Harry Potter & The Deadly Hallows

As everyone is aware, the last of the Harry Potter series came to an end with the release of the 7^th and final installment of the book in the series last week. There was a mad mad rush for the books with some resorting to camping overnite at the bookstores to grab their copy first hand. And, of course there was a big furore over the RM40 premium that MPH, Popular and Times were selling the books compared to Carrefour and Tesco after which they decided not to sell the books at all. Which just goes to show how expensive books have gotten over the years….compared to the RM10 to RM20 of yonder years. Nowadays, to get a book, have to wait till the warehouse sales or question myself whether I really need the book. Sigh….reading magazines are much cheaper I guess…. 

Anyway, sad to say I haven’t read any of the Harry Potter books. They are just too thick and anyhow, I reckon the movies are oredi out so it saves more time (and money) to sit thru a 2 hour movie (RM11) compared to spending RM70 and at least 2 days to finish reading the book. Yeah, my fave books have always been less than 2 inches thick unless it’s a compelling read like “Wild Swans”, which is like 3 and half inches thick, the thickest book I’ve ever read! However, it’s good to know that Malaysians are avid readers especially the younger generation. My niece puts me to shame as she’s read the Harry Potter series when she was uh….very young….of course sometimes, my sis reads them to her as some of the language are more suited for teenage reading. I leave you with my fave quote from Professor Dumbledore. 

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”

For those who are not planning to read the book like yours truly, here’s the plot, spoiler and ending to the book… 

Harry Potter spoiler

Harry Potter Plot

 

Much Ado about Books

I wanted to go swimming on sat as my body was too ‘siong’ from the fri’s assault but I sprawled on the bed loathing to wake up. I told LM that my body cannot take any yoga or whatsoever BP/BA classes that day and the only exercise that I can bring myself to go for is swimming. Unfortunately, I went a little too late and the pool was closed. That upsetted my plans for the day! Sod it. So I went home, have a nice lunch and went to the MPH sale instead. I loitered too long that I didn’t have time to go for my massage. Ugggghhhh….

Gosh, it’s like a sauna inside the warehouse!! Nevertheless, I trudged on turning and picking up books and novels to see what great bargains I can find. The good thing about MPH sale is that the books are much more organised than the Times book sale. They arranged the authors, the novels, self-improvement, childrens section, cooking bla bla bla accordingly unlike at Times where everything are just splattered all over the tables regardless what categories they fall into. I had a real headache looking for the books! Being extremely kiasu, I just grabbed whatever books that appealed to me and later discard those that I figure I would not have the time to browse through on second thoughts. (btw, there were tons of people doing this and they were carrying boxes!!!) Heck, I still have some books in the shelf which are awaiting me. Hmmm….not to mention the half-finished Angels & Demons, Memoirs of a Geisha, Diary of Anne Frank, the stack of this month mags beside me….urm….I think that’s about it….at the mo’. *evil cackle*

Right, I eventually got myself 3 new books after prodding around the entire warehouse and satisfied my kiasu self that I have not left any corners un-discovered…*rubbing hands with glee*…yay, I got mostly fluff materials. I figured since I have been under so much stress recently, I needed lighter reading materials so as not to further aggravate my insomnia. Like Angels & Demons, it’s not really an appropriate bedtime book becos there’s too much ‘brainworks’ involved to digest the material.

My bargain purchases:

Shopaholic & Baby *Muaks* *Muaks* Latest book in the Shopaholic series

Dogbert’s Management Handbook – am a huge huge fan of Dilbert! this adds to my collection

HOnk if you are a M’sian – Lydia Teh’s latest book on Msian idiosyncrasies

Celebrated FC’s bday at night with some friends. Company was great but food was lousy so I shall not bother reviewing the place. After that, adjourned to Coffee Bean to laugh our hearts out catching up with the latest gossips.

 

Bugged by the Flu

I couldn’t get up this morning with my head feeling really heavy and I decided to take a sickie for the day. I text my HR and my boss sec to inform them. Subsequently, I sent another one to my boss. I could hardly type coherently through the slits of my heavy lids and proof-read a couple of times before I pressed send. I sprawled on the bed with my limbs feeling really heavy and still suffering from chills. I finally crawled out of bed and plonked myself onto the couch. After a couple of hours, I took my medication and was totally dopey. This flu virus is making me feverish and my bones are in pain. Shite! I really hate being sick. I tried not getting up too much as each time I do, I ended up coughing my lungs out which made my chest really painful! Well, I guess between a dry cough and wet cough, obviously I prefer a dry cough as there’s not much phlegm to expel tho’ on the downside, when I cough, my chest hurts! So does my head….I just wished I could shove my arm into my throat and scratch the itch!!

