Living life crossing boundaries

Over the week, I posted a quote on Facebook. It came about when I was sharing with a friend how when Jase and I started going out, I had all kinds of expectations. The kind of expectations every girl has in a courtship.
"I want a guy who is romantic, a gentleman, who knows how i feel, who dresses well, who showers me with expensive dinners and gifts..." There are a lot more of expectations...but you get the idea. Which guy hasn't heard this before?

And let's not forget to thank Hollywood for emphasizing the "perfect man" benchmark which all women use to compare with their potential partners. *you know you do*

Seriously, a woman's emotional cycle is unpredictable. So on days when I'm more "sensi" (a.k.a sensitive) I would get riled up to the "Whys" and "How come" he doesn't do or say that. And when I'm at the point of annoyance, I bring it up to him. And we get into a discussion.

And this went on for quite a bit. In his defense, his answers really does make logical sense (except women don't think logically!...aha!). Just took me longer to process.

If its not in a guy's nature to be the idealist perfect man, he may give it a try at first, but sooner or later, he probably won't be able to sustain being something he's not. He does it initially to impress you. Let's face it, everyone puts up a facade in the beginning.

The thing is, once they start doing it, the expectation is set and when they stop doing all those things, the women will complain the the guy is no longer romantic, "You don't love me anymore, you have changed..." argument kicks in. Poor guy is defenseless.

I stumble upon the "5 Love Languages", again, and it made me reflect on our whole relationship. I soon realize my expectation of receiving love does not match up to how he was showing love.
For example, I expect A but he's gives me B. It's really not his fault for giving B, because to him, giving B is his way of telling me he loves me. But to me, B is not love, A is the love I know. On top of that he doesn't know I want A....Viola! A perfect setup for an argument.

Hope that made sense. :)

It took me a long time and us a lot of communication to really understand what love is. Now I'm not saying that I completely understand it, but I now understand it more and how love works in our relationship.

I took a step back and looked at why I felt frustrated and what I could do about it. I kept thinking back on the past and what my friend told me years ago after her parents went through the Love Language course in church.

Once I understood what these love languages were, I realized that all I had to do was change my expectations. But not lower it. It really was that simple.

When I stop expecting him to give me A, I saw that all the B he's been giving all these while are really the things that count. These are the things that he will continue doing for years to come because that's who he is.

How he buys me 2 kinds of snack for supper cos I was peckish. How he drives us around on weekends. How he will try something new on the menu, so I can order my standard comfort food yet get to try his new dish. How he will send and pick me to and from the airport even if it means he has to wake up at 5am on a working day. How he braves the cold weather to take-away dinner while I'm under the covers nursing a fever on a holiday.

This is how he assures me that I'm loved...:D.. And when he surprises me with A, I am truly truly blessed. :) *bonus points for him!*

Admittedly this thought has crossed my mind "Wow, I had to change so much for him". But then I stop and thought, "Hey, I didn't change for him, I changed for us". He did not once ask me to change. I willingly did.

This was how my quote came to life:

"Change because you want to, not because you have to. Let love be the reason for change. For when you love someone or something, you become more willing to change."

Over the past few days, I came to learn that some friends perceive what Jase and I have as the 'perfect couple'.

This puts a smile on my face. I am honored and flattered that our friends sees us that way.

Not to burst anyone's bubble, but we are far from being the 'perfect couple'. I don't think there is such thing as a perfect couple.

It has taken us years to get to where we are now, it was a heck of a ride. A lot of hard work, compromise, patience, maturity and buckets full of love given and taken. Making us is worth all of it. Yet we are still constantly working on us. We do reap what we sow. It is as easy and as difficult as you make it.

Sharing what we have may give your a little bit more idea on what makes us, well, us.

Communicating:
------------------------
After several "I hope he knows what I mean, without me actually telling him" and "I'm not a mind reader" sessions, we both realized that the oil flaming our arguments was the lack of proper communication.

I mean, this has happened to all of us. And this argument is like a never ending vicious cycle, which typically leads to "You don't understand me!" followed by something dramatic, like a storm off or hang ups or silent treatments.

So we decided we needed a more open communication. Not just more smsing, calling, or even chatting online. But more of "Let's not assume or guess what the other is thinking or trying to say". Now, you might think this is such a cliched statement. But it is not easy putting it into practice.

Honestly, it was scary for me in the beginning. I have moments where lines just pop into my head screaming "I can't tell him that!!!" and "What will he think of me if I say this???" and "Are you insane?!?!?!" or "But he should know what I mean!!!"

Some might say this takes out a big chuck of excitement from the relationship. If I tell you everything, what's the point? Where is the effort in getting to know me?

To an extend that is true. But I learned otherwise. By me telling him what's on my mind or what's bothering me or my opinion on a subject, he learned to understand me more and why I see things from my perspective. Vice versa.

The other thing is how I convey what I want to say. It takes a bit more effort to word my unfiltered thoughts in manners to not impose or dictate, however, it reaps a more positive response when worded properly.

