Pre-vacation Get Together

4 Nov

It’s been awhile traveling abroad with friends. My last few travels have been with—let’s see—hubby (Singapore), hubby and sibling (Paris), hubby again (local golf escapade) and hubby & office staff (Bali).

I have various travel groups for different travel categories: ‘all-girls trips’ are with friends since childhood whom I grew up together with; ‘couples trips’ are with married couple friends (sans children) and so on.

Now I have never traveled afar with this group of friends. Not new in the friendship but new in traveling together. As such, it was only the right thing to do to have dinner together to get to know them beyond the usual social golf meets.

Two weeks ago, hubby and I dined with the group whom I will be traveling with for my next destination. While hubby is not going for that trip, he joined us for dinner. Despite the handful who could not make it that night, it was good camaderie as we bonded over dinner, wine, whiskey and homemade cheese cake. I am sure when the group is whole, it will be even more merry-making and one blast of a trip!

Definitely looking forward to it tomorrow…

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Another milesto…

2 Nov

Another milestone! Thank you all!!!

4,000 views, 150 posts, more than 60 (blogger) followers and more than 100 likes!!! 

A Green Halloween!

1 Nov

Halloween came and went, and here we are in November already! My goodness, where did time go? Before you know it, the Christmas decors have to be out and up.

Halloween is a day old already but I’d like to write about it. I had posted several pictures (on Facebook) prior to it but never quite told the whole story, so here goes…

Two nights ago, I decided to indulge M1 and M2 with some Halloween fun. Now, in my country, pumpkins are very expensive because they are imported. Those huge ones specifically for the occasion are even more expensive. But a friend inspired me to use watermelons instead of pumpkins. At a fraction of a price from a pumpkin, why not? What a brilliant idea! Thanks B1, you’re a star too.

So, on our way home, I told hubby to go buy the two biggest watermelons that he can get his hands on. Thankfully, the sensibility in him landed us two decent sized ones, any bigger, we’d end up with watermelon overdose.

The girls were thrilled. We’ve never carved pumpkins nor watermelons before. But the occasion was met with zest. The fruit I must say was much easier to cut being all water inside, therefore easy for the knife the pierce through. The whole process took less than an hour. A quick research, an impromptu set up and not much of a mess was made.

They enjoyed themselves thoroughly and we ended up with 4 liters of fresh watermelon juice! Even Roo, official pet number one, enjoyed some juicy watermelon pieces. Subsequently, there were many suggestions given to maximize the watermelon juice, from making ice cubes to creating vodka cocktails, it sure was creative.

Let the pictures show you our carving efforts for Halloween this year. Given the final outcome, no one would have guessed our creations were made from watermelons and not pumpkins if it was not mentioned. Nonetheless, it’s the result that matters. Happy Halloween!

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The two unassuming eventual stars.

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M2 scrapping her melon.

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M1 outlining her melon.

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Off with the head for M1’s red melon!

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M2’s melon is complete!

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Work in progress for M1’s melon.

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Ready to be lighted.

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Tadaa… our creations!

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M2’s work of art.

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M1’s work of art.

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My New Ugly Crocs

31 Oct

Hubby decreed that my old Crocs are way too ugly for my next holiday and reminded me to get a new pair to replace it.

The old pair has indeed served me well, for years I should add. All worn out and falling to pieces, it’s time to say goodbye to it; Inspector Clouseau will have a new home too.

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My old ugly Crocs.

Last Monday after work, we brought the girls out shopping and I bought a new pair of shiny Crocs, literally. Frankly, I didn’t have much choice as the new range are just too weird. It’s bad enough to have ugly Crocs but to don weird ones, I don’t know. M1 and M2 are just shaking their heads at the range available.

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My pretty new ugly Crocs.

