Inside Her Fortress

Birthday week

2012-01-31T01:00:00.001+08:00

Finally, a proper birthday post! Notice how I named this post title "Birthday Week" instead of birthday? That's because I was celebrating my birthday for the whole week *like a boss* hahahaha. Great timing that my birthday was a week before CNY, so everybody are coming home and I'm not forever alone anymore.

Since I had multiple celebrations, I'm gonna break this post according to the venues and try as hard as I could to write down every details before my memory fails me wtf.

At Cafe-cafe Giant

So the earliest celebration or surprise was a day before my actual birthday. My bestie from high school just came back and she said we all should had a gathering dinner together. I thought it was just another dinner and catching up session with the girls until her brother (who worked at Cafe-cafe) brought out a cake for me. So sweet, thanks dearest Miao!

Potato Tuna Salad

My birthday cake- Banana Cheese Cake

BBQ Crispy Chicken Wings- Sara's favorite

We had lamb satay also

Bestie throughout my school years- Miao & Sara

Picture quite blur cause Iphone front camera kinda sucks

Thank you so much for the celebration and your gift *wink* dear. It felt so good to catch up with the girls, we basically talked about everything under the sun. You guys can read Miao's version of the night here. I hate that time flies so fast. Last Saturday, we're sending Sara off to airport because this brave girl decided to work at Bangkok. Today, it's Miao turn to fly off to KK for her study :( and I will stuck in Sibu starting a new phase in my life.

At work

I seriously didn't expect any celebration at work because we all have to be *ahem* professional and nobody even wished me a simple "Happy Birthday" when I came in the morning. But my colleagues are awesome. They acted like it was just another day but when the clock strike 4.30, they surprised me with a cheese cake.

Our characters after office hours hehehe

I'm very superstitious at work that's why I have all these gold decorated at my desk, so that more business will come in, wtf! Decided to decorate my cake with the golds too for more $$$ in life hahaha

At home

I was rushing home from work because I had birthday dinner that night. But whom knew, my family locked my outside because they were throwing me another surprise. I'm never felt so love all my life except during my birthday. Once for my 21st birthday day, my family drove all the way from Sibu to Kuching just to spend the weekend with me. <3 friends may come and go, but family are forever.

I've made enough wishes on every candles that I've blew, let's hope the magic works.

At Baba & Siam I

At my actual birthday night, I went out for dinner with childhood/netball/college/hubby Xiao S. She just came back a day before so it was a perfect timing for catch up. My birthday outfit was the mermaid skirt from Azorias. Finally got the chance to wear it out.

Camwhoring in the toilet *old habit die hard*

My favorite bolognaise spaghetti

Xiao S super duper large burger, even four of us couldn't finish it

She made the collage for me <3

Got a free vanilla mango pudding because it was my birthday *Totally feel like a boss*

At Cafe-Cafe I

I was kinda tired after going out non-stop for the whole week but my friends insisted on having reunion dinner as everyone was back for holiday. So, we went to the original Cafe-Cafe outlet for a simple dinner. Turned out, it was another birthday surprise. I know I know, my friends are awesome.

Another cheese cake

Again with Xiao S

My wishes better come true, I'm tired of blowing candles already

Finally, a group picture!

Truth is, I wasn't really anticipating my birthday this year. I kept feeling like shit, I'm old! But with the celebrations and wishes from the loved one, I feel so contented. At least I know these are the people that I should treasure, whom would go an extra mile just for me. I'm not growing old, I'm growing wiser. wtf!

Seafood galore

2012-01-21T21:54:00.001+08:00

You know how Sabah is popular with its seafood. Everywhere you go around KK town, there's a seafood restaurant at almost every corner. So, I had seafood dinner every night during my stay there. And I was just recovering from my skin allergic so I had to go slow on my seafood consumption, just as precaution. But the next day, I couldn't care less and stuffed myself with lots and lots of prawns and fish.

We arrived late in the evening and went straight to 1Borneo after checking in at hotel. First meal in KK would be an early dinner at Nyonya House in 1B.

Opt for fresh juice

#1 Curry fish

#2 Squid

#3 Lady finger Nyonya style

The next night, we went for fresh seafood dinner at the Philippines Market. No pictures tho cause we were hungry to the max after coming back from Manukan Island. But the food was great but the service, well you know it la..

Third night, we went to Kimbo (金宝 ) Restaurant for another round of seafood dinner. At this point, I was starting to get sick of seafood.

#6 Giant coconut crab

#10 Non halal Pork BBQ rice for lunch on the fourth day

#11 Ermm pork noddles?

#12 Peanut butter toast

That was our lunch on the 4th day at Hong Kong Noodles House in 1B. No pictures for food on 3rd day because we were exploring Kundasang and Poring.

A round of frozen yogurt after shopping.

#13 I wish Sibu has Tutti Frutti

At night, we went to Ocean Village for another seafood dinner (duh). No pictures because moi was tired and grumpy. All that I wanted to do at that time was skipped dinner and went for body massage. My whole body was in pain and had terrible muscle sore after all the hiking and trekking at Poring. No, I didn't get massage treatment in the end. ='=

Failed

2012-01-18T00:20:00.000+08:00

My first 2012 challenge has failed miserably. It is impossible to spend only RM100 for two weeks. Seriously, even for basic necessity like petrol and food, it will exceed RM100 somehow. #financialplanningfail.

Actually I was doing good for the first week, I even jotted down my spending in a little notebook. But came the weekend and I started to have a sudden craving for Double Cheese Burger from McD. I kept thinking that I had been working really hard and deserved a little something nice. Without a second thought, I drove to McD and next thing I knew, I only had a fraction of RM100 for my petrol and totally forgot about the little notebook.

Though the challenge has failed but I'm doing good in my spending, at least I think so. I'm saving for something bigger, something that I want to do more in 2012. Travelling, of course! Finger crossed for me.

By the way, I had a wonderful birthday celebration with my friends and family yesterday. The celebration started a day before my actual birthday. All thanks for my bestie with her surprise during dinner. :) Growing old with lots of love from family and friends is the ideal way for me. Will blog about it soon. Stay tuned!

KK haul

2012-01-15T18:14:00.000+08:00

Finally, a shopping haul post from my trip to KK. Like you've seen in the previous post, the vacation to KK was mainly for sight-seeing and relaxing. So, our time in the malls were very limited, thus my haul is not much. I think the only shop that I spent the most time in is Sasa. Basically, it's my heaven. In my 4 days stay there, I went to Sasa twice, for more than an hour each time.

My hauls

Mostly everything are from Sasa, only my shadow brush, dark circle eye mask (at the bottom right) and some BB cream and collagen cream samples are from Etude House.

Bought Dr. G BB cream

I bought two actually because Sasa was having Christmas sale and everything were either 20-50% less or buy one free one. I already started using Dr. G BB cream for two weeks and I absolutely love it. It is not oily and blend perfectly into my skin color. I totally skipped facial powder because the BB cream covered everything.

Pore Puffy clear make up base

Haven't use this one yet because I had been staying at home most night. No go out = no make up = no trying this make up base. I do not use this at morning because I'm too lazy to wake up early and do my make up properly. These day I just slapped on my skin care, BB cream, drew eyeliner, put on mascara, dabbed on blusher and ready to dash to work.

Bought 3 pieces of these for RM10.

I used this before when I was in KL, didn't see any difference that it do to my eyes but I bought it still cause it's cheap.

Cyber Color auto eyebrow pen

One in brown and one in light brown. Rarely use eyebrow pen because I have no idea how to draw mine T_T

But now that I have these, I shall start practice.

Roller massager

To get rid of my cellulite, FML.

Used it religiously last week and I think it worked a bit, but now the massager sits at a lonely corner in my room.

Canmake liquid eyeliner

Love this to the max because it is sweat and oil proof.

Can last from morning till night and no need touch up.

Etude shadow brush

Haven't try this one yet because I don't have eye shadow palette.

Maybelline lip balm

For my chapped lip

Paul Frank Lip Smacker

A bold red jeans from Brand Outlook

Actually I wasn't planning on buying any clothes because I already done quite a damage to my account from my online shopping. But a red jeans is a must in one wardrobe, plus it was on sale.

An awkward 2 inches pumps and wedges from Vincci (the only store that carry my shoe size)

I once told myself that I won't buy an awkward 2 inches heels because it is alang-alang, not high enough and not even flat. But I take back my words now because wearing a 3 and a half inches everyday to work is killing my feet, so I settle for anything that is comfortable. Comfort > style now.

If you see in my #2 pic up there, there's a hair curler too. I forgot to take picture of the hair curler ops!. I tried it once before and I haven't master the art of curling yet and my curls turned out to be a mess. I also bought an I <3 KK shirt and a sarong for beach getaway. Too lazy to take it out of my wardrobe so no picture.

Oh well, that's a wrap for my shopping haul in KK.

Kundasang & Poring

2012-01-12T23:13:00.000+08:00

KK trip day 3! My family and I went for a day tour to Kundasang & Poring. Since our guide insisted that we must go and see the famous Mount Kinabalu before it is covered by mist in the afternoon, we departed from KK at 7.30 am. So damn early and I ended up slept in the van during the whole journey. Only woke up when we reached the foothill (kaki bukit :p) for breakfast and some shopping.

That's Mount Kinabalu behind me.

It was a bit chilly and the rain did not help, had to walk everywhere with my pink umbrella

If you see closely, there were some houses on the hills.

More houses on top of some hills.

Umbrellas and scarves are our best friends on that day.

If you notice, Mount K is slightly hidden by the mist. This picture was taken around 10-ish in the morning.

By afternoon Mount K was totally hidden by the thick mist and the temperature dropped and we're a bit freezing.

Went to Kinabalu Park.

If you notice the white stream at the misty hill behind us, it was a waterfall. And I heard that the water is freezing cold and no villagers would go there.

Fell in love with the visitor lounge at Kinabalu park

After warming up at the Exhibition Centre, we left Kundasang and went to Poring Hot Spring

A chemical-contaminated stream at Poring.

Before I went to KK, I did some research about must go places in Sabah and Poring Hot Spring is one of it.

However, I've read some bad reviews about how run down and crowded the public bath tub.

Turned out, the review is true.

I have to say, the crowd was a little bit over the top. There were children running everywhere and ~~most~~ all of tubs were occupied. Honestly, I kinda doubt the hygiene of the tub as it looked rather run down.

Both of my bath tub pictures were taken from afar, as if I was hiding in the bushes and spying on people in the public tub. wtf! It was because we skipped the public tub area and went straight to the canopy walk.

Not feeling cold anymore cause I sweat like a pig after all the hiking

Halfway to the canopy walk.

My aunt was so excited to bring us to the canopy walk but she forgot to mention one thing. We have to do some JUNGLE TREKKING to reach the canopy walk. Judging from our attire, it was obvious none of us were dress for trekking.

Moi wore the wrong foot wear some more!

Almost ruined my sandals from the 30 minutes trekking, I got stuck in the mud quite a few times.

The hiking part was a bit tricky since it rained earlier.

Reached the first canopy walk station.

Had to wait in the tree house for our turn since only 6 persons are allowed on the canopy walk at a time.

I have no idea how far we were from the ground because I couldn't see the ground.

All that I saw were trees and branches below me.

Thrilling!

Made friends with German tourist after being stuck waiting for my turn

Have you ever seen people jungle trekking in dress?

My sis did it with style :p

After sweating it out, we went to check out the stalls outside the Hot Spring.

Strand and strand and strand of pearls

I didn't bought anything there because I'm not really into pearls. Since it gets dark early there, we left around 4 pm and stopped by some road side stalls that sold durians. Poor our van driver had to wait for us while we were eating the durians by the road side. Around 5pm, it got chillier and the mist got thicker, it looked as if it was 7pm.

After one whole day of these physical activities, we all suffered from sore muscles and crammed legs the next day. However, it did not stopped us from doing some heavy shopping. Will share about my shopping haul next time!

