The Smurfs Are Here!!!

Looks like it is not only me that felt the lethargicness of the whole hazy episodes. Even my pot of petunia is sprouting mushrooms! Maybe the smurfs have migrated into my petunia pot.

13/6/2009 - Photo taken at 12noon. Look a bit like *ahemm*...

13/6/2009 - Photo taken at 6pm, same day, when we got home from galavanting.

Noted that it had grown a little taller & slimmer on the stem.

14/6/2009 - Photo taken at 2pm.

Imagine my look of surprise when I was greeted by the sight of this. I didn't know it will opened up like an umbrella like this. It is so cute and pretty. I thought it gonna look obscene and stay obsene till it wilt. At least now I know a little about mushrooms. One thing I know for sure is, colourful mushrooms are poisonous. So becareful if you have small children at home. You surely wont want them to eat it as snacks.

Pssstt: After the heavy downpour yesterday, I went for a run in the park nearby. I ran for 3 laps :)

FengShui & Karma

This is my personal experience with FengShui and what I gathered about it. This whole experience that I gonna shared is strictly based on my personal interest only. Just bear in mind that FengShui is very much like medicine. What is good for you may not be for me and vice versa.

A very good friend of mine (also a FengShui Practitioner), warned me in 2007 that I should shift out of my apartment by 2008 to prevent relapse of my thyroid. As usual, I didnt take her words seriously... I am that kind of person that will only scratch when there is an itch. When there is no itch, I won't bother to take any preventive actions to prevent the recurrence of it. You understand what I mean? Just understand it la...

Then come 2008, I was too busy preparing for all our wedding events. We were supposed to shift over to my in-laws old place right after our wedding in May 2008, but with my 2 furkids, it was a little inconvenient. Therefore, we waited for them to shift out first to their new house, before we move in. As the renovation works over at their new house was unfortunately delayed, we were only finally able to shift out of my apartment in Nov 2008.

The thing is, we do have a house of our own which was due to complete in 2006/07 (can't exactly remember). Unfortunately, till now, it is still not completed yet. The best part was, it was suppose to be Ho Hup's benchmark project. Let's just say that it is also supposed to be above average property and there is no way it gonna have problems. Ho Hup. Who would ever thought cash rich Ho Hup would faced problem? I still remembered a banker friend once told me "Don't worry... Ho Hup filthy rich.. will never have problem one...". And strangely, Ho Hup faced just that... cash problem... directly opposite which supposed to be impossible. Otherwise, we would have shifted out of my apartment long ago... Sometimes I do wonder, dont know if it is our luck that brought Ho Hup down...lols.....

Anyway, when we finally shifted into my in-laws old home, my father-in-law insisted that we should moved into the middle room instead of staying in the backroom as it is the only square room in the house (square rooms are usually deemed as having better FengShui compared to irregular shape room). So off we went, lugging all our belongings, from the back room and settled ourselves into the middle room, i.e. the square room.

From day 1, I was not able to sleep well in the middle room. It's always either headaches/migraines or it would be so difficult to fall asleep. Even when I finally fell asleep, I would wake up several times a night. Then, I began to feel the symptoms of my thyroid condition all over again. Since there is an 'itch' now, I mah scratch lor. I consulted my FengShui friend and all she said was..."what makes you think you shifted into a better FengShui house?"... that really left me scratching my head instead...lols. What she asked is true. I also don't know what makes us think this house has a better FengShui than my aparment. We had just all along assumed it should be better. Assumptions. Anyway, after giving her some info on the directions, she did some rough calculations and cross references, she confirmed the worst. It is indeed worst :p. Not only that the house in general have a much worst FengShui for us, of all the rooms, it is the middle room that harbours the 'illness star' of the year. You see la... suey or not??? Anyway, as there is no other possible houses to shift into, she taught me some cures to hopefully counter the negative effects of it.

Since we also have a room over at my in-law's new place and as the new place is generally good in every aspects of FengShui, Harrison said we should spend our weekends there and hopefully it will help to improve my health and everything. So for the past 6 months, I am sure you guys knows we have been doing just that for our weekends.

