when is your turn

Summarised/shortened from previous blog

aku teringat kat satu post dalam blog kawanku berkenaan isu ni… ehhehe… cebisan dari post asalnya:

oh ya. i have a question for you guys. more like a survey..... do you have any typical answer for answering question " bila nak kawen?" or "when is your turn?" come on..let's find a good answer that is good enuf which will stop the same person to ask the same question again .

knowledge sharing kt sini… bleh mengembangkan kreativiti anda2 yg melalui situasi yang sama bila asik ditnaya org soklan2 ni…

Aku dan kawan-kawan Miss Bo mbalas di ruang komen.. bagi suggestion

-------------------------------------------------------------
[H]

mesti ade jawapan yg berbeza mengikut sape yg tanye..
kalo mak/family tanye jawab "mak tlg la cari kan..."

kalo bos tanye jawab "im wanna build my career first"

kalo kawan2 tanye jawab "aku tunggu ko kawin dulu" kalau die dah kawin ckp "aku tunggu ko kawin lagi satu.." kui6...

general answer "insyaallah, sampai jodoh nanti kawin la (jwb dgn senyuman yg manis)"

[R]

my favorite answer is " menjadi bisu and smile only"indirectly ppl know that i'm not interested to talk bout the subject ;)
if kwn2 baik ckp dgn hati yg ikhlas lar kenapa..other than that..heheh senyum jelar tanpa berkata apa2

[F]

i always tell people that "ooo aku kawen cuti sekolah" dgn muka selamba.that normally effectively menutup mulut diorang pun.
im not telling a lie.. i'll get married time cuti sekolah. cuma tahun bila tu jer tak tau lagi =P

[Z]

As for myself, bila orang tanya ahaks, dulu aku jawab "InsyaAllah tahun depan" ... sekarang jawapan terbaru:"InsyaAllah I planned to settle down before 2009" muahahah.Aku telah praktikkan beberapa kali yang pastinya telah membuat mereka speechless .. Bak kata hang, jawab kena confident =)

[my comment]

verbal ones:

positip thinker
"It will happen when it happens"

"InsyaAllah, ada jodoh tak ke mana"

"It will be a surprise"

"Tungguuuuuuu" sambil mulut termuncung kerana panjang dengungnya

diversion
"laa maak, kita nak jaga mak laa" dgn tersenyum manis

"tak stabil lagi...nak kumpul duit dulu"

"nak beli kete lagi 2 bijik dulu"

"oh my god, do u know... the petrol price has just increased... bla... bla.. " Psst.. tukar topik ;)

not so interested
"i'm sorry... it's my personal matter which i prefer not to discuss"

"err.. not interested" dengan gaya poyo dan vogue/bimbo :P so org dah maleh nak tanya

"none of ur business" dengan gaya poyo sama sprti di atas

"hahahahhahahahhahahaaaa" a big fat sarcastic laugh

non-verbal:

senyum separuh, sebelah bibir aje la kiranya

sengih

sengih, kali ni smapai nampak gusi skali

angkat kening cam dgn maksud "ahh-haaa"

angkat kening gaya the rock dgn maksud "ko takde mende lain ke nak tanya"

lambai tangan, dengan gaya kiut dan poyo, dan cpat2 blah dari situ

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So kepada mereka2 yang dah kekeringan idea... bleh la cedok2 :P~ okes... goodluck dengan candangan2 tersebut.. :D

ironically, as much as you may get annoyed when ppl keep asking u the "cepu emas" question... you too can't help urself from asking the same questions to ur friends....
hahahha... Caring Society lah katakan...

So i'm caring... and i'm sharing now... :)) hohohohoo

mulakan dengan Bismillah...

At times when you are busy chasing your dreams, busy climbing up your career or busy with everything else so worldly, you tend to overlook some of the things close to your heart – Iman. i'm gonna touch about Al-Quran.

How often do you read your Quran? You believe in Quran but you seem to have no time to read it. You are not obliged to read it and before you knew it, you start neglecting Quran as a part of your routine. You have the Kitab with you all the time, in your room, placed at the highest shelf… at times it becomes too high for you to reach, what more for you to open and start reciting the wonderful words that not only guide you through life but also shower you with peace and serenity. Or do you only read your Quran when you are facing problems, when every thing else seem to fall apart? InsyaAllah, if you read at crucial times, you will feel at peace while reciting it… and MasyaAllah, if you recite it regularly (especially every day), regardless of your frame of mind... it feels even better.

