Earth Hour

It is Earth Hour this Saturday 8.30pm.

I am so going to switch off all the lights and light up a candle at home on that day. hehehe... romantic mah.... and I have got the candles ready liao. I really love candles (that has nice smell). Love it.

I have always been cautious about not wasting electricity and energy. And I trained my babe too. Sometimes he went into the kitchen do something, came out, and still leave the kitchen light on. I will scream at him, "Anybody inside the kitchen??? Why lights on?? Who ah? Who??". So nowadays, he is very good at switching lights off already.

Then my office co-worker, the SGL,  loves to turn on every single lights inside his room, and he go for lunch, appointment and only come back several hours later. I see also heartache. Soemtiems, I don't know why, he even called me on the phone, "D, I just left my house and will be in office soon. Do you mind to go to my room to switch on my lights?"... I feel like screaming back to him "I MIND!!! YOU ARE WASTING ENERGY!!!" But of course, I have to put on a mask, say, "sure, no problem".

Why waste the energy and waste the electricity bill for something you do not consume??? I cannot understand. And these people ah, can't they see how sick is our earth already? Still want to blindly waste energy like that.

Hey dude, next time when u not in any room, please, please, switch off all the lights and tv and all that. We really need to be careful of the energy on earth... nothing stays forever, and energy does not come free. It comes at expenses and sacrifices to the nature.  Look at what the nuclear plants have done to Japan? The effect won't just stays in Japan. It is a worldwide effect!

Sunny evening

Listening to Trijntje Oosterhuis album now (bought on itune.. loving it!), under the warm sunny afternoon with my office bathing under the sun shining through the window. Time now is 5.20pm. Boss has gone to Whistler for a week with his family. But he yesterday very guai sue loh, he called around this time 5.20pm to gei gei asked me some question. I ain't stupid lah, he wants to spot check me did I stay til last minute or not er mah. Yiu...

Last time when I was also once a boss, if my staff finished thier work, I let them go home one. Coz sometimes u work overtime company also never pay u extra ge lah... so when u free, can't u go home earlier? This kind of mindset so difficult to sit in most bosses brain ge meh?


I am counting down now.... 5.22pm now... 8 more minutes... Yiu! Wish he skii and sprain ankle. muahahaha.... me very bad. But who is bad-er huh?!!! >_<

cool... cool.... cool..... 5.23pm......

One sunny day

Yesterday, was officially the first day of Spring. Surprisingly enough, it did feel like spring yesterday. The weather was perfect, sunny, no wind, clear blue sky until can see the snow on the mountain's peak. The feeling is just so nice!

We went out to walk walk on Kitsilano area. So nice lah the feeling.... it was still a bit chilly with the occasional wind blowing, but other than that, cannot complaint much. Everything seems so nice. We had a nice thai food on Yew St and 1st W Ave, it was by a hongkie, he chatted with us and asked us when did we come to vancouver. It is nice to be chatty sometimes, and yesterday was one of those days:)

After lunch, we went to walk walk on the street, went into some specialy stores there, very very peaceful feeling lah the whole time.

And today, was raining already. Cloudy, can't see mountain. It was like yesterday was a dream, did not exist at all. haha.

Looking forward to summer. Please come faster!!!! I need you!!!

Strong Arms

Yesterday, dozed off in front of tv and when Jay tried to wake me up but to no avail, he carried me with his 2 strong arms into the bedroom.

Although I was still half asleep that time, I still remember this familiar feeling... the feeling of being carried by strong arms and know that you are safe with it, and the weightless feeling during the journey from sofa to bedroom is very "nice"... if you know waht I mean.

When we (me, my little brother, and my little sister) were small kids, during one period of 'crazy time', we always exhausted all our energy during the day time, and thus sometimes before the bed time, we were all dozed off on the sofa. And, trying to wake up 3 impatient kids who were sleeping is a crazy idea, ask my mom and she will tell you "No No No". So, our dad will carry us one by one upstairs to our bed. Remind you, there are 3 of us.

