The Tale Of 2 Squirrels, A Mama Bird & Me ...

Yesterday wifey called me into the boys room and told me she heard some funny sounds coming from the ceiling (no, this is not a ghost story). I went in and heard this weird scratching kinda sounds coming from above the boys room ceiling. Wifey thinks they're rats but I begged to differ. I don't see how those little critters could get up there and besides there's basically no food in there for the to prosper. I was more inclined to believe they're squirrels. But we both weren't really sure and left it at that since it wasn't really causing any harm.

Then a little later, when wifey was hanging the laundry out back, she noticed twigs and leaves were dropping from the roof and we could hear chirping sounds coming from the top. That's when it hit us that there's probably a nest up there full of baby birds. Cool cos I was told that having a bird make a nest in your house brings you good luck. Not that I really believe any of that nonsense but who knows it just might be true. And thankfully, mama bird decided to build her nest in the ceiling this time instead of the tree in the lawn.

I say this time because this is not the first time I've had birds nesting in my place. There's been a few other occasions but mostly they'd make a nest in the trees in my lawn. At least this time it's in the ceiling and away from those pesky squirrels that roam the neighbourhood. Yes, we've got this two resident squirrels that I've officially named Chip and Dale and I've actually fought with both of them before trying to save the life of a young newborn baby bird. Before you all ask me just what in heavens name am I blabbering about now, let me explain from the beginning and yes, I'd advise you to go make yourself a nice mug of hot coffee or whatever beverage that suits your fancy, get some tidbits and plonk a nice soft cushion on your chair cos this might just turn out to be one of those long winded posts I'm well known for ... LOL! I'll try to keep it short, I promise :D

My house probably seems like a maternity hospital for birds cos they just love building their nests here to usher in their newborns and I'm actually happy that they do cos the sounds of those newly hatched baby birds chirping are a joy to behold, well, not unless I'm trying to nap that is, cos their incessant chirping can be a tad annoying during nap time ... hehehe ... A few years back, this mama bird decided to enlist herself in the Phillips Maternity Hospital for Birds (LOL) and build her nest in this potted tree I had in the porch. Since my living room fronts the porch, I could see mama bird flying in everyday with twigs and leaves to build the nest. It was an interesting thing to see, unfortunately I didn't own a digital camera back then or I would have cataloged the process.

So this went on until she made the nest and laid the eggs and soon the baby birds (urmm, is there any other specific name you call baby birds besides baby birds?) were born and since they were too young to get their own food and all that, mama bird went out looking for stuff for the lil fellows everyday. Now while I was curious to actually go close up and see the lil fellows, I didn't dare cos mama bird was a very protective mother. She used to sit there in the nest and stare at me sitting there in the living room and though I sensed that she knew I wouldn't harm her little babies, she was still protective all the same and kept a close eye on me whenever I was in the living room.

Now, one day I was watching TV with the little fellows chirping away and mama bird was out looking for food, I noticed that chip and dale who usually runs and plays around my mango tree grew a little interested in the chirping sounds coming from the porch. They sneakily but cautious started coming closer and I could tell those two mischievous fellows were up to no good. I normally get up and walk to the porch and they'd quickly high tail it out of there. This happened once when mama bird was on her way back and quickly flew in to protect her newborns and I think she knew I was also helping out with the guarding duties cos she never was afraid of me being near the nest since then.

Now a few days later, I was as usual watching TV in the living room with the babies chirping away in the background. I can't really remember what I was watching but I was so engrossed in it that I failed to notice Chip and Dale stealthily sneaking in like some commando squirrels towards the nest. Mama bird was out grocery shopping again I guess. Suddenly through the corner of my eye, I notice movement and that's when I turned my head and saw, Chip, or was it Dale jumping on the fence and trying to jump on the branch of the potted tree to grab one of the lil fellows in the nest. That was when I jumped out of my chair, ran to the porch and grabbed the nearest 'weapon' I could find which was a broom to try and stop the darn squirrel from grabbing the baby bird.

At the same instant I heard a shrieking cry from above and see mama bird swooping down joining in to defend her little babies. It was a sight to behold. There I was with my broom to trying to shoo those little rotters away and with mama bird as my partner trying to claw at them. We made quite a pair, me and mama bird with the nest behind us facing off against Chip and Dale! But those two little rascals were just to persistent and one of them managed to slip between us and grab a baby bird and high tailed it out of there. I couldn't do anything, not even try and hit the darn squirrel for fear of hitting the baby bird in it mouth as both chip and dale made a quick exit to god knows where with the poor squealing baby bird. Mama bird was more worried about her remain babies to also do anything much.

I was devastated, damn those two little four legged freaks! If I ever lay my eyes on them again, they're going to be roasted squirrels, that's for sure. I was sad for mama bird and I felt I failed in my duty as protector of the nest! Damn those two squirrels for making me look bad! I think mama bird was disappointed with me too cos soon after she took her little babies and left the nest to a more safer place. Oh well, I did try my best to fight them off. And since when did squirrels eat baby birds? Anyway, Chip and Dale are still roaming around mischievously and I've let them be, though if they were to get in the way of my car, I'd gladly run over the little rotters for stealing and probably feasting on that little new born baby bird!

That's why this time I'm glad that this new mama bird decided to make the nest in the ceiling of my house. It's nice and cozy and most of all away from the prying and evil eyes of those two rascals! And I think sometime soon I'm going to hear incessant chirping from the ceiling which would be a good indicator that there's a new batch of baby birds in this world :D I suppose the sounds of those chirping would make good background music as I search for some tips on acne treatment for my older boy seeing as how he's breaking out with them already. In the meantime, if any of you know of any birds who are going to lay some eggs, do tell them that the Phillips Maternity Hospital for Birds is now open ... hehehe ...

Urban Legends

Last night, after watching American Idol and just before CSI started, wifey was hanging out the laundry in the spare room downstairs. She usually does the daily laundry at nights and hangs it in the spare room for the night and normally puts it out to dry in the morning. Who knows it just might rain at night and we don't wanna have to wake up running out in the still of the night just to take the clothes in again.

By this time the boys are already sent up to bed and as usual I'll be in the hall watching TV while waiting for her to hang the laundry. Yesterday after she finished, she sat on the couch next to me and said she thinks there was 'something' in the room with her cos all her hairs stood on end for no reason. And 'something' in my vocabulary refers to the supernatural! Ok, that got me freaking out. I'm a coward when it comes to the supernatural and no, I'm not shy to admit that ... LOL!


I asked her if she was sure cos for as long as I've lived here in this house and that's a mighty long time, nothing spooky has happened at all. She says yes, she's was quite sure of what she felt. I'm sure there could have probably been a million other explanations for the goosebumps she had but I was brought up believing that if you for no apparent reason feel all the hairs on your body stand on end, that means there's something supernatural happening next to you. Maybe a spirit was passing by or something sinister and evil followed you, etc, etc.

Hey, that's what my grandma use to tell us when we were young, okay. I mean, back then my grandma had loads of stuff about the supernatural and its effects on the living. And we lived in a house that was spooky with its own tales to tell. In fact I'm sure half of the stuff she told us were probably to frighten us into behaving ourselves but I'm sure some of them had some truth in it. Like what happened to wifey last night. I've had on occasions felt that way too. I can be alright one minute and then the very next, I'll feel every hair on my body stand on end for no reason. And most of the time its happened in places that had some history so I do believe it's caused by something supernatural.

Anyway, that scared the daylights out of me to the point that after watching CSI, I told wifey to wait for me while I switch off the lights and all that before heading up to bed ... LOL! Told you I was a coward, didn't I? Yes, the supernatural does scare me. God knows I've had some spooky stuff happen to me in the past before. I've even posted about them before and you can read about them here and here and also here if you want. Yes, I've had a lot of experience with the spirit world to not believe in it. So like my good old dearly departed Grandma would say:

'When you feel like that children, something is there with you.'