At times we forget, at times we overlook… but you must always remember that it is never too late. If you are not well versed in Arabic, get the translations and comprehend while you are reciting verses from the holy Quran. Even if you are not so fluent in reciting it or even if you are not fluent at all; it is also never too late to learn or improve. “Malu bertanya sesat jalan” … apatah lagi ilmu agama kita :) Shying away is not the resolution; you have to put away age or status from being the barrier to learn…

Mulakan dengan Bismillah....
:-)

~ just a reminder.. (for u and me)~

Jazakallahukhairank athira
"It is better to try and fail, than not try at all"

:)

No, Uncle... I don’t love you :P

Have u been in situation where u find urslef lost in translation? it happens a lot i guess when ppl talk in languages that u dont master and u really feel lost... especially when u desperately need the information that's passing thru... frequent huh? hmmm... and have u even been in situation where u are "caught" in between translation?

Here is my intepretation of being Caught in translation :P :P

It was last day of convocation festival. I was so busy at the gift shop, helping with the sales so I didn’t have the leisure to go around the convo site. Shops and stalls were supposed to be closed before midnight so I used the few hours left to go around and look for something worth a purchase.

I stopped at the book stall, they were from Saba media. They sell Islamic books and journals and most of them were in English. My original intention was to get a copy of al-Mathurat, but browsing through; I found some page-turning books.

The owner and his staff conversed in Tamil when they speak among themselves. I was going through 3 books when suddenly an elder man whom I guessed would be the boss; he was around 50 years old, condemning his assistant for giving the wrong price to one of the customers beforehand. The younger guy had certainly hit below the margin and he was apologizing for the mistake. It was not a serious argument as a few minutes later they were chatting and laughing over some other matters.

I didn’t mean to eavesdrop but I couldn’t help it, I just understood every single thing. From one look, slalunya people tak bajet yang i can understand or apatah lagi bercakap dalam bahasa lain slain bahasa kebangsaan. but seriously, nowadays mmg takleh bajet sapa bleh cakap bahasa apa kan... sudah rojak maa.

By the way, back to the story, I thought I was being rather mischievous, thinking the information would be pretty handy for me to bargain later, heheh.

The boss was in front of me and upon realizing that I was somehow glued to the books, he approached, speaking in Malay and English “Good books, just choose which one, harga boleh kurang”

I was laughing inside; yes I know can kurang sampai mana. The uncle explained about the books that I was flipping through and finally I made my choice. He stated the price and with the information I had earlier... now, it’s the time to bargain, I decided.

“Tak boleh kurang ka?”

Oh nooo… What I said was fine but my tone was, if I heard myself correct, sounded a bit seductive. Euuuww… didn’t know where that came from… :P

The uncle choked and turned to his assistant, speaking in tamil

“Pochida, kadhal udherangge”Translation: “Alamak, she’s trying to seduce me”…

Ohh tidakkk…. He was about the same age as my father and no way that I would have any intention to be funny with him. Tidakk!! My face turned hot out of embarrassment and disbelief. Usually when ever I caught up in a situation where I understood what people say and it was about me, I just kept quiet. But that night was not one of those, I had to clear my image :P

Therefore, I gathered my courage, cleared my throat and said clearly

“Anthe mari kadhal kadhal la kadiyathe”
Translation: “No such lovey dovey thing going on here”

Hence it was then the uncle’s turn for embarrassment and disbelief. He looked over to his assistant again and that guy was already half way exploding with humongous laugh.

In just a blink, the sheepish man jumped out of the stall and couldn’t hold his own laughter as well. I stood there not making an inch of a move and I was posing a macho stature because I knew I was at the winning side.

After he was somehow composed, he came back in and asked in tamil “speak tamil?” I just nodded a macho nod. He kept apologizing and said he was just joking. I knew it was a joke but I manipulated the situation to make them feel guilty ehehehe… well, with the hope I get extra-extra discount for the book.

I spoke as monotonous as I could sound, and stressed the word uncle so that my intention would not be misinterpreted again. As a result, I came back buying the book with a good discount and feeling very fulfilled, like I won some match or something… Ahaks…

So… what have u learned from this incident?

