39 and counting

3 a.m. 

5 years ago. I can remember this very clearly. 


I woke up in the middle of the night screaming ... "OMG, I just turned 40!!!" and I remembered Jeff being startled only to realize that I had been dreaming and telling me to go back to sleep (although it really seemed like a nightmare to me at the time).

I am 39. 


Now. 


At this precise moment of time.


I won't be in a month's time. 


But unlike 5 years ago, I am really happy where I am right now.

I ask myself, "Why?"

1. I am blessed with a loving and beautiful family.

2. My parents are still here with me and I love them to bits.

3. I have a great extended family and every one of them is important to me.

4. Lots of awesome friends whom I love very much and cherish (you know who you are!).

5. I am in awesome health, never felt better in my life.

6. I look great (when its not a bad hair day or if I am royally hung over).

7. I live all facets of my life to 100% and I still enjoy being me!

8. I am not bored.

9. I get to travel and enjoy awesome cuisines ....

10. I have hobbies.

Am I looking forward to being not-39? I don't care anymore actually for as long as I have and treasure what is closest to my heart - all of the above. 

For all it is worth, 39 had been a great year. More to look forward to ....


Until another 3a.m. 5 years from now, when I will probably wake up screaming, "OMG, I am turning 50!"

Sorry Blog - been away for too long. So here is a new story!

Let me tell you what happened to me yesterday.

I woke up crazy late so had to rush to send my daughter to school so that I don't cause her to be late. So I had to park right next to this huge bushy plant. So exiting out from my side of the car was itself a challenge. So I had a facefull of leaves, dried leaves, twigs .. you name it, I had it on me.

So we got to school on time. I really dreaded having to get back into the car and also contemplated getting in from the passenger side but with all the other parents around, I thought against it. After all, if I could get out, surely, I would be able to get back in. Which I did, after another facefull and hairful or leaves, dried leaves, twigs ....

Then I drove to work. When I got out, I had to investigate whether any of that forest ended up in my car as well and as I suspected, I had to remove a dozen or more leaves. Sigh. Off to work now.

Lunch. I decided to have dim sum at Chulan Square so I drove there. That's when the excitement starts. Normal conversations in the car with my friends from Legal and Business Bank. Blah Blah .... then I felt an itch on my neck that could move. How odd. That was around about Wisma Genting. So I knew, had to be an insect. I am not very good with insects. So pray hard, this would be a small one. 

So a quick flick and something green landed on my lap. Phew. Not cockroach. That would have send me straight into the back of the car in front of me. Ok, but the idea of `still, it’s an insect' really bothered me. What bloody insect it this and Shereen, you still need to concentrate on the road. I could see it from the corner of my eye making its way back up my shirt until it slipped under a crease. Panic Panic Panic .. half my brain wanted to get out of the car. The rationale side of my brain said look straight ahead and concentrate. The other half wanted to scream. The other two in the car with me was pretty oblivious to the turmoil going on in my head but I think they could sense it a little since I was alternating between `get the green insect' and `damn this traffic'...... 

And then a triangular head peeks out from under the crease and looks at me (still looking at it from the corner of my eye). Great. Its playing peek-a-boo! But then I already knew what it was. Since only one insect that is green and can move its head like that, had to be a praying mantis. Shit. Custom has it, that I cannot kill a praying mantis. It’s not good luck (don't know why) but either way, I cannot crush the guy. But, there is no guarantee that won't happen if it decided to venture further into my clothing. Luckily for it, it was happy where it was. So I took a piece of tissue, and from the corner of my eye, I really prayed it was still under the crease and grabbed whatever was under and passed the entire white bundle to my friend seated in front. Who asked: Should I check if it is in there. I said no, just in case it climbed out and another hunting fiesco would start.

By then I got to the car park, quickly parked and checked the car to see if our green friend was still lurking in it or on me. Must have been an odd sight, since I was really fast out of the car and looking all around myself. Then told my friend to leave the tissue on top of another car (not risking it climbing back into the car). That was when the little green head popped up and it looked as if it was wondering where it was this time. A sigh of relief for it and myself, I said goodbye and I think I  saw it wave back.


Moral of the story: Don't wake up late.

When did they grow up so fast?

Whilst driving my little girl to school today, I decided to ask her a hypothetical question. `Girl, if mummy stayed home, not work, and looked after you, will that be okay?'. She opened her already large eyes really wide and said, "No mummy! You cannot do that. How will I get my butter cookies from Aunty Alina if you don't go to work".

I guess I had that coming. Since she was born, I have always been a working mummy. Quite an alien concept to me as a child growing up because I always had my mummy at home with me. I wonder now how I would feel if I had grown up with a working mummy.

