Happy Halloween everyone!

Wow, it has been one busy and fun weekend for me. *grin* TJJ had a Halloween party on the 30th night and I'm one of the organizers. We had it at Estella's apartment. The fun part about the whole thing was not the party itself, but doing the decorations. I met Estella and Jayme after work on Friday and we went grocery and materials shopping for the party. After that, Estella and I went back to her place to get the decorations and cleaning done. We did our own decorations - we drew and cut out silhouettes of bats, witches, mummies, cockroaches, ghouls and pumpkins. We even made spiders to hang from the beams, with cotton silk coming out of it's behind. I called them the constipated spiders. Hee hee... we hung the bats from the beams as well, and stuck the witches, mummies and ghouls on the walls. We stuck the pumpkins at the bottom of the walls and the cockroaches at discreet corners. When we switched off the lights and lit the room with tealights, the effects were delightfully ghoulish! I also dressed up the mop with my last year's dragon costume with my butterfly mask - I stuff neswpapers into a sarong and fashioned a body for my dragon lady and propped her close to the entrance to greet the guests. Muahaha... We finally finished the decorations around 5am and we slept for a few hours before Estella sent me back. Later I woke up and went to her place to finish the rest of the stuff. There were just the two of us, and Ming Ming came to help with the fruits and stuff but she had to leave soon to fetch Roy. Estella and I had to rushed through everything before the first guests arrived. There were just so many things to do, so many dishes to prepare. I made my mash potatoes and it tasted good if I must say so myself. *grin* The invitation was for 7pm and people only started arriving close to 8pm. How could I forget - Malayasian time.

The most dissapointing part of the whole thing was that NONE of our guests dressed up for Halloween as asked in the TJJ postings. - sigh - Only Estella, Jayme and I dressed up. Estella was Jane of the Jungle, Jayme was a Killer Doll, and I was a Samurai Warrior.

I made the alcoholic punch, simple but delicious (Ice 7-Up, Zapple and balls of watermelon) and it was goooood. Hee hee... coz the balls of melon was soaked with vodka and one would have to suck the vodka out together with the drink. =P Yummy...

It was a fun night. We ate, drank, talked, laughed and played games. Even though non of them dressed up, Roy came with a huge bag of goodies! It was like a bottomless bag, when he started pulling out an assortment of Halloween masks! And he shared it with everyone. *Awwww.... * After that it was photo op time! It was so funny, especially when Salina put on the Scary Movie mask with skeletal gloves and began posing. The rest of us roared with laughter. We made Jeffrey put on my Dragon costume and he got cought trying to climb the walls. We then put Kit Chong in a sarong with the butterfly mask and put him astride the mop with Roy! The next victim was Wai Kong, whom we forced into my Kimono, sash and all, AND a beaver hat! He looked so ridiculously funny. The last guy victim was Francis, whom we encouraged to wear Estella's Jane of the JUngle outfit! He obliged and Salina hung bananas around his neck and he actually started acting like a monkey! That was hilarious.

Being the hostess is no easy thing. It was most tiring. By the time the party came to a close at 1.30am, both Estella and I were bushed. After that, we cleaned up and it took up a couple of hours to do that. Thank god Jayme stayed back to helped us. I can't imagine what it'd be like just for the two of us.

So to all of you who came(Estella, Jayme, Wai Kong, Ee Ling, Kit Chong, Roy, Jeffrey, Salina, Joanne, Cherae, Nancy, Mavis, Kayin, & Francis, thank you for a fun Halloween night, at the 2004 TJJ Halloween Party! Too bad the rest of TJJians could not make it. Anyhow, Happy Halloween to all!

Bad start to my weekend

An email to a friend about my day...

"It is sooo frustrating. Plus I have a bloody headache now after my meeting. Presented my proposal, they say too small and directionless as the MM time belt doesn't have a brand yet. Is that not a Marketing Plan instead of a PR plan???! What the hell? Is that not their job? I'm just so frustrated right now. Argh! Yesterday I had a minor asthma attack brought on by stress and my contract review. This bloody job is soo frustrating. Today, then my stooopid ear is acting up with tinnitus. It's louder than ever and it's hard to concentrate on what others are saying coz I can't hear them. My life is soo fucked up! Fucking imbeciles! They want me to do things but they do not give me the power to implement it. Instead I have to come up with everything while they get to sit there and decide. I'm just sooo stressed out right now. "

I want to go diving. What do you do when even your body fails you? -sigh-

The Suicide's Argument

Ere the birth of my life, if I wished it or no
No question was asked me--it could not be so !
If the life was the question, a thing sent to try
And to live on be YES; what can NO be ? to die.

NATURE'S ANSWER

Is't returned, as 'twas sent ? Is't no worse for the wear ?
Think first, what you ARE ! Call to mind what you WERE !
I gave you innocence, I gave you hope,
Gave health, and genius, and an ample scope,
Return you me guilt, lethargy, despair ?
Make out the invent'ry ; inspect, compare !
Then die--if die you dare !

~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1811 ~

Back into fluidic space

God, I hurt. My whole back and arms hurt like the dickens. I went swimming yesterday night at Estella's pool and I overdid it. 27+ laps after almost how many donkey years of abstinence(I lost count). The last time I swam seriously was like 7 years ago. Should have known better and taken it easier. But no... sharon had to show off that she could still do it. And look what it got her... *sigh* My back muscled are as tight as a catapult and getting up from a reclining position is positively quivery. Serves me right.

Weird thing was that I was enjoying my swim so much that I didn't feel the strain. I only got out of the pool when it got late and my skin was an prune-like as it could be.

Ow, ow, ow.