She'd tell us all as we huddled up together listening to her. I lived and grew up with my cousins in an old and spooky by night neighbourhood and after dinner, the family would all gather in the front porch to chit chat and sometimes things turned towards the supernatural and that was when we'd hear all kind of urban legends, for want of a better word. Grandma would tell us all the things that we're not supposed to do for fear of invoking the wrath of the spirit world. Man, we'd, well me really, have sleepless nights after her tales. I would be so frightened out of my wits that I'd cover myself from head to toe with my blanket, and have pillows propped up all around me to protect me from whatever it was out there. I was your regular Shaggy without his Scooby ... LOL!

And looking back at her stories I was amazed I believe all of them. She'd tell us that we couldn't whistle after 6pm cos that the Devil would come, you can't cut your fingernails at night cos the Virgin Mary will shed tears, don't point at rainbows or your fingers will fall off, don't play hide and seek at night cos you might never be found (Nessa did a post on all this sometime back called The Old Wives Tales), don't hang your laundry out to dry at nights cos the devil might come and mess with your clothes and you'd end up with bruises the next morning (Emelda posted something about spirits pinching her), don't play outside after 6pm or the spirits will follow you home, don't answer back if someone calls your name out at night, the list goes on ...

Notice how everything happens after 6pm or at night? Don't tell me there are no ghosts in the morning? And why is that? They all work or what in the daytime? LOL! Anyway, with a list of taboos like that, it's no wonder I ended up being a great big coward in all things concerning the supernatural! I don't believe half the things I was told though cos I do whistle late at nights, I do cut my nails at nights, I've even answered when I heard my name being called once at night (and there was no one there but that's a story for another day). But I do believe in a lot of other stuff I was told, like the hair standing on ends for no reason part. That has to definitely mean there's something sinister there with you!

Well, I seriously hope it was a one off thing cos I don't want wifey to feel that way again tonight (oh and btw, wifey isn't a coward like me ... LOL). I've lived in that house for a long time and have never once felt anything sinister happening there and I don't want it to start now. I can't deal with it! Hmmm, maybe it's the spirits of the mango tree I disfigured the other day come to take revenge on me. And that's also another of grandma's stories about spirits living in trees and stuff.

*sudden realization*

Oh man, maybe it is the spirit of that darn mango tree! I knew I should have just left that tree alone. Maybe I'll go make up a sacrificial alter to appease the darn old tree when I get home, capture one of those squirrels that runs around the place and offer it as a sacrifice to the tree or something. LOL! Or better yet, I could just get one of those alarm system monitoring units set on infra red or something that will give me enough warning to bolt out of my house the next time a spirit decides to drop by for a visit ... LOL!

Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock ... Yawnnnnnnn ...

What a boring day it has been for me. Work was practically non existent at all today, which was a surprise. I'm sure Thursday is cooking up something real good to get me back for today .. LOL! I'll admit I'm a little paranoid at times. Sometimes the day goes by without any problems or screw ups that I'm a little suspicious of it. Things can't be all that rosy for me all day ... LOL! And on top of that, the time is moving ever so slowly!

Sometimes being so free can absolutely drive me insane. I'm the kind of person who needs to be doing something at all times. I can't just sit on my butt all day. As much as I enjoy blogging and all that, I don't think I could sit here the whole day and just blog. Well, I could just take a nap or something but then my boss might just decided to walk in, so scratch that idea. I did at least use the time wisely and create a new masthead for that quirky Spiff, the Spaceman character. Not that he's going to be all that grateful and thank me, mind you ... LOL!

I guess I could always work on some of my assignments which are going to expire real soon, for instance, this one that I have on lighting, I got this assignment along with a bunch of others last Saturday and it's been lying in my inbox since then and it's about to expire tomorrow. Darn, I thought with my blog being a PR0 and all, well, it was a PR0 up until last week but now it's miraculously up again to PR2, not that I'm complaining mind you, that my assignments would completely dry up but it's the exact opposite. I get more than when I had any PR! Strange but true.

Well, I did complain for a time when my blog was docked to zero from a PR4. At that time I was trying to monetize this blog and getting slapped with a PR0 didn't help all that much. But now, I'm not bothered about it anymore as I don't earn my living by blogging ... thank god though cos if I did, I'd be eating grass ... LOL! But the thing is I have 2 blogs as most of you would probably know. And that's where my troubles sometimes starts. There are days when I get loads of assignments for both blogs that it frightens me. It's good money, so I'm not really complaining but it still frightens me all the same ... hehehe ...

Like I said, I'm struggling to complete some of the assignments I have and my brain is going into overdrive trying to churn out postings to accommodate the assignments. Hopefully I can get the current batch that I have done on time and until then I'm going to be rejecting any new ones that come my way, well, unless of course they offer me good money la ... LOL! I'm a sucker for money, but then who isn't right?

With the sky rocketing cost of things these days, any additional cash is a great help. I remember only as recently as a year or two ago, we could get a lot of groceries for just RM100.00 that would last us a minimum of one week, now with the same amount of money, you'll be lucky to buy even 3 days worth of groceries, let alone 1 whole week. Soon, I'll probably need a bank loan just to do grocery shopping ... hehehe ... Between wifey and me, we make quite a decent sum of money from both our assignments but somehow it's always gone just as fast as we get it. The more we make, the more we spend! LOL! That's life I guess.

The good news is it didn't rain today so I can get out my almost falling apart pair of running shoes and hit the roads after work. I seriously need to get a new pair of shoes pretty soon, especially seeing as how I'm going to be taking part in a 10K run in mid April. I don't think I wanna risk the shoes coming apart on me halfway through the run ... LOL! Well, I guess that's where all my paypal money comes in handy, ya? See, I knew there was a reason for doing all those assignments. I'll probably get myself a pair at the end of this month and wifey wants to get one too cos she wants to go running as well ... woohoo ... at least I got a partner to keep me company on my runs soon :D Don't worry honey, I'll try not to run too fast ... LOL!

Another good thing is it's American Idol night and I'm looking forward to a few of my favourites sing tonight. Wifey just yahoo messengered me that Michael Johns was singing a medley or something and I'm looking forward to it. I just hope they pick the right song and justify my faith in them even though I can't vote for them at all. Unless of course any of my wonderful US blogging friends would care enough to send a vote each for David Cook, Michael Johns and David Archuleta on my behalf? Yes? No? Awwww come on folks ... LOL!

The Gods Must Love Me!

I'm in a foul mood tonight! And I mean a really foul mood! Sometimes you just have to be real careful with what you say cos you don't know just when one of those gods with their perverse and sadistic sick sense of humour may be listening in to your conversation!

Let me start from the beginning. Don't worry, this won't be one of my long winded posts cos I am so not in the mood to write too much today (but don't hold me to that okay?). This afternoon when wifey and me went grocery shopping at our favourite nearby hypermarket, I decided that I wanted to cook some burgers for dinner tonight.

'Urmm, grocery shopping in the afternoon? Shouldn't you be at work?'

Ok, don't you start with me now. I was bumming off for a bit, so sue me! Besides it's easier to grocery shop when everyone is working. No crowds and all that, you know. So, as I was saying before being rudely interrupted by that still unknown interloper, I wanted to have burgers for dinner. So I bought a pack of chicken patties and cheese and the usual stuff that would be needed for my burger frying session. Yes, I fry a pretty mean burger and the boys and wifey just love it (at least I hope so anyway).