Until recently, a FengShui master and his team was brought in by a relative to audit our home. After taking measurement of all the directions including our room, the first question he asked was, "...can you sleep well at night???" with a very surprising look. With that one question from him, I suddenly felt a whole tonne lighter. Felt the dark clouds which has been enveloping me this past couple of months has finally been lifted off me. Someone finally understood what I've been experiencing. Someone is finally jiving my music!

To cut long story short, from our place, the FengShui team proceeded to my in-law's new place and the best part is, our room there share the exact same bad measurement of our room at our own home. Doubly suey hor? Anyway, the FengShui master and his team did some changes in our house and shifted us to another room in the house. *keeping all my fingers & toes crossed* So far, so good la... I slept very well. I've never rested so well for a very very long time.

The reason I am telling you this story is not because I am supertitious (I am to a certain point and trust me, that certain point is pretty low), but from my own observations, I understood something else. And, that is what I wish to share.

All Incidents Observed

1) Delayed in the completion of our house cause Ho Hup bankrupted - which is really strange. Talam was a more bankruptable as compared to Ho Hup that time.

2) In-laws new house renovations delayed - which shouldn't be too cause there was nothing much to reno except for fixtures & fittings. Just that contractor was dilly dallying.

3) Shifted into an assummed better FengShui house from my apartment which turned out to be worst.

4) Shifted into a supposely better FengShui square room from our back room which in the end turned out to be the worst too of all the 5 rooms in the house.

5) Spending weekends at in-laws' to avoid bad FengShui at our own home which in the end also have the equally same bad FengShui for us.

I came to realise that when one is meant to go thru an experience, one is meant to go thru it no matter what. No matter what one do to prevent a certain mishap or unfortunate situation from happening, it will still happens no matter how. What is in your chart, it is in your chart and it will always be in your chart. No matter what one do to prevent unfortunate events from happening, it will still somehow happen one way or another.

What I have to say here is important. One thing though, will make a difference in the severity of one's misfortunes or one's good fortunes and personally I think that is what we all called 'Karma'. If one is meant to have a heart attack, he/she will have a heart attack no matter what kind of FengShui aspects have been taken into consideration priory. It is "Karma" that will determined the severity of the heart attack. It is "Karma" that will determined if it will happen with people around so that you'll be saved or left to die. It is "Karma" that clears the traffic for the ambulance that rushes you to the hospital or jammed it up with nasty traffic jam. It is also "Karma" that determine the cardialogist is on duty at that particular odd hours or snoozing away in some faraway land vacationing with his/her family. You get what I mean?

To apply this into my personal example would be, if I am meant to have a relapse, I will have a relapse no matter how many houses I shifted. It is "Karma" that will determined how severe my relapse would be. It is "Karma" that determined I meet all the right people at the right time who offered me right advises instead outdated medical information which could've make my situation worst off. It is also "Karma" that destined me to have a good FengShui practitioner friend across the border to pre-warned me of possible relapse and advised me on possible cures to cushion the negative effects which could've been worst for my relapse. It's also "Karma" that allows me to understand all these so that I would not feel frustrated or even depress of myself.

The most easy example to illustrate would be, all of us are meant to die someday, somehow & someway. That is our ultimate destiny. There is no such thing as the elixir of longevity which the Qin Emperor had wanted so badly and ordered the whole China to make him one and yet he still die. That only proof one thing and that is, death is anything but evitable. Same goes for bad luck. It is anything but evitable. Fengshui might be able to pro-long our life a little (I said 'might', I don't know exactly if it can...) but we would still die eventually. Just like bad luck, it may be delayed a little, it will still come. And I believe that it is 'Karma' that determine whether we have a peaceful exit or a suffering one. Just like bad luck, it is 'Karma' that will determine whether if we escape an accident with a tiny scratch or permanent paralysis.

So conclusion is, of course FengShui is important. But I felt that accummulating good "Karma" is even more important. Since we are not able to change what we are destined to go thru, why not do more good deeds and hopefully with all accummulated brownie points, it will automatically lessen the negative effects of our destiny by setting us on an 'auto-cruise' mode to make all the right decisions, meet all the right people at all the right timing? Does this blabbering of mine make any sense to you?

