exercise or what?

For the past 11 years working, I guess I have changed houses eight times. Not bad for a modern Badouin hehehe. Of all the places that I have stayed, the Bukit Kerinchi apartments left many fond memories to us. Besides the 3Gs experiences, there we learnt to deal with burglars, polices, lazy security guards, mamat skodeng, necking couple - ringan-ringan, berat-berat and the last but not the least - horny guy who masturbated in the middle of the night. Such colourful characters and to quote Astro - macam-macam ada...

It was not like I go and looked for these demented people. It always happened when I was minding my own business and then wham! bam! I saw things that I was not supposed to see. Of course I did some double or err sometimes triple take but it was all out of curiousity.. I promise! hehehehe Like the incident where I “accidently” saw this mamat who was rigorously doing some “exercise”. Well, at first I thought he was doing exercise... I didn’t know that emm.. he was emm.. doing other type of exercise.

It started off with me pondering my life at the balcony of my then rented apartment on the fourth floor. It was already late at night and I was deep in thought (no.. not asleep) kinda thinking whether to go on with this long distance relationship that I was in. At the same time, it was my last nite. I was about to leave for my Bali trip on the morning. So I had mixed feelings that night, kind of down a bit but still excited for the trip. So while pondering my eyes strayed. Looking but not really seeing (?) when suddenly my two eyeballs caught a very active movement on the ninth or seventh floor of the apartment next to mine.

I thought.. wah! So rajin this mamat, exercising at night. Then I looked at the empty parking building in front, looking at KL skyline at night. Then the movement on that apartment unit caught my eyes again. My brain started functioning. Then I started to focus. No!!! That mamat definitely was not exercising. He was doing something else!!! And he was doing it standing in his living hall facing the balcony with sliding door open! Yuck!!! But then.. hmmm.. this is definitely fascinating. Adoi!

So, I ran inside the house, roused my dearest friend El and told her what happened. Luckily, we had already switched off all the lights. (at that time mana ada Astro lagi!) and started to hide behind the sliding door curtain to watch the emm.. blue show or was it kuning? Anyway, there we were, huddled behind the curtain with little opening for two pairs or eyeballs to see. So fascinated with the exercise regime that was being conducted.

Ok, the guy himself was nothing to shout about. We can’t see his face clearly and he was flashing his other parts to the world. Body eleh! Boroi. Potruding belly. He was kinda a big guy. Anyway, none of us would have noticed him even if we rub shoulders with the guy on the street.

El whispered to me whether the man would noticed that we were skodeng-ing him, but I replied that our house was already dark, that he may not see us. We dared not laugh out loud moreover roll down and laugh out loud (yeah! I wonder why). So, we just giggled. Put hands on our mouth and giggled. It was a rigorous exercise, I assumed. Because, the man sometimes squat, sometimes stand up. He would bent forward and sometimes bend backwards. All these he did in front of the sliding door with lights on brightly.

From behind the curtain in the living room, we changed spot. This time in El’s bedroom, but we did not get a clear view of all the actions. From there we went to my bedroom which we supposed to be able to see him clearly. But there is one problem, he can also see us. So, back to the living room we went. There, we continued to giggle and whispered to each other. Discussing techniques and wondering who were his other (un)fortunate audiences.

However, one thing I salute about this horny mamat. He carried on for almost two hours with in-between rests. (Rest assured, we did not spent the whole nite watching him. I was packing. I was supposed to start my holiday in Bali, remember?). I was surprised that neither me nor El had ketumbit in our eyes for watching things that we were not supposed to see, ahaks! We slept around 1am that night and I had to wake up very early to catch a flight from Subang Airport to Denpasar-Bali. So, I went for my five-days frolicking under the sun and catching the waves (iyalah tu, I can’t even swim!), but we did had great fun in Bali. After that week fun and once back at home - El gave me the full report of the (none)strings of events that happened on that “marked apartment”.

El said he was on for the whole week until the day I came back. He stopped. Good for him! I don’t think after seeing all the beautiful bods (topless of course) lying on the pristine white beach sun baking ops bathing, I can’t stand watching err.. the guy with boroi stomach, doing bend regime hehehehe

Anyway I don’t know what happened with the horny mamat because the house was empty after that.

hantu mu, two!

All this while, I always thought that the 3G - nope, not the latest craze in the comm technology, mine is still the Z200 Sony Ericsson. But the Ghost, Ghouls and Goblins thingy would emerged once the sun sets and moon rises.

Well, a few years back, I discovered that the myth that you can only see ghost at night is not true. Back when I was staying at the Bukit Kerinchi (the famous apartment which was featured in NTV7 Edisi Siasat before), the ghosts made their presence felt not only during the darkness of the night but also during the broad daylight.

Our apartment unit was facing the LRT station, situated on the eight floor. Since there were only the three of us, we decided to take a room each and no sharing. And as I was the most miskin tenant, I took the smallest room. Still I was quite happy with the room because it was breezy, cool and cozy.

All three of us were in different industry, the one took the master bedroom was a lawyer, the second room was occupied by a exhibition booth designer and the third room was me. As both of them have normal off days during the weekend, I was left home alone during weekdays if my off days fall on that days.

It was during these days that I experienced unexplained experiences.. (tu dia!). Dee, my lawyer friend would normally closed and locked her bedroom door when she left for work. But, there were a few incidences when I was sitting down in front of my room doing some paper cuttings or other stuff that I did there, I would see shadows throught the slit between the door and floor of a person walking to and fro the attached bathroom. Then I would get annoyed with Dee.. Oh! Off and locked yourself inside the room ya?I would knocked her door and called her name but there was always no response. “She” would keep very quite. I would give up and continued do my stuff or go out or anything. And by 6pm I would here someone opened the main door and Dee would call “Assalamualaikum!” I would annoyedly asked her why she locked herself inside the bedroom and she would tell me that she was out in court the whole day. Huh? Then who was in there earlier?

It was not the only incident. Sometimes middle of the night we would hear “someone” bathing inside the bathroom. It was very masculine bathing not the feminine type one - gedebush! gedebush! Amboi! But, we never felt afraid when any of us was left at home alone. Sometimes we joked about it, that the ghost that shared our house was very “pembersih”. Always taking a bath and yeah! I forgot, always clipping it nails (what a long nails you got there hehehe).

Then there was one night when my other friend El came running out from her room, knocked frantically on my door in the middle of the night. She yelled my name and I with bleary eyes opened the door (I hate sleeping with open door be it room door or closet. Everything must be shut properly except my windows of course. I am afraid of monster creeping out from the closet hahaha). Anyway, she demanded me to open the door and because she said she saw an old lady crouching between the ceiling fan blade and the ceiling. Aik? Ok. That night both of us sleeping with doors wide open.

One night we sort of change notes, telling each other our bizzare experiences. Then Dee told us hers. She was sleeping one night, when she saw a shadow moving at the side window. She ignore, then she heard a voice telling her to go to the balcony. She said she was like in a trance and just follow what the voice told her to do. When she snapped out of it, she found out that one of her feet was already dangling over the balcony railing. She immediately went inside and locked the sliding door. We thought, no wonder Dee always re-arranging the furniture in her bedroom.

Dee once invited me to sleep in her room. So I slept on her bed while she on the floor. That night I heard someone screaming into my ears but I was too sleepy to bother and ignored the shrilling voice. Only the next morning I told Dee what happened. Dee said “she” must be angry because I was sleeping on the bed.

Besides all these unexplained incidents, we continued living in the apartment because we like each other company and also the strategic location. However, our landlord decided to increase the monthly rental so we decided to move out. Dee was getting married and El and I just could not afford to pay for the rentals and were not interested to find other tenants.

When we moved into the apartment on the first place, we knew that the former tenant was not a Muslim. In fact she was a pious Buddhist. We had done what we could to “cleanse” the house, but I guess “it” was there before us and maybe before the tenant before us (duh!) and was reluctant to leave. We then decided to co-exist.

