Saya mahu menjadi ahli Kelab Colgate, pleasee

BB-romantica just informed me that she's planning to go on a backpack trip with her gurlfrens @ ex-colleagues to Europe early nex year. Diorang dah beli tiket! What bbRomantica did was very unpredictable, because it was unexpected for her as well (keputusan tiba-tiba).

I have this dream of going "backpack" with some girlfrens.. esp time masing-masing single. Locally, done that. wish list includes europe/uk, India, Cambodia and Aussie... at least one of these destinations :P~

Hehe... takper2.... ada rezeki, adalah nanti ;-) Time to earn, save more money and allocate, since there are other more important things. Need to prioritise la kan... (studies dulu) But what makes it more tempting are encouragements like... Jemputan Shimah masih terngiang-ngiang... "Kak Ina, come before I finish my studies here" and clock is ticking, and one and a half year to go! Jugak jemputan segitiga australia - perth, melbourne n queensland from 3 good buds.

Haji dan Umrah tu kategori lain pula... itu sebolehnya dgn muhrim ye dok?

While chatting with BikRomantica just now, I remembered something. My sisters and I loved to enter contests with Holidays to blinkblinks as prizes. We never won any blinkblink trips but my younger sis won consolation prize once - under LooneyToons or some sort. One of our attempts:

Kelab Colgate, anyone? Familiar? Hehe... Tak ingat masa darjah berapa ni. I wrote this and seriously, now I don't blame anyone for not winning. But this just a draft, usually my sis would screen thru and edit before we send to any contests :P

So, although not planning to travel anytime soon.. if i finally have the time, money and opportunity, any suggestion where should I go first?? :P~


Akhir Kata,

Menuntut Ilmu biar sampai ke negeri China.

(baiklah... nanti akan diusahakan lawatan sambil belajar ke sana) :P

What was I doing in that post office?

Event: Very Recent
Location: A mid-east products stall in campus
Scenario: I wanted to buy a bottle of apple juice and ask about the mango juice that looked like concentrated but most likely it might be fresh juice. Hmmm let’s verify wokey?

Excuse me, How much is this? (showing the small apple juice bottle)
~ 2 Ringgit
How about this one, is this concentrated or can we just drink straight away? (showing the mango juice)
~ Yes, straightaway
Ooh… It’s ok, I’ll just take this one (putting back mango juice and holding on tight to the appley bottley)


Then another customer, a mid-east, asked me "are u from here? a local?"
yes... why
" u speak good english" (he sounded surprised)

(Hoho... okay, u should hear me Manglish-ing English…)

Instead of saying that, I said
"what's that suppose to mean? Many malaysian speak good english... " sambil gelak senget-senget hidong…

we were both on a bright mood although I am quite defensive :P Both smiling diplomatically, haha.

" no .. no .. malays dont speak good english..." (I was not sure whether he said Malays or Malaysians, but either one, for me it’s still a fallacy)

"that's an insult, you cannot make..."
He continued "i've been here 3 years... no, no... they don't" He laughed gently not wanting to fire things up kot, then started to walk away.

"come on… that’s insulting" I echoed…. sambil gelak bibir sebelah aja.

3 years here and he didn’t come across malay/Malaysian who speaks English better than me? U gottah be keding me! Lawak sepanjang zaman nih! Huhuhu… I don’t even speak the perfekto English per se. Grammar suka-suka hati jer taruk tau. Then, Manglish some more kan.

Oh ya, but with foreigners I tend/try to be accent-less. Or maybe he come across with too much Manglishness and had hard time decoding, you know, like to filter out all the “lah”, "yek", "kan", “maaaa”, “hoh” “erk” “eh” “aaar". Ok, now it does make sense a lil! But for him to generalize like that, it’s still faulty. His qualitative analysis has insufficient data :D Period!

--------<-- div="">

Event: Few years back, I had kinda similar scenario.
Location: Post-Office, campus (ahahha.. forever in campus nih!)
Scenario: Eeee.. what was I doing there?? Can’t remember… must be some PosLaju delivery kot! I was sitting on a small bench when a white lady around 55-60 of age, came and sat beside me. Okay, I am confused… why was I sitting on the bench in that kucifat post-office again? Hmmm? *blur... Her husband was in a queue, accompanied by a Malaysian. She was friendly, can’t remember who started the conversation but we had a pleasant chat.

~ we yadda yadda~ she’s from Australia ~ vacation with husband ~ retired couple ~ have friends here ~
~ me ~ a penangite who has been here far too long until she can predict bungee jumping from penang bridge is gonna be next thing to look out for~ errr..

“U speak English very well”

Ok.. wait... is this an issue… like local issue ke global issue ke? Or is it because I have the ‘haaa, wat u talk yer, I zonno Englis’ expression eh? that i surprised em even with my intermediate english?

Or is it because we are from a country that doesn’t practice English as our first language, so having a good/fair command of it is almost impoh-sibley? :D

“I was told the locals have hard time with english” She was a dear, the way she put it, it did not sound offensive but it made me think (Okay, who told her that aaar?) and I speculatively looked at the Malaysian accompanying them… adakah dia memberi info tersebut? “some students in the universities too, I believe…?” she continued.

