Food for thought

So, I know I haven't been updating recently. My days and nights are really full.

CNY is coming up and this means cleaning the house, cleaning out the cupboards etc etc but I'm not going to bore you with that. It also means buying new clothes (ok this I'm not complaining), and buying food and cookies and cakes to serve guests during CNY.

I think this is the first year we have really planned an "open house" since we got married. Last year, we just fook it and flew to Taiwan with my in laws. This year, we foolishly stayed behind. Hahahha.

Winnie and I spent many hours test baking cookies, and now with less than 2 weeks to go, seriously baking cookies during all our free time. Doesn't help that I'm sick, and Cs is sick. But we are both recovering now. Thanks for asking. Oh wait..you didn't. Heheh.

***

Ahh well.. I realized that quite unconsciously, I have started telling myself to snap out of it when I'm down. To scold myself. To drag myself out of the gloom immediately by thinking happy thoughs, look at Cherrie's photos cos she always makes me smile, listen to music, start dancing, anything to lift my spirits.

In the beginning, I was trying to practice The Secret (law of attraction). But now, it comes more naturally. Be thankful for everything that you have already. Feel blessed. Feel grateful everyday. I already have everything I need. All the others are extras. I am already blessed.

And somehow, I seem to think like that more naturally now. It seems that I'm the one telling people to cheer up. I'm the shamelessly happy person now. I have nothing to bitch/complain about.

Maybe I'm more easily satisfied. No, I know its not. I can bitch and whine like nobody's business. Just read my archives. But why linger on unpleasant thoughts? I'm feeling a bit stupid that it took me so long to finally get it.

Unpleasant thoughts only attract more unpleasant thoughts. Think happy thoughts. Smile. Smile all the time. Smile at everyone. Ok, maybe not those creepy guys outside the pubs at 2 am. But everyone else is fine.

Long ago, I read something on kinkybluefairy's blog. Wait lemme go search. Here it is. Click. When I read it, I was totally in awe. This girl really inspires! I commented then that I would keep it in mind and I did. I'm happy to say that compared to a year ago, I did improve.

***

OK..I'm going to blog more tonight. With photos. Must. I'll try.

Laters.

Pretty Heels

 Hurts like a bitch though. Why is it the pretty ones are the most painful ones?

I might have to give this to mum. Unless anyone wants to buy it?

Any takers?

Boo.

These are the pair I was talking about two posts down. Bought online hence the size.

When I put it on, Cs looked at me and said wow.

He was looking up at me. My tits came to his shoulder height. Zzz

I must be about 180 cm in these.

Crazy.

Bye.

Camden Town

Hi. This is me. Or was back in 2006. At Camden Town. I have no idea why my face looked like that or why my eyes are so swollen. This is how I look like when I wake up in the morning. Eyes half open. Goofy looking.

I love that sweater. It is way over worn and I still have it. In my closet. Le awesome cousin gave it to me, along with a huge bag of warm clothes, consisting of sweaters, jackets, and scarves, when she heard I was going overseas.

Meet Shirley and Nifer. This was at the stall Nifer was working at. We were both free that day and went to visit her, as we normally do. Stand around chatting to her, buy food and eat there standing or sitting down on the steps, as shown in the last photo below.

Anyway. A little intro. This was at Camden Town. Northern line. The station was damn busy on weekends, that's how I remember it. There are a few markets here, Camden, Camden lock, Stables, and err I forgot the name. And also many pubs scattered around but that's typical. There are pubs at every corner.

During weekends, Camden is packed full with people visiting the markets, there are more stalls than usual, and a lot more punks than usual. You have to go visit if you're in London.

I have spent a lot of time here visiting Nifer at the various stalls she worked in, working in a few stalls in different markets, and many hours shopping and exploring all the markets here. Also spent a lot of time playing tourists to ex boyfriends, friends, and even Shirley's mum. I miss Camden.

I used that frog to attract customers to her shop. It croaks when you stroke it with the stick. Although it wasn't my intention to attract customers. I was just playing with her stuff..

Goth clothes cause that's what you see at Camden. Plenty of people dressed up in clothes like these and sporting funky hairstyles. And people dealing with weed. Secretly of course. I didn't know cos I looked kwai. Sorry but its true heheh.

It was only when I came with a friend, and only did I notice the people standing by the road side casually sidle up to him and offer/whisper to him. And all those times I wonder why people loiter outside pubs all the time. Zzz..

I worked at this handbag stall for a few weeks or was it months? Imitation bags that are illegal for sale in the U.K.

Once, the police came to catch these people working at the stalls for selling illegal imitation bags etc, and I thanks my lucky stars that I wasn't working that day. Heard it from my boss.

