A New Year Is Upon Us ...

So, the last day of the year is finally upon us and it's time for resolutions and all that once again. Through the years I've made countless New Years resolutions and I've so far failed to keep each and every single one of them to date ... LOL! I've promised myself to do this or that, to give up this or that, to start this or that and so far it's been pretty unsuccessful. This year I'm not even going to bother making any New Years resolutions, why bother right, when I know I'm not really going to keep them for long ...

Nothing really significant has happened this year in my life. I know this was the year that changed my perception about bloggers and blogging in general when I decided to try blogging one fine day in February. And since then, I can't seem to stop blogging and I don't see any signs of slowing down ... LOL! I've had some pretty good benefits career wise but that's about it. Nothing else of significance happened that I can think of that would make this a truly memorable year.

But then it really doesn't matter cos I have a great family, a loving wife who adores me (you do, don't you honey? Don't you? DON'T YOU? LOL!) and I in turn adore her and worship the very ground she walks on :D We're all healthy, well, the bones creak here and there but overall we're all in generally good health. What more could I want in life?

'well, more money and that island with those topless dancing girls you've been dreaming of would be nice :D'

urrrrmmm ... what topless dancing girls? You trying to get me in trouble with my wife or something? And besides, just who in heavens name are you? You've been invading my blog with some silly comments quite a bit recently ... LOL!

But all that aside, I'm looking forward to what challenges 2008 is going to throw my way. I've had some pretty tough and trying challenges thrown my way this year, both personal and work related and I'm just glad I somehow managed to sort them all out and survive through it all. I'm really hoping that next year will be much more rewarding to me and to all you guys out there too.

So, what plans do you guys have planned for the countdown tonight? I don't have any plans to usher in the new year. I'm just going to be at home, watch the countdown on TV and catch the fireworks display from one of the malls nearby which I can see all the way from my house, that's about it. I'm not really the partying kind, those days are long gone ... hehehe ... so it will be a quiet and mellow new year for me, just the way I like it.

Well, I've got to get some work done (yes, I am at work today!) and then send my car to the mechanic (again!) for some major repairs again. It's been giving me headaches since Christmas day and I've just been too lazy to send it to the mechanics, but I can't put it off any longer. I'm inclined to just send the car to a scrap yard or something! That'll learn it ...! I've also got tons of assignments to complete, and one of it is on cerebral palsy and for the life of me, I don't know how I'm going to do that one!

So This Is Christmas ...

Christmas has come and gone and I'm already missing it :( But there's still about 9 days of Christmas left and I'm going to make the most of it :D I've been doing nothing since the Christmas dinner but vegetating at home and it is so much fun to the point that I didn't even bother logging on to check on my blog until today which is a record of sorts as Gypsy said in her comments on my earlier Christmas eve post ... LOL!

I knew I wouldn't be able to resist the pull of my blog for too long and true to form, here I am back with a post! I've been making the most of my Christmas leave by spending time with wifey and also taking naps quite a bit that wifey asked me this afternoon:

'Hon, are you going to be sleeping all day? Wake up already!' (LOL)

She know I just love to sleep. It's one of my other favourite hobbies besides blogging that is :) Anyway, Christmas was fun and I know a lot of you had fun this Christmas too judging by what I've read on some blogs out there. It's great isn't it, to know that everyone has been having fun. That's the way the world should be like always :)

My fun started from the 23rd where I attended by best buddy's early Christmas party. It turned out to be great like it always is. He prepared such a mouth watering feast that I ended up eating non-stop and by the time the night was over I was looking like a little baby hippopotamus! I'm going to have to do some major work out sessions after the holidays, that's for sure. The only sore point to my buddy's party was our other best buddy couldn't make it cos he was working and that made it the first time ever the three of us were not together during the Christmas party. What a bummer!

Then on Christmas eve, wifey, the kids and me attended the midnight mass, well not really midnight though cos the service started about 11.00pm but it did end around 12.45 am so that made it a midnight mass all the same ... LOL! After the mass, we went over to my cousin's place which is near my house for supper. We had some pies, the kind that I posted about long ago that my grandfather used to make. And once again I stuffed myself silly. By 2.30 am, we were all dead tired and called it a night.

The next day was pretty hectic for me cos we had loads of stuff to do for the Christmas dinner at my place. Our day started real early with the kids banging on our door as early as 7.30am insisting on opening their present. So wifey and me groggily woke up and went down to join the boys to open the presents or there would have been a riot that's for sure. My mom also woke up with the din of excitement the boys made and we all opened up our gifts. They were so excited with the stuff they had, especially this radio controlled car my buddy gave them that played with it all day! Thanks for including the batteries buddy ... LOL!

Later in the day, wifey and me had to go and pick up the roast pork and get some stuff for the dinner later at night. We were running up and down doing stuff, preparing the dinner, cleaning and arranging the place and it rained cats and reindeers on top of that that by the time the guests started arriving for the party, we were already beat. But the show must go on they say and it did go on cos we all had such a great time. The kids were running and screaming all over the place. The adults were huddled in groups all around chatting about this and that. I had my two best buddies there and we had our own group chatting about the usual rubbish we always chat about ... LOL! The atmosphere was livid with excitement :) The only drawback was my mom just had to go and invite our Neanderthal neighbor to the dinner. If it wasn't cos of the Christmas spirit and all, I'd have poisoned his food for sure ... LOL!

Well, the dinner finally ended and the cleaning up was a killer. That's one thing I hate about parties, the cleaning up bit. But it's something that cannot be avoided and once it was finally done, all I had the strength to do after that was take a quick shower and drop dead in bed. I was totally out of it. The next day was spent recuperating from the past few days excitement. We didn't do anything but just stayed home and ate left over food all day and adding pounds to that ever increasing festive waist line of mine!

I've still got a few more days of Christmas leave left and I intend to spend every second of it doing absolutely nothing, I'm even going to try and stay away from my blog (like as if I can) and just plain relax cos I don't know when I'll ever get the chance to take leave this long. Overall I would say that I've had such a great time for Christmas and I'm hoping that everyday could be Christmas, but I guess Santa, Rudolf and the elves would go on strike if that was the case ... LOL! Now, I'm just looking forward to what the New Year is going to bring me. I hope it's loads of money ... LOL! Have fun folks and in case I don't get the chance to wish each and everyone of you personally on your blogs, I wanna wish you all a Happy New Year :D

ps.
I've found out what happened to my missing neighbour I posted about a few days back and I'll fill you guys all about it in my next post ... hehehe ...

Winter Wonderland ...

First of all, here's wishing everyone a Blessed and Merry Christmas :)

And as promised, the pictures of my Christmas decorations with our theme of Winter Wonderland. Nothing much to shout about but it was all hard work, especially creating the snow landscape and putting up all those tiny little trees and all that twigs and stuff. The twigs we found at the park near our place and the little trees were from last years old Christmas tree.

