Hi people!

Truly had been another hectic week - especially in terms of work. Had some breakthrough with the assignments that I was working on. Slight relief at last.

There was also the farewell dinner on Thursday evening for the KPMG consultants. Highlight was our Korean GM (the one I bancuh chinese tea to) singing a Mandarin number (yue liang dai piau wo de sing) and Search's Isabella during the karaoke session!

Now I'm actually listening partly to Global's special on Bill Gates. Kinda disappointed as I thought there was gonna be an interview with him. Anyway, back to my weekend stories...

Ooo... yeah the party! The party was not that rauchy like the last time (which I missed) coz at that time there were a lot of outgoing Mexican girls who would boogie and shake all night. But it was a party that was complete - food, karaoke, music, dance, drinks.... The best of all is that we've got a really mixed crowd - the host was a black American, Joseph, the consultants - Germany, South Africa, Pakistan and local Malaysians (Malay, Chinese, Indian).

I drank and was a lobster for a while which surprised a number of the consultants coz so far they always see us calling for juices when we have dinner together. I had a bit of rum (something called Malibu Carribean Coconut Rum - 24% alcohol) plus pineapple juice. There's a bar and Joseph was trying to become our bartender for the night. There was scotch, whiskey, red wine, something in blue (really should have tried that one huh, EC?), Bailey's, vodka.... As much as I'd like to try it all, I really don't quite like the taste of alcohol and I really didn't want to say funny things that night.....

I really like to write things that have happened this weekend in details but then I'm really not up to it. I'm like drifting into dreamland already... So let me try to sum up the best parts. I really enjoyed the conversations we had on Joseph's party. You really meet a variety of people. There's stories by Petra (the ever talkative and outgoing consultant - had travelled to a number of places - her website is still under construction - www.petrajust.com). There's Sharmini and her fiance de Beers with their fantastic too good to be true offer - you pay RM580 a year and get insured for 50 grand and everything is taken care of for you with a card that recognizes you as a member of HRM. Some sorta like your American Express card. We have Fiona telling us regarding the situation in South Africa - she lives in Capetown.

Petra tried to get a number of people dancing but unfortunately wasn't quite successful. I danced a bit - really intend to have a good time - wasn't drunk! Had a bit of Anchor iced beer but wasn't that good compared to Carlsberg. Had to leave by 11.30pm coz didn't want my mom to worry.

Chatted with EC till like 2am. Woke up at about 7.30am. This El Nino thing is really making me restless at night. It's so damn hot.

Went down to Central Market on Sunday for souvenir hunting for a few consultants. This has been the best shopping experience I've had so far in my life. There are so many neat stuffs at the Central Market which I didn't know about till now. I was more like splurging on myself rather than to get things for the consultants. Got an oil-based silver paint pen which I've been looking for for ages. Both EC and I bought those removable tattos that's currently the rage among the youngsters. You know the ones they put on their arms which look like a patterned ring tatto. Cool! Then bought small souvenirs for 3 consultants. All the while there was interesting stuff here and there. There were imitation paintings by Claude Monet, Renoir which caught EC's attention. Many wonderful treasures abound. I bought something which I think is a great souvenir for remembrance. The most helpful consultant - the one dealing with IT stuff of whom I bugged a lot, well, I thought of buying him a box of Marlboro cigarettes which I told him I'd buy as a sign of bribing him into helping me! Anyway, didn't quite manage to buy him that.

Instead found a cigarette lighter with Marlboro wordings on it. The best part was the bargaining. The price was RM28.90. Being kiasu, I wouldn't want to spend that much on a souvenir. The fella finally gave his best offer 26 bucks I think. I said I really had no intention to spend that much and he ask me to give him an offer. So what the heck - followed my mom's all-time favourite tactic - cut the price by half! So since it's about 30 dollars, I asked for RM15.00. He said it was too low. I said sorry lah.... and we were walking off till.. well you know the ending!

EC, I think I bluffed today as well. I remembered telling him I didn't bring a lot of money. It was accidental - I guess my mind wasn't thinking well. I did bring a hundred bucks with me that day!

And finally bought some stamps as well. Yeah, this old gal still collecting stamps. Aiyo... so many treasures.....

I had a great time. Thanks EC for the great company!!!

Regards,
Li Li
ps. EC, how could I forget another tiny story?! Well, both of us went to Terminal One Seremban on Saturday and there was this machine where it'll tell the passionate level of yours for 20 cents. Man, oh man.. how embarassing. I think there was like 6 to 7 levels and yours truly made the lowest level - DEAD FISH! Now to make things worse, there was these bunch of guys trying out their luck too and one of them gave me 20 cents coz I was really out of schillings. They were just about to go off after having fun with the machine when they decided to come back to see how I was doing! Man, if that was embarassing, there's still one more. Not happy with the results, I went back to have my second try. HA! Up one level only - truly embarassing - OLD-FASHIONED!
And that raps up this week's KOKA KOLA HOT HITS!