I know I am contradicting myself here saying it’s ugly yet I wear it. But they ARE comfortable and protects my toes well without giving me horrid tan lines (like how I envision a flip flop would). Also if I go near water (pool or seaside) or accidentally stepped into a puddle of water, the Crocs are easier to wash than my Rockport, which is leather and suede. See my point?

Furthermore, I realized from my recent trip to Bali, when one walks on the street, one keeps the eye at the face level, not feet level, so my Crocs are not the first thing people see.

Lastly, when I travel, nobody knows me save for the company I am with, so does it matter if I wear ugly Crocs? I usually have a great time so that’s all that matters.

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On a Buying Spree

29 Oct

I daresay both M1 and M2 inherited the reading bug from me. Certainly it must be me because hubby is not an avid reader like me, who’d read until 3.00am in the morning. Whenever hubby has a book in front of him—and I have seen it on several occasions—he does not make it pass two pages and muted snores can be heard shortly; except maybe for one book, ‘Bend, Not Break: A Life in Two Worlds’ by Ping Fu, he read it in one day while I took three days. The point is, no matter how tired I am, I never doze off with a book in hand and neither do my girls. So, yea… they inherited the reading bug from me.

During my dinosaur era, I was reading Trixie Belden, the Famous Five, Five Find-Outers and Nancy Drew. But sadly, my girls are not into these characters and my collection is left to collect more dust.

Children these days, I discovered, are more into authors besides the series. M1 totally enjoys the Percy Jackson series (by Rick Riordan) and insist that the books must be the US edition because they have nicer cover designs than the UK edition. She awaits the latest release, US edition of course.

M2, on the other hand, enjoys quirky titles with lots of doodles everywhere, big fonts and peppered with typographic creativity.

On Sunday, we finally visited the bookstore, Kinokuniya, in KLCC. It was an all-girls outing as hubby chose to go to the CIMB Classic golf tournament at KLGCC instead. So there we were at the bookstore, touching this book and that book. We were in heaven!

However, M1 was disappointed to see the latest release of Rick Riordan’s was not of the cover she anticipated! Brought down to earth, she said we must still go in search for the new book with its US edition cover. But until that happens, I felt her disappointment and decided to allow her to pick up some other titles instead. Since school exams are also over, I’d rather have both girls reading more than to be online all the time.

I must have been deprived of shopping lately (buying grocery does not count) for I decided it was a book-buying day and we all ended up with 2 or more books each.

M1 picked up a novel, a doodle journal and a Pokemon encyclopedia; M2 had the same doodle journal too and an Adventure Time encyclopedia while I picked up ‘Are You a Cow?’ another Sandra Boynton board book to add to my collection, a Nora Roberts two-in-one read and a more serious title: ‘Lean in’ by Sheryl Sandberg.

We capped the outing with a scrumptious lunch before hurrying home to enjoy the books! It was one of those rare good shopping days and good quality time spent with the girls.

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The prized purchases. M2 has totally wrecked her journal, see the ripped page sticking out?

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Life is Candylicious

29 Oct

Coming home from work yesterday, the first thing I did when I walked into the house was to flip open the MacBook Air to get my dose of Candy Crush. I told hubby, “Let me have five rounds before we go out again, ok?” and quickly went on with my crushing business.

Two rounds into the game, hubby called me on the mobile! “Hurry up.” I could hear impatience in his tone. I guess he was too annoyed to come upstairs to hurry me. I was in the midst of some exciting moments, overcoming two levels to arrive at 455. What’s even more exciting was that right after I wrote about my predicament, waiting for the release of the update on the iPad, I was on the verge to complete the Butterscotch Boulders chapter.

But the imminent going out was more important. So I had to leave the game to join hubby at the driving range to hit some dimpled balls.

The next morning, routine kicks in first with the iPad to check email, a round of Zookeeper Battle and then on to the laptop for another round of crushing candies. I couldn’t believe my luck! Level 455 has been conquered!!! And with a trophy and title to my efforts! Life indeed is candylicious.

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Just call me Cherry Sheriff!

