My Merdeka Eve -- JINXED!

On my way to work today, the traffic along Jln Masjid Negeri towards Penang Bridge was unusually packed. I was driving carefully. Suddenly-I-heard-a-loud-"Screech-Bang!-Bang!" - I felt my car jolt from the impact. SHIT!

I had just decently kept my distance from the car in front. The driver of the Proton behind me had done the same (noticed that while making quick glances to the mirror, split seconds before IT happened)... but obviously the stupid idiot of a Kancil driver had not been paying much attention to the traffic situation in front of him!

Proton's front bumper is in 2 pieces, front lights broken, water-tank broken, back bumper dented -- that car definitely needed towing. Kancil however managed to start his car and moved away from the scene after all talk had been settled (although his car's front is pretty much dented and all).

My back bumper suffered a heavy dent, the boot's bonnet is "angled", & my row of back lights are either broken/cracked. NooOOoo... plans for these 2 days are definitely ruined! RuiNeD!

strickened... I quickly made calls to tell my family what happened & to take emergency leave from my offices (gonna be a long day... police report & other paperwork for insurance claims). Also SMS-ed a few close friends to let them know what happened & cancelled either lunch plans and/or tonight's intended mamak session... glanced at watch - it's only about 8.20 am.

Of all the rotten luck (and after some amount of waiting), it was finally my turn to make my police report - the station's system backup system sprang into action & stalled the system for 30 mins. Had to wait until the backup completed before they could continue keying my report into their system.

Night log: Spent time alternating between 2 idiot boxes (computer, TV) & made/answered calls to/from a few friends via the phone for most of the evening-night.

Arlo... aNoTHer weekday begins... as we inch closer & closer to the weekend... nothing much happened yesterday (will be doing more of #3 today... *sigh*). At work...

1. stared at Javascript - was trying to understand how it works;
2. stared at survey numbers - appended some calculations to earlier survey summary upon request.
3. And lastly, wasted 30 mins trying to figure out how to use the online procurement system; & another 30 mins - JUST to issue a PR for ONLY ONE ITEM, using that dumb system. *sigh* Weren't digital systems meant to speed up processes?!

After work, went to collect the photos. Whoever did the processing must have had rather bad senses - pictures developed looked too bright, low contrast & rather yellow. At home, fiddled with the JavaScript again. Woo hoo! I finally figured it out - Superbo! Perfecto!

Oh yeah - check out the hilarious continuation to "The Thing Wars" at Kalamari's. Meanwhile... aiks! Kena reschedule Lilo & Stitch to next Thurs - Rain forgot that she had earlier planned for a badminton game tonight & she'll be back in Terengganu from tomorrow til Wednesday. Nvm - maybe I'll just watch a VCD/DVD... *ponders*

Just added tagboard today. Blog more later. Time to return to work stuff.

Thoughts as at 11:55pm: Had a good laugh this afternoon when Rain said over the phone that she'd hit Daw Seong for me -- soon as I replied that DS "tarik harga" when I invited him to go watch Lilo & Stitch later this week. Nvm that DS. Don't really care if he wants to come along or not... Maybe he'll really work on his assignment (not just procrastinate again)... who knows? At least I'll be watching the 7:30-ish show this coming Thursday with Rain.

Darn it! The photo studio didn't finish processing the copies by 8pm, as written on the receipt. They told me to collect at 2pm tomorrow (heck! I'm working at that time ler... yeesh!) - just told them I'll be back tomorrow evening.

Anyhow, Sze Lin was in my house earlier... we were just swapping photo albums to see what we each managed to capture during our Convo Day. Heck.. also caught up with what's going on with one another... and of course... there's also the bullshit-ing session.

CLoudy morn.. felt like there was a gong reverbrating in my head most of the day. Had to see more numbers today. Rained at lunch hour but I went out anyway. The wind was strong, the raindrops were coming down at a 45 degree angle. My pant-skirt was wet on one side. Umbrellas are not much use on rainy days like this one.

