my Neo bullies me

today i woke up wayyy early with the hopes that i can arrive and leave the office early... only to find out that my stupid 3-year old Neo cannot start.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

the engine's been making this ticking noise each time i try to start the engine for quite some time now. i guess today is the day it decided to just... die.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

all dressed up and nowhere to go... and i've got some stupid defect to finish. someone is gonna kill me.

(ok so to be fair, i haven't gotten the chance to threaten my car yet. but with my green notebook yes, i already had thoughts of replacing the book with a smaller one in my head. perhaps the notebook unconsciously knew so that's why it simply disappeared. perhaps it sprouted legs and ran off as fast as its tiny legs could carry itself. hahahaha).

updates for the week (December 3rd):

1. my battery apparently according to the mechanic is unable to 'simpan cas' anymore so i definitely have to replace my car battery... sigh. funny that a couple of my friend's car also started having problems, both driving Neos. lol. is it normal for them to get 'sick' after they turn three years old? lol. even my Dad's and brother's car had problems in the same week @@.

2. i found my stupid green notebook! it fell behind one of the big boxes in my room. luckily Significant Other wanted to rearrange the furniture, i would've never thought of looking there. #*@*(#&(*@&$. and sorry, i don't even remember placing the book anywhere near to where i found it. hahahahahhaha. i've transferred most of the stuff in the book into my new mini book. from now on i'm lugging the small book around instead =D. my deskmate wasn't surprised, judging from the current state my office desk was in.

me: u know what? i hate you. hahahahah
he: apa ni tetiba? tak puas hati jom la gaduh
me: jom jom. esok we fight, i hate u coz i dah found my notebook =P
he: x de hal. esok kat board room kul 12. kalah kene minum air rebusan notebook.

the notebook that went POOF for a while

3. i finally acheived the rm800 target at Mothercare! thanks to nobody but Significant Other, of course. i had a rm400 hundred receipt from the safety gates we bought last time, and needed another rm400 to get the membership card. so the day my car died, we sent the battery to the mechanics to see if it could still be salvaged, and headed over to The Curve to get the babyden mil was pestering us to buy. for a babyden cum safety gate, it really is quite stable, lol. just our luck, they were having a sale, so we got that and everything else for quite a good price.

her new Babyden... no need to worry about her wandering towards the staircase which poses a big hazard no thanks to poor design

and we bought an Ikea high chair for Dayana. her walker is officially retired... now i need to find out where the maid campaked it. the things is, if you unintendedly leave stuff lying around in the house at a place it shouldn't be it'll soon be declared public property and will POOF not too long after. sigh. i need my own storeroom. the maid loves to take things without asking whose is it first. it's really annoying. but i can't keep everything in the room, it's practically a mini condo already! (minus the kitchen of course).

4. had lunch with my in-laws and the rest of the family at Spring Garden! last minute plan. had to ditch the Kenny Rogers lunch that very same day. i noticed that Malay will order differently from Chinese. what my mil ordered that day was totally different from what my Chinese colleagues ordered the last time i had lunch with them here (i suspect we non-Chinese have no idea what to order due to their complicated names and such hahaha). Nor and company went to see New Moon after the lunch. i've been hearing on the radio on how Robert Pattinson and Kristin Stewart make lousy main characters. kekeke. but i have to admit they make a gorgeous couple. i can't help but hate that Bella character. my colleague watched the movie yesterday, and is now officially angau over the werewolf Jacob. lol.

5. i got a 2010 planner from my insurance agent. the planner color is a shocking red. lol. but i prefer my greeny Pett planners. been using them for two years now =D. although for me it doesn't function as a planner, but rather it's where i keep track of what i did and bought each day for that particular year (since i'm Miss Forget-Me-Not). really useful sometimes when i wanna recall the When.