Coping

2012-01-11T13:21:00.000+08:00

"No matter how many times she says "I don't care",

truth is, she really does care"

It feel so good to be able to let things off my chest. Just me alone in the dark, crying my heart out. It's probably a month late but once I let it off, I felt so much better. I thought I won't think about it much after I buried everything deep down in my memory box. Boo hoo, once again I was proven wrong. Nothing hurt more than a happy memory in the past that crawled back to haunt you now. Knowing that you could have it all once upon a time, but now you were left with nothing but pain. No amount of shopping, vacation, alcohol or even cigarette that can heal the heartache. Maybe time could, I hope so. Enough of dwelling, it's a brand new day today, I'll keep my chin up and smile.

Manukan Island

2012-01-08T21:27:00.000+08:00

During my trip to Kota Kinabalu, my family and I managed to explore Manukan Island. My dad was a bit reluctant to go to the island at first because December was monsoon season but 5 over 1, he lost. Hehehe It rained a little early in the morning but thank God the weather was perfect for a beach getaway soon after.

Act like a tourist

Our ride to the island, it took about 20 minutes to reach there

Reaching the Manukan jetty

The cousins and us

Group photo

We spotted lots of colorful little fish just under the jetty. But when I went snorkeling, I saw none. That's because I was snorkeling near the shore. I wanted to swim under the jetty but it looked a bit scary plus I was scare of jellyfish. I was bitten once and now staying away from jellyfish forever. Lesson learnt.

Rocking the bikini after breakfast

The beach was a bit crowded since it was peak season. Both the pictures above were taken around afternoon, so there were not much visitors hanging by the beach as most of them were bombarding the restaurant for lunch.

Almost saw a fish but it swam too fast and I lost it. In the end, I was snorkeling for my sister camera cause she lost it in the water ='= Thank God we found it.

Tried sunbathing but we couldn't take the heat and abandoned our mat after 15 minutes

Straw hat to avoid the heat. Slouched my shoulder so I won't look too fat but moi stomach still bulging

We went parasailing afterward since the sis insisted. She requested for 30 minutes up in the air for a 15 minutes package. Guess how long we stayed in the air?

Taking off

I must warn you guys, I didn't look good in any of my parasailing pictures.

We were just a minute up the air and the sis already yelled for the guide to take us down. I admitted, it was scary at first, but once we were completely up in the air, it was quite fun, if you minus my sis screaming voice. Yeah, she even cried up there ='= so much for wanting a half an hour time up in the air. The thrill of parasailing was when the guide lower our parachute and our feet almost soaked in the sea water. It was scary as we were in the middle of the sea and the sea water is almost black. I couldn't imagine what were in the sea that waiting for us. choi choi choi I must be watching too much movies!

Landed! And someone was wiping her tears

Banana boat!

Moi at the front

It was much more exciting than parasailing. Sitting at the front means you would be the one that would got splashed by the sea water. Lucky the wave that day wasn't strong and our banana boat didn't flipped.

Boat race on the way back

Failed jump shot at the jetty

I was hoping to catch sunset by the beach but we're not allowed to stay there past 5pm unless if we rent a chalet. Bummer! Next beach on my list will be Langkawi, hopefully by this year XD

Thank you Azorias

2012-01-06T21:11:00.000+08:00

Guess what was waiting for me when I was back from my holiday?

A Christmas package from Azorias!

Remember my Christmas wishlist from Azorias post? Where Azorias will grant KinkyBlueFairy reader a wish if they could share what they want from Azorias for Christmas. Guess again peeps, I won. I was so excited when I received the email from Joyce (KinkyBlueFairy) when she said I've won. In my post, I've picked 4 items but most of them are out of stock. Lucky me, Hui Wen (the owner of Azorias ) emailed me and said the leopard print mermaid tail skirt is available. I gave her my address and voila! A package from Azorias was waiting for me. Very efficient and fast indeed.

The exact skirt

Mine :)

The material is light and high quality. I absolutely love the skirt and now I have a perfect CNY skirt.

Thanks Joyce and Azorias for adding another sparks into my Christmas. Besides the skirt, I also got another mysterious gift from Azorias when I wrote in to their Style Advisor column for a tip or two.

Already settle your CNY outfits? If haven't, go and take a look at Azorias, they have lots of new arrivals just in time for CNY and they offer free local shipping until February 2012!

Christmas & new year eve dinner

2012-01-05T23:59:00.001+08:00

Christmast 2011 was a simple one for me as my family are not really into Christmas and I just realized I didn't even blast any Christmas song unlike yesteryear. Besides, I spent the rest of Christmas Day jam-packed in the back seat of car for 8 hours of ride.

But still, Christmas dinner is a must. Since we're on the road on the Christmas eve and only reached my aunt's place at night, she could only prepared a simple steamboat dinner. However, simple yet fulfilling dinner that was. My aunt invited over some of her friends for dinner. Family, checked! Friends, checked! Food, checked! Perfect combo for Christmas dinner.

The only downside from the dinner was I couldn't enjoy the seafood as I was still recovering from my allergic. Nonetheless, I was surrounded by my love ones, so no seafood in my steamboat was okay. But when I was in Kota Kinabalu, I had seafood overload dinners for 3 days straight to make up for the no-seafood-steamboat. :p

My dad birthday fall on the new year eve and since we would be on the road back home, my aunt suggested we had an early birthday/new year eve dinner. We had our dinner at Lotus Restaurant on the 30th. The place was ambient but the food was so so, rather bland if I must say.

Moi with a slightly over-lined right eye

Gotcha cousin!

We had a 10 courses dinner and the food was a lot, maybe because there were 10 of us. I tried to take the food picture when it was served. Everything went well at first, but when we were entering our 4th meals, they didn't wait for me to take picture. Everyone were already ready with their forks and spoons and their utensils beat my phone - ____ - . Plus, the waitress served the food too fast. I didn't even eat some few dishes because the waitress already taking away the dishes to be put into smaller plate. So, I was just snapped the picture with one hand and forking my food with another hand just to make sure I get the food and the picture. Turned out, half the pictures were blur ops!

The starter which was my favorite among all the dishes

Herb chicken

Broccoli mushroom, didn't get to eat this however. Sigh

Duck

Steamed fish, taste rather bland

Butter prawn

Dragon fruit with sour sop as dessert

The missing dishes are fried rice (nothing special actually), mixed vegetables, shark fin soup and another dessert, red bean with melted vanilla ice cream. But we brought our our own extra dessert, dad's cappuccino birthday cake! By the way, the name of the dishes are not as what I wrote here. I can't remember it, so I just wrote what it was (obviously, duh!)

My old man blowing his candles

Weird birthday boy he is because he never eat his own birthday cake

Guess what the old man got for his birthday??

An Iphone 4S!

Yes, I'm jealous by the way

familienfoto

Just notice only my dad wore white meanwhile all of us were in a bit of black

Hmmm this birthday boy sure knew how to make himself stand out

Family picture again in front of the restaurant before we went back

Simple celebration but we were all contented.

2012 challenges

2012-01-02T12:49:00.000+08:00

I was blog-hopping and having fun reading other bloggers 2012 resolutions, I was inspired by some of it. But towards the end of 2011, I told myself I'm not gonna set any resolutions for 2012 because I know better than anyone that I will never keep up with any of it. So, I set a very easy goals for myself which are earn more and travel more.

Last night I couldn't sleep and a thought came across my mind, why don't I set some challenges for myself, a little nudge for myself to strive for whatever goals I want. And of course, every challenge will comes with a little reward :p

Here comes my first challenge for 2012:

.....

.................

...................................................

To spend only RM100 for two weeks!

A tough challenge this is because this RM100 will include everything in my spending from petrol to lunches, parking tickets, yoga class and etc. Basically it will covers everything from food to my basic necessities. The RM100 for two weeks challenge start today and will end on 15th January (a day before my birthday yo!) I will let you guys know how am I doing after 2 weeks. I'll record every tiny bits of my spending and see how am I doing.

I'll set more challenges for myself in time to come. But first, I must overcome this one! Way to go to save more $$$$!

2011

2011-12-31T23:26:00.000+08:00

Finally, I'm home after a week of holiday in Sabah and Brunei. Nothing beats the feeling of spending the new year eve at the comfort of your own hometown with the familiar faces and place. Though it will be splendid if I could party the night away at other awesome place :p

It may sound cliche but time does fly! Can't believe it will be 2012 in less than 2 hours. 2011 no doubt is a remarkable year for me, I transformed from a student to a working adult, used to get easy money from my dad and now I have to earn it myself, huge difference there.

Let's see what had happened in 2011 in a non chronological order:

- I went to my first prom night

-Expanding my friends circle when celebrating my 22nd birthday at Amoeba Club

-Involved in lots of birthday surprises here and here

-Went for an amazing one whole week of field trip across Sarawak

-Went on an impromptu trip to KL with HEMAS friends

-Lost a dear friend in an accident

-Got a Dean List for my final semester

-Finally finished my thesis which really sucked the hell of me

-Went another step further with a friend, wtf

-Went to Rainforest World Music Festival for the first time

- Had a part time job for the first time to earn money for Rainforest World Music Festival, wtf

- Started to learn yoga

-Getting a job after finish my study which is totally different from my study background

-Joined blog contest and actually won but I forgot to check my email and past the redemption period

-Won a Christmas wishlist from Azorias which Joyce just emailed me few days ago :)

-Went parasailing, snorkelling and tried banana boat (which I will blog about soon)

-Got skin allergic

-Got into a relationship and left heart broken fml

-Graduated from University

-Got scammed in KL, fml

-Reunited with National Service friends after 5 years

-Growing apart from some friends, for good I hope

-Had my wishes granted though one of it only lasted for less than a month

Well, I know there's lots more happened in 2011 which I can't recall anymore. To sum it all up, I have a great 2011. I've gained some, lost some but it's the experience that count, it's what made me who I am today. For 2012, I'm hoping for a better change. I want to earn more and travel more, love more and hate less and for my dark circle to lessen and my hair to grow better wtf!

Happy New Year 2012 everyone!

I'm going out countdown and let's hope I'll catch the fireworks!

Christmas eve

2011-12-24T01:26:00.000+08:00

Before I was down with the skin allergic, I went to a friend birthday dinner and post dinner party. It was a bit awkward actually because I had not been hanging out with him for quite some time and I barely knew his other friends.

Wore my LBD matched with blazer

Have to crop my head cause my hair was limp, didn't have enough time to wash it.

We had dinner at Asian Food Cafe, the newly open cafe near Medan Mall area. I didn't get the chance to see the interior of the cafe since we were sitting outside. But it quite okay though, I guess.

I ordered fish chips with black pepper sauce. The fish fillet was fine but the black pepper sauce was a bit overwhelming for my liking. They poured too much and the whole thing tasted too sweet and it soaked the fillet.

The "surprise" birthday cake from his friend. The so called surprised was ruined because his friends didn't know how old is him, so they called him and asked about his age. LOL of course the birthday boy already knew there will be surprise cake ='=

Packed some of my skin care and make up essential for a holiday trip soon.

I'm so excited despite my skin condition right now. I went to another doctor for another shot yesterday and thank God I am getting better now.

I'm totally in my Christmas and holiday mood now as my last day of work for 2011 is today (or yesterday since it'd passed 12 midnight now)

A little clue about where I'll be going tomorrow.

Hopefully the weather is fine and most importantly, I hope my skin will be 100% cure from the allergic or else how am I going to rock my bikini??

It's Christmas eve now, Merry Christmas you guys!

I hope you will have a great Christmas with your loved one.

And happy new year too, just in case I can't update during the holiday.

