When Road Rage Doesn't Pay

This morning as I was close to work, a car blitzed by on my right and tried to cut everybody up. And you all know how I feel about this. But because nobody else gave him, I was kind and i did. And he had the audacity to not acknowledge me or say thank you after I gave him way. This obviously pissed me off because:

a) He was in the wrong. Everyone else was waiting and he decided to be a wanker and cut everybody up.
b) I had the common courtesy to give you way, the least you can do is say thanks.

So I flashed my lights at him to which he acknowledged me and put his hand up as a symbol of thanks. I nodded as he looked at me in his rear view mirror.

Nothing more was thought of it, until I saw his car behind me as I took the exit onto our business park. Again, not that big a deal as there a load of companies on the business park. And then I saw him indicate the same time I did to turn into the same building as I do.

Oh shit – he works with me.

And the moral of this story? Try not to get road rage (or any kind of rage) close to your workplace!

Your Views

Are you freaking kidding me?!

7 YEARS?!

Refreshing

I like FB. In fact, I am a fan. But it really grates my goat:

• Now that you can't hide your display picture (unless it's from everybody!)
• When people add you randomly (i.e. you've never met!)
• When people say they know you from FB (at a first meeting)
• When people you've met once at a social engagement add you.

So imagine how refreshing I found it when I met a girl on Saturday night who asked me if I wouldn't mind if she added me on FB?!

She was so lovely, I had no hesitations in saying yes! :)

Amma-isms

I have road rage. It's a proven fact.

Yesterday - the whole of my area was gridlocked because of some damn traffic lights that haven't been working now for 4 days! Seriously - why do I pay council tax if you guys can't fix things?!

I was in a rush to get to the hardware store to buy some more paint so that I could paint the skirting board before the carpet gets fitted (this morning!). So you can imagine that my patience was at an all time low.

As I indicated to turn left, the car behind refused to give way (some posh sports car that was very big!). Cue me getting irate.

I try not to swear when Amma is in the car but yesterday I couldn't help myself.

"Oh you f***ing w***er! I hope you can f***ing lip read you motherf***er! With your big ass car!" And I continued effing and blinding for about 5 minutes (thoroughly pissed off!).

About 10 minutes later, I must have been talking about some other man and my Amma who pays no attention to me (clearly!) goes " Who? That wonka?!" and points to the car who refused to give way earlier!

Cheered me up no end.

SERIOUSLY?!

Seriously.

Why do you feel the need to wait until the traffic light has turned green, remained green for 3 seconds before you decide that you should probably put your car into gear, release the handbrake and check your mirrors before you make any movement? By which point the traffic light has turned to red again and yours has been the only car to move?!

WHY you stupid ass in front of me?!

Disbelief!

My parents have been looking for a groom for me. That's fine. I can deal with that. I mean, what do I have to lose right? Besides, it's whichever one comes first and right now - the suitors lining up my door (all two of them) are not really prospective grooms. So I'm letting Amma and Appa (but mainly Amma!) do what they need to do. And also, arranged marriage is different to forced marriage. The way I see it is - it's the same sort of thing as my friend's trying to set me up!

Anyways - things have started rolling now. My Amma being the non social butterfly and not knowing anybody (the benefits being no one can gossip back to her about my antics, the drawbacks being what will follow!) has resorted to some crazy tactics about letting the world know that she has a single eligible daughter ready to be carted off. I'm too scared now to answer the house phone for fear of talking to somebody who's the parent of a potential groom, she keeps pestering my siblings to open up a profile for me on all matrimonial sites from here to Timbuktu and last but not least she has advertised in the matrimonial column of a Tamil newspaper! Stop laughing - it's really not funny!

And recently, my siblings have had to set up an email account for her to deal with the influx (OK - who am I kidding?! The few!) emails. My siblings were telling me about a potential boy they'd found. My mum had been conversing with his parents and they seemed to like each other. Photos were exchanged. This is the scary part. Not being the most confident of people - I am surprised if someone finds me attractive. Yeah, I get by but not amongst my own if that makes sense.

