14 days before the wedding

Alhamdulillah, most of the major stuff have been settled (God, please, let 4 hrs be enough to set up the venue, please)...except!

a tiny thing - bunga pahar.

Personally, i don't really fancy the look of a bunga pahar. Most of the time, it's shiny, probably yellow in colour & thorny. I was thinking of scrapping it, but pple told me that it'd be odd.

Kalau bunga pahar tu murah tak apa jugak - at least $80! Nasib baik my aunt will be doing it for me, but i still have to get the egg holder.

Mak suggested using plastic eggs in place of real eggs. I was like...Boleh ke?!

I mean, most of the time, I don't even notice the "presence" of bunga pahar on pelamins. A minute ago, I searched for wedding pics to look at bunga pahars on pelamins, and guess what? I forgot I was supposed to look at the bunga pahar - I looked at the bride instead. Hehe.

Hai, adat resam. Apa nak buat, kita ni hidup bermasyarakat. Lagi2 orang melayu.
But i still find it inconvenient most times, to adhere to these adat resam nitty gritty details. Wish me luck. I just sms-ed my mak andam to ask if it's OK not to have the bunga pahar thingy.

I wiped my tears as I closed the book. Very nice read & so inspirational. Within a week, I've finished 2 of Mitch Albom's books. If only people take some time to step backwards, we'll realise there's so much more to life, than to complain about insignificant things (okay i know i can be a complaint queen sometimes) or set such ridiculously high standards in ridiculous things.

I shall try, to simplify my life. Hopefully it'll make a difference, and more importantly, make me happier.

Moving on to happy things now... this is our cozy corner (it is, isn't it, AH?. A bit bright when this shot was taken, coz we wanted to test the lights. But when the lights are dimmer, I simply love this part of the room, & the mirror too. Thanks for choosing it. We got it from Benda Benda.


Tomorrow, if all goes well, I'll buy that plastic box, go over to J's, spend an hr or two, and hopefully get a nice looking box at the end of it. I still have to attach the little flowers to 2 more alas dulangs.

Just now, during one of those 'switch-off' moments at the seminar, Brenda asked if I was excited about the wedding. I replied, "OKlah".

That might not have come out really right, but you bet, I'm every inch excited :)

Today I popped by my old workplace to invite my ex-colleagues. When I stepped into the place, the kids were already yelling, "Kak Naniiiii!!! Kak Naniiii!!" (I bet those yang tak kenal aku pun jerit2 jugak :P). Surprisingly, I could remember almost all their names! Budak ni2, nampak betul2 kiut, tapi kalau dah kerja kat situ, baru lah seseorang tu tahu betapa "kiut"nya mereka yang sebenarnya :P

Anyway this is the cuter (nak kata scary pon boleh) part. I was sitting with N, when 2 kids whispered to each other about the reason why I was there.

And then, 1 said aloud, "Kak Nani datang sini sebab dia nak kasi surat lah. Nanti 14 Ogos dia nak kawin."

So I asked him (with a bewildered smile plastered on my face), "Mana awak tau?"

And he replied, "Tu ari saya dengar Mr T cakap dgn staff yang kak nani nak kawin 14 Ogos."

Budak2...so simple minded eh? God knows whether he understood the meaning of kawin. Pandai ajer dia pasang telinga...survival lah katakan...

Budak....budak...but too bad budak...you're not invited. Hahaha! (ishk, jahat eh?)

*****

Things were quite different with the adult. I met Kak R, who prolly has been waiting for weeks for the invitation to arrive. I whispered to her, that I wanted to give something to her. So we went to a room (sneaky sneaky...) & as she was saying, " I dah tau dahhh...I dah tau apa u nak kasi", I fished something out and presented it to her. She covered her mouth with surprise & both of us laughed. It was a brooch - my extremely long overdue farewell gift for my ex-colleagues. Ingat nak kasi kad, sekali keluar benda lain.

But of course lah, I wasn't that evil. I gave her a invitation card too. And she gave me a soft slap on my shoulders, laughing away, and I teased her about how she was tricked, hehehe...

I actually like pulling such pranks. Cuma dah tua2, ni dah mellow sikit. Kalau tak dulu....Hmmm...I was like, a prank princess. Tak caya? Tak caya sudah.

So left beberapa lagi orang, and then my present colleagues. Kait mengait betul. But one thing for sure, the big boss is definitely not on the list. That, was easy.

Bila time off day, tak boleh tido pulak lepas subuh.
Bila time kena kerja, senang betul nak tido after subuh. That's life. Hehe.

Neways, pagi2 I went to Haryasin & bought some pratas for breakfast.
When I got back, Mak was ready for arab st. So we went.

