Posts from ‘November, 2008’

Everyone should have workdays like these once in a while

Nov 27th, 2008
by soph.
5 comments

9.15am
I’m running late and Y’s car is blocking mine in our driveway. If I didn’t have a full day of running-around planned, I’d take the manual to work. Instead, I move his car to the visitor carpark so I can take mine out.

9.30am
Five-minute pit stop at the office to pick up a couple of magazines and my voice recorder.

10.05am
I make it to The Spa at Mandarin Oriental for my spa treatment review. I tell the therapist I have to be out of there by 12pm because I have another appointment. She looks slightly disapproving. After all, I’m supposed to be there to relax. I find it rather ironic that my destressing spa treatment is stressing me out because I can’t be late for my 12.30pm interview.

12.05pm
I make it out of there on time and the massage was actually really relaxing, even though I had to wash my hair in a hurry because the treatment left me with super-oily hair. I have no time to blowdry so I’m going to the interview with freshly washed, damp hair. As I’m brisk-walking towards the elevators, it suddenly strikes me that this is where Y proposed to me over four years ago. I indulge in a second of nostalgia before the elevator doors open and I hurry inside.

12.25pm
The rep from the music label rings me in a half-panic. Am I on the way? Yes, I tell her. In fact, I’m right outside the hotel and will be there as soon as I park my car.

12.35pm
I sit down with my interviewee, a new Taiwanese singer called Hsiao Hung Jen. He’s just released his debut album and they’re already calling him names – Jay Chou, John Mayer… I think the spa was too relaxing; my ability to form professional-sounding and intelligible Mandarin sentences seems to have dissipated along with the tension in my shoulders. The guy is unassuming, tall and somewhat adorable. He diplomatically avoids asking about/looking at my damp hair but when he’s not paying attention, I whisper to the music label rep that I’ve actually just come from a spa review. Hsiao Hung Jen is thrilled that I’m from an English publication – he’s never done an interview with English media before.

12.50pm
I’m all done and finally ready to head back to the office. By the time I finish my takeaway lunch and settle down to work, it’ll be past 2pm.

4.50pm
My colleagues are just about ready to run out the door. There’s an FJ Benjamin warehouse sale going on in KL and all the girls are going. They’ve been itching to go since 3pm. I resist the temptation to shop because: a) I hate going to KL, especially during rush hour; b) we heard there were some 2000 people there as of 3pm and I can’t shop amid chaos; c) I want a haircut.

5.10pm
The office is quiet and almost empty. The only people left are myself and two guys. I say my byes and walk out the door. I want that haircut. Tomorrow, I tell myself, tomorrow I will be really, really productive.

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Posted in: Work Stuff.

I think my mother resents my Arts degree

Nov 26th, 2008
by soph.
8 comments

My brother may not be able to get into Science stream for his last two years of high school and my mother is hugely upset. She won’t admit it, but I suspect she secretly resents the fact that my sister and I opted for Arts (read: a non-medical career).

My youngest sister became the first sibling to pursue a science-related field, much to the delight of my mother, until she announced that she wanted to become a veterinarian. As opposed to a human doctor. That, I imagine, must have been the equivalent of me choosing to study media and communications when I could just as well have put my language skills to use in say, a law degree.

My brother is my mother’s final hope, and he actually is thinking about attempting medicine. To say this latest development is a huge spanner in the works would be an understatement. My mother is fuming. And inadvertently proving my long-held suspicions about her resentment towards my chosen career path, she responded to my suggestion that, worse come to worse, my brother could always do Arts with: “I’m not going to let him do Arts. Look at what limited options you had when you did Arts.”

Ever defensive about my beloved Arts degree, I took offense. When my mother says “limited options”, I know what she really means is “you didn’t do what I wanted you to do – medicine or law, in that order.” I never felt like I lacked options because I knew exactly what I loved, what I was good at and what I wanted to do. Fortunately for me, the three sort of coincided. Sure, it hasn’t been the most lucrative of trades (more on that on another post, perhaps), but then again, how many writers actually do it for the money?

