Missing Missy

I was at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) last Thursday (15th May 2008) to pick up my aunt who was arriving from UK. Scanning each and every face as they emerged through the arrival gate, after all the necessaries (immigration and customs checkpoints), it seemed like a futile task. Her flight had arrived at around 9pm, but already an hour plus later, I was still standing there looking out for her.

 

Little did I know that there was also someone else among the people waiting in the arrival hall, holding up a cardboard notice which contained a familiar name - Missy Elliott. And I had only noticed when I saw a group of people coming out of the gate who had 3-4 black boxes stacked on the luggage trolley, which could easily contain musical instruments or speakers. I was looking on curiously, wondering what could be in those boxes, when a lady approached them with a cardboard sign bearing the name "Missy Elliott". I was looking out to see which one of the faces in the group of people was Missy - apparently I'm not too good at celebrity spotting, lolz!!

 

Psst... she did NOT look all glam-ed up like this, okay...

 

I watched and watched, but couldn't figure out which one was Missy... I watched as the group walked off. So, no autograph for me. There was surprisingly no fans at the airport, hmm... odd. (Which also caused me to wonder whether it was really Missy or not, hehe...) The group walked off and after some time, I got a bit restless standing there, watching and waiting, so I decided to take a walk - maybe if I see the group, I'd try again to spot out Missy and maybe get an autograph.

 

Nope, the group seemed to have left. And, sadly, I was so blur (it's been a crazy and busy month lar...) that I forgot to whip out my trusty SE w800i and at least take a photo of the group... =.=" I mean, how many people actually see a celeb all dressed down, lolz!! =P

 

I found out today that it probably was Missy Elliott, arriving for the concert at Genting, haha... Oh well, I'm no celebrity spotter... sorry lar~!

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: Missy Elliott,Malaysia,Concert,Genting Highlands

Bittersweet Day

It was indeed bittersweet today...

"Bitter" cos it was so difficult to get out of bed this morning. Woke up at 8am and I had to get to Eastin Hotel by 9am for training! Was late yesterday since I overslept and only got up at almost 8.30am... =S

"Sweet" cos I actually breezed past some traffic lights as they either turned green when I reached the light, or it had just turned green as I approached - yay!

"Bitter" cos I am probably gonna have 3 days of backlog to clear when I get into office tomorrow. Plus gotta be secretary for a meeting first thing in the morning - and I haven't even printed the finalized minutes of the previous meeting yet!

"Sweet" cos...

There was a Levi's retailer's meeting in the ballroom, which also included a runway show (probably for the fall/winter collection), which also means eye-candy to look at during lunch today, hehe!

I casually took a walk into the ballroom where they had the event as well, hehe... There were clothes and bags and caps and belts and wallets on display at the back of the hall - Fall/Winter collection, perhaps? Nothing particularly striking to me, though. Oh well, at least there was a "scenic" lunch, hehe! Oh wait, we ended our session before 4pm today as well - sweet!! =)

Elmer Fudd vs. Sherlock Holmes

Familiar names?? If not, here's a little reminder:

 

<= Elmer Fudd; HUNTER; last seen in Warner Bros cartoons; commonly spotted hunting down the likes of Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck

 

 

 

<= Sherlock Holmes; INVESTIGATOR; last seen in Sherlock Holmes mysteries; commonly spotted solving crimes and branding the phrase, "Elementary, my dear Watson"

 

 

 

Two very familiar names growing up... I got a chance to be both HUNTER and INVESTIGATOR lately.

 

The Hunter Chronicles

Case File : SNAILS

There is an aquarium outside the house where Mom keeps some plants and fish. The fishes continue to breed and the plants continue to propagate into a jungle inside the tank. Recently, Mom added some plants that she sourced from a public pond. Little did she know that there were snails among the plants she added to the tank. Annoyingly, the little critters started to breed faster than bunnies, even faster than the platties (the breed of fish in the aquarium)! So, we got ourselves a snail problem. As a result, every now and then, we (ahem... or is it just me?) pick them out of the tank - those that we can spot in the dense "jungle" of plants anyway. I could almost hear Elmer Fudd, "Shhh... I'm hunting snail..."

 

Then one day, I discovered this:

** Eeeewwww.... **

 

I suppose this was the result of the above (It was stuck to the wall of the tank. Only remembered to take a photo after I fished it out):

** Multiple eeeewwwws... ** No wonder they seem to congest the tank faster than the fishes... Plus, their stealth-iness among the jungle of plants is annoyingly amazing.

 

Anyway, I thought I'd put an end to the "show" by fishing them out of the tank. Little did I know, the show wasn't quite over - even out of water, they chased each other... (Proof?? See the water path marked out in red)

Added more of their friends. This did not deter them still. This is getting too disgusting. Gotta put an end to this!!! So, remembering how we used to salt garden snails back in kindergarten, thought I'd experiment to see if they worked on these type of snails...

Experiment: Salted Escargot

Hypotheses:

Ho : Salted escargot equals end of show.

Hi : Salted escargot does not equal end of show.

(Erm... salted escargot anyone??)

