A winning entry :)

I stumbled across a website last week called the Receipt Stories and thought it was rather interesting. I can’t really remember where I read about it but I decided to submit two short story entries anyway. Basically in Receipt Stories, you can share any of your short stories, poem or haiku provided that it is not more than 100 words. You can send in as many entries as you want and if you are lucky, you will be picked as one of the winning stories.

To my surprise, I received an email yesterday from receipt stories @ book Xcess congratulating me that one of my entries has been selected as one of the winners in the 7^th round of their short stories campaign. Selected winners will receive a RM20 vouchers (valid until 31st Jan 2011), Pandanus Bookmark and Bookxcess Bookmark Autumn Edition.

And, the best part is - the stories will be printed on the receipts for 14 days from 6th Dec 2010 to 19th Dec 2010! So, if you ever go to buy books at bookXcess on those dates, keep a lookout on the receipts alright J It would look like this..

Yup, that’s my story alright with the title ‘more than words’. It's a bit small to read over here so i suggest you to click on the link below to read more of the story:

http://bookxcessblog.com/

This would be the first time in my life that my work has ever been published! J ‘More than words’ is actually an excerpt of my blog that I wrote back in 2008. If you could go back to the archive in November 2008, the piece is called ‘Contrary niceties’. You can read the rest of the post after the excerpt so you would understand the whole piece.

Personally, I think this is an excellent campaign from BookXcess. Apart from promoting its books and stores, this campaign aims to encourage Malaysians to read and write. You will be surprised of the many entries where people always have something to write and to express themselves.

I’ve always had a dream to publish my work and Receipt Stories definitely give a good kick start of confidence and encouragement. Even though it is just on a receipt, I’m still proud of myself. Maybe I shouldn’t give up on my dream yet ;)

So, do join in the fun either by writing in an entry or reading the posted entries J

Click on:  

http://www.receiptstories.my/

Jailbird

Okay so here goes the story of five friends who made it for dinner on a cool Wednesday night at The Pink Sage in Solaris Dutamas. For a start, everyone was late due to: 1) unbelievably absurd traffic congestion in Ampang 2) one who decided to leave a bit later 3) an extra hour of exercise time to make room for a heavy meal, and 4) work commitment allowing her to leave only at around 2000 hour (note the military style timing). We were supposed to meet at around 8.15 ish but everyone turned up after 9pm J The usual Malaysian timing I guess except for miss #catty1 who is always on time J

After a few minutes hanging at the curb trying to decide where to eat, we decided to head up to The Pink Sage. The pancake was comfortingly awesome. Its beef tacos, spagetti and quasadellas were very tasty and the crust of its Banoffee pie is interestingly yummy. After an hour and plus of gossiping on bloggers, eating all the food, commenting on Katy Perry’s Peacock song and laughing our head off, we decided to have a drink at the nearby mamak for a bit.

As the clock hits 11pm we decided to call it a night and went on to find our respective cars parked by the side of the road for convenience purposes. Mind you the cars were not obstructing traffic at all but it was all parked on the yellow line. To my horror, my car, which would be the easiest one to spot, was nowhere to be found! I was like ‘ hey I parked it here! I did! I remember!’ Another friend of mine, lets just call her #catty2 for now, was about to go to her car when she realized that her car was not there anymore as well. She was parked a few cars in front of mine. And then another friend, #catty3, called from the other end and her car was gone as well. It all dawned upon us that it cannot be stolen it must have been towed! True enough after frantically browsing on the Blackberry for DBKL number and a few rounds of getting the wrong department ( we got Flood department as well ok ) we got the car depot number in Jinjang Utara.

Since one of us parked inside that night, her car was the only one saved. So miss #catty4 drove to the depot since #catty3 needed to get some important stuff from her car for work the next day. So here’s the pic for our cars…in jail! We had to wait for the next day to bail them out because the abang said ‘counter dah tutup pukul 10’… but they towed our cars at around 10pm!!! Talk about DBKL and tow trucks trying to make money.

