Whats say now Mayan?

I remember the end of 2012 and everyone was wondering how the Mayan prediction would affect them. A cycle had ended and new one was beginning. But new cycles does not only mean good beginnings, sometimes they bring good endings too

So for this post I would like to dedicate my writing to those whom I have had the privilege of seeing or hearing their new cycle stories of 2013

To the man who thought that he had found an undying and eternal love in his marriage, but who instead is faced with separation and singledom this new year’s eve, okey, I know that sounds kind of rough, but what I want to say is that life doesn’t always turn out the way we expect it to. But it’s always the darkest before the dawn, so keep the spirit up!

To the man who got married this year after many battles with his traditional minded parents, I wish you all the best and happiness with your new wife. Count your blessings everyday.

To the lady who after hanging on to many different arms of men, (okey that’s rough too, but hey who said life was smooth anyway?)Am honestly grateful that you have landed one(arm?) for good. May you have that (arm?) to hold for many many years to come.

To the lady who is pregnant this New Year’s eve (Yeay!!! Woo HOOO!), there is no greater joy in having a little one. I don’t have one of my own, but one dino-nephew is enough to bring the joy of the planet to my home. Anyway,  May you be blessed with gazillion more children and I shall always be around to be the coolest aunt they have.

To the lady who is celebrating her tiny tot’s first New Year, may he always be blessed with friends who have the bond and love as we do.

To the one who lost her love this year, I know just how hard it gets. But stay on that road, and remember you have so much love all around you. Especially from your sisters and family members( probably I should eat this advice myself)

To the one who lost a friend this year. You should have known better, but friends will forgive and forget. Do not give up if you think they are worth your time.

To the one who had found a new friend this year, friendship is something that can stay with you your whole life. They will love you for who you are, always be that shoulder to cry on, to play pranks on and friends are the one who will let you eat as many cupcakes as you want without reminding you about damn calories. Cherish it as it is a good friend that makes the world go round.

Every year comes with different stories and different surprises. Bring it on 2014!

Tana Aina Farrah Soraya

Wow. Hasn’t it been awhile. Tons going on in the month of October, and I just missed posting stuff. The loss of a 13 year friendship, and an 8 month friendship, and the seemed failure at building a working relationship with someones. And all within a few weeks, phew, it really can take an emotional toll on a person.

Anyway, every day is a new day, and with it comes new stories and new people. So here’s me hoping for sunnier days ahead.

Speaking of sunny days, I think we all need to get out into the sun once in a while. Go to the seaside…go to the playground… or Maybe a jungle?

I had heard from people at work and the beloved Pabi that there was a retreat getaway into the wilderness about an hour’s drive from KL. The Tana Aina resort is located in Bentong, Pahang and is definitely a place built for city dwellers to take a weekend away from all electronic gadgetry and just lounge around a river like an iguana. Tana Aina is actually 88 acres and is owned by a Puan Sri Sabrina, whom we had the grace of meeting on our stay at the resort. A robust lady, she has divided the land into 5 different areas and each of the area is named after one of her 5 daughters. The resort is named Tana Aina Fara Soraya. The resort comes with a camping ground, chalets and dorms  so guest can choose their accommodation style and price is at per person per night.

Campsite

Day 1

Thinking that the camping would be more of a challenge, diplodocus, chooz, pekster and I decided to try it out. The journey to Bentong took us about an hour’s drive to the 808 exit off the PLUS. Now be sure to call the driver and inform them of your exit as the phone line gets pretty bad after this. We then drove on a smaller road, bypassing small towns..be sure to look out for Kampong Sang Lee, the Durian King Kampong as the turn off to the resort is about 2 km after this kampong.

Kg Sang Lee

Fofi had to go onto a gravel road of about 400 meters before we reached the parking lot of the resort. From here we had to take a 4 wheel drive into the resort itself. If there are many guests, some of them will be ‘placed’ on a small lorry for the ride into the resort. Don’t get me wrong here, am sure its loads of fun, but in my personal opinion, it’s Like chickens going into the market.

