my 'lost weekend"

I am back! I wasn't well for the last couple of days...but am on the mend now. Not fully recovered but very much better than I was before. My GOD! I hate being sick ...well, i don't know anyone who like being sick :-)) hehehe ...anyway, i was so sick that I couldn't get up... my head is spinning and my asthmatic conditions certainly doesn't help the situation. So all I did was sleep, sleep and sleep ... and lost a few days because of it. I had no recollection of what I did over the weekend in my medicated state!


I was given 5 different types of medication - and i dont like taking medicines...Dr Hajijah gave me Salcodyl (???) - it's a mixture of cough syrup and ventolin (asthma medicine) ... and, wait for it, I had to take 3 TABLESPOONS 3 TIMES a day ....i hate medicines, and i really hate liquid medicine!!!! Plus antibiotics, ventolin tablet (in case I had asthma symptoms but didn't have any cough problems), flu meds, and one thing that I cannot identified... imagine how much chemical was being pumped into my veins over the last few days! and i am yet to recover fully from this flu/asthmatic conditions...


It all started when I went to a field trip to Sri Aman, Betong, Kabong, Saratok, Pusa, Beladin and Meludam ... a 2-day trip to collect data for our research. But our timing couldn't be worse - we chose to do it during a really wet and pouring week! But then again, that was the only time we were free to do this trip...it rained from the moment i set out from my house on thursday morning and didn't stop (am ignoring the few minutes of sunshine here and there) till i reached home at 10pm on friday night...the trip was quite successful ...and it also has an add-on value .... a few of us coming back with a cold/flu!!!

Life as I see it ...

Sometimes, it is our nature to take things for granted. We just ignored what we have...we don't appreciate what we already have, the opportunities that were given to us... and we often wish we have more of this, more of that ...bigger house, bigger car, bigger paycheck, less workload, less stress, less criticisms...the list can be endless sometimes...

but once in a while, it is good to stop and take stock on our own life. I saw this one guy during my last field trip. He is a few years younger than me...and from what I can see (maybe I am being judgmental here) his life has been wasted or limited in a way ...in and out of rehabs ...doing chores just to get by ...and I feel really sad when I look at his life - something inside me just clicked and I was reminded about how lucky I am... I have a good job, a good pay, i have opportunities to improve my life, I have love and supports from my family and close friends - and yet, there were times when I just felt life was unfair...that life was being unkind towards me....and always have the "why me??" questions ...

Now, looking back, I know I am privileged ...i was given opportunities ...when one door closed and life seemed to be against me, a new door opens up ...and for that I am thankful ...the only way to appreciate it is to live life to the fullest ...we may encounter obstacles along the way, we may feel restricted, we may be judged by others - one thing for sure, we have the power to determine our own paths ... we determine our own destiny ...don't look back, but it would be nice to stop sometime, and smell the roses ...and to appreciate what we already have ...before it is gone...

The flu bug ...

I am down with flu since Saturday ...it is awful. I caught the bug during my fieldtrip...it was wet, cold and miserable....Now, I am down with flu...accompanied by frequent sneezing and runny (and red!) nose. It is no fun at all. I was told by my parents to steer clear of Airell ... and was banished upstairs most of last weekend. Today, my cold is worst ....

i hate having flu! I hope my mum had already prepared chicken soup by the time I get back home later ...

Bandung Trip

I went for a holiday to Bandung, West Java last week. A long awaited trip - but worth the wait! It was sort of a reunion for me and my dear friends. Time to catch up with each other - Liz and I last saw each other about 9 years ago! But despite those years, some things never change. Fendi is still Fendi - nobody can beat his loud laughter (especially over that one incident at the spa!), Liz is still a shoppaholic, and Duan - what can i say - still macam tu jugak! The only difference is that they were bringing their "handbags" ...



The trip itself was fabulous.We shopped, and shopped and shopped...Bandung is without a doubt, a shopping paradise. A lot of shops to choose from - but my favourites are Donnatello, Rumah Mode, Heritage and Rumah Tas. But we were spoilt for choices really - too many shops to choose from and arghhhh so little time... despite that everyone spent more than were budgeted!




