Absence Is Not Dissappearance.

Absence is not disappearance.

So I have not been seen here for a while. I would like to elaborate on the circumstances to be blamed for the absence of regular posts, but I would rather use one word to describe it; mad.

My last few weeks have been simply mad.

First, there was the final year examination in school. I teach six classes so you can gauge the amount of stress I had to chew everyday preparing them for the exams. Our education system is one which is unbelievably contradictory. Teachers are told to 'develop children holistically' and 'make English lessons communicative and fun' but at the end of the semester, we give our students a paper-and-pencil test in which none of the holistic development or communicative language teaching are applied.

Thankfully, the marking was quite speedy. My teacherly reflexes now allow me to tick and cross with an impressive speed. On some papers, I even take the time to write comments, such as, "I do not understand a word of this" and "Haha. This is very funny."

I am quite happy though that generally, my kids did well this time around. The boys especially took me by surprise. I was so pleased that I treated them to sweets, something I seldom do because sugar tends to morph them into destructive animals.

And then there were my own exams at uni. Oh dear.

I sat for three papers; General Linguistics, Human Communication Disorder and Research Methodology, none of which were fun. Two of the papers were in the afternoon so I still had to go to work in the morning. I had so much coffee staying up studying for the exams - memorising notes, extorting tips from fellow classmates - that my exam notes all are decorated with coffee rings.

By the end of my Human Communication Disorder paper, I was convinced I am disordered in one way or another for taking three subjects a semester.

When I was finally done with the last paper, only the grim look of my dear lecturers stopped me from doing a Homer Simpson celebratory dance in the examination hall. I am now done with my coursework so next year, there will be no more exams for me. Hopefully.

And no, at PhD level, there are no exams.

Immediately after the exams, I got down to business and finalised my drama production. As many of you would already know, I volunteered to produce a short adaptation of Snow White. I am not sure if I volunteered out of passion, dedication or I was just being delusional. Haha. The drama had caused me great stress that I am now speaking, walking and even breathing like the EvilBeeyatchQueenStepmother.

I even gave costume-sewing a try. The things I do for work....

Then there was the Faux Sports Day, which I have sooo much to whine about. The person in-charge for the event waited until the very last weekend of school to run the sports day. Given the short notice, the limited time and resources and a field that is balding everywhere except for a small patch at the centre (kind of reminds me of one of my uncles haha), we could only do telematch events.

We had no athletic events, no cheerleading, no camps to decorate and even the perbarisan event was done half-heartedly. I would not even call it a sports day. But I had extra time and felt like I wanted to cheer the kids up a little bit so I made this simple bee costume for my Yellow house:

I thought my bees buzzed grand.

Two days after the Tipu-Tipu Sports Day, we had our Hari Anugerah Cemerlang. We performed our drama and it went so so well I had to shed some tears. I even had to go buy a new dress for the occasion. And who made it happen? The kids.

Love you devils to bits!

A Crime Not To Love.

This is so cute, it would be a crime not to love it.
This is the Kate Spade Beantown Quinn, which I am officially in love with at the moment. The buttons remind me so much of a red dress I had when I was a little girl. The body is wool - I wonder if it will get 'fluffy' after a while - and the handles are leather.

And just by looking at it, I feel British already haha.
It comes in navy and green, but I still think red looks the best. Maybe I am a little biased towards red, but oh well.
It's USD299, by the way. A little pricey, but it's a Kate Spade. I have not seen many of this around in KL, so it will be nice to carry something apart from the ubiquitos logo-ladden bags.

Here's one more to go into my growing 'To Complate' List. =)

Hello Hello.

Toot toot. Toot toot.

Yesterday, I came across a message on Ah Kam Koko's blog. It was from someone whose boyfriend just got posted to Song as well and she wanted to know if there are any means of communication at all.

I clicked on her link and read a long, heartfelt post about how the whole separation is affecting her. I just could not help smiling and thinking, "Oh dear. You are feeling exactly the same way I felt."

