A Brilliant Weekend!

The weekend is almost upon us, another 12 hours or so if you want to be specific and all that :D And it's that time of the week that I absolutely love. And after the stress and minor depression I went through the past couple of days, the weekend is a welcome relief. And the fact that it's a 3 day weekend does wonders for my morale right now.

My weekend's going to be a pretty busy one. Wifey and me are planning to make the downstairs spare room into a work area for my Dream Themes business venture I'm planning to go into. I've been doing all my work upstairs in our room for my nephews Star Wars themed party this Sunday and both wifey and me hate messing up the room.

We have a spare maids room downstairs and since we don't have a maid, that room has been lying empty so we're going to arrange a few things in there this weekend and make it some sort of work area in preparation for when we do get some orders for birthday party ideas and stuff (*hint, hint* LOL!). Then it's probably out to the DIY store to look at some shower faucets to replace the leaky one in our bedroom.

And on Sunday, I'll probably spend the better half of the morning decorating the birthday venue with the stuff I made for the party. Most of the items are done and I'm just hoping it'll look good. Even though it's going to be a packed schedule, I'm looking forward to it cos it's going to be so much fun :D

And since I've been bitching here quite a bit the past week, I thought I'll spread some cheer instead this time round. About a week or so ago, Blur Ting awarded me with an award and you guys just know how much I love awards ... hehehe ... And today, just as I was about to post this award, I got the same award from Rose. And I would like to acknowledge and thank both BT and Rose for the wonderful Brilliante Weblog award they bestowed upon me.


BT thinks I tell urmmm, brilliant stories (Long winded maybe but brilliant? I'm not too sure of that .. LOL!) and that she can picture me sitting in my rocking chair 40 years from now still telling stories ... hehehe ... BT, the way I feel right now, I don't think I need to wait 40 years for that rocking chair, I'll probably need it in a year or two ... LOL!

And the best part that I like about receiving awards is handing them out again :D And so, in return I bestow this award to the four little kids in the picture below ... hehehe ... If your masthead is there, well, that means you've been awarded the Brilliante Weblog award by me :D And I hope you guys have as great a weekend as I'm going to have :D


Oh and in case it's not clear enough, Shemah, Nessa, Perry and Rozella, that's you out there!
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Partners In Crime

I'm probably the weirdest guy around who actually enjoys going grocery shopping. You won't hear me putting up a fuss whenever wifey says she needs to do some grocery shopping. In fact I sometimes even pester her to follow me do the groceries! LOL!

Ok, I'm sure all you guys are probably going to be shaking your head in disappointment. Yeah, yeah, I'm a bad example for all guys out there but hey, I can't help it. I seriously do enjoy going shopping with wifey. Though there are those rare occasions I'll revert to the typical male attitude of hating having to shop but that's really very rare.

Most times I'll gladly and willingly go shopping and not just grocery shopping at that. I'll even go clothes, shoe, handbag, plants, household items, acne cream and urrmmm, those underthings shopping with her and I'll even offer opinions and advise on the things she wants to buy. Though I'm not always agreeable with some of the things she wants to buy ... hehehe ...

And just cos I enjoy doing all this doesn't mean I'm a softie or anything of that sorts. I'll readily whup your ass anytime if the need arises ... LOL! I just happen to enjoy spending as much time with wifey as I possibly can cos as much as it might make some of you puke at hearing this, I simply cannot get enough of her! :D

Anyways, this is not what this post is all about. This is about me being a hoarder! I have been hoarding 'Aji-Shio Flavoured Pepper' replacement packs for quite a while now. In fact right now I think I have more stock than the hypermarket that I buy them from has! LOL! And the most weirdest thing is I'm trying to make whatever stock they have left on their shelves invisible to every other customer.


You're probably wondering just what in heavens name am I talking about. Ok, let me explain from the start. Maybe you'd better grab a nice sandwich, some coffee and sit back to read this post cos it just might turn out to be one of those long winded ones again ... hahaha ....

Wifey and me always shop at this hypermarket called Mydin which is pretty near our place. I think I've posted about this place and how they sell their stuff at really low prices. It's basically our regular grocery shopping place. We've been shopping there ever since the place first opened a few years back. and one of the products that we discovered that they sell that we could never find in a lot of other places was this flavoured pepper thingy.

We normally buy it in a bottle and it costs around RM3 plus or so while the replacement packs cost something like RM1 plus and just 2 of those packets make up one whole bottle and we save quite a bit by just getting the replacement packs. So we were kinda excited that they sold them here. Now we could save loads of money. It may not be much but every cent saved is another cent extra that we have and we use the flavoured pepper in quite a lot of our cooking anyway.

But the joy didn't last long cos when that batch ran out they didn't replenish the stock anymore. So there went our short lived joy! Darn, we said. We tried looking for it at other places, like Giant, Carrefour, Jusco, Cold Storage and none of them sold the replacement pack. They all sold the whole bottle and even then it was way more expensive than the ones at Mydin.

So we had to resort to buying the bottles again until recently after months of its disappearance, it's made a comeback at our favourite hypermarket. I was just browsing through the aisle one day and caught a glimpse of it and you should have seen the excitement in my face (I know it sounds silly getting excited over pepper but I couldn't control myself) and I instantly ran over to wifey with a whole bunch of it in my hands. She was as excited as I was when she saw what was in my hands. It was as if we found gold or something and we were jumping for joy, ok not really jumping but enough to elicit stares from other shoppers ... hehehe ...

I can't really remember how many I bought that day but it was a whole load of them. And then, worried that the other customers might finish all of it, we both conspired to hide the balance from the others. So, while wifey was acting as lookout, I quickly took loads of other items from nearby that was about the same size and pushed all the pepper packets way back into the shelves and placed this other items in the front so it was hidden from prying eyes ... LOL!

You should have seen the both of us. We were like crooks from a cartoon show or something. There she was hurrying me along while keeping an eye out and there I was grabbing all sorts of other products just to cover our 'treasure'! And cover it we did. It was a professionally done job that you would have never guessed they even sold flavoured pepper replacement packs :D

And so, everytime we went shopping there which is once a week, sometimes maybe more, I'll buy a couple more for my stock at home. And each and every time, wifey and me will be up to our sneaky little trick of hiding them again cos I think the staff of the place rearranges the darn things every day or something. And right now, the stock of that pepper at the hypermarket is diminishing with no signs of it being replaced. In fact at this point of time I have more pepper stock than the hypermarket ... hahaha ...

We make quite a sneaky pair, wifey and me. In fact we've done quite a lot of sneaky things in our lifetime that if I ever told you guys half the things we did, we'd both probably die of embarrassment ... LOL! And that's one of the reasons why I love that girl so much. She's as crazy as I am at times ... :D
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For God's Sake, Give Me A Break!!!