The idea came about when we couldn't find a nice tree skirt and I thought why not make a snowscape at the bottom of the tree instead and this is the end result. Like I said, nothing really to shout about but wifey and me are both proud of all the hard work we put into it :D

Oh, I also managed to salvage that failed genetic mutation of a snow man and managed to get it up. Though not what I expected but at least it's better than nothing. Wifey and me have already started getting new ideas for next years theme ... LOL!

Our little Winter Wonderland (do you see the snow flakes)

The presents under the tree, quite a bit and I'm surprised that it came up to that many!

A close up of the tree with its minimalistic decorations based on a silver/winter theme ...

My winter wonderland snowscape scene under the tree ...

Close up of a section of the snowscape ... the fence came from twigs we picked from the park ...

Another close up view with a little train set in the foreground ...

House and church cut from Styrofoam ...

My salvaged snowman next to my 'fireplace' (what a place for poor old Frosty ... LOL)

Close up of good old Frosty (best I could do ...)

My home made snow icicles ...

My snowman haven ... wifey's idea this one ...

Snowman haven in progress ... the house was only RM12.00!

Side view ...

Front view with lighted house ...

and finally, my mom's crib with a little more modification from me ... :)

'Twas The Night Before Christmas

A strange and weird thing just happened in my neighbour that borders on one of those unexplained mysteries. No, no, we didn't find Santa stuck in our chimney or anything. Not that we have chimneys here mind you. But this one is even more sinister than that!

Two days ago, wifey and me were on the way out to do some Christmas shopping (what else ... LOL), we discovered that one of our neighbours, a few doors away from us, occupying the extreme corner house is missing. When we passed the house, wifey noticed that the house was completely empty of everything in it.

What's so strange and mysterious about that you might ask? Don't people move houses all the time? Yes, they do, but this particular neighbour just renovated his house nicely, did some new landscaping for his house, painted the place, etc, etc ... And when we passed it 2 days ago, it was totally empty. Not a single thing remained. Nothing, nada, zilch, absolute zero! All his huge flower pots and trees and everything was gone.

'People take ALL their stuff when they move house, Nick, or didn't you know that?'

Yeah, I know that but what made it sinister is that no one even knew they shifted, not even his immediate neighbours. Lets put it this way, to move all the things he had in his house would have required a few trips in moving vans or lorries and it would create a big din in the process and people would definitely notice but no one, not even his immediate neighbour realized he shifted. Now you tell me if that isn't weird and mysterious!

There's not even a single trace of them ever being there. Not even rubbish remains. Even that huge Plasma TV with the custom made tv lifts that pops the TV out each time you want to watch it is also gone.

'Of course they'd take their hugely expensive plasma TV with them when they move, Nick!'

Ok, ok, I'm sure they would though I just love that TV and it's TV lift system. But don't you find it strange that no one knew they moved out? I live five door away so it's not surprising if I didn't notice but what about their immediate neighbour or the one directly opposite the road from them. Don't tell me they wouldn't have noticed moving vans outside. I'm beginning to suspect some real sinister going ons with them and have started coming up with all kinds of theories about their disappearance.

Wifey thinks they won a lottery and just upped and left to bigger and better place. But if they did win the lottery, why take all their old stuff? Couldn't they have just bought some new and better ones (and leave me their plasma TV). I think there's more to it than just winning the lottery. I think they were witness to some horrendous crime and have been put under the witness relocation plan or something. Maybe they were even kidnapped by some super secret Government agency called People in pink, blue, purple, whatever or maybe that quirky Spiff kidnapped them to be slaves on that planet he calls Zork or something. I really don't know but I intend to find out.

I'm not totally convinced that they could have moved without anyone noticing at all and with out a single item left behind, rubbish and all. Gosh, I do hope they're okay. They seemed like such nice people unlike my two left and right idiotic neighbours. Maybe they should have been the ones who upped and disappeared! I'll post about what one of them did to piss wifey off again after Christmas.

Anyone got any ideas or theories on their disappearance? I'm all ears. But until then I shall not stop trying to find out the truth for justice shall prevail ... hahahaha ... ok, ok, I'm just a blooming busybody!

Third Time Lucky ...

What a day it's been for me and it's only 10.30am! First thing this morning when I came to work, I locked myself out of the car with the keys still in the ignition! Dumb, dumb, real dumb! My car remote control has not been working properly for a while now, so I disabled it seeing as how I didn't get around to fixing it and I manually locked the doors. So there I stood outside my office staring at my car with the doors locked and the keys including my office keys still stuck in it.

Usually that won't be too much of a problem for me cos normally I have a spare key in my wallet. With a smug smile on face, I whip my wallet out only to find that the key is no longer in my wallet cos many moons ago that key was giving me grieve and I threw the damn thing away without getting a replacement. Oh god, how I wanted to give myself a swift kick in the rear! So I call my colleague to see what time he'll get here cos he has another set of the office keys. He's says about 20 minutes, so I'm stuck outside my office till then.

When he eventually gets here, he tries to help me get my car door open. We try all kinds of stunts and finally I used a steel ruler to press down some godforsaken thing in my door and the locks pop up! Woohoo, I breathe a HUGE sigh of relieve. Now I can add car thief to my resume ... LOL! By this time I'm thoroughly soaked with sweat and smelling like a cow on steroids. Guess I'm going to have to head home for a bath during lunch.

Then I head up to my room and reply all my comments in my blog cos I don't have anything to do just yet. While blogging, my colleague downstairs comes up and hands me a package and I look at her a little blur like and say:

'For me? Now who would be sending me a package this early in the morning?'

And when I look at the sender, I yelp in joy that my colleague thinks I'm a little not right in the brain department! The package is from Emilia and it's my notebook prize :D Cool, at least the day is moving in the right direction. I haven't opened it yet, I'm going to keep it till I get home and open it with wifey and share the joy of my gift with her :) I haven't even called her yet to tell her I got it, I'll just surprise her.

Christmas really is looking up and I can't wait for the day to be over. I'm mulling over starting my leave from Monday instead of Wednesday. I'll wait for my boss to come in and discuss it with her. I don't have anything urgent on so I guess taking off on Monday wouldn't be a problem. Yesterdays holiday was spent shopping. Yes, again ... hehehe ... We had some errands to run for the Christmas party preparations. Then wifey wanted to get a pair of shoes so we went to one of the malls we don't normally go to cos it's always packed and parkings a bitch but she wanted to try someplace different so off we went and surprisingly we managed to get one spot the moment we went it. That was a good sign :)

Then we went shoe hunting. Wifey has problems buying shoes and it's not cos she can't decided. The problem is me. I'm really fussy about the kind of shoes she wears. And she, being the sweet girl that she is always asks for my opinion first before buying and if I don't like it, she won't buy it, the same with clothes. And most of the time I really dislike a lot of womens shoe designs out there so she ends up not buying any. But yesterday, she saw one and surprisingly I loved it. It was this urrmmm, brand called Sembonia or something and I liked it the instant she showed it to me. And better yet, it was on 70% sale. That made it a good buy. And I was more excited about the shoe than she was ... LOL! I'm sure she's gonna look gorgeous in it ...

