.: Trapped! :.

Twice in a month, I’ve had bad experience with lifts.

No, I am not talking about lifts that take ages to reach the floor or the lift that doesn’t take more than 5 people without screaming a flat “tet…tet”, signalling people to rush out (like the one at home)…

I am talking about lifts that went berserk, or those that suddenly stop dead in their tracks (a figure of speech – they were never alive in the first place)

Incident 1 – 120807. sunday
Location: marine parade
Occasion: Friend’s wedding Reception (which I am supposed to blog abt – still in draft)
In the lift: The Bride & Groom, The bridesmaids (me and yati), The Groom’s mother, The Mak Andam a.k.a make up artist, The Photographer.

The lift went up & came down in a single, jerky motion. The numbers on the screen went up all the way to the 15th floor. We were still on the second floor.

With hearts in the mouth, we were grateful the lift door opened, and we were safe. Took the other lift.

Truth: It all happened so fast, I didn’t really realise what was happening. The near-death experience bonded us further.

Incident 2 – 260807. sunday
Location: changi road
Occasion: going for a meeting
In the lift: Me & 3 other brothers

Went into the lift, happily pressed “2”. Suddenly the lift stopped, no ventilation, everything went still. We pressed the bell for help. 1 of the brothers started singing & was told to keep quiet by another coz he was using up the already-limited oxygen faster. I would’ve laughed if not for the fact I was trapped in the lift. Worse, the lift was shielded. NO RECEPTION. None of us could call out. We pressed the bell for help. No one came to rescue.

Confession: I almost cried coz I was becoming claustrophobic & it was getting warm. Looking at the floor space, I thought it’d be crammed for all of us to sit down. Then, the frightening thought that we could be stuck in the small space for hours without much air, food and water, crossed my mind. I thought about having to solat maghrib in the lift, about having to do tayammum. Worse, if u need to go toilet urgently. Rest assured, they were NOT happy thoughts.

Truth: We were stuck for I think, a total of 5 –10 mins (or less). the same person who sang came up with a smart idea to force the door open. It was surprisingly easy. Almost kicked myself for not reading the sign that there was some maintenance power outage thingy (I was laughing looking at how some words were spelt wrongly instead)

The SHORT wait was LONG enough. It was the uncertainty of the wait that got to me.

Ni belum tunggu kena hisab at padang masyhar. May Allah protect us from that, insya allah.

work - home

is it normal?

to think of going home while on the way to work?

moral support

ok, if you have a whole year to pay back the days that you've missed your puasa/saum/fast, when do you do it?

the month just before fasting month! apparently, i have been procrastinating (i need to deal with this) till i cant procrastinate longer...teruk kan.

but thats not the point of this entry...in view of my fasting, my chinese-malaysian colleague has been extra concerned. this morning...

YP: marlina, are u ok or not? u've been fasting right.
Me: Yah, I am good lah
YP: U feeling cold? (coz i was wearing my jacket la)
Me: yeah, a bit. maybe because i am fasting (its actually raining heavily)
YP: I think i will fast la, for one day with you - to give u moral support.

kwang kwang kwang. yes, my colleagues are concerned that i am not eating.

Panda eYEs & praYer Place

It has been an eventFUL (will update soon) pre-weekend and weekend, with late nights and assignments (both school & work).

When I went to teach at 8am on Sunday, my primary 2 student:

She : teacher marlina, what’s wrong with your eyes?
Me : huh? Why?
She : they look different.
Me : Oh

Dalam hatiku, must be the panda eyes. I am scaring off my students.

* * * * *

Tonight, my previous department colleagues are having dinner (like the good ol’ days) in celebration of our boss’ promotion.

Once we decided on dinner (at 7pm),

Colleague S: marlina, you need to pray right? Aiyah, where you want to pray?

Me: the place is near the mosque

Uncle J (another colleague): anywhere also can pray, right?

Me: yeah, see, uncle J clever.

Thus, from wherever thou mayest come forth, turn thy face [in prayer] towards the Inviolable House of Worship-for. Behold, this [commandment] comes in truth from thy Sustainer; and God is not unaware of what you do. 2:149


ps: tried to look for a verse in the quran; something about the earth as a place for prayer (or is it a hadith?). Anybody who knows, please help. Thanks.

when the cats are off, the mice comes out to play...

it is post-sunday. management is on 2 days retreat. and what do people do when their bosses are away?


At 3.51pm, I was way beyond sleepy. most of my colleagues were.


i tried 2 cups of coffee. we tried to take a fruit eating break with whoever is left on the floor i.e. less than 10 people.


then, i remembered.


its been a looong time since Ive blogged - somebody commented, "blog pun dah berhabuk".

so, decided that i shall just do something different from the usual routine of "perah otak" to put forth some papers to some atas people, and trying to comprehend stacks of otherwise meaningless papers (yes, we are killing trees) and make meaning out of mere numbers (read: statistics)



anyways, in relation to mai sb's latest entry http://anewlifeahead.blogspot.com/ (u so sweet - so touching), i realised i do have a picture of 4 of us, MINUS HER





somehow, we cant get everyone at the same time, at the same place. shall we resort to superimposing our photos?


i wanna canoe/climb/cycle. i wanna walk. i wanna break free.