Grace @ Day 8

My Grass Baby is growing hair!!! YAY!! 3 'strands'!!! Well, actually 2 'strands' now, coz Ricepot broke one with his itchy finger. *sob*

Oh well, anyway, I have unofficially christianed her and she'll now be named as Grace (grass mar!). So yes, my dear Grace is growing some hair!!! *jumping up and down*

Grace @ Day 8. Note the two short 'tangkai's on top of the head

It's gonna be a bright, happy day today! Hope you're having a great day too!!

Pirated DVD Subtitles

Sometimes when you buy pirated DVD's, you come across those with awful subtitles. Not only is the title funny (think uhm.. "The Day After Tomorrow" as "Lusa" in Malay), but practically the whole movie's subtitles are screwed up. When I watch a movie, I tend to glance through the subtitles. It's not to say I don't understand what are they saying on the screen, but.. It's just a habit la.. There was a particular movie, which I forgot the name, was badly translated that I ended up commenting each line and laughed at it, which then of course, pretty much annoyed Inspector. *lol*

Anyway, a colleague forwarded someone's blog entry about the subtitles for Star Wars Episode 3 : Revenge of the Sith. Pretty hilarious, I tell you! Just couldn't help being amused at the thought of why would some people translate the movie into Chinese, and then translate it back to English when the original movie is obviously in English already! In this case, "Revenge of the Sith" has become "Backstroke of the West". Goodness gracious! Go read the entry and have a laugh. Moral of the story >> Buy original DVDs! :Þ

In the meantime, am keeping an eye on my Grass Baby's progress. She's a week's old today, she's turned dark brown except for the top part of her head (that's where the grass seeds are), and she really "resap" a lot of water everyday! Last Friday before I left the office, I made sure her "cradle" was filled up with water. When I came back to work on Monday, she was practically half dried up. So poor thing.. Ah well.. I'm still waiting for signs of growth! Hurry up laaa...

1 week's old

[UPDATE] The subtitles for Star Wars definitely wasn't made up. Hammie went to China for troubleshooting a couple of months back and bought home the Star Wars DVD collection. After reading that entry, Koala Bear decided to watch the China-made DVD and he confirmed that the subtitles were for real. The exact same one. "Backstroke of the West". Hehe.. I think I'll need a copy of that DVD to keep. *lol*

Management Bullies

Have been frustrated with my company's management lately. All they can say is "1 minute/1 day can 'kau tim' laa" instead of being bothered to ask how much is our workload. There are only soooooo few pairs of hands, with each managing at least 10 projects - each project consists of development, maintenance, initial testing, documentation, troubleshooting and site/phone support.

Like this situation, Furball had tooooo many 'pots' to handle and he just couldn't possibly divert his attention to another project. NR, on the other hand, thought that everything was very easy :

1. Change the component - 1 minute
2. Change the maximum length then solve the problem - 1 minute
3. Do a refresh whenever the module is activated - 10 minutes at most

Wow.. So clever.. This is coming from someone who picks his nose publicly, reads novels on the net whole day long and "tai chi"s everything to us. So terror. Yes, we can easily fix something within said 12 minutes, but sometimes one needs a longer time to look into the thing, to fix it, to test it and all. And for someone who has his hands on soooo many things, Furball can't even spare that 12 minutes (He IS that busy!). How lar dey?

Sometimes what frustrates me as well is that, the management throw every single thing possible to the staff and expect us to "kau tim" for them. If it works and everything goes fine and dandy, they will get the credits and the "bravos". Not even a single pat on the back for us. Well.. Maybe the best they can say is "Ok, your next project is bla bla bla". But if things don't work out well, we get dozens of fingers pointing at us instead. Whatever problems they face, they just find a quick and dirty way out, which in the end, gives more problems and everything's back to square one. So sucky, man..

For me, namesake je R&D, but 20% of my time are spent on organizing the company's annual trips and any other events (like Christmas, CNY, etc), internal and external quality audits, compiling R&D projects and staff's time allocation for the Income Tax Double Deduction. What else? Oh yeah.. Moving Office committee.. That includes planning what to buy for our pantry, getting measurements for cabinets, fridge and all.