After sending wifey back home and heading to the office to continue what's left of the work day, I keep on thinking of the burger frying session I'm going to be having later at night. My appetite was going into over drive just imagining the lusciously yummy burgers. The moment work was done, I quickly head back home. It was still a little too early to get the burgers done cos I reach home about 6.20pm and we normally have dinner close to 8.00pm so I decide to wash the bathroom room first to work up and even bigger appetite. Besides the bathroom was looking a little too slimy for my liking.

After finally cleaning up the bathroom and taking my bath, I head down to the kitchen to prepare the ingredients and start start my burger frying session. Wifey and the boys place their orders:

'3 burgers with cheese and ketchup, hold the onions please'

Soon, the place is permeating with the smell of burgers being fried. It was exactly at that moment that I turn to wifey and jokingly say that we're probably going to need to get a new cylinder of cooking gas soon. We've had the current cylinder since just after Christmas and the flame was getting a little orangy already, a sure sign that a replacement was needed. And just as I finish making wifey and the boys burger and start to make mine, the blooming flames just snuffs itself out! This will teach me to next time keep my big freaking mouth shut!

At first I thought maybe I accidentally turned it off. So I hit the switch again and nothing happens. No flame, no smell of gas, nothing, zilch, nada, zero! Ok, you must remember that by this time I was absolutely hungry and have been craving for home made burgers since noon.

'Why me?' I look up and shriek.

'What did I do to deserve this?' I ask to no one in particular.

'I've been a good little boy all day!' I plead.

'I'm so hungry and I so need that burger!' I shout.

And just where am I going to find a gas cylinder at 8.00pm at night? The gas man is off for the day and the only option was to actually physically lug that empty cylinder and drive to the shop down the road and buy one! With no other option, I grudgingly drag the empty cylinder and head out to the shop. At this point you could physically see I was totally pissed already. Even wifey could see the rage in my face. She knows me, I hate it when I have my mind set on doing something and things go wrong.

And as always, when you're mad and boiling, there will always be that one or two more things that will happen to piss you off more. On the way to the shop, which is really a short drive, I was stuck behind this car that took its own sweet time to move from the road junction to the main road. Then when I reached the shop, I got stuck behind another car waiting to pick someone up and couldn't care less about the traffic he was holding up behind him. And then I couldn't find a parking space nearby and had to carry that empty cylinder all the way to the shop. And then the bloody same thing happens to me on the way back.

I tell you, there really is someone up there who must just love giving me grieve! After finally reaching home and actually getting down to frying my burgers, what would normally have taken me at most half an hour to do, took me nearly 2 hours in total. That was one of the most stressful burger frying sessions I've ever had in my life. And it totally fouled up my mood for the whole evening. I just sat there glumly and watched TV without a peep from me all night long. Well, at least until Ugly Betty started, then I was laughing again ... LOL!

I hope whoever you are up there, you're satisfied now! I hope I've provided enough sadistic amusement to last you a lifetime. Now go pick on someone else for a change, okay? Well, I guess now that I've let out some steam, I can check out one of those condo hotel sites and start planning for my holiday cos after the night I just had, I could do with one!

Oh and you guys didn't really believe me when I said I wasn't going to write a long winded post now did you? LOL!

Life Should Be This Easy!

I've just been tagged by Rozella for this incredibly easy tag. And when I say easy I really mean easy. You don't really have to do anything much except copy and paste a few things, add your own link to the tag and viola , you're done! I couldn't believe my luck ... hehehe ...

I'm not really a fan of tags and memes, especially the ones that require me to use a little brain power. I don't really have much smarts up there in the brain department and some of the memes out there require you to have a masters in rocket science ... hehehe ...

I remember the first time I was tagged by a fellow blogger. Marzie to be specific. At that time I was just starting out in blogging and didn't know really know much about this memes and stuff. If I'm not mistaken (correct me if I'm wrong Marzie) I think it was the viral link train or something along those lines. Boy, when she tagged me with that I almost died of fright! The tag looked daunting and way beyond my intelligence. Selling mortgage life insurance would have been so much easier than doing that meme ... LOL!

I was really new to blogging at that time. I didn't know much (not that I know much these days either ... LOL!) and I didn't want to look like a silly fool for not knowing how to do a meme. In fact I didn't even know what in heavens name a meme was ... LOL! Well, after fretting about it for ages and with the help of Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking and Dr. Zachary Smith (well, wifey helped out more actually ... hehehe) I finally managed to get it done.

Phew, you don't know how relieved I was the moment I posted it. It was like a big load of my shoulder. And I've dreaded tags and memes ever since, especially the difficult ones! That's why I'm pretty happy to get this one. It's soooooooo easy that I'm going to gleefully enjoy doing this. Now why can't you all be like Rozella over here and just tag me with the simple ones? LOL!

<------------------------------ Begin Copying here ------------------------------>

This tag is basically one of the easiest and the fastest way to increase your Technorati authority, boost your Google Page Rank (if you still have page rank that is ... LOL), get a healthy amount of traffic for your blog and simply to make new friends :D

As with all these tags and memes, some simple rules apply :

• Start copy from “Begin Copy here” until “End Copy here” to your blog.
• Put your own blog name and link.
• Tag your friends as much as you can.

1. Picturing of Life
2. Juliana’s Site
3. Shower Your Children With Love - The Right Way
4. Life’s a journey, not a destination
5. Simple Life
6. Life is beautiful; Life is love
7. Lovely Mummy
8. Lemonjude
9. Faith,Hope,Love
10. Newife Blog
11. Good things in life…
12. …the Guru-Guru life…
13. ezooone@seweng
14. Emelda
15. Shemah@My Sweet Escape
16. Rozella@Asian Mutt International
17. Anything Goes!
18. Add your blogs name here.

<------------------------------ End Copy here ------------------------------>

And since this is such a simple tag to do, I'm sure the following bloggers are not going to be too annoyed getting tagged by me. And if you do get annoyed, then go blame Rozella for this, after all she tagged me to begin with ... LOL! So Janice, Menopause Princess, Bobo and Marlene I hand this over to you guys :D
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The Life And Times Of A City Dweller ...

I'm not cut out for hard labour. Well, not for long periods of time anyway. Yesterday, I decided to trim the mango tree in my front yard cos it was getting a little bit unruly and was encroaching into my Neanderthal neighbours yard. From my previous mango tree experiences with him, I decided to get it trimmed before he starts complaining that the leaves are falling into his place again.

Now normally I would get a gardener to trim the tree for me. But I thought why not save some money and trim whatever parts of the tree I could reach, especially the side that was in the neigbours yard. And besides they do charge quite a bit for trimming the tree and with the cost of everything going up, I wasn't prepared to waste good amounts of money, especially this close to the month end when I need every single cent that I have otherwise I'm probably going to have to get one of those online payday loans to last me until pay day! So I boastfully told wifey I'll do it myself.

I took out my trusty old ladder. You didn't expect me to actually try and climb that tree now did you? I'm not really good at climbing trees though my best buddy calls me monkey boy all the time! LOL! There I was with my ladder and trusty chopper (I'm not some serial killer who owns machetes now, okay, so a chopper it was!), I begin hacking away at the branches. Now these branches weren't really thick I tell you but after hacking at them for a whole 5 minutes, yes 5 minutes (a whole 300 seconds!) my arms start aching like crazy, I was out of breath and I was sweating like a human waterfall!

I turned around to see where wifey was and there she was, observing her *ahem, ahem* supposedly macho and manly husband struggling with great difficulty trying to trim a mango tree! LOL! She looks at me with this look of disbelieve on her face and goes:

'Don't tell me you're tired already?'

'Yeah honey, it's hard work, you know!' I replied.

