Networking

I am a tad annoyed with an old friend. 2,3 hari lepas I received a forwarded sms from this friend mewar warkan class reunion yg akan diadakan pada sekian sekian. Nak dijadikan gempak lagi, ni reunion 2 kelas bebudak baru….and akan diadakan di rumah budak baru kelas yg satu lagi. I have this thing about reunion, I have never been to one..hehe. Baik sekolah rendah, menengah or uni. I don’t fare well in big crowds…kalau setakat a few friends meeting up, ini OK, itupun akan dipujuk sakan oleh Ustazah Munah. Anyway, regarding the sms, I told my friend ni, rather than beating around the bush kata belum habis pantang la (this would be lying) etc. I just said straight to her face, neh, don’t think I’m going, I anti-social sikit….And this friend said to me back, hellooo..have you heard of networking??

Hmm..let me see…networking ye…sepanjang hidup I la, I belum lagi dapat apa2 faedah dari networking ni..mungkin sekali kut, my two old friends husband and wife, general surgeon and oncologist which I betul2 menjaga perhubungan kut2 mana le tau in the future kan..ye la, as it is, my family gene line riddled with cancer cells and the general surgery bit esp. sekarang yg asyik sembelit je kan?? Kalau ada kengkawan yg gynae, cardiologist and orthopedic surgeon, please put your hands up because I teringin sangat nak bernetworking ngan you all. Anyway, I digress a bit, of course I tersentap kan when my friend cakap macam tu..so, of course reply yang terkeluar mesti ada bunyi2 yg menyakitkan hati. I said, if I was in private, I would loveeee to do all the networking but as it is, nanti memanjangkan waiting list I je lagi! At the risk of sounding bongkak serta takbur I just had to say that! You know why?? Because my friend tu punya pesen, come cuti sekolah je dia akan hempuk semua anak dia utk jadi clients i..Sometimes it’s not easy to squeeze them in especially kalau late request.

I belum lagi nak ngumpat bab MLM lagi ni, ni baru bab my friends dlm bidang2 menyihatkan org ni. Diaorg semua dah specialist, so I expect diaorg yg dah pandai tu mesti lah lebih2 lagi pandainya kan…but they cannot get the fact that in general, bidang yg I terokai yg dah memang kecik, pas tu I boleh specialise utk jadi bertambah kecik..so, what I’m trying to say is, they expect me to tengok anak2 diaorg yg mempunyai masalah tak mencabar minda langsung! Ye la kan, takkan anak kita or kita yg demam biasa expect nak pi jumpa kawan kita si neurologist pulak kan?? Get what I mean??? Haa OK, apa kata kalau ikut laws of networking, I say to this friend of mine, sorry, I dah tak boleh tengok anak2 you dah because you psychiatrist, I don’t think I’d be needing one anytime soon. So, with my reply tadi, I tak kisah lah kalau my friend tu terasa…

Networking also means pada sesapa yg berkecimpung dlm bidang MLM inilah masanya kan?? I ni ada masalah to say NO, so, rather than exposing myself to situations where I can’t say NO, I avoid them totally. I have ended up with this posh lampu berbau haruman yg kononnya ada segala mak nano filter, I was a few hundred $ poorer and my only hope is that the lampu will one day become a collector’s item like I was promised (ye la tu kan!). Many years ago, I once had to drive all the way from KL to Bangsar against 6pm rush hour traffic because my friend ni terlebih excited beritau I dia nak tunjukkan something kat i. I pun lagi excited ingatkan kain ela ke, tudung ke (so Makcik2 kan)..tengok2 air freshner uol!! This so called friend baru berkecimpung dlm MLM and mangsa pertamanya I lah tu..terbang RM28 utk some measly air freshner.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m generally a nice person..kalau nampak cam tak friendly it’s because I’m very shy. Yes, i'm a recluse and socially inept. Tapi kalau sesapa nak ajak pi minum teh tarik ke, starb*cks ke, I boleh saja…maybe kena pujuk2 sikit jugak le.. Oh, and I tak kisah, tempat aircond atau tak aircond..kalau nama kedainya I boleh pronounce lagi bagus and if I want water, I’d just say, Miss, can I please have some mineral water..i seriously don’t know any fancy names for water..ish jahatnya aku..tu dah masuk topic lain hehe.

