my head to stay motivated. haha. when i hit the 5km turning point i was thinking, hey, this ain't so bad after all. i was actually enjoying it. when i crossed the finish line though, i felt like my heart was gonna burst and i'd pass out anytime. seriously. was sprinting towards the end. maybe that wasn't such a good idea. had to remind myself to breathe. haha. but it was worth it. such a great feeling of accomplishment i tell you. mills finished in 70 min and i did it in 80 min... which is cool, cos i was aiming for below 90 min. :) mills i'm proud of you too!! even though u were sick, had bad knees and fell down, you got a great timing! this reminds me of swan river days too. :)

posing with our hard earned medals after the race was run. hot, sweaty and the promise of aches tomoro.

i'm also quite proud of my friend who did the full marathon. madness right? but he finished it, so that's a great feat. well done! mills and i are aiming for half mara next year and full mara in 2008. will probably have to start training like tomoro or something. haha. bring it on!! can't wait... shape run, army half mara, stanchart... ooh. excellent stuff. now if you'll excuse me, i'm off to rest my weary limbs. and maybe bribe someone into deepheat- rubbing me. :)

about a baby

isn't she the cutest thing EVER? marsya m. nazir, born 21 nov 2006, 3.49pm. weighing in at 2.92kg, standing (or lying down) at 49cm. so cuuuuuute. rushed down to the hospital immediately after work and pretty much monopolised the baby carrying time. ahahah. i'm an aunt! auntie kakak to be precise. yeah. i know, will explain later. whatever it is, isn't she the cutest thing EVER??

shoe wheel

i think this is the most fantastic invention i have ever seen. it's brilliant!!

right now my shoes are in a too small shoe cabinet and some of them have been unceremoniously dumped into a large bag and stuffed under the stairs. no, i did not ill treat my shoes, my mum did. sighs. i would seriously love to have this shoe wheel thingamajig.

oh ya, for raya pics please go here. right now they're all public so go see while u can! will upload all the other pics i promised soonish. so shaz, shaved yet??

quickie

ok haven't been updating lately cos as usual, i'm lazy. besides that, been pretty busy with hari raya and visiting and open houses and exploring new gyms and shopping and being lazy. anyways, here's a summary of what i may or may not post up in the near future:

1. pics of food, glorious food, so u can see how much i had been enjoying myself the past few wks
2. pics of hari raya, deeparaya, open house, so u can see how much i had been enjoying myself the past few wks
3. pics of my freshly painted room. ok mebbe just one pic. cos i painted just one wall that's worth taking a picture of. haha
4. pics from the dept retreat i had last wk... no comments

why? becos a picture is worth a thousand words.

oh ya, thanks to everyone who came to the open house! love u lots!

what else happened ah... work still sucks. i'm slacking off big time. i mite also get into trouble with my neighbourhood comm... cos i didn't go for meetings 2 mths in a row. my excuse was puasa and raya. but more importantly, i haven't done some research and follow up tt im supposed to do. ahaha. i'm kinda screwed if i don't come up with something by the meeting this mth cos they're planning the activities for next year... and my great idea is one of the highlights. this is what i get for having ideas but absolutely no discipline to see that they actually happen. sighs. note to self: make it work!!

so as i mentioned earlier, i just joined a new gym. ahaha. wat with the haze and bad weather, haven't been able to train outside for stanchart... which is 3 wks away!!! aaaarrggghhh!! paying abt 1.5 times more than my old gym and the club that i'm using the most (it's right across the road from my office, so no excuse) is abt half the size too. this may not sound like such a great step but i'm loving it!! waaaay better than my old gym in terms of service, location, amenities, people, etc. went for yoga class with my gym buddy the other day and she farted in class. ahaha. classic.

ok lah i wanna go do some shopping. tis the season! i'm gonna be broke before i even start. yaya having her dance performance tonight too. good luck girlfren! u'll be great!

the raya post

ok people, here goes:

SELAMAT HARI RAYA TO EVERYONE

& MAAF ZAHIR BATIN

(FOR ANY WRONGDOINGS, REAL, IMAGINED, OR OTHERWISE)

to everyone who hasn't seen/paid attention to (how dare u. haha) my msn nick, please do let me know if u can make it to my

raya open house, 5 nov, sun, after zuhur till late.

i need to know how many people to cater for!! so let me know asap ok.

email, tag, chat, sms, whatever. will be smsing people to let them know too but feel free to bring whoever u want, other halves, bestfrens, hot single male friends, u know, the usual. wahaha. ok then stay safe... whoever is still collecting and not giving yet... take full advantage!!! wahaha.