KK day 4

1st May 2011 - happy labor day!

i owed Lan a visit! i still remember him pestering me to come to Sabah for a visit since the dark ages. who would've thunk it'd be now? =P~ so i left the hotel at 8am to have breakfast with him, Mahani and the kiddos. Mahani's sis was visiting all the way from Sarawak. they took me to this Taliban restaurant at Inaman, it was soo good i actually ordered two roti naan butter (and i don't even like roti haha).

with lan & family

then Mahani temanned me pergi the Filipino market just opposite my hotel to get a few things. didn't buy souvenirs though. just bought some dried stuff at the ikan kering market. tu pun didn't really know what to buy. lol. my mom pesan sayur manis, but i couldn't find any. Auntie Kar said i should've told her earlier, boleh suruh Uncle tolong bawa balik from kampung, lol. didn't even cross my mind. hehe. first time i heard of kuih amplang and kuih cincin.

had air kelapa at the stalls before sending Mahani back. can't believe i had to add air gula to mine baru sedap, hahahah. checked-in for our flight online at their place before heading back to the hotel.

air kelapa =D

anak angkat baru

luckily we had the option for a late checkout. i really wish Significant Other had bought our return tickets for a Monday flight. we didn't have time to drop by Auntie's house, didn't even have time to drive up to the foot of Mount KK! oh well... maybe next visit? =D. after plundering the hotel room and checking out, we went to Little Italy's for a quick lunch before driving ourselves to the airport, returned our rental (Lan, thanks so much ya for your help!) and checked in our bags.

small cozy italian restaurant we chanced upon

Auntie and Uncle happened to be there at the airport, Uncle just flew in from somewhere so they waited with us until we boarded the 5.30pm flight. Auntie was so nice to give me a little souvenir from KK =).

we were unfortunate that our seats didn't align properly with the plane windows, so we kinda missed the sunset view =(. does anyone have an idea on how to choose the perfect window seat so that this doesn't happen next time? haha. anyway, this time our flight was a direct back to KL, so we arrived right on schedule, where my brother was there to pick us up.

our flight food... fish & chicken... along with the infamous airplane orange juice =P



so... that's the end of my impulse long weekend getaway. can't wait to do it again next time. just wish the kids had come along. photos to follow, i think they're still in raw format.

oh before i forget, this was what i did in order to bring back my EBM, lol.
- kept the ice packs in the ice section of the fridge, where they actually freezed, haha
- pumped and stored every 6oz into 12oz liners
- chucked them into the hotel fridge
- Significant Other kept the whole room freezing by lowering the room temp T_T
- accumulated a bunch of EBM throughout the trip (although not as much as a die-hard pumping mama i should think)
- right before checkout, took out all the EBM and ice packs and sumbat them into my mini Coleman box (i didn't purposely buy a new one for this trip, i already have a cooler box, only it's a small one)
- huargh susah gila nk sumbat everything into the box, the bottles already took up too much space, so thank God for the liners, lol
- put an MLO icepack on the top of the liners before closing the box
- prayed it stayed cool until we landed

it did. so OK la. hehe.

maid settled!

i just recovered from a very bad fever spell. i'm still under the weather, but i've never been better. so i guess i got alot to update here. as soon as i can get my brain unscrambled.

first things first... so i finally managed to complete my maid application request, squee!

decided to check back with immigration about a week after i submitted my documents. the officer told me that everything was approved but i had to meet with the officer because there was a name still active under Significant Other's name.

i dropped by a couple more times, some of which were totally unnecessary. see below:

Friday: officer emergency leave
Monday: officer said i needed to write an appeal letter for the case of second PRA
Tuesday: met a different officer, said i need supporting documents for second PRA application #$(*@()#@ (and why couldn't they inform me about this on Monday?)

so after i picked up the referral letter from Norley that night (thanks Norley!) i dropped by immigration on Wednesday morning to submit supporting documents before she finally agreed to approve my application. i had to immediately pay for the JP visa, rm515.

i'd like to advise that if this is your second application (or if you have any other maids still active registered under your name), it's wise to mention this in the first place to avoid further complications in the whole application process later on. the immigration officer even told me someone submitted their first application in Melaka, then proceeded to submit their second application in Putrajaya with the hopes that their first application wouldn't be traced. lol. i didn't intentionally left out that information. i simply didn't know.