Fat Cat Diary 4 / slumber party

For the past 2 nights, bila i masuk tidur je, ada la si Goldilocks dah occupy my bed. His description actually fits the Papa Bear much better. Ini la problemnya kalau on kan aircond awal and tuannya tak masuk tidur lagi. He looked at me with his big round eyes and it's not easy to say no when he does this. Bebudak bulu ni memang ada favourite sibling diaorg...
(Ugi is not in the picture because dia tu hassle free. Tidur je atas sofa, makan biskut kucing je, takde la cam 2 ekor tu yg kengkadang nak ikan la, wet food la...)

The baby, the cat and the crocodile (yg hijau tu).

Eh, kaki sapa tu???

During the early part of the evening, i swear that Litttle D punya baju semua colour coordinated. Lepas tu comot dgn nasik la, tumpah air la hence the Thaipu*** colour combination...Ada sesapa nak buat menantu??

I took this pic using my hp and bila dah malas camni, tangkap sekali lagi using my camera. Dua orang/ekor ni memang best friends. Dekat sama2 besar je.

Mid-life crisis

I have got a tshirt on today that says ‘NO SEX PLEASE’. It isn’t mine originally, it’s MG’s. I think he thought by putting this tshirt on would protect him from sex demons kut..! I’m sure you all must notice the frequency of my blog entries nowadays…as I mentioned before, other than watching reruns of Friends and Desperate Hoswipe, there’s not much else I do at home..that and being a vending machine for Baby X. Oh yes, I also annoy my colleagues from the office, sekejap2 call diaorg, bukan nak tau pasal kerja sangat, more on the gossips la!

Last night I woke up in a sweat. Bukan sebab terjaga dari mimpi yg menakutkan, tapi dari realiti yg sangat menakutkan. In 41/2 years time, I’m going to turn 40! I belum puas lagi jadi 25, camana tiba2 dah nak jadi 40? Belum puas lagi dipanggil kak or adik and tiba2 sekarang bebudak panggil aunty…once I was called ‘makcik’ by this kid yg nak mintak derma (i know it's a direct translation but...)..daripada hati yg nak bergenerous, terus tak jadi derma langsung uols! When it’s time to send Baby X into std 1, I’m sure I’d be the oldest living mother on that day! But cam kawan I cakap, takpe, asalkan kita bergaya….majority of my colleagues set2 cam i…yg lambat kawin or lambat dapat anak, so bila anak masuk sekolah, we’d be into our 40’s. It’s no surprise that the office telah dilanda angin puting beliung menyemarakkan mid-life crisis in the 30somethings generation. Ada yg pergi ke suria KLCC i dengar and borong pelbagai utk menukar ketrampilan, ada yg tak habih2 swimming je utk mengembalikan muscles yg mungkin tak pernah ada and ada sampai yg invest in cling film kat beauty spa utk dibalut segala. Yesterday I donned on lipstick and eye liner and I guess the angin putting beliung dah sampai ke NO.31, tapi idakle org itu nak notice, kan???

I regret that when I was in my teens and twentys, I was busy feeling insecure about myself. When I was a teenager, of course I had oh-that-so-common pimple problem. The only thing good about pimples was that the advert they showed on tv penuh dgn jantan2 gorgeous..i remember this one advert where the guy was topless and he had a pair of red shorts on..kut..or have I got my wires crossed ke and tah íklan’apa and dimana I nengok tu. And then when I was in my twenty’s pulak, I was so worried about my weight although I was 10-15kilos lighter then. I have big bone structure so, I should have realised that I could never be waif-like like Kate Moss walaupun sebanyak mana I tahan makan pun. And then there was this problem about my hair…those days takde technique se-advance rebonding macam sekarang ni. If one nak straighten the hair, silap haribulan, your hair might look so keras macam rambut palsu geisha. Org kata rambut I jenis wavy, I panggil curly, bila balik Msia with the humidity and all, dia jadi frizzy.

