Christmas this year was the same as previous years. We attended Christmas eve mass at CDM. Although mass only started at 10.30pm, we left the house at 9pm and even at this hour, the church was already fully packed. Luckily, J's parents were there earlier to secure us places at the pew. So we arrived just in time for carolling before mass started.



Christmas is and should be about celebration of the birth of Jesus and a time of reflection. Nevertheless, trust us Malaysians to infuse the Christmas mood with lots of food! After mass, we headed back to the house for Eurasian pie, the BAU fare for Christmas eve meal. J's parents made 2 pies, one for Christmas eve and the other to be savoured on Christmas morning for breakkie.

Christmas day also saw a gathering of extended family members at my house. What was supposed to be a small gathering of less than 20 people very soon doubled up! Eeks, in my small small house. You can just imagine the amount of noise we made.


Still awaiting satay to arrive

So the festivities will continue to be enjoyed with much more food. My almost 3 weeks break from work is almost coming to an end. Am both excited at the prospect of joining a new company but also dread having to work after such a lovely time at home.

P/S : Photos to be uploaded later. Now, where did I place that darn camera cable? Sigh.

Finally some pictures

I am now enjoying my pre-Christmas leave/serving notice of my resignation from Choc company and will be on leave till January 2010. Yay! A much needed break I tell you. And since I am somewhat stranded at home, what better way to spend the day by pampering myself with home DIY facial and foot spa! I like! Hehe.

My face is now covered with mask from Taiwan which my sis helped buy. Think this one is called Black Pearl. According to the website, it is supposed to help whiten and moisturise your face. Let's see if it really works! But even if doesn't, the cool mask on my face feels just good as it is.



After this I will pamper my feet with a much needed scrub and moisturiser/cream before painting my toe nails bright red in line with the Christmas season's royal colour. Something along the colour on the left. Nice, right? :)

Why Christmas came early for me? Well it's because I managed to buy 5 novels and 1 craft book, all for just a mere RM50! I heart book warehouse sales :)This was over the first weekend in December at Amcorp Mall and organised by the Big Bad Wolf bookstore.

I got there on the third day of the sales, a Sunday afternoon and only had about an hour plus to get my goodies. Upon arrival, was dissappointed to find out that books by popular authors were already sold out. Bummer! But after going through the balance of the books they had there, was pleasantly surprised to find good plotlines from not so famous auhors (at least not to me, as I've never heard of them before).

So what are the books I managed to grab? The Waking by T.M Jenkins, a fiction on sci-fi medical related background with a guy murdered in 2006 being resuscitated in 2070 with the help of new technology in the field of medicine.

Another one is Spoils of War by Catrin Collier, a book on how people are coping after WWII, a book each with Japanese settings(The Pure Land by Alan Spence), the life of an Indian goldsmith's daughter (The Goldsmith's Daughter by Tanya Landman) and one chick flick, The Self Preservation Society by Kate Harrison.

Can't wait to start reading! :)

Yay, our glass door is finally up! After a week of a big gape in the wall covered only by a piece of canvas, the glass door was finally installed.



The whole process actually worked out over 2 weeks. Week 1, contractor came and dismantled the previous aluminium structure which held the window frame and put up the door drame. Thereafter it takes another 1 week to get the glass ready to measurement and finally installing it to the frame.



A little drama ensued after the door was installed - the poor contractor was locked up in the toilet. He was struggling to get the lock to open for at least 15 minutes but alas gave up and climbed out from the window in the toilet!



This is how our door looks like now, without the knob! Yep, still unrepaired as we do not have the time to file a complain to the developer. Also J is still undecided if we should just change the door to the plastic foldable doors. I am against it though as all the designs we've seen so far are just plain hideous!

