Serene

I love going to the Botanical Garden in Melaka - especially in the mornings - the sense of euphoria I experience just by closing my eyes and listening to the insects and the life in the forest is beyond words. Yesterday morning was particularly beautiful after the rain and the smell of fresh crisp air in the woods is so therapeutic - one of the amazing things to be alive and to savor moments like this.

Tears of Joy

My friend's mother lost her battle to pancreatic cancer last week - and it was a very sad news for us - for we knew her mother quite well - and we just visited her in Seremban recently and she said she prays to be able to attend my wedding. I called my friend yesterday to console her (though I know that words can never soothe the pain of her loss) and I received a good news from her - that she is pregnant (8 weeks now)! I couldn't contain my excitement - and shed tears of joy - told her that she will be able to carry on with a renewed strength now with the baby on the way. God is indeed great - took one away and gave her another...

Wedding Cards

I've just finished distributing the wedding cards to my friends and colleagues. Despite it being a lengthy process, it's indeed fun to catch-up with friends and relatives whom I have not met for quite some time - distributing wedding cards gives an avenue to meet up and catch up on old stories.

As for my parents' side, they are still distributing the cards for the wedding dinner - poor Mom, I see her running around sending out invites, having little time for herself. After our wedding, she definitely deserves a holiday and a little pampering!

My Favorite Car Wash

I love sending my car for a wash lately. For me, there used to be different phases of car-washing-routine last time. At first, I used to send to the car wash (there are just so many of them) - and I found it extremely inconvenient to wait there for almost an hour or more until the car is washed - and most of the times, being the clean-freak I am turning into, I will not be satisfied with the service - it's not completely clean, you know. And then, I resorted to washing my car myself - plus point is that I get a complete body work-out and a clean-and-shining-car - and I will be gleaming with pride. The downside is that people like to stare when they see a girl washing her car on a Sunday morning, sheeeshh...

Lately, you can see me hanging around pretty often near the BHP petrol station in Ayer Keroh, Melaka. The automatic car-wash there is definitely a convenience to inundated-with-a-million-things-to-do people. It's so cool sitting in the car while it's being washed - at first, by a batch of 4 workers and then by the automatic car-wash machine, and then wiped by another batch of 2 workers. The whole process is completed within 5 minutes or so. And it's so cool to sit in the car while it's being wheeled into the automatic machine - feels like being trapped in a twilight-zone (definitely not for claustrophobic people). And it's only RM2 per car wash - fast, cheap, and convenient. Now, my car will always be looking clean :)

Wedding Preparations

Basically, we are trying to take it easy with our wedding preparations. There are a few more things to finalise. We love our wedding card design - simple and cute - that's what everyone said :) And that reminds me to keep aside one copy for ourselves. Will upload our wedding card design soon.

Looking forward for the wedding dinner for some unwinding and fun - I am encouraging my friends to come for the dinner - so that they don't miss out the fun! I've arranged some programs for the dinner and keeping my fingers crossed that everything will turn out great!

I miss blogging

Something has been missing from my life recently - BLOGGING! So many thoughts running through my mind which I wanted to blog - so that, in a few years to come, I'd be able to reflect on some of my thoughts and my experiences throughout this amazing journey. And I love to pour out my thoughts and emotion - and blogging for me is a perfect outlet to share my thoughts and our journey, and also recipes! - which reminds me that it has been quite some time since I last baked - and I miss that tremendously. When our wedding is over, I can't wait to venture on baking - learn icing the cake this time - and of course sharing the fruits of labor ;)

The Week Ahead

Students have just finished their final exam paper - and I have started marking -about 227 scripts to mark - and my eyes are already going bonkers from reading all types of handwriting. Without paying much attention to grammar and sentence construction (after all, this is a Finance paper), as long as I understand what the student is trying to convey on the script, I give marks accordingly - after all, I was also once a student - so I must empathize what the students are going through - of course without forgoing the quality as much as I could.

And the wedding preps are going on full-swing now with the cards ready to be distributed - that will take up a huge portion of our ever-so-precious-time. Today we basically spent the whole day shopping for door gifts and other miscellaneous items. Having prepared the checklist and going by it is a HUGE HELP - a tremendous stress-reliever, I must say. Being so used to forgetting things, spending some time on the checklist was definitely worth it.

