News Headlines Today

MIC will be destroyed if I don’t take action, says Samy
JOHOR BARU: MIC president Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said the party would be destroyed if he did not take prompt action against critics.

“MIC is an institution and I won’t allow anyone to destroy it. I will also make sure that it is not a slave to anyone,” he said when opening the Johor MIC delegates conference yesterday.

I'm not an MIC member and I couldn't care less about what happen to MIC but I can't help commenting on this news because it is sooo... funny. In fact, he's one of the funniest politician I can think of.

An institution can stand on its own. It doesn't owe any individual (be it the leader or members) anything. Seems like now it's a slave to the President. Heh! What's the point of saying anything. He's just so dense.

Drive for safer roads
TAPAH: Learner drivers may have to pay a higher fee for their driving lessons, while probationary drivers have to sit for a special test before they are given full driving licence or Competent Driving Licence (CDL).

So where's the statistics that shows more accidents happen due to new drivers? Driving problem is more of an attitude than knowledge issue. What's the effect of putting on more red tapes to get a simple driving license?

One million free laptops for poor students
RAUB: One million laptop computers will be given out free to poor students of secondary schools throughout the country to increase broadband penetration in the country.

What's the use of laptops without good broadband service? How reliable is the broadband at community centers? How do you categorize poor? Would poor children whose parents are from the opposition political party get the laptop? And most importantly, who is going to benefit by the purchase of one million laptop? Which vendor would supply it and would each laptop costs 40k or similar ridiculous figures as revealed by the AG not long ago?

Goodness! It’s a milk record
KUALA LUMPUR: Over 3,000 Malaysians stood united and drank milk simultaneously to set a Malaysian record at the country’s “Largest Milk Drinking Event” Sunday.


So what??? What's so great about it?

Many Malaysians turning their backs on elderly parents
PETALING JAYA: The golden age has no shine for an increasing number of elderly folk who are turning up at welfare homes on their own because their families cannot afford to care for them.

....

“Good infrastructure and easy and affordable access to social services is the best form of a social pension we can give, provided there is a strong government and a good economy,” said Shahrizat.

“When the quality of life is good, families are empowered. Only then will people be able to properly care for everyone in their families,” she said.

Well said. Now how do you walk the talk?

Simple Fun

SILs, nieces & a nephew asked if I'm game for a picnic by the river. Oh definitely... so just grab a few clothes and off we go. The last minute outing was really fun. Sometimes when we take time to plan, things didn't materialize especially when it involves a few families. This time things went well and the weather is very cooperative despite the dull, grey skies in the morning. Right now I'm just plain tired. Feet's aching, body aching... if only I can go for a massage.

Immediate Mission:
- laundry
- rub feet with hot oil
- back massage with osim's handheld massager
- hot tea & Maggie sounded so appetizing after the cool river
- sleep

Yessss!!!!!

Life Excitement

I was actually quite excited about this weekend. Today especially. Sunday! There were no specific reasons. Just a few things I felt like doing. When hubby asked what I wanted to do, I said "nak joli!" Hehehehe... But things don't normally go as planned. A friend can't join me, her daughter is down with chicken pox. Another friend is not free. It was still OK I thought. I can still have a marvelous time. Then I woke up this morning with a jolt due to leg cramps... 'simpul biawak' on my right calf. This is followed by sneezes, one after another. Sigh! My allergies can appear without rhymes or reason sometimes. Now my head feels heavy and I might as well stay home 'layan hidung'. Sigh! The dull, grey skies doesn't cheer me up either. So here I am blogging about life excitement heh!

Apart from diving, the most recent excitement I have is buying myself a pair of jeans. I have not been wearing jeans for 3-4 years since I put on weight. No jeans would fit me right at the waist. Last week hubby wanted to go shopping. A pair of jeans and few pairs of pants. He said his pants has been shrinking lately hehehe... He wanted to go to Levi's shop and whenever I went into any jeans shop, I would ask for my size and would get disappointed. Levi's shop did not excite me for I know they only stock low cut jeans for skinny thin girls. I've tried a few and got disappointed all the time.

I thought it ridiculous whenever I saw bigger size ladies wearing jeans and I couldn't seem to find myself a pair of jeans with reasonable fit. The problem seems always to be at the waist. I was even thinking of having a jeans tailored for me. That day I walked into the first jeans shop I saw. Dragging hubby with me. First, I asked for hubby's size. Hubby looked halfheartedly. He's set on Levi's. Then, I asked for my size almost expecting to be disappointed with the sales girl's answer. Only I wasn't. She's convinced she can find my size and I got the almost perfect fit only on the second try. The waist is still quite big but it was so much better than any other jeans I've tried before. You see, if you've meet with one disappointment after another, you'd know when you find the right one. That philosophy is very much like finding a husband hehehe...

