nothing like a bit of pain...

so i was feeling a lil under the weather yesterday... i was once again questioning my decision to be based in this desert country, far from my family, friends and all the things that i'm comfortable and familiar with. i missed all the good (and not to mention cheap) food back home, i missed driving, i missed my best friend's wedding...


and i was particularly bummed when i couldn't think of anyone to ask along to the oliver! musical that's making its way here next month! am i really friendless here? none of the people i know here share the same passions for the things i like.  i get weird looks when i tell some people that i do horse riding, and i'd have so many friends who would go to the oliver! musicals with me if i'm back home.


so with my mood being so cloudy, i had half a mind of not showing up for my riding lesson after work yesterday. but then i thought about all the money that i've paid for my lessons and if i don't show up, the lesson would be burnt coz we can only cancel a lesson one day earlier.


but my mood changed when i arrived at the riding school, with the horses and riders, and just being outdoors. the weather nowadays is at around 28-ish deg C, so it's really a perfect time to be out of doors. anyway, i got a brown mid-sized stallion named bahrain yesterday, and he was a dream! i think he's new at the school, coz i've not ridden him before and all the trainers were paying close attention to his performance yesterday. he seemed a bit naughty at first. when i was standing next to him stroking his cheeks and neck while the groom was tightening up his girth and getting him ready, he kept trying to get his mouth near my hands. i gave him my upturned palm to show that it's empty, but he still tried to bite my gloves. even when i stepped away from his head and closer to his body, he'll keep turning his head around and trying to bite me. so i thought he's gonna be a problem but when i asked my trainer (i got a lady trainer yesterday), she said, "he's ok, unlike sebastian" (i fell off sebastian AGAIN last week! - i'm blacklisting him now).


anyway, once i've mounted bahrain, he's just so responsive and did all the things i wanted him to do effortlessly. and he's so easy to ride! i love him! but then disaster struck... we were going through our exercises and after a  fast and long canter, my trainer gave the cue for us to trot. i was just starting to rein bahrain in when suddenly one of his front hooves tripped on the sand! his head fell forward and as i was having a tight hold on the reins, he pulled me forward as well. i lost my balance, leaned forward onto his neck but couldn't hold on tight enough and sort of rolled off his neck onto the ground! argh!!!


it was not a really bad fall, nothing serious... just made me a little sore in the rump. i got right up, remount and continued on with the lesson.


after the lesson, as i was walking towards the metro station with a slight muscle sore, i was quite surprised when i realized that my spirits have lifted. i'm not moody anymore, but was actually smiling and feeling quite happy! weird, huh?


hmm... maybe it's the adrenalin rush that came from exercising and sweating out buckets, but i have the suspicion that it's also due to the muscle aches and pains that made me feel alive again. maybe this sensation reminded my subconscious that however numb we've become, we're still capable of feelings, both physically and mentally. then dunno why, suddenly a saying cropped into my mind: "we're all spiritual beings going through a human experience". so we should appreciate and enjoy this experience, the whole sweet, sour, bitter and spicy of it, an experience which only a human can go through.


maybe a bit of pain is not so bad after all! :)

riding on the efforts of others…

warning: ranting post ahead!

the manipulator

this morning, ms. blackberry* came over and asked me to tune into the internet radio. at first i thought it was an instruction by her boss (the gm), coz we're recently running a radio ad campaign. so i thought the boss wants me to monitor the ad, and asked her to pass on the message. then she added, "it's so boring here. we should have some form of entertainment and music. leave it on, and i'll speak to boss about it."

at first i didn't really catch on that this was her own idea but luckily, i have my earphones semi-permanently attached to my cpu and i was lazy to reach down to unplug it. so i told her it can't be done and asked her to do it from her side. she went back to her desk, but no music came from her pc.

then i realized, "damn, it wasn't the boss's instruction. she just wanted to use me!" damn damn damn!!! if my earphones weren't connected to my cpu, i'd have bodoh-bodoh (malay: stupidly) played the radio and when gm walks pass, he'll think, "wah, this girl so free. enjoying life here." what the hell lah!

*nicknamed as such due to the fact that she's on her blackberry the whole day in the office, facebooking, sms-ing, messaging etc. there's even talk that it's stuck to her hands permanently, like a mutated growth or something!

 

the rider

my company has this staff benefit whereby we are allowed to claim our taxi fare to selected destinations such as a mall or beach park etc. of course, there are conditions but yeah, we have such benefits.

anyway, there's this colleague, yakking yvette, who somehow always refuse to submit for the transportation claims, due to certain reasons that i'm not convenient to divulge here. ok fine, if that's your stand. but then, she'll still happily tag along and benefit from the free transportation whenever we go to those selected destination. so it's ok if other people makes the claim, which benefits you, but it's not ok for you to submit the claim? how hypocrite is that?!

