Sodom

Sodomy charges again! If it's a conspiracy then it's a real stupid conspiracy planned by idiots

THE TERMITES AND THE CIVET CATS ARE BACK

The damn termites are back and are attacking my door frames and parquet floor. About 9 years ago they attacked my kitchen. I had them treated via the drilling process. It was messy and the guarantee was only for 3 years. Yesterday I had it treated using the Sentricon thing.

A few things I learn about termites and how they are killed:

• Never ever spray the termites with common pesticides like Morten, Bygone and such. Spraying will only anger them and they retaliate by going to other spots and eat your wood even more.
  
• 70% of the chemical used in the drilling technique will kill the termites and the other 30%will form lile a layer to prevent them from entering your house via electrical wiring passage and holes in your wall.


• By using the sentricon system the termites will eat the thing in the box , bring it back to the colony and every termites there will die, even the queen. How? I'm not sure. Perhaps the termites will eat the infected termites. However, it'll takes longer to treat them this way than by drilling.


• If you see trails of soils or dirt on your walls or near your built-in cabinets it means that termites are there. Don't try to clean them or chase the termites away. You need the termites to be visible so that treatment can be administered easily



• You can actually hear the termites eating up your woods when you place your ears close

  

I think Najib should use the sentricon system to get rid of the illegal immigrants in Sabah. My first trip to Sabah was years ago. When I was walking around the stores in KK I did see a lot of people loafing around during the day and doing nothing. So I asked one of the taxi drivers who are these people and why are they hanging around and doing nothing. The driver told me that they were illegal immigrants mostly Filipinos. I laud the government's effort their effort to get rid of them and I was certain some NGOs will make some noise regarding this. One sure did. I wish they would just shut up and let the government

The civet cats are back too and pooping on my new skylite roof. Damn.

Sad News

On the 3rd day of the 2 1/2 - day course my boss announced that a colleague of ours has been confirmed by the doctors to be suffering from stage 4 lymphoma. Now he needs to go for several sessions of chemotherapy. However, the government hospital did not accept his guarantee letter which is from another government agency and I'm not sure why. He needs to fork out RM5k either for 10 therapies or RM5k for each session. I pressumed the therapy is just too expensive and that since he is at stage 4 the hospital is probably trying to say something. It's just a wild baseless guess.

On another note, I haven't gotten into the working mode yet. Liat betul aku ni. Probably I'm worried about my Perodua Viva Las Vegas Voce. Lately I've been wishing that I was the US, UK, France or Australia. I would love to be able to stay at one of those countries for at least a year. Maybe I will start looking for opportunities to be seconded to one of those countries. The desire gets stronger everytime I see pictures of Paris.

On another note also, I hate using Microsoft Vista. I thought it's supposed to be better than XP but it is not. Banyak menyusahkan aje.

Perasaan Hasad Dengki

My permanent head (and hair, yup I have more grey hair now) damage journey is coming to an end. Monday 30th of June, between 9.30 am and God knows what time, will be the deciding period whether my permanent head damage journey will end up with a title being awarded to me (though I cannot take the title with me to my grave). That's is the time when I will be undergoing my Perodua Viva Las Vegas Voce. I pray to Allah that it will be smooth sailing session for me. Amin

Grooming Course

Today I attended a grooming course organized by my work place. It's one of the topics included for this 3 1/2 - day course. The speaker was from Kit Casa. She's the owner. Let me jot down the things that I learned today. If I don't do this I would never remember anything tommorrow.

