Happy Birthday Husband

Yep, it was Husbands birthday last week, and I shall hope and pray that he has many, many more of them with me :-)

The last two weeks have been busy for Husband, and not so busy for me. He has been travelling between SG and KL every week, loads of work, but he is enjoying the work, which is really great. It has a lot to do with the people he is working with as well - they are people he has worked with before, and he is enjoying working with them again. Having said that, the travelling is tiring for him.

Husband had been looking for a bbq set for some time and we had gone to the BBQ shop in Bangsar Village 1 - but the only one we liked was toooo big, and was approx RM6K - which was way expensive! So, on Sat 9th June, after some searching, we managed to find the PERFECT barbecue, with the help of Google which pointed us to an ExpatKL ad, which gave us a mobile number, which led us to Carlo and Mabel who stock and sell barbecue sets. We called them that Sat morning, and by the afternoon they had delivered a bbq that was exactly what we had been looking for. On top of that, they are a lovely couple and we ended up going out for drinks and a nice long chat with them that evening!

Last week, Thursday 14th June, was Husbands birthday, and my Mum had cooked a MAJOR meal for him. Totally delicious, but both of us suffered for the meal, as we are just not used to eating so much so late...... so it was pretty much a sleepless night, and an exhausting Friday.

Saturday we had a small party at home to celebrate - a bbq party, of course! My sister made a totally delicious salad for the evening - and it was obviously pretty darn good as it was the first item to disappear! Thanks Sue!!


Another friend (Min) made the birthday cake, and it was totally gorgeous (and delicious). She had made a cake in the shape of a guitar, with a marzipan figure of the birthday boy, in swim shorts and sunglasses, reclining on a beach mat, with a little rubber ducky next to him. It was an excellent likeness of Husband, right down to the white moustache!!

It was a good party....the whole family (13 including Husband and myself) was there, and another 15 friends. A good time was had by all (I hope). We ended up with three distinct groups of people but each group was having fun, so we figured it was all good :-) And now that the bbq set has been thoroughly initiated, we must use it more often.

Last week and this week, for me, will be fairly quiet with just a few scattered meetings here and there. No stress lah! Husband, of course, will be travelling up and down as usual!

Till next time, have a good life everyone... and if anyone wants the contact details for our BBQ Set vendor or for Mama Min and her delicious cakes, just drop me an email, or put a comment on this blog, with your contact details and I'll make sure I send you their contact.

PS: As of June 11th, our unit at Armanee DD has electricity. We have also been promised that all remaining defects (mostly cosmetic) will be rectified within the next two weeks....

June already?

Where does the time go? We are almost halfway through the year and it feels like time is just zipping past at top speed. What have we been doing...?

Armanee Damansara Damai:
Most of the defects in our unit have been fixed, and what is left is mostly cosmetic. The BIGGEST issue so far is that we still have no electricity - more than 3 weeks after TNB actually installed the meter! So, today, with Husband in SG for work, and me on medical leave and feeling quite shaky and with a fever, I still drove to Armanee and had a nice to-do with the customer service people. It turns out that the cables, in the TNB cabinet on the 11th floor where our unit is, have been stolen. Man, I was so ANGRY - called their lawyer, who in turn called the Ops Director of MK Land, who in turn called the cust service and set a fire under them. They have committed to getting all defects rectified and electricity done within the next two weeks. Well, I shall believe it when it happens. The sad thing is that with JUST a little bit more effort on the part of MK Land this place could be absolutely beautiful!! And then they would be in a situation where the current owners (ie, people like us) would pass the word around to other potential buyers. As it is, unless they get their act together fast there is not much chance of that happening!

Mont'Kiara Pines:
Husband finished painting and doing up the place about 3 weeks ago, and we finally managed to get all our pots, pans, and other sundry barang-barang out of the place and stored away in our PJ house. Handed over a set of keys to a real estate agent recommended by an old friend of mine, and we are open to either sale or rent. Let's see how it goes - wish us luck either way.

PJ House:
Pretty much stored everything away - it is amazing how much unutilised space there actually was in the kitchen, even with all my Mum's stuff there! It is nice to be staying here, when Husband is in SG, especially on those days like yesterday and today where I feel so sick and shaky - as it is nice to know that I am not alone at home :-) Bishop and priest here for lunch today(!) so I had early lunch, as soon as I got home from Armanee, and am now upstairs doing this blog, to be followed by a snooze to see if I can get rid of my headache.

Work has been pretty busy lately - with a new project coming up, with existing customers to keep in touch with, trips to SG for meetings (yes, me too!!), trips to Penang for meetings, etc, etc, etc. Husband and I have been talking about my quitting, so that I can go with him every week to and from SG, but we haven't really made any decision yet. Told my boss I would like to quit and he has been doing his best to talk me out of it! Decision is on hold for the next few months. Like I told husband, if we had decided last week, I only had to give 1 weeks notice, as I was still on probation... but now I have to give ONE MONTHS notice!

One of my old friends is in town - we met up with him last week in SG, and then again in KL on Sunday - took him all over the place, to Mont'Kiara, Armanee, and then to PJ, so he got a 'good' start to his week :-) (I hope we didn't tire you out too much Michael O!). He's trying to decide on whether he wants to move to this part of the world as his "base" - and I told him that whether it is in KL or SG, both Husband and I will be really happy to have him in our part of the world. Good friends are hard to find, and when you do find them it is hard when they have to leave, so it is GREAT if they are in the same part of the world (get the message MO?)

Anyway, time to sign off for now... head is pounding a lot and it doesnt help really to be looking at the computer screen :-p

Till next time, have a GREAT life.

