Welcome Maideen Jr!

Maideen & Sadayan Aqeel Ahmed (DOB 14th January 2006)

Trigger Happy!

Uploaded Pictures! Whee! I love my Camera! Thank you JR! A few samples of its brilliant photo-taking ability....

The Very 1st Picture (thank you Sonia!)

Spooky Colours (thanks Saad!)

Prana - Eclectic Malaysian Band at the Esplanade

With Saad & Friends at Prana

Talk to the Hand!

Nancy & Shenn at JTJB-Skuld Xmas Party at Raffles Hotel

View from Office Window

Santosh In Singapore - With Vel & Anagha at Clarke Quay

People Actually Listen When I ask Them To Strike Funny Poses - Adrienne, Ashwin & Archana

Impromptu Belly Dancing Class at Archana's Birthday

Catherine Zeta Jones a.k.a Muna Really Likes Her Birthday Present

For Meyghan

It's been raining like cats and dogs, with some rabbits and turtles thrown in for good measure. I can't even remember the last sunny day. The weather is really getting me down, that and the damp laundry. Am now in a turtleneck and blue pants with my striped blue, yellow and lime green socks. Heh a girl is allowed small pleasures in life - colourful socks being one. OK fine, not in law, I get it. I'll go get some black ones. Sigh.

Anyways my last week has been eventful, notwithstanding the rain. I got back on Sunday. Its really bums me out to spend New Year's on the train but there were no tickets for Monday. Damn I am drawing a blank for what I did on Monday. Hmmmm. I know I splurged on this wonderful jacket on Tuesday I think. We were strangers across a crowded room.... but there was no help for it, it was love at first sight. Got to cut down on something to compensate now but its been well worth it....garnered a comliment from Claudius who said it was "fetching"!

OK my memory revives on Wednesday when I had dinner with Giri (from hall) and Nicole (from radiography). Giri and I then adjourned to one of those spontaneous movie sessions that you and I were notorious for. Damn I miss having a "being crazy" buddy. Renu has gotten all mature and "I need to work tomorrow" when a crazy idea is mooted, also despite being the best dancer I know she does not club anymore.

Anyways I come back at around midnight and am invited out again by Harveen (remember him?). We did our late night drink tea, talk cock session again. Stumble in at almost 3 am and knock into Renu coming from the loo. We proceed to have a late night talk cock session as well. I sleep at almost 5 and stumble to office the next day.

Am kept awake by pots of coffee, my fellow pupils (Joy and Adeline) and work. As usual I do my most sterling work when I am zoned out of my mind. Anyway the end of the work day comes none too soon and we are packed off to Raffles Hotel for the firm dinner. The JT in JTJB is retiring and we all have a nice "makan session" at his expense ( well, I don't know if he actually paid for it....). The night was peppered with excellent speeches (turns out to be a pre-requisite at law functions), excellent alcohol and truly excellent food. I have never been a foodie but that night even I was in 7th heaven. Oysters and Beef made Cantonese style and Waffles and Ice-Cream. Oh man!. Adeline was fascinated by the beef carving and the chef carving the beef was fascinated by her. So we all got a tutorial in beef carving with Adeline of course getting a more "hands-on" session.

The other LAs were feeling bad for "abandoning" us (the 3 of us were sitting with the secretaries and were fine with it as we had placed ourselves conveniently near the food and and conveniently away from the partners, so as not to bother too much about table manners - there being a bewildering array of cutlery), so they called us over to their table and proceeded to press alcohol on us to atone for their sins. There were plans to adjourn to the Long Bar after but Joy and Adeline dragged me home citing my need for sleep. It seems I missed an excellent tanking up and talk cock session with much throwing of peanuts on the floor. Sigh.

United Colours of Benetton

Friday was the "United Colours of Benetton" nite out. Or so Archana's new housie called us. She is a golden-haired Dutch girl who knows Wouter (small world!). There were the usual suspects but Corrine found the smorgasbord highly entertaining. The Arches and I were joined by Adeline, Ira and Claudius. We caught the Clive Owen-Jennifer Anniston vehicle "Derailed" and proceeded to drinks at Kazbar where we were joined by Ashwin and his Canadian girlfriend Adrienne. Ashwin and I finally bonded on a love for Sci-Fi (proper Sci-Fi like Babylon 5, Battlestar Galactica and Firefly). Am to loan him the "Serenity" I got from Adam as a Christmas present.

Of Shadow Puppetry & Milk Moustaches

Saturday was singing (very badly, haven't sung in zonks) at a Wedding mass at church and dinner with Sonia at my alma mater of Kerala Cuisine. Went home bemoaning my long hiatus from clubbing and started initiating a plan for checking out the newest watering hole - Ministry of Sound (so exciting!)

Sunday it rained like God had forgotten his promise to Noah. Made me realise I have no life skills to speak of (especially ship building), and decided that a watery grave was not for me. Made plans to move to Bolivia. Then Renu had to be sent to the airport as she needed to get to Malaysia urgently (a death in the family), so had a chill out session at the airport; our favourite hangout. We both realised that we dont really go and watch the planes take-off anymore and resolved to do more of that in the New Year.