If I hold back telling him what I really feel or mean (which I have done several times in our early years). There is a 90% chance, he will be completely oblivious to it. And when he does not "get what I really want", I get increasingly frustrated. And this mostly lead to volcanic eruption of "I gave you so many signs but you didn't see it!!" arguments. And poor feller would be thinking "What signs???".

And guess what? YOU created signs that only you can see cos you know its there but you expect him to see something which he does not even know exist. Yet another lost battle of assumptions.

With this mindset, whenever we share our thoughts, it does not put either of us in a defensive or attack mode. But in a listening mode. The way I have learned to see the results are not short term, but for the long run. Neither of us lose our of telling the other. Because we are both listening, whether consciously or subconsciously, we learned to read between the lines.

Honestly, with all that is laid out in the open and those which we picked up along the way, when a similar scenario crops up, we would already know what to do, say and perhaps expect from each other.

These will be the moments when you don't have to say anything and he would 'know' what you mean. 

I was watching "Confessions of a Shopaholic", after their Prada shopping, Luke and Rebecca had mojitos at a local bar. Luke asks Rebecca to pick a fan. "Wait, why did you buy me fan" she asks.

"Cos we are going to dance" he says. He takes her hand and holds her into position, looks into her eyes, nods and leads her into the music.

The whole act of asking a girl to dance is definitely a 'romantic gesture'. Isn't that right, girls?. I totally agree, it gives me warm fuzzy feelings.

I love the notion of being in his arms, leaning into his chest and just swaying to the music (even if its just an attempt to dance or moving to the music in my head). I feel safe. And very much loved.:)

My man claims that he has two left feet. Well, I'm not such a swaggering dancer either. But, we manage. In our own terms.

Learning the dance steps were exciting, remembering the steps is another. Putting the steps together with the music plus trying not to stumble on each other was quite the challenge.

The one thing I realized in the weeks of our classes, is that I some how lean towards taking the lead in some way. Maybe because I had a tinge more confidence (at least that's what I thought). Or maybe I like being in control. We had a few stumbles and awkward moments because I wasn't letting him lead. The instructor mentioned several times to let him lead. Well, I didn't know how!

Then in the middle of our rock and roll routine (which we both quite like) that it hit me. We were getting our steps relatively correct in jive with the music as well. Without any doubt or hesitation, I let him completely take the lead.

Honestly, I was surprised that I was capable of letting someone else lead. Yet it was such a liberating and very new feeling. It was then, I knew I could truly trust him. Completely. I had a smile inside till the end of class.

Years have gone by since our last actual dance, but that moment redefined our relationship, perhaps took it to the next level. It allowed me to trust like I have never before. It let me let him in.

Now I'm not saying, go take dancing classes to find trust. Find it at your own terms. But when you do, it could be as rewarding as mine.

Interestingly enough, no one has asked me before - pre and post engagement - how I know he's The One.

Someone, however, has put those words down which are close and true.

A question I’ve been asked a fair bit since getting engaged (I suspect most engaged ladies are asked this, too, though I wonder how many engaged men the question gets posed to…) is how did you know?  As in how did you know he was The One?  At first I floundered a bit for an answer, feeling like what people wanted to hear was some story about a grand romantic moment and… well, I didn’t have that.  In fact, when it comes to the fuzzy cam chick-flick-y expressions of love, I tend to think I was born without that gene.  Really.  The first time Jason took me out for a nice dinner at an upscale restaurant, I spent the entire evening sitting on my hands and feeling awkward and not myself.  I didn’t have a Facebook “relationship status” with him until we were engaged.  In fact, speaking of Facebook, I would ruthlessly cut him out of the frame if I wanted to use a picture of the two of us together for my profile snapshot.  If I want flowers, I buy them myself.  This isn’t to say that Jason doesn’t make romantic gestures – I’ll tell you the story of our engagement sometime.  It makes old ladies swoon.  But rather that we’re two people who tend to be fairly quiet and levelheaded about our love and find buying graphic novels for each other to be sweeter than long walks on the beach.

So anyhow, when I started finally owning the fact that I don’t even believe in this concept of “The One” (quelle horreur!) I found that I suddenly had a metaphor that I could use for telling people why marriage to this man.  So here it is:

I think dating/deciding to marry is something like deciding to buy a house and make it your home.  You figure out what’s available in your area, what works for your lifestyle, and what “must-haves” you want, and then you go looking. (note: This is, of course, a somewhat imperfect analogy as some of us aren’t “looking” when the right person comes around.  I certainly wasn’t.  But bear with me…) But the thing is… there’s not a Platonic conceit of “your house” that you just have to locate in reality.  The truth of the matter is that you will see many houses, and most of them will have some aspect of what you want.  One will have the gorgeous bay windows and gleaming hardwood floors.  Another will have the giant kitchen with the granite countertops.  A third will have a turret and built-in shelves. These are all great houses.  You can see yourself living in all of them.  But the day comes when you decide that one house is the one you’re going to buy.  You move in.  You clean.  You do a bit of painting.  You learn to live with the slight incline in the floors and to jump the creaky step in the staircase.  You have dinner parties that last until 2am in this house.  You host holidays in this house.  You bring your babies back to this house.  You could’ve had any of the houses you looked at, all those years ago.  But you chose this one and it’s now the only home you can imagine having.

