Dancing Queen

Dry run @ the concert hall .. Niki was so excited about donning her costume and taking the bus to the concert hall .. the rehersal .. err not so much!

Niki's school concert is coming up fast..it's just a week plus away now..

And boy, do I still remember the last one .. which was (*gasp!*) a year ago..

my, my how time flies, eh?

I'm always saying that..

But it's so darn true..

Last year her class teacher said that though Niki is an excellent dancer (as excellent as a 4yo can be!) she tends to be a bit dreamy and sometimes floats off in her own thoughts .. well the ep is repeating itself again! Niki is actually a really talented dancer and if you see her floating in her tutus you will agree .. her movements are gentle and yet deliberate.. and she's got great music timing.. but like most 4yo she tends to be in her little world sometimes and may get caught up in their thoughts.. and so today I decided to drop in on her when she was practising in school .. and I saw nothing wrong, she danced really nicely..and so I told her teacher that yes perhaps she may daydream abit but which kid doesn't as I reminded her that they're a bunch of 4 yo and to cut them some slack, I guess over practicing can cause boredom as well.. I recorded her dance routine on my phone and showed it to her Daddy, and we both nodded in agreement that we shouldn't get too hot and bothered; for the simple reason that .. she's 4 .. :) and acting in a way that only kids her age know how..we should take a leson from them and not be too serious or set in our ways .. a little day dream may just be the antidote to cheer up your day!

Deepavali shopping

We're already in October, and just came out from a week long holiday .. I did alot of sleeping in, reading & watched Mamamia! And now I can't get the song out of my head .. "Mamamia .. here I go again, my, my how can I resist you! .."

Last Saturday, we went jalan-jalan to Jln Tengku Kelana or better known as Little India in the heart of Klang town. The colours, the atmosphere, and the latest Tamil top hits surrounded us as we went about looking for our Deepavali togs. I'm keeping to the Autumn/Winter 08 colours, so was looking at a lot of browns and golds and finally Vicky chose 2 really nice, sparkly Punjabi suits both in rich matte gold but of different cut and design. I've come to realize that sometimes my taste in tradisional outfits may be a bit off. After a hard day of shopping (*wink*) we found ourselves in the famous mee goreng restaurant again and of course ordered the mee goreng, the thing is the presentation of the food is definitely nil but omg like many hawker type food, it was so, so sedap *slurp*

And Niki the budding photographer was the one who took most of our photos while we browsed, and oohhh-ed and ahhh-ed at the endless rows of sarees, bangles, accessories, and yup my personal favourite .. Indian silverware. I love the Deepavali season and this year I'm gonna bake me & the fam some cookies too :) .. can't actually wait for the 27th!

Niki <3s Nick Jonas

A few weeks back I bought Niki the Camp Rock DVD and now she's officially a Jonas Brothers and Demi Lavatto fan and likes Nick Jonas the best.

Planning, planning

In the midst of getting our holiday in order, like my previous post booking in for Christmas isproving to be more challenging than I thought, since we'll be in GC for 7 nights we've decided to stay at two different hotels instead of just one, so there's Holiday Inn Surfers Paradise the sleek, contemporary one and the other the really kid-friendly Paradise Resort which Niki will love to bits. Choosing the right place to stay has taken us at least 2 weeks, and the tons of reviews we've read are buzzing in my head as well. Though the tripadvisor site is really helpful but it kinda make one quite confused at the end of the day. Anyhoo, alas our accommodations has been taken care of, now it's just planning the itinerary and getting a car to travel around with. The directions from Collangatta to the Holiday Inn seems straight forward enough so I think it's likely we'll drive ourselves from the airport to the hotel.

Thank God for the Internet, I would seriously be in trouble if I don't have access to the galore of information available there; check out this site for all you need to know about where we would be staying which is Surfers Paradise!

And for the shopaholics here's a little titbit

Insider's Shopping Tips

Surfers Paradise is the only 7-day, late night shopping district in Queensland, so venture out after dinner for a retail fix.
There are 14 shopping centres and arcades in Surfers Paradise, so make sure you put on your walking shoes/sandals whatever, explore them all and discover the hidden gems (hhhmmm.. I wonder what's in store here) in the precinct.
Surfers Paradise is an international shopping district, offering both retail and duty free shopping. If you're an international visitor (check!), you can claim a refund for the Foods and Services Tax (GST) you pay while visiting our country with the Tourist Refund Scheme (TRS). See detailed information below.
Even if you're not an international visitor, you can still indulge in that Gucci (yay!) handbag and most of the brand name delights in the Duty Free stores where selected items are also sold at a retail price. It's a handbag queen's heaven with international brand designer handbags from Coach, Louis Vuitton (double yay, I must find a companion for my LV pochette) and more, most of which are exclusive to the Surfers Paradise stores.
For that unique Surfers Paradise gift, head down to the Surfers Paradise Beachfront markets (gotta love 'em bazaars!) every Wednesday and Friday nights between 5:30pm and 10:00pm (they close a tad early yeah) , with over 100 stalls and a night time buzz that's irresistible for shoppers and browsers.

