How boring were the Emmy dresses this year?!

Spent the entire day in a series of meetings and it was strangely fulfilling. I'm a little worried I may be enjoying my job more than I will allow myself to.

Nevertheless, I'm glad tomorrow's a holiday.

I'm going to spend it with friends and the gleeful knowledge that I have been asked to audit a couple of spas at exotic locales for a regional award. How lucky am I?!

Fanatic Finish

Today I deleted "The Food Fanatic", a blog about my relationship with my one true love. Food. I started in 2006 and administrated it, fairly actively for just over a year. It's being spammed to death and frankly speaking not doing very much since the last post was in 2007! It was thoroughly fulfilling to write in but blogs are like cyber babies, in need of constant attention and a piece of you.

Like this blog, Fanatic was initiated at a time when I was going through a phase of massive self expression but since then, I have moved on with many other things that vie for my time. That includes the starting up of a new blog (oh here we go again!). I'm currently working on its look and trying to teach myself Photoshop from scratch. It is most likely a travel one with super duper piccies (hopefully).
Part of growing up is learning to acknowledge my limits.

Preservation is the key word for those in their 30s. Preserve your sanity while kids/other halves/cretins at work drive you crazy and preserve inner calm when your hormones/skin/breasts/thighs/hair begin to sag/dimple/grow/freak out.

Preservation = slow down.

I am going through a chapter of intense inspiration and gung-ho and its a wondeful and exciting time to be. History suddenly seems so intriguing, art takes on a fresh appeal, politics is freakishly stimulating, sometimes I can't wait to get to work in the mornings. Even staying at home is an event filled with wonder and great fulfillment.

Anyway, the point is my body is saying chill the hell out and get some sleep every now and then.
So, although I haven't been posting on Fanatic, deleting it is very symbolic for me. It's my way of acknowledging that I can only do so much. I do it with a little sadness but of course, I've exported the entire blog onto my external hard drive so its still there in a way. Thank you to those who visited andtook the time to read about my take on our common love.

A Free Palestinian State

After watching a documentary of our former Prime Minster on the Bio channel, I'm now quite hooked on his blog.

Love him or hate him, the man is legendary. Of the many things I admire about him, I am grateful for his efforts under the PGPO and the drawing of Malaysian interest to the seige of Gaza. Without PGPO's direct involvement, I doubt if many Malaysians (especially non Muslims) would have batted an eyelid when turning the pages of the NST. It would have fallen unnoticed along with the regular reports of suicide bombs and accusations of miraculously disappearing nuclear weapons that have numbed us into indifference. With the exposure gained via PGPO, Malaysians are united against a terrorist nation that has for far too long, escaped backlash for its actions. This is also because Gaza is not a religious issue but a humanitarian one.

I am anti-Zionist, not anti-Semitic, hence I do not agree with the existence of the state of Israel. But "Fuck you Jew" slogans and the boycott of bagels ain't gonna inconvenience anyone but ourselves. Going by this rationale, we may as well stop watching American movies and give up hamburgers (Ramly included) for indirectly supporting the continued existence of Israel.

I do not for a second forget that the Jews were persecuted. But the carving out of long occupied Palestinian land and displacing people to make way for an ideal is unjustifiable. Is it too late to undo the creation of Israel? Tricky. Israeli actions need to be criminalised and an independant Palestinian state be allowed to exist.

Enabling this lies in the unity of Palestinians, displaced or under siege, and their supporters.

I chanced upon a comment left in one of Tun's posts and I find in it a hopeful message:

"Living to fight another day. This is the proven point throughout the history. It is etched whether be it in the Indian epics such as Mahabaratha ...or Greek mythology or even Sun Tsu's famous tactics of wars as in--"To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill. He who knows when he can fight and when he cannot, will be victorious. "....

India conquered and dominated China culturally for 20 centuries without ever having to send a single soldier across her border." - Hu Shih (Former Ambassador of China to US -1891 - 1962)
This applies till today. Just look no further than Mahatma Gandhi,Sun Yet Sen,Ho Chi Minh and etc....They preserved themselves in another land which is a foreign soil till the time was ripe...to fight a fruitful fight which yielded results.

The Palestinians & Muslims have numbers in their side.Which the Jews do not.Trust me , the numbers always win--eventually.Just like China & India for examples.They were once a vanquished land but just look at them now.So will Indonesia.It will rise.Mark my words.
Hence the best bet to fight evil or any evil for that matter is self-preservation.Preserve and nurture a future generation who than will eventually conquer an unjustful empire ; as Israel exemplifies itself now.How?

Because time and tide does not stands still.And the only thing that is certain about anything is change.As the timeless saying goes "This too shall pass" (Persian:این نیز بگذرد, een niz bogzarad, Hebrew: גם זה יעבור, gam zeh yaavor, Turkish: Bu da geçer) is a proverb indicating that all material conditions, positive or negative, are temporary. ...USA military might too shall pass ...and Israel 's honeymoon with US too shall pass..the world's fascination with Jew's military might at the expense of innocent human lives too shall pass....When that happens Israel ceases to exist....and oce again nature takes over. And it gives back to it's natural natives."

Gosh, is it really still Monday?

I've had a stressful day at work. It feels like ages ago since I got into work just this morning. Spent the entire day working on a Powerpoint presentation and am completely vacant now.

