The anniversary dinner

For us, celebrating our anniversary is something that we always look forward to. We tried to plan a holiday somewhere around it and if time (or money) not permitted, we will have a nice dining plan out. For this year, holiday was not planned as I will be moving soon, so we decided to have a good dinner to celebrate our fifth anniversary.

I told my husband to surprise me. He ruled out any buffet as I'm on my PB diet and finally he told me that we are going to Tanzini in G Tower. Honestly that was my first time hearing that restaurant and after looking at the online review, I was excited to go.

Tanzini is situated at the 28th floor of the G Tower and has 2 floors. The Upper Deck is serving the set course meal only and the lower one is the ala carte menu. Husband chose the upper deck as it is more private and have better view. 

The set menu consist of 4, 5 or 6 courses that you can choose. We chose the 5 course meals and beef and lamb as our main course. Then I ordered their specialty drink, Tanzini T - black tea, strawberry (with real strawberry floating), mint and pomegranate syrup. I really looovveee it. Husband ordered apple juice with lemon glass and it's just ok.

The first course was smoked salmon. It was delicious. In fact it was one of the best course that night. Then the waiter served our starter, mine was dried scallops with something something and Zainal was duck with something something. Well, it was ok. Next was the baby kailan soup with crispy chicken. He poured the soup in front of us to ensure that the crispy chicken didn't not turn soggy swimming in the soup. Between the soup and main course, the waiter served us watermelon sorbet to rinse our taste palate before the main. I don't like sorbet, so I didn't enjoy it. Then our main was served. I chose lamb while Zainal chose beef tenderloin. My lamb was so tender with some grill taste outside. It was so yummy. Compared to husband beef tenderloin which I think is just average, the lamb is better. Lastly was the dessert. The huge disappointment. It was a scope of ice cream on top of chocolate cookies and reddish. The ice cream and cookies was ok, but the reddish, omg, seriously just spoiled my whole experience of the food that night. Maybe I don't like reddish but man, that's not dessert!

For left top: My delicious drink Tanzini T, smoked salmon, the starters, sorbet, Zainal's beef tenderloin, dessert and my lamb. In the middle is the kailan soup.

Despite the limited food choice in the upper deck session, I love the restaurant. The ambiance was so romantic, with high ceiling glass ceiling where you can see KLCC in front of you. The couch as the seat where we can cuddle (if only the waiter stopped coming checking on us) and the hanging round lights in the middle of the room made the whole place very cozy. You can also hang out at the balcony before you leave enjoying the soft breeze of KL night skyline. There were 2 couples including us only for that night and made us felt like we own that place. 

The ambiance

The service was excellent. The waiter was very attentive, checking on us so many times, explaining what is the dish that have just served and took time to take a lot of our pictures. The best part was when we ordered a beef dish, he came back to us and told us that dish was marinated with wine. So he told us to change it and gave us different menu. 

On side note, I always respect and have a high admiration to restaurants that are very sensitive to their customers religion belief and inform them the ingredients. I found out that how I dress, for example like me which is wearing a hijab, always save me in restaurants. Few restaurants that I went, Tanzini, Alexis, Chocolate Bar at Marina Bay Sand in Singapore and few others, has warned me that certain dish in their menu has alcohol as ingredient. The funny part is they informed me but not my husband (in the case of Chocolate Bar). So I always believe if we dress as a Muslim, we will be respected as one too.

Back to the Tanzini, overall the food and the ambiance there was above my expectation. I really enjoy our dinner last night. 

Thank you husband for the great dinner and as my lifelong companion. Happy 5th anniversary and may our love last till Jannah. Love you bunch <3 p="p">

The marriage numbers

19th of January is our 5th year wedding anniversary.

We dated each other for 5.5 years before we got married.

We knew each other for 5 years before we dated.

Therefore, we have known each other for 15.5 years. Which means we have known each other more than half of our life.

:)

Still no peace

When I told my husband about her, how she made this and that, my husband just smiled and said, when you hate someone, everything he/she did is wrong and will make you angry. Why don't you just sit back, watch her burn herself and walk away?