Super busy

Have been super busy lately, seiously, no time to even drink water that's how busy I was .. and I thank God that there's 2 days of public holidays coming up in conjuction with the Raya .. hellelujah!

And yeah we've been busy booking hotels for our Gold Coast holiday as well, not such an easy task coz there's hundreds of hotels and apartments available for the picking but due to the peak season almost everything's been snapped up!

Father's daughter

Niki is truly and indeed her father's daughter.

Similarities in terms of temperament & other antics are uncanny!

This morning while getting her ready for school, Niki was brushing her teeth and she right handed so obviously she holds her toothbrush on her right, right .. and she placed her left hand on the wall above her head, just like Daddy! I used to tease Vicky about the posture; coz it sure looks like he's trying to not nod off while brushing his teeth and Niki does the same thing .. It was so cute, a genetic hand me down .. just wanted to write it down here in my journal so I don't forget :)

Congrats to Khai Yik & Bee Choon

My cousin Khai Yik tied the knot last week to Bee Choon, almost the whole Lau/Low clan was there. Half my uncles/aunty carry Low as their surname and the other half are the Laus, yours truly included. Anyways I came to realize that my little cousins aren't so little anymore as Ah Hon filled me in on his life in Melbourne and his plans to marry his girlfriend next year and Firhan to follow suit the year after. I caught up with my other cousins as they told me tales of their life now. Time has really flew by especially when I see them all grown up and leading their own lives. Like I said they're all so grown up now, in my mind they're always be the perverbial snotty, naughty/nerdy kids/tweens they were.

Since Khai Yik is younger than I am, me & Vicky were honoured in the tea ceremony, it was a first for us and makes us feel well .. rather honoured and rather old actually :) All's good though .. and Niki really enjoyed herself getting to know her other faraway cousins .. and at weddings .. Niki simply loves the yam sengs that goes with the whole celebration!

Coffee Money.. More like Gourmet Coffee!

WARNING : DON'T OFFER DUIT KOPI FROM NOW ON!

DEAR FRIENDS

If you have ever paid or are thinking of paying ' Coffee Money' when stopped for traffic or other offences, DON'T EVER Do This Again. The traffic department (JPJ) has recently started a campaign to be rid of corruption. Every Officer on duty will be rewarded with RM100.00 if
they report each case of bribery to the department.

This is how they do (trick you into) it. They will note down the details of your IC/MyKad, and ask you how you want to settle ( 'Macam mana nak selesai?')

If you indicate yes or even offer to give them any money, they will report the incident by rejecting your 'Kopi Money' and get the RM100.00 instead as an incentive for their integrity and 'Honest' pubicity.

This means that You will end up having a summon issued to you and perhaps a charge for bribery.

SO DON'T PAY DUIT KOPI AGAIN , especially if you hope to go free with a lesser amount of money compared to the fine. Even if you want to pay over RM200, the JPJ Officers would rather have a 'good' name than to take your kopi money.

Just beware of their trick because the cops are now accumulating 'cookies' points for their promotion and pay increment - with your help if possible.

They should have done this to stop corruption long time ago... but anyway it's better late than never, right?

SPREAD THIS MESSAGE TO EDUCATE OTHERS ON THIS NEW ANTI-RASUAH POLICY!
AND DON'T YOU DARE TO CORRUPT ANY JPJ OR EVEN POLICE OFFICERS AGAIN!

** -------- **

I got this forwarded email this morning and feel that I better post it here for your guys.

To me basicly it's just another way for them to !%&$ with us right, it's a no win situation, now I know why suddenly the coppers are much more "active" now .. earlier I attributed it to the onset of the Raya celebrations which will usually have them in a frenzied state of vigilance.

Which scares the heck out of me since my jeep is really, really tinted!

Anyways, there are times where it is important to practice the following:

1) to entrance them with your womanly charms and puppy dog eyes (works only if you're a girl and the cop is heterosexual of course!)

2) if you're from a different state, to maintain your driver's license with your hometown address so that you can apply the following "Encik, maaf ye, I'm from outstation baru pindah ke KL/PJ"

And even if you apply the above and still get a ticket, then just take the darn thing and pay up..at least it's much better than paying them "hardworking civil servant who was supposed to protect the innocent and uphold justice"

Fun at the Peak

all couple-y

e/ leaf awning for baby

out & about in genting

group pics

Hehehehe somehow it seems rather crude when you put it down like that innit? Anyways it's Genting's theme park's tagline .. wonder who's the genius that came up with that ..? Puts new meaning to play of words. Anyways here's some leet stuffs that happened over the last few days ..

