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A friend who has never been to IKEA asked yours truly to give her a tour of IKEA as she had to buy a shelving unit for her kitchen. So, one week night after work, I drove her over there and a walking tour we went.

Do you remember IKEA when it first opened, or the initial years it opened? (by initial years, I mean the first 3 years). Everyone was going ga-ga over the place and if you entered a fanatics' house, you'd recognise that the items came from you-know-where or that you had remembered seeing the item/s in the catalogue that they send to your home. I am very wary of purchasing furniture at the place. My aunt had told us how she had just finished assembling a chair and there came my cousin to sit on it and it broke! However, the little wooden kids table and matching chair which I had assembled 14 years ago, is still standing, but now with a guitar amp on one and an Ibanez on the other, hah! Anyway, if you read (not look or browse through, but read) the catalogue that they send to houses each year, a furniture item may state it's maximum weight that the item can hold.

Well, I am not a full-fledged IKEA person as I wouldn't want guests coming to the home and knowing where I had bought what; intrigue is good as it causes a certain kind of excitement that makes the guest gush with the want to know and I proudly giving a litany as to where and how I had procured the item. Hey, doesn't anyone?

Now, my lament here is that walking around IKEA that night made me depressed! Seriously man! People were staring, knocking, sitting, touching everything knowing that somewhere along the way they would choose and purchase an item/s for their homes. I was thinking how I would never be able to do that, not yet anyway maybe in my 50's (for those who understand) when I throw everything out my apartment (which is rented out) and re-furnish the whole place with white and grey.

I live in my mother's house. And now it is a home. And she has moved to her other house with her sister who comes to Malaysia from the UK when it's too cold for comfort. My aunt asked me a few days ago whether I had moved into my mother's recently vacated room and I answered 'no' as I thought my mom would still want to come back home to sleep now and again. My aunt said that better I move into the room now before my mother moves back in, hah! However, my mom called this morning asking me if I had moved into her room yet, and I gave her the same answer.

I think I should soon.. over the next few days maybe.. some sentimenal thingy going on..

Anyway, my home has a mix of my stuff and my late grandfather's stuff which he had given my mother before his passing. My grandfather was very, very house proud. But the chinese antique way, if you get my drift. So, these antiques are all around the home. And obviously yours truly can't get rid of them as the other house has similar antiques (my grandfather used to buy in bulk). So there. 

It seems now that the re-decorating has to be focused only in my new room to-be and the kids room.

sigh..

A Road Well Travelled

Since my last posting on travel which was to Bali, I have been to Haadyai, Pangkor, Singapore last year. This year so far has been Siem Reap, Cambodia.

Haadyai was so-so, you know how it is.., the usual binge on eating and window shopping, with no nice photo's to take. Haadyai is truly for serious cheap shoppers who like to haggle/bargain over prices and yours truly is not one of them. My idea of shopping is asking for the price and paying for it. No exchange of unnecessary words, no ding-dongs back and forth that irritate me. But food, booze was delicious and cheap.

Pangkor was fun-filled for the kids and laid-back for me. I always like the sand and sea. Sleeping and reading on the beach, boating to some nameless island in the hot hot sun. We always stay at Boral Bay Resort because the rooms are huge and restaurants are just down the road, so is the beach. There is this particular restaurant that opens for lunch and dinner (most restaurants only open for dinner) that serve the best fish and chips, as in the fish is filleted fresh fish and not frozen dory fish we get in the great city of Kuala Lumpur. I remember when the kids were still small, I had to pack their foodstuff as they could not eat adult food yet and now here they are choosing their own from a menu. Well, it will be Pangkor again this year as we always an annual visit.

