Crooks by any other name...

Once upon a time, a bunch of businessmen must have sat down and thought to themselves, “Lets find ourselves a new group of suckers.” Hence the invention of St. Valentine’s Day.

Well let us give the opportunists a break. Where there is no demand, there is no supply. It is pretty obvious by now I am not a proponent of this Lurrrve Day. In the past some may have said that because I was single, I was bitter about this special day.

No, the fact is I just simply cannot stomach cuddly toys with tags which reads “I love you,” “Forever Love,” and the tags go on. I cannot get over the fact how you pay 100 bucks for a pathetic thawed bouquet when on normal days, 100 bucks could get you such a gorgeous bunch of fresh flowers.

Restaurants are the worst! How could they compel patrons to order their Valentine’s Day meal set, at a ridiculous price as well. Point is, crooks by any other names ...florists, restaurateur... would still be crooks.

8 Things You May Want to Know about Poe

I have been tagged by khemy and this is a free flow anything goes:-

1) I go by the name Poe because it is non gender specific. I hate people who pre-judge me, especially at work, based on my gender and age.

2) It irks me when people associate my name with Teletubby but it flatters me when people associate my name with Edgar, which I can assure you is very very very rare. Those few men who did, definitely scored a date with me.

3) I travelled 8 hours to go back to my hometown Sitiawan to give birth to Eddie so that when he grows up, he can explain to anyone who sees his birth cert / passport where Sitiawan is.

4) I considered for a very long time whether to call my baby Edward Rhys or Rhys Edward. It was all resolved when my Sig.Ot (Significant Other) said that if baby grows up to be President of a bank, the name Edward would be more befitting. Ataupun Kedai Motor Edward pun bolehlah.

5) I started cooking at the age of 16 (as in proper cooking rice with 4 dishes and soup) for my family and never owned a cookbook. I believe that cooking is both common sense and creativity. Then recently someone bought me a cookbook for my 30th birthday. Of course, never told never knew.

6) I love my late grandma very very much who passed away 5 years ago. Until today I still dream of her. One dream which I remember very clearly is when I asked her where heaven was, and she pointed to the sky and said it was 6km from earth.

7) The most famous person I have encountered is Andre Agassi. He was sitting next to me in a restaurant in London. My friends bribed the waiters just to take home the napkin and the glass (?) he was using.

8) I have a house in Kota Damansara (Villa Damansara) which I would like to rent out. Please contact me if you know of anyone who wouldn't turn it into a brothel.

There Must be a Kennel in Heaven

I am an emotional wreck when it comes to sick or dying animals. This is the only reason why I do not watch movies which feature animals such as Eight Below or Lion King. When we were kids, my aunt made us watch this famous Hindustan film, nevermind we did not understand the language, about an elephant. In the end the elephant died because he protected his human friend from the fatal gun shot. Evidently until today, the movie still has an impact on me.
Growing up in a small town, there were stray dogs and cats. If I were to see an injured dog with a missing leg, I would feel so sad and sometimes cry. Or when my puppy died, I came up with a ritual which I conducted on every Wednesday to make sure that she ended up in heaven. I was only eleven. Anyway you get the idea.
First of all, my heart goes out to the those who lost their loved ones in the horrendous bushfire in Australia. It also made me very sad to learn that millions of animal may have perished too. In the news today, there was an article about the poor creatures which have been saved. One baby wallaby had his nose cooked, whiskers singed and his poor ears fried crispy because he must have stuck his head out of his mummy's pouch. There was a koala, Sam (pic above), whose paws have been burnt, probably from walking on the very burnt ground. Thank goodness there is still much kindness to go around in the midst of such devastation. My heart goes out to those who will have to carry out the most unenviable task to euthanise thepoor animals with extensive injuries.

Put Your Hands Up....

