orangjauh

Having grossed you out with a post about The Catastrophe, it’s now time to get serious and tell you about my Resolutions.

Naturally I looked up last year’s post to see if I managed to keep any of my 2008 Resolutions, which are:

• Be more organised, especially with emails and bills.
• Eat more healthy stuff.
• Exercise more.
• Be less lazy.
• Blog more.

Hmm.  I’m not convinced I managed any of those for the whole of 2008.  I’ve certainly stopped caring about eating more fruits, and for the past month I’ve not bothered to watch what I eat using the convenient excuse that I was busy (which I was, till about the 14th) and that it was the Christmas period, where nobody in their right minds would even think of a healthy diet because, well, it was Christmas!

As for the last three, well, I stopped Pilates after the summer because I knew I was going to be madly busy in the autumn, I don’t think I was less lazy over the year, and I certainly didn’t blog more (in fact I think my blogging activities tailed off after a while).

So, the verdict would be, didn’t do all that well with those Resolutions.  Is there then any point in making up new ones, especially when I could just resurrect last year’s?

My new year’s Resolutions therefore, are the same as the old year’s.  One other thing I would add to that though, is that I want to kickstart learning French again, which (predictably) tailed off after the summer when I knew I wasn’t going to France for a bit.

I was going to do a bit of navel-gazing and think about what this new year would hold for me, but then I got lazy and realised I couldn’t be bothered.

Instead, you get to read about The Catastrophe that happened to my nose just before Christmas. And because I can’t be bothered to re-write it all over again, you get to read it in all its (gross) glory as I wrote it to the SPG.

Enjoy!

From email sent to SPG earlier today:

SPG!!!!

I’m cleaning out my inbox at the mo and I saw this email … so aku bacalah, and was reading about the spot on my nose, and ohmygod I just HAVE to tell you this!!!!! I tell you, aku memang ada problem nose lah!!!!

Anyway abt 2 weeks ago my nose felt a bit tender so I kept rubbing it lah, problem was the feeling was inside my nostril so aku tak boleh lah nak check betul2. anyway this went on for a couple of days and then one day I actually felt like the inside was swelling, and again I didn’t bother lah cos I figured oh maybe ada a cut or something so I’ll leave it be. But then the next day kan when I woke up it actually felt like my nostril was half-blocked so in the end I got a torch and yes as aku shined a light up my lubang hidung!!!!! And memanglah there was a spot there. Sigh. By this time the bloody thing was actually quite painful so hubby (being my Spot Doctor) offered to take a look lah.

So he too, shined a light up my lubang, hahaha! Lepas tu kan, he kept going ohmygod so I was like what what what, anyway it turned out to be a MASSIVE spot, absolutely HUMONGOUS and he said he thought it was one of these big things with multiple heads all converging on one place (patutlah hidung aku sakit!). anyway it was really sakit and beginning to give me a headache (because it was so uncomfortable and I felt like I cldn’t breathe properly) so when he said kau nak aku picit tak terus I went ok. So he did.

Ohmygod. Talk abt painful. I could feel the pain shooting down my body all the way to my toes tau from that nostril!!!!!! Dah lah tu because it was in such an inaccessible place and the damned thing was so big, it took a few goes for him and I actually had to stop him a couple of times because the pain was soooooo intense!!!! And then kan as, he actually had to get my tweezers to pick out bits and pieces, mon dieu it was sooooooooooooooooooo GROSS tau!!!!! Aku menangis-nangis sebab tahan the pain!!!!

So anyway it felt better lah after that, but do you know what, the next day sakit balik tau!!!! So I looked again and memang benda tu sprouted again! I tell you it had a mind of its own!!! So yes that evening hubby had to be Dr Spot again, mak datuk, sakit nak MAMPUS!!!!! In fact as I told him I preferred him to pakai tweezers and korek kat dalam tu dari dia squeeze. And the thing is, I know it’s bad to squeeze and all, tapi it was really really hurting and there was so much pressure, plus there was no easy way to get the pressure off other than just to picit so buat je lah!!! Plus I kept having this gross thought of what if dia burst, then aku tertelan the pus!!! Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeuuugggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

So malam tu he got it all out lah thank goodness tapi you know lah, if you have a big spot and dia burst then ada darah pulak after that, so dah la my poor nose was feeling sore and bashed, aku kena letak pulak tisu up the nostril to soak up the blood. Sigh. Pening aku dibuatnya!!! And then kan for the next few days I kept on having to blow my nose and dig out bits of scab.

Man, it was the worst spot I ever had tau!!!!!!

So here we are, at the cusp of the new year, and what am I feeling right now? Cold, primarily. Mainly because London is in near-deep freeze at the moment (it’s not often that the daytime high is 2°C, without factoring in the wind chill!) and I’m always, but always, cold in the winter.

But never mind all that, because this is the time of the year when one traditionally looks back and reflects over the year past. That would take a long time, so I’ll make do with a short(ish) reflection.

So, how was 2008 for me? Not that great actually.

