Re: Thanks for the invite

Dear team

Haha this emailing reminds me of 'The Bitch' club - we were 3 trainee girls sharing the same room in Istanbul- Luciana, Mishu and myself. We used to share about our 'girly' concerns ie men, weight, clothes etc

Today will only join u Angie about 8.00pm? Roughly where'll u be then? Think I want to leave my car either in office or at SPK.

Sarah - yes it was a very profound message from the novel. What novel is this? Looks like the reading habit is catching on for you:) Yes I agree that true friends accept each other as they are - as they say love is patient and kind - so is friendship which is a kind of love....and so I think of my 2 ex-roomates from Istanbul - girlfriends who are now somewhere in the UK and Romania- I wish them well and know that they're somewhere in this world.

And I also thank God for my 2 current friends who are near me and sharing my life with me at the moment...Where would women be without other women to support each other?

Pondering life's mysteries....

Fiona

Thoughts...

Who believes in the power of thoughts? Many people advocate that what you think is the most important thing there ever was. I came across this principle again in the book "The Science of Growing Rich" by D. Wallace Wattles. It goes;

"There is a thinking stuff from which all things are made, and which in its original state, permeates, penetrates and fills the interspaces of the universe.

A thought, in this substance, produces the thing that is imaged by the thought.

Man can form things in his thought, and by impressing his thought upon formless substance, can cause the thing he thinks about to be created"

Lately I have been permeated by many negative thoughts and I've been pretty depressed lately - also for the past few months also I've also seen the results of these negative thoughts. It's power is pretty destructive and my mistake was that I underestimated it's lethality.

If that is the case, then I am armed and ready to destroy these crocodiles of the mind. Shouldn't we all?

I leave you with my favourite cliche on thought which goes like this:

"Watch Your Thoughts; They Become Your Words

Watch Your Words; They Become Your Actions

Watch Your Actions; They Become Your Habits

Watch Your Habits; They Become Your Character

Watch Your Character; It Becomes Your Destiny"

Fraser's Hill Trip

Though Fraser's seemed pretty boring but here I take the liberty of writing down the 'minutes' of the last 2 days meeting.

OK, so there's nothing much to do at Fraser's but we seemed to entertain ourselves pretty well ...see below

Saturday

Mid-afternoon : Picnic @ Allan's Water

-armed with our picnic basket of eggs, taboule, sandwhich bread, tomato, cucumber, cheese spread, grapes, pepsi twist and apple juice, we sat by Allan's water under a nice 'pondok' and discussed about history, culture, politics. In between, we were entertained by a 'national' boatrace by the locals which only costs RM6.00 per 15 minute for the participants - free for us though - how entertaining - I was vouching for the most outstanding participant which I name "Tudung In The Wind".

Evening : Season 3 of '24' @ Silverpark Apartments

- then we finished 3 episodes (or was it 4) of '24' in our home-made cinema at block B7-6-1. Pretty good achievement huh?

Late evening: Dinner @ Ye Olde Smokehouse

- yes, wonderful English "hospitality" shown by the staff of the olde smokehouse. I like the ambience of the place -our sour-pussed host fits the description for being the most 'english' thing in the Smokehouse- snobby, bland, blockheaded maitre-d.

I liked the Crepe Suzette and Kidney Steak pie though.

Later evening: Stargazing@ Brinchang Bungalow

- the moon was new and the sky was clear. What a better night than to watch the stars at Fraser's Hill. Brings back memories of my days in Frasers holiday with my cousins when I was in my teens. I managed to witness 2 shooting stars! Philippe saw 1 and then the stargazing ended when the owner of the bungalow came back and wondered why there is a Kenari parked outside. He must have thought he was seeing some stars too

Side events for Saturday - the lock in our door which only wants to be opened by the Silverpark Mat Motor.

Sunday

Morning : Elite Modelling Phone Call

- This was the highlight of my morning here in Frasers. I got a phone call by a Sex-Party Recruiter purportedly representing a firm "Elite Modelling and Event Management" based in Singapore who claimed to be doing a 5-10 minute survey looking for models for a high class party aka orgy. I don't know if I'm interested but I can recommend a few girls though....Philippe wonders why they never call him.

