Learning To Breathe

Yesterday, Ken and I went to lepak at newly opened Dhiya’s Corner @ TC for minum petang - Abg Yie asked me to stop by whenever I have time. The biz partner, mrFoot was there too. Remember him? The Pahang footballer/ restaurant owner/entrepreneur bla bla bla - we dated for a couple of months. It didn’t work out between us. We keep things nice afterwards, always turn a blind eye to the fact. I can be polite, firm and respectful, it’s not a tough thing to do, so why not? Tho’ menganjengs antara kami kdg2 mmg ada..fun-lah sket ye tak

I don’t have any reason to be nasty about my past anymore. People make mistakes, I make mistakes. Therefore last year, I made peace with my UTP ex-bf (and with myself) - the ex who still remember my birthday. Aku rase aku agak harsh lah 2 years back hmm, dulu kuat marah kot. Now we pray abundant happiness for each other. That’s just it. Zura and Fiena told me that he contacted them today. Oh the circle continues…

Remember, bad past is not so much a shame, as being unwilling to be cool about it. The more time that passes, the easier it will become.
Avoid animosity. Be curt - keep it simple and straight.

I wish we can keep things forever nice.
Hard, I know, but we can.

Anyway promote je lah, ade tempat makan baru bukak kat TC, arah nak masuk tempat parking tuh, korang terus je smpai nampak 2 canopy putih. Mcm2 ada. Ni ownernye, Abg Yie:

Fill out your answers using only *ONE WORD!*
It’s not as easy as you might think…

1. Where is your cell phone? nearby

2. Your job? coding

3. Your hair? long

4. Your mother? seremban

5. Your father? sleeping

6. Your favorite thing? interesting

7. Your dream last night? nothing

8. Favorite season? flowery

9. Your goal/dream? blessed

10. The room you’re in? cozy

11. Your hobby? lepak-ing~

12. Your fear? suicide

13. Where do you want to be in 6 years? home

14. Where were you last night? dine

15. What you are not? untidy

16. Muffin? sweet

17. One of your wish list items? diamonds

18. Where you grew up? seremban

19. The last thing you did? eating

20. What are you wearing? dress

21. Your TV? *sigh

22. Your pet? once

23. Your computer? laptop

24. Your life? glowing

25. Your mood? fine

26. Missing someone? yeah

27. Your car? silver

28. Something you’re not wearing? earrings

29. Favorite store? ikea

30. Your summer? cinematic

31. Love someone? aahhs~

32. Your favorite color? mulberry

33. When is the last time you laughed? evening

34. Last time you cried? sleeping

35. Who will resend this first? entah

– open for everyone –

“The holidays seem to be coming earlier every year.”

Yes, sir.  I can vouch for that. For Chinese New Year, the holiday cheer was accompanied by a holiday fever…quite literally, and I had a flu-like head cold for about 3 days. I took a sick day off.

Back to hometown last weekend, I spent quality time with my car (driving), family, mrArchi and Shasha.

Saturday
- drove back to Seremban
- car service
- family muvi-nite-out: Underworld 3 Rise of the Lycans

Sunday
- woke up with the flu
- went to MAEPS for Pu3’s wedding reception with MrArchi, ganti xpegi yg Alor Star punye. She’s a real lady now, *feewiitt! Unfortunately, no photo taken with the bride and groom as mrArchi left the camera in the car
- Spent the rest of the evening at Alamanda with mrArchi
- Dinner at JJ Sushi King with Shasha, then lepak at Starbucks. We’re home around midnight
* Wengurls, weh laen kali buat gathering time aku ade laaa isk isk, rindu kat korang ni..luckily Sha and Fiena enlightened me the major details

Monday
- at home, in bed most of the time, the fever hit me hard
- Zura planned to come lepak2 tp xjadi, a long call from Radin in Germany (it’s free) and Zaidan akhirnya wujud kembali..wahh

