little miss may

5 p.m. Thursday evening, 19 June 2008. The Apple Store in Sydney opened its doors.

Woo-hoo!

glow in the dark

No, I didn’t stand in line from the wee hours of the morning till its opening time, but I did pop by the store after work around 6:30 p.m. The big Apple logo shone brightly in the wet winter’s night like a beacon calling all fans to sail into port. You could literally see all the people inside from the outside. How cool is that?

the queue; apple on the umbrella; welcome & door gifts; the glass staircase; macs everywhere; the genius bar

And so I joined the queue that went all the way to the next street. The wait in the rain wasn’t as long as expected, about half an hour - short considering we’d wait for over an hour for seats in a good restaurant. The Apple staff were kind (smart) enough to loan us some umbrellas to keep dry.

All visitors were greeted with claps, whistles and cheers of welcome. Oh, and the first 2,500 customers received a door gift each - a blue apple t-shirt with the words “store’s up” in front and a swirl motif of iPods at the bottom. Yep, I got one! But it was XL so I won’t be fashion-parading it around in public. Good for sleepwear in the summer, though…

There were the usual range of Macs and iPods on display for customers to test-drive on. The Genius Bar was on the third floor. Loved the glass staircase! I felt that the Regent Street store in London had a much better layout, though. More depth. The Sydney store had length, but it didn’t quite appeal to me as much. Oh well, at least it’s the first in the southern hemisphere.

apple in the air

Mmm, yum.

In present time,
At Sugarland far far away…
Where fields are green
And stars are white
There roams a Cowboy…

Ok, I’m not very good at making up rhymes… haha! I’m so rusty at doing anything with Illustrator as well, that my artwork has deteriorated tremendously. I think I’m more suited at gawking at pretty drawings than doing any myself. Anyway, getting on with the agenda…

It’s Simple American’s birthday today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR SIMPLE AMERICAN
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU-U-U-U-U-U-U ! ! !

May your day be filled with joy and happiness, lots of foodie-goodies and free from taxes. You may not roam Blogland much these days but you’re definitely still in our hugs. Many happy returns!

It’s never too late to get T H E H U G H U G C L U B ™ results up for February, eh? Granted I’ve been writing less than usual, too busy falling asleep watching TV, working like a semi-slave in the office, playing director and crew for amateur short films, shopping… eating… shopping… you get the drift. But anyway, on with the show.

Congratulations to all the Top Dogs!

01 • 13 • princess appearl
02 • 11 • LB
03 • 10 • Chen
04 • 06 • Jemima
05 • 05 • Giddy Tigress
06 • 04 • mistipurple
06 • 04 • ubisetela
08 • 03 • misha
08 • 03 • Samm
10 • 01 • Chook-A-Doodle
10 • 01 • ehon
10 • 01 • kyh
10 • 01 • velverse

Clueless about the above? Check this out.

C H U P P A C H U P !

Chen has kah-chuaks and sago worms, I have grasshopper.

Last week, a few days before Chinese New Year, this greenie sneaked into my bathroom and planted itself high up in a corner. At first I thought it was some strange wire that I never noticed before, squinting with my spectacle-less eyes. Only after putting on my contact lens and looking up again did I realise… it’s one big glasshopper! Not so young anymore lor…

It stayed in my bathroom for a good 3 days, hiding in different corners, despite me leaving the window wide open for it to get out and my bathroom door closed (didn’t want it coming into my lounge and eating my plants!).

One night, I heard some fluttering in the bathroom and decided to see what that fella was doing. When I peeked in, O M G . . . it was on my toothbrush!! E E E W W W W W W ! ! ! Beh tahan. I had to do something. I rolled up some newspaper and gave it a good WHACK (and then some), but as resilient as grasshoppers go, it didn’t die, though I think it was pretty dazed from the hits.

I felt bad after those whacks — it’s not as smelly and dirty as a roach, after all. Needed to collect some good karma points as well. After some poo-pooh attempts, I finally trapped it in a container, took a few poser pics, and let it go outside of the building compound. I hope it’s happily eating grass at someone’s backyard now.

And yes, I bought a new toothbrush after that.

What else did I do over the weekend? Oh, finally repotted my orchid. The roots were tangled, rotting and in a mess, so had to trim quite a lot of it off, find a nice clean pot and stuffed it in with some fresh sphagum moss. It still looks quite sickly now, the stem is turning yellow… *sigh*

I hope it survives, after all that repotting effort!

