Yesterday, one year ago

Forgive me for the slightly-delayed post. I just noticed that yesterday, one year ago, was my wedding reception on my husband’s side. Goodness, time sure flies.

Saturday was a friend’s wedding. I rarely miss the chance to attend my friends’ wedding because it gives all of us — friends from uni — an excuse to meet up. But I arrived after 1.30pm and missed Fa*ra (my roomie from uni) because her eldest daughter – who is, what, four or five? – has tuition?!

And I missed the part when Ceq We (his name is Az*wan but he’s kelantanese so hence the nickname) related the story where he sent back his maid after catching her beating her toddler daughter.

I’ll just let my friend Y0ng relate the story to you ok?

Ceq We bagitau that he n J were curious kenapa their daughter taknak kat maid as it’s bn 10 mths oredi since she started working. Ceq We tinggal with his mom in law but once in a while MIL will go out to meet friends etc leaving the graddaughter alone with the maid. So 2 wks ago Ceq We installed a cctv and nampak the maid pukul anak Ceq We..tak la dera but pukul yang pukul geram nih. Then they also saw that bila the daughter nangis dlm buai, she will henjut the buai so hard until buai kena lantai.

J cried when she saw it. Ceq we confronted her pastuh dia tak ngaku so Ceq We showed the video to her. terdiam le minah tuh. He said he badly wanted to tampar her but he takut if he lose control he’ll be the one spending 2 nites kat lokap..hahahah. Fara asked if he made a police report..Ceq We said dia malas nak meleret2kan this issue..ceq we pun dah taknak tengok muka perempuan tuh lagi so dia suh the agent hantar balik. He also made a copy of the video to the agent. Apparently agent kata they will replace a new maid.

So, that’s the story morning glory.And my friend Y0ng, a working mom, understands the problems faced by ceqwe and his wife.

She says:

I am lucky coz I leave my maid at my in-laws tapi bukan selama2nya nak bawak at inlaws hse. Takut bila we leave her alone with my son maid naik tocang plak. Diaorg nih tak bersyukur tul dpt good employers. As for other maids kalau tak pukul budak, lain plak problem..bwk boyfren masuk rumah ler, kuat menjawab ler, suami suruh balik ler..pening tau nak layan sumer nih. Wish I could afford to be a tai-tai..sigh :o)

And here I am thinking of starting a family and becoming a mom…. I know I can rely on my MIL (mom-in-law) but what would happen if she is leaves home for her appointments too? Who is going to take care of my kid? Does that mean I need to install a spy cam as well? Sigh… what a dilemma.

On a less serious note, these are the topics that my uni friends and I have been reduced to discussing when we met up these days – kids, maids, are you still breastfeeding them or have you started on formulas, etc, etc.

To be perfectly honest, it is not the most interesting topic but that’s life lah wei. It just goes to show that we’re all grown up and dealing with “grown up issues”. Nak buat cam ne?

Wince-inducing blog post

Thanks to this blog, I chanced upon another blog which is maintained by an undergraduate (I think, although I could be wrong) who is currently studying in a university in Kedah. From her writing, I can tell that she is a driven, ambitious and feisty girl. All of which, I believe, are great qualities for a girl to have.

But problems can arise from being, how should I say, too opinionated, especially about a cultural symbol belonging to another.

In a recent posting, she openly disagreed on the new dress code rules imposed by her university.

I think it is fair and well within her rights to blog and inform the media about it. But here’s the part that made me wince. *I have bolded the statements she made which I have a problem with*.

She wrote: As a Risk Management student, let me do some evaluation on the RISKS of obliging the dress code by wearing baju kurung:

• Baju kurung is a physical hazard to the wearer!
  The distance of the stairs of the bus from the ground is more than the diameter of the skirt, no matter how much you stretch the cloth. I saw a lot of people falling down at the entrance of buses while boarding the buses. Besides, while alighting the bus, people behind you might step onto your skirt causing you to fall down as well.
• Baju kurung limits your movement!
  That is the reason why you-know-who are so blardy slow when getting from location A to location B which would take only a few minutes if we are wearing long pants or decently short skirt. And I have a lot of classes to rush to, so I don’t have the time to enjoy the scenery along the way, thank you!
• Baju kurung is a health hazard!
  Baju kurung is made from a cloth material that does not absorb sweat (Now I know why there are unbearable BO every time I go near you-know-who) and we are living in a country that is experiencing summer all year long, which means that we are sweating most of the time! It is easy to fall sick (too heaty) when you are standing under the sun for too long wearing clothes that cover you from head to toe. I don’t know how you-know-who survived wearing a tudung under similar condition! (And some of them go to sports activities with THAT! Rimas aku!)
• Baju kurung is a financial risk!
  Baju kurung is not cheap, you know? With a set of baju kurung, I can have 3 long-sleeved formal shirts! Beside having to spend hundreds on books alone, we’ll have to spend more money on clothes. The PTPTN (Pity Pity Notes) loan that we are getting is not enough for books AND food, never mind clothes! You are not being considerate towards poor and needy students! We pay for education and knowledge, NOT clothings!
• Baju kurung is a catalyst for criminal offences!
  Baju kurung increases the possibility of mental stress. You see, beside worrying about our sucky academic performance, we have to worry about dress code. A lot of students are depressed enough because of poor academic performance due to biased and racist lecturers and you have to add pour salt to the wound. People who are desperate for money would do anything, even if it is to buy proper clothes according to YOUR rules! Being a part of the statistics for criminal offence is something to be proud of, no?

Baju kurung causing BO? Among you-know-who?

I think I know whom she is referring to and it ain’t the same you-know-who from the Harry Potter books :P

It is such speaking-without-thinking comments that I find disturbing. It is disappointing too, coming from an intelligent young woman.

That is why I am glad someone left this comment on her blog:

I agree that universities should not enforce these kind of restrictions/rulings particularly those that pertains to dresscode and attire, as in my view, university is the time where one is treated like an adult, who’s able to make his or her own decisions, and this include deciding on what to wear to classes. I also agree that UUM’s management and staff have a rather outdated view when it comes to education and an even more outdated view on life. I remember a few years back, visiting UUM for a research project, and I was stopped and called by one of the academic staff there and was lectured for not covering my head, albeit the lecturer was aware that I was not a student and was a visitor. On that moment, I make the conclusion that the reason for the construction of the university at such remote place is so that people like him could be send and myopically think that they are god’s warriors.

Having said that, I also think that it is not right for you to just lambast ‘baju kurung’ and making all that ridiculing statements associating it such negativity. Please, baju kurung leads to BO? Not unless you don’t practise proper hygiene, which maybe the case for certain segments of UUM’s students population. Baju kurung is a physical hazard to the wearer? One could just lift the skirt slightly and voila, you can stretch as wide as you want. Again, its the case of the wearers, not the attire itself, but to make all that slandering remarks, it’s just totally uncalled for. – Maverick

I respect this young undergrad for having an opinion and the guts to stand up for what she believes in. But she, and all of us, must remember that we have to be responsible when speaking our minds, especially when it touches matters as sensitive as culture.

Stick to the facts and don’t let our emotions and personal biases cloud our thinking and judgement.

Update!

http://clareng.com/2007/07/30/i-not-stupid-you-are/

Comment left by zewt:
that is very extensive research you’ve done there… even to the satin part about pyjamas. but i have to say… to blame BO on baju kurung is a bit far fetched. i think there’s no need to list out a reason why baju kurung is not of preference. so long as you’re genuinely being forced to wear it… i think that’s bad enough.

Reply by blogger:
You see, I never blame it on baju kurung…I picked the attire because we were forced to wear them. For the BO thingy, any attire is prone to BO or rather enhance it for certain people…same goes to cheongsam, no? And I have to explain myself long-winded for many people out there who do not understand what I was talking about and called me a racist…Too bad, some people don’t seem to have the intelligence to distinguish between racist remark and non-racist remark…sigh~

No monkey business

   I just got back from visiting my cousin-in-law’s newly opened cafe in banting. She is 27 and an mba holder who has always been business-minded. So her decision to open up her own eatery (with her long-term boyfriend) does not come as a surprise to me.

However, I have to admit that when I heard that she was setting up food business in banting, I was a bit sceptical. The question running through my mind was: “can a cafe selling mostly-western food work in little banting?”

But having seen her and her friends manning the restaurant in their second day of operation, I think she made the right choice.

What her business does is filling a need. Apparently, there isn’t a western-food restaurant within the vicinity. Nearby eateries are all selling goreng-goreng and tom yam, so she is not competing with any of them specifically. Also, no one in town cooks good western food, so that is also an advantage for her.

Since she doesn’t have overhead issues to think of – the land where her cafe stands belongs to her family – all she has to worry about is making good food and giving good service to her customers.

