I was half-asleep...

and lying in my bed, on this really hot and humid afternoon when my phone suddenly rang. I still had my wits about me and remembered that the phone was in my handbag.

A nice-sounding woman asked for me and said that I had won in their e-Contest (in conjuction with the Malaysia Unit Trust Scheme Week 2006)! I do believe that it was for the contest held yesterday. I was to come to their Enquiry booth with my identity card before 9:30pm tonight. She didn't tell me what I won. It could be a blender, or a stand fan, or a motorcycle or (dare I hope?) a hp Desktop PC. And the funniest part of this is, I remember being very realistic/pessimistic about our chances of winning anything. I kept telling my Mum, "There's no way we're going to win anything, our slogans (in Malay, mind!) are just too horrible and there are so many more people who could write better." FYI, I had to write my mother's slogan too. In fact, I have to fill everything for Mum because she says her handwriting is terrible (the way she refuses to fill in forms, you'd think she was illiterate). Or maybe she's just lazy?

Anyway, 'Yaay' to me for finally ending that losing streak. Ten months is way too long. I don't care if I end up with a rubberband, I still won something. *grin*

The past two days that we went to the fair, Mum made friends with the people at the Heveafil booth. (Wow, they're the world's largest manufacturer of quality extruded latex threads, I didn't know that!). I was the one who walked into their booth, seeing the four boxes of sample latex threads. Mum asked for some (hoping to sew some to the edge of bedsheets to make them fitted bedsheets) and that first night, she realized how valuable these threads were. You can't just buy them at the store (they're meant for industries like the textile, food and sports industries). And they can extend up to 7 times without breaking. Go check out their website, but be careful of the typos.

Yesterday, while waiting for my Dad to finish his MIC conference and fetch us, I took some photos of the flagpoles and a ship at sea. The time was around 6pm.


I waited for the wind to blow, but the 'Jalur Gemilang' (Vibrant Stripes) just wouldn't flutter 'majestically'. It was flying half-heartedly (if that is possible). But I just love that blue sky! It was so hot, there was not a cloud in the sky. The three flags above, from the top, are the flags of Pahang (top half of flag is white, bottom half is black), Johor and Selangor.


I tried to take the first pic without being seen, but apparently, I was. Just how do those photographers take pix of people unawares? Oh yes, powerful zoom lens! Second pic is of a father and his daughter walking away. This was the first in a series of three pix.


This is of a ship at sea. I used the two columns holding the flagpoles up as part of the frame. Looks quite nice, if I may say so myself. Ahem. *grin* If I had stood back a little more, I would have fallen into this 'fountain' (a hole with water).

That's it for now. Take care, all!

Update @10:39pm: I won a blender! Two blender jugs and a grinder, and a free little addressbook with a picture of a local deejay.

Quiz time

While looking for some blank cards, I came across a letter from someone who was a guest at the hotel I used to work at. We met when (the now-defunct) Mobikom had a roadshow and he was part of the team involved. They stayed for a few days and we just got to talking. I'm a friendly person, always up for a chat when the opportunity crops up. He was friendly and had that educated air about him. Even after he checked out, he called the hotel once or twice to chat with me. I was certainly flattered. It's funny, I don't recall replying to his first letter. I feel bad, eventhough when I was working shifts at the hotel, my energy was just too sapped to sit down and write a nice, long letter.

Some years ago, I read about his father. They had a surname that was uncommon, so that how I knew the man in the papers ('The Longest serving government servant in Malaysia') was his father. I still didn't write (after so many years, I'd feel insulted that someone only got back to me because a family member was in the papers myself). A few years after that, his father passed away. In the obits, I read that he had married.

In the letter, he wrote that I was a unique person...blah blah blah. Well, if he meant all he said and I actually replied...that could have been my name in the obits as well. I could have been married!