Man's work attire

• The belt and the shoes much match. Black belt goes with black shoes
• Your tie must not go beyond the buckle of your belt
• The more holes for the shoelace means the more you're concerned about how you look
• Your tie must not macth you shirt. At best the two should contrast each other
• The best is to buy silk ties
• You must not fold the sleeves if you're wearing long sleeves
• Do not put anything in your shirt's pocket, it's not meant to be a usable pocket
• Do not put everything in your pants pockets until huge bulges appear
• The end of your pants should only have one fold. Meaning it must not be too long that you can see severals folds
• Never wear a tie pin

Woman's work attire:

• Limit yourself to only five accessories : ring, necklace, earrings, bangles and watch.
• Your whole attire must not have too many colours, 4 should be the max
• Handbag for work should be those which are structured, those than can stand on its own. Not those that flops down when you put them on the table
• The best is to wear leather shoes, not to high 1.5 - 2.

Your posture must be straight. There should be a straight line running from your ear, through your BCG scar and down .

That's all I could remember.

However, I was not impressed with how the speaker was dressed. She wore a suit which looked like it was made from a cheap, flimsy, nylon material. It doesn't look tailored made because it didn't fit her well, instead it look like something you buy from Mydin. Her hair looked like she was about to do housework.

Pinjam

Within the past two weeks I think about three people have asked me if they could borrow my SLK (small little kancil). Two of them wanted to rent it for about 5 months and one till the end of the month. Though I have 4 vehicles I had to say no to them. I don't mind letting people use it for 3-4 days (max) but 5 months!!!.....hmmm.

I love my Kancil very much. I use it for quick visits to the shops, buy groceries, pay bills, to go the mosque for Friday prayer and to places where I know parking would be a problem. It is a good car with no complicated frills. I bought it in 2002 and currently the mileage is about 45000 km. To date it has not given me a single problem. BB does not like to be in the Kancil because it's too small (too small for BB's wide bottom) so I bought another car for BB to use. Some of my friends don't understand why I can't loan my car to them and why I need two cars. I just plain need them. They each serve different purposes. I would get really restless when someone borrows my Kancil because I want my cars to be with me all the time. Hey, I'm an Aries. They say people associated with the sign want everything in 2s.

This is not my scooter

My other vehicle is a Suzuki V125 scooter. I haven't used it for about a year. No one wants to borrow that one.

Father's Day

Father's Day was a few days ago. I did not wish my father 'happy father's day' as he is no longer alive. He went to meet his creator almost three years ago.

I was not closed to my father. To describe how not closed I was to my father let me compare my reception when my father came back from work when I was a kid to that of my old neighbour's children. When my neighbour came home on his 'kapcai', his small children (he had about 10 children) would run to him screaming "Ayah balik, ayah balik' when he was about 70 meters away from his house. He would slow down his bike and stop to pick up the smallest child onto his bike and continued riding. His other children would hold on to the bike running slowly until it reached the house. My neighbour would have a huge, contented, and a happy smile on his face. This happened everyday. For me I did not want my father to come back.

My father never laid his hands on me (except maybe once), never not fed us, but he was a fierce man.

Fathers out there, don't let your kids hate you.

ALLAh is Great

Yesterday I had a near disaster at my house. My 2nd room on the top floor nearly was flooded because it rained really heavily yesterday for about 30 minutes. The water came in from my balcony as the drain hole was covered by leaves, so it slowed the flow of the water into the hole. Luckily there is an attached toilet and all I had to do was 'wipe' the water using that rubber 'wiping' thingy into the bathroom.

What I consider to be even more lucky was that I happened to go home to get my clothes of the drying rack when this happened. I originally wanted to go home earlier before it began to rain. Instead I stayed in my office after Friday prayer to do some work and then it started to rain there. I immediately jump into my car thinking that it had not rained yet at my place. But actually it had started to rain there earlier (the time to get to my house from my office is just 10 minutes). On the way I thought maybe I should turn back to the office as I thought my clothes were already wet so why bother. However, I just drove on to my house.

Despite me being a 'not so good Muslim' aka a 'sinner' Allah made me continue driving on to my house. If I had turned back the water would have definitely gone into the other rooms and eventually down the stairs and into the living room. The aftermath would be worse and the cleaning up would just be tremendous. All I could do was just laugh after the incident.

