November 2018

We were back in Penang longer than usual.

Why?

It was Deepavali!

But first, let’s have a triple date.

We met up with 2 lovely couples for dinner and then, ended it with frozen yoghurt. It was a great catch up session and am really happy for all of them because of two things.

One, a couple will upgrade soon to be parents.
Two, a friend is finally in a relationship and he is happy.

Second, I had my be-early birthday celebration with my favourite people in Penang. Well, one of them was sick so, was unable to join though. We had our dinner buffet at G Hotel and went to visit the sick friend after.

It was my second Deepavali open house as a host. As usual, we had two sessions for our invited guests – lunch and dinner. We had delicious food and great friends to hang out with in that one day.

In that same month, another good friend of mine got married. She had her wedding the day before my birthday. We have known each other for more than 10 years so, I am definitely happy for her that she found someone that she can live with.

What’s better than celebrating your birthday with your family? I was not able to celebrate it last year with them as I was still in Taiwan. It felt even better to have Deanne with us.

Last but not least, we had a furry guest that stayed with us for a week. It felt good to have someone waiting for your return though I did feel bad for leaving him alone at home during daytime. Well, we had to go to work though. However, he did make a good friend with the furry neighbour. Up until today, the furry neighbour will still drop by our door to check if the furry guest is still around.

Yeah, we miss him too, buddy.

September 2018

…had been a wonderful month.

We were back in Penang and had celebrated his be-early birthday with our group of favourite friends. We had steamboat and followed by some desserts in a café.

In the same month, my baby brother had upgraded his girlfriend and vice versa. It was another joyful event for our family. Another new member is joining us officially.

So what did we do to end our September?

We went to Bali to have a short break and of course, our long delayed honeymoon. You can check them out here, here, here, here and here.

August 2018

We celebrated Dom’s birthday and of course, with a little member’s participation from now onwards. They had gotten a beautiful cake for Dom and it is his favourite character, Sonic the Hedgehog.

That same month, we organised a hen’s party for one of our girlfriends. We booked a cooking class for us – healthy nasi lemak and satay. Yes, we wanted the bride to learn to cook for the groom. Well, it was an eye-opening session for me too, as I learned a lot of new things in the class. Plus, this class made me wanted to get a food processor.

Of course, the best thing about this class was, the bride was really surprised. Hence, I believe our plan was a success. Of course the celebration did not end there. We had a dinner planned for her but I knew, she would see that coming and I was right. Her wedding would happen in 3 months’ time which I would share in my future post.

July 2018

I had some work assignments in Kuching for a few days during the month and on the day I finally came back was the day the husband left for India for work. He would be there for 10 days. Since I landed in KLIA, I decided to wait for the husband, even if it was just for us to meet for an hour.

Mom came to KL to pay us a visit too. I am glad we were able to hang out for a bit and that she was able to see her granddaughter too.

We attended our niece’s one-year old celebration. It is the daughter of our cousin that is one day older than me. Time flies really fast that his daughter is already one year old. I was really glad to be part of the celebration.

July was also the month which we had registered our marriage one year ago. To celebrate the day, the husband had it all planned out – to have dinner at Tamarind Restaurants. They serve Indochinese cuisine.

You pay a fixed price and you can order everything on the menu for 3 hours. Oh, the dishes are not ready made though so you have to wait as well.  Hence, just go ahead to order everything on the menu. The portion is small so, you don’t have to worry that you cannot finish the food because if you don’t, you would be wasting time to wait when you ordered the next few rounds. It was a good experience, at least for once in a lifetime so, do go try it out.

June 2018

It was Jag & Vila’s big day during the month. I could not imagine how stressed mom would have been to have two wedding dinners with just 3 months apart. On the bright side, she does not have to worry about such thing in future anymore.

Jag & Vila had their wedding ritual done at a temple followed by wedding dinner in a dewan. The night was full of dancing, drinking and singing.

In that same month was also the month for us to celebrate our grandfather’s birthday. It was his 76th birthday and all of us were back in Sibu to celebrate this big day. I am glad that the vow I made is still going strong.

