Christmas 2015

Just realized that I have not written about my Christmas for 2015 yet. I did updated my Dayre but not on this space yet. So here we go.

My sister and I wanted to go away for the Christmas. Our initial plan was Kuching but cancelled last minute and we decided to drive to Miri and spend the Christmas with my aunt and her family at Brunei instead.

First time driving long journey on my own - checked!

The 6 hours drive was fun because we talked so much. We literally talked for the whole 6 hours about everything. We got lost a little bit at Bintulu when trying to figure out which way is the coastal road to Miri and ended up using the old road. We got lost again when we reached Miri because Waze directed us to the empty old airport runway wtf.

Sneaked out for breakfast at Jackfruit with my aunt while the rest still sleeping

On the actual Christmas day, we prepared some food for buffet like usual.

Grilled chicken salad with no dressing which surprisingly tasted so good

Very simple spread. We had grilled lamb, lettuce to wrap the lamb, mixed veggies, chicken curry and grilled chicken wing done by air fryer. I really want an Air Fryer because it is the magic. You can make any grilled/fried food without even using the oil. So much healthier but still taste as good as the real deal.

Red wine to go with the lamb

Mangoes for dessert. I think I had half of the serving but the mangoes really taste so good. I bought some to bring back home but it was not fully ripe so it did not taste as good.

With my loves

We finished the day by watching Alvin and The Chipmunk 3 at the cinema. Tutong, the town that my aunt stays in has definitely improved a lot. Last time I was there when I was just 13, they have no cinema.

Early dinner at Excapade Sushi, Kelly is still trying to learn to use her chopstick

Shared this ramen with my sister, the broth was good

And my favorite, salmon wrapped asparagus. It did not taste as good as it was before sadly.

Stopped by supermarket to pick up some ingredients because we decided to make curry puff out of the blue. Googled the recipe and quickly grabbed the ingredients because it was past 8 and we wanted to make it that night. My sister and I were leaving early in the next day.

Ingredients for curry puff is simple. Potatoes, sweet potatoes, curry powder, minced meat, onions and wheat flour. But the process of making the puff is very tiring, I kid you not. My arm and wrist were numb the next day from all the rolling.

So much effort for making such a simple curry puff. We spent 3 hours on it, so not worth all the time and energy spent. I think I'll rather buy next time than doing my own.

We had emoji playdoh challenge too. Be the judge and let us know what emojis were we doing and which row is the best.

We also filmed some videos doing challenge and a little vlog but my Window Media Maker is not working and I did tried editing with IMovie but I think I need more time and tutorial. But at least I still have those great memory in my SD card. 

My Christmas was simple and spent with my loved ones. It is exactly what Christmas is all about for me. A little trip to see the loved one and spend time bonding. My Hong Kong food post is coming up next. I already spent 2 weeks on it because it is so long since we had so much food. 

Stay tune for that one. See you soon!

A story about a man

This is a real life story about a middle aged man. He came from poor family but he's very smart. From young, he was one of the top student in his class. However, due to financial restraint, he was unable to further his study to obtain tertiary education. But luck was on his side,  he got a job offer in government sector.

Life was hard back than. But he still managed to get by with the meager income. He met his wife when he was working in a rural area. They fell in love and got married. It was a simple marriage, they signed the wedding certificate and pronounced husband and wife.

The husband is the breadwinner while the wife stays at home to manage their household. Life was simple back them. Sometimes the man went out for a hunt to provide food on the table. The couple have 4 children, 3 girls and a boy.

After spending years in the rural area, they moved to the city. Life was still simple but they still can manage with just one income. The couple was prudent in their daily life, so that they can save enough money to buy a house to call their own. However, the kids never complained, they were too young to understand. Besides, all that they cared about was having fun. The kids played house with stick and dry leaves, jump of their imaginary lava from one couch to another.

After years of living frugally, they finally living their dreams. They bought their house and got a new car as well. From living in a rented shop house, they moved to a double storey terrace house. They thought they had made it in life. Little did they know, it was a beginning of the downfall.

Money is no longer an issue in their household. They took the kids out for dinner weekly. The wife has stopped cooking for her family. Everyday she would take away food from outside, they can afford luxury in life and buying more and more car, the wife wear lots of gold jewelries as her pride.

Life in the city definitely has changed the man. Money is all that he can think about. He wanted to get more money and fast money. One thing leads to another and he started to gamble. Lucky for him, luck was on his side. He enjoyed the thrills of winning money, taking thousands and thousand Ringgit home. This habit slowly building up and he spent his weekend gambling.

