Not Found!

I'm sorry. The page you seem to be looking for does not exist.

Were you looking for more of rinnah's spin? Well, it's not here anymore cos...

I'VE MOVED!

Please redirect your browsers to http://rinnah.com and update your feedreaders to this new feed here.

See you at my new home, yea?

All run out of steam

I told L B in his latest post that if he did a blog hiatus for one more month, I would follow suit. :o)

So I am also quitting blogging here for an indefinite period of time, 'kay?

Blame it on the recent fuel hike. I now need to earn more money to feed my baby car and cannot spend so much time blogging and blog-hopping. Hurhurhur.

Actually, that's only partially true. The other reason is because I'm starting night classes again next week to complete certification in something relevant to my current industry (company sponsored, yay!) and I foresee that I'll be too busy what with classes (2x a week) and work commitments.

Not to mention that I'm thinking of getting more involved in my local church too. If I could, I'd take up dance classes again. And maybe join Toastmasters. And oh, let's not forget boyfriend hunting. That's going to take up a LOT of time. LOL.

Guess my blogging life is going to have to take a backseat for an indefinite period of time. :o)

The other underlying reason is because I haven't been really satisfied with the way my blog(s) are turning into something I have no control about! Kinda regret some things I blogged about, and roll my eyes at some totally inane posts I have no idea why I even posted about. Ya ya, perfectionist in me talking la. I might just cold storage this blog and go and start afresh in Wordpress. Their templates are prettier too. Haha. And this blog has never recovered from the big Google slap anyways.

I guess this might be it. Don't cry lah, I didn't say I'm quitting the blogosphere! Just mulling over a change of scenery la. Kinda bored with this one liao. ^.^

So. Lemme say bye-bye for a bit and I'll be back when I'll be back, okie? Toodles!

Mothers are God's gift to mankind

Photo taken by rinnah at Lake Toba, Indonesia

rinnah would like to wish the following wonderful ladies a very happy Mother's Day. I salute you for your courage, your stamina and most of all your love for your families. It's not easy to be a mom (dunno when will be my turn) even though this is the highest calling any female will have in her life.

~ my Mom! (the Ellen O'Hara to my Scarlett)
~ my Mama, my mom's mother who looks down from heaven
~ the Giddy Tigress, mommy of Ethan boy
~ Eastcoastlife, mommy of Jaymes
~ King's Wife, mommy of Allyfeel and Sam
~ Nyonya Penang, mommy of two boys
~ Laundry Amah, mommy of Kieran and Kylie
~ Zara & Zaria's mommy
~ Everyday Healy, mommy of Elizabeth
~ Poey Chin, new mommy to Rachel
~ Wennnn (soon to be mommy of BB, any time now!)
~ (Momma) Misti, who mothers us all in blogland
~ Chev, mommy of Ah Boy
~ Misha's mommy
~ Trinity
~ Collin's mommy
~ Zewt's mommy, we remember you even though you are no longer with us on earth
~ And last but certainly not the least! uhm, Adrian's wifey. :o)

My wishes also go out to all the mothers of the bloggers I read and follow in my sidebar and RSS feeder. I apologize if I've missed out any lovely blogging mommies whom I read or who read It's all about the spin...

And finally, a touching blog post by stars go blue on what every mother wishes for her children.

Happy Mother's Day.

Baby you're so wonderful

Today is a very special day.

Today, a beautiful baby angel came to earth to become the daughter of a special couple. :o)

Everyone, say hello to Princess Leia baby Rachel, the newborn daughter of Adino and Poey Chin!

Dearest baby princess Rachel, jiejie rinnah wishes for you :

"God's bountiful grace, beauty, blessings and presence to be ever-present in your life.

The brightest sunshine, clearest skies and coolest breeze to accompany you every step of your journey in life.

That you will experience the deepest, purest, truest love, joy and happiness always.

To be the greatest blessing ever to your parents, family and to all whom you meet."

I can't wait to meet you now and when you grow up. :o)

Luv & hugs,
jiejie rinnah


**********

And you know what? Baby Rachel made her debut just in time for Poey Chin to celebrate her first ever Mother's Day! So congratulations to both Adino and Poey Chin, and a very special first Mother's Day greeting to Poey Chin. Rest well and be back soon! (Our Scramble games will be waiting for you. Hehe.)

