Meet the Parents

Date: 27 February 2011
Time: 12.30pm
Venue: Al-Rawsha Restaurant, Kg.Pandan

Today is the preliminary meeting to discuss our engagement and wedding. I don't really get the details of the discussion cos there was a wedding going on at the restaurant and it was super noisy.The food was OK. We ordered chicken mandy, lamb, grilled fish, kebab, salad and ice cream.

My hand was shaky cos I was hungry :-p

Talking about the past

Today I went to Diva again and bought MORE earrings. They're still having the 4 earrings for RM30 promotion.

I doubt that the camera earrings are suitable for office. If I wear it I'm afraid there'll be a circular coming out saying that no camera earrings allowed. But I think the earrings are cute, though.

Today I talked to Mr.Y about when we started dating. He said he fancied me and decided to approach me but was intimidated when I asked him the following questions:

1) What's your CGPA?

2) Do you have a car? What sort of car are you driving?

I couldn't believe what I was hearing! I was like, "Hey!!! I did NOT ask such awful things!"

But he insisted that I did. Then I realized, I've NEVER had any boyfriend before him so that explains it!

I can't believe I actually asked him what's his CGPA! It's like I was holding a job interview or something! And the question about the car...gosh, that makes me seem so materialistic isn't it?

However, Mr.Y still liked me despite all these rediculous questions I asked him. He said it's good that I "filter" the guys I date, and he likes the fact that I look for security when searching for a boyfriend and wouldn't just go out with some random guy on a motorcycle (refer to the do-you-have-a-car question).

Visit to the Wedding Planner

My future parents-in-law hired a wedding planner for the wedding reception. The wedding planner is Pak Engku. He's a celebrity wedding planner and has worked with Dato Siti Nurhaliza, Ning Baizura and Raja Azura, to name a few.

We had a short discussion in his office. He uses a Blackberry (Yasser was very impressed) and has a Macbook on his desk! He served us teh tarik, which is not exactly my favourite drink, but I finished it off anyway, because I don't want to be rude.

His wedding package is very attractive, it covers amost everything for only RM50k for 1000 pax. He even wrote his own wedding directory and my future mum-in-law bought the book. He also gave us free diary + recipe book.I had the chance to see Pak Engku's work. His staffs were setting up the hall for a wedding when I arrived. I think the deco is really beautiful.

This is just how I picture my dream wedding will be!

Another highlight of today is that I got my engagement ring!

White gold solitaire ring with 10 diamonds.

Monday blues symptoms strike again!

This morning my mum asked me about something which I wrote in this blog. I asked her why did she asked. She said it's because some kid reads my blog and asked her about it. I have to be careful with the content of my blog now, and always bear in mind that my readers doesn't just consist of my close friends, but also schoolkids, family members, college friends, ex-schoolmates etc etc. Sometimes I tend to forget that people read my blog, because majority of my readers are SILENT READERS, they don't drop any comments which is why my blog is seems so DEAD. Haha.

Anyway, back to the topic. Today I dragged my mum to KLCC and we went to Kinokuniya where I saw this cuteee Japanese doll keychain. I fell in love with the keychain because:

-The cartoon has jet black hair like mine.
-She wears green (my favourite colour)
-She wears a HEADBAND (my favourite accessory!)

Price of the keychain = RM12.90 and I think I heard my mum dropping some hints about something to do with membazir itu amalan syaitan but I turned a deaf ear and bought this keychain anyway!
Cute kan???

I also bought this cute little book on GI diet which is going to be a staple in my handbag from now.

But it makes me sad because this GI diet doesn't allow me to eat chocolates. I love chocolate and I don't know how I'm going to survive without it. However, this book tells me that pasta carbonara is OK. Biar betul??!

This is another book which I bought today:

Too bad all these 101 foods that can save my life cannot be found in the office's cafeteria :-(

The Progress

I've started looking for photographers, possible venues for the engagement and wedding ceremony, seamstress to make my dress and the kind of wedding dress I want.

The progress:

- I've narrowed down to 2 photographers at the moment and I can't decide between the two! They offered really good prices because my aunt knows them.

- Since our engagement is in June, the seamstress told me she needs to start working on my dress in April.

- And...ta-daaaa! We've bought the engagement ring!!!

This photo doesn't do the ring any justice! It's so beautiful (at least, to me!). It's a solitaire ring, I've always liked solitaires. Even my merisik ring is a solitaire ring. My engagement ring has 10 diamonds! But we've sent it for resizing and I'll only be able to get it next week :-(

Great day

Today is one of the (very rare) happy days when I get to spend time with Mr. Y.

We went to the Cineleisure/The Curve/Ikano area. Watched a movie at Cineleisure, "True Grit." A boring Cowboy movie. Lots of shocking, loud gunshot suns which I really don't like.


