4th wedding anniversary

This 29th is my 4th wedding anniversary. I can’t believe I’ve been married for FOUR years!

That also means I have known my husband for almost six years! Wow, time really flies.

We’re a couple that is not so big on celebrations. Birthdays can come and go without so much as a birthday wish. Valentine’s are literally ignored.

But we do make an effort to do something special for our anniversary. Last year, we splurged on our belated honeymoon at Club Med, Cherating. And this year, we’re spending the weekend in Langkawi with another couple who also celebrates their anniversary this month.

Yes, that means we have decided against going to the destination which I blogged about previously.

I have not been to Langkawi in such a long time. My last trip was for work, probably five years ago 😛

So I’m glad that my next trip there is for a holiday with my husband. I really do love his company.

I’ll write more soon.

Next trip: Port Dickson?

Last month, I went to Kuala Terengganu for my cousin-in-law’s wedding. I’ve only been to Terengganu once before, and even then it was a day-trip (for work). So it was nice to spend the weekend there and get to see the city a bit.

That trip was made especially more memorable because we drove all the way from Shah Alam and back. That is a loooong way, in case you didn’t know. The journey is roughly six hours with some breaks in between.

This month — April — is my wedding anniversary. And my husband and I are planning to book a night’s stay at Legend Water Chalets that weekend.

I have heard about this place from my two female colleagues who spent a night there after one of them won a night’s stay at the chalet.

To be honest, the rooms look gaudy but the “attraction” is its open bathroom (with a jacuzzi-sized tub and separate shower) and lighted solid glass panel for viewing the sea beneath the floor. I’m also a little put off by the room rates. They’re pretty ex!

I’m still undecided about this place. The more I look at the rooms, the more I’m thinking: “Maybe not…” 🙂 We’ll see…

Budget aside, it shouldn’t really matter where we go. I’m happy to just stay somewhere in town, even at home, as long as we get to do things together — preferably something that is out of the ordinary.

But I won’t say no to checking in to a hotel for some privacy 🙂

Well, I’ll keep you posted on this. I’m going to take a hot shower and call it a day. Tomorrow’s another busy day!

Guess what? I have chicken pox!

I thought you’d be interested to know that I am currently down with chicken pox. Yup, sick with chicken pox (CP) at 31 years old. But I guess it could be worse. I could be 45 or older and be ill with it.

Well, actually, I’m not “sick” sick. I had fever (at night) during the first two days. And as of yesterday, I was fine. But what was weird was that I had these scarily humongous pustular acnes on my face. Or at least I think they’re acne.

Well, they don’t look like the “liquid” in the CP blisters on my hands. Those are yellowish but clear. The ones on my face were/are yellow and thick – like your typical pustular acne. But what was different was the fact that they were bigger than usual. One was 0.5 cm wide. That’s pretty big for a zit, even by my standard, and I should know because I’ve had zits since puberty.

Well, whether or not they are acne, I don’t dare to pick them. Even my husband who loves to pop my pimples is discouraging me from picking on my skin. He said that they could be CP and if I pick them, they could leave permanent scars.

I have to admit that it’s hard to keep my hands off of my face or body. Malaysians believe that when you have CP, you’re not suppose to shower or have a bath. At the most, you can wet a towel and pat yourself with it.

I read on the Internet that Westerners recommend an oatmeal bath to calm the itching. No such luck if you live in Malaysia! I have a feeling that people around the Southeast Asian region, at least, subscribe to the “no bathing” rule.

For an acne-prone person like me, not bathing and washing my face are certainly a recipe for getting zits and what-have-yous. So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to have all those zits, which, I have to add, are drying up and shrinking. That’s good news of course!

But I don’t think the blackheads on my nose are going anywhere unless I give my face a good scrub. But of course I’m not going to do that, lest I scrub a chicken pox or two and cause more damage. No thanks!

I have no issues about being quarantined in my room. I’m rather enjoying the chance to watch movies which I have downloaded and read books which I have been meaning to read.

What I can’t wait to do is take a bath and wash my hair!

I’m even thinking of going for a spa post-CP! Wouldn’t that be the best time? Enjoying a good body scrub, massage and having a delicious ginger tea drink after? Aaaaah…. that’s my idea of bliss!

Until then, I can dream.. or maybe I can plan from now on. I saw an advert for a local spa in H a r i a n M e t r o recently which offers affordable packages under RM150 for Syawal.

