pangkor laut

nice greeting after the hour long ferry ride (not so bad with ad there):


first things first: FOOOOOOD!! but this was the nice appetizer:




the view from where we had our 1st lunch

sheer bliss to jump into the pool to cool off, then eat, then jump in again. i realised i am sooo unfit. duh, actually not really surprised there. two laps and i'm panting like i just climbed mount kk.


ad had the biggest burger i've ever seen.. with everything on top. wow.. it was massive. i fell in love with the pizzas and more or less ate pizzas everyday we were there.



after our very satisfying lunch, we headed to the nice private beach and just slept and talked and read and drank lots of coconut water. hahaha. this is the life...




ad hates it when i snap him whenever. he'll probably make me take this photo down. but it was so nice.. just doing nothing and lazing around

end of an era

ok ok, maybe era is a bit over doing it.. but to me, it's really the end of an era. the era of my life where i'm confined to only talking about where to buy the cheapest nasi lemak, which is the best way to soak stained clothes and where i have to second guess everything that's being said in mandarin/cantonese/hokkien. *phew* what a relief!

i never realised how much this has taken a toll on me. the forced camaraderie with colleagues whom i would never foster the same kind of wavelength had i met them anywhere else. i am not a snob; i realise these are sweet, simple and sincere people. probably one of the least threatening and least intimidating i'll ever meet. but then again.. u have got to understand that i need normal human contact!!! ppl of the same background, upbringing and exposure.

i tell you.. after 2.75 yrs here, i have started speaking like this : "you eat what?" - when asking them what are they eating for lunch, "what you did?" - to make the printer jam, and various other mangling of the english language. just so i can communicate my point across. i am so pathetic. talk about falling under the influence.

the infamous phrases i always hear, which always make me cringe:

if someone tripped - "oh you so poor" (erm? i assumed they meant you poor thing and it's got nothing to do with their financial health)

some work thing gets bungled up - "i am back to square" (ok, i think they meant square one here).

it's pretty funny when you think of it. but i am not going to think about it anymore!!! as of march 1st i am outta here!! the place where everyone thinks i am the odd one out, the place where i just can't fit in, the place where i'm the only one who knows what a blog is!!!! wheeeeeeee........

but then again, i am also leaving the place where i can drive out at 10am to get a burger if i'm hungry, where i can come in a bit late if i'm stuck in a jam, the place where i can walk anywhere and get any information as and when i please, the place where anything i say is given weight and where most of my requests are entertained. bleh.

can't believe i'm saying this, but i think i'll miss this place, mangled english and all.

I have been nesting… that’s what happens when you get married and move to a new home. It has been a blur of decorating, fixing and cleaning. Now my home is my haven. Especially the study. However, cosiness breeds laziness. I am now not inclined to go out once I’m home. And I am also inclined to mold myself to the sofa and be happy. Bliss…

We had a couple of parties to usher in the new year. It was a blast. Some of our friends went for watch night service, then came back to the party. The rest of us were too lazy. So we chatted and played taboo. Sooo funny. It’s hilarious how it brings out our kiasu-ism and competitiveness.

We switched off all the lights when it was nearing midnight. Then lit candles everywhere. Everyone held one. Then we counted down, blew all the candles off and hug hug kiss kiss scream scream. Then we opened a bottle of wine and yam seng-ed! That was quite spontaneous and funny actually.

The following week we threw another party for Ad’s friends. I was the good little wife, washing up in the kitchen etc cos Ad did it for our 1^st party. It was quite fun actually. Tung Yin, Sharon and I had a nice chat while the rest of them were bringing the house down with their Taboo game. In the end the ruckus was so incredible the 3 of us ran out of the study to see what brought it on:

Word: Freeloader

A very over excited Koh: “When Leong drinks.. he..??”
Everyone: “Is blur! Is drunk!”
Koh: “No! He never pays…!”
Adrian: “He’s a freeloader!!”
To which everyone screams in laughter and Leong is blur and Koh is so embarrassed and apologizes profusely.

Another one:

Word: Master Bedroom

I forgot who: “Before sex you..” (gets interrupted by):
Henry: “Masterbed…” (gets interrupted as everyone takes it as ‘masturbate’ and won’t let him live it down)
Poor Henry. I think they won’t let him forget this any time soon.

Needless to say I did not cook, nor prepare the food. We conveniently tah pau-ed everything hehe. We don’t even have gas! Good grief. I can get used to not cooking ;) but I don’t think it’s very good for our arteries in the long term.

photo diary (night)

walking into the war zone haha:



perfect depiction of me being overwhelmed by all the unfamiliar faces of ad's family! i think even ad was shocked at the sheer numbers that greeted us when we opened the door to the vip room!


focusing, focusing on the reason we're doing all this:


adrian welcomes me into the ballroom by serenading me: (i had no idea - as is for most of the whole day)



my crazy MC's; ad's best man, jerral (politician in the making eh?)

my popo and adrian.. having heart to heart talk :)

taking a break; listening to our MCs tell stories


on stage with our heng tais and chee muis. don't they look grand :)

we had to ask our heng tais and chee muis to lead the toasting cos both our families were stage shy! and chicken.

My family - mum's side

ad's gang:

Darling FOJ-ians (without whom my deco wldnt be as gorgeous):

OJ-ians!! also part of our wedding committee:


claire, me, weipeng, meilin:

uni friends, old friends:

dear adelyn, tirelessly executing everything. no wonder i cld relax on my big day :)


my ham sap co-MCs and fellow rebels in cell:

showing off our sexy shoes to ah jon:

papa and mummy post their bedtime:

ad's dad and mum:

picture diary (morning)

wiling away time cos my chee muis were super late


the boys in all their glory and matching pink ties!!



out the door, down the stairs:









i didn't know ad was singing while i walked down the aisle. chieh! wasted... he should have told us, instead of surprising us. we all thought it was the cd...

and papa kept whispering to me when we were walking down the aisle: "eh.. walk faster, we are the last'. duh... i'm the bride. i'm supposed to be last. "eh.. they reached the front already". "pa, stop stepping on my dress". "pa! sloooowerrr..!!!!" "eh, adrian is singing la!! look look!" "are you sure??". "yes la! walk faster"



my favourite pastors:




both mums burnt their fingers cos they used the tea lights to light the bigger candles. haha.. their eureka moment only came after the whole thing was over:






the best moments of the entire day:


mr and mrs lim!!!

my wedding day recap

i really enjoyed myself on my wedding day. but i actually have no idea what actually transpired during the day hahaha. strangely enough i wasn't tired or exhausted as most ppl warned me about. i think it's the adrenaline high that accompanies being the center of attention for a whole day! hahaha.

it was great to be quite oblivious to the many panic attacks that visited themselves upon my friends at the last minute. apparently my wedding day was fraught with last minute crises. ooo how lovely lovely to be able to chuck it to the back of my mind and assume that it will be taken care off. and it mostly was! cos i obviously never knew the difference. i love my husband for being the calmest of calmest and just trusting god that everything will turn out ok.

list of crises:

- our worship leader was struck by dengue 2 days before our wedding and had to be hospitalised. it was quite serious. and becos he chose all the really cool but difficult songs to play, the rest of the worship team didnt have the confidence to play without him. so... voila! up stepped wallace and the team to change every single song and play superbly with only 1 practice. wow... lots of faith being put into action there! i was blithely unaware of how stressful it was for them. i just said... ah.. you guys can do it. and i didnt even bother to ask what songs they decided upon. so it was a wonderful surprise (not really la, i knew they would do a good job - they're all veterans) that worship on our wedding day was super. we loved the songs.

