Happy birthday to me

It's not easy growing up. I am a year older an hour ago (Msia time). It dawned on me lately that I am not a nice person, actually. My propensity to tolerate things around me, against me seemed to diminish as I get into the three-ooh region, when it should be the other way around. People usually tend to become more calmer as they grow older. But not me. I used to being able to hide emotions and expressions as easily as I breath. Nowadays anger seemed to flare easily, I dont seem to be able to control my inner self anymore. I hope this is just a phase.

When I feel i am right, please don't question me

Is it really not ok to be nice to anybody these days? Just don't understand why an act of sincere action to somebody needs to be argued and questioned by somebody else.

After half an hour

Half an hour later I came round his door. It was locked. Then someone said

"He's not there yet", It was him.

hehe.. tak sangka lak orang tua nih can make jokes. He was walking towards me, smiling.

We talked a bit on him going away. The family is going camping in France. He didn sound too keen but he said because the kids (his uns are still young) like it. I mistakenly said that they live in the 'woods' (when I actually meant the countryside) and why they need to go all the way to France to camp. He replied that it's different because it's in France and a chance to eat French dishes. He ALSO mentioned his wife's name in passing "Anne" saying somthing to the effect that this is a preliminary holiday to butter up the wife. They're going to Greece in August next. Hmmm... sharing personal info. now is he ...good.. good this is even better than I thought.

Infact the meeting went well although it was just 20 mins but I was satisfied indeed since he wanted to read my reports (yesterday he said that he didnt have time to read them). Said if he has time, I'm to meet him again this afternoon. I hope the reports would not be too 'crap' for his standard!

He (BB1) sent me off

The appointment was scheduled at 11:00am. 3 mins after, I knocked on the door, was asked to be seated while he was still at the computer. I sat down. Arranged my stuff (folders, papers, keys, pens etc) on the floor . Waited...2mins. Forgot something, and ran back to the room to get folder (only 2 mins). Sat down again. He was on the  phone, infront of the computer, still. After 3 mins, he turned around and said
 
"Can we delay this for another half hour?" the time was 10 mins after 11.
 
" I have to fill up a form for a grant ."
 
" Sure" , picking up folders, papers, keys, pens etc from the floor, got up and walk to the door- silently berating him. I felt sooooo very unimportant. And he didnt even say sorry!!!!
 
But now, while writing this, looking at the time we have wasted, perhaps both of us were at fault - at 5 mins each.
 
     

Prof P & his Wing-walk

One of the honorary lecturer in the department is tempting the odds by doing the wing-walk.

The email that he wrote to inform us (the dept email list) today was aptly entitled 'Biplane, theoretical & practical'

"Having recently been a co-author of a paper on biplanes in the
mathematical sense (as used by Peter Cameron), I now turn my attention
to an aviational biplane."

Prof P has been a retiree for many years now but you can still see him lurking in his office talkin (i.e. thinking aloud) to himself. He's not senile just animated. Far from short and dorky, he is tall, astute and look extremely fit for a man his age. One of the not many 'unboring' souls in the department. Today a simple question I asked when I met him at the corridor was


"Have you had lunch?"

The answer I got was a full desription of his lunch ordeal which includes some theatrical action and some sound effect! Wish there are more staff like him around this department.

I wasnt sure what this wing-walk is about. But after 'googlin' on the subject, err..it is certainly not for the faint hearted. Despite its name, you don't do any walk after all, instead the you'd be strapped while standing on a plane that will fly you up up and away into the sky.




Last year he was scaling walls of buildings feat somewhere near london and now this wing-walk thingie. Whataver will he do next.

1-0

And so the Greeks have won. Prior, religious leaders in Greece openly declared that they're praying to God asking HIM to grant them victory. I bet non-religious Greeks also prayed for the win tonight. Last week, sent a text message to Nikos in Germany to congratulate him on the win over Czech. He replied (at 3am) that 3000 Greeks were still celebrating on the streets of Munich. I can't imagine how they are going to celebrate tonight. The Greeks here (on-campus) seemed to celebrate it prematurely by setting firecrackers even before the end of the game. Now, I can hear them chanting away and a car hooting like mad outside. Hmmm.. I'm hearing Takis singing from his office down the corridor...now that is scary.

Idzni and the windscreen

Called Along. The family was in the car in Shah Alam. Yet again, I called at the most misappropriate time. Quoting Apai, "Angah ni selalu call wrong timing". Idzni knocked his head onto the front screen window of the car. I dunno whose gene does my nephew takes from but believe it or not, the window actually smashed (not sure to what extent) but his head was intact, not a scratch. Apparently, hearing impaired children have got this tantrum that is beyond control sometimes. Abg Ayin was handling the phone and was giving me details on how it happened.

"Dia jump-jump sampai pecah cermin"

"Kenapa tak duduk kat seat belakang?"

"Dia tak nak"

"Next time Ayin cakap ngan dia, Idzni I love you, let's sit at the back"

"Tapi dia tak boleh dengar"

Hmmm..he does have a point there.

"Kalau Ayin cakap, nanti dia paham sikit2 sebab dia boleh nampak mulut Ayin gerak, ok?"

"Ok."

A hand at poetry

Current tenant had a small 'kenduri' yesterday. Attended by 5. Bought her a small solid dark wood potpurri bowl (they first thot that it was a bowl for rojak petis..the one you see where the makcik mix em at the pasar malam 8p).


Was thinking of buying a card as well but later settled in writing her a poem instead.
This is certainly not original...some paragraphs were plagiarised unashamedly from the internet. Took me a good half hour to find a 'stress' word that rhymes with 'kitchen'. Thesaurus on-line..what a bless! I imagine some people can just breeze into lines of sentences that rhyme in one breath..like Fatty in Enid Blyton's 'Five-Find Outers and Dog'. Salute!


Happy Birthday
---------------
Mak **, we've known you for a fairly short time
From what I know, I’ll try to put into rhyme.

Away from the kids must be terribly hard on you
But I’m sure they appreciate what you’re striving to do
We'll give to Mak ** - now that is a shift,
For she is the one who gives us the gift
Of her generous spirit and talent immense,
Her giggle, nonchalance attitude and lack of pretence.

We know when you are clearly desolate
Cause that is the time when Pavarotti hollered from our kitchenette
Sunday boot fairs are your favourite junket
That is evidence from our burgeoning closet
We treasure your cooking and your "up" attitude
All in all, you're a really cool dude.

Roses are red. Violets are blue
Mak ** is having a birthday. Is it true she is only 42? hehe..

Semoga dirahmati Allah sentiasa.