 

the body huggers

in the recent green campaign that took place in m'sia (and even the "cleaning" campaign of last year), i've noticed a category of people among my facebook friends. while most of my friends shared information, videos and links about the issue, some expressing their own opinions and anger on their status updates, take part in impromptu discussions, or even just simply changed their profile photos to show their support to the movement, there were some who decided that they don't want to have anything whatsoever to do with it.

in this time and age, it's impossible that they don't know anything at all about the issue. even if the mainstream media tried to mute it as much as possible, it's all over the internet, on online independent media and facebook. aren't they at least a tiny bit curious as to why is it that most of their friends' profile photos have suddenly taken on a greenish theme? of course everyone would know the significance of it, unless they've been in a coma for the past one year. hence we can safely rule out "ignorance" as the reason.

so why aren't some of them showing any form of acknowledgement to the campaign? don't they care about what is happening to our country? i'm sure they care, coz i know my friends are not cold-blooded people. maybe they feel that it's not happening in their city, hence it has nothing to do with them? or maybe they feel that it's a futile exercise, all these protesting and gathering. after all, it's been approved by the gov. what can we do, right? nothing's gonna change. or maybe they're just afraid? all these anti-this anti-that, what if the authorities decided to take action on those who support the cause? at least they won't be incriminated.

or maybe they think that there are so many others in the bandwagon already. so it's ok for them to berpeluk tubuh (malay: hug their own body - meaning have their arms crossed and not doing anything), coz one more supporter or one less supporter won't really make any difference. after all, i'm not good at talking, i can't express my views so well, i'm this and i'm that, bla bla bla all the excuses in the world... let the others who are more outspoken do all the work and hopefully they'll succeed. then it'll benefit everyone, including ME!

well, i know i can't force anyone to support anything that i believe in or am passionate about but it's really disheartening to see people who don't give a damn about anything. especially if it's something that will and does affect them and their families too! it's not like we're asking them to lead or start something. all these campaigns need are a show of support, even in the smallest gesture, just to let them know that they have our backing and that they're not alone.

 

the planters

there are some people who are very good planters... not of plants, but ideas. they'll try to plant a certain idea into you, and then sorta passed the responsibilities on to you to act on it while they take a seat back and let you do all the work.

once, 2 of my colleagues wanted to go for steamboat at a restaurant and asked me, sweet sheila and yakking yvette if we would like to join. we agreed but sweet sheila wondered aloud if it’s at the same restaurant that she went before. according to her, that restaurant’s steamboat is not nice at all!

upon reaching the building where the restaurant is, sweet sheila confirmed that it was really the same restaurant. so the whole way going up to the restaurant, which was situated at the upstairs terrace of the building, sweet sheila kept telling me how bad the food at the restaurant is. my 2 other colleagues were walking some distance in front of us, so sweet sheila kept trying to convince me to change venue. “trust me, the food there is really bad! it’ll be better if we go to the steamboat at “little lamb”. this restaurant caters mostly to filipinas. not our taste at all! really, you wouldn’t like it!”

she kept right on at it, buzzing non-stop at my ears, that finally i can’t take it anymore. i turned coolly to her and said, “if you want to propose a change of venue, say it out to everybody. stop buzzing around at my ears coz i’ll never open my mouth for you. first of all, it wasn’t me who suggested this place. we are just tagging along. secondly, i’ve not eaten at this place before. so don’t expect me to tell everyone that the food is not nice.” that shut her up nicely for the rest of the night…

another time, yakking yvette was telling me about her roommate's departmental outing and how much fun her roommate had. then she proceeded to sorta complain that our department never does such things and how nice it would be if we could have something like this.

now, if i don't know yakking yvette that well, i'd have jumped right into her trap and say, "let's plan something!" but i saw right through her ploy! if i'd have said that, then the task would definitely be placed upon my shoulders and i'd be the official organizer for the departmental outing.

if it were someone else, maybe i'd have very happily want to plan something TOGETHER. but now i've come to recognize the few "planters" here (through the hard way, unfortunately!), so my answer to their manipulation would be, "good idea! why not you plan one?", making sure to emphasize on the word YOU.

well, in my previous life (meaning life back home lar), i'd probably be very gung-ho in wanting to organize an outing or trip etc. anything the spells FUN! but that also would need to depend on for whom i'm organizing it for. which brings me to my last category of "riders" as per the title of this post...

 

the wait-and-seers

i really hate it when we put so much time and energy and effort into organizing something, only to be met with lukewarm or even cold responses. when we throw ideas around, everyone would be very excited but when the e-mail is sent out, no one would want to be the first to reply. everyone wants to wait and see what other people say. in the end no one will reply, which then makes us feel like we're just syiok sendiri (malay: excited/happy about something only you yourself is excited/happy about).

so nowadays, i'll refrain from organizing anything that involves a big group, unless i know the group is as gung-ho as me. luckily my makan group is always very responsive to foodie-outing proposals, so i don't mind doing that. besides, other members of the group are also always organizing stuff, it's not always organized by me.

for other stuff like shopping, outing or just going for dinner, normally i'll just throw the idea with my artist. if both of us are game for it, then we'll ask anyone who would like to join. if no one else wants to go, we'll just go by ourselves. easy peasy...

and if there's something i'd like to do for say, a celebration or event, i'd do it by myself instead of plan it with someone else and making a big deal out of it. that way, i do it on my own free will, in my own time and capacity, instead of having to wait for others. one good example was what i prepared for a few of my colleagues during valentine's day.