Anyways, the minute we got down from the 4 wheeler, we were greeted with welcome drinks(lime and mint, my favourite!) and cool towels. There was only one other family there, who was checking out, and after signing our indemnity forms, we were informed that for today, we would be the only guests in the entire resort. Couldn’t get any better than this…

Toilets are very close the camp..but  pls keep clean folks

Our bags were brought down into the tent. So much for roughing it, we didn’t even need to carry our own bags! The tent had power supply in it, so we had a fan and a socket to charge our phones. Looked like the best tent in the house as it faced the river and had the best way to get down to the river and laze on the rocks. As we sat (jumping for joy) at the being the favored guests, we got the call for lunch( boleh pergi makan sekarang ye kak, music to our ears) The communal  dining hall  is  about 50m from our camp and is situated next to the river. Our plates and cutlery were laid out on the table just next to the river and there was the most amount of food we have seen in a while. 5 different dishes, rice, fruits and 2 types of dessert. For a second, it did feel like we were chickens to be taken to the market. But the food was amazing and something about eating outdoors just makes one more hungrier.

Our tent



Free Durians!



Our lunch- fit for a king



Durian Pudding

 

The first afternoon is meant for trekking to a nearby waterfall. We had to forgo this activity, as some of us were not very well, but the trek goes through 2 rivers, the first is about knee deep and the 2^nd is about 6 feet of water. Guest are provided with life jackets and even pelampungs to get across the 2^nd waterfall and is quite safe. Though we only lounged about the river in front of the camp, and ate durians by the riverside, it was more than relaxing to just soak up the sights and sounds so its okay even if you miss any of the activities.

Diplodocus did manage to get a real Iguana’s attention and though the chooz tried to get closer to the guy (maybe she thought she could make a new friend), one of the staff managed to shoo him off the rock that was near our tent. Plenty of frogs (many princes’ for Pekster) and watch out for the colorful butterflies and dragonflies. Lucky enough, you might catch some blue birds on the trees in front of your tent.

This is followed by tea break at 4.30(more food). We had doughnuts and curry puffs with Mee Hoon and more fruits. After which we decided to explore the resort.  There is a TV right after the communal dining and guests can watch astro here or spend the time reading. There is a bookcase with some magazines, so if you don’t bring your own, just borrow one from the cupboard.

The Y would have loved this tea break

A bridge across the river will bring you to the dorms, communal hall and the chalets. Tons of fish in the river, you can ask the staff the there for fish food(RM2 a pack) and just stand around hours on end, feeding fish. There are swings and seating areas a plenty for guests to just sit back and enjoy the view.  As we headed back to our tent, we pit stopped at the dining and had our dose of misai kucing tea. Oh, did I mention? We get tea, coffee and misai kucing tea, which is an excellent antioxidant, free round the clock.

Biscuits are also free 24/7

Dinner is served at 7.30 and we had so much of barbequed meats, fries, garlic bread, spaghetti and nasi goring, and the yummiest dessert of fruits and cream and kuih koci…whoosh,  I really didn’t think I could eat any more. Come to think of it now, I seriously miss that food. This is then followed by a night walk up a hill, its kind of steep to go up the hill and it takes roughly 20 minutes for a fit person to reach the top. From what I hear, the sight of a sky full of stars is worth the hike.

 

But then again, we for-went this activity too, as we were too beat to do anything. So instead, they put on MIB3 for us at the Dewan and we played scrabble while watching the movie. Still unsure if FIFA is acceptable, but congrats to our first time winner, Pekster. We went back to our tent around 11, after another dose of misai kucing, and I would advise to bring along your own blankets as the ones provided were pretty thin. There is no hot water at the resort and having showered with ICY cold water, the night air does not get warmer, so either bring along your blankets, or thicker nightwear.

 

Day 2

The morning walk is at 7am, guest will need to go up manmade steep stairs to reach the top of the hill to enjoy the sunrise. Pekster and I decided to take the walk later as we just wanted a slow day. We woke to cool morning air and the sound of the water rushing by. Then headed out to the communal for our breakfast of nasi lemak, bathura, roti bom, toast and jam, cereal and fruits. One could really get use to this, trust me.