Dad has to make 3 rounds. He always picked up my sister first. smallest gua... then my brother... then me... 3 of us sleep in 1 bedroom that time.  When we were all being carried upstairs and placed softly on our bed, we will open our eyes and have a small giggle, coz we were awake already actually before dad carries us. But we just like the feeling of being carried so we continue to pretend to be asleep, 3 of us!!! We were very gan.

The feeling of being carried by our dad is very safe, very protected, and very "nice". His arms were strong... and he has no complaint at all, carry all 3 of us making 3 trips up and down the stairs. My bui bui, he will comlpain one, "wah.. since when you so heavy liao!" Slap him.

I miss those days... I miss my dad. Who says time can minimize pain? Sometimes when I was taking the skytrain and have nothing to do, and when my mind wanders off to "dangerous zone" - missing my dad, I still cannot help but cried. I wonder did I have a depression??? I don't know why I can't let go of him, even though I perfectly understand 生老病死 is an unbreakable cycle for all of us. I guess I still could not understand the cause and cannot digest the process. And also absorbing full regretness of not arriving one day earlier to be able to talk to him one last time. And I am also taking full regret on continueing my stupid lousy not-worth job at Shanghai that time, instead of quitting the job and go back to KL to be beside him, I guess I believed totally what the doctor said, that if he is on chemo, his lifespan can last 1 more year. I thought I can decide whether to quit job or not by the time he started his chemo, to see how was his condition. BUT no, he didn't even get to that part. I guess this is what I cannot let go. I thought and I thought and I thought, I was so stupid. I thought I have the whole situation under my control. I am such a stupid girl!

When do people go after they die??? Sometimes I really miss him, I hope I can go to those people and ask him/her to connect us to talk. Do you think those people can do this job??? I really have lots of crazy thoughts...

Then I read the news, a 70-year-old woman was found alive, after 4 days of the earthquake/tsunami. I will think, why some people so difficult to die, and some people so easy to die? Who chooses who to get grabbed by the waves and went missing, and who decides who can stay on the floating roof for 4 days and get rescued?? I am sooo frustrated.

Then I also thought, the beggers I always saw sitting at the same spot, asking money, they have meaningless life. Why they not die??? But my dad, who was still contributing greatly to the society and to the country even at his retirement age, why is he get strucked by this fatal illness?? And the ironic thing is, he was not killed by the fatal illness, he was killed by the pneumonia he developed after the surgery, and then slowly, most of his internal organ went malfunction, liver, stomach, and I don't know what else because he wasn't able to talk because they put tubes through his nose, throat for him to breath. Thanks to the brilliant doctoer we have in Malaysia, they did not tell us after they did this, he won't be concious, he is as good as dead. Brilliant doctor, you guys are so brilliant. Hope you all have a great life in front of you.

Life is so unfair.

In such a moody condition right now, I think I had better stop writing and go out get some fresh air.

Updates

Got back the resized ring, ta-dah~~~ It took them 4 weeks to resize it... sigh.

Wanted to demo on my finger.. but then I don't want to show my fingers... hahaha... so, imagine yourself on your finger le hah, it is a flower shape:) I like it very much. I deh my bui bui to buy for me for this year valentine's gift... but only get to wear it now. Thanks to the super efficient service with the ring store.

Loan is approved too. Very excited... made some deposits already... the final deposit is due in 6 months' time. Hope they have a reminder send to us, if not, what if we forgot to pay?

Has been raining for the past 7 days... umbrella was never dried out completely... I think my umbrella won't last long in such condition (rain, wet, strong wind, snow). Too bad... i really like my umbrella, i bought it from zara in san francisco. Nothing fancy, it is just the right size, right weight, right color, and right price. 4 "right" in a row, I don't think I can find back such umbrella easily. zou ji I buy 4 or 5 same one lah.... now I very fear that if this one worn out, and I can't find another one I like, how leh?

old memories stored in blogs

I was bored last night, so I browsed through some of my old blogs in 2006, that was the first year I been in Shanghai. So many funny incidents were recorded. I couldn't stop laughing reading some of my old entries. Some of my thinking at that time was quite childish. Well, a growing up process for everyone right? hahaha... it brought back lots of fond memories reading the old blogs. I am so glad I didn't give up writing blogs. But I realized each year, the number of entries decreases, I become lazy. Bad!