Then we went to look at some dogs cos I'm seriously planning to get one. We saw one at this place called Pets Wonderland, a beagle and I was instantly in love with it. Then I saw the blooming price he costs! My eyeballs nearly popped out. Guess I'm going to have to be doing loads of paid postings before I can afford the little tyke. After that we went home and later at night we had another surprise.

Mom went for the caroling dinner that is organized yearly and she came home bearing a gift from the caroling group. Apparently we had won (again) best decorated house for Christmas ... woohoo ... my third gift for the season! I was elated with the win ... hehehe ... I mean we won last year as well, which was an absolute surprise and I seriously didn't expect to win again this year but it's such a nice feeling to win again. Like I said earlier, Christmas is getting sweeter by the minute :) I guess all that hours and hard work of working on my winter wonderland theme has paid off. I didn't think it deserve to win though but I'm not complaining ... hehehe ... I'll post some pictures of my tree on the 24th like I promised in one of my earlier postings. Hopefully you guys don't laugh at it ...

Will you just look at that, it's 12.30pm already. Where has the time gone? I haven't even done any blog hopping yet and I still have 2 assignments to complete in Spiff's blog. Not forgetting that I have to go home and take a shower later. Guess I'll end here for now and start blog hopping a little and before I sign off, I'd like to thank Emila for the prize :D

5 Days And Counting ...

Gee, I only realized this morning that Christmas is actually just a couple of days away and I don't even know when my buddy is having his Christmas party. I know it's called a Christmas party and it should be on Christmas day but my good old buddy is doing it earlier. So this morning I had to drop my water face (an old Chinese saying ... LOL) and actually ask him when it was going to be held.

Well, after some nice sarcastic remarks from him about me not knowing, I found out it's going to be this Sunday. And that's when I realized that Christmas is just lurking around the corner. I still have loads of work to complete here in my office before I take my Christmas leave which I haven't even officially sent in yet. I don't think there would be any problems with my boss approving it but you just can't be too confident.

Actually I'm already not in the mood for work. I'm just waiting for this weekend to come and then I can really get down to enjoying the festivities. Don't get me wrong, I already am enjoying in but I'd enjoy it even better if I was officially on leave :D Well, at least the good part is tomorrow is a public holiday for us here and wifey and me have a full days scheduled planned tomorrow getting ready for our Christmas dinner (which incidentally falls on Christmas day, duh! LOL).

We're going to pay the deposit for some cakes we ordered, get the ingredients for moms devil curry and also order the roast pork that we're thinking of having on that night. But we really haven't made up our mind on that yet. The only thing so far that's confirmed is the cake ... hehehe ... Then there's the cleaning of the house before Christmas.

Can't really clean the place just yet cos I'm still tinkering around with the decorations and there's loads of wiring for the Christmas lights that I need to hide. It looks unsightly at the moment. I was thinking of getting one of those zipper cable organizer thingy that I read about. It's this nice and cool looking tube like thing that you can just slip all those loose cords and wires that are lying about and keep all you cables and cords neatly hidden away and it won't be so unsightly anymore.

At least it's been a quiet day so far in the office. Hopefully it stays that way till work is over. Oh yes, we're going shopping again this evening after work, looks like the shopping will never cease. I don't even want to begin counting how much wifey and me have spent so far but let's just say we'll both be cows next month cos we'll probably have to eat grass ... LOL! But thank god in part to all those assignment we've been doing, sure helps a great deal during times like these :D

There is still one more thing that I have yet to do and that is wifeys gift. I still haven't got it for her yet even though she's given her wish list to me eons ago. I'll probably get it at the very last minute, a trait inherent in all guys I guess ... LOL! I know what I want to get her but everytime we go out, we're always together and it's so hard to buy it without her noticing ... hehehe ... Yeah, yeah, I know I could get it during my work hours but I've been so busy, I don't have time to stop and shop. Oh well, still got 5 days what! :D

Overtime!

The nearer it gets to Christmas, the busier I become. Take today for instance. I've hardly had time to even blog all that much ... LOL! Been busy running around town delivering stuff for my clients and they're all scattered in various locations. At least the traffic was not too bad. In fact, I've got to leave to one of my clients place around 4.30 pm cos I've got to meet my installers there. Need to do some modification works for their gallery we constructed for them and I'm not at all liking it one bit.

First of all, it's peak hour and I'm going to get caught with all those office people rushing home from work or doing their last minute shopping. Secondly, it's already late in the evening and that means it's going to be an overtime night for me. Not that I don't like doing overtime, god knows the amount of times I had to work overtime, but it's my Ghost Whisperer night and it's the continuation of last weeks episode and if I can't get the work done and reach home by the time the show starts tonight, there will be hell to pay ... LOL! I don't know why but I just love this show and it's not cos of Jennifer Love Hewitt parading around in her skimpy nighties or anything like that k? LOL!

Well, nothing much I can do about the work part. It's not like I could postpone it or anything and even if I do, I'll still have to do it sooner or later and it might as well be today cos this Thursday is a public holiday here and I wouldn't want to be working late tomorrow nite, that's for sure. I'm planning to take a nice long vacation from Christmas till next year and I sure do hope none of my clients will give me grief during this time. I'm due for some much deserved rest. I haven't really taken any leave since last year, a long time isn't it? I'm not the kind who really like to take leave much and I think the amount of leave my office owes me, I could go on vacation for 2 months ... LOL!

I'm looking forward to Christmas and my leave and I'm going to do nothing but just vegetate and laze around the house, well, a little blogging too (ok, ok, a lot of blogging ... hehehe). It will also be a good time for me to go catch some nice movies out there. Oh I just remembered, they're showing the X-Men trilogy of TV. I've seen this movie countless times and I still can't get enough of it. I guess I'll be watching it again :D Maybe I could get one of those home theater chairs and turn my house in a mini theater or something ... LOL! Now wouldn't that just be awesome. But first I need to get a new TV, a new sound system, some amplifiers ... urrmmm ... maybe it will be cheaper just to go out ad watch a movie!

My Second Prize (Pun Intended) ...

The weekend in general was really great but to top it all off, I logged into my blog and saw a comment from Emila of Emila's Illustrated blog and I was smiling from ear to ear (yeah, I did look rather silly ... LOL). She left me a comment stating that I had won second prize in her create a new name for her blog competition. Woohoo ... This is also the second time I've ever won anything in blog land and Christmas is getting sweeter by the minute!

