It's been a month!

Yeah, 1 mth and a day from my last blog post!

Finally, some time for me to pen down a few words on what’s been happening to me lately.
Well, the wedding’s over! It went by so quick. Can’t believe after months of planning & thinking about the ‘big’ day, it just went by in a blink of an eye!
I hardly had time to catch my breath that day. WAM-BANG-BOOM. Done. Finito. Err, ok, that sounds like I’m describing some fast sex. My URL’s definitely ‘U’ rated so no, am not talking about sex! *grin*

My stress level was so high that I had sleepless nights especially a week before the wedding and with my adrenalins pumping so hard, it lasted for about 5 days after the wedding as well! I couldn’t sleep more than 4 hrs and my mind just kept playing back on what just happened. Seriously.

I have to admit that the day was about 80% of what I’ve dreamt of mths before the wedding. There were some hiccups but at the end of the day, I took a lot of people’s advice to just sit back and relax and just let it be. One thing’s for sure - I totally didn’t have time to write my speech. I was trying to cramp that few hrs before the wedding banquet i.e while getting my make up done. Well, BAD move. I could hardly think of anything then! But I did think of what I wanted to say weeks before but with all the stress, I just couldn’t recall any. The main part being what I wanted to describe about my beary Brad. I was speechless then and used whatever that came to my mind. I forgot to mention about what I thought of him when we got together, and what I think of him now, and about my move to down-under as well! How could I forget talking about that? Doh. Oh well, what’s over is over. I guess I’ll blog about it another time? My so called ‘speech’. *grin*

And then some helpers whom ended up not helping. My bestie along with Beary Brad’s bestman ended up running up and down. And even hrs before the wedding, Beary Brad was doing all the running as I couldn’t do anything since I had to stay up in the suite to get my make-up done. He had some photos where you could see how stress he was too!

The biggest upset of all - the hotel’s wedding planner/management. It’s bad. Although the wedding setting and environment was spectacular, I can’t say the same for the hotel’s wedding management. It was atrociously terrible as they lacked of supervision overall. Imagine, 1 week before my wedding and they did not even submit my floral details to the florist! Also, they wanted to meet me like 4 days before the wedding to finalise on items such as nbr of guest, table settings, agenda etc as they had OTHER appoinments prior to that day. I had to ask my kwai-lo hubby to call them up to literally express how dissapointed he was before they made time a week before the wedding to discuss those items. I seriously wouldn’t recommend anyone to have their wedding at Cyberview-Lodge unless you are some super VVIP (my guess is some datok or millionaire or celebrity) where only then, they would probably give you 100% attention.

But I am happy overall as I had good feedbacks from guests whom attended so far. A lot enjoyed the night and well, that’s definitely an important factor for me :)
I’ll be back with my wedding post soon and of course, including photos.

Till then, Happy new year!

So much has happened!

I know I know, I haven't been blogging often since 3-4 mths back. I guess I'll probably blog more often when I'm in Australia next year since shops there closes the same time as people leave office to go home!

Well, heaps happened since Nov 11th.
I took Cousin Dude's gals out shopping for flower girls dresses and shoes week before last where I learnt that looking after kids' not easy, even when they're 4 and 6 yrs old! But they behaved themselves to a certain extend so it's all good... *grin*
It was a productive day as I managed to not just find them 1 dress, but 2 dresses each! I'm usually cautious over my wedding budget but when it came to dude's angels, I just can't resist but to burst it as they looked really cute and pretty in both the dresses :)

Then I just had my hen nite last saturday, organised by my bestie of course. I know she wanted it to be held in KL so bad, but due to the Sunday demonstration at KL which cause major police blocks at every road leading into KL, the venue was changed to Bangsar instead. Bangsar's not as lively as it used to be, but well, it's the 'company' which mattered most of me that night apart from getting 'sporting and generous' ppl in the crowd! Love all my girlfriends who attended it that nite to make it really REALLY memorable! I'll blog more about this with pics soon, ok?

Wedding's just around the corner and believe it or not, I have not done quite alot of stuffs or rather on finalising some items such as floral design, song choices, the banquet walk-in, nbr of guests and on who to help out for registration... It's tough as alot of it depends on friends and relatives so it's 50% out of my control.

Hopefully you'll hear good news from me the next time when I blog about 'pending' wedding chores!

Of food, slides and such

Just finished the food tasting session for my wedding banquet. After tasting the Chinese courses at JW Marriot and PJ Hilton lately, I have to say that I’m abit disappointed with the hotel’s food! It’s not as tasty, and some of it was pretty blend for the price that I’m paying for each table. Even PJ Hilton's (which is about 30% cheaper than what I’m paying)food taste better. Either that or my taste bud suddenly got ‘sharper’ since it is my wedding banquet this time round, and of course I want my guests to have a good time coupled with good food.

Anyway, I finally had time to rest today. Was supposed to work but am too drained to do so as I’ve been working on back to back work-reviews since a mth ago. Woke up at 11.30am, watched TV, cooked myself some Maggi Mee (I actually missed eating my own cooked maggi mee!!), watched George of the Jungle (yes, Disney channel! :P) and then went back to sleep for an hr. Ah.. LIFE!

Woke up after the cat-nap and did some work on my wedding slides. I had to rethink of a story line for my slides as Brad DOESN’T have ANY photos after he graduated from school. DARN SAD!! Me on the other hand, have heaps – in college, in Uni, while traveling etc. I guess he was not much of a ‘camera’ guy.. in fact, you can label him as an ‘unconnected’ guy. He doesn’t like to spend time in front of the computer and he’s not good with digital stuffs i.e. for example he would take pics etc on his outdated camera but he NEVER transfers it to his laptop etc. Actually getting him to take pics with his own camera would be a bonus. He’s just not into these stuffs. He’s more into physical sports such as rugby/touch and he’s REALLY into cars, which explains his lack of ‘memorable’ photos.

