reunion dinner with old schoolmates

a couple of months ago, i bumped into an old school mate who used to be THE sports girl in school for a couple of consecutive years. we played hockey together (yes, me).

anyways, this girl, she still keeps in touch with a lot of people, including our teachers. haha... our maths & PE teachers who were & still are married to each other.

i dont know whether to look forward to our dinner or not. the invitees are not exactly people i were close to in school. neither were they my highschool nemesises (is there such a plural word?). but i guess it would be fun to see what happened to who, who looks like what now & who has the goss on other people.

if i'm honest with myself, which sometimes im not, what im really concerned with is what i'll wear tomorrow hahaha... & because of that, i feel like leaving work early today. just so i can go & see what i can get. i want a pair of new jeans & some new tops. i went to cats whiskers a couple of days ago. not so nice lah their things. thinking of checking out nichii. but honestly i am so malas to go. the spirit is willing but the flesh is not.

you know what i've discovered? that i dont have many clothes (although the husband disagrees). if you look at pictures of me over the last 5 years, i wear the SAME thing. in fact, get this, i wore the same attire for my 6yr old nephew's baptism & his 1yr old sister's bday party. lers... AND my sil noticed it too. how embarrassing hor?

but then again these school mates who i've not seen since 1994 surely wont know that i'm recylcling my clothes over the years izenit? unless of course they ask for my albums lah hehehe.

i still havent decided whether to leave early or not today & if i do pun, im not sure whether i will go shopping.

has anyone seen the new levi's for women yet? thinking of getting those but first mau check budget dulu.

i married an indian

yes i did.

although he claims he is italian (in jest of course). so to those of you who said my son looks mat salleh, well, the husband's response is "i dont know why people are surprised. i am italian whatttt!" ptoooiii!!

anyways, although indian, he loves western dishes especially italian (surprise, surprise). he does have some favorite indian dishes though but luckily, he doesnt expect me to cook it. well, i think it would be nice if i learned how to but earlier, in ensuring that he doesnt expect me to be the subservient little woman, i said that i would learn on condition that HE learns it first & then he can teach me. so, i am proud to announce that the husband has been taking cooking lessons from his mom. & i stand around making susu & cooking porridge for my son haha.

i dont have any major issues with this inter-racial marriage. & for that i am lucky & grateful. my in laws too are liberal & mature & modern about multi-racial relationships. i see a lot of chinese, eurasians, malays, mat sallehs & even filipinos in the mix. so its all good.

however, both of us feel a bit sad that our individual cultures probably won't pass down to our children. ya lah... as it is, neither of us speak our own native languages. although we do understand them some. & its sadder for me still because i'm away from my hometown & removed from the every day cultures of my people. at least, for the husband, his family is still around even if they speak mostly in english.

the husband even wanted to get a sri lankan maid so that our son can speak tamil. which by the way, is not his native language. gilos. luckily i managed to dissuade him from really going through with it. i dont want to have communication issues with my maid anymore than i would already be facing.

speaking of getting in touch with our roots, i made the husband agree to wear the traditional kadazan costume. & in fact, i did suggest it for our wedding as well but he was adamant about not having to change outfits every few hours. lazy bum. so last christmas, we finally did take a family picture of us clad in the black-gold-red outfits.

my next project is to get a picture of us in the traditional indian costumes. which yes, i also suggested for our wedding but mr. eksyen said "no. i'm not gonna." party pooper. so, i gots myself a sari from india. no i didnt go there --i pesan from his cousin. & im gonna see if i can get one made for my son --not a sari lah. a jeepa i think they call it (looks like a punjabi suit for men like that). & the husband? hmm... maybe he can pinjam from someone lah i guess. well, its not like he would ever ever wear it ever again anyways. actually for me also, i dont know when i'll find an occasion to wear a sari. with a baby summore. i might trip & fall flat on my face. how embarrassing that would be. but whatever, i wanted one & i got one. but first i need to get the blouse sewed for me.

i hope someone gets married soon so i can try on my sari for size. hehe.

Lent

Lent is upon us.

This year the husband has resolved to give up tv and drinking. Me, bitching & complaining. My gosh... I only managed to do it (& a poor job at that!) for just a couple of days. It is very difficult not to be able to bitch to let off steam. Macam mana ni? It has occured to me that I'm so dependent on complaining & complaining & so I dont think I like myself being this person. How did I get here or was I always here? Maybe hor...

Growing up, Lenten fasting was not a big thing for my family. Of course the no-meat-on-Fridays was strictly adhered to. Our Friday menu usually consisted of sardines or fried fish or salted fish or canned ikan tausi (dunno how to explain this one) or fried eggs with kicap. The husband's family is a bit better than us haha. When I first met him, his Lenten abstinence was from alcohol & lunch. I was nicely eating away haha & even had meat on Fridays. Now, the running joke is that I corrupted him. Tsk tsk...

