Friday, January 26, 2007

Phhffftt the Magic Dragon!

I sure need some of that magic dragon after this week!

Latest update on my dad: He is having some breathing difficulty, the infection is still strong, could have taken hold of his lungs, so more test are the be done, but up to today, the bill is already 16k not including the operation, so.. we are expecting it to be no less the 30k !!!!??????? Where the **** are we going to get that sort of money?? Dad doesn't have any insurance as no one wants to sell it to him with his heart condition. .....

But we are getting on the car in about 30 mins to head down to KL central to get my credit card, should be around 3 1/2 hours drive, then head to the airport, should be another hour's drive there. And then relax around the airport of another few hours (3 at least)... Last but not least the 10 hours flight!

LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG Weeeeeek I tell you!

See you down under!! (Vodafone-032 7575) Everything is going to be just 'Ka Pai'(Good)! Off for some Kiwi Loving!

Haere rā, me hoki mai anō koe.
Goodbye, you must return again. :p

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Where is the end of the tunnel!??!!

So.. Where do I start!??!!!! WHEN IS IT GOING TO END?!?!

Good News
Dad had his operation today, they found more than 10 stones in his gallbladder, and they are not small!! So.. that explains the hugh amount of pain he was in!

I received an invitation to have a Platium Card, with my trip to NZ, that's a bonus to have extra amounts to spare.

Bad News
I lost my new Platium Card.. becoz I'm managing the shop, right after I comfirm and activated my card, there was a customer that I had to tend to, so.. left the card on the table, and GONE! They are not able to replace my card b4 I leave for NZ.

Now, instead of leaving at 2pm and head straight to the airport, I'm going to have to arrage to leave earlier and head to the Card Center, get a new card and then leave for the airport, in doing that we might be arriving at the airport 5 hours earlier! WITH 2 toddlers!!! hm...

Plus to add to my stressful week.. I received a letter from a credit company telling me that I owe Telecom RM2500 back from 1996 ?????!!!!! For an address in Petaling Jaya!! Hello, I wasn't even staying near there!! So it's definitely a case of ID theft!! Although I know that, they could still be sueing me!

So.. I'm about to break! STRESS!! I haven't even packed! Haven't had my hair done, nor my nails, nor my facial!!! ARGH!!!!!

Adding to all the above: I had to bank in the balance of my air-ticket to my travel agent; arrange for a batch of contact lenses to clear in the port of Malaysia from NZ; pay this months car loan; pay the HQ the royalty; arrange for my sister-in-law to get the keys to the house in NZ; oh and my shoe broke...

Monday, January 22, 2007

Flat Out!

From Caleb
Last weekend was the longest weekend EVER!!! Dad was admitted to the local specialist hospital on Thursday night; he had been in pain, throwing up since Wednesday. He has some stones in his gallbladder that's causing some obstruction, so in order to ease the pain he was put on drips, and needs surgery to remove either the stones or the gallbladder.... BUT.. it was my brother's wedding that very weekend!! So we were hoping he would feel better after a day or 2, since it had happened b4 in NZ, where the stone passed thru all by itself. Our fingers were all crossed! So dad managed to attend the pre-wedding party the night for an hour; 2 hours of the wedding; and 1 hour of the tea ceremony. We had to arrange for him to get back to the hospital between the wedding and the tea ceremony to get a litre of saline into him. Unfortunately.. it didn't this time and it developed into a serious infection of the blood and stressed his heart! So dad ended up not going to the 'Dinner'. Right after dinner we had to rush him off to Ipoh Specialist coz there were no cardiologists where he was. So it was a long LONG weekend. He's due to have his op on wednesday, tomorrow as I write this, but that depends on the infection. So he most likely won't be back to work for another week at least. Normally that wouldn't bother us, and we'd insist he get enough rest before returning to work, but we leave for NZ this Friday! So, Jamie and I will both be gone during the Chinese New Year rush - worst possible timing! Talk about stress!!! We were even considering just Jake go to NZ for his sister's wedding, and me staying here to help, but it sounded like Dad would be fine in a few days. So we confirmed our trip. That was before they delayed the op, and consequently, now mum will need to man the shop for a couple of days in the beginning by herself - I feel horrible! So does Jake - he feels like he's making life very hard for my mum... But we also need a rest, and a month alone with the kids will allow us to bond with them again in a more close relationship - we feel we really need that right now. So anyway, what a week. Can't wait for everything to calm down.

Anyhow.. here are some pictures of the wedding..
Mummy and her babies!

Best Man Taking a break in between tea ceremonies
From Weddings

From Weddings
From Ant's Wedding
Groom's borther and Bride's sister presenting a song
The Happy Couple ; From Ant's Wedding
From Ant's Wedding
Father and Son, From Ant's Wedding
From Ant's Wedding
From Ant's Wedding
Bambam Running! From Ant's Wedding
The 'Family'! From Ant's Wedding
Dad Taking a rest between ceremonies, From Ant's Wedding

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Just another piece of paper?

