Monday, January 30, 2006

Disturbed

At the end of it, her heart was racing and she was sweating...

She turned and looked at the body laying beside her, breathing softly. In the dark, she could still see the strong, muscular outline. She felt so much love. Yet then, she felt so much fear too. She reached out to caress the beautiful head resting peacefully on the pillow but stopped herself.

She didn't want to wake him.

She was confused. She wanted to talk. But, it wasn't the right time.

She closed her eyes and tried not to think too much and slowly drifted off to sleep.

She woke up not long after the sun was up. It was a bright day. The place beside her was empty. As usual, she rolled over and buried her face in the vacant pillow. The mix of Bulgari Aqua and his masculine smell turned her on.

He had got up before her.

She took a cold shower and got dressed.

He came in not long after. Such a beautiful sight to behold. Five o'clock shadow and smile crinkles at the corner of his eyes. They hugged and she kissed him goodbye. Then, she left.

As she was driving, she tried to shake off the images in her mind. However, the visions stubbornly lingered throughout the day.

It was a day of celebration - yet she felt so alone and lonely despite the din of the merry-making. Of children playing and laughing, men and women chatting, eating and drinking. There were cookies and cakes, nuts and beers and the ubiquitous mandarin oranges. But, everything tasted like sawdust to her.

It was a hard day. She was tired from trying to fake smiles and laughs. The sweltering heat didn't help either. Her new clothes were sticking to her skin.
She was terribly uncomfortable.

She was glad when everything was over and she could go home.

Home was peaceful and quiet. She loved being alone. Yet, she longed for his strong arms. She always feels so safe in his embrace. He would hold her close to his heart, lock her in his arms and make her feel better.

Yes, she would tell him about her nightmare.....

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Neighbours

I am very blessed to have great neighbours, Sham & Daniel.

They looked after my house when I travel. They looked after my dog during the times when I had to leave her till wee hours in the morning.

Daniel cooks the yummiest food ever and I am lucky enough to get to taste them. Salads, curries, vegetarian..... you name it.

It's first day of the Chinese New Year today and Sham gave me a plate of sweet, juicy honey dew melon slices with a bowl of Red Globe grapes in the middle. She said it's for good luck because the melon were in the symbolic fish-shaped slices and the grapes were red in colour. How sweet!

They are all in my tummy now because I have nothing in the house for breakfast.

I am very lucky!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!!

Here's wishing everybody a very Happy Chinese New Year!!

Will miss the annual reunion - with Heng Peng and Pui Yee, head honcho and assistant (and baby makes 3)now based in China, the position of organiser is now vacant.

And quite a number has expatriated as well.

Nonetheless, GONG XI FA TA CAI!! PU PU GAO XING!! HONG BAO NA LAI!!

Take care wherever you may be. Miss you all.

XOXO.

KL in KL

Thursday, January 26, 2006

Customer Service....

Update 28 Jan 2006 :

Canon did well by replacing the LBP3200 with PIXMA IP5200 . Oh well, I am destined to have a colour printer. They sent the replacement printer to my office. Thus, I did'nt need to get into the crazy jam-packed Mid Valley Megamall. Very kool! Thumbs up!
____________________________________________________________________________

I detest being thought of as meek... being humble is OK but not meek. So, I can be very mean when faced with bad purchase or service.

No, I don't lose my temper and curse and shout like a woman gone mad.

Read on for my success story......

Buying an LV bag from France is a smart way of losing one's money. That was what I did last June in Paris. I bought Batignolles Vertical, the latest design at that time. I was a happy camper with the less 40% as compared to KL price.

A week later, my happiness proved to be short-lived. Yes, for that price, one has to be enjoy the bag till death do us part. It was not the case in my relationship with this Mr Louis Vuitton's spawn. To my horror, the glue at the strap failed and the leather gaped like an anchovy died while gasping for air. Definitely a no-no from a company with such a great reputation for excellent quality and craftsmanship.