I hope we all keep up the good habit of recording bits and pieces in our live. It would be a great asset to us when we grow old in the future. Don't you think so?:)

SGL

The SGL in my office is really testing my patience.....

Ming ming he has urgent stuff to do today, but still go "eat snake" for whole morning. Finally when come back to office at 2.30pm, kept pressing me to do stuff for him urgently... "sorry to interrupt, this is urgent, can u please help  me print this document out and re-layout for me (he is really sucks in excel, words...) to make it look nicer"

I want to scream!!!!!!!

Grocery shopping vs. Apartment buying

I am We are so excited!!! We just placed a deposit to purchase an apartment!!

We didn't intend to do so. Yesterday, after lunch, we just planned to go for grocery shopping. But Jay said why not go "apartment looking" again (lately, "apartment looking" has been one of our hobby for the weekend, we will go to open houses to see the old apartment, and also new developers to see the showroom). We didnt' held up high hopes to get anything, but well, it is a hobby, so why not. So far we have seen many apartments, either the location is great, but prices is way beyond our budget. Or within budget, but the apartment is a crappy one. Or within budget, but the developer offers yucky appliances quality. It was very depressing everytime we go "apartment looking", because by then we realized how poor we are. The money we have in KL and Shanghai worth like peanuts over here after the conversion rate. Sigh.

Anyway, so we went to see these apartment, new developing. Phase 3. I like developers that is not building phase 1, because by going through Phase 1, all the possible mistakes you would have made, would be made and you would have learnt from your mistake and do a better job in next phases.

Out of 10 scores, this is how this property scores (in my view lah):
Location: 7.5
Price: 8.5
Appliances quality: 9
Sales person's service and attitude: 9.5
Techi-ness of the house: 9
neighborhood: 8.5
size: 5 (1 bedroom with a den)

So, of course we like it so much! We went back home to grab the cheque to pay as deposit right away.

Then, when we finally made it to buy grocery, we were so excited and  yet tired... Hubby said, "what happened just now? Didn't we just wanted to buy some vege and fruits only?? Look at what we have done!" hahahhaa....

I hope we made a good choice. It is estimated to be completed in Summer 2012. One year to go... The apartment is only 1 bedroom (that's all we can afford now). Baby is not in picture... or like hubby said, "if it comes, it will have to share room with us for first 1-2 years. Don't care liao." hahahaha....

Hope the loan part is no issue lah:) Will update soon. Very excited and nervous.

sei guai loh

My office has a sei guai loh (SGL).

SGL "Hi D, I am going to pick up my dog, and come back within 2 hours."
D is me lah...
D "OK"... (as if I care?? as if I am your boss??? Go tell boss lah!)

SGL "Hi D. It's me. I am now at dentist, I will be back before 3pm"
D "OK"... (@#$%!)

SGL "Hi D. Can you do me a favor? Go over to my place, log in my computer, and look under folder A, get the picture xyz, and send to Mr.J. I am showing my house to a potential buyer, will be back late."
D "sure"...(@#$%!!!!!!! TIU U!!!!!!!!!)

SGL "Hi D, can you help me call up this lady, her number is on an email I just sent u before I go out bring my sons see doctor. Ask her if we pay today, will we get a copy of the award?"
His sons.. both are in high school.. what kind of sickness need the parent to bring BOTH see doctor together?
D "OK"

SGL "Hi D, sorry to bother you. When the cheque is ready, can you help me bring it over to the law firm, which is just 3-4 blocks away?"
D, "I will call courier service"
SGL "No... er... what about Jon, is he in office? Can he walk there for me?"
D "Jon not in office. I am not sure"
SGL ".... ok... I will bring it over tomorrow morning"
D "OK" (of course you bring lah!! takkan I bring for u??? Are you blind? outside so cold and raining and got strong wind warning, and I am not very well. I just changed my contact lense brand today! I feel so uneasy!!! I want to slap u, can ah???? I WON"T DO ANYTHING FOR U!!!!"

