Questa è Enida

To All,

This might come a little bit too early, but here we are wishing you…

• Ramadhan Mubarak
• Happy Halloween
• Happy Deewali (Deepavali)
• Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri
• Merry Christmas
• Happy New Year, and
• Gong Xi Fa Chai

…all in chronological order, and all in one breath!

We are celebrating all these AND Kitreena’s 3rd Birthday (plus House-Warming, Baby-Shower and Kitreena’s Mom’s 30-something birthday) in one Open House in about two weeks time. (Please find attachment.) When you come – and see my tummy from miles away – you’ll understand why we are in such a rush. Ha ha.

And in case you are having a problem opening the attachment, here’s the details:

When:
November 12, 2005 Saturday – 2-4pm
(Of course it is an open house, the food will run out, but we will be here all day)

Where:
X Lorong Chong Khoon Lin X
Ukay Heights, Ampang

Directions:

• If you are from MRR2 – take the Jalan Ampang/Pusat Bandaraya Exit near the Flamingo Hotel, or
• If you are from Lebuhraya Bertingkat (E12) – take the Exit 1204A Jalan Kerja Ayer Lama
• Turn onto Jalan Kerja Ayer Lama towards Kelab Darul Ehsan passing International Schools, staying straight for about 800 meters
• Turn left immediately after passing SPCA on your left (at a ‘crooked’ simpang empat)
• Take the n-th left-turn onto Lorong Chong Khoon Lin X
• Our place is # X, at the cul-de-sac (end of the road)
• Parking is extremely limited, so you either come early, car pool, or park along the main Jalan Chong Khoon Lin and exercise your way up to the cul-de-sac (about 100 meters. Oh c’mon! Think of all the good food…Roti Jala, Laksa Penang, Lodeh, etc.)

It’d be really great to hear from you before November 12 – to make sure there will be enough Lemang & Rendang for all, or if we have to run to 7–Eleven to get you some potato chips. This is our first time having the opportunity to organize a makan-makan like this, so, excuse us for being a couple of worrywarts. Unless you don’t mind Pringles Potato Chips….

We can be reached at:
019 – 397 xxxx (Enida)
012 – 387 xxxx (Karl)
03 – 4253 xxxx (Home Phone)
03 – 4252 xxxx (Home Fax)
enida@mail.com
Atau Balai Polis yang berhampiran (Just Kidding)

So, ladies, gentlemen, girls and boys…have a great time with families and friends di musim perayaan ini. Please buckle up and drive safe; no speeding, no rushing, no sleeping, no swearing and no phone-calling or sms-ing while driving okay? Pack yourself some Maruku or Kerepek Bawang if you have to…to keep you awake for the long journey – but make sure your puasa is full still. *wink wink*

Salam Aidilfitri & Happy Deewali.

Warmest Regards,
Enida, Karl & Kitreena.

P.S. Tapi nak sangat giving out information to my friends, tapi banyak lah pulak I had to axe-out in this post (which is also an email I just sent out to personal contacts). Hence the “xxxx’s”. Sorry guys. I know information is power, but takut kang banyak pulak power-crazy powerades powerbars power-switches power-rangers or pakwe-pakwe out there whose hobby is to run amock at open houses. Those who know me personally, you have my number kan? Hah, dial me up!

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Bab ‘info-traffic’ again today, tun-tun dan pun-pun. Tell me if I am stating the obvious; that we drive between the road lines, not on them! Hai meh? And yet so many don’t seem to think that it is obvious. Of course the lines are there to guide you in terms of space you have on your side. So, when you have enough space on YOUR side, why do you have to makan jalan and be on MY side?

Get over, you hog!

Worse, some people punyalah sayang kereta cik konon…sanggup risk the collision with the oncoming traffic semata-mata to elak some potholes! Adaka? And to be behind a motorbike is oh so ‘harmful to the morals and status’, so they have to pass/overtake regardless of safety. Slow down? What’s that?

Pastu perasan they are F1 champions. When the road curves like the middle part of E12 (Ampang Elevated Expressway) near the Jelatek exit, they have to use two lanes because they just don’t know how to control the vehicle at 80km/h. Slow down? Eh mana boleh! It’s so embarrassing to slow down! No way. Nobody has died before at that curve for hogging both lanes. So, it has to be safe to do so.

I am not saying all but ni lah dia mentality many Malaysian drivers. Well, Malaysian road system shares the blame also. But how do we educate our people about road safety? Where do we begin? And when do we draw the line between safety and stupidity?

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My brother Key gave us, the three sisters, the subuh-supi’e-still-waking-up kind of teka-teki last weekend after the family sahur kat kampung:

• Mary’s father had four daughters; Nana, Nini and Nunu.
  What’s the name of the fourth daughter?

We went very quiet, trying to give Key the most intelligent answer. It had to do with the sound of the other names. There’s NANA, NINI and NUNU. So the 4th has got to have two repetitive ‘N’ plus a vowel syllables. Must! Or so we thought. So we tried the other two missing vowels: NENE or NONO.

