My 1 1/2 month old V3X's camera's spoilt so it has been sent in for overnight repair. If I do feel anything at all, I feel at peace. No surprise phonecalls from unwanted parties to disrupt my weekends.

With all this tech-talk these days, I often hear people saying they can't live without their mobile phones. Is that really true? Is it true that they can't live without the incessant ringing of mobile phones? Why is it important for us to communicate with someone almost every second we're on the train? Can't we just stare into empty space? Why is it that we feel so uncomfortable about doing nothing, that the most natural thing we need to do in this world is to reach for our mobile phones & fiddle with them till we find something more important to do?

Actually I think the problem with us is, we want to do something in every minute of our lives. Such that we feel weird when we have nothing to do!

I'm not that innocent, but I think one of these days I'll try to stop myself from digging into my bag for my mobile phone the moment I have nothing to do. Let's go back to the times where mobile phones were a thing of the future. Let's go back to basics. And let's see if we can survive.

If not because of my failure to send in my kain lining to the Nyonya Baju last week, I think my bajus might have been ready by now. Hmph!

She called this morning, telling me 2 of my bajus are ready, and so are Mama's. I so look forward to collecting 2 out of the 4 I've sent for tailoring! Hopefully orait!

Time flies eh, sekejapan dah masuk 5th day of fasting. So far so good....alhamdulillah :)

This adorable, handsome Ramadhan baby, all 3.58 kilos of him, defies the typical theory that newborns are nothing but shrivelled little prunes!

Welcome to the world, little Rudy Alfian. Lovely name for a lovely baby boy. The photos don't do justice at all, OK! Because he's just so much cuter in real life. I bet your mom forgot all about her labour pains the moment she set her eyes on you.

It was worth walking in the hot sun during lunchtime for a glimpse of mother and baby. Doesn't looking at babies make you want to have one of your own?

My heart was pounding so hard, I swore if there was someone beside me, she'd be able to hear it. My chest was close to a microphone, and I wondered momentarily whether the sounds of my heartbeat could be amplified and heard in the room.

It has been sometime since I experienced that! It was no easy feat, but alhamdulillah I did it! Now I feel more confident. I think I managed to maintain a calm composure. But wait, did I sit with the right posture just now? Or was I slumped on the chair like a lazy, couldn't care less professional (the irony). Next time, maybe I should lean on the chair. But what if the high chair topples down? That'll be humiliating, wouldn't it?

Now, on to the next similar challenge coming up early next week.

And Esra, no....that wasn't me waiting for the results of a pregnancy test, *lol*! That was me...in another episode of All in a Day's Work. Really! I never bluff one!

AH has gone out to meet Dan, our friend who lives in KL. Dan's here for a short business trip.

I would have gone along if not for the fact I need the rest in case the fever comes back on tomorrow. Yes, I'm hitting the cube tomorrow (groans...).

I suppose AH will only return earliest at 1 am... so that implies I probably have to shelf my idea of having breakfast with him at that yummy lontong stall in Geylang tomorrow.

I still have Saturday. Sunday kan dah puasa. Apa hal pulak kita gi breakfast on Sunday? Heeee!

I think Geylang sure packed this weekend. Tadi siang aje, dah macam bunyik horn ada. It's that time of the year again. And the lights are up! Macam dah nak raya pulak. This Ramadhan, I hope, shall be a meaningful one for us. Hope I won't get too distracted with worldly things. I'm no longer young, I think it's time for me to upgrade myself spiritually.

Salams & Ramadhan Mubarak everyone :)

Let's see how far I can go without taking medication. I'm not that ill, just down with very slight sore throat, fever that comes & goes in the evening, and now, possibly a minor blocked nose.
I see some honey on the table. Maybe that, and vicks can help to ease away whatever discomfort I may feel.

Feelings-wise, I am very happy now, relieved, glad, excited!

....

Actually I'm on medical leave. It feels good just lazing around, resting at home. My favourite activity, doing nothing. But then again, even laundry sounds good, as long as I don't have to be in the cube.