From Indonesia with love - Day 1, Part 2

Continuation from Day 1, Part 1 here.

We booked ourselves semi-private transport to Lake Toba (average 4 hour trip) after discarding the notion of traveling with the locals on bus (the transport cost us RM 28 per pax). I thought it was cute how they refer to cars as "mobil" and vans as "bus". Oh, if you say "kereta" to them, they'll think you want the train instead of a car! They really pack their trips to eke out the most profit and our "bus" had a full passenger load of 8 passengers and 1 driver. If you're smoke intolerant like I am, Indonesia is so not the place to be. The locals smoke everywhere and all the time, even in the enclosed confines of a vehicle. *choke*



You can't really tell from this pic but they drive really really close to each other! Like just inches away. If you think KL drivers are scary, you haven't met Medan drivers yet. ;-P The horn is an instrument to be used all the time - to say hi, to tell the other vehicle to speed up, to tell the other vehicle you're overtaking, to stop pedestrians from crossing the road, bla bla bla... if anyone wants to look for budding rally drivers, look no further than Indonesia...



This is a place we stopped at briefly for toilet break and to stretch our legs. You can get local delicacies here, but we were afraid that our *delicate* stomachs couldn't handle it so this time around we just look-see look-see only (one of my tripmates tried roadside food on the way back). Dodol seems to be a specialty... we bought some back but I dunno what happened to it. Maybe my colleagues finished it? LOL.



Pretty church in Parapat. This is one of my favorite pictures. *wistful smile* Parapat is a town on the shores of Lake Toba. The whole Lake Toba area - Parapat, Tuk Tuk, etc - is mostly Christian due to the indigenious Batak people who were converted by missionaries. So, there's a lot of non-halal food there and you can freely use the word "babi"! My Muslim tripmate had a bit of a hard time finding proper halal food. They are also deeply religious people and we saw many people going to church (it was the Easter Sunday weekend).



This shot of Parapat was actually taken on the day we made our way back to Medan but I don't have a shot of when we boarded the ferry due to the mad rush (the ferry was about to depart). This was the adventurous part where we got lost. Ehehehe. Not our fault!

We asked the locals which ferry we needed to take to get to Sosorgalung harbor, which was near to our guesthouse, but instead got directed onboard another ferry, which eventually berthed at Tomok harbor. (The ferry fee to Tomok is RM 1.40 one way, if anyone wants to know. LOL.) Tomok is like a 10 - 15 minute drive away from Sosorgalung. We only found out after the ferry left the harbor from Parapat and friendly locals tried to chat us up. I don't know about the guys, but I was certainly panicking inside cos it was getting dark (even though it was only around 7.00pm) and we didn't know how to get to Sosorgalung. We had no choice but to get off at Tomok because the ferry would be going straight back to Parapat, and we were thinking that it was the last possible ferry. The moment we got off the boat, here came the touts again. They wanted to "sell" us on the idea of taking private transport to our guesthouse for an extorbitant amount (RM 70). We said no, but they were very insistent, even following us to the little shack nearby where we had our dinner in an effort to stall them.



Here is my mee goreng dinner. I didn't enjoy this meal very much because I was worried. It was dark, we were in a foreign place, I didn't know how we'd get to our guesthouse and we were persistently being "cornered" by the touts on our transportation plans. They knew we had no transport and would be pretty desperate. We certainly didn't want to pay that much because the guesthouse owner told us when we called for help that a local price would only be around RM 10. Don't worry, the story ended happily because as we finished our dinner, we negotiated a closer-to-normal transport fee (RM 17.50) and reached our guesthouse safe and sound at last!



This shot of a guitar on a sofa doesn't belong to me, but I uh, am *borrowing* it to show you the guesthouse living area. We cleaned ourselves up and chilled out for a bit at the living area even though it was past 10.30pm to enjoy our welcome drink (on the house) and watch some DVDs since the satellite dish wasn't operational due to a lost remote. And owh, here is where I got this post's content from. Lawl.

Are you still with me? Let's go to Day 2 next!

Those looking for more private photos *ahem* (like those with my face in it) should go to my Facebook. There are lots there. LOL.

