Of turning 34. Ready or not?

READ IT HERE

Bid you goodbye, NOT!

I am saying goodbye yet to another blog.

Today I am so flustered over the fact that I've lost all the images (photos) in this blog! Do you notice the no entry signs?!

If you want to know why, then read this!
Whatever don'ts that they have mentioned there, I'm guilty as charged; by mistake! You see my Pink Galaxy Note decided to be smarty pants that resulted in me deleting the albums during reset.

I may not posted much on this blog but still, it's some sort of a memoir. Once a while I dropped by and amused myself with my jottings. Don't we all bloggers?

So in bid of pursuing my passion for blogging I decided to continue with a different account. In a blog which I have not updated for quite some time. After this entry onward, I shall be posting from this blog. I set it up in the first place to document my journey to conceive and to lose weight, which as you know have been put to a halt temporarily due to my knee injury. The blog has been abandoned since.

And now we shall meet there ya? (phantom readers of mine)

If you expect this entry will give you my highlights of 2012, sorry you'll be disappointed. I'd say it now, the happiness for me this year solely lies with the birth of my nieces. I feel so blessed. Alhamdulillah thank you Allah swt.

Encircling this single happy point in my life are knots of sadness, failure and anger. Everything went downhill from there and I must admit they're spiralling down fast. And I expect nothing more from 2013 except for the pain to go away. 2012, yes I bid you to go AWAY.

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As my self-proclaimed tradition would have it, December is the month of my birthday #wishlist (oh do you notice how now people love to #hashtag in order to make a point? yes.)

Ok here goes:

Floretta Fitflop 

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A Michael Kors watch in aqua or regal blue

A bedroom makeover

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Clark work shoes

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My dream fragrance;
Coco Mademoiselle

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A personalised Tiffany charm bracelet

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Coach from the Legacy Collection

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Samsung Galaxy Camera GC100

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and so far I have gotten this epic album from soulmate :-)

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So, there you have it. My #wishlist for my special 33rd birthday. And I'm extra super uber happy for I'll be celebrating that special day in my hometown! Hoorah! Hey sis if you're reading this, please throw me a good one okay?!!! That's an order! And here's a dash of inspiration for themes;
*wink*

Amazeballs, no?

Now here's wishing every phantom readers a very Happy New Year!! Carpe diem!

Wordless Wednesday

Of peonies and lovely mornings

All American Classic

Hello lovelies.

How did you spend your looooooooong weekend? Isn't Malaysia blessed with all the mid-breaks that we have and they came spot-on; just when we needed them the most, like this month. As for government servants like myself, I'm pretty sure we are all counting days like mad, for salary shall come late this month. We have got to endure the 5 weeks! And you bet I am keeping tab!

In the midst of wholemeal buns, French toast and whatever poor diet during this 'tight' month, I butter my hunger pangs by watching cooking clips on YouTube. In fact I was pretty much driven by my overdue desire to own a baking oven, just like this one over here.

Dream, dream, dream

Ever since I took the plunge to go on a diet and went cold turkey to my all time favourites, curry and deep-fried-everything; this appetite of mine can only tolerate anything baked, grilled or even smoked. I also fancy anything steamed. I self comfort by matra-ing that this is a good sign; that I finally compromise in the food intake department. Well at least for the meantime.

And another reason why I want an oven so badly is because I love these American classics;

Classic Meatloaf

And I used to get this on my birthday from my bestie's mom Aunt Kathleen, Aida's mom. She made the yummiest meatloaf ever!

And here's what my mom is great at;

The classic Pumpkin Pie!

All time family favourite, the chicken pot pie!

Roast chicken with gravy! Gah!

Watching these videos would surely make you drools no? *wipe drools off keyboard*

And I read somewhere that someone who's on a diet should never reward herself with food every time when she hits her target weight because this is the main reason why mostly diet regimes fail miserably! I took heed of that but in my defense, these foods are not what I deprive myself from, instead these are the recipes that I've always wanted to attempt on my own since the first day I got married and moved in to our own place! That's 6 years ago!

