Nasi Lemak :(

I wish I can just walk out and ta-pau nasi lemak for breakfast. How sad, I have to make my own if I want to have nasi lemak for breakfast (the problem is, I am a horrible, terrible cook). We can get nasi lemak here but only during lunch/dinner at Malaysian restaurants & food courts and they don't always taste good even with a AU$7.50 - AU$8.00 price tag per plate! Boo-hoo! Nothing beats buying nasi lemak from makcik where I can pick my dishes ... yumm ... *dreams + drools*

House Progress II

Brickworks on the left side of the house completed

Brickworks at the back of the house almost complete.

House progress

Brickworks on the right side of the house completed.

G&G Junior

I tend to get extremely lazy to blog whenever I stop for a week or two. I think it is perhaps I find myself having to repeat everything to my other close friends in emails - they don't surf the web and only use emails from work.

We had to scrap our plans to travel on our wedding anniversary when we found out that we're expecting G&G junior. It's funny how my parents, nieces, friends and cousins kept asking every year, when will we have a baby. But by the fourth and fifth year, they gave up asking and some were concerned if we had infertility issues. I guess it's rare for a couple to start a family only at their fifth year of marriage.

We had purposely taken every precaution not to have a baby until recently because we enjoyed each other's company so much and the freedom to travel and do whatever we want (a family man once told me that the reason most people need to have kids is because otherwise their marriage would be so boring - I find that so not true). Couple that with the fact that none of our immediate families live in Sydney - as we all know, if we're in trouble, family members are the ones who will be there for you at any time of the day.

Well, long story cut short, we thank the Lord for blessing us with this baby. G&G junior is 12 weeks old. We were ecstatic seeing it on ultrasound two days ago. The little heart beat, the little hands, feet and body - the joy only parents would know.

Fortunately holding a newborn, changing nappies, making milk, feeding toddlers, lullabies will not be a whole new experience for me. Not that I was a nurse, I wish I was, for I have great respect for nurses and I think that is such a noble profession ... meagre wage and hard work!

My mom used to babysit and I had the privilege to help out with everything since I was 8 years old until late teens (yes, including wiping poo poo off babies' bums). Once my best friend challenged me to fold a nappy as she didn't believe I had folded nappies thousands of times in my life (she was a first time mom at the time and had only learned how to fold a nappy with the birth of her son at age 27). Thanks for doubting me, best friend, hehe.

But alas, those experiences will never be the same as caring for my own little precious baby and I truly look forward to it. For Kiwi G, it will be his first time ever, caring and living with a newborn.

Well, like all first time parents, we are just so happy to be able to sow the seed of our love. We are really thankful for that. We just hope that we'll be able to carry this pregnancy to full term without complications and welcome G&G junior into the world in June 2006.

Happy 5th Wed Anni

Happy 5th Wedding Anniversary
to my best friend, my boyfriend, my lover, my soul mate, my bedmate (haha), my darling hubby

Electrical System

We've almost finalised the electrical system for our home - the usual upgrading of single power points to double, extra light points, security sensor light unit, bathroom heat lights, etc. We've decided to have ducted air cond throughout the house and ducted vacuum system. We figured having ducted air cond is more cost effective than having separate units of split air system installed in each room. We're also getting wiring done for surround sound system - Kiwi G truly deserves it, to be able to enjoy watching his Sci-Fi DVDs with more oomph (it's a guy thing). Now, these are all pretty standard options that people go for, in a new home. We're not doing anything out of the ordinary. But of course, unfortunately it costs a bomb - you wouldn't want to know.

Cheap Domain Names

Until Oct 31, Yahoo is offering an incredibly low USD2.99/year up to USD14.95 for a total of 5 years domain names. Dirt cheap!

Emails

*Headache* I am such a lazy bum, never got around to completely clear my Inbox. These 412 emails were accumulated over the past few months. Wish I am rich enough to employ someone to attend to email enquiries so I can concentrate on other stuff. I hope by talking about this here, I might push myself to clear at least half of them.

