Addiction

Hi, my name is Aiza and I'm a book addict.

Those of you who know me well can attest to this. I'm a book addict and I'm not ashamed to admit it. I have about twenty unread books on my bookshelves, but that doesn't stop me from buying at least one new book a month. I love everything about books. I'm a book sniffer. Before I start reading a new book, I always pick it up, turn the pages and bring it to my nose for a good sniff. You may find this weird, but I love now different paper smells differently. I love the woody, oaky smell. Don't believe me? Try it yourself.

I have to thank my dad for this addiction. Since me and my sisters were little, he would always bring us to bookstores and book fairs, and I loved it. I would find a spot in a bookstore, pick up a random book from the shelf and sit down to devour it. I now return the favour by bringing to the bookstores and buying him books. One of my favourite memories of school is going to the library during free periods. I was a frequent borrower. I would dread the time when I had to return the library books that I borrowed at her counter coz that meant the book and I had to part ways. Suffice to say, I always returned the books late. I often ignored the evil eye the librarian gave me. I also didn't mind when my dad picked me up late from school, coz that would mean more time for me spend at the library.

Unfortunately, now that I'm all grown up, have a sometimes stressful job and am married, I have less time to read. But that doesn't stop me from buying books. Oh no siree. During the last Big Bad Book sale (one of the biggest book fairs in the country) I spent about RM800 on books for me and dad. Money well spent I say.

I discovered Book Depository a couple of years and am now a frequent buyer. I love buying books online. Whenever I got a call from the mailing room at the office to pick up a parcel, my heart will skip in anticipation of tearing the package up to get to the book that I ordered. The coolest thing about Book Depository is that the books are super cheap and they offer free shipping to anywhere in the world. Their catalogue is huge and you can find almost any book there.

If you're an avid reader and a book addict, I seriously recommend going to the website and browse. You can click on the link above or the banner on my blog page. You can spend hours browsing, I can assure you. Try it, and you might find something you like. I know I always do. Happy browsing!

And The Countdown Begins!

This time on Wednesday I'll be on the road on my way to the airport with DH and mom for our trip to Jakarta. I so can't wait for this trip. One of my BFFs is working there and so we're crashing her place here:

She has kindly prepared an itinerary for us. I'll tell you more about our trip when we come back on Saturday, but just a little sneak peak, we'll be going mostly to Tanah Abang, Bogor and Puncak. DH and I need to do our shopping for Umrah, and what better way than to shop in Jakarta where you can get most of the stuff for cheap prices! And speaking of Jakarta, DH and I went to the Flea Market at The Curve on Saturday and I was rummaging through scarves and "anak tudung" which were sold there, and we bumped into the sister of my BFF who is in Jakarta. She then whispered to me not to get the scarves at the Flea Market and to get them in Jakarta instead for a fraction of the price. I swear if our luggage back to KL does not explode it will be a miracle LOL.

And last Saturday, DH and I went for our kursus Umrah where the Ustaz talked us through on what to expect and what to do when we're in Madinah and Mekah. I'm excited about this trip too, the kind of excitement that you can't really explain. DH and I have been through so much these past couple of years and I hope that this mini pilgrimage that we'll be doing next month will bring us closer to God and hopefully InsyaAllah our prayers will be answered there. 

To be a part of this...MasyaAllah

A little side note. I'm currently reading this:

I've read the first installment, "A Discovery of Witches" and loved it and I'm halfway through this sequel and can't seem to put down the sequel. If you're into witches and vampires (not the Twilight kind, please) and time travel and a little bit of history, grab this book. Well, grab the prequel first, and then grab this one. I sacrifice my sleep after Fajr prayer for this :P

Ok, will update more when I come back from Jakarta. Happy Monday and have a good week!

This and That

The year so far has been really good, Alhamdulillah. Except for that bump in the road to our baby miracle, everything has been swell. Even that bump in the road has a silver lining. At least now I know what really is wrong with my uterus, tubes etc right?

DH surprised me with a Mini Clubman last Friday. It's not a present, mind you. I told him that I'd like to pay for it and I will. I've been wanting one for as long as I can remember and I know that he had been scouring the internet to find one with a good deal, and being the magician that he is, he found one! It's an electric blue beauty and is in a very good condition. The best part is that it's a 1979 Mini Clubman, the year I was born. Talk about being meant to be LOL. I've been driving it to work since I got it, and I love it love it love it! Got a few looks while driving it and one driver even rolled down his window and yelled, "nice car!" LOL

Isn't she gorgeous?

