it is official

yesterday, 29 November 2007, i was officially admitted to the Malaysian Bar. i am proud to say that i am now officially an advocate & solicitor of the High Court of Malaya. yesterday was one of the happiest and proudest moment in my life. i believe i have made my parents and my family proud. i am so happy beyond words. i have achieved my ambition to become a lawyer. i am very happy that my dearest, beloved father robed me, thus marking my admission to the Bar. i can see mum and dad's face beaming with pride and especially so when each of the representative from the AG's Chambers, Bar Council and KL Bar personally congratulated them. the admission judge also said that it is a very rare occasion to have a father, who is a judge himself, robing his daughter. as for me, i can't stop grinning smiling all the way. so now, i am officially a lawyer. dreams do come true after all. yesterday, i stood tall. i wish to extend my heartfelt gratitude and utmost appreciation to each and everyone of you who have been a part of my life, molding me into the person i am today. you know who you are.

counting the days

before you get the wrong idea, allow me to clarify. i am not counting the days to get engaged, let alone to get married. in fact, i am counting the days to two events. firstly, tomorrow, 29 November 2007 at 9.00am i will be admitted as an advocate&solicitor of the High Court of Malaya in the Mahkamah Rayuan & Kuasa-Kuasa Khas, Kompleks Mahkamah Jalan Duta, KL. you are welcome to celebrate this joyous occasion with me. please feel free to come with a box of chocolates thankyouverymuch. tomorrow will officially mark the beginning of my career as a lawyer. after all these years, after years and years of struggling studying, this is the moment.

secondly, this week will be my last week of working weeehooooo! i will be taking a well-deserved one month break in the whole month of December and i will only start work officially in January 2008. talk about a fresh start, huh? new year, new job, new life, new challenges. what could be better?

goosebumps

a few days ago, while i was washing my face in the bathroom, i felt something moving on my foot. then i looked down and to my horror and utter disgust, it was an ulat gonggok! OMG i literally jumped and screamed and wriggled my foot to remove it. so if you felt a tremor or the earth shake a few days back, that was probably me jumping up and down. it was scary as hell. you know how creepy crawlies and bugs give me the creeps. i don't want to kill it coz somehow rather i pitied the lil thing. benda tak berdosa tu buat apa nak dibunuh. but if it's a lipas or lipan, i have to give an exception lah. that, i must kill immediately using anything and everything within reach, including, but not limited to the gayung because lipan and lipas move so quickly and their direction is unpredictable. one minute they are on the floor, the next minute they might climb onto me. in the case of an ulat gonggok, it moves ever so slowly so i can see where it's going. i have no idea how it got into my bathroom but it's there. and it's still there until today. *sigh* everytime i enter the bathroom, i would scan the bathroom floor to see where it's hiding. there's no way i'm gonna pick it up and throw it outside coz i'd get all the goosebumps. one time i thought i wanted to ask the maid to pick it up for me but i couldn't find the lil fella. i guess he sensed that i wanted to do something to him so he went into hiding. and this morning, i saw him near the jamban.

Bleugh! part 9

• I strive and try to be a good and berhemah driver on the road. But there are certain things that just piss the hell out of me, among others, people who just don’t appreciate when you let them cross the road. For example, I slowed down my car in order to let them cross. Sometimes I even stopped my car and give them ‘signal’ to cross. Bila orang dah bagi lintas tu, by all means, lintas la cepat! Ini tak, terhegeh-hegeh, terkedek-kedek lintas jalan OMG sometimes I feel like stepping on my accelerator and run over them! Seriously. If people stopped their car and let me cross, I would cross as fast as I could to the extent that I sometimes berlari-lari anak, with or without high-heels. I don’t need you to put up your hand to show your appreciation. All I am asking for is for you to cross quickly! For the ladies, tak payah nak control cun, control ayu in front of me for haven’s sake I’m not a guy! And for the guys, don’t act all macho and cool and try to walk at your own pace!
• I went for a wedding in Dewan Perdana Felda yesterday and among the guests were families with kids, big and small. While the upacara merenjis was taking place, there were screams and wails of kids. Can you imagine how annoying it is? And then there were kids running around inside the hall playing with the bunga maggar etc. merosakkan majlis ok! Can’t really blame the kids can we? It all comes down to the parents. So maybe, just maybe when and if I have my wedding reception in the grand hall, or any other hall for that matter, I shall state on the invitation card NO KIDS ALLOWED. What do you think? Harsh, I know but unless and until the parents make their kids behave, they will not be allowed in. Note to self: make sure in the future own kids behave.

