Why Employers Should Provide Free Coffee

It makes sense. It makes A LOT of sense. 3-in-1 just doesn't do it for us anymore. We are talking premium coffee beans and have you seen the prices of premium coffee beans these days? Expensive is an understatement for the amount and frequency we consume. So yes, Wally has hit the nail on it's head in a very precise manner. What else are you waiting for...start up a petition and hand it over to your HR fellas.

100 Greatest Books

The BBC came up with this list of 100 books.Apparently the average number of books from this list that people have read is 6.

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Instructions:

1) Look at the list and put an 'X' after those you have read.

2) Add a '+' to the ones you LOVE.

3) Tally your total at the bottom.

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen X+
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien X+
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte X++
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling X+
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee X
6. The Bible (Erm...have definitely read through the whole NT...may have missed out some from the OT...so I won't claim this book to be thoroughly read)
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (started)
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott X+
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare (just a few...and simplified versions at that!)
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien X
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (on Waiting List To Be Read)
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchel
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald X
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (on Waiting List To Be Read)
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll X
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame X
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis X
34. Emma - Jane Austen X
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis X
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hussein
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden X+
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne X
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown X
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving (on Waiting List To Be Read)
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery X+
47. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel X
52. Dune - Frank Herbert
53. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen X
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon X
60. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding X
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville X
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett X++ (one of my all time fav books ~ am so glad it is on this list)
74. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson (just started)
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens X
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom X
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle X++
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton X
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl X+
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (ironically ~ I love the musical but have not read the books)

That's 28 books read in full.

Smoked Bluecheese Burger @ William's

The Leech's Question & Answer Session:

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Q: Is it as yummy as it looks?

A: YES! Oh yes it is!

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Q: Is it as big as it looks?

A: YES! Oh yes it is!

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Q: What else did the burger come with?

A: Yummy mash tatters, coleslaw and two equally yummy sauces.

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Q: Will you order it again?

A: Yes definitely...but knowing William and his ever growing menu...there might not be an oppurtunity to.

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Q: What drink would The Great Leech pair this burger with?

A: Hhhmmm, tough one but I will go for the Lemon Iced Tea...kurang manis!

Weekend

My weekend started out with swimming 30 laps around the pool with Choobs on Saturday morning and ended just now at a funeral wake of an uncle whom we occasionally saw during Chinese New Year. The middle bits mainly involved church and more church (yes, it was a rather holy sort of weekend). It has also been a VERY hot weekend...the heatwaves have returned and I was left tossing and turning the whole of last night. Even now as I sit in the living room, I wish I had a pool outside that I could jump into. I wonder how Fei Fei the cat survives the hot days with all that fur. Maybe he has taught himself to turn on the tap in the garden for a quick fix. Maybe he sneaks into the neighbours air-conditoned house.

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And also, after a truly unsatisfying lunch today, we (my usual Sunday afternoon makan gang) have decided to permanently slash Kavitha's Curry House (the one off Jalan Gasing ~ in some housing area) off our List of Acceptable Eateries. The service has always sucked due to insufficient staffing. But now, the curries sucked BIG TIME too. The salt fish curry that I used to be crazy about is now a disappointing watered down concoction that deserves no thumbs up. The normal fish curry too was lacking flavour. It was a huge waste of calories! Gah! Never again.

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I am gonna have another cold shower now before hitting the sack. It's gonna be another long week starting tomorrow. I can just tell. Nights!

Wait A Minute...What Was I Saying?

I am having one of those overwhelming days. I know I am having one of those days because I hear myself uttering the following:

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"Huh?"

"What was that again?"

"Erm, where were we?"

"What was I saying"

"No we can't do that...(pause for 2 seconds)...what were we talking about?"

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You will also probably see me walking in a confused daze...unsure of where I am supposed to go. My hair will be tied back in a messy ponytail. My eyes glazed. Yes, it's a really sorry sight and it's an indication that I should call it a day. Yes, my table is still filled with papers calling for my attention but I am gonna say, "Sorry dudes. My brains are fried. You are gonna have to wait till tomorrow cause this chick is going out for a cold one NOW." In my mind I am now slamming the office door and yelling, "HASTA LA VISTA BABY!" to no one in particular and jump into my red Ferari and drive off into the sunset. In reality, I am going to publish this post, shut down the lap top, lock up, get into Ichi Babi and drive off to 222 where my pals are awaiting.

What Melts The Leech's Heart

I found the quote below while surfing the net one fine day. I read. I melted. I copied. I pasted. I re-read it and melted all over again. Yes, I am a hopeless romantic with a low melting point.