 

phew, ok. that was a long rant... but just getting things off my chest! :)

flying 1st class, woo-hoo!

i guess this dragon year is treating me quite well, what with me not having to pay extra for going on the next day’s flight when i missed my homeward-bound flight… but i was also being upgraded to first class on the 1st leg of my flight back to dubai!!

at the boarding gate in klia, i was just about to sit down when i heard my name being paged over the pa system. at first i thought there’s something wrong with my boarding pass or maybe i’ve somehow gone to the wrong gate. but when i went to the desk, one of the staff (not sure if he’s airport staff or the airline staff) asked to see my boarding pass. when i handed it to him, he looked at it to verify that i’m indeed the person they paged for, and exchanged it for a red-coloured pass, telling me, “you’ve been upgraded to 1st class. it’s a lucky dragon year for you.” i was like, “huh? omg, thank you!”

in a daze, i only heard “upgraded”, but not “1st class”. so i thought i was being upgraded to business class and quickly updated my facebook status: “omg, i’ve juz been upgraded to biz class!” coz i’ve never been one who wins lucky draws and 4D and those kinda things, so getting upgraded to biz class is like omg, so lucky already! it never occurred to me that i’d get 1st class! LOL

anyway, when they called for boarding, normally i would to be one of the last to get up to join the queue, to let all the kiasu people stand in the queue all they want. it’s not like they will fly off earlier than the rest of us, right? but now i’m the holder of a RED boarding pass ler! so when they called for boarding, i just coolly stood up and walked right up to the front of the line (of those with cattle class pass – see how kiasu? everyone knows econ class boards last, but they will still stand up and rush to the gate when the announcement specifically said “1st class and biz class”). ok, i admit i was quite smug when i showed my RED boarding pass and continue walking into the separate aerobridge for 1st and biz class, while the rest of the unwashed looked enviously after my retreating shadow (as pictured in my mind lar :P)

i was quite looking forward to getting a good rest on the flight, as i had to wake up at 5am that morning to make it for my 9am flight. but as it’s not everyday that i got upgraded, of course i had to check out that section behind the closed curtains where normally we can only catch a glimpse of!

too bad it’s quite an old plane, but luckily they made it up with their good service!

was offered a hot towel and juice the moment i sat down… not from the trolley, mind you, but from a tray! the seat configuration was 1-2-1 and i got the window seat. there are these compartments next to the seat that i can store my hand carry bags in, as shown in the pic. no need to use the overhead compartments, which means i can just reach in and out to access my stuff without having to stand up. me likey! :)

look at the leg space! i lifted up my legs and stretched out straight, and i still couldn’t touch the divider in front.

checking out my seat functions. like i said, it’s an old plane, so the the buttons are not so sophisticated. but i love the compartments below, where i can put away my book and camera etc.

on the other side of my seat, you can actually raise the hand rest to become some sort of divider for more privacy. sorry, no pic of the divider in the up position, coz i didn’t pull it up…

table out from its compartment on the left (see the lid there? compare it to the first pic on top). and got table cloth ler! :D

breakfast time… everything served on real plates, bowls, cups and saucers, and the utensils don’t come in a plastic bag. i was so tempted to nick the cute salt and pepper shakers, but of course i didn’t :P

my egg omelette that came piping hot straight from the kitchen, not from the trolley!

time to relax after a very full breakfast, which i didn’t finish coz i had breakfast before boarding at mcD with my parents, bro and SIL, and my cousin oliver (who is an aircraft engineer and was on duty at klia that day). was contemplating on watching some in-flight movie, but tv was kinda small even though you can pull it out to be nearer to you, and also the movie selections were not that great.

so decided to do a bit of reading with the seat reclined at 75% down (we can actually recline to 180 deg flat!). they have the normal overhead reading lights, but i love this personal reading light by the side of the seat…

i dozed off for a bit, but i think only for 15 min. then it’s time to land at my transit destination at colombo, sri lanka. haiz, time really flies when we’re having fun, huh? all in all, it was a rather sweet 3hrs plus flight experience. i was back to flying cattle class for my colombo – dubai leg of the journey… :(

anyway, i must say sri lanka air has given me a really impression of their staff and service. but i can’t say i’d fly with them again, if i can help it. the reason will be in another post, as this post has gotten quite long… so stay tuned! :)

p/s: i found out i was actually on 1st class and not biz class while i was having an ice-blended green tea frappe at the colombo airport’s coffee bean. a fellow malaysian who was on the same flight as me was also having a drink there and when he saw me, he called out to me by my full name coz he heard it being paged in klia. it’s kinda irritating actually, coz he kept calling my full name whenever he wanted to engage me in a conversation. but anyway, he told me he was upgraded to biz class right before my name was called, and he was so jealous that i got 1st class. then only it dawned on me that i should’ve realized mine didn’t looked like biz class, coz biz class would most probably have the seat configuration of 2-3-2. aiyo, shows what a country bumpkin i am, for not recognizing that immediately! :D

missed flight…

i guess those on my facebook would have known, that i missed my homeward-bound flight last night… i was such an ass!

