Missing Both of You!

Sis and Cecilia had touched down Houston few days ago. Our home become silent without their presence. I was a bit upset the next day after they left. My brain keep recalled the scenes when Cecilia chatting with me at grandma's room, when we dance together at the living room in the dark as whole Sandakan black out, when sis keep telling Cecilia to play her violin well and she played with her frowned face and her singing! Sis and I did quarrel sometimes but inside our heart we still care for each other and that's call family! Argh..missing them heaps.

I told my husband about it and he told me to be happy. He said that we can't keep everyone beside us always. Thus we should appreciate every single time when we get together. Then only I realize that I have not travel together with sis and parents together before to somewhere outside Malaysia. I should plan it in the future when they are coming back again. I guess it will be fun as my baby can play with Cecilia :)

Family picture on father's day. 

Cecilia with gong gong.

Cecilia with her dearest mommy.

Love you Cecilia~

I Am Back!!

I know I have been neglecting my blog for some time. Oh well, I was really busy for the past few months. In addition, I was sick as well. Anyway..my blogging mood finally return :)

Let me recap, in the month of November, once the project in Jordan ends, Hubby and I flew back to our hometown, Sandakan. Life in a small town is really simple. We had nothing to do much and just eat and Eat! Our life in hometown just like we had retired. All these last for about 2 months and by the end of December, we went for a family trip to Japan again. However, the trip was a little different compare to the one we had in May. The tour was arranged by my father in law's Japanese friend name, Mr.Otta. He was kind enough to bring us around his hometown, Shikoku and to the nearby city such as Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto. Let me share some pictures of the moments :)

Taken in one of the famous temple in Kyoto.

Another temple entrance in Kyoto.

 One of the famous temple in Kyoto.

 Temple in Nara.

 Snow adventure at Okayama.

We were freezing cold.

Shikoku.

 We were on the way to Kobe, we stopped at one of the rest station.

 Not to missed out, the famous Universal Studio Japan in Osaka.

That's how we ended the year of 2010 and awaiting a better 2011.Currently, hubby is working in Algiers,Algeria while I stay in Sandakan with my parents. We are looking foward to this bunny year as our bunny baby is on the way!!! Yeah.....Wish me all the best and will update my blog as frequent as I can ;)

Waiting Is Killing Me Softly

Well, hubby and I are waiting for something. I hate this waiting period so much. I hate waiting. As I keep waiting, I do not know what will I get in the end. I remembered that once I waited my friends for 2 hours at the street when I was in Form 1, I was 13 years old. We promised to gather at a place at 10 AM for a project. We did not have handphone that time and I did called them using public phones and they said they were coming soon on my 1st call. After an hour, I called again and nobody at home. But my friends only arrive at 12PM. Of course they did apologized to me but my heart was happy instead because at least I saw them at last!

And this "waiting" had bother us for about 2 weeks. I slowly develop a good patience attitude. Bless me!

Special Announcement On A Special Date

Today is another special date that many couples tied a knot today! There are some special celebrations or activities held out just to remember this date. I don't have anything special here because hubby is working but I don't want to miss a special date like this too. So I decided to make an annoucement that will change my life.

My friends out there....you must be thinking that I might be pregnant? No No No..not that lucky yet. The thing that will change our life soon is that we will be leaving Jordan for good soon!!! Yeah, hubby's contract ends finally. And I just realised, we are here for 1 year. I was trying to recap what we have done so far here when I got the news from hubby. Well, proud to say that we had visited almost all the tourist attraction places here and at least I learned and familiar with the cultures here. I guess I will miss the weather the most because Malaysia is too hot and I can't dress variety like what I did here.

We do not know where will be our next station but when hubby ask for my preference, I said Morocco! I heard from friends that Morocco is beautiful and the weather is nice too. One of their tourist attraction, Marakesh is one of my wish list to visit. So I hope hubby will get his new project in Morocco soon. Anyway..that is just my wish..I dont always get what I want anyway. Wish me best of luck! ;)

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri aka Happy Holiday

Tonight we went for "Buka Puasa" event organized by hubby's client company. All were invited including family members so hubby brought me along so that we could have a gathering as well. 