I am about to finish the third book, Plain Truth. They've hit the courtroom part, and though I don't really follow the medical jargon in this book, this is the part I'd been looking forward to. But now, I feel like having some twisties.

Watching Anne Hathaway in TDWP makes me wanna wear lots & lots of eyeliner (on my eyes, where else?!). Such huge, nice eyes, so nice!

I decided that I had enough of work for the day (And it's ONLY monday...groans) that I left about 2 hrs early. Before we knew it, we were headed towards Shaw, with us playing the "you decide" game before I finally chose well...TDWP. A bit outdated, but I don't care. I was more worried & full of pity that AH would doze off in the show.

Well he didn't and I enjoyed it! There you have it, our date that costs $24~ drinks & carpark charges inclusive.

Tomorrow? Actually I'd planned for a little time off tomorrow, but obviously i couldn't wait & decided to go off early today (too!). Let's see, if the schedule permits, I'll leave again. Sorry boss, I'm tired & this is the only way to keep myself sane.

Talk again soon!

Once again, serves me right for being the last minute queen I've always been. It's time to scramble for a tailor who can make it in time for hari raya.

Surprisingly, gathering my kains wasn't that difficult after all (if u look at the jungle of my wardrobe, you'll figure out why I said that). Dah bertahun seh kumpul. Most of them AH & his mom bought for me time kita masih engaged. 1, a gift from his aunt time when we went around visiting after the wedding, and my mostest favouritest one, is the light purple/lilac one, which AH bought for me from Suan Lum Night Bazaar mid this year.

Best ah banyak kain. Cuma erm..the tailor has not been tried-and-tested, so I hope the results won't be too shocking for the heart. I've actually offered Mama (AH's mom) to come along with her kains too...so this is a risk I'm taking. Nanti kalau apa2 jadi kat kain tu, habis reputation aku sebagai anak menantu (yang baik)... tee hee!

I'm back at my parents' for only a short while to take the kain. I'll go clear my wardrobe now, hopefully I can remove a significant amount of clothes from it, not for the sake of making way for new clothes, but simple to make room for my remaining clothes!

My dreams to knock off at 6 pm today were shattered. I left close to 9 pm instead. There I was, glued to the laptop, toggling through my report & surfing blogs. I just couldn't concentrate and there was no place else I'd love to be other than home, but my bum was just too heavy to get up & head for the door. Coz AH was not going to fetch me today as he's at a night class.

This week has been a drag for me. Ironic, given I only had 4 weekdays of work. But they're filled with dread, at the thought of having to work for 3 consecutive saturdays. And the people I'm handling these days, I wonder if they've been sent to serve as a test to my patience. Endless challenges, though I know I probably might look back someday, as early as next month, saying to myself, Been there, Done that. As I always do.

I miss having weekends I can embrace wholly, not those that make me feel like I'm living on borrowed time. Then again, everything in life is borrowed, isn't it? I suppose there's no point in complaining. My weekend is here, I'll make the most of it, then pause for some hours of work tomorrow, then it's all mine again! Think positive, I will.

Have a good weekend, everyone, blog friends of mine, and lurkers alike.

I've got a colleague who gets a surprise gift from her hubster every now and then. Sometimes, it's a basket of flowers, sometimes it's a box of chocolates. Once, it was a huge cow-balloon with some lovey-dovey words on it, and most recently, it was a pretty little white basket with something fluffy in it.

Awww~ so sweet kan?

(erm, AH, these are not hints. I'm telling you to quickly get down to sending me one of those sweet little things n.o.w! heh...kidding :p I'd rather you do something else)

Those stuff, my colleague gets on ordinary days. I wonder what will come through the door on her wedding anniversary. Tapi this husband of hers memang romantic giler lah. Those gifts have already been flooding her desk before they got hitched; it just got better & more frequent these days.

One of the more senior colleagues told me that her husband was afraid of losing her to someone else; hence the gifts. But I disagree. If he's afraid of that, I doubt the gifts would work. He'd need to work hard multiply by 10, or more.

