sitting at home

i am sitting at home writing this on a saturday night. my husband's kinda always busy with all his work and events and all, and this time round work has taken him to penang, a town about 400km away. he'll be back only be tomorrow night.

i normally use these moments as my down time, where i do some quiet stuff that i enjoy like reading, writing, photography, some tv, some music (can't do that this time round due to poor hearing quality caused by ear infection), some thinking, a bit of soul searching... basically chillin' with lil ol meself.

i do enjoy these moments, though not too much coz i really love my husband's company and i do miss him.

can i afford it?

i was thinking of bringing out the old nikon and buy a couple of rolls of film and do some film photography. the only thing is, i don't know if i can afford to shoot in film. the buying of film, the development...

i never even thought of the cost 15 years or so ago when i was still in school. joining the photography club is not a cheap hobby. i'm sure i was pretty stingy with whatever shots i took, not like nowadays with my lil digital point and shoot - oh, don't like this shot? just delete it. no money to buy photo paper to print? just look at it on your screen.

i'm just hoping that taking photos on a slr is like riding a bicycle. after all these years, i don't know if i still remember how to work one.

i'm just so disappointed that i lost a lot of my stuff during the shifting of homes years ago. all the photos that i took way back then all went missing, not to mention all my enid blyton, and my beano and dandy, loads more stuff =(

that's another story all together.

reader or writer

most of us read, but how many of us write? i'm not talking about writing books, or even articles, but just for the love of writing for your own pleasure.

with blogging, a lot of us are writing our experiences, some of us write to blow off steam, some write just because.

now, most of us read, some voraciously, some leisurely and some purely just on a need-to basis.

are there more readers than writers? i suppose so. it's human nature to want to know about another person's thoughts/views/opinion/life. but to write something for others to read, regardless whether fact or fiction is like exposing a part of oneself to the world, because it's what in a person's mind. therefore there are a lot of anonymous writers/bloggers out there, with nary a photo to associate them with anyone or anything, much less a photo on their profile page. i can understand if someone remains anonymous is they are well-known or famous, but most of us are everyday janes and everyday joes. again it all boils down to whether we're secure enough to show a part of ourselves to the world.

on the other end, there are those who flaunt their words, they will try to get as much viewership/readership as possible. am i one of them? surely you jest.

pain pain pain!!

i have an ear infection. in fact, it's a recurring problem thru the years. will be going to the doctor later in the afternoon.

it hurts. it fucking hurts!!

brother lawrence spitzig

Brother Lawrence Spitzig (photo taken from www.lasalle2.org)



Cheer cheer and courage display
All ye Johannians join in the lay
Send a volley of cheer on high
Shake down the thunder from the sky

What though the odds be great or small
Dear ol' St John's will win over all
While her loyal sons are marching
Onward to Victory

St John's!!


Brother Lawrence? ask this to anyone who says he's johannian. if he doesn't know Brother Lawrence, then he's lying. he's not a johannian. i come from a family that boasts of at least 5 johannians. my late grand uncle Hugh was johannian. he was one of the boarders way back in those days. he's good friends with Brother Lawrence all the way thru to his last years. in fact, he used to have a tipple or two with the good brother. Grand uncle Hugh was the one who enrolled my dad into st john's. i grew up learning the johannian school rally even before i knew how to sing my school song. i still remember the rally today.

my husband is johannian, his two brothers are johannians. my father-in-law's johannian. he went on to TEACH in st johns and that's where he met my mother-in-law.

coming from a family of johannians, the stories i hear about Brother Lawrence are in abundance. i hear it from my dad, my husband and obviously from my father-in-law.

this is a man who's already in his twilight years and he's still doing so much for the education and well being of young children. he's like what? 89 this year? and he's still trying to help the young ones in the rural area of Sabah, Malaysia.

he gives his all, and i mean his ALL. from the time he stepped on Malaya soil in the 1930s to this very day, he still tries his very best to teach, educate, guide and lead our young.

i salute you Brother Lawrence Spitzig. it is truly my honour to have met you and speak to you, finally after all these years of hearing all this wondorous things about you.

a great man. a truly, truly great man.

budget airline?? backside airline more like it

i've actually wanted to write about this a few months back but i never got around to it as i deem it really unimportant. reading a newspaper article brought back the memory and here i am, writing about the shitty air asia.

in may this year, we took a trip to penang and i booked the plane tickets way back in march. all the crap about RM9.99 is bullshit. i paid over a hundred ringgit per person for the tickets and to my chagrin Malaysia Airlines was having some promotion and tickets were actually cheaper than the fucked up air asia.

we can't cancel on air asia, they charge you about fifty ringgit per person to change any flight details. they do not inform you of any flight cancellations and neither do they inform you if they change your flight to a later, earlier or even to a totally different day.

oh yeah, they also can't seem to be on time. our flight was for 9.10pm from KLIA and to arrive at penang international airport around 10pm. guess where were we at 10pm? still on the tarmac at KLIA, waiting to taxi to the runway. and what time did we reach? within 30 mins. how's that possible? it's suppose to be a 45 min flight!!?? yeah right! heard of the term "cutting corners"? well, air asia was cutting corners all right. instead of smooth curves, the pilot thinks that he's on a F1 race track and just makes abrupt sharp turns where the passengers can feel that the plane is at an angle of almost 45 degrees and is leaning against the person seated next to him.

will i fly air asia ever again? at those cut throat prices? with those kamikaze pilots? at those fucked up terms and conditions? hmmm... do i really look like a fucking schmuck ready to be conned again by the backside airline?

Malaysia airline here i come.

i have no stomach

that's what my father-in-law says to everyone who visits him after the operation. "i have no stomach".

he was wheeled into the operation theatre at 2pm, wheeled out to the recovery area at 8 plus and finally back to the ward at midnight.

he's got the constitution of an ox. they took out his stomach and his spleen due to cancer, and he is awake, lucid and doing his exercises less than 12 hours later!

let's us hope that he can recover as quickly physically, mentally and emotionally.

of flesh and blood

daddy vincent, my father-in-law will be going in for surgery on tuesday morning. he's got a growth the size of his stomach outside his intestines in his abdomen. he's scared, very worried and very scared.

daddy vincent has always been a very proud and never-show-my-weakness kind of man. basically a very macho, man's man. recently, he's gotten so frail, and weak and old. my husband and i went back to the bangsar house to see him today and he's really, really weak. he's in so much pain, and he gets giddy if he sits up for too long. we were there for about eight and a half hours, and he's lying down on his bed for most of the time. it breaks my heart to see him like that.

the outspoken, proud man is showing his tender side. he's accepting massages, a helping hand to stand and walk, telling us that he loves us.