'But it's only been 5 minutes since you started and you've still got lots more to trim!' She replied.

'What? You mean, this is not enough? It looks okay to me ...' I countered.

'No honey it's not and since you're already there, trim the ones on the other side and also the ones slightly above you, not forgetting the ones behind you' she persisted.

'But honey, there are tons of black ants crawling all over the tree not to mention on my body and some of them think my body is a buffet or something cos they're biting me! I say.

'It's only black ants dear, and black ants don't bite' She says ever so sweetly.

Yeah, sure they don't. I'm only imaging the little critters feasting on me ... LOL! Ok, That's when I think maybe I should have just kept my big boastful mouth shut about trimming the tree myself and just get a gardener to do it. Next time I'll know better ... LOL! And so there I was totally out of breath with wifey standing in the porch like some prison warden to make sure I didn't bail out and with the ants having a grand time biting every inch of my body, I start to chop and hack the remaining branches that she indicated.

And finally after an eternity, well, 20 minutes or so to be exact but it sure felt like an eternity to me, I was done. And you should have seen the amount of leaves and branches I chopped up. It looked like a mini mountain. I was too darn tired to do anything about it, so I left it for my mom to clear later. Mom just didn't know it yet cos she wasn't home and as long as I wasn't home when she came back and saw the mess I made, then I probably could get away with it .... LOL! I don't think I could lift another finger to clean up the place!


I guess I'm not really cut out for hard labour. I was born in the city and have been a city boy all my life unlike wifey who hails from a smaller town and is more in tune to hard work. I was a spoiled and pampered brat remember? I had everything done for me and it was only later in life that I actually had to do stuff on my own. Errrr, don't get me wrong. I can do hard labour if the need required it to, god knows I do hard labour at work all the time ... LOL! It's just that I'm not used to doing it too much! My body ached liked crazy the next day, in fact it's still aching right now. My right arm feels like someone took a hammer and whacked it.

It's really weird though, I can run for miles and not feel achy or out of breath at all, but trimming a simple tree just leaves me totally beat and feeling my age! I think I've just been spoilt silly by city life and paying people to do things when in fact I could be doing them myself. Maybe I wouldn't be so lazy if I actually did go outside and do some hard labour like mow the lawn or something once in a while. I mean, I do help out with household chores and all that but that's not really hard labour.

'What do you mean not really hard labour!' shouts wifey

Ok, ok, that's hard labour too honey ... LOL! But I'm talking about the more labour intensive work that requires strength and all that. Not that I'm a weakling, but I think I'd rather pay someone to do those things from now on. It would at least save me the aches I'm feeling all over right now! LOL!

Dirty Little Rats!

Ok, today must be the first time ever that I can't think of anything to blog. No funny stories, no complains, no neighbour rants. Nothing! My mind is a total blank right now. I sat here for a whole 10 minutes (really) staring at my screen hoping somehow the keyboards would miraculously start typing out something for me, though if that happened, especially so close to 12.00 midnight, being the coward that I am, I would have bolted out of here in a flash ... LOL!

Wifey actually just came over about 2 minutes ago and asked me why I was sitting here staring at an empty screen. I just have no idea what to post. Well, that's not entirely true though. I do have a few things running around in my mind but I just can't seem to form proper sentences to actually write them down. I guess the beer I had just know is probably dulling my brain and turning it into mush or something ...

'Beer, Nick? When did you start boozing?'

Well, I don't really booze, but today was the first Akedemi Fantasia concert and the beer was needed, trust me on that one. I'm no Akedemi Fantasia fan, but wifey is and based on the contestants progress throughout the week, the beer was needed to dull the mind while sitting through the torture of their horrendous singing during the concert and it kinda worked. They all sounded like Elvis to me after that ... LOL! Oh and for the benefit of my foreign bloggers, Akedemi Fantasia is somewhat like American Idol and is a craze over here with some people. And yes, the concert sucked big time. Thank god for Cuban beer :D

'Cuban Beer, Nick? You're really losing it aren't you?'

You gotta have variety once in a while you know. I was out at Cold Storage this afternoon with wifey and the boys and we were shopping for tidbits and stuff and I just had this urge to grab a bottle of beer, so there I was walking through the alcohol section trying to figure out which beer to buy when I spy this Cuban beer (first time I ever saw it though) and since I wanted to feel a little Fidel Castroish I tried it out. Bad mistake people. That beer tasted like fermented sewage water. And no, I haven't tasted fermented sewage water but if I did, that would be what the beer tasted like! No more beers for me, I'll just stick to something safer like Shandy ... LOL!

And today I also discovered that rats love chocolates. Or at least I think rats love chocolates unless there's some other little critter lurking around the chocolate section. I'm not making any sense here now am I? Well, wifey who is a chocolate lover was checking out some chocolates to get for the concert. She came across one that she liked called Milka or something. I'm not good with chocolate names.

And just as she was about to take a bar, we noticed one that was ripped open and eaten. We thought someone ripped it open and stole a few but upon closer inspection, we could tell it was done by some dirty little rats (pun intended) and she was totally turned off from buying any chocolates from that whole shelf! I checked a few more bars and there were small itsy bitsy teeth marks on a few other bars too. So I guess rats love chocolates too, ya? Or did you guys already know that and not tell me?


See, I told you guys I had nothing worth writing today. I mean how interesting and exciting can beer and chocolate loving rats be, ya? Maybe I could tell you guys about auto insurance quotes or something, that might prove to be more beneficial ... LOL! Who knows, one of you just may need to get your car insurance renewed or something and don't know where to look. Ok, ok, I'll go to bed already and spare you guys the agony of my really nonsensical post any longer. I guess Cuban beer, being up way past my bedtime and watching a horrendous concert dulls my brain to the max.

Oh, but before I go and join wifey in bed, who is by the way snugly cozied up in bed and fast asleep, let me wish all my Christian friends a very Happy and Blessed Easter :D

My Cell Addiction

I love holidays especially when it happens mid week, makes the work week seem all that much shorter :D It also feels good being able to take a nap in the afternoon ... In fact I just woke up from my two hour nap. I think I would still be snoozing if wifey didn't call me, yes, she actually called me on the cell even though we were like 10 feet away. It was her way of waking me up from my nap. She knows I respond to my cell much better than I'd respond to my alarm clock or even with her waking me up ... LOL!

My cell phone is like a part of me that I cannot do without! Everywhere I go I'm bound to have it with me. I've never ever forgotten to bring it along with me even if I go downstairs to the hall, the first thing I'd do is grab my cell. I'm never ever too far from my cell. All my friends know that if they call my cell, they know I'll always answer it. The missed call function is seldom ever used cos I'll definitely answer my calls, well unless of course I don't recognize the number that is. My policy is, if I don't have your number programmed in my cell means either I don't know you or I don't like you enough to have it in my phone book ... LOL!

Yes, I'm a slave to my cell phone. I even have this habit of looking at my phone every now and then for fear that I might just have missed a call or something. It's a little disturbing at times cos sometimes I even think I hear my phone ringing when it actually isn't. Yeah, I need help. Is there a cell phone shrink in the house? LOL! This 'ailment' of 'hearing' my cell ringing actually started when I had my urrmmm, third phone I think. It was this Siemens top of the line phone (supposedly) at that time and after a couple of months of using it, the darn thing had this problem where the incoming call ringtone would work on and off and I used to have tons of missed calls.

I didn't bother getting it fixed and just kept looking at the display every couple of minutes and the darn habit just got stuck with me till today even though my current phones incoming call ringtone works just fine! I still practice this habit of looking at my phone every now and then to the point where sometimes I 'think' I hear it ringing when it's not. It's not as bad as last time as I'm trying to control that bad habit but it still hasn't gone away completely yet.