So yup, that’s my long, cheesy metaphor for why Jason’s “The One.” I could say I’m marrying him because he makes me laugh or really listens when I’m upset or is not afraid of my moods.  I could say I’m marrying him because he’ll make a great father one day, because he is a great friend.  All these things are true, but it is also true that there are other people in the world who can do these things for and with me.  The fact of the matter is, I’m marrying him because we’ve grown toward one another in the entire time we’ve been dating.  Because I’ve worked on the specific faults of mine that bother him most, or are most detrimental to our particular relationship and he’s done the same.  Because we’ve chosen to learn each other’s needs and quirks and wants.  Because we’ve chosen to make this relationship our home, and that rules out the other houses.

- Sharon of Bride Sans Tulle

Little things that makes me happy inside, makes my day.

- Reading my igoogle wedding photography blogs.
- Bobbing my head to "Party in the USA/Give up the Funk" in the train without a care in the world.
- A flashing reminder that I'm engaged to my bestest guy waiting for me to come home.
- And this new beautiful song by Ansly - 'That's When I love You'

It started with a 2 weeks in advanced date night to try out this new restaurant, Palate Pallete in KL. Seeing as it was typical of us to have date nights, I thought nothing of it. I even found an online website which allowed me to make reservations online and collect points!..:D

But as the weeks drew closer to the day, I got news that I had to go back to Singapore for 2 months, after only returning for 1 week plus. And even worse, it was a few days shy of our date night.
 
So I flew in on Thursday morning and decided to make plans to fly back on Friday for the weekend so that we won't miss our date night and to have some work life balance..hahah...

Now you might think, why even bother flying back? Well in the course of our 3 years plus relationship, we can count with our 2 hands how many times we have celebrated our month-niversaries/anniversaries together, being in the same location! Not that we didn't want to, its just our travels keeps us apart. So somehow, I didn't want to miss this as we were both looking forward to it for weeks.


So he was running late, and we just made it in time for our reservation. On our way to the restaurant, I was just telling him that, its really not often we dress up for a date. Little did I know it was one of the BIG dates!!....

We filled our tummies with shrimp avocado salad, mushroom cappuccino, Moo Stew Pasta and minimalist burger accompanied by some assam bio and lime drink.

We decided to jalan jalan around Changkat area, and then popped over at BarItalia for some cappuccino, affogato and some tiramisu (Saw Wen, urs can beat it ANYTIME!!!)

Then on to the next surprise, drinks at Skybar. First round was, house Rosé wine for the miss and a Breakfast Martini for the mister. The view was quite nice, as we were on the 2nd floor overlooking half of KLCC, and since it rained a little, the sky cleared, we could see all the way to the Genting lights! Second round, a glass of port for me and a Selangor Sling for him with some fried calamari and fries. Its really something when you can stand in a loud area and all you can hear and feel is that person right next to you.

Jason "mentioned" that Citibank had a 50% off rooms @ Traders and gave me a "what do you think look". No, not that kind of look. He told me to head to the car to grab a *conveniently prepared* bag and he would check to see if there are rooms available. Low and behold, we have a room...Nop, I didn't question it, but I was curious, just went with the flow..

As we walked into the room, there was a paper bag of cupcakes and a bottle of ice wine. *Complimentary of the hotel, konon..;)..*. We poured 2 glasses, watch TV and just enjoyed each other's company.

The next morning, I woke up to his face gazing at me. Like a little pig, I was still drifting in and out of sleep. Gently he woke me and I went to freshen up, and while he was in the toilet, I plopped back into bed tucked under the covers.*pig*

"One final surprise,baby". He reveals the beautiful bouquet of flowers. "Happy anniversary, baby". "Thirteen red and white roses". I was elated!...Like a small girl getting candy. I was content.

After we had coffee and muffin for breakfast, we were laying in bed watching Dirty Jobs. The kind of day where you want to just stay in bed whole day and do nothing by snuggle. He was playing with my ring, he took it off complaining it is battered. I took his to compare who's was more battered.

Then he said "Well, time for a new ring", turns around holding a ring box. He got off to the side of the bed and got on his knees.

"On the 13th of June 2010, on our 3 years and 10th month anniversary, on the 13th floor and with a size 13 ring... will you marry me?"

I was welling up before he finished. I leaned forward, gave him a kiss (or a few), gave him a big hug and whispered "Yes".
It is a perfect fit. It was our perfect proposal. Well, perfect for me. Stress for him...hehehe....

