My waistline survived Hari Raya!!! by encik baju busuk.

Yay to me! Yesterday was the first day back to the gym for me. The last time i went was the Monday on the week before raya (16th Oct). Didn’t go on Wednesday nor Friday of that week due to a severe case of anal leakage (cirit birit). urgh…don’t ever want to go through that again. but it’s all good. i am back to my old healthy self.

 Yesterday, me and my two gym buddies were there (addie and vern) sweating away. i managed to eek out 15 minutes on the stair master on level 10. a personal best (so far)… YOU ARE NOT THE MASTER OF ME YOU DIRTY STAIRMASTER YOU!!! I RULE! then proceeded to do my circuit training as prescribed by my PT, En. Kimitiaz Khan. Could do all at the required weight except the shoulder press (on account of my girls shoulders) and the leg curl (stupid hamstring machine). on both of these, had to do a lower weight than what was recommended.

 then, i helped out miss addie with her resistance training. i must say, she’s got one hell of a willpower. terrer siot! she managed to do ALL the required training, even though some was not at the target weight. i salute you, miss epileptic paus haus. yay! she so motivated that I ended up doing a few extra machines than what i was required. Kim will be so proud.

after huffing and puffing at the gym for almost three hours (vern did most of the puffing since he did an HOUR of cardio), all three of us headed to DOME, where we had huge scrumptious meals which cost a grand total of 8 ringgit. all thanks to my buddie vern ‘i’ve got dome points’ chan. so, he also gets a yay… YAY!

and what did i do after all this? i went home, and slept… wohoo!!!!

-fin-

Poem for Mom

I wrote this for my mom in 1996 and submitted it for a Mother’s Day competition in 2000. I won and got a gift hamper for my mom as a prize. The poem’s structure’s pretty simplistic and it might read a tad bit juvenile, but hey, who’s not juvenile when it comes to their mom, right? Hope you’ll enjoy it!

in this world, there’s only one you…

thousands come, thousands will go…

but you’re the one…

really (?) they ask me… yeah… i say so…

when i was lost…

you were my light..

when i was weak…

you were my might…

others aim for glory and fame…

while some only shoot for treasures galore…

but i am not content with just a title to my name…

i wanna take care of you when you’re old and sore…

i guess what i’m trying to say…

is something i think you already knew…

sometimes i’m stubborn and want things my way…

but i wanna say, i love you, i really do…

and when the night draws to and end…

when the early light touches the dawn…

i’d like you to be proud enough to stand…

and say “See, that’s my son”.

Almost at the end

It’s almost Hari Raya. About 7 hrs away till the end of this year’s fasting month. Can’t believe it’s been a month of fasting already. Seeshh… time’s fun when you’re having flies I guess. I’ve even managed to lose a few kilos. Not sure whether it’s the gym or the fasting or might even be a combination of both. But, whatever the reason, i am now slightly (empahsis on slightly) lighter.

Tomorrow after the Raya prayers me and my family (lin, firdaus, my mom, my dad and my sister) will head down to muar to go visit my maternal grandad. I am not big at sleeping over other ppl’s houses, so it’ll be a day trip, which is fine by me. On wednesday, it’ll be visits to lin’s relatives (if we’re not dead tired from tomorrow’s trip) and back to work and gym on thursday. no rest for the wicked, it’s back to the stairmaster and the exerise regime that kim gave to me to do in his absence. wohoo!!!!!

-fin-

Petronas Ads

I watched the Petrnonas Deepavali and Hari Raya ads yesterday and my feelings about it would be : unimpressed and confused. Let me elaborate. In the Deepavali ad, i am just thoroughly confused. Maybe my more enlighted friends (cue for vern, addie and vince to step in) can give me a clue. What was the Deepavali message there? What I got is free competition is bad. The old guy wasn’t all that happy with a newcomer coming into his turf. And the comment about ‘who says an old dog can’t learn new tricks?”. what was his new trick? did i miss something?  As a consumer, I have to say, competition between vendors, service providers, telcos, petrol stations, and anything that services me, the user/consumer, has to be a good thing. Monopoly = bad (case in point : Streamyx, Microsoft, etc) . So, though i agree with the saying at the end ‘Don’t do onto others what you don’t want to be done onto you”, my saying to the original Raju would be “What ever doesn’t kill you would make you stronger”. Nuf said.

