Caca marba

Well, that's the best description of my first half of 2011. There were so many things going on. So many things on my plate. So little time to really focus on each one. And I ended up feeling so tired. I need a long holiday, but now it's not the suitable time. In fact, I'm not taking any long holiday this year because of a few reasons.


So, I'll just take half day off now and then, depending on my schedule. Overlapping appointment is the thing I hate most. With all these calendering system, electronic meeting invitation etc, people still invited me blindly, didn't really bother to check for slot availability. When I reject their invitation, they feel offended.


I just don't get Malaysian time management. They can choose to arrive 45 late to appointments, but get offended when people reject their last minute meeting invitations. *Pbfftttttt!*


It was in the news yesterday that Malaysian women are at number 16 in the list of most depressed women in this whole world. Indian women are on top of the list, followed by our Mexican friends.


So, why are Malaysian women so depressed that we managed to beat Malaysian football team world ranking? If you are a woman like me, you'd know the answer. The stress we are experiencing are coming from all angles. There's no way we can escape, and the only choice left is to deal with them. If I escape, that would mean I'm a quitter. If I deal with them, they usually add more to the stress. If I ignore them, I'd be accused of being irresponsible. So, which one should I choose?


So far, the best option is still to deal with them - all of them.
Society's expectation of working mothers are just absurd. Most of the time, people just tend to forget that working mothers are human just like the rest.


But how often do we read in the news about stressed working moms in Malaysia who committed suicide? Any statistics available?


There was one case reported by Malaysian newspapers a few months ago, but it was claimed that the woman was mentally unstable. The daughter had to witness her mother committed suicide. Aaaah...another stress the daughter would have to live with for the rest of her life.


Sometimes, I wished I lived as a working mum in the 1970s. Or, I didn't even have to work, but stayed at home and had gossip sessions in the afternoons with my neighbours. I imagined, the kids will be at school in the morning, while I cooked, cleaned and had my morning tea breaks. In the afternoon they'd be at the religious school, while I watched soap opera on TV. But hey, there's no ASTRO back in the 70s. So, I'll be probably watching TV pendidikan while folding the clothes.


But that's just my imagination.


But sometimes, it helps to have all these imaginations. When I started reading Growing up in Trengganu, and Map of Trengganu, both books brought back old memories of the 1970s, living in a kampung and day time used to be so damn long. There are a few chapters from Map of Trengganu that I reread because I really enjoyed going back to those times (virtually - only in my mind).


What I'm trying to tell here is that, sometimes, if you really feel that you are troubled and can't escape from all these stress, just psych yourself with some good books and the next day, you're ready to face life again.


Sekian, terima kasih.

Home improvement

After sacking my brengsek Bibik last year, I was left with hideous looking kitchen cabinet as a result of her stupidity. Just imagine, each time she did the dishes, she'd nearly flood the kitchen. Since my sink then had started having problems, water leaked into the base cabinet. So there was a huge gap between the sink and the tabletop. After a few months the adjoining base cabinet started having molds growing thanks to all the moist.

We've been trying to get quotations from kitchen cabinet contractors but they're reluctant to replace just 2 base cabinets. They all adviced us to throw away everything and install a whole new set. Since none of the quotation was attractive, we decided to just go to IKEA with our kitchen measurement. The planner at IKEA was very friendly and he explained the process and what will take place. During the first visit, we shared with him the basic requirements such as cabinet placements, type of drawers we needed, shelves the sink. About a week later, their contractor came for detail measurement of our kitchen. His name was Mr. Lim and he equipped with many sophisticated measuring devices which we never saw most of them before. After producing a more detail drawing, we went back to the IKEA kitchen planner for another round of discussion. He produced another drawing using his workstation and pointed out what are the measurements still missing. So, we went back to get the missing info and paid another visit the next week to finalize the design and purchase the items.

The boxes were delivered early to our home and the contractor came three days later for installation. The old base cabinets took less than half an hour to dismantle.  They continued with installation and everything was completed before 5pm on the same day. I was happy with their workmanship.

Finally, the base kitchen cabinet was replaced with a new set.

Notice the difference in tone between the base and wall cabinets? We didn't change the wall cabinets as they're all still in very good condition. The biggest enemy of kitchen cabinets is the moisture. If you can maintain them well and prevent too much moisture, they can surely last, even if they're cheap ones.

