Weekend highlights

What a difference a week makes. My ass was frozen the previous rainy Saturday with high temp of 8 degrees day time and 2 degrees nite, but it warmed up last Saturday to sunny high of 30 degrees day time and 11 degrees nite!

It was a lovely Saturday. I finally wore my fav light denim 3/4 pants AND sandals AND just carried a little cardigan out for in case. Not long pants, jacket and boots!
Sadly, it then rained almost the whole of Sunday and temperature fell till about 24 degrees day time and 9 degrees nite. Not too bad - anything's better than a freaking rainy 8 degrees.
It's stabilized to about 18-19 degrees day time now.

Although the weather's pretty good during the weekend, I wasn't happy at all on both nites.
Saturday nite - Man U lost to Liverpool
Sunday nite - Kimi came in at 9th place, thus not scoring for 3 consecutive weeks

Man. I can't believe how Man U scored their own goal for Liverpool and then couldn't recover at all! They were playing so well the 1st 20 mins and after the blunder by Van De Sar, it was clearly Liverpool dominated the game. Sigh.

As for F1 - at least the winner wasn't Hamilton or Massa! So just a small little comfort there given that Kimi's so far from the world title now. Sigh.

OK, enough of my whining!


RSPCA Million Paws Walk on 18th May 2008

On top of the fantastic weather, lousy sports results, my highlight for the week has to be my shopping goodies!

Well, I was aiming to get a thong (as in flip flops, not G-strings....) and 1 of those cool gladiator shoes (love it!) but I ended up getting some other shoes which wasn't quite a thong and no where near gladiatorish. Erm.... I got myself..... 5 pair of shoes on Sunday...... 2 casual sandal-ish, 1 cute babydoll-ish & 2 for work!

I don't know what happened really. Maybe it was the upset from the Man U game that lead me to the sudden splurge. Hmm.
It could have been just 4 pairs, but the final pair (the work one) was really from a buy 1 get next at 50% deal, so it wasn't worth it to stop at just 1 pair from that shop...

So ladies, if you're feeling down and blue, head to your nearest shop for retail therapy.
It works!

Brand new look

I browsed high and low for a perfect photo to put at my blog header and I just couldn't find one. And after giving it much thoughts, since this blog's mainly about my life, why not put up photos of me, me and me? haha!

Ok, I know it's abit too much but I'll change it as soon as I find my perfect photo alrighty? :)

Chooey our little baby

Hi Everyone,

Meet Chooey!

Chooey in hubbii's footy jersey

Chooey's a bulldog which I've adopted from Ikea in July.


This was the day he captured my eyes!

He watches TV with us
He comes along in the car for drives
He sleeps on the bed with us


Chooey's little crib

He reads magazine when I'm reading mine
He loves to dance and shake his butt


Chooey reading

Ah, how dull would our lives be if we haven't got Chooey?


Happy family

P/s: No, I'm not going crazy!

Mandy the domestic wife

I feel so rusty since I've not blogged for about 2 months!

Was talking to Encik Mulut-Manis (he might want to remain anonymous thus I won't mention his name here) on MSN the other day and he said it's a sad time for 'mankind' ever since I stopped blogging. Hmm. Expressive, isn't he? With such guilt (mankind!), I decided to visit my blog again and pen down few words.

And guess what? I found out that I couldn't view my edit taskbar previously due to my extinct IE version where it's now working well with Mozilla Firefox! So erm.. yeah, USER error previously. Oops. Me bad. Someone said Women and Computers = Disaster. Looks like I fall into that category in bringing shame to my fellow sisters on Earth.

OK, putting aside my pathetic excuse for not blogging, life's been pretty boring here in Aussie land. As it was winter (June-Aug), weather was not much of a help to excite my life here since all I feel like doing is sitting in front of my heater! 11 days into spring now, but the weather's still pretty much unchanged. News reported that this yr's the coldest winter in 34 yrs and we had several coldest-day-in-xxx yrs as well this month where the temperature here is way below average.


Winter @ Kiama


My typical week for the past few weeks besides working:
<> Monday - Back from work, Cook, watch project runway from 8.30-9.30pm and then read magazines if there's no other interesting TV programs to watch
<> Tuesday - Back from work, Cook, watch American Top Model from 7.30-8.30pm and then Australian's model search and then Beauty and the Geek.
<> Wednesday - Back from work, Cook, watch So you think you can Dance (season 4) America (My fav program of the whole week!) and then loiter around and play with Chooey and Hubbii.. hehe..
<> Thursday - Back from work, then out for late night shopping. Shops close at 9pm once a week, so have to take the opportunity to shop!
<> Friday - Back from work, usually go to in-law's place for dinner and then it's hubbii's footy nite. Footy games from 7.30-10.30pm. I'm usually asleep on the sofa by 10pm and hubbii will wake me up or carry me to bed if I'm too sleepy to move
<> Saturday - Sleep till 11am, then out to shops for more shopping. We usually explore different shopping malls on Saturdays and catch a movie at nite too, or meet up with Brad's friends.
<> Sunday - Sleep till 11am (hubbii has footy till 11am), then out to buy house necessities or clean the house and then go to church. Usually dinner with in-laws too.

*yawn*
Domestic life, ain't it?


Me pushing the litehse at Kiama - this was in July BTW

Yeah, too domestic that I'm getting bored and building up fats! I guess life would probably be better when the weather's warmer.. then we can go chill out at the beach and watch hot bods running around, playing frisbees etc. Ah. Can't wait!


It's not an ugly rock. Check out the next photo on what it could do....

I told hubbii last month that I need a break. So we decided to take a short break next month, we're heading to Auckland! My mum in-law is actually from NZ thus she'll be going over to visit her siblings next month in time for 1 of the relatives' 50th marriage anniversary party so we decided to tag along.

