I guess I owe some of you an explanation on my absence. Some of you may be aware that dad has not been to well. His condition has yet to improve; in fact I am not sure if he will recover.
He was down with flu a few weeks ago. Dad has always had weak lungs and coughing is never a rare thing. In fact, it is his daily routine to cough, so we never took his coughing seriously until two weeks ago. I got a little worried when I heard him wheezing. It sounded different from his usual cough. So I took him to the doctor who gave him the breathalyzer. Two days later, he failed to recover and I asked my sister to bring him to GH and she did. The doctors gave him strong doses of medication but it did not help. Last week, before leaving for work, I realized that his condition was not good and both my sister and I decided to get him admitted into the hospital and he has been there since then.
He is diagnosed with pneumonia, which means both his lungs are filled with water or some call it mucous and he has bacteria in his blood too. Pneumonia can be cured but it is often fatal among the aged and children.
He is not dying but he is not well. He cries to go home and sometimes we wonder if we should bring him home. Yesterday he said:’ tomorrow, when you bring my body home……………’ I don’t know how to respond when he speaks like that. He is definitely miserable and unhappy. Doctor said, we might need to insert tubes into his body to feed him and we don’t know if it is the right thing to do. It will not ease his pain and everyone is well aware that he is not enjoying a single bit of it; even pampering him does not ease the pain.
Definitely papa’s admission into the hospital has added on some level of stress in our lives but we are coping pretty fine with it, our only concern now would be his future and also the hospital bills. In moments like this, I guess there is not much one can do but perhaps pray for strength and courage. So do keep us all in prayer that the best decisions are made.

This Friday, after work, I'll be watching this with students.

Wooohoooo

I did not force anyone to watch it with me. I was invited. I had wanted to watch it prior to this but no one I knew seemed interested. And then, I receive an sms yesterday asking me if I was interested. Hehehehehe

Brandy Revealed

Revealing

BRANDY

She has been with us for 3 weeks and she has:-

1. Torn my jeans
2. Bitten my dad playfully on both hands.
3. Dug up some of my plants.
4. Gracefully shared her biscuits with the crows.
5. Chewed anything that could fit into her mouth.
6. Fertilized the garden with her poo.
   
   

If You ARe InTo

feminism, sexually liberated people, free spirits, bike lovers, movie junkies, art lovers, and everything else,

FNBKL

(Food Not Bombs KL)

They are a group of enthusiastic young people who come together every weekend to give free food to the street people. They collect the ingredients from various sources and gather at their house to prepare and cook the food before distributing it at Bukit Nanas every sunday. These young people come from all walks of life, different religious and cultural backgrounds.

They will be organizing a number of things this weekend, starting from friday evening actually. So get ready to crash and camp at rumah FNB!
So these are the things that they have planned.

Friday
Bicycle Workshop by Mario
They have a new friend, Mario who is in KL for short visit. he is from california and so happens that he has lots of experience in conducting community bicycle workshops. he really knows his stuff. so he will be sharing some of his experiences during this workshop and he will also be teaching and sharing some highly valuable bicycle knowledge with you. so bring along your bicycle(s) and tools.
the workshop starts at 6.30 pm.

Friday&Saturday
Feminist Movie Night
after the bicycle workshop, they will start with the movies. yay!
these are some of the movies/documentaries which will be screened on both friday and saturday evening.

a jihad for love (81 mins)
A documentary on gay, lesbian, and transgender Muslims across the Muslim and Western worlds directed by Parvez Sharma.
trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78jUBRio3So

incredibly true adventure of two girls in love (94 mins)
An adventurous love story between two young women of different social and economic backgrounds who find themselves going through all the typical struggles of a new romance. the movie is written and directed by Maria Maggenti.

bandit queen (119 mins)film based upon the life of Phoolan Devi by Shekhar Kapur.

itty bitty titty committee (86 mins)

High School grad and all American gal, Anna finds her purpose and herself after she hooks up with the radical feminists in The Itty Bitty Titty Committee.

libertarias (125 mins)

At the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, the nun Maria is forced to flee her convent. She takes refuge in a brothel, until it is liberated by a woman's anarchist group. Maria joins the group and eventually goes to the front. The women's group faces the problems of fighting not only the nationalists, but also factions on the left seeking to impose a more traditional military structure.

bread and roses (110 mins)

Two Latina sisters work as cleaners in a downtown office building, and fight for the right to unionize.

persepolis (96 mins)
Poignant coming-of-age story of a precocious and outspoken young Iranian girl that begins during the Islamic Revolution.

