Back to blogging

Today, I was reminded about w a t e r l i l y. I had lunch with Ron and he asked why there are no new updates in my blog. Secretly, I was pleased that he asked. I didn't realise that people actually stop by this URL to read, maybe because my writings are mostly about what I've been up to and little about how I feel about issues/ debates of life. I am certainly honoured that my friends still find my blog worth reading :P To be frank, I've been spending most of my 'free time allocated to be online' exploring the new craze in town, Facebook. I'm getting pretty bored of the quizzes, present giving and fluff friends races (they are certainly corny yet I choose to do it for some odd reasons) but always looking forward to finding/ being found by long lost friends (definitely a super duper plus point for me as I'm lousy in keeping in touch). Definitely one of the most effective way to catch up from where we last met. Other than Facebook-ing, I've been pretty occupied with last minute wedding arrangements (been praying that it all falls in place hehe) and trying to take good care of myself. All arrangements has been made, now to plan the agenda and sort out the hotel preparations. Quite a headache-from the day we made our bookings, 3 banquet sales managers resigned, the 3rd one we knew only yesterday. Lets see how it goes when I see her and her snr manager tomorrow....wish me luck! *wink*

Me and the Gold Crocs

I surprised myself by buying a pair of Mary Janes from Crocs. Although it made me look big footed, it's a good buy - extremely comfy! D and I went to the shop at Ikano on Friday (or was it Thursday...hmm) to get my mom new straps for her MJ. Both the front and back strap of her right MJ were bitten off by her friend's cat (lesson learned: keep your crocs away from cats and dogs!). She was heartbroken - she loves her sandals to bits. When her friend called the next day to apologise and offered to buy her a new pair, she casually said, 'Aiya don't need la it's an old pair' (yeah right!). My mom is just too nice :) The shop only sells the back strap for the 'cayman' model. My mom is now the first person I know who wears the MJ model with the 'cayman' backstrap (it's strong enough to secure her feet- she don't need the front straps). Ok basically, I went to the shop with the objective to get her the straps. D got me to try out the the gold MJ and somehow convinced me to get it. Oh well, why not since he complains I slip way too often with my worn off wooden scholl :P

Moon Cake

Here are pictures of Colin with his airplane lantern (a gift from Gong Gong), taken during the mooncake party yesterday. He joined the other contestants on stage for the 'home made' lantern competition- they didn't seem to mind him interrupting heee.

The management and committee members of my residential area did a fantastic job in organising the event. They managed to gather sponsors (Maxis, HSBC, Focus Point) to donate prizes- ranging from hampers to 29 inch flat screen TV! Most of the residents stayed up till 12 midnight to wait for the big lucky draw (which includes myself...ok i went back at 11:30pm while my dad waited on cause I was restless heee).

It was all worth waiting! We won a multi-purpose blender and a hamper from the lucky draw! Am proudly posting it up on the blog cause it's very rare we win something :P

Facebook

It's a fabulous way to keep in touch with old friends :) Ever since I've joined (thanks ML for sending me an invitation), I've been added as a friend by people I've lost contact with and whom I've always wish to get back in touch with. Last Friday, my friend, Ching Li (I've not seen her since Primary School!) added me in her Facebook! Facebook is full of surprises, I do recommend you to join!

ASW2020

Did you manage to buy any? The sale started yesterday, and today I decided to try my luck (for the 3rd time) to at least open an account. History repeats itself- after waiting 1.5 hours in the queue (did I mention 2 elder women cut into my line...ish..worst part is they nag and complain so much- it's irritating..), I was the first person who didn't get through- non-bumi allocation sold out! The day started with 16 million unit. When reached my turn it was 4 million units left. Based on rough estimation (approximately 3.9 million units sold within 30 minutes), I might pass GO and receive my passbook IF my account is opened within 30 minutes. 4 million sold out within 10 minutes. Haihz, just not my day...