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“Find a guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will lie under the stars and listen to your heartbeat, or will stay awake just to watch you sleep... wait for the boy who kisses your forehead, who wants to show you off to the world when you are in sweats, who holds your hand in front of his friends, who thinks you're just as pretty without makeup on. One who is constantly reminding you of how much he cares and how lucky he is to have you.... The one who turns to his friends and says, 'that's her.'”

Fears Verbalised

I think that every team leader's fear when it comes to hiring the team is very succintly worded by Scott Adam that "EVERY PROJECT HAS AT LEAST ONE IRREDEEMABLE IMBECILE". That one person that seemed perfect (yes, first impressions can be very deceiving) at the interview but will later on prove to be the bane of your existence. There has to be a way of detecting these people because working with idiots can really be hazardous to health.

Dear One

Sometimes relationships can be so frustrating and I feel so tempted to yell out the first thing on my mind...but I hold my breath...I bite my tongue because I have a policy of not speaking when I am angry. Words are something that I never want to have regrets over. But if I were to fume, it would probably go something like this:

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"Sometimes it is just so frustrating when you lie to me or when you don't tell me the whole truth. If I did not care about you, it would not hurt at all, but since I do...it does. I want to know you. I want to know your deepest thoughts. What scares you, what intrigues you...I want to know YOU. Why are the walls still up? Why does it feel like there is an expanse that I try to close but widens with time. You claim to be there, you claim to care...but I see us growing apart and hurts because you mean something to me."

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Sometimes (I think) relationships can be saved if only we were brave or secure enough to say what's on our minds...to say what needs to be said...to a friend, a lover or a family member. But so many times we choose to remain silent rather than to 'hurt' the other or to 'create a scene'. I say, what's wrong in creating a scene? I would rather go through life riddled with such scenes than one filled with repressed silence where everyone tip toes around landmines of secrecy and hurt. Well I tried, and with that done, there's nothing more to say but...goodnight you Princes of Maine, you Kings of New England.

Blogging Out Of Guilt!

I am put to shame by Haris' daily blog entries. And he doesn't just blog but HE BLOGS...a polite way of saying that he can REALLY describe things at length...as oppose to my lazy rambly sporadic (twice a month?) posts. So this is truly blogging out of guilt. But nevertheless...I present to you a cryptic update poem that will neither rhyme or be in the running for the Poem Of The Year Award:

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Marriage

Suits you well

You glow and I am thrilled

But let him know

Just a hair out of line

Four consequences will befall

Without warning

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The elusive key

Proves to remain elusive

So I wait

And wonder

How things will be

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Prying eyes and nosey parkers

My oh my

What goes around does come around

Your efforts are in vain

And you shall remain

Not knowing

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A ghastly defeat

My head hangs in sorrow

The Kop has won

And I am left thankful

That the tv died so appropriately

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And to a lesser cryptic degree, I have some what redeemed myself from my shame in the shape of two thick bookeths of mindless vampire romance. I did this by pushing the shame to Jenna...ha ha ha ha ha! We were at the MPH warehouse sale last Saturday and lo and behold...the whole set of the Twilight series going at a discounted price (was cursing and ahem...cursing more...over the FULL PRICE buy just one week earlier). I refused to look at it (okay...maybe I peeked a little) and deliberately turned the cheek towards the direction of Gaiman, Bryson and Hayden. But I guess that Jenna REALLY wanted to know the ending that she ended up buying the last two books of the series. Such a sweetheart for carrying The Shame with me.

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I ended up leaving with a Neil Gaiman, two Bill Brysons and one Torey Hayden. Time to read them? Ah well...with my talent of reading three different books at a go...

Twilight...The Biggest Booketh Mistake Ever!

Last Sunday found me in Borders...browsing...where I made the biggest selection mistake ever. Twilight...is (in my humble opinion) the WORST BOOK EVER WRITTEN that has received so many accolades of praise. And that is me in a very generous mood. Please don't ask me why I purchased it. We all have our weak moments. I do not have many regrets in life...but thanks to this buy, the list just grew by two points (yes I confess, I also bought the sequel New Moon). Argh!!! Please don't judge me...or my library of books...I feel rotten enough as it is.

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But on the bright side (and wanting to move away and forget Twilight ever happened), I also acquired a book that I have been searching for awhile now. American Gods (author's prefered text) by Neil Gaiman and it was much cheaper than the copy I saw in Brisbane (so I am glad that I waited). Yes, I also feel bad because Gaiman and Twilight should never be mentioned in the same article and neither should Gaiman ever be in the same book bag as Twilight. Suffice to say, I have learned my lesson. My shame is great but I shall raise my head and continue my browsing (far far away from books with the titles Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn).