Leaving on a jet plane

i shall return soon....

***************

I'm hearing wedding bell soon and I am in the midst of a travel arrangement. Nope it's not me! Since graduation, there have been 8 weddings of my class (2005), and because of distance I couldn't go to most of them. Thus far, I've only been to two weddings, lanotz (held in KK) & atem which was held back in rpi (of course this one doesn't count!). In the effort of reconnect with old/young friends, I shall try to make it to 2008 weddings... Pls let me know the date, so I can mark in my little black book. Maybe I should send expired weddings gifts to friends whose weddings I didn't go. Hmmmm...

I didn't realize how fast time flies since graduation, we're turning to mmmmm mid twenties. If I'm writing to a problem columnist in a magazine, I guess I'll be stating my problem with this, "Hi, I'm a mid-twenties woman who's living with parents and sleep at 9pm... bla.. bla.. bla..". Of course there's nothing wrong with sleeping at 9pm when you have to face horrendous traffic and devils the next morning right? I've realized my body has gone 5 years older than I really am when I've become sleepy at 9pm that I could barely stay awake for late social functions.

I wonder if 2-5/2-6 is a good age for women to get married? Some girlfriends get hitched at that age, and so was my sister. I guess it is wise for women to think ahead about their biological clock since (from married friends they say) it's not very advisable to try for kids after the age of 35. I don't really know the facts for this, but if anybody does, feel free to comment yea.. But after thinking, I don't think it's about age at all, it's about finding somebody who you love deeply and want to spend the rest of your life with. If you have doubts or have a case of commitment-phobia, I still think it's wrong to get married just because your biological clock is ticking.

Talking about couple-hood... Who's your imaginary tv-boyfriends? I'm opting for yummy Milo from Heroes, Nate from Gossip Girls, Seth Cohen from the OC, Lucas from One Tree Hill, not forgetting the sexy mcDreamy from Grey's Anatomy. Finally... Noah Calhoun from the Notebook!

Who's your Noah Calhoun?

**on a serious note, lana pointed out that we're at that age to start thinking about $$$ management

Lesson from Hell's Kitchen

I was watching channel AFC this morning, and hell's kitchen was on. It is basically a cooking-based reality show quite similar to the apprentice. If you watch this show you know how tense and hell-like the kitchen is with impending screams from Chef Ramsay. It's scary to have Chef Ramsay in the kitchen with his screaming. There was one time when he was frustrated with one of the apprentice, and he started screaming, "Communicate, Open Up, and Talk to Me!!!" Then, I wish I can have Chef Ramsay screaming those words to some people around me...

**********************

Grumpy Bear

Grumpy Bear is a bit of a grouch. But his grumpiness reminds us that an occasional grouchy mood is all right - as long as it doesn't last too long. Grumpy Bear's tummy symbol, a rain cloud with falling hearts, is a reminder that even when we're grouchy, we are still loved by those closest to us

Men vs Women

Women expects men to change after getting married, they don't. Men expects women to change nothing after getting married, they do.

What do you think?

Kids are like sponge

If you have kids or nieces/nephews and have Disney Playhouse at home, I'm sure you are familiar of Captain Carlos, the adventures in nutrition. This show has Carlos trying to decide what meal to eat, added with his sister's persuasion to eat colorful junk food.
One time, there was an episode where Carlos tried to decide between a snack and raisin. Then it showed how brain is like a tall building and when one eat junk food, the lights in the building go intermittent or worse black-out. On the other hand, choosing a healthy food leads to super-bright building.

So, I've been using this story to make my 3 years old niece avoid all the candies/chocolate/snack and eat healthy ones.

Me: Makan ni, nanti ada lampu tu kepala ayu...
--->while showing a fruit or vegetable
Me: Kalau ayu makan keropok/candies/soda, nanti gelap kepala ayu....
----> Showing serious face okay..

Then my niece ate her apple, and went to me asking if her head was bright. I pretended that I can look inside her head, and said "Wah, terangnya kepala ayu!! "

Now she has in her mind what are the bright food and dark food. Example of bright food are rice, bread, fruits, nuts and vege while dark food includes keropok(chips), candies and soda. Sometimes, she asked her mom whether a certain food is bright or dark even at the supermarket when picking out groceries. Of courselah this auntie tried to be as specific as possible, for example fruit is bright food because it contains vitamins which will help her body recover when she's sick. It's funny also at one time when she picked up milk and said, "mmmmm, sedap.... ada vitamin... " Mmmmm, kids can taste vitamins??? Do you think that's too much for a 3 years old?