4th Day of Work

I am gradually spending more time at my office. Work will be piling up soon. Received a phone today call telling me that my Perodua viva Las Vegas voce will be soon....takut

1st Day at Work

Today is my first day at work after a 4-year leave. The 4-year leave was a work related leave, meaning I was doing something which was still work. However, I'm now at home blogging, muahahaha...hampeh

American Chopper

Two Installments

The government announced recently that civil servants' salary will be paid in two installments, the 1st in the middle of the month and the other at the end of the month. This has been the practice in the US for I don't know how long, and perhaps in other countries too. When I was working there part-time my salary was paid that way. So when I heard Pak Lah made the announcement I was quite happy. It gives me some sense of security knowing that money will be coming into my account every two weeks. Then I won't have to worry about how I will survive financially in the next 3 weeks after 2/3 of the salary is gone within the first week of the month.

Nevertheless, I think it will create problems too. One of it is that if you have a lot of payments to make such as loans and other bills probably the first half of the salary will not be sufficient to pay all of them. Thus, you have to divide your bills into two groups, meaning also that you need to make a trip to the bank or other bill paying places twice. This could also mean for some people that you may be charged interest or have a bad credit history if you're late in your payments, especially if the due dates are at the same time. Perhaps the utilitiy companies and banks need to reconsider the due dates they set.

Another problem I see has to do with self-discipline, rational and pratical thinking. Some people might spend the entire first half of the money at once or on unnecessary things with the excuse, "Alah, takpe, 2 minggu lagi duit masuk. Duit tu kita guna bayar bill."

Of course they are other problems too, notwithstanding there are also other advantages.

Whatever it is, we need to have a planned budget every month (which sometimes could be very hard to adhere to)

Mengidam

Currently I'm craving for three things. No, I'm not pregnant eventhough my man breasts look like they are ready for a baby to suckle. The first thing I miss most is churros. The last time I ate churros was in Disneyland, Los Angeles, about 20-21 years ago. I remember buying one at all the churros stands there. It was only USD 1 that time. Don't know how much it costs now.

The other thing that I miss is nachos with jalapeno and melted cheese, yummmy. Yes, I can get it here in Malaysia but it is not the same as the one sold at Great America amusement park in the Bay Area.

Another snack that I miss also is the sourdough bread sold at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. I would make a point to take ride on the San Francisco Cable Car to go to Fisherman's Wharf to hang around almost every weekend when I was staying there. I remember on one trip I was almost squeezed to the side when a fat woman sat beside me. Yup, a majority of Americans are FAT. But before taking the cable car I would stop at the pizza place which sold pizza by the slices at USD 1 a slice, yum, yum. Sigh, I miss those times

Mati

Satu hari seorang Mamak telah berkata kepada anaknya.

Mamak : Rahman, kalu Bapak mati nanti, jangan kapan Bapak dengan kain putih.

Rahman : Habis kapan dengan warna apa Pak?

Mamak : Kapan dengan kain kuning2 sikit.

Rahman: Uiks...apasal Pak?

Mamak : Nanti dalam kubur bila malaikat sebut "Marobbuka", Bapak jawab, "Oi, dah tanya dah, tengok kain pun dah kuning, dah lama mati".

Cerai

Satu pasangan Indonesia berada di makamah syariah kerana si isteri menuntut cerai dari si suami.

Hakim : Kenapa mahu mohon cerai dari suami kamu?

Isteri : Kurang cocok.

Oil Price Increase

It is inevitable that the price of petrol will increase. Nevertheless, I was hopping that the increase will take place gradually not at a sudden .78 sen. Maybe .30 sen in June and .48 sen in December. I was not one of them who rushed to the petrol stations to fill up the tank even though there are two petrol stations near my house. I simply do not like queuing up for what could be hours and you know how 'good' Malaysians are at doing that. Furthermore, I have three cars to fill up, so no way would I queue up three times.