Part of the breakfast

Start of the trek. There is a tougher track for advanced hikers that go along the route of abt 5km into the jungle

jambu air! unfortunately, not ripe

While the chooz and diplodocus decided to get their noses into their books, pekster and I went round to check out the dorms. Being the only guests, we were allowed to go anywhere in the resort and to even go into the other empty rooms and chalets. The dorms are situated on the first floor above the communal hall, so if you want somewhere more cleaner and further from iguanas and frogs, you can lodge here. The Toilets are situated just outside the dorms and are very clean.

From the dorms, we headed up the hill. The resort has plenty of fruit trees, so we tried to guess which tree is for which fruit, and some of the fruits were only just growing. Along the way up,  the bends are pretty steep, and having my knee issue, we took our time to go up. Try not to go alone as in some of the bends, there are also straight tracks that go around the hill, so always have someone with you to avoid getting lost. The view from the top of the hill is cool, and the overall trek is fairly easy..makes Broga hill look like mount Everest. Took us an hour(plus lepak time) to go up and make the journey down.

Stairs for the morning walkers

View of the top. Jangan sesat ye

More misai kucing tea, and we could see by then that the days guest was starting to stream in. The resort gets about 100 visitors per weekend on average and we had a really good time being the only guests, as we had the priority on every corner. After a shower and saying our goodbyes to the animals of the resort, Chooz had her goodbyes for her friend, the bees, pekster to her husband, the frog prince and diplodocus to her beloved iguana king. You will all be sorely missed..we headed back to the city, relaxed and happy.

Parcel from life

It doesn’t matter, where we take this road.

Someone’s gotta go.

And now, we are only ashes on the ground

-Pop lyrics-

Grief, they say is part and parcel of life.

Whether be it the passing of someone or the loss of another’s presence in our lives due to other reasons, or simply watching that person slip away from you and being unable to do anything about it. It is an experience that we go through at some point of our lives, and it shapes and defines the kind of human being we will end up becoming.

To each his own.

Everyone has their own way of dealing with grief, some of us pretend that nothing has happened and go about their days as it has always been. Some simply pick up the pieces and move along, finding a point in time and space that will place them closer to the lost one, like listening to the song that was theirs. Some of us give up and slow down simply because the sky isn’t as blue any longer. And some of us paint the sky with rainbow colours and change who and what they were to something totally different. Perhaps becoming someone else might make their experience someone else’s and they wouldn’t need to deal with the pain. And then there’s some who make others laugh so that they can cover their own sadness with the sound. Or maybe we just do all of the above at some point in our process of dealing with it.

And that’s a definite. At some point, we would have to face with what life dealt us.

And though everyone is different, one thing is the same- that at the end of the day, we are all just trying to keep our hearts safe.

Elepo Encounter

Exception Clause: The following writing may include information about a certain individual which is entirely not true!

I usually tell myself that I shouldn’t judge a person without getting to know them first. But I guess that doesnt work with everyone.

There were 2 girls I had met recently. You know, the kind of people that you just hi and bye, without paying them much attention. For the sake of keeping their identity a mystery, lets name them M and elepo(Thanks Pekster and  Diplodo for the nickname).  Whenever I meet them separately, both ladies are, respectively, wonderful. They are great to chat with and always a good laugh

But put them together, and they remind me that the devil may just have his minions around us.

An unexpected encounter with the both of them (me totally unprepared for the onslaught) and I had the fortune of getting my actions analysed and concluded in the most distressing way imaginable

It started out with the Management’s decision to hold a karaoke session in Mid valley last week. I decided to join in and being more of the kind person who likes to strut her monkey moves on the dance floor instead of croaking my lungs out, I took on the stage and was doing the moonwalk(ok, it was actually the cha cha) with a couple of the other girls who decided to let loose their hair. The M and elepo were both present and it was, in fact, to their bellowing that we were dancing.

Fast forward a couple of days later, and I bump into the devil duo at the office. Elepo asked me if I was available for squash the next day, and looking at them looking all innocent, I decided to agree to have a few rounds with her. As I was walking away, elepo asks me if we could be Facebook friends. Being a polite lady, I was thinking of the best possible way to say no to someone I barely know. But before I reply, elepo decided we do not need to FB friends and proceeded to tell me about the many guys that she has on the FB, mostly people she just has a night’s stand with. I wasn’t sure if she was serious or joking, but I give her the benefit of doubt that it was just a joke.

