Sue’s Sanctuary

Got this in the Email.. think it’s worth sharing.. haha

Once upon a time, a man in a hot air balloon realized that he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted.

"Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am."

The woman below replied. "You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 50 and 51 degrees north latitude and between 114 and 115 degrees west longitude."

"You must be an engineer," said the balloonist.

"I am," replied the woman.

"How did you know?" "Well," answered the balloonist, "everything you told me is technically correct, but I’ve no idea what to make use of your information. The fact is, I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip."

The woman below responded, "You must be in management." "I am," replied the balloonist, "but how did you know?" "Well," said the woman, "you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise, which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is, you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, you’ve managed to make it my fault!!

TO SABAHANS, SELAMAT HARI KAAMATAN!

TO SARAWAKIANS, SELAMAT HARI GAWAI.. to be specific, for IBANs, SELAMAT ARI GAWAI, to BIDAYUHs, SELAMAT ONU GAWAI.

My 4th Gawai away from Borneo.. but that doesn’t mean I forget where I come from.

KEEP THE TUAK FLOWING! YEEEEE HAH!

Parents Day.. Mother’s day was just over.. followed by Wesak (Vesak) Day.. and will be followed by the nearly 3 week-long (nearly as in 16 days, more than 2 weeks) school holidays, then followed by Father’s day in June.

So many days to celebrate.  Well, life is worth celebrating, isn’t it?

Got this in the mail from dear Reb.  Hugs.

A Gift to Mom
Four brothers left home for college, and they became successful doctors and lawyers and prospered. Some years later, they chatted after having dinner together. They discussed the gifts they were able to give their elderly mother who lived far away in another city.

The first said, ‘I had a big house built for Mama.’

The second said, ‘I had a hundred thousand dollar theater built in the house.’

The third said ‘I had my Mercedes dealer deliver an SL600 to her.’

The fourth said, ‘You know how Mama loved reading the Bible and you know she can’t read anymore because she can’t see very well. I met this preacher who told me about a parrot that can recite the entire Bible. It took twenty preachers 12 years to teach him. I had to pledge to contribute $100,000 a year for twenty years to the church, but it was worth it. Mama just has to name the chapter and verse and the parrot will recite it.’

The other brothers were impressed.

After the holidays Mom sent out her thank you notes.

‘She wrote: ‘Milton, the house you built is so huge. I live in only one room, but I have to clean the whole house. Thanks anyway.’

‘Marvin, I am too old to travel. I stay home, I have my groceries delivered, so I never use the Mercedes. The thought was good. Thanks.’

‘Michael, you gave me an expensive theater with Dolby sound, it could hold 50 people, but all my friends are dead, I’ve lost my hearing and I’m nearly blind. I’ll never use it. Thank you for the gesture just the same.’

‘Dearest Melvin, you were the only son to have the good sense to give little thought to your gift. The chicken was delicious. Thank you.’

Happy Mother’s Day to all Mothers - 11th May 2008.

Today I saw a taxi/cab being blocked by an inconsiderate ‘parker’ for two hours.  The owner of that blue car didn’t turn up until two hours later.. and the Indian taxi driver is terribly flustered by then.. from honking non-stop to frustrated resignation finally when the ‘guy’ doesn’t turn up after 15 minutes.

Imagine the cab parked nicely in a parking lot, and the blue car just parked horizontally behind the cab.. ‘apa macam mau keluar’ (how to come out)?

Things people do sometimes for their own convenience..selfish.

Heavy Rain.  Four hours plus of raining non-stop within 20km radius from my area.. and the rain shows no signs of stopping.

A downpour today really washed away all the inpurity.. or did it?

As I drove today in the heavy rain, a sudden feeling of release occurred within me. Instead of feeling down or let the rain dampen my spirit, I’m actually feeling the peace in the downpour.

Peace be with you.

Have a Happy Easter.

