Au Revoir 2008

Movies I Really Enjoyed Last Year
1) The Kite Runner (cried buckets watching this)
2) A tie between The Dark Knight and Ironman
3) Changeling
4) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
5) A tie between Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Sex & The City

Movies I Am Embarassed to Admit I Have Watched More Than a Couple of Times at the Theater
1) Step Up 2 The Street
2) Twilight (ur friendly neighbourhood vegetarian vampire)
3) Mamma Mia (the only movie I sang and danced throughout; also made me wanna migrate to Greece)
4) High School Musical 3 - Senior Year (took my nieces out for movie on separate timings and besides it keeps me young at heart)
5) Goal 2 - Living the Dream (oh come on, like u didn't drool all over at even a minuscule sight of Santi)

Highly Anticipated Movies of the Year Turned Absolute Rubbish
1) Wanted (one single bullet, released in curve, travelled literally 360deg, killed everyone in the circle..hey i thought only Rajanikanth is allowed to do that)
2) Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (flying saucer? alien crystal skulls? can u get more creative than that?)
3) High School Musical 3
4) The Day the Earth Stood Still
5) A tie between P.S I Love U and 27 Dresses

Books Read, Treasured and Some Left Half Finished
1) The Rumi Collection, Rumi

2) The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie
3) False Impression, Jeffery Archer
4) The Prophet, Khalil Gibran
5) The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini

Self Definition
1) Very choosy
2) Irrational
3) Short tempered
4) Slow to forgive
5) Tardiness

Songs That Will Always Remind Me of 2008
1) Fall For You, Secondhand Serenade
2) Single Ladies, Beyonce
3) Lucky, Jason Mraz (my ear-candy throughout the 8+ hour 3rd class train journey to the west Java)
4) Viva la Vida, Coldplay
5) Lovebug, Jonas Bros

Things I Wish I Did More in 2008
1) Read and understand the Holy Quran translation
2) Spend quality time, money, etc with/for the less fortunate
3) Dive
4) Weekends training up Bukit Gasing
5) Cook
6) Tell to people who matters how much they mean to me

Things I Wish I Did Less in 2008
1) French-ing (as in curse-ing ok)
2) Mooning over Chuck Bass (who am I kidding..i love Chuck Bass)
3) Spend excessively on coffee & premium teas
4) Roks (roks & coffee ROCKS!)
5) Overspend

Events That Did Not Happened in 2008 but I Intensely Pray Will Take Place in the New Year
1) Peace @ the West Bank & Gaza (or ceasefire to say the least)
2) Altantuya murderer(s) being brought to justice
3) Reconciliation of Blair & Chuck with the both of them proclaiming Jetaime to one another (anxiously waiting for that particular epi)
4) Me moving to a greener pasture
5) Me meeting someone; me being romantically involved with someone

iT's a Dance, i think

Among other things I learned from Mak, I have always admire her ability to mingle and make friends with God-knows-who she meets at any places or occasions, effortlessly. Since I was little I tried as much as to emulate her friendliness in my own style and it somehow has become my nature eversince..i just love to make friends.

Over the years, I have discovered that one person does not only belongs to one particular group of friend. There are your childhood crowd, school, college, workmates, hangout buddies and people whom you happened to get to know and stay friends with without any relations to the previous groups mentioned earlier.

I also realized that becoming flexible in how I related to people of varying beliefs and world views helped me to become more secure in my own beliefs. I began to feel less apprehension about 'those people'. Whatever they believed, it wasn't going to stop me from living my life the way I wanted to or pursuing my beliefs. I can just sit there at a bar with a bunch of friends, sipping glasses of cranberry juice, getting high on sugar and having fun. Being the group's only sobriety, I gained the respect I deserve by sticking to my Belief. And I respect them for respecting my Belief and me for that matter.

Learning to casually interact with people who have fundamentally different views has helped me to develop friendships with a wide variety of people. It helped me to be open to what we do have in common more than what we don't. I am friends with people now that even just a few years ago I would have been snotty against. I have learned not to be judgmental and accept people the way they are as they accept me as me.

But life got very lonely. I wanted to make and keep friends. Heck I just wanted to lessen the amount of interpersonal conflict I had in my life. So, maybe I have changed throughout the years, that's me colouring my life with rainbows. I am who I am.

-diLs-

Label: Urgent

how do you tell people to take a hike (and by that i mean stop calling or texting using your own number or any other hp, office phone, payphone or emailing using office email, personal email or any other ways of voice and data telecommunication) in a subtle and yet classy manner?

i just cannot comprehend why some people are oblivious to the fact that when the other party keeps on missing your call and never intend to return it, the texts sent left unanswered (and forget about the emails), it is the time for you to forget about that person, walk out graciously and set a mission to find someone new.

it is not rocket science, you do not need a degree in women psychology to digest that and that irritates me so.

and i need as much suggestions as possible.

thanks in advance!

