Travelling - Isn't That Exciting?

My next destination
(Photo from "Photo Journeys : Alison Wright")

Some where around this time last year, I packed and went off travelling.. leaving behind a fiance and an engagement ring. This year, I'm again setting off for another journey. This time, I'm going to leave behind my husband, engagement and wedding rings!


Well, he signed the pledge

And the line that read :
With no complaints, I promise to understand that you need your "holidays with the girls" twice a year just to chill.

Ok, so I might not have the fund for twice a year hols with the girls, but I go when I want to :) Don't worry sweetheart, I'll be back before you know I'm gone.

Many say that Laos is one of the last quiet countries on Earth, as it it has so far managed to escape mass tourism. I don't know if that is still a valid statement. Maybe we are too late but we simply have to leap onto the next plan to find out.

Now if you will excuse me, I have a bag to pack...

All she ever wanted was a little credit...

That's Rebecca Bloomwood if you are familiar with her. Confessions of a Shopaholic, the movie, has been released in the US on 13 Feb 2009 but will only reach us in March.

I have since receiving my Christmas gift of the book I've lost, finished re-reading all the 5 books in the Shopaholic series. The movie, however, is based on the first AND second book - Confessions of a Shopaholic (as in the US edition) and also published as The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic of which I have and Shopaholic Takes Manhattan or Shopaholic Abroad. I know, it's confusing. But having it based on 2 books makes more sense I guess as the movie is based on New York and not London. But I think they even turned her into an American!

Having seen the trailer, I don't think I should compare too much the movie with the book. The setting of the movie has Becky starts to work in a financial magazine in New York, when in the book she really ends up as a financial advisor in a television talkshow and moves on to working as a personal shopper in Barney's when in New York. But oh well, I can overlook that I guess..

AND they have Suze (Becky's bff) with BLACK hair! She's blond as mentioned time after time in the book series. In the books, it never specifies the colour of Becky's hair but I think red would be the last colour possible since she hates Venetia's (Luke's ex girlfriend) hair in Shopaholic and Baby - remember Danny's creation of SHE'S a RED-HAIRED BITCH and I HATE HER T-Shirt? So it seems completely out of the realm of possibilities that Becky herself would have red hair.

Ok ok.. maybe I REALLY shouldn't care so much and should just go and enjoy the movie.

Anyway, here's the movie trailer if you haven't already seen it by now...

Festivities Recap Part 3 - A Birthday Celebration

What are the odds of having your birthday falls on St. Valentine's Day? And for the mother to actually give birth on that day? Eeuchh.. such an unromantic thing to do on Love Day, being in pain and agony.. such a traumatic experience to be reminded of every Valentine's Day.

Anyway, that's my nephew..


6th year-old birthday celebration

And you know what? This is the very first birthday I have ever celebrated with him. You can't blame me! I had to be out dating with my then boyfriend. But what about this year? My understanding now hubby actually didn't mind spending the evening celebrating nephew's birthday with everyone else. My guess is because it was on a weekend, we spent the whole day together and so what is a few hours with others, or maybe he was just in good mood that day, or maybe he was trying his utmost best to please me that day. Who knows.. but I'm glad to finally get to celebrate his birthday at an age that he might even remember it later.


Unwrapping presents..


Unwrapping more presents..


Hah.. look, in order to save the environment (.. and cost), I wrapped the gift with this nice full page ad! (.. and from the days when I was getting complimentary copies of The Edge)

Take a guess what we bought him?


There you go.. what is it?


It's a caterpillar swim ring.. They just had to inflate it right there and then

And they couldn't wait but to come over for a swim the very next day together with my other nieces. And this time around, they don't need to play in the baby pool.


Wow, I like that.. so colourful


and fun...

And to have them over means to have my brother, sisters, parents over as well. And OMG! To write love notes to you hubby sounds like a good idea then, but to expose that to family members is mighty embarrassing! *blush*


Niece was especially fascinated with the hanging mobile and wanted to make herself one too (didn't I mention it looks like some school art class project?)

The kids were curious and wanted to read those notes hanging all over, and hence, my brother was reading out loud the messages to them and having them repeat after him. *double blush*!

Yup, Valentine's Day decor is still up here. I'm planning to leave them here till end of LOVE month. I'll be away for a few days and maybe they can be some sort of reminder to hub of my crazy existence in the house.

Festivities Recap Part 2 - Valentine's Day

I love the month of February. It's the LOVE month! I know St. Valentine's Day is only celebrated in a day, but I usually start anticipating it come beginning of Feb and savour it for the rest of the month. Not that we do anything extra special on that day.. I don't believe in dining in romantic restaurants with their hugely over-priced Valentine's 'promotion'. I don't even need any of those expensive, massive bulk-packaged bouquet of flowers in the name of Valentine's Day.

I'm immensely happy as long as we spend the day together, of which we did over the many years. This year, being the first year of marriage that we celebrated V-Day, and in the circumstances that I find for the first time in my life I actually have time to myself without sacrificing my sleeping hours, I embarked on a little project. It's not anything major, but just a little surprise for hubby while not burning a hole in my pocket (not that I have any pockets to burn nowadays).

And so I spent hours after hours, day after day, cutting alphabets from old magazines (I don't get recent mags anymore) and little hearts from leftover angpows.







That's right. The moment I took down the Chinese New Year's decor, I soon replaced them with Valentine's Day decor.


Glued each alphabet together ransom-note style. Each note has a different message..


There are over 80 little notes..


I'm sure you get the idea by now..

Cost nothing really.. those were leftover ribbons (from the invitation cards) and wooden pegs (from hanging the photos) from the wedding.


