Series of Addiction

I know I am some sort of neglecting this blog. Why? Other than not traveling much this year – hence less stories, I’ve been busy watching series after series! But usually only American series. To make matters worse, Astro suddenly offered me cheaper super packages that come with Astro On Demand. I don’t really watch TVB series but accidentally sucked into addiction by my family members because all they care about now is channel 923 to 930! We finally finished watching L’ escargot which is quite interesting lah. I think nothing can beat Rosy Business though. That Chai Kow story… totally gripping!

So this is a post about some of the series that I watched/ am watching.

Supernatural

Got this addiction from Dr And. He introduced to me while we were at Datin’s place, parasiting. LOL. He loaned me a few boxes of DVDs and I got hooked from Season 3 onwards. Season 1-2 was rather bland. Things got interesting right after they introduced an angel named Castiel in it. Yes yes.. Misha Collins is hot! Haha! That is why I am supporting his cause – the Random Act Org. Everything was really cool and gripping till Season 5. Seriously, I wished they stopped right after Season 5, which is considered the highest point of Supernatural, Dean or Sam should just stay dead. Now, I couldn’t even finish Season 6. It was so.. BLAH!

How I Met Your Mother

I remember Neil Patrick Harris from Doogie Howser days. He was this super cool kid back then! I find the story line in HIMYM is more interesting and creative compared to Friends. No offense to Friends’ fans but I couldn’t get past Season 1 of Friends. I find them to be too perky for my liking. *Yawn* HIMYM sort of taught me how to see your friends in a different perspective. No matter how much they degrade or troll Barney, they sincerely care about him, vice versa. I guess sometimes, that is why when you have friends pissing you off, I think it’s because each and everyone of us has our own principles to live with. So if we have our own principles, others too! So if we can’t accept their principles, why should they accept ours? In the end, no matter what conflicts you have with your friends, I guess it derived from your own stubbornness (in a nicer way, you stick to your principles) but that doesn’t mean you guys couldn’t be friends? Just put such negativity aside, pay more attention to the positive sides. If the friend acting up like a bloody d*ckhead or b*tch, just feign ignorance. That way, you keep more friends than you made enemies.

Weeds

If you are beautiful, life journey is a battle half won. James always said this to me. You get things done if you are beautiful or handsome! This show proves just it. Nancy Botwin is a single mother whose husband died. She is left with two children to feed. In order to finance her high maintenance life, she had to do something about it.. so she sold weeds. It was such a joke to see how lucky she got out of trouble – thanks to writers for keeping her alive right through Season 7. Everything was kinda morbidly funny till Season 7. Things sort of took a nose dive in Season 7. I guess… you couldn’t be lucky forever. So I am not too sure if they shot Nancy Botwin at the end of Season 7.

True Blood

I guess this show has more details about how a vampire should be. Kinda like the idea of how human and vampires co-existed and the invention of Trublood by the Japanese. Haha. They even have flavored blood – A+ or A-, B+ or B-.. so on and so forth. It kinda make The Vampire Diaries – wearing a ring could block out the sun… or Vampires that sparkle in Twilight so damn lame LOL! It is als one of the series that create awareness for the LBGT rights, which I totally support! Season 1-3 are interesting, but not Season 4. I somehow couldn’t tolerate the hallucination by Sookie Stackhouse after drinking Eric Northman’s blood and Bill Compton pinning for her.. geez… don’t waste your time lah.

Spartacus

Season 1 – Blood and Sand and the pre-quel Gods fo the Arena are interesting. Too bad the original Spartacus, Andy Whitfield died after fighting cancer. The new replacement, Liam Mcintyre is too … mild mannered for my liking. I think he lacks charisma to play Spartacus. Not intense enough. Nevertheless, I hope the new Season wouldn’t be a disappointment.

Modern Family

Growing up watching Family Ties, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Fullhouse, I didn’t know that there would be another dysfunctional family that would work magic on the tv till I watch this. Modern Family is so witty and hilarious that made you couldn’t stop watching episode after episode. At first, I find Manny Delgado a little too wise crack for my liking but then, he proved to be quite a charming wit as the show progresses. Can’t wait for the next episode!

The Big Bang Theory

I am currently watching the Big Bang Theory. Eventhough I couldn’t comprehend most of the times whenever Sheldon or Leonard said something scientific, I still find them super hilarious. It is a show for science nerds, how they interacted socially and among themselves etc but surely appeal to non-nerds like me. I think the producer, creator and writer are such geniuses to have come up with such hard facts with comical twists that it definitely warrant awards after awards. I think I could safely say, I am not a nerd.. but.. who cares? Being a nerd is cool! Being nerds can make you rich! Look at Mark Zuckerberg! Haha! Please excuse me while I get my daily dose of nerdiness from 9 pm to 12 am. Gawd! I am a nerd!