Purchased beads, a mattress protector & a corset. A girdle slims down my legs, and since I won't be wearing pants on the wedding (hahahahah! well hopefully not), I figured a corset will be more useful in my quest to hide my babats. (When I got back, I examined my babats & realised that they've increased in both length & width).

I gave out 2 more invitations today too - to my ex-colleagues. Before that, I posted a stack of invites (winks) & to my surprise, the postbox was full to the brim! Nak post, sekali tak boleh masok penuh seh. So I sorta stuck my hand inside the post box & tried to place the cards in a safe position. Ye lah, siapa tahu, card tu tercicir ke, then postman malas nak angkat ke, dah problem. But then I told myself to tawakal. So many things are just beyond our control, so tawakal is the best remedy.

With regard the the lack of time for the deco pple to work on our venue, I'll employ the same method. Doa & tawakkal. I hope the arrangement is feasible.

Anyway, Nana just said, "5 days before you marry, there'll be Shooting stars on TV". :P

Bapak & AH - moving our cabinet to where it's supposed to be.

I'm so excited.....
The room looks nice, alhamdulillah. So thankful to Bapak, Mak & AH for their efforts.

AH is sleeping now, on the new bed. I'm not (hehe, for obvious
reasons). He deserves the rest lah, after all that he has done today.

I really feel like posting a picture of AH's fave corner of the room,
but no lah, I shall not do so. Spoil jer kan? Kesian AH, penat2 tolak
furniture ke sana kemari, cat dinding, cat ceiling, sekali si irris
pegi potong stim :P

And the flowers he took from E & W's place are really so pretty.

Syukur, alhamdulillah. Save lots of money - the flowers definitely
don't come cheap.

The console? Right, since u're so confident, insya-Allah we shall get it then.

Mak told me that when she went around to jemput2 our guests, my nenek sedaras have been calling me "si pengantin". I suppose they're quite excited about the wedding. I used to get sloppy kisses from 2 of my nenek sedaras - kecik2 memang lah kiut and they would just cium my pipi. Tapi terbawak-bawak..sampai dah ada pimple pon masih kena cium, aiseh. Hehehe. But I'm quite glad I'm still adorable, well...erm in that sense lah (by nenek2 standards, hehehe)

Yesterday there was some majlis maulud thingy in the neigbourhood so I went with the whole family. And there they were, excited makcik neighbours (somehow, my malay neighbours seemed to have multiplied quite a lot over the recent years and they are all friends of Mak) who again, called me "pengantin".

I was so tickled - especially when one of them spotted our new grilles & red walls. (Actually, I felt a little bit of horror - coz I used to hang my undies there, on the old grilles. And yesterday I found out that Cik R, and her husband, walks down the staircase near my bedroom window EVERYDAY. Argh!!) Anyway i just geli hati (girly style) & pray silently that may their words come true, insya-Allah.

Neways, AH has gone to a neighbouring friend's house to get some flowers for the bedroom deco. Today, AH came over, fixed the door handles & some other miscellaneous stuff. I'm glad he liked the bedroom, alhamdulillah. His very own hardwork over 1 month plus.

Amidst the kecoh2 DIY stuff, si Nana accidentally locked herself out of the bedroom door. Sebab tak mo orang lain bukak pintu dia without permission punyer pasal, she kept her room keys in her room. Tadi angin kuat, sekali bedebam, terlock kat luar. kah kah kah. Kiddy moments. I chuckled to myself, coz I believe, every kid must've locked themselves out of some door at least once in their lives.

3 more weeks...3 more weeks, insya-Allah :)

Finally managed to get online at home. I resetted the password last Sat, leaving my 2 siblings (and me too, of course) exasperated at the lack of internet connectivity. Hehe!

At the moment, my main concern revolves around technicalities - I can't wait for the grilles to be fixed on Friday morning, so I can finally sleep in my own room again. At the moment, I'm sleeping in Nana's room, on the pull out bed. I kinda like it, although I do miss talking to him over the phone at night.

At this juncture, I've yet to make a trip to shingshong to purchase the kiddos' cookies off the rack. Unless, I can find a wholesaler who's kind enough to give me a discount on cookies for a quantity of below 200 pieces.

I'm getting excited. I marked 14.8.05 with a star in my diary, but a colleague stuck a heart-shaped sticker over my penned star to make it more exciting.

My bank account is slowly depleting. Does anyone know if there'll be any more bonuses given out for ERS? Coz if not, then ERS, is my 2nd hope.

Btw, I've given up on losing anymore weight. Forget it, I've been 60 kg for the longest time.

But thank goodness, our mak andam said I wouldn't have to wear that corset thingy. I'll just have to get something similar, but not corsets. Looks like I'll have to make a trip to the undies dept soon, but the qn is when?! When?! Oh well, alhamdulillah by a stroke of miracle, I don't have a report to submit for the next 2 weeks (say yay to National day, whooopeeedooo) so I hope to be able to scoot out of office by 6.30 pm daily.