It’s gonna be a long night just thinking of something interesting given that I don’t have much pics of him to work on…. I need my thinking cap!

Bday with the JJCM gang

Finally some time for me to blog.

Just got home about 2 hrs ago, met up with Big Baby @ my evil half for dinner at TGIF. Over-ate as I was not even hungry in the first place! Was nice catching up with Big baby since we seldom meet up :/

Anyway, I’ve got so much to blog about that I don’t know where to start! I didn’t have time (and still don’t actually...) to blog about my Sydney trip, my birthday celebration with the JJCM gang, post-birthday celebration with my parents, post-birthday celebration with the ‘idol’ gang, Ai Leen’s wedding last Saturday and of course the status of my wedding planning. Urggh. My supposingly ‘big day’ is giving me a BIG headache! :(
Now I’m beginning to understand why people hire wedding planners!

Let’s leave the headache part for later, I’ll start by telling you guys about my birthday celebration. Well, I turned 24 on 2nd Nov... Yes, 24... I WISH! Hah! *grin*
Those were the days when I look forward to birthdays... now, all I can say is ‘huh? Another year already?’. Time flies and I find myself not accomplishing much. Well, I did accomplish a thing or 2 but well, nothing to yell about! Since last year, I’m still working in the same company, still in the same job, still driving the same car, dating the same guy, staying the same place etc.. It’s like being stuck in a time capsule where you suddenly step out of it and realised that another year has passed. Sigh.

Good thing about this yr’s birthday is that I celebrated it with 3 different grp of ppl on 3 different dates - my parents & cousin, my JJCM gang & Idol gang.
Had dinner with the JJCM gang (for those of you who are wondering what JJCM is, JJCM = Jalan jalan cari makan <literally translated as Walk-walk-find-food>. I really owe it to Jess for introducing me to this bunch of beautiful, fun, crazy, sexy, caring, loving gals!

Thanks to them, I was reminded that my "level 5" laughter’s still in existence.. OK, that’s a private comment that I won’t bother explaining.. Hah!


Me and the JJCM gals

We were at Salvador in Mont Kiara/Damansara heights area (it’s somewhere there!) but it was crowded with employees from HP who booked 80% of the restaurant. We were seated right in the middle of the restaurant, where the back-end & front was filled with HP employees, and as such, the night started off pretty bad. The service was bad - no one was ‘servicing’ us and appetizers came before our drinks etc - we had to walk up to the bartenders to ask them about our drinks, it was SUPER noisy as the HP dudes were like giving cheers etc, so we had to talk really loud among ourselves. The peak of the whole thing came when our main dish took ages to come and when the HP dudes started singing karaoke! Well, 1 things for sure - IBM definitely win hands-down for this! Their singing was atrocious.. Truly.. So Jess just told the waiter that we didn’t want our food if they have not started ‘cooking’ it. The waiter was sarcastic and rude when she told him that, but at the end, he gave us the bill as the other main dishes were not cooked yet.


Jess & Me at Salvador

We were upset with the whole thingy, so walked further down and saw another restaurant (I forgot the name.. oops) which looked nice and quiet and according to Chui, their pork knuckle’s pretty good so we settled for that place. It was around 10.15pm then if I recalled correctly.
Thank goodness we switched to that restaurant coz their food’s great and we ended up being the noisy ones in that restaurant! :)


Jess & me giving our Thank You speech!

We had a ‘dumb & dumber’ a.k.a. a ‘simple life’ scene with Ah Bo and Ling ling right before lighting the candles for Jess & my bday tiramitsu cake which I will never forget... Truly. Life would be so boring without the BOs! *grin*


Jess & Me before making our '24th' bday wish..

Then it was prezzy time. Jess opened hers first - as usual she and her trying-to-act-surprised action which turned out to be bimbo-ish/loli-ish. The gals bought her a combo of stuffs to match her love for diving/beach. Me, erm... I didn’t manage to get her full prezzy by then, so had to give her a belated one. In fact, it’s been like that for the past few years... My bad :(
I wanted to ‘break’ the trend but tak jadi... I mean after being friends for 22 years, trying to get something ‘fresh’/new for your bestie is SUPER TOUGH ok! I walked the whole of Sydney’s top malls and couldn’t find her full prezzy! YES, THAT TOUGH!!


Prezzies!

Then it was my turn to open my prezzy.. The gals bought me an iSmart digital photo frame that can play photo slides, videos and even MP3s! It glows in the dark too as it has some blue-ish light!


Me opening my prezzy

I was sooo touched coz Har Har mentioned that it’s for me to put next to my bed in my new home in Sydney; But warned me that I can only put photos of them in it as it’s for me to remember them... No sex videos of me and my hubby or anything of that such.......... *grin*
Sigh, I will really miss hanging out with the gals next time :(


Me super-touched!

Aiks. It’s 1.21am already, gotta take my shower and start doing some stuffs for my wedding slides.... Till tmr or next week, take care peeps!

My beloved Simba

Today's my beloved boxer doggie Simba's 3rd death anniversary.



Simba's the best dog that I've ever had my in whole entire life on planet earth.
No, I have not been to any other planet so err yea, I'm referring to the WHOLE universe!

