Three days before the trip.

I probably should go to the gym — since my husband is going to take another 20 minutes or so playing futsal with his colleagues on the rooftop — but I’m too lazy to even change.

I guess I’m not so worried because the hotel where I’m staying it has a gym. By the way, I just discovered that Subuh in Hong Kong is quite early, as in 5.15am or something… (gah!). Syuruk is something like 6.15am (double gah!!). So, I guess I can wake up for Subuh and help open the gym (lol!). I’ll probably give myself only 45 minutes there… okay, let’s be real… 30 minutes. If the gym opens at 6am, that means I’l finish just before 7am. Then, since my programme only starts at 9am, I can sneak in maybe an hour’s nap, before I go down for breakfast and attend the programme. Planning baik punya!

But like the last time in Hanoi, I managed to squeeze in some exercise around 5.00pm-5.30pm. That was when I caught the last season of American Idol on Starworld. Thank God that hotel had Astro-like channels! So, it would be good if I can do that in HK too.

But the thing is, the evenings is when the Malaysian teachers disappeared to the shops. I love tagging along with them because they’re good fun. But this time, they’ll be more media people and they’re all girls… (I hope they’re nice people) so hope it will be MORE fun :) We’ll see how it goes…

I’m glad I’m already familiar with the MS chaperone we had the last time. She’s really nice and helpful.

Anyway, I’m looking at the tentative schedule and notice a great difference in the scheduling this time around. I don’t see interview sessions being slotted at a specific day and time anywhere like in Hanoi. Maybe it’s a different event company which is handling this one. The last team was alright. Hope this one’s better, though. Oh, I just noticed that on Tuesday we will be briefed on the “media schedule for the next 3 days”. Ah, maybe they’ll have another schedule for us then.

Okay, what else. Well, my work at the office is done — for this weekend and even the next (both my cover). I have my e-tickets, my passport and my running shoes ready. I’ve even bought my travel insurance (cheap – only RM34). I just haven’t packed yet. So many decisions to make — which shoes to bring, which pants to wear etc. One important thing. I must remember to delete all adult movies I may (stress on the word may) have on my laptop because I don’t want to be caught and appear in the news like those Malaysian pilots in Australia. Hahahaha!!!

Have faith and you will succeed.

Did I tell you that I’ve been reading The Secret by Rhonda Byrne? I bought it for RM48 at the MPH warehouse distributors sale. Not bad for a book which costs about RM80.

There’s a funny story behind my getting my hands on that book too. I’d like to think that the secret — which explains in great detail the power of positive thinking and law of attraction — worked on me even before I started reading it.

The story began after I read a long article about the book in The Star. I’ve been meaning to get the book ever since, but I thought it’s too expensive for a small hard-cover book. So I promised myself that I’ll buy the first copy that I can get for cheap. It was something that I told myself and forgot all about after that. I only remember about it whenever I’m at a bookstore. I’ll look for it and hope that it will be on sale. But it never does (go on sale).

But lo and behold, over a year later, I was invited by my colleague to follow her to MPH book sale and got myself a copy for cheap!

And I’m sure I told you about my wish to visit HK one day and it’s coming true…? I guess that’s Law of Attraction too…

So, I’m close to finishing the book and I think it makes a lot of sense. Here are a few things that I learned from the book:

a. Your thoughts are powerful.

I grew up being told that “kata-kata itu satu doa”. It means that your wishes are prayers ie if you say something often enough and believe it to be true, it will turn into reality.

For example, if a father keeps on telling his naughty son that he will never amount to anything, and if the father and son actually believe it, then the son will grow up to be someone who doesn’t amount to anything. The same goes for people who say they hate a certain someone, they will somehow always end up bumping into that person because they are attracting the person they hate with their negative thinking.

It all has to do with your thoughts, actions and how passionate or how much you mean something when you were saying it. The book says that positive thoughts are twice (or more) powerful than negative thoughts. BUT if said with conviction, even negative thoughts can overpower positive thinking.

So, push away negative thoughts the minute you have them.

b. You can wish your worries, illness etc away.

The book gave an example of a man whose lungs were crushed in an accident and doctors thought would spend the rest of his life as a “vegetable”. But the man never stopped believing that he will get better and walk out of the hospital on his own two feet. Within a year or so, he did. His secret was positive thinking and believing with all of his heart that he will get better.