It was a big hit at first. Few years down the road, his luck ran out or rather he get greedy. He started to lose money but he being the egoistic man himself is not willing to accept that he is losing money. It was a few hundreds Ringgits and building up to thousands Ringgit,

But a gambler is a gambler. He resolved to taking loan from unauthorized person. This is where everything goes downhill for him. He is not willing to go back to his frugal day. He loves the money and the luxury. One day, he lost big time and desperate for money. He slowly building up his debts. At first, he managed to pay it all back.

Sadly old habit die hard. He keep on gambling with the hope to relive his glorious day. He gambled day and night and building up a huge amount of debt from loan shark. Things at home are no longer happy. His wife is oblivious to his habit. But the kids know. His kids are growing up and they no longer the innocent kids that once he can lied to. The loan sharks are unforgiving to their customers. He had to borrow money from people around him. Lots of excuses were thrown to relative to cover his gambling habit. He lied to them telling them that he needed the money to send his kids to university.

The life of a gambler is a cycle. He paid his debt but went back to gambling and again accumulating a huge sum of debts. This time he is desperate. He sold his luxury jewelries, sold one of his car and borrow money from relative again. Sadly, his mask fell off. Everyone knew about  his habit and refused to help him. His relationship with his kids are strained by money. He even forces them to give him their life saving. The kids are baffle, where is the father that they once know? The man that in front of them right now is possessed with money.

Helping a gambler by lending money to them is not helping them but actually further encourage them to gamble. He is a wise middle aged man, he know the consequences of his action and yet he chose to ignore it. Now everything is coming back to haunt him. Too bad he is all caught up in materialistic world that he forgot about his moral values. Now nobody can help him except himself.

What kind of legacy that he wants to leave behind is up to him. If he is not willing to change, the ending is not gonna be rainbow. People say man grow wiser as they age but sadly this is not the case here.

Do you know who is this man? Or does this story sound familiar to you?

Birthday wishlist

It is my birthday month finally!

Honestly I really love birthdays and started counting down right after Christmas.

Birthday after you passed your mid 20s comes with a mixed feeling for me. 

I'm happy because it is my birthday (duh!) but I'm sad too because I'm soon approaching the big 30 wtf. Feel so ancient now.

Birthday has different meaning to me now that I'm fully an adult. It is no longer about partying, how many Facebook birthday messages you get or who remember your birthday and who doesn't? Now it is all about being grateful to be able to turn a year older, maintain healthy and being the better person that I was before.

The highlight of birthday is of course it is the one day out of 366 days that you get to be spoiled. Hahahaha you're the big boss on your birthday and of course the gifts. It is the day that you will get shower with wishes and gifts. 

Anyway, this year I came up with a short list of the things that I want for my birthday. Actually it is my Christmas list that I carried forward to my birthday. Something that I would love to own and definitely will spend my money on.

1) dUCk Planner

Can you see how pretty the dUCk planner is? I fell for the soft and feminine color of the planner when it was first launched in FashionValet. I have planner from Muji for 2015 but I still use now. It is very useful because that's where I wrote down my blog ideas, travel plans and even my financial target and monthly budget. I had seen the dUCk planner layout and pages, so pretty guys! It even comes with inspirational quotes and illustrations as well as voucher for their partner brands. 

It retails at RM120 from FashionValet

2) Nike Roshe

This is something new for me because I don't dig girls wearing sneaker for outing until last year. Blame it on Kendall Jenner but she makes it look so effortless and stylish. And most important thing, it is comfortable. I was really close to get one while I was in Hong Kong. We were walking around Sneaker Street and I was in my ankle boot which hurt my feet so much that I succumbed and bought a Nike Air Max to wear on the spot. I did tried to look for Roshe but mostly sold out in my size (size 4, by the way). Until next two days we went to Harbour City and I was in another Nike store. They stocks the Roshe that I want (plain solid color) in my size and way cheaper than my Air Max. 

Dulan to the max la. I can't be greedy and get another sneaker so I passed at the chance. Now that I'm back here in Sibu, I still think about the Roshe. I'm too stingy to get it myself , maybe I can get it as a gift? hehehhe 

3) Shopaholic to the Rescue by Sophie Kinsella

The Shopaholic series is my favorite book when I was younger. I love it so much that I even blogged about it before back in 2010. I had every books in this series except the new one. It feels like I'm growing up with Becky Bloomwood, from where she confessed her shopping addiction, met her now husband, got married, discovered she has half sister, moving abroad, got pregnant and so on, I've read it all. Except the latest book, Shopaholic to the Rescue. 