It’s a wet and dreary day outside, but I’m lovin’ it because it brought down the temperature from a stifling 30ºC earlier in the week to a cool 23ºC. Woo-hoo! A little rain never hurt anyone, yeah? And good for plants too. I need to rain on mine…

My uncle and aunt went back to KL last December and brought back a few goodies, including frozen roti canai. Imagine that! All the way from the mamak’s. They weren’t as good as the fresh ones of course, but they still tasted fairly good once mixed with some egg and pan-fried.

They brought back 2 packs of haw flakes for me too, courtesy of my Mum! I was so tickled that she sent these to me. I don’t crave them but I do like to munch on the thin flakes every once in awhile. I guess Mum must’ve seen the little red rolled-up packets in my kitchen when she was here for a visit, and thought I might like bigger ones. Awww… such a darling.

Guess “who” arrived at my doorstep mid this week? A red mousey from _butt! My second CNY card (first was from my aunt), and definitely one of the coolest handmade cards I’ve received. So red, so auspicious, so ratta, so ONG!

And to celebrate the coming Lunar New Year of the Rat, here’s double H U G H U G C L U B ™ results from Dec 07 and Jan 08 (lazy me finally caught up with the gang):

Another busy week gone.

Spent the whole of yesterday cleaning up the unit. Though it’s not really in a mess, it was time for a good vacuum and scrubbing at least. Back breaking, aitelyu… Where is Ah Boy when you need him to help lick up the leftovers?

Better get going on a tag while I still have the energy! The hearing of my answers to Chen’s Blog Blop Bloq.. Blurp is now in session. All rise…

I had dinner with my relatives and extended family last night, and my cousin-in-law’s cousin gave us some homemade yam cake. YUM!

What is your blogging name?
may. or ahmay. or mayflower. or Concubine M.

When did you start blogging, exact date?
28 August 2005.

What was your first blogpost title?
OMG, I’m a blogger!

Which post do you feel is the best so far?
Honestly, I don’t have any favourites. Some shit ones could be the best to some, the ones I think are thought-provoking may be boring to others. So I’d say all and none.

Pan fried yam cake with a bit of Lingham’s chili sauce and green tea — the perfect weekend breakfast!

Who promotes / is the source of inspiration for you to blog?
A few bloggers whose blogs I frequented a few years ago. They were living their lives in the UK — lots of gossip, heaps of rants, so many heartbreaking stories. I thought, “Might as well join the bandwagon!”

When do you usually post entries?
At night when I still have energy and haven’t crawled into bed yet. Otherwise it’d be any time of the day on weekends. Like now. Why, are you planning your chups?

Have you met other bloggers? Who?
In alphabetical order:
Ah Boy, Ah Nel, Ah Tak, Ally, Angel, Beerbrat, Ben, Bookworm, _Butt, Carcar, Chen, Cocka, CutiePie, Cynthia, Ehon, Emily, Fantasyflier, Fishtail, Helen, iJun, JKN, JL, JoMel, Kat, Kenny, King’s Wife, LaundryAmah, LB, Liucas, Marita Paige, Mistipurple, Monk[+]icon, Moz, Nine3Nine3, Nyonya Penang, Pink Cotton, Poison, Sam, Samm, SCB, Seefei, Selby, Sengkor, Tok3Tok4, Will, Wingz, Winn, Zara’s & Zaria’s Mama, Zeroimpact… ok I’m sure I missed out a few, sorry — my memory isn’t all that great these days!

And a healthy finish — some nectarines and peaches. No “kam” though…

How many entries do you make a month?
I’m very inconsistent these days. Could be four, could be twenty four. Does it really matter?

Would you reveal your face or family in your blog? Why?
I would and I have. Nothing to hide as long as I don’t leak out the juicy, scandalous bits.

Would you promote the concept of blogging to your friends? Why?
I would have 2 years ago. Now I’ve just run out of steam. This tag made me run of out of steam. *p-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-f-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t…*

Would you feel restless / guilty conscience / incomplete if you didn’t blog for a month?
Restless, no. Incomplete, only if I have no one to share my stories with. Guilty conscience, maybe, especially when I get comments like “Woi, one week liao, new post faitik!!”

I’ll be kind and spare all of you this very mou-liu, sampat, ocipala tag…

Ok, offf to yumcha! Whee!