it's been mad. mad mad week at work. and I've gone mad.
have I told you I hate work? Yeah? Oh, i forgot. Well, I'll say it again. I.HATE.WORK.
im not looking into new jobs cause I just hate any kind of work that requires me to wake up in the mornings and stay awake for at least 8 hours a day. the receptionist downstairs understands me more than anyone else. every morning when i tag in, i'll pass a remark like,
"benci tau bangun pagi"
"ngantuk lagi la"
"bosan nye kerje. bile ntah nak kaya"
"can we switch places?"
as usual, she'll just giggle and let me in and then proceed to play solitaire or chat endlessly with her friends on the internet. honestly. i envy her job. she has like the bestest job ever here. her biggest worry is when CEO does not receive his newspapers on time.
damn. its like that line in the movie KNOCKED UP,
'i didnt go to Harvard just to work 12 hours a day'
(please watch that movie. it'll teach you one or two things about life. much more than 30 days of night will ever do. plus its not depressing.)
How true is that? Fine. I didnt go to Harvard. But i did received my Degree from the top ranking university in Malaysia . And here i am. Working fixed hours in a day. I started thinking. People with NO qualification should be the one working fixed hours day in and day out. People who go to universities should be smart enough to generate income without being succumbed to long fixed hours, five damn days a week (6 days if you're very very unlucky) for thirty years (more if you were brilliant and managed to graduate ahead of everyone. sad) of your life.
So, did YOU go to university just so you could get a job working 8 hours a day? Did you?
Or did you go to honestly learn and use that knowledge to get rich?
Or did you, like me, went to university to study what i liked and then proceeded to work in something totally unrelated?
And then finding out that is not my thang.
And that university didnt teach me a thing about making money.
Sigh.
Anyways. How is everyone? Broke yet?
Few weekends back, D had an assignment for this photo shoot thingy in Sg Kelang or something. (am i the only person who thinks Sg. Kelang is in Kelang? - university graduate my ass!) He invited me to join him and I was excited cos I've never been to a photo shoot before. He told me to bring a friend or my sister so that i wont irritate him.
Towards the end of the week, i received another invite for an open house-cum-birthday party for a friend's daughter who'll be turning three (Are these the kind of invites married people are suppose to expect??). On the same day of the photo shoot. I was contemplating whether to go or not.
Go or not. Go or not.
Usually I wont really bother with birthday parties of people i hardly know. Especially kids. Eww. But her home was in a swankier part of town and I strongly believe that the nicer the house, the better the food is and the more beautiful the crowd will be. No, really. I actually believe that. The food definitely taste better for sure.
Like, kuih raya tastes better in the city hands down. Kuih kat kampung taste crap. They are tacky, multi-coloured, assorted shaped but they all taste the same! And they are cheap and bad imitation of those in the city.
Take for example;
The classic London Almond. The ones you buy here taste great. The almonds are roasted perfectly.The imported milk chocolate tastes lovely and even the cups are pretty.
The London Almond versi kampungku. Taste crap. Not shaped perfectly. Almonds? Ape bende tu? I once found kacang goreng in my so called London Almond. Insulting. And one lucky time, my mom found half an almond inside. Half! And the cups are obviously not the fancy ones la kan. And we all know how disgusting cheap chocolate tastes like. Oh, well.
In the city, people have money to spare. They're spoilt for choices. If you sell crap, rest assured next raya you better start selling butang baju melayu or something else other than kuih. Demand and supply. Only the best when you're willing to pay. Else, just settle for your kacang goreng.
Anywaaaaaaaaaaayys..
I called my sister and told her about both events. Which one is she willing to tag with me to? D told me to go to the open house cause he's thinking i'll get irritated by the hot sun and long hours.
Which also meant I had to shop for a gift. For a three year old.
Honestly, i have no idea what a three year old looks like. How big? How tall? What are three-year-olds capable of doing? Can they hold a pen? Do they cry a lot? Have they started the Barbie doll craze yet? Can they even talk yet? Do cows fly? Will Erra 's marriage last? Do I really care?
Hmpf.
I went to the mall with my sister. She went to get something at the Roxy Store. I was left stranded at the corner of Anakku, Toycity and MamaCares -or something. Ive never felt so lost since the time i took the long way back from LCCT and ended up in a remote town near Klang. This is bad. I went to the toy store first. D has dragged me many many times to ToysRus thanks to the peter pan inside of every man. I'm okay with toys although i always end up at the Board Games section.