Discussion:

The addition of salt seems to have stopped all movement in all snails, including the "fresh" couple.

Conclusion:

Ho is proven true. Therefore, salted escargot equals end of show.

Further Discussion:

Although it works, a red discolouration was found in the salt later on. Dis-gus-ting! Which begs the question, do snails bleed?? Perhaps an experiment for a later time? Anyone who wants to share their finding from their experiment is most welcomed.

 

The Holmes Wannabe

Case File : ORENG

I stumbled across this sign on a visit to one of our local hypermarkets recently.

 

1. What is "STING"?

2. What is "ORENG"?

 

 

 

The answer to question 1 wasn't too difficult as after a little bit of searching, I found some "Sting" -

  

 

However, the "hunt" for the illusive "oreng" seemed futile. Look up, look down, look right, look left. Not a hint of "oreng". Plenty strawberry, no "oreng". Ugghh... perhaps it doesn't exist? =P

 

Anyway, it's quite disappointing that a major hypermarket would allow such signage to be displayed without checking first. Hey, there's spell checker lar... And, we're not taking a spelling quiz on "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?"

 

Other observations made at a local hypermarket:

=.="

Sighz... "Quality control, my dear Watson..."

Observations...

It's been quite a hiatus from blogging, with all the CNY hols and all... Have some stuff to blog about CNY but the pictures aren't ready for posting yet... Hence, been hoping to do the CNY blog first, which added to the procrastination of posting a new post. Finally decided to just continue blogging and posting the CNY one(s) as and when I get to it, hehe...

Anyhoo, back to the topic...

While dining out today, my attention was drawn to a little girl at a neighbouring table who was wincing as she beared the pain of a needle prick - I soon found out that the mother was doing a finger prick test on the girl who seemed about 4-5 years old. I suspected that the girl had diabetes as she later was given an insulin shot via a pen injector... My whole body cringed as I watched her get pricked by the lancet for the finger prick test and then my whole body froze as she calmly braved the insulin shot... Even recollecting it now is sending shivers up my spine!! Okay, so I'm a wimp when it comes to needles... Me no like-ee needles!!

On a different note, an update on the office MSN connection - there is now NONE!! Sigh... No more Live Messenger... (I still can sign in but cannot send/receive messages, except an offline message I received, which I'm not even sure if it got through due to a glitch - so no point there, right? As good as none... =P) Even Meebo or WebMessenger or e-buddy websites are firewalled... The firewall is so annoying that even Friendster and Facebook have been blocked! Gmail Chat... no more... Even the chatbox on this blog now will say "Access denied" or something to that effect... >.<" However, I guess I have to be thankful that Gmail is still okay, as well as Blogger... (so far... *fingers crossed*) So I suppose the only way to "chat" to relieve stress is to email people or post on the blog, lolz! Perhaps you'll be seeing more of me on the blog, eh? But blogging takes a bit more time and effort as compared to MSN-ing, haihz... So my two-minute break may take 20 minutes instead... Oh well... take what you have, right? *winks*

Reading issues...

Recently I've noticed that people either read too fast (and assume things along the way?) or don't know how to read?

Two incidences - both within a couple of days...

First incident - I received a call regarding registration for a seminar my department will be conducting. First, the caller complained that it was difficult to connect to someone in the department for whatever queries he had - he couldn't leave a message with the operator either (erm... duh...). Then, he complained that our registration form is "not accurate" - just because he got confused that the two contact persons listed there were both secretariate contacts and neither one was the hotel contact. =.=" (Open eyes and see carefully lah...)

The second incident happened at a restaurant, where they had set lunch offers - one offer per day, each day had a different set. So this guy at the next table asks for one of the sets and the waitress politely informs him that the set wasn't available as it was Friday (the set he wanted was for another day). Again, he asks for yet another set (again, not Friday's featured set) - I have to commend the waitress for keeping her cool as she said, "Today is Friday, sir". =.=" (Dunno what he was thinking ler...)

Wave Vs. Touch

I'm sure most of you modern-age people are familiar with the terms "Visa Wave" and "Touch and Go", as well as how they work, right? Imagine this...

At the toll booth... Driver of the car in front of you stops at the "Touch and Go" panel on the "Touch and Go" lane... Whips out the "Touch and Go" card... WAVES it in front of the sensor panel... Wave, wave, wave... Drop! (The card falls out of the driver's hand - probably from the frantic waving) Driver opens door, picks up the fallen card and... (you'd think they'd figure it out by now... but...) WAVE! Wave, wave, wave... (you guessed it!) Drop!! Open door. Pick up. Frantic waving continues... *sweat* Finally, after more desperate and frantic waving... the sensor somehow managed to sense the card! (Thank GOD!!)

Okay, stop imagining... it actually HAPPENED!!! Sighz... At the time, I didn't know whether to laugh, cry or yell at the woman. Have we become so high-tech that we start to fuse all the technology and get confused between them? *winks*

Greater than...?

