FUYOH!!!

FU-YOH!!!!!!!!!!!
Some of u may not know the word! Its more of an expression or rather an exclamation that is almost equivalent to WOW!!! I can't pinpoint the origin , its either Chinese or Malaysian. To be on the safe side i think we will say its a Malaysian thing! Fu-yoh! i have heard that word many a time from my kids, esp no.2!!! I hear her saying that a lot , and even in MSN i see her using that word! She is abroad now in a land of cold winters with beautiful snow! ( Tho i think its spring now.... hmmmm, should be nice!) OK i am being side-tracked. Back to Fu-yoh, she uses that word whenever i tell her what we had for dinner.... bakuteh (fuyoh!) .... char siew pau( Fuyoh!) ... wantan mee (FUYOH!) ... yeah the Fu-yoh's get louder as the food climbs up the list of her fave food!
But recently one Telco ad is using that word for their promotions! And i am a bit disappointed with the usage and intonation. If u have seen the latest ad on Tv , they use that as a password to enter some cool happening spot .... but the fu-yoh is so toned down, and lack intonation that it no longer means the WOW it should mean. Ok i know its a whispered password but still cant they whisper it in style too!??? Its like saying a wow with a :( face! For me that's ridiculous. So hey if u want to use that word , make it real ...like FUUUU-YOOOOH!!!! Like that la!!!
On the plus side, i went into their website and OK lah, they did the Fuyoh justice there :) and made the Fuyoh what it should be!
Happy Fu-yoh-ing :)
E -yoh!

I love them all from the 30's to the NOW!

I just love music of all genres. And right now i am listening to 2 of my fave songs for the month. They are as different as day and night cuz one is still at the top of the charts and the other is as old as my parents. Its amazing how a song can bring u back to good old memories decades ago. Each and every song has its own memories ~ it reminds us of the times when we were sad, or our first dance party, or even the silly performances we did in school. There are some songs that remind me of a particular friend, songs that we cried to when we were melodramatic teenagers and songs we sang too in unison even tho it was not always in the perfect pitch! ( Simon cowell would have cringed and died!)
I grew up with music all around me as my parents love all kinds of songs. So it should not come as a surprise that when i heard the American idol of 2005 ( Carrie Underwood) sing this really old western swing song at the 2007 Grammys awards, i fell in love with it all over again. I must admit it didn't appeal to me back then when i heard my parents playing that song . I must have been only 6 or 7!! But now...it could be my line dance influence but i just cant get that tune out of my head. Its called San Antonio Rose and i can bet my last dollar that no one knows it!!! I have my dad to thank for that, i know songs that are dated way back in the 1930s and i am proud of that! Here is a short sample of that song IF u are interested to know what makes me go hum hum .....
http://www.last.fm/music/Patsy+Cline/_/San+Antonio+Rose
and if u have the time, go watch Carrie Underwood and listen to her version!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrW0RNWimOk

And my dad is one who doesn't stop enjoying music either! At the ripe old age of 75 he is still asking us what's that nice song playing on Hitz FM !! I appreciate a wide variety of songs because of him. Heck if i can sing songs that were recorded 30 years before i was born, that has to be amazing! And thanks to my kids too who are keeping me up to date with the new ones.
Before i end this post, in case u are wondering what's the other song i like this month..... it's simply called LISTEN by Beyonce'..... :)
E-yonce' HAHAHAHA

Busy busy ... being a kaypoh

Sunset at Tanah Lot


Phew.. I've been real busy at work.. No, unfortunately, business is not booming but I am busy - busy googling for places of interest to visit in Bali! Come Thursday I will be there with 5 people, each with different likes and dislikes.

Sigh ... what a heavy responsibility. It's no joke being the organizer... if can be avoided, avoid it. Never ever volunteer to be one. It's a tiresome and thankless job. Most of the time people don't appreciate what you do, they just grumble and complain when things go wrong. Trust me I know. With this group, it has become an accepted fact that organizing, be it for dinners, trips etc, is my job! My job konon! Everybody automatically assumes that I will do it so through the years, if I were a bit slow in sending out emails for our annual CNY dinner, they will ask each other, how come she hasn't sent out invites yet? Finally someone will email me to ask and at the same time cc that mail to everybody. Then others will add to the comments and cc to the rest. So of course, I have no choice but to set a date for the dinner. In other words, I have to organize la. Every year at the event, I will tell them the same thing - "this will be my last time organizing!!" but obviously nobody listens or pretend not to. So the cycle goes on and viola, lo and behold, I am organizer for another year !

