Our friend died last night. Stricken by cancer we knew it would happen sometime. But it is always too soon. We last saw him in Phuket in February, it was a family holiday for both our families. We were supposed to have had makan session again after that but it, regretfully didn't happen. He was a free spirit & did his best to live life to the fullest inspite of being unwell.

To the family, our deepest condolences. We are truly sorry.

Bye Matt, have a good journey.

"Death is not the end
Death can never be the end.
Death is the road.
Life is the traveller.
The Soul is the Guide
Our mind thinks of death.
Our heart thinks of life
Our soul thinks of Immortality."

Busy with Harry ! He arrived yesterday so posts will have to wait.

Sarah's article appeared in a spread page in Catholic News last weekend. Proud moment for us all ! Of course we told all the family lah though she said no need lol. All the family are very proud of her. Then its honour's day this Sat & she gets 1st prize for English yet again.

Kinda busy at work...stuff keep popping up. But manageable & have met my datelines so that's good. But it is annoying when other folks don't provide us with the info in time or when the info has changed & they forget to tell us. Ahhhh well...

And so my birthday passed uneventfully. I have gotten to the stage and age where its no big deal becos I am a year older. The years just keep piling on & I so do hate the numbers ! Kiddos & hubby got me a nice peranakan style hand held mirror which I have placed in my display case. Sweet ! Plus the new Harry Potter book which will be delivered soon.

My staff got me some gifts though I had said not to. Nice crystal container for my knick knacks, another for my rings and a nice silver brooch. Pretty. Another colleague took me to a nice buffet lunch yesterday at merchant court hotel. Today was another lunch, indonesian. And I bought myself a nice silver bracelet as a treat for myself lol.

Have been doing abit of shopping with sarah...or is it alot ?? lol She has some nice new clothes, plus toiletries & perfume from bodyshop. I bought a couple of tops from esprit & at bodyshop, picked up my powder refill, gloss & a nice rougeberry perfume, light & fruity. My face scents are Happy for men from clinque, DKNY's Delicious & now this from bodyshop.

Watched Transformers last weekend & I was surprised to have enjoyed it. Its entertaining. I liked the transforming sequences, very cool. The storyline was a little bit weak & there was weak acting, like from the FBI guy who was reduced to his underwear. But other than that it was entertaining. I'm not sure if it should make it into my list of definitely watchable. I'll decide at the end of the post.

I am still reading China Wakes. I have been pre-occuppied with Fox crime channel plus other programmes on telly. It is not an easy breezy read but very interesting information about the country, policies, the way they manage the country or mismanage, the oppression, what foreign visitors see or are allowed to see & what they don't see. But to be fair, the book is not entirely negative. Written by two foreign journalists who were based there for a number of years, both of whom speak mandarin. I reckon the chinese government did not receive this book well when it was first published. I should finish this soon to get into Harry Potter when it arrives.

Lament for the day : the demise of the poor angsana tree...now beware of reckless speeding drivers.

Ok I stand corrected. Sarah doesn't want to make a case of the rumours & she says she is over it.

Sarah is taking English express. Somone in the school boo booed big time. I wrote to the principal a couple of days ago to ask why sarah couldn't do express english despite her topping her normal level since sec 1. When she asked her teacher, she was told cannot as she was the only one.

Apparently, since last Nov, she was earmarked to start 2007 doing express english. BUT no one told her. Infact, the class she was supposed to join had scheduled their english lessons to the same timing as her normal class so that she would not miss other subjects.

But when she didn't join the express class, they thought she wasn't interested. No one checked with her. On hindsight, I should have written in earlier as she has lost 6 months. Apparently the HOD told both english teachers of her present class & the express class. Her own teacher did not tell her & actually said that if the HOD did not see her, then cannot lor.

What a mess ! Go figure who screwed up. I told sarah to make it clear to the HOD who went to see her, the conversations which transpired. Her new teacher said she would make every effort to help her catch up. And the teacher said that if she does not do as well, it is not sarah's fault.