Having not had the Internet for a few days, I didn't the picture of the groom until yesterday. (Let me quickly tell you another story kind of related. My parents had previously tried this about three years ago. And the description of the photo of the guy as my siblings put it: "He looks like a professor!". There is nothing wrong with that at all but being faced with that statement and that photo (he had a tweed jacket on with elbow pads) in your early 20s kinda makes you say no. I'm not shallow but he wasn't my type!)
I kept asking my siblings if he was better or worse than the professor (who had become our reference point it seemed!) and they wouldn't comment.
Opening the photo, I was met with a LARGE guy. Now I'm not stick thin (if only!) but this guy was large. My initial reaction was "He's large. Tall and nice enough looking but large" (Obviously in my head). I could feel my siblings watching my as I took in the photo.
"So?" says my sister.
"So?" says I.
"What are you going to do?" asks my brother.
"I'll talk to him and see what he's like" I reply.

And in slow motion I see my brother turn around and face me with his jaw wide open and ask "WHAT?!". He didn't seem to be able to believe that I'd even said that!! And so I clarified for him again.
To which he replied "Just tell them you're not interested. Amma and Appa have already decided anyways!".
I'm still trying to get them to at least let me talk to him - what do I have to lose?!

And that is how it's going so far!

From One Legend to Another

RD is the SL blogosphere's legend. Well, it's between him and a few others but I'm pretty sure that RD is one of the oldest and not just in physical chronology but also virtual chronology.

But enough about him!

I am soooooooooo fucked off right now! Seriously! So fucking pissed off that I want to cry.

Michael Jackson announced he's playing his last ever UK tour. So the fucking promoters decided they were going to do some pre-sale shit where if you registered early, they would send you a code and you would be able to buy tickets earlier than those released for general sale. I might not be MJ's biggest fan, but he is one of the greatest all time legends of my era and seeing him live would be amazing I'm sure. Off I went and registered. 07:00 Wednesday morning, I logged on to the shitty website that is selling these tickets (they are fucking shit!) and it fucking crashed! I couldn't even get on it. Hence I couldn't get any tickets!

So I waited for general release this morning. I was on the PC and ready to go at 06:40! This is the time I usually get up to get ready for work but I was already dressed - knowing that I'd be there for a while.

07:00 - I searched for tickets again and I was put in a queue "Your wait time is 15 minutes or more". OK - well at least I'm in a queue I thought to myself. 35 minutes later and it still says the fucking same thing. I really should have left for work by this point but hey, it's a once in a lifetime opportunity so I stayed.

Just as I was about to give up, the message changed - " Your wait time is now 10 minutes". Ooooooh, progress I thought to myself. So I hung around whilst the 10 minutes took 20 minutes to count down and finally, like the heavens had opened up, I saw this message: "Your wait time is less than one minute" Wooo hooo!

And 3 minutes later: "There are no tickets that match your search. There may be tickets for other dates that do. Search again."

WHAT THE FUCK?! You kept me fucking waiting for nearly an hour and fifteen minutes to tell me there weren't any tickets?! And it wasn't just me that was searching. A and B were searching as well. And we all flopped!

AND the thing that FUCKS me off the most is the fact that nearly the whole world and his fucking dog (out of our social circle) have got fucking tickets and we don't!

So if anyone knows anybody who knows anybody who could hook a girl up?! There is nothing short I won't do (including selling people) to get some tickets!

Priorities

What was supposed to be a coffee after work with B to sort out her issues turned into a night of wine fuelled heart to heart. She explained her side of the story. One example of where I did do the wrong thing blown out of proportion, and fanning her insecurities and paranoia. But I listened, apologised and said that I would try to sort it out. I guess we'll have to see how things go...

But like I said - it was completely wine fuelled and thus, completely honest. I wasn't out too late but am actually surprised that I managed to find my way home. I think there was a lot of swaying and a lot of physically keeping my eyes open. Getting off the tube, I tried to find my ticket and fiddled with it for about 5 minutes trying to get it in the barrier. I vaguely remember the look of disdain on my siblings' faces as I got into the car...

At home, I have some recollection of Amma towering over me as I tried to fall asleep in the landing. She didn't look amused! I don't think I will ever live this down!

RL and me also had a bit of a "put it all out there" last night. She is not impressed with me. Maybe I have been a bit of a lame friend recently. But her issue is with me and A. I know she introduced us and maybe I should do more to include her but it does slip my mind sometimes and I am going to consciously do something about that.