Well, I’m off to research now. Bye!

P/S: Because of my CP, I didn’t have much of a Raya celebration to speak of. But it’s okay. I’ll have plenty of open houses to go to soon, I’m sure.

Bask in the warmth of the sun

I thought sitting by the beach even shaded from the hot sun at Club Med Cherating was only good for a tan that I don’t even need.

What I didn’t realise that the fresh air, sun, sea and surf were good for my health until I got back home and to the office today since Monday.

I woke up this morning with a slightly blocked nose. At the office, the cold A/C was making me sleepy especially towards the afternoon. Mind you — I didn’t even eat anything that was heavy for lunch.

To wake me up, I actually went to the 6th floor (sports centre) to get some sun on my skin without looking like a fool. I sat in the shade with my hands out in the sun to warm me up. I closed my eyes just like I did during the two-minute meditation during the 9am and 6pm yoga at CMC.

I used to think that people were exaggerating when they said that the air in the office can make the sensitive-nosed prone to the sniffles. But after three days and nights of solid fresh air, I’m beginning to think that they are right.

My boss asked me if there were any H1N1 cases at CMC. Come to think of it, I could count with one hand (actually just two fingers) the time that I heard someone sneeze or cough. Since everyone was enjoying the sun, they got enough of Vitamin D to boost their immunity. And the ample supply of fruits and water at the club made it less likely for anyone to have digestive problems or be dehydrated even though they spend ridiculous number of hours out in the sun.

You would think that the kids would come down with something having spent that many hours out in the sun. But I didn’t see any sign of sickly children. Even the one boy who had Down’s Syndrome looked fit and healthy.

So what does this tell me? That getting out of the office to get some sun is good for me. Normally, during the fasting month, everyone avoids going out in the sun for fear of feeling thirsty/being dehydrated.

But now I realise that a little bit of sun is good for the body and soul. Next time I feel a little sleepy or even agitated, I’ll know to step outside and bask in the warmth of the sun.

When’s the next holiday?

I’m sitting at the bar area — what I call the free-flow-bar — at Club Med Cherating and I can’t help but feel sad that my 4-day, 3-night holiday-cum-honeymoon (with my husband, of course) is ending.

We’ve checked out of our room but are still allowed to hang around for lunch and anything else in between. Just in case you’re curious, guests check in at Club Med at 3pm (after 2pm is alright too), so the lunch you have on the morning you check out is to make up for the lunch that you didn’t have on the day you checked in. I think that’s fair enough.

While you wait for lunch at around 12:15pm or so, you can still have drinks — alcoholic or not/cocktails and mocktails) — to your hearts’ content.

As I write this, my husband is snoozing — and snoring — on the sofa, his half-drank juice is still on the table and there’s music blaring on my right side from the water aerobics that takes place at the pool here for any guests already spalshing in the pool every 11.30am guided by our friendly Gentle Officers (GOs).

The wifi I’m using is free but you must get the password from the reception. Each room gets one password only and you can log in only one computer at a time. Fair enough. But the wifi’s pretty good — fast Internet connection — enjoyable either at the reception, the free-flow-bar or the comfort of your own rooms.

But even an Internet-addict like me can be weened off the WWW while I’m at Club Med. I honestly do not have the urge to surf the Internet here. I’m just contented reclining on one of those beach benches by the pool — or by the beach, which is better because it’s quiter and there’s more breeze — with a good book. My book of choice this holiday is Anita Shreve’s Testimonial.

Wait, I think a Japanese lady just took my picture with her flipped mobile phone. Was it me or the Bumble Bee sticker my husband stuck on his netbook that attracted her? Never mind…

This month is peak season for CMC because it’s the summer holidays (although it’s nearly over for those from temperate countries). Apparently there are about 500 people in the Village, as they call this place, right now. We’ve got lots of people from France, Taiwan, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom and US. I’m sure there are many more tourists from other European countries and Malaysians too.

But I don’t see Arabs or Indians around, except for the GOs who come from Mauritius Island.

The GOs — hats off to them for having the energy to do what they do on a daily basis. But you can tell that they are fun loving people with loads of stamina, so they probably won’t be able to sit still for more than a day.

