Last Post of 2012

So another year has gone by. 2012 has been a year of ups and downs. There were a few heartaches. A lot of fallen tears. A crushed dream (again). BUT there were also a lot of laughs and plenty of joy. I have a lot to be thankful for this year:

1. I felt the joy of being pregnant again, albeit for only six weeks
2. I made some wonderful friends on Babycenter
3. I have a good job that pays fairly well
4. I have a loving husband who loves me to bits
5. My family is well, healthy and happy
6. I have my buttcheeks (not the literal ones. Well, you know what I'm talking about :P)
7. I finished not one, but two 10km marathons.

Sure, I also have some grouse on 2012 but I'm not gonna list them down. I'd rather sweep them under the rug and forget about them. 2013 is all about moving forward.

I don't make New Year resolutions. I do have some hopes for 2013 though:

1. I hope that when I do get pregnant again, my pregnancy will be a healthy one and my baby(ies) will be safe and will stay in my womb until she/he/they are ready to enter this world
2. I want my family and friends to stay happy and healthy
3. I want DH's firm to be more successful than it is now
4. I hope to go on a holiday, preferably outside Malaysia
5. I hope to get a big, fat bonus LOL
Ameeen...

How was your 2012? And what are your hopes for 2013?

Happy New Year everyone! May next year be all that you hope to be.

I'm Bored

It's year end and I'm sitting in an almost empty office with no pending work on my end and I've got Pink's album The Truth About Love blaring through my headphones. You should totally have a listen to the album by the way. I'm practically obsessed with it and that's saying something since I don't generally listen to pop albums. Favourite tracks: Try, The Great Escape, Just Give Me a Reason, Is This Thing On?, Blow Me (One Last Kiss)

Anyway, back to being bored. It's dangerous actually. It makes me browse the internet and when I browse the internet I usually go to online shopping sites, and when I go to online shopping sites, well you know what happens next.

Lately I've been visiting Etsy and Kwerkee a lot, to the point that I think I need to go for a rehab LOL. Anyway, I was browsing Etsy and for some reason I searched for baby stuff and I found some really adorable stuff. From baby rattles to onesies and from booties to jewelry  and I thought of surprising a few friends with presents for their new bundle of joys. I already bought some stuff at H&M for a friend who will be giving birth next month (see previous post) and now I'm on a roll! I can't seem to stop clicking "add to cart"! So I picked out a couple of stuff from Etsy for a couple of dear friends (whom I've never met) and had the presents sent over to them. These friends have been with me throughout my difficult and painful IVF journey and this is the only way I know how to thank them. I hope they will love the gifts as much as I loved picking them out for their little ones. One of the sellers will actually give 5% of the sale proceeds to a charity of my choice and I chose a charity which supports women with fertility issues. It felt really good after doing that. I mean, if only we had these kinds of charity here in Malaysia I think I'd jump on board.

Ok, I gotta go back to pretending that I'm busy with work LOL. Later!

Hello 33!

So I turned a year older last Wednesday. It was a pretty uneventful birthday for me, to be honest. Mama was admitted to the surgical ward for her knee replacement injury on Tuesday, so I basically spent my birthday in a hospital room. Not a great way to celebrate your birthday huh? But the good thing is, my little sister came back all the way from Sabah to be with Mama and our family and I got to spend a bit of time with her. I haven't seen her since Eid this year and it was nice having her around. We always have a good laugh when we're together. Mama's surgery went well, by the way, and aside from a slight inflammation on the surgical area, she is doing pretty good. She was supposed to be discharged yesterday but because of the inflammation, the doctor has ordered her to stay another night. But she's getting out today yay! Thank God she was in a private room. Since Baba kept her company at night, it's a good thing that the room was pretty comfortable. A stark difference from the general ward.

Anyway, on Friday DH took me out for dinner at Las Vacas. I was craving for a good slab of medium well steak for quite some time, and since I won't be able to eat anymore medium well meat when I start my IVF, I thought, what the heck. We (I especially) had a lovely time. The food was good and with DH sitting next time, it was lovely dinner date. The week before we went to Ampang Point (I can't remember for what exactly) and parked in front of Habib Jewels. And then DH told me that he wanted to have a look around. He went in and straightaway went to the Pandora section. I was looking around when suddenly DH said, "pick one." Whoa!! He said it's a birthday present from him. Yeehaa!!! I know that he had been looking at Pandora for quite some time, but I didn't expect to get one from him. He must have been thinking about my birthday present for quite some time, bless his heart. So I picked my bracelet and my charms and when I was happy with my selection, the sales assistant calculated the total bill and showed it to DH. He didn't even blink, thank God :P It was truly a surprise and I love him for that. So that's the story of how my birthday present came to be.