Now that I am married & have a family of my own, I hope I'll be a good influence on my son. I took him for Ash Wednesday mass (which marks the beginning of Lent) & luckily hes not a boisterous toddler yet or I wouldnt have been able to deal with him alone (in heels). He was rather quiet actually... I think because he was fascinated with so many people & new faces around us. & a kind young boy who I didnt know but who obviously knew me (cos he called out my name --must be one of the husband's friends) offered me his seat. There were so many people that we initially had to stand / sit outside of the church building. So at least Etha*n & I had a chair after that. Luckier still that Etha*n had had his feed just before we went to church. So I didnt have to bring his diaper bag with me. If not, I would've had to carry him, my handbag & his diaper bag in a church full of people & no seats. The husband came straight from his office & arrived a little late but just in time too as my heels were killing me (cos I too came straight from work & no way was I gonna wear slippers with my pants & look unfashionable... hehehe).

Mesti nampak vogue mah.

So, Easter is coming up in about 3 weeks & I havent abstained much from anything. Teruks. How to be a good influence hah? Sigh... Tonight there are sessions opened for Easter confessions but I'm not very motivated to go. I didnt attend confession for like 10years before I got married (at which point, I HAD to). I think I'll just give myself & the husband a kick in the behind & go tonight.

Easter is coming :-)

economic slump

my bonus has arrived but i cant spend it on unnecessary things. & i do so want to spend it on unnecessary things. sobs.

we're getting a maid & it will cost us about rm8000. so far i know of 3 maids that come from this same agency & they're pretty alright. so i hope i'll get a good maid too.

so yeah... as my colleagues are planning on what they would buy with their bonuses, i gotta keep mine aside for 3 major things:

1. credit card
2. personal loan
3. maid (fees + gaji + fan, mattress, towels etc)

oh well. at least i'll be debt-less and maid-ful. thank my lucky stars? yeah. & most of all thanks to my revenue generating department who achieved the revenue targets which allowed the rest of us cost centres to be entitled to the bonus :-). bless your souls.

every year, come bonus time but even before the actual pay-out, i would already come up with my wishlist, like so:

1. medical checkup (i can get tax rebate for this)
2. child security gate (so my son won't gallivant into the kitchen cos my oven is at child's height)
3. change 2 wooden doors (1 was kicked open by the husband bcos it banged shut & got stuck, 1 dunno what happened while we were away but when we came back after 2 weeks we could not close it shut)
4. 2 new car tyres (mesti)
5. books amounting to rm1000 (last year was the worst year for me in terms of book shopping, i think i only spent like rm500)
6. decorate my home (maybe get some additional furniture & some decorations?)
7. angpow (son, parents)
8. treats to self & husband (maybe a spa?)
9. savings (if only...)

but then again, i dont know if my bonus cukup tak for all of these hehe. me thinks it may just be enough for the first 3 items earlier. so it is true... you can never have enough money.

& with the current economic situation, i really ought to put item no.9 higher up in the list shouldnt i?

stress-pot

at this point i just want to let out a long, big sigh.

SIGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH...

i am mentally & physically exhausted & what i really want is to run away from my world right now. please allow me to rant.

start each of the following with "WHY OH WHY..."

• is my apartment super-duper dusty that even after a day of wiping-vaccuuming-sweeping-moping-sweeping again-washing-clearing up, it gets all dusty again the very next day? i hate the construction activities thats going on around me. i cannot wait to get my maid!
• is the husband's work hours from 12noon to 9pm that hes not around much to help with the housechores on a regular basis? do i look like a maid? i seem to be picking up after everyone in the house. baby or not. i cannot wait to get my maid!
• cant i just get my son after work & go home without my mil's maid giving me a hardtime about it? sukati lah i want to go home ke, jalan-jalan ke... who are YOU to ask me why i want to leave early? i cannot wait to get my maid!
• is my big boss a male chauvinist haji bakhil pig who despite having been "enlightened" of the error of his judjment STILL clings on to his flawed decision? i hope some day YOU will have a female boss who makes pro-female decisions to the men's disadvantage. i cannot wait for that day to come cos i think i'll leave before it ever happens!
• cant my smaller bosses be on time with their reports & give me what i want without 101 excuses that make me want to holler "i dont give a hoot! just give me the damn reports dammit!!" kalau your underlings lambat, pandai je nak marah. now, practice what you preach! i cannot wait for you to get scolded by the biggest boss!
• cant my japanese shareholders stop calling for every little thing? pakai email boleh tak? kan this is an IT company? ishkkk... i cannot wait for you to get out of the company!!

disclaimer: all rantings exclude my son.