Remember these?

Apart from the clotheslines..




I have a heavy heart throwing the twigs that I used for the cherry blossoms, so have turned them into this little 'love tree'.. quite lovely I must say :)


And this little hanging mobile though not perfect, as it looks like a piece of work done by a 7-year old in art class, but I very much love it.

So what was hubby's reaction to the surprises when he got home? Oh well, a man being a man, he mustered some sort of genuine surprise look and took the trouble to read all the little messages.. and of course told me he loved it (after much coaxing from me to squeeze out some enthusiasm from him).

You see why I've been busy? Maybe it's somewhat childish, but it gives me a kind of self satisfaction, to be able to tell myself - I'll spend hours cutting love-shaped from paper and hang them any where I like if I so much want to!

Anyway, on Valentine's Day, as mentioned, we didn't do anything extra special but to catch a movie and roam in a shopping mall like we always do.. when I came upon this in a hardware shop and must buy it!


I fished out the pink and red ones only


And bend them into little heart shapes (Remember doing this in school??). I gave them to hubby, nephew & niece and am using one as bookmark to the book I'm currently reading.

RM1.60 to buy a moment of happiness in my life. Well worth it. Isn't life sweet when it's simple?

So what did you do on Valentine's Day? I hope you have had a wonderful weekend too.

Up next : Festivities Recap Part 3 - A Birthday Celebration

Update (March 02, 2009) : Valentine's decor is finally taken down :( but for now, I'm keeping the 'love tree' in the vase and the hanging mobile - it's relaxing to watch the movements with the slightest breeze and when it gently sways... *heart*

Festivities Recap Part 1 - Chinese New Year

I know I haven't been updating my blog for a while but you have no idea how time passes by. I also know you won't believe me when I say I've been pretty tied up. But it's true.

So anyhow, I'm getting around to posting some updates now, remembering the parting word of cheeky girl when we met up during CNY - "Update your blog!"... geez.. I had no idea any of you are still following my blog.

What have been keeping me busy? Lots! Right after Christmas and New Year celebrations, we've been busy shopping for Chinese New Year. And I don't mean clothes shopping (though I couldn't resist purchasing a few pieces.. just a few!). I mean how much drinks, cookies and tidbits to buy, how to know who would turn up at our house? What does one bring home for the in-law? And parents? And how much angpow to estimate and pack? So we did the best we could and hopefully have not offended anyone (I can imagine hubby snickering at this point and adding "too bad if they think otherwise!").

Apart from food shopping, I was 'pre-occupied' with CNY home decor. So I obsessed for weeks before deciding to buy what was needed for how I envisioned our home would be decorated. Nothing overly traditional nor too much red. Mind you, it wasn't easy with a hubby who would have been fine with me buying bunches of (dried or real) pussy willow, or (darker or lighter pink, fake) cherry blossoms or (thicker or thinner) bamboo stickers for all he cares. But to his credit, he carried and fitted them all into the car. No easy task for they are at least 6 ft long or some definitely longer, to be fitted into out little car (no sweetheart, this is not your cue to change car).


I spent hours arranging the bamboos, pussy willow and tying the cherry blossoms to them


And another few hours moving it to another location and re-arranging each stick, trying to experiment (I have no proper training in flowers arrangment!)


The paper lanterns! I fell in love with them when I saw them at Parkson as part of their CNY decor. I simply must have them! (had no idea where to hang or how to hang them before buying)

Side note : I can totally imagine a wedding with all these hanging at the venue. Might even change my colour theme to orange if they were selling then! They had pink too.. so romantic that I can come up with a wedding inspiration board based on that. Hmm.. if only Parkson sells them whole year round.. in multi colours! What a lost of opportunity for them.


Aaahh.. I love them! :) It wasn't an easy task, doing this alone. I climbed up and down the ladder endless time, not having someone to pass the next lantern to me, not being able to tell if the length of the ribbons was alright, not being able to estimate the distance of each lantern up close. It was hard work.


So lovely, yet it costs me nothing
Twigs - picked by daddy
Flowers - from previous year CNY decor
Vase - a gift (darling, remember?)


I spent a day back at parent's home helping sis decorate the cherry blossoms tree too. It's like a family tradition and I didn't want to miss out just because I'm married!


Ever watched Ben 10? That's an interpretation of Four Arms on the mandarin orange by hubby. There were others like Batman and Spiderman's logo too..

We spent a lot of time hanging out with our families, visiting relatives (given that this is our first year of marriage, we decided to be generous in distributing some angpows) and met up with some friends too. But this post is full of pictures of my nieces and nephew only simply because their cuteness prompted me to carry my camera around (I snapped some during luncheon and dinner with friends too, but those are already in Facebook).


The kids snacking on junk food.. it's CNY afterall


Mostly, they love hubby for playing with them


Posing with the decor


Splashing in the kiddy pool





The must-have yee sang (minus the fish) and our usual vegetarian steamboat on Chap Goh Mei. Prawns were cooked especially for hub who still can't fathom why 'luncheon meat' and 'meat balls' are not what they seemed to be.


After dinner, the kids were out playing firecrackers - those pop pop snappers. And once those were gone, they were running around playing catch with hubby while the rest of us observed.


To catch his own breath, hubby had them sitting down doing meditation instead.. hilarious!


The storyteller's concoction of a fairy-tale turned Goldilocks and the Three Bears into a horror story! (Eldest niece was feeling blues after a fall while running outside)

And hence, Chinese New Year was over in a blink. I have thereafter moved on to my next project..

Up next : Festivities Recap Part 2 - Valentine's Day