clocking in 2012

so, have all of you got the most out of 2011? 2011's about to end! time for new resolutions... or renewing the old ones =P. today's the last working day of 2011. tomorrow will be the last day to enjoy the year before 2012 takes over. and Monday cuti!!!

for ice cream lovers, tomorrow is the last day you'd be able to enjoy 31% off Baskin Robbins ice cream for the year lol.

any of you planning anything special tomorrow night? i hear concerts and events will be aplenty, take your pick. Significant Other is celebrating New Year's studying for his finals, so it'll be just me and this kids this time. i'm not much of a crowd person, i think i'll probably stay in with my kids watching Beauty & the Beast for the trillionth time. i wonder if i should go watch a movie by myself since i don't have anyone to teman me... TGV's complimentary tickets are still burning a hole in my Coach bag =P.

my UK father-in-law left for the UK two days ago. he'll be visiting again in February, about the same time my sister will be coming back to Malaysia for her semester break. she's planning an invasion of USS with her peeps so i think i'll sit that one out (even though she initially invited me to go along =P). bil won't be coming back until April, but only if mil allows him to. since he couldn't return to Malaysia for Christmas, he decided to take a little trip to Amsterdam instead. my other extended family - on his dad's side - is on the way home to Malaysia from Dubai. i'll probably drop by the house tomorrow, Dayana misses her Mak Chu.

i guess i'm blessed to have such a big extended family. true?

i had a hell of a ride this year:

i survived for a whole year in my current company.
decided to embark on the husband's midlife journey to pursue something nobody in their right mind at his age would think of doing.
managed to get our condo rented out after a year of struggling with the renovation works literally and financially - with hopes that they'll renew the contract for another year.
my youngest daughter turned 1, eldest turned 3 in August.
received notice of delivery of vacant possession for my other SOHO right on schedule.
destroyed some plastics.
went crazy over babywearing. made new friends thanks to this craze.
thanks to WA, i secured the best friends i could ever wish for, despite coming from different backgrounds.
i mended old friendships. built new ones.
put myself on a limb... several times (i h8 u red airline).
let old flames go. laughed. cried. laughed and cried summore.
i'm still blogging crap =P.

anything i missed? egad, remind me to ask mil for a Petronas Diary, and also to diligently record every single daily activity for the whole year!

i suppose if things didn't happen the way it did, i wouldn't be who i am today. so in a way the years help me discover myself as a person, help me realize what's important in life. but that doesn't mean every decision that i've made is the right choice =P
and my life chapter doesn't stop here. i've still got lots to write in my book. here's to hope, wishful thinking, and great friends who stand by your side no matter what =)

to my WA friends,

thanks for listening to my sudden outbursts and raves for the past year(even though you don't understand what i'm talking about half the time!). you preggy women are sure bored with your non-preggy friend, who's always complaining about you preggy people talking about preggy-related stuff. wahahahahhahahah.

p/s. my raves haven't ended yet ok.

i'm never one to take up the unknown to my face, but here's to 2012, eh?

1. i will eat more.
2. i will blog more, pray more, love more.
3. ... i also vow not to splurge for the first six months of 2012 *rolling on the floor laughing my arteries out*
4. more hugs and kisses for the kids.
5. put a little more faith in God.
6. learn how to cook by heart - this i stole from Deen's blog, but i seriously need to do this @_@ what a hopeless wife i am
7. save money for that next big family vacay
8. smile more, worry less, frown less.

thanks for keeping my flame alive.

antara dua sujud

TAHUKAH KAMU.....

Doa duduk antara Sujud yang kita selalu baca laju2...
tahukah maksudnya??

Rabbighfirli (Tuhanku, ampuni aku)
Warhamni (sayangi aku)
Wajburnii (Tutuplah aib-aibku)
Warfa’nii (Angkatlah darjatku)
Warzuqnii (Berilah aku rezeki)
Wahdinii (Berilah aku petunjuk)
Wa’Aafinii (Sihatkan aku)
Wa’fuannii (Maafkan aku)

thought i'd share. and for me to always remember. because ignorance isn't necessarily bliss T__T.

unveiling

kak salmah skyped me earlier.