This Asian obsession with medicine and law and engineering and (as a final resort) accounting baffles me to no end. Correction: It frustrates the hell out of me. I sort of understand why Asian parents pressure their children so, but that doesn’t mean I have to accept it. When it comes to my future offspring and their chosen vocations, only two things worry me:

a) They might actually decide to become doctors. Now wouldn’t that be ironic? Especially if I spent years hopefully cultivating a love for language and literature and music and performance arts and sport.

b) Y will want them to become doctors. I already see glimpses of that, even though he’s an IT graduate-turned-advertising executive who never so much as unrolled his degree from its scroll. Why does he feel that way when I don’t, not even the tiniest bit? Am I missing an Asian gene in my DNA or something?

Thinking about it, I suppose not discriminating against others’ choices carries across the board, regardless of the chosen path. And considering I’m not even pregnant, the careers of my yet to be conceived children could not be less important at this point in time. For now, I shall wait to see how this episode with my brother plays out. As for my mother’s remarks, I’ve brushed them off. The good thing about not living at home – it’s so much easier to just let bygones be bygones when you walk out the door.

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Posted in: Family.

Road trip to Gopeng!

Nov 24th, 2008
by soph.
1 comment

Eight girls and a guy decided they would make a road trip to Gopeng, Perak, for some adventure. So we drove a 400km round trip, went white water rafting, jungle trekked with a torch in pitch darkness and played paintball, all in just over 36 hours. Here is the evidence (thanks MA and Wawa for taking and uploading the pictures).

After brekkie, we were ready to head off.

My first interstate drive! Obviously, I didn’t tell anybody that before the trip.

And we made it to My Gopeng Resort on time.

Reta and I were hut-mates. The huts were only about 8 feet by 6 feet, just enough for two beds and a small table in between, but they were so cute. Toilets were in a separate building.

Adventure 1: White water rafting.

It was actually my second time white water rafting. I love anything to do with water.

It was cold!

We got back to base standing on the back of a lorry. Like refugees.

Starving by the time our barbeque dinner rolled around.

Adventure 2: Night jungle trekking. It was a little slippery and really muddy because it had rained earlier. You should have seen the state of our shoes after. That, and the leeches we brought back on us.

We got up early the next morning for adventure 3: Paintball.

It was my first time so I was really excited. We played five rounds: one search and destroy against another team, two capture the flags against the same team, and two against the marshalls who ran the centre because we had ammo left over.

Needless to say, we got our asses whooped by the marshalls. I got shot in the head but I think I unintentionally shot someone else in the head too. I now have a stunner of a bruise on my left shoulder so I look like an abused wife. I think there’s a picture of it somewhere.

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Posted in: Travels.

I’m going to do the script writing course

Nov 20th, 2008
by soph.
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Two days ago, I found out that I’d been accepted to do this script writing short course I blogged about last month. I didn’t really favour my chances of being selected, to be honest, and I’m thrilled at the opportunity. It’s going to be an incredibly hectic fortnight come December, what with the course, my work and the Standard Chartered run smack in the middle of it all, but I for one am really excited.

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Posted in: Reading and Writing.

Down with a virus

Nov 17th, 2008
by soph.
2 comments

Today, I called in sick for the first time all year. If I remember correctly. Apparently when the doc told Y his virus was contagious, I didn’t realise how so. I think I must have downed over two litres of water in four hours, all in the hope of flushing this dratted thing out.

At least I’m making good progress on Season 2 of Friday Night Lights. Being horizontal all day has some perks.

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Posted in: Daily Events.

Just married!

Nov 16th, 2008
by soph.
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Y and I were up 7.30 yesterday morning to attend the wedding of one of my childhood friends. I’d probably only seen Jo twice since I was 16 – my wedding ceremony, and my wedding dinner. But we’d kept in touch via MSN and that most glorious of creations, Facebook. Now it was her turn to get married.