3 years ago today, was truly an unbelievable day. Simba left us without giving us any signs - my mum just found him without a single breath, lying really still at his usual spot in front of our main door when she came back from work. Simba's tail would usually be wagging left and right with excitement when he hears our car's engine from few meters away - but not 3 yrs ago on this very day.



Simba's really a loving dog, baby, friend & father.

He's really obedient. I didn't have to yell at him to make him enter his kennel - it's like a 'silent' command that he reads from my expression.

He is my little baby that I would hug and kiss everyday - He loves to be loved, and he will take every opportunity to sit on my lap when I'm 'seated' at his 'territory'.

He is my friend as he's always around when I need someone to 'lend' a ear.. I love taking little moments just walking around my garden where Simba will follow me around whenever I'm sad. It's as though he understood my feelings.

He is a loving father as he always played with & looked out for his puppies when they were learning to walk etc.



And Simba loved taking photos too! Believe it or not, he gets really excited when he sees me walking around with my camera where he will 'pose' freely for me!
This last photo was taken 3 days before his death - he wanted to be in the photo although we didn't intend to include him in :(

*sigh*

Blogging about Simba just brings tears to my eyes.
Truly, I miss him heaps.

May his soul rest in peace..

Simba, I love you :(

Of cards and such

Time flies, it's close to 1+mth to my wedding!

My ex-boss asked me if I am excited that my wedding's getting closer day by day. Well, I never really thought about it as I was so busy just chasing my uncle for the cards, deciding on the band, and calling up people to ask if they can do this and that the past few days - all on top of my busy schedule at work.

My cards were supposed to be ready early this month but somehow, there were some hiccups and after much dilly-dally (not from me), I just received my cards last friday. BUT I received it without the envelope. Yes, I was told that they didn't have stock of the color that I wanted and thus only got my envelopes yesterday. It's way overdue as I had to send some over to BearyBrad too so I spent 2 hrs last night writing all the cards to my friends and colleagues., especially those which I need to post to.
Was supposed to work on a project last night, but couldn't so this morning I was way behind schedule :(

And now, I'm still in office just starting on the project that I was supposed to have completed by 5.30pm. It's now 9.32pm.

Sigh. It's gonna be a long night..........

CK's wedding

Sunday, 28th Oct - 1.45am

I’m sleepy but suddenly, felt like just typing a few words before I doze off to dreamland as I realised that I haven’t been blogging lately. I owe some of you guys stories of what’s been happening to me for the past few weeks!

Well, I just attended CK’s wedding dinner at JW Marriot a couple of hrs back. He had close to 50 tables and it’s definitely 1 of the biggest budget wedding that I’ve attended so far! I have to say that the food at JW Marriot’s pretty good. My company had our annual dinner at JW Marriot back in 2001, but I definitely don’t recall the food being this good! My fav of the nite has to be the codfish. They baked the top portion with honey and the fish was just baked to perfection.. Yummy!


CK & Ai We's wedding favor - a jar of honey!

He hired a live band which I am considering right now. It’s way over my budget but hell, they’re pretty good and the main person coordinating the band is not too bad - a young guy who’s really responsive compared to the band that I ‘kinda’ locked down. ‘Kinda’ as we verbally had an agreement but they didn’t ask for any deposit nor did they further bother contacting me to make further arrangement... So I’m really on the fence for this :(


Anyway, meeting up with Carmen and Noel was great. The last we saw each other was at Carmen’s wedding last year. Time flies! She still looked the same - well, maybe about more aunty-ish.... Haha! Kidding Carmen!! :P
She’s still the same ol’ Carmen!

Noel on the other hand has lost so much weight till he made me look like a giant next to him... It’s just weird seeing guys esp losing weight at our age. Usually it’ll be the other way round i.e. Guys tend to put on weight when they’re close to 30.. Hmmmm..


Noel, Me & Carmen

And I bumped into so many other familar faces where I couldn’t quite tie their faces to where exactly we met. CK was my college mate, we studied A-levels together. And then he did his accounting degree in Sheffield whereas me, in Manchester. But we did meet up twice or so in UK.. Plus some of his school and uni mate are also working in the same comp as me! That’s why it has been a nite of just talking to these familar faces using the standard type of greetings!


Me, Esther & Carmen

CK’s wedding was interesting - well, how can it not be for a big budget wedding rite! He had a live band, some salsa dancers entertaining us, and CK himself sang ‘Just the way you are’ to Ai We (his bride) as well.. CK can sing! Woo! New discovery for some of us :D
And then the usual change of bride gowns, speeches and slide shows to top the list of entertainment.

Sadly, I didn’t get to take any pics at all with the groom and bride! I left right before the dessert dish when the groom was going around doing the ‘yum-sing’s.


Me entertaining myself while stuck in jam in KL on the way back (while on the phone as well!)

Nevertheless, I had a good time. Good food + good entertainment. Both that combination’s definitely memorable for me!

Kimi's THE man!

Yesterday's final F1 race was 1 of the most nerve-wrecking race ever as 3 drivers (Hamilton, Alonson & Kimi) had a chance to be the F1 world champion for 2007!

As Hamilton had a 5 point lead over Alonso and 7 points over Kimi, all he had to do is ensure he finishes ahead of them or just stay above 4th/6th placing at least if either Alonso or Kimi ended up winning the race..

My eyes were glued to the TV right from the start, esp when Hamilton was pushed to 8th place from 2nd. And then his gear box problem just made my whole nite brighten up, as he fell back to 18th placing.. but when he started to fight back and with the back-cars starting to crash out somehow, my heart was just beating abnormally... anything can happen during a race, so I was just crossing my fingers the whole nite that the front cars and esp Kimi's car would be fine. And thank God, it was super fine!

