Let's Celebrate!

Right. Enough of angry posts. Lets move on shall we? Cool. So DH and I celebrated our 8th anniversary two weeks ago. It was pretty low key, in a good way. DH is never one for grand gestures, so I know not to expect any, and that's totally fine by me. He had already gotten me a pair of diamond earrings a month in advance. I'm still trying to figure what to get for him. I'm a terrible wife, I know. The thing is, it's very difficult to get him a present. He's very picky and if he doesn't like it, it will stay in our dressing table drawer for eternity. Oh well, I'll figure something out, hopefully before next year's anniversary :P

He took me out to a Korean dinner at Koryo-won, which I have been craving for for so long. We had bulgogi and BBQ meat wrapped in lettuce. Awesome awesome stuff. 

Little sister also came home from Sabah for her Eid holiday, albeit a week after we celebrated Eid. But no matter, we still had tremendous fun when she was around as always. Us sisters took mom put for a dim sum lunch. Dad was out of town so that was a bummer. Again, awesome awesome food (I love food. Can you tell?) 

A day before little sister flew back to Sabah, we met up for lunch. This time the whole family (minus husbands and kids) were there. 

Next was a friend's wedding last Saturday. I had great great fun at the wedding. After the stressful week I had, that wedding was all I needed. My best friend flew home from Jakarta to attend the wedding and as usual when she's around, hilarity ensues. Lots of laughs, lots of giggles. Just perfect. 

The wedding cake. Isn't it gorgeous? Made by my best friends's sister :)

While waiting for the solemnization ceremony, we painted our nails. Because why not :P

Best friends

With the gorgeous bride and her new husband

On Sunday DH and I celebrated his 35th birthday. I took him out for dinner at La Risata and my goodness, the food was truly to die for.

This sea bream with spinach and mascarpone cheese was truly to die for

Zuppa de pesce. Very light but quite filling. I die.

So that's what I've been up to last two weeks. Oh and DH and I finally made our hotel bookings for our Japan holiday, but that's another story for another entry.  Till more updates, toodles!

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!

More Updates

Hello good people! How was everyone's weekend? Good? Excellent! Me? I spent Saturday afternoon at Dr. A's clinic with DH to get my final Diphereline shot. Dr. A did a transvaginal scan (hello transvaginal wand! Long time no see!) and saw some fluid which is probably my endometriosis blood. Other than the fluid, everything else appears to be hunky dory. She ordered me to do an HSG test next month at Tawakal Hospital. Not looking forward to that one, I must say. My last HSG test was a nightmare. The pain was indescribable I actually cried while doing the test. This time I asked Dr. A for some painkillers to take before the procedure. Hopefully, this time it won't be as traumatic.

Two must have items while waiting at the clinic: coffee and a good book

After the appointment me and DH headed to SDCC for lunch with the family. It was big sis's birthday last week and we celebrated over dim sum, crispy duck and chicken feet. What better way to spend a birthday eh?

Me, big sis and the cheeky monkeys

Aaaaaah...chicken feet. Love this stuff!

Sunday was spent at the Bird Park. Big Sis wanted to take the cheeky monkeys and since DH had an appointment to see his client, I decided to tag along to the park. I'm glad I did coz in all my 32 years living in KL I have never ever stepped foot at the Bird Park. And I had the best time too!

Jasmine, our photographer for the day

For lunch I took them to one of my favourite restaurants, La Risata. It was mom and Big Sis's first time there and they loved it! We had the salmon ravioli, baked pasta, squid ink pasta and pepperoni pizza (for the kids). We also tried the chicken liver pate which was too die for. Didn't have time to snap photos of what we ate coz we attacked them as soon as the waiter brought them out. 

Mama & Big Sis

So in love am I with this restaurant that just last Friday I took my buttcheeks there for a dinner treat. Bonus was good this year and what better way to spend it than treating your best friends to dinner eh? :D

Love these ladies to death

Glorious food! (or part of :P)

And now it's already Wednesday. One week to our Jakarta trip and I can't wait! What did you do last weekend?

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!!

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,