I stopped working there not long after that. I never did like working there. I suck at sales and talking to customers. I don't like freezing my ass off in the markets. Some more it was summer time. And no nearby toilets. Have to walk quite a distance.

But I liked the people there.. There were many Malaysians working in the markets and they all seem to know each other, hang out together, and were all very nice and friendly to me. Nice guys.

Spent a lot of time here. A lot of memories looking back at photos from Camden.

This was Nifer's own shop. Voodoo dolls!! Wish I bought one from her then.

Plucked up the courage to ask for a photo from this guy one day. Heh heh. And I was so dark then. Just realized my photos are from different dates, but it just goes to show that I was at Camden so often.

Taukenio at her own shop. She is damn li hai ok. Studying part time in London and somehow managed to find suppliers, import stuff and open up her own stall. Salute.

Playing with stuff from another stall that Nifer was working at then.

Life of a poor student. Haha yea right.

Three pounds per box, if I remember correctly. Chinese food. Rice with mix vegetables and sweet and sour pork. It tasted sooo good. Being away from home does make you miss Chinese food.

Being a student, we didn't care. Eat sitting on the steps, in front of so many people, so what? Nobody knows us, nobody cares.

Ask me to sit on the steps in Kuching now, and people might throw me some coins, or ask me for prostitution wtf! Haha. Kidding kidding.

Abrupt end.

Sunset

The sunset view on the way home from work.

 These are from different evenings. 

I guess its obvious.

Oh and one edited photo and one unedited.

I guess that's obvious too. :)

Oh and I'm trying to pretend to forget about Project 365. Way too much hassle. :)

Air Asia sales - I'm trying not to think too much about it. No temptations. 

Btw, my new resolution is: no impulse buying. Refers to shoes bought online and air tickets, hotel reservations and groupon buys.

Lesson learned. No more impulsive shopping.

Shoes: Website says use Aldo or Charles & Keith as a guide. Well, I used C&K as a guide but its still too tight and the heels are impossible. Waaayy too high..its so steep. Times like these, I wish I'm shorter. Or Cs is taller. Times like these, I go around cursing short people. (Sorry). I said times like these! I don't do that all the time! Except when the dresses are too short lah. Yeah. (Sorry again). 

Groupon: Bought the massage thingy at Hilton. Called and called and called for a reservation but its all fully booked. Got pissed and sent an email to Groupon and got my money refunded to me. So I stopped buying groupons that require reservations in advance. Those like Life Cafe, which let customers walk in without reservations, those are awesome.

Think those are examples enough.

Laters.

Project 365 almost abandoned

Hahaha I wanna abandon my Project 365. Its way too much hassle and I don't have enough time on hands as it is, much less find time to take photo, edit, then try to blog.

For now, these are photos from Sat, Sun and for today Monday. Day 12, 13 & 14.

Shirley had to whatsapp me to let me know its snowing in London today. She had to rub it in. She had to make me miss those times. In between reminiscing and talking about other stuff, I forgot that it is the middle of the night for her. Bitch woke up at about 3 ++ am to tell me its snowing. Hahahha..

So I went and edited the pictures to make it look like its snowing. It may not be snowing but I'm still wearing gloves and a scarf in the office. Typical.

Boring photo of sashimi. Why you so pricey? When I go to Japan, imma eat like there's no tomorrow. Haha I kid. Oh, and all flavors of kit kat too.

Oh look! Its snowing in the car too last Saturday. What a coincidence!

Anyway. Moving on. I want to update some more on life these days.

That photo above was taken on the way to a wedding dinner. I reached home at 530pm, Cs rushed me to hurry and bath and get ready to go out of the house by 6pm. I pouted and said it was impossible. Finally ready by 620pm, and here is the end result.

Looks worse in real life. This is a heavily edited photo.

OK. Bye.

Project 365 - Day 10 & 11

I'm at a wedding dinner now..

It's considered rude to keep looking at your phone..

So, short post:

Candy. I just had the choc eclairs. Yum. It's been years.

And that's my new necklace..

I was testing it out in the car.

OK bye.

Project 365 - Day 9

Earlier today making use of my treadmill. 

I have no idea how Hermione (the witch for non Harry Potter fans) ended up there or how it is related.

Speaking of, the other day, Kevin suddenly said to Winnie: hey put on Harry Potter now. I want to ask questions.

Heheh..Winnie, mum and I are the hard core fans. Kevin and Cs ask stupid questions, such as: why the elves  so powerful (he is referring to Dobby in the movie just clicking his fingers and someone's wand fly out of their hands), why don't they just get Voldermort's wand?

WTF?! I don't even know how to begin to answer the question. 

Anyway.

I'm thinking of calling it an early night tonight. Nights!

Project 365 - Day 8

The highlight of today's working day was the fire drill!!

