Posts from ‘February, 2009’

Before you know it…

Feb 27th, 2009
by soph.
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It’s the end of February.

CL used to always say, “Before you know it, it’ll be Christmas!”

She said that all last year, from January right up till, well, Christmas.

This year however, we changed it. She’s turning 30 next year and so everytime she says, “Before you know it…,” everybody chimes in, “You’ll be 30!”

I don’t think turning 30 is that big a deal, but maybe that’s because I’ve still got a few years to go. Plus, most of the people I see regularly are older than I am, so I’m not feeling the jitters about turning the big 3 at all. Even if – I concede – it does sound much older.

CL isn’t the only one. We counted and our office has four people who turn 30 next year. We’re planning to throw them some kind of party. And before you know it, I’m going to have a whole lot more friends in their 30s.

In the meantime, she doesn’t say her famous catchphrase anymore. Just as we were beginning to really like it.

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Posted in: Work Stuff.

Poem: Love is blind

Feb 26th, 2009
by soph.
2 comments

They say love is blind.
It’s true.
Sometimes I am so angry I cannot see past your faults.
Sometimes I am so upset I cannot see the light through my tears.
Sometimes I am so discouraged I cannot imagine hope.
And don’t even get me started on that silver lining.
All because I love you so, so much.

I wrote this for a competition Andre Jordan is running on his blog. I am a huge fan of Andre and he’s got this love poem contest going whereby the entry that makes him laugh or cry the most will win a signed copy of his book Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now and an original doodle. I had been thinking about the concept of “love is blind” when I wrote this on a lark. I don’t think I stand even the slightest chance of winning but it expresses how I feel right now very well.

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Posted in: Reading and Writing.

Good writing advice

Feb 26th, 2009
by soph.
1 comment

Excerpts from On Writing Well

By William Zinsser

Keep it simple. Keep it clean. I start today.

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Posted in: Reading and Writing.

An Oscars to remember

Feb 23rd, 2009
by soph.
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Kate Winslet. Sean Penn. Anne Hathaway. Tina Fey. Steve Martin. A.R. Rahman. Beyonce. And of course, Hugh Jackman. So many names, so many highlights. I’ve always reserved a special excitement for the Golden Globes and the Oscars, but this year’s Oscars was really something special. It may have something to do with the fact that Hugh hosted, sang, danced and above all, charmed.

Hugh Jackman’s Opening Number

The Musical Medley

A.R. Rahman performing his nominated songs. Love them. Love the entire show.

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Posted in: Celebrities, Movies Music TV.

Maybe the only way I’ll gym regularly

Feb 22nd, 2009
by soph.
2 comments

Hubby’s turned into this gym freak (his words, not mine) all of a sudden, and our conversations have taken a whole new twist. Thanks to this new carb-less diet he’s on in an effort to look like Will Smith, I have become – for the first time ever – the unhealthier of us two.

The first couple of days on the diet, I offered him a chocolate after dinner. He looked at me in horror. “Chocolate is unhealthy.” I snorted and ate my Ferrero Rocher.

Yesterday, I read one of J’s Tweets out loud and mentioned that he was having a productive day. “[Eating] wan tan mee is not productive,” hubby informed me snootily. Err… right.

On Friday we had dinner at Wendy’s with some friends. I had a baked potato, a tub of chilli and a small chocolate frosty. Hubby had a salad with spicy chicken. I eventually persuaded him to help me finish my chilli but he wouldn’t touch the frosty. Then he went out for a beer with his fellow carb-less buddy. (You don’t eat potatoes but you drink beer?)

Last night, he suggested I become a gym freak too. Me? A what? What would I do in there? I can’t go on a treadmill without watching something. You could read, he said. Well, that’s what I used to do on the bicycle machine whatever you call that thing. It’s a lot harder to read on the treadmill. I’ve tried. But… I have been wanting to exercise more.