Trying to get away the second time, elepo decided to stop me again and proceeded to ask me how often do I club. When I told her the truth, she went on to say how great I was on the dance floor at the karaoke(I know right?) and said it looked like I frequently club. And that people who frequently club, also frequently sleep around.

Huh?

When I said I do neither, devils wondered if I was married(No), or in a serious relationship(also a no) and thought that since I am in neither, then I must be sleeping with someone or other. And when even that came out negative, elepo decided to have a good look at my arse..and apparently, according to my cute little bottom, I do have multiple partners!

Huh?

Then the duo decided that since I am not married, I just must be seeing somebody(at least for a night ) since I apparently looked dressed up. And no one wears make up, unless they are going on date! Then they proceeded to ask me my age. I joked and told them I was in my 20s and that hurtled them into a discussion between themselves that I should probably change my face products, or my eyeliner or my lipstick color, as apparently, all of the above makes me look MUCH older than my actual age.

Umm..

Might I add that almost every sentence coming from elepo was laced  with the 4 letter word. But I was finally able to walk away, though in dismay at having to discover myself an old, haggard, and a happy slut.

I must say, I am glad to say that I do not have friends who have the social skills and grace as the elepo. It is having these sort of encounters that I realize just how normal, thoughtful, graceful, and polite my friends are.

P.S Thanks to the pika for reminding me this would make a good story, To Pekster for showing me just how gangster my friend is ,and to Diplodocus for sharing my experience for other’s benefit

Family Day

~Family is key . Key to many doors. ~

A family will always remind you of who you were. Like a couple of days ago, I was playing  bubbles and catch with the diplodocus and the spideymonster in the front porch and heard pepe call out to us to come in as it was already 10pm and too late to play outside. Forgetting how old we were, we ran in and sat quietly in the corner playing legos. No one but my dad can make us really feel like the naughty children we are deep down inside. Apart from spideymonster of course, who is in fact, a child.

And sometimes family can mean more than just parents, children, spouses or siblings. I always consider the Pekster to be my sister, though we come from totally different backgrounds, culturally and ethically. Even those we work with can be a family to us, in a way. So when the M decided to hold a family day in Mont Kiara recently, a bunch of the girls(travelling pants members?)joined in.

The first time I went to this kind of event was last year when the diplodocus and toads wrangled me into driving them to the event. I had an hours lecture of how we are a family and simply MUST attend the event. For half a day I was getting knocked into by cross eyed crocodile looking children and meeting up with someone called Nanthiny and her husband whom I haven’t met for years and whose first words to me was something nasty(oh so fun!) and then out of spite stuffing popcorn into my ears and getting sand into my shoes and almost getting whacked in the tummy with a baseball bat by somebody’s nephew. Though diplodocus and the toads made a new friend and they were happy, I vowed to not step into that equestrian club again

But here we were, me wrangled again by diplodocus and the sisterhood of colorful pants. Though I gotta say, it wasn’t too bad this year. Probably cause mean Nanthiny and her husband wasn’t in attendance this year.

Or maybe cause sitting there, enjoying the spectacle of Chee getting thrown off the rodeo bull, I realized that there wasn’t anywhere else I would rather be than spending a day with members of my Happy Family.  I came to realize that some of these people were the same people I had met (and some knocked into) last year. Some single ones were now married and came with their spouses, some newly married ones came with a stroller and a chubby drooly baby, and it was good to see the kids growin up. It reminded me of how life and its circle keeps moving, dragging us along its currents to whatever events fate has in store for each of us and our families.

Ok, maybe that’s too deep, but its somewhere along those lines. I guess I would probably go for the event next year. But this time maybe with spideymonster.

Lets Make It Matter. 2013 Walkathon

Have you ever had that situation that you know what you are about to do will land you in some sort of pain?

Like when you saw that dress hanging out on a windowsill and knowing that its gonna dry your pockets for the whole month, but you go out and get it anyway? And wonder for months later if it was worth it.

It was with this mind that I bravely decided to take my injury out to test.