on Thursday morning i dragged the maid to get her medical checkup done. since Fomema only accepted Wang Pos, Money Order or Postal order as form of payment, the day before i went to the post office and made out Wang Pos worth rm190 payable to Fomema Sdn. Bhd. no cash. as soon as you submit the form and make payment, she can immediately go for her medical. you get to choose which panel clinic to bring your maid to get her medical done, some panel clinics didn't have their own x-ray facility so you might have to go to two different places for this service. i chose a clinic nearest in our area which has its own x-ray facility. once everything was completed (give it a couple of hours for the medical), i had to wait for about 5 working days before i was able to check the results online.

i literally waited 1 week before i checked the results, the results i got was 'passed, please proceed to immigration'. yay. phew.

25th May - made my way to Putrajaya for the last time, to settle the remaining payment and whatever unfinished business i had with immigration. made payment for the levy of rm640, then collected the multilple entry permit sticker for her passport.

i was told that if in any instance the maid failed her Fomema medical examination, the money you paid for the JP visa would be burnt. the levy was still transferable to another person, but you wouldn't be able to get back your initial rm515. nangis kan?

i brought Dayana along this time for fun, she quite enjoyed the trip haha.

since the maid's visitor's visa has expired (duh), i had to apply for a special pass, which costed an additional rm100 (it's like it's a compulsory amount that you have to pay, and it seems that the only way to avoid paying for this is that if you submit your application immediately the day after the arrival, because it takes slightly about 1 month or more for your application to be fully approved and settled. cheating, kan?). i had to go meet another officer again for this (officer tu sempat lagi promote Shaklee kat i), then make payment before getting the maid's passport stamped.

mission completed!

ugh. getting a maid is not easy. but alhamdulillah, so far so good. i hope everything else is smooth sailing after this. heck, in the process i even learnt how to change a flat tyre! T_T

i hate this weather

the weather has been super crazy!!! I am soo not liking it.

i think for the past few weeks i've been thrown one obstacle after another nonstop, and it's really wearing me down @_@ even my milk production is decreasing, my brain is set to worry mode so output just isn't as it used to be.

the whole family is sick! first Significant Other, then Dinara, then Dayana, including me. so i can take care of two kids on my own, but two SICK kids? nightmare i tell you.

so after Dinara came down with a slight fever on Thursday, Dayana came down with high fever the next day. while Dinara happily took her meds, it was a PITA to get Dayana to take hers. omg it was like world war #2101 @_@ it was bad enough that she's the type where your temp seems fine during the day, but spikes up gila2 during the night. she didn't even like spongebaths. tried to bribe her with chocolate pun tak bley. she requested for the occasional burger, fries, soup T_T but ate very little. minum pun very little. for the first time i tried sticking one of those kool-fever gels onto her forehead. do they actually work? she didn't like it at first, but i guess she eventually got used to it.

i wonder how long do i have to wait before i really need to start to worry. i started her on antibiotics on Monday, it's early Wednesday morning now and she's still feverish. sigh.

Dinara is already in the crawling-everywhere-like-nobody's-business stage. she's one happy camper, she's at the stage where she isn't smart enough to say NO to meds, lol. recently she's started babbling to herself. 'ma ma ma'...'ba ba ba'... chomel! is it normal that she's almost 9 months old yet she still isn't able to sit up steadily without support? she's starting to wake up in the middle of the night too, i hope it's because she's unwell and it'll pass once she gets better.

i'm up at 2am stalking Grass, hahah. i didn't even realize that Tuesday was Wesak day. i had two kids to take care of the whole day, but they kept taking turns driving me crazy, one up while the other slept. not to mention i was also trying to finish my work the but i kept coming across invisible hurdles in input, enrichment and recycling... grrrr stress ok. it's like someone is secretly cursing me T_T. my friend borrowed my token so i was tokenless and had to wait for someone to actually give me theirs for me to VPN.