What I’m going to miss from this place most is the atmosphere. I was told that there are other Club Meds mostly for couples because they do not have clubs for children and teens. But I think those clubs will be kind of boring because it’s the kids and teens that add to the merriment. The pool area always looks busy because there are parents with their babies and toddlers. And you’ll have small kids running with the water guns. I’m not good with kids and noisy ones annoy me but these kids are kept busy with their club activities that you hardly see them around, so it’s cool LOL.

I’ll also miss the bar where you can order just about any drink you like. I’ve tried all the mocktails but one. Coz that one has milk and I try to cut down on milk because it gives me stomach ache.

I also loved the beach area, which is about 10-minute tram ride away from the main Village. You can learn to sail, kayak or just swim in the sea there. Or if you’re like me and you don’t swim and hate swimming in the salty sea water, you can just rest on the beach benches and read or nap. I highly recommend napping there — best if you can get one of those hammocks to yourself — because it’s breezy and not noisy at all, unlike the pool (sometimes).

The food is great too. Yesterday, they had International Rice day, so they had rice from all over the world, cooked in the country’s style. The spread is quite big, so you’ll be spoilt for choice.

Last night, we had a Trapeze show performed both by the instructors and the guests — mostly children. I really enjoyed the performance by the children. I have to say that CMC has some really good costume. The performance put together by the kids made me feel like I was watching a school recital in some posh international school.

I think this place would be great for local college students who are looking to intern. It’s hard work but the experience will be truly invaluable. Imagine writing in your resume, “experience working for three-months with colleagues from 17 different coutries and handling different tasks every week”.

I’m also going to miss my yoga class. My teacher is Danielle from South Korea, who has been teaching for 3 years and has been working at CMC for three months. I didn’t ask how old she was but she looks not over 25. I bet she is that young.

Notice how I haven’t mentioned my room. My room’s cool. It’s not too big and not too small. It’s pretty basic. But that’s the whole point about being at CM. Your room is just where you sleep at night. The rest of the day, you should — although there is not compulsion to — spend the day at the beach or the pool or doing some activity like going to the gym, playing pool, learning how to paint batik, learn how to ride the trapeze, sail etc.

If you wanted to go to the local pasar malam, by all means, join the excursion. No one is stopping you!

You can be as lazy or as busy as you choose without having to leave the Village – and that’s what I love about this place.

I think 4 days is just nice to spend here without getting bored. If I had it my way, I’d stay here longer LOL.

One strange things that I noticed here is that you don’t feel like staying in your room. When I stayed at other hotels, I’d rather sleep in than go down and have breakfast. Here, the moment you wake up, you’re thinking, “I can’t miss breakfast because after that I can go swimming or take yoga class or something”.

I haven’t gone on a holiday somewhere and not want to leave in a loooooooooong time. Coming from me, that says a lot about my stay in Club Med Cherating.

I can’t wait to come back 🙂

All you can eat weekend

Looks like it’s going to be a weekend of eating, eating and eating.

It started with my friend, Shah’s 30th birthday bash on Thursday. It was a cosy get-together. He had some food catered but many of the guests brought their own. It was almost a pot luck affair. Some of them brought triffles, roast chicken, creme puffs etc. I loved the white chocolate birthday cake. Normally, I hate white chocolate because it’s too sweet. But this one was different. It had almond in it and it was not sweet at all. Just perfect!

The venue was our friend Sh3gar’s boutique-cum-office. He’s trying to develop his own clothing line and already has, at least, two local celebrity clients – both girls have been VJs and are top local actresses. As the office is quite new, he hasn’t come round to fixing the prices on his clothes. I told him that his designs are something that I would definitely wear. If they’re not too expensive, I would definitely buy em 🙂

To burn off all the calories I consumed from the party, I went to the gym and had a good 40-minute walk/climb/run on the treadmill. I think this is the perfect routine for me because although “switching gears” is hard but it made the time fly by. Before I knew it, I was already on my 35th minute!

I discovered one trick to distract me while I’m running, especially when I’m not listening to the iPod – play games on the treadmill. By that I mean as I run, I make a square. One second I’m on the left side of the conveyor’s belt and another I’m on the right. It’s like I’m running in a zig zag motion. I found that although I was on a relatively comfortable speed, I exerted more energy just to keep up. Whatever it takes to get my heart rate up, yeah?

