1 quarter down. and three to go. whoa, nellie!

31 mar :: starbucks. lol!

30 mar :: that i'm relatively allergy free. that i don't attract mosquitoes :)

29 mar :: air cond. air cond. air cond.

28 mar :: meeeeat.. *rawrrr*

27 mar :: tarred roads

26 mar :: the colours of sunset

25 mar :: social networking tools, without which i'm a total s.inept. kan. hehe..

24 mar :: mille crepe cake! <3

23 mar :: fried chicken from that chapfun shop in kuchai. tastes better than KFC. cheaper too. <3 where have u been my whole life!

22 mar :: vegetable soup. whenever i make stg that i actually like, i'd think "i'm awesome!" sometimes i say it out loud. hahaha.. tak tahu malu.

21 mar :: chatting w mom while dad & hubby watched the MU(2)-Liverpool(1) game on TV.. hearing her said that my sis was a naughty kid (haha!) and i was the good one *halo glows*..plus some stories way back when..

20 mar :: an absolutely lazy Sat || changed maybank treatpoints for a new cabin luggage bag :)

19 mar :: dun particularly feel thankful today.. but yeah.. let me choose stg.. mm, im thankful for Internet. like, really really.

18 mar :: chat with J figuring some parts in the bk of Romans.. love this kinda conversation!

17 mar :: grapes! i love them.. cold storage was selling the green ones for like, rm8.99/kg.. happiness.

16 mar :: dinner with a family from church. havent been to their home in a while dy.

15 mar :: 2nd mtg went well

14 mar :: cooling coconut juice <3

13 mar :: IKEA trip! ^^

12 mar :: being appointed treasurer for church camp > finally, a new portfolio! :)

11 mar :: nite class. i still hate asgmts but i know they are good for me. >_< necessary evil.

10 mar :: choices. even if i don't exercise them, i have them. | new pair of shoes @70% off ^^ | lunch w kang ^^

9 mar :: dinner w the goat & ann @indulge. haven't seen him in ages. 'tis his bday tmr but i got him to buy me dinner instead. lol! got my SF CDs! ^^

8 mar :: evening w sherylee!! <3<3 welcome bak to the real world! ^^ time to revive foodblog ^^

7 mar :: nice l-o-n-g nap aft church ^^

6 mar :: "1st meeting"

5 mar :: encouraging testimonies abt prayer for workplc from SS & VA, a welcome relief aft a whole day of b*****ing abt mine

4 mar :: lunch with kang ^^

3 mar :: vege juice from SP LRT station.. makes me feel healthy..

2 mar :: bernarda alba @klpac. oh wow.

1 mar :: meeting up, eating & praying together with PS & SP

i don't know what it says about me but the first thing i did when i stepped into the airport was to head straight for starbucks and flip open my lappie and opened my regular tabs (FB, Yahoo Mail, Gmail, Twitter, Bloglines, Blogger).

i only bothered to check an hour later. hehe.. i consider myself a serious contender for ms interwebs pageant. ms give me connection or give me death. ms web 2.0 flows thru my blood vessels.


*chup ~ brain freeze

...


anyways, i just got outta the jungle about 2 hours ago, killing time now at miri airport. it was an OK experience. nothing life altering. plus i'm a tough gal kinda sorta (though i did whine about the heat, and was extremely thankful to have gotten the air-cond room) so yeah. we didn't sleep in tents la - and there were running water and tiled washroom, and people to cook and clean up after us.. oh yeah, and astro too. hahhaha..

mm lazy to write. we did quite a bit of things. u might or might not read about in the papers. haha.. nothing notorious, no worries. ;) saw some things i didn't like which i hope would be highlighted by my press pals. *grumbles

anyways, i did NONE of the reading i'd planned to do, and spent my nights watching movies. so far, i've watched Couples Retreat (forgot actors' names), The Nines (Ryan Reynolds), The Long Kiss Goodnight (Geena Davis, Sam L Jackson), and multiple episodes of Naruto hahaha.. *slap

after all that blah about internet connectivity just now.. i survived the 4 days without. but nothing to w00t! about la. maybe it was the environment, maybe it was the heat, maybe because i knew there was no way i cld hook up.. so it didn't really matter. i slept a lot too. the bumpy rollercoaster rides with very bends and dips and soars every 2 seconds amounting to no less than 14 hours made me real drowsy and tired. @_@



a composite image (not very well done obviously), taken from the beach at the hotel where i stayed the evening before i left.

