Extra Extra READ all about it! Fresh from oven!

http://mandylicious-tan.blogspot.com/2007/05/what-have-you-done-besides-working-past.html

Just posted the entry above but since I was 'working' on it since Friday (it's a long post!), the blog-post date was recognised as friday.. so check it out.. it's probably 1 of the longest that you'll get from me lately!

Softcopy Photos finally in my hands!

Yes, I finally got it! 82 poses in a CD.

Went to the wedding photo studio last night to check out the layout changes which I told them to amend for our pre-wedding album. Well, the design layout definitely looked better with the changes made, but I just need them to amend 2 more pages. And that's it... the album printing can start!

For those of you who's interested to see my pre-wedding photos... well... you'll have to be patient as I'll be posting the photos bit by bit every mth till my wedding day.... it'll kill the suspense and excitement at once if I upload all 82 poses in 1 post, right?! There's 6 more mths to my wedding day afterall........
So.. look out for it!

Didn't I tell you guys i LOVE to tease?

Marriage Registration

Me and Beary are currently deciding whether to have our marriage registration here in Malaysia or in Sydney.

We originally planned to have it here in August but our plan got slightly disrupted as we did not manage to submit our registration application when he was here last month (we didn't know that he must submit his single cert form then....)

The procedure of getting married/registered in Malaysia includes submitting an application form (he must be present to sign-it, where in order to do that, he needs to be in cty for a min 7 days) and then a 21 days period before the registration could take place. We could get an 'exception' for the 21 days period by paying additional RM100 but then again, it would depend on the place/celebrant availability as well after that to see if we could have our registration on our preferred date.
It's tough because he could probably only take a maximum of 2 weeks leave from work. Thus if we choose to register in Malaysia, we need to take a risk as we would probably have 6 days left after we submit the application, to book the place/celebrant etc.

The procedure of getting married/ registered in Sydney is less complicated - I don't have to be there to submit the application form. Which means that I don't need to take long leave from work and we could plan better even with 2.5 mths to go.
The only catch is it's freaking expensive to apply, and appoint a celebrant :(

In Malaysia, the max price (with the exception fees) is probably RM130 but if we have it in Sydney, it'll probably be around AUD430 i.e. RM1200.

Sigh... To take or not to take risk and just pay pay pay?
Can someone remind me why am I marrying an Australian again?
:P

What have you done besides working the past 5 yrs?

- - WARNING: LONG POST AHEAD... grab a drink before you start reading? - -

I met up with a colleague from Philippines, Gary, for dinner last week. He's currently in Malaysia to work on a project where he'll be back for good next month.
As we were chatting, we suddenly realised the last we saw each other was in 2002, 5 yrs ago!

Geez... time flies!

Gary asked me what have I done besides working the past 5 yrs. I paused for a moment. And it suddenly struck me that my most memorable days were actually when I was travelling around Europe back in Uni days esp. Those were the days where you don't even have to worry about car loan, house loan, credit card bills etc. All I had to worry about is to finish my tutorials on time and of course to pass with flying colors.


My 20th Birthday party in Manchester, UK

It's nice reminiscing good old times, as you will realised how it actually shaped the person that you are today.

While I always envy hollywood celebs on making just USD13m in a movie or even english footballers of getting really indecent weekly wages that I would probably not earn until God-knows-when, when I do look back on the past few yrs of my life esp, I feel really thankful.

Me and my beloved boxer doggie, Simba, when I was back for summer break - 1999

Thankful for the patience and faith that my parents have towards me.
I'm pretty much the typical rebel during my teenage years, and I really salute my parents for taking all kinds of shits from me. Of course I'm not entirely 'bad' in terms of drugs, ciggies, booze.. no no.. not in that context. But there's always this period in secondary school when you learn about boys and there goes your concentration in education. And looking at the guys that I mixed with then, of course my parents had everything to worry about. If I was in my parents' shoes, I'll lock my daughter up in her room 24x7 or even migrate to a different cty! Yes, me the typical stupid teenager then.



Me in Holland after graduation



Thankful for the opportunities that my parents have given me.
I wouldn't have travelled around Europe if my parents have not sent me to Manchester to further my studies. During my Uni days, I have actually been to half of Europe which includes UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, Spain & Switzerland. If you're an Art & History lover, Europe will truly blow your mind off. Beautiful building architecture of museums, palaces, churches, domes, water fountains etc - it's amazing.


Me during a company trip when I just started working - 2001

I'm sure everyone has their 'to do' list in life. Tangible & intangible assets - things that make life worth living for.
We tend to forget about intangible ones when we start working as majority of our goal then is to establish a career to earn money to reach our tangible asset goals.


