This is what I ate nearly everyday for 2 weeks since Hari Raya or what’s left of ‘em; ketupat daun palas, boiled egg and kuah kacang for sauce. heh!heh!

… Well, earlier days, there were still beef rendang or chicken rendang leftovers. Photo showed the last portion, finally!!! whew!!

Yummy when served hot!! Healthy?!… well….. he he.

It’s rainy season now. For the past 3 days, it rained almost non-stop and weather is forecasted to stay that way the whole week.

It is hard to get out of bed. I wish I could’ve just stayed tucked in comfortably longer. Sigh! Actually, it rained a lot than usual this year; I could not even tell any dry seasons.

Do you notice the sky? It is shrouded with clouds. I guess it’s due to the global warming effects too. The temperatures are cooler. Heh!heh! I’m now less susceptible to cold showers I take every morning. I was recalled to the time I took a cold shower at Laban Rata. Mannn!!! Felt dead freezing! Burrr!!!

The good news is that our surroundings look cleaner and a report in last weekend’s newspaper informed that our rivers are relatively cleaner too. Also, the showers enable me to wash my car more frequently… not during thunderstorms of course. He! He!

It’s been more than a week now since Hari Raya Aidilfitri. I’m feeling less lethargic. Aidilfitri hols to me is not the time I’d expect to enjoy restful days. Contrary, it’s the most energy sapping of hols.

The eve before Raya, I busied myself doing final house cleaning chores. Had to give up my bedroom to sis and her family who’d come to stay for the night. I woke up in the morning with a very stiff back the aftermath of physical excercise and for having slept on a bamboo mat in my younger sister’s bedroom (bad choice!) and the suspicion of a nagging headache! Sheesh!!

Anyway, usually after raya prayer, there’s a late breakfast together with the whole family. Since I don’t cook or bake, I bought some hari raya cookies. This year, I spent less than what I did the last time. But satisfying! When the cookies are finished, I still have a hamper of goodies that I received from my supplier to serve guests.

If you ask me, it rather was a heavy meal to consume after 1 month of fasting, not a smart thing to do; gonna shock the tummy! Guess which dish I prepared?! heh!heh!

After cleaning up and putting away the dishes, we started our routine travel of ‘balik kampung’. The first day, we drove to Temerloh, Pahang; my mother’s hometown. The pleasant part was that this year all her 8 siblings returned home to visit grandma. She looked aged and her movement was slower but she was in good health. I also met with all my cuzs. The bad news was that my pockets bled more; uhuk! Uhuk! Wail!!! Ohhh!! All those ‘angpow’s, I’d been obliged to distribute!!

We travelled back to KL the same night. My headache hadn’t abated and once I reached home I was flat out and was out like a light!

The next day, we travelled to N.Sembilan and Melaka to visit relatives from father’s side. Traffic crawled from Nilai to Seremban. What should have taken 1/2 an hour, took more than an hour. We’d expected an accident occurred… and were right_ only that it happened on the OTHERSIDE!!!! Grrrrr!!! “@*&^%&$$¬!!* I bet all those drivers slowed down to have a look – at a car that had hit a lamp post… Malaysians sure are a curious LOT!!!! Aiyarrrr!!!!!

We arrived home at around 11.00 pm looking forward to a lazy day on the morrow. Heh! heh!

@@@@@@

Kimi won the F1 2007 driver’s title, a great ending of a gripping 3 way race. Heh! Heh! The guy had the least chance of the 3. I’m glad!! Personally, I was banking on him to win this. I had gotten bored with the fracas between Hamilton and Alonso.

It is a great overall result for Heidfeld too. He achieved his target!

Poor England… Lost rugby too!! At least the lesson they can take from this, with regards to EURO 2008 football is that there’s always the outside chance… look at Kimi!!! Hehehehe

My headache hasn’t gone yet! The tag from Che-cheh will help fill in my post for the day. Though you know the tag will probably not have any continuity when it reaches me, heh! heh! I do appreciate your thoughts for me, kid, thanks mucho!

~ Start copy ~

It’s very simple. When you receive this tag, copy the whole list and add your own shopping tip to the bottom and pass it on.