"salam.. keje ker ada 3 package utk awk hri nih"

ooooh apa lagi. fluff mail! *love*

what a way to compensate for an upset tummy, yeah? =D

parcel #1:

thanks Zoe!

love the packaging

parcel #2:

thanks Monique!

cleared customs, phew~

a blue box from Didymos

aiiiiiiiiiii... puder silk indio, male version!

parcel #3:

thanks farid! now to find a potential victim...

gr8 advice

t

christmas lunch and dinner

i am blessed to be able to have a hearty lunch and dinner on Christmas Day (rather, to have the opportunity to stuff my face and hopefully gain a few pounds *wishful thinking*). this comes from someone who rarely goes out on a fancy dinner ever since that certain someone went off to pursue a dream... just kidding =P.

we had lunch at one of Significant Other's favorite restaurants. we haven't been there for more than a year now, i owe him his birthday dinner for last year, and also for his birthday the year before that too (so... expired dy! mwahahahahhah).

the Peking fan

enjoying her food immensely

this girl would rather run around the restaurant than eat

Peking Duck, baby kailan and beef with ginger

and since Dad was around for Christmas, he insisted on having a proper Christmas dinner. since Mom wasn't well, we had dinner at a place closer to home. Auntie Noraishah joined us as well =). the restaurant gave out teddy bears as gifts when Dad paid the bill. the kids got one each, Auntie Noraishah got one to give her grandchild, even grownup Auntie Enn got one =P.

the starter. i preferred Significant Other's salad than mine

mushroom soup for the kids

Auntie Enn chilling out with the kids. Dinara was certainly in a gr8 mood that day

Significant Other & Dad's turkey dinner set

mine: rib eye steak. yumm!

and here's Dad enjoying his meal =)

Significant Other says Dad makes the best Christmas dinner in the UK, so he's determined to spend Christmas in the UK next year =P.

to everyone celebrating this holiday, hope you had a wonderful Christmas =). next up: resolutions for the New Year T___T.

christmas with the kids

so how was your Christmas holidays? =)

these photos were taken a day before Christmas. the husband came home for the long weekend so me and the family visited Pak Long and Mak Long in Melawati. Dinara seemed to enjoy herself in a big company, especially since she got to roam the house as she pleased.

the eldest was so happy to get her tiara and earrings i bought at ToysRUs last week, she wears it everywhere, and it's the first thing she asks for when she gets up in the morning. a pain for me because she doesn't know how to wear them herself, so pagi2 buta she'll bang on the door demanding me to help her wear it for her. Daddy asked her if she wanted to be a doctor when she grows up, she shook her head and replied 'nooOoO, i wanna be Pwincess!'.

meet Princess Dayana

i'm putting her into a day school next year. i brought her along while surveying the school and she seemed to like seeing soo many kids at one place. let's hope she studies as hard as she plays later. this girl loves to make friends, anytime anywhere, particularly if she spies a kid nearby. she'd rather go play with a kid her age than enjoy the food every time we go out for dinner.

she still gets irritated each time you take off your shoes when seated during dinner outside. she'd go 'Daddy, pakai shoe Daddy! dirty!' and she won't leave you alone until you put your shoes back on. Auntie Enn pun dah kene, kggal. we used to teach her not to take of her shoes of not her feet will get dirty, so i guess she's returning the favor/reminder =P.

and here's the little one enjoying herself. she currently enjoys eating her sister's crayons. this time she tried to 'eat' a flower. apparently it didn't suit her tastebuds. lol. Mom says she looks a bit chubbier now. i guess that's true. lately she feels so heavy carrying her with my bare hands T__T.

my little Dd

i think she's been watching too many repeats of Beauty & the Beast, because ever since the Daddy came back (and boy was she happy to have him around, bukan main manja si kecik nih ngan Daddy dia @_@) she keeps calling out 'Papa!'. rotfl.

'Papa?'
'Papa!'