Goh's wedding dinner

Picture taken during my colleague's wedding dinner in March at Avillion Legacy Melaka - wonderful company, great food and ambience.

Ai Lin's Wedding Dress Fitting

Last Saturday was an exciting day - one of my good friends is getting married in September and we went with her for her wedding dress fitting. I felt so happy to be there with her - selecting the best dress for her - and finally we found one that fits her perfectly! She looks so beautiful in the dress - so feminine and elegant - feel so excited for her. Looking forward for her big day :)

Wardrobe

We've got the walk-in wardrobe installed last Thursday. It's awesome! So many shelf space and it's so neat-looking! Although the space for the walk-in wardrobe is pretty small, the height makes up for the small space. So, we have enough room just to walk-in the closet. One thing that I am allergic to is CLUTTER. So, looking at the 12-feet high walk-in closet, I am contented at the thought of things being stored away neatly and compartmentalized.

Other things installed: bathroom cabinet, the wood-paneling at the living area, curtain railings, one full-length mirror at the doorway, and horizontal full-length mirror for the master bathroom. We got a carpenter to do all these work, so it was pretty reasonable.

Wedding Preps

Last week we were busy running around sorting out stuffs for the wedding - not much time left - another 6 weeks to go - and so much things to do! I made a checklist of things to do for the wedding - and it comes in really handy - of course the checklist needs to be continuously updated along the way. Looking at the checklist, there's obviously so much yet to be done.

Last Saturday, we collected the wedding invites from Neptune Press, Brickfields. We bumped into my sister, Tasha and her fiance Devan - they are in the midst of finalizing their wedding invites. It is going to be a double celebration for our family - my sister's wedding and my wedding is only 1 week apart :) Hers will be a church wedding and mine will be the Hindu wedding. So, it's gonna be lots of fun. And I will be the bridesmaid for my sister's wedding, yohoooo :)

Last week, finally bought the wedding saree and gave the blouse to the tailor. Went saree shopping with Mr. Alf, so he was my only commentator - it was quite funny seeing him commenting on the technicalities of saree. The reason that it took us quite a long time to finalize on the saree is that I was doubting whether I can rely on his judgement regarding whether the saree is THE ONE for me. But, finally, I had to rely on his opinion - because I kinda liked the saree as well.

Yesterday, we printed the RSVP cards - so that's settled. We have yet to finalize the decor - the quotation that we got cost us a bomb - around RM 13k - I wonder if that's the amount people spend for a half-day event decor which will be all taken down within 5 hours. Now, we are in the predicament of how to get a decent decor with a decent price. We are also looking for videographer for the wedding. Caterers - yet to finalize the menu selection for the wedding.

Angels and Demons

Haven't gone for a movie for a long time (okay, the recent one is X-Men: Wolverine - but that was because Alfred and John wanted to watch it and I was dragged along last week :P). I haven't watched a good movie for a long time - the type of movies that are of interest to me - anything about animals, comedy, romance, adventure, and thriller.

Yesterday, we watched Angels and Demons at TGV, KLCC and I kinda enjoyed the movie - Mr. Alf didn't find the movie good. There was a suspense element to the movie - but in one of the scenes, I kinda figured out who was the culprit - it was quite a give-away-acting on the part of the villain - quite dissapointing on that part.

I've always been intrigued with the historical conflict between science and religion (unreconcilable conflict between knowledge and belief - the concept of God-matter that defines the birth of the universe - scientific attempts to explain the origin of species - how it all started). I believe in God and that every element has energy and that everything is interconnected and interwoven in intricate ways beyond our understanding. It's quite interesting to view things in this light - to get a different picture of any situation/circumstances.

Well, talking about movies, Mr. Alf's next must-watch movies are "Terminator Salvation", "Star-Trek"- none of which are my types of movies - *rolls her eyes*, hehe.

A busy week

Last week, we were running around finalising the card, buying saree, ironing out some details and panicking at the fast-approaching day. There are still tons of things to do - and we are trying to have fun along the way with the preparations and stuffs. And since Mr. Alf is not 'enlightened' with the rituals in a Hindu wedding, I have to 'enlighten' him with whatever limited knowledge that I have. Thank God magazines are there to salvage us. Now, I am writing the entire rituals - and learning along the way.

Caterer and menu - yet to finalise. Decor - planning for a meeting some time end of this week. Door gift - pending.