Oh yeah, it's a one week holiday for me :)

Allergic

2011-12-21T18:58:00.000+08:00

I came home from work feeling hot and itchy yesterday. Figured it was just the weather, I completely ignored it. Came the night, rashes started to take over my body and it was itchy to the max. My NIGHTMARE came true!!!! I got skin allergic. It was definitely not from food, the doctor said it could be flower pollen, insect bite, dirty wind, dust or worst, my blood is polluted.

I had restless sleep last night and completely annoyed because I had to woke up scratched myself with my eyes closed, literally. Everything was okay in the morning, no visible rash and not so itchy. But it got worst in the afternoon. I had to abandon my work and rushed to clinic. I was so brave that I said yes to two shots of giant injections at both of my arms. The doctor suggested buttock injections as it will be less painful but I refused. The main reason I refused is because the doctor is my client and I couldn't look at him in the eyes anymore if I let him inject my buttock. That was #awkwardmoment 9386723.

The last time I had a reaction like this was back in primary school. Now is not a good timing for me to get sick as I have datelines to chase and some cases cannot be delayed anymore. Plus, I already planned a year-end holiday. T_T

Just took my meds and applied skin cream all over the red spot, let's hope it works. Or else, I'm gonna try the traditional way, apply the cooked alcohol all over my body. *finger cross for the meds*

National service -after 5 years

2011-12-21T00:13:00.001+08:00

Last week I had reunion with my National Service mates after 5 years out of camp. I really can't believe it had been 5 FREAKING years! It felt like I just marched together, ate together, slept together and got scold together with them yesterday. What's funnier is, a friend that I had been hanging out with last time is actually my camp mate too! We couldn't even recall seeing/meeting each other during NS. I was as shocked as her when we saw each other during the gathering #awkwardmoment.

Spent two nights in a row clubbing and dining with them and I realized we are still the loudest group wherever we went. Be it the club or the cafe or the camp, all that people could heard were our voices. Some things just never change, everyone is still as kepo as before.

Charlie & Delta girls

Rewind 5 years ago, we were just a bunch of grumpy teenagers whom were unwillingly woke up at 6am every morning to march around camp, we used period cramps as excuse to be excluded from physical activities, we fought and bitching about others girls, we cried and hold grudges, we united together to win every company challenges.

5 years after, we all grown up. Look what we have here, happily married woman, a mother, executives, DJ, entrepreneurs. Writing is out made me feel old. Let's hope I'll be writing about another reunion after 5 years from now. It feel so nice to see everyone again, though some of us still don't see eye to eye. Told you, some thing just never change, the grumpy teenagers still live inside of us.

Quit trying to find me there

I'm not in the picture :p

Different

2011-12-15T00:59:00.000+08:00

Have you ever feel the pressure about being different from others? In the whole group, you're the only odd one. But nobody can tell the odd difference because it is not an issue at all. Yes, we may come from different background but you and I are the same human being. Correct me if I'm wrong, we breathed the same air, ate the same food, stand on the same ground. What makes us different is the attitude and mindset.

Narrow-minded people judge from the surface. Well, I know it's true because I met too many of them recently. I wonder what had they set in their mind? Our people are smarter than yours? Your people are loser? My people have higher standard than yours? Enlightened me please.

What even worst is, bitching in front by assuming no one understand what you're actually talking about and being hypocrite after that. Ummm hello, you live in the modern society, people are multilingual these day. Some even spoke more language than you dumb ass do. Please master the art of bitching if you must.

Well, I guess some people are just born narrow-minded. Can't blame them, they're born this way. Couldn't find any reason why should I entertain such people. At least, my eyes are open now. Thank you for the "opening show". Bad impression last forever, I must tell you. For sure, I can't look at you the same way anymore. No offense, I'm just being bluntly honest.

Sisterly date

2011-12-14T20:05:00.000+08:00

Woken up by Pino on Saturday morning, went for brunch with the sisters and spent the rest of the day shopping for necessary. Surrounded by my sisters definitely cheered me up. At night, we went to Baba & Siam 2 for dinner. This place is currently my favorite place for dinner. The ambiance is perfect and totally romantic. Food wise I can't say much as I only tried a few of their dishes, but so far none had failed my taste.

1. Mango pudding vanilla ice cream - my must order dessert

2. Baba set -The sisters dinner

3. Thai Chendol

Spent the rest of my Sunday staying at home and clearing the piles of old clothes to be given away. Damn, it was hard to be apart from those clothes because some were bought using my hard earned allowance during high school. Each and every piece of the clothing brought back different kinds of memories, from happy outings to first date. Hopefully the new owner will have great memories with the clothes too.

At night, I went to The Queen with the sisters. Felt so good to play dress up after staying put at home for almost two weeks. No wonder I'm #foreveralone.

The only thing I hate about wearing this long dress is my bulging stomach ='=

I. Really. Need. To. Start. Work. Out. Again

Red Corner

2011-12-11T01:45:00.000+08:00

Exactly a month ago, I was in Kuching again for a business briefing and trust me to make full use of my weekend to see as much friends as possible. Started the weekend at Red Corner with Kano. It is a newly open restaurant and bar.

Our usual drinks

The restaurant was warm and cozy, definitely a good place for hang out. But I can't say the same for the food because I haven't try any yet.

A month ago, I was fat and my hair was a mess

My friends and I have this weird habit. We love to walk around Waterfront Kuching and act like tourist. We would took some pictures with the same background every time we were there. Took the RM0.50 sampan ride back and forth to the opposite bank, sat on the bench, people-watching and bitching about whoever walked past us till the sun set.

Went clubbing at Check In on Saturday night

Had barbecue at Amy's house for Harold birthday on Sunday. Lucky boy been celebrating birthdays with us for 3 years straight ;p

Group picture

Looking back at these pictures made me want to take some time off, pack my bag and fly off somewhere to once again experience being the carefree me. Someday, someday I will travel around to see the world.

Christmas wishlist from Azorias

2011-12-09T23:20:00.000+08:00

Dear Santa,

I may not be all good this year but trust me, I'm trying to be a better person than I was before. I curse less (verdict: lie, I cursed the slow drivers when I drove to work every morning), I respect others (verdict: true, I guess), I helped others (verdict: true), I tolerate more (verdict: lie, but I'm still trying). So, I think for Christmas this year, I deserve a little something. I won't be greedy, I promise.

All the items that I want are from Azorias. See, I save you the hassle already, no need to go to other shops/sites to get my desirable items. So, here comes the list:

Contract collar cheetah print sheer shirt

I fall in love with this top when I saw Joyce wore it. This will be the perfect work/play top. I can wear it for work and directly to lounge after office hour for a drinks or two.

Bow Georgette top with gold trimmings

The back details totally catch my eyes. This is will be the perfect top for a simple first date night. Not too casual, not too over the top either. From dinner date to movie date, this top is the perfect top.

Leopard print mermaid tail skirt

Again, another animal print item. Yup, I'm a bit obsessed with animal print. But the mermaid tail concept that grabs me. Been looking around for a skirt like this and Azorias caters my need. :) I already can imagine myself strutting in this skirt in a dinner party or girls night out.

Hot pink drapped tulip overlay skirt

A pink skirt! This is a must-have skirt. The bold color of pink no doubt can chase away my Monday blues. The thought of matching this skirt with my favorite top and heels can totally make my morning. No more grumpy me on a Monday morning, I promise.

Here's a close up picture of my pink tulip skirt because obviously 1 picture is not enough to justify my love towards this :)

Told you I'm not greedy. I was having a hard time to pick the items for my wishlist but I resist the urge to click everything for the wishlist (Another proof that I'm behaving :p) I'd noticed one thing tho, item no. 1,2 and 3 are all out of stock T_T So please grant me item no. 4, Santa ;)

Sincerely,

Hot pink drapped tulip overlay skirt lover.

The end

2011-12-07T20:37:00.001+08:00

I don't really talk about my feeling and personal stuffs often. Normally, I just keep these things to myself, I found talking to myself is much more comforting than pouring it out to someone else ( I swear I'm not crazy, ok!). But sometimes, I just need to channel these emotions somewhere. I always thought of myself as a commitment freak, I got scared and back off when things started to get serious. Partly because I was hurt before.

Someone once told me I have a relatively short attention-span when it comes to relationship, none of my relationship last long. Truth is, I don't know what went wrong and we're better off without each other. Recently I walked out of my comfort zone, totally letting my guard down. It took a lot for me to get back out there and risk myself getting hurt again. Somehow, I just have to muster my guts and instill the believe that there's a guy whom are meant for me out there.

Everything was great in the beginning. I was smitten and totally got swept away. He really did a lot for me, from our first date and all the effort of commuting back and forth (we lived in different cities) just to see me. I should have seen this coming, when it was too good to be true, something bad is bound to happen in the end. In just one night, my relationship graph dropped much scarier than the stock market. I totally had no idea what was going on. I felt like I was being slapped hard on the face and stabbed directly to my heart.

Ending the relationship is the only way for us. The path ahead doesn't seem promising. The reason behind all the heartache is not something that I can change. It is not even an issue for me, or for anybody in the 21st century as the matter of fact. Well, I can't change my race, can't I? I wouldn't too if I could because I see nothing wrong in it. We all human, all the same, in and out (physically obviously).

The end

Graduation day

2011-12-06T00:06:00.000+08:00

Finally, a proper post about my graduation even tho it had past for more than a month. I didn't feel all the jitters or excitement until after I got my graduation robe and hat two days before the ceremony. I was totally clueless about what to wear for ceremony. I packed baju kurung, pant, blouse and heels but ended up only wearing the blouse.

My outfit:

Sheer white longsleeve blouse- Sungei Wang

White tube- Can't remember

Harem pant- ELLE

Bag- MANGO

Heels -Vincci

Initially I planned to wear my grey pant and heels from Summit. But when I was shopping at The Spring a day before the ceremony, I saw the bag from MANGO that I had been eyeing since my last trip to KL. Then it occurred to me that I haven't got myself anything for the graduation ( I had been shamelessly asked my family and friends for my graduation gifts :p)

So the bag will be a perfect gift for myself. Then when I put my outfit together in my mind, the grey pant did not match my black bag, thus I must get myself a black pant. When I was browsing in ELLE, the SA suggested some black pants for me to try on and I instantly fell in love with the harem pant. It is the most comfortable pant but I had a little problem with it during the graduation day. The clip above the zipper on the pant got loosed and almost fell off. Lucky I had safety pin with me and had to pinned my pant the whole day. Thank God, there was no wardrobe malfunction.

I also did not get to wear my 5 inches heels because I seriously could not walk in it. On the way from my hotel room to the parking lot, I almost tripped 3 times. Lucky I brought spare heels, so from 5 inches, I went down to 3 and a half inches.

Familienfoto

The proud parents

The munyits minus Bern plus Wong ;p

Soulmates <3

We party together and graduate together :)

We organized a little graduation party on Friday night at our usual club, Check-In and it was great to be reunited with the mates on the dance floor. The club was packed with almost all the students from my Uni. Everywhere I turned, I saw some familiar faces.

Soulmates having a great time

A happy but tipsy me

Half of the group

Phew, this is a long post and a proper closure for my student life chapter. Growing up and finally leaving the student life feels so surreal for me. Feels like yesterday I was just registered for my University and now I'm a graduate. Damn, time flies and I miss my crazy-loving bunch of friends.

Pre Convocation

2011-12-03T02:02:00.000+08:00

For our graduation, my friends and I decided to have an outdoor photo shoot just for fun. I mean, you don't always have the chance to strike a pose or two in your graduation robe and hat, right? So when one have the chance, one should camwhore kao kao ;p I almost missed the photo shoot because I took my robe and hat on the day itself, luckily my timing was right.

First destination, Reservoir Park, Kuching

Next stop, McDonald for lunch

Second destination, DBKS/ Cat Museum, Kuching

I had so much fun fooling around with my girls, reminded me back when I was in field trips with them. Being the enthusiastic plant students, we even went to Orchid Garden. Our main purpose for the visit, for camwhore. That's what we girls are best at.