(and then since the elder one will always want to outdo her younger sister, she'll start bleating out 'Mama!' Mama!' as well @_@).

she also likes to pujuk her elder sister whenever i scold Dayana (and she goes sulking in the corner) for bullying Dinara. aih... kids are so pure, so innocent *love*. BUT! this 'angelic act' of theirs only happens once in a blue moon okay =P. else they'd be at each other's throats, fighting over who gets what T__T.

i spent Boxing Day nursing my gassy tummy, sigh. how fun is that?

google magic

celebrating the spirit of Xmas indulging!

i think i'm one of the very last people to know this buuuuttttt... who cares =P.
try googling the phrase 'let it snow' and see what happens.
.
.
.
.
Frank Sinatra comes to mind. haha.

anyway, try it! let it snow let it snow let it snow~


also, the boss surprised the team with a little something before the holidays:


i am soo not a coffee fan. until now i don't know what to get from Starbucks. so i tried the Christmas special, which i find a little too sweet @_@.
i dunno if she timed it on purpose, but while waiting for our orders, Starbucks carolers sang some songs and handed out festive cuppies to the customers :D.

=D Merry Christmas everyone!

freebies

... and we all know Malaysians LOOOOOOOOVE freebies =D.
so the next time you big corporate hotshots come up with some exciting deal for the public, do actually think first and strategize (is there such a word??) wisely, ok?

here are a few promo coupons i've come across so far during the past year, two if which i redeemed (goes without saying since i actually work above a shopping complex =P)... except for one. you might know which one it is, it's the one that sounds wayy too good to be true =D.

McD!

BK

KFC

i came across a friend's FB status earlier:

"Melampau betul *** ni. Tadi aku nak beli ****** pun tak dapat. Rupanya dah abis kasi free kat orang ramai".

ouch.

back to sopping

sopping = Malays version of 'shopping'. kekeke.

i told you my obsession over something - anything! - will never stop. since i see shoes are not a feasible item to go nuts on, i decided that the following would give me much more benefit:

zara pencil skirt with pleats

or these two dress. have been eyeing them at MS since my birthday month:



the husband says i should dress up more, but once you're a mom, it feels like the time you need to dress up is taken away by the kids:

"mommy, nak susu lagiiiiiiiii!" throws bottle at my head
"mommy, i basah!"
"mommy, i nak watch Frappy Band!"
"suuuu~~~ shuuuuu~~~" that's Dinara.
"mommy, i nak watch tv."
"mommeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee open door mommeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!" at 6am in the morning.

T___T

btw, an image consultant is most welcome =D.

i just found out yesterday that Dinara sudah pandai angkat tangan and say 'bih da!'. well, not clearly audible yet but you get the meaning. she did that when she managed to dribble a cupful of water down her chin and onto her t-shirt. when i ask her to find something for me and ask her 'where?', she would put her hands in the air and repeat 'where?' (also not so audible yet) and then she looks under my bed skirting for i-do-not-know-what. haha.

copycat kakak dia.

Dayana throws tantrums more often than not, i suspect since it rains practically every evening she doesn't have an outlet to exhaust her energy, hence the tantrums. also i think i need to send her to a day school so she can make new friends, and also indirectly set goals for her (you know how if a friend has or does something, your kid also wants to do or have the exact same thing? haha something like that lah).

it's raining again! and i'm officially skirtified. i have an un-utilized (is there such a word? my pc dictionary says there isn't) GSC voucher with me, and i'm wondering if i should go watch Arthur Christmas by myself. good idea, no? i watched MI4: Ghost Protocol already with sil at MBO Subang Parade (i think i prefer GSC and TGV cinemas) and i kinda liked it. i also watched Alvin & The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked with Dayana at TGV Sunway last weekend. Dayana clearly enjoyed the popcorn. and the chipmunks. and she kept reapplying my chapstick on her lips every 5 minutes or so. haha.

TGV Sunway has changed quite alot. there's a TGV Club, a Beanieplex, and IMAX? @_@ i have no idea what they are. even their online purchasing system is different. i suppose after this they're definitely gonna increase the price. sigh.

millie

millie's found a new home! i hope she's permastash there. she really is miss simpleton. yesterday while stopping for gas, i had her in the passenger seat of my car, when the gas attendant who attended to me began peering through my car window. then he beckoned towards his friend and starting talking in a language i don't understand in.

he probably thought i was crazy i had a doll riding in the car with me, haha (i once drove Ipoh-KL with a gigantic Mashimaro seated beside me in the passenger seat, siap pakai seatbelt lagi ok).

