Fireflies… so lomantic hor?

This is a purely hypothetical blog entry. Of a person called Miss A. She’s been to see fireflies at Kampung Kuantan, Kuala Selangor for about four times already. The enthusiasm sort of fades with each time she goes there. To the extent that the last time someone asked if she’d like to go pay homage to the fireflies that make their nest by the river bank, it was all she could do to keep herself from rolling her eyes and gagging away, and muster a sweet no instead.

• The long drive on an awfully bumpy road.
• The army of mosquitoes.
• The long, long queue at the ticket booth.
• The long, long wait for your turn to get into a boat.

You can imagine why she wasn’t too crazy when a few friends suggested going there again. On two separate occassions.

Bleh. Bleh.

But despite all that unsavoury aspects of the trip, she suspects she knows why the place is always so packed and happening. Folks are not there just to see the fireflies. They have a more dastardly reason – to finally be able to hold hands with the girl/guy of their dreams :P

As you know and as Miss A knows, holding hands for the first time is a very, very sweet experience.

The first time Miss A ever held a guy’s hand was when she was crossing the road with a college mate. The road was very dangerous and busy, so he proferred his hand, she took it and he never let go. Waaah. Sweet hor?

After that, she held quite a number of hands that she lost count (except for Tun Dr Mahathir’s hand whom she still hopes to have a chance of shaking!). But one memorable incident remained. She remembered having a crush on this fellow and wondering if he likes her, too. That question was answered in Fireflies Village. As he helped her into the boat, he held her hand for the first time and sparks were ignited. The stars she saw in her eyes (and his) far surpasses the beauty of the fireflies flying around dutifully amidst the ooohs and aaahs of the jakun tourists.

And like fireworks, the sparks fizzled soon after. But if there’s anything good she learned from her firefly trips is that it’s a darn good excuse to start holding someone’s hand.

To find out more about this one-of-a-kind trip, traipse over to Journey Malaysia. If you haven’t been there already, Miss A strongly encourages you to go before the fireflies go extinct. Go lar, even if you don’t have any dastardly motives in mind ;)

today, my mom and I camped in Mount Elizabeth hospital. Dad was wheeled into the operating theater for a major open-heart surgery at about 10am. It was the longest 7 hours of our lives. Every time the huge door was opened, we would look up, anxious for any bits of news of what’s going on inside. At the back of my mind, the heavy thought descended that I might have to adjust to a life without dad. The thought was so horrid that I had to struggle to keep it at bay and to be strong for my mom. All we could do was to keep on praying for dad in our hearts.

When my dad was finally wheeled to the ICU at about 7pm, we were so relieved and thankful to see him conscious. The operation was a success! Praise God! Thereafter, the main bulk of our activity was taking turns to walk in and out of the ICU to check on him. Mom and I couldn’t bear to leave him all alone in the ward and so we huddled up together on the hospital bench through the night.

Dad couldn’t remember seeing us at all in the night and the first thing he said when he saw us the next morning was, “Where did you two disappear to when I came out of the operating theater?” He actually thought we went out for coffee or something! Heh :)

During that trying time, my family and I are grateful for my great-aunt and her daughter who took good care of us while we were there and provided their place for dad to recuperate fully after his operation. I am immensely grateful to dear Tapoh for being a friend in need and for the Hope of God Singapore church members who visited my dad and comforted and reassured me of God’s love when I most needed it. They were so concerned to see a girl, sitting all by herself in church and weeping at the thought of losing the dad she loved with all her heart, that they surrounded her and her family with love.

Seven years may seem like such a long time. But my family and I would never forget the kindness and love shown to us by all of you.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Went to Speedy yesterday to get an Elvis cd for research purposes. Couldn’t locate any, so asked for help at the counter.

Sales assistant: De che tiang? (Who are you looking for?)
Me: Elvis Presley.
Sales assistant: Si mi lang?? (Whozzat??)
Me:(slow mo) El…vis Pres…ley.
Sales assistant: (gave me a pen and paper) Sia khi lai (Write it down)

As I wrote down THAT name, I was flabbergasted and shocked that he had never heard of the Elvis Presley – the King, the Legend. With the paper in hand, we checked the aisles for the cd but they didn’t seem to have any on stock.

Sales assistant: Ee si ta poh ah si cha boh? (Is this person male or female?)
Me: Ta poh. Si liao. (Male. Dead already)

Then I proceeded to sing a line of ‘Always on My Mind’. Nope, that didn’t ring a bell in the teenager’s head.

*sigh*

It’s sad but I guess it’s just a matter of time before the younger generation in Malaysia forgets all about crooners of the days of old. Especially when their parents grew up listening to Bananarama, Modern Talking and Duran Duran. For my love for oldies, I have my dad to thank. It would be something worth passing on to the next generation.