it was a different world back there. realised that a lot of things do not matter. but many that do. sometimes it's obvious which is which, sometimes not. mmhmm..

i don't know anything about this traveling light mumbo jumbo. do you want to run that by me again you proselytizing penguin.

just a quick one before i go off. just finished packing for my miri trip. took me almost 2.5 hours. 0_o going into the heart of the jungle this time.. together with a team of volunteering medical doctors.. part of the company's CSR initiatives to bring health care to the natives in the vicinity of our operation bases (the camp i'm going is about 7 hours drive from miri T__T God, please sustain me. the national registration department and the department of agriculture will be tagging along on this trip too. don't really know what to expect.. had first thought that i'd be sleeping in huts.. but apparently there's even aircond at the place. haha.. we'll see.

am hoping to do some reading among the lush green. hope i won't be too absorbed with the lappie. haha.. my night class assignment is due the next day after i come back, so yeah.. then got reading assignments some more -- i don't think i could finish lor.. i've gotta read 2 versions of the Gospels, plus two textbooks, plus a paper that i've got to write upon reading one of the books. no way i could do it la.. will just try my best. as long as i passed i'm ok lah. i've already got my money's worth dy.. hehehe..

been very tired every night this week. i think it's from the lack of exercise - GUILTY as charged. but i don't know when to insert a routine into my schedule. hubby goes for morning walks on Sats with his friend, but 6am on a Sat morn is just too cruel for me. any morn 6am is cruel la.

anyways, gtg. gotta wake up at 545am and leave home by 630am.. flight's at 830am fr KLIA. so yeah, it will be a little quiet around here for the next few days. miss me some ok? ^__^

there's no such thing as having too many books. or pairs of shoes. or bags. or reese's cups. no sir.

it didn't seem too long ago that i chanced upon bookXcess while trawling amcorp mall with tab. (what we were doing there in the first place escapes me - who goes to amcorp for anything anyway? hahaha..) actually, that was abt what, 4 years back? wow, has it been that long? bookXcess was a small one-lot bookshop then.. my, my, i thought we'd stumbled upon a best-kept secret. while the titles were limited, the books were going at prices so low i saw a glimpse of heaven.

talking about bookstores and heaven, back then we also saw a japanese movie called 'heaven's bookstore' which has nothing about books. or did it? while the movie has certain basic 'themes' going for me (japan + heaven + bookstore = sounds like a tantalising recipe right? sigh - they threw in the wrong ingredients la. it could have been a ramen shop or a boutique for all it brought to the plot) talking abt japanese movies, i also rber catching with sis the movie 'welcome back, mr mcdonald' which was raved by several bloggers i followed then and therefore we were ultimately disappointed at the end of the show cos i couldn't get what was so good abt the show. and i still rber we paid RM24 for the tix. whatta waste.

mm where was i?

so yeah, book buying was never the same again. i rber she bought the prequel to the divine secrets of the yaya sisterhood.. now, did i watch the movie after i read the book? i don't know. i have some vivid imagery of certain scenes but i could gotten that from reading. which is why watching a movie based on a book i've read is almost always disappointing. somehow the details are never captured like how you rber them to be. but reading a book *after* watching would enhance the reading experience. :)

anyways, i shall stop digressing into movies. back to books. i had to restrain myself from overspending each visit. to my delight, bookXcess moved to a bigger premise not long after. good thing that a trip to amcorp isn't convenient, else i'd be really poor by now and swimming in a sea of books. hehe.. not too bad actually.