i've come to a conclusion that i like freckled dolls, and also i like them fair, and preferably ones without dreads. for now =D. apart from Pamela being my dream doll, this one comes a close second:

=)

sock bun update

so... i did a little experiment yesterday. at 3 in the morning (i couldn't sleep). i didn't use any serum or whatever, mainly because i don't own any. i only used abit of water because my hair seems to be at uneven lengths. don't ask me how many tries it took to get my hair up in the sock bun, i was beginning to think that doing Bamboletta messy buns were much more easier than this.

i went to work with the bun, btw. hahahaha. i was doubtful that the curls would last a whole day. kagum that adrin still had her curls the next day.
i took the sock out just after i had my lunch. verdict below:

before (3am):


after (2pm):


my hair can't hold curls it seems. suggest me a hair-friendly curl-strengthener serum, please?

fit or fat?

i was browsing the web trying to find out if a particular product really does help a person in increasing their weight when consumed.

i managed to find a thread in which people were asking how they could gain weight the most easiest and most reliable way when i came across the following, which made me want to fall out of my chair in laughter:


as far as i've been told, a great way to fatten yourself up is to go to sleep immediately after you've eaten. so far all i've gotten is a buncit stomach. haha.

and someone actually mistook 'carbs' as 'crabs'. T_T

here is another one i LOL. if this is true, then please forgive me, i am not a rocket scientist.


but really, someone told me that in order for you to gain weight, the calories that you need to consume daily must be more than what you actually need per day. true? or myth?

and here's another funny one:


shiiiit. so i guess i need to check myself into a hospital.

ok so a little midnight humor read from me. do note that this post was not meant to insult anyone, i just found it amusing as to how people would react to the mere question of 'how can i gain weight'. i would've gone through the whole thread but that would mean clicking 70 more pages of replies @_@. but as i browsed towards the end of the thread, the advises given became more helpful and rational (as in what to eat, how to exercise) than the easy answer of 'eat McD, KFC and Pizza Hut every day'.

i have yet to answer that question for myself but lately i started mulling over this matter mainly because:

1) i was dismissed on the basis that i looked light enough to fly away (and that's not via airplane ok) also that i wasn't curvy enough in all the right places; and
2) i saw myself in recent photos horribly resembling an anorexic. sigh. you didn't even need to have x-ray vision to see my skeleton outline.

ok i should get some sleep. today has been quite a record of me posting entries (if you're bored, then wait til i have too much on my plate i won't have time to entertain you peeps =P). goodnight!

blue ocean

*SOLD*

anyone interested?
ocean grad hemp, project by Turquoise Fields. size 5.
rm550 shipped. rm20 off if purchased in 2011.

when you brush your teeth

Dinara loves brushing her teeth, however the elder sister does not. i practically had to get her a new toothbrush before she willingly subjected herself to scrubbing her pearly whites. she still gets into a fight with Bibik over the sink every night though. probably Bibik kasar sangat T_T (she managed to karate chop my glass side table into two, who else do you know is able to do that???).


and this here is Dinara's way of brushing her teeth. first you put abit of toothpaste onto your toothbrush then proceed to brush what little teeth that you have.


if you think that the amount of toothpaste is insufficient you can add more to your toothbrush. or better yet, to simplify everything, you can just squirt another amount of toothpaste directly into the mouth as per picture below T_T.


rotfl. i need more cartoon episodes featuring the characters brushing their teeth to show the kids.

Dayana has been inquiring about my earrings and keep saying that she wants to wear earrings too. if i remember correctly i pierced mine when i was about her age. i also remember that i had a friend who chickened out after piercing one ear because she couldn't tolerate the pain. hmmm. we'll wait til Tok Ami is free then we go pierce you earlobes, kay Dayana?

ok i'm off to get pizza for Dayana. she was asking about it yesterday but i already bought sushi for my midnight snack =P~

first time i've heard of sock buns

inspired by Adrin's blogpost here.

what first came to my mind when i read the first part of her post was this:

photo courtesy of Lita!

erm... the animals in the photo above are sock animals. heehee.

ok so in general socks are very useful. you can do many things with them, including sticking them into your hair. just make sure you don't use a smelly sock, else your hair will end up with curls AND odour. hahahahahahahaha.