Ok, just in case any of you is wondering what in heavens name am I blabbering about. Well, Emila ran a contest a fews back to come up with a new name for her blog. She had some criteria that the new name for her blog must have the letter 'E' in it. I seriously couldn't think up of anything that would suit her illustrative blog with that letter so I just coined up my own which was totally out of her brief ... hehehe ... And I honestly never expected to win anything, let alone second prize :)


Thank you Emila for even considering in giving me a second place prize (I didn't know that there was a second place prize to begin with ... hehehe). And my prize is this personally hand drawn 'Peace' Note book from her. I'm going to keep my eye out for that post man again. This time I'll give the guy a break and not pounce on him ... LOL! And speaking about notebooks, I do have a notebook computer assignment to complete later on. It's been lying in my inbox for way too long ...

Here We Come A Caroling ...

As usual, I've been a little busy again, but not with work, more with the Christmas preparations and it's fun being busy for Christmas. The only snag was we had a 24 hour water cut since 8pm last night and by the time the water came back earlier this evening, all of us at home were smelling like a herd of water buffaloes ... LOL!

The carolers came today (in fact they were here about an hour ago) and I had a busy morning messing with my decorations at home. My day started a little on the late side cos I slept in till about 9.45 am, yes, that is sleeping in for me nowadays. A long time ago, sleeping in meant only getting up at 1.00pm or so! The first thing I did was check to see if there was some signs of a few droplets of water but alas, no such luck. The taps were drier than a cow counting sticks (ok, I made up the cow part ... LOL). So I brushed my teeth and washed up as best as I could and then we took the kids out for a late brunch.

After brunch, we went to get more stuff for Christmas cos I wanted to make the place look snowy. Went to a nearby stationary shop and got some styrofoam to go back and cut out the snow scene. I kinda regretted doing it cos it seemed so easy to do when I was thinking it up but when it came to actually cutting and shaping the thing, it was far from easy. I made a total mess of the place but the end product was well worth the mess :) I managed to make my staircase area seem like a snow cavern ... hehehe ...


My snowman project ended in disaster though. The snowman I made ended up looking like a genetic experiment gone wrong, that's why you don't see any pictures of it here ... LOL! I ain't gonna put up a pix and humiliate myself with that piece of thrash. But I haven't given up yet, I know where I went wrong so I'm going to try again, maybe tomorrow and by George, I'll make a snowman or my name ain't Brad (wait a minute, my name isn't brad to begin with!) Well, the kids were thrilled with the snowman from hell. They thought it looked pretty cool (thank god for small miracles!) But I'm going to really try again, after all there's still 10 days to go before Christmas, ya?

After all that, the water started flowing again and I really needed a good bath by then. But before I could do that I had to release all the trapped air in the pipes cos the water just weren't flowing at all. Thank god I had some experience in plumbing. So, after getting that done, we all had our much needed baths and my younger boy got ready to follow my mom for the caroling sessions. The carolers came to my place close to 9.30pm and belted out four Christmas songs, Silent Night, Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer (one of my all time favorites), Joy to the World and Felize Navidad. It was fun singing along with them and all that. It kinda reminded me back to the days when I went along with the carolers from house to house. That was way back in my teens though and I sure do miss those times.


Wifey and me made some little small gift bags (or little hampers as she put it) and gave them away to all the carolers. We bought some sweets, chocolates, this marshmallow thing (I have no idea what it is) and bought some transparent plastic wrappers and made them into little gift bags. It was wifeys idea though to give all the carolers a little something. I thought it was a cool idea from her :) We stayed up till 2 am making these little gifts bags, of course we had to wait for the boys to sleep or they would have just been in the way, hence doing it at that ungodly hour!


Now that the caroling is over and done with, we've got to start planning in more detail about the Christmas dinner. We still have a few more stuff to get like the curtains, table cloth, the boys clothes, etc, etc, etc. At least all the presents are bought expect one which is for my best buddy's little girl. We're having a little problem figuring out what to get for her. We have some ideas in mind though, so maybe we might just find what we're looking for tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow we'd probably be going shopping again after church ... hehehe ...

Ok ladies and gents, that's it from me for today. Will be back with more updates again tomorrow, that is if I can pry the laptop away from wifey ... hehehe ... Only reason I'm here online now is cos she's downstairs watching TV, otherwise she'll be here doing all her paid posting assignments. I guess once she's done with her TV show, she'll be here tapping away on the keyboards. As for me, I'm going to hit the hay sack and call it a night!

'Yeah, I know it's only 11.30pm and the night is still young and all that, but I'm just soooooo tired, yaawwwwnnn ....'

Pressed For Time ...

The past couple of days has been real crazy for me and I didn't have much time to mess with my blog or even visit anyone. Since Monday, I've been working non-stop. It's been one job after another and every one of them was urgent. I even had to go to work on Tuesday which was a holiday (even though it was for half a day).

There I was nicely sleeping in on Tuesday morning and I get a text message from my client about something that they MUST have today cos they need it for an event the very same night! Oh boy, that put a damper on my holiday. You should have seen my mood on Tuesday, it was so dark, it made the colour black look brighter in comparison! Well, at least it didn't take the whole day. I still had the afternoon off and I spent it wisely by taking a nice long 2 hour nap ... LOL!

Then yesterday when I was still positively, absolutely busy, my car refuses to cooperate and starts acting up and I had to take it back to my good old (soon to be ex) mechanic and get him to fix the same problem he just fixed again for the third time! Once again I had to leave my car and use his loaner, this time a van, which was equally if not worse than the other loaner he gave me! By the time the day was over I was so stress and pissed off that even wifey kept her distance from me ... hehehe ...

Anyway, all that aside, things are pretty quiet today (and hopefully it stays that way). At least it gives me time to catch up on all your blogs out there and get some sponsored postings done at the same time. Not that I have many assignments waiting, mind you. It's a little slow in the assignment section for me the past week. I'll just have to keep looking I guess.

Christmas is drawing closer and wifey and me still have not completed all our gift buying yet. We bought quite a bit already for my mom, nephew and nieces but still short of a few. We couldn't find what we were looking for so we kept it aside for this weekend. I still have to go around settling the menu for the Christmas dinner. Got a general idea of what we're having, just need to go order it, that's all. Yes, we're ordering quite a bit. Too lazy too cook for Christmas. We're planning for a nice traditional Christmas menu, that is if I can find some places out there offering any.

My mom is cooking some dishes though, and she's making our traditional Eurasian devil curry dish, which is one of my favourites though it's bloody spicy (I can't really take spicy food) but I can't resist the devil curry! My cousin's will be bringing some stuff too though I'm not really sure what but I know there will be shepherds pie on the menu from one of them. Wifey wants to get a cheese cake from Sheraton which she's tasted before at one of my nephews birthday party but my cousin recommended someone to her which she says makes better cheese cake than Sheraton, so we'll be going to check this guys cheese cake out this weekend and order one.

Then this Saturday night, the carolers are coming over. Need to go and also get some stuff for them, drinks and light snacks and things like that. My mom is an active member of the neighbourhood church group and she's in the caroling group too. My younger boy will be joining the caroling with my mom on Saturday and I hope he behaves himself. He can be a handful at times. But then, he listens to my mom more than he does to me and wifey, so I guess he'll be fine. I guess we'll be going out to get stuff again tonight after I'm home from work. So many things to do with so little time to do it with. Maybe I'll try to get off work earlier today if nothing crops up by lunch time.