From Indonesia with love - Day 1, Part 1

Continuation from Night 1 here.



Since we were too tired to do anything last night we just went to sleep (except the lone wanderer from the previous post) with promises of an early start the next morning. I got woken up around 4.00am by the sound of the call to prayers from a nearby mosque - we discovered the next morning that we were actually staying next to the Mesjid Raya! (Btw, the walls were so thin that we could conduct a conversation with our tripmates whilst in our respective rooms in pretty normal tones! I dunwanna think about *other* types of noises, thankfully we didn't hear any. LOL.) Oh, and there's a small graveyard right next to the masjid. I guess it was quite provident that we didn't see it when we arrived in the middle of the night. Haha.



Looking out the corridor window (we were on the 3rd floor) gives you this view of Medan town. Looks a bit like our new village areas (think Kampung Baru), does it not? If my memory serves me right, the taller pink building in the distance is the Yuki Shopping Mall, which reminds me of your friendly neighborhood mall like, say, Pearl Point Shopping Mall in Old Klang Road. In the early morning (and also probably because it was a public holiday - Awal Muharram) Medan is quiet and cool. People wake up later and are not out and about, so you are spared the incessant honking of passing traffic and the dust. We were hungry for breakfast, so we wandered out in search of food and ended up eating at this uniquely named place...



Can you read the banner? It's called NASTY Cafe. LOLOL! I wonder if the owners know the meaning of the word nasty? Yup, we ate here. Didn't really have any other option since no one else was open at that hour - 7.30am. And we did walk quite a fair bit along the road along the way...



My Ifo Mie Goreng breakfast. Basically it's just mee goreng la. Not bad, but a tad too spicy for my tastebuds that early in the morning. Actually, we ate a lot of nasi and mee goreng throughout the entire trip - breakfast, lunch and dinner. Not too adventurous people, eh? Too afraid of getting tummy upsets. Haha. I found it interesting that they were showing Japanese cartoons dubbed into Bahasa Indonesia on the local channels, just like our local channels back home.



This is the outside of the so-called "hotel" we stayed at. The Residence Hotel. It's part of a row of shophouses, so there are no windows on the side, only at the front and at the back. Outside appearances are deceiving... haha.



As is the hotel lobby with chandelier... We spent way too much time here. Tried to arrange for private transport to Parapat (a town on the shores of Lake Toba) and got given the shuffle-around. Wait, promise coming soon, wait some more, still no transport, complain, promise coming soon, wait some more... you get the drift. Eventually we found another tour agency that gave us a guaranteed vehicle departing at 12.30pm. See the Toyota Unser parked outside the hotel in the picture below? It seems to be a favorite vehicle of choice for Indonesians. I think over 40% of private vehicles were Unsers!



Walked over to Yuki Shopping Mall and hung out there for a bit (comparing grocery prices. LOL) then went wandering around Medan town looking for other shopping malls but I think we were in the wrong part of town. We later found out on our return trip on Saturday / Sunday that the malls were on the other side of town - the newer part. There was this cute road full of tailors' shops but alas! I didn't dare to whip out my camera for a shot of that street, so you'll just have to imagine it. Heh.



As we meandered along, we came across this railway track smack in the middle of the road in between shophouses. So quaint and picturesque! (Excuse the bits of rubbish at the bottom of the picture please. *grin*) Even saw a train packed with human bodies rumble past, but I was too lazy slow to take out my cam for a pic. Lawl. Also didn't want to get branded / marked as a tourist la.



This is my nasi dengan sayur dan ayam lunch. I actually thought that it was going to be 'goreng-ed' but I was mistaken. Haha. It was not as nice as breakfast, but I was hungry by then so I didn't mind.



Oh, and this place where we had our lunch cheated us. If you're ever in Medan, don't patronize them. They got our order wrong, then told us we should take it because "sudah buka" i.e. it's already opened. And then they charged us more for it! Bleh.

That's it for Day 1, Part 1. I'll be doing Day 1, Part 2 next!

Those looking for more private photos *ahem* (like those with my face in it) should go to my Facebook. There are lots there. LOL.