Me & My Maggie

I left office early yesterday after finishing all there is to do. On way home, I suddenly feel like eating maggi curry + telur again (that's lunch ok..). Again cause I had that also few days ago. Then I remembered a friend commented in my FB ... "no vege"? Hmmm.. the "vege" part of it sounds very yummy. So on way home, I stopped over at a mini mart nearby and headed straight to the fridge area. I picked a small cabbage that has already been cut into half - RM1.50, then I thought why not add some fishcakes too... so picked fishcakes too - RM1.30. Hmmm.... I could almost smell my maggi curry + telur + vege + fishcakes.... yummilicious!

As I was walking away from the fridge with my loots heading towards the check out counter, the vision of the whole cooking process like somehow flashes before my eyes. The cutting, washing, boiling, cooking. After that, washing up the wok, bowl & etc again. And on top of it, I've to pay RM2.80 for the vege & fishcakes.

I turned around, put back the stuff and walk out the mini market. Get on my car, drove myself to the nearest mamak stall and ordered myself a maggi goreng + limau ais. All for RM5.20 only. Other than fishcakes & vege, they also have taugeh, taufu, cucumber & lime.... I am so closed in drowning myself with unneccessary chores....lols...

The Fruit of My Frustrations

As promised, here you go... my half-done artwork for your critism... hehehe... So how? Look like leafs or chendol? Lols...

(or maybe, even look like unriped potatoes... lols)

Anyway, early this evening at MidValley, after dinner, as we were on the escalator heading towards the carpark, I asked my other half.... "darling, when will you next be on leave?"... cause we just walked passed RedBox and I thought maybe we can go karaoke together next time during off peak hours. I just asked for fun one lar... where he can take leave one... asked for the sake of blabbering only. And you know what the fella answered arr...?

"I am now on escalator. After this, wait for me to get into a lift, then I'll be on lift..."

Then, he just cracked up laughing his heart out until I also forgot to tell him why I asked... sigh...

Tai Chi-ing Frustration To Inspiration

I am finally back to work today after rotting at home for 6 days recuperating from my H2N3...lols. Visualize this.... me, sitting in front of the idiot box, with mushroom sprouting out all over me. That's how rotted I am. My boss has been an angel. I called in sick last Friday and told him that I will go in on Monday instead. And on Monday, I got an early sms from him saying something about if I am still feeling under the weather, I dont need to go into the office as there is nothing much to do and I replied with an 'Ok. See you tomorrow' and continue with my slumber. Then, come Tuesday morning and I received another similar sms. This time round, I just pulled up the quilt and continue to snooze without even replying it...:p

It is not easy to crawl out of bed to get ready for work after rotting for 6 days especially with an aching right shoulder resulted from a sudden inspiration to paint yesterday. Nevertheless, I have to. Otherwise, I'll be blogging about more frustrations today and I don't think my frustrations are that interesting to read.

Decided to channel all the negative energy accummulated from those senseless frustrations to better use and that is when the inspiration to paint more or less surfaces. If you still don't know this, let me enlighten you with something I know and that is, music, painting, dancing, exercising, have special power of transforming negative emotions to positive emotions. So if you are in the lousiest mood next time, instead of start screaming down the street terrifying innocent beings, just simply listen to your favourite music cd & sing along or vending your anger on your guitar/piano. It helps really. It helps to prevent disasters. Try it.

So I grabbed a pencil from upstairs and started to sketch on the small canvas which I bought couple of weeks ago for experiment. When I said for experiment, it doesnt mean that I am using it for some mad scientist experiments on how to turn the canvas into meatballs and etc... :p It is just because I've never painted on a canvas before and I need to experiment how acryllic paints would react to canvas. Get it? Anyway, I decided to paint leafs. Just plain painting of leafs. Remember I mentioned that I couldnt find any of those in Bali cause most of their leafy paintings usually have stupid birds/flowers in them? Well, I decided to DIY this one. No stupid birds, no stupid flowers, just green leafs. :)

Since it is a relatively small canvas (slightly bigger than A5), it is 60% done now. The verdict at this point of time is, I think I like painting on canvas and acryllic works well with it. I should have prime the canvas priorly though but I was too lazy therefore resulting in unsmooth surfaces. And I have yet to decide on what to do with the background and my leafs look more like chendols than leafs....hahaha... but then again, art is art. There is no right or wrong in art. You just need to apply your artisticness when viewing one. Betul?

