Banking on My Bank

Went to the bank, and banks aren't really on the top of my list of favourite places to visit, yesterday to renew the roadtax for my car. I know I don't have to go there physically to do it, but I went because:

1. The stupid branch closed down, and I only found out because my cheques were taking so long to clear when I mailed them to the address, and the receipts kept coming from a differnt branch. So clever me put two and two together and figured out that they might have moved. Only to be confirmed when I called them. They never informed me, can you believe it? I also wanted to find out if my car grant was moved to the new branch.

2. I kept getting this stupid reminder letter that said that I am one month behind in my payment and my record showed otherwise. So I needed to confirm that as well.

So the conclusion is: the bank is stupid. Of course it is stupid, that's why it had changed name three times since I had taken my car loan with them. Phiiish.

Anyways, back to the stupid visit. I had to take the day off just to do that because the new branch is located in some god-forsaken place that I had never been. And of course it turned out that it really was in a god-forsaken place, with no parking. Ended up parking my car in the wet market car park a kilometre away (and paying three ringgits for it).

And the bank had no air-conditioning on because there was a small fire three days before and they still could not fix the ac. (To which I asked the girl, would my records be burned too if the fire was a little bigger, and she replied 'you wish' :P ). So there I was sweating and almost had a headache when I was finally waited upon (geez, what a nice term I used). And the guy was very nice, and he actually filled up all the forms for me, and the only thing I had to do was just sign the cheque (I was making payments too). And... he asked me out to lunch!!!!

I attribute that to the lack of air-conditioning. :)

But the bank is still stupid anyway.

When Life Is Calmer

When life is calmer, I have no doubt

No angry drama, a storm blows itself out

A storm blows itself out...

I'm sorry

Pet Shop Boys

Only the Wind

Eighties Revisited

Eighties, the decade of decadence. The decade of carefree joys. I was there, and I was young. And I revisited it these last few days. It all started with me being cooped up in the project room with two colleagues who are also good friends, one young and one not so young, and the need to release the tension in the air. And the thousand plus mp3 collection in my laptop, which is made up of a considerable number of songs from that era. From the famous ones (think Wham, Culture Club) to really obscure ones like Candy Flip (ever heard of that one? :) ). So I cranked up the volume and started playing the songs. My not-so-young colleague just flipped and started guffawing, I could almost see her in her younger days with leggings and pink plastic earrings oh-so-chic those days (metallic blue eye shadow too?). My young colleague was like 'huh? Who is that?'. And me the storyteller began to tell the stories of old. It didn't feel old. It felt so recent. And I felt young, for a minute. And tension dissipated from the air. For me at least. Especially when we (well, me and my not-so-young colleague at least) started to sing along to Samantha Fox's Touch Me, complete with the ah..ah..ah sound, you know what I mean. Much to the amusement of my young colleague. There goes my reputation as the team lead. Face it Nikki, I was young once. :)

...This is the night

This is the night

This is the time we’ve got to get it right(this is the night)

Touch me, touch me

I want to feel your body

Your heart beat next to mine(this is the night)

Touch me, touch me now...

Samantha Fox - Touch Me

(and I wonder whatever happened to her? And her big assets!)

Irritation Index: 10

The thing that irritates me most is waiting. Especially when I am forced to, without an escape hatch. So today when I called my hairdresser to have an appointment at 3pm for a haircut, I expected to be attended to at 3pm. And I am the type who will make sure that I walk in the door at 2.59pm at the very latest, othrewise I will not even make an appointment. I have always liked my hairdresser for his attention to detail, that is why I have been going to him for 12 years for my haircut, even after I have moved to a different area, and his saloon is in a god-forsaken traffic-choked area (the fact that he isn't bad-looking is a plus, although that is not the main factor..:) ). And I think today he paid too much attention to detail, because guess how long I had to wait for my haircut today? 3 hours! And he only had 2 other customers to attend to before me. And worst, I had made an appointment! Bloody hell, I almost walked out from the place with hair standing. See, the assistant washed my hair already so that forced me to sit in the chair huffing and puffing and reading 2 Cleo magazines (yes, it's Cleo...). Hated it, hated it, hated it! And after 12 years of knowing me, I think he knew that I almost blew my top, and apologised profusely, but that just irritated me further.

And guess what, he charged me 5 ringgits more than usual... Chinese New Year price maaa... haiyah!

Itchy Hand

I can feel my hands getting itchy to do up the apartment again, for the umpteenth time. Yeah, my neighbour downstairs can probably sleep through the sounds of furniture moving around in the middle of the night by now since I do it so often (err, once a week?), but now I have caught myself opening the Jotun colour catalogue a few times already this week. And waking up in the middle of the night thinking whether the Aspen Leaf AL23903 will be too bright for the wall behind the bed is a little disturbing. It does seem that I have repainting my living room once a year since I moved in 4 years ago. Do you think the size of my apartment will be reduced by a few square feet if I do that too often? Hmmm...

They say that red in the bedroom will increase your sexual prowess. Should I try? :P

The Night Before Eid

Tomorrow is Eid al-Adha. It's the day for the Muslims to think about those who are unfortunate, and to do something for them. A day of reckoning.

And I am here, alone, sitting in front of my pc, pondering. Feeling a little lump in my throat rising for no particular reason. Just a general feeling of sadness. For just being. For just existing. For the general lack of any other feelings. For the emptiness I feel.

I miss you. And you know who you are, and yes, there are many of you...

Nice Happy

I think I am getting somewhere this year. Which is a good start considering last year's track record, which was awful. What I want most, and I have not found for a while is the nice happy content feeling. And I seem to be getting it back again. Yesterday was nice. Had a banana leaf lunch with Hasx and Gip, and Chris. Good friends with no necessity of forced conversation, or signs of intelligence. No pretensions. These are the people whom I have known for more than 2/3rd of my life and they will accept me no matter what. And the familiar nice heaviness of the lunch too. Comforting. And then a road trip to Kuala Selangor, no plans. Nice too. Ended up at the Nature Park, and again with no plan, paid the two-ringgit fee and we just went in and walked up the meandering paths. Looked at birds and butterflies. Listened to the bird calls and the wind. Smelled the earth, and the rain, which came when we were halfway through the tracks. We ran like children, screaming and laughing. Nice. Happy. The night, of course, was a different story. For someone who has not been exercising enough (well, not exercising at all) I suffered as all my muscles screamed! Slept like a baby though. Today was nice too, not doing much, just enjoying not doing much, which is completely not me. And ended it with a nice dinner with Nikki. No dessert, just coffee *wink*. Thanks people, you made my weekend. Hope this continues forever and ever and ever. I can live with it.

Love Lost

It is the second relationship-gone-down-the-hill story I heard this week. Not that it is a new story (see this entry), it is just that when you hear it again, the pain that it causes you in the heart feels new. Things have not changed for the better, unlike the fairy tales you are fed with, but things have gotten worse. And love is supposed to make the world go round, people say, so when love is lost, what happens? The world stops going around, and falls off the axis?

Na, all I can do is pray for your happiness.