Another year wrapped up

I refuse to write anything to do with "The Year That Was". I'll put up pictures soon, the text must be monotonous, you poor but loyal farts. The fact that Weng's busy preparing for his GMAT means that my hitrate's embarrassingly low.

The dark clouds are rolling quickly across the valley pregnant with the promise of another torrential downpour. My dog is having an anxiety attack as she looks to get as high up as possible on the furniture (she's sitting on the dining table), despite the fact that we're about 20 stories above ground. I imagine she's worried about the water.

While I write this I'm looking through suckball and they've linked this. I took a moment to read it as I'm sure you'll do too. I want to laugh at the sheer ludricousness. Some of the article is still applicable I suppose, yes, it would be nice if your partner came home to a dinner that's been prepared in time or if the house is in some semblance of order, but the rest is just crap.

The content of magzines over the last 50 years has changed dramatically. That one asks you to never question your partner's judgement or integrity, hang on every single word of his more important topics of conversation, and roll over and beg for a scratch. The magazines of today tell you to take control of your life, to put yourself forward, that you have selfworth, and that life begins at 40. All because the pants happened somewhere in that half a century.

There was another article I came across about how much your degree is worth in terms of payback on your investment. Engineering came up tops in everything but then I wonder where those guys live because engineers aren't usually paid great here. Being an American article, I imagine it's not like Asia where every other person is an engineer of some kind. You only need to look at the ethnic and national proportions over at Imperial to get an idea of the lack of distinction you go back to Asia with. That and the fact that whenever I do something stupid at home, my mum uses it against me. I do a lot of stupid things at home - all sense of independence and improvisation gets switched off, so I get "So you're an engineer, huh?" a lot as well.

I don't really know where I'm going with this, but it's New Year's Eve and I hope you have a good, safe time later. I was supposed to spend New Year's Eve with my family, but they all suddenly got really popular, so Bry and I are going to church for Watchnight.

I can't believe it's the 1st tomorrow, back to England in five days! So fast!

And it's out of the park

Sometimes you wonder why the other countries don't take Malaysia all too seriously. Aside from their alleged government-funded VCD factories, Malaysia has one again stepped into the international spotlight with another announcement worthy of a place in the book of stupid things to do.

They want to drape the Jalur Gemilang and 56 other flags over a pyramid. No, not Sunway Pyramid in all its tacky, polystyrene-painted glory, but the pyramid, the big one at Giza.

The Egyptian government said no.

Would you believe it? The Egyptians said no. No to the Malaysian Peace Mission team, no to the RM200,000 effort, and no to the exploitation of one of the world's most iconic pieces of architecture that has aboslutely nothing to do with them in the first place.

What complete and utter morons.

Nevermind, the Statue of Liberty would probably look good in a baju kebaya. Let's ask the Americans.

Run for your lives

The Zara sale started today. I thought we were early getting into 1U at 11am but apparently not because by the time we'd got there, the line for the changing rooms was snaking its way between the clothes-strewn tables and racks, across the crowded spaces between the tables and racks, and generally looking so daunting that I resorted to pulling tops on over what I was wearing and asking Weng.

Weng managed to find a nice shirt in his size after we ditched the ladies' wear section. I was suffocating on the mix of body odors, about thirty different designer perfumes, and the whole range of Impulse sprays. In fact, I was so overwhelmed I had to drag Weng out of the carnage twenty minutes later.

I'm going back tomorrow, only tomorrow, I'll be more prepared. I'm going at 10am and I'm going with my mum. Hah.