Right now, the customers are mostly family and family friends. But they’re quite impressed with the food as well as the fact that the business is run by youngsters – my cousin-on-law is the oldest among her staff.

My husband has also resolved to come to banting every weekend to help out in the kitchen. For those who don’t know, he studied culinary arts in college and has quite an extensive experience of working in the kitchen of hotels and coffee houses. Unlike moi, he looooves getting his hands dirty in the kitchen. Being all busy in the kitchen, rushing orders from the customers is almost therapeutic for him. He says that being in the kitchen keeps his mind sharp.

I don’t think I can work in a busy kitchen because I panic too easily. Leave the dirty dishes to me but don’t ask me to take the orders and, god forbid, prepare the food!

Anyway, we are going there again tomorrow morning. I have to remind my husband to buy some bananas before that. He wants to feed the pet monkey (kera) they have over there. The kera got so friendly with him that it refused to let go of him. It even decided to climb on his back and sit on his neck while eating rambutan taken from the tree behind the cafe. I have it on video – I took using my mobile – and I promise to upload it on Yahoo! videos soon. Watch this space!

A falling star:P

I just read in another wordpress blog about Beyonce falling of the stairs during a performance [For the video, click here]. Apparently, she fell right smack on her face. I haven’t seen the video meself but I assume it was just like how Jacklyn Victor (first Malaysian idol) did during (the taping of) a show on RTM. Haven’t seen that one? Check back with me and I’ll see if I can hook you up to the video. Husband has it.

Back to Bey. Well, according to this news report, she had appealed to the public NOT to Youtube her falling on her face. When her plea fell on deaf ears, Sony stepped in and did what they HAD to do. [Search for "Beyonce falls" on Youtube to see what Sony did.]

Other bloggers have expressed that this was a B-A-D move and I agree. It’s not your private home video Bey, so people are free to circulate it if they want to.

And I sincerely believe that MORE people want to see the video AFTER she made the appeal. You’re world-famous girl, so naturally everyone wants to see you “fall from grace”. If Australian prime minister’s John Howard’s fall was shown on the news, what makes you immune? *In Howard’s case, he didn’t notice the uneven pavement on the entrance of the radio station where he was to be interviewed and tripped*

But I think know why she made the appeal. She is a self-proclaimed perfectionist and she probably views her fall – although a perfectly human thing to do – as a blot on her CV.

Relax lah. You should be thankful it is not porn. I have fallen in public too – twice or more – tak kecoh pun! *lol*

So just chill girl! The novelty WILL wear off. Before you know it, no one would even remember it.

New look: Part III

Hehehe…

I’ve changed my template again. I think I like this one better. I’m definitely keeping it :)…. for now…

New look: part II

So, yeah, I have moved to wordpress .

How did I end up here? Let’s just say that I got curious. Moving all my posts from blogger was suprisingly easy. But I had to abandon my blogarithm, shoutbox and the rest of the widgets. But it’s alright. I don’t really need them.

If you want to leave comments, just click on the No Comments or 1 or 2 comment . In blogger, you have to insert the verification code before leaving your comment. You don’t have to do that here.

I find that wordpress has better templates too and that was partly the reason for moving here. Without the extra widgets, I find that changing templates is a breeze. That means this template is not permanent. I’ve got several templates that I like but I have decided to “launch” my new blog with this look. A little gloomy and grey but at least it’s easy on the eyes.

I have to go and read my proofs now. Just reading it at a glance and making sure there are no silly mistakes. Later!

If it’s not bleach, then what?

So the miniature killer is a girl. A very disturbed girl.

With the mystery of the miniature killer solved, comes the conclusion of Season 7 of CSI: Crime Scene Investigations. But now I have more questions than before. If it’s not about bleach (the CSI team thought the killings were triggered by the pungent smelling cleaning agent), then what is it all about?

I think I got the part about what makes her kill. She can’t stand it when it is about the “other girl”.

When she was small, she pushed her little sister off the tree house (and to her death) because their father seemed to dote more on the little sister. But what has her jealousy got to do with Izzy Delancy (the ageing rocker who died in his kitchen) and the rest – like the couple in the place with lots of chicken coups; the psychologist who suffered from Parkinsons (or some other illness) and the old lady who collects shopping coupons?

I know someone on the Net will be able to explain this, if he or she hasn’t already done that. But I don’t know how to begin searching for the answers. Typing “how did the miniature killer choose her victims” just leads to search results of people posing the same question!

So if anyone out there can explain to me the connection between all the killings, you know where to reach me!