Adrin has written a lovely post on these sock buns. i am so into curls lately ever since learning how to do the gibson tuck hair style: by tying your hair up and tucking the ends in (although i cheat by using a gigantic scrunchie, you need tons of bobby pins to secure the hair in place). by the end of the day when you let your hair down, you get a nice set of temp curls without even using a curling iron (which i've never tried to use before =P). this hairstyle was inspired by a friend i met during a walk-in-interview a month ago =D.

the gibson tuck hair style
image source: google

my own lousy version, with the scrunchie =P

a picture tutorial of the gibson tuck hairstyle can be found here.

another hairstyle i've totally been fascinated about is the rope braid. i couldn't figure out for the life of me how to intertwine strands of hair and not let them unravel by themselves. the secret is to twist the separate strands in the opposite way from the way you twist the strands together.

ta-da! my very own rope braid! =D

anyway, for future reference, i just wanted to post here the youtube link that Adrin blogged about =D.

i'm soo into youtube these days. i'm just too lazy to wait for them to load =P. balik nanti i wanna try with my dot's huggalugs. hahahah.

isn't it a wonder

squee!!! my bestie Amie used to go nuts over this boyband back when we were in high school. she even bought the album and let me borrow it, on which this song was in. since this song was zaman old skool, i thought i'd never be able to find the mp3. but i did. and i found this as well =D. one of my favorite songs in the album.

p/s. i'm a 80's baby that enjoy 90's music =P

alot to talk about

i was googling Qatar Airways when i came across an interesting read. i barely know the blogger, i just chanced upon her blog and gave it a read. and liked what i see. even though i don't have a clue of who she is. haha. seems like it's hard not to like her after going through her blog. i like how she pursued dream and finally acheived it, which really doesn't happen to just anyone (i guess her physical attributes had something to with it as well, see previous sentence).

ok so after reading her blog, i realized how much i missed blogging. for some reason my life has been pretty dull. i haven't been babywearing in ages, which also means that i haven't been out of the house much lately. so here's some random pics i got from my iPhone with hopes of entertaining whoever reads my blog. i don't get alot of comments so i barely even know how many eyes actually make it to en1x.

so here are random things i'd like to crap about:

1. birthday tickets from Nuffnang courtesy of TGV Cinemas


last month was my birthday month so i received an email from Nuffnang saying i could collect 4 complimentary tickets from TGV Cinemas at their office. woohoo! free movie passes! problem is, i had never been to Nuffnang before and judging from their address (Heritage House) i definitely haven't been around that area before. i had to use my phone GPS to get there, and even then i had to make a u-turn because i couldn't turn right from Sultan Ismail (my gps told me to turn right at a no-right turn wahhahaha). their office reminded me alot of my former company's workplace. seriously. i was like, so this is an office? hahaha.

a special thanks to Nuffnang and TGV for such a nice gift for a feeble person like me =).

2. i borong-ed Ombak Rindu - the book


eeeee ok did i mention that i h8 the movie? =P~~~ jk! since my friend told me the movie was inspired from a book, and i was told that the book was quite good, so i thought i had to get it. two of my friends wanted to get it as well (i'm not that crazy to borong 3 for myself ok: one for upstairs, one for downstairs, and one in the car? haha) so i got my friend to help me buy them at the MPH fair at MVEC last weekend. i think my theory still stands: if something exists in both book and movie form, whatever form you encounter first will be the one you favor better. no?

i'm also in the process of collecting the Twilight books. so far i've only bought two. i'm abit cerewet on the physical look of the book. if anyone comes across the original cover version of Twilight, do let me know? =P.

3. someone's latest progress at flying skool.

earlier today i received a WA message and was just about to open it when i received a phone call.

"dah tengok?"
"i baru nak bukak. asal?"
"tengok dulu."


chee. someone scored the highest imaginable score ever for Principles of Flight rupanya. lolz.