Yesterday, her mom told me the maid tried to offer her candy. She went, "Auntie Mary, kenapa bagi ayu gula-gula? Nanti gelap kepala ayu." Wah... now, whenever I brought her to supermarket, she skipped the fancy and colorful candies section and she went straight to vege+fruits section. Hahaha.. I still think occasional junk food is ok.

Note to self: uji, coffee is dark beverage, cut it down...

Chicken Salad

This is one of the reasons why my resolution of losing weight has not progressed... I love my FOOD too much!

**You may wonder why I've started heating up the wok lately. I've recently bought a fancy plate for my dishes as a motivation :D That's why...

Culinary Adventure

After years of hiatus from the kitchen, I've stepped back inside to accomplish my dream to be a domestic goddess :) This is one of my first few cooking this year, hopefully there will be more to come, and I just hope it tastes as good as how it looks like :P

Recipe: Chicken With Soy Sauce
Ingredients:
1 skinless chicken breast
2 garlic cloves
2 small shallots
1 small piece of ginger
3 tomatoes
3 green chilli peppers
Chicken stock
Soy sauce
Oyster sauce

Methods:
1.Cut chicken breasts into small slices.
2.In a deep pan, heat some oil, add shallot, garlic, and ginger, stir for 1 minute.
3.Add chicken slices, stir for one minute. Then add 1 cup of water, chicken stock, soy sauce and oyster sauce, let it simmer.
4. When the chicken is cooked, add in tomatoes and chili peppers,and stir. Add in salt as necessary.

** You can add in capsicum, carrots or other vegetable if you want

Love vs Money

Talking about money is like taboo in our society. We don't talk about how much we bring into our household or how much money we spend monthly on our shopping spree. In my case, I don't talk about how much I spent on my beauty products ;) Hehehe... Sometimes even couple don't talk about money which I don't think shouldn't have happened. Money can bring a couple together or split them apart. Do you know that one of the top reasons why couple fight is about money? Our desire for the perfect partner fueled multi-million dollar dating services. There are several sms-chats (which costs money) available to cure our lonely heart. Maybe money can buy love after all...

From the article that I've read which I found quite interesting, it mentions how much money we invested for a new relationship. First, it's the getting a partner phase: we dressed nicely, get an expensive haircut and color (women's cut/color can cost up till rm300-rm400!) and fab clothes so we appear more attractive. Once we get the man/woman whom we thought the love of our life, we spent money to maintain the way we look so that our partner won't be looking for replacement. Furthermore, our partner expect to be showered with gifts. Pssst, girls love to be given long stem roses and luxury gifts. Poor men who have to comply to our needs :( Heheheh... In the middle of getting to know our partner, there goes movies and dinners. Who pay the bills? Girl, Boy, or split? I wouldn't mind splitting the bill, or if boy gets the bill first, then girl should at least offer to pay the second time. But I still believe on special occasions such as Valentine's, Anniversary, or Birthdays guys should at least be gentlemen and offer to pay :)

When a couple knows about how much money they each make, of course there are other issues arise. Issues such as if the wife brings more money than the husband, are both sides ok with that? Should the more-money-making person chips-in more for household expenses? If the husband makes more money than wife and expects wife to be SAHM, will the wife be given monthly allowance? I know in the old-fashion world, wife is expected to take care of husband needs (meals/clothes/house/etc) while men are out finding money for the household. But in the modern world where a house mortgage costs a bomb, how do we cope? In KK alone, a double storey terrace house costs more than rm200k (most are >rm250k), that's mortgage payment of rm1500-rm2500 per month for 25/30 years. Added with that a car payment which could range from rm500-rm2000. Ekkkss, how?

Some people might say that money is not the important thing in the world, they're just pieces of paper. But in the modern world, it is important. In an article I read, millionaires save money and being frugal not about having materialistic things, such as having the best car, living in a big mansion etc. It's about freedom: freedom to quit a job that you hate so much without having to worry about how to pay the bills. Freedom to travel the world whenever you want to. Freedom to support your expensive hobby. Freedom to start up own business. Freedom to choose which schools you want to send you kids to etc...

These money issues not only revolves around couple but family too. I don't believe the saying blood is thicker than water, I guess anything can happen when money is involved. I've heard stories about family members trying to open a business together, and when you add complication/money issues to that, it equals to family members started not talking to each other. That's just sad.

So for love or money?

beauty products

Thanks mel for bringing them from faraway land... and also lana for bringing em here :)

i wish...