At least I feel better that there are efforts to help individual students to excel. It is heartening. As for why the principal did not answer my emails, the person who was manning the generic mailbox probably screwed up & didn't forward my mails from last Nov to her. Another cock-up. Waaah liao !

Today there was a weird incident. A man went to our restaurant for a meal. After he paid up & was taking the lift down, saw a poster that the restaurant would offer a $2 rebate for parking if they dined at the restaurant. So he went up again. Staff said no problem, just give us the receipt so that they could void it & provide him with a new receipt with the $2 taken off. He said no. Just take $2 to give to him. He insisted & made alot of noise despite the manager explaining & being as patient & as nice as possible.

The restaurant didn't ask questions. All the proof they need is flash a carkey, fill in some info on form (so that we can verify if there is a hint of cheating from staff). Don't even check if he parked at the building or elsewhere. Cos if park elsewhere then not entitled lah but gave customer benefit of the doubt. Only $2, don't make it so difficult. But also dun make it easy for staff to cheat.

This is a proper restaurant & we are a large renowned organisation which was listed for a number of years until voluntary delisting recently. Not some two bit corner stall that can easily take $2 from the till. There are procedures to follow. How to explain $2 missing at the end of the day when finance queries ?? Small amount but still it is not conforming to procedures & especially when it involves money. From $2, it can escalate. What if there are 100 customers like this ? $200 missing. How ?

Can afford to eat in a fine restaurant but think like that. So bladdy ugly. But the ugliest part is yet to come...

So he calls HQ & speaks to the lady in charge of marketing for the restaurant. She explains. He refuses to listen & says that to pacify a customer, the manager could have easily taken out $2 from his own pocket. What the fuck ???? No principles, no morals & so fucking cheapskate. He ends by saying that he still wants his $2.

He spent 15 mins at the restaurant arguing. So easy to take out receipt & have it voided & re-issued. Be done in 5 mins. Then take time to call HQ somemore. Unless he is planning to cheat his own company ?? Claim makan as entertainment with the receipt & pocket the $2 ?? Who knows, low enough to suggest that the manager take $2 from his own personal pocket to give to him, then dirty enough to cheat. Or he just got too much time on his hands.

Lament for the day : how low can a person go !

Someone told a new staff to be careful of me cos I am very close to the boss. HAHAHAHAHA !!! Yeah right ! I am the last one to sidle up & whisper into the big boss' ears & carry balls. Then another colleague was also said to be the same. LOLOLOL Such bullshit & quite juvenile if I may say lol. Yeah so I work with the boss on some projects but so do a whole lot of other people in the office. I wouldn't dare talk about office gossip to the boss. Plus where got time to play games. I'd rather spend the time more meaningfully....like shopping lah, eating lah, play computer games lah, read lah, watch tv lah, dig nose lah, scratch backside lah, squeeze pimples lah, fart lah, look for kutus on my dogs lah... Chey ! Got no fucking time to do all that where got time to chitchat with boss. Lucky people got eyes to see (then tell us about it heh heh) rather than listen to rumours. Damned bladdy funny lolol.

On a more serious note of rumours, some schoolgirls are really quite bitchy these days. The vicious rumour that has been passed around about sarah has me incensed. I intend to take this up with the school. If the school cares at all, they will take it seriously. If not, the topic of verbal bullying will go up to MOE & ST forum. Obviously the person who started the rumour doesn't know how close we are as a family & how our children do talk to us. Of course they don't tell us everything lah. But enough for us to have a strong relationship. So poor thing (read sarcasm) that this person or persons do not have the same relationship with her/their parents. Life must suck (or is it no life??) to have to resort to lies & rumours. Sad sad. Kudos to sarah that she doesn't conform to them just to be popular. She is her own person. But I know all this viciousness does affect her & we worry. We will need to stop this.

In other words, rather crudely; don't fuck with me.