4.camwhoring time!

you know the blog i mentioned about earlier? well the blogger practically had photos of herself EVERYWHERE in her blog. i think that's what made her blog seem interesting. haha. i h8 taking photos of myself. i'm reaching my third decade and already i feel old. fuuuhhh~. anyway, here's me camwhoring abit, wahahahhahahaha. don't laugh k =P.

i've always wanted my hair to have wavy ends but saloons keep telling me that my hair can't hold big curls. or something like that lah. previously i kept straightening my hair on an annual basis, i last rebonded my hair in early 2009. being not-poker-straight is the new in for me lol.


5. my dots books - princess & jigsaw

i was on my way to the posto yesterday when i came across MPH's booth at North Court, G Floor. i simply cannot buy the kids books that are not hardcover based - they simply don't know how to appreciate them. the youngest would burst into a fit of giggles whenever she manages to tear a paper into two, and the eldest simply won't baby her books. she'd campak them everywhere sometimes for game, she even managed to dismantle a hardcover book T_T so all those lovely 365 bedtime storybooks will have to wait until my kids can finally appreciate story time.

so anyway for Dayana i bought Princess books - a set of three - i know how much she loves princesses, and for Dinara, a hardcover jigsaw book that contains 4 big jigsaw puzzles - not that she knows how to put jigsaw pieces together, i just found the book too colorful to resist =P. when i showed her the puzzle pieces could be removed from the book, she got mad at me each time i wouldn't allow her to get the puzzle pieces out because she'd end up biting them anyways. Dayana pulak got pretty obsessive over her books, she didn't even allow me to read them. tsk.

me? ever heard of 'Guess How Much I Love You'? =D

6. lunch with my former colleagues two days in a row

the participants: karen j, wah jei, and shishi (same opis but we never hang out much). yesterday we had lunch at Aunty Nat. today we had lunch at La Manila. karen recently got back from maternity, and wah jei hasn't been travelling for quite some time, so we met up mostly to crap =D. i told karen next meetup we go alexis for pavlova, but only after CNY. hahahah. next week shishi will be on leave til the new year's to clear her leave T_T.

it's raining but i'm pretty lazy to get my butt down, mainly because i'll end up stuck in horrible traffic. a friend of mine is at DEMC. i thought of going after work today but the weather is soo sucky i think i'll drop by tomorrow before work. ta~

oh, and btw, driving to Pos Besar KL is so much easier / less hassle than taking the ktm from mv.

stickies

sticky sticky

i like Sticky candy. not good for your teeth, i know. haha. i first heard of them during the time i attended the flash mobs in Jaya One, they were randomly handing some small jars to people filled with sticky candy. the jar itself was pretty miniature, and the candies inside were sooo pretty i think if i were to have gotten one of those i would end up hoarding instead of eating them =P. my friends got one, but as usual, nobody offered me any. am i really that stormy? T___T. was even tempted to steal the ones on the table next to us hahaha.

dini opened her sticky candy jar and let me try one. gosh instant teeth-rotting agent but ridiculously cute and addicting! i think i can work my way through a whole jar all by myself without me even realizing =P~. she told me their store was in One Utama, sharing the same level with Rotiboy. she knows because she planned to get those as wedding souvenirs last time but the elders wouldn't hear of it hahahah (i'd rather receive 'useful' items than those glam glass ornaments that end up collecting dust on the table btw =P).

so one day i chanced upon the store with lix and decided to get a jar for me to stuff my face with. they didn't have much choice if you were to buy on the shelf, they only had one jar size available with multiple flavors inside. they even prepared samples for you to try in case you got curious of a particular color. i'm more inclined towards the sticky fruit, the candies that look like miniature weird-looking logs with a little picture on it.

one size available ready made

see the cute little images! and the colors!

you don't need to refrigerate them. the candies come in weird sizes mainly because they're handmade, at the store i saw with my own eyes how they were chopping the long rod-like candies into pieces (i totally cannot be tasked to do that, i'd be busy fretting at how each piece would turn out - senget lah, too big lah, too small lah hahahahah). i hopped on over to their website, seems like they come in so many more flavors, one could go dizzy just deciding on one.

the store takes customized orders priced according to the jar size if i'm not mistaken, but the the minimum order would be 6 kilos =P. you could head over to the website for more info since i don't know what i'm crapping about half of the time =P.

what you get in a jar of candy =P~~~

so ok it might not be your cup of tea but i happen to like 'em, so sush!