6. i'm on leave tomorrow!

temp replacement

at least, i hope it's temporary. depending on my mood. all depends on whether i'm going to burn the book to a crisp if i do ever manage to get my hands on it. bwargh.

i am peeved that my missing green notebook hasn't turned up anywhere. i simply can't remember where i put it! it had everything in it - my IOUs, my reminders, things i want to remember... yada yada. Significant Other made me bring it everywhere. and now it's lost. what a lot of help that is. the last i remember having it was when i was waiting for the fire drill to be over so that i could go up to the office. so i sat at one of the benches outside and updated my reminder list while i waited. after a while i got bored i gave up waiting and headed off to tiny tapir. i remember setting the book down for a bit because i wanted to browse CPs, and from there on the notebook totally slipped my mind. until Monday when i realized the book was nowhere to be found - at home, in the office, in the cars. tension.

i'm waiting for tt to come back to me on whether my stupid book got misplaced there... i really hope i did leave it there because apart from tt, i really don't know where i could have thrown it. i forgot what i did on Thursday, Friday was the day i got in the office at 5am, and during the weekend i abandoned everything because it was my birthday weekend... =D. uwaaaaaaaaa... sucks really. i had a really good recipe written in there. geram ok.

i hate virtual organizers, i'm more comfortable with pen and paper, so just now after going to the bank i dropped by Kino to get this. like it or not, i have to start afresh =( (but i'm still hoping my stupid book will turn up, reward to anyone who finds it!!!).

the replacement killer

1) it's small
2) it's tiny
3) i can just dump it into my handbag
4) it's one of the few cheapest ones i could find there haha

my deskmate pointed out that the smaller it is, the higher the chances of it going missing. well, at least i can just throw it into my bag with the hope that it won't simply poof into thin air, without having me to hold it in my hand. being the airhead that i am, the chances of me leaving it on top of an atm machine or on top of a toilet bowl are close to 100%. lol.

this isn't the first time i've misplaced something. some of the things i can still remember going POOF are my first ever crystal bracelet i bought with Sarah in Penang, a vintage necklace my cousin Nedd gave to me for my birthday last time (takkan pencuri curi kot?), my greyish-silver brooch my mom bought for me, Dayana's teether keys, my favorite pair of black workpants i bought at Pyramid, and now this. i should think there are other items i've misplaced, that's how nyanyuk i am.

i guess i should jot down the things i can still recall was written in my green notebook before i forget them altogether. and i should get myself some gingko biloba for the brain. and raisins too.

temptations for you

sorry, couldn't resist =P. i know how much emiza has been wanting a rainbow wrap, and i came across some photos of a mother of 5 selling off her rainbow wraps on fsot who still looks hot even after all those years. i wish i look like her 10 years down the road lol! i know emiza has already quenched her lust over these beauties... let's wait with her shall we? =D

earthy rainbow

felice

below photo is a cgw dyed pink. lovely isn't it? too bad the mama had already overdyed it with another color because it wouldn't sell. i would've bought it in the original dyed color, i was just too broke then to grab it from her then hahaha. you can still see the waves contrast. it's a nice shade of pink too. and it's in the perfect size too. lol. been itching to get a waves ever since i let go of my omt. waves are in a category of their own, in my opinion. the weave is cushy and supportive =).

CGW dipped in pink

i still haven't found my green notebook. so my heart is like so tak tenteram because of that. grrrr. i want to shop to release tension but i'm broke (i know better that i shouldn't =P). so now i'm occupying my brain with blogging nonsense. so this post might be up a while. maybe it wouldn't. haha.

i seriously need to get wrapping out of my system. it's not like i'm a fan, anyway. but they're just soOoOoO nice to see. please bear with my nonsense =P. i suffer from this disease where i buy and hoard, and once i've outgrown the phase, i let them all go. phases that have come and gone include shoes (i think i have about 30 pairs, some of which until today i am too sayang to let go even though i know i'll never get around to wearing them), skirts (during the time i was unmarried and took dancing classes =P), accessories (no thanks to shishi, lol. i have a bunch of earrings and necklaces at home in my jewellry boxthat i rarely wear nowadays) and scarves (no thanks to Tie Racks. and Arzu. and Ariani. sold most of them off already and gave them away as presents because i'm not using them). current obsession is wraps. i'm patiently waiting for this phase to expire. it doesn't help that the current craze on mbw is wraps! beongoks (doesn't help either that nita just bought her very own maruyama hahahah).