Phuket, Singapore, Penang... the jet-set life

Yep, went to Phuket for 8th anniversary - beautiful hotel, wonderful accommodation, private 12.5m pool, lovely view of the Andaman Sea, total privacy, excellent breakfasts served in your room, good food at their one and only restaurant - you should check out www.phuketpavilions.com. That was the good part. Outside of the hotel, everything in Phuket is expensive - they obviously cater to Americans and Europeans who find everything cheap - but from our perspective, coming from KL, everything was either the same price as in KL OR (worse still) the same price as in Singapore! Not cheap lah. Mind you, if you find your way to Central, to the Jim Thompson factory outlet, the prices are pretty good! More stuff for men than for women though.

Got back from Phuket on Wed 2nd May, Husband left for SG on Mon morning, and I flew to SG on Mon night (after work), for a meeting on Tuesday. Flew back to KL on Tuesday night, was in Cyberjaya on Thursday (met an OLD friend for lunch), then Husband and I flew to Penang on Thursday night - since I had a meeting on Friday in Penang, we figured we might as well make a weekend of it. Stayed at the Northam - nice hotel centrally located, nice suites, decent pool on 9th floor with a good view of the sea, food was so-so, staff were really very very nice, very helpful. Reasonably priced too! My meeting on Friday took from 9.30am to 2.30pm, inclusive of lunch with the customer. Got back to the hotel around 3.15pm, met up with Husband, who had just had a swim, then we walked down Gurney to Gurney Plaza.

On the way back, stopped at Brazil 68, on Jln Kelawei, not far from Gurney Plaza, for dinner. Really excellent - good food, good service, lovely people, 2 young ladies providing live music from 8.00pm (Darsha and Joyce). The food was Churascarria style - ie, a never-ending flow of various types of meats, and fish, cooked in various ways. Husband being a meat eater, he totally enjoyed it. Other than the meats they have a whole set of salads, rice, wedges, lasagna, etc, etc, etc. I stuck to those as I knew I wouldn't be able to do justice to the meats, and I did totally enjoy it.

Saturday, we went in the other direction - got the hotel limo to drop us off at Komtar (very unimpressive)... on the way out, we were accosted (in a nice way) by a Chinese gentleman who told us about the view from the top of the Komtar tower - and he took us all the way there too. You pay RM15 per head, and you get a total 360deg view of Penang. You also get 2 postcards free, and a drink too... and discounts on t-shirts, and pewter ware IF you buy any. We did take the postcards and the drink, but didn't bother with the rest. From Komtar, we walked to the E&O (LOVELY building), and then from there we walked back to the Northam. Got back totally drenched with sweat, so went for a swim to cool off. In the evening, walked out again, to Nagore Place for N. Indian food. The restaurant looked very "iffy" but it turned out OK in the end. Back to the hotel, a couple of drinks and then back to the room to flake out. We were totally, but nicely, exhausted.

It is now Sunday, and we are home again. Sorted out stuff for Husband, as he is off to SG again tomorrow... for 4 days this time.... and it is back to work again tomorrow.

Have a good life everyone... till next time.

Painting is finished... FINALLY!

Well, there are still some touch-ups to be done, but generally speaking, IT IS DONE! FINALLY!! Now we can get the house cleaned, and start putting our carpets in place, and generally sorting out the place. Husband was most industrious on Saturday - put up loads of pictures, photos, etc, including my one and only favourite painting (Trees in autumn/winter), which was handpainted, then acryliced, lacquered and varnished, and weighs in at 20kg all in. MAN that was a tough one to put up. The house looks nice with pictures on the wall.

In fact, with the painting done, the whole house looks bright and cheerful and fresh, inside and outside. Including the fact that we had plaster ceiling done for the outside patio area, and that has made the whole outside area look so clean and bright! The only thing that spoils the picture is that we have 3 cars parked at the house, so it kinda takes up lots of space :-p

Husband has been doing lots of trips to SG lately - every week, 3 days a week. And that will continue for the next few weeks at least, after which we hope that it drops to once a week. This coming week he is leaving early tomorrow (Monday) morning, back on Thursday afternoon (which has been declared a holiday for Malaysian civil servants and banks, and now my company has also declared it an off-day!). Then, on Sat 28th April, we fly off to Phuket Pavilions to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary (where DID the time go?), till 2nd May. Really, really looking forward to this break, as it has been a LONG time since we actually had a decent holiday!

No exciting news to share, other than that... so, till next time, have a good life!

Life goes on...

Yep, heading to mid-April, have moved house from Mont'Kiara to PJ, and everything is still kinda topsy-turvy. All our kitchen stuff is still in MK, we are waiting for our contractor and electrician to give us the quote for doing up our condo unit in Armanee Damansara Damai, and at the same time our PJ house is being painted all around us! Of course, having the house painted while we are living in it does cause it's own set of problems :-p mainly because you can't really sort out the rooms till the painting is done! Hopefully should be done by early next week, and hope to have the rooms all sorted out by end of next week!!

Husband is in SG right now - and will probably be there every week, Wed to Fri, for the foreseeable future. Well, I guess I can handle 2 nights a week without him.... especially now that we are back in PJ and I am with my parents, so at least the house doesn't feel so big and empty and lonely.

Our Mont'Kiara condo unit is on the market - and I'll be glad when we have a buyer for it... at least some of the financial headaches will be eased considerably! It's always good to have property which appreciates, but it is annoying when practically everything is tied up in property and it takes TIME to liquidate.

Work is chugging along too - busy enough, though not particularly stressed. Overall very nice customers, a good boss, good team mates, and the usual annoyance of lots of projects and not enough resources. But then, that is the same anywhere you go, so no complaints.

Till next time, have a great life everyone!