Hang on, what if I DID reply and he saw that my uniqueness bordered on semi-insanity and HE was the one who didn't write back? Hmmm... It's times like these that I wish I had a more reliable memory. *grin*

I read at Dina Zaman's blog that they are looking for Malaysian writers to contribute funny/humorous anecdotes to be published in a book. I've been wracking my brain for something funny. Alas! what seems to be funny to me isn't to someone else. One good thing is they want a maximum of two pages. I have one embarrassing yet funny moment, but I can't express in words how funny it was. And do I really want people to read what happened to me and a friend? It was an honest mistake, I suppose.

Did a sleeping position quiz, here are the results:

Find your own pose!

Since I am sleeping single, I don't think I'll need to worry about being the toboggan. It doesn't look at all comfortable.

I'm going to my uni in the morning. My request for an extension before repayment of my student loan was not accepted due to my uni not giving the right information in their letter, eventhough I clearly pointed out what was required. All they said was, "But this is the ONLY letter that we issue" and promptly shows me a letter of verification ("This letter is to verify that the aforementioned student is currently in her sixth semester", etc). Grrr!

Time for CSI. Bye and take care all!

Life of a caterpillar

A few days ago...

...the caterpillar hid behind a leaf. But why?

Cue hornet/wasp. I saw it flying from leaf to leaf, like a SWAT team going from room to room looking for terrorists/criminals. This hornet/wasp flew off to other plants and still returned to this lime bush, looking for food. Now I know why I don't see the other caterpillars anymore.

The next day, after looking for the caterpillar for several minutes under the baking sun, I spotted it hiding almost the the base of the lime plant. And I thought it had been taken away by a hornet/wasp.

Yesterday...

...the caterpillar had attached itself to the stem of the lime plant. No more eating now. I blew at it and it moved a little.

Today...

Amazing how the caterpillar changed so drastically. No more eyes, no more legs or markings. I should have checked in on it last night, but we had guests for dinner and I didn't want to be seen as a crazy person intent on feeding mosquitoes at 10pm. I regret it now. And all this in less than 24 hours. I'm tempted to cut the branch this pupa is attached to and watch its progress. Unfortunately, cutting this branch would mean destroying two spiderwebs. I removed a leaf that was in the way to get a better shot, and then I realized the consequences of my actions. The pupa was in plain sight. So I just picked up the leaf I had pulled off and stuck it to a thorn.

I might post later. Til then, take care, all!

Golden

Submission to PhotoFriday's 'Golden' theme. This is a shot of the prosperity symbol (on a Chinese New Year card). It's usually upside down so that prosperity will shower down onto the owner. When I first hung this over my room door, I got an 8-month lucky streak, winning at least one contest a month. And then I think the radio station websites 'banned' me (you can't win for 3 months). *grin*

Online chat with Ian Wright

Earlier this evening, from 6:30pm until 8pm local time, I had the opportunity to participate in an online chat with Ian Wright, that GlobeTrekking traveller whom everybody loves. The chat was heavily moderated, but I managed to ask a few questions which he readily answered.

Tigrrr: Ian, have you or your crew ever been in a dangerous situation?
ianwright: Yeah sometimes. We nearly got beat up in Japan by some rockabillies for filming them.
ianwright: Which is a weird place to have trouble - it's probably the safest place I know.
ianwright: Then got hit by lava in Varanasu from a volcano which was erupting at the time.

Tigrrr: Ian, have you had encounters with over-enthusiastic fans on your travels before? With stalker-like behaviour?
ianwright: oh yeah ...
ianwright: I've had fans come up to me when we're filming who think they can talk to me while we're filming.
ianwright: My fave fan letter: Dear Ian, I'm a big fan. I don't care if you have a wife or girlfriend.
ianwright: Let's meet at Derbyshire station. See you there, Dimples.
ianwright: This woman sent me a picture, she looked like a fruitcake. I sold the letter to me mate for a tenner.
ianwright: I haven't seen him since.

Tigrrr: Do you watch your health, Ian? Do you eat vitamins and health supplements?
ianwright: I watch my health from afar.
ianwright: With a pint and cigarette in hand.
ianwright: I try and keep trim, I play football and cycle.
ianwright: If I started getting a big gut I'd start to worry.