Well, I just can't. Every little thing she did to me just so annoying and making me so stressful. Of all the people I need to handover, why it has to be her? I remembered people used to warn me about her. I thought I don't want to judge so early, be neutral and let me experience myself. Ya Allah, how true what people said. Masakan pohon bergoyang tanpa angin..

She's like a knife stuck in my heart. Everyday she twists a little bit and slowly tearing my heart. Some days the knife goes in deeper, crushing my lungs leaving me gasping for some air. Leaving it there cause pain, trying to remove it cause pain too. At the end, my motivation slowly dying.

Why la some people are like this?

I think I need to stand up and stop being bullied.

So how do I start?

Finding my peace

I just want to leave this place with good memories and less heartache. After one and a half years, the last thing I want to do is to leave a bad impression after building up a good reputation. Of course, it was not that simple. People still want to make my heart bleeds with irrational decisions.

I used to ignore everything and focus my energy to the things that matter. But then, when the replacement came, suddenly I realized I'm a black sheep. Everything I did was a mistake. Every now and then I heard complaints and dissatisfaction about me. The complaints came from someone that didn't matter much but clearly important to him. No complaints came from everyone that matter, but did he care. Of course not. Comments and feedback was very satisfying from everyone that matters but to him I'm just a headache. Ah, I forgot that pleasing him is more important than getting the job done with everyone that matter. 

Even at the last days of my service, the unthinkable still happened. Few people volunteered, but he chose me. Yes me. To organise my own goodbye. What on earth people organize their own farewell? Clearly bedazzled most of the people, but I kept on repeating this mantra to myself to keep my sanity, everyone is different and we should respect. Again and again. It just happened that the person with authority that is different flock.

Oh well, I'm doing this for Allah, to please only Him. Allah will take care of me, not him. I have given my best and leave everything to Him.

I will find my peace soon. InsyaAllah.

Wonderful 2012

There is only one word to describe 2012: Alhamdulillah. All praise to Allah. So much has happening in 2012, even though I have ups and downs, but the amount of love I get from Allah and people, is just unbelievable.

We traveled a lot this year. It's like a revenge for 2011 for the lack of traveling. The highlight of the year is Umrah. But the worst of 2012, the hospitalization after Umrah.

Well, let's recap 2012:

1. We travel a lot, on average of once every 3 months:
1. January : Bali for our 4th anniversary
2. March: Umrah
3. May: Penang
4. August: Alor Setar
5. September: Langkawi
6. November: South Korea
2. Hospitalized coz of Influenza B - then doctor took the opportunity to do endoscopic procedure since I always have stomach problem. Who would know the equipment I used to repair during internship become my diagnostic tool.
3. Alhamdulillah no death in the family this year.
4. Steep learning curve in my career. But it was very satisfying. 
5. No diving trip this year :(

I guess that's all this year. I see only 2 common themes: Travel and work. And sickness. Haha. My stakeholder actually put this twice in my performance review this year: She needs to take care of her health. Ok, that will be this year resolution.

I always looking forward to do each year reflection (this blog tradition) just to remind myself to be thankful of all the things that happened in my life and as a learning to improve myself. On a sad day, I will search this list every year and smile at all life experiences that I have been through.

Complicated

Husband: When are you going to buy all the stuff that you want to bring to East Malaysia?
Me: Don't know yet.
Husband: So you want to do it last minute and rush everything? Oh wait, do you have checklist things to buy?
Me: No.

Husband looked at me. I'm feeling scared.

Me: Ok, I will do it today. I'm confused what thing to bring. Should I duplicate everything I have here?
Husband: Or you can bring things from here rather than duplicate everything.
Me: But then when I come back here, I don't have all the things that I need coz some are there.

Husband looked at me.

Husband: God, your life is so complicated, isn't it?

*Grin*

Ok, I better do the checklist ASAP.

Happy new year 2013

It's new year again! This year I'll be hitting the big three oooo. I feel so old. The only decade people look forward is the 20's, after that everyone wish the the age just stop there. Huhu.

For this new year, I wish to pray more, travel more, learn more, give more, smile more and exercise more.