Last Saturday, my friends and I went out for my belated birthday celebration. I have always and probably will always dance to only hip hop and rnb. So for the whole of last week, I was researching for a good rnb club to go to. Unfortunately, house is still all the rave. and that's what they play in most clubs. Then we finally decided on Attica which was apparently a little bit better than Butter Factory in terms of crowd factor.
When we got there, it felt like college days all over again. In fact I felt like I was in a School Union bar. The kids, mostly international college kids, were swarming the place. The odd few late 20 something and early 30 s0mething (like us) stood out like sore thumbs! I have never seen so many cleavages in one place ever. Sadly, most of these barely-out-of-puberty girls think that the way to look older and sophisticated was to wear low cut tops with push-up bras.
Nevertheless it was very entertaining to watch a group of boys with their leader (turn-up collar) who thinks that he's the most suave of them all making a move on a couple of girls sitting by the bar. It is something that you see in grown up bars, something like Beach Club, minus the prostitutes with much much better music. Not that I am a really old seen-it-all aunty, but you could easily spot the don juan wannabes, and the girls who are trying so hard to catch attention of the boys. It is almost comical. I remember this boy who kept undoing his belt and show his bottom to girls. Just in a span of an hour, he has taken off his pants at least 3 times to show 3 different girls. I suspect that he has probably gotten a tattoo although piles could have been equally an attraction, not!
Truth is ,we definitely felt out of place. That club was definitely way too young for us. No, we do not wish to be that age again. Been there, done that. Thank goodness we then found another club with a live band which played Bon Jovi and Blur. We were not that old after all, we got home at 4am.

SPPS- Self Preservation in a Plastic Sense

As I was growing up, I learnt to accept the way I look. I may not be drop dead gorgeous but I am really happy with the way I am. Of course when I was younger, i.e. early teens, I would wish for certain things such as non-frizzy hair, slimmer hips, narrower face etc but as I grew older I came to love the way I look. Honestly, I do. Back then in school, plastic surgery was perceived as something so shocking, and usually related to inflated boobs, like Dolly Parton. N.B. My Sig.Ot has recently told me that they all real.

My perception of plastic surgery started to change when I began to watch Nip Tuck 5 years ago. It got me thinking and I realised that most of us do alter or enhance the way we look. For example, skin preservatives you find in pots such as Creme de la Mer or SK II. Or lightweight thickening plus lengthening mascara, or in recent years, fake eyelashes which is glued on to your eyelids strand by strand which in my personal opinion make some look like they have got caterpillar resting on their eyelids.

Therefore most of us in the name of vanity do, to a certain degree, try to resist what nature does to the way we look. I admit that I may not wish to alter the way I look, but I would want to preserve the way I look. I do not want a new nose but I would like to keep my skin taut for as long as possible. I do not want my cheeks to sag or my jaw area to develop jowls. However, perhaps with time I may grow to accept how they will wrinkle, like how I grew to accept the way I looked in the first place. After all, aging does not happen overnight anyway.

So if my next pregnancy ruin my boobs, I may not rule out plastic surgery to restore them. Read restore, not upsize. My Sig.Ot said that there is no point in plastic surgery then. Haha... that's his humor for you.

The point is, most of us do want to look good by way of enhancing or changing or preserving. It is to what extremes are you willing to go. Be it a jar of Creme de la Mer or Botox injection. Therefore before one professes to be a saint and swear never ever to change the way she looks, do think again.

A Tale of a Tailor

As if the posting of a secondary school photo of me at somebody's blog isn't bad enough, I have also been threatened with a tell-all silly crush I had. I hereby have an announcement to make. I shall beat you all to it, and tell it all myself.

When I was 16, I had a crush on this tailor. All the guys who worked at this shop are the chinese samseng type, which are considered cool, ok maybe for my standard; ponytail, smoking, cool dressing, modified Honda 3-door Bullet, you get the idea. Yes I actually went there to get my shirts tailored just so that I could see him. And the hours and the money I used to spend at the cassette shop opposite the tailor just so I could catch a glimpse of him.

There, I have said it. While I am on the subject, don't you guys dare snigger and stand on moral high ground. As if you have not done something silly while fancying yourself being in love, be it with a real person or some boyband or Ryan Giggs. hehehehe...

The good thing is we can now look back and laugh about it, threaten others with it, make some money out of it if someone becomes a Datin one day, and to have done all those silly mistakes when we did, and move on since then.

Phew... Aren't we all glad that we have outgrown our silly crushes.

30 Rock-s!!

Yup, that's me. I've crossed the much fretted about 3-0. Big deal, yes it is, I suppose. But I did not really fret about it. Why is that so? I think I have mentally prepared myself for it since 3 - 4 years ago. It was also helped by the fact that most of my friends are older than me and each time one crosses to the other side, I have always come up with some original consolations for them, which I have then convinced myself to be true, hahaha.

Well I was quite mean to Eni who turns 30 one day after me, telling her that 30 is not just a number because it is also THIRTY or TIGA PULUH! hehehe... well it is and there is nothing wrong with that. It all boils down to what exactly you have achieved come this age. I am pleased to say that for now, I am very happy to be 30 and to be happily married and to be a mother to my wonderful bub and not to be stuck in a job I hate. For this realisation, I dedicate it to dear Reena who got me thinking years ago when she got married and had bubbles.