oh yeah, i just realized that i don't really fancy 2nd hand diapers, especially if they've been subjected to heavy duty use. i tried on my Baby Beehinds AIO which i bought as seconds on my dot last weekend, and she wore it for 2 hours (during nap time) before it started to leak. is using the booster really necessary? luckily the waterproof bedpad helped protect the mattress. i had to wash the sheets and her Chewy. it doesn't help that the weather is like this, everything takes ages to dry. i wonder how UK people do it. i love the weather, don't get me wrong. i just hate doing laundry in this weather. hee~~~

btw i counted, i have about 23 CDs. is that too much? mostly all different brands, at the time i was tempted to see which brand suited me best. and i sold off the ones i didn't really fancy. i found that i liked my BGs and DBs best =D.

i bought a bottle of nail polish at Genting. takde kerje punye pasal. they were going for rm1 so what the heck. current 1Elianto nail color on offer is Platinum Pearl. my nails are currently painted this shade =D.

tomorrow i should remember to bring some bread so that i can eat the peanut butter my deskmate bought for me for breakfast. haha.

and tomorrow i should get some cream for my eczema. i seem to have developed immunity against Cloderm. haiz. and tomorrow is the day i should cut up another credit card. what say you? =D

sekian, terima kasih.

year 27: officially ended!

so i turn another year old this year. i don't feel old. in fact i feel like i'm aging backwards physically, with my brain ageing three times forward haha.

i had a peaceful weekend, thanks to everyone for their thoughtful SMSs, FB wishes, and via other futuristic modes of communication. i don't find it surprising that i never get a physical card anymore, with the exception of from my own family, lol.

i hope i'll be more hardworking, more smarter, more wiser, more richer, more prettier =P. more good deeds, less bad deeds. more love, less hate. more smiles, less frowns. more patience, less swear words (er...). i hope to be a wiser spender. i hope to be a great mother to my daughter. i hope to love myself more.

my crazy deskmate decided to get revenge on me by getting me this:


a little something from my colleagues. i could hear the screech of the cellophane as they pieced everything together at Sam's desk. i just can't believe the bear got speared in the butt. hahahahahah. thanks for the thought =).

and so i had an interesting weekend. i started out the Saturday with going on a short road trip with my friends to Genting =).




the weather was kinda drizzly so we spent most of the time indoors. the weather was really nice!!! thanks very much to the two drivers for getting us back home safely =).

then at 8-ish we went to a BBQ held by Significant Other's former colleague in Shah Alam. the photos here were taken by Fahmi =). i found it amusing that my daughter was more agreeable to strangers, she ran around the house like nobody's business. she even took a minute or two to smile at Uncle Fahmi's pointing camera before dashing off somewhere else. lol. and she even took the opportunity to grab someone's coke and pour it into my bag T_T.




and Sunday was spent attending kid's birthday parties, followed by a nice quiet family dinner in the evening, just the three of us.


that's the end of my birthday weekend =D.

by the way, just to prove to you that i've aged a year older, i've successfully made my green notebook disappear. i want to scream because all my notes and reminds are written in the book, but i have totally forgotten where i put it. gerammmmmmmmm! (and when i complained to anyone who was willing to listen that i lost my notebook, they all thought that i was talking about a laptop. hahahah. what happened to the good 'ol traditional paper book? haiz).

quote

a wise saying my very wise friend Hema threw at me this morning...