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Life is Tough

28 Oct

Despite my candy crushing days now limited to just playing at home on the MacBook Air, I have made tremendous progress. JC, my closest rival, is still stuck at 445 whilst I have moved on to 453, two levels shy of completing this chapter. Two contenders from my list of friends have finally made their way to 442 and 441 respectively.

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Catch me if you can!

I now fret if I reach the end of this Butterscotch Boulders chapter (455 is the last level) and King.com decides to release the update for the iPad these few days, it is still no use for me as each time the updates are out, it is one chapter at a time. Either way, I face playing on the laptop to move forth or if I am still stuck and the release is not out before I reach 455.

Life is tough.

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Decisions, Decisions, Part 2

25 Oct

I had a prompt on my iPhone4 yesterday afternoon for an OS update to 7.0.3, which I did. But I have yet to update my iPad Mini! Should I update it or not at this point? The OS has had two updates ever since the new OS7 release came out, if I am not mistaken.

I must say ever since my phone was updated, I have mixed feelings about it. The color of the text bubbles still irks me but I appreciate the shortcuts especially to music and the torchlight.

I don’t like the passcode part every time I have to use my phone. What secret can there be when there you are, sitting next to someone (friend, family or even stranger), and they can see clearly what you key in to access!

Imagine having to do that every time I want to battle some zoo animals or crush some candies at the old levels. Pretty annoying, isn’t it?

It’s pretty obvious I love my iPad Mini for its easy access and how I have it the way I like it. I fear with the overhaul to OS7, I have to relearn to appreciate it. Sigh.

Decisions, decisions…

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Mummy’s Boy

24 Oct

Every evening, the routine is typical. We come home, we eat dinner and the Roo, official pet number one, looking in from the external wet kitchen, barks to get attention. This can be quite annoying and especially so when the day at the office was a brain-sapping one.

Rooney is not allowed in the house because his drool is just to gross for us to deal with when it drips onto the marble floor. But we play with him in the garden. Occasionally, curiosity gets the better of him and he would saunter into the house to wander into the dining room, dry kitchen and the courtyard just to appease his wonder of the house. Most times, he pretends not to see us, thinking if he does not see us, we will not see him and he won’t be caught!

There was one evening M2 brought him back to the external wet kitchen after playing in the garden and he went back grudgingly. Feeling unsatisfied, he came back out to the garden again and made a ruckus insisting it has to be Mummy—me—to lead him back and that M2 bringing him back doesn’t count.

M1 shot him a disgusted look and muttered “Hrmph. What a brat! Being Mummy’s boy.”

Come to think of it, if hubby attempts, he wouldn’t even budge, what more the girls. So indeed, he’s being Mummy’s boy, a bratty one though.

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I’m not looking at you so you can’t see me!

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It’s A Warzone Out There

22 Oct

I had to see an ENT to solve my sinus nasal congestion which had taken a turn for the worse. So here I am sitting in the doctor’s lounge while outside, along the corridor, it’s a warzone out there!

An elderly patient, waiting his turn, is talking loudly on his mobile and his booming voice is echoed so loudly in the cold quiet corridor! Perhaps he is also waiting to see my ENT specialist, hard of hearing, he does not realize how loud he is.

This may not be a patient ward level but still, it’s a hospital and everyone should be more considerate for others!

Then there’s this lady sitting in the waiting room with me and her phone goes ‘You have a new WhatsApp message!’ letting the whole world know she’s connected. Attending to her alert, the furious tapping by her is so obvious with the loud clicking sound. My goodness, please put it on silent mode!!!

Even in my hard of hearing state, the noise is most irritating.

I await my turn shortly. WhatsApp Lady has toned down her volume but I can still hear water bubble effect sounds, probably crushing candies. Warzone Uncle has also finished his conversation.

Phew.

I glanced over at WhatsApp Lady; she’s not crushing candies, her reactions are way too slow!

Ah… my turn.

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