Me at Taman Negara - company organised trip - went jungle tracking, caving & river-tubing - 2002

When Gary asked me what have I done for the past 5 yrs, I realised that I don't have much memories of things that I'm jolly proud of as I spent most of my time working in office, and then back home chilling out. And when I zoomed in more, it began apparent that I stopped chasing my intangible dreams as I'm just too tired after work to do anything else. Just 1 or 2 events in the past 5 yrs that managed to leave a footprint in my life :(


Me (in red) dancing on stage during a company dinner - 2003

And while I'm starting to regret of the countless times when I just pig out in front of the TV having DVD marathons, I can't take back what has passed. What I can do is make sure that I work towards my to-do list again!

Partying with my close colleagues - 2004

Some of my to-do lists (besides travelling... that's an infinity to-do list!) which left a footprint in my life the last 8 yrs (Note: This refers to my U-rated list only *GRIN*) :
1) Own a car
2) Fall in (puppy)love during a summer vacation romantically as what you see in movies
3) Dance on a table in a bar
4) Dance on a podium in a dance club
5) Get drunk around your close friends (whom you can trust!) and end up sleeping in front of the toilet bowl
6) Smoke pot legally
7) Sky Dive - free fall, not talking about the one where you 'tag' to another diver
8) Bungee Jump
9) Get a Tattoo
10) Perform/Sing in front of a huge crowd
11) Perform/Sing a ROCK song in front of a huge crowd during a competition
12) Caving - crawl like a spider and have bats shit all over you
13) Scuba dive - only did the discovery but at least I tried it before..
14) Shoot using a REAL gun.. legally la..

During Limpy's hen-nite - 2005

Out of that 14 items listed, the only recent one I did (i.e. last yr) is nbr 11 :(
The rest were done probably >3 yrs ago.. *sob*
SAD.

Me and Rudy the Rawkstar @ comp annual dinner - 2006

What's my next to-do list? Well, for now based on what I can think of - I hope to achieve these before I turn 35:
1) Get my scuba dive license and scuba-dive next to a manta ray!
2) Watch F1 Monaco @ Monte Carlo
3) Own a house
4) Have 2 kids!

So what's YOUR to-do list? I'm sure you don't want to wake up one day when you're 50 and realised that you do not have any or much footprints in your life, right?

Model couple *cough*

I’m close to ‘ticking off’ one to-do item for my wedding i.e. on photographers on my wedding day, yay!

Anyway, speaking of photos, I was at the wedding photo studio last night to discuss about my photo album design & layout. Jessie as usual came along with me - I don't know how I could do all these without my bestie, truly!
When I was about to leave, my bridal consultant told me that they took some of my wedding photos (mixture which included those that I didn't pick as well) and did an album sample for customers to view! She was more like ‘oh by the way, we did an album sample based on your photos.. Hope you don’t mind’.....

Well, luckly for her, I’m not picky in that sense... I wonder if they would really throw the album away if I said that I mind... Hmmm... But well, what to do.. posers like me, I used to like the fame and it’s all coming back to me, baby! Haha
*grin*

So for all those of you who are planning to get married, and if you happen to see a good looking couple’s album in Vogue - that’s me and Beary!

DISCLAIMER: we didn't choose any phrases etc to be included in that album.. we had nothing to do with it!

Blaker Gal

Yes, I'm a Blake Lewis (American Idol) fan, as his take on music is unique, energetic and exciting.

I am so dissapointed with how the final performances went yesterday.... It was so unfair that they chose a boring slow ballad for both Jordin & Blake to sing, unlike last yr. It would have been more exciting if they have catered different singles for both of them, to suit the type of genre that they would represent in the music industry.

2 different artists and yet they are not allowed to do any altering of the new single. Urggh!

It looks pretty obvious to me that the whole final performances were leaning towards making Jordin this yr's American Idol... or maybe American Idol is just not ready to 'get fresh' from the normal vocal type that they look for. Hmm.

Well, 1 thing's for sure - I can't wait for Blake to release his 1st album! GO BLAKE!

Mum's Day Card

It was Mother's Day on 13th May.

I was out with Jessie bessie (my Loli bestie) on the 12th to shop for YY's bday & Mum's day prezzy at KLCC, where after checking out this little card, art & craft shop, we decided to make our mums a card instead of buying 1 from the rack.

Jessie was drawn to these little lady-birds, whereas I was drawn to the butterflies. Both of us were so up for it and I actually stayed up till 3am just to make my Mumzy this card -->

Am I artistic or what?