Random Notes

General Election

I think almost everyone is talking about it. The government can be elusive about it.. but I just got an sms from Digi to check for my registration via sms and of course, they charge 20 sen per sms. So people, better ensure your name is registered. Let our voices be heard!

Police

I wonder if my brains are playing tricks on me, but I kept seeing police squad whenever I got out from my house. I saw them in the morning, in the afternoon, at night. Sometimes, saw them stopping people riding on motorbikes and checked their ICs. Not that I am complaining.. in fact, I was rather glad with the increased police presence in Selayang. So, here’s a shout out to the Police force in Selayang – Keep up the good work! Hopefully, they are able to control the crime rate in this area.. Selayang is quite crime infested. My mom said, she hardly see suspicious men lurking around anymore. With that being said, we also need to be extra careful and not to let our guards down.

High Police Drama

Over the weekend, as I was busy baking scones, I heard the siren of a police car. I didn’t think much about it till the next day, I was told by my colleague whom I fetch to work every morning that, they managed to catch a thief. But she wasn’t sure for what. Then, my uncle who lives nearby told me that, they were actually chasing after a stolen car. There were 4 robbers inside the car. Somehow, they crashed the stolen car and got away on foot. Since it was a Sunday, the robbers ran into the pasar malam nearby and the police lost them! I wonder why wouldn’t anyone noticed 4 people running like crazy in the pasar malam.. they could have probably helped the police to nab those culprits. As usual, some people are just kiasi and too selfish.

Adopt a Pet, Don’t Buy

I saw this article today in the Star. I couldn’t emphasize enough that one should be aware of his or her responsibility before considering to have a pet. Like the case of my neighbour, two dogs were given by their friends for the newly married couple. After they have children, the dogs were neglected and basically trapped in the cage for over a year before I started to pressure them to give up their dogs. Giving animals to friends as birthday gifts can be cruel if these people don’t ask for them. You would cause unimaginable grievances to the animals. I was at a shopping mall last weekend and was horrified that they are selling a cat for RM900 – a plain normal cat that could be easily found in the back alley of my house! I mean, if you want a cat, am sure you can find them in the back lane of your house! Why pay RM900?? Pedigree dogs prices go for around Rm1,000 onwards. I think if one is truly loving and caring towards animals, go to SPCA or any other animal shelters to adopt and not buy. Some people unscrupulously breed dogs for profit. It’s a slavery trade for animals!

Don’t Drink and Drive

Just last week, my sis and husband and Ern Ern went to her in-law’s house for dinner. On the way back, a motorcycle suddenly swerved and knocked into their car and fell down metres away. Luckily, they were driving slowly, so they could stopped in time, not to go over the guy! They saw a MyVI sped away. They were not sure if the motorist was avoiding the car and knocked into my bro in law’s car. The motorist was hurt. So, they got down their car and called the ambulance. After being asked a few questions by the emergency team on the phone, my sis was asked to check if the man is still breathing. She didn’t even have to walk near him and smell of strong alcohol emitted from the man! It’s obvious he was drunk. When paramedics came, they asked the man the same question, has he been drinking and he admittedly said yes.

Just this morning, as I was driving to work, I saw a car plunged into the drain nearby my house. From the wreckage, it’s obvious that someone ran their car into this car and knocked it into the drain! The person is probably drunk! My instinct was right. My uncle who lives nearby saw this happened. He was smoking outside his house at 1 am, when a white Honda Accord turned and swerved dangerously and knocked into the car. The car plummeted into the drain some 50m away from its original parking. The man again, was drunk. Seriously, if you want to kill yourself, I think there are many other ways to do it. Rather than causing misery to others because of your own self pleasure.

Scones!

Datin introduced scones to me during his many dinners invitations. So, I learned what scones are from him. He did savoury types – with onions! After that, I had other fabulous scones at Seri Carcosa. The butter in the scones is oh-so-aromatic!

Since Datin has moved to Singapore for work, we no longer have the privilege of savoury scones. *Sad* I woke up one day, feeling the urge to eat scones. I didn’t want to go to Seri Carcosa again – well, it’s not economical! In such bad economy, one has to devise ways to attain something one wants!

