I'm sexy and I know it

No, that title isn't necessarily a reflection of what I think of myself. It's just one of those nonsensical songs being played on radio these days (by a band called LMFAO), which latches parasitically onto recurring thought bubbles and go around your head in circles all day. Also, my sister has fits of giggles when she recalls the video, which is my opinion is just scandalous (too outrageous, that I refuse to post the video on my blog!). But on a different level of contemplation, it is good to see men getting out there and balancing out the playing field, which is currently dominated by women. Go EQUALITY!

Other other day, a high profile guy in the company retired. He must have been in his late fifties, very competent at his job, drove a freakingly expensive car, wealthy (in case the car didn't speak for itself) and a recent divorcee. In his leaving speech, he said didn't have any specific plans to start working right away. Instead, he said he is "going back to thongs" (in his own words), to live in his villa by the beach in Indonesia. Sounded to me like he got tired of all the complexities and sophistications of a metropolitan city and he longed to go back to a simpler life to gather himself.

My ideal retirement plan would be to live by the beach. I'm extremely happy when I'm by the sea; my ears filled with the sound of waves and my eyes filled with the views of the sea. That's when the thoughts in my head are the loudest. I can go for the occassional swim or dive to check out the marine life (and hopefully not be decapitated by a shark or stung by a ray). If I can retire before I become feeble and senile, I'd love to write.

Dreaming is a good past time!

Classics are CLASSICS!

I might have been about 13-14 years old when I got my first desktop computer. Although I wasn't the first kid in the class to own one, it was a great deal back in the day to own a computer! It was a very entertaining addition, one which my mother had to control with strict timings as we children tend to get carried away and forget homework and chores. My dad was thoughtful enough to send an array of useful CDs and movies from abroad to be enjoyed. Two Encarta CDs, Disney's Tarzan and Hercules game CDs, Roald Dahl's Matilda the movie and Lion King the movie were the ones which were used and overused! Tarzan was the first game I finished completely (with a little help) and it was no easy feat, so the feeling of achievement still lingers. The Encarta encyclopedia CDs were perfect for curious children, wanting to find information quickly and with little effort (and with enhanced mom-free privacy features too!).

I distinctly remember a day I was checking out classical music instruments in one of the encyclopedia CDs. It even included small sound clips to complement the write ups. So I found the piece below tied to the sound of a French Horn and fell in love with it. Madly too, and managed to learn to play about 20 seconds of something which sounded like it in my violin. Today, I was listening to my super-mashed-up playlist on  iTunes, when I came across this same piece (that was very kindly ripped for me by a classical-music-loving-heavymetal-headbanger), which I was obsessive about a decade back so it has been a very emotional day. I can feel the obsession setting in once again and the urge to bring down the dusty violin from up the cupboard!



Also, I have the Tin Tin movie to look forward to in November. It looks F-RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME in the trailer!!! The best part of 2011 is just starting!

WORK, I'm ready for ya! Bring it on.

Another weekend

Thursdays at work are exciting. We now have an "end of the week incentive". We are allowed to leave any hour early, in return for cutting short our lunch break by half hour. Fair enough.

It is not surprising to get persistent calls from banks trying to give away "free credit cards". But today, I had another interesting call.

Ring Ring...
Shu: Hello?
X: Hai
Shu: Yes hello? Who is this?
X: Hai
Shu: May I know what this is regarding?
X: Friendship
Shu: No thanks, I'm not interested. (hangs up. $^&*@@@.)

This caller has been saved as "Asshole 3" in my contacts. Just so I remember not to pick up any calls.

I've spotted a rather skinny (and possibly pregnant) cat in the office car park several times. So now, believe it or not, I carry two tins of cat food in my bag, waiting for the day I spot her again. Uh-oh Shu, you're turning into one of those old ladies who feed strays!

I sit next to one of the network printers. In a day, many people come and go past my desk as they collect their printouts. One man (heavy user), however, seems to think I am the sole guardian of this printer. Whenever the printer runs out of paper, he ask me "No paper?". And I think loudly,  "Does it look like I have a stash of paper hidden away especially for you, moron??". Also, in the many months I have sat there, not once have I seen this man walk a few extra metres to get a few extra packs of paper, for the convenience of others. I've been tempted ask him several times, "Why don't you go down and get some extra paper, for a change?". But I've kept my mouth shut, fearing repercussions.

Rihanna is slowly growing on me...



On a positive note, I've moved to the Town of Digby in Mousehunt to catch the Digby Dirt Dwellers and I have not been disappointed! So many new types of mice!

In Retrospect

I got home today, to find a guest. She's here to stay with us until she gets back on her feet with a job and a new life. It was nice to meet her after many years. Our lives and families have been inter-twined in the strangest of ways for about two decades! It was good catching up and listening to her, she's naturally talented at relating stories in hilarious ways.

Admittedly, I have developed an aversion to Facebook. Usually, I am able to tolerate the high levels of narcissicism and exaggerated optimism and joy depicted by the collective community of Facebook. But not now.

Out of boredom, I took up reading my old blog. Some of the posts surprised me in a good way. It was mostly interesting to read back on my thoughts and see how some attitudes have changed, and yet how others have not changed one bit. 

I am subtly aware that highs and lows are what makes up Life.

Been a long time

This song is dedicated to Shu's best-bud-from-school. Welcome D, and I can't think of a proper reason why it took this long! Btw, Lady Gaga (without all the fancy/freaky make-up) reminds me of you. Her vocals in this song are AMAZING. And of course full points for the creativity that went into making the video.

Enjoy!