Fri the 5th we went for the Matta fair and was accosted by quite a number of tour packages, we had two destinations in mind (Gold Coast or Mauritius) and finally settled for Gold Coast through the Christmas holidays and New Year's we just got the airfare and we're booking our own accommodations and activities for our 8 day stay.. we chose Gold Coast because we think it'll offer more stuffs for the three of us and Niki especially .. she's over the moon when we told her that we're definitely visiting Sea World, Movie World and the like .. and has kept on asking whether Christmas arrived yet..

From Sat to Mon we were in Genting with some friends of ours and had a whale of a time there .. with numerous trips to the casino of course and gorging on overpriced food whilst there.. we finally found that eating fast food was the best way to go since the cold had us hungry most of the time. The weather there was between 16 - 18 degrees which is pretty darn cold for Malaysian standard, and on Sat and Mon we even had fog! And yup I learnt a new word "climatized" ... ;-) Loads of photos to follow in fb and here as soon as I get to downloading them.

Yesterday I was in KL conducting some interviews and found myself repeating the same information again and again until I found that my brain was overlapping .. I think it's a sign of aging... and yup we finally watched the recent X-Files movie and found it to be not really "supernatural-ey" we were hoping to since both Vicky & me are like x-philes .. nice thing I noticed in the movie was in one scene "The Jeffersons" were playing on TV .. and found myself humming the familiar old tune .. "coz I'm moving on up!" .. I wonder who here remembers that old sitcom?

Ok back to work! :-)

Beginning of the month!

Salary's in which means my bank balance has made a comeback.

Spent moolah on myself yesterday:

1) on a well deserved pedi

2) a super cantik white quilted pochette wallet; that can house all my plastics/cash/even handphone without much effort, it was time to bid au revoir to my old wallet! Ruby said that my trusty old wallet is truly, truly an antique on its own accord ;-p

.. and waiting for another new handbag from my honey bunny .. hhhmmm .. time to see what's in for the season! I've been eyeing a certain Speedy ..

Dressed for Success

A real estate agent just made me feel overdressed.

I have on a simple LBD & work pumps & a chain around my neck for good measure.

The real estate agent asked whether there's a soiree I'll be attending later .. I told her, "No, I was just to lazy to iron my work clothes so I just threw this on ;-)" .. that's the whole truth ..

Quickie!

Here's some quick snippets from us :)

Niki

1) Is a drama queen

2) Loves to put on dramas .. with a storyline somemore .. it's a one person play so she'll be acting dual roles usually .. and we her parents just lap it all up!

3) Sings chinese songs she learnt from school and because I'm such a banana I can't even tell if the wording, pronounciations etc is correct .. guess I'll just have to have some faith that her chinese roots are stronger than mine!

4) Got her school photo taken, and confirm she's is one of the most petite ones in her class of 17!

5) Got a new Dora the Explorer bag that she love to bits..

6) Apparently is able to drink about 1.8l of water now from 8.30am - 6.30pm .. and well ... eeerrr visits the little girls room more often!

Vicky

1) Featured in this month's issue of Business Today

2) Learnt that the combo of energy shakes and exercise after 9pm can cause imsomnia

3) Got a brilliant idea!

4) Bought this set really terror looking dumbell set

5) Have to join the four eyes club because of astig .. hey welcome to the club!

6) Looks really sexy in glasses .. me like!

Moi

1) Have been working my butt off

2) Have not have time for friends .. and I've received some threats that I better catch up with them soon .. & neglecting my blog

3) Started my exercising yesterday .. and eating slightly more healthily .. but everything may go out the window since might be going to Tony Roma's today!

4) Have an auditing project coming up

5) ... errrr can't think of anything but will update when I do

6) Vicky got me a really, really gorgeous handbag :-) it's so soft and the tan shade is to die for!

That's it back to work!

Need a tune up

I think I've gained a bit of weight especially around the face and midriff area .. sigh! time to stop eating like a man! I hate to diet ... I even detest the word diet .. what the heck right .. DIET ...! But alas age is catching up, lines are popping up .. need to get rid of some really bad makan habits and start using the nordic track at home .. dang ..if only I don't have a mini gym set up at home I can procrastinate somemore .. time to hit the machine .. dang! I hate to exercise, and I hate to diet .. but sniff have too lor!