*the order will be decided on friday and saturday.

the only way to find out which movie/docu will go first is to come and watch it.

bring your movies or docus on feminism or sexuality, will show it if they look more interesting. movies will start at 8 on friday and 4 on saturday.

Friday&SaturdayMural painting/wall scribbling/art making/spray painting/conteng-conteng

if you can draw a line, then you are qualified for this. we have lots of plain bland cream walls, so wanna make it pretty and colourful and artsy. so bring your paints, spray cans or whatever to help "decorate". no exact time. whenever you feel it!

Sunday Tabling thats a new term for serving.

they will start cooking at around 2ish at the house. feel free to join us. help chop, cook, clean, and make noise. since we will be hanging around at the house watching movie and stuff, feel free to bring along food so that it can be shared with everyone. potluck.

so they hope to see you at the house this friday, saturday, and sunday. if you need more info, you can email FOOD NOT BOMBS KL" free_foods@yahoo.com

or call the house, 03 7955 094.

They hope to see you!please help to disseminate. thank you.

Last year, my phone turned ugly due to my constant carelessness. I often dropped my phone from tables, beds and chairs. Despite its scars, I still loved my phone as it had been serving me well and was easy to use. I did not have to be extra gentle and careful with it because it was already scarred. I was proud of the phone because it matched with my personality of being simple. It did not have a radio or camera. It's main functions were to make and receive calls plus sms. I never felt ashamed using that phone, in fact, I felt proud. Proud because I had yet to follow the crowd by owning a camera phone.

A few months ago, this good ol' phone started to show signs of aging, the 'on' button of the phone started to chip off. Last month, something else happened and I could not even make ordinary calls using the handset speaker, I had to use the loudspeaker instead. It was a sign that my phone was going to breakdown and I should be making preparations by hunting for another phone. And so, I went shopping for a phone. My original budget was RM 300 and below and I found two phones.

This model is the cheapest. It is below RM 200 it has all I need which is to make and receive phone calls plus sms BUT, the memory space is very limited, more limited than my old phone, in other words, I might have to even delete some numbers from my phone book.

Before I went to the phone shop, I actually had a mind to buy this model. It is the 2nd cheapest after the above model. Actually Leslie is currently using this model and I thought it looks pretty cool. It has additional functions like the camera, radio........ I nearly bought this phone when Oy Leng asked me if I was sure. I changed my mind because I was scared that I would regret it after that. The phone cost around RM 300 but again the memory space is limited. I might end up feeling frustrated over it because: 1. The phone has a camera but limited memory space. In other words, I will have to be always deleting things from the phone to make space and it can be very frustrating. 2. The camera is less than 1 mega pixel. The quality of the picture taken is not going to be good. Again, I might end up feeling frustrated. It's like having a gadget that is redundant.

I ended up buying this model 3100. It is slightly over my budget. I chose this model because it was the next cheapest model with enough memory in store. The camera is 1.3mega pixel, not great but still better than the other phones. The sales person has uploaded some songs for me but I only liked a handful of the 200 over songs that he uploaded. I will most likely delete most of it because I don't identify myself with those songs. I'm still new to this gadget and am learning to use it. I might actually download a bible into the phone. My program supervisor has one in her phone and it seems to be pretty much handy especially when we are travelling.

So much about being simple, I do not own a camera-less phone anymore. This is how one gets indulged into spending extra and doing away with the simplisity of life, getting the things that you do not need because it all comes in a package.Sigh......

