Toad and 14 course meal

What is the biggest spread of dishes you ever had in a meal? 6? 7? 8?. The most I had is 9 dishes in a meal. But last week I encountered a new number. 14 course meal – the most outreagous number of meal I ever had in one go. I was in Xiamen last week for an international conference and on our second night there, the host hosted a dinner for all of us. Being the only muslim there, I was very careful not to consume any pork or any other exotic form of meat. (I know, I know halal food doesn’t just mean not consuming pork). But I can’t starve myself for 5 days can’t i? So, when I arrived at the dinner table I carefully scrutinized the menu prepared and to my surprise one of the meal is TOAD. Oh god……being a polite person that I am, I told the host that I can’t consume toad since I’m a muslim. She understand and will let me know when the toad arrive.

So the dinner began…because of the large spread of meal, halfway through the dinner, I lost count of how may dishes we had and I began to panic. (please god, don’t tell me I’ve eaten the toad!!!!). To be on the safe side, I began asking the waiter everytime a meal arrived whether it’s toad? And they assured me – No…it’s just vegetable, No….it’s jellyfish, No….it’s mushroom. I was convinced. To my horror, next to arrive is the desert - Sweet soup in chinese pear. Oh lord! I must have eaten the toad without realizing it. To be sure, I asked the host whether we had any toad in any of the meal we had. And she said NO. phew…that was close. So I happily whack the sweet soup which tasted really delicious. In fact it was the most delicious dish. With strand of clear jelly in it and the sweetness of the pear absorbed into the soup. DELICIOUS.

When we done, I was casually chit chatting with the other delegation about the meal we had. I remember commenting that they wrongly printed the menu coz there was no toad in our meal. One of the delegates said “Oh yes, we do have toad, it’s in the most delicious meal we had. It’s suppose to be a desert” God! Well it was too late then…..but I had to say, it tasted pretty good. let’s look at the bright side. Next time I had somebody put the same dish before me, I know it’s toad.

Tuesday Blues?????

This is my second week at the office after a longggg............ course. It’s 10.28 a.m and i am pretending to be busy with work. I have been staring blankly at this computer screen for 15 minutes before finally deciding to type out something. The letter that i am suppose to do was done an hour ago. My MP3 layer has gone kaput and i am relying heavily on my clerk’s radio as my only source of entertainment (Can’t connect to internet radio. Not sure what’s the f*%$ing problem). The weather outside still looks gloomy....still mourning France lost to Italy i guess....argh what the heck.. i don’t care whoever wins the world cup. This is bad...totally not good. I’ve got an international agreement to look at but i’m wayyy.......too lazy to even take a glimpse at it. I’m in no mood to work, no mood to surf the net, no mood to ym, no mood to everything. I’m like a lost soul with no purpose....hmmm i intend to keep it that way for the rest of the day. The agreement can wait....i guess i’ll just read other people’s blog. Haven’t done this in a gazillion years.

Theme Song

How do you cool your lips?
After a summer kiss..
How do you rid the sweat?
After the body bliss..

How do you turn your eyes?
From the romantic glare..
How do you block the sound of a voice?
You'd know anywhere..

I really should've known
by the time you drove me home
by the vagueness in your eyes
the casual goodbyes
by the chill in your embrace
the expression on your face
told me...
maybe you might have some advice to give
on how to be insensitive

How do you numb your skin ??
after the warmest touch
How do slow your blood?
After the body rush..
How do you free your soul?
After you found a friend..
How do you teach your heart its a crime??
to fall in love again...

You probably won’t remember me
It's probably ancient history
I'm one of the chosen few who went ahead
and fell for you
I'm out of bold i'm out of touch
I fell to fast I feel to much
I thought you might have some advice to give
on how to be insensitive...

For the second time, this Jane Arden's song has become THE THEME SONG of mylife. Blodyhell.......i should have learnt from past mistakes. yeah you heard it right, mistake with an S. It used to be A mistake, now i just upgraded it to mistakeS. geez......when will i ever learned?

Last night, i had to searched the whole house for a stack of photographs i planned to frame. I remember taking those photographs out of the album, but i just couldn't figure out where i put it. Darn it. I guess i'll find it when i don't want 'em anymore.

I have to admit that I am bad at remembering things – faces, events, dates, you name it. I don’t remember my old primary school friends. My mum said that I have a very selective memory (as I’m very selective at many other things as well). I only remember who I want or what I want ( which I think is totally untrue). There was once I got invited to my old schoolmate’s wedding. I was cracking my head trying to figure out which one she is. I tried to picture her face and I tried to imagine all the things we did when we were kids…..but in vain. Nada, zero, nothing. The section which suppose to store all the good/bad memories I had in my brain seems to be malfunction. But she was my best friend back then…..how can I not remember? Even my mum remembered how she looks like. Doesn’t matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t put it together.

on other ocassion, I was invited to a buka puasa event with clients this one fateful night during last year’s ramadhan. Well the reason I had to go was because I was the only muslim in the office plus my friends wanted to introduce me to one of our clients, so I figured – why not. Another reason I agreed was because a fortune teller told me that I will meet my dreamguy within that period. Who knows, maybe the fortune teller was right!

Apparently there were two eligible bachelor that night. One I fancy, the other I don’t. so there I was, trying my level best to look as casual and chatted the night away. At the end, we exchanged business cards and I actually believed the fortune teller had predicted correctly. I might actually found THE ONE. So the next morning, I became super anxious. I wanted to ask the guy I fancy out, but am not sure what the response would be. But of course by this time, I already forgot how he look like. So I looked for his business card and me being bold as always shoot him and e-mail to ask him out. Whatever the consequences I’ll take it. To my surprise, he replied with a considerably long email and agreed for a dinner/buka puasa. I was EXTREMELY happy but there’s one problem, I don’t remember his face. Argh….i don’t think that’s a problem. I’ll remember when I see him.