Okay perhaps I have once recipe that I may consider 'sinful' but I must try it nevertheless!

The classic CARROT CAKE with cream cheese frosting!! 

Mother of all yumsies!!! *please include sound fx*

And I shall make sure that mine will look as perfect as this;

There's only once carrot and they all gotta share it!
*okay I can;t help myself, must put that lyrics!*

Oh boy, now I can't wait!!

So I must not stop persuading hubs to get me that oven!!

Here you go, my loooooooooong weekend ramblings.

To Smell Good Under the Weather

"Fuh fuh fuh fuh" *Blowing dusts on my entry shelf.

God knows how much I love blogging over the weekend, especially when there's no job due on the following Monday but last weekend I just couldn't.

I've been sick. Sick to the point that I pooped in my own bed! Please don't imagine anything nasty because I was wearing a trustworthy Libresse's overnight pad (Aussino's sheet saved). If I were to be blogging then my entry would be on how distressing it was having to frequent the toilet! It all started on Friday, sometime around 4pm in a meeting. There I was fiddling my iPad and beginning to feel that my body temperature suddenly spiked. I started sweating and kept fanning myself. Hubs was scheduled for a futsal game that evening and our arrangement on game night normally being him in the court and me waiting for him at the Starbucks next door. I used to be so fond of this arrangement but that night, for the first time ever I hated it, I just wanted to go home. Nevertheless, I endured the 2 long agonizing hours, sipping warm water, (yes you read that right).and running through my emails, I thought of putting up an entry but my body didn't seem to agree. Good thing though there was a lavatory in that outlet. That night I slept for 16 hours. When I woke up 4 bottles of Air Badak were waiting for me, plus tubs of Chi Kit Teck Aun. Fast forward to today, I feel a bit pinkish. But if I had my druthers, I would have called in sick. But no will do; I've got to save up my leaves for Baby M's arrival. There, my illness journal.Full stop.

While recovering, I couldn't stand the sight of food so I surfed on something else but food. Of course there's a good one hour ogling for the Grenade Guy, then I had a good 10 minutes laugh when I stumbled upon this picture;

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Keeping up indeed!

I showed it to Hubs and he had a good laugh too but quickly did a killjoy when he said,

"So you're okay now?" buzzzzzzzzzzzzz.... Of course I'm still not okay. This picture proves that vanity must begin somewhere, usually from an awful taste, as exhibited. I mean what the hell where they thinking? Kris should have known better and the awkward position that she and Bruce had there didn't help much either. Just weird.

Then I moved on to something else, and I stumbled upon these babies!!

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DNKY Sweet Delicious Collection!!

Literally speechless. I ain't no fan of fruity smelling fragrances let alone an apple scent, because it reminds me of mak's Kuat Harimau but this is different and knowing me, here's why;

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DKNY Sweet Delicious Pink Macaroon

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DKNY Sweet Delicious Creamy Meringue

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DKNY Sweet Delicious Tart Key Lime

And the details, which I got from here:

DKNY Sweet Delicious Pink Macaroon is a gourmand scent of yummy almond macaroons, refreshed with fruity flavors. It opens with notes of nectarine and kumquat. The core of the fragrance consists of rose marzipan and pomegranate aromas, placed on the base of amber and tonka.

Top notes: nectarine, kumquat
Heart: pomegranate, rose marzipan
Base: amber, woody notes, tonka

DKNY Sweet Delicious Creamy Meringue combines fresh top notes of lemon cream, bergamot and "crepe suzette" accord with the floral heart of freesia, frangipani and passion flower and the base of cedar, white amber and musk.

Top notes: crepe suzette, lemon cream, bergamot
Heart: freesia, passion flower, frangipani
Base: cedar, white amber, musk

DKNY Sweet Delicious Tart Key Lime is inspired by the smell of creamy pie with citrusy aroma, opening with fresh notes of orange, tart key lime pie accord, bergamot and mandarin, with middle notes of neroli, ginger and basil, and the base wrapping it all up with violet leaf.