The refrigerator was relocated and I have more space

The fridge was originally located next to the water filter/dispenser. Since it became quite a nuisance to me we decided to move it to the right side of the kitchen.

The voucher from the cabinet purchased was used for getting this.

A few weeks after the cabinet installation, we went back to IKEA to redeem the vouchers. We got the book rack above plus two more book shelves for Wazif & Shawqi's room FOR FREE!! He he he...

Cabinet negative test session by Zarif. This one failed, we bought another design.

Zarif is always excited to explore whenever we bring him to IKEA. He loves the kitchen section especially. He'd climb into one cabinet after another, played with the door handles and run happily between the aisles.

One of the latest books added to the new book rack. Awesome!

Now that I have extra space in my new book rack, I decided to add a few new titles to my collections. Starting with this book by Awang Goneng. A beautifully written non-fiction about the state I love most : Trengganu. How can you not love Trengganu? Reading this book really make we wanna go there immediately, have keropok lekor and fried ice cream at Pantai Batu Burok and then lazying all day. Oh well, I think that's exactly what I need. The hypertension I'm having might be a signal to go on long vacation in Trengganu. Hahahaha!

IWD: Tribute To Minah Karan

Yesterday was International Women's Day. I got to wish a few women I know and by lunch time my mind started wondering and remembering all the women I've met in the past and we never crossed path again.
During my second year doing my Bachelor's Degree a few of my housemates decided to work during semester break. Three of us went for job interview at an electronic factory in Balakong. We were staying in Taman Muhibbah then, so Balakong was just 10 minutes bike ride from our place.

We got the job as operators. The interview was hilarious. My friends told me to not reveal to the interviewer that I was a student. So, I pretended that I was a jobless woman living nearby and when he asked what I was currently doing, I told her that I just stayed at home, watch TV and did some sewing (and that was actually the truth - those were my activities during semester breaks!)

Two of us started work the next day. I quit on the second day. My friend was mad at me because she was the one doing all the homework to find the place and taught me how to excel the interview. I quit because I couldn't stand the environment. We were all sitting in lines, doing repetitive work, which was making my fingers and back hurt. While working, the women around me were all gossiping, cursing, fighting with each other and during short breaks most of them went to reapply their make-up. Some of the boys there were bullying some of the girls and there was one particular guy who was trying to his luck on me. I told him off. He never came near me again that day.

After quitting that job I went to another interview at another electronic factory in Seri Kembangan with my other housemate. We got the job and we didn't even have to lie. The manager knew we were students. He welcomed us because he wanted undergrads to have a taste of working life. And it's cheap labour too. I think we were paid RM400 per month, which was good enough. I paid the rent and bought a few pairs of clothes with that money.

But still, we had to do the usual repetitive work. I remember the factory was producing computer chips and cell phone parts. I was assigned to a line that assembled really tiny LEDs and their tiny housing. I was told it was for Ericsson cell phones. My guess was they're battery indicators. If you still remember those days, when the battery was full, the green LED will flash. If it's orange, your battery was weak and needed recharging.

At this small factory I got to know three girls who happened to be siblings: Along, Huda and Lynn. They lived nearby and we went to their house a couple of times. The three of them had no resemblance at all. I was quite surprised to learn that they're sisters. Along was in her mid twenties, Huda was 19 and Lynn was 18 that year. But all of them looked much older than their age.

The three of them fought a lot, even during operation hours. Lynn would call her elder sisters' names and Huda cursed the most. Along is the quieter one but she loved to pinch people. After a short gossip session with her, you'll surely bring home a few blue black spots. Lynn was a tomboy. She dressed, walked and talked like a boy. Huda told me that her younger sister had a few girlfriends. During one of our short breaks, I asked Lynn about it but she denied being a lesbo. She told me she just liked girls.

One weekend they invited us to have lunch at their house. The three of them were staying with their parents. The house was quite small for 5 adults, they were sharing rooms and the mother told me that Lynn was still sleeping with them. No wonder she's still the youngest, I told the mother.

That day Lynn sat next to me after lunch and told me that she's envious of us. I asked why. She said she wanted to have higher academic qualification but her exam results were not good enough and her parents couldn't afford to send her to any private college. In her tomboy voice she told me,
'Aku benci tau korang dapat belajar sampai university. Tapi aku kena keje.'