Went to hang out at Ying Lai's house & flip through photo albums of her convo, life while is Scotland, and her tour in Europe. Pretty interesting I should say. Must go there someday. Rain stopped a while but seemed to pick up. Couldn't really find a spot to park. Dang! Long walk back to the office again (and in the rain)

Head still hurts. Compiled more numbers. Chatted with Tecky on Y!Msger... thanx for letting me share the depressive story (p/s: Hope it didn't kill your appetite like it did mine when I heard it... *sigh*).

Gave colleague a ride. Thank God for her company - it made driving a little more pleasant while my head still hurts. Dropped her off along Jln Masjid Negeri like she asked me to. Went to get grandpa from town then headed straight back home. Took a nap b4 dinner. Head felt slightly better. Now online & blogging this. Going back to sleep soon... don't think I'll stay up to watch my usual Monday night repertoire on TV - ER (TV2) & Ed (NTV7)

Oh yeah... saw the new Petronas ad for Merdeka Day, earlier. There were tears on the edge of my eyes at the end of the ad. Gotta say I still love those community ads by Petronas.

Early in the morn, I was summoned up from my deep slumber (by a super PESTering dad) to help with the Hungry Ghost month prayers. Honestly, I hate the complexities of the whole ritual. Bah! Nothing can save me from all these... c**p.

Oh well... anyhow, we had guests joining us in the prayer thing... 2 grandaunts who stayed on until evening, & their families who dropped by. Anyhow, big "Yay!" -- My aunt brought 3-month old Joleen & allowed me to carry her very adorable baby. She didn't cry (that's good...), she was yawning all the time, but didn't want to go to sleep coz she kept scanning around & checking out the place (her first visit to my house).

Later after cleaning up whatever it was, it was lunch time... and... after that? I couldn't resist any longer, the sweet beckoning of my bed... ZZzzzZZzz. 2 hours later, I was once again rudely awakened! Mum wanted me to chauffeur her & my grandaunts to go grocery shopping at the Sunshine Hypermarket. Huh?... was still groggy when mum continued barking. Oww... my head hurt.

We finally went out after mum allowed me to sober up. I really needed to do that... it's just not wise to let me drive when I'm feeling off-kilter -- might blackout coz of my low blood pressure thing. At Sunshine, they managed to get the whole shopping cart full. Wow!

When we got home, dad was ready to drive back to KL & my cousin was here to take the 2 old ladies home (one's his grandma)... Looks like it's just dinner for 3 today... and so another day goes by...

Find your inner Smurf gee... the ever bumbling Brainy? mebbe... just mebbe... but judged by just 7 questions?!! Anyway... anyone else wanna find out which little blue thang they are? Have a good weekend everyone!

 

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After work, had a ride around town with my parents before reaching home, & waited for 2:30 coz Ying Lai is coming to pick me up. Was starved by then but I waited it out coz was supposed to have lunch with Lais, Li Siah, & Shane... Meanwhile Soo Foong, Chee Mun (Lais & Siah's friend) & Sze Lin were supposed to meet up with us for bowling in Midlands.

When everyone's there, we detoured for a little bit of arcade games before going bowling. I don't really know how to bowl but think I did ok... at least it wasn't a total "cuci longkang" affair. Went to the arcade again before we went on to browse at Gurney Plaza.

We later went to Crepes for dinner (coz Li Siah had been dying to go there)... & dined under the great big yellow "Lipton" umbrella sheltering us from the drizzle. Talking about dying.. Sze Lin nearly killed us all right before we left Crepes!! Her itchy fingers had loosened the little knob that kept the umbrella high above our heads... and you guessed it -- "The sky was falling!!" Fuh! Interesting ending to a really fun day.

Which Rainbow Brite kid are you? By Growing.

Erm... me?! shy?!! Nah... not exactly ler...