Did some shopping as well. Bought the Body Shop Vitamin E Moisture Cream to heal my acne scars.
Went to Ikea and bought a document tray to sort out all the papers at my desk in the office.

...and some artifical flowers. Each stalk costs RM3 and the vase is only RM3.90. Oh how I love Ikea.

Dropped by my favourite accessories store, Diva. There's a promotion -- a pair of earrings cost RM10. Buy 4 for RM30. Comes with a pink pouch.

And of course, a couple of headbands. I'm into headbands. Initially I wanted to buy headbands at the flea market but it was an extremely hot day and I wasn't in the mood for bargaining.

Next week will be the start of a busy period for me. 3 projects to work on. Targeted deadline** is in September this year. Can I handle this? I don't know.

** Now I can spell 'deadline' correctly. All this while I spelled it as 'dateline' until my boss corrected me :-p

Down Memory Lane

Suddenly I feel sad at how fast time passes by. It seems as if it was just yesterday my parents sent me off to the university and now I've graduated and working and God knows what comes next.

Foundation year memories:


- Dyed my hair for the first time in my life. I just walked into the hairdresser's one day and said I wanted some highlights. Still remember the name of the shade : Chestnut brown. I've had chestnut brown hair for quite some time, until my second year of degree.

- Foundation year is zaman tak study. I wasn't serious about my education and my CGPA was quite bad. My thinking was, as long as my CGPA qualifies me to enter the degree program, then I'm happy. Thank God when we started the degree program our CGPA was reset to 0.00. A chance to insaf and start over!
-Even though I couldn't care less about my studies, there's something I was good at...English! During our orientation week, we had to sit for an English test and those who passed will be exempted for the first level English and proceed to the second level English. I was one of the (very few) students who passed the test and took the higher level English class. On the plus side, it's a fast track for me. On the bad side, the class was full of seniors and I was very bored.

- Foundation year is also single year for me. Hehe. That was the time when I met a lot of loser guys.

What's In My Bag???

This post telah ditiru dari was inspired by Ayu's blog .

She also got inspired for this entry from someone else's blog as well. Hehe.

And in fashion magazines there's always a spread on what's in Cheryl Cole's handbag or Paris Hilton's handbag whatsoever. But of course, people WANTS to know what's in a celebrity's bag. I know nobody cares about what's in a System Analyst's handbag but I don't care, I want to post this entry!!!

Basically, these are things I usually bring along with me. Sikit je kan???

-My extremely cute umbrella which I bought at a Marks & Spencer store in London.
-My medical book just in case if I need to take MC. Haha.
-My staff ID with a photo of my shocked face.
-House keys.
-Laaarge Charles & Keith wallet, which looks like I got hundreds of RM50 notes in there, but usually there's only RM30 in it. Haha. It's huge because of all the cards and junks I put it there.
-Clarins makeup bag (I don't use Clarins, I got it for free when my dad travelled on Business for his Hajj)
-My comel Blackberry (kantoi...cuba tengok tu sape call).


Close up of my keychain...Disclaimer: Despite of what it says, I'm very loyal and monogamous.

These are the things inside my makeup bag:

-Office cabinet & drawer keys

-Revlon eyeliner

-Maybelline eye shadow

-Rohto eye drops

-Rimmel lipsticks

-MAC Mineralized Satinfinish foundation

-Clinique All About Eyes concealer

-Very comel Body Shop hair brush

-Dettol hand sanitizer (Because I'm too lazy to wash my hands before eating. Disgusting, I know).

-Clean & Clear oil control film (My face is so oily! If only I can process the oil to become petroleum...then I can open up a petrol station & become very rich )

-Clinique concealer for pimples

-MAC Mineralized Skinfinish Natural powder

Haunted

There's a haunted house in my neighbourhood.

In fact, the house is very near to my house. It's beside my back-door neighbour's house. Last time, the house was occupied by a really weird Malay family. I won't go into details about how weird they are, but all you have to know is that the wife practices black magic (sihir) and she's a real bitch who liked to seduce the neighbours' husbands.

One day the couple divorced and they moved out of the house and went their separate ways. A few people wanted to buy the house but if the house is sold, then the money will have to be split between the husband and wife. The perempuan sihir is too greedy to share the money with her ex-husband so she refused to let go of the house.

When a house becomes empty for more that 44 days, that's when the jinn will occupy it.

Do you believe in the other beings? The invisible ones? I do. Even though my educational background is science & engineering which is logic-oriented, I do have faith in the Quran. I do believe that just because something cannot be seen, it doesn't exist. In fact, during my Islamic studies classes throughout my schooldays, the teacher did mentioned about makhluk halus.

If you read the Quran & hadith, you'll find the terms mentioning syaitan, jin, iblis etc. The Quran talks about makhluk2 halus / roh2 jahat which will always try to provoke human beings to commit sinful acts. So, I'm a believer.