The author even suggests that social ills can go away if the media stops focusing on it. Well, she says that the positive thinking must start from the public. If the public shifts its focus on the negative to the positive, they will attract the positive. Apparently, as simple as that.

How do you do this? Do the exact opposite. If you are unhappy with your job, either look for another one or concentrate on what you enjoy about it, instead of lamenting about how much you hate your job. When you put all your attention on something you like, you will attract more of it and you will end up enjoying it more. Because what you resist passionately, you will attract like moth to flame.

Mother Theresa apparently never attended anti-war rallies. “If you have a peace rally, invite me,” she said. So if you’re anti-war, be pro-peace. You get the drift.

c. Believe that you are (insert your wish here) and you will be.

A woman who had cancer prayed everyday thanking God for curing her cancer away (she still had cancer then). She did this every single day without fail, as if God had actually cured her illness. In the end, her cancer was cured.

Your action is important in making your dreams come true. If you wish to be pregnant but you are not opening yourself to being a mom — not having enough sex, not taking care of your health, hating babies etc.. than you may not conceive because your mind rather than your body is not ready.

d. Be grateful for what you have.

The book says that in order to attract what you want, simply “ask, believe and receive”. It means that you must vocalise what you want (say “I want to be a millionaire”, and not “I don’t want to be poor”), believe absolutely that your desires will be yours and start visualising (receiving) the joy of (being a millionaire).

So, in your prayers, always express your gratitude for what you already have, even if it’s make believe (like the woman with cancer above). People who are thankful for what they have normally receive more that they ever wish for. I think this applies to the concept of zakat.

e. Wish people well by blessing and praising them.

Remember that a negative thought (said with conviction) is more powerful than 100 positive thoughts? Well, forget about cursing your enemies because, again, what or whom you resist will always come to you. So, let go of your hate and wish whoever it is well. And then focus on things more worthwhile and that bring you happiness and calm.

Skeptics may think that the Secret is a load of bull. But I think that this book gives hope to an otherwise jaded world that we live in. I mean, what’s wrong in believing that we have the power within ourselves to achieve our desires — be it world peace, a Coach bag or a prince charming? I think what the world needs now is “love, sweet love” hehehe and “faith” that something good will come out if we believe hard enough.

Rocking the vintage look

I think I’m going to check out this sale in SS3, KJ (The Big Blue House) today. The sale was supposed to be a weekend-only affair but it has been extended to today in lieu of the Deepavali hols.

I’m normally not one to haunt jumble sales but after visiting the websites of some of the participating stores, I think it’s worth a visit. The clothes carried by Nine-one, in particular, caught my eye. Not only are her vintage dresses 21st-century friendly, they are also very affordable. I saw a red and a blue dress that look super sweet. I think I can pull them off, if I can fit into them first, that is :P

I mean, let’s face it. Not everyone can pull off the vintage look without appearing frumpy and cuckoo. Some of the vintage stuff sold online are really best left in the boxes in the store rooms where they were found. They look too makcik (sorry, there’s no nicer way to put it).

Speaking of vintage, I had this teacher in secondary school (in the mid-90s) who wore her “vintage” dresses from when she was maybe 22 to work. I think she was in her 40s then. With her round glasses, frizzy curly hair and 70s makeup (think pale blue eye shadow), she stood out for the wrong reasons. What we girls didn’t know then was that she was very fashion forward.. hahahaha. Too fashion forward in fact. She’s probably laughing at all of us now because we’re scouring for the clothes that she used to wear and we used to make fun of.

So, I hope to visit Nina-one’s “offline” store tomorrow and find something that I can actually wear to work.

I’ve actually emailed my brother in my hometown hoping to convince him to join the online clothes store craze. I know he’s perfect for this business. He can work from home, and still make good money. I think the fact that he lives in a small town is an advantage. Materials may be a lot cheaper in a small town. If he were to dig the boxes at home, he’ll probably find some pre-loved dresses and t-shirts worth selling online.

I’ve seen the kinds of clothes sold online and I think my brother can do better than some of them. I think he’ll do really well if he caters for the (UK) size 10 and above group. I can help him manage the website and the promotion. In return, I get to wear his clothes for free. Hey, imagine the amount of money I’ll be saving if I don’t have to shop for clothes anymore!

