Caitlin is five today!

Caitlin turned five today and we celebrated her birthday with a party with family, her classmates and some friends. I managed to rent her kindergarten school hall since majority of our guests were her classmates. I felt that the venue was most ideal for their parents to not get lost finding the place or worry about their kids being in a strange environment; plus I did not have to rent children's tables and chairs separately.

All in all, it turned out well despite the air conditioning of that place being under efficient in stifling the afternoon heat. The constant opening of the doors (letting warm air in), and heat generated by almost 20 energetic kids all talking, shouting, laughing, screaming at the same time added to the problem.

I'm glad the food was more than enough with everyone being able to take extras home. Between Eugene and I, we managed to pull off the games to the kids' satisfaction. It's refreshing to see how kids can be happy with just the simple things - simple games, with simple rules and simple prizes. If only adults could be that easily satisfied....

Caitlin's cake was hit with the kids. When it was revealed, all those little 'itchy' fingers were raring to have a poke at The Incredibles family and after Caitlin cut it, they went after the sugar stars that surrounded it.

This is the first major party for Caitlin since her 'full moon' party to celebrate her first month after she was born in 2002. Her first to fourth birthdays were celebrated amongst family only. I guess over the years, she has attended enough 'fancy' children's parties and now knows that she wants one too. So we decided to indulge her this time. She was definitely happy at the party and happier when she opened some of the presents later this evening!

Meanwhile, mum and dad are tired out from having to manage so many kids for the first time. I guess tomorrow will be a lazy Sunday.

Here are some pictures which we managed to capture before the camera battery ran out. The next batch of photos were taken with Lynette's (Eugene's sis) camera so those will come later.

Do you know what RSVP means?

Two weeks ago, I had sent out invitations to Caitlin's classmates and some friends of ours to Caitlin's fifth birthday party. I had clearly indicated my name and phone number in the cards for the RSVP. Now, I'm sure most of us know what RSVP means i.e. "please reply". However, can you guess how many actually were courteous and considerate enough to do so? And even after a reminder to some of them? I was also told by one person indirectly to email his child at her own personal email...well, I hope the seven-year-old understands what RSVP means.

Donna Pilato who has written a short piece in About.com says: The term R.S.V.P. comes from the French expression "répondez s'il vous plaît", meaning "please respond". She continued to say that: I hear more and more often, and have found in my personal experience, that hosts often do not receive firm indications whether guests plan to attend their parties, even if R.S.V.P. is clearly printed on the invitation. This could mean either one of two things. First it could mean that rudeness is a growing trend in our society. Or, as I would prefer to believe, people no longer understand what the term means.

I sure would like to follow Donna and believe that maybe, just maybe, some people do not understand what RSVP means.

In the meantime, I do hope the food I have catered would be enough. If it is not, I shall tell those who did not RSVP that they can only have the fruit punch.

A holiday in Spain

Spain is a country in my dream holidays wishlist. But with the currency exchange, it would mean going on a budget. I have 'roughed it out' before on holidays so this could be one way to visit Spain too. Backpacking could be the cheapest option if we're talking about shoestring budget. And with the Internet nowadays, it would be quite easy to make online bookings and find affordable hotels in Spain .

The areas to visit are on the Mediterranean coastline covering Barcelona, Seville and Granada and of course the food and beaches are a must to check out.

There are many tourist attractions in the various cities in Spain. Some of the attractions include a historical tower, Torre de Bujaco and Muralla de Avila, a wall that surrounds the military Romanesque old town of Avila, located in a Unesco World Heritage Site.

If you choose to start your trip in Barcelona, there are hotels in Barcelona (hostels, actually) going for a low EUR19. One of the hotels listed in this website is Hotel Sagrada Familia which is located in the center of the city, near the famous cathedral of the same name.

la Boqueria is another place to visit in Barcelona and from the pictures and reviews I came across, it sounds like a place to feast your eyes and mouth on. The la Boqueria market is famous.