Some 'funny' things which had been happening to my neighbours lately:

1. My next-door neighbour En. Faizal was cleaning his backyard when he heard this eery sound coming from the haunted house. It was something like the wind blowing, "Ooooooooo....." But there was no wind. He got freaked out.

2. A lot of kids used to play near the haunted house. Now not anymore. Because they've started to get sick, one by one. The first victim was En. Faizal's daughter. She woke up in the middle of one night, scratching her entire body like a maniac. Her parents recited the Yassin and she cooled down for a moment. Then the whole thing started again. The next day, her parents brought her to see the ustaz. The ustaz said that there's an evil being in a house very near to theirs who had been disturbing the poor kid. No prize for guessing WHICH house it is.

3. Another neighbour, Aunty Fidah, said one morning her daughter woke up and cried nonstop, saying that she didn't want to go to school. This had never happened before so Aunty Fidah found it odd. Her daughter's body was tense and stiff like a corpse. She brought her daughter to her sister-in-law's house. Her sister-in-law happened to be an expert in spiritual healing. Again, the cause of the kid crying nonstop was the doing of an evil spirit.

4. Another neighbour's maid always feel something 'heavy' on her chest every night when she goes to bed. She got very scared so she slept with my neighbour's kids.

5. One evening when it was Maghrib, my mum heard CLEARLY someone was calling her name but when she peeked outside the sliding door, no one was there.

6. One day my mum heard water running from the haunted house. But, of course, no one was there.

Whenever I my mum tells me all these horror stories, I'm always like "Maaa...I wanna move out of this house!!!" But then my mum sensibly tells me that I have Allah as my guardian so I have nothing to be afraid of, just recite the ayat pendinding.

It's funny that my mum tells me not to be scared, cos at night, she always forced me to wait for her in the kitchen until she finishes doing all the house work. Haha.

I do feel uneasy whenever I go down to the kitchen at night cos the haunted house is very near to my kitchen, but I always silently tell 'them' that I don't mean any harm to them so they should leave me alone.

501 Must-Visit Cities

Today I went to Sunway Pyramid with Mr.Y and I bought this travel book -- 501 Must-Visit Cities. Since I got home from the date in the evening until now (night) I can't put down this book. It's really interesting, with the amazing photos and nicely written text describing each of the cities.

Quoting from the inside leaf of the book, it is "an invaluable source of inspiration for those seeking to explore the great cities of the world, either in reality or from the comfort of an armchair!" Well said.

I went through the list of cities in the index page and found that I've only been to 0.16% of the 501 Must-Visit Cities. How sad.

Here's a list of the must-visit places that I've been through:

1. Amsterdam, Netherlands

I was about 8 years old when I visited Amsterdam and I still can recall how excited I was to discover the Double Decker Keropok Udang in one of the shops there!

2. Auckland, New Zealand

I can't believe Auckland made it to this list. I think it's a boring city. When I was there all I did was go to the same souvenir shops over and over again. If you are a shopaholic like me, don't go to Auckland! The city doesn't offer much in terms of shopping. But I have to admit one thing good about this city -- this is where you can find the best fish & chips in the world! I had dinner at one of the restaurants at the famous Sky Tower and I ordered a delicious fish & chip. The portion of the fish & chips is so large, it can feed 5 people.

3. Brussels, Belgium

I was a small kid when I visited Brussels, can't remember anything about the place :-(

4. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

I live here...duh.

5. Kuching, Malaysia

Been here once, and it's not really my favourite place.

6. Liverpool, England

Went to Liverpool when I was 13 and I visited the Beatles museum, and I walked by the Merseyside Maritime Museum...err...that's all I remember.

7. London, England

My favourite city of all time!!! Lost count of how many times I've been here.

8. Los Angeles, USA

Transit at the LAX airport when I was a baby, does that count???

9. Madrid, Spain

Only 1 thing I remember about Madrid: my family lost a baggage at the airport.

10. Manchester, England

A fond memory of Manchester: there was an MU match happening which causes a really bad traffic jam. I was on my way to the Trafford Centre shopping mall and got stuck in the jam for hours that it makes me nauseous. When I arrived at Trafford Centre, I immediately went straight to the toilet and puke my guts out.

11. Mecca, Saudi Arabia

Went to the Holy City to perform umrah twice (aged 10 and 12).

12. Medina, Saudi Arabia

Went to Medina when performing umrah.

13. Melbourne, Australia

Just before my Melbourne trip, I went to the hairdresser and she accidently cut my fringe supershort. I would've had a great time there if it's not because of this mishap.

14. New York City, USA

Been here 3 times: when I was a baby, when I was 8 years old and 11 years old. I don't like New York. Stayed at my aunt's place in Brooklyn and it took 45 minutes to go to Manhattan by train.

