The living room

As promised, here comes the photos.

This is my favorite spot at the living room-the single sofa seater which facing the wide open balcony. Since our apartment is on the highest floor so we really do have a good view. It was nearly 5pm when the workers moved in the last piece of the sofa, and i remember well the satisfaction feeling i had when i sit on the sofa, having the wide view opened before me.

If you compare this against the before-renovation living room. My oh my, i have to say boy we have came a long way.

The marble floor had been polished, new marble skirting (it cost a bomb!), the plaster ceiling was up, new fan, new balcony tiles, new paints, AND.... the seagrass sofa set!

If you notice the striking green wall along the corridor, well, that's the feature wall which we intend to create. However, things didn't turn out well as it happened to be too green to our taste.

In fact i have re-painted one side of the green wall back to lavender white, (It will be good if i can have the song by Celine dion "All by myself" as background now....), which tone down quite a bit of the greens. However, its far from satisfaction and there is still a lot of interior deco to do. Maybe some picture hanging along the corridor will do the trick.

Anyway, that's it for time being. And yes Kim, no house warming yet as the place is far from ready and all other rooms are still empty ;)

Gibberish

I felt gibberish today...

I don't have my phone with me the whole day, and i felt totally disabled. I have to come out with some lousy excuse whenever client told me "i called you just now, you didnt pick up the phone!".

Signal reception issue, very bad one...

Thats my standard answer. (And yes, I know its not making sense at all). But it strikes me that nowadays we are relying so much on all these digital gadget and communication tool as though our life depends on it. Take away my computer and i wont be able to work for the whole day.

I wonder how the old generation can stand the long turnaround of snail mail.

I wonder how can i live through life without a handphone as a teenager.

A good thing to ponder indeed.

...........

My body is aching all over today, i bought a new curtain for my temporary guest-room-turn-bedroom yesterday at iKEA. The no-curtain-bare-window is really getting on my nerve as the wide open window makes me felt vulnerable as though i've been watched all the time.

i was climbing high and low to put on my new curtain rods, iron the curtain and hang the curtains. The day before i had re painted one side of the green wall to lavender white. Now i really cant survive without the 5 steps ladder.

I wanted to show the photos i've taken for the new curtain and new sofa, but heck, i dont have my camera phone with me today.

.............

which bring me back to the same question, i wonder how people can survive without having a handphone.

The chasing game

What will you do if someone 'carded' you?

That's the million dollar question which i read from the "lifestyle" section, Star newspaper last week. Cheek'd is the new dating gimmicks in town. Stranger coyly slip business card with cheeky message such as "feel free to stalk me", "i dare you" to those who catch their eye. The receiver will go to the networking website and check on the fella's profile/contacts and if you feel up to it, wallah! you have a date!

If you feel totally lost, don't sweat, cuz i felt the same. And that's not all, i came across September social and Skout the other day, and was totally taken aback by revolution of the act called "dating". Apply for a date through blog? location based iphone mobile dating apps which allow you to detect singles within 0.5 mile radius? Frankly, it was really an eye opener for me (maybe i am really from STONE age). I didn't now that dating had become so sophisticated nowadays. People are taking advantage of the new media technology and social networking to the maximum and the normal rules of engagement which used to apply to the previous generation (like me!) has somewhat became invalid.

Although i am not that old, but during my days (which is like 6-7 years ago), the entire dating process was very much depended on physical (not virtual) interaction, i.e. he/she is either your friend/classmates/churchmate OR your brother's friends OR your friend's friend (thats how i met Peter, hahaha... ) etc. and the modus operandi is always the same: exchange glance, show interest, sms/chatting online, finding excuse to ditch the rest of the friends and go out alone with him/her, more sms (maybe in tons), and finally comes the peak of the entire process, which is the love confession, its either a face to face "Will-you-be-my-girlfriend?" or a 10 page love letter which quoting all the lyrics from the love song you heard before.