This SGL really gets on my nerve. And yet, for goodwill reason, I have to put up a nice smile and face him. So pek chek!!!!

SGL, u so lazy!!!!!!! always use office hour do own stuff!!!!!! I hope our boss finds out soon and fire u! Blardy hell u!

RBC

I complaint about RBC before right? Well, that was branch A.

Near my office, there are two RBC branches, the one nearest is branch A, and it gives me the shits to the very core. I was skeptical to try branch B, which is nearby too. Branch B seems smaller in size, and since I don't have many choices (as if I can choose which bank my boss bank with??), I have decided to take a risk, try banking with branch B. I can take no more from branch A, they gave me chances of heart-attack. And hooooray.... I have discovered that, the way banks shit you, depends on who is serving you, be it with a brainless teller, or a teller with brain and with good manner.

This teller at branch B, he only sees me once before today, and today is the second time I bank with branch B, and coincidently, he is serving me again.

He, "well well well.. is he overpaying it again?"
Me, thinking.. "aiyah, on the statement it says it is $xyz amount already, and the cheque is $xyz, where got overpay wor.. u cannot read ah?"... but of course that was only playing in my mind. I put up a nice smile, reply, "no, he is not this time. He is just paying the exact amount on the statement."
He, "OK."
Me, thinking... "you sure ask me for my ID ge lah... OK, I give you!" So, I took my driving license out and pass to him (over here, driving license is an important ID, is like our IC in Malaysia).
He, "that's ok. I remember you. I don't need your ID."
Me, so flattered!!!!!! I bank with HSBC at least once in a week every week, that idiot also never remember me and always asked me the same question every time "are you the signee of the account?", and this guy only served me twice over the past 4 weeks and he can remember me??? Wah..... I see sunlights in rainy day!!! I see rainbow at night!!! I see bikini in winter!!! (ok... too much liao)

I finally realized, there are "people" in this city, instead of robots behind the counter! Hoooray!!!!

Mr. Branch-B-Teller, you've made my day. Thank you!!

林俊杰《会有那么一天》

Lately have been bong chan itu itune buy some songs. One of the old songs I bought is 林俊杰《会有那么一天》. The lyrics is so beautifully sang... and without fail, everytime I listen to this song, my eyes will wet with tears at the end.

一九四三 世界大战 阿嬷年轻的时候
爷爷爱他那么多 他们感情很深 但是爷爷
身负重任 就在离乡的那夜给了阿嬷一个吻
轻声说到 我要离去 别再哭泣 不要伤心
请你相信我 要等待 我的爱 陪你永不离开
因为会有那么一天 我们牵着手在草原
听鸟儿歌唱的声音 听我说声 我爱你
夕阳西下 鸟儿回家 阿嬷躺 在病床上
呼吸有一点散漫 眼神却很温柔 看着爷爷
湿透的眼 握着他粗糙的手 阿嬷的泪水开始流 轻声说道
我要离去 别再哭泣 不要伤心
请你相信我 要等待 我的爱 陪你永不离开
因为会有那么一天 我们牵着手在草原
听鸟儿歌唱的声音 听我说声 我爱你

I always think, if my dad was come to concious before he passed away 2.5 years ago, he would have said the same thing to my mom. Writing til here, my eyes are filled with tears again...

I wish the lyrics here, that says "I have to go now, don't cry and don't be sad. We will meet one day, and we will hand in hand walk on the grass field listening to birds singing. I love you." won't get sang by one lover to another lover in this world again because it is so sad... and yet the promised future that they will meet again is so soothing and calming.

LOVE

Happy Valentine's Day!

I sent an ecard to Jay this morning. He said he read already feel like crying... aiyoh... i only say, "I love you til the day my eyes are closed for good".

Anyway, for me, everyday is a Valentine's Day if you cherish every moment you spent with your love ones, be it family members, lovers, friends:)

We have no plan to eat out today. Jay said he will make me 水蛋 to eat tonight, my favorite!!!! hehehe...:) We also went out to shop for a ring for my index finger because I suddenly "ada angin" so very wanted a special index ring (eh-hem... not diamond lah... i want something i can wear daily and look special and yet not too fancy and not too dull), but then at the end, found the ring, but need to send it to resize (my fingers very small, sigh) and guai lou as usual, do things so slow, have to take 3 weeks!... sometimes really feel like slapping them. OK, 3 weeks then!