Specific resolution will be done as needed basis. For example, I want to cook more and eat out less. Managed to achieve that in this month and guess what, my skin has improved a lot. Eating out is not healthy especially with excessive oil and MSG that they dump into our food. Alhamdulillah, small steps into monthly resolution goes a long way.

To all my friends out there, happy new year 2013. May our wishes come true and may Allah bless us always.

posted from Bloggeroid

Continuing the journey

For once I wish the mover will be less efficient. Suddenly everything moved so fast. I think I just said yes to move there earlier this month. I talked to the new line manager a week after that and a week after that, the HR send me a note to accept the offer on that day itself as she's going for on leave until new year.

Then only it struck to me that this is not about just another empty promises that I heard before, this is going to happen. I panicked of course, started to call husband if I should accept it. Husband consoled me and said that we have discussed about this and I should accept it. I accepted it and few days later saw an email saying that the HR has already prepared for my movement.

A day later, I got an email from the mover company that someone will be contacting me about my stuff. True enough, few hours later someone did contact me. I tried to buy time by asking what the date bla bla, but yesterday, he asked me again when is the date I want to move and he wanted to come over to see what stuff I want to move.

Seriously, I'm sad of leaving my house. It's not even 1 year yet and I'm moving again. Sure, I'll be back every weekend but I will spend another 5 days somewhere else. I wish I can move the whole house including the person who is living there too. Then the whole situation will be perfect.

Oh well, another episode of my nomadic life.

Knowing that my kitchen has not gone wasted

Sometimes daughter in law needs to bake something for the mother in law (especially for her birthday). This will show that her son will not starve by marrying this woman.

Does my statement legit?

Haha.



Finally I managed to take the whole pavlova before being attacked.

posted from Bloggeroid

The big bad wolf book sale

Thanks to Big Bad Wolf book sales for stocking up our yearly reading material. We went there yesterday night, and if not because my leg was in pain and my arms were tired carrying the box of books, we might have more damage to the wallet.

It was damn cheap. This year there was more business books which delighted mr hubby. Lots of Nigella's and Jamie's recipes book. Though I have promised myself not to buy any recipe book anymore, but I felt guilty not to buy at least one coz it's cheap. So I bought one. No self control at all!

This is the books we managed to grab:


The damage: only RM 307 for 34 books! Totally worth it..

posted from Bloggeroid

Extra fat in the tummy

This week in office:

Colleague: Mun, are you pregnant? *looking at my stomach*
Me: Nooo... This is just rice *sob sob*

Today after family dinner:

Niece: Cik Ngah mengandung ke?
Me: Eh, tak lah..
Niece: tipu la cik ngah, perut cik ngah besar...
Me: Waaaahhh.. *lari balik*

Though I will be sooo happy if I'm really pregnant but people assuming I'm pregnant by looking at my tummy is sooooo frustrating.

Really need to lose this annoying extra fat... Arghhh..

posted from Bloggeroid

What do you collect when traveling?

I'm sure all of you who love to travel will collect some memorabilia when traveling. Some collect t-shirst, newspaper, snow globes, fridge magnet, maps, mugs and so on. From all of this, we chose the easiest, cheapest, lightest and small memento which is fridge magnet. I know it is so common but the beauty of fridge magnet is it is light, wouldn't add any weight to our luggage, easily found, cheap- most important when you travel to countries where the exchange rate is high and the best part is, you can turn anything to fridge magnet by just adding the magnet.

Still got empty place. Means more travel! Hehe

This is a pin  that I put a magnet on.

Front view..

We started to collect fridge magnet when we were traveling in US. At that time we were considered hardcore poverty by the US government, therefore we usually travel using as minimal expense as possible. Even though we wanted to save the money, souvenirs from each destination that we went is a must. That's why we choose fridge magnet.

Besides that, I also collect Hard Rock Cafe pin. These pins have turned into magnet too. See I told you, sometimes when you go to some place, you can't find magnet. All you see are key chains and pins. What I do is I will buy the pin or key chains stick a magnet behind it, walla! it's a magnet. It'll be unique coz nobody has that magnet.

The collection so far..