Don’t judge a book by its cover

1. Marilah kita belajar pelbagai bahasa
2. Control your intonations and gestures when you speak, people can get the wrong ideas okay…
3. Kadhal means Cinta/Love
4. I am seductive after all… hihihihihie

= This story happened back in August 2006 =]

It takes 2 to tango

Gender Issues > Had 2 series of conversations that lead me to write this :D

Can women be good leaders?
Women can be leaders among women, also among both men and women. But more often than not, when one of our friends comes back miserably from work ; and when informed that his/her boss is a ladyy... our immediate response will be “no wonderrrr” or “wrong timing of the month laa :P” or “the tigress has finally attacked” etc. Among women, we get offended when guys don’t trust on our leadership, but we also go against our own species when we comment on a lady-boss :P ironic, huh?

Men, are they better cooks?
In most restaurants, be it 5 star hotels, mamak or tomyam stalls; they are dominated by male cooks. Hmmm I think most of the time, men cook to cater for commercial values whereas women cook to cater for personal values.

Man + Woman = best friends?
A man and a woman can be friends but can they be best friends? Yes definitely, but to a certain extent. You can be best of friends when both are single. But when one of you or both are committed with a special relationship (especially marriage), you should downgrade to being only good friends or just friends. No more the best. I strongly believe your spouse should be your bestest friend ever and not someone else from the opposite gender. Maybe you guys can still reunite with the presence of both spouses, so this brings you to a new level of friendship = being family friends! (ouh, but please don’t make match-make your kids laa, let them have freedom of choice maa kuikuikui)

Women are too emotional, Men are insensitive
Women have to be emotional because this is the ultimate strategy to manipulate men haha… Men have to be insensitive because if you are too sensitive, people will start to speculate that you are gay. So maybe we should just accept this fact and live with it… hmmm… or maybe this is why men and women complete each other :P but do be careful haa… toooo emotional + toooo insensitive = cyclone lah jawabnya!


Women spend too much money on shopping?Women shop to be gorgeous maaa… At times women shop for the household maaa… Lovey-dovey couples don’t face much problem as they tend to compromise or try to compromise a LOAD during this period. But when it is married couple we are taking about, this issue suddenly begins to be very serious and important. Let us try to put it this way then. Comparing to the “few” ringgits men have to forego with the sweats women shed and initiatives that women make in order to get the best stuff with the best price (see, still considerate about money); the few ringgits means nothing actually :P So I think men should go easy on women about shopping ;) (ahaha… gender-biased)

Excerpted from Padayappa :D
“Women who are too emotional or raged and men who are too greedy will never prosper in their lives.”

What I agreed to understand: So women can be greedy, that’s why we are allowed to shop anytime we want!!! Hahhahaa… No lar… seriously… I think the excerption is a good one to be pondered upon.


Issues on gender will never meet an end… there are so many issues that I decided to pick and prick on some of the most talked about issues. As far as all of us are concerned, no matter how many issues we have or we may have in future, we just can’t live without each other. We are dependant on each other and of course complement each other. Long live XX and XY !

aku sekeh kang....

Summarised/shorten from previous blog

aku terstumble upon this page. It was a forum, ada org2 dok citer masalah, then ada satu post dari seorang lelaki, beginilah isinya:

=quote =
baru2 nie masuk club cari kawan dptler kawan dgn 3 awekz nie so skg x tahu nak pilih yg mana satu. nak jadikan cite yg satu nie ok keja pun bagus but muka tak berapa ok n yg nie ler yg kerap contact i. so at this moment i conpius apa yg nak buat.i pun ada buat sembahyang tu sama dgn yg lain2 xda mimpi2 pun tu yg jadi lagi bingung. so my question utk kekawan lelaki ok ke kalau dpt gf yg x lawa nie. coz 4 me kekadang tu rasa ok kekadang rasa x ok.
=unquote=

Helloo!! cantik itu very subjektif tau!