Even who-else gets flowers sometimes. And once I accidentally read the message that came with the card, and I got goose bumps all over. (in fact, I just re-lived the feeling as I'm typing this). I was like... Urgh...

Anyway...

I think I'll be embarrased if AH sends those stuff to me. We've never been openly romantic to each other; but I love him all the same. I've never received a single bouquet from him before. I buy my own flowers. Actually the only bouquets I've ever received were on my wedding; one, a bunch of white lilies from ily, the other, a basket of roses from an aunt. And boy I really treasured those.

But worry not, AH won't need to go to fareastflora online after reading this or anything. I think the most romantic thing you've done is, to erm... write out our names using a twig on the sandy beach of maldives? hehe.. seriously, it surprised me you were capable of doing that, haha!

Night has fallen, it's time for bed. And perhaps, some sheer romance?

The photos on anne's blog are amazingly gorgeous. Fooh, makes one wanna go to Italy. At the risk of sounding like an ingrate, I do think it's time for me to go for another holiday. Like Mak said, I need another holiday to recover from a holiday, tee hee!

But looking at my bank account now, we'd be lucky if we can head to a chalet at ecp for our next holiday destination (shakes head in despair).

Mak was asking if I had enough leave to go back to our indo kampong in Jogjakarta, to visit Allahyarhamha Nen's sister & relatives in Dec 06. Sadly that's not to be because I've not "choped" to go on leave in Dec 06, and as already mentioned, my bank account is in a sad stage of its lifecycle right now.

Wouldn't that be wonderful? To go back to Jogja, meet relatives I've not met for more than a decade, soak in the fresh air, feast on the paddy fields & greenery, buy sweet kacang rebus at only 100 rupiah at petrol kiosks, eat street food priced super cheaply, buy batik wrapping papers at 10 rupiah per piece, oogle at handsome indo-mats (oops, out of bounds now given I'm now a Mrs)...the possibilities are endless!

Sighs sighs sighs! (Hey we Muslims aren't supposed to sigh too much, kan?)

I wish to return there some day. The kind of life my relatives lead there is totally different to how we live here. For starters, I'm fat; heck we are fat! The first same-aged relative I find in Jogja is probably 15 kgs lighter than I am. Apa kan tidak, they probably still eat chicken once a year during lebaran, while we gorge on chicken almost every other day. (Looks downwards at tum tum & shudders)

I still remember when I was 11, we went to Jogja when my late Nen was still around. She hadn't met her sister for 50 years!! Can you beat that?! Such strong women they are, having gone through so much in their lives.

We brought bags of toycars & chocolates for the children. And the village kids were thrilled! My brother, only 5 then, went around a small part of the village gathering little boys to come play with him, as they stared at my brother like a foreign person. We were of the same race & we looked alike save for the clothes we were wearing. But the difference in our languages are as apparent as the the difference in the lives we lead.

I remember we lost our way when we were driving on the bare road in the village. We stopped by an old farmer who was walking home, and gave him 1000 rupiah ($1 then) as a gesture of thanks for showing us the right way. He cried tears of joy & recited a supplication for us. Aww~ sedih tak leh carry seh!

For the enlightened ones, poverty can bring them close to God. For those who have yet to attain in, or those who are rich & basking in comfort like us, yet continue to be ingrates (God Forbid!), may we see the light soon.

Now I really feel like going there. Next holiday destination? Are you game for it, AH? Or are you tired of having me tag along during yr holidays already? :p

Heee, this time, I'll do more research, can?

While many out there are just about to get out of bed, or spoon a mouthful of lunch, here I am, sipping my instant mushroom soup & attempting to type part of a report.

Yes, it's my working saturday again.

This is going to be a busy weekend, a wedding to go to after a whole day of work, followed by a bbq at a really pretty bungalow chalet at Pasir Ris. Lots of food, which explains why I'm only having a cup of mushroom soup (+ 5 pieces of wholemeal biscuits I found stashed away in an office corner).

