Chi-Wa-Wa

So I was playing catching up with my niece and nephews some one week back. We were discussing the boys trip to Hokaido – yes, HOKAIDO as in JAPAN! Jealous much but yeah *shrugs* - and what gifts they have to get me upon returning. If you remember correctly, they are 10yo and 7yo respectively.

Me: "Boys, I heard you guys are going to Hokaido, huh? Do you know where it is?"

Patrick the oldest one replied, "Of cos! It's JAPAN, dude!"

I rolled my eyes and said, "O-K, Mr. Smarty Pants. Are you looking forward to it, then?"

Pat: "No lah. I don't know what's there. Last time we went to Tokyo, it was bo-ring. So much walking to do." (Tour, that's why)

The youngest boy, Shawn chipped in, "YEAhh. So boring."

{Tokyo? Boring? I think adrienz will keel over and die now. Sorry adrienz J}

Me: "Right. But unlike you two, many of us do not get to travel as much they get to, you know. You should feel blessed."

Silent ensued. I guess they do not know what to say until I broke the silence, "Anyway, so what are you boys getting me from HO-KA-I-DO!"

Pat whimpered, "Urghh… I don't know. Fish?"

Me: "Ha, ha! Ok I want Hello Kitty."

Shawn laughed and said, "You like HELLO KITTY?" But it's for girls!"

Hahaha… we all laughed.

Me: "Ok, maybe a Chihuahua. "

"CHIHUAHUA?" Pat looked at me puzzled and wrinkled up his nose.

"Yeah, what is chi-wa-wa?" asked Shawn.

"Oh I know! It's some monkey flower. Monkey monster flower!" Pat said eagerly.

"No, no! It's chicken flower flower!" chipped in the unusually quiet niece, Janice.

I couldn't help but laughed out loud. Pat and Shawn were lost.

"I think she meant CHI being the chicken and HUA-HUA being the FLOWER in Mandarin."

The boys burst out laughing till tears came out. As for me, I was trying to imagine a Chicken with flowers all over.

Who wants to be a "Millionaire"?

When was the last time you've played Monopoly? Yesterday? Last week? A decade ago? Ok I am not surprised at all if it was a decade ago.

For me, it was at least 3 - 4 years ago. Then, I was playing the good old fashion Monopoly (boardgame) and if I remember it correctly, it was a Taiwan or Hong Kong version that comes with "monopoly monies". Fully laminated. No, they did not have a limited edition for that, it's just that my good friend, C, laminated all her monopoly monies simply because she is quite anal retentive. In a good way. Seriously cos at that time of our discovery, we were quite quite pleased with what she did cos the "monies" didn't stink nor crumpled up like salted vegetables. There were plenty of editions out there ie Harry Potter, The Simpsons, Hong Kong, Malaysia, to name just a few.

Yesterday, however, I've discovered a brand new (to my knowledge-lah) Monopoly known as the "The Here & Now Edition" (UK edition) that uses "Electronic Banking Machine and Bank Card".



Yes. You've read it. Each player will be given a "Bank Card that has a value of 15,000mil pound." 15,000 friggin' million a much higher stake and of cos, with that value given, the property prices is in the range of 1mil to 3mil pound. There is also an "Eletronic Banking Machine" that automatically reloads your money or um, unload them when you made a purchase.





How cool is that right? Or, am I err, so darn outdated with boardgames that this is nothing new? Sigh.



Anyways, if you're wondering if I actually made a purchase of the said boardgame, I did not. My 8 yo nephew owns it. The kids these days deal with more "eletronic gadgets" than their aunties and uncles. Including me. Oh and just so you know, he gets to chat on MSN, too.

The 9th day of November

Love doesn't make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile. Franklin P. Jones

Lift, Cut & Talk?

I was flipping the pages of the latest issue of Men's Health (Malaysian issue with Datuk err, Bernard Chandran on the cover) & stopped momentarily to read an article on, well, health.

"Hey! Is THAT the new phone?" my nephew whom was nearby asked me.

I looked on the opposite side of the page and laughed. "That's not a ....". I stopped cos the older fella (his brother) quickly came over and peeped on the page and said, "Cooool!".

I was a little baffled but before I could correct them, the little fella went on to say this, "Yeah. I think Puan Fatimah has one of these. It plays music wan."

I laughed out really loud this time rather fascinated by their imagination.

"Hey wait a minute. That is NOT a phone! It's a WASHING MACHINE!"

"WHAT?" I said that way too loud cos I was more amused now.

"OK. Tell me. Where do you put the clothes & wash them?" I asked.

"Errr.......WAIT. I KNOW what those are!!" the older one fell back into the couch and laughed out really loud now.

"YEAH! Puan Fatimah used it before. It was cool wan," the little fella added and boy, was he convinced that that was a mobile phone or what?

I was, of cos, laughing my heads off.

"So does your teacher, Puan Fatimah, used it to erm," I lifted my armpit, "shave it here?"

We all laughed out so hard I think my sister think we were nuts.

That, however, totally made my day. And, err, of cos, coming home to a hot guy cleaning the house :)

And, if you are wondering, this is the "Phone / Washing Machine" they were talking about.

In Pursuit of Happiness

Met up a friend who was back in KL for CNY recently.

Me: So. How was your CNY?

F: It was borrrring. Eat, eat and eat.

Another friend asked me the same question...

*Cough* It was fun! *Cough*

Seriously, IT was. Even though I am still coughing and losing sleep from coughing. It was quite fun. I enjoy hanging out with my family members especially if I've got ALL of them together in the same house. For the record, I am the youngest of 7 kids. Haha...Yes, my mom did it all that is why all of us very 'sayang' her. She's the bomb although she whines and whines and whines almost all the time - when we were very young to becoming a rebellious teen to when we started working, she whines. It is every mother's requirement to do that to their kids regardless if she/he is good or bad. They whine.

So, back to my mom. Yeah, she was whining again on the 2nd day of CNY. Not on the 1st day cos she said it is bad karma. So. She did it on the 2nd day. Not to us. To the maid. I feel for her, seriously. For the maid-lah. I mean, how many human beings can take a constant whining from a lady about something that she did not do or missed out over and over and OVER. Like, a broken record? I can't. I told her this when she said,

I told her to do work, she showed me black face.

But, ma. She memang got black face what. If it was me, I will show you black-er face lah. Ur so whiny!

She was speechless.

I wanna thank her, btw, and my bro, for letting me win over at Mahjong earlier. I've never played a game that costs RM1.00 per point before. I really enjoyed it albeit having only 4 hrs of sleep the night before and sitting there for 6 hours or so. (Whoa. I gambled more than I sleep. But that was the last time I gambled). An, in between games, she started asking me the inevitable question (damn, I KNEW it was a trap).

So. When are you getting married? You're turning like, 31 soon?

You see. My ma likes to add one year more to everyone's age even if she has been corrected cos she always thinks she's right. We've gotta let her (to be right), too, lest she will play the broken record over and over.

Married? Who is getting married? I wanna win 4D!

You buy? (Her favorite subject).

Phew. I managed to evade that but I had practiced it before showing up at home prior to CNY that I would say this:

Nobody gets married these days! Look at Brad Pitt and Britney Spears. It's the century of divorce!

Thank God I did not do that. It's so fucking LAME.

Anyways, I saw a friend online earlier and asked him the same question I asked my friend (see above).

His reply was, "Eat, sleep, eat, sleep...So fat now. And I've been missing gym."

Darn. I must be the ONLY one who is Chinese and hasn't been eating a lot during CNY. I should start tomorrow with Dim Sum when Ad is back. Still, I need to hit the gym now.