Merdeka!

To mark our 49th year of Independance,let me share why I love being a Malaysian:

-I love that as we chase wealth and success,family still matters.
-I love that the level of service we enjoy in Malaysia can only be dreamt of elsewhere.
-Of course, the glorious food!In abundance,cheap and available any time,day or night.
-We have wonder exotic fruits like durians,mangoesteens and rambutans....not to forget lychees and mata kucing.
-I am proud of the level of health service in this country which provides excellent primary health care.
-In spite of everything,we actually have prime ministers and leaders who have built on what we have and not destroyed what we have.
-I love that I grew up in a multi-ethnic,multi-religious society and went to school where I had friends and teachers of all races...my life is that much richer for this.
-Amazing how we all celebrate Chinese New Year,Diwali,Eid and Christmas together!
-I am proud that as a Malaysian muslim feminist I see no contradiction between my religion and my feminism.
-And oh, I so love the Tourism Malaysia advertising campaign slogan of
'Malaysia Truly Asia'

(thanks for reminding me Zainah Anwar!)

Happy Birthday....

Mom and Teena!
Love you!

Vanilla Raspberry Squares!

Drooooooooooooool!Linda,instead of showing me the pics, send me the real stuff you meanie!

Emotions...

The variations of emotions in a human being just dazzles the mind....no other blessed creature of God possesses the range of emotions of a man,woman or child....and the past one week has absolutely created a wave of emotions in me that ranged from absolute bliss from seeing a loved one on the webcam(thank god for the inventions of modern technology!)and i tell you, the feeling lasted well into the middle of the week, sublime happiness at finally getting my hands on a decent tub of ice cream (it had to be Wall's as i couldn't find any Ben&Jerry's),total numbness by the end of an awefully hectic day that i couldn't even hear the phone ringing, anger and frustration at my parent's neverending meddlesome matchmaking attempts to get their eldest hitched before hell does freeze over,a feeling utter helplessness as I watched one of the sweetest boys I've gotten to know slip into coma and pass away,extreme irritation at having to do my laundry and press my clothes,craving for a spicy and flavourful'Tom Yum' at the one and only place where they really know how to make one........i could go on here.......emotions.....WOW!

Miss my bunny!

My little sumo wrestler!

(picture taken with the permission of the parents.)

Bollywood dancing!

I had to teach a bunch of kids some Bollywood dancing recently and boy, it's not easy!Especially if you haven't noticed how intense and aerobics like some of the dance steps can be.Well, I am first of all not a qualified dance instructress as I have only had a few opprtunities to put on my dancing shoes and show off my skills,usually at Indian/Pakistani weddings (which I valiantly try to avoid these days!)Nevertheless when a bunch of adults and kids looked at me forlornly a day before they actually had to perform, I caved in and tried to squeeze every ounce of 'bollywoodness'in me(okay, okay...i might have used the computer to download some movie scenes to help me by...) and voila...the kids did brilliantly!
However no one could beat my nieces who are all talented and naturalborn Bollywood dancers!!They dance brilliantly especially Afraa and Azza and it's a delight to watch them!I shall include some pics of my nieces for some blogger viewing pleasure.......Here's to Bollywood dancing!

Back to work....

......yup!Fun ends on Monday as sick kids beckon and back to long hours of slogging!Doubt I'd have anytime to blog for a bit.......but am actually looking forward to it.

....the dying art of letter writing.

There was a time during my teens when my cousin Fahima and I would write pages and pages of handwritten mail to each other and while writing one I would at the same time wait anxiously for the postman to bring me another letter from her!We loved to write....also to draw,paint and make our own cards and pictures....why we even made our own envelopes at one time!I have saved all the letters from her throughout the years and it's such a pretty sight when I come across them whenever I am at my parents trying to sort out stuff.

Letter writing brought me and my dad closer during my medical school years as cell phones weren't the norm then and it was pretty difficult to get some time alone on the phone without others at the dorm waiting impatiently for me to hang up.I still remember on one occasion while I was home for holidays with my parents, my dad actually boasted about my wonderful hand writing (ehm..ehm...) and letter writing skills to all the guests who'd come for a visit that night!

It's so sad how we have resorted to e-mails in our daily lives now.
Letter writing is sometimes frowned upon as being an inefficient mode of communication these days.It many ways it might be but there is nothing like the personal touch one gets by writing/recieving a letter or a card.

And to write a letter with a delicious fountain pen....nothing like it!I've rediscovered letter writing and try to write to a few dear friends of mine whenever I can now....it's lovely to write them and I carry a beautiful old Mont Blanc which my dad gave me ages ago(which was in turn given to him by someone else!)just for that.In some ways I don't have the urgency to check my e-mails frantically everyday as I used to anymore and I kinda like that feeling.....

Itinerary of a summer vacation....

-Have a picturesque landing at the airport and have a bunch of people clap their hands after a 10 hour flight!

-Get picked up at the airport by 2 guys with almost identical Bally bags and a cute girl, on their way to work!