If there is something about blogging I regret, it's deleting my previous 2 blogs. It'd be nice to re-read the archives back to when I was just fresh out of uni, track the times I was job hunting, preparing for the engagement, blah blah blah...basically how I was like when I was 22.

I wish for that. But I have no clue where in the cyberworld those entries have diminished to. Oh crap, just found out that a family will be homeless in a few hours' time. And here I am blogging about my lost entries? I better quit being such a loser.

Ciao for now.

And I learnt it the hard way just this evening.

I rushed all the way to AXS to clear my CC bill just now. I couldn't remember how much the bill amount was, so I punched in a 3-digit number.

Then I went home, got online & found out that I actually only owe a 2-digit number!!!

Argh!!

And this has just gotta happen when I'm sooo sooooooo close...really on the brink of going b.r.o.k.e! :(

Imagine what I could have done with the money I was only supposed to pay next month.
But since I have to pay the bills anyway, I'll comfort myself thinking of just that.

Now, when are my transport claims coming in?? So what if it was a mere $80+ ? It's still money & I need all the $$ I can get right now.

For sure, it sucks being broke :(

It's fun being a girl.

As a young girl, you get to wear pretty dresses, get to smear your mom's lipstick secretly on your already pink lips, get to beautify your hair with all kinds of clips & hairbands and the list goes on..

And when you grow up, you get to shop & fill your wardrobe with all the nice, sweet things. You get to lather yourself in sweet smelling soap, and squirt fragrance all over your body. You also get to swipe a card no man would ever get to use.

I love being a woman (when I don't think of my acne scars & weight, and when I am not faced with drop-dead gorgeous women).

So naturally I found it a bit sad, and disturbing when I meet people who would do anything to snap out of being a woman. Why?? WHY???

Is it their genes? Is it their surroundings? Or maybe a part of them feels that they would be better-looking as a man?

I am not judging them, nor do I have negative thoughts on them. They just baffle me, that's all. Oh well, as long as they are happy & know what's best for themselves, everyone has a right to be left alone, regardless of how they look like.

Sometimes what a girl wants, isn't necessarily what another girl would want, ey?

Rasa macam nak makan prata pulak one of these days. Padahal, dah lama jugak tak makan prata, sebab teringatkan minyak & proses membuat prata yang sungguh menggemukkan.

Tapi kenapa ye rasa macam nak makan prata tiba2? Either I'm pregnant (which is quite unlikely, though I hope to be) or, pasal banyak sangat tengok advertisement pasal devil pakai baju perada.

I've finished another book - Salem Falls. It's a good read, not as heavy as the first one I read. I'm taking a break before I start on my next read. But the next weekend will be a busy one, so I probably have to shelve my read aside for a few more days.

And I finally used the birthday offer on the t-shirt material fitted sheet I've been wanting. I chose an odd colour though. Now, let's see if that'll make or break the look of our room

Sunday is once again, coming to an end.

For some people, me included, the blues don't come on Monday; they start hitting you on Sunday night.

...

We've just viewed a flat nearby my parents'. Location is excellent, but the layout of the house is not a favourite; and the "aesthetic" view that greets would-be visitors when the lift opens is almost unbelievable. So let's wave that one goodbye for now.

I'm still holding on to the so-called aussino 40% storewide birthday gift. I told AH to tear it away so i won't even have a chance of going, but he hasn't done that. This means I still have 3 more days of opportunity to head to one of the stores. I've got my mind on the t-shirt material bedsheet.... :p Sighs, but this month is really terok, I'm almost dry, and it's more than a week before payday (bawlssss...)!

Meanwhile, AH splurged on a really mean (read: EXPEN$IVE!) big boys' toy at Comet (kehrhkrehkre... well at least that was how it was spelt on the signs leading us to the large IT expo hall). He had been raving about that for months already, and I thought I'd not nag so much this time round & let him have his way. I couldn't help but wish though that we'd purchased that before our eurotrip. But then, if we had, then we'd probably have to spend our nights in some sleazy backpackers' hostel.

Any guesses on AH's latest purchase? No prizes, just for fun :)