CNY

Pretty and colorful Chinese New Year decoration at Warisan Square

Check out the lions!

Also, Birthday Wish to Mommy Lana!

travel plan

I hope to travel this year, 2008. Pwease... Pwease... Pwetty pwease... With more friends leaving the single-tons group, this only mean less potential travel buddies. Which reminds me...

Congratulations on upcoming wedding of
Rozalinda & Wandy
2 February 2008

**Sorry I couldn't be there. Wishing you a lifelong happiness!

I guess I should advertise here. Heheh.

Looking for compatible travel buddies: I'm rigid and such a planner when it comes to travel, so I guess I'm looking for flexible people. I love sightseeing, shopping and also photo ops every 5 minutes, prefer someone similar. I do budget travel. I don't mind hours of walking. I prefer to start early mornings and not-so-late nights. I don't mind being the questions ask-er in travelling. I play the role of calm-one while traveling, so prefer someone who's cautious and calculative (to balance each other). I prefer small group of people.

So if anybody who think they're compatible. You know where to reach me!

Places in mind: Maybe somewhere that can be reached by super cheap AirAsia.

What's your 2008 travel plan?

A Thousand Splendid Suns

I don't have to be worry about lonely nights and insomnia in the next few weeks... I've gotten myself a new fling or shall I say this could be a serious company. He be sure... is my bed-partner and I'll be fully engrossed into him until late nights. I'm sure he will make me cry and... at times make me smile by myself. At last.... for 10% off, I've got him!

happy birthday little princess

My cute little niece is turning ONE today!



Happy Birthday little girl. Auntie uji loves you to bits!

a taste of donuts

Yesterday finally I got a taste of the hype Big Apple Donuts. I tasted the highly recommended "Say Cheese" from Josie. Yummm..... After telling Sanjay about it through ym, he said, I quote he "lurrvveee donuts". Since I'm being the nice person telling him about the hype in KK, I think I deserve ehemmmm... treats of donuts and coffee from Big Apple Donuts. Don't you think???

I'll be marking my calendar on the day you're here for my ehemmmm donuts :D

Wrong reasons

If you watch the Hills, you might know LC and how she's always have an opinion of her friends' relationships. The meddler??? My guess is she becomes the meddler because of the producers (it's not entirely unscripted). But if you care about someone, you would meddle... Should you? Or should you just let them learn from their mistakes? But isn't that your job, being the wiser person to guide or swerve them from the wrong path or wrong person.

From relationship-wise, maybe it's S&M. Okay not the kinky leather straps, handcuffs S&M okay... I mean being in a relationship with the wrong person: you keep fighting about the same issues, you keep breaking up, yet somehow you keep ended up being together in the end. Is that fate bringing you back together? Or is it because either one of you who's too scared to be alone?

It frustrates me how people can be so BLIND (this is me being the meddler) in choosing their boyfriend/girlfriend. Yea..Yea... I've learn in social psychology that men usually would date many-many women before settling because they want to spread their sperms (probably something with evolution), while women usually keep themselves for just one special person. Not all men, I know some couples who their wives are their first lovers (aaaah... how sweeettt..). One might ask, is it too wrong to care about someone so much? No, it's not wrong, it's just PLAIN STUPID to stay with a person who cheat on you. By cheating, I do not mean flirting with member of opposite sex (I think flirting is still acceptable. Hahahah!), but when it comes to sleeping with other person, that's unacceptable. Yikes...

Maybe the monogamous era is almost over, have we becoming okay to open relationships?

OK... Enough rambling for today

10 things....

Heath Ledger who we all (first) know from the movie "10 things i hate about you" is found dead at his apartment this morning. I still remember watching it in high school and there was a heart-melting part when he sang "Can't Take My Eyes off of you" at the stadium to win Julia Stiles back.

He also will appear as Joker in the sequal Batman movie, the Dark Knight scheduled to be released in July this year....

More....

inspector gadget

I need an inspector gadget to check out my still new gadget! Last year, I bought myself a new gadgie, an external DVD Writer. This is in "must-have-list" since who knows what might happen to my lappie (I wrote about my experience here). I was able to burn few backups of my tv series into DVDs, however after mmmm I'm guessing 10 DVDs, it started to give me problem!

My new gadget has started to frustrate me as it repeatedly gave me error message saying that "The Device Is Not Available" and it cannot perform burn-at-once thing. Anybody knows what this means???

midnight bell

Midnight.... I am still not asleep. I wonder if this is from my tea time coffee? Hmmmm... Actually I just finished watching the k1te runner on my dear thinkpad. Mmmm, there were few tears (hey, it's an emotional story-lah). It's touching, powerful, and surely haunting as described by the author. Although, I'd still recommend to read the book first before watching the movie since there are few differences and parts missing from the book. As other movies adaptations, they can't put everything in the movie, right? I'm thinking of watching this in Cinema again once it's out! How about you, are you excited to watch the kites flying around the cinema this April?

Tonight is my second late night this week. Last Sunday I spent my night watching Good Luck Chuck, and I fell asleep during the last 10 minutes of the movie. Anybody care to tell me what happened? Of course lah Chuck got Cam kan? So predictable ....