There's no better advice I could give her than,

'Kau keje lah kumpul duit, bila dah cukup kau sambunglah belajar sendiri.'

Well, it's quite easy to advice a tomboy because I don't have to find flowery sentences to start with.

'Oi, blah la kau. Berapa tahun aku kena keje kilang ni nak kumpul duit?' She gave me a soft punch on the shoulder and I just laughed.

That conversation took place in 1996. Two years after graduation I was back in Seri Kembangan because I was craving for Pisang Sira sold at the Pasar Ramadhan. While walking towards my hubby's car, a girl on a bike called out my name. I turned to look and it was Lynn.

We shook hands and asked about each other's life. I told her I was recently married and working in Damansara. I asked about her and she let out a big laugh.

'Aku tengah final year Diploma ni. Akupun nak jadi pandai macam kau!'

Well I was so happy to hear that. Apparently, she took my advice and continued working in the factory to save money for her education.

Ever since that day, I never looked at all Minah Karan the same again. They might be doing those boring repetitive works and underpaid. But deep inside many of them have ambitions and the drive to be better.

Happy International Women's Day you all!

Move aside iPad, here comes the Sanitary Pad!

Sanitary pads have always been a big issue when I was in STF. It’s always highlighted by the HEM and Puan Pengetua during our weekly assembly in the big hall. One can never guess how much trouble sanitary pads can bring. We women (young girls back then) understood that it’s one of our basic necessities but it never occurred to some of us how the mis-management could be disastrous.

It was 1988 when Rentokil first came to the school to brief us all on how to properly dispose our ‘bloody’ sanitary pads. At the beginning of the session, the representative from Rentokil showed us a tiny tampon. Well, I think about 80% of us didn’t even recognize that thing until one of the juniors asked her friend and a few seniors overheard her. The senior answered loudly, ‘Itu tampon la dik, function dia sama macam pad.’

Then the Rentokil representative showed us how the tampon expanded 20 times over after it’s soaked in tap water for more than half an hour. Our usual wide smiles transformed into big 'O's when we saw that. For the next 10 minutes or so we were lectured on how that tiny tampon can cause blockage in the drainage system… yadda… yadda… yadda… I think she didn’t demonstrate how big a normal (or winged) sanitary pad would expand if it’s soaked in tap water, perhaps she didn’t have a big enough container for that experiment.

So, after everyone understood the importance of managing and disposing our sanitary pads properly, the next weekend every toilet in the school was equipped with Rentokil feminine hygiene unit (that’s the pad disposer lah). The dorm prefects were very happy as their headache will be lesser once the girls started to use the thing.

Prior to having Rentokil in our hostel life, I couldn’t really remember how we disposed our pads. I remember having to wash and wrap them nicely with the newspapers we hang nicely in every toilet. The dorm on duty to wash toilet for the week will have to prepare the newspapers for this purpose. I couldn’t remember whether there was a dedicated waste basket for the nicely wrapped pads. But the washing and wrapping issue was raised many times during block meetings especially when some girls were unbelievably forgetful that they left their pads in the toilets and didn’t go through the boring ritual. It was not an easy thing to tackle; educating the new girls were challenging enough and when we found out even some of the seniors did that too, we were left speechless, didn’t know what to do.

Okay, now fast forward to 2010, to the recent UMNO general assembly to be specific. Why did so many people criticized and ridiculed Azura Mohd Afandi, the JB Puteri UMNO chief when she raised the issue of sanitary pad adverts? It’s a huge thing people!!! The disasters sanitary pads could bring can be bigger than KL flash flood or food poisoning cases in hostels.

For open-minded-modern-urban people (guys included), sanitary pad adverts are just adverts – a way to promote a product. You watch it on TV, you know about the product, you’ll buy it if you’re interested and that’s it. It’s not a big deal. Some of the adverts didn’t even register in your head – which brand was that? What’s the pad that features 2 big melons in the advert? Or what’s that pad advert that has people snapping photos of their butt? Well, I couldn’t remember their brands either.

However, we can’t discount the fact that there exist perverts, shallow Hals, people who lacks sex education (hey, most of us are – it’s not part of our school curriculum), sex maniacs and even those with unbelievably advance imaginations. I was told by my primary school friends that some of their uncles could smell women’s period and it turned them on. Wah, I was so scared when I heard about it. How could the smell of blood turn men on? The scariest part was I knew their uncles, and they looked like really nice adults.