Only after we moved out from the apartment, we kept repeating the stories with each other and laughed it out. Dee said the ghost must be frustrated with us because none of us had ran, screaming and shivering except for that one incident with El.

Anyway, whenever I drive near the area, I would automatically looked up at our former apartment and wonder whether the current tenants experience what we had experienced before. Curiously, most of the time, I saw that the apartment unit seems to be..empty.

bad dog!

The owner of the dogs that mauled Muhammad Hazman Seh Zahidi was charged with negligence, yesterday. Its either 6months jail or RM2,000 fine. Alaaa.. RM2k only, Im sure the guy being a successful salesman, can easily pay the fine and his life will be back to normal.

But, I was thinking, why dog owners such as this Chong Foo Meng can be so.. irresponsible. These people are just not fit to own dogs.

They see their neighbours got dog, they also want a dog. To show off, they got two dogs. Hey! Since dogs are our best friends, why not keep dogs that can protect our house. Never mind that they bark incessently day and night. Ah... no need to bath them regularly, water tariff gone up now la. No, don’t chain the dogs, then how la to chase bad people. No, don’t close the gate too, let the dogs out. They need their afternoon walk. Oh never mind, the dogs know their way back homes. The rottweilers are very intelligent. That is why they are very expensive. Since they are very intelligent, they definitely can find their way back. Worth my money buying them lor!
Let them bark, let them run, good exercise. We are safe. Don’t let them eat too much otherwise they will be fat and lazy. No more agile. Cannot chase bad people anymore. Let them go out. Let them run. Let them chase people. Let them maul Muhammad Hazman Seh Zahidi. Because the worst that we got was only a miserable RM2,000 fine and lost a dog. Never mind. Have money can pay. Have money can buy new dog. Hic!

I remember the time when I was chased by a dog. It was a normal afternoon and I was about seven or eight. We had just moved to the new neighbourhood and I had just made new friends. At that time it was an adventure for me to cycle (on my basikal chopper) around with the new friends. It was like marking my territory.

I was cycling happily with my two friends - one sitting on the palang in front, another at small carrier at the back while I was the one cycling. (They don't have bicycles at that time - but I was just too happy to be their "cycler"). We were chatting happily and then I realised that we have already encroached into another creature's territory.

There was a pack of dogs barking at each other. They were about six or seven adult dogs. The brownish dogs with curved tails. I thought that since we were only passing by, we would be ok. Oh no! One dog saw us and may be mistaking my legs that cycling the pedals frantically as another drum stick or lamb leg kot! A dog started chasing me, I started paddling faster. Faster. And Faster.

He jumped. Plunged his fang into my thigh and let go. I was more in shock than in pain. We abandoned our plan to jalan-jalan keliling kampung and go back straight. I sent the two and headed home. Straight into my room and try to look at the damage. True enough, there was one fang hole in my thigh, but fortunately, there was no blood. Still shaking. Now more afraid of my mom scoloding me than the hole.

The duo later came to my house. Told my mom what happened. Uh! Uh! Bad news. Got scolded for the cycling incident. She told my dad what happened. Badder news. He "samak" me and the clothes that I wore then later dragged me to the clinic. Got a jab on my bum. Baddest news!

So now, when I saw a dog.. bad dog bad dog bad dog

hantu mu!

I love backtracking... this is one of them.

Ghost, ghouls, goblins (notice all starts with S?) or hantu or anything that can't be seen with naked eyes.. always got me fascinated. I guess thanks to my former bureau chief, I got hooked up with ghost stories. Yep, he is an avid ghost stories reader. He likes to watch ghost movies or any material on the "other side of the world". There are many websites that had became my favourite haunt and here too.

Since I had inflicted the desease from him, I got fascinated with the other world creatures too. A few years back I got hooked with a reality tv programme "Scariest Places on the Earth - hosted by Linda Blair" aired on AXN channel. I tried to imagine myself being one of the participants who were sent to investigate paranormal activities at old castle, mansions or run-down houses. I probably the first person to run out of the house. To heck with investigation! I would say.