yum yum

it is surprising to know that i don't have much to crap about this week so i'm gonna post some pics, especially for you sis. i bet the breads, biscuits, cookies, desserts and cakes probably tasted and smelt a whole lot yummier especially in winter but nothing beats a home-baked carrot cake, no?

huff and puff

I had a lunch meeting with a client yesterday afternoon, just the two of us since The Cat was not able to make it. So he sent me instead. We initially wanted to have lunch at The Marketplace in Jalan Yap Kwan Seng but unfortunately it was closed so we had to settle at a nearby Minang restaurant, Puteri Bungsu. The food was okay but Minang food in Kampung Baru tasted a lot better. The meeting went well. We discussed what was supposed to be discussed. That’s beside the point, actually. The thing is, my client smoked. So what, you may ask. Wait till you hear my story. He asked me, “You smoke tak?” to which I politely replied, “Tak, I tak smoke.” Then he said, “Oh tak smoke ke? I ingat you smoke. Biasanya lawyer perempuan smoke.” Uh huh, yeah. Then I replied, “Tak semua.” To which he said, “Oh, tak semua ye?” and laughed. I almost, almost said, “I tak smoke but at the rate I’m exposed to cigarette smoke, I might as well take a puff!” But of course I didn’t say that. Gila hape? Hahaha. Dah la he is one of our valuable clients, and a good friend of the The Cat. Hmm, I can actually control myself and refrain from saying the darndest thing. So is there a stereotype about female lawyers or what? Why does he assume that most female lawyers smoke? On the bright side, I think he is being polite by asking me whether I smoke or not, and perhaps if I said I do, he would offer me a stick. Or two.

See, I analyze both sides. Ye, saya seorang yang adil. Hahahaha.

tight situation

have you ever been in a situation where you met someone new, a guy/man to be exact, and then when you extend your hand to shake, they would go malu-malu and did not take your hand because they don't want to touch one who is not a muhrim? what about when you meet someone new and you hesitate whether to shake or not to shake hands because of the experience mentioned above? how about the time when you don't extend your hand to shake because you assumed that they as a man should do it first and then when they didn't, you feel like you've been rude, especially if they happen to be old or someone of your dad's age? how do you feel when you face such situations? weird, isn't it? tell me about it. i've been there, done that. numerous times. i've been meeting a lot of people, mainly clients, some cute, some not so cute and yes, it feels so weird that i can literally feel my face turn red. but then there was one time that takes the cake when i met a male client and he extended his hand to me and introduced himself and said "takpe kan salam? lawyer mesti tak kisah kan salam?" i was like, huh and gave him a fake sweet smile. i asked myself, what the hell was that supposed to mean? so unprofessional, huh? nasib baik tak cute!

greetings

dear all,

i just want to wish my dear Hindu friends (and readers, if any) a very HAPPY DEEPAVALI. have a joyous and colourful DEEPAVALI. may you all be blessed.
to others, enjoy the holiday, even if it's just a day, unless of course if you choose to extend the holiday.
aren't we lucky to live in Malaysia?