Talking about cell phones and all, I still remember the first time I bought my own phone. It was like a huge ego thingy for me. Back then, cell phones weren't for everyone. If you had a cell phone, you were a big time business man or something ... LOL! My first phone was an NEC cell phone that looked like a huge brick that cost about the price of a small island. I remember going with my buddy Sean to get the phone together. And the first thing we did was call each other on the phones, while we were in the same car together ... LOL! But I was lucky though cos my office at that time compensated me for my phone calls. The cost of cell phone calls those days were astronomical!

I don't remember how many cell phones I've had in my life but it's been quite a few. From the huge monochromatic brick of a phone with its very basic 'kring, kring' to the high tech 256K full colour phones that belt out the latest in MP3 tones, I've had them all. I used to make sure I had the very latest in the market back then, until I realized that a phone is just a phone. As long as it can make calls, send sms's and mms's it's fine with me. In fact I think primary school kids have way better phone models than I have right now. Besides, no other phone as for as I'm concerned compares to the iphone, so until the iphone actually comes to this country, I'll just stick with my trusty old Motorola for now. But all that aside, you won't catch me dead without my cell phone next to me.

Ah drats, it's raining out there. There goes my run for today. I had set my mind on doing a much longer run today as I'm getting ready for a 10K run next month. Maybe it is time to look into some home gym equipment for times such as these. At least I can still train indoors when it does rain. It's definitely going to put a dent into my training momentum. And judging by the intensity of the rain, I don't think it's going to stop anytime soon! Well, the good thing is, it'll be a nice cozy night and it's also American Idol results night. I'm hoping and praying that skunk haired woman gets booted out. I hate her cockiness and the fact that she is so one dimensional! Keeping my fingers, toes and anything else that can be crossed, crossed! :D Oh, you do know who I'm talking about, right?

The Kid In Me ...

How many of you still play with toys? Yes, I'm referring to you. You don't? No? Seriously? Well, I have a confession to make, I still do (*blush*) and I play with them whenever I get the chance. I even play with my kids toys at times. Yes, you could say I never really grew up. It's sad isn't it? A 40 year old, urmmm 41 as of a few days ago who loves playing with toys! Geez, I'll never get used to referring to my age as 41. As far as I'm concerned I stopped aging when I was 19! LOL!

Just a couple of days ago I bought myself this remote controlled car that I've been eyeing for quite a while. It's not one of those really cool mean machines that Papa Joneh has. Those are a bit too expensive for my budget. I bought this one from the gas station that was having a promotion where you can buy either one of 4 different models of remote controlled cars at a special price if you fill up your tank with RM40.00 and above of petrol.


I've always wanted to get it but have been putting it off and since my fuel is paid for by my office and besides the promotion was going to end pretty, so I bought one for myself. It even comes with free batteries ... hehehe ... The guy at the pump who was helping me select one made a remark that my son would just love it. I told him it's not for my son, it's for me. He stopped what he was doing, looked up and gave me this weird look and said:

'You yang nak main, bukan anak you?' (You're going to play with it, not your kids?)

And I smiled at him in my most innocent little boy look and and said yes. He just gave me an exasperated sigh while shaking his head and punched in my order for the car and after filling up I just couldn't wait for work to be over so I could get home and 'play' with my new toy. Now I just had to figure a way to sneak the car upstairs without the boys seeing it. I'm very stingy with my toys and if the boys saw that car, they'll hijack it right out of my hands, thats for sure ... LOL!

So when I reach home, I hide the car under my shirt (not the best of hiding places, I know) and quietly run up to my room. The kids were too busy watching cartoons to notice me (thank god for cartoons ... LOL!). I dash into the room so fast and lock the door that it startled wifey who was busy blogging at that time. She looked at me and asked me what's wrong and I gleefully pull out the car from under my shirt and give her this big huge smile of contentment (she knew I wanted to get the car for quite a while now!).

She just gave me this 'there's no hope for you' head shake and continues blogging ... LOL! And before you can say car insurance quotes, I had the car out of the packaging and maneuvering between wifeys legs irritating the life out of her. You should have seen some of the maneuvers I made, even Schumacher would have been proud of me ... LOL! Wifey turns and looks at me again and says:

'You're like a little kid, just like the boys la!'

But Honey, I am a kid at heart, always have been ... hehehe ... Yeah, I am a kid at heart. I've always loved playing with toys and even up till now I still do. I guess that's why the boys aren't really afraid of me. They probably see me as some big huge kid!

Even when we go shopping, especially at the bigger malls, if we're anywhere near the toy department, I'd be there right along with the kids messing around with all the toys there. You know how a lot of toys these days have places where you can press a button or push a lever to try them out? Well, I'll be the first to every single toy and its actions out. You should see some of the stares I get ... LOL!

I can't help myself when it comes to toys. I just love them considerably! And I just wished I had kept all my childhood toys a little better. Who knows if I had them now, I may not even be blogging all that much from playing with my toys ... LOL (Yeah, right!). Well, I think I'd better post this now and go do more wheel spins on that tiny little remote controlled car which by the way, the boys still haven't found out about it yet. I don't know how long that will last though cos they have a knack for finding things :D

'Honey, you'd better watch your step in the room cos there's gonna be a mean machine on the roads tonight .... vrrooommm, vrroooommmm!!!!'

I Send An S.O.S To The World ...

I'm a little bored in the office right now. Not that I don't have any work, mind you. I just don't have the mood to work. I had a pretty heavy lunch just now when I went home to send my younger boy to school. After sending him, I went and packed some food from the shop for both wifey and myself. I think I ate a little too much rice and stuff that I'm feeling bloated and downright sleepy right now. Hence the no mood to work.

But that doesn't mean I don't have the mood to blog ... LOL! Well, actually my work isn't all that urgent and can be complete in no time tomorrow. Barring any unforeseen circumstances like the PC completing crashing on me, a power failure (god forbid!) or a total eclipse of the sun or something, putting off my work till tomorrow shouldn't cause too much of a problem ... hehehe ...

And since I'm blogging anyway, I thought I'd do this meme, yes, I'm actually doing another meme so soon after the most embarrassing meme I just did a few days ago. I must be losing it! LOL! But all that aside, this meme is from Nessa of Mumblings and she tagged me with the message in a bottle meme. The first thing that came to mind when I saw the title of this meme was the song by The Police - message in a bottle. I'm a huge fan of the Police and Sting and I just had to do this tag even though it has nothing to do with them at all :D

The purpose of this tag is to write an inspirational message in the sand (then why it's a called a message in a bottle meme sure beats the hell out of me!). I'm suppose to write anything I like be it serious, inspirational and downright outrageous even. And knowing the kind of person that I am, you guys definitely know I can never really post anything too serious, message or otherwise. The day I get serious is the day crows will fly!

'Urmmm, but they already do fly, Nick!'

What? They do? Oh well, I'm always the last to know these things. Anyway, seeing as how I'm too lazy to actually think up any, I yahooed it and found a host of really interesting ones which made it difficult to choose so I just closed my eyes and picked one. It was the best I could do anyway. Besides, I really couldn't compete with all the other great and inspirational messages already out there on the sand.


And I'm going to be real nice to everyone today and not tag anyone with this meme cos I know a lot of you has been tagged and it would defeat the purpose to tag you twice, right? But if by some perverse logic you enjoy doing these meme's then by all means consider yourself tagged by me :D

As always the usual rules and regulations apply. Gee, makes it sound like a contract or something ... LOL!