Tomorrow night... I have a date with mr thinkpad for atonement :)

I'm sooooo gonna be dozing off at work tomorrow *yawn*yawn*

8th Kota Kinabalu Anniversary Celebration

29th Jan-4th Feb Chinese New Year Carnival Lintasan Deasoka
3rd,4th-5th Feb (7.30-10.30pm) City Cultural Extravaganza Chancellor Hall, UMS
30th Jan-3rd Int. City Fair Anjung Senja Waterfront
17th Feb (7am-11am) City Run Padang Merdeka
20th Feb Batik Show Magellan Sutera Harbor
23rd-24th (9am-4pm) City Regatta Tg Aru Beach
24th Feb (6am-5pm) Treasure Hunt Nexus Karambunai
3rd March (10am-11pm) Dart International KK Community Hall
1st-2nd March (6am-2pm) VIP Golf Nexus Karambunai
1st-2nd March (9am-4pm) Intercity Bowling CPS Bowl

It's time to warm up my D70 and start clicking. I'm more interested to join the Treasure Hunt, anyone wants to join my team?

be very afraid...

Yes. The picture sums me up, I am on the verge of pms, and nothing makes me happy! Except maybe for a paid shopping spree, a getaway, and also a room full with lindt chocolate that i can munch all day long. I feel bloated, nauseated (this is the correct term rather than nauseous), tired, and yes... I am wearing a cranky pants! For men, it's not just in our head!!! It's a real hormonal fluctuation (is it estrogen???) and women's sweet tooth is not helping with the sugar high and low cycle.

Progress on New Year's Resolutions goals

• Jogging/Exercise (0 times, but i have my groceries shopping which I count as cardio+weight training)
• Eat healthy (Mmmmm I guess I am eating healthy. Sort-of. Except for the time when I chocolate, cake and ice-cream binging)
• Control temper (So far I've been nice on the road and less curse-y)
• "One time I went to pay my parking ticket to this parking ticket attendant, those who stay in kk would know (dbkk with blue shirts). So, I had marked my ticket just a small tiny mark on the date that my ticket would due. When I gave her my ticket, she said to me "5 ringgit 27 sen.." I was surprised that she charged me extra 5 ringgit for a ticket that's not even due yet! I explained to her that the mark was just for me as a reminder when it was supposed to due. She kept saying oh, she couldn't accept it, either I pay her $5.27 OR pay at the parking counter which is like 10 minutes of walking (It was a SUPER-HOT afternoon). I almost lose my patience, and was gonna continue arguing, but I took a deep breath and left. Then, went into a stationery store, bought an eraser, erase the mark, and paid $0.27 for my parking ticket to another parking attendant. So, in the end, I didn't let something so-small bother me that day. Lesson is, you're angry not because of a situation, you're angry because of how you view a situation."
  


• Financially wise
• I have started using the money software Quicken. Not that it helps in my unnecessary spending, but it's wise to know where the money is going. (I've found out that I have obsession looking at cute little baby gap/baby gosh. Gasp!!!)
• Karambunai getaway. I called the resort asking for a price quote. Yes, it is a bit pricey RM299 per night (Excluding govt tax) but it's SEA VIEW and check out the pretty pretty sand and the beautiful beach. Since it's been raining lately, I'll probably push this one to middle of the year when I can sunbath under the malaysia hot sun!
  

Have you taken steps towards your 2008 Resolutions/Goals? (I know lana has gotten to her pre-pregnancy weight so soon! What's your secret lana???)

random

As most people know, the election is coming up probably in next few weeks. Me on the other hand is legal to vote, but never bothered to register with the SPR. I've never bothered to know the details of politics in the country. Ignorance is such a bliss... I mean why bother when I'm already involved with other politics, everywhere also politics. Office politics, family politics not forgetting friends politics.

Somehow whether I want to get involved or not, I am stucked in the middle, and being the middle person is yikes.. such not fun. Talking about fun, they say couple in love tend to be blinded by reality, you'll be blinded not to see the bad because you ONLY want to see the good. You say he/she will be goody-two-shoes/loyal/nice/honest once you're serious/engaged/married. The thing is, we can't change people. Despite my best "half-full" view that a real relationship brings the best out of you, makes you a better person, sometimes I think it's just a magical thought of mine. I mean, why do we keep giving excuses for other people's behavior. Yeah, she/he was with other man/woman because she/he was stressed and in need of serious fun yada.. yada.. yada. Who are we fooling other than ourselves. People are what we want to see them. I hope I get to see clearly of everything, and people will do the same to me. On another note, if you want someone perfect, you have to be perfect yourself.

After watching Brothers and Sisters S1 and the rest of S2, I pretended that my family is the walker family. We thrive for the family drama. Hahaha.. So-perasan. Yes, the walker family has 5 siblings, 3 guys and 2 girls (same as mine) and that would make me the perasan kitty-walker. Hmmm, I guess I have to wait for my strong, powerful and handsome Senator McCalister. Hahaha...

