Pampered Childhood

I was a spoiled child when I was young!

When I was growing up, I was grandma's pet and I was so spoiled by her that I was the 'untouchable' one among all my cousins :) My parents were separated when I was very young. I was about 6 years old I think. One day my mom decided to pack up, take me, leave my dad behind and go live with my grandparents.

My grandparents were living in another state and my mom's sister and her kids also lived with my grandparents. So it was kind of a huge family living under one roof. I was the only child of my parents unlike my mom's sis who had two kids and my mom's brother whose kids (2 of them also) were living with my grandparents too. My grandmother was like this great big baby sitter ... hehehe ... don't be fooled by this, she was one strict lady. Fearsome even ! Imagine Cruella De Ville here!

I really don't know why or how I became grandma's pet grandson but I sure as hell wasn't complaining :) There were loads of benefits with being the pet grandson. It was probably cos I was an only child and seeing as how my parents separated she was more protective of me. No one in the house could say anything to me or even scold me, cos I would just scream 'grandma, so-and-so did this or said this to me' and she would come to my rescue by scolding whoever pissed me off ... hehehe ... even my own mom couldn't discipline me (not that I was really a brat mind you) cos grandma would scold her back! Like I said earlier, I was the untouchable :)

Whatever I wanted, and if my mom didn't wanna get it for me, grandma would. She would give my mom some stern lecture about not getting what I wanted and grandma would buy it herself for me. I do feel guilty about doing that to my mom now.

Times were tough those days and we were not a rich family. And my mom had to raise me all on her own. In fact my mom worked her butt off to put me where I am today but to a pampered little child like me, I didn't for one second think about stuff like that. So, I'd always sulk and complain to grandma and in the end I always got what I wanted.

God, how my cousins hated me. I always had things my way. Grandma would always see to that. There was this time when my cousin got a bicycle for his birthday. I was so envious that I wanted one instantly. My mom said 'no Nicky boy! You'd have to learn to have patience and wait for your birthday like everyone else' but I wasn't buying that. I sat on the chair in the hall sulking all day, not talking, not wanting to eat, not moving from there until grandma came to my rescue and bought me a bicycle that very same day! That was how horribly pampered I was those days.

With grandma, I was always more special and I enjoyed that extra special attention I had, abused it at times even. Even with it came to allowances for school, I always had more. My cousins would have a weekly allowance of RM10.00 for the entire week, I on the other hand would have RM5.00 a day for my allowance. Whatever my mom gave me, grandma would always topped it up with extra. Even when it came to food, everyone would be eating what was cooked for the whole family for dinner, except me. Grandma would always make something extra for me.

Then one day, when I was around 14 years or so, grandma passed away and I was terrified out of my wits. Her death affected me so much (you can probably guess why). How was I gonna be special without her around? Who was gonna be there for me when things went wrong? God, all my cousins are probably gonna kill me now! LOL!

The strange thing is no one actually held anything against me. They were all more concerned about how I would cope. They knew I was extremely close to my grandmother and they all basically gathered around to fill that void that was left by grandma. And here I thought I was gonna be ostracized by them.

Well, I eventually 'learned' to cope without having the protective shell that my grandmother used to provide. In fact, I think I learned to be more independent since then. I had to learn to do things on my own and face whatever consequences that came with it. It made me a stronger person as I grew older. Yes, I was more of a loner who kept things to himself while growing but I was more capable of doing things on my own. I'm proud to say that I'm no longer a spoiled brat, stubborn to the bone maybe, but not spoiled :)

Now with a family of my own, and two fast growing kids, I look at life from a different perspective. Would I spoil my kids the way I was spoiled? Would I give them everything they want? Would I shelter and protect them the way I was to the point where I couldn't really function on my own? Yes and no.

Yes, I would protect them with my life but no, I won't spoil them the way I was. I would love to give them the world if I could, but I'd like for them to know that to have the world, they sometimes have to work for it. Then it makes having that world all the more meaningful. I did have almost everything I wanted when I was young but if you ask me now was it meaningful and I'd say 'no, it wasn't cos it was not earned'. That's the truth.

Who doesn't want the best for their kids? I do, that's for sure. But I'd like them to grow up to be strong people. To know the value of things. To know a little what their parents had to go through to get food on the table and a roof over their heads. I'm proud to say my younger son is a very independent boy. At 8 years old, though he's a hyper active brat (LOL) he can think on his feet pretty fast. He's creative, he tough (tougher than I was when I was his age), he's intelligent, he's bossy (especially with his older brother who, btw is an absolute joy to have cos he doesn't ask me and the wife for anything at all). He can understand the term, 'be patient and wait till we buy you that toy' or 'you have to get good results in school before you get that toy' (though he will bug you everyday until he eventually gets it ... hehehe).

I'd like to think he'll grow up to be a better me. I'm pretty strict with him to the point that he complains to the wife that I don't love him, but that is far from the truth. I do love him with all I've got though sometimes I don't show it all that much to him. Old age must be getting to me ... LOL! But he knows he can count on me, especially when he gets into mischief and does something wrong. The first person he'll come running to is me cos he knows I won't scold him if he tells me what he did wrong. He knows if he goes to mummy first, he is so gonna get it ... LOL! That's our brat boy for you. (brat boy is our endearing name for him ... hehehe ...)