i could complain about cimpeng and how i had to wait for 1 hour at the bank on Monday just to TT, only for the person at the counter to ask me why i didn't fill up a different form instead? bongoks nak mati. they had 5 freaking counters, so many customers, yet only 1-2 counters were operating. apart from that, my atm card has disfunctioned twice, in which i have to bear the expenses, and furthermore they charged rm30 for a loan statement which only consisted of ONE freakin' piece of paper *&$(#&@*&#($.

i haven't eaten and pumped yet, ok? and it's 3am. so... sabar je lah membaca my mindless ramblings at 3am haha. i think i might just remodify this post later on once i get my jive back. for now, it's little miss grumpy for you.

i'm off to eat something before gas starts kicking in. nite everyone.

good tea good time

i would continue rambling on the maid permit thingy but i'd rather not to today because i get stressed just thinking about it @_@.

me and a bunch of friends have been talking about how people these days don't really appreciate what they have, i guess i've forgotten because lately God's giving me a bunch of challenges these days to face on my own @_@. and they say God will never hand you more that what you can chew...

so does that me a strong woman? or am i just someone who's recently been making a bunch of decisions-gone-wrong? hah.

then the conversation started straying up North and i realized i have no idea what 'ciwi' means and my peeps started laughing at me. hmm. must ask Mahani if she's heard of 'ciwi' =P.

anyway, not going to ponder on the not-so-fun-to-think-about issues for now. the purpose i'm creating this entry is to talk about Chatime. you know that little shop that sells bubble tea and dunno what other concoctions? i didn't know they had one open in MV. my colleague came back up to the office and handed me the pamphlet a few days ago. i've seen the line at Pyramid last weekend and it was crazy long @_@.

so today since my team is stuck at the office working late due to some hot fix that needs to be completed with each of us executing some stuff simultaneously, my friend shishi (happy birthday yo~) offered to go downstairs and take orders. so i took this opportunity to order Pearl Milk tea... whatever that is. i just saw the photo in the pamphlet of what looks like tea with black bubbles in it, and the bubbles were really intriguing. hentam saja laboo~.

the pamphlet at my cubicle haha

Pearl Milk Tea

there are different drink categories, depending on what you're looking for. you have the choice of size (regular or large), the option to add additional toppings for rm1, sugar AND ice options! (non-sugar, extra-ice perhaps...). you can find out more about it at their website. they even have a Facebook page. i've only tasted one drink so i can't really comment much about it. you wait til i've tried a couple more to comment =D.

not bad la if you're a fan of these types of drinks. me likey. it's much cheaper than Starbucks, although it ain't coffee (there is a selection of coffee beverages though... but no bubble coffee kahkahkah). i could get addicted to this eventually. but at the moment i am soo liking the air mata kucing downstairs at LG floor (i forgot the name) - at least that's what i think it is, for all i know (being buta-buah and all) it could be longan hahaha. it's way cheaper than Chatime, and it helps boost production too =P.

a little something on the kids:

my little Dinara is down with fever this morning, she was cranky all night with her blocked nose. pacifier duwan, susu also duwan. i ended up being sleep-deprived T_T. took her to the clinic at Section 7, she was given fever meds and some drops for her runny nose. she didn't even mind the Dr sticking that stick down her throat (her throat was clear, thank goodness). she weighs 6kg now, which really surprised me from her 5.4kg last month haha. i guess she really does have a heftier appetite than her elder sister ever did last time.

(she differs from her sister in lots of ways, while being similar in others. lol)

these days Dinara will not sleep until she's pooped for the night. once she's pooped, she'll be off to lala land. she can climb over obstacles now, so piling a bunch of pillows is no longer an option. i let her crawl freely on the floor in my bedroom, i stepped out only to find her a few seconds later on the floor in our bathroom T_T. she finds the bathroom mat fascinating too @_@.

her hair is really wispy thin, the maid's been asking to cut her fringe but i keep refusing =P. she hums each time i sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

Dayana loves being the 'police' around Dinara. she'll quickly scoop up everything and put them far away from Dinara's reach. only certain toys are permitted for Dinara to play. the other day i got soo mad at her because i found the living room in a total crayon-ny mess: she found one stray crayon lying around and proceeded to color the floor, the door, the wall, the table, the astro decoder, our OSIM foot massager, the glass cabinets (inside and out) and ALSO the surround speakers!!! @#(*)$#&*$. she's no longer a die-hard Mickey fan, but is now a 'Doya' fan. tengok Dora seribu satu kali pun ok @_@. heck, tgh2 malam boleh bangun, say 'nak Doya!' then promptly tido balik. aiyak.

one time i wanted to change Dayana's diaper and you know what she did? she held out her hand at me and yelled 'Swiper no SWIPING! STOP! STOP!'

sometimes she's go around asking, 'what color's Mommy's baju? what color's the remote control?' etc etc. and each time she'll answer 'it's GEEEEN'. @_@ i still don't understand what she's trying to tell me sometimes.

lagi lagi immi

i had such a horrible morning.