with their inaugural big bad wolf sale the year before, i was spoilt. MPH/Penguin/Times? puh-leeez. not by a hundred miles. Kino is worse (exp + wrapped books = boo!) not dissing Borders cos i just lurrve the ambience there. ^^ berjaya, pls dun close down borders ok? vincent tan, you owe us at least this much. why do i sound like a gangster.

and after the BBW sale this year, bookexcess announced that they were moving into the very area they held the sale. that's a whopping 12,000 sq ft of CHEAP BOOKS. *HEART* this means more books -- and newer titles! so who cares about a minor tear or a wee ink stain when they are so affordable. *dirt* cheap mar.. sure got marks here and there wan la.. most books are in good condition anyways.

anyways, check out their blog (links below) for new arrivals and promotions and contests.. and drop by for a visit soon!!

i. can't. wait!!! ^___^

bookXcess
L3-60 amcorp mall
opens every day
10.30am - 9.30pm
web || blog || twitter || FB


p/s: i've been wanting to organise the books on the shelves at home. arranging them by titles, or authors, or genres, or something.. but the whole task just seems so daunting.. one day.. one day.. ^^

a slight deviation from the norm is a good thing..

[via jive's FB]

i didn't re-size this so you can watch the vid (head/earphones wld increase listening pleasure =). awwwesome. i wish i was in the crowd.
too bad it stops so early at 2:50..!



oh ya another thing. i'm having such a bad hair day. i know it's one when i think that i want to go skinhead. argh. the unruly frizz and out of shape cut is a sorry sight. and despite wearing one of my fav white blouse today, i felt frumpy was tattooed over my forehead. monday - bleh.

4 more days to my jungle trip. maybe my hair's accustoming itself to the natives' preferred cut. boo hoo!

rambling alert. if you want to maintain the illusion that i'm an interesting person, pls skip this post & come back again on Sunday.

class is beginning to tire me out.. i really hate assignments and exams but would reluctantly concede that they are good for me. what was it that the bible say about discipline again? *grumbles* looking forward to a break next sem.. hehe.. i'm glad i could go for classes because i want to, instead of because i have to, or because it's a routine i've developed. and it's not so much of keeping the momentum, cos i'm not in a paper chase. it's just one of those things i really enjoy :).. til the routine gets overwhelming.. and because most good things aren't so good when you have too much of it (4th piece of KFC anyone?), this break would do me good. plus, i've checked the calendar - nothing interests me, so it's just nice! ^^

ok, this is gonna be a l-o-n-g post. so i finally get to use this nifty little tag to hide the bulk of it. i'd like to call it my muu-muu tag. haha.. do click it -- there's a nice song at the end that you could chk out, even if you dun wanna read the rest, which would be probably good for your health. ^^ live long and prosper. _\\// (does that look like the vulcan salute? hahaha..)

in the loop

featuring the very adorable zooey deschanel and that other guy.

we all get the slip sometimes everyday
I'll just keep it to myself in the sun, in the sun

she & him :: in the sun

and ooh, i've been playing this other song since monday.. after watching 'kiss kiss bang bang' (robert downey jr, val kilmer).. don't let the title fool you (well, i did a double take la.. but it's really good! funny, almost bizarre.. ;) don't let the dismal box office gross deter you - watch it! :) and i never knew RDJ was a musician/singer - anyways he wrote and sang this song.. *heart*

in love with a broken heart
[face in every cloud, makes me laugh out loud]
you fell in love with a broken heart
[shouts to keep it down, wagon draws a crowd]

robert downey jr :: broken

I never see a movie unless someone I trust recommends it first. I just don’t think I’m going to be the first person to discover a great movie. If I don’t hear my friends talking about how great the movie is, then I’m not going to see it – unless of course it’s by a director or stars an actor that I have a personal oath to follow.