Graduation Dinner Pics

Didn't manage to take very nice pictures- most pictures taken are dark or blur....blame the errm...lightings? Ok, my photography skills ;P Enjoy viewing & have a beautiful weekend..

The woman behind my thesis....thanks for chasing me to meet the datelines!Definitely one of the nicest person I've known.....

Smart bunch of friends....

More of them.....

Graduation Day

I got up as early as 6:15 am to take my shower, get dressed and ate 2 eggies for breakfast. D picked me up at 6:30 am, we got caught in a slight jam at the BU bridge but managed to reach on scheduled (7:15am). PW and E helped me to get into my robe (me clueless as usual), then we head to Level 1 of the Examination Building to get into our Q. As usual, I'm the last few as I have 'Y' as my surname. After the short briefing, we made our way into the Grand Chancellor Hall. It was crowded...hmm I wonder if you can spot me :P

The ceremony started at 9:00 am SHARP. I'm glad the Pro-Chancellor, Raja Muda of Perak, Raja Dr Nazrin Shah was presenting the certificates, not only because he's good looking and charismatic (which is a plus point) but he's one of those well respected Malaysian Monarchy with a PHD from Harvard. In total, 890 certificates (Masters students from 9 Faculties) were awarded within 2 hours. Very efficient and organised, with the 'touch card' device (we each have a card with pre-recordings of our names) and 6 staff helping us along (each with specific task e.g. pre-test of the card, doing the final adjustments on our robes, telling us when to walk and when to stand still). When I was on stage, for a split second I thought I was in some royal ceremony, almost forgeting I was there to receive my cert haha (yes, I can be so lame sometimes). The stage was yellow, with royal seats and Msian state flags as deco........

Of course, as I've mentioned numerous times before, I wouldn't be here today wearing this mortar board (for the 2nd time...) if my life is not filled with these wonderful people...

My parents and D...

(Lillies, a nice surprise from D who managed to join us for a quick photoshoot....)

Friends......who made evening classes bearable.....and are now my good friends




I take off my hat to you guys!

Nice Surprise

Been quite a depressing week for me (wind in my tummy plus some emotional disturbing news)-even buying our dream sofa at Lorenzo couldn't cheer me up. Yesterday, I received a call from an ex-MBA uni mate (she graduated last year) at my office phone. She wished me congratulations and gave some advice on what to expect when I walk up the stage this Wednesday. So sweet of her, I hardly know her yet she took the time to call me. Today, we received a congratulations email from her with a cookie picture. So cute, instantly put a smile on my face :) Its great to know that everyone is making initiative to keep in contact and to meet up as often as we can. Really appreciate the KLCC lunch appointments and outing arrangements, think I'm going to stop shying away and join them more often. It's going to be great.

Books you don't want to read

Both of my vacation books were sucky :( I was trilled to find 'The Place Called Here' at the resort library (I became a huge fan of Cecelia Ahern after reading PS I love You and If You Could See Me Now) but it was terribly dissappointing! I finished reading the book in a day- practically flipping the pages after 2/3 of the book. I bought 'Still Thinking of You' for the trip, as I was happy with the other Adele Parks's novel I read a few weeks back. 'Still Thinking of You' is so unrealistic- too much drama between friends and lovers. The characters are good friends back in high school. Got together for a 5 days SKI trip and to withness the marriage of Rich and Tash. In the story plot, there's the revengeful ex gf (one of the guy's lil sis who tagged along coz she recently broke up with her bf, who so happened to be Rich), super high flyer friend who was sack for insider trading and has not guts to tell his wife, Mia who is desperate to get pregnant and planned a scheme to be impregnant by her good friend cum ex bf....I think I've made my point :P Adele Parks is way to ambitious this round.

p.s. I've checked the comments for both books in amazon.co.uk, both has 3.5 stars rating. I think they deserve a 1 star (ok, 2 stars). Then again, the ratings can't really be trusted, since most books are 3.5 stars...hmm!

p.s.s I'll blog about my trip to PLR soon...once i've gotten hold of the pictures ;P

The weekend passed in a flash!