I have been waiting for that fire bell to ring in 4 looong years. Hahah fire drill I mean!! Emphasize on the drill. Just the drill, not the real thing please. I'm not that evil.

It has rang a few times over the four years I have been working here. It rings sometimes for a few minutes, or a few seconds, or at random intervals, but never non stop.

Only once have I heard from fellow colleagues that it rang non stop: the shutters came down, and real thick, black smoke was coming out of the building. The fire brigade was downstairs. It was a proper fire drill all right. Everyone panicked, some guys held on the shutters, not letting it come down and effectively spoiling it, and not all the staff ran towards the right stairs.

In other words, pandemonium occured, with the result that management complained to our bosses because of the spoilt shutters and running to the wrong stairs, which resulted in all of the staff getting scolded by the bosses.

HAHAHHA!!

That sounded so fun to me.

Which is why I have been waiting for years. Ahem.

Anyway back to today. It rang. The air con shut off by itself. We all stood up staring at each other. Is this it? Is it finally the fire drill? But where is the smoke? Wait..wait look downstairs!! Everyone is going downstairs and congregating there.

OK, we might as well go down too. It was 12:15 pm. Almost time for lunch anyway. So I put on my heels and collected my phone, access card and wallet.

We all met downstairs and squinted for the non-existent smoke/fire. Waited till 12:30 for the building staff to come tell us: false alarm.

Within 3 seconds, everyone dispersed and went off to their lunch spots. Me included.

That was the highlight of our otherwise boring day. :)

Project 365 - Day 7

Last night: Made pistachio cookies and had plum liquor.

Pistachio cookies are a pain to make but tastes oh so delicious!!

Plum liquor was good too.

Stomach is being a pain to me now..its that time again. Grr..come on and get it over with now please.

Bye! Talk tomorrow.

Project 365 - day 6

I'll be busy baking/trying out cny cookies again later.. So this is my photo of the day!

From last night. Playing 21 in the pub! Heheh it was good fun!

Practicing for CNY!! Have a good Sunday peeps!

Project 365 - Day 5

I miss little fatty and went to look at her photos.

I love her in that tiger outfit but its much too warm for her so we hardly put it on for her.

Have a good weekend everyone! xx

Project 365 - Day 3 and 4

Just finished this book by John Grisham - The Summons. A very old book. I like his books in general, but I find that sometimes it drags on and on and I feel like skipping pages, or just skimming over the pages thinking when is it ever going to end? Its mostly the last few pages, then it explodes. Something happens and we finally get some action.

That said, its still a good book. Read it.

This book is about how two sons are "summoned" home by the Judge (their father) to discuss his property and will. The Judge is dying and suffering and both sons are not home. Both selfish bastards if you ask me.

The point is, one son arrives home first to find that their father died on the sofa already. After searching the house, he finds $3,000,000 (three million) in cash hidden in boxes inside the house. Assuming no one knows this, he hides the money and hides it from his brother we well.

The story unfolds the son tries to find how and where the money came from, whether it is "dirty money" or not, and the story behind all that.

Greed. $3,000,000 in cold, hard cash can make anyone greedy. But he hid it from his own brother, the authorities, and lawyers.

Do you know how much money is three million? How many boxes there is, and how to hide it if not in a bank? Having to hide it from authorities. No matter where you hide it, in a storage place, at home, or in the car, you worry and obsess over it.

Ahh anyway..read the book. I like the ending though. It feels kind of..right. Karma is a bitch and all that.

Last night Winnie and I started making Chinese New Year cookies. Actually we were just practising. No way these could last till Feb 10.

Very happy that we succeeded! :)

I forsee a lot more baking to come. Happy me.

Project 365 - Day 2

This almanac is on my office desk. We get one with every new year. Cs doesn't get why we need an almanac, and why is is important. At least to an office worker like me, it is important.

It is on this almanac that I would get to know:

- Public holidays are, and to countdown to them. Some months have no public holidays in them!! Not even one! The horror!!!

- When our festive seasons are. I love Gawai holidays as much as I love Hari Raya holidays, and Chinese New Year holidays, and Xmas, and Awal Muharram and Hari Raya Qurban. Oh and National Day. Oh and Malaysia Day. What else? Always nice to be forewarned, right? :D

- When to plan holidays when there is an Air Asia sale. Pfft we all do that right? Not just me?

I am aware that I sound like a slacker.

 We also get the rather useless info like when is King Tide. Cos it doesn't really matter here in Kuching. It rains anytime, heavy rain, light rain, King Tide makes no difference. It can rain and flood on a no King Tide day.

We also don't need to know when is sun rise and sun set. In Kuching, the sun rises and sets at almost the same time 365 days a year. No difference. According to the almanac, the sun will rise at between 0641 am to 0651 am in Jan, 0649 am to 0651am in Feb, and so on and so forth. Can't be bothered to list them out.