When I did my practical right after graduation, and bila dah bergaji, mula la nak berexperiment…..i started to colour my hair…kalau masa student tu the scholarship setakat mampu bayar haircut kat student union je, 3pound 50…haircut je literally…the hairdresser wet your hair to cut and at the end of it you’d still be left dripping wet because dia tak blowdry pun rambut you. Anway, ada once tu I masuk la to this hair salon yg sebelum ni masa student setakat lalu je la and I say, I’d like to have some highlights please. Warna brown2 to go with my Asian skin, not too bright please. And I’m the type yg tak fussy, I like to just grab a mag, sit back and tunggu je the finished product. Hambik kau…when she was finished I look like a Japanese teen pop star!! The bleach was left on for a bit too long and I my hair turned bright orange!!!! I didn’t know what to say, I didn’t make any fuss at all, I ingat silap I ke tak bagi instructions betul2??? So what did I do??? Masa tu, to put on the tudung was the last resort le kan..although I should have taken note that probably god was hinting at me in a big WAY! I ended up at the Student Union hairdresser with tail between my legs and mintak my regular hairdresser tu kalerkan balik rambut I jadi hitam…itula, when I started earning I thought I was too posh for basement hairdresser.

Talking about eventful incidence that took place masa2 I tengah mencantikkan diri (perasan betul!), 2 years ago I went for a facial. I just finished my morning session kat OT at workplace B and I had 3 hours to kill before afternoon session starts. So, I pi la buat facial at this place where it was in the middle of renovation nak upgrade kan salon tu. This kakak did my face and in between dgn menjawab tefon and cakap ngan workmen…and certain steps tu dia punya assistant lak tolong buatkan. I remember it was the last week of puasa, takde clients lain pun. Then, the kakak covered my eyes with gauze and pakaikan mask yg after a while keras cam simen. It was 1.30pm then. I thought paling lama pun by 2pm she’d remove the mask and by 2.30pm latest I should be back to attend to my clients. Then 2pm came and gone, 2.30pm, then 3pm. Mulut tak boleh nak bukak besar nak jerit panggil org because of the mask. Kat luar bunyi workmen tgh bertukang and I was berkemban je, takkan nak jalan keluar….i called up my junior and gave him all sorts of excuses about being at the clinic anak sakit, please mind my clients…and si junior ni cakap our immediate boss yg tgh mindkan…nak jatuh jantung I because boss ni terkenal dgn garangnya..yg set2 boleh jerit kat semua org..ces! Rupanya dia buat lawak je, clients ada 2 je petang tu, agaknya yg lain dah balik kampung kut. Then at 3.30pm baru la akak tu terkedek2 datang, both she and her assisstant completely forgot about me! Sib baik la tak ditinggalnya I sampai bukak pose ke…

Look what the stork brought in, again..

Eh apa ini????

Baby X

I have 2 questions if anyone can answer or help me with these questions....(tiada berbau2 schizophrenia ye):

1. I started my car engine today and ada bunyi macam tin kosong bergerak2 from the engine. Kuat sangat! Is it the timing belt? I changed it once at 70k+ km, now the mileage is at 130+km. Can it be the timing belt again??

2. Do i get a baby sling or baby pouch. Mana yg lebih idiot proof to put on??

Thankss.

Ramblings of a desperate hoswipe

I’m bored. Yes, I’m sitting on my bum all day..that’s hardly challenging. And there’s just so much of Friends and Desperate Hoswipe reruns I can watch. I have 17 more days of pantang and I dah berangan hari yg ke 41, I am definitely going out with the baby. Sekarang ni I tengah fikir whether I should invest in that fashionable sling to cart the baby around. We do have the baby carier that comes with the carseat and all but I feel it’s quite heavy to be carried as such and the buggy is just too bulky. My only reservation about the baby sling is that MG said that I may look like a ‘bibik’..
What is it with tv programme that some of them, the translation for the subtitles is just so bad! A rabid fox is definitely not ‘musang arnab!’. This is just one of the few blunders…I guess I’m being picky, it’s the teacher in me. I have definitely watched enough times of Karate Kid, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Prince and Me and apa2 lagi cerita romance. For god’s sake I’m 35 with 5 kids but I still get teary eyed and kengkadang tu terlupa wishing that my prince charming would come and sweep me off my feet to a kingdom far far away (in my ideal world this would be where I would be bergelimpangan in moolah, not having to lift a finger to work, not change any dirty nappies and obviously eat to my heart’s content without gaining an ounce). I remember watching Karate Kid for the very first time when I was in my teens…masa tu I ingat si Ralph Macchiolah jantan yg paling macho. I berangan nak jadi gofrennnya…bila sekarang tengok balik ya allah, cekedingnya mamat ni and the leading lady was of normal (or a bit on the tembam side) build…cam From Taiping With Love pulak kan…
Yesterday I thought I dah kena timpa daulat with this person from Paroi Jaya…I spent 30mins on the loo seat but to no avail. At first I tried ‘mind over matter’ technique, convincing myself that everything in life can be achieved if one really puts her mind to it. I imagined myself a small python trying to gobble down a fat rat and thus have to dislocate my jaw in order to swallow the prey. It didn’t work probably in my case because the ‘prey’ was going towards the wrong direction.