If I have the money, I’ll probably invest in the business too.

D3ll is as excited as I am about this. She has even asked, “so when’s the store opening?” Well, let’s give my brother a chance to study the business, the trends and start making the clothes first. And then we’ll talk.

I’m hoping that by putting this idea out in the open, it’ll push me to make this happen. Well, technically pushing my brother to make this happen. I’m sure he’ll love the idea too.

I may not know a lot about setting up a business, but I have to start somewhere, right?

Let’s see where this business idea goes, shall we?

Life and death

This post is a response to Fengy Blogs Too.

I just want to share with him what I picked up from a talk by Ustaz Hussein Yee which I attended during the recent Ramadhan. He spoke about many things during the talk and one of them was death.

He said that you can jump off a 20-storey building but if you’re time is not up, you won’t die. You’ll probably suffer internal bleeding, broken hips, and may even go into a coma. BUT unless it is your time, you won’t go!

He also said that God has determined the when (time and date) for our deaths, but not the where and how. So Fengy, the kind gesture your and your colleagues extended to the frail granny didn’t in any way expedite the process. She would have passed away on the time and date that she did, regardless of whether she was on her hospital bed or in the arms of her child.

On a lighter note, Ustaz Hussein also spoke about jodoh (your life partner) during that talk. Many of us, especially muslims, were brought up to believe that God has picked a partner for us to spend the rest of our lives with.

But Ustaz Hussein says that while God had picked a partner for us, God didn’t pick a specific person for us. For example, God didn’t pick my husband to be my life partner. It was entirely my doing — I picked my husband to be my soulmate. He had only meant for me to be married at a certain age, without specifying who it is that I marry.

I think this is why some people marry several times (because of death/poligamy/divorce) and some not at all. It certainly gels with the notion that we are the master of our own destiny, with the exception of death, of course.

I know this may be hard to digest but just think about it..Whether you believe it or not, at least it made you use your God-given brain, didn’t it?

Anyone interested?

This may be hard to believe (because I’m such an Internet junkie) but I’m not one to browse through online stores. I blog hop and FB way too many times a day but I rarely visit online stores. One of the reasons is that I haven’t really caught the online shopping bug. I’ve shopped for mineral makeup and subcribed to foreign magazines over the Internet but that is as far as it goes.

But Emmagem.com has changed that for me. Thanks to this Malaysian fashion blog and shopping directory, I have discovered many shopping sites created by young local female entrepreneurs. I think that is fantastic! I absolutely admire these girls for their entrepreneurial skills.

I think Emmagem itself is awesome because I recently posted a question on how a 30-something career woman can wear headbands without looking cutesy. I’m impressed by the way one of the writers tackled my question. Now, that is what I call dedication. Kudos to the writers!

But as a writer myself, I can’t help but to notice the kind of writing that appears on these Malaysian online shops. I’m not questioning the writing skills of Emmagem writers. They know their stuff, trust me on that. But the others are…pretty atrocious.

I can’t blame them because not everyone has a flair for writing and/or a strong grasp of the English language.

I’m the first to admit that I don’t speak/write the queen’s English. BUT when I’m careful, my grammar can be pretty tight. Hey, I have to show something for the years of proofreading that I have done since I joined the oldest newspaper in the country. Kalau tak, malu lah wei!

So, I think I can help these girls make their websites more presentable “languagewise”. I can offer them my proofreading and/or copywriting services.

I have 7 years of experience writing and proofreading copies for grammar and typo mistakes. I refer religiously to the 7th (latest) edition of Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary when I write/proofread. Seriously, I will check every sentence against the dictionary (for the construction, etc) so you can be sure that your copy will be clean by the time I’m through with it. It is a habit I acquired from my boss.

I’m very keen to help my fellow Malaysian online store owners but the problem is, how do I approach these girls? Will they be offended if I were to suggest that their “copies” need pruning?

Besides that, how do I charge them? Will they even agree to the idea of me charging them?

I guess I have to think this through before I approach my “potential customers”.

In terms of payment, I don’t think I mind being paid in kind (i.e items that these online shops sell). I see it as a a barter trade: my proofreading or copywriting services for clothes, bags, etc :-P

So, anyone interested? Leave your details on the comment box!

