A packing

I am a packing again. Off to Singapore tomorrow.

*super smiles*

I can't wait to see the Christmas lights, 

browse through the new shopping centres, 

savour some yummy coffee,

 hunt for them Eeyores, 

rowse the heaps of craft shops 

and find some shoes, a bag and a diary for the new year. 

See you all soon.

XOXO

That Feeling

Have you had that feeling of having something you want suddenly appear in front of you?

I have. The excitement and anticipation and joy bubbles underneath your skin making you want to burst into song or run around in circles (ala dog chasing tail) or to just punch the air with you fist and let out a loud “woopie!” or to just do a little jig (like a wannabe Riverdancer) or to just sit with your eyes closed and a huge almighty grin on your face (ala person in karmic bliss).

And then once you have experienced that feeling of having rejoiced, done the jig, the “whoppie!”, the dog chasing tail routine and etc., have the something dashed to bits?

I have. It sucks.

Thanksgiving

Today is thanksgiving in the states. We don't celebrate that here in Malaysia.

I would like very much to have turkey and stuffing and pumpkin pie and other traditional  goodies served during thanksgiving which I am not privy to.  

I would love to also walk through mounds of gold, russet, red and brown leaves and marvel at the trees shading their clothes ready for winter which is just around the corner.

Photos of NY in Autumn have got me gawking and I sincerely hope that there will come a day when I can walk through NY and marvel at this sight and breathe in the autumny air.

The rain is falling and I am loving the sound the rain makes as it falls from the Heavens and hits the attap roofs and the ground making all these different sounds that calm me. A friend recommended that B and I do the following:

Be it in the car or in a roofed place, just sit with each other, together and in private....to listen to the rain falling from the Heavens, speaking a little in between or just letting the rain sing to you...and let that be your sound for the entire duration thereof.

And I think I will take her up on that offer *smiles* Thanks Gen.

I have think I posted twice on Martha's blog for Project Thankful and although I can't possibly capture everything that I am thankful for right now, here are some that of the things that come to mind:

1. My family no matter how whacky and annoying they are, is probably one of the bestest things in my life. We are all friends and our bond and support for each other is heaps strong. In today's world of divorce, fighting and estrangement, I am blessed and thankful that I have both parents in a happy marriage and that we are all on talking terms and more. Having dinner with my whole family is still awesome and all of us jumping on my parents bed talking together is probably the best thing ever. 
2. B has always been a big part of my life and more so now that we are engaged. He has always been a good friend to me and now, as we grow closer, I am blessed to have someone to care for me and to love me through all the ups and downs in life. 
3. Although my job is not a really high powered or high paying one for that matter, I am glad that I have a job and that the salary I earn helps us to live a comfortable life. Due to the economic crisis so many people are left jobless and there are so many people out there who are just struggling to survive much less live a life of comfort.
4. Belly came into our lives so suddenly and although she is  two handfuls at times and she is not a very obedient dog, she is the best doggle in the whole world. Our lives would be less colourful without Belle and she is such an important part of my family now. As I type this post, Belly is curled up on the floor with her new flannel pink blanket. She seems to like it very much.
5. Am glad that I have the God has provided me with the talents to talk to most people, to write and to have some crafty ideas. I am glad that He has provided me with good friends to share my journey, a job that I enjoy doing and a near happy ever after.

There are heaps more things to be thankful for. It would take me too long to write them all done and it is a never ending list I believe for that is much to be thankful each day. Anyways, it is late, I best be off to bed. It's Friday tomorrow and the weekend beckons. Am off to Singapore for the weekend to enjoy the lights and shopping!!! See, another thing to be thankful for *smiles smiles smiles*

536,950 points!!!

After endless days and hours of playing Bejeweled Blitz on FB,

today I rocked my own socks when I got

536,950 points!!!