- my deco person forgot my headpiece. so i had no flowers for my hair for the church wedding AND the dinner. so we yanked a few rose buds from the bridesmaid's bouquet in the morning. and took some flowers from the table arrangements in my hotel room for dinner. hah. we plucked different coloured roses from some arrangement in teh VIP room during dinner also. cos i forgot my change of dress. haha

- power outage at the club before the church reception started. and our poor worship team were in the midst of their only practice. good thing dad knows ppl who knows ppl. and voila! we got the power back on 1/2 an hour beofre the service started i think. oooo.... how melodramatic

- my bridesmaid left the communion in my house. only realised when we were 1/2 way the the club. problem solved with wonderful ppl who had backup.

- my whole gang of chee muis were fantastically late (the heng tais wanted to sabo them and break into my house and ask them for angpows instead) becos my bridesmaid's tyre got punctured really badly. i dunno how we managed to start the service on scheduled time, but we did.

reasons i didnt panic and cry:

- adrian was an absolute rock and merely laughed everything off and said don't worry i prayed already. so it'll be taken care off. waaaahhhh! even i don't have that kind of level of faith hahaha. so obviously that faith transferred to me, so i also didnt bother much.

- mei lin told me at the end of the day, the most important thing is being married to the person you love. so all these details are mere icing on the cake. i just needed to focus on the whole point of the day. which is being married to adrian!!!! and thank you thank you thank you my darling beloved mei lin. becos for every single crisis that happened, and every single thing that didnt go according to plan, i always remembered what you told me. and you know what? that was one of the main reasons i totally enjoyed every bit of it. it kept me focusing on the right thing.

it didnt even bother me that my dress was super loose and i had to keep tugging at it. so lame. serves me right for not trying anything on at all since i took my photos. which was 6 mths prior. heh.

what a wonderful day...

on married life

wow.. it's been ages since i've updated any posts. they're all saved as drafts. problems with my broadband connection for eons.

old entry:

MARRIED!!!! at last! still fantabulously giddy when i think of it. to think that 2 years ago, the idea of marriage was quite off putting. i have to eat my words now :) if only i knew how lovely it would be i would have done it sooner and not balked at it. haha. the benefits of hindsight. many ppl have asked me what's the best part of being married. here's my humble answer: to wake up next to the person you love most in the world, and his face being the last you see before you fall asleep.

i think your whole mindset actually changes. so it's really not the same as when we're courting. i can't quite describe this change, just that it's an immense knowledge knowing that you are part responsible for another person as well, and that another person is depending on you. yeah, it's cool.

it's also involves lots of conscious effort and commitment not to take each other for granted. of course, we're still in the honeymoon phase so it's not apparent yet. but we're well aware that familiarity and apathetic feelings can creep up slowly and subtly, hitting you only when the symptoms are quite severe, and it's harder to reverse. so.. we must always be on guard. see? i actually paid attention during our pre-marital counselling sessions. heh.

rants

finally... something our PM says that i agree with. i just hope it's not rhetorics as usual, as many of the speeches made by politicians are. (i do wonder whether they can keep track of all the false promises they make, or whether they recycle them depending on who their new audience is)

quoted verbatim from the star:

A nation should provide channels for its people to voice their concerns and where constructive criticism was encouraged, the Umno president said in his opening speech yesterday at the party general assembly.

“Differences of opinion should be viewed objectively and not necessarily be seen as being anti-government,” he said.

The media, he noted, now had greater freedom to publish news highlighting the mistakes of the Government and its agencies. The Government, party and elected representatives, he said, were not immune to criticism.

“But there are those in the Government and the party who are uncomfortable with this freedom. There are those who believe that the Prime Minister is not in control.

“The truth is that I would rather see heated exchanges in the pages of the press than to see raging riots on the streets.

unquote

what would be even better would be if the heated exchanges resulted in a positive outcome for the lay ppl. after the uproar regarding zakaria's (the non-mention of his title is deliberate as it's an insult) palace and his other cronies' mansions without permits, all they received was less than a slap on the wrist. is our state government actually insulting our intelligence? by stupid remarks like 'he didn't do anything wrong except not apply for the permit etc etc'. geez... wake up guys. we are not that stupid. did anyone try to find the answer to the question of the origin of his immense wealth, which culminated in the building of that egoistic-booster of a mansion?

and don't you just hate it when moronic public servants make even more moronic spastic comments, and then claim that the press 'misunderstood' them? HARLOOO!!! this trick may work once, but all the time? come on... at least be a little more creative with your excuses. the fact that the penang municipal council president's remarks that a reporter's 'sexy' outfit warranted the attention of a cctv technician in focusing on her thighs just shows what kind of ppl we elect to represent us. he is more than a pathetic moron. he's taking us back all the way to the times when women were persona non grata. did his parents educate him properly? do the ppl he mix with breed this type of 'male chauvinist pig-ism'. talk about being backward!

actually, the fact that he thought the reporter's clothes were sexy really shows what he's missing huh. he's either been trapped in a time warp or he really hasn't been watching tv for the last 30 years. you kinda feel sorry for the little twerp. he must be so deprived.

i personally don't think a public apology is enough. i think he should be sent for some sort of brainwashing / re-training / or rather re-thinking programs.

communicating with a guy

Welcome to my world:

Me: WaaaaAAAHhhhhHH!! This green is really nice.. .sort of apple-y cum natural leaf colour. It goes really well with the other white walls. And especially since we have dark wood furniture. Don’t you think so? Is this green ok? Or you prefer a more earthy, olive green look?

Ad: White is better than the ori.

Me: Huh? (thinking to myself: does this mean the green is nice as well, or is it just the white that’s nice.. and does it go together? Tell me tell me! Describe describe! Since I’ve been banned from going to our new home until it’s more complete)

Ad: It looks bigger

Me: Huh? What looks bigger?

