mini me! (not quite)

on friday 22^nd. july, i brought alyssa to the hospital mata to see an ophthalmologist. i have always suspected alyssa of not being able to see clearly because she would never last more than 10 minutes when i asked her to read anything before she gets teary-eyed and scratches her eyes.



after waiting for half a day at the hospital, we came back with a prescription of glasses. my suspicion were confirmed because alyssa has astigmatism of 2.25/1.50 on her left/right eyes. blame it on my gene? :rolleyes: maybe :D



anyway, we went to get her the glasses during that weekend and this is the result.









and here is a photo of my daughter and my "son" :D

size definitely matters

i am not sure whether more males or females would be interested in this news. but like it said in the news article, about 70% of women in the uk are wearing a wrong size. now instead of having to comprehend inches and alphabets, females have to contend with even more permutations? won't that lead to more mistakes in choosing size since, correct me if i were wrong, they can't exactly try it on when buying due to hygiene purposes.

but, as an "interested party", i guess now it is more difficult to impress women with the skills of guessing the right sizes because now we also have to contend with more variations, hence more likely to get it wrong.

i wonder why a developing nation, while a huge one at it too, to come up with the new standards. could be because of this, in keeping up with "burgeoning" demands?

i am also wondering if it is possible to submit a proposal to our women minister or standards departments to set up a similar research centre over here in the country. that would definitely helps alleviate this problem and will surely generate a lot of interests , one way or another. which brings up the question, what kind of qualifications required to take up such research?

not bald, thinning!

just a photo i nicked off the kompeni's intranet website about the event described by gartblue here. showing off my half-week-old stubbles and thinning hair with amelya looking on curiously. in the background, mr gartblue was busy with gartblue, small enough (lepas ni bole belanja makan) to be hidden behind aliya in the photo.



p/s: btw, the title is quoted from a line by king neptune in the mr sepan movie, hehehe.

where was my weekend

i finally collected the contact lens that i ordered 2 weeks ago in 1kano on friday night. ok, in addition to caving under my vanity demands, i am also getting occasional bouts of headache with the glasses and i suspected it to be attributed to the glasses. and i was correct! the check revealed that my power has been reduced by more than 100 (or 1.00) on both eyes! yippeee! (or am i getting that old? :D)

so now i am google-less people, wuuhuuu! unfortunately, i am not one of those people who would wear contact lenses effortlessly. my eyeballs are not sufficiently lubricated so if you see me blinking at you all the times, it doesn't mean that i am trying to score a point or two but it is merely my puny effort of trying to lubricate my eyes. (gart! can i have more of those eye drops given by your nobita) and i would definitely stick to that 10-hour-maximum regime. which is why i have ordered a new pair of spectacle lenses to replace the totally screwed up lenses on my glasses now.

on saturday, we (as in the whole family) met lots and lots and lots of people, including gartblue in our kompeni's family day. it was hot hot hot! nowadays, the family day has become a biennial event instead of an annual affair, most probably due to cost savings, i guess. we also bumped into alyssa's babysitter whom had loved her so much before the kindergarten was "privatised" and she was transferred to another department and needless to say, she was hugging alyssa left and right.

didn't come back with any other additional prizes apart from the standard bag given to anybody whom registered. didn't join any games, disheartened to see very very long queues everywhere. forced by gartblue to join in the make-up your wife/ girlfriend competition where the guys were given make-up set and 15 minutes to make up their respective partners. but no, both mr gart and myself who were rushing throughout the 15 minutes session with our "canvass" did not even get into the top 5 out of the 15 couples that participated.

we went back totally knackered and severely dehydrated. those free-flowing soft (and free) certainly was not enough to replace the lost liquids under the hot blazing sun. en route home, wifey received a call from the casting agent, asking alyssa to come by to their jalan ampang office for another casting session on the very same day but i just waved it off. we were too tired and dehydrated i just could not bear the thought of driving across kl for another session of casting. moreover, wifey's sister would also be coming over to our place that afternoon, so squeezing in another activity would be tricky.