Tigrrr: Ian, what's the most important lesson you've learnt during your travels?
ianwright: If you can travel then you're in the most unbelievably privileged position there is. Don't forget that!

*Update: Added the missing parts as the transcript is now available here. I edited his typos. *grin*
Hmmm, looks like I didn't save the other two questions (and I thought Ctrl+A selected all?). No matter, the chat transcript will be out soon enough. The two other questions from me were whether he and his crew got into dangerous situations (Yes, they almost got into trouble with some Japanese people for filming them and another time when they got hit by lava) and if he had encountered overenthusiastic fans, with stalker-like behaviour ("Oh yeah...", his favourite fan mail goes: "Dear Ian, I don't care if you have a wife or girlfriend, meet me at ..." Once, some girl sent him a letter and she was a fruitcake. He sold the letter to his friend for a "tenner" and he hasn't seen his friend since!).

Some interesting facts learnt during this chat:

• He's been married for 10 years
• He has children
• His youngest loves to travel
• He's writing a book
• He doesn't meet or hang out with the other GlobeTrekkers because he's in the UK and they are in the US.

It was an enlightening encounter and with 60+ (edit: 80) chatters in there (most of whom had to leave in disappointment when they realized that they couldn't just chat freely and questions/declarations of love were rejected) Ian was constantly busy answering questions. Well, I'm glad I had four questions answered. Well, that's it from me.

Take care, all!

Some photos from days past

Yes, I know it's been awhile. These two roses were from a floral arrangement (one of three) made by Mum for the church's Easter decorations. The lighting was terrible, which was why I decided to blur the pic above (except for the spot in the middle).

Here's another rose from the same arrangement. I sprayed water on it, but no thanks to the lighting and my lack of expertise, it just doesn't work. And I can't use Photoshop to save my life. *grin*

It rained heavily the other day, and before it stopped, I took my camera and an umbrella to see if I could find anything interesting. Most of the flowers had drowned under the deluge, and the only thing remotely interesting were a pair of snails. Since the smaller snail was crawling towards a pile of cat droppings, I decided not to snap the scene. I took this pic instead.


Moving on, I decided to look for the caterpillar. And I found it soon enough. It was on a wet leaf, looking all plump and juicy. Dad mentioned that it was a Bluebottle...and I'm sure he didn't mean a fly. I should bring out that Butterfly book and have a look. I blew at it and its red (I know they're not feelers) pointy things shot out once again. I took several pix of that (and surprisingly, they're not on this page. Oh well...they look exactly the same as in the other post).


I've been busy the past two days, trying to find those 'tube' images at www.mix.fm/05 (waah, so clever...a few seconds after I typed that out, it became a link!). They didn't say how many tubes were out there, but I managed to find more than 60. The first entry I submitted yesterday had 72 tubes in total. The second (and final) entry had more. The grand prize is an iPod mini and a hamper worth RM300. (Since it's 2am...I'll consider this still the 17th). So anyways, as I was double checking the links, my mobile phone rings next to me.

"Hello, I would like to talk to the person whose handle is 'Tigrrr' - T I G R R --"
"Yes, that's me."
"Congratulations! You won the (mind not paying attention) CD Of The Week (mind not paying attention) ... "You're Beautiful" (something something). May I have your name and contact details?"

Just then, my phone beeped once. I ignored it. I stated my name...then beep beep "...My battery --"

I hurriedly went out to where my Dad has the charger on the ready and plugged it in. Then I realized that it was off. I turned it on and I got a message waiting for me. I had a missed call.

I tried calling back and the Astro operator was none too pleased when I said, "I won a CD of The Week, but before I could give my details my battery died!"

"Ma'am, from which (something) is it from?"