-Get introduced to the family of friends and have them take you around for sightseeing while the said friends go off to work on the same day.

-Learn to take the public transport at the new locality.....and boy, you'll learn what an efficient system they have!

-Soak in the sunny weather....which went up as high as 35 degrees at times!(aarrghhh!after the scorching experience in India this should be nothing!)

-Read a book or write your journal by a lake.....and people watch!

-Get hit on by white guys who think the local girls are way too snooty and bollywood dancing cool....ehm ehhm.

-Have salad for lunch.

-.....more salad for dinner!

-Water the plants in the garden of your host.....in between snooze on their garden sundeck of course!

-Eat CHEESE!Yummy!

-Eat even more salad!

-Go out with friends of your friends.....getting to know new people is always fun!

-Oh, yeah.....take your friend's godchildren to the park and play with them and have the little one go tirelessly over and over their slide which has an exceedingly tedious and dangerous set of steps leading up.

-Drive by the countryside and take in all that breathtaking view...ahhh one could get heady just by that!

-Have a romantic dinner nearby a pier and watch all the rich and ?famous parade themselves...some of them quite bizzare!!!(Wow it must be sooo cool to arrive at a dinner on a speed boat which a lot of people do!)

-Watch wild swans gliding gracefully everywhere there is a patch of water.

-Freeze your butt on a mountain and get swollen fingers,nose and ears!

-See how cheese is made.....and any other milk products for that matter and how hard the cows have to work for it.....literally stuffing themselves on green grass halfway up the mountain!

-Get your tourguide to stop along the countryside for a little run and spin on the grassfields ala 'sound of music'....(must make sure the background is scenic and get your tourguide to take a few snaps as well (as proof that you've been there and done that!)

-Eat more salad...(this time with stinky cheesy which actually tastes yummy and maybe some dates as well.....mmmmm!)

-Have Shoreley everyday!

-Climb up and down Brunner Investment's 4th floor almost every other day.....and make sure one still looks pretty and presentable after 4 flights of steps before ringing the doorbell.

-Get drenched in the rain....and freeze your butt a little.

-Look longingly at the ferriswheel everyday but never get on it till the very end!

-Walk the whole stretch of Bahnhoffstrasse and window shop and try desperately to curb your spending habits.

-Never try to read anything in English....you won't find 'English' anywhere anyway!

-Walk the streets in the evening and enjoy every minute of it!

-Check out cool watchshoppes.

-Be a lucky mascot for your friend on a shopping expedition where he gets not one but two designer suits his size just because you wanted a brownie!!

-Go swim in the fresh and clear waters of a lake which apparently has drinkable water quality! and eat veal sausages with Rossti....yummy!

-Get tickets to an awesome Rolling Stones concert with a spectacular airshow prior to that....oh also have guys over 6 feet block any view of the Stones and have 60 thousand people from all over Switzerland gather at a muddy airstrip for the show.

-Lapsit!!!!!

-Eat all you want as much as you want at a national day brunch at your new locality, in a barnhouse!

-Go to the Victorinox factory......and not buy a victorinox cause you already have tooo many thanks to daddy!

-Visit an old, cold and wet bunker and have a wonderful guide take you around....and almost get locked in at the 'watchout' point!

-Make yourself sick on a windy road up a hill so that you can have yummy, witch's seasoned chicken which you eat with your bare hands and have the witch cackle away in the background.....and get even more sick by having people around you puff away on their ciggies.

-Smell the wonderful sweet taste of chocolates from the chocolate factory everytime you passby on a bus!Yummmmmm..

-Get a cuckoo bird....or a clock.....or both rolled into one!

-Serenade yourselves at an open air classical concert in the park in the evening....Beautiful!

-Play a strategic cardboard game with a bunch of foreigners who are sweet enough to guide you along the way....even though they know you are gonna be the obvious loser in the end!And you better be gracious about it!

-Visit one of the oldest libraries in the world.

-Visit an ancient cloister and get to experience an actual mass with haunting but beautiful choir in the background as well.

-Eat Movenpick or Ben&Jerry's ice cream almost every other day!

-Eat salad.....yes more salad with your salad loving friend who makes good salad dressing!

-Cry all the way home to Asia.....and have an Italian who can't speak any English sit next to you on the return flight.

Cuckoo clock!

I recently bought a cuckoo clock...a swiss hand made one, really cute and adorable looking with a cute little cuckoo which pops in and out!.....never thought i'd ever actually get a cuckoo clock but hey....i have one now!

warm,fuzzy feeling!

I always fancied myself on being quite a thrifty shopper.....i am kidding!!!I waste all my hard earned money on shoes,bags and lingeries!Well, lately i haven't been splurging as much as i used to once upon a time anyways.But once in a while it is absolutely lovely to indulge oneself even if one has to overcome some feelings of guilt to appreciate the warm fuzzy flush feeling i tend to associate myself with when i am feeling all nice!I felt that recently when i got myself a Furla wallet which i have absolutely fallen in love with for it's simplicity and it's fine finish....yummy!

