Doggie Looking for Home....

Here's a (not so good) photo of the little fella looking for a home: 

▲ now named 'Siti' by the maid

My mom's maid brought home this dog last weekend from her friend's place. Said that the friend was giving it away and asked if my dad wanted to keep the dog. My dad's non-committal response was, "Have to see the dog first" and hence the dog appeared in the house.

Since then, the dog has been in my parents' house... chewing up some slippers... but surprisingly has made friends with the other doggies - Gracie and even the bad mood, territorial, old lady, Bubbles.

First impression of her is she's incredibly shy of people - not sure if that's a sign that she's been abused or that she's been neglected, hence not trusting of people. She only goes to the maid, and plays with the maid, no one else. Though, whenever Bubbles is around, she loves coming over to say hello and then play :).

▲ another look at Siti

She has a long body, with short legs.. so looks likes she's got some daschund (sausage dog) blood, mix with golden retriever (although my sister reckons that's not physically possible... hehehe) resulting in a mousedeer like coat on her back... Should call her Sang Kancil instead. :)

Anyways, since we said we didn't want to keep her, the maid's friend has said that she was just gonna take her back and let her run off. She had no intention of keeping the dog.... That's just plain cruel and so wrong!!! Couldn't bear the thought of her running off and getting hit by a car.... *sobs

So, anyone interested in adopting her, please drop a line! Will try to take better photos of her!

Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2009

So ar... we just got back from the weekend trip to Singapore, or Stinkipore as nicknamed by an ex-resident of the island nation. Something about it being stinky when it rains, and it rains quite often in the island....

Anyways, we were there for the weekend for the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon. This was the first Stand Chart Spore experience for my sister and the husband. They were both doing the half marathons, so we had flown in on a 7.45am flight with Tiger Airways on Saturday.

I've never been so tired in my life, having to wake up at 4.30am (after only just about 4.5 hours) of sleep, having to get dressed and then catch the airport taxi cab to the LCCT. I was so tired that I actually fell asleep sitting on one of the chairs while the rest of them were waiting in line to check in. When I gained consciousness, they have moved about 10-15 feet in the queue, and were not even looking behind to check on me - HUMPH!!! How did they know if I was just taking a (super) power nap or had actually passed out from exhaustion and lack of sleep?

Grudgingly, I got up and joined them in the queue.

I seemed to have regained some little bit of energy from the power nap. The flight was uneventful. Arrived at the budget terminal of Changi and Yen was told by her friend that the race packs collection place was actually near the airport... not in the Durian area, like it was done in previous years.

So, after asking around, we took the free shuttle bus service to Terminal 2, and then caught a bus to the Singapore Exhibition Centre to collect the race packs. Yen's friends, whom we had bumped into upon arrival at the airport, were also headed there, but they decided to take the MRT instead from Terminal 2. We got there first - Nyeh! :)

When collecting their packs, I told them to check their chips and make sure that it was their chips... You don't want to run a race and then later can't find yourself in the official results. That would suck.

After that, we took a cab to Scarlet Hotel, a boutique hotel in Tanjong Pagar, where we were staying. Our rooms were not ready as yet, so we asked the concierge if there was a Yakun Toast nearby. We walked in the direction he pointed us in, but there was no Yakun Toast in sight. grrrrrr! So we ended up taking the MRT to Somerset and went to Killiney Kopitiam instead. As we were walking from the MRT, it started to rain, and got very heavy very quickly - see! Hence, Stinkipore!

During this whole time, I was already so tired, like I could just fall asleep on the spot, you know that jetlagged feeling - ya, like that. After eating at Killiney's and waiting out the rain, I asked to go back to the hotel to sleep, but the husband veto-ed that.... and said, "you can sleep in KL".... grrr, so okay lar. I soldiered on... husband had to go get a reload card for his prepaid mobile, and then we had to go to the bank. Oh - we had to go to the bank because we were going to deposit a $1,000 bill into the cash deposit machine and then withdraw it out in smaller notes - imaginative way of getting small change? It was an imaginative way, except, it failed because the cash deposit machine would accept only up to $200 bills...

Fast forward to the following day - husband woke up at 4.30am, got dressed, I was in and out of sleep, but at one stage when I awoke, he seemed to be watching tv all dressed up in his gear - maybe he was all ready.