Singapore for me was one big boring ride. But not so for the kids of course, with all the rides they went on at Universal Studios. Will fare better at the Singapore Zoo next trip, as did not have time for it this trip. I can't imagine that I spent a whole day at Universal Studios, what with my aversion to man-made amusement  parks. But yes, I have to admit that I did ride on the 2 rollercoasters (once each, but the kids happily lined-up for seconds) and the 3-D Transformer ride (which I did enjoy actually..hmm..). Food was shitty of course (sorry Singapore), the only palatable food was at the Padang restaurant a walk away from our budget hotel.. The Science Centre was informative for children and adults alike, the Night Safari was unentertaining as most of the animals were sleeping or hiding away from the spotlights! I think our Night Safari at the Taiping Zoo is better.

But, I have to tell you that the highlight has to be Cambodia. Such a greatness the grandess of all the temples, though long disposed. We clambered, climbed, scouted, discovered every inch of the temples we visited (future travellers to Angkor, please bring along a torchlight)  from those on the outskirts to the well known ones. We were all in awe of the carvings, the maze of corridors, columns, height and architecture of every single temple we visited. Could anyone imagine how they were built? Being inside was peaceful and quiet, though you had people walking all around. But as you exit the grounds, you are 'ambushed' by vendors selling their wares and I had my fair share of vendors being annoyed by me, hah! But all taken humourously by me. But seriously, by the last day, I was so tired of saying 'no thank you' that I started mumbling in Malay and they backed-off, thinking that I do not understand English I hope. Hah!! Food was rather bland if you compare with Thai food (there I was splashing liberal dashings of fish sauce onto every dish I was eating), but good for kids as it was not spicy. For me, the best was Fish Amok (one of their national dishes), like a watered down version of our masak lemak but very tasty with the mixture of fried ground lemon grass. We will visit Angkor again, next year for sure..

Life Is A YoYo

My eldest, Aryan, is yoyo freak. He is in the Malaysia Yo-Yo Club. He has appeared on TV3, 8TV and NTV7, with them interviewing him and his yoyo friends. The yoyo's do not come cheap I can tell you! But with son, he is careful and "almost-financially-independant ". Meaning that, if I give him money for school, he always saves half of it, stashes it away til he has accumulated a particular sum and then goes on to purchase what he wants. And he has been doing this since he was 10. Be it to purchase Lego (Lego, and more Lego!) to Caribou Lodge Yoyo's which are flown in from Canada to Kirk Hammnet's guitar pick collection! Oh yes, he is also into fingerboarding, skateboarding, plays classical guitar and now the electric guitar (Ibanez).

He is 14 now. And with it I see pimples appear. He trying the sheesha (TWICE!!). A smart mouth. Fashion conscious with particular shirts, Levi jeans and one-of-a-kind-t-shirts.

Woe is me with a growing teen and another on the way. Hah!

My youngest, Aidan, is 11. Lego fanatic to the maximum. All birthday money, angpow's, christmas money is spent on Lego, Lego and more Lego! He is happy-go-lucky, fearless to the point of ignorance, crafty with his hands, loves food (really loves food!). He has eyelashes that cover half his face and is everyone's favourite, especially my mother and my sister. They tend to give in to his whims and fancies. My wondering is when he will start to follow into his brothers' foot steps. As it is now, it is skateboarding, bicycles and converse shoes. But he hates school and doesn't waste a day telling you so.

Can't wait for him to be a teen and for me to discover what he will be discovering.

I have them all pretty covered, and many a person have told me so. Not that I need praise for raising my sons my way, but sometimes it is really appreciated when a third party/parties notices.
 

While I Was Sleeping..

My Son's grew up.
With feet was big as mine.
And still growing. Hah!

Melancholy

For one...

I was watching a movie last night. Amongst plot of the story, it showed the relationship between the husband and wife couple. That they were so open, frank, friendly with one another that if people saw them out, poeple would have thought that they were great friends. They were each individuals in their own right and way and yet being married didn't alter or have to change their individualness, originality but there they were living their lives with one another.