I don't think what some of my "friends" realise is that my family will always come before them. If that means having to give up my social life and not returning calls as frequent as I should - then so be it.

I Just Don't Get It!

I will never understand women. Don’t get me wrong – I am one. But I seriously will never get it. Why do we insist on being so random?!

I just need to vent and put this out there (here).

I’ve been a lil’ busy lately. My new job (even though it’s only been a week) is taking it’s toll. I sometimes don’t get home until well past 7 ish!

Despite this, I’ve done my best to keep in contact with my friends. This has worked more so with B and A because I’ve called them and they’ve called me.

B has been going through a tough time and I am doing my utmost to be there for her. Sometimes she has phases where she goes MIA and now is one of those times. I know the situation well enough now to leave her to it and know she’ll call me when she’s ready.

However, she’s been MIA for a few days so I called, text and FBed her (a lil' stalkerish maybe but I just wanted to make sure she's OK).

I told her she can talk to me as well. I've noticed long wall to walls with her and RL and yes, I felt slightly disgruntled (God, I'm pathetic!) but following this - surely you can see why?

Imagine my surprise when she text me back saying she feels as though our friendship feels "weird". WEIRD?! WTF?! I thought things had been fine between us! I hate people who do this. If you have a problem with me, then tell me. What do you think is the worst that is going to happen?! I'm not going to take out a contract against you!

It just pisses me off that women are so fucking emotional!

The Way It Is

So many draft posts and not in the mood to publish.

Why...

• Do (most) men never call when they say they will?
• Am I always hungry?
• Can't I be one of those people who can eat anything and everything and not put on any weight?
• Did I choose kickboxing?
• Do people try and push me off the bus before the doors have even opened?!
• Is my job so boring?
• Am I so poor?
• Am I still single?!
• Do I commit to things that I know that I'll not be able to follow through?
• Am I so L A M E?!

The above is just a quick vent of things that I am questioning at the moment!

Messy Threesomes

Basically I was propositioned to have a threesome with a couple who are both good friends of mine....... No, not really but I thought I'd ensnare you into reading what is most probably a mind numbing post!

I've just returned from Lanzarote with two of my girlfriends - B (best friend) and RL (very good friend). Now B and I go way back - we went to high school together and despite not being best friends (BF) (I feel like I'm in high school using that term but needs must!) at the time - we cemented our relationship as BF when we lived together during university. RL and I have known each other for about 8 years or so and she has become a good friend of mine. I don't tell her all my worldly secrets though (not like I tell you guys!) because she does have a habit of judging people.
Last time I went on holiday with RL and B (and 3 other boys), there was a lil' tension - and we only went away for 3 days! A lot of "I felt left out" feelings. So I wasn't looking forward to the trip so much.
Before we left RL mentioned to both B and I (only half-heartedly) that we shouldn't proclaim our BF-ness! Erm.. okie so we decided to become very conscious if were doing that.
Here you need to concentrate:

RL introduced me to A (male). A is my crush. A and I get along really well despite this (whether he knows or not). I introduced A to B and they also get along very well. When A, B and I are together - we have so much fun. RL and A are not as close as they once were - time, distance and change does not always bode well on friendships.

So obviously as girly holidays go - there's bound to be some deep and meaningfuls and a lot of talk of sex. One night, after a few drinks and revelations galore, everything was going really well. We came back from a night of clubbing and I was ready to sleep - B tells me that I care for A more than her and RL stirs the pot saying that I do spend a lot of time with him. I tell B not to be silly. That I love her and she comes before A. Always. RL says that she feels left out when A and I go out or do things together. Even more so when A, B and I do stuff! And so there were tears and tantrums and a completely bewildered Scrumpy! WTF just happened?! RL asking why I don't love her as much as B?! B asking why I don't love her as much as A?! All this at 5 in the morning! Clearly my mental capacity was unable to cope with this so I kinda went to sleep!

The following morning - our apartment was so silent. RL announced she was going for a walk. B was still asleep. So off went RL, B had a coughing fit so I checked she was OK. And then B apologised and told me how RL had been saying stuff when I was having a shower and stuff basically making her doubtful (Stirring like nobody's business!)!

