Just me

Moved

2007-10-22T16:14:00.000+08:00

I've moved to : http://aiyu.wordpress.com.

See you there :)

Just Married

2006-11-29T15:52:00.000+08:00

Arrrggg....I'm trying to upload some of the photos of my Registration of Marriage (ROM) since yesterday....but I'm having problem uploading them, I wonder if that's due to my account being upgraded...dang Blogger !

ah yes....Fiance and I are official married ! I'm someone's wife ! wow....

Life's still the same though....it's just making things official I guess.

'hubs' (upgrade from fiance ;P) washed the dishes after dinner yesterday so I would say we are off to a great start ! :))

Ok, back to work now. Gots loads of work to do. I need to finish off all my task before going off for my wedding, and at the same time, attend some training in office.
AND there are things to take care of for the wedding too.
gotta go....bye!

Sick Again

2006-11-20T16:06:00.000+08:00

I'm sick again! Nothing serious, just flu that's all.

It's funny, normally with flu comes cough, sore throat, fever. But this time, it's just flu. I can still go about my daily activities, just feel a bit tired and sleepy sometimes.

I can still go to work (and spread the flu around to other people). Ah, I wish I can stay at home and sleep. But cannot, lots of things to do in the office.

I hate being sick.

Busy busy busy

2006-11-16T16:37:00.000+08:00

Things has been getting busy busy busy off late.

There's lots of things to take care of with the wedding around the corner....egads!.....it's coming soon!!!!!

It seems like I'm so busy with the wedding and also with work in the office, there seems to be a thousand things on my mind. But but.....is there really a thousand things? I don't know. In my mind, there seems to be loads of stuff to do. Like it's lots of things that I haven't taken care of. And I'm worried that things I might have left things at the last minute. As each day inch closer to the wedding date, I'm getting more and more anxious, more and more 'kan cheong', more and more nervous, more and more...PANIC!!!!!!!!!!!

But then, when I really think over things. There is really not much to be done. It's just the tiny details that haven't been taken care of, and there are things that have to wait. So, just breathe.....deep breathes.....
Have to keep cool.

Perhaps it's the pressure, perhaps it's the stress, my mind's a bit celaru, even kelabu....or kerabu...or coconuts.....or maybe completely bonkers....

...hand me a drink...take me shopping....I'll be ok :)

Full House

2006-10-27T21:27:00.000+08:00

Sometimes, I find shopping for clothes in KL a bit of a frusfrating experience. Seriously, have you been to shopping malls such as 1Utama or Mid Valley lately ? Did you notice the boring styles ? More importantly, did you notice the crazy exorbitant prices?

I mean, RM80 for a simple piece of blouse ...(RM79.90 is RM80 ok, let's not kid ourselves, gals). Any kind of dress cost more than RM100, and if it's by a bit of a well known label....it easily costs more than RM200.

I'm a big fan of the label Warehouse, but I've never bought anything from that store cause it's bloody expensive. Same goes with the boutique Egete, I go in, swoon over all the pretty dress and then come out empty handed. How about local labels such as Seed or Padini or PDI? Am I the only one who thinks that their simple and bland clothings are highly overpriced? Elle ? Esprit ? What other way can I describe boring and overpriced ?

How do you stay in style and at the same time avoid declaring bankcruptcy ???

I'm so giving up shopping for clothes in shopping mall, they are boring and not worth the price charged. Due to this reason, I started looking into fashion boutiques litterred around Klang Valley. I know that there are quite a number of boutiques in Damansara Utama, Sri Hartamas and Plaza Damas. And I've been scouring some of the boutiques based on recommendations from friends and magazines.

The verdict : To all the fashionistas out there, we have hope!

One of my favourite find is this nice boutique called Full House located at Sri Hartamas. I like the large space in the boutique, I also like the friendly staffs there. I sooo blew my budget this month because of this boutique. I spend so much that I was given a member card ;p. Check out my loot :

Pretty dresses : Black RM89.90, Peach RM69.90....someone invite me to a dinner/party please!

Skirts : Brown RM49.90, Flowery RM42.90

Pinks : Blouse RM29, hair band RM9.90

So far, I'm quite happy with my little 'adventure' in searching for affordable and pretty clothes. Hopefully, there's more 'finds' in the future :). How about you, any boutiques you would like to recommendation ?

Birthday Present

2006-10-13T16:37:00.000+08:00

My birthday present : )

It's an Oakley, Whisker model. With polarized lenses :

Love it ! Took me 2 whole days of shopping to choose this one. It's not easy shopping for sunglasses in Malaysia. The brands and models are limited in each shop.
Like for Oakley brand, only a few shops such as Focus Point and Paris Miki sold this brand.
Then, one shop might have this model, but in different colors, and if another shop had the model and color that you want, it might not come with polarized lenses. Choices are so few....*sigh*

I was quite torn between practicality and style. On one hand, I want something practical. Polarized lenses is quite important especially because I'll be using it for driving. And hardiness of the sunglasses is also important for someone like me whose stuff get abused daily - "oops, I sat on my sunglasses".....

On another hand, there's the style factor. Think Prada, Gucci, Dior, Armani......and I love those Aviator styles. But when it comes to these brands....most of them are not practical, flimsy and very limited models with polarized lenses.

So in the end, practicality wins. I got the Oakley. But I'm not giving up on style....I plan to get myself another 'cipalak' Aviator sunglasses.....just for kicks.

Wedding Photoshoot : The photos

2006-10-03T16:38:00.000+08:00

We got the photos from our 2nd wedding photoshoot. It's been uploaded here :

http://www.fotop.net/siumai/7420987820

Password is required.

We have started the task to choose all the photos. Which ones to be put into big album, which ones for small albums, to be blown up as the big photo, to be included in the invitation card...etc etc...Tedious task I tell you.

Good news is that we manage to 'X' quite a lot of photos. It's good news because our package only allows us to choose 50 photos in total. Anything more, we'll need to cough out extra money. Being el cheapo that we are, this is good news for us. We were quite 'strict' in our choosing process, every little thing is scrutinized...smile crooked ? X, pose not nice? X, background not nice? X, toes not nice? X.....yeah...very strict.