How was I supposed to know? The guy didn't even introduce himself! I thought at the time that it was Mix.fm and so I said, "Mix.fm" and she put me through. There was no answer and I didn't leave a message. And then when I really thought about it...if I had won something from the site, they wouldn't call me for details and they sure wouldn't use my handle. That's when it hit me. I had answered a few SMS questions about a week or two before and the only thing they had was my number and handle. As the hours ticked by, I was sure I was going to kiss my prize goodbye. Then I remembered! I could go to Channel 16 (hitz.tv) and use their chat function to get back to those people. I sent in my query ("I just got a call saying I won a CD of the Week, but before I could give my details, my battery died. How? Did I lose my chance? Tq") and the person responding as Hitz replied that he/she would let them know and that they would make sure I got my prize. My phone's all charged up now. I'll make sure it's with me the whole time! I'll heave a sigh of relief when I get my prize. I think I entered three or four of those SMS contests. All I had to do was unscramble and text back the answer. I do recall one of the answers being 'George Michael'.

On a low note, I've been having trouble the past two days trying to log into my Yahoo account. This means that I can't access the Yahoo groups, Flickr, the 360 blog, Yahoo! Games and YM! Arrghhhh!!! I wonder why? Surely it's got nothing to do with the fact that I've installed Blue Frog, right? I'll keep my fingers crossed.

As for the Puzzler game and the other games at www.all4grabs.com, well, (I think it's because I asked the son of a family friend to sign up using my handle as referrer and he gave my handle to his fellow gamers at the site he usually plays at), I am currently #1 for Puzzler, Be Control and Indirection. He got 26 people to sign up with me! Whoa...

At first, I was puzzled (heh) when I saw the long list of 'friends'. Could it have been a conspiracy among the other players to bring me down (by signing up under me and using fake details so that I would be caught 'cheating')? Well, I did the first thing that came to mind. I reported it! I didn't want them to think I was cheating after my numerous (pesky) reports about the cheaters. And then when I realized that it could be Kevin's friends...I wrote another message to them. Thank goodness, they haven't done anything drastic. Phew. If all things stay the way they do until the 1st of May, then I will have won a RM500 Fasio hamper, a month's supply of Smoothies (RM268.50) and a month on the Detox programme (RM80) from Juice Works, a RM60 haircut from SA International Image Styling Creative Center, a two-month Home membership at Fitness First, and a starter pack for Xtion Paintball worth RM60 (for 2). If only I knew whether the vouchers were transferrable. I asked the all4grabs people and they didn't seem very sure. I asked the Fitness First people and they said that if the voucher was under my name, then it couldn't be transferred. Note to self: transferrable, transferable, transferrer, transferal, transferral, transferred, transferring - all acceptable.

Well, that's it from me. Take care, all!

Organ donation

Ever since I read about the country's need for organ donors some years back, I wondered how I could get involved. Before, I couldn't find anything online. It wasn't until a few days ago that I read an article in the papers and they gave several links. I didn't take note of any of them, but I still found a site here. Just fill in the details, print the form, post it to the National Transplant Resource Centre and wait for your donor card. Easy! I chose for them to take everything. I'm sure some of my organs aren't suitable (three years of second-hand smoke exposure during my stint as a hotel receptionist), but I'll let them do all the worrying about that. I figure, why not give them all: kidneys, liver, heart, lungs, eyes, skin, and bones. It's not like I'll be needing them when I'm dead. Of course, I hope to go in such a way that the harvesting of my organs is possible. If I go via smoke inhalation/toxic fumes, I doubt that my organs would be useful.

Speaking of which, those suicidal Japanese really should find a better way to end it all. They are wasting all those organs. If they thought that they were worthless in life, they could have at least made a difference in death. What do they do? Burn charcoal in sealed minivans and cars.

Sorry for the morbid post. Well, it is close to Easter (not that I celebrate it). All that bit about death and stuff. *smiles* I am so religiously ignorant.

That's it for now. Take care, all!

p/s: The days are extremely hot and humid, and the thought of writing a post then is just unbearable! Ugh...

Update: Pearls Before Swine strip (22nd April 2006)

Return of the caterpillar

I knew the caterpillar had to be around eventhough I hadn't seen it in weeks. Okay, perhaps this is another caterpillar that managed to evade the kerengga ants. It was happily minding its own business until I decided to blow at it. I thought it would crawl away, but...