I've got high hopes for him and I know he'll make me proud :) Just as long as he doesn't chose a thankless job like going into advertising, that would be fine with me ... LOL! So, tell me what you were like when you were growing up? Did you get the full pampered treatment? Or did you go through life the hard way? I'd love to hear your tales.

The One Answer Meme!

The one word blog meme. Marzie of Mariuca's Perfume Gallery tagged me for this meme. It's supposed to be pretty easy to but with me, you just never know ... LOL! Anyway, it seems like a fun tag to do. All I have to do is just answer the questions provided (I don't have to create my own questions this time, rite, Marzie?) with one word answers. Well, I don't really know if I can stick to one word answers but I'll try :D

Where is your cell phone? Inside my bedside table drawer (See, I told you I couldn't stick to one word answers ... LOL!)
Relationship? Married of course (oppssss, there I go again!)
Your hair? Real short (damn, I just gotta stick to one word answers!!!)
Work? Like a slave (that's 3 words, Nick!)
Your sister? None (finally, a one word answer ... LOL!)
Your favourite thing? My Black & Decker power drill
Your dream last night? Confusing
Your favorite drink? Coffee
Your dream car? BMW 3 Series Limited Sport Edition
The room you're in? My bedroom
Your shoes? Comfortable
Your fears? Not being able to provide for my family (now you tell me how to answer that with just one word ...hehehe)
What do you want to be in 10 years? Supreme ruler of the world :)
Who did you hang out with this weekend? My gorgeous lovely wife :)
What are you good at? Talking
Muffin? Dog?
One of your wish list items? An iPhone!
Where you grew up? Malaysia
Last thing you did? Run
What are you wearing? T-shirt and Shorts
What aren't you wearing? wrist watch
Your pets? Urmmm, does those stray cats under my car count?
Your computer? Dell
Your life? My beloved wife!
Your mood? Absolutely lazy
Missing? My dinner
What are you thinking about right now? My dinner
Your car? Nissan
Your kitchen? Huge!
Your summer? Urmmmm, Urmmmmm, Urmmmmm ... what summer?
Your favourite colour? Aquamarine
Last time you laughed? A second ago
Last time you cried? Must I tell you? LOL!
School? Hated it!
Love? My wife

Now, to tag this people to try their hand with this meme (yes, you Nessa, LOL!)

Nessa - Adrian - Barrett - Diamond Sapphire - Sharon

MORE Things That Go Bump In The Night ...

This post is basically a follow up to my earlier ghostly posting. When I first posted things that go bump in the night, I never realized that there were so many of you bloggers out there with paranormal stories of your own and I was thrilled (yet frightened out of my pants ... LOL!) just reading all your comments on your own experiences with the supernatural. I guess no matter who we are, where we come from, we all have at least one eerie encounter to haunt us.

Anyways, let me get straight to the story telling :) This incident I'm about to relate happened to both me, my buddy Adrian and another friend. A couple of years ago, the three of us were coming back from out of town. It was a night trip and we decided to not use the highway (we were cheapskates and didn't want to pay the toll for the highway) so instead we used this old back road home. These roads are just single lane roads with not much to practically non existent road lights. Towns were few and far between and it was mostly covered with jungle on both sides expect when nearing the towns.

So there we were chatting away like we always do on our drives (well Adrian and me anyway, the other friend was nicely snoozing away in the back seat completely out of it), laughing and taking a slow easy drive home. The weather was fine for driving, the moon was out, the crickets were chirping, the wolves were howling (ok, I made up the part about the wolves ... LOL).

Then all of a sudden somewhere along the drive, I said, 'hey, do you smell that?'. I smelled some kind of sweet floral scent. We have an old wives (the poor wives are always blamed for this ... LOL!) saying here, that if you do smell sweet smelling scents at night, do not acknowledge it. Just keep it to yourself. I think it's rumoured that if you acknowledge it, the bloody ghost is gonna pick on you :) My buddy just gave me this glare and said, 'will you shut up.' (He's as much a coward as I am). Mind you, the time was around 11.50 pm or so (I checked!). So, we kept quiet about it and continued chatting, then a a couple of kilometres down the road, just after a sharp left curve, I saw this dark figure lying flat right across the road. My buddy saw it too at the exact same instant that I did.

Ok, I need to get in a short description of the surroundings here before I go any further. We in Malaysia drive on the left hand side of the roads and oncoming cars are on the right. This road was just a single lane road with oncoming traffic on my right (but there was hardly any traffic on the road at this time of night). There is not much runoff space on both the left and right side of the roads. It was basically covered with jungle both sides.

Back to story. This figure was lying across the middle of my side of the road and I was totally taken off guard by this as it was immediately after a sharp left corner but the moment I saw the figure, I instinctively swerved to avoid running over it. This is where I have to thank whatever gods there are out there. By nature, when a driver tries to avoid something in his part, he will instinctively swerve towards the area with more run off space. For me, the best option would have been to swerve right, onto the oncoming traffic lane (which was so open, inviting and practically empty at this time of the night) but instead I swerved left to avoid the figure and ended up bumping our way across grass, rocks, pebbles and whatnots just to avoid the figure!

The moment I managed to control the car and get back on the proper lane, there was this huge petrol tanker coming up on the right side of the road! Can you imagine that. If I had swerved towards the empty right lane, I'd have gone head on with that huge tanker at 100 kmh and I'd be writing my blog from heaven (then again, maybe hell ... hehehe) What of the figure you may ask.