As I’m typing this, the election results have been announced and as usual, the Barisan Nasional is still holding the majority of the Parliamentary seats and will form a government, but five states have been gripped by the opposition… Penang, Kelantan, Kedah, Selangor and Perak.

Sabah and Sarawak.. as usual-lah, BN stronghold.

I’m off to meet my god daughters today who are in KL!  Miss them lots!

Let’s hope there won’t be any riots or demonstration going around in the city today or tomorrow.  The last thing we want is another bloodbath like May 13, 1963.

They always joke about women and cars.. like how clueless women are when it comes to car maintenance.  With some exceptional women who are more car savvy than your old regular mechanic, I belong to the second type that relies on men to maintain my car.

Just this fine Saturday morning, my car tyre burst while I was driving and my car shook violently and cars are honking at me for me to stop.  The tyre was literally not only flat but torn like a ragged doll. 

And the nuts and bolts are screwed so tightly you can’t expect me to open it and change it there and then.. furthermore, I’ve pulled over to the leftside of the highway and there are cars speeding at top speed on my right… yeah, that tyre that went bust was on the right. 

The insurance mechanic came in 30 minutes, considered ‘not bad’ standard as far as Malaysia goes, and my spare tyre was intact within minutes.  But then again.. it looked kinda deflated so I exchanged cars with hubby to go to wherever I was heading and he drove my car away to change the tyre.

Still on car breakdowns, I remember last year, my car temperature was literally boiling twice.  Once, it went down and I resumed my journey. The other time, I stopped right smack in the middle of a highway and at the peak of a flyover.  Great.  And it was a weekday, peak hour, rush hour, people leaving work to go home.. hence I caused a backlog to 2km to 5km?  So embarrassing… but then again, I’m a woman, see me stop my car.. what can you do about it?  Haha. 

I remember when I last blogged about a movie, a friend said: "You must have missed writing so much you are actually writing a movie review on your blog!"

Well, to a certain extent, she was right.  *Hugs*

Anyway, in conjunction with the Lunar New Year, HK actor-turned-director and still an actor, Stephen Chow’s new movie was launched. 

Watched it on the 3rd day of CNY with my parents, my sis and of course my hubby - true to the reviews following the movie premiere a few days earlier, it was indeed a heart-warming movie for the whole family.  Despite the customary 13PG rating shown at the beginning of the movie, this is a very toned down movie with the occassional slap-stick humour and outrageous extravagant action (read: humourous violence), so I feel kids should enjoy the movie too.

Blended with the human emotion, the movie explored the impact of hardcore poverty on families and a father (Chow)’s unconditional love to the son — I actually got teary eyed in the later part of the movie when the kid cried his heart out. OK.. no spoilers here but the kid, is actually in real-life, a girl who played a boy’s character in the movie - very talented child. 8 or 9-year-olds, especially thin kids — they look androgynous lah, can pass off as a boy or a girl easily.

And best of all is the adorable computer-generated toy dog, a fluffy little thing with expressive eyes and mouth - called CJ7.  Remember ‘Puss in Boots’ from the movie Shrek with that pair of big eyes that melt people’s heart?  That kind of cute.

Catch it on the cinemas now, or wait for the DVD lah.

Happy Chinese New Year 2008!   

Before the first month of 2008 is over, just thought I’d write a post on my blog.

Will be very much occupied in the coming couple of months in work, life and family, will be generally busier, which means there’s more to do and less time to brood and think too much, which is a good thing.

Chinese New Year is just around the corner.  It’ll be my first as an ‘adult’, i.e. married in the eyes of the traditional Chinese folks, which also means I’ll be the one giving out angpows (money gift in red packets) and no more receiving!  I’ll just treat it like ‘giving back to the society’ lah.. hahaha. 

Happy New Year 2008 and Happy Chinese (Lunar) New Year, Year of the Golden Rat. 

It’s your year, my brother, Happy 2nd Dozen of your Animal Zodiac!