Tuesday
- drove back to Kuantan dgn demam selsema, the fever hit me harder
- Ken took me to the clinic and later we went for dinner. Sempat groceries shopping too

Wednesday
- on MC: extra cuti for me
- regained health
- saja2 renewed bank card, quick (no need to queue) and free, thanks to Kak Nurul

Thursday & Friday (today)
- back to work + routines

I’ve had enough holiday fever..now waiting for the real holiday to take center stage. Jeng jeng jengg

P/S - Finally, Ken found my blog, after so long huhu. Hi! Ken =)

Well, I wasn’t really into cooking all my life. It’s not that I don’t know how to cook, cuma malas mungkin. I was too lazy to learn from my lovely mother who is a wonderful cook. My mum always moan that her daughter never takes much of an interest in cooking. My standard answers to my mum are:

• “Kakyong nak kemas rumah, mak masak lah ye”
• “Nantilah kakyong masak bila kakyong dah ada dapur sendiri”
• “Kakyong nak keluar la arini..”
• “Nanti kakyong blajar masak bila dah nak kawen ea”

Now I own a kitchen, ahh at last - my kitchen - a good place for trial and error, I’m beginning to show an interest in cooking. Cooking needs practice, then you develop instinct. Below is one of my attempts:

UDANG GORENG BUTTER

Bahan-Bahan:-
Udang harimau 400 gram
200 gram buttter
4 biji kuning telur dipukul perlahan
3 gram cili padi yg dihiris halus
1 batang serai dihiris halus
20 helai daun kari
4 sudu besar, gula, sedikit garam & serbuk perasa

Cara-Cara:-
- Goreng udang dengan minyak yg banyak
- Kacau butter dengan api yg perlahan
- Masukkan kuning telur yang telah dipukul
- Masukkan gula, sedikit garam dam serbuk perasa
- Gaulkan sekali dgn cili padi, serai & daun kari

This is a sector of my wet kitchen. Very basic eh. Oh I’m officially a fan of induction cooker. It looks intelligent because it’s shiny and has buttons =P. It’s extraordinarily easy to clean too. For a start, I bought the Philips single-zone induction cooker, I plan to upgrade to twin-zone cooker in the future.

And suddenly…I miss those days I forced my siblings to eat what I cook! Hahaha

Last Saturday, after boxes and furnitures were loaded in the lorry, I said my goodbye to Ayuni. She’s an ex-housemate now but we’ll keep seeing each other of course. Having Ken and his friends to help with loading and unloading the stuff made my moving day so much easier. AlanStone (a UTP friend) was in Kuantan, Ken and I managed to have dinner with him despite busymusy mengemas rumah. Say hello to my new home. This is my 3rd house in Kuantan. It is still a work in progress. Just a quick snap snap snap last night:

Living Room

“Let’s Get Personal” Corner

Corner Table

I must admit that the house echoes, most space still look “bottom heavy” or “hard” - will buy more things to soften the look and reduce the echoing. Maybe I should get an art on the wall. And get things in matte, not shiny.

Waaheyy, my personal schedule for 1st quarter of 2009 is getting busy.
One word as initial clue - “FUN“. Saya suka =D! Anda tunggu sahaja update-nya ya!

Living room serves as your front line element in making a good impression of your house as well as your personality. I still have to dish out some money from my pocket before I can visually see those layouts and plans that I made for my new house. Sume bende nak lengkapkan payahhhh. So now I can only afford to accessorize with colors. I invest in curtains, lightings and rugs. The L-shape sofa will have to wait first - expensive lahh *sigh. As for final touches, I add scented candles and frames for an elegant feel. I keep the style neutral, the 4 main colours are:

• light pink
• white
• tan
• brown

I’m moving out really soon, I pay rent for both current and new houses this month heheh diyana mmg suka membazir. Haha I sound boring kah talking about money and home deco je lah pulakk nowadays. I’m still out and about, watching movies, catching up with family and friends once in a while. Stay in touch with friends thru chats + emails + calls, mrArchi came for a quick visit, Ken helped me a lot with the moving already - he’s now in Sunway for inter-state championship, Anis has announced to Ayuni & me that she’s getting married, will be having dinner with my ex-housemate Shahreen tonite… Zura just emailed us - Happy 7th Anniversary Wengurls! =)

Altho’ sometimes it seems like a whole lot of shit is just waiting to drop down on all of our heads, it never hurts to be optimistic =) Happy New Year 2009!