I cried watching a scary movie

I never thought that I’d cry over a scary movie. I mean, I thought the ending of Dark Water was sad but it didn’t really move me much. Nang-nak was sad too towards the end… but no.. my eyes were dry. But The Orphanage… now that’s one spooky movie with a really touching end.

I bought the DVD a while back but have never had the time or guts to watch it. I know my husband doesn’t want to watch with me. He’ll just leave the room if I were to even put the movie into the player.

So, this morning, I found a pocket of time to finally watch it – while folding the laundry and doing some ironing. I have read the spoilers on wikipedia, so I roughly knew how the story went. But that will not prepare you for the experience of watching this Spanish film.

I have to say that this movie has one of the best cinematography I’ve ever seen. It’s beautifully shot and well told.

The Orphanage is a story about Laura and her husband Carlos and their young son Simon. In the beginning, you get the idea that Laura is an orphan who was adopted around the time she was six or seven. Laura had bought over the orphanage where she grew up in and had planned to turn it into a home for special needs children. I think the story got creepy after Laura and Simon went to a cave by the beach to pick up sea shells. I don’t know what possessed Laura to allow Simon to enter the dark, creepy cave on his own, but she did. What was worse was that Simon started talking to a new imaginary friend (he already had two) whom he called Tomas. He had conveniently invited Tomas so they can play. In case Tomas doesn’t know where they live, Simon proceeded to leave sea shells along the way ala Hansel and Gretel. Naturally, strange things started to happen after that.

I won’t say The Orphanage is completely original. Halfway through you can probably guess how the story is going to end. Just think Peter Pan and Dark Water. But the “journey” to the end of the story is the best part. Although the ending feels familiar but some (if not most) of the scares in the movie are quite clever. There are no annoying “suddenly loud” sound effects to make you jolt but I had goosebumps watching some of the scenes — I dare say that’s a first for me.

But what really caught me by surprise was how I was moved by the ending. I have never cried seeing a scary movie before — that’s another first for me!

If you’re a fan of this genre, I really recommend The Orphanage. It’s in Spanish but the sub-title is really good — not annoying at all. The acting is solid (from the main actress to the supporting characters) and the scenes flow naturally.

If you like Japanese and Korean horror movies, you will like this too, because it has all the elements needed to scare you — big, poorly-light house with lots of rooms, and strange noises coming from the walls etc — minus the annoying, evil spirits that seem to kill/terrorise people for no good reason (think Ju-On).

You can catch this movie on Astro Box Office this month (I think) or you can go the bootleg way and get you a pi-ra-te version. Quality audio-visual guaranteed.

One of the little pleasures in life

Oh, just to share with you, my favourite new font is Calibri. While writing on MS Words, I put the background on grey and the font at 10.5 and I feel instantly inspired :-)

When I’m bored, I switch between Tahoma, Trebuchet MS, Verdana and Gill Sans MT. These never fail me. And I don’t know why these authors are hooked on Courier…Strange….!

Shop with a click of the mouse

I think I can get used to shopping online. I recently discovered “the joys” of buying books online.

My Kak Long has been doing it for for some time now. Recently, I decided to give it a try. I think I blogged about it earlier on.

Anyway, I was at m*p*h yesterday and saw that Sophie Kinsella’s new book, Remember Me? has been released. It’s the size of a regular hardcover book except that it is in paperback. The price is RM79.

Seeing the book reminded me that I haven’t picked up my Laws of Attraction book from my sister. I decided to search for the book in the store. As I had expected and read from an online review, it is thin and easy to read. The price tag behind the book reads RM41.

I bought it online with a 30% discount for RM34. My sister also bought a book and she paid for the RM7 delivery charges (per delivery, not per book). I thought, “hmmm… a RM7 discount”, not bad lah…because the hassle of driving to the mall and finding parking and paying for the book AND parking later is not always worth the while.

This made me wish that they sell Remember Me? online… for a discounted price, of course. I mean, Cecilia Ahern’s book, Thanks For The Memories is relatively new and it already has been given a discount of about 20 or 30%. But I think I’ll just wait for the paperback version (of Remember Me?), which will be out by next month anyway. I hope it’ll be available online and on sale by then.