50 Questions

In reply to Ranee's mail :)

1. Do you like blue cheese? no
2. Have you ever smoked heroin? nope
3. Do you own a gun? nope
4. Wax or Shave your body parts? both .. and highly depends on which area! i
5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? of course .. esp obgyn, dentists (dentists esp they scare the shits out of me!)
6 Real or fake nails? real la ..
7. Favorite Christmas song? here comes santa claus .. coz i just watched fred claus and the song is playing in my head!
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? water
9. Can you do push ups? tried but never got e hang of it .. aka i'm a lazy bum
10. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? my wedding ring lo
11. Favorite hobby? read
12. Do you have A.D.D.? more like OCD
13. What's one trait that you hate about yourself? cepat panik & i'm a worry wart
14. Middle Name? chinese name is lau chee chuiy
15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment? what to have for breakfast sorry only one ...i'm pretty much a simple one
16.What is your favorite room in your home? the tv room
17. Current worry right now? work & finding the right ppl to work with!
18. Current hate right now? the genting room reservation lines
19. Favorite place to be? home
20. How did you bring in the New Year? i have really bad memory let me check with the other half first i'll have to get back on this one
21. Where would you like to go? rome
22. How many children do you have? one
23. Do you own slippers? quite a few :)
24. What color shirt are you wearing? white
25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? no
26. Can you whistle? yeah..tune requests?
27. Favorite color? gray, black pink
28. Would you be a pirate? heck yeah
29. What songs do you sing in the shower? getting to know you, getting to know all about you ...
30. Favorite music? pop right now the Jonas Brothers ;-)
31. Do you have any collections? shoes and bags
32. What's in your pocket right now? nothing dumped everything into the handbag
33. Last thing that made you laugh? nikita & vicky la .. always on hand to cheer me up with their antics
34. Worst injury you've ever had? i have a condition called keloid and my skin can't heal properly i've undergone two surgeries and both left me with terrible scars
35. Do you love where you live? so much!
36. How many TV's do you have in your house? two
37. Who is your loudest friend? eeerrr, none comes to mind ..
38. How many pets do you have? none
39. Does someone have a crush on you? i hope so, it'll be quite flattering since i'm alr 33!
40. What is your favorite book? eeerrr .. all of jk rowling's harry potter series
41. What is your favorite hobby? reading, yeah i'm pretty boring
42. Sports Team? right now the Chinese Gymnasts
43. What were you doing 12 AM last night? watching dvd
44. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up? ai yo .. already 7..arrgghh!!
45. Worst habit? i tend to pluck my white hairs .. (pluck one three grow in its place .. !)
46. Do you play an instrument? i'm more of a percussionist
47. How long does it take you to get to work? 5 mins
48. Plans for the weekend? family get together .. then it's merdeka!
49. If you could eat anything in the world right this second, what would it be? roti canai
50. Do you have dust bunnies under your bed? eerrr yeah ... i hardly dust under there ..

Ze Olympics and Malaysia

For Lee Choong Wei he's gonna be living the good life .. well .. for life; here's his "jackpot" for the silver medal he procured recently at BOB;

One, there's the RM300,000

Two, there's the RM3,000 every month for life

and and yeah as a bonus the PTB are conferring him with a Datukship, too! Why not, eh?

I want an Olympic medal too! I'm kinda curious about what the Chinese government is giving their Olympians.. can't be more lucrative than ours, I bet!

I Cried during Wall-E

I'm such a wuss, cried while watching the movie's ending pretty embarassing when 3/4 of the crowd is below 10 years of age. Still I know I'm a romantic at heart and will cry even if it's an animated feature! I also realized that Niki can now understand and read emotions better (movie spoiler ahead) and was asking me why did Wall-e felt so sad and I told her it's because Wall-e was lonely and was longing for a friend. She understood and she was ecstatic when Wall-E and Eve was reunited at the end of the movie and Niki said that Wall-E and Eve lived happily ever after!

Spending the afternoon with Niki yesterday at Bukit Tinggi was fun, it was just the two of us, and after the movie we went for window shopping (no I didn't buy her anything at all yesterday!). While meandering around we saw that Kinder chocolates were having some colouring contest, so we joined! It was loads of fun and we enjoyed ourselves so much. Then, afterwards Niki had her hand painted with a butterfly motif! There was also a singing competition but Niki was not really keen on testing out her vocal prowess yesterday :)

I realized how caught up with work I have been lately and it's really nice to take some time to chill and unwind by spending time with the momo. I'm really up to my eyeballs in the office but the boss asked me to just take the afternoon off and have fun, it was very much needed and it's nice when the only pain you feel is not the one from spending hours in front of the pc but from stomping the grounds of Bukit Tinggi's ginormous mall.

Here's a snippet of Presto, which was a short animated reel before the "Wall-E" movie .. it was so, so funny! Niki thinks Alec the Bunny is the cutest!

No wonder la

How come its cheaper to book online than thru the phone?

Because they make you take out your credit card and pay upfront online!