I browse and browse. I see Barbie Dolls. Why do the Barbie dolls look so different? I look closer. Yes they look different and No they're not Barbie Dolls. They're Babies. Font exactly alike.
Wow. Now you can even get rip-off toys. How about that!
Makes raising kids a lot cheaper, eh? Kudos to the inventor! Now you can fool your kids right up to the point where they actually learn to read.
Anyways, toys arent exactly a safe bet. Especially when you dont know the kid. I walk out and step inside Anakku.
Ok. This is better. They have tags that says 'Age 3-4'. So thats how big a three year old kid is! Thank God I didnt buy the scrabble set. They actually have pretty little clothes for little girls, although all that pink was a bit too overwhelming for me (
and i actually like pink). Little dresses with butterflies down the front. Denim skirts with patched flowers. Tank tops with little red hearts all across the back. I think I'll go for the denim skirt. They look kinda cute. I would wear them. If i was 3.
I struggle to find the right age size. I can't find any. I find one for 'Age 2-3'. Kinda short. I hold it up high so i can judge better.
Then it happened.
I'm inside a baby store. I'm holding a piece of clothing up. I still have henna on my fingers. I'm wearing my wedding ring.
Talk about wrong place, wrong time.
If you've been reading long enough, you would know that there are a certain group of people from my uni years that i avoid like plague. I ignore their friendster requests, I decline joining the so-called forum and of course try hard and pretend to not see them whenever I bump into them.
Yan. Lets call her Yan. I'll tell you this much. People actually yawn openly when she visits just so she leaves. She was like part of the Hollywoodrag team of the class. Nosy is such a mild word.
I see her first.
Shit! Shit! Shit!
I lift the skirt higher so it covers my face. There's not much a three year-old's skirt can do.
She saw me.
"OMG S!!! is that you???" could she be any louder?
"eh?" i tilt my head and smile faintly.
"OMG!OMG!OMG! lamenye tak jumpe engkau!!
"tu la kan?" the smile gets fainter.
she looks at the skirt in my hand and then the wedding ring. she puts her hands on her hips.
"Are you married??"
"Erm, well yeah. Kind of anyways. Its been 57 days now" thank you count up from face book.
"To whom? Sape ni? Ko kawin ngan sape? Aku kenal ke?" told you nosy was a mild word.
"Kenal kot. The guy is D"
"D? Kenape aku rase macam kenal je? Macam familiar la name tu?"
"Yeah. Memang ko kenal pun. D tu kan kawan MK"
"MK? eh mane ko kenal MK" MK is the guy she was totally in love once upon a time with who happens to be D's best friend and also happen to be married and a daddy.
"mestila aku kenal. kau jugak yg citer kat aku dulu , kau slalu buatkan assignment die. Pastu lecturer die tak percaya sbb perfect sgt" "HA? aku ade citer ke? eh? aku tak ingat la.. tapi memang ade pun..hehe" she looks embarrassed now.
"Yeah. Anyways, I married MK's best friend D. You've met D before. Maybe you dont remember""yeke? anyway, ko nak ade baby ke?""eh, takdelah. aku nak beli tuk kawan aku punye anak la"she looks at me in disbelief. yela kan. kawin pun tak ajak die.
"are you married?""me? huh, no way. no way.""good for you"honestly. when i meant good for you, i meant good for you. she seemed annoyed at my statement though. it's good to be single. it's better to be single and in love. swoon.
reminds me of that other line in knocked up;
'Marriage is like a tense, unfunny version of Everybody Loves Raymond, only it doesn't last 22 minutes. It lasts forever'
our relationship is more like episodes of mr and mrs smith. We sometimes wanna shoot each other but end up in bed at the end of day. heh. i never found everybody loves raymond funny anyways.
and no. i didnt go to the party. i walked out quickly from Anakku after that. Can't risk anymore fateful meets like that. so i got nothing but a lesson on kids sizes.
and i didnt go to the photo shoot either. it was scheduled at 10. D woke up at 10. He barely showered and was gone.
I'll see everyone this weekend at the open house. Fyi, mummy's chocolate fountain just arrived from UK yesterday. woot woot.
"Mommy, where do babies come from?""Where do you think they come from dear?"
"Well. I think a stork, he umm, he drops it down and then, and then, a hole goes in your body and there's blood everywhere, coming out of your head and then you push your belly button and then your button falls off and then you hold your butt and you have to dig and you find the little baby."
"That's absolutely right, honey."
May all your dreams be fulfilled and May all your wishes come true.
May all your dreams be fulfilled and May all your wishes come true.