So in conclusion,

Dinner at the pink sage : rm25 ++

Quality dinner time w gfs: priceless

Visit car jail: superbbb priceless

Bailout money: rm210……..after discount…….DBKL sucks..

I think we’ve all learnt our lesson not to park illegally anymore, anywhere and anytime. You will never know when the DBKL will come towing..haha. So guys, please be mindful when you want to park by the side of the road even for just a while..

* Please not that all my friends will be called catty to conceal their identity, hence the blurred faces since the Cat would like to remain an enigma for nowJ

breaking the silence

Andddd here I am entering the world of bloggers again and breaking the silence thanks to my dear friend who suggested that i should have done this a long time ago..If you have a twitter account then breaking the silence would mean that your picture is no longer an egg :)

Okay now lets get started on this one. I'm not actually a virgin at blogging but i have only use my friendster blog a while ago. I shall start with a dramatic new post of Jailbird...haha as it is  the most recent adventure that we had and then i am going to figure out how to export my old posts in friendster onto this one..sounds like a lot of work for me haha

well, enjoy reading! :)

ginormica

I have just watched the movie Monster Vs Alien recently and I find a very interesting correlation between the message of the movie and the women out there. It is simply not just a kiddies movie. In the movie, Susan Murphy a.k.a Ginormica is the epitome of a modern woman. Hence it’s no coincidence that Reese Weetherspoon is the voice behind Ginormica after her box office success of Legally Blonde which took women empowerment to a new height, albeit in pink. Not every woman is a dumb blonde even if she is naturally born with blonde hair and Reese Weetherspoon is one example of a smart and tough cookie.

 
Back to our Ginormica, when she was just Susan, she is the ever typical woman who would give everything for love. Nothing is more important than Derek, the husband-to-be, even foregoing her dream of going for honeymoon in Paris, just so Derek could settle for his dream job in Fresno.   When she turned into Ginormica after being hit by a meteor, she still dreams of her life together with Derek. Derek on the other hand, could not handle the fact that Susan will gain most of the spotlight after Ginormica’s heroic act of saving people on the bridge that was being attacked by a giant robot and leaving him in the dark. Oh by the way, Derek is a spotlight hogging anchorman and weatherman who loves to check himself out in the mirror all the time, hence it’s not a wonder why he loves being in the spotlight. Susan was devastated. She desperately wanted to return to her normal size and return to her normal life.

 
However, things took a turn when she realizes her power of being Ginormica. As she puts it ‘There is not a jar in the world that I can’t open now’. Susan realizes how strong she can be and how she is able to do things herself. She does not need to be normal.  And there you go, the modern woman realize that life will not stop just because of a selfish man. That anything is possible and even if you are just a woman, you can save the world!  

 
In a way, the movie can be sort of like an eye opener to all the women out there to think about themselves and their capability to survive rather than being dependant on men. I am not saying that women should be completely independent of men (of course we need them) but women sometimes forget their self worth and their own strength when they are blinded by love. Some of these women are pretty and intelligent but they slave themselves to the notion that life’s success is to settle down with the ‘right’ man hence catering to the man’s every need, forgetting their own. Personally, I feel that partners should complement each other. It’s a balance between ying and yang rather than overshadowing or controlling the other.

 
At the end of the day, Derek the pesky limelight hogger was flicked into the air and swallowed by the blue alien blob and spit out in mucus in front of everyone. Oh what a humiliation. I so love the ending :)

Pudar tanpa dia

Hari hari ku sepi tanpa dia

Meskipun tidak lagi ternanti nanti

Kata kata ku berselirat penuh makna

Fikiranku penuh dengan luahan

Masih terpalit rasa rindu

Masih terlihat igauan

Perlukah aku bertanya

Mengapa bertemu untuk berpisah?

Dalam senyuman ada samar kesepian

Masih bersinar meski warna kian pudar

Bukan kesedihan yang hendak digambarkan

Bukan kelukaan yang hendak disampaikan

Tetapi satu perasaan yang perlu disimpan

Kerana waktu dan jarak tidak berjalan seiringan