Brandy in the house

I have adopted a puppy. An uncle found her abandoned at the market and took her home. He offered the pup to Simmi who eventually convinced me to keep her.

Kugan, Simmi's husband helped me to bring it to the vet and get some essential items for the pup and it costs me RM 200 ++ in total. It's pretty much a pinch but papa and Patsy seems very happy to have Brandy in the house. Patsy keeps on saying 'Haiyo, you are so cute!' and papa tries to pat her each time she lingers around his side.

Mum is not too happy to have Brandy in the house. She keeps on saying negative things like, so dirty, so expensive, her presence will attract all the male dogs, troublesome.....blah...blah...blah but honestly speaking, I sense that she enjoys having Brandy in the house too.

Brandy is a happy pup. I hope she remains happy as she grows. She was too active, I could not get a proper shot of her. All I can say is that 'She is very CUTE!' Why of all names Brandy? Well....we just could not think of a proper name for her when she came and she tried to lick the Brandy bottle. So Simmi suggested that we call her that.

There is a vacancy in my college for English and Social Science or Bahasa Melayu graduates. If you have any of those degree and has the passion and patient to teach do let me know and I'll pass over your resume to my Head of Department. The college that I teach in is not the best paying college in town but the working environment is reasonably pleasant. It's a good place to begin one's teaching career. Besides, the environment in Penang is extremely pleasant and adaptable. Cost of living is not too high too. For RM 350, you can have a flat all to yourself. For more information, do contact me.

WCN 2708 is finally home. After all the hoo hah's, The car is finally back in one piece. The only setback is that my car has deteriorated in its value, thanks to all the accidents. On the good side, the front part of my car has been repainted. Leslie and I had been having talks about repainting it some time ago but never got it done due to our lack in funds. Now we don't have to worry about it anymore for the panel workshop has repainted it for us.

Looks like things are getting better each day. Debate is over, I'm getting adjusted to my working environment and the car is back, what more can I ask? A little extra time and skill in marking assignments perhaps?

9th May 08

I can see clearly now, the rain has gone,
I can see all obstacles, in my way,
I can see clearly now, the rain has gone,
It's gonna be a bright, bright, sun shiny day........

Yes, my unemployment days are over, finally, I am employed. I went for an interview today, it was my first interview in the teaching sector and I got the job. I'll be teaching English in a popular public college and to make things even better, I discovered today that I have four friends working together with me in the same place. The environment looks fun and I believe I will enjoy my job for even the principal and my head of department seemed to be very pleasant people.

I start work on 26th May when the semester begins, God willing, I'll be passionate in what I do. I'm a happy girl today!

Some of you may be wondering what am I up to now that I'm back home. So here are some updates.......

1. I miss KL for many, many, many reasons that I can't find time to list down and I don't think it's that important for me to announce.
2. Yet, I'm glad to be home in the Island of Penang, to the place where people are helpful and friendly and less culculative, of course the motorcyclist drives me nuts at times but I can tolerate that. Penang is where the opposition party rulez...I'm rather keen to see what the new government has to offer.
3. I'm busy doing housework, a neverending task in Penang...
4. I'm job hunting, and is currently very loyal to the newspapers, hoping to find good job opportunities.

So, please pray for me. I really need lots of guidance at the moment

Where are you?

I am sad, I am annoyed, I lost my sunglasses, yes my very hebat punya sunglasses. I don't know where is it and I've searched high and low. I am heart broken. It was not cheap I got it during sale for RM 100 ++ and I need it, not to show off but to protect my eyes especially when I'm driving. It's bad enough to be without the sunglasses here as the sun is very glaring, what more to not have it when I go back and begin to drive. Sigh....

