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.

Wedding Planning

We've got 2 months more to our wedding - and honestly, we've not been doing much for the past 8 months ever since he was diagnosed. After his last treatment, we've been dilly-dallying, much to our parents' dismal. We've been busy doing other things and up until now we've not got seriously into the wedding-planning mood - I think it's high time we did - haha, what can be worse than a disastrous wedding.

Things we've done last year:

- Booked both venues for wedding and dinner

- Booked make-up artist

That's about it. And past 2 weeks, we've started the ball rolling - started on the wedding card planning - and we've discussed with the printing press people - and have yet to finalise for print - which we expect to do by next week.

Urgent to-do:

- Caterers (wedding + dinner)

- Decor

With 2 months in our hands, I am trying to be positive on the whole process. Sometimes, tension can rise with so many things to be done in such short time - hope everything turns out great. Now, I'm gearing up my mood for the planning of our wedding - wish me luck!

My New Love

The moment I saw him, I knew that very instant that we were made for each other. I couldn't take my eyes off him. I felt butterflies in my stomach and tounge-tied. I knew that I've got to take him back home - for I couldn't imagine my life without him. All these years, after much searching, I've found my soul-mate, alas!

I can't begin to describe my feelings for my new love...

My new mixer - Kenwood Chef mixer. It's HIM because it looks masculine - and he is going to make a woman's life easier :)

Home deco - progress

Over the weeks, we've added few more things to our new home:
- a red-hot sofa set
- two full-length mirrors
- an office chair for me, and
- a leg-rest for Mr. Alf.

We had been going around looking for a nice chic-designed sofa for the living room and didn't quite find the one we liked. Finally, we went back to Ikea and bought it there (I particularly wasn't planning to get sofa set from Ikea because I thought it was a little boring for my taste). But upon spotting a bright red fabric sofa set, we knew that's what we wanted. The red sofa is the highlight - so red that I thought it had spruced up our living space more than we imagined - thus, that'd be the center-piece for the living room. Now, the curtain has got to have a subdued effect to 'mellow' the red-hot-ness.

A couple of days back, John told us that he could see the red sofa from the road, haha. High time to get curtains!