"There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do and not doing it."

frankly, i kinda agree with this. lol.

snugg as a bug in a rug

today is a very sangap day in the office. i need to go to two banks (the stupid fax machine at the office doesn't seem to be working properly bahhhh) and the post office to send off the pair of shoes i managed to sold (yey!). i arrived at the office at 5am but i have no witnesses to confirm i did, with the exception of my clock-in time and the two pak guards downstairs who think i'm crazy to come to work at 5am. haha.

anyway, just wanted to ask your opinion, which design is nicer? all prints are taken off the Snugg website. there was another design that i liked, Lava Leaves, but i couldn't find the swatch anywhere.


been meaning to get myself a diaper clutch since i dah start malas nak angkut diaper bags (sila rujuk balik my previous post lol). not sure if the above designs can be used for diaper clutch, but i'll just display the design here merely because i'm loving them. haha. i've had enough of stripeys (i have enough stripey rs's to keep me happy) so i was thinking something loud and messy. hence, the three.

but i still got alot of time to think about it. i'm using November to contemplate my future purchases for December (sila rujuk balik my other previous post hahah). i don't want to make the same mistake of 'buying now, regretting later' phase.

what's in your diaper bag?

it's 5am and i'm already in the office. how pathetic is that? =P.

i've never liked any of the diaper bags that i've ever used over the course of the past year. probably the design really didn't suit me. or i guess it lacks some of the features that i look for in a diaper bag. until now i have yet to find a diaper bag that can fit everything that i want it to hold. but then i'll probably have a hard time locating stuff in the bag. hahahahaha. the bigger the bag, the more stuff to stuff in! so first lemme talk about all the bags that i've ever used as a diaper bag.

the first diaper bag i bought was Avent's Urban Diaper Bag. i bought this at Babyjaya during their sales way before Dayana was born. i didn't do much research on diaper bags last time. so me and Significant Other hentam based on how cute the bag looked. lol.



this messenger bag is a stylish changing bag that allows gives you two looks - the zip-on flap is interchangeable,which gives you the the option of two looks in one. it comes in either pink or blue. you can also knock yourself out with whatever color that suits your current wardrobe. lol. some of the other features of this bag include:
- wide adjustable shoulder strap for optimum carrying comfort
- spacious, easy access interior and easy-close magnetic fastening
- 3M Thinsulate pockets keeps two bottles of pre-boiled hot water warm or cold ready-mixed formula / breastmilk cool for several hours
- detachable pocket for personal items
- includes a mini laundry bag
- spacious baby bag is large enough to carry all your baby care items

as you can see from the photo the bag has many compartments, which definitely makes it easy for you to store items systematically and for easy retrieval. i loved the bag! it came with it's own changing mat (which is normal for most diaper bags). i also love the mini laundry bag that came with the diaper bag, which was really useful in my opinion. i'd put my baby's soiled clothing in there as to not mix with the other items in the bag. i liked the idea of a built-in insulated pocket to store two bottles during travel, it helped a lot when i was transporting EBM around. but i didn't like that the insulated pocket would take up 1/4 of space in the bag once bottles were put into it.

but as much as i tried to like the bag, i wasn't too fond of the flap's design. i found that the kononnye 'easy-close magnetic fastening' wasn't so easy after all, especially if you sumbat alot of stuff into the bag to its full capacity. the magnet isn't strong enough so the flap will be hanging awkwardly over the bag opening. another thing is the bag has the potential to accidentally overturn once everything has been crammed inside, and since the magnetic fastening isn't strong enough so if the bag topples over, everything will come spilling out T_T. sungguh tidak selesa mau galas this bag since the flap isn't properly secured. and i just love to bring rubbish in my diaper bag (coz you never know when you might need them, right?). my mom always complain that my diaper bag berat macam batu. whatever =P.

recently the zipper for the flap (the zip stopper, to be precise) sudah frayed off so unfortunately i'm stuck with a flapless messenger bag T_T (or until i get the bag to a place that can help to fix it, sigh). i found the magnet in the flap to have rusted, i dipped the flap to give it a quick wash one day and when it dried faint stains of rust (i think) seemed to have appeared where the magnet is positioned on the flap. terus tidak cantik diaper bag ku itu.

next i decided to get a diaper bag in backpack style. so i got the Rucksack Change Bag from Mothercare.


