November 2015

November had been a great month to me. It started off with the District 51 Humourous Speech & Speech Evaluation Contests. Never had I imagined myself to be on that stage. Not everyone would reach that stage. From Club to Area, then to Division and finally District. It was in Johor. To be honest, I did not want to go initially. However, the boyfriend encouraged me and he planned everything – the accommodation as well as the transportation. He wanted me to focus on the contest.

Then I received a handmade gift from the boyfriend. Actually, I blew the surprise myself. He wanted to give it to me on my birthday itself however, I got home earlier that day while he was working on the present. Therefore, I blew the surprise.

Also, the boyfriend got me a new charm – Japan. Why? We are going to Japan together next year! I am really looking forward to it.

So what did I do for my birthday? I actually planned a getaway. I wrote about it here, here, here and here. Enjoy reading!

Since I have never had a fine dining before, the boyfriend decided to take me to one. It was 59Sixty Restaurant. We had a few dishes and though all the portion were small, we were really full at the end of the day. Lovely experience.

I ended November with a weekend getaway trip with my favourite people. We went to Ipoh for the weekend. Though it was just a night stay, we had a lot of fun. I really hope we will do another one again.

One more month and it is the end of year 2015. Frankly speaking, a lot had happened – the good, the bad, the ugly. However, those were not as ugly as December. I will share with you in my next update.

Birthday Getaway: Day 4

It was our last in Koh Lipe. To be honest, I was devastated. I really had a piece of mind during my stay and now I had to go back to reality.

Since we had until afternoon, we requested to extend one room and fortunately, the hotel staff was really nice and she extended the room for us with no charges! Lovely! Therefore, we could still walk around and then, took our shower after.

We lazed by the beach after breakfast. The air, the breeze, the view and dogs around us.

It was then we decided to walked to Walking Street, hailed a tuk-tuk and made our way to Aroy Mexicana for lunch. The owner was friendly and the food was great. He even asked us how we knew about his restaurant. As it became cloudy and windy by the time we were done, we were more than happy to walk back to our hotel to freshen up and pack our luggage.

While we were waiting for the immigration process, the boyfriend was contemplating to go to 7Eleven to buy a few of his favourite tom-yum cup noodles. Since we had a lot of time to kill, I told him to go ahead. He went and guess what? He came back with 5 that cup noodles and a cocnut ice-cream. Why 5 when it is his favourite? They left only 5 of that in the shelf. Otherwise, he would have gotten even more.

It was already 8pm when we reached Langkawi. We had to go through another round of immigration before we could catch a cab to our hotel. Once we had checked-in our luggage, we headed straight to The Cliff without even taking a shower. Yes, we were really hungry. It was my very first time to see the boyfriend walking so fast ahead of me.

While we were enjoying our food, the restaurant played a birthday song. I saw one of the waiters brought a cake to one of the tables. After a while, another birthday song was played. I thought it was another table so I was looking at one direction when a waitress brought a cake from another direction to me. It was surprise planned by the boyfriend. Now it all made sense – him, walking so fast. He had made an arrangement earlier and did not want to be late for it.

“I did not want your birthday this year to go without a cake” was what he said. Actually we were looking for cakes in Koh Lipe but to our avail. Therefore, he decided to make this arrangement when we were back in Langkawi.

Honestly, I am a very happy woman.

Birthday Getaway: Day 3

Having breakfast with a stunning view of the ocean – bliss. I wish I could do this everyday. Now that we had a full day in Koh Lipe, there was just so little for us to do. Seriously, the best part about this getaway was to do nothing. All we did were eating, drinking, walking and sleeping, eating, drinking, walking and sleeping.

We started off with taking pictures at this big tree right in front of our hotel. When we were having our breakfast, I saw a few couples took pictures there as well. That’s when I told the boyfriend “let’s take some photos there later!”

As there are three beaches in Koh Lipe, we decided to explore the other two beaches that day. They are all within walking distance. We decided to go Sunrise Beach, leaving Sunset Beach in the evening. On our way, we had coconut ice-cream and it is the bomb! The boyfriend love it a lot.

It took us about 5 to 10 minutes walk to reach the beach. The waves are stronger and the crowd is smaller compared to Pattaya Beach.

We decided to stop at Sunrise Beach Restaurant for some drinks and food while enjoying the view before we left the beach. On our way back to the hotel, I realised there was a shorter route compared to the route we used earlier. We reached Walking Street in less than 5 minutes! Oh well, at least we explored like the locals.

When we got back to the hotel, the boyfriend said he wanted to dip in the water. It was three in the afternoon and he wanted to dip in the water. I did not join him but one of the dogs did. This particular dog loves to be in the water.

Before I took my nap, I had this Thai’s cup noodles – minced pork flavour. Delicious! Unfortunately, I could not bring a few back to Penang with me.

It was about 5.30pm when we left the hotel to Sunset Beach. I did not want to miss the view. Trust me, though the sun was setting, it was still quite hot! I had to hide in the shadows of the big rocks.

Then we decided to walk to Walking Street to have dinner. On our way, there were a few taxis or probably tuk-tuk passed by us. Since we had never taken a ride before, we decided to hail one. Guess what? Fortunately we took the ride. It was so far to walk to Walking Street and the streets were dark!

We had our last dinner in Koh Lipe at Rak-Lay Restaurant. It was a satisfying dinner and oh, the boyfriend found a stray lover..

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..a kitten! She was sleeping under my chair and we woke her up with some food. Then she started to jump up to the boyfriend’s thigh and that’s when their relationship started. Such an adorable kitten..

Birthday Getaway: Day 2

It was finally the day – to Koh Lipe!

We took the first ferry out to the island. It was about one and a half hour of ride to reach our destination. We were then transported to a smaller boat to go to the coast of the island. Trust me, the water is so blue! It is so beautiful!