I'm not trying to complain, but.. Can't someone else do it? *Sighz* Offer help, yes, I will do it. But not to the extent of making it a chore that I have to keep doing it for the years to come. You know what, I have unofficially became my boss' PA. Sometimes I really wonder how could I actually stay sane with the company. More importantly, how could I actually stick around for 5 years! *sighz*

Urgh.. Alright, alright.. Enough complaining now.. Need to go relax a bit. Ahhhhh.. A packet of Oreo's to save the day!!! *munch* *munch*

Pencuri During Full Moon

Did anyone take a good look at the moon last night? Apparently yesterday's Chinese papers reported that the moon would look 3 times bigger than the usual size, and it's clearer when it's at about 7pm and 4am. They even suggested to take pictures while standing "in front" of the moon.

I ran out of the house a couple of times in the midst of watching the Korean series "Full House" on 8TV, Mum & Dad followed as well. Dad brought his camera out, and we managed to snap this..

Zoomed in version towards the moon

The illumination was much, much more brighter before that. Practically filled up part of the dark sky. What's more it was a full moon. Would have made a very nice picture.. Did anyone see it? Suprisingly the English papers did not mention anything about it. Or maybe it's just too normal already?

Anyway, this is funny.. Barely 1 week after my company has shifted to the new location, sudah 'masuk pencuri' liao. At 6 o'clock this morning, 4 guyz came in a mini truck, stopped in front of our compound, climbed through the fence and stole metal scraps that was gathered on the other side. Quite a heap pile of metal scraps there coz we're still renovating the place. Our hired security guard, poor thing.. He was alone at the guardhouse and armless. All he could do was run out and "oi oi!" at them before they sped off with the "goodies". That also, wasn't enough. I think they accidently dropped the rollers outside the compound and they came back 2 hours later to pick them up. So "ganas". Good thing we have the video recordings of the incidents.. I related the incidents to Moorish and she told me that a couple of months ago, her neighbour did some major renovation, and her mum happened to see this guy on his bicycle, passed by the house. He told her mum that he was collecting flowers to pray (can you believe that?). After dinner, all the metal decorative bars for the fence hilang already. *sighz*

I bet the thieves will come again tonight...

My Little Grass Baby

Guess what, guess what.. My baby arrived!! Aiyah, not real baby la.. Introducing... Grass Baby..

My little Grass Baby

Cute or not? She's 1 day's old today. Inspector's colleague (an auntie, may I add, very motherly too) gave it to him a couple of months ago. But he's never around in his office and won't have time to 'jaga' her. So all this while, she was tucked into a box, deep in one of his drawers. So poor thing lerrr... Since my company was shifting and I chose to sit by the window, I thought, why not, I can take care of her. When Inspector dropped by at my office yesterday and passed it to me, I squealed like a little girl. It's sooooooooooooo cute... Got ribbons and all. Hehe..

Last night, Mum & I searched left right up down in the kitchen for a nice piece of glassware to put her in. I brought it to work this morning, placed her in the center of the glassware (a short rectangular thing), poured water into it, made a small signage with my name on it and placed it beside my monitor.

So cute larrr... What I'm supposed to do is to keep providing water and slowly, she will grow "hair" (grass la). Then have to trim the hair from time to time. Cute or not? At least whenever I'm stressed out with my work, I can just stare at her. Any stress whatever sure disappear like lightning.. But more distraction now!! I mean, how can one not smile by just looking at her?? She's still very "bald" now.. Can't wait for her to grow some "hair"!

Well, at least it should be a good start into taking care of a living thing. Practice first mar, if 'tak boleh jaga' one Grass Baby, how to take care of a real baby next time, right? Now I'm gonna go think on how to decorate her little "cradle". *grin*

Casa Rachado, PD

One of Inspector's agents, AlJaya invited us to join him & his wife over at Casa Rachado MAA Resort, PD for the weekend. Accomodation provided and all, so we accepted it. What to do.. No $$ lar, furthermore we've been travelling practically every weekend for the past 1-2 months..

