Blog Tampered With

Notice:

My earlier post titled July 9, 2011 - A Day To Be Remembered has been hacked and turned into unintelligible junk. It was fine last night. 

Book Review: 1222 by Anne Holt

I've never read Anne Holt's work before even though she's a best-selling novelist. That's because she's a Norwegian author, and her novels are all written in Norwegian. So English readers like me are lucky when her eighth installment of The Hanne Wilhelmsen series was translated into English.


After having read Snow by Orhan Pamuk, also another translated work, Anne Holt's 1222 is a refreshing change. It draws you in, unlike Snow. 


Although it's a crime thriller, it is not one of those action-packed novels that I like. Rather, it is reminiscent of Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes. It focuses more on solving the puzzle of the crime instead of the crime itself. That said, I do like Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes, too, so if there is going to be anymore English-translated work of Holt's, I'll be sure to read them.


1222 is the name of a hotel atop a mountain near a train station. The story begins with a snow blizzard that caused the train to derail. The survivors were rescued and taken to Finse 1222. Snowed in and unable to go home, people started to die. 


Amongst the survivors was a former police detective Hanne Wilhelmsen. Paralysed from waist down due to a bullet that hit her 12th and 13th verterbrae, she tried to work out who the murderer was from a long list of suspects.


Even though I am more a fan of fast action novels, somehow the narration of 1222 managed to draw me into the story and it was one of those hard-to-put-down books. Imagine this....my nose was buried in my Kindle as hubby and I walked along Jalan Telawi in Bangsar.....

Cat With Diva Attitude

See the gleam in her eyes

Yin, who earned the nickname Empress Dowager from hubby for her very diva attitude, has asserted herself yet again. Today, she wanted my desk, or whatever remaining space there was, to herself, and when Blackie joined her, she tried to push him off. 

This is the same way she pushes my mum's mobile phone off the table too. The only item she allows on whichever table she is lying on must belong to me. If she smells that it doesn't belong to me, she'll push it off the table. We still haven't figured out why she does that. My mum has been trying, without success, I might add, to instill in Yin that anybody who lives in this apartment is allowed to put their things on any tables, that she should not discriminate.

Middle Class Affordable Housing Scheme NOT Affordable

While having my morning cup of coffee and a cheese sandwich, the news below caught my eye.

PETALING JAYA: Middle class Malaysians who are aspiring to buy a home will soon be able to do so once a new Government-led initiative to build apartments costing less than RM300,000 in major cities is launched this year, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Chor Chee Heung said.

The affordable housing scheme, which is an addition to the My First Home Scheme for units costing between RM100,000 and RM220,000, will see stratified units priced between RM220,000 and RM300,000 being built for those with a household income of less than RM6,000 a month and who do not yet own a house.
~ source ~ The Star Online (click on link for full story)

My first reaction was, this will not work. If they are going to restrict purchase of properties priced RM300K and below for those with a household income of less than RM6K, those who earned RM6K and above will find themselves unable to purchase a home of their own while those who earned less would not be able to afford this so-called affordable housing. 

In today's rising costs, if you earn RM6K a month as an individual, you do not have much disposable income. What more if it's a household income of less than RM6K, which translates to less than RM3K as an individual. But this is another issue. I only want to find out if those with a household income of less than RM6K could afford a home of RM220K to RM300K.

I will use the ceiling of RM5,999 as the household income in my calculations. I am using an example of a husband and wife with no kids. What is the actual take home pay this household has? RM4,976...after deducting EPF and tax, with the allowance amount taken into consideration before calculating the tax amount. (I did not take Socso contributions into account as the amount is rather negligible and some employers opt not to deduct Socso from their employee's salary.)

Let's take a look at the disposable income this household has. Out of RM4,967, a portion has to go towards car installment, utilities, petrol, parking fees and toll. I'm not even going to take into account the cost of a car's maintenance! Let's assume this household owns only one car.

RM4,967 - RM800 (car installment) - RM200 (utilities) - RM500 (petrol, a conservative figure) - RM100 (parking fees and toll, another conservative figure) = RM3,367. 

RM3,367 is the remaining disposable income for this household. And what is the monthly installment payment for homes costing between RM220K and RM300K?

The monthly installment for a RM300K home would be RM1,467* if they are in their 20s or early 30s and could get a 30-year loan. For a RM220K home, the monthly installment for this young household would be RM1,076*. 