After the first 'filtering' process, we are down to about 60 photos. We shall see how the 2nd 'filtering' process goes.....hehe

Here's a noble idea

2006-09-27T22:54:00.001+08:00

You can donate to charity through your mobile phone.

Especially if you are subscribed to any mobile plans where your money is forteited if you are not able to finish the credits.

If you are interested do check it out here .

Thank you.

Victoria's Secret

2006-09-21T21:11:00.000+08:00

Guess what I got as my first wedding gift ?

oh....I think the title of this post already gave it away, didn't it? ..hehe...Yes ! I've got Victoria's Secret ! woohoo!

Actually, there are 3 girls in my company including me who are about to get married this year. So, our thoughtful and not to mention naughty colleagues from US bought each of us something from Victoria's Secret as our wedding gift. It was totally a surprise, the parcel was sent to our boss in the office and he passed it to us!

This is so cool, I've got lingerie from Victoria's Secret all the way from US.

It's sexy and short! AND there's a slit at the dress which goes very high up.

Like I said, I always read US magazine and drool over all the products they have there. And getting Victoria's Secret as a gift is awesome.

I guess the happiest person would be fiance.....no ? :)

Wedding Photoshoot : 2nd time

2006-09-21T20:23:00.000+08:00

After the outdoor wedding photoshoot which was cut short abruptly due to rain, we went to Ulu Yam again 2 days ago. And I'm happy to say that we managed to complete it this time. I'm so very relieved and happy :))

This time, we went to shoot the scene at a waterfall and river. The whole shoot took only 2 hours, since, there's only 2 places to go to and both places are very near to each other. And perhaps fiance and I are already quite 'pro' at doing poses already that we manage to get the poses right quite quickly. Previously, it's was like 'tilt your head more...somemore....ooh, too much....straighten up a bit....tilt somemore..'...blekkk...

The weather was not very good, it's sunny for a while then cloudy sometimes and hazy all the time. I was so worried that it would rain again. I mean, as fun as this was, but it's costly (have to pay for the makeup and take leave from work) and I don't want to drag forever, I just want to finish this and get it done and over with.

We reach there at 1pm and by 3 pm it's all done. Yeah ! At 3 pm, we started to hear rumbling from the sky. And we were like 'rain la rain la...I don't care !' ...kekekeke. And boy did it rain. In Ulu Yam, when it rains it pours. Most of the road were flooded, water was gushing down out from the drains. It was quite an adventure.

Anyway, I'm so happy to report that my photoshoot is finally done. Now it's just a matter of waiting for the pictures to be ready. Then it's going to be another headache inducing process of choosing the photos that we want to be developed to be put into our album.

Can't wait :)

Jergens Soft Shimmer Lotion

2006-09-12T13:33:00.000+08:00

Recently a colleague was sent to US for a business trip. I jumped at the chance and ask her to get me some stuff from US. You see, I read a lot of US women magazines and I drool over the products that they have which aren't sold in Malaysia. One the the things that I asked her to buy is Jergens Soft Shimmer Lotion :

It has some tiny 'light reflective' thingy which helps illuminate your skin. But I was actually hoping for a 'body glow' effect, but this is good too. I might slabber this lotion on during my wedding day. It a moisturizer too, so it helps soften the skin. Best thing is it's not sticky at all, even in the humid Malaysian weather.

After including the exchange rate, the lotion cost RM23.39.

Wedding studio photos

2006-09-06T11:58:00.000+08:00

The photos are in ! Ohhh....so exciting. And I'm happy to say that I'm very satisfied with the photos. Especially the outdoor photos, though there's no blue sky white clouds, still...I'm quite happy with them. My photo studio has done a good job :)

There's another round of outdoor photos to take. But indoor is all done.

Have a look at the photos here : http://www.fotop.net/siumai/6782908086
Again, password is required.
Comments are welcomed :)

Kek sei yan arr.....

2006-09-03T21:33:00.000+08:00

I was doing my weekly shopping at Mutiara Damansara's Tesco. I got my fruits, vege, fish, chicken, junk food etc etc and I went into the non-halal shop to get some spare ribs. I parked my trolley to a side, outside of the shop (that's what people usually do, cause the non-halal shop is quite small). 5 mins later when I came back out, my trolley was gone ! Gone, gone, just vanished into thin air. I'm very sure that I left the trolley outside the shop, but now it's gone. I walked around the place like an idiot trying to look for my trolley. Maybe I thought, someone pushed it away cause it's blocking them or something. But I searched and search and it's nowhere to be found.

I searched for like 10 minutes and finally gave up. Damn it! I had to get another empty trolley and REDO MY GROCERY SHOPPING ALL OVER AGAIN!....omigod. I had to get the fruits and veges again, queue up again to have them weighed and tag with the price. Same goes to the fish. omigod, I had to walk around almost the whole of Tesco again, walking from the non-halal section back to the fruits section and then all the way back to the fish section again. All the while having to deal with kids running around like they are in the playground and trolley jam caused by people who like to park their trolleys right in the middle of the aisle. Arggghhh....

What kind of person would take someone else's trolley! I mean, all the stuff in there are unpaid for. Maybe someone saw the fresh and delicious oranges and strawberries that I picked and decided that he/she wanted it too. But then he/she was to lazy to walk back to the fruits section and just conveniently hijacked my trolley! Either that, or some super 'blur' person took my trolley thinking it's his/hers. How 'blur' can you be !?

To the person who took my trolley, if you took it purposely, well I hope you get serious food poisoning eating all stuff that I picked out. If you took it accidentally, I hope you had to queue up at the counter for more than 1/2 hour, and when it's your turn, only you realized that it's not your trolley, you had to put back all the items that you don't want in the trolley and redo YOUR grocery shopping which consist of hundred over items!!!

Hrumphhhh.....

Wedding Photoshoot

2006-08-30T15:21:00.000+08:00

Last Friday and Saturday was my wedding photoshoot. 2 days, Friday for the outdoor shoot in Ulu Yam and Saturday for the indoor studio shoot.

