a day for waterfalls and duck rice

god must have programmed 'RAIN' on a timer as it rains every single evening! u must be thinking 'duh, of course it always rains somewhere, what is this girl talking about..'
:>

my point is, if i plan to have any outdoor activities, it has to be in the morning as when it starts to rain right about from 5pm, i prefer to be all snuggled up in my comfy bed with wellesley, ah-pooh and eeyore...yea i know, i'm a lazy bum.

thank god i managed to 'work' some of my lazy muscles this weekend by going to Bukit Saga or some call it Bukit Putih or as we like to call, 'Ah-Pek San' (Tmn Cuepacs, Cheras).

ever since the local residents there objected to the 'intrusion' of climbers to their once peaceful neighbourhood, there was a newfound entrance to the foothill - a much more obscure spot than the previous. let me tell you, it's not so easy finding your way to this new entrance - but dun worry, i took the liberty of keying in the directions (l,r,l,l,r,...*pening*) into samsung baby as we made our way there.

the new route uphill is like a total reverse from before as we began at level 6 and worked downwards (i think). so, beginners tend to get disheartened as it can get real steep from the very beginning (as you go through a rubber estate). it gets better and you can expect more 'flat land', i promise :>

after a breezy 1.5hr climb up and then down a very steep muddy path (thank god for the ropes to cling onto), you get this refreshing view...some sort of a 'mini' waterfall.
i dare you to stand beneath the gushing waters for a freezing cold bath!

here i was waiting for the other 2 ladies to join me
in this photo!

mark and june having a splash of a good time

tai-chi master

constipated tai-chi master

first time someone got 'leech'-ed in Ah-Pek San!!

3 hours later, it was Time For FOOD!! Derek suggested this Duck place in Tmn Taynton View, Cheras. hurray, another new place to makan...!

judging from the long line of customers, this place looks promising...i think.

and boy, was I right!

i like my buah kedondong ('sa-lei') drink!

this is their fantabulous (fantastic + fabulous) DUCK!

i've never tasted such tenderlicious (tender + delicious) DUCK!

mark with the drumstick (that i had wanted!)

ok, for the non-halal section....the char-siew is damnnn sedap too!
at least it's less fatty than Jln Alor's.

and where there's a char siew, there also a siu-yok!

still can't beat the one sold by this stall behind Hotel Istana though

i was quite impressed with their yong tau foo as well, though all i had was 1 piece.

it was all gone before i could even reach for my second!

my favourite all-time soup - Lotus Root!

derek and mary. coincidentally it was also derek's birthday, so happy birthday, D!

i guess this means this meal's on us! >.<

wtc! (whatdachair!)

Remember my broken red stool?

Meet my new green 'Kiddo Chair'.

It's plastic, it's cute, it's cool and there's a reason they call it a 'Kiddo Chair'...

...coz it's soft plasticky 'legs' started to bend after sitting on it for 5 minutes!!

(it couldn't even hold my weight for 5 freaking minutes?)

back to square one................crap.

Earth Hour*

psst, it's the closing stages of 'Erf' Hour and i'm sitting in my dark room

(oh oh, am i not supposed to even use my pc?)

*www.earthhour.org

feverish!

Heart racing.

Sweaty palms.

Rapid pulse.

Adrenalin rushing.

I think I'm coming down with a fever.

.......................

...............

.........

....

... F1 FEVER!!!!!*

*starts 29 March

work's not so peachy after all

To a certain degree, it can be somewhat demoralising doing what i do...from 9 to 5 on weekdays, that is. moreso, beginning this year. even moreso for the past few weeks.

Let's put it this way - out of billions of job i can partake, i chose one that isn't your average big-bucks, money-making kind.

Imagine bringing in a production of 1 million per month. (wow!)

but paying out 1.4 million the same month. (wtf!)

simple mathematics.
Yet the frustrating thing about it - there's so much we have done but there's only so much we can do.............. pity.

While i'm moping in my office struggling with numbers, people are dropping into hospitals like going to their Sunday mall and doctors are laughing their way to the bank.

That's me, your medical insurance underwriter.

And i have this to say, people.

Stay healthy, for the sake of your wallet...and my rice bowl.

I have to go to work now.

Gee, fun.

i have a job!

My thoughts today were 'at least i still have an office to go to every day'.........