This week is a long week for me as well - with final year project presentation, an overdued research paper and assignment marking.

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day - for me, it's just another day to remember to show appreciation to my mother. My mom mean the world to me. At times, we talk for hours and hours. At times, we don't see eye to eye on certain things. Most of the times, she never failed to inspire me. My mom is a hardworking woman who never likes to sit still doing nothing - throughout the years, I remember her venturing into various small-scaled businesses to fill her time and to bring in extra cash - video store, baby-sitting, tuition classes, catering, food-stall, and now she is venturing into tailoring. I admire her for her spirit and diligence - and remind myself to emulate her diligence. My mom have always taught me the art of patience, empathy, understanding, forgiveness, and accepting anyone just the way they are and to give without expecting anything in return. Sometimes, I think that she is gullible and naive - but over time, I realised that it's her giving-without-expecting nature - a divine trait. I owe her for a great extent to who I have become today - for without her, I wouldn't have grown into a better human being, learning and growing along the way.

For Mother's day celebration, I brought my family out for a nice dinner at King's Hotel Thai Food restaurant. We enjoyed the warm ambience and the live band - I love the clean-white deco of the restaurant - everything looks spick and span. The food was not great - the best dish was the Thai green curry. I didn't really enjoy the pineapple rice I ordered. The highlight was of course the dessert - ice cream with fried banana - it was superb! Towards the end of the evening, we managed to squeeze some space in our tummy to make room for the smooth-melt-in-your-mouth cakes from Coffee Bean. Yum!

Classic cheesecake and blueberry cheesecake

Chocolate cake and sugee cake

Vanilla ice-cream with fried banana

Tom Yam Goong

Thai Green Curry

Pineapple rice

A view from Shah Alam park

A view from Taman Tasik Shah Alam.

Balok Beach - the feasting

Ate alot - slept alot - a totally lazy holiday by the beach. The durian we bought back from the night market wasn't that good though. The best was the nasi kerabu, and the grilled stingray - enjoyed all the other local fares as well - satar, etc. We definitely ate our heart out - holiday is an excuse to eat whatever you want ;)

Balok Beach

Some pictures from the Balok beach trip. All in all - had a great time - therapeutic, relaxing, and rejuvenating. The sea performs its magic!

A Mini Party

Last Saturday, after Balok Beach, we organized a mini party for Alfred's close buddies. He wanted to throw a thanksgiving party and invite some of his friends over. 5 of his friends came over and we had a fantastic party. I made pizza and Alfred made vegetarian lasagna and raita.

I used the same recipe that I posted last time for the pizza dough and it turned out just great (his friends thought we bought the pizzas, hehe). Pizza topping varieties: Hawaiian chicken pizza; tuna with pineapple pizza; mushroom with 3-cheese pizza (for us, since we were vegetarian for 1 week). And we had guests bringing over doughnuts - J. Co and Krispy Creme - 2 big boxes (I could only take so much and told myself 'enough') - a sinful indulgence for desserts.

And the party came to an end with tear-shedding-laughter from Russell Peter's performance.

Compulsive Book Hoarder

I have been on a compulsive-book-buying-spree lately. And it took me a while to notice my burgeoning shelf - loaded with books, some of which I have yet to read. So, I told myself to stop hoarding books for the time being (although I was tempted many times). Since I take a very long time to finish reading a book, I resolved to stop the buying and read the books that I have yet to read, which are seating there in the shelf gathering dust.

Books that I have yet to read:
1. The White Tiger
2. A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam
3. The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment
4. Outliers: The Story of Success
5. Buyology: Truth and Lies about Why We Buy
6. The God of Small Things
7. Now is the Time: Spiritual Reflections
8. Brida
9. Do Dogs Laugh?: Where Dogs Come from, What We Know About Them, and What They Think About Us
10. Dewey

The Surprise

Last month, I sighted a 40-inch HD T.V. sitting neatly on a rack in the living room the moment I entered our apartment. No wonder he has been acting suspiciously for the past few days. One thing is that he is not good at surprising me – every time he intends to do just that, he will end up opening his big mouth and spoiling the surprise – and most of the times, he will tell me “I have a surprise for you – just wait and see lah” - which technically ceases to be a surprise anymore.

And guess who watches the TV more frequently – it’s Mr. Alf, of course, hehe.