Anyway. This is my photo for today.

If only almanacs come with shooting star sightings eh? Hahah idiot. I still have not given up on that yet. I want to close my eyes and make a wish too.

OK. Ending this here.

Laters.

Project 365 - Day 1

Since its the first day of 2013, I'll see if I can make it work this time.

Post a photo a day for a whole year.

We took these photos at the photo booth last night. I always wanted to try them out. Yay!

Simple pleasures. That photo booth was definitely the highlight of last night. Almost everyone had their photo  taken. Twice. Hahah.

This is day one. Let's see how long I last.

Reflections on 2012 and Resolutions for 2013

I just want to do a brief wrap up of 2012..look back on the best parts, and the things that I am thankful for in my life. I'm a lucky bitch and 2012 has been kind to me. 

So, in no particular order, the best parts of 2012 would be:

1) Travelled to Taiwan (twice - once with Cs' family, and the other with my mum and sis). Both trips are so different, but equally awesome in their own way.

It was his first time to Taiwan, and 10 years since I last went back to Taiwan. So we were both equally excited and anticipating the trip in our own way. I was feeling nostalgic and he was just excited and happy to eat everything in sight. Haha. 

 Some more it was winter and quite cold so that made it more fun, I think. If I had to choose a perfect trip, this one would win.

The second trip to Taiwan was different in that I spent more time with my cousins and relatives. We don't stay in the same country so keeping in touch is difficult. They speak Mandarin and Taiwanese, Winnie and I speak to each other in English, but in Taiwan, we are forced to speak in Mandarin ONLY. NO EXCEPTIONS!! 

Yeah, had to caps it cos that was how our cousin reacted to our English. Haha..when she came to Kuching, we taught her English though. The only thing she remembered was idiot. Blame that on Kevin.

That photo was taken on the last night outside our hotel. I miss her. I have to call her tonight. Tango! Awesome app. Lets you video and voice call for free. That was how Cs and I kept in touch when I was in Taiwan. Tango and Viber. The video part is good cos you can see and check on each other. Hahah.

2) Bangkok trip because I have always wanted to go there. Most of the Thai people we met are generally friendly, humble and polite it seems. But the best thing about travelling to Bangkok or Thailand in general, was that we don't have to worry too much of expenses being too pricey. 

Always good when you're on holiday. Unlike in Hong Kong, we were busy converting  and thinking how much did that meal cost again? You tell yourself to stop it, stop converting when you're on holiday but yeah, guilty as charged.

When we were in Phuket, instead of cringing, we were marvelling at the bill. Our meal came up to that only?!! Yeahh..awesome right.

Happy times.

3) Buying a new house. It was a, for want of a better word, bold and spontaneous decision for us. No, not spontaneous. How can buying a house be? I meant that we didn't think much of moving. It wasn't really an option. There were problems with the house that we got sort of used to, accustomed to already. Such as the roof leaking.

 I have lost count of how many times we asked the contractor to fix it, and Cs' parents are probably fed up of asking us AGAIN whether is it leaking after a heavy rain fall. Its the little things..so one day, we just took that step. Buy a new house and sell this one. 

Our home. I'm sitting on the sofa typing as I write this. May I just say that it does not look like the picture as I look around. We took that photo for an ad. So we had to clean the house in advance. Right now, I see papers on the sofa beside me, the coffee table is full with books, water bottles, guava, and clothes on the floor, socks cos I was planning to run but instead I chose to write this, and err yea clutter. 

 I also see memories of us everywhere..it is hard to let go of our first home together. We chose everything together, we make memories in this home, but I'm glad to move on.

We will make new memories. :)

5) Celebrated our one year anniversary of our wedding! 

By err..doing nothing really. I shall force Cs to do something next year. At least go out for dinner please. 

To ring in the new year, we went to the Sarawak Club dinner and countdown. Even though the night was quite boring, its ok. Its just a night. I'll make sure that my CNY is nothing like that though. 

The best part about last night was the photo booth!! Love it!!

There were 3 choices: colour, black & white, or antique. So Winnie and I went up three times to take photos. Heh. Our table was so close to the photo booth so when opportunity calls, we go. 

For 2013, I want to:

1) Add a new destination to our travel list. At least one international, and one domestic. I'm persuading Cs to go to Penang. I must eat Penang char kuay tiaw for myself and Penang laksa. I must! 

2) Sell off our current home for a really good price which will enable our move to the new place much easier and more international destinations. Heh.

3) Work out more and get back to my ideal weight. I must exercise more and make use of the pool before I move out.

4) Get knocked up. Hahahah. I kid, or am I.

5) We'll just make this up as we go. 

I really have to go run on the treadmill in order to make number 3 work.

Happy 2013 everyone! Hope this year will be even better than 2012.