 

Hubby's best buddy in Jordan. Alberto from Mexico and Adlani from Morocco.

Say "cheese"!

The other friends from Romania, Lucant, Paul and Nicole.

We had the local traditional Arab food. The food was good with nice starters and lots of barbecued meats. I found out that I slowly love the local food. Raya will be coming soon. Everyone is busy shopping and so am I. :)

Wishing all of you Selamat Hari Raya and enjoy the holiday! 

Long Holiday Plan

Today is our Malaysia Independance Day celebration and even though I am not in Malaysia, I still can feel the  happiness in every Malaysian because today is a public holiday in our country. I used to celebrate the day either at KLCC to watch the fireworks or out from town to somewhere to celebrate our anniversary.

Hubby and I started our dating on September 11...a very special number that easy to remember! Unfortunately we can't make our wedding on this particular date but good to me too as I can have more celebrations on 2 different dates. We celebrated our last year anniversary in Cairo,Egypt because during that time we were resided in Cairo and hubby couldn't take any leaves to celebrate the day at somewhere else. So as usual, I thought this year we are going to celebrate in Amman,Jordan as well. However, who know's hubby gave me an early surprise that we are going to celebrate it in Maldives!

Waoh..I was very happy indeed when I heard that and both of us started to plan our holiday a month ago. There are lots of choices of resorts in Maldives and this Huvafen Fushi win our hearts the most.

We read lots of good reviews about this resort and hopefully it will not dissapoint us for the price we paid. I will do a review on the resort after the trip :) This resort require to stay not less than 3 days which means if you plan only 2 days in the island, you have to choose other resorts but not Huvafen Fushi. Luckily we get an ideal package from Huvafen which is Buy3 Free1. We are going to stay 4 nights at the resort but just pay for 3 nights. Apart from that, we will spend a night at the Male town as well to visit their famous fish market, museum and mosque.

After the Maldives trip, we will spend 2 nights in Dubai as well. When we were in Dubai, Burj Khalifa was still in process. And now, Hubby said he would like to visit and take some pics of it to be added in his collection. Travelling in Dubai is much more convenient now with its new metro line. I just hope the weather will not be too hot!

 Personally, I feel the design is kinda weird.

We will be spending 3 days in KL as well to do our shopping and some personal arrangements. To me, KL is still my shopping heaven. Dubai can't beat KL in terms of shopping unless you shop for branded stuff :p

So this time, my holiday will be kinda long which is 3 weeks covers Maldives, Dubai, KL and last but not least my hometown, Sandakan! I miss my parents very much and the yummy seafood as well.

I should start packing now and both of us are really excited for it. Stay tune and to all the Malaysians, Selamat Hari Merdeka!

Ramadan 2010

Ramadan in Jordan is not as happening as in Malaysia. There are no food stalls selling street foods like what we have. The worst is that all restaurants and even food courts only open at 6 pm onwards! And it means that I got to cook more even on weekends. Something unexpected, our favourite Indochine restaurant in Hyatt Hotel is close for the whole ramadan month! OMG!!!! I gotta find more recipes to survive the whole month and I need to stock more poultry, beef and lamb meats, fish and pork in the fridge. The locals here shop crazily during this ramadan month :( 

Unhappy days....

I am sick, and had a wild guess that I might be hormone inbalance. Life is not good and I am dragging my daily life from day to day. Is good to be August now..as I can't wait to go back visit my parents and have their pamper by next month. Mummy's love over the phone is definitely not enough and I need more such as mama's cooking and her warm smile to me. I still remember when I was home, anything that I want to eat, I will just let my papa know it the night before and the next morning..my breakfast will be ready on the dining table. My ordered was never easy, as I was picky to have certain food to add into my noodles and my papa always forgot something each time he packed my food. Papa will said "Gosh, I forgot" and Mama will cut my words replied to papa "You always forgot!"  Haha...something that I love to see every morning and that's why I still feel bless and love them very much.