Immediately after the near fatal miss, I slowed the car to a crawl, and both my buddy and me looked back to check on the figure but to our utter amazement there was nothing on the road! The figure couldn't have been more than 200 metres from where I slowed my car but there was nothing there but empty road. Even the tanker driver didn't show signs that there was anything lying on the road by continuing to speed along on his way. But till this day, we both swear upon our lives that we saw a figure lying on the road! We couldn't both be imagining the same thing at the same time, even while swerving the car earlier I know I caught a glimpse of the figure through my peripheral vision but now the figure simply vanished into thin air. There was nothing but jungle on both sides, so he couldn't have been a drunk from any outskirt town.

By this time, we were both visibly shaken and our other good buddy who had been sleeping blissfully in the back seat had woken up from the rough bumpy avoiding maneuver that I pulled earlier and asked what was going on. We related the incident to him right down to me smelling the sweet scent earlier and he said that probably by my acknowledging the scent (he's a firm believer and renowned expert in all things eerie) whatever evil out there decided to latch on to me. And apparently, according to my friend in the back, we were probably meant to have collided head on into the tanker. It was probably a 'dirty' place where some previous accidents had happened in the area and the place is basically haunted by whatever 'lives' there scouting for victims. I don't know what overcame me to swerve to the left but I'm not going to question fate.

Boy, was I freaked out by then. The next thing I knew, I was speeding my way out of there and trying to find the nearest entrance point to get on the highway. I wasn't going to stay on that back roads one second longer than I had to. Glad to say, we all made it back home safely from that incident. I seriously believe that what we saw on the road was something supernatural. I know for a fact that I saw it, my buddy saw it but we both cannot recall if it was really a figure of a human being or something else. All we know is we saw something lying across the road. (Btw, we were both sober, well fed, well rested and totally sane at the time of the incident)

It still freaks me out to this very day and I've avoided the back roads like the plague nowadays, especially after hearing many more stories regarding eerie stuff going on on those roads! How many of you believe that ghosts do try to get victims 'joining' them. How many of you believe that evil picks on the weak (like me ... hehehe). How many of you have eerie incidents like these? I'd love to hear about it.

And Barrett, I'm looking forward to your ghostly encounters posting :) Don't keep me waiting too long buddy ... LOL!

My 100th Post!

I reached my 100th post today and I can hardly believe it. When I first started blogging, which was a little over six months ago, it was only to help the wife with her blog. She was the one who actually got me interested in blogging. She decided to start her own blog one day and I was just helping her with getting it started up and one thing led to another, there I was instead having my own blog titled 'Anything Goes!'

I never thought I would actually go very far with it simply because I didn't see the relevance of blogging (yeah, I was a blog skeptic!). But somewhere down the line, I kinda got pretty interested in blogs and when I actually went out into the blogsphere and started reading all the blogs out there, my interest grew day by day and you might even say I'm a little addicted to blogging (a little? yeah, right! LOL!).

I never really thought I would be able to achieve much postings let alone 100. In fact I never thought that I could stick to blogging for so long. I'm the kind of person who loses interest in things pretty quick. My attention span for things are pretty short (my wife and best buddy can testify to that). And here I am with my 100th post.

When I first created Anything Goes!, I didn't know what to write about. I'm really not very good at writing, so it took a while to figure out what I wanted my blog to be like. Being a newbie back then I wanted everything in my blog, all the widgets I could find out there, all the ads I could get out there, all the buttons and links I could source out there, I wanted it all on my blog and I did have it all on my blog for quite awhile. Boy, did my blog look pathetic (those of you who knew me from way back then could probably remember how unsightly my blog looked). I registered for all kinds of stuff out there that I have no idea what some of them are today. Caught up in all the excitement of blogging, I wanted everything but I really had no identity and character.

Eventually I decided that I want Anything Goes! to be about me, the things that happen or has happened around me, my family, my life, my friends, my experiences, my work, simple stuff like that. I wanted a little bit of lightheartedness in it. Nothing serious (the world is serious enough as it is). Something that represents my very character, the happy-go-lucky-no-cares-in-the-world kinda person. So, off went all the unnecessary widgets, all the ads, all the useless other gimmicky stuff. I dabbled in learning a little html editing to give the layout a little more personal look and feel (still not satisfied with it but it will do for now). With that came about a more defined direction for my blog.

I've posted so many articles that I can't even remember some of them (I seriously just had to go and take a quick surf down the memory lane of my archive just to recall some of the posts I've done). I've had posts bitching about my neanderthal neighbour, my pain in the you know where clients, my favourite football team, my gorgeous beloved wifes cooking :) right up to my hair, my barber and even my ghostly encounters (which reminds me, Gypsy, Wolfgang & Cindy, my next post will be about my other eerie encounters).

Along the way, I've received numerous awards (some of which I don't think I deserve) from some good bloggers out there, who would always have a kind comment or two for every post that I put out. This is where I was also introduced to the tag revolution (before this I didn't know what the heck a meme tag was). I've been tagged for so many things that I've had to create tag marathon postings just to keep up with the tags ... LOL! I'm not really a huge fan of meme's but I enjoyed doing it all the same, some were fun, some were downright easy, some needed a little rocket science knowhow and some (well one anyway) I just plain screwed up all on my own with my stupidity! I've even received a million bucks for goodness sake ... hehehe ... (how I wish).

