Durian from The Other Island

The old folks yesterday brought home some durians from Ubin. No freaking market classification or the styro-cellophane wrapped types you'd see in supermarkets; just simple durians picked from the fruit orchard surrounding my late grandparents' house in Ubin.

It's not a best kept secret anymore that Ubin has a few Malay kampung houses still standing and lovingly maintained, mind you. All you need to do when you get on the island is to rent a mountain bike and cycle along its tarred path and pretty soon you'll come upon the cluster of Malay Kampong houses I'm referring to.

If you're too chicken shit you may want to stop by at the information kiosk to get a map. But really, if you cycled on the path it's hard for you to get lost in Ubin. That'd be an insult to the people who had lived there for many years if you did.

I took these using my Atom. Now I'm not sure if that's good considering it's only 2 megapixels. It has also been the main reason why I will never buy a digital camera because my needs like the Ubin durian, are simple and straightforward -- no fuss. No, durians don't have needs but you get my drift, lol! The durian pic was taken after I had upgraded the Atom firmware. For a close-up shot I think the quality is passable.

Persuasion

At her insistence we saw The Lake House tonight. The best moment or scene and the only one I could vividly remember from the movie is how Keanu Reeves ran with a copy of Austen's Persuasion in his hand trying to return it to Sandra Bullock who was already on the train. Fate had it they won't meet eye to eye because they 'exist' two years apart.

How do you hold on to someone you've never met? That seemed to be the movie's central theme, another is that of waiting and lost chance.

It's an utterly sappy, feel-good movie and I forewarned M that I'd fall asleep in the theater. Lol. Thank goodness I didn't as I was trying to recall the novel Persuasion I read donkey years ago. It was one of the many A level literature texts my brain was damaged on and The One I certainly could not relate to. You can say that I could handle Blake, Wordsworth, Johnson, Coleridge, and Shakespeare but never Austen and her female internalisations. How to, right? I was like 17 or 18 and all doofus back then.

I knew the book is essentially a comedy of manners -- a work in which the characters must negotiate a complex code of conduct in the Austen social milieu in order to survive, much less achieve their ends. Austen's narrative sparkles with wit, humour and cutting remarks and astute human observation. But the understanding stopped there and I was only content to scratch the surface.

Anne Elliot, the heroine of Austen's last novel had let the love of her life get away because she was persuaded by a trusted family friend that the man she loved wasn't an adequate match, social stationwise, and that Anne could do better. The novel opens some years after they broke up with Anne assuming a certain bleak, neurotic, august and resigned outlook in life. This is just Austen's charming way of saying Anne hadn't get laid for a very long time.

I think I'll dust off my Austen collection tomorrow. Having read Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, I still think Persuasion kicks ass!

Kalau Dah Jodoh...

Kah kah kah... Siti, oh Siti... dia jugak yang kau pilih eh. Well done! The couple looks good and I just can't help Datuk K's cheshire cat smile in this pic. Priceless!

The Good Dentist

Got home later than usual as I had a dental appointment at Causeway Point. Sheesh! Never had an intense time on the dental chair for a long, long time. This doctor was way too cool and because of that I just had to 'tahan' for her sake so she could do a great job cleaning my teeth. I'd normally signal or give a slight grunt when things get ugly but this time around I behaved rather well.

A Working Sunday

At least today I wasn't as feeling lousy as I would expect to feel on a Monday.

My weekend was void as on Saturday I had to do a bit of prep work for an event taking place the following day, Sunday. Some colleagues approached me to be emcee for their ceremony and I accepted, with much hesitation at first. I had a few times turned down this request but finally took it up.

Well it turned out alright, but you know sometimes I can be hard on myself. If there was any new lesson to be learnt is that I need to make an internal commitment to trust myself more and feel worthy of all that the things that come my way.