...because i really cannot imagine NOT getting my salary every month.

I checked the latest on company layoffs that Jabil Circuit are to retrench 3000 workers worldwide and Nokia, another 1700 worldwide.

I shudder to think what if i'm one of those unfortunate (ex)Dell workers?

In Singapore, they actually have a retrenchment blog: http://retrenchment-blog.breaking.sg/ and how ironic that there's an ad in there on 'Jobs in Malaysia'. :P

I guess at this time of crisis, i could be thankful i'm not part of the banking, IT, transportation, electronic or manufacturing industry. talk about their volatility - during booming times, they are the very same industries where salaries rocket up like nobody's business. people say it's only a matter of time before the slump hits the rest of us but i sure hope my company survives this turmoil coz how else can i go on living if i lose my job.....AAAahhh....

I have had this nightmare i'll end up behind bars for defaulting on my housing loan payment!

But for now, we should just be contented we still have a job to wake up to every weekday.
Even if it means having to drag our lazy asses out of bed every morn.

mt. nuang...3/4 conquered

8/3/09 - after months, i finally plucked up the courage to hike up gunung nuang in hulu langat (the highest peak in Selangor). i guess knowing that i wouldn't be amongst only the toughest stupendous hikers, gave me the assurance that i wouldn't be dumped behind by the pack. -_-'' there were 18 of us altogether (many of which are friends of friends of friends) but only 13 in this pic. i guess we left not only footprints, but another 5 hikers behind. tee~hee.

on a different note, i wish i'd blogged about this earlier coz now, i can't recall the names of all the other fellow hikers. darn sqerwl.
NOT as difficult a climb as i had expected (not to brag but in my head, i had actually pictured ropes and deep gorges and 80-degree terrains). since there was a slight downpour the night before, the climb became technically challenging, as the hiking trail was transformed into this slippery muddy path. blotches of mud got stuck beneath my RM 6 kampung shoes, and each step made the 'siep-siep' sound. hahaha, you know that sound when you're walking on a wet surface with rubber shoes on.

we had about 4 or 5 rivers to cross...i love dipping my feet in the cold cold flowing water!

the forest was full of bamboo, the pandas would SO love it here!

check out the greenery 'bambooic' background!

nice kan?

not all's nice in nuang though...here are some creepy crawlies we found :

look, enoki mushroom look-alike!

this looks like some twisted, real-confused looking tree. stumped.

siaw chin and i - she's one heck of a climber. the only place where she dumps her bf behind is at the mountains. nyek nyek...

mary and i. mary's so fine, she makes climbing look so easy-peasy...

looking all dreary and tired, look at our weary smiles

i got a friend who thinks this guy's cute...

-dengan muka penuh malu-...i'm sorry i forgot his name though +_+Lunch was this packet of yong tau fu! After a long strenuous climb, eating this was like eating the best yong tau fu ever,

even if we had to eat it on the ground.

This is Kem Pacat, halfway through the climb. No leeches - just a name.

siaw chin and ah boy

another mountain conquered.....not!

eh-hem, let me explain - time was against us (started only around 8.30) and due to the ground conditions, none of us wanted to end up in a mud-bath.

definitely i'll be back one day.

necrophobic

first of all - Dad, if you're reading this, don't believe everything you read.

yesterday i almost got 'kissed' by a putra feeder bus had i not heard its screeching brakes, only to find my elbow literally touching the front of the bus when i turned my head.

funny thing is i felt...nothing(!).
after that, i just continued walking despite the frozen stares of bystanders, leaving behind a trail of cursing words from the bus driver (can't blame him, he must have thought i was on some sort of suicidal mission or something :-P).
there was no feeling of heart-racing or knees wobbling. wow, come to think of it, i was like one of the robots from Stepford Wives, minus the apron and false eyelashes.

hmm, reminds me of the time when this woman standing beside me at the pedestrian walkway got her bag snatched by some jerk on a motorbike. i was as calm as an oyster, or is it a cucumber..no wait, that's as cool as a cucumber...wer, same thing la.

stuff like watching ju-on crawl on the floor can make me jump out of my skin, but not a close brush with death like this?!

i must have developed some resistance against the fear of death (necrophobia).

anyways, every story has a moral and mine is...
...........
........
.....

to never blast your mp3 so loud until you can't hear an approaching vehicle! my bad. =:-P

a woman's poem

from the web...this is so hilarious.