I have done my list of food to have in KL and Sdk so that I won't miss anything that I missed. I am quite forgetfull these days...

Beach Vacations

I was not a girl who fancy beach vacations when I was really young. It was due to my past history that I was black with lots of pimples scars on my face. My mum had wasted lots of money on my facial. Thus when I saw my facial had changed to normal with lesser pimples and fairer, I will always keep in my mind to stay away from sun and try to maintain it. I really had a hard time during my teenage years and even now, I still have massive breakouts and leaving scars on my face if I do not take good care enough.

In 2006, hubby suggested we celebrate our anniversary in Redang Island. At first, I was hesitated as I mentioned my facial history but we got a great deal that time and it was hard to turn down such a good offer as well. Finally, I agreed and gave it a try. I did not enjoyed much that time, as I restricted myself to go under the hot sun in the afternoon. The trip supposed to have twice snorkelling but I just went once and the other time, hubby went alone while I was putting on my whitening mask in the room. We only went out to the beach when the sun sets....

However, nowadays I just no longer retrict myself that much. I fall in love with beach once I moved to Jordan. Aqaba Movenpick resort and Dead Sea Movenpick resort really change my mind. I just had too much fun at the resorts and made me felt that grew10 pimples after the fun was really worth it!! I may sounds crazy but this is what I am gonna to face after fun at the beach.

For the coming September, we will be going to a beach vacation again. I am really looking foward to it and of course I need to do some preparation to avoid maximum exposure to the sun and in the same time, I can enjoy the vacation as much as I can. Here are the preparation:

Yes, the essential for beach vacation. Hope it helps!

Some old pictures..beach vacations!

Laguna Redang.

Kuta beach, Bali.

Aqaba Movenpick Resort.

 Dead Sea Movenpick Resort.

 Natural salt accumulated from the sea. Interesting!

If you have any skincare tips for me, please comment and I would love to read it. Have a great weekend ahead!

WorldCup 2010

It was a great match afterall though the first 90 mins there was no goals but at least there were a few scenes that they almost making a goal and kept us feeling "Heart Attack". We watched at a Bar Restaurant in Abdoun area, the most happening place in Amman with hubby's colleagues. During the match, the teenagers behind our tables were shouting for fun and keep disturbed me. They kept saying " Ni Hao Ma". This is something I hate most. They kept saying it and I felt so much to throw them a chinese nasty words. It was common for people to greet me like that and it even worse when I was alone doing my shopping...the way they greet is not to say hello but to disturb you. Maybe the next time I will not hold my words anymore and just simply reply them "Pukimak" with a smile :)

After the match, the roads were blocked and we couldn't get a cab home. In the end, we walked home and it took about an hour to reach. I was not tired at all and enjoyed to see the dumb people shouting glory just like their country won the WorldCup. They yelled and waved the Spain flags and the most horrible thing was they kept honking along the road. It was midnite after the match and they don't seems to bother at all. I cannot imagine if their country really win the WorldCup, what will they do to celebrate the glory? Maybe they will dance naked on the road. You just can't imagine the arabian...how creative or nonsense they are.

Anyway, WorldCup had come to the end and Paul the octopus is a brilliant creature! You can start consider to take octopus as a pet now as it might help you to win on bets. Viva Spain and goodnite.

Happy Mother's Day

Ladies and gentlemen, Mother's day will be coming soon. Yeap, this Sunday will be the day that you can say "I Love You" to your dearest mother. I think not everyone will express their love to their mum easily. You can easily say loving words to your partner but not to your mum. Yes, I am one of them.

I love my mum deep in my heart but I don't easily express my feelings to her from my words. And sometimes, I can talk harshly to her that I doubt might hurt her feelings. But she always keep her smiling face to me. I still remember the day she was sent to the surgery room, my heart was bumping really fast. I was sad to see her fear to enter the surgery room and keep asking if I can accompany her to the room. I knew I could not help her much and I just prayed for her. I am scared to lost her in my life. Praise the Lord as he always answer to my prayer. I am glad that mum recover very fast and she even didn't suffer any major pain at all after the surgery.

