the trimming continues

didymos still dominates the stash, although indios are down to three (all dyed)

two missing: one's draped at my bed's headboard, the other taking up temporary residence in my car. one in the pic to leave, to be replaced with another.

such a big difference from last time, yea?

the map in the background cost us 4 pounds. a steal if you compare it to prices here.

happy Friday everyone! :)

team NAR 2013

here's my team members. they kinda rock.

missing is Raimen, who's the one taking the photo.

Ben's missing too, i think.

it's an unspoken rule for the boss to take us out for 'stomach building' each time he's in KL.

give a guess as to which one's the boss. haha.

princess power

pissed off because my test cases are failing right left and center. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

wish that tiara had a bit of color to it.

i knew i shouldn't have flipped through their catalog.

now i'm obsessed T___T.

toodles. am off to submit another JIRA and i'm outta here.

maid passport n permit renewal

in my case, both her permit and passport are expiring. passport must be renewed first before you're able to renew the permit. bear in mind fees might differ if you renew way past the expiry date. what you need to do is to take a day off from work because it's anyone's guess on how long you'd be stuck waiting for everything to be completed.

how to renew your maid's Indonesian passport in the event that it is expiring:

1. bring maid and her passport to the Indonesian Embassy.
2. purchase insurance for the maid - rm95 for 2 years.
3. make sure you have 2 photocopies each of the following:
- employer's IC
- front page of maid's passport
- other relevant pages in the passport you think might be useful (haha)
4. enter the embassy and pick up the form to fill at the main counter - consists of one passport renewal form, and the worker's contract (3 copies) which you need to fill up before taking a number.
5. take a number and head over to the station to take her passport photograph.
6. wait for your number to be called at the first waiting area, then hand in all the documents at the counter and make payment of rm18 for passport renewal.
7. head over to the second waiting area and wait again for your number to be called, to see the officer where your documents will be reviewed etc.
8. once everything is ok, head over to the third waiting area for passport collection (this took the longest, a 45-minute wait for me, luckily the maid made sandwiches).

the immigration officer at the Indonesian Embassy tells me that both the insurance policy and the worker's contract (which is valid for one year) are required in the event that maid wants to go back to Indonesia for holiday. they're issued a sort of card by the Indonesian government which is needed when they want to return back to Malaysia. or something like that. they have so many rules, i'm confused myself.

the whole process at the Embassy (in KL!!!) took me 3 hours. didn't help that it took me 1.5hours to get there on a friday morning @_@.

renewing her permit was the simpler bit, provided you didn't go to the Malaysian Immigration during their friday lunch hour break (sigh, unlucky me) to renew the permit:

if your maid has been working for more than 3 years (meaning permit renewal for the 4th year onwards), you don't need to bring her for fomema. you can just head over to the immigration, take a number and renew her passport for rm495. the maid doesn't need to be present for this.

easy peasy, right? if you have all the time and patience in the world, that is.

the gift

when the clock strikes midnight,
i'd be accustomed to the usual 'by the way...' wish.
but the next thing that came after... was a total surprise. the kind that makes you want to break down and cry because you never expected it.

*happyhappyhappy*

updated 16/11: i won this voucher during a Pandora roadshow at the Curve a couple of weeks ago
(thanks again to Significant Other ;D).
since it expires at the end of the month (ok sudah rambang mata),
this was what i redeemed:

that owl charm sold out already :|

tiara to represent my three princesses

a take on us

so school holidays are here again.

a quick update on the kids:

Dira:

- she's happily taking in her baby cereal but she doesn't take too kindly to other foods, such as the banana. i mean really, who hates bananas??? Dinara ended up eating all the bananas i bought for the baby. belum lagi peas and spinach. kekeke
- bought her apple juice formulated for her age and rejected that as well, she made that trademark face of hers whenever she tries something new and her taste buds doesn't seem to like it.
- she blows raspberries a lot these days, sometimes even when she's about to fall asleep.
- her hair makes everyone think that she's a boy T__T
- got her 6-month old jab last weekend. i think she's quietly holding a grudge against the Dr. and she's not telling me anything.
- fascinated by plastic bags. or anything that makes sounds like plastic does when scrunched.

