those last moments in BS

due to the rising COVID cases each day, Selangor's been decreed to go under CMCO for two weeks starting from tomorrow 14th to 27th October... BUT i reckon it will be longer though. MCO started out the same way too; they told us to stay home for 2 weeks, which ended up being > 3 months. my terrarium i left in the office R.I.P. because of that. haha.

because of this, today marks our last working day at Bangsar South office. personally i'd have chosen to continue working at this office since everything was easily accessible here, plus Operations are still based in BS (until Cyber's IT infrastucture is ready) but 16th was the last day our parking pass was valid for, so nak tak nak we had to pack up and go.

i will miss you Ah Hock (milo panas cawan besar), myNews downstairs, SanFran's coffee offers (even though i don't drink coffee haha), Ayam Penyet, Tomyam, Nasi Kukus (also known as kedai kaki ayam Rina) at Bumbung Biru, the Curry Laksa at Nyonya (they don't have any outlets nearer to me, chis) and fragrant Flower Tea at Amber, to name a few things on the top of my head that i know i would miss. 

(as i'm writing this, i am hungry, can you tell?)

at the new office, you have to literally go out to find decent food if you don't want to order food delivery service. and the new office is adopting an open seating work situation, where you no longer have a permanent desk to dump all your things - tissue box, mirror, stationeries, personal supplies, etc. save for a small cubicle to chuck your stuff. where am i going to keep my extra monitor like this? nanti orang curikkkkkk :O since CMCO happened and everyone is forced to stay home and i have yet to step foot into the new office, my office stuff are strewn all over the house. hahahahaha.

in light of everything happening, we took the opportunity to celebrate our last few weeks in BS - eat, shop, and camwhoring. not to forget plant-poaching *ahem*, but let's not elaborate on that, shall we? =P

nak pindah baru tau kewujudan tempat ni HAHA

no more shopping outings to mv with this crazy bunch

no more Ted Boy for tea time, across the office

no more reason to drive out to BS after this

no more lunch sessions with my ice cream buddy

i'm going to miss:

- my occasional ice cream sessions with Dilot

- hanging out with my other non-colleague friends who i occasionally lepak with

- getting lost in the stairwells in the basement looking for my car because parking is always full and i keep forgetting where i park my car

- ad hoc shopping for overpriced groceries at Aeon so that i don't have to stop by Tesco on my way home from work

- hopping into a Grab and heading to mv to have lunch w Mashi

- monthly banana leaf sessions with my cousin

- my favourite threading store after having banana leaf =D

- makan megi and onion-ing with my gila friends after work

- cheap food at Bumbung Biru!

but then again CMCO has gotten everyone stuck at home, so no difference la... for now.

F & F's garden wedding

F & F

getting married in the middle of this pandemic is quite challenging really. catering for social distancing requires quite a number of adjustments in order to do so: limiting the number of invited guests, preparing hand sanitizers at every table, donning 'fahsunable' face masks to go with your outfit, temperature checking, and generating and scanning QR codes, to name a few. so a friend of ours Fikri got married recently. he was supposed to have gotten married earlier this year, but alas covid happened.

the new norm - hand sanitizers!

we've known him way back during his and the husband's pre-flying days when they were both working at Aviax. Fikri had another friend working together with them, Danial who we always thought (and joked) that they were gonna be inseparable forever, haha. those were the days when they were all still single and available. Aviax is l.e.g.e.n.d, yo. heck, two friends of mine found their husband / wife whilst working there *ahem to bini geng AA*, how ohsem is that, lol.

geng Aviax reunite!

well anyway, they chose Forest Valley Hall in Cheras as their wedding venue, and i must say it's quite a distance from our place, but the place seemed relatively new, and gorgeous too. boasting of a garden wedding concept, there were lots of windows and everything was bright, airy and sunny, so the space seemed much larger than it already was. the only downside was the roads were untarred, so good luck to your vehicle, hahahahha.