Another best part of magnet is that since it is not expensive, we able to buy many. So instead of just buy one for a destination, we usually buy the magnet according to the places we've been. For example instead of just buy one magnet for San Francisco, we bought 1 magnet from Fisherman's Wharf, 1 from Alcatraz and 1 from Golden Gate bridge. Every specific places that we went, we would bought one. I love it coz the design from each places is unique and very much specific what are the interesting part of that.

Other than that, Zainal collected Coke bottles and cans. Coke from different part of the world are quite unique in their own packaging which is very interesting. My favourite Coke can is the one that have Duke logo when Duke won the NCAA in 2010. Precious.

Coke congratulating Duke becoming NCAA 2010 National Champion

Of course we also like to keep all the papers that involved in the travel process. From maps, itinerary, tickets, subway tickets and cards. I actually wanted to do a scrap book with all that, but it never materialised. I only managed to do New York trip, then everything was trashed into a file. A fat and bulging file. Hai.. don't think the scrap book will be happened anytime soon.

All the paper memorabilia

That pink file having problem containing all of these

So what is your collection? 

Again, in the same dilemma

Again, this question pop in my life.

To go or not to go?

Comfort zone or challenging zone?

This time around the difference is the distance.

From 24 hours flight to 2 hours, which is not so bad but still...........

K-Pop Land Trip: Jeju Island

Another trip that I was looking forward in this year is trip to South Korea. It was not easy to get approval from hubby to book the tickets as he didn't think there's many things to see and do in South Korea. After persuading and convinced him that the reason I want to go there NOT because the influence of the K-drama, but the beauty of that country itself, finally he agreed to go. Anybody knows that is not true, of course the one and only reason to go there is because of the influences of K-drama. But on my defense, I only watched less than 10 dramas which does not qualify me as K-drama addict (unlike my mom!). Haha...

Anyway, after searching the best dates to see the autumn foliage, waiting anxiously for the Air Asia Sale, endless review reading and comprehensive itinerary discussion, finally the time has come. We went to 2 part of South Korea, Jeju Island and Seoul. For this part, I will cover Jeju Island first.

Jeju Island is like Hawaii for South Korea people. They went there for honeymoon and the weather is slightly warmer than in Seoul. Initially we want to go there after Seoul but after consulting few friends that went there before, they advised to go before Seoul. We booked the flight ticket a month before. I was thinking of doing the adventure trip which is by taking KTX train from Seoul to Busan, then take a ferry to Jeju. The KTX train to Busan takes around 2 hours, but the ferry from Busan to Jeju takes 8 hours! So we decided to take flight there which is around 1 hour only.

Arrived in Incheon International Airport around 8am and our flight to Jeju is around 2 pm. Purposely took longer buffer as we need to change airport and didn't want to rush just in case the flight from KL delay. This is the second time I'm in Incheon International Airport. The first one was a transit to New York few years ago which I had food poisoning when traveling alone. One of the worst experience, pulling luggage in and out of toilet and finally slept on the bench dehydrated. So this time around I was able to explore more of the airport than the toilets.. Haha.

Took our sweet time in Incheon before took the train to Gimpo International Airport. After checking in for our flight, we decided to find lunch. This is the first challenge of food finding. After walking round surveying the food (which is not much since Gimpo is quite small), we finally settled for a plate of what looked like sotong masak merah with rice. The menu written in Korean but there is a number at the side. After memorizing the number, we went in and realized it's a food court. How do we know which stall selling this squid? Then light bulb moment. I took a picture of that food and showed the cashier that I want this. She was quite amused and told us to go to the specific stall. Success!

We arrived at Jeju International Airport around 4pm and followed the instruction from Yeha Tour, a company I used to rent a car, off we went to the parking lot. I thought it will be easy but when I arrived at the designated parking lot, I saw at least 7 rent-a-car company vans that converted to mini office. I have no idea which one is ours. Suddenly it become like Amazing Race. With luggage in our hand, trying to match the Korean word in the email with every white van. Finally we found our van with a help of another van. Our car rental company showed us the car (we got Hyundai Sonata..yuhuu), trying to explain to us in limited English and lots of acting and sounds (with his friend laughing beside him) and finally off we go. The GPS was included in the rental but it was in Korean. The good news is this is South Korea and their technology is way ahead. By using telephone number of the place that we want to go, the GPS can bring you there. So jot down all the telephone number and just key in into the GPS. He gave us the map of Jeju in Korean but with telephone number. We brought Jeju map in English without telephone number. At the end, the matching game of two maps was our main activity before any trip.

