Vague Reveries

About a week ago, Odiri proposed to Kicik and I to join her trip to Bali sometime in early May. I was seriously thinking about this for I am indeed in dire need of a vacation! Then around midnight 2 days ago, my good friend from New York text me asking what do I think if I were to go to visit her there sometime in May and then we’ll come back home to KK together for her to visit her homeland… another vacation proposition! What do I think about it? It’s a great idea, of course! Now which one do I go to, Bali or New York? Remember my post somewhere in June last year about my postponed paid trip to New York? Well, if Alesya text me in the middle of the night, I guess her offer for my paid trip still stands! LOL! Right, Alesya? Hey lady, we’ll have to set a date to chat on this matter so that I can see which trip that will fit my schedule just right.. teehee!

Then maybe along the way, I can see how efficient does the people there takes care of some rv breakdown and take pictures of their rv hehe! For sure I’m going to have one of the greatest vacations in my life there, but hey, gotta take the currency exchange rate into consideration too! Oh oh so very tempting though.. It is better racking my brain thinking about this than stressing out about … well… work? LOL! For what’s it worth, at the moment, New York trip is on top of the list of vacation plans that I have for this year…

Anyway, it just so happen that I’m currently loving the following song since I first listened to Alicia Keys‘ album  “The Element Of Freedom (2009)” . Enjoy the song and bye for now..

Empire State Of Mind - Jay Z ft. Alicia Keys

Yeah

[Verse 1: Jay-Z]
Yea I’m out that Brooklyn, now I’m down in TriBeCa
right next to Deniro, but I’ll be hood forever
I’m the new Sinatra, and… since I made it here
I can make it anywhere, yea, they love me everywhere
I used to cop in Harlem, all of my Dominicano’s
right there up on Broadway, pull me back to that McDonald’s
Took it to my stashbox, 560 State St.
catch me in the kitchen like a Simmons with them Pastry’s
Cruisin’ down 8th St., off white Lexus
drivin’ so slow, but BK is from Texas
Me, I’m out that Bed-Stuy, home of that boy Biggie
now I live on Billboard and I brought my boys with me
Say what’s up to Ty-Ty, still sippin’ mai tai’s
sittin’ courtside, Knicks & Nets give me high five
Nigga I be Spike’d out, I could trip a referee
Tell by my attitude that I’m most definitely from….

[Chorus: Alicia Keys]
New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of
There’s nothin’ you can’t do
Now you’re in New York
These streets will make you feel brand new
Big lights will inspire you
Let’s hear it for New York, New York,
New York

[Verse 2: Jay-Z]
Catch me at the X with OG at a Yankee game
Shit, I made the Yankee hat more famous then a Yankee can
You should know I bleed blue, but I ain’t a Crip though
but I got a gang of niggas walkin’ with my clique though
Welcome to the melting pot, corners where we sellin’ rock
Afrika Bambataa shit, home of the hip-hop
Yellow cab, gypsy cab, dollar cab, holla back
for foreigners it ain’t for, they act like they forgot how to act
8 million stories, out there in it naked
City, it’s a pity, half of y’all won’t make it
Me, I got a plug, Special Ed “I Got It Made”
If Jeezy’s payin’ LeBron, I’m payin’ Dwyane Wade
Three dice cee-lo, three Card Monty
Labor Day Parade, rest in peace Bob Marley
Statue of Liberty, long live the World Trade
Long live the King yo, I’m from the Empire State that’s

[Chorus:]

[Verse 3: Jay-Z]
Lights is blinding, girls need blinders
so they can step out of bounds quick, the sidelines is
lined with casualties, who sip to life casually
then gradually become worse, don’t bite the apple eve
Caught up in the in-crowd, now you’re in style
End of the winter gets cold, en vogue, with your skin out
City of sin, it’s a pity on the wind
Good girls gone bad, the city’s filled with them
Mami took a bus trip, now she got her bust out
Everybody ride her, just like a bus route
Hail Mary to the city, you’re a virgin
And Jesus can’t save you, life starts when the church end
Came here for school, graduated to the high life
Ball players, rap stars, addicted to the limelight
MDMA got you feelin’ like a champion
The city never sleeps, better slip you an Ambien

[Chorus:]

[Bridge: Alicia Keys]
One hand in the air for the big city
Street lights, big dreams, all lookin’ pretty
No place in the world that could compare
Put your lighters in the air
Everybody say “yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah”

[Chorus:]

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It’s the 3rd week of December. Gosh, I’m not done with my Christmas gifts shopping yet.. I should’ve opted for online shopping weeks ago knowing that I’ll be busy with work this way. I could do with some glass tile for the kitchen too. I’ll be spending some time in the kitchen this week, baking! Why? Because I’m planning on joining my friend, Odiri, to be one of the vendors during the upcoming Flea-static Bazaar 2 this Sunday, 20th December 2009. Refer to the poster below for more information.

Calling all shoppers, erm especially.. Chegu Carol - come and visit us!  If I don’t have time to bake and sell my baked goods, I’ll be there helping my friend anyway Here’s the map should you have trouble going there ..

See you there!

