Little Cozy Corner

GOsh, I’ve been wanting to get on with this post for as long as I can remember but I keep putting it off plus the fact that I’m hardly in the mood to blog when Arianna is awake. Also, it’s hard to blog la when the small fler keep whining and whinging…..ish, so have to layan her first la.

Anyway, this is mainly a picture post but I do have to add my 2 cents worth of thoughts as well. As you know, we were in Malaysia not too long ago, when petrol prices was still RM1.92 and we took a short vacation to Penang island. We spent 3 days and 2 nights at Parkroyal Penang [PR]. I chose this over Lone Pine. Perhaps it would be been a better choice compared to PR but I guess I’ll never know.

I can’t remember how much we paid but it was approximately RM300+ per night and I felt totally scammed when the happy hour by the pool side bar was just atrocious! I know that we have to expect the drinkies to be expensive BUT RM20 per pint not including tax is a little steep. So that was that la - am thinking if they charged us for the peanuts as well. Then again, the price must have already been included in the drink eh? Marketing tactic la konon….

The room itself was nice and despite asking for a huge king size bed, we ended up with 2 queen [?] beds instead. In the beginning I was a little pissed because I was looking forward to a giant bed so I can roll from one side to the other and jump like I’ve never jumped before but then I realised that chances of me EVER having to sleep alone on a single bed will not come by often and what more a queen size bed to myself so I pretended to reluctantly be ok with the arrangement with the reception staff. But inside, I very teh syiok! *lol* But…..the view outside our balcony was another big scam!! I felt so cheated. It was suppose to be a coastal view so I thought okla, should be quite nice what….wake up in the morning and can see the beach…but what did I get? I got this….

So yes, I was pissed but I couldn’t be bothered to go and fight la. Malas since I was here on holiday might as well enjoy it as much as possible, scammed or not. But technically, can see a bit of the coast line la…passed the trees n all like this…

I guess the thing that we most enjoyed was the swimming pool not that Australia got no swimming pool or anything like that but it was nice weather all the time we were there and Arianna really enjoyed herself. She must have been thinking that this is the biggest bathtub ever!

I expected her to be a little intimidated and perhaps a little scared because not only was it her first time in the pool but the water was slightly cool but nup, this water baby went straight into happy land!

But surpringly, the only time she cried was not when she was face to face with a horse we chanced upon while taking a walk in the evening but when Ted held her so she could stand on the beach while the waves broke at her little feet. She screamed! She wasnt a happy tropper then…

Needless to say that, I enjoyed my buffet breakfast a lot especially the fresh fruit juice without any sugar. It was really yummy and having someone make it for you made it taste even better. As usual, our first night in the hotel and we were pooped so we ordered room service and of course la, the prices are like cut throat prices! Watodo….we were too tired to go out so no choice la. The next day, we made sure we had all our meals outside it was less than a fraction of the price - which is normal but like I said, still TOO steep!

I ended up getting the cheapest thing on the menu which was a club sandwich which was like RM29++ but it was really huge and filing. O, and lunch the next day which included fried rice and fried squid for me, ted had sweet and sour pork with rice and prawn salad with beer and I had teh ais plus one teh panas bungkus, and the total didn’t even reach RM29!! See la - this was just at a restaurant around the corner from the hotel. Siao man!

But overall, I think we had a nice time vacationing as a family and next time, maybe we might go a little further, maybe to Tanjung Aru in KK? Only time will tell….

I gotta admit that the sunset was really gorgeous and I’m glad I managed to get this shot with the horse in the view - I like!!

I’ve been reading in a few blogs especially the ones belonging to Malaysians abroad and most of them, no…in fact, all of them say that Chinese New Year is not a big deal where they live. I think I just joined the list although I must say that in North Parramatta, there is some celebrations happening tomorrow including the all famous and must have  lion dance as well as lantern making so I guess all is not lost for me.

Of course nothing beats celebrating CNY at home with family and FOOD! Omg, you know that is what I miss the most really. I wanted to add that I miss the fire crackers too then I realised that I’m not really a fan of all that booming and since New Year and then Australia Day just went by, I really had no stortage of fire crackers at all, although I do miss all that red pieces of paper from the crackers you see strewn along the roadside back home. O and the smell of the cracker power - I like!

What normally happens back home is that we would have dinner in my Godma’s in-laws place on CNY eve. Her sister in law makes the most awesome soup. I don’t know what it’s called in Chinese but it’s got all the pork innards and also the fish’a air sac [I think] with lots and lots of cracked pepper, which is a delicacy on it’s own. I believe it’s called Pig’s maw pepper soup and it’s my absolute favourite! And then we pay a visit to my Aunt’s [Mum's sister in law] mother’s home since we practically grew up with them and kind of spend the 1st day of CNY there. It would start with lunch and then the gambling would go on and on and on [like the Duracell batteries] until people decided that they’ve had enough, which most likely won’t happen. But we would leave after some time of course coz I’m not really a gambling kaki.