I started the year with a harassed husband who was finding life difficult going back to work having been away. Just when we thought things were beginning to settle down from the difficulties of 2007, we were hit with another health problem, this time involving my MiL. Cue more worries and stress, though thankfully she has now recovered and is feeling much more herself. The thing is, going through all this takes a long time and it wasn’t until August that we knew she was going to be fine, and it’s taken her all this time to go back to some semblance of normalcy.

Of course, it wasn’t all that long from August to financial meltdown. Thankfully it didn’t involve hubby, but him being in the sector that was the hardest hit, the past few months have been somwhat worrying too. So far alhamdulillah we think we’ll be fine, but you never know really, do you?

So much for me and hubby. What about me, personally?

Well, let’s see. On the work front, it’s been a really wild roller-coaster ride. In fact I’ve been quite lucky, having been given masses of responsibility and high-profile projects which meant I’ve managed to rise somewhat above the parapet. (Not that it’s doing me much good, mind, given that at this place getting anywhere up the career ladder is a feat in itself.)

Still, it does mean that should I decide to leave and seek greener pastures (assuming of course the recession is over and the job market picks up) I now have a rock solid CV with some fairly major achievements on it. Can’t be a bad thing!

Leaving work aside, my personal life has been pretty packed and busy. I’ve made some really good friends this year and thrown myself whole-heartedly into some charity work by organising a flamenco show which was good fun but hard work (we managed to raise about £5,000 too in the process!). I’ve also done a bit more singing, both karaoke and choral, both of which are brilliant fun! Flamenco also kept me fit and busy, so no complaints there!

I should think my life would be mostly the same next year, though hopefully there won’t be any more health issues in the family and I’ll have a less stressed husband!

The one thing that I’m hoping and praying will change though, is our housing situation. Now that London’s property market is showing signs of sliding downwards, we may actually have a chance to acquire some decent housing at a reasonable price.

So here’s my wish for 2009: that hubby and I keep our jobs, and for the house market to crash even more.

Happy New Year everybody!

I know, I haven’t been blogging lately.  Too many things going on - work was being a complete bitch (I’d never been so busy in my entire life, not jsut doing the work I was meant to be doing but also making sure others did their parts as well AND enduring debates with management as well as containing their panic when someone in Policy made an enquiry about the wording of an advert that I’d taken out … sigh … management want everything but have no backbone.  Such is work!) and I was helping to organise a charity show, and all these occupied pretty much most of my time.

The show’s now over though and work is easing somewhat now that we’re near the usual Xmas madness.  I re-surface into the world, and what do I find? X Factor has come and gone (yeah, great that Alex Burke won but my god, what a mess she made of herself when she found out, I mean, talk about having no composure, blubbering all over the presenter and Cheryl Cole!).

As my brain can’t take blogging about weighty stuff just yet (the economy, politics, how Gordon Brown is destroying this country, the Bukit Antarabangsa tragedy and how it affects me), X Factor will have to be it.

Now to me, the most enjoyable thing about X Factor is the early stages, when you have all these deluded people auditioning.  Obviously some people never are able to tell just how truly crap they are at singing, and call me a cow, but that’s the bit that I really, really like about X Factor! Once they’ve gone past the awful stage it’s not that much fun anymore.

Still, that didn’t stop me from pestering Hubby to watch the finals last week (Hubby doesn’t go for low-brow culture like that, far preferring Channel 4 News and weighty documentaries about the economy, politics etc, although strangely he sometimes does watch Big Brother - much to my annoyance as I can’t stand Big Brother!).  So we duly watched it - not all of it, just bits.

Of course I knew her first recording would be a version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, and yesterday I found myself looking for this song on Youtube.  Whilst there’s a really good version of Cohen singing the song, I have to say the Jeff Buckley (I might have got his name wrong!) version was far better.  (Can’t be bothered to put links to these, you’ll just have to find them yourself!)

Anyway today I heard Burke’s version.  Sigh.  Why do people insist on butchering great songs? Initially I thought it was OK.  Not a patch on the Buckley version but passable.  But wait … in the final third of the song it started sounding like a big band version.  You know, as if it was accompanied by a full-scale orchestra with a choir in the background.

And I just thought, no, no, no.  You just don’t do that with a song like this.  This is such a beautiful song that all it needs is a strong voice, and the gentlest of accompaniment either by guitar or piano.  It doesn’t need anything else.

Now it transpires that the Buckley version (from 1994 by the way) is racing up the charts alongside the Burke version.  I can only hope that Buckley ends up higher up the chart!

I hope Obama gets it.  I can’t imagine another four years with the Republicans in charge again.

I know, I know.  I’ve not blogged for a while.  This was mainly due to the fact that I went back to KL just after Raya (it was brilliant! I went to various open houses and ate LOADS, and basically just hung out with my brothers and cousins), and then when I came back here, it was all hell breaks loose work-wise - I’ve been working from 9-7 for most days these past two weeks (which I know won’t sound like a lot, but when you’re a civil servant [ish] like me, that’s a lot of hours!).

So, what to blog about?