These are just my pre concovation pictures. I have tons of during and after convocation pictures have yet to be edited. Shall continue in the next post! Bye.

Instagram-ed

2011-12-02T22:17:00.000+08:00

My favorite apps in Iphone no doubt will be Instagram. Every pictures that I took turned out to be amazing with Instagram and my favorite filter is definitely lomo-fi. Here's some random pictures taken from my Instagram profile.

#1 Baby Kelly

#2 Snacks

#3 New heels from Summit

#4 Camwhore

#5 Breakfast at Kano's

#6 Old school cream soda

#7 Morning note from my mom

#8 Belly and cardio class

#9 Fave flat from Vincci

#10 Big clutch

#11 Memories

Bummer.

2011-11-22T22:48:00.000+08:00

Finally, after what seems like a long week, I have some times for myself. I put on my most comfortable old T-shirt and fugly pyjama pant, hair up in bun and face mask on, all ready to blog. I have all of my convocation pictures all nicely edited but guess what, I CAN'T UPLOAD THEM.

The reason being is my internet connection sucks. It had been so slow for the whole week and it took me 3 freaking days to upload a picture and yet it failed in the end. Imagine my frustration. T_T Even at work, I couldn't access my emails too until recently, making me almost miss my Takaful Exam. Oh technology, Y U NO GOOD TO ME??

I believe that picture paints a thousand words. I was looking through some pictures taken from recent events and realized how happy was I in every pictures, grinning like there's nothing bugging me. I miss those moments. I miss being worry-free. Looking back at those pictures make me reliving the moments. If only I could share it with you guys. Until the internet connection fixes its speed, my post will remain picture-less.

****

Sometimes I wonder did I made the right decision in my life right now? I can't tell the answer myself. Maybe I should just try to adapt to whatever is going on now, just go with the flow. I had been very comfortable living in my own world, taking nobody into account. But everything is not the same anymore. I have to think about the other half in whatever I do and I don't really like it. I want my own space and freedom. Well, you can't get everything that you wish for in life, ain't it? Well, that's a bummer.

Oh hello

2011-11-17T00:21:00.000+08:00

I had been very busy with life recently. So busy that I often left my laptop untouched for few days and I rarely check my Facebook anymore. OMG, this sound like a growing-old syndrome T_T Nooooo, I'm not turning into a old lady whom have no idea what's going on out there (hello schazazedane drama). *shake head* kids these day...

Anyway, I'm at Kuching right now, away for the weekend due to work and leisure. In just two weeks time since I last blogged, there's so much going on in my life that I myself can't barely keep up with. But more info on that later :) I have tons of pictures from my convocation last month to be edited and some new pictures from the recent events but laziness came in the way. I felt like I haven't had a proper rest for the past weeks. Back from my graduation trip, I went straight to work. With the new financial quarter campaign, the pressure is on. Seriously, work has taken over my life till I felt like an anti social. I resisted, thus had been trying to spend as much time as possible with the people around me no matter how bolted up I felt. And yes, I worked hard and played harder (thought you guys already knew my style :p)

******

Here's some pictures that I'd took recently:

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

Fine, I'm giving up trying to uploading the rest of the pictures. Been trying for 3 days but it took more than it should and I couldn't wait 30 minutes for one picture, it really killed the mood. By the way, I'm addicted to Instagram lately. I love love love the filter, it make any pictures that I took looks amazing. Now I don't need any DSLR (actually I do) to be a great photographer, I just need Instagram :p feel free to follow me on Instagram if you want to (link available in my Twitter.) Will upload more pictures soon after I do all the editing (hopefully by this weekend). Bye!

Graduated!

2011-10-27T22:45:00.000+08:00

1 year of Matriculation and 3 years of University, now I'm graduated with a degree. Couldn't be more happier, I almost shed a tear during the convocation ceremony. My parents are definitely the strength behind my success. Will upload more pictures soon because I took about 9847626284 pre and post convocation pictures. Works are pilling up and taking over my life now T_T Stay tuned peeps!

Room 18

2011-10-18T07:49:00.000+08:00

Food post again ! Sorry peeps, all that I did for the past 3 weeks in KL besides shopping were stuffing myself with food, and training of course :p I had almost 6 meals a day. Breakfast buffet at the hotel, tea break in the morning, lunch with colleagues, tea time again and dinner with friends and junk food before sleep. No wonder I kept panting and feeling bloated running after the LRT (long story really).

Last time I was there, Xiao S and I explored T-Bowl and Ben's. This time, we went to Room 18 at Berjaya Times Square. We both were really hungry and got lost a little bit in finding Room 18. We were spoiled for choice but in the end we settled down for a combo set for 2.

Lemon tea and I-don't-remember-what tea

Our set consisted of 2 beverages, Udon with roasted chicken, chicken with prawn wanton, 2 bowls of rice, 2 buns and 2 tomato soups. Man, we're such a glutton.

Udon with roasted chicken

Ok, I'll be honest. Udon is never my favorite and this Udon was the worst that I ever had. It was too floury, if you got what I mean. It felt like I was chewing just the flour and it had a strong taste of flour. A little bit too much, I guess. It was sickening.

Chicken with prawn chicken

This dish looks like it was served for a sick person. And you're probably right because it was almost tasteless. I had to pour in soy sauce and dried chilies to make it edible. Maybe I was being skeptical, but I like my soup to be tasty, not tasteless.

天下第一bun

These buns were the highlight of our dinner. The main dishes were so suck that we had to depend on two small buns to fill our tummies T_T But really, these buns match its name. No.1 buns in the world (translated from Chinese), tho I doubt it is the No.1 buns in the world. We were probably too hungry to notice actually it was just taste alright. ='=

I haven't show you guys the worst part of our dinner yet. It was our tomatoes soups. It looked a bit too disgusting and oily. We only took two sips and completely ignored it. And yes, it tasted too plain as well.

Super oily tomato soup ='=

After dinner, we both went back to hotel because we're too tired to shop around anymore, (read: broke). Back at the hotel, I switched my role and turned into Sensei hehehe. Xiao S was having her Japanese test the next day and yet she came all the way from her Uni to accompany me. Of course, as a true ~~friend~~ soul mate, I drilled her to read her notes and tested her before the real test. :p And of course she passed the test the next day, I think. :D

Poor her hehehehe

Sakae Sushi, Sephora and me

2011-10-16T13:49:00.003+08:00

During my second trip training at KL, my schedule was jam packed with training and assessments. Even on Saturday, I had to drag myself out of bed for a half day course. It was so hard for me to arrange a meet- up with friends, in the end I just decided to stroll alone. It was nice tho, to have some time for myself.

I was craving for some sushi fix and head over to Sakae Sushi at Fahranheit 88. I have to admit it was awkward to request a table for one but I'm so getting used to eat by myself alone now because I always travelling alone.

Surprisingly, I ordered their chicken teppanyaki (or something, I really suck at remembering food name) as my main dish. So much for craving for sushi ='=

Chawanmushi, it's my must order dish in any sushi outlet

I love the Chawanmushi. I know it was just a simple dish but I tried make it once and failed miserably. It was nothing close to the soft steamed egg. Mine become more like a fried egg, probably because I put it in the microwave instead of slow-steaming it. Pardon my poor domestic skill, I was looking for a short cut to make chawanmushi but after the 3rd try and totally wasting 8 eggs later, I gave up.

I can't remember the name but the salmon was a bit too thin

I had been dying to go to Sephora to check some things out. During my last visit, I couldn't find some time to drop by. So, this time I was determined to check it out. I spent hours eyeing, touching and trying the makeup products and tools. I felt like a kid in a candy land. So much to look at, so much to buy but so little money left T_T

Of course I'm not gonna came out of Sephora empty hand :p

Bought some Soap & Glory stuffs.

I used the bath cube that very night too because soaking up in a hot bath was the best thing ever after all the long walk. The dark circle concealer is great too. It helps to cover up my helpless dark circle. My favorite would be the Scrub Your Nose In It. I have large and clogged pore, but I just find it tedious to always put on nose strips every other night, especially after long day at work, all that I wanna do is hit the shower and straight to bed. Tho the scrub does not completely pulled out my blackhead but it makes it less and refines my pore as well. I also bought the body scrub and it was better than my last Watson (or is it Guardian?) scrub. Soap & Glory scrubs and cleans well but it left my body with some redness. Maybe because I scrubbed it too hard and the scrub grains were a bit harsh.

Love the top

I tried the top and the pant but I regretted not buying it. When I tried it on, the top was a bit too big for my shoulder and it kept falling off. But now when I looked back at the picture, it looks nice on me. Damn, I should get it on the spot. >"<

Now I couldn't even bring myself to any boutiques and malls because of my shopping ban. Never mind, two more weeks to go and I should be okay. So far, I'm doing good with the shopping ban and stayed at home almost every night but that's mainly because I got off from work at night and feeling totally exhausted to think about anything else other than my bed. By the way, I got good news to share, I passed my Computerized Unit Trust Exam yesterday. Oh yeah, now I'm a licensed agent, come and invest your money with me :p

Money talk

2011-10-10T00:16:00.001+08:00

I have a serious problem. I think every girls have. It's very common and there's no scientifically-proven solution for it. I COULDN'T CONTROL MY SPENDING HABIT! Seriously, I've tried before but I failed, everytime. I've made budgets, lists and whatnot. In the end, it became another ignored piece of papers in my notebook. I'm an impulse buyer. Anything that catch my eyes, I'll have a talk with my head and my heart. And the heart wins, almost every time. What the heart desires, the heart get. Haih...

It's time for some serious action before I go completely out of track. So, to save myself and my bank account, I've came to the following actions:

Complete shopping ban for whole month (October)
-I know I was on my shopping ban on September but no surprise, I failed. Last month, I went to KL twice and just landed on Sibu today after spending the weekend with my aunts and her family at Brunei (will blog about it later). Hopping from place to place made me spent more than I should. I really did the shop till you drop thing. This month, I determine to not buy anything new. *hide away my purse and ATM and credit card*

No more dining out (except with family)
-So, guys, you probably won't see me posting any food/new place post for this month. T_T not being able to dress up and dining out is suck. Maybe, just maybe I could try my domestic skill this month. I haven't properly cook in a long long time.

No more going to movies (except on date)
-This one is doable I think. I don't really go to cinema in Sibu because of the limited showing time and movies selection. Besides, someone owe me a movie date hehehe

No more karaoke/clubbing session
-I will make one exception for this. You won't see me on the dance floor in Sibu but in Kuching, that's probably where you can find me :p Since I'll be in Kuching next week for my convocation, how could I say no to dance the night away with my mates. *evil laugh*

That's my short plan for October. I must by hook or by crook stick to it. *think about the reward...think about the reward* Of course I'm planning to reward myself for being so determine :p In my next posts, you probably will see some of my hauls and food post, but fear not, all those are back-dated, when I was in KL and Brunei. My official money diet starts today. This sucks.

T-bowl

2011-10-03T00:20:00.000+08:00

Another food post as promised! This time I'm going to talk about a toilet concept restaurant. Yes, you heard it right, I was having my lunch on a toilet bowl. And it's not gross at all.

T-bowl, a toilet concept restaurant

Their menu, it's so cute and they have a toothbrush attached to it

Told you, I sat on toilet bowl

Basically, the whole restaurant was designed based on toilet concept. So, you will sit on a toilet bowl and have a sink which covered with glass as your table top. You can see anything toilet related stuff all around you, even the poop. I kid you not, they serve poop ice-cream. It sounds disgusting but I heard it taste real good. Boo, I didn't order the poop ice-cream, so I can't justify the taste.