This year, I am not going to celebrate the day with her but I know she will be happy if I said "I Love You" to her even through the phone. I love you, mum! Do something to your mum to make her happy :)

 

Happy Mother's Day, baby~

At least your mum will be surprise, if you greet her with this pose. Haha......;)

A Prison Life or A Good Life?

It has been sometime that I do not update my blog lately. I have been adapting my life in Jordan, with less friends around, little shopping malls, little restaurants and yes everything seems lesser compare to KL. Friends always asking, what do I do in Jordan? They know that I am not working, so they will wonder what do I do at home? I am not sure if I had blogged it before but I think is good to update my life here so far..

I am a sleeping beauty! I can sleep up to 12 hours daily without any headache after that. But normally I sleep for 10 hours only coz sometimes I do think that sleep too much is like wasting of time. I just ensure that my body get enough of rest in order to start a bright new day! So as we all know that one day there is 24 hours. Extracting my sleeping time, that will be left 14 hours. What do I do for the rest of time?

I would say that my oral cleaning(twice), facial wash, mask and showers could take my 2 hours daily. I think that is reasonable :)

I spend about 30 minutes preparing my lunch, 1 hour for dinner or maybe an extra 30 mins for miscellaneous like boiling soup and herbal tea. That will take about 2 hours too!

I spend about 3 hours for my leisures like reading, Facebook, chatting with friends(sometimes), surfing, anything that I can do inside my apartment. I think 3 hours is pretty much but it just pass easily~

Time for bonding when my hubbie is back will take about 4 hours. Normally we will have our dinner together, watching series together, or discussing on some interesting topics like travelling, future and etc.

Evil 3 hours for some housework which I hate most. Laundry, mopping, sweeping, ironing...basically housework, you name it, I will have done that!Sometimes, it could take less than 3 hours and I will have more time for my leisures~

My life pretty tough ya? Hubbie always say that my life is what he is hoping for and I will always tell him to divorce me and change his private parts so that he *might* have the chance to live as what I am living now :)
I love it in the beginning but as time past, I am getting bored and looking for something more interesting. My mum always say that I should enjoy my time now as in the near future, when the time with babies and children, you will start to miss it! Well, it's true so I just take it as what He (God and hubbie) gives me ;)

Pregnancy

Today I heard a good news from my friend in FB, that she is pregnant 2 months! I really feel happy for the couple. They just got married last year and soon they will become papa and mummy in 7 months time. They are really lovely and I believe God had sent them the best present ever :) I hope God will continue to bless them and hope the little baby in the womb will grow healthier day by day.

My friend did asked me back when is our turn. Not only her, but everyone around us will ask the same question. Well, I am still waiting for my last hepatitis B injection in June before I am dare to start to concieve. Maybe I read too much, that I am followed the guidiance to have my pre-conception check up before we decided to have a baby. According to the gynae, I need my Hepa B jab and that's why we are still waiting. I just hope my body is healthy enough to carry the gift from God.

I always worry that my body is not strong enough. Maybe it is due to my figure, small and look weak all the time. I had tried to gain weight but nothing much. I always remind myself to eat more, but sometimes just no appetite unless good food is always around :)

Well, anyway..just wish me all the best! " In baby making" after June...haha

Anyway, have you think about the pressure you gonna have after getting pregnant? Well, as far as I know, the mummy might get morning sickness or the mood swings easily. Everyday, need to take a range of healthy food in order to be sufficient provided to the womb. And the body will gain weight day by day that might cause the waist feeling tired. Or even more, some pregannt ladies will encounter hormon inbalance that will cause lots of breakouts. Just imagine the poor mum, that she need to sacrifice a lot just to deliver a baby.