Then this weekend I still have my snowman to make, which my younger boy has been bugging me every single minute hes sees me asking me this same question over and over again:

'You making snowman today? No? Tomorrow? No? Then when?'

And he repeats that over and over again every few minutes. That is one boy you can never tell anything cos he'll bug you until you get it done ... LOL! I guess if I don't get it up by this weekend, he's gonna incite a riot in my house. Maybe if I'm not too tired I'll try to get it up tomorrow night.

And since I've been talking about Christmas which is the season for giving and receiving, I'd like to thank a few people who has given me a few awards. Some has been quite long and I apologise for taking so long to put it up (just blame it on my lazy genes ... LOL).

First of, Syura has awarded me two awards quite long ago which is the True Blue and Best Blogging Buddies Award. Thanks Syura, I'm honoured to get 2 from you.

The next is from Lena, one of my new readers and she so generously awarded me the Egel Nest Award, thanx Lena.

And finally, the latest one is from Shemah. She gave me the Funny Blogger Award which of course I'm thrilled to get. I'll try to live up to the award ... LOL! And if there is any that I've forgotten, please accept my sincerest apologies, k?

Woof, Woof, Woof!

I want a dog! I really, really, really want a dog! You wanna know why? Well, last Sunday, wifey and me went to the mall near our place called The Summit. We actually went there to get some material for our Winter Wonderland theme we cooked up. While walking around the mall, oh it was bliss cos we left the two boys at home with my mom, no need to keep on shouting at them to behave themselves and all that, just the two of us ... hehehe ...

Ok, where was I? Oh yeah, while walking around, we stumbled upon this dog show organized by the Malaysian Kennel Association that was going on in the main lobby of the mall. Actually I stumbled upon it cos wifey was in one of the shops browsing through some stuff and I was like looking for an SD card for my new digital camera. The moment I saw the show, I rushed into the shop and grabbed wifey out cos I know she loves dogs.

Well, the show or rather dog competition was pretty interesting. I mean, I'm no animal lover and yet I was transfixed by it. These dogs were so well trained that they obeyed all the instructions of their owners. They sat when they were told, they stopped when instructed, the tip toed when needed ... it was so cool. They were so many various breeds of dogs in the show. The best part of it was these dogs were so beautiful (man, I'd never thought I live to see the day I call a dog beautiful) that wifey and me just had to go over to where the dogs and owners were and see them up close.


Now, that's when I was spellbounded by these dogs. They were so friendly and playful and some were so cute they looked like stuffed toys! I even sat there and played with some of those dogs. Wifey even took a pix with this lovely playful brown dog (wifey thinks its an Afghan breed) called Sunshine. Then there was this cute little Scottish Terrier that never wanted to sit still long enough for me to get any pictures. That's when I decided I want a dog for myself! But the thing is I want one that's trained already, I'd hate to have it barking like some stray mongrel all night long and I don't want to clean up after it, wifey can do that ... LOL!


But I seriously want to get a dog of my own. And if any of you feel like you wanna get me one for Christmas (LOL) my favourites are the Scottish Terrier, a St. Bernard or one of those godawful ugly bulldogs! We were both so captivated by these dogs we spent almost an hour and a half there messing around and taking picture of these dogs. I know my next project after Christmas is to get a dog, hopefully the neighbours will sign off on it cos in the area we live, we have to get both the left and right neighbours consent before we're allowed to own any pets! And that's going to be one hell of a difficult task seeing as how unfriendly I am with both my neighbours.

I guess if I do get a dog I'm going to have to be responsible for it myself. I wonder if I'm up to the task though. It's probably like looking after babies. LOL! Hmmm, talking about babies my buddy is going to have a baby and I'll bet he's going to be looking out for some baby furniture soon. I know just the place to suggest to him though. I'll get him to check online at Luxury Lambs, they've got beautiful baby cribs that he simply must get. Well, with that said and done, I'm going to head to bed now. It's way past my bed time and thank god it's a holiday so I can sleep in till the cows come home ... LOL! Besides, I'm going to try my hand at making a snowman tomorrow. I'll let you guys know how that turns out :D
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Weekend Madness ...

The weekend was a hectic one but an enjoyable one. Would you believe I hardly touched my laptop and checked my blog until late Sunday evening?

'Heavens be praised Nick, that is indeed a miracle!'

And the reason was cos I was so busy with my Christmas stuff. By the time everything was done late Sunday night, both wifey and me were on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion. But it was all worth it :) And no, Cindy, I haven't fully completed all my shopping just yet ... LOL!

The moment I got home from work on Friday, we went out to look for Christmas decorations and stuff cos wifey and me decided on a theme for our Christmas decorating for this year. We had a silver/blue theme last year and this year we wanted to do a red/gold theme but ended up going with something we call 'Winter Wonderland'. So, we were kinda looking for specific decorations and it wasn't easy but we found some stuff that would suit our theme just fine.

Oh, I even managed to get myself a digital camera (no, not the DSLR kind, though I wish it was). We were at one of the hypermarkets near my place and there was this digital camera sale going on and I decided to stop and check it out. I had no intention of buying one mind you, but it was so cheap that I couldn't not get one. Well, at least now I can stop taking pictures with my useless camera phone ... LOL!

Once we got home, wifey and me waited for the boy to sleep before starting our tree decorating cos if they were still awake, it would have been a riot and I would have been screaming at them not to touch this or that. My younger boy was just plain getting on both wifey's and my nerves all weekend. So, once they finally went to bed, we both snuck downstairs quietly and started working on the tree. We worked on it till about 3.00am and decided to call it a day cos we were both dead tired by then and I needed to get up real early and go get a few more Christmas decorations and head home before the Christmas shopping crowds come out.

But as bad luck would have it, on the way out, my just repaired car decided to crap out on me and I had to take it back to my mechanic with wifey and the kids in tow and wait it out till he finished fixing it, which set me back about 2 hours. But once it was fixed, we hurried to the malls to get those decorations we needed and head home to work on the tree some more. Halfway through the decorating, I had a brilliant flash for an idea (ok, ok, maybe not so brilliant ... LOL!) and grabbed wifey and headed out to get more props for my theme. That took another few hours at the malls again, got home and put my plan to work.

I'm happy to say that it's finally done, late last night and it looks pretty decent (can't beat my buddy Adrian's decor) but I'm pretty pleased with it. I actually managed to get everything I wanted and get it all into place just the way I envisioned it :D I'm still going to mess with it cos I'm never satisfied with stuff but it's basically 95% completed. I've been taking a lot of digital pictures (with my new camera of course ... LOL) and was contemplating posting the process of my decorations but I've decided to post the completed picture of my little 'Winter Wonderland' on Christmas eve, so look out for it ... hehehe ...