The point of this is though - can you have a threesome of girls be good/best friends? How many of you are a threesome of best friends?

The moral of this: Never to go on holiday with RL again and clearly never tell anyone about when I'm seeing A!

The Frequency Decreases....

Not the number of times I'm having sex - no (well, that too!).

Logging onto FB! Don't get me wrong - I'm an avid fan of FB. It's put me back in touch with a lot of people that I'd lost contact with. It's also put me in contact with people who I didn't really want to talk to once we'd left high school.

It's here that my ranting begins.

1. If I didn't talk to you in high school - I don't want to talk to you now. Please don't add me - I will reject you.
2. If we were friends at high school, but we lost touch and you can't see any pictures of me - it's because you're on Limited Profile (LP). If you keep bugging me about pictures, I will tell you that!
3. If I've only met you once/said one word to you, then the chances are I will not go home and search through our mutual friends to add you. Please try not to do the same. I won't be offended!

And by far the worst that I've seen:

4. People who I know that couldn't stand each other in the past/never spoke to each other are FB friends with each other! Why?

One of my friend's GF added me the other day. I ummed and ahhed about it for a whole day before rejecting her! I've never met her nor have I ever spoken to her. Just because I'm good friends with her BF doesn't mean we have to be friends! She wasn't impressed apparently - well tough shit!

A haphazard post done just before I leave work! Apologies for any spelling or grammatical errors as well as the randomness of it! :)

Tactful Sri Lankans!

Do they exist?! Few and far between perhaps!

What is it that makes Sri Lankans of my parent's generation just not be able to offer compliments? They just don't get it do they?!

It seems as though the only thing that people are willing to comment on are your weight or your complexion.

Just went to Canada - obviously. Relatives who haven't seen me for 10 years or so: "Oh, wow! You have lost so much weight!" Yep, it sure is nice to see you too! Forgive me, but how humongous did you think I was?! Or how huge do you remember me being when I was just a little teenager? How much puppy fat was there?!

Take for example returning home. My dad (as lovely as he is) - "You've gone so dark! And put on weight! What were they feeding you out there?!" And there we have the best possible combination - weight and complexion. Yes Appa, it's nice to see you too. I really did miss you and you're never going to see the bottle that I brought back from Duty Free for you!

The best I've heard though is when I visited Sri Lanka - my aunt introduced me and told her friend (so not even a relative of mine!) that I was from England and he proceeded to say "But how, she is the same complexion as us! Surely she should be fairer?!"

I didn't know whether to punch him in the face or punch him in the face!

You can comment on anything - tell me my hair looks nice, or that you like my outfit or that I have a wicked smile!

Why is it most don't have any tact?!

On A Budget

Budget airlines suck. Fair play to them for trying to take on the giants of the aviation world but they are really just not that cost effective.

This would be the perfect time before I start ranting to tell you that I'm having another holiday. Lucky for me, B's sister has timeshares in some holiday apartment thingy and as she can't use it this year, she offered it to B. What this basically means is that we get free accommodation in some resort type place and only have to pay for flights and spending money. Wicked!

We are going to Lanzarote. I don't think it's too sophisticated or even cultural but there will be sun and it's a girly holiday so it will be a welcomed break!

Lanzarote is part of The Canary Islands and budget airlines cater a lot towards them. It appeals to chav in people (I'm a closet chav - what can I say?!). The usual price of a ticket would probably be around £199. And this is on a more recognised airline so I expected it to be a lil' bit cheaper (by about £50 for example).

Off I went to check out the prices. I used all the search engines, searched all the home pages of all the budget airlines I knew, I even went to page 20 on my returned Google search and the cheapest I found was £180! Now, this is not so bad. I'm willing to pay £180 instead of £199 but when I have to pay to put my luggage in the hold of the plane (ranging from £6 and upwards and this is per single trip so not even the return journey), then pay to choose my seats online (because you won't let me pay until I do this - £6 per single journey seat) and then try and include travel insurance (which I'll remove!) - the cost is so much more than the quoted "£180". So you see budget airline people - you're not that much of a budget!