Casa Rachado is quite hidden actually. From the main "T" junction, turn left and head towards Guoman. Once you see the Guoman Resort signage, go further on until you pass the army camp on your right, then turn at the next junction on the right where there is a Casa Rachado signage. Go straight down all the way, pass by some JKR resort, Blue Lagoon Resort and an NS camp, then you'll see Casa Rachado MAA Resort, tucked in on the left side.

According to AlJaya, Casa Rachado was initially owned by an Australian company, and he was one of the initial members of the resort since almost 20 years ago. RedBox Karoke apparently bought over the resort before handing the ownership to MAA which has now became MAA's Training Resort. I really don't know how true is the history, but anyway... It's really quiet and peaceful there (sure la, so obscure!). They provide a lot of outdoor facilities like a mini football field, basketball court, swimming pool and even trekking into the mangrove forest.

Swimming pool

Seminar/Karaoke area

We reached Casa Rachado by 5.30pm or so. AlJaya brought us around the resort, then lepakked in the apartment, munched on longans and Ngan Yin peanuts till 7 plus. Then we went out for dinner. There were so many seafood restaurants to choose from, so in the end we decided on Pantai Seafood (They have their own website! Wow!). I couldn't remember what we ordered (I'm terrible at menus!) but I know we had Kam Heong crabs and it was yummy! I met AlJaya and his wife before, so it was expected that everytime they go out for dinne, or just AlJaya and Inspector, after makan will be the beer-drinking and smoking session. Cigarette stick after another. Bottle after bottle. Just that night itself, AlJaya and Inspector downed 5 big bottles of Carlsberg. From 8pm till 1am. I 'pulak', don't drink, don't smoke, just sat there, fiddled with my food and listened to their conversation lor. Went back to the apartment after that and both of them continued downing 3 more big bottles. Madness!! This is what Inspector has to go through each time he meets up with AlJaya. By 3 plus, my eyes were soooo droopy that I went back to the bedroom and immediately knocked off till morning. Hehe..

Woke up at 9am, saw that the rest were still in "la-la land", so took the opportunity to snap some pics!

The living hall

The second bedroom

The F&B building from the apartment balcony

Speaking of food, buffet breakfast wasn't so fantastic. All they had were fried mee hoon, nasi lemak, baked beans, porridge and toast. So disappointing, but it's ok lar, since everything was free for us (except toll). Checked out by noon, headed back home for a quick shower, dumped my bag in my room, then proceeded to Cheras Plaza's Neway Karaoke for Player's birthday celebration, then went to Kaki Corner for dinner.

Aduhai.. Sooooo, soooooo tiring..

Goodbye Old Office, Hello New Office

For the past 1 year or so, my colleagues and I had been hearing news that the bosses were scouting around for a building to call our own. Currently we had been renting a couple of shoplots for almost 5 years, slightly a month before I joined the firm. It was also that long it had been, being neighbours with a certain cake factory. Late last year, Dexter told us that we've secured a building in an industrial area, 15 minutes drive away from our current location. Since 2-3 months ago, we had been busy drafting schedules and delegating assignments. We even had Moving Office Committee meetings! For the past few weeks, we did nothing except to pack up, throw unwanted paper, books and boxes for recycling.

Today, that day had come. We finally shifted to a new location, a much bigger space. After 16 years in operation, we finally have our very own 'menara' (Not exactly 'menara' lar, just 2-storey buildings only). We shifted with a heavy heart. At the old location, each other's departments were very near together. It was convenient for us to walk to the bank, or for lunch. We even named the shops like Dirty Shop (seriously dirty one!), Cheap Shop (food are very cheap there), No Name Shop (sells 'chap fan' but we couldn't find the signage to the shop), and Dustbin Shop (sells tasty curry mee, but the garbage trucks are always parked in front of the shop). We would also get the smell of the baking ovens from next door, we could smell cheesecakes and lasagnes - made us even hungrier! And during durian season, you could count on it that the factory would make Durian cakes. They usually buy a mega huge basket of durians, a few workers would cut open the durians, and the pungent smell... Woah... And if there were too many durians, they would sell them out really cheap. As for parking, we recently had to pay 5 bux a day for the parking coupon system, but most of the times, we just "forget" that we had to. 5 bux a day is pretty expensive lar!