It is the continuation from Shopaholic to the Star because in the last book, the story sort of hanging there. I would really love to add the new book to my collection and reminiscing about the good times I had reading Becky Bloomwood.

I can't think of anything else to add to the list. So that's all for now.

2015 in rewind

I wrote my 2015 in rewind in my Dayre, so I figure I should paste it here too to immortalize it on my own blog. Writing this post is really fun to me because I can look back at what my life is all about through photos taken in my phone. I've edited and adding more photos here because I forgot to add in my Dayre.

January

January is my birthday month. As I grew up, my birthday celebration is getting simple. I used to have birthday week when I was a student where I celebrated my birthday throughout the week and I think I ate around 3 or 4 cakes.

Welcoming 2015 with dinner with my girlfriends. We also had another dinner for hoe and I my birthday.

Looking back at my camera roll for January and I realized the majority of the photos are food wtf. So that concludes that I ate out a lot in January.

February

February is another month filled with birthday. It is my brother and little sister's birthday month. Also one of the few times that all of us are available for family dinner. My brother and little sister now are away for uni.

3rd Chinese New Year together with the bf. And in less than 45 days, we will have our 4th Chinese New Year together.

Valentine's Day doesn't mean much to us because we do not celebrate V day. No specific reason but the bf is not the romantic kind so I'm slowly getting used to it. Past 2 years we been fighting a lot about this but now I'm just like nah, I don't care either.

March

Scrolling my camera roll I saw that I started to be active in kitchen. My interest in cooking somehow sky rocketed this month that I decided to cook birthday dinner for my mom.

This is the month that I've spent hours online researching recipes and watching cooking show. Don't know why so suddenly got the domestic spirit in me but I'm happy that it happened because now I can prepare a proper meal. Mind you, I once burnt a pot when cooking and I have melted chopstick too when cooking maggie mee at the bf's house. Lucky nobody saw that and I quickly threw the chopstick away. 

I also went to Cambodia and visited Phnom Penh and Siam Reap. Visiting Angkor Wat is definitely the highlight of my trip. Although it was tiring (try walking under 35 degree hot sun for the whole day) Angkor Wat really wowed me. The history of Khmer Rouge and genocide in Cambodia open my eyes about the world. These are the stuff that you never learn at school. This is why I love travelling. Hopefully I can explore more places in year to come.

I'm also stepping out of my comfort zone by going on this Cambodia trip because I went with a bunch of strangers. Actually it's my best friend uni mates. I decided to join her with her friends for the holiday despite never meeting them. They say the people that you travel with can either make or break your trip.

And they definitely made my trip. Hehe

April

April is the month where I really learn to be independent. Of course the highlight of this month is my solo trip to Bali.

Everyone was worried about me going to another country on my own but I feel nonchalant about it, I was very excited instead. I myself know that I had done enough research and been very very careful throughout the trip. Praise God because everything went well on my trip alone.

Of course there are some hiccups during the trip like I got followed by a very persistent motorbike driver (I got really annoyed and yelled at him to leave me alone and he did) and got scammed by leech like vendors at Kuta beach whom literally forced me to buy their stuff.

May

This month I started to try juicing and been doing it dilligently for the whole month.

I tried juice detox but failed because I couldn't stand the hunger la.

In this month, my bf got into road accident but thankfully he escaped with only scratch knee. Another accident happened to my cousin too. He's fine but our car is wrecked and still under repair in workshop till to date.

June

This is the month that I took lots of selfies, no kidding, when I scrolled through June camera roll, almost 70% are my selfies. With great hair too.

I tried went back to cardio and yoga class because I wanted to be toned and healthy again but sadly the determination didn't last long.

Had a colorful nightlife this month because my bestie was back to town.

July 

Nothing special happened in July. Work and life went on as usual.

Oh yeah, my nightlife still pretty busy. Birthdays and dinners with new friends whom I still keep in touch with now.

Also went on lots of dates with the bf to check out new cafes in town.

I also started to properly learn baking. My first attempt still not quite there yet but I have improved a lot now if I may say so myself. 

August

Went on team building programme and did Leap of Faith which is the highlight of the programme for me. I'm not a fan of height, my knees got weak but I went ahead anyway. Quite proud of myself hahaha

I was on a roll with eating clean this month. I'm determined to kick start eating clean again now.

This is also a hard time for me. I got into big fight with my father. It was a very serious matter and I was very upset at him for jeopardizing our family future. I remembered we spent the rest of the month not talking to each other. I was really angry at my parents and quite depressed this month. I was forced to let go of my car too.

