I began my Saturday by sending my car for servicing and then went to visit dad at Hospice. Dad isn’t looking good. His health is deteriorating fast and he looks very tired and has a slurry speech. His stomach is now bloated with fluids and has swollen legs. I couldn’t explain how bad it feels to see your own father suffering like that. I just don’t know how to put this whole thing in words…

Anyway, after visited dad, I drove back to Emily’s hometown in Perak as schedule. It was raining very heavily on the highway and the driving experience was unpleasant. Could hardly see the goddamn road. Reached at about noon and I began my suffering from thence.

Imagine, this was what I had to endure - no tv, no entertainment, no internet connection and heck, even no mobile phone signals. I spent the whole day sitting around doing nothing. Wanted to help out in the kitchen, but there was already a maid there. Wanted to help out in the shop (yes, Emily’s family lives in a business shophouse) - but they’ve got enough helpers already.

And the place was also littered with kids - Emily’s nephews and nieces. They were running around and screaming like there is not going to be another tomorrow. With so many kids around, I kept finding myself stepping on some unidentified objects on the floor - pukes, bread crumbs, grains of rice, you name it.

And for the whole day, they would watch the same video program over and over again - you know, the kind where one gets to see some stupid clown doing absurd stuffs to amuse kids and teaches them how to spell B-O-R-I-N-G at the same time. The person who invented that children educational video ought to be hung and shot repeatedly. I really can’t understand… we’ve already got so many nurseries, kindergartens and schools to educate our children (and they are expensive). Why the fuck would we need more educational videos for kids then? If the educational videos are so good, then why bother sending them to nurseries or kindergartens?

Anyway, being there was like my worst nightmare came true. After being in torment for a day, I was quick to urge Emily to leave the place immediately after my breakfast this morning. And we’re back in Penang in no time, and then I went to visit my ailing dad.

He started to sleep a lot now. His condition has worsened from the day before. I don’t know but, I think I’m going to lose my dad very soon. His time is almost up. I can feel it. And I’m very sad right now.

I hope dad will get over his sufferings soon, and then leave in peace.

I sent an SMS to Emily yesterday (while she’s at work) :
‘dear, dun get mad at me, ok ? i’m sorry bout yesterday. I love you’

Her SMS reply:
‘dun worry..i’m ok now … but u owe me one big thing for not picking me up on time and let me wait. i love you too’

Owe her one big thing? Now that has to be the scariest thing a guy can ever hear from his girl. I reckon that she must already have something in her mind. She’s making use of this situation to trap me up. The “I love you too” phrase at the end of her message sounded so lifeless. At that moment, I am making a few thousands interpretations from her simple SMS reply. What’s the big thing that i am owing her?

Well, when she came home to wake me up from my deep sleep yesterday, we had a “one to one” talk.

“why did u consume when you already know that you need to fetch me??”

“it was my best friend’s farewell… and we had a few drinks. come on… it was just a party got out of control… ”
(you see, in situations like this, EVERYONE is your BEST FRIEND)

“did your so-called ‘best friend’ know that you need to fetch me up?” she asked.

“yeah, i told him. oh come on, it’s not my friend’s fault. It was my stupid boss.”
(i was trying to divert the blame to Rob here, because she knows I hate him very much. I’m wicked.)

“your boss?? he asked you to drink THAT much meh ??”

“nope. It was CK that told me that he would take off his shirt in public when he’s drunk enough… heheheh”
(laughing hysterically, apparently, i’m still a bit intoxicated.)

“who is CK ?”

“CK is that best friend of mine who’s leaving lor,… ok ok … let’s stop all these interrogation thingy, ok? I’m sorry”

“you owe me one big thing..”

The much dreaded word came out from her mouth right before my ears. I was like “Nooooooo … not thatttttt !!!”

“alright… and what’s that?”

She wanted me to accompany her to return to her hometown in Perak - a place with no entertainment, no internet connection, limited tv programmes, no friends, no mobile phone signals…
It’s like living in a deserted island with nothing. I’m going to fester to death there…
This is not looking good for me…

Lesson learnt : Do not mess with your loved ones. The consequences can be very dire…

Sunday - One of my department manager, Pete, organized a farewell karaoke party for one of our departing engineer - CK.

3pm - arrived at Red Box KTV.

3.20pm - I started off the party by singing few songs using my “super golden voice of mesmerizing”. The guys were charmed. We toasted a few pints of beers. It was nothing.

4pm - Some of our Taiwanese supplier joined us. Our crowd grew into over 20 heads. The beers were finishing fast.

4.10pm - CK and Pete also invited their boy toys - a couple of KTV girls whom they befriended some weeks ago. I was not sure why they were so excited about the girls because they definitely looked like overdressed sewer lizards to me. They were an eyesore. The rest of us eased off the pain by toasting a few more pints of beer.

4.30pm - My super “golden voice of mesmerizing” did it’s magic again. The KTV girls were charmed. They bowed in deep respect to my “golden voice of mesmerizing”. We toasted a few beers but that still didn’t improve their outlook for me.