1. sent Significant Other to LCCT, he's heading to Sarawak again. ok so this wasn't horrible, i just wish LCCT was nearer! or that shortcut at KLIA was accessible.

2. i think i got caught on camera for speeding. woe is me.

3. i waited 1 hour for the officer at immigration only for her to tell me i need ANOTHER letter as supporting documents (i already went yesterday, also for Encik W to tell me i need to write an appeal letter to take a second PRA. i went last week but he wasn't in, i had to wait til Monday to see him, only to come back mission 0% accomplished, grrr).

4. luckily my fren Norley offered her help. one problem down. will be meeting her later after work.

5. arrived at MV parking lot with a flat tyre T_T. realized something was wrong as i was entering the parking lot, the car sounded (and felt) different. die. i've never changed a flat tyre in my life.

6. was late for work for one thing. am now substituting the hours i've lost.

7. luckily my colleague (a guy ok, a girl wouldn't have the strength kot? haha) knew how to change a flat. helped me to change my tyre. now i dunno exactly how and when i'm going to drop by kedai kereta to inspect the flat, since i need to hand in the documents pronto. belanje him for tea after getting his hands dirty lol.

8. habis la minyak and toll charges, no wonder some people choose to work with agents. i didn't really mind really, it isn't that difficult. i just didn't have the time, and furthermore i had to contend to 2 PRAs registered under one name (which meant more work and hassle).

9. grass hemp is STILL on the mind.

10. and i haven't even gotten my pavlova. sigh. i think i know why i'm always worrying/confuzzled/distressed.

ok so it's 7pm now. off to meet Norley. you take care peeps, and hope your day has been better than mine.

let's hope the car can run on a spare til i send it for repairs tomorrow morning.

KK day 3

30th April 2011

wedding day! woke up early and headed to Likas Condotel where Significant Other's colleagues were staying, and followed the bus they chartered to get to the All Saint's Cathederal, which was somehere near our hotel, lol (buang karan je pi ikut diorg haha). i guess this would be my second Church wedding i've ever attended after Diana and Nic's wedding =D

(psttt shishi, when is ur turn? LOL)

to kill time in between the wedding and the reception dinner, we followed Significant Other's colleagues for a Nasi Padang lunch at Jesselton Point, which was surprisingly yummy despite me not being a fan of Indonesian food. killed more time at at 1Borneo, which didn't really wow-ed me (since i'm not much into shopping these days chewah hahaha). then we rushed back after buying absolutely nothing to get ready for the reception dinner at Pan Pacific at Sutera Harbour.

geng EY

i love Chinese wedding dinners, don't you? =D i haven't worn heels in ages @_@ Significant Other's clan took up 4 tables alone. wahhh such company spirit come all the way to Sabah to a wedding. hehe.

took a teaser photo for the newly weds. nanti i scan.

went back to the hotel with our tummies full. lol. congrats to the newly weds, Spencer and Candice! =)

(pics to follow)

Mother's Day at the movies

without fail, Significant Other fails to realize that last Sunday was Mother's Day. but we went out anyway, to bring the kids for their first movie ever! hahahahah.

the good news? i survived Movie Day Out with the kids. thumbs up!

we brought Dayana to see Rio. Dinara pun ikut skali. i thought the cinema would be empty since it's been in theatres for quite awhile now, but unfortunately, no. haha. the good news is, there were a bunch of kids there so i didn't have to worry about my kids being the only ones creating ruckus in the cinema.

we bought Popcorn! first-timers should buy it, whether or not they like popcorn (but when it's only the two of us, we get hotdogs and corn-in-cup ahahah).

we got aisle seats just in case we needed to make a sudden exit (you never know lah). we got a free ticket since Daddy purchased the tickets with his Citibank credit card (ot: it seems Citibank has it good these days. even Baskin Robbins privileges has shifted from HSBC to Citibank, chis!).