Kimi won it, where else Alonso was 3rd and Hamilton @ 7th.. Just freaking amazing! I definitely didn't think Kimi had a chance going into the race with a 7 point gap with Hamilton to grab the world champion title.

My 5 hrs sleep last nite's (or should I say in the morning...) definitely worth it!!

KIMI RULES! Yay!!!

Mooncake Festival (Sept)

Yes I know, this is way overdue but better late than never!

Just some pics that I took during the mooncake festival last mth :)


It's a bird.. no, it's a bee... no, It's SuperDog!



My parents were feeling 'it' so they bought and hung 9 lanterns for good luck.. 1st in 10 yrs that they did this!





My mum 'enjoying' the lanterns whereas my dog was looking for ulat gong-gong....

I had a little break

I was so tied up with work that I didn't have time to blog about me going away for a week to Sydney i.e. Oct 9th - 16th!

My boss retired last week and I had the honour to do a video montage for him, so in addition to work, I spent my additional 'spare' blog time on completing the video editting right before I left for Sydney on the 9th.
It was madness I tell ya due to the time constraint! I practically slept for 4-5 hrs for about 4 days prior to the 9th Oct.
Anyhow, it's all good as my boss & a few of my colleagues mentioned that the video was awesome! It's nice to know that the sleepless nites paid off :)

So much to blog about my trip.. will continue in my next post as I need to catch up on my work first!

Pre-Wed photos #5 - It's a wet nite

Just realised that I've left out a post on my pre-wed photos in Sept! Well, I guess blogging once a week completely swept that away from my mind! Oopsy.

So.. what made me chose Vogue collections for my pre-wedding album?
I have to say, it was really their nite concept. They were the only studio which offered nite shots in their package and since I like being 'different' in some ways or another, their nite concept totally won me over :)

Unfortunately, it was raining cats and dogs around 7-ish when we were at Putrajaya. The nite shots actually covered 'sunset' shots overlooking 1 of the putrajaya bridge and we didn't manage to take that :(
That was also 1 of the highlights in their album series...

It was drizzling when we took the shots below that I was kinda cautious over the fact that my make-up would smudge (esp mascara) and I might end up looking like a panda!
Nevertheless, it turned out fine and I loved it :)



There is another pose where me and BearyBrad were kissing and with the rain effect etc, it looked soooo romantic! Well, I won't post that here at the moment.. you guys would just need to wait for my wedding day to see that OR wait for my 'post-wedding' posts for those whose not coming!

Still sick

Darn it.
I'm still sick :(

Horrible day at work as I've got a full day class.. sniffing here and there plus my eye's really watery :(

Hairspray!

Watched Hairspray last Saturday nite with Jess & HarHar.



I was looking forward to watch it as I've read reviews that mentioned Hairspray's the new-age Grease. I had that expectation going into the cinema and boy, I loved it!
It was not just a pure musical chick flick (although I have to say guys would probably not enjoy it as much since there weren't any hot chicks....), but it's also comical throughout the movie.


I kept laughing like a mad woman watching John Travolta acting as a fat uptight woman, plus it's also entertaining on how the songs and actions were put together.


And of course, who could forget Zac Efron! According to reporters, he's the new generation of Hollywood's IT guy and I have to agree with them after watching him in hairspray. If only I was 18 again.. LOL.

Cute *dreamy*

I blog once a week now!

Looks like blogging once a week is pretty much a norm lately!

Have been so busy with work, facebook and being sick. Have had this lingering flu & sorethroat for 3 days already and it doesn't seemed to be getting better :(

Anyway, I've got some cute pics I took of my dogs yesterday WITH the moon as it was also mooncake festival. Somehow my parents were so 'semangat' that they actually put up 9 lanterns around the garden area last night!
Will try and get it up tmr :)

Bestie Quality Time!

Sorry guys as my latest blog posts seemed to be circled around being dissapointed & frustrated. It's getting closer and closer to my wedding date - guess I'm beginning to feel the stress FOR REAL!

Anyway, enough of wedding post for now.
I had a productive + bestie-quality time last weekend with my one and only Jessie Bessie!

Saturday, 15th Sept
- We met up with my hotel's wedding planner to finalise on some items such as table settings, std flowers, timing of events & things which I need to inform the hotel before my wedding day
- Popped in the florist which the hotel recommended and decided on the type of deco for the garden & the ballroom. Man, these stuffs aren't cheap at all! :(
- Had our super-late lunch in my car, while driving to KL to meet up with Khim, who is choosing her evening gown & finalising her pre-wed album at The Touch bridal studio. Khim's also getting married in Dec - me early Dec, she late Dec! :)
- Had our super-late dinner at Izzi @ Lot 10 area. Super good food where the food somehow taste nicer knowing we have a 50% off the food price (promo)
- Drove back with Jess to her place, freshen up and went to Tesco Puchong around 12am
- Stayed over at Jess' place that nite where I tried her mum's BRAND NEW massage chair from Panasonic and shit, it's freaking good! I didn't want to get out of the chair......
- Chit Chat with Jess till we fell asleep..... that was around 4ish.....


Jess' carpet dogs

Sunday, 16th Sept
- Woke up around 12ish. Hey, it's only 8 hrs of sleep ok! :P
- While I lingered around the TV area, Jess cooked for me her super-yummylicious fried Lou-shue-fun! :)``
- After lunch, we went for foot reflexology at Endah Parade... RM30 for 1 hr. It's not as relaxing as I thought it would be, have got heaps of areas which hurt badly during the massage. I was checking out the 'foot' chart and saw that my weak areas are mainly my lower abdomen :(
Scary...