Of course, yours truly tried to clarify. I said that’s merely generalization, not depicting the real picture. I talked about diversity; I talked about the different school systems hence the different background people have. I talked about languages and English as the second language, and it’s not mastered by just one group of people/race.

If you are wondering… Yes, her hubby was in a veli long-long queue, imagine, even after that clarification thingy, we had time to spare, and she talked about her kids. Then again, brings us back to this question: what was I doing sitting on the bench for so long aar?? Aiyoo Lupa lah…


So, anyways…

I don’t see why we should think toooo highly of English to the extent that we think not having a good command of it is a disgrace. Yes, it is an important language, and it is important to be able to convey the rite messages, to your interest group. It’s just a language, doesn’t represent our level of intelligence. On the other hand, our effort to learn a language is also a part of exploring and widening our knowledge, rite? So it kinda reflect on the effort part :-)

As we know, the significance of this particular language varies. In some part of the world, (countries where English is not first language) it’s not at all crucial, as they believe their own language has strength of its own, whereas in some other parts, it’s all about survival in the global market. For some, English is a symbol of status and class.

We/our country… seem to have a rickety stand on this. One day, it’s all about mastering english from early age to ease your way through tertiary studies. The next day, it’s all about placing the national language as priority before any other language. Confusing sikit eh? Advice? Just try to master both languages lah :-)

P/S: My Ultimate Choice of verbal communication: Malay Language ;-)

Akhir Kata,

Where's My Uncle Tobys?

Dig-o-saurus

In between papers, assignments and being entertained by niece and nephew... I still have time for this Random entry :P

Random 1

we had tis Projek Petani.

It's pretty obvious that it's nothing fancy. There's 4 of us, but on turun-padang (digging + planting) day, only 3 petani turned up, the 4th was not feeling well but promised to turun-padang on her own.

Three separate tapak-semaian :P

Hehe.. Go Green!!

Random 2

3 ladies, Pn. Lisa, Pn.Siti Seeta and Cik Leen, on their way to Queensbay for lunch. Before we could go out of the campus, Pn.Seeta's car faced some problem... overheat. We pulled over and managed to settle the prob... But, we left the car there and walked to where I parked my car. It was a very hot day but I enjoyed the clear sky = no jerebu day! Hehe... and it's good for Seeta too since she's new to the campus :P~

Random 3

Funny and cute. I got 2 birthday gifts that rekindled the kiddo in me.

First one: This from Kak Ilah:

Hahaha.... Cute kan.. Kak Ilah said she thought it'll be helpful since I like to cut papers and decorate gifts etc... I have played around with all 8 blades and I had fun indeed.


2nd one: From my elder sis:


Seriously?? Mwahahhaha.....

Yeah... ancient serious!

It's a book about Dinosaurs. Book & Dig Kit... meaning u get to dig ur very own dino bones out! Wow Weeee... Hahahhaha... Lawak kan... At first, I sayang nak start digging... but when Kak Ilah asked me "you nak tunggu dinosaur u jadi petroleum ke?" I terus tercabar :))


Over the weekend... Ain and I started digging! Haha.... Ain's a big fan of dinosaurs, okey.

Two paleontologists at work!

After a few hours... we were still at this:

Penattt... I told my junior paleontologist that we'll continue another day... Perlu kesabaran kerja ni.

Baru realize... this week jer.. I had 2 digging projects...
I shall now start my 3rd and most important digging: more literature for my research!!!

Random Note
With all the kiddiness going around lately, (projek petani pun macam kanak-kanak main pasir jer kan) haha... I got a set of One-Drop perfume from Alisa, haaa... good... bring back the woman in me :P

Thank you all... I enjoy all of em...

Tarian Hujan musim ketiga

On our way to dinner, it was raining. SuperBB and I entered the restaurant. Wow… full house! Only the tables at the last row were empty. Rain had ceased, so we didn’t have to worry about getting wet. Halfway through meal... it started to downpour again, thunder and lightning dancing in the sky. Even after we moved the table slightly inside, the rain still sprinkled on us. SuperBB said: “Takper, let’s finish eating… control macho je”

The drizzle tickling my face and SuperBB’s macho expression made me laughed. I concluded my meal with a cup of hot Nescafe, which I guess had extra ingredients of acidic rain water. Gagaga... Still raining heavily; we decided to battle the rain to the car, parked not far away, under an overhead bridge.

Our side of the road was somewhat flooded with rain water (slightly above ankle length jer) and we had to cross over to the opposite side. SuperBB: “Redah jer… kita pun dah basah”

1, 2, 3…. Run!!!

SuperBB victoriously crossed over… but I… Waaarkh… one of my slippers is missing! Gone! Tenggelam, Lemas di bawa arus! Half shoed, I looked for the other half in the water but the 'current' must have washed it away. Both of us tried to look for it by meraba-raba-ing the not-so-deep water, and peeping under a car parked there.

After 10minutes demonstrating Tarian Hujan around the car, decided to follow SuperBB's advice to come back at day light to look for it. Uwaaaa…. :-( I went back to my room disappointed, smelling like drain or rain water… not sure myself.