Ad: The rooms

I tell you ah… I cannot get this guy sometimes. Like… I NEED details man…

my worldly goods

all my worldly possessions are now either stuffed unceremoniously into boxes, or they are about to. it's strange how a home you once thought was cosy and welcoming is reduced to a minimalistic existence of a bed and a sofa. the walls are stripped bare, the personal touches wrapped in ungainly old newspapers, and everything that's me is tucked away.

*sob* it's no surprise then that going home doesn't seem so appealing now. my home is always my haven.. it's now just a place to go back to sleep. i can't wait to move. not least because i can start nesting again :) i am itching to get started on our new place. it's currently being painted, and the furniture and my stuff will be moved in this saturday. then it'll be a mad mad week of unpacking and cleaning up before the wedding.

this is what my current place looked like when everything was in its place:

this is what it looks like now:


but i have lots of good memories in this place

ladida.... i think i'm gonna miss this place. especially the landscape and the pools. hah. not like i made much use of it. it's straight from the car to the unit for me... you can tell i'm not one to appreciate my surroundings until it's taken away from me. bleh.

sale!!!

because i'm moving out, i've been forced to dig deep into crevices previously unsearched before in my wardrobe to pack all my clothes. good grief... what nasty surprises lay in wait for me.

i can't believe i have a pair of cargo pants. me??!!! cargo pants! with their requisite side pockets and all that. ewwww... i cannot believe i bought them. i was probably depressed and in need of shopping therapy. yeah, that's right. i was out of my mind. it is just so not me. i believe i haven't worn it before. i should be thankful for small mercies. but one of my friends was so excited when i told her i had a pair, cos she really wants one and her husband won't let her buy one since he's in a quest to feminise her. i'll gladly unload my pair to her man. she's more than welcome to it.

another 2 friends can't wait for me to have a closet sale. so i have actually set aside clothes which i haven't worn before, or have worn a few times, and which i don't think i'll ever wear again. sigh... i can't believe i have all this stuff that i've accumulated over 2 years! talk about hoarding!

i'm not bothered taking it with me to our new home. it's either going to be sold off to my friends, or left there hahaha. sale sale sale!! anyone interested in many halter necks?

the new tenant of my current condo is interested in buying my furniture. ooooo i am so hoping he does! and the best thing is, he and his gf seem to like the stuff which i don't mind getting rid off, since ad and i have already bought new stuff.

out with the old, in with the new! *fingers crossed* since he's going to come see it again tonight.

people with zero personality

it's blardy annoying when you invite ppl to your wedding and their rsvp means = erm... i think it's a yes, but don't be surprised if i FFK, since i tend to do that. but you can put it as a yes first. i'll see whether i'm too lazy to make it.

what the ???!!!

and i hate it that inviting someone to your wedding has become so 'political'. some ppl, you're just obliged to invite, cos you just HAVE TO. damn and blast. and these are the morons who give you that kind of response. geez... gimme a break. and have some manners for goodness sake. urgh!

a wedding will always let you know who your true friends are. not least through their response. actually, let me rephrase that. a wedding will show you who are those with personalities. and who will just plod through life, oblivious of the fact that they are pathetic morons with no basic manners.

i had to do the obligatory invitations for the office. and boy, i can honestly say i didn't do it very sincerely. dad says i have to invite all the managers at least. i don't actually have a problem with that, just that a couple of them loathe me and let's just say they aren't on my bosom buddy list. but i HAVE to invite them, since they're managers. *gag*

a couple of them were so incredibly rude, actually most of them were. some didn't even bother looking me in the eye when receiving the invite. there was no congratulatory wish, no thank you, no nothing. one even told me, without even looking at me to leave it at his table cos he was busy. okaaaay... i'm not desperate for your wishes, but have the courtesy to say thanks, at least. sheesh. i wonder where they were educated. or whether they are at all. how do ppl get along in life with zero personality and zero social graces? i can't believe i WORK with these ppl! i can't believe they are working for my company!!! *waaaAAAHhhhHHHhh*

granted, not all of them were like that, but majority were. that's bad enough. and they're managers! that's what i can't believe. i know i shouldn't be biased and prejudiced, but ok.. all the rude ones were chinese educated. a mere coincidence? i dunno.. am i going to get shot for saying that? you make your own conclusions.

my bridal shower

it was one of the nicest gathering of friends i've ever had. adelyn organised it soooo well, together with ann. we had a sushi party, and i heard they were preparing since the afternoon. ann painstakingly went to look for all the required recipes etc etc. so semangat! i would have been quite happy with dominos pizza haha.

but the whole spread was very impressive, for a bunch of sushi novices! even the miso soup was delicious, and packed with all the yummy stuff inside which you only get a smidgen of when you eat out. i think everyone had more fun preparing the sushi and secretly hoping it would turn out ugly so that it would be deemed too ungainly for the sushi trays, and they would have the excuse of gobbling up. heck, even i wished that when i tried my hand at a california roll. i was way too greedy and the ends couldnt quite meet to make it a roll hahaha. tasted just as nice though.

the process & the results:

after dinner, they sat me down with questions to answer about my relationship with ad. i had to choose my answers from a variety of cut-out pictures which they had earlier cut from magazines. it was quite amusing how they know us quite well by now. i could find almost all my answers from the stack of pictures they offered. one example: what would ad love you to do with him. answer: outdoor-sy stuff like camping etc. and they had a picture of a four wheeler splashing through a river. in the end, all pictures of my answers were pasted on a big black board, which will be framed up for me.

photo of my board:

after the interesting Q&A, of which i won't divulge here, they each presented a gift to me. the theme was kitchen tools/apparatus which i can use in my new home. awwww... they are so sweet. each tool presented came with a card from the giver, stating the meaning of their gift, with other encouraging words. i was so touched by all the thought that went into this.

my darling friends:

the long break (not!!)

we started the long raya break with a bbq bang :) the heavy heavy downpour didn't stop us in the least. we just waited it out. mostly cos we were hungry, and too lazy to go out to eat in the rain. my cell had a bbq bday celebration for all the october babies, yours truly included!! we had it at likxon's condo in mt.kiara.

watiting for the rain to let up: i like this picture cos it looks like an out of body experience. but it's mostly cos i don't know how to adjust my camera for night views. bleh

sitting pretty and finishing the marshmallows cos it was raining cats and dogs, and that was the only 'prepared' food we had:

i must say the guys really stepped up to it. i was quite impressed with how they started the fire (manually!!!!!) by blowing on it!! cos no one remembered to bring a fire starter. my darling fiance got his leftover five o'clock shadow singed off, how convenient..too bad i didnt take any photos of how RIDICULOUS they looked!!! HAHAHA

guys are so desirable when they know how to cook:

but they cooked everything for us while the girls just sat around chatting and making hungry faces. we demolished almost the whole packet of marshmallows cos we just cldnt wait anymore. the food was so excellent that till this day i am still dreaming of the one drumstick i let go off cos i was too stuffed. i haven't tasted barbequed meat so well cooked and succulent b4. mmmmmm....