I baked a sponge cake yesterday. 1st time. Too sweet, and I miss the final step, of terbalik the pan after u remove it from oven. I dont know why this step is important, but apparently it has some effect because I don't follow this step, my spongecake at first took out from oven looks very high, after cool down is very short... so... hmmm.... i want to try again! Next time i will add one more egg, and cut the sugar by 1/3. ;)

TGIF

This week, I wasn't very in good mood. I don't know why lah, maybe got one day I didn't bangsai in the morning, or my period is coming but not here yet, and I am addicted to eating M&M at night, which makes me feel very sick in the morning, scolding myself "WTF u doing?? Quit that M&M! It is making you fat!"

Anyway, my main reason I don't feel good in this past week is, I dealt with too many stupid guai lou here. Yes, they are more stupid than any other race on earth.  Last time I always think the local chinese are very 奇怪, they are stubborn, and they do things irrational, well, say that again here. Things that people do here are even more weird, more stubborn, and more backward.

First of all, my company has a $15,000 monthly take home salary guai lou, he always do nothing but goyang kaki at office. He come office late and go home early and always call and report his "fake" whereabout to me which I find it very annoying. You go tell the boss directly la, u tell me for what. Expect me to cover your ass when boss asked about you?

This morning, this si guai lou, I entered office with bag still on hand, jacket still on me, he signalled me to go to his room (and yes, today he was early). Then I thought si mi dai ji, her asked, "I am helping my son to print out his assignment, but it is in apple format. The printer in office says can't recognize the format and won't print, can you fix this?" I was like "..................." Aiyoh, you also know is different format lah, download the converter lah.. And by right you should not always use office printer for your personal stuff. Always print color photos, color documents, and now printing son's assignment? aiyoh!!!!!!! Damn sian. Earn so much, go buy your own personal printer lah so cheap, I earn so little also have a printer at home! Get a life!!!!

Damn gek hei.

Then, yesterday, I went do banking. I asked the teller, what's the procedure if one of our company wants to close the bank account? Does the signee need to come to the branch? Great, the robotic responce immediately got turned on, some more eyes not look at me, "For any business account related question, please direct it to your bank business account manager." It is his attitude and the way he answered so robotically that annoyed me to the max. HSBC, you failed me again! Don't you have a class to train your staff to look at the client's eyes directly when the client asked a questions and expects an answer from a human instead of from a robot? Really kanasai!!!!!!!!!!!!!

HMMMPH!!!!

I am so sick at them!!!!!!! Help me~~~~~~~~~~ I sometimes really have the urge to leave this place. Why on earth I want to come here for:( People here are so not smart, so want to wan bun, and soooo irritating. I rather deal with spitting chinese people and walk on a crowded street in China that it is impossible to not touch anybody or being touched (i hated these 2 things most when i was in china).

H-E-L-P !

sei guai lou!

some guai lou is so fake and insincere and yet they try to sound sincere or act like one. Well, I guess you are a bad actor.

Sei Guai Lou!!!!!!!! Stupid ass!!!

Nothing is impossible

The more I deal with banking in this country, the more I have a funny feeling. The bank here is so "flexible"... Do you know that if someone wrote you a cheque here, say your name is Jessica Liu, and your sister name is Jenny Liu, and your enemy name is Joanne Liu, if the cheque is payable to "J. Liu", all of you can cash the cheque. Soooo freaking flexible!  And even sometimes there's spelling mistake on the payee name, the cheque can still be cleared, without any question.

However, sometimes things are very none sense. They will get freaked out over something that we malaysian or china bank won't even ticked a bit. For instance, if you try to bank in a cheque for another person, say you are Jason, and I Elizebeth try to bank in a cheque for you at your bank. The cheque is your name. The freaking bank will kiah-si and asked you provide your ID for them to key into the system, for security reason. WTF? I cannot understand this. And if you try to bank in a cheque for soemone else using ATM, you think also don't need to think. IT IS NOT DO-ABLE! Period.