On a heavy note: Seems like quite a few people that I've been in contact with yesterday mentioned that something bad had happened to them that day. With the following, I conclude that yesterday was jinxed

1. In the morning, Amy from HR office, called to tell me that my 6-mth pregnant boss was is an accident... luckily she's fine & the accident was actually just a minor one... but it sure gave us all quite a shock
2. Hong Sheng (Shane) & his colleagues were embroiled in some office mess. They were so stressed out that many of them thought of resigning!!
3. Lais fell from her staircase & hurt her foot... poor gal... (but asked if I'd like to go bowling with her b4 she leaves for KL & to her new job... *lol*... ahh... her wit will get her far)
4. ...and a few who had succumbed to the effects of the dastardly flu virus that has infected them
5. ...last but not least, the saddest & complicated news of last evening that will remain unspeakable on this blog. (p/s: Even my mum noticed the oddity in the fact that I returned super early from a dinner outing... oh well...)

On a lighter note: After 12am, the one good news I heard was from Irene Fong (collegemate). Big congratulations to her!! She's getting married next month :))

ho-hum.... nothing much happened y'day. No farewell dinner last night -- postponed again coz the guest of honor can't make it...

Using the handphone as an alarm + a habit to switch on the h/p after killing the alarm is something I wish I don't do. Bad idea. I could have lazed and slept another 1/2 hour this morning but nOoo... it started to beep like a bomb siren!! Dammit!

2 consequent SMS arrived -- shaking up zombified moi, who dived and took cover under the pillows as I fumble for the blardy 'C' button. Dammit, dammit! Can never get the right one when in panic. Both messages were from Shari... seems he may not come to say g'bye b4 going back to Russia.

Awake and at work... it seemed like another slow & dull day... til the secretary frantically SOS-ed for help to re-sort & roll-up survey numbers again. Ah well! Seems what we did the other day's 40% incorrect. Rush-rush-rush! Need those by tmrw. Luckily finished calculation for one of the breakdown units b4 5pm.

Shari miss-called when I was still frantically calculating... called him back -- multitasked!! & nearly sent out the wrong file while talking crap with him over the phone... oi vey! Anyhow, farewell dinner is ON this evening :))

After dropping Grandpa back & collecting Shari's Grad ceremony photos (and the last 2 authentic Belgian Chocolate balls I managed to stash away... ), I went to meet him @ Daws office (and gave them a chocolate each). We left in Shari's car from there on & went to find Jac but she had news that dampened our mood... *sigh* so sad... best not to bring that up now.

Jac decided not to follow us for a bite because of the circumstances plaguing one of our other pals... she's going to be the main pillar of support... Oh well... sad... sad... we still had to snack at least, so the 3 of us went on to Pulau Tikus for "Lok-lok" (after Shari fed his starving car... )

So after a quick & fairly quiet "dinner", Shari dropped Daws & I near where our cars were parked, as we decided to go our separate ways... "What bittersweet sorrow... more bitter, less sweet" is the motto of the evening.

OK... here's a quick sum up of the past 2 days:

Mon: SLoOowWww day..... + had the sudden urge to work on my website redesign - slept at 2am coz was too engrossed with doing my graphic tweaking.

In contrast to Mon, Tue was insane! Being the office IT-guru, the secretary recruited me to help her compile-roll-crunch a huge chunk of survey results from all over Asia Pacific. Luckily Excel has functions that will save us from doing manual & complicated calculations... at times like these... I gotta love Microsoft.

Starting my car, leaving work -- it roars, it *pops* (e.g. bubblegum popping), it dies..., & it refuses to start. NoOOoooo! Not again!!! Called grandpa & he contacted the carmechanicus.

Until they arrived, I SMS-ed a few friends - some called & we had a good laugh. Kinda amusing that some phantom seems to HaVe an agenda to get my car out of commission. Muahahaha... you've gotta try harder than that - I'm sure this is nothing major!!

Finally after nearly 1hr later, help came. Turns out there's a loose connection to the battery. Suspected culprit? One of the fellas who repaired the aircon... hmm... darn-it! Why can't they clean up the job properly??

Anyhow, farewell dinner for Shari has been postponed to Wed... Oh well! So it's just me & my computer -- back to working on my web design... and finalising numbers for the survey. What a day! What a day...