[tripp crosby]

i don't have "a director or stars an actor that I have a personal oath to follow" but i will watch anything by Pixar. :D but yeah, i don't watch any movies without looking up its reviews. there are very few things i hate other than wasting time and $$ on a movie i feel have wasted my time and $$. :)

"why don't you just jump out of the window and let scavengers eat at your body?"

my colleague was too stunned to reply when her boss messaged that to her over skype. the same colleague who is pregnant and who will be the only remaining staff in her department by this month end when her other co-workers finish serving their notices and leave.

this immediately reminded me of what my ex-boss told me:

"do i have to tie you up like a dog so that you don't wander off and s*** everywhere?"

and the injustice of it all, these people will go on to enjoy big bonuses just because they are favored by their bosses, leaving their victims battered and scarred and scraping for self-esteem from the back of the fridge.

pardon my theology, but is there a special place in hell for people like these?

just one of those days..

every once in a while, i would come across a song that i could loop the entire day without boring me. it would make me smile as i bop my head to it.. and let it just run in the background as i go on with the day. this is one of those days.

they can take me anywhere I want
I put my headphones on
I can walk around and sing along
I put my headphones on

they can take me anywhere I want
I put my records on
you can shake your head and turn around
I put my records on

now I'm gone, with my head in a cloud
and the songs, they're just dancing around

i am from barcelona :: headphones

this is also one of those days, where i am so unhappy that i just want to go hide in a closet and cry for no specific reason. sigh.. when mountains and valleys collide (huh?), it just drives me nuts. aiyor i am so emo i make myself go -___-"

i was late to my night class at the bible college yesterday -- technical problems with the Putra train (nothing new) leaving commuters stranded in the stuffy tunnel leading to the train. and my phone's batt died on me (of all days).

anyways, i got to class about 15mins late, and the lecturer had distributed back the exam papers so i went up to him during the break to ask for it.

what's your name?

it's ellis, with an E.

ah yes, very interesting spelling.

*smiles* yeah.

i've realised something then that i have known all my life, but at that moment it struck me again.

my name was given by my english-illiterate Dad. i never knew where he got it from (asked him once but he didn't remember). but if he did pluck it from thin air, i am SOOO glad that it's Ellis (already uncommon as it is) and not Orangina or Febreeze or Gryffindor or Patrick, for all the difference it makes to him!

*grateful* ^__^


ooh, i have just realised i still owe you a story. haha.. see la how..

a roomful of liquid nitrogen.. erm.. estrogen.. same la..

bernarda alba (the musical) was, in one word, intense.. and it was meant to be, i suppose.

the story tells of the titular newly-widowed mother of 5 daughters in a small town in spain (sometime in the middle of the last century.. yeah, it wasn't that long ago). she is an old-school matriarch who ruled with misguided zeal and an iron-fist, essentially suffocating the nubile lasses. i can't imagine living in that era, with a mother like that. can die.

the stage had a minimalist set up (too minimal methinks. i knew the set was intentionally barren with chairs being major (only) pieces, and there were some clever use of lighting and translucent screens, but i wish there were more props - a piece of cloth here or a cup there. they did have a couple of ladies fans, so why not?) and dark, accentuating the brooding mood. everyone was garbed in black, but each lady of the family had something red on them - the grandmother wore red stocking, the inner pleat of the mom's dress, a sister's hairband or inner garment, and one sister had a huge red birthmark on her face. subtle but nice touch!

anyways, let's rewind a little to the start of the evening:

i left the office around 7 with mandy. we planned to have dinner outside KLCC, probably somewhere near KLPAC. traffic was all right but "someone" broke a couple of rules to get us there faster. hahaha.. we passed a porridge stall on jln ipoh where mandy said she has been before, and there was a small crowd (always a sign of good food :) so we decided on that. it was really good! (sorry, no pix yet, still trying to get a hang of MY NEW PHONE! ^^)

reached KLPAC around 810pm to collect our tickets. rachel and ben (r's bf) and ruth (r's sis) were already there. tim and hubby was parking just as i collected the tix. ww made it just in time before the show started, but it was jazz who got me worried cos she got lost! she left the office before mandy and i did, and she just couldn't find the place and i was of no help. she was on the verge of giving up but i was glad she gave it one last attempt. she got in abt 845 with the tix i left with the ushers and had to sit away from us but it was ok - happy you made it!! ^^ it was also hubby's virgin theater experience, and i'm happy that he enjoyed it. as did everyone else! whee!

ok, back to the show: did i enjoy it?