This time round, I am the designated organizer to Bali. Thank God, only 6 of us are going. What is the hotel going to be like? Booking on-line you have no way to judge, in terms of cleanliness & service, unless you are paying through your nose which I decided not to. They can afford to, I can't. I can only sembayang kuat kuat that the reviews by previous guests are honest, and believe me the reviews for this hotel, Febri's Hotel & Spa, are pretty good. Hee hee... I have decided not to bill them for the hotel until we get there. If the hotel is as good as it reads, I am jolly well going to jack up the price and bill them as service charge!!

And what are we going to do in Bali? None are into water sports. 4 are smokers, 2 are heavy drinkers, 1 coffee addict etc... One says "I don't want to visit temples." FYI, half of the places of interest to visit in Bali are temples. Did you know, Bali is sometimes known as the island of a thousand temples- locals call them 'Pura'? So, no temples, no water sports, where does that lead us? Oh dear oh dear... I better get back to work and start goggling for 'places of interest to visit in Bali ...'
F

Where is the happy medium?

I was on a blogging spree yesterday and got carried away. It has not been a good week for me so i let my emotions flow too freely. I had 2 topics and posted them one after the other. i left them for an hour or so , then re-read them.... edited some, .... and found them a bit too personal. My No.1 girl was online with me , and i asked for her professional blogger's expertise :) She said " Mum, a bit too touchy, dont u think???" Hahaha, Considering my frame of mind, that was expected lah! So i deleted NOT one , but 2 of my posts!!!! I saved one for a later date when things aren't too touchy cuz i kind of like that topic. It makes me wonder ,.... and i need opinions.
But arent Blogs suppose to be a way of de-stressing, releasing HOT air , grousing and venting !!! If its to be all nice-ties, sweetness and pleasantries, dont u think thats a bit fake??? Our lives arent just UPs.... but i guess thats what personal blogs are for! Not here , .... i dont need my friends to see that ugly side of me !!! Heheheheheh!
Am i too general here??? What to do , la???? I need a happy medium, NOT too personal and NOT too general .... let me look for that Mid-way boundary and get back to Femstuff, ok?
One more day to the end of the week...... make it nice :)
E

Anjing pegi, Babi mali, Suay pegi, Ong mali ...

Haiyah... trust those horoscopes that has all the positive things to say about the luck of the Tigers for 2007!! Since Dec, everyone we meet who knows a thing or two about signs of the zodiac has been telling us, "aiyooo... next year for Tigers very good-lah, very lucky-oh" and we suckers obviously fell for it : or at least I did-la, don't know about the rest of you tigers?

Well, since this is supposedly our lucky year, it goes without saying that we shouldn't let the chance to prosper pass us by !! Some predictions even offered congratulatory messages on our "impending financial gain". We were advised to take full advantage of this good fortune and make hay while the sun shines on lucky Tigers as there will be many opportunities for unexpected windfalls to be granted to us if we grasp them.

I take this "if" to mean that we should indulge in a little gambling now and then, take part in more contests, lucky draws etc... That being the case, since Jan. I have invested in 4-ekors, spent 1 night in the casino on my favorite jackpot games, drank lots of cokes, (until E told me that the contest had ended) bought some lottery tickets etc... but where's my "windfall"? Windfall tak ada, duit terbang ada lah! But I am optimististic ! It is still the first quarter of 2007, we have 9 months to 2008. Anything can happen within the 9 months right?

Meanwhile, I have just taken part in the Star-Imperial Rama contest to win a free lunch for 2 and 1 nite stay at First World Hotel. Hee heee... I have a good feeling about this... Also, comes 25th Mar, I may join the rank to become one of Malaysia's millionaire. Yeh yeh... No I am not taking part in "One in a Million" or "Who wants to be a millionaire". My colleagues and I bought 100 lottery tickets !! We actually took the trouble to buy them from Johore too. Have to invest wisely. Statistics show that most winning tickets do not come from Klang Valley so it would be wise to buy them from outstation. Wish me Tiger Luck... shhh... there's a Buddhist chant which sounds very much like " Omm... money money come... " Seriously no joke. I heard my sister teaching my younger sis.. so ommm money come, money come ....
F

Close encounter of the eerie kind....wooooo...

Aha !.. think I'll watch a scary movie tonite. This started me thinking ... "why the obsession with cerita hantu? When and how did it began? Imagine if this was a movie... Here's when the music will start and you will see me staring into space.... Then you'll get close up scenes of trees / flowers and the words "33 years ago" or something to that effect, appearing on the screen, bringing us to a scene of a young me sitting and dreaming in class - Std 6A , St. Anne's Convent. Obviously 'A' class was the smartest class ... but then again, there were only 2 classes, A & B, so really, it's nothing to be proud of-lah. But please don't go telling everybody!

Ok, ok , I was just being dramatic... but for those who really,really hailed from St. Anne's, you would know that the school was rumoured to be haunted! While the entire grounds of the school was well tended, right behind the canteen there was a patch of thicket where bamboos, weeds and god-knows-what grew. Now this growth is where the haunting allegedly began.