Beef wrap for appetizer. Yums!

DH's lamb chops. Also yums!

My rib eye steak. I asked for medium well but it was more of a well done :( It was still good though :)

My present from DH 

Me & DH. Thanks for dinner and the present love. xoxo

Ok back to last weekend. Little and big sisters took me out for lunch along with DH, BIL, DS and DD at Sushi Zanmai and we had a blast. BIL is not really a fan of sushi and he went for rice with chicken curry (boo!). Little sister is a lot more adventurous and went for raw oysters (yikes!). I for one cannot stomach raw oysters. Heck I can't even stomach sashimi. DH had a go at one of the oysters and the look on his face when he tried to swallow was priceless! I wish I had taken a photo of him while he went through the torture. His eyes started to water and he really looked like he was going to throw up. Next time BIL started to laugh uncontrollably. Lucky for DH he managed to swallow it and downed it with his green tea. It's safe to say that he won't be eating anymore raw oysters LOL. And then little sis and I went for some shopping. I got these for my friend who will be giving birth next time. Aren't they adorable? I love baby clothes!

Me, big sis & little Jasmine

What I wore for lunch. I was feeling a bit psychedelic :P Scarf (Uniqlo), blouse (MNG), jeggings (Uniqlo), shoes (Lacoste)

That night DH and I took little sister to the Big Bad Wolf Sale. I already got my haul the previous weekend (100 books in total. The books were RM8 each!) and was thinking that I probably won't be getting anymore, but I ended up buying 6 more books. I also got a couple more books for Jasmine and Dani. Jasmine decided to tag along (she's a bookworm like me) and colour me surprise, she actually behaved. I was hesitant to bring her along and made her promise to hold my hand the entire time and she actually did. While I was browsing she picked up a couple of books and started reading while walking next to me at the same time.

How much I spent on the first day of Big Bad Wolf Sale. Eeeekkk!! Money well spent though :P

On Sunday, I took little sister back to the hospital so she can say goodbye to Mama before I send her to the airport. She said she wants to go back in March, but with her busy schedules, we'll see. As usual she and Baba had the usual banter on where she was gonna go after her housemanship is over. We all want her to come back to KL but she seems dead set on staying on in Sabah. I'm gonna try to talk her out of it, but I don't think it's gonna work.

So that's how my birthday week went. And I just realized yesterday that I haven't even had a single birthday cake yet :( Maybe I'll get DH to get me a slice tomorrow tihihi.

Also, my good friend from Babycenter, Melissa gave birth to her bundle of joy on 21st December. Congrats my dear friend. Little Pete is a real cutie :D

Totally unrelated to this post. What I got from Kwerkee last week. Love it!!

My Boss Is Awesome

Seriously. He is. And I'll tell you why. Last week I told him that I plan to take a month off next year for IVF #3 and he...well he laughed and told me that we would discuss it later. Not exactly the reaction I was hoping for. But yesterday while we were killing time while waiting to be called for a meeting he brought the topic up. This is how the conversation went down...

Boss: So how long are you planning to take leave for?
Me: maybe a month or so? After all my projects are done
Boss: what projects are you doing right now?
Me (listing down all my big projects): But I can still work from home if you want
Boss: You did that the last two times and look what happened. This time I want total shutdown. No e-mails and no working from home. We'll discuss how we're gonna make this work later. I need to pace you and not give you heavy workload.

Now THAT I didn't expect. I always knew that boss is a reasonable man but for him to go all out and make sure that I won't be under any stress during IVF #3 is just amazing! Though he managed to slip into the conversation that he still want me to be seconded to ParentCo for a couple of months to get corporate experience but that's also something he'll discuss later. He wants to send somebody who "is capable and will not bring any embarrassment to the Co." Weeee! It's really a nice feeling knowing that your boss thinks you are capable and can get the job done.

