Entries from August 2007 ↓

Hot on Rinnah’s graduation heels, comes another impending graduation of someone very near and dear to me.

During my own graduation, he was there proudly beaming in the crowd and jostling with the rest of the photographers. He came so far with me, it only made sense that when he decided to take up his own degree, I would support him the same way he did me.

What followed was 3 years of sacrifice, nights burning the midnight oil and nail-biting suspense during the exams and while waiting for results. He opted to do an external degree which made it even more challenging. Every weekend was a cycle of rushing through meals, dropping him off at classes, picking him up after classes when he was sometimes too tired to have dinner. Exam times were worse.

But we persevered.

And now, after 3 years that have seemed to fly by, his results were released yesterday and he’s passed his degree with Honours!! He is now a graduate!! Its a lifetime achievement and I am so damn proud of him.

CONGRATULATIONS DAD!!

The circle is now complete. We are now all graduates in my family and we are all super duper hyper proud of our dear ol’ Dad! Now onto the graduation in London!

The Grand old Duke of York
He had ten thousand men
He marched them up to the top of the hill
And he marched them down again

Remember that nursery rhyme? I can sing it for you if you like Sis thought I was off my rocker and wondered how on earth I remember these things. Well, the brain is a largely underused mass of cells so….

What this bit of rhyming brings us to is the fact that I had received a forwarded email this morning, inviting me to a reception with the Duke of York i.e. Prince Andrew this evening, as in NOW. Wahlau! Can you say last minute?!

I tried to confirm my attendance but there was no one picking up my phone at the British High Commission. I thought the Brits were efficient, punctual, time watching people. So, I’ve missed my one opportunity to make my claim to fame.

And when they were up
They were up
And when they were down
They were down
And when they were only halfway up
They were neither up nor down!

This is the Chinese 7th month in the lunar calendar. Its the time of year when, according to Chinese mythology and beliefs, the gates of Hell are opened and the ghosts are allowed to roam freely through the human world. Those who believe will offer prayers and food to feed the hungry ghosts who have no one to pray for them and feed them, so they don’t get disturbed by these hungry ghosts.

How appropriate then that my personal ghost decides to take the opportunity to rake up a past that is not only forgotten but which I don’t care to rake up. I have not seen this ghost for more than 6 months now, and this ghost is hungry and desperate for information.

Am I fatter? Am I thinner? Am I more beautiful than ever? *preen*

Am I richer? Am I poorer? Am I a success? Am I a failure?

Am I Christian? Am I Buddhist? Am I Muslim?

Its strange to have someone so obsessed about you. I feel rather like my namesake, Paris Hilton. I feel like I should have a sleazy sex video somewhere on the internet and be chased by papparazzi everywhere I go. At the same time, I feel like I should be worried that someone so inconsequential to me should want to take so much notice of me. I guess I watch too much Criminal Minds and CSI.

This ghost is hungry for information which it cannot get. It has resorted to prying information out of other people on the pretext of feeding them lunch. Does it think everyone’s a hungry ghost like it is? It tried to piss me off by asking this person to pass the message to me that his pet ghostling is getting more than what I did.

Am I awed by this attention? Am I repulsed? Am I angered? Do I care?!

No. I’m strangely removed from it all, and a little amused. I feel nothing where once I would have whipped out my ghostbusting machine and let out a roar of anger. Now, I just shake my head at the childishness of it all, and get on with my life. I can. I don’t need my private stalker ghost.

BOO!

Do not feed the ghosts

I have been hearing jets fly over the airspace over my office the whole morning in preparation for the upcoming National Day celebrations in Dataran Merdeka. I honestly thought that the celebrations were being held in Putrajaya this year. Honestly.

I suppose this tells you just how much attention I pay to this. The only thing that really struck my mind was “Alamak! The roads are going to be so jammed!” This is because the road leading to Dataran Merdeka runs just right in front of my office! What a great excuse to use for coming in late to work eh?

Anyway, with this upcoming National Day celebrations, I have an embarrassing confession to make.

I could never remember which year we achieved independance.

Of course this year, its easy to remember because everyone is having the 50th anniversary being shoved down our throats. But before this 50th anniversary thing, I had great problems remembering whether it was 31 August 1957 or 1958. I did not do history in school, so there.

How did I eventually get around this problem? With a little bit of help from the late Sudirman!

Tanggal 31
Bulan lapan lima puluh tujuh
Merdeka ! Merdeka !
Tetaplah merdeka
Ia pasti menjadi sejarah

Tanggal 31
Bulan lapan lima puluh tujuh
Hari yang mulia
Hari bahagia
Sambut dengan jiwa yang merdeka

Mari kita seluruh warga negara
Ramai-ramai menyambut hari merdeka
Merdeka !
Tiga satu bulan lapan lima puluh tujuh
Hari mulia negaraku merdeka

Merdeka !
Merdeka !
Merdeka !

This is such an upbeat song and it never fails to amaze me how it is played every time we approach August 31. This and “Balik Kampung” are the 2 most played songs of the late Sudirman.

It would be nice if he was recognised for producing the most loved National Day song ever, that transcends the years yet embodies what Merdeka is all about in a sufficiently upbeat marching tune. Hands up how many can remember what is the annual song or theme or logo? What is it this year? Do I even care?!

This is my tribute piece to the *choke* 50th anniversary of independence. I didn’t want to bitch about how much we have regressed in the past 5 years or how stupid it is to propose to eradicate the English Common Law system from our judicial system, so I’ll end off on a good note.

Mari kita seluruh warga negara
Ramai-ramai menyambut hari merdeka
Merdeka !
Tiga satu bulan lapan lima puluh tujuh
Hari mulia negaraku merdeka

Merdeka !
Merdeka !
Merdeka !

p/s Isn’t ironical that Prince Andrew (The Duke of York) is representing Britain at our National Day festivities? Imagine attending the party of someone who is celebrating their independence from you! Plus getting the royal treatment from your former colony. I love how ironical this whole thing this

p/p/s Whatever happened to that little boy Sudirman adopted? He should be a young lad now. Anyone knows?

I spent Sunday cleaning my house with a little help from my fluffy pink sis who is bunking in my place and thus forced to chip in the house chores. (haha!)

I thought that it was clean all along, but the amount of dust sis managed to sweep up filled two whole dustpans. There was enough hair in there to make a wig! A scary wig that would be possessed and scare the bejesus out of people in some Korean horror movie.

Anyway, whilst I was cleaning house, I mused aloud “Where is the dust coming from?” and sis’s nonchalant answer was “From you!”

According to her, we shed skin which then turns to dust. Erm… I’m not quite sure I believe her That means I have bits of me all over the house, and if I collected enough, I could just pile them up, add hot water and create a mini me! No?

I stay more than 20 floors above the ground. So, where does all the dust in my house come from?!