A Discovery on 'Discovery'

AWRY.

Believe it or not, I've been pronouncing this word wrongly for the whole twenty something years of my life. And using it so confidently, thinking I've been pronouncing it right all this while! I've always known it to be pronounced as "or-ree" like in Lawry's Ribs, until a couple of days ago. I was watching "Discovery Home & Health" when the guy on the programme said, "The minute he entered the room, everything went a-rye!" I was like, "Everything went...what?" I ran through the possibilities in my head and pinned it down to 'awry', at the same time wondering how and why the guy on telly pronounced it the way he did. Anyway, I checked the dictionary and the guy was right lor. It is pronounced 'a-rie'. Like, "a try" or "a pie".

But.....but it's prounouced awful right? So when is the 'a' stuck with the 'w' and when is it not? The English language is a funny one.

"Or-ree". Hmm. What were my English oral examiners thinking of me then?

What shall I have for dinner tomorrow? Lo-rye's Ribs? Heh. :)

Wo Niu Guo

Was lunching with a colleague yesterday and naturally, work grouses came up as one of our myriad lunchtime topics. Then she mentioned that sometimes we can't fault people for their working style - like they're in "Wo Niu Guo". Literal translation: Snail Kingdom.

Given my proficiency in the mother tongue, it took me a while to register what that was. I must have looked pretty lost, cos she went "Remember? When we were in primary school, there was this chapter about Wo Niu Guo. The girl in the story was always taking her own sweet time to do things? Then one day, she went to Wo Niu Guo, and she waited 3 hours for her food to be cooked? So she asked the cook to speed up as she was hungry, and he replied 'Wo men yi jing hen kuai le! (We are very fast already!)' You remember or not?"

I remember. And I couldn't help laughing. Funny the kind of stories textbooks come up with hor? Quite a good term to use.

"Eh, can faster or not? You like living in Wo Niu Guo leh!"
"Wah, the way your company works is like Wo Niu Guo."
"Cannot blame her la. She from Wo Niu Guo one."

Wo Niu Guo. Does anybody else remember this particular chapter?

Fund Raising for Noah's Ark (NANAS)

Since I had volunteered to help out at Noah's Ark Natural Animal Sanctuary (NANAS), I met Catherine at Boon Lay yesterday afternoon and we did some attendance taking as well as money collection at the pick up point. When everyone had arrived, we headed off for NANAS located at Gelang Petah, in JB. As we were going in via 4 minivans, I was so NOT looking forward to immigration (or "Imigresen") cos going in minivans meant having to get off the bus to clear immigration. To make matters worse, there were these 3 ladies who were complaining like hell the whole way. If they were not complaining, they were yakking. Non stop. And having one of the van drivers lock everyone out of the van with the key in the ignition did not help the situation! It just resulted in more complaining from the 3 parties. Thank goodness for an "Aero Line" bus parked next to us, which gave them something to explore whilst waiting. (For those planning to go to KL, this AeroLine bus is pretty comfortable. $47 one way)

Well, as they always say, first impressions may not always be right. One of these ladies turned out to be quite hilarious, really. Very animated.

So after all the queueing at immigration and waiting for the lock of the bus to be picked, we finally arrived at NANAS at about 4pm. For those not familiar with NANAS, it's actually a place for abandoned animals, mainly dogs. There are also cats and retired race horses. It was here that I learnt what happens to race horses the moment they are not able to race. They get shot and fed to the lions and tigers at the zoo. Sad, isn't it?

Good to know that there are still some people with a conscience who bother to place their race horses at NANAS.

It is also difficult to understand why some people can find it in them to cut out puppies' paw pads, keep their dogs in cages for a year without clearing the mess in the cage, or would rather abandon their dog than pay the vet fees of 300 ringgit for treatment of a wound. I guess it takes all kinds to make the world. Bless Raymond (the guy who devotes all his time at NANAS) and the many volunteers who find the time to help out at NANAS.

Here are some shots I took at NANAS.

And on the way back, check out what I had for dinner with Ronald MacDonald at this 8888 restaurant. All these for just 40 ringgit. The empty plate was initially filled with garlic prawns. We had wanted the garlic crayfish, but they didn't have crayfish yesterday. :(

Thanks Ronald MacDonald for deciding to come into NANAS later. It saved me the arduous task of getting on and off the van at immigration. Phew!

And when I got home, guess who were the first to greet me as usual?

Jaime and Barkley!

Revelations and Affirmations.

Idioms. Similes. Synonyms. Homonyms, Acronyms. We've all been made to learn all that in the course of English lessons. Today, I shall prove to you that all these learnings have not gone to waste. More importantly, there are truths in them, you know?

Had lunch with Shades of Pink and another secondary school friend, Fi today. It so happened that I bumped into Fi last week at City Link, which happens to be around both our workplaces. So we set a date for lunch. Since Shades of Pink works pretty close by too, I asked her along.

So we touched on the usual catch up topics, until we inevitably reached the "So, who else are you in touch with?" subject. Well, it so happened that she got in touch recently with another of our secondary school friends, and in the process, got in touch with one of our ex relief teachers as well. And in the process, got to know about one of my exs, who was (and probably is, knowing this person's constant need for attention) extremely well connected with quite a number of our secondary school friends. So we talked and talked, and that's when we uncovered some relevations. Ooh! And affirmations to many of our doubts. Ahh!

Affirmation of how true it is that "Birds of a feather flock together".

Anyway, I shall be nice and not mention names or details, for fear of revealing the parties involved. (Then again, I might have already revealed too much just by mentioning the relations. Oopsy daisy. :p) Anyway, for those of you who haven't already figured out who I'm talking about, sometimes, ignorance is bliss. Yet another saying which I'm sure many of us can relate to. :)

Bumping into Fi affirmed yet another saying...."HE works in mysterious ways".

