idle fingers and off i go down under

haiz....idle fingers made me lose some money again.

there i was, sitting this morning reading the morning papers. then my mind fleeted to my brother who was having his holiday in bandung, indonesia this weekend.....and the next thing i knew, i was thinking about my own 2 weeks break at the end of may.
i still had no plans..... hmmmm..... maybe i should go to bandung too. but then the question came, who would i go with? i did not want to go to bandung alone.

then what about australia to check on my cute nephew again although it was less than half a year since i last saw him. it was too soon right?

what the heck, just check airasia first lah.

and the above was the result i got. and the mind went boink! boink! boink! full gear!!!
oh no! cheap!!! how!!! straight away posted on fb to let my sister know....and she said...what was i waiting for?? so i called dad and he said i could go ahead since his trip to guangzhou, was not going to be at that time......and then five minutes later......all done.

i booked my tickets to melbourne. what a rush!
all just because of this killer smile:

how to resist??? so i guess in about a month's time, those cheeks will be within my reach and i am going to pinch them on all your behalves ok????

luckily i still have some aussie dollars left from my last trip, so i can save on a trip to the money changer. still recovering from the trip to japan. need to be strong not to shop in aussie again especially at the outlet stores. lol. i don't think there will be any sales at that time, so that is a relief. have thought of  a few places to go, so hope i am going to have a great winter down under. my first time there in winter and oh please, don't let me freeze.

i guess i will be meeting my friend whom i missed when he came back to the hometown last march then. haha....just sent him a photo of his mom preparing the delicious chicken chop meal shown below the other day.

yummy, hainanese chicken chop.....breast meat for me please. that friend of mine is now back in melbourne and he said it was my turn to visit since he did try to find me when he came back. and in my reply, i told him it was too soon to go back. well, i guess i have to eat my own words now.

oh, many have asked me about the chicken chop and i tell you, i have never eaten any better than this. it is grilled using coal and still done in the most traditional way. even the two pieces of toasts are grilled over charcoal fire. i think a plate of this chicken chop is around rm10.50. i did not know the exact price since i did not pay for this meal.

well, those who are interested, do make your way to tg malim. and if you know where yik mun pau shop is, that is where you will find E n L, masakan melayu restaurant. it is a simple restaurant with a few chairs and tables. do be patient if you are going to order chicken chop because they will start from zero preparing the dish for you. i usually stopped by earlier to make a booking and ordered first so i can get my chop at the decided time.

ok, with that trip to aussie decided, now i have to prepare my visa and do some shopping.

the above set is one thing i am helping my sister to get in conjunction with shiseido mother's day promotion. am hoping to drop by kl on labour's day to do all the shopping and also to watch iron man 3. i don't think i can find any other time.

it is about time i sit down to set the mid year exam papers and rush to make sure the kids are well-prepared.

well, the mid-year break is definitely worth toiling for.

loser talking

i am so gutted, oh so gutted.
my mind is still in a blur on how we could have lost the match yesterday.

it was the semifinal in the evening and as predicted, we managed to win 4 out of the 5 matches hence, we advanced to the finals.

in the finals, there were talks that we were going to split some of the doubles but in the end, i still retained mine and played in the women's double. well, i won my game, then it was up to the others to get the point.

men's vip won their too and it was then 2-2. we had lost in men's open and men's veteran then.
it was up to the mixed doubles to seal the fate of the group. oh what heartache when they lost in straight sets.

it was a case of putting the wrong chess pieces in the wrong checkered places. if only we had tweaked our combinations, then the mixed doubles would be ours to take and we would have won at 3-2.

i am only slowly taking all these in today and my mind couldn't stop from straying to yesterday's matches and all the 'what ifs'.

gosh, i really need to get over this disappointment of mine.
it is time to let go but there will be that prize-giving presentation on tuesday. waaa.........well, at least we have lost gracefully and we did not use any imported players who did not work in our organisation!!!!

first week in april...

the first week of april has come and gone just in the blink of an eye.
and i think i have also been made an april's fool victim.

