just being myself...

during these festive times, one of the most dreaded questions/comments for us singles are always about our single status. it all range from questions like "where's your other half?" and "how come still not yet bring home a prospective partner to show your parents?" to advices like "don't be too choosy" and "as long as he's a decent chap..." to warnings "next year i'm not giving you any ang-pao (red packet) anymore!" relatives are so amusing, really...

in my family, it seems like irregardless of your age, as long as you're single, you'll still get the prerequisite yearly lecture. i was hit by this realization when during a visit to a granduncle (mom's uncle), one of his daughters (40-ish and unmarried) was locked in a heated debate with my uncle. it all started when my unsuspecting uncle good naturedly "adviced" his tomboyish cousin to change her looks a bit in order to catch the eye of the opposite gender. i must say, the exchanges were quite entertaining, especially when such visits would normally have me just sitting quietly in a corner munching on prawn crackers while the adults talk.

anyway, according to my well-meaning uncle, we single girls need to dress up in a more lady-like manner. keep our hair long. walk and talk demurely. bla bla bla... all the things i'm NOT! ok, maybe just the hair, which is more due to convenience than to "catch the eye of the opposite gender". but i've always believed in dressing for comfort. comfort here means when wearing and also when laundering. i think most of you should know by now how i detest ironing clothes! so i'll try to wear clothes that don't require ironing if i can help it. 

and my wardrobe is a simple affair. nothing extraordinarily special... all pretty generic. so generic that if i were to wear the same pants to work in 2 consecutive days, no one would have noticed (at least i THINK no one would notice! :P). but i'm wearing the same clothes to work every week anyway, so i think ppl have gotten used to my 'uniforms' to really notice what i wear in the office.

but i'm always a little amused when N kept bemoaning that she has run out of work clothes, when i'm always seeing her in clothes i've not seen her wear before. and also, the clothes that some of the girls wear to the office! every time i see them, i don't see how nice and pretty and elegant they look, but the laundering process! hehe... i know, i'm THAT lazy!

so i guess i'll just have to settle for looking homely and plain and uninteresting. haiz... i think i'm a gone case... 

well, i'm just being myself and in the end, that is just who i am, warts and all...

animal farm by george orwell

i was having a 'comment relay' with 2 of my friends on facebook when somehow, this book, animal farm, cropped into our conversation. so during my recent trip back home, i decided to dig this out from my bookshelf...

my dad's copy of the book that i found in the bookshelf years ago...

the first time i read this book, i was quite young. i think i was still in primary school. it being a somewhat thin book and the story quite short, i only took it at its face value: a story about the animals in a farm. being an animal lover since young, i found the story quite interesting and enjoyable. and used to children stories by enid blyton, it did not occur to me how weird it is that the animals could talk and walk upright and create commandments!

the 2nd time i read it, i was in secondary school and have learnt to read my dad's cursive scribblings all over the book. it was then that i realized that this book is NOT about animals, but about stalinism and the events that lead up to world war II. hmm, interesting...

dad's reading assignment during his college days...

dad's jottings and notes filled the book...

then now, looking back to my own literature classes in uni, how come we didn't study george orwell??? it's in so many lists... Time Magazine's 100 best English-language novels (1923 to 2005), Modern Library List of Best 20th Century Novels, Great Books of the Modern World... it also won the Hugo Award in 1996. and it definitely is in MY list of best loved books!

anyway, i believe every literature student should at least know about this book... but seems like that is not the case. i daresay at least 1/2 of my ex-course mates would not have heard of this book. instead, we studied a lot of post-colonial works, both local and abroad, like tan twan eng, shirley lim, nigerian author chinua achebe etc.

i dunno, a bid to instill the spirit of patriotism into the minds of university students by the powers that be, perhaps?

read also:
1) a thousand splendid suns: a blardy good read
2) my childhood friend

year of the tiger...

i know i'm late, but just wanna wish everyone a happy and prosperity lao-hor (hokkien for tiger) year! :D

i'm back to work today, the 6th day of the lunar new year. did  not take any photos of my cny, but i ate a lot! put on like 3kg! argh!!! time to start dieting...