with more company coming in, those girls did not proper rest except the little catnap that they had on the way home. by the time their cousins went back at 6.30pm, they were too tired and slept readily after the shower throughout maghrib and the night and only woke up morning after.

i woke up early and refreshed on sunday morning. seeing how dirty my car was, i decided to clean the car. but can anybody tell me why does it always has to rain on the same day or the day after i washed my car even when it hasn't rained for one week?

went to another optical shop to order my glasses. somehow, i thought of asking the optometrist to check alyssa's eyes because she could't seem to concentrate much longer that 15 minutes when it comes to reading and we have always blamed it on short attention span before she gets teary-eyed and started rubbing her eyes. surprise surprise! according to the readings, she has astigmatism and surprisingly high at it too at 2.25 for both eyes. oh no! i really hated wearing glasses so i pity that she would have to go through those also, starting from a very tender age as well. so the opto advised us to take her to a ophthalmologist for further checks. will have fit that somewhere into our schedule this week then. hoping for some good news there.

to make a long entry shorter, we were finally back home at around 10:30 last night after spending some time in 1kano/ lengkungan looking for some baju raya and birthday present and went for a birthday party celebration afterwards. really felt like calling of with emergency leave today but somehow managed to peel myself of the bed and headed to work today. last weekend was definitely not my ideal definition of easy-going, lazing, doing-nothing and idyllic weekend that i'd love to do most.

i scored a distinction!

i got this when i was blog-hopping and found it in oldladylincoln's. :D

75%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Mingle² - Online Dating

wedding photos

no, not my wedding photos. this is the wedding that i had to put a lot of commitment too because i seem to find myself being the saksi (witness) for the akad nikah ceremony, the "relative" for the tea ceremony and one of the escorts for the bride's reception. the groom was my former school mate and he was thankful enough that several people had devoted the almost two full saturdays of 30^th. june and 7^th. july for his wedding.



what made this wedding interesting is that my malay friend got married to a chinese lady. so, instead of our usual customary rites of the akad nikah and reception performed on the ladies' side first, the akad was done in the hotel before the guys reception.



here are the photos of the 2 weekends event with some descriptions afterwards (thanks nonah for the f1ickr tool tutorial :D). and couldn't find another photo to make a complete rectangle.



description: left to right

1- bride and groom, NOT!

2- saksi sitting behind pak imam. akad done in hotel, on stools rather sitting on the floor cross-legged

3- the bride

4- batal air sembahyang (nullifying ablution?)

5- groom's reception

6- bride and groom mingling around

7- the koleq boys

8- heading towards bride's house for tea ceremony

9- creating a heart from pomelo skin with no tools but bare hands (and teeth)

10- groom displaying successfully carved hearts

11- no-hands apple-on-a-string

12- lending a helping ear

13- delicacies? nope!

14- show of manliness

15- first bow

16- hello, are you there?

17- serving tea

18- mounted soldier- house deco

19- fully dressed "bodyguard" with wifey



we also got to scream heart out "yaaaammmmm seeennnnggg" with grape juice on the stage. but have no photo of that.



while it was tiring and certainly required a lot of commitment, i enjoyed myself throughout. it was indeed a rare opportunity to be involved in a cross-cultural wedding like this one. especially the tea ceremony part where supposedly the accompanying balachi's are supposedly relatives and not friends.



to my friend zef, we pray that you wedding will have limpahan rahmatullah and may you enjoy your suffering forever and ever (finally!)

blogger meet at midV (post analysis)

this is going to be my first buddy entry ever. so, if you're receiving this alert, you are included into the not-so-exclusive my buddy list.



first of all, let me say this: TRANSFORMERS ROCKS! (must go and get the dvd). we managed to catch the 10:45 shows and as advised by theotheraj, the show definitely ended in slightly less than 2 and a half hours.