The person whom brought me to have lunch on toilet bowl

Since you're in a toilet concept restaurant, you shouldn't be surprise if you see they serve your food in a toilet bowl too. Well, they make you sit on toilet bowl, might as well eat from it too. I bet you must be imagining the real big toilet bowl with your food in it hahaha

Our drinks in urinal bowl

Xiao S's tea really looked like pee LOL

My pudding and Xiao S's soup in a bath tub

Tom yam noodle in toilet bowl

My Guinness pork rib

Not only T-bowl is unique in its concept, the food was good too. I love Xiao S's tom yam soup, it was sour and spicy, just the way I like it. My rice was nice too, just that the Guinness dipped pork rib tasted a bit too sweet for my liking. The next day, I came back to T-bowl for their grilled lamb mix chicken chop (or fish, I can't really remember) which I like cause I can have both instead of choosing either one. Now I can tell everyone that I'd eaten in on a toilet bowl and it's not disgusting at all :p

Ben's

2011-10-02T13:36:00.000+08:00

Today all that I"m going to talk about is FOOD! During my one week stay in KL last month, I had been going around trying all sorts of restaurants and food outlets. Now I know where those extra fats came from. Should attending more yoga and dance class when I'm back to Sibu next week. Gotta shake those fats away ='=

My first dinner. Chicken bento at Midvalley food court. Taste real good!

Mian Mian was having ramen. Extra hot and spicy even I cannot tahan

Actually it was Mian Mian's Lunar birthday the next day (Saturday). So Xiao S and I decided to treat her for lunch. Plus, she had been such a sweet heart chauffeuring us around town, though we got slightly lost even with the help of GPS #totallyfailedinsenseofdirection hahahaha She wanted to try Ben's at Pavillion, so off to Ben's we went.

The interior of Ben's was nice and cozy and it was jammed pack with crowd. It has 2 sections of seating if I'm not mistaken. The indoor which is warm and cozy and the outdoor which is garden style. We picked the indoor because simply because we were not really into the sun wtf.

Our Garden something spritz, damn I forgot the name already but it taste like cough syrup

Moi with spaghetti carbonara. Super yummy and fulfilling. I love the bacon in it.

Xiao S and her fish and chips

If you notice, there's a stack of cards placed on the table (in the yellow cube). It's actually the Recipes cards for their food, Table Topics cards for discussion while waiting for food and Suggestions cards for feedback. The Table Topic was fun and a great ice breaking tool. We're laughing hard at each other crazy answer especially : What's the biggest lie you ever told?

Mian Mian's chicken breast chop

Mian Mian felt bad that we actually treat her birthday lunch, so she decided to treat us dessert. We went to Snowflakes for some healthy Taiwanese dessert. It was a mixture of red beans, yam, potatoes and some taro balls. Everything was grown organically. It taste good but very fulfilling because it came in big portion.

Our snowflakes

In my next post, I will share my experience eating in toilet concept restaurant. Please don't feel gross because the food was amazing. Stay tuned!

Girly weekend

2011-10-01T00:29:00.000+08:00

Last month during Malaysia Day, I went to KL for work related training. The training was 2 days but I came earlier to ~~shopping~~ spend some times with the hubby/childhood friend aka Xiao S. As usual, when we girls get together, we do what we did best. Shopping, of course!

Meet Xiao S & Mian Mian

Mian Mian is Xiao S course mate and it was my first time meeting her. She was so sweet and beautiful. We spent the entire Saturday in Pavillion shopping/eating/gossiping/camwhoring. So, do expect lots of pictures later on :). It was a typical yet very fun girly weekend.

S & S

(She's Stephanie and I'm Suzi)

I envy her long legs. Standing next to her really kills my self esteem T_T

Walked around Tokyo Street and tried the Japanese food

We spent almost 6 hours in Pavillion but it felt like we're just in there for few hours. Maybe because we eat for awhile then shop then eat again. We also went to Fahrenheit 88 but didn't get to explore the mall much cause our legs were killing us. Besides, I had done too much damage to my account the night before at Midvalley.

My haul hehehe

I never can imagine I can shopped this much in just 3 days. Totally failed to discipline myself but I'm a happy happy girl with a big hole in my pocket. Besides shopping, we also eat a lot. But I will talk about that in my next post. Don't have much time to blog lately (that explained this back-dated post) because work is kinda overwhelming. Anyway, I'm back to KL again now for another work training. This time the schedule is much more pack than the last training and I have to sit for assessment after every sessions. It's mentally draining but I really learnt a lot.

That's all for now. I need to sleep now or else I'll be grumpy tomorrow. Bye!

MIA

2011-09-23T07:48:00.000+08:00

I know I had been missing from blogsphere world for a while. I was away for work training for a week and I ~~stupidly~~ decided not to bring my laptop because I know I will be busy seeing friends, shopping and attending training. But fret not, cause now I'm back.

Will do a proper update soon because now I have to rush to work and have 400 pages of notes to go through for my insurance licensing exam tomorrow. Wish me luck!

What made my week

2011-09-11T20:37:00.001+08:00

Despite my roller coaster emotion ride these past week, I still managed to find some little things that cheered me up in my everyday life. Be it some stupid jokes or a simple gesture, what matters is I feel happy again. These are the simple things made my week better:

1. Fooling around with my lil sister

Told you, we're fooling around a lot. There's actually a lot more retarded pictures of us but I shall keep that to ourselves. Enough public embarrassing pictures of us.

2. Mango pudding and warm weather

3. Good food and great company

There's one more thing that definitely can cheer me up (read: retail therapy) but I'm on my shopping ban now. I decided to not buy anything in September because I'm saving for something (a graduation gift for myself). One whole month without any new tops/skirts/pants/bags/shoes/accessories is suck. I have to refrain myself from going out window shopping these days.

Yesterday I went to Toledo with lil sis and they have lots of new arrivals. It's not helping too that the personal shopper brought a whole lots of outfits to our fitting room T.T Plus I tried on a heels which came in my size. It was perfect for work and outing. But I couldn't afford that right now. Okay, I must stay strong and not giving in to any sales right now. 19 days more before I can properly shop. 19 days!

No string attached

2011-09-11T13:02:00.000+08:00

The past few weeks had been rough for me. It was nothing serious, just an internal conflict about my personal life. Moving on is not as easy as it was before. I'd been there last year, it was not easy but I managed to get back on my feet within a short period, if not wiser, stronger. I never allow myself to be buried down far longer than I should. I cried, I mopped, I cursed, I thought thing through and got back on track. No big deal.

This time it is different. I never realized how dependent I am with this person. Anything happened in my life, this person is the first to know and vice versa. We are each other pillars of strength. But lately it had came to term that we're rely too much on each other that it started to hurt both of us. We both need space to grow, to find our own way in life. We tried but when one of us is down, we're back to square one. Maybe I should stop being there for this person and stop running to him whenever something come up. I wish I have the determination. I did it before but why couldn't I this time?

I need to find my own strength, I need to break free or else I'll stuck here forever. No strings attached is suck, I should foresee this long time ago. I was too head strong thinking that I can handle all the emotions. But looks who's tearing up now? Serve me right, eh?

Enough mopping around for myself. There's so much more out there in life that waiting for me to discover. Wonderful experience, colorful journey, etc.. I just need to recollect myself and get back on my feet. Cheers to myself.

Maybe you guys had noticed that my post were all emo these few weeks. I rarely talk about what's really going on in my personal life. I keep everything to myself and buried them in my chest. I'm no superwoman, in the end, everything reemerged and eating me inside out. I couldn't handle everything on my own, thus channeling it through this space. I promise I will be better tomorrow.

Dejavu

2011-09-08T00:06:00.000+08:00

The situation feels so familiar. We were introduced and hit it off. I thought I'd gained another group of friend. How wrong was I? Somewhere along the line, I feel suffocated. I feel like I am being cornered.

But why do I keep feeling like I went through this before? Oh yeah, I did. A year ago, same situation, same circle but different friend.

It's a total dejavu.

I have a lot in my mind right now, still struggling hard to pull things through. Honeymoon is over, it's time for reality check and I really have a lot of prioritize to be done, mentally and emotionally.

The uncertain spark

2011-09-03T23:37:00.002+08:00

It's been a while.
Tonight is one of those nights where I'm feeling down all of sudden.
The feeling is so familiar yet I couldn't tell what's wrong.
Everything is fine, it's just me. Me, my head and my heart.
We argue about almost everything. The head is strong but the heart doesn't seems to follow.
These sappy songs in the background brings back too many memories.
The random talks, the midnight dates, the laughter, the tears.
The missed dates, the silent treatments, the fights, the ignorance.
It bothers the heart.
Then comes the 'what if?'
Neither the head or the heart has the answer.

None of these seem to make sense.
Perhaps a good night sleep is all I need.
Hope the unconscious mind will stop making the vivid dreams.
Good night world.

Favorite week

2011-09-01T10:34:00.000+08:00

I only have till next week to hang out/watching movies/shopping/brunch/dinner/lim teh/gossiping with my friends before almost everyone of them flying off to other states/countries for study leaving me here alone. Man, time flies. Their 2 months holiday are coming to end soon. I will miss them dearly. Chances are, I will see them again probably during Chinese New Year 2012. That's freaking 5 months more!

I don't want to get emo like last time where I sobbed like a kid when I had to leave my friends back at Kuching. Just realized that I get attached too easy. Once I made friends, I treat them as friend. But not everyone are worth my time and energy, just saying anyway cause I felt used way too many times. Lesson learnt, I'll stop giving people my best interest unless they really earn it.

Anyway, here's the highlight of things I had been up to lately.

Moi struggling hard during yoga

Went for hair wash at Re-Move Hair Studio

Lots of brunches date with hubby and lil sis

Drove all the way to Bintulu for Sushi King because sushi in Sibu is sucks. hehe

Loving the familiar green tea taste

This week is my favorite week cause I have 3 days of holidays. I enjoyed waking up late and doing nothing. I'm such a lazy bum, I know. But mind you, I am rejuvenating myself. LOL.

Before I forgot, Selamat Hari Raya & Happy Independence Day to Malaya (not Malaysia obviously).

Bags, not a glamorous one

2011-08-31T12:15:00.000+08:00

Throughout the years, one thing that I notice about my face after camwhoring is my eye. First, it all started with minor dark circle. I blamed the internet/movies/assignments/exams for the dark circle. But lately it got worse. I have a real visible eye bag and my dark circle has worsened too. See it for yourself.

Minor dark circle

One dark circle is bigger than the other one

Or maybe it's my smeared eyeliner, but you can clearly see my eye bag

Pardon the messy hair, I just got back from work and went directly to dinner.

See! My dark circle cannot be saved already T T

No amount of concealer can cover that. I tried blending lots of concealer but still failed, or maybe it's just my skill sucks. Sleeping early is one of the way but I ermm failed too. Every night when I tried to sleep early but something always came up and required my immediate attention. 24 hours a day is not enough for me. I need more time to socialize, to relax, to sleep etc..

Haih..are there any ways to ease up the dark circle? Anything like food? fruit? Besides getting enough sleep and rest of course, and also skin care. Most of skin care that I'd tried did no wonder. Yeah, my dark circle and eye bags are hopeless.

Brunch at Uncle Dom Cafe

2011-08-27T12:42:00.024+08:00

Weekends are my favorite days in the week. Who doesn't love weekend anyway? No work, no waking up early, such a bliss. Last Saturday I need some quiet time to refresh myself, so I brought my lil sis to Uncle Dom Cafe for brunch. I rarely go to Uncle Dom in the day, normally I just went there for lim teh session at night.

The atmosphere was nice and quiet, just what I thought in mind. Uncle Dom Cafe is an Ipoh Kopitiam-themed cafe. What I love the most about the place is the ambient, it is very vintage and reflects Sibu amazingly through their old vintage pictures of Sibu which are displayed on the wall (but I didn't take any picture of that). The pictures were taken during British colonization era and it's nice to be reminded how Sibu had developed thorough out the era until now.