15. Newcastle upon Tyne, England

I love Newcastle because of a) the shops and b) the transportation system. It's almost like London. Whatever shops there are in London, you can find it in Newcastle. The places in the city are efficiently connected by train system.

16. Paris, France

Can't remember much about Paris. I went to EuroDisney and I didn't have a great time because I was too chicken to go on the rides. Went up the Eiffel Tower. Visit the churches. That's it.

17. Rome, Italy

Another of my least favourite city. Pickpockets and thieves were EVERYWHERE. Scary. My parents and I had to walk a looong way from the train station to find the hotel and we got lost. It wasn't our choice to stay in Rome. It was only a transit because we were offloaded from the plane or something pathetic like that.

18. Singapore

Err...actually I've never seen the city. I've only transit at Changi Airport :-P

19. Stockholm, Sweden

Went to Stockholm when I've just started dating Mr.Y. I remember he was into geology at that time so I bought him some crystals and gem stones while I was there :-) Stockholm is a beautiful city. They are ahead in terms of environmental protection. Everyday is a no-plastic-bag-day and a lot of people there cycle.

20. Zurich, Switzerland

Went there in the summer but I did manage to play with the snow! Went up the alps (was so excited in the cable car).

My birthday

Yesterday (4th February 2011) was my sweet 16 birthday *clears throat*. I had a blast. Enjoyed being Miss Popular for one day when my Facebook page was flooded with birthday comments. My parents bought an ice cream cake at Baskin Robbins to celebrate the occasion.

Here's a list of my birthday present:

- Mr. Y: A white gold necklace & pendant.
- My dad : A Samsung LED digital photoframe.
- Che Ngah : A green-coloured fabric material.
- My mum: Potted plants from Ikea which cost her less than RM20. Nevermind, it's the thought that counts.

Overall, I'm happy since my birthday falls on a 4-day-stretch public holiday. Even though right now I'm still in denial and refuse to believe that I've turned 24. Keep telling (or rather, lying) to myself that I'm still a teenager in secondary school enjoying every moment of my teen life. I'm so happy living my fantasy life now (how sad...).

10 ciri-ciri lelaki yang saya benci....

1. Guys who openly stare at other women...especially if they are with their girlfriends.

2. Guys who drives dangerously.

3. Guys who are always extra-friendly with women...this is the species of guys I've been avoiding when looking for a boyfriend.

4. Ugly men who are always on the look-out to date hot women. Ugly guys are always coming up to me and asking me to introduce them to my "hot friends." The question is, do hot women wants to date THEM?

5. Lelaki yang kedekut dengan isteri.

6. Lelaki yang tak bagi nafkah kat isteri.

7. Lelaki yang suka minta duit kat isteri.

8. Those who do not value honesty and loyalty.

9. Men with bad temper and easily raise his voice during an argument.

10. Men who vent out their anger by physical abuse.

My birthday lunch

Things at my workplace can be so unexpected.

I would come in one day and expect a free day ahead, but then I would be bombarded with tons of work. Sometimes I came to work, expecting to be my boss' Siamese twin for the day and get stuck with her for project planning sessions. Turns out she leaves me alone and I spend the day counting down the minutes to 5.30pm.

Today something unexpected happened...my colleagues REMEMBER my birthday (which falls on 4th February) and they treated me out for lunch at Gino's in Ara Damansara!

In the morning, they were talking about eating out and complained that they got no transport. I ignored the hint (I hate driving ok!). Around 11am they brought up the subject again and they invited me and they said that they're going to treat me out for lunch since my birthday will be on this Friday. So if people invite you for lunch and offers to pay since your birthday's coming up, you can't say no, right? So I said yes.

I thought that I'll be driving so I took out my keys and prayed silently that I won't get stopped by any police because I left my driving license at home. Luckily my colleague Ain was driving.

The food was awesome! We ordered fettucine carbonara, Mamma Mia pizza, seafood platter, Italian apple pie & brownies with ice cream for dessert. The seafood platter consists of mussels, prawns, cuttlefish and grilled dory. My colleagues forced me to eat the mussels. According to them it's very delicious. I said no thanks, I don't like mussels. I've never tried mussels before. I'm not adventurous when it comes to seafood. Usually I'll stick to fish and prawns. That's it.

But they insisted that I tried the mussels and before I sank my teeth into it, I prayed that I'm not allergic to it (yes, I pray a lot). Hmm...the verdict: I feel like I'm in an episode of Fear Factor. Only the garlic butter taste makes it tolerable. Eating mussels feels like eating lizards (though I've never tried eating lizards before). It's so...slimy and chewy. Managed to swallow the whole mussel though. Congratulations to me.

Then, satisfied and full, we went back to the office. I struggled to stay awake while reading the Revenue Integrity functional specs.

P/S: No pictures taken during the lunch as I had become camera shy :p