{I am so awesome sometimes, I hate myself!}

*SnickersSnickers GrinGrin*

{I think its the peppermint mocha talking! Pls excuse me.}

A rather long and eventful day

Today was a rather long and eventful day. The kind of day when I look back and realise that there are few regrets and many high points. It is the sort of day that makes me smile wider and wish more fervently that all days could be like this but I guess if every day was so good it would be less appreciated. 

As I type this, I try to put aside the list of things that I gnawing at my mind (mainly work stuff) and I listen instead to the snoring of my dear Belly (she is snoring rather loudly today and fast asleep and so tired that she didn't bother to greet me when I came home which is a rare thing indeed for this little beagle!).

I enjoyed today immensely because I got to wake up late, read a book in my jammies, play with Belly, eat curry puffs for lunch, drink grape juice from a box and pad around like a zombie for a couple of hours. I then went for a lovely body massage (though it was too short a time I thinks!) and ear candling session with B and then proceeded to go to Tropicana City Mall for a snack and coffee. 

We tried the new Chick King from UAE and well, its a KFC duplicate except that it doesn't taste like KFC. In fact, it was pretty tasteless and the chicken tasted like a refried day old chicken. The service needed to be improved as well. I give them a year to survive as I am ever hopeful. B gives them 6 months. It's a pity that I found out that my camera was flat when I switched it on. I wanted to document the day for B but alas... it was not to be.

The next shop we visited was the arts and crafts shop Scrapbook Memories  which B wanted to visit (how cool is that, not having to ask to go there this time round!) to buy a gold leaf pen. I browsed the store, ooooo-ing and ahhhh-ing as I played the "touch and put down" game. There were a number of very pretty things that I fancied but I think the prices there are inflated. So after buying B's pen, we proceed to go to Starbucks for a taste of Christmas. I just love their Christmas drinks. Two Christmases I ago, they had this dark cherry drink which was just awesomeness!!! but then the Starbucks Peppermint Mocha is pretty good too. Btw, I am short of 8 stamps to get the organiser this year, anyone who wants to buy me coffee or who wants to donate their stamps to me, do let me know *snickers*

Dinner with the malats followed suit. Most of the malats were there though it was such an impromptu event - thanks for coming all! The Chinese dinner was excellent. We had fried kam heong lala, tofu, vegetables, mantis prawns, pork knuckles, bbq pork, champagne chicken, sliced fish with ginger and erm... I think that was about it. Frontera was of course the choice for after dinner drinks. I really think that we should have our own corner there and a discount card the way we always celebrate occasions there and all that. At the Front, we played a couple of rounds of Monopoly Deal and chitchatted though it was an early night for all for most of us. 

Yes, a full day indeed, huh? So, I came home and went online to blog and facebook and all that. I sent out invitations for a Christmas party and a wedding brainstorming cum Christmas party. Let's all hope that these events do materialize. I love planning parties and stuff and enjoy colour coordinating things. It's just lovely. It would be nice to have more time and $$ to organize these things. Perhaps when I have my own place with B, who knows.

I also had a long chat with B, which I will share with you one day. However, there were three things that stood out today... they are:

1) There is such an awesome release  that follows when you decide to tell the truth. And what a relief it is to have someone not judge you or think any less of you after you have said the things you needed to say.

2) Sometimes, it is not about what we want but what other people want. If there is some small kindness that we can bestow upon someone, we should. Simply because that small gesture might mean so much to someone and we can really make a difference that person's life no matter how small or insignificant the act.

3) I have grown up.

Goodnight... or is it good morning, all *smiles*

B's birthday!

It's Monday today.
It's also B's birthday.
Happy birthday B!!!
*muaks muaks*

I am on leave to celebrate with him.

We are going for a massage later.

I am looking forward to that.

I enjoy such lazy days like this.

Snuggling up in bed with a book.

and then waking up to play with Belly.

Getting to blog and surf the net,

whilst the world moves around and 

I sit her comfortable in my pajamas.

Sweet.

I should take more off days.
Taking time off to smell the roses.
To just pad around in my jammies
the whole day...
Sweet.

Anyways see yous. 

It's lunch time - curry puffs here I come.