Wonderful Zurich

Well, what can i say...i've become a lazy blogger and never could seem to update my blog as frequently as i'd used to.But i just luuuuurve the 'Picasa' features where one could create a collage of sorts with pictures.So i shall just let my pictures do the talking this time round ....once again!And to all the wonderful people who found the time to be around for me....thank you!

sexy docs!

muahaha....eat your hearts out guys!!!

Worst kind of mom!

Today was one of those days that left me sooooo hopping mad and wanting to wring somebody's neck or just punch someone really hard (hmm...actually the person who instigated all this could have very well been at the recieving end if it wasn't for some supreme restrain effort on my part!)!!!

This mom brought in her child claiming the child had practically every illness under the sun and insisted that I admit her.Well, to be fair the child did look sickly and emaciated but I knew something was just not right from the moment the mom opened her mouth.The child funnily also looked very comfortable being examined (unlike most kids her age!) and was already anticipating what I was about to do, ie) oral examination, general physicals and systemic examination, as if she has performed the same old routine a hundred times.

It wasn't long before I suspected Munchausen By Proxy.

(Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome (MBPS), or Factitious Disorder by Proxy, as it's listed in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fourth Edition, Text Revision, also known as DSM-IV-TR).

This relatively uncommon condition involves the exaggeration or fabrication of illnesses or symptoms by a primary caretaker. One of the most harmful forms of child abuse, Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome was named after Baron von Munchausen, an eighteenth-century German dignitary known for telling outlandish stories.

What Is Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome?
In MBPS, an individual - usually a mother - deliberately makes another person (most often his or her own child) sick or convinces others that the person is sick. The parent or caregiver misleads others into thinking that the child has medical problems by lying and reporting fictitious episodes. He or she may exaggerate, fabricate, or induce symptoms. As a result, doctors usually order tests, try different types of medications, and may even hospitalize the child or perform surgery to determine the cause.

Typically, the perpetrator feels satisfied when he or she has the attention and sympathy of doctors, nurses, and others who come into contact with him or her and the child.

Because the parent or caregiver appears to be so caring and attentive, often no one suspects any wrongdoing. A perplexing aspect of the syndrome is the ability of the parent or caregiver to fool and manipulate doctors. It's not unusual for medical personnel to overlook the possibility of Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome because it goes against the belief that a parent or caregiver would never deliberately hurt his or her child.

Well, I hope I did not overlook the possibility.

Must read article of the month...FP

I had to search high and low for the magazine but worth a read!!Thanks Johhny!

Whirlwind of a month!

June/July 2006

Ode

Ode
by John Keats.

Bards of Passion and of Mirth,
Ye have left your souls on earth!
Have ye souls in heaven too,
Double lived in regions new?
Yes, and those of heaven commune
With the spheres of sun and moon;
With the noise of fountains wound'rous,
And the parle of voices thund'rous;
With the whisper of heaven's trees
And one another, in soft ease

Seated on Elysian lawns
Brows'd by none but Dian's fawns;
Underneath large blue-bells tented,
Where the daisies are rose-scented,
And the rose herself has got
Perfume which on earth is not;
Where the nightingale doth sing
Not a senseless, tranced thing,
But divine melodious truth;
Philosophic numbers smooth;
Tales and golden histories
Of heaven and its mysteries.

Thus ye live on high, and then
On the earth ye live again;
And the souls ye left behind you
Teach us, here, the way to find you,
Where your other souls are joying,
Never slumber'd, never cloying.
Here, your earth-born souls still speak
To mortals, of their little week;
Of their sorrows and delights;
Of their passions and their spites;
Of their glory and their shame;
What doth strengthen and what maim.
Thus ye teach us, every day,
Wisdom, though fled far away.

Bards of Passion and of Mirth,
Ye have left your souls on earth!
Ye have souls in heaven too,
Double-lived in regions new!

(in memory of Shaun Vikas Bhullar)

'Hantaran'

Damn....how does one pack all the stuff above and get them to India uncrushed??!!!Arrrgghhhh!But they look sooooooooooooo pretty!Colour theme:maroon,gold and silver.....such 'indian' colours though!Hahaha...

'Hantaran':exchange of gifts between the bride and the groom in traditional Malay weddings made up mostly of edibles with maybe a Quran, the 'Mehr', and a tapak sirih (betel leaves).But clothes,accessories,jewelleries and other adornmnets make up most of the 'hantarans' these days as decorative pieces 'dressed up'as eye candy for visitors of both sides of the family to ogle at.

Yummy!

The best thing about going to a Malay wedding is the food you get served after the nikkah.I especially love the pineapple,onion and red chillie (yummy-er, when extra spicy!)salad.....It's so unique really and the flavours-the sweetness of pineapple, with the crunch factor of the onions and the spicy chillies together make it sooo addictive and delectable.Last night i decided to binge on some and i did!The pineapples are fast becoming my most favourite fruit of the season.....i'm drooling again....