Goodbye old workstation

Now, at the new place, the departments are all segregated. We have our own pantry, toilets, a mini library (more like a museum, Dexter still want books on Windows 3.0, Turbo Pascal, C, and magazines that were published in the early 90s!), and each of us has a bigger space to work in. Furniture and all are still the same ones from the old place. Lunch is harder to get, as there is only a Medan Selera at about 5 minutes walking distance, otherwise gotta drive out. We have 3 badminton courts within our compound and the place is quite big enough for most of us to park our cars in. No more 5 bux a day, hooray! And we no longer need to hold our sales seminars at hotels and enjoy their scrumplicious buffet lunches, we now have our own Function Hall and we will cater lunch = SAD! Now I worry for next year's annual trip - Would we need to camp in our compound from now onwards??

Hello new workstation

I guess, it's good in a way to have our own building. After 16 years in operation, hopefully we get to send out a message that we're more established now and that we'd still remain one of the top competitors in our industry. Hhm.. But then again, with all the amount of $$ spent on this new building, will it affect our year end bonus and increment? Oh no......

An Old Friend In Canada

Less than 3 weeks ago, an old friend from Canada, Christine dropped me a e-mail suprise saying that she would be down in KL for 2 weeks. And of course I was pretty excited to meet up with her!

Why the excitement, you asked? Well, imagine this. We were classmates through Std. 1 to 3 before her family migrated to Ireland. I couldn't remember how but we managed to track each other down and we corresponded through letters (that time where got e-mails?). Her family moved to Canada a few years after that, we lost contact but somehow we managed to find each other again and we wrote letters again. We kept in contact till we both left high schools, she even sent me a picture of her taken during her convocation. As we both continued on to college and then uni, we lost contact again. It was only 2 years ago that I managed to track her down through the net (Oh yes, the power of the internet!) and we've been e-mailing each other ever since. So when she told me that she was coming down to KL, both of us were very excited lar!! We've not seen each other for 16 years woh!!!!!

Christine stayed with a few of her relatives' places and had no contact numbers. When she called me, we immediately made plans to meet up for dinner and that I would pick her up from wherever she would be that evening. I was really nervous.. How would she look like now? How would she be? Would we have loads of things to talk about? Or would things be awkward and silent? I called up a couple of our classmates for the dinner, but only Martin could make it. The rest either already had plans or they are abroad, like Gummy teaching English in Japan. No problem.

Prior to this, I was busy with my office shifting to a new location. I rushed home as soon as I could, took my shower and went to pick her up. When we saw each other, memories of our friendship just came pouring out and it was, gosh.. Great! Really couldn't describe the feeling when we hugged each other, right in front of each other was an old, old friend whom we've not met for 16 years already. I brought Christine to Basil Thai Nudle Bar in Bangsar Village. We chatted about the past as we waited for Martin to turn up. When he did, we had a greater time. We talked about the horrible teachers we've had back then. About who used to have crushes on someone else. About how everyone else is doing now. Martin had to leave early but we managed to take a couple of pictures.

Christine and I stayed on till 10pm and we talked about relationships, our families and our friends. I called up a couple of our classmates and let her speak to them. However long the phonecalls would be, it didn't matter. What mattered was that although she couldn't meet the rest, at least she could talk to them and remember their voices. I was darn sure that the rest of them were happy to talk to her. *smile*

It was still early after we left, so I brought her to our school. It was quite dark there, but we could still see the structures and all. I stopped in front of the entrance for a while, stopped by the side of the school for a while, drove to the carpark, then to the field, then to the classroom buildings, then to the canteen and back to the entrance. We practically went around the perimeter of the school site lar. Christine was so glad, and she kept saying "I remember this/that!" and mentioned a few incidents that occurred here and there. If it was daytime, we would both definitely park the car and run around the school. Hehe..