Anyway, now that I've got the green light from boss (not that I needed to get his green light in the first place) I must make sure that I finish all my pending work. And not that I'm not excited about IVF #3, the thing that I'm most excited about is staying in bed all day during the one month break, with nothing but my books and my Macbook (for me to watch Friends rerun). No phone calls and e-mails from pesky internal clients. Bring it on!

Another Marathon and an Impromptu Team Building

So two weekends ago I went for another marathon with my buttcheek. I know. I surprise myself sometimes too :P But anyway, unlike the Penang Bridge Marathon I didn't quite enjoy this marathon. The theme for this marathon is "run with nature in Kuala Lumpur West". Run with nature did you say? All I saw during the run was mostly houses and construction sites. Blergh...But at least the water stations were where they said they were gonna be. And I did finish the 10 km run, although it took me longer this time, partly because I still had not recovered from my cough and there was a 600 metre steep hill to climb. I swear I felt like collapsing during the uphill climb. But I did it! Hooray!!

Me & buttcheek with our medals

And then last week we got word that we had to join a team building session with the Chief Corporate & Operations Officer's group. It was a last minute thing, mind you, as if they suddenly remembered that Legal Division is under his group. Anyway, we had to come up with a performance during the dinner. At first we decided to do a "dikir barat" but then figured that two days was not enough to practice and memorize the steps. So we finally decided on singing a couple of songs. Thank God our colleague, Syarhan knows how to play pretty well. And who knew, we actually won Best Performance! I almost choked on the honey dew I was eating when they announced it LOL. I actually had fun during the team building although initially I had my reservations. 

Practice session at the boss's room

"The Three Stooges"

The star of the show, Syarhan flanked by us ladies

I Did It!

So last Sunday was the day of my marathon and I did it! I finished running 10km in 1 hour and 26 minutes. Yeehaa!! That's quite an achievement considering that I only started running a couple of months ago and have never ran 10km till last Sunday *grinning like a Cheshire cat*

DH and I left KL on Saturday along with Mom and Dad and big sis and her family. We reached Penang at noon and decided to have lunch in town first before checking in at the hotel. The check in time was at 3 p.m anyway. And then we had cendol at Penang Road. The cendol was excellent. My only grouse is that there were a lot of people there and there was nowhere to sit, so we had to finish our cendol really quickly. And then we stopped by Queensbay Mall to meet up my BFF who was running with me on Sunday to pick up our race kit.

Hello Penang!

Us at the collection counter. Half marathon next year? :P

We stayed at Hard Rock Hotel, which I absolutely love. It's such a fun hotel and has its own private beach. Not that I care about the beach since I'm allergic to sea water LOL. I would highly recommend this hotel if you guys are planning to have a holiday in Penang. DH and I wanted to check out Hard Rock Cafe on Saturday but were too tired from the drive up from KL. I wanted to sleep early anyway to prepare myself for the marathon the next day, so we decided to check the cafe out on Sunday. It was pure bad luck that the cafe was booked for a private function on Sunday :(

The view from our room

Essential items for the marathon. Vest, running bib, salonpas and make up. Gotta look pretty while running :P

Early on Sunday morning I woke up at 4.30 a.m to get ready. BFF and I thought of taking the cab, but DH volunteered to drive us to the start point, bless his heart. I have a suspicion that he was afraid to leave us in the hands of a cab driver at 4.30 in the morning. We were lucky that we left the hotel at 5 a.m. coz we got lost trying to get to the start point since some roads in town were closed for the marathon. We arrived at the start point at 6 a.m. just in time to warm up and get ready for the marathon to start at 6.30 a.m.

Cheerful faces at 4.30 a.m. We weren't so cheerful 3 hours later LOL

Fellow marathoners walking towards the start point at 6 a.m.

At 6.30 a.m. sharp a gun was shot signalling the start of the marathon. OMG there were so many runners! I had to slip past some of them at the starting point to get ahead. I was running steadily for about 2 km (my BFF and I were separated already at this point). 3km in and I started cursing my BFF under my breath for talking me into running the marathon with her LOL. By the time I reached 4km I was already looking out for the water station. According to the runners guide, the water stations were placed every 3km. Liars!!! The first station was at the 5km mark! As soon as I saw the water station I felt like lugging the whole carton of mineral water bottles with me LOL. I took a few chugs, careful not to finish the whole bottle at one go coz I didn't want to make myself sick. By the time I reached the 7km mark I was alternating between running and walking towards the finish line. 