Imagine, married for 50 years! I find that it's a blessing for any couples who could reach 50 yrs together not just because they could tolerate each other and stick to their wedding vows, but more on the fact that both are still alive then! With the current trend of one's life span, I'd be happy if I could reach 70 healthily!
Maybe it's something about the life quality in NZ.. 1 of Brad's aunt's still healthy at the age of 92 - she's living by her own! *salute*


It squirts! hehe.. this is the BLOWHOLE at Kiama

Besides looking forward to warmer weather and my Auckland trip, I'm sooooo looking forward to going back to M'sia next year during chinese new year. Yes people, I'll be back for about 3 weeks! Am looking at spending quality time with my parents, loitering around at shops, visiting friends and relatives, eating all my fav local food (YUM YUM, I could just start writing the list of stuffs that I wanna eat already!), spending time with my doggies for about 1.5 weeks and then work from the M'sian office for the other 1.5 weeks.

Am counting down the days!

That's it.. am closing down this blog!

Dear friends, family,

Looks like I need a new blog - perhaps something without a counter on how many times you blog in a mth! The editting task-bar has gone away for good where I'm not able to edit the fonts nor post up any photos.. sob sob.

I guess I'll continue blogging either by creating a new blog or just do it via facebook. I'll keep you guys posted. I need a darn broadband connection in my apt!

Life here in Aust is gradually improving, although I haven't found a buddy/girlfriend whom I could go shopping and do girly stuffs with (where I can ditch my hubby for a day or so!), am just taking it slow and enjoying each moment I have here. I get my 'alone' time whenever he plays footy (twice a week) so it's good as I could just blast the music up and dance like a mad woman without him laughing and shaking his head OR stealing my thunder by dancing more lunatic-er than me!
My next task to do here is to get my driving license and of course a car so that I could just do stuffs in my own pace and not depend on my hubbii... can't wait!

Alrighty, till my next update on what's happening (on new blog), do take care y'all!

Love,
Mandy

The buttons have dissapeared!

I think my blog's not happy that I'm blogging only once a month. The button for any editting's dissapeared! I can't change any font format nor upload any photos :(

I had an interesting weekend but it ended with a sad news i.e. my mum in-law's admitted to the hospital for an operation. We're going to visit her later before the operation so pls pray for me that she'll be OK.

It aint' easy but that's life

I have to admit that settling down in a foreign country for me has been quite a challenge. I recall having the same homesick-feeling when I first went to Manchester for my bachelor's degree.

The Manchester experience
The 1st day experience in Manchester was an eye-opener for me.
Everything started from the moment I stepped into the airplane (British Airways) where I was sobbing silently in my seat staring blank as back then, there weren't any individual TV screens in their economy seats. Imagine 18 hrs without any entertainment. Small little space.

And then my hand-carry bag got confiscated and checked-in causing some fragile stuffs that I had in it to break into pieces. Followed by a bad case with the cab driver bringing me in circles. And then trying to carry 35 KG luggage + 12 KG handcarry into a small hallway space all by myself as it was midnight when I reached my student apartment. Man, those were horrible memories that I'll never forget as I just broke down into tears when I saw my small squashy room!

The Aussie experience
Not anywhere close to my Manchester experience as I had my wonderful hubby to pick me up, carry my luggage, fetch me home back to our apartment. I was not too bad the 1st 3 days when we started to look around for stuffs to build our love nest, but after that, it suddenly struck me that I've moved to Sydney for good. I'm not here for holidays. I'm not here for a short term assignment. I've moved here for good to start a life with my hubbii!


Hubbii tired from all the furniture-carrying

With those thoughts in my head, I was constantly comparing life here and life back in my home cty and it was NOT a nice feeling to have. My mind kept reminding me that I wont be seeing my parents as often, I won't get to hug my dogs, I won't get to hang out with my bestie, I won't get to do stuffs independently and due to that, I got depressed.



Us after a long day of carrying and assembling our furnitures!

Depression lead to constant argument with hubbii as I was just being sensitive about almost everything. It's not a lie that I loved how my life was before I came here. When hubbii wasn't 'giving in to me' in any scenarios, I'll start to wonder whether it's worth it that I left my comfortable life back home to come here, 8 hrs flight from home, to be with him. My financials were divided into 3 (exchange rate) and it sux knowing that I don't have as much money as what I normally had.

I never had problems with jealousy. I'm the type that's fine with my other half looking at chicks (as I would probably be looking as well - you know, it's a gal thing!), hanging out with chicks or even having chicks as a good friend. The only thing I would ask of him is that he tells me about it. To me, being open and frank is the key to trust. So I've never had any doubts with hubbii.
But somehow my mind started to wander away when I found out that hubbii has been constantly emailing this chick that he hung out with (along with his other friends) when I wasn't here.

3.5yrs of long distance relationship and not a single doubt but BOOM! 1 week of being here physically with him and I started to doubt him.
I did not doubt nor felt anything when he told me about it during our long distance daily calls & smses but somehow my mind just wandered away with all the depression I had then.

I wanted to leave so badly.

I was sobbing away during day time when hubbii was at work while I was stuck at home alone. Kept thinking to myself - why why why?

Thankfully, we managed to talk it out and now, things couldn't be better between us!



Our love nest

I learnt that I have 2 options -
1) I can either sulk and complain about everything here while not making any efforts in meeting people where I'll just be in my small little world with hubbii, OR
2) I can embrace the challenge, learn the aussie culture to fit in and make the best out of what I can do here.

I chose option #2 and I'm glad and thankful that God gave me this opportunity. No doubt I'll continue to miss my parents & bestie but at least I get to sms, email or talk to them whenever and where-ever I want to!