I'd have to pull my jeans up every now and then if I didn't wear belt. I'd be fine with belt. Probably no one can imagine how good I felt when I finally found a perfect jeans for me. I felt young and sexy with that jeans I wanted to twirl around and around like a ballet dancer. Hubby's amused with my excitement :) Sometimes people take simple things like that for granted isn't it. Hubby likes one t-shirt so much while souvenir shopping when we went to Tioman the week before that he insist on buying it despite the size M. In the end, it's too tight for him and I can wear it perfectly. Brand new jeans, size M diving t-shirt and a new haircut, I feel form 4 again :) I'll enjoy this feeling for a while hehehe...

Things I Thought I'd Never Do... Diving!

I love water, when I feel safe. Shallow rivers, snorkeling with safety gear, in a boat or ferry or even canoe, and the beaches. You see, I can't swim. The moment I have to tiptoe in a swimming pool or sea bed, I'd start to panic. But, I've been convinced by my diving instructor that anyone can dive. I wish I could dive from long time ago but never give it a serious thought because I can't swim. Then hubby wanted to dive and SIL has a contact and the rest is history. I saw a video on how Western parents send their babies to classes on how to float in the water. Once the babies has been taught to float, whenever the babies found themselves in the water, sideways or face down, they'll turn their body up and float. The babies cried, but they can float. I'm sure its a good thing to know because we'll never know when disaster will strike. So I thought, if the babies could do it, so can I. Under whatever circumstances, stay calm and try to float on my back.

We went for our diving classes many months ago. Way before fasting month. We wanted to go for a refresher course in the swimming pool but synchronizing my time, hubby's time and SIL's time with our diving instructor's is a pain. In the end we decided to just do it in the open water. We went to Tioman for our first open water dive. We stayed in Tekek and our chalet is right by the beach. We can don our scuba gear and started diving. We have to swim about 200 meters to the buoy before we can dive actually. We can't really swim with our scuba gear and tank so everyone floats on their back and paddle to the buoy. It was tiring and I thought I'd never reach the buoy.

My first diving experience, we were struggling to stay submerged and not touch the sea urchin. They are everywhere. The dive spot was quite shallow, around 8 meters and later our instructor told us in shallow water, there's a pressure up so novice divers like us need more weight to stay submerged. I only wore three weights block. Then we return to our beach and rest for a while before a boat took us to Rengis. The sea was quite rough as the locals said there's a storm the night before and I got sea sick. So is another male diver. When we reached our diving spot, I immediately get into the water and just like that I don't feel dizzy anymore. The other male diver had it bad despite getting into the water later. He ended up not diving.

Rengis is a really small island with just trees on it near Berjaya Resort. This time the dive is more enjoyable. I wore more weights and as the water is deeper (10-15 meters), there's no problem of pressure up. We circled the small island underwater and the view is amazing. This time we wore our gloves so we're not afraid of sea urchins but there's not as many sea urchins here as compared to our first dive site. Hubby's further in front most of the time with our instructor so he got to see many things first like a turtle. SIL and I are at the back holding hands most of the time and behind us a more experienced fellow diver keeping watch. By the time SIL and I reached interesting places, the turtle or the fishes already ran away. Our assistant instructor has to bring a lady diver up. She later said she don't really feel good herself and her husband, the one with a bad seasick, was waiting on the boat. On our way back, once I got into the boat. I felt dizzy again.

Our chalet.
Amazing sunset after our first two dives.
That night, we were so hungry but it took a while before our meals arrive. Other people's fried rice looked so appetizing. But once our meals arrived, after a few bites, I feel like I just don't have the energy to eat anymore. If only I can abandon my group and go to sleep. I do not want to waste the food so I ate slowly and waited till everyone finished with their meals before hubby, SIL and I excuse ourselves. We went for a short walk, looking at the souvenirs and found a nice spot to eat ice cream. Hubby and SIL eat the ice cream. Since my health is more sensitive to what I eat and I do not want any problem diving the next day, I refrain myself from ice cream and cold drinks. Hubby and I slept like a log that night.

Our third diving spot was at Pirate Reef. The sea was calmer today so thank God for that. The deepest we dive is at 16.9 meters and that is about 50 feet. This time, I wore 6 weight blocks and that causes me difficulty to move. I kept going way down near the sea bed. Fortunately, after our assistant instructor helped adjust my weight, I managed to swim. I love this dive. We saw a big real life Nemo. So much better than the one I saw in Langkawi Aquarium. This time, everyone confidently dive on their own. Our fourth diving spot was at the Marine Park. This time I used less weight and we have to dive without the aid of a rope. The water was not as clear as our previous dive but we enjoyed it too. According to our instructors, divers can do treasure hunt here since many people snorkeling above loose their things like gold chain or ring.