Monday went to Rouge with the LAs and Murali (who is not an LA anymore because he is a partner!). Got majorly high on spirits,the spirit of the evening and John Molina (bandleader; so cute!) but still managed to conduct myself without shame in a pool session teamed up with Murali against Adam and Angela; although Murali was of the opinion that I took long enough lining up with my cue to start a fire. OK I really really miss our pool sessions. Hmmm Must drag the girls on a pool session sometime soon. I need to hone my skills :-p Guys at pool sessions just stresses one out. Had tea with Adam in a water deluged Kopitiam after. I confiscated a poem he wrote on a napkin and intend to frame it or something, so I can sell it when he is famous. He writes almost as well as you do. Its really refreshing amidst all the wanna-bes dotting the landscape to still run across people like you guys.

OK Wouter is going to have my head! Am supposed to make shorter bite-sized entries for the ADD public. Miss you much Meghie!

Oh By Gosh By Golly, Its Time For Mistletoe and Holly!

In a moment of utter madness, Nitin and I decided to have a "Starry Starry Nite" of a Christmas party. Our only claim on the said day being the fact that we were both Catholics...sorta :-p Thanks to the extreme goodness and kindness of our friends (especially those who brought food and alcohol - vital ingredients for any party), the said event actually happened!

Teng Kwee, Kavita and Michael helped in making the place nice and Christmas-sy. Archana and Teng Kwee won (quite rightly, I felt) the "Sparkliest Person Competition" despite much vacillation by RK. Although I was disappointed that the "performance" part of the evening did not pan out (due to the fact that our main performers were indisposed and chicken respectfully- i.e. Giri had a sore throat and Harjean was errr.. busy), the "Present" part was alright and everyone left in a nice fa-la-la mood; although in Ashwin's case sans his shoes.

For those who were interested; there were 30 people all told.

Am posting some really bad pictures from Vel's camera :-p Muna, where's yours? My camera died, 'cos Nitin unplugged the charging batteries to iron that atrocious rag he called a shirt :-p

The First Activity of the Evening - Decorating the Xmas tree! By Archana, Sonia and Muna

Nitin & Muna Critiquing the Tree

Adam & Harjean in the favourite hangout place of the evening - the Kitchen!

Nitin Shoving the Xmas Tree up the Angel to General Applause

The Angel Behind Bars; Sentenced by Adam and Nitin - for Lewd Conduct With a Tree

Tea-lights Lining the Entrance - Creating Some Confusion as to the Religious Festival Being Celebrated

Ashwin, Archana & Muna Utilising some Tinsel in a Desperate Attempt to Counter Archana's Sparkliness

Renu & Michael - Together Again 1

Relying on Her Sparkling Personality (Arpita) and His Shining Pate (Giri) - For the "Sparkliest Person Competition (SPC)"

Harjote & Giri resigning themselves to not winning the "SPC"

Kavita All Tired From Helping Out (Thanks For Carving The Lamb!)- Check Out The "Blue" Mood Lighting Behind Her

Sonia & Teng Kwee - Together Again 2

The Year That Was

The New Year found me standing knee-deep in the surf along Pee Dee beach; the beautiful Regency stretch. There was ice-cream, a really bad band which gave way to some excellent hip-hop numbers, fireworks and a nice warm breeze. Earth, Wind, Fire and Water - all the necessary elements to usher in the New Year :-p

I suppose I should say something about the year in general; what I learnt from it etc, but looking back has never been my strong point. My New Year's Resolution for 2006 and the future is to be STRONG. Although it is frequently bandied about that hard knocks make you stronger yada yada, I've found that somehow it makes one more brittle. So much to my surprise, I find myself actually becoming stronger

Having said that, I hope its not tested and I pass the bar and get retained and other such major stuff works out.

Overall, 2005 was interesting. Dreams became reality. There were bad times but really good ones too. All I can really say or feel, is a deep sense of gratitude. For the fun times, the friends, the achievements as well for the not-so-fun times and the disappointments. For realising that people do not define me, that hate may not be conquered by love but that does not mean that hate should be countered by hate, for finally ending chapters that should have been closed a long time ago, for being given the gift of separating the wheat from the chaff, for being able to accept and see good even in the chaff, for recognising that wanting to live in an epic with the required elements of dignity, courage and honour may actually be possible, for realising that I only have control over my actions and that that is enough. For all these I thank the Lord.

And now for some pictures! A few choice morsels from the year in general.... Of course, there will be more to come when I finally figure out how to upload pictures from my digicam. Help Vel!

The trip to climb Mt. Kinabalu that kick-started and reflected the year to come

My 30th Birthday Cake

Graduation July 2005 - The RH Law Bunch. Thanks So Much You Guys!

Arpita's Quarter Century - served chilled!

RH Concert Oct 2005 "Eyeshadow" ably directed by our very own Vel!