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The key word of everything is moderation. If you indulge or deprive yourself from something, it is always not healthy. As for me, I’d say… I can’t be deprived from the luxury of having acceptable speed of internet connection! So here I am, at Odry’s house, testing the speed of my Digi Internet Unlimited Plan on HTC Touch HD. Damn, the connection is real fast! It achieved the broadband speed since the phone’s comes with HSDPA speed up to 7.2 mbps down-link speed. So now I know where to go should I need to be online urgently with a fast connection. Just like Odry said, “murah lagi, nda payah beli minuman mahal-mahal mau online…” haha

Speaking of deprivation, the same goes with weight loss. Anybody who wishes to lose the excess weight, shouldn’t deprived themselves of the food that they love. The more you deprive yourself, the greater the craving would be. A few colleagues keep on asking me how do I get to put on weight and lose it again anytime I want. *Roll eyes* They want to lose weight, yet they just don’t seem to bother to put an effort to exercise. There’s no easy way out, pals! But maybe I should just let them read adipex reviews so that they have another option since they’re just too lazy to do some exercise.

Nevertheless, my injured left knee is now healing, 2 more sessions with the masseuse and I should be fine. Still need to be careful though, but at least, I can play keeper while playing futsal! Yay! Another week to go… I am so looking forward to it!

Ladies, wait for my return….. miss running around in the futsal court with you all….

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As I said in my previous post, I was off to another outstation trip. This time round, the journey started at Keningau to Tenom and with Beaufort being the last stop. Left the HQ office around 9.30 a.m. on the 18th March and arrived in Keningau around noon. Had a quick lunch and stopped by the Keningau Regional office for a while where we found out that the hoohaa about someone was involved in an accident the night before somewhere in Tambunan was a team of staff that was also on outstation duty to Keningau! Was so glad that except for some bruises on the lady that was sitting at the passenger’s seat at the front, everybody were okay!

Anyway we proceeded to Tenom office right after that so that we’d be able to drive back to Keningau to stay for the night. Nothing much interesting to show here except for the clouds that somehow, managed to capture my attention. It’s nothing special that one can put on cardboard displays but it was interesting; to my opinion at least

A view of the sky from the front door of the office in Tenom

It was already starting to get dark when we drove back to Keningau, but at least we managed to do what we came to do in Tenom Rested for a while and got together with the other team and two staff that are based in Keningau for dinner. What a feast! But then again, it’s been a long day, so I guess they were hungry. I said they, because I didn’t eat much anyway hehe ….

Some of the dishes for the dinner feast in Keningau

The following morning, we did our work in Keningau and was done by noon. We took the Tenom-Sipitang road to go to Beaufort. The road and the journey was nice. Saw some creepers plant on the side of the road, would love to take photos of them but unfortunately, I was the driver! Didn’t want to stop just for that either since we were trying to arrive in Beaufort before it started to rain. Luckily we made it in time

The next day, we managed to go to Kuala Penyu for a while for some site visits and this was when I saw a group of birds flying in a nice formation. Of course I managed to take a photo of them since I wasn’t driving anymore Nevertheless, these was the longest drive I ever did for long distance journey. It was fun at first, till I got to Beaufort the night before and my lower back was aching like nobody’s business!

The group of birds decorating the sky in Beaufort with their formation

Had to go back to Beaufort office since we accidentally left our documents there in our rush to get things done Took a different route and this time we saw the aftermath of flood days before our arrival. Photos? None! This was a work-related trip anyway ….. The journey ended at 5 p.m. on the 20th March with me parking the company car at its respective parking at the HQ… and for the next few weeks, I’ll be burying myself with paperwork instead. No more outstation journey in the near time. With this, I bid you all a very good night, it’s already past midnight and I’m dead tired since I worked overtime till 9 p.m. today! Geez, seems like working is all I do lately…

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After 2 days of rushing in Lahad Datu and Tawau, thought that we’d try our luck and changed our flight to the last flight home to KK the next day. Upon arrival at Sandakan, that was exactly what we did! Hence the work done in Sandakan was at a much slower paced much to my delight

That night, we met up with another team from HQ for dinner at Ocean King. The meal which consisted of mainly of seafood was really scrumptious! Juicy lobsters, cheese-scallop and steamed fish just to name a few. Didn’t get to take photos since there were some VIPs dining with us too. Malu ahh.. hehe.. We were so full, and yet it didn’t stop us from visiting a satay place which belongs to my significant other’s cousin after that. You’d think that I could be biased if I say that the satay are good, but my friend, Linda, could verify that it is good Better yet, give it a try should you have the opportunity to be in Sandakan sometime soon!

The satay - you can read more about it in my other blog; SabahanCuisine.com

The day after, we continued with our work and managed to squeeze some time to make a site visit. It was my first time going into a palm oil plantation area, counting out those of along the road to Sandakan/Lahad Datu/Tawau Maybe one cannot make Bamboo shades out of a palm oil tree, but bio-diesel is the thing today! So those with palm oil plantation sure have a future in their investment even though the current market is not very good.

One of the roads that we passed by

We actually managed to get what needed to get done ahead of our schedule, and went to the airport right after the sites visit. Had to wait for 2 hours for our flight back home, but it was not so bad after all. The flight was not as bumpy as the one from Tawau to Sandakan too.

This is the end of the sort of an Amazing Race trip, and next week, I’m off for a 3-days outstation trip to another part of Sabah.

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