i am so proud of my baby and some of the guys for cooking non stop in the fierce heat from the fire without complaining or eating also. they just served us all the time and waved away any enquiries to whether they wanted us to feed them. EXCEPT for one guy. bleh... so mega ungentlemanly and uncouth ok. urgh...just sat there demanding more chicken or sausages or mushrooms or bacon. he couldn't even get up to get it himself (as his gf pointed out)

gee... i only noticed this when the first ever plate of food was brought to the table by the mighty guys. being the gentleman, i know the rest would have let the famished girls eat 1st as there wasn't much on the plate. instead this specimen grabbed almost all the food while everyone else was left standing ard the table and staring at the fast disappearing plate. hahahah.. i would have been MORTIFIED at such manners if this person were related to me in any way! good grief! this was the pattern of his behavior the whole night. i don't think i was the only one who noticed tho. i think his gf noticed this too cos she quietly chided him that he'd already had enough when he asked for another piece of bacon. i guess she was embarrassed cos lots of other ppl wanted the bacon but hadn't eaten it yet, whereas this fella had already grabbed a few pieces by then. not once did he offer to help the other guys who were cooking. actually, not once did he move from his chair. sigh... he should be ashamed of his behavior but i don't think he even realised it. *shakes head*. to think that the rest of the guys hadn't eaten yet cos they were cooking for us. and one of them was the birthday boy himself. it was left to the girls to keep some food for the cooks.

other than that everyone had a really good time. needless to say i didn't notice the other guys talking to this fella. and i pointedly did not bother talking to him also, cos i simply can't bring myself to put on a polite facade and talk to someone whom i'm a bit irritated at. what a poser.

the birthday babies:
male bonding:Stef & I love this photo cos it looks so glowy & artistic hahaha:

nerd alert

i know i've said that weddings are a good excuse to meet up with old frens that u haven't seen in yonks. sending out invites are also a good excuse it seems. i was busy doing that over the long break, and it was quite productive and fun.

it's somewhat reassuring to know that your school and uni mates haven't changed since you met them. with the exception of bigger savings accts and more groomed appearances haha. but then again, anything would look better than our requisite jeans and whatever-i-can-find-before-i'm-late-for-lectures t-shirts. i find some comfort in seeing them looking nice and groomed, cos it validates my own need to look that way. Not least becos I was SUCH a NERD! And them too heehee.

Seriously. We all looked so uncool in the uniform of basic coloured baby T-s and jeans (at least they were not the carot-cut types - **gag**) and loafers/sneakers. How uncreative. And you see these ang-mohs in uni who at least made the effort to look like they had some modicum of time to get dressed in the morning! Makeup was not in our vocabulary. Anyway with the Malaysian society of students as it was, anyone wearing makeup would be considered a vain pot or whatever.

I remember one of those (frequent) days when I really couldn’t drag myself from my electric blanket heated bed to go for lectures. This always happens in winter. For the 9am lectures. How ungodly. Unfortunately this one day was the last day of lectures for a particularly stupid subject which I took. I kinda skipped every lecture except the 1^st and now, the last which I HAVE to go for. By the time this dawned on me I was so late I just dashed out the door in my pyjamas! Granted, it was quite decent – track pants and some sweater I could have shared with another person, it was so huge.

This just shows how much I actually cared about my appearance. I guess at the time I was more interested in ace-ing every subject and traveling to every imaginable spot in Australia. Clothes did not figure much then.

Enter final year of uni. By that time I think I was quite confident academic-wise, so I really let loose and enjoyed myself. Not to mention we were all fully adapted to our new host country already and could act like we owned the whole place! That’s when the real fun began. And that’s when we started becoming fashionistas.. but that’s another story. But now you know why we’re so vain now. I think it must be to erase all memories of bad-clothes-days previously.

So I just finished addressing all our wedding invites with the help from my absolutely marvelous, fantabulous friends last Saturday! Wheeeeee!!! We did it in only 1.5 hours.

I was so stressed that day cos Ad and I were about 2 hours late meeting them in Ann’s house. Cos we had NO idea that carting all those stuff from ikea was going to take absolute yonks! We spent a total of 4 hours in that place!!! bleh… I’m glad that’s over. Taking note of what we want to buy is sooooo not the same as actually looking for the stuff, carrying it to the checkout and to the car! Thank goodness Ad has some semblance of muscle man in him. I would have died if I were to do it alone.

We arrived in Ann’s house totally out of breath, in need of a shower and the bed. But Ann being Ann, she had nice bowls of pak koh tong sui laid out, and nice curry puffs, and nice drinks… and she bought me nice, lovely, artsy fartsy pens to write with, not the mention art wires which I intended to use as part of the card deco. (Idea scrapped cos it’s too blardy hard to do!!! Sob…)

Ann is so sweet that when we scrapped the idea of the wires etc, she pretended that she’ll be using the wires for some other things, and the pens as well, so she wouldn’t let me pay for them. I feel so bad! Cos she went shopping for me to get them!

And she is so humble and unassuming as to wonder whether I would invite her to our wedding. Duh… of the biggest order. She actually asked Ade quietly whether she would be invited cos she was planning a family holiday abroad and didn’t want to miss our wedding. And when she took a peep at my guest list and couldn’t find her name (she was looking at the wrong list), she felt even worse.

Oh dearie me… isn’t she the absolute funniest / adorable-st. To think she is offering us her home to be the venue for my hens’ party / sleepover, she’s part organising it esp the menu (popiah and sushi), and she’s helping me with the wedding preparations… and she actually thinks I’m not going to invite her. **Sob** How can I not invite her? I just love her! She makes my day especially since she takes all our corny, mean jokes so seriously. It’s such a laugh teasing her.

I am just touched and humbled by how supportive and helpful my friends have been. Planning our wedding has been one of the best fun so far. I say so far.. cos I know the RSVPs are gonna kill me.

Having so much love and support for your big day is really overwhelming. I wonder what I've done to deserve all this. I really don't actually.

Busy at work: Addressing envelopes, stuffing cards into envelopes, sealing them (Ad's talent); Ann is busy getting us food so she's not in the picture

Some of our wonderful helpers at our 1st 'wedding committee' meeting. i'm so embarrassed!! i have a committee!!

my birthday!!!

My family celebrated my birthday with Jap food.. ooOoooo yummy. But the person who took our photo completely cut off my dad’s face! Boo. What a grouch pot. So we didn’t even ask her to re-take. Good food, good company. Adjourned back home with stuffed stomachs to slouch around till midnight to cut my cake!!! Yes, I’m older but I still like my cake!