1. Wear comfy clothing when you’re shopping. You don’t wanna fuss with too many laces and buttons when you’re trying clothes on.

http://rinnah-marketplace.blogspot.com/

2. Never shop on an empty stomach. You end up buying a whole lot more than you meant to! And this applies to everything, not just food!

http://www.reviews.pinkelle.com/

3. Make a list of what you need to buy and stick to it. Do not go browsing in the store and do not look left or right but focus on just getting what you came to the store for, get it, pay for it and get out! And always keep your receipt in case you change your mind, not happy or the item is broken due to manufacturer’s fault so it will be covered by warranty!

http://wuching.com/

4. Remember to bring your ‘plastics’ and/or cash with you when you go shopping or when you plan to JUST window shop!

http://che-cheh.com/

5. If you’re buying something pricey, garner as much info on it and know that you really want it, know the options and fix a budget plus 15% extra. Got that?! Good, add RM30 to go with. Drop by an ice-cream parlour and treat yourself to a generous helping of delicious ice-cream. Mmmmmmm!! At least, if your purchase fell through, the day shopping would still be worth it!

http://downpour2.wordpress.com/

~ End copy ~

Whew!!! This is not too lengthy…
Anyone who’s interested in doin’ this tag, you’re welcome!

It’s just a few days more to Hari Raya Aidilfitri day. It marks the end of Ramadhan fasting month. I don’t bake hari raya cookies so I bought ‘em, heh!heh! I think 5 types of kuih and 2 types of kerepek should be enough to appease any visitors’ appetite, yea?

This year I decided to clean up the big cabinet cum shelves at our living room… Ye know what? It sure is simple to mess up stuff! Wuahahaha. I haven’t finished putting the books back in place since Sunday. They’re all over the living room. Mum’s a bit riled but she knows I’ll have the place in order eventually.

There are quite a lot of old books rotting and I saw bookworms too. Yoicks!! … And dust and cobwebs. Ah well! I’ll sort out; the damaged ones will be sold and recycled and those that are still ‘repairable’, I’ll mend ‘em. Hmmm, I wonder where I put the DIY manual guide??!!! Glad I took up this task tho’. I found a lot of old books I haven’t read for ages; books when I was a kid.

Fortunately, I clean up thoroughly every week so there is not that much of dusts, unlike my bedroom… he! He! Shush! The floor tho’ does need to be mopped and copperware polished. Whew!

On hari raya, it’ll be the usual long travel and visits to family and relatives. Sheeeshhh!! It’s gonna be very fatiguing hols!

Ps. I’ll add some pictures later.

Mo-Chuisle tagged me. Thank you! Saved me from thinking of what to blog about.

5 things in my bag (work bag)
1. Documents
2. Organizer
3. Thumb drive
4. Calculator
5. Windproof jacket

5 things in my purse
1. Money worth less than RM50
2. Cards (id, driving license, ATM, cc, etc)
3. Business Cards
4. Bank Slip
5. – that’s it -

5 interesting things in my bedroom
1. Bed and 4 different type of pillows
2. Weapons; iban darts, katana and a makeshift baton
3. Books and Mags
4. A few hanging pictures
5. Golf set

5 things that I want to do
1. Leisure Travel
2. Gain more knowledge
3. Be idle and for a while to just not think at all
4. Snorkel and dive
5. Make family and fond ones always happy

5 things that I’m doing it now
1. Filling in money into raya angpow
2. Save money
3. Read
4. Slugging with work
5. Watch tv

5 people that I would like to pass this tag

Ye stump me!

Cheers everyone! Happy Eid and Happy Hols!!!

I was immensely bugged after reading an article last week regarding global warming. It’s not that I don’t know about it; people like me who wrap myself up within a kind of believable safe world, notices perils at lurking corners but choose to avoid looking at it headlong. So when I really took time to face the issue, the slap stung!

For the 1st time in a few million years, it is possible for ships to cross the Arctic Ocean without any obstruction of ice. The ice cap, the white topping on top of earth head is fast melting; 1/3 had melted and will possibly disappear in relatively no time (what much is there in 1 year nowadays!). Click here and here for 2 of many articles I read recently.

Here’re satellite views I obtained from the articles/web…

1979

2003

2007

Notice the northwest sea passage opening up rapidly? Scary, huh?!

Leaving the issue to be totally sorted out by bickering politicos and big shot brutes is too optimistic to my liking. So, what little contribution you can offer to help our ailing earth, just do! Personally, I appreciate it, really. That 1 individual effort counts until humankind as a collective finally is smart enough to work together.

Aiyarrrr!!! Heidfeld hindered from points and booted out of the race. Just 1 lap left before the engine failure!!!! So near. This is the second time for him failing to finish the race.

The Grand Prix this year was raced at Fuji Speedway for the first time.