After they left, I finally woke up at about 7ish, started packing up our bags... then washed up and got dressed. At 8.30am, headed out towards the Padang with sister's boyfriend - good choice, Chris, on the jumping into a cab! We got to the finish line about 2hrs 15 minutes after the start of the half marathon, which should be enough time to catch either yen or husband, assuming they're really good, considering they hadn't been training for this run!!!!

Neways, they finally both came in.... not at times they were both aiming for, so won't reveal them here. But I had a really good time watching the marathoners finishing their run at sub-4 hours. Love it! Love it! They are awesome! I'm going to so do a full marathon! The MC's did a great job welcoming them back at the finishing line, calling out some of their names too! Awesome - can't wait!

Below are some of the snapshots taken while hanging out at the finishing line.

▲ Dude with funny looking hat, finishing up his half marathon

▲ Group of guys (in red and yellow tops) finishing

their marathon together, sub 4 hours - awesome!

▲ Rollerbladers and one on wheelchair coming through

 

▲ Guy being wheeled in on a wheelchair

▲ Even Spiderman made the run!

▲ "Donate Eyes for..." not sure, cause couldn't

get a good look at this banner

▲ Yen!! Finally! :P She didn't hear us

screaming her name from the sidelines though!

Her run blog post here.

The Digital Age...

My sister works for a media agency, one of the larger ones too. More specifically, she's with the digital department of the agency, that is, she specialises in placing ads on the internet and also mobile data. So she gets really cool gifts as part of her job...

Googly Man!

Which actually is a.....

a 2Gb thumbdrive!

:)




She's also given me this Facebook notebook! :) hehehe.... these are better than any of the other cheapo "premium gifts" I've ever gotten! So you see, this is what Gen Y is up to with their work these days....

Two of my favourite things....

1. Bubbles Lim

2. Logan Loh





3. make that 3.... photographing them two... :)

oh ya, in case anyone was wondering about the post below, whhoooppps! I was actually demonstrating how to post an entry to my blog from my phone.. and trouble with that is I dun get to see thumbnails of photos am posting... so whooopss...

though the vespa was pretty cool.. :) - spotted at Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru.... this will be second on my list of wants, after a Segway....

in Berlin, in front of the Reischtag

Should I or Not?

Pretty?

Starstruck

It's not often I get starstruck.. not in KL, and not for the longest time since I can remember.... so it was quite a surprise when during one weekday lunchtime, when we decided to go check out the much heralded newly renovated foodcourt in Lot 10... and was walking around checking out the maze of a place that is now the new foodcourt... and then suddenly, my brother said....

"eh! that's Martin Yan, from Wok With Yan!"

Mr. Yan-Can-Cook posing for the camera with fellow workers at each outlet (photo courtesy of brother, Danny, on his iphone)

kekeke.. he was sitting down eating (sampling?) food with Francis Yeoh and there was a camera crew filming him so I too, sneaked in with the crowd to get a picture la: 

Francis Yeoh on the left and Martin Yan on the right (taken on Blackberry Curve 8320)

The new foodcourt has a lot of choice on food.. which leaves a decision-challenged person like me baffled when there are too many things to choose from. In the next few visits there, I imagine that am probably going to find that one dish that i like from there, and eat that everytime we head there for lunch. Incidentally, the Singapore Prawn Mee from the Tong Kai stall was pretty good (there are only 2 things on the menu at this stall, the other being O-Chien). Am such a creature of habit....

Last but not least, photo of the day:

He hadn't realise how my brother was composing the photo, and dutifully posed for the photo too :) 

(photo courtesy of my brother on his iphone)

Dukeathon

This is just going to be a photoblog... So check out the scenes at the Dukeathon, yesterday, at the DUKE highway. That's the highway that links from DUta to Ulu Kelang.

Peeps at the starting line

winner of the 5km run (he's on the far right of the photo 

2nd place or 3rd place dude - also at the far right of photo

the 5 kids dressed in national costume for the dress-up 1km walk

Of course - the highlight of the day was CHAR SIEW at AMAN SURIA... ya! it's THAT good.. it deserves to be in CAPS. Slurppppppp......it's from this coffee shop in Aman Suria called Seremban Favourites.... and they specialise in CHAR SIEW, SIEW YOK.... 

we ordered 3 persons' portion of char siew and 2 person's portion of siew yok. Before our hakka mee arrived, we, 4 of us, had polished off all the char siew... slurrrrrpppppp.........

all the char siew hanging at the front of the shop, guaranteed to make you instantly go "SLURP" upon sight

first serving of char siew - gone in 5 minutes

the siew yok, not as good, so gone in 8 minutes

2nd serving of char siew .... slurrrppppp......









photos are taken with blackberry curve 8320, so don't expect the best quality photos lar

Addiction

From dictionary.com:

–noun

the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma.