Yang meng-annoy-kan aku adalah orang2 yang obsess dengan mende ni. Bagi aku la, as long as kita dan org sekeliling masih boleh tolerate dengan identity kita sendiri… tak perlulah nak make too much effort to be someone else…

The key to happiness starts with being happy with who you are

Pasal fizikal ni… jgn la nak komplen2 sgt… (bersyukurlah dan always be POSITIVE)

Pasal yang nak cari2 calon ni… jgn la letak kriteria2 yang terlampau fizikal… sbb fizikal ni, satu ari nanti akan deteriorate jugak. Kalu leh, utamakan iman dan akhlak org tu, cantiknya orang tu biarlah dari hati dia.

aku lebih suka kalau orang tu gembira dengan diri dia tanpa terlalu bangga-riak dengan keistimewaan diri dia atau obsess

Cicak yang Durjana

Semalam Emme ajak melepak di persisiran laut Queensbay Mall. Bes la makcik ni, sebab hobi dia makan, dan hobi aku pula makan bila diajak makan. Petang tu mmg indah la, cewah… bukannye wat apa pun, makan kuih2 dan ayaq kat batu-bata tepi laut queensbay tu jer, bersama rakan-rakan lain – nando, kak ilah, rash, dan adikku. Semakin lewat, smakin banyak angin-bayu senja lah tu kot.

Hmm sebenarnya aku pun tatau apa yang aku nak tuleh… haha…

but.. sbnarnya melepak tanpa tujuan selepas sehari bekerja ni mmg bes… sbb merilekskan diri serba sedikit lah. So kami pun bersembang, merepek,ketawa2 dan menyakat sesame sendiri. Bila dah konpem senja… berlari-lari anaklah kitorang ke queensbay mall itu dan menjalankan rukun islam yang kedua. Selepas puas melepak dan memenangi tmpt pertama di racing circuit Daytona, pergilah kami untuk makan malam di gold coast (bayan bay).

Bertapa di pondok feveret, dan waaaa angin pantai dia sunggoh lah bes. Ramai pulak malam itu, rupa2nya budak2 matrik kmpp… waaa ini sudah kira junior cycle ke berapa ntah :) sebelum pulang smpt lah kami interview bdak2 yang melepak bermain pasir pantai berdekatan pondok kami itu. Kelab bowling kata mereka… waduh2 , kmpp sudah ada kelab boling gituh, wuuu… gitu skali.

Setelah di drop kan di skul, daku bawak kete… dan bersama kak ilah dan adikku menuju ke tekun. Rancak aku bersembang dengan kak ilah, tidak ku sedar adikku menyebut “macam bee movie” berkali-kali…

Tiba-tiba aku terlihat cicak durjana muncul di hadapan bonet depan kereta ku, membuatkan aku terjerit kegilaan… kerana aku sememangnya menci dan takut dan menyampah dengan cicak – cicak sedunia.

Mereka berdua pun sudah ke-gabra-an kerana aku masih menjerit2 tanpa memberikan konsentrasi penuh pada pemanduan aku. Mencii!!!! Aku geliiii…. Menulis di sini… mengingat kembali juga buat aku menjadi geli geleman semula… berani itu cicak! Boleh dia memandang muka aku apabila dia sampai ke cermin depan itu.. berani sungguh ya! Akhirnya kerana kekeliruan yang melampau, cicak itu kamikaze lalu melompat dari bonet depan kete tersebut. Namun aku terus juga pull over dan turun untuk memastikan cicak itu betul-betul sudah kamikaze… syukurlah dia dah takdok…. Huuu.. mengggeletar aku dan hamper mau menangis aku di situ…

Sampai ati ko cicak.. hari ku yang indah diakhiri nightmare yang terbawa-bawa sampai ke mimpi selepas ku pulang untuk tidur… tidakk!!! Jgn ganggu idop ku lagi, cicak… !!!!

mesej ini disampaikan khas kepada cicak-cicak sedunia...

~ sekian terima kasih ~

Kisah Bilik A.H.U

In this unpredictable world we are living today, we can barely trust anyone; can we trust those who are not listed in our list of ‘people I know’? Everyone seems suspicious these days. So who should or should not we help??

2 recent incidents made me write this.