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Last week I had my performance review with boss, and the feedback that I got from him was good Alhamdulillah. I was told that he's very happy with my performance last year and that this year he wants me to take on a more leadership role. I say bring it on! I'm hoping to treat myself, DH, my family and my buttcheeks and BFFs this year with my bonus, so I'm hoping that my bonus will be really good this year. Plus, I need to deposit a few bucks in our IVF fund and I have to pay DH back for the Mini so there's that.
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Have you guys listened to Josh Groban's latest album "All The Echoes"? You haven't? Well, what are you waiting for? I've been waiting for so long for this new album to come out and my take on it is that it's well worth the wait. His voice is gorgeous. The songs are gorgeous. And he's good looking to boot!

Get it get it get it. You won't regret it

I saw the Grammys yesterday and there was quite a hype on this Ed Sheeran dude, so I'm gonna give his album a listen. I'm hoping it will live up to all the hype, and since the "singer/songwriter" genre is more of my cup of tea, as opposed to all the trash that's been on the airwave lately. Carly Rae Jepsen's Call Me Maybe was nominated for Song of the Year? Seriously? Granted, I'm probably a bit too old now to listen to those kinds of music :P

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Got my first shot of Diphereline for my endometriosis last Saturday. That plus the Metronidazole antibiotics that I'm taking is making me feel a wee bit wonky. Been having on and off headaches and a bit of nausea. Does anyone know of any home remedies for headache and nausea? I loathe the idea of taking paracetamol every time the headache and nausea hit me. Fun fact. Did you know that Diphereline is originally used for prostate cancer patients? Yikes!

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Since IVF is a no go until at least the end of the year, DH and I have decided to take a holiday. Our options are:

1. Jakarta (no brainer since BFF is moving there end of the month)

2. Japan (almost certain that we'll be going late this year)

3. Hong Kong (a trip with buttcheeks perhaps?)

Any other suggestions? Preferably in the Asia Pacific region. We'll talk about US and Europe in a couple of years LOL. 

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I'm currently reading this.

I only read the "chic lit" genre when I'm feeling blue and am in need of a good laugh and this book does the trick and hits all the right spots. It's laugh out loud funny and reminds me a bit of these books by Laura Wolf, which I read eons ago. 

What are you up to lately?

Of Green Ogre and Jason Mraz

So something that never ever happened to me actually happened last week. I won a contest! And not just any contest. It's the Shrek The Musical contest where the price was four tickets to the show in KL. Hip hip hooray! I remember DH and I were at a coffee shop one weekend for breakfast and I was flipping the newspaper and saw the article on Shrek The Musical, and at the bottom was a column on the contest. I answered all the questions (the answers were all in the article) and thought nothing about it and then last Thursday i got an e-mail saying that I won the tickets!

The show was on Tuesday and I brought DH, my mom and dad along. I was actually waiting for my internal client to give me Jason Mraz tickets for his show, also last night, but I didn't hear a peep from him so I figured why waste perfectly good tickets (worth RM390 each by the way).

Pretty decent seats seats too!

I was riveted during the entire show. The cast was great. The music was great. The acting was great. The script was great. My favourite character would probably have to be Lord Farquaad. He was hilarious! What surprised me was how similar the voices of the characters in the musical with the actors in the movie. Donkey really sounded like Eddie Murphy! All in all everything was great and we had a really good time.

The stage from where we were sitting

Mama enjoyed it too and I thought she would. But Baba really surprised me. He's not the kind of guy who watches animated movies and I highly doubt that he has Shrek at the movies but I could tell that he was really into the whole thing.

Me & Mama

The next day hitz.fm was all abuzz with updates from the Jason Mraz concert on Tuesday night. I must say that I was a wee bit disappointed that I didn't get to go. I was looking forward to going actually, since my colleague told me that she would try her hardest to get me a couple of tickets, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. Anyway, if you haven't checked out Jason Mraz's latest album "Love Is A Four Letter Word", please do. You can thank me later.

I also started reading A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. I saw this book at my favourite bookstore and picked it up. I usually go for bestsellers but for some reason I was intrigued with this one. Apparently it's about a Harvard Professor who is actually a witch but does not want to have anything to do with sorcery. Oh and there's an "enigmatic" vampire thrown in there somewhere. Please don't make him sparkly. Shudder. I'm only up to page 15 and so far we have a good relationship, but we'll see how it pans out. Has anyone read this book? What do you think?