During high school, some of our female teachers also reminded us to keep a certain distance from the male teachers when we’re having our period due to the same reason. So, it must be true if that came from our teachers, right? So, everytime we had our period, we had to be extra careful. Don’t stand too close to the male teachers. Don’t walk pass by the male teachers. Don’t give them any clue that you’re having your period. If you buy pads from the co-op, make sure it’s wrapped with dark papers before putting them in the plastic. And when we were younger (form one and form two) we were told not to mention that we’ve already reached puberty. During that innocent age, we just obliged. Being the good girls we were, we never questioned the instructions given by our female teachers – Ustazahs especially.

However, when I grew up and thought about that, hey something must be very wrong with our society. What is the problem with women having our regular menses? It’s fitrah what? Why can’t men deal with it and accept it as just another normal thing like feeling hungry or sleepy. Those are also fitrah manusia.

Whether we like it or not, discussions on puberty, menstruation period, sanitary pads and anything related to women reproduction system is still very much a sensitive thing in our society. Some mothers and grandmothers still consider them as taboo. Actually I’d love to see reactions from very traditional men who live in the remotest kampong in this country when they watch the sanitary pad advert that features the two melons. They might be disgusted, tickled to their bones or suddenly turned on. I don’t know. More experiments need to be done.

In the meantime (while waiting for some NGO that are interested to organize the experiment), I just want to say that there’s nothing wrong with Azura’s speech and the issue she raised. We all came from different upbringing; we look at things differently. The saddest thing is, most of the scenes you watch in the Cerekarama or Telefilm shown in our local TV stations happen in real life. We never know if incest cases or gang rapes were caused by sanitary pad adverts, but perverts and people with uncontrollable raging hormones exist everywhere.

To Azura, we know you meant well but it’s always wiser to support a concern or theory with survey results and analysis, statistics and recognized studies. 

Some hapdets

Just had rice with masak lemak nenas and ikan masin for lunch and now feeling really not up to anything. Can I just curl up here at my cubicle, on my chair (that suddenly feels extra comfy today) and listen to Mariah Carey on iTunes.... and then silently fall asleep without anyone noticing? Wah, bertuah kalau dapat buat camtu.
I'm supposed to have a meeting right after lunch but only received a noticed that it was canceled a few minutes ago. Damn, if only they informed me earlier .....

So, have you gone to the Book Fair at PWTC? I went on Sunday and it was packed - looked a lot like PC fair. However, at a closer look the jam packed area was only around the booths of publishers of Buku Kerja, Buku Latihan and buku Ulangkaji Peperiksaan. The booths which sold technical books and tertiary education reference books semuanya lengang-lengang aje. So, tell me again are all the parents still obsessed with their kids' exams? The answer is obviously 'YES'. Even I tried to persuade the kids to choose some exercise books for Primary 1 and 2 but both of them refused (sebab diorang tau nanti balik-balik diorang yang banyak kena buat keje, pastu tak boleh tengok Cartoon Network).

In the end, we only bought a Sahibba set and a construction book set (it's a book filled with pieces of a windmill and a park which you have to construct, lah). Obviously, the latter was Shawqi's choice.

Now I am not sure whether I should follow the footsteps of the other Kiasu parents to start registering my kids for tuitions. After 4 months of schooling this year I realized that Wazif is not getting on very well with his Maths while Shawqi is still very poor in spelling (both Malay and English). It would be good if I have the extra time to drill them with Maths and spelling exercises tapi, sebab akupun malas maka semua itu hanya tinggal plan sajalah. Aku bukan setakat malas, aku sebenarnya menyampah tengok buku sekolah akibat selalu sangat dipaksa pegi Prep masa kat STF dulu. Hehehe... Let's hope both my kids would never find this blog entry, ok.

Oh, I just found out that neither of them are learning History at school. Wazif knew about the Mahsuri legend from his Bahasa Malaysia teacher who just happened to be in the mood to tell the story to his class last week. In that case I'll just use Tunku Halim's encyclopedia to teach them about Malaysia history. By the way, Tunku Halim's encyclopedia is written in English, so I'll still need to find the time to read and discuss with the kids. That means I'll need to sacrifice either Merlin or CSI NY or Knight Rider show in order to free up my time slot. My TV time is important but so does the kids' education .... hehehe.