So, if this household is foolish enough to buy a RM300K home, they will be left with only RM1,900, a sum hardly able to sustain a household. If they were to buy a home at the bottom of the range, their monthly disposable income, after deducting the house installment would be RM2,291. Still not a healthy disposable income for a household, but at least slightly better than if they had bought a RM300K home. (Bear in mind this is not an individual income, but household income.) And I am not even looking at a household with kids!

*Note - the best quote I know from a foreign bank. 

Book Review: Snow by Orhan Pamuk

Snow, "kar" in Turkish, is a story about Ka, a Turkish poet who lived in exile in Germany and who has now returned to Istanbul for his mother's funeral. He took the opportunity to travel to Kars, a city northeast of Turkey on the pretext of covering the story of the numerous suicides there. In truth, he had heard that Ipek, a beautiful ex-classmate was now divorced and he hoped to make her his wife. 

When he arrived, there was a snowstorm which cut the city off from the rest of the world for three days. So, in a nutshell, the plot is about Ka stranded in kar in Kars. And that's all there was to it, really. 

Yes, I know, those who have read the book would tell me about the secular state's clashes with the Islamist fundamentalists, about how a group of Muslim girls would rather commit suicide than remove their head scarves, and how the army staged a theatre act but fired five rounds of live bullets into the audience, killing some while injuring others.

They would be right. We read the same book. However, my gripe is not with the plot itself. Snow had a rather unique plot, one that broke the monotony of the plethora of bestsellers by Western authors. I'd be the last person to argue that the story wasn't interesting.

I only wished it had been written better. The story was told by an omniscient presence (the author's) who came upon Ka's notes years later and pieced them together. The 'layers' removed the reader from the story and as a result, I did not feel involved in the events taking place, nor did I feel any empathy for Ka. As a matter of fact, I felt that Ka was a drip.

If this were a movie, I would have said the wrong actor was cast in the male lead. But this is a book, so I guess it was the way the story was narrated. Orhan Pamuk could still keep Ka as the main character, but approached it differently. 

Special diet, special diet, I need a special diet chef

First, it was hubby who needed a special diabetic diet. Now it is mum. Yesterday, her annual blood test results showed that her uric acid reading is high while her sodium, chloride and potassium are lower than normal. This is despite her potassium supplements prescribed by the doctors. 


The doctor did not prescribe any medication to lower her uric acid nor to increase her sodium. She said just increase the salt in our food and to avoid food high in uric acid (more than 100mg/100g, according to my research). 


Spinach tops the list at 57g per100g, followed by mushrooms (488mg/100g), sardines in oil (480mg/100g), fresh sardines (345mg/100g), anchovies (239mg/100g), all beans and peas products and by-products (190mg/100), salmon (170mg/100g), mackerel (145mg/100), crustacean seafood and red meat (including pork).  


Not only tofu is out of the menu, but practically all meat as the only meat mum could eat is chicken and hubby simply refuses to eat this poultry in any form.


What is good for hubby is bad for mummy and vice versa,e.g. I can't increase the salt in our food, as hubby is on a low-sodium diet.....I am so f****d.


More research, more research, today's dinner will be ready and served next week..... :P

The Mouse Loses

It is with much sadness that I report the mouse was caught at 11:31am on 23 June 2011 and destroyed. It never had a chance. Our home is now mouse-free......

Cat and Mouse Game

While ambling down the boulevards of downtown KL last Sunday, I spotted a Malay pak cik with two mice on strings. He was tugging and releasing the strings like one would with a yoyo and the mice were scampering around with tails swishing left and right. I stopped and watched.


The pak cik said he made the mice himself. On closer inspection, I could see that he spoke the truth. Nevertheless, I knew my kitties would enjoy a game of cat-and-mouse. A few minutes later, RM5 and a mouse changed hands. 

Yin picked up the mouse by its tail and ran off with it. I wish I had managed to capture it before she dropped it. She was too fast for me. Blackie was not interested in running off with the mouse. He only wanted to tug and chew on the tail. A toilet brush in a different form???

Toilet Brush For Dessert, Anyone?