Before I dropped her off, she gave me a bag of Canadian goodies and kept telling me that whenever I visit Toronto, accomodation is provided. When we hugged for the last time, we promised to keep in contact and suddenly I felt sad coz I don't know when would we meet again... Not another 16 years, I hope!

Canadian goodies from Christine
I hope she had a great time. At least I know that she was happy she managed to talk to some of our classmates through the phone and that she got to see the school, where she spent the first 3 years of her schooling days at. As Christine quoted, "it's something I would never, ever forget for many, many years to come". I don't know about you, but to me, keeping in contact with old friends like her is not about comparing who's doing better and all. To me, friendships like these keep me grounded. They constantly remind me of the times when we would use to play 'getah', Police & Thief, the 'bluff bluff friend him/her' times, suck honey from the 'bunga jejarum', when boys were bullies or girls were gross. When we treated each other as equals and all we cared were to have fun together, to experience our early schooldays together. That's who they are to me, and for that, I'll always be grateful for their friendships. *smile*

Another classmate, Genius Chick would be coming down from New Jersey with her husband sometime early next year. Her family migrated to The States after Std. 4 but like how it is with Christine, we still keep in contact with each other. I honestly am looking forward to meet up with her!!

Kimi Wa Tomodachi

I got my little Kelisa fixed. Yippieeee.. She went for a minor facelift (right side only) the whole day, and she came back looking soooooo pretty, at VD's expenses.. The red paint has gone, even all the old scars and pimples have disappeared, looking so oh brand new. I'm jealous now, she's looking more gorgeous than me. *lol*

Little Kelisa after her cosmetic surgery

So happy that I can sing "tra la la la la" and do a little skip here and there. Speaking of that, recently 8TV has been airing this commercial clips of a Japanese series titled "Wonderful Life", something about an arrogant baseball player becoming a manager of a boy's baseball team and learn the meaning of life through the children. I've never watched the series, but everytime when the commercial clip is on, it plays the theme song "Kimi Wa Tomodachi" by Ken Hirai (or Hirai Ken, which is correct ah?). It's an acapella and it sounded so nice, so chirpy, so catchy that I just had to go all out on Google (that's how I found out the title of the song) and download it. Hehe.. Kiasu lar tu..

You can get the lyrics and its translations here, but just in case if it's no longer there in the future, and also for my own reference, read on..

(You can count on me, always count on me)

Kimi ga waratta, boku mo tsurarete waratta
Utsushikagami mitai da, kimi wa boku no tomodachi
Kimi ga okotta, boku mo makezu ni okotta
Kodomo no kenka mitai da, kimi wa boku no tomodachi
You laughed and I joined in the laughter too
Like reflections in the mirror, you're my friend
You were mad, I also got mad without giving up
It seems like a kids' fight, you're my friend

Boku ga sabishii toki wa, ato sukoshi tsukiatte
Umaku hanashi wo kiite kurenai ka
Kimi no koe dake ga, kokoro wo karuku suru
Tada aidzuchi wo utte kureru dake de
When I'm lonely, keep me company a little longer
Won't you listen closely to what I say?
Only your voice eases my soul
Just by making sounds that you're listening

Hanarete itemo zutto
(Whenever you feel alone
Mune no naka ni iru yo
Even if we're apart, you'll always be in my heart

Kimi ga naiteta, boku mo nakisou ni natta
Dakedo koraete waratta, genki dase yo to waratta
You were crying, I also seemed to be crying
But stifled my laughter, "cheer up", I laughed

Kimi ga sabishii toki wa, itsu datte tondeku yo
Umaku kotoba kamitsukaranai keredo
Boku no koe ga kimi no kokoro wo iyasu nara
Tada aidzuchi wo utsu dake demo ii kai?
When you're lonely, I'll go quickly to you at anytime
I won't snap at your words, but
If my voice heals your heart
Is it ok even if I just make sounds that indicate that I'm listening?

