Beach Body

I will go to Bangkok with the bestie, Miao this December to visit Sara. Since it will be a week long trip (Omg, I can't wait), we figure we might explore other interesting places besides shopping malls. So, we planned to go Pattaya. Beach, bikini and girlfriends, it's going to be awesome!

The only not so awesome part would be flaunt my bikini with flabby arm and legs pair with muffin top. I have stop working out as much as I was this year. Back in school, I played netball from primary school until secondary school. In Uni, I joined Taekwando and had intensive training weekly. And last year I tried yoga and cardio. But slowly I've stopped going for awhile and only coming back again recently. I'm not saying I was lean and tone but at least my stamina was at a better level than it is now.

But now, even walking up the stairs makes me panting. Last month, I started to run again but I couldn't even finished 2 laps at the stadium. Even the bf left me and run alone in the end. The growing muffin top is another friendly reminder also. It started to worry me seeing how much I have slacked off in working out. If this continues, I never gonna be able to put on a bikini for my upcoming holiday :(

Determined, I've set a Pinterest account today to get some inspirations. One thing leads to another and I Youtube-ing some workout routines.

I think I might going back to yoga. I kinda miss the meditation and the stretching. Maybe I'll add some running time and do more cardio. Planning sound easy but getting started is a another story. But with some goals and motivations, I hope I'll be able to get at least a less flabby and saggy butt. 

I only have one month and a half to train for my beach body. I don't believe in diet (eating less this less that) to get the body that I want. It's the toning that I need to work on, not my weight. Besides I love carbs too much to give it up. (Hello fettucine carbonara, pizza, rice and noodles, I love you guys so much!)

So, I'm gonna start slow and pick up the pace bit by bit. Good luck to me. Finger crossed for my determination not to go down the drain. 

Pictures are the courtesy from my Pinterest Board.

#OOTD/girls night out/weekend food

Last last Saturday, I met up with Miao for our catch up session. I'm so glad that she's back at Sibu now because I can have my shopping/gossiping/clubbingdrinking/yoga kaki. After our catch up session at Cafe Cafe, we went to The Core to meet up with our high school friend, See Sing. I don't get to see my high school friends often because most of them are not in Sibu and only be back once or twice a year. 

After a drink at The Core, Miao and I moved on to 96 to meet up with other friends. It was a fun night seeing everyone but I really miss the real clubbing life tho. In Sibu, I couldn't seem to club as fun as I was in Kuching. I think it's the people and place factor.

Anyway, here's some outfits the day from the past week,

Am wearing my ruffled collar chiffon shirt in pastel from Whitesoot

Top: Blogshop in Singapore

Pant: 1B in KK

Bag: Random shop in Sungei Wang

Our outfit of the day for our movie dates.

We went to watch Taken 2 last Wednesday and it was as good as Taken. I think Liam Neelson is really growing old and such a loving but overly protective dad. I have a soft spot for father-daughter kind of movie, like Taken, Armageddon etc. It gets me every time.

Wore that for another night out with Miao.

Top: Actually is a dress, from a local boutique I think

Skirt: Forever 21

Pumps: Vincci

Bag: Longchamp

I have been obsessing over my nail lately and was having fun re-discovering my old nail polishes. My favorite color is pastel but sadly I don't have much pastel colors in my collection. Also, it was my first time doing DIY for my own nails, so it's a bit messy.

It's weird that I'm not PMS-ing this weekend but I have been having some sort of food craving. Maybe it was because I had been starving real bad and always eat way past my meal time. Last Friday, I went back to Penang Kopitiam just for the sake of their sushi.

Loot at the big fat sashimi, yums!

I had these meatballs for brunch yesterday and it was good and last me till dinner time.

If you follow me on Twitter and Instagram (username: suzmellisa), you might already seen most of the pictures above. Sorry for that but I update my twitter and Instagram way more often than my blog obviously, duh!. So follow me there for more updates.

I was Tango-ing with the bf while writing this and he been complaining that I never write anything about him. Someone demands a debut here I see, LOL. I don't really talk much about my personal life since I first started blogging. I may have mentioned a bit here and there about the bf ( and the exes) too but never a story about us. Maybe because I'm too vain and want this space to revolve just around me, LOL. Just kidding babe, I will do it when it's time. <3 p="p">

Self-conflict

I have not really put much of my thought here as of late, am I? Well, tonight is one of those rare nights where I feel like pouring my heart content out here. But I'm not sure whether this post will make it to the "publish" button, we'll see about that.

When I was in front of my computer pretending to be busy at work, my mind was wandering somewhere else, taking alone my soul with it. I often wonder, what's the world out there look like, feel like? Must be more comforting than where I was sitting right now. That's my thoughts on a typical working day. The mundane routine of working is leaving my dry. Maybe a little excitement along the way is what I need. 