WHOOSH! Well, maybe not whoosh, nor zing BUT suddenly, these two red feelers came out of nowhere (actually, it came out from the top of its head). Wow. Yesterday, I blew at it and there was some clear liquid secretion from the ends. Don't know what it does and I'm not prepared to find out.
I blew at it some more and it reared its ugly head up. (Darn, I wish I could show this to my elder sis, she's got a caterpillar phobia *evil grin*). It looks so big and juicy, doesn't it? I'm almost tempted to break off one of the thorns from the lime plant and poke at it. But the thought of touching it makes me all squeamish *gets all squeamy*.

When I stopped harassing it, the feelers went back into its head. I wish I knew what it'll turn out to be. One of those sissy little butterflies or a big moth? I bviously don't know enough about these things. We do have a big Butterfly encyclopedia, but they only displayed the butterflies, not the caterpillars. That reminds me. Last year, my sis prepared the hantaran for my brother's wedding and she decided to try making butterflies. Mum saw them and said that the wings were dodgy and they didn't look like real butterflies. And then she added, "I know what butterflies look like, I got a big butterfly book at home." Hehehehehe... Yup, you're not a certified butterfly expert unless you have an encyclopedia. *grin*

I have more pix from the past few days (not caterpillars). I'll update some time. It's just so hot and humid here and having the fan on in my room at full swing isn't helping much either. And for some strange reason, I don't like having cold showers. I'm sure most people from colder climes would stare in amazement at the shower heaters we have here. Why would we need hot showers in a hot country? Because cold showers are cold! *grin* Okay, I'll stop my rambling now. Dina, if you're reading this...I told you so! Me blogging about caterpillars...and I'm not even a ... *thinks* etymologist? *looks it up on Google* Oops, not right. Entomologist! An etymologist is "a linguist who focuses primarily on the origins of words". Whoopsie.

Take care, all!

 

By Jove, I think I've got it!

I sent in three photos to Interfacelift yesterday evening and one of them was chosen. It was a very quick selection. Since the normal photos that I take are nothing to shout about (the keyboard, for example), I've come to realize that the only way to get my photo selected is to make sure that the subject is not available in the West. They chose my Papaya Leaves, and now they have chosen my Passionfruit flower pic! =)

I've been looking all over my garden for inspiration. I don't think they're into orchids much. And I'm not too sure what they'll think of a soursop fruit. I haven't submitted the soursop leaves (the one with the bright blue sky as the backdrop) because it might be perceived as a copycat shot of the oak leaf. Anyways, yaay for me. All that sacrificing my blood to the bloodthirsty mosquitoes was worth it. And my dad told me off for going there, where the mosquitoes are most concentrated.

That's it from me. To the browsers from Interfacelift, welcome. To the people from photofriday who might be curious enough to venture away from the submitted link, welcome. To my semi-regular readers, a bigger welcome for being so patient after several days of silence. =) Take care, all!

The Puzzler saga continues

I'm still number 1 in the game after they removed that cheater's name from the list. Alas, they didn't ban him/her. Found the name back in the list at #8. There was a new player just 99,000 points behind. I'm sure this new player is related to the cheater. And my suspicious were confirmed when 'bixxy' shot up from #9 to #2 with the accumulation of almost 1million points. Considering that each game is 2 mins long, this player would have needed at least 33 hours to get to that level.

You bet that I promptly sent a message to those people maintaining the site. Why do they not have people to monitor suspicious activity? The only concern players should have is getting enough points to get a prize, not eeeping tabs on players who cheat. GRRR. If they want to make it quick and simple, they should just ban those cheaters' behinds. Why let them play when there's still a big possibility that they will keep cheating?

I will be keeping awake tonight to monitor their progress. I think the former leader is testing the waters with bixxy to see if their dubious activity is still being monitored.