But here, it’s pretty much just another day. In any case, here’s wishing all my Chinese friends a very Happy Chinese New Year. May the year of the Rat be more properous for one and all.

Ps. This is the only Chinese New Year card that I manage to find here in Sydney and I think a few of you lucky ones got it from me.

It’s been quite some time since I last blogged and it was mainly due to being business clearing the house for the painters who had come in to paint the whole unit and also for Ted to complete his modding. It’s going to be released in a couple of days so he’s really been working very hard at finishing it as soon as possible because….we’ve got a new place!!

Yes, we finally found a nice little unit which is bigger than our current unit and for a lower price. In short, it’s a very good deal and we are really happy and excited about it. We have been looking for a new place since Oct/Nov 07 and I didn’t realise that it would take this long to finally find something we both like. I guess such things take time because it ain’t as simple as buying a blouse where you can return and exchange it for another if you didn’t like it. This new unit is about 10 minutes away from where we currently live and although the area isn’t as nice as the one we are in now, the shopping complex is nearby and a close family friend lives in the next street so you could say that I will have someone spend time with other than Ted. Hehehehe…..no one could say no having a chat over a cuppa, right?

So, yea….I will be busy slowing packing stuff up since we have approximately 6 weeks before the big move but since the painters were here earlier, it was extra incentive for us to start packing our stuff although at that time, we didn’t know yet that our offer would pull through. So, now although 1/4 of our stuff is already in storage, there is still a lot of our things back home which isn’t and hasn’t been packed and I really don’t know where to start. This is the first time I have ever done any moving so it will be an experience for me. Moving my clothes from one country to another is totally different to moving EVERYTHING we own to a brand new place. So, fingers crossed, all will be fine.

That said, it is a bit of a bugger because this is happening now - not saying that I am not happy with the new place but the timing is a little off because I’ll be heading home on 11/3/2008. So I really hope that with Sis help [she's coming over on 28/2/2008], it will making the moving or unplacking, which ever is applicable at that time, a little easy for me. So excited!!!!

Ps. Those are all the books that was taken off the shelved by the painters and 3/4 have been packed. I don’t know where these books came from but all I know is Ted loves books. Maybe once  we’ve unpacked, I’ll show you Ella’s books….. :) 

Pps. I’ve uploaded more pix of Ella - go check em’ out!  :grin: 

I’m not too sure if I’ve mentioned this or not….most likely I have, but we own a 1973 [or maybe older model] of the Volkswagon. It was my Dad’s first and only car, and it was bought first hand, with only one owner - him. Today, my Sis drives it around campus as her mode of transport. As you can tell, this will always be ours to own as we are not planning on selling it. We’ve had dozens of offers to get it off our hands but nup, we love her to bits and we don’t intend to sell it at all.

Recently Sis got into 2 accidents - one where a drunk driver knocked into the back bumper and the other,  a more scary and serious accident was when a trailer smashed her on the side. Praise the Lord that she didn’t have a single scratch on her despite the major damage done to the side of the car. To be more precise, her side of the car. Many say that she is lucky to be alive - I say it’s a miracle, divine intervention, that the Lord always looks after His sheep.

With such extensive damage done, we decided that it was time to give the ol’ girl a new face lift and she was given a new coat of paint along with some un-denting works. This VW has always been white from the time she was purchased. So seeing it in a different colors was really weird for me personally but I guess you get used to it…..

Then :

And now :

So, whaddaya think?  :cool: 

Pelf made a good point when she wrote that it would be easiest to read about a blogger’s year in one post if everyone did a reflection post about what happened in 2007. She did one and indeed, it had the gist of 2007 and really made me think [and she mentioned this as well] that I wouldn’t need to worry if I didn’t frequent your blog coz all I would need to do is hop over on 31/12 and read that one post and voila, 2007 in a nutshell…hence, I decided to write mine as well. What has 2007 been like for me? A lot of lessons learnt and certainly, many eye openers too.

The first big news for Ted and I was when we found out that we were expecting a little golden piglet in August! [Not a very good image coz of my old crappy digi-cam but it's the original one.]

That was in Dec/Jan, and ever since I found out about the little one, I had started a new blog, Kecik’s Cozy Corner, for her to keep track of practically everything that happened during the pregnancy and now, it’s the blog I maintain for all my baby stories. I had also started my journey writing sponsored post and made quite a sum from it but with all the sponsored posts, I have lost a large number of readers, which is sad since I love getting comments and well, everyone wants to be a ’superstar’, no? But I’m stuck in that yoyo feeling between writing sponsored posts and my personal stuff because it really does bring in some cash and when you’re a stay at home mum, it’s the least you can do to rake in your own pocket money. So although I’ve cut down a lot on these sponsored posts, don’t be surprised to see a few every now and then. Did I also mention that because of PPP, my GoogleRank is now 0???? Basket betui!

In March, I returned to Malaysia for a very long holiday  - 3 months and it was because it was the last time I ever returned home ’alone’. After all, wherever I go these days, I have to bring Ella. It felt so good to be home especially with Mum and all my other relatives and friends. The glorious food was merely a huge added bonus. While I was there, I attended my bestfriend’s wedding in March. I went down to KL for that but didn’t have time to meet up with any bloggers as I had hoped.