...

yup! :D

i hesitated there cos saying yes somehow makes me feel sadistic.. haha.. it was a dark show exploring themes of repression, passion and conformity. heavy stuff. and look lah at my list of fav movies -- most of them are light hearted ones. mm someone used "emotionally drained" to describe the after-effect of watching this show, and that was how i felt. chongy said this audience laughed a lot, and i agreed! i only laughed at most twice, and i don't know what was it that i missed -- hellow! i am the queen of the easily amused and excitable..i oughta know!

anyways, here are some thoughts on the play (there are spoilers ya)..

• the opening scene was well choreographed, but i couldn't catch the words sung except those that were repeated. two girls who sat in front of us were taking notes of the play periodically and being kaypoh, i tried to peer at their notebook - not easy cos the theater was very dark. hehe.. anyways, i saw one of them wrote ".. pronunciation was unclear.." and i kinda agree with her. but then again, it could be me -- i memang hard of hearing wan, and often have to rely on subtitles when i watch TV. hehe..

• several of the actresses sporadically lapsed into some form of asian accent, which kinda threw me off. as for vocal ability, other than the senile grandmother (elvira arul), bernarda the overbearing mother (nicole-ann thomas) and poncia the maid (chongy!), the rest of the cast did impress me not much (me = not a fan of thin, shrill female voices).
  

• the youngest daughter, adela (ashvina marie) came across as rather bratty. i felt little sympathy to her cause and her longing for her forbidden lover. and even though she was eventually "betrayed" by sister martirio (stephanie paulus), the ugly daughter, i felt more for the latter. wrong vibe, girl! sweet daughter amelia (lee min li) was just that, sweet. if she had a subplot going for her, i don't recall it. and i thought she would make a better adela. and i like how magdalena (amelia chin) carried herself, even if her voice was a little hoarse. her demeanor brought out her character very well - someone who is resigned to her fate of imprisonment, but not in a hunched, sighing way. the eldest sister angustina (abigail barragry) was quite good too (but she should be depicted as somewhat older. i mean, she came across as someone desirable, instead of someone who got a marriage proposal because she was rich.)

• nicole played bernarda very well, a woman with her own demons.. with a husband who was implied to be a casanova. she called him a lover, yet admitted that he made her felt like a whore at the same time. maybe she wanted shield her daughters against men such as him. that, plus her ultra conservative view of women's position in homes and society. did she get that from her mother? elvira's senile character was quite annoying, but i don't know why. and that dance scene with her writhing on the floor - what was that la! somebody help her up pls..
  

• the young maid was the most out-of-place character - she pouted a lot and sounded too manja when she spoke, hence coming across very much a chinese girl instead of a spaniard. even her costume reminded me of a modern day waitress (were women allowed to wear pants back then?) the other two maids were rather forgettable, but i suppose that's how maids should be. in the shadow.. teringatkan the butler stevens in the remains of the days..
  

• sheryl chong was brilliant of course, but i might be biased. hahaha.. but find me an audience member who didn't think her soaring, booming voice and demeanour mean business -- running the household of bernarda alba is no mean feat ok. and she looked scary - hahaha.. the makeup must have been very well done cos some people (like her dad and my hubby) said they couldn't recognise her in her costume! you were awesome, babe!
  



*fangirly scream* chongy!! ^__^




• i thought that the music was pretty well executed (i thought that the musicians should get to come out and take a final bow too =). i got to meet its musical director tony leo selvaraj after the show. he's kind of a FB-friend with mandy so sheryl introduced us. mandy thought that the music was from a recording so she was overtly impressed to find out that it was live music. sheryl also intro'd me to another friend, chin hor, and they did this gangsta name thingy which i "politely" layan-ed. *roll eyes tak minat* hahaha..

so yeah, that's about it. :)