And guess what? I finished the race in 1 hour and 26 minutes! Hoooray!!! The furthest I had run before this was 7.2km in 1 hour and 9 minutes, so I was pretty excited to finish in under 1 hour and 30 minutes. Plus I got a medal to show for it! It was by far the craziest thing I had ever done in my entire life and I was glad I did it. I had so much fun! Sure I was exhausted but I really enjoyed it. And to do it with my BFF was another plus point for me.

Tadaaaaa!!

Us with our finishers medal :)

Indeed!

Stopped by a massage parlour after dinner to give my feet some well deserved TLC. The owner's adorable son had a go at massaging my feet LOL

Me and DH before we checked out of the hotel

So there you have it. My first marathon experience. I have another marathon this weekend which I will be running with my buttcheek. I'm crazy, I know :P

______________________________________________

Yesterday I received a note from my babycenter friend asking me for my address coz she wanted to send me something in the mail. I don't know what it is but she said that she got it from her friend and it helped a lot when she was TTC. I swear I stared at the note for a good few minutes. Here was a girl whom I've never met and had only communicated via babycenter and she was sending me something in the mail to help me through my TTC journey. It was such a nice gesture that I felt like crying. Thank you so much Melissa. Though we have never met (I hope one day we have a chance to meet), you and all the girls in our group have a special place in my heart.

Much love,

Farewell My Friend

So my BFF just told me some bad (or wonderful, depending on how you look at it) news this afternoon. She's being transferred to Jakarta! Sure, it's not like she's being transferred to US or UK or somewhere where it takes more than 12 hours to get to. But Jakarta!! It's not like we see each other every day (she currently works in Singapore) but this means we'll see each other even less than we already do. Who's gonna cheer me on when I start IVF #3? Ok I'm being melodramatic. I still have my buttcheeks and my BBC ladies to cheer me on, but this BFF is a big part of my life. She's like a sister to me. She's the one I IM with every single day of the week. And I mean every single day. She's one of my friends whom I can talk to about almost everything without judgment.

Sigh...I'm really happy for her coz this means she's being promoted. Being a career minded girl myself, I did tell her to accept the transfer. It's a great opportunity for her. I mean, if I weren't married and the opportunity presented itself, I'd take it. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm gonna miss  her. She'll leave for Jakarta in January (that's too soon!) and I'm really glad that she's coming along for our holiday in Penang tomorrow and running with me in the marathon on Sunday, so at least we'll have fun before she leaves.

Farewell my friend. Jakarta's really lucky to have you. Spread your wings in Indonesian sky and soar, like I know you will.

I Think I Need a Holiday

So I've been feeling a little down these past couple of weeks. Nothing major to worry about. I think I'm just exhausted with work. For some reason the end of the year means an onslaught of requests for contracts to be drafted/reviewed. It's probably got something to do with utilizing the company's budget for the year. Anyway, it's taking a toll on me. I know my last vacation was just two months ago but I need another one pronto!

Luckily for me, hubs and I will be going to Penang next weekend for my marathon across the Penang Bridge. The initial plan was for us to go with my friend and her sister, but it turns out that my whole family decided to tag along. On one hand I was a bit disappointed coz I was really looking forward to spending the holiday with hubs and my friends without feeling obligated to go wherever my family wants to go around Penang, but on the other hand the cheeky monkeys are gonna be there so that ought to be fun.

We'll be staying at Hard Rock Hotel Penang yay!! I've stayed at the hotel a couple of years ago during one of my buttcheeks roadtrip, and I must say the hotel is gorgeous! Here's a sneak peek

I'll see you soon Paul, John, George and Ringo!

Isn't the pool are gorgeous?

My boss still has not approved my application for leave, but no matter, even if he doesn't approve it by next weekend, I think I'll just take off LOL. 4.10 p.m: Boss approved my leave request yeehaa!!!

______________________________

There comes a time in one's professional life when you start to think about switching jobs/career/workplace. And right now I'm thinking it. Granted, I think about it not just once, but a couple of times a year. I think this feeling relates to my exhaustion. But surely there must be a fun job for me out there? One that doesn't require reviewing endless pages of agreements and giving advice to my business users on how best to do the business and minimizing legal risks at the same time. Something that relates to books and my love for reading? Maybe I should be a librarian LOL. Bottom line is, I'm stressed and tired and feeling depressed. And I hear a change is gonna come at the office but since it's not confirmed yet, I can't share it, but that's kinda stressing me out too. Plus if DH and I are planning to do our IVF in January, I really need to complete my projects at least by early January 2013, and I've got quite a few projects under my belt. 