1000 Hits

My blog had it's 1000th hit last night, I wonder who was the lucky 1000th visitor. To be honest, I don't know who visits my blog except for those who leave their comments like drumsticks, mel, infant, Alex, Jani, Cibol, Isaac, FCW and of course Leslie....I also wonder why do people read my blog, is it because you are interested to know on updates on my life or it's because you find my blog interesting, I don't know. Nevertheless, I'm grateful to have visitors here. I am a dummy when it comes to IT, I know nothing about computer stuffs and to be honest, running this blog has boosted my self esteem. It has always made me feel that I am not really that hopeless when it comes to IT matters.

Anyway, whoever you are, I just want to thank you for having visited my blog, if you are a regular, thank you for wanting to know more about me. Do leave a note though, it'll be nice for me to get to know you as well.

Got extra blood to spare?

I woke up this morning to find an sms from the blood bank in UM. It was their second sms to me since I came to Sydney. The blood bank is in urgent need for blood especially "O" and "A" type. I wish I could help them but I can't. Nevertheless, I hope all of you who are reading this post could perhaps consider doing society a favor? It is the easiest way to save a life.

If you have never donated blood before, don't worry, there are no side effects neither does the drawing of blood cause any pain. It is not disgusting to see your blood flowing out either. I first donated blood on my 18th birthday, it was a wonderful experience, I'm sure you will feel the same too.

The blood bank opens during office hours from Mon - Sat. Kindly make sure that you have had at least 5 hours of sleep on the night before and do not go with your stomach empty neither should you over eat before you donate. Drink lots of water to replenish your body fluid and everything else will be all right.

If you stay out of PJ area, don't bother going all the way to UMMC, you can go to the nearest government hospital near your home or if you want you could also go to the national blood bank at Jalan Tun Razak. Although all hospitals welcome blood donors, I would encourage you to donate in government hospitals and not private ones because the government does not charge patients for you blood while private hospitals usually charge their patients, besides, the government provides medical benefits for blood donors.

Here are some websites for references

Pusat Darah Negara: http://www.pdn.gov.my/kh_pendermaan.html

University Hospital: http://www.ummc.edu.my/

Greetings from Sydney

I touched down at Sydney this morning at 9.30am (6.30am Malaysian time). The journey was unpleasent as I was squeezed between two ladies who took up alot of space as they slept. I did not manage to catch any sleep. I was dissapointed not to get a seat by the window and the lady who sat next to me chose to keep our window shut. Nevertheless, I did manage to peep through other windows and managed to get a glimpst or two of South East Austrialia which is of course so much more bigger compared to Malaysia. Yes it was facinating though I was very frustrated on the plane.

I'm very groggy at the moment due to my lack of sleep but i have to say that I love Sydney already. Kensington is where I live and it is surrounded by a very beautiful park. Today, i understood why people here shoot ducks, they are like crows, they mess up swimming pools and leave their droppings everywhere.

Shall update more soon when i'm more settled, shall be having dinner now, Sushi rice with sashimi's and fresh oysters, yummy.

Here I go again!

29 January 08

I am going to see the world again. Having collected my flight tickets from the MAS ticketing office this afternoon, I am confirmed to fly off to Sydney on the 21st of February at 10pm at night.

There is no denying that I am excited about this trip, but this excitement comes with anxiousness. I am looking forward to experience what Down Under has to offer but at the same time the low self esteem me has some fear too. The ghost of Hong Kong still haunts me. It was not traumatic neither was it pleasant. My other concern is actually about leaving my parents again for 2 months. Having adapted them with my presence for these few weeks, they will have to readapt themselves again with my absence. Though it’s kindda painful, I just could not waste this trip.

I’m taking this opportunity to visit Sydney whilst my sister and bro-in-law are there. Sydney is the universal food paradise, renowned for its splendid variety of food. I’ve been constantly urged by my sister to go and see and I shall see what good food is all about.

I’ve been to Hong Kong and Thailand but I’ve never been to the other side of the world where the western culture is dominant. It’s going to be a whole new experience and I should not miss it. With two months in hand and limited funds, I wonder how I can maximize this trip. I shall be spending some time surveying on some possibilities. Keep me in prayer that I may make the most out of this trip and not only benefit myself but also for others too.

My hope from this trip is that I shall return positively renewed.