My car is at it again. I just got it fixed a few days ago. Well, to be honest I wasn't quite happy with the initial job. Something deep inside me kept nagging me that it wasn't really fixed properly. True, those birds chirping and rats squealing went away for a bit. But I still wasn't really at ease. I've had that car for so long that I can sense it wasn't perfectly well yet. Call it a weird feeling or whatever you like but I just knew it would be going back to the shop.

True enough, the chirping and squealing came back a few hours later, though not as loud as before I sent it in but it was noticeable all the same. I knew it. I knew it wasn't alright yet! Why do my instincts have to be so darn accurate at times. And the sounds got even louder and lasted much longer than before. I drove back seething to the mechanic and gave him grief about a job not well done.

And he in return said that the sounds were from something else. Why didn't you fix it then, I countered in the most annoying and angry tone I could muster. I was feeling too down by then to even work up a screaming fit or anything. He said he'll look at it again. And since it was about closing time and being a Friday, I said I'll send it back on Monday.

And what happens? The darn fellow doesn't open shop for 2 whole days until today! So there I was left with a rather embarrassing squeal coming from my car everytime I turned left that even my younger boy was hiding his head way down low when I sent him to school. I don't blame him, I felt like hiding my head down low too from all the racket my car was emitting!

Anyway, I sent it over to him today and thankfully he is open today. The car us now jacked up on one of those whatchamacallit machines and has both the front tires and absorbers and whatnots removed and it doesn't look like it's going to be a cheap job. I wonder what I paid him to repair for the other day? What a waste of money when it didn't rectify anything at all!

Looks like my card bills this month is going to take a huge increase in debts. Like as if I don't have enough card debts to last me a lifetime already. Maybe I should go do a credit card comparison out there and see if there is one card that can help me reduce my card debts. And I was told that there is a site that provides one of the best credit card comparisons around and that I could check it out here: http://www.creditcardflyers.com/cards-by-credit.php?type=poorcredit. Who knows, maybe I should go and check it out.

Sometimes I think the world doesn't really like me all that much. It just loves to see me in misery all the time. Why can't I go through just one month without having to fork out good money for something or other. If it's not the car, it's something else. I even think there are some people up there assigned just to look out for me and everytime they see me breathing a little easier, they probably gleefully jump up and down going,

'Hey look, good old Nick is having fun again, lets screw his life around a little bit. What devious thing can we do to him today? I know, lets screw his car up again!'

Siggghhh, I'm really not in a good mood today and feel lower than pond scum right now. In fact I feel so low that I don't feel like blogging at all. I just feel like finding a nice cupboard somewhere and maybe discover a secret entrance that leads into a Narnia like land where I can escape all this crap for a little while.

'Good God, Nick! You must be feeling really lousy if you don't feel like blogging!"

Maybe later in the day or something when I find out what really is wrong with my car I'll do some blog hopping. In fact I think I'll take a walk there now (the shop is just a few doors away form my office) and see just how much further he can ruin my day. And I don't doubt that he can ...
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Your Party Ideas Come To Life ...

I know it's only Monday, well, maybe Tuesday by the time you read this but I'm looking forward to the weekend. It's going to be a three day weekend for us cos of the National day celebrations over here on Sunday. And on top of that the family and me have been invited to a birthday party. Well, the boys were actually invited. We, being parents get to tag along ... hehehe ...

My nephew is celebrating his urmmm, 8th birthday and it's going to be held in one of the halls nearby. The thing is even though I've been invited to the party I do have some work cut out for me that involves this party. You see, my brilliant nephew wants to have a Star Wars themed party and my cousin came to me and asked me to help out with decorating the place.

Apparently according to her I did such a great job with the Christmas decorations that maybe I would be willing to give some ideas to make the Star Wars theme a reality. I was not really receptive to the idea at first and thought maybe I'll just give some ideas about how to hang some balloons and stuff. I am a very lazy person and anything that involves me having to work turns me off.

I couldn't say no outright cos she is after all a very close cousin, one of those I grew up with in that old neighbourhood post I wrote about recently. I was all okay with just telling her where to hang some balloons and cut out some simple 'Happy Birthday' wordings when wifey suggested why not make something really good for the decor, use it as my test bed and then start a business offering party ideas.

I've been toying with the idea of starting my own little party shop, nothing fancy, something where if you wanted to organize a birthday party I could come up with a theme for you or maybe you have your own theme and create all the necessary decor for it. Nothing expensive, using simple materials and such. And wifey said this would be the perfect opportunity to showcase some ideas cos there would be other parents there and who knows they just might like what they see.

I decided that wifey is right, maybe it's time to go into my own part-time business and coming up with party ideas and themes would be just right up my alley. The very next day wifey came up with the name for our future ... urrmmm ... business and I came up with the logo for it which you saw at the very top of this post. It might not be the best of logos but both wifey and me like it. Anyways, after that we got off to coming up with some ideas for my nephew's party.

We came up with quite a few ideas, some of them pretty out of this world but decided to scale it down a little cos you must remember I'm doing it for free and I don't really want to spend too much, after all it defeats the purpose of my reasonable and cheap party ideas if it costs too much, right?

In the end we decided to go with decorating the table for the kids with cutouts from the Star Wars universe. I'm not going to tell you the whole idea just yet cos I'll take pictures for you guys to see once I get it all done but lets just say I'm planning to turn the kids main table in a mini Star Wars world with characters from the entire Star Wars universe.

As you can see from the pictures and my messy work table below, I've already started cutting out some of the characters and though it's not really that hard, it is bloody tedious trying to cut out some of those tiny guns and light sabers! There's still a lot of work to be done on the day proper trying to turn the main table into a landscape full of mountains and figures but I'm kinda excited about it. Wifey is helping out quite a bit, thank god for that.


I don't really know how it will eventually turn out but I hope it will be a step in the right direction with this small part-time business venture that I've got planned and it would be nice if you guys could help me spread the word to anyone in need of party designs, birthday invitations or even name cards. But for now I'm keeping it small scale cos I do have a full time job. Simple house parties will suffice :D


So, if you're planning a party for your kid anytime soon and need some themes and decor ideas you know who to look for, ya :D And I'll definitely post the pictures from the birthday party after the event on Sunday. Hopefully it'll turn out the way I envision it to be or else somebody is going to have a horrible birthday ... LOL!
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Friday Hunks ...

I'm going to do a little light writing today and away from my usual personally motivated postings. I've in the past done quite a bit of postings on my other blog about a little online search engine for all you shopaholics out there called ShopWiki. Now just a little recap about who and what they really are.

I know a lot of you bloggers do quite a bit of online shopping. And you probably spend hours on end just looking for that perfect but reasonably priced gift for your other half, friends, parents, kids or even for yourself. We all like great bargains and discounts right?