Oh well. Off to KL Starhill I went to the only LV Boutique in whole of Malaysia despite being a country where the Datins and Tai-Tais are as numerous as the stars in the sky. Probably the rich also get theirs from LV Petaling Street. Anyway, I hugged my dear sick bag for awhile and left it at LV Starhill to be diagnosed.

I received a call a day later from LV. Bad news. They will just repair and shut the gaping leather.

Hell. No way was I gonna accept anything less than a replacement for less than a week of gentle-2X-and-no-more-than-one-hour-only use. So, I insisted on a replacement. The LV guy commented that I should have checked properly at LV Paris before leaving the premise. I said : OK. I am not going to argue with you over the phone. May I have your name please? Mr Oh-I-Am-So-Good-Looking-But-I-Sell-Purse? See you soon then.

I wrote him a fax with a copy to his manager (which I called another time to get). In my letter, I stated that Mr Oh-I-Am-So-Good-Looking-But-I-Sell-Purse (Barry went with me the 2nd time to LV and saw this guy and coined this name) has no faith in the quality of LV products. That this has shattered my confidence because even LV staff acknowledged that the QA/QC control of LV is not 100% perfect. That this does not reflect well on the company and its products. That I am certain that the bag is really defective and that I insist on an immediate replacement.

Not more than 15 mins after the fax went through, my handphone sang my favourite song. The manager called. He was nice (but I believe he was seething) and asked me to come anytime to collect my new bag.

Oh! What a feeling! I felt really great being able to stand up for myself.

Now, I am faced with a new case. Canon Printer LBP3200. The driver cannot be installed at all onto my laptop. I tried. The Canon technician came 4X within a week. Still no success. Bummer.

I wrote them a fax that I want another replacement model or money back. CC Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs.

Watch this space for the outcome....

Come on people! Speak up when faced with bad service or products. Don't live with it and feel small being faced with bad service.

Go kick some bad asses!!!!

XOXO,
Karen, Konsumer from Hell ;op





Sunday, January 22, 2006

Guinness Code Black Party

Had a swell time at Velvet Underground with Barry - who else? :o)

Though booze wasn't that interesting..unanimous blah from our group, the music was awesome! Rabbit performed too. Who cares about booze? Am not much of a drinker and Barry doesn't drink except the ice+H2O used to mix drinks. Kinda glad that he doesn't drink and smoke.

Others at the party were Liam, Brandyn, Chris, Augusta, Elsa, Mark, Jason and Paule. Barry looked good with the new shirt he bought from Australia. The girls Augusta, Brandyn and Elsa looked great too! All of us were in black keeping to the theme of the party. As you have guessed it, there were a few rebels as usual who turned up in all other colours. Was also introduced to Jeff and Dian. Sweetest people ever with the sweetest smiles. Too bad no camera. Would be great to capture the moment.

Jason and Paule came slighly late and were casual in sandals. So, Jason had to buy a pair of black socks at entrance and wore them with his sandals. He was lifting his pants and showing everybody the new look. Haha. A fashion faux pas only Anton would commit, I said to him. Aiyo! Me so bad...

Like I have said, music was great. I was told it was house. I categorise music into two : Classical and Other. Haha. Lots of dancing. Liam and Mark with their unique dance styles. Paule with her flexible moves. Barry with his Dance-Stop-Wipe Forehead-Repeat routine. Saw some lesbian-ish erotic moves. Fun to watch. Errr..I mean, fun to watch everybody dancing.

I think I danced (while observing the people...hehe) nearly the whole time (reached there at 11am and left about 2.30am). I don't really care much about dance styles. I just made sure I moved my limbs and butt. Thank goodness for good shoes from HUE Singapore. No sore legs nor feet despite the 3-inch super narrow stillettos.

I was also testing how far the bra cups from Australia could stay on my boobies too. They miraculously stuck on till I came home despite the sweating. Thumbs up!! Gotta get more of them. No need to worry about strapless bras slipping down to my tummy.

The best part about going out Saturday night : Ramly burger supper!! We made a mad rush back to Sunway cos the last time we reached there at 3am, all the burgers were gone!!! Let me tell you this : It ain't easy sleeping on an empty tummy.

