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.