We picked a seat near the window at the corner

My brunch date

The table with the cushion is my fave spot at night

The cafe was quiet during the day but at night, I sometimes can hear the conversation of people from a few tables away. It made me felt like I'm at Tanahmas (with the crowd and the noise). But being the typical Sibu people, we still chatted away happily and loudly too. Who cares if the people from other tables can hear you? Hehehe, this is so Sibu.

My brunch set. Sambal mee hon with cincau milk. Delicious.

When waiting for our food, we were approached by two men, whom started the conversation by asking are we from other country? Because he said we didn't look like local ='= Then he started to introduce himself, telling us he's from KL and came to Sarawak for mission to help orphanage kids by collecting funds from public. He even showed me articles and pictures of the kids. I secretly think he's bluffing but still donate some money for the charity. For good cause, of course. Well, I hope we were not scammed.

Straight vs curly

2011-08-21T23:21:00.000+08:00

A small step towards changes, what do you guys think?

Carefree & happy

2011-08-21T01:52:00.001+08:00

I forgot how it feel to be carefree anymore. Not to worry about anything, no dateline, no pressure, no commitment. It'd been a while, a long while. I think I seriously need a getaway trip. I hate being trap, doing the same routine everyday suffocates me. The once truly happy and carefree me is missing somewhere.

Many had said that I've changed. But the question is, do they know the real me? How many of them had been with me through my ups and downs? Not many I would say. I may have evolved as a person, but deep down, if you know me well, I'm still the same girl that you once laughed with.

Maybe it's time for me to rediscover myself. To be spontaneous, carefree and truly happy again.

Be random and stop a total stranger for picture

Be playful and naughty

Be a high dreamer

Be brave to take the leap and knowing that the loved ones will always be there to catch me

Be truly happy and contented again

I am happy right now but not as happy as I was before. Maybe it because I'm so used to my own fake smile. These day I often masked my own misery and worry with fake smile, a little bit too much till at one point it became a routine.

Often I'm the one whom cheering for others, pulling them up when they fall. But sometimes, I need someone to cheer for me too. It's nice to know that someone is looking out for you out there, at least I know whom are my real friends.

Hope this is not too depressing for you to read. I just need a space to let something off my chest. Kthanx bye.

*Pictures were taken during family holiday back in 2009

Playing dress up

2011-08-14T20:20:00.000+08:00

This is what I wore for a family dinner few weeks ago.

The back side details.

I love the lace detail of my top.

Went to Toledo after breakfast today and as usual, I tried some outfits with my lil sister.

Floral romper

The overall

I love all the outfits that I've tried. The sheer top is great, so does the overall dress. But too bad I decided to go slow on my shopping budget this month. T_T I'm saving for something that I've desire for quite a long time. Hopefully I'll get it by the end of this month. Oh, paycheck, please come faster. I came home empty handed but not lil sis. She bought the sheer top that I'd tried on and the brown short. Good thing about being the same size with your sister is you can steal her clothes :p

Morning routine

2011-08-12T21:02:00.000+08:00

6.20 am- Alarm went off and I snoozed it for another 10 mins.

6.30 am- Unwillingly got up and played with Pino for a while. Grabbed my towel and hit the shower.

7.00 am- Out of shower and picking out the outfit for the day. Sometimes, I changed a few times before deciding on which one to wear. I wonder how the same top that made me look good last week can make me look horrible today -__-

7.15 am- Slapping the needed skin care stuffs on my face and lotion all over my body. Made myself a cup of hot Milo/milk tea.

7.25 am- Putting on makeup. Line my eyes and realized both sides were not even. Readjusting the eyeliner with cotton bud and it still looked the same. Giving up and towel dried my hair.

7.35 am- Rushed to kitchen to make scramble egg and hash brown for breakfast. Letting my mom took over the cooking half way and continuing doing make up.

7.50 am- Finished breakfast, grabbed my bag and drove to work.

8.00 am- Stuck in jam, cursing some slow/stupid drivers on the road. Singing along to my favorite songs and feeling a lot better.

8.20 am- Arrived at workplace and switched into working mode. ='=

So, that's my weekdays morning routine. When I told people I work at Sibu Jaya, a new township about 23km away from Sibu town, their reactions were "What? So far?" "So now you live there?" "You must be waking up very early everyday!".

Truth is, the distance is okay for me. It is almost the same distance from my flat back in Kota Samarahan to Kuching town, so I'm used to the distance. Besides, I enjoy driving, it helps to ease my mind.

Yesterday outfit

Today outfit:

Bag was stolen from my mom :)

IOGA

2011-08-10T23:28:00.000+08:00

Notice how my face is getting rounder now?

Yeah, that's what I got from all the brunches/ dinners / tea-time/ snack time. Yup, I love eating. No doubt about that, but I do not fancy the excess fat that came with the habit. Back in Uni, I jogged occasionally to get fit. But that was months ago. I can't really remember the last time I break a sweat. I figure it's about time for me to get active again.

I've always wanted to try yoga but never actually made an effort to join any yoga class. The plan remained a plan until a few weeks ago.

Introducing to you, IOGA.

Can you spot my hand in the reflection? :p

It is a yoga institution which focusing on health and beauty. My friend, Xiao S introduced this place to me. She brought me for a tryout and I'm hooked ever since. At first I was having difficulty doing the bending forward and all sorts of stretching. Mind you, my last Taekwondo training was years ago. So, pardon the rusty muscles ;p

I dragged along my sisters with me and they loved it! I go on weekend only because they have no class at night during weekdays. The classes are divided into pure yoga and belly & cardio. In pure yoga, you will be doing all sorts of stances and bending, it's the pure yoga. Besides that, we do meditation too. I'm still learning in controlling my breath and energy.

Meanwhile in belly & cardio, the teacher will blast the latest hit songs and we will move along to the beat. The routine, of course is focusing in the belly area. It was so much fun, I felt like clubbing in a room filled with middle-aged women and mirrors hehe.

The only downside was my sore muscles the next day. ='= After the pure yoga, I couldn't walked up the stairs properly. Every time I laughed or sneezed, I felt like I'd broken a rib. Now that I'm a regular, my body is getting fitter and not much sore muscles anymore.

Xiao S aka the childhood friend/the hubby

Yup, she called me wifey. :)

Now I've found a new passion, yoga. The next thing I need on my list will be some gym clothes. Another good excuse for shopping :)

August already

2011-08-02T22:17:00.000+08:00

A lot had been going on for the past 2 weeks and I'm so caught up in trying to catch up with everything, hence the lack of update. But I like it. Being productive made me a happy person.

I'm settling with my new job right now. It is something totally new to me and I'm learning from the basic. With the help of my colleagues, I'm getting better at it. Rewind a few years back, I never foresee myself going to this path. Growing up, I was told that working for government is what I should do. But truth is, I always despise the idea (due to personal opinion), till now I still do actually. Therefore, I decided to take the least travel path. For once in my life, I'm stepping out of my comfort zone, taking the risk to fulfill my own dream. I know it will not be easy but never say never.

Working aside, I'd been out and about. It doesn't take me long to find my way back in my hometown. At first, I thought it would hard for me to adjust myself in Sibu. I had been away for 4 years and my life and friends revolved around Kuching. Leaving them behind, I thought I will be friendless in Sibu cause most of my friends here are away too, study and work. Lucky me, now they are having their intersession break/summer break. I will cherish their company until September.

Supporting friends for their live show

Childhood friend

Shopping, lunching, lim teh-ing

Dancing and drinking

July was a month fulled of roller-coaster ride. One minute I was on top of the world, next thing I knew I was dragged down to the bottom. Unexpected things happened to people around me, a friendship was stained with false allegation, friend found new phase in life, a lover dream was crushed with a change of heart. Whatever happens, it happened for a reason, good or bad, it depends on how you look at it. Either the glass is half full or half empty, up to you to decide. Happy August peeps!

Secret Garden Grill

2011-07-26T23:25:00.000+08:00

Last Friday I had a date night with my little sister. We went to see Harry Porter and the Deathly Hollow Part 2. It was so much better than Part 1, of course. After the movie, I took her to Secret Garden Grill for dinner. I shall let the pictures do the talking.

I love the black and white pictures on the wall

I know, my face is getting round now.

Salmon fish ball

Secret salmon and mushroom spaghetti

Secret mushroom and beef burger

Golden chicken wing

Yes, both of us ate this much

We were totally full after the dinner and just sat there and chat. Can't believe my little sister now is all grown up. Time really does flies. Next thing I know, she's probably already graduate from high school. But in my heart, she's always the little sister, no matter what.

The perfect pant

2011-07-20T23:49:00.000+08:00

I admit it. I have trouble finding the perfect pant/skirt for my working wardrobe. Sometimes even size S is hanging on my waist. So when I found anything that fits perfectly, I quickly snatched it away, thinking I hit the jackpot. That's what happened last Sunday. After church, I went to a boutique just to look around. You know, window shopping.

One thing I like about a new boutique is, I always set my expectation low. Past disappointment had taught me so. But it was different with the new boutique, Momo. I felt like a kid in candyland. They cater just what I need in my size. In the end, I walked away with a top, blazer and a perfect pant.

Guess who's more excited than me about the perfect pant? My mom. Yes, my mom was so excited that she's offering to hand wash it. So I let her. But how I wish I didn't. Somewhere along the washing and drying process, my perfect pant was stained. STAINED! and I haven't even wear it, not even once.

I know I'm being such a drama queen. Most people would argue it is just a small stain and I know my mom was sorry too. She tried really hard to wash away the stain with Varnish but to no avail. I was already upset about something else that evening and finding out my pant was stained just pushing me to the edge. I was furious. A chance for me to stumble upon a pant in my size is like me hitting the jackpot, one over million ratio.

I felt like yelling at my mom but I just couldn't because I know how sorry she was. Another part of me really wanted to throw tantrum and blamed her for everything but another part of me felt sorry watching her trying to save the pant. I was trying hard to not say a word because I know if I did, I would say something nasty. She said she will buy me a new one but I said no harshly, grabbed the car key and left.

I did came back to the boutique to get a new one but as I expected, they only carry one item per size. I was still mad over this but I don't know where to let my anger go. I don't want to snap at my mom because I know she has my best interest and she just want to help me. The anger that she caused me had provoked other hidden emotions inside of me. As I drove away, I can felt every emotions were eating me out. I was angry at someone else and trying really hard to refrain myself from putting the blame on my mom.

In life, not everything will go our way. Sometimes, it easier to find someone to be blamed rather than to accept the truth yourself. Snapping at others will not solve the problem, the only thing you will get from it is the guilt. Finding the scapegoat for your anger does you no good too. As I drove, I recalled everything that upset me and cried my heart out. Now, I'm feeling whole lot better.

Karaoke+eating+clubbing

2011-07-18T21:18:00.000+08:00

Last month Hoe entered a singing contest organized by The Queen and my talented friend got the 2nd place. I went to his quarter final but missed his final competition because it clashed with Rainforest World Music Festival. Since I missed his final, I'm not gonna miss his celebration party, a small gathering with friends at K-Pop Room in Tanahmas.

Don't let the look fools you. Much to our disappointment, the fried chicken wings were tasteless.

The fish fingers with tartar sauce was so-so only.

But Hoe already ordered 3 plates of fried chicken wings ='=

The source of my toothache

Sara, Me, Miao and Lily

When we're not singing, we're eating

Hoe, Sara, me and Miao

Bullying Miao's brother, Trevon

We They sang their heart out all night long meanwhile I was busying nomming the tasteless fried chicken wings. If you bring me out for karaoke session, you will be able to sing in peace because I will not fight for the mic. Trust me, I can't sing to save my life. The most line that I sang that night was "Woo Hoo" from The Time from Black Eyed Peas.

After karaoke session, I met up with my Uni friends whom were in town for a while. Like usual, we went clubbing until the wee hour. Is it age catching up with me or what? I didn't feel like drinking and dancing that night. Maybe I was being a responsible driver or maybe that club just wasn't my kind of club. Either way, it was great catching up with the boys.