(That's what friends are for, always be by your side)

Sabishii toki wa, ato sukoshi tsukiatte
Umaku hanashi wo kiite kurenai ka
Kimi no koe dake ga, kokoro wo karuku suru
Tada aidzuchi wo utte kureru dake de
When it's lonely, keep me company a little longer
Won't you listen closely to what I say?
Only your voice eases my soul
Just by making sounds that you're listening

Kimi ga inai to, boku wa hontou ni komaru
Tsumarisou iu koto da, kimi wa boku no tomodachi
When you're not here, I'm really in a bind
It's something that I'm choked up to say: You're My Friend

~~ (Ken Hirai) - Kimi Wa Tomodachi ~~

Go find the song, listen to it, and tell me what do you think of it. :)

Scratched But No "Sorry"

Gggrrrr...

I'm still recovering from my more-than-1-week-long flu and sore throat. I'm having cramps coz of my period. Inspector and I have not been in talking terms for days. And my car got scratched early in the morning. Urgh!!

MPPJ re-implemented the parking coupon system around industrial areas this month. Usually I would just park my car by the side of the road, not on those yellow parking boxes. Coz of the implementation, I have no choice but to park on the box and 'gores' 5 bux away each day.

Eesshh...

This morning, someone from next door's cake factory tried to parallel park his van in front of mine, and scratched the front corner part of my car during the process. He didn't even bother searching for the owner of the car (who else would have parked there besides ppl from his factory or my company, and i have my company's car sticker 'terpapar besar' on my car windscreen - must support mar!). A colleague saw the incident and reported to me. I went out to check on my car and saw this ..

Poor little Kelisa 'kena' scratched..

A few colleagues went next door to look for the driver. He (call him VD - van driver) came over, said, "Your car izzit? Ok lar, I pay you lar". What the hell???!! He didn't have the decency to find the owner, he didn't have the decency to even say sorry! Not to say that it's a major scratch, just need to respray the whole thing and knock it back out a bit. But but but.. Is it so hard to say just a simple 5-letter word? I suppose it is lar.. Even Elton John also got problem saying it.. Hehe..

Oh well, VD said he'll pay, so ok. I had to go find a workshop. Colleagues recommended several places, but not to say I know a great deal about cars nor repairs. I don't even know what the Perodua people do to my car everytime I bring it there for service. Talk about being ignorant. In the end, I got a colleague's husband (who has his own car workshop just behind my office)'s friend ("ma kat lou") to do it for me. CH (Colleague's husband) came over to inspect the car, and said not more than RM 300. VD said "too expensive lar, I can bring you to our workshop, just behind only". Found out, his "just behind only" is like 20 mins drive away. He didn't want to pay more than RM 250. After much negotiation between the both of them, in which CH's arguments were somewhere along the lines of :

- "things like these, where can bargain the price. You want me to do less than RM 200, of course I can, just spray that part only lar, simply do wan, not nice wan. Colour don't match already. You want or not? If your own car, you like or not? Of course don't want, right?"
- "you want to bring to your workshop, you bring lar, you got time or not? You expect this girl to go there herself ar? You think she got time ah? She's also busy herself"
- "this person is a girl lar, she don't know all these things, you scratched her car, you expect her to go all the trouble to settle for you ah?"
- "you want, can bargain to RM 280, cannot reduce already. You scratched her car, you expect her to pay for the cost also ah? Your company sooooooo big, cannot afford to pay? Each of you pay extra RM 10 lar, then settle"

Then VD hesitantly agreed for RM 280. I just stood there, like a 'dungu pot', listening to both of them discuss. So tomorrow morning, CH will get his friend to come over to my office, collect my car, drive it to his workshop, respray and knock the dent back out, drive it back to my office in the evening, pass the bill to VD and collect $$ from him. Make things easier. And VD still did not say "Sorry". Labu suggested that on the day we shift office next week, we go puncture all their tyres coz they always just knock into our cars or scratch them and care less about it. *lol*

Oh well.. Treat it as bad luck lar, what else can I do right. But despite a terrible day, I was cheered up when Ketua showed me her first vagina scan of her unborn baby.. It's 10 weeks old and only 3.6cm... 3.6 CM!! Can you believe how small is that? Go take your ruler and see!! Sooooooooooooooooo cute.. I couldn't stop staring at the picture and it's not even mine. *Sighz*

Tomorrow will be a better day, I tell you... Got to be!

