I’m moving to another site and oh, I’ve good news too!
I’ve been meaning to do this some time back now, to move to another site, simply because I didn’t manage to get myself familiar with wordpress. 
Anyhow, I’m moving on to http://synneeq.blogspot.com/
Also, there you will notice that I’ve written some post for the last 3 weeks which is not known to all. I’m sorry that you have to scroll down to get what has been happening to me. Interested to find out? Hop over there now! http://synneeq.blogspot.com/
See you there!
My Bangkok trip
I had a sales training last week at Bangkok and this is the first time whereby I will be away from the girl the longest time ever which was in total 6 nights. The first 3 nights, hubby was around to look after her and the remaining 3 nights, she was looked after by my sister and her maid. From her blog, you will know that it went really well and I’m going to use this to my advantage to have more “me” or “our” time. 
Anyway, this post is not about the girl (muahaha), it is about hubby and I. Hubby joined me for the weekend there and this is our first time away together in just over 2 years (yes, as old as Rye Li). So what did we do?! We shopped and shopped and eat and eat.
On Friday night, our friends took us to this lovely place for dinner which took us like over an hour to get there (including traffic). The food was delicious, a mixture of local thai food as well as continental. The theme of the place is very much like those dutch farms whereby the structure of the houses and buidling there looks dutch. Even the waiters and waitresses are dressed in dutch clothes. They have huge picnic tables all over and in the middle of the place, there is a swamp which has fishes, ducks and swans in it. They also have a little place for rabbits. You would bring your kids here for sure. Because one of our Thai friend’s friend brought his 3 year old daughter along for dinner, it made me miss the girl more and after I had my dinner, I went to play with the girl.
After dinner, hubby and I went shopping since they have midnight sales that weekend. The next morning, we went to the weekend market, Chatuchak and spent more than half the day there before heading to MBK for more shopping. Hubby and I had to rush back to the hotel to get ready for my surprise dinner from hubby (it wasn’t so much a surprise as he told me he had dinner plans for me on Saturday night when he arrived the day before). I sort of guess where he would take me for dinner but didn’t expect the place to be so damn nice! So where we had our romantic dinner?! ….at The Dome and at their restaurant, called Sirocco.
I was giddy with the fact that we’re 64 floors up in the air and it was really beautiful up there. This place is not cheap I tell you and let’s just say this is by far the most expensive dinner hubby and I ever had together. I was asked to shut up by hubby on the prices of the food and beverages before we even land on the top of this place (he knows me too well!). But when I saw the menu and of course, the prices, I was even more giddier and had to voice out my opinions!
So how was the food? Ok-la but it should be better for the price we paid! hehe. An interesting fact, I think the bill would have been more expensive if we were to have alcohol but it was the day before their elections and it is illegal to serve alcohol that day. I was just curious as to how the Mat Salleh’s (there were plenty of them) are enjoying their meals without their favourite beverages.
I have to say hubby gained more brownie points with this little surprise. I’ve never been pampered this way before and I tried my luck to see if he will ever take me to Lafite in KL?! Of course not! Hehe.
On Sunday, we did more shopping in between checking out of the hotel and waiting for our flight home. Although it was a short trip for both hubby and I and the fact that we had another person in our room that 2 nights (my boss), I guess it was worth it as now we know that the girl can live without us (since she was having such a gala time herself). Will we have more “our” trips? You betcha!
This Christmas
With Christmas round the corner, I have been thinking how different this year’s Christmas would be as this will be our first Christmas without Grandpa. My sister said there won’t be much difference since Grandpa usually hung out in his room upstairs most of the time throughout our gatherings. True, but still, we know that he was upstairs all those time. I guess, he will still be around this Christmas, in spirit.