Lament for the day : People who spread rumours have no lives or are cowardly or cruel or perhaps just plain stupid. Yaaaawn.

Heavy headed at work yesterday but persisted as it was Friday. Did visit the doc to pick up meds so that I could recover by Monday. Slept very badly last night, kept waking up to pee. And took me a while to get back to sleep each time...sigh. Sarah wants to do shopping tomorrow so hopefully I won't be feeling so badly with the rest today.

So channel 5 televised Exorcist : The Beginning on a weekday night at 10pm. How does that work when the movie was rated NC16 in the cinemas before ??? Are there extra snips for TV ? If there are, then there wouldn't be much of a story. Waste time watching & waste of airtime. Yes they indicated parental guidance cos of the horror theme but it means I can be sitting & watching with my below 16 kids. Plus its televised on national tv so isn't that an open invitation for everyone to watch ?

Why have movie ratings for the cinemas when such movies eventually make it onto tv ? Movies in the cinemas are censored already and have the various ratings which customers and cinema management have to comply with. So I don't get why national tv can screen such NC16 or M18 movies. I can't make sense of it.

I remember when the Da Vinci Code arrived in the cinemas & it was rated NC16. Checks were made at cinemas to ensure that no one below 16 was watching the movie. Some below 16 year olds were caught sneaking into the cinema halls to watch Da Vinci Code when they bought tickets for some PG or G movie. Articles have appeared in the press on how vigilant are such age checks in cinemas. Yet you get this NC16 rated movie on tv. So ironic. So contradictory. Something to ponder over & probably still not be able to make sense of. LOL.

A few nights ago was watching Fox tv crime investigation channel. It was about a man who had hired a hitman to murder his wife & physically disabled 8 year old son. All for their bank account. The wife & son had a 2 million settlement from a hospital which had carelessly & accidentally turned off the boy's oxygen supply when he was hospitalised for some illness. This left him paralysed and also brain damaged. Hence the settlement to provide for the round-the-clock care for the boy. The father who was separated from the wife wanted the money but of course he wasn't getting it. However, the judge did pass that if the wife & son should die before him, the money would go to him.

Anyway, all the evidence pointed to the husband who received a life sentence. The guy he hired was sentenced to death for the murder of the wife, son & also the nurse who was present in the house caring for the boy. In the hitman's home, the police found a book on How to be a Hitman. Its scary that such books are published & sold to the general public. It teaches you to stand how many feet away so that you don't get sprayed by the blood, how to make the gun untraceable etc. The hitman followed the intructions apparently.

Then the families of the wife & nurse decide to take the publisher of the book to court. However american law has the first amendment on freedom of speech which rendered case ineffective. But the families' lawyers persisted & eventually by some other events that happend, they received an out of court settlement.

The publisher's lawyers gave an example of publishing a cookbook. That it doesn't mean that the person who buys or reads it will bake a cake from there. How weak !!! Eventually someone is going to try a recipe otherwise why bother with publishing the book. So if someone somewhere who buys a book in how to be a hitman or how to make a bomb etc will eventually try it. DUH !! So much for laws to protect.

Yesterday was hubby's birthday & we went to shashlik, a russian restaurant that is run by a bunch of rather err matured men & women. Has been around for as long as I can remember & very popular. But don't expect exceptional service. Its the quality of food that makes it so popular. Their borsch soup is excellent as are their shahslik beef & lamb. As I wasn't feeling well, I had a big bowl of the soup & bread. Usually, we'd split the one portion of soup for two to share as we wanted to have enough space for their steaks. Ryan had a whole bowl of soup to himself, two pieces of bread plus a whole steak to himself. He did well to finish every morsel lol. Kids bought hubby a CD on jazz for his birthday.

Lament for the day : my birthday is coming soon too & I hate the number I am hitting. Good thing I don't look or feel it lol.

arrrgh...the diva !! Dunno how she got around to the big boss, we reckon via email & managed to get her way in some things. She told me not too long ago..."I thought I better check with you, go through the right channel...." Chey ! Say only, bypass me twice already !!!!!!!!!!! Bugger it lah.