Tired

She's getting tired of being taken for granted..
Tired of him being a hypocrite and his demandings..
Tired of being treated whatever way he like, however he like, whenever he like..
Tired of being commanded around like a puppet..
Tired of having to understand him and his feelings, but not him understanding her nor her feelings..
Tired of being the one saying "Sorry" whenever they fight..

And you ask why she still stays by his side.. Because she loves him, damnit.. For reasons she no longer remember..

Do The Buddhism Chant

My family, especially Dad are into Buddhism, whereas I, the black sheep, is into Christianity. However, this doesn't mean that I can't understand what other religions are all about. And so, when Dad invited Buddhist monks over to our place for a chanting session last morning, I respected what they did and I helped around.

Ever since Yeh Yeh passed away almost 2 years ago, Dad has been diligently involved himself in Buddhism, reading books related to it, listening to suttas, and attending classes at Buddhist Maha Vihara Temple in Brickfields. This is the second time we have invited monks and relatives over.

Early in the morning, we prepared food, pot luck style. There are not much of restrictions of what type of food can the monks eat, in fact, they take meat too. The only thing we have to do, is to offer food without bones or seeds. Like, chicken, oh, they've got to be boneless. Watermelons seeds got to be taken out.

My relatives came over by 10am, and we waited while Dad drove out to pick up the monks from somewhere in Puchong. Some monks are a bit strict, a cloth needs to be placed on top of the seat and they sit on the cloth. But the monks we invited yesterday were simple. So no need cloth. They arrived by 10.30am and the monks prepared themselves as all of us kneeled/sit around, facing them. They chanted and we followed suit. I 'pulak', just sat, and looked around... Or I excused myself and hid in the kitchen. Hehe..

The invited monks

After the chanting session, was the Q&A session. The monk preached a lot about karma.. How one should do a lot of good deeds so that he/she will have a good life when he/she reincarnates. How one should avoid temptation, greed and judgement. The thing I noticed is that, Buddhism is more towards teaching on how one should lead his/her life (be as simple as possible, but happily), not must do this, must do that. To have a healthy and worryless mind and soul so that one can have a healthy body too. Some Christians on the other hand, are too focused into what the Bible says, cannot do this or that coz the Bible says so. Why? Coz the Bible says so lar..

So anyway, the monks are not to eat anytime after noon arises, so we offered them their lunch. Reason being was that, according to the monk, Buddha said that monks should avoid cravings and the more they eat, they tend to get even sleepy. So it became a rule that monks can eat anytime when the sun rises until before noon starts. Anytime after that, they can only drink water, but not eat. As I've mentioned, these monks were very simple, some monks were so strict that we have to kneel to offer them dishes, and they have to touch the dishes (like some kind of a blessing). All we needed to do, were to serve them food, that's it. After they've eaten, then it was our turn to feast.

Food we prepared for them and for ourselves

Once we were done, they conducted a short chanting session and we prepared a bowl of water, together with a 'look yau' leaf for them to sprinkle onto us and around the house for blessing. And after that, we took photos. Very high tech, you know, the monk. He has his own Kodak digital camera. He said, "if you don't know how to use it, I teach you". *lol*

Bowl of water for sprinkle

After the photography session, Dad fetched them back to their temple. Then it was time to wash the dishes and clean up the place.. It's a learning experience lar, I must say.. And those people who think that Buddhist offer joss sticks to various Gods, that's Taoism, not Buddhism. Tak belajar in Sejarah ke?