The Sun-Files: Woke up early to cook breakfast... only to be marred by one small hitch called "freeze-dried-eggs-in-egg-shells-left-too-long-in-the-fridge". Dang! Pancake batter mixing had to be halted until my parents the super-agents come back from the wet market with secret items of the day (...and of course, the eggs). Hurrah! The mission to cook banana pancake can now proceed.... *yum!*

After breakfast... it was a lull... updated my blog... a little bit of Sunday toons on TV... delivered a pot-full of seafood noodles cooked by dad to my grand-aunt... and lunched!! Then... went shopping with mum at Prangin... gained 2 tops, and a pair of pants and a deficit in $.

Would have walked and browsed longer but had to go back to pick dad up around 5:30 so that we can drop him off for his bus-ride back to KL... mum & I decided to park the car, take an early & light dinner + pack home some food for grandpa & leave that in the car first... while we move on to Gama for a quick browse... and once again I ended up with a $ deficit & a few items.

Back at home... it was ironing time... then it was Gilmore Girls & the Hungary F1 race! muahahahaha!

Weekend Chronicles:

16 Aug, Fri: The day was spent doing some heavy-duty work. I had to move the scanner, the fax machine, and the huge laser printer to my cubicle. Ow... my arms sure are getting some exercise today!

*spoken in a deep tone* It was a cool & breezy night... Now, wasn't that one heck of a lousy opening line?! Anyhow, the night has been unadventurous. It was, once again, spent watching TV ("Jack & Jill" & a bit of "Charmed") and going online during long advertisement breaks. It does spell, however, to be a perfect Friday evening for a deadly-tired soul.

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17 Aug, Sat: At last, I finally get to sleep in til near noon! Ah... just what the doctor would prescribe for someone who is fatigued. After enjoying a soothing bath, I gave Daws a call just to tell him that Shari said he'd come to Penang one last time before leaving for Russia, on Tuesday.

Spent a quiet afternoon with mum and my 2 idiot-boxes... until it was time to go over to Seberang Jaya to get dad from the training institute where he does part-time lecturing. Dad later mentioned that he wanted to go watch "The Touch"... but unfortunately, GSC does not have a running theatre on the island this weekend.

Now... so... tantaraa-taraa!! That's how we ended up watching a 9:30pm screening of "Spy Kids 2". People, people!! Now... if you are looking for a good laugh, GO WATCH THIS FLICK! It sure as hell will crack you up -- plenty of comedic cinematography, lines & audio-visual aids. Oh yeah... do look out for Ralph. It's a really nice toy.

*crackle* *bzztt..bzztttt* Stay tuned for Sunday's happenings...

Today's Test: Discover Your Past Life -- find out which animal you were... Hmm... maybe that's why you've been acting weird.

*ahem* Drumroll please ...I was a ~~~>

Leopard: Not much is certain in life — past or present — but we know this much about you: In your last life you were a sultry leopard named Lola. You were a showgirl, with yellow feathers in your hair and a dress cut down to there. You would meringue and do the cha-cha. And one night at the Copacabana (the hottest spot north of Havana), you fell in love with Tony, the handsome bartender. Tony fought Rico (he wore a diamond) for you and won. The two of you grew old and happy together, joyfully dancing your lives away at the club to the soulful tunes of Barry Manilow.

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Went to the McD drive thru at 9-ish to meet Wai Yeong. I finally get to see photos taken at Redang by his camera... and had ourselves a Twist ice cream cone. Kewl!

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Later, an episode of "Angel" and near the stroke of midnight, the phone rings -- breaking concentration on all else that was going on. It was... it was... *suspense* just my dad calling to say that his bus would be arriving in 20-30 mins time. Oh well, time to pick myself up & start driving to Garden Inn.