Outdoor Shoot on Friday

The outdoor shoot was quite a dissappointment. We got delayed on the way to Ulu Yam due to traffic jam at the infamous MRR2 highway, which was closed without notice...yet again. By the time we reached Ulu Yam, it's already around 2pm. The weather was ok. Hazy...no clear sky. But still ok, since the haze created some 'misty' effect as well. There were a few photoshoot locations in Ulu Yam, the first that we went to is the dam. Other locations included waterfall, river and a horse ranch.

We managed to complete taking pictures at the dam. Then .....it rained.

So, we detoured to search for something to eat while waiting for the rain to stop. It was around 3pm then.
We went to a restaurant to eat the famous Ulu Yam Loh Mee. But I think it wasn't the 'original' Ulu Yam Loh Mee restaurant. Anyhow, when we finished eating, the rain has stop.

We made our way to the waterfall area for the next photoshoot.
On the way there, I pray pray pray that rain has stop and we could continue the photoshoot.
Yes, the rain did stop, but the sky was still dark. Still we are able to continue shooting. :)
We were to step into the water and stand in front of the waterfall, the photograher kept tell us that the water is very shallow, that it'll only reach our knee. When we stepped in, it reached our waist ! I guess the rain had made the water deeper than usual. And right next to us where some families and their kids playing in the water. It's so strange to be in a wedding gown posing in the water. Almost everyone was looking at us. No choice, have to be thick-skinned.
Alas, we only managed to take 3-4 shoots when the sky got too dark. And it started to rain again. That's the end of our photoshoot.

We headed back to our car, changed and headed back to the studio. The photoshoot was unfinished. *sign*

We had to arrange for another day to take the outdoor photoshoot again.

Indoor Shoot on Saturday

The most irritating thing is that today the sky is sooo clear, sun shining sooo brightly and not a drop of rain during my indoor shoot. Vomit blood ! And I can't go for the outdoor shoot today because all my outdoor gowns were already dirty and needs to be cleaned and it's a weekend today, which would mean that there'll be even more people picnic-ing and swimming at the waterfall area making photoshoot very difficult. *sign*

So, we went ahead with the indoor shoot. I have to say that I love the makeup artist from my studio (Washington Portraits). I love the makeup and hairstyles that she did for me, the accessories were all very nice, and if there's anything that I didn't really like, she'll listen and fix it for me.

All went well during the indoor shoot.

Lookie lookie

With the wonders of makeup and tiny strips of tape...viola!

I never knew my eye can look like this. It doesn't look like me, but heck!..I've got double eyelids! Yeah!

Manicure

For the purpose of this photoshoot, I went to get a manicure at those nail saloon thingy. This is actually the first time I'm getting a manicure. I wanted to get french manucire which I did, but then I got suckered into adding some dainty flowers on some of the fingers. "Add the flowers, look very nice" "Now promotion, only add RM10, usually not this cheap" "bla bla bla"....that's how I got suckered. And this is how it looks like:

Arrrggghh..why did I agree to pay extra RM10 for something that I don't like? I didn't like the flowers, and when I showed it to a friend, she said that it won't look nice in the photos. She thinks the flowers would only look like a smudge or some spots in the photos. I agreed. Anyway...I really don't think this is my style. ANDDDDD I smudged the white part of the manicure, even before I reached home.

I went back to the saloon the next day. I asked the manicurist (is this what they are called) to remove those flowers for me. I told her very gently "The flowers look very nice, but hor I don't think it's suitable for photos. So, please remove it!" And she did, AND repainted the french manicure for me (for the fingers that had the flowers removed) AND touched up the smudged white parts for me. AND she didn't charge me anything somemore. So nice. Buttttt, since the white part of the manicure is so damn thick, and somemore she piled on more of it on the smudged area......the whole thing became lumpy. All in all....it was quite a disaster. I hated the lumpyness so much that I went to Guardian, bought a white Sally Hansen nail polish, shine coat, went home and re-did the white parts myself. In the end, it was still quite ugly, but better than before. SOMEMORE.....the pink polish that the manicurist used was too pink, from the above photo it looks ok, but it's toooooo pink...makes my hands look very dark. *sign*...all in all I paid RM35 for something that I didn't like.

After the outdoor shoot, I went home. Removed the french manicure and just put on a coat of Revlon nail polish that I had. Add on the shiny coat from Sally Hansen. Ta-da....so much nicer. Simple and nice. I used this for my indoor shoot. Even my makeup artist asked my about my self-applied manicure. She mentioned that it's very nice. She thought that I had it done by a manicurist. Huh.....the irony.

For more pictures

Go to this website : http://www.fotop.net/siumai/9564587872
Password is required.
Do drop me an e-mail if you don't have the password. :)

I'm very anxious to see how the photos will turn up.

I'm back

2006-08-24T16:44:00.000+08:00

Yes, I'm back already. Not that I went anywhere.
My last update was wayyyy back in May. Goodness, has it been 3 months already?!

Time flies.

Nope, I've not been busy...more like lazy....
and there's been something bothering me, like a dark cloud hanging over my head.
Everything's tasteless these past weeks...bagaikan tidur tak lena, mandi tak basah, makan tak kenyang, dan sebagainya.
che wah...I still remember my bahasa.
Bulan ni bulan Ogos mah, bulan patriotik....kena la berpantun-pantun sikit dalam bahasa.

But I'm fine now. The cloud has flew pass and the sunshine is here again :)
I've got mood to berbelog, makan, minum, mandi basah-basah again. yeah....

sha la la la la....live is but a dream

3 gals and a road trip

2006-05-15T16:24:00.001+08:00

Way back in the Uni days, I rented a house in Kajang. I shared a room with my coursemate and good friend, Curly*. Living under the same roof with us are Blonde* and Specky*. Us 3 gals and Specky got along very well. In living under the same roof for 2 years, shared many adventures and memories...

Some of the adventures are.....watching 'The Ring' at night on Curly's PC and screaming our lungs out, arguments with other members of the 'household', cooking dinners in the kitchen although aunty landlady said 'no cooking', doing household chores, shopping at pasar malam, countless mamak sessions, bombarding Specky with tips on how to 'kau lui' (courting gals), bombarding Specky with advises and nonsense jokes when he failed to 'kau lui'...we are so bad, Specky installing 'virus' into our computers where the picture and screaming sound of 'The Exorcist' will appear into our computer screen whilst we were playing solitaire.....and so many many more adventures......