This is us stuffing our faces:

This is us after our shower, sans respectable clothes, after a full stomach and lazing at home; a pyjama ad if there ever was one:

This is what happens when we are too free / see each other too often / or not / there’s too many of us at home at once

Can u BELIEVE what our PM says these days???!! Good grief! I am floored. Might as well listen to a fire hydrant for all the sense he makes these days.

The latest case of him trying to be smart is about denying that the New Economic Policy (some call it the Never Ending Policy) has met its goal of 30% bumiputera equity interest for the malays (he says that they have only achieved 18.9% equity stake), versus the Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute’s (Asli) report that states that Bumiputras owned 45% of the country’s business equity.

This report (which is an independent report), cites statistics from the Bursa Malaysia Corporate Equity’s 2005, which estimates that the amount of bumiputra equity ownership is 45% of the RM715.4bil worth of stocks on the stock exchange, or RM325.08bil.

According to The Star, “Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi was recently quoted as saying that Asli’s 45% Bumiputra equity ownership result was wrong as it was based on a survey involving 1,000 companies listed on Bursa Malaysia, while the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) had surveyed 600,000 companies to come up with its 18.9% figure for the Ninth Malaysia Plan.

Badawi also says that Asli’s report is inaccurate because (get ready for this): “Government-linked companies (GLCs) are not bumiputra companies”. What would you classify them then? A ‘special’ corporate entity? If you exclude these companies from the poll, then you might as well not poll at all. Almost all the monopolistic big companies in Malaysia are GLC’s. It’s a bit ridiculous excluding some of the largest cap companies in the country from this report.

This is like taking a national poll on obesity and excluding the VERY HUGE people because they will skew the results. Gimme a break. Who are these people who makes these rules?

Another shocker: the PM claims that Asli’s report is inaccurate also because they calculate the value of a company using it’s market value, as opposed to the par value used in the government’s calculation.

DUH!!!! It’s such a stupid comment I cannot even believe I read it! The Edge has a good article on this. I think a 19 yr old finance undergraduate can tell you that NO ONE values a company using its par value! How ludicrous is that?!!!

Look, I buy Maybank shares. I bought them for about RM 7.50 some yonks ago. It’s par value is RM1. It’s market value now is about RM 11.20 ie. it’s trading in the Bursa now for RM 11.20. Heck if I’m gonna say my share is worth RM1 when it’s jolly well trading at 11.20! I’m not going to sell my shares for RM1 (par value)!!! I sure as heck am gonna sell it for RM11.20.

So, the PM thinks that companies shld be valued at par value. Okaaaaaay. I’m a bit worried here for our nation. I think this one remark of his is gonna make us a laughing stock to anyone who reads The Wall Street Journal or The Financial Times, not to mention our local papers!

more shoes to drool over

my favs:
drool worthy manolos



my fav in this collage is the brian atwood in the middle. and the two ballet shoes. heck, i love'em all.

Yay! It’s fridaaaaaaaaaay! My lethargic, uneventful week has taken a hop-skip-and-jump turn just because it’s Friday! And today, I am entitled to TWO steaming hot cuppas! ** My unhealthy allowance for the week. (Let’s not remember the chocolate cake for supper on Wednesday and the sausage snacks in bed to induce sleep)

Not to mention I just completed a horrid spreadsheet of stuff. So I’m home free this weekend!

Tonight will be attending Ad’s cell – we’re meeting at one of the adults’ home cos we’re having a so called ‘health’ talk. Which will most probably degenerate into obviously cloaked questions abt reproduction and what not, just becos the guy’s a gynae. Anyway we can be a cheeky bunch. I would actually like to test my boundaries with my questions. HAH. Cheap thrill.

Ad and I wanted to finish writing and addressing our wedding cards this weekend but the printer bungled up the cards. The insides are printed upside down! HAHAHA. Anyways, it’ll be fixed by tomorrow I think.

Behold! A shopping trip with ML tomorrow! I hope I find some gorgeous shoes. I’ve gone a grand total of 4 weeks without buying shoes! Not for any righteous reason though. It’s cos I can’t find what I want. Long sigh….

OooOO have another wedding to attend tomorrow. Fun fun. Photos to come later. Supposed to select flowers on Sunday night with MG, our really talented friend who’s doing our wedding deco. Unfortunately postponed. Or fortunately, cos I promised my Dad I’ll be home for dinner and I forgot.

I want dusky pink roses. But apparently dusky means a lot of different things to a lot of different ppl. Bleh. Really hope peonies are in season! Cos that’s my flower of choice, but only subject to season and availability. Sob. Oh well.. pink is pink.

If I have time I’m going to transform my many cool, cute ‘mooncake’ boxes (I dig the boxes more than the mooncakes inside!) into jewellery boxes or ‘whatever’ boxes to store stuff. It’s really pretty to store your girly stuff like sample bottles

can a girl ever have enough bags & shoes?

my wish list:

hermes long kelly - it is sooooo sleek

Miu Miu bag (you would think miuccia prada would design some cute stuff like this for her prada label huh..)

another Miu Miu


very cute flats but forgot by whom. who cares? they are cute and would look good with my denim capris and new cropped cardi. boo hoo.. how come i can't find anything like this here?

marc jacobs ballet flats!!!!!! i'm in lurve...
marc jacobs peep toes


are you drooling yet?

i've been reading the recent uproar over s'pore's minister mentor 's (is that some moniker for someone who just can't give up power?) remarks about how the m'sian govt marginalises the chinese here. hmm... we're treading on dangerous ground here people. especially if you agree with the old man.

not that i particularly like lee kuan yew, but i do admit that he is a brilliant man. and i do acquiese to his observations that the chinese in malaysia are subservient and submissive. if we aren't, why am i cautious abt admitting this? why are all of us careful about what we blog about? even if it is supposed to be our personal space. we're not really free to express anything of this sensitive nature, esp when it comes to racial differences or racial nepotism.

we put up with it. what choice do we have? it's just the way things are, and whether we like it or not, it'll continue to be this way for yonks. of course our m'sian counterparts lashed back that the chinese here are successful and happy and are the largest equity stakeholders. why not? we work damn bloody hard for it. nothing's handed down to us. so of course we bloody well are successful. that's a huge DUH if you ever ask for one. we all know it's not a level playing field here. the reason is economic planning; to 'create equity among the races to prevent another may 13'. well, to a certain extent i see the point in this. however, i'm sure it irks us that this 'reason' or excuse or whatever gets taken advantage off by a select, chosen few who become grossly wealthy, while the rural poor remain marginalised!