The rumour goes that years ago, a group of brownies (junior Guides) supposedly held a camping holiday in school. One of them was supposed to have been murdered by some maniac who held a pillow to her face and snuffed the life out of her. Why anybody would bring a pillow on a camping trip, I would never understand but then again, our M brings along a pillow on her trips too...hmmm.. So, as the story goes, the killer supposedly threw the murder weapon, ie. the pillow into the bamboo growth. Ever since then, the school was haunted by, of all things, a 'flying pillow'. The school's jagas vouched that this story is true and that on certain nights they will see this pillow flitting about but I, of course, never saw it nor did I want to. Years later, I figured out that perhaps the school jagas made up this story, in an attempt to get us to leave school immediately after classes as some of us tended to stay back for games etc... But then again, why was it that the gardeners neglected to trim this bushy growth which was really an eyesore? cheng.. cheng.. cheng.. cheng... (sang to the tune of 5th of Beethoven ...!!) ... think about it...
F

Label me as OK !!! CUKUP!!!!

I woke up this morning with several interesting topics for our blog!!! For a change i wanted to do something serious but nothing political nor global! That's way too serious for this blog! Then i thought of something personal but then ..... erm... what if i get too personal. So lets make this one about ME! i can get really really personal in here without offending anyone ! Although i am sure as this blog lives on ( IF it does!!) there will come a time when we will start grousing about something or someone. After all we are only human!!! In the mean time we will try to restrain from that :)
So let's see who is the ME here! We all have labels and have been labelled whether we like it or not! We are seen in different ways.... by different people. I may have the image of a good mum in some stranger's eyes but in my children's eyes... who knows??? How about a wife??? Am i a perfect one ...for sure , NOOOOO!!! I will settle for an OK one , after all no one's perfect! Daughter??? Far from perfect too .... if u ask my parents i am sure there are a million and one ways i can improve ! Especially if u ask my dad...from the way i vocalise my thoughts to the way i live my life, he will have a lot to say. ( Oops, am i getting way too personal here?!!) Sorry dad!! Hehehehehe! And then how about me as a friend?? Am i loyal enough? Nice enough? Not too kaypo but show concern when its desired? ( U don't need to answer that , frens!.... Somethings are better left unsaid!) Do i have enough patience as a teacher/instructor.... ??? Yikes i know there are times i feel like screaming when they forget what i taught them ( let's hope none of them read this!!! And we know some of them have blogs online, wink wink!)
To sum it all up , i want to be an OK person in all aspects, I dont need to be perfect so dont expect that of me. It may sound a bit cliche'd but who cares..... Please don't judge me , just walk by my side and be my friend :)
Exiting
E!

hello hellooooooo

Good morning, fem. It's me.....S .... yeah finally yeap finally I am contributing something to our new blog. Hhmm.. new blog, new resolution, new beginning, renew friendship ?? I have read thru' F & E contribution to the new blog. Kudos to E for making the extra effort to create our new blog. Thank you, E... again. This is the 2nd time u created the blog for us. Terima Kasih.. :-)

F, your blog was superbly done - introducing us - the alphabets which represent each of our characteristics and personalities... well done.... way to go inspiring writer and the most genius among us...hehehehe..... Thank you for describing me very nicely put it.. seafood supplier..

Well, as i continue trying to finish my first entry on our new blog...... i see that E n M have been contributing loyally to our blogs with very interesting stories of oohmmmmmm n eeerrriiieee stories... Keep it up, frens.

Hhmm.... E suggested that i should tell the story of my girl a.k.a. S on her performance last two weeks ago which deserve an OSCAR.. yeap that OSCAR.... I will post that story later.

I was forewarn to finish this intro before i get *&^#@# from my other fem...hehehe.... The oscar item will have to wait. :-)

It's S signing offffff....... Phew.... finish liao

Where are the rest ???

What happened to S & M? S is silent and M is keeping mum? They must be really busy? As for me, true to my initial F, I'm forever free... And E is ever-ready, so is it gonna be just you and me, E?

Wei, girls, if we set our minds to it, we can do it. We can make this blog work! Let's try to contribute a post a day, be it long or short. Take a look at the younger bloggers out there, read their blogs and you'll think 'shame on us.' We can't allow those chicos to beat us, can we ? How come they got so much to talk about? Are our lives less interesting? Do we live in a world where nothing happens? Cannot be mah ... E wants to be an aspiring chef.. I want to win a car in the coca cola contest... okay la, no car, RM500.00 pun jadi la. You leh, M ? S?