worth the while

Last weekend was totally awesome. I was invited to join the Legal Awareness & Leadership for Lawyers by the Bar Council Legal Aid Center KL, which was held in Fraser's Pine Resort, Fraser's Hill. It was a 3d2n program and it was a really good one. Went by bus from the KL Bar on Friday morning. The journey took about 2 ½ hours and when we reached the resort, we were introduced to the facilitators, had an ice-breaking session, were divided into groups of four and were given the keys to our rooms. After which, we had lunch and settled in. The seminar started at 2pm. We had talks and a debate session, of which I was one of the debaters. I must say my partner and I did quite well as we won the debate. There was supposed to be a Nature Walk but lo and behold, it rained cats and dogs so we almost canceled the walk and did some indoor activities. But thankfully, the rain stopped soon enough so we persuaded the facilitators to have the Nature Walk. We were glad that we did. It was a 1km trail but that 1km trail is enough for me to get a bloodsucker i.e. pacat to stick on me! argghh!! Note to self: dah tau nak masuk hutan, jangan la gatal pakai 3/4 pants. padan muka sendiri. Boohoo. As soon as we got out of the trail, I noticed a lil’ something on my left sock. The guys then asked me to see if it's a pacat or some dirt. I touched it with a stick and it stuck so they said, "it's it" to which I screamed jumped and wriggled my legs until they told me to calm down. I didn't know I could be such a drama queen but when it comes to creepy crawlies, bugs and insects, I’ll be the biggest drama queen ever. Anyway the guys were so kind and lovely that they held my hand and one of them removed my shoe and sock. They tried to burn the pacat but it's stuck on the sock. Thankfully the pacat hasn't penetrated through the sock yet. I don't know what they did or how they do it but soon the pacat was removed. Phew. Then they told me to check my other foot, just to be safe. One guy was so sweet and kind enough that he actually took off my other shoe and sock and even checked between my toes! Isn’t that sweet or what? *awww* that almost melt my heart instantly. *blush* After all the drama, we head back to our hotel. The walk back was longer than the trail itself but since the air was cool and fresh, it was indeed a nice walk. At night, we had another session of talks. I kinda had trouble sleeping on the first night. The moment I closed my eyes, I start to imagine things, and by things I mean scary and nonsensical things. I was afraid to open my eyes for fear that I might see something. And that’s when some part of your body started to itch terribly. I didn’t even dare move a muscle so I just wished that the itch would go away. You see, the place itself is a quiet, sort of a tempat jin bertendang which adds to the creepiness. Or perhaps I’m just being a drama queen yet again? Anyway I finally managed to get some sleep.

On the second day, my roommates and I came down at 8.55 am. The seminar was supposed to start at 9 so we had to skip the nasi lemak breakfast. Instead we had a quick cuppa and a slice of bread. Again, padan muka sendiri. The second day was just as interesting. Surprisingly, I hardly feel sleepy during the talks. My team was in charge of the Cultural Night to be held later at night so we were busy brain-storming to come up with ideas etc. And since we were put in charge, we made the rules. *evil laugh* We assigned each team a task, namely singing, drama and dancing (what else?). We even compelled the facilitators to perform but we gave them a freedom to choose their performance so they came up with a Boria. We decorated and arranged the seminar room in such a way that it resembles a mini auditorium. We even decorated the ‘stage’ with colorful papers and the facilitators and participants gave us two thumbs up. Apparently they were so proud and impressed with us for organizing the Cultural Night. *grin* I was the emcee for the night together with my teammate, Darwina, thus no pic of us emceeing. = ( The night ended successfully, everyone was happy, we were ecstatic. Later at night, the guys had a ‘party’ in their room so we joined in. We talked, played cards and basically we just chilled and get to know each other better. (^_^)

On the third day, after breakfast we had another round of talk, evaluation session and soon it was time to leave. Funny how time flies so fast when you’re having fun. So we packed our bags, had lunch and left Fraser’s Hill at 2pm.

Overall, it was a really good and memorable weekend. I was glad that I joined the trip. The facilitators were a sporting bunch; the participants were the coolest and fun people ever thus making it all the more enjoyable. The talks were an eye opener and very informative. Among the topics covered were Globalization, Democracy, Feminism, Leadership and Interpersonal Skills, Listening and Communication Skills and not to mention the fun and innovative games and activities.

So there. It’s picture time! I’m still waiting for my friends to send me some more pictures and once I get it from them. I shall upload it here (when and if I have the time). In the meantime, enjoy~