Well, yesterday I went to Westfield, the new shopping centre at Shepherd’s Bush.  (I should add that I’m not all that kemaruk* about new shopping centres as such, but when it’s a stone’s throw away from where I work, why not visit it on the day it opens?)

So off I went with a couple of work colleagues to gawk.  And yes, it’s massive! Very, very big.  Lots of shops.  We got slightly confused as to where we were whilst walking around, but it has got lots of entrances and exits, so it wasn’t too difficult to find the exit that we wanted.  Oh, and there were loads of people there as well.  Not many people in shops though - most people seemed to do what we did, ie walk around and just see things.

It reminded me of KL though (well, apart from all the orang putihs** around!).  You know, huge building, lots of shops … I do wish they’d put a bigger food court though.  I mean, it looked nice, but I would say it could definitely do with more space!

What else …  oh yeah, the excitement round here when it opened! I think practically everyone in the office went off to take a look.  The thing is, until Westfield, all this place had were two decent pubs and restaurants within 12 minutes’ walk.  Anything else, and you were looking at at least a 15-minute walk.  Even then the choices weren’t that great.  So great excitement all round when this place opened!

Still, I’ll probably steer clear of it for a while.  Wait for all the excitement to die down, then I’ll go round for a proper look!

* Hmm.  I don’t actually know how to translate this word!

** White people

Sempena kedatangan bulan Syawal, oj ingin mengucapkan Selamat Hari Raya and Maaf Zahir Batin kepada semua.

I’m feeling extremely nostalgic at the moment, plus a little (a lot?) wistful as well.  I’ve been youtube-ing (I know, I know, desecration of the English language, but if we can google I don’t see why I can’t youtube!) raya songs, and have managed to make myself even more homesick by listening to the takbir raya (yes I know, a little early, but so what!).

Ah well.  Never mind.  In just over one week’s time I’ll be back, and whilst it won’t be the same as being back home on the first day of raya, nonetheless it’s better than nothing.

I am tired. I think the meeting excesses, coupled with the drama that was going on on Monday and Tuesday, have just left me shattered.

Yesterday I had three huge meetings, one of which involved doing a presentation in front of … ohh, about 50 people. Plus parts of the presentation was to do with projects that I’d not worked on, and therefore knew next to nothing. Never mind, my goreng* skills came to the fore and I think I managed to sound convincing enough.

The other two meetings weren’t a laugh either. One involved various technical people and whilst ordinarily I’d have been able to dream my way through such meetings, on this occasion I had to stay alert and awake because yours truly was chairing the meeting, which meant I had to pay attention and stop or start the discussion as necessary.

The last meeting in fact was the most interesting one, involving subjects close to my heart. However, it was also the meeting with many very, very senior people so again, I had to keep my wits about me and make sure that these people understood where we came from, and that they weren’t going to ask the earth and the moon.

So much for meetings.

Earlier this week, I was embroiled in a drama (or mini-crisis, take your pick) because of an advert I’d put in the in-house newspaper. A word beginning with “t” (oh alright, trial) set off all sorts of crap, culminating in the department’s Big Cheese (my boss’s boss) getting kittens about what we were doing. Honestly, for a moment on Monday I thought I was going to be in deep shit. Of course, in the event it was nothing more than Mr Big Cheese panicking because some people in Policy asked him what was going on, and true to form, he’d conveniently forgotten that he knew exactly what we were doing, because he’d had a meeting with my boss two days earlier about this very subject.

Hmm. In fact, it’s a good thing I’m fasting, because it means I have to be patient about Mr Big Cheese and not write about what I really, really think about him.

Never mind. That will have to come another day.

* How to translate this? Embellishment? In this context I think of it as being able to bullshit my way through things I don’t know!

Another blogger arrested.  What the hell is the government playing at?! ISA for someone who supposedly incited “the public to fly the Malaysia flag upside down”? What is this? Since when has it become a detainable offence to say this? Under the ISA, no less!

Somebody told me the other day they wished Dr M was back, because he at least would keep a lid on all these sentiments.  Well, hell.  The failure of this current government is not that it’s not been able to keep a lid on the sentiments of the people, but they have failed to deal adequately with the grievances of the rakyat.

I know a lot of people will be thinking “serves those bankers right” now that Lehman Brothers has been brought to its knees.  Me, I can’t help feeling sorry for the people who’ve lost their jobs.

Imagine that - you turn up at your office on a Monday morning, only to be told that this is it.  Kaput.  It’s all over, and your job along with it.  No redundancy payment, and possibly not even your salary for the previous month.  That’s your fate, along with some 4,000 others, which means finding another job is not going to be a piece of cake (especially in the current climate).

I had a conversation with a friend who works in a City law firm yesterday, and she told me she knew six people who’ve lost their jobs.  How awful.  The thing is, we both agreed that Lehmans probably won’t be the last so we’re all in for a rough ride in the next months (years?), I would say.  What’s more, we’re not even officially in recession, and businesses are already collapsing.  Hmm.  Makes you wonder.

I thank god many, many, many times that Hubby is not at Lehmans.  I can only hope that his bank is safe.