And right after that, I was back working at my old office as a temp replacement for another friend [who took over my spot when I left] who went on maternity leave. That was another occasion that made me very happy because I got to be with my old friends and to be working in such a familiar environment was super!

Needless to say, shopping for Ella was definitely on the list. In the beginning, we didn’t know the gender and it was agreed that we would make it a surprise but I caved in! lol Turns out we were having a little girl and hence, the shopping began.

I had high hopes of getting some stuff from our trip to Padang Besar but I was very disappointed after that long journey. However, I did enjoy myself at Gua Tempurung.

In May, I celebrated pre-Mother’s Day dinner with my Mum at my Uncle’s cafe called Kofi Haven. I also got a Mother’s Day gift too! Hehehe….

After having all that fun and settling back into life in Kulim, it was time to return home to Sydney. I had to leave in June otherwise the airlines wouldn’t take me on board for being past the allowed number of weeks for pregnant women which was a bugger coz I would have loved to have stayed longer. On the other, hand I was really missing Ted and he missed out on feeling the baby move for the first time. It was a bittersweet moment for me really. But the consolation was that my sis was coming back with me and further down the road, Mum would also be with me after Ella was born, so that was all good.

Being animal lovers, we didn’t miss out on any chance of going to the zoo and petting animals. I must say that my mum wasn’t too pleased with this beach whale handling animals! lol =P I’m sure you know why…..all the pantangs la, that’s why!

The biggest and most important thing that happened in 2007 was….Ella’s birth, my first born. [Note : The birth story is rather graphic but trust me, I left out quite a bit already! It's not there to scare off potential mums-to-be because trust me, when it's your first, you'll want to find out ALL you can to be prepared but honestly, nothing you do or read will be able to prepare you for birth. ;)]

This picture was taken a week before the birth and was upload on the 11/8/2007 - in the morning! Ella was 9 days early.

The moment….

The proud Mummy and Daddy…and their little Eel.

In September, Ted celebrated his first Father’s Day and he’s very proud of it. In fact, Ella has been his inspiration for a webcomic, Kecik!, which he has been trying to put up on a daily basis but with working crazy hours, it’s not that regular. However, he tries very hard so if you’re popping by, do give him your support, ya?

On 12/9/2007, we celebrated Ella’s mor guek [sp?] which the the celebration of a baby’s first month. We invited my aunt and uncle to join us for Chinese that night.

On 17/9/2007, Mum flew back home. That was another one of those sad days for me because I had gotten so used to having her at home and her company was just something I really treasured what when you’re home alone with only a baby for company. So yes, having adult company is something I miss but, I’m still ok. I got your blogs to check out when I’m free and bored. Hehe…but seriously, there is hardly a dull moment with Ella.

In October, we began looking for a new place to purchase since we are currently renting this unit. I must say that it’s tough getting a place that you like. I absolutely love my current unit but there are issues which makes it a bad property to purchase so we are really looking hard, high and low for a new place. Even getting the finances in order had taken such a long time! Fingers crossed we will be able to settle all of this come Jan/Feb 08 coz Mum and Sis are coming out at the end of February for Ella’s baptism.

Another achievement [don't know if you can call it that or not]on a persoal note, is the fact that I’ve gotten involved with writing some articles for The Giving Hands, Pelf’s charity project. I try to write and submite an article once a fortnight so far, so good. I’ve also joined PK Tan to blog about Malaysia wildlife conservation awareness campaign and have an article ready to be posted tomorrow. Please join me and spread the word, k? To be totally honest, I’ve never gotten involved with any sort of writing like this before and I feel a personal sense of satisfaction and feeling that although it’s not much, it’s still something and I know I can do more but I prefer to take baby steps. Perhaps I will take on more challenging tasks along the rod but for now, spreading the word is the way to go.

Finally, in December, we celebrated our first Christmas together as a family. And I have been diligently playing with Photoshop and this is one of my first creations. It isn’t THAT fantastic and I’m far from being a pro but it’s a start. I don’t think I have enough imagination to start something from scratch! ;P

This is another one of my creations as well. A photo of Ella taking her first picture with Santa.

Here is Daddy with Ella posing in front of Grandma’s Christmas tree. Would you believe it if I told you that I forgot to take a family picture of the 3 of us this Christmas??? Funny how all your priorities are turned upside down when you have a little baby of your own. But it’s worth it, really.

And there you have it, my year 2007 in a nutshell. Here’s wishing you a very blessed happy new year and may 2008 be properous and more productive in any possible and imaginable way. O, and may your new year resolution [yes, RESOLUTION, not resolutionS]* come true.

*Why? I’ll tell you tomorrow.

It’s Ella’s first Christmas. Soo….. taa-daa!!!

From all of us, to all of you.

Have a blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year!

Ps. We’re off to the in-laws for lunch. Hopefully I’ll get a card full of pix to share. =P