Sorry for the neglect on this site and on my stories on Grandpa and Grandma. After Grandpa’s cremation, his bones and ashes were brought back to his house for about a month. I was told that the bulk of it, bones and ashes were put into an urn. And the remaining ashes were kept in a cup-like tupperware. Grandpa’s wishes was to have his ashes thrown into the sea and so I was also expecting this. Somehow, my aunt prefers his urn to be kept at a church and the remaining ashes will be thrown into the sea.
His urn is kept at a church in Klang and the remaining ashes were thrown into the sea off Port Dickson, where he went most of the time with his children in his younger days. I didn’t go for both and I didn’t see his urn. I only saw the cup-like tupperware when I visited Grandma just before our US trip in October.
That was the first and only time I went back there since Grandpa’s death. It felt different and kinda empty. The room he was in which was situated downstairs was left empty, his stuff (clothes, remaining medication, etc) mostly were given away to those in need. The maid didn’t want the room back yet saying that she will moved back down later.
Anyway, I need to make the effort to visit Grandma as often as I can as I wouldn’t want to think we all favour Grandpa only. She actually missed Grandpa although she would deny this. But I heard from my mom that she was saying good stuff about him after his death, something I’ve not heard from her before.
I will try and post more stories on them when I can. Have a merry and joyous Christmas to all of you!
Feeling like a sucker
I started going for facial since April this year. This has been something I thought I won’t be doing in my lifetime, well, not consistently anyway as I always thought it was a waste of money. Okay, it could be that I just didn’t have enough money to splurge all this while. I’m not saying that I do have that extra to splurge on now but since being a mommy, most of my money has gone to the girl. And here I am thinking that I should also waste some of my money on me….after all, I do deserve it!
So, when Rye Li became easier to handle, I asked hubby if he’s alright with the idea of looking after her for a couple of hours or so once a month while I go for facials and he said ok. 
Initially, I contemplated alot, asking whether do I want to waste this kind of money and whether would this be for a short term basis or long term and if long term, can I afford it?! When I consulted my girl friends, many of them said I should and that it is not a waste of money when it should be considered more like an investment. One said “money spent on one self is a very good investment indeed!”
It has become a routine since April for me to go for my monthly facials which I always look forward to, as it’s my only “me” time I get now.
I went for one today after the hols and it felt so good! It seems that they were having their 3rd anniversary deals and yours truly signed up on a one year package! I also took advantage of their 30% off their products and bought a few items which I have been hesitated to purchase all this while. I only paid 1/3 of the whole package as I told them that I don’t have that kind of cash right now after our recent holidays.
Somehow, I feel like such a sucker although I know it was worth it. I’m not going to state how much the whole package costs in case hubby drops dead reading this. Please tell me that it was worth my time! Haha….well, at least I know I will be having that “me” time more often now as I believe I have 24 sessions in that package!
I need more “me” time!
How do you cope with blogging when you’re just too busy with work and if not at work, then at home with a toddler? Well, you just don’t! Sigh!
I need more time for this…I got so many things to update. But priority is given to Rye Li’s that this will take a while for me to update again.
We’re heading off to our long awaiting trip and I hope to post this along the way if I can, if not, it will be after the trip. But most likely, the bulk of the updates will be at Rye Li’s blog….will keep the adult stuff to here if any. Hehe…Adios!
Grandma
My grandma is an interesting lady. As much as Grandpa has influenced my life in many ways, so has Grandma.
To me, Grandma has always played the motherly role, making sure that we were well fed and taken care of at home. I remember the time where we stayed at her place for a few months when I was about 10 years old. I had to get up at 5-30am in the mornings to take the school bus to school and Grandma will be the one making sure I woke up in time, had breakfast and waited with me till the school bus arrived.
Grandma is also well known for her wonderful cooking. During the festive seasons, either Christmas or Chinese New Year, she will be cooking her famous dishes; Vegetable Achar(pickles), fried meehoon, Ju Hu Char(Hokkien: some turnip dish to be wrapped in lettuce leaves, filling similar to popiah), devil curry and many more. Due to her weak health over the years, Grandma will still insist to cook these dishes but with the help of her maid. If she leaves us today, none of us will know how to cook her dishes.
