I grew up sleeping under mosquito nets. But I found them to be a necessary evil. The mattress was too heavy and it was hard work having to tuck the corners neatly under it every time I go to bed. Such a troublesome effort.

But to Mr. Assam who hails from Assam, India, he found their presence comforting. “I feel so secure if I have mosquito netting around my bed. Without them, I feel so exposed.”

Paulos, on the other hand, found it trying to sleep on a double bed alone. “I need my sleeping boundaries to be clearly defined. If I’m sleeping alone, I need a single bed. If I am sleeping with another person, then a double bed is fine with me.”

The poor sod would suffer from sleepless nights whenever he stays alone at hotel rooms with big huge beds.

I have absolutely no problems with big beds. Bring them on, I say. Loads of space to roll about, yeah! And I don’t need mosquito netting to feel secure. But I do have a peculiar bed habit. I’d feel there’s something missing if there is no bolster to hug.

Photo Credits

Individual apple crumbles

What happens when a very dear friend tells you that she’s toying with the remote idea of moving closer to you? If you really love that friend, you’ll think of what’s best for her. And what’s best for my friend in this case is to be rooted and grow where she is. For that is where her heart is. So that was what I responded and squashed all the delightful thoughts of being able to spend quality girly time with her again.

‘The Road Less Travelled’ by Dr. Scott Peck states that true love has an element of separateness in it.

The essence of the chapter was that everyone has to go through self-growth alone. No one can do the growing for you. They can encourage you, teach you but they cannot force you to grow or make you grow. You owe it to yourself to grow to the best that you can be for the glory of God.

True love is wanting the best for someone by letting the person grow separately from you to be the best that they can be and fulfill the purpose that God has for them. Wanting someone to meet your needs or change to be the person that you want them to be is not love, but a form of narcissism.

Interesting, isn’t it? If you love someone, let them go and grow. When the time is right for the two of you to be reunited, it will happen – and not a moment too soon.

A very apt and pleasing Coolcat sighting!

Bezzie’s hubby HS spotted this at a shopping complex somewhere in Melbourne. Books and CC – what a great combination, eh? Thanks, HS and Bezzie!

Speaking of books, my latest shipment from my favourite online bookstore finally arrived one month after my order. They normally take a couple of weeks max to deliver right at my doorstep. Apparently, this time around, the supplier did a boo-boo on one of the books which they will deliver later. That boo-boo stalled the whole delivery. But at least they sent me the other books first after I called to ask what was taking them so long.

When I received the precious package, I hopped for joy and opened it reverently. The sight of the pristinely new books was akin to beholding the lovely faces of my old and dearest friends. One of the books was my dad’s order and he had been waiting breathlessly for it to come. After I handed it to him, he immediately wrapped it carefully in plastic before plunging on to the contents.

Mom saw him reading the book with furrowed brows (indicating deep thought) and said, “Ah, looks like your book ‘Foods that Heal and Foods that Kill’ has arrived!”

My bro laughed, “Nolar, mom. It’s called ‘Foods that Heal, Foods that Harm’.”

I thought to myself that it wasn’t as bad as my previous blooper nary a few minutes before. My brother was quietly asking me if Acmabooks.com sold any technical books. He was speaking so softly that I thought I heard him asking if they had any genital books. Gave me a start it did. Then I thought some more and decided that coming from him, he must have meant technical. I was right.

But of course, not wanting my laughing mom to feel alone in her blunder, I shared my near-blooper as well. And there we all sat around the dining table, giggling in helpless laughter. As can be attested in a previous blog entry, these kinda bloopers are a hallmark of my family. There’s simply no escaping this gene.

Josh recently did up his new Avanza and was eager to show me just how I should spruce up my Wira. So today we met up for lunch with his colleague and I took some quick snaps of his latest pride and joy for blog fodder.

“In this cruel day and age, you have to make your car look like a gangsta,” says he. “Scare those nasty criminals away.”

Just check out the pictures below. Josh’s new car is indeed a far cry from my dad’s Auntie-champagne gold Avanza.

The Avanza that looks like my dad’s. Photo credits

JOSH’S GANGSTA AVANZA

Tinted windows and black rims making it look Mafia-ish

Is that one gangsta lookin’ car or what? I can almost imagine tough-looking samsengs crawling out of the thing.

Have you ever gone out with a friend or in a group and find yourself asking, “So, what do you all want to have for lunch?” and having them answer, “Anything lar.” “Whatever”. “You decide lar.”

“Anything lar” sounds so flexible and easy-going, doesn’t it? It’s perfectly ok if they truly mean that anything goes. But it’s frustrating when this happens (got the following from a forwarded mail):

1. Whatever

Man: What do you want to have for dinner?
Woman: Whatever..
Man: Why don’t we have steamboat?
Woman: Don’t want lar, eat steamboat later got pimples on my face
Man: Alright, why don’t we have Si Chuan cuisine
Woman: Yesterday we ate Si Chuan, today we eat that again?
Man: Hmm….. I suggest we have seafood
Woman: Seafood no good lar, later I get diarrhea
Man: Then what do you suggest we eat?
Woman : Whatever..