Next day, Yes… I went back to check. But it wasn’t there.

I’m sorry dear… I drowned your twin!!!

I can get a new pair, I know… but it won’t be its twin partner la kan. Hmm... maybe I should buy the same slippers with different color, eh? Then, I can wear it as same color pair or as mismatched pair with this now solo slipper… mix & match is trend right??

* I keep having dramatic experiences with shoes sandals, slippers @_@
Lesson Learned: Pakailah selipar cap Tat Seng...


Akhir Kata…
Sediakan Payung Sebelum Hujan,
juga sepasang selipar tambahan.

Tak Kenal Maka Tak Cinta...

• A: Can you believe this soap? Why is that woman wearing such a heavy make-up going to sleep? =Looking at the TV=
• Z: Isk Isk… dramatic sungguh…
• A: Eh... wow… the Waja’s sport rim super cun lah! =Looking at one of the cars parked outside the restaurant=
• Z: Hmmm… I’ll save some money and have mine changed too next year.

Look right, Look left… front... nothing interesting at that moment…

• A: Should I start writing that letter tomorrow?
• Z: You should... and also finish up the photo-editing, and also start compiling your literature reviews. Keep that in mind.
• A: Ouh.. so much work need to be done, Haishh….
• Z: Dun worry, be positive… Slow and steady wins the race =smiling positively=
• A: Weeee, here comes my Roti Pisang
• Z: uuu.. still hot… where’s the fork and spoon eh?

…….

This dialog can go on forever. A and Z are the same person = me! That’s me and an example of a dialog I have when I’m dining alone. When I dine with someone, its 2 ways communication therefore I make way to listen. On the other hand, eating alone, I talk and talk... non-stop. The difference is - no one can hear my inner voice.

What is wrong with eating alone? Haha…

Some people prefer to ‘tapau’ (take-away) food rather than eating alone in a public place –restaurants etc. I used to be like that, until recent years. Undeniably, I prefer and love dining with friends, but sometimes when no one is available at that time, and I am sooo hungry I could eat a dinosour (sambil perut menari2 dangdut gerudi)… I will just hit a café or a restaurant and eat alone (but sometimes I tapau too).

But Yaaah… eating alone is kinda tricky… I can entertain myself to the extent I can be very close to laughing out loud; or seeing interesting things around, I have a tendency of changing my facial expression according to that. Euwww… creepy and so weirdo ok! Never do that in public wek! I’m getting good at controlling it… haha… (takut kena cop psiko)

Yesterday nite… I ate alone… at this mamak restaurant nearby campus. The humongous TV was playing yet another soap drama, about some hantu keliwon kot. I ordered pasemboq and waited for my food to arrive, emptily watching the TV while I was having my usual az-to-az chat.

Suddenly a man around 40+ of age came to my table and held on to the chair diagonally opposite of me.

• A: Ohh.. he wants to take the chair…
• Z: Erkk.. but there’s so many empty tables around.

Then, he pulled the chair and sat.

• Errr… excuse me… why is he sitting here?
• Omg… is he going to lecture me for something I did? What did I do just now? =Usual paranoid attack=
• Nah... he won’t attack… this is a public, open place.

I looked at him… he looked back.

He looked relaxed.

I looked back… he looked at me blankly.

• Z: Ok… this is scarryyy…… Atta… help!!!!!

I looked back at him , my face expression all distorted with confusion and some hints of fear. He looked back and snapped

• Encik Konpius: Ehhhhhh…. Alamakkk!! Ehh...Salah meja!!! =Looking shocked and startled=

me =terlopong luas=

• Encik Konpius: ...saya ingat bini saya…. Ehhh! bini saya kat situ.

He thot I was his wife?? He quickly stood up, pointing to where his wife is seated; two tables away, behind me.

• Encik Konpius: Errr.. minta maaf.. minta maaf… salah orang.
• Me, Dazed: ha… err.. oh… takpa-takpa…. (its ok)

He quickly walked back to his wife. Behind me, a table with a group of girls, giggling “Dia salah meja ka… hihihi”

I sat there, didn’t want to turn around. I was confused for a while... and then I wanted to laugh... I wanted to laugh out LOUD… but how could I??? I am eating ALONE!!!! Haissshhh…. These are some of the challenges of dining all by yourself!

I finished my meal. Then walking to the counter, I passed by the couple. Both of them smiled coyly. They were going back themselves, and were getting in their car by the time I came out.

• Encik Konpius: Sorry naa tadi.. tersilap meja. terkejut ka tadi
• Missy Dazed: =smiling politely= Ha’ahh.. errr takper2…
  Isteri Mithali (wifey): Hehehe… Mintak Maaf naa.. dia terkonfius tadi
  Missy Dazed: Hihihi.. takper2.. terkejut sikit je tadi…

I smiled and waved my hands before heading to my car.

Ok… Lesson Learned!

Next time I eat alone… I should put a signboard beside me

“Saya bukan bini anda, sila cuba meja sebelah”

Akhir Kata...
"Tak kenal maka tak cinta, tak kenal maka memang tersentak"