Forest Valley Hall
Unnamed Road, Bandar Mahkota Cheras,
43200 Cheras, Selangor

see? even the road is 'Unnamed'. hehe.

the bride, i first met during our flight back from Perth last year (oh i miss air travel, doesn't everyone?). her facial features are so exotic-looking. she made a gorgeous bride that day. and Fikri cleaned up good too for the wedding, check out his 'wolverine look', hahahha. if you have the time to hang out with them one day, ask them about the first time they met. =)

one with the Bride & Groom

it's been awhile since i dressed up, covid has gotten everyone stuck at home with nowhere to go, you can't believe how much i've saved for not having to replenish my facial supplies =P. i brought my younger two kids with me, i'm not sure why they enjoy weddings, probably because they've been cooped up so long indoors they were happy to go anywhere, even if it means to the kedai runcit a few meters away from home.

so who recognizes the flowerpot? =D

with the two younger minions

oh and that budak Terengganu friend of ours, Amirul is still single (or not. but do ask him first in case i'm wrong LOL).

flower girl(s)

the groomsman cover line sbb tersalah enterframe LOL

congratulations you two. they're currently in the phase of enjoying grocery shopping together, hahahah. someone once told me grocery shopping together was romantic. mulling over which tomato looks the ripest and which brand of cereal to get is totally romantic indeed.

happy Independence Day Malaysia!

the things i get my kids to do in conjunction with Independence Day - get them to pose for a photo, bahahahhaha. my my, how my kids have grown, haha.

here's a photo i took way back in 2017 when i thought the multicolored KL scarf was pretty (it still is btw). brought it with me to Hong Kong Disneyland, it's been with me until now. it was about the time i dyed my hair red, and it rained in Hong Kong, so you can imagine what happened. luckily the color run easily washed off *phew*. anyway, the highlight isn't really much about the scarf. it's more about the kids holding up the scarf in the photo. 

second photo was taken 3 years later, same scarf, same but slightly 'aged' kids, hahahahha. they grow up so fast. does anyone have any petua on how to increase your chances of conceiving a boy? i've been trolling alia ishak's ig; her baby boy is so adorable... geram.

not like E1's excited about having a younger brother as a sibling. when i ask her "do you want a baby brother?" she shakes her head. tp laju je agree if i ask her if she wants a baby sister. how many sisthursss do you need?! before anyone starts comparing, girls fight just as hard as boys ok. the mco has taught me alot about this. LOL

 

my kids, 2017

my kids, 2020

my eldest turns a decade plus two as well. yikes. happy Independence Day, Malaysia!

when asmarians meet

this year, raya celebrations had to be celebrated moderately amidst all the covid madness out there. only ONE day of raya celebrations limited us to only our family and close relatives.

post raya, with the country still in RMCO mode, my classmate / unimate had recently established her new crib, so she decided to invite a few of her close friends to her place. what i didn't know was that she also held a closed family birthday celebration too, so whoops, Aunty crashed the cake cutting ceremony without a present T___T

felt so good to finally interact with humans! ok i'm exaggerating, but staying home for 3 months straight tend to drive one up the wall a little, especially when you're stuck at home for so looOooong with your adorable little kidsssssssssss. who's with me???

i don't remember the last time i met these bunch of crazies, last raya perhaps? ke raya sebelum tu? maklumlah, sorang tu busy dgn PhD, while the rest of us sibuk berbuat busy (well that’s me anyway wahahahaha)... anyway, the food was ohsem! *burp* 

one day of raya this year was seriously not enough. so glad nrz decided to do a quick meetup =D

    

haven't seen these bunch in a long time

Asmarians forever

makan maggi in style

RMO Day 28: when you've been stuck at home for more than 25 days you start to get creative when it comes to food.

in this post i'm going to reference 'maggi' as 'ramen', since it sounds much more healthier, and i'm trying to make myself feel less guilty for feeding my kids instant noodles, hahahahha.

i call this dish 'Luxury Ramen' inspired by a friend of mine in instagram =D

to make the soup, tumis:
- bawang merah
- cili boh
- kiub ayam
- u can add in the perencah that came with the maggi, but i only used half out of the three packets

then add water, wait for it to boil.
add kimchi if you have it, kalau nak fefeeling ala2 Korea. #eh

meanwhile, get the kids to chop up whatever it is you want to add into the ramen.
since my kids are such picky eaters, and i had limited amount of stuff in the fridge (a trip to the supermarket is about due), i added in the following:

- sayur pakchoy, hiris senipis yang mungkin, else they will struggle kutip satu2 letak tepi
- sausages
- crab sticks

susun all the ingredients cantik2 in the pot, with the ramen in the middle. i used 3 packets, because pot tak muat =D

once the soup starts boiling, pour onto the ramen and continue to cook everything in the pot.

poured the soup into the pot

add in the eggs and leave it in for as long as you want (but make sure you don't overcook the ramen).

add in the egg

once done, tutup api and sprinkle daun sup on top. done!