The only difference for this year was that we had our mini family member, joined us for the celebration. Deanne represents the 5th generation in the family. Everyone back in Sibu was super excited to see her. Sadly she cried most of the time at home. Probably due to new environment and people. Of course, when she was in a good mood, she smiled a lot and that brought joy in the house.

May 2018

I made a very big decision to cut my hair short. Like finally since we had finished all the wedding dinners. Not only did I cut my hair short, I had my hair permed as well. I had then all done at Jeff Lee. No regret though it was too short for me.

That same month, we celebrated our third year being together ever since we first got together. We wanted to go to Grub by ahong & friends but it was fully booked. Hence, we went to Tropicana Mall which was nearby and had our dinner celebration at Three Little Pigs & The Big Bad Wolf. It was a simple and nice dinner.

Later in the month was when we celebrated Deanne’s full moon. We did not have an elaborative celebration – we had KFC and Domino’s at home. Just us.

We went back to Penang end of the month to attend our mutual friends’ wedding dinner. This pair is like us, mixed cultural wedding.

Honestly, year 2018 is a wedding marathon for us. Excluding our own wedding dinner, this was only the second wedding dinner for the year. Three more to go which I will share in my future posts.

December 2017

..was a wake-up-call month for me.

Why?

Wait till you read the end of this post.

In the early of the month, the husband and I made a special trip to Penang to celebrate our beloved friend’s birthday. It was a great catch-up that night accompanied by great food.

On the day of our return, my cousins were around. Therefore, we decided to meet them for lunch. All of us witnessed how manly the husband is. Long story short – a waitress was being rude to me. When the husband took the bill, he called out to the manager on duty and lodged a complaint on her.

My father was in KL too. We made a plan to have dinner with him and also to see him again at the place he was staying on the day he was leaving.

Coming to the end of the month, the husband and I made another trip to Penang to celebrate Christmas since it was a long weekend.

Look at that smile of mine.

It was gone after that night.

I was in pain for the longest time that night that I had to wake the husband to drive me to the nearest 24 hours clinic to get a pain killer jab to kill off the pain. I thought the pain would be gone the next day.

I was wrong.

The pain crawled back slowly and hit me real hard that Jag drove us to the hospital. I was admitted to the A&E department. Fortunately, we had Jag with us. The attending doctor diagnosed me with gastric while Jag insisted to do ultrasound on me.

That was when we found the real culprit – gallbladder inflammation. Well, it became inflamed as I had been in pain for 2.5 years and I did not take the right medication, thinking it was gastric.

Fast forward, I had surgery on Christmas Day and stayed in the hospital for the next 2 nights before I was discharged.

Lovely friends came to visit me at the in law’s place before the husband and I returned to KL.

It was definitely a wake-up call for me that health is more important.

That was when I made a big decision…

August 2017

..had been a month full of birthday celebrations!

First, my older brother’s birthday. Since he love Domino’s Pizza, we had ‘em for dinner!

Then, we had Ah Bi’s birthday celebration. We went for karaoke before we cut the cake.

Next was Yy’s birthday. The fiancé joined us too because he would be spending a few days with me before he went to Canada.

Okay, this may not be a birthday celebration but, it was a victory celebration! Though he could not make it to the finals, he still managed to get a trophy back to Malaysia. So proud of him.

Finally, we had a be-early birthday celebration for the fiancé! He was in KL for a day or two before heading back to Penang.

See..loads of birthday celebrations, right?

Grandpa’s Blessed Birthday

My brothers and I will go back Sibu at least twice a year – Chinese  New Year and our grandfather’s birthday.

This year was not an exception too. It was great to be home again. Short trip but lovely.

Not only I got to spend time with my family, my fiance was there with me too. He arrived much later as he had to work on Saturday morning. He made the effort to come to Sibu even though it was a really short trip for him.

Similarly, we were back to Sibu first flight in the morning on Saturday and had to leave on Sunday. As you can see, our family is growing – bigger and happier.  Most importantly, I still keep my own vow and will continue to do so..

Happy blessed 75th birthday to the greatest man in our family.

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..