Maybe i am the dinosaur here, but i still think that nothing can beat the feeling of a guy asking a girl out the old school way. If i am still unattached now, i probably end up being single forever, cuz i dont think i can keep up with the dating-pace of this generation. It seems as though they are simply making new rules as they go, wait.... is there any rules at all?

I asked Peter once whether did it ever crossed his mind that he may want to have a new girlfriend (you know 6 years is not short so he might getting itchy or start to develop wandering eyes syndrome). His answer was a firm "no", and here comes the reason: He is too lazy to go through the chasing and flirting game (a.k.a guy go all out playing Romeo, girl playing hard to get) all over again.

Priceless.

I think we are really made for each other.

My first 'house warming' present

I was drowned in joy when i saw the surprise present peter bought for me the 1st day i moved into the new place. He was greatly amused by the half dreamy half stupid (i-cant-believe-you-secretly-bought-for-me-this) smile which i carried for the rest of the day.

"This is for you to kill your time in case you felt boring in your new place", said Peter.

Behold, Charlaine Harris's True Blood series (7 books)!

Boy how i LOVE the present! and within 2 days, i had finished the 3rd book " Club dead". Yeah, i kill not just free time, but A LOT of time by reading it.

Well, i owned another copy of the first 2 books, if there is any interested takers, i'm wiling to let go my old ones half the price i bought. ;)

Am starting on the 4th book tonight-Dead to the world (yay!). Eric Northman is having memory lost and Sookie will find him hard to resist.... Ignore my gibberish, am still in hyper mood.

You say good bye, and i say hello

Last night was the first night I slept in the new room of our home. It will be the room which i will inhabit for another 1/2 year, before i can finally move into the master bedroom with someone i'll call my husband. When I lay down on the same old mattress (which i've carried all the way from 16 floor of my old flat up to the fourth floor of my new home) in the room which everything else spells S-T-R-A-N-G-E-R to me, it felt somewhat weird, but weird in a good way though.

I looked out the bare window and that was when the moment came. It was a whole BIG piece of open sky, in a strange slightly red, slightly orange colors, without any glimmering shining stars nor shooting stars. It was just open, wide, and bare, like the bare window in my room without a curtain. It was a luxury to me, to be able to lie down like this and absorbed such a scenery. All the rooms i lived before this didn't have a good window view. Especially if you lived in a crowded 18 floors sardin-can-flat, all you can see is just the wall of the opposite flat.

It was oddly peaceful. i tried to associate the feeling to "at home", and the first picture which came into my mind, was an image which i've posted in one of my old posts, LONG LONG time ago (to be exact 5 freaking years ago!). It didn't ring a bell until i checkout my blog for my previous entries this morning. It was such a coincidence that the post was about saying goodbyes. I guess this is all part of molting process. Moving house, being engaged, starting a new household, saying goodbye to my housemates, and my soon to be expired single life ... It's not easy and hell yes i'm scared like mad inside. However, for some reason, in my heart, i know this is right, that i am walking towards the right direction. And maybe that's why my heart is at peace.

So hello new home ! (and my new life perhaps?)

True love

My happy bathroom

This is my happy bathroom, i named it in such a way because of all the rooms of our home, i love the bathroom the most.

My happy bathroom is the first room which i've decorated, i felt a gush of endorphin running through my body every time i walk into the room. The sanitation set are brand new; the basin is in table top design (you don't know how much of trouble i went through to get this); the tiles is of my favorite color (black of course), and the flexible 3 arm lamp alone cost us around RM150!

I went to KK Home Deco (Yeah, that's the shop that sells all sorts of white theme furniture /decorative items of flora design) last night, and come out with RM50 less in my pocket. Bought a glass vase and a bunch of white turlip (of course its fake), a white metal rack for my beauty products, a 2 tier metal rack for bathroom sets and a clock.

I know its funny that i felt so attached to my bathroom, but who cares! (its the endorphin which is talking, not me.)

Selamat Hari Raya

Tomorrow is the first day of Raya, so am taking the chance to say "Selamat Hari Raya" to all my malay colleagues!

So here come the grand plan of what i'll do during the Raya holiday:

MOVING INTO MY NEW PLACE !!!

