Almost 2 weeks since my last posting. My laptop is still in a coma. I was off sick for 2 days, no thanks to the flu running around the office. What I hate is falling sick and missing work. I like work. It fascinates me and I can look at it for hours.

Drum roll....drrrmm..dishhh...I present to you the ramblings and ruminations of a wondering wanderlust girl intent on traveling and traipsing her way round the world. No, it's not my alter-ego but just part of my plan to add links to all my other friends who want to share their travel experiences. See new links. Enjoy!

By the way, I've selected a new template..hope this is more pleasant. So now the photo gallery is on the right, etc..

Horror of all horrors! My laptop has died on me. It will not restart. All my photos are stuck in that virtual world. This is just great.

Must not let blogging consume me...must not assimilate..

I have always been fascinated with horror stories told by just anyone. With glee I read in The Star this morning that there was going to be a Malay horror movie, 'PONTIANAK HARUM SUNDAL MALAM' set for general release on the 20th of May featuring a 'Pontianak'.

To those new to Malaysian folklore, Pontianak has 2 definitions according to the Collins English dictionary - a female vampire; the ghost of a woman who has died in childbirth. The other is the name of a port in Indonesia, presumably crawling with them, hence the name.

Too bad I'm a few continents away from home because I'd love to see a Malaysian horror flick that's long overdue because of the recent restrictions imposed on Malaysian society, which I think is slowly being removed, maybe. I used to love watching the old black and white flicks on tv featuring the 'Orang Minyak' (literally means Oily Man) when I was a kid. Supernatural stories, be it books or movies were recently heavily censored by the Home Ministry but with the release of the movie, it looks like rational thoughts have prevailed.

I have only been away for almost 2 years now but judging from what I have been reading and hearing, there have been many recent changes. Some for the worse, some for the better. Whatever the changes are, it has to be gradual and not sudden. After all, the only constant is change.

My workmates were doing random searches of people in the office on the web and found me! Hahaha..if you're bored and needing a break, log on to Google and type in 'Lawrence Looi' and hit 'Search'. Interesting but pointless activity. I laughed myself silly. Try it.

Sunday night was Nando's night and there I was with my cousin to get takeaway for the rest at home. There was a queue from the dining counter to the door when we reached there. Not because there were many people but some of the patrons could fit snugly between 2 goalposts. Ahem. Anyway, I excused myself politely from the Afro-Caribbean lady at the door and made my way to the take-away counter on the far right (There was an obvious Takeaway counter sign at the top). 4 counters with 1 serving takeaways. I spoke to the waitress, "Takeaway?" and she replied, "Yes". So having established that simple understanding, my cousin and I proceeded to place our orders.

The next moment, the lady at the door, jumps past the others in her queue and approaches the waitress serving me and admonishes her for serving me who had 'jumped' the queue. She shouldn't be serving us first instead of her, her excuse was that it wasn't our fault but the waitress'! Another waitress at the counter said that she did not see us jumping the queue and that was for takeaways. However, the Afro-carribean lady decides to get rude and calls the waitress a 'twat'. The waitress was very professional and said she would not serve the lady because of her attitude and apologised before walking away. As you can guess, it becomes a scene where the lady asks to see the manager before proceeding to give him an earful of the treatment that she has received. At this point I told her that this queue was for takeaway which she promptly replied "I think I should know as I come here more often than you". Which I had to agree judging from her size, she must eat everything in her path. Clearly there was no point to reason with her and she continued to lambast the manager with her friend.

I felt sorry for the waitress and gave her a smile and apologised to her as I knew how difficult some patrons can be. Later, I pulled the manager aside and told him my story and that it was neither my fault nor her staff and merely some fault of some one else who clearly could not read signboards and was too proud to admit her mistakes. I could have walked away saying it wasn't my problem but I didn't and was happy that the manager genuinely thanked me for praising his staff.

New photos from the Fulham game against Arsenal with Arsenal winning 1-0 courtesy of a goal from Jose Antonio Reyes. Dull weather but entertaining game albeit the restricted view.

I was at Leicester Square yesterday evening to meet David Chew'bacca'. Anyway, I was patiently waiting for my train home to Edgware, when I felt someone pushing me towards the train doors even before it has opened. The station wasn't packed at all and I turned around to see who this impatient person was. It turned out to be a blind man making his way to the door. I only realised he was blind when I saw his walking stick. As we entered the carriage, a number of people offered their seats, which was not a suprise. What did suprise me was when he flipped open a magazine and started looking through it at a 1 metre distance away from his eyes. Don't get me wrong as I constantly give up my seat to the older folks, disabled, etc.
What I couldn't understand was if this guy could read his magazine, why the $*£%*!@ did he have to push me to get on the tube? Can someone explain this to me?

Mum, if you're reading this, Happy Mother's Day! Sorry I'm not home yet but I should home by the end of this year! Love, Lawrence

Anyone know of anyone wanting to go to Croatia for a couple of weeks - sometime either between July - September 2004. Please let me know.
email me or text me at +447817753601. Cheerio!

Haha nice one Sanjit! Anyway thanks for the posting. I've added a new gallery from my short trip to Liverpool. I'm in the midst of a write-up but I guess I couldn't wait to put up some photographs first. Most of the photos have been resized though. I managed to walk next to the Director's box and took a few shots from there. I should be home some time soon this year to rejoin the futsal team and start kicking some balls! Visiting Anfield was a great experience especially when you're singing along "You'll Never Walk Alone" with 40,000 others before the game. Truly tremendous atmosphere and a fantastic result at the end of the 90 minutes. One word, "Exceptional".

I'm back in London now after my visit to my football 'Mecca' - Anfield.
I'm still cropping some photos from the trip but didn't manage to get any really interesting pictures as I spent most of the time travelling and snoozing. They're mostly football related, some buildings and a gig at the Cavern Club. Here's a taster of the next gallery coming up this week - The Mighty Reds running out.