1. I was driving, a woman waiting to cross the junction on a wheelchair. She seemed quite unnoticeable if you choose to ignore/if you speed, but luckily I saw her and stopped the car. It’s a t-junction. A motorbike from the other side stopped and started to become a jump-in traffic police by stopping cars from the other 2 sides of the road. The woman crossed the road, and the motorbike made a U-turn just to ensure the woman get to the other side safely. He pulled a thumbs-up to me and a very happy smile. From my interpretation, he was satisfied he could help!
2. Late night.. we stopped for supper after picking Kak Farah from the airport. After makan, we went inside the car, and since Kak Ilah’s car has an automatic lock, it was locked right away. Suddenly a man, maybe in his 40s knocked on the window. He gave signal asking us to pull down the window, wanted to ask something I guess. We were only few yards away from the mamak restaurant, but anything can happen. So kak farah and I asked kak ilah to just ignore him and start driving. He could have asked someone from the restaurant if he really needed help, not 3 young girls in a car in the middle of the night! No way we are falling for that!

Ok these 2 incidents we can clearly tell the do’s and don’ts. I think in a situation where it is obviously safe for us to help someone… why not just lend a hand. But do be cautious, at times things happen when we most unexpected it to happen.

= the Dos =
The most unbearable scene is in the buses, or LRTs. I used to take public buses a lot last time. Trillions of times, I came across situation where I was seated faraway, somewhere back or tersorot in an overly crowded bus. Then came in someone who needs a seat more than the “more capable of standing” people do. At times it was very annoying to watch… and I’d be feeling very guilty of sitting at the very far end.

You know, there was even once, when I stood up to give a place to elderly who was at the front, trying to get the person’s attention. But before I knew it, someone was already sitting on my seat. Waaa seriusss geram.

There was another time, in the similar situation; I gave my seat to a very old nyonya as no one nearer to her offered her a seat. Later she asked me to sit beside her after the seat next toher was emptied. We had a brief chat, she pointed out the qualities the youngsters have today, many of them are rude and insensible, she said.

Another incident that I can still remember until today. It was during the 2005 convocation, my friends and I were just lepaking as it was Friday, and most of our friends who graduated went for friday prayers. The pesta site was still crowded. There was a Chinese family of 3 - very elderly parents, the father need to be supported, and the mom quite fragile. The daughter has a bandaged leg and using an orthopedic walking aid. The daughter and the mother were holding the father’s arms to support his steps.

They were heading to the toilet, and there were so many people around, some sitting/waiting at the area, and everyone just watched! I watched too… and told my friend… that was a very heartrending situation. “I feel like helping him, should I go? No one is helping him” and she said “are u sure, he’s a man…or maybe someone will help him later, don’t worry”, she was hoping someone would help first as we were quite a distance away from the scene (which would be our normal reaction, right? Thinking other people might step in).

So we waited… but nope, no one. So I approached them and offered help. They were surprised but just replied with a big smile and sincere thanks. I think I helped him move 5-6 steps when some of the audiences finally realized the situation. Just before I nearly enter the men’s toilet, some other men came to help out. After that I left with a satisfaction for I don’t have to feel guilty for just looking but doing nothing about it. Actually it was rather disappointing that no one actually came to help first.


Ok…. Now… examples of when u shouldn’t be so helpful?



= the Don’ts =

Shimah, Azah and I were walking from our rented house to the campus; we were stopped by a man who was around 45-55 years old. Cut the story short, he came up with the story that his motorbike broke down and needed to get to hospital to visit his admitted daughter. He wanted to “borrow” rm 10 or 20 , can’t remember…

He was very good at convincing but there was some loop holes in his story, so Shimah and I keep on questioning him… u know… just to verify his stories. When we offered suggestions that he could actually use… he came up with reasons… until finally his stories didn’t make sense anymore… the plot keep changing to fit our queries. We tried not to be rude, as we were afraid of what he was capable of doing.

So we “politely” excused ourselves and apologized for not being able to help. Then he said to us “its ok… just do not mention this to anyone” his tone changed and he seemed anxious too. So we apa lagi… cepat2 cabut!

And guess what, nearly one year after that, that incident happened again... the same guy. Luckily shimah was there with mas and remembered him… and apa lagi.. cabut awal2 laaa…



Another story… from my friend actually… lets call her Miss An (for anonymity). Miss An and her friend was shopping in BJ complex, and they were passing by the lift and the AHU room area, when they suddenly heard some noise from the room. Someone was pushing/knocking on the door vigorously from inside… and the room was locked from the outside.

Both of them panicked, someone was locked in and they wanted to help out. So they tried calling the person to get some response, they used bahasa and also English, in case the person couldn’t understand them. When the person didn’t respond, they imagined all the worst things that could have happened. Was the person tied? Dumb-folded? Both of them were worried sick. Miss An was ready to call the Rakan Cop at that moment, but then they decided to look for the security guards around there that might be of help.