I'm totally exhausted! Just managed to take a long warm shower (with a good scrub down- you'll know why later) and am waiting for my hair to dry while blogging :) Friday evening, I left work on the dot, had my 2 hours facial and quick dinner with D at the Black Canyon (had interesting fusilli cooked with seafood and chillis). Saturday morning, had v. yummy nasi lemak then went to the hardware shop with D, F-FIL and F-MIL to buy paint for the place. Settled for ICI Dulux Pearl Glo, Lily White for the hall. Yup, we decided to paint the condo by ourselves! Got the other necessary stuff, then head to the condo to clean up, check what need to be done up plus count the lighting points. Rushed home, took shower then drove to Bridal Hse to choose our wedding pics (too lazy to blog about our picture taking experience..maybe some other time heee). Our appointment was at 2pm, we reached at 3pm (got stuck in a bad traffic jam in KL, due to road diversion) and we chose our pictures till 7pm (including time off in between to eat lunch)! Definitely much more tiring than choosing the gowns! We had so many things to decide- not only the pictures we want in our album, but also the look and feel of the album, picture placing design, which pictures to put on 10R frames, type of frames, which to print out as chee mui pictures and other stuff that I can't recall now. Lucky F-MIL tagged along- I was numb after 2 hours, she was there to alert me of my wrong decisions :P The picture choosing was fast for us. We spent most of our time in choosing the Family Shots and which 3 pictures to put on the big frame. YES, I'm so relieved that it's over. After all that, we rushed home to take shower and dress up for Per & Jien's wedding in Ti-Chen, Saujana Subang. Nice ambience to have a small wedding. As the wedding is small, our terribly late 'grand' entrance was v. obvious! My friends were surprised cause I'm usually not late for weddings, oh well, unforseen circumstances haihz. Saw D's aunt and uncle at the wedding too, small world. Got home at 10.30pm, took a quick shower, collapsed on the bed and snored immediately. Woke up at 8:30 am on Sunday, dragged myself up for breakfast and paint session. On our way, we stopped by (ok, not really on the way) the mitsubishi showroom to check out the new Lancer. Pretty cool car. Took quite some time to drag D and F-FIL out of the showroom and get them focused on our agenda :P We managed to start painting and finished the walls in the hall (yippie, it looks so cozy now) with a lot of help from F-FIL and Seri. Got my good pair of shorts covered with paint hee. In between, D and I went out to pick up my cousin, WP from the LRT Station (she couldn't get a ticket back to Kuantan, the poor girl had to hang out in the condo while we finish our paint job...thks for being so patient, WP. Lucky she had her Harry Porter book to read). Cleaned up the mess, then rushed to the airport to pick up my parents. Went for dinner, got home and chit chat with my parents, then shower...ahh....my hair is almost dried now, think i'll hit the sack, nitey nite...zzz...

p/s Gosh just realised I've not blogged about Colin's bday party, will do that soon...

I'm graduating...again!! hee hee

Just read my email, I've officially graduated! wooohoo! The convo is on 5 Sept. The feeling is simply overwhelming..and much much more satisfying than getting my degree. Probably because there's more personal sacrifices involved, like attending evening classes (3 weekdays) instead of sitting at home relaxing and watching telly/ read my book, no happy hour drinks on Fridays (gosh, I can still hear your complains...hehe), dragging myself to uni on weekends for group assignments...and paying for the course fees myself :P It really helps to have very understanding people around me- my parents of course (they practically schedule their activities following my timetable), friends who r never tired of listening to me grumble (haha...I like to believe that :P) and of course my motivator, D. It's simply great, and I truely recommend studying part-time to those who are up for the challenge. Sure, there's a lot of work and sacrifices u have to make to attend night classes- but all is worth it at the end (yeah I can say that right now...haha).

who lives in a pineapple under the sea....