whether we gloss over the fact, or pretend that it doesn't exist in this country, it's anyone's prerogative to do so. live in total ignorance if you want, tan sri or minister so and so. i somehow understand that you have to. can't afford to create another racial ruckus yeah?

but for those of us who are so immune to this, coating each sentence with the insinuation that 'they are like that wan lah' whenever the topic of wealth integration arises; doesn't this just prove that we are in fact totally submissive to this? call it active passimism or active submission if you want. it's submission all the same. that's just my humble opinion.

the means to the end may be justified, but along the way, the true hardworking ppl (including the rural poor) are marginalised by the few who seek the easy way to wealth, through whatever means and whatever strings they can pull. all in the name of economic planning.

me? sew?

i just finished adding embellishments to one of my dinner dresses. *phew*. that was hard work. i felt like i was an underpaid, overworked minion in one of the sweat shops. bleh.. i would NEVER attempt to make this a part time job. sheesh. now i know why dresses with hand sewn beads and stuff on it is so expensive.

i was on a roll. momentum got me going. that's the only explanation i can give to having spent almost 8 straight hours sewing. but what a great sense of achievement i felt after that haha. it's finally done. and i'm quite pleased with the results actually.

maybe i can start embellishing other stuff now. gee.. did that just come out of my mouth? i take it back

the devil wears prada

i read the book abt 3 years ago, ovlivious to the furore that was taking place behind its bitchy, gossipy pages. i nevertheless enjoyed my brief encounter with new york's glamorous, hyped-up fashion industry. i am a girl after all, and the book is peppered generously with beautiful clothes and the latest va-va-voom fashions. you need to use your imagination, and at least have regular binges of fashion magazine to truly enjoy the decadent lifestyle it portrays. if you're on teh right side of the fashion tracks, that is.

imagine my glee in finding out the movie version was being made - i get to feast my eyes on everything fashionable and beautiful. so i watched it last saturday (to ad's chagrin) and i must say, i did enjoy it for the most part. a girl can never resist beautiful images of beautiful things! it's the most fashionable movie i've seen. i am still drolling over andy's (the protagonist) tweed chanel coat. not to mention her borrowed manolos.



but i need to gripe about said devil's hair! i cannot imagine a fashion editor (in this case, a thinly veiled representation of anna wintour, editor of fashoin bible vogue) with white, un-dyed hair. it's so not done. and although meryl streep's character, miranda priestly looks sophisticated and pruned, i wouldn't say she's taking advantage of her lofty front row perch in every fashion show. her dressing is a bit blah to me. i much prefer andy's makeover in chanel, chloe and what not.

i read about the great wintour's icy fury over the book, written by her former assistant, lauren weisberger. too close to home truths? anyway, it's a well-known fact that anna wintour is the reigning ice queen in the fashoin world, never too shy to wield her power over the world of publication and hollywood. it's said that she's threathened any designer or model that they would be banished from the hallowed pages of vogue if any of them appeared in cameo roles in the film. i raise my hat to gisele bundchen and valentino who made their thespian appearance despite this threat. gisele of course is gisele; she has no need for wintour's endorsements anymore, being the supermodel.

anna wintour in a rare picture sans her trademark chanel sunglasses

needless to say, many reviewers (who might have hopes in gaining the ice queen's nod) have trashed the book and the movie. it's only the laymen like us who love it. who love every thread of luxury-bleeding fabric portrayed in the movie, which we can ill afford!

my favourite character is of course, emily, the bitchy, sarcastic 1st assistant. what a fun role to play! but i would say the ugly duckling is more the fashion maven than she, after her much needed makeover.

a fun, gossipy movie that's sure to make you walk into the prada store this weekend.

paris fashion week

just perused through the spring ready-to-wear from paris fashion week.

i must say i'm pretty disappointed in the offerings. nothing pretty ala spring. even marc jacobs didn't whet my appetite. the spring collections are usually my favourite. free, floaty and flirty, in all manner of girly colours. oh well. will wait for NY fashion week then.

pretty pretty dresses from some of the collections:

Ad and I had an informal meeting with a group of our close friends who will be helping us with our wedding. Our wedding committee. Waaahh… I have a committee! Our treasured friends.. needless to say we ended up spending more time chatting and eating rather than brainstorming proper. But thanks to Ad’s zealousness in planning everything to its minute detail, I think handing over the remaining plans to WW and Ade will be ok. At least we won’t have to stress up before the big day, knowing everything is in capable, loving hands.

I’m so grateful for them. Mostly for their moral support and assurances. I haven’t experienced any bridal jitters yet. Nor have I suffered sleepless nights worrying whether everything will go according to plan. Actually, most of it is because Ad is wonderfully capable.. not to mention he is gifted with a very high stress threshold! Unlike yours truly.

Anyway…I think everyone is looking forward to a new project, if I can be so presumptuous to assume that! Thank God for such dependable friends.

Will be going to Petaling St. with Ad this Sat to buy stuff. Urgh… not really looking fwd to traipsing ard there. I’m glad I’m not going alone. And I seriously need to get material for my veil. My mom has stripped her wardrobe bare a couple of times, trying to find her own veil for me to use. ‘*sob* she can’t find it! Darn.. and I thought we could start a nice family tradition by passing down the veil. Oh well.

Cards and wedding programs are not printed yet. Hopefully will be ready in one weeks’ time. I’m getting help from the cell to write the names and do some girly thing to the envelopes / programs. Gee, really hope it’s ready in time.

Oh dear.. forgot about the extra ‘embellishments’ that I’m supposed to complete for one of my dresses. Bleh. Laziness consumes me.

wedding dresses

i was checking out a few dresses before i made up my mind on the cut i wanted. boy.. did i have info overload! strange enough, lots of the dresses advertised in foreign bridal magazines looked really gaudy and overdone to me. i thought big, billowy skirts with the lace factory were out in 1880? haha. at least the ones i found thru the internet were much better. it's so difficult to surf and find the right site! there are LOADS of links and whatnot that just confused the jitters INTO me! in the end i gave up and just went straight for a couple of well known designers' sites. hello vera wang...

sadly tho, i didn't feel like any of her designs (tho they're pretty amazing) would suit my petite frame. sigh... sucks not to be a giraffe. these were some of the ones i liked:

food tasting

so we just had another excuse to pig out haha.

not surprisingly, the portions were extra large, the food passed our extra critical standards. however, i didn't quite warm up to the new 'wedding organiser' person at sheraton subang. she replaces our original one, who has quit in this ever demanding and competitive arena of wedding planning. this new girl, young and naive looking is so unbending and as straight as a ruler. she shld have been an accountant or something, not someone involved in marketing!

all the extra icing on the cake promised to us by the previous person seemed to have garnered raised eyebrows and dubious looks from this new one. she adamantly follows what's in her rule book and flexibility is a no-no to her. bleh... what a bore. at last the other person was fun and helpful, always assuring us that she'll do everything she can to fulfil our requirements.

and i don't think this new girl can take criticism well at all! hahaha.. like when we commented on the lack of fins in the sharks' fin soup! and when i asked her whether we could have the prawns peeled vs the rather unpopular unshelled ones. heh. never thought the reason was so that the dish would look more 'generous'! apparently, peeled prawns look smaller when served (therefore they may have to add in a few more to pad up the dish! - ooo guess this'll really stretch their already 'small' margins?)

one tip tho - if you find the requisite ice sculptures as ridiculous as i do, trade it in for an extra free night stay at the hotel! definitely beats walking out of the recepion after dinner to see your love-swans sitting there in a pool of water sans their heads!