Top notes: tart key lime pie, bergamot, mandarin, orange
Heart: basil, ginger, neroli
Base: violet leaf

Don't the words 'creamy pie' 'almond macaroons' and 'crepe suzzete' make you drools like mad? These are gourmand scents! (Learnt that word like seconds after reading it) All this while I've been describing my favourite fragrance as yummilicious, bubble-gum-ish, sweet taste, and so on...and now I know, the right term is, repeat after me; GOURMAND [goor-mand]

My affair with gourmand scent started with Paris Hilton's collection, all of them except for 'Just Me'. Although her fragrances are made of fruity notes, the outcome somewhat screams bubble gum, cotton candy, lolly pop-ish scent. I love them all. And came in Carolina Herrera's CH where it distinctively denotes pineapple but to me it reminds me a lot of my aunt's crumbly pineapple tart. Why I'm so into gourmand scent simply because they tend to smell better over time especially once you start to perspire. And the scent is certainly pleasant when spritz accordingly. Most of the time I find people tend to make good remarks when I put them on especially in the mornings in the elevator; if not leading them to thinking that they're hungry! 

Just around last year, Eraman Malaysia took an initiative and brought in the ever darling Victoria's Secrets perfumeries and cosmetics  to their departure halls. There I started my love affair with Coconut Passion and Vanilla Lace. Adding watts to my smile is the price! 50ml at only RM52! And I tell you it lingers for days even after laundry! Just heavenly. 

 During my December's visit to Kuching however, I didn't see any of these VS's fragrances anymore, instead they replenished the shelf with the new versions of body mist. Quite a downer for a cheapo like me. I thought of getting a bottle of body mist for my hoarder's brain instructed me so but luckily I didn't succumb.

But as fate would have it, a colleague bought one for me for my birthday this year. Boy was I flabbergasted much. It smells so good that Hubs loves it too.

Forever Blushing

Oh this seems like a long entry now.

So, who's up to sponsor me those DKNY babies?

A weekend that is almost pointless

That's me and Hubs (please excuse our round-ness). For non-child-bearer like us, weekend can be so daunting. We ran out on ideas on what to do, normally I would dedicate my weekend for major house chores, like laundry, mopping, ironing a wardrobe, cooking big meals but at times all those were done by Friday, leaving Saturday and Sunday for lazing around. Lifeless, I know. So, last weekend was one of those days, we both got mati-kutu you know, he looked at me munching, I looked at him Facebuku-ing... until it was 11 am, I couldn't stand the silly shows on the idiot box, boomed! I got a BIG idea. 

"Let's check out B.I.G" 

"Apa?"

"B.I.G, kat Solaris"

"Apa?"

 Me, giving up and hurriedly changing from shorts to my outing gears. Hubs is still in his sarong. 

"Jom la" K-Pop duck mouth protruding from my face.

"Apa?" 

By then, I got super annoyed and literally grabbed him and handed him a decent T-Shirt.

"Oh nak keluarkah," (like duh)

The back entrance at Publika

I've been wanting to go this grocer since the BIG Group's facebuku announced the official opening.  I've been pestering Hubs to go but he refused, he kept saying we don't do upscale groceries.

"We go kedai apek bawah rumah only, capisce (Rancic's style - kah-peesh)?" were his exact words and he said it with a very, very serious face. But that fateful day, he gave in because his smarty wife lured him with a plate of pasta, the dish he's been craving for days. Clever one. 

Where is this B.I.G? It's at Publika, a new shopping mall located at Solaris Dutamas. Google map please. And B.I.G stands for Ben's Independent Grocer. It's part of the BIG Group. If you already 'Like' their Facebuku, it states there that the BIG Group believes in bonding humans, especially Malaysians, through food. True to their words, Hubs and I are no exception. We frequent Ben's; one of their flagship restaurant and we bonded over the food they served. Apart from Ben's they also own Plan B, Canoodling, Tate, T Forty Two, Ricetaurant, to name a few. Their maths is simple, they are determined to build relationships through food.

