I'm Not Asleep, My Eyes Are Just Closed

My sister KJ goes on a five week long trip through the 'wilds' of Europe today. She'll be with friends part of the way and on her own at other times. With her inquisitive and open mind, I know she'll get the best out of this trip and she'll come back with lots of funny and amusing anecdotes to tell the family. I hope she doesn't get the runs like she is wont to do while travelling. So, may all your flights and journeys be safe. Hope the weather stays this good. Hope your feet won't give you too much trouble. And.......... Aren't foreign words funny? God bless KJ, come home safe.

Broken rasp. Eyes you can drown in. Teeth. I've heard it said that the people one is physically attracted to look a little like oneself. Makes sense, especially if you're the sort who's so in love with yourself you'd look for a partner with your own 'good looks' . What do you look for in a partner? Oh, it's one of those questions, is it? Like, if your house is on fire what would be the one thing you would save? Or would you choose to be extremely beautiful or insanely clever? You're avoiding the question. Mmmmmm.... I'm stalling. Is it that hard to answer? It's not a frivolous question. I would like to give some serious thought to it because I am a serious woman. No, don't laugh. Sorry. I guess that's what comes from asking such a question to an obsessive pedant such as yourself. I think.... I will take that as a compliment. Well? Sigh. What do I look for in a partner? Well, it's changed over the years. I used to have a check list of

Don't choke on your karipap. It's hard to imagine a woman who had always given me the impression that 99.99% of music is an assault on her sanity would be getting jiggy with it with the punters down at the local club. Oh God, that image has already given me a headache. My mother can't drive and she frequently complains of the music I put on the car stereo so I had kindly burned two CDs worth of songs by The Carpenters (which I know she likes) and things like The Beatles' Yesterday and Beautiful Maria by Los Lobos to play in the car from time to time. But two days ago, I took special delivery of double A-side single Lost In A Melody/Wanderlust by who else, but Delays , and The Mother freaked me out when she said, "I like this song. It's catchy." To hear what The Mother developed a liking to, click below. Lost In A Melody (Tom Middleton Cosmos Remix) by Delays. Rough Trade Records (2004) Oh and the other day, she asked, "Why don't you play that p

Music 1. The View From Here (album) – TEMPERED MENTAL . They sounded good, honestly they did, when I went to see them at Laundry at the launching of their debut album a few weeks ago. Good vocalist, banging bass – I shuffled my feet a little – and I bought their album. Hey, it was going cheap at RM20 and I figured they needed to earn a living somehow. But on repeated listens, I realised that I don’t really like music like this anymore. Go back circa 1999 and I would probably be headbanging to their songs, along with all the other nu-metal music that were making waves then, but currently, I’ve gotta say no. Oooh, Tempered Mental might object to me calling them nu-metal but that’s what it sounds like to me. Good effort, but not my cup of tea. You can check them out on MySpace . Stand out tracks: Recall 2. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (album) – CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH. See, you need a good name for your band to catch people’s attention and stick in their memories, instead of a meaningless

My neighbour scares me a little. I’ve been generally lucky with housemates but I’ve had my share of odd neighbours. There were those fellow university students who would regularly trash their flat and kick down doors during drinking binges. My flat’s front door somehow escaped destruction but doors left and to the right of mine would hang crazily on their hinges or disappear completely come Sunday morning. There was also the neighbour who jumped across from his window ledge onto mine (and we were three floors up) and banged on the window asking for marijuana at two o’clock in the morning. There was one that would turn up at our door asking for antiseptic cream. He looked like he had been in a fight and lost. On good days he would barely speak to us because as he later confessed, his girlfriend was a very jealous woman. When the girlfriend was away, he would try to hit on my friend, whose boyfriend lived in the same building as us. Then there was one who kept having fainting spells one

I was at the Maritime Institute in Jalan Yap Kwan Seng waiting for my dad to come out of a seminar becauseI needed the keys to take his car for repairs and servicing. So there I was twiddiling with my handbag in the corridor when the doors of the seminar room opened and a whole bunch of fit men in tight, white Royal Navy uniforms came out. Hubba-hubba! Unfortunately, my dad came out at the same time and started talking to me. All I could do was stand there with MY DAD while all these hunksome sailors passed me by. BAH! They're all probably too old for me anyway.

My dearest siblings, Greetings from your sister in the homeland of teh tarik and apolitical slackers. I hope you are all well in foreign lands. Thank you all for your e-mails expressing mirth at my having to face the Melaka Mob at a nuptial-filled weekend, while you all get off scot-free. (By the way, I hear summer in the British and Irish isles is pretty miserable right now, and I do believe it is bitterly cold in the Southern Hemisphere, is it not?) Truth be told, I rather enjoyed myself at the family gathering. Meeting the Melaka Mob doesn't seem to be as much of an ordeal as I remembered. I had two new baju kurung made, mainly because Mak U insisted on a theme of blue for An's wedding (and all relatives must comply) and because raya will be soon and I haven't had a new baju kurung in about five years. I must say I looked extremely adorable in my new outfits. I could almost pass for gadis Melayu ayu except for the fact that I hunch and stride like a man. Sadly nob

1) All the college kids look really young to you 2) Salespeople call you kak 3) Most of the songs on Mix FM you have in your record collection

It's not the end of the month yet but I can't resist plugging Delays , especially since they're due a new album out in September. Another reason why I like them: they don't wait forever between albums. Your adoring masses always want more! I can think of only three bands which have captured my imagination so much so that I have obsessively collected B-sides, live tracks, radio sessions and any limited releases that they have produced. I can safely say now that you can add Delays to that short list. Lately I've been listening to the B-side, Quiet , over on the flash version of Delays official website . Starts off err....quiet and lullaby-like before building up to a chorus of screaming voices which I think is saying, "Live like you die." I could be wrong of course, since I still sing the opening line to Journey's Wheel In the Sky as "Nemedebede." Also on continuous play is Girls On Fire , which because it is yet unreleased has so far only bee

I was breathing in the salty air of the South China Sea when I heard about the nail-filled would-be car bomb in London. I was on the road somewhere when I caught snippets of news about a flaming car driving into Glasgow airport. Three guesses as to whose bright idea those acts were. No? You don’t need three? It wasn’t until late last night that I managed to sit down and trawl through the net for news on the events in Britain. (Of course there’s hardly anything in the papers here, thank God for the internet). It makes me heartsick to read about stuff like this, especially when it’s done by Muslims who claim God told them to and it’s for the freedom of the Muslim people. The news reports are bad enough but when I get to reading blogs and the comments on it, then I start to get really despondent. You can’t blame them for feeling that way; it seems that all Muslims want to do nowadays is Kill The Infidel and contribute to the greenhouse gas effect by burning lots and lots of flags. I would

The parents and I were in Kuantan for two days. Dad had a meeting there but didn't want to fly because of all the heavy documents he had to carry. He wasn't keen to drive either so he roped me in to do the driving duties by bribing me with a stay at the Hyatt. Okay, so it's not like he had to twist my arm in the first place. Mum and Dad kept reminiscing of the time they holidayed together in Kuantan. Dad kept trying to find the resthouse they stayed at in Teluk Chempedak but all we found was the resthouse annexe. I think they were nostalgic for the days when they weren't yet saddled with five kids. While Dad was at his meeting, Mum and I decided to drive from Teluk Chempedak towards Terengganu, mainly to hunt for keropok lekor. I love keropok lekor but the fish that a lot of makers of keropok lekor use makes me itch like crazy, so getting the right keropok lekor is a bit of a hit and miss job. We got as far as Chukai before we turned back to pick Dad up from work. I got