4.35pm - SaltyFish (our really big boss) arrived. He missed my “golden voice of mesmerizing”. It was his loss. He should try to be more punctual next time.

4.45pm - CK ordered whiskey. The party started to get real. None of us was focusing on the singing except my colleague AssTee. He sang like Elvis… with plenty of action… but he needed to learn more about rhythm and timing.

5pm - Emily called me up. She said she will be arriving from her Langkawi trip in 45mins. I was suppose to pick her up at the mainland.

5.10pm - I challenged Rob (my undead boss) for a bottoms up. CK told me Rob had a record of taking off his shirt in public when he’s drunk. I was laughing so hard that I almost dropped my glass.

5.15pm - We finished 2 bottles of whiskey. I’m blitzed. I asked the KTV girls to get more education. SaltyFish told them to finish their Standard 6 level first. They took the joke well and we toasted a few rounds. I’m still very uncomfortable with how they looked.

5.30pm - CK & one of the lizards were slow dancing in front of the KTV screen. I couldn’t see the screen. I took one of AssTee’s shoe and pitched towards the lizard. It hit her lardy ass and I was penalized by finishing a glass of neat whiskey.

5.40pm - I had to leave the party. I’m seriously blitzed and needed to sober up to drive (I was suppose to fetch Emily).

6.00pm - Emily called, and I was still looking for my car. She was furious. She told me that she will be hitching her colleague’s car home and I better have a good explanation of what’s was going on. I realized then I’m in serious trouble.

6.30pm - I reached home and passed out. (miraculously, I drove all the way home by myself…)

I only managed to wake up around 7am this morning with a serious hangover. I made an SMS to my colleagues that I’m not coming to work.

And I have yet to make any explanation to Emily about why I didn’t pick her up yesterday. But I guess I need not to do that anymore as she would have been able to tell by herself, what actually happened to me.

I finally got my streamyx broadband service activated yesterday after waiting for 3 weeks. Well, it’s a relief for me to know, that I do not have to use tmnet’s stupid dialup no more. Frankly speaking, half of my daily usage of foul vocabs was spent when I was dialing up to tmnet (the other half occurs when I am driving). That means, if everything are ok with my newly installed ADSL connection, I’m theoretically improving my moral values by reducing my cussing. : )

The installation & setup completed at about 8pm last night and then I went for dinner with Charles & Emily after that. Charles and I chatted away while Emily was busy with the succulent oyster omelet. We were too engrossed with our chat that we got carried away, and forgot to censor some of the topics. As a result, we accidentally spilled some beans, and my wife Emily overheard the topic about me picking up animal’s girlfriend (let’s call her… Pimples) a few years ago - which I had mistakenly thought she was somebody else.

Quite funny as I recalled, that Pimples actually took the bait, despite the fact that she recognized me and knew that I’m blur about her identity. This actually got Animal flustered about the whole incident and almost had a fight with her. Well, can’t blame me for that, after a few drinks plus her massive foundation cover up on her densely populated pimples, any blokes would have miscued about her identity that night. So, just imagine what kind of damage that alcohols & makeups can do to our judgment. I felt so thankful that there were no after effects from the mishaps that night - me / animal smelled flowers and he is still screwing the same girl today.

This story triggered a big deal of interrogation from Emily … which I’ll have to install multiple patches to clear the blaster worm. It’s all ok now, because I’m good. eyahahahh… X P

The hurricane is making headlines all over the world today and it is bound to gobble up billions of dollars by destroying everything in it’s path. Now, aren’t we lucky to be Malaysians? No hurricanes, no volcanoes, no earthquakes …and no humsup pastors. The most we have here in our homeland are probably flash floods or landslides — those are still nothing when compared with something like Isabel. We’re lucky that we could buy a house of our own without having to worry about getting blown away by a 100mph wind … or getting burned down by a hot stream of lava.

That’s why, it still escapes me why do some people still want to cause troubles when we are already living in one of the best places on earth. Ironic, isn’t it?

I am feeling very lucky for I don’t have to go through the complex process of getting married. Emily & I skipped the reception for a few reasons. I think a real good wedding should be a happy affair, simple and at the same time, memorable for the couple. But sadly, I don’t see that happening for most weddings nowadays.

People nowadays are having reception for their weddings for the sake of having it, be it as a tradition, or a requirement from their parents - rather than a true celebration of love… and these are often accompanied by heaps of exhausting chores of organizing the gaiety event, and the need for a huge expenditure. And all these, I think, causes more frustration than happiness… and I don’t think why we should do all that just to satisfy the people around us.

Getting married is a very private affair. And I think it is utterly unnecessary to get yourself into so much trouble just to appease someone else who has nothing to do with our marriage. That’s why, Emily and I decided to use the money to go for a honeymoon instead. And that is way happier for us, simpler and more memorable, than organizing a troublesome wedding ceremony. Nobody really gives a damn if you are tying a knot… and I am actually helping everyone to save an ang-pow or a wedding gift by not organizing a wedding reception. A win-win happy-happy situation.