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!