Yes! Mc Donalds is selling spongebob plush toys!!! Am getting my piece tonight....ngek ngek ngek! :P Tomorrow is the last day to buy starry eyes spongebob- the sale of tissue box sponge bob starts on 2 Aug......
I'm Lovin it...lalala....

Tonnes of Gowns

Finally selected all my wedding gowns yesterday! Yoohoo...I was so relieved cause it only took us 2 hours :) Thanks to my sis- she is a true personal shopper! Cat, the lady at the bridal shop commented that my sis knows what fits me and she sure knows my taste. Have to admit, it's difficult to choose gowns for someone as conservative, simple yet fussy like me. Haha. During the fitting, there was another 'bride to be' trying out gowns. She arrived way earlier than me, but we left before her. I think she tried almost all the dresses (including some of mine). Really pity her cause it's very tiring- some of the gowns are heavy :( D got me to try some really tacky ones just for the heck of it (isshh), made me look like some christmas tree ornament! I managed to choose 2 white wedding gowns, 2 evening gowns and a kuah for the photoshoot. The ones I'll be wearing on the actual wedding day is light and comfy (easy to hop and jump around with heee). I really like the kuah...it fits me well (lucky me). My pre-wedding photoshoot will be next week. If u r wondering what's the rush, well when I told Cat that I'll be going to Pangkor Laut at mid August, she freaked out! She insisted I take the pictures before the trip so I won't have uneven skin tone (from tanning). Well, I guess its good in some sense, the faster the better, less things to worry about :P Now to pray for good weather....

Playground

Every evening, Colin waits patiently by the window for Gong Gong to return home from work- so he can take Colin to the playground! I managed to tag along last Friday and took some shots. Colin loves the slide and sea saw.....ma ma is always by his side making sure he doesn't hurt himself :P

Colin's birthday is around the corner, my sis is planning a birthday party for him, do check out my blog for the coverage :P

Weekend Book

First glance of the cover- sexy tanned legs with 'husbands (is one ever enough?) as the title, I thought the storyline is going to be similar to Jackie Collin's. This book is about Bigamy, but far from having slutty characters (ok, women). Two women, best of friends, Bella- married to Philip, a rich and established analyst who gives her the world, love and security, Laura- divorced with a kid and fell in love with Stevie, a music teachers who moonlights as a Elvis impersonator. It started to rain in paradise when Laura introduced the new man in her life (Stevie) to Bella...worst, Laura insisted that Bella and Philip joined them on an all expenses paid trip to Vegas (Stevie was one of the finalist, hoping to be crowned as Europe's King of Elvis impersonator). Bella plans never to reveal her secret (Philip does not know that part of her life and that they are technically not married)..she struggles to bury it deep underground...but found herself struggling with love....


It's a good book to read if you love chit lits/ want to read into the minds of people who tries very hard to bury their past to build a new start

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Work Bullies

There's a lot of talk about school bullies, big boys stealing candies from 4 eyes boys half their size. Little is discussed openly about work bullies. A friend sent me a very good article from BNET- Nipping Workplace Bullying in the Bud. I'm sure most of us encounter bullies at our workplace (whether we are the victim, the outsider watching the act or bullies ourselves). I did, and still do. People bitch about it- at the end of the day, we all live with it. It's sad that bullying is often considered as a 'personal issue' and that many employers feel uncomfortable dealing with it or even discuss about the matter. Here's some things I've gathered from the article, hope it helps us all to be cautious at work.....and for bullies to repent?

