Tuesday, June 27, 2006

From 20 to 40

My hair is low maintenance. It's straight and shoulder length. I only have 3 styles for work: half ponytail, full ponytail, or all up in a bun with no hair styling products whatsoever. This takes 1 minute.

My skin care routine is a basic 3-step: cleanse, tone and moisturize. This takes another 2 minutes.

My make-up is also hassle free. I apply liquid foundation on my face, dab loose powder all over, blusher on both cheeks, lip gloss and I'm done. This takes 3 minutes.

Before I go to bed every night, I mentally pick out what I intend to wear to work the next day. This saves me a whole lot of time as I don't have to rummage through my wardrobe and pluck random items out, which I will then leave strewn all over my bed should I decide not to wear them. So when I open my wardrobe door every morning, I already have an idea on what to wear, plus minus a little bit more of choosing here and there. This takes approximately 10 minutes.

All in all, I get ready for work in under 20 minutes.

However, in the last week, I noticed that I've been taking longer than usual.

My hair requires more time now because I wash them every nite, and when I settle down to watch the TV, I end up flattening my wet hair propping my head up against pillows. It literally gives me a bad hair day already. Instead of my usual tie-and-go routine which takes approximately a minute, I now require about 5-10 minutes fixing my hair.

I forget to think of wardrobe selection before falling asleep, and in the mornings, end up sitting in my underwear facing the wardrobe for a good 15-20 minutes before I can decide on what I want to wear.

My eyebags are horrendous these days. They are bulgingly huge and really dark. And because of this, I require a longer time trying to conceal my dark rings using make-up products. Instead of my usual 3 minutes, I now require approximately 10 minutes as well.

Therefore, I now end up using a good 40 minutes to get ready for work, double the time I require on a normal day.

Complaining? No. Who's complaining? I'm just letting you know. If I'm late for work, you'll know that my morning routine now require a bit more extra time because I really do want to look presentable for work and impress my clients.

Oh, but don't worry. I promise all will resume to normal after 9 July. Oh, 10 July I mean because the final game is at 2am.

Did I just say that out loud?

Posted by Doreen at 7:01 pm

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

How to Make Money?

I know I've not been updating.

Tee hee hee.

Right after Klose scored the second goal for Germany in the game against Ecuador last night, I texted the boyfriend...

Did you say eat ball? How many DID Germany give?

Germany give 1 ball.

Ecuador needs 2 goals for you to win money! You're nuts! HAHA.

OK lah, I think I'm going to lose it now...

HAHAHAHA. I really think you should consult me before placing your bets in future. Not for my expertise, also for pure common sense. You lack that. All you know is the scientific assessment of betting trends and what not!

I mean, seriously, Germany is only giving 1 ball, and you eat ball? How lah to make money? Tsk tsk.

Must get pointers from Sixthseal already like that!

Posted by Doreen at 3:11 pm

Monday, June 12, 2006

Football Mode: ON

I retreated to my usual spot for a smoke - the toilet with the lid down. The boyfriend has been very iffy about smoking in the room when the airconditioner is running.

"Gets the unit dirty very fast," he said.

I squinted my eyes as it can get quite smoky with the bathroom door closed, and the only ventilation comes from the two half-opened windows in the bathroom.

Halfway through the cigarette, I heard the whistle blow. I opened the bathroom door gently to have a peek at the kick-off.

The boyfriend was seated on the floor, his back towards me, and he was caught up in a little dance. He was oblivious to the rest of the world, eyes glued to the tele with live broadcast all the way from Munich.

His little dance had him shaking his belly while seated on the floor, and his right arm was raised, with the index finger pointing skywards. Kinda like John Travolta in the Saturday Night Fever dance routine. Note that I did say "kinda".

I watched him with much amusement, put out my cigarette and joined him.

Oh yes, the fever is on.

Posted by Doreen at 9:07 am

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Open Mic Gig

Caught up with Reuben, Louisa and E yesterday evening to work on the short film. It was a blast! It took us approximately 5 hours to wrap up and we ended up with about 20 odd minutes of excellent footages. Am confident Reuben and Louisa will do a fab job with post-production.

Except, I don't think I'm supposed to reveal anything here just yet.

Screening will be held during an Open Mic Gig session with details as follows:

When? 24 & 25 June @ 8:30pm
Where? Food Foundry (next to Dram Studio) @ Jalan 17/13, Petaling Jaya

Best part? No cover charge!

So to all you art lovers, head down there to catch some original compositions (poetry, songs, monologues) and short films. Don't worry, we'll finish before the first football game of the night commences.

That's Reuben and E mucking around before we started filming.

At one point, E was snooping around Reuben's room and started checking out the display of trophies on his shelf.

"Who's yohan?" asked E trying to decipher the word "Johan" which was engraved on one of the trophies.

We all burst out laughing. Now THAT has got to be the question of the day.

Oooh, another quote of the day, by E again...

"Where did you learn all your mean-ness?"

"From the mass meania"

Posted by Doreen at 9:53 am

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Freezing My Eggs

I had a sex change over the weekend.

Heh.

On another note, Grandma celebrated her 80th birthday over the weekend. In fact, I think this is the first birthday of hers which I've attended in many, many, MANY years. It's been so long that I can't even remember when the last one was. *guilty as charged*

This is Grandma and me, her eldest grand-daughter.

Grandma babysitted me till I was 2, and she always look back on those days fondly. She used to call me Ah Lan, derived from my Chinese name, Yee Lan. But I hated it so much. It's so... cina. Not that there is anything wrong with being Chinese or having a Chinese name. But I just didn't like the "Lan" part of my name that's all. In written Chinese, it's supposed to be some flower (Urgh!), but in Romanized text, "lan" is always associated with "lan" / "lan jiao" (Hokkein for penis).