So, six months down the road I've hit 100, I'm not sure if I'll hit 200 but judging from the way things are going and unless I totally have nothing else to ever say again (highly unlikely for a blabbermouth like me) I guess hitting the 200 mark shouldn't be too much of a problem ... LOL! So, to all you bloggers out there who have supported me with your visits, kind words, lovely awards and just plain being interested in what I have to say, I must say a big warm thank you to all you guys and gals for helping me make it this far!

And to my beloved gorgeous bombshell of a wife, who got me into this blogging thing in the first place, this is all your fault! LOL!

4 Answers 8 Questions!

Janice of This is a miracle tagged me to do either one of these two meme's. Wow, I have a choice this time but since it's not at all hard to do, I thought I'd try to get both of them done since it looks kinda fun to do as well.

Ok, the first meme is pretty straight forward. All I have to do is answer 4 simple questions :)

4 jobs I’ve had

• F.A. Artist
• Art Director
• Senior Account Executive
• Account Manager

4 films I could watch over and over

• The Shawshank Redemption
  
• The Hunt for Red October
  
• Transformers :D
  
• Lethal Weapon
  

4 Places I have lived

• Port Dickson
• Petaling Jaya
• Taman Megah Mas
  
• USJ, Subang Jaya
  

4 Favorite TV shows

• Star Trek (Any era)
• Smallville
• CSI
• McGyver (yes, McGyver!)
  

4 Favorite Foods

• Chicken Rice
• Fried Chicken
• Any pork dish
  
• Eggs in any form (well, except raw)

4 Websites I visit everyday (Only four? I visit more than four ...)

• Mumblings
• First time dad
• Wishing on a falling star
• Nonsense, fun, tears, happiness & anger all rolled into one
• Gazing into the abyss

4 Places I would love to be

• New Zealand
• Scotland
• Nepal
• Any island paradise

4 Favorite Colors

• Aquamarine
• Black
• Green
• Yellow

4 Names I love but would/could not use for my children

• Laura Ashley
• Sara
• Ginger Schnapps
• Arsenal (LOL)

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And now for the second meme. This one is about 8 questions you shouldn't ask Nick Phillips! (especially when he's in a grouchy mood!)

1) Why still don't refresh your driving? (Cos I love being a homicidal maniac behind the wheel?)

2) You put on weight? (All the better to stomp you with, my dear!)

3) How come your face so many pimples? (Oh wow, I'm de-aging into a teenager!)

4) Can you stop blogging & look after the kids? (You mean we have kids?)

5) You hair is so dry & messy? (I like the Don King look!)

6) When do you intend to return to work? (Urmmm, how about NEVER!)

7) Can you don't drink so much water? (sure, does beer count as water?)

8) Please open your eyes wider? (What am I? A goldfish?)

There, that's done :) Now lets see how these bloggers I tag answer this questions :) You don't have to do both if you don't feel like it, just choose any one.

Nessa (you are so gonna kill me ... LOL!)
Cindy
Adrian
Hui Sen
Bobo
Bobby

Another Award :)

August must be the month of meme's cos there seems to be a host of meme's spreading around the blogsphere. Not that I'm complaining cos I just received another award from Jean of A Great Pleasure. This time the award is called the Nice Matters Award for being a kind blogger (I wonder where she got the idea I was a kind blogger ... LOL!) but thanks anyway Jean. I'm honoured as always to receive awards. At least now that gives me more reasons to go renovate my awards room ... :D

So, without further ado, I'd like to nominate the following five bloggers (I would have given this to everyone I know, but the awards people in Bloggersville didn't let me ... shame on them!) who has always given me a kind word or two. And the Nice Matters Award goes to ...

Nessa - Barrett - Mariuca - Adrian - Janice

Congratulations, kind bloggers! For those who received this award already from another kind soul, then you deserve another one :)

ps. click here to get a better image of the award to proudly display in your blog

Sleepy Head.

I am so sleepy. I'm sitting here in my office with absolutely nothing to do right now and I am having extreme difficulties just trying to keep my eyes open. All my work for the week has been completed and I just had a heavy lunch, well, not really heavy but my stomach has gotten used to smaller portions of food that even eating a wee bit extra makes me feel bloated! And now I feel like taking 40 winks right here in the office.

I'm a sleepy head by nature. Besides reading and running, sleeping is way up there on my list of favourite things to do. I can sleep anywhere and anytime, all I need is a comfy place to lay my head down and that's it, I'm out for the count :)

Ever since my primary school days (we had two sessions of school at that time). For six months we'd be in the afternoon session and the remainder of the six months we'd be in the morning session. This was from standards 1-6. During the morning sessions, I had to get up pretty early to get ready for school and wait for the school bus to arrive.

I had to wake up around 5.45am and get ready by 6.15am cos my house was the first destination of the stupid school bus (of all the houses in the neighbourhood, he had to pick the most laziest person's house to stop at first!). I'd hurriedly get dressed, and then rush out to the porch and try to catch a couple more minutes of sleep until the bus arrives. Sometimes I'd fall into a sound sleep that the bus driver would have to come out of the bus to wake me up ... LOL!

Then after school in the afternoon (of cos my house would be the last destination of the school bus), the first thing I'd do when I reached home, was chuck off my school bags and uniform, take a bath and immediately go and get a nap. I'd forsake my lunch, homework and everything for sleep. I'd even skip the after school extra-curriculum activities until they started insisting that students had to take up at least one extra-curriculum activity. God, how I hated those activities!