But sometimes it's really hard finding the perfect gift. You search and search and search even more and you find absolutely nothing out there that suits your fancy. And that is because you've been searching with the wrong sites. Shopwiki is an online search engine, somewhat like Google and will search every store on the internet for you unlike those traditional online shopping sites that only shows you ads that have paid to be placed there.

Now, I've even used the site myself and found it to be incredibly great. Not only can I find tons and tons of a particular item I'm looking for but I can also find them at really great prices with great discounts and good bargains. You can even narrow down your search to the budget that you have available. At least I know where to go when I'm doing my online Christmas shopping this year :D

Now, while I've been using their online search engine for quite a while now, I never realized they actually had a blog. Yes, a blog. And a cool one at that. I'm not just saying this because they asked me to, I actually checked out their blog and found it to be a pretty crazy place where thoughts are shared about all kinds of crazy products! And if blogging about dog costumes isn't crazy, I don't know what is ... hehehe ... You should see some of the costumes they make for dogs out there.

And then there's this thing called Hunk Friday. I'd recommend you check it our yourself but in short, Fridays over in the ShopWiki Blog are dedicated to wannabe hunks and you can find all sorts of things of that particular hunk for sale on the web. And this week's 'hunk' turned out to be Gary Busey ... LMAO! Now, not in a million years would I consider Gary Busey a hunk! Go on and read their blog, I'm sure you'll find something that will grab your attention. Who knows you might even find a Gary Busey original signed underpants or something for $10 ... LOL!
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Missing Home ...

I was reading through Blur Ting's blog, The day flew by so fast it was a blur a few days back and it got me thinking about something. You see, Blur Ting or BT as she is known recently bought an apartment of her own and moved out from the family home where she has been staying with her kids for quite a while. And they kinda felt sad and missed the old place when they moved out. A clear case of homesickness.

Now as I said, that got me to thinking about my situation. Now while BT and her kids have the option of going back home whenever they feel homesick, I do not actually have such an option cos I just realized that I don't really have a family home or even a hometown to go back to.

I was born in the city and have lived here all my life, well except for a few years when I was between the ages of 3-6 years old where I lived in a small seaside town called Port Dickson cos my dad used to work in the then National Electricity Board was stationed there. I do have memories of that place but I don't really recall very much of it, save for certain ghost stories ... hehehe ... Ever since then I've been a city kid.

After the age of 6, we moved back to the city or rather my mom and me did, cos my parents were in the midst of a separation and mom took me and moved in with my grandma in the city. A huge chunk of my time (between the ages of 6-24 years old) was spent growing up in this neat little small community. In fact some of my best and most fondest memories came from there.

It wasn't really a huge mansion or anything but I would consider it pretty big as we had a big family living under one roof. My grandparents, my mom her sis and husband, another two of her brothers and us six kids (my cousins), totaling thirteen people in all. Like I said, we had a huge family. And as huge families go, we had our disagreements and all, good times and bad times but just like all families, we stuck together no matter what. Well, at least until everyone grew up and started leading lives of our own.


That home was a place where I had learned my growing up lessons in life. It was a place I would consider my 'hometown' so to speak. After the age of 24 or 25, I can't really remember exactly, I wanted my independence and I moved out of the family house to rent a place of my own. But just like BT, I did miss the place when I was away from it. I felt a heart wrenching emptiness cos I was so used to the way of life there and even though I had my freedom it was not the same.

But the good thing was, the family home wasn't all that far from my new place and I used to always head home after work for a bit to hang around and then head back to my own place. Then a few years later, with the passing of my grandfather, my mom, uncles and aunt along with my cousins decided to move out of there. They were pretty affected by my grandfather's death and the place didn't seem the same anymore without both grandma and grandpa there anymore.

And that was when I become a 'hometownless' person. I was miserable for a time with the knowledge that if I wanted to go back home after work or even on weekends, I wouldn't able to do it any longer. I missed the old neighbourhood. Badly!

Sure, I could just take a drive there anytime I wanted to but it wouldn't be the same. I could never step foot in the house I practically grew up in anymore. I couldn't walk around its front yard or even sit in the porch and chit chat with my cousins anymore (not that we chit chatted a lot mind you). Sure, I could always go over to the new place they moved to but it somehow is just not the same.

Even though in time I got over the fact that I could never go 'home', I could never and will never forget the old place. As much as I like the place I live in now, it just doesn't have the character the old place back home had. Behind every tree, behind every bush, behind every stone there would be a story to tell. The history of that place was so deep that sometimes I get so melancholic just thinking about the old place.

You know, sometimes I feel sad when people, especially during festivals and holidays happily announcing that they're going to 'balik kampung' (going back to their hometowns ... that's as best as I can translate it). I would have no where to 'balik kampung' too. Even wifey has a hometown she can go back to. For me, this place is my only home. And even then it can never replace the old place I grew up in. I just hope that maybe one day my kids can look at this place as some place they would miss later in life and have memories of their own to cherish.

Okay, enough of reminiscing about old times, it's late already and I'm pretty sleepy but I still have to check out this thing on franchise opportunities that I've kept in the back burner for quite sometime now. I need the money seeing as how I just spent some on my 'ever-dependable' car!
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Chirpy, Chirpy, Cheep, Cheep ...

This is going to be a short post cos I'm not really in the best of moods.

'Yeah Nick, like as if we believe you about this being a short post!'

No really, I'm in such a terrible mood right now. This will be a short post. I don't think I have the will to write so long. It didn't start off that way though. The morning was pretty good.

It only started when I headed home for lunch. I got into my car as usual and drove home seeing as how I work very near my house and besides both wifey and me had some banking to do as well.

Somewhere along the way I start to hear sounds of birds chirping. Huh? Don't tell me there are birds in my car? I mean, I'm environmentally friendly and all that but I don't recall renting my car out as a tree for birds to nest in.

So I do what any normal (well for me it's normal anyway) person would do when they hear weird sounds coming from their car. I try to troubleshoot just where and what those sounds are.

My car has broken down on me so many times and I've changed just about every part in my car that 90% of the time I can figure out the problem myself.

I start fiddling around trying to figure out where those little birdies are hiding. Maybe it's just some loose fitting in the car or something. I whack this and push that and nope, the sound is still intermittently there.

It keeps going on and off and now sounds like some rats decided to join the little birds cos a cacophony of squeaks just joined the intermittent chirping.

And I can't seem to isolate the sound. I turn down the radio and listen more intently. Eventually I sort of pinpoint that the chirping and squeaking sounds are coming from somewhere around the front right wheel section.

Thinking that it's probably the fan belts cos I had some little minor annoyance with it about a week back, I called wifey and tell her that I'll be a little late and drove straight to my mechanic to have it checked.