By Sunday night I was just to beat to do anything. I did manage to log on and answer some comments but that's about it. I was just too tired to do anything else after that. I just headed to bed and before you know it, Monday is here. But for once I've no issues with Monday. It's been a good day so far and what makes this Monday even better is the fact that tomorrow is a holiday for us here in Selangor ... woohoo! And wifey and me are going for more Christmas shopping tonight. Oh, I just love this season :D Ok, now I'm going to do some blog hopping cos I've got a lot of catching up to do ... see you all later folks!

Oh and Marzie, your mug has finally arrived. I practically grabbed the postman the moment he walked in the door. I think the poor fellow is probably too distressed to work now ... LOL!

The Season To Spend ...

Yesterday I wrote a post about the escapades in my mechanics loaner car. Well, this morning just before I left for work, I did a quick dusting on the inside of my car. You won't believe how much sand and dust there is on the insides. What I can't understand is, how the insides got so dirty when the repair job was done on the outside of the car. I'm a stickler for keeping my car clean. I hate seeing sand, dust, mud and whatnots inside my car.

So, as I was dusting the car mats and stuff, I noticed that my car road tax is going to expire in 3 weeks or so. Looks like I'm going to be spending more money soon on my trusty old car. To get the road tax renewed I'm going to have to get a new car insurance policy and that's going to need some more of my hard earned cash. Not forgetting the cost of the road tax at that. Well, at least it's not really a loss cause cos I can always compare car insurance policies online and find myself the best deals on offer.

It's actually really expensive owning a car. I used to think that owning a car was so cool. I don't have to wait for the bus anymore. I could go wherever I like at whatever time I like, be it rain or shine, night or day. I never took into consideration the maintenance aspects of owning a car. There's the fuel cost (which is so exorbitant nowadays that I'm glad my office pays for all my fuel), then there's the cost of servicing and repair, the road tax, the insurance, etc, etc, etc ...

I guess that's the price you have to pay for convenience, right? Everything comes with a price these days. Soon, they may even charge us for walking on the roads! Ok, I guess I've got to stop all this complaining and whining and start writing more happier postings seeing as how it's the Christmas season and all that ... LOL! Well, I'd better go and start looking for those insurance comparisons and since I'm on the subject of insurance, I might as well check out a little about home insurance. You never know when that knowledge will come in handy one day :D

An Exciting Day ... Not!

It's been a pretty exciting and busy day for me at work today. Well, it didn't just involve work alone but it was exciting nonetheless. I sent my car on Tuesday to get some stuff that was really in dire need of repairs fixed. The mechanic was my regular guy and he said I had to leave my car there for a day or two. Which was no problem for me cos he was kind enough to lend me a spare car for me to use in the meantime. That's why I like this mechanic.

Now, what he didn't tell me was how bad the condition of the car was. The exterior of the car looked fine and dandy. But now, the interior left much to be desired (not that my car was all that much better but definitely way better than this one). So, I took the loaner car, thankful that he even had a loaner to lend me cos my work involves traveling quite a bit.

The first day I had the car everything was fine though it was kinda difficult to drive cos the clutch was sticking on 3rd gear and made this frightening grinding sound no matter how hard I pressed on the clutch itself. Now, the brakes, what can I say about the brakes. You all know Fred Flintstone right? You've all seen how he has to use his feet to stop the car? Well, this one was just like that. I had to press down so hard on the brakes to make a stop that I was afraid if I pressed any harder my foot would have gone through the floorboards!

As bad as that was I managed to eventually get a feel on how to drive that car with minimal gear crunching sounds and to be sure to brake at least 2 kilometres from where I actually wanted to stop ... LOL!

'Ok, that's not too bad'

But that was the least of my problems. This morning, I decided to go for an appointment first before returning the car and collecting my car which should have been ready. It was a nice rainy and cool morning and the drive to my clients place was uneventful until about a few kilometres aways when the car decided to start acting buggy. To get to this clients place I have to traverse this small narrow 2 lane road which is used by huge container trucks and delivery lorries.

First the car starts to jerk and choke on every single gear I depress, then it just dies in the middle of the road with huge speeding trucks behind me, not forgetting the oncoming ones. I hit the hazard lights as fast as I possibly can and swerve the dead car onto the side of the road which is like this small grassy and muddy thing and watch these huge monsters of container trucks speed by so close to the car. The truck drivers here tend to think they're all a Michael Schumacher, a Kimi Raikonnen or something.

Never mind I say as I sit there in that totally dead car trying to figure out what to do and hope to god that those freaking crazy truck drivers actually notice me at the side of the road. It's raining remember. So, I sit there a good 5 minutes trying to start the car and finally it starts.

'There is a god after all!'

I quickly head out of that tiny weeny space by the side of the road and continue my journey but a few metres down the road the same thing happens again ... arrgghhhh! I swerve to the side again and try again and finally it starts again. Once again I move off and this time the car goes much further before acting up again. I finally reach my clients place, quickly get my appointment finished and try to get the car back to my mechanic which is like kilometres upon kilometres away.

So, all the way back, in the rain and all, the car gives out on me nearly 20 times and I have to do the stop, wait, start, move procedure over and over again and nurse that car all the way back. It took me a good one hour plus to drive back which with a decent car that actually moves would have taken me 30 minutes! But reach back I did and immediately go tell my mechanic the problems I had with the loaner he gave me. He listens to me intently as I relate every single detail of the story to him and then he bursts out laughing and says ...

'Oh, saya lupa cakap itu keleta ala sikit ploblem la ...' (Oh, I forgot to mention that the car has a little problem ...)

That's when I felt like giving him a swift kick up his you know where! There I just went through a horrendous experience and here he actually knew the car had problems and didn't even inform me. Damn, I could do with a little less excitement in my life sometimes. Anyway I was finally glad to get my hands off that cursed car and get my own car back though I had to wait an hour or so more cos my car still wasn't completely fixed yet.

When the car was finally fixed and I got the bill my eyes nearly popped out, I clutch my chest and almost collapse from a self inflicted heart attack! It cost a bomb and a half! Gee, does he think just because I work in advertising that I can print my own money or something? There go you guys Christmas presents. I was thinking of buying each and everyone of my blogging buddies a Christmas present but now looks like you guys ain't getting nothing. Ok, ok, I was not really going to get anyone anything but it sounds so cool to say that I was ... LOL!

Oh well, that took practically half my working day (and precious blogging time ... LOL) to get sorted out but alls well that ends well they say. Now hopefully my own car doesn't give me any more crap for now. Have a great rest of the day people ... :D

The Fish That Slipped On A Crib ...

I just finished watching one of my favourite TV series, The Ghost Whisperer about an hour or so ago, well, by the time I actually finish this post, it would be even more than an hour. When I first saw that series I never did like it, it took a while for me to get hooked to it and after watching last nights episode, let me tell you, I'm getting even more hooked on it that I can't wait for the next episode ... LOL.

