http://ayusli.com

Yup, I now have a blog under my own domain name. While I still maintain this blog, all my ramblings will now be posted on my new site. Thank you for visiting. I really appreciate your support.

The things people came up with. I would never have thought caning can be included in the list of healthy activities like jogging or swimming. But apparently the Singaporeans do (The Star, Tuesday 13 November 2007). And some of them were even willing to pay to be canned!

Okay, I do indulge in.. ehem.. a few butt-slappings now and then during bed-fun but personally, caning is a bit over the top for me. But I can name a group of people (not by their first names, of course) who’d be very happy with this revelation.

Care to have a guess?

Thursday, 15 November 2007 will mark the birth of a giant in the insurance and takaful industry in Malaysia. 3 insurance and 2 takaful companies (Malaysia National Insurance, Mayban General Assurance, Mayban Life, Takaful Nasional and Mayban Takaful) have merged into a single entity and will now be proudly known as Etiqa.

For us, the staff, this week will be full with activities leading towards the official launch, starting with the distribution of the brand toolkit which consists of a brand book, a smiley pin (oops, I’m supposed to wear it today), a mug, a t-shirt (nice, I like it) and a lanyard for the ID tag.

We were supposed to collect the toolkit starting at 10 am yesterday but apparently some people decided to queue up early. By the time I got to the multi-purpose hall, the queue was already like a mile long. Fortunately I still manage to get the t-shirt with the size I want.

The Etiqa logo is yet to be unveiled but since I don’t have that many readers yet, there shouldn’t be any harm in giving you an early preview

Anybody into fantasy? If you are, then Stardust is really a movie that you should see. I watched it at 9:45 tonight with a couple of friends. It was nothing grand like The Lord of The Rings but it was actually quite good. The story was light, the plot was simple, it has romantic scenes, comedy, suspense and a few quite unexpected ones as well. You’d never guess

And of course, Michelle Pfeiffer was simply divine. All in all, I actually quite liked it

Overall verdict:

I came across this really interesting article in The Star today. All these times I have heard about Miss World, Miss Universe, Miss Earth, Miss this, Miss that but this is the first time I actually heard about Miss International Queen. If I didn’t read the title, I would’ve thought.. yeah, well.. it’s just another one of those Miss things. Who would’ve guessed that the ladies in the photo are actually, well… transsexuals. Have a look.

Surprised? So was I. Beautiful, though, aren’t they? So you real ladies out there.. don’t you feel.. ehem.. challenged? Hehehehehe…

An acquaintance of mine invited me and a friend to play in a bowling tournament organised by Zainal Alam Kadir’s fan club – Alamorphosis – yesterday at Ampang Superbowl, Berjaya Times Square. It was an inter-fan club affair for the stars of the Akademi Fantasia reality show, and we played for Edlin FC. Fortunately it was only for fun, so we didn’t really feel guilty all that much since we played rather badly. Sorry Edlin. Hehehehe…

It started more than an hour late but nothing much can be done about it. You know how celebrities are. More often than not, they are fashionably late. Whose fashion, I have no idea. Among the turn ups were Zahid, Keifli, Edlin, Linda, Fitri, Redza, Azizi, Ebi, Diddy, Ziela, Aswad, Fuad, Farish, Akma, Anding and of course, Zainal Alam Kadir himself.

It was fun, there were lots of people (especially kids), and the game kept getting interrupted for impromptu photo shoots. I got a few as well

Me, Linda & Edlin

Me & Keifli

Fitri & Edlin

Azizi & Nisa

Nisa & Zahid

It was one of those times when I simply could not hold myself anymore. By hook or by crook, I simply had to get one. So I went to www.buynow.com.my and post an order. And voilla !! I got myself a new Acer Aspire 4520

It costed me approximately RM2119 + RM80 for delivery. I was thinking of getting it insured the moment I got it but the courier company made a little mess with the delivery. I was supposed to get it on Wednesday but they were too busy with Deepavali, so I only got it on Friday – after office hours. And that was after several calls to buynow.com and the courier company itself *sigh*

Anyway.. the first thing I did was go to Lowyat Plaza and got the RAM upgraded to 2 GB (from the original 512 MB), bought a new Dicota computer bag, a mouse and a cooling pad. Then I rushed home and started the tedious process of installing the softwares. And as of this morning, I’m still not done installing.

Now that I have this new toy to play with (a few months ago it was the Olympus SP-550UZ digital camera), I can join those people at Starbuck’s and pretend that I was.. errr.. I can’t remember the word. Hehehehe… No offense intended.

I received an email from PayPal Service (service@paypal.com) with the subject “PayPal Accounts Review Department” asking me to validate my account by logging in to PayPal via a link or my account will be suspended.

I smell fish, so I immediately sent an email to PayPal (spoof@paypal.com) to confirm whether the email is officially from them or not. And yup, the reply I got confirmed that they did not send it and that it’s a phishing email.

This is the content of the email:

PayPal informed that they will never ask for your password over the phone or in an email, and will always address you by your first and last name.

I don’t know how long this email has been going around, but for someone new to PayPal like me, this is something we need to be extra careful with. So you guys out there, be aware and do forward any suspicious-looking email to PayPal (spoof@paypal.com).

I didn’t feel like going out for dinner last night, so I decided to order some pizza. My favourite is Domino’s, so I called them first. Unfortunately, I was told that they were not taking orders at that time. They were overwhelmed with the orders received and could only take new orders after 1 ½ hours.

Okay… let’s try Pizza Hut. After giving the girl my address, she asked me to hold the line for a moment while she checked her system. Then she asked me to again hold the line while she checked with her supervisor. I immediately knew that they could not find my street.

“I’m sorry, sir. We do not cover your area.”

What?!?! How could they not cover my area? I live in Taman Cempaka, Ampang. There’s one Pizza Hut outlet less than 10 minutes ride by motorbike near Jusco in Taman Maluri. And there’s another one which is closer near Ampang Point. And another one a bit further in Taman Melawati. I’m basically surrounded by Pizza Hut outlets and they said my area is not covered? What a load of crap!

And to top it off.. my flatmate told me that he actually saw Pizza Hut motorbikes making deliveries to the terrace houses next to our apartment blocks.

Pizza Hut, you need to buck up and update your database. Just because the street is not in your directory, outdated as it is, does not mean it’s automatically out of coverage. Ask for a landmark or something.

Anyway, I got fed up, so I called McDonald’s instead. And I got my burger within ½ an hour.

My officemate told me last Friday that one of the questions in her daughter’s test paper was on netball.

“Netball is played by women only. True or False?”

She was straight away reminded of me and rightly guessed that I would be a bit pissed off if the answer is False. (Hey, men do play netball!) She asked her daughter to inform her of the teacher’s answer, and as of today, we are still waiting.