Please please please

I can barely sit down. I’m super anxious and fidgety. And stressed up. All this over poring over the airasia.com website for free seats.

Call me cheapskate but if I could save RM400 (on the minimum) for my flights, that would mean I could perhaps extend a one night stay! And I really need a vacation badly. That’s perhaps one of the best things I look forward to for each year. I don’t think that’s too much to ask – a solid, fantastic vacation, away from the o.f.f.i.c.e to soak up the sun, sleep to the sound of waves, stroll on an evening walk leaving footprints on the sand and just… rest.

So as I pore over pages and pages of the Air Asia’s website, I’m silently praying to find a lil pleasant surprise of a free seat still available. Ive been trying for almost 3 hours already. Oh, let it be error free too.

If you love me, hope the best for me.

Coz me need me vacation.

Don’t think you would want a crazy person for a friend right? :P

Do You Know What I'm Thinking?

I'm just bursting inside. Coz I just can’t wait! Yes yes i know, it is not till many MANY months away but hey, that doesn't mean a girl can’t be excited!

So, do you want to know what am I thinking of? Let me let you in a teeny tiny secret into my head of dream land... Tadaa

I'm also thinking of this...

... this...

and this...

And where exactly am I dreaming about?

Here!

Sleep 0- Work 0

Today is just one of those days. No wait, its been a string of a few days already, this past whole week. I just can’t seem to shake it off.

I’m tired of working.

When the 5.55am alarm clock rings, I wake up feeling like I barely slept at all which is crazy because I’ve been sleeping between 11pm and midnight everyday.

I need a break. Weekends alone are not enough. I doubt it’s the post-holiday syndrome from merdeka weekend, which btw was excellent. I ate to my heart’s content and did absolutely nothing (much to the chagrin of my sisters).

I miss having the 6-8 weeks break after 14 weeks of hard work aka lecture+exams as a student.

I want a break, not come to work and just sleep. Seriously.

Mumbai Se

It feels like a very long time since I last took the time to really sit down and write. It is always the case of not really having the time to do this, at my leisure. I spend hours in front of the pc in the office so when I reach home collapsed with mental exhaustion; I avoid the computer like a disease.

But today, I feel like writing. And im happy that I managed to squeeze a lil bit of time for this lovely blog.

Lots of things have taken place in the last few months. The last I wrote was on my vacation to Perhentian Island. After that, Ryan and I attended Merchants of Bollywood in Istana Budaya. The song and dance routine is captivating, the synchronization perfect and the colourful costumes and boy, those dancers can really move with so much energy and enthusiasm!

2 weeks ago, I went to Mumbai Se just right off Asian Heritage Row to celebrate Ryan's cousin's 18^th birthday.  And I swore not to go there again unless someone drags me by my poor legs in. Clubbing that night reminded me why I no longer club these days – the smoke, the weird (in this case extremely weird) people, the horrible stain that hangs onto my clothes, the drunks and the ringing in my ears after that.

But most of all, the oddest crowd of Mumbai Se takes the cake. Can you image my shock when I saw old people (yes, if you're 45 and above in a club, you're O.L.D.) waltzing around with their amma looking clothes.  Did they think Mumbai Se plays ghazal music? Someone must have advised them wrongly, poor souls. Somewhere around midnight, I saw ladies wearing sarees and salwar kameezs walking in, apparently from a wedding sangeet. For crying out loud, you don't wear traditional costumes to a club, what were these people thinking? And if they came from a sangeet which is basically a song-and-dance party, not enough dancing kah? Aiyoh

The music – well, I don't watch hindi movies which meant I know hardly if any songs and I kept track of the number of songs that I think I know, it came down to 15 including 3 english songs they played. It was also pretty obvious that the crowd don't really listen to English songs, when the DJ played Rock This Party by Bob Sinclair, most of them left the dance floor *slaps forehead*.

Did I tell you about the drunks? They were first hilarious then progressed to being disturbing. Every table, save ours had at least a bottle of whiskey and these people make some real strong drinks – 2 parts whiskey and 0.5 part cola. Yes, I played people watching as I mostly sat down thru the night. Thankfully most drunks seated around us were happy drunks so their dancing got more "happening" with hands flapping around. The dude next to us couldn't even pour his drinks anymore, his hands were trembling and half of anything poured fell onto the table instead. So multiply that dude with 15 others, then it became quite unpleasant. So yeah, I would give Mumbai Se a miss which is pretty sad after all the supposed fun and good things my friends have been telling me about the place. First impressions count and alas this one was in poor taste.

Hhmm... I do believe that Mumbai Se as a whole is not such a horrible place. I know some patrons there and they have a blast with each visit. It's just not my scene.