 

My head is throbbing painfully and I just slept the entire day, waking up in between and reading the last of my Shopaholic Series novels, “Shopaholic and Sister”. This book is rather engaging with the story revolving Shopaholic re-uniting with her long-lost half-sister. Her sister is totally different from her and hates shopping!!! She’s the down to earth sister compared to Becky’s airhead. 

 

Gosh, my eyes are getting blurry and my headaches are coming back again. I reckon i should prob go back to sleeping again. Just need to go swallow some antibiotics first.

 

Confessions of a Shopaholic

I had to work on the sat and it was kinda depressing. I met CC up for lunch and thereafter, we headed for the Times Bookstore warehouse sale. The books were arranged haphazardly and I felt faint just looking at all the books thrown all over the tables. I practically had to skim through the whole lot just to find the books that I want. In the end, I got the Shopaholic series (the first 2 anyway, Confessions of a Shopaholic and Shopaholic Takes Manhattan) earlier books by Sophie Kinsella and one by Joey Yap. The Tin Tin comic books were a tad too pricey to grab and I couldn’t find any Dilbert comics either. In the end, we left as the crowd was getting bigger and my head was feeling a little woozy. We went to get a trim from the nearby no-frills dry-cut salon. I reckon it was a waste of time and money to goto the normal salon just to get a trim and get bombarded by the stylist trying to get you to do treatment, colouring, buy the products and wat-nots. 

Incidentally, this is my first time trying this place out. They even offer a self-cut for RM7!!! The very idea was laughable as me and CC looked at the sign and I proceeded to query the stylist. She explained that some of them cut their own hair using the facilities or some who came with friends get their friends to cut it from them!!! Hmmm, Okie. Actually, I have also tried cutting my own hair and my friends’ hair before but it’s seriously tedious!!! Plus, I only knew how to cut it straight, not layered or otherwise. Anyway, I told the stylist that I just want a trim, which by normal standards mean an inch off. Somehow, she seemed to enjoy cutting my hair so much that I felt that she was layering it a tad too much. I mean, c’mon, can’t she see that I don’t have that much hair oredi as it is. Oh well, I think it’s too late liao. Just keeping my fingers crossed that my hair will grow back in time for my bro’s wedding. 

 

I went back intending to take a nap but end up reading my Shopaholic book instead. I couldn’t stop reading and was late in getting ready to go meet up with SNM for a drink. I text him to say I’ll be late and he waited for me inside Coffee Bean. It was hard getting a parking spot and I actually thought of asking him to fetch me instead as we stayed so near to each other but oh well, since he didn’t offer, what can I say. Anyways, I got the Belgian Chocolate Ice Blended (my fave) and he got the day special of some iced tea. See, they once had a promotion on the Belgian Chocolate but after the promotional period, I was disappointed to find it not on the usual menu. When I was down in Singapore, I was elated that their Coffee Bean offered it and I was glad to pay for the higher-priced drink, which I also recommended to Shadow and LM. Not sure when they actually intro it here since I have not been frequenting Coffee Bean for awhile now since I’ve changed to Starbucks to take advantage of their free wi-fi. Of cos, in Starbucks, my fave is the Xmas special, Toffee Nut Frapp or the Mango Tea. 

SNM proved to be an interesting person to talk to and speaks good England too. Prob a banana like me, I reckon and since he’s been longer on Earth, he definitely knows more stuff than me. Anyways, we yakked about everything under the sun for like 3 hours. Turned out he’s a member of True Fitness so we discussed about gym-ing and the mushrooming of the gym outlets, his weekend runs in FRIM (which he claimed to suck in the fresh oxygen), PT sessions, food, schools, education, general stuff etc etc etc.

I went home past midnight and took up my novel reading again on Confessions of A Shopaholic It’s a bad habit of mine to either read books or mags just before I goto bed. Anyway, the book, even though it’s mostly fluff, it’s entertaining nevertheless and I couldn’t put the book down. I also emphatize with Becky Bloomwood, the heroine in the Shopaholic series tho’ i don’t shop so excessively. Also, perhaps I drank the coffee a tad too late so my mind was really active. I finally finished the book around 4 in the morning and I wondered helplessly whether I could actually wake up the next morning to go for my gym classes. Gosh, guess I would have to skip cikgu’s class or something then.