My office is a circus!
Minutes before 10 AM, my department's big boss & her visitors started putting on some corny looking masks, posed & expressed themselves for photographs. Among the ones they put on were Pikachu, Samurai hairdo, and Geisha hairdo. The secretary put on a blonde haired disguise -- with fake eyebrows & rubber nose... and guess what they put over this humble spectator's head?!! A football mask!! (It wraps around your head)

Anyone else who had walked into the office at that time would have probably thought they have walked into some loony-bin. *lol* I just gotta love my office for these priceless moments.

Out from office... I took a pleasant drive along the coastal road; made a quick stop for home to collect something Grandpa forgot to take with him this morning; picked him up from his town office; and stopped by the shop my grandpa needed to go to.

Called Sze Lin when I reached home & she asked me if I wanted to join her at BJC to shop... yes! yes! Of course I wanna go!! ...so off I go after doing a few chores... Ying Lai was there too... and I ended up buying 3 tops & a really nice skirt. Woo hoo!

After dropping Ying Lai home -- Sze Lin & I had the sudden brilliant idea to drop by Sunnyville & go kacau Kok Keong... hehehe... I must say we were pretty successful in doing that.

An odd after-thought: Hey!! A couple of goats crossed a busy town road, in front of my car, and went for the shrubs at the road divider -- on my way home after getting grandpa.

Data overload!!!
There were just a lot of numbers to process and other discreet data taunting me in the face yesterday. Crap! Nothing I can do about that when I have to compile numbers and do data entry every once in a while.

Original lunch plan with Ying Lai: to eat at Secret Recipe...
but we ended deciding to go to the PSDC canteen to join Sze Lin after I picked Ying Lai from her house. Food there is pretty good. We bumped into Poon Wei too... funny to think that 10 minutes before that -- PW called me about Graduation Photos collection, from KDU, for him & Pei Ling ... sheer coincidence!

Think I gave the KDU admin a huge headache when I told her that I'll be collecting for "a few" people -- I misread the photo package numbers a few times. *whoops!*

I nearly asked Shane if he had a a flu when I called him -- only to have "Shane" tell me, "Hey, actually this is Kok Keong. Shane is not here at the moment". Uhh.... ok. Nevermind that -- told KK that I'd pass his grad photos to Shane in addition to Shane's, PW & PL's later tonight.

Seems like I was somehow destined to go to Secret Recipe today. Shane came by to collect the photos & pass the one's developed by PW for Sze Lin & yours truly... and also to take me out for supper. We called Sze Lin but she was still preparing her teaching materials. Actually had no particular idea of where to go until Shane had a sudden craving for cake... and as the story goes, the rest is history.

Wahey! Friday night was a night at home
(1) there was Evan who turned up at 8-ish to return my Cold Fusion "bible";
(2) Shane, who came-by at 9-ish to pass to me my graduation studio-taken snapshots; and
(3) A date with the TV - watched "Jack & Jill" and much later the recorded episode of "Charmed".

Saturday was a day of errands in the morning, another afternoon at work, and playing chauffeur to my dad in the evening. Luckily the heavy rains stopped some time before my trip to the airport. The rain was so heavy earlier that evening that we could hardly see beyond 5-10 meters ahead. Fuh!

News addition at 12:30am, Monday: Had gone to watch "Sum of All Fears" at MegaPav, Prangin Mall, with Jase. The show's not too bad coz "Minority Report" still rulezZzzz! Later went for an Italian dinner at Belissa Row -- the food and environment is good so I'd recommend others to go there too if they feel they'd like to indulge themselves.

After the scrumptious meal, I begged Jase to follow me on a walk to Midland's Plaza... just so that I could go get some Beanie Babies. *lol*

**Yo, Jase! Thanx for letting me bully you into taking that walk... and also I thank God for letting me survive a ride in your car. Lucky for you I do not get nauseous or panicked easily, if not siap lar your kereta!

Mamak session last night ended up being a girls' night out for Shakila, Peky & I. The others couldn't make it coz of various reasons ranging from exams, assignment deadlines, illness, etc. Oh well! No loss for us coz we gals still had much fun catching up and all :)

It's rather cold here now (my toes are numb). It's been raining since early in the morn. Ah! Blessed jacket o'mine - keep me warm!