1) Why do ppl bully others?
- a feeling of competence in handling his or her own job
- a feeling of having missed out on a promotion
- a feeling that a highly competent and popular collegue might be a treat to his or her position
- a personality clash with a collegue
- a personal problem at home that make the individual feel insecure and inadequate

2) What are acts of bullying?
- spreading malicious rumour
- ridiculing or demeaning someone
- excluding ppl
- micromanaging or overbearing supervision
- unwelcome sexual advances
- making treats
- persistent criticism
- withholding information
- removing responsibilities
- overloading with work

3) How do I detect a bully?
According to the article, bullies have the following characteristics....
- changeable personality- someone who is viciously outspoken in private conversations but is always innocent and charming in front of senior management
- someone who is excessively charming, complimentary, and superficial when in front of the "audience"
- someone who holds prejudicial views and makes regular, inappropriate jokes about issues relating to sex, race,...
- someone who is very controlling of his or her team, display "perfectionist" tendencies and quick to criticise others rather than acknowledging or praising their efforts
- someone who is impatient and irritable when called upon to deal with personal issues or concern of team member
- someone who is called to account for an error, missed deadline or mistake, immediately counter-attacks with lies, criticism and allegations. Bullies often respond to critiscm by appearing very distressed and claiming to be victims themselves, to avoid accountability for their actions

More than meets the eye

I love the movie!!! D and I missed the first 15 minutes of the movie cause we were at the wrong cinema (we had tickets for Cineleisure, not GSC One Utama- ish). Never again, I hope- it's not the first time for me *sigh* Initially I was dissappointed that Bumble Bee was not a Volks, then again, I'm satisfied that they didn't modify him much, he still has that round robotic face- which makes him look cute :P I like Optimus Prime's new look- funky truck. Still think that Megatron's new look is too complicated. After the movie, we spotted The Simpson's family. Jensen's a big big fan of Homer- so we took a picture of him and D...picture is pretty grain-ny, taken with my hp....

In Memory of Pei Sze

It's been one year- to be exact. Often during my quiet times, I would think and wonder about you. I would picture you as your usual bubbly self- recall the meaningful words you've shared with me...and your journey and courage in fighting for your life and happiness.

There's no words strong even to express how lucky I am to have such a wonderful, pleasant and true friend like you. We all missed you dearly.....

Cute Doll Biscuits

One's a Ram, and the other's a Doggie! D bought it from Ipoh yesterday...on his way back from Penang, reaallyyy cute eh?

Girls Day Out

It was a beautiful Saturday morning. Woke up early, did my laundry then drove over to Kel's place to meet up with the girls. Kel arranged a Spa Session and lunch (@ RM38 per person) for the 6 of us at Rustic Nirvana. A bargain we couldn't resist :P All 3 of us (Kel, WL, Me) hopped into YM's spacious Avanza (woman, thanks for driving us down) and head to Jln Imbi. We were greeted with ginger tea, egg tarts and seremban siew pow (the tarts were yummmie). The session started off with the beauty talk, presented by the founder herself. Rather interesting (but long- an hour plus)- didn't realise that chicken curry spices with veg oil makes good body scrub! The spa was faaabulousss (although we had to put on a poker face each time the consultant asked how was thee massaaggeee...) It started off with 10 minutes dip in warm jacuzzi (can't remember what it's called- follows the jap steam bath concept). Then the chopstick massageee which was nice but hurts when she keeps adding pressure on those spots that I told her was REALLY painful. After the massage, I was placed in a black bag with a bunch of jamu herbs- to detox my body. Was nice and warm- I think i dozed off a little......All in all, was reaaally relaxing.....

We signed up the package and shared among ourselves. Managed to bargain for more free mask packs and a free rose quarts facial...

It was so relaxing that I doze off when I got home.....

I found the website, here's the details if anyone wishes to try out the treatments:

Go for the first trial: RM99 for the full spa session (jacuzzi bath, massage- any style of your choice and jamu detoxification wrap) and a Rose Quarts Facial.

Rustic Nirvana Jalan Imbi173 – 175A Jalan Imbi

55100 Kuala Lumpur(Beside Sakura Cafe & Cuisine)

Tel: 03-2141 9193Operating Hours:Monday - Friday : 11am to 8.30pm

Saturday & Public Holidays : 10.30 am to 7.30 pm

Closed on Sundays

Website: http://www.rusticnirvana.com/