As always, the moment I reach my mechanic the sound disappears completely and I'm left with having to explain to my mechanic just what exactly the sounds were by making my own sounds effects and all kinds of hand gestures.

Seeing as how he's pretty busy, he just gives the car a cursory check and tells me based on the really good sound effects I made for him, It has probably has something to do with the absorbers and not the belts as I first suspect.

Okay, now that can't be good news. But then he's too busy to really get down to checking it and tell me to leave the car and come back later.

Geez Mr. Mechanic, I got things to do, places to go, policies to implement, worlds to conquer, planets to save. I can't possibly leave my car there all day.

So I ask him if the car is safe to drive for now and he says no worries, as long as I don't go doing no Lewis Hamilton or Sebastian Loeb driving stunts, the car won't fall be falling apart on me just yet. So I head home, pick up wifey and we go do our banking stuff and grab a quick bite for lunch.

After sending wifey home, I decide that I'll take the car to the other mechanic I know. I have two of them that I use alternately. This guy is much freer and gives my car a more thorough check. His prognosis is the same as the other mechanic, that it's something to do with the absorber.

After a detail check he discovers that it's the bearing of the right absorber and the first words he said when I asked him how much it would cost was:

'Aiyoo, ini absorber bearing manyak mahal oooo ...' ('This absorber bearings are pretty expensive).

Well, after the initial shock of finding out the cost of getting it fixed has passed (and probably having to forgo buying those acne creams I need), I pick my flagging spirits off the workshop floor and tell him I'll send it in to get fixed early tomorrow morning since he says the car is safe to drive. Besides I don't think there's enough time to get it fixed right now.

Sigh, that car is probably going to make me a pauper one fine day (I'm already half way there anyway). And it can sense when I have a little extra money. I just withdrew some paypal funds only yesterday and today it acts up. It never fails to sniff out when I have cash with me.

Why oh why can't it give me a little break in life for a change. And please don't ask me to buy a new car cos for one thing, this car is fully paid up, so no worries about monthly car installments and secondly I can't afford a new car.

This car has served me well and I suppose it's the price to pay for all the driving I put the fellow through (yes, my car is a guy car) all these years. And also for all the times I've failed to take it in for service when it was way past overdue. I only have myself to blame.

But that doesn't make me feel any better. I'm still pissed that I'm going to be parting with some much needed hard cash tomorrow. I suppose I could drive around and let the car chirp and squeak away but I don't think I could stand the stares people give me when I pass them with my chirpy car.

Oh and did I say this post was going to be short? Well, I really thought it would. Honest, cross my heart and hope to die, urmm, well maybe not hope to die la, that's a bit too extreme ... LOL! Who'd have guessed that I can write such long winded posts even when I'm mad.
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An Eye For An Eye

When you tag someone you just got to be prepared to get tagged by them in return. And eye for an eye they say and that's just what Marzie did to me ... LOL!

Anyway, it's really been ages since she last tagged me with anything. And I know there are even a few tags and memes she sent my way that I've failed to do. Sorry ya Marzie but you know what a lazy bum I can be at times. I can sit on tags until I actually forget who tagged me in the first place. And when I do remember I can't remember the name of the tag ... LOL!

Actually, Marzie was the first person in the blogsphere who tagged with the Alexa train tag (I think that was the first tag, right?) all those centuries ago. And those were the days when I was really new to blogging and didn't know head or tail about tags and memes. And I almost cried trying to figure out how to do that tag! I couldn't admit to the world that I didn't know how to do tags so I struggled along and it took me almost one bloody whole week to get it done ... LOL!

Well, I must say I've come a long way since then and I wouldn't exactly call myself an expert in getting tags done but atleast these days I don't break down and cry or go banging my head against the wall or something ... LOL! And it doesn't mean that these tags are still easy to do. Some of them require the skills of a surgeon and the brains of a rocket scientist to get done ... hehehe ...

Anyways, I have no idea what this meme is really called cos she only named it Meme 2 (geez Marzie, getting lazy ah? LOL) so I'll just call it the Multi-Layered Meme. Hmmm, sounds like a pretty cool name for a tag, if I do say so myself ... hahaha ....

Ok, as all tags go here's quick recap on the rules and stuff. Answer all the questions from each layer, then add your blog in the link list and send a short note (or a long one, whichever suits your fancy) to Yen to be added to the masterlist and then find some victims in return and tag them with it ... hehehe .... simple, ya? Now, on to the questions.

LAYER ONE
Name: (You really want to know? Oh alright!) Nick Phillips.
Birthdate: (Promise you'll send me gifts, ok?) March 15.
Birthplace: Some dinghy place called Sentul in Kuala Lumpur.
Current location: USJ Subang Jaya.
Eye colour: Wished it was green but alas, it's only brown.
Hair colour: What's left of it is Black with white streaks.
Righty or Lefty: Righty for as long as I can remember

And moving on to LAYER TWO
Your heritage: Malaysian and not a very proud one.
The shoes you wore today: My beat up crocodile work shoes (and an extremely comfortable pair at that)
Your weakness: It will take all day to list but I'm mainly a procrastinator (like as if that wasn't obvious enough. LOL!)
Your fears: The supernatural!
Your perfect pizza: Any pizza that I'm eating is perfect!
Goal you'd like to achieve in life: Be the supreme leader of the world and have you all bow down to me ... LOL!

Halfway through. LAYER THREE
Your most overused phrase on AIM: Urrmm, what's AIM? (LOL!) I don't use AIM.
Your first waking thoughts: What?! It's time to get up already? Siggghhhh ...
Your best physical feature: Have you even seen how ugly I look?
Your most missed memory: Not swiping that last bit of chicken pie during Christmas dinner way back in 74.

LAYER FOUR
Pepsi or Coke: Coke la, what else.
McDonald's or Burger King: I had a nasty experience with BK, so McDonald's it is!
Single or group dates: Dates? Is that the fruit, ah? LOL!
Adidas or Nike: Darn, I'd have to say Puma but since it's not listed, Adidas it is!
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: Urmmm, I have no idea cos I can't tell the difference.
Chocolate or vanilla: Chocolate! Chocolate! Chocolate!
Cappuccino or coffee: Nothing beats the aroma of a nice hot steaming mug of coffee :D

Just how many layers are there? LAYER FIVE
A famous person, dead or alive, would you interview: *scratching head trying to think of some impressive name to list here*
Movie you can watch and say the lines along with the actors: All of the Star Trek movies :D
Name two of your passions in life: Sleeping and more sleeping.
Least favourite time of the day: This one's easy. That dreaded MONDAY morning!