We spent the next hour or so soaking up everything and he shared with me how stress he was just the last week leading up to the day was cause my SG trip messed up his plans and how everything fell into place in the end. *hehehehe* Get Proposal Bloopers from him directly...;)

I'm writing on my first Aeroline bus home from Singapore. Having left work at 5pm, I had some time to kill before my 645pm ride.

Feeling peckish but not wanting to spoil my 'on-board' dinner, I went hunting for light-but-not-too-light snack. I found The Soup Spoon @ Vivocity.

Standing at the counter, I was baffled with the options available. I was a kid in candy store spoilt for choices.

Mushroom or Clam Chowder or Simon & Garfunkle's Chicken Ragout or Beef Stew or Roasted pumpkin soup or Tomato soup or some Tokyo stew?? I placed my baffled slightly pouting face on the glass panel. The kind man standing in front of me told me to take my time. :)

He asked, what tickles my fancy. I answered "Hmmm, I'm torn between Clam Chowder, Mushroom and Simon. Which is nicer?"

He recommended Simon. It's the best seller, he added. He went on explaining to me what were in each three soups, then leaned me back to Simon.

"Why don't you give them all a test?" I gave him a 'really' look. He smiled and proceed to fill in small plastic cups with all three flavours.

I finally decide on Simon and Garfunkle's Chicken Ragout. Placed in a regular bowl accompanied by a small spiced bun, this is my new most favourite soup ever!! And I will pay S$7.1 for this bowl again!

I full expected it to make me absolutely filled to the brim with the amount of ingredients in that bowl. But I left feel just nicely full with some space for my light dinner later.

Perhaps the posh hype of Aeroline has faded long ago. Honestly, the whole bus looks quite old-ish. Not worth the posh price paid. But then again I don't have a baseline to compare with other bus lines.:p

But I did get a glimpse of First Coach, and they had individual screens.

Anyway, I am sitting in between two very different people.

Here's the they story. My seat doesn't have power plugs. However on the single seat on my left there is one. So I plugged my power in. When the owner of the seat came, he was annoyed that I wanted to share the plug.

He said "I'm going to use my computer the whole way. That's why I chose this seat".

I was pissed. Dem selfish man. Hello???...I very well paid the same price as you for the bus ride.  I told Jason and he said "Must be Singaporean".

The man I am sitting next to however is a very friendly man who offered to help me plug in at the seat in front where his friends were sitting.

Anyway, I'm going to catch up on my tv series and movie while I anticipate sleeping in my own bed, my own pillow and hugging my bolster.

I have been in Singapore for the past 1 1/2 weeks for work. I ain't gonna talk about work as its insane, hectic and close to impossible.

But I will talk about things that are making this round of trip bearable.

Every time, without fail, I come over here, I will meet up with Marvin, whom I've know for the past 4 years. He always brings me to hidden gems in SG for some makan time followed by some night life..haha..

This time around we had HK fish head steamboat @ Kampong Bahru. A small pot of fish head, a plate of uniquely fried sotong, a plate of kangkung belacan and a bottle of beer. We were set chatting the night away. Followed by another round along with his visitng friends at Dragonfly @ St. James Powerhouse.




Food is such a comfort. Especially when you're away from your loved ones. And no, work doesn't love you back. Not this one, unfortunately.

Small milestones keeps me in good spirits. Up coming one is my return back home for  the weekend. Next is witnessing my dear ol' friend saying her 'I Do' registration here in SG the following week. I'm quite looking forward to shooting *unofficially* for them. Hope I don't mess up.

Then looking forward the 21st weekend to fly back home for West Side Story and maybe another old friend's wedding, if I can make it.

Then hopefully I can wrap everything here in SG and head back to KL for good, for a more substantial amount of time before I come back to SG again.

This car was the first car I remember ever growing up in. It was the one other constant thing in my life.

Its has taken me to kindergarden, primary school and even through high school. To my tuition classes, birthday parties, visits to grandma and family.

This tough nougie has survived its first car theft. And was later found. Recently it was stolen from my house again, but we were pretty sure that it was scarp yard material this time with no hope of ever recovering it.

That was until I got a call from my Aunt informing me that she saw my dad's car in a community bulletin and in a police station in usj.

After visiting the station, this is what happened to the car as stated in the police report of how the car was found:

- Was reported stolen on 11 March in the morning by dad
- Car was then found on 11 March 10pm by the police

It seems that the cops were tipped off by a concerned neighbour on suspicious activities going on in a house in USJ 1. The police knocked on the door of the suspected house but no one answered. They then broke down the door and found a man sitting down waiting. They took him in to custody.

Inside the house they found car jacking tools. Outside the house, a stolen van and a car was found. The car was my dad's car.

The exterior of the car looked intact. Initailly, we thought both the front windows were gone. To our suprize, it was just wound down. And could be wound back up again!