Dayana seemed guarded throughout the whole movie. her Daddy made two toilet trips that at one point Dayana asked if she could go upstairs T_T. she even subtley pointed to the lights and asked me if i could turn them on @_@.

she didn't like popcorn initially buy i think halfway through the movie she started to get bored so she demanded for some to munch on.

Dinara was more interested in swiping at her sister seated beside her, as well as grabbing everything on sight. at one point she even started to throw a fit. finally got to calm her down by offering her the boobs, lol. she eventually dropped off to sleep at the end of the movie @_@

so i survived Movie with the kids. would i go again? most definitely not alone lah. mau mati. and definitely to watch cartoons only. these kids have really short attention spans @_@.

we had 'lunch' at Haagen Daaz. we ordered the Chocolate Fondue. seems like Dayana wasn't really into ice cream that day, she was more interested in running around. oh and this is her new camera smile now. we practically have to force her to smile for photos, and this was what she came up with:

scary smile. ooooeeeee~~

so after that we mindlessly wandered around, and i stumbled onto a bunch of people waiting in line. i pun kepoci joined the line jugak haha. Sunway Pyramid was giving away free cupcakes to mom and child in conjunction with Mother's Day. did i mention i got to be on Bernama for like 5 seconds? haha. i was bc-ing Dinara that time, but you can't even see her behind me! Dayana pulak refused to wish me Happy Mother's Day on camera, tsk (tapi kat rumah bila suruh wish boleh je dengan penuh bangganya siap jerit2 lagi chis).

oops.

it was Mother's Day but who got the most stuff that day? Da-ya-na! Daddy bought for her a heart necklace and a pair of shoes at Cotton On Kids. at first she didn't want the shoes, she was so preoccupied with the necklace T_T.

menerai necklace

model baru accessories C.O.K.

wearee patiently waiting for her sister to try on shoes. diam2 mommy will buy Dinara shoes ok later =P

there was a Wyeth event held at one of the wings in Pyramid, which we dragged Dayana to join. she willingly participated, although i think most of the time she didn't really understand what was going on, but at least she had fun. she really enjoyed throwing the ball through the hoop. i don't suppose we're gonna hafta find a hoop for our house after this, ar? =P~

shooting some hoops

i wanted to try Chattime, but the queue was damn long. please tell me apa best sangat itu Chattime!

well, that was mainly my Mother's Day Out. the kids had a fun time, Dayana even slept abit earlier than usual =).

stayed home that night to watch Formula 1 on tv. Significant Other insisted to turn on the news to Bernama and saw my face on tv. haha. got to catch Syaz's Jumpsac segment as well, she is sooo smooth, ya know? =D and i also caught a glimpse of Mel, one of Significant Other's batchmates in Uni, in one of the segments too @_@. apparently Bernama loves to show reruns, so i caught the segments a couple of times haha. i've never even tuned to Bernama before. this was a first.

i'm no SuperMom, but it's great to be a mom =)

ok i'm off. photos to entail later. Happy Mother's Day y'all =)

KK day 2

29th April 2011

did i mention i love how the sun is up by 6am? makes you feel like you've overslept and must.get.out.of.bed. haha. well anyways, today was whitewater rafting day. so off to pack our belongings and whatnot for the chartered van to come pick us up at our hotel at 7.30am. had breakfast first before starting out journey. i think it was close to 8.30am before the van got moving. there were 12 of us in total, all colleagues of Significant Other.

breakfast at kedai mamak

here's what i read off the Internet:

Important things to Bring & Do:
Additional dry clothing, Sun block, Cash for Payment, Sandals, flip-flop or sport shoes, Swim wear (T-shirt, Short pants), Sunglasses, Baseball cap, Towel, don't forget to bring sense of adventure / fun / humor / enthusiasm and a flexible attitude!

ooookay.