The last one, thank god! LAYER SIX
Use hairspray or gel: Neither. For me it's the new Brylcreem Hybridz Hair Cream
Your favorite meal: Any of wifeys cooking :D
Color in the inside of your head when you close your eyes: Urmmm, trick question or what this? Black la!
Listen to classical music: Only when I'm feeling adventurous and insane ... LOL!
Ever said LOL in real life without think about it: LOL, ROFTL, LMAO ... you name it, I've said it ... hahaha ...

That wasn't as easy as I thought it would be! I need a vacation now just from doing that ... LOL! And since Marzie tagged practically everyone in my blog roll already I have no one to tag so I'm letting you all of the hook for now. But if by chance you have this insane streak in you and feel like doing memes, then by all means tag yourself :D

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Sneaky Weasels ...

The government here is mulling over the fact on whether they should reduce the cost of fuel seeing as how the price of fuel is a little cheaper than what it was a while back. Why do they even need to mull over it I don't know. I didn't see them thinking about it all that long when it came to raising the price. They did that in a flash. But when it comes to reducing things they really need to do an in depth study first is it?

Or are they actually waiting for the right time just before the by-election on the 26th to announce a fuel reduction to throw the votes in the governments favour? I wouldn't put it pass them. Instead of working out how to improve our current declining economy, they're probably planning something sneaky for the by-elections. One thing about our current government, they're a sneaky bunch of weasels alright ... LOL!

And speaking of declining economy and all that, would you fancy watching the richest man in the world, Warren Buffet along with a couple of other big wigs like Pete Peterson and Dave Walker discussing about the current economy in the US? We're not the only ones suffering a decline economically, you know.

A documentary called I.O.U.S.A. will be out in theaters near you on the 21st of August and this will be followed by a live discussion with these top financial people who will present you on ways to reverse the economic fate of the good old US of A with much of the discussion being more towards the current crisis they're facing right now. Maybe our leaders should go catch the show and the discussion and learn a thing or two about this from the proper experts.

But then you know how good our leaders are at claiming they have everything under control. Under control my foot. If things really were under control, I wouldn't have to be working hard doing assignments like this to just some extra income every month. I wouldn't have to sacrifice my favourite night time supper just so I can stretch my money all that much further. I wouldn't have to say no to my kids when they want to buy this toy or that toy cos we'd rather use the money for the already escalating cost of groceries.

If that is having things under control, I'd sure like to see how life would be like if they said they said they lost control of things ... LOL! Anyways, not to undermine the very wise fellows in our government, if you're really interested for more information on the above documentary, you can always head on to Fathom Event Online and stay up to date about this one night event. As for me, I'm just going to figure out how much money I have left in my account, if there is any left that is!

Abuse!

Sometimes I think human beings can be worse off than animals. I was out for an appointment to see a client this morning. This particular client of mine is located in an industrial area and most of the industries in this area employ a lot of foreign workers to work for them. So, I'm pretty used to seeing them in this area.

I reach my clients place and park my car and was about to step into my clients office when I hear some angry shouting coming from my left. I stop, look to see what the commotion is all about and what I saw saddened me to the very core! I never for once expected to see what I just saw.

There a couple of doors away from my clients office I saw this group of about 5 foreign workers and they were all standing in a straight line with this fierce and angry looking guy in a tie screaming at one of the workers rather harshly. Ok, no issues there, I guess he's the boss and one of them must have done something wrong at work or something. It's not like I haven't experienced being chewed out like that by my boss.

But what he does next stops me straight in my tracks. While screaming at one of the workers in the line, he raises his hand and slaps the poor chap right across his face! Not once, but two or three times and even screams obscenities at this guy. And the poor fellow just stands there and takes the abuse without saying a word in his defense. Even the other four guys just stood there quietly with their heads bowed.

Whatever that foreign guy may have done, I don't think he deserved to be treated like that, especially to get humiliated that way in public. I was speechless. I just stood there as with a few other people and just stared at the whole scene in a surreal kinda way. I've never ever seen such a thing in my entire life before. The whole screaming and hitting stopped pretty soon with the guy in the tie pushing them all back into the factory to continue with their work.

That was when I realized that a lot of employers here who hire foreign workers treat them like animals at times. I've read countless horror stories about how these foreign workers are mistreated and abused and never paid much heed to it until having seen what I just saw.

To most of these monster employers, these foreigners are cheap labour and can be pushed around. Now don't get me wrong, a lot of employers are nice people and treat their foreign workers well but there are also a lot who are really sadists!

We have a lot of foreigners here, sometimes a little too many if you ask me, but they're also human beings who leave their family behind to seek a better life so that they may be able to help out their families back home. And instead, a lot of them end up getting cheated by their employers who ill treat them, pay them chicken feed and make them work long hours everyday, stuff about 30-40 of them in one dinghy little hut or two room house with hardly any basic amenities and keep their passports locked so they can't go out. Don't they employers have a heart?

And we say Malaysians are a caring lot! Hah, I'd like to find the person that said that and smack him silly! Most Malaysians treat foreigners like the plague. Just because they work in such menial jobs doesn't mean they should be treated any less.

They don't realize that these foreigners are willing to undertake such dirty jobs that most Malaysians with half the intelligence of these foreigners would shun. They don't want to work as some low paying grass cutter or garbage man or even some lowlife cleaner. They just want some high paying CEO post even though they can't speak a word of English or even know what 1 + 1 is.

And these foreigners willingly (or sometimes with no other choice) take up these jobs yet most of the time that get abused by their employers and are shunned as some kind of 'bad' people by us. And I am VERY ASHAMED to say that I am sometimes in the category of these 'bad' people. No, I've never abused or mistreated or even hit any of these foreigner but I've had my fair share of misgivings towards them.

And I'm not at all proud of my attitude. These people are human and work as hard, sometimes even harder that I do and yet they're willing to work even more harder just to make sure their families back home have a better life.

And a lot of these foreigners are actually nice people. I remember the guys who cut my mango tree. They were so accommodating and friendly and never complained when I asked the to cut this or cut that or clean this or clean that. They had perpetual smiles on their faces even though it was extremely tough work trying to cut that tree.

And though I didn't pay them much, they were so happy to even get some extra income and was thanking me like as if I paid them a million bucks or something and their demeanor so impressed me that I told them to come back every month and see if there was anything they could help me with in the house like mow the lawn, trim whatever that needs to be trimmed and such. Of course I would pay them for their work.

And they were so willing to come back and assured me that they would come back every month end. Now, tell me, are these the kind of people that you would mistreat and humiliate in public by slapping them? Are these the kind of people you would have misgivings about? Granted there are a few bad apples but do we generalize all of them based on a few bad apples?

I know I don't normally post very serious postings but even I, the normally playful and happy go lucky guy gets affected by things out there sometimes. And what I saw today deeply saddened me. I wish I didn't see what I saw but I did and all the way back to the office I kept replaying that scene of the poor fellow getting abused and I honestly wished some very bad things to happen to that animal (sorry to insult all the animals) who was doing the abusing.