Late Morning: Final Episode of '24' over breakfast@ Silverpark

- this is the best! What's the best breakfast but to eat it over an episode of '24'. Agent Jack Bauer chopping his partner -Chase's hand while we eat Tuna Sandwhich and yesterday's taboule? Ooh la la.

Afternoon :Trek on Rompin Trail

- Romping on the Rompin - a 200meter trail which ended in some ugly squatter apartment. The walks to and from the trail along the Fraser's road was nice though - I managed to get a few specimens for my pressed-flower collection. We even saw a black and white monkey peeing in a tree.

Evening: Devonshire Tea and Cream

- yes, once again we subjected ourselves to the "english" way of entertaining your guests - which includes not giving them enough tea and explaining to your guests that the reason why you cannot have more is because 'The pot is Big Enough For Two'. The weather was typically English though - gray and wet. Though I must say the scones were excellent with strawberry preserves, butter and cream.

Late Evening: Jerai Waterfalls

- Walking to the waterfalls playing word games is quite pleasant - pretty butterflies fluttering here and there amidst the gushing of the Jerai river, the occasional Japanese birdwatchers with their super-large telescopic cameras.....

-Philippe was attacked in the right eye by a bug at the Jerai Waterfalls. Fortunately his eye killed it via suffocation. Complication was, the dead bug refused to be removed and insisted on staying in the eye rather than be eaten by the numerous and various birds of Fraser's hill.

-The Frasers Hill country club is approximately 5 km off the roads of Fraser's aka 'in-the-middle-of nowhere' -it closes at 4.30pm which explains why everyone is dying to get in. The guy at the pro-shop is quite friendly too. He let us know that price for green fees are RM73.50" on weekdays and "RM94.50" on weekends and best of all, allows us to use the toilets which we badly needed to (me to pee and for Philippe to extract the dead bug from his eye)

Evening: Journey Home

- Here's a tip - don't use the normal roads going home unless you like to sit in the car in the traffic jam. If you're heading back to KL, use the NorthSouth Highway from Tanjung Malim -saves you 30 minutes travelling time at least.

The Bibliosopher

Bibliophobe I'm not!

Recently Chiam's email made me realize that I've read more books than I ever had since I could remember. Thanks to my innate goal to read 2 books a month, it's surprising what your mind motivates you to do whether consciously or sub-consciously. I've also to thank the people that motivated me to want to read in the first place, mainly my uncle Vincent (since I was small, he never fails to buy me books ), then Terence who got me more, Florence (my sister whom I sometimes borrow her books without asking), my initial book club members - Pooi Ling, Ju Lin, the fictionandfriends book club people(though I've been guilty of not attending the past 2 meetings) - Chiam and Monisha for the discourse.

So here's my book list for the year 2005

Books Read So Far (Up till June 2005)
1. The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
2. Northern Lights - Phillip Pullman
3. Subtle Knife - Phillip Pullman
4. Amber Spyglass - Phillip Pullman
5. The Two Sisters - Tagore
6. The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency - Alexander McCall Smith
7. Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azhar Nafisi
8. He's Just Not That Into You -Greg Behrendt & Liz Tuccillo
9. The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster
10. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

Now reading:
The Piano Teacher - Elfriede Jelinek
Harmony Silk Factory - Tash Aw

According to the National Literacy Survey conducted in 1996, the average Malaysian reads only 2 books a year -this was an improvement compared to 1982's survey which reported a mere 2 pages a year on average -shocking!

No wonder books sales are bad -I was in the Rent-A-Book shop in Central Market last week. I offered to sell some of my books to the shop-owner since I had my bulk of 'already-read-books'. He said "Sorry ma'am, even the books I have now are slow-moving and I have too many already. Business is not so good" Now you know why there are discounts all the time at bookstores and why there are bookstores like Pay Less Books etc.

I wonder why people don't read. Someone said to me "I don't like to read because I don't do anything" - 'Don't DO anything?' - He continues " I'll only read when there is really nothing else to do"

So I ask myself why do I read?

I read because I like to read - because I like to curl up on a couch under the ceiling fan with my book and munch on chips while following a story in my head.
I read to support the book business - because I like the arrangement of the books in MPH and Kinokuniya and how nice and new the books look on the shelf and later on in my bag.
I read because I gain words - because I like to listen to the author's voice and their play with language
I read because I gain knowledge - I hear opinions and learn new things about people, life, myself.

Hence, I read because I like to read!