After graduating, Specky went back to Johor to start his career, while the 3 of us started work at various parts in KL. The last time we all saw Specky is when he visited us during our graduation ceremony. That's 5 years ago.

Suddenly, 2 weeks ago, Specky sms us. Inviting us to his wedding in Batu Pahat, his hometown on 13th May. Woo-hoo.....Specky's getting married....woo-hoo we get to have a road trip to Batu Pahat.

The plan is that the 3 of us gals would drive down to Batu Pahat town, reach there around 1-2pm. Specky will meet up with us, we will find and place to eat eat and talk talk and catch up. Then Specky will have to head to a hotel where he needs to get ready for the dinner and we'll go to the dinner place with him.

So, Specky drew out a map to guide us to the Batu Pahat town, scanned it and sent to us via e-mail. Before I even opened the map, the other 2 gals already complaining.....the map is too blur ! ....poor Specky said we haven't even see him, already start bullying him again..hehe...so, he drew another map, this time on Microsoft Word, and sent to us again. This time, the map met our ISO1234 standards and we approved of it.

Early that morning, I was at Curly's place. Upon arriving at Curly's place only I remembered that I left the printed out 'clear' map at my house ! I asked Curly if she has printed out the map, she said she only have the 'blur' map....furthermore, she was playing around with the rotate function of the printer, and the 'blur' map was printed out upside down. Pening ! Now you think that upside down map, we can read it by turning it upside down again right ?...no....it's not upside down that way. The only way for us to read the map correctly is to have a mirror to the map and look at the mirror to read the map ! We were already late, so we headed off to pick up Blonde. She's worse, printed the maps and left all of them in her office ! So, not only gals don't know how to read map.....they also leave them in the office, apartments and prints them upside down !

Nvm, Blonde has been to Batu Pahat once on business trip, hopefully she still remembers the way. After 3 hours of driving and yakking in the car....we exited the Yong Peng tol and headed to Batu Pahat through the trunk road.

We called Specky and he said to look for the Summit supermarket, somewhere in the Batu Pahat town center and he'll meet us there. We didn't dare to tell Specky that we only have a upside down + 'blur' map, so, we just blindly figured how to go to Summit supermarket. Later, we passed a 3 storey building resembling some sort of supermarket, Curly quickly u-turn and headed towards that building. Once there, we told Specky that we reach Summit already. But upon nearer inspection, the building is actually another supermarket called Wira Court and not Summit...... pening ! Anyhow, we were hungry already, so we decided to stop for lunch at the nearby coffeeshops. And guess what we spied a few shops away from the coffeeshop......boutiques ! Clothes boutiques !....3 of them ! .....woo-hoo....and we though there's nothing to do in Batu Pahat.

During lunch around 1pm, Specky called us and dropped the bomb on us, he told us he's not able to meet up with us as he need to go to the Crystal Inn for his and his wife's make up session. His makeup session starts at 3pm and it'll take him around 1/2 hour from his house to reach the hotel, which is also at Batu Pahat town center. He said he's arrange for his sister to meet with us and bring us back to his house. And we were like....'you are guy le, what you make up for 3 hours for ha?'. Anyway, we came up with a better plan. We told Specky that we'll have lunch and then go shopping at those 3 boutiques, until around 3pm then we'll go to the Crystal Inn to meet up with him. Brilliant....

So, we shop shop shop and shop! I tell you, only in a trip with gals will this kind of thing happen. Who knew Batu Pahat had some really nice boutiques.....but the clothes are not cheap ! .....still we managed to each spend around RM100 ! There goes Specky's angpau money.

After shopping, it's time to meet Specky in Crystal Inn, we got some directions and off we went. See, gals will ask for directions and gals will make lots of u-turns to where we want to go. Finally, we met up with Specky....we talked and got to reminicing about the 'old days', we had a great time. We also decided that no one has changed, we still had the same laugh and demeanor and still look as young as ever... :)

Later it's time for Specky's makeup session, after his bride's done. His makeup session, super fast .....just spray some hair gel...2 strokes of the comb and done...haha

We got ready too, and at 6 pm we headed to the dinner place together. The dinner place..wow...imagine a big big community hall, but inside it's very nicely decorated and renovated. There were 2 more weddings going on that evening.

Specky got us seated at our table and he went about greeting his guests. Since it's still early, we were the only 3 seated at our table and we were sooo hungry then, we walloped the whole plate of crackers (biskut bantal - 'cham tau peng'??) at the table, after finishing that, we asked the waitress for refill and walloped everything again. Then, Specky came over and seated us at another table, which also was empty and we walloped that table's crackers too !

By the time dinner started, we were actually a bit full from all the crackers. The food in Batu Pahat a bit different from what's served in KL. First the cold plate came and each of the dishes in the cold plate is quite special, there's otak-otak, 'char kuih', siu mai and others...totally different and very special. No photos of the food le, I shy, don't want people to think 'from which kampung this girl come from arr??'.....

Next dish is usually the shark's fin soup (we didn't know what was to be served because they didn't have the 'menu' shown). But when it came, it was in individual bowls. Blonde mention 'wah, the shark's fin soup here come indivually arr', I jokingly said 'maybe it's 'buddha jump over the wall' soup...yumyum'. And guess what, it was ! It was 'Buddha jump over the wall' soup. Wow ! ...this is a first for me, the soup was delicious. In fact everything served that night was very nice. Later on, we had chicken with winter chestnut and peanut, steamed talapia fish, braised broccoli with mushroon, scallops, sea cucumber and a bunch of seafood stuff. There's also 'nestum' prawns and mantau with 'tung po yuk'. All were yummilicious....We agreed that coming all the way from KL to Batu Pahat just for this meal itself was very very well worth it.

After dinner at 9.30pm, we bid Specky goodbye and made our way back to KL again. We didn't want to stay overnight as to avoid the jam on Sunday, since Sunday is the end of a 3 weekend holiday. On the way back, we chit chat again. I talked so much the whole day that by this time, my voice was cracking and my throat was sore.