Much love,

Minor Meltdown

So I was reading last night and suddenly it occurred to me that in less than two weeks I will be starting IVF #2. And then I started crying. I guess all this time I've been refusing to think about it and have been putting this whole IVF #2 at the far corner of my mind. And then last night it hit me. To make things worse, DH was not at home. He was out playing badminton with his buddies. So there I was, alone on my bed crying my eyeballs out. For some reason I kept thinking about the nights after my miscarriage when I asked DH to stay the nights with me and he did. No questions asked eventhough we had to share a single bed. He was with me, holding me the entire time.

I'm scared. There I said it. I'm scared that this cycle will fail. I'm scared that this cycle will work and then I will lose the baby (again). I was so glad when DH came home. When he saw that I've been crying he immediately pulled me to him and that made me cry more. I asked him if he ever thinks about this new cycle and he admitted he does. He said he's as scared as I am and I love him for admitting that. He asked me if I want to postpone doing this but I told him I want to do this now. But I love him for asking.

I don't know what's gonna happen, it's all in His hands. But I know I must have faith that things will work out for us. Sometimes I wonder how is it possible for someone to be lucky and unlucky at the same time. I'm so lucky to have found DH and yet I'm also the unluckiest person in the world for not being able to have a baby.

Anyway, enough moping. This is what I read last night. I bought this book yesterday and started reading at 6 p.m. and finished it by 10 p.m. The story may not be very original but I just couldn't stop reading. I can't tell you about the book without revealing spoilers. It's a story of friendship, teenage love and a mother's love and loss all rolled into one. There were moments in the book where I cried. There was a line in this book that stays with me.

"Maybe you need to be broken a little before you can put yourself back together."

It was like the author was looking at me when she wrote this line. Have a go at this one. I've loved Kristin Hannah since I read Firefly Lane (excellent, excellent book) and this one doesn't disappoint.

Note to self: Must find more books to keep me company during my "house arrest".

Oh and Tyler Hilton's new album "Forget The Storm" came out. If you are a fan of One Tree Hill (I'm quite embarrassed to admit, but I am) you would know him from Season 2 and Season 9. I love his raspy, soulful voice and I love the lyrics to his songs. My favourite track would have to be "Prince of Nothing Charming."

One of my current favourite Tyler Hilton songs which I have on repeat on my iPod is "Keep On" from his Ladies & Gentleman EP".

The chorus goes like this:

When you lose what you love, live on live on

When the road gets too rough, be strong be strong

What you can't understand, but you're starting to see

It'll work in the end, you just got to believe

And keep on, keep on

So now whenever I'm down I will listen to this song and tell myself to keep on, keep on. And it'll work in the end.

Much love,
xoxo

Books, books, books

One thing you should know about me is that I love to read. When I was a kid whenever my parents brought me to a bookstore, more often than not a book would catch my eye, I would grab it from the shelf and I would just sit on the floor and devoured it. I still do it now. It's a good thing that most of the big bookstores here have chairs/sofas/benches so customers can do what I used to do when I was a kid. Before I was married I would stay up till the wee hours of the morning just to finish a book.

Sadly, I don't have that same luxury now. The only time I have to read is during weekends. When I was under house arrest during my first IVF cycle, I finished 18 books in the span of three weeks. Even DH couldn't believe it haha. Anyway, i just finished reading Home Front by Kristin Hannah yesterday. You know when you read a book and after you've read the last line and close the book, the story will just linger in your head? This is what this book did to me. Home Front tells the story of Jolene, a helicopter pilot in the National Guard who has been called for active duty in Iraq. Right before her deployment her husband, Michael tells her that he doesn't love her anymore. Her leaving for Iraq has left him in charge of their two children. When she meets with an accident, Michael begins to see their marriage in a new perspective and must find a way to manage their marriage which is falling apart, their children and a way to win back her love.

I find that this book is very moving (I cried a lot while reading this). There's a lot of tragedy going on in this book. The Iraq war for one thing (which I still think is a pointless war). Another is the disintegration of a family unit and how the members of the family bounce back in the face of adversity. I won't tell you more coz I don't want to spoil your reading experience. I've been a fan of Kristin Hannah for quite a while and I must say that this book ranks almost on par with her other book, Firefly Lane which I thought was superb. Heck, a book which can make cry a lot and which I finish in one night must be good, yes? So if there's a book that you should read, this is it.

I'm gonna start on Jodi Picoult's latest work, Lone Wolf soon. Hopefully this doesn't disappoint.

So what book have you been reading lately? Any good recommendations?

"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselor, and the most patient of teachers ~ Charles W. Eliot"

Much love,

xoxo