I went to the Korean BBQ restaurant in Kerinchi again.


And now I feel like a beached whale on Payal’s bed. LOL


No kidding. I’m so full goddammit. And when I saw the satisfied look on Payal’s, Sara’s and Syafik’s faces, I heaved a sigh of relief because I knew I made the right decision in persuading them to part with RM25 for all that food. Heck, we were the last to leave. The staff were already cleaning and washing and here we were, tucked in a corner still finishing up our desserts. Yummy.

It was all a sudden decision to go there actually. Payal called me up last night and I just mentioned about eating there since I’ve not seen any of the Monash people in ages. I guess it was fated coz my tuition was cancelled and so was the staff meeting in the store so I had the whole Sunday free to myself. And ahem…. Salary went into the bank in the morning so …. Heheheheeheheheheheheheehehe.

If at 1st, it was only Payal and me for dinner, this morning she called to say that Syafik and Sara had confirmed too. So yayy! I haven’t seen nor spoke to Sara in ages.. let alone Syafik. Good grief… Syafik being there would mean me and him having laughing fests and banging sprees on Sara and Payal hahahaha. I heard that he rarely bangs people in college these days coz he doesn’t have a partner or anyone who appreciates his banging. Hehehe..

So met up with them there at about 8.30pm. And the eating began. We couldn’t talk much coz everyone was busy stuffing their faces with food. Or ogling at all the raw food on the table… waiting for someone to toss it into the boiling hot tomyam soup or on the hot frying plate. Syafik kept saying that he should bring some of his male friends there. Guys and their big stomachs. Sigh. But then even though with all the stuffing, we could still bang Payal and Sara. And I managed to bang Syafik! *Whoops*…… it all happened when he tossed a blue-black prawn inside the boiling soup.. only to take it out and announced “I didn’t know prawns turned red”… much to the howling from all of us at the table. Hahahahahahahahahahaha. Payal commented on how he doesn’t go much into the kitchen and I kept banging him after that about what should not turn colour and what should hehehe. Man it was a fun night. Once, when me and Syafik were giggling about something.. Sara commented on how we can just continue laughing without saying anything…cannotla.. seeing his face laughing and probably thinking up of another joke just makes me burst into another bubble of laughter.

Can’t wait till the next steamboat outing. Who’s next?

(written on Friday, June 20th)
Revelation: It is a small world after all.

The store has welcomed 3 new baristas, namely Edwin, Richard and Azlin. Edwin is 1 week senior than the other two and my manager has put me as his ‘buddy’, meaning that I’m in charge of his training. Her initial reason for this decision was childish – saying that she was trying to matchmake me with him (can you believe this manager of mine?!) and thus scheduled us to have shifts together. Sheesshh.

Ok so that was that. Today, Muha got off work at 3pm, Richard at 4 and Edwin at 5pm. They were all still in the store or somewhere nearby at 6pm when I had my break so we went to the nearby Warung to eat. Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk… it turns out this Edwin went to the same primary school as me but he’s 3 years younger. Thing is, the school had 2 sessions and he doesn’t remember if he was in my session. Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk… I find out he went to Stella Maris Secondary. So I mentioned Michelle’s name and this person I know in IRC – Jay and voila… he might recognize Mich upon view but definitely knows Jay… and ahem how can I not mention Jay’s ex, Adlyn (Mich: hehehe) to which he correctly mentioned Adlyn’s last name heheehe. By this time Muha and Richard were giving each other ‘what the hell?’ looks as they listened to Edwin and me talking. He says that Jay was a good fighter when fights broke out (Abe and Amit: take note!) and that Adlyn is going out with his best friend now. Sigh.

In 40 minutes the world suddenly seemed so different.

Next topic. Radiohead. Radiohead’s new album. Radiohead’s new album which is ‘copy protected’. Radiohead’s new album which is ‘copy protected’ and can’t be played on certain, if not most, players or computers. Abe was gonna get one for me when he gets his because the price might be lower… the limited edition summore pulak tuh. People who know me and my lackadaisical attitude towards CD-buying will realize that I am really really interested in this album (like I did for Coldplay’s new album) but this sudden bit of news just took the ‘oomphh’ out of the whole thing. Now I’m contemplating between buying it on instinct, or listen to Abe’s CD first, or just go for the cassette. HAIYER.

