Bury the Ring

In this age, nothing is impossible! Every event, every moment in life can be commercialized! You just need to be creative and innovative. Starts the trend, registered the idea/trademark, market it..and there you go: a new fad is started.



What am I talking about? Well, there's birthday parties, graduate parties, wedding parties and the latest one: divorce parties. In the west, they say that divorce is now so common that a new industry has emerged to help celebrate 'the break-ups'. There are services online to help put together the 'new you', complete with 'Just Divorce Badges', Invitation cards to a 'Divorce Party' and T-shirts with 'Free Like A Bird' logo on it.



The Divorce Parties were thought up as to 'help' people to the other side of divorce: to put all the bitterness, shock, anger and venom to one side and get on with your life. It's also about making divorce less fraught.



There is even a site called weddingringcoffin.comwhere you can even buy a miniature casket with a little brass RIP on the side so that 'you can bury the past and move on to a new tomorrow'.



There's even Debenhams, a big retailer, that has launched its divorce 'gift list' last January. And there has been a number of people interested especially in requesting big ticket items such as furniture and TV sets. The company's spokesman said that ' It's getting popular because it's something practical you can do for someone you care about who is going through a tough time'.



And to finish, there are already cake shop selling special divorce cakes that includes a couple pointing shotguns at each other, a bride stabbing the groom in the back and a bride shoving the groom off the top. (smile)..There's even a job called 'divorce photographer' where the photographer takes photos of couples with their new families. It's about saying enough, letting the hair down, enjoying oneself and starting a new chapter. Hmm..hmm.. hmm..

Isn't life funny? No, it's rather..isn't people funny? Next, we will be having a commemorative day called 'Divorce Day'.

Tribute to DP Marina

Tales irregular, but never irrelevant. For we are still Malaysian though our stories differ.
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One of the prominent woman figure in Malaysia would be :

DATIN PADUKA MARINA MAHATHIR

In Malaysia, AIDS victims were fortunate to find a champion in Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir. Datin Paduka Marina was previously the Council (MAC) president and Malaysian AIDS Foundation (MAF) chairman. She worked tirelessly to break down barriers and fought for the rights of people with AIDS.

IN the early years of the AIDS/HIV epidemic, the public had little knowledge of how AIDS spreads and blamed all of it on “undesirable” members of the community – the drug users, gay men and sex workers. These people were shunned and viewed as 'untouchables' or 'pariah'..and were made to stay away from communities.

As time goes by, many were surprised to learn that the virus can infect households of “regular folks”. Normal people can also get AIDS. Datin Paduka Marina started the ball rolling when she became one of the ardent speaker in HIV/AIDS prevention and creating awareness of actual AIDS/HIV facts.



She emphasizes that AIDS/HIV is an infection that is acquired through unsafe action.People who at first thought that only prostitutes will get the virus, are now aware that everyone is at risk. Just because the client stays in a five-star hotel doesn’t make him any less risky than someone who stays in a three-star hotel. Knowing that there is no way to curb prostitution, Datin Paduka Marina tries to make people use safe sex instead. We cannot stop the virus, but we can prevent it from spreading.

Datin Paduka Marina was formerly president of the Malaysian AIDS Council and is a columnist with The Star (Musings with Marina Mahathir). She is also the author of her popular blog, Rantings by MM.


Thank you, Datin Paduka..

Happy Birthday Cat

Happy Birthday Cat!

May you have enough happiness to make you sweet,

enough trials to make you strong,

enough sorrow to keep you human and

enough hope to make you happy...

Remember,

The happiest of people don't necessarily

have the best of everything;

they just make the most of

everything that comes along their way...

And do not forget..

The brightest future will always

be based on a forgotten past;

you can't go forward in life until

you let go of your past failures and heartaches...

Wishing you all the happiness and blessings,

From Yours truly,

Cat

Shiny Eyes, Starry Nights

Hmm.. she has been doing some heavy studying and heavy calculating this week. What will she do next? Continue her studies? Hmm.. :) Not at this point. In reality, busy preparing reports for the board meeting this Tuesday. Basically that.. and mostly trying hard to hide a smile (there it is again!) from coming out at the wrong place and at the wrong time.

She knows that she has also been neglecting some of her friends..and also her closest friend. She would like to apologize to all. She has not been visiting her friends' blogs also. There are no excuses.. and she will not be creating any. Please, do forgive her.. Just give her some time to get things rolling, organize her world back into shape and get this feeling under control, she will surely chat again with you.

For today, she just wants to rest. :) It would be bliss to be able to lie down on the grass, under a big shady tree, with an open book beside cat (a novel or poetry book). Not thinking, not worrying about work. Looking at the sky and the shapes of the cloud. Feeling the fresh breeze, closing the eyes and..again the smile surfacing again at that one thought. Hmm..where can she find that place in Melaka? :)

Buildings, museums, houses, river..park that are full of people..Alas no empty shady space..There are fields but..where the fields are, there would surely be goats, cows, chicken (their turds also, of course). There are the kampung houses with wooden benches under big trees..but.. how to just knock on the door and ask if you could sit there for an hour or two. :) People would think that you are crazy.



The KL people are lucky too. They do not have spacious empty fields but they have the 2nd good thing : high rises buildings and apartments. A friend of hers was telling her on how she was able to see the fireworks with her own eyes from the rooftop of her apartment. It's like getting a first class seat! The best view of the sky. The friend's words were : the feeling is like being nearest to the sky and God. Can you imagine having the moon and the sky at eye level from the window of a hotel room? Almost as if you could touch them.. If only the board meeting could be postponed to another date.. She would just pack her things and go to KL :) Sigh..



Oh, now she remembered something. :) There is a place in Melaka..right here where she lives. The place where she did went months ago. Silly of her to have forgotten that place. It's the planetarium cineplex! The largest auditorium where you would almost be lying down on your back (chairs tilted at 45 degrees) and looking at the creation of planet! An hour of looking at the stars!! Yes!!We do have that in Melaka.



P/S:
Hope the planetarium will get rid of this funny longing of hers to look up to the skies. Don't know why. But she has stopped looking at 'cats' lately. Still feeling tired but happier. Got birthday presents in advance (the loveliest moon and stars..and words that has left her, but with shiny eyes plus an uncontrollable urge to smile all the time). Thank you, God, for everything. Even if all of this is going to end at the stroke of midnight (like Cinderella's story), there are no regrets. Not ever. :)

Twillight:

But it feels like forever, and its hard to be strong..

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Talking about twilight, I remembered the series 'Twilight Zone' which I never miss a slot when I was a little many years ago (ouch..:p). The story was about the other dimension.. a place where all the scary things that existed inside your mind comes alive. Bad things happened to bad people in a 'karma' way.

One of the stories that I remembered was about an old maid who was waiting for her father to die. The father was an ungrateful man and treated the daughter like a domestic helper. One night they had a fight and ugly words were exchanged. The next day her father died, the woman was happy thinking that she was free at last. A will was opened with her father leaving her his whole fortune and a key to a room at the basement. Opening it, there was a robot with her father's mind and voice who immediately took control of the woman's life again.

Brr.. just thinking about it makes cat's skin crawl. The scary background music is certainly one of the main attraction of the movie. Even if the movie is in black and white and with practically little special effects, the story line and acting sure makes it believable and scary.

The introduction was one of the best intro ever:
There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone.