Happy Halloween !!

Tonight is the 31st of October .. or sometimes referred to as 'All Hallows Eve' or just 'Halloween'. But does any really know why 'Jack-o-Lanterns' are always lit during this time? And why do kids dress up as ghouls and beasties .. trying to scare the beejeezus outta everyone?

Apparently 'All Hallows Eve' is considered by the Celts ( the people, not the American basketball team ) as one of the most important days of the year, representing a mid point in the year, Samhain or summer's end. Occuring opposite the great Spring Festival of May Day, or Beltain, this day represented the turning point of the year, the eve of the new year which begins with the onset of the dark phase of the year.

The Celts believed that the normal laws of space and time were held in abeyance during this time, allowing a special window where the spirit world could intermingle with the living. It was a night when the dead could cross the veils and return to the land of the living to celebrate with their family, or clan. As such, the great burial mounds of Ireland were lit up with torches lining the walls, so the spirits of the dead could find their way.

And out of this ancient tradition comes one of the most famous icons of the holiday: the Jack-o-lantern. Originating from Irish folkfore, the Jack-o-lantern was used as a light for the lost soul of Jack, a notorious trickster, stuck between worlds.

Jack is said to have tricked the devil into a truck of a tree and by carving an image of a cross in the tree's trunk, he trapped the devil there. His pranks denied him access to Heaven, and having angered the devil also to Hell, so Jack was a lost soul, trapped between worlds. As a consolation, the devil gave him a sole ember to light his way through the darkness between worlds.

Originally in Ireland turnips were carved out and candles placed inside as lanterns lit to help guide Jack’s lost spirit back home. Hence the term: Jack-o-lanterns. Later, when immigrants came to the new world, pumpkins were more readily available, and so the carved pumpkins carrying a lit candle served the same function.

Back home here I guess Halloween is not celebrated as a major holiday ( I could be wrong, you know .. all the nightspots could be filled .. ) but I wager that our local orang minyak and pontianak would generate a whole lot more interest than a witch on a broomstick ....

Anyways .. it's Friday nite ... and any excuse is good for going clubbing ...
Have a Nice Weekend !!!

Flash Me !!

Mornings are usually pretty hectic for me.

Jump outta bed, dash into the shower, throw on a pair of pants and a shirt and it's off to try and beat the traffic. Sometimes I win, sometimes the traffic wins.

Unfortunately this morning the traffic won.
And I arrived sliiightly late.

Now usually on arrival into my office I pretty much do the same thing ... which is to put down all my stuff .. boot up my notebook .. get a cup of coffee .. and visit the toilet to pee.

And this was what I saw this morning eyeballing me as I stood there .. err .. trying to aim ..

Flash the water ?

That's new.
I wouldnt even wanna flash myself .. heheh ..

Good thing it didnt say 'Flash the Toilet' .. or I might have to wear a trenchcoat everytime I need to pee.


PS : Wikipedia's definition of To FLASH or FLASHER here.

Relationships ......

I was at KFC with a couple of friends when the current discussion turned to relationships .. this friend of mine
( for purposes of anonymity let's call him Hare .. well, he looks like a hare when he grins ) was complaining about his girlfriend ..

How she is always nagging him about absolutely everything ... he was also comtemplating on moving out ...

Funny thing about it is that .. 6 months back ... she was married to another dude and basically he was the one who was the so-called home wrecker .. she even has a kid from that marriage ..

Now that she's divorced from THAT dude and is now currently with my friend ( the hare ) .. he's the one complaining about her nagging and her habits .....


Oh, what a complicated web we weave.

But that's nothing compared to this other 'relationship' ... i was told from my other friend at the table that there's this young and extremely good looking guy ( let's call him LV ) who's involved with this other dude ( who happens to be very very rich .. and yea, they're gay .. LV and Rich Dude, not my friend, hehe) ..

Rich dude only visits Kuala Lumpur like once every fortnight to see his 'girlfriend' whilst dropping off a BIG bag of money for LV .. I was told it was in the region of 15-25K ..

And so, LV is always lonely in his big semi-detached bungalow as a 'kept woman' .. usually spending in excess at Pavillion or StarHill to keep busy ..


I wonder ... would you be tempted if you were offered the same 'carrot' ?

I dont know.

But I dont think I would be.
I'd like to keep my butt the way it always has been.

Mine.

No offense to anyone. Heh.

Happy Deepavali !!

Just like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Deepavali .. you can read more about the Festival of Lights and what it means here.

Have a nice holiday !!

The Look ..

I was at Micheal's place the other day when I saw this 'thingy' by the corner ...















And as Mike was busy attending to one of his customers, I didnt wanna look like I was wasting his time asking stupid questions .. so I spent basically almost a half hour trying to figure out what it was ...

To me, it looked like something out of ALIENS .... only thing missing is the slime ... and monster .. and woman screaming .. ( hold on a sec, there might be some of that after seeing the results .. ) Anyways .. later Micheal said it's used for a DIGITAL PERM.