This evening wifey, the kids and myself went out for dinner at our favourite neighbourhood mall and also to do a little grocery shopping. As usual, we'll have our dinner first at the food court before we head to the hypermarket section. The boys and wifey had their usual favourites for dinner. I was getting a little bored of the same old food they served there. But today must have been my lucky day cos they had a new food stall offering grilled Portuguese fare, mostly seafood.

Since I was feeling adventurous, I decided to try it out. I really wasn't sure if it was going to turn out okay or not, but I'm always game to try new things these days. So, I ordered this dish called Grilled Dory in Portuguese herbs, the picture looked good in the menu, though I have no idea what herbs they were gonna splatter it with. It took about 5 minutes before the dish was ready and though the portion was a little small, I must say it was simply excellent! The herbs were just out of this world (even though it looks like puke in the picture below ... LOL). Even wifey thought it tasted good. I know I'm gonna try out their other menu the next time I'm there.


After that almost satisfactory meal (like I said the portions were a little small), we went and did some grocery shopping and also looking out for some Christmas decor at the same time. We found quite a few stuff but refrained from buying them cos we wanted to check out what they have at Ikea, Jusco and Metrojaya cos I think they have even better stuff there. we still have a lot of things to do for Christmas and so little time ... sigghhhh ... While shopping I saw this pair of Crocs slip ons that I've always wanted. My existing slippers were ready to fall apart any minute. I've had that pair of slippers for close to 7 years or so, can you believe that? It's one of those cheap RM9.90 Power slippers and we've gone a long way together ... LOL!

But recently I've come to just adore those Crocs slip ons but I wasn't going to part my hard earned cash for the real deal. You know how much those things cost? So, instead, I saw this pair that were going for only RM13.90, of cos it wasn't the real deal la, but it looked cool and it was so blooming cheap so I got it. Wifey thought I looked like a clown in it but she sportingly helped me pick a pair. And she even named it Frocks, a combination of Fake and Crocs ... LOL! So, what do you think? Looks good for mere RM13.90 doesn't it? And check out those legs ... LOL! I'm just not used to walking it in yet, gonna need a little time to break it in.


So, after all the shopping we headed home cos I wanted to watch Ghost Whisperer and when I walked in, there on the cabinet was this Christmas crib made by my mom. Drats, I said. I was actually thinking of getting one that wifey and me saw in this mall near our place. But now I'm in two minds about getting it cos it's such a quaint looking little crib made with real dried leaves for the roof and twigs for the insides and all. It was done with a personal touch that it wouldn't be too kind of me to go and buy another one ... sighhhh ... But it does look good that wifey suggested I modify it by adding a small light in it. I'm going to do just that but I still want my bigger crib! Oh well, take a look at the pictures of the crib below and tell me should I or should I not buy a new one.

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A Watery Experience ...

Yaaaawwwwwwnnnnnnn ..... I'm really, really, really sleepy this morning. I was woken up from sleep last night almost every hour to attend to something and no I don't have a little baby which needed to be fed every hour. LOL! The cause was something as simple as water.

What happened was, my reserve water tank is housed in the ceiling of my house and supplies water for bathing and stuff like that has this overflow tube leading to the bathroom in my room. The overflow tube is there in case the flotation ball in the water tank gets busted and will instead divert the water to that tube and flow in my bathroom so it doesn't flood my ceiling. I can do without having a waterfall in my room ... LOL!

While this normally poses no problems whatsoever but last night was a downright killer. This tank has been overflowing for a while now. It first started about 2 months back. At about 6.00am in the morning, I hear this dripping sound coming from my bathroom, at first I thought maybe it was raining or something, I look out my window and no, that's not it, the weather is as dry as ever.

So, I mosey on into the bathroom and I see water flowing out of the over flow tube. I groggily look at it and curse (remember it's 6.00am in the morning). Since I can't call the plumber until much later and waste some good money getting it fixed I just turn on the tap for a while to let some water run in the sink and that stopped the overflowing. Temporary measure cos once the main tank fills up again, it's gonna flow once again. But strangely enough, the overflowing stops. Cool, I think. Maybe it's just a one off thing.

Ok, so I forget all about it and 3 days later, around the same time it happens again. I know it was the same time cos I checked my Patek Philippe watch (ok, ok, I don't have a Patek Philippe watch, it was my trusty old clock radio ... LOL!) I curse, get up and do the same thing again. And the water stops flowing again. Hmmm, maybe, just maybe it was another one off thing and I leave it be. Then a couple of days later the same thing happens, again around the same time. Now, I start to worry. If the flotation ball was really on the blink, shouldn't it be overflowing all day? That would be the case wouldn't it? But it only happens very early in the morning and around the same time. And it doesn't happen everyday at that. Maybe 3 times or so week.

This has been going on for nearly 2 months. I know I could call the plumber and have him look at it or something but why waste good money when it doesn't happen always. So, it went on like that for a few weeks. Now on Sunday things took a turn for the worse. This time the leak started around 2am and as usual I would go and release some water and it would stop or so I think. An hour later, I hear dripping and I walk to the bathroom to check it out and damn, the water is dripping again. Ok, this is not normal. So, I do the same thing of turning on the tap and releasing some water and it stops. I go back to bed.

An hour later I hear that dreaded dripping sound again! I get up, utter a couple of dozen obscene words and repeat the process and go to bed again. But you'd think the damn water would let me rest. No, it decides to overflow again after an hour. So there I am, on a Sunday morning from 2 am till about 6 am getting up and doing the same procedure over and over again and this time I say to myself, the moment it gets light out there I am going to call the plumber to see just what the hell is wrong. But once again, the overflow stops completely which makes me so reluctant to call a plumber. So I leave it be. Thank god it's a Sunday and I can sleep in. Foolish mistake.

Cos it happened again the next day (and on a working day at that!) and this time it started at 1.00am and lasted for every hour till 6.00am. It felt just like having to wake up an feed a crying hungry baby every single hour! I am going to call a plumber this time cos I felt like a zombie when I finally had to wake up and get ready for work. I don't know why it just overflows at night and not in the day time when I'm awake but it just does. I'm inclined to think there's a little rotten monster up there just itching to irritate me every single hour. I'd like to climb up there and find out but I'm too chicken to do it. I'll just let the plumber figure it out ... LOL!

Rainy Days And Mondays ...

Ok, ok, it may not be raining, but the dreaded Monday is here again and somehow it always affects me considerably. I'm in a pretty drab mood right now. I've got some personal stuff that needs to be sorted out and it's been messing with my thoughts and I hate feeling this way. It's been bugging me since Sunday and I thought a good nights sleep would get rid of that gloomy feeling, well it always works for me, unfortunately this time it didn't. I woke up feeling the same as I did all Sunday.