i first saw this bag at Mothercare in Plaza Indonesia, Jakarta. i thought i didn't want it, but after much thought i asked my friend if she could help me buy it during her Jakarta work trip. there was a big price difference, i'd save rm70+ if i bought it in Jakarta than if i bought it here (in Malaysia everything imported is mahal).

the bag is black in color, with the inner layer an orange color (nice!). it has many zippered compartments, the main compartment is way bigger than my Avent bag. it also has a handy, easy-access wipes pocket which i don't really use because i'm afraid the wipes will dry out after a while. but i store the wipes sealed in that compartment for easier retrieval. the changing mat that comes with it has two zippered messy bags attached to it to store soiled items or whatever that fancies you, but i've never utilized it. the bag also has an insulated compartment to store bottles, although i think the Avent insulated pocket functions much better than this one. it even has a side pocket which you really won't notice unless you look closely, where i keep small personal items in (Hema if you're reading this you'll remember the time we went nuts looking for my car key, i thought i'd lost it but it was actually in that pocket hahahahha... i even had my friends strip search the bag but none of them noticed the side pocket. goes to show how you can actually overlook it, which i wonder if it's a good thing or not, lol).

i like this bag. easy to carry around, backpack style. i just wished it came in a more interesting color =P. the zippers has this tapered end ( i dunno how to describe it, you can see it in the photo) to make handling the zippers easier. but one day when my mil brought the bag out during one of her outings with my baby, the tapered end for the zipper of the insulated pocket went missing. i found that hard to believe that it just went POOF like that because the zipper base didn't look like it was tampered, and the tapered end was tightly glued together, so it was impossible for it to unravel and pop off. but it did. so now the bag sudah cacat =(. my mom attached one of those paper rings to the zip to replace the missing end. but... ntah. you know la me. sampai bila bila tak puas hati. hehehehe.

this bag was really useful when i had to lug around a bunch of stuff for Dayana. when babies are still young, it doesn't hurt to bring everything along wherever you go, just to be on the safe side. haha. some might disagree, but this is how i think, heh. so... when Dayana turned One (and when she decided to wean herself off me on her own), i realized i didn't need to bring around as much stuff as i did before. hence i didn't really need to lug around such a big bag as this one.

i actually prefer messenger style bags than to backpacks, especially since i usually go around on my own and i need to carry my baby and also the diaper bag, not to forget my handbag too =P (thank God for babywearing!). sometimes i simply campak my personal stuff into the diaper bag to minimize the number of bags i lug around, but i found it tedious to transfer my stuff here and there (not to mention i win first prize for being Miss Forgetful).

which is why i'm just curious, what the heck do you lug around in your diaper bag for your baby? nowadays i just campak her stuff into my Baggu reuseable bag which i got free during the parenthood fair in MV last August. to make diaper-changing easier, i sumbat all the necessities into a small cow minky bag for easy access. items include:
- 2-3 piece of diapers
- EMAB
- wet wipes
- 2 cloth towels to wipe up messes
- packet of tissues

other things i sumbat into the Baggu bag include:
- changing mat (i use the one from my MC bag)
- the minky bag with all the above mentioned items inside
- a change of clothing for Dayana just in case
- baby's sweater + shoes + snugg hat
- 2-3 milk bottles
- milk powder storage container
- snacks
- pacifier
- a couple of toys to occupy her just in case she gets bored
- mini Chewy (i can't give her her big one, she'll end up dragging it on the floor)

i also bring around a ring sling carrier which obviously tak muat this Baggu =D.

(photos later)

are there any other useful things i should add to my diaper bag list? or is that already considered too much? =P. my friend Dee bought Allerhand diaper bag for her upcoming December baby. Allerhand is pricey, but i kinda like their look. probably i'd get one for myself if i ever were to get #2? lol. maybe i should get a diaper bag that i can use as my own bag once my kids have all grown up and i don't need to carry that many junk around town. lol.

anyway, here's two that i kinda like. hohohohoho.

travel backpack. i can use this as my own bag too, lol

weekender carry-all. an alternative to replace my lingkup Avent bag =P