race day 2014

hammy wins this year!
hot weather, not a cloud in sight. come to think of it, the jam wasn't so bad either.
even the noise wasn't so ear-splitting. boo.
bil told us to be at the house at 10am.... guess what time we left for the circuit? hahah

there were no accidents though. bummer for the spectators =P~~~

someone came a visiting this week. the kids (Dayana, mostly) were ecstatic to have someone to layan their kid-talk; the parents couldn't be bothered hahahah.
usually it would be Uncle Syafiq this, Uncle Syafiq that.
now they got a new Uncle to bully *thumbs up*

well anyway, here are photos taken on race day.

race day!

our designated driver and trusty navigator(s)

the new joiner

the backseat passenger

please remind me to look myself in the mirror before heading out the door. i look like a freakin' walking paddle pop with all the colors on me T___T. green bag, red bag, pink shoes, purple top, blue bottom? ermmm what was i thinking???
egad i do not like that sunnies on me.

pre-race

f1 2014

favorite race driver

track race

hefty lunch

guests of PETT

testing out his super heavy lens

the only car i managed to capture on my camera phone

hammy wins!

#1

post-race

his future car

the minions that came along with us - izam n arif =D

these three belong in the air really.

the three brothers

i have my very own tour group every year

speaking of minions, now this one is the REAL minion.... =D

my very own minion, with hair to boot =D

afifa's wedding

congratulations fifa and roy!

location: royal chulan damansara
date: 29th March '14

the following photos were taken by various cameras, so please excuse the clarity.

the bride was dressed remarkably simple that night.
in fact... i think the bridesmaid's almost outshone her... eep.

the bride's the exact splitting image of her mother.

by the time the event started we were starving.

ini orang ada gaya oh ambik gambar bahahahahahah.
#thisisnotgopro

a random photo of us with Alang.

apparently most of the men decided to suit up that night. it's a Stinson thing.

photos make you look wider than you actually are in real life.
and the sticks don't look so sticky as much. don't you agree?

phuket day 1

20th March, 2014

the first thing we did after we landed was to secure our transport for our stay here.

keep on smilin'

look at the overexcited minah who thinks she can read maps.

dora the explorer

we got ourselves an Avanza, which did absolutely nothing to quell the fights of who-gets-to-sit-where. haha.

avanza being the choice

this little gadget took most of the filming throughout the trip.

go pro hero 3+

we took almost an hour to locate the place despite it being only 15 minutes from the airport.

"Only 15 minutes from Phuket International Airport, Maikhao Dream Villa Resort & Spa is cozily snuggled on the northwest shore of Phuket island amid serene surroundings of the pristine beach of Maikhao".

we even used GPS to locate the hotel and yet we still couldn't find it. bahahahaha.

after going round in circles, upon reaching a t-junction we came across this shoddy looking building depicted below, with a light up sign on the roof spelling out 'Mai Khao Dream'.
in our heads, we were like, whaaaaatttt? are you serious??? is this it???

i came back later at night to take a photo of the building, lousy quality

of course this wasn't our stop.
this one was: (you could literally hear all of us heaving sighs of relief hahahahah)

welcome to Mai Khao Dream Villa Resort & Spa

main lobby

we registered ourselves at the counter and each received a little welcoming drink and a wet towel. since we arrived way early in the morning our rooms were not yet ready so we decided to hang out at the beach and wait until we could check in.

the pool didn't look so inviting because everyone was busy being enthralled by the beach.

would you just look at the beach???

beachside bar

the beach is so gorgeous, even though it's not the clear type for you to snorkle in (er what is there to see anyway? lol). the ocean floor depth is quite steep though. please disregard the old lady in the photo, because i am really not sure who that is. have i mentioned that the beach is so freakingly ohsem???

chilling out on the deck chairs provided. i can't believe i left my novel behind.

they had free wi-fi!

pilot life, much?

when our room was ready, my jaw literally dropped upon entering the villa. i totally want to remodel the house to look like this, bahahahhahaha.