Dayana:

- she's on her school holidays now. fun eh?
- as expected, on her second day of swim class she practically didn't want to get into the water as they were held at the deep end of the pool. she practically strangled the teacher clinging onto his back, haha. she didn't trust the floats the teacher told her to hold onto X_X
- she's progressed to book 4a of Peter & Jane.
- am thinking of enrolling her for mandarin classes perhaps.
- she had her booster as well. she whimpered a bit but she was such a big sport for not kicking up a fuss. she's such a big girl now.

Dinara:

- eats and eats and eats.
- practically cried when i dragged her home after registering her for kindy at Dayana's school. seems she wants to stay because her big sister was there. let's hope the feeling's mutual when she actually starts kindy next year.
- a couple of times a week i send Dayana for mengaji at my friend's house, and Dinara would usually tag along. on good moods she'd mengaji along with her sister if she's in the mood. haha.

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have you you heard of MomentCam? you take a photo of yourself and you upload it into any sketch template that you like. for those who doesn't know about this app, they'd go all 'oh wow cantiknya! sapa lukis niiiii???' haha

this was me 100 years ago =P

and this is Significant Other trying to be younger than he actually is

on another note, anyone interested in a ring sling?

natural silk mille ring sling with silver rings, S size. 

shoulder done by Jan of SBP.

asking rm355.

and lampone has finally sold, getting the love it deserves.
i'm left with rosie, my only indio (after my dyed silk and natural linen).
and to think that i used to own so many indios, what me being an indio lover. haha
(trust me, indios are soo worth it).

lampone linen

sekian my rambling for today. i took leave for tomorrow, i need to run errands at the Indonesian Embassy and i really really hope it won't take all day.

set in stone

almost completed as per her wishes.

throughout my journey i'll share some insights here

regarding the one topic not many people seem to take seriously

until it's too late.

the big C.

Sophia Eats

yep, time flies *cries*
my little boo is 6 months young!!!

Mommy had to go to work so baby kene paksa makan for the first time pagi2 buta before Mommy rushes off to work. hee~

notice the 'surprised' expression. tee hee~

it seems like she was more excited to grab the spoon rather than having her first taste of solids.

let's see if Mommy has the semangat to blend stuff for you after this, ok?
the last time i fed your older sister Dayana peas and avocado (and Mommy hates peas. HAHAHAHA).

'the' makeup remover

my outlook has been having some sort of problem, it keeps restarting itself each time i click on something in outlook. had my pc sent over to IT, but they don't seem to know what's wrong with it either.

so in the meantime lemme show you my new makeup remover assistant.

it works wonders, you. simply double cleansing or triple cleansing with my normal Olay foaming wash doesn't work. for tougher areas (read: the eyes) i'd use a cotton swab and baby oil, but that would only leave my face feeling oily. i tried nano white clarifying cleansing milk, but i felt like my face still had a layer of makeup even after all that washing and scrubbing. i also found an old bottle of Maybelline makeup remover for eye and lip in one of my cabinet drawers (gosh i seem to have alot of junk accumulated in there T_T), but i didn't like how my skin felt after using it. i have another makeup remover i bought from Elianto too, but i don't have any reviews for it simply because i actually forgot i had it. bahahahhahah.

ok so reet tells me that she swears by Bobbi Brown's cleansing oil (the one with the pump mechanism), which also doubles as a makeup remover. Bobbi Brown's not a new brand to me, i've tried out their compact foundation and pressed powder many years ago. i've tried stalking the counter with hopes that they'd produce one in a smaller bottle one day because i couldn't see myself finishing one bottle before the expiry date - no dice. so one day Significant Other decided to get it for me, yay! however by now its price had increased by rm10, tsk. mind you i'm not much of a makeup junkie so whatever beauty product i use/try is either within a certain price range or by recommendation.