So now you see why I don't like the Lan in my name. Anyways, she doesn't call me Ah Lan anymore. It's Doreen these days. But it doesn't come out quite right, and I won't even attempt to spell her pronunciation my name here.

Anyways, I had my initial reservations about attending the dinner, but eventually tagged along since mom came all the way from JB to attend the dinner as well.

Why my reservations?

"Got boyfriend already ah?" asked second aunt. "Aiyoooo! Look at your blouse! Why cut so low? Can see your longkang already!" she squealed and proceeded to yank my blouse upwards to hide my longkang (cleavage).

"Ah yee, you very kolot (old fashioned) lah!"

(Side note: Does my tits look over-exposed in that black top? Refer to picture above)

"When do I get to drink tea?" asked third aunt.

"Huh? Drink tea? I thought we are heading for dinner soon, why still want to yum cha?"

"Not young anymore lah, when are you getting married? You know, ah yee got married at 27!", said youngest aunt.

"Oh, but that was the last generation ma! Plus, I'm not 27 yet! Still got time lah!"

"But you DO have a boyfriend already right?" asked third aunt. "Got picture or not? Show us lah!"

"Yes I do, but I don't have pictures now cos I thought I was attending Grandma's birthday dinner, so I didn't bother lugging my photo albums around".

"Wah, this year we have 40 persons attending grandma's birthday party! Next year we will need an extra table because some of you might be bringing your girlfriends and boyfriends along, right Doreen?" said third uncle.

"Oh, see how first lah! Don't worry, I'll RSVP in time should I be bringing anyone".

"Why never bring boyfriend and let grandma see?" she asked.

"No yet lah poh poh..." I said meekly. (Must not piss the matriarch off on her birthday).

There were a few others as well, and I counted a total of 9 such comments throughout the entire evening. Yes, questions and comments reminding me that I have come of age, and it would be wise that I get married soon.

I didn't want to take it too far by informing them that should I not get married before I hit the big three-oh, I will make my way to a fertility clinic to have my eggs extracted and freezed.

Oh well.

Posted by Doreen at 6:29 pm

Friday, June 02, 2006

The Pencil

In a recent email communication, dad was teaching us girlies about mistakes, that to err is human, but most importantly, to learn from each and every mistake. At the end of his email, he left us with a little snippet which I feel, is really powerful. It says it all really.

Here goes...

The pencil maker told his pencils 5 important lessons:

* Everything you do will leave a mark
* You can always correct your mistakes
* What is important is what is inside you
* In life, you will undergo painful sharpening which will only make you a better pencil
* To be the best pencil, you must allow yourself to be guided by the hand that holds you

The fact that the importance of realising one's own mistakes and learning from it, is illustrated using a pencil. Yes, something as small and insignificant as a pencil. Well, it left a strong impact on me.

Thanks Dad!

Posted by Doreen at 5:19 pm

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Cemerlang, Gemilang dan Terbilang!

While chatting to my housemate recently, I told her that I'm proud to be a Malaysian and think that being on home land is the best. She's from Mauritius, and currently studying to be a nutritionist at a private collge here.

We shared the same sentiments.

Prior to going abroad to further my studies, I have always thought that the grass is definitely greener on the other side. I bitched incessantly about how this country stinks, how screwed up and corrupt our system is. However, upon returning to Malaysia after spending a couple of years in Australia, I came home with a different perception.

I am proud to be a Malaysian. I am proud that people of all races can live peacefully under a committed and responsible government. I am proud that all of us speak more than one language, two at the very least. I am proud that I am lucky to have friends from different races and yet, we all share a common muhibbah spirit. I am fortunate to be living in a country which is free from civil unrest. I am thankful that eventhough the country is governed by Muslims, the rakyat is given freedom of religion and cultural practices.

At the very secluded corner in the very back of my mind, hidden and concealed, is however, thoughts about how unfair things can sometimes get - for the Chinese, Indians and lain lain. But I try to not think about it too much. Why harp on all these bad and negative things when I can channel my energy to focus on the good of the country and the goodness of being a Malaysian? It will definitely do me more good. Right?

Then, I read something like this.

Dearest Deputy, I sure hope you're fucking with us. Discrimination I hear you say?

Wait, I'm Chinese. I speak Mandarin and other Chinese dialects, but cannot read and write. And I don't find that recruitment ads indicating that those who are proficient in Chinese have an advantange is discrimination to me. I just regret not giving my all during those Mandarin classes my mom sent me to.

But really, how many of these "Knowledge of Mandarin preffered" type of ads do we see? A handful? And these companies probably require their employees to liaise with Chinese customers, or that they are required to process Chinese documents, or maybe it's a Chinese radio/tv station, or a Chinese recording label?

Heck, don't come talk to me about discrimination.

Discrimination is when we have to tick a race on forms when applying for loans. Discrimination is when we hear of Chinese / Indian / lain lain scoring 13 A1s and having their university application rejected to do a desired course, but ended up being allocated for programmes like Fishery. Discrimination is when one can be born abroad, live most of his life abroad, and yet return to Malaysia and have access to Bumiputera privileges, compared to some who are born and bred here, and served Malaysia all their lives.

Please let me stress at the fact that I'm not anti any particular race. I'm just puzzled that's all. How can you not when you read an article like the above? Where our leaders speak before they process their thoughts?

I am 25, and damn proud to be a Malaysian. I've got a good 30 years to contribute to the country, and I hope to do just that.

Don't take that away from me? Please?