So yeah, I'm stressed. Boo...

_________________________________

I watched this with DH last weekend...

And I loved it! It's definitely one of the best Bond films I've watched so far. Every actor in this movie carried out their roles perfectly. There were some surprises in the plot (I will not reveal them here) so if you wanna know what they are, go watch it! And Adele singing the theme song, oh my. They really hit the jackpot with that one. By the time the movie was over, I had the song on repeat in my head. Watch it watch it watch it!

Ladies & Gentlemen, We Have a Plan

So DH and I have decided to have our next cycle in...drum roll please...insyaAllah January 2013! We talked it over and after scrutinizing our finances DH declared that we're good to go in January. Yay!! That means we, or rather I, have two months to get my body in shape and my mind to be mentally prepared. So no more  coffee two mugs a day, turning in at 10 p.m. and chugging down my wheatgrass/barleygrass/chlorella potion before meals. Also, we really need to make time to see an Ustaz in Malacca to see if there's anything spiritual that's making me unable to get pregnant/sustain my pregnancies. Mental note to put that down in my November diary.

Speaking of getting pregnant and IVF, most if not all of my BBC friends have either given birth or are pregnant, which leaves just me. Although I'm over the moon for them, I can't help but feeling left out. No pressure on the next IVF LOL.

Anyway, just like the previous cycle I don't plan to tell anybody about it, except for my boss, buttcheeks and of course my family. So you know the drill. Shhhh!! :P

Holiday, a Birthday and Other Updates

Holiday, holiday, it's the best day
Ice-cream day
I am only happy
When I have
Holi...day
~Doctor Kosmos

I love that song. Such a fun song to sing along to. It's a silly song, but it's a fun one don't you think?

Gosh I haven't updated in ages! So let's get to the updating bit. DH and I went for a mini holiday last month. Nothing fancy. Just a couple of days at Cherating in the East Coast. It was a less than a three hour drive to the hotel and DH drove at a leisurely pace. We weren't rushing anyway. We got to the hotel and I have to say I was pretty disappointed with the place. The hotel has been there for quite a long time and the management is not doing anything to upgrade the place, which is a shame because Cherating is a nice place to have holidays at. There was no cable (they're still on Vision Four) and the sink in the bathroom leaked which flooded the bathroom floor, despite repeated calls to housekeeping to get it fixed.

I didn't make a big fuss out of it though. The important thing is I was with DH and we had fun chilling out at the beach, eating good food and getting lost trying to find a seafood restaurant. But though we had fun, I don't think I'll be going to Cherating again anytime soon. At least until the hotels there are upgraded.

We got lost trying to get here

Where we had this: stuffed crab, kam heong clams, deep fried squid and sweet potato leaves

Tong Juan. Famous for its stuffed crab

We had the stuffed crab and this steamed fish. Yum!

Excellent sata (cross between fish dumpling and meatball) at Warung Aziz Satar

_______________

Big sister came back from the UK with her kids in tow. This time for good (yay!). BIL will be coming back a bit later to finish off his work at his UK office.  I haven't seen them for a year and oh my how the kiddos have grown! They came back just in time to celebrate Mama's birthday. Mama wanted to go to Las Carretas so we had dinner there. The restaurant had TVs which played Tom & Jerry cartoons on repeat, and my nephew had a tough time concentrating on his food LOL. Everyone had a great time and by the time dinner was over, we were stuffed to the brim.

Jasmine with her sombrero hat

Dani watching watching Tom & Jerry on the telly, oblivious to everything and everyone

________________

I bought congkak (a traditional game) for the kids and my niece loves it! She caught on the do's and don'ts of the game really fast and got hooked really fast too! I'm gonna teach her how to play batu seremban next. 

The kids really love DH whom they call Pak Ngah. Whenever we go home to my parents' they'll be following him around like his shadows. They've been like that since they were kids. Lucky for them DH doesn't mind being bullied LOL. I'm thinking of bringing them to the bird park one day. I'm sure they'll enjoy it :)

The little monkeys trying their hands at congkak

And later, bullying Pak Ngah session :P

Enough updates for now. Gotta get back to work.