To all mothers, check your kids' school bag today. It might surprise you to learn so many new things (contohnya, ada chewing gum yang kawan dia kasi, ada toy yang you tak beli, their incomplete exercises, homework yang dia pura-pura tak ingat etc).

I support Majlis Fatwa

Spit on me, beat me, sue me for I have to support Majlis Fatwa Kebangsaan. This entry has been in draft mode for several days and I think the issues are rather 'basi' by now. At first, I thought maybe I should write something about Abby's and Norman's marriage but decided not to as I have my own marriage to look after. According to my mom, 'sila jaga kelambu sendiri'. We don't know what happened inside their 'kelambu', so let's not comment much. I read somewhere that the fatwa on Yoga will be announced by the end of this week, so I thought, let me just publish this draft.

I'll not write about Yoga, I don't have enough reference and haven't done enough research. My principle is simple, if you don't have in depth knowledge about something, don't bother to participate in the arguments related to the subject. Just sit down quietly in front of the PC and click on other blog links.

However, an author published this writing tip at her website some time ago: Write about things that you know or something that you'd like to know more. So, I decided maybe I should write about the dress code for female Muslims. Not sure whether the fatwa is out but I feel a fatwa will be redundant as the 'aurat' guideline is clearly stated in the Quran itself.

If additional guidelines are to be handed out to every female Muslim in this country they might come complete with illustrations with detail measurements.

We are one jumpy society. When the news was first published in local papers, almost everyone jumped and I think we jumped too quickly; many people questioned it too. Many got the impression it's going to be unfair to many women. But many of us forgot that we were judging the whole thing based on a few paragraphs of news. Did we know the whole idea Majlis Fatwa was coming up with? Maybe not. Did we get to read the complete proposal? No, I didn't get to read it.

IMHO, the 'dressing like a male' Majlis Fatwa was referring to might be similar to the following picture (yes, Majlis Fatwa... a few images or illustrations might come in handy if new guidelines are to be produced):


Is that a girl?
Is that a boy?
Is that a girlboy?
Rather confusing, isn't it?

Human being human, at times we do have a certain funny feeling towards another person of a similar gender (but we don't necessarily have to act on it).

But, if the girl in the picture above started acting like a dude, moves like a dude and could charm the girls better than any other dude, some girl might end up acting on her funny feelings.



But you can't tell a lesbo only by judging her physical appearance, because I've met girls who are pretty and dress like the girl in the following picture who are lesbos. And their partners are as pretty.



Whatever it is, dudes... it's your loss.

On kids, men and FHM

Credit: Charlie Brown strip is from a forwarded email. I believe the sender got it from United Media. Please notify me should this is against cyber publication law.

Oh well, what an uneventful Wednesday today. After one day of sick leave yesterday, with so many people calling me, I’m feeling really frustrated today for nothing interesting seems to be happening when I’m around. I wonder why so many things tend to go wrong whenever I’m sick/take time off/take annual leave. This is which Murphy’s Law, I don’t know.

Yeah, I was about to write on this kiddy joke I don’t understand. It’s really frustrating, you know when your kids were laughing about something but you don’t really get it. Okay, Waz1f and Shawq1 have been doing this for some time now. First, one of them would point to an object in the house (the tv, coffee table, dvd player etc), then say, ‘Stupid apple! Stupid apple!’ Then both of them will burst out laughing. After that, the other one would point to the same object and repeat, ‘Stupid apple! Stupid apple!’ and they will laugh again.

Most of the times, Mr. Hubby and I will just give each other the confused look. We still couldn’t find out the source of the joke, and we certainly didn’t understand what it’s all about. Could it be from Spongebob? Simpsons? Ben Ten? Teen Titans? If you know what ‘Stupid Apple’ is all about, please enlighten me.

Sometimes, it’s really difficult to get into men’s heads (my children’s too). Maybe that’s why I decided to have an all-male-authors’ books this week. Orhan Pamuk’s ‘My name is Red’ and Eric Jerome Dickey’s ‘Liar’s Game’ are my choices for this school holiday (like I’m going for holiday, lah… hahaha). Let’s see what I can gather after completing these two. It’s time for some adventure into the endangered species’ minds.