And then, sometimes different bank will tell you different rules. Like here, Coast Capital Savings Bank will say, all wiring funds need the actual person to sign on the paper at the branch. While HSBC Bank will just fax over a form, and you can sign it, and email it back. No need to go to branch. Simple. So, different bank, different standard.

One more incident, this Royal Bank of Canada, very sibeh chuen. Got one time, my boss because tam the rebate feature that the credit card has, so, he wanted to make a big donation via his credit card, to earn points mah. The problem is, his card credit limit, let's say is 30,000. However, he has used up 10,000 limit as of that particular day, and the donation is 30,000. Meaning he will go over his limit loh. So, instead of go over limit, what he did is he wrote a cheque of 20,000, asked me go bank it in for him, and only after the cheque went through, we only do the donation transaction. I went to the bank, got ready my ID because they sure ask my ID because the account is not mine (see? give them money also like sibeh difficult), and they look see look see, wasted my 20 minutes, check with their boss, and came back to me, "sorry, we cannot accept this cheque at the moment." I haven't even ask a single question, she continues, "I cannot tell you the reason.". I was damn angry that time. And I swear, even if I have few millions next time, I won't deposit a single cent into RBC! Anyway, to make the story more funny, I went back to office, boss told me they called him and told him why, it is because he only used up 10,000 limit that time, and it was before the credit card statement due date, that's why he cannot bank in a 20,000 cheque more than what he has spent (which is 10,000) to clear the balance. THE BANK HERE IS SO SI-KAP-PANG! (si-kap-pang, is a teow cheow phrase that my hubby taught me to use, means "square", in this context, means stubborn, no brain)

I think I can be a bank guru and write a book about banking services in Canada. Muahahahaha....

OK, ngam ngam chum chum whole post... forgot the objective me want to blog today. 恭喜发财！！！兔年行大运！！！身体健康！！！青春常驻！！！:))

Health

I remember last time when I was in my 20-s, I totally have no pressure going to the routine body check up (that time, only do body check up when change job, as required by new company, instead of now, do religiously yearly).

Now if I go for check up, I need to have preparation. I will cheat myself, let's say next week body check up, this week i will drink lots of water... no eat heaty food.. no eat fried stuff.... hoping this will yield a good result, of course deep down my heart i know this last minute good girl thing won't help at all.

We went for body check up here last week. Over here, if signed by your family doctor, the check up is free of charge, absorb by government. (we every month pay medical service fees to government gah...). The medical center for body check up was so full of people!!!!!! and only 3 counters are opened. We waited 2 hours to get it down. Simple check up only, no x-ray, no eye-check. Just take blood and urine. That's it.

Today, received a call from nurse, asking for Jay (no ask me). It got me so anxious. Asked the nurse what's wrong, she won't say. She says only the doctor can comment. At first we made appointment to see doc this Saturday. Today is Thursday. I know me... if wait til Saturday, i can't sleep, can't eat between now til Saturday. I will be anxious. So I think Jay knows me well, he said why don't he go today after lunch. I said yah, u go ahead. That was at 11.45am.

from 11.45 - 2pm, I was really restless... I kept thinking what's wrong with Jay's report. What if something happened to him?? What am I supposed to do?? All the negative thoughts just swamp in. The last I had experience this kind of feeling, was 2+ years ago, when mom told me dad has to go hospital to check up something. It was mentally torture for me. I don't want to go through this again. 

Turns out that, his cholesterol is higher than the normal range of 5. His is at 6. So have to watch out diet. Jay goes to gym routinely twice a week one... dunno why like that also can have high cholesterol. We didn't eat unhealthily also... I even controlled him only one trip to KFC for every quarter (3 months). But he alwasy break the rules by going there once a month. So, now I have to strictly enforce the rule, one KFC for every 12 months only!!!!! That's it. F*** u KFC.

Any recommendation on how to bring down the cholesterol effectively? Would really like to know...

