Letter

Dear Hughie,

I hope this letter finds you well. By the time you are reading this, you must be around 12-13 years old – chewing away on your bubble gum, listening to oldies (Nirvana or Jonas Brothers) and munching away on a good hearthy meal – 3-in-1 pizza and spaghetti, perhaps? But anyway, I’m sure you are enjoying your youth now.

Today is 31st January 2010. Today, you officially used your international passport. You had your first trip out of the country. Mummy, daddy and grandma-ma brought you for a joyride to Brunei, which is about 50-60mins car ride from home.  You enjoyed the car ride tremendously and at one point, you played peek-a-boo with your own reflection on the windscreen. 🙂

The journey to Brunei will not be complete without visiting Escapade (by the time you read this, this place probably will be your fast food joint as to what KFC is to us now). Escapade is heaven to many sushi crazed fans. I am proud to say, you enjoyed yourself there. No, unfortunately you didn’t eat anything but you loved the sushi train. You kept your eyes fixed on the moving train secretly wanting to chase that little thing. While we had sushi, you had your Rafferty’s Garden with spinah, apple, broccoli and pea. It sounds awful but you LOVED it (I can see you are scrunching up your face!).

Here too, you had your first ice-cream. It was vanilla ice-cream, a good flavor for your first attempt. Your first reaction was hilarious. You jumped up your baby seat and your face became wrinkly showing signs of shock due to the cold. The first thing you did was tried to puke up air the moment you tasted it. The second try was less dramatic and you trully enjoyed the ice-cream. It was limited to probably 3-4 small teaspoon as we didn’t want you to exceed your sugar level. Don’t worry, more adventures on ice-cream will come in due time.

Beyond doubt, you enjoyed your first road trip. I just wanted to let you know about your many firsts.

Now, go clean your room and come down for dinner (I assume it is dinner now).

xoxo,

mummy 🙂

Concentrate!

I have a concentration span of a toddler. Probably, same level as Hughie (or worst)!!

Damnation.

Typing this, I am watching Oprah from the dining table, sitting in front of my notebook which is downloading a movie for tonight (Sherlock Homes) while I blog, FB-ing and I have my readings (another chapter on mud) in front of me for my studying. Beside my readings, I have a cup of gingle ale with hazelnut biscuits while chatting with mum.

Now. Did I gain anything in return for all this distractions? Guess not.

By the way, I’m so getting Michael Buble’s new album!!! Thanks to Oprah!

E-reading

One down!

Yes, I managed to read a book. Story book (I completed one of my new year resolution!!). I downloaded a few e-books into my phone and finish a book while on my course (during break time, off course). The book I read was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

Intriguing indeed. Excellent storyline.

No worries, I finish 1 chapter of my modules. Balancing it out with 1 book vs. 1 chapter of my study materials. Make sense to stay sane.

🙂

Mud and cement

Dressed as blue smurfs and smurfetts playing in the mud and cement.
This week I learned tremendous amount of things about mud and cement hence I now know I have to appreciate these stuff to survive in my job. Without the precious mud, the well cannot function so it is THE KEY ingredient to pay my salary!! hehehe…

 
Playing with mud is fun but cleaning it is awful!!! One case we were pressurizing the mud when the instrument exploded (nothing seriuos, just pressurized mud exploding into the air) causing everyone to run for cover. Unfortunately, we had to clean the ceiling and wall which was covered in mud. The person doing it looked like a brown monster.

Look at the sink.

Gadgets. The one below that looks like a pancake oven with pipe sticking out is to test the filtration of the mud. Don’t ask me about filtration.

Below is the filter cake from the mud. Whenever the word mud cake surfaced, I think of chocolate mud cake. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm………………….

Our contaminated cement block – contaminated with mud hence it is not that solid.

Breakable cement.

Chocolate shake? Chocolate ice cream? Nope. Mud mud mud and more mud!

Blender machine? Making milk shake? Blending mud with contaminants…. but how I wish I have that blending machine at home! That thing costs more than my car.

Blue smurfs and smurfetts creating havoc in the chemical lab. Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to blow up the lab. 😦

The Highway & me

It is funny how one can think of soooo much things when left alone driving along a highway. This applies to me, off course.

I would leave the house before the sun rises to drive across the border for my course only to be home after sunset. What kept me company was my thoughts and Carrie Underwood singing in the car. Keeping focus was hard specially if I had little sleep the night before (usually the case!!). Tonnes of caffeine helped, by the way.

The first day I drove, my mind kept cursing the car. Yes, the car. I had the “luxury” of driving the company car and I didn’t like it. It was a manual, it was far from being comfortable and I don’t consider it clutch friendly. In short, not my #1 choice. Don’t get me started on cars. But one thing for sure, I found my first love. My love for manual cars (what did you think?!?!). With a manual car, I can control my speed and off course, over taking other cars was easier than having an auto car!! Instead of cranking up the gear and waiting for the awful sound of gear shifting…. I just had to shift into a lower gear and instantly zoom as fast as I wanted! Ah .. the joy of manual cars! If only the car I drove was shiftronic! Sigh…

On the road, there was only one fear. My fear of hitting a monkey!! Yes, you read right, monkey. Not cow, not chicken, not even dogs. Monkeys. I see dead monkeys on the road almost everyday during my trip up and down. I do not want to be on the wanted list of the monkey community. No thanks. 😛

On my course. What can I say? I can only absorb as much as I can and trust me when I say, that’s not alot! I’m towards my 4th day tomorrow and spending the entire day talking about mud and nothing else makes me gravitate my thinking to Chocolate mud cake (the eatable version, off course!). The mud in the garden that we see is chocolate, mushy, gooey and mud does create mud cakes so if you put everything into the equation you have chocolate mud cake! yumyum….. sigh. I no longer possess the mind of a youngster hence the day dreaming in the course. WAIT. Even if I was a youngster, I don’t remember paying attention in class!! So, I guess it’s in my nature to be there yet not be there. Hmmmmmmmmm…………… let’s not dwell in this embarassing subject. Bottomline is, I’m saturated to the point of no return, on the 3rd day.

Tomorrow’s agenda? Playing in the mud. I kid you not. Imagine that’s the mud engineer’s job and trust me, mud engineers paycheck looks brighter in the dark compared to yours and mine combine! Playing in the mud and getting paid for it. Hmmmph!!!

Blog soon.