1 Malaysia on Ice

Just finished 2 days' worth of 1Malaysia on Ice Show yesterday. A total of 4 shows, 2 per day on Saturday and Sunday respectively. I still don't understand why they had to do it on Sat , 29 August and Sun 30 August. Why can't we do it on 30 and 31 August???? Weird management decision.

The show was a blast, especially the last one. I was kidding around with coach A, that he should pay Ryan and Julian for every good jump they did, and he said I had to pay him if they fell. Ryan did 2 Russian splits which I claim is worth RM 50 each as it was such a crowd pleaser, but he stumbled a bit on landing the 2nd split, so have to deduct RM10!!! Julian fell on his axel-double toe which was not planned for in the 1st place ( that particular jump, I mean). he only did the jump cos A dared him to!! So it was a riot, and I think the boys had fun. No pressure at all. Julian even had time to talk to us at the door during the show! Ryan did 4 different jumps for all 4 shows - he really liked it as he can jump whatever he felt like doing..something which he don't always get to do.

In fact, it was zero pressure and 100 % pleasure, cos there were so many goodies involved, thanks to the generosity of some of the skater parents. They had free T shirts, food from MacDonalds and KFC and a very thoughtful gift as well. Plus a video CD to keep!! Thank you parents, you made it a very nice experience for us as we have never done a show with so much goodies involved. BL sure have some great skater parents. Please include us next time!!! And Happy Merdeka to all!!

Flying Noodles

Have you ever told your friendly neighborhood mamak man to 'tarik panjang panjang' when he is preparing your teh tarik? Well, I have and of course we all take great delight in watching him tarik the tea and display his skills. So much so that there is now an art to 'tarik-ing teh' and many a competitions have been held, and teh tarik is touted as something not to be missed by tourists.

Today I found something else to marvel at. You can now tell this particular guy at a wantan noodle shop in PJ to throw your noodle high high!!! Don't understand? Okay, watch the video





Isn't it awesome? We had dinner at this place this evening, and I didn't realize there was anything extraordinary about it until Julian saw the guy throwing the noodles and commented that the cook played with his food! I was seated with my back to the cooking area, so I turned around to look and was pretty amazed at the antics. We prayed that our noodles will not reach the ceiling and luckily it didn't! Whew, what a relief! Would be awful if it did and got stuck there, anfd we had to wait for it to fall off!!!
You think this guy is good? (BTW, he's not Chinese- he's Myanmarese.), wait till you see his sifu!! The sifu is Chinese, and he does the whole shing ding with a lot more style than this fella. He throws his noodles in a circle instead of straight up, and it's accompanied by a little dance like jiggle. Too bad, we couldn't catch it on tape to be posted cos he caught us by surprise and he only did it once - no repeat :( All the work was done by this underling!!

But, in spite of all this, the food is nothing to shout about. The noodles are home made egg noodles, which I was hoping would taste like the Hong Kong ones, but it did not. A cousin to it, maybe but not the real thing. However, it did taste a lot better than the normal coffee shop wantan noodles. I think they actually made it the Hong Kong way though, cos I spied a thick long bamboo near the kitchen area. ( The real McCoy is made by a guy sitting astride a huge bamboo and gently pressing onto the flour, much like sitting on a see saw going up and down). I know cos I am a wantan noodle snob and I refuse to eat the noodles sold in the coffee shops as they are so inferior compared to the real Hong Kong egg noodles! It's so hard to eat them once you have tasted rhe real thing in Hong Kong.

If you want to see this guy in action, drop me a comment and I'll tell you where to find him.

The night I missed...an open letter to the St Marians

"Friday night came. I came from work. It rained and the traffic was bad. I was late. Anyway, I was confident Thiru & Rowina will keep Helen & CJ occupied. They had many years to catch up. When I finally got to La Bodega in Bangsar Sopping Complex, the restaurant was packed and dark. As I was walking around, I heard a 'ooi'. The usual greeting from Helen. Loud & clear.

Lai Kuan came next. All hell broke loose. No chance for anyone to be heard. So much so that even her friends could pick out her voice among the noise.Thiru brought our school pics. Priceless. Pics of the various events, trips (Fraser's Hill) etc. The reading glasses gave away our age. Othwerwise, no one would guess we are nearly half a century old.

There was much laughter recollecting our school days. Rowina has a memory of an elephant. She fired away all the happenings. I don't recall much of it. Where was I!I remember going to Mr Lee begging to pass. the fear of going to Ms Subra's classes because I knew nothing .. I don't remember Sakunthala crawling into Subra's class."