By the time I reached home, it's almost 2 am. Very tiring trip and I had a little migraine in the afternoon too, but after taking panadols it's ok. But it's all worth it. It's such an adventure for the 3 of us gals to go on this road trip. To go to this place and get lost and have fun. And it's so great to catch up with old friends and talk about the 'good old days'.

* Names has been change to protect whatever it's suppose to protect.....

Phuket and Phi Phi Island, 6 days 5 nights - Part 4

2006-05-15T16:24:00.000+08:00

Day 5 - 24th Apr 06

We hired a long tail boat to take us to Maya Island in the afternoon. Maya Island is a lovely island which the film 'The Beach' was filmed at. We could go there in the afternoon and the sea water will look beautiful because the sun is still bright and shining. You can also see the corals and sea fishes more clearly too. Some tours also offer to take you there in the evenings. In the evenings, you can enjoy the sunset at Maya Bay.

We stopped at a few places around the Maya Island, for snorkelling and swimming. The scenery there is really nice. With the sun shining on the clear sea water, it's quite a sight.
The snorkelling experience though is a bit of a dissappointment, especially for all of us who have been to Redang before. Cannot compare ! Redang's coral and sea creatures are very much more diversed.

After this it's back to Phi Phi island again. The guys had a short football match with the locals there. Kena sapu by the local guys there.....cheh.....memalukan !...hahaha....

For dinner, since everyone had 'extra' Thai Baht, we decided to splurge a bit and had seafood dinner :

Day 6 - 25th Apr 06

Today is our last day in Thailand....*sniff sniff*....there's a long tail boat to pick us up to the jetty. But it's high tide today, we are unable to wade through the sea water to climb up the long tail boat, if we did that, everyone would be wet from waist down. So, the operators took our luggage and loaded it into the long tail boat and asked us to walk to the jetty oursevles! Aiyo....after a very tiring, tiring vacation...still have to walk 15 minutes to the jetty.

After boarding the ferry, it's another 2 hours ride to get back to Phuket island. One of our guys was feeling seasick and vomitted in the ferry.....kesian the fellow....

Back in Phuket, it's straight to the airport, lunch and back to Malaysia !

Our journey back to Malaysia started at 9am from Phi Phi and by the time we reach Malaysia it's already 4 pm ! What a long journey !

Phuket and Phi Phi Island, 6 days 5 nights - Part 3

2006-05-09T15:12:00.000+08:00

Day 3 - 22st Apr 06

For today's day trip, we had to get up even earlier (this vacation is more tiring than going to work) ! We have to get ready and have breakfast before our ride pick us up. Early in the morning, Patong is still very much asleep, there isn't a lot of restaurant opened at this hour. So we just tapau-ed some breakfast from their local convenient store (like 7-Eleven). I had pork burger...yummy yummy, the rest had bread, instant noodle and stuff like that. After a quick breakfast, and off we go to Phang Nga Province.

Phang Nga is about 1 1/2 hours ride from Phuket. First activity of the day was white water rafting, it's a first time for all of us, we were so excited. Each raft is to have 4 person, followed by 2 captains. The lead captain gave us a short briefing as to what we need to do when he's giving out instructions. That guy is really funny with his accent and he referred the captains as 'katipan'.....and he's says things like 'if kapitan tell you for-what (forward)! you for-what (forward)!'...hahahaha...mind you, I'm not being mean and laughing at this language, but he's a really funny guy and made the trip very lively and had us in stitches the whole time. So, we started calling all the captains - kapitan, and when he said for-what......we for-what !

Soon, we are all in our rafts, in the Song Prak River, waiting for the dam water flow to reach us. Once the dam water reaches us, off we go rafting ! There were so many bright colour rafts blobbing on the river ! After rafting for some time, we would sometimes stop to rest and also to wait for the dam water to catch up to us. When we rest, some will get down from the raft and swim around in the river. If you don't get down from the raft, the kapitans will help you along by sneaking up behind you and pulling you into the water !

After what seems like a few minutes, our rafting time was up. We chose the shorter rafting route while others who signed up for the longer route will continue rafting. Our group was one of the few groups who chose the shorter route, the kapitan offerred us to continue by paying additional money. We were all hype up and was not ready to stop yet! And the early route was quite mild, we were looking forward to more excitement, so we chose to continue with the longer route. For-what !

At the end of the rafting trip, our hands were sooooo tired. We went back to the camp like building to have lunch.....yummy yummy, tomyam, tom ka kai, fried chicken, mixed vege, all over again, but who's complaining, it's all yummy!

Next is the elephant jungle trekking. Upon arriving at the place, we were complaining that it stinks, well, what to expect? Elephants don't wear Chanel No.5. Initially, there's suppose to be 3 elephants for the 6 of us, but one of the elephants fell sick and there's only 2 left. So, the 3 of us gals have to squeeze into the chair of 1 elephant. And the guys....one of the got to sit on the elephant's neck and the other 2 sat on the chair. hehe. Mind you, sitting on an elephant that's moving isn't very comfortable, that chair rock back and forth and left and right, we have to hold tight to the chair to avoid from falling down......and the elephant's 'bulu'....eeeiii...so prickly...hehehe
The elephant took us for a ride around the jungle, crossing rivers, going up hill and down hill. We saw snake (yikkkk!), monitor lizards and got lots of mosquito bites.

After that, the kapitan took us to a water fall place, were we swam in the river. Nothing special there. Just like the waterfalls that we have in Malaysia too.

That's the end of another day trip. All of us are exhausted already. I was so tired, I slept along a way back to Patong. Overall, it was a fun trip. The rafting was not as wild and 'dangerous' as I expect, none of our raft capsized or even came close to capsizing. But since it's a first time rafting for me, also first time in elephant trekking it was really fun and exciting for me. And the kapitans made it a even more fun trip.

Back in Patong, for dinner, we wanted to try the satay...and not just satay....but pork satay ! We went to a restaurant, the owner is a teochew chinese, and they only served chicken satay. We told the owner that we wanted pork satay and the owner said she can make for us. Yes ! Of course, we order seafood tomyam, tom ka kai (with pork) ! and mixed vege (of course) and etc etc....