But Scrumpy - Scrumpy is smart! (A lil' self appreciation never did anybody any harm!). I found a website that had tickets for £188.50. For the extra cost of £7.50 - I could add 5kg to the free baggage allowance of 15kg. So I removed it. And then I saw that when you search for flights - you could enter a promotional code.

These promotional codes sometimes come in emails that allow people who have subscribed to a newsletter/website to provide them with discounts. I hadn't subscribe to this so what did I do?

I Googled promotional codes for the website I was booking from and actually managed to find one! Enter the promotional code into the designated box and BAM - £15 discount off each ticket!

So all I paid was £166 per adult (inc. of taxes). I love a bargain!

Bananas and some randoms!

I hate them! I actually do. I'm on some kind of health kick at the moment (in a bid to look a lil' bit more flattering for the summer!) and I've decided to cut down on junk food and eat a lot more fruit and veg. What astounds me the most about this is how much I've kept to it. I'm having more than my 5 portions of fruit and veg a day(!) which is a big thing for me! However, my amma keeps trying to give me bananas (like I'm some kinda chimp!) and it pains me to eat them. With every bite, I generally feel queasy. I know there are those who are trying to sing the praises of bananas to their monitors but they just suck (IMO). My favourite fruit are pears. Ripe, juicy sweet pears. I can't get enough and I might even make a pear crumble this weekend (I'll try not to post any photos Chaarmax/Dili!).

On a totally different note - regarding the recent news in Austria which T has blogged about here - I was absolutely appalled! The fact that someone had the capability to do this and keep up this pretence for however long is a sign of the downward spiral in society. What kinda FUCKED UP SHIT is that man?! (Excuse the profanity)

A E I O U

We only have 5 vowels in the English alphabet. 5! Therefore we should make as much use of them as possible no? One of the things that I am completely anal about (completely!) is the use of good grammar, punctuation and spelling. So being an avid fan of Facebook (FB) (yes I admit, I am a FB stalker - it's quite sad really!), emails and text messaging, it only winds me up further (should I have used farther?) when I see the English language being ripped to shreds because people can't differentiate between they're, there or their, you're or your, affect or effect - the list is endless.

or when they dont use any punctuation no full stops no commas no capital letters at the start of sentences.no spaces after full stops or any kind of punctuation.No apostrophes.

It makes reading text so difficult. If you're going to write something that you obviously think is worth reading, then at least make it readable!

Which brings me on to the use of vowels or rather the lack of!

Example 1:
"This is so gonna sound lyk an April Fools!! Bt u knw dat phD I applied 4 @ UCLA 4 a laugh... DEYV INVITD ME 4 AN INTERVIEW!!!!! Dunno wat 2 do! Ring u ltr xxx "

Fair enough - this was in a text message (trying to save texts and money) but it was from a grown adult! She could have written it out properly and still only sent 1 text!

Example 2:
"Yea, I dnt thnk I am eithr I ges bt I hav bn actng lyk I am! Thanx 4 da girlie chat yst mrs. Hav fun 2mrw x2

Same person - but again, she could have easily used the vowels! However, I'm willing to let these slide because they are texts and there is a limitation on the number of characters that can be used.

Example 3 (taken from FB):
"yh me bless ini..ntn mn juz jamin..klkl..cum da dai..it'l b jwkz ini..styl..vere enada?nefin nu?tc da x"

WTF?! Alright, I know that two of those words are an attempt at written Tanglish but the rest of it?! And when did ".." become punctuation? Is it the end of a sentence? Should we pause?! Seriously?!

Example 4 (taken from FB)
"im crious i aint a vry jkative person im havin hell ryt nw iv been wid a gal 4 2 yrs an stuff r gtn bad2

Give me a break! You've got wall space on FB so you can use the God damn vowels!

However, what grates me the most (and I remember that Darwin might have mentioned this a loooong while ago so I will find the link and add it at the end) is the people who write like this:

"i iz a COL student me have lotz of friendz gut 1nce and bad 1nce i izt known as a G But iZ nOt a G iZ just A noRmaL StudeNt jUsT aSk 4..."

Why are some letters capitals and others not? Doesn't it take much longer to write things like that? Why do you do it to yourselves (and more importantly us as the reader!)?