I'd sleep until about 4-5pm (I get home around 2pm) and then I'd get up, watch TV and wait for dinner anxiously looking forward to bedtime (I had to be the only boy who didn't have to be told to go to bed ... hehehe). Of course when it came to the afternoon sessions I'd have trouble staying awake in class cos I'd miss my afternoon naps.

Even to this present day, I still love sleeping. If given the choice I'd sleep the whole day long. Before getting married, especially on weekends, I'd sleep right up till lunch time. There's been occasions that I've slept through lunch until late evening ... hehehe ... (boy did my body ache after waking up). Once I sleep I usually have a difficult time waking up. I'd hang on to every minute of sleep that I can. Even in the mornings when the wife wakes me up for work, I'd always say, '5 more minutes honey' which will turn into another 20 minutes or so before I finally and unwillingly wake up. To get extra sleep time, I'd even shave at night so I can sleep that extra 10 minutes it would take me to shave in the mornings, can you believe that? I just love to sleep. I have no problems with staying up late it's just the waking up bit that's the problem ... LOL!

Gone are the days when I can sleep in late on weekends. With the kids now, sleeping past 7.30am on a weekend would be considered a miracle. I don't know why, but my 8 year old boy just loves waking up early on weekends and then comes into our room and starts creating a ruckus (that boy just loves to talk & talk & talk by the way) that will wake both the wife and myself up. His favourite question every weekend morning is, 'mummy, where's my breakfast?' and he won't let up until breakfast is finally made. And the strange thing is, on school days (he's in the afternoon session) he sleeps until 8 - 8.30am! And don't even think about an afternoon nap, with him at home, the house is never peaceful ... LOL! Oh, I just have to add this in, he got an 'A' for science in his exams recently and I'm pretty proud of him. Now I've got to buy him a toy cos I promised him a toy for every 'A' that he got. And he's the kind of boy who will hold you to your word!

Well, at least writing this post has kept me awake for a bit, but I know the moment I post this I'm gonna be dozing off again, maybe I will try and catch 40 winks seeing as how I know for a fact my boss won't be coming in again ... hehehe ... then again maybe not. Who knows, she just might decide to turn up! Well, the good things is, it's about an hour before I pack up and head for home, the bad thing is I got some do-it-yourself projects to work on at home this weekend so any chance to get any naps are a lost cause. Gosh I just love to sleep. I guess that's why NAP are the initials to my full name :)

The Magnificent 7 P's ...

When I'm free, I'm really free :) I just completed one tag just a little while ago and here I am again posting another tag. At least with this tag done, I think I have no more tags to do :)

Besides, I need to get all this tags down so I can start working on my next posting about more supernatural stuff, yes, yes, I have more (Cindy and Wolfgang would probably love this and Marzie probably won't be visiting my blog for awhile ... LOL!)

Anyway, I was tagged by Diamond Sapphire for this meme called the 2 P's which was created by WVb A blog about everything and more to learn more about the blogs they read on a regular basis.

So here are my 7 P's.............

Passion: My family and running (am I allowed 2?)

Purpose: Not sure yet

Pursuit: Happiness

Position: To be supreme ruler of the world :) but seriously it really doesn't matter to me!

Pummeling: My ever decreasing waistline :)

Progress: Achieving things that I never thought I could do, like eat less rice ... LOL!

Personality: Fun-loving, friendly and extremely shy! (a little psychotic as well!)

And now, here's my lucky pick (some may call it unlucky) people to answer this 7 P's meme :

Nessa - Wolfgang - Sharon - Jean - Shana - Barrett

The Unnamed Tag!

It's been a busy day but I've finally managed to get my work load back on schedule. Work has been piling up the past week cos of this influx of work from one of my clients (one of my better client, I might add).

I just managed to finish up all that they need for tomorrows presentation and so now that I have some free time on my hands, I thought I might as well do one or two of the outstanding tags that I have. Don't really want it to pile up so much that I have to do another tag marathon :) And it really wouldn't do much justice to all those who tagged me in the first place. So from now on I'll try to do the tag immediately (don't hold me on that cos I am a lazy bum after all ... LOL!)

Anyway, here goes. Shana of Reality Check was kind kind enough to tag me for this meme, which I have no idea what the title is though :) It seems like an easy and fun tag to do though.

Ok, here's how it works, hopefully I get this explanation right. The five bloggers that I tag have to post 5 links to any post that they've written associating it with the 5 key words provided below. At least 2 of the people you tag must be new acquaintances (if not, your current buddies will also do) so that you get to know them each a little bit better. Lastly, don't forget to read the archived post and leave comments :) There, that wasn't so hard was it?

* Link No. 1 must be about FAMILY

• Happy Mommies Day!
  

* Link No. 2 must be about FRIENDS

• Best Friends ...

* Link No. 3 must be about YOURSELF, who you are, what you’re all about (best post I could find about me)

• Me, My Hair And My Barber ...
  

* Link No. 4 must be about something YOU LOVE

• The Joys Of Running

* Link No. 5 can be ANYTHING you choose

• The Burger King!