From wikipedia:

The term "addiction" is used in many contexts to describe an obsession, compulsion, or excessive psychological dependence, such as: drug addiction (e.g. alcoholism, nicotine addiction), problem gambling, crime, money, work addiction, compulsive overeating, computer addiction, video game addiction, pornography addiction, television addiction, etc.
In medical terminology, an addiction is a chronic neurobiologic disorder that has genetic, psychosocial, and environmental dimensions and is characterized by one of the following: the continued use of a substance despite its detrimental effects...

ya... i think i am addicted to Grey's Anatomy.... it definitely is habit forming, despite knowing that it's not good for me... cause it keeps me awake at night.. i can't sleep after a tear jerking episode... as a result, i send weird emails my husband explaining my emotional state at 2am in the morning....

SPOILER ALERT!!

after the first 2 episodes of the new season 6, i told myself, i think i shall not watch Grey's for awhile... maybe until i have better controls of my emotions (dunno when?)... gosh, the start of season 6 was so emotionally wrenching, George dies a horrible but heroic death.... good thing Izzy survives her cancer (for now)....

oh ya - the other bits that kept me glued to Grey's was also attempts at trying to spot the extra pregnancy weight on Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) and Lexie Grey (Chyler Leigh). I think they were pregnant or was Mer still pregnant during filming? is it my imagination or are the cameras just concentrating on headshots of Mer? and they do look like they are rounder at the face and the hips... I haven't checked gossip news on the internet to confirm - anyone? 

so anyhow, I managed to not watch it for a few days, but it got the better of me yesterday night. I had told myself earlier that I was only going to watch House instead of Grey's for now, but I think I am just addicted to seeing all my favourite doctors in action. I told my husband, "aiyo, i'm so curious...." as I turned it on... and as promising as Ep. 3 started off, with the chirpy soundtrack and all, it ended with a paed-cum-plastic surgery case where they had to reattach the arm of a newborn baby born at 32 weeks..... 

:*(

screenshot from George's funeral scene

Ants in da Pants

U know what I said earlier in my Sesame Street post that sometimes msn status updates are newsworthy??

Well, other times, they just spark off thought provoking conversation for the rest of the day, just like the one captured in screenshot below (pay particular attention to stuff in the red box):

hahaahaha...

Have a good day.. it looks like it may start raining again outside... wouldn't it be nice to just crawl in to bed, where I can get on with finishing New Moon. Toodles....

Happy Birthday Sesame Street!

What's the first thing you do once you get to work?

By the first, I mean after you have grabbed your coffee, pangsai-ed, sat down at your

desk, turned on your computer and is ready to start to look busy for the day....

You would log on to MSN, of course! hey, it's a pretty effective way to get daily updates on the goings-on in the world sometimes.... :) that... and facebook lar...

My sister's status on msn that day read, "cutest google logo today"...

Of course, curiosity got the better of me, so I jumped onto google.com to check out what she was referring to... and you just can't help but feel cutesied out by this:

"Hello Goo-gie Munsterrrr!!!"

From the little bit of time I spent checking out what it was all about (had to actually start some work, u know :P), this special Cookie Monster google doodle was in conjunction with the 40th Anniversary of Sesame Street!

Wow it's been 40 years!!!

Who doesn't love Sesame Street? It's supposed to be the longest running children's show on television!

Here's the article on celebration of the 40th anniversary, so I won't be repeating the stuff on it:

http://features.csmonitor.com/innovation/2009/11/10/sesame-street-google-doodles-coming-to-a-close/

It's also the place where I got the rest of the Sesame Street google doodles... They looked so cute, I just couldn't resist but save them all to decorate my very boring, wordy blog :). I think I wanna buy all the soft toys to put in my kids' nursery next time..! So here they all are:

Maybe will just print them all out, just for fun.. they're so colorful!

(hope am not infringing any copyrights or anything... I give full credits to Google... so please please please let me keep this post up!!)