as i stay quite near the airport (15 minutes away), i always leave for the airport 1.5 hr before departure time, instead of the standard “be at the airport at least 2 hrs before”, so that i don’t have to spend too much time at the airport waiting for boarding etc. it has always worked, but apparently one can’t be so lucky every time, right?

i guess traveling too much has made me over-confident. i didn’t take into consideration the other factors that could cause delays… such as accidents, car breakdowns, forgot to bring passport, forgot to bring my e-ticket, can’t get a taxi, road to the airport super jam etc. i thought everything will go smoothly, every time, all the time.

anyway, i failed to get a taxi to the airport yesterday night. i stood by the road, in the cold and rain (more like drizzle in m’sian standard, but it’s RAIN in the desert), for more than 30 min and still no taxi came by! in the end, i had to drag my huge luggage out to the main road to hail a taxi from there.

by the time i got to the airport, i couldn’t find the screen with my airline’s logo on it! a bit panicky, i stopped an airport staff to ask. she turned behind her and was about to point when she realized that the screens above the counters were not showing the airline’s logo. so she said, “oh, the counters have closed”. a sinking feeling settled in my stomach then… shit! shit! shit!

the airport staff told me to rebook my ticket for the next flight, but i asked her if there’s any way for them to call the airline’s person in-charge, coz i was only late by a few minutes. so she pointed me to the airport office to get help from the people there. but when i got to the office, there wasn’t anyone there! omg, time was ticking by… more panic!

i went up to another airport staff for help and he pointed me to another section of the terminal to look for the duty manager counter to get help from there. by the time i rushed over, it’s already 40 minutes before departure and i felt my chances of getting onto the plane slowly slipping by. i found the counter and again, there’s no one there! frantic, i went to another counter (access baggage payment counter) to ask the staff there and they asked me to knock on the door next to the duty manager counter. so i dragged my luggage back to the counter and was about to knock when 2 airport staff passed by and asked me what happened. i told them my situation, and one of them tried to call the airline people to see if they’ll allow me to board. 10 more minutes passed before they called back to say it’s only 30 minutes before departure and they can’t allow me on-board. shit! shit! shit!

luckily the staff who helped me make the call saw my muka kesian (malay: pitiful face) and told me what i should do next: “go up to the cafeteria upstairs and wait until about 10 minutes after the flight has departed. then go down to the airline’s office in the basement. the people from the airline should be back by then. tell them your situation and book yourself onto tomorrow’s flight. make sure they make a printout of your new flight for you.” he even added in a “good luck” before we parted.

when i went to see the airline people, at first they said there’s nothing they can do to help me and told me to call their main office to work things out. but they did tipped me to say that i missed my flight due to illness or something serious like that, so that they don’t penalise me. and they said it in a nice and helpful way, not “it’s-not-my-business-i-can’t-help-you” kinda way. but i guess my muka kesian worked again coz after a while, one of the staff said he’ll try to see if their computers can be linked to the system and then he can book me for the next day’s flight.

waited for about 20 minutes while he kept trying but in the end, he managed to secure the last seat for me! he even put in the reason for my change as, “reported to counter late due to road accident”. and i don’t have to pay any extra charges too! i’m so grateful!

*phew* so much drama… so even though i’m delayed by one day in getting home, wasted time sitting around at the airport as well as the taxi money to and from the airport, at least i’m still going home for this chinese new year! must count my blessings…

come to think about it, i seem to meet with a lot of flight related “bad luck” this year of the rabbit, huh? delayed flight, airport closure, flight turning back halfway, stranded at the airport and couldn’t check-in at the counter… hopefully the year of the dragon will be much better!

anyway, here’s wishing everyone a happy, joyous, healthy, wealthy and prosperous year of the water dragon! gong xi gong xi!

happy new year from the land of the shimmering sands!

a bit late, but better late than never, right? anyway, i spent my new year's eve and new year's day just like in my previous years... avoiding all the crowded places and just lazed around at home. i did went out to have new year's eve dinner with my 2 colleagues tho', just to make it slightly special and different than any other weekend.


oh, and i was recovering from a flu, due to the weather change in sandland. the temperature is getting quite cold now... something to be grateful for, instead of the scorching heat of the summer!


ok, i know everyone's talking about new year's resolutions, something which i'm determined NOT to make every year, but somehow still managed to come up with a semblance of a resolution.


this year, i'm NOT gonna make any. i swear... but just let me give a little update about myself here in sandland, in point-form.


1. i really enjoy having the whole apartment to myself, which gives me plenty of privacy and me-time.