(oh adrin i bought that Soap & Glory scrub you recommended =P too bad it's currently on a boat somewhere heading towards Malaysia haha).

i thought i'd end up with an oily face after using the cleansing oil (dah nama 'oil') but boy i was wrong. the salesgirl told me to massage 3-5 pumps of the oil onto my palm and rub it all over my dry face, then only add water and massage gently before rinsing. don't expect it to be foamy, it was kinda like spreading oil over your face, haha. i had doubts about this until i washed my face clean. oh my no trace of oil on my face. even the thickest layer of my foundation was washed away. sukaaaaaaa! my face felt so clean *jakun sementara*. you can use this product as a daily facial wash (although i'd think twice about that each time i remember how much it costs).

it did mention that it might not work as well with waterproof makeup, but i haven't tried to prove that statement yet since all my mascaras have dried out.

so what's your favorite makeup remover? =D.

what we did on Sunday

yesterday was Dayana's first swimming class. we introduced Dayana to swimming at quite a late stage in her life, which resulted in her disliking the sea and swimming pools if the water level is higher than her knee. the best she will do is to sit by the poolside splashing her legs in the water T_T. you'd practically have to drag her into the water, and she'd definitely put up a fight kicking and screaming, even after wearing her floaties.

sigh.

Dinara suffered the same fate as well.

as a precaution, we took Dira into the pool as young as 4 months old. haha.

nedd was gonna send her kiddos for swimming classes at DSA in Shah Alam, so we thought of sending Dayana and Dinara there too. they had a Learn2Swim program 4 times a month, 50 minutes per session for Dayana, and a special Lil'Swimmers program for children below 5 years old that only starts next year. each time i asked Dayana if she wanted to learn how to swim, she gave me all kinds of excuses, like 'maybe next time', or 'it's hot'. but on the day of her first class she was quite cooperative in wearing her swimsuit and all.

classes were held at Kompleks Sugan Negara (Panasonic) at Seksyen 21 Shah Alam, just beside the Memorial Park. i didn't know that KSN is open for the public, i only know about the public pool beside Tesco, situ memang ramai orang during weekends @_@. upon registration they'll give you an attendance card which will be replaced monthly. if you lost the card, you need to pay rm20 T_T.

i got Dayana her own pink goggles to motivate her to swim (matila kalau Dinara tau). there weren't many kids in her class. it seemed like about 2 other kids were water-phobic like Dayana was. so the teacher brought them to the wading pool instead. for that day's lesson the teacher taught them how to breathe and hold their breath when swimming, not an easy thing to teach especially if the kid panics easily.

i forgot to mention that wading pools are ok with Dayana. we went to Grand Lexis and she had such a fun time on her own at the wading pool, which was complete with a water playground and everything. but i think she was ok with her swim class because there were other children about her age too. if nak harapkan her mommy and daddy, we'd have left her floating all by herself in the middle of the pool, bahahahaha. she said she couldn't wait to come again next week.

DSA - D'Swim Academy
KOMPLEKS SUKAN NEGARA (PANASONIC SPORTS COMPLEX)
Lot 4, Persiaran Perkilangan Section 21,40300 Shah Alam
Tel: +603 8996 2213
http://www.dswimacademy.com

i didn't attend the IBW walk yesterday, but a good many people turned up for the event, kudos to them. me and the family went to Pavillion about 2ish since Daddy wanted to go catalog-shopping. even bil tagged along. i give up trying to get Dira used to the stroller, she doesn't last long in it. i'd end up carrying her while the other two conquer the stroller.

i also give up trying to work with carriers shorter than 3.6m unless it's for back carry. looks like iris may or may not be living with us for long. pity really. i love the color.

etla iris 3.3m, peach weft

we had dinner at Ben's! since Dira didn't want to sit in her stroller i had to juggle between eating and keeping her grubby hands away from the plates (she dipped her hands twice in my spaghetti @_@). and Dayana haaad to chose that very moment to want to go to the toilet, gahhhhh. small mishaps aside, the food was good, i ordered myself rootbeer float =D.

looks like me, much?

parking is rm15 btw. cekik darah kotz!

i also managed to clean out my car, with three kids junk easily accumulates in the car @_@. i think Significant Other is right in saying one of the cars needs to be upgraded to an MPV. with just the stroller alone, penuh satu boot!

d2 and d3

the kids this morning before going off to work.

apparently d3 also wanted to have a look-see at the iPod.

and this was how they were staring at me when i lectured them on the beauty of 'sharing'. haha.
check out their funky doodle hairstyles.

sorry d1, you went off to school already!