My bro has learned that there are a few basic ground rules when it comes to carpooling with me on a regular basis:

- Don’t be a backseat driver
- Let me enjoy my music in peace

This morning, I was listening to Clay Aiken for a bit before I started feeling really sleepy. No offense, Clay but while your music is great for an evening drive, it ain’t drummy enough to jive up sleepy head me on morning drives to work :P

So I switched back to Jennifer Paige. The one I’ve been listening to for more than a month already (my poor, poor bro!). Beautifully strong voice, great groovy beats and nice, catchy tunes. Perfect to awaken most of my senses no matter how sleep-deprived I am.

When I parked my car and switched off the cd player, my bro sang the last parts of her song with aplomb. So out of the blue. So very un-Jennifer Paige. So very cute.

I nearly tumbled out of the car laughing.

He confessed that he can now sing several of her songs by heart now. Especially ‘These Days’ which I listen to at least three times a day. Gotta admire his tolerance level :)

One of my gang members, Jeff got married today and the rest of us unite once again and had a whale of a time, eating our hearts out and yapping the night away in Kuala Selangor tonight. Some highlights of having a wedding dinner in the places far away from town:

• No air-conditioning. It was all air au naturel.
• Our table was right at the roadside of the restaurant. What an opportunity to bask in the outdoors and interact with the dogs prowling nearby.
• The food wasn’t much to look at but was awfully yummy. Over ate lor.
• The dinner started at 7pm and ended at 8.15pm – heck, most wedding dinners don’t even start till 8.30pm!

We were also the last to leave.

Back in those days when our gang were all in Klang, we girls hardly get to drive around. The guys in the group always took care of us well. Fetched us here, there and everywhere, tapau food for us and brought us to the clinic when we were sick (even though some of us are still living with our parents!). That’s how close-knitted we were. And that formed a strong bond amongst all of us that time and distance cannot erase. Even though we now only meet up during festive seasons and special celebrations, unlike the good old days when we were all in the same church and see each other nearly every day.

Jenn called me up just now and arranged the logistics for us to carpool to Kuala Selangor. Leong was assigned to fetch me to Mic’s house and from there, we will all carpool towards the seafood town.

Good old Leong. I remember the time when I was too sick to drive myself to my previous church one Sunday. The Sunday School material box was with me and the teachers needed it to conduct lessons for the children. No one there knew where I lived and no one wanted to travel that far to Klang to get the materials. By hook or by crook, I had to be there. Even though my head was feverish and swooning and I could hardly stand up straight.

My then boyfriend was attending another church that day and naturally, he was the first person I called to ask for help. But unfortunately, help was not forthcoming from that quarter. I hung up feeling really bad and scrolled glumly through my contact list, hoping to find someone who can fetch me to church. That time, my bro couldn’t drive properly yet :P

By then, it was already one year since our group have dispersed and went our separate ways. So was rather shy to call up out of the blue to ask for help. But desperate times called for desperate measures and I called Leong up. Without hesitating and without asking further questions, he cheerfully agreed to come and help me out – even though he was supposed to attend his own church service in Klang. I nearly wept out of gratitude. Things like this, you don’t forget, ever.

And in times like these, you know who your true friends are. Thank God for friends like Leong. And Jeff, Mic, Jenn, FP, Joe, Esther, KL and Rina. Time-tested and proven :)

I’m so glad we’re friends.

It’s Friday… yippee!

Unfortunately, this weekend is chockabloc-crammed with classes, dinners and a rehearsal. It’s more hectic than working in the office. Just thinking about it makes me wanna sleep in instead.

Am fantasizing about going to my boss and asking for leave on Mon. But here’s what I think will happen instead:

Me: I need to take leave on Mon to recuperate from the weekend
Boss: I thought weekends are for you to recuperate from work???! Not approved!

Bleh.

Ah well, have a great weekend everybody.

Heh, this is farnee… So that’s how I’d look like bald, eh?

ON THE BLOG AND ME

1. What’s the purpose of this blog?

I blog to satisfy my writing itch. Really. It’s a place for me to write in any style I like about the interesting and often overlooked and unappreciated things in life. People and the seemingly simple things in life fascinate me. I like to take a few moments to stop and ponder upon their significance and to say a prayer of thanks to my Maker for opening my eyes to them. These moments are captured like the pretty stones and seashells collected in my life’s journey. When I feel the blahs or the blues, I would look upon these precious collection and my faith in all that’s good and true will be restored. If this blog does that to you, then I’m glad to be able to share this journey with you.

Plus, it’s a great way to keep my pals updated about my (quirky) thoughts and life.