the ride alone took almost 3 hours. there was one point in the road that if you look closely was actually sloping downwards but when the van stopped and gear was put into neutral, it rolled in the opposite direction. optical illusion or something? no idea (i always sucked at physics T_T). we stopped by the roadside for a quick toilet break. signed some release forms, then we were on our way.

stopped again for lunch at Tenom town, the food was OK la. rice + lauk, chinese style. then we got changed, slathered tons of sunblock on ourselves, then boarded the van to take us to the train station. at this point we had to leave everything behind so i didn't bring my camera =( or my watch, so i kinda lost track of time.

the train was really really really old-fashioned and antique-looking @_@, the tracks ran parallel to the river, so we got a preview of the rapids of Sungai Padas on our way there. we arrived at Pangi village to get our gear ready - waited for the rafts to be inflated, wore our helmets (Significant Other pakai helmet terbalik haha)and our safety jackets. they served us watermelon while waiting for them to get everything ready.

by this time i felt like we had too much food to eat and too many stops and experienced not even one river action yet @_@

we saw a bunch of locals getting by on platform trolleys, you get your platform moving using a stick (sorta like canoe-ing on dry land to push yourself along the tracks, except you substitute the oar with a stick haha). made away along the tracks to the edge of the riverbead. a colleague of Significant Other nonchalantly said, 'when we were young, our parents taught us never to play on the train tracks, now what are we doing? walking on the train tracks!'. lol.

we were given a briefing on how to stay alive afloat on the raft. there were three rafts and so many of us, so we had to split into two groups and share a raft with some Australians. so we had 9 + 1 river guide in one boat. huargh so many people... no chance to capsize la like this =P.

this was my first time whitewater rafting, and according to the guide, most of the rapids that day ranged from Level 2 to Level 4. or was it Level 3? sudah lupa. i don't really remember what types of rapids were there. but it was extremely fun. too bad nobody went overboard. haha. at one point our river guide said we could jump into the river for a swim, which the Australian mama did. hoho. that was one kewl mama. i'd have liked to, but the water was freezing cold hokeh. brrrrr.

halfway down the river

unfortunately halfway down the river, as we stopped for a short rest, our raft kinda deflated. the bad part was they didn't have a spare raft so we had to cram into the remaining two rafts. tsk. imagine we ended up going down the second half of the river with 14 + 1 people on board @_@. berat overload nak mati. definitely no chance of capsizing anymore. and they even purposely tried to rock the raft to intentionally fall out - no dice. someone said we should totally blacklist the company, i kinda agreed because it felt like the whole trip was disorganized from the moment we stepped into the van that morning. fufufufu~

end of trip

we got off the raft at the end checkpoint, took a speed boat to somewhere, and from there boarded the 5.30pm old-fashioned train to Beufort, where our van and things were waiting for us. quickly changed into dry clothing (no showers whatsoever, so simply changed into drier clothing in the toilets), and boarded the van back to KK. didn't use the same road we came from, so we arrived earlier at the hotel around 8pmish.

we were famished so we decided to go the same restaurant we had seafood dinner the night before, this time with Significant Other's friend Rahim. we ordered more or less the same thing, but we asked for fried fish (steamed fish is so much better btw, the fish is really fresh!), added chicken and sotong goreng tepung (minus the kerang thingy and the crab). hehe. and of course, two servings of kelapa puding. kah kah kah.

oh yeah, this was the day Kate and Will got married, and i sooo totally missed it live! haha.

*photos thanks to Significant Other's colleague who managed to get a waterproof casing for his camera.

fast5, thor & the roommate

first advice: don't watch Thor in 3D. my friend recently described watching a 3D movie as 'simply watching the 3D effects of the movie unfold in a big square box'. i kinda agree. it's not worth paying rm43 for two people just to watch 3D effects with the illusion of 3D limited to that particular square box. haha.

i'd rather go for the 3D effect where everything jumps out at you from the screen (now THAT's 3D!). the best 3D movie i've watched so far that i remember was The Polar Express at iMax Times Square years ago. shame they closed down the theatres.

anyway, we went for a movie marathon at TGV Pyramid right after we got back from KK. we've done 2 back-to-back movies before, so this day really broke the record by watching 3 non-stop @_@.

first up: Fast5.
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i don't really follow the F&F movies, but the they're kinda inter-related. the last movie ended with Toretto being shipped off somewhere on a prison transport, with the others planning an assault to free him, and this movie picks up the storyline from there.