Other than that, I’m beginning to really love Anuar Zain’s ‘Lelaki Ini’. Yet to understand the meaning of the whole wordings and I am not really sure whether it’s dedicated to a girl or another man. Hahahaha. Mana-mana pun boleh kot. Wink! Wink!

Many friends are wondering why I read FHM. Well, it’s not so much about getting into men’s heads. It’s just that I’d rather drool over hot, babelicious girls in skimpy clothes than reading about Mak Datins in branded outfits/a few millions worth of jewellery/luxurious cars/heavily decorated bungalows and not to mention having wrinkled arms but perfectly botox’ed faces. They're just - ewwwwwwww!

Chicken Story

You may have received this email or heard the story during your mamak sessions. Tapi, bacalah jugak lagi... hihihi.

Cerita Ayam Yang Macho

Ceritanya berkisar di sebuah ladang penternakan ayam yang terletak di Gunung Semanggul.Tentang sebuah peternakan ayam. Disana ada 25 Ayam betina dan seekor ayam jalak (kira ayam jantan macholah) yang umurnya sudah lanjut dimamah masa (cewah-cewah cam novel percintaan la pulak).

Karena merasa bahwa ayam jalak yang sudah tua tadi sudah melewati masa suburnya, si pemilik ladang tersebut memutuskan untuk membeli seekor ayam jalak lagi yang masih muda, tampan, segak, macho dan yang sewaktu denganya.

Dengan secara tidak sengaja hal ini membuatkan si ayam jalak tua menjadi merasa tersaing. Lalu bibit2 cemburu dan hasat dengki menguasai dirinya, mulalah diyer mengatur srategi. Lalu terjadi percakapan
seperti ini :

Si ayam jalak tua : Eh, kamu jangan serakah sgt kat sini. Ayam betinanya kan ada 25. Kamu boleh ambil yang 15, bakinya bagi aku.

Si ayam jalak muda: Banyak hensem ko punya muka, tua tak sedarkan diri. Hang tu dah tua dah tak larat dah so semua untuk aku sahaja.

Si ayam jalak tua : hek eleh...berlagak tul mamat seekor ni (jalak tua bercakap lam ati yer). Seper kata aku tua tak larat lagi, ko jgn pandang rendah pada aku, kang aku sekeh kang... O.klah, aku maleh nak gaduh ngan budak hingusan cam ko ni (jalak tua, menunjukkan eksen nyer) so apa kata kalau kita pertontonkan kemanchoan kita ngan mengadakan satu pertandingan. Siapa yang menang boleh ambil semua ayam betina yang ada kat sini ayam ini. Yang kalah kirim salam.

Si ayam jalak muda: Aku.. aku boleh sahaja, pantang dicabar ni. Kita nak buat pertandingan apa ni... cabut bulu ayam ker (jalak muda membuat lawak loya beruk giler)

Si ayam jalak tua : bukan! Senang jer pertandingan lumba lari.

Sambil tersenyum lembu, Si ayam jalak muda: Set

Si ayam jalak tua : Lumbanya 400M. tapi karena aku sudah tua, aku minta untuk lari dulu di depanmu 50 meter.

Si ayam jalak muda: Boleh (dengan penuh keyakinan).

Maka pertandingan pun dimulai. Ayam jalak tua lari dulu 50 meter baru ayam jalak yang muda lari menyusul dengan kecepatan kuasa extra gaban yang mengkagumkan. Eh, baru kurang 1 meter menyusul, si ayam jalak muda
ditembak langsung oleh pemilik peternakan. Kenapa?????

[jawaban ada di bawah]













Kata Pemilik : "Kurang ajar. INI AYAM JALAK-HOMOSEKS NI. Asal setiap aku beli dapat yang macam ni SUKA SANGAT KEJAR-KEJAR AYAM JALAK TUA AKU"


NiLAI MORAL : Jgn berlagak ngan org tua (diorang banyak trick, hehehe)
HORMATILAH ORANG YANG LEBIH TUA DARI KITA...

I am muslim, too.

You know what, if you buy (or borrow) this book and carry it around the office or at the shopping mall, you'll be famous in no time. Heh heh... and I'm not kidding you! Among the reactions I received from colleagues when they saw me carrying/reading this were:

"Argh, you bought that girl's book? I read her blogs and I... argh... she's just... argh..." ---- from a woman I hardly know.