Our fifth dive was back at our first diving spot since we still have some oxygen in our pressurized tank. The current was quite strong here and I did not add more weights after the dive at Marine Park. That was a big mistake. After a while, I float almost near to the surface and can't dive down no matter how much I tried. I saw the experienced fellow diver looking for me left and right but I was at the top looking down with no way to signal to him. Only after a while he saw me struggling and reached up to pull me down. By this time, we're already so tired I guess. The paddle back to the beach felt like it would never end. I can understand how some people lost at sea can just loose the will to swim or stay afloat and let nature took its course.

Another unforgettable moment was when hubby's oxygen tank reached zero. At that time, mine was 80. I was swimming quite at the back and was eager to show my instructor that I was already below 100. When I reached my instructor's side, hubby was already sharing with him. In another dive, hubby has about 20 in his tank and mine's still 120. Our instructor said hubby and I should always be buddy underwater because hubby uses up a lot and I used less.

We were so hungry but our special lunch 'pelanduk masak asam pedas' and 'pelanduk berempah' was late. It arrived almost at 3:30 after we clean up, rest and pack. It tastes different and it was OK but I couldn't eat that much. Our ferry was very, very late. We reached Mersing jetty at 8 p.m. We shopped for more souvenirs and said our goodbyes to fellow divers and than had our dinner at a restaurant with big screen TV showing a Kung Fu movie. We started our journey at about 10 and ETA is at 2 a.m.

After a short drive, I started to feel nauseous. All the way I was trying to keep my tummy calm with the asam halia. I took the wheel for a short while later because hubby was so sleepy. It was not even 1 hour later, I stopped at an R&R. I remember we slept for a while, then hubby took the wheel and I dozed off most of the journey. I remember hubby stopping for a rest before continue driving but by this time, I felt so groggy and tummy still unsettled I didn't open my eyes. We send SIL at her place and reached home at almost 3. I felt dizzy for few days especially after breakfast and hubby's ear ache as he can't pressurized properly, but other than that we're fine. I can't wait to go for our next dive. I never thought I'd ever dive before :) Our next adventure... sky diving hehehe...

Of Challenging Week and Relationship

Last week was a very challenging week. I have to be outstation for 5 days. My trip was not for training but to monitor and do spot check on our trainers. The initial plan was for me to visit 9 locations but due to accommodation arrangements and time constraint, we managed to visit only 8 and because our trainers did not follow plan, I can cut short my monitoring to 4 days. Thank God for that.

The challenges were:-
- the long road trip... a staff from the associate company accompanied me but I'm the only one driving.
- meeting with the big and not so big bosses with difficult demands
- accommodation arrangements not properly done
- watching our trainers not following instructions
- my cranky handphone acting up on me. The battery died only after half day use and will not charge with the new car charger.
- really tiring, energy-draining and not something I want to repeat in future
- missing hubby

I can't fully describe how tired I was. By the third day, I have to muster all my energy to smile and be nice to the demanding bosses and the trainers with so many excuses of why they did not follow the session plan. I feel like I have to drag my tired feet one after another to walk from the administration building to the classes. The heat didn't really help either. I can feel the sweat running down my back. Make-up? What make-up? Whatever powder you put on your face will melt in few minutes. My baju kurung swishy-swashy around my sweaty legs as I walked around the classes. No more 5-days monitoring for me no matter what the associate company says in the future.

I've discussed with hubby about not seeing each other for a 'long time' but in reality, it's a confirmation that we can't survive on long distance relationship. The boons of freelancing is more free time. In those free time, hubby and I are like horseshoe crab. Errr... doesn't sound nice when translated. Let's try again... macam belangkas. We go everywhere and do everything together. The bane of that, after being so used to the presence of one another, we'll feel lost when our other half is not around.

Hubby's already on his pre-merajuk mode when I returned home. We only have one night together before hubby has to leave for few days. He's around for the weekend but it's like being so near yet so far. Yesterday, I was already teary-eyed with a heavy lump in my chest. Thank God hubby's home later in the day.

All this reminded me of the girl who followed me during our trip last week. She's pissed off with one of her colleagues. The female colleague refuses to accompany any trainers on their monitoring rounds because her husband will be 'mati kutu' if left alone for 5 days. The girl, she doesn't even answer her boyfriend's phone call when she's with her friends. She can't stand a clingy person and feels everyone should be career-minded and professional in their work. The spouse should fully understand the partner's job as it requires the same commitment before the marriage so why should they be slacking just because they are married? I smiled as she ranted.

She kinda reminded me of myself when I was single and carefree. Dear girl, I'm sure you'll feel differently when you're married :) I know there are married couples who are very independent of one another and not mutually exclusive in any way whatsoever but if you're like most people I know, I'm sure you'll understand once you're married. You'll find out what 'mati kutu' feels like and the 'lost' feeling when your other half's not around.

I'm glad last week was over. I'm actually in the midst of preparing my monitoring report and claims but blogging feels more interesting. It has been a while since I last blogged and I'm blogging very sparsely nowadays. I have many other distractions :)