Yesterday, while chatting with a friend, who’s an engineer, I recalled the conversation I had with my dad and my uncle who were both electronic engineers. From their description of what their work encompasses, it sounded as though they were just highly paid mechanics / technicians… Look at it this way – they go and fix machines and maintain machinery… Sounds like a mechanic / technician’s job description, doesn’t it? *winks* But I believe their pay is more than your average mechanic / technician, haha! The wonders of having a degree, eh? =P *winks*

I mentioned to my friend that conclusion regarding an engineer’s work and the thought of my own sister doing the same thing soon (She’s about to graduate in electronic engineering… finally! Seems like so long liddat, hehe!). Eventually, after considering the actual job scope, we concluded that the work of an engineer is similar to that of a mechanic / technician, but they are supposed to know more than the mechanic / technician – for example, the design of the machine and how it works. But, given sufficient training and experience, a mechanic / technician will be able to know the piece of machinery like the back of his hand, is it? (And hey, at worse case, there’s always the manual!) On top of that, a fresh graduate will still need to depend on the experienced technician in order to learn the ropes and to adjust to his responsibilities…

As a result, we concluded that we need each other – whether we are higher or lower in the food chain organizational hierarchy – and can learn valuable lessons from one another. Comparing relatively to my job as a pharmacist, I can see that we do depend on the grace of the pharmacy assistants to help us through, to show us how things are done and where things are kept, etc. We depend on the administrative staff to help us figure out how to “survive” various documentation requirements and procedures.

In a nutshell, lessons learnt:

• no one job or title is greater than the other
• we need to depend on each other and work as a team to get things done efficiently
• we should not show off or discriminate people based on their status
• we should appreciate each other’s unique giftings and try to compliment each other’s strengths towards greater achievement(s)

Motorcyclists - #1 Road Hazards??

My opinion... absolutely!! (To be fair, most of 'em lah... maybe a few rare ones who are not too bad)

- They weave in and out of traffic like nobody's business.
- They ride against traffic.
- They think they're so all that. As if lah they are so big liddat. Ish!
- They may be the cause of an accident but are labelled "innocent until proven guilty".
- They ride in the middle of mainstream traffic although taxpayers' money have gone into constructing motorcycle lanes.
- (Many many more reasons, I'm sure, but if I keep going on, this post will be pages and pages long!)

You must be wondering what's up with all this ranting. Well, first, a ding dong of a motorcyclist (have probational license only) fell down and skidded into the back of my car, as I was entering a slip road, last month. So far, I've paid for my own damages and not claimed a single sen from him (or his insurance). To top it off, that day, I even took the trouble to send him to the clinic and then my dad helped to send him to the hospital for x-ray. Missed attending my friend's wedding because of this whole fiasco. Two weeks later, he's calling me to ask me to pay for his medical bill (which, my insurance company advised against since I'm innocent and being kindhearted to help him out will only cause me to be assumed as the guilty party) or else he'll see me in court. The cheek of him!! Grrr!! Any one has any idea how to countersue (if he attempts to bring up a case) or sue this guy for my damages as well as mental stress? Please let me know.

Today, on the way to work, a reckless motorcyclist almost caused an accident!! Traffic in the morning, as usual, is pretty heavy. A motorcyclist was riding in the middle of traffic, between my car (right lane) and another car (left lane). Not only that, he was hogging the 'path' so other motorcycles couldn't overtake him unless they manouvered into either lane, which a few did... into my side of the road!! So, I was subjected to be an unwilling participant in a "game" of dodge with those crazy people. Later, I got a chance to overtake this silly motorcyclist and noticed that his helmet was on rather loosely although it seemed buckled, but traffic slowed a bit further on, so he caught up. Overtook me. Then, the most unbelievable thing happened right in front of my eyes: The motorcyclist raised his hand, stroked his helmet (like you stroke you hair... perhaps he forgot he had a helmet on??) and his helmet just FELL OFF!!! Right into the middle of my lane. Thank God I managed to slow down so that I don't crash into the helmet. The helmet bounced past the front of my car to the side of the road (right lane) and I drove past it. Not sure if the car behind me saw the bouncing helmet, but really thank God the car was not that close behind me and didn't crash into me when I slowed down to avoid the helmet. The motorcyclist (I dunno if he was sleep-riding the whole time cos he looked really blur) still looked as blur as ever and finally pulled over to the left side of the road, with a looked that could be 'captionized' as "wha...??? hmm... where'd my helmet go?". Siao-ness!!

So now I ask you - what do you think? Motorcyclists - #1 Road Hazards???

Observations put to words...

1. Isn't it ironic, how it seems that the people you care about the most, appreciates you least?
2. It is often the case that if you can do it once, you can (and most likely will) do it again.
3. Funny how it seems that expectations tend to leave you feeling worse.
4. If you see the brighter side, there's a chance that you're in the dark.
5. [Saw this somewhere] : The worst way to miss someone is to be sitting right beside them knowing you can't have them.
6. One of the most cruel things you can do to someone is to be absent, despite being present.
7. Lies : the selective withholding of truth; the manipulation of truth.
8. Isn't it sad that no one knows how to take responsibility anymore? Most people these days just find a reason then bail out.
9. Is it worth hardening your heart so the pain will cease?