Blackie is a rather strange cat. He likes to chew.....no, not bones or fingers, but on toilet brushes and hair. He used to go into our bathrooms and chew our toilet brushes. After he developed a bladder infection, all bathroom doors are closed off to him, although occasionally, the little rascal managed to slip in with my mum unnoticed. And when she leaves the bathroom and shuts the door with him inside, that's when he has a party.


So, what do I do when I see a scratch board with a toilet brush bristle arch? Buy it for the little tyke, naturally.

This product, at RM46, can be purchased from:
Home Pet Food & Care
No. 41, Jalan 1/149J
Bandar Baru Sri Petaling
57000 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03 - 9059 3191 / 3192


Home Pet Food & Care does not sell livestock and rescues abandoned and stray cats. If you'd like to adopt a cute and friendly kitty, do give them a call. They have more than 30 beautiful and adorable cats and kittens waiting to shower you with their love and affection.

Cats On Ecstasy

Help! My kitties have been drugged! Or not.

You know the world has come to an end when your cats got their own mail. Yes, you read that right. A mysterious brown package arrived in the post for Blackie and Yin this afternoon. 

After the Secret Service vetted the package safe from any explosives or harmful virus and bacteria, it was carefully opened to reveal...........

.......a pretty floral pouch with C.A.T.N.I.P.!! For those who do not have cats, this is the equivalent of kitty ecstasy drug. And to protect the scent from escaping, my friend Lupie has put it inside a plastic zip bag. 


Look at how potent this kitty drug has on my two masters............

They were both sleeping when I placed the pouch on the table. Blackie's nose started wriggling, then both kitties got up at the same time and started sniffing the pouch.

They were not interested in sitting still for photos. Both were trying to rub their heads on it.

Yin, the better catcher when it comes to playing games, snatched it from Blackie while he was still trying to pick it up. Poor Blackie. If he had to catch his own prey for food, he'll loose out to all the other cats and become a thin, hungry kitty.

Yin, gripping the pouch with one paw and wiping it on her face in the same manner a human would apply the roll-on deodorant on their armpits. She's making herself smell nice....for who, I wonder.

Blackie tried to snatch it back, but got a smack on the paw from Yin. My camera is one of those compact ones and wasn't fast enough to capture the motion.
Both kitties very high now. Yin has dropped the pouch from her paws and lolled on her back while Blackie kept rubbing the table (and edge of pouch) with his head.


Thank you very, very, very much, Lupie, for the wonderful gift. For those who'd like this catnip pouch, I believe it is available for purchase from Lupie's website at www.sillylupie.com or email her at sillylupie77 [at] gmail [dot] com. Please contact her if you'd like one or a few for your kitties.  :) 


Related post:
A "Cure" For Catty Black Moods

Polygamy, Prostitution and Homosexuality

For the first time since the creation of this blog in 2008, I am writing a third installment on the same social issue. Which is so not me, as I tend not to bother myself too much with this. There are more than enough serious blogs out there, and my blog was meant to be a light-hearted, perhaps frivolous ramblings. You know, a chance to talk to myself without being called a nut.


Anyway, this post is a look at polygamy and a follow-up to a previous post titled "More prostitutes please, we are Malaysians". 

"Men are by nature polygamous", said Dr Rohaya, Mohamad Ikram Ashaari's third wife. “We hear of many men having the ‘other woman,’ affairs and prostitution because for men, one woman is not enough. Polygamy is a way to overcome social ills such as this.”~~ source: The Muslim Observer

This is the woman who said "a good wife is a good sex worker to her husband" and "disobedient wives are the cause for upheaval in this world because men are not happy at home and their minds and souls are disturbed". Her husband, Mohamad Ikram Ashaari,  the man whom Al-Arqam insisted could forgive the sins of Muslims, established Ikwan Polygamy Club to promote polygamy in August last year. While polygamy is legal for Muslims in Malaysia, where a man is allowed to have four wives at a time, husbands who are polygamous have found it difficult to provide for all their wives and children.


But that is not what I'm going to write about. I'm more interested in their claim that polygamy will solve those social ills. I SAY and I say it with capital letters, that polygamy creates MORE social ills. 


Let's take a look at the entitlement of four wives to a man. The population in Malaysia is equally split between males and females. So if there are ten (10) men, then there are ten (10) women in Malaysia. Two men will get four wives each, while one man will get two wives only. The other SEVEN men will never have a wife.