There, that's done. Those 5 posts were the best I could associate with those five key words. Now I'd like to pass this tag on to these 5 great bloggers :)

Nessa of Mumblings
Adrian of First Time Dad
Mariuca of Wishing On A Falling Star
Janice of This is a Miracle ......
Bobo of d bImBo WiF D tWiSt

ps. if anyone knows the title to this tag, please feel to let me know .. hehehe ...

A Dream Come True ...

Janice of this is a miracle, gave me $1 million. I'm sitting here eagerly waiting for the cheque to arrive so I can gleefully spend every single dollar of it :) Urmm, you did send the cheque already, didn't you Janice? LOL! Ok, ok, I'll quit dreaming already :)

Janice was kind enough to tag me with this I Am A Millionaire tag to reveal to the world how greedy I'd be with my one million bucks :) I can think of a host of things I'd do with the million, that I don't think it would last very long. I'm really not good with money ... hehehe ...

Besides, I had to post something new cos I think some people were getting the 'heebee geebees' from my ghostly posting .... hehehe ... yeah, that's you Marzie! LOL! And this is a fun meme to do after all.

Ok, folks, so here's how I'm gonna waste away my million bucks:)

First thing I'd do is share some with my good buddy Adrian, after all if I'm gonna waste it away, who better to waste it away with :). Then I'd go on a gadget shopping spree, I'm a gadget fanatic. Next, I'd be heading to a bookstore and buy all the Star Trek books they have (urmm, I'm a trekkie fan, in case that wasn't a big enough clue .. LOL!). Then I'd buy a nice small cozy country like house (I just happen to love those cozy country like houses) in some out of the way area away from all the noise and cars. Following that I'd buy a nice truck to suit my country like house ... hehehe ...Oh and lastly, if I have anymore left (it's only a million after all), I'd urmmm, pay my municipal parkings summons ... LOL!

'What's that honey? You mean I have to let you keep every single dollar? I only get 20 bucks? Oh man, honey ...' LOL!

Now, I'd love to see how the five following millionaires spend the money I'm gonna send them. All you need to do is give me your bank account number, then deposit RM3,500.00 in my bank account for the processing fee and I'll send the $1 million to you right away, honest :) And if you believe that, I have a space ship in my back yard that I'd like to sell to you .... LOL!

Nessa (who else but my favourite blogger)
Meleah Rebeccah (who is one of my newest visitors)
Donzy (who visited me recently after a long while)
Jean Chia (who is one of my regular visitors)
Barrett (who is also one of my regular readers)

Now some pretty standard instructions that goes along with meme's like this that needs to be done and there you have it :)

**Start Copy**
Instructions :

Proposition: If you Have $1,000,000.00…………………………
Requirements: continue above sentences

Tag Mode: 5 blogger
1st - You leave their blog and post link and add to the list below.
2nd - Let the blogger you want to tag know they been tagged by comment in their blog or etc.

What They Do With Their $1 Million
1. SYH will spend for Family
2. Miche will give to the needy
3. Montessorimum will keepsake
4. Lovely Mummy will spend & save
5. MummyInVain will fullyutilise
6. Babyfiona will buy house and open business
7. MonkeyWong will go for a long vacation
8. Janice Ng will upgrade house and go for long vacation
9. Emila Yusof will realise her dream
10. Mariuca will open a Perfume Gallery
11. OndeOnde will quit her job!
12. Joe will buy a house and gives to charity
13. Bobo will invest in property and let her parents go on a holiday
14. Nick will waste away his small fortune
15. Adrian will spend it all
16. Barrett will do ALOT of travelling
17. Arsenal Marketing will Tithe 10%, use 10K for advertising, Invest the rest
18. Bobby will be on a World vacation forever
19. Seiche would Fix you but good
20. SpeedCat will Buy 2 golf holes!
21. Florencetoh will settle her education & ensure her family’s future is looked after.
22. Minibites will build a house, etc
23. Ingrid would do the sensible thing financially…
24. Bengbeng will relocate to Penang
25. Jean Chia will open a 'pet's clothing cum cafe' store

Things That Go Bump In The Night!

I'm a coward, I really am. I won't deny it, especially when it comes to all things ghostly and the supernatural! I've always had this fear of the supernatural since I was a young boy but strangely I'm extremely fascinated by it in some weird way. Funny, ya?

When I was growing up, my mom and me lived in the same house with my grandparents and my cousins. We were kind of a big family back then. Normally after dinner, we'd all sit outside the porch and my grandmother would start her daily grandmotherly stories (pun intended). Somehow the topic would always drift towards the supernatural. The house we lived in back then was in this pretty old area (the house itself was kinda spooky) and there were lots of trees outside and when nightfall came, the surrounding area got pretty dark and deserted. I'd normally curl up as close as I could to my mom as my grandmother related all those horror stories from her time. Well, most of the time I'd end up falling a sleep half way through it, not that the stories were boring mind you, but I'm a sleepy head and I could fall asleep anywhere (but that's a story for another post).

But all these stories somehow played havoc with my young mind and whenever I'd wake up in the middle of the night, I'd always be in some kind of frightened state (told you I was coward ... LOL!) I wouldn't even get up to go to the toilet. I'd hold it in till morning if I could but normally I'd end up wetting the bed (hey, I was just a wee little 5 year old boy, ok!) I owe my fear for all things supernatural to my grandmother (and btw, I was grandma's little pet grandson and all my cousins just hated me ... hehehe)

I'm 40 years old now (yes, you heard me, 40 whole years old!) and I'm still afraid of ghosts and all things associated with it. I've had my fair share of ghostly encounters to last me a lifetime. I remember once long ago, I was working in the design department of a printing company. I used to stay back really late (as late as 12 - 1am) at night finishing up my work. Normally there would be 3 or 4 other designers who would also stay back and we would all leave about the same time. But there was this once when everyone wanted to leave but I decided to stay a little longer cos I was kinda swamped with work.