anyway, the weather this year is exceptionally warm! i was like withering in the heat... one thing to look forward to in coming back to work is the air-condition. hehe... and being the last unmarried child in the family (not like there were many of us to begin with), i can't escape the visits. with the older generation (my parent's aunts and uncles) getting older, not to mention that i normally see them only once a year, my parents think that i should make an effort to show my face... even if it means sitting quietly in a corner and staring stupidly at the tv (if there's one) or the packet drinks or the cookies that i've gotten too jelak (malay for palled) to eat.

so that's all for now... loads of work to catch up on!

read also:
1) post-cny post
2) chewie's first balik kampung trip
3) cny '07

new craft toy!

see what i got over the weekend!

a mini electrical sewing machine!

i've always wanted a sewing machine as there are so many things i THINK i can make if i have one... so i got this one, a very simple and very cheap electrical sewing machine. it even comes with a foot paddle! hehe...

so for my debut sewing project...

no, not the bag! this bag is crocheted...

it's the lining for this bag. hehe...

actually i completed this bag quite some time ago... but have kept it aside as 'incomplete project' coz i wanted to put in a lining for it. so now i have my lining, i can start using it. and just in time for chinese new year too! you know, to keep all those ang-pao (red packets containing lucky money) that i'll be getting! *evil laugh*

ok, back to the sewing machine. the lining is just simple sewing just to test out the machine actually. so the verdict... it can only do normal sewing and the sews are not so nice... a bit too big and made my cloth creased a bit. maybe i need to tweak the thread tension and whatnot a bit. and the teeth grip (or whatever that thing's called) is not that good also. my cloth moved out of line easily, as in i can't sew a perfectly straight line. but for that kind of price, i guess it'll have to do for now.

read also:
1. another crocheted wrist bag
2. crocheted wrist bag

someone loves me!

my blog, that is... thanks auntyjo for awarding me this! i love yours too!

The rules for this awards are as follow: copy the award images into a post; list 10 things that make you happy; tag 10 bloggers who brighten your day; link to their blogs; and notify the award recipients (who should link back to the sender’s blog).

10 of my favourite things (in no particular order):

1. a clean and tidy room, with squeaky clean floors!

2. a good book on a rainy day!

3. brown paper packages tied up with strings addressed to me! (hehe, corny, i know...)

4. a good craft work gone well!

5. puppies!

6. good music that takes my breathe away!

7. being able to play good music that takes my breathe away!

8. sappy movies that make my cry!

9. finding a well-stocked craft store!

10. public holidays!

in passing on the award, i hereby nominate Jullie. sorry, i know i'm supposed to nominate 10 people, but most of the blogs i read are my own friends... hehe...

funny site...

in case you came here looking for an update, so as not to disappoint you, i'd like to point you to this damn hilarious site: www.theoatmeal.com

i particularly like (in no particular order):

the 9 types of crappy handshakes

how different age groups celebrate halloween

how to suck at facebook

the 6 types of crappy hugs

lame i know, but some of the things are quite true, if you think about it...

blogger's block...

been suffering from (or enjoying??? hehe...) writer's block lately. can't seem to string along a complete legible sentence. and been very busy at work these 2 weeks. working non-stop! could be because bossbossboss is back in town, so as usual, we have to go on long meeting marathons... *phew*

nevertheless, the mind is far away. thinking of flying away, to a faraway land. gosh, i need a vacation! thank goodness cny is near. can't wait!

on affairs and scandals...

been meaning to blog about this, but as usual, been procrastinating... anyway, i don't know if it's this company or if it's the trend now, but i find that some of the ladies who work here are real... sluts, for want of a better word.

most of them are married with kids, but their hubbies and children are back in their hometown. so they're like weekend mommies and wives. the rest of the week, they sorta live their lives like bachelorettes in the city. it's fine if all they do are just going out dancing and drinking after work. and trust me, they do that pretty often. ladies nights are never missed!