Chiffon roses

My artificial chiffon roses arrived yesterday

I used to preserve all rose bouquets and other flowers Kiwi G gave me over the years but had to throw most of them away after a long time. The last of the bouquet I have is pictured here ... this bouquet must be at least 3 years old. I have requested Kiwi G not to buy me bouquets anymore as they are very expensive and I get sad when I had to throw them away. So I told him that if he really wanna buy me flowers still, he can just buy a cheap bouquet that's priced AU$15 and below (crazy wife, huh?). Anyway, below are pics of the preserved real roses & the new artificial flowers I just bought - whole new bunch for only AU$12

Lights & Chocs

Bought 14 oyster lights off eBay a fortnight ago. Am pleased with the purchase, the lights are in excellent condition, the seller even threw in the fluorescent light bulbs for free. I paid only AU$4.30 each (oyster shell + light bulbs) - what a steal! A new oyster light without bulbs would cost at least AU$20 and a new light bulb itself costs AU$8.

Here are photos of the chocolates I bought Kiwi G for his b'day last month
He finished the boxed chocs in record time but the monkey choc is still in the fridge
He says it is too precious to be eaten

Land

Went to inspect the land last evening. First sign of work done ... levelled and filled the land with additional 100 tonnes of soil. The next step is the concrete work.

Dealing with the builder prior to everything almost gave us high blood pressure (but then again, people we know, experienced the same thing with other more reputable builders ... so perhaps it's the norm).

We've got an appointment with the electricians in a fortnight ... that'll incur another few grands to do additional power points and wiring.

We have yet to find a contractor for our floorings ... we still have about 3-4 months to do that as the floorings can only be done after the house handover (note, most new houses here do not come with marble or parquet floorings yeah, except cement floors).

From now on, our money only goes one way - OUT. Nevertheless, we're very excited. Having been renting for almost 5 years now (I hate living in apartments although I must say the current apartment we live in is superb with first class security and caretaker - I'll talk more about this apartment and show piccies later), I can't wait to have a little nest we can finally call home ... our very own home where we can have a cute doggie (you've to obtain permission from the landlord and the building committee if you intend to keep a dog or cat in most newish apartments), hang pictures on the wall (have to obtain landlord's permission to put nails on the wall) and our own backyard for sunbaking & BBQ!

My eye candies

I used to collect Me to You, Forever Friends (FF) teddies and Precious Moments (PM) figurines in the past few years but decided to stop as I didn't have room for them and it's a rather pricey obsession too. These are my precious eye candies. Looking at them makes me extremely happy and go awwwwww.

Most of these teddies were gifts from Kiwi G, the rest were given by friends
Though I still have some cute FF bears not pictured here (these are old photos).
I don't recall seeing original FF bears being sold in KL but they're everywhere here in Sydney, a myriad of variety too.

Right now, these poor bears are kept in a big box on the shelf.
Can't wait to free them and let them live in my new bedroom next year - Kiwi G will have to get used to the audience, haha

My super soft fluffy bears



A few of my PM figurines

I also love small artificial flowers in a basket (especially daisies). I've ordered some chiffon roses. Will post a pic when they arrive.

New layout

My itchy hands decided to change the layout a bit again. Added stone age photos to the header and footer.

Thin walls

Weekends flew past too quickly! Last Saturday, I got wokened up at about 8.00am by Kiwi G just to prove to me that he wasn't hearing things a few weeks ago - he heard some wall or floor banging followed by "some bedroom noises* ahem ... you know what I mean. I doubted him as I thought it was quite impossible to hear such a thing behind brick walls. So I told him to wake me up if he hears it again next time, haha! True enough, last Saturday was an ear opener for me! I tell you, it was LOUD! First, I heard banging noises to our bedroom wall which wasn't the first time, I thought the neighbours were doing DIY works on their unit again. Then it was followed by ... *xxx* noises! I couldn't believe my ears! I could hear it through the walls! It was annoying because we also heard it at night while we were watching TV in our bedroom!! I wonder what kind of bricks this apartment block is made of! Someone told me that he finds Meriton apartments have thin walls and I think having lived in one for 2 years now, I can testify to that as I could sometimes hear the neighbours talk while I am in the study room, very annoying!! Sometimes in our ensuite, I could hear *shi shi* ("O-liu") sound as well! So, remember to enquire about the walls if you intend to buy an apartment built by Meriton, yeah?

A success story

Every now and then I would type in my ex-school mates' names in Google out of curiosity. Two days ago, I found an article from The Star dated Nov 2004 about one of my ex-school mate's new clothing line launch. Let me tell you a little bit about her.