You see, in order to get that "Birds of a feather..." affirmation, I needed to bump into Fi. And bump into her I did. And for her to share the revelation with us, she had to re-connect with that other secondary school friend. And re-connect with that friend she did. And for that to happen, the timing had to be right. And right, it was. Close to perfect. Everything that had to happen, happened over the last week. Amazing isn't it, the way HE works?

I shall leave you with just one more affirmation of an idiom.

Fi and I hardly ever hung out in secondary school. And lunching with Fi never crossed my mind, for the simple reasons that we were never close in school, I didn't know she worked so close by, and the fact that the last time we met must have been like 10 years ago! And she was in another continent for the past 2 years!

Well, everything happens for a reason. :)

It Pays to Wait. Or Does it?

Spent the last weekend shopping and shopping and shopping, cos I felt really cheated. And that's because 3 weeks ago, I had bought quite a few pieces of work clothes from G2000, thinking that at a 40% discount and an additional 15% discount (with the member's card), it was a pretty good deal. And then, just last weekend, they had a sign on their stores which read: "FINAL sale". And the prices were even lower than they were at 40%+15% discount! To make matters worse, I saw a pair of berms I had bought just a week ago at a further discount from the price I had paid!

Anyway, since there was islandwide sale, Final Sale, National Day 41% Sale, I decided to get a blouse I had seen the week before at JL. I mean, there couldn't possibly be any further sale right? GSS was over, and "FINAL sales" signages were everywhere. So I made more purchases at JL.

Just at that point when I thought things couldn't get any worse, they did. I found out later when I was at Robinsons that same day that JL was gonna have a storewide sale on National Day itself! And there were some stuff I bought at JL that was also available at Robinsons. And Robinsons was having a 20% storewide sale. Suay right?

Lesson learnt: Listen to what my last movie (The Lake House) taught me.
Just wait.

But hor, come Monday, Jol decided to go get some facial products from Robinsons. She was waiting for the storewide sale to begin (smart girl). So we went to the cosmetic counter and asked for the mask.

Jol: How much is this?

Salesgirl: $69

Jol: There's a 20% storewide discount on top of that right?

Salesgirl: Oh, no more already. The sale ended yesterday. 3 days only.

Jol (to us): ???????? I purposely waited for the sale leh!

Hahahahah. Sorry Jol. Can't help laughing. After what's happened to me, this was really quite funny. I guess I'm not the only victim after all.

Question: So wait or don't wait ah?

Proper Grandma

Bet you thought this post was gonna be about my grandmother. Well, it's not. But the title serves to show the importance of speaking properly. The title was meant to be "Proper Grammar". (sometimes heard in the speech process with reference to grannies, eg "My grammar is sleeping in the room").

It never fails to baffle me how certain words in the English vocabulary can be so wrongly used. Grammatically or in terms of pronunciation. And commonly used wrongly, correctly by so many. And I don't mean Singlish. Singlish is a separate thing altogether. Know what I mean?

Ok, ok. Let's try this: "NOWSADAYS".
How come got so many 's' one ah?

Another common grammatical error is "Wow, did you saw that?" or "Did you went there?"
Don't these sentences sound 'sala' the minute they leave the tongue?

Yet another one: "This is an important document. Dont lost it, ok?"
????????????

Or: "Can you borrow me your pen?"
So are we borrowing or lending ah?????

Another one: "Although she was tired, but she still wanted to run."
Although.....but????? Like "Despite of" and "In spite of"????

An extremely common one when one is injured: "So pain, so pain!"
Does it take a lot of effort to add another syllable 'ful' to complete the word?

And as YJ once highlighted: "You eat already or not?"
Already or not????????

Not implying that I have impeccable English, but you know what I mean right? Aren't these very basic?

And yes, to those of you thinking: "You think your Mandarin very good ah?", I'm not saying that I don't make mistakes in my mother tongue. I do, but I make the effort to correct it. Like how I try to remember when ordering 'cai fan' that "zha dan" is bomb, and not fried egg. And that bird's egg is called 'niao dan' and not 'niao ji dan'. And how the steamed bao with chicken is "ji ROU bao' and not "ji bao". Or that 5 cents is 'wu fen' and not 'ban mao'. But then how come 55 cents if 'wu mao BAN'???

Just Wait.

Caught The Lake House with Shades of Pink last evening. I might as well have spent the time taking the train to Lakeside for a decent dinner. The show really didn't match up to the 4-star rating it was given. And I seldom come out of a romance flick and go:"Huh? So what actually happened ah? How did that happen? Then liddat means what ah?". Shades of Pink had no idea too.

To be fair, the show did have some moral takeways. It teaches one the virtue of patience.

Just wait.

From the book titled 'Persuasion' by Jane Austen that was featured in the movie to the very end of the movie, the message was clear. Just wait. Apparently, "Persuasion" is about a couple whose relationship didn't work out, but got to meet again later in life, and then dunno what dunno what, then one party spent like half his life waiting for the other or something like that la.

Just wait.

So we waited. For the movie to progress further, and the hope to derive some logic and understanding to what was happening in it.

Then the show ended with Kate (Sandra Bullock) asking Alex (Keanu Reeves) not to look for her, but to wait for her. At where else, but the Lake House.

Just wait.

Wait already then? Meet lor. How can end the show with them just waiting? So meet la. Good things must wait what. Bleah! If only life were that simple.

Anyway, the minute I got out of the cinema, I texted a friend (whom I knew plans on watching the show) not to bother watching it.

Just wait......for the DVD to come out.