Anyway, that's all for now. I'll post up my half done artwork later this evening to share. Then you can tell me if it look like chendols. Lols.

Crappy Hazy Days

Things has been rather crappy lately. With my flu almost gone, comes the haze which aggravated my already existing sore throat and set off another coughing frenzy. And just last night, after we got back from a late porridge supper nearby, I have to down a quarter of the ventolin pilll to ease my breathing. Damn haze. Where did it came from? There is not a word written of it in the newspaper or do they thought their country is turning into 4 seasons and have this misty thingy now? Stupid. Got newsworthy news they don't write, but write about who is having affair with who or who was caught sleeping naked... oh ya, cause our Malaysian government have good political ties with the Indonesians and they have to protect the Indonesians. Just like how they would protect mentally disturbed Indonesian maid who had purposely inflicted burn on herself and sentence the poor innocent Malaysian majikan who paid tax to the Malaysian government, to hefty fines and imprisonment. That is our government. Protect their face value with our backside. Or when your runaway maid is found, you have to pay a fine and her deportation expenses and not deducting a single cent from her salary. I think our gov must have love Indonesia so much... oh, the land of their ancestors! ...tiew......

I am just very frustrated la.... frustrated cause my knees is finally stronger after 6 months of thyroid treatment, and finally I can resume my running, but this stupid haze have to come. I think I am destined to be a couch potato engulfed in lark.... tiew....

With the haze, that limited me to indoor activities only. Also frustrated. Frustrated cause my stupid sewing machine started to act up halfway thru my sewing projects. First, the needle broke. Then the thread kept getting stuck in the replaced needles and finally bought another batch of needles with bigger numbers, still, doesn't work. In the end, I just packed up everything including my half done project, and stored it back into the storeroom. I give up.... tiew......

Then, I've been following closely on this news about these 2 American journalists, Euna Lee & Laura Ling, who was caught by the North Korean's guards near the N.Korea & China border and sentenced to 12 years 'hard labour' for a "grave crimes" against the country. This one really got me hissing venom. What kind of "grave crimes" could this two girls possibly do to a strong communist country who is developing nuclear that they have to be punished to 12 years of hard labour??? And best part is, details of their capturing have been so vague. Were they really in North Korea's soil or were they grabbed off China soil, a deeper political conspiracy? Here are some info I found on the internet of this "hard labour" camp, also known as 'Kwan Li So".

"People are starved to death, worked to death, frozen to death over a period of time, and it's just absolutely horrific, reminiscent of what we've read coming out of the old Gulags under Stalin,"

"They beat people regardless of their sex or age," says a one-time prisoner. "My lip was split and I had such severe internal bleeding my excrement turned black with blood."

"You couldn't even lie down," a former inmate says. "The back of the person in front of me touched my chest. There was no room to move."

The report describes hard labor at the camps involving mining for coal, iron deposits, gold and other ores, or logging and wood-cutting in nearby mountains. Inmates often work 12 or more hours a day, seven days a week, with time off only for national holidays.

Prisoners are provided only enough food to be kept on the verge of starvation. Hunger yields large numbers of informants among the prisoners, leading to a prison culture of distrust and hostility. Prisoners fight each other over scraps of food or over the clothing of deceased inmates. The fate for those caught stealing food or attempting escape are quickly sealed.

One camp survivor recalls a public killing of an attempted escapee, who was tied and dragged behind a car in front of assembled prisoners until dead, after which time the other prisoners were required to pass by and place their hands on his bloodied corpse. Another prisoner shouted out against this atrocity, and he was immediately shot to death.

Sad hor? Laura Ling is the daughter of a family friend. From the CNN coverage, he looked like he had aged a hundred years overnight. My heart goes out to him and his family, as well as the family of Euna Lee and hope Laura & Euna would be reunited with their love ones soon. God bless.

Note: Photos googled from internet.

Summary of my lightning speed week

You must be wondering how come all is quiet over here for the past week. And, here is the reason why.