So they went down the lift to the next floor down. And to their horror…. There was another person trapped in this AHU room as well… oh noooo….. what was happening around there??? then… of cos… later, they realized it must be the room! Miss An called someone who could clarify this (from Archi background), and yes… AHU rooms do “run out of control” once a while because of the pressure kept inside the room. Ok… so much for trying to be super helpful! Hihihihihii…. But at least… now they are aware of how AHU operates! and also now you know, so beware of AHU rooms aar people :P :P


So... when to help and when not to????

i think we should ask ourselves... and look at how we response to things happening around us... everyone has different level of sensors... some insensitive, some extra sensitive (cam kes AHU tue kuikuikui..)

So u decide on your own level laah... hahaaa.... but always remember... what goes around comes around... so takleh la ignorance dengan keadaan/org sekeliling kita.. at times... we might be the one who need help from people who have no idea whether or not to trust us.... jeng jeng jeng.....


AHU - means "air handling unit" a big air cooling machine which supplies cooled air to the room via air ducts and supply air grilles and air diffusers.


~ ciao cincau ;)

B.L.O.G

Ppl have different reasons to blog. With or without clear motives, this blogging thingy has become a chic... more and more people blog or merely blog-hop. I’ve read an article in The Star few weeks ago by one of their senior journalists. She was criticizing on the blogging trend, some that I can remember are as follows:

• Everyone wants to be a writer
• The extent of personal life being revealed. Most alarming is those by the teenagers
• Trying to seek attention

Hmmm can’t remember di… but the issue caught my interest. Well I am among the people who blog, ain’t i?

By the way, if you are a blogger, why are you taking all the trouble to register, log in, customize ur blog kasik bunga sana bunga sini, keep on posting, cracking ur mind to post something… Why take all this trouble lah? Well… after some surveys and so-called experience in this bloggy world, maybe this list may help you to identify your initial reason why you wanted to blog… (in any language) Adakah anda:

1. Love to write and secretly think that you have some hidden talent in writing
2. You think your writing sucks big time, and thought blogging may help you to improve
3. You think your life is great that you want everyone to know… or nicer way of putting it… you thought by sharing your great life stories, you’re doing ur readers some kind of favor
4. You need to be a public figure, don’t you?
5. You want people to feel what you feel, you want to share your secrets or problems, and show them that… It’s not easy to be me!
6. You blog… write something, post it, and read it over and over again until you have an idea of what to write on your next blog post
7. You want some second opinion… be it on your style of writing or the contents of your blog or on some issues that mocked your head…
8. You are such a divine; you write things that can help people to have a better life
9. You are so damn bored… and tadaaa…. Ur blogging dearest saves you yet again from dying out of boredom
10. You want to impress people or certain someone with your thoughts and writings… so that people can see how matured/knowledgeable you are.
11. You want to feel good about yourself. The blog post sounds good --> good enough = Life’s good! (Human arithmetic!)
12. You hold on to the motto that brags as “Aku nak blog ka tak blog kaa, suka ati aku laa”
    
    

Aiyooyoo.... what kind of list I came up with nie? Most of them are negative, sarcastic huh? Kwang3x… I am brainwashed by the Star journalist it seems. Of course she must have carried out some research before coming out with the article; as a result, most of her points were quite undeniable.

At times when I get super duppa busy bored, I blog-hop too… and ya lor… some of these blogs are way too scary. Nampaknya, ramai sunggoh mahu menjadi cool dan ya-ah-auw(seperti kata Toophat) gitu… waduh2…

Your blog represents your identity… your personality… and the way you write it, and what you write in it will determine how much details you are giving out about your self.
Some people think, blogging is like having an open diary, so it’s a violation... because diaries are meant to be kept personal and as a secret. But you see, blogs don’t have to be diaries… they can serve as journals as well.

Anyway, which category I’ll put my self in, huh?
It’s likely to be 9 and 12… and who knows… maybe my secret agenda is number 4… That’s gonna be a pick from my unconscious mind, because I’m such an attention-seeker maa…

A Tale to tell

Scenario 1:
You see… those days were difficult. There are 8 of us and as a teacher and the sole distributor; my father had to really restraint our financial. We were only given 10 cents the most or at times we bring food from home to school. I remember cycling to school.