Deepavali 2005 - Amply fed at Harjean's

Portrait In Sepia - Jo's Birthday

Party-ing at Ira's!

The Goblet Of Fire

The best one in the series so far. Adam professed to prefer Prisoner of Azkaban as more "uniform" thematically, but I just adored GoF. Some of the previous Potters seemed much longer than they actually were, while PoA suffered less from that syndrome than Chamber of Secrets or the Philosopher's Stone, Goblet of Fire at a solid 2hours and 20 mins actually left me craving for more. Many kudos and other congratulatory type stuff to Mike Newell!

Twas a collaborative affair between me and M. Ashwin reminiscent of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Although in this case due to the looming exams, I had toned down quite a bit. Still we had the usual suspects and quite a few additions; including a flying visit from Scintillating Cyn who had technically moved to Bangkok.

Back to the movie; I loved the visuals, they were spectacular. The Yule Ball was far too short for me although they could have done better with the Patel sisters' lenghas. Dumbledore's eulogy for Cedric at the end actually gave me goosebumps. Madam Maxime could have used a bit more horizontality I felt but Rita Skeeter was perfect. Emily Watson has become far too pretty as Hermione which of course served her well in the Yule Ball. There wasn't enough of our favourites of course, but that's only to be expected, I guess. More of Snape and Mcgonagall should be evident in the following films. The new Dumbledore continues to disappoint though, I wish they had managed to beg Ian McKellen to take it up. He would have been quite perfect especially in light of the most recent Harry Potter book.


I must mention again the Patel sisters' fugly lenghas, which was pissing off especially in light of Cho's gorgeous cheongsam. So the costume designer understands cheongsams but not lenghas? Fred and George were an excellent piece of casting. Thankfully we got a bit more of them this time, although Lee Jordan was sadly absent but there were no Quidditch matches this year because of the Triwizard Tournament. Ron is becoming an excellent actor as is Hermione (which only brings Daniel Radcliffe's mediocrity to the fore)

Argh. The evil 'net lost most of the second half of this post but in light of the frequent complaints about brevity; especially the lack thereof, I shall say no more :-p

Stardust

Was browsing through Neil Gaiman's blog, checking out his early July entries. I was really curious about his opinions on Singapore. It seems so long ago now; standing for hours in a queue outside Borders.

He was such a fantastic person, Neil Gaiman. He behaved just like an ordinary bloke and was so nice to all his fans. He signed for hundreds that night (check out his blog : http://www.neilgaiman.com/journal/2005_07_03_archive.asp), but still managed a kind word and a smile for everyone.

Unfortunately, by the time I got to the head of the line, my innate Sunita-ness re-asserted itself and I couldn't say a word (look, I am a very shy person, I don't know why people don't get it and think I am proud instead). I passed him Smoke&Mirrors and could only stare goofily at his auburn hair (in pictures it looks black, but its actually much lighter). The girl ahead of me had a cool poster of Death and the guy behind me had first editions of the Sandman series. Both chatted happily to him (and earlier, while queueing, with me), but I said nary a word, 'cept maybe "thank you" (not too sure though, kinda hazy).

It was an interesting night, especially with Archana and Ira trying vainly to persuade me to go home while we were in the queue and eating sushi ('cos there was already a signed copy of "Coraline" in Arch's bag for my birthday Happy Birthday Sunita !- a plot conceived byIra and executed by Claudius). Still it was nice seeing him, in the flesh so to speak. Sometimes I have this notion that celebrities don't really exist, especially writers. They seem as incorporeal as the fiction they write. Its quite refreshing to have your ridiculous theories disproved.

Back to Neil Gaiman's blog; he seemed impressed by Singapore's steadfast loyalty to the joys of air-conditioning, among other things, and appreciated all the food people brought him (damn, next time I stand hours in queue for a writer, I'll make sure I bring him some food)

And Farokh got a mention on Neil Gaiman's blog! How cool is that!

Belle's Birthday!

Went home for darling Isabelle's 1st birthday on October 8th. We had a pool party for her at Kelvin's condo complex. Most of the "Sonthakaren" were there including the troops from JB, Matthew and Jose with their wives and kids and of course Aunty Gertie and the usual suspects a.k.a the Kajang people.

Belle was very poised in her pretty "PuPus". She had three special dresses for the weekend. My green smocking one for her pre-party walkabout town. Her cream spaghetti dress for the party proper and her blue spaghetti one for the post party mandatory church going the next day.

Her cake spelt out B-E-L-L-E in 5 little clowns and her haul was extremely commendable. Toys oveflowed her playpen, but she seemed the happiest with her "dog" and her boat.

Pre-requisite family shot before the party

Smile at the camera Belle!

Who cares about my huge cake, look at the pool!

Aunty Sherril, this boat-part tastes weird....

You want to take our picture? Hmmm... we'll think about it

Damn Papparazzi! Follow me around everywhere!

Feather-bowled!

Thank you my dear for the lovely digital camera. You could have bowled me over with a feather. I was so shocked but so happy! I promise to read the instructions and figure out its workings. Really. Really.