The Rules
1. Compose a message to place in your virtual bottle
2. Right click and SAVE the blank graphic below
3. Use any graphic editing program to place your message
4. Post the Message in a Bottle meme and your creation on your blog along with these rules
5. Tag a minimum of 5 bloggers or as many as you like. Then, give them a buzz about the tag

So, if you happen to get tagged, head over to Mimi's and ADD your site to her master list and place your blog's name and URL in a comment HERE.

And that's all there is to it. Now that I've done this I think I'll go do that assignment I have on yoga dvd. Remind me to one day tell you guys about my experiment with yoga :D

The Credit Card Novice

A week or two back, while I was blog hopping, I came across a post from Nessa of Mumblings. She was ranting about this woman who was using a credit card to pay for one or two items. That post gave me quite a chuckle and it also brought back some memories about the first time I ever owned my own credit card all those years ago.

Back when I first started working, I always envied people who had credit cards. If you had a credit card in those days it meant you were someone big, it showed that you've made it in life. Back then my salary wasn't enough for me to qualify for a credit card. Even after working for close to 3 years, I still didn't earn enough to get one. Hey, a graphic designer back in those days didn't earn much, k!

I remember all my cousins would gather round during the weekends and flash their credit cards and I'd just envy them. I vowed to work hard and earn enough to get one (Damn, I was stupid back then!). But after about 5 years of working and switching fields from the creative department to the client service department and getting a raise my salary still didn't quite cut it yet. The requirements for owning a credit card was pretty steep in those days.

One day, one of those credit card sales person made a stopover at my office to promote their card and he convinced me to sign up. Even though I told him I didn't really qualify yet, he said never mind, you just might get lucky. So, with nothing to lose, I signed up. And totally forgot about it for the next one month cos I didn't really expect them to approve my application.

After about 5 weeks or so, I came home from work one day and see this letter from the credit card company informing me that my application has been approved and that I can go over to their office to pick up my card. I was shocked yet elated by the news. Woohoo, I've finally made it. I'm in the big leagues now. I can spend, spend, spend without using money I thought.

'Urrmmm, you do know that you have to pay all that back at the end of the month don't you?'

Yeah, yeah, I knew that part but for that moment in time I couldn't care less. All that mattered was that I had a credit card! So, I hurriedly went to collect my card the next day. And upon reaching the office, I ripped the envelope open and start showing off to all my colleagues ... hehehe ... And I told them that I couldn't wait to start using it and that immediately after work I was going to go shopping.

Then moment work was over that day, I headed to the mall near my house on the way home. Ok, now comes the part that's really embarrassing for me to admit. I didn't know how to actually use a credit card! Yes, it's the truth. I may have been harping all my life that I wanted a card but once I actually got it I didn't know how to use it.

There I was after picking out a few things and about to head to the counter when I stop dead in my tracks and wonder if they actually accept credit cards here or not. What do I do with it? Just head over to the cashier and give it to her or what? You see back in those days, credit cards were not acceptable in all places. So there I was, with my hands full of stuff wondering just how the heck was I going to find out if they accepted cards or not. I could have always asked the cashier I know but hey, I wasn't going to look like a doofus who just got his credit card in front of him now, ok.

So, I decided to just quietly lurk around the cashier area pretending I was looking at things while waiting for the next customer to pay so I could see if he was using cash or card but unfortunately all the next few customers all paid in cash. Darn! I couldn't lurk around too much, they might suspect me as someone who has a thing for the cashier or something ... LOL! So, I try to sneak a peek at the bottom of the cashier terminal to see if they had that manual swiping machine they used back in those days but I couldn't see any sign of it. Darn it again!

Then my luck holds out cos finally there is a customer who is paying by card. I quickly head to the cashier and proudly hand her my card when my turn comes. And then she goes through the routine of swiping it and then calling card issuer for the approval code and this takes quite sometime. She's hanging on the line and looking at my card front and back and at me and that's when I start to sweat. All kinds of questions run through my mind.

Is the card active? Did I use it to soon (afterall I only got it the same afternoon). Maybe it's fake and she's hit the secret hidden button on the floor and a SWAT team is on the way up . And just when I'm about to collapse from worry, she finally gets the approval code and hands me the slip to sign. With a huge sigh of relieve I take the slip and sign my first ever credit card transaction! Boy, that was a really harrowing experience ... LOL! You can't blame me right? I never used a credit card in my life prior to that, ok? It's not like they had any immediate credit card care service back then for me to call and find out how to use a credit card.

Ever since then I've become a pro with the credit card, in fact a little too much of a pro that I almost ruined myself financially with credit card overspending. It's no longer glamorous to own a credit card as far as I'm concerned. I've since given up using it except for online usage and such! Other than that, it's cash or nothing for me. At least I won't have to stand at the cashier with my heart beating, sweating and hoping that the transaction goes through ... LOL!

*Blush*

The day has been a crazy one. Work was so rushed that I didn't even have time to go to the toilet! That's how busy things were. My boss has a presentation today, with Mr. Smelly breath VP, better her than me I would say and even though I managed to finish what she needed for the presentation yesterday, but true to her form, she required last minute changes like as it it was simple to do! And on top of that the notebook computer that I did the work on was giving me hell today.

That took me the entire morning rushing like some chicken without a head to complete things for her on time and I've finally got some free time know cos she's just left the office. Phew, thank god for small miracles. So here I am messing around with my blog. I don't really have anything much t write today so I thought I'd do a tag. Yes, I'm actually going to do a tag. LOL! You guys just know how much I 'love' being tagged with meme's right :D That must explain why no one tags me anymore ... hehehe ...

The thing is I feel shameful about doing this tag cos it was given to me by Sting quite sometime ago that I think even she would have forgotten about it by now ... LOL! I'd had it lying in my draft for quite while and I couldn't let it gather dust anymore. In fact it's kind of an interesting and fun tag to do and I'm going to be happily tagging all my favourite bloggers at random after I finish with it and you guys better make sure you post it, ok? I really wanna know what your most embarrassing moment is.


Yes, this tag is about embarrassing moments and I've got loads of them. It's easy to accumulate embarrassing moments especially if you're a doofus like me :D I can't really remember all of them but this one comes to mind right now. And Adrian buddy, correct me if I've left out anything seeing as how you were there when this happened to me. Stamford library and 'legs', remember buddy? LOL!

Ok, let start from the top. This one happened to me while I was still studying in college years ago. Back then I used to hang out with this group of people, seven in all. I think I've mentioned about them in a few of my previous posts before. We hung out together, went everywhere together and did everything together. We even had a name for our little group but I shall refrain from mentioning it here for fear of being put in prison ... LOL! Just kidding, we weren't that bad. But we weren't that good either.

We were all teenagers and had the usual teenage crush for particular girls in college. Each of us had our eye on one particular girl and in fact sometimes we all had an eye for the same girl ... LOL! We'd normally sit on this wall just at the entrance of the college every morning before class and watch all the girls go by. We'd sit there all seven of us in one row and go:

'Ok, I want her!'

"No, she's mine!'

'No, I saw her first!'

'Well, I want the one in the red jacket!'

Well, you get my meaning don't you ... LOL! Hey, we were teenagers after all right? There was this particular girl that I, urrrmmm, set my eyes on. Bear in mind she probably didn't know I existed. She had this great pair of legs and we all gave her the nickname of 'Legs'. Well, actually all of us had a crush on her (right buddy?). But they knew I liked her and my buddies can sometimes be a tad too helpful! And it's not always a good thing.

We always hung around in the college library cos that's where the girls were at (we did anything but study there, mind you) and one fine day my two good friends, Adrian and Dougy went up to 'legs' and gave her a note supposedly from me. I didn't know until it was too blooming late and she just got up, gave this nasty stare in my direction and walked out the library. Damn, just what did those two write in that note anyway? Till today I have no idea. I was so bloody embarrassed and if I wasn't on the tanned side, you'd probably see me turn redder than a lobster.