So there I was all by myself not bothered about anything except getting my work completed. Suddenly the phone on my table buzzed. I was startled of course and when I looked at the blinking light it indicated that the receptionists phone was buzzing me. (I'm all alone here remember). I thought it was strange but I didn't give it much thought. So, I continued my work. Then a few minutes later, the phone buzzed again, only this time it indicated that the call was coming from my colleagues table which was 4 tables away from me. Ok, this was where my streak of cowardice and my imagination starts working overtime. But I persisted and thought maybe the phones were acting buggy. Then a few minutes later the bloody phone buzzed again and this time it showed that the call came from the table in front of me. I was seriously freaked out by now! This couldn't be normal. I looked at my watch and it showed the time as 11.58pm. A coincidence? I think not!

This was where it got totally mind blowing freaking scary. Immediately after that phone buzzing (and I swear on this till today) The mouse pointer on my PC screen started to shut my PC down by itself. It actually went through all the motions that I would manually do to shut my PC off only this time I wasn't even touching the mouse and it wasn't moving, only the mouse pointer on the screen was moving. By now, I'm totally freaking out, I could feel every bit of hair on my body stand on end! I looked at my watch and it's exactly 12.00am. I think whatever it was was trying to tell me something, so I got up, I run like a stark raving lunatic out of the office (it would be funny if it wasn't so scary!). I didn't bother to look back, I didn't bother to switch off the light, the air-conditioning and the what-nots, I just ran for my life. (gee, my hair is standing on end just writing this down).

So, the next day, my production manager who was always the first to get to the office (and also the most longest serving staff here) came up and made a fuss about who left all the lights and stuff on, not even bothering to lock the doors. I told him what happened and that was when he sat down with me and told me not to ever work late alone. Apparently the damn place has this ghostly spirit and it doesn't like people working late (my kinda ghost ... LOL!). Some of the people who worked late here have experienced this weirdly encounters and they just didn't bother to tell me. I could have died of fright! Damn, I even felt sick for three whole days after the incident.

That was one of many other encounters I've experienced in my lifetime. I've heard my name being called, seen a man lie on the road while driving, only to disappear after avoiding him (my buddy Adrian can testify to this cos we both saw the same thing), seen swings that move on its own, the list could go on and on and I don't want to bore you, but the bottom line is I'm a bloody coward.

Thank god my wife is braver than me in this ghostly stuff! Even at home, when something goes bump in the night, I'd wake her up ... hehehe ... Once I watched this local horror movie, 'Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam' in the afternoon and I was all alone and I freaked out! (don't worry honey, I'm only afraid of ghosts, spiders, creepy crawlies and snakes, that's all ... LOL!)

So, what about you guys? Does the supernatural do anything to you? I'd sure love to know if there are more cowards out there like me ... :D

The Reading Bug ...

I'm an avid reader and so is my wife. Recently though, I've been noticing that she's been reading quite a bit of books from my collection which really surprised me. She loves reading and she has her own genre (which includes women and romance and not forgetting those Mills & Boons books which she complains of always having the same plot yet she keep on reading them ... LOL!) and it was really amusing for me to see her read my Clive Cussler, Dan Brown and Robert Ludlum books :)

It all started when she was out of books to read and decided to read the Da Vinci Code. She got so engrossed in reading it (that for that period of time, I did the cooking ... hehehe) and when she finished the book, she wanted me to go get her Dan Brown's other novel, Angels & Demons. Though I've read the book I don't really have that book in my collection and I didn't have time to get the book for her so she started to go through my Clive Cussler collection (which is quite a huge number) and she finished reading it all in the space of ten days, I think. Now she's harassing me to get Angels & Demons again ... LOL! (Ok, honey, I'll get it for you already)

I love reading and have been reading anything and everything I can get my hands on since I was a wee little lad (and you can imagine how long ago that was ... hehehe). I read all kinds of stuff ranging from novels (thriller, adventure, non-fiction stuff, etc) right up to comics!

When I was young, my mom used to work in MPH Bookstores and she would bring home lots of books for me to read. I'm sure some of you remember those old Enid Blyton books, right? She used to bring home quite a lot of those books and my favourites were The Five Find Outers (from the Enid Blyton Mystery series), The Famous Five, The Hardy boys and yes, The Nancy Drew Mysteries :) I used to spend hours reading those books after getting home from school often at the expense of not doing my school work (but of course, after I had my all important afternoon nap ... LOL!)

I guess I owe my reading habits to my mom. I have this huge (well, not too shabby) collection of books and I think I've read most of them at least 20 times (seriously!). I'm a huge sci-fi fan also and I've got this large collection of Star Trek novels (some contributed by my good buddy, Adrian) and also this big pile of comics (spider man, superman, X-men, etc) ranging back to my primary school days. I threatened to disown my mom once long ago in my secondary school days when she wanted to throw my comics away ... LOL!