Update:

Most of my questions were answered by wikipedia here. Wikipedia is a lifesaver, dude! At least now I know what is the connection between the murders and also the possible triggers for the murders. But if Grissom says that the killings weren’t triggered by bleach, then what did?

Thanks wiki but I still have some questions unanswered. And yeah, I am still open to anyone who wants to discuss the finale of Season 7 with me.

Technorati Tags: tv, csi, miniature killer

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And your point is?

First up, I re-read my post on britney and I think I sounded so eksyen. True, I have lost a little weight but I don’t look like I can get on the cover of Sports Illustrated just yet :P

I shouldn’t have said that she looks gross. She just looks “untoned”.

If I may, I’d also like to quickly comment on the whole cheap HP books vs regular-priced HP books. If you’re not familiar with the issue, read about it here.

I’m so glad that two book lovers whom I know don’t have a problem with the hypermarkets selling the books for cheap. I understand that the big bookstores are trying to make a point but as a book lover myself, I am all for cheaper books.

Frankly, I couldn’t care less if the hypermarkets were just “riding” on the pre-order promotions which the bookstores had planned months before the release of the book or not. All I know is that we all have a choice: buy the cheaper version or get the regular-priced one.

But if there was anything I learnt from my first commerce/economics class in school years ago, it is to buy something that is value for money.

No matter how you argue the issue, (like the argument below, taken from here),

I am as disappointed as the next Malaysian with book prices. Yes they are expensive. I am an avid collector and my room is a single huge library filled with books which have cost me an arm and a leg. But we have to face facts. Books are expensive but it doesn’t mean we don’t have a choice. A release of a hardcover book is a sales tactic, making use of the fact that there will be an instant number of readers who cannot wait to read a new book and would be willing to pay a higher amount to be the first to have the privilege. Books also come in paperback editions which usually arrive anytime between 6 months to a year, if you can stand the wait. So consumers can’t be saying that bookstores are being unfair. RM109.90 too high? Hang tight and wait for a cheaper edition, prices will and have fallen as previous books sales have proven. Book 6 of the Harry Potter is now going for RM29.90 at Borders and there are often the warehouse and clearance sales, where one can get a bargain. Other try renting it at book rental huts or hunt for second hand editions at places such as the Big Book Store, Payless Books or other second hand outlets. So no complains there? Patience is a virtue if you cannot afford it.

logic will tell you to buy the RM69 book.

Here is my retort to the line in bold: Why wait for sale when you can get something for cheaper during non-sale period?

Anyway, the bookstores which were planning to boycott the book have agreed on the below (taken from this blog):

MPH, Times, Popular and Harris bookstores are happy to have reached an agreed solution with Penguin Books Malaysia & Singapore with regard to the sale of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and will resume sale of the said book at the recommended retail price of RM109.90 fixed by Penguin Books Malaysia & Singapore with immediate effect. As a goodwill gesture to customers, all 4 bookstore chains have decided to accord customers with the following offer for the purchase of said title: (i) 20% discount for all customers with any purchase; and (ii) 25% for loyalty card members. For loyal customers with pre-orders, please refer to the respective bookstores for more details.

So, now, what happened to the point that they were trying to make?

All this hoopla makes me want to go to the nearest hypermarket and get the dang book and let it collect dust on my book shelve like the rest of the unread HP books :P

I have a point to make too, you know! :P

Technorati Tags: books

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I’m so mean

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britney, originally uploaded by Suzi3ana.

This is Britney Spears after two kids, in her bikini, having fun. It should be perfectly alright, right?

But why do I think that she looks… er.. gross? I know, it’s such a mean thing to say. But maybe I’m not used to seeing Britney like this. She looks too real, like me. I swear my thighs and butt looked just like her in this picture before I started exercising.

All I can think of is that celebs shouldn’t look like this. But why shouldn’t they? We’re always complaining about how celebs look too thin, unreal. Now that Britney looks like me at 65kg, I’m still complaining.

A year ago, I would have applauded tis picture and say, “See, even Britney thinks it’s cool to have a jiggly butt.”

Now that I have begun exercising regularly, my idea of “real” bodies are the ones sculpted by regular sessions of cardio, strength, maybe some yogalates and a healthy diet.

It doesn’t look like Britney has been doing any of those.

Anyway, why am I so worried? She’s got tons of money, she can lose all the weight in a matter of weeks under the supervision of a personal trainer and dietician.

I bet in two months, she’ll be back in her old clothes. Make that new, skinny clothes.

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This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.