A Digital Perm ?
How do you 'digitise' your hair?

Well, I should have guessed it was for something like that .. Micheal IS a hair stylist after all ...

Home at Last ..

After almost two weeks of running around ..
I'm back .. at last .. in Kuala Lumpur.

Despite the traffic jams .. the smog .. the incessant stream of people .. I guess it's still home to me.

My bed never looked this good.
Of course, that's mainly due to the fact that I havent gotten a good night's sleep during these two weeks ..

Dreamland .. here I come ......

Rainy Days ..

It's been awhile since I posted anything.

Not that I dont have anything to write about, that is.
On the contrary, there a lot of things I wanna write about.

Like my job.

My inept social life.

My so-called relationships and how I get along with people ( more precisely, how I always piss people off without even trying ).

But if I were to put everything down here, I know I'd make a lot of people very unhappy. Aand I dont wanna make these people unhappy cos they happen to be in a position to make me MORE unhappy if they were to find out that I'm not happy about the way things are.

Does that make any sense?
I dont know. Guess I'm just rambling.
I also noticed that it always rains whenever I feel blue.
Maybe it's a co-incidence.

I better go to bed.

Saturday Nite ...

So I'm finally on an outstation assignment.
Again.

And this time it's like almost 2 weeks before I can complete this 'round'. A good thing about being on an outstation assignment is that I have time to myself - allowing me to think and reflect on a lot of stuff.

I've come to realise that LIFE is fragile. And that you should value friends and people that you care about much more than you do now. I received some bad news the other day - a close friend of mine had lost someone she cared about in a car accident - she had just begun a relationship with this guy .. and now he's gone ... forever.

What do you say in such circumstances? Is there actually anything you CAN say that will help? I felt so helpless listening to her cry ..

I guess this incident has shown me that it's never too late to pick up the phone .. and tell someone you care about them. Cause before you know it, that person might no longer be there .......

What have you learned ?

1. I've learned that you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is stalk them and hope they panic and give in.

2. I've learned that now matter how much I care, some people are just assholes.

3. I've learned that it takes YEARS to build up trust, and it takes SUSPICION, not proof, to destroy it.

4. I've learned that you can get by on charm for about 15 minutes. After that, you better have a big willy or huge boobs.

5. I've learned that you shouldnt compare yourself to others - they are more screwed up than you think.

6. I've learned that you can keep vomiting long after you think you're finished.

7. I've learned that we are responsible for what we do, unless we are celebrities.

8. I've learned that regardless of how hot and steamy a relationship is in the first place, ultimately the passion fades ... and there had better be a lot of money to take it's place !!

9. I've learned that 99percent of the time when something isnt working in your house, one of your kids did it.

10. And finally, I've learned that the people that you care most about in life are taken from you too soon, and all the less important ones never seem to go away !!


Note : this was from an email I received ... thks dude .. it was enlightening ...

Mondays ......

Usually that word would fill me with mis-givings .. cos well, it's a WHOLE week until the next weekend ( ok, so I look forward to my weekends .. who doesnt? ) and typically Mondays have never been really kind to me.

But today was different .. I was actually looking forward to Monday .. I guess basically being cooped up in the house for an entire week with an eye infection tends to REALLY suck .... so going back to work tends to look pretty appealing.

Until I got onto the MRR2 .. that is.

I know Mondays traffic jams are bad .. but this was really really bad. Traffic was hardly moving ... until much much further up ahead .... and just when it started to ease ..















I saw this ambulance and a patrol car .. and a petrol tanker parked by the side ( at least I think it was a petrol tanker .. I only remember it was a huge lorry, maybe a trailer ) ... and it was then I saw it ....















What I saw was a body lying in the middle of the road .. covered up in a tarp .. the body was between the ambulance and the patrol car .. what made me sick was the parts of the body was lying all over the road .. as well as what I presume was his innards and brain matter ... there was also a soda cup on the road as well ...

I guess what happened was that the poor guy or gal was crossing the road when the lorry/trailer knocked the guy/gal down .. and rolled over the body, crushing it and spilling his/her innards all over .....

Needless to say, I didnt feel too good after that .... perhaps it's time laws against speeding on roads are more strictly enforced to prevent such things from happening in the future .......

Random Musings ..

It's Sunday ... and I've decided to just laze around the house.

Typical of every Sunday.

Was just thinking ... just when you finally think you know someone, you wake up and realise that you don't know him/her at all.

Guess my life really IS complicated after all ....

Instant Noodles .... huh ..

Morning
Wow .. my eye is FINALLY better ... woke up this morning and the swelling is gone .. so ... having being cooped up in the house for so many days and today being a Saturday .. started thinking of calling some people ....

Later that Evening ...
And as I've expected .. everyone I've called has already made plans for Saturday night .. and those who havent got any plans .. well, they dont wanna go out ...