And B.I.G is their latest project.

That's one angry wife, because it was the 12897th shot and boy was I starving!

So why do I wanted to go to B.I.G that bad? Simply because of the different ambience of doing groceries!  But that day we did not plan to do groceries, we just wanted to check the place out. So before we regret any unplanned departures with our ringgits, Hubs insisted that we eat first. You know one of the shopaholic's rules right? No shopping if you're hungry as it would definitely lead to impulsive purchases! 

Ben's General Food Store - yumsy display

Please, who ever you are, please please please try their Nutella milkshake! Ya ampun nyaman!! I can't really describe the flavorful taste because it was so yummeh! Suffice to say that this shake right there is the reason (one of the many) why I'd surely make a comeback at B.I.G. Even as I'm typing this I could feel the dreamy taste lingering on the tip of my tongue... simply sedap!

So, once we're full, the adventure begins! The grocer's space alone lives up to it's name, it's big, spacious with endless isles that scream for your cart. 

When the placard FRESH are put up, the produce literally represents the display. 

Fresh as it gets!

Fresh vege - hydroponic style

Made famous by Jamie Oliver, fresh herbs

And they just defy the mediocrity of a Malaysian grocery store. Every section is manned by a couple if not one attentive, knowledgable and friendly grocer. When I say defying mediocrity, I mean...

Hubs doing the tummy tuck...don't be fooled

Wagyu beef

They're well, not common.

Hubs was tired of taking pictures and continued to wander through the isles. A lot of imported goods I must say, and a lot of organic stuff too, which I guess is wise for going organic is an in-thing now especially at an upscale place such as Solaris, I'm sure every one eats like a rabbit. They also carry assorted brands of earth-friendly detergents, toiletries and a few household necessities. I was utterly impressed until the second I read the price tag, gulp! Threefold the price of your trustworthy Sunlight.

Apart from its choco bar, vinegar corner, spice nook, flower parlor, a tempting bakery and a humble kopitiam (sorry no pics here), this particular section managed to get Hubs to haul his i4 again and snapped some pictures;

TESLian knows

The quietest area in B.I.G where I coaxed Hubs to enter but he refused. It's the non-halal section. I noticed no Malays went in. Why did I want to get in? Intriguing lah...

Our tour ended at the magazine section. Of course, a no-brainer for nerds like us. Hubs took home a photog's magazine and I brought home a few no-brainer reads, i.e. fashion mags. Hubs was quite surprise that I was not tempted by the aromatic bakery located nicely next to the magazine section, and so was I. I guess the mushroom lasagna that I had earlier on still lingered in my tummy line. So, apart from magazines, what else did I purchase from B.I.G?

This^

And so that wrapped up our mini tour in a grocery store. Hubs said there's no way we're heading back home just for a packet of chewies so he dragged me to explore Publika, the mall. Now I shall let the pics do the talking ya.

The main entrance

Hey, gotta love some pearly smoothies.

And after an extra hour of wandering, our perut do the keroncong song again... teruk betul... hence;

Vulgar cuppies said Hubs

The ntah apa2 chicken wings

Ombak Rindu, the final quest!

There was a charity concert going on at the open space near the Publika entrance. I couldn't resist buying the ticket (in the name of charity  ok!) because of the goodies!! I mean anything with Empire Records on it an 80's baby like me would surely grab it! (^^)  I didn't even bother to attend the concert! 

 And that was our aimless weekend. Hopefully this weekend would be more fruitful (you wish). Will I return to B.I.G? Well, yes but not in the near future. This place reads 'burn a hole in your pocket'. Perhaps some time farther away in 2012 ok Ben? Till then.

Le me boycott the common

**PS:  While we're on our way home.
Hubs: "By you know in fact this is where Petronas always held their meeting. I come here twice a week. No wonder it looks familiar.
Me: Fail.