The above was an except from an email sent by Kim, describing her fun night out with the St Marians, some of whom I have not met since way back in Form Five!!! I was unfortunately pre-booked and thus unable to join them. Despite that, close to midnight, Lai Kuan called up and demanded that I get my ass down to where they are all happily getting drunk. As I have just gotten home, showered and changed into my comfy pjs, and with like one foot already in bed, I was not letting any wild horses drag me all the way down to Bangsar, much less one half drunk woman screaming in my ear!!! ( Although I do love Lai Kuanvery much) Then everyone seemed to want to have a go at me - Helen was next on the phone but she kept insisting she can't hear me - that woman must be getting deaf in her old age!!! ( Oops- shit, we are the same age!!!) Old Man was next and he was a lot more courteous than the two mad women before him!! Despite all that 'char-ing' and insults, it was good to hear them. Made my day !

There were a few more emails ding-donging to and fro after that evening. Boy, I really regretted not going, appears that they had so much fun. Anyway, there's an open 'appointment' to go karaoke-ing next. I get this weird feeling that everyone is expecting me to organise it :( Is it guilty pangs or is it just my imagination? Anyway, would be super to sing together like we used to in school. No karaoke last time. Just the guitar (occasionally) and Thiru banging away at the desk. I'll try to find a karaoke place that have a desk for banging!!! What a blast! You guys still remember the songs? And the wonderful song books we all have - the homemade ones where we spent so much time and effort copying and decorating?? Mine got thrown away by my Mom while I was in Canada. :( One song in particular got stuck in my mind - 'Try a little kindness' by Herman's Hermits. Coincidentally I was just telling Ryan about it a few days ago when he asked what songs we used to sing and his response was ' what song by Hermit crab'????? But he did google it and found a version by Glen Campbell and surprise surprise, he liked it!

Okay, ladies, practise your 'Country Road' , 'Scarborough Fair', 'El Condo Pasa' and Thiru, don't forget 'Knock three times'!! Till we karaoke away...take care.

Much love from me

Up

Warning: If you have not watched 'Up',(http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/up/) don't read this cos it may contain spoilers for you. This is not a review, it's my two cents worth of how I interpret the movie. Not much details here but still may spoil it for you if you have not watched it! So read on at your own risk...

Well, as the above title says, this is about 'Up'. Watched it just now and loved it. It wasn't quite what I expected. What did I expect? Well, what would you have expected from a Disney CG movie? Lots of fun and laughter, with a good moral at the end and everyone lives happily ever after etc etc.. Yup, all these and more..something a bit unexpected!

'Up' is a love story. Serious, it is a love story ; it's about enduring love between a husband and wife. Carl loved his wife so much that he tries to achieve the dream his wife had all her life. Her dream was to go to Paradise Falls and build a house right next to it but somehow their savings to go there was always used for some unromantic and unforseen domestic emergency. So after her death, Carl decided to literally 'up-ped' their house and go there!! It is also a love story of a little boy who yearned for the love of his father. The kid, Russell, somehow got stuck underneath the house when it was flying and thus had to tag along for the adventure. ( I will not go into details as you would most probably have watched it since you read on!!) As fate would have it, the pair got attached to each other and found yet another kind of love.

It is also about love of a dog, 'Dug' for his new master, Carl and how he put his own life on the line to save Carl and Russell. How about the love the bird Kevin had for her babies? How she sacrifice all to get to her babies? Not to mention the love Ellie had for Carl, as he discovered at the end that her most loved adventure was the life she had with him.

So, did you all see the movie through the same eyes as me? One big love story, right? I got a bit misty-eyed when Ellie died...they had such a charmed life together, doing all the simple stuff and so loving.
Russell is so cute and innocent but he also had a fierce sense of loyalty to his 'duty' and his adopted pets!!
And the music is so nice. :) Gave me a 'feel good' sensation all through out and tugged at my heartstrings!!!

On a different note.....but also on movies..anyone watched 'Orphan' ? Now that's a movie in another direction! I wanna watch it :)

This and that...

A literary drought for many days - dunno what to write. Not that things didn't happen but nothing extraordinary did and I was not inspired!! haha- actually no la, I was just darn LAZY!!!

I want to curse DIGI - stupid people @#$%$#@@ Did you know that you can buy new numbers, pay Digi bills, top up and do just about everything in Pyramid......everything except TERMINATE a line!!!! Real idiots - told me I have to go to Subang or SS2 to do that. And on top of that when I called up their stupid HQ to enquire, they told me I can do it in Pyramid. Don't they train their staff properly ? Give wrong info !!!! Grrrr...so mad. Purposely want to inconvenience people so that they won't terminate a line and continue paying. Maybe I will switch over to Maxis - is it any better?