Sometimes, I wish I could just leave everything behind and explore what's the world has to offer for me out there. I want to be carefree, I want to take risk, I want experience life. I'm at my prime time to do what I've put in my bucket list now. Clock is ticking and time is passing, but I'm nowhere near ticking off anything from my bucket list.

I don't want to waking up in regret one morning for the things that I didn't do. I had a conversation with my bestie about growing up. It was a pretty scary realization. You are becoming an adult, parents are growing old and your kids siblings are no longer kids. What have you done all this time? What have you achieved? Are you where you're imagined yourself to be years ago?

I myself can't seem to find the answer for those questions. Maybe there are no answer at all, after all you decide your own path in life. It is a never ending self conflict, I guess. You want things go your way but you don't want to work for it. You plan your day, things goes wrong and you get upset. Being upset is your choice, more often that not, we overuse the term "look at the bright side" without actually apply it in our daily life.

Maybe, just maybe all we need is someone to tell us it is okay to screw up. A little comfort like this goes a long way.

I'm not making sense, am I? Just like life, it doesn't have to make sense.

Vistana Hotel

So, this is way backdated but never mind. Since I'm not going anywhere this month, I figure I'll write about my trip to KL last July. I was there for a training program which by far is my favorite program ever. This time I was arranged to stay at Vistana Hotel at Titiwangsa. 

When I first read the email about the accommodation, I was hoping for something nearby Starhill but heck, I was located at the middle of nowhere. The area is not familiar and I had no idea where it is. But the hotel itself made it up for the location.

Pardon my shopping bag, I was just getting some basics from Cotton On soon after I touched down. I got a king size bed all for myself. 

The room was clean and that's a must in my travel list. But the awkward part is when I need to iron my clothes, I had to call housekeeping because they provide none in the room. That's not the worst part though. The worst part is I was only given one hour to use the old school iron before the housekeeper took it back.


My hotel is really in the middle of nowhere. There's no mall, no 7-11 that I noticed nearby, no McD, no KFC. So, I was only left with hotel food. Because I refused to go out at night. According to my cab driver, the area that I stayed at is black area where snatch thief incidents happened almost daily. That why I locked myself in my room after training.

Hotel food was my only choice left. The fish and chip was a bit bland actually. Even the breakfast buffet was disappointing. I tend to wake up late and went down to breakfast around 7.15am but their food were mostly gone and they didn't refill. Why?? Seats were limited and service was slow too. :(

In the end, I settled for Maggie two nights in a row

My haul

Can you believe I bought it all in less than 3 hours? Because I had to check-in at my hotel before 7pm and I touched down at KLIA at 1.30pm, my time to loiter around was limited. I reached KL Sentral almost at 2.45pm, packed my luggage into the rented locker there and hopped into monorail nearby to go Bukit Bintang. Speed shopping in 2 hours, got back to KL Sentral and hailed a cab to go to Titiwangsa. Sometimes, I'm really impress with myself.

To do Master or not?

It's been awhile since I really pour my thought into this space of mine. I was having writer block and been kept busy for good since August. Too many things had happened in the past month till I get lazy to capture the memory in this space. For once, I decided to just live in the moment, enjoying it while it last rather than busy transferring my pictures to my laptop and drafting a post about my day late at night. I've picked cuddling over writing hehehe


Recently I just got back from Kuching for rather short but sweet work trip. Since I had a few hours to loiter around before heading to airport, I stopped by my uni. The last time I was there was a year ago for my graduation.

Most of my friends are doing their Master now and during my visit, they were taking part in a conference. Coincident much, I came by during lunch time. Thick-skinned me joined the rest of the participants and lecturers for their lunch buffet.

The very same hall where I got my graduation hall last year

I met most of my lecturers at the buffet, it's good to know that they still doing great though all of them were shocked that I completely work in a different field from my study. My thesis supervisor even trying to talk me into doing Master.

I never give Master much thought, to be honest. I was super excited after graduation and couldn't wait to kick start my career. I guess at the moment, money and career are my priority, I think I had have enough of sampling, collecting data and writing article. It was a great experience and I already published my research into article. That's one achievement off my list.

I have so much more to tick off my list but not Master now. Maybe someday in the future, who knows? To my friends whom doing their Master now, good luck and do your best, guys. Be one of the awesome researchers, alright? :)

Because food can cheer me up

So, it’s September already huh? Just a quarter of 2012 left. Time is passing by so freaking fast that I couldn’t even cope with it. I started to feel a little bit emotional lately.

Don’t ask please.

But I refuse to be all negative and emotional because I want to treasure the moments left instead of wallowing.

I was in bad PMS few weeks ago and felt super depressed for no reason at all. Come to think of it, I think it was because I felt trapped. Trap in my own mundane routine. On Monday, I was anticipating Friday and on Sunday, I was dreading Monday. Another valid reason for all the emo-ness and irritating-ness that I found for myself is I have no travelling to anywhere at all last month. I was trapped in Sibu for 31 days. No wonder.