A Woman's Poem
Before I lay me down to sleep
I pray for a man who's not a creep

One who's handsome, smart and strong
One who loves to listen long

One who thinks before he speaks
One who'll call, not wait for weeks

I pray he's gainfully employed
When I spend his cash, won't be annoyed

Pulls out my chair and opens my door
Massages my back and begs to do more

I pray that this man will love me to no end
And always be my very best friend



A MAN'S POEM
I pray for a deaf-mute gymnast nymphomaniac with
huge boobs who owns a bar on a golf course,
and loves to send me fishing and drinking. This
doesn't rhyme and I don't give a shit.
The End.


(let me save you the trouble - a 'nymphomaniac' = a woman with abnormal sexual desires
now go ...'ohhhhhhh')

quiz me!

if you're an ardent fan of FB (facebook la.), you might have noticed this sudden flooding of invitations for you to join this quiz and that quiz and then there's this awesome quiz, the more awesome quiz and of course, the ultimate quiz. boy, i'm quizzed!

still, i decided to take a shot at it and it was like shopping for shoes(!) as i scrolled down the endless list of quizzes to take, avoiding the more boring ones like

- what type of woman are you? (who would know me better if not me myself??)

- what disney character are you? (it's PooH i dun care)

- what color are you? (umm, nope..not a life-altering, mentally challenging topic... NEXT!)

- your ideal job (hoohooo...not sure if this is to make me feel better/ worse..not taking the risk)

some are pretty eye-catching, i must say...like

- how will you die (gulp)/ WHEN will you die (gulp gulp)

- what is the name of the guy you will marry (watda??)

- how dumb are you?/ are you a major loser/ how stupid are you / what type of brat are you/ will you commit suicide and if yes, how (my gawd, why so much negativity)

- am i boringly normal or a total psychopath (haha this one's great, i havent tried it out though)

for a start, i chose 2 quizzes which i found to be interesting and i dun mean in a creepy way :-

1) what is the theme song of your life?

2) what is your japanese name?

know what my theme song turned out to be?

"Learn To Fly" by Foo Fighters

or what they call it, 'The Lost-Soul-Trying-To-Find-My-Way' type.

Reading further, it says 'You have been on a path, but don't know where you're going, or where you want to go. "And I'm looking to the sky to save me, Looking for a sign of life Looking for something to help me burn out bright" Only you can find the way to go.. so now's the time to find it in your heart what you want and learn to fly without any assistance!'

and my response to this...'heyyyy, i like that song la but why they say i lost soul wor'... ^-^''

i ain't no lost soul. all i've ever lost were just my soles (of my shoes la).

luckily my theme song didn't turn out to be worse..like Linkin Park's 'Numb' or Daniel Powter's 'Bad Day'! hahaha...

on a lighter note, i also got to know my japanese name is

AYA
Aya means color and design so i'm a very creative person (eh-hem), maybe i will grow up to be a artist! :)

so now i know a little bit more about myself ^>^

-Aya V-

C'est La Vie

my stool!!

brrr...it's cold tonight..here i am, sitting on my broken red stool typing with hp baby sprawled on my bed. yes, my broken red stool... =_=
first, it was the middle of the stool that suddenly went 'crack' beneath my ass while i was engrossed playing my dominoes online. and i immediately thought to myself, 'my poor one and only chair that i've ever owned!' (divert a bit : in case you do not know, i do not own a table nor chair in my bedroom. yes, i'm so pathetic)

and now, i've been robbed of my first and last piece of furniture! the 'crack' happened like a month ago. since then , i've resorted to sitting 'around' that crackline, or whatever hard surface that's left on the stool! until just now, i discovered i've run out of surface to sit on. it's so bad now that my shorts got stuck between the crackline and ripped a small hole in my shorts while i was trying to tug it free! @!X#~%O
so, i've hopped into bed now with hp baby on my lap (why else do they call it a lap-top?) and once again, it's a cold cold night. and i'm having goose-bumps coz i got the fan blowing directly at me. so, you're thinking watda...! it's totally intentional, my dear...it's siu V's method of drying her hair...(naturally). teehee..or maybe i'm just too lazy to blow-dry it.

i was actually thinking about this silly dream yesterday (one of the millions i had) where i spent hours making this huge, and i mean REEEALLLY HUGE sandwich (like triple my height) ...for my dad. dunno why, but i could still clearly recall the hundreds and hundreds of cucumber slices i had to arrange on the bread. dang, i'm not having anymore cucumbers for a long time to come. the dream ended weird though, coz eventually my dad grew so tired of waiting for his sandwich, he changed into his sarung (what he always wears to sleep) and stormed upstairs...to bed! hahaa, call me cwazee or wat! i woke up feeling so freaking tired! i mean, who wouldn't, if they've just spent the night making a sandwich fit enough to enter the Msia Book of Records.

oh and i woke up 2 hours late too (-_-)''

that's all i wanted to blab today...nonsensical stuff but hey, you fell for it anyway! hahaha..

i'm turning in soon, alarm's set for tomorrow morning, hair's almost dry, 'smart' attire's picked out for tomorrow (going to Habib Jewels to try to close a deal - not diamond deal la), bag's packed for tomorrow (no-lahhh, think still schooling meh)...aaand double checked and YES, alarm's REALLY set for tomorrow morning!

one last thing to do, add 'red stool' to siu V's shopping list.

funny

she called two weeks ago. i ignored it.

she called again lunchtime yesterday. this time, 2 missed calls.

funny, some spontaneous spell came over me all of a sudden that made me call her back at 7.59pm. but not without a heavy heart and a deep breath right before dialling her number. dunno why i did it. maybe because i'm generally a good selfless soul. plus, she's a woman in her 70s so if i have to put on the happiest glow on my face or project the most cheerful tone in my voice just to make her feel a tad better...believe me, I would.

funny deep down, i dread each call. i dread listening to the scripted,rehearsed & cliched questions about my well-being, from 'how long my hair has grown' or 'am i still as skinny as a stick' to 'am i seeing anyone special'. i dread her one day telling me that her son's gotten married or she's going to be a grandma once more. not that i bother (really) plus i can tell she's really careful about what she says. it touches me whenever i call back (half praying nobody picks up) because listening to how her voice lights up whenever she hears me say 'auntie', makes me glad i made the call. and i can't believe she's still apologising to me after 2 years. wtf does she need to feel sorry for when all she'd been was like a mother to me.

it's funny she mentioned that she hasn't forgotten my face and would sometimes secretly view my old photos from her son's pc, with the help of one of her grandsons of course. that took me by surprise. i could only respond with 'yao mou kao cho ah'...hopefully that didn't come off as too rude a response. oh, have i mentioned recently discovering my own collection of holiday photos all cut-up with holes in them, with the intention to remove the face of a certain someone. who else but my parent's doing...hilarious i think but i guess all parents are protective in that way :>

funny it suddenly occured to me this 'call-pattern' - that she would call each time she's about to fly off to a holiday somewhere. it was the case previously with hk, vietnam, china, australia and this time, it was hk again...next month...with him...and probably more.

i'm glad she and hubby are doing well and going places. i always wish them a long healthy life.

after a brief 5 minutes, we said our good-byes and i went for dinner with 6 good friends.

watdaheck, it was friday the 13th anyway.

cream puff with a twist

We jolly well know that cream puffs taste best when consumed immediately. There's nothing like biting down into the crunch of the freshly baked shell only to feel the sensation of vanilla-flavoured sweet custard-like cream bursting in your mouth! Ok, by that, I'm actually describing the euphoria of diving into a vanilla cream puff from Beard Papa.
However today, I tasted a different kind of cream puff....the chewy kind.
Yup, the kind that for me, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference even if it's been sitting out for too long...omg what's the english word for 'masuk angin' again? Anyways, if you've never tried Chewy Junior (the name says it all), I think it's sole outlet is in Pavilion so go ahead, watchu waiting for...
(I wonder if there's a Chewy Senior)

Gone are the traditional-looking cream puffs...If they can come out with donuts looking as pretty as Little Bo-Peep, then why not cream puffs right? I'm telling you, one of these days, I'M coming out with something that'll be the hottest catch-on around too! Haha, easier said than done..bummer.

If THIS doesn't make you wana hop onto your car to Pavilion rightaway and sink your teeth into one of dem Chewy Juniors, then I dunno what will... =_=