2. i've been cooking a lot, on and off, mostly simple meals. i feel i have a knack for cooking, even though i've not had much practice *perasan*. i'm thinking of getting a smallish oven, so that i can try my hands at baking simple stuff like muffins etc. i also need something to heat leftover food with, so an oven would come in really handy.


3. work wise, things are going quite ok lar. work is just work, so nothing much to talk about... i have made some good friends among my colleagues, as well as some enemies but who said life is all a bed of roses, right? and like what a colleague told me, "we're not here to make people like us. as long as we feel what we're doing is right, there's no need to think too much about it." anyway, those who hate me are just jealous of my awesomeness lah! *flicks hair* :D


4. relationship wise, i'm still happily single and available... still have not found that special someone yet. or rather, like what my colleague said, still have not been found! YET! :D


5. my horse-riding lessons are still on-going... loving every moment of it!


6. financial wise, things are fine too, tho' i kinda regret having hastily invested in a 10-year savings plan that is leaving me quite dry every end of the month, with not much spending cash in hand. now, i can only look on the brighter side of things, that is i finally have some savings put aside.




i guess that's about it... happy new year, y'all!

the carrot girl...

last friday marked my 30th lesson in horse riding and sad to say, i'm still in the red level, which is the beginner level. actually my coach said that normally, they will recommend the students to take their test to advance to the next level (yellow) after 25 lessons and actually he did mention to me about my test, but then it's either he's forgotten about it or he felt that i'm not ready to advance yet.


actually, i don't really care about doing the test also lar. i was asking the coach if i can advance to yellow without taking the test, like what N and i used to do in our ice-skating classes, but he said no. also, i wanna take things slowly and take the test when i'm truly ready. my coach said my posture and control is good, just sometimes i'm too soft with the horses (coz i refused to whip them hard!), which made them stubborn and refused to do what i asked them to do.


so far, i've mastered the posting trot, sitting trot, jump position and am learning the canter. some days i can do the canter quite beautifully, but some days i suck at it. it all depends on the horse i get for that day.


anyway, i'm loving my lessons and am so glad that i took it up. the horses are amazing! they've very intuitive in a lot of aspects. i guess they all know that i'm soft-hearted and a little afraid of them, so they tend to be quite stubborn and know they can bully me! :(

on one of my favourite horses (i have a few fav, actually), brownie/randolf. i'm still unsure about his name coz he's  new at the school and the grooms are confused with his name. one groom is telling me this is brownie, but my coach said randolf! =_='''

the horses know their own name, even though they don't live like pets and are always surrounded by so many other horses. i found this out one day after my lesson when i went to give the horse i rode a carrot treat, something i've taken a habit of doing. they were all tied up in a row and i can't recognize any of them (they all look the same, ok?). so i asked the groom there, "which is denver?" but before the groom gave his answer, one horse raised his head and looked up at me, and i knew that's him! :)


most horses who've been in the riding school also know the commands already, so sometimes, they react more to the instructions of the coach than to the riders. when we ride, the coach will be standing in the middle and give us riders instructions. start trotting, trot faster, change direction, canter, walk etc... sometimes, when the coach said these things, even before we have time to react, the horses are already doing them! hahaha... but most horses who've been in a riding school for a long time will develop attitude problems. i guess it's from always being ridden by beginners, who don't know how to handle and control them.


that's one reason why i like to ride brownie/randalf so much. he's still new at the school, so he's very responsive. i just need to give a small pull on the reins to make him stop, go to the left or right, a little kick to make him go faster or to start canter etc. some of the other horses can get really stubborn and then we'll need to use the whip on them, which i really hate!

who wants a carrot? this is safaj, by the way...

i think when the horses talk to each other, they'd probably refer to me as "carrot girl". coz after a few times of bringing carrots to the horses, they seem to know my routine. so now every time i appear at the back, all of them will look up at me expectantly! some would even nicker at me! i have to hide the carrot behind me or in my jacket when i walk past them to the horse i wanted to feed and say, "no, not for you today!"

i finally got a pic of me taken while on a horse!

yeah, the weather in dubai is getting colder. and as i always go for my lessons at night, the night air can get really chilly, sometimes going as low as 14-16 deg C! that's why i was dressed the way i am in the photo above. but the thing is, after the lesson start, i will start getting hot and sweaty! so it's a dilemma: to wear a jacket or not?

maybe a waistcoat over a thin long-sleeved t-shirt would be better?

but i still feel cold before the lesson, and hot and sweaty during lesson! maybe it's time to go get proper riding attire for the cold weather? anyway, i wear the shorts over my breaches during the journey to and from the school coz wearing just the tight-fitting breaches on public transport is just too weird, not to mention all those mata keranjang men of certain nationalities!

uae 40th national day celebration

the uae national day falls on 2nd dec every year, and this year marks the 40th anniversary of the union of the 7 neighbouring emirates. here in dubai, with nearly 80% of the people being foreigners, you’d think no one would really care. that’s what i thought so too, when i first came last year. but how wrong i was, coz nearing the date, every other person can be seen donning the uae flag colours (black, red, white and green). kids can be seen wearing dresses and clothes that resembled the flag, girls will be wearing hairbands and bangles in the 4 colours, boys will have the 4 coloured scarves around their neck, schools will have special activities to commemorate the day… and there will be many activities happening leading up to the date, and this year being the 40th anniversary, the celebration was even massive.