I went back home after that as Jess had her facial appointment and me, well, I had an appoinment with Kimi Raikkonen ;)

Guest list

The tough part of planning a wedding is really on the guest list, in my opinion at least.

Those that made it in the total headcount-estimates list:
> Relatives which includes my grandmum, aunties, uncles & cousins who are in Malaysia currently
> Good pals - those that I assumed coming since they ARE my good friends afterall
> 70% of parents' total guest list - Since they decided to invite almost everyone they keep in touch with, thus the only basis of my 70% is from magazines' guests attendance analysis.. *crossing fingers*
> BearyBrad's confirmed relatives & good friends

Those that I did not include in my total headcount-estimates list:
> Mostly friends and relatives whom are overseas at the moment - most of them are really responsive as they know in advance that there's no way they could make it, which I totally understand

I wanted to avoid a scenario where I might end up with alot of empty seats even after the guest confirmed their attendance i.e. pull out last minute due to the rain etc. Scenario as such would probably happen if the guest is not close to you at all.... so I decided to keep my list small, i.e. to the minimum hotel's table requirement as I don't really fancy a big wedding.

The portion that I SERIOUSLY forgot to consider is that there might be some other important event which my guests (who made it on my estimate list) need to attend on the very same day!
Or perhaps they have scheduled a holiday during that period etc... I should have applied the 30% cannot-make-it rule to my total list as well, not just on my parents, as I have got about 3 good friends whom cannot make it already! Sigh.
It's kinda heart breaking to hear your 'good' friends telling you they cannot attend as they've got something else on. I guess it pretty much tells you where you stand in their lives!

:(

Well Mandy, breathe in, breathe out... everything happens for a reason, right?

Would you still hire them?

I was at a bar last Thursday along with Jessie Bessie to further discuss some details with a band that I'm planning to hire for my wedding. We didn't really make a specific time appointment, but the band lead told me to go down to the bar where she'll discuss with me after her 1st set of performance.

So fine. Me and Jess were at the bar 30 mins earlier but we didn't see the band lead till like 5 mins before her performance. She then hand gestured that she'll meet us after the 1st set of performance. The band performed for 45 mins and then all of them went downstairs with exception for the band lead. The band lead grabbed her bag, took some drinks from the bar and then left without even saying a single word to me nor Jess!

Both of us were like "what the ??", so I called her and asked about our 'meeting'. She then only told me that the band had to rush to this venue (their next day's performance) for 30 mins and asked if I could stay till she's back AND after she's done with her 2nd set of performance!

I told her some other day then. Me and Jess were kinda pissed coz she didn't have the courtesy to even come over right after her performance and inform us. Nothing, until I called her back!

Sigh.

My dilemma is that they are pretty good as in most of them could play a music equipment AND sing plus their pricing's reasonable as well, whereas most of the other bands I've checked out so far has only centralised on 1 vocalist plus even pricier....

What would you do if you were in my shoes?

What are these people thinking about???

http://www.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/9/14/nation/18885382&sec=nation

WHAT IF THERE WAS TSUNAMI?!!

We'll probably see this then..........

(Courtesy of Miss Har Har!)

Emotional Me

What are your emotions like when you're stuck in a jam?

<> Jam to work - I'm usually in a smiley mood hearing Rudy & JJ, the hitz.fm morning crew's silly jokes. Most of the time I'll let ppl 'cut' my queue IF they have their signals on. Otherwise I'll just pretend like I didn't see anything where I'm like 10cm behind the car in front of me.... *whistle*

<> Jam going back home - As 99.9% I drive back home after 7.30pm (yes, it'll still be jam!), I'm usually in a 'alone' mood. I tend to do alot of 'life's reflections' when I'm alone in my car while listening to my fav CDs. Lately, it seems to be Andrea Bocelli & James Morrison.



I love all kinds of music - from R&B to hipHop to pop to rock to country to oldies to chill out tracks etc, depending on my mood.
Andrea Bocelli's doing a pretty neat job in keeping me sane these days!



Planning a wedding where I need to bear in mind of both my hubby's and parents' tastes, as well as a budget is not easy. Seriously.
Some friends told me 'screw it and just do it your way' whereas some say 'weddings are not just about the couple'. But of course, at the end of the day when your parents are not talking to you after arguing about a decision you've made, you'll just tend to put out the white flag and surrender. Give them whatever they want and at the end of the day, just put up a fake smile and force yourself to like the idea...

Sigh - I AM STRESSED! I think I need Alanis Morisette & Linkin Park while driving back later....

Lazy, Busy & Sick!

Hi fellow friends and relatives. How'd you doing?

Sorry for not blogging the past week. I had a lazy moment (merdeka weekend), and then a busy moment (at work of course) and now a sick moment (crappy weather)!
:(

Oh, and Adrian recently introduced me to Facebook and thus I kinda got addicted to it... so blame it on Adrian that I've got another activity to work on!

Will be back soon when I'm back on my feet again. Prolly heaps to blog next week as I've got some band appoinments, gown fittings & a girly nite this weekend :)

The ball's rolling!