I wanted to upload some pics of baby X but ni dah dekat half an hour pun tak terupload lagi..maybe next time.

Reminiscing II

Well, I was supposed to be the org tengah but apa my job scope I pun tak clear. Agaknya, I was to be R’s mata2 kut and report to her whatever Siamang got up to I supposed. Takkan menyampaikan surat2 rahsia between them two kut because tak siapa yg menghalang chenta diaorg. They were free to do as they pleased. Tapi nak dijadikan cerita, I idakle berkenan sangat kat Siamang, because cocky semacam and perasan yg dia tu hensem….but how later I pulak yg tersapu si Siamang tu, I was not quite sure. Well, jantan tu did say yg dia takde rasa chemistry ngan R…tapi herannya berbalas2 lawatan muhibbah and phone calls and getting that makcik’s hope high, typical jantan betul! Anyway, I think because it was R (yg lemah lembut dan baik tu) and I tak rasa le takut sangat dah buat perbuatan keji menikam kawan tu but it took me a few months jugak nak break the news to her. Eventually during summer end of 1st year tu, I came clean and she said she sort of guessed pun.
Anyway, R setelah cintanya ditolak, naik 2nd year je terus ditangkap oleh abang senior yg cintan sangat kat dia ni. This story is about R.
The others and I selalu terfikir that R adalah ciri2 wanita sejati. Dgn tuturkata yg lemah lembut, baik hati serta rambut mayang mengurai sampai ke pinggang tak heran lah dia jadi idola. We visited her one holiday for Msian Night, the first time that us girls got together after A-Levels. I gabra jugak because that was the first time we met up selepas mencurik boipren tak jadi dia. But I was relieved because boipren baru dia seemed to adore her…you know that kind yg bila si minah bercakap dgn org lain, the jantan would just look at minah dgn tak berkelip2. Fast forward three years later, they got married. Over the years, we all yg lain ni semua jadi macam makcik but R got prettier and slimmer. Rambut pun dah kerat buat bob, pakai jeans boleh tuck in baju lagi..we are so not worthy you! Dari single mingle sampai beranak 3, body lagi cun. Anak2 pun comel2 set2 yg boleh masuk iklan punya. Then…a few years back, ada la kawan jantan I ni called me up and tanya, you tau ke cerita R ngan laki dia??? Dodgy sangat kan??? I said apahal?? This friend baru balik dari kenduri family and he bumped into R’s hubby tapi dgn pompuan lain!! Nak dijadikan cerita, besok2 kawan I ni pergi lagi kenduri family dia and bumped into that guy again and all he managed to say to laki R was ‘Does R know?’ hish, drama sangat! Apparently she does…that her hubby has taken another wife.
How can it happen to R?? All of us aspired to be like R….dia idola kitaorg..the lawyer in Ust. Munah said well, that guy’s an idiot, so it doesn’t matter bini cantik camna pun, kalau dia nak kat pompuan gedik, what to stop him? Miss Popular said, what chance mere mortals like us have in making sure laki tak cari lain?? And again UM said, if that guy’s an idiot, tak kisah la if he’s married to May@ Karin herself….
Then my old friend from tepi tasik cakap, kalau dia, dia akan bagi ultimatum kat lakinya, me or her, tak boleh dua2.
But seriously, how do you stop your partner from falling for another woman??? Tell me what guy in this world yg tak nak berdua, bertiga, berempat or kalau boleh jadi macam King of Swaziland and gundik2nya? It’s their fantasy! Some men do it because they have the means, wife diaorg bagi or to hell with everything, my little brain rules! Is it truly R’s hubby’s faults?? What if, R is at fault??? Tak pedulikan si jantan or she’s cold or whatever?? To my friend, I said, if my husband were to one day ask me, flaunt at me or I terfound out ke…to me it’s as good as whatever we have is basically over. Tak payah nak bagi ultimatum, pujuk ke etc. Nanti kang, he stays on for the sake of anak2 or taknak harta dibahagi dua ke, mak bapak pujuk ke, which to me would not be good enough….i do not just want the body or the physical presence, I would rather have the mind and soul as well please, thank you.