It took me several hours to choose the perfect outfit. I don’t want to look overdress and don’t want to appear too ‘normal’ either. I did my hair, choose the suitable makeup, choose the right handbag/shoes, well basically all the normal stuff women do when going out on a first date. I booked a perfect place. This is going to be lovely! So I reached there bout 5 minutes earlier (since I don’t remember his face, I figured it’s better if he approached me). I sat there brimming with excitement and a few minutes later, I saw a guy walking towards me with a smile, he look rather familiar and he pulled the chair. Then it strucked me – Bloodyhell! I’ve asked the wrong guy out!

I guess I don’t have to tell how did the night went. My mum laughed when I told her the story. “See I always told you to put a little effort in remembering things. Look what happen now”.

Moral of the story – ALWAYS segregate the business card of the guy you like from the whole stack. Sigh………….

SELAMAT HARI RAYA!!!

Me and my brothers at a relative house.

Just to wish all friends and families SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI!!!.

From - Aida,Totty,Daniel and Johan 

I woke up quite early this morning cause i plan to wash my hair and try not to use the hair drier. According to my calculation it would take approximately 1 hr to have it nicely dry. So, i woke up at 4.30 a.m to have my 'sahur' and i had my shower at 5 a.m. (its bloody cold, i made a mental note to never do this again since i can hear pneumonia knocking at my chest). After the shower, i sat down while surfing through the net for anything interesting. I came across something called 'megachurch' which kinda interest me. I heard bout it before and i heard that it is gaining vast popularity among americans. This megachurch could accomodate close to 16,000 people in each congregation. wow! that's almost like going to a concert. I kept on reading and saw a slideshow on this megachurch. Who would have thought that a church could look like some 'canggih'fied building with thermal reflective windows, state-of-the-art sound system, screen projector and a stage right in the middle(instead of an altar) surrounded by thousands of seats. The first time i saw the picture of that megachurch, it reminds me of a stadium, a boxing ring - not a place of worship. I am not a christian, i embrace islam, but i've seen churches and megachurch is nothing like the traditional church that i've seen with stained glass and amazing architecture. This new church is so modern.......I am not saying that it is not good, but when i read about this megachurch, it got me thinking. Do we need to be part of 16,000 people to feel nearer to god? people have become so materialistic that effort had to be made to make material a centre stage even in the time of worshipping god. You don't need a 'canggih'fied screen projector or 16,000 other people to make you feel significant in the eyes of god, you don't need another 16,000 voices to make 'him' listen to you. Cause he is always near you, all you need is you heart. Right after i finished reading the article, i heard the azan subuh. I performed my wuduk to prepare myself before the almighty.

I always look forward for tuesday for a double dose of desperate housewives TV series. 9pm it will be aired on channel 70 and 10.30pm on 8TV. But last night, i didnt switch to other channel when DH finishes. Instead, I was intrigued to watch the next series aired - House, a story about this crippled doctor. My heart was beating faster than usual, not because the show was out of this world, but because i was angry. The show, to my opinion potrays exactly the opposite of what a doctor should be - annoying, inconsiderate, rude, unethical and all the other bad words i couldnt think of at the moment.

on last night episode, a teenager was admitted to the hospital with symptoms similar to overdosage of drugs. Dr House (yes. his name is house) was informed by a young doctor that the test result conducted on this kid indicated that its not food poisoning, theres no trace of toxic in the kids blood and he doesnt have any medical complication history. But smart Dr House insist that its drug overdose eventhough the kids mother adamantly deny it and had informed that she had tested her kid for drugs and the result was negative. The information wasnt sufficient for house, so he got 2 of his young doctors to search the kids house for any traces of fancy home-made drugs. Is this actually legal / ethical? does doctors really do this? broke into someone elses home to find traces of possible cause of the illness? Ok fine, they found several jars of homemade tomato sauce and suspected that it could be the cause - and they were wrong.

Dr House and his team keeps on going back and forth to the kids house, and come back with a theory of possible cause and possible cure while gambling with the kids life in the process. If they happen to be correct, he will live. If not - tough luck! I dont know who is the writer of the series but thank god hes not a doctor. In one of the guesses house made, the kids mother refuse to let house provide a possible treatment for her son cause if it turn out to be the wrong treatment, the kid could die. House instead of showing concern, requested the mother to sign an undertaking letter to indemnify the hospital in the event her son died due to her refusal to allow the treatment. The mothers maternal instict told her that that was a wrong treatment, but she was confronted with the letter. so she re-thought her decision.

She was lucky she delayed the treatment cause another teenager was admitted with the same symptom. The new case immediately strike-out the treatment that house was about to give the first kid. If he had given it earlier, it could have been fatal for that kid. At the end of the episode, the cause of the illnesses was chemical from a newly purchased clothing. These kids bought the clothes and wear them without first washing it. So the chemical used for the clothing had absorbed through their skins into their bloodstream and contaminate the blood which ultimately cause the heart to fail. I found it unethical that House had first made a presumption of what could have been the cause (didnt anybody tel him that assumption is the biggest M*$#!!$F@%*&#!!), refuse to trust information from the patient or the patients family and would rather keep on testing possible treatment even though if it means losing a patients life.

If thats not enough, he is also annoying and rude. The last thing a sick patient want to see is a rude doctor. Although its just a TV series, i have to say this - House sucks! Big time!

P/S:I still couldnt type the apostraphe. sigh