After the cardio, I did some squats, walking lunges, sit ups on the exercise ball and threw some punches with a 5-pound dumbell on each hand. Just moves that I remember reading from my health magazines.

Right after gym, I had a shower and met my husband who played three rounds of volleyball on the rooftop. After both of us were done, we went straight to my husband’s cousin’s place. An@s (the cousin) had a going away party/kenduri doa selamat. He and his wife, A1re3n will be leaving for Istanbul on the 12th as he will be doing a three-year dentistry postgraduate course there. Istanbul is also where his parents-in-law are. His FIL is the malaysian ambassador there, if I’m not mistaken. I think by the time they come back to KL, they would have had a kid or two 🙂 Insya-Allah.

Just this afternoon, his uncle of his had a housewarming party. I’m still stuffed from the beriyani and ayam masak merah.

I suppose tomorrow we will be eating in. But since Mak Na (his aunt) and her husband, Uncle J0hn and two children – Ad@m and B3n, are down here from New Castle, mom-in-law is sure to have some dinner plans. 

Now usually all this eating would make my stomach go haywire. But since I started taking DigestAid, I have had little to no problem. The only uncomfortable side effect is the flatulence. Either I’m farting all the time or I’m having difficulties passing wind. But that beats needing to urgently pass motion. It’s one evil or the other, I guess. Remember, beggars can’t be choosers!

But I think I’m going to try to substitute my DigestAid pills which contains papaya and pineapple enzymes for the real thing – papaya and pineapple fruits. Like on Friday, I missed breakfast, so I took a long piece of papaya just before lunch. After lunch, I took a pill. The surprise was, I was fine. No stomach cramps and urgent need to go to the toilet. Success!

I think Princess wants to do dinner on Monday. More eating! But I must reconfirm with her. So, later!

P/S: I have Rihanna’s Take A Bow minus one. Next singing contest, I’m singing Rihanna for sure 😛

How was your raya?

Mine was quiet. But even so, I visited more houses this year compared to the previous raya/years spent in tg tualang. The new houses included my boss’ place and kak yan1’s, both in ipoh. My husband and I made our first stop at sg r0kam to visit kamm’s house. I think it’s a first for faridz. He had been to sg r0kam before – during the one year that he was attending the polytechnic days – but of course never to kamm’s. I was glad that kamm had served us satay because i was already kind of sick of rendang, lemang and ketupat 😛

I had enough of those at home, at my sister’s place in kampar and at a cousin’s house in bidor. That’s why I chose laksa (at my sister’s) and bihun (at my cousin’s).

Anyway, I had bihun again at my boss’ and soto at kak yani1’s and some kuih she made. By then, truth be told, I couldn’t hook my sarong 😛 When I did, I had to place the elastic part of the kain under my boobs, to make me feel more comfortable 😛 That hadn’t happened in a long time!

I thought I was going to throw up if I put a single morsel into my mouth. But that didn’t stop me from sharing a roti telur with my husband and taking one bite of my husband’s friend’s maggi goreng when my husband suggested that we stop at a mamak before heading back to tg tualang.

So yeah… the second day of raya was the worst pigging out session ever. I definitely need to get back to my running routine. Lucky thing I have my new mp3 player arm strap which kamm got me from the uk. So now I can run to music without fearing that my mp3 player will fall to the floor.

Speaking of mp3 players, audrey had inspired me to get my own proper mp3 player case. Hers is a pink hello kitty which her friend angela got for her. I don’t think I want a hello kitty one but other powder pink designs would be cool. But where can I get my hand on those anyway? I’ll just have to figure that out later.

I better mandi and start unpacking my stuff. My husband and I arrived last night at around 10pm. Later!

Di bawah bayu

I’m back from Sabah. The flights were fine. We had lots of fun. We went to the market, the jetty and the local supermarket where we shopped for (cheap) clothes. I bought a really nice dress there too, can you believe it? It was only for under RM80. Coolness!

We ate a lot and I mean A LOT! Too much food that I had sakit perut. And we also took lots of pictures. I hope you like them!

Holidays come and holidays go.

My nine-day break is coming to an end. *Sigh*. Bestnya kalau boleh extend lagi leave.

But I don’t regret anything about my semi-long break. I did a little bit of everything.