August is the month that I liked the most when I checked the calendar. Mostly because Hari Raya and Independence Day fell in August which means lots of public holidays and long weekends. Bf and I was planning a little getaway to somewhere near but whenever holiday near, he fell sick.

First time we were like okay, never mind, still got Independence Day weekend, still can go. Then, the day neared, he fell sick again. FHL. In the end, we decided to just stay in town and make do with whatever we can, find some entertainments and call it a day.

Since Sibu is relatively a small place, the only thing that we can do is eat, eat and eat. We even googled up any activities that can be done in Sibu and all that we found are places to eat and food recommendations.

Good news is I have a happy tummy. Bad news is I had been slacking off in working out. Bad combination I have here.

Dinner that he prepared for me one night. 

Baba & Siam beef bolognaise, always a favorite of mine.

Baba & Siam cincalok rice.

Anson's mix (Beef + lamb +chicken) 

The portion for this mix is big enough to feed two people and it is super cheap (RM12.90 only). Every time we went to Anson for dinner, I always shared this with him because it is impossible for me to finish it all by myself. The food is amazing there but the waiting time for table can be quite long because it is packed every time we went.

Anson's chicken salad. Taste really good.

Tomyam fish mee

Apparently this is a very famous tomyam fish mee in Sibu. People have to queue up to get their order, just like the food court style except that this is at coffee shop. I woke up early on Saturday morning just to have this. Was it worth it? Well, the tomyam is good but I couldn't finish the mee tho.

I now can have Sushi King at Sibu

Actually our getaway plan was involving sushi from Sushi King but too bad we had to cancel our plan. I was quite upset actually because I was craving for good sushi and the nearest that I can get is Sushi King from Bintulu. Remember that my dad actually brought us for a day trip to Bintulu just for the sushi last year. The bf is so sweet that he made sure I get what I want. <3 p="p">

I fell sick when taking care of the sick so porridge was all I've eaten while sick

I think my comfort food is porridge. A plain porridge with side orders, not like the one that I've eaten when I was sick as shown above. Few days ago, we went to an old coffee shop just to have the porridge. But what makes it taste so good is the side orders. We have pork internal organs (猪什), kangkung belacan along with 皮蛋 (telur padi). A simple but very satisfying dish till we had another serving of the porridge.

My  Our attempt to cook dinner

I think it's official that I can't really cook. I even had to ask my dad to marinate the prawn for me. Then the bf fried it and the eggs also. I only prepared the soup and eggplant. Turned out my soup was a bit too salty. Even a simple soup like that I also screwed it up. Bf was complaining to my mom that I can't cook and my whole family laughed. Fml. 

Guess what is this?!

I never thought that I would say this but I've eaten biawak  (四脚蛇) !!

I don't eat exotic animals because I just couldn't bring myself to. But I tried this biawak because the bf mom prepared it for us. I just had one piece of the meat and it taste like chicken. When I chewed it, the image of the biawak kept popping into my head. 

I still can't believe that I've eaten a reptile that crawl on the ground. A reptile!

A picture of me with only one side of eyelashes to end the post.

Singapore part 3 : Sentosa

Outfit of the day for day 3

We went again to Sentosa the next day because we haven't explore the beach and other adventure rides there. This time around, we bought all of the rides ticket beforehand and we went to every one of them except the go-kart because I think it was too hot.

Because we were so eager to go on all the rides before the dolphin show at Underwater world, we skipped breakfast and lunch altogether. In the end, I escaped to Starbucks to get some drink and mixed fruits to fill the stomach.

My brunch

After all the extreme 4D rides, I was so hungry that when we visit the Aquarium at the Underworld, all that I could think about were how great those fish and crabs taste would be if they were my lunch. My mind was filled with images and taste of seafood. So sorry guys.

Bought nuggets and fries for the dolphin show because fruits was not enough

I love the fur seal. Her name is Brenda

I got a little bit pissed with the tourists from India. They were so rude and selfish but yet so kind to their own people. There was once I was lining up at the counter to pay for my drink  Suddenly there's black figure cutting my line and totally blocked me. Fuck. He was a middle age man and twice my size. Can't he just waited for his turn? He's right after me at the line. 

Then at the dolphin show, they kept squeezing to our spaces. When the show needed volunteer for game, some of them were waving frantically, some even stood up and walked to the emcee without being called. My God, these people.

Done with the show, we strolled to the beach area. The weather was great and perfect.

We stopped at an Italian cafe, Trapizza by the beach for early dinner. 

Full and happy after dinner, we took a taxi to Vivo city for some shopping before went back to our apartment. 

End this post with an ugly picture of me during the Sky Ride