Cheat Work Thursday

I sat for my final exam at about the same time my grandmother passed away. At the kenduri tahlil, my mother was telling a Mak Cik (I don't know her, someone from my grandmother's kampung) that I was two weeks away from graduation. The kind Mak Cik offered to ask her son if there was a vacancy at the company he was working in. I know my English is far from perfect, but when she asked me this, "Bahasa Inggeris mesti bagus. Boleh cakap Bahasa Inggeris?" I WANTED TO EAT HER ALIVE.

Since I'm going to do a lot of long driving this month, I'm going to get a lot of vocal exercise as well. Though you know songs nowadays: not all lines are meant for singing, so some are pretty short. 1) Katy Perry's Teenage Dream. Find the Glee's version here . 2) B.O.B / Hayley Williams' Airplanes . 3) Adam Lambert's If I Had You . Each time I start listening to my new favourite songs, I immediately think of my friend Lyle , who only owns Josh Groban's and Andrea Bocelli's CDs.

1) This is a book by a politician with their usual charm (or whatever politicians have) and a biography. So you are bound to root for the people in it at least to some degree, even if you don't want to. And why not -- read how challenging privileged life is. ( Okayy! I know this family was struck by tragedies too.) 2) Two of the chapters, 1963 and Bobby , focus on JFK and RFK respectively, their assassinations and how Ted and their family dealt with it. Bobby , especially, is very moving. Ted wrote (months following RFK's death): "A sail from Cape Cod to Maine, with a southwest breeze, is a glorious adventure, and it's a trip that Bobby and I had enjoyed together in years past..." "And as the sun descends, only a few lights appear onshore, and so you head off into the darkness..." "Seldom is there another boat in sight. And that is truly magical time of sailing, because the North Star appears: the North Star, which has been ...

As far as I can remember, the last three times I cried in public were when 1) my grandmother passed away 2) I was on a flight, watching Cinta -- starting from the part where the grandson had no choice but to send his grandfather to the nursing home. (Which I don't think even counts, tbh. It wasn't entirely in public, was it? Only one person sat next to me, and she might not even see it. And I was 30,000 feet above the earth. The science was different.) 3) I quit working at the Hell House, over the phone, when my colleagues called me at home. Weren't we silly back then? In short, I don't do this crying thing often, especially not in public, most especially not over a movie or a book. In fact, I'm your shoulder to cry on. I'm that person who comforts you with my wise words and all. I'm practically a healer! However, this year, it's so easy to get me. Everything is sad. Though I didn't cry, I found Taking Chance, Grey Gardens, and even Toy S...

So, since there was no parking at this 7-Eleven, I decided to go to the other one, which is a little further, on the other side of the main road. The road was congested for a housing area tonight. I was approaching the main road to make a U-turn, mostly looking to my right for cars coming that way. As I turned left, suddenly -- shoot! Two people, on my left, walking, were about to hit a car! Thankfully, I managed to hit the brakes and maneuver the wheel as fast as my mouth could blurt out the appropriate profanity. The car next to mine, coming from the same direction, honked and stopped. I was not sure whether they were honking at me or the jaywalkers. But nothing bad happened, except that I almost hit the divider, and the jaywalkers magically halted. Two seconds after, life goes on again for everybody. That was a pretty scary stunt, and I've been tested properly tonight, but I finally got my Maggi goreng kicap and now live happily ever after.

I promise you there's nothing particularly interesting about this story that it needs three parts, but here we are. So, I drove to the 7-Eleven in the area, and man, this place really has changed. When I first moved here after uni (I've never moved out since, told you, love this place), the neighbourhood was very quiet. There were a few rows of shop lots, eating places, banks and clinics etc, but we didn't have any night markets (except during Ramadhan), supermarkets, huge mamak restaurants or a business centre back then. Now I can't even get a parking space at a 7-Eleven. They now have an 'Uptown' here? Who needs this concept? It's like a new city is born at night in this area. Who are these people?? Since I have no right to complain about the world's need for evolvement and economic expansion -- I'm sure this adds to the tax collection that will benefit me in the end -- I'll stop complaining now. I don't own this place. Oh, how I wi...

It was 10+ PM. I'd already had bihun goreng, six pieces of peanut butter bread, an apple, coffee and green tea today. So, I wasn't hungry. I just wanted to eat something, like Maggi goreng kicap. The only place that I could think of was 7-Eleven because other places would probably require me to wear actual pants . I grabbed my cardigan, keys and wallet and went down to my car. A few things again about my apartment: The neighbourhood is just a 10-minute drive to the city centre. But the apartment is made up of six five-storey buildings, with the ground floor being the parking area, so it's not crowded (or it's not supposed to be). I love the privacy. A neighbour one floor below me has teenage sons who love to bring their friends to hang out at the staircase, playing with their laptops and cards, and sometimes smoking. Every time they hear footsteps, they'll stupidly hide the cigarettes. So they were there on the staircase today. You see, 17-year-olds in Ho...