Bernarda Alba is on until March 7 at Pentas 2, Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPac). Showtime is 8.30pm (3pm on Sundays). Tickets are RM48, with discounts available for senior citizens, students and the disabled. Tickets for the Tuesday and Wednesday shows are available for RM28. For more information, call KLPac’s box office (03-4047 9000), The Actors Studio@Lot 10 (03-2142 2009/03-2143 2009), or visit www.klpac.org.



on a similar note, just saw this on the ministry of tourism & istana budaya websites:

WEST SIDE STORY THE MUSICAL 12 - 25 May 2010

‘West Side Story The Musical’ has been described as ‘a masterpiece of musical theatre’ and is said to have changed the face of musical theatre forever when it made its debut on Broadway back in 1957. For the first time ever, this legendary musical is now being staged right here on Malaysian soil, and is expected to be one of the year’s biggest and hottest events, attracting musical and theatre lovers from around the region. So don’t miss out - catch one of the world’s most-loved musicals.

I WANNA GOOOOOO!!!
but i heard that tix price starts from RM190. 0_o

*heartbroken*

the phone conundrum

so yeah, i've been hankering for a new phone for a while now. one that could further "enhance my life" by singing into my ears on my train ride home from work. one that would capture visual delights for posterity and blogposts :) one that would clean my house and do my assignments. one that would save the cheerleader and the world.

but really, the joystick on my phone is kinda misbehaving and i don't wanna be stranded at a most inopportune of time. and my charger on the other hand died on me last week and i have been charging my phone using the USB port which takes forever and a day. and it has been 4 years since my last buy..

so, my want.. my NEED is rather justified, doncha think? ^__^

there are like a million options out there, and since i don't keep up with the trend, i didn't know where to begin my search. that, plus i can be irrationally fussy, i came up with some rules to narrow down my options.

1. re touch screen phones -- i thought about them, and kinda decided that i don't like them, mostly because their wide screens mean grimes and facial oil and constant wiping. and oh yeah, these phones are wayyy beyond my budget anyways. hehe..


2. i like candy bar phones. flipping or sliding a phone open is sooo pretentious (LOL!) and me being the clumsy me, i would damage the mechanism in no time.


3. i want wi-fi capability. this way, i can stay connected wherever whenever. AS IF I'M NOT CONNECTED ENOUGH. i'm practically risking over-exposure. mulling a digital fast for Lent. still mulling. hahaha..


4. i would like a sony ericsson phone cos i'm used to its functions. i don't like nokia: have never owned one, and would like to stay that way. i don't know why i feel this way, so i'll leave it to my aforementioned irrationality to explain it. hahaha.. [btw 1st phone - siemens, 2nd - samsung, 3rd - sony ericsson.. mm i see a pattern here. :)]
   

anyways, here are the few contenders left standing after the elimination process. obviously, not very well eliminated, and not much research done. hehehe..

• nokia e71

pros: cool design, has wi-fi, qwerty keyboard
cons: it's a nokia, it's an old model (c. 2008), qwerty keyboard (yeah, both a pro and a con)

• nokia e52

pros: candy bar, same features as the nokia e72, has wi-fi
cons: it's a nokia, design (it's too long)

• sony ericsson u100i

pros: latest model, canggih camera & audio functions, sony ericcson
cons: no wi-fi, more of a gaming phone

• sony ericsson w705i

pros: it's an SE, has wifi, walkman series (= awesome audio), decent camera, cheap(est of the lot)
cons: it's a slider phone

hehehe.. i thought really long about this, but i've made up my mind after annoying half the world with my "which one??" question. the w705i it is. i hope to get a pink model. pink! so in your face kan.. hahaha.. ya, ya.. it's a slider phone and i compromised. :P


i can't wait!! ^___^

some disclaimers before i end:

1. no, i didn't get a big fat bonus (or any at all), and my angpow money somewhat covers only what went out. my dearest sister is subsidizing a substantial amount to help cover my cost. i dedicate this phone to you, dear sis -- it would be affectionately named 'piggy'. it's pink anyways. ^__^
   


2. yes, i kinda have "connections" ;) - each phone would cost me less than rm1k (whatever the dealer's price is).
   


3. no, unfortunately, i won't be able to pull this string for you. sorry!