It looks like I'm finally starting to look at my wedding prep list. Yes, FINALLY.
I keep getting the 'hello-your-wedding's-in-3-mths-time-and-you-have-not-done-anything-much??' look from friends enquiring about my wedding prep.
My generic answer = 'err.. yeah, have been busy with so many other things'.
*shy*

Ok ok, truthfully, after analysing the rootcause of my reluctant-to-get-things-moving attitude, it's pretty evident - I'm a last-minute person! I always leave things to the last minute :(
It's been a bad habit since young. I recall even studying Physics for SPM like 2 days before the exam.............. bad bad BAD me.

But now, I guess 3 mths' kinda last min for some wedding prep activities, so I'm finally waking up from being cool about it.

1) I finally sent out heads-up wedding invitation to some friends since my list is not finalised todate. But well, at least Phase 1 of the wedding invitation is done! *grin*

2) Contacted my uncle who will be looking into my wedding invitation cards - the ball's on his court now to call me back to arrange a date to check out the design that I've came up with. I told him my deadline and I trust him completely to get it done timely!

3) Wedding favors - this is something I delegated to BearyBrad. Yes, 1/100 things, I decided to delegate him one..................

4) Entertainment - have decided on what I want to go with, planned a rough agenda on the nite's program and even the whole day's prog.. Oo.. I'm so proud of myself! Of course, I did this after several discussion with BearyBrad and JessieBessie my bestie :)
The Band hunt's begun.........

5) Gown - Ah yes. THE gown. The Gown hunt has also just begun!

6) Pastor - roughly got a confirmation. Just need to meet up with him to firm things up... but this could wait till another mth I guess?

7) Deco/Florist - Ok, I'm lacking this portion. Will look into this next week, after the Merdeka break.

The <6-mths-to-your-wedding guide's pretty much summed up above... I'll start the other headaches next mth! :P

Pre-Wed Photo #4 - Just Me

Heaps of my friends commented, "Why aren't you posting your pre-wedding photos in your blog more frequently?"

To my dearest friends: I thought you knew that I love to tease? ahha!
Well, I did mentioned before that I was going to post some photos once a month until my wedding right? Otherwise it'll kill the curiosity right away if I were to post all 83 photos up at once! Then it'll be soooooo anti-climax during my wedding when I flash the slides up. You guys will be like "oh, I've seen that.. oh, that too. Eh? Hmm.. yeah, i remember that one!"

So far in my blog we had
1) Black & Whites in studio
2) Oriental theme in studio
3) My vain fiance in studio

So I guess I better start posting some outdoor ones as we did spend 2 separate days outdoor due to the freaking rain.

We had BearyBrad's solo pic in the last one, so time for mine :)

This was taken right outside of the studio. I love this photo. Something about the flower on my hair... I love flowers. If I recall correctly, I was actually going for the 'shy-smile' in this photo. But looks like tak jadi? (>_<)


Another of my solo pic which I love. Combination of buildings and greeneries which gives it a modern twist.


I'm a nature lover. I thought that I would go for pure greeneries (i.e. FRIM) before I checked out wedding photo studios but when I saw the Putrajaya ones, it just blew my mind away!

We were actually excited about doing the photo shoot at a Boat Cruise. Unfortunately (or fortunately? Hmm) they only conduct the cruise at specific times where it didn't meet our schedule. So we had our photos shot at different Putrajaya locations instead, and well, no regrets :)

Of Birthdays and Durians

Just finished lunch @ KFC with RawkstarRudy. He just came back from NY and looking good aka 'prosperous'... you know what I mean *grin*
He's always so FOS (Full Of Shit). Really missed his crappiness when he was not around!

Am feeling so sleepy. Weather outside is definitely not helping at all! Has been raining for the past 2 hrs. Nice, breezy, sound of raindrops..... ahhhhhhhhh...

So what did I do the past 2 weeks when BearyBrad was here? Firstly, out of a rough 10 items that we had to do, unfortunately, we only managed to complete like 5 :(
Our time was spent just chilling out most of the time! (it's not my fault........)

The week of 6th August was spent mainly just hanging around doing 'couple stuffs' and of course since CoolDude was here as well, we spent time chilling out with her and her kids as well. Brought the kids for ice-cream and Keri to shop for her birthday prezzy since it was also Keri's birthday on the 10th Aug.
Well, nothing beats hanging around with people whom you love heaps!




And oh, My kwai-lo fiance also had his FIRST taste of DURIAN! Such a historical moment.
2.5yrs of dating a Malaysian and he finally had the courage to try his first durian. YES, it took me THAT long to convince him to try a durian.





My parents gave him a small portion, probably 1 spoon full of just the fruit without the seed. Beary took a bite, went in the kitchen and I saw a tear coming out from his eyes!!!
Man, it felt like we were torturing him to eat a dead rat or something!
So I guess that's the first AND the last time a durian would ever be in Beary's mouth?

Alrighty, gotta get back to work. Heaps to blog though, so be patient!

Jien's Wedding banquet - 11th AUg

It was Jien & Per's wedding banquet at Saujana on 11th Aug.


Jien's my Uni mate back in Manchester. Sweet petite Jien, who's a mummy now as well!




Married to a Swedish guy, she's now living in Sweden blissfully :)


Noah's like 1/3 of Jien's size already!

Her groom and his bestman sang a MALAY song half way throughout the banquet. It was kinda awkward coz the bestman especially, nailed 90% of the malay accent! Impressed, I was!