presentation is key

sebbaik they finished everything, even the sayur. haha.

licin. demi maggi

next time, if i ever semangat nak make this again i should put in:
- cherry tomatoes
- enoki mushrooms
- a slice of cheese

jya~

RMO - Day 20

i've noticed that the RMO gets people buying a whole bunch of stuff online. kitchen enthusiasts have decided that now's the best time to get a Thermomix (mak tak mampu lagi), a Kitchen Aid, or a Breadmaker - since it's sooo difficult to get Gardenia off the shelves these days. some people decides to purchase more potted plants to create a jungle effect in their home since we can't go outside as much as we used to. others decide to purchase home improvement stuff. guess which category i fall under? LOL

i reckon that if you don't trawl other people's instastories, you wouldn't get yourself terjebak into all this stuff, like seriously. at this point it's a good time to temporarily unfollow all accounts that you think will drain your bank account, hee~

so one day i came across this person's instatory and i thought, wah cantiknya susun2 kasut macam tu! with a house full of so many people, you can just imagine how many pairs of shoes are lying around the house, you can't even keep track of how many shoes you own OR you're not even sure which shoe is still being worn and by whom (ni dasar tak reti nak buang kasut2 yg dah lama atau tak muat dah hahahahaha). the only shoe closet i have is the old opaque traditional one and once a shoe goes inside that closet, it's goodbye shoe - there's a high chance i might forget that you're in there kinda thing, you know? T__T we also have the shoe rack+bench from ikea, but i notice shoes tend to accumulate dust in the open air, not to mention the limited amount of shoes you can actually pile on the rack. NOT TO MENTION when your kids start to get territorial and starts declaring 'hey that's my spot!' the same way they fight to declare their 'spot' in the Vellfire. or fight over what car pillow they get, when the only difference between the pillows is the freaking COLOR *rolls eyes*.

stackable shoe boxes! wheeeeee

anyway. she even shared the link of where she purchased the shoe boxes - on Shoppee, where else? i could already imagine myself organizing shoes during this undefined period of social distancing, hahahahaha. so i found a store that sold them in a set of 6, ready stock in Malaysia. i purchased it in 4 colors (except for white because it's too mainstream =P).

product size: 33.5 * 23.5 * 13 cm

i didn't imagine it to arrive looking like this. i was like, can this really be assembled and stacked together to look like the storage boxes in the above photo? *skeptic* it arrived on a Sunday merely wrapped in bubble wrap. i was lucky it arrived in one piece with nothing broken. i read reviews that some arrived with broken covers.

pink, blue, green, purple

the only challenge i faced during assembly was to attach the cover lid of the shoe box. took me quite awhile to figure out the mechanism too, haha. i read reviews that other people also faced the same challenge of assembling that last part. it didn't come with any instructions; i suppose they assume that even monkeys can assemble this, that's how easy it should be. no matter how hard i tried to put on the lid, it never managed to stick on properly. you had no idea how much i was cursing just to connect the lid ok. siap give up try the next day LOL.

oh the challenge to assembling this part

luckily one buyer had the bright idea to mention that you could look it up on youtube. it only dawned on me that that tiny foldable part had to be pushed down ALL THE WAY in order for the frame to stick on properly - the keyword in the youtube clip was 'until you hear a click' wahahahhahahahah adehhh *smacks forehead* right after that i tried again (i really did hear a click) and wallah.... it stuck!

misi berjaya! LOL

oh mak excited. i managed to assemble all 24 boxes while watching Money Heist. hahahahhahahah

ade orang dah rasmi dah simpan kasut dalam tu

now to figure out where to stack these boxes in the house. and to figure out how many pairs of shoes exist in the house. haha.

updated: decided to letak sini dulu (as per photo). you can actually connect them so that they stick together, very the ingenious. i threw out a bunch of shoe boxes in the process. kon mari much?

tada. i think i need more bahahaha

on another note, i must be late joining the La Casa de Papel bandwagon =P. instastory is a most powerful thing, no kidding. so who's better: Le Professor or Le Michael Scofield?

Money Heist

and lunch for today. dah out of ideas what to eat already. dah lemau, lama sangat duduk rumah.

dahmakan

just to lighten the mood

1. when Malaysians tak reti nak dengar cakap:

sit! stay!

2. this is exactly me during this RMO. who's with me??

working mom woes

3. when you see this as a business opportunity for the corona virus LOL:

dis i kenot

hang in there everyone. we can do this!