i wish i can pull off a robbery such as that one. kakakakaka. i wish i could maneuver a car like that! Significant Other says there should be more car-action, more sexy cars, more hot love scenes? *scensored*.

stay til the end of the movie, there's a short scene right after the end of credits. annoying isn't it, that you have to sit through all those scrolling names just to see a 1-2 minute end scene? i think they purposely do that just to make you sit through all that, hahah. let's just say the Fast movies won't be ending so soon.

second up: Thor.
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i don't follow all the super heroes either, so i've never heard of this Thor person prior to this. i do know he's a Marvel comic character, haha. he's also some sort of god of thunder in Germanic mythology.

i got a big headache watching the movie through those 3D glasses. i really wished the movie had a bigger storyline, but mind you Rotten Tomatoes gave it an 83% approval rating so i guess my taste is different from other movie-goers =P. i wouldn't call it boring. bak kate my friends Lix and Niz, 'Thor is Awesome!' (their exact words haha). i just wished there was more action, you know? oh well. let's wait for The Avengers then.

you should also stay til the end of the movie, there's a short scene right after the end of credits. Nick Fury is everywhere these days, don't you think? he's busy recruiting it seems. lol.

we actually planned to watch 2 movies but after Thor ended Significant Other wanted to watch another movie, so we simply bought tickets for the next available movie, which was The Roommate. i didn't realize TGV Pyramid had cinemas #11 and #12 located at the other side of the hall.

third: The Roommate.
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so-so movie. think twice about acquiring a roommate after this. make sure your rommate is SANE. there's two kinds of crazy roommates: one that wants you all to your self, and one that practically wants to be you and might go up to the point that she might eliminate you just to become you. which one's your pick? =D

funny how the two main characters seem to look alike at some angles. Significant Other says Leighton Meester doesn't fit into her character, but what does he know? he's bias; he loves Blair Waldorf! (and he is such a die-hard Gossip Girl fan, he's a fan of the Humphrey-Waldorf storyline, hehe).

verdict?
Fast5 is worth watching if you like hot cars. and if you like Vin Diesel. and if you have any future plans in robbing the bank someday. my friends prefer Paul Walker though. haha.

Thor is ok. i probably shouldn't have watched it in 3D. i seriously wish they was more action though. and a guy looking as hot as Chris Hemsworth simply doesn't exist in real life, do they? =D

The Roommate is just plain blargh. hah. watch this if you don't have anything better to do.

a funny note to ponder: the wife of Chris Hemsworth has a role in Fast 5. guess which one she is =P. they look more or less the same, 'athletic-ky'. lol!

KK day 1

28th April 2011

Significant Other asked me out of the blue, mau pigi Sabah? i pun, er... ok.
tapi dalam hati eksaited coz this would be my first time going to East Malaysia. and Lan has always been asking me to come visit, but i just didn't have the free time (nak ambik leave lama2 pun rase bersalah... bongok benor). well, i still don't have the time, but i was lucky my boss approved my kind-of last minute leave.

i hate packing. it's either i end up with not-enuff stuff, or wayyy too many stuff. we flew on MAS, so i didn't have to worry about the 15kg limit. it was bad enough that i had to pack for 2 people in two different bags for the sake of fully utilizing the weight allowance limit, i also had to pack clothes for different events which included a Church wedding, the reception dinner, white water rafting (plus extra change of clothes), and swimsuits just in case we wanted to go for a dip in the pool. this also means each person needed to bring at least 3 pairs of shoes. haih.