Spread the love

Spread the love people....

It's Vday... Nope, I don't celebrate Vday, no long stem roses, no romantic candlelight dinner, and definitely no overpriced hallmark card with mushy poem inside. However I do celebrate dad's birthday which falls on the Single Awareness Day, I quote, Hitz.fm "the only day you aware that you're single".

I went out to Karamunsing for lunch and in the midst of looking for parking, the yellow man (parking attendant, not digi) kept pointing at the back of my car. I stopped and shocked to see my back tyre was pancitttttt (flat)...

I was with two other girls in the car, and we, like the other lady-like girls out there didn't know how to change tyre. Unlucky me, I realized that I didn't have a jack in the boot. Why? Why this happened? As usual girls will always be girls, of course want to be rescued by some gentlemen out there. Despite my view of how men have become more narcassisic nowadays, it changed when a kind man went to my way and helped me to do it all. So does it mean that prince in shining armor exists? That will be covered in another post.

So... spread the love... be kind... like in evan almighty, build an arc (act random kindness).

** I cheat on my diet by wiping clean RCH Lemon Chicken... Grrrr...

ResolutionGoal update

I was shocked when I stepped on the scale after I got back from my Brunei trip. I gained few pounds! Eghk, this is sooo not good. I have to check my Quicken now! Let's see... RM44 (a lot just for Donuts!) was spent on BigAppleDonuts but they weren't all for me, okay? I think I've had two dinners at Fish&Co this month, blame it on the juicy New York Fish&Chips and Chocolate Hot Fudge. With two birthday parties held for my niece, both of them had chocolate moist cakes! Added with that, all the food from the wedding.... And I have upcoming Dad's Birthday. How can I resist yummy cake and scrumptious dinner prepared by Mom?

New York Fish & Chips from Fish&Co

With this shocking discovery, I'm cutting down carbs, refined sugar [goodbye BigAppleDonuts :( ], and also invitations to eat out. I'll be eating apple topped with peanut butter, 10 raisins, rice cakes, bananas, and wholemeal bread only. Now I'm questioning why do I want to lose weight and be a lonely anti-social when I can be chubbs and have a life?

** I long for my us-days weight :(

CNY Trip

Thursday - 7 Feb

Woke up early to finish packing for my Brunei Trip to attend a relative's wedding. Me and family used two cars for the (almost) whole family. I was so lucky that I didn't get to be the designated driver as I was a passenger in my dad's car. I don't think I can't quite bear the 6 hours journey, plus looong journey is such a good time to sleep :) We started our journey from Papar around 9 in the morning, and finally reached Brunei around 3-4pm. I can't quite tell the journey stories as I was sleeping most of the time. Heheh...

In front of our hotel

When we got there, we went straight to the groom's house and filled our tummy :P The camps were all set-up, and I can hear the gambus player setting up their equipments. Since they wanted a traditional wedding, gambus players were imported from sabah. I also took the time to check out the McMansion next to the groom's house. Heheh...

After cleaning up at our hotel, me and family went to the Malam Berbedak which was held at the groom's house. I have no idea what Malam Berbedak represents, basically it's groom/bride sitting on the pelamin and having the people 'merenjis' or so-called blessing the groom/bride. Usually people who being asked are married people, and they would be given a gift for doing the merenjis thing. My mom was lucky to be among the first ones, and got a Soga Glass Bowl. Talk about expensive taste huh... Usually in sabah, they would only be given a kain sarong. Hehehe. Of course the other guests were given some knick knacks (so-called campuran) as well.

Left: Our goodies for the night, Right: Mom's gift for merenjis

After the whole merenjis thing was over, all the guests were invited to dinner. Also, the gambus players started playing their songs, followed with some makcik and pakcik joget in front of the others. heheh. I guess they were such sport when it comes to dancing. I could barely move my body (talk about 0 body movement). While the veterans were dancing, I took the chance to to rest in a super-cold aircond inside.

check out where i rested, it was a room full with door-gifts (even the gifts need aircond!)

Went back to the hotel around 11 to rest.

*****

Friday - 8 Feb


Had an early start today to explore some shops in Brunei. Went to few places to check out what they have, but most of the stuff are more pricy than KK. So say goodbye to shopping in Brunei. However, I did get myself two tops which I thought a real bargain :) They are shirt-dress (very gossip-girl like) which supposed to hit my mid-knee but it reached my knees. I might have to send them for alteration, and finally I can pretend I'm in gossip girl (I wish!).

