Life's Creative Editing

I have worked in a few industries before - promotions, publishing, legal and advertising - I am sure I've prayed the most when I was in the advertising industry.

The people in the advertising industry is very creative bunch and maybe because of the long hours of work together in an enclosed environment per se, they tend to be more sensitive creatures and are more creative in editing the constant drama that revolves around their lives to put themselves in good light. Maybe it's because of boredom or maybe it could be just the types of persons attracted to be in this industry in the first place.

Alot of them are drama kings and queens who start rumours, blow things out of proportion and when whatever that came out of their big mouths bite their big ass, they turn around and try to pin point their verbal target to another person - not at all realising that it was their verbal diarrhea 2 months back that started the ball rolling.....and by this time, they have selective amnesia and they conveniently become "victims". And I realise it's more rampant in singles group as they have nothing else in their lives after work to focus their energy on.

What a LIFE!

This of course is in relation to the "he says, she says" situation going on between Ah W, Ft and M during the recent certain soft drink TVC production where hubby is not even involved but finds himself always being the ear that everybody seeks as he is friends with both sides.

ASW2020 Rush

So, I reached Maybank at around 9.2oam after dropping Kiki off at school and guess what...I was already opening number 62! And the forms had already been depleted so I had to go over to CIMB to obtain a form.

I parked my numbers at MBB and the post office and I was alternating between the both (Boy! I wished I was on rollerblades then!) while worrying about fetching Kiki up at 1pm. The system was pretty much jammed packed and went offline so no numbers were moving till around 9.30am.

And a few opening numbers later, I realised that the numbers were moving at roughly the rate of 1 per 40 minutes! That was when I went off to the postoffice but I was already queueing at 52 numbers away.

To make a long story short, I was at Tesco buying some household supplies when a man I recognised waiting at the bank informed me that all the ASW units were sold out! The top up number was at 30+ whilst the opening number was only at 15! So I went back to the bank to deposit the cash I was carrying (yes, I withdrew from the ATM in case the postoffice was available) but I wasn't on time for even that as I had to fetch Kiki by then.

What a wasted of a whole morning! But I was not the only one, Koko and V was also unsuccessful ... oh well, better luck next time!

Waste Not Want Not - Chicken ala Carte

A friend emailed me this link and I just had to post it.

How many times have taken our plates for granted - that it will always be filled and our stomachs never empty. How many times have we thrown good food out just because we are "too full"? Do we know real hunger when food is always available? And how many time have we thanked God for our plates and blessings?

Imperfect Memories

I was watching this video and there is more than a grain of truth in this.

The last time I saw my dad in his full capacity was about a month before he was cut down by a massive stroke. During that trip back to my hometown, as I was having dinner with him, I was struck by the way he ate, the way he kept his arms close to his body and his wrist bent downwards to use his cutlery. The way he shovels his food into his mouth (yes, he loved his food) and the way how a grain of rice will always always end up stuck to the right corner of his mouth. My mom and I always joked that he had a rice magnet there.

I am ashamed now to say that at that time, I was rather embarrassed by how un-normal this was and always tried not to look at him while we ate.

On the 2nd day of his wake, his best friend, Uncle J, mentioned the way he ate (so I was not the only one who noticed) and I suddenly burst to tears. Since the beginning of the wake, I must say I had been pretty stoic and tears were held at bay in public but at that mention, it was like the wall just broke.

I was missing how he ate and our conversations at the dinner table. He was the kind of father who really takes an interest in the lives of his children and again, I am ashamed to say that when I was younger, I sometimes felt it invasive and was often impatient with him.....but now that I myself am a mother, I begin to understand his deep interest and concern in our lives....

.....and now I realise to late, how much he really loved us his family, no matter how imperfect we are....and I missed the boat for not accepting how imperfect he was.

How civilised is my country?

It is said an indication of how civilised a country is is by looking at how it treats it's handicapped.

And THIS is how my country fares....