I'm also very fussy with my book collection, ask my wife, the other day when she was reading my Clive Cussler collection, I imposed strict rules not to open the book too wide so the spine would not be damaged, not to have any drinks near the books, etc .... hehehe ... I try to keep my books in pristine conditions and the kids know better than to mess with my precious books, though they've gotten into reading my comics every now and then. I wish they'd really read more. Kids nowadays just plain don't read anymore ... sigghhhh ...

I guess the Playstation, cellphones (even my 7 year old nephew has a cellphone for goodness sake), i-pods and the advent of the cartoon channels, it's easier for kids to watch than to imagine. That probably explains the newer generation kids who are whizzes at all things modern but with a total lack of imagination! To all kids who still love reading, here's two thumbs up for you.

As for me, I don't think I could not go a day without getting my hands on something to read, be it the newspaper, my wife's womenly mags (LOL!) or even the local hypermart brochures ... hahahaha ... Ok, now I've got to go find that Angels & Demons books or the wife is gonna keep on complaining she's got nothing to read :)

All Hail The King!

Just the other day I posted something on nasty clients who don't pay what they owe and today I'm gonna post something the exact opposite of that.

I did some work for this client I had. It involved doing two simple buntings for a church project (the client was a relative of my boss). So, I got the visuals and stuff approved yesterday, sent the artwork for printing and today I went to collect the buntings from my supplier as he was too busy to send it to me.

Once I collected the buntings, I called this client to say I would be at her office in 30 minutes or so but she said she was outside having breakfast and if I could meet her at the restaurant. Since this particular restaurant was actually near my house (one which I normally frequent) and also my office, I said no problem.

Ok, now this is where the good part is :) I reached the restaurant saw her there and went up to her to hand the buntings over. She unrolled the buntings to have a look at it and was so delighted with it that she actually bowed down (and I really mean bowed) to me 4-5 times! I was flabbergasted, the whole restaurant (and at this hour it was packed) was looking at me like as if I was some kind of royalty. LOL! I was sooooooo embarassed, and if I wasn't a little on the tanned side, you could probably see me turn beet red!

I've never had anyone bow to me before, let alone a client and I was (and still am) in a state of shock. It was just a simple bunting and was really nothing to shout about (trust me) just your average normal church kinda buntings, not something that would win any advertising awards or elicit the kind of response I got. Just imagine if I did an annual report or a corporate profile for her. She probably would have given me her first born daughter or something ... LOL!

How I wish all my clients were like her. It sure would make this job all the more enjoyable and meaningful. At least now I know how a King feels to have his subjects bow to him. What a way to end the week :)

It Pays To Read!

I'm a little free right now, managed to finish up all my current workload (gosh, now that's a strange one), so I thought I'd post a little about how utterly stupid I was yesterday (and yeah buddy, I know you'll be saying 'so what else is new with you' ...). It all started on Sunday. You see, Sunday's are normally the wife's rest day from cooking. We'll either eat out or pack something from outside for the boys and myself.

Well, this Sunday after my usual evening run, we went to the nearby mini market to get some bread and stuff like that. I happen to come across this canned item (spicy pork cubes) and thought I'd have it for dinner. I don't normally eat canned stuff cos it's not fresh (duh!) and it's normally pretty oily (double duh!). But then I said to myself that I could always work it off with a longer run session the next day. So, I went home, cooked it and to my surprise it was not oily at all and it tasted pretty good for canned food.

Ok, so yesterday, during lunch I had the urge to eat this canned stuff again and I called the wife and told her not to cook dinner cos I'll cook it later when I'm back. She was kinda skeptical by the way but she reluctantly agreed. On the way back from work, I stopped by the mini market and quickly grabbed the stuff, made my way to the counter and paid for it. Then I got home and enthusiastically started cutting and preparing some extra ingredients to go along with it like onions, garlic, etc. On Sunday I just cooked it directly from the can with nothing else.

All this while, the wife is there with me in the kitchen keeping an eye on me in case I make a mess of things but I was kinda confident (and hungry) that it would turn out pretty well. Then I opened the can, dumped everything into the wok with the garlic and onions (which caused tears to stream down my face while slicing it) and guess what? I actually bought the wrong canned item!!! Instead of that spicy pork cube thingy I bought on Sunday, it was something else altogether and it smelt like something the cat dragged in (it even tasted like something the cat dragged in!) It was actually this braised minced something, can't really remember what it was now.

For awhile there I was stumped. I actually bought the wrong item. Just because the item looked the same, was even placed in the same shelf as the one I wanted, I presumed, without reading it first that it was what I wanted and in my haste to get home it never occurred to me to stop for one second and read the damn label!!! The wife was giving me this knowing sympathetic but sly smile. I'd just ruined dinner ...

I was so damn pissed off with myself. I so wanted to eat that spicy pork cubes and was imagining (salivating even) about it all day at work, so you can imagine my disappointment here. I wanted to kick myself for being such a doofus. In the end, I ended up eating plain fried rice! ... sighhhh ... I wanted to cry (there goes my manly macho image ... LOL!) The moral of the story here folks is, READ before you buy. But then I think almost everyone in the whole wide world probably does that, except stupid old me. Next time, I'm just gonna leave the shopping and cooking to the wife (you hear that honey? I'm thru with cooking already ... LOL!)

Well, at least I know tonights dinner is gonna be great cos the wife is cooking Chicken Kurma, my favourite :) Yummy!