The Queen

2011-07-15T15:17:00.000+08:00

Left: The Queen Envy, right: O Hail Mother Martini

It had been ages since I last going out at night just for fun, chillaxing with friends and family. So, last night after I officially quit my part time job, I brought my sister to The Queen for hangout. The Queen is a lounge located next to Cafe Cafe in Sibu. Actually, it is operated by the same owner. I had been there quite a lot since that's my friends favorite hangout place.

We sat and talked about everything while sipping the house signature drinks. It felt so good to be able to enjoy myself again, being silly with my sister. The ambient was relaxing and with the live performance singing slow numbers made it even more romantic. Ah, if only I'm on a date. Just kidding sis, it was great catching up with you!

Mesmerized by the singer singing "Wonderful Tonight"

I jokingly told her that she should play "Wonderful Tonight" at her wedding. It is a perfect song. A song that I would play during my wedding, only if my sis do not choose this song. If she does, I'll settle for something else. No way I want to share my wedding song with others that I known, especially a family member :p

A night filled with laughter and silly talk, just what I need after not having any social life for almost 2 weeks. Gosh, I really cannot trap in a building for 9 hours a day, 6 days a week. It's driving me crazy. Bye to my dull and boring day and cheers to a fresh new start!

Music, cultures & festival

2011-07-12T00:46:00.000+08:00

Amazing weekend spent at Sarawak Culture Village attending the Rainforest World Music Festival 2011 with such a great companions. It was such an eye opener for me. I got to meet people from all around the world whom share the same passion in appreciating music and others cultures. Dancing along with such an amazing crowd was fun. The only downside was shirtless sweaty men, major turn-off. The perk, someone was actually using a pick-up line on me and Vero. It was totally unexpected and I actually fell for it ='=. But he sure know how to break the ice. For my male friend, the perk was of course girls trotting around in bikinis, looking amazing. More pictures coming up soon hopefully, if Kano remember to email me the rest of it. Pictures was stolen from his FB.

I need to do this more often

2011-07-08T00:53:00.000+08:00

Source

Voices in my head

2011-07-06T16:35:00.000+08:00

I miss shopping. Walking around mall, trying out new clothes, the smell of new fabric.....

I miss being active. Sweating out jogging, taekwondo training, swimming, playing badminton......

I miss going to cinema. Enjoying the big screen, comfy seat with full blast air con, letting myself being immersed into the scene without interruption.....

I miss taking evening nap. Escaping the reality into my dream world, forgetting my tiredness and snuggling under the warm blanket..........

I miss getting ready to go out at night. Planning my outfits, applying my makeups, doing my hair........

I haven't properly pamper myself for quite a long time. I really need to readjust my priorities. What's the point of keep doing the same routine if I'm miserable throughout the whole process? I want my normal life back. I'm sick of being trapped, physically and mentally.

Skin Food

2011-07-04T12:27:00.000+08:00

Remember the training that I'd told you guys about? It was about my part-time job. I had started my part-time job as promoter in Skin Food outlet in Sibu about a week ago. The training was about exposing me to all ranges of their products. It was quite easy for me because I had been using their product for quite some times now.

It was very spontaneous decision for me. I went to their store to buy some stuff and they put up an ad for a promoter. So, I was like "why not? I have nothing to do at home, might as well use the time to earn some extra money."

Form was filled, call was made and I got the job. I'm still adjusting to remember the products and their functions but I'm doing fine now. Serving the customer and answering their questions was hard at first, but I'm getting better now. The only downside is the long hours trapped in the mall. I don't get to go out and have fun anymore. Have to turn down some invitations for movies and hang outs too. :( you just can't have it all, can you? The bright side, I get to use their products for free and $$$.

By the way, I'm so excited for this weekend. My friends and I had been talking about this plan since months ago and now it is just a few days away. Will spill it out soon! I can't wait to meet my friends and have fun. Here's the hint: Cat city.

Of thoughts and life

2011-07-01T02:23:00.000+08:00

I had been thinking a lot lately. Mostly, it's about life, the purpose of my existence in the world and money. My convocation is confirmed on 23rd October, so my student phase is officially over. I'm no longer a student, not exactly a career woman. This transition makes me feel so lost. I know I should have thought about all this long time ago, but I still couldn't make up my mind.

I don't know which path to venture on. Recently I went on an interview for a job. It is completely a different field, something that I have very little knowledge of. I have a long talk with the manager and he asked me is this really what I want as my career? At that time, I eagerly nodded my head and said it is a good prospect and I can see myself doing well in that field. My confident level was high and I felt good about it.

What if I said that too soon? Being in that field requires me to reach a certain target every month. I like the challenge but can I do it? I was working today (will talk about my part-time job next time) and these thoughts crossed my mind. I hate sticking to the same routine everyday. I came to work and all I did was waiting for the clock to turn 9.30pm so that I can get home. Where's the excitement, the accomplishment, you tell me?

Well, my part-time job doesn't require any accomplishment anyway. Maybe that's why I feel so useless and start to question my decision and goal. But with that job, it will be a challenge everyday, not a dull and same routine. Definitely something that excites me. But with the bar set so high, can I pull it off? I think I'm rambling way too soon. It is not something that certain yet.

Being trapped in a building for 8 hours really messed with my thoughts and judgement, hence all the doubts. What a great way to welcome July huh? Anyway, cheers to July and hopefully a lot more great news coming soon.

Prawn, anyone?

2011-06-29T01:18:00.000+08:00

My dad is really big on family bonding, he likes to spend as much time as possible with us. Even for groceries shopping, he and my mom would wait for us to wake up late at noon without a single complain. My parents really pamper us too much.

While my mom's idea of bonding is baking, my dad's idea is slightly different. His version of bonding is prawn fishing. I know, fishing sounds boring. But trust me, it isn't. It was fun and addictive especially when you caught the prawn.

My brother introduced this prawn fishing pond to my dad. Basically, it's a shop with man-made ponds (or is it bigger tub?). You rent the fishing rod and they will release the prawns into the pond, then it's up to your skill to catch those.

Our prawns

Doesn't sound challenging much? Well, you can try the pond with the lobsters, it was almost impossible to catch one, for us beginners at least. But for a beginner in a small pond, we were doing good, 800g of prawns in 3 hours. Not bad, right?

We had been going there for 2 days straight and spent 3 hours, just fishing. I never thought that I would try fishing before. Well, the idea of sitting and waiting for the fish/prawn is not too appealing to me. But I totally changed my mind after I caught my first prawn. It was totally exciting. Seeing my dad so excited in teaching us to control our rods, taking off the prawns from the rod and putting on baits made it all worth it. Quality time with the loved one, I'm contented. :)

Catching up

2011-06-27T00:22:00.000+08:00

For the past 2 weeks, I'd been making good use of my time to catch up with my high school friends. Universities are on their long holiday, so everyone are back home. Plus Sara is back from the land far far away. She just finished her degree at UK and now she's back for a while.

Me and Sara

I haven't see her in 2 years. I was kind of expecting some awkwardness when I came fetch her but how wrong was I? Nothing is changed about her. She is still the very same girl that I'd grown up with. The chatty and bubbly Sara :)

Hoe and Miao

Hoe is entering a singing contest which is organized by The Queen Bar and Lounge. We went there for his semi-final last night. He was doing great but too bad he got dragged down from a 2nd place to 5th place currently. The final is in two weeks time and I'm sure he can pull it off during his big night. Finger crossed for him.

I couldn't help but feel like Sibu is such a small place. I kept bumping into the same person everywhere I went. Next thing I know, this friend is a friend to my friend too. Just realized I shared lots of mutual friends with my friends lately. What a small world, eh?

Last Thursday I went to catch Laddaland, a Thailand horror movie with my little sister. It was a good movie, gave us quite a goosebumps. I had quite an unpleasant experience with the cinema here. Let's just say, they are very rude, kept us waiting like crazy for 2 hours because the management or more like the counter lady was taking her dinner time. What kind of service is that? Closing the counter just like that? Apparently we had nothing better to do except exploring the night market nearby and camwhoring.

Sisters

Besides catching up with friends and family, I had been undergoing a training too. Will fill you guys with that later on. Stay tuned :)

Say cheese

2011-06-26T01:38:00.000+08:00

I swear I'd gain some weight since I'm coming back home. My mom is being such a wonderful mom lately, she had been pampering me with delicious and fabulous home cooked meal. The other day she was making steak for my lunch. And for dessert, she was making cheese cake and batang buruk.

Sigh, how could I not gain weight with all the food that she prepared for us. Since her first cheese cake was a success, she was addicted ever since. Everyday, she would go shopping for different kind of ingredients and would pester my little sis and I to make the cheese cake.

Forced labor.

I much prefer the manual way of "beating" the cheese cream instead of using the beating mixer. The texture was creamier with the manual way, plus I get to work those flabby arms. Killed two birds with one stone :)

Chocolate and green tea layered cheese cake

This was my first cheese cake and it taste so good, so cheesy. It was the best cheese cake I ever had, despite the not-so-good look. I'm not saying this because I made it myself, even my sister friends said it was good. Well, they said my mom's cheese cake was good too. I didn't have the picture of my mom first cheese cake because I was busy eating it.

Yesterday evening when I came down after napping in my room, I found another cake in the fridge. My mom was really going crazy over baking. In just one week, we had made 3 cheese cakes.

Dried strawberry batik cake

I told her to slow down a bit in baking because after having cheese cake for the whole week, I was kind of sick of it. You know what she told me? She said she was practicing for Gawai next year, which is like a year away ='=

She loves baking it but she do not eat it. So, guess who will finish it and gain weight in the end? Moi. Sigh, I really should start jogging now.

Daddy's day

2011-06-20T19:11:00.000+08:00

Happy father's day!

This year Father's Day is a special one because I'm home to celebrate it with my family. Unlike previous years, the closest celebration I had was having my sister tagged me in their celebration pictures in Facebook. Pfft But now no more. We got our dad an ordinary chocolate cake the day before and instead of writing the wish in English as we normally did, we changed it to Iban. "Selamat ari apai, kami sayau ke nuan" = Happy father's day, we love you. Notice the smudge at the word sayau? That was because they spelled it wrongly. Instead of sayau, they wrote sangat. We demanded them to change it and customers are always right ;p

Growing up, my dad is a very strict father. He set a schedule for us when we were young. Our sleeping time was 9pm, right after Buletin Utama on TV3 finished. Sleepy or not, we must tucked ourselves in and this continued till I was in Form 1. Back then, my play time was from 5pm till 6.30pm. I cannot step outside the house before 5pm or else he'll have my mom to chase after me with hanger. ='= tough life, I told you. After that, I must showered and had my dinner because at 8pm sharp, I must do my revision, exam or not. My friends were not allowed to call my house after 8pm and boys were not allowed to call me AT ALL.

After entering high school, the rebel in me started to show. I sneaked out at night, lied about my whereabouts during weekend, snapped at my parents when they asked me anything. I don't know why am I such a grumpy teenager? Blame the hormones. But my dad was very patient in handling my rebelliousness. After high school, I was chosen to join National Service and that's my turning point. Being away from home, I learnt to appreciate my dad more. I would called him in the middle of night just because I was scared to sleep. Sleeping in an almost empty army style dorm room up on the hill with nobody you know was spooky okay!

Being the strict dad that he was, he never love me any less. Trust me, I'm his spoiled little girl. Anything I want, 90% of the time, I got it. But fret not, I'm not a demanding daughter. I know my limit. He is my pillar of strength, my biggest supporter and my role model. We don't talk much, my dad is a man with not many words. Sometimes, we would watch the telly together without saying a word. But deep down, I know he loves me and I love him.

Cheers to the most important and greatest man in my life.

This picture didn't do my mom's justice. She was hidden behind my dad.