Uncommon occupation for women

I think my whole life is very "library" oriented. Why I said so? Uni time, my house live right in front of a library, but I seldom go there. This is what chinese called 身在福中不知福. Right now, my house is also very near library. And then, my office is just right at the intersection of a cross road, where the vancouver central library is located! it is like the HQ of all the libraries. Ngo men nei sei mei!

Anyway, compared to last time when I still uni schooling, I cherish the library more nowadays. I guess because I am now more poor than uni time, so, better rent books to read as oppose to buy new one, although I really love the new book smell, and I have this weird habit of liking new stuff.... new cover... unfolded books.... I am weird I know. Even if I go supermarket buy juice or milk or anything, I always take the 3rd one on display, instead of the first one. I very silai too. hahaha...

Recently I am reading this book, the name very long, but anyway, it is about this girl who become a cab driver in New York. It is a very interesting book. It talks about the behavior of some passengers, and even traffic control officer. And she also gave an insights how to apply and go through the test to become a cab driver in New York. haha... It is not easy on her, because this job, in New York, is seldom applied by white people, and some more she is white, female.

Then it got me thinking... I once have a dream to become a plumber too. But my hubby and my good friend laughed at me, "You??? Please lah..... uh P-L-E-A-S-E!!! You say only.... you can't do it one!"... what's wrong with being a plumber wor....btw, the reason why I want to become a plumber is, I think the most annoying thing at home, to me, is whenever water is leaking, or something wrong to do with water. I don't like to rely on people one. So, if I am a plumber and I can do the job, how fantastic it will be, right??

My hubby said, "you no energy one.. how can you fasten a knob or tube? and you so afraid of dirty thing, how can you stand fixing the toilet bowl? Yo will faint!".... wah.... i never thought of that wor.... i only thought of fixing water temperature kind of thing, and changing pipe... i never thought of have to touch or see the si-si niu-niu leh...

Can I be a plumber with an exclusion clause - no deal with toilet bowl, and no deal with dirty stuff? hahahahhaa.... sigh.....

Maybe my hubby and my good friend is right..... I cannot one.... :(

credit card

Today chi xin already, posted 2 entries. haha...

As I am on the phone calling a credit card company in Malaysia to use my points to offset the blardy the $50 government fees (how can such policy be passed at the first place??? this is money sucker), my heart has a funny feelings... Just last week I was transferring money to pay my China credit card (the card is occassionally used for some other purpose, even though we not in China). And then 2 days ago, I was settling my canadian credit card bill online. It got me thinking, is it true that when you live at certain country for certain time, even though you not living there anymore, it feels so hard to disconnect yourself from the stuff you have had there, especially credit card. I keep having the thoughts that " keep it first... who knows wor... later I might have to move back to KL or China... if that time only come to apply credit card, how inconvenient?". So, there you go, I have credit cards in three countries now.

I wonder how long will I keep them for. Until when in my life will I have a certain answer "YES, I am staying here and ain't going anywhere else. I can LOUD LOUD say I want to cancel credit card country A, and credit card country B!"

But before I can LOUD LOUD say it out, I had better have a clear sense of each credit card's due date. Sigh... and thanks to the government fees, now I have one more thing to remember. This government fees is really getting on my nerves... I still don't understand what kind of service we receive from government on credit card that deserves this $50 pay out to government. Anybody knows this answer?? 很郁闷！

25-ish

In our office, we have a staff, he is 25 years old.

He is very good at talking, very socialable, in almost every restaurant he stepped into, he will sure know a person or two there. This I salute to him very much. In some sense, he is amiable. 人见人爱.

However, he do things, can make you puke blood. It is like, he do things is very chin chai, and don't care whether it gets done or not. And as a result, he either does things either too slowly and delay the schedule, or he does things incorrectly and at the end, we spent more time undo the wrong. Hmm....

What to do leh? He is one of the boss's son. So you know lah... sometimes even though I know the mistake was done by him, I have to hide my own heart and tell the boss, it was  the vendor's mistake, they didn't follow instruction that's why is wrong. bla bla bla.. sometimes I also feel I am good damn big liar, because of him!

So, it made me think, what was I when I was 25 years old??