-diLs-

Je suis célibataire

..and my options are

It has become a nature of our culture that when someone reaches a certain age of life the big "M" will be out of the blue emerges as either a topic of conversation or as an ice-breaker. And it will not only come from the what-more-u-want-to-wait-for Parents, or the let-me-introduce-u-to-my-friends'-sons Aunts and Uncles, or i-want-to-see-u-get-married-before-30 Friends, or i-have-a-son-i-want-u-to-meet Family Friends, Colleagues, Bosses, Friends' Friends, or in my case, the girl at the clinic counter.

me: hi! *while handing my insurance ID*

girl: hello kak! you've been here before?

me: yes several times.

girl: ok gimme a sec, i go find your record. have a seat please.

me: thank you. *smile*

a few minutes later...

girl: *standing near the counter with my record in her hand* Akak ni tak kawin lagi ker?

me: Not yet, kenapa? (i was about to say, why? u have got a problem with that?)

girl: tak la..org cam *zst* *zst* *zst* lagi

me: *bitter smile*

Note: *zst* *zst* was not registered as i was busy being ignorant to her comment.

come on la people..undeniably it was 10 years ago that i celebrated my 18th birthday but that doesn't mean that i am that matured for people to frown at for not getting married.

to set the record straight, i am attracted to men, a straight, educated, well-mannered, well-groomed, adventurous (diver a must), eloquent kind of men but unfortunately there is no one that i am in love with at this particular moment. people cannot expect me to be married for the sake of getting married to some tom, dick or harry i encountered on the street.

i do appreciate and i thank all of YOU very much for the concern shown to me but please don't ask me when i'm going to end my single life for i do not have the answer to it. as of now i'm just waiting for God to set me up with someone who is willing to spend the rest of his life tango-ing with me..oh mcAvoy and the like of course

One..Two..ACT!

-in no particular order-

Scene 1

dils: i found rafael on facebook but he imposes restricted access. Cannot see his baby boy
phypster: u sure it's him?
dils: yeah, there's a picture of him and the missus. he looks like Bond posterboy with white tux and a gun in hand. seems like they were at a mannequin party
phypster: masquerade party

Scene 2

phypster: i need to balik seremban and pick up my baju rayas from the tailor. this year i got this cheongsam collars dress complete with the typical chinese buttons.
dils: are u using that chinese arcade fabric?
phypster: chinese brocade

Scene 3

the pink clamp starts blasting "i got it from my momma"

dils: (unfamiliar no.) hello!
nextline: hello (in a very peppy voice kalah the other D from the Prez office) i've been trying to call you for ages babe. How u doin'?
dils: (trying to register who on earth is calling, sounds familiar but so so. south asia slang btw) hey i've been terrific. and u?
nextline: good. good.
dils: so is this weekend on? or u have to go back ipoh?
nextline: *silence*
dils: eh, are u the person i thought u are? u are my friend nidie, no? *silence* hmm i honestly think u've got the wrong number.
nextline: yeah, i think so too..sorry babe. bye!

i swear if that was a guy who called me just now, i will without doubt prolong the conversation :)

p/s: i am not sexually deprieved. (whateva that means)

Slow Down Culture

A perspective for you to ponder..

At Swedish company, Volvo any project here takes 2 years to be finalized, even if the idea is simple and brilliant. It's a rule.

Globalize processes have caused in us (all over the world) a general sense of searching for immediate results. Therefore, we have come to posses a need to see immediate results. This contrasts greatly with the slow movements of the Swedish. They, on the other hand, debate, debate, debate,hold x quantity of meetings and work with a slowdown scheme. At the end, this always yields better results.

Said in another words:
1. Sweden is about the size of San Pablo , a state in Brazil .
2. Sweden has 2 million inhabitants.
3. Stockholm has 500,000 people.
4. Volvo, Scania, SAAB , Ericsson, Electrolux, are some of its renowned companies. Volvo supplies to NASA.

The first time I was in Sweden , one of my colleagues picked me up at the hotel every morning. It was September, bit cold and snowy. We would arrive early at the company and he would park far away from the entrance (2000 employees drive their car to work).

The first day, I didn't say anything,either the second or third. One morning I asked, "Do you have a fixed parking space? I've noticed we park far from the entrance even when there are no other cars in the lot." To which he replied, "Since we're here early we'll have time to walk, and whoever gets in late will be late and need aplace closer to the door. Don't you think?" Imagine my face.

Nowadays, there's a movement in Europe named Slow Food. This movement establishes that people should eat and drink slowly, with enough time to taste their food, spend time with the family, friends, without rushing. Slow Food is against its counterpart: the spirit of Fast Food and what it stands for as a lifestyle. Slow Food is the basis for a bigger movement called Slow Europe, as mentioned by Business Week.