I read it with incredulity - first off, our country doesn't have enough ramp access around the city and buildings (although I'm not wheelchair ridden, but I am a mom who have had to push my baby's stroller around) and badly planned/built sidewalk which are mostly uneven, with gaping holes where covers/grills/concrete blocks have gone missing...or in some cases, there are no sidewalk at all. I can imagine it would be all the more difficult with wheelchairs because with the stroller, at least we have the option of carrying it over the obstacles. I was really happy when pushing my baby stroller around in Shanghai as their wide, even sidewalks make walking from block to block a breeze.

One may think that shopping would be possible as it's all "civilised" in the malls....wellllll....from my experience with our larger baby stroller, you'll be rather limited as to the areas you can go to - sometimes it's because of split levels with stair access only or that the lifts will be so jammed pack that it would take a couple of missed trips till a car miraculously come along with relatively fewer people. Four months since I had the baby and really tired of being limited that I forced myself to learn to use the escalators with a stroller in tow...I know it's illegal but till a better system comes about, I guess this shall be the way it goes.

Also, the shops in the malls themselves are not sensitive to the needs ppl with strollers or wheelchairs. I have trouble getting my stroller through the aisles and cashier counters at some shops as they are just way too narrow ... what more wheelchairs!

Thus these productive handicapped people will be forced to stay at home...don't you think they themselves would welcome the opportunity to be independently out on their own had their surroundings permitted them?

Amanah Saham Malaysia

I got a call from V at 8.30am yesterday informing me of ASM being up for grabs so we planned to meet up at Maybank @ the Curve at 9.30am. I managed to get no.4 in the queue and managed to bag myself some units. At first I was slightly skeptical but then at the bank, I a number of ppl there and glancing at their deposit slips, most of them were banking in RM20K...and I was convinced. Unfortunately I don't have that much but now I have a goal to save up to. Next year I'll try to dump in more.

After we were done with the bank, V and me went to teh tarik for a cuppa and nasi lemak. Just before I was due to get Kiki from school, we decided to get Kiki from school, make a quick run back home to grab her birthcert so V tagged along as it would be easier with her waiting in the car with Kiki while I ran upstairs. So V became the first person other than family to sit in my new car :)

I called mom and she managed to get 10K also. Today, koko managed to grab some too. So my next target is ASWawasan2020. I'll dump in a little more for both Kiki and me just to have an account going.

Yay for good friends.

What a week!

Kiki was sick since last Friday - the root cause was sore throat which gave her a fever. As usual with her, once she's sick, she'll somehow require at least 3 visits to the doctor.

So after the first visit to the doctors, I fed her her medicine (Paracetamol-270 by Axcel) after a couple of hours nap, she woke up with rashes on both her cheeks. Suspecting that it was an allergy, I called the hospital but the doctor won't be in till 7pm but they somehow managed to patch me through on the phone and the doctor was nice enough to return to the hospital at 3.45pm. He then prescribed her her usual Progesic. Upon taking her temp we realised that Axcel was not working as her fever had spiked to 40 degrees and was advised to give her a bath and sponge her regularly. The doctor called the pharmacist up and showed her Kiki's rashes and told her to report to the company. I was pleasantly surprised to get Progesic and some rash medication for free, including the doctor's fees.

But it did not end there. On Monday, I was puzzzled by yellow stains on the collar of her on her blouse when we were at Midvalley buying Adorable Aubrey. I put it down to food or snot stains and put her to sleep when we got back. When she woke up, I found her hair plastered to her right cheek and examined the area more carefully and to my disgust, I saw pus was oozing out of her right ear in thick creamy trickle. Quickly I gave her a bath and called the doctor again who asked me to come in at 7pm. By that time, the ooze had turned clear but was trickling down in a heavier flow....it was yucky to say the least. So we did a swab and came back with yet some more medicine...antibiotics this time.

So after many many sleepless nights and worrying about her lack of food intake, she finally got better enough to attend school on Friday.

And I will post again what I learnt on Friday from S, a mom of Kiki's classmate.