We wanted to experience the night scene in Patong, we walked over to Bangla Street which has rows and rows of pubs and discos. But suprisingly, 90% of the pubs where closed, on a Saturday night ! How strange. Later on, we got to know that the pubs where closed due to the elections that's going on. hmm...not sure about that.....but then I was a bit relieved that we got to sleep early because I was sooooo tired already.

Another that to note is that I had a allergy attack after the day trip today. My whole body was covered in tiny red swollen spots, it itches too. My hands, legs, neck, back, butt, stomach...the whole body and my lips were swollen! yikkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's so gross. I was afraid that the allergy might spread to my ear, or inner ears or tongue....*gulp*...I can feel my throat closing up already........ ok ok...it's not that bad, it's probably due to the river water and my sensitive skin....but scary......and no photo ok, no mood to photo already that time.

Lucky in Bangla street, there's Boots pharmacy and the pharmacist there speak English, thank you god ! She prescribe me some anti-histamine and cream to put on. By the next morning, most of the red spots have subsided. Thank you to whoever that created anti-histamine !

Day 4 - 23st Apr 06

Today, we made our way to Phi Phi Island. Since there's no early trip, finally we had the time to slowly get ready and have a relaxing buffet breakfast. After breakfast, we walked around Patong Beach again to take some photos. The minibus came to take us to Rassada Harbour, where we'll take a ferry to Phi Phi Island. The ferry journey was about 2 hours.

Upon reaching, a long tail boat came to pick us up from the jetty to our resort. We'll be staying in Araya Buri Resort. We booked 3 sea view rooms, but the agent that we booked with made a mistake and the resort only reserved 1 sea view room for us ! And since all the other sea view rooms were fully booked, they could only offer us 2 more room with no sea view. When we demanded that we get refund since we are getting 2 lower priced room, the staff there said 'no no, same price same price'......then we asked them to show us the price list, to prove that its' the same price. From the price list, there's difference of 300 baht for each room! Same price my foot! In the end they gave us free lunch buffet.

Phi Phi Island

The sea view that cost an extra 300 bath.....

By the time, we reached Phi Phi, more than half a day has already gone past. For the rest of the day, we just walked around Phi Phi and search for our dinner. There's really nothing much in Phi Phi. It's small and quiet, suitable for a quiet down time.

Phuket and Phi Phi Island, 6 days 5 nights - Part 2

2006-05-08T00:43:00.000+08:00

Day 2 - 21st Apr 06

We woke up early, real early at 6.30am ! So that we could be ready for our day trip to James Bond Island. Our ride came to pick us up at 7.00 am. And off we went to dunno-what-name-jetty to board a boat which will be our ride of the day.

By the time we got up the boat, the 6 of us were sooo hungry. Since the tour guide told us that there'll be breakfast served on the boat, we didn't eat anything beforehand ! When the breakfast arrived :

Egads, that plate of 'kuih' to serve all the 20 (including the rest of the tourists who joined the tour) of us in the boat ??! The tour guide even took the time to give some basic introduction of the kuih to us, and I'm thinking 'just hand me the food !' It's 80% like nyonya kuihs that we have here. Most of the 'angmoh' tourist took a few bites only, in fact most of them didn't even touch the kuih, I guess it's not to their taste, which is more the good news to us cause the 6 of us just surrounded the plate and wallop almost everything ! ...hahahahaha...Malaysians Boleh !

Along the way in the boat, we did pass by lots of tiny little islands scattered around Phuket. At first, we were all 'wah...this one very nice, that one very nice'....after a while, it's 'how long more to reach James Bond Island ?? '..

At last, we reached James Bond Island, it's made famous by the James Bond movie (duuh..) starring Roger Moore....ya, it's long time ago, and I don't know the name of the movie....guess who wasn't paying attention when tour guide was giving us a briefing?....

Someone told me that Roger Moore circled this thingy in the movie :

Next up, it's kayaking in don't-remember-what-name-island. Basically, we went kayaking around the islands, got into some cool caves and paya bakau area. There's are 'kayakers' to take us, so we just sit there and gawk at the islands.....if we kayak ourselves, tenggelam (sink) already.

Then it's back to the boat for lunch ! There's fried chicken, squids, fried noodle, mixed vege (seems like there's only 1 kind of vege dish in Phuket, which is mixed vege...?!) and lots more. Once we saw the drumsticks, we were ready to pounce!

After lunch, it's off to another island for some swimming and lazing around, nothing special there.

Then we headed to Panyee Village (hey, I remembered this name). Which is also known as Muslim Fisherman Village. Where most of the villagers there are Muslim and duh...fisherman. The whole village is actually contructed above the sea. There are stilts underneath and planks of wood and slabs to cement that make up the floor. Under the planks of woods you can see sea water underneath. Imagine there's even a school in the village. It's not advisable to go into the village on your own cause it's very very easy to get lost. The tour guide also warned us that there are villagers there doing some monkey shows and can have the monkey take photos with the tourist, but we are not to do that because the monkey will actually steal your jewelries and money !

And that was the end of our trip, we made it back to the jetty, got onto the minibus and back to our hotel.

It was the tiring tiring trip but well worth it. We were getting sunburn already even with sunblock applied. By evening, we went for dinner (tomyam(again), tom ka kai(again), green curry chicken, mixed vege (and again) etc etc).

Edit: Wrong wrong, we had that dinner on our first night in Phuket. On the second day, we had McD ! Samurai Pork burger......sooo yummy-licous.....too bad we don't have it in Malaysia....

Again we walked around the Patong area to see if there's anything interesting and cheap to buy, also need to scout for some souvenirs. But I find shopping in Patong a bit dissappointing. The stuff are expensive. One shop charged me more that Rm150 for a lousy ripoff bag, of course I didn't buy. Then, for some ripoff Billabong shorts...it's RM50, after some bargaining I managed to get it down to RM25 and the owner didn't want to lower the price anymore, so I didn't buy too. And the people there weren't exactly very friendly either. It's quite a hassle to bargain with them, some will ignore you when you ask for lower price, some will have 'tactics' to pressure you to buy ! After a few tries, all of us got quite sien already, and just settled for look look and see see only. Well, I guess we are 'cheapo' tourist to them, they have all the angmoh tourist who are have more spending power.