Next, the Hari Raya ad. The first time I watched this, I was just taking it all in, and left my brain functions on pause. So, the ad achieve it’s desired effect : it touched me where it was supposed to, my heart. Felf sorry for the dad being treated badly by the son-in-law (he was the villian, the wife/daughter just got caught in between the two- classic married malay women problem i think, but that’s off another tangent). the second time i watched it, thanks to the link from vern, I started thinking…. what on earth has this got to do with Hari Raya? The only thing I could think about was that the whole debacle happened during the fasting month. But why didn’t the daughter ask for forgiveness? She only put her head on his tight and “poof” – cut to black. Felt like tergantung tak bertali… And the third time I watched it, sone of the scenes triggered a question in my mind. which scene? it’s when the two kids where playing house and told their parents : “nanti bila mama dan abah dah tua, mama dan abah makan kat luar, kakak dan adik makan kat dalam” and “abah jangan lupa pakai lampin tau!”. what did i think of when i heard this? KARMA. and the question: I wonder what the old man did in his younger days that fate has seen it fit to pay him back in his old days? We didn’t get a chance to see how he treated his daughter, nor did we see how he had treated the son-in-law. For all we know, the father didn’t approve of the son-in-law and made the poor guy’s life miserable. Kept pointing out at every opportunity about how the guy’s not good enough for his daughter. Can you now blame the guy for acting that way? I won’t.  I guess the message that the ad was trying to get across was ” Was goes around comes around”. I totally agree, but let’s not only think that the message was only for the young(ish) man and his wife. Just because you’re old don’t mean you’re a saint.

-fin- 

What would’ve happened?

What would’ve happened

If I did this instead of that

If I chose that over the obvious this

Where would I be?

How would I feel?

Would it still be the same?

Unchanged, unmoved in destiny’s iron grip

Yet I can’t help but wonder

If things would turn out any better

A few seconds later

Or maybe a trickle bit sooner

Never ending what ifs

Should i have chosed A instead of B

 Could I change what fate had in store for me

Guess I’ll never know

If a yes in place of a no

Could’ve spared me mental sorrow

But, could it also be written somewhere

That I am where I am because someone did care

That a yes could’ve been the beginning

To suffering never ending

Thankful I must be…extend grave to where it’s due

Though I can’t help it mind you

To stop… look back… sit and wonder

IF I did chose the latter (or the former)

Would my life now be any brighter?

Or would it be exactly the same

With me mulling over a question that has no answer?

 

-fin-

We are not ready

We say…

we are compassionate

yet on the road we’re speeding, impatient, inciting anger and hate.

we are caring

yet let our elders stand in lrts, as if not seeing.

we are one country, one nation

yet everyone’s labelled a different kind of Malaysian.

we are the embodiment of Asian beliefs

yet use disaster donation boxes as trash cans for soiled briefs.

we are ready for technology

yet lack the moral fibre to handle it responsibly.

we lead by example,  doing things rightly

yet old ‘uns suck arsenic sticks while telling young ‘uns “NO to Ecstasy”.

we are free

yet sit zombified every Saturday, watching ‘reality tv’.

we are ready to lead

yet turn a blind eye to society’s needs.

we are a developing nation, marching towards prominence

yet reek of 3rd world ethics, shackled by our arrogance.

Arrogance begets Ignorance begets Apathy!

We say “Malaysia Boleh!!!”, shout “We Can!!!”, loudly and proudly

Yet forget to ask ourselves, are we really ready?