I'm the sort of person who cannot function properly until I solve or rectify whatever it is that's on my mind. I know I'll solve it eventually but at this point of time and it being Monday and all that (Monday: 'yeah, yeah, go ahead blame me for all your problems!'), my thinking capacity is on the low side. In fact if any of my clients call and say they want to see me today, I'm gonna tell them I'm busy or something. I'm so not in the mood to see anyone today.

So far, nothing about today looks like it's going to improve. The mood in my office in general is also subdued. We had two people leave us last Friday. One was that girl I posted about in Spiff a few months back. Her last day was last Friday. Not to be unkind or mean, but she deserved to leave. She was getting to be a little of a pain to everyone. The other guy was terminated for sexual harassment. That was quite shocking cos he looked like a nice fellow. Didn't know he had it in him to do stuff like that. Oh well, it takes all kinds, I guess ...

The office right now is like a funeral parlour. It's so quiet you can hear a gnat burp even! And the worst thing is I'm even so not in the mood to blog!

'Urmmm, then what are you doing writing a post Nick?'

I said I was not in the mood to blog, I didn't say I wasn't going to blog at all :D How else can I rant and rave and scream about what's on my mind except on my blog, right? Besides I've got some assignments on real estate that needs to be completed like today. And trust me, I don't know head or tail about real estate except that it's about some people selling property.

Ok, I'm going to log off now and go sit in a corner and try to figure out how to solve what's bugging me. Hopefully when I'm back a little later to check my blog (and I will definitely check on my blog ... LOL!) I'll be in a much more cheerful mood. Damn you Monday!!!

That Evil Thing Called A Blog!

Man, I'm suffering from a huge pounding headache right now but I still can't resist the pull of this blog of mine. I was just messing around with some paid postings in my other blog and then I said to myself ...

'Nicky boy, after doing all those assignments, head to bed, take a short nap or else you're not going to be able to run today.'

But do I listen to myself? Nooooo ... The smart aleck that I am decides to check out my Anything Goes blog instead. Never mind I said, just take a quick peek and see if anyone left any comments or stuff like that, then go to bed. But the moment I get here, I decide to stay longer and write a post even. And trust me, it sure isn't doing this throbbing headache much good at all.

Actually this headache is cos of my late night blogging session last night or should I say early this morning. By the time I went to bed, it was close to 3 plus in the morning and then before I know it, the kids are up and screaming for breakfast, which is usual for weekends. Why do kids love to get up early on weekends. I was never like that when I was young. I used to sleep till early noon, but then I've always loved sleeping anyway ... LOL!

So, I groggily drag myself out of bed, head out to give wifey (who is already up and surfing looking for more assignments) a morning hug. Next thing you know I'm switching on my PC to blog instead ... LOL! Man, this blog is evil! It has a hold of my very soul even ... LOL! So after an hour or so of blog hopping, I finally drab my sorry butt out of the chair, go shower and take the boys and wifey out for lunch, well, brunch is more like it. Then we head home and that's when the headache decides to strike with sledgehammer intensity! Any sane human being would have gone and rested or something, but no, not me. I say to myself again ...

'Just a quick peek la to see if got anymore comments.'

That just a quick peek was about one and a half hours ago and I'm still here and the headache throbs with every single keystroke I press. I'm seriously going to have to log off soon and go take a short nap to get rid of this headache but right after I do this assignment I have on this Saeco Automatic Espresso Machines I just found in my assignment list. I've been complaining to wifey that this particular company hasn't been giving me any assignments and today when I got a blooming headache, they give me one whole pile ... LOL! It's not that I'm not appreciate of them though, I am, I am, I really am. After all, more assignments means more money and one tiny step nearer to getting my DSLR camera :D

But sometimes complaining sure ain't worthwhile. So remember folks, when you've got a headache, don't complain about not having any assignments cos they just might hear you and drop a load of them for you to do! I've really got to get away from this PC right now. The glare from then monitor is killing me. I wonder if I can persuade wifey to give me a nice shoulder massage ... hehehe ...

'Urmmm, Honey, you free ah?'
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Games Children Play ...

It's December already. How time flies. Only yesterday I was like ushering in the New Year and here I am about to get ready to usher in Christmas. I'm not complaining though, though once Christmas is over, I've got to wait a whole year for it again. Well, best not dwell on that and enjoy the season while it's here :)

And speaking about Christmas, yesterday when wifey called me and left me with a huge responsibility for the Christmas dinner thingy. As most of you who drops by here often would already know by now that I'm having a Christmas dinner at my place for the whole clan. And since I was going to have to be around for it, I've also invited my two best buddies and family over. So, wifey called me and said ...

'Hon, how about we organize some games for the kids during the Christmas dinner?'

Now let me tell you a little bit abut how this idea came about. You see, when all the kids get together, it'll seem like a riot is going on in the house. They'll be running, screaming, shouting, jumping, diving, etc, etc and wifey thought it'd be a good idea to get them to take part in some games to keep them reigned in and besides, it would be fun. So I'm all for it. And she says ...

'Great honey, so now you're in the head of the game organizing committee.'

Huh? What? Wait a minute, what do you man I'm on the game organizing committee? When did I volunteer to be the head of this so called committee? What do I know about organizing games? And she so sweetly says ...

'But hon, all the kids listen to you, so it's easier for you to handle them.'


LOL! That's a little true though. Half of the kids listen to me cos in their eyes I'm this great big clown to them and the other half listen to me cos they're just plain intimidated by me! Well, I'm all for the idea but I'm left with this great big predicament. I have no idea what kind of games to organize for them. I would have gone for the usual musical chairs nonsense but wifey said that's so lame and said ...

'Be creative honey, think of something more exciting ...'

Man, now that's pressure ... LOL! I've done events before but nothing about organizing any kids games. These kids are gonna need something spectacular to keep them entertained. And for the life of me, I can't think of a single thing right now. Well, at least I've got a whole 25 days to go before the 'event' ... LOL! Hmmm, it just occurred to me that there's also got to be prizes for the winners. Oh man, that's more work for me. But seriously, I'm actually looking forward to organizing it. I'm sure it's gonna be fun and I do hope whatever kooky game ideas I come up with, the kids will get a blast out of it.

Oh and feel free to offer some suggestions okay? Don't just sit there and laugh ... hehehe ... I'm all ears :D Actually I'm all excited at the prospects of this Christmas dinner now that I know my buddies are coming over too. They're like family to me and it means a lot to have them share the joy together with my family.

Oh and I'm looking forward to tomorrow night, well it's already Saturday early morning so it's tonight really cos I'm going over to my buddy's house and we're going to have our pre-Christmas bash and bake some pies, sing Christmas carols and celebrate the night away. We do this every year (not the pie baking, this year's the first time for that) and like I mentioned in my earlier post, it's sort of a tradition with us. I'll try and take some pictures and hopefully post them here when I get back later, which will probably be early Sunday morning :)

Ok, I think I'm going to do some blog hopping before I call it a night. Have a great weekend folks!
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