Now before you go ‘what the fishes’, let me explain. We have this team called the Wellness Board at the place where I work. The M decided that the employees need to be more healthy and this team’s scope is to arrange for ‘healthy activities with mental and physical wellbeing objectives’. They have done a pretty good job so far, we have Treasure Hunts all over KL(mostly in malls but malls are a healthy way to spend one’s time according to most Malaysians anyway) and we have also had Amazing race events over the past few years where the participants get to eat cockroaches and climb on coconut trees.

Just saying. Personally, I have never participated in any amazing race before. Fear of zombie roaches you know.

So today, the team decided on a 4.5km walk out and around Cyberjaya. Having the participants prepped in the morning by some Health Freak Instructor- I mean c’mon, jumping jacks at 7am? I wonder what he did at 5am when he woke up? We proceeded to trail off to the entrance of our blue and grey building. Thankfully the sky was overcast and it was a cool day to have the walk

I am still not sure on the reason but the men got to start the walk. The ladies categories followed suit 15 minutes later and 100meters into the walk, my dearest injury decided it had enough. Maybe an idea in the pool the day before wasn’t such a good one but I wasn’t going to let the injury decide on my fate today!

As most of the other participants went by and ML and I were left to chew on  their dust, we noticed we had another person right on front of us who was keeping our pace. About 3kms into the walk and 30 minutes into ML’s Kuantan stories(non-stop, I think ML thought this was a story telling competition), the lady decided to slow her pace.

Now I know what its like being the last one in that line and looking back and seeing nothing but your own dust biting you back, so ML and I decided to keep pace with her. The ambulance and guards decided to keep pace with us too, and I must say, we proved to be quite a sight reaching the finishing line with all the extra escorts.

It was almost at the end that the Lady turned and practically thanked us for keeping pace with her. It was her first time going the distance and she felt like she did accomplish something for herself and said to us that it was good not be alone at the end of the line.

I have never been more proud of myself as a human being. I swear even ML grew 10 inches.

So I guess at the end of the day,we each have our own battles to fight and own reasons for doing what we do. But the grime and pain is worth it(especially knee injuries! Argh)

Even more so when you realize that there is someone right next to you, pushing you on.

Diplodocus

Sisters are a gods angels on earth.

The first time we do anything, can be the most joyous experience. Remember the first time you rode a bike? Or the first time you had ice cream? The first time you saw that sunrise in some long forgotten civilisation? Ok maybe that’s a bit over the top.

But it tends to stay with us, that first time experiences. No matter how hard you can try to forget, the one thing you cannot erase from your memory will be those firsts.

I remember the first time I met my sister, at how happy I was to discover that there was another human being  who could play with me. Teddies and dolls, and masak masak(which we play till today, eh Mrs Brown?). I had been living in Ipoh with the MonkeyCuz and longed to play with a girl my age, after all the robot and car games i was playing everyday.

Little did I know what a tomboy I would be meeting. At first we would fight and punch(she can throw quite a punch!) each other silly. It took a while for us to get along, and it probably happened after Flex had come into our lives.

The first time my dog Flex had found his way to our backyard and stole into our tiny hearts was on a Sunday morning while we were having breakfast. A tiny pup with brown fur and dark eyes looking up hopefully at the Diplodocus and in turn, her big brown eyes begging The Boss to keep the pup. That dog became a part of our lives that stayed  in our hearts till this day. And today, she has brought with her little Shimbhu the Guinea Pig, who is also as cute as a button.

I remember the first days she went to kindergarden. Tadika Ho, with her 2 tiny rabbit teeth sticking out and annoying me at every step of the way we took home when I had to bring her back. At least she combs her hair now.

Her first real home, rainbow houses, may they always be there waiting for you. And not forgetting her first beloved, Chemichu

I remember the  first time she fell in love, and we would have sleepless nights, whispering about the things she had said and done that day. Her sadness, fears and her joys became my own.

To the one person who I know I can share any secret with and would love and care for me no matter what I did. I have been truly blessed to have you in my life and heres to wishing Diplodocus a HappY 28^th birthday!

And as promised, heres to secret outings! Long live!

32 years of Grandeur

I happen to think that everyday is a celebration of life.

So when it comes to having a birthday party each year, I astound even myself and how small and simple I prefer that celebration to be. I suppose as you get older, you learn to appreciate what you have, even in the smallest way, as life can teach us, that anything can be lost on any day.

Anyways, as a token of appreciation for all the good things in life, I hereby present to you some of my favorite and most celebrated things(disclaimer:next birthday, the list may change):

1.    RT Pastry House

This cake house has been in existence for a couple of years now, having branches mushrooming across the klang valley. Their cakes are light, flavorful and very reasonably priced. So I was pretty happy when I got tricked(quite subtlely by the Y) into going to the E-Club(a.k.a pantry) at the office and finding the Pekster and Deviljoe hidden behind the partition with a Black Sesame cake for me. Lovely, ladies. Lovely

 

PY and Mua

Black Sesame cake

2.       Crepe Cakes 

Ok so maybe I have been a little too forthcoming with the things that I like(just look at this article for an example!). And most of the geng knows how much I like cake. I have asking around about the crepe cake made famous by a bakery in Melaka and also the Food Foundry in PJ. I tried the cake once in Seri Kembangan but it wasn’t fresh and the layers just stuck together instead of having the ‘melting effect’. So the Y decided to get me 2 pieces of crepe cake from a bakery in Kajang and Mei Mei and Amanda got me 2 from another bakery. 4 slices of crepe cake, maybe too much of something is not a good thing, but the cakes were wonderful. Hey it was my birthday, give me a cake-break.

3.       Coffee Joint

Starbucks and Coffee Bean are overrated(This my personal opinion and means to offence to anyone- especially Starbucks no 1 fan, Deviljoe). I have always preferred Gloria Jeans  and Domes, but the best coffee bars are the smaller ones, like Whisk(Subang Parade and OneUtama). So it was with great pleasure that I had the company of Sir Kakapipit to enjoy the coffee at the latest coffee bar in Cyberjaya, The Daily Grind.

4.    House Parties

Mom,Pop,little spiderman-dinosaur, Hema, Chiffon and of course the Diplodocus. What more do I need to ask for to have the best time? Do wish the Japa was around though, as I get a one day free pass to annoy the crap out of my little brother on my birthday. Maybe I could get a raincheck? Hmm

Mom went on a cooking spree

5.    The Shell Geng

These are some of my most favourite people on earth. The Pekster decided to have a small dinner at Hucks Café in Bangsar. And being one who is only too happy to meet new people and try new places, I was very excited to meet Konrad from Bavaria and see Ms C-bg try to flirt with him. Though it rained cats and dogs when I got the Yoda and made everyone late, it was definitely worth it to try this place.

                        http://grub-odssey.blogspot.com/2013/04/hucks-cafebangsar.html

6. Movie and shopping time

As we did last year, the Y and I got free movie passes for our birthdays, which is only 3 days apart, and this year we got to watch The Croods and after the show, we did what we love best, and got ourselves new shoes.

A hAppY

 7. Red Velvet Cupcake

Need I say more?

Thank you to all you guys who made my getting-wiser birthday more meaningful.

Cheers and Godbless you freaks.

A little help, Mr Watson?

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."
Western Union telegraph company memo, 1877.

I read this interesting piece of article the other day. It said that people today would prefer to have all their communications done in the form of messages, either emails, sms, whats app, viber, chatz and what-have-you applications on their smartphones, instead on picking up their phones and dialing someone for a voice conversation

Apparently, in todays world, having someone call you can be deemed as intrusive. With many people leading very busy lives these days, they do not have the time nor space to have a chat.

I remember being a teenager and wishing that I had a phone in my room like some of the girls on Nickelodeon. It seemed like the coolest thing to have your girlfriends call you at every hour of the day and for us to discuss on how cute our new PE teacher was. Or which boy was the cutest and giggle like some mad cow disease induced teenagers. But I guess that’s all changed now, with technology being so advanced that teenagers can just LOL, IDK, SYL, BSB, NKOTB, ETC each other at any time.

I admit, yes, maybe sometimes at work, I too do not answer every call I get. But I will always try my best to call back the non-intrusive friend and can only hope that my return call does not intrude her/his time.

Imagine a world in 20 years. You would not even know how your child sounds like. Or your mom. Or even your boss if we all decide that we can just work from homes and save costs on offices.

So much for centuries of civilization and technological evolution. Thank you, Mr AG Bell

The end for Social Graces?