They then ended the nite with a little disco dancing. As usual, it's just us few Manchester-ians dancing along with the kwai lohs... Man, I can't even remember when was the last time I danced! I felt like an 80yr old aunty trying to move my legs :(
Yeah, THAT bad! I better start boogie-ing my butt off the dance floor to 'live up' to my once upon a time 'dancing queen' title *grin*



It was really nice having BearyBrad around during the wedding banquet. I've attended few friends' wedding dinners this yr and I just forgot how it felt like having my partner around :(



BearyBrad was comfy that nite since most of the people on our table were of mixed cultures - finnish, swedish, korean, singaporean & malaysians! He tend to be abit 'lost' around malaysians speaking malaysian-english but weirdly, he understand MY malaysian english! hehe..


Me and Chinadoll-MeiLing wore the same shoes (shopped in Singapore) where we just realised towards then end of the dinner when we were taking group shots! Pai seh.......

I used to speak to him in a weird australian plus malaysian english accent when I first met him, but it slowly went away. Hey, it's not easy speaking in perfect english when you've not done that for the past 25 yrs of your life!



This was blew-up and passed around on the dance floor.......

BearyBrad's actually kinda inspired to sing a malay song during our wedding now...
I would be totally speechless if he does!

2 weeks flew by

Yeah huh. My bearie's back in Sydney :(
Flight was at 10.05pm last night.

Although we've been through about 10 airport-goodbyes, I have to admit that I'm not immune to it at all! There's always the same sadness between us and we still tear each time when we need to part.

Sigh.
Moodless today, but I guess I'll have ample of time to start blogging again in a few day's time.

Merry Go Round

I've finally got a taste of Govt dept's merry-go-round.

We were at Maju Junction KL, Putrajaya & Shah Alam, all 3 KL/Selangor JPN offices last friday and the verdict was we couldn't submit our Registration of Marriage (ROM) application then.
Well people, getting married in Malaysia (esp if your other half is not a citizen) is NOT easy as you think! I think I should start charging some consultation fees to couples in the same position as me coz trust me, it'll be worth it rather than relying on the JPN staffs........

Anyway, will blog another day with picxies too. Am super mega tired (~_~)

No turning back!

Almost a week that BearyBrad's here and erm.. we've not done much w.r.t our wedding plans!
But good news' that at least we roughly got our 'bearings' right......

I guess this whole wedding thingy has not quite sunk in us yet. I mean we're slowly making plans etc but what about our life AS hubby and wifey? He does few stuffs that irritates the shit out of me and vice-versa. It's going to be a real adjustment to our lives... trying to give and take more frequently, learning how to 'surrender' just to make peace, and to most surviving couples - to know when to 'close-one-eye' in situations!

Anyway, we're going to submit our ROM application tmr. Hope everything goes well in terms of the date. As I've mentioned before, this international marriage thingy sux. Heaps of additional stuffs to do.

And after we registered, well, there's no turning back! I'm official/legally married!!
I get to use sentence such as 'I ought to know as I'm your wife!' *grin*

Seriously, wish me luck and that I won't chicken out! :P

WOO HOO!! 1 more day!

BearyBrad will be here tmr morning whereas CoolDude will be here in the noon! Woo Hoo! Double Wammy!!! Guess I'll be dissapearing for the next 2 weeks from my blog? *grin*

I'm starting to look at my 'To do' list with BearBrad and man, it's quite alot!

1. Finalize guest list and send out emails first - this is going to be a LONG one as I need to convince my parents on their list...

2. Plan our ROM ceremony - this includes paperworks, dates, any after-party, cakes etc!

3. Meet up with printing co on our invitation cards

4. Call & Check out Bands

5. Meet up with Pastor

6. Meet up with our wedding favor's supplier

7. Meet up with tailors

8. Discuss and firm up on agenda for the night

9. Check out flowergirl dresses - since CoolDude will be here!
10. Check out florist

Hmm.. That's the list I have for now, for us to complete in the next 2 weeks.

WISH ME LUCK!

I'll TRY and take more pics the coming few days to update you guys... :)

Geez. Close to 4 mths!

Just checked my calendar and suddenly realised that it's about 4 mths to my wedding!

GEEZ.
4 mths and my status' pretty much the same since err.... hmm.... 8 mths back? The Pastor has not confirmed if he can conduct our wedding ceremony, I have not finalised my invitation card design and heck, I have not even finalised my guests list nor agenda for entertainment esp!! SHIT!

Ok, Mandy... FOCUS! BearyBrad will be here this friday and I'm sure we'll get those urgent ones sorted out... *breathe in breath out*

Urggh. I need chocolates to calm me!

B L O G S

Famous bloggers are a handful in Malaysia & Singapore and of course being a Blogger myself (chey, like real!) I do love to read these blogs during my free time. Er.. free time here is of course taking into consideration that there's no nice movies/sitcom/reality shows on Astro as well........

The ever famous one being Kenny Sia. Yoda had this URL where you can 'test' how much a person could earn from their blog and when he keyed in Kenny Sia, it summed up to a million or so! Uh huh!

And in Singapore, the famous one (judging by the nbr of comments) has to be Xie Xue. I'm not a big fan but Jess is and she intro-ed me to Xie Xue's blog. And lately, she came out with a freaking hilarious post on Top 7 most disgusting bloggers in Singapore blogsphere.

Man, I have to say she's spot-on on Steven Lim! No offense to the dude but gosh, he is weird. Weird till it's disgusting and from his blog you can SOMEHOW sense that he definitely thinks he is God's Gift to women. The dude's always in his undies (and singlet if u are lucky...) dancing/singing. Not sure how many of you guys actually received Steven Lim's YouTube Mpeg back in 2004 when he auditioned for Singapore Idol. Yeap, he is the dude who stripped down all the way to his yellow coloured trunks!