E06 youth conference

after mths and mths of preparation, training and practices, E06 is over!!! i can't believe it! i have withdrawal symptoms now, esp about what to do with my time on sundays! i reluctantly say that i miss all those gruelling hours of not really knowing what is the whole picture, and just simply trusting that God will show up during the week long conference. i can't really describe the conference. all i know is, those who attended, pastors alike, commented that they have never been to a conference like this. because it's so personal and focuses on each individual.

all delegates were broken into 3 streams; teens, college and young adults (YA). i was a facilitator for the YA workshops. boy, was it an emotional roller coaster! the workshop contents were painstakingly gone through with a fine tooth comb by pastor LC, and each facilitator had to 'look after' groups of 8 to 10 delegates. talk about personal service! we had to sort of 'minister' to them (for lack of a better word) via the workshops. we also had to teach certain parts of the workshops, and of course this didn't go down so well with many of us, cos most of these delegates were strangers to us.

i'm just thankful i had a bunch of 40 YA facilitators in the same boat. so we would moan and groan abt how nervous and scared we were, as the conference loomed closer. all of us are working adults, with hectic work / love / family lives outside of church. and to put in so many hours after work at church, going through training sessions after sessions is no walk in the park. many a time i sported a tired, blank mind as i sat there, dreaming of a proper dinner and my bed.

in hindsight, it's been SUCH a wonderful, tumultuous, awesome journey i can't describe it in words. after seeing so many of the delegates' lives impacted through the workshops and personal ministering, every single minute of sweat, tears and stress was worth it. many of us facilitators share the same feeling that if only one person was impacted, it would have been worthwhile. but many were. and no surprise that the ones most impacted were the facilitators and organisers themselves!

merely because we had almost a year to process all the contents and issues brought abt through the w/shops. the YA delegates only had 3 short days. many were brought to tears at some w/shops where some issues really touched them and made them see with different eyes.

the many testimonies the facilitators shared at every de-briefing session at night spoke so much of how god moves in people's lives. of how god REALLY loves each person, and honours each person's struggles and fights in life. each life is so precious and important. i'll think twice before i ever say i hate my life in moments when i'm being pessimistic and stressed. it cheapens my whole life. i'm ashamed of all the times i've said it so flippantly. just to express my boredom or restlessness at the moment.

i'm so glad for this conference. so honoured to be an integral part of it.i've learnt so much, stuff you can never learn out of books. the learning process wasn't easy at all. we were all stretched to extremes, as work suddenly got busier, nights ended later, proper meals were scarce, and helping out for a certain 'somebody's' wedding turned out to be such a demanding task.

most of all, the comradship between the facilitators now is pretty cool. i'm also quite amazed with some of the adults who were roped in to be YA facilitators as well, cos i know they were a bit terrified of the rambunctious, cynical YA's they might have to encounter as delegates. they consider us a different generation from them, so i don't blame them for being worried. but they are such a cool bunch, who really care abt the YA's and have a heart for us. i am quite inspired by them.

i dread thinking if there will be another conference like this, but then again, i think i would jump at the chance of being a facilitator again.

wedding prep

first of all i can't believe our big day is just 3 mths away! all this while, last week included, i always thought (shows you how much i think) it was 6 mths till all systems go. good grief. imagine my shock, anxiety and panic when i asked ad why he was preparing all his lists etc so early, and he replied that we only have 3 more mths to prepare. argh!!! *smacks head*

so i have taken it upon myslf to go into panic mode. this is merely to spur me into action. alas. panic mode only lasted abt 3 days. HAHAHA. i am back to being my plaid, stoic self. i know it's becos at the back of my mind, i know ad (being the super organiser he is) has and will get everything nicely sorted out. i just have to affirm or veto his proposals. ooo i love him so much!

we will be having a food tasting cum meet the in-laws session next week at the hotel. it's quite fun actually... i feel quite excited at the prospect of finalising more stuff! yeah, got to make the most of every preparatory minute since a wedding is only for the one time :)

am i malnutritioned?

i must have taken a detour from the food pyramid in the past few years. i am so lost it's hard to be found. the route i have taken day in and day out started out by me disregarding a few sign posts along the way. now, taking wrong turnings have become a habitual part of journeying through the maze of proteins, fat and carbs. note that i didn't mention fibre and vitamins. oh yes, and the small but important minerals.

i am in such dire needs to be fed properly. i am eating absolute rubbish everyday. i hardly think the measly, requisite scraps of shredded, day-old spinach in my wan tan mee and the sad, brown strips of taugeh in my laksa count for anything in my daily requirements of vegetables. sigh...

my immediate remedy was to eat more economy rice (yucks). i have never ever deigned to even walk near any economy rice (mixed rice) counter in any coffee shop cos the food looks so undignified - mostly with a dried crusty layer of starch filled sauce on top, or reeking with recycled oil. need i say more. but in my quest to ingest some vegetables in my daily diet, i've tried to add some of those shiny green stuff they call vege into my white styrofoam box. it's so gross. i don't understand why they have to beat up and drown the poor vege in so much oil. did i miss the headlines where they decreed that oil is free now?

bleh.. anyway i don't think that's helping me eat healthily at all. it's probably also contributing to my continued, fatigued state. i am one of those fortunate people who get to sleep the required 8 hours a night. i sometimes stretch my luck to 9 or 10 hours a night. and yet i still feel fatigued the next day! there's something wrong here i tell you.

i'm hardly stress-laden. i sleep well in quantity and quality. i am usually relaxed and happy when i reach home after a (hard??) days' work. so the only conclusion i have made is that i'm eating absolutely nothing that's good for me. i thought fried chicken skin was very nutritious. oh well. better not give so much money to kfc now. but it's so convenient.. pop into the shell petrol station, pump in some fuel, drive past the drive-thru window and there you have eat... dinner for two. yum. ok, got to stop all this soon. how can one resist this:



fine..i shall go to jusco tomorrow evening and buy a weeks' supply of salmon. that will be my lunch for a week. i'll have enough omega 3 and good fatty acids to last me till my next fast food binge. doesn't look too bad, this healthy thing:



anyone know any caterers in the damansara region? i so need one now....i think it's ALL about the presentation. and the fact that you don't have to prepare and wash up!