So, after almost 2 weeks of scones craving (yes, I am a bloody procrastinator!), I finally search for a recipe to makes scones. I remember Kimberly’s blog, with pictures – which is good for a noob like me. I never baked using an oven before - fatt gou and nin gou don’t count! Heck! I had to call Datin in Singapore to find out what flour to buy! *Shake head* So, I thought, I would make it if it’s easy.. otherwise, forget it! Just go to some place that serves scones!

I was glad to have found this in Kimberly’s blog. She’s awesome! Thank you so much for such easy-to-make recipe! The post is very informative and has easy to follow steps!

Anyway, since I am using a very small oven toaster, I baked the scones for 15 – 18 minutes instead. Also, I added some raisins in just before pouring the milk into the bread crumbs like flour + butter.. and Datin advised me to keep everything cold, so I basically put the flour, sugar, milk, etc in the fridge before baking.. I decided to skip the microwave part – of the milk coz the microwave is kept in the store room (coz we hardly use it) and too lazy to heat up the milk. Haha!

So, these are my scones.. tah dah!! Not too bad looking ya?

Raisins scones

Birthday Note to Self

Happy birthday! Well, who would have thought 12 years ago you would be able to so what you are able to do now. When you started working about 12 years ago, you were being paid peanuts but you worked willingly and with a happy heart. I guess things are always better when you could see the brighter side.

I guess at this age, one tends to be really contented. Not entirely a good or a bad thing. Somehow your ambitious side vanished totally. You came to a realization that no matter how high positions you hold in an organization, you would probably won’t attain happiness. Like they say, lonely at the top?

Never try, never know. I know deep inside you, you wish you could do more. Not for your own sake. It’s usually for others, especially your parents. You always argue with them and sometimes don’t see eye to eye (especially dad, which is like never? Haha) but, you have a kind heart and you always think to do the best for them. As the years go by, your parents are getting older, so, spend more time with them, if you could just stop staring at the computer all day long! (So, if I suddenly disappear from blogsphere, don’t be surprise! I still have a life outside this virtual world! Haha!)

Even though you fall short of expectations for yourself; I think you did pretty okay. You just want to keep everything as simple as possible. Don’t you ever wish that you would have this kind of mentality many years ago, probably it would save you from a lot of heartaches.

You are starting not to take things too seriously. I can’t imagine you were so anal many years back when you would flip whenever certain ideals were not met. Sometimes, I wonder why you can’t be a perfectionist about your weight. If you were, you are probably thinner now. Haha. Well, there are always regrets but then, I think if you can accept this as fate, so be it. Otherwise, do something about it. It’s your life, you know.

Well, I will try not to be too hard on you today since it’s your birthday. You could do better but, I guess you have done pretty well. I guess, so long as you don’t trouble or give problems to others, it’s great. If you feel lack of something, then look for some inspiration to do something about it! No point to whine. Actions speak louder than words. Be a doer!

PS.  How old am I? Well, it depends on how many comments this post would gather. Hahahha!

When Buying Stops

A few weeks ago, I was walking to office when I almost fell into a manhole. The steel drain cover which has been there all along finally met its untimely theft. It was stolen during the weekend. Till today, nobody even do anything about it! It really irk the shit outta me.

Stealing a drain cover is already bad enough. Causing people to fall into the drain is even worse. What if an elderly person or a small child fall into the hole? It would be devastating! I was wondering WHY on earth people would want to buy a used drain cover? Don’t they have any sense that, sometimes the people who sold these things to them are irresponsible people who stole from others?? Do they even have civic conscious minds?

Then, I read this article in the Star today.

I agree with what was said in the article. When the buying stops, the thieving will stop too. And I thought I was the only one thinking of this!

I was having lunch at home when I told my cousin about this issue. She shared with me what her friend who is a shopkeeper in Perlis is doing about this.Her friend is selling car batteries, pipes, amongst other things. Every other day, there would be people trying to sell him looted goods. Once, a guy came with 10 lorry batteries. It’s obvious that the guy stole the batteries. The shopkeeper refused to buy them, even if they cost much less and hence, higher profit margins for himself. The shopkeeper said, he would rather sell brand new things than to encourage such petty thieves from stealing from others and selling the stolen goods. He also encouraged his customers to buy brand new batteries rather than relying on second hand batteries.

It seems many shopkeepers around Perlis are doing the same thing. They play a part to curb theft via standing by their principles of not buying things from suspicious origins. And they reported such cases to the police if the person selling things are highly suspicious. It has somehow bring down incidents of cable theft, drain covers theft, etc.

I support their noble move to choose integrity over profits! I think everyone else should follow suit! And there should be a law to address such "second hand" thieves – those irresponsible people who buy from the thieves!