So ... faced with the prospect of going out by myself for dinner .. and having to decide what to eat .. I made the most logical choice that ALL guys make ...

MAGGI MEE !!!

















And being the kiasu fella that I am .. plain old maggi mee just won't do it ... it's gotta have whatever stuff I can find in my fridge .. there's that sang choy I got from Cameron Highlands .. and a lot of other .. err .. stuff as well ....

Tasted pretty good ... hehe .. or as one of my cranky friend would have said ... sedaaaap ...

Ouch .. again ..

Dammit ...
What is it with me nowadays?

I've just recovered from a bloody eye infection about 2 weeks ago and presto! .. I get ANOTHER infection .. and in the same goddamn eye !! Only this time it's on my upper eyelid as opposed to the lower eye lid before ..

Doc says it's an ingrown hair follicle resulting in the swelling and basically my left eye sealing shut ... Man, does this ever hurt. Guess I'm gonna be stuck at home for at least 3-5 days before this heals .... shit ...

Insanity ...

Sometimes, I wonder .. if I were to invent a game so complicated, that the rules keep changing at every turn .. and yet so simple, so that ANYBODY can participate .. as well as so incredibly addictive, that even if you keep losing you STILL wanna keep playing .....

Would you be interested in such a game?

If I were to tell you that the stakes were high enough that in some stages of this game your life might be at risk .. would you still play? And that in MOST cases nobody wins at this game .. would you still wanna play?

Guess what ... such a game ALREADY exists ... and everyone I know plays this game .. it's called The Game of LOVE.

How many people do you know of that has been struck down by Cupid's arrows .. suffered for it by drowning their sorrows in a bottle .. only to jump RIGHT back into the game the very next minute? And how many of us have been unfortunate enough to have known someone who has taken their lives just because of Love ?

Is it because the pay-off is so wonderful that we would risk our emotional and physical health just for it? Somebody tell me cos I'd sure wanna know .. I've played this game and lost so many times that if you were to look into my heart, it'd be nothing but a mass of battle scars ..

Someone once said that Insanity is doing the same thing over and over hoping for a different result .... guess he must have been referring to Love .......

Monday Blues

It's Monday again.

Bad enough that it's a Monday and that the weekend seems like ages away .. but to have to go back to work after a looong break makes it even worse ...

Anyways .. came across this site ... wonder what 'balls' they're selling ...

















Have a good week !!

The Highlands .....

Oooh I'm so tired.

Ever felt like you need a holiday from the holiday you JUST went on? It's a good thing I'm off on both Saturday and Sunday after this trip .. cos I didnt get much sleep at all during these few days.

Me and a group of colleagues and friends decided that Cameron Highlands would be a nice place to visit during this Hari Raya Hols .. so .. four cars headed up to the Highlands ... here's where we stayed .....














We stayed in 2units of 4 bedroom apartments .. and this is how the rooms looked like ..















And this is my room ... err .. I'd just like to clarify that the teddy bear on the bed is NOT mine .. it belongs to Mr Bean ... hehe ...















Later that night we wanted to have a BBQ .. we had already bought all the beers and buffalo wings and all the other stuffs .. however we were told that Strawberry Park DOES NOT allow BBQ on it's premises ... shit .. so with the sun almost down we had to go in search of a suitable venue ( well, i'm not just gonna throw away a few hundred ringgit worth of chicken ) ..

We ended up at the one of the Forest Reserves nearby - the kind ranger gave us permission to have the BBQ at the garden terrace carpark - besides that, we also had to go get our own BBQ grill .. managed to get this .. ( hehe .. look at W's gaze of amazement ) .. and oh, the park didnt have any lights so we parked our cars in a square and turned our headlights on ...















W still can't believe that the el-cheapo ( actually boleh tahan laa ) BBQ grill we bought is working ....















Of course later everyone decided that the grill was working just fine ... and ended up jostling for a space on the grill ...















But the end result .. whether it's edible or not .. heheh .. look at Fanny's face .. maybe she's trying to decide if it's chicken or fish .. or a piece of charcoal .. in this overly 'romantic' light everything looks the same ....














We finished up pretty late that night .. packed up all our rubbish and cleaned up the place before we left ... continued back at our apartments .. all the guys ended up totally plastered what with all the beers we had .....

The next day we did the 'touristy' thing ... visited the cactus farms ... the strawberry farms ..





























Wow .. look at that 'sang choy' ..
















Rows and rows of cacti ..






























More cactus ...





























And of course, if you have not had 'steambot' you would not have been to Cameron Highlands ... so ...
















Lots and lots of vegetables .. heheh ..















I don't know if the group liked the steambot but I didnt think it was as good as it was hyped out to be .. dunno .. maybe I was still suffering from last night's beer binge ..

Anyways, after dinner it was pretty much an early night except for a short drive out later for teh tarik ... and a late morning breakfast the next day before heading back to Kuala Lumpur.


All in all, not too bad really for a short holiday ... just wish I knew what I ate during the BBQ .....