Scenario 2:
This area was remote those days. You know this Taman Selamat… I used to follow my grandma to bring the cows to graze grass at that area. I used to walk from my house at the other end to this area to wait for the bus here. Must be extra early, if I miss the bus, I had to wait for another one hour, and of course I’ll be late to school.

The 3 of us were in different era when we were in our teenage years. The 70’s, 80’s and 90’s respectively. Christina and I were car-pooling with Dr.Ooi and we came up with this topic.

The first scenario took place in the early 70’s, she’s a doctor, but from her story, it did not happen with a finger snap. She went through hardships and knew how it feels to strive hard with limited resources.

Second scenario was in the early 80’s. She’s now a lawyer who came from a humble background.
Myself… from the late 90’s… still climbing in the career world… and yes I came from a very humble background too.

After having that conversation, memory of my mom telling us stories of difficult times that she had to endure and somehow managed to survive through, came back to me. I loved her stories… no matter whether they were sad or happy stories, I really loved listening to her tales.
Nowadays, our conversation is more haha.. gossip-alike… But going back to her stories back then, I think I grew up with her stories… as I can clearly remember most of them. When I was young, I promised myself that I would remember all her stories so that I can pass it to my kids in future; I wanted to be her extra memory disk ;)

Both my parents wish the same for us – they want us to be better-off from them. Knowing how much my mom loved education but couldn’t get a proper one, I would feel bad about it. I know she wants us to achieve her unfulfilled dreams…. until now… my parents constantly encourage us to achieve whatever we could /want since opportunities are just beyond grab these days.
I have my own share of tales to be passed on to the next generation. Born in the early 80’s, the 'conversion' era; when our country starts to bloom in terms of development and the time when middle-class group start to materialize.

I can be very passionate when I tell my friends about my childhood. We were not rich, but very happy. Despite the hardships we were in, my parents manage to pull through and things got better for us as my sisters and I reached our teenage years.

At this age, after going through different phases of life… when I look back, I’m able to put a smile. A smile… remembering those times…

I miss our humble-shack. Come to think of it, I can never stop if I start listing all my memories, be it the wonderful ones or the hardships. I find it interesting to have tales to be told.
It is the same like the grandmas or grandpas stories that we listened with awe, and become even more compelling when we were told about how different things were… turning into a motivation when they start to tell us how they manage to survive the difficult times.

Everyone has a tale to tell….

Everyone leaves footprints along their journey in life. But the question is… do you track back your prints or you prefer to just rub it off?

It doesn’t matter if you are born in destitution or in affluence… You do have a Tale… In years to come… what we have today may seem to be obsolete for the new generations.
But talking about hardship? And hmm… Talking about art of survival… Will these people still have a Tale to tell? Will they be passionate about it? I don’t know… maybe when we reach the appropriate age… we will start to be passionate :P and start to go on with lines like “You know those days…..”

So … what Tales do you have in mind to be passed on to your kids (besides the story of how mommy meets daddy, of course) :P


Additional Notes:
I've recently read a good fiction on family tales. It is a wonderful book n one of the best reads i've had so far. Rice Mother by Rani Manicka. there's many thing i can relate to when i read that book... maybe that's why i enjoy the read... i passed it to one of my frens... she can't relate to the story that much... but she enjoyed reading it too ;)

To be or not to be... BeAutiLiCious...

Mia favourite quotes on beauty:

~Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder~
~Beauty is only interesting when it is debatable ~

I believe everyone is beautiful in their own way... in some ways... It can be your eyes, your nose, your body, your complexion…. It can be your posture, your words, your manner, your confidence… It can even be your gentleness, your humbleness, your shyness, your softness… or it can be your boldness, your braveness, your thinking, your intelligence… also, it can be your thoughtfulness, your kindness, your compassion, or even your outlook.

Most of us are so entrapped with beauty in synonym with some stereotypes. We think being beautiful is only on how we look attractive and perfect physically. Judging from the external, yes, it is important to make yourself look presentable. Look neat and nice to the eyes. But do not try too hard just to look beautiful. Carry yourself well and people will be pleased having you around.

