Tai-Kor-Tai-Tor

My husband was recently promoted at work, and although he's carrying out all the duties and responsibilities of his new position, the promotion will officially take effect only in December. As head of a new restaurant, he had to oversee countless photography sessions for the press/media the past few weeks, as the company's PR department is busy publicising the restaurant's opening. These were mainly food shots, or photos of models pretending to dine at the venue. The PR department also arranged for a photographer to take a professional shot of Ben in the event that his photo is required for any press releases or articles.


Of course we all know, big title = big jobscope + big responsibilities + big headache. So Ben no longer works on a shift basis but for as many hours as needed, going in to work as early as 7am and leaving as late as past midnight. Most days he works from 8am - 11pm.

What to do... now Tai Lo already. And to prove this, he's Tai-Kor-Tai-Tor with FOUR handphones! One's his own, one is for the restaurant, and the other two are 'em walkie-talkie-type of com-phones. All hail Mighty Ben-yah-meen... Lord of the Ring-Ring.

The Ultimate Lepak Experience

Hi, our names are Benjamin and Bernadette, and we're couch potatoes.

Ben works about 14-16 hours a day, with just 4-6 days off in a month. So when he gets home at night or on his days off, it's extremely important that he feels as relaxed as possible to unwind and take his mind off work. Lucky for him, he met a lazy bum like me, so we're like two peas in a pod... two "ubi berisi" on a sofa.

There are women from China who sneak about the apartment blocks selling DVDs. And then there's Shams. No-Holds-Barred-Bo-Kia-Si Shams, who lugs around two huge bags of pirated DVDs openly. Shams is the man, man. He sells DVDs with 16-in-1 movies for just AED20. 16-in-1!! Super-power-terrama!!


For my birthday, Ben bought me a spanking new iPod since I drowned my Nano in the washing machine. This new baby holds 30gigs and plays videos too. That much disk space meant lots and lots of downloads.... So I went crazy and downloaded almost every single song I've known since the 70s... Plus movies, entire seasons of sitcoms....

One series that Ben n I are hooked on is Grey's Anatomy. He enjoys it so much that he wanted "scrubs" of his own too. So when I was in Singapore in June, I bought some cheap cotton from Spotlight and sewed us both a set of our very own "scrubs". It's especially comfy for lounging around in when we're semi-comatose on the sofa.


But the couch was too small for two big potatoes like us. Not that we're too fat to fit on the couch, but we wanted The Ultimate Lepak Lounge. We considered moving the TV into the bedroom, or the bed into the living room but the logistics weren't right for that almost-brilliant plan.

So Ben made his birthday wish... "I want a sofa bed! We'll go to IKEA on my birthday to get it".

We couldn't find a set that we liked cos sofa beds are either really bulky, or really "leceh" cos u have to take it apart and put it back all the time. We asked the salesperson if we could have two chaise lounge sets joined as one... like an extended two-seater sofa, or a bed with armrests. Trust the imbecile to say "yes yes of course no problem" and then screw up.


The chaise lounge sets were delivered a week later, but it didn't come with armrests and couldn't be joined together. So it's like we bought two deck-chairs or mini-beds. Apparently the armrests have to be ordered separately, or only come with the couch! Anyway, we still love it cos it's damn comfy, man.


"Budaya lepak" has arrived and evolved. Malaysia boleh? Dubai lagi boleh!