What will those seven, wife-less men do? Turn to homosexuality? Share the other men's wives? Or indulge in incest with their sisters, daughters or mothers? Or turn to bestiality?? I see nothing but more social ills......

And for this Obedient Wife Club, Malaysia is on the map again! 

Malaysia Obedient Wives Club: Good sex is a duty in Yahoo News

Malaysia 'obedient wives' Club: Good sex is a duty in Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Malaysian club urges wives to be' whores in bed' in news.com.au

FB users counter Malaysian 'sexist' wives club with new group in Daily India

'Obedient Wife Club' urges women to be whores in bed in The Sydney Morning Herald

Malaysia Obedient Wife Club promotes marital sex in Forbes

Malaysian women launch 'The Obedient Wife Club' in AFP

Obedient Wife Club set up to curb divorce in The Telegraph

Malaysian Polygamy Club Draws Criticism in The Muslim Observer

Wives told to be whores in bed in Bangkok Post

Population index:
Gender ratio: 
at birth - 1.07 male :1 female
under 15 years - 1.06 male : 1 female
15 - 64 years - 1.01 male : 1 female
65 years and over - 0.79 male : 1 female
total population - 1.01 male : 1 female
~~ source: Malaysia Department of Statistics


Updated on 13/10/11:
OWC - Obedient Wives Club or Orgy Wives Club

More Prostitutes Please, We Are Malaysians!!!

I never thought I'd  need to follow up my post "More Sex Please, We Are Malaysians" with another post. But life in a circus is unpredictable and Malaysia is a circus.


Take these news articles in today's and yesterday's The Star, for instance.


'Wives can curb social ills like prostitution by being obedient and alluring'
Obedient Wives Club to offer sex lessons on how to pleasure husbands

When asked whether it was the wife's fault for being abused, she said: “Yes, most probably because she didn't listen to her husband.”

Sex lessons to help wives “serve their husbands better than a first-class prostitute” will be among the courses provided by the Obedient Wives Club (OWC) to help promote harmonious marriages and counter social ills.

Its vice-president Dr Rohaya Mohamad said it was time sexual prowess took a front seat in marriage beyond the traditional “good mother or good cook” roles.

So, let us see....
A good wife = a first class prostitute
A first class prostitue = a good wife
Therefore, all wives should be prostitutes. Or is it all men should aim to marry a first class prostitute??


The Obedient Wives Club is created by Global Ikhwan Sdn Bhd, which also has an Ikhwan Polygamy Club. Perfect compatibility. After dinner, the husband leaves for his Polygamy Club while the wife proceeds to her Obedient Wives Club. 


Perhaps I should start an online business selling whips, hooker boots, leather thongs, pornography DVDs and graphic comics. I bet I will be a millionaire in no time, since a large population will be prostitutes and in need of those supplies! Any buyers here? :P


P/s: Prostitutes Wanted: Must be willing and grateful to be whipped, beaten up, thoroughly abused, raped and used in any manner the man, her master, wishes. If you think it is a priviledge to be treated thus, or that this is the pathway to heaven, please apply here.


P.P.S: Come join us to take a stand in the  We do not want Sexist Nonsense from Global Ikhwan Sdn Bhd Facebook page.


Updates: FB group counters sexist wives club.
Related topics:
Polygamy, Prostitution and Homosexuality
OWC - Obedient Wives Club or Orgy Wives Club

Operation Mincemeat by Ben Mcintyre

Upon finishing Agent Zigzag by the same author a month ago, I started right away on Operation Mincemeat. I usually take less than one week to finish a paperback of 600 pages. However, April and May have been particularly busy months, and the weekends were no different. There was always one obligation after another. I was surprised to note that I took one month to finish Agent Zigzag and another month to finish Operation Mincemeat. At the rate I'm reading, it's going to take me more than one lifetime to finish all the books I have!


Operation Mincemeat was the codename of a very bizarre deception carried out by the British Intelligence to fool the Nazis.  One of the person involved in the deception was Ian Fleming who was in Room 35 of the Admiralty, the nerve center of British naval intelligence. He later went on to write the James Bond spy novels.


And his colleague, Charles Fraser-Smith, was the inventor who provided Ian Fleming with equipments for his more outlandish plans. Needless to say, Charles Fraser-Smith was responsible for the character 'Q' in the James Bond novels while 'M' was based on Admiral John Godfrey.


