i got clamped!

Yup, the title says it all. There was nothing pressing at the office since I miraculously completed the super urgent ones, so I decided to personally go to KL Sentral to pick up my ticket, prior to coming in for the day.

I turned into the departure area and saw a lot of parking boxes on the right side, a lot with the chain thing around the box (i.e. there is no way in hell you can park in that box) and some without. Traffic was non existent.

My being the typical Malaysian that I am, I decided to park at one of the empty boxes. It is probably only 40 steps away from the ticket office, at most. Parking at the Sentral carpark was not an option -- it didn’t enter my mind at all, given the circumstances surrounding my where-do-I-park assessment.

I mean, why park in bloody Alaska when you can park nearby? It's not as if I'm double parking or anything, there IS a box. Surely people can park in the damn box.

After all, how long can a wait for them to issue my ticket be, this early in the morning? I’ll be done in a jiffy anyway.

Of course they took a bit longer than norm at the ticket office.

I went back to my car, and there it was, an ugly yellow contraption with a pole kinda thing at my front left tyre.

The first thing that came to my mind was, “Seriously?!”

At the top of the pole was a sign for me to contact its customer service manager to release the clamp.

Of course it conveniently omitted the information as to where to find this customer service manager.

What am I? A psychic?

I went back in to look for people in purple (because that’s the KL Sentral people’s official colours lah) and found one. He then walkie-talkie-ed someone. When he finished he just said to wait by the car.

I asked him the procedure to get unclamped. It’s not as if I’ve been through this before. Hello…

It isn’t actually complicated anyway, so I just waited by my car. Then I saw the clamp zone signage. THAT? It looks so pretty that I missed it despite it being 2 meters away from where I parked. Seriously. That?

Some minutes afterwards a woman in an off-white top and purple sarong appeared at the entrance of the building and gave me a smile. That smile was more apologetic than anything. I knew right away I can haggle this one.

After voicing out my take on the whole clamping thing – the available box, the non-busy time, the cute yet ineffective signage, I requested my ‘offence’ to be compounded (I already said I’m a Malaysian what… hehee). She told me to pay a figure less than the one quoted earlier. I quickly did and asked her for a receipt. I then got unclamped.

On my way, I tried my luck and texted my boss asking whether it is claimable, seeing that I was picking up a ticket for a work-related trip. He obliged. Hehehee..

There’s always the first time for anything.

Ray Kluun - Love Life

Ok ok, I really should get back to work but this book is so not put-downable... It is evoking all possible emotions known to me.

I'll try quickly summarise what I've read so far (I'm only about one third through the book) but I don't think it will do it justice. And, oh, the book is divided into 3 parts, and I'm only at Part 1 (i.e. this is my disclaimer, guys..).

The story is about a happy, married couple with a toddler who has it all. The wife then gets diagnosed with breast cancer and in a blink of an eye their life changed -- to trips to doctors and hospitals and chemotherapy and radiation and psychotherapist appointments. It talks about how the husband deals with all these changes and what he actually feels towards what they are experiencing. And what the wife goes through, in detail -- the doctors' opinons, the books, the chemotherapy, the hair loss, the throwing up, etc; and how he sees the wife coping with it.

Ablation of her breast had to be carried out and the excerpt below is when they were at the hospital the first time after the amputation, to remove the bandage. For a long time she looked at where her 'ex-D cup-breast' used to be; the 10 cm slit, the stitches, the skin, the disfigurement.

"Then she looks at me. I can see in her eyes she's humilated. Humiliated by the cancer. God, this is dreadful. She who wants to be beautiful must suffer pain. She who wants to stay alive must be distinctly ugly.

Those are the laws of cancer."

Please please, go read this book! It is (so far) about love and support and reality and infidelity, and it also gives you an educational peek of what goes on in the lives of cancer patients. It is just so very touching. Love Life by Ray Kluun. I am so glad they translated it to English!

Can't wait to continue my reading...

looking back with a big fat grin

The EH: babe...got blog aa? wats address?

chocpot: hahaaa. got. me shy la.. my blog i just talk shit only. nothing that stimulates the intellect big time :D

The EH: alaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
The EH: pls lah darlinggg
The EH: u got blog but dowan ppl 2 C..how la
The EH: fasterr

chocpot: hahahahaa

The EH: quick :-w

chocpot: heheee

The EH: :-w :D

chocpot: heheheee

The EH: oii
The EH: :w :D

chocpot: :-?

The EH: :))
The EH: :-w :D :-w :D

chocpot: r we gonna communicate thru emoticons?


This went on for a while. In the end, I parted with the address. And then we both had trouble with the internet connection. Hahahaaa…

Is there a point to this posting? Not really. I just find it amusing and wanted to post the conversation :p

Yesterday, The EH reminded me of just some of the ‘funny’ things yours truly here carried out during her undergrad years. It just didn’t make sense to me at first as I did not even remember it! I did ‘remember’ the preceding events though. For all the wrong reasons…

One needs to be told the full facts in order to appreciate it – nope, no such luck today! I’m not telling…

i'm spinning around

I don’t know why but since yesterday I can’t get this song out of my head.

I love this tune, and the video. Kylie looks hot in them -- both the video and THAT gold hot pants ;) Her dancing on the dance floor, her sitting and writhing and sliding on the bar top, the close up or her derriere in THAT gold hot pants. Now THAT’s what you call hot pants, children.