What goes around comes around they say and that guy will face his judgment one day and maybe god will send him back to earth as a lump of shit (forgive the language) or something ... LOL!
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A Child Of The 80's

It's been a pretty boring day for me at work. And to be honest I'm VERY thankful for that. After the hectic three weeks I've had, this boredom is very much welcomed. I had practically nothing much to do at all and managed to catch up with all the blog hopping I missed the past week or so. Gosh and some of you guys sure update your blogs regularly that I had trouble catching up ... LOL!

Anyways, since I had loads of time on my hands, I've been going through my song list in my office computer and gosh I have so many of them that it's begining to take up valuable space on my PC. I never realized I downloaded so many songs over the years I've worked here. Gotta burn them to a CD sometime soon.

I'm a guy who has a diverse taste in music. I like all kinds of genres. As long as they appeal to me, I'll listen to them. I listen to things like soul, rap, slow rock, pop, you name it I'll listen to it. But only if it appeals to me. There are some songs though that should be banned for all eternity cos it's absolutely horrid!

But the music genre I relate the best with are from the eighties. I grew up with music from that generation. The time of baggy pants and big hairdo's. It's no wonder that when I looked through my list of songs, they were all leaning more towards the eighties.

Who can forget songs like Culture Clubs Karma Chameleon from way back in 1983, I think. Or even Love of the Common People from Paul Young. What about Howard Jones and his New Song? I'll bet some of you from the younger generation would right now be going 'Culture who? Paul What? What new song?' LOL! But songs from that era were absolutely brilliant .

I use to follow the latest songs from this show called Top of the Pops. Anyone remembers this show? Awww come on, am I the only old fogey around here from that generation? LOL! We didn't have it on TV here but I always watched it on video back then. I used to borrow the video every week from a close friend who had access to it. It was my generations MTV and it featured the songs from the top of the charts.

I also remember going to this record shop called Victoria Station in a mall called Pertama Complex to record all the songs from the top of the charts into a cassette and it would cost me around RM10.00 or so a cassette (I can't really remember anymore). They had this state of the art sound recorder and were pretty famous back then. That was my days version of CD ripping ... LOL! They would record the songs from vinyl records into cassettes and you could chose the songs you want saving you a whole load of money having to buy the whole album or even single which cost quite a bit.

It was pretty popular back then and this record shop had loads of people wanting them to record their favourite list for them that you had to wait a minimum of a week and only then could you collect your recorded cassette. I used to hurry them along cos I always wanted the latest songs so I could show off to my buddies in school how cool I was ... hahaha ... And besides having to wait one week was like an eternity cos by then there would probably be a new number one at the top of the charts.

Those were fun days, music wise. I used to follow the music charts real close and would always try to be as updated with the music scene as I possibly could. It wasn't easy being in the loop mind you, we didn't have things like the internet back then. I had to rely on magazines, videos and snippets of information that I could dig up from here and there just to be updated on who was number one for the week.

It's so much easier these days. Let's say if I hear a song I like, all I'd have to do is probably do a search online and I could probably get tons of sites where I could download a free MP3 and create my own top ten selection of songs. No need to go to a record shop and wait one week for them to get it done and stuff like that. The current generation is so much luckier than my time.

In fact, with people like Blaze Media Pro offering state of the art, all-in-one multimedia applications, you can even convert, rip, edit, record or even burn your own selection of favourite songs to bring along with you on your little tiny iPod or something. And their easy to use yet powerful software can even support all your data CD, VCD, SVCD and DVD burning needs that even a blur case like me would probably be able to use it with ease.

I mean, It's so easy to do especially with the advanced features of their software that includes video capturing and creation, video editing, copying of music CD's and video merging, lyric searchers, audio tagging and so much more that I could probably set up my own little mini studio at home ... LOL! And I wouldn't even have to worry on what kind of format to chose cos practically all formats such as CD, MP3, WAV, WMA,MPEG-4,AIFF and a whole load more are supported as well.

You younger generation really have it so easy these days. Everything is just at the touch of your keyboard or mouse. I wish I had stuff like these back when I was heavily into the music scene. What a blast it would have been. Imagine being able to instantly download songs like Shout by Tears for Fears, Duran-Duran's The Chauffeur, and who can forget Wacko Jacko's Beat It or Billie Jean?

But then it's not to late cos I'm happily downloading tons and tons of songs from the eighties that soon I'm going to have problems just storing them. Guess it's time to get myself one of those iPod things where I can store a gazillion songs on it or something close to that amount I am told.

Mr. Maid ...

The weekends almost upon us and I'm looking forward to it. Then again, when have I not looked forward to a weekend :D And I already have plans for the entire weekend laid out for me. It involves sitting in front of the TV and watching the Olympics! LOL!

I know the track and field events have already started cos I caught some during lunch with wifey at the Chinese restaurant across the street from our place today and I seriously felt like taking the rest of the day off to watch it. Having to work during the live events, I can only catch the highlights at night and it just isn't the same.

But since I don't work on Saturdays, I'm going to vegetate all day in front of the TV watching any live event I can catch tomorrow and Sunday. And honey, don't expect any of the usual household chores to get done, k? LOL! Wifey and me normally do our household chores together during the weekends but I guess that's not going to be the case until the Olympics is over :D

As strange as it may seem, I do enjoy doing household chores with wifey, though there are some chores I absolutely hate doing. And since we're talking about household chores here, I guess this tag I got from Shemah comes in handy right about now ... hehehe ...

She tagged me with this meme that has something to do with household chores that you hate doing. It seemed really appropriate for this post so I'll squeeze it in here :D

Now the tag is pretty simple really. All you need to do is list down the household chores you hate and why you hate it. Then copy the image provide and tag as many people as you want. I've got a few of you in mind already ... LOL! Add your blogs link to the domesticated divas linky love and leave a comment at Stripe and Yellow to be added to the master list and you're done.

Ok, now back to the household chore I hate the most. I am by nature a cleanliness freak and I'm perpetually cleaning up the place when I have idle time on my hands. And I seriously don't mind doing household chores cos I believe it shouldn't just be something that's left for the womenfolk to handle on their own. Afterall you got married to her right so you should be sharing the load too.

And I have no qualms about doing things that some men would frown upon, like doing the laundry and hanging them out to dry, washing and mopping the kitchen, ironing, cleaning the bathrooms, sweeping the floors and even watering the plants outside. In fact I can't stand the place being dirty and sometimes I'm even fussier than wifey in that aspect.

In a day, if I'm home, I can probably sweep our bedroom floor at least a minimum of four times, that is on top the amount of times wifey sweeps the place. Oh and by the way, wifey is a cleanliness freak too ... LOL! Like I said, I don't mind doing household chores but the household chore that I hate the most is washing dishes!