We also signed up another trip to Phang Nga bay for white water rafting and elephant trekking for the next day !

Phuket and Phi Phi Island, 6 days 5 nights - Part 1

2006-04-19T15:17:00.001+08:00

I'm back and I'm tan, baby ! Phuket was hot and sunny !

Day 1 - 20th Apr 06

Fiancee's bro dropped us at KL Sentral on that Thursday morning. From there, fiancee and I took the SkyBus from KL Sentral to the LCC terminal. There's a bus every 15mins, really convenient I have to say, the bus was very punctual too. Took about 1 hour and 15 mins to reach LCC terminal. There, we met up with the rest of the gang, all the 6 of us (3 couples).
The LCC terminal is, well, what can I say....LCC lor.....imagine a big Tesco-like building, and inside there are a few shops and counters to check-in and gates to board the airplanes. When boarding the planes, you actually walk out from the building and head out to the plane, very open air ! What if it's raining huh ?

walking towards the Airbus A320

We got to sit in the brand new A320 airbus for our flight to Phuket. The plane is so new that white panels are still very white and clean. I find that the seat is a bit bigger compared to the old planes, and it's leather seating somemore BUT the seat cannot be reclined ! Which means that all of us sat upright for the whole flight ! Thank goodness it's only a 1 hour 15 mins flight.

We touchdown at Phuket at around 1pm. There's already a minibus waiting for us to take us to our hotels (we booked the accommodation beforehand). We stayed at a small hotel (more like a motel) very near to Patong Beach. The 'hotel' was nothing to shout about, I won't recommend anyone to stay there. Well, we rented it for an equivalent of RM60 per night, cannot expect much.

Patong Beach

Patong Street

After checking into the hotel, we walk around the Patong area. Nothing much, just rows and rows of shops and restaurants waiting to 'cutthroat' tourists, oh and a McDonalds too.

We had our first lunch here, we orders Tomyam, tom ka kai (something like ABC soup but with santan milk), fried noodle, rice and others. The tomyam and tom ka kai was to be our staple diet for the rest of the trip.

The rest of the evening was just spent hanging around, looking for a day trip for the next day. We finally settle for a day trip to James Bond Island. After that is was on to dinner, more hanging around and sleep.

Sick and (almost) faint

2006-04-10T15:11:00.000+08:00

I'm sick already :( , but no worries.....won't die one. Just normal common cold. Running nose and cough.

Started last Thursday...sneezing and wheezing away in the office. I forgot how uncomfortable a cold can be, and really irritating too. My hands are too busy wrapping up 'wantans'. Eyes are blurry and head feels heavy. My paper bin is filled with wrapped-up 'wantans'.

Anyway, by Saturday I was feeling worse. But still I thought, it's just a common cold, shouldn't stop me from doing anything that I want to do right ? I wanted to go do some groceries shopping in Tecso. Had my breakfast and off I went.

Reached Tesco, was browsing around for like 15 minutes.....then...cialat....felt nauseous, want to vomit, want to faint, vision became blur. Quickly, I wobbly walked to a less crowded place and sat down to rest. I started to perspire cold sweat on the forehead and face. After resting for around 5 minutes.....was feeling ok again. Phew. Then I thought....."should I continue shopping?"...."hmm...better not, better be safe". So, I abandoned my trolley, and headed out. Stopped by to buy newspaper and in Kings to buy a loaf of bread.

After paying money in Kings, I feel like fainting again ! This time worse.....so quickly again I seeked refuge in nearby KFC which was just opposite King's. There, I rested for a long time but still didn't feel better. This time cold sweat all over, everywhere ! I was thinking I need to call for SOS already. But fiancee is not free, and Tecso is so damn near to my apartment....it's just ironic to have someone to come all the way here to fetch me home. So, after some resting I just picked myself up and walked to my car. I thought if I can make it to my car, I'm ok......

So, I walked walked walked, one step at a time.....boy did I regret not being kiasu and find a nearer parking space. But at least this time I didn't forget where I parked my car. walked walked walked.....and reached my car !.....just as I managed to get into my car and locked the door....*uuuwekkkkkk**....I vomit.........Luckily hor......when I bought the bread from King's they gave me a plastic bag......so................ (and yes, I managed to take out the bread first). After vomitting, *phew* feel so much better. So I continued my shopping in Tesco.....of course not la ! Not scared meh. I went straight home.

Back home, threw everything onto the table, grab a drink and jumped under the sheets....zzzzzzzzzz.......

Later that day, fiancee brought me to 1U for dinner. I was ok wor. Can walk from old wing to new wing and back to old wing though it did feel tiring. I suspect the fainting spells I had was because of low blood pressure. But I'm not sure. Does low blood pressure cause people to vomit ? I suspect I have low blood pressure because everytime I squat down for sometime, and when I get up, I can see 'stars'. Anyone had the same experience ?

Warehouse Dress

2006-03-30T21:02:00.000+08:00

I saw this dress at Warehouse@1U. I want I want I want !

http://www.warehouse.co.uk/pws/ProductDetails.ice?ProductID=152

I want to wear this dress for my ROM (Registration of Marriage). It's beautiful, elegant and strapless, I love strapless dresses !
Did you notice the price ? It's 70pounds....now if I were working in UK, earning in pounds....for 70pounds....I would buy ALL the Warehouse dresses. Aren't they all elegant and simple and nice ?

But of course.....everything needs to be converted to RM hor ? I checked the price in the store in 1U.....guess how much ? RM489. That's almost RM500 !!! ....Why ??!! Why Warehouse has to be from UK ! ...why not America ! or Singapore or wherever....at least those countries, converted already, it's still affordable mah.

Not that I cannot afford to pay RM500 for the dress....but siao (crazy) ar ?!! RM500 for a dress. If I bought this dress, I'm going to invite EVERYONE to me ROM. ;p

Anyway, sweet sweet fiancee offered to buy me the dress. :) :) :) .......but I checked in 1U, there's only 1 left and it's in large size.......I tried it, and if I didn't hold on to the dress, it'll slip down right to my buttocks. DAMN IT !