When Key gave us the correct answer, us…three sisters went rolling on the comforters in the living room that dawn like popia gorengs my lil sis made for berbuka the evening before! Rolling-ly laughing almost turning blue and black trying to catch our breath. Boy! Us, silly girls di pagi hari.

The answer was in the clue, obviously.
Poor forgotten Mary!

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What’s new about this kinda news?
I wish I could be more sensitive about it. But I have been desensitized. Not just every year, almost every day. Some make it to the media. The rest, I see for myself on the road. Not many parents love their children enough. Yeah yeah, they do. They haul the kids around wherever they go to keep them at hand. But they don’t mind killing their kids – with one simple but fatal thought – that their vehicles are the SAFEST place.

How safe of a driver are you? There’s always you…in relation to others. Bila kita drive dengan penuh hemat, others think we’re slow and stupid. When we tunjuk belang sekali-sekala, orang lain berbalas dendam dengan penuh ‘skills’ some more! Lu ingat lu sorang bawak Rexton ka? Here! Watch my Kelisa go! Nah kau! (The sticker on the back says: My other car is Murano.) Attitude thing. Tapi tu bab lain.

Bab children tak pakai seat belt ni.
I wonder if parents don’t feel a little tiny bit of worry or care or guilt, or whatever you name the feeling. Or do adults buckle up just to avoid kena saman? Pehh! Another attitude problem. What’s the law here by the way? I know in Oman, nobody cares about what you do with your children. Kids rule there. (For the love of children!) In Canada, every rider – be it drivers or passengers, kecik besor tua muda – MUST buckle up, end of story. Children under-age are under the care of the dah-tentu-lah-above-age drivers. For the love of innocent children. But how is it here, ah?

Most times, I try not to ‘mendoakan yang tak baik’ when I see kids terlompat-lompat, terhoyong-hayang in the back seat of the cars in front of me. I have seen so many kids sitting in between the two front seats reaching, grabbing at whatever, monkeying around. But I can’t help but imagining the obvious!

We always tell sob stories AFTER these obvious tragedies. Oh the victims tak sempat nak beli baju Raya lah, oh there were signs that the victims knew they were dying lah, they were so happy or so quiet, so not the usual selves lah. Boo hoo. But what the media never really wants to say is, the victims could have been saved or would have not been thrown out through the windshield if they had fastened their seat belts. Is it out of respect for the victims or their families? But of course. No rubbing salt in to the wound is necessary.

Hence, we don’t learn from (what is actually) stupidity and other people’s carelessness. We would like to believe that it is all…

• suratan takdir
• ajal maut di tangan Tuhan
• the time has come for those victims
• God loves them more

And we make all the excuses…to move on. Never to look back. We take heart, gain courage, buck up. But buckle up? Huh, what for? Kalau dah nak mati tu, pakai seat belt ke, pakai baju besi ke, mati jugak. So, tinggal lah mereka dan keluarga mereka dalam kebodohan yang menyedihkan dan kesedihan yang bodoh.

I am harsh, indeed. Insensitive, yes of course I am. But I know God doesn’t do the buckling up for me, He doesn’t fasten MY or Kitreena’s seat belt.

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Be and I were jusssssssstt chatting about the annual news here in Malaysia – Malay kids losing fingers lah, terburai tali barut tali perut lah, playing with bunga api and mercun during Raya season. Tengok-tengok Mak Andeh dah blogged about it that very afternoon. And I was just telling Be that last year when I was back here without him, I did go and buy some bunga api in Kajang. Alah, the ones with the belang handles and let out a lot of smoke tu.

I had lots of fun playing those bunga api with my elder sister berdua. Apparently, my family was having a lot more fun watching our gelagat – two thirty-something women ketawa sampai tak cukup napas mengingat all those kelakar incidents many years back in our lives. We were very much ‘deprived’ of all the so-called fun back then. Of course we kicked and screamed about it. I cried one whole afternoon when Dad wouldn’t let me buy the metal-handle bunga api cap kepala kucing hitam. Even with my OWN saved pocket money! Boy! Did I ever cry!

But I am grateful to Mom and Dad for depriving us of those bunga api then. My siblings and I have survived these many years with all our fingers, toes and tali perut in tact. Well, maybe we were not as creative as some kids, stuffing carbide into metal pipes or what not. I am still thankful that our parents went bolayan and didn’t care at all if we were not creative that way. Kids are kids. That’s why I sneered at the comment made by parents (whose son made it to the annual statistics this year), that they did not know how and where the boy obtained the bahan-bahan membuat bunga api sendiri. Yeah right! Lepas tangan.

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I don’t read FW emails.

Except for those between my hubby and his lawyer. So, if you are not my hubby or his lawyer…don’t even bother sending me FW emails. They go straight to my Deleted Items folder. When I am looking for specific information, I will personally LOOK for it WHEN I need it. I know how to use those search engines, thank you very much. Gerhana bulan ke, gerhana matahari ke, gerhana dalam jiwaku ke, total eclipse of the heart ke. You don’t have to bersusah-payah looking for it on my behalf.