Thanks for everything in 2008.
I hope 2009 is awesome for all of us.

What’s on my to-do list these days - I’m moving to a new house. Planning, packing, moving, cleaning. ribu riban sudah abesss isk isk adeihh.. Checklists and tools are ready to make my next move as painless as possible. It is tiring. And the moving process can bring up doubts, fear and moods that I find overwhelming too. Anyway, I want to feel right at home in a jiffy! Happy moving to me!

The bag I was going to reward myself with is not in the picture anymore as the bonus is so ciputt. I like rewards that come in a small package, like last year – a DKNY watch. Hehh for this year I bought myself…a Magic 8 Ball! Hahaha quirky choice, but I love it. Only RM30 and it has all the answers, seriously…

Before I go to sleep, I asked just now “Will I have a happy day tomorrow?”
The given answer “Yes Definitely”

Good ball.
See, I told you =P
Go get one for yourself!

I had bonus day last Thursday, I received the envelope, and my reaction to it – Nightmare came true! None of the three was anything to be proud of. So in a combination of not getting a big bonus this year, I can say that the company is facing serious hardship at the moment. But I’ll stay committed. Benci tapi sayang? Org kata susah senang biarlah bersama…

I was a bit down, but not for long, I’m ok now. Awake and left to analyze my nightmare…I re-focus back on my budget, return to my little black book, and assess what’s really important.

Despite budget strains, I plan to shop at IKEA; I have a full day reserved for that already. I refuse to cancel any of my plans, just a slowdown, still on pace…

The world economy won’t begin to recover until late next year.

One word for that: Fuck!

* Kinda relaxing weekend:

On Friday I joined up my colleagues for ‘Histeria’ movie nite out. On Saturday, visited a colleague at hospital and later, hair treatment. I spent my Sunday at home.

Here I simply jot down the main agendas in point-form.

Work
- I’ve committed myself to the ‘Chemical Register Database’ project until end Feb 2009. Other requests keep coming in also *sob sob. Plus, there are 2 trainees from UTP under our IT Application section. I’m one of the supervisors, so I have to spare some time planning for their tasks and tutoring vb+aspx+oracle.

Financially
- Here’s what is most essential to me now: Money. I need loads of it. My current savings for the rainy day - oh amat memalukan! But I don’t want your money, I want to make my own. For 2009, I want to improve and re-plan my monthly budgets and religiously stick to them. Spank me if I don’t haha.

Mentally
- I’m planning to take big steps in early 2009. My parents easily accepted the idea. I want to do it for the right reasons, to help me grow as a person. For all I know, I might surprise myself and come face to face with a whole new transformed me. I might discover facets to my personality I never knew existed. It’s a great exercise in character building. Though, I know it’s also a lot of hard work and risks.
(Maaf, tiada kaitan langsung dgn perkataan tunang atau kahwin)

Relationship
- I want to strengthen every relation. Mari2, don’t ever create echo syndrome. So never let a relationship sour. Wengurls, jom plan for our next gathering! Another note: Being in love is one of the great joys of life. I love being in love, if only the moment could last forever…Idealism vs Realism

Misc
- KenDi died recently =( some sort of flying bugs were found in its ear
- Monsoon season membuatkan aku suka tdo, nak pulak bln Dec byk cuti
- I like the new song ‘Tshirt’ by Shontelle

P/S - Kepen, sy sihat2 shj disini..heheh