Exterior damage:
- Left indicator light dangling out from its socket
- Both back tyres missing 2 nuts, one front tyre missing 2 nuts
- Left side mirror gone

Interior damage:
- Both the front door inside panel have been ripped off.
- Radio is gone
- Aircond/vent control  unit gone
- Pedal metal lock gone
- Emergency tool kit gone
- Spare Tyre gone

Its heartbreaking to see the car in this condition. The idiots were in the midst of taking the car apart when they were raided.

The car is now back in its original marker position. I'm not sure what dad is going to do with it. Wonder would it have been better to not have found it at all? I asked dad how he felt about having the car back. He wasn't sure as well. The car can't be driven any more and its not worth to fix it either.

Here is bulletin which led to the car's discovery:

Imperfection is perception. A perception derived from emotions or personal expectations.

Who are we to decide what imperfections are. It's called an imperfection based on what we do not like, or appreciate or understand. Or merely doesn't meet up to our expectations.

Perfection is perceived as a positive attribute. An attribute which one thinks meets one's expectations and think makes one happy or satisfied.

And as sung well by Orianti's "According to you...".."But according to him....".it's a perception. Not a rule.

So don't harp over someone's perfections or imperfections.

Maybe you just need to change your own perceptions and/or expectations, eh?..;)

As a chapter of my life closes, I decided to take a quick break before turning over a new page of a new chapter.

We headed to Krabi for a 'do-nothing' gateaway.Sun, sea, sand, food and booze galore.

When we arrived at the airport we were greeted by a clump of dark clouds followed by heavy shower. The shuttle bus we took was leaking above my seat and happily dripping away on my arm periodically. I suppose one can't ask for much for a 150 baht ride to our hotel in Ao Nang.

The hotel we stayed, Phra Nang Inn, was quite a bargain. Located in the heart of Ao Nang 'town', it only less than 2 minutes away from the beach. All accessible via our lil ol feet. Plus we got moved to a nicer room with in-house spa (a tub in your bedroom).

We were loving the lemon grass shampoo and body shower provided by the hotel. Smelt and felt great! The shower was amazing. The size of the shower head and the water pressure had a perfect combination to give one a great bath. I K.I.D you not. It's weird for me to rave about a shower, but this one was amazing. Best shower I have ever taken.:D

Our daily routine for the past few days were pretty much:
- Wake up
- Have breakfast
- Head to beach. Play in sea. Sun bath on the beach
- Head to hotel pool. Read. Relax.
- Head out for massage
- Lunch
- Happy hour had bars. Consume liquor
- Shower
- Maybe massage again
- Dinner
- Consume more liquor
- Konk off to bed
- Repeat


Marvel the amount of food we consumed over the past few days there!!...(excluding breakfast mind you..;)..)...Some were delish, some weren't that great. But we still enjoyed our every meals.

Now feast over some Alcoholic Anonymous presentation some of the alcohol we had over the 3 days there...*burp*

Amidst all the eating and drinking, we were also blessed with some great weather for the rest of the our stay. Absolutely humid but great blue skies and bright sunny sun.

On top of that, we brought along a fun toy on our trip this time.

Quite excited to share the pictures from this disposable UW cam. We snapped gleefully at Phi Phi Island. It honestly turned out better than both of us expected. :D

Spread out on the dining table was our supper for the night. Smoked salmon, sliced avocados, salad and toasted Abbots whole wheat bread. On a cold night at Halls Gap, we warmed up to some pumpkin soup and some wine.

Supper was simple yet enormously satisfying. We decided to walk  - waddle - our way into town for some ice cream, in our flip flops  and in under 10 degrees weather.

We walked out of grocer with our ice creams. Jason had a stick ice cream, I had a tube one,the one where you need to squeeze out to get to the popsicle. In that weather, mine refuse to melt. Holding my hands around it didn't help at all. My hands became cold faster than it could melt it. I resorted to peeling away the wrapping like an orange.

Finally, I could taste the icy cold lime flavours. So did my hands. With the sugary liquid all over my hands, our exposed toes and the gentle blow of the cold wind, by the time we got back, my fingers became the popsicle!!

Under the clear blanket of stars, we giggled and laughed like 2 little kids elated that we could have ice cream whilst playing in the cold and joking about my 'sticky' situation. Walking in each others arms, its moments like these we live in the moment.

Not too long ago, I was at a pasar malam. I have seen this contraption at a glance before and one day I decided to give this contraption a go. So I bought it.

My dad laughed at me when I brought it home and explained to him what it does. I tried to swing the contraption around, but it had no respond. Dad simply said "Aiyo, see it doesn't work wan la"

A few nights later, Shals and I were sitting between my front door and the garage. *Not really the best place to be sitting and chatting*

We were being annoyed but what was surrounding us. So I came downstairs to show Shals the contraption. The moment I turned it on, *ZaP!* followed by *ZaP!**ZaP!**ZaP!**ZaP!*

Dad finally saw it in action!!!...He was thoroughly impressed by it. So I taught him how to use it.