She was known as "Sun Poh" (Godly Woman) in secondary school because she was a disciplined Christian girl. We all looked up to her as a role model. She used to write me notes of encouragement and handed them to me at school, of which I would reply with gratitude. She was also known to dress very modestly (well to be honest, at that time, we thought her dressing was a bit outdated and too old fashioned) and was the super "gwai lui" (good girl/mommy's girl) compared to the rest of us. After finishing secondary school, she worked at a bank while taking up some banking courses.

Somewhere down the road, she became interested in fashion and started selling women's clothing (mainly working attire and quality casuals) privately at friends' homes by word of mouth. Through her contacts in the fashion industry, she landed a supervisory job for a new local fashion line in Sungei Wang. In no time, she was promoted to a Manager. I didn't see her for a few years after that. So one day when I met her at church, man, was I surprised by her change in appearance and dressing - puts us all to shame, haha. From a humble, modest, old fashioned girl to the most up todate, sexy and beautiful model-like lady!

Things continued to get better for her. Last I heard, she was still attending church regularly, has 3 beautiful daughters and a loving husband. She is now the General Manager of the same fashion company which has expanded to 5 outlets in KL (Mid Valley Megamall, Sungei Wang Plaza, 1 Utama Shopping Centre, Sunway Pyramid, Cheras Leisure Mall) and 1 in JB (City Square).

We all thought she would serve full time in the Christian ministry ... but little did we know how things took a surprising turn. Hard to believe she was once nicknamed "Sun Poh"!

Some people have all the luck you say? I think in her case, it was sheer hardwork and determination. Coming from a single parent family (wonderful mother she has) and being the eldest, she sacrificed higher education (she could have easily made it to uni) to ease her mom's burden of supporting the family. How many people would be willing to quit a 9-5 stable bank job to go sell clothes in private homes? She truly deserves every bit of success she has today.

My only hope if I get to meet her again someday, is that she remains her modest and sweet self on the inside ... and perhaps ask one VERY IMPORTANT question ... "Can gimme discount on your clothes or not ah?" hahaha.

There are of course other stories of ex-schoolmates who turned completely nasty and changed from Ms Sweet to Ms Witch but I don't think I will talk about them now.

Summary

Celebrated Kiwi G's b'day last week, I think I managed to give him a few surprises, sneaky me! Bought him a Chocolate Monkey, haha (piccy later).

Went Yum Cha last Sunday (I wonder why it is called "yum cha" here and not "eat dim sum") at a restaurant called "Taxim" near our place. Reached there at 10.30am and waited till 12.00 noon for our favourites to appear ie "ham sui kok" and "lobak kou". In between we had the usual buns, siew mai, mango custard, etc just to kill time. Man, we were stuffed for the rest of the day! The prices starts from AU$4.00 per plate of anything. The two of us ate about AU$35-AU$40 worth - I know, pigs eh!

Watched Charlie & The Chocolate Factory too. I think watching the original on TV, two days prior might have spoiled it for me :P

Ewww

Beauty takes a deadly turn
September 14, 2005
Source: Sydney Morning Herald

London: A Chinese cosmetics company is using skin harvested from the corpses of executed convicts to develop beauty products for sale in Europe, an investigation has discovered. Click here for link to full story


Gross.

Model Doggy

Photos of Lilo, my bro's Basset Hound doing the catwalk *LOL*some time last year at Mid Valley. We finally have a *model* in the family hahaha

Lilo (right) relaxing at home with fellow good buddy, Bobby (left) after a hard day's work.

Cute Puppies

I am so in love with cute puppies! Just looking at their photos makes me so happy. I particularly like small breeds such as:

Maltese (click to view photos from puppy.com.my forum)

Shih Tzu (click to view photos from puppy.com.my forum)

However, we will most likely get a Maltese x Shih Tzu cross breed some time next year. I want so many things next year, I can't wait, I feel so greedy.

I will show some photos of my brother's supermodel Basset Hound ie the "Hush Puppy" type dog back in KL doing the runway in Mid Valley megamall, some other day (have to dig through my DVDs).

Spring has Sprung

Spring has sprung from Sept 1st. My favourite season, warmer temps and lovely flowers. The funny thing I learned about flowers is that they can be tricked into thinking it is spring season and blossoms even in the middle of winter when the temp is just right. When winter temp returns to normal on the next day, the flowers go back to playing half dead again, haha, too cute. I just can't wait to have my own garden.