Reminiscing

Remember the old friend I made the point to meet up before I went to have Baby X? We met up tepi tasik near my workplace B. The irony was, I for at least two months have stopped going to workplace B, I claimed lethargy and also I told Si Baung that he has to be there on his own because I won’t risk my tummy being kicked by my clients. Anyway, the old friend happened to be near workplace B that day, so I said, let’s meet up and have coffee, I’m in the vicinity (ooo..nak drive ke sana buat kerja kata penat, bersantai boleh! Nasib baik tak kena tangkap dgn my boss at workplace B). This old friend was from my university days, on 2 weeks break from leading an ex-pat life.
We gossiped of course. When I did the prepatory English course prior to A-Levels, I was part of a clique.There were 5 of us, the original 4 were all from the same school (a ah Esah, sekolah tu..yg you secretly aspired to masuk last time..) and we adopted one KL girl who enterd the programme solo molo takde school mate lain, and I shall call her Rapunzel bec. rambutnya yg mengurai. Others were Ust. Munah, Stick Insect (because she was sooooo thin), Miss Popular (memang popular pun di kalangan senior2 kerana berdahi licin) Me and Rapunzel.
Ustazah Munah – I was mostly in contact with her, seminggu 2,3, kali. But when I got pregnant with Baby X (still no name), I procrastinated in telling her and bila I nak meletup dah lagi sebulan baru I bagi tau. I was sooo desperate to meet her, to explain things but apa kena ngan lawyer ni ye??? They don’t drive and they are the busiest people on earth, lebih teruk dari PM himself. UM with hubby are still ‘solo’but hey…it’s their choice. I was in that situation before and the last thing I wanted was nosy people asking why takde anak lagi, and dah pi check dah ke..etc. I was happy as I was and I’m sure UM is also and the thing that made us annoyed is when friends or relatives yg berkata2 begitu. We’ve been friends since we were 7, so I’m terribly unhappy that now we are not talking..not consciously but macam terlampau polite pulak. So, any suggestions what I should do??
Stick Insect- She was the sweetest among us, gaya2 pompuan melayu terakhir gitu. She married a guy also from our programme that we approved (approval from kakak2 tiri was a big thing OK). He became orang minyak, transferred to Japan, SI took unpaid leave from mengubati org for a few years, and this was a few years ago. Last I heard they are now in S’pore because the hubby got transferred there. Kakak2 tiri yg lain bila berjumpa mesti sembang pasal how god is ‘maha mengetahui’…if org minyak were to be married to any of us mungkin we all takkan sanggup tinggalkan career mengikut laki sana-sini. But SI was different from any of us..hidup dan matinya is for suami and anak2 gitu.
Miss Popular – she married a senior who now has a thriving law practice. She herself meninggalkan kehidupan glamour di hospital utk bukak practice sendiri and now ni dah boring asyik prescribe ubat batuk je and is thinking of joining the service balik. Rumah pun kat one of the affluent areas in Shah Al@m. Sometimes, I have the feeling that all is not too well, tapi normal lah married life camtu kan, and she’d be on the phone to me or Ustazah Munah, moping….
MP dulu memang popular di orat oleh boipren2 org sampaikan ada la gofren2 yg bagi warning kat dia. In the end she married one of the seniors, I think it was in 1998, I came back from UK that time to attend her wedding. I went with Ust. Munah (who else? We were practically twins) and Siamang. Masa tu sibuk la diaorg mengusik that I would be next..tapi fast forward 10 tahun, we can see apa yg dirancang tak selalunya berlaku kan??
Rapunzel- we ‘adopted’ her even though she was budak KL (eeee!!!) because she was nice. Bila dia cakap, amboi, lembut and manjanya suara..i think that N0ra D@nish dlm Puteri tu ada macam unsur2 nak tiru minah ni. When we bermukim at Msia Hall, the boys would purposely called up the phone at girl’s floor and once minah ni duk dlm bilik yg paling dekat dgn phone tu and dia akan jawab. They just want to hear her say ‘hello’! Speaking of 18 year old boys and their hormones! Nak dijadikan cerita, R knew Siamang and 2 years later bila masuk uni and Siamang ditakdirkan masuk the same uni as me, R came to visit. Ghope2nya minah ni minat kat Siamang ko!! I was supposed to be the org tengah, Siamang and R sempat berbalas2 lawatan muhibbah lagi…bersambung nanti..baby X menangis.