Now I'm too scared to spellcheck this as I've probably made lots of mistakes!

And for the record - Darwin's post (sorry Darwin - I'm not sure if this is OK within the etiquette of blogging!).

*Disclaimer* - I never claimed to be great at spelling, punctuation or grammar but I do like to read text that is readable which is why I posted this.
If you notice the mistakes (of which there are probably a few), don't berate me. I'm only human! :)
And I'm sorry for the rant!

A question I usually ask...

Myself is why don't I have many female friends? I know the clichés about girls being too bitchy and they're all out to stab each other in the back(!) and all of those... But seriously, I see the best in everyone until they prove otherwise. I'm one of those far too trusting souls, the ones who get hurt time and time again. I'm ever the optimist and I think it's a role I shine in!

Don't get me wrong, I have female acquaintances - the ones I see on the social circuit and I can have an amicable conversation with but friends - the ones I call and talk to about everything with no holds barred - there's only two. Well, one really; but she is at least my best friend.

But now I know why. It's because girls flop all the time! Going out requires so much organisation and so much attention to detail. With guys it'll be like:

Me: "Shall we go out?"

Male friend (MF): "Sure - I'll meet you at X at hh:mm and we'll see how it goes from there."

Me: "Cool - see you then and let me know if anything changes."

With girls - it's a whole other ball game:

Me: "Shall we go out?"

Female friend (FF): "Sure, where were you thinking?"

Me: "How about X? I'll meet you there at hh:mm."

FF: "There? Can we make it a lil' earlier/later?"

Me: "Sure - "

FF: "I'll tell A, B and C...."

Me: "Wicked, so X at hh:mm" (earlier than what I'd initially said)

FF: "Do we have to dress up?"

Me: "Whatever makes you feel comfortable"

FF: "How much money should I bring?"

Me: "About £30 maybe? We can get out more if we need it right?"

FF: "So X at hh:mm?"

Me: "Yep. I'll let you know if anything changes."

So, I put the phone down and get on with the rest of my stuff...

*Text message alert*
From A - Scrumpy, where we going? FF told me but what time and stuff? What are we going to be doing? Can we make it later?

*Text message alert*
From C - B said FF said we're going out tonight? I can't make it unless you change it to dd/mm/yy.

*Text message alert*
From B - C can't come to X and I don't know what to wear!

And this is probably all one week in advance of the said event! As it gets closer, it gets worse! By the time it comes around, I just want to cancel and have a quiet night in!

This isn't the only reason but if I continue, the post will be just too damn long!

No Comment

I deleted a comment. In hindsight, I don't think I should have because it kind of defeats the point of this post slightly.

Basically on my previous post, someone left an anonymous comment. Something along the lines of "It sounds as though it's you that needs to do the growing up - and fast". I think I let this get to me more than I should have so I deleted it. I regret doing so because I should have asked why anonymous commenter (AC) feels that way? But then I'm not blogging for AC to criticise me (especially on one post!) but I guess with free speech it's allowed. It's hardly fair to judge me on one post surely? The comment upset me because I'm not blogging for your approval.

As I write this now though, I'm thinking I'm reading too much into it. I mean, you don't know me AC and I don't know you. Your opinion therefore shouldn't really matter me to that much. Thus, I apologise for deleting your comment.

"You are actually....

Younger than me. Stop telling me what I can and can't do!". One of the last sentences I uttered at my brother before we stopped talking 2 days ago! I think puberty hit my brother late (he's 19). Shouldn't he be nearing the end of all this teen angst and mood swing stuff? I don't actually know why the way I live my life bothers him so much.

A quick introduction to the relationship between my siblings and I - it rocks! We are very close and in general we have a lot of fun. So the fact that this has happened pains me. I'm of the belief that my siblings have lived through some bad times of our lives together and through that (and amongst other things) have become my best friends. We're like the 3 musketeers only a lot more cooler!

He's got this huge chip on his shoulder like we're all meant to bow down and listen to him just because he's bigger than us and a lot more vocal!

It's alright for him - he spends the whole day doing nothing (university break) so can talk/go out during that time. For me, I only have the evenings free and I can't spend all of that time with you! For God's sake - grow the fuck up!