 

Art, plays and teatre have been some of my most favourite things. This was one of my biggest pleasure since coming to the big city a year ago, all these are within reach and events are always up to give me my dose of acting, or rather watching it.



And 2 of my very good friends who are the backbones of Electric Minds Project (EMP) are up with a new show “The Things We Have Lost”. I’m so excited for them and the upcoming show!



A woman with a gun tries to fix her relationship. Three children contemplate selling a house, and their memories of it, one after the other. A mother grieves for her child in an unusually cruel fashion. Friends sift through the ashes of their previous lives. Two lovers contemplate eternity, the view from their rooftop, and moving to Mongolia. The Electric Minds Project is proud to present The Things We Have Lost, a showcase of original Malaysian short plays about grief, despair, abandonment, and hope.

Venue: PJ Live Arts, Jaya One
Date: 12-15 August 2009 @ 8.30 pm
15-16 August 2009 @ 3.00 pm
Admission by donation of RM20
Bookings: 017-232 2578 or 012-306 1229

Info about EMP The Electric Minds Project theater company started out as friends getting together to read scripts, encouraging and motivating each other to write and perform. This sharing of experiences; coming together and being creative as a group has taught the members of EMP that there is a large, untapped creative potential in Malaysia. We want to represent that talent. We want to encourage writers, nurture performers, and put their work before an audience. We want to get that work to a wider audience. We want our fellow Malaysians to be infected by the same love for performing arts that so far has only been felt by the minority.

Promotions:
For every 9 tickets bought, get 1 free.
Student prices: Buy 10 tickets = 25% off all tickets.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt_SC_J5wV8
Facebook event page http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=95476304823&ref=ts
PJ Live Arts info: http://www.jayaone.com.my/pjla.html

Ill be there. Wont you?

Vietnam Travel Adventure

So, i was away for a week in Vietnam for work. This trip was a real adventure, from sleeping in a small tiny hotel (which was kinda haunted), to having seafood 5 days straight for lunch AND dinner (oh no, my cholesterol levels!), sitting 6 hours in a van to get to the provinces till our bodies ache, lugging around the luggage bags, laptops and files, the language barrier which was more funny than challenging, the very humble and accommodating people of Vietnam and did I tell you about the motorbikes there? They are EVERYWHERE!

Let’s take a look at the pictures.


The no star kinda haunted hotel room. We had a super single and a double bed in the rooms. And we were the special guests coz we got to sleep in the rooms which had air-conds. No hot shower.


And i just the creepiest feelings staying here. I even panicked and ransacked my entire room thinking i lost my passport before my boss reminded me that we left it at the reception counter upon checking in. I looked like i saw a ghost when i couldnt find my passport.


The makan stall right outside our hotel in Dong Nai province


The morning market at the adjacent road to the hotel


The unique looking statue at one of the many roundabouts in Saigon


The night market right outside Ben Thanh Market, Ho Chi Minh


Shoes Shoes Shoes, night market right outside Ben Thanh Market


The Petaling Street of Saigon??


And this only half the crab. The full crab is the size of both hands put side by side!


Yummy prawns. I had prawns cooked in so many different ways - steamed, fried, butter, baked


Huge aren't they?


We had to eat maggi mee one night as there wasn't any restaurants around. And we used sign language to tell the hotel keeper to help us cook it!


Rice pudding


A healthy helping of fried eggs


Fried rice wrapped in lotus leaf


Uyen and I (we were classmates in uni) as she dropped me back at the hotel. The motorbike ride was so cool! It was great catching up with her :)


Uyen and her ride...

Where are your manners?

The last week has got me gritting my teeth with people who are just plainly blind and oblivious to simple, basic, manners. Just this morning, as the LRT was getting more packed with subsequent stations, a girl was trying to get in by shoving her way through with no courtesy to say excuse me. Well, if she didn't want to say anything, the least she could have done was to look at the person in front and a nod for acknowledgment before making her way through.

 

So after jostling her way through (she really didn't need to as there was still space), she got herself to the nearest pole, squeezed herself between me and the other girl next to me, pressed her entire abdomen to the pole and proceeded to read her book as if there is no other care in the world. I glared at her hoping she would take some consideration to move as her boobs were exactly where my hands were placed. Alas, the book must have been extremely interesting for her to have not realized. With her body parts leaning against the pole, I could not move my hand.

 

When we arrived at the Masjid Jamek station and 2 people next to us were getting off, she again tried to push my hand to take over the places. My laser eyed stare again *failed* as she thrust herself forward. As she stood in front of me, she gave me a sheepish smile only to be returned with "You could have said excuse me". The lady had to be told off, I was not going to just take a rude person getting away with that without at least letting her know! You want to know what the best part is – she's a well respected person working in my company!