At first it was Facebook (and to a certain extent, it still is!), then we were sooo busy with getting the home squared away for our annual sojourn to Klang, after that it was Klang (with NO broadband access...) and now, it's home WITH NO BROADBAND ACCESS!!

I'm doing this from "the other workplace"; in between waiting for "work" to appear.

We went to Klang and had our first real extended holiday in ages. David played big brother to Theo and for the very first time, got angry because Theo wouldn't finish his food.

"Theo, you must finish your food!", said he.

I'm so proud of him.


Right after that, all 14 of us (yes, FOURTEEN) packed our bags and flew AA to the "Pearl of the Orient" where we stayed at the Berjaya Georgetown.

180 degrees view from the room

I finally climbed the Cornwallis lighthouse and got my longed after 360 view of Penang Island.



And, here's us on Gurney Drive. We just had to do the tourist thing at least once...

David, D'lorna, Graeme, Orlnda & Me

I nearly forgot Christmas.

We had a good time this year. It wasn't as longwinded as the years before. It got crowded due to the rain but it panned out well in the end.

Theo & David, Christmas Morning Service

Tata (grandpa), David and Amachi (Grandma)

David tearing away at his prezzies from Alveen & Lynn.

Blame Facebook for me not blogging.

That THING is addictive. Before you know it, you'll have Facebook Addicts Support Groups eg. "Hi, my name is Andee and I'm a facebookaholic" (cheering, clapping)

Anyhoo...

It's been raining silly over the past week.

Every single day would bring torrents of tropical rain water pouring down on this part of God's green earth. It didn't help that i've been inundated with projects and activities - either self inflicted or boss inflicted.

I thank God a lot-a lot for giving me the strength to carry out all these acts of madness responsibilities without pulling out my hair. The best part of it is that they were all successful (Andee has a tired but contented look on his face).

We celebrated Linda's birthday on Sunday at Hasifah & Bahtiar's because they wanted it to be a surprise.

It has been a while since we all got together. Twas a good excuse. Linda was surprised and touched. David was happy to blow out the candles for Mama.

Here's a nice photo of a rare non-raining evening.
Have a lovely week wherever you are and Rachael Yeo; Happy Birthday. You're 21. Now you have to take responsibility for your odd moments of silliness. i had to learn it the hard way...

It's the 2nd Evening of Self Expression for UNIMAS's Centre For Language Studies. Dr. Soubakeavathi Rethinasamy the Dean will unfortunately, not be in attendance. However, Puan Rosnah Mustafa the Deputy Dean and Puan Farah Hanini Abdul Rahman, The Head of Language Courses Coordinator will take her place.

It will be a wonderful, enjoyable and memorable evening of storytelling & drama.

We begin with the Briefing by Patrick Yeoh the Course Coordinator.



Our Panel of Wise People Who Will Decide Who Wins


Lim Swee Wee telling his story entitled "His Story"


Group 9's play, "The Orphans". Very touching...


Group 12 presented an ethereal, sub-conscious play entitled "Sarah". It was sad, yet filled with hope at the end...


This group presented "Just Another Girl", an adaptation of a story of the same name, written by Cecelia Ong. Cecelia published a collection of short stories entitled "Death of a Longhouse & Other Stories from Sarawak". Linda directed a play some months back entitled "Death of a Longhouse".

The story of the "Unfaithful Husband" brings humour to the audience.

I'm at UNIMAS. It's the Evening of Self-Expression for the course i'm teaching - PBI 1062 English for Self-Expression. We had 600 students taking ESE this semester and whittling down the presentations to fit into 2 nights was a painful task. Patrick Yeoh - the course coordinator & founder-had the 'privilege' of wielding the axe. Thankfully, the long Hari Raya holiday helped; a number of groups could not perform because they did not have enough people. Shame.

The show's about to start and i'm doing the lights.


The first item on was a story entitled My Story. It was good.


Then, we had a hilarious nugget entitled The Diamond Ring


Soon after, we had this bit of action which no one seemed to understand...


Lazy Gadong is a story of what happens when you're lazy and looking for an easy buck!

We're buying our first home; not a house or a property but, a home. It took us 4 days to go from discovery to signing the S & P (Sales & Purchase) Agreement.

WHAT??? SO FAST???? YOU GOT THINK FIRST OR NOT OR JUST LANTAK ONLY????? (translation from Kuching speak: That was quick. Have you given any thought to the seriousness of purchasing a property and the financial consequences which comes with it? note: lantak=knock or rush into).

FYI, we have been thinking (and dreaming!) of getting a place of our own. The only problem was that the properties we liked were either (1) too close to busy roads (2) situated in (over)developed areas or (3) too darn expensive. So, we gave up looking. I had come to a point where i said to God,"I give up!"

Last Thursday, i volunteered to give Linda a ride down to work. She, of course, appreciated it very much. Traffic was nonexistent - it was the tail-end of Hari Raya (Aidilfitri/Eidl Fit'r/Eid Mubarak) and lots of folks must have taken the opportunity to NOT go to work (your's truly included!). I stopped for a lovely bowl of Beef noodles at Green Hill Corner (ah! the memories for some of you...). Lying on an adjacent chair at the table was a copy of the day's Borneo Post. Habits die hard, i read the papers while waiting for my grub - matter of fact, i read the papers while sucking down my grub! A small real estate ad caught my attention - it was simple and of the non-flashy variety - yet i had this urge to see it. Did it mention that it was only 5 minutes away from where i work???

So, drive i did, and wow... it blew me away.

The house checked all the boxes in Linda's list of "What Our Home Should Be" and most of mine - sadly, it left the "Pet elephant in backyard" box unchecked (sob!).
It's a single level semi-detached house sitting on 13.5 points of land. It's got the adjoining house on one side and a small hill on the other.

Lovely.

Linda's 100% low interest rated Federal Government Housing Loan will take care of the payments ( Ah, the perks of working for the G - it's pretty much the only decent perk left!). We just have to deal with the accompanying fees.

What a week it has been. We're on our way to becoming home-owners and being saddled with a RM219,000 debt. We love it.

Oh, it started raining heavily this morning and the smell of clean, ionised air was just heavenly. How was your day?