The deception involved getting a corpse with no family and dressing it up as an officer and floating it off to the Spanish shores with planted intelligence documents to fool the Germans about the Allieds' invasion plans.


I particularly enjoyed the first half of the book. Stephen King couldn't have been more macabre. 

Bentley Purchase came up with a solution. "I've got it," said the coroner. "We'll get an electric fire and thaw out the feet only. As soon as the boots are on we'll pop him back in the refrigerator again and refreeze him."

 The mouth of the corpse has fallen open. The skin around the nose has sunk, and the upper part of the face appears discoloured. The fingers of the left hand are bent, as if clawing in pain.

......a person was formally pronounced dead without ever having been alive.

I don't normally quote paragraphs from the books I read, but those passages just stuck in my mind.


Read together with Agent Zigzag and The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva, one has a better understanding and appreciation of how a war could be won even before it actually began. History lesson has never been so interesting, dead bodies do tell tales. 


And now I'm going to start on a fiction that has nothing to do with war....time to take a break from history.  Should I read The Girl With A Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson or Snow by Orhan Pamuk, or......

The Little Tyke Is At It Again

Plants and flowers used to be found in every crook and corner, and on side tables, coffee tables, or dining tables in my home. Those were things of the past ever since Blackie took over my home five and a half years ago.

Nearly two weeks earlier, a friend, AC, gave me a lovely bunch of chrysanthemums for my birthday. Thank you for those lovely flowers that brightened up my home, A.

Less than three hours later, Blackie started to chew them. By the time I returned from Cameron Highlands, they were half gone. 

And this morning, I caught the little tyke chewing the lavenders I bought at Cameron Highlands.

Trying to look innocent

Oops...he knocked down the vase....I caught it just in time

The vase is now sitting on top of my shoe cabinet outside, between the gate and the door, and Blackie is now sitting there, working out the details of how to get up on the shoe cabinet. He rushed back inside when I tried to take a picture of him. Goes to show the little tyke knows the flowers are off-limits to him.

Cameron Highlands Apples

You would be forgiven if you thought "Oh no, she got conned again with another dodgy apple from Cameron Highlands" (see Conned: Hybrid Guava Apple It Is Not). Forgiven, but wrong.  

My first thought when I walked into a farm and saw these plants was "What are these? Eggplants??" I wasn't alone in thinking that. A woman very authoritatively told her husband and kids that those were definitely eggplants. However, I wasn't as hundred percent sure as she was. And hubby was certain those were not eggplants. So I went and asked one of the farmhands. He said those were apples. Apples?? Yes, Cameron Highlands' very own apples. Are they sour or sweet? Sweet. They taste like honeydew. Ohhh.....

The farmhand said all the riped ones had been plucked. Being someone who loved to try new things, I didn't want to go home without getting some. After badgering him, he said if I saw any that was yellow with red stripes, I could pluck those. But I'd have to keep them in room temperature for about two days for them to completely ripen, otherwise they won't taste good.

Ready to be plucked, and should ripen in two days

We only managed to find six apples that could be plucked. I guess there must have been a lot of tourists that visited during the May 1st holiday, as this is not the peak season. 

Today, three of the apples ripened and they exuded a rich honeydew smell. After chilling them in the fridge for a few hours, we sank our teeth into them. And......they were wonderful. Very juicy, juicier than regular honeydew, and sweet, those apples taste exactly like honeydew. The skin was a little funny, though. Felt like plastic. I couldn't peel them with a peeler, but after I had cut them, I could peel it off by pulling at the edge and dragging it off in one neat tug. Another hybrid??!! But the farmhand did NOT say it's a hybrid apple-honeydew......

The apples were very juicy and sweet

Century Pines Resort @ Cameron Highlands

For some reason, hotels in Cameron Highlands are pretty run down, no matter whether they are in the range of RM100+, RM200+ or RM300+. Heritage Hotel, Hotel Equatorial, Hotel Casa De La Rossa, Smokehouse Hotel, are just some of them. I'm not sure why they couldn't be maintained better, but I suspect it could be due to either the damp weather or that Cameron is a seasonal holiday destination, and they do not have enough income during off-peak season. 


So, when I stumbled onto a review that Century Pines Resort at Tanah Rata has added on a new wing, I decided to check it out. 

The room was spacious, clean and comfortable with a super-king size bed

The housekeeping service was very prompt in attending to our requests to change the two light bulbs that weren't working. Someone knocked on our door less than six seconds after we hung up the phone.


The staff were very accommodating, too. At about 9pm, after the gym and sauna was closed, we asked if we could use them, and they immediately said yes, and one of them opened the doors for us right away.


The room came with a western and local buffet breakfast, and the spread is so far, the best that the hotels in Cameron has offered. I like that I could customize my orders although I think the chef wasn't too happy with my very detailed requests, like, "Could you make my omelette a little under-done please? I don't like those well-done ones" or, "Could you make me some French toasts, please? I like them well-soaked in the eggs before they're fried." 

The garden

The lobby

Other topics of the same trip:
Conned - Hybrid Guava-Apple It Is Not
The Best Scones in Cameron Highlands

Conned - Hybrid Guava-Apple It Is Not

Till today, Cameron Highlands remains one of my favourite places to unwind and relax, second after Penang. The last time we went to Cameron Highlands was in September 2009, and we thought it's time to revisit the place. There were not much changes, other than a couple of 'new' fruits. 

One of the fruits that could be seen everywhere in Cameron was Jambu-Epal, a hybrid of guava-apple. It comes in a packet of two, and sells for between RM8 and RM10 each, depending on the store, and RM15 for two packets. The colour of the fruit is a very bright apple-green colour. 

The colour is so unnaturally green that it looks like it has been colour-treated. When I posed the question of whether the fruit had colour dye added to it, the vendors denied it. They claimed that this is the natural colour of the fruit. The fruit, they claimed, is known as guava-apple and grown locally. It tastes like an apple but has the texture of a guava. 


On the day we left Cameron, we succumbed and bought two packets for RM15 after one of the vendors let us taste a small slice. On hindsight, the slice was too small for us to realise that the apple sweetness we tasted is not natural.

The shock came when we got home and I cut one of them. As I was washing it, I thought I saw greenish water running down the sink. As I rubbed the fruit more vigorously, I could feel the sliminess of the flesh of a fruit that has been de-skinned. 

What I discovered after I had cut it into slices and even removed the green part was that the guava-apple is none other than your ubiquitious regular guava, nothing more, nothing less. It must have been soaked in an extremely sweet green colour syrup for a very long time, for the saccharine sweetness has permeated all the way into the guava. Despite removing the green coloured part, it was still too unnaturally sweet to be eaten. 

I threw all four away. But before I did that, I washed and cut another one for the photos and this blog.

The green colour water that dripped from the fruit after I scrubbed it with my hands.

Is It Better To Be An Insomniac Vampire or A Walking Dead?

It's 4:58pm on a hot, sunny Wednesday afternoon, and I am feeling particularly sleepy, and with nobody to talk to (hubby is at work, mum and two kitties are sound asleep, emails from cousin and friends have been replied to), it's time to indulge in some verbal diarrhea a.k.a. ramblings in my blog. Dear readers, this is your modern day's old lady mumbling to herself. I think I could grow to love this image of myself. It is more sophisticated than that of an old crotchety lady, sitting on a rocking chair, knitting and mumbling to herself, no? 


More than two and a half years ago, I rambled on about the nicknames hubby gave me in a self-indulgent post titled List of Nicknames. The nicknames have not changed much. I am still called the Insomniac Vampire, due to my insomnia. But a new nickname has emerged. I now have the dubious honour of being called The Walking Dead. Is that a promotion or what??


I've always had low blood pressure (hypotension), but it's not something in the forefront of my mind. Ever since hubby started monitoring his blood pressure and blood glucose level diligently, he puts me under the 'microscope', too. And he found, to his horror, that my blood pressure does not vary too far from what has now become the benchmark of my 'normal' blood pressure readings: 88/52. My systolic reading does not sway too far from 88, and neither does my diastolic reading. The highest ever recorded was 90/55. But it's usually 86/50, 88/52, never dropping below 50. 


According to the doctor, if my diastolic reading ever plunges below 50, I am to be rushed to the hospital immediately, because that is considered a critical morbidity stage. So, when my readings are 88/52, hubby says he sees his dead wife walking around. And that's how the nickname The Walking Dead started. I can't quite make up my mind if I should be flattered. I do believe I prefer to be an Insomniac Vampire, at least a vampire is more attractive than a zombie.....the latter has a rather distinctive, err, scent.  :)


And now I have a cousin with Graves' Disease. What is that?? Is she a grave-robber? Or grave-digger? No, nothing so glamorous unfortunately. Graves' Disease is an autoimmune disease that causes high thyroid, and I am so concerned for her. I've always pictured her to be forever young, healthy, bubbly and happy, to imagine that she could be anything less than that is very disconcerting, to say the least. 


It's now 5:22pm,  time to 'pen off' and perform some wifely duties -- hoover the floor and then retreat to my kitchen to cook up a storm for hubby. 

Book Review: Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre

A friend who read a review that I wrote on The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva suggested that since I enjoyed reading about British double-cross espionage during World War II I might like Agent Zigzag, a true account of love, espionage and betrayal . And she was right. 


While I had learned a fair bit about how the British concocted a very daring and remarkable deception plan to deceive the Nazis, Agent Zigzag completed my 'education' and I knew all the spy masters by name now, if not their complete personality, on both the British and German sides. Well, almost, anyway. There is one more deception, a very famous dead body operation called Operation Mincemeat, which I will write a review on when I finished reading it.


Eddie Chapman was the most unlikely hero I had ever come across. He began his life as a criminal and was a member of the Jelly Gang who used chewing gum to stick the gelignite to the safes on their heists. 


And yet, he was also a gentle criminal. He abhorred the use of violence in his crimes. He was also a very charming young man, and made friends easily, both of the female and male gender. This was a man with two fiancées at the same time! 


He was serving a sentence in Jersey when the Nazis took control of the island. And so began a story that was more astounding than fiction. His British handlers codenamed him 'Zigzag' due to his erratic personality.


The book's account is taken from documents released by the British Secret Service MI5 to the UK National Archives in 2001 and is a must read for fans of espionage. 

More Sex Please, We Are Malaysians!!!

It has been thought that food is a Malaysian national obsession. A friend from the UK once noted that Malaysians are always eating, no matter what time of the day or night it is, and if they are not eating, they are thinking of eating or talking about eating. I agreed with him. 


On the surface, it does look like Malaysians are obsessed with food. However, if you take a closer look, you might think again. For hidden beneath the layers of gluttony, lies another, secret obsession. People from all walks of life -- politicians, police, wardens, lawyers, engineers, teachers, cooks, housewives, the media, the general public -- are obsessed with one thing...SEX.


No, we are not making out like rabbits and hamsters 24/7, we are obsessed with knowing about other people having sex and sodomy. *slap forehead* Just take a look at our newspapers, day in, day out, there is bound to be a few reports on other people having sex. Just do a search for the word "sex" in The Star Online and you'll be amazed at the tons and tons of news that came up.


We have police crowding around a table, watching videos after videos of politicians having sex, and we have politicians clamouring for said videos to be screened for their viewing pleasure. 


And then, we have Ibrahim Ali who stumbled upon the realisation that the reason Malaysian men stray from their wives and have affairs is because their wives neglect their duty by not dropping whatever it is they're doing and jumping into bed with their husbands when they (the husbands) have the urge. 


And today, we have an engineer who saves her marriage by watching porn while the police say they are willing to expose the performer of a sex video. Gee, is the public going to get a treat of the bums of a sex performer??!! I'm sure all Malaysians are waiting with bated breath for more....give me more, give me more, we are Malaysians.....


Sources of the news mentioned above:
Leaked Clip and 'Wifely Duties Excite House'
Engineer Saves Her Marriage By Watching Porn
Sex Video: Police Won't Hesitate To Expose Performer
Speaker Shoots Down Call To Screen Sex Video in Dewan
Women File For Divorce Over Hubbie's Unusual Sex Drive
Woman Can't Stomach Cook's Ardour
Sexcapade Of Teacher And Warden On Video
Award-Winning Teacher's Secret - Reading and Sex


P/s: Perhaps I ought to start a label 'Sex'  in my blog and file this post there instead of 'Laughs' or 'Random Thots'....
Updated posts:
More Prostitutes Please, We Are Malaysians
Polygamy, Prostitution and Homosexuality
OWC - Obedient Wives Club or Orgy Wives Club