First things first, I snuck in some work. Well, I just did transcribing to get the necessary evil out of the way. Then I caught up with some of the TV shows that I have been missing, including 0prah – I haven’t seen this in six months or something – , Heroes on HB0 and Amer1can 1dol. I saw two episodes of Gr3y’s Anat0my and loved them. Funny because I didn’t really like the show before. Maybe I was put off by Grac3 when she was really into that doctor – McDreamy or something. But the episode I saw, about Grac3 giving her pet dog to that doctor, was quite alright.

I still like N1p/Tuck better, though. N1p/Tuck reminds me a lot of CS1: Cr1me Scene 1nvestigations. The patients that make an appearance in the show make you go “wow!” Like the episode about the male model who was sodomised and had his face cut by his attacker who went to the plastic surgeons for reconstructive surgery today. Yikes! but wow!

I’m beginning to like Her0es, too. I’ve only seen one episode [last week’s where the Japanese guy flies to NY to stop the city that never sleeps from being blown to smithereens]. I can’t wait to see the next one tomorrow night. I also want to catch the previous episodes.

I’m not too sure which episode that I saw last week – my hunch says it’s the fourth – so I just downloaded the pilot and the two subsequent shows from Ar3s (episode 3 is ready, the rest is still downloading). I refuse to download episode four and so on because, where’s the thrill in that? Besides, I don’t want to download too many videos on my laptop. The only episodes of Heroes that I’m downloading in the future are the ones that I missed.

Anyway, I finished Shopaholic and Baby. As always, it was another brilliant creation of Sophie Kinsella. I must have been PMS-ing when I read the book because I swear I was extra sensitive/emotional when I was reading it 😛

It did make me think about whether I was ready for motherhood. I’m still in two minds about that. Kamm asked me if I found out that I was pregnant tomorrow, how would I react? I told her that no one can ever plan these things. Like, how do you plan for a freak accident – involving a wet pair of slippers – that causes you to fracture our shin/ankle bone? *It happened to Faridz’s friend this afternoon. It was rainy and she rushed out to pick up her slippers, not wanting them to be wet. She then actually stepped on a wet slipper, slipped, fell and fractured some bones which requires a surgery and her walking with a crutch for the next three weeks*

So, anyway, if it happened tomorrow, I’ll be happy. Really. If it doesn’t, maybe some other day.

What else did I do during my break? Of course, I went back to my hometown and spent some time with my family. My parents are fine and keeping busy with everyday life. Life in a small town is quite alright actually. Wake up, do some house chores, cook, eat, watch TV, have afternoon tea, dinner, Tv and sleep again. I could get used to that 🙂

Also, I went to Aquaria on CNY eve. Do not miss the ride on the walkalator and ooh-ing and ahh-ing over gigantic sharks, stingrays, blow fish and more that swim over your head. It was the coolest experience. We were there during feeding time and one of the divers/workers wore a Prosperity God costume over his diving suit. Haha. Funny he didn’t scare the fishes away 🙂

Well, that was my holiday. I’ve got a lot to look forward to this week. There’s the next episode of Heroes, American Idol Top 12 Girls night (performance) and my 29th birthday this weekend. Can’t wait!

Vacation

I’m going on leave! For 10 days! *shriek*

I so need a break right now. It feels like I’ve been working non-stop and producing four cover stories for every single week. In reality, I’ve produced four covers in six weeks. Two back to back with a 2-week rest in between. That’s pretty much the same, isn’t it?

I don’t have any plans about what I want to do. All I know is I need a break from the office. I need some TLC. Maybe a spa treatment or a massage or something. Something that’ll make me come back to work feeling all good and motivated again … like that nice first-day-of-school feeling when we were in primary school.

I would like to go back to my hometown and see my parents before CNY. But I don’t want to miss my new yoga class again! I missed the one on Thursday because I had to accompany my boss to a business lunch. I really do enjoy the class and I know yoga’ll do me some good. Well, let me think about it.

But what sucks about my being away from the office is my having to do work. That’s one of the things that I least like about being at my desk. It’s impossible to have absolutely nothing to do. There is always something on your plate. Sometimes you leave them too long (on the plate) and they become stale.

So trust that as I go on leave, I’ll be sneaking in some work here and there. I can’t help it. It only gets worst if I ignore it. So, I may as well deal with it slowly but surely.

Before I allow work to encroach in my ME time, I shall at least enjoy this weekend work free. There’s more to life than work you now, even if for a weekend…