A friend of ours have been planning a Genting trip, sometime in ealy September and we thought why the heck not, but as I was making the booking, a nagging fear crept up .. I can't sleep well there .. most times I'll be drifting in and out of a light slumber and I'll wake up looking like a panda in the morning! Perhaps I should reveal that a long, long time ago (circa the 80's) I had a creepy exprience in Genting Hotel, I'm not gonna dwell into the details but it could either be my eyes were playing tricks on me or it wasn't at all an optic illusion; well that was nearly 25 years ago .. and it doesn't matter which hotel we check into the problem still presists, coz we've tried 'em all with the exception of the new Maxim suites which is a tad too much to pay weighing in at RM1,600 per night..Genting is not exactly the Four Seasons .. so no I'm not loony enough to cough up that much dough to sleep on eqyptian cotton sheets! Instead we took the 888 package thingy, I'm not too fond of First World Hotel, because the checking in is an absolute nightmare and hence most times I'll book us into Resort Hotel but with the school holidays in full gear it's close to impossible to get any rooms in any of the other hotels. And to douse my imsomnia .. perhaps I should take my own tried and tested remedy this time .. I'll make myself a nice cup of warm cammomile tea before I turn in.. yeah I think I'll do that .. haven't tried that one previously..

Ms. Nyonya

Something totally random about Niki.

She likes nyonya kueh specifically Kuih Lapis & UFO (Ang koo)

:) why, coz we just had for breakfast ...

Guilty pleasure # 2,001

Kevin, Nick and Joe Jonas aka the Jonas Brothers outside MTV TRL Studios in Times Square in NYC (08/12/08).

I hate to admit it but I absolutely think that the Jonas Brothers are the best thing since eeerrr .. Westlife. I have a thing for teeny-bopper/boyband-ish songs because it's always so happy-clappy..mostly because it makes you feel all sunshine-y when you listen to it and doesn't hurt when its easy on the ears too, eh? .. All saccharinely sweet and nice..and let me get the record straight that it ain't because because I fancy young boys .... a BIG nnnooooo ok .. I had a thing for S Club-7 too a long way back :)

I would like to think that at the ripe old age of 33 my taste in music would have improved with age or at least moved on to something slightly more .. errr .. elegant but nope my taste has stuck in a perpetual pre-pubescent age! I would love to say that I love opera and think the world of Boccelli but no .. it's much more down to earth and less complicated... but what the heck ..to each their own .. And did I ever tell you that Vicky used to like Blue ... hehehehe! And this comes from a supposed uber-cool ex-DJ, and he can lip sync every song to perfection let me tell ya!

Anyways here's a vid dedicated to other closet Jonas Brothers fan .. enjoy!

Music Video:WHEN YOU LOOK ME IN THE EYES (by Jonas Brothers)

Music Video Code provided by VideoCodeZone.Com

An English Lesson

Niki & her cousin slash our god-daugter Darsha

Here's an example how the world looks through the eyes of a child.

It's pure, innocent and sometimes really logical.

Niki's grasp of the English language is rather solid for a kid her age, I guess I have Hi-5 and Bob The Builder to thank for that.

The word "together" is usually used like this;

"Let's go to the shop together to ta-pau some food" .. yeah with us, it's always eating la ..

Here's Niki's take:

"Let's threegether go for shopping today!" .. and finished with a wide grin across her face.

Cute or what! And I didn't even correct her coz it made sense!

Career Mommy

Niki has been ill with a tummy virus for a few days now, we initially thought that it was only a case of food poisoning but it has morphed into something more serious, Dr Ding saw her this morning and confirmed that it's indeed a viral thing. Prescribed Augmentin and Niki's now on medication hopefully she's better soon. With work I have realized that as much as I want to take care of her during this time it is simply not possible with work heaping on me left, right and centre. And so Niki's gonna be with her Amama for the next couple of days and will be back either Wednesday or Thursday.

My eyes welled up as I said goodbye to her this morning, and sent her off with her overnight bag. Niki ran up twice and gave me a bear hug and showered me with kisses somehow I think she knew that Mommy needed that. And she's the one under the weather and I should be the grown up and the one comforting her (fail!) .. she told me not to worry and she'll see me the day after tommorrow, I told her to have fun at her Amama's... and don't be such a drama queen! I sped off soon after even before she got into her Tata's car so that she doesn't see me get all teary eyed. Conflicting emotions faced by every career moms I guess. As I sit here writing this post, my heart feels all constricted, and I'm resisting the urge to pick up the phone and calling her to just say hi ..

Babies

How fast they grow..feels like only yesterday when Niki came into the world, now she's gonna be a four year old, she thinks she's already four actually and deem herself a big girl and has now refused to sit on a high chair and rather sit on what she calls big girl chairs. Super independent (only at times) and I've told her a couple of times that she can get her own place anytime of course it's only joke but I think as parents we would dread when that time comes when our kids go off to college and leave us with an empty nest. Till then, I guess we'll enjoy her company; her jokes and have our second childhood through her eyes.

And yes, my colleague gave birth to a bouncing baby girl and named her Arianna, welcome into the world baby Arianna.