I’d like to buy bags over the Internet next. But I’m very particular about bags. I will not buy a bag if the material used doesn’t feel good to touch. I hate bags that feel too PVC-like. I was quite disappointed when I walked into a store once — where the bags are priced at between RM300 and RM500 — and discovered that the material feels no better than the fake ones sold at stalls in shopping malls. Terus tak jadi beli!

Anyway, I’m going to HK next month and I think I would like to get myself a sling bag similar to the ones made by Coach and Louis Vitton. I think it’ll make a good weekend bag for me. Of course, I can always buy a fake one here but I’d rather get an affordable one that looks and feels as good as the designer one from a no brand shop. I hope I’ll find it there. I really liked Kam’s H&M bag which she carried when we met up.

Well, enough talk about shopping. I haven’t saved enough money to shop for the bag anyway.

But my savings scheme has been working alright. Let’s just say that if my daily budget was RM10 a day and I had no money left in the bank, I can use the cash from my money-box and be able to survive for three or four days at least. Not bad for something which I started about a week ago, if I do say so myself!

Anyway, we’ll see how that plan transpires in the next month or two. I’m so excited!

Later, peeps. I gotta do the laundry now before it rains in the afternoon…

It’s here…

My new blog is ready. If you’re interested, you can read it here

Anyway, I’ve been nominated for an assignment in HK in Nov!!

I think this Laws of Attraction thing works. I went to the USA last year and I initially had a few hours of “layover” (I have no idea how to use this word in a sentence) at HK on the way to LA. I had thought of going sight-seeing there but as it turned out, my flights there were either very early in the morning or very late at night. I was disappointed but I told myself, someday I’m going to see HK for myself. I guess wishes do come true! This also probably means that I will get to visit NY one day because I’ve been wishing for so long *hehehe*

[Btw, I bought a book on LoA from MPH Online and it arrived a few days ago. Haven't picked it up from my sister]

Well, it’s late. I’ll blog more later…

Friendship never ends?

We’ve all experienced it before. Falling out with a bestie (best friend) is never easy. I mean this is (these are) the person (persons) whom you hung out with for the longest time, shared personal jokes and probably trusted your life with. But everyone grows up and change — for the better or the worse. And when we outgrow our own skin, sometimes we outgrow people too… fall out of love with them… if you catch my drift.

I remembered it happening to me in school. I was superclose with this girl, K, at the start of Form One and we bonded fast. I have no idea what happened but before I knew it, hardly weeks later, she had another best friend. Rejection is never easy. It was painful to know that I wasn’t her best friend anymore. I think what was more painful was knowing that I wasn’t needed anymore.

Even at that tender age, I knew better than to hold any grudge against her. I didn’t understand why I couldn’t be her friend — if not her best friend — anymore. I mean, we could still hang out. But soon, I realised that if she didn’t need me, then there was nothing I could do. I moved on and made new friends whom I still keep in touch with to this very day.

And recently, I saw some very solid friendships crumble. These are people who nearly spent every single day of their lives together. They were almost family. But now the gang has been split into two. One gang (or at least one member) has been calling individuals in the other group names. Really rude names.

It really made me sad because the ones at fault are the ones hurling the abuses.

Not only that, some of them have even threatened to cut family ties with anyone who “befriended” the “enemies”. This NOT coming from the mouths of babes, ok. This is coming from the mouths of… dare I say it… orang yang tak ada iman (faith).

To me, only those without faith will even speak of cutting family ties during Ramadhan. SURE… Family does come first, but what if that family member is the one at fault?

Hypothetically, if I have done something wrong to let’s say John and my relative, Mary sympathizes with him, is it fair for me to expect Mary to take my side and cut all ties with John?

Shouldn’t I be ashamed of myself for even asking Mary to take my side just because “we’re family”?

I hate to sound “holier than thou” but only shameless and orang yang lemah iman and EQ je will even think of suggesting anything remotely like that. Come on, surely our parents taught us better than that.

The moral of the story is, if you’re in the wrong but not yet ready to apologise or own up to it, don’t make things worse by suggesting silly things like the above. Duduk je situ diam-diam (just sit there quietly). Kalau dah buat salah tu buat cara orang yang bersalah. Pray that you will have the courage and humility to apologise one fine day.