My hotel in Jeju is Little France Hotel which located in Seogwipo and located at the other side of Jeju-do city where the airport is located. It took around an hour from airport to the hotel as we have to cross Mount Hallasan which is located in the middle of the island. The view was so beautiful. We were oohh and ahhh along the way. When there's a scenic view, we would stopped and took some picture. That was the best part of driving your own versus tour group and public transport.

Loveland... Definitely 18sx..

Before we went to the other side of the island aka Seogwipo, we went to the Loveland first as it was located in Jeju-do. It's a park filled with sex theme sculptures  which definitely not suitable for below 18 years old. Haha. Then drive through the so called Mysterious Road which seriously I didn't understand what the fuss is all about. There's a lot of tour bus though so I told my husband to just drove away.

The next day we started early as there's a lot to cover. The size of Jeju Island is about 3 times of Singapore and it has a lot of natural wonders. It has many inactive volcanoes which over the years has created a beautiful landscape. We started with Cheonjeyeon Waterfall. It was in the middle of green lush with 3 waterfalls and Seonimgyo Bridge. The weather was so nice and it was so relaxing to walk around.

Seonimgyo Bridge

Cheonjeyeon Waterfall

Next we drove to Mount Songaksan along the coastal road. The water was so blue and from far you can see the Mount Songaksan rising tall contrasting the bright blue ocean. On the right of the road is Mount Sanbangsan. We thought we can drive up to the top of Mount Songaksan, but actually not. So we decided to save energy and not to hike to the top. 

Lunch was next. According to the map, there's a seafood restaurant nearby. Once arrived, the waitress can't speak a single word of English beside pork and chicken. And there's no menu. Tried to order fish and end up acting the word fish to get the message across. Luckily she understood and brought us the best fish I ever taste. Seriously, it tasted a bit like asam pedas but not the same. She just not brought us the fish, but tofu soup, fish ball and so many other things! Andddd that was the cheapest food we had in this whole South Korea trip. Only Korean Won 10,000. If you compare apple to apple, it's like 10 ringgit. 

Yummy lunch.. the soup hasn't arrived..

Satisfied with delicious and cheap lunch we proceed to our next destination, Jungmun Daepo Columnar Jointed Lava. It was mind blowing! The rocks looked like a rectangular column being stacked together. Masya Allah, it's actually from the lava flowing and after few thousand years, it become like that. The beauty of Allah's creation.

Cantik kan

While trying to find Jungmun Daepo, we drove in front The Seaes Hotel where the filming of Secret Garden was held. I was like some crazy fan pointing to the hotel while unamused driver calmly drove by, until my husband gave me an option to go in and took some pictures. Macam orang mengantuk disorong bantal, mesti la nak kan. Waaaa... such as beautiful hotel. Took some pictures from far (konon tak nak nampak macam groupies sangat).

This is the location of Secret Garden....

Jeongbang Waterfall

Next destination was Jeongbang Waterfall. Ok, there are a lot of waterfall in Jeju. We decided to go to 2 only. This waterfall is quite unique coz it flows to the ocean. Supposedly one of the few waterfall that flows direct to ocean in Asia. Saw people selling and eating so food at the foot of the waterfall, but not sure what's that, so we just ignored.

Second last destination of the day was Jeju Folk Village Museum. We cheated a bit and took a short cut. Apparently this is where drama Jewel in the Palace was shot. I didn't watch it so I was not so crazy about this place. It has the model of the traditional village of Jeju. I just didn't understand why different type of occupation have different type of house. It showed that I don't really like history. Haha.

Jeju Folk Village Museum

The last destination and the one that my husband has kept his energy was Seongsan Ilchulbong Peak (Seongsan Sunrise Peak). It was known to have the best view of sunrise in Jeju. Of course if you want to wake up at 4am to catch the sunrise. I didn't climb to the top coz of health reason so husband climbed to the top and took a lot of pictures and video for me. Then the sun started to set behind Mount Hallasan and it was awesome and it is also mean it is getting colder. I was waiting at the foot of the Seongsan freezing cold while waiting for the hubby to get down. Once he got down I rushed to the car. Couldn't stand the cold anymore. We ate dinner around that area before going back to hotel.