Apart from shopping, I also went for a bit of sightseeing. Decided to go to Tangkuban Perahu - an active volcano about 45 minutes drive from Bandung. It is an interesting destination and the scenery was breathtaking! There was this huge crater in the middle of the mountain and the view was made more breathtaking with the swirling mist that seemed to cling on that day. Mount Tangkuban Perahu was said to shaped like an upside-down boat - but the day we went there were so misty, and we failed to see this resemblance.

Around KL with Al

I went to Kl last week - a combination of business and pleasure. I went there to work for 2 days and then was on hols for the last 3 days ..it was fun.

I get the chance to see my nephew, Alistair, who is now 18 months. He is so cute - and getting to be quiet a handful. We spent a few days together - shopping, dining out, staying in, going to the market - and it was very nice!

These pics say it all...



This was taken outside Jaya Jusco, Setiawangsa ...







Our family dinner at Boston...



Al's having fun with the car trolley .... wish I had videotaped him crying when we tried to get him out of that trolley ....



Shopping with my sister ....



While waiting for our meal at Madam Lim's, Al already started his meal hehehehe

Sending me to the airport .....see you in Feb Al ....

Creating histories ....

I was so busy the past 2 weeks - marking the exam scripts...Come to think of it, I only had a day off before I started with my marking. A few weeks before that I was marking tonnes of assignments (and who says lecturer had an easy life! *sigh*)

The end of semester is always a stressful time for us at the faculty. We were issued datelines after datelines. datelines for submitting grades, the next dateline if you missed the first datelines and so on ...This semester, for the first time since joining the faculty, I had FAILED to submit my grades on time. I created history (yeah!)...they must be joking if they think i can submit on time considering i had 159 students for one class (each have to answer 3 essay questions - out of 5 questions) and another 45 students for my shared courses (which I only have to mark 44 scripts). You do the maths...compared to those who only have 50 students and only teaching one course, i am doing a lot of work...and even have to stay up late in order to catch the datelines. Not to mentioned losing my weekends, missing lunches and missing quality time with Airell. The most irritating thing is that we (the slow markers!) were reminded time and time again ...and that really irritates me!

Anyway, I am done now. Yesterday (Sunday) I was at the office keying in my marks. I found out that 22% of the students failed my paper. And this is again, a new record for me! And not only that, my shared course with Lina also showed a very high failure rate - nearly half of the students failed that paper. 44.5% is a very high numbers (and another new record!) Looks like I might be running for the "killer lecturer" award this semester ...*sigh sigh sigh*

Lessons I never learnt!

Everytime I went out with Lina, we always encountered something or someone really funny along the way. We would end up laughing or making fun of the situation - and when we started, we just couldn't stop ourself....the jokes would go on and on and on ...each one would come up with outrageous comments! And, without fail, we would be "punished" for our actions ...

Case #1: Lina, Wan and I were on the way to Pending (or was it somewhere else?) to get Bemen's results. ON the way, we saw a guy riding a motocycle - he looked funny - the way he rode the motocycle made him looked unbalanced (a bit loopsided!). Hence, a lot of comments were made, lots of laughters followed ...and the result was we missed the turning to our destination...hey, fair enough...so, we had to drive up to make a u-turn but little did we realised that we had a very long drive to get to the right turning. Moral of the story: don't make fun of people!

Case #2: Lina and I were on the way to Pizza Hut. On the way, we saw a collegue in front of us. Someone (i am not saying names here!) made a comment and, again, we burst into laughters and other stupid (but hillarious) comments followed. The result was, I missed the turning at the roundabout and ended up following our colleague who, by the way, was going at a completely different direction to ours! We ended up being late for lunch! Moral of the story: same as above!

Case #3: We sort of learnt these lessons (well, sort of!). On the way to a meeting earlier today, we saw a number of PALAPES students jogging round campus. Lina saw this guy (in a yellow shirt) who looked really worn out. She was tempted to say something but managed to refrain from doing so...i was about to comment on something as well but thought better of it ...it's so happen that we both refrain from uttering a single comment coz we know we had to go to an important meeting and not wanting to jeopardize anything. We don't want to be late. Anyhow, we got a text from our donkey master to say that he left his pen drive at home - and our slide presentation was in there. Hence, Lina & I have to make a detour to his home while he try to delay the meeting, saying we are stuck in traffic! The result was: we were late for the meeting. Moral of the story: even though we didn't make nasty comments out loud, we are still being punished - to a certain extent!

But thank God the meeting went well - and we didn't have to "rescue" our boss!