well, to be more specific, i was a credit card fraud victim.....on 1 april 2013.
it started with 2 smses at 4 in the evening saying that i had made a transaction of 1USD on some purchase which i of course did not know anything of. i thought i was going to give  the bank a call a bit later when i was freer, but the bank actually called me first 5 minutes later telling me that an attempt to swipe my card for more than rm10,000 on a holiday website was made. of course the transaction could not get through because that was way over my credit limit.

the website was expedia paris. when i gave it more thought, i had a feeling i knew when my card was compromised. it must be when i made an online purchase for a ring on net-a-porter's european website last week. gosh, that would be the only time i shop from net-a-porter.
 

so it was goodbye to my visa card and i already have got a new replacement sent to my house. thank god for the quick action by maybank to block it. i wonder if they will track the fraudster and make any arrest. that is the most important isn't it? to nip the bud.
well, now i still got to inform the insurance companies about the change so my direct debit with them will work.

next up in the week.....flood in my bedroom!!!!

it rained very heavily on wednesday and i was at the handball court supporting the boys when my housemate called saying water was flowing out of my room!
luckily i did not lock the door and they could go in and put all the pails.

this was like 3 hours after the rain and the big patch of the ceiling was all wet. i was so worried that the airconditioner and lights would not function because if you look more carefully, you can see the cable that ran straight on the ceiling where the water dripped.

all the pails in the house were used to contain the water. my housemate told me that the water flowed all the way to the door and down the stairs. gosh...it must have been like a waterfall when the rain was the heaviest.

luckily it did not rain again that night and i could get my sleep. the next afternoon, as soon as i got home from work, i got the repairman to come. so it was fixed within an hour. the tiles were not broken but it was rubbish which blocked the water flow and pushed it down the roof. phew.

i took part in ping pong competition among government agencies in the district. it was a break from the monotonous work routine. we competed in team event and we played all doubles matches.

so far, we had played against 2 other teams and we had won. yipppee!! i won my games quite easily. hahah...i hope it will continue to be such way.
on monday, there will be another last match for the group. i think we will have no problem winning and top the group ;)

the semi-final matches will be played on wednesday and final will be on thursday. so i have something to look forward to this week. wish me luck. i don't know what we will get when we win, but no one is thinking about the reward yet. everyone joins willingly and pays for their own expenses to get to the competition venue. well, it is near for me since it is held in tapah, but some do travel all the way from tg malim.

then on saturday, i went down to kl to attend a friend's wedding.

there was a stopover at one utama after that wedding to meet an ex-colleague of mine. of course, i couldn't resist taking this photo of the stage where sammi had already attended the event today promoting osim's massage chair. nope, i did not go. i had other more important commitments to attend to. i guess now that i am older, i learn to prioritise. not that i could get close to her by attending the event. so what the heck. skip.

my primary school friend and also my neighbour married a chinese lady from china. gosh, it was such a nice wedding with the traditional indian ceremony being held on the stage. i arrived when they were exchanging thali (wedding string) and also flower garlands. despite the noise made by the traditional instrument players, there was a serenity in the chaos. i believe that this marriage is going to be a lasting one and they will find bliss in each other. i truly do. the groom still owes me a long explanation of his whereabouts .....so i will be waiting for that e-mail to come to update me. hahahhaa.

at 1 utama, i met again when meeting my ex-colleague. wa.....really so full ah. we ate at lavender, a bakery but their dining area serves really good meals. of course i couldn't finished what i ordered....greedy lah. hahaha.... the dish in front of the camera was mine- croque madame. very very rich. the perfect breakfast meal.

the above was basically how i occupied my week.

now to some random pics.

coconut flavoured m&ms from japan. yes, the coconut aroma is really strong. but the brown ones not so.

hello kitty digital watch with a secret compartment for candies ;)
given by an ex-kid who went to singapore for a holiday. how sweet....hahaah....i think i will just keep the watch in its packet for the time being.

ok, time for bed. another exciting week awaits me.