The Gothic Quarter in Barcelona showcases the great gothic buildings which marked the high point of the city and its culture during the Middle Ages. You can find the remains of the ancient fortified walls and palaces built by the Romans on the "Mons Taber" such as the temple dedicated to Augustus.

There are three-star hotels in Madrid starting from EUR29. The Prado Museum is one of the premium attractions in Madrid which houses paintings of El Greco, Velazquez, Goya, Peter Paul Rubens, Hieronymus Bosch, and numerous other famous artists. Prado is one of the few museums that allows visitors to take no-flash photographs of its collection. Also in Madrid, the botanical gardens and the royal palace are must-see destinations.

After writing this, I'm now so tempted to just pack my bags and head to Spain....Unfortunately, I have to knock myself back to reality and continue to work hard and save for this dream vacation....

Random thoughts and feelings

Yesterday, the installer of the broadband service we applied for three weeks ago finally paid us a visit. We are now back to a 'wired' service compared to the unreliable wireless one we've been using the past two weeks.

So far, for the past one hour, I've not had any problems with it and it seems to be running fast and smooth enough for me. Eugene even managed to download three episodes of House (Season Four, yippee!) last night! I just have to find time somehow now to be able to see what's new in this latest season. How is Dr House coping with his self-inflicted loss of all his four competent doctors?

I have just re-committed myself to one of the greatest personal challenges last night towards becoming a better business person. I really don't know how I'm going to juggle this feat to speed up my earnings but if I don't try, I know I would be wondering for the rest of my life. It's going to be tough and painful and lonely at times. It's daunting, scary and overwhelming. It will however be rewarding in more ways than one. Looks like movies and even blogging will have to take a back seat for the time being. For a person like me who has found solace and relief from the Internet and networking online, it will be very hard to be disciplined and not waste time when seated at the computer for work. I will need all the support, encouragement and motivation I can get, so if any of you have any inspirational stuff, please send it my way!

Malaysian in outer space

I have not paid much attention to all the hype since the idea of sending the first Malaysian to space was mooted and eventually realised. If you ask me, I can only recall that the media provided ample coverage of the shortlisting of candidates leading to the two finalists. And finally two days before the Muslim Hari Raya, a Dr Sheikh-something who is also a part-time model, as reported by the papers, joined the esteemed crew, led by an American female (girl power!) commander, on board a space shuttle (don't ask me its name) to blast off from Kazakhstan into space and subsequently board the ISS space station.

Okay, that's as much as I know from not being able to avoid the in-your-face news last week and Astro's constant announcement of their dedicated channel 588 to keep Malaysians posted on Dr Sheikh's outer space experience.

In between, I get forwarded emails from friends mocking the disparity of how our Malaysian is labelled. We have proudly referred to him as our 'angkasawan' or astronaut. From the emails, I learnt that the NASA website calls him a 'flight participant', and of course, whoever authored the original email added "...or tourist?"

One day before Dr Sheikh blasts off, I received an SMS from a journalist friend of mine attached to an English daily asking me to contribute my comments and a message to our 'angkasawan'. I replied to her that I honestly did not have anything to say as I did not think very much of this achievement. This started me wondering what actually would Malaysia gain from sending one citizen out there. How would his experience contribute to the bigger picture of Malaysia's advancement in this field of aerospace technology in the bigger picture? Wouldn't sending a Malaysian team of aerospace experts (if we do have any) to work and learn from the Americans and Russians be better? I don't know so I shall not say more.

Then today, I received another email with this attachment. Call me ignorant or behind the times (I'm sure many of you already knew this) but this takes the cake and prompted me to write this post.



After I read it, something went "ding!" in my head. RM95 million?! I believe my thoughts echo what this news report from The Age Melbourne (15 November 2006) has pointed out so aptly.

As a Malaysian, I'm glad Malaysia has been 'boleh' in some ways but I think, we could have saved some of the 'bolehs' for better causes....