Old mates

Been bumping into all these old mates lately from Anderson... I think a reunion is highly overdue.

First bumped into Sulaiman, whom I hadn't met since I was in NUS and he was in SP. He was a high school 'boyfriend' in a monkey-love situation. I think we were in Sec 2 when he decided he liked the geeky me, glasses and all. I still wonder why..Of course it didn't get anywhere past the 'going to school together' date.

Then I bumped into Marlina. Once upon a time, she was the 'happening' one. She was the oldest in the clique and introduced the other naive girls to tea dances (remember those!?!?) and Giordano (when Giordano was HOT HOT HOT!). She also persuaded the other girls to do a dance routine on National Day (on stage!) to Janet Jackson's "Escapade". I remember Razif and Joe sitting beside me in hall, laughing so hard at the lot of them in tight skirts that they were rolling around on the floor with tears in their eyes. She's now a mother of 2.

Last week I bumped into Sunarti- the smart one. She sits with Sanjay in Malay class- the Sanjay who never got a Malay sentence correct his entire secondary school career and relentlessly let him copy all her work. She was in NUS with me, though I hardly ever saw her (as I was always skipping lectures and most tutorials, that was how much I hated NUS). She is married to Razid, who is another Andersonian, and they have an 18 month son, Zikri, with another Zafira on the way.

She told me Suzanna, my Malay class desk buddy, has just given birth to her 2nd one. She is married to a rich ang-mo banker and is a tai-tai (my favourite form of existence). I'm sure both her kids are gorgeous.

Then I called Aisyah who is the loopiest amongst us who insists on visiting Sunarti when she is in confinement so we can all have a reunion at Su's house. Sounds loopy? :-P

Postnatal hair loss

The word of warning came from my hair stylist Omar in late October when I was heavily preggers and getting a haircut in time for Eid Mubarak. "Watch out for the hair loss later" he says. 3 months after birth, my hair is still ok and I'm thinking he doesnt know what he's talking about, him being a man and all.

One day sometime in the 3rd month, it just started suddenly. I think i must've pulled out 50 hairs when I shampooed that morning... and it hasn't stopped til this day, some 1.5 months later. I get so freaked out when I shampoo my hair every morning that I've decided to shampoo alternate mornings. Same result. Although I've always had fine hair, I start seeing more of my scalp in the mirror and figured I need to do something before I develop a bald patch that would complement my eye bags (not!).

I went back to Omar who sat back wisely and said "I warned you...". He gave me a short spunky hairstyle that didn't need blowdrying everyday and some Redken products that ought to fix my problem but also sets me back S$200. I like my hair do but my wallet still hurts.

NB: Will post new face soon.

Finally in my Dream job.

I joined IFA as 'Office Manager' in 2004. Little did I realise I was to be the "know-all, do-all" person taking instructions from 5 bosses, managing the accounts and sitting in the office all day. I love my office job during its busy period, but I what I love more is the exhilaration of being posted out to some disaster location.

Before I went for my maternity leave, my MD asked me what I'd like to do as they've hired an accounts assistant for me. I suggested they let me do the marketing for the company as that's what I've been trained to do.

So now, I'm finally able to get into my dream job- and I'm going all out on this one.

www.infocusasia.com

*Bintang*

Hafidz has been so busy at work with Timur TV for the shoot of Bintang. He comes home at 5am, up at 11am to go to work and work 24-7, I hardly ever see his face anymore. One day, I got a classic shot of a tired man- sending an sms in his sleep.

Earthquake Evac

When the first quake hit, my colleague Jacintha and I were hangling over who gets to pay for coffee at Qiji. My phone rings and it says IFA Yazid (another colleague), I hear him panting on the other line:

"Rina where r u? We're evacuating the building, there's been an earthquake!"

I immediately went on high alert, recalling that week in Nias Island where we had worked 20hours on the earthquake devastation of the island.

"Will I be posted out to wherever the earthquake is?" "Who will take care of Arissa when I go?" "How will she cope without me?"... questions popping in and out of my head as I turn to my boss Joe and told him. A seasoned news cameraman, he immediately got on the phone for deployment news. I felt an enormous anticipation, hoping and not hoping to be sent there. No one knew where it happened yet and the phone lines were jammed up from people calling here and there, searching for answers.

We went back indoors after 20 mins (standard quake procedure, says Joe who has lived in Japan) and I went to the USGS website for some information.

Epicentre: Padang
Magnitude: 6.6
Tsunami threat: negative as quake happened under land

When the 2nd quake hit, I turned to Joe and stared at him wanting to get an affirmation before I hit the panic button. He looked back at me, then s-l-o-w-l-y the realisation dawned and he ran into the gallery and told everyone to evac. In the meantime, I could REALLY REALLY feel our 1974 building swaying and saw Anthia and the rest of the BBC people hitting the stairs. I fled shamelessly jumping 2 stairs at a time, clutching onto Lawrence. All I could think of was "You've been in worse situations than this! Why are you panicking?" and the answer to that is sweet and simple- my daughter. I have a baby who needs me and if anything happened to me now, what will happen to her?

So here I am awaiting news of deployment, hoping that there aren't too many deaths to interest those in London.

NB: Today Arissa has learned to laugh @ 7.30am. And I mean a full throttle laughter, not the chuckles she usually gives out.

Suraya (Mentel/Mental)'s Bday Dinner Pictures!

suraya.fadzil@dhl.com
1800-Call Me Baby


Post-pregnancy figure (Phe-weet... buntot cam J.Lo)


Fidza looks like a rabbit caught in the headlights
Syifaa & Me always look sweet
Suraya looks like Patpong girl with sore eyes


The money shot

Oii... tengok sini lerrrr...

Sume montel-montel so hv to squeeze a bit (except me la).

Jgn marah, nanti kena jual...


Do we hv to stuff our faces for every birthday!?! Whatever happened to the original plan of going for a spa treatment for anyone of our birthdays.... Thank God I'm still stick skinny after all that binging (the only one, mind you). Happy Bday tua. Ok la, kau pun tetap maintain, cuma buntot cam kuih Lopez :o oink-oink