Taking matters into my own hand

Today, I am taking matters into my own hand in my on-going saga with my former employer, ExxonMobil regarding my tax refund cheque. It seems that IRB has sent the cheque more than a month ago, but EM has not recevied it till now. Tired of being a ping pong ball being bounced between EM payroll, EM mailroom and IRB, i’ve decided to request IRB to cancel the existing cheque and issue me a new one, and send it to my home address. All I need is for someone in EM to endorse my request letter saying that the cheque never arrived at EM Payroll.  This is the middle class fighting for it’s rights!

 Wish me luck.

-fin-

Wimpy Effort

My performance at the gym yesterday was disappointing. Managed to do 10 minutes on the stairmaster at level9, 1 set of basic squats, 2 sets of double lunges, hamstring weights, quad weights, 2 sets of pulldowns, and 2 measly sets of seated row (6 reps each for this one), and then had to stop.. why? because i almost fainted. felt like it was my first time at the gym. to make matters worse, i go downstairs after my wimpy effort, heartbeat still in the high 160s, and find out my motivator, miss addie ‘paus haus’ law could do 15 minutes on level 9 on the stairmaster and she followed that up with cardio on the eliptical. all’s i can say is DAMN! YOU GO GIRL! i blame my flu… damn virus, making me weak, reducing me to a quivering mass of girly man.

 so, i intend to seek redemption tonight. i shall do 15 minutes at level 9, and complete a full body regime, from the legs up. will even attempt the biceps machine (which is one of my least favorite contraption). plus,  i will have my other buddy there, mr vern to motivate me (or if all else fails, laugh at my still girly efforts)….so here’s to hoping i’ll redeem myself tonite…  i gotta push myself so i don’t fail my first ever assessment (weight, BMI, body fat, etc) this Friday. after that is Raya holidays, and as addie puts it “boiled veges time” to avoid looking like the marshmellow man when i come back to the gym post raya celeb.

 wish me luck!

 -fin-

Good news vs bad news

the good news : just found out management’s decided to make monday (23rd) a replacement day off for deepavali (this saturday). yay! throw in an annual leave on thursday and what do you have? a long freaking weekend.. that’s what! wohhoo.

now the the bad news: i am losing my mind! out of the blue just now i totally (and i do mean TOTALLY) could not remember what my office phone PIN is. i mean, i use this PIN everyday to make outside calls and i just used it not an hour ago! for the life of me, i could not remember… it’s as if it was erased it from my mind. i got the secretary to look it up in her files for me, and when she told me, it was as it i heard it for the first time… didn’t sound familiar at all… what is wrong with me (other than the obvious…)

-fin-

Oh, what a black hazy monday!

It’s official, today is one of the worst day ever! i woke up dreading going through today. it took me an extra 10 minutes this morning to get my act together.  scatterbrained would be an understatement. kept running in and out of all the rooms trying to locate the stuff i need for work : my keys, my bag, my socks, my mind, EVERYTHING! and, just my luck, i get to work… and found out i still left crap at home! what a trying trying trying morning.

 and get into the car, start driving, what do i see? nothing actually, because the haze’s too damn thick! couldn’t even see KLCC from the elevated highway. so, just as i am recovering from my viral infection, i am exposing myself to the nasty KL air again…. sheesh!

and, i still haven’t gotten my Income Tax refund check! Damn it all to hell! IRB says my former employer (it’s hig oil and gas giant with the initals E.M) should have it (since they sent it to me c/o the payroll) department. I call the payroll department and they’re blaming the mail room. I am both angry and helpless at the same time. Arghhh!!!! (to get a better feel of how i feel, refer to my rant about being middle class).

 i pray to God that my day’ll get better. I have gym tonite so i have a chance to let off some steam and after that i have a meeting with my tax plannig guy (whom i have a gazillion questions for). I should also be thankful that it’s Ramadhan. If not, i’ll be indulging in my favorite comfort activity : eating…

 what’s a man to do…?