Archive for the 'Life Observation' Category

Yesterday I was amused to receive a leaflet from a beauty salon. “School Holiday Promotion” it said. Lol! I wonder who its targetted for. I guess the mummy as usual. Perhaps during school holidays the mum will have more time. Time away from fetching kids to and from their activities. I really don’t know. I’m not there yet.

Only $150 for a full body whitening mask, it said. Wuah. These days, whitening the face is not good enough. Need to whiten the body as well. Hmm… I guess that makes sense. A white face on a darker body would look rather odd. Hahaha. I don’t know. I’m not into those whitening products. I’m white enough. White to the point of pale. I need more sunshine.

Ah… women. When they’re dark, they want to be fairer. When they’re fair, they want to have a tan. They will never be satisfied. Lol!

When I was 12, I attended a strict all girls school. I did reasonably ok in school. I was not those top of the class kids, just average, not a prefect or anything, just average, but that was ok. I wasn’t a straight As kid. I got Bs and Cs but that was ok. I didn’t receive any pressure from anyone. Mum was no longer around. Dad was too busy working to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads to nag me about my studies so I didn’t receive any pressure.

I joined the school Choir because I wanted to, because I loved singing. There was no pressure for me to join this or that. I wanted to learn the piano but we couldn’t afford it so dad said how about learning the organ instead which is cheaper. I said ok and he bought me an organ through hire purchase spread out over 12 years. There was no pressure to learn music. I learned because I wanted to. Thanks to Dad I now can continue my music lessons years later.

I cycled to music classes on my own. It was quite far from my house. I had to go through several traffic lights and roundabouts to get there. My sister taught me how to cycle at the back lane of our house. She pushed me all the way down the back lane, back and forth she pushed me till I got my balance. There was no one to watch over us fearfully.

After reading about  yet another case of a child who commits suicides because of poor grades, I can’t help but feel that when I was 12, I lived in a much better world, a carefree world with little pressure and a safe world where children were safe to be on their own without the need to be in the watchful eyes of their parents or a guardian 24 hours a day. Sigh….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Took the kids to the KL Bird Park recently. Also known as the “The World’s Largest Free Flight Aviary” it certainly houses a large collection of birds. They look well fed too. I could see that they were feeding on papayas, corns, bananas and other fruits. Yum yum. The fruits do not look like discards. They look fresh and good.

The birds were used to tourists I suppose because they flew about freely right before our faces. Some of them were really colorful and some looked like they were wearing pretty headdresses. Now, I know where some designers get their ideas. The colors were really beautiful and striking. Bright hues of red, yellow, turquoise, blues, greens, purple and pink. There were quite a number of peacocks too and one of them decided to showoff to us, spreading its beautiful tale wide open. It was quite a sight to behold.

To my amusement, I saw a signboard in front of some green leafy plants. There was a brief description about the plant. The signboard labelled it as the Malaysian Ginseng. It was a Tongkat Ali plant. Hahahaha. Well, I guess it belongs in a bird park alright since its suppose to treat another type of “bird”. Lol!

Since its Friday, those of you who have kids and have not been there before can consider going there for the weekend. Its RM30 for adults and free for kids under 3. Can’t remember how much it is for kids above 3 but if you flash them your MyKad, you get a discount so your ticket costs only RM12 for an adult. Please forgive me if I get the ticket prices wrong. My memory isn’t quite what it used to be.

There! Done my bit for Malaysian tourism. Happy Weekend to everyone. 

I have been summoned to attend a wedding dinner. (in Chinese, this means being given a wedding invitation card with your name on it). I used to receive this summons a lot during my 20s when lots of friends were being wed. I still got them in my 30s but its dwindled a lot by now.

Receiving one of these things often puts me in a dilemma. Though Chinese, I don’t really know what is the “cultural” expectations. In other words, I don’t know what to do lah.

So what is the expectation, can someone please tell me? What is the standard? There is KL standard etc etc. The Chinese must protect their own “face” so they often give in to this “ransom” for money angpow and apparently there are certain standards to comply to (meaning a minimum amount to give) irrespective of whether you attend the wedding dinner or not. Comply to these standards or forever be known as a miser or stingy poker.

So what is the standard? I have my own theory. To me, if I get this summons from someone close to me, I would give them something irrespective of whether I attend or not. If I attend, I would make sure that I at least pay over and above the cost of my dinner so that my friend won’t have to pay for me to attend their dinner. If I can’t make it to the dinner, I would give my friend something too because I want to, not because I am obliged to.