Let me introduce to you my dad's new exercise regime tool:

Seventeen days of pure holiday in Sydney and Melbourne was just the remedy we needed. The only rest we got was from work. Our holidays are always packed to the brim with activities which wakes us up early and retire us late at night.

This was my first Australian trip. Admittedly we did not ‘plan’ (or as Jason likes to tease my ‘micro planning’ tendency) this trip to the ‘T’. Our Euro trip was meticulously ‘micro planned’ by me, it was insane. This time around we mainly planned where we would be staying and mostly winged the rest of the itinerary. :)

I will go more into details of our trip along with the piles of pictures I took later on. I’m still in holiday mood, although I will be resuming work tomorrow. :(

But I just have to make a few shout outs to those who really made this holiday exceptional.

God is first on my ‘Thank You list’. We were truly blessed by the weather we had in both Sydney and Melbourne. Out of the 17 days, it only rained one day in Sydney and one day in Melbourne. And on days which count the most, we were blessed with clear blue sunny skies with the occasional puffy clouds. Not to mention room upgrade and rental car upgrade. ;).

I was disappointed that I did not get a chance to touch a koala or a kangaroo in the zoo. However, God does work in the mysterious ways to make this trip even more memorable. By his grace, we got to see Australia’s wild animals in its natural element. We saw dolphins swimming in the sea, seal/sea lion, Southern right whales, Koalas, kangaroos and even a joey in a pouch! Seeing these creatures really made my day.

On another note, we successfully drove in and out of Melbourne city without having to make a single hook turn!!

Next shout out goes to Aunty Cheong Lam and her family, who graciously welcomed us to their home and hosted us for the duration of our stay in Sydney city.  Jason and I both agreed that the first leg of our fantastic Sydney experience were attributed by staying with her.

A big thank you goes to Brett and Ellie who showed us around their ‘hood’ at Bondi beach.  The beach walkway was quite the sight. It was great to catch up after 2 + years and a pleasure to meet Ellie too!

Next big arigato goes to Chef Mike who introduced us to Pancakes on The Rocks pork ribs (and of course their pancakes too!). He too also graciously cooked up a storm of a dinner at his place and let us crash at his living room for a night.

In Melbourne, Ru Syuan gave us a crash course on the bearings of central Melbourne, recommending the best places to visit and EAT while feeding us delicious Greek food. She was patient with my quest to savour all the ‘hot chocolate’ cafés on my to-do list and making sure I check them off my list even on our last night! Thanks girl!

Another shout out goes to Henry who introduces us to his wife and Henry Jr. Jason had a good time catching up with his old Uni mates too.

Mervyn is next on the list. This feller practically planned our itinerary for Melbourne city! He brought us around St. Kilda and South of Melbourne. Fed us delish Egg Benedict and Egg Florentine. He too patiently helped fulfill my ‘hot chocolate quest’ and introduced us to the BEST hot chocolate café! (by my standard at least, hehe). Thanks also to his friends Adam and Jase who met up with us along the way.

Last but not least, my dear Jason, who was very patient with all my lil antics throughout our great adventure. Thank you my dear.

Our trip would not have been the same without you guys. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for sharing your time to be part of our lil adventure.

On a side note, I have a new found respect for my canvas blue CROC shoes. My feet are probably the most sensitive pair alive. The biggest pain points are my very high arches. It gets over work and tense very quickly without proper support. This leaves me limping my way through at every step.

Amazingly and miraculously my arches did NOT hurt at ALL the entire trip!! Not a single complain on the arches. This truly says something about them CROC shoes!

On top of that, the CROC survived some vigorous street walking, bush walking and mountain rock surfaced climbing. My shoe is definitely well worn out now. Hmmm, if only I can find a sports CROC running shoe….

The second sensitive part of my body is my shoulders. The last trip, I carried another backpack everywhere we went around Europe and every other night, Jason had to give me a shoulder massage. This time round, with my new Think Tank Streewalker Pro camera backpack, I did not complain about any stiff shoulders  or lower back aches.  :D . I was definitely a happy camper all the way.

Well, that’s all for now. I’m still in Aussie timezone, and its way past my holiday bed time..hehehe…I promise to work on the pictures as soon as I can.

This year we did not do anything spectacular, as we have other plans to celebrate in the coming month on our next adventure.

But to me, small gestures are the best. They give you the most incredible long lasting goosebumps even if for a fleeting moment remembering it. The moment when he puts his hands around the lower of your back to guide you in front. Where he gives you a the slightest squeeze around your waist which sends giggly chills through your whole body. When he takes your hand in his while walking together.

"Baby, can you pass me a tissue?"

The tissues are kept in his car's glove compartment.

I opened it without the slightest suspicion and was greeted with a carnation and a beautifully written anniversary card. Let's just say, I am happy camper..:D..We spent the night, walking, chatting and feasting at snacks at the pasar malam.

It's the little things that count.

One of the other features of iGoogle are Themes. I couldn't decide on one, so I selected the daily random themes.

So far it has been pretty impressive, some garish, but this by far tops it.