but what's troubling is that they go out to meet guys! they flirt around and get guys to buy them drinks... some of them even have part-time lovers, whom they'll call up to talk love and flirt over the phone during lunch hours. i'm not sure how far they've gone with these 'boyfriends', but listening to them, it seemed like they're real experts in stringing along those poor blokes! but then again, it serves these 'dirty old men' (at least that's the image i have of these so called 'boyfriends') right! who asked them to be so gatal (malay for 'itchy') to go for married girls? i've always believed in the old chinese saying, loosely translated as, "if the cow refuses to drink, there's no way for you to force its head down to drink"

and it's not like they're discreet about it too! one colleague, dancing daphne, was pretty proud that she has a few boyfriends under her thumb... disclosing about this boyfriend who sponsored her to a slimming program, that boyfriend who topped up her phone prepaid credit, another boyfriend who was surprised at all the weight that she's lost etc. and she even put this saying up as her fb status once:

"Love and Scandal are the best sweeteners of Tea - Cullen Hightower"

looking at them about it, i feel like the married old lady more than them! am disgusted... (at them, not myself!)

long overdue gift from N

just to share this cute set of snoopy & friends magnets i got from N yesterday! this was promised to me nearly 2 years ago, and i just got it yesterday. first, she took her own sweet time making it. after that, she just kept it aside and went on with her life as if nothing happened. hehe...

it was only a week or two ago, when she was sorting through all her stuff to prepare to move to her new home, that she stumbled on these again. hop on over to N's blog to read abt it.

one reason i don't take up crafting in felt is the amount of weaving one would have to do! look at that! crazy, right? and at the same time, really impressed with N's needle-wielding skills...

read also:

1) new year gift

in control...

i started making this maneki neko 2 weeks back, taking my own sweet time hooking it while watching my drama series and HBO series. hehe...

a 'good luck' cat clutching a golden salmon under her arms...

this is for my colleague, Lady Loretta who will be leaving the company to set up a company of her own. at first, i didn't know what to make for her when it suddenly struck me that a maneki neko would be the perfect gift for her new company!

so as not to bore everyone with a lengthy explanation of a maneki neko, click here to read more about it. and you can hop on over to my craft page to read about my crocheting process in this project.

in this post, i want to talk about being conscious of our emotions. but what has it got to do with the maneki neko, you ask?

ok ok, i'm getting there... 2 days ago, while lunching with a few of my colleagues (minus Lady Loretta), one girl, Dancing Daphne suddenly commented that she thinks Lady Loretta has removed us from her facebook friends list. not only that, she may have even blocked us, because Dancing Daphne was not able to even search for her name!

upon hearing this, all of us were quite shocked. i would say the group of us are pretty close, not merely colleagues. so we had no qualms in adding each other into our facebook and getting a glimpse into our personal lives. so this sudden 'she don't friend us anymore' development came as a surprise to everyone. the general reaction: upset.

that lunch hour, while the rest of my colleagues were discussing the reasons for Lady Loretta's action, i was quietly mulling over my half-finished maneki neko at home. is this kind of friend worthy of my effort to hand-make a gift for? after all, she "don't friend me anymore"...

then that night, i was still contemplating if i should finish this project, when i suddenly remembered the reason i started this project - it's a sincere wish for a friend in her future undertakings. it is something i want to give her. just that, and shouldn't have to do with anything else. and i'm sure she has her own valid reason for her actions...

having this in clear perspective, i continued to hook away happily, putting in good and positive thoughts into every stitch! :)

and it felt so good! sure, we humans have emotions that we can't control. that's why buddhism teaches us about the 10 worlds. but to be conscious of what we are feeling and then to seek the reason why are we feeling it, we get to choose how we react to these emotions.

ah, i feel so enlightened! :D

p/s: Lady Loretta was very happy when she saw the gift. she said since she saw all the photos of my handcraft in my facebook album, she's been been wanting one. but she's malu (malay for 'shy') to ask me to make for her. and seeing her happy smile and feeling her hug, i'm really glad of my timely epiphany! :)