Quickie

Hmm, I started writing a blog entry at work, but the damn PC hung. Anyway.

Just watched Da Vinci Code a few hours ago with A. No, I haven't read the book, but I think I will eventually... I thought it was pretty interesting. But what is more interesting is the controversy about Christians who read the book leaving the Church because they thought what was in it was the truth. Or is it?

On to a more giggly fangirl note, there's this scary character in the movie that I thought I recognised, but wasn't sure because he looked trés creepy in it. Checking IMDB though, it turned out that I was right, Silas, the very scary character, was played by Paul Bettany, who is trés cute. Also found these top 3 most active forum topics about him on the site:

He is scary as hell in Da Vinci Code
He should go to hell for being in The DaVinci Code
He was hot as hell in The Da Vinci Code!

I concur with the first and third. ;)

And now, on to a few links:

* Exercise a Challenge for Saudi Women

* Vulgar, lewd, disturbing: Nightmare Fuel (but incredulously funny if you possess a warped humour like I do). Not Safe For Work.

Glitter and Evilness

Last night, I was reading one of the forums I frequent and came across this post that made me giggle aloud. I just had to share:

The Wash Cloth

I was due for an appointment with the gynecologist later in the afternoon and that morning I received a call from the doctor's office to tell me that I had been rescheduled for that morning at 9:30am. I had only just packed everyone off to work and school, and it was already around 8:45am.

The trip to his office took about 35 minutes, so I didn't have time to spare. As most women do, I like to take a little extra effort over hygiene when making such visits, but this time I wasn't going to be able to make the full effort. So I rushed upstairs, threw off my pajamas, wet the washcloth that was sitting next to the sink, and gave myself a quick wash "in that area" to make sure I was at least presentable. I threw the washcloth in the clothes basket, donned some clothes, hopped in the car and raced to my appointment.

I was in the waiting room for only a few minutes when I was called in. Knowing the procedure, as I'm sure you do, I hopped up on the table, looked over at the other side of the room and pretended that I was in Paris or some other place a million miles away. I was a little surprised when the doctor said, "My, we have made an extra effort this morning, haven't we?" I didn't respond. After the appointment, I heaved a sigh of relief and went home.

The rest of the day was normal...some shopping, cleaning, cooking, etc. After school when my 6 year old daughter was playing, she called out from the bathroom, "Mommy, where's my washcloth?" I told her to get another one from the cupboard. She replied, "No, I need the one that was here by the sink, it had all my glitter and sparkles saved inside it!"

posted by:
Malevolent Harridan, Chicago

Glittery glamourous labias aside... Allegra just returned from Oz yesterday with a light biscuit tan, oddly, from the winter sun. The darling girl got me a few things, including this tee, which announces to the world what I and my nearest and dearest have suspected all along:



Writing this post is enough to banish the Monday blues. :) Cheers, everyone!

Peace and Prayer

Yesterday was Wesak Day. I went to the Buddhist Maha Vihara in Brickfields with my mom to pray.

We are not very religious, but even so, we abstained from eating meat on this day.

It was overcast when we arrived at in Brickfields at around 3:30pm. The street on which the temple's entrance was located was lined with stalls selling all sorts of things: flowers, joss sticks, candles, vegetarian food and drink, statues and images of Buddha and Buddhist symbols. There were also stalls set up by buddhist societies collecting donations for the building of new temples. Oddly, there were companies such as Celcom (telecommunications) doing promotions for their services there as well, which I felt wasn't very appropriate.

As we were walking towards the temple's entrance, I came across a stall selling lanterns depicting Buddhist images as well as Nepali silver jewellery and prayer beads, the same one I bought a few items from last year. To my surprise, the Nepali businessman, Mahendra, actually recognised me, and bade me a warm welcome. As I was browsing, it started to rain quite heavily. All the stallholders hurriedly covered their goods with plastic sheets, and we were ushered into Mahendra's colourful stall to wait for the rain to subside. I chose a few items, a few packs of Ilam tea and a bag made of some sort of pretty tribal weave, and spent the rest of the time talking with Mahendra about the conditions in Nepal and having him explain to me the meanings of the images on the lanterns.

After a long while, the downpour became a drizzle, and I started taking photographs.

Photographs of the elaborate floats that passed by, preparing for the long procession that would start at nightfall, heading to the Kuala Lumpur town centre and then back to the Maha Vihara. This procession would last till around midnight, as the long line of floats would be escorted by candle-carrying devotees accompanying the floats on foot. Photographs of the devotees who thronged the temple clutching umbrellas along with their offerings of candles, joss sticks and flowers. Photographs of the serene monks who moved amongst the crowd, clad in their distinctive saffron orange robes.

Everywhere you looked, there were people running around offering your lotus candles for a 5 ringgit donation, or two paper containers of flower heads for RM1; people frantically taking photographs; people holding long stalks of pink lotus buds or bunches of chrysanthemums; people eating ice cream and vegetarian food. And the beggars. There were so many beggars... in a wheelchair, or sprawled on the roadside with a diseased limb in full display, or holding a pitiful sleeping child - their begging bowls placed in front of them, awaiting your donations.