This is probably the same reasoning why people are expected to pay more give a bigger angpow when attending a dinner in a hotel compared to a dinner at a Chinese Restaurant for example.

Once, I received this summons from a colleague on another floor which I hardly know. I did the unthinkable. I chose to ignore it. I did not pay up the summons lah. Some say that is very rude. Aiyah, so many rules one. If you receive it from a subordinate, you must pay more, if you receive it from your superior, less etc etc. To me, I hardly know you, so why should I be held ransom? But some say must at least give a token lah blah blah blah.

On the other hand, if you are the wedding couple, handing out this summons can also give you headache. You have to plan your seating arrangement and number of attendees so that you don’t explode your budget or run out of food or seating places but sometimes you invite just one person and that person brings a legion of relatives. Sometimes you’re not sure whether its “nice” to just invite someone without inviting their spouses etc etc. More rules again.

There are also rules in giving out the angpow. Apparently you can put it in the same envelope that you receive together with the summons so that the wedding party immediately knows who its from since your name is written on it. Is that right? I’m also not sure about this practise.

So many rules makes me pening kepala. So what is the standard? If you are not attending? Must give ah? How much to give huh? If its addressed to you and your spouse, must give double ah? How much to give if its your subordinate or superior leh?

 

Yesterday I had to go to Carrefour, Mid Valley to change some stupid clothes hanger/dryer that broke even before I started using it. It was of such bad quality, it came off at two parts and the colour at the sides comes off my hands whenever I happen to touch it. Hmmm…. another case of too much lead in paints? There has been many cases of toys being recalled recently for this reason, the latest being Thomas the train.

Anyway, since I was there I decided to check out The Gardens. I only managed to go to Robinsons because it was late in the evening when I got there. Will have to check out Isetan another time. This is my impression.

With two such excellent anchors ie Isetan and Robinsons, I think The Gardens will do rather well. The other key anchor is Marketplace by Cold Storage. I think The Gardens is supposed to be a bit more upmarket compared to the older phase of Mid Valley. However, I did not get that impression. I got the impression that it had been completed rather hurriedly just in time to catch the Raya shoppers. The floors were a bit dusty (I even saw a crack on a tile) not spick and span and shiny to give it the classy look it should have for a new phase especially an upmarket one. Its completed but has an uncompleted look. My children liked the stars in the ceiling at one end of the mall.

Robinsons was nice though. At least it was spick and span and shiny in there. The staff were very courteous and friendly. Everyone greeted you whenever you walked passed and asked if they could help. I hope they can keep this up. Some of them approached us to sign up for their card. Wah! So fast. Cannot afford so I gently declined.

In the gents department I saw several men shopping for attire. Hmm… I would have thought that it would be the ladies going there in droves since everyone always seems to equate shopping to ladies. I guess men like to check out new departmental stores too, not only ladies.

Too bad time did not permit me to check out Isetan. I will have to go back another day for that. I saw in the floor layout plan that Isetan takes up 4 floors on one side of The Gardens, whereas Robinsons takes up 3 floors on the other side. Nice.

Some tenants which I am looking out for but aren’t open yet are the Borders bookshop and Gurney Drive with hawker like stalls. I do miss the Gurney Drive in Penang so I hope this one won’t disappoint. There will also be a 2201 Fashion Avenue showcasing our local designers. Interesting. Not I can afford designer wear but I can ogle can’t I? Theres also a boutique cinema but I haven’t entered a cinema in years so I am not that interested in it.

I don’t know about Isetan but Robinsons is offering a 20% discount to shoppers for purchases worth RM200 and above.

Lack of parking space in terraced housing estates has led to innovative minds coming up with unique ways to reserve some parking space.

I’ve seen people reserve parking space for themselves by placing flower pots and tong sampahs (rubbish bins) in that little curb right outside or across from their homes. This is the most common method.

I’ve even seen one person reserve his little parking space by placing thumbtacks and other sharp little objects on the road right outside his house. Park there at your own peril!

However the most recent method that I’ve come across has got to be my neighbour’s. He has resorted to parking right outside my gate, placing a cone or his beautiful tong sampah on our shared curb whilst leaving his own porch and gate completely clear just so he could reserve a few strategic parking spaces.

Getting strategic parking spaces is very important you see. Afterall, with his multi vehicles and his family going in and out of the house at different times of the day and night, he can’t very well park his multi-vehicles in his porch as well as in front of his own gate now, can he? He also cannot park right across the road from his house for that would mean it would be difficult to reverse out of his porch. Neither can he park on the shared curb too close to his side of the curb because that would mean that it would be too hard to drive into his own porch and no, he cannot park in front of his own gate because that would inconvenience his own family members when they want to get in or out of the house.

