my innermost sanctum

bits n scraps

* breanagh mctavish is my nom de plume. as christened by my scottish friend, hazel.

it all began with my wearing this plaid shirt once that got hazel and her hometown matey, john discussing as to which clan tartan that shirt resembled.

* hazel originally spelt it as "brieanna". to think that i came up with a rather original variation, i was gobsmacked to learn recently there is indeed a breanagh river in county cork, ireland. oh and breanagh bridge also. exact same spelling. how spooky can that be.

* i was born and bred on the wee isle. and am a member of the peranakan/straits chinese community. but the suffix "chinese" is a bit of a misnomer.

* i'm a virgo, and a monkey. as in the chinese zodiac thingy.

* i'm myopic. and i wear glasses.

* apart from guinness, my other fuels are sparkling ribena, starbuck's vanilla frappucino, earl grey tea, oolong cha and "teh halia" - malay ginger tea.

* i wanted to be a rock star when i was seventeen. or become the fifth unofficial member of depeche mode.

* apart from owning a wee football club or an irish pub, am still nursing the ambition to form a rock band. as *the* keyboardist.

* i can play the electone organ. but was completely hopeless with the piano. i just felt stifled playing it. even piano concerto's turn me off.

* talk of which, my favourite classical music period is baroque. especially strings with harpsichord works. favouritest geezers are js bach and handel.

* alternative rock rules. and so does british indie.

* i do speak eight languages. namely:
(a) RP/queen's english
(b) mancunian accented english
(c) queenslander accented english
(d) kiwi accented english
(e) wee island peasant-class accented "english" - in order to make meself understood that is. sad innit?
(f) wee island proper english - how wee islanders of yore used to speak
(g) peranakan-malay accented english
(h) glaswegian accented english

oddly, with all the pints of guinness that had been chugged all these moons, i still couldn't affect a convincing irish brogue.

* joke. ok, they are: (a) english - my co-mother tongue (b) mandarin chinese (c) hokkien -chinese dialect, my ancestral language (d) smattering's of cantonese - chinese dialect (e) peranakan malay - another co-mother tongue (f) standard malay (g) smattering's of indonesian malay (h) spanish - which i'm quite okay in writing, comprehending and reading (i) teochew - chinese dialect. oh, that's nine altogether.

besides, i do understand a smattering of written french, portuguese, german and italian. so that means thirteen then? erm, and i recognised certain scandinavian words here and there. so that should be seventeen if they were to be separately categorised as icelandic, norse, swedish and danish?

* oh, add elementary japanese to the list also. but i can't decipher the hieroglyphics much despite having attended classes.

* for the life of me, i still am unable to get around celtic languages.

* talk of scandinavian, i'm currently fascinated with this ancient nordic name: freyja / frøja / fröja. icelandic / modern norse / swedish versions in that order. freyja happened to be the name of the viking goddess of fertility, love and magic.

* i graduated in march 2004 with a second class honours lower (2:2) in Bachelor of Science in business administration (marketing). awarded by the university of wales. did it part-time for close to four years.

i enjoyed doing my final year thesis tremendously. although i didn't start typing it until it was about less than three months before deadline. and there i was at the local watching the rugby world cup.

* it was claimed by some online iq thingy once that my iq's 131. right. it could be significantly higher. or much lower. erm, the latter is NOT possible whatsoever. i meant the "much" bit.

* i have a propensity to engage gob - or fingers - before brain. and then i blame it on the blood rushing too quickly to the head. how convenient.

* i'm a shameless anglophile. since the age of ten.

* that may explain why 98% of my good mates are english fellas.

* i have a particular weakness for english chappies - see the "shameless anglophile" bit. oh and canucks also.

* i have an aversion to european men. almost all i came across think all asian women should fancy them just because they were european. read: god's gift, classy, real men ::pass the barfbag:: blahyaddablah. yeah but the whole of europe fell to the nazi's. with barely a whimper. go figure.

* my enthusiasm in two of my favouritest sports, ice hockey and rugby, were due to two blokes who i had feelings for. many many many ::ad infinitum:: moons ago.

* i fall in lurve very easily. and out of also. i mean, i have a life. to live to the full.

* most original pick-up lines so far:
(a) "becareful of that puck!" as the fella tugged the netting by the rink whilst watching the ice hockey compo
(b) "give me a call when yer bored.." as the fella passed me his business card.

i wasn't even attracted to these fella's one bit. honest.

* i have a marshmallow for a heart. that's why i'm totally paranoid of being taken advantage of.