Another thing is -- I chose not to attend a friend of M's wedding invite yesterday. And I can't say I was comfortable in not going, nor can I say that I look forward to it. You've come to a point in your life where attending weddings is just that that, attendance. I know this is silly, but that's just it is with me. Therefore I really do appreciate the stuff that people do for each other. People like my M who cares about her friends and maintains good siratulrahim.

It's a complete opposite in my case. I may care about my friends but I don't show or demonstrate it enough.

Singles at the Workplace

I was buying lunch this afternoon and this colleague came up to my side and jokingly commented I need to eat more. I was like "Huh?" The packet rice which I was holding up was already full. And he continued "Mesti isi-isi lebih sikit. Banyak isi yang sedap tu.." as he pointed the sides of my tummy. He was apparently referring to the notion that women like their men's girth chunky and with enough meat or fats to grab upon.

Hahaha... I don't know la...

You see, singles at my workplace tend to get good-natured jibes. One of it naturally not putting on the extra flab despite all the food I take. And so they always tell me, "Ni tak lama ni... slowy but surely... once you settled down and got kids you will be like one of us... waistline go koyak..."

So tonight before going home I got a haircut at the Malay barber near my house. And when I reached home I was not in the mood to shower traces of trimmed hair off my neck but decided to do a few laps at Woodlands swimming pool instead. That did the trick and plus I will never get fat!

Never!

Mad Rush Gossip

It's a mad rush to complete an article assignment, which has way way past its deadline. When you always 'jaga' your time management it's really disconcerting when such lapses occur. They derailed you. And to make it worse the magazine has got a new Editor and I'm not even sure if she's the forgiving type. There's only one way to find out.

There's been a quiet buzz going on in my office as the gossip of a resignation makes it way around. A colleague and I speculated on the reasons but we ended up going nowhere. At certain point we felt the "discussion" wasn't interesting longer. Then much much later in the afternoon came the unofficial email inviting us for the farewell lunch and that settled it. Lol. That reminded my own resignation from the previous job.

Stiff neck*

Penat Semacam!

Tired one kind!

Lol .... if that's how it's translated.

Put on my jogging shoes and ran in the stadium. After 3 and half rounds I quit. I'm not gonna go there.

Something funny happened in the office. A friend MSN me to lend him 30K. I knew he was jesting, so I replied him to do something unmentionable -- that made me blurted out in laughter in-front of my PC.

That wasn't so nice laughing out of a sudden -- for you do not want to attract unnecessary attention in the office.

In the late afternoon a group of us went to the old school where we're supposed to relocate for about 2 years while the new building is under construction. What an old fogey of a building... but damn it... it has character! I look forward for the moving out day!

I'm seeing so much publicity for the upcoming Singapore 2006. Now depending on how you look at it -- it's pretty exciting because I'll be involved in liaison/secretariat/protocol stuff. A group of us from the workplace was selected/volunteered, again, depending on how you look at it, had gone for the training last month and now we're just waiting for our specific assignment.

Come what may -- anything, anything to take me out of the office and meet more people! Have you taken your pic for the 4 million smiles?

Old Balanced

It's touted as the Ultimate X-Terrain Challenge 20 August 2006. Road 6km, sand 1.6km and Trail 2.4km. Title Sponsor and Official Sports Equipment New Balance should have not used this print ad. What were they thinking? This is more like Annihilation Wanton Run 2006. Insects and worms don't stand a chance in the onslaught and man 'die-die' must have his way during his puny run.

I'm a naturalists so I tend to see trampelled worms, dragonflies and butterflies as unnecessary even if they're fakes. And with that tagline -- this ad is crass.

A crushed butterfly sets in motion a chain of events. The New Balance management needs to read Ray Bradbury's A Sound of Thunder. Following that, they ought to quit the ad for it has successfully tied the brand up with that path of destruction perception and being unfriendly to the ecosystem. That's the last thing you want to create -- negative perception of your brand.

Adidas and Nike would never allow such blunder.