Ok, but that wasn't really the most embarrassing part. The next day, we were in the library again (we're there practically everyday) and 'legs' was there at her usual spot. I was sitting way behind and was trying to get a glimpse of her, so I kinda leaned back on my chair pushing it up on two legs and the next thing I knew, I leaned just a wee bit too much and in typical dramatic slow-mo TV fashion, the chair tipped over and I landed on the floor in a very quiet library with a huge bang and lay flat on my back with my legs up the air!

First there was utter silence that you could even hear a pin drop, then everyone in the whole blooming library, including 'legs' turned to look in my direction and burst out laughing hysterically. And that included my supposedly good buddies! There I was lying flat on the floor like some doofus and all they could do was join in the laughter. I don't blame them though, I would have done the same thing if it happened to either one of them. And the worst thing is when I looked in 'legs' direction, she was looking at me, shaking her head with this look of incredulity on her face.

Man, I was so embarrassed that I packed up my things and fled from the library and never returned there for the whole week. And I avoided being anywhere in the vicinity of 'legs' ever since that day. There went whatever little hope I had of impressing her. That really has to be one of my more embarrassing moments to date. I can still remember the way I went down in slow-mo right up to this day that I never again balance my chair on two legs anymore. Once bitten twice shy they say :D

<------------------------ Start Copying Here --------------------->

Add in your most embarrassing moment at the bottom

Faith, hope, love but the greatest is love blog.
Magical Milestone
Anything Goes!
Add your embarrassing moment here

<------------------------ End Copying Here --------------------->

And now, I would like the honour of reading the following 'lucky' few and their most embarrassing moment. And don't think of not doing it cos I'll get Spiff to bug you till you actually post it ... LOL! So here goes the lucky few:

Aunty J ~ First Time Dad ~ Guru-Guru Life ~ Mumblings ~ Mariuca
.

The Almost Sportsman ...

It rained so bad yesterday in my neck of the woods that the roads around my office area was submerged with water and I had trouble leaving the office just to get home. I live only about a 10 minute drive from my house and yesterday it took me at least half an hour to get home. I can imagine those leaving for home from the heart of town. I'll bet they were stranded for hours. My sympathies people. Then again, wait just one minute. Did it even rain in the capital city? Since it rained here I presume it also rained over there. Gee, what the heck am I talking about rain for? How interesting ... LOL!

Well, the good thing about the rain was that when I finally got home, it made my daily evening run such a joy. The weather was just perfect for the run, nice and cool. And I did enjoy my run thoroughly. In fact I just absolutely LOVE running. But it wasn't always that way, you know. I seriously didn't like running or any physical activity for that matter.

When I was young, I hated sports of any kind. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't a weakling or a sissy boy or anything along those lines. I just didn't like sports all that much. I would of course enjoy the occasional game of football or badminton with my cousins but I was more the timid kid who would rather be at home curled up in bed either sleeping or reading my comics. I didn't really like mixing around with other kids and joining them for their games and all that, especially if it required some form of running and stuff like that.

Even in school, I would shy away from sports or any physical activity for as long as I could. Well, of course I couldn't escape when it came to Physical Education classes. Then I'd be forced to partake in whatever barbaric physical exercise the teacher thought of. I'd even not take part in any extra curriculum activities organized by my school and my school didn't really force anyone to join in. That worked out just fine with me until one fine day the school decided that every student HAD to take part in at least one extra curriculum activity.

Darn, that put a damper on my plans. There went my afternoon naps after school cos most of these activities were organized after school back then. With no choice left in the matter, I had to pick something and since my ambition at that particular time was to be a policeman, I joined the police cadets thinking it would be pretty cool and besides I heard how women always loved a man in uniform ... LOL! Furthermore I thought I wouldn't need to do much running around. How wrong I was. The damn cadets was like prison camp. We had to practice our marching in the blazing sun and all kinds of other torturous things that I decided to switch to something else.

I joined something much safer with was the Leo Club and that suited me just fine. No strenuous running around or anything too physical to do. I even made it to the main committee as an assistant treasurer. Cool I thought, at least I had a nice cushy position ... hehehe ... And it remained that way until finished my secondary schooling (equivalent to high school in some parts of the world). After that I decided to do my studies at a private college where I met my buddies Adrian and Sean. And that's really when I started to take a more active interest in physical and sporting activities.

It was during this time when I was first introduced to martial arts, namely Tae Kwon-Do. They had a martial arts recruitment demonstration at the college and I was intrigued by it, so I signed up for it. All of us signed up for it but most of my other buddies gave up on it leaving only me. And strangely enough, for someone who wasn't at all keen on physical stuff, I took a huge interest in Tae Kwon-Do and even became obsessed with it. I used to attend training almost everyday by following my instructor to all classes that he conducted elsewhere. Even my buddies thought I was a little too crazy about it.

I was practically at every class my instructor taught and I would be actively involved in any recruitment demonstrations that they had. I actually became good at it. Which surprised the hell out of me. I was NEVER really good at anything in my life. I enjoyed this so much and was so committed to it that one day my instructor actually gave me one of his classes to teach. Boy, I was on cloud nine and three quarters. I was over joyed. I even thought maybe this could become a career or something but that was before I decided I wanted to get in advertising. On hindsight, maybe it was the wrong choice ... LOL!

But once I started my graphic design course, I hardly had time for martial arts and eventually gave it up. It was also around this time when I decided to take up running with my buddy Sean. And it was at this time that my affair with running really started. We ran 9.25 km almost every single day. I enjoyed it so much that I got fanatical about running. I ended up buying all kinds of running magazines, the latest running shoes, full running kits and whatnots. It was an adrenalin rush every time I ran and even more so during the times we took part in half marathons.

Then work and distance got in our way and I started running on and off and at one time completely stopped altogether. It went on that way for at least a year until I decided to start running again. And as every runner worth their salt would know just how blooming hard it is to start running again, especially on your own. I hated it at that time, I wanted to quit because I was so unfit. I couldn't even do decent times. I was impatient for improvement. I couldn't wait to see results and when it didn't show I was depressed and gave it up again. It's been an on/off thing for the past couple of years. And my body started to balloon, especially my tummy which wifey always points out to me :D

So, I started running consistently again and loving every single pounding step of it. I realize I've been lacking motivation in the past but now wifey is my inspiration to run. Besides, she did say a while back that if I did get healthy and fit again like I was before, she'd let me sleep with Jennifer Garner ... LOL! Just kidding honey :D But I hope the old bones will cooperate and not ruin my appetite to run. I wish I could like find a fountain of youth or something and go back to the times when I was really fit as a fiddle but then what's a little hard work, ya?

Oh boy, would you just look at this. I think I got carried away with my post. I hope none of you fell asleep halfway through reading this but if you made it all the way through, congratulations, you've just won the grand prize of 2 million Zorkian dollars ... LOL! Ok, ok I borrowed that from that Spiff character :D

The Wind Of Change ...

'Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow share their dreams
With you and me
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
in the wind of change'

That was from the chorus of that famous Scorpions song entitled 'Wind Of Change' and that exactly sums up the atmosphere here after the General Elections.

I've never been into politics and I never will be. In fact I've never really written anything here about politics but today will be a slight exception. I did my part yesterday (Saturday) in selecting whom I thought would be best to be my voice in the Parliament. I'll be blunt. I voted for the opposition and the candidate I voted for won, so I'm glad my vote did indeed make a difference :D In fact the state in which I live in was also won by the opposition for the first time ever. I was utterly surprised by that but I'm glad they did win.