* i have never planned anything in permanence. that's the whole point of living life, innit? you take it as it comes, and live it to the full.

* i'm not career-ambitious. but goals-orientated. whatever they may be.

* methinks the most beautiful women on this side of the planetary system gotta be, not in any particular order: french-canuck, north indian (subcontinent), and eastern european.

* i lurve moggies. especially the wee island breed.

* and canines too. like the westies, yorkies/silky's, retrievers and alsatians.

* i used to do lots of cross-stitching's. it's one hobby that demands lots of patience. and originality.

* i lurve to do my own jewelleries. like chokers and bracelets. i mean, why should i part my hard-earned dosh for "cultured" pearl thingies that cost $$$$??

nay, make that "why should i wear some ordinary pearl thingies that twenty zillion other women might own same, just because they are farmed, polished and wotnot??". i meant the pearls.

* usually my jewelleries are pearls with swarovski crystals.

* diamonds a girl's best friend? what a load of utter tosh. why should i invest or part my hard-earned dosh on some piece of carbon that has the same compound make up as the, erm, charcoal?

* though i have a pair of diamond earrings that belonged to my late great-gran. that's heritage, you see.

* chess is one board game that i strongly believe shaped and sharpened my analytical and strategy skills when i was growing up. although i was checkmated countless of times. by me bro.

* relish every bit of computer programming, and am glad that i first took it up as a holiday past-time while waiting for my GCE 'O' levels results.

* and to think i did a database project - dbase III+ on pc-dos - for my ex-workplace singlehandedly at a terribly young age of 19.

i didn't know what i got meself into as i was trying to impress the finance head. ie: specifications they required was way beyond the very limited syllabus i learnt. in class. it turned out fine in the end which was a mighty relief.

* till today, i'm still driven to pick up something new to learn. like, at this time of typing, javascript. 'cos MT has a number of javascript thingies all over the place that's why :)

* i'm a passive trekkie. ie: not as passionate as me bro.

* favouritest sci-fi series - books, telly, etc:
- dune
- babylon 5
- star trek
- battlestar galatica
- a hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy
- the restaurant at the end of the universe
- any sci-fi short story collections

* my home stereo's permanently tuned to bbc world service. there's so much to learn about viewpoints of folk from all over the blue marble. and it's not because i'm a shameless anglophile.

* favouritest blooms are english roses, sweetpea and anything that comes in blue.

* my earliest childhood ambitions were as a teacher. and a writer/poet when i was fourteen. but one can't simply make a living as a poet here on the wee isle. you just can't make ends meet.

* i did become a teacher, twice over:
(a) relief/substitute teacher in a primary school
(b) computer course instructor with two privately-run computer schools which sprouted all over the wee isle in the late 80's.

* literary influencers: agatha christie, enid blyton, william wordsworth, edward lear. now you's know why i wanted to be a writer or a poet back then.

* whilst in primary school, i joined the school library so that i had a good reason to read. as many books as possible. no, make that "for the sole purpose of laying me paws on newly-purchased books way before the rest of the school" . there.

* i was a police cadet while in secondary school. and it was legal for a fourteen-year-old to handle weapons like the T-Bolt and .22 smith & wesson. not to mention, the baton.

the baton is, IMMHO ::in my most humblest opinion:: the safest and most effective so far. it doesn't pose any irreversible danger to life. especially yours. the owner.

* actually i was wanting to join the national cadet corps (air). but due to the wee number of classes during my year, there ain't any intake for female cadets.

* and i almost joined the air force right after school. to me mum's utter despair. it was the uniform that's why. nay, make that "deriving cheap thrills off seeing planes landing and taking-off at close range". that's more like it.

* yeah, i do have some model planes in my room - a biplane, a tornado, an f16 and a harrier jet.

* i am such an effin' wimp have a phobia of:
(a) blood
(b) knives and swords
(c) hospitals
(d) the dentist
(e) heights
(f) jab's
(g) flying balls

that's why i was really useless in basketball, netball, volleyball and any other "sport" that requires females to run about throwing balls at one another; with arm's aloft whilst wailing like loony banshees on speed.

i must clarify that the above scenario is in the wee island context. one wonders if 99.999% of those women were really playing. or desperately attracting male attention.

* i'm keeping this blog simply to keep my sanity. and maintaining my standard of english. believe me, communicating with certain quarters of wee islanders at work who take pleasure in mangling the english language - apart from their sheer incapability and utter disability to even understand humour - is mentally exhausting.

erm, that's about all. this list is not exhaustive and will be updated as and when. i'm getting on that's why.