Basically, the movement questions the sense of "hurry" and "craziness"generated by globalization, fueled by the desire of "having in quantity"(life status) versus "having with quality", "life quality" or the "quality of being". French people, even though they work 35 hours per week, are more productive than Americans or British. Germans have established 28.8 hourwork weeks and have seen their productivity been driven up by 20%. This slow attitude has brought forth the US's attention, pupils of the fast and the"do it now!".

This no-rush attitude doesn't represent doing less or having a lower productivity. It means working and doing things with greater quality, productivity, perfection, with attention to detail and less stress. It means reestablishing family values, friends, free and leisure time. Taking the "now", present and concrete, versus the "global", undefined and anonymous. It means taking humans' essential values, the simplicity of living.

It stands for a less coercive work environment, more happy, lighter and more productive where humans enjoy doing what they know best how to do. It's time to stop and think on how companies need to develop serious quality with no-rush that will increase productivity and the quality of products and services, without losing the essence of spirit.

In the movie, Scent of a Woman, there's a scene where Al Pacino asks a girl to dance and she replies, "I can't, my boyfriend will be here any minute now". To which Al responds, "A life is lived in an instant". Then they dance to a tango.Many of us live our lives running behind time, but we only reach it when we die of a heart attack or in a car accident rushing to be on time. Others are so anxious of living the future that they forget to live the present, which is the only time that truly exists. We all have equal time throughout the world. No one has more or less. The difference lies in how each one of us does with our time. We need to live each moment.

As John Lennon said,"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans".

Congratulations for reading till the end of this message. There are many who will have stopped in the middle so as not to waste time in this globalized world.

LiFE..

My whole life, there are two places, i as much as possible will try not to be at. It is not about embarassment to be seen at such places, i just feel that i don't belong there.

Number one is workshops, car workshops to be precise. What I would normally do at a car workshop is to register my car to the lady at the counter, say a few words to the mechanics, spend the rest of the hours in the air-conditioned waiting room while waiting for the lady to call, pay the service charge and drive off.

My last encounter with a car workshop was a couple of weeks ago.

"i sudah check you punya tayar. Itu camber tayar belakang sudah lari la. Kena adjust kasi betul pasal nanti dia boleh makan tayar oo"

"what?"

"camber tayar"

"oo (as if i was back from dreamland) ya ka? tayar depan macam mana? Berapa?"

I, for once was sure that i saw that guy's face on the workshop's bulletin board as the Top Employee of the Month in brackets 'Tyre Specialist'. Heck! While my brain was processing that, plus the effect it would have cause my tires if i didn't get it fixed, and the cost is within budget, i finally said yes. i just hate when i have to agree without arguments especially on something i have shallow knowledge of. I will look even more clueless if i did. Yes, me, is a typical girl who only knows how to drive a car, full-stop. Other than that, mr mechanic, please.

Luckily, my car has been so very tolerant of me that the only time i need to bring him to his doctors is when the mileage is due. *luv u*

And number two, the hospitals; private or public, make no difference to me. Cut me some slack ok, i have never receive treatments from any hospitals for that matter, what more to be hospitalised. And everytime i take the elevators, especially those with the size of service-lift which can fit the stretchers in, i will start imagining silly things. Who knows how many people could have died in it while being transferred to another floor. Maybe their souls aren't free as yet and they keep mingling around, living in the elevator waiting to scare people off. People like me. Yes, i am terrified of it, very much.

But still, i can't avoid not going to the hospitals. Just this week, i went to two different hospitals on the same day.

The son of a colleague of mine was in a coma after suffering a traumatic head injury. He fell off the stairs after trying to pull the sliding-down-the-stairs stunt. According to doctors, they couldn't control his head from swelling (as a result of internal bleeding) and a surgery might have caused him other complications. The painful truth was, all of his internal organs have stopped functioning, the heart was weakly pumping and he was on life support. I was speechless when i learnt that he was actually brain dead. Poor kid, he was only 11 years old.

Later that day, i went to visit a good friend, Hanim who just had a cysts removal surgery. We (Anee and i) were in total awed. First of all, because nobody had a decency to tell us that Hanim was admitted, Anee found out about it after reading a friend's blog btw. And second of all, Hanim is 5 months pregnant. Alhamdullillah, the surgery went smoothly and both mother and child are in good health. Hope u'll recover soon, Nim.

Well, i know i cannot not going to this two places. i still have to, but i just hope not as frequent.

P/s: When i mentioned that my collegue's son WAS 11 years old, u might already knew it. He passed away peacefully on Friday at about 5am with both his parents at his bedside after 6 days of coma. All of our prayers are with u Ihsan. You'll like it there in Heaven. Amin! News clipping