Now comes the hard part, I hope that the faith I put in the opposition party this time around would be justified. Let's face it, all politicians, be it the ruling coalition or the opposition party are no different as far as I'm concerned. The both have their own agendas. For me, it was the case of choosing the lesser of two evils. And hell, it's only 5 years. If they don't actually do half of what they promised in their campaign run up, I'll just not vote them in the next elections. I thought they deserved a chance to prove themselves after the Government I voted for in the previous elections screwed up the ordinary people every which way this side of Sunday!

I'm not going to even go into the dissatisfaction I have with the Government and judging by how badly the ruling coalition was mauled in the recently concluded elections, I wasn't the only one. Every single race in this country, well we basically only have 3 main races in this country plus one categorized under 'others' which I fall into being a Eurasian and all that. And for once, nearly the entire country was on the same wavelength on their views about the Government. This time around the people were not helpless and not stupid enough to believe everything they were fed with in the very 'biased' government controlled media out there. With the internet and with all the bloggers out there, the real truth about what was happening was easy to follow. No longer could we be fed with propaganda and lies.

Some very learned ministers even went to the extent of calling bloggers stupid monkeys who spread lies or something along those lines and I am utterly ecstatic that that particular learned minister or rather ex-minister lost his seat. That should tell him a thing or two about those stupid monkey bloggers who spread lies. Hey, you guys know I'm addicted to blogging and anyone who insults any blogger insults me too, so he deserved being booted out by the people. Well, I hope that with this trouncing the Government had, they will at least sit up, take stock, and listen to what the people has to say once in a while. It's not about the price of things going up. That will always go up no matter what. That's life, things go up and down. It's about giving us ordinary citizens a little credit and some respect. Be honest with us, show some accountability in life and most importantly, be a little more humble and a lot less arrogant.

So, with that said, I hope the Opposition party will at least make a little difference for me and not make me regret my decision to give them a chance to see what they can do. I do after all love this country. I mean where else can a bunch of people from different races and various cultures and religions live in peace and harmony together? That's what makes this country unique. That's what makes us all Malaysians and not just Malays, Chinese, Indian and Others! And besides it's the only country I have. So, here's to a much better Malaysia. Sorry for deviating totally from what I would normally write but I just had to voice out my thoughts.

Oh and remember I wrote something a few postings ago about replica Rolex watches? Well, I was kinda curious about just how much a genuine Rolex would cost, so I check out a Rolex Datejust watch just for the heck of it and my eyes nearly pooped right out of it's sockets! The blooming things cost in the range of RM26,000.00 and for that price I could get a car over here! I knew they were expensive and all, I just didn't know they were that expensive! I'll just stick to my old tried and tested cheap Casio watch for now ... LOL!

Something The Cat Dragged In!

Do you have bad breath? Can you stand people with bad breath? Well, I can't and let me tell you a little experience I had with this thing called bad breath yesterday. I was on the verge of passing out because of bad breath yesterday.

I had an appointment yesterday with one of our more important clients. They're this big huge conglomerate and we're in the midst of doing their company profile. Both my boss and me are handling the same account, she's basically dealing more with the higher ups and I'm basically dealing more with the lower ranks, which is just fine by me. The higher ups (whom I'm met before) can be a bunch of arrogant know it alls at times.

Anyway, this profile project is in a little mess at the moment, especially with compiling all the data needed for each individual subsidiary and stuff like that. So, yesterday I had to meet one of the 'higher ups' and see him about getting a little more information that I could work with. This guy is one of the many Vice-Presidents of the company and as far as I'm concerned one of the nicer 'higher ups' in the organization.

So, there I was having my meeting with him in his room and not long into the meeting, I start getting whiffs of this peculiar pungent smell. At first I couldn't identify it and thought maybe I stepped on dog or cat poo on the way in. I discreetly check the bottom of both my shoes. I mean, these things happen you know. It has happened to me a few times before. But thankfully, both my shoes are in the clear. But that rancid smell is still around on an on/off basis.

Ok, maybe it's my shirt or something, I thought. You know how sometimes when your clothes don't really dry out properly after being washed and you get this unpleasant mildewy kind smell? Well, I thought maybe it was that. But then I've been in my shirt for hours already and would have notice if the smell was from my shirt. But just to be sure, I once again discreetly try to smell my shirt. Trust me, it wasn't easy trying to smell your own shirt while having a meeting with someone face to face. But it wasn't my shirt, all I could smell was my perfume.

Ok, the smell is definitely not coming from me. So, I start to look at the surroundings of the guys room but there's nothing that would cause it. Then it finally hit me. The smell only appeared everytime this VP opened his mouth to say something. Oh my god, it finally dawns on me that his VP has bad breath! And he has a tendency of breathing heavily when he speaks and he's sitting right smack in front of me with the air conditioning blowing away from behind him. Take a guess who's getting the brunt of this attack! Yeah, you got that right, me!

Ok, now, let me tell you something. The smell of this guys breath was akin to something the cat dragged in after it was left out to decompose for close to a year! Ok, maybe that was a little too much, but it sure smelt that way. And the worse thing was there was no way to maneuver and escape the brunt of his 'attack'. I just had to sit there and keep on smiling and try to stop myself from fainting and falling over. I could have told him about it, but hey, how in heaven's name do you even begin to tell a VP of a huge establishment that his breath stank big time!

'Oh, by the Mr. VP, your breath smell like dead fish, can you refrain from breathing in my face?'

I don't think that would have sat to well with him now, right? And there really was no other diplomatic way for me to tell him. I mean if he was my buddy, than that wouldn't pose any problems. But he's a Vice-President for goodness sake! How do you tell a VP of a company, especially one that is one of our biggest accounts that he stinks? Well, his breath anyway. So there I was, having to sit through the meeting and stomach his breath and it wasn't a short one cos this guy is pretty long winded.

'And so are you, Nick!'

Ok, ok, so I am a little long winded too, so sue me already! I was honestly on the verge of passing out. Everytime he spoke, I had to brace myself to face the barrage of the smell. I did my best to hold my breath and not breathe throughout the meeting but by the time the meeting was over, I think I was turning slightly green in the face cos just before I left his room, he asked me if I was feeling alright. He said I looked a little woozy.

'No of course I wasn't feeling alright Mr. VP. I was trying hard not to faint from inhaling all your bad air!'

But of course I didn't tell him that, I just smiled and told him I'm suffering from a headache and I'll be okay. And the moment I left his room and was in fresh air, I greedily sucked in lungfuls of that wonderfully dirty polluted city air and it was way better than his breath I tell you! I really couldn't believe a VP of a respectable establishment would have bad breath. I mean really bad breath. I'm not saying I have the world's most nicest smelling breath but this guy was bad with a capital B-A-D! The worse thing is I'm going to need to see him again soon. I think I'll bring along my own gas mask, maybe he'll just get the message on his own. Right now I pity his staff ... LOL!

Oh and before I end, since I'm hopelessly long winded and all and not to mention a little thick skinned at times, let me do a little shameless advertising here ... hehehe ... I've had my other blog Spiff docked from a PR3 to a PR0 for doing paid postings and was looking around for more opportunities to do Blog Advertising and came across this site called BuyBlogReviews.

For those of you who are interested, this site is a little different from the rest out there in a sense that you get to bid on how much you would like to be paid for a certain assignment. Even though you set a lower base amount for advertiser to pay you if they pick you for an assignment, you're allowed to bid a higher value when you bid for assignments. You're not just limited to your base value amount. Isn't that cool?

Go and sign up now, it's worth it I tell you cos the moment I signed up and got my blog approved, I actually received a few assignments right away. I've already bid on a few more and am just waiting for my bids to be approved. So don't wait. It's no fun being a millionaire all on my own ... LOL! Happy weekend people.