That's the peak...

It's actually an inactive volcano. This is the crater that now looks like a field in the middle of it.

The thing about Jeju Island is tat the halal food is hard to find and most of them are located at Jeju-do. But seafood is abundant. So seafood become our main food in Jeju. 

Dinner... More seafood.

The next morning after check out we decided to drive around Jeju-do. GPS brough us different route to Jeju-do, still crossing Mount Hallasan but different view. Still oohhh and aahhh along the way. Jeju Island is definitely beautiful around autumn season. Orange, red, yellow and green seems to blend nicely and created a shady canopy along the road. 

The view along the way

Decided to go to  airport direct as traffic was quite heavy in Jeju-do compared to Seogwipo. End up driving around for LPG station to top up before returning the car. All petrol and LPG station are local company. No Shell in sight! Returned the rental car and flew to Seoul with 12.25 pm flight.

Pheww... I am in the mood of writing, hence the long post =)

Honeymoon in Mekah & Madinah

Quite frequent we read in magazine when an artist got married, they would said that they are going honeymoon in Mekah and Madinah. When I read that, the first thing that came out of my mind that how do they want to do that. Honeymoon is always associated with sexy time, spending most of the time in the room than outside and stuff that not suitable to be done in Holy Land. But then I never been to Mekah and Madinah with my husband previously, so I was naive about it.

However, my perspective changed when I went Umrah with my husband early this year. I forgot that honeymoon is not just about lust but about love and spending time with each other. Morever it was at the holiest place on earth and it become one of the best trip that I ever had with my husband.

Arriving at the airport and looking around at our group, I whispered to my husband, do you want to bet that people will think that we are newly weds. True enough, few hours after that some ladies asked me if I just got married. Hehe. Perasan muda.

How do I describe the feeling of honeymoon in Mekah and Madinah? It was different from others. We woke up each other to prepare for Suboh prayer every morning, reminded each other to read Quran and discussed how many umrah we want to do. Everywhere we went - to Masjidil Haram, Nabawi, during tawaf and saie, I always hold his arm (the upper arm - where the sleeves are - supaya tak batal air sembahyang). Everywhere we went, we always went together until I was chased out from the barber shop coz that was for men only. The mutawwif even asked us to seat separately during our first ihram to prevent unnecessary event that might lead to penalty! My husband refused and sat next to me. Of course nothing happened, we were in the bus for God's sake. Haha.

Before the umrah, some of my colleagues advised me to be patient when in Holy Land. She advised me sometimes when we go there, suddenly our husband changed. Allah wanted to show his true colour and we never ever talk back and always be patient with our husband as that is part of the umrah process. I prayed deep in my heart, please Allah, please don't change my husband to worse, please change to the best. Alhamdulillah, Allah change my husband to the best husband ever. He never let my hand go no matter how pack the crowd was, bought me food when I was not feeling well and always take care of me.

You know what is the best part of this trip, the five times daily prayer trips. Everyday we will go to either Masjidil Haram or Nabawi, my hand in his arm, walked to the masjid and parted at the gate or door (depending which masjid). Then after prayer, we will meet again at the same door or gate. We devised a timing system so that we can met at the same time. I didn't buy local sim card, so there was no communication thru handphone (and in Masjid Nabawi, women can't bring in handphone with camera, so I left mine in the hotel). What we have is just trust each other that we will meet at the promised time and place. One time I got lost in Masjidil Haram, I almost cried coz I didn't find that door and I don't know how to contact my husband. Luckily I remembered the door number and when I finally found that door, almost half an hour later, I saw the love of my life standing there waiting for me. That was the best feeling ever!

Coming back from the umrah trip, I was down with Influenza B and was quarantined in SDMC for almost a week. My husband took care of me the whole time even though he himself was sick but surprising enough not caught the deadly virus. I really felt bad coz he has to sleep on that uncomfortable sleeping care every night so that I was not alone.