Oh Thursday, I went to the new Employee Provident Fund (EPF/KWSP) building at Jalan Kemajuan (next to the Terengganu Trade Center) to get the PIN number to my i-akaun. It was a big, impressive building. We looked at the directory and I was a little confused as to which floor I was supposed to go to. I reread the e-mail printout and confirmed that it was at the main lobby at the ground floor. I approached the smiling woman at the counter and explained that I was there to get my PIN number, and she promptly pressed button B to give me my Queue ticket. We walked several paces to the other side and sat down. I looked at the queue number on display, then I looked at my ticket. I glanced at the "Now attending to: 2038" and then to my number (2039). I looked up and saw that my number was on the display. My dad said, "It's your turn." I looked at counter #4 and the woman there was smiling at me. Wow, that was really quick. Barely had time to warm my seat. I walked to the counter and she bade me a good afternoon. Now this is what I call SERVICE! I greeted in kind and told her that I was there to get my PIN. She left and returned with a big file. She crossed out my name and I signed a form to confirm that I had received it and I gave my right thumbprint as well. She gave me the ink and I did the thumbprinting myself. It was an impressive thumbprint, if I may say so myself. Very clear, no smudges.

In less than 5 minutes, I was out of the building! Now I wish I had more business to do at the KWSP office. *grin* There was no wait at all. There were so many counters open, around eight people waiting (it's possible that some of those people were just tagging along). I hope the building and the service doesn't deteriorate with time.

That's it from me. Take care all!

p/s: I signed up with Flickr. I'm considering using the Flickr page as the link to the weekly PhotoFriday challenges.

Organized

Keyboard in the Evening 5
Originally uploaded by Tigrrr.

PhotoFriday entry for this week. Shot of the MS Natural Multimedia keyboard I won a few years back.

Boredom + power outage + magnifying glass = kerengga carnage!

Sorry for the weird layout today. I'm not that bothered to correct it because I tried twice and that's enough. If it didn't take so darn long to upload the pic (my fault for not resizing), I would have righted it. Anyways, The power went out at 9:50am. I had time to shower and return to bed (only had 10 mins of lie-in time). Had breakfast and then took my camera out. On the way to the door, I got a hold of the old magnifying glass. Yes, I didn't have good intentions with that.

I walked to the mango tree that was to my left and noticed several kerengga ants crawling along with not a care in the world (well, one care - to gather food). I saw some patches of sunlight and started to focus the sun's rays on one hapless kerengga. It didn't know what hit it. Then another kerengga came to the rescue. It received the same treatment. At the end of it, I think I mortally wounded/critically injured up to 16 kerengga. Couldn't do more because it either got cloudy or the sun shifted enough for its rays to land on the leaves of the mango tree. So I moved to the wall and tried my luck killing the kerengga there. They moved too fast and there wasn't a constant supply of sunshine (blame the durian tree). So I started burning the letter 'S' on the dried durian trees.

My eyes were temporary 'blinded' by a yellow spot after all that. Had lunch just before 1pm and was supposed to accompany Mum to the library. One thing about this library is that they won't let you in without a library card. We used to be members, but since the shift from town to the outskirts, we let the membership expire. It got hot and I wasn't looking forward to getting dressed to go to the library. There are no new books (since the late 80s/early 90s) and I already read 'The Star' newspaper online. I would probably die of boredom there. I told Mum about changing my mind and she said that it wouldn't be worth the petrol if she went alone. So we all stayed in.

I lay down in my parents' bedroom floor because she had left the a/c on and the floor was very cool. I just let my back touch the floor and put my legs on the sheepskin rug. Too cold for the back of my legs. I think I might have slept. And then I went to sleep on the bed because Mum said it was cold there. Not true. Slept on a different area of the floor. Then it was 4pm and I decided that I had had enough of the cold, hard floor. I went to my room and lay on my bed. An hour later, the fan started to move. Yaay! I turned on my trusty laptop and went online.

About the two pix. Took the first several days ago and the second pic today. I love how the sky is so vividly blue in the first one. I had to kneel to get that photo and my hands were shaky.

I am still second in that game. I hope they do something about all that cheating happening. I shouldn't be the one monitoring the other players. I should be playing and enjoying myself. Grrr!

That's enough of my 'boring' day for you. Take care, all!

The Carrier Man Can...