Here's a better one

But she was looking away. Sigh, mom cared more about the television show than taking picture with us.

Let me introduce you to a new semi-family member,

Kirby! She's my brother gf's.

But sometimes, she stayed with us, to accompany Pino.

That's why she is semi-family :p

Homemade steamboat

2011-06-14T02:04:00.001+08:00

Finally, I met up with my HEMAS friends. Harold suggested we do steamboat on our own instead of going to our usual steamboat place. I never had steamboat at home before so I'm quite excited about it. We prepared everything from scratch and it was awesome.

Shopping for the ingredients

It was more than enough to feed us.

I love the hot dog cheese, so chessy

Thanks Lulu for introducing this :)

I climbed on the chair to get the full picture of our food. Sigh, life of a dwarf hahaha

Poor Amy sprained her ankle and it looked serious.

Get well soon dear

Mirror, the best prop.

This is the picture that I tried to take when climbing on the chair and the set up for the steamboat wasn't even complete yet ='=

Our soup that night was Tomyam and it was extra hot but yummy to the max

After such a filling dinner, they played Saidina, a game resembles Monopoly. But yours truly skipped the game. A happy tummy made me a lazy girl.

Armed with the fluffy pillows, yours truly lied comfortably in front of the TV and dozed off completely

So far, my stay here was fantastic. I really brought spending-as-much-time-with-my-friends-as-possible plan to a whole new level. Dinner plan, tea time, party and barbecue plan, meeting nephew before he flew off to Johor, movie, clubbing, you name it, I squeezed it all in my schedule.

Doing it all for 6 days straight with only 4 hours or less sleep every night kinda taking it toll on me. So I'm taking my night off tonight, just chillaxing with the flatmates and catching up on my sleep. I miss a proper bed.

Quickie update

2011-06-09T23:04:00.000+08:00

Currently staying at my old flat with Vero and her new housemates which are also my friends. It felt weird to see some of my stuffs still laying around the flat, it is as if I never move out in the first place. The place seems so warm and welcoming, or it's me got over sensitive. But it feels good to be back.

Travelling via road for 7 hours was painful. My butt cramped, my neck hurt from the tilting when trying to get some sleep and my body was dehydrated. I didn't drink much because we didn't stop at the rest stop. For the whole 7 hours journey, we only stopped twice. I was a complete mess, my hair tangled up and I didn't bother to put on my contact lens.

At night, Victor brought us for dinner at Pizza Hut and Angie joined us short after. It was fun to see the girls again. Too bad Angie had to go back to Miri with her family today, she's probably already at home now. I miss you dayung. After dinner, we went to Waterfront, our usual hang-out spot. Sitting at the bench and people watching as usual. I'm really gonna miss this later on.

Today, I took a ride with my Uni bus for the first time this year. Vero and I had to walk all the way from our flat to the old campus under the scorching sun. Even with the umbrella, my face still got red and all sweaty. We missed our lunch too because we wanted to catch the 2pm bus. Then we were almost soaked in the rain when going back to flat. Life without car is miserable. Lesson learnt, never take anything for granted. My dad really pamper me by providing all the necessities during my study year, car included. I hope tomorrow I will got my thesis declaration and approval sheet signed by my supervisor and can send it for 'jilid'. Finger crossed. Only then I can fully enjoy my weekend.

Packing again

2011-06-08T00:45:00.000+08:00

I've been back from Song four days ago and now I'm packing again. Guess where I'm going? Nothing fancy tho, I'm going back to Kuching to hand in my thesis. After settling the thesis, I will be officially finishing my degree. Wow, time flies. 3 years of Uni life passed just like that. It felt like yesterday I was still rushing assignments, doing lab reports, preparing for field trips and now I've to the end of student life, which means a new beginning for the real world. I'm so not ready to face the corporate world out there, heard it is mean and harsh!

I will stay at Kuching for a week, just enough time to meet up with my friends. I hope I can squeeze in as much hanging-outs and dinner dates with all the friends, especially HEMAS (H=Harold, E=Emelia, M=Mila, A=Abang, S=Suzi, yours truly) Yeah, we created our own friendship group cause we're cool like that hehe. I didn't get to meet them before leaving Kuching last month, so this time it is a must. But Mila is already back to her hometown T_T I wish to see my munyits too, if that's possible. I miss them.

Coming back home, I thought I could just chillax and enjoy but I did everything but that. Been busy attending the relatives coming back for Gawai, the guests for Gawai festival and all sorts. I couldn't help but feel like I'm living in a suitcase. I haven't been unpack since coming back from Kuching. Now I have 3 luggages laying around my room which served as my closet. My room is in hurricane state, a complete mess which reflects how my life had been lately. I was so overwhelmed by everything that going on around me that I forgot to dedicate some time for myself. After this trip to Kuching, I really should organize and tidy up everything, my room, my life. I couldn't stand the mess, especially my room.

Jong Crocodile

2011-06-06T14:17:00.001+08:00

Before leaving Kuching, I managed to explore the place a little bit more. To be more precise, explore Serian actually. Victor spontaneously asked Vero and I to go to Jong Crocodile. I've never been there before, so why not now? It was a fun day. Jong Crocodile is like a zoo but the main attraction is of course crocodile, duh! I thought it was a small place but how wrong was I. We all were sweating bullet from all the walking and touring, and running too (we got scared when we walked through the wildlife pathway because the fence seemed broken and any crocodiles may be out there waiting for their lunch).

Some of the crocodiles.

They are smelly and lazy creatures

Malaya sun bear

Integration of rabbits, chickens and parrots

The scary otters.

They looked cute but beware, otters are very aggressive. They shrieked furiously when we refused to feed them, we brought no food, so what to do?

The pigs.

Buddha praying area

Yours truly

The company

It was a nice and simple trip. But too bad the management do not keep up the maintenance work. Some fences looked old and I always doubt the safety of the place. What if one of the crocodile make it way out of the fence? Can't really imagine it. The bridge is worn out too. Perhaps with a little effort, the place can be a lot better. It is one of the tourist attractions in Kuching after all.

Hard work paid off

2011-05-31T14:20:00.001+08:00

My final result was finally released yesterday and I couldn't be more happier. It is better than I'd hoped for. All this while I keep doubting myself whether I really can pull it through or not but perseverance and determination are the keys.

I couldn't stop beaming whole day. All the tension, stress and dateline doesn't seem so bad anymore. I must confess, I might have dropped a few tears when trying to finishing my thesis. Last semester my progress report was rejected three times! And I had to rush everything during study week, so forgive me if I might have cried along the way.

But now everything seems to worth it. I have made it to the Dean List. Thank you God for blessing me. And congratulations to my friends too! We all rocked our final year, didn't we? See you guys during Convocation this October :)

My nephew

2011-05-29T20:32:00.001+08:00

I have a nephew whom I'd never seen before. He's my cousin's son by the way. They lived in Johor and only come back to Sarawak once or twice before but I was never at Sibu when they came. Lucky me this year, they come back for Gawai and yours truly is home. But the little nephew is growing up so fast, I missed his baby phase. Now he's a 2 1/2 years toddler, a very naughty one actually.

I was trying to get him to take off his shirt for shower but boy, he was so stubborn. I chased him around the house and yet I still didn't managed to get his shirts off. He's tricky.

See, he climbed on the sofa to avoid me.

Showing his 'peace' sign when he saw me taking his picture

Peace yo!

Besides that, I'd been playing badminton religiously this week, accompanying the friends for their losing weight plan. It was fun despite the early hour. I enjoy the sweating moments.

Miao and Hoe for their one-on-one

A tired yours truly

Now I'm at my dad long house which located at Song. We will stay here for a week for the Gawai festival. I think a week here is too long but let's hope I'm wrong. Anyway, I'm looking forward to see what Song has in store for me. Here I would like to wish my Iban friends "Selamat Hari Gawai, Gayu Guru Gerai Nyamai" same goes to my Bidayuh friends and Kadazan friends whom celebrate the Harvest Festival. Enjoy!

Family reunited

2011-05-29T16:35:00.000+08:00

Going back home this time was different because I was not going back alone, the family were coming to Kuching to fetch me instead. Actually it was because my dad didn't trust me to drive a 6 hours road trip on my own. So the family came on the weekend and had a little shopping.

Sisters

Right after checking in to our hotel, I brought them for dinner at downtown and sent them off again to hotel to get some rest. I was really appreciating the time that left for me to enjoy with my friends before I was home for good. So, I dragged my sister along with me to meet the mates at Check-In. As always, the party was great and I couldn't be more happier.

With 4 hours of sleep and sore legs the next day, I brought them to shop. Mom was really happy but her foot wasn't. Due to time constraint, I only brought them to The Spring and Boulevard. At night, my sister and I were supposed to go to Anugerah Juara Lagu Rentak Ruai (AJAR) but my aunt insisted on taking us to steamboat at Hornbill. Since we didn't pay for the tickets to AJAR (it was given by Masterpiece to my sister, God bless them for winning that night), we were off to steamboat.

I have no idea what my sister was doing with that chopstick ='=

Happily enjoying the food

After all the walk and food, I turned like this at night.

Couldn't barely feel my foot anymore

On Sunday, after taking some of the stuffs I'd left at the flat, I waved my goodbye to the place I'd called home for a year and to my lovely housemates whom feel like a family to me. But that's not goodbye of course, it's "see you again" because friends stay connected. Is it too much if I already anticipated our next reunion? :)

Florals and prints

2011-05-26T18:08:00.000+08:00

Next week we will be celebrating Gawai or better known as Harvest Festival. It is the traditional celebration indicates the harvesting season is over for the Iban and it is time to express their gratitude for the rezeki or something like that and it is the occasion where family get together and reunite. As usual, I do not prepare much for Gawai since we will be celebrating it at my dad long house. Normally, I just bought a few new clothes and that's all.

For Gawai shopping this year, my sisters and I were planning to get some outfits in Kuching but it is impossible to shop properly in just one day. So, the plan failed and here comes the back up plan. We shopped at Sibu instead. There are not much stuffs that caught my attention this time.

Yup, all the dresses that I tried on were the same design, the only differences were their prints. The puffy things you saw around my waist were the pockets. It was kind of weird and it made me looked puffed as well. I like the first one tho.

I also tried on this jumpsuit short (?). It was nice and comfortable and I love the cherry prints on the blouse.

I also tried on this sheer dress and it was too sheer. It felt as if I was only on my inner wear. Plus, it was to big anyway. Well, in the end, I only got myself one of all the items that I'd tried on. Can you guess which want I'd picked? :)

Settling down

2011-05-23T23:02:00.000+08:00

So, here I am. After 6 hours of car ride with a cramp butt later, I'm home. The journey was not as bad as I expected, it was bearable, it was the emotion that got me. 4 years of staying away from home, now I'm coming back for good. Truth is, I'm not as excited as I thought I would be when I finished my study ( finger crossed I'll pass with flying color).

I know exactly what made me felt that way. I'm emotionally attached to everyone that I have to leave behind in Kuching especially the friends that had been close with me during my final year. The late night hang outs, the talks, the lame jokes, the laughters, everything that I had been through with them make it harder for me to let go. I miss going to class and chit-chatting while the lecturers are teaching, gossiping with my munyits, passing snacks around class to share.

But life goes on. I have lots of boxes to unpack and clothes to arrange. First day home and I'm already busy as bee, waking up earlier than usual to send my car for servicing, picking up my cousin, brunch with my sister, picking up lil sister from school, picking up my boxes from bus terminal. Enough said, I'm pretty beat up by the end of day and guess what, I have a badminton session at 9 am tomorrow. I never play badminton for real, playing badminton in front of my house with no netting or line doesn't count.

Coming back home is not so bad after all. I just need time to settle down and enjoy before I start my job hunt. Or maybe I should get a part-time job? Extra money is always good. Anyway, I'm looking forward for what my hometown can offer me.