I don't know whether it comes with age, that as you get on in a marriage you are comfortable with one another to be complacent? Is that the right word? Anyway, what do I know... but it was nice to watch. Then again I guess it must be nice to have someone with you in marital bliss till in your old age. What do some call it...? Companionship...? That's what my mother's friends are always harping to me about each time they see me and corner me into talking about getting married again (strange that it's her friends who are harping and not a tweet from my mother herself..., hmmm). Me being Superwoman says "bah, humbug!, what crap, there is no necessity for marriage". On the otherhand Me being Domestic Goddess says "yes, it would be nice..."

Well, those who know my mother, know that she'd not agree to marriage of any kind. My sister is still single. And my mother did mentioned sometime last year, that there was no need for marriage just live with each other, being pessimistic as she is, she was being just that when my sis told her that she was going to get married at the end of last year and I asked my mother to shut up. My sis eventually broke-up with that lovely guy,.. sigh.. Oh hell, my mother doesn't want us with any guy actually, she just wants us to live with her for the rest of our lives.

Back to me, the reason why I say that it would be nice is because I do want my own privacy and home. Privacy to be with the man that I love, or to entertain friends, to be in my own home decorated the way I want it to be decorated (all white and gray,...depressing aren't I?), organised they way I like it to be, smoke if I want to.. and the list goes on of course. Sometimes I wonder when..

Hell! I am 38 years old. But then again what the hell, eh?

I must be in a crappy mood today

World Book Day

Read in the papers today that some book company is celebrating World Book Day, but it didn't state the date of the supposed World Book Day.

Anyway, it got me reminiscing. I do not know whether anyone out there remembers the famed Jaya Supermarket at Section 14, there used to be an MPH on the first floor and Katy's Toys used to be on the second floor, if I remember correctly; and this was years, years ago when I was 8 or 9 years old that would be in 1980-1981.

Every Sunday (or Saturday) was spent at Jaya Supermarket because Cold Storage was there and that's where the family did the weekly grocery shoppoing/marketing. Of course this was preceeded by a walk on all floors, walking ambly through Katy's Toys which I never bought anything because I was not into toys, then down to MPH. I was my recurring fantasy that I would one day get locked up inside MPH when the stores have all closed and my family had suprisingly forgotten about me. Fantasy! How I wanted to stay in that bookshop!

My favourite read, while standing, in that bookshop was TinTin, Asterix not so much. But the books I always bought (meaning my mother buying, of course) was The Famous Five. By the time I was 8, I had finished all the series of Secret Seven, Famous Five and Hardy Boys. By 9, I had started on Agatha Christie, greedily consuming Hercule Poirot and Ms Marple. I was never one for Mills & Boons junk or those Sweet Valley High rubbish.

I gradually went on to having my own National Geographic subscription in my early teens, in college I started on Somerset Maugham (my favourite still), then scouring the second-hand bookshops for him and Herman Melville because it's kind of difficult getting your hands on their books. My particular interest is books printed and bound in the 1950's as they come thread-bound (not all, but you can find them, again, in second-hand dusty, cramped, asthma-inducing shops). It's strange that it was only in my late twenties that I read the classics.

Have A Little Faith

I can't remember when the last time it was that i entered church. Must have been for someone's wedding. It's as though it is the only time that I do enter a church. Such a Catholic I am. Sunday School and weekly mass was never strained/imposed upon me as a child and as such I think I grew up to being almost an free-thinker.

My contention here is that, a religion, should not be imposed on a child, that they should, upon reaching puberty or when they grown-up enough to understand, be given the opportunity to read the various books available on religion and they then deduce the best faith for them to be into. Of course, the concept of God must be instilled when still a child and the moral values and principals of a good human being be taught to them.

I had a friend who once told me that if she were given a choice, she would not be in the religion that she is in now. Then again, her religion is not one to be trifled with. There are some friends of mine who wholly do not agree on my concept of choice but I stress that importance of understanding a religion, any religion, is only by reading about the said religion. There has to be logic (even practicality to restraints, when looked at over a broad view) to all religions, if not each religion would not have millions of followers all over the world.