This was from the album Light Years, released in 2000.

Spinning Around also reminds me of August 2001, when we had a combined birthday bash for the twin leos and MBF in a suite right smack in the middle of KL. Personally the second thing that comes to my mind is me smacking my head on the hanging glass lampshade (don’t ask…). In fairness, it was hung low.

The most memorable of that party was the synchronised dancing to Spinning Around. Each of us was at our happy place and chilling and munching and socialising when a bunch of them decided to boost the joy factor and dance. When this song came on, someone had a bright idea to do a group dance. And that they did. Non-stop (to ensure everybody gets all the steps right). The song was on repeat for God knows how many times. I was proudly a happy spectator of the whole thing. It still makes me smile.

“Oooh baby baby baby, you know you like it like this…”

:)

World Environment Day meets Father's Day

People, FRIM is fabulous... The family decided to chill there for father's day. Ate some weird fruit off the tree, got bitten by some creature, screamed in sheer shock when I saw a superlong worm ON the earth (aren't they supposed to be INside earth?) and got all phobic when my sister got bitten (?) by a leach. Am so looking forward to the canopy walkway thing. We couldn't do it that day as they had met their 100 pax per day quota.

Oh, and I have the ultimate best dad in the world :)

Untrue to myself, I was requested and have agreed to have another go at Bbg's yet another event... Hehehee... That does not make the other time a one-off does it? Oh well. I'm not hurting anybody. It's a different kind of fun; once all the nervousness leaves your system. And it has been postponed to next month.

Thank God.

ponder ponder

“When an assertion is made, either based on incident or based on fact, you need to answer the assertion. If it is not disputed, acknowledge it. If it is disputed, explain it. Explanation enables interpretation of facts which will facilitate the understanding of those facts. It is only then that we can apply the correct principles and eliminate wastages of time.”

It felt as if I was transported right back to uni. I was treated like one; just clothed in a different shell. Hell, I bet that uncle with a doctorate and wears hearing aid also felt as if he was treated like a student. All of us, regardless of experience, were “lectured” together. After all, he makes the rules here.

I actually jotted down what he was saying, or what I understood it to be. Maybe I didn’t want to be singled out as the-cocky-one-who-thinks-she-knows-enough-thus-I’m-going-to-give-her-hell-to-teach-her-that-in-my-territory-she-does-not-know-much. Maybe it prevented me from falling asleep. Maybe I really was interested.

Whatever the reason, as I re-read it, I thought, well. He makes sense. In his own ideal world; where truth is the barest requirement.

Perhaps in ours too, if we each try hard enough.

arachnophobe? or acrophobe?

I'm both. Actual big fat furry spiders scare me, as do heights. I'm usually gayat.

Après-Spidey (yes, finally…), oddly enough, we came across some quasi-spidermen in KLCC.

Picture time :)






Looks like fun, no? Guess not, considering having to relay yourself down with a water-filled rectangular pail attached to your arse and rags to clean the relatively convoluted beams when you’re airborne. Oh. Hanging in mid air, more like. I hope they have work hazard insurance and get paid a lot for this...

I’m also glad to announce that I’ve finally completed my marathon. No, not that kind. If you know me well enough you’d know I don’t do that :p I love love LOVE Grey’s Anatomy. The third season rocks!!! So drama… That’s the only drama I choose to handle right now.

hello viduka, goodbye parker (sobs...)

Mark Viduka became Sam Allardyce's first Newcastle signing on Thursday - with some details at the Man City end of the deal meaning that Joey Barton isn't yet a Magpie. The 31 year-old free agent has agreed a two-year deal with an option for a further season.

....

West Ham United confirmed on Wednesday afternoon that they had completed the signing of midfielder Scott Parker on a five year deal for a fee of £7m - £500K more than NUFC paid Chelsea in June 2005.

news source: http://www.nufc.com/

Which Grey's Anatomy Character Are You?

Do we have a fever, or is it just you? Successful, charming, and oh-so-attractive, like your Grey's Anatomy counterpart Dr. Derek Shepherd, you get everybody's blood pressure rising! People may have a hard time looking past your smokin' exterior, but when they do, they find intelligence to match. No wonder it's sometimes hard for you to avoid the spotlight.

Accused of being a little intimidating? Only by the jealous ones, we're sure. So dreamy!

Curious? Do the test here: http://web.tickle.com/tests/greysanatomy/

food for thought

I’m supposed to be (back) on healthy food diet. Or at least try to make ‘better’ food choices.

Lunch was surprisingly yums. Who would have thought the Chinese style stir-fried vege (and JUST chicken MBF, no seafood, I swear) and white rice from next door can taste THAT good… not that I’ve never had it before. I even got fed up of it at one point.

Withdrawal symptoms?

Over-raining the past week?

Sheer goldfish-like famine? (Noo.. not goldfish-like concentration span, coz I remember when I eat.)

I’m forever hungry it’s not funny.

Examples: I think about what I want for dinner at 10 a.m.; I have no guilt of finishing shared desserts – you know, when everybody slows down and just don’t look interested with the cake anymore, I’ll just finish it.

A friend had SALAD for main course and I just can’t help but every now and again stare at him nibbling on his leaves and olives throughout the meal waiting for him grow antlers and turn into a reindeer (it didn’t happen, btw).

Damn! Now I have a mental picture of that flourless choc cake with its gooey center (gooey good ok, not gooey euws..)