Speaking of CDs, Radit has asked if I would like to get any from Jakarta when he flies back there on Wednesday. Ehehe the prices there are unknown but if it’s cheaper then what the hell… I’ll go for it. Yeah… the college gang is going through the last stages of their exams. Eka has flown back to Jakarta this afternoon. Managed to speak to her last night. Poor her. Her Harry Potter book will arrive at the hostel tomorrow and she’s in Jakarta hehehe. Radit becomes the victim in this case by having to bring it back for her. Kiki went back 2 days ago. Aishath ain’t going back to Maldives this time around so I guess I’ll bring her out one of these days. Payal’s whole family is gonna fly back to India for good so I guess I should round up the gang (who I heard don’t even hang out together much these days without me in coll) and pay her family a visit for one last time for all the times they’ve had us over for lunch/dinner/Deepavali/birthday/sleepovers and shit. Man, I’m gonna miss her mum’s Bombay-styled food. And screwing up my face everytime her mum jokingly offers me the bowl of home-made yoghurt. Yeacccckk.
I wonder what will I get when they all come back? The last time they went away, I received a paper holder with a real itsy bitsy crab inside from Maldives, sandals and a bag from Beijing, and a blouse from both Bombay and Bali. Hmmmm…

Oh. Beckham is going to Real Madrid. I also don’t know what to say because I’m not emotional about it, be it on his side or against him. You all know who I root for in MU. So blegh.

Hoe Fong has just asked me to go for a vacation in Lang Tengah between now and July 11. I waaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnt. But cannot till the new baristas can handle the store. My manager has already promised to send me, Muha and Kelvin on our annual leave once she gets enough staff because we already look like zombies. We are having Mont Kiara loan us their baristas for goodness sake. Poor Qhohar who has to travel everyday to our store. I want to breathe sea water… I want to go somewhere sea-like. This Piscean has had enough of land and needs the sea goddamnit.

My French classmate, Smita, has landed herself a position as a marshall at the coming Extreme X-Games and wants me to be there to lepak with her or something like that. Hmmmm. And speaking of marshalls, Papa has told me that his good friend at Sepang is asking for me and my brothers to go and be marshalls there for races and shit. I think cannotla.

Coz all I can think of now is to get myself some sleep. Work is at 7am tomorrow morning. I think I’ll be late muahahahahahaha.

(written on Saturday, June 21st)
No, I wasn't late ehehehhehehe. But the pastries from the suppliers were! Which screwed up our whole morning routine cheh.

(written on Friday 6th June)
*Pokes everybody in the sides*

Missed me?

Aye the shifting of the Siberts’ butts is over. I don’t know which is closer to the truth – us trying to get used to living in an apartment or the apartment trying to get used to us hehe..

My room is in a ‘temporary arrangement’ state right now. Mainly because I haven’t assembled my bed yet and seeing there’s no use arranging everything into perfect order only to assemble the bed and find out that there’s no space for it… I’ve decided to just relax for awhile :p

Now what I really really like about this place is that I’ve escaped the whole Ampang Jaya neigborhood traffic jam and its notorious road bumps. Coz you see right, last time back in the ol’ house, it takes 7-10 minutes to get out into the main road. Here…. the main road is literally around the corner. I can wake up at 9.20am, leave my apartment by 9.50am and still reach work on time at 10am. Fuh!

Other than that, work’s a bitch. Environmental-wise, it has improved. Nowadays I might finish work at around 6 and still be around at 10. Why? Because we’ve become chummies with a few regular customers and their families so sometimes we go out to have dinner with them at the nearby Warung or upstairs at Cozy House. If not with customers its with other staff then. Like yesterday, I finished at 6pm and sat around with Jennifer, a regular, till 7.30pm so that we could have dinner with Muha, who was working the closing shift, during her break. Later that night I hung around the store when Casey, and then later on Mike, came for their usual after-dinner-lepaking at Starbucks. Soon after Mike’s wife and young son came along. Hahaha yeah I know its weird. But hey I didn’t just sit there and do nothing! I learned how to do ordering for the pastries section last night. Let’s just hope there’ll be enough of pastries and cakes to go around for this weekend coz I ordered them …. What a headache!

The down part of it all is that the Alpha Angle trainees will be leaving us for their new store on the 10th. Anwar, Ayu, Diana and Syed will have to leave early for their store which would only open in the middle of the month coz they would have major cleaning up to do. It’s been surprisingly good with them. They’ve learned a lot with us. They’ve gone from innocent fledglings behind the bar to outspoken baristas in front of customers. They all said they loved our store the best as compared to the other places they’ve gone to. Heck look at Ayu. She finishes work at The Weld at 1pm and next thing you know, she’s here in Great Eastern at 3pm with a hungry stomach and a lot of yakkity yak yak yak to do. The worst part of them leaving is that when they do… when they actually do…. There’ll only be 4 of us here. Me, Muha, Kelvin and young Ain. My district manager came by last night to help out in preparing the schedule for next week and holy cow ain’t it like shit. Seeing that Muha and me are the ones the store depends on, she has completely separated us so that either one of us would take care of the store in the morning while the other for closing. Each of us are gonna be doing 10-hour shifts too. Yesterday Muha and me just sat upstairs eating dinner and let the thought and impact run through our brains. Oh and seeing that the management has realized that we still have a lot of customers 30 minutes before closing, they’ve decided to extend our business hours till 12.10pm instead of the usual 11.10pm.

Can somebody swear for me please?

Because I’m already feeling guilty of having at least 3 smokes a day these days, and so I don’t want to pile up the guilty feeling by swearing … haha pphhhBbbbttttt.

(written on Saturday morning, June 7th)
My little terrapin has gone to sleep forever. I noticed something was wrong with him the night we moved him here. He had to take big gulps of air instead of usual breathing at times and was always sitting on his favourite rock looking out towards the window from where I had placed his aquarium. Dad said he might have known we shifted, and this apartment being on the 3rd floor was maybe detrimental in terms of pressure control. Also him looking out towards the window was maybe due to the fact this new place has much more traffic noise from the main road as compared to the ol’ house.

Sigh.

(written on Sunday morning, June 8th)
I think I had a supernatural experience last night. Last time I had experiences of this type was when I was in ol’ grandma’s house back in the Settlement, back when she was still alive.

Have any of you, while sleeping, suddenly feel like you should open your eyes at that very moment like as if you life depended on it… but couldn’t? That you should move your body… but couldn’t? I think Becky blogged something of this sort, too. Well, anyway, so I was sleeping last night and all of a sudden those feelings crept into me.. no not crept but ‘rushed’ into me. I was at that moment sleeping on my right side facing the wall with the window above me and my door behind me. As just as I had experienced it when I was young, I heard a voice… the sort that was chuckling sarcastically. I was like ‘wake up Celeste, WAKE UP!! WAKE UP AND TURN AROUND!!’… but couldn’t. The voice came just next to my ears and suddenly, what felt like a few fingers grabbed my left shoulder and then… POOF… the voice, fingers and the feeling went away… leaving me there with my eyes wide open and not on my right side anymore but already on my back looking towards my door. It was locked. Couldn’t be anyone from the house. I looked up at the window above me…

And then the dogs from across the street started barking like hell.

The cemetery. I live across the street from a cemetery. Even though it’s not visible through the trees and there are squatters there, its still there.

When I was young and spent my holidays back in the Settlement in Malacca, if I ever experienced stuff like this, I would sit in the big kitchen (the only lighted up area) all alone because I dreaded going back to sleep. Grandma would somehow always know if I’m there and come and sit with me, making a pot of hot Milo and talk to me about usual stuff like school and all. Never asked me a word about why I was up in the 1st place. Only when she passed away 6 years ago, and we were all in the house for her wake did all the ghost stories come out from practically everybody in the family about the Settlement… and how Grandma would encourage them to think/talk about something else… as how they say that when your hair suddenly stands and you feel a chill, never ‘tegur’ the being that is near you. They might just be passing through that’s all and so we should leave them to that.

So I needed to think/talk about something else last night. I had no Internet and couldn’t watch TV since my brother was sleeping in the TV room. Grabbed my phone and sent out 2 messages to 2 particular people who I think might still be awake. One replied and called later on. Hahaha you know who you are. Sorry I couldn’t explain what was going on… I was taught never to mention it on the spot, just in case. I must’ve sounded weird. But thanks anyway. By the way, how’s your computer?