Shu goes a Salsa-ing

This day has to be logged for future records.

In an attempt to bring a cheer to my otherwise dull life, I decided to take either an aerobics or a dance class. Actually, it was more to get a little physically active so I don't drop dead next month while 'hiking in the Himalayas'. Nowadays, climbing a small staircase at work makes me pant, gasp for breath and curse my lungs. I haven't been this determined to find something in the recent decades, but I spent many hours calling places, google-ing places, looking at advertisements, asking around, reading sites, etc. Until finally, I found the most cost-effective and convenient class, very close to my block.

There's a mad dancer inside me, trapped and waiting to break free from my social-phobia and physical inhibitions. I just hope it decides to come out before I die or become bed-ridden, in other words, not too late. Hip Hop classes, which I have been dying to take since forever were at a timeslot that I could not make. The only choice left was a Salsa class. I have never been a big fan of it, mostly because of the high heels and ass-hugging mini-dresses worn by female Salsa dancers. Just for a month, I thought, I'll take what I can.

This guy's a charm in the Lion King movie! Took me many years to know that "Hakuna matata" was a real phrase very often used in Kenya.

So today, I set out for the first class. Luckily, we were asked to wear track pants and socks (and not heels and minis)! There were just two other girls and the instructor, who looked old enough to be my little brother and who looked remotely related to Timon in Lion King (Oh that reminds me, there's gonna be a remake of Lion King in 3D soon. Woohoo! Think I know almost all the dialogues and scenes by heart!). We learnt the first three basic steps of Salsa, taking turns to partner with different people of both genders. It was very awkward; one's supposed to stare right in the face of the partner to gain confidence and avoid looking at one's feet. Comes to mind a game we used to play as kids. We'd stare at each other's faces and see who cracks with laughter first. Usually, I was first or second to burst out laughing, so needless to say, it was hard. The steps were simple enough, but rapid changing of the steps to music proved challenging.

There's talk of changing the timeslot of this class to one I can't participate next time. So even if this was a one-time experience, it was fun and mostly, it was a new experience that I gave a shot!

Self-absorbia

Know what people with comfortable lives and plenty of time on their hands do often? They become self-absorbed in their own lives. Then they begin to look around, compare themselves to others and see what they are lacking in their lives. Soon, they begin to feel sorry for themselves. Then they spend their days and nights trying to figure what they could do different, to have the life they dream of.

In the time that their minds are pre-occupied with themselves, it is very easy to forget their beginnings, how some of their actions negatively affect others, the things they've taken for granted, the values that they stood for, small acts they could do to make the lives of others better and the needs of loved ones around them.

Ever so often, someone or something knocks me off my orbit in this self-absorbed universe (kudos to friends who do that!).

The Mentalist

I blog while I try to resist the urge to throw up some cheese macaroni I had. But let's rewind for a bit.

The day turned out okay. I managed to do a 15-minute workout in the gym this morning and burn 41 calories (no kidding! Anyway, calories are overated nowadays). It helps now that I have a sophisticated mp3 player. Usually I'd take my phone upstairs and use it like a player during workouts. But complicated as it was, it involved touching my phone too often with sweaty hands and probably depositing on it tonnes of germs left behind by other users of the gym machines. So now, it helps that the mp3 player plays on it's own, with minimal touching. I do have to sort the playlists though as it is a messy goo of songs now. Now, Mozart plays next to Adam Lambert plays next to Amaradeva (an old classical singer in my country that few people my age listen to!) plays next to Kill Switch plays next to Nicky Minaj.

The macaroni! So yeah, I had a huge craving for cheese macaroni and went on to make a pack of San Remo quick cooking macaroni. It said 3 servings, but really that's worse than a cheap marketing trick! It is seriously only one generous serving. Maybe I put in too much milk or it got cold too fast, I lost the enthusiasm after eating 3/4ths of it. Aaand that's how the first line of this blog came about.

I'm hooked on Mentalist , a TV series I scavenged from a generous pile of DVDs given away by a kind soul in office. Actually I snatched all of season 1 AND 2 as I was one of the first few lucky people (flies) to come across this pile of freebies (dung). Early birds get the juicy worms, they say. I finished season 1 and now I have all of season 2 to go! Got to love the main character, Patrick Jane. He has a knack for observing people and evidence and deducing what most detectives miss out during criminal investigations. It marries two of my favourites together - criminal cases and psychology - into a very entertaining series.

For anyone who's curious, here is a little dose of Patrick Jane!

Happy (would-have-been) 65th Birthday, Freddie Mercury! And Google, I must say, I'm impressed with the "doodles" you come up with.

The catsitter diaries

We have a guest in the house! Cindy the cat will be staying with us for a couple of days as her family is on a holiday.

Hardly any space on the table with something as big as this! There's a book for size comparison.

She is all things adorable! Although fat and overfed, this purring-machine is well-trained too (well, she peed on one of my clothes, but I'll let that one go). And those eyes... man, it can melt any sucker (like me) from a mile away. The only downside to this arrangement is that every inch of the house is covered with flyaway fur.

My additional responsibilities with this new arrival have been cleaning litter, feeding, showering her with attention and trying to prevent the nephew from torturing it.

The boy has become quite the bully, finding new ways to hurt Cindy each time. Prodding her with sticks, dropping objects on her, driving over her like she were a road hump, gagging her and following her everywhere. No amount of harsh words or punishment seem to make him stop. It might be jealousy or just an opportunity to get some extra attention.

A soft road hump for the tormentor's bicycle in the background

Either way, I'm further convinced pets are much better investments of one's time and energy than human children.