About 4 years back, I actually took the effort to spend several hours with Grandma just so that I could take down her Salted Fish Achar recipe while she cooked. Grandma cannot write so all her recipes are in her head. I love this dish of hers, I’ve not come across any like this before out in the market which was why I decided to better get the recipe from her or forever regret when she is no longer with us.
Grandma has wonderful green fingers. She loves gardening and till today, her garden is always full with plants, flowers and local herbs. She has fully utilized every space in her garden as well as her backyard. She’s that type that knows how to take a little bit from a plant and grow that again beautifully in another place or pot. She actually dyes her hair with the henna leaves that she grew a while back from a small section of the plant that she took from a roadside.
She also has a belimbing (Malay: not starfruit but very small fruit that is sour) tree in front of her house and she will make sambal (a Malay spicy dish) or achar out of the fruits whenever there are plenty. She is very handy when it comes to these things too, she knows how to make full use of whatever she has.
Grandma is also an avid gambler. She loves her empat ekor (4-digit lottery) and it was through her that I learnt about the whole existence of the 4-digit world. I remember when I was young, I will see Grandma searching through her lottery “bible” – the one whereby it shows you pictures of what you dreamt off and there is a 4-digit number that links to that picture. It sure amazed me then that there was such a thing!
I know I just mentioned that my Grandma cannot write. She is not 100% illiterate especially when it comes to numbers. She can write numbers alright, so I’m guessing that through her gambling ways, she had mastered how to remember and write numbers down. Anyway, I believe that she can read also although I’ve not seen her reading books before (her lottery bible and also checking the newspapers for the results of the lottery don’t count).
How obsessed is she into numbers? Well, till today, whenever anyone of us leaves her place and into our cars, she will be standing by her gate, observing our car plate numbers. And if she can’t see the numbers, she will ask us for the numbers, all the time!
And how many times she won the lottery? She had but they were all not huge amounts and we always nag her that what she had spent so far outweights what she had won. And her response “I bet small amounts only, RM1 each time!”
During Chinese New Year, for sure you will see my dear Grandma joining us for our gambling sessions till the wee hours in the morning. You can see that she is so sleepy and tired but still want to gamble.
Few years back, before I got pregnant, my brother, cousin brother and I took my Grandma up to Genting Highlands for a day trip for her birthday. She was really happy as she is too old now to travel on her own there (yes, she had several times before by taking the bus up alone during her healthier days!). We were there for several hours, perhaps 5-6 hours and during all that time, my Grandma was really glued to her seat playing Roulette. I had to remind her several times whether she needs to drink/eat or go to the toilet. She won several hundreds that day.
My Grandma favours boys more than girls. Till today, she will deny this whenever we bring this up (pretty rare these days as you do not want to get into an argument with her) but it is very obvious in her actions to my uncles or cousin brother (I say cousin brother as I know she favours one more than her other grandsons – “I”, if you’re reading this, you know that this is true!). There are many facts to prove this but I’m not here to go all out to diss my Grandma ok?!.
One thing about my Grandma as well is that you would not want to get into a fight with her, she will win no matter what! She is that type that must have the last word and no matter how hard you justify to her your strong facts, she will always have the last word and you, in the end, will just surrender and keep silent.
She is not the MIL (mother-in-law) you want. Haha, I dare say this as she is my Grandma. But really, I myself would not want her as my MIL and Thank God that my MIL is not like her.
Having said that, because I’m part of her flesh, I know she will defend me if someone were to talk bad about me in front of her. She’s like that. Period. She will go all out for someone she loves dearly and who is especially part of her flesh. So you can imagine what she will do for those that she favours!
Why I want to post about my Grandma is because I want to share on the interesting relationship she had with my Grandpa. If it is not obvious enough yet, both of them are actually totally opposites. There were recent events that actually drove me into wanting to post this up first. I will share on their relationship and of the recent events another time.