"But mummy will get to get to spend more time with you". "Its okay mum! I get to see you at nights, on weekends and on holidays". 

So now I ask myself. That should be every working mummy's dream answer. But its not. I do wish that I had more time to give her. And that by being home more, she would want me to be around. Not just a night, weekend or holiday mummy. 

But mummy.

A long hard day - gimme energy

I wished I had the energy of both my children. Its amazing how they can still play and chatter (its now 11 p.m.) while I am almost too physically drained to do anything else than let my brain out and allow my fingers to use whatever remaining energy I have.

AAAARARRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH .... (that's the voice in my head). Just letting it out.

Started the day off going to BKT in Klang and found a home made bao shop that sold peanut lotus paste bao. Thats a first for me and surprisingly a rather nice first. I asked for 2 dao sa bao and 2 lotus paste peanut ones. I think the old uncle seemed bent on having me try the yam pork one so he sneaked 2 inside. Not sure if I actually paid for that. So that's 2 extra bao's for me.

Got home after that and decided to bring the car for a wash, buy a few more fishes and vegetation for the tank.

Oh! Did I tell you that SH (soon hock, from a few articles down) has been moved to the un-used 6 foot tank a few days ago. Why did I decide to do that?

Well, I had 3 goldfishes before I left for Macau and to my horror, upon returning,  I had 2 goldfishes left and one very full and smug looking SH. That was when I decided that it was time SH to moved out. He has had a very expensive diet. 5 neons, 6 tiger fishes, 1 gold fish and hordes of prawns and longkang fish. I just feel very bad :( for that goldfish. May his soul RIP.

After that, I went for AmBagus. Kinda like an American Idol thing. A yearly affair. A first time for me. And I was rather pleasantly surprise. Our in-house talents were absolutely amazing and I was entertained. Am so proud of David, the eventual winner. You know when someone sings from their heart, he pulled a few heartstrings. David's actually visually impaired. Saw Ella and Awie. Wow. They rock the house but of course, I never heard any of their songs before. Ella actually came up to me, gave the celebrity handshake. She got a few people to sing a line from her song. I so thanked god she sang another part of the song when I had the handshake. 

6:30 pm and I am driving to my parents to join them for dinner in Klang ( Two trips in a day. That's my yearly average, accomplished in one day). I love highways. Pity there aren't many in Klang. So I snailed my way through to dinner. One hour drive. One hour dinner. 45 minutes drive back.

Kids are still playing. Supposed to have gone for a friend's daughters birthday but I don't trust myself driving this late tonight. My minds awake but my body is going to shut down pretty soon. Sorry Shirley ....

Kids are still playing ........ and the smaller one wants his milk. I hope all that activity he had today will knock him out easily. Fingers crossed.

Well, here is looking forward to another night of sleep without having to wake up early tomorrow .... Happy Sunday folks!

The Ugly Malaysian

The Ugly Malaysian exists. 

To board a flight, there are some who would push the elderly and shove children out of the way and be very proud of the fact that they have absolutely zero civic conscience or a single ounce of decency. I am embarrassed that at an international airport, to hear a foreigner ask, `Are you guys Malaysians?, Do you even know how to behave?'. It is absolutely embarrassing but the Ugly Malaysian does not care. Four Ugly Malaysians, Four able bodied men jostling each other, older and younger passengers to be right in front. Let me tell you how this happened.

This all happened on Monday evening/night. In Macau International Airport. First, the Ugly Chinese who introduced themselves when I queued to get in line for check in. Of course, the Ugly Chinese took advantage of the fact that I had children travelling with me. So that should be easy enough barging their trolleys ladened with heavy luggage at my unsuspecting kids. That really pissed me off. Don't mess with this mum. So the Ugly Chinese had to wait their turn. All this time, I thought how un-educated and horrible these people were. But I think the Ugly Chinese somehow, have been put in a society that is so competitive that in order to survive, these are some of the hard choices people make. Its a dog eat dog world.

My flight home, AirAsia AK55 that was scheduled to leave at 5:10p.m. Weather conditions unfortunately did not favour me as Macau was shrouded in thick fog. Giving the AK55 pilot the benefit of the doubt, whilst all the other pilots landed their planes, ours ended up in Hong Kong instead. 

After 5 hours of waiting, AirAsia gave AK55 passengers the choice of:

(a) Take our luggage, board a ferry and find ourselves into HK and board the flight from there. That was a really bleak option and had that happened, we would probably fly out of HK 9 hours later. 

(b) Wait until the next available flight, that could happen over 2 to 3 days. No reimbursements.