For today's IT world, we still have a lot of pieces of 'Papers'.

Recently, I was speaking to a close friend of mine, funnily we both met our husband in this dodgy little bar, in a little corner of the CBD of Auckland, called 'Margarita'. She's been married for a while now, and obviously so have I, the differences I guess are that; I've got kids and she doesn't; She's got an affectionate husband and I don't; She wants to move to NZ, but can't and I can go back anytime I want, well sort of, not financially anyway. Anyhow, other than we both met our match at the same dodgy bar; we are both Malaysian Chinese married to a GuaiLo/AngMo/MatSalleh/Pakeha; we are from the same little town called Sitiawan. Being brought up in a little town has it's pros and cons. One of it's con is that, everyone knows everyone, and no one seems to have much to do but to gossip! And definitely doesn't help with the 'old' conservative thinking, so more to gossip about.

Back to the topic... Is marriage just another piece of paper among the piles of papers we already have? Do we stay in a marriage becoz of that piece of paper? OR is it becoz of our vows? OR is it becoz of our parents, especially the Asian side? OR is it becoz it's our comfort zone? Anyone in a marriage would tell you that it isn't easy, being in a mixed marriage is even harder, with the difference in culture and up bringing. I think alot of Asian marriages are held up by obligation to the 'family'. Divorce although is very common now-a-days, still it is a disgrace to the 'family' in the Asian society, and it's always the women's fault: "She is not good, that's why the husband don't want her"; "The parents never raised her up properly" hm.. er.. can't clap with one hand, ok ?? I don't think a lot of 'white ppl' would understand why a marriage between 2 ppl has to do with everyone else in the family, especially the female side and I mean the WHOLE 'family' including the grandparents, the aunts and the uncles!! BUT I'm telling you it does!!!

Are there any other couples out there that feels totally repulsed being touched by the husband ?? I went thru that stage! Is that's normal.. ?? Could it had been pregnancy hormones??? It's getting better now.. least my hair doesn't stand every time he touches or kisses me. I know there is "the 7th year itch", is there a 4th year thing?? Now that it's 5 years, oh my goodness, 5 YEARS!!!!!!! Things are getting better.. ChiwiDad is slowly turning into an 'EGG' (White on the outside, yellow on the inside) and I guess we are finally accepting each other, that I cannot change him, immediately, hehehehe, but eventually, muahahahaha. Plus we finally accepted the fact that we are stuck together(this is our longest relationship EVER! My record was 6 months, his was 4 months), so there was a lot of getting use to.. and also there is no other way out.

SO ... Carpe diem! "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die" :)

Monday, January 08, 2007

My best Christmas gift this year!

If you have read "Conversations with God 1, 2 or 3", you will love this!
Call it New-Age, call it Blasphemy, call it whatever you want, but it makes sense to me.
This is a new book that my father-in-law has published.

Healing Moments brings together the distinctive photography of Terry Winn and the words of Neale Donald Walsch from his millions-selling Conversations with God series. Australia/NZ rights have been granted for the use of excerpts from the books, which lend themselves perfectly to the small format book (‘If I do not go within, I go without’) and to being matched with Terry’s poetic photographs of natural and human subjects caught in the fleeting moments of everyday life. The result is a beautiful and inspirational gift book for all readerships. - NZBooksOnline

And if you think that picture on the book is familiar, yes, that's the one that you can see in one of my divineMum's page

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Road Rules!


Hey.. If you can't move whatever you have hit, RUN! Push your car even, if you have to, but RUN, RUN far far away! In this case. PUSH it far far away! Even if it's a BMW, Z4!

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Oh My Goodness!!!

It's another year... been and gone!!!!
Happy New Year Ppl!! and a very belated Merry Christmas!!
Been Flat out!! Literary!! Physically and mentally!! hehehehe
  1. Flat in bed for New Year's eve and New Year Day!! How sad is that??? Had the worst cold ever!! Also "Longest cold ever!! Had it since last year! "
  2. Flat Broke! - 18 more days till my brother's wedding, like Hijack Queen says "Ouch" and "Double Ouch"- going to NZ end of this month for my sister-in-law's wedding; interest rate raising, 1 month of expenses in dollars!! Still haven't paid my credit card off yet!! Not to forget the air tickets!! Sigh, and Double Sigh!!
  3. Flat Out - School has been busy, the optical shop has been busy, and relatives and friends from all over the place are visiting.
    1. Aida and Brad from Boston, US.
    2. Farah and Jeremy from Bharain (here is a picture of all the Daddas holding their kids)
    3. My cousin's from Adelaide
    4. My childhood neighbours from Perth