The joy of life

Got an text early this morning, my colleague who's expecting said that her water just broke and she's on the way to the hospital. I called her just a bit ago and she's still waiting, she's feeling the contractions which is now about 8 mins apart, I told her not to worry everything will come naturally (she's a first time mom!), feeling a buzz of excitement, a new baby is always a wonderful gift isn't it. I'm so excited for her! Way to go Mommy!

A techie

Snippet of a converstion between Niki & her Amama;

Signs that shows she spends way too much time with her Daddy watching dvds

This morning ..

Niki (N) : Amama, hey look my Barney dvd

Amama (A) : This one's very old already I'm not sure if the dvd can still play

N : Can one, ok let me tell you what you should ask Tata to do .. it's just dirty, first you should take a piece of tissue and you wipe it clean. Then you give a blow to the dvd like this (shows by example) and then you open the dvd and you also blow the dvd, so there's no dust in the dvd also.

A : Ok I'll ask Tata to do, I'm not sure it'll work though..

N : Can one Amama

Sure enough..after Tata did all of the above the Barney dvd played fine.

In addition to shoes & more shoes

Niki and her Daddy enjoys glazed donuts

Maybe a little too much..

Niki's closet has more clothes than mine partly because everytime we go out we always never miss the opportunity to buy her something, ok before everyone go pointing at me I would like to clarify that the one guilty of this is none other than her daddy. I do get her stuffs but usually out of necessity. Whereas Daddy will go like, "Honey this top is so cute and I love the kitten sleeves and v-neck and it's such a pretty shade of pink donchathink?" And before I can say anything else in retort, Daddy's already ringing it up at the cash register.

Moreover, nowadays the little miss no longer asks her mommy's help in dressing her up, it's now more like "Mommy, I want to wear this top with the cords and I'm wearing my orange sandals coz it goes with my top!" .. "and yeah, I wanna leave my hair down today..

And she picks out her own accessories now too, yesterday she got herself a fuchsia hairclip .. I was abit apprehensive to get it for her coz firstly it was fuchsia and secondly it was round ..but when she came home and asked me to clip it on, it actually looks cute .. letting out a sigh of relief .. I thought to myself .. ok la at least she's got her taste down.

And when we told that we're talking amama and tata shopping it was Niki who got really excited and let out a "woop" yes she actually let out a "woopie" no kidding. And now Daddy feels very afraid, just thinking about the pain that his little girl is gonna inflict to his wallet when she's a pre-teen, or maybe even before that!

On a more serious note, Niki is really a sweet child .. and she's never one to throw a tantrum if we didn't get her something she wanted from the shop.. and she actually understands .. sometimes we think that she's a old soul and much wiser beyond her four years .. because when Mommy's feeling sad all I have to do is look into her eyes and I can feel that she understands, and when she gives me a hug it's a really nice warm one .. and she'll always asks if I'm ok and then she will actually comfort me & try her best to soothe me .. and that folks is my little girl.

Weather-proof

Wish we are weather-proof like Dulux paints but we aren’t.
Me : My throat’s all scratchy and throaty
Little Niki: Ulcer on her lower lip and suspected case of sore throat
I feel another wave of feeling that under the weather week is coming again.
Sheesh!
But I had a great night yesterday, so my spirit’s still up :)

Need to find a serviced apartment in segamat for work purposes, so far I've been scouring the Net to no avail! Double sheesshh!

Addicted

I'm addicted to the high that I get from holidays.

I'm still on a high from Krabi but work is slowly but surely our hectic work schedule is putting that fire out pretty quick!

Vicky suggested something for me to plan out ... it's a roadtrip around parts of Malaysia.

While we were in Krabi we ran into this nice elderly couple from Germany; who unforch for us knew more about our own country than we do, they've been to every corner of Malaysia on their own and not through a travel agent either. It's quite admirable considering their age, and rather adventurous don't you think? So we've since decided that we're gonna do a roadtrip around spots in M'sia that we've yet to visit properly ie. Ipoh , Kelantan, Trengganu, Pahang & Jonor. And we're gonna make an effort to travel off the beaten track, being a creature of comfort (who isn't) it's gonna be pretty hard resisting a nice comfy resort but I'm gonna make an effort!

Right now I gotta plan out the budget and the time to allow us to do this trip, it might take us about 10 days and 10 days off work won't be an easy feat! So I've got a whole lot of planning to do!

Hubby, Me and the ultimate chick flick

I managed to get hubby dearest to attend the premier of SATC yesterday evening at Midvalley, it was no easy feat but Iguess the persistent whinning did help some. And so there we were, it's been sometime since we've stepped foot in Midvalley, never actually liked the place coz it's so cavernous & a tad cold for me. Had a quick bite at JJ's which proved to be the wrong choice later coz both of us had slight tummy pains after. *spoiler ahead* and it was quite ironic when Charlotte suffered a "poopkeesie" in the movie .. thing is over there in the Big Apple; they don't have what we have which is the dimunitive but power packed "poh chi kit" ..