From Indonesia with love - Night 1

I know a long long time ago (like over 1 month back) I promised pictures from my holiday in Medan & Lake Toba so here they are! (The more interesting sights, that is, together with personalized story snippets. Heh.) There were a lot of photos to look at and sort out (I alone snapped like 800+ pix plus my tripmates pix = over 2,000 pix!) and these are the ones that made the cut. Hmm... I think I'll do a Misha and post many parts of my travel trip. *grin*

Onward ho!



Asian Food Court (AFC) in the Low Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT). Compared to Medan's Polonia Airport, I kinda prefer the LCCT. It was much more spacious and well-lit. And rather clean too! LOL. But still not enough space for the hordes of people swarming all over.



My nasi ayam dinner. Not very nice ohhhh. I think I got suckered by the nice looking photos into ordering it. Ahahaha. Plus I waited for over five minutes for the slow kitchen to dish it out. And, uh, I saw houseflies buzzing about. Yeah. *grin*



Inside the waiting hall. I like the fact that the LCCT has free WiFi service which helped me while away the waiting time. (The AirAsia flight got delayed. Grrrrrrr.) In hindsight, it wasn't such a smart thing to use up the battery juice of my N80 because I later found out that Indonesia power points are different from Malaysia so my charger did not work! (More about that in a later post.) See the television in the picture on the right? One thing I didn't like was why did the televisions there have to be tuned on to our national channels? I'm not a big fan of TV1, TV2 and TV3 (nothing good to watch. LOL). Give me NTV7, 8TV and Channel 9 anyday.



Raindrops on the plane's window. It was drizzling as we took off. I dunno why but some people I showed the pictures to thought I took a picture of the toilet bowl! -_-" It was my first night flight (actually, first flight ever anywhere) and also first time experiencing some air turbulence. Very exciting. LOL. I dunno how some people slept through it. (Or maybe they were experienced travelers so no more feel? *grin*)



Hello Medan Immigration! Compared to LCCT it seems very uh, backwards small. But it didn't take us long to pass thru. Right after we exited Immigration and out into the open, we were surrounded with dozens of taxi drivers all competing for our business. A bit scary considering the fact that it was close to midnight and there were no outdoor lights! (Airport management want to cut costs ah?) Luckily, we found a nice taxi driver uncle who showed us the official taxi booth, which had a nicely displayed price list to all the hotels / guesthouses in Medan. So we didn't feel suckered into paying more than the local rates. Yay!



After a long flight, all you want is to get to your hotel and put your feet up. Uhm, this is what greeted us. Yaloh, who ask us to be so kiamsiap and not want to pay more than backpacker rates? (If you really must know, we only paid RM 14.00 per room, per night - which worked out to RM 7 per person, twin-sharing basis. LOL) I'd show you the toilet, but that would scare you even more. *evil grin* We all didn't dare to say it then, but we were quite depressed at the sight of the so-called hotel room and I'm sure we had second (and also third, and fourth, and fifth) thoughts about the whole trip!

Since we arrived close to midnight (no thanks to the flight delay), we were in no mood to do anything more and turned in for the night. Except for one of my tripmates who went a gallivanting in the streets at 2.00am looking for cable television because Man Utd were playing a match that morning. (He failed to locate a television with international coverage. Haha.)

Next up, Day 1!

Those looking for more private photos *ahem* (like those with my face in it) should go to my Facebook. There are lots there. LOL.

Why I'm happy to be a Maxis customer

When I owned my first mobile phone, I started off with that other service provider - Celcom. (You know, their latest promotional gimmick is "A Great Sale". I don't understand the concept of a telephone service provider having a sale. It's like, what's there to have sales about?) Coverage was so-so but the bills were really costly every month for a single user.

That's when the family decided to consolidate all lines under a single service provider. Not only would it be cheaper, it would also be logistically easier - Dad was on Maxis, Mom was on DiGi and I was on Celcom. We also liked the idea of "free" calls between family lines la.