The dictionary defines gracious as; "being pleasantly kind, benevolent and courteous."

I suppose in today’s world, it is not easy to define what being gracious actually mean.  Over time I have heard and read about so many Malaysians ungraciousness on the roads, in malls and even in public toilets and what is more amazing is that like in some third world countries, we are becoming a race that accepts the faults in society  and as is the miracle of human nature, at some point, adapt to it.

An experience I faced last Saturday was a definite prove of this. The Diplodocus and I decided to head to the famous mall, Mid Valley Megamall, and if it was not for our brother’s birthday the very next day, I would never have agreed to head there on a weekend. A trip down Zombie Ville would have been more pleasing.

After an excruciating wait, we finally spotted an Indian (national) and his family loading up their fairly new Nissan Sylphy. As cars were parked on both sides of the driveway, the sylphy had not much space to reverse to get out of his parking lot. Hence he did what any other one of his country man would do. He got his very excited wife to ‘watch the back’ and then went bottom-long into the car that was parked at the rear of his. The excited wife did the only thing she could do,  jumping a couple of feet in the air and trying to push the sylphy forward, unsuccessfully of course, and after a while,  realizing her effort was in vain, jumped into the passenger side and the company drove off, without a note of an apology to the owner of the Injured car.

But that’s not my only story here.

As the Sylphy was loading, we noticed a young, pleasant looking woman with the highest heels and tightest of jeans standing next to the Indian family.  The minute the car drove away, madam long legs decided to ‘book’ the parking lot for her boyfriend. In no mood for any more bad manners, we honked and managed to coax her out of the way for us to park. But after couple of meters of walking to the mall’s doors, the boyfriend decides to drive by and start shouting at the Diplodocus and me for having stolen his parking spot.

Now correct me if I am wrong, but since when do Malaysians actually practice ‘parking-via-human-standing-booking’? As a society, if we allow people to actually act this way, can one imagine the chaos it could create if all of us decided to act in the same manner?

Have a little social grace folks, it can go a long way.

Peace out.

Different expectations

The best date is with someone who can take you anywhere without touching anything but your heart. – Unknown

When I was in my 20s, most girls my age had a notion. A date was expected to be an affair where the guy asks a girl out and followed by some impressive dinner and coffee/drinks and movie. With elaborate show of feeling, balloons and throw in a couple of peacocks, and a girl is hooked.

The most elaborate proposal I have heard of was when the guy took the girl for some heli ride and the proposed to her as they were rounding the KL Tower, Komtar or somewhere similar.

Now what would have made that proposal more interesting is that if a bird had flown by at just that exact moment, being chased by something larger, an eagle perhaps..and the pilot sees the drama, trying to save the bird, opens a crack in his window and the eagle swoops in together and they circle the guy’s head and one lands on the fair maiden and there’s squawking and screeching and screaming and the guy is still trying to get his question across…

Over rated.

The most perfect date I can remember from my 20s was one where he bought us McD and we sat for hours gazing at the stars in an empty playground and talking about everything under the moon. It wasn’t much but then to me perfect dates aren’t the elaborate affairs people make them out to be, but the little things.

I recently had the opportunity to have a lunch with an amazing guy.  I have the most festive bunch of friends who love me to death, and wanting the 'outing' to be perfect gave me advice on where to have a decent lunch, what to wear and how not to smile like a zombie.

 

Probably the last advice came in handy.

I can only think of one way for it to have gone better, if we had a cup of tea in a coffeshop with yau char koay. Simple and sweet.

Or sitting and watching some birds circle a heli. Hmm.

Feb 13 Island Getaway in the clouds

So here we are. 5^th and last day on our Island Getaway.

We awoke to gloomy, grey and cloudy skies. It was almost as if the island itself was sad to say goodbye to us.

The rain started pelting down as we were having our breakfast at the hotel café and the clouds looming over the hills were so thick we couldn’t see even a single metal beam of the cable car, which was so obvious these few days past.

We collectively decided to head to town to finish up on our shopping. Diplodocus and I managed to get the coolest tees for the both of us and the Mickeyface, all in the same style. We couldn’t wait to try them on over the weekend when the Tiny was staying over.

