Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Holy Cow!!!


Literally.

Ming and I walked out of McDonald’s to be met by a growing crowd mulling about the Mc’D’s delivery motorcycles. Photographers and journalists in their tell-tale vests were hanging about there…. Young men in light blue vests from the state;s ruling party were waiting excitedly too….

We got out of there with no incident, spying many a bored faced uniformed FRU personnel waiting under a tree here, under the shade there…. I got up to my office on the 9th floor, and promptly ran to the window.

The group had grown to approximately 100 in number. And as if on cue, the banners appeared, and the group started shouting slogans and marching… Nothing really out of place, just YET anorther demonstration... only THIS one was led by…. a cow.

I’m not kidding.

They were a throng of about 100 men, all in their prime (18 – 45 years), sporting slogan filled t-shirts and party flavoured tops, marched, shouting their support for their beloved head of state, all orchestrated to move in one fast paced concerto, conducted by….. a cow.

The cow, which was the focus of many a photographer’s flashbulb, was undoubtedly the star of this show, she was displayed, at the back of a little lorry, which for half an hour earlier this afternoon, was her centre stage on oscar night.

They photographed her, placed banners near and around her, and made her lead the crowd, in her lorry, at the head of the procession.

They marched towards my office building. And excitedly, I wished hoped and prayed they’d lead her into the lobby. That’ll be a sight… but the lorry veered off towards the parking lot, and the crowed marched on towards the lobby downstairs.

As I type this, I can hear men’s voices shouting (into their hand held hailers) :-

“Tan Sri…. I LOVE YOU! x 3”. Loving group these men are….

“Hidup Tan Sri…..” x 3,582. Prophetic too…

I applaud them for their dedication. To be able to get a group of grown men, to meet and steak out, and herd themselves towards a common and well loved cause, nevermind who (or in this case, what) led the procession…. is nothing short of an amazing feat of bull headed determination, beefy dedication and selfless-ness.


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Thursday, February 12, 2009

25 random things meme


I was tagged by Ema fren on facebook, and like many others who find the facebook forum a bit too public, I’m posting my 25 meme post here.

The meme was to list 25 random things about yourself, and to subsequently tag 25 people to do the same, including the person who tagged you. So here goes :-

1. I love singing and usually entertain myself to a solo concert in the car. Much to the amusement of the other road users around me.


2. I love luxuriously long hot showers.


3. I want a pug. And I want to name it Buttercup, be it a boy or girl.


4. I love eating smelly things. By that I mean, naturally pungent food. Durians, cheese.. yummmm!


5. I will stop eating my bah kut teh and/or mee hoon kueh once I run out of cili padis. For this reason, I ALWAYS have to ask for more chilly at the restaurants, and I have my own cili padi plants at home.


6. I daydream, skive and talk to myself a lot.


7. I am long winded. What can be succinctly expressed in 5 words, I will invariably choose to say in 40.


8. I read classics. For 2 reasons. I started reading them years and years ago when I was a student with very little to spare and classics were the cheapest books around PLUS they made very good value for money too…. Small print, no pictures and they were so thick! All for RM4.95 (at that time). Now I read them simply cause they sooth me. With everything happening around the world and in my life today, the pages in these classics have no gory violence, terrorism, rude language and such. It’s refreshingly amusing to read about how one is practically betrothed to another if one is promised more than 2 dances at a ball. (Now you believe item 7 above?)


9. In the past 3 years, I have learnt more about the person that I am and hope to be than in the 30 years preceeding that.


10. I prefer bread and noodles over rice.


11. I am a morning person. I like the promise of a great day the morning brings, and I love, love, LOVE drizzly mornings, with the smell of Mummy’s loh shi fun wafting up from the kitchen.


12. My unfavouritest time of the day is dusk. Just as the final half hour of sunlight ebbs from the sky. It feels like my heart’s sinking with the sun. I don’t know why I get so down, and sometimes, it’s simply unbearable.


13. I believe in giving credit where it’s due. Sometimes to the abashed blushes of the person receiving it.


14. I say a little prayer for the patient and his/her family every time I see an ambulance on the road.


15. I have a hero. He inspired me to do well in life and make something of myself, to stand out. Dr. Tony H.L. Leong, my ophthalmologist who treated me during my very very impressionable teenage years. (Dr. Leong, I hope this doesn’t scare you, if by the remotest chance you happen to be reading this). He was sincerely kind and generous and caring to me when he really had no reason to. For that, I am humbled and hope to be able to be as kind and generous to someone, as he was to me.


16. I swallowed mercury from a thermometer as a young child. To the relief of my parents and doctor, the problem resolved itself errrr ‘naturally’. Although my mum still blames the mercury for my sometimes bizarre behaviour… which leads us nicely to item 17…


17. I do things that are (what my mom, sis, anyone around me find) kinda weird (so they say). I kiss myself (on the hand) from time to time, I kiss my car from time to time, and when I was growing up, I had a list of 7 husbands (all famous movie stars and the likes). Nothing serious…am still very much unmarried.


18. I am predominantly right handed but write, draw, use chopsticks and do delicate things like carving or lip lining with my left hand, leading many to think I am left handed.


19. My brother and I are mirrors. (ok, we KINDA look alike) but we mirror each other in the sense that he’s predominantly left handed, but writes and uses chopsticks with his right hand.


20. I am a world of contradiction, and have been known to change my mind at the last minute (sometimes more than once), much to the irritation and consternation of the people around me. SORRY!!!! (Please see item 16).


21. I like cheong sams. Nevermind my lifetime quest of losing weight.


22. I like cooking and I love baking, but have been told, time and again that I can’t. But I stubbornly refuse to accept the fact that I will never, ever by ANY stretch of the imagination be Nigella. *sigh*


23. I am a procrastinator on certain things and am unforgivably impatient on others. (Please see item 20 and oh, what the heck, item 16 too!).


24. I wish I had smaller feet. Even just by 1 size. Because I have large feet, growing up, it was like finding a needle in the haystack every time I found a pair of girly footwear, hence I had very, very few. Now that there are larger sizes and more imported brands of footwear available here, I sometimes go overboard with buying shoes, kinda to make up for lost time I guess.


25. I believe in karma and in being just, patient (God knows I try), forgiving (this too!) and compassionate in my search for happiness (do I sound dalai lama-ish of what!?!). I am trying, and I am learning…


For the 5 of you who read my blog, consider yourself tagged. I wanna know something about you too. So Buck, OT, Angie, Marc and JP, I am looking forward to reading your 25 random things.



Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Only during CNY….

It was a serious occasion. We were visiting a friend in the hospital.

5 minutes into the visit, she whips out her deck of cards. The one she carries with her in her handbag, throughout CNY….

She looked at me, we both looked at the patient…

Well she LOOKED alright, the sedatives WERE wearing off, she DID have an appetite…and it was CNY!!!!

And the hospital bed made the perfect table.

For black jack.

Played in hushed tones….

We were decent. We didn’t yell or call enthusiastically for the “PICTURE!”, we WILLED it, eyes scrunched, a gentle “picture” whispered….

I made some money that day. The patient broke even, the others lost :D

What?!? It WAS during CNY, and the patient SEEMED okay….. PLUS, the nurse didn’t stop us…..

*Gong Xi Fa Chai everyone !!!!!*


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