So, left 1 beef burger patty. Only chicken ones left. Barry had to settle for 2 double chicken special burgers and I got the single beef special burger. Nice! I gave 1/4 to him though because I ate too much Lok Lok while waiting for burgers to be ready. Grossed the Canadians out with my choice of intestine, century eggs and clams sticks (yummy yummy). Then, wolfed down the burger with aloe vera bits/apple juice. Aaahh...satisfaction guaranteed!

Then , I went home about 3.45am to my puppy who, as always, was waiting patiently on the couch arm by the window. I had told my neighbour about coming home late and at midnight, she sms-ed me to say Claudia is fine and is sleeping on the couch.

Aaaww..Bless my neighbour, so sweet of her.

Saturday, January 07, 2006

Post-New Year

Christmas came and went. New Year came and went....

Had tons of fun at Chillis Bangsar with the kids a day before Christmas eve. My, they can really eat!! Everyone finished their meals except moi. And mine was just the salad too. Sigh, I guess it's one of those indications of age. I remember I used to eat like a big bowl of rice (size of the large Chinese soup bowl where everybody partake from) followed by a loaf of bread. Yes, I was a glutton with the body of an undernourished Ethiopian.

Gave them a card with words of love and cash too - not much time to do Christmas shopping. I did get them a set of 4 books by Dan Brown for them to circulate. They enjoyed the pre-Christmas outing.

The trip to Australia was amazingly great - a little bumpy at certain points with wedding stress I guess, but nonetheless, still great overall as this is the longest away-from-Malaysia trip that Barry and I had.

We arrived Perth on Christmas day. Was nice to be picked up from airport by Gary (the groom), Barry's friend. And then we were left at the bride's house till late evening. It was Christmas and everything was closed. Perth is already famous for closing its shops early too.

Then, B & I took quick showers and went off to Ciano and Margot's place for Christmas dinner. We reached there late thus missed the goat on the spit. But, we were filled up well with other food nonetheless.

Shops were still closed on Boxing Day. So, we went to Cottesloe Beach. Had great fish and chips too just across the beach. Loved the fish and chips at Cottlesloe. Yummy! especially with vinegar and salt over fries and tartare sauce.

Managed to do stuffs like shopping, manicure, movie Narnia and meeting up with Ivan over the course of the next couple of days in Perth. Those and visit to Caversham Wildlife Park, wineries, chocolate factory and Fremantle. Met the koolest tour guide, Ron Crane, who took us on a private and personal tour of Swan Valley at a short notice. Also, had the pleasure of meeting David of Caversham Wildlife Park. Great people who went all the way to show us the beauty of the valley.

Got lots of clothes at a steal. It was sale time and I was lucky to find a few size 6 or XS stuffs hidden in the racks. In addition, silicone bra cups!! They work like a dream. I can now wear the lowest necklines and barebacks without any concern about bra straps showing.... I know, I know, I worry about the silliest things in life. They look funny though. Definitely mood killers if seen by the eyes of a man. Haha!

Barry had a great time especially since Perth is pretty much like Vancouver and it was even more awesome that his buddies from Canada were there with him. What a grrrreat way to celebrate his birthday!

As for me, those shopping and touring aside, this trip with Barry was one of the most memorable so far. In the busi-ness of day-to-day life, it's hard to get time together and Australia gave us lots of time. We took tons of pictures too!!

And the best thing was when the clock struck midnight, he gave me a surpise amidst the fireworks outside and shouts and whoops of happy new year. It was truly special... but that's him, always does things differently.. It was a nice, great surprise.

And I like that he loves my little poopy who happens to have halitosis. Eeeew...

Tons of other pictures but uploading them takes forever. After several failed attempts, I give up. Below are all that I was able to upload.



Wasn't prepared for the beach trip... My poor Louis Vuitton exposed to sand, sun and salt

Cottlesloe Beach House

Cottlesloe Beach

We had a good time at Witches' Cauldron, Subiaco. On our right, Ivan & Vanessa from Perth. On our left, Oscar & Shannon from Vancouver. Nice-looking couples, eh?

Another day at Cottlesloe Beach

Moi avec mon mec