(pic taken from Yahoo Malaysia)

What I am more concerned now is the increase in the prices of things. Already, the price of 'gula pasir' has gone up. Though I probably buy 'gula pasir' only once a year, it still worries me. Now I think I have to cut back on eating at nice places and opt for more of kedai mamak and gerai tom yam. I really don't mind going to those places at all. I hope BB undertands.

Penyakit

Lately I have received news about my friends suffering from several illnesses. One lady friend who I have known for 20 years, who's now an American citizen, my age but looks young for her age and has 3 grown up children now has a kidney problem. Her kidneys are functioning at only 26%. She does not need to be hooked up to a dialysis machine yet, but is hoping for a donor. It could either be from her children, her siblings or from a stranger. The problem is her children are just too young, her siblings are living in Malaysia and I believe the waiting list for a kidney is long in America. Any how I hope there's a solution soon.

Another friend, a person who I used to work 'for' and currently working 'with', who's only 30 years old has lymphoma. He's now on a two-year paid leave to cure his cancer. Saw his picture on facebook and he's really skinny. For him it all started with a constant coughing which lasted for months.

When I was in my 30s I used to joke with my same age friends that in a few years all of us will be talking about illnesses that we have and the medicine that we're taking. And further years down the road when all of us would get together I would jokingly say that in the midst of having conversations we'll be falling asleep. Now it seems that the time when we will be comparing illnesses and medicine is going to happen soon. Alhamdulillah, I believe I'm healthy except for the osteoarthritis I'm suffering from on my knees. Luckily, I only need to take medicine when my knees start to hurt.

On a different note, I just discovered a good friend of mine has separated from her husband. Somehow, I saw that coming. Though separation or divorces are not uncommon nowadays what is strange about this friend's situation is that she followed her husband (a Caucasian) who has been posted to a country in Africa. She and the child is living in a different place and the husband and his girlfriend is living in another place. How do you handle that? The thing everyone would say that she should do is to return to Malaysia. The problem is there'll be complication since the child is not at all registered in Malaysia, thus, the child does not and cannot have a Malaysian passport. It is a lesson to learn for any Malaysian woman (or even man) who plans to marry a foreigner and to give birth overseas to register the baby at the Malaysian Consulate when the child is born.

Walimatul Urus

Just got back from a cousin's wedding in Penang. Like his other siblings' weddings, throngs of friends and relatives came. My Uncle and Untie are very very very nice people. Therefore, they are liked by many and have many friends.

Several things I've noticed about weddings nowadays compared to the olden days:

Buffet lunch is the way to do it now. I have not been to a wedding for a very long time where the dishes are laid out for 4 people . Even one wedding I attended deep inside a jungle in Selama, Perak served the meal buffet style. I assume it easier and less costly to do it that way. Definitely less plates to wash and less food wasted. Another thing, 'kuih-muih' are served with teh tarik. Not too long ago orange or pineapple was the only dessert. If I were ever to get married I would like to serve something light and cooling like Ceasar's Salad especially if the reception is held under the tent.

Long time ago a majority of the quests would bring presents for the bride and groom. Now a majority of them would give money instead. I personally prefer giving money since I hate shopping for gifts that people might not like. Giving money is the best solution and it helps the parents, the bride and the groom with the cost of the wedding.

I don't know about other weddings, but several weddings I attended recently give out gifts instead of 'bunga telur'. I'm not sure what's the story behind giving out 'bunga telur' at weddings but now people give out bags with goodies inside like picture frame, pencil, chocolates etc. My uncle and auntie gave out ceramic napkin holder. Very practical. People use to give hardboil eggs in ceramic basket shaped into swans, plastic basket, copper wire shaped into a basket, paper boxes etc. At one wedding I attended the egg was wrapped in a cheap waxy red napkin. If I were ever to get married, (I think not) I would give my male guests a drill set each and the females a hair dryer each. For the kids I'll give them cheap toys.

I found out the story behind 'bunga telur' from wikipedia versi Melayu.