Life... and everything in between

Sometimes I feel so frustrated. Why may you ask? Well, I feel like I have no right to be frustrated cos I have everything and even more. I will never lack for money or clothes. I have mulitple places around the world that I can call home, and though I don't have parents I have loads of people who are very concerned and that are willing to give me advice.So, why? I guess being human one is never truly satisfied with one has but is essentially chasing the quest of the 'want.'

On a different note, people seem to have a lot of different opinions on me. It's just so strange because in a span of a month there have been heaps of comments coming my way. The one that made me keel over with laughter was that I have a 'prosperous and rich' look. Like seriously... where the heck did that come from? And then someone else heard the comment, and started nodding their head in agreement. There was of course the usual one's that I get like... she's so sensible... maybe i'll prove them all wrong one day... eheh

Happy New Year

It's been almost 4 weeks into the New Year and I still haven't posted. Yes, I guess that is quite normal of me and though I did intend to keep my blog up to date... like all good intentions, it just didn't materialise. But, I am now... so I guess that's what I should concentrate on.

Xmas and New Year's in Adelaide was GREAT! It was strange at the ease I could just slip back into my routine and at times it felt like the last 6 months in Malaysia was a dream. MBF Cards and Risk Management were merely a figment of my imagination, The trip to India and my colleagues were simply a hallucination and all that polluted air, reckless drivers and haze just a bad dream. But alas, the time came for me to go back to reality and that it was...

As soon as I came back to work, all gears were up and we were on full speed. As my boss referred to it... my tour of duty began. This in its first form was late nights and I mean late nights with equally early starts. It was good fun as the fruits of our labour were well worth it.

I have decided that I should do more and not let my life revolve around work... So I am in the midst of checking out different avenues! Wish me luck!!!

2 Weddings and A Funeral

This is something that I have been meaning to write for a while now but have just been too busy (and too lazy) to put my thoughts into words. Anyway, here goes….

About 2 weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend 2 weddings and a funeral (that cannot be referred to as an opportunity… as it was quite a sad occasion but ... you know what I mean) in a span of a week.
The funeral wasn’t really a funeral but a commemoration of the passing of a family friend. It’s called a one-month ceremony (as it’s held one month after her passing) and all the family and friends are invited to say prayers and celebrate the life of the person. This of course ends off with a meal and in this case it was vegetarian. I have had my fair share of funerals (though most of them were generally people who were closely related to me), and that’s why it felt strange cos this person was a friend of my Grandma. I had only ever heard of her and that was shy there was no sense of great loss. I am unsure if it was right got me to feel this way ( but can you really help how you feel? ) but I thought it was best that she had passed on as she had lost her husband in the late 60’s and had no kids. I am not trying to imply that you need a husband and kids to lead a fulfilled life, but it was just her time to go…. Anyways, I am going off on a complete tangent!

The ceremony was quite awkward as my Grandma was using this as a time to do her catching up with all her friends. This meant her talking on the top of her voice ( as she was trying to drown out the voices who were praying)… Ahh, what a dear she is!

The 2 weddings was of 2 Malay colleagues from work and I was quite happy to join in on their happy occasion. It was interesting how contrasting they were as one was held at home. The whole street was blocked of so that a tent could be erected on the road to cater for the throngs of people who came. It was a very casual affair , in the way that you could rock up whenever you want, have a bite to eat, convey your regards and pressies and then head out again.

The second one was a lot more Westernised in the sense that it was at a hotel, so RSVPs were needed. There was a fixed time and fixed seating! However, in essence it was the same as they had the kompang ( a Malaysian drum) procession to start with followed by the bersanding ceremony( the couple sits on the bridal throne and they elder go up individually to convey their blessing and I think they sprinkle rose water on the couple). There were also little presents that the guests get to take back with them. The traditional Malay wedding ( according to my Grandma) gives an egg but I got a little face towel and a Chinese fan…. A bit disappointed cos I wanted my egg L

All in all, both of the experiences were very interesting. I am glad Flic came with me to the first one cos she really brought things up from a different perspective that I don’t think about!

Anyways, that’s more than enough of weddings to last me a while.

Qucik Update

Okay... I have been slack.... very very slack.

The internet at home sucks and I feel bad doing this at work....

What's been up with me?

- Back to the gym I go.... yes, it's 6 am starts for me... hope it shows

- Work : Am officially in charge of organising and conducting the Risk And Control Self Assessment Workshops and Questionnaires.... It's going to be very challenging, but hey... that's what I want!

- The Grandma : It's been challenging ( is that the correct spelling?), but yea, so far she has asked me to move out then apologised profusely.... Then has done everything in her power to avoid the topic when I being it up!

- S'pore - Went there 2 weeks ago on the weekend. Lotsa fun with Aunty Rani and the Pauls.
It was great to see her after so long.... I miss home :(

- Feeling more Malaysian by the day. Am getting used to the idea of having something rice based for breakfast. We had a pot luck ( at work) a few weeks ago and there was sooooo much food, it was ridiculous. There's something about this culture and how food is always the central factor in everything... It's strange.

- Looking forward to Christmas.... in Adelaide :) 1 month and 10 days to go....

Surprising ....

There are a few things that I notice occasionally that surprise me... and that in fact is surprising. Why you may ask? Well, being a person who was born and bread ( to an extent) in this country, I should not really be surprised... but, yet I am. This I guess reaffirms that I have lived away for a significant part of my life and there are things that make me go... ' What the'?

For example:

1. The fact that heaps of ads have Caucasian models on them. This is a country of Asians... ?!
2. The radio announcer of one of the ads has an Australian accent... Why?? And no, they are not Autsralian.
3. I was listening to 'Always on Time' by Ashanti... and the amount of words that had to be edited from it made it sound like a completely different song, which was quite funny!
4. The Driving... where do i Begin?? There's no indicating for starters. Have these people forgot that the indicator is there for a reason? They hardly give way. It's a every man for himself sort of situation!
5. The way the buses hog the road. They think they are freaking great an can overtake anything, whilst they are full of passengers
6. The freeness people use their horns. Once you've got them going, they aren't stopping for anything!

Well, that's my 2 cents for now :)

Billionaire offers cash to Africa's best leader

An Egyptian based billionaire, Mo Ibrahim in the UK has offered a 2.7 million pound reward to the best head of state in the continent of Africa. The leader will receive this sum at the end of his/her term in the office and will then receive a yearly payment of 107,000 pounds for the rest of their life. All this is in a quest to reward people who do the right thing. Is this they way it's done, considering seven African presidents have been in power for over 20 years ... This is definitely a strange incentive to refrain these leaders from runing thier countries... The question is whether this will actually do the job??

Just Because...

It's been quite awhile since I posted... so here goes nothing!

Last Saturday was Deepavali (aka Diwali), which is the Indian New Year and Tues and Wed was Hari Raya... so we had Monday off, which resulted in a heck of a long weekend.

I almost hopped on a plane and went back to Adelaide, but couldn't stand to see my Grandma's distraught face, so instead I went for a weekend getaway with my Uncle, Aunt and cousins to Port Dickson's which is about 1 and a half hours away from KL. It was nice cos I havent' had a holiday with this part of the family in a long long while. We set off in the van (cos there was 7 of us) and omigod... my cousin's can fight!!! We went to a distant relative's house for an open house and got a taste of lotsa indian food and sweets!

Then we checked in to our hotel where my 2 cousins ( Shanti and Nimi) and I shared a room for the next 2 nights! Those girls can really fight...... It was a nice room overlooking the pool and the beach in the horizon, but there was a bit of haze.

The next 2 days were filled with go karting, paint balling ( my team won... i stole the flag when i had no ammo :) ) and archery. It was heaps of fun and very memorable!!!

Stay tuned for pictures and the family reunion story!