I categorize myself as the ‘Average Jane’. I don’t think I have got compliments like “WAH, YOU SOOO BEAUTIFULL LAAA”, but maybe sometimes on my dress, sometimes on how I look vibrant than usual. If I get compliments, they are bizarre ones like, your lips are thin, they are adorable; you are unique, or your draculla teeth is your asset… huh what?? Haha… Actually, I am happy with my look. However, maybe I should work on my complexion, get rid of the acnes and stuff like that. But other than that, I wouldn’t ask for more.

When I look at other girls who are beautiful, I will be impressed, but I don’t go to the extent of envying them. Beauty is made so stereotype anyway. For me, beauty is just like an accessory glued to a person (be it male or female). What’s more important is the essence – who is the person inside the accessory? Does he/she carry him/herself well? (isk isk ada gaya cam ibu mertua tak?.. :P) Actually, I think I never had a crush on drop dead gorgeous guys before lah. I am more likely to be attracted to the low-profile guys. I dunno why, am I normal or not?

Some are very much concerned about beauty and about having to be beautiful.... on the other hand, some have feeling of inferiority about themselves. Usually when you are in some kind of special relationship, you start thinking about importance of being beautiful. Your mere intention is to look attractive in his eyes but technically you might think beauty can help to secure the relationship to last longer. You tend to feel inferior even with your slightest flaws. Have you ever experienced any of these? i guess it's normal, huh

I have heard people say; women are willing to torture themselves in order to look beautiful to men. We wear high-heels – not good for our backbone. We wear corsets. We paint our faces with chemicals. We go for the torturous wax sessions. We go on diets… etc. (feminists may disagree with this statement... but this is what we hear most of the time... )

Sometimes we just want to look good and feel good about ourselves. It is not all about impressing others but more of self-satisfaction. But we cannot deny the fact that: Women want to impress men (and vise versa)… or impress only the certain someone in our lives. Am I beautiful in his/her eyes? Am I attractive enough? What he/she sees in me?

But, is physical beauty the only thing you want him to see in you? Or you use your beauty to make sure he stays? So that he stays long enough to make him understand and get to know you in-person. If he stays because he loves you for who you are, you are so blessed. But if he stays because you look beautiful enough to make him stay, beautiful enough to make him stand all your kerenah, beautiful enough to make him pretend he understands you. Then what happens if one day, he wakes up in the morning, and finds that you don’t look beautiful anymore in his eyes. He can’t seem to figure out why he had put up with you all these years. What will happen then?

Beauty is appealing, but it is more important that he is attracted to your manner, your mindset, your strength and believes in you.

Some of us are so beauty- conscious that we keep on complaining about some flaws that we think are destroying our beauty. Some of us compare ourselves to some superstars or supermodels and keep on wondering why we can’t be like them. So, if it ever crosses your mind, maybe this piece will help –trying to think positively within the negative vibes you have.

10 POYO-reasons why you should be happy you are not drop dead gorgeous

1. You don’t have to serabut your kepala to choose from pool of guys going after you.
2. Not many will be jealous of you or envy you :P
3. You don’t have to worry about a ‘bad hair day’ or a ‘day of fashion disaster’, because not likely anyone will notice that anyway.
4. You will tend to work on your other strong points to make up to the good looks you think you lack in, i.e. Public relations skills, communications,...
5. You are likely to be a humble person. (but depend also laa)
6. When someone fall in love with you, you are more convinced that he fell for the-real you, your soul, your thoughts and your self, not because of your looks or maybe your popularity. (and make sure you are not “the bank”) hehe…
7. When you achieve something successfully (especially in your career), people usually look up to you, declaring it’s from your own effort and capabilities, not because of your looks or beauty.
8. You can feel safer in some ways, like maybe lower possibilities of being attacked by some stalkers, or even the Romeo(s)… haha…
9. Your lover or spouse won’t feel insecure, so you won’t be burdened with extreme jealousy. Equals to = = more freedom, hoorah….
10. You have a very GOOD and STRONG reason to buy more cosmetics, more beautiful dresses (to beautify yourself and your appearance). THIS means MORE shopping…!!! Yahoo!!!

So, let’s not be sad if we are not one of the attractive eye-candies. Cherish the benefits that we get from being not-so-beautiful.

No actually… whether you are beautiful or not (physically or stereotypically)… the most important thing is that you are beautiful inside. When you are happy with your self…. you bring out the best in you. No matter how your “accessory” looks like… you still look beautiful in the eyes of people that matters.