We had to wait to get our passports back before we started to look for our hotel. While I remember seeing the location of the hotel in the map, the boyfriend went to ask the locals – just to be on the safe side. Apparently it was only a 5-minute walk from the immigration centre. We stayed in Bella Vista Beach Resort which is on Pattaya Beach.

Pattaya Beach is Koh Lipe's main beach, a large sheltered bay with soft powdery sand and crystal-clear blue water.

We were greeted by the friendly staff and the boys voluntarily took our luggages. Okay, you have to give them some tips. We did.

Since we had not had our lunch, we went to the nearest place to dine – Cafe Lipe. We ordered local delicacies – green and red curries and more! There was a friendly dog in the cafe as well.

After our lunch, we decided to walk around for a bit to check out the place. There was this famous and happening street – Walking Street. There are a lot of bars, cafes and shops. I guess we would be spending the next few days eating and drinking here.

While we were strolling on the street, it was drizzling. We decided to walk into Elephant Books & Coffee. It seems like a nice bar with good food as we saw some people made an order. We left the place when the rain stopped. We walked back to our hotel to take our nap to recharge our energy.

It was already evening when we woke up. The view at Pattaya Beach was stunning! We wanted to have our dinner at Capriccio. Apparently, it ranks number 1 on the island. When we reached the place, we found out that it was already closed down for a long time. Therefore, we went to Leonardo “the restaurant”.

After dinner, we stopped by Sawasdee Bar before we called it a night. Though nothing peculiar happened,  I enjoyed my birthday especially the compnay I had. I am glad I chose this island as my birthday getaway.

Birthday Getaway: Day 1

I had this getaway planned since last year. Initially, I decided to celebrate my birthday alone, out of Malaysia. Then, I invited my brother. He then invited our cousins. They then invited the mothers. In the end, the only ones left were myself, the boyfriend, my cousin and her husband. My brother could not join us. The mothers could not join us.

Yes, I celebrated my birthday out of Malaysia. Not too far away though but, the place was amazing! We went to Koh Lipe.

We had to go to Koh Lipe from Langkawi. Therefore, we spent one night in Langkawi. What was there to do in Langkawi other than having cheap boozes!

On the same day, I found out that I bought the wrong date of departure to Koh Lipe. I had to buy new tickets. I was upset, really. However, the boyfriend turned the table around. I was really touched of what he did for me after.

“I am here to amend your mistakes” was what he said to me. He did not want me to be sad especially during my birthday getaway.  I am really blessed that God sent him to me.

October 2015

I started my October by heading down to Kuala Lumpur to visit my brother. The boyfriend tagged along with me. Instead of driving, we took the train. We heard a lot about this train and therefore, decided to give it a try. One thing we learned during this ride was to bring a sweater or blanket along. It was freezing inside the train!

Moving on was the Division N’s Humorous Speech and Speech Evaluation Contests. Similarly, I was aiming for runner-up. It is a Division level so, I did not put high hope on the placings. What happened next was out of my expectation. I won the contest and will be representing the Division in District 51’s contest– the contest that I had never imagined to participate.

That same month, I made a breakthrough for my club – MEF Toastmasters Club’s long-awaited Team Building! I was really grateful to the Organising Chair, Chia Tean. Without her, it would not happen. She found a great Facilitator, Jay. I am really proud of the club. Thanks to this activity, the members’ bond grew stonger and more united! I hope we will do this again in 2016 before I end my term in July 2016.

Of course we cannot end October without celebrating Octoberfest! This time, we went to The Suffolk House to join the Germans and others for the celebration. We had beers, German sousages and music! Bliss..

I guess October had been nice to me but, guess what? November was even better so, stay tuned!

September 2015

It is already Christmas and I realised I had not updated my blog for almost 2 months! Before I could fill you in on October and November, let’s throw back my September 2015.

I started September 2015 with the Area N1 Humorous Speech and Speech Evaluation Contests. I represented Penang Toastmasters Club in this contest. What was my target? I aimed to get runner-up in this contest. I did not have the courage to put such a high hope. However, luck was on my side. I won the contest along with Nicholas who represented in Humorous Speech Contest. We would be competing in Division N together next!

The second highlight for the month was the surprise I planned with his colleague for his birthday. I went over to the college. I was shocked to see so many students were participating in this surprise. Then he was surprised to see I was there. I believe he will never forget this day – his 31st birthday.

The third highlight for the month was the surprise brought by the boyfriend this time. I went to pay summon that morning when I received a call from my colleague. She sounded anxious and told me that there was a customer looking for me. I thought long and hard that I had attended all the enquiries and was very sure that I did not miss any of it out. I was half worried and half suspicious. I even thought my boyfriend could have put up a show with my colleagues and we were waiting for me to go back to office. When I got back to the office, I was dumbfounded when I saw this huge vase on my table! Both shocked and speechless. The next thing I knew. my tears were streaming down my cheeks. Such a lovely surprise from him. He had planned this out early of the month while I had planned out his birthday end of October. We were both giving each other a surprise in the same month. I am feeling blessed.

Third highlight was the day the boyfriend moved out from his place. He had always wanted to move out to be independent. Finally, he did it! We had a soft house warming with the closer friends. It was a last minute call and we were glad that most of them were able to make it. Now we know who are the true friends.

The last highlight for the month was the dinner that I had planned with sweat and tears. It was the Division H’s Joint Installation Dinner. To be honest, it was not easy to organise such a big event. I had organised the Division H’s contest last year but trust me, this is a different level! I am really glad that I had a great committee who worked alongside with me to make this dinner a success! Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much! I will always remember this phrase.

So you see, September had been great to me. We shall see how October treated me next.