But luck be on my side, the later flight AK57 landed in Macau. IN FOG. Still, I give the AK55 pilot, the benefit of doubt why he could not land IN FOG. And the flight was not full. So AirAsia, gave passengers the option to board this flight but unfortunately, there was no enough space to board everyone. That's when the Ugly Malaysian surfaced. And the jostling and shoving just to get in front. Our four friends where already amongst the first 10 in queue but this obviously was not enough. 

Tip to Air Asia. Be a responsible corporate citizen and make it a policy to board the elderly, pregnant and those travelling with children first. There will be more incidences where the Ugly Malaysian will surface again. And sadly, no amount of education can help but to teach them through conditions placed. The sad part of this episode, there were 43 elderly tourists travelling together and they could only board 23 of them. If I were travelling without kids, I would have given up my seat. I don't know what time those grandfathers and grandmothers got home to their families. 

Shame on you. Ugly Malaysians!

Eye Candy

There are lots of things that are good for the soul. For me, this can be chocolate, a mouth-water-ing dessert, ice cream ... but I recently found candy that will not add inches to my already abundant self, my `eye' candy. 

So for you ladies out there, who want sugar-high without the calories, here is some eye candy for your soul. 

Just don't lick your computer screens.

Pictures are my copyright from the recent Malaysian International Fashion Week.

The Food Chain and Longkang (drain) fish.

Ok. Aidan caught a little river soonhock (SH) a few weeks back. The SH now lives harmoniously with my goldfish. As it is a predator and generally a bottom feeder, it rarely gets a go at the fish food that we throw in since the greedy goldfishes get to those first. The tank then also had 5 neon tetras. After a few days, AND nearly being convinced that there is a smaller equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle in my tank, as all 5 neons vanished into thin `water', we finally realized that the small SH had a rather big mouth and that IT was probably the reason for the neons vanishing. 

So Aidan, his grandparents and I went back to the stream to catch a few little fishes to feed the SH. Aidan did quite a lot of the catching. Armed with a dozen tiny fishes and 3 prawns, we put those into the tank. SH immediately went into feeding frenzy and ate the bulk of the little fishes. That sent Aidan into a different sort of frenzy. He was SO upset that all his hard work had gone into the stomach of the SH in a matter of seconds. To the extent that SH almost lost his home since Aidan wanted him out of the tank. Teary eyed, he wanted to flush SH down the sewer.

So granddaddy offered an explanation on the food chain and Aidan understood. Big fish eat small fish, bigger fish eat big fish ... etc.etc.etc. As a result, Aidan got worried that SH will now starve since there we no more little fishes and the weekend was 6 days away before we have another go at the stream. SO we now have 50 odd little longkang fish, bought from a fish shop enough to keep SH happy for 6 months!

Fish tank now looks like the Tokyo Subway. Too crowded. AND daddy will have a really fun time cleaning it.

So glad the tank wasn't my idea.

Purpledot Paintballs

I don't like pain. Well. in fact, who does? I don't like pain even more if it is self-inflicted. So I really don't know what possessed me two years back when my friends wanted to go paint-balling. I did ask myself, "Are you sure?" and I got the following answers, "Surely it cannot hurt as much", "Never try, won't know", "Well, at least you can say, BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!". 


Well, at least this time it paid to listen to my inner thoughts... which leads me to why I am bullet proof.


The first time I played, even the sound of the shot scared me but not half as badly as the thought that I willingly am subjecting myself to bruising and the eventual pain. After all, everyone said, you are bound to get shot, at least ONCE. 


So after taking the barrel caps off, and the safety whatever that thing is called, and after the Marshall gave the game on signal, I ran. I am not a fast runner but boy, did I run!!! Who cares if I look like some mad crazed woman, with gun pointing up in the air but my first thought is to run for the BIGGEST barrell furthest away. I don't know why I chose furthest away since it was quite a distance. Must have figured, furthest away meant further for them to shoot. BUT to my teammates, furthest away meant also closest to the flag. So I had to run for the flag which I did and run like hell back to base to safety. 


And the best of miracles happened, on my first attempt and at 3 games ... I DID NOT GET SHOT! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA .... 


But some of us are suckers for punishment. They wanted a re-match and I told myself, "This time DIE, you are sure gonna get shot up this time' ......


BUT my lucky stars must have shown .... so this Purpledot is bullet proof. And she escaped a second game without any bullet wounds. 


I am so staying at the top of my game. Two attempts at Paintball and no pain! LOL. 


You must be wondering if my friends are really bad shots ... I think not. Just in case, I try my luck a third time round for which I am sure I will get shot in my back.... but I doubt it.


Here are some shots of a tournament I took over the weekend. As a spectator.


www.flickr.com\photos\shereenkwok

Purpledots starts a blog

So I am shouting out, PURPLEDOTS has started her own blog. 


Waving "Hi" to all ...