Entries from September 2008 ↓

To all Muslims the world over, Selamat Hari Raya, Happy Eid Mubarak and may your holidays be a safe one as you journey home to your families.

I’ll probably take the time to relax and catch up on some sleep and reading and I don’t know if I’ll ever get round to doing any painting!

And if you don’t already know, there’s a fun little giveaway going on on my beauty blog where you can win some Majolica Majorca goodies.

Enjoy the holidays!

Unlike other years I’m not making a balik kampung trip this Hari Raya break.

So…

• no getting up at 5am to beat the Sahur traffic
• no joining the crush of people back in the little hometowns of Malaysia
• no chance to pick up free coffee from Petronas
• no need to pump a full tank of petrol and take advantage of the fuel price reduction

Instead there are plans to do some house painting and maybe start going for a new pilates class. Better than stuffing my face full of briyani, rendang and kuih-kuih yes?

What are you doing this Raya?

First Petrol went up by 78 sen to RM2.70. Consumers screamed and tore their hair out in frustration. They queued for hours at the petrol stations to ensure that their cars were pumped up to the full tank to maximise savings.

Traders jumped at the opportunity to raise prices. Wantan Mee went up to RM4 or RM4.50 in some places with smaller portions! Times are hard.

But peope are resilient and they struggled to cope, bringing their lives into some semblance of order.

Then, a month or so ago, the Government had a change of heart before the Permatang Pauh elections and lowered petrol by 15 sen. No crazy queues at petrol stations, no traffic jams.

Traders and commercial people aren’t following suit and reducing the prices they were so quick to raise when petrol prices went up.

Today, petrol is reduced by a further 10 sen. Petrol is now priced at RM2.45.  I don’t expect to see any further changes to the economy. Reducing fuel prices before the Hari Raya exodus is merely lip service. The exodus will happen anyway, regardless of price of fuel, because its a festive season and balik kampung is our culture!

I don’t expect much else to change in terms of the economy. Wantan mee is not going back to its days of RM3.50 or RM3.80.

When crude oil went over US$100 a barrel, our fuel prices jumped by 78 sen. Now crude oil is below US$100 and we drop prices by a mere 25 sen and only because the Government of the day is facing  political troubles. The next time crude oil prices spike, I can imagine another 78 sen hike.

But by then maybe a new government will be in place. Hard to say eh?

Its September 2008 and if there’s one movie I recommend that EVERYONE watch in 2008, its Mamma Mia! Thanks to Nuffnang, I was at GSC 1 Utama last night to catch this movie for free! What’s better than an excellent feelgood fun movie? A FREE feelgood fun movie

I won’t have any spoilers, so my advice is just to go and watch:

• Meryl Streep sing - that woman is multi talented I tell you! I’m amazed
• Pierce Brosnan sing - *muffled giggles and horrified groans of disbelief*
• The beautiful turquoise sea of Greece
• The gorgeous scenery of a Greek island (and wonder how anyone gets anywhere climbing those rocks)
• The kitzchy performance of Super Trouper - guarantee to make you cringe, laugh and sing along all at once
• The Greek gods take off their shirts at every opportunity
• Wonder why everyone on a Greek island is either speaking with an English or American accent
• the enjoyable songs of ABBA being performed in a most unusual way
• the seamless way the music fits into the movie… but then the movie was written for the songs so I guess it only made sense that it fit!

It was fun, it was funny, it was enjoyable, it was singalong karaoke… I want to do it all over again! Like Kimberlycun, I wanna see it again! But how come I didn’t see you yesterday Kim?!

Now Mamma Mia the Musical! That’s going down on my calendar!

Do not ask what possessed me.

I don’t quite know myself.

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