apparently, it wasn't in vain that i postponed the lunch event to 1:15. by the time we got there at around 1:20, there were famygirl and boy, zan, mr gart alone (with gartblue), che' chomeyll and mr aie and theotheraj. so, we had to wait for pb, gartblue and and lollies clan. on the table, there laid two boxes of doughnuts, as olab's representative, passed through che' chomeyll when the meet in the morning. the waiters were definitely not amused that we are hogging a large part of their table without ordering anything yet.



when gartblue, pb and lollies finally arrived, we ordered our meals. gartblue made her grand entrance and immediately took a seat at the opposite end of where mr gart was sitting, as if they were in a big fight the night before and never reconciled, hehehe. in fact, i didn't see them talked to each other at all thoroughout the lunch except that little wave and flying kisses when mr gart was leaving. but i've been assured rigorously by gartblue that they were not fighting.



things finally settled down and the seating arrangement were like this one.



we ordered individually. and yes, we ordered three lobaks to be spread around and no complaints about the lobak. it was very nice indeed. sorry rotinotti. i have no photo of the lobak but i impatiently made sure che' chomeyll took the photo of that before allowing myself to some generous helpings :D.



i didn't get to be involved much towards the male end of the conversation, so my overall judgement might be slightly impaired. but on the ladies' side, the award of the chattiest lot is definitely tied between gartblue and che' chomeyll and pb would easily won hands down with the least chatty one. maybe she was too tired with the hard work. moreover, i spotted her leaving comment in my previous post at 3 am the morning before!



these are the real photos of the occasion. hence the need for a buddy post. no dirty secrets or juicy gossips here. just because i'm not sure if people would like to see their faces pasted around because the only people i remember putting their own photo on their own blog among these people were che' chomeyll and pb.













for those who were looking forward for a nice wonderful photos, you have to excuse those inferior ones. those are the best i could do with the inferior equipment while trying not to be left out of the conversation at the same time. you'd have to rely on other people for better quality photos, hehehe.



while i was savouring my chilli-less fried kuey-teow (which was supposed to be shared with alyssa), somehow i remembered that ld was supposed to come with her hubby. sent her a text message with the reply not forthcoming for another 45 minutes. apparently they couldn't resist the temptation of holding hands passionately over the transformers movie and caught the later show. so she replied asking whether people are still around and if it's still possible to join the gathering.



the day before, che' chomeyll sent me a text message asking if it is possible to give a little surprise to mr aie with his birthday being on the 8^th. july. thinking that i'd be too occupied with transformers movie to buy the cake so i had asked lollies to buy the cake. appparently, resipi rahsia in mid valley has moved to a different, unbeknownst to both me and lollies but let's just say, it was a happy ending and lollies managed to find the new resipi rahsia and coming over with a chocolate indulgance cake, not caving in to my continuous plea of a cheesecake. che' chomeyll managed to surprise her lovey dovey with the cake and chalked up a few notches towards the ultimate goal.



so, the demure and selim-melim ld came over beaming with hubby and even when had been factored into the now-well-nourished adults could not finish the cake. so, in the end mr aie had to bring back the unfinished portion home. and the seating arrangement during that time was like this, with theotheraj proudly proclaiming that the conversation on the other end of the table were too matured for a twenties like him among the near forties husbands, totally ignoring the fact that mr aie is much younger than him. and with the absence of the children terrorising the cafe and sliding down the internal stairways.



so, in the end, it was all fine and dandy and the first one to leave was famygirl because she had a meeting at 3:30. gradually people excused themselves and we finally gave up our seats in the restaurant at around 3:30pm. and we gave up the idea of bowling because there was not enough quorum left and it was getting late too late anyway.



so, what do i think about the gathering and the feedback that i've got? so far, i've had nothing but positive feedback even from wifey even though some people thought that she was not in her most friendly mood yesterday speculating that i was getting too comfortable with the others. :-P :P so not very true, i'm telling you.