I know I know, there's another Warehouse branch in KLCC, but I think I have a change of mind. I don't think I want fiancee to spend RM500 on a dress. It's too wasteful (See....how good a fiance I am??)

Ah well....forgot Warehouse. I can still check out other boutiques. Hopefully I can find a nice, elegant, simple and CHEAP dress for my ROM.

Guess

2006-03-29T11:13:00.000+08:00

Guess what happened to my cheap, plastic wardrobe :

Guess how much clothes it takes to do that :
Pile 1 :

Pile 2 :

*sigh*...need to get new cupboard le.....

3, 2, 1.....bye-bye EON Bank

2006-03-13T11:50:00.000+08:00

That's right, 3 more months and it's bye-bye EON bank.

It's my hire purchase loan and I have 3 more months to go. YES ! FINALLY ! NO MORE CAR INSTALLMENTS ! YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!

I can't wait till I pay my last car installment :) It's been 5 longggg years. Since I started working, I got my car and has been paying installments since. Now, I'm looking forward to not having to fork out Rm600++ every month to EON. Which means that each month I'll have an extra of RM600 to use ..which means more shopping ! ..hahahaha.

Of all the banks that I have debts with (PBB, SBB, MBB, Alliance) I find that EON bank is the one that's most inconvenient in making payments. The problem is that EON bank has no check deposit machines. Most other banks have that and I have the luxury to make payments to those banks outside my office hours - after dinner, weekends, anytime. But not for EON. I know of some EON branches which opens on weekends, but it's not somewhere near to where I live, so that's not much help either. Well, that's my only gripe about EON Bank.

Anyway, I bought my car when I landed my first job. I actually was reluctant to get a new car. I was happy with my 20 year old Datsun 120i then, but mom wouldn't have it. I guess she's worried that the Datsun was not reliable, breaks down all time and it doesn't help that I was working in Cyberjaya which back then was like a deserted town. Mom paid the deposit for the new car...so I'm not complaining :)

That time I was on a fresh grad salary and RM600 was a lot of money for me. It was more than 25% of my monthly salary. So, paying RM600 for car installment every month just kills me. Combined with the amount of money I spend on petrol, toll and maintenance, the car uses more money than my food and rent every month! That time, whenever friends mention that they want to buy car...I would say to them think carefully arrr, get cheap cheap car, your old car still can use what ! Because I don't want them to experience the 'torture' of handing over hundreds of RM to EON bank every month........and I would always tell myself after I'm done with this car loan. I would NOT get another new car, at least for another few years. I don't want to saddle myself with another round of car loan. I'm going to enjoy my car loan free status for sometime first. :) and now the moment has almost arrive....almost....soooo close.....can't wait........ :) :) :) :) :)
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ps:well, actually I could just drive up to EON bank and just settle the car loan once and for all, it's just another RM2000++ to go now........but the wait is just so sweet..........ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha

Wisdom Tooth Sorrow

2006-02-22T16:17:00.001+08:00

A few days after the CNY holidays, I started to have this slight pain in my lower gums on the right side of my face. I thought that I was heaty from all the CNY food that I had. So, I tried to drink lots of cooling drinks, take more fruits etc. But things didn't improve, in fact, it got worse and worse.

After 1-2 days of uncomfort in the gums....it turned to pain. I couldn't open my mouth widely, brushing my teeth hurts, eating hurts. Even doing nothing hurts. It's like a bad stiff neck...it's just bloody irritating. I couldn't eat anything because it hurts to move my mouth too much. So, I'll just eat a few bites then stop eating because the pain got worse. Otherwise I'll eat porridge or soup noodle. There's once I was eating pork ball soup noodle. I couldn't eat the pork ball because my mouth couldn't open big enough! Fiance had to bite the pork ball into small sizes so that I fit it into my mouth. The most that I can open my mouth is just to fit in 2 slices of bread.

The pain got very very bad. On a Friday night, I was trying to sleep early as I needed to work early morning the next day, but the pain was so bad that I couldn't sleep. . I took 2 panadols to try to numb the pain but it's no help at all. Then, I took 1 painkiller, still no help. The throbbing in my gums just won't stop. I was getting scared. I tought my mouth was going to explode or somthing. Out of desperation, I took another 2 panadols. I think the 4 panadols knocked me off and I drifted to sleep.

By now, I knew this is not just some heatiness problem (should have realised that sooner). I made a trip to the dentist, told her everything.....then the diagnosis - Wisdom Tooth giving me troubles. Apparently there's wisdom tooth on my lower right mouth is causing inflammation and infection in my gums around that tooth. It happens because I didn't not clean the wisdom tooth properly. It's always hard to clean a wisdom tooth because it's wayyy back in my mouth and it's not fully erupted (the teeth is not fully grown, part of the tooth is still underneath gums). So, over time, infection will happen causing pain and discomfort.........ahhhh....so much for my heatiness theory and drinking lots of cooling drinks...........

So, the dentist prescribe me some antibiotics and pain killers. And even after taking the antibiotics and painkillers for 3 days, I still feel the pain and mouth still cannot open very wide. Imagine all these days, I couldn't eat much. Eat porridge until want to vomit. Hey, I did want to lose weight.....but not on such torturing circumstances ler....

After 3 days, still pain, so dentist prescribe me another 2 more days of antibiotic. After finishing them, finally, the pain and discomfort is gone! Yeah ! Back to normal ! Until now, I didn't realise how satisfiying it is to have a good, open mouth wide, loud yawn ... :)

What will happen to my wisdom tooth ? well, sooner or later, I'm going to have to extract it. Otherwise it's going to give me trouble again. Because it's not fully erupted, the dentist cannot just pull it out, it'll involve a minor surgery to extract it. Gosh....hearing the word surgery really makes me nervous, I've never had any surgery whatsoever. And it's going to cost me RM500 ! This time really pokai.

I've also done some 'research' on my condition, seems that it's advised that you remove your wisdom tooth in your late teens or early twenties. Years ago, my dentist had also advised me to remove all my wisdom teeth. But that time, I didn't comprehend why I need to remove a perfectly problem-free tooth.....now I know.

So ppl ! Learn from my lesson. Go see your dentist. Check your wisdom teeth before something like this happens to you. (I hope it won't !)