If you guys are feeling blue... up for laughs... check out his website, scroll towards the bottom and you'll see some vids that he shot. I laughed like a mad woman watching him lip singing/dancing/exercising to Lady Marmalade. I mean hey, he even had a video advertising himself to women to call him as he IS looking for a girlfriend . . . . . what more can one say?

WARNING: Do not watch it after a filling lunch/dinner.. you might just end up puking in the end..........

This bee is buzzing

Seriously!
Busy at work, busy after work, busy at home... I could just hybernate for 2 days, I'm telling ya!

Urggh!

On the brighter side, at least I enjoyed my weekend. Had a lovely weekend doing what I love with my bestie... retail therapy! Went to KLCC and the word "SALE" just made my eye balls wander around like a tiger looking for its prey.

Was a pretty productive shopping experience. 2 pair of shoes, a bag, 4 shirts.. plus I bought this really cute Baby Tee which is soooo me!

Don't you think it's mega cute!

I'm really a piggy these days as all I wanna do is sleep sleep and sleep plus of course, munch on junkies. I know it's not good, as I should be punching bags at the gym to look super hot for my wedding :(

Anyway, I gotta go. Parents not home today and I need to babysit my doggies.

Oh wait, speaking of doggies, my freaking beagle literally chewed 1 of my fav shoes!


Heels gone.



Freaking monster. Sigh.

P/s: Which was why i HAD to buy 2 pair of shoes in return.. hahaha

Pre Wed Photos #3 - My Vain fiance

CameraMan - Sir, hold this flower..
BearyBrad - err.. ok..
CameraMan - Smile sir... let me see some teeth!
BearyBrad - *doing a fake laugh-expression*
CameraMan - Sir... relax... take a deep breath and smile for me again!
BearyBrad - *relaxed his facial muscles abit.. and then smile again... this time without the 'laughing sound*
CameraMan - *CLICK CLICK CLICK*

Ah yes... My vain fiance who self-requested for some foundation on his face... so here's 1 of his Solo Pic that he insisted to get.
I know some guys will feel awkward/less macho taking photos with flowers but hey, NOT MY FIANCE!

*GRIN*

Don't you think he looks like a catalog model here?

"Hand Bouquet svc? Call 1-800-FlowerBrad"

The Notebook - videoclip from MTV

This is the scene from MTV Movie Awards when Ryan & Rachel from The Notebook won the best kiss! Haute!

(yes, I'm still in a dreamy mood..... )

The Notebook

Was chilling out at home after dinner last night and as usual at my fav spot - on my sofa chair! Oink. *grin*

Flipped few channels while waiting for Grey's Anatomy @ 10.45pm... and then came across this movie called The Notebook. Just nice - 10pm, the beginning of the movie. Well, I've heard of the movie before, as I recall back in 2005, the couple in the movie won for 'best kiss' in the MTV Movie Awards and it was sizzzzling hot!




Unfortunately, thanks to our beloved cty's censorship board, they cut out the whole kissing scene! Urggh. Sigh. I should have seen it coming. I thought that they would at least screen like 2-3 seconds of the kissing scene but noooooo.

Anyway, it's a movie with a really simple love story line - the type that will make you feel that you've seen it before with some familar scenes etc but I loved every moment of it. Somehow I have something with old couples so much in love.. it's just sweet!

I wonder if guys like Noah (the lead role) even exists . . . . *melt*

P/s: I ended up crying towards the end of the movie. So, warning to romantic movie suckers - standby some tissues!
Pp/s: The last movie I cried was King Kong.. Ok, so I have a small cry-tolerance level for animals and old ppl! :P

Wedding Jitters

I emailed my UK bud, McLarens Terrance last week and asked him about this pre-marriage couple counselling for catholics.

Me: Did you go for the couple-counseling/course before you registered?
McT: No..
Me: But didn't your pastor ask you that? My cousin's pastor informed me that I have to go for it if I want him to solemnize my wedding
McT: Huh? Really? I didn't go for it but I would suggest for you to do it since Brad's not a catholic
Me: The prob is the only time Brad will be coming is next mth for 2 weeks where we actually planned to register then to get the visa thingy started... so where got time? :(
Sigh. So many stuffs to do and yet it seems like we can't do coz he's not here! Don't wanna get married already!
McT: Er.. I think you better go speak to someone. You sound like you're having wedding jitters. If you can't speak to anyone let me know, I'll call you!

Hmm.. was I having wedding jitters? Cold feet?

Well, seriously don't know. It did occur to me the past few weeks that maybe I or even Bear was not ready to get married. I asked myself, what if the wedding's postponed? I need time :(

Missing Mika

Urggh. As of last night, 9pm, he's still not humped Shadow (his hump-partner/bitch) correctly! :(
My poor doggie. Had to leave him there... hopefully I'll hear good news later in the evening when I pick my dog up

:(

Oops, he IS still a virgin!

Me bad. I probably spoke too soon and my little Mika boy didn't manage to err.. 'penetrate' the 'bitch'. Mind my language.. I know it sounded kinda porno!

Anyway, according to my vet, Mika was trying to hump her but didn't manage to penetrate. He climbed for a while but due to tiredness, gave up. So it's been that same action the whole afternoon :(

We took Mika back last night and will bring him there again tonight to give him a 2nd go. Man, you should look at him last night. Haven't seen him THAT tired before!

Hopefully he'll succeed today... my parents want little junior Mikas!


Oh btw, the title thingy's working already! Yee haa! So all I had to do was to blog more.. Hmmm.. ok ok, will try and put in some overdue blogpost this week :)