Ryan's new guitar ! Last weekend Swee Lee had a sale, up to 50% off for their musical instruments. Ry sold his electric guitar & wanted to get something better. So instead of buying second hand from an online forum, we took him to Swee Lee when he told us of the sale. Loads of nice guitars but soooo pricey, we thought. Till Ry asked the sales person if the prices were before or after discount. It was before & the guitar he wanted was 50% off, brand new. Aiyo ! How not to buy ! Good thing is Ry saved his own money plus he had cash from the sale. We topped up a little & he picked up an Epiphone Les Paul (or something liddat) priced at over $900 before discount. Very good deal compared to a second hand one he was looking at which was going for some $400 odd. For that price, you get it brand new. Ry had already told the dealer not to reserve it for him so no harm done on that end. But now Ry has no money to buy birthday presents for hubby & me lol. Or anything else for himself lololol.

We like the idea that the kids save up to buy an item they desire. They learn the value of money & don't expect us to fork out whenever they want a luxury item. It is a good habit & we strongly encourage it. Both kiddos have been jamming together & have been enjoying it. Their task is to learn Samba Parti or Breezin' by Christmas for us lol.

Work has been fine lor. Sometimes a little bit exasperating. But mainly it is just ok. Not happy doo dah, yet not horrific hell. It fluctuates close to the latter sometimes like all work place, though not often. But heavely bells don't ring either. Garden of Eden perhaps where sometimes the serpent rears its ugly head ? Typical of all workplaces lol.

Another celebrity visit end of the month & this one (whom I dunno but vaguely heard of), I am told, will invite the hordes of adoring & the curious. Uggggh !!

Got the kids new mattresses as their's are at least 10 years old. Had to visit a few places before we made a decision. And I was pretty surprised that they cost quite a bit ! Not the pasar malam type lah but not the high end type either. The better than pasar malam type is averaging $200 per piece. Also ordered a new headboard for Ry's bed. Sarah doesn't need one as her's is nice & still fairly new. One of the shops we went to had all these mattresses brands advertised on the building & happily we went in. The lady asked us what budget & we said $200. She promptly showed us one that was $400. Harloooow ??? Ask budget for what hah ? One of those that don't listen, just out for a quick sale. And when we asked for a certain brand which we knew was in budget, she say dun have. Then why the brand advertised hah ? Asked is anything in our budget, dun have. Wah liao, then dun open mouth & ask what budget lah. Just say, "our mattresses are priced from what-what upwards". So we don't waste each other's time. But maybe she was bored cos there was no one else in the shop & now we know why lol. It is not an obscure furniture shop. Sigh...

Tomorrow is hubby's birthday. Dinner at Shashlik...yum ! Borsch soup here I come ! Ryan's face lit up when we mentioned it. Didn't know what to get for hubby so asked him is I could pay partially for his over $200 case for his reels. Phew ! He said yes. Heng aaah...otherwise sure end up buying a shirt lah or a tee lah or a belt lah or cologne lah. Gifts for men are a little more boring. Women have so much more choices and possibilities lol.

Not posting as much as I would like as am usually tired from facing the comp when I get back home from work. Plus now we have new channels on cable lololol. So yeah...beeeezeeeeeeeee !

I still haven't found a cheap exercise bike. Don't need the fancy type. Simple one that does the job will do. Second hand also can. Went to cash converters but honestly, alot of the stuff quite icky ! Got no exercise bike anyway. I need the exercise bike for exercise lah & also to improve knee condition. Can't do high impact so start slowly on the cycle & shall see how it goes.

Oh I had a dizzy spell this morning. Do not know why. But it did not persist. I don't think it was from hunger as I did have breakfast.

Hmmm cigarettes went up & it is more than the 2% Gst increase. Their calculator must be different from mine. And so I have begun to cut down.

Lament for the day : I think I feel a cold coming on...yuck !