Since my mobile phone got stolen recently, I had to go and get myself a replacement SIM card. Since the line was registered under Dad, I couldn't do it on my own but needed to have a letter of authorization plus a copy of his NRIC. Armed with the necessary documents, I went to the Maxis Centre in Taman Tun Dr. Ismail (TTDI). Why TTDI when I don't stay in the area? I was already there mah. *wink*

Firstly I was stunned at the number of people there at 2pm on a Saturday afternoon. It was like our gah-men office... that many people and some small overflow outside as people went in and people left. I mentally prepared myself for a long wait and stepped inside. Did ya know that Maxis has these nice customer service people to open the doors for you and greet you? Well, now you do. And it was a nice feeling, I tell ya. It could've been a bit better if they actually directed n00bs like me to the right counter, but can't blame them for that.

Stopped by the customer service counter and explained to the staff there that I wanted to get a replacement SIM card. He gave me a number - there were three in line ahead of me. Hardly had I put down my laptop, took out my camera and snapped this quick pic (that's like only 1/5 of the people milling around), they called my number! Within the space of 2 minutes! I was impressed. Of course, it also helps that they had like 10 counters open at the same time, helping to move the people along quickly, like factory processing.

Went to my assigned counter, produced my documents to the lady there. She only asked for my NRIC to verify that I was the sub-line owner specified in my dad's letter of authorization, click here click there then she gave me my new replacement SIM card, telling me that it would be activated in 2 hours time. So efficient and fast!

Earlier before I went to the Maxis Centre, I had called the Maxis Hotline to verify the type of documents I needed to ask for the replacement SIM card, and the customer service personnel there had mentioned a replacement fee of RM25 for the SIM card. So when I got the new SIM card, I asked the lady if I needed to pay for it. Her reply:

"No need to pay one. We normally issue replacement SIM card for free."

You say nice or not? :o) I was very happy to hear that and even happier that the whole trip to Maxis Centre took me less than 10 minutes total in and out. So, I'm very happy to remain as a Maxis customer!

(End-note: This blogpost is taken from my other blog - Rinnah's Marketplace.)

Victim of a snatch theft!

You know, I never thought this would happen to me but it did.

My mobile phone just got snatched right out of my hands when I was walking back to office from lunch. Luckily, I did not fall, nor get injured and the thief did not succeed in snatching my purse as well, which was carried in the same hand.

It all happened so quickly that I don't even know how it happened. One minute I was just walking and then the next thing I knew this Malay guy had snatched my phone out of my hand and took off. I screamed, of course, at the top of my lungs. "Hey! Come back here! He took my phone!" And I don't know what made me run after him (some more I was wearing a baju kurung) shouting and yelling. It certainly wasn't bravado. I just wasn't thinking of anything except to get my phone back. But of course, I couldn't catch him because he had an accomplice on a motorbike and he jumped on and took off.

I was so much in shock that I forgot to thank the kind gentlemen who tried in vain to help me stop that thief. One tried to grab the thief by the jacket and two tried to kick the motorcycle to make the thieves fall down. And the wonderful irony of it all? All three of them were Malay. I'm sorry I just walked off like that. I didn't know what else to do after the thieves zoomed off and I just wanted to get into the safety of the office building.

I've already called Maxis to suspend the line, and I'll probably take some time off to get my replacement sim card tomorrow. Unfortunately, all the contacts inside my phone are gone forever, because I didn't write them down and neither did I have the phonebook contact save feature activated with Maxis. So, to the people reading this, can you please email me your numbers again? Don't send me sms 'cos I can't receive it. Thanks.

*sobs* My baby Nokia N80! I mish you... I want you back... *bawls*

Edit @ 21:32 - I just noticed how apt my Verse of the Day (in my sidebar) is... it reads : “In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.” (Psalm 62:7)

Today is NOT Valentine's Day

It is Single Awareness Day!

Yeah, I'm a bit sour grapes this year. Lawl.

With a touch of green envy at the flowers my colleague got.

And also wishing I didn't hear plans from another colleague to take his girl out for dinner tonight.

So, what are you going to do to celebrate Single Awareness Day (SAD) Valentine's Day?

I know.

Spend a bomb on horrendously overpriced flowers and an even more pricy dinner squashed with tons of other couples who had exactly the same idea in mind?

Or gift her some yummy chocolates that will put on a few dozen pounds onto her figure. Hehe.

If you're fabulously wealthy, maybe a sparkly bauble or two.

(And despite the ranting above, yes, I'd love all of that!)

Oh, btw, how ironic is it that Single Awareness Day means SAD?