Mom and I went to kneel amongst other devotees - Chinese, Indian, Burmese, Sri Lankan, Nepali, Thai - to pray. Offering flowers, we got sprinkled with holy water by the monks. We lit oil lamps for peace and happiness. We donated to the beggars. And I kept taking photos till I felt quite wilted from the rain and humidity and sea of humanity around me.

The results of my labours can be seen in this Flickr photoset.

A New Look

I made changes to the CSS of my blog using EclipseStyle, a nifty freeware programme I downloaded mainly for this purpose, and also made a new header. Time for a makeover, I thought. :)

Dan Suitcasing, a fellow blogger whose writing I really enjoy, has announced that he's going to stop blogging on the 18th this month :( , so he can concentrate on writing to be published (as in not self published on the net). As one of his readers said, what will be a loss to the blogosphere will hopefully be a gain for the literary world. All the best, Daniel.. please do keep in touch!

One of the textile shops in SS2 is currently having a clearance sale, with many beautiful quality fabrics on offer... I bought metres and metres of gorgeous lace, velvet, brocade, and an (currently) unidentifiable silky shimmery material - all for future costumes. Big hole in pocket, but if you think about it, these textiles are all pretty expensive normally, so I consider it an investment. Will post photos later. :)

Another thing: I saw the doc on Saturday and he said I can remove my cast from now on! He bent my arm this way and that, pressing it in different places and asked me if it hurt. Even showed me a few exercises I can do to strengthen it... and asked me to stay away from contact sports for a while. :P It's really nice moving around without it; I didn't realise how restrictive the cast and sling were until I could take them off. Still feels a bit fragile and I'm still quite careful when I'm out. But I'm happy. :)

Lazy Ovaries

Allegra (who is in Oz at the moment) and I were chatting earlier this afternoon, and there was a part of it I just had to share because it was so amusing.

She has a friend who apparently whines about anything and everything, and thinks everyone likes her. This friend (W) also is thinking about having a baby (because all her peers are producing babies left right and centre like there's no tomorrow) but doesn't like sex. This doesn't stop her from planning/fantasising what she's going to stop doing when/if she gets pregnant: stop going to the gym, stop travelling, stop being active, stop this and that, etc. This part of the convo happened after Allegra was told W's period was late:

allegra: i was gonna be rude and ask (when she told me W's period was late)
allegra: it was juz on the tip of my tongue to say : In 1st place, is she having sex wif her husband onot?
allegra: (evil thoughts looming) :P
siryn: lol, ah well :P
allegra: already i thought of more sarcastic things
allegra: make sure ur seated firmly before i tell u
siryn: i'm sitting :P
allegra: ok
allegra: imagine.. she's so lazy
allegra: ppl who wan try for baby will be at it like rabbits day and night
allegra: wherelse she's probably juz lying there, not wanting to do anything
siryn: yes ;-p
siryn: lie back and think of chow kit?
allegra: in 1st place, whether she's EVEN doing anything
allegra: say her hubby does all the work and she juz lies there
allegra: doubt he'll hv much to go on also
siryn: yeah... what a turn off :P
allegra: then even IF her hubby is as mighty as a stud (NOT)
allegra: her ovaries/eggs might be juz as lazy
allegra: they'd probably juz lie there going "wat??!?! wat u mean i have to go meet the sperm? let them come to me"
siryn: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! *hooting with uncontrollable laughter*
allegra: and then after dat go "wat??!?! u mean after dat sperm has jabbed me, NOW i have to travel to the uterus???!!"
allegra: "but it's so far....... and i'm sooooooo tired..............."
siryn: "and I have to start multiplying too? what a lame gig"
allegra: "forget it man. maybe another day"
siryn: =))
allegra: :P
allegra: told u i hv evil thoughts looming
siryn: hehe, it's ok ;-p
allegra: mebbe i shld be the one having ur T instead
allegra: the one dats says "evil inside"
allegra: rotfl
siryn: hehee ;-p
allegra: now.... contrast it wif some other person's ovaries
allegra: probably they'll be going "Yeee--HAW... it's raining men! Hallelujah!!! COME ON BAYBEH!!!"
allegra: then going WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE, zooming down to the uterus
siryn: oh yeah bebeh let's have a merry multiplyin time!
siryn: wheeeeeeeee
allegra: then rapidly multiplying and thinking SO many things to do, so many of us to do it
allegra: rotfl
allegra: ok... over active imagination
siryn: dats wat i luv bout our convos ;)
allegra: hehehehe

Bitchy, I know, but sometimes we all need an outlet to release our stresses. :P

Quick hot links

Just a quickie to post recent funny/useful links I've come across:

Clean or Dirty? Crafty fun, funny and cute. :)

"Think happy testicle thoughts" - *giggle*

The True Meaning of MILF - Hunny, I think I aspire to be a MILF too :P

Also, I've been re-reading some graphic novels... gothic humour and adventure (sorta) - The creepy, funny and gorgeous Peculia by Richard Sala, and the smart, elegant Courtney Crumrin series by Ted Naifeh, which is set to be made into a movie soon! Excellent stuff. :)

I swear by threading now to neaten my brows (yes, boys, every girl who has pretty eyebrows either plucks, waxes, shaves or threads them)... here's a helpful article for those who want to DIY at home: Threading - Step by Step