Figs are absolutely yummylicious! I never knew what they tasted like fresh before I came to Sydney. I had only tried the preserved ones which taste so different from the fresh. With such a high sugar content, it’s the perfect snack to keep you going. I don’t know any who has Fig trees in their garden but I’m going to keep my eyes peeled for someone who does!

Can’t believe that Christmas is over. It marks the fact that we are leaving for Sydney tomorrow night. If there was any way for me to explain what it means when time flies, this would be the perfect example. I feel as if it was just yesterday that sis, Arianna and I arrived at the Penang airport and was picked up by my aunt and Mum. I still remember how we stopped at a Malay restaurant at our taman at about midnight to pack back nasi goreng ikan masin and my must-have teh ais. And now, it’s time to say good bye once again.

I must say that the more often I come back for the holidays, it gets harder to say good bye. You’d think that I’d be used to it by now but sadly, this is not so. It makes me miss home even more once I go back to Sydney and getting over that is what makes it even more tough. Perhaps people who are living overseas can relate to this on a more personal note.

That said, I guess the other thing that will keep me occupied until we think about coming for another visit would be the fact that we are looking forward to the arrival of our little Pacman come April 2009.  I am currently about 5.5 months pregnant which leaves me with very little time to mope about once we arrive in Sydney because I’ll be busy getting out all those tiny newborn clothes and clearing some space for her in the cupboard. Added to the fact that although Arianna is still not walking much, she has added climbing to her recently developed skills. So I see myself constantly watching her every move. Going home would also mean that I will be back in my own environment which I created to make life easier for me.

My Kulim home is not really baby friendly hence, Arianna spends a lot of time in the walker but not when we get back. I hope that with less use of the walker, it will encourage her to start walking. My stomach is getting in the way and it’s getting tougher trying to carry her for long periods of time.

All in all, our time spent here for Christmas was great. I was very happy to be back with family and to be able to celebrate Christmas like we use to albeit it being a little quiet due to the passing of one of my aunts in November.

O well, time to get packing….and then we usher in the New Year!

It’s the new year and what better way to start it than sitting with your feet up and a cup of tea beside you, with a good book to read. That would be a dream come true for me and perhaps many parents out there too. But the only problem I have is choosing what I’d like to read! With Amazon books, one can only go crazy trying to pick something. For now, I think I’ll just settle for a Stephen King book. That’s the best!

For as long as I can remember, I was never lucky enough to win a prize at any lucky draw or raffles. The closest I had ever come to winning anything was being the last 2 picked for the grand prize in a lucky draw during my ex-company’s annual dinner. Both me and the other girl had numbers which were only 1 apart eg. 177 and 178. She won – a trip to Sydney. I was floored and perhaps nearly pengsan too!!! After all, at that time, Ted and I were dating and it would have been such a dream come true to go visit him for free. *sigh*

Anyway, it must be baby luck this time around coz for the first time in my life, I won something at the raffles held during a Christmas party 2 weeks back. *grins from ear to ear* I spent RM5 for 5 lucky numbers and the last number struck GOLD!!! YAY!!!

Now if only I wasn’t preggies…..haiz.

Dear Friends,

I just want to thank all of you for your educational emails over the past year.

Thanks to you, I no longer open a public bathroom door without using a paper towel.

I can’t use the remote in a hotel room because I don’t know what the last person was doing while flipping through the channels.

I can’t sit down on the hotel bedspread because I can only imagine what has happened on it since it was last washed.

I can’t enjoy lemon slices in my tea or on my seafood anymore because lemon peels have been found to contain all kinds of nasty germs including feces.

I have trouble shaking hands with someone who has been driving because the number one pastime while driving alone is picking your nose.

Eating a Little Debbie sends me on a guilt trip because I can only imagine how many gallons of trans fats I have consumed over the years.

I can’t touch any woman’s purse for fear she has placed it on the floor of a public bathroom.

I must send my special thanks to whoever sent me the one about poop in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet sponge with every envelope that needs sealing.

Also, now I have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason.

I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown) who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time.

I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program .

I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St.Theresa’s novena has granted my every wish.

I no longer eat KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers.

I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.

Thanks to you, I have learned that my prayers only get answ ered if I forward an e-mail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.

Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains.

I no longer can buy gasoline without taking someone along to watch the car so a serial killer won’t crawl in my back seat when I’ m pumping gas.

I no longer drink Pepsi or Dr Pepper since the people who make these products are atheists who refuse to put ‘Under God’ on their cans.

I no longer use Saran wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer.

And thanks for letting me know I can’t boil a cup of water in the microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face…disfiguring me for life.

I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS.

I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.

I no longer receive packages from UPS or FedEx since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise.

I no longer shop at Target since they are French and don’t support our American troops or the Salvation Army.

I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for or which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica , Uganda , Singapore and Uzbekistan .

I no longer buy expensive cookies from Neiman-Marcus since I now have their recipe.

Thanks to you, I can’t use anyone’s toilet but mine because a big brown African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it bites my butt.

And thanks to your great advice, I can’t ever pick up $5.00 dropped in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a rapist waiting underneath my car to grab my leg.

If you don’t send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 PM this afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your back, causing you to grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor’s ex-mother-in-law’s second husband’s cousin’s 20beautician…

Don’t forget that your toothbrush needs to be kept in a separate room (or at least 6 feet away from the toilet) to protect you from getting germs from ‘the flush’!!!

*Thanks to mum for this – if you really took all those chain letters seriously, gosh….life would be a nightmare!*

Ted’s been talking about fixing up his mother’s house with some networking so that he can just about fit up the PC they have with the internet and not only that, he will also be able to plugging in with his laptop whenever we are over there. He’s been talking about the Linksys router and since I’m no genius when it comes to hardware. I’ll leave it to him to set it all up.

I’m just here to USE the internet.