Bali Adventure #11 - Kecak Dance @ Uluwatu

The Kecak Dance @ Uluwatu was something that I had been looking forward too. We were fortunate to have almost ring side seats in the very full arena type area, so do go early to nab a seat. The dance had already started when we had finally settled ourselves in and I did not get the chance to fully read the story about the Kecak dance. So, I decided to just sit back, relax and enjoy the show instead of squinting to read the printed sheet of paper that talked about the Kecak dance.

To be honest, I didn't quite get the story and didn't want to come asking B what it all meant. So, if you would like to know more about the Kecak dance before seeing it, visit the following sites: Kecak @ Wikipedia and Kecak Dance. I did enjoy myself though the chanting and the masks and costumes were slightly scary to me. A child cried and had to be taken away for awhile to be calmed and NO. I did not cry nor have to be calmed. I took a video of the dance but for some reason couldn't upload it, but I am sure that youtube has plenty of  vids on this. Anyways, do enjoy my photos - happy Monday!

Bali Adventure #10 - Uluwatu

To end the second day of our Bali trip, we decided to watch the sunset at Uluwatu, the southern most tip of Bali I believe. Due to a horrible traffic jam (apparently one of the worst in Bali), we were stuck for quite long while and needed to take alternative routes to reach Uluwatu. This resulted in us arriving quite late and jostling with hordes of other tourists to take photos of the sunset, the dramatic cliffs of Uluwatu, the strong turbulent waves that crashed into the cliff base and the hordes of thief-like vicious monkeys. 

You must be wondering why I have labeled the monkeys as 'thief-like vicious monkeys', well its rather simple, we have a theory that the monkeys in Uluwatu are training to steal (rather quickly and deftly, I might add) spectacles, blink blink, earrings and other knick knacks they can get their paws on. Now to get back the things that have been stolen, you need to pay one one of the locals to get it back from the monkeys. They basically trade with the monkey - the monkey gets a raw egg and you get your earring or spectacles back. Tsk tsk tsk! and btw, its not cheap to get your goods back. So my word of advice, hold on to your possessions real good or else just take all accessories and sunglasses off and put them in your bag for awhile. It's really not worth it to have your items stolen and then paid for to be rescued.

A word of caution: Do not fight with the monkeys. There are heaps of monkeys there and they will attack I believe if you fight with them. I saw a rather tall beefy white man who pulled a rather large monkey by its tail when he was climbing away trying to escape with a possession of the man I guess, but the man tugged several times and the monkey was thrown onto the floor. There was a lot of commotion with other monkeys trying to get to the fallen monkey, tourists scattering around whilst trying to get a good look at the fight and the locals shouting at the white man to stop his craziness. Anyways, the locals stepped in and nothing much happened after that. 

I saw another white lady being mugged by a monkey right in front of me. She lost a pretty dangly earring and had to pay to get it back. Before paying, she decided to try her hand at being a monkey whisperer and to coerce the monkey to give her back her earring. The monkey who probably felt hungry just barred its teeth (many sharp ones at that) at her and proceeded to also hiss at her. I guess the lady realised a monkey whisperer she was not, so she paid the local some money and all was well ~ she had a earring, the hungry monkey had his egg which he refused to share with another monkey and the local got his pay for the day. 

I like happy endings, don't you? *snicker*

Anyways, it was a pity that we didn't get to see more of Uluwatu. There are very many dramatic seascapes that one can capture and apparently the lace and cloth in Uluwatu is awesome. Perhaps one day I will return to Uluwatu but see other parts of the southern tip.

Sunsets @ Uluwatu are legendary

One of the local monkey whisperers

B trying to get a good pic of the setting sun

The thieves a.k.a monkeys of Uluwatu

The hordes of tourists jostling for a view

Bali Adventure #9 - Padi Fields in Ubud

I believe it was the third day of our trip and we were off to a good start. The weather was sunny but not too hot. Our guide, Yandi, decided to take us on a more scenic route around Ubud before stopping at the Ubud Art Market for some browsing around (that's for another post!). While driving around Ubud, you will see heaps of padi fields in various stages of growth. Some of the padi might be golden ripe or some may still be green and young. Not only that, but not all padi is planted on terraces as you can see in the photos below.

