Exercise - it's now or never!

Today is a happy day for me. Bought a treadmill for only RM189 from Carre-Four. Actually I was eyeing on another similar treadmill last Tuesday and it was on sale for RM319. But the cheaper one looks better and even has the same function.

That very night I assembled it and started to burn 15 calories just walking on it. Not enough? Well, that was only for starters. Felt really good. Now I'll just need to prove to my wife that I'll use it everyday.

Moments of my life

Happy

• When I finally get to buy the stuff I've been saving my credit for
• Travelling home alone on a highway
• Early morning on a free Saturday
• Holiday, Pay day and Friday are the best

Sad

• When my credit overshoot and having to wait for pay day
• When I couldn't afford the stuff my kids are dying for
• When any of my kids fall very sick
• Sunday evenings dreading Mondays

Angry

• When drivers don't use their signals
• When the Powers That Be force impractical policies down our throats
• Having endured 20 minutes of blabber to questions without getting the answers in the end
• Taking leave and ending up in crowded shopping centre
• Finding a strand of hair in my food after a few mouthfuls
• When friends say, "Let me give you some advice.."
• When my skillful solution goes unnoticed

Nostalgic

• Just listening to oldies music
• During twilight when I'm outdoor
• Visiting smaller towns that resemble my hometown

Busy

• All my time spent in office

Free

• Any time not spent in office

Scary

• Being unprepared for a meeting
• Sleeping alone in my bedroom
• Watching horror movies
• Encounter with a spider

A Very Gay Encounter - Mini Story Part 2

While his grin was locked I turned around and looked at my wristwatch - it was around 5:10pm so I told him the time. Just when I thought my encounter was going to last I turned back around and lo my saviour bus came to a turn into the lane.

Without hesitation I quickly joined the throng of people moving towards the bus and quickly got onto it, found an empty seat by the window and settled myself in. A lady in her late 50s was about to seat herself next to mine when she was rudely pushed aside by the another passenger. When I looked up, gosh, it was the same guy again pushing his way towards me, impervious to the old lady who was already almost out balance, and mumbling some remarks at him. I stared at him in shock at what he just did but he maintained his seat next to mine, grinning with complete satisfaction.

As the bus started to move he smiled and said (in Bahasa Malaysia), "Very nice bedroom set there." That was when I realised my stupidity preceeded me cos when I looked down I was still holding the bedroom set catalogue with the images of the bedroom in full frontal page. Every senses in me told me if I was not careful enough the bedroom would indeed be where I might end up with this guy! I just nodded my head in response. Why the heck did I even paid attention to him, let alone responded? Somehow I guessed the air of uneasiness would linger on during the whole journey.

Good thing Brickfields was just less than 10 minutes bus ride. And thank goodness I was in such a tense state that gave me the opportunity to think a lot during the journey that I alighted the bus one stop away from my actual destination. Once my foot touch the ground I made no hesitation to walk away as quickly as I possibly could without showing it. After a minute or two I was confident that he was still on the bus and was not trailing me. What I did when I got back to my apartment I have no recollection whatsoever, but even if I did maybe it is prudent I do not outline them here for your pleasure..

Three months later saw myself roaming in the city heading for Kota Raya, one of my favourite hangouts. The episode mentioned earlier was long forgotten as many episodes tend to occupy you especially when you were a bachelor still enjoying your newfound freedom away from home. Besides Kota Raya my other hangouts were usually Sungei Wang Plaza and Bukit Bintang Plaza. Friends were always amazed (suspiciously) at me roaming around all alone. I spent a lot of time hanging around the railings in the shopping centres just looking at people, window shopping, browsing at bookstores, walking here and stopping there, doing practically nothing useful except killing time that doesn't seem to die.

Anyway, as my bus purged me out onto the steps of Kota Raya I happily made my way up into the shopping centre and started my window shopping. Ground floor had too many shops selling clothes and accessories, boring. Made my way up the escalator to the 1st floor and after looking into some of the shops, decided to just hang out at the railing overlooking the ground floor. Saw some interesting young shoppers groping at some of the clothes being displayed. Saw a Raquel Welch look-a-like, couldn't get my eyes off until the figure went beyond my vision. Next, swinged my vision to a bald-headed guy, what? Oh no, no, no, he was staring up at me, that same guy I encountered 3 months ago! He must have worhipped my image in his mind for the last 3 months and now had his eyes locked with mine, and with a very wide scary grin on his face! Heaven knows where he had appeared from and how my position was triangulated right down to this point in a big city like Kuala Lumpur!

The next thing I know he was already finding his way up the escalator and at that very moment I knew I was the prey..

To be continued..

Big company, poor management

You know what sucks? When big company makes big money from you and me and even more money from poor management at our expenses.

My Astro decoder went bust last month and a technician was dispatched the next day. After confirming the unit was faulty I had to pay RM160+ for a new set. That's okay with me considering the 5-6 years it served me. But what irks me was when I received my next monthly bill I was charged a RM10 registration fee! When I called the customer service she quoted that it was for the re-registration since I had changed the decoder. I argued that everything had a lifespan and not like it's my fault it went bust. She again repeated the same reason and I was tempted to tell her I was not ready to communicate with a parrot.

I am already a registered customer and I don't need to be re-registered again. I know that they have to re-register the new decoder to my account, so just go ahead and punch in the required commands in the system to re-register it. It is a matter of whether you know how to use the system function, not a matter of new subscriber. And it's not like they replaced my spoilt unit for free. Watch out, it could happen to you too..

Side effects of medicine

It has been one week that I am having a blissful and uninterrupted sleep unlike the past 8 months, ever since I've had my blood pressure tablet changed to a different brand.

Before, I have been waking up 2 to 4 times during the night just to go to the bathroom and I was worried that it might have something to do with my bladder control. It went on for about 8 months before a colleague told me he had the same problem when he was on that same pill. So I went to another clinic and related my problem to him but was cautioned that it could be my sugar level cos it was not documented that the pill I was taking has side effects. Anyhow, I opted for a change in brand more than a week ago. Since then the frequency to the bathroom at night reduced the first 3 days, and now I could sleep straight into the morning. Thank God for that.

Twilight/New Moon/Eclipse

There, she did it again.. This morning while driving to the cemetary my daughter, Rach, told me she had a dream last night. She said she was in a bookstore with me looking for a book Twilight/New Moon/Eclipse. Okay.. well, I just nodded my head and smiled. Then, 20 secs later, it hit me.. I just recalled that just several days ago she'd mentioned that she was interested in getting that novel!

Checked out a forum and internet sites this evening and found the review very favourable. Story is for the teens and seems exciting. Well, time to go shopping this weekend..

All Souls Day

We couldn't go to the cemetary on All Souls Day (Nov 2) cos it was a working Friday. So we took the holiday today (Deepavali Day) to go Cheras Cemetary (about 20km from home) early morning with my wife and 2 girls, together with my sis-in-law and her daughter Evie. Paid a visit to the graves of my brother-in-law Albert (very good musician), my mum-in-law and dad-in-law, God bless their souls. Lighted some candles, burned incense and placed flowers, then said some prayers.

The view was somewhat appealing to Sarah so she took some pictures with her K770i, she loves photography. Here are some noteworthy pics:

Stairway to Heaven?

Imploring..

Linda and her Surroundings: Spider Story

Linda and her Surroundings: Spider Story - Click to read ..

Phew! Not easy to find someone who shares your phobia in spiders. When I read Linda's story I literally shudder and forced myself to read her post till the end.

Why am I afraid of spiders, I do not know. When I was a young living in Brunei I used to be terrified of daddy long-legs and spiders that camouflaged themselves on long weeds where I had to cross about 10 meters before I reach the main road for my transport to school.

My teenager life was spent in Labuan, Sabah and big spiders would ocassionally crawled out from under our wooden shelf. These I had the pleasure of letting my sister exterminate them while I conveniently sprinted for safe haven.

Now, in KL, every morning when I have to open the front gate to bring the car out, I had to place my hand up before my head all the way to the gate just so I don't get spider web caught onto my face. It always happens when I least expected it and I really hate spider webs.

Earlier this year as I was travelling home along the highway from Bangi (38km from home) I felt a spider running along my right arm. Instantly I flicked it away with my left arm, pulled over at the side and quickly got out and started to blindly chase it away. I wasn't sure I was successful cos the road were lit only by street lights. Cars were just whizzing past by but I didn't care. Anyway, it took me some moments to gather my courage before I started back into my car and drove home hoping and wishing it wouldn't appear again.