In my family, I'm the official designated dishwasher and can't seem to weasel my way out of it simply because wifey is the much better cook in the family and we have this understanding which is, she cooks, I wash. I seriously hate having to wash dishes. It can be quite a chore and it's not as easy as it seems to wash dishes you know. Sometimes the oil and whatnots can be so darn difficult to remove and requires some effort.

I sometimes wish I had a dishwasher at home but for now, I guess the NickPhillips 200D model will just have to keep on doing his tireless job of dish washing at least until I learn to cook better than wifey which is highly unlikely! Maybe if cows grew wings, that might happen though. But of course that could all change right now if any of you kind souls would sponsor me a nice little personal dishwasher of my own ... hahaha!

So I'm expecting our house to be like a pigsty this weekend cos wifey is also an avid sports fan and we're both going to be hanging on to the remote control with the kids behind us whining about wanting to watch some cartoon or kiddie show. Sorry boys, the TV's all ours this weekend, you can watch your cartoons during the school holidays next week ... hehehe ...

Oh and don't think I've forgotten, ya. I'm going to tag Kadus Mama, Jen, Chegu Carol, Tammy, Marzie and Perry. I'd really love to find out what household chore you guys hate the most, if you even do household chores that is ... LOL! Oh and don't forget to copy this image too, ok?

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The Afterlife ...

I'm on leave today and it feels so darn great ... LOL! My sympathies to all of you who are working right this very minute while I'm lounging around at home with a nice hot steaming mug of aromatic coffee, well it's the 3-in-1 kind but it's aromatic all the same ... hehehe ...

I'm on leave cos I had some official matters to handle with wifey and we woke up early to get it done and to our delight, it was all completed by 9.00am and now I'm back home and have the rest of the day off :D I guess it's going to be time for wifey and me to have another of our dating sessions after I send my sons to school later.

I haven't had a date with wifey in quite a while seeing as how work has kept me pretty busy so I'm going to make the best of this off day today. I'm even going to sacrifice my afternoon naps, something I normally do when I'm on leave ... hehehe ... I guess we'll hit the malls cos we do have some stuff we've been wanting to buy for a little project we're doing. It's a secret for now. Once we get it done, I'll announce it to the world :D

On a different note, work has pretty much kept me away from blogging and the Olympics doesn't really help cos I've been spending whatever free moments I have after work catching up on the events I've missed during the day. And by the time I'm done with that it's like late night and I'm too sleepy and tired from the days work to even log on and blog hop much. I'll get to your blogs sooner or later ... hehehe ...

Do any of you believe in the afterlife? I mean, do you think there is another world that dead people go to and can 'see' us living our everyday lives from the other side of life? I know it's a totally irrelevant topic but I've been wondering about it the past couple of days. I'm not really sure such a thing as the afterlife even exists but I've had experiences to say otherwise. And yes, this might be spooky story time again ... hehehe ...

I'm a Roman Catholic, not the most active of Roman Catholics but a Roman Catholic all the same. We've had deaths in the family before, my grandparents, uncles and aunties, etc, etc and normally after the funeral services, we have this prayer session for the deceased every evening for a week and at the end of the week, they'd be a little dinner get together to celebrate the 'crossover' (for want of a better word) for the deceased.

According to the old beliefs, the spirit of the deceased would visit everyone on this final 7th day to see if we're all okay and have everything provided for and only then would they leave this plane of existence to the afterlife. Or so the story goes la. I've always believed that there is some truth to this and that my grandparents are somewhere 'up' there looking down on me. And I do have experiences to back up my beliefs.

A couple of years ago, a very close uncle of mine, someone who had a hand in my upbringing and influenced me to pursue the field of advertising that I'm in now passed away. It happened pretty unexpectedly. One minute he was fine, the next minute he was gone. We were all taken aback but accepted that it was his time. The funeral proper comes and goes and the usual seven day prayers begin at his house. He was a bachelor and lived with his sister and her family.

The seven days of prayers go about without any incidences. But on the seventh day when we had the final gathering and before the eating and all that starts, the prayers are said for the final time. While everyone is downstairs during prayers, I hear a hammer thumping against the wall. It sounds like it's coming from upstairs but I discount it as the neighbours. Why are the neighbours hammering nails into the wall for picture frames at night beats the hell of out me. And it goes on for quite a while.

Then I hear doors being opened and closed. And again it sounds like it's coming from upstairs. Now that can't be possible. No one is upstairs cos everyone is in the prayer session at the moment. I look at my cousins and they give me this 'did you hear that look?'. I look at them and shrug. Maybe it's the neigbours. We all live quite close to the neighbours and sound travels easily from house to house at times. I don't give it much thought and the prayer session finally ends.

I go outside the house to chat with my cousins and that's when we notice that both the immediate neighbours houses are empty. They're all not in. So, what was that hammering and door closing all about? My cousins and me all look at each other and in one mind, we all go upstairs and that's when the hairs on practically every part of our body stood on end.

The room door of my deceased uncle is wide open and we are VERY sure the door was closed. We're all rooted to the spot. Eventually we pick up enough courage to go into the room. Of course, being the biggest coward, I follow in at the very back (LOL) and what we see in there firms up my believe in the afterlife and that the deceased do come back on the seventh day to check on everyone before heading out to wherever it is they go.

On the floor next to my uncles bed is a toolbox that he has. He's an avid do-it-yourself guy and is forever hammering around the house doing this and that on weekends when he's home. And there on the floor was his toolbox and it was open! God, that was so freaky. He actually came back to do some of his 'handy-work' before leaving. We all ran like scared rabbits ... LOL!

And when we told the elders about it, they said it was the 'normal' things the deceased would do. And later on during the night we even smelled the perfume that he normally uses wafting through the air. And the strange thing is, no other incidences happened after that seventh day. I guess it's true, the spirit does come back for one final goodbye before it departs forever.

All I know was I was totally freaked out all night and could hardly sleep cos I was so afraid that he would come back and visit me or something. Though I know he wouldn't do me any harm but I was freaking out all the same. I am after all the worlds biggest coward when it comes to all things supernatural ... LOL!

Ok, enough blogging for now. It's time to get ready for my date with my wifey. I'll post more about our date later when I'm back. Happy working to all those who are working out there :D
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The Manbag!

You're probably going to see me posting a little less than I normally do for the next two weeks and you can blame it all on the Olympics. I'm a huge sports fan and have been glued (when I'm not napping, that is) to the TV savoring as much of the live events that I can feast my eyes upon.

In fact I just finished watching the US of A play China in the basketball event. I'm not a huge basketball fan, in fact I don't know much basketball terms but watching the way the US walked all over the Chinese had me glued to the TV until the final whistle.