Can you tell I'm SAD? No? Nooooo?

Maybe you should go read Boss Stewie's post too.

'Tis the season to be jolly

Fa la la la la la la la la...

Rinnah would like to wish all her readers...

A Blessed Christmas, Happy Holidays and a Happier New Year!!!

Hope you have a wonderful time feasting with family and loved ones. Now remember, don't get fat ya? Teeheehee!

Picture credit to Lloydyweb

MRSC Concert 2007 - Compose, sing 'n' perform

Man, I was supposed to blog about this earlier, but I clean forgot! (Until I spotted the pix languishing in my Photos to Edit folder.) What with the happenings in my life over the past two weeks and all I hadn't had the time to get to this. So, this is a backdated post with tons of pics - a rare occasion at It's all about the spin...

On the first Sunday of December, I was at the MATRADE Hall to lend my support to Allan, the Giddy Tigress' brother, whose composition 'You' was one of the nine finalists for this year's edition of MRSC. I have mp3 recordings of the performances but I don't know how to upload them onto Blogger. Can anyone help me? So, I only have photos to show... (sorry for the blurness - I was sitting some distance away from the stage and using maximum zoom)

Ze emcee (the bald guy) who kicked things off with fun & games - I never screamed so loud before in my life! We (the spectators) had to scream / yell / cheer for whoever we were supporting. Of course, my screams were in support of Allan, and we did quite well too... only losing to Hendra's (another contestant) groupies...


Errr... some singer dedicating a song to a lucky girl who ran onstage fast enough. The song was quite nice, actually.


Another singer from an Indonesian band... (I cannot remember any of their names!)


Performance by Blister - a band from Thailand. Now I can only remember the name of the band because it's in the photo! I like their tagline, but I don't see what it has to do in relation to the band name. :P


The hosts of the show - I didn't get their names. The guy did dual language duty - English and Mandarin.


Putting all the finalists on stage - Allan is the guy on the far right whom I've circled. *grin* They later presented tokens of appreciation? to the seven finalists (there are nine songs in the final, but two finalists have two songs each). My pics for that part of the concert are waaaaaay too blurry so I won't embarass myself further by putting 'em up. Lawl.


Someone singing the winning song from previous years.


Jane and her band - from City Harvest Church. Btw, Jane is not the lead singer in the picture. Hahaha.


Adorable Jessica (10yo) who sang on behalf of Lawrence, one of the finalists.


Vincent who plays the sax - his was the only Mandarin entry out of all the nine songs. I liked his composition.


Intermission for performance by Erra Fazira


Sam - the eventual winner. He and Lawrence had two songs each. Very energetic rocker performance, but his drummer nearly stole the show with his beatboxing! Oh, and it doesn't hurt to mention that he's *ahem* very good-looking. Too bad he's too young for me. Muahahahaha.


Hendra - there were a lot of Indonesians supporting him


Another intermission for performance by Vince - I've never heard him sing before and he's not bad...


Allan being interviewed on his composition - sorry the pix is blur!


The Wesley Methodist group singing Allan's composition for him - a very nicely done ballad.


Erm, I forgot his name but he's from DUMC. Poor chap was all alone, don't know if anyone came with him and he sang to a minus one track. Maybe the occasion overwhelmed him but he forgot his lyrics in three places. Pity, because his composition was another one that I liked too.


Plucky Jessica performing her second song for Lawrence - you can see him in the right of the photo holding a guitar.


Intermission again for performance by this chap - he rapped in Mandarin and Cantonese. Apparently you can see him on 8TV?


Performing some of the winning songs from last year in Redzuan - The Musical as the judges deliberate over the winner.


Still performing songs from Redzuan - The Musical. This is Sam (again!) and a girl who has a really lovely clear voice. I'd like to hear more of her singing.

2nd runner-up - Hendra
1st runner-up - Lawrence (for his second song)
Winner - Sam (for his first song)


Chaos onstage as Sam's band members mob him after they announce the winner.


The end

Overall it was quite good and I really enjoyed myself (save for one awkward moment outside the hall where I saw someone who doesn't like me and pretended not to see me. Bummer.) and would definitely love to go again next year. Hopefully there'll be someone I can support!