Travelling in my car last evening brought me to view 2 seriously offbeat traffic-stopping moments.

Episode 1: One heck of a lucky "barskeet" motorcyclist skidded and fell quickly on a (normally) fast main road. Other vehicles were far enough to gently stop and avoid rolling over the poor chap. It had rained quite heavily in the afternoon. Hmm... the road must have been quite slippery still.

Moral of ep1: "Don't blardy speed on a wet road"

Episode 2: A major psychopath passenger from a small lorry stomps his way to a van behind the lorry & suddenly something fluid/glassy scatters as it hits the van. "Huh!? What's going on 'ere?! Was that broken glass?!". The psycho hurriedly returns into the lorry while the van inches to get side-by-side with the lorry. The psychopath angrily throws whatever water left in his plastic bottle at the van driver while the van guy attempts to reason something with the lorry fellas. "Oh... so it was water I saw flying - it wan't glass or even *eeks!* acid"

Moral of ep2: "There are some seriously sick-minded people driving around... do not provoke them"

Yay! My car is fully repaired.

Last night was party time! With the car fixed - I decided to go for Pinky's birthday bash at Ethan's place... Chrissy-boy @ Mr. KDU 2002, Mei Sze, Ken, Shakila, & Alan were there too. Dinner was a yummy spaghetti meal courtesy of Ethan's cooking skills... cept all of us felt kinda bloated a bit later 'coz he chucked in a huge chunk of cheddar into the sauce.... ugh!

Birthday gal's 21st was christened with lotsa cream on her face after she blew the candles... Nasty business this - it became a mad frenzy soon after. We later realised that everyone had been creamed except for the super hyper Mr. KDU... hardy-har-har, ho, ho, ho!! Target identified...

After all the creaming - it's plenty of cleaning up... and then [dRumRoLL...] lotsa music & dancing. There you go! Our very own dance floor with lots of space to ourselves and no strangers to bum into... and the license to do any stupid thing we wouldn't dare do elsewhere... Not bad! Exercise after a heavy meal... whatever works *chuckles*

Yesterday, I applied for emergency leave & sent my car to the workshop to get the body work fixed - the bill read RM 92. Ok... that doesn't sound too bad... wonder how much the aircon pipe & condenser will cost me.

After the car is in the workshop, I took a bus to the Georgetown banking area - wand walked to Maybank main office. Had to be there to report my lost ATM. Not sure whether I dropped it someplace or left it at the cash deposit machine after my last transaction there. I didn't know that Maybank can now issue ATM cards on-the-spot. I'm so outdated!

After that's done, I took a slow walk towards KDU... might as well go there to pass Pinky her birthday card (one day early) coz I most likely won't be able to meet up with her for her birthday-do with the others today... besides, it is good exercise.

Went home to clean up my piles of papers & files just haphazardly stacked around the house.

4 Aug (Sun): Made a few calls before I found out that Lokie would like to meet us for lunch at 2pm, Starbuck's, Gurney. So... off I went to the bus stop opposite CGL to collect my ride in Shari's "kereta lembu". We arrived about the same time as the others - Daws, Lokie+hubby. It was great catching up with Lokie... sure haven't seen her for quite long while... :)

Not to mention, for the entire duration, Shari was up to his outrageous antics once again... hahaha... Nothing much about him has changed. He's still living up to his status as the crazy joker.

3 Aug (Sat): Had a packed morning. Dropped grandpa at his town office - took mum to the banks & post office, breakfast, to the Ayer Itam temple, & then to the old flat - went home to settle my laundry & ironing. At 11, called Dan to check if he's at the Green Lane McD coz if he's already there with Julian, Malcolm & Joob - I'll drop by and see Joob who's just back from UK.