It was a very, very wet race but later on there were plenty of excitement and dramas after enduring 1/3 of dreary (yawn!) laps behind the safety car during which I half expected the race to be stopped. Click here. I wished I could see the famous Mount Fuji scenery but it was raining heavy so too bad.

But for viewers, here’s a view from above, at another time.

I don’t know if anyone noticed this but it seems that fate or coincidence that transpired Alonso’s outcomes so far is similar to those of Schumacher. C’mon! Juxtapose their racing history a bit. Similar plots but different casts. At first I watched amused but hey!! What a carbon copy too. But of course, arguably, they’re world champions so the champion traits are there. Here’s just the tip of it…

The Champ
Michael Schumacher – 2x World Champions with Benetton (now bought by Renault) + 5x world champ with Ferrari.
Fernando Alonso – 2x World Champions with Renault (moved to MacLaren)

The speedy Englishman (arch-rival)
Damon Hill
Lewis Hamilton

Plus Ayrton Senna(arch-rival)

He’s currently not so popular with fans too because of recent controversies but Alonso can’t beat Schumacher in the controversial driver category yet Heh! Heh! In the ‘evil’ Shumi heydays, I was an ardent supporter.

I read an excerpt of an interview with Lewis Hamilton last night. He mentioned about the possibility of Alonso pulling a Schumi stunt in the last races!! Heh! heh! He saw the pattern too between these 2.. n hey! He idolises Ayrton Senna. Well! Well!

I wait in anticipation of what’s more to come. Wuahahahha!

UPDATE: Hamilton is currently under investigation for the accident involving Webber and Vettel. Whoaa!! Things are really heating up! Tho’ I don’t see what the problem is. But if he is penalised, then there’s gonna be 3 guys racing for the title. Corker!!

It’s bright and sunshiny days for Arsenal so far. Now we have money aplenty, $70 mil in the kitty. The club’s financial result was announced this week and whoa boy! Arsenal has the next highest (after Real Madrid) operating profit and high turnover. All that achieved without needing any injection from loaded owners. The club held its own. Well done!

There are +ve and –ve consequences of buy outs by financial owners; the bad is currently being enacted by Chelsea … can’t really blame Roman for directing tactics over the team management; he, after all invested 1/2 a billion into the club …but what a hiccup! I guess it’s fortunate that Glazier doesn’t interfere with Sir Alex’s ministering, else we’d see NFL style integrated in EPL, wuahahaha!!

Apart from this, Arsenal is on a roll and I hope the guys can keep the momentum going and take advantage of the woes that betide others.

EPL
Arsenal 5
Derby County 0

Carling Cup
Arsenal 2
Newcastle United 0

I’ve been tuning in to most of the EPL matches, watching performances of other teams, just to tailor my expectation with regards to Arsenal. The boys really have it right against lesser teams (a reason for our failure last season). Heh! heh! … there’s no satisfying the pundits tho’. Now they say, let’s see how Arsenal pits against the stronger sides first.

Man U is starting to improve, very pacy but too rushed. Hahahaha. Didja notice how Paul never forgets to mention the missing Nistelrooy’s factor every time he analysed Man U??! I tellja, every time!!! And where’s Torres??! Liverpool fans I’m most certain, like me, just don’t get Rafa’s rotation system … and I wonder how long it will take for Chelsea to bounce back after Maurinho.

I like watching Fulham, not as skilful but they do have comeback tricks up their sleeves. Other teams worth mentioning are Manchester City, Everton and Portsmouth… oh and 1 super cool Anelka! When’s the next score, dude?!

Writin’ about Japanese stuff.

This Japanese teapot is called TOKONAME-YAKI originated from Tokoname city somewhere in Japan. It is made of a type of Japanese ceramics called tokonameyaki, I think. Heh!heh! It has a history dated as far back as 900 years.

There’s a coil of filter inside which is cool!

I bought it as a souvenir from my recent trip there. I wanted to buy something uniquely Japanese and made in Japan. The teapot attracted my attention. A bit pricey though. And I wasn’t aware of its historical significance then. Glad I chose it. K-san e-mailed me the info when I reached Malaysia. Domo!

The first time I visited Japan, I bought bedroom yukatas for the whole family. The hotel where I stayed provided me a very comfy yukata to wear every night and I was enticed into buying one but ended up buying 7!!! . I still wear mine sometimes.

Well, the 2nd time I went there, I met Touya. I brought him home with me. Heh!heh!