Books Books Everywhere. I hate myself.

This is pretty me, at a mega book fair somewhere in the city. A friend told me a few days ago about it and I decided to go for a look yesterday evening....

When I arrived, around 6.30 pm, there were only a few souls at the fair. The whole place was filled with books, on top of tables, sometimes overflowing! Wow, my place. And browsing shall we go...

I began to worry a few minutes later. These books were crazy cheap and there were tons of good titles EVERYWHERE! Initially I wanted to buy a few books only, but later, I ended up filling a whole trolley with purchase (the trolley was unrepresented in the pic). I had a headache reading book titles sideways.

I hate myself because I couldn't spend a lot more on books. I took several elusive fantasy titles and a few references that should cost a fortune in their usual price.

The books are still in my car. The book shelves at home is already full....  :)

Shopping with Mother

I drove my mom to a wedding ceremony (we don't call it receptions here, it's all ceremony till the end) about 3 km away from home. We arrived early, 11.30 am because I hate to be caught in the lunch traffic (about 12.00 to 2.00 pm) and she was ok with it.

Hit it early, and a fast getaway, my motto for attending any wedding ceremony.

My mom met a few of her friends, mostly teachers or those people who worked in schools, including the clerks, even gardeners. (School staffs are a tight knit family....) I just ate the things served (not memorable for description) and we left the place 20 minutes later after my mom said hi to the bride's parents.

Then, my mom decided to go to the city to buy some cloth for the Eid, which is still MONTHS away. And away we go on Helios (which was fortunately serviced for the first time earlier this morning).

Above is a picture of her, looking at some fabrics in the biggest cloth store in town. Truth be told, I never knew my mom to be so fussy in choosing! We walked around the big place THREE TIMES, me following my mom as she hadn't made up her mind which fabric or design to chose.

I pity the saleswoman who followed us around the place, as my mom touched things and me commenting on them.

At last we stopped at the rows of fabrics she liked and I personally chose one (expensive!) cloth for her. She chose another design from the next rack, and in the end I ended up paying for both. Sorry, i forgot to take the picture :( It was golden with roses and other flowers. 

I suspected my mom to love roses before this, and she admitted it this afternoon.

My mother rarely received gifts from me. I realized this. Really.

So when it rains, it pour buckets!

And Thou Shalt be named after the Sun...

I named my car 'the Natsu' the first day I got it, last Saturday. I just like the name, it belongs to an anime character I love, being so indestructible and having lots of noble qualities (which I lacked). But a friend commented in Facebook about the name resembling 'Nafsu', the Malay translation for lust.
This made me do a backflip in my mind... Yea, he is right. I don't want to be labelled as the guy in the lusty black car. (Thank you my friend Mr Loh Tuck Wai for ruining everything).
So back to the drawing board of the mind... Let's see.... If I named my car Hellfire, Hades or Brimstone, it might send a wrong message to the rest of the God-loving people on Earth.... If I put Pretty Bunny or My Metal Pony, my reputation as a bloody violent discipline teacher would go down the drain....
Oh my oh my the dilemma...

Then it struck me; if you are in doubt, look into yourself first, or your name. My name means 'Symbol of Brilliance' in Arabic, a pun from the Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses a.k.a. Sun God. Obviously I cannot name the car after a dead, though very famous king....
I know of Phoebus, Apollo and Helios as the name of sun gods (they might even be the same dude!) in Greek and such mythology.

Phoebus sounds like a large old man, with great beard to me.

Apollo was stuck in my head as a very annoying and vain Greek god (thank you Disney!)

And I've never seen the statue of Helios or heard of other people named Helios before....

So the car is named thus. And we bought PVC stickers to have the name on the front.

I may want to buy bigger stickers (this is the big ego talking)....

What is the name of your car?

Bye Old Car, Hello New Car

This is my old Kia Rio 2003 1.3 L automatic transmission, which was built like a tank, seriously. I bought this car from a used car dealer because of the hassle of buying new cars in 2006. It was almost like a station wagon, very roomy at the back and could carry huge items with the back seats folded.

I loved this car. But a couple of years back, it almost blew up of overheating. It took two grand to repair the damage, but alas, my car lost 1/5 of its power later....

And this is my new car, a Proton Preve 1.6 L, also an automatic. Truthfully, I bought this car on a whim, applied for it and got it in less than 5 days. This is rather amazing because it might took a couple of months to get a new car in 2006!

I may miss the gray monster. The places we went and the memories we had.

Time to make new memories....

Older Me.

I am 34 this year... Still cannot believe it. Still thinking I am in my 20s....
Bah!