The movie was alright .. feels like an extended version of the show though .. but overall it was like a reunion and it was good to see all the girls again and Kristin didn't even age a bit from the last time I saw her! And yes my 2 fave characters are still Miranda and Charlotte; in that sequence. And their clothes & shoes & bags are a lable-fest with Manolo, Prada, DVF, Dior, Wang, Westwood ! Everything was gorgeous! Made me feel like going out & grabbing myself an LV, of course I came to my senses once the movie was over! Still it was nice to float for 2.5 hours!

Collage of Krabi

The Amari Vogue @ Tub Kaek Beach

Day Sightseeing around Aonang

At Night : dinner at Driver's Inn Aonang

Us with the Sivara Spa's gigantic hard wood door with intricate carvings

Poolside at the Amari

Bellini's On the beach

Looking forward to our day in Aonang

Lunch at Aonang Seafood : touristy but the food was terrific!

Our room was strewn with rose petals, really romantic!

At the Sunset Lounge, where I blogged/gmailed/fb etc

We spent the whole day at the pool

Beachfront

Here's our huge amount of photos of Krabi, enjoy!
Being downloaded now :)

We're heading home

Hey folks; hehehe we got lost whilst heading to the Krabi airport just now, was 30Km off course thank goodness we met with some nice people who were at a weighbridge who help draw us a very accurate map to get to the Airport. And thank God we arrived just in time. Met Surin the bellhop who was waiting for some guests to come in.

We feel a tad heavy hearted leaving Krabi but we had a blast and we're looking forward to going back home. So au revoir Krabi; we hope to see you again.

Around Aonang

Today we spent the day at Aonang beach, it's really like a mini Phuket, except that stuffs here are much more expensive than Phuket, but less sleazy I guess. It's considered the low season now here so there's the big sale sign everywhere still like I said stuffs are much more expensive than Phuket. Learnt that Phuket was about 2 hours away by car. Bought some sundresses for Niki and yes another pair of sandals for her .. seriously she has quite a selection of footwear for someone's who's not even four yet. A mini Imelda that one!

There tons of resorts around Aonang areas, we found that there's some okay ones priced pretty reasonably around RM150 per room night. But again it's a matter of choice, since we preferred a much quieter location with a beach out front the Amari is pretty much wonderful to us. What's more it's a private beach so it's way cleaner than the Aonang beach.

Though it's the low season there was still lots of tourists around especially from the UK and Scandinavian countries.

We had lunch over at the Aonang Thai Restaurant which served up pretty authentic Thai food and the Tom Yam Goong was fragrant with the right amount of spiciness which we appreciated.

Right now we're back at the Resort, and Niki & Vicky are in one of the five pools here. Yup the Amari has five pools; and only 57 rooms .. pretty cool yeah. And yes, we're watching the sun set from the poolside, it's magnificent :) especially with the Hong Islands surrounding us.

Tonight we're driving out in our rented Vios and having dinner either at Paddy's or one of the nice restaurants in Aonang. It's hard to believe that it's our third say here and we're flying off tomorrow. We're gonna miss the Amari and the people here who's made us feel so welcomed.

Leave only footprints

We had dinner in Bellini's tonight underneath the moon & stars. I had Tom Yam Goong and it was superb and really Thai, Vicky had the Pad Thai which was excellent as well. As far as hotel food goes the food at the Amari is truly delish. Dinner was followed by a walk on the Tub Kaek beach. Our hotel is right on the beachfront and dubbed to be the best beach in Krabi. Saw crabs scurrying about; mmmmm what can I say, we're having such a relaxing time here :)

The weather was excellent today and we spent it under the sun in the afternoon interjected with afternoon dips in the pool. The people of Amari is really attentive and made friends with our Niki, while we lazed about on our sunbeds they served us sorbets, fruits and snacks which was on the house.

Tommorow we'll be up and about exploring Krabi and Aonang, rather than take the bike, we rented a Vios to get around. Tomorrow should be fun :) Let's pray that it's another sunny day out!

Here in the Amari

Touched down in Krabi today, and we're now at the Amari Vogue Krabi, which is absolutely breathtaking. It's just too beautiful here, the whole resort really lived up to our expectations, and for now we're just gonna sit back and relax our well deserved holiday.

The only thing is the weather was a bit downcast today; well we hope that it'll ease up tomorrow coz we plan to spend the whole day at the pool and then rent a bike to head down to Aonang. Yeah, we rented a bike for 350Bt a day; and we're gonna go zipping around town tomorrow :)

Our plans for this evening after dinner in Bellini's is we're gonna go get some dvds from the library and wind down in the room with our tiramisu cake :)

Niki the mathematician

Niki gave me a math lesson yesterday.

And she's such a strict teacher .. reminience of Mrs Leong, man!

That was indeed scary!

And she's such a miss smarty pants, that one!