it was definitely a lively meeting. even mr aie who presumably is in mid-20's looked at ease chatting away with the mid thirties mr gart, mr lollies and famyboy. and the girls (women?), well do i need to say more? i am definitely looking forward to any future gatherings of bloggers, with elisa's one coming up on our merdeka day and will definitely make an effort to be there. and i would like to thank everybody who paid their share and reduced the burden of me swallowing the 300 bill alone (*gulp*).

blogger meet at midV (final update!)

ok peeps. this is going to be the last update for the blogger meet at mid valley 9^th. july monday. just to reconfirm to everybody who'd like attend, it is still on. because i'm the organiser, i've decided to postpone the lunch to 1:15pm so that i would have enough time to catch the 10:45am transformer movie (hehehe!). any complaints? put down your piece of mind in the comment box. venue still the same. i have made reservation for 20 people at little penang cafe, first floor, centre court mid valley under my name. i'm not going to put down my phone number here either. so, you can either get in touch with each other or can pm me if you don't know my real name or would like to have my number. for non-efx2'ers (if any), can send e-mail to me to suhairims [at] gmail [dot] com.



list of people coming:



almost confirmed of coming:



1- lollies (maybe with the whole clan)

2- che' chomeyll (with mr aie but maybe not for bowling)

3- me, gart and theotheraj

4- pb and intysaar

5- zan and famygirl

6- ld (with little bodyguard)

7- dory



eh! looks like the number would be less than 20? hopefully can fill up with the maybe's.



maybe's



1- ondeonde

2- mommyalif aka rad

3- mamarawks

4- amyra



unfortunately, olab and rotinotti won't be joining us.



ok. yebbedee yebbedee yap. that's all folks.

charity is what i

i've been tagged by oo and gartbiru somehow (obviously she hasn't read oo's, hehehe) by this charity thingy. well, since i am very much lacking in this department, here's my piece of mind. see if it's decent enough to be printed by this very honourable idham guy.



---



first copy and paste. here:



If you are tagged, you need to write an entry related to the meme. At the end of your entry you just need to tag as many person as you like. You will then leave a comment in their blog to let them know they have been tagged. And to include this message, "By doing this meme you are contributing rm127 to the Darul Izzah Orphanage".

Then please copy and paste this rule somewhere in your entry.



The meme is about completing at least seventeen out of the following twenty seven sentences.



1. A person is only as good as what he/ she wants to be.

2. Friendship is always used as an excuse for declining a relationship.

3. To love is to be loved back.

4. Money makes me wants to spend and spend and spend.

5. I miss my no-responsibility days.

6. My way of saying I care is by trying to cheer up that person when i am not the target.

7. I try to spread love and happiness by err, physical gestures.

8. Pick the flowers when it would be glad to be picked up.

9. To love someone is to be each other's witness of one's life.

10. Beauty is part of a complete package.

11. When I was thirteen, what I remember the most was getting chicken pox on the first day of being away from home, alone in a hospital compounding the homesickness.

12. When I was twenty one, I remember being head over heels.

13. I am most happy when i am loved.

14. Nothing makes me happier than a full stomach.

15. If I can change one thing, I will change my height (among others).

16. If smiles were cheap then I am a cheapskate.

17. Wouldn't it be nice if we could rule the world.

18. If you want to qada' hajat then you have to go to the toilet.

19. Money is not everything but a lot of things.

20. The most touching moments I have experienced is seeing wifey impressed with what i did.

21. I smile when i have things to smile about.

22. When I am happy, I talk a lot.

23. If only I don't have to wear glasses, then i would think of dozing off with the tv on or running in the rain with no qualms.

24. The best thing I did yesterday was being irritatingly funny to wifey.

25. If I ever write a book, I will give it this title,"this is a man's land"

26. One thing I must do before I die is live and prepare to die (eh! those are two, but ok lah).

27. Doing this meme, I feel like i can't exactly reveal everything. it wouldn't be pretty to say the least.



there you go. who to tag? how about our mak buyung yang malas update, zan and famygirl (whom also hasn't updated for quite some time). ok?