Lunch with Becky and Cho

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Occasionally, I get reminded of how old I am, when I suddenly recall out of the blue, things that happened a few years back.

And one recent recollection was lunch time at KA Centre (Kampong Ampat rox!), at the quaint little cafe located on the 1st floor.

Yes, my dear Renotokilians, it's the one that always make us wait an awful long time for our food after the change over in management :(

Anyway if I'm not wrong, the cafe is no longer there.

So one day for lunch, Becky, Cho and I went over to have our lunch. It was some full set thing so dessert was served later after the meal.

I was having the time of my life at that exact moment, happily eating my cake. I forgot which cake was it but it has alot of cream on it.

How do I recall?

Because halfway through the cake, there was a suspicious-looking fly behaving weirdly.

I mean, the fly was flying weirdly.

It was like some drunkard driving, you know? I've happened to witness some drunkards driving before and it was really like that.

And then it flew straight. Into. My. Cake.

I could recall my eyes opened abit wider as I lifted up my fork in mid-air, wondering if I should attempt to rescue it before it drowns in the cream, or just abandon everything together.

When in doubt, ask for advice.

So I said aloud to Becky and Cho, "Eh, there's a fly in my cake."

Before I could continue further to explain what happened, Cho immediately raised up his arm and the guy walked over to see what was it that we wanted.

"There's a fly in her cake!" He said in this accusing tone that I felt bad for the guy.

"Um, never mind lah. It flew into my cake. I mean, I SAW it fly and land in the cake."

The waiter was abit unsure of what the heck I wanted since it technically wasn't the shop's mistake. I think from the point of view of insurance companies, they term it as 'Act of God' or something along the lines of that.

For compensation, I got a replacement of a brownie with a generous scoop of chocolate ice-cream. Ain't life great?

Anyway, the image that stayed fresh in my mind wasn't how the fly landed into my food. It was Cho's very quick reaction to call the waiter before I even had time to say anything else!!

CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 11:10 pm

The way to quit smoking

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Now if you think I'm going to dispense some surefire way to quit smoking then you are at the wrong place.

Even if there was a surefire way, you wouldn't be hearing it from me.

Unless you will even possibly consider my idea of taking 1 month's annual leave and asking someone to tie you up to a chair and staying that way. Now that is one sure way to quit smoking. Your mind would be so preoccupied with thinking about food or going to the toilet that you would not even have time to think of smoking, much less WANT to smoke.

So.. yea.. I wanted to share with you this method that our Qi Gong masters shared with us.

To further clarify, it's called Ren Dian Xue (人电学）， or RDX for short.

Queueing up to collect my RDX Graduation Pass. Dun play play!

To those who have my mother on their Facebook friend list, you would have noticed my mother happily uploading videos and photos from our RDX lessons and their subsequent trip to Genting Highlands (WITHOUT ME :< )

The lessons were interesting, though I have to admit the first few nights I actually fell asleep in class until I drooled all over my own cheek. Fatigue is one thing that RDX cannot cure no matter how long you meditate.

SO.. before I digress further...

There was a short presentation about how to get someone to quit smoking. Or rather, HELP someone quit smoking.

First of all, it involves a smoker (duh!).

Second, this smoker must sincerely REALLY want to quit.

Third, get the smoker to smoke a stick. Once he (not that I mean to be sexist but it's the truth that most smokers are guys although I believe the difference is shortening) lights a stick and has taken a few puffs, you take the cigarette from him...

And inhale. With your mouth, such that the disgusting pollutants do not enter your lungs.

I think hamsters will probably do this best because they have such expandable cheek pouch to store food.

Then when you exhale out the smoke, make sure to exhale out at the mouthpiece of the cigarette.

Repeat above 2 more times before returning the same stick to the smoker.

They will realise that the taste suck (now then they know???) and thereafter quit smoking.

OH SO THEY SAY LAH.

So guess what. That night, I happily went home to try it out on Des and myself, as an experimental guinea pig (pun unintended).

I'm not sure if the above works only for people who has practiced RDX, or if non-RDX practitioners are able to do the same.

Well, right now all I can say is smoking is not as easy as it looks.

When I took the cigarette from Des, it was dry. As in, when I put it to my lips, it was totally dry. Not even stained with saliva.