Sat - Tue

1) Attended Abigail's 1st birthday party which was held at her daddy & mommi's coffee shop in Puchong, called Hai Siang. Her daddy & mommi had the shop closed for the party that evening. Harrison & I had swell of a time catching up with our friends, eating all the yummy food, irritating the kids (i.e. Christian & Thea) and absorbed in the cheery atmosphere that surrounded us. I managed to curi some beautifully taken photos from a friend's FB. Here you go...

This is one hell of a cake isnt it....very very lovely & colourful..

(errm, is colouring good for kids???)

The little princess of the night, the birthday girl, Little Abigail, got hynotised by the burning candle, oblivious to all that's happening around her. Birthday? What birthday? My birthday??? When?????

2) Played host & entertained some friends from Singapore and had a great time pigging out. We had pork chop + loh mee + hainanese noodle @ Yuk Kee, KL, banana leave rice @ Nirvana, Bangsar, hokkien mee + pork soup @ Jalan Imbi and many many more.... I think I put on some weight. Must send them Marie France's bill.

3) Watched Alien & Monster or was it Monster Vs Alien. Whatever la....

4) Had a low-keyed 1st anniversary. Can you believe it that we are married for 1 year already???? It felt like not too long ago only.....

Wed - Thurs

1) Work. Say say only go work la... reached office at 10:30am, went lunch at 12:15pm, back to office only at 4:00pm (4 hours lunch!!!!). Then go home at 5:15pm. Work? What work?

2) Went Garden City for Terminator Salvation. Halfway walking around to kill some time before the movie starts I suddenly remembered that I have an appointment at a dance school nearby my house to assess my dancing to see which class should I join. I had it totally wiped off my mine. Unbelievable. Anyway, called them and had it rescheduled to the next day. The show was not too bad. Just a little confused of the who come from future and etc. Must watch all of it again to refresh memory.

3) Went for dance assessment. It was horrid. I was thinking the instructor will be dancing with me to assess me. Instead, he had me joined one of the beginner class. I almost died of boredom. It was their 4th lesson and they are still doing the underarm turn, spot turn, intrufa.... my god. Anyway, I spoke to the principal after that and he said he will speak with the instructor of the class to understand how i did and they will call me. The thing is, the instructor didnt even dance with me, how the hell would he knows how I did? Seriously, I think he also ma-ma tei only.... better dont call me la....waste money & time only.... better sit at home and dance with rumba & sunshine & husky.

4) DIY my hair colour. Whenever I needed a hair colour touch up, I would always head to the nearest salon and paid RM100 for it. Now, I only paid RM30+ for the hair colours, which can last for at least 3-4 touch up. Made a savings of RM370+ ....

5) Sewed some fabric mug coasters from some leftover fabric pieces. An idea I got from a Japanese restaurant I frequented. Fabric mug coaster is very useful cause it not only absorbed water & most importantly washable.

5) Hangout with my uncle at one of the club near MV that has slots machine and yak till 9pm talking about some grandfather stories & golf. Yeah, you hear me right... golf. Am planning to try out golfing and see what so interesting about it (Golf = Golongan Orang Lupa Famili).

Fri - Sat

1) Overdid the yakking on Thurs, flu symptoms set in later that night. Watery eyes, body aches, coarse throat, lethargic. No, not H1N1. H2N3...lols

2) Seen a doctor nearby on Friday and was presribed some medicine for flu, fever, sorethroat and some antibiotics too. I am not a big fan of antibiotic. I prefer to fight it off with my own immune system. Don't like to be dependent on this kinda of stuff. But the body aches was a little overboard. So that left me no choice. The flu medicine knocked me off completely which is rare. Was just mentioning to Harrison earlier, that, the doc didnt give me flu medicine but instead tranquiliser. Lols... Just yesterday, when I was back at my in-laws, while waiting to help my mother-in-law to prepare dinner, I took medicine. 10 minutes later, I was knocked out completely. Instead of helping, I crawled back to our room, and slept thru dinner.

3) Finished two books - 'She Woke Up Married - Suzanne Macpherson' & 'My Best Friend's Girl - Dorothy Koomson'.

I did have more photos to share - my new fabric coasters, anniversary flowers, outing with my guests from Singapore.... just that, I just took the tranquiliser about an hour ago and am finding it very difficult to keep my suddenly hundred tonnes eyes o.....p....e..n......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz