Induction to the Inner Circle

Cravings,.......

Some peeps are addicted to foul smelling cigarettes, some possess an insatiable thirst for anything that contains cocoa, e.g chocolates.... (it's rumoured to be an aphrodisiac, yeah....right).

And quite a number are addicted to a legalized substance, called alcohol.......

What's the proverb again, "better the lesser evil, than the...." ? Something like that :p

A football club member celebrated his birthday and invited us, the football club, to attend his "B-bash".

It all started innocently enough, eating snacks, sharing a good laugh amongst ourselves, having a few beers.........'till someone came up with a luminous idea to switch to something 'stronger'......

Doh, something stronger somebody said??!?!, as a few dudes of ours were barely harnessing a baby moustache, it was then decided to mix it up with Coke.......as to dilute the strong effects of the liquor in question........

And to enhance the bonding of the club m8's more intense, it was decided upon by the 'wise' elders that the impromptu make-shift liquor bottle be passed around........

Instead of sharing and smoking the peace pipe, the dudes passed around the 'bottle', inducting the 'youngsters' into the 'Inner Circle'.........true team building!!!

Holiday break in kiddo's manner

It's school holiday break, parents are working, so where do the kids wind up?

Instead of nurturing them to become couch potatoes watching TV all day long, we drag them along to the office......

Ofcourse an office is not exactly a conducive environment for children to study or to play, but somehow kiddo's do know how to have a good time with the means available....

Occupying themselves with games like 'rollercoaster', 'tunnel crouching' and other physical activities.......time flies by in a blink of an eye......and after office hours, they go back home exhausted.....:p

Did they miss their electronic entertainment sets (PSP, Nintendo, PC....?!?)....not at all.....looking at them having such a good time, us, adults do realize that nothing beats a good old fracass like fooling around like kiddo's do.....

The true value of RM 1.00

H1N1,

And finally after 72 local fatal fatalitities, it has dawned upon the people here, that this virus is quite a serious health threat.

Everyone is advised to seek medical, professional treatment on the onset of any flu symptoms.....and refrain from going out in public.

So when our little gal, had a sore throat and a very, very sliiiiiiiiight fever.......we decided to go to the nearest public clinic. For reasons unknown, private hospitals are reluctant to accept flu cases, so the only way for us to turn to are the government funded health institutions.

Thus be it then, and as with everywhere on this planet, government facilities are notoriously badly overcrowded, understaffed,.......but it's DIRT CHEAP....compared to private institutions.

What do I mean with "dirt cheap" ?!?! How 'bout a measly RM1 ?? RM1 only?? (20 euro cents / 30 USD cents).......for RM1 I can't even buy a bottle of water down here.......

Surely, you must think, it's the consultation fees only.........at least that's what I thought......but nopers, it includes the examination fees and the medicine. And I'm not talking about generic brands, but about full blown branded medicines from reputable firms.

Gosh........alright, alright, we had to queue up for a few hours, in an overcrowded waiting hall, taking numbers, queueing up for another number (doesn't make sense though), a fast examination which only took a minute, and queue up again to pick up the medicine, but blimey, it was definitely worth the wait........and on top of that, the staff were extremely helpful and friendly......a smile (even behind a face mask) can cure a lot of illnesses :p

First of all, our little lady was pronounced H1N1 free, just a sore throat, and the fever mysteriously vanished from the face of the earth (yeah right, she having fever.......more likely IMAGINED fever in order to skip one day class)...............

And last but not the least,.........it saved us mega bucks.......every little bit of savings helps nowadays :p

A big thumbs up to the the Malaysian health institutions :)

A painting and a meat paste.......

PIETER PAUL RUBENS,

If by now, there is no bell ringing inside your head, I dare say you are a CULTURE B!*#& !!!!:p

Anyway, for the uninitiated, Pieter Paul Rubens (or in short form, Rubens), was a renowned painter of the Renaissance era, late 16th century....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Paul_Rubens

And as it happened to be, he was a citizen of my hometown, Antwerp, and thus since my early days at school we were bombarded with lectures about OUR famous artist, and we got to see up close his artworks for ourselves, e.g in the majestic cathedral of Antwerp....

So, the name Rubens conjures up many positive feelings and memories for me.

But I was unpleasantly surprised to notice something that my dearest brought along from her shopping spree the other day.....

She went to a supermarket, which specializes in overseas fare, and bought something which I wouldn't refuse......pate ( a type of meat paste).......:0

Good pate is quite hard to find around this region, and almost all of them are imported.....so it's considered a delicacy in this quarters of the world.

But heck, what did I notice.....pate, righto, but the brand itself......."Rubens"?!?!?

Ow, I thought, this is quite entrepreneurial.....sticking a well-known name on a product, hoping it would attract the customers........I can still live with that......but blimey, this pate product comes from Ozzie land!!!!!......

Now what does an Australian firm have anything to do with "Rubens" ??? Where is the connection?? Beats me.........this is pure 'blasphemy'!!! :p

Ofcourse, I did try the pate itself.....

Verdict = Pieter Paul Rubens paintings are a wonder from heaven......as opposed to this pate......on a scale from 1-10.....it definitely scores below par!!!

Either buckle up and improve your pate product or change your brand name to something more associated with Down Under, .....like Ayer's Rock Pate!!!!