Being a scatty-cat and sometimes scatterbrain person that I am.. (see what I mean), I am brave only when watching horror film (while holding my friend's hand of course), reading stories on the net(with cursor constantly pointing on other window in case the drame heightens) or books (when I can close it immediately). Of course, when out of ordinary things happened to me, I was too blur to even noticed.

Thinking back, I remembered that I actually experienced a few paranormal things. It happened when I was in Standard One and another when I went backpacking in Rome and Madrid a few years ago. Hmm.. I guess the timing was all wrong. These paranormal creatures decided to "sakat" me when I was either trying my best to hold my bladder or was too sleepy to bother. So by the next day, I was too confused to comprehend what I saw and experienced. Hmm..

So now the Discovery Channel had come up with another "unexplained" programme - True Horror. The first episode was last nite showed about the exorcism, about a woman, I dont remember where and when (that scatterbrain kicked in that time) who was possesed by a demon and brought to a church to be exorcist. She spent two months before the demon/satan finally decided to let go the woman's body. Eyewitness said they saw black smoke coming out from the woman's mouth. Entahler...

Anyway, the series are entertaining and this would be another of my favourite series after the "Scariest places on Earth" and later the CSI three cities (menipu jer semua nih). Anyway since I need more entertainment (and I can't stand the TNA wrestling and other yg sewaktu dgnnya) I stick to horror and scary movies. Plus the tipu CSI three cities.

hijab and topless

Is it difficult to wear hijab?

I never really thought of the huge significant for a woman to wear hijab. I was raised to accept that Muslim women should wear hijab after akil baligh (reaching puberty). It is just one of the things that we have to do. Cover our heads. Or so I thought.

For several years I have been wearing hijab, tudung or scarf like Im wearing my normal clothes. It was part of my school uniforms since Standard Three - the year my mother went to perform her Hajj. It has been on my head ever since, until after I left Form Six.

Then, I realised that although the scarf that covered my head is so light that if you did not pinned it properly it would fly with the wind, the responsibility that it potray is huge. There is always the hidden rule that I have to follow. I have to act decently while my “topless” friends can go berserk. Although we are wearing the same uniform i.e t-shirts and jeans, but because of my covered head, I always felt that I was left out in their night rendezvous. At that time, I felt that I was not “modern” enuff, not hip enuff because of the tudung. I hated it when people looked at me and thought that I am a baik baik girl, while inside I longed to be jahat. To go dancing at discos, to hell with what people thought.. I wanna live!!

So, I retaliated, I threw my scarf right after I landed this job. A job which required me to almost try everything. I did what I wanted to do. I went partying, dancing and disco hopping almost every week. But then I realised that I don’t really found the joy from what I was doing. Instead I always feel tired after that rigorous exercises. So it only lasted for a year. I guess, because of the self-righteneous that have been drilled into me by my mom, I found myself reaching for that piece of cloth on my 22nd birthday.

Now, wearing a hijab is not an issue to me anymore. Until that fateful day of Sept 11, 2001. Cis! I had to take off my hijab when travelling to certain countries. The reason.. I don’t want to be the centre of attention. Once was enuff (when we were stopped at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport). I just hope that Allah gave me strenght to face every obstacle in my life, in my heart. Pray that I stay hijab.

the pain in the... bum

So what do you call the pain in the butt?

Arse hole?

Not quite right, but close enuff.The pain is not really on the butt literally but on the tailbone or coccyx. So the tailbone pain or coccyx pain is called coccygodynia. It is so annoying that a common name (for me at least) is a pain in a butt. And when it becomes too painful, mind you, I can be an arse hole. There!

Actually what I found in the Net about coccygodynia is quite frightening. Most of the pain caused by falling backward (like I did) or childbirth (not yet). What I read is that it is five times more common in women than men, probably because the female pelvis leaves the coccyx more exposed. It appears that in most cases the pain is caused by an unstable coccyx, which causes chronic inflammation. Adoi!

Anyway, it was a looooong explanation on diagnose, painful areas, how to lessen the pain and so on. But what scares me is there is no actual cure on this. There were some patients who had to have injections to lessen the pain. Use U-shape pillow to sit and some other aide to help ease the pain.

After almost a month since that fateful day, I still could not have a decent night sleep. Everytime I turn to change position (I am very violent sleeper toss and turn every time the whole night) I would experience a pull on my butt. Sakit la.. sampai terjaga. Then I would have problem to fall asleep again.

My friend suggested that I should go berurut at my butt area. But then I still a bit afraid because what if the pain become worse after berurut. Further more I am a penggeli. I can’t have people touch me. The only area that I would allow people to touch me are my hands fingers to wrist and on my shoulder.. only the shoulder please. Other parts Sorry! Don’t even dream of putting your fingers there. What more my butt!

Hish! The pain of being me!

ouch!

I got too much work and too much leisure time that merit for an OT today.

It was already 8.30pm and some of my colleagues were watching the Diary Akademi on Astro. (yeah we got Astro in the office with all channels except the cartoon channels hahaha).

Our flamboyant colleague JL (JLo? naaa.. although sometimes he does act like a spoil entertainer) was hungry and asked around if anybody would like to share for a McD take out. Offer was immediately took up and orders were shouted from every corner of this big office.

Somebody asked for Quarter Pounder.

"What?!" JL shouted back.

"I want Quarter Pounder Meal." came the response.

"You want the kote pounder?!" JL laughed out.

No response.

Ouch! Must be one heck of painful burger!

A half an hour later, the aroma of burgers and fries fill the room. I guess that someone finally got his kote ops quarter pounder...

good news and bad news

I got good news and bad news today.

The good news, I was called to the Bigger Boss office today. Accepted a letter. Opened it. Oh thanks. I got a promotion. Yep! I got a promotion. What? A promotion? Alamak! I realised that I got a raise too... hoo haa.. happy nye tak terkata.. but then the reality kicked in.. another alamak. Double alamak! I will have to give two months notice instead of the former one month notice to quit.

Hish!

am back...

After almost two weeks trying to recuperate from the pain in my butt, Im finally back at work. I was almost bored to tears doing nothing at home. I can sleep - the pain was excruciating when I try to lie down what more to sleep. I can't sit at all - this position was the most painful. I can't stand too long. Basically I can't do anything and this caused massive mood swings. So I just reclined like the old Romans on the couch and watched TV. Unfortunately there was no servant to feed me.. humph!

Thanks to my friend Zurd who had patiently listened to my ramblings, dealed with my mood swings and took time the time off to accompany me to the hospital for the X-ray appointment. I don't know what I'd do without you, friend!

The X-ray showed that I had a hairline crack on my tailbone (coccyx) and doctor gave me 12 days MCs to stay and rest. Yeah right! As if I can stay and rest at home. First, the resting part. How to rest la if I can't even lie down. I can't sit and I can't stand up properly. How long can you enjoy reclining on the couch for a long time. Well, I don't know how the Romans did it - the rich Romans of course reclining and do nothing. Of course la! They don't have this nagging painful butt, did they!

Second. Cooped up in a house is not how I would like to spend that 12 days, but then I can't drive because sitting and driving was out of the question what more to walk to the bus stop and take a bus to LRT station. With all the hurdles, I have no other choice but to stay home and watch Astro. From BBC news, AXN, comedies at StarWorld, cartoon at Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, all I belasah! Fortunately we don't subscribe movie channels.

After four days, I had enough. Called Zurd asked her to send me to the office clinic for second check up. Told me that I have to go back by meself. Fine. Walk or rather catwalking gingerly to the LRT station that is about two kilometre away from the office. Stopped at KLCC. Oh wow! bought some books. Yiehah! Food. Heaven! And just people watching. Or people watching me hehehe. A fruitful day. Got books for me entertainment, got food to fill me belly and got home safely without any mishap. But the next eight days were.... boring