When I was 25 years old, according to my resume, (haha), I was at my 3rd job already. It was a research analyst job. I think I am the type of responsible person from day 1, regardless whether I am 20 or 30 or later on 50. I don't simply do work... I don't delay the schedule... I do follow up so the project won't get delayed... everything I do, I do whole heartedly. I think I didn't give anybody shit at that time... I hoped so.. haha...

Then I have another 25-ish year old person, who thinks that it is 肤浅 for parents to ask for pocket money from their children. I was shocked. Too shocked to comment for few days. And this word  肤浅, is actually from his gf's mouth. Meaning, they both agree it is 肤浅 to give pocket money to their parents. Sigh... I cannot understand the logic. As I understood, most parents don't even 稀罕 the children's pocket month, they accept it because it is a token of appreciation from their children, for all the hard work the parents put in to the shape the children of where they are today. And the pocket money don't even need to be huge. Just give whatever you can. The figure $$ means nothing, it is the action that shows your appreciation. So how can it be 肤浅?? I really cannot comprehend. And I nearly choked when I saw this comment. Seriosuly, nearly choked. I guess I am a very traditional person, I beleive in respecting elderly people, especially our own parents. They most probably do not even need our pocket money, but to let them hear we think they are 肤浅 to accept pocket money from their children, I think will seriously hurt their fragile heart. These 25-ish people should understand that as parents grow old, their heart grows fragile too. Any mean word will paralized them for sometime, and whatever is done, is difficult to undo. Anyway, I think back to when I was 25-ish, I feel so proud to give pocket money to my parents every month. I never missed. And to see their contented look on the face, makes me proud too. So again, why is my 25-ish so different from the 25-ish people nowadays?? I really do not understand. Some more, the particular 25-ish person, when he was completing his phD (it takes 10 years to complete the whole process instead of just do a Bachelor degree), his dad, frequently send him money in USD. His dad sent so much until this 25-ish person has a $40K surplus at his bank account before he graduate. This kind of unconditional love, why can't he remember when he blurted out the word 肤浅??

I hope my readers are with me. It is nothing to feel shallow to give your parents pocket money, or to receive pocket money from your children. There, I said it! :)

p/s: after posted this post, only realized i made a mistake. The person I think he was 25-ish, is actually 30 years old this year. Wholly... 30 years old already still so childish in thinking???!!! lagi puke blood!

Car

In KL, We need to have a car, because our public transportation (if there is any??) sucks big time. I don't want to go into details.... but we all Malaysian, so we should understand what I am saying here. In KL, no car means no leg. No car means you won't be able to get a gf also. One household, how many people working (n), then the number of car is n+1. Why plus 1? Mama also needs a car to go pasar leh, right? If not we all go work, how mama get around??

So, I moved to Shanghai for 4 years+. No car. Reasons why we never think of buying car are: we don't have an F1 driver skill, so better not have car in Shanghai (all taxi drivers in Shanghai deserves a title of F1 driver); and also their subway (we called "ditie") is so so so so so advanced. Linking one place to another. When we reached Shanghai in 2006, we only have 3 lines I think... by the time we left Shanghai last year, it was I think more than 10 lines. Wholly Cow!!!! Go where also can I tell you. The only time I told Jay I wished we had a car in Shanghai was when it was pouring with rain after office hour and getting a cab is as difficult as winning lottery. Even hou choi let you sported one cab, you won't be able to win it over from the locals. The local ladies, if they want a cab, they can run even with high heel shoes. I always wonder where these cab drivers go whenever it rains... how can it  be so little cab on the road when it is raining leh??? 不解.

Anyway, now I am in Vancouver. With a car. But today I damn bored, i go and layout the scenario what if we don't have a car. I think we still ok wor.. first of all, we stay near a big mall, so, post office, grocery, cinema, banks, bookstore, food court, restaurants all no problem to get within walking distance. I also take skytrain go to work, not driving even though I have free carpark. The only time I think we need a car is when we go out play, like summer time go hiking, go short vacation, go Seattle. I think we can do ok by renting cars if we need to do that?

How leh.... shall we sell our car?? Help~~~