And one thing is for sure, I'm going to be catching the next series of the game between the US and Angola. I'm sure that's probably going to another walk in the park for the rich and famously stylish players of the USA. I wanted to actually do a post earlier but the basketball game kinda delayed that a little.

The next series of events I'm really looking forward to are the athletics, especially anything to do with running. You all know how much I love running. Unfortunately, I think all the athletics events would probably be featured in the morning while I'm at work so I'll just have to resign myself to watching the repeats at night. Well, unless of course I can somehow manage to bum off work for a bit ... LOL!

Anyways, I've been meaning to post about this a couple of days ago but never got around to it. A few days back, Thursday I think, wifey and me had lunch at one of our regular lunch places. And on the table next to me, I saw this guy who had a ... urrmmm ... what would you call it, 'manbag' (?), a male's equivalent of a handbag. And he seemed so at ease with carrying his 'manbag' with him.

I shuddered just looking at him. And then the next day I saw another guy with this 'manbag' and I was shaking my head in disbelief. Maybe I'm being a little bit judgmental but I was born in the era where men didn't carry handbags. And it amused me to see a man with his 'manbag' tucked under his arm, decked in his tight shirt and bell bottomy pants, smelling of strong sweet perfume walking around like it was a normal thing to do. Maybe it was normal for him, but it sure wasn't for me ... LOL!

Like I said, I'm of the older generation where a man wouldn't be caught dead carrying a plastic bag let alone a handbag! It ruins the macho image, you know ... LOL! Some of you might call that as being a male chauvinistic pig! But I cannot see why a man would even need a handbag?

I mean, if you're a woman, I can understand. You've got your lipsticks, compact powders, eyeliners, mascaras, a change of clothes and maybe about 2-3 pairs of shoes (LOL!) to keep in that handbag of yours but what could a man possible have that he needs a 'manbag' for himself?

Don't tell me he has got lipstick and all that in there too? If you really need something to keep your stuff in, get a pouch for goodness sakes (or a fanny pack as the Americans call it). I guess the times had changed quite a bit since my days.

Maybe it's okay for men to carry handbags these days, maybe it's even okay if they start using lipsticks, eye liners (and I've seen some who actually do use them), even wearing skirts and blouses but I'm just a plain old fashioned kind of guy who will never in a million years carry any sort of handbag, even if my life depended on it. And as much a I love my beloved wife, I don't even carry her handbag!

I guess it's the sign of the times where men are more fashion conscious and are more in-tuned with their feminine side these days. What was that term they had for them? Metro-sexuals? Don't know if that is the right term but you know the type, the newer generation of men who wouldn't mind going out to the hairdressers, getting facials done, going shopping, dressing in fancy clothing, etc, etc, etc.

As for me, I'd rather be smelling of musky sweat with a five o'clock shadow on my face, decked out in my old faded jeans with my pocket watch tucked in it, a nice worn out and well used t-shirt and my dusty pair of sneakers and most definitely no 'manbags'! Now that's what being a man is all about! LOL!
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Miso And Me

I'm not a Japanese food lover. I'm not into all those sushi or uncooked Japanese stuff. My food are all normally eaten cooked ... LOL! Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against Japanese food. In fact there are some that I do eat like those teriyake kind. As long as it's cooked.

But there is one thing I absolutely love about Japanese food and that is their miso soup! I simply love the stuff. I can drink buckets full of the soup :D The last time wifey and me had teriyake or something for lunch, I stole all her miso soup. She doesn't like it that much so I normally have two bowls of the stuff ... hehehe ...

But the thing is, since I don't really like Japanese food all that much, it's not really worth the effort to go out, find some Japanese joint just to drink miso soup. So I made it my calling in life to go out and find out if they do sell it as an instant soup or something in the supermarkets around here.

I know I could just Yahoo the recipe and try to make it on my own, but that would require too much work and lazy people like me hate having to work too much, especially just to make soup. So, there I went dragging poor wifey along with me a few weeks back to go search for it in supermarkets and for the life of me I couldn't find any.

We went to loads of places such as Jusco (where they carry more Japanese products), Cold Storage, even the hypermarts such as Tesco, Carrefour, Giant and my favourite neighbourhood mall, Mydin and still could find any trace of it. So I gave up looking for it.

But yesterday, we went out for dinner at the Summit and decided to browse around the Cold Storage there and lo and behold, they actually had instant miso soup in stock! I was ecstatic, I instantly called wifey over and was practically jumping like a little kid who got a new toy. I've been to this particular Cold Storage so many times and never saw the stuff here. It must have been my lucky day.


Then I looked at the price. Gosh, it cost RM7.89 for just 3 miserable sachets. Whoa, isn't that just a bit too much for a packet of soup that will probably only fill one small regular bowl? I suppose the price is pretty high cos it's imported stuff but the thing with me is I always think twice, sometimes even three or four time before buying anything that expensive. Wifey told me to just get it or I'll never know if it was good or not. Besides she said:

'After dragging me all over town just to find it and now that you actually found it, you better just get it!'

But I was still in two minds. Wifey knows I'm always like that when it comes to buying anything for myself. I'll stand there for quite sometime weighing the pros and cons of buying something. And most of the time, I'll end up not buying it. I did tell you guys I'm a cheapskate, didn't I?

Well, true to form, I told wifey lets just walk around the place and then just before we leave I'll decide whether I want to buy it or not. Wifey is all too familiar with my eccentricities and decide to leave it at that. So we walk around the place getting some other stuff we need and I'm still struggling with the decision whether to buy or not to buy.

Eventually, just as we were about to leave, I said screw the price and I bought it. Like wifey said, I'll never know if it was good or not. And the moment I reached home, I just had to try it out. I went into the kitchen and tore open the pack and in it was six sachets. Ok, the thing with Japanese stuff is the instructions are all in written in Japanese, they're so user unfriendly. Luckily the illustrations were pretty clear so it wasn't all that hard to figure out even for a doofus like me.


You need to use two sachets at a time cos one contained the dried vegetables and seaweed and the other contained the fermented paste. It look like baby poo when I squeezed it into the mug, come to think of it, it smelled like baby poo too ... LOL!


Then I added the dried vegetables and seaweed, pour in the hot steaming water and I must say, it tasted almost exactly like how a Japanese restaurants miso would taste :D I was practically caressing every single drop of soup as it flowed into my mouth. I practically licked the mug dry, It was that delicious!

I even wanted to make another mug but wifey said to keep it for the next day. Well, at least now I know where to look for it and the RM7.89 spent was well worth it. And I know the next time I'm at Cold Storage, I'm going to get a few more packs and stock it up at home ... hehehe ... It's really worth the money. At least I know what I'm going to be having with my dinner tonight while watching the Olympics opening ceremony :D
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