I remember hearing that tagline on the radio way back in the 80s. This is a shot of the back of the a/c unit. Don't know if this would have been a better shot for the 'Metallic' challenge at PhotoFriday. Oh well, I participate for the fun of it. I hope to be more 'adventurous' next time, leaving no stone unturned.

Another day of no electricity scheduled for tomorrow. Arrgh!! I think I'll try spending time on the floor of my bathroom. It's clean and dry (Mum says it's dusty, but I told her that dust is not a problem for me). So, the sweat starts from 9:30am and hopefully ends at 6pm (half-an-hour earlier than scheduled).

Played more Puzzler the other day and noticed that the names of the two players that had the fishy scores had been taken off the list of top scorers. That would have been #1 and #4. Last night, I was playing again and noticed the leader playing as well. After one 2-minute game (scores are supposed to increase by 500 or 1,000 points), I noticed that the leader gained 19,000 points! Well, you can bet that I contacted the all4grabs people. Don't know if they are going to take any action against this player. In my message to them, I said that I didn't like winning this way (by getting them banned) but it was unfair that they cheated while I played day and night like a crazy person. How do these people cheat? Well, someone told me that they get their friends to play under their account. That means there could be five or more people playing under one account and accumulating a crazy amount of points in no time at all. No, nobody is allowed to cheat while I'm playing. And don't think they can get by me. I REMEMBER scores. I remember that 'sengkok' has 423900 points and hasn't played for days/a week. *double-checks list* Yes, more proof that I can remember trivial things such as these. I really do need to get a boyfriend! *grin*

I got e-mail from the Mystery Shopping people yesterday and they reviewed my evaluation. They said it was a 'Very Good observation and evaluation'. Ahem. Alas, I don't think there are many assignments for a small town like mine. And there will be instances were I can't evaluate a site due to the fact that friends will be working there. Oh well, I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Take care all and here's a little pic I took today.

It's April Fool's Day

And I haven't played any pranks (yet). Dad's still having his nap. I could barge in and say that one of his orchids fell down and broke. *evil chuckle* Should I?

Anyways, Simon says that I should have cleaned my doorknob. As we all know, whatever Simon says, we have to do. If Simon says hop, we hop. If we're playing that game anyway. And my game is, 'Simon wants a gf, but I'll find him one AFTER I get myself a bf'.

So, if any of you women who stray by this site see this, and you meet the requirements:
1) Preferably female (*evil chortle*)
2) Aged (...between 26 and 32 - hehehe)
3) Preferably living in the UK (close enough to Nottingham)
4) Doesn't mind his wandering eyes (by that I mean Nystigmus - the same condition that actor in Identity has)
5) Drives (as he can't due to his condition)
6) Not big-bosomed (Anna Nicole Smith/Tara Reid need not apply)
7) Smart and intelligent

If Simon reads this, I'll plead the APD (April Fools' Day) clause. Hey, at least I'm being proactive, am I not? Oh, I'm supposed to find a bf for myself first. Errm, well, if any interested women have elder brothers who are single and semi-good-looking, please leave your contact details in the comments section. *grin*

I was thinking that if anyone is interested in using my photos (as wallpaper, for instance) but don't like the annoying watermark on some of them, just let me know and I'll give you the photo/link to my Photobucket albums.

Well, I went to evaluate the bank in town on Thursday. And I thank my lucky stars that I wrote down the checklist in my notebook (printed questionnaire can't be taken along to the location), because when my Dad and I entered the bank (at a supposedly peak period between noon and 2pm), there were no queue ticketing machines and only two customers waiting in line. So while I waited, I got my Dad to check the premises. Arrived at 12:50pm, and we left at 1:15pm - after meeting with the assistant marketing officer. Pretended to be interested in their unit trust funds. Dad experienced a furniture malfunction just before we ended the meeting. His seat dropped in 'altitude' very rapidly, and as I saw him in the corner of my eye, I was wondering why he suddenly looked so short. Hehehehe...oh, speaking of Dad, he's woken up. Darn.

That's it from me. Take care, all! By the way, before I could submit this to Interfacelift, somebody sent in something similar. Grrr...