During the labour, definitely in pain and that could last for few hours or up to one day! The mummy need to suffer cuts at the private part.After delivered the baby, some mummy might encounter some problems like hair loss or tooth loss due to insufficient nutrient. All the good nutrients have been given to the womb. Gosh...just feeling scary when I think into details.Well, my purpose not to scare the ladies, but just to remind everyone of us here, including the gentlemen that our mummy is always the greatest of all. Treat them well.

Though I am scare, but I think married women do not have choice but have to bear with the pain at least once in your lifetime. We can only hope for a healthy baby that worth the pain. Good luck ladies!

Mummy's Hero

As I mentioned before, my mum been through a surgery early of this month. And now she is fully recover. Thanks to God and her doctor, Dr Stuart Chin from Kota Kinabalu. I feel bless that we still have quality doctor in Borneo.

My mum was not so ready so she look a bit too happy here...Haha

Maybe you will think "how come my mum's hero is not my papa?" Sigh.... they always argue but I think deep in their heart still care to each other. Well, old folks do not know how to express their feelings easily.

This picture was taken few years ago at our old house. Now only I realise, that they do not take any pictures together for long.

They will only know to miss each other when one of them went travelling. :)

Unexpected Guest in Mummy's Tummy!

Recently, I brought my parents for a body checkup. My parents use to have healthy diet and they seldom get sick as well. Anyway, I think I should bring them for a health check in case something hiding inside their body that we are not aware. Finally, my mum was found to have bilateral ovarian dermoids which is around 7cm and small uterine fibroid. I was too worry until cried out in front of the doctor but my mum was so steady and ask me not to worry. Mum will be having an operation in March to remove the lesions and I hope everything is fine. Mum do not feel any discomfort and never thought that there are lesions inside her uterus. As for papa, everything is fine. This shows that we should do a routine checkup every year to ensure our body is fine. Early detection is always better than late. Remember to bring your parents for a body check up!

My dearest mum, she is 56 this year.

Chinese New Year will be coming soon. I am not that keen to celebrate it but I am looking foward to meet my hubbie. I miss him a lot. I thought I will be "too" happy in Sandakan until I forget about him but I am wrong. I miss him day and night and would like to share every little thing with him. I thought marriage life to me is nothing special since we have been together for about 9 years before moving to the second stage, I am definitely wrong. We are like start all over again, just like pressing the reset button :)

Miss you darling, see you on the coming Thursday!

Massive Haul & Life Update

I have not updated my blog for some time. My parent's home do not have Internet connection and I am using unsecured network now :). I think I am lucky and thanks to my brother in law to discover that there is free wifi in my home.

I have been busy with my family matters recently and hopefully to get all done a week before the chinese lunar year. Lots of preparation need to be done and mostly regards to the home decorations like getting a new curtain, get some new furnitures, house cleaning and etc. I am glad that my parents had moved to an apartment, though the space is smaller compare to our old house but the cleaning is much more easier. I feel great staying with my parents again besides missing my dearly husband. Life in Sandakan is always peaceful and lots of seafood!

As I mentioned before in my previous post, I will have my shopping spree with my mum in KL before heading back to Sandakan. The shopping was great and we did really had a great time. Both of us got to buy everthing in our "To Buy List". Let me show some pictures to explain how massive is it...

Makeup and brushes all for myself..Mum don't apply makeup as she has a great beautiful skin.

Brush cleanser and makeup remover.

Skincare for mum, mother in law and myself-all sponsored by Hubbie (Thanks darling!)

Who don't ask for free gifts when you buy skincare? Here are the free gifts!

Being a housewife is really a tough job to me. It is much more harder than my previous job in Ifast. Thus, I treated myself a handbag for doing my job fairly good in 2009! I am using my own pocket money :(

We did bought some clothes for ourselves, family members and relatives but I am too tired to take pictures on the third day onwards. Once we reached hotel, we quickly showers and went to sleep. It seems like we need to recharge some energy to our body or else we will have low energy to start a new day tomorrow.