Yes, I am excited now :) Pray for us yeah? And thanks so much for yr moral support, gals (yeah you reading this, the ones on my link-list), really appreciate it.

Yesterday was quite an exciting day for me / us.

We finally made it to ROMM & Alhamdulillah the interview went well :)

Since I took leave yesterday, we might as well maximise it. So we went for fitting, and then, searched for grills (and boy, did we get a good deal!) & met with the deco person. Hmmm....quite dicey lah but I really hope it'll pull through.

The fitting part was quite interesting. As usual, I picked pink. Hehehe.
I tried on a wedding gown too, and it was quite funny. I really thought I could manage putting on the gown on my own. So I said, "Takpe Kak..boleh...boleh" from the fitting room. Sekali tu..Alermak, tak boleh lah, so I said, "Tolong kak...tak boleh"... Sekali tu my mak andam saw & said something like, "Apa dah jadi dgn si nani ni....berselubung?!!" Hehehe..well I'd actually zipped the thing around my neck...when it was actually supposed to be a skirt with a train (I seriously thought it was a trail, not train). Hahaha! Ishk, selenger betul. It was quite an interesting experience :P

Anyway, our bed arrived yesterday too. The apek wiring took ages to wire up our room but alhamdulillah i think it's going fine. I hope to return home to a nice, fully furnished bedroom tonight.

Meanwhile, I shall go out for dinner with the uwa gang, and...yes...this will be the first batch of invites i'll be issuing to them.

Wish me luck!

OK, time to log off from office now....ciao.

He managed to get the cabinet handles. Thanks! I'm such a bimbo when it comes to DIY & Home improvement stuff. I only know how to sibuk2 & pass remarks. Hehehe!

Lucky we've gotten the bedsheets. If not, betul2 takde time nak beli seh.

Hmmm, lagi apa eh?

I just realised that I dislike songs that talk about being alive and having what they want. So egocentric gitu. Fikir pasal diri sendiri aje. Sampai khayal & lupa tentang the fragility of life. It's like, life is already so short, and you're singing about wanting to live forever. Entah apa2 aje.

And I noticed, that nowadays, semua orang nak jadi penyanyi. I'm sick of talentimes. I do watch them, but talents just don't impress me that much anymore. And to think I wanted to be a singer when I was much younger. Silly me.

Anyway...back to the wedding...
I'm writing names on the invites now...so I think that's a good progress!
Alhamdulillah. Dear Allah, pls take the lazy bug off me...coz I really can't afford to be lazy these days :P

About maldives

International flights are operating to the Maldives. Male International Airport - located on the island of Hulhule is fully open and operational. Transfers between the airport and resort islands by seaplane and speedboats are in full service.

70 of the 87 resorts are open and operating normally.

All resorts offered by Directrooms are open and operating normally, except for the following 3 resorts:

Kandooma Tourist Resort
Fun Island Maldives
The Four Seasons Resort

For general information, the list of all closed resorts (14) are listed below:

Club Med Farukolhufushi
Club Med Kanifinolhu
Dhigufinolhu Island Resort
The Fouur Seasons Resort
Fun Island Resort
Hakuraa Club
Kandooma Tourist Resort
Medhufushi Island Resort
Olhuveli Beach & Spa Resort
Reethi Beach Resort
Rihiveli Beach Resort
Soneva Gili Resort & Spa
Taj Exotica Resort & Spa
Palm Tree Island

3 Resorts under construction before the Tsunami are listed below:

Coco Palm Kudahithi
Fesdhoo Fun Island
One & Only Reethi Rah

More related info

Worth looking at :)

It's happening.

I'm gonna cry again. I can't take it anymore. Menses, pls come quickly. Get it over & done with. I hate being sensitive.

I think I shan't attend anymore art therapy or art diagnostic related courses anymore. Especially not when the menses is coming soon. I get so sedih, cengeng, gembeng, whatever...even the smallest tinge of emotional memory can get me teary eyed.

Like today, we were asked to draw our family as part of the training as counsellors. Nasib baik tak mencurah air mataku. Hearing about other people's family ajer pun dah boleh sedih seh. Tsk.

I know my menses is coming soon, coz I've been crying a lot lately. Almost daily for the past week. I cried when Michelle was leaving (but I scooted off to my workstation, pretending to do some work). I cried when I felt deprived of travelling to where I wanted. I cried when I woke up after dreaming he chose someone else over me (In that dream, I hit him with a book to my heart's content when I found out he had another girl. I just Hit, and hit, and hit and hit...but he just stood there, lke Hercules, unaffected by my blows. Then he walked away & I felt so damn bloody geram - whoops, too much details). I felt sad when I realised that I drew Tok first twice in both my family sketches today. I cried when he called me to stay he was sorry just now.