the living room and dining hall

the kitchen

the master bedroom

the master bathroom

the second bedroom

since bil didn't want to share, he declared the upstairs living room as his very own private quarters, hahah. there was a third bedroom upstairs but the staff locked it because we only paid for a two-room villa, not three. seriously with the hot weather you'd definitely feel like staying in all day.

upstairs living room

i love the gazebo. and the jacuzzi. it's like having your bedroom on the outside of the house. but the deck floor can get rather hot during the day.

gazebo and jacuzzi

outdoor cascading pool

we had a late lunch at Tesco Lotus food court and bought some supplies for dinner; Chef Amal was gonna cook for the night. since they had a proper stove and all, why not just utilize the facility? lol.

everything was written in Thai language though. it's times like these that i miss the Tesco stores in Malaysia, lol.

pesto

bon apetit =D

early wake up call

it's a rare occasion to wake everyone up in the wee hours in the morning, usher everyone (and everything) into the car, just to catch a plane and end up somewhere else entirely in just a few hours.

muka budak baru bangun

leaving on a jetplane

second air trip for these two

securing a ride

any guesses as to where we've headed off to?
=D

somebody was so excited to leave for holiday, that she even packed her own bags. HAHAHA. Dayana saw her Uncle packing and i think he told her to get a move on because when i came back that night she told me she had already packed her stuff.

at first i thot Kakak had helped her to pack but then again i never told her what to pack for the trip. so i took a quick peek into her Trunki and found out that Dayana's definition of packing was: to take out a bunch of her clothes from her chest of drawers (not even stopping to look whether it was hers or Dinara's) and made sure she packed it full to the brim. the only thing that she managed to pack right was to include hers and Dinara's swimsuits, haha.

when i repacked her things (with the proper amount of clothings for both kids), she took one look at the contents of the Trunki and asked me, 'mana cukup, Mommy?' O_o.

see???

a little bit of awesome

so... kut2 lah dapat ubah suai the current house or add onto it one day in the future, insyallah...

here are three simple ideas that in my opinion would help make my house a little more awesome. HAHA.
article from here.

1. Add a simple window seat to the landing of your staircase. 
staircase landings are almost always left bare. sometimes whenever i get the chance to visit other people's homes, i find that they would decorate the landing, but it would end up looking slightly cluttered.
i really wish i had a window seat in my bedroom.

2. Install dutch doors so you can watch your kids/pets without baby gates.
super idea! at least you know what you're children are up to behind those doors. my kids love to shut themselves in their room, and most of the time they're up to no good, bahahahahah. it beats having to install safety gates which almost always end up toppling over due to the kids crashing into them, or on the rare occasion that an adult in the household thinks that they're able to jump hurdles.
(bro in law tried that once, the whole gate came crashing down T___T).

3. Simple outdoor showers are perfect for beach houses and families who love going outdoors. 
another simple idea for the house. not that we have a jungle behind the house =D we have a pool but no proper shower outside (everyone would always end up trailing puddles of water throughout the house T_T).

happy birthday Uncle Amal

it was Uncle Amal's birthday last Thursday. so the bunch of us went to Empire to celebrate. oh sushi how i've missed you so=D

i guess that this is the new version of birthday cake - you get to sample different flavors, plus you get to satisfy other avid candle-blowers whose birthday do not fall on this particular day, LOL.

check out the one in turquoise going all out on one of the slices - which happened to be Uncle Amal's favorite flavor, oops (Irina, pavlova serai sedap lagi lah! =P~~~~~).

after dinner the kids wanted to have a go at the carousel, but they didn't want it to go round. we should call it 'merry-stand-still' instead of 'merry-go-round' T___T.
check out the birthday boy, btw.
i don't really know, but i think his definition of 'birthday' means current age minus 25.

and last but not least, here's Uncle Amal doing Dinara's 'trademark' peace sign while she forces her face into a smile for the camera. HAHA.

updated 28/3: and here's what Uncle Amal got for his birthday gift:

ok so the box was a lie. he got his very own go-pro.
(i remember last time we did the same thing for Norehan's birthday present last year, she kicked the box like it was nothing, when there was actually a Tiffany inside T__T)