Sisters were laughing at me the whole day today. Every time I winced, they snicker. Geeze... -sigh- Whatmore, they reminded me that I didn't warm up, that I went straight into freestyle instead of the breaststroke first.

Oh well, I hope the tightness will ease soon. I should start swimming properly again. Estella has so generously offered me an open invitation to her condo's pool. But nah, I'll wait till she's in to go. Feels kinda wrong to just get into the pool when she's not around. As I should.

Triggered

God, what a start to my day. Here I am trying to type whilst my frame is still slightly shaky from the incident/accident. I came in later than usual today coz I just couldn't wake up (I was dreaming but I don't remember the dream now) so I was late today. Fine. Then, I came in to work, dumped my stuff on the table, switched on my computer and then realised that no one had bothered to switched on the aircon in the room, as usual. I knew that the remote control that is supposed to be on my desk was locked in somebody's office, so I had to switched it on manually - need long small tip to push the on/off switch under the cover. I learned this manual switching on thing from Leonard, who has been doing it the past one week already. Lord, the moment I stepped put down the cover, the wires connecting to the aircon fizzled with a lot of loud sparks and bursted into flames! Phoomph! Just like that! I think screamed but I don't remember doing so, and I know I said "SHIT" very loudly when I saw the flames. I remember ducking down when I saw the sparks coming at me and quickly scrambled down from the chair. Straightaway the electricity tripped and we were engulfed in darkness with the wires still flaming but it fizzled out after 5 seconds. There were some acrid smelling smoke and I started shivering when what happened sunk in. Bloody freakin' hell. Of course everybody came to see what happened and I had to explain what happened. God, I feel so embarassed. I triggered the darn accident. They asked me if I had used the remote control or switched it on manually and they actually made an issue out of it! As if it would be any different! The wires bursted into flames, not the air-conditoner! Lord, when I think about how close my head was to the flame, I shudder. If that burst of flame was any bigger, I would have been burned, singed the least. Shit. That was close.

The fire bell didn't even ring. The trigger was only two feet away, and the bell was next to the aircon's flaming wire.

The fire bell didn't ring.

All that makes NZ amazing and gorgeous *wink*

Hunky Maori men at fake work... *grin* But they are still gorgeous.

This tree is at least 6 stories high. Just love the whole picture composition.

This is where they keep their food. It is painted bright red so that they can advertise that they are a strong tribe with a lot of food - a way to mock and warn their enemies.

Below are my New Zealand holiday pictures

Sisters under a huge tree at the Auckland Museum.

The bridge is smoking hot!

This is what the Maori people used to live in. There's actually some space to stand up in there.

Me playing giant chess at the Heritage, Auckland.

The Devil's Cauldron. A vent/pit of boilng mud...

That's a geyser behind me, the most active in Rotorua. I forget, what's its name?

Love this litter warning at Hell's Gate: Persons who throw litter or stones into the thermal pools may be asked to retrieve them. *GRIN*

This little scenic stop on the way to Hamilton is simply gorgeous. Wish I had a panoramic camera then.

Testing out Hello so that I can post pictures on my blog

That's just me in Perth, 2001.

Foofaraw

I wonder why I blog about the events in my life... Why make a big fuss over something insignificant. It's not like my weekend was a milestone or something. So I went our with Estella and Jaymee and we painted the clubbing scene even redder. (Lydia was supposed to join us but she couldn't make it the last minute.) We drank and danced with strangers and we went home, still sober. As we were walking to the car passed The Beach Club, I was approached by a aged gwailo with an obscene proposition. I told him to "drop dead" and went on my sober way. I was not even affected by it.

Then on saturday night, I got roped in to join my sister and her friend at the new salsa bar in Federal Hotel. It was kinda cool watching all those good dancers doing latin dances as though they were born Cuban. Apparently it is not cheap to take latin dance lessons, but those people could obviously afford it, with their table right up front, littered with glasses, tumblers and wine glasses and equally with extremely expensive bottles of alcohol. They are regular salsa patrons. So were my sister's friend. He may be big but he was sure light on his feet. He was in great demand too - the moment he walked in, there were hellos from all directions. He tried to teach me to salsa but I was bobbing too much - I'm supposed to move my feet and body without moving my head - it was hard but I improved a little as the night moved on. Later, we went to QBar for another round of dancing and drinks. We were already quite woozy by then, had three bottles of red at the previous place between he four of us, but we still went. There we got drunker. Sis bought a bottle of Wild Turkey - 8 years and we finished it. By the time we left, we couldn't walk straight. I was so drunk that I puked out of the window of the car. Her friend was so drunk that he was a dead weight. She was so drunk that she slept on the kitchen floor for a few hours. I was not even concerned that I was that drunk. I've not been so drunk in years, not since Perth Anzac Day 2001 with Estella. I even gave my number to a perfect stranger and he called the next day. I looked at the number and switched my phone off. So regardless to say that weekend was another bout of drinking debauchery. So that's my life the past few weeks - one debauchery after another.

So why is my life so boring? Why do I suddenly feel anesthetised to the world? I don't seem to care much about anything these days. I see devastation on TV and my mind is blank, I don't even bother thinking about it. I even welcomed the feeling of my sister digging her nails into my flesh, it made me feel pain.

Where am I? What am I becoming? Maybe I should change jobs and surround myself with new people. Better people.

*mirthless laugh*

I don't really care.

Life

What is our life? A play of passion,
Our mirth the music of division,
Our mother's wombs the tiring-houses be,
Where we are dressed for this short comedy.
Heaven the judicious sharp spectator is,
That sits and marks still who doth act amiss.
Our graves that hide us from the setting sun
Are like drawn curtains when the play is done.
Thus march we, playing, to our latest rest,
Only we die in earnest, that's no jest.

~ Sir Walter Raleigh ~