You know something? Until we start working (earning cash AND paying bills of our own), we live on Daddy and Mummy’s cash. It pays for everything – our needs (food, clothes, shelter, education, etc) and our desires (that set of colour crayons which we don’t need, creams which we don’t use, etc).

Even though D&M (lets shorten it from Daddy & Mummy) may be rich, money very obviously does not grow on trees. As much as we like to think that we have a money making, Golden Goose in our homes, we don’t. Money is earned through an exchange of goods; in this case, labour and it is the same everywhere irrespective of whether D&M are business owners or workers.

(Just to illustrate: One day of unpaid leave can cost me up to RM150 deducation from my salary – money which can go to either one month’s worth of toll/petrol, about four novels, some clothes, my phone bill and a month’s supply of food.)

It is disheartening to see young intelligent people today spewing out lines that speak of their right to an expensive education, education that never ceases to end (from pre-U to degree to honours to masters to professional schools to postgraduate) and more importantly, an education that is funded by D&M. Don’t you think that it’s pretty unfair for D&M to work like dogs while you sit on your arse and talk shop with academics and intellectuals without even the smallest intention of working and living independently on your own? When will your parents’ time (to enjoy the fruits of their labour) come? When they are dead? That’s hardly fair and matured of children.

It is disheartening to see young intelligent women today assuming and thinking that the more gifts he lavishes on you, the more he loves you. Love does not need any representation in gold, silver and diamonds. Of course the once-in-a-while gift is gladly appreciated but to expect to be showered in treasures? That’s a little too much, I’d say. Will the touch of cold gold/silver bring warmth more than the caress, hug or kiss of a loved one? Will money – as cliche as it sounds – bring you more happiness? If hard-earned money is spend on trivial matters, what about those that count? A home? A trust fund for the children? How a man manages his finances speak a lot about his character and how he will manage his home. If marriage is what a woman seeks, then she should find a man who looks after his pockets well enough not to be a miser or spendthrift.

Do we really need to go to expensive restaurants all the time and amass bills that hit the roof (and our pockets? Is it necessary to attend EVERY SINGLE friend’s wedding dinner even when we aren’t close to them? Are drawers and drawers full of make-up a need or just a desire (hell, do we even use all of them daily)? Are Tiffany rings a need for a couple who has just started dating? Really…what’s the point of buying tubs and tubs of creams when we don’t even use them? Earrings that we don’t wear? Clothes don’t we don’t need but buy just because we like it or need to prove our “hotness” to others?

Strange. We are willing to spend so much on material things with money that isn’t even ours (could be the boyfriend’s or the parents’) yet we envy those of us who are happy and confident in many aspects without the aid of a single dime.

Look at it this way, please. D&M are not immortals, boyfriends don’t last forever and well, sometimes marriages don’t either. When the money stops flowing, what will we do? Still live in our little bubble, dreamworld-state? Or will we wake up and grow up?

I guess this is what separates adults from children. The ability to appreciate the value of money and assist in saving D&M’s moolah.

…to talk about my sex life, in a relationship or out of it, male member sizes, and all the sexual escapades I have had in this lifetime or the next.

It was a rant, done out of pure frustration at how women cannot seem to go beyond what they are when they get together – bitch about men, other women and talk about sex. How a thread about “decent” topics suddenly gets hijacked and turned into some sex-influenced thing. I like to think of all of you ladies out there as intelligent people who can hold a decent conversation about ANY topic under the sun and not just about clothes, cosmetics, shopping, sex and men.

I apologise if what I did, which was tell people what not to say and what to say in a seemingly public-yet-private forum, seemed wrong. The thing is this: Have you ever considered that while it may be your democratic right to say what you want, it’s also my democratic right to oppose to what you’re saying?

Anyway, to argue with you on what’s proper and not is moot. Because we’ll never see eye-to-eye on the matter. So I’ll just do what’s best for the both of us and slink away.

I did it before – when girls were “too young” to have sex and all they talked about was shopping and men. I can do it again.

You guys just continue having fun telling your stories. Just be careful who you tell it to.

ps: When I first started blogging, I was open to the “T” until I got burnt by what I said on my blog. I learnt my lesson then. You never really know who your readers are.

Everyone who has reached the quarterfinals of the Thomas Cup 2006 are professional players – equally good and talented.

The only things that separate champions from losers are this: MISTAKES and INCONSISTENCY.

With the current 21 point format, players can give away the game early by making the following mistakes, most of them elementary, amateurish ones:

• Hitting the ball into the net
• Hitting the ball OUT of the court
• Misjudgments, bad line calls
• Slow response
• BAD returns
• Service faults (ie above the waist, serving into the net, serving to out of the court)

(For those unfamiliar with the 21-point system, it’s this: for every mistake that you make, irrespective of who serves, a point will be given to your opponent. The moment both reach 19 points, the player with a two point lead wins. If it reaches 29-all, it becomes sudden death.)

It is really a pity because when you look at it, we do have world-class champions. Unfortunately, we don’t have world-class mental strength.

Our players are inconsistent, eg Hafiz Hashim (one day a winner, one day a loser), Lee Choong Wei (one game he is aggressive, one game he gives away points by making elementary mistakes) and so forth. Our players are supposed to be professionals, champions of this Open and that Open. Yet at times, it feels as if they play like my grandma in her sarong.

I don’t fault Kuan Boon Heng for losing the deciding match. Honestly, it was lost way before our second doubles even made it to the court. Hafiz could have done better. He could have bucked up and showed us what being an All-England champion was all about.

Instead we got a taste of what characterizes our squad – even the commentors, I’m so ashamed, mentioned this – inconsistency and mistakes.

That was why we lost.