someone in my facebook shared a link to a celebration that involves releasing floating lanterns (also known as kong ming lantern to the chinese) or sky lamps, to the sky at night. these lanterns are banned in m’sia, so i’ve never had the chance to release one before, even though many of my friends have done it illegally. also, see this promo video for the event:

doesn’t it reminds you of the animation “tangled”? so i was determined to go! :P

see, so pretty!

the event was held in a horseracing racecourse… my first time in a racecourse! anyway, we were very early, which explains the empty seats…

the actual event started at about 6pm, with some traditional arabic dance…

then the hot-air balloons started coming in… see what i told you, the ang-moh girl in the basket is obviously not a local here, but so gung-ho in waving the uae flag…

preparing the balloons…

  we realized our mistake of choosing an aisle seat, coz it got really packed and there weren’t enough seats in the grandstand. so people started standing at the railing right in front of us! luckily later on there were event personnel who went around asking people to move

at around 7pm, they started inflating the balloons… this huge one was a gift to uae (didn’t really pay attention to the announcer, so didn’t hear WHO the gift was from), flew in directly from US. it’s in the shape of a giant birthday cake

then the rest of the balloons were inflated, with air being blown in using giant fans…

then hot air was used to make the balloons stand…

then they switched off all the lights and each balloon took turns puffing the fire, so that there’s a blinking effect…

people and cars were used as anchor…

after about 30 min, they started to deflate the balloons… so much work for just a 30 min display??

we got free lanterns!

while the hot-air balloon display was going on, i saw around me many people holding the floating lanterns. so my colleague asked a man behind us where he got his and he said he won the coupons in a competition. we were like, “huh?” then i saw 2 ladies in front of me holding some coupons, so i asked them where they got their coupons. they said they called in to a radio station and won them… we were quite worried that we can only get the lanterns by winning these coupons, coz we didn’t have any coupon! can’t we buy them off the counter? then the ladies in front of us turned to me and said i can have 1 of their coupons, coz they have enough. woo-hoo! anyway, one coupon is for 4 lanterns… later we found out that they do sell the lantern coupons, for aed 40 per coupon. meaning one lantern is aed 10 (about rm 8).

a runaway, or rather, flyaway lantern…

after the hot-air balloon display, the dj announced that they will be opening the gates soon to let us go down to release our floating lanterns. he also specifically told us many times not to release our lanterns from the grandstand, coz it would be very dangerous… but there are still some who are stubborn/don’t understand english/boh-tak-chek (hokkien: never go to school). haiz…

we were very excited that while waiting, we quickly prepared our lanterns by fixing the wax to the wire below. i also told my colleagues about the chinese custom of writing our wishes onto the lanterns, which resulted in a mad scramble looking for pens in our bags! hahaha…

this is probably the closest i’d ever get to a horse racetrack!

lighting my first ever kong ming lantern!

taking flight!

halfway through, they switched off the lights, which made the place even prettier. should’ve switched them off earlier lar! then my colleague’s boyfriend bought some more lanterns, so we had another chance to make our wishes! :D

sending wishes to the heavens…

well, it’s not exactly like in “tangled”, but it was pretty enough for me… :)

staff party '11

ok, this is also another long-overdue post - my company's staff party, which happened last september. the theme was "hollywood" and at first, they said to just dress up as our favourite star, actor or actresses.

this, in a way, can be very easy or very difficult. easy in a sense that we can just dress up in our best tux or gown, like in a red carpet event. but it's very difficult if we wish to be recognized for the star we're dressing up as. i think in the history of hollywood, there are very few stars with distinctive characteristic that is easily recognizable. i can only think of just a handful, like marilyn monroe, charlie chaplin, elizabeth taylor, elvis prestley and... that's it.

so i went to hr to give my feedback, that it's better to include characters as well. that way, our choice of costumes can be expanded further. so at the last minute (in the final week), hr agreed and changed the "definition" to the theme.

guess who i went as? ;)

at first i wanted to make my own costume, but my colleague found a costume rental place so i tagged along to see what they have. the adult size of the costume for the character i wanted is only for sale, not for rent. and it's only one piece of cloth with nothing else, for AED370 (≈ RM309). crazy... i won't even buy a piece of dress that i like for that price! then the shop girl said i can try the one for kids (with much assurance that it'll fit me), which is for rental at AED150 (≈ RM125), and comes with the full set of accessories (like the tie shown above).

if u still don't know who i went as, i was the boy who lived lar...

only me and 2 other colleagues from my department went dressed as a character. the rest of the company went in "red carpet" theme. anyway, here are some photos to share.

here's me manning my department's games booth. before the dinner starts, there's a segment where each department was given a "booth" for games and we had to sell tickets before the event to get people to come play our game. the game we chose were "guess the movie" (in-line with the "hollywood" theme) and we even gave away free popcorns! and no, i don't know what my colleague and i were sniggering about there...

as an added bonus, we even prepared this mug-shot thingy (dunno what's the actual name for this) free for anyone who stopped by our booth. i was the one who printed this out, joint up the pieces, stick them onto a foam board and cut it up! i had to do it twice, coz i got the hole for shrek's face too big. it's still too big the 2nd time, but slightly better than the first and i couldn't be bothered to do it a 3rd time. also, i was out of foam board and our printer ink was running dangerously low!

cam-whoring at the booth... no points for guessing that our "business" didn't do too well that night :P

each department had to prepare a performance too. sorry for the blur pic...

i suggested we do a number from "phantom of the opera" (again, in-line with the theme), with the song "masquerade". i feel it was an awesome idea, coz the other departments would surely do hot and sexy dances or dance to fast music etc, and ours would really stand out. too bad, my colleagues weren't very keen to take part and we had to literally force everyone to put each foot in front of the other. it's really that bad! so we got our act sorted out at the very last minute (an hour before the party, actually!) and only managed to do a very very short presentation. we were just getting started and the audience were only starting to anticipate a great performance from us, and then it ended! haha...

more cam-whoring... this is just part of my department actually. a few were missing, probably partying off somewhere with the free-flow booze, and some just didn't show up for the party just because they refused to dance! what wet blankets...

cool props prepared by the party committee... :D

best costumes of the night, roxy (of 1920's harlem) and zoro. both are from my department. so means i didn't win for best dressed, but i still had fun dressing up! :)

my department also won the 2nd runner up for departmental presentation, so at least our efforts paid off!

here's a final cam-whoring photo of me in closing... i love this costume so much! :D

addicted to prezi!

i came to know about prezi last week, when my gen-y gm (or so he claims!) requested us to do up a presentation using it. it's such a cool app!


so i've made up another presentation for my department's christmas party, and everyone loved it! hehehe... just wanna share it with everyone here (tho' u're NOT invited to the party! :P)


wait for it to load fully, hover your mouse over the word "more" to view it in full screen, and keep clicking > to advance to the next slide.

sales & marketing xmas gathering on Prezi

here's another cool presentation, by the prezi team themselves. but this required a higher level of skills, involving flash and photoshop etc...

del – agra – kul: my 2nd wonders of the world

as mentioned, it was just a short stay in the comfy and luxurious hotel. i was out of the hotel by 4am, dammit! that’s because i’m going to agra, a town next to delhi, and then had to be back at delhi the very same day to catch my night flight to my final destination, HOME! so the travel agent said that in order to do that, i have to start my journey to agra very early, coz the traffic condition can be quite unpredictable.

i think the driver the tour agent sent had a secret dream to be a formula 1 driver, coz he was driving like a crazy person the whole way! speeding, overtaking, swerving in and out, honking impatiently and worse of all, wanting to pick fights with other drivers! i was quite worried that i may not be able to make it back home in one piece that i didn’t dare doze off in the 5 hour journey…

once at agra, we picked up my guide, whose name had escaped me (sign of old age!) and we proceeded to my 2nd wonders of the world (the first being the angkor wat): taj mahal!

the driver brought us to the parking lot of the complex and my guide told me that that’s the furthest we can go by car. from there onwards, we had to either go on foot, or take one of the various vehicles there: tonga (a kind of horse-drawn carriage), the camel-drawn carriage, tuk-tuk or trishaw. as my package specified tonga, that’s what my guide and i rode in.

i really pity the horse. very skinny, smelly and it’s very obvious that it has not been well-kept. life is indeed hard there, even for the animals. especially for the animals :’(

the camels were pathetic looking too… :(

approaching the outer entrance to the complex

 the inner entrance to the complex… we’re there, but not quite there! my guide was explaining to me about the 11 small onion-shaped domes at the top, but i wasn’t really paying much attention, coz i was impatient to go inside!

the front view of the inner entrance…

first glimpse of the white-marbled taj… my guide told me to stand on the line on the floor, and i can see the perfect symmetry of the entrance with the taj inside!

inside the gate, which is really a building by itself. i should’ve paid more attention to where i was standing to shoot this pic. now it’s not quite a perfect symmetry :(

and then it’s there, right before my eyes…

but before i can proceed to get a closer look, my guide insisted that i have my picture taken on this bench first and then bore me with a long grandmother story of the background of the mausoleum. things like king shah jahan, his queen mumtaz, the construction process, the architects and artists, the reasons for the various side towers and buildings, the architecture bla bla bla… to learn more about the taj mahal, go read here

then only i realized that he’s not gonna go with me, but will let me explore the place by myself while he waited for me on this bench. hmp, so lazy! but i was glad to ditch him too, coz he can be a real bore! hehehe…

of course, he did tell me where to go, what to see and where to take the best shots… took me dem long to take this shot, and as you can see from the position of the sprinkler/fountain faucets in the pond, it wasn’t taken from the very middle. that’s because there were so many blardy inconsiderate tourists who were busy posing and hogging the view!