The fuel price in Brunei is cheaper than msia, however they do limit fuel purchase from non-Bruneian cars. The bad thing is that they limit to BD6.00 for diesel and BD10.00 per day for SELECTED petrol station. I think that's absurd, how can you encourage tourists to come and enjoy the rest of the city if there's limitation on how far can you go.

We had to cut the shop-seeing short since there's a nikah ceremony that afternoon. The nikah ceremony was short and I got another knick knack (Butter Cookies in tin) to add in my bag! I love free goodies :) I found the nikah ceremony was a bit odd since it was held at the groom's house which usually being held at the bride's house (or mosque), PLUS the bride wasn't even there!!! How did they get the bride's agreement and signature??? 3G? Wedding teleconference???

After the nikah, went back to hotel to change and spend the night exploring parts of Brunei. I realized few of Brunei town names have those -ong ends. Let's see, there's Jerudong, Tutong, Sengkurong, Gadong, and probably there are few others that I haven't heard yet.

******

Saturday - 9 Feb

Check out from the hotel and went to relative's house for our last night's in Brunei. I tell you, most of Brunei homes have this immaculate neatness in their house that I envy. Maybe they have this anal-retentiveness that I don't have. Heheh.



After dinner, me and others decided to check out the old dead Jerudong Park. I remembered going there in high school and awe-ing it. It was like Brunei has its own Universal Studio and back then it was free entrance! But went we reached there this time, it was sooo dead. They started charging for entrance (with non-existant rides even!).

For sight-seeing, it's BD1.00, rides charge for kids BD3.00, and rides charge for adult BD5.00. It was so sad walking in the park, most of the rides were gone (most likely being sold), and they only had few rides left (5 specifically). I guess they didn't have a lot of visitors over the year, thus forcing the owner to sell some of the rides. I think it's too bad for Brunei since it probably one of the attractions that Brunei has.

From wikipedia, it mentioned that the cost for Jerudong Park was $1 billion and was built and funded by the rich Brunei government. It also mentions about the size of the park which is larger than phase one HK Disneyland. I remembered those days, it took us hours to finish touring the park. They had celebrities such as Michael Jackson and Whitney Houston performed in the park's Ampitheatre. Good news: In the future, they plan to invest in new rides after selling off all the old rides. I'm crossing my fingers on that one :) Read more about Jerudong Park here.


While the rest of the family spent our time in Jerudong Park, my mom and my sister went to the groom's house for the Berinai ceremony (There are too many ceremonies, I know!!!). They had lucky draw (even tv!) and some karaoke I guess, but too bad neither my sis nor my mom won anything. I already wished they won the tv and I can finally have tv in my room :(

*****

Sunday - 10 Feb

Went to wedding which looked like a big wedding with big invite list. My cousin told me there were 27 camps! Hmmmm, too many I supposed. They even had a group of motorcycles escorting the groom's car. Not only the wedding is big, but I've got a fancy door gift from the groom's family. Combined door gifts for my family, we've got 9 of these! I guess we'll be using these for Raya this year :)

We left Brunei after the wedding, but was stuck at Limbang/Temburong since the water level at the river was high and we couldn't cross it. Stayed in Limbang for the night, it was a quiet city as most of the shops closed before 8pm. I guess we needed the rest for our morning journey.

Door gift from the groom's family

****

Monday - 11 Feb

My dad woke us up at 5.30 am! We started our journey at 6.30am, and thank God we got to cross the river. Reached home around 1pm, and how glad I was to finally be home.

**will post pictures soon

06-02-2008

Hang on to whatever I have left...

Yes.... yes... I should've stopped making new 2008 resolutions goals knowing how hard for me to stick to one thing only. But for the sake of New Year in the Chinese Calendar, I guess it's okay for me to add few things :)

#6. Learn manual settings of DSLR Camera
#7. Knit a real project

It's just february... I'm setting end time in June for these two goals.

Knit Away

I'm on my way to become a domestic goddess... Let's see. Baking? Check! Cooking? Check( a bit)! Cleaning? Check! Babysitting? Check! Diapers-change? Check! and now.... Knitting? Check!

I'd done crochet a long time ago during my girl guides day in high school, remember we had those badges on our "selendang"? I remember some of us even had this competitiveness on who had the most badges!!!

Anyway, neth had kindly offered her free and quick lesson on basic knit & purl. With less than an hour lesson, I can now knit and purl! Although, I still have trouble with casting off. So Jen & Ulai, when is our next knitting meet-ups?