I then left some comments on her blog and I do hope that it has helped to make her feel better.
I felt quite bad having to tell her that there is no telephone line in the school and that the only way he could send her news is via email - and that too, depends on heaven's mercy.

Picture from collegecandy

I do not know about you, but telephone calls are very important to me. It took me quite a while adjusting to the absence of daily catch-ups on the phone. Being an ocean away from your loved one is bad enough - not being able to pick up the phone and speak to the person makes it worse.

But even worst than that is not calling when you have the means to.

No matter how troublesome or petty a telephone conversation seems, I think it is important that you make the effort to call your loved one. I would not go as far as suggesting you do it daily - although in my case, I would do so - but at least often enough to remind your partner of how important he or she is in your life. It does not have to be a lengthy, romantic conversation - because we all know, after a while, "romantic" becomes a rather offensive word to some men. I would say, give your partner fifteen minutes. It does make the heart grow fonder.

Given the circumstances however, daily conversations with my partner are not possible for me. We compensate by sending each other daily email. My inbox is already flooded with stories interesting enough to make a movie haha "Life in The Jungle" and & "Life in The Tamil School".

I appreciate these notes that come in every morning very much - just like my very much needed caffeine fix early in the morning.

And when we do get a chance to speak on the phone, it means all so much more. I am glad that my partner does not mind keeping me company on the phone, even when we do not have much to say. But most of the time, our conversations are about the most random things, decorated with lots of laughs, chuckles and sometimes, strange, manly grunts from his side haha.

So to the girl whose has just embarked on this no-phone call, long-distance relationship, I wish you the best. I know how exactly how you feel, but it will work out eventually.

So Hot.

I used to dance back during my school days. I love my cheerleading days, so much that I would not hesitate using my pom poms to slap anyone claiming that cheerleading is not a sport.

Dancing is good - and I am not talking about shaking your booty - sometimes haphazardly - after a few Tequila shots. I am talking about practising routines from your favourite videos. If you were to ask me what is the best way to sweat it out, I would say, pump up the speakers, turn on YouTube and look for dance tutorials. Then practise, practise and practise. It usually takes me about two weeks or so to learn the dance steps of one song.

The next routine that I want to learn is from this Korean video:

The steps look not completely impossible to imitate...(that would be any of Beyonce's routines)so I will give it a try. But first, watch this:

Just for fun....you ought to see how this little girl does the steps. If she could do it, so can we! Thanks to Ayuni for posting about this little chicka on Facebook a few weeks back. You got me hooked! =P

RM50 for a Credit Card

This Datin is not very happy now.

Why in the world should I be fined RM50 a year for others' lack of willpower and discipline? PM's decision to impose a RM50 service charge (or whatever fancy term they use) on principal credit cards is a fine (pun intended) example of the Government's lack of real commitment in solving the simple issue of bad financial management.

I got this pic from here.

The rationale given for the RM50 is to curb the use of credit cards. Yes, there are people who own more credit cards than fingers and there are delusional people who think that it is okay to owe the bank as long as you make the minimum payment. But will a RM50 charge stop them from continuing to overspend and overuse their credit cards?

I started using a credit card back in my undergrad days. It was a necessity back then as I was in Aussie and my family wanted me to have a credit card for emergencies. My dad taught me well on how to use the card responsibly and I always, always, called home first to ask for permission if I needed to use the card for major purchases.

When I started working, I returned my supplementary card to my dad and applied for one of my own. It is just convenient, especially since I travel quite often and prefer to purchase my tickets online. I also get most of my cosmetics and sometimes clothes, online - hence the need for a credit card.

But I also always make sure that everything is paid in full by the end of every month. I am every bank's desired customer...or maybe not, since they never pocket any interest from me. But the point is, I exercise self-control. So why should I be made to pay that RM50 service charge - which is meant to save the assess of those without self-control?