A McCallan for the dad and our beloved Baileys for the liquer cabinet teamed with a bagload of chocolates and we were good to go. It was worrying that Kong Kong was still not feeling well and everyone headed back to the hotel for some quick packing and a little rest before check out.

The rain had lessened but the sky still hadn’t cleared at this point and practically begging for the clouds to clear, I decided to call the cable car company.  After 3 attempts, a friendly lady answered the call and told me that the ticketing counter had only just opened and that they may close again very soon if the weather did not improve. And so if we wanted to get on it, we needed to be there, like yesterday!

Rushing up the stairs (why is it always that the elevator doesn’t work when we are in a rush?), I excitedly told the Happy Family the good news. We hurried down to stuff our baggage into the Innova’s tiny boot space (should have rented a lorry with all the baggage we had. We might as well have stolen the whole town!) , and Mr Goblin drove as fast as he could to get us to the Cable Car. Of course we had to make a much needed pit stop at the Perdana Quay Petrol station.( And here I doubted we could have reached this fast if we had rented a lorry. Unless! Unless we could fit in some turbo charge V12 into the engine of the lorry. I bet it could work!)

Pitstop at the Perdana Quay with the fast and reliable Innova

There was no queue at the ticketing counter and even the queue to the ‘cars’ was relatively short. We had to go in sixes and there were numbered boxes showing us where to stand. All jumpy nerves, we got down onto the first station where Uncle K met some friends (is there anywhere in the world that this man doesn’t have acquaintances?? Maybe he is a politician in his free time?) Hopped onto the next carriage with Diplodocus to move to the 2^nd station and was mildly disappointed to note that the sky bridge itself was closed for maintenance.



The line up at the Cable Car



It was the first time I had ever stood so high off ground level(not counting my days as a toddler in Cameron Highlands) and I realized why I loved the hills and mountains so much. There was a sense of connection to a world that was so vast, so different and yet it was small and so similar in so many ways. The clouds were still rolling, and I literally mean rolling, over the hills and onto the unblocked atmosphere of the blue, blue ocean. The sight of them gliding away, right through us at some points, gives one a sense of peace that I haven’t actually felt in a really long time. The wind was really strong and it blew from almost every angle until at one point, I couldnt quite feel the cold anymore. The billowing was almost comforting, like holding my grandads hand all those years ago, and it felt almost as if it was trying to lift away every heartache I had ever had.

After a couple of hours of photo taking and admiring a man full of the coolest tattoos, we decided to take the descend from the hilltop. Any longer and our dearest Y might have been flown away by the strength of the winds. No idea why the Goblin and Uncle K suddenly decided that they loved capatis at this time but ignorance can sometimes be blissful.



Monkey see, monkey do?



On sea level again, and true to the Counter's earlier warning, the cable car was closed again.

We walked about the Oriental Village situated at the foot of the hill and were all mesmerized by a kid having a large green python wrapped around him for phototaking. Gotta be some brave fella, haggling the price of taking a pic with the snake with all those foreign tourists. Watching him as he expertly coiled the snake around a tourist and even holding up the head in the ‘correct’ way, I thought this is definitely some skill. I can’t even recall how to hold a rabbit and we grew up in a house that was more like a farm.

Duck Tours is available on certain times of the day at the Oriental Village. This is the amphibian vehicle used for the tours

It was already mid evening by the time we left the Village and after a lunchcumdinner at a seafood restaurant we found along the way, and a quickstop and Dataran Lang for the Y's sake, we headed to the airport.

 And to reality.

The ever-gorging geng

Buk Buk anyone?



Overgrown Pipit?

Its surely going to take me a long time, if ever, to forget the adventures and memories of this trip. From burying KK in the sand on the first day. Kong Kong- you made the perfect mermaid, but try to close those fins a little eh? To the joys of speaking to strangers for free mangoes, and actually receiving them!(good job Diplodo, just leave the cutting to someone else in the future) To the dramatic moments of Kong Kong’s illness and Diplodocus cutting a vein on her hand and making Uncle K panicked to kingdom come. To playing tag under the clear and starry skies, reminiscing a childhood long gone by.

It was definitely a good getaway, and for the Happy Family Members reading this, you guys rock!