The wedding ceremony was held in the Botanical Gardens of Putrajaya, where the rain clouds moved on in time for the grass to be not too muddy and the photographs to turn out great. The only way to have a garden wedding in Malaysia, really, is to have it at 9am, which Jo did. So it’s not too hot. And/or keep it short and very sweet.

I had to admit, even as the sun rose higher in the sky and heat-sensitive Y threatened to melt into a pool of slush, it was really lovely. There was even a lake. And of course, the bride.

Jo has always been gorgeous, but as a bride, she was stunning. I’d never met her husband, Shaun, before, but Jo started crying almost as soon as she saw Shaun standing at the altar. He sang through tears while she walked down the aisle. I have a thing for grooms who cry when they see their bride walking towards them – I know it’s not necessarily accurate but I always think it must be true love when that happens. Not that it isn’t when they don’t.

There used to be three of us. We were the same age and we would hang out and tell each other our secret crushes. We went through the UPSR and PMR exams together and never got competitive over our results. Now two out of three of us are married. And each time one of us tied the knot, the other two were there. I think there’s something really beautiful in that.

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Posted in: Daily Events.

For a while there, we actually had mascots

Nov 14th, 2008
by soph.
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Yesterday, MA brought these tiny hamsters to the office. They were going to be our mascots and we were going to name them “hot” and “HELLO!”. Actually, we did. A bunch of them went out during lunch to buy a proper hamster cage and wood shavings because the hamsters were living in a mini plastic aquarium among newspaper cuttings. I briefly considered naming them Dolce and Gabbana. Sean kept calling them rats.

“They’re rodents,” I said.

“They’re rats,” he said.

“Rodents.”

“Same family.”

“So are a kitten and a lion,” interjected R.

The girls couldn’t find a cheap hamster cage, so they improvised and bought a bird cage instead. They filled the bottom with wood shavings, put water and hamster food into the feeding containers, installed a yellow running wheel and even put up a ladder and second floor. I think the hamsters really liked their new home.

We also found out one is male and one is female. Uh oh.

When I got into work this morning, the hamsters were looking a lot happier than they did 24 hours earlier. Even their fur didn’t seem quite as straggly. But everyone else looked a little glum. Turns out our boss had realised the hamsters were here to stay and had put his foot down. The critters had to go.

And that was the end of our mascots.

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Posted in: Work Stuff.

Funny link of the day

Nov 13th, 2008
by soph.
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What if God was on Facebook?

Taken from here.

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Posted in: Daily Events.

Happy birthday, Reta!

Nov 11th, 2008
by soph.
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To one of the coolest, nicest persons I know, have a very happy “Forever 21″. This photo, captured on my mobile phone at a random gift shop during one lunch hour, was too good not to put up on Reta’s birthday. If any of you are on Facebook, give her a lil’ poke, won’t you?

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Posted in: Daily Events.

The end of a glassy era

Nov 10th, 2008
by soph.
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I have managed to break one of the hardiest spectacles around – Silhouettes. Half-asleep one night, I must have taken them off and tossed them to one side. The next morning, when I finally found them between my pillow and headboard, they had been somewhat grotesquely twisted. Ever the optimist, I tried bending them back into shape and they snapped into two in my hands.

Before, I’d taken pride in telling people that these glasses have lasted me eight years – more a testament to their durability than to my care. And now that they’re broken, I admit I’m a little lost without them. Sure, I have another pair of spectacles on hand so I’m not blind without my contact lenses, but my Silhouettes were what I’d used to read in bed or watch telly till I fell asleep, because I always thought they were unbreakable. I suppose nobody ever tried squashing them up against a headboard.

Goodbye, my Silhouettes. I can honestly say I’ll miss you.

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Posted in: Daily Events.

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