I did bought a secret gift to my hubbie for the coming valentines day too but I can't review it here cause I knew that sometimes he read my blog too. Well, this year valentines day falls on the 1st day of Chinese New Year, which means florist workers have to work even on public holiday. Pity them but I am sure there must be some extra given by their boss :) Don't forget to treat your love ones better on that day but of course if you can treat everyday like valentine that will be the best.

I Miss Weather in Malaysia!

I am sick. I tend to sick more often now. I dunno why, maybe it was cause by the weather or maybe I do not eat much that makes me do not have enough nutrients in my body. Sometimes, I can sleep 15 hours straight which means I only have 2 meals a day. The chill weather here makes me always hibernate under my blanket. I just dont want to move around when I feel warm under it. I heard from the local people here saying that the weather will be getting colder by the end of Jan until March and there is a possiblity of snowing too. Well, I want to see snow but I dislike the cold + freeze feeling. Anyhow, I am going back soon so I wont be able to see any ice from the sky if it's really snow.

I read these books recently. The Lonely Planet provides too much info and seems like every single place is worth a visit. We only have 10 days to cover Hokkaido and Tokyo which I think will never be enough. Besides reading to these books, I did read on some blogs too. Those blogs really makes me feel excited and wanted to fly to Japan soon. Anyway, most of the people went to japan to see sakura, but I am more interested on lavender. Imagine the whole field is purple in colour, how beautiful is it? I just hope the weather will not be too cold cause wearing too many layers makes me feel bulky and lazy to walk. I just feel myself too heavy to walk around. Like now, I need to wear 3 layers on top and 2 layers for bottom to keep myself warm when we are going out. I feel that all the clothes + pants+ jackets + scarf are worth 5 kg. So Imagine when you travel and you need to add this extra 5 kg to your body, for sure I can't walk as much as I am wearing only jeans and t-shirts!

Back to reading and will update more on my activities in Sandakan soon when I am back :)

Flying Home Soon-GoodBye Jordan

Happy New Year everyone!!!! So happy that we had entered 2010, another decade after the millenium. Time really flows like a river, fast and never comes back. I have a feeling of getting old too. I am too lazy to go out and very lazy to dress up even tough my hubbie offered me to have a dinner in hotel. Maybe it was due to the chill weather here that I only want to stay at home to make myself warm or maybe I am really getting old that I like to stay in just like an old lady :(

Because of my laziness, we slacked at home on the new year eve. We watched series at home. It's a great time indeed, hugged each other to keep warm. And on the new year day, we went to watch Avatar in 3D. I got headache everytime when I watched movies in 3D. Maybe it was cause by the spec, I feel not comfortable and sometimes my vision was blur after wearing it. So I will ended up watching it with my bare eyes. Anyway, Avatar is another great movie that worth to buy its DVD as collection.

Another good news to share is I am going home soon. On the 10th of this month, I will be flying from Jordan back to KL. I will meet my dearest mum in KL and go for a shopping spree. Wuhoo~~ And on 15th, we will be heading back to our hometown, Sandakan. My shopping list is reallyyyyy long and my food list is extremely longgggg too. Too bad, hubby only will be going back by Feb so I am gonna sleep without him for about 1 month. But I know mum will  accompany me to sleep at night and let my papa sleep alone. Haha.. Think I am too pampered? I think so ;P

Chinese New year will be coming soon, I am sure there are lots of new foods selling in Jusco. I just cant wait to shop new snack to serve the guests during CNY. And this year, we will be giving red packets to those children or even non married adults. Haha..I think that's gonna be fun but it will be a big hole in pocket. Well, no matter how this will happen once a year, cant escape the tradition at all unless we go for travelling. But my hubby is a tradition guy, he will still insist to have reunion dinner every year the day before CNY.

I am just excited and can't wait to see my family again but on the other hand, I will worry for hubby too cause no one cook for him when I am not in Jordan. Maybe it's time for him to skip dinner and take fruits and yogurt only at night, he gained lots of weight :)

Well, I need to sleep soon and hope you guys have a wonderful day!

P/S: The cartoon layout is hubby and I. Hubby extracted the pictures from our wedding flash and filled it in my blog. Love it!