Anyways, along the quiet country road, Yandi stops the van and plucks us a some padi to touch and to take home as a souvenir (which I did keep!). It was a little ways off that we noticed some locals in the fields. We decided to stop to take some photos of them working when they suddenly beckoned us to join them on the fields. Needless to say, I was one of the of the first ones there. I touched the padi and swirled it round like the lady showed me too. It was also great that we could converse with them since we knew Bahasa Malaysia which was some what similar to Bahasa Indonesia. 

After all of us tried to swirl the padi and had taken enough photos, we bordered the van and waved goodbye to the locals who were so hospitable. These were the sorts of experiences that I treasure the most. The feeling of doing something that I the city girl would never experience. That is also another reason why I think our tour guide was pretty good, he took the trouble to bring us to places that were out of the way just to show us how it was for the locals. Definitely one of the highlights of my Bali trip *smiles*

Bali Adventure #8 - Lake Batur @ Kintamani

After visiting Pura Kehan, we went to see the Lake Batur and the volcanic mount batur@ Kintamani. We were not the adventurous kind of folk, so we did not scale the volcano though there are tour packages that offer that for those who are interested. We merely stood and looked at the lake which was pretty gloomy as you can see by my photos below. There were also heaps of ladies who were trying to sell us trinkets, t-shirts and other odds and ends. Local fruit was also sold in one of the little stalls by the side of the road.

A word of advice though, if you aren't interested in something, best not to touch it. Also be ready with a price you are willing to pay and when you do get that price, it would be best if you did buy the item and not just suddenly change your mind. I have heard that some folks got a earful from a shopkeeper after they had haggled heaps and then decided that they didn't want to buy the item in the end. This is not in Bali btw.

Anyways, there was nothing much to see, so we proceeded to have lunch facing the volcano. We ate in a restaurant called Sari. There is an ala carte menu and a buffet and I thought the buffet was a more worth it deal but in the end our little troupe decided to do it ala carte. We had their crispy duck which was quite dry to be honest, more spring rolls which were quite tasty, a chicken dish which was also dry and some noodles which were really really good. I can't recall the name of the noodles sadly. We managed to sneak in half a game of Monopoly Deal before our lunch arrived - playing Monopoly with a view of a volcano rocks!

I have mixed feelings about visit the lake and volcano in Kintamani. The views were pretty but was not all that. Perhaps it was also because of the gloomy weather that sort of damped my spirits but I didn't quite enjoy this touristy destination. However, an experience always is an experience and am glad though that at least I can say, been there, done that. 

Bali Adventure #7 - Pura Kehen: The Temple of Fire

On our second full day in Bali, we also visited Pura Kehen, the The Temple of Fire which is located in Bangli (In Bangli btw, there is a place very much like Tanjung Rambutan where they send the mentally disturbed and unstable - no we did not visit that area if you are wondering!).

One of the most valued temples in Bali, Pura Kehan is really awesome to behold. Before entering the temple, we had to don sarongs and sashs, which btw does nothing to flatter the figure. As we entered the temple area, it was quiet and calming and a breeze was blowing which was great as it was quite hot.

In one of the courtyards, we saw that the walls of the temple was decorated with pretty blue and white Chinese cups and dishes. I have no clue what that meant and was a little camera happy so I didn't really pay attention to Yandi our tour guide who I am sure gave us some background information about Pura Kehan.

The whole area was peaceful and the leaves of the banyan tree swished in the breeze as we walked around the courtyards and I noticed there were some swastika symbols used in decorations around the temple. There was also lovely carvings and awesome statutes. If you are wondering what temples to visit in Bali (there are many many temples in Bali), I would recommend this one. Not because I visited it, but because it is one of the bigger ones in Bali and is so very pretty in a distressed way. Enjoy the photos all *smiles*