i have the most wonderful friends...

i just recently made the acquaintance of one through the E06 conference being organised by my church. i never thought i would be able to click with someone like her. on the surface it looked like that. but she's just utterly lovely. she's motherly, but with such a protective naivete about her. and it's just such fun exaggerating everything to her just to watch her expression. shocking her is my cheap entertainment of the day.

i admire people who are just soft at heart and so willing to go the extra mile for you, regardless of whether you deserve it or not. i don't think i've reached that level of maturity and self sacrifice. to be sure, it also puts you at risk of being taken advantage of, and served with ingratitude. but to actually laugh at the face of cynicism and take a bold step towards graciousness is to be admired and accorded the accolade of courage it deserves.

i hope these wonderful people rub off on me!

i'm still a chicken and a cynic at heart.

long, boring speeches and meetings

i hate it when someone says a meeting is scheduled to end at 3pm and by 3.45pm they are still going on and on about the same mute point. enough already! don't they know that after 20 minutes they've already lost most of everyone's concentration and attention? by that time i'm probably noticing that you need to get your roots done, or else give up dyeing your hair. or that the tight, stretchy top you're wearing really does nothing for you. yes, i'm turning into a bitch right about then. but that's because you misled me by promising to end the meeting in 10 minutes but you know you won't.

i wonder why people do that. do they enjoy hearing themselves? or are they afraid of the anti-climax which inadvertently sets in once they bring a halt to their tirade. sometimes i wonder if they're afraid of not having an (obligated) audience who have no choice but to hear them out, as if it's their only chance of being heard. maybe it makes them feel more important.

but really, i have no patience at all with people like that. if they have salient points to make, i'm more than ready to listen. but to go on for 2 hours on a single point. either they're lonely people who rarely have the chance to be heard or they think we're stupid. that we cannot digest that single point in the 10 minutes it would normally take for a reasonably intelligent specimen to understand. sigh...

and the rest of the audience... they still listen rapturously although they must be bored out of their minds. if it's someone 'important' who's speaking, they'll pretend to nod in understanding and attempt to radiate a semblence of intelligence while thinking what's for lunch. i really can't be bothered. i'm one of those rude people who will purposely let my feelings show by presenting the most bored look i can muster. i let my eyes glaze over. if i'm being really mean, i take out my handy mobile to play bubbles. but i try not to let it show cos i do understand it's really unnerving to have someone do that when you're speaking up there. but please, give us a break. time your speeches. we are busy people.

i can't stand it when a colleague has a complaint about the work of another and he or she doesn't address the issue but enjoys bitching about it to all the staff. what's the point actually? to earn points through your martyrdom? like you've never made a mistake in your life? forgive me, but i thought the most important thing would be to solve the bloody problem and bring it to the attention of said staff's manager so action can be taken to prevent future mistakes.

but nooOOOooo.... they have to go on and on and on and on about it. declaring to the whole factory floor that the 'people upstairs' (like there's a stigma attached to it now - apparently we are quite stupid). there's this manager in my company whose attitude i abhor. i'd rather listen to roof shattering heavy metal music then her voice. it grates on me. like someone tying me up and forcing me to listen to the screech of running a fork across a blackboard. i'd rather eat live worms.

i think her sole joy in her career is to wait patiently while one of the members of the 'upstairs club' (i think she resents the fact that we have cushy sit-down jobs in and air-conditioned room while she doesn't) makes a mistake or forgets something. then she pounces. and the whole company (including the surrounding housing estate) can hear her screeching about our stupidity (of course not through obvious accusations - she's too sly for that). it's always masked under a very martyred expressions, and it's carefully worded to avoid accusing that person directly. hence the accusation at the whole 'club'. but a bird with half a brain knows what she's on about. good grief. just have a decent conversation about it, how the bloody difficult is that???!! i am so put off by her that i can't stay at my desk while listening to her rant and rant at the top of her voice. to no one in particular, but making sure everyone knows that she has to do double work and stay back late to correct this mistake.

some people really have to get a life. or seek other modes of padding their self-worth and self-image.

*picture courtesy of edward munch

i woke up today to the rude realisation that i have terrible hair. that's because i forgot to pack my serum with me when i went back to stay with my parents. it looks like a flock of birds which recently went treasure hunting in it. sigh... it's quite dreadful. in moments like these, i have the impulsive urge to take the day off and run helter skelter to the salon to get my hair straightened. urgh.. but i am so trying to resist this, because i know in the next couple of days, it'll look just fine and i'll be regretting my rm300 impulse. sigh.. the perils of being a girl. i will wait till next month.

_____________________________________________

i just bought loads of clothes at the sales. yet again. i always tell myself it's the last for the month, but that's like telling a crying baby he'll cry himself hoarse. it makes no difference. i think maybe i should sequester myself at home for the next month, be as anti-social as possible. the trouble is there is no where to go in malaysia except shopping malls. spending money is the requisite cure to boredom. for me at least. i live in a dangerous place dotted with malls all around me. a simple trip for coffee with friends renders me in the danger zone.

my darling just went off to the states for work. i am so excited for him to experience everything different there. but i think i am more excited about the list of things i asked him to buy. *fingers crossed* somehow i don't think he'll be very successful given his non-penchant for shopping. he is quite the dismal shopper i must say. well, i'll just be happy for him to come back. i can't believe i still miss him. get a grip girl. you've been going out with him for almost 2 years. isn't it about time to act all apathetic and old-married-couple-like.

he's been calling me like he owns digi or something. it's quite cute the fact that he doesn't really realise it is quite expensive to call me with regards to something like 'i had a really nice juicy steak for dinner today - it was so big i couldn't finish it'. how about 'victoria's secret on sale - all underwear $2.99'. arghhh!!! he's so adorable... esp when one of the 1st things he asks me when he arrives in LAX is "dear.. how are you doing? is everything ok". you would think i've never been alone before.

i'm glad i'm so busy. the days are flying past. only 6 more days to go till he's back. i can't believe it.. i sound like a love sick teenager! i think i ought to feel a little sheepish about this fact, but oddly enough i don't care. i'm not ashamed of the fact that i miss him so much i've been dreaming about him cooking maggi mee for me. just last night! and i don't need the alarm clock in the mornings now. i have this urge to wake up early cos i know there will be a few sms-es waiting for me in the morning. i'm pathetic.

but at least i received some validation from my brother last night. he said he would want to have a girlfriend like me. who would miss him so much if he were away. awww....