(tu belum kire Significant Other's camera equipment and my pumping gear. AND tu belum lagi travel with the kids. at this rate i just wanted to pack the whole house and bring it along! haha).

since the kids weren't coming, i had to bring a cooler box and my pumping gear and ice packs and liners and bottles and bottle brush along. haha. previously i pumped and dumped when i went to Jakarta last year, this time i was determined not to dump precious milk down the sink.

our flight for KK was at 9am. we barely made it (biasa la si Significant Other, sukeeee sangat tempt fate) but at least our flight was from KLIA. i found out from my colleague that due to some accident along the road to LCCT that very same morning, he actually missed his flight to Cambodia T_T. call me jakun, but i love boarding airplanes, the adrenaline of excitement that rush through you when you make your way towards the boarding gates... the feeling you get as you board the plane... (too bad i can't afford first class, i've only flown first class once when i went for umrah when i was 14, itu pun the crew graciously upgraded me and my cousin =D). i don't even mind getting stuck in 12-13 hour flights. except for those tiny space-deprived restrooms. they make my feel claustrophobic. and they smell weird.

our flight made a pitstop at Labuan so we were grounded for about 40 minutes before we took off again. (pics)

arrived at KKIA around 12.50pm. disembarked, went through customs, collected our bags.

we found Auntie Kar waiting for us at the Arrivals exit. it was soooo nice of her to drop by to pick us up even after i told her she didn't have to go through all the trouble. ok so Significant Other totally didn't remember she stayed in KK until the very last minute, so he already made hotel and transportation arrangements for our stay. if not we could've save accomodation and just stayed over at Auntie's place. and to further add to things, we had arranged with Lan to pick up the rental car at the airport, so of course he was already waiting for us at the airport too.

whoops.

anyway, after promising to meet up with Lan and co. on Sunday morning, we checked in at the hotel, dumped our bags first and followed Auntie Kar for lunch at the Sutera Harbour Marina. lovely view. lovely yachts, the weather was absolutely lovely (although veli veli hotttt!!! mat sallehs would love to roast themselves into lobsters haha). Uncle joined us not long after that (he had a DUN sitting somewhere so he was only able to join us later). i had the nice oxtail asam pedas ever (pics?)afterwards we went back to the hotel to freshen up and joined Auntie and Uncle for dinner later in the evening for seafood.

we stayed at Le Meridien, which to me is strategically located in the middle of town, it's right opposite the Filipino market by the sea, you can just cross the road to find all sorts of rubbish stuff to buy before going back. being the hotel freak that he is due to his previous life at Baker, here are some photos of the room we got upgraded to:

(le meridien photos)

they picked us up at 7.30pm and took us to a restaurant nearby, for seafood! the food is so fresh, seriously. there are tanks and tanks of live seafood creatures, some i've never seen or heard of before, and you can pick whatever living creature you want, or let them choose for you. we let Auntie choose the dishes. Uncle ordered sayur manis (betui ka nama?), apparently grown at his kampung in Lahad Datu. seriously sedap, it's like an asparagus-lookalike (i'm getting hungrier as i type this T_T). we had soft shell crab, white clams (that looked like lalas but not quite), steamed fish, some weird looking siput that we got to try for the very first time (you pull it out by pulling the sharp end at the shell opening, or you use a toothpick to pry it out), and steamed prawns. the portion sizing was just nice, food was absolutely delish. i have great appetite these days, no kidding. thanks to breastfeeding. hoho.

this was the first time we got to taste kelapa puding, haha. i've never heard of prior to the trip. Auntie Kar ordered one for us, it tasted like dadih perisa kelapa. even Significant Other loved it. Auntie also said there was also kelapa bakar, where they bakar the kelapa before serving. it tastes different from the usual kelapa, she says.

after dinner they took us for a drive along the coastal line. apparently there are alot of shopping complexes in KK. they took us to see Uncle's office, and also the building where Auntie says there's a revolving restaurant (but food was so-so only), passed by UMS (in the dark, the compound looks absolutely HUGE), and drove all the way past 1Borneo before turning back. we really appreciated Auntie's hospitality that day :)

went for a quick night stroll along the waterfront before retiring for bed. not much to do because most of the stalls were closing already.

ok, end of day 1. coming up: day 2 =D pics and minor corrections to ensue later. toodles!

i made new friends!

ok so i don't really wanna elaborate much here because i have yet to see the end result... but i made a couple of new friends that day, as well as met a couple of old ones... lol.

l33n

aish4h

erm... i forgot your name, sorry T_T

and here's my little model who was an absolute peach the whole day :)

back to reality

boarding flight

well, we're heading back. i can't remember ever being so reluctant to go back home (don't count the time i went to US, i didn't wanna leave haha). the environment KK brings is just splendid.

sunset in KK

pics to commence once Mister Cameraman uploaded photos.