However.... (there is always a however), i will need to mop the floor, scrub the tiles, plaster the unfilled holes in between the tiles, polish the window, and do thousands of other cleaning work first before i can move in.

So dont call me out for breakfast/ movie/ lunch/ dinner/ shopping for the next few days, cuz the lady is going to be full time cleaning lady!!

Home made English breakfast

La Bodega is on the top of the list when it comes to my favorite western restaurant. Peter and I went for dinner and brunch at La Bodega two weeks in a row last month. I know its a bit pricey for a full course meal, but if you choose their cheese burger (RM22, fairly cheap i would say) the satisfaction is guaranteed.

The first time we went there we ordered the Spanish tapas, the lamb meat ball and the cold sausage cuts, which came together with the complementary bread slices. It was fine, nothing to shout about.

Here comes the star of the restaurant, the super good cheese burger. I know it looks a bit rare, but trust me it best to be eaten in that way. I would recommend medium, medium rare is a bit too bloody while fully done is too dry. The patty was so moist and full in its texture, and the cheese is just melting away in mouth with every bite!

On the second visit, we tried the English breakfast. The set comes with 2 eggs (scrambled, sunny side up or omelet), 2 slices of breads, grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, 2 mini sausages, 2 pieces of beef bacons and baked beans. While we were happily enjoying our gastronomic experience, Peter suddenly came out with this great idea. Why not we do this our own?

So behold, La bodega's big English Breakfast vs Peter and Susan's Big English Breakfast!

I know the presentation was not that great compared to La Bodega's, but i can assure you it tasted equally good! We had potato slices and prawn omelet, cheese baked tomatoes (stuff with garlic buttered bread crumbs).....

Yummy Bacons, pan fried mushroom, garlic bread and salad. It was easy to made and satisfyingly good!

Ad hoc trip to Malacca

The decision was totally spontaneous.

My colleagues and I went for a good dinner at Seremban last weekend. We came all the way from KL just to try out the BLUE tilapia. Yeah, you heard me right, its not the typical red tillapia, whereby the modified fish species was reared in natural hill fountain water, hence doesnt have the usual inland fisheries (ikan air tawar)'s fishy smell. The fish was cooked in salt baked style and Portuguese style. It was so yummy that 5 of us finished the two fishes within 10 mins.

The salt baked fishes (fish wrapped in paper and baked together with salt rock in tin foil), The portugues fish (tasted like eurasian style, with alot of spicy chili shrimp paste)

On top of that, we have our asam (tasted more like belacan) prawns, fuyuyaoma and hakka style sweet vineger pork.

We started our dinner at around 730pm, an hour later, we were on our way cruising to Malacca. It was totally the spur of the moment, and the excuse was, well, since we are half way there, so why not. And i'm glad that we made that decision cuz the whole trip was simply fun!

Hello Melacca!

The entire ambiance was serene but lively at the same time, many tourists were wandering around, shooting picture, taking the river cruise, enjoying romantic walks hand in hand.

So we went to the famous Jonker street, saw some interesting things like colorful trishaw which has a BIG woofer (installed underneath the seat) bombarding Beyonce's song at 1000dsb, San Shu Gong which sell all the local delicacies like Gula Melaka etc.

Talked to an uncle who made spiral potatoes chip (thin potato chips sprinkled with chilli, salt and curry powder) and free posing for me.

At first i thought this is the 'kao qin' fortune teller thingy (whereby people will shake a wooden bottle full of sticks, and then when one of the stick come off, you just bring it to Shi fu to decipher and tell you when you gonna get married, have how many kids dadada...), but it turns out to be chopsticks carved with chinese surname.

i ate the famous curry fishball, octupus lok lok, dim sum (7 for 3 bucks!!! can you believe it), and of course the famous cendol with lots and lots of gula Melaka, yum yum!

It was 1230am by the time we left Jonker street and waved Melacca good bye, but the night was still young for those people who were still drinking and dancing at the bars, and the queque for Satay Lok Lok was forever long. It was indeed a great trip and i think i'll come back again in near future.