I went cafe hopping again with sisters a lot this month because my little sister went to uni in September, so we want to spend as much time as possible.

September

My sister got married in September. Feels so nice to reunite with my cousins which I just spent Christmas with.

My baking passion is growing strong too this month. I channelled my negative energy into baking and slowly getting better.

October

I found another new hobby this month which is gardening. I wrote about my gardening adventure in Dayre under #dayrebotany.

I wrote about my gardening experience here.

I continued to bake a lot. Looking back at the photo makes me want to bake again. Maybe tomorrow I'll bake lemon cupcakes.

November

I cut my hair short this month. I can see that I was slowly getting better emotional wise. I started to talk to my parents again.

I bought my new car which is the best decision I'd made. I no longer have to ask for ride whenever I went out. Actually one of the reason I baked a lot last few months is because I been cooped up at home. Now that I have my car, I bake less and less now.

December 

Kick start my December with a week long vacation in Hongkong where I experienced my first winter.

Fulfilling my dream to go to Disneyland.

Drove long distance for the first time too. Wah looking back at my year I feel like I have lot of achievements this year. Quite proud of myself.

My sister and I drove all the way to Miri to spend Christmas with my cousin.

I'm not one of the mushy kind but I want to pen down my feeling for 2015. I feel like this is the year that I have grown the most. I have fallen into the dark times but somehow I managed to stand up again. When picking myself up throughout the year, I've learnt that people change and it is nobody fault. Every choice that you make, you have to pay for the consequences.

So now I know what is important to me, what makes me happy and what I want my life to be. I'll be striving to be the best version of myself. Cheers to 2016, I'm ready for you.

The ups and downs of 2015

Okay, I'm just gonna be cliche all the way. Time really did flew by just like that for 2015 and now we are close to the last day of 2015. *gasp* Everything happened so fast and went in a blur for me. Not sure if it is my selective memory or I'm just growing old, I don't really remember much about this year except for a few highlights of my 2015.

Also there are so much drama going on in my personal life for the past months that I kinda feeling numb about. Don't get me wrong, my 2015 is great in overall but as time pass, people change. Some for the better and some for the worst. I made  mistakes and I learnt from it, people around me made mistakes and I learnt from that too.

The up of my 2015

1) Travelling to new places

Cambodia

Bali

Hong Kong which I have not update yet

2) Travel solo 

I think this is the best highlight of my 2015. It was a spur of the moment decision to proceed booking my flight to Bali. The initial plan was to go with the bf but we got into fight and I went ahead with my travel plan without him. The best decision ever!

3) Learn to surf

This happened when I was in Bali. I was reluctant at first when I got up that morning but I'm glad I went ahead even when I was running really low in Rupiah. That feeling when you surf along the wave, it was amazing and I cannot wait to do this again.

4) Baking

I feel so happy to finally able to bake something edible now

5) Grow as a person

I used to be a very sensitive person and care so much about what other people think and perceive of me. I get angry and offended easily but I didn't show it. I kept everything to myself. I always like to compare my life with others around me which is really not healthy. I thought if I have more than what others have I will be happier but I was wrong. Now that I have finally understand the concept of gratitude, I have found my happiness from within. I do not compare anymore instead I focus on being the best version of myself. The most important lesson that I've learnt this year is to let go and be independent. 

The down of 2015

1) The betrayal

Something happened in my personal life that I never talked about in public. It is not something new but it still hurt nonetheless. However through series of unfortunate events, I slowly lost the hurt and betrayal. Maybe along the way, I learnt to care less or maybe something are not as important as it was before.But one thing for sure, now I'm putting myself as priority. My happiness matters to me. 

2) The family drama

This one really came unexpected. Never in my life I would think that I will encounter this problem. Whatever happened has happened, so I could only learnt from it. Money is a very powerful tool but I'm not gonna based my happiness on it. Also I realized that the only person that I can count on is only myself. The satisfaction of getting something without the help is amazing and I will continue to rely on just myself instead of accepting the help being handed to me because this is a realistic world. Cruel? Yes but it is inevitable.

For 2016 I have no specific resolution except for being the best version of myself. I'm really excited for the clean slate because this is what I need after all the downs in 2015. So in 2016 I want to blog more, bake more, save more, workout more. All in all, I want to push myself out of my comfort zone and achieve more because I know I can do it.

For those of you whom still read my blog till now, thank you. I wish you have a great year of 2016.