With more friends getting hitched and hopefully babies to come... maybe I can knit little booties for dear friends :) Although, I don't want to be over-ambitious :)

Until then, you'll find me knitting my first project....

Emptiness

“Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there.”

Eric Hoffer

City Chic

It's a Monday, and it's a new day. It's time to put on my glasses, cling on to my patent red handbag and start strutting....

Cultural Extravaganza

I went to watch the Cultural Extravaganza at UMS last night. It was a cultural celebration with dance/cultural performances from various countries including one from Sabah of course.

The event supposedly starts at 7.30pm and ends at 10.30pm. Well, that's what they put in the program book. But....... it started an HOUR late. Imagine for us who came at 6ish (the seats were based on free-seating) and we had to wait freakin' 2 hours to watch the performance! Considering they're having the event on school/work nights, in my case Sunday Night, I wish they would start on time.

The event started with local dances: Pankulian Nabuluh, Ramatuo Rahaling, Igal-igal and also Medley of Kadazan-Dusun Murut dances. One local dance that I particularly like is the Pangkulian Nabuluh dance which was performed by children which I assumed around the age of 7-9 years old. They wore colorful and sparkly outfits, and they danced so gracefully (youngsters are easier to bend their bodies huh?). The other local dances I thought were just ok. Few of performances I thought were too many dancers on the stage at one time, that it looked a bit crowded. Con said it might be that they wanted to show the "EXTRA-VAGANZA-ness" of our local culture.

After the local dances, it was time for other countries performances from Scotland, Ireland, Poland, Spanish Castanuelas, Maori, and Kenya. I like... the Spanish dance!!! The moves are soooo sexy.. Heheheh... It made me wanted to learn to speak Spanish and dance like J-Lo in Dance with Me!

At 10pm, they had intermission giving way to local artists performing few songs. I wish they didn't have the singing-part, it just put me to zzz-land. I realized almost half of the audience especially those with kids left the auditorium during the intermission. By the time they finished singing, it was already 11pm!

I started feeling sleepy and dizzy during the singing part. When they continued the international performances, the big hype was gone since half of the audience have left. They continued with the other performances: Viva Brasil, Safari Cats-Kenya, Maori NZ, Ireland and Spanish. By the time all the international performances finished, the clock already stroke midnight! I had been yawning many times and my head was heavy trying to fight off sleepiness.

I didn't stay until the end of the show. I went home at midnight, and reached home before 12.30am. I can't imagine if I had stayed until the end, I'd reach home at 1am and had to force myself to wake up at 7am this morning for work!

Overall, I enjoyed some of the performances. I said some because I felt some dances were repetitive and too long :) But for those who want to watch this show, they have scheduled performances for tonight and tomorrow night. My last advice is don't go on the final day, they have speeches and everything, you wouldn't want to go home at 2 am right?

Go check it out if you want to be cultured...

Another reason to celebrate

Today is another day to celebrate my niece's birthday party. It was just a small "makan-makan" attended by close relatives and neighborhood kids. Because today was not totally planned, so the family had to make it small. I didn't even get to plan the kids games!!! So it was just a brunch, followed by Twisters, and pop the balloons! But there's no party without goody bags filled with some knick-knacks.

Later in the evening, I went to Anjung Senja to take a peek at the City Parade of Cultural Extravaganza in front of Promenade. It was basically a preview of the International Cultural Extravaganza which is held on 3rd, 4th, and 5th this month in conjunction of the KK City Celebration. The place looked cool with the colorful color-lights and all. I didn't stay there for too long, but according to friends and family, they said the event started late (8.30pm when they said it's 7.30pm). I think we don't need any explanation because when vips and vvips are involved, the waiting would take forever. Of courselah..... the datin-datins need to wear their 3 inch makeups, wear their dazzling jewelery, and pick baju from their over-fulled closets. Sooooo, if they say it would start at 7.30, just come at 8.30 to save a heck lot of time!

From Anjung Senja, I met Lana, Hellotz & veeeeery huggable Haiqal who flew to KK for holiday at Tg Lipat. They came there for the "sayap ayam" (chicken wings). Hehehehhe... Con who I haven't seen in months also came (hey.. who said kk is small???). It was fun catching up since it's been awhile since last I saw them. I can't quite believe that it was 2005 when we graduated, and nooooooow..... Lana is married and has a cute little baby!!! We had to cut the "hang" short since little Haiqal asleep and Lanotz were tired from their trip. Alaaaah Lana, I didn't even get to take picture with cute little Seth!