2.Anything

Man: So what should we do now?
Woman: Anything
Man: How about watching a movie? It’s been a long time since we watched a movie.
Woman: Watching movie no good lar, waste time only
Man: How about we go for bowling, get some exercise?
Woman: Exercise on such hot day? You don’t feel tired meh?
Man: Then find a cafe and have drink
Woman: Drinking coffee will affect my sleep
Man: Then what do you suggest we do?
Woman: Anything

3.You decide

Man: Then we just go home lor
Woman: You decide
Man: Let take bus, I will accompany you
Woman: Bus is dirty and crowded. Don’t want lar
Man: Ok we will take the taxi
Woman: Not worth it lar… for such a short distance
Man: Alright, then we walk lor. Take a slow walk
Woman: How to walk with an empty stomach ar?
man: Then what do you suggest we do?
Woman: You decide
Man: Let’s have dinner first
Woman: Whatever…
Man: Eat what?
Woman: Anything
(Man looks around… if no one’s around, he’s gonna kill her….)

There are a few things I enjoyed in that Electric Beckett outing with MF besides the nice company. One was the exhibition on the life of Beckett. I was bowled over by the stunning photos of Beckett taken by John Minihan, an Irish photographer. It was a good way to learn about Samuel Beckett, the playwright – with snippets of his life displayed on classy buntings. We even got free copies of Readers’ Digest as door gifts, which I promptly gave to dad at home. He loved them.

However, and here’s a big however, I did not enjoy the play. It wasn’t my cup of tea, to put it mildly. Electric Beckett comprised of two of Beckett’s plays – Krapp’s Last Tape and Eh Joe. The first play, Krapp’s Last Tape was ok in the sense that it was acted really well by Mano Maniam and I more or less understood what was going on. But I prefer a story line that has more action in it, rather than reminisces of the past with a tape recorder.

Eh Joe was even worse. Joe played by Joe Hasham sat on a bed for nearly all of the time and did not speak a word. His facial expressions were priceless though. There were supposed to be three actors involved here. One was Joe, on the bed. The second was Mew Chang Tsing, garbed in black and holding a video camera in front of Joe and creeping nearer and nearer towards him in stealthlike mode as the play progresses. The third was Datuk Faridah Merican who was the mysterious voice in Joe’s head. She was the opposite of what a child is supposed to be – not seen, only heard. Perhaps I was tired. Or lost with just listening to a disembodied voice for a long period of time. I tuned off after about 10 minutes into the second play.

But I suspect that the real reason behind my lack of enjoyment is that I’m not arty farty enough to grasp the abstract plays. In the ecosystem of the theater-going crowd, I’m probably barely there at the mollusks level.

Bah.

Another review which I agree with

MF had free tickets for Electric Beckett courtesy of her company. Early last week she asked me if I wanted to go along. An evening with a close pal and free show tickets is a potent combination. But there’s also the perennial evening rain fall and resulting KL traffic jams to consider.

“Hey, thanks! I’m gamed to go but we must pray for good weather and smooth traffic,” I said.

“Ya, must pray hard,” she agreed.

I can hazily recall that I prayed for that – probably dedicated a half-sentence or for it. Well, at least I wasn’t the only one praying for it. I felt assured that if there was anything lacking there, MF can take up on the slack. That’s why it’s always good to have at least one other person to pray for the same matter. The backup principle in action.

And so yesterday finally came about. Together with it came ominuous looking dark clouds and pouring rain. As if that wasn’t enough, flashes of lightning graced the stormy skies. Thunder cracked sending shivers down my yellow spine.

“Wei, you did pray, didn’t you?” MF looked at me suspiciously when she arrived at my office, half-wet from the pouring rain.

“I did! Well… it was approximately half a sentence but surely that still counts as a prayer,” I replied feeling a slight shade of guilt.

We looked at the unpromising skies and the bad jam at the crossroad in front of my office with dismay in our eyes. But determination and sheer reckless faith filled our hearts.

“Haiya, let’s go anyway. Just hope we make it in good time,” I said and we made a mad dash to my car. Soon we were on our merry way to the Sprint highway.

A strange sight greeted us. Smooth flowing traffic. At rush hour. In the pouring rain. We felt almost giddy and lightheaded with relief. It got stranger as we cruised along the highway towards Sentul West. There was not a single car within my line of sight at all. We were there in less than 20 minutes! We had so much time to dawdle and yak over dinner and even had a nice bout of paper shopping at a nearby stationery shop.

I must have prayed for smooth traffic in my half-sentence prayer.

Yesterday, I received an sms – “Are you taken as photographer on 777?”

Today, I got this online message – “The hotel got cuckoo koo kooooo or not?”

The person who manages to guess what they mean will gain the satisfaction of being a novice code cracker.

I dunno about you, but I sure had a hard time figuring out what these cryptic messages meant. Could it have been so hard to just write it out in plain English instead of having blur me to reply with a “What’s 777?” and “Huh?” I’m bad with codes and such. Simple clear and concise language is what I do best.

Sigh.

The answers revealed now that we have a winner in the house – Irene! She got BOTH answers correct. What a feat! What a girl! I hereby solemnly declare her to be Irene, novice code cracker extraordinaire. You go, girl!

1. 777 = 7 July 07
2. Cuckoo koo kooooo = prostitutes. Apparently my friend wanted to be sure that the hotel was a respectable establishment.

Here are some of the photos taken by friends as souvenirs for me during their travels near and far. So nice to be thought of during their happy moments :)

If any of you have any more to add to this collection of Coolcat Sightings, let me know and I’ll post it up here.

Hey look, my very own boat! Cool, eh? This was sighted in KK, June 07 by Gracie, Lips and gang

Mari, mari, photostat 1 page, get 5 free. Mari, mari! Sighted in Ampang, KL by Paulos

It’s Coolcat herself, posing at Digital IT Mall, Section 14, PJ. By Paulos.

Previous sighting in KK by Fooman. I wonder if the cafe is doing well?