I also want to curse the idiotic drivers who drive into the way leading down to the car park ( in front of Pyramid - the one that goes to the basement) and then try to reverse backwards cos they 'suddenly' decided they didn't want to go in!!! How stupid can you get - dunno how to read the sign meh? Somemore the sign so big blind also can see!!! I feel like running them down.

More curses??? You bet! What about people who don't read notices and emails and keep asking you about it?? As if they dunno how to read - must tell them personally ??? Then they will say , ' oh, I don't know anything about it...' READ la - that's what notices and emails are for!!! @#$$%*&%$

Ok, enough is enough - I could go on and on....

But I want to highlight that I 'discovered' a most delightful person on Saturday. A week ago, the father of a skater told my sons that he would wear his t shirt inside out if Manchester United lost their match on Sunday. Yes, they lost and he actually wore his T shirt inside out last Sat at our late night practice!!! My hat off to you, Sir. You are so sporting and such a great example to the kids!!! I am so happy to make your acquaintance! My weekend was all the nicer due to your little gesture :)

Awesome Annie's steps

Whew - today's step class had me running in circles, literally ! Which is good...if I was going in the right direction!! haha...sorry fellow steppers, my sense of direction is absolutely disgusting, and I truly apologize to D,E and another E, whom I kept bumping into! Thousand apologies also to F, who apparently thought I knew what I was doing and is good enough to follow. Poor judgment on her part ( unfortunately) as I kept getting lost. :( It was a riot, told her she followed the wrong person - LOL :) Case of the blind leading the blind! Thanks for the faith, though - haha.

Okay, okay, to clarify to those not in the know, today's step formation was an inside-outside T laid out in a circle. This means the person immediately next to you travels in an opposite direction and does the mirror image of whatever you do. Sounds confusing? Yeah, right - absolutely. So if you followed the person next to you, you will be totally and utterly lost, not to mention risking banging into another person. I was okay with the first 2 combos, but the 3rd combo changed direction and that was when my troubles started...sigh.... and just as when I thought I was getting the hang of it, time was up. Drats - the class is much too short at 45 mins. Wished California would do something about it. Fingers xxxx.

However, Annie lived up to her moniker, it was awesome and fun. Never mind the mistakes, I had fun !

Colour blind

In the days following Yasmin Ahmad's untimely demise, there has been a flood of blogs and articles about her great work and her totally 1Malaysian spirit. I am not going to write about her good work etc, lots have been said about that already and I totally support every single good word about her.

No, what I am going to say is that I, like many others, took a walk down memory lane and googled her works on YouTube. Although I can't claim to be a big fan, I have nevertheless admired her works for the longest time.

So, going through a number of her advertisements late at night, both local and Singaporean ads, it made me cried a little, laugh a little but most importantly, it made me think back to my childhood.

Her ads on racial harmony , what I would term as colour blindness really drove the truth home. In particular, there were 2 ads, done in Singapore , with some Primary school kids. The first featured 2 boys, a Malay and a Chinese, who claimed each other as best friends, and when the interviewer asked them what race their best friend is, they looked at each other and asked ' What is race?'. Then one of them said, 'Oh, must be car race ...you know...racing cars...' , the other boy nodded yes, and both burst out laughing. The other ad I really enjoyed was one where a very cute little Chinese boy said that his girlfriend's name is Umi Qzarina. And the reason he likes her is because she is pretty and wears earrings!!! Then the equally cute little Malay girl appears and they ran off. Children really are colour blind as far as skin colour is concerned. This brings back memories of my own Primary school days. There was no such thing as 1Malaysia campaign and calls for racial harmony etc simply because there was no such need. My friends in school were all sorts, we had Chinese, Malays, Indians and whatever inbetweens. We just integrated naturally, if we are not friends with a particular girl, it is because she is not a nice person, not because she is of a different colour. If there is rivally among groups, it's because we are in different classes or 'houses', not because of skin colour. Life was so much simpler.

However, I am comforted these days because of the action of 2 little boys. In the rink, there is a pair of brothers, little kids who happen to be Malay. All Malay kids are very polite when they greet their elders, with a 'kiss' on the hand, the traditional 'salam'. However, most seem to use this greeting only with Malay elders and use the western style " Hello Aunty/Uncle" to others, but these 2 little guys used it with every adult they greet! It really warms my heart to see this and in particular to be greeted this way. The parents have done a fantastic job in teaching their boys. Congratulations and well done, Mom and Dad of A and A ! In the eyes of these brothers, all adults are elders and to be respected in the same way, irregardless! Now that's the true 1Malaysia spirit for you.