An absolutely 'cina' unexpected background! Hahaha...

I suppose like many others, I have been following Idol for the past 8 years since its started airing on Astro. Atually, I started follwing since first season through other means! And also many other world wide Idols.

After all these years, the competition gets to me. Kudos to the team behind Idol who atttempts to keep every year fresh and exciting.

Here's my take on the final showdown (IMHO):

1. Kris deserved the first round taking on his rendition of 'Ain't no Sunshine'. He had his groove on.

2. I started of an Adam fan. But his haunting performance of 'Mad World' was somehow too-long-it-got-slightly boring.

3. I actually enjoyed Kris 'What's Going On' and his acoustic thing with the bongos and guitars.

4. Adam's 'A Change is gonna come' was fantastic. He did his own thing with the innocence of his slower tone. Round two ding-ding definately goes to Adam.

5. No offence to Kara and her team of writes on the winning song 'No boundries' But it really wasn't very good. The first time Adam sang it, all I could think of was, Why is the tempo a notch quicker than the vocals? It sounded like he was rushing to catch up with the music. Kris's was more on tempo at the beginning, but from the chorus onwards, it was a running song again.

6. First time in the entire season, Adam was pitchy singing 'No boundries'. EVER! NEVER! He was always pitch perfect, and in control of every single performance.

7. This season's finale performances were off the chart!!! It stole the lime light for the final crowning moment.

My top performances in order:
- I LOVED Jason Mraz with the Top 13 performance
- Kris and Keith Urban's Kiss a Girl duet
- David Cook's Permanent
- Kara OWNING Bikini girl's moment
- So What, Top 13 performance opening
- Allison and Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time
- Fergie & Black Eye Pea's performance
- Steve Martin on his banjo with Megan and Matt duet of Pretty Flowers

It was a great wrap up of the season. See you next year!!!

As the crowd started filling the stadium, the anticipation kept rising including the immense heat and humidity. The aircond "Stadium Negara" was not so aircond after all. The organizers had to bring in extra portable airconds and those gigantic fans which blows mists.

I'm not the typical "Oh, it's Valentine's Day!!" person, with high expectations to receive flowers and chocolates and be chauffered off to a glamorous fine dining restaurant.

Yes, I am a romantic person but I just don't believe in this ONE over-priced, over-hyped day.

Last night, we went out for dinner at Senju Sushi at Pyramid. It wasn't a planned dinner, but we managed to kill two birds with one stone last night, at a reasonable price and filled stomach..;)

In the restaurant, all around us, were couples enjoying their Valentine dinner special menu, which came with a bouquet of flowers for early bird reservations.

Anyway, this romantic weekend is a working weekend for me. Keeping my fingers crossed that things go smoothly.

Too all V-Day love bugs, Happy Valentine's Day!!!

We finally arrived in King Cros St Pancras Station just before 4pm. Made our way through the Underground and headed to our hotel, Days Inn at Waterloo. The hotel was slightly off the Circle line, but it was relatively cheaper than staying within the Circle line.

At this time of the year, the days are shorter, but around 430-5pm, it was dusk and close to night time. When we checked in, we we're indeed pleasently suprized to see how big the room and toilet was. And for me, how clean it was. It even provided us with Dove shampoo and shower gel.

Once we unloaded what was not required back into our luggages, we headed out. Time to explore the city.

We stopped over at Covent Garden, strolled around the walkway soaking up the British air which lead us to Leicester Square. Admittedly, I couldn't tell the difference when our location changed. Everyone walks by each other at a fast pace. It felt like one's rushing somewhere.

Tower Bridge lighted at night was indeed a sight. Its reflection againts River Thames contrasted in the dark night.


We parked ourselves next to City Hall for a quick rest and paparazzi session. Now one doesn't feel that cold while walking, till you sit down when the wind blows at you. *brrrr*

Fatigue started to kick in and we made a pitstop at Marks & Spencer for sandwiches and Hoi Sin duck roll and 2 for 1 yoghurt sale, before heading back to our hotel.

Saturday - Day 2
Woke up early and grabbed a quick take away breakkie and coffee enroute to Tower Bridge. Typical of UK winter weather, thick grey coulds hovered over then it started to drizzle.

The tour of the Tower Brige was okay for me. The history and mechanics of the build and the engines which opened up the bridge were enlightening. Although our view were clouded, it was still amazing to see the London side by River Thames.

There was the Lord Mayor's Parade event that day, and we managed to catch some of it at St. Paul's Cathedral but it was pouring like cats and dogs, but that surely did not dampen the Londoner's in getting excited under their umbrellas.

Initally, we thought St. Paul's was closed for the parade, on the contrary, we managed to get in for free as they were having an event in conjunction to the parade in the cathedral.

The design, drawings of the cathedral was breathtaking. Standing under the dome looking up, my entire view cannot encompass the entire paintings on the dome.