Sigh. Some people are just so downright selfish.

Playing with lanterns and candle fire of course. What did you think? Hehe.

Its lantern festival today so we’ll be taking the kids to the park to play with fire. This is the only time they get to officially play with fire so they love it.

I still remember my childhood and the time I played with fire. We used to have this steel gate and we would “decorate” the entire gate with candle light. It was so lovely. Sometimes, we would walk to the park near our house with our lighted lanterns.

I don’t think our parents accompanied us. But then it was safer then. How carefree and simple life was. Now, parents live in fear and paranoia. Allowing our children to walk unaccompanied to the nearby park in the dark is a no-no. Oh, I won’t go into all that although I have many unspoken things in my mind. Enough has been said.

Its lantern festival afterall. So lets have fun, stuff ourselves with mooncake and let the kids enjoy the only time they get to play with fire.

Happy Mid Autumn Festival to those who celebrate it.

My nephew is on the crossroads of his life. He can’t decide what he wants to pursue in his studies or his career. He has completed two or three years (I’m not sure which) in psychology and now he says its not for him. He says he wants to take some time off. My sister says she is so tired of trying to steer him in the right direction. She really doesn’t mind if he pursues a career as a chef in a school like this link or a career in music but he has to make up his mind.

I told her not to worry. I wonder how many people actually knows what they want at that age and pursued it. I didn’t. Most of my peers didn’t. We just went along blindly with the crowd and when we came out to the working world, we naturally progressed on to the right profession. Most of us have degrees in something else and are now professionals in another industry altogether.

My sister says the problem with the younger generation today is an overload of information. They have so much information and so many choices that they have becomed stressed with trying to make the right decisions. No more, following the crowd as we did in our days. Is that true?

I do wonder how many people are in the right profession. Do you feel that you are? Are you happy with where you are now? I am happy with where I am now. Even though I have travelled a long and windy road to get here. And I hope that my nephew will find his way and my sister will be less stressed up in trying to support and help him find his way.

Which do you use more often? The camcorder or the digicam? For me, its got to be the digicam. We hardly use our camcorder after we bought it. We must have taken a few videos of the kids to test out the camcorder but that was it.

I tried to get hubby to use it more often but he said, “Why don’t you learn how to use it instead.” Its been sitting in the cupboard collecting dust eversince. Lol! I use the digicam a lot more and I prefer to use it for little video snippets.

However the kids are growing up fast. I really should get it out of my cupboard and record some videos before the outgrow the cute stage for video recording but first, I’ve got to learn how to use it!

Which do you prefer to use? The camcorder or the digicam? (Since both can also do the other’s functions).

Greed! Greed! and more Greed! Thats why.

I came across a confidence trickster up close once. Nothing about her indicated that she was one. She was well dressed. She carried herself well. The only thing that gave her away was she couldn’t keep up to her words after a while.

As some of you know, I was in the training business. We conducted conferences for the public as well as in-house courses for companies. One day, a good looking lady came to my boss and offered her services. She said she could conduct training for companies as well as for our company staff and she was to be paid several thousand dollars a day for her services plus payment for accomodation etc. She was to start off by training the staff. She gave high credentials.

She was very friendly and went out for drinks etc with everyone but she was always late for the “training” sessions and she didn’t “teach” much of anything. In the meantime, she fed my boss with stories about how she was suing our competitor for not paying her. Boss was very happy to hear that. And we paid for her accomodation and fees etc.

One day, our competitor called up to inform us that this lady is a confidence trickster. Boss did not believe it. She said that the competitor was the one being sued by this lady and was just sour grapes. And so we continued to pay for her accomodation and fees etc.

Eventually we managed to find out that she had been going around town cheating on all the training providers and getting free accomodation and several thousand dollars of consultation fees per day but it was a bit late. We had been cheated too of thousands of dollars.

If only boss had listened to the warning from the competitior? What stopped her? Greed of course. And that was the basis in which she was tricked.

Thats the basis of all the get rich quick scams you see, whether on the internet or otherwise. So beware. Don’t be too greedy and you won’t be cheated.

I do wonder why some of these people do it. Like the lady I mentioned. She looked really good. Well dressed, spoke well etc. She could have fooled anyone. Someone who looks so good and speaks well? Why does she want to do this for a living? I am sure she can do better than this??!!