  before coming here, my indian colleagues told me that we have to remove our shoes before stepping onto the white marble floors. luckily my guide bought shoe covers for me at the ticket booth, coz it was raining earlier and i was quite apprehensive about walking around in my socks on the wet floor, or worse, go barefoot!

some inscriptions and patterns on the walls…

marble flowers…

the patterns on the walls were not painted on, because dye tends to fade with time. all the colours on the walls are actually gems and precious stones! i only remember the blue colour is lapis lazuli…

view of the entrance from the taj…

after exploring the inner chambers of the taj (we’re not allowed to take photos inside, but there’s a replica of queen mumtaz’s [right in the middle] and shah jahan’s [off to the side] tombs in there) and the side buildings of the complex, i went to meet my guide and we left the place. then i found out that my package did not include a ride out and i would have to pay extra for it! *^&@&#$^&#$@

3 men came over to try to get my business by begging my guide to engage their service. but my guide told them it’s up to me and then asked me to choose between a tuk-tuk, a tonga or a trishaw.

i chose the trishaw, coz i feel the trishaw paddler deserved my money the most, as it will be from his own effort. the tuk-tuk is motor-powered and the tonga operator is just abusing his horse for personal gains! also, the trishaw paddler looked the most kesian…

next, my guide instructed the driver to bring us to a shop selling authentic “stuff”, as my guide put it. earlier at the car park area of the taj mahal area, he stressed to me a few times not to buy from the many street peddlers there, as those are all fakes. i didn’t quite understand what are the “those” he was referring to, but soon realized it when i stepped into the shop.

a demonstration of how the gems and precious stones were laid into the marbles…

apparently, the “fake stuff” my guide was talking about were marbles! here at the shop, i was shown “authentic” marble furniture and other decorative stuff, with an explanation of how to spot a real marble from a fake one. as if i’d wanna buy a huge and heavy marble dining table that seats 12 people while on holiday! *rolls eyes* and when my guide saw that i only bought 2 tiny marble fridge magnets, he was clearly disappointed. and we all know why!

next, we went to visit the agra fort just opposite the river from taj mahal. read all about it here

it was said that nearing the end of his life, shah jahan was imprisoned by his son (who has overtaken the throne after killing the crown prince, shah jahan’s eldest son) in this fort, and this was the balcony from where shah jahan would look out towards the taj mahal everyday, which holds the remains of his beloved queen mumtaz

view from the chamber of shah jahan’s youngest daughter, which is right next to the chamber he was imprisoned in. the reason their chambers are next to each other was because the king (the son who deserved to be lightning-struck) wanted his sister to care for their father

some similarities with taj mahal, as parts of the fort were built by shah jahan, who prefers white marbles to red bricks

it’s a huge complex but as i’ve seen what i’ve come to agra to see and also i was really worried if i’d be able to make it back on time to delhi for my flight, i wasn’t really interested in exploring every nook and cranny of this fort

the journey back to delhi was jam crazy!

on the way back, we made a stop at fatehpur sikri, as part of my tour itinerary. but as it has started raining again, the guide asked if i wanna go in coz there aren’t any shelter in there, just a huge open space complex. i said no, coz it’s just a lesser-known unesco world heritage site that i’ve never even heard about before i came. so we just dashed out from the car to snap this photo and back into the car! and the driver didn’t even park the car, coz the traffic was jam like mad outside. the car was just a few meters ahead from where we got off!

on the drive back to delhi, the driver said i had to take a picture of this mosque, which was built as a replica of the taj mahal. not that i care, but he purposely slowed down the car for me to snap it, so had to oblige lar… :P

having checked out of the hotel at such an ungodly hour, i only had some oreos biscuits with plain water for breakfast and i was nearly dying of hunger by 2pm, when the driver turned into this roadside makan place. it’s obviously an establishment for tourists and travelers like me, coz there are shops selling trinkets and stuff at the side, something like those roadside food courts that some of the express busses turned into back home. i contemplated on getting a kamasutra book for my brother from one of the stalls there, but decided not to in case the customs officer wanna check my bag!

not really liking the idea of eating food from a road side establishment but not having much choice about it, i took my chance with a chicken thali, remembering how good they were in pokhara. but obviously they’re not the same thing… didn’t really finish it. luckily it didn’t do anything weird to my stomach

made it to indra gandhi international airport in good time at about 6pm (my flight was at 9.55pm) and this was my last meal in india: mc donald’s! so obvious that i’m done being adventurous with food, huh?

 touched down in lcct at 6am the next morning, exhausted and in serious need of a shower! here’s a pic i posted on my fb wall…

so, this concludes my dxb–ktm–del–kul holiday series! *phew* took me long enough to post everything up… sorry again for stretching them over nearly 3 months. now i can go on and post about something else. and also looking forward to my 3rd wonders of the world holiday next year! ;)