If I (ever) want to look at charred bodies ditemui mati ketika mencuri kinda pictures, I trust Google Malaysia must have loads. So, toksah lah menyusahkan diri spending your time on your slow server sending them to me. I am not interested in giving more glory to those charred bodies yang ditemui mati ketika mencuri or meragut or whatever they enjoyed doing when they were people…not just bodies.

And if you believe in justifications made by some pihak who think they have the power to decide what’s halal and what’s not halal, keep that belief to yourself. Mountain Dew tak boleh minum lah, Brahim’s Rendang tak halal lah, Farmland chicken sausages ada pork lah. You think your sawi you put in the meehoon goreng berbuka yesterday contained no baja taik babi kah? Haiiyaahh! You think the coffee and tea you drink got only halal baja in it ah? Kalau nak kaji sampai ke akar umbi…well, I betcha, you might want to think twice before you touch your sabun mandi.

The bottom line is, I don’t read FW emails especially those with information I don’t need. I decide on what I do with my emails and my time reading or deleting them. Now that YOU know I don’t value your time sending them to me, stuff them somewhere else. Hopefully I won’t see your pictures as charred bodies ditemui mati ketika sibuk memFW emails yang tak de kena mengena dengan dirinya sendiri mahupun dengan the people the emails being forwarded to.

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I went to One Utama Mall again yesterday. Two days in a row. Is it a good mall or what! This time we parked on the 3rd floor and when we went down the escalator, lo and behold…there was the ARENA store as big as it ever got! So on our way out – I am not going to nyenyenye about shopping at Jusco supercrowdedmarket today – I made a stop just to give my luck another try.

Yes they did have size 24. So I thought I should just go back to Parkson Subang Parade and return the size 22 and try my luck in getting refunded for that. Should come back to that Arena store and purchase a 24. But I got carried away and ternyenyenye to the salesladies there about my very suey experience lah with Parkson OU.

Two three salesladies listened to my nyenyenye and one of them offered to call Parkson (Arena) promoters to get Kitreena’s swimsuit exchanged. I could NOT believe it! I mean, finally, when I got a real customer service at a store I did not even make a purchase at…uh, haaa, er, ummm! What do I do? I was flattered and flabbergasted all at the same time. I forgot I was in Malaysia for a moment.

So, I left Kit’s size 22 swimsuit with those nice ladies yesterday and went back to OU Mall today – to make it three days in a row – to pick up a size 24. I am home now with guess which size 24 the blasted Parkson gave me? The one that had a stain on the sleeve of course! How did you guess eh?

Ah well, I just washed the swimsuit. The stain came off and guess who’s laughing?

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This is actually what I wrote on Yahoo Messenger to my lil sis this morning to mengadu domba. But then I thought, hmmm…it is a story in itself, I might as well cut, paste and post. Here:

I went shopping secara solo last week and bought Kitreena an Arena swimsuit kat Parkson Subang Parade. At home, cuba punya cuba, juuuuust fits her now. Pakai pool diaper nampak lah sendat sket. So, saya cuba lah nak tukor kat Parkson OU on Saturday. You’d think all Parksons are Parksons lah kan. Zaapppppp! Wrong!

I went to Arena department Parkson OU, saleslady tu mulanya ok je sebab I didn’t tell her upfront that I bought mine at Parkson SUBANG PARADE. But bila dia siap tanya siapa yang served me…huh? I thought, what difference does it make? Dan apakah the relativity theory nya di sebalik soalan itu? So I told her that I bought it at another Parkson only two days earlier. “Ohhhh!” she said, “Tak leh tukar sini, kena pegi balik Subang Parade sebab the bill is over there.”

I know for sure Subang Parade Parkson tak de size 24 (I bought size 22), while Parkson OU tu did have the size 24. I was even willing to amik yang ada stain kat lengan pun swimsuit tu, and kasik dia my size 22 with all the tags in tact, no stain-stain one. Nope. She said “Cannot lah, can’t help.” So I said not a word more. Gave her a sigh and shook my head, kasik balik dia punya treasured size 24 Arena swimsuit yang ada stain on the sleeve, took back my size 22 and walked away.

The thing is I had expected that to happen. But my problem is I always give these business people here the benefit of the doubt, and I’m always willing to try and see. Sudahnya saya jugak yang kechiwa. But seriously…what is so hard about exchanging an item when it is already paid for? The price-tag and info-tag are all in tact, the receipt is at-hand-in-hand, and we are talking about the same bloody items (only differ in sizes) and the same bloody outlets!

No!
If it’s too easy, it’s impossible! Many Malaysian businesses agaknya just enjoy doing it the hard way. If the consumers’ rights are vague, and the information about these rights are not easily accessible to them…hey, let’s screw them silly consumers lah! If they complain, print on the receipt in the smallest font possible that goods sold are NOT returnable, exchangable, refundable. Muahahahahaa!

And again, seriously…how and where do I get information on my rights as a consumer here ah?

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