Anyway, can't for the life of me recall why I started this post except to announce that I've set up a new blog for travel and hobbies or just travel. Haven't figured it out yet. Haven't posted anything yet. I don't even know why I have 3 blogs except that I am so inspired these days to pursue every little thing. Full time worker, full time Mum, full time daughter, full time buying a flat, full time photographer, art and crafter, cook, driver, party-go-er, mahjong player and now blogger. I'm not complaining. I have bags under my eyes, but have plenty of eye cream.

As soon as the travel blog is up and running, I shall no doubt do a little bit of advertising on this platform.

I'm merging normal language with work language.

It's time for bed. Nanite folks.

What To Do On A Sunday Evening

Two weeks ago, I decided to finally ‘upholster’ my DVD folders. I bought the folders at the SS2 pasar malam for something like RM4 each. They come in admittedly boring but fairly decent colours. I initially wanted to do a pale green and rose pink thing but ended up buying silver, navy, red and black too so that went out the window and in came the need to cover them up – quickly!

Again, the initial idea remained an idea. I was going to do them up with gorgeous Heather Bailey fabrics, especially from her Nicey Jane range. After a whole afternoon spent browsing through them a few weeks back, I was set to pack my bags for Vermont and spend my days frolicking in autumn leaves and baking Apple Charlottes.

But I would have ended up having to participate in The Biggest Loser. Plus after buying bits of furniture and art supplies and lycra dresses and prints of Lady Godiva prancing naked about Leicester and what not, I decided to just work with what I had.

What I did, and still do have, is a chest full of fabric. Most of them I cannot bring myself to cut up because I do take them out every now and then and stroke them lovingly. I know, I’ve been told it’s slightly disturbing but we all have our oddities don’t we?

What I could bring myself to cut up was the never-ending metres of sari material from Madras – in downtown KL, not India. They clash in colour but complement each other enough to look good as a series and there was plenty enough so as to not feel heartbroken about setting a pair of scissors on them.

Plenty of fabric glue later, voila! Teddy looks on appreciatively. I think the white and gold go really well with the orange. The blue is a tad cliché but OK. I’m not a fan of the green. It’s way out. I may have to re-do it or store horror movies in them or something.

The folders are padded with….I would like to say “artisan’s foam” or something clever and crafty, but no. I left it to the last minute on a Sunday evening to shop for supplies, so the best thing I could come up with was…air-conditioner filter. Yup that’s right. Despite being thinner than foam I would get at say, a craft or textile shop, I think it’s worked out just as well.

And of course while digging around my craft drawer I also found a bag filled with metres of embroidered ribbon I’d bought in a wholesale market in Guangzhou last year. So there you do, my DVD folders are a clash of Indian and Chinese influences. Let’s not say clash, but a confluence. There you go, now it sounds like Masjid Jamek.

Anyway, I really enjoyed making them and they look pretty alright on my shelf.

Stalker

That I am.

I've been stalking this artist on Etsy. I'm buying 2 prints from her and am trying to get hold of an original but they get snapped up so fast. I'm at her shop everyday, checking for new listings but I guess there are plenty of girly girls out there in an equal shopping frenzy.

This is in the spirit of setting up my new lovely apartment. It is also to cheer me up and disctract me from the extremely slow pace this whole s&p is taking. My agreement was stamped in April. Go figure. [Eyes rolling]. So we console ourselves with shopping.

I go to Apartment Therapy for inspiration. It's amazing how cosy a 600sq ft broom closet can look! And of course, there is Preston Bailey for the most gorgeous party decor I have ever seen. I thought he was my secret discovery until I found not one, but two hard-cover coffee table books of his displayed prominently at Kinokuniya yesterday. I suppose you can't create such beauty and not have anyone notice.

Speaking of beauty, I'm pretty set on getting a pair of Kartell ghost chairs. I absolutely LOVE the Louise XV design, of course if I can get hands on an old one, I'd rather that but there don't seem to be many around...

I bought my son a bed yesterday. This gorgeous mid-century teak bed frame with a sliding headboard for hiding secrets! Love it! So far, I've managed to find a Singer sewing machine table that I've always wanted plus this bed frame at Second Charm.

And clothes, we must always have plenty of clothes! Inspired from the latest STC movie (Dubai is dead, Abu Dhabi is the new Middle East!), I made a pit stop at my two fav shopping sites of late. One local, Blissfully Beautiful (what a name! Beautifully dressed but blissfully broke!) and of course, the indefatigable online shopping fashion institution that is Asos. I ordered 5 items from their sale last week only to realise at check out that they don't accept Malaysian credit cards. What a bummer! So, my lovely sister had to step in, wielding her prized UK credit card for I was not going to let go of those bargains. Lace dresses are all the rage next season, so it is said.

Then I discovered I was as broke as Jake Gyllenhall's heart in Brokeback and chanced upon the idea of actually painting my own stuff. So off I went to shop for supplies - canvases, and acrylics and brushes. I almost died on the second floor of Kinokuniya. But what makes me think I can paint now when I couldn't at school is still a mystery to me, but who knows? This weekend, we shall find out.

Then I went fabric shopping at the amazing Fah Num next to Kota Raya. I like to call it 'Farnum's' just to up the stylo factor but seriously, the stuff in there ain't cheap. Still I managed to get something. I also like People's Textiles across the street - they have an adorable selection of Japanese prints in there, which I like. What's a visit downtown without popping into Peter Ho? I love Peter Ho because a) I'm going to copy his style of framing Indian miniature paintings and b) it's a lovely oasis from the Petaling Street madness.

So much to do and so little time. Even worse, so little money! Choi choi choi choi!