So my conclusion is, Mekah and Madinah is the best place for honeymoon. It gave you a different kind of feeling that you will never have with other places. The best part is the experience and memories that we build along the way, the stories we shared and the enlighnment we have from Allah. In shaa Allah we will be there again. So do you =)

Wedding car at Madinah. The ustaz forced us to take picture with the car. Haha..

Filled with warmth and kindness

Raya month just passed us by so quickly. Open house and traffic jam every weekend for the whole 4 weeks and suddenly on the first weekend of Zulkaedah, boom all road empty. So empty that I'm wondering where is everybody? Am I missing something here. Oh well, might as well enjoy it then.

This Raya, as this was the first raya in the new home, we decided to have housewarming plus open house together. Also doa selamat in the morning as well. Oh well, better did in one shot to save all the hassle of cleaning the house.

To tell the truth, the decision was made quite last minute. Then we were panicking when found out caterers were not taking any orders anymore. By that time, I already send out my invitation.

We send out lot of invitations. We took this opportunity to invite neighbours as well. At least i've done my part to get to know them. Surprisingly, a lot of them came. There's one uncle came with a wheelchair. He asked his maid to push him to our house. He couldn't eat anything as he was sick. I tried to make conversation but man, that was not easy! I'm not a very good small talker, especially with strangers. But I have to face that fear coz hubby has assigned me to layan neighbours. I can't thank him enough for coming. There were neighbours that i've known since I was small, neighbours that are new and neighbours that was my tuition teacher. Almost everyone came actually and honestly I can't remember all their name. But they remembered one thing: arwah pak and arwah mek. Made me missed them so much more.

We also invited our colleagues and of course friends. I couldn't express how happy I was seeing all my old friends. From Subang, UM and even Duke! So sad that I can only chat for few minutes before I need to tend other people. I was running around socializing with people that I forgot to eat! Haha.. And my ankle brace helped a lot. I wouldn't be able to walk and run that much without it.

The most unexpected thing was some of them brought gifts for our new house. I'm so happy! From fire extingusher to Pyrex, I grateful for it as I told them just come to eat, no need to bring anything. Some also brought fruits and food. Wah lau, at the of the day, I felt like it was my birthday.. Hehe.

But I'm a bit disappointed coz I didn't take any picture at all! Initially I asked my brother to be my official photographer but last minute he had to work. The only photo I have was before the event start, when everything was empty. And I think i'm in 3 of my friends' camera. What a bummer.

Oh, also the fun part: house tour! My hubby and I actually cleaned the whole house for this. We know people will ask to see the house especially when it is new. Biasa la, I did that when I visited other people new house. Haha. So just be prepared and embraced it. Not to show off but to share what we did that took so long to finish. It was really hardwork to do major renovation without an ID. It's like having another full time job.

At the end of the day, we were so tired yet happy. We also made conclusion on who to invite next time and who is not going to be in our list. At least we know that some people will always stay in our life, some will be just friends in facebook and some will just stay as colleagues in the office.

In conclusion, my house is now being filled with prayers, warmth and kindness of people that matters.

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Never win

When I came back from States, I got complacent of not working. I told my husband that i'm going to be a housewife. Obviously husband is not happy especially when I just finished my post-grad. Might as well I just stay here if that I want to be. I told him many justifications - when I was working in factory previously, I knew the operators salary even combined with his wife is lesser than husband's and they can survived. Why can't we?

Quietly my husband took my hand and looked into my eyes (ok, I added this to have more dramatic impact) and said,"yes we can survived. No doubt. But we can't afford to travel and have vacations. The best we can have is Port Dickson."

You know what my husband did? He touched on the most sensitive topic. My favourite hobby: travelling. Nobody can say no to me when it comes to travel (except my wallet, of course). I rather not owning a single Coach handbag as long as I can travel (when Coach is super duper cheap in US). I was quite taken back about that actually and my job hunting after that had never been so serious. Haha.

Now, whenever I felt like quitting my job, I just remember this and try to find the motivation to stay on. I have made another KPI for us, I want to go to haj before we are 40, and for streched target (OMG, I sound like my boss) I want to go before 35. For that, I need to work so that I can help my husband to save for the fifth rukun Islam.