"Hey! Where did you buy that book from, Borders? MPH? Times? I'm getting one for myself." ---- from a book worm I know.

"Hmmm... I heard that's a good one." --- from a very serious looking gentleman.

"Wow, it takes a really open minded person to read that book." --- from a colleague who knows me quite well.

"How controversial is it?" --- from a curious girl.

"After you!" --- from someone who plans to read something good, but no time to shop for books.



Liberal or conservative; practising Muslim or not,I think you all should buy and read it. You may be thrilled, agreeing to some, confused by some, wondered about some, have your jaws dropping at times, have to re-read some paragraphs at times and feel like calling your mom to confirm on certain facts.

Most of us went through the Malaysian Muslim's life as described by Dina, especially women. We made similar observations, faced similar problems, afraid to ask on why certain things are conducted in certain ways, confused with own feelings; torn between 'adat' and 'agama'.

I give this book 4 stars out of 5. Good adult read.

My only advice to you is not to label the author or the book before you read everything between the front and back covers.

Updated on Friday the 13th of April:

Orang lain letak gambar kek, I pun nak letak jugak gambar kek I kat sini:

You Are a Marble Cake

Eclectic, inventive, and peaceful. You are never willing to accept what's "normal." You live to push the envelope. You find it hard to make up your mind. You prefer to have everything you want, right away!

What Kind of Cake Are You?

Hmmmm... nasib baik I memang sukaaaaa sangat-sangat marble cake tu.


And then.... one more! I saw this one in a friend's posting some time ago. Baru sekarang I buat pulak...

You Are a Coy Flirt!

You're not so much a flirt as the type of girl who draws flirts in While you look like you're just relaxing, secretly you've got your game on A little look here, a little wink there... you give men the encouragement they crave And in return, they flirt up a storm with you - while you just sit and smile

What Kind of Flirt Are You?

Books for the week

They're none other than our very own Lydia's Honk! and Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things.

It was one of my year 2006's resolution to read as many books as possible in order to help change the statistic of Malaysian reading at an average of 2 books a year. So, last year I managed to complete 12 books (fiction) and 2 IT related books. That doesn't include the online books that I downloaded to my laptop and those I read for free at Amazon (yeah, they let you read a few pages and when things get exciting enough you'd realise that you can't click on the next button anymore... heheheheh... marketing strategy maaaa).

I planned to read these 2 books during the next 1 week or so. Honk! will be in my car, so that I can always finish one essay while waiting for the traffic light to turn green. Oh yes, I'm a speed reader and I'm as good as how I speed drive my car... hahahah... Thank god we don't get traffic summons for reading at 100 words/minute.

The God Of Small Things will be for bedtime reading. Well, that is supposed to be for winding down ..... let's see if it could keep me awake. I heard the story is rather intense. So, good luck to me. If you see me having sleep deprivation problem next week, you'll know why.

So, back to Lydia's Honk!, the best part of the book is actually a testimonial at the back cover by none other than Phua Chu Kang (Gurmit Singh) himself. I was reading it at MPH bookstore counter (yes, they displayed the book at the counter, you don't have to search for it at the fiction aisle), and I thought the guys behind the till machine as well as the rest of the customers were giving me a queer look when I laughed until my eyes were teary.

So far I have read about 8 essays and they left me either chuckling or laughing hard rolling on the floor, but later on made me think again about them. Not many anecdotal humours made me think. Some just left me feeling disgusted and then had to fight the urge of throwing the book away (or maybe donate the book to homeless people in cold countries, so that they have more things to get the fire going by the dirty alleys they live in).

Mrs. Lydia Teh's writing made me think hard and suddenly I found myself trying to find a formula or ways to help correct some of the social illnesses in the society or even how I could help to ease some of the Malaysian's burden. Waaa.... don't pray pray.... the book can even help inspire some of the readers to become a politician someday... heheheheh.

Well, if you haven't bought Honk!, please go to the nearest MPH bookstore and get yourself a copy. You cannot borrow mine because I haven't finished reading it... hahahahah.
By the way, the foreword by my favorite-of-all-time-Cikgu-Bedah: Adibah Amin is just marvellous. I'm getting her new novel some time next month :).