Since we're on such an efficient mode, might as well ride with the momentum right? So we got the masterbedroom's windows/door tinted. And since we only did comparison of cost quotations from 2 contractors, it was pretty fast and fuss free. Initially we wanted dark brown so that it matches the colour scheme we chose for the exterior part of the house. But since the contractor didnt have that, we chose a shade called dark gold, staying away from cheesy colours like blue, green, light gold and silver (too ah beng-ish! hehe). It's a good thing that we took dark gold, I like it better than the dark brown now that the glass is tinted.


50% complete with the other half to go!


Bamboo tint for the window pane at the bottom of the staircase

Next step will be to get the grill contractor to take measurements and install them, 1 week to prepare the grills. But we will have to wait for 10 days for the tint to properly dry so that it does not peels off accidently.

Can't wait for the house to be ready!

Indeed a long break. 7 months to be exact. My bad, now how am I supposed to run a successful paying blog with just 6 blogs and a 7 month hiatus? Will need to be more diligent from now onwards.

Many things happened during this time which all warrant post(s) of their own. I may have mentioned that I do not like my current job, but things just got seriously worse thereafter. So am now searching for a new job, J too is looking. We're hopeful for the good news to come real soon!

What else? Oh yeah, we started renovation works on our hse in KK. Things are progressing really slowly what with a horrible contractor which we eventually got rid of. There will be some posts on this project of ours seeing it does take up most of our free time now. Will be at the house later in the afternoon to let the aluminium contractor in for some work. Will blog about the progress later :)

On a happier note, 2 weddings are confirmed for next year; WN & D's and WL & P's! WL's Malaysia reception will be next year July while WN's in October. Note to self to take leave the day after as those 2 girls big day are on Sundays. Oh, did I mentioned that I am made bridesmaid to WN? Yep, made, not asked! Hehe.

Well guess that's it for now. But rest assured of more to come, and it will be soon!

I am a financial analyst by profession. Today marks the first Saturday of a quarter end closing which I do not have to work. Yipee!! So what will I be doing instead this weekend instead of work? Very routine stuff, cooking, going to gym and a bit of cleaning. Simple stuff that doesn’t take much time but which I just didn’t have the luxury of time before.

The decision to leave my previous company was not an easy one to arrived at. It took me many months and deliberations before I had courage to do so. This part of the story really requires another posting (more than one actually).

Instead, what I would like to share today is the pros and cons being in a new company. What I definitely am enjoying now is the WORKLOAD lack of workload :p. I am now able to clock in and out on time and thereby spending more time doing personal stuff such as cooking a simple dinner and going to gym. Not being fatigue all the time to do anything but just to sit and be zombified nor suffer through constant migraine caused by constant stress and lack of sleep. In my previous company, half day leaves begins at 5pm, and so what if you are sick, the work will still be there….MCs – what are those??

Having said that, although I am enjoying the workload now, I am a bit concern with the lack of challenge in my current role. Wonder how long it will take for my brain cells to die off due to the lack of brain churning required to perform my tasks.

Also I miss my friends from my previous company desperately! People who will talk and joke with me, the teamwork that we have having work together the past few years. Thank goodness for MSN, which allows them to layan me whenever they have the time

Having said all that, there is a part of me that regret having to leave my old company, but the importance of personal time and health issues helped me decide to be where I am today.

I have always liked cooking but did not do much of it until late last year. My excuse before was that I didn't have the time when actually I just dislike the preparation process. Hehe...

In most blogs that I read/stumble upon, the first post usually sounds like the one that I am about to write. That either, they are starting this as it is the trend & everyone's doing it, a common place to share with their friends and families what they've been up to or just a place to verbalise their thoughts, amongst others.

For me, it is the last part, plus the fact that I am most of the time bored hence needing something to do! Hehe.. Not too sure if I intend to share this with anyone I know as I am sure at one point or other, the post may very well be about them, and it may not be something nice! Hehe..

So this is it, my maiden post. Let's see how it goes...

Note to self : Need to remember to stop typing using abbreviations that only I can understand :p