For now, Kate Spade and LV that i've been eyeing will take a backseat (why always handbags that need to sacrifice? Hehe).

What is the learning here? Know your partner. If my husband said something else, I might not bought it. Knowing what important to me has made his reasons easy for me to accept. In the end, I always lost talking to him.. ceettt

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Lova lova

I was in the mood of baking stuff last week and pavlova came to my mind. It's easy to make and required few ingredients only. This was my first try and succeed. *happy*

The best thing is, hubby loves it. We at it for 3 nights in the row for supper. Hubby chose grapes as topper and I chose strawberry. Raya ni nak buat lagi untuk family pulak. Hehe...

A slice of my strawberry pavlova.

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A third of Ramadhan

Alhamdulillah it's 10 Ramadhan already. I hope it's not too late to wish everyone Ramadhan Mubarak. Let's make this Ramadhan better than the last one.

This is our first Ramadhan in our own house. Still adjusting of the space that we need to walk to get something and of course the stairs. Yelah, sebelum ni asyik tinggal kat apartment je, semua within hand reach. But of course no complain of the extra steps which also mean we have more space now.

This year I'm going to take the Ramadhan advantage as much as I can. Last year was bad, so this year I want to improve, InsyaAllah. So far I don't miss any puasa yet. Praying hard I will not miss any puasa this time around and of course praying hard I don't need to miss solat for the next 9 months.

I think this year bazaar Ramadhan is not interesting anymore. The food price has increased or they just maintained the same price but with lesser portion. I tried to cook (since I got new and bigger kitchen, kena la semangat kan) when I reached home earlier or during weekend. Alhamdulillah this year we don't overly excited to eat everything. Just want to maintain this phase and eat moderately.

However, I teringin nak makan that ayam golek at Bangi roadside. I wonder it still there or moved already. One of the best ayam golek. And I want to have murtabak singapore. Wonder where can I get it?

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Sandakan trip

Finally my open ticket that was bought under last year's budget is utilised. I'm going to Sandakan finally.

It's actually for my project involving dredging and jetty. I followed my stakeholders for site briefing and didn't expect much from this trip. But I was surprised that my dotted line manager coming along too for her contract kick off. I ended up joined her meeting and she joined my site briefing too.

Since we were big group now to a small terminal in Sandakan, the terminal manager become our tour guide. He was there for 3 years already and knew the local favourite's. So this business trip become seafood trip.

On the first day we arrived, we ate at Ocean King Restaurant. The fish was so fresh and first time ever I ate siput tarik. Not bad. But I prefer siput sedut. Dinner, the TM brought us to Pasir Puteh Restaurant. We have lobster noodle, more fishes and again I tried another new seafood for my tastebud, it is prawn mantis. It is good. The taste remind me of crab plus lobster. So good.. I forgot to take picture.

After that he took us around to the new Sandakan town where the city not yet slept as compared to the old Sandakan town that already quiet at 10pm.

Thr next day, TM told us to skip hotel breakfast and we would try local food again. This time around we went to water village where the Sim Sim restaurant situated. It was low tide and you can see rubbish every where under the house. Not a scenary you want to see especially if you are heading for a breakfast. He ordered konlo mee, squid and tofu. I'm not a breakfast person, so this is big breakfast for me.

Since we had a big breakfast, everyone agreed to have late lunch. Lunch only happened at almost 4 since some of us have meetings and I have 2 back to back call. This time around I actually glad we are not going for another seafood! We went to Kedai Kopi Sate Tradisi which actually served quite nice satay. Of course I tasted better but this one is different. Usually I ate satay with nasi impit, but this one, they served bread. And the bread was quite nice.

With that, that's the end of my 1 night trip to Sandakan. My colleagues wanted to do the tourist stuff like visit Sipilok, portugese monkey and I wanted to shop for seafood but of course we did't have time to do any of that. But the group that came on this trip was one funny bunch and we ended laughing non-stop throughout the whole trip.

That was definitely a business trip to remember.

konlo mee


siput tarik


View from my hotel. I stayed at Four Points by Sheraton. The newest hotel in Sandakan.

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