I'm sure among the many ill-effects of smoking, 'dry lips' is probably one of them.

I then puffed. Very unsuccessfully. Do you know how freaking difficult it was? Why wasn't there any warning in class!?!?

Despite the fact that I was using my 'cheek' to store the smoke as I inhaled, fact is smoking involves burning = fire = smoke.

The smoke bothered me to no end as I very painfully controlled myself from throwing my head backwards and giving up. It went up my nose and burned my nostrils with its offensive smell, and it went into my eyes as well and made them tear.

Worst of all, it was three.. frigging.. puffs.

Yes, I had to do it thrice... and on top of all that.. had to make sure that when I exhaled, I was exhaling accurately at the 'end' of the cigarette where the smoker put his lips to.

Now if a guy peeing was as difficult as aiming to exhale at the head of a cigarette, then yea, I think I now understand why guys cannot pee properly.

Having done my intended job, I quickly handed the offensive stick back to Des and waited to see his reaction.

He took a long drag.

I waited in great anticipation.

Nothing.

"How? Got any difference?" I asked.

"No leh." He confessed. You see, the thing about Des is that he is always brutally honest.

He thought for a few seconds and then replied me thoughtfully. "The only difference is that you wasted 3 puffs of my cigarette."

You cannot blame me for rolling my eyes at this.

I then decided to do what our Marketing Research tutors and lecturers have always warned against: I used a super biased form of questioning to mislead the interviewee.

"Don't you feel like it tastes more disgusting?" I probed.

He shook his head and then continued puffing on the stick.

I gave up and walked back to my room while cursing over the failed attempt.

I whipped my head about in delight as he suddenly added "Actually, ya. It tastes more disgusting."

Wondering whether it was because the method really worked? Or was it because by the time I puffed and returned his death sticks to him, it was already horribly drenched by my saliva?

No one can tell.. but I was immensely disgusted when my guinea pig then decided to make up for that one 'spoilt' stick by smoking another TWO!

CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 12:09 am

Update Update!

Monday, October 19, 2009

Been crazy the past few months. So many things happened. Can I do a numbered update instead because I'm quite tired of racking my brains to figure out a way to link it up.

1) I know most of you are wondering why but today I'm not working because I'm claiming my off-in-lieu today. Worked a full day, on a public holiday, for the 1st time in my life. I am SO glad nothing screwed up during the event. A really heartfelt thank-you to the people who helped out. THANK YOU.

2) I've graduated from my Qi Gong class *wriggles eyebrow*. Not Novice, not Intermediate, but Expert level, mind you.

3) Got to learn that Ah Dai passed away. For the 95% of you who don't know him, he's the Great Dane who's always hanging out at Petsmart. I can't recall the name but it's something 'Mart'. It's the one with the dog swimming pool located at Lorong Halus.

Apparently Ah Dai's only the tender age of 4 but his presence is definitely much bigger than that. In fact, as big as he is. Bet he'd be sorely missed, batman ears and all :(

4) Popiah has successfully spoilt something. I thought I was a pretty good owner and all because I was able to stop her from chewing stuff at home via providing her with countless chew toys. I am SO wrong. Just as I was watching Gossip Girl on my laptop (courtesy of Weishan), the sound suddenly stopped and I instantly linked it up to the bunny who had been behaving suspiciously under the table where the wires are.

I do not think she'd be biting another wire for a long time. When I actually crawled under the table and found the wire that she bit through (it was just one chomp, the wire wasn't totally bitten through), there were actually sparks flying out of it. Needless to say, some of the voltage must have hit her as well (does that explain why her bunny fur is all entangled up cos of the electrical shock it gave her?).

Whatever it is, point noted that bunnies and wires do not match. I've bought a leash to tie her up to the bed / door knob / whatever furniture away from cables, so that she won't be able to do anything funny to wires anywhere ever again.

5) I forgot to mention bout not-too-recently I got a bicycle :) Those foldable kind but it's really neat! Best of all, Chubby LOVES it! Well, at least, he loves sitting in the basket and enjoying the wind while I cycle. Most entertaining to watch him enjoying the wind with his eyes semi-closed while I huff and puff trying to cycle uphill.

CiiN Sniffed Her Pillow At 12:14 pm