If my menses don't come by tomorrow, or Friday, I can almost see myself crying next Wednesday. Coz I've got 3 reports to submit, amidst the ridiculous amount of work I've been destined to do till at least Feb 07.

Now that it'll be another month before the day (insya-Allah!), I'm beginning to miss Nana already. She's 12, but she's still very cute (to me lah) and she still has this baby smell, and childish voice, and it's just difficult for me to go through a day without kissing and giving her a big hug.

Recently, I started telling her stupid things I did as a child. Sometimes I really wonder whether I was a problem child. Really. If I'd existed in Freud's time, I wonder which part of my sexual identity (stimulation I was lacking in) could be observed through my behaviour.

Like, I'd tell her how I used to wake her up when she was sleeping when she was about 2-3 years old. I'd pretend that she accidentally woke up, but of course, Mak never knew I purposely pat her a bit too hard while 'helping' to pat her back to sleep. The real intention, was to wake her up so we could play! Hehehe. Childish eh?

Today I told her a story that took place when I was about 8 yrs old, during Hari Raya. Mak gave me some old handbag to play with, and I remember it being filled with lots of 10 cent coins. I kept the old handbag in my storeroom, and each time kids littler than me came, I'd call them to the storeroom, and fish out a few 10-cent coins to give to them as duit raya. Then I'd tell them *not* to tell anyone. But of course, budak2 ni tak boleh simpan rahsia. They gave the 10 cents to their mommies & they had a ball of a time laughing at me. Dank, I felt soo embarrased!

Then there was another time when... Hmmm...I'll save that story for now :P

I can still remember some of the thought processes that went through my mind when I was a child. I guess we all do, huh? Like that time I saw a lump on my throat when I was 4 yrs old. I had just swallowed Tok's Vitamin C tablet and I was convinced for a few days that the tablet was still stuck in my throat. Tsk.

I'm not sure why I'm typing this. Coz I miss being a child? Not so. I'm quite accepting to the fact that we all need to grow up. But I'll miss Nana's childhood. That's why everyday I try and sniff a piece of her. I asked whether I could take a piece of her and stick it to my nose so I could smell her all the time. She gave mea flat 'No' for an answer.

And just now, when I asked her whether she was happy that I was getting married, she said she was happy. But she just realised that she'd be happier if I got married and continued to stay here, in this very house we grew up in.

That was when I realised, that she loves me a lot too. I guess we're pretty much each other's playmates. Sisters not by choice, but I'm so glad for that :)

If there's anyone with so much patience when dealing with me, it's none other than AH.

The way he tolerates me (read: my nonsense & fickle-mindedness), fascinates me always. And today's another day. He didn't just tolerate me; he tolerated my mom too (wow!).

Neways, after popping by MWT for the wonderful briyani lunch, three of us went to 2 teak/mahagony/rustic/whatever furniture shops. Then we went to P&R, but the stuff there were too modern for us. Then we finally went to see some wrought iron grills (AH, now my mom wants to pop by another reno contractor to check out the price. Sighs, I finally understand how you feel when I pull that stunt on you...sorry). Well hopefully Mak finds something cheaper than what we saw. I'll immediately agree to it if the design's nice.

I got home, and now I realise, we prolly won't have space for that table console after all. AH, now are you mad at me already?

Hmmm, will talk to you later k?

Neways, more items:

1. Finalise wrought iron design
2. Get wardrobe handles
3. Deco set up

At the end of the day, we popped by the carnival & I bought a bar of soap. Haha!

His sister sponsored the make-up set, so....I bought some...so expensive seh. I didn't buy the blusher in the end. I don't even use it. But it's nice to buy 2 lipsticks at one go...I've never done that before.

And once again, thanks AH for doing up my wardrobe! Nice :)

While he was ploughing away in my room just now, the cardman called. Yes, our cards are ready. Alhamdulillah. So happy! 1 less thing to think about. Phew!

So we've collected the cards. Nana got excited & volunteered to write the names on the cards...hohoho nana...u're so funny. What on earth made you think I'm gonna let you write the names down?! hehehe...nanti kasi dia satu sample sudah... :P

Neways, let's re-visit the list:
The list
1. Engage a makandam

2. Pray hard & book for CC by 1st March

3. Photographer

4. Attend kursus

5. Reg online & go ROMM

6. Deco

7. Caterer

8. Guest tokens (berkat)

9. Henna

10. Gifts (for him & deco)

11. Helpers (kendarat)

12. Guestlist

13. Pouches (for bunga rampai)

14. Entertainment

15. Invitation cards

16. Videographer

17. Kid's berkat

18. Increase no. of chairs & tables

19. ....