2. You do share some struggles that you are going through. Is that considered a precious stone, too?

It takes sadness for one to recognise and appreciate what happiness is. I selectively document my struggles publicly to remind myself that I’ve been through that valley or hole before and been delivered from it somehow. And to portray the simple truth – that I’m a normal person going through the normal struggles in life. Just like everybody else.

3. How frequently do you update?

It all depends on how busy I am or whether I have actually something to say or not. A lot may happen in my life, but I do not necessarily document them all. And some things I choose not to share because I think they can be misconstrued, misrepresented or simply not the right time to disclose. And yeah, I do exercise a lot of self-censorship for the benefit of mankind ;)

4. Doesn’t that (self-censorship) make your blog un-real in that sense?

If you want to perceive my blog that way, you can – and I wouldn’t mind. To me, being real means sharing honestly what I generally perceive the world to be. I just happen to choose to look at life mostly in an upbeat and positive way.

5. Why can’t I leave a comment on your blog?

I welcome and love getting comments from everyone. But you would have to self-register as a member before you can do that. It was a hard decision that took a long while for me to finally implement. I’m all for free speech but I draw the line when it comes to trollish behavior. If you have a dire need to air your angst or frustrations towards certain groups of people or your own life, please do it in your own blog, not mine.

Am sprucing up the site a little. So for the moment, everyone can leave their comments until further notice.

6. Any other ground rules I should observe?

You mean, besides no plagiarism, and no putting pictures of my head on some naked body? Errhmm…

Yep, just one more.

Don’t put me on a pedestal.

I’ll fall off in a jiffy :P

7. How do I leave a comment on your blog?

Click on Meow to leave your paw print behind.

8. Avatars

So, what are you waiting for? Get an Avatar today!

9. Linking Me

I don’t mind people linking to my blog, in fact I welcome it. But please do not refer to my blog link by my real name. Just call me Ariel Coolcat. Maybe even my initials. But never, ever, ever spell out my name. Thanks.

ON PHOTO EDITING

10. Can you recommend a decent lightweight photo editor?

I use photofiltre a lot – it’s lightweight free and very functional! I also use picasa from google – very nice dreamy effects and color mods there.

You can download the two from :

http://photofiltre.free.fr/ and http://picasa.google.com/

11. What do you recommend for photo noise reduction?

This is a good one and it’s free on limited usage, too – http://www.neatimage.com/

12. Disclosure

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. For questions about this blog, please contact coolcatalyst at gmail dot com.

The owner(s) of this blog is not compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the blog owners. If we claim or appear to be experts on a certain topic or product or service area, we will only endorse products or services that we believe, based on our expertise, are worthy of such endorsement. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer or provider.

To get your own policy, go to http://www.disclosurepolicy.org

<<... to be added when necessary...>>

Got this brilliant idea when hanging out at Longkang (some mamak in PJ) with the Punctuations gang just now.

1. Be in the company of your intended victim. Best to position yourself opposite victim.
2. Put your handphone on your ear and pretend to call someone.
3. Look at the victim in the eye and say whatever it is you’ve been wanting to say.
4. When victim becomes shocked or offended, continue to talk as if you are really talking on the phone and coolly look away.
5. Victim will sheepishly ‘realise’ that you are not actually talking to them.

Simple hor?

Here’s a couple of suggested things to say:

• If the victim is your boss – “Aiya, you are so stingy. How come never give me a raise wan?”
• If the victim is your secret crush – “Eh, I think you are cute. Wanna have dinner with me tonite?” In this case, it’s very, very important to see if they respond favourably or otherwise. If response is good, for goodness sakes, skip Step #4 & #5!!!
• If the victim is a lazy course mate/colleague – “You know what happens to lazy people? I eat them for breakfast.”

Anyway, you get the drift ;)

Yesterday was an extremely stressful day. But when I saw the effort my assistants (+ bro) put into the work that we are doing together, the fact that we were the last to leave the office and could still smile cheerfully at each other, it just warms my heart somehow. I think having good team members is similar to having good friends – your burdens at work are halved and your joys are doubled. The bad ones, well – they can make your life even more miserable.

Today in the day-long management meeting, where I presented the systems my team members and I developed, my boss (who is not an easy person to please), publicly commended my team members for producing impressive work. And my heart soared.

“Yes, I have really wonderful my team members,” I said, almost speechless.

I felt like rushing up to where my dept was and yell out what he said word for word. I did that (in a more sedate manner, of course) later after the meeting ended but most of them have gone home already. Can’t wait to tell the rest of them tomorrow :D

It reminded me of the time when I was agonising over choosing an assistant. Mei Fong prayed for me and she sensed that God will give me someone who will be such a blessing to me. And God being a generous God, gave me 3 assistants instead. Each one of them a blessing to the company and to me.

All I can say is, thank You, Lord :)