My mom was away for the weekend, and my domestic plan didn't go well. My first time of cooking after years of retiring had not been well. It was lemon-chicken (ready-made lee kum lee lemon-chicken paste), and even with that it turned out to be bland. Also, my kek batik turned out to be 'lembik' because my hand was tired to stir the mix.

I have turned cynical. Icks... (wait, does that make me kevin walker, the cynical one in the walker family? heheh)

nescafe kickstart

A friend of mine, Hadi Joey has joined the nescafe kick-start where dreams become reality where his dream is to be a producer to an entertaining tv auto-show.
Vote for Joey to make his dream a reality! (Weit Joey, I'll reimburse for the publicity charge when u do win ok =) ! )

Check out his video here

miss party planner

On graduation dinner of MASA, I was voted as Miss Party Planner, surely it wasn't as cool as Miss Cool, Miss Superstar, or Miss Rockstar, but hey that's not so bad isn't it. Usually, the grown up birthdays of the family members consist of boring normal family dinner, a cake and finally presents time.But with the new addition of new nieces, I've got to utilize my party planning skills, yeay!!! Which reminds me to tune in to channel 707 for David Tuttera. Kids birthday parties are so much fun, ballons everywhere, colorful deco, goody bags, and all the fun games!

My little niece is turning 1 in 2 weeks, and I'm already in party-planning mood. What's not to like about party, kids have fun and so are the adults (or I think I would). Because of my compulsive list-making, I've written down menu ideas, games, and goodies to give away. For games, what are other games rather than playing the ol' traditional musical chair? It's been awhile since my last kids parties. I've already put down twister(can be played by adult as well), and .... what else?

So, what are your party games?

resolutions goals #4 and #5

Thou shall reduce unnecessary shopping/spending and dump those money in travel piggybank. I guess i'm picking an exotic getaway than a brand new patent leather shoes. Let's be an optimist for one minute and believe that everyone can fly! Let's see how that turns out...


Spend a night in serene and beautiful karambunai which i haven't stepped foot to.

I wonder if i need to start doing PPP with my blog.

Book: Gossip Girl #1 (Gossip Girl Series)

I'm so loving Gossip Girls, the fab coctail dresses that I wish I get to wear, and it's in New York City! And how about that eye candy Nate Archibald (Chance Crawford)??? Some of the scenes were shot in popular places in New York City such as in the first episode where S and B talked on the steps of the MET, and also the hustle of NYC streets (with the yellow taxis). I wish I can visit the city in the spring when the flowers are blooming, in the fall when the leaves turn brown and fall from the trees, and also in winter when the city is covered in white.

Anyway, I was going to write about gossip girls initially somehow it turns into travel review :) I've borrowed Gossip Girl book from the local library, just to see the difference from the tv show. Initially I wanted to write down the books vs show here, but I guess someone has already done it here.

Synopsis:
" Welcome to New York City's Upper East Side where my friends and I live, and go to school, and play, and sleep- sometimes with each other. We all live in huge apartments with our own bedrooms and bathrooms and phone lines. We're smart, we've inherited classic good looks, we have fantastic clothes, and we know how to party. . .

Introducing Gossip Girl, a wickedly funny and risquè novel about the provocative lives of New York City's most prestigious private school young adults. Gossip Girl herself is an anonymous narrator with the ultimate insider scoop on the inner-workings of this privileged society because she's one of them. Sharp wit, intriguing characters, and high stakes melodrama drive the action of this addictive novel that will make Gossip Girl the lit world's new "it" girl.

In Gossip Girl, when the beautiful Serena van der Woodsen returns to private school after mysteriously getting kicked out of boarding school, the whole school is talking. All Blair Waldorf knows is that there's no freaking way Serena's going to just waltz back in with her Jimmy Choo mules and Kate Spade bag and steal everyone's heart again. But Serena's got other things on her mind, like college pressure and living up to everyone else's extreme expectations. Plus there's that Ryan Phillippe-looking guy who stands across the street and stares at her all the time.

It's going to be a wild and wicked year, I can smell it.

Love,Gossip Girl "

Synopsis from Barnes&Noble

It's a light book, very suitable for a beach/vacation read. Plus, who doesn't love a bit of juicy gossips???

Book: Vanishing Acts

Quotes:

"It takes two people to make a lie work: the person who tells it, and the one who believes it."

"Sometimes, when you don't ask questions, it's not because you are afraid that someone will lie to your face. It's because you're afraid they'll tell you the truth."

Synopsis:

Delia Hopkins has led a charmed life. Raised in rural New Hampshire by her widowed father, Andrew, she now has a young daughter, a handsome fiancé, and her own search-and-rescue bloodhound, which she uses to find missing persons. But as she plans her wedding, she is plagued by flashbacks of a life she can’t recall. And when a policemen arrives to disclose a truth that will upend the world as she knows it, Delia must search through these memories – even when they have the potential to devastate her life, and the lives of those she loves most. Vanishing Acts is a book about the nature and power of memory; about what happens when the past we have been running from catches up to us… and what happens when the memory we thought had vanished returns as a threat.

synopsis & picture from http://www.jodipicoult.com/