Top 10 Things to Do in Krabi

..a little taste before the real deal :)

taken from www.amari.com

Krabi is a destination much favoured for its striking natural beauty. With an abundance of beautiful beaches, islands, waterfalls and other wonderful manmade attractions, there are numerous activities to enjoy. For a brief or longer stay, visitors to Krabi should not miss out on the top ten things to do, recommended by Amari Vogue Resort:

1. Rent a long tail boat and take some packed lunchboxes along, to explore the surreal beauty of Hong Island , named after its hollowed out shape. The ‘Hong’ (meaning ‘room’) is in the middle of the island, formed by limestone rocks.

2. Kayak to Ao Thalene , a peaceful lush mangrove, where the delicate balance of nature is perfectly maintained – simply an amazing sight to see!

3. Visit Railey – one of Thailand’s most sought-after beaches – with its stunning limestone cliffs, white sandy beaches, including the Princess Cave Beach. Railey is ideal for lazing on the beach or getting active with some rockclimbing.

4. Discover the secret jungle lagoon in Khao Pra Bang Khram Wildlife Sanctuary. Enter through lush green jungle, to find a glistening emerald lagoon on the other side…

5. Go jungle trekking , where extreme excitement awaits! Adventure seekers delight in various trails, such as Khao Phanom Bencha and Kao Pra Bang Khram.

6. Make a day of scuba diving and snorkelling . The underwater world of the Krabi province is a must-see, especially the popular spot of the Phi Phi Islands.

7. Watch the sunset by the beach, while enjoying delicious cuisine – simple but extraordinary! Tub Kaek Beach provides and idyllic setting, with a backdrop of small islands dotted along the horizon, while the sun gleams and glitters across the water in brilliant colour.

8. Try out elephant trekking – there are many ways to explore the spectacular natural environment of Krabi, but being on the back of an elephant is an unforgettable experience!

9. Visit the Tiger Cave Temple, a quiet and peaceful atmosphere for meditation. There are two passages, 1200 steps up to the hilltop, where the striking view is worth the sweating! And 130 steps up to the monks’ cottages.

10. Be pampered and massages at Sivara Spa . Surrounded by water pools and natural beauty, caressed by cool breezes, enjoy the expert healing touch of trained therapists, as body, mind and soul are rejuvenated and relaxed – you deserve it after all that activity!

Plotting to get away

Phi Phi via longtail

the Amari

In my previous post I was so tired out of mind that I realized that I needed an immediate antidote else I'm seriously gonna go whack! Actually I've playing with the idea for quite sometime now, and now I've just confirmed my hotel & flight to Krabi, Thailand. I booked us in into the poshy Amari Vogue and right now am just counting the days till we fly off. Already told Niki about it, and she's brought out all her beach playthings already, talk about initiative!

I think I can hear the waves lapping at my feet already...can't wait!

A People Person

I always thought of myself as that, and then I realized actually I'm not ..

I'm too nice, too sympathetic, too empathetic .. just too much; Vicky pointed that out to me ..

It's a painful lesson but one worth learning, you can't always be nice, at least not in the real world.

ps. this ought to be the latest ever I've posted .. I'm just too tired and my mind's a big mass of blur .. need a vacay .. pronto!

Guess what?

The megasale is back.. *shock* *horror* says my credit card!

Was out shopping with my kid last Saturday, we did a whole bunch of girly stuffs like window-shopping, eating in between, actual shopping, trying on clothes which was way too expensive but what the heck, we were just trying 'em on .. and caught a movie together too ..

If I was a good mom I would have taken her for Kungfu Panda, but since I'm a great mom I took her to see Will Smith in Hancock instead :-p we both had a blast, and as for Mr Smith..he was looking mighty fine!

It's our 6th Wedding Anniversary, folks!

Today, six years ago we got ourselves hitched!

So, it's our wedding anniversary, and oh woe cannot celebrate due to work commitment, we're mobilizing for a very important project & as luck would have it, its commencement is today as well!

sniff! sniff! perhaps we can spend some quiet time later tonight.

Happy Sixth Anniversary, hon .. love you heaps and heaps! xoxo

ps. thanks Ammu for the beautiful bouquet of florals :) we absolutely love it .. *kisses*

Hey you, too!

I got a message today from an old, old buddy, to date we've known each other for ten years now since our Stamford days, and yes those were good days innit ;-p

And yes, I do miss our times together, the shenanigans and the pan mee cravings and our crazed frenzy every lunch time .. and yup siew yok rice ..

It's pretty hard for me to express myself; there much I wanna say but I hope you know what I mean .. it's good to be in touch with you once again .. and it's nice to laugh our heads off for no apparent reason .. hey we're in our thirties .. now more than ever I believe that laughter indeed is the the best medicine .. and well a way actually to keep our youthfulness ..

*cyber hugs to you* my friend ..

Love, Chee2