So I’ve decided to give hubby’s offer some thought. Maybe I’ll go once a week. Or twice. It would mean I’d always have a gym buddy. And I do like a good sweat out. One of my unspoken resolutions this year is to get fitter. I could get in some regular exercise, work up a half-decent stamina and at the end of all that, I’d eat a chocolate. After all, someone’s got to finish them.

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Posted in: Sports.

Merci beaucoup, Stranger

Feb 19th, 2009
by soph.
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I meant to tell you about him ages ago but quite frankly, I forgot. The Parisians have a reputation for being snobbish. Or rude, whichever adjective you prefer. Some of them even openly admit it, if the stories I hear are to be believed.

That is why, on that chilly morning in Paris, we were stunned when the Stranger came out of nowhere. I didn’t notice him before, but he must have been standing on the platform with the rest of us. The Metro glided to a halt and everybody rushed to get in. I don’t remember if we queued, it has been almost four months now, but it quickly became evident that we might not all make it onto the train. There were too many people and too little time for people to move in.

We tried anyway. Four of us got in safely. My dad-in-law was just about to squeeze in when the doors began to close. I tried to get on but there wasn’t even a toe-hold for me. I tried to hold the doors open – perhaps if I could do that, there would be time for the crowd to create room – but it was no use.

Then the doors stopped. The Stranger stood in the doorway, holding the doors open with his arms, his body jammed between them so they couldn’t close. He didn’t say anything, didn’t even smile or look at us, simply stood there while we squeezed in – luckily there was room by then.

When Dad and I were safely on board, he leaned out the door and shouted at the driver of the train. Shouted in French, I suppose. He gestured angrily. It sounded rude.

Dad said thank you, thank you very much. He grunted, not even in our direction. I wish I said merci beaucoup but I was, to tell the truth, too stunned. He didn’t say anything, didn’t even smile or look at us, simply stood there. At the next stop, he stepped out, looked to the left and walked away.

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Posted in: Travels.

I love Oprah but I also love Ellen

Feb 17th, 2009
by soph.
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This is one of the funniest reasons why:

George Watch 08

And of course I love George.

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Posted in: Celebrities, Movies Music TV.

We’re getting better at this marriage thing – and it shows!

Feb 16th, 2009
by soph.
2 comments

E: I see that you guys are more in love than when you were here. And you’re so blessed, with beautiful friends, home, career… life!

Me: We’re so incredibly blessed. I keep telling Y that. And I think it’s a mixture of us both understanding each other more, compromising more and being more comfortable about showing affection for each other around other people.

E: How great is that.

Me: It took Y a few years to show affection in front of even the guys!

E: Don’t you think it’s so much more beautiful that you can tell each other I am loving you more after we got married?

Me: Yep. A lot of people say that but it’s only now that I’m married that I’m understanding why.

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Posted in: Marriage.

Puteri Gunung Ledang: The Musical

Feb 14th, 2009
by soph.
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I went for Puteri Gunung Ledang: The Musical with high expectations, having heard so much about it, and it still blew me away. There is brilliantly little wrong with this. If anything, I thought the English subtitles were a little hard to follow because they were located at the right and left of the stage so I eventually gave up reading every word and just concentrated on the performance instead. And it was amazing! I hear the third season is completely sold out, even the encore performance, but you should definitely catch this if you get the chance.

(Thanks to J and his ever-present camera for the pic.)

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Posted in: Movies Music TV.

Spotted at the coffee shop

Feb 12th, 2009
by soph.
2 comments

They stood out among the lunch hour crowd, us with our jeans and tops, others with their dress shirts and formal pants. It isn’t often we see the elderly among us during our midday rush for food but that wasn’t what caught my attention in the first place. It was their chatting and their laughter – animated, loud, joyful. They talked, laughed and generally had a whole lot of fun. You could see it on their faces. And I thought, will Y and I hang out with our friends and talk and laugh like that when we’re well into our sixties?

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Posted in: Daily Events.

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