7 Hours of Sleep is all we need

After work I thought of paying the doctor a visit - to check on my blood pressure after changing tablets last week. While waiting for my turn I noticed that the clinic had 2 new health mags, well some improvement there as there had never been any mags past 2 years.

Anyway, there was a short article quoting a well known professor (couldn't make the effort to jot down the name) revealed his latest research the frequent less sleep or too much can put one's heart at risk. Therefore, he concluded that the optimum hours of sleep would be 7. And I always thought as we grow older our bodies could do with 4-5 hours of sleep.

Well, I guess I'll start tomorrow as it's 1:30am and I'm still surfing..

Who can predict?

You gotta give high marks to your kids nowadays - they can really psycho you with their innocence. My elder daughter, she just loves shoes and last Sunday while getting ready to go for Mass she innocently threw a question, "Who can predict that we would go to Vincci after Mass?" For a moment my wife and I just looked at each other before we burst into laughter when we realised just how cunning our girl was, hinting without asking directly! Talk about sweet innocence!

A Very Gay Encounter - Mini Story Part 1

For a moment I felt like a sardine in a school thrown about in the rolling waves; I could hardly steer myself on course. This happens all the time when a throng of crowd react to the opening of any exhibition at the main entrance. I was lucky to be alone else I would have to report a lost companion. Then again, maybe I wouldn't go to all that trouble..

It was a Building and Construction exhibition on a grand scale that was long awaited for us who were anticipating the opening for almost a month. I was then at college back in 1981 taking up Architectural Draughtsmanship course and this event was told to us by our lecturer to visit. With a friend’s help I was able to secure a room in Brickfields and was glad to have moved out of Tayton View, Cheras. Going to the exhibition in KL was only 7-minute bus ride to Klang bus stand and from thereon another 10 minute walk to the exhibition centre.

Booths were everywhere and bodies moving (and sliding) all over the floor, milling from booth to booth and getting their hands on every leafets and any colorful catalogues they could managed. Latest innovations from glazed tiles to Spandek roofing were tops in their adverts while non-construction sales were pitched on new security systems to Gypsum ceiling boards, and here I was busy spotting glossy catalogues and freebie pamphlets. Events filled with throngs of professionals and lay people like myself can make one’s objective turned upside-down. Such was the case with me when I walked out of the centre mustering all my strength to balance several plastic bags filled with non-relevant catalogues and useless information printed on expensive pamphlets, while carrying several loose catalogues in the other free hand. Talk about impulsive shopper!

With regards to those glossy catalogues with bedroom sets on my other hand, I honestly have no memory whatsoever as to why I collected them all, but I cannot deny the salesgirl was pretty hot! Spending 25 minutes next to the beauty pageant listening to her boken Enggris was hardly my everyday leisure.

It only took me 15 minutes to reach Klang bus stand, after discreetly discarding 2 bags full of worthless information into a public dumpster along the way, while retaining the bedroom sets catalogue, for the purpose of which I hoped would be revealed to me in due and appropriate time, which I predict, would be revealed to you readers imminently.

It was almost 5pm when I reached the designated bus lane and blue collars were starting to join me after having secretly clocked out before their bosses even had the chance to throw last minute assignments at them. This was the only time when people of all races would synchronise the heads every time a bus came into view, straining their necks up. Local vampires would love the gesture.

Being among crowds at bus stands was something I was quite used to but that afternoon it made me see it in a different perspective. From my peripheral vision I could sense there was something about the stranger behind me, like a feeling that my privacy was gradually being encroached upon. Not that he was doing anything to my back.. Turning my head around was one wrong choice too late as my gesture was misconstrued as an invitation, not to a friendship, but a relationship. Oh yes! A relationship that might have been an answer to his quest! That was when I’d wished I hadn’t spoken about a lost companion earlier with apathy.

He was like twice my size, some local guy with crops of hair struggling to survive around the sides. You could call him bald and I wouldn’t even be offended. The only thing we both had in common was height. When our eyes were visually locked (glad to say they weren’t locked in tight embrace) he was wearing a distasteful grin with locked jaw when suddenly, as if I was caught offguard, something came out of his mouth! At that same moment his mouth was moving with upper and lower lips parting and closing, and this was repeated over and over again, before I realized he was pointing to my wristwatch and asking me what the time was! And he was still grinning..

To be continued..