We decide to take a walk up to the Whispering Gallery. Hiked up all of 200 over steps. It has been said that if two people stood opposite of each other on each end of the dome and whispered something to the wall, the other person could hear what was said. We tried that. But because there was an event going on downstairs and loads of people at the gallery, we couldn't hear each other...hahah...


After that we took another flight of stairs upstairs to check out the view from St Paul's. Unfortunately, it started raining again. So we didn't spend much time there before walking down again.

We walked to Borough Market from there. This place is known as a food market, and boy, was there alot of food and people there. From cooked food, to preserved food to fresh food! It was quite a sight.

Later that evening, we headed to Blackfrais bridge for the main event of the evening. The Lord Mayor's Fireworks. Luckily we managed to climb on top of the bridge's corner and sat down on cold, wet concrete while waiting for the fireworks to start.

As time drew nearer, more and more people gathered at the bridge. Thankfully we're a good height above taller people.hahaha...The fireworks was not too bad, nothing spectecular but still rather entertaining...:)

Judging by the amount of people at the bridge, the nearest Tube would be massively packed with people, hence, we decided to walk to the next station.

Although it was really cold and the wind was blowing, we took a slow stroll along Thames, took some pictures of London Eye at night and ended up at Parliament House. It was quite a long walk down. Not sure how long it took us, but I really didn't bother with time when on holiday...hehehe

We got on the train at Wesminster and headed back to the hotel.

It was quite a tiring day, but the excitement was far from over. When we opened the door to our room, Jason said "What the heck?!!?!". I was anxious, I peeped in and we got one heck of a shock.

There were pink splatter EVERYWHERE!!!!And I mean literally EVERYWHERE!!!..The room stank of something sourish and spoiled!


Seems like my bottle of yoghurt drink on my night stand EXPLODED through the night lamp and all over on the above ceiling, across the room wall, on the window and on the bed!!!

Talk about a murder scene man! With blood spatter everywhere!!!....

It took us almost an hour plus to wipe of all the splatter and change the sheets. We were even more tired by then an quite annoyed by then, but we did have a few good laugh at the situation....hahaha..

Unfortunately, the only thing on TV which was intersting to watch was X factor. hahaha....-_-"

Sunday - Day 3
Sunday was a packed full day of tourist visits for us.

We thought we were early at Madamme Tussauds, but there were even more kiasu people already queuing in line at 9am!...And they were not Asians. The wax figures at Tussauds were impressive and I did wonder who was real and who was not when I first walked in. But I didn't think it was worth 25 pounds. The tour of Tussaud's followed by The Spirit of London, which was like a small roller coaster ride which walks you through what happened in old London till 21st century London. Apparently, there was a dome show which was sadly not part of the show anymore.

I grabbed a giant weener outside of Tussauds before we headed to Buckingham Palace. There were alot of people around so we thought we were lucky to catch the changing of guards. Which I've heard worth watching.

We were pleasently suprized when the Royal family started whizzing by returning to the palace! By golly, we got to see the Queen of England!! First seeing her at Tussauds, then seeing her in person! What can beat that when your're in England?? Then Prince Charles and Camilla drove by follwed by other royal families. I was secretly hoping that the two Prince Charmings would pass by too. Unfortunately, there were out of 'town'...hahah


We then walked around St.James park with blustering winds blowing at us and headed to Parliament House. We then walked across Wesminster bridge to see the London Eye. We didn't go up the Eye though, even though the queue was not very long.

Along London Eye, there were buskers doing their thing, entertaining people for a pound or two. I was totally freaked out by a golden headless busker who motioned me to sit on his lap.


It's really nice that there are places like these around London where it really doesn't cost much to keep ourselves entertained. Unlike in Malaysia, there's only eat, drink or hang at shoppings malls. Whereas, here, you can walk in parks, take strolls around, it doesn't feel intimidating as these places are well lit and filled with other people. *sigh*

Unfortunately, Wesminster Abbey was closed, but we got to see the World War 1 memorial outside on the abbey ground.

We decided to evade the rain and check out London Aquarium. Both of us were disappointed as we had high expectation from this aquarium. I have been to Singapore's aquarium and our own Aquaria KLCC, and we both agreed that even our Aquaria was WAY better than London Aquarium. It was not as impressively built and they did not have a vast variety of sea life.

We trotted off to Paddington's for some delicious pub food. I can't remember the pub's name, but it served scrumptious Irish Lamb Stew and Fish and Chips coupled by 2 pints of Kronenbergs. I was so full, I could barely finish my pint of beer!!!..Mind you, their one pint is gigantic!! *well to me anyway*...haha

We got some souviners that night as we would not have time when we came back from our second leg of England trip.

On another note, I finally got to have Krispy Kreme doughnuts! I'm relatively indifferent between Krispy Kreme, JCo and Big Apple. They all kinda taste the same and have the same texture. HAHA...

Eventhough, it was an express 2 1/2 days of London City, I think we managed to cover quite alot of touristy grounds. :D

We're headed outskirts next!