Homecoming

There seems to be less of a transition from coming back home to Kuala Lumpur. Weather’s been much cooler this time round and I haven’t suffered from any of the weird syndromes I normally get when I come back. Most probably because I was having a semi form of flu my last days in Melbourne.

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Work ended on a nice note, as we had the company Christmas party. Our CEO was giving a presentation on next year’s prospects and gave each person a gift at the end of it. It was wrapped up and looked like a nice little gold bar. Guess what it was? An iPod Nano. I have never been this surprised in a long while and was certainly taken aback at the very generous gift. It was a silver Nano sporting 4GB of memory and it’s definitely one of the more pricey models. Heh, and to think I was contemplating about getting it not too long ago and beyond my wildest imagination, I have one in my hands.

Went lawn bowling for the Christmas party activity. Heh, it’s what most would refer to as an old person’s game, but it was quite fun. I am totally shit at normal 10 pin bowling so I wasn’t terribly enthusiastic about getting the ball to go to the right places. Contrary to that belief, I think I did pretty well. We played with basic rules and were split into teams of 3. I’d explain the game but am rather lazy at the moment so basically you play this game against another team. The bowling balls have a bias to them, with one side of the ball slightly heavier than the other. So you have to bowl to one side for it to veer straight. Heh, you also need to control the strength at which you hurl the ball so that it doesn’t over or undershoot (the target is to get it as close as possible to a white ball and you calculate points based on which team’s ball is the closest and if your team has the closest ball, you add 1 point each for the next closest ball until there is an opposition ball which is closer than your other balls).

Had fun at that before going back to the office balcony for drinks and dance. We had our ‘Santa Claus’ giving out gifts and plenty of laughter throughout. Heh, plenty of fun things to remember but slightly marred by me being uncomfortable in large social gatherings. Some old habit in me set in and I was quiet for the duration while everyone was having a swell time. It was probably cause I was also pondering about catching the plane at night and my mind wandered off a little worrying about nonsensical things.

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Back home now for two weeks and already busy with stuff. Still a blur on what’s going on with my brother’s wedding but I’m sure someone else has worked all these things out. Just hoping it all goes well now and I’ll try to relax a bit more.

In Transition

Filed away my tulip bulbs for the rest of the season. Was supposed to remove them a while ago but inertia got the better of me. It’s a form of hibernation. I think they need to be replanted arond April next year. Let’s just hope I remember to do that and I’m quite doubtful they will flower, let alone grow. Heh, just hopeful now.

Going back to KL in a few days and this would probably be the first time I’m preparing a packing list as there are too many important things to bring back and I don’t want to forget any of it. Acquired quite a number of lenses this year, and I’m not sure which one I’d like to bring back. They all seem to have their own use that I’m not inclined to leave any of them behind.

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Visited colleague’s new abode yesterday and it was quite nicely done up. It’s a small single storey house with a few rooms and a very nice yard. The previous owner did his own renovation and everything about the place felt very designer-ish. There is even a water feature framed nicely behind a window (in the back yard) by the living room. It’s definitely a cozy place to live. I sometimes imagine what I’d like about my own place. Other than a gas stove kitchen with all the proper accessories (wooden chopping block, knives, knife sharpener etc.), the only thing I’d like in it is a 42″ widescreen TV and a Nintendo Wii attached to it. Nevermind the couch or the dining table, those seem like details you’d add in later. Heh.

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Just want to get the year out of the way at the moment. 2006 just happened by, it felt satisfying in a way. Not too sure what to expect of 2007. It’d be an uncertain year I guess, with lots of things changing I suppose. Always something to think about.

The Sandwich Issue

Exam wasn’t too bad. More multiple choice questions than I anticipated (which is good).

I realised that the age old rule that I learnt since primary school still applies. In a multiple choice question, if you don’t know the answer, the one which has the longest sentence is generally correct. Heh, maybe not quite, but they tend to be the one that explain and make the most sense.

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The sandwich issue. Given a choice that your lunch menu was a sandwich, would you spend 10 minutes going across the street and ordering a Subway OR spend an hour going to the market, buying all your ingredients, coming home and preparing your sandwich?

I chose the latter solution, heh. Subway has economies of scale in terms of having the sandwich bread, cheeses, fillings, salads and condiments to make up a sandwich. A one stop solution, and hey, they are making a tidy profit out of it. However, when it comes to choice, you can’t rival what you can find at the local market.

For my lunch, I got a mini sourdough bun, virginian ham, truss tomatoes, avocado, yellow capsicum (the red ones that I generally eat weren’t so nice looking), a mixed salad (rocket, baby lettuce, baby spinach) and cherries. Sure you spend more time acquiring all your ingredients but sometimes its the preparation of the food that excites me. You also get to pull out your chopping board and sharpen your cleaver (yes, who uses a Chinese cleaver to chop up bread other than me?)

*burp*

The above doesn’t appeal to everyone, but it is very satisfying to me. Heh.