This morning it rained, or rather, it rained last night and didn't stop till this morning. I guessed I wasn't the only one who loathed waking up this morning for work... Groan... what was worse was that between last night & this morning, I moved from my bed to the couch in the hall and back to my room and then to the couch - all in all, 4 times !! All because Mr. Shaggy must have felt extra cold and kept jumping up to where I was sleeping. Believe me, it's easier for me to move than to get him to move... Well, the moral of this story is, move before you get bitten.. and the connection between the story and this blog... nada, absolutely nothing! But I caught your attention, didnt' I ! So FEMS, keep going ... Kar yau, kar yau...
F

Aspiring Chef ..... ??? Nah, not me !

its a monday night and a boring one, not to mention a hungry one as well. Nope i am not on a hunger strike! I came home and ate a hearty dinner but even though my tummy was satisfied then, my mouth wasnt! Know what i mean??? Greedy la! I longed for something sweet but i held back .... trying to diet lor! Monday nights are usually Sitcoms galore for me so i lay in bed , smiled, giggled and guffawed a bit! Then the cravings came again so i swallowed a Milky bar ! Yummyyyyy! The sitcoms ended and i thought of food again. This time i was thinking that since i have a ton of sotong and crabs in the freezer ( courtesy of S!! TQ TQ TQ my dear fem fren!) i wanted to try cooking some 2morow. Now comes the big question .... how to cook??? I was thinking of that style they have at seafood restaurants except i cant remember if its called kam heong or kong-poh! Helpppppp! So i googled ( that's my fave website when i am lost!) And i think i found the answer...its kam heong i am looking for , the one with dried chillies and dried prawns! So the next task is looking for a recipe BUT it also has to be simple , and all the ingrediets have to be within reach in my kitchen!! Thus u know what i mean when i say i m NOT even an aspiring chef :( haiyah, this weekend looks like we will be having kam heong sotong in a seafood restaurant after all! ......
still hungry and greedy
E!

Between us..

Giggle ... giggle.. read your comments, girls! Memang Auntie F penuh semangat. Despite the huge gap in our age difference, we're not that different afterall, go ask your ma! At our age, I suppose we are supposed to act our age but how are people our age supposed to act? Face forever serious is it? You have seen us in action ...heard us laughed, joked and giggled over the stupidest things, screamed while attempting games on Playstation, oohed and aahed over juicy gossips... etc etc.. Hear this kids, being middle aged is FUN ... but psst ..!! you know what the best part is?..... Nobody scold us because we are supposedly 'grown-ups' and grown-ups should know better! Yeh yeh ... By the way, that's a picture of Doug... met him on-line in one of the chatrooms ... we woofed and we woofed ..

F

F Truth

Hello all ! Our previous blog died a natural death (quick without suffering) and now that E is kind enough to start a new one, the least one can do is contribute. I am F ... which obviously stands for "Favourite' member of the group (ahem!) and as I'm sure you will all agree, fiercest, err.. and then there's Faithful, Funny, Friendly, Fortunate, Freaky ... wow.. the list could go on and on but as E, the English teacher would say, "Enough !! ... dont's be so Egoistic!

E, of course, is the Energetic one. You can tell by her involvements in line-dancing, her workouts in gym, aerobics etc... E is also into Eating. Her eyes literally light up everytime food is mentioned and her famous words .... " One day we go-ah ? "

The others in our blog are S and M. S is the Stressed one, always asking us to hold de-stressing sessions. She also goes for those "ohmmmm" classes and swears that these classes help her unwind and lose weight. (but I say there's an easier way, ... take up Smoking mah!) Ironically, S is also our Seafood supplier.

M is the one with 'most', 'much' and 'many'. (in terms of Material things lah.) Most money, much travelled, many bonds & shares. M also loves to Makan but at the same time, says she needs to go on diet. Macam Mana?

Okay, methinks I did a fairly good job introducing each of the members of this blog. If anyone disagrees, cakap-la. Jangan malu-malu. Sekian terima kasih. Jumpa lagi!
F

A brand new start

2007 the year of the pig brings new beginnings , and a brand new blog! We have new rules about what to say and what not to say in here !!!! But first an intro: We call ourselves FEMS and it stands for the 4 of us!! Each letter is our name and mine is E! Let's hope F , M and S will contribute as well. I will leave it to them to reveal their identities.
I have no idea what topics we will blog about but its going to be about ourselves , what we think , who we like and despise ( hehehehe???? ...huh?? no ah?? cannot ah??? okay lor! ) , our fave food and haunts, our vacations, .... our ups and downs ( so bear with us when we vent and grouse!!) but most of all its about US :) and maybe the humdrum lives we live in!!
oops i just had a little warning message that my connection is down and i may not be able to publish this online! Now that would be the first grouse of this blog..... STREAMYX!!! ARRRGGHHH!!!! I will continue on that in later posts ! grumble grumble grumble.....
Its best i post this while i can .....
Cheers
E