Instead of imposing a blanket punishment for all credit card users, the Government should actually monitor the registration for new cards. These days, any Ah Beng and Minah could apply for a credit card. At my school, we get yearly visits from most banks - with pleas ("Please lah Cikgu, just help me get my commission...") and bribes (free gifts) just to get us to agree for a credit card. At shopping malls, these banks have set up almost permanent camps.

Why does the Government not check on this? Why not increase the minimum salary needed to qualify for a credit card? Why not directly restrict the number of credit cards per individual, instead of extorting RM50 a year from us?

Tsk tsk tsk. Shame on you. Stealpeople'smoneyliddat.

When I Grow Up.

One day, for sure.

Scene: Pavillion, KL.
Girlfriend: Let's just go into all of these designer stores today.
Me: As if I can afford anything there.
Girlfriend: Come on. Just for fun. We look like either we could afford the stuff or at least have boyfriends rich enough to afford them.

I looked at what we were both wearing. We looked like Sex and The City extras lost in KL. One Puan Sri in the making (I'm imagining lots of Prada bags in her closet) and one Tai-Tai (with Chanel clipped under her arms). Both with PhD in English.

Teeheehee. I like!

Let it now be heard loud and clear; I so want to be a chic Tai-Tai when I grow up!

Better Left Unknown.

Don't kill yourself, what you don't know may be better left unknown.

It has been a while since I last stayed up this late, immersed in self-reflection. I just got home a while ago after meeting up with one of the girls. It's always exciting when I get to see any of them and do a bit of girlie bonding.

But what I always treasure are the conversations, which have over the years matured beyond mere gossips and breakup heartaches.

Anyhow, as I was catching up with my girlfriend's stories - the last time I met her was sometime in Feb so there was a lot to pok-pek about haha - I declared how I never ask about my ex's ex-es. Even with The Man, I know very little of his romantic past.

My reasons are simple; I do not want to compare or be compared to and I do not want to lose my zen. I know myself too well, I always overanalyse things and knowing too much of my man's past could breed insecure thoughts in my head.

Bits of information of your man's past is all too addictive. Have a little of it and you will want more. First you learn of her name, and then the reason they broke up, and the next thing you know, you are doing an internet search for her blog.

I have a girlfriend whose boyfriend of several years cheated on her not too long ago. They ended the relationship but during the recovery process, she nearly drove herself insane by tracing the ex's 'movements' on Facebook. I told her to stop, because what she did was hurting herself more than what the ex had done. Sure enough, her CSI act dug up more dirt on the ex.

I doubt that had left her feeling any better.

More recently, I found out that a friend of mine who is expected to tie the knot very soon has had a change of heart. I know the couple personally and it gives me the shivers whenever I see one of them embracing the 'relationship' wholeheartedly and looking so much forward to a happily-ever-after, when the other has confessed of going into it just because the relationship has gone too far for a reassessment.

The other party is unaware of this of course. And I, no matter how strongly I feel, am in no position to say a word of it.

Even if I do, what difference would it make, apart from breaking someone's heart? If I were in the unfortunate party's shoes, would I want to know? If 'knowing' will kill me, wouldnt 'not knowing' kill me as well, only more slowly?

Sometimes we do have the curiosity to know and I think it is perfectly normal. Not about the past, but about what is happening at the moment. A few clicks here and there are fine, I guess, just to make sure that what is rightfully yours are not messed with. Haha. Come on. We all enjoy that snooping once in a while - what's he been up to, what's he Twittering about with the other chicks. Hehe.

Just don't let it get it your head too much. No matter how dead curious I feel at times, I have learned to keep things simple. Don't read. Don't investigate. Don't snoop. Don't ask. Unless there has been a red alert and you absolutely have to know. THEN, you are most welcome to confront, throw hissy fits or do whatever that makes you feel better. A smart woman should know the differences between a little bit of youthful folly (to be allowed) and when trust has been severed (to be dealt with).

But do remember, curiosity always clips the cat's tail.