But since they are true to Malaysian time... I didn't meet them there but instead went to KDU to audit how much $ should Julie, Shari & I return to Kevin & Daws for Sally's present & last night's dinner & dessert. Saw Shari there too when he arrived there sometime after I finished the somewhat complicated set of calculations. Fuh! Hung around in KDU until it was time to get my grandpa from his office

(sleepy... stopped blogging at 2:07 AM) ......continued blogging at 5:45 PM: On my way to get my grandpa, I knocked into another car. Ouch! This will definitely put a dent in my pocket. Luckily the traffic was slow so there wasn't a super major wreckage scene. The other fella's vehicle was better off than mine... his was a case of an impacted bumper only. Mine was a damaged bumper, broken # plate, & broken aircon pipe+condenser. This will definitely teach me not to drive too close to another car next time round.

After having a tete-a-tete with the mechanics to evaluate both the vehicles, I went home for lunch and a long session of music to feed my mellow mood of the moment.

Later in the evening, Shari came by to see some photos - including those from Lokie's wedding. Then we went out for dinner at Raffe's. Halfway thru the meal, Daws called Shari to say he'll join us for dinner... *huh?* We're slightly confused! Thought he earlier said he'll join us after dinner.

Minutes later, Daws arrived at Raffe's - I quickly gobbled my remaining murtabak, settled the bill and grabbed Shari along & hopped into his car. Round 2: I had a drink & a bite of the Sui Kau at the "sa-tiau-lor" kopitiam while Shari & Daws ate to their hearts content. It was too early for another full meal for me.

After dinner we stood by the car before getting into it to go elsewhere - coz it's just such a nice, cool, & breezy night. As a prank, Shari was locked out of the car and made to walk a short distance to the car... man... Daws can sure be a prankster when he wishes to be.

Again... we went up to Batu Feringghi coz Daws kinda felt regret for not buying the Barbra Streisand CD that he saw. Whoa! This is 3 mights in a row up to BF for me. After sudah puas browsing around the stalls... we walked back to the car and took a stop at Holiday Inn coz Shari had to answer nature's call.

The lobby chairs were so comfortable that all of us didn't wanna leave the hotel... I could have enjoyed a nice little snooze there if we had allowed outselves to stay there... hehehe... but then we have to go home somehow... so off we go! Same thing as last night - Daws drops both Shari & I back to where Shari's car is parked; & I get a ride home from Shari.

2 Aug (Fri): Lunched with Ken & Dan at Tutti Frutti, BJ. The drinks were well... fruitty concoctions. Wanted to draw out some money until I realised I'm missing my Maybank ATM card from my wallet. Shucks!

Left work slightly early today so I'll have enough time to wrap Sally's present (it was a pair of Wayang Kulit dolls), that was being kept by Kev & Daws in KDU, before our dinner with her. Nasty bit of work... wrapped it in some layers of newspapers, a layer of mahjong paper & crowned with the gift wrap.

Ok, that done... I passed the card to everyone to sign - and we argued over where to go for dinner & finally told Shari to meet us at US Pizza, Island Plaza. So Daws, Kev, Julie & I went there first & we waited for Shari to bring Sally there with him... it's a surprise thing for her.

After dinner, Kev & Julie left for a movie while the rest of us wandered a short while in Island - before moving on (at 9-ish) to Secret Recipe, Belisa Row to berborak & share some laughs. The funniest moment was when the waiter came with our water (and a silly grin) telling us "Sorry we're slow to bring the water, we ran out of cups!" - and Shari quickly gulping down his cuppa, and returning the cup to the waiter to get it refilled.

Later we went up to Batu Feringghi in Daws' car to look for CDs. We left the other car (Sally's) back at Island. Shari bought himself 8 CDs, Sally had 5, I ended up with 6 and Daws with none - as the stall was closing. Daws dropped us back at Island to get Sally's car before he went home.

Had the panic of our lives when Sally drove down from sidewalk and the car looked like it was stuck on the curb... we had to push it back onto the sidewalk before she could turn the car around to drive on the correct way to get back on the road.... phew! We then went to Sally's to get Shari's car, said goodnight, and I reached home (courtesy of a ride in Shari's ancient car) at 1++ am - pretty decent timing for a Friday night.

Test of the day: Are you loony?

...and the verdict on me?:
"It only happens once in a blue moon, but when you cut loose, you really cut loose. We wouldn't call you loony, but you might qualify for loon-ish. Because while you've been known to have your moments of insanity, you're usually the model of decorum. That's why people are so tickled when you do occasionally do and say off-the-wall, goofy things. But you usually tend to keep your emotions and behavior strictly in check — making sure the scales are firmly tipped toward "sanity" is something you take pride in. That said, it wouldn't hurt to indulge your loony side a little more often. Being dependable and reliable is one thing; being predictable is something else entirely. So leave work early and go fly a kite. Hire a skywriter to inscribe your squeeze's name in midair. Go skinny dipping in January. Make a point of leaving room for spontaneity and craziness in your life — trust us, it's lots of fun."

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Last evening, SOS-ed my pal Kok Keong to accompany me for present-hunting at Gurney Plaza, altho' he has no frigging-clue who I am getting it for. What a pal :)

It's a last minute thing! Sharimalan had called from Alor Setar & has no clue who's supposed to get the pressie (we need it later tonight!)... so I volunteered. Only problem was - I couldn't think what'd be suitable for Sally - she's into spiritual, dramatic, ethnic & artistic. Nothing in the average gift shop would do.

After walking about 30 mins, Daws called to say Julie & Kevin were going to buy a present at Gurney too. Quickly called Julie to tell her I'd meet them at the info counter. Kok Keong left after they arrived (a big-big thanx to KK for being such a sport).

We then wandered around for about 1 1/2 hours with a very zoned-out, blur & super benggang-ed Kevin - who basically dragged himself along. We left the mall with only the wrappers, a card & NO present *wail*. Start panicking!

Finally, we decided to try our luck at Batu Feringghi - and found "The Gift" in our first 10 minutes there. However, we decided to walk the whole stretch hoping to find if there's anything else that we could consider. There was a slight drizzle... while we were in the Langkawi Batik Souvenir Shop, it started to RAIN HEAVILY.... noOoooOOOooo. Luckily, I somehow had the psychic-sense to lug 2 umbrellas with me after I had parked my car, before the 3 of us continued our gift-quest.

The umbrellas did not exactly shelter us - strong winds. We were partially drenched as we walked back to the stall with "the gift". We haggled as the rain sprayed at us under the short canopy set up by the stall owner.

Now that our mission has ended, I went home - took a nice warm bath, checked my mails & "hello!" warm-comfy bed...

Today's 1st hour at work: Decorate a fruit basket with fresh flowers and wrap a birthday present.

The department is going out to celebrate a colleague's birthday during lunch...

Notes at 3:30pm: Lunch was at Pizza Hut, Bukit Jambul. On our way back to office, Lyne (the secretary) & I went to buy a small/kiddy cup of ice blended for everyone. We sang Happy Birthday in a chorus of different slangs & falsetto voices to the b'day gal & a Marble Cheesecake from Jenni's. I feel stuffed-up and sleepy at the moment... bye-bye balanced diet!!

Being at Baskin Robbins with Umayal last night felt like a combination of being in the bank at peak hour & being at the fish market. The sign said "Please take a number for handpack orders".

OK... fine... both of us thought "Hey! We just want a sundae and that is not a handpack item"... and so we put ourselves in the line.

After waiting for a while... we realized that we are not getting anywhere waiting coz these Baskin's ppl are just so stuck with the number system. Fine... stew-peeed misleading sign "Bah!"

So we took a number and waited for our turn. While waiting, Uma finished flipping through the photo albums I brought - we talked crap & decided what flavors we wanted in our pint of ice cream - and for our takeaway she decided to buy home a pint of ice cream while I decided what I wanted in my quart-gallon.

Now... you must be wondering how we managed to eat a pint and still have well chilled ice cream to take home. The simple deduction "My Dear Watson" is that we simply asked the Baskin's people keep it for us first. Ta-daAaahhHhh!